Synopsis: You used to be a star member of the Task Force 141. Good things never seem to last, and change paves over your old friendships. Now, the only issue is that those old friendships are staring at you across the table, with anger in their eyes.
Status: Incomplete, fully plotted
Cluster One: Early Days
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Cluster Two: Tumbling Gracelessly
Part Six
Part Seven
Part Eight
Cluster Three: Time, and the things it just so happens to do to good people
Part Nine
Part Ten
Synopsis: Sometimes, things don't work out. Sometimes, you're going to be the idiot on the wrong end of a deal. It hurts the most when you're training the next idiot in line.
Warnings!: Angst, angst, and more angst. Reader will be MAD sad for most of this. Poorly-practiced, unhealthy polyamory. Reader will experience a LOT of gender and body dysphoria over the course of this (though I will do my best to keep it gender-neutral throughout, bear with me), but there WILL be comfort over that.
Part One
Part Two
Part 2.5
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Never reblogged something before, but this shit is low-key weird. If you like my ramblings and want to follow, feel free to do so! Feel free to send asks and all your stuff!! I don't know what would compel someone to be so rude to strangers online. Follow and reblog, it's Tumblr, of course do those things.
So I just saw a post by a random personal blog that said “don’t follow me if we never even had a conversation before” and?????? Not to be rude but literally what the fuck??????????
I’ve had people (non-pornbots) try to strike conversation out of nowhere in my DMs recently, and now I’m wondering if they were doing that because they wanted to follow me and thought they needed to interact first. I feel compelled to say, just in case, that it’s totally okay to follow this blog (or my side blog, for that matter) even if we’ve never talked before.
Also, I’m legit confused. Is this how follow culture works right now? It was worded like it’s common sense but is that really a thing?
Warnings!: The 141 will be criminally stupid, fumblers, all of them. Death (canon-typical), Violence (canon-typical), loss of limb (no, I won't tell you who yet >:), but I will cover the symptoms as well as possible) They do get kissy, but no smut (that I'm writing, but it's very much implied).
The transport over the pond has never been a fun one, for you.
Not like you're scared of heights or anything, but it's a very long flight for your tastes, and you've never been the best at sleeping while sitting up.
Still, it elapses, and the oddly nice pilot (Nikolai, you thought his name was, though you weren't entirely sure), pats your shoulder with a smile when you step out, giving you some cryptic tease about being thankful the boys finally have someone new, a chew toy.
You're sure he's kidding, but even while you smile, it kind of unnerves you.
You'll be a hell of a lot more than a chew toy.
That spark is smothered when you see a group of four walking over the tarmac, hear the thick rubber soles of boots aggravating the landing surface. You shut your mouth immediately, straighten your back, blank your face.
The man in the front–Price–is the first to look you over, hard-eyed and stern as crystal blue eyes look beneath your skin with the strength of diamond behind them, like he's peering at every single part that makes you up, taking them apart and putting them together to see what ticks and how to break each one.
It's nauseating, especially when it comes from four sets at once.
The lieutenant is almost worse, wordless, blank eyes beneath a crude skull-bearing mask, a gaze that makes you think he's waiting to see you take some damage, to watch you snap like the fragile wings of a bird in his cruel hands.
You can't put words to how the sergeants are looking at you before Price speaks to you, making your head to snap to his the second he starts.
"You're Laswell's recommendation?"
He sounds almost... unimpressed, and it makes you straighten, puff out your chest like a rookie would. He thinks you're too green. you have to prove him wrong.
"Yes, captain."
Your voice is a bit deeper than normal, in your nervousness, but it doesn't sound unnatural. You see Kyle–the second sergeant–look away from Price for only a second, and you see him swallow.
The confirmation is met with nothing but a grunt at first, then he turns.
"On me. I need to make sure you're not as green as you look."
MacTavish chuckles, makes that weird "ooh" noise like a schoolboy.
"Training day, huh sir?" He's peering at Kyle as he says that, like he's trying to tease the other sergeant. Garrick doesn't look at him, pointedly.
Price nods, and they all fall into step behind him, making you jog to keep up.
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Part Eight
Warnings!: The 141 will be criminally stupid, fumblers, all of them. Death (canon-typical), Violence (canon-typical), loss of limb (I will cover the symptoms as well as possible, but any and all corrections are welcome) They do get kissy, but no smut (that I'm writing, but it's very much implied).
Warnings for this specific chapter: Clear depiction of severe emotional distress, a very strongly-worded recommendation of transfer that will be heavy. If requested, I will section it off and add a TLDR, but it is very plot relevant.
Days seem to pass much faster when you have things to do with your time.
Wheeling around in your new chair. Learning how to switch from your chair to your bed to the toilet. Finally getting the dignity of tossing your bedpan in the biohazard bin, blasted thing.
Slowly, the inner workings of the simple lock Keegan gifted you have become a second home to your (formerly) achingly empty hands.
It's become your latest single-minded obsession, even if the tools are frankly, garbage and the lock is now your single closest companion. Maybe second to Keegan.
Speaking of, the man himself gently interrupts you halfway through another round of single-pin picking, gently tugging your reddened thumbs into his much less callused hands, frowning at you as he gently pries the lock from your fingers, pick still in the keyway.
"Jeez, hun."
The gentle tangling of fingers is what follows, as Keegan horsed around in his pockets for at least a minute, silently swearing at his own clothes until he produces a small band-aid and some ointment for your not-even-broken skin.
"You know, you're not going to need to use-"
"Shut up. You're hurtin' yourself."
His voice is just a little more firm, and, for just a second, you're quiet, and it makes the nurse seemingly regret the words and correct himself.
"I'm sorry, that was-"
At that singular second, you simply have to say otherwise, you've got to tell him that no, he didn't upset you, he never would. He couldn't ever do that, not to you. Never.
"No."
The force in your voice is the thing that makes him pause. Truth be told, it also surprises you.
"N-I- I'm not mad with you. Not with you, never. I would never be mad with you for trying to help me."
The blue eyes that look into yours make you weak. Uncomfortably so. You shouldn't be this weak, you should be strong. This time, not for your own interest. This time, it's for Keegan's.
He deserves someone who can keep themself in check.
You aren't fully sure how much time passes while you're staring into those endless pools of blue, or what exactly the man before you is thinking, until the tender wrappings of his accented voice are flooding back into your ears.
"Do you know what it is that you do to me? By being the person that you are?"
Oh.
Oh, dear. The way your cheeks are hot is not something you had been accounting for. This was not planned.
"Keegan-"
"No, no, listen."
You do. Dammit, you listen to him. You finally abandon your pride and look at him, really look at him, and see the single most daunting sight you ever have.
That is a man who is devoted. And it is scary, but not in the way you expect it to be. Because this look is not familiar to you. It is new and it is potent. It makes your chest ache in a way that makes everything in your body stutter before it starts chugging again.
"I'm going to put on the ointment. And I'm going to put the bandage on your finger, alright? And then, I will ask if I'm allowed to kiss you, because I really want to."
Your body is getting ever more fuzzy and hot and wiggly in all the ways you hate but cannot ignore. Your heart is pounding. Your mind is reeling. You know this feeling, but you don't want to admit it.
"Alright."
It feels disingenuous. You feel terrible, like you're lacking every ounce of vulnerability that Keegan offers to you. Like you're taking and not giving back.
He smiles, just a little. Only a little bit, it's a simple twitch of his lips upward, and you catch it.
"Good."
Keegan's hands are efficient, but you've seen him practice sutures and the like in front of you, and you see him nearly slip as he wraps the raw skin of your thumb in the fabric bandage. He's going faster than usual.
"You're rushing."
"Yeah, well, I really wanna kiss you."
Thank goodness that he isn't looking for the blush on the cheeks or the way your eyes are a little bit wider than they usually are. Keegan chuckles, and gently holds your callused, scarred hands in his own.
"You know you don't have to. You can say no. I'll never ask again."
You're still sitting there, one leg down and actively trying to start your brain back up again. No one's ever said something like that to you before. Sure, it was always implied, always written in little letters between the lines, but Keegan seems incredibly willing to just... give that power over to you.
You seemingly don't answer fast enough, and the nurse slowly eases himself back, out of your space.
This kicks off what you can only describe as a panic response.
Your arm moves so fast it bumps the lock to the floor, but that does little to deter you. Your hand finds short-cropped, dark hair, and pulls the nurse forward until your lips are crushed together.
It isn't gentle. It's not what someone like Keegan deserves, and you cringe when your teeth clack just a little in your desperation.
"I'm sorry."
Are the first words out of your mouth when you pull back just enough to say them, bashful and flustered that you'd been so easily picked apart by any odd nurse who bothered to really pursue you.
His grin is wide and boyish, even if his lips (chapstick-moisturized, you noted in that desperate second) are a little shiny with spit.
"Don't be."
The peck that follows might be the single best thing that's ever happened to you.
Two big, gentle hands are holding your face, stroking your hot cheeks like he's soothing a bird fresh from the cage, taking your frayed nerves and twisting them back together.
A quiet noise comes from your throat, though its foundation isn't immediate pleasure, not like it used to be. It's a grateful contentment, quiet and almost unstated except for that.
Keegan smiles against your mouth, and kisses you again. Not any harder, or deeper, or any of those bullshit words that say he wants any more. Just the same, almost loving press that is quickly lowering any of the remaining walls that surround your too-fragile heart.
You have no idea how he's done this. You don't want him to stop.
Unfortunately, a very familiar clearing of the throat sounds from the doorway. A voice you know, well.
"Glad to see you're making friends."
Laswell. Fuck.
Keegan is quick to efficiently end the short coupling of your mouths, and look up to the woman, sheepish.
"Real good friends, ma'am."
You should smack him for that, but some part of you that has become frustratingly understanding knows what it is he's doing. Taking her attention from you, funneling it into that stupid joke and hoping she'll have mercy on your pathetic ass.
It's admirable, and Laswell must catch the way you look at him, because she just sighs.
"Yes, well, you can kiss later. I have things to discuss with my soldier, so it really would be great if you-"
Keegan hauls ass. The door is shut before she can even finish talking, and Laswell shakes her head in a way that seems less disappointed and more... amused, almost.
"That settles that."
She sits in the chair next to your bed. You turn to face her, stump forward and leg folded over the edge of the terribly uncomfortable surface.
You watch her glance down, in sympathy or in pity, you're not sure.
"I'm on pain meds."
Her brows pinch, and she lets her head drop a little. Like she doesn't like what she's about to say to you.
"I know, peanut. I'd have everyone here out for malpractice if you weren't the closest to fine you could be. Just- God, this is a mixed bag."
You raise a brow, and she starts to elaborate.
"I've talked to doctors. Odds are, you can go back into the field, if you want to. If everything goes well, you could probably pass selection for the SAS or Special Forces again."
The smile that you hold is tempered by the fact that she doesn't look overjoyed by this. No, she still looks upset somehow. But you also know Laswell doesn't lie. At least, not to you.
"Something is wrong. And you don't want to tell me what it is."
She sighs, and pinches the bridge of her nose. Not out of annoyance, but some sort of empathy.
"No. I really don't want to, but I've held it back for too long already, and I know you'd like it if I came clean."
You nod, after a brief hesitation.
"You've been transferred out of the 141."
She lays it out there, plain and simple, and you're silent.
It makes so many hurtful things click. The emptiness of the small counter next to your bed. The reason none of your teammates have come to visit, why you haven't even gotten calls.
Because you really are a liability. Too slow, and now one leg down on the competition.
Laswell pipes up before the pain can entirely take you over, pulling your mind from the rapid downward spiral it was gearing up to take.
"I want to tell you now, that I read the letter that recommended the transfer. It was a load of shit, and I hate all of it. But, it got the brass on board anyway."
"I... also want to tell you that, for your own good, I'd steer clear of talking to any of the boys for a time." She gently sets your phone on the small "nightstand" beside your bed, again, almost hesitantly.
"They're a bit... heated, right now. Last I heard."
You can't talk. Or, if you can, you really don't want to. Your throat feels tight, and your eyes feel hot, and it's all too much. But you look up at her anyway, and she tried to give you the closest thing to a smile she can muster.
"Take your time, alright? You've always been a good soldier. Better than people think."
Laswell stands, then. You do nothing to stop her as she leaves the room, but you hear what she says to Keegan at the door.
"I don't know you, but they clearly do. Don't do something they don't deserve."
The instructions ring through your hollowed skull as you look toward the linoleum floor in front of you, and see the lock.
The fall must have bumped it just right, because it's open. This time, the pick looks like its stabbing into the cast-iron body.
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Been looking for this for at LEAST three years.
me holding a gun to a mushroom: tell me the name of god you fungal piece of shit
mushroom: can you feel your heart burning? can you feel the struggle within? the fear within me is beyond anything your soul can make. you cannot kill me in a way that matters
me cocking the gun, tears streaming down my face: I’M NOT FUCKING SCARED OF YOU
WARNINGS: Reader dies! YES, there will be written gore and YES, the boys will be very sad. (vomiting, bleeding, guts, choking, drowning, all of it) Hurt/no comfort.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Everything hurts. That's the first thing Johnny notices when he manages to open his eyes, flat on his back on a cobbled road, smeared with blood that isn't just his.
When his mind comes back to him, Johnny feels his stomach both drop and slingshot into the stratosphere.
Fuck. The building, the objective, this was bad.
He scrambles to his feet so fast that his head pounds that he nearly misses an incoming transmission on his radio. It's Ghost, roaring into hie ear as he runs somewhere.
"What the hell was that, MacTavish?! The rookie's in there!"
Everything in the world quiets for a dragging moment as those words finally make it to his (probably bruised) brain. The rookie. How could he have forgotten the rookie was in there? Oh god. The rookie was in there. He hadn't known that when he blew that shit sky-high to finally clear it out.
Still, when he looks to the steaming rubble, so hot that some of the glass is melting, he knows it's a hopeless endeavor.
He knows it's hopeless, but that doesn't stop him from screaming your name, callsign, anything, trying to get a response.
Even as Ghost yells his ears out over comms. Even as Price joins in. Even as Gaz reports that he's at exfil, injured but okay, shaky-voiced like he's barely holding it together.
His knees sizzle and burn when he's on all fours, hopelessly scraping at the concrete and steel, overturning everything he can in some prayer to a god deaf to this moment to find you.
You, who'd stumbled ass-backward into this team and managed to root yourself down like a dandelion, so tenacious that even the usual harsh treatment had been anything more than an obstacle, another checkpoint in the game-ified quest system that you used to organize your life.
You, who'd been the first person to grab Johnny by the collar and scream so loud his ear had popped when he had knowingly slighted you to look better at the end of your first op.
You, who made him work for your time, who hadn't been scared to tell him straight to his face that you hated his guts.
You, who warmed up slowly.
You, who had become Johnny's very closest confidant, because you weren't afraid to call him on his shit, but always tried to understand.
You.
And now, like always, Johnny has done something too fucking rash. Made the wrong call, blew the bomb too soon to keep himself safe and now you're under the rubble of his mistakes, being crushed under the weight.
But he'll fix it. It doesn't matter that his skin is peeling back and singing off in his hands, or that one of his nails was pulled all the way out from a burr in the steel getting caught on it. It doesn't matter that Johnny knows he smells too much burnt flesh for it to just be his own. It doesn't matter that he can't see your form yet, because he knows that if he digs long enough, you have to be in here. And you'll be hurt.
But you'll be okay.
You'll be on his ass about this for years, and you'll chew him out when he patches you up, but you'll be okay.
He's not sure how long that frenzied state lasts. Not really, but he knows there's a hand on his shoulder when he tears a window from it's frame, cutting his hands.
It's Simon, standing over him. Johnny doesn't look back, but he knows, because it's too quiet.
"...Johnny. Exfil."
His voice is mercifully soft. Gruff, but soft, because Simon knows this stings Johnny far more than it does him. You'd been... good. He didn't let you close, but he knew he wouldn't have regretted it if he had.
You would have been a good soldier. Much better than him or Johnny. Fuck, maybe even better than Price if you really buckled down like you wanted to. You had been smart, just stubborn enough.
Kyle was already a mess in the helicopter, halfway to snapping as Nikolai talks him back down. Johnny was far more stubborn.
"No. M' gonna find 'em, Simon, m' gonnae fuckin' find 'em because they've gotta be in here somewhere an' I cannae just leave them behind-"
It's now that Johnny realizes he's been crying. The drops are fat and heavy, rolling down dirtied cheeks and cutting clean pathways, drawing lines of his own tanned skin.
He hears Ghost sigh, and a loud crack as the butt of a pistol is slammed into his head, and his thoughts are cut off.
Guys if any of you see a silly little poll from someone asking if they should post their fics to tumblr, say YES to it.
My partner (whom I adore) writes so good but they're kind of nervous about posting and also if we finally find each other's tumblrs (ongoing scavenger hunt we play) then we can be gayer, FASTER.
I know the odds are slim, but I need to flirt with them more than I already do.
Also new chap in a couple hours I'm going to bedb.
UPDATE (literally the day after I posted this lmao): the poll said yes <3 Thanks tumblr gods (and y'all, really) for allowing me to be goofy and read my pookie's works when they eventually post it :D
Good news, gays and theys (and others) So I actually haven't been writing at all the past few days (lmao sorry about that), BUT I found a really good comic series. It's called The Glass Scientists, and it's got two volumes right now, go read.
Alllllllllsssssoooooooo, if I have some free time, I have quite the fun project coming down the pipeline soon, and it's mega sad! Yay!!!! Get excited about a sad, stupid little guy who's going to lose a major body part!!!!!!!
Warnings!: Nothing, other than a reference to Simon's dad. Just silly fluff to tide my sillies (you guys) over until the new chapters of the big boy fic(s) are done :)
Also: Price isn't included in this because I wrote a fic where he's an absolute asshole and accidentally made myself dislike him. Might add him later, idk.
Simon Riley is not nearly the stern man everyone thinks he is when he's at home.
It's kind of funny, really, but he's quiet, and he is stupid in love (assuming he already trusts you as a partner, which, if he's dating you, he does). Something like a cat, really.
He wants to be in your vicinity, always. He wants to know you're safe and okay at every hour he can, but sometimes he can't handle all that lovey shit.
This is why I do think Simon would spring for someone who is very quiet, and not very touchy. He adores that, he really does. It would be even better if you didn't mind having a big, bulky man staring at you while you work for hours on end.
It's to the point that, when the rest of the task force comes over, they aren't sure if you're a roommate or a spouse(?) until they see Simon gently bump his forehead with yours, watch how he follows you the same way a prissy longhair will trail after its nonchalant owner.
Price pulls you over that night and tells you that you have his full permission to marry the lieutenant. Simon hears him, but he doesn't say anything.
Another thing: He wants desperately to take your last name. It doesn't matter if it's stupid, he wants it so badly.
He's a bastard even with a father who was a bastard. His name links him back to corpses and an abuser, he wants to be rid of it. He won't ask, but if you do, he cries.
You've seen Simon cry before. You have. Mostly after nightmares, the especially bad ones. This is nothing like that.
He cries of joy before you twice. The first is when you let him take your last name, and the second is on your "wedding" day.
There is no ceremony, just a short trip to the courthouse. He cries anyway, watching you sign the papers, pulls you into a firm hug as he sniffles into your shoulder, tells you how much he fucking adores you.
He won't let you forget that. Ever.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Johnny MacTavish is a harder task.
He's always one very predictable sort of way in his relationships: Playful. Loving and witty, always ready to tease.
Sure, there are days he's tired, days he's beat to the bone and he just wants to collapse and let moss grow over him, but he sees you and he gets a shot of something divine.
It doesn't matter who you are, really. Sometimes he needs you to match the energy a little, but other than that, he could get on well with any partner, as long as love is reciprocal.
Weddings, though... it depends.
This is where most of my more personal headcanons come into play here. I really think Soap's family is very Catholic. And that Soap is very bisexual.
If his family doesn't know (assuming the relationship is straight, too), it's great! It's a packed venue, sure, but it's raucous in the loving, familial way.
Soap wears his best kilt, cries a little as you walk down the aisle and kisses you so long his mother smacks him over it.
If not (he got kicked out, presumably years before)... it's much less fun.
He still adores you, truly, but, again, it's a bit solemn for him. Seeing you, perfect you, ready to marry a man who has no family left who wants him, it's a nasty feeling.
Johnny sees you the way he thinks everyone should. You're a person, yes, but of practically biblical levels of perfection, in his eyes. You've put up with so much, done so much, and you want him.
He won't ever get to show you to his mother, or his sisters, or his cousins, but he wants to. God, does he want to. He just knows they would have adored you, as they should.
But he can't. And it bums him out, it really does.
Still, he takes your face into his hands, and kisses you like the sinner he is, pours himself into your silhouette like he could somehow peel your ribs apart and find a space near your heart, to sit and love you for as long as he can.
No one is there to smack him for taking too long, and you hold him. And that's enough.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kyle Garrick is honestly the least challenging to end up in the good graces of.
He wants, more than anything, a peer. Someone who he can talk shit with and feel good confiding in.
So, of course he fell into a relationship with you. How could he not? Look at you. Brilliant, he'll say that. Brilliant, and an absolute menace with the silveriest tongue he's ever seen.
Again, like most, he's not really crazy about getting married. Not while he has a job so risky and at his age. It's more of an eventually, he feels no pressure to lock you down so fast, he already knows he has you, and that's enough for him.
This is most of the reason why the engagement is so long. I'm talking several years. Yes, multiple years. Moved in together, got a pet or two, even the rings.
And it's great, everything he could ask for. He comes home to a brilliant partner every day he's got the time, and he always wants to see you, because you're you. You can discuss, you can debate, and you can pull him over and tell him when he's being stupid.
The partnership works. And it keeps working.
At some point, you two were effectively married in everything but law, so you just forgot about the "wedding" bullshit and got one of his aunts to officiate in the living room and had a party that night with family.
Like any good soldier, Kyle has many issues with stress when he's home. His ultimate solution is to cuddle you whenever you won't be annoyed with it. Sometimes you talk, sometimes it's quiet, he doesn't mind.
He just wants you. Always.
And he knows he always will.
Can you please reblog if your blog is a safe place for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, asexual, aromantic, pansexual, non binary, demisexual or any other kind of queer or questioning people? Because mine is.
Follow if you want the musings of my decaying mind.Updates Fridays (mostly afternoon) and weekends, if you want extra details on what/when, feel free to send in an ask!
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