(no subject)

[worst_greatest_one]

I don't know what's woken me until I look out the window.

"Snakes," I breathe, watching the star make its slow, shimmering arc across the sky. It's actually quite cool - I've never seen a shooting star before, especially not one so lingering - and I creep out of the bedroom. I've every intention of heading to the balconies by the library where I'll have the best view, but in passing the littluns rooms I spy a familiar head of hair.

"Gen," I whisper, trying to suppress a smile when she startles and turns with a guilty expression. She's been doing this of late. I thought maybe she was sneaking out to find treats in the kitchens, but then I realized we weren't haunted - those messes in the common room are from Genevieve sneaking out to paint.

"I wasn't gonna - " she starts, and I bend down to pick her up.

"We'll talk about it in the morning," I tell her, but instead of taking her back to her room, I find myself bringing her outside with me. "D'you want to see something cool?" I ask, and she lights up.

"Yes!" she squeals before I can shush her, and I rush the rest of the way outside. The star is still blazing, and in my arms Genevieve quiets. "Wishin'?" she asks against my shoulder, and that's when I remember.

"Wish on a star, huh?" I murmur. "Alright, I'll make a wish if you do." She opens her mouth, and I laugh. "Not aloud! It won't come true that way. We'll both look up, and we'll think of what it is we want, and maybe it'll come true. Yeah?"

"Yeah," Gen breathes out in wonder, her little face tilted up. I wish I knew what she's wishing for. I know what I am.

I wish Gen could stay with us forever.

***

I should be excited. The applications have been coming in non-stop, and of course it's every orphan's dream to go to a real home, with a real family, but at this rate Green Gardens will have no littluns left!

"Another one!" I shout, trusting that Baz can hear me in the hallway. This one's for Alan, the little ginger boy just growing into his gangly limbs. He's a lovely kid, but so awkward - I'd wondered if anyone would give him a chance. "Mr. and Mrs. Goodwin," I say, rubbing a hand over my eyes. I look up to see Baz in the doorway.

"For Alan. That's nearly all of them."

Comments

[sidestepdestiny]

I'm looking through some paperwork as I walk, when I hear Simon call out from the office. I peek my head in and shake it in disbelief.

"We've never had this many applicants in such a short amount of time." I raise the paper's I've just been reading and step into the room. "Ms. Wilkins is following up about Catherine..."

I set the papers down on the desk where Simon's seated. "The other strange thing about all this is that we've had no new kids to fill in any of the spots."

[worst_greatest_one]

Fuck, I forgot about Catherine. She'll be thrilled, even if I know she'll miss Genevieve. My stomach lurches. Gen's easily the best of the children. Somehow no one's noticed the jewel hiding among the others, but it's only a matter of time. The next papers to come through might be for her.

"That's a good thing, isn't it?" I ask Baz, pretending my voice doesn't sound like it's actually the worst thing ever. "No children are without homes?"

[sidestepdestiny]

"It's a good thing, it's just strange," I say, distracted by my thoughts. I'm trying to figure out if anything unusual has happened recently, but I can't think of what it could be. It must just be our good fortune, because honestly I've been trying to think of a solution to the Genevieve problem, and what if this is it?

"Simon, what if this is the answer to our problem?"

[worst_greatest_one]

That's his wise discovery voice, but I'm too thick to understand why. "What problem?" I ask, pushing away from the table in frustration. Are we being cursed by something? I want the children to have their fabled forever homes, but all at once it's such a gut punch.

"We're nearly a ghost town!"

[sidestepdestiny]

"Exactly!" I say, smacking the table and smiling. It is the answer, it's exactly the solution to a problem I hadn't been able to solve. Which, by the way, had been driving me a bit mad. Usually I'm good at coming up with ideas and solutions, but this one had me stumped.

"If there aren't any children here to wonder why we're adopting one of them and not the rest of them, then what's stopping us from doing it?"

[worst_greatest_one]

Baz is looking at me like we've just discovered fire, but I still don't get it. I smile anyway, though, it's impossible not to when someone as serious as Baz grins like that, and then I finally begin to understand what he's getting at.

"You think...you think they'll all go. And then. Then we can adopt Genevieve?" My heart lurches in my chest, but I try to hold it back. "What if someone comes for her first? What if she's not the last?"

[sidestepdestiny]

"Simon, I told you, I wasn't going to let Gen be adopted out," I say softly, my slipping into a more serious expression. I thought he understood this, and it hurts to hear he's been worried this whole time. "I haven't been showing her to anyone." I reach over, pushing my fingers into his curls, cupping the side of his head.

"I'm not going to let her go."

[worst_greatest_one]

I want to protest that that's not been fair to her, but he's done it for me, and while I still feel guilty I feel so grateful, too. My eyes go hot, and I lean hard into his hand. "Baz," I choke out. "I love her so much. I didn't mean to, it just happened."

I pull back, careful not to dislodge his lovely fingers in my hair, and look up at him. "It could work though, couldn't it? It might actually be possible."

[sidestepdestiny]

"I know," I say with my voice as gentle as before, thinking of myself in our fifth year at Watford. "That's usually how love works."

I shift so I'm sitting halfway on the desk, running my fingers absently through Simon's curls, to the shorter, soft patch of hair, down his neck, then back up again. "Fuck, Simon. If we have to adopt the last two along with her, I'll do it. It's not like we don't take care of kids all day as it is."

[worst_greatest_one]

I huff out a breath against his chest. "You know one of the last will be Ben," I say. I'm fond of the boy, but he is such a shit. I've no idea how we'll convince any well meaning family to take him on.

"Perhaps the circus will come through," I say with a small smile. "They'll need a child mad enough to fight bears or whatever the fuck goes on in there."

[sidestepdestiny]

I burst out laughing. "Crowley, I take it you've never been to a circus?"

My expression sobers, and I'm quiet a moment. Simon's right, Ben is a handful, and he's a consistent handful. Meaning we can't ever quite get him to behave long enough for potential parents to form a bond with him and give him a chance.

It's also what I like about him. He never stops being himself, even though I can tell he wants someone to choose him so badly.

"If the last one's Ben, then why can't it be us?" I say abruptly.

[worst_greatest_one]

I laugh, rubbing the last of my sudden, annoying tears against his shirt before I look up. "What," I say, "You want to adopt Ben? Doesn't he drive you mental?"

He does me, and we're so alike I can almost predict his every mad move. "Snakes," I exhale as it hits me, and I stare up at Baz. "You like fuckups."

[sidestepdestiny]

I smirk. "I love a rough exterior," I say, running my thumb under Simon's eye to dry where it's still damp. "I love a disaster." I trace Simon's jaw, his chin. "It makes us a good match, don't you think?"

Ben exasperates me, but so does everything. He's a challenge, but not one I don't think we can handle.

[worst_greatest_one]

I stare up at him. It never once occurs to me that Baz is lying, but I...I just had no idea. "I didn't know," I say, hating this about myself. This is part of why I'm the worst Chosen One, I'm just not...observant enough.

"I had no idea you wanted to keep him, too. Baz. I'm so sorry. Thinking about Gen has been hell, and you were going through it, too? Why didn't you tell me?"

I shake my head. "You know I'm thick most times. You have to tell me."

[sidestepdestiny]

I hang my head a moment because it wasn't Ben I'd just been talking about, but I lift it a moment later with a smile.

"I wasn't, I swear it," I tell Simon, giving his chin a tap with my knuckle before withdrawing my hand. "I do love Ben, but I hadn't considered the possibility of adopting him. I try to keep a certain...emotional barrier between myself and the children for this very reason."

"But," I add, reluctantly hopeful. "I think we could be good for him. On a more permanent basis."

[worst_greatest_one]

"Oh," I say, sitting back. It helps to realize he's not been pining like me. Baz is just good. He wants to help Ben because it's right.

"So you were calling me the disaster, then." Which is completely fair, but I still feign a scowl. "I've gotten loads better. Look," I say, pushing a pile of files forward. "I've done all sorts of paperwork."

[sidestepdestiny]

I laugh, especially at his expression. "I thought we were flirting. Maybe I've gotten rusty at it, what with being so busy lately. And you as well, apparently," I add, picking up his stack of paperwork.

"Hm. I can almost even read your writing this time," I say with a straight face, because giving Simon a hard time is another way I like to flirt with him.

[worst_greatest_one]

I feel my face go slack and stupid with surprise, but I soon forget to feel embarrassed by it. "Flirting," I repeat, beginning to grin up at him. I take him by the hips so I can move him back far enough for me to stand, and I don't let go after. It's not that I don't want him...pretty much constantly. But we're so busy, and there are so many littluns. Or well. There were. My fingers press tighter into his fancy, unblemished skin.

"We haven't done that in a bit."

[sidestepdestiny]

"But there's so much paperwork to go over," I say innocently, making my eyes go round as I hold it between us like I could actually give a fuck at the moment. If I couldn't read Simon's handwriting before, with the way he's holding onto me and moving in close it's a lost cause.

[worst_greatest_one]

"Do it then if you like," I say, lifting one of his hands between us. "I like to watch you work. These hands of yours..." I cast my eyes towards the door and, finding it empty, pull the pad of his index finger between my lips. "All posh and white, holding onto a pen. It makes me think of other things you might hold onto."

[sidestepdestiny]

"Right. Paperwork is definitely what I want to do right now," I say absently, and speaking of, I'm not sure what's happened to the paperwork. I may have dropped it, or set it down, but it's gone because my hand has found better things to do underneath Simon's shirt and my eyes can't look away from my finger in Simon's mouth.

"Have I shut the door? I can't remember..."

[worst_greatest_one]

"Leave us alone," I bark without thinking, my voice full of magic. The door slams and locks with a click, and I pull Baz's finger deeper into my mouth, swirling my tongue against the tip.

"What do you think?" I wonder aloud, my head full of all the things I might do to him. I want so many of them at once, but one idea stands out. "Can you do paperwork bent over this desk?"

[sidestepdestiny]

Simon doesn't put his magic into me, but I can feel it all the same, like a whisper over my skin. It makes me shiver, or maybe it's his tongue around my finger. Maybe both.

Snakes, he's so dirty. I love it.

"Sure. Isn't that what desks are for?" I tell him, holding his gaze a moment before removing both of my hands and turning. I see I've tossed the paperwork onto the desk, not the floor, which makes things easier. I find a pen and bend down, draping myself over the desk and bracing myself on my elbows.

"This might take awhile."

[worst_greatest_one]

"I don't know about that," I say, tugging his shirt from his pants so I can drag my hands up the bare skin of his back, coming closer to drag them back down the flat planes of his chest and stomach. I pull him snug against me, reveling in the feel of his tight, posh little ass against my growing erection.

I tuck my lips beneath his ear. "I can usually get you screaming in no time."

[sidestepdestiny]

"Simon." I say his name on an exhale, my voice already breathy and begging. I can already feel myself getting hard and I've got goosebumps from his touch, from feeling him pressed up against my back, and I clutch the paper in front of me, nearly crumpling it.

"There's so much work to be done. How can I fill this out with you distracting me?" I ask, doing my best to keep my voice steady.

[worst_greatest_one]

"You're asking me?" I say with a smirk, tugging his earlobe between my teeth. He's hard, I know he is, he always is when I'm pressed up behind him, and is it weird to think slut as an endearment?

"I never got high marks at school." I move my hands to that sweet little groove in his hips, rubbing my thumbs against the dip over and over. "I've got to earn my keep another way."

[sidestepdestiny]

"Nn." I turn my face a little, pulling my ear from his grip just to feel the tiny sting of it, and push my hips backwards some. There's something hot about having our clothes on still, I can feel Simon's hard, but only just.

"I told you not to come to me at work," I tell him, filling out another box on the paper, but it's just for show, because he challenged me, I have no idea what I'm writing.

[worst_greatest_one]

I cock my head, not quite understanding for a moment. Of course I come to him at work, I come to him pretty much whenever I can't puzzle something out, which is always, and - oh. Am I meant to be some sort of hookup? Snakes, you'd never guess he was the kinky one.

"Couldn't wait," I say, chopping my words into the chavviest they've been since Lincolnshire. I pull at the buckle to his belt - a fucking belt, we're not even going out today - and tug it off, unbuttoning his trousers to push down his pale thighs. "You know what happens when I start thinking about this arse of yours."

[sidestepdestiny]

Simon's undoing my belt and pushing my pants down, and honestly I could give a fuck about the paperwork. Am I still meant to pretend to do it? I push it aside and look over my shoulder, spreading my legs to encourage him to keep going.

"Do you have anything?" I ask, reaching back to run my hand down his arm until my palm is covering his knuckles and I can push his hand between my legs so he can feel for himself how hard I am.

[worst_greatest_one]

My eyes widen when he pulls my hand forward to encounter bare flesh. "No pants?" I ask. "I knew you were gagging for it." I hear his question, but honestly with him in hand I can't think of a single line to return, so I stroke him instead.

"Stop asking me questions," I tell him, pushing his legs wider apart. "Slick," I demand from the universe, and my fingers go instantly wet. I press my index finger to his hole and swirl it against his entrance. "Only gonna give you two," I tell him. "I like you tight."

[sidestepdestiny]

I let out a long, quiet moan to feel the warmth of his broad hand around me. His strokes are always just a little too rough, but I've never bothered telling him so because I don't want him to change it. "I'd love to gag on you, darling," I say, forgetting all pretense of his game.

Something else I don't point out is how his magic always seems to go right during sex, I don't want to jinx him, and I wonder if it's just that he wants it a little more than usual.

"Yeah?" I breathe. "I'd tell you to use only one, but I don't think you'd fit."

[worst_greatest_one]

"I need you to be able to sit at dinner while we still have littluns to impress," I tell him with a short laugh, pushing my way inside him. He's a bit cooler than me, what with being a vampire and all, but I don't mind it. I'm so hot all the time, having him like this is like jumping into a cool spring lake without your kit on.

I push my finger in and out of him, careful until I feel him start to give, then deeper. "C'mon, babe," I murmur, letting my magic leak into him. "Let me in."

[sidestepdestiny]

I let out my own laugh, but it comes out like more of a sputter because of the way he's touching me. "Snakes, Simon, don't bring that up right now," I say, nearly losing the last few words to a moan.

I curse and lurch up the desk a little, gripping it when I feel the first hot tendrils of his magic coarse through me. It's like when you step into a hot shower, except if it was also finger fucking you.

"Already?" I say in a choked off voice, trying not to hump into his hand.

[worst_greatest_one]

"Well, if you'd rather wait," I say, sounding awfully convincing when I'd rather die than stop. He's fully hard now in my hand, his breaths hitching beautifully, and all I want is to bury myself inside him.

I hold his cock more firmly and stroke, daring him to stall me further. "Shall I take my time?"

[sidestepdestiny]

"No," I say, so intensely it almost comes out as a spell. My hips move against his stroke, urging him to keep going. His hand is soft, and hot, his magic sending shivers along my skin, making me want to come just from this.

"I want you to fuck me," I say, swallowing hard. I have no idea how well his finger's stretched me but at this point I don't care. "I'm ready. It's good enough."

[worst_greatest_one]

I groan against his nape, too far gone to insist that I take my time, get him good and ready. Baz says it's good enough and I believe him, and I kick his feet even further apart, pushing him down with a bit of rough the way he likes it.

"Always so eager," I say, and it's meant to be a tease but it just comes out with bald appreciation, so fuck it, I go with it. I slick my cock and guide it forward, pressing it against his hole. It slides in slowly, and I keep my grip tight against his hips, holding him to me as I split him open.

[sidestepdestiny]

I'm nearly panting when Simon pushes my legs wider, moving me into the position he wants. He pulls me back against him and I let him, sucking in a breath when he begins to push inside me. It aches, it's so much pressure, but I want it, doing my best to relax around him so he can fit.

Sometimes I like it when he stretches me out real thoroughly, because then he can go quick and hard right away, but this. I like this too.

"Come on," I tell him, pushing back.

[worst_greatest_one]

I gasp as Baz pushes back, spearing himself completely. "Snakes, you're tight," I murmur against his ear, pulling back slowly while he gets used to me. I let more magic eke from my fingers, pushing it into him as my cock slides back in.

"Down on your elbows," I tell him. I love it when we do it like this. From this angle, I can slide in even deeper, fold my whole body over his and keep him right where I want him.

[sidestepdestiny]

Simon's words are hot against my ear and his hand is even hotter around my cock, pulling a moan from me as he starts to slowy move. I move lower, spreading myself out on the desk as told, and push my hips up shamelessly. Perk of being tall, especially when Simon likes to be on top.

"You like it, darling," I gasp, the pressure of him filling me and covering me all at once making it difficult to speak.