#and it's actually that not projection/expansion of his hurt over the betrayal

[monstersqueen]

i love that so far the reasons i've found why Odasaku's Death Is Totally Ango's Fault are :

his betrayal had a severe emotional impact that lead odasaku to choose death

if he had been with dazai when dazai tried to prevent odasaku to go fight mimic odasaku would have listened

if ango had been honest and they had worked together they could have saved him

i think the closest to a real reason i've found that is not just 'he lied to us :((' is that ango potentially reported gide's power to mori, and that's what made mori decide to use odasaku to destroy mimic

#myposts #bsd march 2023 not lb #really i'd like to know #1) what makes the fandom thinks dazai blames ango for odasaku's death #outside of 'did you really think i had forgiven you?' #which reminder last time they saw each otehr dazai threatened him with torture and odasaku was still alive #(the threat was not as serious as dazai made it seem but still) #and 2) #what do they think is dazai's reasoning for blaming ango #because every reasoning i've found turn around dazai's hurt at ango's betrayal #but you'd think looking at the fandom it's entirely about his love for odasaku #so in the world where dazai's mad at ango because he blames him for the death of odasaku #and it's actually that not projection/expansion of his hurt over the betrayal #how the fuck does he get to that conclusion ! it doesn't have to be fair ! odasaku was incredibly important to him ! #and dazai is. dazai. i don't expect him to be fair when it comes to blaming people for odasaku's death ! #but it has to have some basis !! how did ango's actions lead to odasaku's death. what book did you read. what anime did you watch #i find no interpretation of teh events no matter how unfair that makes odasaku's death on ango #outside of the spying's reveal happening around the same time!! like. did everyone just go #'ango betrayed the mafia' + 'odasaku died' = 'odasaku died because of ango' and assumed that's how dazai feels ? #PLEASE EXPLAIN

[redrambles]

Thinkin about Team Aqua and Magma

When going over the villains and their teams in Pokémon, their actions typically range from the simple theft of Pokémon to unforgivable crimes, such as disturbing or controlling a legendary Pokémon to achieve a goal.

However, the only team leaders I’ve seen actually regret and try to fix their actions are Archie and Maxie. I don’t qualify N as he’s not the actual leader of his team, nor is he a true villain, falling more in the category of anti-hero. Guzma and Team Skull aren’t really the villains of their game either, just a gang of kids hired by Lusamine. At the end of Emerald, once the leaders realize their respective plans are destroying the world, they agree to put aside their disagreements in order to save everyone. After the game is completed, both leaders return the orbs they stole, and disband their teams of their own volition. Similarly, in ORAS, once a leader realizes his mistake, the leaders join and fight together against the game’s legendary weather Pokémon, and later reconcile. This leads to my next thought. Why did this all happen?

The reasons for the creation of both teams and hunting of Kyogre and Groudon is given in the games; Archie wants to expand the sea, and return it to the Pokémon, Maxie wants to create for land for the humans. When put out like this, these ideas are more noble, and both parties just want to help someone or something. Somehow though, we got to Archie and Maxie fighting to destroy both the world, and each other.

|| EVERYTHING FROM HERE IS PERSONAL OPINIONS AND HEADCANONS ||

Based on the fact that the two have such similar plans, and already seem to know the other well before the events of the games, I believe it’s likely that the two of them grew up together, and may have been close friends once, long before the games. They would have gone through school together, which is where they both first learned about the weather trio. I like to think that Maxie was the first to plan about helping the people, and expanding/repurposing land to do so. Watching this inspired Archie, and he focused on helping in his own way, working as a Pokemon Marine Rescuer. They continued this, and as they grew older, they grew apart, and Archie began to fight with Maxie about how his “important projects” were destroying the sea. This angered Maxie, as he believed his work to help humans was more important than the loss of some marine life. Tensions grew and their fights began to worsen, and at the end of their latest argument, Archie would leave for a distant rescue before making up with Maxie. While Archie was gone, Maxie stewed, and he began looking further into the stories of the ancient Pokémon Groudon as he worked, sowing the seeds that would lead to the weather apocalypse. Archie eventually came back to apologize to Maxie, but when he arrived, found Maxie’s latest project: the plan to awaken Groudon and use it to reduce the seas of Hoenn. Archie was furious, asking if Maxie realized how much this would hurt the Pokémon and their environment if he succeeded. Maxie responded harshly, saying that the lives of a few Pokémon were well worth the expansion and advancement of the people of Hoenn. This was the breaking point of their relationship. Archie, hurt and angry with his once-trusted friend’s decisions, steals Maxie’s plans, the only change in this being the legendary Kyogre, and it’s power to increase the seas. This betrayal then breaks Maxie’s side of their friendship. From here, both teams began to come together, and both leaders began to lose sight of their original goals: help the people, help the Pokémon.

Continuing on from here, slightly deviating and blending together the plot of the games, we follow Archie as our main villain, as Aqua attempts to steal the Devon Goods, then fights to retrieve the meteorite to slow Maxie and Magma on Mt. Chimney. Archie later sends Aqua to attack the Weather Institute to gain more information on Kyogre, as Maxie had only ever made plans around Groudon. Archie is the first to reach to reach Mt. Pyre, but takes the wrong orb, which begins to key in Maxie to the disaster on the horizon. The protagonist goes to storm the Magma Hideout, but upon reaching the end, finds Maxie refusing to fight. Maxie proposes a temporary truce to the protagonist, stating that trying to awaken Groudon with the wrong orb wasn’t likely to work, and that despite this obvious point, Archie would still use the Red Orb on Kyogre, awakening it without any control. The pair battle through the Aqua Hideout to stop Archie from boarding his stolen submarine, but arrive too late. Archie manages to make to Seafloor Cavern, and awaken Kyogre. Just as Maxie expected, Archie has no power over Kyogre, leaving it to climb to the surface, and push the weather out of balance. As the protagonist and the two leaders come to the surface, Archie states that none of this was what he wanted, that he just wanted the Pokémon and the sea he loved so much to thrive. Upon hearing this Maxie relents slightly, telling Archie he had never meant to go this far. The pair agree to work together help fix the mess they created, holding back Kyogre while the protagonist makes their way to Sootopolis to protect the Cave of Origin. From here, the story finishes out as normal, with the defeat of Kyogre, and the saving of Hoenn. Both teams are disbanded, the Orbs are returned to Mt. Pyre, and the leaders reconcile. What happens to the leaders after this is more vague, as the games have both leaders simply start anew. I want to leave their future mostly up to interpretation, though I think they’d likely face some sort of repercussions for the near-destruction of Hoenn, even if they did also help save it. It’d be nice though if Archie became a rescuer again, and Maxie became a sort of teacher, to continue his research in the earth. And this time, they don’t screw their friendship up.

Conclusion? Two friends-turned-enemies fight so hard they forget the basic science and Pokémon history classes they took together. I thought way too hard about this, but it was fun and I love these two and all of their dumb decisions.

#pokémon #pokemon emerald #pokemon oras #magma leader maxie #aqua leader archie #redrambles

[lwalmart]

Family always had a weird definition for Ranboo. He didn’t remember his original one, or if he even had one. It felt like one day he was wandering the streets of Hypixel, competing in games or just chilling in the parkour, and the next he was in the Dream SMP, one of the most exclusive servers known.

Even though Ranboo had talked to Niki a few times, he couldn’t exactly count her as family at first. He was still basically a stranger, and intruder. As time passed though, they grew closer until Niki jokingly called him her brother.

Niki was close with a few other people. Namely Fundy. Both of them had known each other for a long time. They were as close as siblings. Whether or not they thought of each other in that way, Ranboo didn’t know. All he knew was that at one point, Eret, one of the other members of the server, was trying to adopt Fundy. Because of that, Ranboo found himself listening to the king talk as he walked with Niki and Fundy.

All four of them grew closer, but Ranboo always felt strange. There were some days where he wouldn’t say much, only sitting and writing in one of his notebooks. But regardless, the others came to see him as family. That was his first experience of having a family.

Over time, Ranboo felt safer and safer with their little family. He trusted them, to an extent.

The start of the downfall of the group was when Eret and Fundy got into an argument over the adoption. Ranboo didn’t know too much about the situation, but he knew Fundy felt betrayed. The fox left the SMP for a few months. Niki visited him a few times, but he only truly returned right as the SMP was on the edge of chaos.

Once the chaos and fighting was over, when the smoke had cleared to reveal the true expanse of the crater, Ranboo had left. Phil had offered him a home and he took it. He was worried for his pseudo family, of course, but the bond they had had been fractured. When he saw the look in Niki’s eyes when she called out that she destroyed the L’mantree, he felt fear. Fear for his sister and for the rest of his friends, if he could call them that.

Living with Techno and Phil wasn’t anything like being around Fundy and Niki and Eret. Neither of the two seemed to pay him much attention, which he was grateful for. The only downside of this was that he never knew if he was intruding on them. He was constantly worried about being a bother to the pair, but he didn’t have the guts to ask.

When he talked with Phil, the older man was kind. He always asked how Ranboo was doing and if he needed anything. But there was always the small distance. Phil had just blown up his home and hurt many of his friends.

When he talked with Techno on the other hand, the other was very distant. The fact that his emotions were harder to figure out by his tone of voice combined with Ranboo not being able to tell emotions apart that well, it was always awkward. And there was a lingering fear that Techno would kick him out. So Ranboo made it his job to not fuck up.

With everything happening, he hadn’t had a chance to talk to any of his friends that much. The sense of family and security was gone. Even if he wanted to, it would be incredibly hard for him to form another bond as strong as the one he had before.

The next time that he actually grew close to someone was with Tubbo. At first there was the tension of the fact that Ranboo betrayed the country Tubbo was running. But the other boy didn’t seem to care. He was busy with creating and running another country, if it could even count as that.

Ranboo had always been skeptical about countries and governments since the moment he set foot on the server. It was nice to have a place to live and be with his friends, but the idea of one or two people having total control never sat right with him. That was one of the reasons that he was skeptical to be in Snowchester all that much.

But Tubbo dragged him over at least twice a week, so he had no choice but to put effort into his relationship with Tubbo.

The biggest change that happened was when they rescued Michael together. Their friendship had been growing a lot but that was the biggest milestone. Once they did that, projects started happening. They built Michael’s room and designed a hotel.

When Eret came around and started imposing taxes, they started a joke about getting married to get the benefits. Then it became less of a joke when they actually asked Eret to marry them. The king had just laughed and agreed. Afterwards, he pulled Ranboo aside to check in on him. He said that he was sorry about leaving him, but Ranboo brushed him off, saying that he didn’t hold any hard feelings. Which was true. He still loved Eret like family but the connection that was once there had died down.

Over their marriage, Tubbo and Ranboo became very close. They never feel in love, like others might think, but they did start doing things that married people might do. They felt comfortable being open and vulnerable around each other. And with Michael, it felt like a real, complete family.

A family. It was something Ranboo hadn’t had for a long time. Even before, in the little makeshift one with Fundy, Niki and Eret, there was always a missing piece. It was stained by the wars and betrayals, and none of them knew how to put it back together. But with Tubbo, despite the tears, it felt whole. Maybe that would change at some point, but that was out of his control for now.

#beta? nah #im posting this just bc #dream smp #dsmp #ranboo #i wrote this awhile ago #ranboolive #misferns #beeduo

[dontshootmespence]

As I Watched In Sorrow

Summary: After experiencing an unimaginable loss, Y/N floats through life, living for...she doesn’t know anymore. When it all becomes too much, she’s greeted by a woman in black with a deal so sweet, she can’t bear to let her grief and her morals get in the way.

Pairing: Dean x Reader

Word Count: 6,864

Warnings: Probably one of, if not the saddest thing I’ve ever written. Please heed the warnings! Suicidal thoughts and near actions, death of a child, betrayal, a crisis of faith/hatred for Chuck/God, brief mentions of sex, knives, self-hatred. Lots of shit.

A/N: This fulfills my entries to @stusbunker Lie to Me in Melody Challenge - a prompt from a Carole King song, “As I watched in sorrow, there suddenly appeared, A figure gray and ghostly beneath a flowing beard, In times of deepest darkness, I’ve seen him dressed in black, Now my tapestry’s unraveling - he’s come to take me back” and @covered-byroses​ 3k celebration with the prompt “shadow.” Shadow here is definitely more of an abstract than physical thing. Hopefully it works. Sorry to both of you that this took approximately 8,000 years. This takes place around season 8/9 solely for the fact that I needed the antagonist to have years of pent up rage toward the Winchesters.

Closed blinds did little to shield the slivers of morning light from burning her skin. As she tossed the blankets aside, she inhaled the stagnant air and closed her eyes against the sun. Though little, it was still too much. Turning off the lone lamp she’d forgotten the night before, she slowly ambled into the bathroom, popping open the familiar bottle and downing the necessary pills dry.

A glimpse in the mirror made her shiver. Her skin pallid and pitted, eyes sunken and dark despite the fact that she hadn’t worn makeup in weeks. Wetting her toothbrush, she propped the mirror open, unable to bear the reminder. Lazily, she pulled the brush across her teeth, more a societal necessity than a want or a need. She needed to grab food and it just wasn't okay to walk out of the front door without her teeth brushed.

Clothes didn’t matter though. The gray sweat-suit she wore to bed would do just fine. She dragged her gaze over the entirety of her bedroom, searching for her purse so she could go and get this over with. When the cursory glance didn’t lead to her bag, she began go through the other rooms - the kitchen, piled high with unwashed dishes and half-eaten tv dinners, the living room, where scattered dolls and a teddy dressed in a little pink tutu sat dutifully waiting for the return of their owner, the dining room, where she could practically still see her sitting, excitedly waiting for dinner. It wasn’t anywhere to be seen. 

Shuffling toward the front door, she looked in the coat closet, finding her hobo bag dangling limply next to the small, lavender windbreaker studded with unicorns. Had she not been in such a state after coming home the night before, she would’ve noticed it here, and put her bag somewhere else. She reached into the bag and opened the glasses case, slipping the oversized sunglasses over her eyes. Just because she needed to go out didn’t mean she needed or wanted to be assaulted by the sun. Why couldn’t it just leave her alone? Steady darkness had been her comfortable umbrella for weeks. Couldn’t the light just leave her be? Darkness was an old friend.

She stepped outside and locked the door behind her before heading toward her car. As a neighbor pulled out of their driveway, she glanced at a bumper sticker that hadn’t been there before.

When life gives you more than you can stand, kneel.

“I did,” she whispered.

----

Later that night, another half-eaten tv dinner was tossed on top of the already packed garbage can. Why was she even doing this? Continuing? Was there even a point?

She went through the motions, turning on the television to watch a TV show before she pulled the covers over her body once again. But it was useless. With more purpose than she’d had in weeks, she walked into the living room and reverently picked up the tutu-wearing bear, propping it underneath her arm as she gathered the remainder of her pills from the bathroom. She’d just refilled the prescription; it would be enough. 

Slipping back under the covers, she placed the bear next to where her head would lay on the pillow and reached for the pill bottle slowly, but with no hesitation. 

A faint whisper emanated from the behind her, where the overwhelming shadow of her apartment fought against the moonlight coming through the once-again closed blinds. 

“I can help you.” A whispery voice said, clearer than before.

“Great, I’ve lost my mind.” She heaved a heavy sigh and twisted the bottle cap open.

With a quick flap of what could only be described of as wings, a woman appeared behind her, emerging from the shadows. “I’m not here to hurt you,” she said softly, holding up her hands as a show of her promise. “I want to help you.”

“Who the hell are you?” She asked, getting up from the bed and backing toward the corner of the room. “Why are you in my house? Get the hell out.” To her disbelief, the other woman walked toward her, through the mattress, as if she wasn’t real. “I’ve gone insane,” she said, shaking, trembling fingers combing through her hair. “I’ve lost my mind.”

“You haven’t,” she countered.

“What the hell are you then?”

“I’m a Reaper. You can call me Tessa.”

A tear rolled down her cheek. “What? Like the Grim Reaper?”

The brunette, wearing an unassuming combination of a leather jacket, black tank and ripped jeans, seemingly floated toward her, smiling. Softness radiated from her, welcoming, despite the situation. “That’s what you tend to call us,” she chuckled. “But we aren’t cold, hooded, evil figures. We’re only here to help you cross.”

Cowering in the corner, a realization began to come over her. “When we die. Is that why you’re here? For me?”

“No,” she replied, moving toward the bed and grasping hold of the teddy bear. “Truthfully, you aren’t supposed to die for a long time. I’m here because I think we can help each other.”

She shook with anger. “How could you possibly help me?”

Tessa lovingly stroked the teddy bear’s head. “I can give you back what you want most.”

Her heart skipped a beat, eyes glancing quickly at the worn stuffed animal. “That’s not possible. Why would you bring her back to me if your job is to ferry people to the other side?”

“Astute,” she replied. “Strictly speaking, it’s not something we’re supposed to do. Make deals with the living that is. As Reapers, we maintain the natural order, taking souls to where they remain for eternity because if they remain on this plane, many times, most times, they turn bad, shadows of their former selves. Order is what’s important.” Tessa paused, as if carefully considering her next words. “There are two men - brothers - that over and over and over again, defy the natural order.” The reaper’s voice became louder and louder as she spoke. “They cheat death. Time and time again. Those above me, my bosses so to speak, they don’t believe I can do my job anymore. And I’m at risk of losing it. You see, this is what I am. Without it, I’m lost.”

For the first time since this strange woman entered her home, for the first time in weeks, actually, she laughed. “So you’re about to lose your job and you want revenge on the people you can’t reap? Am I supposed to feel bad for you?” She ripped the teddy bear from Tessa’s hands and clutched it to her chest. “You take innocent five-year-olds from their mothers - to give to a God that strikes down someone so small and I’m-I’m-I’m supposed to care?!” She screamed, sliding down the wall toward the floor. “You and your God can burn.” Sobbing, she buried her head into the teddy bear, ignoring the looming darkness overhead. If she was to die right now, then so be it.

“Reapers have no allegiance to God. Frankly, I think he’s a heartless bastard.” She continued matter-of-factly. “But he is who he is and our job is simply to make sure these soul’s stay pure. Some we take to heaven, some to hell. Wherever it is they belong.”

“My baby?” She asked, chancing a glance at this creature disguised as a human.

“Heaven. I promise you.” Tessa crouched down to meet the woman’s eye. “Everyone has their own personal heaven. In hers, you’re there. Playing with dolls, snuggling in bed together, reading books. She’s happy.”

She clapped her hand to her mouth to stifle another sob. “Why her? She was just a baby. Why did I have to watch her wither away? Why?”

Tessa caressed her cheek with the pad of her thumb. “I don’t know. I can’t begin to understand His logic. But I can bring her back to you, just as she was, free of sickness. You can live a happy life together.”

“But you need me to kill someone.” The prospect hung heavily in the air. What did these men really do besides cheat death? Was that really such a bad thing? Wasn’t in human nature? Did they deserve to die? Her heart raced with possibilities. “How do I know you’re telling the truth? That you’ll keep your end of the bargain?”

Tessa held her hand out. “I’ll bring you to where her soul rests.”

Instantly, she was transported, at Tessa’s side, from her dim apartment, to a never-ending expanse filled with light. Doors came into focus. “You’re kidding,” she said. “Heaven is full of doors?” Tessa quickly walked her around corner after corner, ensuring they weren’t seen by anyone else, until they came to her door. “My baby.” Her fingers slid over the name on the door. And dates. 2008-2013.

“She’s in here,” Tessa whispered. 

Beyond the blinding light, a park came into focus - one she recognized. One she’d taken her baby to time and time again. From behind the playground, she ran, screeching with delight as her mother chased after her. She barely recognized herself. “This is her heaven,” Tessa said softly, her arm link with yours, almost like a friend. “She plays with you.”

“Can she seem m-?”

“No. Not the you standing here. That one is her projection of you.”

Filled with a resolve she hadn’t know since the moment her baby was placed in her arms at the hospital five years ago, she turned to Tessa. “What do I have to do?”

Tessa smiled, a small sigh of relief escaping her. She pulled a piece of paper from her jacket pocket. “This man will come into your life. I need you to let him in. He’s a strong man, but he’ll let his guard down with those he trusts. You need to be one of those people. Once you are, I need you to kill him. He disrupts the natural order, and we...have a history. He doesn’t trust me.”

“Why do I need to get him to trust me first?”

“That’s for me,” she admitted. “This history...he’s the reason I am where I am. It’s purely revenge on my part.” She loathed to admit it. 

“But I-”

Exasperatedly, Tessa held the woman’s face in her hands. “He has cheated death over and over again. And your daughter couldn’t. How is that fair?”

“It’s not,” she seethed, taking the paper from Tessa’s hands. “How long do I have? I’m assuming I’m on some kind of a timeline.” 

“One year,” Tessa replied. “If you can’t do it, the deal is void and I’ll find someone else who can help me.”

“I’ll do it. I promise,” she whispered. Before she knew it, she was back home and Tessa was gone. Unfolding the paper, she read the seemingly innocuous name.

Dean Winchester.

----

The following morning, she woke in her apartment, the teddy bear still firmly in her grasp. “Worst dream ever,” she whispered, sitting up in bed. She glanced toward the nightstand, where a piece of paper sat. Dean Winchester. 

“It wasn’t a dream?”

This man will come into your life.

So he’d just cross her path? She had to sit here and wait? 

Tired and dumbfounded, she pulled the laptop toward her lap and typed in his name, searching for some record of the man she was supposed to let into her life. A few Dean Winchesters came up, a character in a book series, a teacher out of the Midwest, an escaped convict accused of killing a number of women. Wonderful. None but the convict made an impression. Could this man, doing his best impersonation of Blue Steel after being accused of murder, truly be the one who crossed a Reaper? Cheated death?

Closing the laptop, she sighed, dropping her head into her hands. What the hell was she doing? How was she supposed to kill a man? A man she didn’t even know? “No, I can’t. I can’t,” she said emphatically. “This is insane.” It wasn’t real? Right? As if to prove her wrong, she felt a darkness at her back, heavy and insistent, but leading her toward the light nonetheless.

----

For the first time in weeks, she shrugged her army green coat on and headed out to the nearest bar instead of taking a bottle home from the supermarket and falling asleep after downing near all of it. Warm light bathed her as she walked through the door and sat at the far end of the bar. Her usual bartender, Zach, seemed surprised at her presence. “Haven’t seen you around in a while. What brings you back?”

“The quality booze,” she replied dryly. Some people wanted to pour their hearts out to their bartender, not her though. “Sick of supermarket wine.”

Thankfully, he didn’t push, instead bringing over her usual. Maker’s Mark neat. Sipping, she quietly hissed the burn, its warmth feeling different now, teasing. Maybe it was the fires of hell licking at her insides for what she was contemplating, the lengths she would go to in order to see her little girl again. 

The familiar, high-pitched bell chime alerted her to the presence of yet another patron of the bar. He came to sit a few seats away, ordering a whiskey on the rocks. When she looked up, she saw him. The Dean she saw in the mug shot - Mr. Blue Steel. 

Tipping the rest of her drink back, she swallowed her morals down along with the booze and eyed Zach for a refill. When Blue Steel caught her eye, she smiled and gave him a soft wave. He was cute. She could do this. She had to do this. Without her baby, there was nothing. He walked over, taking a seat on the stool next to her. “Hey. I’m Dean. Dean Winchester.”

“Hi, Dean,” she said softly, taking the refill from Zach’s hand. “I’m Y/N.” She frowned into her drink before she continued. “My friends and family call me Sunshine.”

----

Dean was easy to talk to; smooth, like the bourbon she’d been sipping on for near an hour. He was open yet guarded. Secrets lay behind his eyes, just as they did hers. Though they hadn't spoken for more than an hour, she could tell he’d gone through more in life than others did in 10. Behind his mega-watt, ladies man smile sat years upon years of pain. “So Dean,” she started, swirling the amber liquid around in the glass. “What brings you to a bar in the middle of nowhere at 11:00 at night?”

“Bad day on the job...” He replied, gulping down a hefty swig of his own drink. “Really bad day. Just need to forget, you know?”

She nodded, understanding settling into the marrow of her bones. “More than you know, Dean. If you want to get anything off your chest, I’m all ears. Think of me as a sponge.”

“Thanks, Sunshine.” The nickname sounded foreign on his lips; she hadn’t heard it in so long. But from his pouty pink lips the name sounded comforting. She wanted to lean into it. “I’m not sure it’s something you would understand. I don’t mean that in bad way. Just...I don’t think you’d believe me.”

If the previous night’s happenings hadn’t occurred, she might have been shocked, but she wasn’t sure if she could be shocked now. This Tessa wanted Dean dead, so presumably Dean was involved in all manner of shit that she would’ve never imagined. “I’ve seen some shit,” she replied, tipping the last of her drink into her mouth.

Dean’s eyes scanned her quickly, as if assessing how much she’d actually seen and whether or not she could be trusted. “D’ya wanna go for a drive? There’s a lake about 10 minutes from here.”

This was stupid. Following a man she didn’t know, having seen his mugshot before, but there was an aura about Dean and it drew her in. Plus, she had to do this - for her baby. When she nodded, he held out his hand to her and smiled. Maybe he wouldn’t be a good man. Maybe she would be doing the world a favor. Something told her she wouldn’t be so lucky. As they walked to his car, she felt the darkness, the guilt, the shame, clawing at her back. 

----

Outside the bar, the moon hung near full in the sky. “This is my Baby,” he said proudly, running his hand along an old Impala. “Through everything, she’s been my constant.”

Dean opened the passenger side door for her and slammed it closed before sliding into the driver’s side like a hand into a glove. She could see he was made for this car. 

As the engine roared to life and they pulled out of the parking lot, Dean asked the one question she didn’t want to answer. But if she was going to get her back, she had to. “So, what brought you to a bar in the middle of nowhere at 11:00 at night?”

Taking a deep breath, she said her name. For the first time in almost two weeks. “My daughter.” She spoke so softly Dean almost couldn’t hear her over the rumble of the Impala’s engine. “I lost her 43 days ago. Cancer. She’d just turned five.”

“Fuck.” Dean smacked the wheel of the car. “I’m so sorry. No one should have to watch their kid go through that.”

A tear fell from her eye but she quickly wiped it away. “No, they shouldn’t. I hope you’re not a religious man, but...if God’s up there. He’s a dickhead.”

“I’m not a religious man,” he laughed dryly. “I have faith in humanity, most of the time, but God’s a vindictive asshole.”

She laughed and let her head hit the headrest just as they pulled up to the lake. The moon seemed closer here, silhouetting them as they walked toward the pier. “D’ya wanna talk about her?” He asked. “I’m all ears too.”

Sitting on a bench near the lake, she told him all about her baby girl. Her father hit it and quit it, leaving as soon as she found out she was pregnant. “I was petrified to raise her myself, but I wanted to be a mom,” she said, voice catching in her throat. “I brought her into this world by myself. I raised her myself. Worked two jobs to make sure I could give her the life she deserved. She was diagnosed with leukemia just after her 4th birthday.”

At first, she’d tried not to cry, but it was no use. “Sorry, I’m just-”

“Raw still?”

“Yea.”

“I get it,” he replied, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. 

She leaned into it, a warmth she hadn’t felt since her daughter insisted on a goodnight kiss the night God took her away. He wrapped his arm around her like this is exactly where they were supposed to be. “Anyway, she knew what was happening, even though she was so young. She was the one that kept me sane. Somehow. You wanna know what she said to me the night she died? Her last words?”

“What’d she say?”

“She’s the one who called me sunshine. She said my smile reminded her of sunshine. Before she fell asleep, she took my hand in hers and said ‘when I go to sleep, look at the sun and think of me. Then I’ll be with you every day.’”

She heard Dean sniffle and turned her head to see a tear fall from his eye. “It sounds like she was wise beyond her years.”

“She was.” Shaking her head, she pulled herself together and changed the subject. “What about you? What happened on the job that brought you to a random bar in the middle of the night?”

He was hesitant at first, asking if she believed in things that others thought impossible - ghosts, vampires, demons. Before Tessa, she would’ve said no, but now it seemed plausible. “I do.”

“I hunt them. The things that go bump in the night that no one believes in. I’ve been doing it since I was a kid.”

Her heart ached for him. Only a tragedy could get a young boy into such a horrific line of work.  

“Tonight, my brother and I lost a father and son because we couldn’t move fast enough.”

“I’m sorry, Dean,” she said softly. She felt this innate desire to comfort him, to tell him he’d probably done all he could, but something in her told her Dean wasn’t the kind of man to rid himself of guilt with so few words. He carried it with him. “I really am.”

“Thanks, Sunshine.”

----

For the first time in weeks, she awoke the next morning to the burn of the sun, but her instinct wasn’t to shield her gaze. Instead, she craned her neck backward, hair slipping against the cool leather of Dean’s jacket. They’d fallen asleep on the bench. “Morning, Sunshine,” he mumbled. “Didn’t mean for us to fall asleep on a park bench.”

“Me either,” she replied honestly. “But honestly it’s been the best sleep I’ve had in months.”

Dean grumbled in agreement. Apparently, he wasn’t much of a morning person. “Wanna grab breakfast?”

She hesitated a moment before her stomach entered the conversation. “I’d like that.”

At the diner, she ordered bacon and eggs and toast to Dean’s pancakes and bacon. Then they ordered an extra side of bacon to split because neither could get enough bacon. They didn’t speak another word of her daughter or his job. “Favorite color?” He asked. “Mine’s red.”

“Green. Three favorite foods? Obviously bacon is one.”

“Pizza and a big fat juicy burger.”

“Pizza and bacon, and then probably really good sushi.”

Dean made a face and they laughed. He liked grade-B horror movies and Disney movies, though he wouldn’t admit to the latter to many. She loved psychological thrillers and gross out comedies. “The really stupid ones that make you question your intelligence,” she laughed. “I like turning my brain off.”

As they paid, Dean pulled her close. “Maybe one day, we can watch one of those together. Order a pizza.”

“Meat lover’s?” She offered, handing him her phone so he could give her his number.

His smile shone brighter than the morning’s sunrise. “Is there any other kind?”

With ease, they strode out of the diner and back into the worn leather seats of the Impala. She still didn’t know this man, not really. He was a monster-hunting, leather jacket-wearing lover of bacon, pizza, crappy horror and Disney, but she didn’t know him. Yet, she gave him her address without a thought and allowed him to walk her to her front door. “Sunshine, with my job, my brother and I are kinda all over the place, but I’d like to see you again. If that’s okay with you.”

“That’s more than okay with me.” 

Dean returned her soft smile and slipped his fingers between hers, tugging her gently until her lips were mere millimeters from his. She glanced at them, inviting him to kiss her. Whatever she imagined him doing, he took her by surprise, pressing the most of chaste of kisses to her lips before pulling away. “I’ll talk to you soon, Sunshine. Okay?” He squeezed her hands in his, a further affirmation of his promise.

When he began to walk away, she called after him. “Thanks, Dean.”

“Anytime.”

----

It was nearly two and a half weeks before they saw each other again, but in the time apart, they texted and called nearly every day, each time letting the other in on a little more of who they truly were outside of their first meeting. “What do you miss most about being a kid?” He asked, voice low and whispery.

“Sam sleeping?”

“Yea,” he replied with a yawn. “I’m not tired yet.”

“You sound it,” she said. “Would it be too cliche to say not having to pay bills?”

Dean chuckled. “Yes, I mean something that tells me something about you.”

“There was a lake nearby my house when I was a kid. Well, not nearby, more like a couple hours away. But my parents would take me there a couple times a year. We’d build sand castles and look for seashells. I miss that. What about you?”

“I didn’t really have much a childhood. I was learning how to hunt before I turned 10. When we were young though, I read to Sammy a lot. Help him get to sleep, you know? I miss that.”

“I’m sorry, Dean.”

“Don’t be. It’s in the past.” This time he yawned so hard he could no longer deny that he needed to pass out for the night. “We’ll be passing through in a couple of days. Can I take you on an actual date?”

Smiling sadly to herself, she rested her hand over her tightening chest. “Looking forward to it.”

----

As promised, Dean showed up at her door two days later with a bouquet of flowers in hand. “How did you know these are my favorite?” She asked, inhaling the sweet scent. 

“Educated guess. Now, we’re gonna go to one of my favorite burger joints-bar-tavern things in the area. They have this killer bacon cheeseburger with an egg grilled into the middle of it that you have to try. They also have pool, so I can teach you how to play.”

During one of their nightly phone calls, she asked them how they made a living doing what they did. Hustling pool, the occasional credit card fraud. You know, the usual, he’d laughed. 

You’ll have to teach me.

“Sounds amazing.”

Reaching into the closet for her jacket, she glanced at the small purple coat, still hanging there, and felt her heart skip a beat. How was she able to go out and smile and have fun barely two months after losing a piece of her heart? It felt so wrong. And yet being with Dean felt so right, so natural. 

He’s a strong man, but he’ll let his guard down with those he trusts.

She swallowed back bile and quickly pulled her jacket out, closing the door against realizations and realities she couldn’t indulge. Plastering a fake smile across her face, she slipped the jacket over her shoulders and allowed herself to believe for one moment that life wasn’t as cruel as it seemed to be. 

----

“Sunshine, I think you might be the perfect woman,” Dean laughed.

At that moment, she was acutely aware of the grease running down her chin. “What this whole, chipmunk look with food in my mouth, guzzling beer is a turn on for you?”

Dean licked his lips and took another bite of his own burger. “Yup.”

“I can’t help it, this might be the best burger I’ve ever had. And that’s saying something.” 

“I told you,” he laughed. It didn’t take long for them to finish their food. “Burger is filling, but they have killer pie too. Wanna split a piece?”

She nodded and watched as Dean easily flagged down the waitress and asked for slice of “good ol’ apple.” “The best one they have, followed closely by cherry.”

Dean looked horrified when she grimaced. “Not a big cherry fan. Blueberry, peach, apple. That’s about it on the fruit pies.”

Less than two minutes after the pie came to the table, it was gone. “We should probably go,” Dean said, craning his head back to the door where a line of hungry dinner guests were waiting. “I think our waitress might kill us if we stay any longer.”

Chuckling, you stood up and reached for your wallet before Dean insisted he pay. “First date, remember?”

“Thanks, Dean.” 

Hand in hand, they walked out the diner and toward the Impala. It was so easy to be with him and more often than not he found herself smiling when he was nearby. But she didn’t have the luxury of falling in love, not if it meant she never got to see her daughter again. 

Tessa said he needed to trust her before...before she did it. “Up for a surprise?” She asked.

Dean raised an eyebrow, clearly taken aback. “Sure, I never get surprises anymore. Where to?”

Without telling Dean what she was up to, she directed him where to go. Less than five minutes later, she approached a park - the same one she used to take her daughter to. “I used to take my daughter here,” she said, zoning off as a vibrant picture played before her eyes. A little girl in a yellow dress ran across the grass and toward her favorite slide. “Sorry. Got lost in a memory.”

Dean’s easy-going smile from earlier faded away when he saw the sadness in her eyes. “We don’t have to be here,” he offered, looking back toward the car. 

“No, it’s okay.” It really wasn’t. But it was a reminder of why she was here, why she was doing exactly what she was doing despite the darkness eating at her from the inside out. “I wanted to share. There’s no one here at night.”

Dean chuckled and pulled her in to kiss her before running onto the playground set like a giant child. He ran up the metal slide and stuck his head out through a tube. “Come on! Let’s play!”

Allowing herself the opportunity to let go, if only for a moment, she ran up to meet him and chased him around the small area before she tripped and fell, bringing her down with him. “Been a while since I’ve been a kid,” he said, helping her up. They sat on the wood mulch of the playground underneath the slide and he pulled her close. “Thanks.”

“It’s no problem.” For a moment, she hesitated. “You said you used to read to Sam right?”

“Mmhmm.”

“Did anyone ever read to you?” When she looked back, she saw sadness in his eyes. “No?”

“Not that I can remember.”

“Close your eyes.”

Without hesitation, his eyelids fluttered closed. She reached into her pocket for her phone, hand shaking at the intimacy of the moment and the pain she felt. As she read - Vonnegut, considering he’d mentioned it in passing during one of their phone calls - he relaxed into her. Eventually, his head lay in her lap, her fingers twirling his messy brown locks. Hours passed. The only reason either noticed was due to the placement of the moon, now bouncing off the slide and onto the metal of a nearby bench. 

Dean sat up, sleep pulling at his eyes as he kissed her cheek. “Thanks, Sunshine. I can’t remember the last time I felt that relaxed.”

Swallowing the lump in her throat, she replied, softly. “Me either.”

----

Two months passed before they saw one another again, but not a day went by with at least a text. Sometimes it was just “I’m okay. Still alive,” other days they were able to actually talk, asking each other the most random questions in an attempt to know one another inside and out. “Hey, Sunshine,” Dean said as she opened the door.

Smiling, she allowed herself to be pulled into his embrace, his lips finding hers. “Hello to you to, Dean. I’ve missed you.” In the months since they’d seen each other, she’d made an attempt to clean her home. TV dinners were no longer piled up in the kitchen. Garbage was taken out when it needed to be. Occasionally, she would even open the blinds. Still, her daughter’s bear sat on the windowsill as a reminder of what she needed to do. 

Dean was unlike any other man she’d ever met and with him, she found herself content, even happy. But what did that say, if she allowed herself the happiness her little girl never got to experience? 

“Now, I know I said a couple days ago that we’d go get a bite to eat, maybe take a drive, but then I got an idea. Trust me?” There was a boyish glint in his eyes she couldn’t deny. 

Her mouth dropped open when she saw him remove a blindfold from his back pocket. “Kinky!”

“Not like that...not yet,” he replied, eyes full of hope. 

Dean wrapped the blindfold around her eyes and led her to the car. He would entertain a single question about where they were headed until shortly later, he stopped, picked her up out of the passenger seat and placed her on the ground before removing the material covering her eyes. “We’re at the beach,” she whispered in disbelief. “You remembered.” Tears burned at the corners of her eyes, emotion running wild. Despite the beautiful weather, the shadows nipped at her feet.

“Of course.” He crouched down to kiss her and wiped the tears away with the pads of his thumbs. “I made macaroni salad, pie, and I brought all the fixings for the perfect burger, which I can make on this.” He pulled out a small grill. “My George Foreman! This is the best thing in the world.”

As promised, Dean made delicious bacon cheeseburgers with a runny egg in the middle, just as they’d had at the diner months before. After every ounce of red meat was gone, they walked along the beach, toes in the sand and looked for seashells. Given that the nearest real beach was hundreds of miles away, seashells were a rarity, but it was perfect nonetheless.

The sun began to set, blue giving way to purples and pinks as they swayed together on the beach. “My place,” Dean started, “The place I share with my brother between cases, it’s about a half hour from here, do you want to-?”

“Really?” She asked. Her stomach dropped. He trusted her. Enough to bring her home, to the place he shared with his brother, the only other person in world he cared for. “You sure?”

“I am.”

If only she was too.

----

Despite how much Dean talked about him, Sam wasn’t what she expected him to be. She grasped his outstretched hand and feigned shyness, unable to look him in the eye knowing what she would eventually do. “Dean talks about you all the time,” he said, shoving his hands in his pockets. “I knew you had to be some kind of woman.”

“Dean’s told me a lot about you. Mostly good,” she replied with a smile. “It’s great to finally meet you, Sam.” 

After she said goodnight, Dean led her down the wide hallways of what they called “the bunker,” his hand heavy and insistent on the small of her back. Inside, he backed her up against the wall, against the shadows, and captured her lips in a kiss so delicate and sincere she would’ve collapsed were it not for him. 

In spite of herself, she sunk into his embrace and wrapped her arms around his neck as he carried her to bed. He trusted her. She knew it in the way he touched her, moaned her name, drank her in. But mostly she knew it in the way he fell asleep peacefully at her side that night.

----

On the morning after their night together, Dean had practically begged her to move into the bunker. “When you leave, I miss you. I hate...being without you.”

She’d been hesitant, but with each excuse he’d countered it. “You make me happy, Sunshine.”

Everything in her had screamed to run, but the earnestness in his gaze pulled her in and she’d complied. While they were away on cases, she would walk around the bunker, gaining more and more insight into the man she’d fallen in love with. Tessa had to be wrong. Dean was a good man - the best she’d ever met.

Screaming into the cold concrete walls of the bunker, she called for Tessa. “I know you’re watching me, you bitch! Answer me!” She slammed her fists against the wall, but no amount of pain could make her feel. “Where the fuck are you?!”

Barreling through the halls like a storm, she gasped when she turned the corner to see her there - the same determination emanating from her as the night they’d met. “Having second thoughts?”

“I can’t do this,” she sobbed, falling to her knees in front of the reaper. “Dean is not the man you think he is. He doesn’t deserve this.”

Disdain radiated from each word. “You only know the man he claims to be.”

“No! I know him. He’s kind. He’s gentle. He does what he does for love. And if he crossed you it’s because you deserved it.” Tears streamed down her face.

Tessa’s gaze melted from soft and endearing into furious and frightening in a matter of seconds. Picking her up by the throat, Tessa tossed her back against the wall. “You’ll follow through on our deal or I will alter it. Get rid of him and you will get your daughter back. She’ll be just as she was and the two of you will live a happy life together. Go back on your promise to me and I will make sure your daughter’s spirit rots in hell for the rest of eternity!”

Sobbing, she clawed at Tessa’s hands. “My daughter did nothing to deserve this! You-”

“BUT DEAN HAS!” She bellowed so loudly it felt as if the walls shook. “And I will use whoever and whatever I need to make him pay.”

“You can’t. You said yourself your bosses don’t trust you anymore!”

“True.” She spoke coolly, her fury gone and replaced with something along the razor’s edge of composure. “But they want Dean dead as badly as I do, if not for the same reasons. Get rid of him, Sunshine,” she said mockingly. “Or I will find someone who will and your daughter will burn.” Without another word, she left her trembling on the floor of the bunker, shadows closing in from every angle.

----

As the weeks passed into months, she awoke each night, screaming, picturing her daughter calling out for her from the fires of hell, begging for her to save her. Dean would lull her back to sleep with made-up stories he used to tell Sam and fervent kisses that said what he couldn’t. 

With the deadline looming large, she tried to think of any way to get the job done. At first, she thought of drugging him with pills. An entire bottle would do the trick and he would fall asleep not knowing the monster that shared his bed, but Tessa wouldn’t allow it, appearing to her again. “I can’t get near him, but you can.”

She was in over her head. Her choices were slim. Either tell Dean, bear the brunt of his hatred and never see her daughter again, or do as Tessa commanded, hate herself and save her daughter’s damned soul. Self-hatred streamed through her veins, but she had no choice.

What started as “kill him in whatever way you can” had morphed into Tessa brandishing a knife she was to use. Every time she tried, pulled the knife from her pocket and attempted to do the unthinkable, she saw his green eyes fade away into darkness. For weeks, she made herself ill, throwing up every day and shivering to sleep in Dean’s embrace at night.

Dean thought she’d been cursed as a way to hurt him, but they couldn’t find any evidence. They’d taken her to the hospital, but unsurprisingly she’d had a clean bill of health. Only she knew the cause of her pain.

“Come on, Sunshine” he said excitedly, “I have a surprise for you.” 

Taking his hand, she followed him out of the bunker to a clearing in a forest just a short way away, where he had another picnic, like the one so many months before, set up underneath the stars. “It’s been 11 months since the first night we met. I probably should’ve waited for a full year, but I couldn’t help myself.”

Awash in darkness, she began to cry. He pulled her close and they began to sway, a clumsy dance that brought a smile to his face. There was no time left. Reaching into her pocket, she grasped the handle of the knife. “I’m sorry, Dean.” Before she could stop herself, she plunged the blade into his chest. 

He grabbed the blade, hissing in pain as she pulled herself away. “Why?” He choked, hands shaking around the knife’s handle. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” she sobbed, backing away. “I had no choice.”

A moment years in the making, Tessa made herself known, kicking his phone away before he could call for help. “How does it feel, Dean? Knowing the woman you love betrayed you?”

With a self-satisfied smile, she disappeared momentarily, only to reappear with her baby girl at her side. Dean made the connection. “I could’ve helped you. I would’ve...I-”

Tessa ushered her away, demanding she run as Dean fell to the ground. “I’m sorry,” she breathed, holding her daughter tight to her chest. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay, Mama. I’m okay.” She remembered nothing.

Through the tear-stained forest, Sunshine ran from the light - the memories of Dean’s touch, his soothing voice, his gentle kiss - and into the darkness, her constant.

#i lied to stu #cbr's 3k celebration #dean winchester #dean winchester x reader #dean winchester x you #dean winchester x y/n #dean winchester fanfiction #dontshootmespence #as i watched in sorrow

[prissyhalliwell]

Author’s Note: It’s been 84 years…or maybe just a year. Still, too long. If you’re reading this epilogue, I love you forever <3 There’s a fair amount of exposition early on, but I promise there’s some really cute stuff after that ;) 

P.S. There was smut published yesterday in this verse as a oneshot. It happens canonically before this chapter, but can be read whenever. Enjoy!

~ Winner of Best Mr. Gold in the 2016 TEA Awards ~  Read on AO3

Chapter Fourteen: Epilogue One Year Later

Belle stood alone on the stage of the Enchanted Forest, enjoying the unusual quiet for a few moments. 

The stage was mostly dark, the overhead lights giving off only enough light for her to make her way around the set without tripping on anything. She had expected to find Gold waiting for her after she received his cryptic text to meet him there, but she didn’t see any sign of him. 

Or anyone else for that matter. 

“Hello?” she asked, warily. At this point in the evening, at least a few people should be around. “Is anyone there?”

Someone was obviously around as the lights were still on. If everyone had gone home, only the ghost light would have been on. Perhaps Gold had just stepped out for a moment. 

Belle blushed when she remembered the last time she’d met him here when the theatre was deserted. If that’s what he was hinting at when he’d asked, he really should have been more specific. 

She would have been happy to grab her princess costume from wardrobe if she’d known. 

It certainly would have been a memorable way for them to celebrate their one year anniversary. Today was one year to the day that she and Gold had finally admitted their feelings for each other and had their first real kiss - an intimate moment that they had happened to share with an auditorium full of strangers. 

Just the memory was enough to bring a goofy smile to her face. In the days following their kiss, she had been so happy that her face had actually begun to hurt from grinning so much. 

The show had been a complete success that night. The crowd ate up the changes and tickets for upcoming shows had begun selling faster than ever, thanks to word of mouth and the glowing review Merlin had given them in the newspaper the next day.  

Her and Gold’s date with Cruella and Ursula had also been a success, but not necessarily as a double date. They’d barely made it through one drink before the costume designer’s patience had worn thin. 

“Alright, that’s it,” Cruella finally said, setting her glass of mostly gin and less tonic down on the table rather loudly. “While I am overjoyed that you two have stopped being idiots, you should probably just get a room already, because I am tired of getting kicked while you pretend you’re not playing footsie.” She shot Belle a dry look. “Also, Granny’s is a family establishment, Belle. If you could keep your hands above the table, that would probably be best for everyone.” 

She and Gold had left pretty quickly after that, giggling loudly as they exited Granny’s, leaving behind a laughing Ursula and an amused, if rather exasperated, Cruella.

Despite Cruella’s suggestion, they hadn’t gotten a room or gone back to either of their places. As well as things were going, they had both felt it was too soon for that step. Though from the way they had spent the rest of the evening making out as they wandered around Storybrooke, Belle had known it wouldn’t be too long before they stumbled their way towards a bed. Or a sofa. Or anything that had a horizontal surface. 

Once Gold had finally gotten over his fear of kissing her, he couldn’t get enough. It was like a dam had broken. Every chance he got, he’d sneak a kiss or wrap her in his arms for a quick makeout session when no one else was around. 

Not that she had complained. In fact, Belle hadn’t known if it was possible to be any happier than she was at that moment. 

But as the weeks and months rolled by, Belle realized she couldn’t have been more wrong. Life was only getting better by the day. 

The theatre’s business flourished under the new script, bringing in steady customers week after week. Sidney had been the first to admit that he had been wrong not to embrace a change before now, and had to frequently be reigned in by Tiana from making unnecessary changes to the script, menu, stage, seating arrangements, interior and exterior of the building, and literally anything else that could be changed in any way, shape, or form. 

Their workshop classes had also taken off, providing an excellent space to experiment with the show’s script and giving Belle a chance to strengthen her improv skills. The students, especially a few of the girls, never grew tired of setting her and Gold up to perform romantic scenes between the princess and chancellor. For the most part, the two of them were happy to indulge the paying customers, especially if it involved an excuse to flirt unashamedly. 

Despite its rather rocky start, her relationship with Gold had been free of the drama that had plagued their earlier interactions. They spent most of their free time together, despite seeing each other every day at work. Their free nights often found them cuddled up on Gold’s sofa, watching old movies and eating popcorn that they’d made in Belle’s air popper, which had somehow taken up permanent residence in Gold’s house, along with half a dozen of Belle’s dresses, a handful of her favorite books, and one or two medium-sized boxes full of shoes. 

Gold was also teaching her to ride one of the theatre’s horses, a small Appaloosa mare named Chip. The horse had a white coat with leopard-like black spots and blue eyes that Gold said reminded him of Belle’s. Chip had gotten her name a year ago from Henry, who had observed that she looked just like a chocolate chip cookie. 

They’d been slightly worried about how the rest of the cast would react to their dating, but they needn’t have worried. Everyone - including Regina - was just relieved that they’d finally figured it out. Tiana had given them a wink the first time she’d seen them holding hands. Leopold had given them an awkward thumbs up while Jefferson and Killian had made some rather inappropriate hand gestures that August had immediately chewed them out for. 

Emma had just rolled her eyes and murmured, “Thank god” into her coffee. 

But surprisingly enough, it wasn’t only their relationship that had flourished. Despite Cruella’s assertion that marriage was not for her, she and Ursula had ended up eloping to Paris six months after their double date. They were now happily living in Cruella’s townhouse with two dalmatians and a large aquarium full of tropical fish. Belle and Gold were invited over for dinner frequently, and always showed up to work the next morning with a hangover while Cruella cheerfully walked by them with a smirk. 

A sudden creak up above her head brought Belle back to the present. She craned her neck towards the lights but couldn’t see anything, though she could swear she heard a muffled laugh. 

She shivered. Perhaps this was why actors didn’t hang out in empty theatres by themselves. It was too easy to imagine they were haunted. 

Beginning to grow impatient, Belle wondered again where Gold was. His text had made it seem urgent, so she had rushed over. Her brain automatically leapt to the worse-case scenarios. Could he be hurt? Could his new job offer have fallen through? 

Gold had finally confessed to her that he had been planning to put in his two weeks’ notice the day she had first joined The Enchanted Forest. The fact that meeting her had convinced him to stay was a great boost to her ego, even as her heart had raced at the idea that they had almost missed working with each other and, consequently, falling in love.   

But thankfully that had not been the case and they had gotten an amazing year and a half to work together. Things had only gotten better in the past year as the theatre had become financially stable and even begun to make plans for expansions. As much as Gold loved his castmates and the character of the Chancellor, it was a good time for him to move on. When the theatre had been in trouble, it had felt like a betrayal to leave, but now that it was a success, Gold could leave with an easy conscience.  

He’d finally accepted Zozo’s offer to join the company at the Dagger Theatre, where he’d be able to perform in a variety of shows throughout the year. His first play with them would be Macbeth and she knew he couldn’t wait to sink his teeth into Shakespeare again. 

Belle would miss performing with him every week, but she knew it was time for him to try something new. She was pretty sure any lingering guilt he might have felt about leaving evaporated when August announced the new script and her leading role in it.

Not only would Belle’s part be expanded, but she was being promoted to queen. Both she and Regina would be queens of warring nations who put aside their rivalry to unite against their true enemy, Killian, after they discovered his plot to play them against one another. 

Having seen Regina in fight mode in real life, she knew the other woman was up for the task. Belle only hoped she could match her onstage.

The fact that she got to stab Killian each night was an added perk. Even if it was only a fake sword that -

Belle froze, hearing something moving in the dark. She paused, trying to figure out where the noise was coming from.

A click echoed overhead, loud in the otherwise silent auditorium. Immediately, the dim lights brightened, bathing the stage in a warm glow. 

Belle spun around, gasping as she saw the giant pink heart projected onto the castle wall behind her. 

Gold appeared from behind the set, dressed in full armor, and carrying a rose exactly like those the knights gave away during the show. 

Belle blinked, wondering if she had fallen asleep on stage while waiting. Surely this wasn’t actually happening? 

He extended the rose to her with a slight bow. “Belle, you’re the only one I want to give roses to for the rest of my life. I am head over heels in love with you and want nothing more than to spend forever by your side. Would you make an honest knight out of me and be my -”

“Yes!” She leapt into his arms, causing him to drop the rose, and kissed him soundly. 

After a moment or two, he pulled back. “I wasn’t finished yet. I had an entire speech prepared!” he said, trying to sound sulky but failing miserably as a broad grin spread across his face. 

Belle laughed. “You can tell me later,” she whispered suggestively, grabbing his collar and raising her face for another kiss.

“You forgot the ring!” yelled a voice from up on the lights. 

Belle’s head swung upward. “Is that Ursula?” 

Before Gold could answer, a second voice chimed in. “Of course, it is! You didn’t think we could let this moron try and pull this off by himself, did you?” 

Gold grimaced. “Thanks, Cruella.” 

Belle stifled a giggle. “Ursula’s right, you did forget the ring.” 

“No, I didn’t! It’s on the rose.” Gold bent over and grabbed the flower. Sure enough, a ring was tied around the stem with a red ribbon. “If you’ll have it?” he asked, the corner of his mouth quirking into a shy smile. 

“She already said yes!” Cruella yelled. “Just put it on her finger already.” 

“Drink your vodka and give the man a second,” Ursula chided. “Honestly, he’s probably a nervous wreck after how long it took you to figure out the lights.”

“I am a costume designer, darling, not a stagehand. These hands were made for art, not working lights!”

Gold ignored them, pulling the ring from the ribbon and holding it up for Belle’s approval. A sparkling blue sapphire with a halo of small diamonds adorned a simple rose gold band. It was perfect. 

She nodded emphatically, letting out a giggle as he slipped it onto her finger. 

“I rather thought it matched your eyes,” he said, soft enough so only she could hear. 

Tears sprang into her eyes. As he pulled her close for another kiss, a cry of excitement went up on the lights.

They both laughed as they kissed, too overjoyed to care about their audience. As always, everything fell away but the two of them when they were on stage together. 

They broke for air, grinning at each other and probably looking like a pair of love-struck fools. Belle couldn’t have cared less. 

A feeling of contentment washed over her, as if her life had come full circle at last. The Enchanted Forest’s stage was where she had first seen Gold, where she’d gotten to know the man behind the Chancellor, and where they had fallen in love. It seemed only right that it had become the setting where they began the next chapter of their lives together.

With a goofy grin still on his face, Gold offered her his arm. “May I escort you to dinner, my queen?”

Belle took his arm, ignoring the catcalls from up above. “Oh, I think dinner can wait a while, don’t you, Chancellor? I can think of a few other ways to celebrate.” 

He smirked. “As you wish, your highness.” 

As they walked out of the theatre’s entrance into the parking lot, they both glanced back at the building. No matter what paths life took them down from here, the large stone building with its giant banner would always be their real home. 

Snuggled up against Gold with the comforting weight of her engagement ring against her skin, Belle smiled up at the old theatre. Perhaps The Enchanted Forest had its own magic, after all. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Author’s note: Shout-out to @beastlycheese for prompting an onstage wedding proposal and @rumpledspinster-art for sending me a video about Medieval Time’s current script which inspired Belle’s new role as queen - thank you both! (Sorry it’s been sooooo long in coming!)  

Also, a big thanks to everyone who has loved on this story over the past four years! I really enjoyed writing this zany bunch of characters. 

#rumbelle #rumbelle fic #belle french #rumplestiltskin #Welcome to the Enchanted Forest #WTTEF

[mikemortgage]

Kevin Libin: On election day, Alberta confronts the betrayal that Notley made possible

CALGARY — The Alberta NDP’s election ad wrapped over the front page of Saturday’s Calgary Herald warned that Jason Kenney was “TOO RISKY” for Calgary. One reason, it said, was Kenney’s “Reckless stunts on the Trans Mountain Pipeline.” By contrast, Premier Rachel Notley, the ad said, stands for “getting pipelines built.”

Even Canadians outside of Calgary are probably aware that no actual pipelines were built in the four years that Notley’s government ruled Alberta. But that’s the circular logic her NDP had resorted to using to try narcotizing Albertans into almost believing otherwise, as they headed into election day on Tuesday.

It goes like this: The NDP has long maintained that patience, collaboration, aggressive climate policies and negotiation with the rest of Canada is key to getting a pipeline built. Kenney’s United Conservative Party believes, after watching export-pipeline projects repeatedly foiled over the past four years, that these things don’t work, and that tougher measures are required, such as retaliating against B.C.’s pipeline obstructionism by cutting off energy exports and cancelling climate policies that promised to buy Alberta “social licence,” but never did. Ergo, says the NDP, Kenney is “reckless” and won’t get pipelines built, while the NDP is responsible and will get pipelines built. All without evidence that a pipeline will ever get built.

That hollow argument may be all Notley has to defend her pipeline legacy, which has so far produced only embarrassment for her and anguish for the province, with the oil-export bottleneck costing a fortune in revenue and jobs (Notley even had to recently force companies to curtail production to ease the glut). But even if she somehow manages to hang on to power after Tuesday, Albertans are far more jaded than they were when she took charge in 2015. Notley tried selling in Alberta a long-lost concept — a faith that Ottawa and the rest of the country would play fairly, in the name of co-operation and unity, with just a little bit of give and take from everyone. That misplaced faith was betrayed repeatedly. It won’t soon surface again.

Instead, while Notley forced Alberta to give till it hurts (could there have been a worse time to impose new, investment-killing climate rules than during a historic oil-price rout?), the rest of Canada has only taken. And taken. The Trudeau government cancelled Northern Gateway and created new bans on tankers carrying Alberta crude (but not other kinds) from the province’s north coast to appease anti-oilsands activists there. It scared off the Energy East pipeline proposal, appeasing Quebec, by continually raising the regulatory threshold until the owners walked away. It layered new levels of additional Indigenous consultation onto Trans Mountain, even after it received regulatory approval. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau even promised to eventually “phase out” the oilsands entirely (while global demand for oil continues to grow). And his government has created a new project-approval process with Bill C-69, currently awaiting Senate approval and unanimously opposed by the industry for its vague and unmeetable tests, like assessing the “gender impacts” of an underground tube and weighing “Indigenous knowledge” against scientific evidence.

Kevin Libin: If the NDP loses Alberta, they'd better pray Notley sticks around

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Vivian Krause: Rachel Notley, the Rockefellers and Alberta's landlocked oil

The dog that never did bark in the Alberta election campaign was that Trudeau would not even deliver Notley the clear plan for a pipeline she desperately needed in time to salvage her credibility before Albertans voted Tuesday, despite all the trust she had put in the federal Liberals to get the Trans Mountain expansion built. Federal judges overturned the project’s original approval in August, adding yet more hurdles for the government to meet on the environment and Aboriginal consultations. But after the National Energy Board once again approved Trans Mountain’s new and improved application in February with a 90-day (albeit non-binding) period for the federal cabinet to respond, 53 days have ticked by as of Election Day in Alberta.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Alberta Premier Rachel Notley meet in Edmonton in September 5, 2018.

Trudeau has offered nothing useful to Notley’s campaign to clearly vindicate her claims that all her climate gestures — hiring hard-core anti-oilsands opponents to legislate limits on production growth, carbon taxes more costly than even Justin Trudeau’s, green subsidies running up the bill for taxpayers even as they struggled through a vicious recession and the elimination of cheap electrical coal power — have all been worthwhile.

When Notley said last week that she expected Trudeau’s cabinet approval to come next month, with construction to begin in the summer, few people could bring themselves to believe her anymore. Such pipeline promises look even emptier than they did last May, when the Liberals purchased the Trans Mountain pipeline from an owner, Kinder Morgan, who was fed up with endless delays, opposition, regulatory roadblocks and the spiralling costs they all bring. “Pick up those tools, folks,” Notley huzzahed at a news conference. “We said we would get the pipeline built and we are getting it built!”

Spoiler: They aren’t. After a summer of curious inactivity on the construction front but plenty of activity from civil disobedients physically trying to block the project came the federal court of appeal decision. Trudeau’s government, abandoning Alberta again, refused to even try appealing the ruling, insisting they owed it to First Nations opponents to follow the court’s ruling, leaving Notley again, with nothing to show for her strategy.

The most likely reason for the cabinet’s delay in responding to the NEB ruling now is the near impossibility of coming to terms with those few First Nations who are dead-set against Trans Mountain. The court had blamed the federal government for failing to “grapple” with their concerns, and seeking ways to change the project to address them. Legal scholars saw this as a new standard never imposed before and the likelihood Ottawa will meet it sufficiently to avoid future court blockades as not high. Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi told reporters last his department has met with most of the 117 Indigenous communities expected to be affected by the project, but provided no sense at all of how the grappling was going.

It only takes one First Nation to overturn it all again (the last hearing was because six bands opposed to the project sued; that more than 30 other bands supported the project mattered not). But that assumes the Trudeau Liberals, sinking in the polls and reeling from scandal, are even interested in announcing a pipeline, risking yet another summer of discontent, with protests roiling in B.C.

Surely their reputation these days for brutal political calculations suggests that Liberal election priorities must come before Alberta. Just as Quebec’s pipeline opposition came before Alberta. Just as a handful of First Nations come before Alberta. Just as the Liberals’ Bill C-69 social-climate-justice campaign must come before Alberta.

Rachel Notley’s rookie NDP government was the embodiment of naïve hope over experience, the belief that if Alberta just sacrificed enough, its concerns would come to count as much as those of others’. She even persuaded some people here to believe it, for a while. That she and they today feel more betrayed than ever, is in large part her fault.

• Email: [email protected] | Twitter: kevinlibin

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