#kygau

KYAU (On AO3) [There's DEFINITELY a lot of extra shit on here that is not on AO3 but it's just spread out through the tag so it's hard to pinpont]

CFAU (On AO3) [Stands for Clexa Family AU - an INSANEEEEEE amount of extra shit and resources that are just on here]

KYFBAU *is* exclusively on Tumblr. There is no masterlist unfortunately. It's all in the tag. The way I would recommend reading it if people are trying to get into it is open that link on browser, scroll all the way to the bottom, and read it in reverse order. I've been looking for posts sometimes where I click the tag here on mobile and expect it to be there and it's nowhere to be found. Browser and that link is the best way to guarantee you're seeing all of it. (Same goes for all the other stuff I'm about to link)

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Period AU (this is just the general, catch all tag so no specific stories here btw) is basically soulmates throughout the ages. Two people who have been meeting each other since the dawn of fucking time but keep getting it wrong. The general premise is that we see grand love, insurmountable obstacle, tragic death but these two dumb, madly in love hoes are like "Fuck that, I want more time, we deserve it, DO OVER!" and they keep coming back for each other until they can get it right. As many times as it takes. Rinse and repeat. "Whatever life I'm living? It's purpose is finding you."

Here's the five main points in time that I've decided to write about:

1) KYGAU - 150 BC, Capua/Roman Empire, Roman Times. - Yelena is an iconic Gladiator and Kate is the daughter of one of the most important Roman Senators. They fall in love. It changed later, but during this period in history, Gladiators are the scourge of society so…daughter of a senator and gladiator mingling ISN'T GREAT. IT'S BAD ACTUALLY.

2) KYNAU - 8th Century, Vikings/Northumbria (UK), Early Middle Ages. - Yelena is one of the Vikings who raid England. She's this iconic fighter who is basically royalty back home. Think Lagertha from the show Vikings. Kate is literal royalty in Northumbria. She's the daughter of a duke who is like the fifth in line to the crown. Very NOT COOL of her to be hanging out with one of the invaders lol.

3) KYIAU - 1300s, Siena (Italy), Middle Ages - Basically, Guelph and Ghibelline love story. Yelena is one of the best painters in the city. Kate is a rich girl who just moved there. Then the Black Plague hits. Shit goes down. Basically...Romeo and Juliet vibes-ish except they're not dumb and kill themselves a week into knowing each other lol. But rich families who can't stand each other and them even being in each other's proximity would be SIN.

4) KYFAU - Late 1700s, France, French Revolution - Their husbands were part of Louis XVI's court and they spent SO MUCH TIME fucking around every corner of Versailles.

5) KYVAU - 1868s, New York/Chicago, Victorian Era - Victorian AU lol. It's kinda pretty straightforward...

They're riding like hell on that horse. Like they're running from the devil himself, well... because they are. Actually, they're running from much worse. They're running from the might of the entire fucking Roman empire. They've been riding for hours and Kate is crying uncle from the back. Yelena is ANNOYED. This is Kate's fucking fault and now she's "tired". Ain't that cute lol. But Yelena runs the horse into the forest and finds them a spot. They can rest...BUT NOT FOR LONG.

"I'm going to go see if I can find us water."

Yelena is being hella snippy and, frankly...I don't blame her. The fuck did Kate just talk her into?! The severity of it has sunk in as they've been riding and she's mad Kate made her kill a bunch of innocent people. Killing people in the arena is one thing but none of those people had to die. She was a Gladiator not a fucking murderer. She's also fully convinced it won't take a genius to figure this out and that they'll be after them/her in not time so she's STRESSED.

Yelena starts to leave in whichever fucking direction. They're literally in the woods at night. She doesn't have a fucking clue where she is going to supposedly "look for water" aka mostly she just needs space for a second. But Kate, Kate never knowing when to read a room comes after her and is like

"Hi."

"Bitchhhhhhhhhh...did I not leave you on horse babysitting duty???"

Yelena keeps walking but Kate literally cuts her off, stands in front of her, holds her face, and kisses her. For the first time in almost nine months Kate's lips are on hers.

Within seconds the waterskin Yelena was carrying is on the floor and her hands are around Kate. Within a minute they're on the floor ripping each other's clothes off.

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Later, when they're tired and spent, and with the moonlight illuminating them, Kate straddles Yelena and does her best to examine her body looking at all the new scars she doesn't remember from before. Kate had memorized Yelena's body and she can easily spot which ones weren't there. Yelena tells her the story of all of them.

Yelena is now reminded why the bullshit from the last twelve hours is all worth it. She'd kill anyone she has to for a million nights like this. After a while they fall asleep in tangled in each other's bodies.

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When Yelena wakes up Kate isn't there. She puts her clothes on and she walks back to where they left the horse. The horse is gutted open and Kate is sitting there, tears running down her face with a dude holding a knife to her neck.

"She's finally up. Lucky for me, you're not that hard to find Beast."

"Did Drusus send you?"

This is one of the headhunters that is after her.

"At least you're smarter than you look and..."

One of Yelena's knives is tucked out of sight on her back along her waistline. She isn't sure how Kate gets the message but it's a good thing they're on the same wavelength because all she has to do is look at Kate a certain way and Kate knows to move her head out of dodge. Out of nowhere Yelena's knife comes hurtling at the dude's skull, lands in his eye socket, and cuts him off mid sentence. He's dead.

While Yelena runs up to the dude and starts picking his pockets to see what he has on him she's is like "BITCH...moveeeee!" because Kate is sitting there, lounging like they're on vacation.

They take his horse and jet.

They get to the nearest town and Yelena gives Kate some of the dude's money.

"Go get new clothes. You 1) have dude's blood on you and 2) stand out everywhere with your rich girl fit. Get shit you can blend in with. I'm going to go get us some stuff. Keep your head down. Don't attract attention to yourself."

"Clothes, generic, be chill. GOT IT!"

Does Katerina Episkupus have a SINGLE FUCKING CHILL BONE IN HER FUCKING BODY?! We all know she doesn't...

Sooooooo...Yelena is over at the food end of the market getting them supplies to last them days. They're probably going to have to go deep into hiding if she also has headhunters after her and they can't be going places to get food and water. They need to be stocked up. All of a sudden...a commotion from the center of the market. Then she hears Kate's loud ass fucking mouth. OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE!

She quickly pays for this shit, grabs all the other things she had already bought, and hustles through the crowd. She finds Kate legit brawling with a dude and the entire market looking at them. Yelena jumps in and the dude is on the floor with one punch. She looks at Kate and she's like

"WHAT PART OF THIS IS FUCKING BEING CHILL?!"

"He punched his wife. I had to punch him."

"jcmsbfksjfkwfjsjfjdn I WANT TO KILL YOU."

Yelena grabs all their shit and drags Kate out of there while everyone on the market stares at them. Then Yelena notices Kate's hands are empty and she doesn't have any bags.

"Did you get clothes? Where are the clothes?"

"😬😬😬"

"KATE!"

"I was in the middle of buying clothes from him and then he was a fucking prick."

Right then they're walking by a stall that has clothes hanging and Yelena just rips whatever was closest to her hand off the hanger and they basically start running at that point. Add "thief" to the growing list of crimes Kate continues to drive her to commit.

The commotion has attracted the attention of the young rookie soldiers that are assigned to patrol the market. One of them takes one good look at Yelena and instantly recognizes her. He used to be a Gladiator stan at one point. He went to games every weekend with this family. It was his fucking jam. He grew up watching Yelena fight in the arena. There's no mistaking her.

What is a woman like THAT doing here, causing these sorts of trouble, and accompanied by another woman who is clearly of much higher status??? That's definitely going to stick out in his mind.

When Yelena finds out Kate is married she's LIVID. She has been enslaved almost her entire life and she's never once considered breaking out even though she knew she easily could for years now, but this time she's like "fuck this shit. This bitch played me and she's gonna get an earful. I don't give a fuck if they kill me. Life is pointless anyway." So she breaks out and deadass takes out 2/3 of the guards and even some other gladiators that were loyal to the owner in the process but she breaks out. Her owner is TICKEEDDDDDDDD. He hires three of the most ruthless head hunters: "FUCKING FIND HER. NOW."

This bitch makes it back to Capua days later and the ride has only made angrier because she's had time to fester. She tracks Kate down to the market. She's there with her mom and some of their servants.

All Kate feels is a hand yanking her into a dark alley and she disappears from her mom's side. She tries to scream but the other hand is covering her mouth. Then she turns around and sees who it is. Her face lights up. She smiles genuinely for the first time in eight months. She tries to kiss Yelena but she gets SHOVED away.

"What happened to I'll wait for you? You're full of shit and I bought it."

Oh............she knows about the husband thing.

"What are you doing? How did you get here?"

"Don't fucking change the subject."

"My dad had someone follow me and he saw me leave the brothel/kiss you and then go watch you leave. He was going to fucking have you killed for dishonoring the family. I couldn't let that happen. "If it gets out no one is going to want to marry you after you slept with a fucking gladiator". But this army dude accidentally overheard and he stepped in and was like "I'll marry her anyway." So my dad was like "done" and he forced me. But he's a piece of shit, he gets drunk, he throws it in my face that I'm tainted by gladiator, then he hits me. I don't love him."

"Bullshit. You fucking lied to me. Fuck you."

Yelena storms out of there. She's gonna leave the city and then leave Rome. She can be free now. But then it's eating her up. She has to see Kate one last time. She needs a proper conversation and know if she's telling the truth. She finds out where Kate lives with this dude and sneaks into the house.

When she gets there she can hear Kate and the dude SCREAMING at each other. He is in fact talking about how Kate is all worthless because of her stint with a Gladiator. And Kate is basically like "well you're worthless in general" then all Yelena hears is a slap in response and she sees red. She's like "not on my watch."

She runs to where she heard the voices coming from, walks into the room, and is like "Yo, BITCH!". When he turns around she slices his neck open. He's dead in two seconds.

WELL FUCK...she now 1) is a runaway slave who 2) has head hunters after her AND 3) also just killed the husband of the daughter of one of the most important senators of the republic who also just happened to be a general in the most powerful army in the world.........

Sooooooooo....they're like..."FUCK FUCK FUCK FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK"....

"My dad is coming over to talk to him about something in like...an hour. They have some politics shit they have to discuss."

And Yelena is like "OF COURSE...JUST MY LUCK..."

Kate begins to pace. She's thinking.

"We have to kill everyone."

"UHM........COME AGAIN?!"

"We have to kill everyone then burn the house down. We'll put one of the girls in here. Dress her in my clothes. We can make it seem like someone broke in, killed all the guards, then us, then all the staff."

"It'll look like *I* killed everyone."

"Not necessarily...He's a general in the Roman army and he's kind of a piece of shit. He has a lot of enemies."

"Kate...the timing...It doesn't take a genius..."

"If we do this I can come with you. It's the perfect excuse. We can get a clean break."

"THIS IS DUMBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB - AND KIND OF SHITTY (but you're hot and you make me do dumb things...) You bring whoever you think looks the most like you in here. Take care of her. I'll......go take care of everyone else......"

So they split up and each goes to do their thing. Kate brings one of her servants into the room. She's pale. She has dark hair. After a fire, she would pass for Kate. Kate asks her to put one of her tunics on. Then her hands starts shaking. She's never hurt anything bigger than a bug. But she knows Yelena will die for this if she doesn't kill this one person. She'll trade all of the lives in this house for Yelena's. She'll give up a million lives for Yelena's.

Kate asks the girl to turn and grab something and then slices her throat just like she saw Yelena do to her husband a few minutes ago. It's the only way she knows someone could die. She saw it was quick. This should be merciful.

Kate breaks down immediately after.

Fifteen minutes later Yelena walks in, winded and covered in the blood of fuck knows how many people.

"M'kayyyy we gotta jetttttttt..."

"Burn baby burn!"

They start lighting everything that will burn on fire as they make their way to the door. The place goes up like a matchbox and they take off running down an alley that leads them to where Yelena's horse is tied.

Kate's like "Where we going..."

Yelena's like "As far away from your fucking terrible idea as possible......"

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Kate's parents were on their way and they just see black smoke from the general area of where Kate's house is. They're like 🚨🚨🚨!!!

By the time they get there three minutes later the place is a fire ball.

It's ashes when it's done burning but they find all the bodies. "Kate" and the husband are in the master bedroom. Dad is DISCONSOLATE. That was his only child. His bb girl. Light of his life. But also.....just like Yelena said......HE AIN'T FUCKING DUMB.....

They go home and they're grieving her. But that night he's thinking thinking thinking thinking...........the FIRST WEEK Kate is back and she turns up dead?????? Throat slashed? With her husband? Everyone else in the house murdered? And then the place burned down? Only a fucking SAVAGE ANIMAL would do that. No one honorable would even come up with such a thing. He calls over one of his guards and he's like:

"Find out if the Gladiator is still where she's supposed to be............"

Have you met me? You know I do! This is exactly why I don’t want to have to write the whole thing because I already did all the research for the names lol.

These are in chronological order. Kate's names are a looooot more accurate, still some minorrrrrrrrr liberties because that’s what writers do but she’s literally like 90-95% historically accurate. Belova literally just.........doesn't exist outside of Russia so I took some liberties there. All of her last names are basically of my choosing except for the Victorian one which can be Belova. I tried to get them as close to “Bel” and end in a vowel as possible but couldn’t always be the case with naming rules of the language. Her first name is very accurate across the board tho.

150 BC, Capua/Roman Empire, Roman Times — Katerina Episkupus & Helena Bestia. Bestia is "Beast". She was bought when she was still pretty young and she was kind of this untamable wild child so her owner just named her "Bestia” and it's also a perfect name for a Gladiator. It's basically her “stage name” too. "Helena The Beast."

8th Century, Northumbria, Early Middle Ages - Kate would be Northumbrian and Yelena would be Viking/Norse. Names would be: Catharine Biscop & Helene Belisdóttir

1300s, Italy, Middle Ages - Caterina Vescovo & Elena Bello

Late 1700s, France, French Revolution - Cateline Evesque & Hélène Beauchêne

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Sometimes I really wish I could track some of you down so I could genuinely show up at your houses and fight you. Yes, Captain Obvious. I'm aware people in Ancient Rome didn't say "YOU GOOD BRUH?!" and "Oh my god?!" I'm not actually fucking writing the thing. I'm literally just giving y'all the 99 Cent Store sample of what it might look like. This is me fucking around with it. This isn't actual final dialogue or story. This is all theoreticals and placeholders of what I would PROBABLY write if I sat down and did this.

Do you have any idea how much CFAU changed from the headcanons I wrote like 7-8 years ago when I started posting just headcanons here to what it ended up being? Vastly different. It's all launching pads to what I would eventually write. No, I'm not going to fucking write a Roman character fucking saying "I AM CONFUSION" like she's in a fucking Vine lmao WHAT jfksjdjjdkajd

I didn't have time yesterday or the day before (I don't remember when you sent this) but here you go...

Gladiator AU, 150 BC, Capua

-So, again, to recap...Kate's father is one of the most important senators in the Roman Empire. Yelena is a Gladiator. It changed later, but during this period in history Gladiators are the scourge of society. They're legit the lowest rung on the social ladder (at least to rich folk, the best ones were often celebrities and had their choice of women within the lower class). Veryyyy few were volunteers but most were literally enslaved. They're owned by someone who bought them to fight. They're not free.

-Anyway...rich folk often paid the Gladiator's owners for them to come on and put on little shows at their houses for private parties. Obviously not real fights but basically wrestle each other or whatever. "Come on, monkey. Dance for me." rich people type of shit. So one night Kate's dad hires the guy who owns Yelena to come to his party to do one of those and the dude takes Yelena as one of the performers. Yelena HATES those things. They're so fucking annoying. It's not like she has a choice.

-Kate is at the party talking to all the men trying to court the senator's daughter. She loves being the center of attention. Then the show starts. She doesn't really give a fuck about this kind of stuff. It's so...Savage but...the blonde one is GOOD and...not bad to look at???

-The whole thing is over and they just leave the gladiators there chained in a corner while the man that owns them is smooching around the room. He's the biggest kiss ass. Kate could tell one of the gladiators was lowkey eyeing the food and drinks. They had been there for hours and she had not seen them eat. Kate brings them some food. Yelena (she'd technically be Helena in this time but you know), proud as she is, is the only one who doesn't take it. Kate is all half teasing her about being too good for rich people food. Yelena basically tells her she's being fake af because just five seconds ago they were being used for entertainment and now she's here trying to play the role of the nice rich woman feeding the poor slaves to make herself feel better about herself. And Kate is all ":) well starve then...bitch :)"

-Kate doesn't see her again for a while but can't stop thinking about her. The gladiator - the slave - who stood up to the senator's daughter. Who does she think she is? Then games come to the city. 50 straight days of games. Kate has always hated them. Never cared for them one bit but her father is up for reelection and he organized them so he forces her to be there the first day. Halfway through, they announce this iconic fighter. This undefeat woman who has toured the empire and had never come close to being beaten. Out comes Yelena and the crowd roars. In her mind Kate is immediately like "Okay maybe I like the games after all". Yelena legit kills a dude like three times her size in about two seconds flat and Kate is like WHAT IS THIS I FEEL BETWEEN MY LEGS lol

-Kate comes back literally every day to watch her and her dad is like "?????? I couldn't drag you here with a chain before. What's different now?" And Kate is all "Just know how important this reelection is to you." Not like she's trying to get spank bank material for when she goes home every night or anything. In her head she's all "Why does this gladiator do this to me?!" Cuz you're gay ma'am. Stop being dumb.

-So on day 32 of the games Yelena catches a sword to the side. She still kills the dude cuz it just PISSES HER OFF but it injures her pretty bad. And Kate can't even sleep she's so worried so the next day she takes her little ass to the thing (I know they have a name but I can't remember it right now. It's where the gladiator owners used to house them and train them. Basically their barracks) with a couple baskets in her hand and she forces the owner to talk to her. She's very convincing (aka she pays him a lot of money) and he lets her see Yelena. The moment Yelena walks into the dude's office and she sees Kate she does a 180. She's like...not the fucking spoiled rich bitch lol. She's injured and FEELS LIKE SHIT. She's so not in the mood. But Kate starts pulling shit from her baskets like "You're hurt. People who are hurt need three things to recover: food, sleep, and medicine. I know they're not feeding you well here so I brought you food. Good food. This is a tonic Augusta makes me when I can't sleep. She's been taking care of me since I was a baby. I used to have terrible nightmares when I was young and it always calmed me down. It'll help. And this...this is the best ointment money can buy. Three times a day. As soon as you wake up, mid day, and when you go to bed. And keep the wound clean. That's important too. I brought some bandages as well. I doubt they had clean ones laying around here." And Yelena just stares at her like................who are you, where did you come from, and why are you being nice to me? I don't like it and I don't like how it's making me feel. You're also very hot. Stranger danger.