#nightwalker writes

I think this is a no-powers AU? I dunno, we'll see where it goes.

Tags: Break-up fic, hurt-comfort, happy ending eventually, two dudes being dumbasses No major warnings apply

Part 1

Tony was sitting on the bed when Steve arrived.

He was dressed casually – jeans and a long-sleeved red t-shirt, barefoot and disheveled. His skin was a shade paler than normal and his cheeks a little more hollow. He didn’t look like he’d been sleeping well and Steve wanted to walk over there and ease him down onto the bed, cover him with the duvet and stroke his hair until he finally gave in enough to sleep for a few hours. He didn’t, because that wasn’t his place anymore.

"You’re going to do this, then." Tony didn’t look up, gaze focused on the phone in his hand. Work, probably. It was always work, even when it wasn’t.

"Yeah." Steve set the stack of cardboard boxes he’d picked up from the grocery store down and shrugged off the backpack that held several rolls of packing tape and two thick black sharpies. "I said I was. We talked about this, Tony."

"Funny. I don’t recall that I was allowed to do much talking about it at all." Tony met his gaze briefly, mouth twisted in an unhappy frown, angry-looking dark circles under his eyes. His eyes were dull and tired and Steve fought back the urge to wince. He’d never wanted to hurt Tony, that had never been the plan, but they’d been together for three years and things could only be so painless after that much time.

"Tony…"

His boyfriend, lover, the man he’d entertained some wistful thoughts of spending the rest of his life with until just a week or so ago, waved him off the same way he’d wave off further questions from a reporter. "Nevermind. We both know how this works. You know where I’ll be if you actually need me."

That stung a little, but Steve pressed his lips shut and held back the biting words that formed at the tip of his tongue. "Thank you for letting me use the car."

"Jesus, Steve." Tony paused in the doorway, one hand on the frame as if he were holding himself upright. "That’s the least of what I’d have given you." And then he left, back straight and fists clenched, disappearing down the hall toward the stairs.

Steve stood there for a moment, eyes burning a little more than he wanted to admit, chest aching, and tried not to think too much about the fact that those were probably the last words they’d ever say to each other.

Then he took a deep breath and started putting some boxes together.

Happy (belated) Halloween! Have some One Piece soulmate WIP.

**

Zoro can’t think through the pain of separation.

It only lasted a moment, long enough for him to recognize the soulbond for what it was, long enough to wrest control away from the instincts screaming at him to find his soulmate, find his captain, but it’s long enough to give him away to the guards.

“He’s awake,” someone says from nearby. 

Zoro breathes in through his nose, centers himself. The pain is piercing and pulling at the same time, like his own fucking body is trying to rip itself apart to get back to where the soulbond thinks he belongs. A tugging at his spine like his own nerves are threatening to rebel, an ache in his chest like his lungs can’t handle the pressure of the distance between them. 

Happy Halloween! Here's a snippet from a Batfam WIP (The Rules About Robin) **

“Go clean up,” Bruce told Tim. “We’ll write up the report in the morning.”

“Not much of a report,”  Tim said, already peeling his domino off as he walked toward the locker room. “Stood on a roof and froze my butt off for four hours. No muggings, no rogue encounters, and Superman didn’t even do a barrel roll.”

“Not while Bruce is watching,” Clark said and returned Tim’s grin. “Next time. I’ll teach you some of the tricks Dick made up.”

“Absolutely not,” Bruce said

Jason snorted into his beer. “He’s the scrawny one.”

“Scrawny?” Bernard said. “I - the man wears skin tight body armor how the hell do you call him scrawny, I - have you ever even seen him?”

Jason arched an eyebrow at him and put back the rest of his beer. “Timmy, your boyfriend is checking out other men and confessing to it in front of most of your family.”

“Please don’t break my nose,” Bernard said. 

“Vigilantes and superheroes don’t count,” Tim said. “Please don’t ask me why. Bernard, if you tell them why I will jump off the balcony.”

Bruce stopped him with one hand firmly against his chest. “Superman,” he said in his most exasperated team leader voice. “Not in front of Robin.”

That brought Clark up short. The rules about PDA on patrol were ones he was mostly willing to break if Bruce’s safety and reputation wasn’t in question. Bruce even mostly let him get away with it, probably because he knew Clark was being careful. But the rules about PDA in front of Robin were much stricter. The rules about anything involving Robin were much stricter, actually.

“Is he watching?” Clark carefully scanned nearby rooftops and alleys, but didn’t catch a glimpse of Batman’s partner. “Are you guys on stakeout? Sorry, I wouldn’t have distracted you if I knew you were working a case.”

Bruce gave him the little half-smirk that meant he thought Clark was being cute - he’d deny it, but that was absolutely what it meant. “No stakeout,” he said.

“Just cold,” Tim’s voice came from right in front of them, and then a hand clad in a dark green glove extended from under Bruce’s cape and waved in Clark’s direction.

"Soulmate?" Cassandra asked. She had taken the nail polish away from Steph and was looking at Tim with curiosity. There was something besides casual interest there, just a hint of concern. She was probably picking up on his annoyance with Dick. "Is Bruce?"

"Oh god, you poor bastard," Jason said.

Tim flipped him off absently, but he was too busy looking at Damian, who had sat bolt upright and was now staring at Tim with his mouth open in indignation. It closed and then opened again but no sound emerged. "You broke him," he said to Cass, who snorted and leaned back in the chair, already having gotten the answer to her question from his body language. "But no. Bruce's soulmate is Harvey Dent. That is also in his file."

Jason shrugged. "One-sided bonds happen. Or double bonds. You and the old man are kind of peas in a pod."

A mentor-student or father-son bond wouldn't be unusual, either. Tim could see it. "No, it's not Bruce, either. Though that might have worked out better."

Steph frowned at him. "Wait, it didn't work out? What happened?"

Damn his big mouth, that was twice in one conversation he'd managed to shove his foot in there. "It just didn't work out," he said. Then, when everyone kept staring, he added, "Look I was just a kid, okay? And he was a lot older than me. He didn't want to get stuck with a soulmate who still drank out of sippy cups. You can't blame the guy."

I feel like I've been waiting for inspiration to strike lately which is a terrible way of getting anything done. So I've got a four-day weekend and 6 nearly-complete WIPs that just need some time and attention and I feel like letting other people make decisions can't be any worse than whatever the hell it is I'm doing right now.