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eliemo · 3 years

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Behind Closed Doors

Summary: The light sides are still learning how to help Virgil recover, and Virgil is still learning how to ask for what he needs.

TWs: past abuse, blood and violence mention, past manipulation, yelling, arguments, misunderstandings

Notes: This chapter literally would not exist without @self-taught-mess they’re amazing I love them - sympathetic light and dark sides, taglist at the end

Masterpost

It wasn’t like he’d never had any privacy before.

Virgil had spent most of his life alone, and as much as he’d hated it, the isolation had been preferable to the beatings.

Everybody had wanted as little to do with him as possible, and he’d understood perfectly. The only time any of the Others would enter his room was when they were furious, throwing open his door without warning, slamming it against the wall so loud it sent Virgil’s anxiety skyrocketing before a hand was even put on him.

Now...just like with so many other things, the rules around his privacy were proving to be different.

The light sides actually came to see him. He spent less time cooped up in his room now that he was gradually starting to feel welcome, slowly learning not to be so terrified to just walk into a room.

If he tripped or stumbled, if the floor creaked under his weight or if he talked just a little too long...they wouldn’t hurt him. They’d promised they wouldn’t, swore to him no one ever would again, and Virgil was beginning to trust them. Slowly. It was still...hard to believe that things could actually be this nice for him.

And when he was in his room, safe and closed off, he quickly realized how much...calmer it was when people came to see him. Virgil was always hyper aware of movement outside his door, of footsteps in the hallway coming closer, of someone angry storming towards his room. He was still working on memorizing each of the light side’s footsteps, but it soon proved unnecessary.

They seemed to understand he liked his space, but when they did come to find him in his room, Patton and Logan always knocked. Other than the few times Deceit had needed to speak to him, no one had bothered to do that before.

Then again, before the light sides no one had come into his room with any intention other than to punish him. There was no need for knocking when he was in trouble anyway.

Patton’s knocking was slow and gentle, and the moral side would always call out to make sure Virgil was alright with company before opening the door.

Logan’s knocks were quick and curt, but there was no aggression or impatience to the sound, and he always waited until Virgil said it was ok to come in.

Roman had been careful to give Virgil his space when he was up in his room, but the two of them had gotten closer in the recent weeks, and there had been a few times Roman would come to him for help with an idea or an invitation to movie night.

It didn’t take Virgil long to realize that Roman...didn’t knock.

Which shouldn’t be a big deal. At all. Of course Roman didn’t knock- he was Roman. He was grand and dramatic and he liked to make an entrance, barging into rooms with dazzling smiles and powerful words.

And of course it didn’t matter to anyone else, because no one was pathetic enough to dwell on meaningless things like that. God- this was why people wanted to hurt Virgil. He was annoying and panicked over stupid little things like the way someone entered a room.

Nobody had ever knocked on his door before. So Roman not knocking shouldn’t be fazing him in the slightest.

Except...except before, whenever someone would enter his room without warning, it meant they were angry enough that the beating couldn’t wait until Virgil came downstairs.

He knew Roman wouldn’t hurt him- he knew that. Roman had been the first one to promise him safety, to hold him and tell him he didn’t deserve that, to swear to protect him as vigilantly as Virgil protected everyone else.

But every time Roman would barge into his room, footsteps thundering in the hallway just seconds before the door flew open, Virgil had a hard time remembering that.

The sickening panic would return each time, defenses raising automatically, Virgil hunching his shoulders and tensing, waiting for screams and punches that of course didn't come.

He always missed the first few things Roman said, busy fighting to calm himself down before the Prince could notice his distress.

Because how pathetic would that be, if they found out a door opening was enough to make him want to throw up? Each time he had to fight to keep himself from scrambling under his bed in a desperate attempt to hide from a punishment that wasn’t going to come.

So he stayed silent. They already had to be ridiculously careful around him, he didn’t want to risk pushing his luck by asking for something else.

He should have known that plan was bound to go wrong. Most things in his life always seemed to.

Virgil was already tense and on edge from a particularly bad nightmare, hiding out in his room all morning, still too anxious to go to anyone for help despite them assuring him it was alright if he needed it.

So when Roman burst into his room, calling his name with his usual extravagance, it was of little surprise to Virgil that he snapped before he could stop himself.

“Jesus Christ, will you just knock?”

Roman froze, smile dropping slightly as he furrowed his brow at Virgil. “Well excuse me, Doom and Gloom. You wouldn’t hear it anyway if you have your headphones in.”

“Yes I would,” Virgil argued. Unless he needed the noise to drown out rising panic, he always kept his music quiet enough to hear movement outside his door. “But still, it doesn’t mean you can just barge in like you own the place. What if- what if I’m changing or something?”

Roman scoffed, and Virgil suddenly felt small and cornered. “Oh, please. You mean the two seconds it takes to snap our fingers to switch clothes? Wanna try another excuse, Stormcloud?”

Even the familiar nickname, usually gentle and endearing, felt cold and patronizing now. Roman smirked and crossed his arms, and Virgil knew the Prince was just teasing him. He’d been a dick, and Roman was responding with their usual banter.

Virgil swallowed, frantically trying to come up with an excuse. ‘I blindly panic every time my door opens because I think you’re going to beat me’ would just make things awkward, and Roman would probably laugh and call him ridiculous. Or get angry. “Well...what if…”

He trailed off as Roman raised a cocky eyebrow. “Yes?”

“Well maybe I just don’t want you in my room, Princey!”

He shouldn’t be getting defensive, he shouldn’t be lashing out to combat the sudden panic in his chest. He should just tell Roman he wasn’t in the mood- tired from another round of nightmares- and if the Prince didn’t leave right now, things would only escalate.

“Oh, please,” Roman scoffed. “Of course you do. You need something to lighten the mood in here. Were you planning on sitting in the dark all day?”

He had- at least until the tension in his muscles had seeped away, the nightmare becoming nothing more than a faded memory, and he could function like a human being again. He really, really was not up for company, and he would have said as much if Roman had just knocked.

“Maybe,” Virgil snapped. “I didn’t realize that was a problem.”

He tried not to think about how if he’d ever dared to speak this way to one of the Others, he’d have already been a bloody mess on the floor.

“It’s not a problem,” Roman replied instantly, his voice a bit too sharp for Virgil’s liking. He won’t hurt him, he would never hurt him. He had to keep repeating the mantra in his head.

Roman continued with a quick flip of his wrist, moving his hair from his face in usual dramatic fashion. It really shouldn’t have put Virgil so on edge. “I just can’t understand why you always hermit away in here. I’m just coming in here to say hello, and personally I think you should be honored that I actually want to step foot in here at all.”

Did Roman sound angry? No. No, he...he was just annoyed. Irritated and judgy, maybe, but not angry.

So there was no reason Virgil should be curling up just a bit tighter to try and hide how bad he was shaking. He really needed Roman to leave before he noticed.

“Yeah, okay, well maybe not everyone thinks the way you do, Princey,” he snapped back, voice just as sharp as Roman’s had been, if not more so. “Maybe if people wanted you in their rooms they’d invite you.”

Roman scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous, Knight in Shaking Armor. If we waited for an invitation we’d never see you.”

Ok, ouch. It wasn’t Virgil’s fault he’d spent his entire life thinking that everyone would try to hurt him if he stepped out of his room. (Yes it was. It was his fault, he was the one stupid enough to believe it.)

“What’s your deal?” Virgil demanded, ignoring the dark, terrified thoughts telling him to just shut up before he got hit. “Jesus, I just asked you to knock! I didn’t realize you had such a problem with privacy, Princey.”

“Well maybe I’d respect your privacy if you weren’t being such a jerk about it!”

Virgil reared back like he’d been struck, stomach dropping as his heart began to pound. He knew he was pushing Roman unfairly but he hadn’t thought...he’d just kind of hoped the light sides would be more gracious about this sort of thing.

A naive part of him had hoped they hadn’t had rules like that at all.

Virgil was still the embodiment of anxiety, still wired to respond solely with fight or flight. He was already in his room, practically cornered, which meant there was nowhere else to flee for safety.

Fight took over Virgil’s instincts. He could feel adrenaline start up through his veins as he moved to the edge of the bed and sat up straighter, glaring at the Prince still in his doorway.

“Roman, I swear to god it’s not that difficult to knock on a freaking door. I do it before bursting into your room, but you can’t return the favor?” Virgil gripped his bed sheets to hide how bad his hands were shaking. He suddenly couldn’t convince himself he wasn’t in danger.

“Seriously, I thought you were supposed to be a Prince.” Virgil’s own voice was reminding him of the growl of a frightened animal, guarded and too aggressive for this to still be considered friendly banter.

“Oh, forgive me for not obeying your every command, Virgil. I came in here to be nice. I didn’t expect to be shouted at the moment I stepped inside! You’re being utterly uncouth!”

“Uncouth?” he echoed. “Roman will you stop being a child and just get out of my room?”

Roman rolled his eyes but at least took a step back out into the hall, not bothering to close the door as he went. “Fine. I’ll just go tell Logan and Patton how ridiculous you’re being.”

And then he was gone, storming down the hallway with an undeniable air of anger and frustration, and Virgil was left completely frozen on his bed with the dawning realization of what he’d just done.

Maybe...maybe he was overreacting. Maybe he didn’t have to panic yet. They’d stopped themselves from hurting him, even weeks after their promise, so maybe they didn’t have any plans to use nonviolent punishment either.

He...he knew better than to really believe that. But maybe if he hurried, if he explained himself, they would understand and give him another chance. Because for the first time, he had people who actually accounted for his feelings before making a decision.

Looking back on the way he’d just treated Roman, he didn’t understand why they didn’t just grab him by the hood and slam him against the wall until he couldn’t see straight.

He scrambled off his bed, squeezing his eyes shut and taking a moment to breathe, to will himself to stop trembling. Nobody was screaming for him, nobody was marching up the stairs to tell him of his punishment yet. He still had time to fix things.

Roman’s remark about earning privacy was still ringing in his ears, an unfortunately familiar warning, and Virgil knew all too well what that would entail. But maybe he’d take it back if Virgil just swallowed his pride and apologized.

He made his way down the hall, silently hoping he could make it downstairs before everyone decided it was best to go back to treating him like the villain.

Those hopes quickly vanished when he made it to the bottom of the stairs and was immediately met with three pairs of eyes, all with varying levels of confusion and annoyance.

“Oh, look who it is,” Roman announced and Virgil flinched, gripping the railing like a lifeline. “Patton, will you tell our local hermit to please control himself?”

“Kiddo,” Patton warned, but quickly turned his gaze back on Virgil, frowning slightly. “Logan and I could hear you two yelling from down here. What’s going on?”

Virgil shrugged, suddenly intensely focused on his feet. “Nothing.”

“He wanted me to knock,” Roman explained with a huff. “Which of course I would have done, if he had asked politely.”

Logan raised a curious eyebrow, briefly glancing between the two. “Virgil, if there are boundaries you would like us to be aware of, you only need to say. There is no reason for a request like that to turn into an argument.”

“Yeah,” Virgil muttered, fighting against the urge to flee. “I know.”

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Roman cross his arms, and he had to remind himself over and over again that no one was going to strike him. Even if they should. “Then why are you so worked up about it?”

And Virgil had fully intended on explaining, on getting across to Roman that he knew it was stupid and selfish but when his door opened without warning it was impossible to see through his panic, to convince himself he wasn’t about to be left bleeding on his floor for the next few hours.

But now, with everyone staring at him expectantly, cheeks burning red under the attention, he...he couldn’t. “I’m...I’m just tired.”

Roman laughed, short and void entirely of any humor. “He was tired. Well that excuses everything, doesn’t it?”

Patton was watching Virgil with something much too close to pity. “Kiddos--”

“You used to lock yourself up in your room all the time,” Roman complained, and Virgil felt that same spike of defensive anger. Because that hadn’t been his fault. Wasn’t that what they’d been trying to teach him to accept? “We just don’t want that to happen anymore!”

Virgil tensed, holding the railing so tight his knuckles turned white. He...he hadn’t been trying to isolate himself again. Being welcomed and openly tolerated for the first time was one of the best feelings in the world. He wouldn’t trade his newfound family for anything.

“Just...why are we even still talking about this? Why are you two involved?”

He risked a glance up, wincing at the cold glare Roman was giving him, and the obvious confusion from Patton and Logan.

“Because anger is not an effective way to communicate,” Logan said. “I understand that it is what you are used to, but it needs to be--”

“Don’t say that to me,” Virgil snapped because- because no. No. He wasn’t doing that. He was not acting like the Others. He wasn’t like them. “Don’t ever say that to me, Logan.”

Logan tilted his head, clearly a bit irked at the interruption. “Apologies, Virgil. But am I...incorrect?”

“Yes! N-no...I- I don’t--”

“Alright,” Patton mercifully interrupted, but his patience sounded forced. Virgil briefly wondered which one of them would lose their temper and advance on him first. “I think we all need to settle down.”

Roman waved a hand at the stairs, and Virgil was glad no one was looking to see him flinch.

“But it’s his fault,” the Prince argued. “He got mad first! For no reason!”

“I just-” Virgil groaned, running a shaky hand through his hair. “Look, just knock. It’s not hard.”

Roman whirled back around to face him, eyes brimming with exasperation and anger. “But it doesn’t matter!”

“Yes it does!”

“Why?”

Virgil opened his mouth to answer, but the words got caught in his throat. God, he was shaking so bad. Why couldn’t he just shut up and let them do whatever they wanted? They already put up with so much.

The amount of pain he should have received as punishment for this conversation alone-

He couldn’t think like that. He couldn’t let himself panic. It wasn’t like that anymore.

“Look, it’s...it- it’s not…” He found himself glancing at Logan, who always seemed to somehow know what Virgil needed, but the logical side just raised an expectant eyebrow. Virgil groaned, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “You- why are you being such an ass about this?”

“Me?” Roman demanded, and if he noticed Virgil flinch back at the sudden rise in volume he didn’t say anything. “You’re the one getting worked up over something useless! I’m not going to adhere to your every wish, Virgil! Why does it matter?”

“Because maybe I’m convinced everyone who comes into my room wants to kill me, Roman!”

The outburst was met with silence, unreadable expressions on the other side’s faces. Roman opened his mouth to respond but Virgil wasn’t done. Anger had reared its head like an ugly beast, taking control in one last desperate defense.

“Maybe if you all bothered to tell me otherwise sooner, I wouldn’t be such a- a hermit or whatever. I didn’t know it was such a problem- you never bothered to talk to me until I was useful, anyway!”

That wasn’t fair, he knew that wasn’t fair. That hadn’t been their fault. He’d been horrible, a villain they all hated. It was his fault. It always was.

The living room was silent now, all eyes on him, and Virgil fought the urge to pull up his hood and risked a cautious glance at Roman, who no longer looked quite so angry. Shocked, definitely, but not necessarily mad.

Which was weird. Virgil was almost positive that if he’d taken that kind of tone with any of the Others, he probably wouldn’t be able to walk ever again.

Logan cleared his throat and took a step forward, and Virgil instinctively flinched back with his arms raised to shield his face.

“Virgil--”

“Whatever,” he practically growled, and dammit his voice was shaking too much for them not to notice. “Just- forget it, guys.”

And before anyone could call him back he stormed up the stairs, shoulders hunched and hands stuffed in his hoodie. He was still fuming, shaky and unfocused, and he channeled the rest of his anger into grabbing the handle and slamming the door to his bedroom as hard as he possibly could.

It was hard enough to make the walls quiver, the sound like a gunshot ringing through the halls of the mindscape, and it made him feel better for about two seconds before he realized what he’d just done.

Oh god. Oh god they were going to kill him.

He’d started a pointless argument because he was too pathetic to get over something simple, and then he’d stood there and yelled at everyone like they had done something wrong.

They weren’t going to hit him. They’d promised, and they’d proven over and over again that they didn’t intend on breaking that promise, no matter how horrible he was.

And he’d certainly shown them just how horrible he could be today, hadn’t he? Maybe now they would finally understand why he’d been put through all those punishments for so long. It was so much easier to deal with him when he was in pain.

The argument could be worked through. Maybe. But then he’d slammed his door and...and he knew what the punishment was for that. Roman had confirmed it himself.

Virgil understood that. His room was a safe space, somewhere to stay when things got too overwhelming to manage, and for the most part the other sides understood that.

So taking privacy away entirely was the most effective punishment they had access to since violence had already been taken off the table.

It was preferable to the beatings, obviously, but it still made sickening panic coil in his gut at the thought of it. At least they seemed to be giving him some time to cool down before his punishment, the hallway outside completely silent.

God, he was an idiot. He was so stupid. Why couldn’t he do one thing right? Why couldn’t he just be grateful for what he had and not ruin everything for once in his stupid life?

He squeezed his eyes shut, refusing to cry over his own mistake. That had always just gotten him in more trouble.

Virgil pulled up his hood, breaths still short and shaking as he crawled back into bed where he’d already spent a majority of the day. Maybe the longer he stayed cooped up in here, the longer he could avoid the repercussions.

It was unlikely. Punishments were never on his terms.

He kept his eyes firmly shut, wrapping his blanket around him and burying his face in the pillow in a desperate attempt at letting everything fade for the time being. He was exhausted, both from the nightmares and the fight, and all he wanted to do was fall asleep and never wake back up.

He didn’t get his wish, unfortunately, but it was clear he’d at least managed to doze off for a couple hours, his room much darker than it had been before he’d shut his eyes, faint sunlight no longer shining through his curtains.

At first he wasn’t sure what had woken him, everything still and silent, but then he heard the quiet knocking at his door again followed by a gentle voice.

“Kiddo?” Patton called from the other side. “Can I come in?”

Virgil groaned, still groggy and disoriented, wondering why Patton was still bothering to knock. He knew better than to push his luck by turning him away, taking a steadying breath before calling back. “Yeah. Come in, Pat.”

Virgil pushed himself up into a sitting position, pulling his knees up to his chest as Patton slowly pushed open the door, hesitating in the entrance.

“Hey,” he said softly, and Virgil wasn’t sure if he was supposed to answer or not. “Did I wake you?”

Virgil shrugged, eyes on his rumpled blankets. “It’s ok.”

Patton continued to hesitate in the doorway, and Virgil scrambled to figure out why the moral side was still being so courteous. Was it some kind of trick? Was he trying to figure out how to best explain what the punishment would entail?

“You up for talking, kiddo?” Patton asked, and Virgil knew better than to think he actually had a choice. “It can wait if you need some more alone time.”

Virgil shook his head, heart beating frantically in his chest as he willed himself to stop trembling. The weaker he looked, the worse it always was. He cautiously raised his head to glance at Patton, a silent invitation.

The moral side took a step forward before pausing again, hand hovering over the doorknob. “Do you want the door open or closed?”

Virgil blinked, glancing between Patton and the hallway behind him. He didn’t...look angry, but the idea of having an accessible escape route set him at ease just a little.

He couldn’t meet his gaze, fidgeting with the strings of his hoodie. “Can you leave it open?”

“Of course.”

Virgil watched with tense shoulders as Patton, true to his word, left the bedroom door open and carefully made his way over to the bed where the anxious side was miserably hunched over and waiting.

“Kiddo--”

“I’m sorry,” Virgil said, cringing when he realized he’d interrupted. “I- I’m sorry for- for fighting with Roman and- and for yelling and...and for saying those things about you guys. That wasn’t- that wasn’t your fault. I- I should have tried harder but I was stupid, and I just didn’t--”

“Slow down, Virgil,” Patton said softly, and Virgil instantly fell silent. “You’re not stupid. And we know you didn’t mean what you said.”

Patton had slowly lowered himself down on the bed, keeping a few inches between them. He reached forward, slowly, and Virgil flinched back before he could stop himself, eyes going wide.

Patton quickly pulled his hand back. “I’m not gonna hurt you, baby. It’s ok.”

Virgil looked down at his lap, squeezing trembling hands into fists. He was hard enough to deal with normally, but he’d been awful today. He couldn’t imagine how much Patton was regretting his decision right now.

“You...you can if you want,” Virgil said quietly. “I won’t- I won’t say anything.”

Patton made a choked sound, eyes wide in disbelief. Virgil wasn’t sure what he’d done wrong this time, but he’d made him upset and all his defenses were suddenly up.

“Sorry!” he said quickly. “S-sorry, I was just trying to--”

“No, it’s alright,” Patton said, and Virgil jumped at the feeling of warm hands suddenly covering his own. “But I don’t want to hit you, sweetheart. I will never want that.”

Virgil’s head was starting to hurt, spinning in the way it usually did whenever they had discussions like this. “But...but everyone’s mad.”

“We had a fight,” Patton agreed, looking unbearably sad. “It got a little out of hand, and everyone needed some time to cool off. Do you think Roman should be hit?”

“What?” The panic hit full force again, but for an entirely different reason, protective rage and disbelief clouding his vision just at the thought of the Prince being treated like that. “Jesus- no! Of course not!”

Patton tilted his head slightly. “Then, why should you?”

“Because…” Virgil trailed off, almost certain Patton wouldn’t like any answer he came up with. His voice was small and unsure when he spoke again. “I...I deserve it?”

Patton shook his head, and Virgil wondered if he was even more annoyed at him for not understanding.

“You don’t,” he said. “You don’t deserve to be hurt any more than me, Roman, and Logan do. You’re always gonna be safe here with us, honey. Even when we fight.”

Patton looked genuinely hopeful, his hands still gently holding Virgil’s own, and even though it didn’t really make sense, Virgil found himself relaxing. Patton wasn’t going to hurt him. No one was going to hit him for this.

“Ok,” he relented. “I’m...I’m still really sorry. For- for yelling and...and slamming my door and stuff.”

“I appreciate that, kiddo,” Patton said. “And you and Roman need to talk this out when you’re ready. But first...can you tell me what happened?”

Virgil shrugged, figuring it was fairly obvious. “I was being an ass.”

Patton didn’t even correct his language, just squeezed his hand slightly and leaned forward to try and meet Virgil’s gaze. He suddenly felt like he was being read like an open book.

“You lashed out,” Patton said, and Virgil winced. “And...while it’s not an excuse, you don’t do that unless you’re already on edge. So what’s going on?”

Virgil swallowed, suddenly feeling trapped despite Patton’s gentle encouragement. “I’m just...I’m just tired and anxious. I get short tempered sometimes, you know that.”

Patton was silent, clearly waiting for him to elaborate, and Virgil had a second of blind panic when he realized he wasn’t sure what the other side wanted him to say.

Did it sound like Virgil was making excuses? Did he think he was lying? Was he expecting a different answer?

Patton sighed, but he didn’t sound annoyed or impatient, giving Virgil’s hands another gentle squeeze. “Can you tell me why the knocking matters so much to you?”

Virgil tensed, resisting the urge to pull his hands away. “It...it doesn’t.”

“It does,” Patton said. “It obviously matters a lot.”

“It doesn’t,” Virgil snapped, and- great, he was doing it again. “It- it’s dumb and selfish and I shouldn’t have yelled at Roman over it. I can- I can get over it.”

He was absolutely not going to start crying over this. He didn’t think Patton would snap and hit him over it, but he knew how obnoxious it was to listen to.

“Honey,” Patton said, in that gentle, understanding voice that could always coax Virgil out of his spiraling panic. “Can you please tell me what’s wrong?”

Dammit. Patton really sounded like he cared, like nothing could convince him that it wasn’t just another one of Virgil’s useless problems that he needed to get over by himself.

Virgil groaned, pulling his hands free despite the way his chest ached at the loss of comfort, instead moving to run them through his hair.

“It...it’s just…” He closed his eyes again, deflating, suddenly too tired to keep fighting. “This- this is the first time anybody has come into my room because they wanted to. You guys- you guys want to see me when you come in here.”

Patton was watching him carefully when Virgil opened his eyes, looking a little lost but beginning to understand. He nodded, gently urging him to continue.

“Nobody...the Others never came to see me unless they...unless they were mad. And they- they didn’t bother to knock, obviously, if they were just- just going to h-hurt me. And then you and Logan knocked and- and I know it’s dumb but it just...made me feel like I had some control, you know?”

He took a shaky breath, once again refusing to meet Patton’s eyes. “When Roman kept...walking in without warning I just...forgot. I kept forgetting I was safe. The only time someone had done that was when they were...you know. It’s stupid, I know it’s stupid and I can’t expect to--”

“Kiddo no.” Patton’s hands were suddenly slipping into Virgil’s again, and where he’d expected resentment or annoyance, Virgil found only quiet concern. “It’s not stupid! Not at all. Kiddo...Virgil, why didn’t you tell us?”

Virgil shrugged again, hating how obvious his trembling had become. “Because it’s just...it’s just knocking. I shouldn’t...I can get over it, it’s--”

“It’s not just knocking to you,” Patton said. “It might be small to us, but that means it’s something we can easily do to make you feel safer, Virgil.”

“But it’s stupid!”

“It’s something you need,” Patton corrected, continuing over any halfhearted protests. “Remember what Logan said about your recovery? We’re all doing our best, but we’re gonna end up stepping all over your triggers sometimes. You don’t need to feel bad for helping us learn. You never should be afraid to ask us for something that makes you feel better.”

Virgil couldn’t bring himself to pull away from Patton this time, just miserably curled in on himself and frantically tried to think of an acceptable response. “I...I’m sorry. For turning it into a fight.”

“It’s alright,” Patton promised. “But you need to tell Roman and Logan why this is important to you, ok?”

Virgil pushed down his panic, knowing he wouldn’t be able to get out of this. “Is Roman mad?”

“Not anymore,” Patton said. “He knows he pushed you a bit, and he’s a little worked up about it. But he’ll be ok after you come down.”

“It’s not his fault. I’m the one who--”

“Placing blame isn’t important.” Patton slid off the bed, still holding Virgil’s hands, and carefully helped the anxious side to his feet. “Are you good to go downstairs? We can always wait.”

“I’m...I’m good. I need to apologize.”

Patton didn’t argue, just gave him a small smile and led them both out into the hall, hands still interlocked as they made their way down the stairs.

Logan and Roman were in the living room when they arrived, sitting in silence on the couch and clearly waiting for whatever awkward scolding was inevitably going to occur after Virgil worked up the courage to properly explain himself. Great.

“Hi,” he muttered, not sure how else to start, hesitating at the bottom of the stairs. He felt like a child, small and defenseless. “I’m...really sorry, you guys. All of you. I shouldn’t have snapped at you and- and I shouldn’t have said those things. I didn’t mean it.”

Virgil heard Roman sigh, tensing on instinct until he glanced up to any anger or annoyance completely drained from his expression, his posture almost relaxed.

“It’s alright, my Starry Night,” he said softly, and Virgil wanted to sob in relief. “I shouldn’t have gotten so defensive over something so silly.”

And then the relief was gone, replaced with something cold and painful, and he suddenly remembered what had made him lash out in the first place. Because it...it wasn’t silly. It mattered to him.

Luckily, he didn’t have the energy for anger anymore and Logan was speaking up before he could let himself say something stupid.

“I also feel as though I should apologize,” he said, which was not what Virgil had been expecting. “While I was only attempting to decrease the tension, it appears I may have misspoken and succeeded in doing the opposite.”

Virgil wrapped his arms around himself, trying not to dwell on the way he’d blindly snarled at Logan. “It’s fine, Lo. You didn’t do anything.”

“Still,” Logan said. “I want to make sure you are aware that it was not my intention to make any sort of comparison between you and...the people from your past. You are nothing like them, Virgil. And you never will be.”

Virgil swallowed against the lump in his throat and quickly looked away, eyes suddenly embarrassingly wet.

Roman made a sound that Virgil would have killed him for if he wasn’t suddenly so grateful for every person in this room. Even if he’d still lost the right to his privacy for however long they deemed appropriate, at least no one hated him.

“Kiddo.” Patton was suddenly putting a gentle hand on his shoulder, and Virgil remembered they weren’t nearly done here. “Can you please tell them what you told me? About why it’s important to you?”

Virgil thought he might actually prefer to fling himself into the sun than to admit it again, but Patton had said please and Roman was looking at him curiously, no judgment or tension to be seen.

Besides, Roman deserved to know why he’d practically been screamed at out of nowhere, as shitty of an excuse as it was.

“I still shouldn’t have yelled,” he said. “It’s just...before- before you guys, people only barged into my room if...if they were mad and didn’t want to wait until I came out to...do whatever they were gonna do to me. And I know it shouldn't be a big deal but- but when you open th-the door without knocking I just...panic. I- I forget that I don’t have to be afraid of you.”

His words were met with heavy silence, and Virgil’s legs suddenly felt weak, knees wobbling under his weight. He dug his nails into his hoodie sleeves, refusing to meet Roman’s eyes, not ready to face any scorn or disbelief.

“Virgil,” Roman said, barely a whisper. “Oh, Virgil I’m so sorry.”

What?

Roman stood from the couch, but he didn’t approach or yell or call Virgil ridiculous. His eyes were wide and he looked...distressed?

“I-I had no idea...Virgil I’m so sorry! I should never have gotten so angry with you, I...I should have just listened.”

“What?” Virgil hadn’t actually meant to speak aloud, but Roman was slowly walking forward, brimming with regret and hope as he reached for Virgil’s hands, which he numbly offered. “No, Roman don’t be- you literally couldn’t have known.”

“No, but I should have listened to you! I...I just thought...God, we always tell you to let us know how we can help you feel safe and- and I just got mad at you for it. I’m...Virgil I’m so very sorry.”

“I should have just told you.” He’d messed up. He’d messed up, he’d lost privacy privileges and he’d made Roman upset. “I- I should have known you wouldn’t be mad. I don’t know why--”

And then Roman had his arms around him, pulling him close in his familiar embrace of warmth and safety, and Virgil practically melted against his chest, returning the hug almost desperately.

“Group hug!” Patton cheered, hurrying over to join as Virgil laughed. “You too Logan!”

There was a sigh from the couch, though Virgil knew there was no real resentment from the logical side. “If I must.”

The hug only lasted a minute or two, but Virgil let himself close his eyes and relax under the knowledge that he was still safe. Even if he’d messed up, even if he still needed to be punished, they weren’t going to hurt him.

When they all pulled back, Roman lingered a moment with his hands ghosting over Virgil’s arms, smiling hopefully down at him. “Are we...good?”

Virgil matched the smile, fighting to push down any thoughts of future punishment. “We’re good, Princey.”

Patton actually clapped, grinning as he reached over to ruffle Virgil’s hair while Logan squeezed his shoulder, and Virgil was suddenly reminded that he was surrounded by the biggest dorks in the universe.

“Thank you for informing us of the trigger, Virgil,” Logan said, blunt as ever but somehow...Virgil didn’t really mind. “You deserve to have control over who enters your room, and we will all be careful to respect your privacy in the future.”

Virgil stepped back, a panicked ache returning to his chest at the reminder of what was coming. They were going to be careful in the future, which meant the world to him, but…

But he knew how this type of punishment went. He knew that he’d be suffering sleepless nights of staring into an empty hallway, always on edge and constantly looking over his shoulder, feeling miserably exposed and vulnerable.

“Virgil?” Patton asked softly, and Virgil abruptly realized how tense he’d gotten, jaw clenched tight because he refused to cry over a punishment he deserved. “You ok?”

They were all so...nice. They were so, so kind to him. Maybe...maybe they’d be a little more lenient with this too? Maybe they’d at least tell him how long it would last in advance.

“I- I know it’s kinda selfish to ask,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry, but...how- how long until I can have it back?”

His question was met with silence and blank stares, and he saw Patton frown and glance curiously at Logan, who furrowed his brow in response.

Virgil flinched, even when no one moved, because he’d just managed to repair the damage he’d done, just gotten them to stop being angry with him, and now he’d messed everything up again-

“Virgil,” Logan said slowly, and Virgil warily met his eyes. “Until you can have...what back?”

Virgil blinked and glanced briefly at the others, wondering if this was some kind of trick. But all he was met with were confused, worried stares, and he was painfully reminded of the first time he’d asked when they planned on hitting him.

“My...my door?”

He immediately regretted saying anything when Logan’s eyes went wide. “Your door?”

“Wait, you think we’re going to take your door?” Patton asked, sounding oddly alarmed. “Why on earth would we do that?”

“Because...because I have to earn privacy,” he said, like it was obvious. He sort of thought it was. “I was loud and I- I yelled. And I slammed my door, so obviously--”

“Did they do that to you?” Patton asked. “Did they...did they say you had to earn your privacy?”

“I- I mean, yeah. If I was too loud and they didn’t think I learned my lesson with...you know...the usual stuff, they’d take it down for a while.”

“Kiddo--”

“Only sometimes, though,” he added, like he needed to defend them. “They- they knew I got really on edge when I couldn’t...uh, close myself off. I- I can’t really sleep without my door, so could it...maybe only be a couple days? I promise I won’t ever--”

“We are not going to take your door,” Logan cut him off, watching Virgil with something unreadable behind his glasses. “That was yet another form of abuse, Virgil. You do not have to earn your privacy.”

“You don’t have to earn anything,” Patton jumped in. “Your door isn’t a privilege!”

Virgil shook his head, that same lost, hopelessly confused feeling returning with a vengeance. He wondered why it was always so hard for him to understand kindness. “But I thought...Roman said I had to earn my privacy, I thought--”

“What?” The Prince looked affronted, taking a startled step back. “No I didn’t! I would never imply something like that!”

“You...y-you did.” He wasn’t trying to argue, he just...didn’t understand. “You said...you said you wouldn’t respect my privacy if...if I was a jerk. After...after I yelled. I thought that meant--”

“Oh, Virgil no.”

And then Roman was pulling him into another hug, and as confusing as it was Virgil couldn’t find it in him to complain.

It only lasted a few seconds, the Prince pulling back to cup Virgil’s face in both his hands, forcing him to look Roman in the eyes.

The Prince gave an almost lopsided smile, his hold gentle. “I really need to start thinking before I speak, huh?”

“What?” Virgil couldn’t shake his head without risking dislodging Roman’s hands, only able to stare with wide eyes. “N-no, it was my fault. I’m the one who--”

“I’m the one who ignored your discomfort, Virgil. I wasn’t thinking. If anyone’s at fault here, it’s me.”

“But I--”

“I do not believe blame is important,” Logan spoke up, and Roman and Virgil quickly turned to him, the Prince’s hands dropping to his sides. “And we definitely do not need another argument over who is at fault.”

Virgil winced, hunching his shoulders even if Logan sounded more amused than annoyed. “Sorry.”

“No more apologies necessary,” Logan said. “We are all still learning to respect and understand each other. It will take some time and a lot of work, but today was a good learning opportunity. For all of us.”

Virgil didn’t quite relax yet, still reeling from the revelation that he didn’t have to worry about losing his door now or ever, and entirely unable to comprehend how today could be anything other than exhausting for everyone. “How?”

“You did really well explaining to me what was wrong,” Patton said, quickly continuing before Virgil could argue. “It took a bit of coaxing, but you’ve been taught to be scared of opening up, kiddo. That’s not gonna go away overnight.”

“But you did it,” Roman added. “You were brave, Stormcloud, and I’m proud of you. And...and now I know what you need, and why I hurt you. I...I should have realized sooner, but--”

“It’s ok,” Virgil said quickly. “It’s...it’s ok. You...you know now, right? And I- I know you won’t get mad if I tell you the truth.”

“Of course,” Roman promised. “Of course I won't be mad at you. I- I know I messed up today, but I swear to you I’ll do better next time.”

“We all will,” Logan agreed. “There will be misunderstandings and mistakes, from all of us, but they can always be worked through. You’re safe here, Virgil. That will never change.”

They...they meant it. All of them, watching him with unabashed hope and adoration, wanting him to believe them. And he did. Even when a part of him, the parts that had been hurt over and over again, screamed at him not to.

“Ok,” he said, still quiet and unsure, but steady all the same. “And I...I get to keep my door?”

He was almost afraid to ask, like maybe he’d crossed some sort of line by bringing it up again and all of their kindness would be abruptly ripped away. But Patton just smiled sadly and took his hand.

“Nobody’s gonna take your door away,” he said. “Privacy isn’t something you earn, you don’t ever need to worry about that. We won’t hit you, kiddo. But we’re not gonna take away the things you need to feel comfortable, either.”

Virgil’s throat felt tight, vision blurring as tears gathered against his will, but something loosened in his chest. “Oh.”

He felt lightheaded, far away and a bit dizzy, and he was suddenly reminded of how little sleep he’d gotten, how endless the miserable night had been.

“How about we move over to the couch?” Patton suggested, running his hand through a teary eyed Virgil’s hair. “I’ll get us some food, and you can doze off when you’d like, Virge.”

Virgil nodded, not able to do much else in the moment, smiling when Roman began to lead him over to the couch, gently rubbing his back. “Sounds good to me, Padre.”

Patton had sandwiches and chips on the coffee table in a matter of minutes- or maybe time was starting to move in a distant blur now that Virgil’s exhaustion was starting to catch up with him.

They ended up curled up together with a vaguely familiar movie in the background, Virgil rested against Roman’s side with his head on Logan's shoulder.

“Thank you.” It was nothing more than a quiet murmur, and he didn’t bother to wait for the response before shutting his eyes, letting himself drift away.

He didn’t have any more nightmares that night, waking up the next morning tucked into his bed with his bedroom door closed.

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#sanders sides #ts virgil #ts roman #ts logan #ts patton #abuse tw #blood mention tw #food mention tw #sympathetic everyone #sympathetic dark sides #prinxiety #moxeity #analogical #learned behavior #fanfiction #writing

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thominho-incorrectquotes · 3 years

Text

Can’t you hear me screaming?

This is my entry for Thominho Week 2021, Day 3 “ Fake dating ”

Characters: Thomas x Minho

2933 words

Tags: Modern Au, College Au, Fake Dating, Childhood friends, Friends to lovers, mention of harrasment and bullying, Fluff and angst, demisexual Thomas, demiromantic Thomas

Summary: “Kiss me.” Those were words Minho never saw coming for Thomas’s mouth, especially not in a party celebrating their success at the track meet. Not that he was one to complain that his lifelong crush suddenly wanted to be kissed by him. But coming from Thomas, it just didn’t make any senses.

Note: This was supposed to be published yesterday, but I got busy. Hope you like it!

You can also read it on AO3 and ff.net

_____________________________

"Kiss me."

Those were words Minho never saw coming for Thomas's mouth, especially not in a party celebrating their success at the track meet. Not that he was one to complain that his lifelong crush suddenly wanted to be kissed by him. But coming from Thomas, it just didn't make any senses.

"What?"

"Kiss me!" He repeated over the loud music in the background. "Please~"

"I heard the first time! It's just… why?"

Thomas looked down in shame. "It's Gally…"

The young Asian sighed. "He did it again?"

Thomas only nodded.

Of course. Ever since Gally discovered Thomas never had been in a relationship, he made his duty to find someone for his friend. Because that's what friends do, right?

But it wasn't that simple.

In their group of friends, Minho, Thomas's best friend since childhood, was the only one who knew that Thomas was demisexual and demiromantic, which meant that the young man could only develop sexual and romantic attraction to someone if he had a deep emotional bond with that person. Along with that, the boy was extremely uncomfortable with everything that has to do with romance and sex, which made Gally's attempt at finding him someone extremely unwanted and unpleasant.

However, telling the tall blond boy about Thomas's sexuality wasn't an option, at least in Thomas's mind. And Minho perfectly understood why.

Back in High School, when Thomas first discovered his sexuality, a dude named Eric overheard a conversation between the brunet and his best friend. He then proceeded to mock Thomas, saying that he wasn't a real man for having no interest in sex, suggesting to pay someone to have sex with him to "cure him", saying he was sick and needed to go to a psychiatric hospital, and other horrible things. Worst, he got the whole school into it. If some people didn't care at all, many, mostly Eric's friends, bullied Thomas to no end, pushing him, mocking him, touching him in places he didn't want to be touched… The day Minho had to save his friend from being assaulted was the day Thomas had enough and changed school. The Korean followed him to this new school where they met their actual group of friends with whom they later on went to college with.

But the experience was traumatizing enough that Thomas kept his demisexuality and demiromanticism hidden. He didn't want to face something like that ever again.

"Please~" Thomas said again. "I can take it anymore! If we pretend to be boyfriends for a while, Gally would drop it."

Minho felt a headache coming up. The alcohol he had been drinking didn't help.

"That's your solution? Fake dating?" the runner mocked. "Thomas, we're not in a shucking romance movie. People don't do that in real life. May I also add that kissing is not something you like doing?"

"It's the only solution!" Thomas argued. "I tried to tell him I wasn't interested! So many times! But he didn't listen. Just now, he introduced me to that girl - Brenda I think - and she practically threw herself at me! You know how much I hate it…"

Minho gritted his teeth in anger. Some people never learned. He pushed back memories of a younger Thomas, face wet with tears, in the school washroom, after another harassment.

"Do it for me…" Thomas pleaded once again, knowing the Korean would eventually give in.

Another sigh. "Okay…"

That was the worst decision Minho ever made. He was in for a broken heart.

Ever since he laid eyes on Thomas back in elementary school, he knew what he was feeling was special. At the time, he didn't know how to distinguish romantic and platonic feelings and sure wasn't aware that two boys could be in love since LGBTQ+ rights weren't as advanced. But he still knew that he wanted to be around that boy forever.

It's been years know, and he was falling in love with his best friend more and more each days. When Thomas told him he was demisexual and demiromantic, it had been a big hit for Minho because they were best friend, they had the strongest bond ever, and if Thomas wasn't in love with him still, he would never be. He tried to stay strong, dated few girls and guys, but nothing that lasted because he could not get over his best friend. He was the only one…

And now? Thomas wanted him to pretend to be his boyfriend?

That was life laughing at him.

"He's looking at us!" Thomas suddenly urged, looking at the sea of people, forcing Minho out of his thoughts. "Kiss me now!"

He wasn't allowed a second thought, wasn't allowed to change his mind. He quickly grabbed the brunet's hips, bringing him closer, and leaned in.

Once he touched Thomas's lips, something broke inside of him. Why did it feel so right? Why did it feel so good? From that moment on, he knew no one else could ever replace Thomas.

Minho wasn't going for a deep or passionate kiss, but to his surprise, it was the boy in his arms who put more pressure into the kiss, who moved his mouth. He guessed it was only to make this whole thing more realistic.

They parted few seconds later. Thomas was smiling.

"Thank you."

He left Minho there, going back to the party. As if he was in a shitty romance movie, sounds came back to his hears. He looked around. Nobody had apparently seen them. Except from a tall blond man.

He saw Gally coming his way and immediately felt the need to leave that party. But he was supposed to go back with Thomas, so he couldn't yet.

"Park!"

Minho felt a headache incoming.

"Would you care to explain?" Gally asked as if he had just been slapped in the face.

"Explain what?" the young man replied, annoyed.

"That!" He basically yelled, pointing at Thomas who was now talking to Newt and Alby. "Since when are you two a thing?"

Minho hesitated a moment. Should he tell the truth? But this thought was pushed back. He couldn't betray his best friend.

"Since a while, shuck-face" He replied, harshly, annoyed at everything and everyone, including Thomas who always had a way to make him do anything.

"But why did he not tell me? I wouldn't have tried to find someone for him if he did!"

That was the last straw. Minho was now furious.

"He did tell you! He told you to stop!" He shouted, not caring that some people were now staring at them. "But did you listen? No! If someone don't want a relationship or don't want to talk about theirs, you should respect that, asshole!"

He couldn't stay here any longer. Spotting his best friend, he heavily stomped towards him before taking his arms, forcing him to follow. "I've had enough, were going back home."

"But…"

"No."

Okay. He was that mad. Over the years, Minho had learned to control his hot-temper and knew when to leave before doing things he would later regret. Thomas understood that if they stayed, the Korean would probably beat the living out of Gally. So he followed, waving at Newt and Alby, before going back to the small studio apartment he was sharing with his friend.

"I'm sorry" he said on their way back, "it's all my fault."

The dark-haired boy seemed calmer, but he still pressed his temple before answering, an old habit that helped him calm down. "It's not your fault Tommy, it's Gally who's an asshole and can't get a hint."

"But I still kinda forced you to-"

"Stop that. I made my decision, okay?"

Thomas was relieved. He hated when his best friend was mad, especially at him.

"So…"

Another sigh. "Yeah, I went with your idea… I'll pretend to be your boyfriend…"

The boy almost threw himself at his friend, thanking him by a hug.

"You're the best! Thank you so much Min!"

"Yeah, but you have to do all the dishes from now on for that."

Thomas pouted, but he only got a glare back.

"Okay, okay, I'll do that. I guess it's the least I can do…"

…

The next day, they were bombarded by messages from their friends. They were freaking out, asking when everything started, why they didn't tell them and how they should totally tell the whole story. There was also Newt saying it was about time and Minho didn't know how to feel about that.

But for now, everything was a mess.

On their usual Sunday brunch with the boys, all those questions were popping off again. Minho, who was busy massaging his temples, let Thomas, who was sitting next to him, closer than usual, do all the talking. He didn't say much, only the basics, about how they just didn't feel like sharing this information yet, that they wanted to explore that new thing between them without anyone interfering.

For someone who always claimed to be uncomfortable with romance if he wasn't romantically attracted, Minho was really surprised at how at ease Thomas was talking about it. Maybe he prepared a speech?

And when the boy suddenly kissed him on the cheek, it took all his will power to not jump in surprise. Hoping no one noticed his stiffness, he took the brunet's hands in his and smiled, pretending to be a good boyfriend.

"Aww, look how cute they are~" Frypan teased.

"Yeah" Zart added with a wink. "I now understand why you guys wanted your own apartment, you must do it a lot, right?"

Oh. Minho didn't about that. Of course that now they were "dating", people would assume they're having sex. And sex was a hard topic for Thomas, even if he once told him that he really wanted to do it one day, if he ever get sexually attracted to someone. The Korean looked at his friend, worried about him, guessing he hadn't anticipated this comment too. He saw him blushing and looking down, probably embarrassed, but he didn't say anything. Minho lightly squeezed the hand he was holding, showing his support.

The conversation thankfully drifted and Minho was finally able to relax for a bit.

…

They kissed again at another party thrown by someone Minho didn't know. His friends just told him the track team was invited so he kind of felt obligated to go. And he was annoyed as hell.

So many people, some he didn't even know, commented on his "relationship" with Thomas, some dudes even saying low key homophobic shit, and some girls commenting on how "hot" it was that too attractive guy were dating.

This was hell. Of course it wasn't the first time he received those type of comments, as he has been out as bisexual for a while now, but it was just getting on his nerves and he so desperately wanted to leave this party.

Finishing the cheap beer he was drinking, he was suddenly pulled by Thomas in a secret-not-so-secret area.

"Kiss me."

"What?"

It was a repeat of last time. When Minho had agreed to this masquerade, he didn't thought he would have to kiss Thomas again. The first time had been painful enough.

"Gally doesn't believe in our relationship, he thinks it's fake…"

"And we have to kiss to prove him? Should I remind you that this whole thing is indeed fake."

"I know, but please. For me?" He seemed desperate.

Looking around, he realized that Thomas chose the perfect spot. It was intimate enough to seem like they wanted some kind of privacy, while also allowing anyone who was looking to see them.

Spotting a tall blond looking at them, he sighed.

"Okay."

And then he pinned Thomas to the wall and kissed him. At least, Gally would get a show and would maybe let his friend alone.

Ignoring the pain in his chest, ignoring the thoughts that he would never get that again, ignoring that it was all he ever wanted, he lost himself to Thomas's lips.

Going deeper, pressing their bodies together, he kissed Thomas like he always wanted too. It was passionate, filled with sparks along with a warm feeling in his guts. He never wanted it to stop.

Realizing what he was doing, he released the boy. Thomas was blushing hard and was looking everywhere, but at Minho.

Klunk. He fucked up.

He made his best friend uncomfortable, which was the least thing he wanted to do.

"U-uh, t-thanks" the brunet said before leaving Minho there, going back to the party.

Let's just say, the way back home was very awkward.

...

They acted like nothing happened. It was better that way.

However, in the eyes of their friends, they were still dating. And Minho couldn't take it anymore. They still went on with it, hugging, stealing a kiss or two, adding PDA to their already existing friendship.

And Minho felt so bad about it. It felt like taking advantage of Thomas. He hated how much he enjoyed having his "boyfriend" in his arms, how much he enjoyed kissing him, how much he enjoyed everything.

Because he knew Thomas didn't and that was the worst feeling.

So when he proposed Minho to go the party after their track meet, like tradition obliged, the young man refused.

"But… why? Gally will be there and-"

"No." Minho interrupted him. "No. I can't."

"Can't what?"

The Korean pressed his temples before answering, knowing his heart would shatter in few seconds.

"I can't do it anymore."

"Can't do what? Fake date me?"

"Yes."

"B-but…" Thomas stuttered. He was agitated, panicked even. "W-what about Gally-"

"I don't shucking care about Gally, Thomas." He interrupted again, speaking louder. "I. Can't. Do. It. Anymore. Do you understand that?"

The brunet was now distressed.

"B-but, please!" He begged. "Please Minho! Don't…"

"NO! Stop! I can't, okay?! I can't!"

"Why!?"

"Because I love you!"

The words left his mouth involuntarily. Realization hit him as Thomas's eyes widened.

"Shit." He said. "Shit, shit, shit."

He grabbed his head into his hands, pressing hard, clenching his eyes shut, hoping this was all a dream and that he didn't just confess to his best friend.

"You… you love me?"

Minho was on the verge of tears. He was going to lose his best friend. "Yes…" he still admitted softly, because he could not deny it any longer.

"And I can't pretend to be your boyfriend anymore because it just feels like I'm taking advantage of you whenever we're hugging or kissing" he added. "It feels so good, yet so wrong because I know you don't like it, I know you're not attracted to me, and I'm here taking advantage of the situation while making you uncomfortable and-"

"You're so dumb."

Minho raised his head, finally looking at Thomas who was definitely calmer than before.

"You're so dumb" he repeat. "I would've not asked you to do that if that made me uncomfortable. In fact, I was feeling bad because it was like I was forcing you to do all that, but I couldn't stop…"

He paused, biting his lips as his friend looked at him with surprised eyes.

"In fact… I thought that maybe if we pretended to date, it was my only chance at dating you because I never thought you could love me…"

At that, Minho was immediately at the brunet side, stroking the few tears that were on his cheeks, tears the boy probably didn't even noticed.

"Oh Tommyboy…"

"I'm sorry… I should've told you before. You're my best friend. The most important person for me. We have the strongest bond. Of course I love you…I can't see myself with anyone but you… but I thought that if I told you, we would lose what we had and I didn't want that… I'm so sorry…"

"Shh, stop…" Minho whispered while taking the young man in his arms. "It's my fault too… I was scared of losing you too, so I didn't say anything… I'm sorry…"

Thomas pressed his face in the Korean's chest, and Minho almost died. He was allowed to hold his friend in his arms. He was allowed to hug him, kiss him… love him.

"I'm sorry…" he murmured again. "I love you so much…"

They ended up on their couch, cuddling, with Minho pressing soft kisses on top of Thomas's head. Because now, he could.

He could drown him in affection if he wanted too.

"How long?" Thomas asked, breaking the silence. "How long have you been in love with me?"

"Since forever, shank."

The boy beamed. "For real?"

"Yeah…"

It was now Thomas's turn to kiss him passionately, and this time, there was no holding back. Tongues danced with each other, hands were everywhere, feeling everything. It was desperate, needy, and so earth-shattering. It was everything they need.

When they separated, breathing hard, only love could be seen in their eyes. And their smiles shined like the sun.

"You know" Thomas started "I love kissing you…"

Minho raised an eyebrow, and by his smirk, the brunet knew he shouldn't have said that. "Oh yeah? Does that mean that I'll also get to have sex with you?" he teased.

Thomas rolled his eyes, but the Asian knew that it meant yes.

"Now?"

That got him a slap on his chest.

"I'm joking! You know I'll be fine with just being able to kiss and hold you and that I would wait forever for you."

"I know."

"Great. Also know that I'm never letting you go, sorry shank, but you're stuck with me."

Thomas winked at that "That's what I want."

____________________________

Thomas's experience about his demisexuality and demiromanticism in this fic is heavily inspired by my own and does not reflect all demi-aroace experiences.

Thank you for reading!

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spidernerdsblog · 4 years

Text

I Forgot That You Existed : Chapter Seven

A/N: Chapter seven is here. An emotional roller coaster this took me some time. Hope you like this chapter. Feedback and suggestions are always welcome.

Pairing : Tom Holland × Singer reader

Summary : It's been more than five years since you and Tom have gone their own ways after a heartbreaking breakup which had left both of you shattered. Both of you thought that you were finally over with each other and were happy in your respective lives until you meet again at a reunion trip planned by your best friend and you realize you are still not done with each other.

Warnings : pregnancy, miscarriage, angst, molestation.

Mini Playlist : look what you made me do by taylor swift.

And the cat was out of the bag. All these years you have been hiding from the world and Tom that you had conceived. That you were pregnant with his child. Nobody knew about this except your parents, Zendaya, Harrison and Alex. The whole incident had mentally affected you very badly that you went into depression which luckily you were able to recover with the support of your family and friends.

Tom stood there frozen. Your words hit him like a rock. His face was blank, eyes wide in bewilderment.

You looked around to see everyone in a state of shock. You fought back your tears as you ran inside the house rubbing your eyes, shutting the door you collapsed on the floor wailing.

“Y/N!!” Zendaya and Harrison called out to you.

“Seriously Tom you are such a jerk.” Zendaya spat turning towards Tom then running inside to your aid. Chloe followed her.

Tom felt weak; he felt his legs would give away any minute. Harrison came up to him and put his hand on his shoulder.

“Did you know?” Tom asked weakly

“Tom listen we didn’t think that you will get to know this in such a circumstance” Harrison spoke trying to calm him down

“Don’t bullshit me Harrison!! Did you know about this?!” Tom demanded

“Yeah mate.”

“Why didn't you say anything to me?” Tom was fighting back his tears.

“I tried to tell you but you never listened. And after she lost the baby she made me promise to not tell anyone about this.”

Zendaya and Chloe kept knocking on your door.

“Y/N!! open up dear”

“It's only us Y/N don't do this to yourself.”

The door unlocked as you emerged from behind the door, your face all red, eyes puffy, tears trickling down your cheeks. Zendaya and Chloe got inside and hugged you, tears shimmered in your eyes. They made you sit on the bed and drink a glass of water.

“It's gonna be okay darling” Zendaya rubbed your back comforting you.

“I messed up everything Z” you sniffled

“No Y/N it was not your fault Tom pushed you. You were always trying to avoid any kind of conflict.” Chloe said

“And this thing had to come out some or the other day maybe this was the best time.” Zendaya said.

Six years ago you left London with a broken heart. It wasn’t easy for you to leave behind the person whom you loved with all your heart but little did you know that you were carrying a piece of him with you. After a month in NY your health went terrible; frequent mood swings, morning sickness and nausea was common. You first thought maybe the change of environment is taking a toll on you but when you missed your period you decided to see a gynaecologist. Though you were sure that you used protection the last time you and Tom had sex but you were not on birth control so you couldn't rule out the chances. And there you were one fine morning in the doctor’s chamber

“Hello Miss Y/L/N”

“Hello Dr Ivy”

“I have good news for you. Congratulations you are pregnant.” And your worst fear came true. You gave a tight lipped smile.

“Are you sure?” You asked. The doctor looked at you sceptically

“No I mean is it even possible? Because we used protection” you explained.

“Yes dear, your test reports came positive. And condoms are actually 98% effective sometimes it just happens due to many reasons like if it’s not worn properly or breaking of the material etc. I know you are young and it’s hard for you to make a decision of keeping the baby or not but that’s okay talk to your partner, it isn’t that late you are just six weeks into your pregnancy.”

“Thank you doctor” you gave a smile.

You didn't know what to do, you were just 21 and the whole pregnancy thing was freaking you out. The first person that came in your mind was Tom though you least expected that he would answer still there was a little bit of hope left in you. You tried to contact him but it was in vain. So you called your parents and Harrison to tell the news.

Your parents flew to NY in the earliest flight they could get.

“Honey did you tell Tom?” your mom asked

“He isn't answering me.”

“So have you decided what you’re going to do?” your dad asked

“I don’t know. I’m confused.”

“Jellybean you are too young for this you have a life and a career ahead. You can't nurture a baby and craft your career simultaneously.” Your dad tried to make you understand.

“We think you should go for an abortion.” your mom suggested

“But mom this is our baby. This is the only thing of Tom I have with me, I can’t do this to our baby.” You protested

“I know dear how much you love him, but are you sure he wants to be the father of this child? That is why take your time. It's not that late whatever you decide we are with you.”

Harrison came to visit you a week later. He lied to everyone back at home that he is going for some audition for a role. You were sitting on the couch head leaning on his shoulder. Harrison’s arm was wrapped around your shoulder.

“What are you gonna do Y/N?”

“I want to keep it Haz. This baby is all I have got of him.” You looked up to him.

“What do you want me to do?”

“I just want to know what Tom thinks about having a baby, ask him somehow, don't make it obvious though.”

“Okay”

Harrison called Tom as he put the phone on speaker for you to hear.

“Hey man what's up?”

“Yeah I'm good. How did the audition go?”

“Yeah it went pretty well”

“Nice”

“Umm Tom Y/N has been trying to talk to you why aren't you answering her?”

“Because I don't want to.”

“It can be something important.”

“What important things does she have to say after all this? That she’s so happy right now living her dream”

“I don't know but what if she's you know got pregnant. You guys were at it like rabbits before you guys broke up.” He forcefully chuckled.

“Whoa!! Dude, stop imagining such things. I'm not ready to have kids yet I have a bright career can't ruin that. And even if she's pregnant, I don't care.”

“ Okay Haz I have got some work to do, will talk to you later”

“Yeah mate will talk to you later” Harrison ended the call.

“Y/N?” Harrison said softly

“It's okay Haz I got my answer." You placed your hand on your stomach "This baby is mine, only mine. It doesn't need a father. I'll give all the love it deserves.” You sobbed. Harrison hugged you tight.

“It’s gonna be okay, we are all with you” he kissed your forehead comfortingly.

“Haz you have to promise me one thing in no means you are going to tell about this to anyone not even to Nikki. Promise this to me Harrison ”

“But Y/N is it right to hide from them about their grandchild. They would be thrilled to know about it. And maybe you and Tom can reconcile your differences.”

“Harrison you heard him say it clearly he doesn’t want to be a father. I know he will eventually agree if Nikki and Dom spoke to him. But I don’t want to force him into anything and act as a burden. And I don’t want anybody to pity me or my baby.”

“Okay as you wish” he sighed.

Your parents decided to stay with you until your due date. They couldn't leave you alone to deal with this whole pregnancy.

You finally started to adapt to the changes your body was going through. Your days were spent by writing songs and recording voice memos. Alex handled each and everything for you. You were in your third month now though there was no prominent bump visible. You had made a daily routine to caress your growing belly and talk to the little human growing inside you.

“Don't worry baby, mommy will always be there for you, she will never let any harm come to you. She will love you with everything she has.” You cooed

“Your daddy though he is not with us, he would have been over the moon to hear about you. He would have loved you so much. Always know your dad is the best.”

“I'm gonna name you Destiny because you are going to change my destiny”

But destiny had other things planned for you. One night you woke up with severe abdominal pain as you sat up to see blood stains on the sheets. You desperately called your parents; you were rushed to the hospital as soon as possible.

“Mr and Mrs Y/L/N?”

“Yes we are her parents doctor how is she? Is everything fine?”

“I'm sorry to say there has been excessive vaginal bleeding. We might not be able to save the baby.”

“Will our daughter be okay?”

“Yeah she'll be fine.”

After the procedure was complete your parents were allowed to meet you. You were sitting on the hospital bed, with a blank stare at your lap.

“Jellybean” your dad called you softly.

“Mom, dad I lost my baby too” you burst into tears seeing them.

“Honey it's gonna be okay. It wasn't your fault.” They hugged you trying to console you as you wailed.

All the boys were sitting in the living room as they quietly listened to Harrison. Tom’s eyes were wet.

“Man she was devastated and you deliberately hurt her. That year on Christmas when she came home I somehow persuaded her to tell you about this but after seeing you with a girl she didn’t want to bother you anymore. So she distanced herself from us to get rid of her pain.”

“Harrison I need to talk to her.” Tom got up and held on to Harrison’s hands.

“Tom calm down. I don't think she's ready to talk to you. It's better you leave her alone for tonight.”

“How can you tell me to calm down when I messed up really bad?! Haz I left her alone when she needed me. I hurt her in every possible way.” Tom was desperate

Meanwhile your phone buzzed it was none other Nikki facetiming you. Of course Harry must have informed them after your grand revelation. You looked at Zendaya and Chloe with fear in your eyes, your hands were shaking.

“You should take it.” Z said, Chloe nodded her head in affirmation.

You took a deep breath and received the call.

“Hey Nikki how are you?” You tried speaking cheerfully.

“We are fine honey. How are you doing dear?”

“I'm fine too.”

“Don't lie to us honey we know what happened.”

“I'm sorry" your voice broke as fresh tears rolled down your cheeks.

“No dear don't be sorry it wasn't your fault.”

“It was selfish of me to hide from you about your grandchild” you sniffled.

“We totally understand why you did that dear, you were hurt. Our son is an idiot but you could have told us peanut. We never saw you less than our daughter.” Dom said.

“I didn't want to bother Tom with the responsibility he didn't want so I had decided until the baby comes nobody has to know.” You sobbed

“We are sorry on behalf of our son we can't imagine what you have gone through dear.”

“Zendaya, Chloe please take care of her and get her some rest.” Nikki requested.

“Yeah sure Nikki.”

Zendaya and Chloe stayed with you for the night. Next morning as you came down the stairs you saw all the boys were waiting for you though Tom and El were missing.

“How are you?” Harrison asked as he hugged you.

“I’m good”

“Hey Y/N we are really sorry on behalf of Tom” Harry apologized

“It’s okay Harry I’m fine” you all came in for a giant hug.

Today Harrison dropped you at the rehearsal ground.

“I’ll come to take you by noon okay” he said while leaving

“Yeah okay bye”

Steve was nowhere to be seen around today. After the nasty fight you two had you had assumed this before only that he might not be interested in you anymore. You discussed with the musicians and chorus singers about the whole order you will sing your songs before starting the practise session.

It was around noon Harrison was about to get in the car to go and pick you up but Tom stopped him.

“Harrison, can I go to pick her up? I really need to talk to her alone” Tom almost begged

“Yeah, sure mate. Try your best.” He handed him the car keys. During the whole drive Tom rehearsed to himself of what he is going to say to you.

“Okay guys let's take it from the top for the one last time then we will wrap it up for today.” You directed. You turned around to see the face you were least interested to see at this moment not after what happened yesterday, your mood went off. Tom was standing in front of the stage, his hands in his pockets, eyebrows furrowed, sadness clouded his features You could tell he was nervous.

I don't like your little games

Don't like your tilted stage

The role you made me play

Of the fool, no, I don't like you

You gritted your teeth while singing.

I don't like your perfect crime

How you laugh when you lie

You said the gun was mine

Isn't cool, no, I don't like you (oh!)

You sang anger evident in your voice as you stared directly in his eyes.

But I got smarter, I got harder in the nick of time

Honey, I rose up from the dead, I do it all the time

I've got a list of names and yours is in red, underlined

I check it once, then I check it twice, oh!

Tom could understand by the tone of your voice that you were mad at seeing him.

Ooh, look what you made me do

Look what you made me do

Look what you just made me do

Look what you just made me

Ooh, look what you made me do

Look what you made me do

Look what you just made me do

I don't like your kingdom keys

They once belonged to me

You ask me for a place to sleep

Locked me out and threw a feast (what!?)

If words could slap a person this song of yours was perfect to do the job.

The world moves on, another day, another drama, drama

But not for me, not for me, all I think about is karma

And then the world moves on, but one thing's for sure (sure)

Maybe I got mine, but you'll all get yours

Emphasizing on your words you gave a cold glare as your grip on the microphone tightened.

But I got smarter, I got harder in the nick of time (nick of time)

Honey, I rose up from the dead, I do it all the time (I do it all the time)

I've got a list of names and yours is in red, underlined

I check it once, then I check it twice, oh!

You moved around the stage practicing your little dance moves.

Ooh, look what you made me do

Look what you made me do

Look what you just made me do

Look what you just made me

I don't trust nobody and nobody trusts me

I'll be the actress starring in your bad dreams

I don't trust nobody and nobody trusts me

I'll be the actress starring in your bad dreams

I don't trust nobody and nobody trusts me

I'll be the actress starring in your bad dreams

You continued singing.

“Okay guys well done, let's wrap it up for today.” You packed your stuff and went down the stage. Tom walked up to you.

“I thought Haz was coming to pick me up.”

“He had some other things to do.”

You hummed as you quietly went and sat on the passenger seat. Tom drove the car as you looked outside the window. Tom broke the silence

“Y/N I'm..” You cut him off

“Listen Tom if you are going to gloat about last night please don't I'm in no mood for it. Just take me back home. I'm tired.”

After sometime Tom stopped the car at a place. You recognised the place it was near the cliff.

“Why did we stop?”

“Y/N can we talk? Please.” He begged

"No I don't want to talk" you said sternly

Tom got out of the car and went to your side to open the door. You looked straight crossing your arms.

"Y/N for God's sake please talk to me" Tom pleaded. You looked at him annoyed.

“You don’t wanna go? Fine! I can walk myself home anyways it's around 10 mins from here” you grabbed your bag and got out of the car. Tom quickly went and stood in front of you blocking your path.

“Tom move let me go”

“No I'm not letting you go until you talk to me”

“There's nothing more to talk about. And I guess Harrison has told you everything.”

“No, I just want to listen to everything from you.”

“What more do you want to hear Tom?”

“We had sex, I wasn't on birth control, condoms are 98% effective and we were the 2% unlucky people so I got pregnant, I tried to reach out to you but you wouldn't answer so I decided to raise my baby myself but I lost my baby.”

“Y/N.. we lost the baby.” Tom corrected you.

“We?? Tom you literally just gave a sperm and after so many years there's no need to acknowledge your paternity as the baby never got to see the daylight. Besides you didn't even want to be a father.”

“Y/N I was angry I didn't actually mean that, I would never do that to you. I would have loved to be a dad to your baby, our baby. That is the life I had always dreamt for us. You, me and our little family.”

“You should be happy right now because whatever you said turned out to be true I really ended up alone, all alone.” You said.

“No you are misunderstanding me Y/N.”

“It's okay Tom that ship has sailed and drowned a long time ago. I finally feel relieved that you got to know about our unborn child.”

“Please Y/N, please give me a chance I will make things right.”

“There's nothing you can do now Tom so just try to get over it as I did.”

“Yes I can, we can start over, just you and me. I'll leave El, call off the wedding.”

“Tom! Do you even know what you are saying?” your eyes went wide.

“Yes you hurt me but I am not going to let you hurt El. At least I don't want to be the reason she gets hurt. She's such a nice girl who's always by your side no matter what, she loves you blindly. And you said you loved her too. She doesn't deserve this.”

“No Y/N it was always you, it has always been you.”

“It’s your guilt that is speaking Tom, you and I know very well that we can never be together, not in this lifetime at least.” Tom hung his head defeated.

“I have no grudges against you Tom. I forgave you a long time ago.”

Tom didn’t say anything more as you both silently got up in the car. El saw you both together as you entered the house. You went to your respective rooms. You laid down on the bed closing your eyes, your legs dangling on the edge as you heard El and Tom arguing. You sat up as you heard El yelling.

“Really Tom?! After everything that happened last night you want me to believe that there is nothing going on between you two.”

“Why don't you admit that your old feelings have resurfaced again? Now even more after knowing that she was carrying your child.”

You felt bad that they were fighting because of you. You couldn't resist yourself so you went to their room. You knocked before entering their room.

“Sorry to interrupt I know it's your personal matter but El I want to assure you there is nothing going on between us.”

“Oh Y/N can you please stop acting now? I really thought you were a good person but guess what you turned out to be a two faced bitch. I should have known that day only when I saw you both dancing so intimately, I let it go thinking you were best friends so it's okay but the night after he returned from the carnival I felt you, your fragrance lingering all over him, I still didn’t want to believe it but yesterday you both cleared my doubts. How far have you two gone by the way? Did you guys fuck? Planning another baby?” El ranted.

“El you can't talk to her like that.” Tom protested.

“Oh yeah now it hurts you. Tom, you were the one who was being literally rude to her all this time. What caused the change of mind? Is it because she was going to be your child's mother or long lost desire for each other?”

You swallowed each and every accusation El gave you thinking you deserved it. If it were somebody else you would have hit the person on the face by now because no one has the right to talk about you or your unborn baby like this. Your eyes were filled with tears. You mustered all courage as you spoke.

“El I just want to say I'm sorry. Please try to bear with me for the next few days. I promise you that I will be gone for good from your lives this time. You will never have to see me again in your life.”

You left the room wiping your tears.

“Seriously El how can you be so insensitive towards her?! She has already gone through a lot for me; don't add up to her miseries.” Tom turned around to leave.

“Where are you going now?”

“To say sorry to her for what you did.”

“I'm going for a drink in the nearby pub.” You said to Zendaya as you came down the stairs.

“I can come with you” she offered

“No it’s fine I’ll take a cab” You left hurriedly

“Hey where is Y/N?” Tom ran down the stairs panting.

“She went to the pub. Why?” Zendaya informed confusion in her eyes.

“Uh El blasted off at her and she went away all upset. I need to apologise to her.”

“Seriously you guys are keeping us on our toes. Can we have a normal day where nobody is crying or fighting?!” Harry scoffed.

Tom took the car keys and ran out to go to the pub. You were sitting in a secluded booth at the corner of the pub sipping on your drink looking out the window.

“Hey Y/N” you turned your gaze to find Steve.

“Oh hi Steve”

“May I sit?”

“Yeah sure”

He slid into the booth beside you.

“Didn't see you during the rehearsal.”

“I was a little tired today.” He ordered his drink shifting himself a little more closer to you.

“So how are you?” He placed his hand on your knee, you felt a little uncomfortable but decided to ignore.

“I’m fine” You felt his hand slowly move higher under your dress.You panicked.

“Steve what are you doing?!” you grabbed his hand to stop whatever he was trying to do.

"You know all this while I really thought you were an innocent, good girl type. So I was taking my time with you. But who knew you were such a little slut.” Steve drew his finger through your jawline

“What the hell Steve back off!!” you pushed him hard.

“Oh c’mon darling I know how much of a whore you are” Steve gripped on to your thigh and cornered you to the side of the seat

“How dare you?!!” In no time your hand went on to his cheek giving him a tight slap.

“You bitch! Now I am gonna show you what sluts like you deserve.” he grasped your hand and forcefully pulled you out of the booth.

“Leave my hand you bastard!! leave me!!” you struggled to free yourself.

“Hey hands off her you asshole!!.” Tom growled, you had to admit that you were never this happy to see Tom in your life.

“Oh well, well, look who is here, the lover boy who had knocked you up pretty well." Steve gave a cocky grin.

Tom was raging with anger, he clenched his fists.

“Don't worry dude I'm gonna treat her really good tonight, you know if you wanna join I don't mind at all”

Tom lifted his hand as he punched Steve’s face hitting right at his jaw. Steve fell flat on his face.

“Stay away from her you piece of shit or the next time you wouldn’t be alive to put your dirty hands on any girl” Tom threatened.

You were shivering in fear, pupils dilated as you looked at Steve groaning on the floor. Tom rushed to you. He cupped your face. You looked at him with wide eyes.

“Y/N, are you okay?? I'm here now, don't worry love.” Your vision went blurry.

“Y/N!!!” Tom shrieked.

You fainted in Tom's arms.

...............................................................................

Taglist : To be added send me an ask I’ll be happy to add you in the following chapters.

@sleepybesson @sophs-library @spideyparkerstark @itstaskeen @milli86 @biebsmylife95 @quaksonhehe @hannahholland1811 @awhollandx @joyleenl @greatpizzascissorstaco @tomhollandsotherpinkytoe @jjandreidsgirl @brighterthanthesunx @marvelpeters @panicattheeverywherekid @onewithnomightypowers @itsnotmeh24 @bitchinwpei @astridcomming @quacksonobrien @prkrholland

#tom holland #tom holland imagines #tom holland imagine #tom holland smut #tom holland fluff #tom holland x reader #tom holland x y/n #tom holland angst #zendaya #haz osterfield #taylor swift

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anotherbeingsworld · 4 years

Text

The battle of two souls.

Pairing: Bryce x F!MC (Casey Valentine)

Book: Open Heart

Summary: Follow up of events from chapter 11 and 12. The battle between accepting your past, and moving on was harder than they thought.

TW: Mentions of suicidal thoughts, death, alcohol use, and grief.

A/N: A very self-indulgent fic. Thank you @tylorswift for giving me a way to express it all and @fantasyoverreality98 for reading through it. It felt real to write it, and.. I hope you enjoy it. I am trying, hopefully it is enough.

Tags: @bitchloveskcbaseball , @storyofmychoices @jaxsmutsuo , @mvalentine , @princess-geek , @lahellacute , @kacie-0156-deactivated20200905 , @this-person-is-busy , @annekebbphotography , @brycelahel, @mrsbhandari , @dcbbw , @choicessa , @choices-confessions , @aylamwrites-deactivated20201016 , @fantasyoverreality98 , @drakewalker04 , @baltersome , @ofpixelsandscribbles , @thundergom @starrystarrytrouble, @ohramsey , @kelseaaa , @rookie-ramsey , @bratzlahela , @ohvamsey , @choicesficwriterscreations , @soft-for-drake , @lalizah , @drethanramslay , @arcticlumineer , @choicesstan1 , @aveeiro

MY MASTERLIST

‘She hasn’t left the room in two days.’ Jackie said with concern in her voice, as Casey usually joins them for dinner and everything in between.

‘Have you tried messaging her, or perhaps calling? Does this place has a spare key or something?!’ Bryce yelled unintentionally with concern in his voice.

‘We do, but… Elijah misplaced it.’ Jackie’s eyes fall to the ground.

‘Hey! Sienna was the one who put it by the rack, and maybe it disappeared?’ Elijah yelled once more from the kitchen, as he was hoarding the cookie jar.

‘I would not tell a lie! I put it riiiiiight, here!’ She said pointing on the spot where the key was invisible from their eyes.

‘Yeah, right.. the key is gonna magically appear there or should we call Ludini The Great?’ Jackie said with a hint of sarcasm.

‘Hey, maybe the pets ate it? We never know!’ Elijah eyes the three furballs in the room, as they were playing at their own pace. Jackie sighs, as she tries turning the knob once more.

‘Its no use guys, she won’t budge.’ Sienna said, making her way to both of them.

Bryce looks at the door with concern, and knocks on it. The first time, he didn’t get any response. He knew her all too well, that she was a stubborn girl. After a few knocks, he heard a sigh from behind the door.

‘She’s alive!’ An enthusiastic Elijah can be heard from the other side of the door.

‘Cas, open up! We are worried!’ Sienna said, as she knocks following Bryce’s lead.

‘No, I am not coming out and none of you are coming in!’ Casey yelled from the other side, as the three of them excluding Bryce lets out a number of sighs as, they know their efforts are worthless.

‘You should try it meathead, we know she has a soft spot for you after all.’ Jackie winks at him, earning a smile.

‘Nobody could resist me Jackie, watch and learn.’

She lets out a scoff, and rolled her eyes at the comment.

‘Here we go again, I’m going to go for my night shift. Make sure she is okay meathead!’ Jackie yelled as she took her coat and left the apartment with Elijah following behind.

‘Take care of her for us Bryce, we need updates every hour!’ Sienna exclaimed as she left the apartment as well, getting the groceries or maybe code word, giving them some space.

‘Gotcha Double O Tiny!’ Bryce waves back, as he took a deep breath. As he knocks once more, with a soft voice.

-------------------------

‘Casey, open up. It’s me.’

The door opened instantly, as a mess up looking Casey appears from the darkness of the room. It felt sad and gloomy, as her eyes were puffy from the crying, and she looked like she hasn’t eaten for days. Technically, 48 hours but… she looked weak and not the same Casey he known. He sensed the fear in her eyes, as the events from the last week had started to played in her mind. In which lifetime one can saw two of the closest people in their life died? Death was inevitable yet, she knew she could’ve done something. She knew deep down, that she should’ve stopped them from being involved. She could’ve pushed Rafael, Bobby and Danny out of the room. Letting herself suffer in silence, the way she always meant to be. She didn’t recognize who she was anymore, somehow deep down the old Casey had left her body. Those days, seems to be a reflecting phase for her. Somehow, a small step for grieving, letting herself feel the pain and, it doesn’t stop her from blaming herself. Nobody is worth the blame in this situation except for her.

Her eyes welled up in tears once again, just letting herself fall as Bryce catches her instantly. A worried expression was on his face, he knew this phase was coming. She seemed off during the funeral, as the words lessen. The smile kept on fading, as she tried her hardest to keep it. He accompanied her that day, after the funeral. They were walking down the street alongside one another, something he wanted to do after not being present in her days.

‘Casey, talk to me’ He held her, as both of them starts to sink onto the wooden floors. The cold and hard floors, that were made for the comfortable of the residents.

She didn’t say a word, as the sobbing continues. Her sobs last for an hour at least, as it finally subsided but, he didn’t leave her side. A part of him too, felt the pain she was feeling. It was a permanent scar in her heart, where the reality of life that you can’t save anyone. He had seen it, as he worked the best of his abilities to save a patient in surgery, as his scalpel cuts through the body with sense of calmness and steadiness. But, as the results came out negative; he realizes not everyone can be saved, as he drowns the pain of it with a few glasses of beer at Donahue’s. It helped him ease the pain, as he would be tipsy enough to forget. The feeling of not being good enough, or perhaps the fact that he didn’t do enough. He knew the pain all too well.

‘It was supposed to be me Bryce, I was supposed to die in the room. I should’ve pushed them out, Bobby has a family. Danny deserves a chance to live, and why did I have to survive? They should’ve taken me instead?’ Her voice broke the silence of his thoughts, as the sob resumes in small bits.

‘No, don’t say that. You deserve to live Cas, and we couldn’t save everyone Casey. We couldn’t.’ He felt his tears started to fall as well, as a reminder of the past starts haunting him once again.

Casey stood up, with denial written all over her face.

‘Why?! WHY WE COULDN’T SAVE ANYONE? I TOLD YOU, I DON’T DESERVE TO LIVE. I KILLED A PERSON, AND I SHOULD’VE BEEN TAKEN INSTEAD?!’ Casey yells as loud as she could, fighting the denial once more. The looked of Bobby’s and Danny’s face can be seen, as it was replayed over and over again.

‘CASEY! Stop it!’ He held his arms tightly, his voiced was raised a bit.

‘WHY Bryce?! Tell me why couldn’t I be the one to left this world instead of them? I feel disgusted, freaking disgusted looking at myself in the mirror since that day. I feel as if, it should’ve been me. Nobody deserves to die, nobody deserves to die except for me….’ Her shouts was stopped, as Bryce pulls her into his arms as the grip starts to loosen. As his lips met hers, the final way of stopping her. She went quiet, as she was hypnotize by the moment.

They pulled away in an instant, a sad look on his face.

‘Casey, you deserve to live. Danny and Bobby wouldn’t want you to blame yourself for their deaths. It wasn’t your fault.’ His voice was shaky too, somehow the same tone after the funeral was used once more.

The denial starts to wear off. The mention of Bobby and Danny makes the tears started to flow once more, somehow the rage started to wear off. As she surrendered in his arms. Somehow, blaming herself has been a habit of hers, ever since she was kid. She always took the chance to throw herself under the bus, especially in troubles. The guilt of it, made her weak. It took lots of years to make it better, as she somehow managed to control it. But, recently… it felt like she was inside the body of her 13-year-old self that she hated. The body where she felt hopeless, helpless, worthless and everything in between. Their deaths triggered her in some way, as it felt like a key to unlocking her old self. The one that is filled with demons, that she tried so hard to fight and, the battle that she almost lose to.

‘I..’ she paused, as she felt speechless for once. The words seemed to disappear as she held onto him for dear life, as if he would disappear in any second. The comfort of it all, kept her sane. She lets herself to cry it out, letting the tears that could somehow fill the swimming pool of her old school. In between moments, she heard sniffles came from him, as he was crying too. Both of them were letting their guard down, their vulnerability was shown in the late nights at the heart of Edenbrook, or perhaps Boston. It was Bryce and Casey, against the demons inside of them. A small way of fighting back, within being in each other’s arms.

After a while, they decided to call it a night. Bryce didn’t have to ask, as Casey invited him to stay the night. Their faces were facing each other, as they held each other into the night. The pain of the day started to roll down their backs, the insecurities of the past, and the blame of the present. As, the night goes on, she whispered.

‘don’t give up on me, Bryce..’ her voiced started to doze off, as Bryce pushed the strand of her hair from her face, observing her face. The puffy eyes, as a small smile was seen on his face.

‘Never, don’t give up on me too Cas.’

He whispered, as he kissed her forehead as they went into slumberland. A feeling of content, as the demons inside of them were still there, somehow a snapback from the past. But, they will not give up. Not yet, maybe it will take forever. They will definitely have each other until the end of time.

THE END.

#playchoices #bryce x mc #bryce x f!mc #bryce lahela #open heart #open heart second year #casey valentine #bryce x casey #anotherbeingsworldwrites #tw:death #tw: sucidal thoughts #tw: alchohol mention #tw: negative thoughts #fics

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stereksecretsanta · 3 years

Text

Merry Christmas, sivan325!

For @sivan325 <3

Read On AO3

*****

Kiss It Better

“Dammit.” Stiles caught himself just in time. Or at least he thought it was just in time.

“You’re bleeding.” Derek growled between gritted teeth.

Stiles stumbled upward. Honestly who thought it was necessary to have all these loose wires in a warehouse? More important question, why were all the very important werewolf meetings between packs taking place in said warehouse? Wouldn't it be more picturesque to do that in the forest, in the desert or anywhere more natural than a freaking warehouse on the outskirts of town? It was like they were setting a trap for the lowly humans forced to accompany them. Being the emissary of these dudes, that was risky in more ways than just one.

“Warehouse… were-house? That’s what it is. It all makes sense.” Stiles mumbled to himself trying to steady himself holding on to Derek’s shoulder. He was the closest upright object nearby that Stiles didn’t identify as an electric hazard. A guy had to have some self-protection instincts after all, especially in this line of work.

“What are you saying? You’re hurt. It’s blood loss. You’re rarely that nonsensical these days.” Derek grabbed him by the waist and pushed him to the car in one smooth motion.

“The blood loss? Wha-“ Stiles looked down at himself. “Right. I’m bleeding.”

He was confident in his statement because of all the red he could see on his shirt right about now. He was pretty sure he had been wearing a white shirt before, not a tie dye t shirt of red and brown. Derek was being overly dramatic, it took a lot more blood for someone to become nonsensical due to blood loss. If Stiles had any brains at the moment he would probably crack a joke or two about that.

It was only that he was tired, the whole day had been endless and exhausting. They had to prepare for the meeting, prepare for it going right, and for it going wrong and all that stress and all these nerves being on high alert for so long, that took a toll on someone.

“Is it deep?” Derek asked sharply, stirring the car onto the main road at a speed that would most definitely get them arrested if any cop was in the vicinity.

“I’ll survive.”

Stiles winced because of the car motion. Derek really wasn’t that great of a driver all things considered. Stiles should have taken the wheel because right now he felt closer to nausea than any pain caused by a stupid scratch.

Derek parked the car in one of these fast and furious reverse u turn kind of insane driving skills. Stiles rolled his eyes. Derek might have some telepathic ability that Stiles didn’t know about because this maneuver seemed only necessary to prove to Stiles that yes Derek was a good driver, or maybe to make him puke all over the floor and himself. One or the other, Derek could be cruel like that depending on the moon cycle.

They weren’t close to the full moon or anything astronomical so maybe it was just for the heck of it. Stiles couldn’t be sure, but now he was being carried (carried! As in his feet weren’t touching the ground kind of carried!) to the elevator and toward Derek’s loft.

Maybe it was actually the blood loss, or maybe it was the crash of all the adrenaline of an alpha meeting and the spell Stiles had to do in order to protect both of them when the other pack, now clearly on the list of enemy packs, made the slightest move in the wrong direction.

Stiles was good at this business, more than good, he was great, a big talent and all that. He had been told by several trusted sources that his magic was stronger than what they had ever seen. So yes, Stiles was good and he was confident and he could do this job well, he could be the one to protect Derek and make sure all the people he loved would be safe, that the town would be safe. He could do all these things. But he was also very much new at this, and he was also very much human. Still a twenty-something dude just barely out of college and barely out of magic school, if some training and spell-work with Deaton could be called that. It was very minimal, Stiles was mostly going on instinct and pure magic.

The fact that Derek had accepted, had even offered that Stiles take the place of emissary of the Hale pack had been wild in itself but not as wild as what seemed to be going on right now.

Derek had always been a little stressed. He was a stressed alpha, it was the least anyone could say about it. It was the least Stiles himself had said out loud about it. Stiles had very little filter when it came to what he wanted to say to Derek on any given subject.

“Dude, everything is fine, the bad guys left and all that. No need to get your panties in a knot.” Stiles said for the form. He couldn’t not say anything.

Derek huffed. “My panties are fine, thank you for your concern.”

“Are they?” Stiles chuckled, a little breathless. He thought he was hilarious. Going by the death glare Derek sent his way, he didn’t share the sentiment.

The thing was Stiles was too busy keeping one very important piece of information secret and that made all the other secrets non-keepable. One mind could only have that many things hidden and Stiles had chosen to keep the fact that he was very very head over heels in love with his alpha the best kept secret in all the lands. It had been years. Nobody suspected anything. Except maybe Erica but she was way too perspective of her own good.

It made sense to keep it secret. It made as much sense as it did because now Stiles’ place in the pack was more than just friendship or fear or whatever feelings were there at the beginning. Stiles was able to perform all the needed spells and not make a fool out of himself in front of guys wanting them dead. Stiles had a place in the pack and that place was being the best emissary he could be. That meant being invested but not too much, being a key part of this pack. And it meant knowing when the pack’s health was more important than the alpha’s life.

Would Derek trust him ever again if he knew that Stiles was in love with him? Maybe not. That was the whole problem. Stiles could take rejection, he could hear Derek tell him no and that would be so much simpler. But if Derek told him no, it wouldn’t be the end of this crush. Derek wouldn’t forget it. Stiles hadn’t mastered any amnesia spell so he wouldn’t be able to erase anything. The moment the cat was out of the bag, it would be too late to turn back around.

That was fucking scary. Stiles was a little bit of a coward deep down when it came to his heart.

They had built their trust and it had taken some time, because hell, Derek had been closed off at the beginning. With reasons. Stiles couldn’t really fault him for any of it, he hadn’t been great either, being a teenager and all that, he had made mistakes too. But now they were in the best place. The betas had warmed up to Stiles, even Boyd. That was saying something.

Stiles was part of this found-family of sorts and he didn’t want to mess it up.

He couldn’t throw all that progress just because he had all these butterflies when Derek smiled at him. It was a vicious circle because the more Stiles felt included, the more time he spent with Derek, the more he felt all these scary feelings spin out of control, he was just so hopeless and everything started to swell in his heart to the breaking point. Everything was bound to come crashing out of him at some point and he wasn’t sure he was ready for that.

What were the chances Derek reciprocated these feelings? Zero, close to zero, the void and the deepest black hole in the galaxy.

Derek was a very serious alpha. He was trying to rebuild the Hale pack reputation in the community. He was doing good, Stiles was very proud deep down. That took time. Years. Derek was committed to it and he hadn’t exactly let himself date anyone for… Stiles couldn’t even tell how long it had been.

“What are you mumbling about?” Derek rolled his eyes. “Hop on here.” He tapped his hand on the kitchen counter.

Stiles hadn’t even realized they were now in the loft, all the lights were on and the door was closed. Derek had brought him home.

“Huh?”

‘Hop on.” Derek gestured to the counter again. “Are you going to make me carry you again?”

“What?” Stiles grimaced.

Derek rolled his eyes with a long suffering sigh. He was in a mood apparently. “Hop. On.”

“Oh my God, alright. What do you need me on the counter for? Are you planning on eating a slice of Stiles for dinner? It’s the smell of fresh blood, isn’t it? All your animalistic predator instincts have woken up because I smell deliciously like a Stilinski snack. I have to admit, you’re not wrong because I did put on some muscles with all the training and look at me, I'm pretty delicious looking. Do you think I taste like chicken? Do I smell like chicken?”

Derek didn’t comment anything except for his eyebrows twitching.

“See, you totally agree with me! I smell like delicious chicken.” Stiles decided to take that as approval. Eyebrow language was always subjective and Stiles could turn it to his advantage if he wanted.

“Take off your shirt.” Derek ordered out of the blue.

“Wowow, what?” Stiles’ brain really had a hard time catching up with everything. It was all because of the blood loss. Surely.

Derek crouched down to rummage through the cabinet at Stiles’ feet before standing up with an old beaten metal box.

“You’re bleeding.” Derek’s eyes looked over Stiles’ chest and arm, almost begging Stiles to actually get on with the plan. But what plan, Stiles had no idea.

“I’m? Yeah.” Stiles looked down at himself again. Was he actually still bleeding?

By the time Stiles stopped frowning down at his shirt as if he could will his blood to stop coming out of him with the strength of his mind, Derek took a step closer and just… ripped the shirt off with his claws. He had flicked his claws out just for this.

Why exactly? Stiles’ slightly ripped and somewhat bloody shirt had been so offensive or something. Derek wasn’t new to the whole bloody shirt ordeal. He had had a great deal of bloody shirts since they met. What was wrong with bloody shirts now?

“O - okayyy…” Stiles was just so confused.

It was delirium. It was the only actual explanation he could find for whatever was going on right now.

“You’re bleeding.” Derek had a one track mind.

“It’s not that bad actually.” Stiles made a face, looking down at himself. He had a handful of punctures through his skin from having landed on some barbed wire. He was still oozing out blood on the side of his rib cage but none of the cuts looked that deep, and none of them were that large either.

Painful, yes. Life threatening, not really. It was all good. Stiles wasn’t fainting at the sight of blood anymore. He had grown out of that.

Stiles startled when he was hit by some icy cold spray coming out of nowhere.

He looked up to see Derek’s gaze laser focused on the wounds.

“What the fuck?” Stiles squawked.

Derek was holding an antiseptic spray like he would a gun and he was ready to shoot. He had actually shot, Stiles realized, the cold liquid hitting his skin made a lot more sense now.

“We don’t want any infection.” Derek deadpanned, as if that explained everything.

“Duuuude...” Stiles shook his head in disbelief.

So that was what Derek had been doing all this time? Trying to clean Stiles’ wounds? That was strangely sweet but also very weird and awkward. So so awkward.

“Clean it first?” Stiles tried to say. “No. I mean. I can clean it myself. I can absolutely clean it myself.”

He was not inviting Derek to gently caress his chest with a damp cloth because no, Stiles wasn’t doing that. Oh but he would absolutely love that because he was a masochist and any amount of Derek he could get he would very much like to get and if Derek was set on a quest to take care of Stiles then Stiles would be an idiot to refuse. It might be a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Though Stiles was a little bit of a klutz, it was not the first and most probably won’t be the last time Stiles found himself bleeding or bruising. Derek taking care of him was the new addition to this.

Of course there had been the occasional draining of his pain when things got bad or the rushing him to the hospital even when things were definitely not as bad as they looked. Obviously there had been times, numerous times, when Derek took care of him.

This was different. They were just the two of them and they were in Derek’s loft and… yeah.

Now Derek was coming back from the sink with a clean cloth and started to gently wipe the blood off the side of Stiles’ chest.

“That way?” Derek asked in a whisper. He looked uncertain, like this was all uncharted territory to him.

Stiles swallowed hard. “Yeah.”

Derek looked up at him from under his eyelashes. Stiles’ heart was doing some loop-the-loop inside his chest. What was going on?

Stiles wasn’t meant to handle Derek looking at him like that. He wasn’t equipped for all these feelings. He was suffering from blood loss and a great deal of pining for this man who was the love of his life. More than that if such a thing even existed. Stiles couldn’t go through something like that and come back on the other side without being scarred for life. And all these scars would be metaphorical and all of them would be on his tiny human heart. Nothing wouldn’t be because of the bleeding and punctured skin.

“I - I can do it, you know.” Stiles made a move to reach for the cloth in Derek’s hand.

“Don’t.” Derek took his hand away. “Let me.”

Stiles raised his hands in surrender. “Okay okay. Our beloved alpha is going through something and I’m not going to get in the middle of it. I mean I literally am in the middle of it. Or the subject of it if we want to be specific. But I’m not going to come in between you and whatever it is you feel you need to do. I’m suffering enough as it is.”

Derek reached for a clean towel to pat the cuts dry. Stiles could only stare at him. The wounds really weren’t that bad, he could have just gone home. He wasn’t bleeding to death or anything.

Derek carefully brought the metal box closer. It was, as expected, some kind of first aid kit. It looked old, obviously very rarely used in a pack of werewolves with super healing abilities. It was a wonder why Derek even had that in his loft to begin with.

Derek frowned after a while. “Suffering? Does it hurt a lot?”

He stepped closer to Stiles with a big handful of gauze and sterile dressing. A lot of dressing. Enough to wrap Stiles’ whole chest with it. So much… Too much. Jesus.

Derek checked the wounds one by one and inelegantly plopped the gauze on Stiles’ chest. He grimaced before revising himself and reaching his hand again to put some pressure there. It wasn’t graceful at all, it was absolutely ridiculous.

“Noooo.” Stiles pushed him away and crossed his arms over his chest before he could come any closer again. “Drop the gauze, dude. Drop. the. gauze. I’m not letting you change me into a mummy. It’s not Halloween and gauze just isn’t a trendy fashion accessory. I don’t need all of this. At all.” Stiles gestured to Derek holding a ball of gauze as big as a football. “Look, it stopped bleeding. Okay, almost stopped. But I swear, I only need a few band-aids and it’s going to be enough.”

Derek frowned but let the gauze fall to the ground. He went to the metal box again and came back with a pack of what looked to be simple band-aids.

“That’s more like it.” Stiles encouraged him. “Give it all you’ve got, buddy… That’s just a saying. Don’t go overboard, please.”

Derek only groaned in response. Stiles figured he had gotten the point.

He stretched a little to give Derek more access. The laser focused gaze was back on Derek’s face as he stuck one, two, three band-aids on Stiles’ skin. Fingertips brushing his cold skin, sending shivers all over.

“Please stop looking so constipated. What is it? It’s not that I don’t enjoy all the attention but come on, tell me, what the hell is going on?” Stiles couldn’t take it anymore. The whole thing was so bizarre.

“My human is hurt and I need to make sure-” Derek started before stopping mid sentence frowning and shaking his head as if he didn’t make any sense even to himself.

“Dude, what.” Stiles was so confused. “ My human?”

Since when was Stiles anyone’s human? Human, yes very much so, the human token, yes but when had anyone other than his dad and maybe Scott have any sort of possessive feelings toward him? He heard it before ‘my son’ ‘my best friend’ but ‘my human’? Well that was a first and it could mean so many things.

“What do you mean ‘my’ human?”

“Nothing.” Derek shut off almost immediately.

“Something!” Stiles hopped off the counter trying to make himself look tall.

It failed. He winced at the stabbing pain in his side. He had almost forgotten he was actually pretty banged up. That was how infuriating Derek could be when he didn’t want to use words.

“Stiles.” Derek’ warm hands were here to steady him, so soft and gentle on his skin. Stiles wanted to be mad about it but he liked it all too much.

“Ugh. Don’t think I’m forgetting about all of this just because of some tiny scratches, okay? I’m not letting this go.”

“You never let anything go.” Derek’s face was annoyed, but his eyes were still staring at Stiles.

“I’m fine.” Stiles affirmed because apparently Derek needed to hear it. “I’m fine.”

“You’re bleeding.” Derek said for the hundredth time this evening.

“It’s not the first time.”

A deep pained look ghosted over Derek’s face.

Stiles sighed. That hurt expression wasn’t going to cut it. They weren’t these people anymore. Derek was a good alpha, he was the best alpha. He cared so much about his pack, about the town. He wasn’t the guy who carried all the guilt in the world on his shoulders anymore. Derek knew better than that.

“Your human?” Stiles brought them back to the most important topic of all.

He smirked at Derek’s even more pained expression. It wasn’t the same pain. It was the ‘Stiles is insufferable’ pained look. This was a look Stiles could deal with. He quite liked that look if he was completely honest. He would gladly annoy Derek for the rest of their days, that was in his lifelong contract.

“Since when am I your human? Tell me more. I’d like to know!”

“It came out wrong,” Derek deflated, looking anywhere but at Stiles. “I meant-“

Stiles snorted. Derek was saying words that meant one thing but his hands were still holding Stiles close, closer than strictly necessary. Still holding Stiles who was shirtless, the shreds of his bloody shirt in a pile on the floor, and still holding Stiles who wasn’t exactly bleeding anymore and just a tiny bit sore after tripping and losing his fight with scraps of metal in an old dusty warehouse. Stiles was definitely losing his fight against these hands too.

He was slowly but surely letting these warm hands affect him, he was letting himself want more of these hands and more of everything. And if Derek wanted Stiles to be his, Stiles was ready to be his on so many more levels than just a different species. He was ready to be more than what they had been for years. Friends, pack and maybe something else.

Stiles moved a small step closer. “Well, if we’re standing here in this kitchen tonight, claiming each other, I’d like to formally tell this assembly of silverware that you… You’re my… alpha.”

Derek’s eyes flashed red at the word.

Stiles smirked again. “That’s right. Thanks for the confirmation.”

“I just want you safe.” Derek glanced at Stiles’ band-aid covered chest again.

“Just give me a couple of days I’ll be as good as new and you’ll stop looking like someone kicked your puppy. Oh my god. Am I your puppy? Do you want to lick my wound better because your saliva has magical properties? Because mine doesn’t, I already asked. You said human but that can mean a lot of things. Please tell me I’m not a puppy. Do you see me as a useless human kid?”

“No.” Derek’s face lost every ounce of concern all at once. Stiles’ stupid rambling had managed to convince him he wasn’t dying.

“Well, good.” Stiles said. “That would be the opposite of sexy.”

Okay so Stiles was not a puppy and not a kid. He had lost his investigation edge. He had let himself become soft or something.

“So you care about me.” Stiles ventured.

It wasn’t a question. Stiles knew Derek cared. Derek cared about everyone. The statement seemed innocent enough. Derek didn’t have to take it as an euphemism for anything other than caring for his pack members, his brand new emissary. He didn’t have to read into Stiles’ jerky heartbeat. Or smell the distinct scent of hope mixed with nerves.

He didn’t have to. Oh but Stiles wished he would.

“... Yes.” Derek breathed out. “I care.”

“Okay.” Stiles’ mind blanked.

Okay. Cool. Play it cool. This is okay. Cool. His heart was now skyrocketing as if it was trying to break his ribs and make its way out. But everything was cool.

“Okay?”

“Yeah. Okay.” Stiles nodded. What, did Derek honestly think Stiles wasn’t going to be okay with this? “I’m gonna kiss you now. If I got all of this wrong, I’m going to blame it on the delirium of blood loss. You even told me I was nonsensical earlier, don’t think I didn’t hear, I heard. I hear everything. I always hear everything. And right now I’m hearing something and you know how actions have reactions well my reaction is that i’m going to kiss you. You can totally stop me or push me away if you don’t want that. I mean, this is just a heads-up because it’s good to give people a warning sometimes and not just spray them with antiseptic or, you know, love and affection without any warning.”

Derek’s face twitched in what seemed like surprise for a second.

“Yeah.” Stiles repeated. “Because if you care about me that way, I do too. Care about you. And you have to know you are wonderful and kind and extremely extremely beautiful. Handsome yes and attractive and hot but that doesn’t cover it. You’re beautiful and amazing and I…” stiles licked his lips. “I’m gonna shut up now and I’m gonna kiss you. Kiss the hell out of you until my legs give out. I’m gonna-“

It was Derek who kissed him in the end, crowding into Stiles’ space and capturing his mouth mid sentence.

Stiles was still trying to speak until Derek slipped his tongue inside his mouth to effectively shut him up. That was when Stiles’ brain caught up with the action.

He grabbed a fistful of Derek’s shirt to tug him even closer if that was possible.

Derek’s hand made its way down to stop just where Stiles’ band aids were, ghosting over them, not touching but still there. Protecting.

That kiss. That kiss was enough to heal some hole inside of Stiles that band-aids had never been able to fix.

A moan escaped Stiles before Derek caught his lips in another kiss because no one kiss wasn’t enough. Kisses were simply fantastic. Derek’s mouth was made to be kissed indefinitely, forever, over and over again. And Stiles’ soft skin was made to brush against Derek’s stubble so much that it would become red with it.

They finally let go of each other. A tragedy. Stiles had to breathe a little. He needed to think, restart his brain after the sweetest court-circuit of sensations.

He looked down in a sigh. And frowned at the bright colored spots on his ribs. What…

“Are these superheroes band-aids?” Stiles snorted.

“Uh. Yeah.” Derek confessed.

Stiles stared at him for a moment, that man was absolutely ridiculous. How long had these band aids been there waiting in that old box? How long had Derek been feeling this way about Stiles that he had bought and kept these stupid superheroes band-aids in his stupid kitchen?

Stiles shook his head, examining Derek’s expression carefully.

“You’re insane.” He whispered, praying that his cheeks weren't starting to flush red.

It was so far from an accusation. He was in awe. Stiles bit his lip to keep from doing something but then remembered that he could, he was allowed to kiss Derek now. He already had in fact kissed Derek. What in the world.

He just went for it, leaning in and pressing a light kiss to his lips.

Derek didn’t even correct him on his insanity. Maybe he agreed, they were both a little bit insane.

They kissed, and kissed. Stiles' jaw started aching but he wouldn’t stop kissing Derek, not when Derek’s fingers were now in his hair, not when a hand was on his hip steadying him upright.

His lips stung, swollen and almost raw from stubble and a few very deliberate teasing teeth.

“Fuck.” Derek breathed out. “They’re not going to let me live this down. I’ll never hear the end of it.”

“Who?”

“The betas…” Derek ran a hand over his eyes.

Oh no. So they all knew. It hasn’t been just Erica. They had all seen Stiles pining his ass off for Derek for years. This was awful, so terrible. Stiles was going to die from all the teasing. No, wait.

Derek let out a long suffering sight. “I kept telling them no, that I wasn’t… but they were relentless. I kept telling them to shut up.”

Stiles felt his lips curl up in the biggest idiotic grin ever. The betas were going to tease Derek. Not him. Let’s face it, they were going to tease Stiles most definitely too but also Derek! Derek had been pining over him for God knew how long.

“Dude,” Stiles was still grinning. Barbed wire excluded, this might be the best fucking day ever. “Telling these idiots to shut up... that never works you should know by now.”

Derek shrugged. He looked just a little too proud for someone complaining about his family not listening to a word he said.

“So we’re doing this?” Stiles dared ask.

“Yeah, we are.”

“Okay. I guess I’ll give you my heart but on the condition you do study the basics of the human healing process. Maybe even CPR because all of this,” he gestured to all of Derek. “that might cause me one or two heart-attacks.”

Derek rolled his eyes. That idiot couldn't even keep the fond off his face.

Stiles had to kiss him again. He just had to.

#sivan325 #stereksanta20 #*fic20 #*gifts20

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wwwafflewrites · 4 years

Text

Never Fear (The Winchesters Are Here)

Follow Your Heart

You tried following your heart, once, as a senior in college with straight A’s, a bright future, a career so close you could almost touch it. You were so close to satisfaction. So close to that diploma.

And all at once, that dream ceased to be. And all you could think was my heart must be very very lost.

It all began on a cloudy Friday evening, you were just about to end your shift with the dogs. It was a tangled mess of leashes when you made it back to the animal shelter. Sweat and dog hair covered you, and after a good shower of puppy kisses, you finally untangled yourself from the mass of dogs and return them to their rightful cages.

You refused to meet their sad eyes. You made that mistake, once, and had spent half an hour reassuring each heartbroken dog that they were, indeed, a good boy.

"I’ll see you guys in the morning!" you promised with a wave and a jangle of your dog whistle, and after a reply of barks, you left the building at dusk.

The road was silent, the street lamps weren’t on yet, and the clouds had become heavier in the sky. You had read in the forecast it was going to rain, but hadn't expected this.

The tightness in your chest only continued to build as you made it to the campus. The sun was just barely visible behind the storm clouds that had rolled in. The wind had become cool, and the wind had picked up, sending chills up and down your spine.

Perhaps it was just a combination of paranoia and reasonable worry for a woman walking alone at night to her college dorm, except your blood chilled the moment you unlocked your room and entered.

The hair on your arms and the back of your neck were on end. Your eyes adjusted to the dim light, and you realized that the window was open, and the harsh breeze was whipping past you.

You laughed it off, feeling silly. Though that night you slept with your cover tight against your chest, back against the wall, and your little silver paring knife under your pillow.

The next day, you experienced the same fear. Except, this time, it was sunny out.

What was triggering these feelings of dread? It was like you couldn’t focus anymore. Everything just felt... itchy. That was the only way you could describe it.

With each day that passed, the source of your terror was slowly revealing itself. Little, weird things that wouldn't be so noticeable to an outsider, but as someone who valued cleanliness and order, it might as well have been an elephant in the room.

Things were never as you left them. On Sunday morning you couldn’t find your hairbrush. Monday evening, your bed was mysteriously unkempt, even though you’d recalled making it that morning. Tuesday, the caps of your perfume bottles were all off and littered on the floor of your bathroom. Someone had been in your dorm.

You didn't have a roommate.

You called the police at midnight on Wednesday, and they showed up to your dorm to find you locked in the bathroom. They chalked it up to a wild imagination. You were three floors up, after all. Nobody was breaking in. You were just a stupid, homesick college student.

Right?

Pah, it wasn’t like you were a senior, or anything. Or that you’d ever even cried wolf in the last three years of living alone. But yeah, sure, call it paranoia.

Three weeks later, there was a knock on your front door.

It startled you enough to send you on your ass. You stared at the door from the floor, and it loomed over you like a bad dream.

Your stalker had been your shadow for almost a month at that point. A gaze that burned into the back of your skull, even when there was no one around. You wanted them to keep their distance.

You stood like a whisper, careful not to make any noise as you tiptoed to the peephole of your door. This was it. There would finally be a face to your terror. Someone you could blame.

A weird combination of disappointment and relief washed over you when you saw two FBI agents instead. Your fear of it being your stalker morphed into a fear of the justice system. Had they come to laugh at you just as the police had?

When they knocked a second time, you opened the door.

They showed you their badges and introduced themselves. "Mind if we come in?" Agent Young asked. He had longer, brown hair and kind eyes. You couldn't hold a gaze with him worth your life.

Strangers in your home, even authorities, made your hackles raise. What the helllllll was all you could think as you welcomed them into your tiny dorm as your legs shook.

A million questions raced around your head at once.

"Could we ask you about the death of your professor? Mr.Cleveland?"

Your heart plummeted and all hope died within you. Oh. This was about that whole freak-show. "What about it?" you said. Your feet shifted.

"Well, it’s said that you were there at the time of his death. Is that true?" Agent Scott asked. He was more intimidating—more rough around the edges—but you supposed he was just professional.

"Um. Uh, yeah. It…" the agents were watching you with intrigue, and you looked to the carpet. "It was horrible." And it was. It was bloody and scary, and all your fault because you had just stood there—watched as the professor died right in front of you.

Upon seeing your haunted look, Agent Scott spoke a little gentler. "Did you see what happened?"

"I—yeah… I saw it all. He—he had been helping me with something. An essay. I was flunking and he suggested a one on one." That had only been a week ago. Your grades had suffered as you juggled your classes. When Mr.Cleveland died... you abandoned college altogether and let the dog whistle collect dust.

"I don’t know… he just…" started dying at your feet. You hadn’t even tried to pick up a phone. You just stood there, and you watched. Your breath picked up. "...he just—"

Agent Young's voice was sympathetic. "He started coughing up blood?"

"Yeah. I didn’t—I didn’t know what to do. I kept thinking about..." the stalker, you thought. I couldn’t stop thinking about the stalker. "I froze and, a-and I just watched—"

"Easy, easy. It’s okay. We just need to know the details," Agent Scott said.

You paused, then. Something didn’t add up. "Wait... why is the FBI interested in a guy that died of a lung disease?" When the agents exchanged glances, you squinted at them, your anxiety briefly replaced with confusion.

"We don't think it was, erm, lung disease," Agent Scott said. "We think he might have been…" He searched for the word a little too long for your liking. "...uh, poisoned."

"Poisoned?" you yelped. "Who could have… oh god, that makes me a suspect, doesn't it?"

"Unfortunately."

Your stomach sank, and that anxiety returned. "You guys have to know I wouldn't—I would never—"

"If we thought it was you, you would be in custody," Agent Scott informed you curtly.

Agent Young frowned at his partner as if to say not helping and then turned back to you. "We just want to know what you saw that day. Anything weird? Strange noises? Smells?" He narrowed his eyes. "Is there anyone you know who would want to kill Mr.Cleveland?"

This was your chance to tell them about your stalker. If there was anyone who could help you, it was the FBI.

Yet you clammed up. "No, not really," you blurted. "Nobody I can think of, honest. Not to be rude, but I have finals tomorrow. Could you… leave?"

Who were you kidding, your grades had dropped so low lately that even finals wouldn't save you. But they didn't know that.

...probably.

They offered you a trained smile that didn’t reach the eyes. "Of course. We'll get out of your hair. If you think of anything else, here's our card." And with that they left the room.

The tightness in your chest did not ease.

///

That night, you had dreams of monsters and of evil people that could poison someone and smile. You dreamed of your stalker, and them laughing as you choked on your own blood.

You woke up in a cold sweat, eyes snapping open to the glow of an agape window. It was shut when you fell asleep, but it was open now, blowing in a breeze that chilled your blood.

Your dog whistle was gone.

It was a fear like no other. Your gut was screaming at you to launch for the phone. You did, automatically dialling the number on the business card that laid discarded on the other end of the room. You had memorized it after hours of staring at the numbers, debating whether or not to call them, then ultimately deciding not to with anxiety gnawing away at you.

They answered it on the second ring.

"Hello?" said a gruff voice. Agent Scott.

"I remembered something," you blurted. "You-you said to call… if I thought of something..." You trailed off when you saw the clock. "Oh god, it's three in the morning. Maybe this can… this can… this can wait…" It couldn't wait.

"No, wait. What is it? Might be important if it's got you up at three in the morning. Unless it's just finals?"

You shook your head and then realized he couldn't hear that. "Not finals. Someone's been stalking me for the past week. I thought… maybe, I was paranoid. I was... constantly told that I was paranoid. But someone was in here while I was asleep. And might… might still be close."

"Okay, you got a knife?"

"A knife?" You squeaked.

"Yeah. A knife. To defend yourself."

"Oh. Right. Right, okay. Uh. Well, uh, I have a paring knife?"

"You have... a paring knife," he repeated.

"Um, yeah? Is that okay? The dorms have rules against big knives. For safety reasons. It's a silver p—"

"Silver? Okay, you know what? That's fine. That's good. Use that. Is it sharp?"

"Sharp enough, I hope." You ran over to your cabinet, pulling out the knife and holding it to your chest. Your ragged breaths were loud in your ears. "Now what?"

"Well," he said, and you could hear an engine starting in the background. "We should be there in a few minutes. Stay on the phone, you hear me?"

"I—should I have called 911? This has never happened to me—"

"You're doing fine. Now, what made you so sure that someone had been in your room?"

"Well, the open window. I live up a few floors. There is no way they could have opened it unless—"

"Unless someone had been in your room. Alright. Just sit tight, okay? Don't hang up."

"O-okay." The agents will be here soon. They will help me. You had the knife and phone held so close to your chest and tight in your fist that your knuckles were white.

I will not die.

Without warning, you choked. It was wet, coppery, and lukewarm on your tongue. You clawed at your neck for air. You fell to your knees. The phone clattered on the wooden floor'; it buzzed with muffled shouting, but you couldn't pick it up, nor could you answer.

Just then, a massive shadow crawled in from your window, and it grunted like an animal. You barely had enough strength to look at him as trails of red spit hung from your face.

The man had claws. The man had claws. The man—the thing, had—for the love of God, inch long claws.

Down the hallway, there was a muffling of running feet. They would be too late. You realized then: you were probably going to die. You were no fair match.

You could feel the monster’s breath on your neck when the beast abruptly fell down like a sack of potatoes, howling and twisting.

Blindly, you stabbed it in the chest with all your strength, twisting the blade and then collapsing once again into a fit of retching.

The agents burst into the room.

But instead of moving to help you, they tore the room apart in search of something. You couldn’t help but sob in despair. Why weren't they helping you?

But when Agent Scott whipped out a little bag from your drawer and lit it on fire, the choking miraculously ceased.

You melted into the floor to catch your breath again. For a minute everyone just breathed. You really appreciated the minor break.

Agent Young helped you up, closely inspecting your heavy, slightly bloody, zoned-out face, and decided you were okay.

You licked your lips, still not processing any part of the last hour. "What," you said, "just happened."

The agents exchanged looks.

You looked at them. Really looked at them. "You're not FBI, are you?"

Agent Scott shrugged at his partner. "You gonna give her the talk, Sammy, or should I?"

///

"Were-witches," you deadpanned. Monsters, hunters, hex bags, and were-witches.

"Yep," Agent Scott—or Dean Winchester, you were now learning—said. "He probably got a whiff of you covered in dog hair or something. You're lucky we got here in time. The pervert was, I kid you not, jellifying human hearts with dark magic. Like, alive. And then he’d make you regurgitate—" He caught the hard look from Agent Young—Sam—and shut up. "But, yeah. Were-witches."

You frowned. "I can accept witches and werewolves, but… were-witches? For real?"

"Trust me, we didn't know they existed either," Sam informed you.

Dean laughed to himself. "Hey Sammy, should we call him a son of a witch or a son of a bi—" His smile faltered with both Sam and your glaring. "Get it? Witch jokes? Dog jokes? Sheesh, okay, you guys are seriously no fun."

Sam sighed. "We should probably take the, um, dead werewitch, out of here."

You followed his eyes to the heap of fur on your floor. Seeing your stalker dead was a major weight off your shoulders. It was such a relief that you felt high.

Sam was still talking. "—and you have finals?"

You sobered. "Right. Those." Like you would do anything except bomb them.

Sam must have known the look. "You haven't studied, have you? At all."

Shaking your head, you slumped into the mattress. "Nope. This stalker thing screwed me up big time. There's just no way." You sighed. Sam's dark look made you squint at him. "What?"

"I just, uh, know the feeling," Sam said.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," he said thoughtfully. "I got a free ride to law school before the hunting life took me away. I was already a hunter, I didn't have a choice. But you still do. You can still have that life you want." He tapped the card, still on the desk from his last visit. "Stay out of trouble and call us whenever. Especially if it's three in the morning."

Right then, you noticed the dog whistle was back, as if it had never left. Realization hit you like a brick to the head. "You did that! You blew the whistle."

"Yeah, well, I knew it was a werewolf. So I took a gamble and… borrowed it. Guess I didn't think you'd miss it—it was pretty dusty."

"You stole my whistle!"

"Hey, no, I borrowed it—"

"You gave me a heart attack! I thought the werewitch had stolen it! That's what set me off and made me call you—not the window!"

Dean cracked a smile. "Hey, it saved you, though, yeah? If I hadn't taken it, who's to say I could have saved your damsel ass?"

"Jerk."

"Bitch," Dean said automatically.

You blinked in surprise at the speed of his reply.

His eyes widened. "Sorry. That's… uh, Sam usually says that and I respond with…"

You laughed. Really laughed. You doubled over, struggling to breathe for the second time today, but this time it was welcome. The Winchesters inevitably joined in as you howled. You wiped away your tears of laughter, occasionally breaking into a smaller fit.

"You good?" Dean asked, grinning,

You sighed, the hysteria wearing off. "God, it wasn't even that funny! You just caught me by surprise. Thanks, though. For saving me, and all."

Dean smiled, patting you on the back. "No problem, kid."

You settled into a comfortable silence. You were still trying to calm down as they watched you with looks of fondness.

"Are you going to be able to sleep?" Sam asked.

You knew what he meant: were you going to be able to sleep alone? And honestly, you had a feeling you would sleep like a baby tonight. However, you had no purpose staying here anymore. "Would I be stepping too far if I asked to come with you? Just for the night."

"Of course."

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chargetheintruder · 3 years

Text

My one-year pandemic anniversary.

I likely won't have much time tomorrow, the 17th to actually do much online, to honor my fifty-two weeks of strangeness with COVID-19, beyond mark my calendars with something like:

One Year does not equal two weeks, damn it.

But even so, I should likely post something, even if a day early, just to take note of what happened to me, what I've lost, and so on.

Because you see, I went into 2020 on meds for everything (mood disorder, prostate issues and all that) and with plans. I did. I was still thinking I could recover some clothing and furniture for this penalty box of an apartment I'm half-stuck with, and that I could maybe get some new friends or a girlfriend sometime soon.

Then this pandemic hit. Only at first it was an outbreak and I had gotten it twisted because like a lot of folks early on I was working on partial info at best. I live in a blue state and near a University campus, so I jumped to some conclusions about how this was going to be a "campus illness" and how red staters were just partying it up because no campuses meant no outbreak, right?

Wrong. This was a pandemic, at least partially because a) some 5 million people went to the Wuhan province in the PRC to celebrate the Lunar New Year and many of them likely were Patient Zeroes, and b) because a lot of those people spread the thing to Europe first, insuring further spread.

So really, losing my chance to vote on that Election Day in the Democratic Primaries (because of lockdown) so that someone other than Biden would get chosen was the least of my worries. I had to get used to distancing, abusing my sleeves for coughs and sneezes, THEN masks, and also dealing with crazy people and only those being anti-mask for any reason, while LOTS of people were still against WASHING THEIR HANDS.

And also. . . I had the problems I had with my forced moveout of August 28, 2018, largely because I needed to be IN TOWN, since I had no car, true, but also because I had problems with LACK OF HUMAN CONTACT. Guess what this pandemic, then, shoved down everyone's throat (except for people with very nice internet connections)? Right. And here I was desperately trying to keep it together for the longest time with no internet connections because of outdated equipment, but also because I didn't want to give in to Comcast's monopoly power over this entire damned town (right next door) where I was forced to move. Yeah.

Fast-forward to October of 2020. I didn't like Biden but Trump was hellbent on becoming Hitler Lite, and it was clear everyone with half a brain had to stop Trump. So I took my mail-in ballot, filled out and everything, to a ballot box that I thought would be safe. That entailed a short bus ride on a route I was no longer familiar with. I came masked up. I rode in the center of the bus as usual. An older lady up front was coughing up a lung and not, NOT wearing her mask over her nose, and barely over her mouth.

I got sick about a week later and looking back, I'm pretty sure it was COVID-19. I took no chances and self-quarantined for a month to be safe to everyone else around me. I gave in and had internet by then, even if my access to my own Chromebook was super-limited still (thanks Google, you jerks). I could make it. The virus itself seemed to only give me digestive/GI issues and body aches, no big deal, right?

Problem was, I started coughing and feeling tired and dizzy all the time afterward. Long COVID, made worse by my being in a sick-house of an apartment building where the lease said it was a "no-smoking building" but the tenants and especially my neighbors, just gave no fucks and kept lighting it up in their apartments and polluting my own (under and through the baseboards). And it was all I could do to stay online and push others to vote, and support Georgia, and to be patient with Team Victim in the hopes that something would be done about the bastards who got us into the mess. You know, the landlords and rich bitches, and yes, the local University too, who invited all of the Han Chinese exchange students here to my hometown, had out-of-state, red-state landlords show up and pander to them exclusively, to the point that locals were ran out of town wherever possible? Those guys.

Those red-state, Republican guys. But in the process, I got re-addicted to chatting with my long-distance flirt on the internet, among lots of other things, my health got worse and it got to where I barely got out once a week, then once every 2-3 weeks, because of virus surges. Getting out was rough anyway because of the masks--nobody had a face, which made it hard for me to talk to people and not be freaked out and paranoid. The only uncanny valley issue I really have--facelessness--and it was the one I had to deal with. And I had lost my friends, mostly, except for the last pen-pal I have out-of-state, and she's busy with her husband and family too.

Point is, here I am now. A year into this. Worn-out, ragged, depressed when I already had depression, in bad health when I already had old-fart health issues, nothing to do anywhere outside when I had little to nothing to do inside to begin with. No, really, I don't go out to eat, just to eat out of a bag in the parking lot, or to walk it home and it gets cold, sorry. And ordering pizza and cheesy bread really only does so much. My life and finances were already ruined from the forced move-out and now there's literally nothing, no friends locally, no social contact, nothing, nothing, nothing, thanks to this plague, this plague, this plague, and people get to hurt us again, a thousand-plus times as badly as 9-11-2001 did, and they get to walk, and walk and walk. Meaning the Han Chinese, the landlords from Trumps on down, and also the alt-reich supporting the shit-show.

I hope you can see where this would make a fellow a bit crazy. More so than usual. I would hope the vaccines make things all right again, but even that has problems since it lets people off the hook. And also, since I have a bit of a ruined trash-mouth that's maybe half my fault? *lol* Meaning I might look better with a mask on in perpetuity, ugh, even if I don't feel like it.

What do you do?

#One year in #COVID 19 #depression #lonliness #ruined life #ruined society

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argonaut--keene · 5 years

Note

If you're up for it, I'd love something h/c with taakitz, with Kravitz as the one needing comfort. Either emotional or physical is fine! Thank you :)

This forced me to actually figure out how I want to write Taakitz, so thank you!!!!! Sorry it took so long, I was struggling to end it, lol.

Word count: 1,416

Warnings: food, discussion around Death Crimes, mention of off-page child death and of off-page suicide attempt (not named characters), having a Bad Day™️

__________________________________

Taako was puttering around the kitchen when the stone of farspeech around his neck beeped and his sister’s voice came through.

“Hey, Taako? You around?” She sounded tired and a little bit sad.

He grabbed the stone and answered. “Yeah, course I’m around, sis. Something wrong?”

“No…well, yeah. But not with me, at least, um…not really. Has, uh, has Kravitz gotten home yet?”

Taako frowned. “No…I thought y’all were all working until this evening. Did something happen?”

Lup sighed into the stone, and it gave a loud crackling sound in protest. “Yeah. It’s going to be okay, nobody’s like, hurt, or anything. Kravitz said he was taking the long way home, no rifting. So I guess it could be another hour or so? Anyway, I was calling to warn you that he’s not doing so hot.”

“What happened?” Taako demanded.

“Um, if he wants to talk about it, he will. Sorry, Koko, I know that’s not helpful, I just…he looked so sad.”

“Is it like, ‘make him some cookies and give him a hug’ type of sad? Or like, 'expect him to collapse into bed crying and stay there for a week’ type of sad?” Taako wanted to know.

She hesitated. “Somewhere in the middle.”

“Cool. I will make cookies and also have a blanket nest prepared. Will you and Barry be home anytime soon?”

“Hold on–” Her voice got quieter. “Babe, how long do you think this is gonna take?”

Muffled in the background, Barry said something that Taako couldn’t quite hear.

“Not until late tonight, we think. We’ve got a bit of a mess to clean up. Not much of a physical mess, more of a metaphysical mess. Well. Anyway, gotta go, Koko. Try and cheer your boyfriend up. Love you!”

“Love ya, Lulu.” The stone went silent. Taako got started on the cookies.

The thing was, there wasn’t much that could make Kravitz really upset anymore. He had been around for a long time in a pretty demanding and depressing line of work. He wasn’t numb to the horrible things he saw, he had just…well, they didn’t shock him anymore. Whatever had happened today, it must have been bad.

When the front door opened, Taako was just taking the cookies out of the oven. He heard footsteps in the front hall and decided to let Kravitz come to him. After a few minutes, Kravitz stepped into the kitchen. “Wanna talk about it?” was all Taako said as he turned around.

Kravitz looked so tired. “How did you…?”

“Lup called,” Taako said simply.

“She told you what happened?”

“Well, she told me something happened. The unspecific nature of that remark did nothing to appease my tendency to worry, so you should be very impressed by the amount I am not freaking out right now.” Taako held out a small plate. “Cookie?”

“Not…um, not right now, love. Sorry.”

“All good, I have multiple options prepared. Would you rather curl up in a nest of blankets until you’re ready to talk about it?” he offered.

“I…yeah. Yeah, that one sounds nice.” Kravitz let Taako take him into the bedroom, get him into pajamas, and pull him down into the blanket pile on the bed. He curled up on his side. His breathing was a little unsteady.

Taako rubbed his shoulder gently. “Just let me know when you’re ready to chat,” he murmured.

“I’m alright, Taako, I’ll be alright.”

“I know, course you will. But y'know how you always tell me that it’s better to talk about it? That goes both ways. But not until you’re ready,” Taako said. “Okay?”

Kravitz was going to answer, but no words came out. He just nodded.

Patiently, Taako sat with him and held his hand for almost two hours before Kravitz spoke again. He mumbled something so quietly that Taako couldn’t hear it. “What was that, pumpkin?”

“My job isn’t to be fair,” Kravitz repeated a little more loudly. “I can’t…I’m responsible for keeping the planar system in order. Not to make it fair. If I make exceptions, things go wrong. It’s not always fair.”

“Um…yeah, that makes sense.” Taako wished that he knew what had happened. It would make it a lot easier to make sure he wasn’t going to say the wrong thing.

“I’ve been doing this for so long that I can’t even remember how long I’ve been doing it for, Taako, and I still can’t get used to that. It…it’s not usually like this, though. Most of my bounties are doing something wrong, something harmful, not…”

Taako put his hand on Kravitz’s cheek and carefully tilted his face up. “Look at me? Hey. Whatever happened, it’s not your fault. You’re doing your job. And you do it damn well.”

“Doesn’t mean it isn’t awful.” Kravitz reached up and wiped at his eyes, although he wasn’t really crying.

“No, I know that. Or at least, I can see that. Do y'think you’re gonna be able to tell me what happened, darlin’? I wanna help, but it’s hard when I don’t know what’s got you upset,” Taako requested.

Hesitantly, Kravitz explained that he had been assigned a bounty on an older halfling woman and the spirit of a six-year-old halfling boy who had drowned in a river a week before the woman, his grandmother, had desperately turned to necromancy to bring him back to life. Although Kravitz had been able to offer the woman a second chance, the child’s spirit had been taken back to the astral plane. His grandmother had pleaded for an exception to the rule and eventually begged to be guided to the astral plane alongside the boy, who was her only living relative. Kravitz had apologized and offered to bring her to people who would understand and might be able to help. She hadn’t accepted his offer.

“What…um, what did she do?” Taako asked, not sure if he wanted the answer.

“She tried to kill herself with magic,” Kravitz stated. “She didn’t succeed–I was too shocked to do anything, but Lup and Barry had arrived by then and they made sure she didn’t succeed. We left her in the care of one of her neighbors and…hoped for the best.”

“Oh. Shit, Krav, wow.”

“It’s just, they usually don’t do that, Taako. It’s not like I haven’t seen plenty of people who turned to necromancy when they’ve lost something they think they can’t bear to lose, but they usually have something worth living for when I tell them that they can’t have the person back. She just didn’t think she did. Maybe she’ll find one again, but she didn’t seem to think so.” Kravitz rolled over, situating himself in Taako’s lap and hiding his face in his side. He was silently asking for comfort and Taako obliged, stroking his hair and his back as Kravitz trembled.

“This really shook you up good, huh, pumpkin?” sighed Taako. “Alright. Alright, I’ve gotcha. You’re gonna be fine. I’ve gotcha.”

“I love you, Taako,” he mumbled. “I love you, and…and I’m really grateful for you. You know that?”

Taako couldn’t help but smile a little bit. “I know, darlin’. I love you, too.”

“Thank you for putting up with this, I’m sorry for being so depressing.”

Now Taako laughed. “Oh–I’m sorry for laughing, sweetheart, but honey, you deal with enough of my panic attacks and nightmares and crying fits that if I was annoyed by you having a bad day, I’d be a pretty big asshole. You’re just fine.” He felt Kravitz shudder. “Krav? Are you crying?”

“A little,” he said, muffled against Taako’s shirt.

Taako leaned down and wrapped him in a tight embrace. “Alright, it’s okay. It’s okay. You go ahead and cry, it’s okay. It’s alright, pumpkin, you’re all good."

Kravitz was a quiet crier. It was only because the tiny shakes of his shoulders calmed down that Taako could tell he had stopped. "Thank you,” he whispered.

“No need to thank me, zeekseit, hey. I’ve gotcha.” Taako kept hugging him until he sat up on his own. He cupped his hand around Kravitz’s cheek. “How ya doing?”

He took a deep breath. “Better,” he said. “Much…much better.”

Taako smiled and bumped their foreheads together gently. “So…want that cookie now?”

“I…” Kravitz kissed him.

“Of course, I’m much sweeter than any cookie,” Taako teased. He was thrilled when Kravitz let out a quiet but genuine laugh.

“You certainly are,” he acknowledged. “That you certainly are.”

#taakitz #taakitz fic #taako/kravitz #my writing

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firesoulstuff · 4 years

Text

Begin Again

Read on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22530607

Behrad likes to think of the weirdness that comes with being a Legend as an integral part of the adventure. Alternate timelines and magical creatures? It’s all part of the reason he signed up. The other part at the time was, you know, if he didn’t Kuasa probably would’ve killed him within a week but he definitely stayed for the adventure.

Sure, he knows alternate timelines can get messy. He’s seen Stein accidently create a daughter, Amaya debate the pros and cons of leaving the ship, and Ray vanish before his eyes because of a lost alien baby. So up until this morning he would’ve said yes if asked if he’s ever been personally affected by a changing timeline, of course he has.

Now he knows that would’ve been a lie.

He takes a deep breath as he rounds the corner into the engine room. He had checked his room for her, and then even Nate’s, and then Charlie’s, but Zari wasn’t any of those places. But she is here, in the hideaway he likes to claim as his own whenever he wants to be alone. He hasn’t mentioned that to her.

She looks up as he approaches, her eyes drawn first to his face and so he gives her a tight grin, and then she looks down to the dab pen in his hand.

“Wanna hit?” He offers, holding the pen out to her.

She smiles, small and humoring, and takes the pen and twirls it around in her fingers before she looks back up at him.

“You know, I don’t think a timeline has ever existed where you haven’t been a stoner.”

He chuckles, and as she takes her hit he ducks his head under the overhanging pipe and sits down next to her. She passes the pen back to him as she breathes out a short cloud of vapor, and he smiles to himself. They’ve never done this before. Honestly, he wasn’t even sure coming in here if she smokes, even if this isn’t technically smoking. He’d taken a gamble, and he’s glad he did; this is nice.

He takes a hit himself and sits back, as much as he can against the pipes running behind them anyway. She keeps her focus on the ground as he blows out a much longer stream. Maybe she only took the hit for the purpose of humoring him, which wouldn’t bother him. In fact it might even be considered a step in the right direction; she’s never humored him before.

“So.” He says, tapping his hands on his legs. “What I got from all that is in the old timeline, you were me.”

She hums, “Minus being stoned as often as Rory is drunk.” She amends for him, “And prettier.”

He laughs, and there’s a teasing little twinkle in her eye he doesn’t think he’s seen in a long time.

“I’ll accept the first one, not my fault you don’t know how to unwind in any reality. But the second? We both know I’m the pretty one.”

She laughs as he raises his eyebrows at her and so dose he, trying to drink all of this moment in. He hasn’t seen Zari like this in a very long time. Off her phone and actually giving him the time of day, living in the real world rather than in her head in “Zari Land” as he’s come to call it over the years. It’s nice.

“You know,” He says, “I know the whole ‘alternate timeline’ is a lot to take in, but it’s kind of cool when you think about it. I mean there was a version of history where you were a Legend. Isn’t that cool?”

She chuckles, ducking her head and moving a piece of hair behind her ear. He grins as he watches her. Yes, his eyes are seeing the perfect manicure of her nails push back black hair that’s interrupted with golden highlights, but his mind is picturing the alternate Zari he’s been shown. A Zari who never messed with the hair their mother always said was so beautiful, who kept her fingernails short and didn’t mind much if they were a little dirty from working in this room. A Zari who wore loose flannels as more than pajamas.

A Zari, he thinks, he would’ve gotten along with.

“I guess.” She admits, “I can definitely see the appeal of this place, traveling through time and saving the world and all.”

“Yeah.” He chuckles, “It’s pretty great.”

And suddenly an idea comes to his mind.

Well, maybe not suddenly. It’s been in the back of his mind since they found out about the old timeline. But now it’s at the forefront, because this is going well and maybe it isn’t so crazy.

“You know…” He trails, “Now that you know about who you used to be, you could stay. Be a Legend again.”

She scoffs, but it’s more with amusement than dismissal, and he’ll take that.

“What?” She asks, “This me couldn’t be a Legend?”

He doesn’t miss the challenging dip in her voice, the dare for him to be honest.

“No…” He trails, and he isn’t sure if he’s saying no she couldn’t, or no he didn’t mean that. “Come on Zari, up until now you’ve had different priorities than-”

“Different priorities?” She interrupts, and he freezes with his mouth still open with his next words. “What, you mean like rent?”

“Not exactly.” He huffs, willing the anger to stay out of his voice.

“And who says my ‘priorities’ changed because of a dead timeline?” She interjects, “I’m still me.”

“But the you in that timeline was a hero.” He tries to reason, also trying to get this conversation back on track. “Don’t you want to be that person again?” She opens her mouth but says nothing. He keeps quiet as well, and tries to think of what he can say next.

“No.” She eventually says with a shake of her head, “No, I don’t.”

He smiles, but there is no joy in it. It’s a smile of shock, of anger, when his face doesn’t know what else to do.

“Unbelievable.” He mutters as he stands up. “Unbelievable. All the good you did as a Legend. You don’t want to be that.”

“Of course I do.” She argues, standing up herself.

“You just said you didn’t!” He reminds her, and he rounds on her as he does. “I just asked you-”

“What you asked me is if I would rather be the person I was in that timeline-”

“You mean someone who cares about more than views and likes?” He all but shouts, “Someone who cares about other people?”

“I am not having this conversation.” She grumbles, and she turns and starts to march away, but now he is seeing red.

“Fine!” He shouts after her, “Run away, back to Zari land where nobody else matters!”

He’s said that to her in the heat of plenty of arguments before, and she has always stomped off to not care somewhere else. But this time is different. This time she stops.

And she turns back, with a look in her eye of “you’ve fucked up” that he has only ever before seen on Papa.

“You want to talk about nobody else matters?” She asks, and she takes one step back towards him. “Listen to yourself.” She near pleads, continuing closer. “You are seriously mad that I wouldn’t trade this life for that one, and why? Because you liked the outcome better?” It feels like a rock has settled in his chest all of a sudden, and with another step back to him she drives it in deeper.

“Were you not paying any attention to those memories?” She demands, “You died. Mama and Papa died. That me, that was a person who lived running from soldiers. That was a world where meta humans were hunted and killed. Where we were told praying was radical and rebellious, and it was outlawed. That me almost suffocated an entire village because I was so angry!”

Her breath hitches, and he can’t remember the last time – if ever – he saw Zari cry, but it’s threatening to be now.

She takes a minute to compose herself, to wipe her eyes and cross her arms in front of her.

“Do you really wish I’d gone through all that?” She asks, and he wants to scream No.

He wants to cry himself, to tell her he’s sorry and he never meant it like that.

“I just… I just want my sister back.”

She holds his gaze at first, and opens her mouth like she is going to say something, but instead all she does is turn back and walk away.

He beats himself up over it for a little over an hour, during which time there are thankfully no disasters. He doesn’t see her in that time, and a part of him wonders where she’s gone. She’s been staying in his room since she got here but she isn’t there when he goes, and she doesn’t come, and when he goes to Nate’s room she isn’t there either.

But, thankfully, Nate is.

He gives a small grin when his buddy looks at him with an almost fear in his eyes, like he has been waiting for him to come in here with a shovel for daring to go after his sister in an alternate timeline.

“Can we talk?” He asks, and Nate gapes at him for a few seconds before he finally starts to shake off the apparent surprise of the question.

“Uh… Sure. Sure.”

Behrad grins and goes and sits at the foot of Nate’s bed. Nate joins him soon after, though neither of them speak right away.

“You…” Behrad finally starts when he thinks he has organized enough of his thoughts. “Would you… If she could just… turn back, into the person she was in the dead timeline, would you want Zari back? The version you knew?”

Nate looks more than a little taken back by the question, and Behrad stays silent while he thinks.

“You know, I don’t think so.” He eventually says, “I mean, I don’t know her as well in this timeline, but I don’t think she’s any different. She’s lived different things, she’s done different things, she’s made different choices. But at the end of the day I think Zari is still Zari.”

He tries to hear that, he really does, but ultimately Behrad still finds himself rolling his eyes.

“Yeah well, I don’t think the Zari who sacrificed herself for the good of the timeline is the same Zari who freaks out when she gets less views than the college roommate she didn’t even like.”

“Except she didn’t sacrifice herself for the timeline.”

Behrad looks at his friend, about to insist that he has it wrong, but there is something about the puzzled expression on Nate’s face that keeps him quiet.

“She was on the ship.” He says; his face still scrunched up as he sorts through the information Gideon gave to them earlier, until he finally nods with confidence. “She was on the ship so that she would be safe from the changes, at least enough so that whatever happened she would still be a Legend. But then I died, and she came after me.”

Right.

That is what Gideon said.

“Ok, but that proves my point even more.” He says, “That Zari risked her own life even when she wasn’t sure if she could save yours, but she had to take the chance. This Zari? She spent my entire high school graduation posting it to Instagram.”

“Did you even come to mine?”

He and Nate both look up, and Zari is standing in the open door. She has small tear tracks running down her face, and for that Behrad can’t help but feeling just a little bit guilty.

Awkwardly, Nate gets up.

“I’ll uh… I’ll leave you guys alone.”

On his way out of the room Behrad isn’t blind to the silent exchange of… something, happening with his best friend and his sister. It’s short, and nothing more than an exchange of glances that puts a grateful smile on Zari’s face. He feels an obligatory surge of protectiveness flare up in his chest but he ignores it. He has actual problems to deal with here.

He waits for Nate to leave, and for Zari to turn her attention back to him.

“I was nine.” He says, and she nods.

“I know.”

She sighs, and she comes and lowers herself onto the edge of the mattress.

“You were nine, and your friend had tickets to a hockey game. My graduating class was only twenty-something kids and Mama and Papa felt bad making you miss it for an hour ceremony, so they said you could go.”

“So what?” He asks, “You’re mad a nine-year-old missed your graduation?”

“No.” She says, shifting so that she is sitting crisscross on the bed and looking directly at him. “I am trying to remind you that you were nine. Then I was off at school and you were ten, and by the time I got home you were a teenager, and you didn’t want anything to do with me.”

“You didn’t want anything to do with me!”

“Because I was growing up, Behrad!” She nearly pleads with him, her face falling into her hands for a moment before she looks up again.

“I had no idea what I was doing with my life and I was trying to figure it out! Yeah, I took what I knew and I ran with it, and maybe I do get a little carried away sometimes. But I’m not seventeen anymore, and you are not the little kid who was always creeping in the background of my videos.”

He chuckles, a little, because he did have a reputation as a child for doing that. But more than that he supposes she does have a point. Really, they haven’t been a part of each other’s lives since before she left for college. Nine years is a big age gap, and besides, he can certainly understand now how hard it is to grow up.

He ran away on a time machine for crying out loud.

“Ok, so maybe my teenage angst played a part in my not having you around.” He admits, and she snorts a small laugh. He holds out a hand to her, which at first she only stares at.

“Try to be a little less ‘Zari Tarazi’ the influencer, and I’ll try to be a little less of a jerk?”

She bites her lip, a playful look of consideration on her face before she finally accepts his hand.

“Deal.”

He smiles as he shakes her hand, and then that smile turns into a wicked grin.

“One thing you’re gonna have to get used to if you’re planning to hang around.” He warns, and she raises a curious eyebrow.

“What’s that?”

He feels his grin go from wicked to downright evil.

“Legends are huggers.”

She squeals out a very un-coherent protest as he leans forward and yanks her into what is without a doubt the least awkward - and most toppling involved – hug they have ever shared.

#DC's Legends of Tomorrow #fan fic #behrad tarazi #zari tarazi #nate heywood #tarazi siblings dealing with their issues #slight steelhacker

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ironspiidey · 4 years

Text

Superhero’s get Bullies Too Part 10

Chapter 1

Chapter 10: Harley Stark & Throat Punching a Bully

Read on AO3

Thats right guys finally a new update!!!!!!

friendly reminder a hoe for likes and comments. They also fuel me :)

“So you and May eh?” Peter says with a smirk as he slides into the backseat of the car.

Happy glances in the rearview mirror. “Me and your Aunt are just friends Peter.”

Peter rolls his eyes. “Liar. I know my aunt well enough to know you two are more than just friends Happy.”

Happy tossed Peter his phone before turning out of the apartment parking lot and in the direction of the tower.

“Oh thanks!” Peter unlocks his phone and scrolls through his texts, seeing a bunch from his very concerned boyfriend, which made him smile. “Stop ignoring me.”

“I’m not ignoring you.”

“You’re not, not ignoring me either.” Peter looked up from his phone to give the driver a pointed look in the mirror.

Happy shook his head. “Your aunt and I are friends Peter, we may have hung out once or twice.”

“Three times.” Peter says without looking up from his phone, quickly sending a message in his group chat with MJ, Gwen & Ned about how Happy’s picked him up and brought him his phone.

“Excuse me?”

“You’ve hung out with her 3 different times. First time was when she went looking for me at the Tower but I was at a decathlon thing, you took her for coffee but only told Mr. Stark you were taking her home.”

“How?”

“How do I know? Well we did some major catching up during pee and snack breaks today when we were watching Greys.”

Happy nods in understanding “Ah okay, She does become easier to talk to when that TV show is involved.”

“Did you two ‘Netflix and Chill’ in my living room?”

The older man remains quite.

“Oh gross.”

Happy chuckles as he puts the partition up, clearly having enough of the redheads 21 questions.

Peter shakes his head and looks down at his phone. He starts deleting old conversations to clean up his inbox and his thumb hovers over Harley’s messages. He opens the conversation and sighs.

H: Hey Pete, not sure when youll see this but yeah. I know your upset with Stark for looking in your phone but he cares about you a lot more then he lets on which I know is hard to believe

H: my point is trust is huge with him and he’s low key freaking out that he lost you even though im saying he hasn’t bc your too stubborn to give up on his crazy ass. Just maybe cut him some slack when you get here. He means well.

H: and Im kinda getting used to having you around so yeah.

Peter bites his lip debating on digging out the messages from Flash that he archived a few months ago or deleting them. Knowing that it will send Tony even more over the edge then the superhero already is but at the same time remembering how upset he sounded when he found the one conversation. Peter sighs as he responds to Harley’s messages.

P: Don’t worry Harley, it’s going to take more than one fight to get rid of me. I know he cares and tell him to stop being a dumbass and that he hasn’t lost me.

Peter sighs again, realizing if things are truly going to work he needs to be as truthful as possible with the older man

P: and tell him I have something to show him when I get there.

H: So happys picked you up? How long till your home also will do parker

Peter knocks on the partition.

“Yes Peter?” Happy responds once he brings the glass screen down half way

“How far are we away from the Tower?” Peter asks without looking up, shooting his boyfriend a quick text about how he isn’t mad, that he still loves him and everything will be alright.

“About 20 minutes, traffic seems slow today.”

“Thanks Happy.”

Peter goes back to his conversation with Harley and tells him just that, switching to Tony’s chat as his phone vibrates.

T: my nephew ratted me out didn’t he?

P: Or I could be telepathic

T: without even being near me?

P: I always said we were meant to be :P

P: But seriously Tones, you know I love you. I’m not going to run away that easily.

T: I love you Underoos

P: Happy says I should be home in 20 minutes, should I order takeout?

The younger man’s phone buzzes, showing Tony’s caller ID

“I’ll take that as a yes?”

“Actually no.” Tony starts “I have something planned here and no I’m not telling you what it is.”

‘Don’t worry Parker, you’re going to love it!!!’ Peter hears Harley holler in the background

“Another dinner? You really are sucking up.” Peter says with a grin

“What? Cant a man provide a nice dinner for the ones he love.”

“You’re definitely up to something Tony.”

“Always. Harley here go put this on the table. Okay Petey I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

“Okay Tones, love you.”

“Ditto.”

Peter smiles to himself after disconnecting the call. Happy smirked as he glanced in the rearview mirror. Peter noticed and raised an eyebrow “What?”

“Not a thing.”

"So your Uncle let you come to school Keener?"

Harley gave him a look as he entered the building "What the fuck do you want?"

After the weekend the blonde just had. Finding out just how much of a piece of shit Flash was, Harley’s patience was nonexistent with the other teen.

"I want in."

"In on what?"

"Parker."

Harley's eyes widen "What the fuck do you mean? It’s too fucking early to deal with your dumbass"

"Don't play stupid with me. I know you’re fucking him, and maybe even your uncle is too. I want a fucking piece with or without your help."

"Is that a fucking threat?"

"It's a promise."

"You leave Parker the fuck alone or I'll fucking end you." the blonde teen growled.

"Ah ah ah, what would your uncle say if you got into another fight?"

Harley stepped up into Flash's personal space "He'd fucking congratulate me for putting an end to your disgusting, useless life."

Flash pushed him back. "Gonna kill me are you?"

"C'mon Harley, Flash isn’t worth it. Think about Peter." Harley’s friend, Tommy finally spoke up. Harley didn’t exactly tell Tommy everything but Tommy knew Flash was on some serious thin ice based on some texts between Flash and Parker. Harley had a bad temper on a good day but after whatever happened this past weekend, well Tommy was pretty sure his friend was just a ticking bomb ready to explode.

"Yeah Harley," Flash mocked. “Who would save him if you're stuck in jail being somebodies little bitch."

Harley turned to his friend and laughed manically "Ha, this guy."

"Oh no." Tommy sighed as Harley turned back to the bully and punched him in the throat. So much for a quiet Monday.

Flash fell back grasping at his throat before lunging at the blonde. "You’re going to regret that."

Harley quickly dodged him, sticking his foot out so the brute fell. He flipped him over and grabbed a hold of his collar. "You are going to regret ever fucking with Parker.” Harley spat and he hauled his arm back and started punching him repeatedly

Tommy sighed and leaned against the wall, keeping an eye out for teachers or Flash's boys. They were by the side entrance of the school that nobody uses except the kids smoking but you couldn’t be too careful. Plus the last thing they needed was Parker coming around and seeing this.

After a few punches were thrown Harley let off. He wiped the blood on his knuckles off on Flash’s shirt then got up.

"Know your fucking place Thompson. Ready to go?"

Tommy turned and nodded "Yeah let’s bounce before Parker shows up."

"This isn't fucking over!" Flash sputtered as moved to get up.

Harley turned and spit in front of the other teen. "If you know what's good for you, it'll be over."

"How long do you think we've got till he blabs to someone?"

Harley shrugs "Hopefully till lunch."

As they make their way to the front of the school Tommy’s phone starts buzzing. "What the fuck?"

Harley looked at him puzzled. “What?"

The other boy tilted his screen so that he could see "See for yourself."

"Why is Parker calling you?”

"The better question is how he got my number. Harley!"

The blonde put his hands up “Wasn't me dude. Well answer it!"

Tommy gave him a funny look before answering. "Yo."

"Hey Tommy? It’s Peter. Peter Parker. "

"Hi Parker."

"Hi! Is Harley with you?"

"Yep, wanna talk to him?" Harley held his hand out

"Um no actually I wanted to talk to you. You don't have me on speaker do you?"

Tommy shook his head at his friend, shrugging when Harley gave him a confused look. "Nope."

"Okay great. Well I just wanted to say it’s my fault he didn’t get to hang out with you this weekend."

"Your fault?" Tommy pushed Harley away when he tried to listen in.

"Yeah uh well you see." Peter coughed, clearly nervous "Harley got angry at Flash because of me and To- Mr. Stark was not impressed and basically put him on house arrest."

"House arrest?” Tommy glanced at his friend, mouthing 'He's apologizing'

"Yeah. His uncle didn't trust him."

"I don’t blame him there, Harley's a heathen." he snickered, wincing when Harley punched him in the arm.

Peter giggled "I'm not sure what he told you so I just wanted to clear things up in case he said something stupid like he had a date or something."

"That would be stupid?"

"Well duh, he's your best friend and he shouldn't lie to you. Especially not for me. Could you do me a favor?"

"Depends on what it is?"

"Nothing bad! I just want you to keep an eye on Harley and maybe uh make sure he stays away from Flash. I'm worried he's going to do something stupid and then To- Mr. Stark would lose it and it'll be a giant mess. So if you could do that for me that be great."

Tommy shook his head. "Yeah Parker I can do that but you owe me one alright?"

"I expect nothing less. See ya Tommy"

"What was that about?” Harley questioned him as the call ended.

“Parker is too smart for his own good. He just called me to ask me to keep an eye on you and keep you away from Flash."

"To keep an eye on me?"

"Yup."

"He's something else. Bet my uncle had something to do with it." Harley pulled out his phone as they entered the building, texting his uncle

H: did you tell Peter to call Tommy?

"Yeah that’s the other thing!"

Harley looked up from his phone “Other thing?”

“Yeah he kept starting to call your uncle by his first name than correcting himself.”

“Oh.” Harley tried to remain normal but was freaking out inside. If Tommy was to ask any questions about his uncle and Parker, well Harley wasn’t sure how he’d be able to lie to his best friend without him becoming suspicious.

“Yeah like I know he’s his intern and you two are kinda friends and hang out at your place together so I’m sure he doesn’t call him Mr. Stark. There’s no reason to cover it up.”

Harley shrugged “Yeah well maybe he’s trying to hide that we hang out?”

“Why would he call me to say he’s the reason you couldn’t hang this weekend then?”

“He did what? I thought you said he called to make sure you kept an eye on me?”

“Well he did. But first he wanted to make sure I knew that you didn’t chill this weekend because of something to do with Flash bugging him and you and Stark got into it.”

“Why would he bring that up?”

Tommy shrugged. “Somethin about worrying you’d make up some shit story about a date to cover it up. I’m your best friend and you shouldn’t lie to me especially for Parker.”

Harley gave him an unimpressed look.

“What? His words not mine.”

“Sure.”

“I’m serious! Then he asked about keeping an eye on you. So see what I mean when it makes no sense?”

Harley was about to respond when his phone buzzed

Stark: No. Did you do something that would require him to talk to Tommy?

H: Not even. So you’re telling me you had nothing to do with him getting a hold of Tommys number to call him?

Stark: You are becoming paranoid nephew .

H: That don’t answer my question uncle.

Stark: *doesn’t. Stark: Get to class I’ll see you after school.

Harley rolled his eyes as he put his phone back in his pocket. “Sorry what?”

“Were you even listening to me?”

Harley sighed. “Yes buttercup. Peter thinks you shouldn’t lie to me, wants you to keep an eye on me and hiding our friendship makes no sense considering he called you about that shit.”

“Someone is moody as fuck today.”

“Sorry man it’s just my uncle.”

Tommy raises an eyebrow “That or Flash hit a nerve.”

“Excuse me?”

“Well I mean dude you have a temper but the last time I seen you beat the shit outta somebody like that over a conversation was when my girlfriend was given a hard time. So unless someone you know is dating Parker, you’re catching feelings.”

Harley scrunched his nose up in disgust. “Fuck no. He’s just my Uncle’s intern man.”

“Since when has your uncle needed you to protect his interns?” Tommy challenged

“Since he started having a nerd the size of a beanpole for an intern.”

Tommy gave him a look as they entered first class.

“Seriously. You’ve seen how skinny he is. If Flash wanted to do some damage it wouldn’t be that hard!”

Tommy nods. Seeing Ned and Liz walk into class, he nudges Harley with his foot. Hoping he’ll get the hint to shut it.

Harley gave him a confused look before seeing Peter’s friends walk in.

“Hey Harley!” Ned stops in front of his desk.

“What’s up Leeds?”

“Was Peter with you this morning?”

“No. Didn’t he have some nerd thing with you at 8?”

Ned nods “Yeah but he didn’t show.”

Harley felt his heart drop into his throat. Peter never missed early periods. The whole point of them was so that a day or two a week he could spend the afternoon at SI. “Did you hear from him?”

Tommy glanced at Harley while trying to act indifferent. Last thing they needed was Ned snooping around if Harley did have a thing for the other teen.

Ned shook his head. “He texted me around half 7 saying he’d be there but he didn’t show.”

Harley looked confused. “Well I’m sure everything’s fine. Maybe something came up with SI.”

“I don’t think so. He’s only supposed to be an active intern outside of school hours.”

Harley shrugs “You’re just a worry wart Leeds.”

Liz nodded “See me and MJ told you everything was probably fine. Go sit down mother hen.” She pushed him in the direction of where they usually sat.

“Do us all a favor though and text your uncle. I really don’t feel like listening to Ned worry all damn day.” She whispered as she passed both boys.

After they were out of ear shot Tommy leaned forward. “Well we heard from him like 20 minutes ago so everything should be fine right?”

“Clearly Flash didn’t have anything to do with whatever’s going on.”

“You should get ahold of Stark. Leeds will probably try calling his aunt if we don’t find out what’s up.”

Harley shuddered at the thought. His uncle was scary but Peter’s aunt? She was a damn nightmare when it came to her nephew. “Shit your right. I got no interest in dealing with the wrath that is May Parker.”

Harley quickly takes his phone out and sends his uncle another text.

H: Hey is Peter with you?

He frowns when immediately his phone rings showing Tony’s contact. “Shit.” He muttered under his breath. “He’s fucking calling me.”

Tommy looked at him in alarm “Who Peter?”

“No. Stark!” He whispered harshly as he got up quickly heading outside.

“Hello?” Harley answered once he was outside of the room.

“Why are you asking about Peter?”

“Because-”

Tony cut him off “Why aren’t you in your English class?”

“Well I was in fucking English before Peter’s friends started asking me where the fuck he was!”

“Language nephew. Why are they asking you where he is?”

“Apparently I’ve become his fucking keeper or something. All I know is he didn’t show for that thing for early period and Ned is being a mother hen.”

“Clearly I need to wash your mouth out with soap. Peter didn’t show to Decathlon practice? Hmm.”

Harley could hear some rustling in the background which concerned him mildly. If he uncle didn’t know he was there how the hell was anyone else going to? “Uncle?”

“One second.”

The rustling continued for a beat before Tony spoke.

“Friday, Can you pinpoint Peter’s location?” Tony spoke before the line went silent for roughly 30 seconds.

“Thanks babygirl. Okay so everything is perfectly fine. I think he plans to reach out to his friends. He’ll be there soon.”

“Well what even happened?” Harley questioned. Then the second warning bell rang.

“Get to class.”

“But-” Harley was interrupted by a dial tone. He sighed as he pocketed his phone. Peter was going to be the death of him, he was sure of it.

#starker #starker fic #my fic #my work #superheros get bullied too #New Chapter #A03 #flash is a dick #tony stark x peter parker #peter is 18+#end game what end game #ironspiidey writes

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letmetakethatheartofyours · 5 years

Text

Marry Me

We were only 7 the first time I saw her in her room, she had no idea I was watching her, as she had all her stuffed animals set up like an audience, in a little white dress with bouquet of flowers she had picked from her families garden. Being 7, I had no idea what she really was doing. I had known her our entire lives. Our parents were best friends and neighbors, we had always been best friends. We were now 15, in high school. We had gone to a football game and now were at our favorite diner with some friends. She was sitting next to me. Our friend went outside and left us alone.

“I wanna get married” She blurted out. I looked at her stunned, we weren’t even together. “What?” I choked out. “Not right now silly.” She said nudging my arm. “And not to you.” She chuckled. My heart sunk in my chest deep. Yes, we were only 15 but I felt different when I was around her, I’m not saying I loved her but I’m not saying I didn’t. “Yeah of course” “I want my grandpa preaching the service, magnolias out in the country, you know, save my daddy some money. I have it all planned out.” “Except the groom.” I smirked. “I’ll get there when I’m older.” She smiled looking at me. I could see it all right now. Wearing a black suit and a black tie. I’ll hide out in the back, doing a shot of whiskey. Trying to make it through without crying so nobody sees that she wants to get married, but she doesn’t want to marry me. “Yeah, were only 15 crazy.” “Don’t call me crazy Dylan.” She laughed. “I just have plans.” I looked deep into her ocean blue eyes, her lips almost like they were begging to be kissed. She looked at me and her lips curved up into a smile, I leaned a little closer, I could fell her breath on my face. Before we could lock lips, our friend Tyler threw is body up against the window by our booth with his shirt up, rubbing it against the glass. We both laughed and she got up and went outside. She looked back at me and threw her arms up and then waved for me to come out. I almost kissed her, I couldn’t hide the fact I wanted too. Maybe I did love her. It kind of freaked me out, we had been friends forever.

We were graduating now, she had plans to go to college out of state. I did too but knowing I was loosing her was hard. “Hey” she said running up to me. “Hey Y/N” “I cant believe it! We did it Dylan!” She threw her arms around my neck and I held her close. I never wanted to let her go. Ever since that night when were 15, my feeling for her only grew stronger. I was now completely in love with her. “You ok?” She said letting go and backing up. “Yeah, just kinda sad that it’s over. Now we go our separate ways in different states.” “Hey.” She said putting her hand on my cheek, why would she do that? Feeling her hand on my cheek sent sparks around my whole body. “We will facetime everyday, we will still be best friends Dylan. I love you too much to just leave after high school fool.” “I love you too loser.” I wished she loved me the same way I loved her. I smiled and shook it off, picking her up and swinging her around “We did it!” I yelled. She yelled with me as we spun around. “You two are stupid cute. It’s gross.” Tyler said walking up with Holland. “Honestly, just kiss and get it over with already.” Holland laughed. I put Y/N down and we looked at them. Y/N laughed “Shut up, he’s just my best friend.” “But never more than me.” Holland said hugging me. “You are my best girl friend. I cant wait till we get to college and we have our dorm room.” “Oh girl, you already know it’s gonna be beautiful.” “And lit.” “Cant believe you two are leaving us guys.” Tyler said. “You are the ones who wanted to go to school across the country from us.” Holland said. “But we will always stay besties, all 4 of us.” Y/N said pulling everyone in for a group hug. I guess I’ll always wonder if she felt the same way.

It had been 6 years now since we graduated high school. All 4 of us graduated from college now and diving into our careers. We didn’t talk everyday anymore, that only lasted for a few months but we still talked. I had heard she was dating some fancy law guy. I hated it because I still loved her, she was beyond beautiful, she was perfect, I guess just not for me. I came from work one day, mail in hand. As I shuffled through it I saw a save the date, I didn’t even know she had gotten engaged. My heart sunk even more as my eyes filled up with tears. “Hey bro.” Tyler said walking through the door. “Hey.” I said wiping my face. “You ok?” He asked walking in front of me. “Yeah bro, I’m fine.” “You can’t lie to me.” I handed him the save the date. “Shit, I’m sorry Dylan.” “it’s my own fault, I should have told her a long time ago. I just don’t want to ruin our friendship, I mean I’ve known her my own life.” I said flopping onto the couch. “That and what if she doesn’t feel the same? Then things between us would just be awkward and I couldn’t live if she wasn’t in my life, romantically or just my best friend.” “You’ll never know unless you say something Dyl.”

Wedding day, why was I even going? This was stupid, I know her dad’s been dreading this day but he doesn’t know he isn’t the only one giving her away. “You sure about this?” Tyler asked as we pulled up to the venue. “No but she’s my best friend, what would I look like if you and Holland showed up but I didn’t?” “Let’s do this then.” She was somewhere, got on her dress now, someone welcoming all the guest. I went up to the table that was set out with pictures of Y/N and the soon to be husband. She was radiant, her smile bright. I should try to find her, get it off my chest, just tell her I love her more than the air I breath, that she can’t marry someone else, it needs to be me. I shook my head, I can’t mess it up now, I had chances after chances and didn’t take them. I took off, going to the diner we used to go too when we were in high school. I’m in my black suit, black tie, doing a strong shot of whiskey, because she wants to get married but she doesn’t want to marry me. I sat there, trying not to cry. A black limo pulled up and I looked out the window. She got out of the back, still in her dress, tears streaming down her face. She threw her arms up just like she did that night I first kissed her. She looked so beautiful my heart stopped. I got up and went outside “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be getting married?” I said looking at the ground, hands tucked into my pocket. “Supposed to be. I couldn’t do it.” She said. “Why?” “Because he’s not the one I want to marry.” She said walking closer to me “I want you Dylan.” She said putting her hand on my cheek. I looked up at her, shook from the words she just spoke. “Me? Silly old Dylan?” “My Dylan though, you were always it, I just was scared to admit it, to ruin our friendship. When I was getting ready, looking in the mirror, knowing I wasn’t walking down the aisle to you, I couldn’t do it. I tried to find you but you weren’t there. Why weren’t you there?” “Because I couldn’t watch you marry someone else. I was there but I had to leave, I couldn’t watch, I couldn’t be there to watch the love of my life be given away to someone who wasn’t me.” She moved her hand from my face and wrapped her arms around me tightly, me doing the same. She was still crying lightly into my chest. “How did you know where to find me?” “I had a feeling, I’ve known you our whole lives Dylan” She looked up at me, her bright blue eyes sinking into my honey eyes “It’s always been you.” “And it’s always been you Y/N” I said reaching down, finally meeting her lips with mine.

#dylan o'brien #teen wolf #tyler posey #holland roden #fanfic #oneshot

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flawlesspeasant · 5 years

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no instructions.

Like I said, I only write fanfiction when I’m feeling inspired and I’ve been feeling inspired with Jo’s recent depression in the show. I really wanted to see something from Alex’s point of view and I got carried away with loving, concerned husband Alex and ended up writing about Alex dragging Jo to therapy. ❤️ Enjoy!

There’s a lot of things they don’t tell you how to prepare for, and this is one of them.

I mean don’t get me wrong, it’s not like marriage comes with an instruction manual. To be honest, I spend most of my days going with the flow and learning as I go along.

Like when she leaves her hair on the bathroom floor and it feels like a white-hot branding iron was just put on my back. And I stomp to the bedroom to yell at her about taking five freaking seconds to pick up the goddamn broom and sweep up the mess before I have to go into work with a clump of her brown hair caked to my scrubs because that crap gets everywhere. Then, just as I’m ready to really give her the third degree, she’s lying on my side of the bed with her arm up under my pillow and her eyes are still closed and I think to myself, “what in the hell did I do to deserve her?” And all the anger melts away… something like putting an ice cube in the middle of a hot cup of coffee.

And also like when she drinks the last beer in the fridge but leaves the empty case there and it’s turned to the side in a way awkward enough to make me think that there’s still one left. It boils me up inside when I think that I’m going to come home after a long day of doing absolutely nothing at the hospital and crack open an ice cold brew, only to find that she dusted the last one off and gave me all kinds of false hope by leaving the empty six pack carton in the fridge. And just when I’m about to bust in the bathroom, rip the shower curtain back and yell at her for the umpteenth time about just throwing the damn case away, I stop in my tracks and can’t help but smile because through the sound of the water running, all I hear is her singing “it’s getting hot in here! So take off all your clothes!” and all I can think about is how I still can’t believe that I somehow tricked this goofball into marrying me. And I’m not so angry about the beer anymore.

See, it’s nothing like the first time I walked down the aisle and made somebody my wife. The time I married Iz, I mean.

When I married Iz, everything was a breeze. There weren’t any tough decisions and in truth, I had it easy. At the time, I sure thought that it was as hard as it would get and marriage was a horrible thing that I just so happened to get roped into. Back then, you couldn’t convince me that marriage was beautiful. Nobody on this earth could make me believe that it was great.

But that was when it was easy. With Izzie, it was easy. But with Jo, everything about this whole marriage thing is hard. And I can’t help but wonder if maybe — just maybe — it’s because for the first time in my life, I genuinely give a crap about her more than I give a crap about myself.

I mean, when you look at it, that makes sense… doesn’t it?

I didn’t need instructions when I married Izzie because marrying Izzie was easy and marrying Izzie was easy because I didn’t care about her enough.

At least not the way I care about Jo.

I spent the entire day wondering about that. Wondering why my marriage to Izzie wasn’t as hard on me as my marriage to Jo.

I asked Mer today at lunch why she thought that was and she didn't know what I meant. She thought I was trying to say that I regretted marrying Jo and I had to walk away when she implied that because that was the first time I’d been so pissed off in a while.

But I guess that was my fault because I couldn’t really explain to her what I meant by that.

What I meant was, why is my mind at home with Jo when before, it wouldn’t be?

All day today, I tried my hardest to be present with my patients. I listened to heartbeats and lungs, threw a diagnosis or two out there and administered and IV or two.

Yet all I could think about was how I knew my wife was at home in bed. She told me she was sick, but because I know Jo better than Jo knows herself sometimes, I knew that she was lying. If the tear streaks on her cheeks didn’t give that away, then the way her clothes don’t quite fit right anymore did.

And while I should have been paying attention to the actual sick people under my care, my mind wasn’t even in my head because all I wanted to know was if my wife was eating. Or if she had gotten out of bed yet. If she had showered. I could’ve given someone the wrong meds today and I genuinely wouldn’t have cared, as long as it meant that she had at least taken a bite of a piece of toast today.

Anyone who knows me knows how hard it is for me to give up control. But I did that yesterday because that’s just how badly I need her to be okay. Sure, I wish I was the person who could miraculously make her okay. I wish I could pull her out of whatever hell hole she’s been in the past few days, but I can’t. And if I can’t, then I have to hope that there’s somebody who can.

So, needless to even say how much I hoped that when I slid open the door to the loft, I would see her the way she used to be. I wanted to see her and Link sitting on the couch laughing, because he was my last resort. I wanted her beautiful hair to be brushed again and for my socks to be full of the clumps she left on the floor. And I wanted to open the fridge to find no more beer because she drank it all again.

And when I opened the door and heard the sound of her laughter echoing off the walls, I swear I still don’t know what stopped me from bum-rushing Link and hugging him because he did it. He really did it. He brought my beautiful, lively girl back.

Only he didn’t.

And that’s why we’re here.

I still don’t know if this was the “right” thing to do. And to be honest, I don’t know if she’s going to hate me after this or not. But I’m desperate now. Maybe even past desperate.

She sits across the room with her arms folded across her chest and her head down, still refusing to sit next to me. One half of her hair is still in knots, because she wouldn’t let me brush the other half after I told her that I was taking her to see a doctor. And nobody’s said anything but I can feel the eyes on her fuzzy purple pajama pants. It wasn’t pretty, but I told her I was bringing her “as is.” She resisted me a bit when I scooped her up and put her in the car.

“Karev?” the short little blonde calls from the door in the corner and, mostly out of habit, I stand up too.

Jo stands up so slowly that I wonder if she forgot that she could stand. It’s so quiet in this room that I can actually hear her bones shift and crack. I start to wonder how long it’s actually been since she’s walked on her own.

She takes one step without me and it’s like someone put a blanket around me and I didn’t realize I was cold and shivering until they did. I’m calmer now, just knowing that she’s even slightly agreeing to go. So I start to sit back down in my chair.

Only, she doesn’t let me.

She hasn’t spoken a word to me since we left the house nearly 45 minutes ago, but she doesn’t have to talk to let me know what she wants.

She puts her hand against mine before I can sit down all the way, and suddenly I’m not as soft as I was a second ago. A second ago, I felt like butter on toast. And in that same instant of my wife putting her hand against mine — of my wife telling me that she needs me — I’m solid again.

Because she needs me to be her rock.

She still doesn’t say anything the whole way back. We walk past a few doors; some open and some shut. Down a long hallway full of pictures of cheap plants and crap like that. And when we finally make it to the room we’re going to be in, Jo takes the seat closest to the door, like she always does. Closest to the exit. Always. And it sounds crazy, I know. But that little gesture — that little moment of her doing something so predictably her — is enough to let me know that my girl is still in there somewhere.

“So,” the therapist says as she shuts the door behind her. “If at any time you want your husband…?”

“Alex,” I mumble with a nod.

“Right,” she grins and nods back. “If at any time you want Alex to step out, just say so.” She sits at the desk across from both me and Jo and nudges a pair of glasses on. “This is our first session together, so I’m just going to really try to get to know you, Josephine. Or… Jo? Do you have a preference?”

Jo shrugs, so I — “Jo. She likes to be called Jo.”

“I see,” she nods again. “So… Jo. Just basics. What do you do for a living? I see you’re a… surgical fellow. Do you have a specialty?”

Jo just stares through the wall, blank. I reach over to hold her hand and she pulls it away.

“She um… she has a fellowship in future medicine. Which means she —“

“I would like to hear from Jo,” she says. We both turn toward her and we both know that she’s not going to say anything. So the therapist moves on to a different question. “We can always come back to your professional life when you’re ready. We can start with your personal life. What’s your marriage like? Are you happy?”

Jo nods, which is something and it’s something the therapist seems to run with.

“Any children?”

Jo and I both shake our heads at the same time.

“Ever been pregnant? Any history of miscarriages or abortions? Anything?”

I shake my head to answer that because I really don’t think Jo will and of course I know the answer to that.

Except, I guess I don’t.

Because Jo nods her head.

And for a split second, all I feel is anger. Coursing through my body. Like it replaced my blood.

Only for a split second, though.

In the next instant, all I feel is —

“Alex?” The therapist calls my name, which slaps me back to reality too quickly for me to really process… anything.

“What!?” I accidentally snap.

“Could you… step out?”

“She didn’t —“

“Alex,” the therapist says again. And this time, I trace her eyes to Jo’s eyes.

Jo’s eyes are low. Blank. Lifeless. But she is looking at me. Which is more than I can say for the past few days.

“Please.” The therapist says. And I’m waiting for Jo to put her hand on mine again, waiting for her to let me know that she wants me to stay again.

But she doesn’t. And before I can process anything, my legs are up out of my chair. And I’m out in the hallway. And my mind is off in a thousand different directions.

I swear, all marriage is to me is being scared every second of the day. It’s like having a piece of my heart walking around outside my body and I spend my every waking moment worried and hoping that the little piece of my heart — the piece that I know is depressed — is okay.

If I ever had any doubt of how much Jo has changed every inch of who I used to be, it’s this. Right here.

Because as much as I feel the old me — the me that’s still there just buried underneath everything that has grown — ready to rage because apparently my wife has been pregnant and I don’t know about it….

I just walk back to the waiting room and wait. For the next hour that Jo’s in therapy, I know my head is going to be a mess. I’m going to be wondering when she was pregnant and why I didn’t know. Trying to piece together a timeline that makes sense for me to have missed the signs. Trying to wonder if she was saying yes to having had a miscarriage or if she said yes to having had an abortion.

Yeah, I’m angry. Angry that my wife didn’t tell me something like this.

But more than that….

I just want my Jo to be okay.

#jolex #fanfiction #alex karev #jo wilson

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fakemuggle529-blog · 5 years

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"HARRY DID YOU PUT YOUR NAME IN THE GOBLET OF FIRE?!?!"

I could go on for days about the differences between the HP books and the movies (just ask my wife). 7 books, 8 movies, 4 directors, 2 screenplay writers, a myriad of actors or varying levels of talent, but this 1 line haunts every single Harry Potter fan. One comment about this line was "we're never going to get over this, are we?" That one comment sparked this post, which was originally meant to be a list of my least favorite movie moments and why.

But Harry Potter is my favorite subject, and my rant about this became a separate post to answer that rhetorical question.

Simply put, no, we're not going to get over it. But why won't we?

As with any adaptation, since the world isn't ready for a 10 hour movie based on 1 book, bits and pieces of the Harry Potter books needed to be cut out. (I'd be down for that movie, but I digress)

Things like the Draco/Pansy romance, Rita Skeeter being an unregistered Animagus, or winning the Quidditch cup ultimately don't have an impact on the plot of "evil wizard finds path to immortality, boy wizard must stop him with the help of his friends," so they can get cut pretty easily.

Even things like the Marauders' full moon adventures and creation of the Map, Umbridge setting the dementors on Harry, and Neville's parents' fate are secondary material, meant to give more weight to the main story:

- The world would still be in mortal danger without four teenagers creating a map of their school, but that map helped stop that danger;

- Umbridge would still be a cruel bitch if we hadn't known she sent the dementors, but that tidbit show her own demented state of mind and how far she'll go to get what she wants.

- and we'd still want Voldemort dead even if we'd never heard of Neville Longbottom, because we've seen the impact he had on Harry. The info about the Longbottoms just gives more depth to the characters involved.

But regardless of what they left out, the basics stayed the same: "evil wizard finds path to immortality, boy wizard must stop him with the help of his friends" continued, except the written version had more information than the visual. The fans already knew what was missing, so our brains filled it in for us. And leaving out that bit of info for the adaptation process allowed people who hadn't read the books to know what was going on and how the information fit together, even if they had less information than the fans.

(I think of the miniseries Chernobyl, when the general asks how a nuclear reactor works. He gets a bare bones explanation, and can parrot it back to his subordinates later. He might not me able to do the math or understand all of the technical jargon, but that simple explanation has given him enough info to get things going.)

As the movies progressed, we saw more and more get left out since the books only got longer, or more in depth, or both which each new addition, but no matter what, that skeleton was still there, "evil wizard finds path to immortality, boy wizard must stop him with the help of his friends." And the 'friends' part was even more accurate with supporting characters!

Hermione was the nerd from the books, Ron was the goofy best friend, Neville was the underdog, Draco was the bully!

Every single character was fitting their book counterparts perfectly, they just couldn't be as in depth in this medium!

Lucius was the oily bastard you knew he was, Sirius was the Godfather who wanted to be there but couldn't, Bellatrix was the psychotic fanatic who'd do anything to earn Voldemort's praise, Dumbledo--

And that's where the similarities stop.

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore is a lot of things: he's the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot (the Wizard High Court), honoree of the highest medal of Honor possible for Wizards, one of the most notable contributors to the field of alchemy, and from what I understand a PHENOMENAL dancer.

He's human, and fallible like any other human, but he is definitely not stupid.

Just in book 1, before Ms. Rowling had even gotten into her stride as a storyteller, we see Dumbledore:

Send Harry to the safest place possible; watch over him as much as possible; send updated owls to Harry with every change of address; send Hagrid as the most friendly way to introduce Harry to his true world; Send Harry the invisibility cloak as a connection to his dad; say that he 'doesn't need a cloak to become invisible;' RETURN the cloak after Harry lost it; and turned around on his trip to London on some intuition, barely managing to save Harry's life.

While he might not be the warmest of people, probably due to a tendency to think too deeply, Dumbledore shows the strongest of power when he needs to fight, the quickest of words when he needs to talk, and what seems to be a clear sense of right and wrong (the waters get a little murky with that last one, but he stands up for what he sees is wrong, regardless of what he thought at 18), and a calm dignity, even while getting his feathers ruffled.

And that's exactly why this gets under our skin so much.

As fans of the books, we see Dumbledore do it all, in great detail. Even that infamous line is ended with "he asked CALMLY" (All Caps is my addition). We see Dumbledore:

-sit next to an 11-year old who nearly died recently and promise to some day tell him about the first time he nearly died as an infant AT THE HANDS OF THE SAME GUY... Calmly, because this is a conversation he's been dreading for years, so he's prepared.

- hire a clear fraud just to fill his staff; have two 12-year olds crash an illegal flying car into a living tree AND talk down the teacher that wanted to skin them alive; deal with an unknown threat that was attempting to kill his students; get forcibly removed from the school, only return ready to console grieving parents AND watch the same 12 year olds from earlier emerge from an unfindable chamber WITH the 11 year old who was thought to be dead....calmly, because he's lost loved ones, and he knows what it is to grieve.

- Hire a werewolf; keep that a secret from his students, their parents, and maybe even the government; and have two 13 year olds illegally time travel to save an animal an a convicted felon...calmly, because an innocent man's life is important.

- Host a death tournament specially designed to 'not kill;' and slowly watch a plot to revive to worst wizard ever unfold before his eyes....calmly, because he didn't have all of the information yet.

- Get slandered by the entirety of the government, and forcibly removed from his position in the Courts; have a government spy forced onto his staff; purposefully pissed her off; evade arrest and go on the lam...calmly, because he knows he's right, and the truth will out. THEN come back, fight every Death Eater in the ministry, fight Voldemort, convince the government not to arrest him, then talk Harry through his Godfather's death....calmly, because he knows he messed up, he even says that Harry show be so much angrier, and 'please, by all means, destroy my possessions'.

- Find out he's dying; find out there's a hit on him; recruit an old colleague, and use Harry as a means to reveal a crucial part of Voldemort's past, which he's been teaching to Harry all year; find a horcrux as well as pass on as much info about them as possible; AND get psychologically tortured mere moments before being murdered....

- AND, postmortem, we find out that Dumbledore has been playing pretty much everybody, but especially Harry....calmly, because for once, it really was "the greater good."

But he was fun loving too, maybe childishly so due to the fact that he had to grow up so fast.

- Some of His first words after Harry starts school are, "Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! And tweak!"

- He did what was best for the school AND Firenze by hiring the centaur, but he clearly enjoyed shoving it in Umbridge's face.

- and let's not forget the night he picked Harry up front Privet Drive. He obviously made those glasses hit the Dursleys as some small payback for how they treated Harry.

That's Dumbledore. Serious, wise, and seriously wise, with a penchant for mischief.

The movie Dumbledore gave none of that, especially with that terrible, terrible reading of that line.

That one line changed the entire character of Albus Dumbledore. Instead of the cool, calm, and collected man he always was, he lost control. In front of his foreign and governmental guests nonetheless. That would never happen to Dumbledore. He's seen the signs, and can tell something is up. That's WHY he hired "Mad-Eye."

Even that stupid Christmas scene added to the HBP movie, as much as I freaking HATE it, doesn't CHANGE anything. The Death Eaters attack and for some reason burn the house down. Boo hoo. Nobody gets hurt, nobody dies, the house is back to normal the next movie. No big deal. They just wanted to add to the drama some, instead of the usual deduction from the cuts.

This change is why we hate SO many other adaptations, or "cuts" as they call them.

-Those of us who are old enough to remember will freaking riot over the "Han shot first" argument, because we knew that there was no way in hell Han would sit and let Greedo take a shot at him, ESPECIALLY since they freaking showed it first, then changed it later.

-It's why we all hate M. Night. Shyamalan's fucking guts, because he took the single greatest cartoon masterpiece ever created, and tried to make it better. The one scene that sticks out to me is when they're trying to escape the earth-bending prison camp. First, they had to be removed from the land entirely, or their pride would cause a rebellion instantly; second, 6 benders did what we see Toph do her first lesson as a blind toddler. Unlike Lucas, Shyamalan wasn't trying to appease anyone. He just wanted a name for himself, so he decided to take on the most popular cartoon ever. Pass or fail, he has that fame now.

Some of the fault might lie with the director, or possibly even the actor himself. Michael Gambon is a respected actor, and probably had a sense for how the character would play, even if that sense might not have been based in the books. Couple that with multiple directors by this point, multiple actors having playing Dumbledore, and the books still gradually coming out, and the information and range for the character of Dumbledore might have been quite limited.

And let's not forget those cuts that needed to be made. With a shorter story comes a need to get the information across faster.

Instead of mulling it over for a moment while the rest of the group argues (and probably for a good year or so by this point), and calmly asking Harry if he entered himself in the tournament, the quick explosion both saves time by cutting the opening argument AND gives the audience a cue for suspense. They know something is wrong NOW, and they don't know what, but they'll find out as the people on screen do.

Personally, I believe that this system can be broken by a rather simple solution: TV show.

Instead of one movie, each book gets one Season, and every couple chapters or so gets an episode. I foresee problems as we get to the later books as opposed to the early one, since they start getting thick AF with GoF.

But I think the pros outweigh the cons.

-The locations for HP are actually incredibly limited. They pretty much go back and forth between the same dozen locations all seven books, so you could make sets to switch out whenever needed, and just reuse the exact same sets for seven straight years, with little to no change in between.

- We have all of the books now, and then some, and then some extra BS on top of that, and the plethora of headcanon out there, so we have more than enough information for every single thing about this place, excluding literal physical dimensions. Find a kid who looks like Harry, another actor who can flawlessly pull off Snape, and some old guy who wants to be goofy sometimes, and you've got gold.

- We could actually include the minor characters too. Peeves could pop in and out every few episodes, Dobby can play the role he was meant for, Kreacher can exist as more than 3 lines. The vanishing cabinet could actually be introduced in year 2, then addressed in Year 5, then revealed properly in year 6. Moaning Myrtle has her scenes, Bill Weasley has his, Tonks could be the most important female character besides Hermione or Ginny.....

Anyway, you get the picture. This whole thing was inspired by one comment, and I've been working on this for almost 6 hours now. Pretty sure I've worked harder in this post than any papers in high school...

Hollywood, if by some miracle you see this, I'll totally be a screen writer for the Harry Potter TV show. In the meantime, goodnight.

#harry potter series #harry potter #albus dumbledore #dumbledore #draco malfoy #ron weasley #hermione granger #sirius black #molly weasley

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spacedimentio · 6 years

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Fractures ch.6 - Strangers

- Pink Diamond finds hope in a dark place.

It was dark here. It was cold, and bleak, and abandoned. It was Homeworld’s rotten core, a foundation of crumbling walls and empty echoes. The holes seemed endless; they made her shudder.

It was a good place to hide; she needed to think. It was hard, though, when the very air seemed to suffocate her.

She’d been down here for weeks, and had seen no signs of life. There were only cruel robonoids made to shatter, and the weight of isolation on her shoulders.

She was still struggling to understand what she’d done. She had shattered White, and could have shattered Yellow, too. She didn’t want to hurt Blue or Yellow, but she wasn’t going to let them stop her from doing what was right.

Before, she had fought for Earth. Now, Earth was gone. Now, she had to fight for gems.

She couldn’t fend off her doubt. Could she really change things? Where could she even start?

It was so hard to focus when she just wanted to cram herself into a hole and cry. It was so hard, when she could think only of what would happen if she failed again, of how people wouldn’t trust her, they’d be afraid, would they only fight because she said to?

She continued to wander, trying and failing to hold herself together.

She heard a noise, a small scuffling footstep. She tensed, turning towards the sound. She didn’t see anything, didn’t hear anything more.

“…H-Hello?” she called.

There was no answer.

“Is anyone there?”

There was only her own voice echoing back at her.

“Please…”

She hid her face in her hands and sobbed.

Ru and Tile pressed their back against the rock they were hiding behind, staying as still as they could. She had almost caught sight of them. Her crying pulled at their hearts, but they remained where they were until she left.

They still didn’t know what to think of the strange pink gem. She was tall, and obviously emotionally distressed. Her dress was dirty and torn, and her hair was wild and tangled. When they had first seen her about two weeks ago, she had been covered in half-healed injuries. Not to mention, there were ugly cracks marring her otherwise pretty face. In other words, she seemed like a complete mess.

Tile thought that she might be Pink Diamond. Ru thought that was ridiculous. What would a diamond be doing down here all by herself, just wandering around and crying? But the gemstone in her navel and the odd shape of her pupils seemed to say otherwise.

They hadn’t told the others yet. They didn’t want to freak them out, and they’d have to move, and, well, they were curious, too. They hadn’t been up to the surface lately for news, but they did know that it was very rare to see Pink Diamond out and about. How had she gotten here and what was she up to?

“We could just ask her,” Tile suggested.

“Are you nuts?! She’ll shatter us on sight!” Ru exclaimed, throwing up her arm in exasperation.

“I don’t know…” Tile rubbed her chin. “She seems to be searching for something.”

“Yeah, maybe she’s lost her mind and now she’s looking for gems to shatter.”

Tile flicked Ru on the cheek. “She just looks lost to me. She’s all alone.”

Ru couldn’t fault her twin for feeling pity. She was pretty sure it would get them killed one day.

The next time they spied on Pink Diamond, they made a mistake and she spotted them, ending the debate once and for all.

They remained frozen as she stared at them, her eyes wide and her mouth slightly ajar, as if she couldn’t believe what she saw.

Ru and Tile waited, holding each other’s hands. Any moment now, they’d feel their gem crushed to pieces by this stranger’s hand.

But she didn’t move, didn’t come towards them, only stared. Finally, she spoke, her voice soft and hesitant. “H-Hello…” She started wringing her hands together nervously.

“…Hi?” Tile said awkwardly. Neither of them liked the way she was examining them. She didn’t seem to be bothered by their appearance, strangely enough.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“I-I’m Tile…” When Ru didn’t say anything, she nodded her head to the left. “This is Ru.”

“Oh!” Her eyes seemed to light up, even the sickly-looking one. “You’re two gems, but not a fusion… How interesting.”

There was another heavy silence. “And you are?” Ru asked, starting to get fed up with this, though she dreaded the answer. Why had this stranger understood what they were so easily?

“I…” The pink gem trailed off, looking down at her feet. “I’m Pink Diamond…” she said, so quietly that they almost didn’t hear her.

Well, that confirmed it. They needed to start running right now.

“It’s nice to meet you…” Pink Diamond continued. Wavering, she took a tiny step towards them.

They balked and retreated behind their hiding place.

“It-It’s ok! I’m not going to hurt you…”

As if that was believable. “Why is she toying with us?” Ru whispered.

“I don’t know, why doesn’t she just get it over with?” Tile whispered back.

They heard a heavy thump, followed by a weary sigh.

Pink sat down with a sigh, her hair falling in her face as she bent her head. She didn’t know what to do. She hadn’t spoken to anyone except her sisters in thousands of years. It had been so easy and natural for Rose Quartz to talk to people, because she wasn’t a diamond, she was just a regular ol’ quartz and there was no reason to be afraid of her.

It was a huge relief, just running into someone new. She hadn’t meant to frighten them, it was just so exciting and they were so interesting and she wanted to get to know them. It had been so long since she’d felt anything like this!

She hated the way they looked at her, expecting her to shatter them at any moment. She didn’t know how to talk to them, how to reassure them that she was not, in fact, a merciless, murderous diamond.

What if she messed up? What if everyone ran away from her? What would she do then?

She took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. She just needed to be herself and let it come naturally. If they didn’t like her, then at least she’d tried.

She pushed away the thought that maybe she didn’t quite know who she was anymore.

“I-I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to scare you…”

Seeing as nothing had happened yet, the pair peeked out from behind their boulder. Pink Diamond was sitting on the ground, her legs folded under her. Her body language screamed dejection. Her face was wet.

Tile’s eyes watered a bit. “You’re…really not going to shatter us?”

“Stars, no! I don’t like hurting people. I don’t want to hurt anyone!”

They flinched at the volume of her voice. She seemed to realize that she was kind of yelling and spoke more softly. “Sure, you might be a little unconventional, but that’s alright. Nobody deserves to be shattered for being different…”

Ru and Tile shared a look with each other. That…was pretty much the last thing they’d expect to hear a diamond say. “That’s…” Ru started, then trailed off, not knowing what to say to that.

She looked at them sadly, her voice mellow. “No one has ever said that to you, have they…”

They shook their heads, confused.

Pink Diamond sighed, her gaze falling to the ground again. “It shouldn’t be that way…”

Tile looked at her twin. Ru bit her lip, then nodded. They carefully stepped out into the open. “Why are you here?” Ru asked.

It took her a long moment to answer. “I’m looking for gems who are outside of Homeworld’s system. Gems like the both of you.”

“What? Why?” Ru questioned. “We’re worthless…”

“And defective…” Tile added sadly. “Who would ever want us?”

“I do.”

They gasped.

Pink Diamond seemed to sit up straighter. Her brow furrowed. “I don’t think you’re worthless, or wrong. I’ve never seen anyone like the two of you before! You’re unique, and that’s amazing!”

They were silent as they processed this. Tile started to cry. “Don’t make fun of us!” Ru snapped, shedding a few tears as well.

Pink Diamond’s brows rose in surprise. She blinked, then stood up and slowly came towards them. They shrank back.

The diamond gracefully sat down in front of them. She calmly reached out a hand, and they closed their eyes, awaiting the worst.

They definitely did not expect her to gently wipe away their tears before lightly grasping their hands in her own. There was a deep sadness in her eyes, escaping in fresh tears. Ru and Tile relaxed somewhat, baffled and blushing slightly.

“This is why I’m here…” she spoke, her voice warm and kind. “It’s not fair that you have to live down here, fighting for your lives. You should be free, free to be yourselves, free to do what you love.”

Both of their mouths were hanging open, but they didn’t notice.

“I’m not like my sisters. They think that gems are expendable, that defects are useless.” Pink Diamond shook her head. “I don’t believe that. I believe that all gems are unique and irreplaceable. They aren’t expendable, and being different isn’t bad. The way things are on Homeworld is despicable. I feel sick just thinking about the way gems live in constant fear.” She frowned, a little frustrated. “I mean, you thought I was gonna kill you just for existing! It isn’t right…”

The twins were taken aback, awed by the fierce conviction in her words. “Y-You don’t think we’re wrong?” Tile asked in a choked voice.

“No, not at all.” Pink Diamond smiled at them. “You’re both perfect, just the way you are.”

Then both of them were crying, awed at the compassion they were being met with. They felt warm inside.

The conversation lulled. After a few moments, the diamond stood and began to slowly walk around, running her hand along the walls.

The twins weren’t sure what to do, either. “So… You want to help us?” Tile asked carefully. She thought that Pink Diamond didn’t seem like a mean or violent person, she just seemed sad and broken. Ru wasn’t as trusting, but couldn’t deny that they were still standing there unharmed, so maybe she’d meant what she said.

The diamond nodded. “Yes. I want to leave Homeworld, but I want to free as many gems as I can and take them with me.”

“You have someplace in mind?” Ru asked, feeling hope swell in her chest. Was there really a place where they didn’t have to be afraid?

“Well, no.” The diamond put a hand on her chin, thinking. “I just know I want to go as far away as I can. I’m sure there’s a nice planet out there that I can live on in peace.” She turned to them. “Would you like to come with me?”

Ru looked at Tile, and Tile looked at Ru. Their eyes were bright with growing excitement. “You really mean it?” they both exclaimed.

“Of course!” She smiled back, also visibly excited.

“Then yes! That sounds amazing!” Tile said.

“We’ll have to talk about it with our friends,” Ru said.

“Oh, there are more of you?” The diamond cocked her head curiously.

Ru realized that maybe she shouldn’t have mentioned them. “Y-Yeah. I’m not gonna tell you where they are though, no offense.”

“Oh, alright.” She looked a little disappointed, but understood their hesitation. “I’m just glad you’re not alone down here. Well, you have each other, but- Oh, you know what I mean.”

They just nodded. It was nice to have more people watching out for each other. It was a little less lonely that way.

“I would like to meet them…if they’re ok with that.” Pink Diamond looked at them pleadingly, as if afraid that they’d say no.

Tile smiled. “We’ll tell them about you, don’t worry.”

“Thank you.” She smiled at them gratefully, making them feel all warm again. “I hope they won’t freak out too badly. I guess I’ll just stay here so you can find me… Promise you’ll come back?”

“Sure,” Ru said, biting back her worry.

“Thank you,” Pink Diamond said again. “Stay safe, ok?”

“We will!” Tile said cheerfully. “Bye!” She waved, giggling when the diamond waved back amicably.

All three gems could hardly believe their luck, and parted feeling better than they had in eons.

“WHAT.”

Rhodonite’s scream echoed off the canyon walls. All four of her hands flew to her mouth and covered it.

“You saw Pink Diamond?” Fluorite questioned.

Tile rubbed the back of her head. “Not just saw. We kind of…talked to her?”

“Pink Diamond?!” Padparadscha yelped.

Rhodonite immediately started to fuss over them, poking and prodding and checking them for injury. “I can’t believe it, how are you even alive right now?”

Ru waved her away. “We’re fine, we’re fine.”

“She was pretty nice, actually,” Tile said.

“Are you sure it was her?” Rhodonite pulled at her hair frantically. “What was she even doing down here?!”

Ru rubbed her chin. “Well, I’m not a hundred percent sure, but I’ve definitely never seen a gemstone like hers.”

“She said she was looking for gems like us,” Tile supplied.

“What for?” Fluorite’s three pairs of eyes looked at them intently.

Tile lit up. “She wants to leave Homeworld! She asked us to come with her, if we wanted to.”

“She… She didn’t think we were wrong…” Ru blushed, remembering the warm feeling.

Rhodonite looked at Fluorite in disbelief. “Of course we’re wrong! She must have lost her mind, it’s probably not even her!”

“Searching for off-colors? How strange!” Padparadscha exclaimed, hands going to her face in shock.

“Hmm…” Fluorite looked thoughtful. “Pink Diamond has lived in isolation for eons.”

“She said she didn’t agree with the way the other diamonds did things, maybe that’s why?” Tile speculated.

“She definitely could have shattered us, if she had wanted to.”

“So what?!” Rhodonite gestured at them. “You’re just gonna trust her? Just like that?”

The Rutiles frowned. It was a little hard to explain what they’d felt. “Well no, of course not,” Ru said.

“It’s just… If there’s a chance that we can get out of here…” Tile continued. “Shouldn’t we take it?”

“It would be nice…” Fluorite sighed.

“No. Way.” Rhodonite crossed her arms. “We’re safe here! And I don’t know about you, but I’m not going anywhere with some crazy gem who thinks she’s a diamond.”

“Everyone!” Padparadscha interrupted loudly. “I’m seeing a most worrisome vision! Pink Diamond will follow you and hide somewhere around…there!” She turned and exuberantly pointed at a large boulder just inside the entrance to their hiding place.

Rhodonite immediately hid behind Fluorite, taking Padparadscha with her. The larger fusion looked shocked.

“W-What? She followed us?” Tile gasped.

Ru looked at her sister. “Didn’t she say she was going to stay where she was?”

The twins moved closer to Fluorite, suddenly apprehensive. Had this all been a trick?

It was quiet for a moment, until there was the rustling of fabric. They all crowded closer together when a tall pink gem peeked out from behind the rock, shamefaced. “S-Sorry…” she said sheepishly. “I was afraid you wouldn’t come back…”

Some of Fluorite’s components had seen her, a long time ago. She looked a little different now, with a flowing dress and rose-colored stripes on her elbow-length gloves. The diamond-shape of her pupils was confirmation enough for the older gems. The normally easygoing fusion tensed, ready to protect the others, though she didn’t know what she could do to fight.

Pink Diamond took a few steps closer, but maintained a respectable distance. She was looking at them with open curiosity, her eyes sparkling. She seemed delighted to see fusions; Rhodonite looked like she might faint.

“Did you really mean all those things you said?” Tile questioned, upset.

Pink Diamond blinked. “Of course!”

“P-P-P-Please don’t hurt us…” Rhodonite whimpered, shivering.

“What? I’m not going to hurt you…” She trailed off, taking them in. She saw the way the smaller fusion clutched the orange gem to her chest, noticed the way Ru and Tile’s fists were balled tensely, observed the way the big fusion hovered protectively over her friends. She’d messed up.

“Then just go,” Ru said firmly.

Pink Diamond seemed to deflate. She nodded slowly, and left without another word.

The off-colors didn’t relax until Padparadscha said, “Oh my! I’m receiving a wondrous vision! Pink Diamond will leave without shattering us!”

“Great! We have to move now!” Rhodonite huffed, still shaking. She rounded on the twins. “What did you go and let her see you for?!”

Ru frowned. “Well gee, it’s not like we did it on purpose!”

“Definitely an accident,” Tile agreed.

“It doesn’t matter if it was on purpose! Now we have to go out there and…” The fusion wrung her hands nervously. “We’re going to be so exposed!”

Fluorite put a comforting hand on her friend’s shoulder. “We’ll be fine…” she reassured softly, pondering.

Pink went back the way she came, stone-faced as she heard arguing in the distance. She should have waited, she should have just waited! Those gems had needed time to process things and prepare to talk to her, but nooo, she just couldn’t wait, could she!

But, she really had been scared… A few minutes after the two rutiles left, the silence had crept up on her, pushing out all the nice feelings of meeting new friends. She’d gotten anxious, wondering if they were actually going to come back, or if they had just said that to get away. It had taken so long to run into someone, how long would it take next time?

She’d decided to follow them, to see what they’d say to their friends. Even though it had been a long time since she’d needed to, she still knew how to sneak around with complete silence. It hadn’t been too hard to keep track of them once she caught up. She had been planning to leave after listening for a bit, but that orange gem had caught her out.

She was angry, but only at herself. It wasn’t their fault for being scared. She couldn’t blame those two for thinking she might have misled them. She could only imagine how awful they must feel, thinking that they’d led a deadly enemy to their dear friends.

She stopped walking when she got to the place where she should have waited. She crammed herself into a hole that wasn’t quite big enough for her and tucked her legs to her body. She wanted to cry or scream, but mostly just felt empty. She’d botched things really badly, and the faint hope she’d been harboring flickered and almost died.

Pink remained as unmoving as the stone around her. For a while, the only sound was the dripping of her tears. That is, until she heard something that was becoming all too familiar, something that immediately put her on high alert. It was the humming of shattering robonoids, reverberating from somewhere above her.

She crept out of the hole, unconcerned about being found. She’d already trashed several of those awful things. She couldn’t see them from here, so she leapt up high, bounding off the walls until she spotted them. It was a rather large group; there were at least eighteen. With a chill, she realized they were headed in the direction that she had just come from not too long ago.

In the direction of those gems.

The off-colors were unprepared when the robonoids swooped down on them from above. There wasn’t time to hide, and there wasn’t anywhere to hide anyway. Fluorite moved in front of the others, protecting them from being scanned but getting scanned herself. The piercing beams were charged and-

A pink disc suddenly slammed into the lead robonoid, lodging almost all the way through it as it crashed to the ground. A large pink shape fell among them, destroying two more robonoids and darting out of the crowd before the dust cleared.

“Go!” Pink Diamond commanded, looking over her shoulder at them as she summoned another shield. All of the robonoids focused their attention on her. One tried to shoot her, and its beam was reflected back, cutting it in half. She viciously batted another one away with her shield, sending it spinning into a wall.

The off-colors were quick to comply, moving away and hiding, looking on with wide eyes as the diamond cut through the drones with precision and grace. Every time one fired at her, she would block it, or dance out of the way. One strike was enough to break them to pieces.

Any impression the rutiles had of her being weak or fragile vanished. Right now, she didn’t look like a mess. She looked powerful and fierce, with an enraged snarl on her face. She could have easily crossed the distance she had kept between them earlier with a single leap.

“Friends, I’m receiving an extraordinary vision!” a cheerful voice piped up. “We will be discovered by many robonoids…”

“Padparadscha!” Rhodonite hissed, realizing the little sapphire had gotten away from her.

Pink Diamond’s eyes widened as she noticed the small orange gem standing there out in the open. A robonoid had already found her gem and was preparing to fire.

Quicker than lightning, the diamond dashed toward her. There was a boom and the off-colors gasped, sighing in relief when the smoke cleared.

“But Pink Diamond will save us!” the sapphire finished her prophecy, oblivious to the pink bubble she was standing in or the protective arms around her.

The drones clustered around them, firing at the bubble. It started to crack, but it popped voluntarily before it could break. Cradling Padparadscha with one arm, Pink Diamond barged forward, knocking the robonoids away with her shield.

They watched in amazement as the diamond made short work of the remaining robonoids, taking the astonished sapphire along for the ride. With one final jump, she kicked the last drone to the ground, crushing it under her bare foot.

And then, Pink Diamond stood there for a moment, breathing heavily with exertion. She spat on the broken bits of metal, bearing a disgusted expression, before turning to them. The unforgiving hardness melted away from her as she approached them. By the time she got to them, the twins could recognize the awkward, warm gem they had met before.

She very gently set Padparadscha down, waiting a moment until she was certain the orange sapphire had her feet. The diamond casually brushed off her dress as she softly asked, “Are all of you alright?”

They all nodded, rendered mute.

She looked at them, and when she was satisfied that they were fine, something shifted in her eyes, and she once again walked away without another word.

“I predict that Pink Diamond will depart with great sadness…” Padparadscha murmured, concerned. Rhodonite fretted over the sapphire, scolding her for not staying put.

Tile looked at Ru. “Maybe we were wrong…” she said. Ru nodded, eyes downcast.

“Hmm…” Fluorite merely looked thoughtful. After a moment, she set off after the diamond.

“Where are you going?” Rhodonite asked, alarmed.

Fluorite just gestured for them to follow.

At first, they couldn’t find her, not until they heard the crying. Fluorite led the way, with Rhodonite far in the back. They soon saw her, sitting in a hole with her arms wrapped around her knees and her head buried in her arms. Her shoulders shook with her sobs.

The other four hung back as Fluorite cautiously crept up to her. She kept her voice quiet and calm as she spoke. “Why are you crying?”

Pink Diamond gasped, startled. Her gaze snapped to Fluorite, eyes widened in a slightly fearful expression. Tears continued to trickle down her cheeks.

On one side, the liquid sparkled, crystal clear. On the other side, the damaged side, the tears were slightly milky. One of Fluorite’s components had a vague idea of what those cracks were, but it didn’t make sense.

Pink Diamond stared into the fusion’s eyes for what seemed like hours, searching. Finally, she sighed heavily and looked away, answering in a shaky voice as she hid her face. “Because I’m alone…and have been for a very long time…”

Fluorite chewed on that for a moment before coming to a decision. She bent down and reached into the hole, delicately coaxing the diamond into a soft embrace. Pink Diamond offered no resistance, looking completely baffled. A second passed as she processed what this was, and then she began to blink rapidly as her eyes watered further. Her expression crumpled painfully, and she pressed her face into Fluorite’s side, hugging her in return. Her whole, trembling body soon followed as Fluorite curled around her, and she began to cry even harder.

“Let it all out, dear…” Fluorite hummed as she smoothed the pink gem’s messy hair with one hand. Another hand rubbed her shoulders in small, comforting circles. She liked the way the diamond was mindful of her strength, holding on with only the lightest pressure.

Ru and Tile glanced at one another, astonished. Fluorite was doing an awful lot of things that should have gotten her shattered. She was fused, for one thing. And she was touching a diamond, which was definitely not allowed.

But Pink Diamond didn’t seem to care. In between her sobs, she whispered a muffled, broken ‘thank you’.

Padparadscha stepped forward, unafraid. She sat down next to them, politely folding her hands in her lap. A few seconds later, the twins followed. It took much longer for Rhodonite to join them, and she didn’t come as close.

Quite some time later, Pink Diamond’s weeping quieted. Nobody said anything until they realized she had actually fallen asleep. Pink Diamond looked small and vulnerable, curled into a ball against the fusion’s side. Fluorite smiled wryly and shifted into a more comfortable position, careful not to wake the exhausted gem. She didn’t much mind being used as a pillow.

“Can we trust her?” Tile asked quietly.

Fluorite nodded thoughtfully. “She has a vast and terrible pain deep inside her…” She was still brushing the diamond’s hair in a tender, motherly way. “I think we should at least hear what she has to say…”

Ru and Tile agreed. Rhodonite didn’t know what to think.

“I predict that Pink Diamond will have a good nap,” Padparadscha said, smiling.

A/N: Emotionally damaged person who hasn't had a real conversation in 5000 years + two people who are 99% sure they're about to die right now = Awkward City. I had to rewrite that encounter a few times because it was just so awkward.

Fluorite has a really big heart; she has already decided Pink needs hugs. I said 'fuck that' to her slow-ass speech pattern because it's just entirely unnecessary and bothersome.

I also wanted to make the Rutiles more individual, since I view them as two different people in one body. So I didn't do the twin thing where they finish each other's sentences or say the same thing simultaneously; it's an annoying trope anyway. Ru is more sassy and cautious while Tile is a more compassionate, cries-because-swans-can-be-gay type. Both of them are curious and courageous people.

[FIRST - PREVIOUS - INDEX - NEXT]

#steven universe #pink diamond #fluorite #padparadscha #rhodonite #rutile twins #rutiles #off-colors #mine #mywriting #2018 #Fractures

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jenna347-blog · 3 years

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Lira woods chapter 3

Chapter 3

When Lira and Jim got back home from the market later that afternoon, Lira went to the kitchen to put all the spices and other magical items up. These would was used to add flavor to the human body parts she was cooking. While she did this, Jim was upstairs, washing up for dinner. “Mm … baby, what smells so damn good besides you, my deadly wifey?” Jim asked while spinning her around to face him. “Well, I’m cooking our favorite slave stew, and to drink, we’ll have human blood.” “Mm … baby, I love the way that you cook my food. Baby, you’re the only one that knows what I want to eat and what my needs are. Damn, Lira! I must be the luckiest man to have an evil woman like you in my life.” “Oh, my dear, my devilish husband, it was nothing. I only did it because I know how much you love human blood, too. Plus, I know how to make my husband happy and make you look devilish sexy as possible, my dear lover.” Meanwhile, Sorcery and Tony were watching them by using an invisible spell. Luckily, Lira couldn’t sense this kind of spell, even though Lira was a higher-ranking witch than Sorcery was, but you must realize that everything changed right then and when Lira graduated from high school there. So, she never got to advance in her school studies, but as I said, even though she knew more than her friend, Sorcery was more of a bookworm than Lira was. Lira was cleverer and more charming than Sorcery. “Hi, Sorcery! What do you see, and what are they saying?” Tony asked while struggling to keep her on his shoulders. “I don’t know, you idiot. If you’d keep still, I may be able to read their lips, you idiot.” “Hey, I just asked a freaking question. If you want to crazy about it, then fine. I’ll drop your ass and go home.” “Oh, whatever! Anyways, they’re eating something weird. I don’t believe what it is, but I truly believe they’re eating human remains and blood.” “Let me see. Oh, my god! It would be the weirdest thing that I’ve ever seen in my life, and you’re sure they can’t see or sense us, right?” he asked with a shocked look on his face. “I don’t know what to say about this, Sorcery. Like I said before, I didn’t know that my brother liked to eat humans. It’s like he’s gotten worse as he’s gotten older. I can’t believe he is a cannibal. I mean, I like to make people my slaves, too, but I’d never eat them. Damn! That’s fucked up.” Sorcery just looked at him and said, “I don’t know what to tell you. She wasn’t like this either. I guess when two evil people meet, it’s like a bomb went off completely. I wish I could get her to leave him before he ruins her life. I am afraid that I might lose her completely. I truly don’t know what to do with her anymore. No spell will change how she truly is. Plus, she can always block my powers because she knows every one of them except for this one.” “Man, I never knew we had so much in common with each other.” And before he could say anything more, Sorcery said, “Ah, Tony, we don’t have anything in common. You’re a mortal. I’m an immortal witch, and I’m a lot smarter than you will ever be in your lifetime, and I don’t care if you went to the best school ever; no one can make you any way smarter than me. It would be best if you were born that way. You may not think that way, Tony, but you’ll see that I’m right about what I say, and I mean it as well.” “What’s any of that got to do with what we just witnessed? I don’t think you know. That’s what I thought. Now I see why she got with Jim. Anyways you guys don’t have anything in common, and you guys just blew away like dandelions on a windy day. She probably forgot about you in the process and didn’t want to tell you the truth about how she feels about you. I can see that she likes Jim more than she does her own best friend.” “What are you mean by that? Jim is the one who forgot about you, and you’re his brother. I think that’s worse than losing a best friend. I can make a new friend, but I could never make a new brother or sister. So, you have it worse than I do. I truly don’t want to hear it from you about me being jealous of her and him. It seems like you’re the jealous one. You don’t want to lose your brother to anyone, and you just don’t want to admit it. That’s all.” “Yes, I do miss my brother, but I’m not jealous, not like you. I think you want my brother, but because you can’t get with him, you should come to me all because I’m his twin. I may be old, but I can tell you what you want and don’t want to. I know you wish you had the same things as Lira. That’s why you’re trying your hardest to be better than her in any feasible way, and I truly think you do care for her, but other than that, you really can’t stand her. I guess that’s how some people are. It doesn’t matter if you’re a mortal or not, you’re just a person just like anybody else, and you just don’t know it till someone else tells you, and you don’t know how you really are. It’s even like I said before, you don’t know who or what you are till you either look in the mirror or someone else tells you,” he said while looking at her and at Lira and Jim. “But you know what’s weird about this, too?” “What’s that, Tony?” Sorcery asked with a blank stare. “Well, I forgot to mention that I always wanted to know how it felt to be like you guys or like my brother, what it means to actually have a superpower like you guys. I’m just a nobody compared to him. Even though I taught my brother how to be a player, I never learned my own pick-up lines when it came to pick up women. You’re the only woman I’ve met that stuck by me for this long, and I’m kind of glad that you did because I didn’t know what I was going to do without a person like you. And I know it’s seems I could be like my brother, but I’m not that evil. I could be a good person when you get to know me. My brother may tell you one thing, but I’m going to tell you the truth, but I used to be like him though. For some reason, before our parents died, he changed. This was when we were in our twenties way before you and Lira became immortal. After that, we kind of stopped talking afterward because I truly didn’t like what he had become. He was worse than I was when we were growing up, but like I said, I don’t know what to do with him anymore, Sorcery.” “Oh, man! I never knew that we had so much in common because we don’t like what either Lira or Jim have become. This is so crazy. Just like you, I didn’t believe this could ever happen either. It’s like something from a thriller or horror movie. I don’t have a spell that can help us out because I haven’t upgraded my book to her level yet. I’m supposed to be more advance than she is or could ever be, but I guess she is much better than me, even though all I’ve ever wanted from her is for her just to be there with me. Maybe I wasn’t cut out for this evil witch bullshit after all. I just did this to make my parents proud of me. I should be ashamed of myself. I truly messed my whole life up with this bullshit; also, I shouldn’t have become an evil witch.” Tony gave Sorcery a hug. He tried to ease her pain and tried to calm her down from all the crying. Luckily Lira and Jim couldn’t hear what they were saying. “Just like you, Tony. I’m a good person, and unlike Lira, I could never be like her, even if I tried. Yes, I did some evil acts to please everyone but not to please myself. I never knew it was going to end up this way.” “Oh, Sorcery, please don’t cry. You’re way too good to cry over her. You need someone who’s going to treat you with respect and who understands your pain. Plus, you need someone who makes you happy. You don’t need to please anyone but yourself. You need to love yourself way before you start to love someone else, and I truly mean that from the bottom of my cold soul and heart. No matter what they say, you’re the greatest woman I’ve ever met in my entire life. When I saw you, I thought to myself, I want her to be with me for the rest of our natural lives together, but I know we couldn’t because I’m a mortal and you’re an immortal. But if I truly want to be with you and if I treat you much better than Lira ever did on any given day and night, then you know should know that she truly doesn’t care anything about you at all. You need to wake up and smell the roses. She walked all over you, and she used you for your knowledge to get away with anything that she could get her little hands on. Like I said before, Sorcery, you may not want to believe me when I say things like this, but you truly need to open your eyes and understand that life isn’t what it’s cracked up to be, and you should’ve known better than to ever think she was ever good for you as a friend. But I thought Jim was a great brother. It took me years to figure out that I created a monster. I never knew that he was going to turn out like this, but this is kind of the reason why our parents died when we were much younger, but like I said before about them … well, the real reason they died was because it was mostly his fault. I was at an old girlfriend’s house when he murdered them in our childhood home. When I took her to our home to meet my family for the first time, my parents were dead. I asked him what had happened to them, and he replied with an evil laugh, “Well, Tony, I had to kill them because it was fucking fun. I wanted to see how they would taste, and I found out that they tasted so damn good also sweet at the same time. I loved when Mom and Dad screamed from the torture of being hurt. I love bring pain to people. It makes me feel good, and they were so tasty. It was like when eating BBQ ribs on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Tony, you don’t know how it feels to have these cravings for human meat and blood. It’s like when you’re another animal or when a woman has her craving during her period or she’s having her baby. It’s the same thing. Sometimes, I can’t help myself. It’s like there’s something in me that I can’t control, and when I did what my body was telling me to do, which was to feed on human flesh, I fulfilled those wishes to make my body happy and myself happy. It made me feel great to do so, but if you think I’m losing my mind, you’re so very wrong. I learned this from you, brother, remember? Oh, yeah. You forgot that you changed on me, twin brother. I always thought about the same thing just because you’re my twin, but I guess I was wrong.” “You’re so stupid Jim, you know what’s so dang on weird now I see why our parents took my side on everything maybe because you’re beyond crazy. And I still can’t believe you’re even my brother. When we were in our mother, I learned how to be a bad boy from you. Like I said, you don’t remember telling me in my head.” Jim burst into an evil laugh, while grinning at the same time. “Oh, my god! Jim, I never was like you and never will be like you at all. I totally don’t approve of this at all. I’m saying this to you because this is just not right. I’ll make sure they lock your ass up in a mental hospital for good. And I never want to see you ever again. I truly don’t care if you do change. If you did, you’d have to work for me, if you expected me to ever forgive you for killing our loving parents!” Tony yelled at him while going toward the door with Jessie. Then Tony and his girlfriend Jessie got back in the car and drove off to the police department, and I told him everything that I just told you and they followed us back to the house. He opened the door and what we saw it was much worse. He had killed more people in that house in less than an hour. It looked like he had killed the whole neighborhood. I couldn’t believe he’d done such a thing. I truly think the police couldn’t believe it either. Not one of them had ever seen such a thing in all of their years in law enforcement.” “Oh, my god! Chief, this is so crazy. It’s like someone killed a lot of cows and pigs in a slaughter house, and the smell is horrible. We may need some back up, and it looks like a wolf or something bigger had done this.” He looked at me and asked me, “So, from what you guys were telling us that your twin brother was the only one that could do any of this all just by his self. Oh! Please me that he had somebody else with him, I didn’t think he’ll do something like this and go this far with it.” “Yes! He was the one who did this. Even my girlfriend saw it, and he must’ve done it when I was with her. Plus, he personally told me what he had done the same thing to our parents. I can’t believe it myself still, I don’t even know where to begin. But I didn’t know he had killed the neighbors as well. I guess he did this when we were going to see you guys. Man, I didn’t know my brother was this crazy and would’ve done something like this. I don’t know what to do, officer. I just don’t know what to do with him at all.” “Look, sir, we will do all that we can to get to the bottom of this. Even though we have a serious case on our hands, we won’t let your brother get away with it. He must still be in the house.” “He might try to get away with all of this by trying to blame all of this stuff on me because we were twins after all, so don’t let him fool you one bit because, like I said, my girlfriend saw it, too, and I was with her at the time, so he’ll do anything to make you believe him and distrust me.” The police tried to find him, but they had no luck whatsoever until they found him in the kitchen cooking someone and making another person watch. He was also torturing that person to death. “Please let me go! Please! I beg of you!” she screamed and cried for her life. “Now why would I ever do that, my love? I can’t just let you go, not just like that. Not while I’m trying my fucking best to eat your sister? And mmm … your mom tasted so damn good. I can’t believe your family actually loved me enough to believe I wasn’t going to fucking eat them, and keep you here against your will!” When he smelled some new flesh meat, he said, “Oh, brother, I see you came back for me. I knew you’d crawl back to me and change your mind and join me. This is the greatest time of our lives. Ah! And seems like you brought others to feed on. Let me guess. There are going to be more than seven of you, right?” Suddenly, Jim’s whole demeanor changed. And he shouted, “You better tell me, Tony! If you don’t, I’ll fucking kill you, and I hope you didn’t bring the fucking cops with you!” “You know I’d never bring any cops, man. Just some friends and my girlfriend, you know me. I’m your brother, and I’d never try to harm you. No matter what, you’re my family. I’m just worried about you, man. This is insane. No human acts this way at all. I don’t care who you are. Why are you doing this, man? You need to snap out of this, man. You can get in serious trouble because of all of this, and look at our neighbor, man. She’s scared as fuck. Let her go, man, or I will call the cops. You need to cut this bullshit out, man. This isn’t right.” “Tony, you’re so damn weak. You’re not the brother I thought you were, you used to be strong evil broken soul that wouldn’t let anyone get in his way. I thought no one could stand in your way. You were like me at one point. You always wanted to eat humans. You even craved them because you thought that their blood and flesh would be tasty. Why this change, my dear brother? We could’ve rule this damn great land with our greatness.” “You want to know why I changed? Maybe because I’ve grown up. This dumb-ass shit is not reality. We were kids at that time, Jim. You should’ve done the same thing, too, just like me, and maybe, just maybe, that’s why Mom and Dad loved me more. I was the only son that made sense around here. You are now at the point of insanity. The only reason why you were such a ladies’ man was because of your smooth-talking ways, but like I said, this has to stop, Jim.” Then Jim started sniffing the kitchen. He pushes me aside with great force and gave me this evil look and a growled also. “How could you lie to me, you bastard! You said there would be no damn cops around here. But you played me for one of your dumb-ass nerd friends. Oh, man! You don’t have a fucking life, do you, brother? You’re just like the rest of them. You’re weak and useless. That’s why our parents loved you more than me, but that’s not the reason I killed them or the neighborhood, expect for her. It was always a passion of mine to hear them scream for mercy and to taste their blood at the same time. You’re not the same person I knew years ago. And I know that you’re there, cops! You don’t need to hide. I can smell you from a far away. Come out, come out, wherever you are, cops! I know there’s more than just one cop here to catch me. I’m wanting to have you guys for dinner. You will love it so much. If I’m lying, I must be dying, officers. I know you guys are out there somewhere. You can’t hide from me forever, and you will join me for dinner or become my dinner — one of the two. But who fucking cares? I just want to talk to you, officers. I won’t do a damn thing to you. I promise. You can trust me.” One of cops was hiding in the bathroom, in the tub, trying not to say anything. He’d snuck into the bathroom, pretending to be Tony. He said, “Hey! It’s me! Tony! Don’t worry. We got him. You can come out now. Yes, I know your kind of worried, Jim, but I’m not. We arrested him. He’s outside. You can come out now.” “Are you sure you’re the real person that you claim to be? Okay. Answer this question, so-called Tony. And I hope you have a tattoo because I’ve known him and Jim for years. Do you have a tattoo on your left or right leg? Jim wouldn’t know this for a fact. Just me, his parents, and his girlfriend know this answer?” “Hmm. My right leg.” “Wrong! It’s on his left leg, Jim.” “Well, well, well. You must know me and my brother very well, John, and how have you been? I haven’t seen you in more than twelve years. Tony and I are about twenty. You’re twenty-two now. Can’t believe you’re one of them. I thought we were going to stick together like rice and salt.” “I don’t like doing this, Jim, because we are friends and all, but I have to do my job. You think this is fucking easy for me? Do you really think I’d take joy in shooting or arresting one of my greatest friends ever? It fucking upsets me to see you like this. But I guess you can’t see what we all see you have become, Jim, but it seems like Tony has changed, and it seems like you never did.” “Oh, Johnny, do you think you can harm me with that silly little thing that you called a gun? I think you got me mixed up with my stupid twin brother Tony,” Jim said with an evil laugh. “Jim, don’t let me do this to you, man. I just want you to come with me, and everything will be fine, but you just have trust me, ok?” He gave him his hand. He still had the gun in his hand. “You know what, John? I would’ve believed you for one minute, but I don’t think I can trust you at all. I guess, to me, it’s like you’re full of bullshit, Johnny Ol’ Boy.” John pushed Jim into the wall. He sprayed him with mace and handcuffed him. Then, he dragged him outside and threw him in the car. He took him to the police station for questioning. “Well, Mr. Jim Woods. I’ve got to tell you that it is quite a surprise to see you back here once again. You have more records than a Japanese hustler on a school night. What I want to know is, why in the hell we can’t lock your punk ass up?” “Maybe, because I’m a lot smarter than you and have the best lawyers in town. Plus, I’m better looking than you could ever be in your whole, entire life. I know this for a fact, Officer Ramsey. I know how you and your wife went through a nasty break up. It’s very sad really.” “How do you know about our break up, Jim? Tell me now. Damn it!” “Well, she told me for a fact that I was much better than you were in bed, and she said that I was easy on the eye. She needed someone who could rock her boat. Man, you were so damn lucky to have a hot woman like her. Too bad she wanted my swag and the way I have sex with her, and I guess she thought my dick was so much better and bigger than yours,” he replied while giving out a big donkey size laugh. Chief Ramsey grabbed him by the collar. “You know what, Jim? I’ll make sure your ass is put in a prison cell for the rest of your fucking life. You had no right to put those people in danger for your own selfish needs, and how fucking dare you take my own wife away from me? You also ruined my life forever after we split, and I should’ve known it was you who did all of this. But I never thought you would’ve sunk this low.” Jim grabbed his hand, gave him an evil look, and said, “I didn’t ruin your life. She left you for me because she got tired of your bullshit and thought I was much better than you could ever be. I can get any woman. Plus, I’m the kind of person who can get away with anything that I wish. No one, and I do mean no one, can stop me, not even you. This is my town. I’m like the mayor of this fine city we call NYC, so no matter what you do to me Ramsey, all the judge will do is tell you guys to let me go and take it off the record, and it’ll go away like nothing happened. I’ll live my normal life, even though you guys have enough evidence to prove that I did this, but I still can get away with murder and being a cannibal. There is no way in hell that you’ll ever put me in a prison cell. Even though you may want to, you just don’t have the ability to do so. Oh, Ramsey, are you getting mad that you lost, and I won at this game. To me it’s so fucking fun to see you angry at the fact that I can get away with anything that I can get my little hands on, and it’s like I said, I’ll get away with this, and I know I will. Hopefully I’ll find a woman that acts just like me, so we can work as a team. Maybe one day that wish will come true, and, oh, you’ll be in so much trouble, Mr. Ramsey. Oh, you will. I’ll make it a point to make sure that you do. I want you to wish you weren’t never born, or I want you to wish you could die. That’s how much I want to torture you.” The chief looked at John with fear and anger in his face. “John, let me talk to you in private.” They walked out. As they did, Chief looked at John and said, “So, John, what should we do. He has all the connections. You know him more than I do. For damn’s sake, you guys grew up together. Was he ever like this as a child, John?” “Well, yeah. He was like this but not this bad, though. I truly think that, after I left, he started to change. That’s what his brother told me one time on the phone. Maybe, just maybe, if I told him, I was going to move, he would have been a lot better tell you that much. But I was only a kid when this happened, and I didn’t know any better. I was forced to move because my parents couldn’t stand him or their parents anymore. They thought they all were weird, but I never thought they were like this. I always had fun with them. I guess they were like my closest bros that I wish I’d had in my life, and I truly think my parents thought I was going to be like Jim, but they liked Tony. They thought he was the only one in the family that had any sense in his head, so they truly didn’t mind me hanging out with him if I didn’t hang with Jim at the same time. They truly hated him to the core. One day, I asked them, when I got old enough, why they hated Jim so much and not his twin brother Tony. I don’t think it was right to judge a kid and hate them at the same timing. They said that Jim seemed like he was pure evil, and Tony didn’t. My mom said, “We don’t hate Jim. We’re scared of him. Like I said, my dear son, he always seems like he wants to do something bad. We even told his parents that that boy needed to get some mental help, but they didn’t do anything.’ I just never know that my parents were scared to the point that they moved to Savannah, Georgia. They didn’t want the Woods family to be able to find them, so they moved as far away as they could. But it all makes sense now, and it’s all coming together now, I guess.” “We’re dealing with more than just pure evil here, John. Jim is the only person I’ve had to deal with that can be this bad. Just looking at what he did to those poor victims gives me goosebumps. I truly think we’ve met our match. Really, I don’t know how we’ll get him locked up. This guy deserves, at least, the death plenty,” Ramsey said while he put his hand on his forehead. A look of total fear was on his face. Jim sat up straight in his chair. Then, he slowly turned his head toward them with an evil, mental smile. “I can see and smell you, and I know you’re talking about me because I can actually hear you, even though this is supposed to be a sound proof and a one-way mirror.” “How in the fuck can he see and hear us through this mirror?” “Because I have that power to do so, Ramsey. Ha! Ha! And I know what you’re thinking, also, John and Ramsey. You can try to hide from me, but I advise you not to because I’m going to ruin you guys’ lives. No matter what you do, like they say, ‘you never met a guy like me before.’ I know all the tricks of the trade. No one, and I do mean no one, can stop me. I don’t care who you are. I can always smooth my way through the courts. I can get away with anything. It is so damn easy. You may just cry, crap, and piss on yourselves in the court room like little babies.” “So, Tony, what you’re trying to say is that he always was like this, but you’re still trying to figure out how he got away with murder because our code states we are forbidden to kill any mortal. It doesn’t matter how bad your kind tries to fight it off. I’m going to tell you how my brother got away with it. Don’t worry. Ok back to the story.” They both looked each other with a scared look upon their faces, like they’d just seen a ghost or something. They’d never known that two grown-ass men could fear someone in their twenties. It’s was like they’d never had to face a guy like him before. It seemed like he wasn’t even human anymore at the time being. They went back to the room together. “What’s wrong, man? You don’t believe I can read minds and smell your feelings about me. You don’t know who you’re really dealing with at this moment in time, do you? I truly think that, like I said before hand, you really had met your match at last and just wanted to put me to jail to make yourself happy and not to the civilians that you suppose to help and serve, but you know what? Most of you cops could be worse than me at any time of the day. You just don’t want to admit it to yourselves because you’re trying to protect your fellow man and woman in uniform, but you two know I’m right. You just don’t want to say because you’re thinking about it.” Then, he let out this loud evil donkey size laugh. “You know what, Jim? We will put your ass in prison. After the judge hears from all the witnesses and sees all the evidence, I will win this time. Jim, mark my words. You’ll never see the day light ever again. And I know we were childhood friends, Jim, but he is right, man, this time. The judge won’t be so nice to you this time and won’t let you get away with any of this. Like I said before, even though I am your friend and all, I should go with him. What you did to those people, including your parents, was so damn disturbing and just plain wrong. I never thought you would end up like this, man,” John said while shaking his head. “Oh, John, I thought you was on my side. I guess like they always say, you can’t trust your own best friends or brother. You guys make me sick. I can’t stand either of you. I hope you and Tony just burn in fucking hell!” So, they took Jim back to jail to make him wait till the day of his sentencing and court hearing.

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