#but also him being MAJOR side eye about this other imaginary father who hands his kid off to smugglers

[robininthelabyrinth]

Tedious Joys - Chapter 2 -

- Ao3 link -

“If you want A-Jue at this time of day, he’ll be at the training field,” Lao Nie said, standing up and immediately striding off in that direction. “Oh, and Qiren, I will warn you – he has his mother’s height.”

Lan Qiren rolled his eyes as he followed behind. “That’s helpful information,” he remarked. “Right up until you recall that I have never had the pleasure of meeting his mother –”

He stopped talking and stared.

“I didn’t think a further explanation was necessary,” Lao Nie said. He wasn’t quite at the level of sniggering into his sleeve, but he certainly had a shit-eating grin. Lao Nie was not a short man by any standard, although he was squatter, more muscular and more broad-shouldered than the tall and slender Lan sect  – and yet…

“He’s under ten,” Lan Qiren checked, and Lao Nie nodded. “You’re sure.”

“I was present at the birth myself, and have cared for him ever since. And before you ask, I may be busy with my duties as sect leader, but I still feel like I would have noticed someone swapping him out for a child several years older.”

Lan Qiren squinted out at the training field, where a child (and it was a child, given the amount of baby fat in his cheeks, even if the overall size was more what he’d expect of a teenager) was happily dismembering a training dummy with an especially fearsome-looking saber under the tolerant supervisory gaze of the training master.

“Lao Nie,” Lan Qiren finally said. “About that first wife of yours…you would tell me if she were an actual giant – or a goddess –”

Lao Nie laughed and patted him on the back. He did not answer the question.

“A-Jue! Come here!” he shouted, and Nie Mingjue – demonstrating excellent discipline – completed his strike before turning around and trotting over to his father. “Say hello to Teacher Lan.”

“Teacher Lan,” Nie Mingjue said obediently, saluting properly like every small child introduced to a stranger, and then looked up. A smile suddenly spread over his face. “Oh, Teacher Lan! Fighting without permission is prohibited!”

Lan Qiren choked and Lao Nie burst out laughing.

“That was seven years ago,” Lan Qiren protested, and Lao Nie only howled more. “You were an infant. How do you even remember that?”

“It was interesting!” Nie Mingjue beamed. “You said that every word in the rule is like a principle – even if you have the rule, you have to agree on what it means. What counts as fighting, what counts as permission, what counts as prohibited…I use it lots!”

“He has a good memory,” Lao Nie said, wiping his eyes. “You should hear how many profanities he’s learned.”

“I would rather not,” Lan Qiren said hastily, because Nie Mingjue looked on the verge of volunteering to recite them. “Nie Mingjue, can you show me around?”

“Of course, Teacher Lan! Let me just put Baxia away first; I’m not allowed to carry her outside the training field yet. Unless there’s an accident, of course.”

Lan Qiren did not ask. As a sect leader who did not share a border with Qishan Wen, he didn’t think he had the right.

“Take your time,” he said, putting his hands behind his back and watching as Nie Mingjue ran away.

“Would it help to have me there?” Lao Nie asked, and nodded when Lan Qiren shook his head. “I’ll leave you two to it.”

Lan Qiren did not put forward any requests, curious to see where Nie Mingjue would take him, and was reluctantly charmed by the fact that their first destination was the nursery, where several pudgy toddlers of indeterminable age were sleeping.

“My baby brother,” Nie Mingjue explained, very seriously, inadvertently driving home that the fact that he was as tall as Lan Qiren’s elbow didn’t make him any older than he was. “He’s little.”

Lan Qiren couldn’t even tell which one of the indiscriminate toddlers wrapped in blankets was meant to be Nie Huaisang, but he nodded, and Nie Mingjue led him onwards, initially mostly silent with belated shyness but eventually coaxed into chattering.

In the evening, he returned to Lao Nie’s study.

“Well?” Lao Nie asked, face creased into the scowl he had on more often than not, despite being widely considered one of the more even-tempered Nie. “What do you think?”

“I think your son is a bright and enthusiastic boy,” Lan Qiren said. “With a remarkable sense of justice and morality that will serve him well, although maybe not so much in terms of politics. He’s very…straightforward.”

“Yes, well, I’m still holding out hope on A-Sang for the tact,” Lao Nie said. “That wasn’t my question and you know it.”

Lan Qiren tried to collect his thoughts. “I don’t think you’ve damaged him for life,” he finally said, and Lao Nie’s shoulders relaxed in a sudden exhalation of what was probably months of increasing stress. “I do think he would benefit from understanding a little bit more about what’s happening to him.”

“But he’s so young.”

“I know. Normally, I wouldn’t introduce the subject of his own mortality at this level of complexity this early – although I assume it’s hard for him to miss the concept entirely, given the political situation –” Lao Nie winced in acknowledgment. “– but I don’t think you have much of a choice. You’re not the only one who noticed the saber spirit.”

Lao Nie frowned, then understood, and frowned even deeper. “He’s noticed it?”

“I got him talking on the subject of his saber,” Lan Qiren said. “He regards it in the same manner as other children his age would an imaginary friend. It’s female, apparently.”

Based on the description, Baxia also had what he would, in one of his students, term a personality. He supposed it was possible that Nie Mingjue was just projecting the parts of himself that weren’t quite fit for company, since surely no one could be that earnest, and yet, based on what Lao Nie had told him…

Lao Nie groaned and put his hand to his head. “Jiwei didn’t develop a sense of gender for years,” he grumbled, and Lan Qiren was moderately certain that he hadn’t intended to admit that out loud. “This is ridiculous. I want him to live a good life, Qiren. A long one, insofar as that’s possible for our sect.”

“I’ll try to do some research,” Lan Qiren said. “In the meantime, could he be convinced to cultivate something else in addition to a saber? Music, perhaps?”

“You’re welcome to try. He’s practically tone-deaf.”

“Perhaps arrays, then, or talismans,” Lan Qiren said. “It would do him some good to find another thing to pour all that energy of his into.”

“I’ll think about it,” Lao Nie allowed. “And I appreciate any research you’re able to do, though of course there are limitations on your time – and what we can allow to be taken out of the Unclean Realm.”

Lan Qiren waved a hand. “It’s nothing. I enjoy keeping busy, and the subject is fascinating. Have you considered that regular visits by me might draw attention?”

Attention from within their sects they could handle, but they were both sect leaders – or acting sect leader, in Lan Qiren’s case – and their actions could never truly be wholly their own.

“I have a plan for that,” Lao Nie said. “It’ll work better if you don’t know about it, though.”

Lan Qiren hated plans like that.

“Very well,” he said, aware that he sounded like he was sulking. “If you must.”

“Could I send him to you next year?” Lao Nie asked, and Lan Qiren forgot his grumpiness to gape at him. “I wouldn’t impose this year, naturally, since you must already have a curriculum planned. But next year…”

“If you send him, that will be making a statement,” Lan Qiren said.

A statement about what, exactly, he did not know, but there was a major difference between being the sort of teacher that was respected enough to teach the sect heirs of some small, out-of-the-way sects and being entrusted with the childhood education of the heir to a Great Sect. Even if Nie Mingjue learned nothing, which seemed unlikely given his earnest performance from earlier, the other small sects would immediately want to follow suit, as if to rub off some of the same luck for themselves – he would be flooded with applicants.

His sect elders were going to hate it.

Although it wasn’t exactly against any of the rules…

“That’s why I’m asking your permission.” Lao Nie grinned at him, his teeth flashing white under his nearly trimmed beard. “Also, while you’re our guest here – you did plan to stay at least a week or two, right? Good, good. I will insist upon you joining me for some night-hunts.”

“Lao Nie…”

“I’ve explained to you how my sect cultivates our sabers. Are you really saying that you can judge that without seeing it happening?”

“You know perfectly well that I’m a weak fighter,” Lan Qiren said, even though that was a very good point, and one he probably would have insisted on himself sooner or later. “I don’t want to slow you down.”

“You never have,” Lao Nie said right to his face – the Nie sect did not discourage all lying, the scoundrels. “I’m serious! You’re not the fastest, no, but you’re perceptive, analytical, and creative. The insights I gain from hunting by your side are long-term gains, making me faster and more efficient in the future.”

“You’re flattering me,” Lan Qiren said suspiciously.

“I am not. The first time we went on a night-hunt together, you stopped by the river to rest and told me about how the flowers growing there were unique because they absorbed spiritual energy but not resentful energy on account of being too close to flowing water; three years later, I used that fact to find a gigantic nest of ghosts and demonic creatures that were using it as camouflage. They’d killed nearly a dozen villagers by that point and no one else could find them, but I did.”

Lan Qiren felt his ears heating up. “…that’s a coincidence.”

“Do you really want me to start naming other examples?”

“I would rather you showed me your library,” Lan Qiren said. He hoped he wasn’t blushing. He was probably blushing. No one else ever teased him the way Lao Nie did, except maybe Cangse Sanren. He was suddenly hit by a nostalgic desire to see her again. “At once, if you please. And also…”

He trailed off.

“Why the hesitation?” Lao Nie asked. “Do you really think there’s anything I would deny you, as long as you find a way to help my son?”

Lan Qiren cleared his throat. “It would be helpful if I could examine a more mature saber spirit that has already bonded to a human master. Your Jiwei, for instance.”

As he expected, Lao Nie scowled at the suggestion of someone else examining his spiritual weapon – and his saber spirit, no less – but after a few moments he collected himself and nodded, albeit begrudgingly. “I’ll leave her with you,” he said. “Be careful when you examine her – she doesn’t like to be touched by anyone but me.”

Lao Nie’s warning turned out to be both true, untrue, and an understatement of frankly shocking proportions.

During the course of Lan Qiren’s investigations into the subject of the Nie sect sabers over the next few months, and thereafter, he determined that the best, if not only, way to deal with Jiwei was to act as though he were handling a particularly vicious and single-minded dog.

Jiwei, it seemed, liked to bite.

If one treated her like a normal saber – an inert piece of metal – she would appear completely quiescent right up until there would be an abrupt and inexplicable accident, clattering off the table with the blade curving straight at clothing and flesh, and only very quick reflexes could prevent disaster. If one attempted to utilize spiritual energy with her, it would be even worse: she would pull as much as she could and feed back nothing, spiteful and ruthless.

A vicious creature, too quick to judge, loyal only to her master, who she loved.

A bit like Lao Nie, in fact. Lan Qiren did not delude himself into mistaking Lao Nie’s passion for righteousness – Nie Mingjue was righteous, a serious child that was always wondering what was right, while Lao Nie was more inclined towards brutal, even callous, practicality that focused on what benefited him and his sect. He would do good, of course, but he could not be forced into it; he had his pride, his temper, and sometimes he erred too much in favor of those over even common sense.

But despite all his rough edges, he did truly love his friends.

He dragged Lan Qiren all over Qinghe whenever he visited, on night-hunts and to resolve minor conflicts, the sort of thing any normal traveling cultivator might do; he showed him the small towns and the hidden cities that Lan Qiren would not have seen on any normal visit, and asked him to play songs for his little family. Nie Huaisang was enraptured by the music, Nie Mingjue largely indifferent – Lao Nie had not been wrong to call him practically tone-deaf – and Lao Nie beaming all the while, even if Lan Qiren suspected that his eldest son’s lack of musical appreciation had largely come from him.

He even, after a stray comment, managed to track down Cangse Sanren, who brought her husband and son to the Unclean Realm and left them in Nie Mingjue’s earnest care while she sat with the two of them, drinking liquor as if it were water to the point that even Lao Nie refused to compete with her – when his protests were eventually overridden, Lan Qiren (who drank tea, of course) was roped in to be their long-suffering judge.

It was a good night.

“Is that another thing I took from you?” He Kexin unexpectedly asked Lan Qiren a week after Lao Nie had publicly announced that he would be sending Nie Mingjue to the Cloud Recesses for Lan Qiren’s classes. The ensuing hubbub, as Lan Qiren expected, had been enormous, and he’d braced himself to discuss nothing else for months, although he hadn’t really expected her to mention it.

The Cloud Recesses separated men and women, and He Kexin had borne two sons; they were old enough by now to live primarily with the men rather than the women, and so they had entered Lan Qiren’s care. He brought them to visit her once a month, and came himself like clockwork every two weeks in between to update her as to their progress, his eyes fixed firmly above her head as he narrated the report as if he were a junior returning from a night-hunt. It was not her fault that his brother had fallen in love with her and ruined Lan Qiren’s life, but it had been her decision to murder a man that had served as the trigger for the situation; Lan Qiren was meticulous about his duty to her as his sister-in-law, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. Or her.

By this point, she was moderately good at respecting that. In the beginning, she’d cursed him viciously every time he came to see her, especially after he’d provided her with definitive proof of her former friend’s lies and machinations. Later, she’d tried flirting with him out of what he could only assume was boredom or perhaps a willful misunderstanding as to why he still visited, assuming that he had perfidious motivations or shared his brother’s taste in women instead of suffering from an overdeveloped sense of responsibility for his brother’s misdeeds. It had taken him several months and, eventually, an explicit offer to even notice, and he’d nearly broken his neck fleeing from the scene.

“I don’t understand what you mean,” he said, still looking above her head instead of at her face. He Kexin had A-Huan’s smile and A-Zhan’s eyes, he knew that, but if he could scrub all of her other features from his mind, he would.

“Sect Leader Nie,” she said, and it was so odd to hear someone refer to Lao Nie by his formal title outside of a political situation or deliberate insult – even Wen Ruohan habitually called him Lao Nie by now, and as far as Lan Qiren could tell, they despised each other – that Lan Qiren’s eyes actually dropped to meet hers. “If you weren’t sect leader, you could’ve married him.”

Lan Qiren choked on air. “Do you think of nothing but sex all day?” he spat out, his cheeks going red. “We are friends.”

“I don’t have much else to think of,” He Kexin said, and he glared as if to communicate whose fault is that and maybe in your next life you won’t solve your problems with murder. “I heard you’ve been spending a lot of time with him, and now he’s sending his son to your care. It’s suggestive.”

“Talking behind the backs of others is forbidden,” Lan Qiren reminded her, and she shrugged. “Do I need to discipline your servants?”

“It’s news, not gossip,” she said. “And no, these ones are fine. No one’s playing any tricks.”

There had been an incident early on, where a few of the servants assigned to care for He Kexin had mistaken her confinement for abandonment; they had not expected Lan Qiren to grimly continue visiting as he would have done if she had been his sister-in-law in the normal course of things, nor to listen when she complained. He had of course taken all necessary measures to have the offenders harshly disciplined and expelled, replaced with servants of good character and sufficient intelligence to keep her company without seeking to take advantage, and there had been no new incidents since.

Her punishment was confinement, not torment. No matter what Lan Qiren felt about her, she would receive exactly that – neither more nor less.

“Is it Cangse Sanren, then?” she asked, propping her head up on her chin. “You fell in love with her, and then she married another man…”

“Sometimes people are just friends,” he said, irritated. “Why must I be in love with anyone?”

He Kexin shrugged. “Don’t you want to marry, one day? Have children of your own, rather than always reporting back to me on mine?”

“I’m acting sect leader,” Lan Qiren said tightly. “A marriage, much less children, would give rise to accusations that I was seeking to usurp my brother’s place or my nephews’ inheritance.”

“So it is another thing I’ve done,” she said, looking down at her hands. They were clenched tightly into fists, her knuckles white; sometimes Lan Qiren thought she wanted to punch him as a means of venting her feelings, and sometimes he didn’t even blame her for it. “I had only been thinking about it in the sense that you couldn’t leave, but you can’t even bring anyone back.”

“I don’t especially want to, anyway,” he said, because it was true. Even if she was right, that even his right to marry freely had been taken from him, it didn’t mean that she had the right to use it as a whip on her own back. If Lan Qiren couldn’t bring himself to obey the rule about not holding grudges, he could at least follow the ones about being generous and easy on others. “I haven’t found the right person.”

“And it’s really not Lao Nie?” He Kexin asked. “You go to visit him often, and for longer periods, than you go anywhere else, and A-Huan says you look happy whenever you’re going to go.”

Lan Qiren shrugged. He was happy to go. He enjoyed Lao Nie’s company, and the research, even when Lao Nie was too busy for him personally, and Lao Nie’s role as an allied sect leader meant that Lan Qiren had more latitude in arranging such visits than he did to other places.

“…A-Zhan says that your hands are white when you return.”

Lan Qiren’s eyes dropped to his arms, where there was in fact some white peeking out from beneath his sleeves – white bandages on his left wrist and the two smallest fingers on his right hand, this time, from the latest incident in which Jiwei had tried to slash him, but it was barely a nick in comparison with previous instances; he thought that it was a sign that they might be getting somewhere.

A moment later, he realized the implications of her statement and glared at her. “You’re not seriously asking if Lao Nie is abusing me? Weren’t you asking about my marriage prospects with him only a moment ago?”

“The two are not mutually exclusive,” she said dryly. “And the Nie temper is well known.”

“It’s from research,” Lan Qiren said. “I dropped a saber and I knocked over the table on to my other hand when trying to dodge.”

“I believe you,” she said, lips twitching. “If only because you would’ve come up with a more dignified excuse if it was a lie.”

“I don’t actually have to explain myself to you,” he said, reminding himself as much as her. “Is there anything else you want to know about your sons?”

“No,” she said. “But I’d like my husband to visit me again, if you can arrange it.”

He nodded stiffly.

“You know,” she said, playing idly with her sleeves. “If you never marry, I’ll be the closest thing you ever have to a wife? You manage my house, you raise my children, and you even provide me with services in bed, albeit indirectly.”

Do not succumb to rage, Lan Qiren thought to himself, and left without another word.

(Later, when Cangse Sanren next visited the Cloud Recesses, her husband taking A-Huan on a ride on their donkey with A-Zhan and A-Ying tucked into the saddlebags, she listened to him stammer through the whole humiliating story and gnashed her teeth on his behalf. “Don’t listen to her,” she told him. “By that standard, the rabbits she likes to raise are her concubines.”)

His simmering anger made his next session with Jiwei flow more easily, almost as if the saber spirit empathized with his rage – or perhaps it was simply that she found it more familiar, more reminiscent of the temper of her true master, and therefore less objectionable. He was attempting to draw out some part of her anger through music and store it into a jade pendant: his theory was that the eventual qi deviations of the Nie sect leaders resulted from a lack of balance with the resentful energy utilized by the saber spirit – the negative emotions streaming in through the saber, strengthening it, but having no means of cleansing beyond outbursts of temper.

It had been the way Nie Mingjue spoke of his saber spirit as if she were his friend that had given him the idea. Many in the Nie sect treated their sabers with both reverence and fear, as if the spirits were vicious creatures they had only temporarily tamed and which would one day turn upon them, but Jiwei was passionately loyal to Lao Nie, and Baxia to Nie Mingjue. Perhaps it was his inheritance as a Lan showing, or merely his own experience with his brother, but Lan Qiren simply could not understand how anything that loved so unstintingly, so unreservedly, could ever bring themself to intentionally bring about their beloved one’s destruction.

Even a dog would refuse to bite a master it loved unless it had gone mad.

Therefore, he concluded, it was not merely the human wielder but the saber itself that deviated in their cultivation. Lao Nie had once said in an aside that it was unclear what came first, the Nie sect tempers or the saber spirit-incited outbursts, and although he had meant it as a joke, Lan Qiren thought there was some merit to the question. Rage served a valuable purpose for humans, acting as a warning sign that something was wrong, that something was unacceptable, rejection and protection all at once, but rage that could not be excised would turn rancid and sour, like a poisoned wound. Sabers were cultivated by their masters and resembled them – they were filled with human rage, intensified by their cultivation of resentful energy, but unlike a human they could not shout or hit something or vent in any way other than through hunting.

No wonder Jiwei was so content after a night-hunt; no wonder Nie sect cultivators got irritable when they hadn’t had time to cultivate their sabers or fight evil or just get out and do something. But with limited venting opportunities (humans could not fight evil all the time), the sabers would fall into obsession, infected by the very same resentful energy that they excised when they hunted – their bloodlust simultaneously sated and inflamed – and as their power grew, and their true opponents grew fewer, they would become insatiable and, eventually, unbalanced. Demonic cultivation was abhorred by the cultivation world because it opened the door to obsession and fixation, and the most common way that demonic cultivators died, if not executed by the world, was through a backlash of their own power. Obsession was by its nature rigid, and that was the sole weakness of the saber: they had to be rigid, but never too rigid, or else they would become brittle, would break.

Deviation.

It was a very interesting theory, even if Lao Nie’s eyes glazed over whenever Lan Qiren tried to explain. Lan Qiren didn’t take offense: Lao Nie had always been an exceptionally practical man, more interested in results than theories, actions rather than thoughts.

“Aren’t you disappointed?” Lan Qiren asked him at one point, abrupt as he always seemed to be about such things. “That I haven’t gotten anywhere?”

Lao Nie looked surprised. “What do you mean? You have a valid theory, you’ve tried all sorts of things.”

“I haven’t succeeded.”

Lao Nie laughed. “My friend, this is a problem that has stymied my sect for generations. Did you really think you’d be able to solve it in three weeks?”

Lan Qiren scowled. “It’s been closer to three years.”

“You’ve made progress,” Lao Nie said confidently. “A-Jue has as solid a foundation as I could hope for, and all those conversations you have with him about the nature of ethics and morality have had an excellent effect on his saber.”

“Has it?” Lan Qiren asked, skeptical. Even the Nie sect experts agreed that Baxia was unusually vicious for a saber, powerful enough to frighten wild yao simply with her presence – Nie Mingjue’s cultivation remained shockingly fast, and even Lan Qiren, who had only a few years understanding of the saber spirits, could recognize the effects of it.

“It has,��� Lao Nie said firmly. “He doesn’t fear her, and she loves him all the more for it, backs him like none other; no other saber of his generation will so much as waver out of line with Baxia behind them. As for the rest…ah, Qiren, if you can figure out a way to stymie the saber spirit even a little – give him even another decade – I’ll be satisfied. Don’t worry about it.”

Lan Qiren huffed and returned to trying to transfer spiritual energy from Jiwei to the pendant.

“Besides, all this time spent on the project has had at least one good effect,” Lao Nie added, putting his hand on Lan Qiren’s shoulder as he played. “I get the pleasure of your company.”

Lan Qiren’s attention was fixed on his playing, but the hand was warm on his shoulder. “That hardly seems so much of a benefit,” he said absently.

“You underestimate yourself. Do you know, outside of my sect, I think you’re my best friend?”

Only years of training allowed Lan Qiren’s fingers to continue to move smoothly over the guqin strings when his heart seized in his chest, warm and hot and squished and painful and pleasurable at the same time.

He did not allow himself to ask “Really?” like a small child, insecure and uncertain, did not permit himself to say “even above my brother”, did not say anything at all.

“Thank you,” he finally said, stiff and wooden. “I…you as well.”

#mdzs #lan qiren #sect leader nie #nie mingjue #my fic #my fics #tedious joys

[deans-baby-momma]

Mommy’s (Not So) Good Girl

A/N: Here it is guys! My new story, Mommy’s (Not So) Good Girl. It will be posted on Wednesday mornings and Friday afternoons. Hope you enjoy! 

Summary: What if when Lisa and Dean had hooked up all those years ago, she'd had Abby, a pre-teen daughter?Now here it is almost a decade later, Dean is back to try out "the apple pie life" as he put it.

A month from turning 21, when Abby's mom allows an old hookup to move in with the family she realizes her younger brother Ben resembles Dean a lot and wonders if her mom knows this is Ben's father.

But, what happens when she get drunk on her 21st and has to call for a ride and Dean answers?The backseat of her mom's car now holds secrets that they both hope never surfaces. And can they stay away from each other?

“Abigail! Benjamin! Dinner's ready." my mom yells up the stairs. 

I close the book I am reading as I hear my bratty 9 year old brother answer back.

"I'm in the middle of a battle!"

I roll my eyes as I stretch. 'Kids and their stupid games', I think.  I am a college student at home for summer break and my little brother is worried about winning an imaginary fight on his game. Yea, he's going to be in for a surprise when he gets out in the real world.

A junior at Purdue University, I am studying Finance and Economics but while on breaks I work as an aide at the local library on the weekends, to help my mom with keeping food in the house.

My mother, a yoga instructor and single parent, is Lisa Danielle Braeden and we have lived in the same quaint house in the same quaint town of Cicero for my whole life. 

Mom smiles at me as I enter the kitchen, ready to get some sustenance before going back to read next semester's syllabus. What can I say, I like to be prepared.

It is a typical Tuesday evening in our house. I've washed the laundry I brought home, unpacked my bags and kept an eye on my brother while Mom worked and then came straight home to take care of us.

My mom has always beamed with pride at how well I excelled in high school, graduating with honors and being accepted into the finance classes at BU.

"How's it going baby girl?" she asks, handing me a plate.

Benjamin, Ben for short, finally graces us with his presence and Mom ruffles his hair as he begins scooping out his food.

As we are eating, the doorbell rings.

"I got it," Mom says and leaves the room.

Ben takes the opportunity to throw me a glare and I scoff. "What's your problem brat?"

"You are.  Miss goody two-shoes who does no wrong. All you do is study and work. Don't you have any friends?"

"Do you," I sneer. "Other than the ones from your game?"

At that moment Mom walks back into the room with a smile on her face. Behind her is a person who looks familiar. I feel as if I should recognize him, as if I know him. And then I remember.

Years ago, back when it was just me and Mom, this man spent a whole weekend here. I never thought I'd see him again, like all the other men Mom had paraded through in my 20 years.

I was about 14 when I realized all the 'friends' who stayed here for a day or two weren't anything other than Lisa Braeden's flavor of the week. 

Seeing this man reminds me of early Saturday morning, eating cereal in the den and watching-and laughing- at cartoons with him. And the ride to the ice cream store in the sleek black muscle car, the wind blowing through my air and the engine rumbling under my butt.

If any of Mom's conquests were to return, Dean Winchester is the last one I expected. He had actually paid attention to me and hadn’t treated me like an inconvenience. He had been nice.  

And now here he stands, back in our home.

 "I remember you."

“Holy shit,” Dean exclaims as he looks at me. “You cannot be Abby?”

“Sure am,” I smile as I answer.

“Wow, you grew up!” He says as he passes by Mom and comes over to give me a hug. “Guess you probably done outgrew Scooby Doo, also huh?” He laughs as he steps back from the embrace. “If I remember right, you had a major crush on Fred.”

I blush at the thought of a young me gushing to this stranger about how cute I thought a cartoon was. Ah, the innocence of youth.

“Eh, I’m more into Shaggy now.”

Dean laughs and glances across the table at my brother. He does a quick double take and then reaches out his hand. “Hi I’m Dean. I’m a friend of…”

“My mom. Yea I got that,” Ben nonchalantly cuts him off, and goes back to eating. Rude kid!

Mom grabs a plate from the cabinet and sits it down at the end of the table where she usually sits and walks to the fridge. Opening the door, she says, “I only have the light stuff. Is that okay?”

“Yea. Yea,” Dean answers as he takes his place at the head of the table. Mom sits the beer at his side and kisses his cheek. “Dig in.”

As we eat, we catch up with one another. Dean asks Mom if she is still into yoga teaching and asks me all about school. He exclaims that he cannot believe that I am in college already and then brings up some embarrassing thing I’d said and did from that weekend oh so long ago.

Dean tries bringing my brother into the conversation but Ben keeps quiet, scowling across at us,  never saying a word. He eyes this man up and down, this stranger to him, but who is an apparent friend of mine and Mom’s. 

“Can I be excused?” he asks when he is done and Mom nods, not really paying attention. Instead she is hanging off every word out of Dean’s mouth.

Ben gets up and I have to remind him to take his dishes to the sink, which he mumbles hatefully about. He gives one more look at the three of us and then sulks out of the room. What is his problem, I wonder. If he’d just stay here and get to know Dean, I’m sure he would like him. 

They both seem to like taking things apart and finding out how they function. Dean had fixed the toaster oven and the furnace for Mom when he was here. And if I remember correctly Dean liked classic rock, which is the exact kind of music I hear pouring out of my brother’s room sometimes. Also, I can tell Dean still has that same cocky know-it-all attitude…..kinda like Ben.

Realization hits and I start doing the math. I was ten, almost eleven, when Dean spent that weekend here and now I am going to be turning 21 in less than a month. That means that weekend was almost ten years ago. Ben would be turning 9 on his next birthday. 

I look at my Mom with shock. Could it be? They are an awful lot alike, Dean and Ben. Did she know? Had Mom kept this a secret? How had I never thought to ask her who Ben’s father was? How had I not put two and two together before now? 

Was Dean Ben’s dad?!

That night, Mom invites Dean into her bed like it was natural. To me, it was something she used to do all the time. Whoever was at the house got to sleep in her bed, with her. At the time, in my prepubescent mind, I thought that was all they were doing. How naive I had been!

Since Ben came along, though, she hasn’t had many sleepovers with strange men. Actually in the last 10 years there have only been a couple and that was when my brother was still an infant. Was it because Dean had knocked her up and she was hoping and wishing he would return so she could tell him? Would she tell him now? Would Dean become my step-dad?

I have so many questions that need answers and I don’t even know how to begin to get them.

If you would like to be tagged for this series, please send me a message or an ask. I will gladly add you. 

@lostinaseaoffictionalbliss​ @spnbaby-67​ @tftumblin​ @sea040561​ @delightfullykrispypeach​ @larajadeschmidt13​ @atc74​ @vicariouslythruspn​ @squirrelnotsam​ @death-unbecomes-you​ @sandlee44​ @blacktithe7​ @deanwanddamons​ @hoboal87​

#new story #Mommy's (Not So) Good Girl #dean winchester #lisa braeden #abby braeden #ben braeden #dean x lisa #dean x abby #canon divergence #deans-baby-momma #supernatural #spn fic #spn fanfic #supernatural fanfiction

[angelruel]

vintage

      summary: the reader gets into an accident which causes her to lose her memory. as Ruel begins to rebuild their relationship and recall the good memories between them, some bad ones are restored as well and might threaten their future.

masterlist      part 2

Word Count: 3.6 k

        Thoughts of worse case scenarios and disasters clouded his mind. After getting that unforeseen phone call, there was nothing left to do except book the earliest flight and rush his way to her. 

        Ruel wasn’t given too many details. All he was told was that his girlfriend had a drunk Uber driver, the crash was big, and her head was hurt badly. He’d never felt more helpless in his life before. And the 16-hour flight was beginning to feel like it would never end. He never slept through flights but he also never sat up staring at the home screen of the airplane monitors, either. There was no listening to music or audiobooks when his mind provided enough loud thoughts to last a lifetime. Ruel’s head felt heavy. He kept replaying their last conversation over and over again. Guilt flooded any positive bridges he tried to aid his confidence with some hope that maybe she would be okay at the end of all this. But even if her life wasn’t ending, would she even want him to be apart of it anymore?

        The piercing sounds of his mental tyranny were silenced once he heard the pilot’s announcement of a successful landing. Ruel couldn’t be bothered with the idea of getting a hotel room or even trying to see what clothes he packed in the small bag he made in his rush to the airport. He knew there was a chance that he might not be able to see her at all since members outside of the family were usually prohibited from visiting ICU patients, but none of that mattered. He just needed to know what was going on. He had tried to stay in close contact with her parents and brother during his travels but between the timezones and lack of signal on the plane, he was only informed of her need for an emergency brain surgery that night. It was almost 8 am when he arrived so he assumed that she would be asleep if she was even out of the procedure by then. 

        He was immediately met with Y/N’s younger brother in the lobby of the hospital. Ruel knew something was off by how quiet her brother was being in the elevator. When he saw him click one of the highest buttons on the navigation panel, he immediately questioned what the letters “SC” stood for. His suspicions were gone as soon as they made it to the floor and he read the sign ahead of him which said “Special Cases Unit.”

        Her mother was more than ecstatic to see him and embraced him with a huge hug when she caught view of the two boys.

         “I’m so glad you’re here…...I’m so sorry, I don’t even know what happened.” She was struggling to speak in between sobs. Ruel rubbed her back while his heart broke right along with hers. She finally pulled back to look up into his swollen eyes.

        “Is she...okay?” His thick accent was amplified and Adam's apple quivered as he tried to choke back his own cries. Her mom fell back into her seat as if her body couldn’t take anymore and Y/N’s father stepped in to answer Ruel’s question.

        “She’s okay, physically. She woke up about two hours after the procedure. But she’s not...there all of the way.” The concerned look in Ruel’s eyes turned into confusion and it felt as though all of the worse case scenarios that he imagined were becoming a reality.

        “What-what does any of this mean? Did the brain surgery not go well? What’s wrong with her?”

         “She doesn’t know who we are.”

         His world seemed as if it were crashing down around him. His vision grew cloudy as it did when he initially got the phone call with the news of the crash, but he tried to pay as close enough attention to what was being told to him so that he could do whatever needed to be done. Ruel always feared losing the ones he loved, but he never imagined any of them being taken away from him in this manner. This felt all so...torturous. As if there was a higher being up above pulling the strings of coincidence and having a huge laugh at his expense. 

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        Everything appeared to be light when he walked into the recovery room. Like the entire room was covered in a comforting aura, not too different from the way Y/N had of making someone feel with her presence before the accident. 

        Her bedding was covered with her favorite blue quilt, her feet were exposed but covered in adorable fuzzy sheep socks. Ruel assumed she was sleeping by the silence in the room. He grabbed one of the couch chairs, scooted it closer towards her bedside, and decided to take a nap. Her mother had already extended an invitation for him to spend as much time as he wanted in there since they would have a lot to talk about and she could see the exhaustion worn out on his face from the sudden travels taken. 

        Y/N’s head was turned to the other side of the room, but he could see that it was wrapped in fresh gauze from the procedure. He didn’t want to get in her face and startle her if she woke up since she didn’t know who he was. However, Ruel found himself restless as he awaited the moment he would get to “meet” his girlfriend. Another part of him was thanking fate for granting him a chance to relive their relationship without regrets. He thought about what he would do differently. He thought about whether or not she would even want to be with him in the first place. She did before, and he was still the same person, so nothing should have changed. Hopefully it didn’t.

        The back and forth in his head was hushed with the soft coo of her voice. He hadn’t even noticed that she had turned around to look at him.

        “Hi,” she repeated with the same soft smile she had given him the first time they’d met. It was clear that she had no idea who he was. And by the rosy tint in her cheeks, she was still very much infatuated with him. 

        “...hi.” He tried to respond in an eager tone, but not too eager, as he didn’t want to freak her out or come on too strong. He didn’t want to seem like a creepy dude who waited at her bedside to speak with her, but that was exactly what he was. 

        She started to sit up in her bed and Ruel stood in concern with his arms out toward her.

        “I don’t know if you should be doing that yet, you just had some major procedures.”

        “Yeah, yeah, I know.” She gave him a hesitant look. She was obviously freaked out by the stranger sitting in front of her. The girl who was once so comfortable around him was now slowly backing away from him in small scoots as much as she could in the tiny hospital bed she laid in.

        “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to scare you.” He was met with another blank stare from her.

        “Just wanna make sure you’re comfortable.” Ruel smiled at her which granted him a smile back.

        When she smiled back at him, she went to push up her glasses that were currently not on her face. Something she only did when she was nervous.

        “Excuse my forwardness, but if you don’t mind, who exactly are you?”

        Very forward.

        The question didn’t hurt Ruel half as much as he anticipated it to. In reality, he was just grateful to be sat down talking with her at all. He could almost call it a miracle that she was still here with him but he refused to think how much worse her conditions could have been. 

        Instead, he simply smiled and replied, “I’m Ruel.”

        “Ruel, Ruel. That’s a cool name. I’m Y/N.”

        His smile grew bigger. He didn’t expect her to remember anything, let alone her own name. “Yeah, I know.”

        “Oh, yeah. That makes sense,” she began to look down and play with the ring on her hand before looking up at him again with hopeful eyes. 

        “So how do we know each other, Ruel?”

        Ruel hesitated to respond. How weird would it be to say ‘I am your boyfriend,’ to someone who you just met two minutes ago? Well, more like met you two minutes ago. She had two minutes of memories with him and he had two years of memories with her.  He wasn’t some random guy taking advantage of her memory loss who was posing as her boyfriend to get close to her. Her family wouldn’t have let him get through to the room if that was the case. It’s not like she knew who they were, either.

        “We were friends.”

        “Friends, huh? Well okay. That’s cool. We must’ve been best friends since you’re up here to visit me this early in the morning.”

        “Yeah, we were. I uh, actually got you that ring you’re wearing there,” he pointed to her left hand which sported the blue promise ring he gave her after some anniversary that he couldn’t even remember. He was shocked that she had it on. 

        “So you lied then, huh” Ruel’s expression turned to confusion and she erupted into laughter. “You didn’t tell me we were married, Ruel.” She pushed her imaginary glasses back again and tried to pull down the right sleeve of her sweater. This tone she had about her, he recognized it. She was flirting with him.

        And then he laughed with her. Still a nervous laugh, but a laugh nonetheless.

        “Hah, yeah. See the thing is, not married but we were together.”

        “Together? Like, together together?”

        He could only nod in response. What was he to say to her in this situation? Her reaction to this was simply going to determine the course of their relationship from there forward.

        “Like boyfriend and girlfriend? Is that so?” She joked in a matter-of-factly tone. 

        That didn’t sound like a positive tone.

        “Is that a bad thing?”

        “No, not at all. It’s just unbelievable.” Her face read pure disbelief.

        Was she being serious? Had she no idea how crazy he was about her? Of course, she didn’t. In the early stages of their relationship, Y/N struggled with insecurities and the need for reassurance that Ruel was actually into her. He gave her all of the comfort she needed and he was more than willing to do it again. It was weird to think that she was there but not there.

        “Okay well I need some proof here, Ruel.”

        “Proof?” 

        “You can’t just hop in and say you’re my boyfriend and then not have anything to back it up on. For all I know, you could be some deranged stranger who snuck into my room and is taking advantage of my memory loss.” Huh, maybe it wasn’t as far fetched as he thought.

        She ended that last statement with a proud smile which made him chuckle softly. Her expression shifted from her cheeky grin into a perplexed smirk as she hesitated to continue the conversation. He sat back down and gave her the signal to go ahead.

        “Do you have any pictures of us?”

        “Sure, here’s one right now,” he moved with a nervous quickness as he patted down his pants to fish for his phone out of a pocket. He motioned it towards her to grab.

        It was his lockscreen. The two of them, in a room of some sort. Maybe a bedroom? He was sitting in an office chair and she sat on his lap. They were laughing at each other or something. His large hand cupped the side of her face while the other wrapped firmly around her waist. She finally looked up from the screen to take another look at him for an explanation. He was studying her intently. 

        “Yeah, so uh this was basically the last time you came to visit me at home. About two weeks ago. My sister took the picture. It’s one of my favorites at the moment.”

        Y/N took another look at the phone screen before dropping her head low. Her eyes began to build up willowy clouds of tears and she let out a soft cry. Ruel bent his head down to meet her eyes with concern. Confusion erupted and he looked confused as to what had just happened.

        “What’s wrong? Do you need me to get a nurse? What’s going on?”

        Y/N sniffled and wiped her nose with the fuzzy blanket that covered her legs. When she lifted her head to meet his eyes, hers were red and puffy. Ruel stared at her with hurt in his own eyes. It looked as if he just wanted to take away any pain that she was feeling.

        “I don’t remember any of it.”

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

        Y/N’s eyelashes fluttered open and her sleepy face morphed into a stern mug. The constant beeping from her monitors went from a soothing lullaby to an annoying alarm. She turned her head slightly to see the long haired boy staring back at her hopelessly. The fading lights from the tv in the corner of her ceiling illuminated his face. How long had she been asleep?

        “you’re still here,” her voice hummed out.

        He let out a low chuckle, “I am.” A clear silence hung above them. Not awkward this time, just still.

      “I can leave if you want. I mean, if it makes you uncomfortable.”

        “-no, no. You should stay. I like the company.”

        He smiled. “Well good. Because I didn’t really plan on leaving anyways.” The silence was cut by mutual laughter.

        “It’s just a little weird, though.”

        Ruel tilted his head in curiosity, “What’s weird?”

        “Oh, you know. Spending time with a girl who doesn’t know who you are,” her face grew into a cold smile again. She may not have remembered much but she never lost her sarcasm. 

        “Or anything about herself,” she added and looked down again. 

        “I didn’t have any other places to go in mind when I bought my plane ticket.”

        “You flew out here?” He nodded. “Oh wait, you said in the picture that I came to visit you ‘at home.’ Where’s home for you?”

        “Sydney, Australia. That’s where I live.”

        “Ohhhhh. So that’s where the accent came from. Okay. Cool, cool.” After saying that, her lips puckered into a pout. She seemed weirdly accepting of everything. Her cute reactions to learning things about him was so entertaining to him.

        “Wait, how did I end up with a boyfriend from Australia?” Her fascination in him was adorable. It was also refreshing to have this new sense of discovery between the two of them.

        Ruel’s exhaustion all but faded away once he got carried away with explaining the entire story of how they met to Y/N. He answered every question that she had without hesitation. He told her everything he could think of and she listened with open ears. He talked to her until the exhaustion hit and he fell asleep mid sentence. She just laid there and watched him in admiration. He had clearly used every ounce of energy left to pay her attention and his restful state was quite angelic. His arms were crossed and he sat up in the lounge seat adjacent to the bed. His head laid to the side, lips pierced slightly opened where little snores escaped. Y/N was crushing hard.

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

        “Guess what I did today,” she suggested eagerly as she snatched a green bear from the bag sitting in Ruel’s lap across from her and proceeded to chew the head off.

        “What’d you do?” He gave her a soft smile.       

        Ruel enjoyed the back and forth that they were able to enjoy. Things were starting to feel normal. In a weird, very not normal way. 

        “I remembered my parents.”

        Ruel felt himself slightly choke on the few gummy bears he had just stuffed into his mouth. He wasn’t expecting that. It had only been two days. 

        “What did you remember?” He managed to get out between muffled chews. He tried to hide his disbelief. It shouldn’t have come as much of a shock to him, though. Y/N was always extra resilient in difficult times.

        “As weird as it is, I remembered the most random memory of them. We were all gathered in the kitchen to help my brother. Jason, no. His name is John I think. He was sick though. And we were all trying to make him take his medicine. And then, all of a sudden, I grabbed the little cup and drank the cough syrup for him. And he got all jealous that I had drank his medicine. Then they both-both of my parents-also drank a little cup full of the medicine. He drank it so fast,” she laughed and used her hands to narrate the story. 

        “We never had a problem with the medicine again.” Y/N turned her head back to him and folded her hands in her lap. 

        Ruel stood up and began pacing the room. He was excited. “That’s good. That’s so good. I wish I would’ve been here to witness it. I bet your mom cried.” She laughed in response and confirmed his assumption.

        “Well, even stalkers need rest sometimes,” she joked in reference to the new nickname she’d labeled Ruel as a stalker. That was all he did after all: stare at her and break for sleep in the hotel down the street.

       Ruel floated across the room and towards her bed. He pressed his hands against the rails at the end of it. “I wonder what else you could remember if we triggered it. Do you remember what happened right before you got the memory?”

        “Not really. We were just talking at it all came to me. I remembered their names and everything. It felt nice.” She nonchalantly continued to steal the gummy bears from his bag that he’d left in her lap. 

        Ruel looked up as if he was brainstorming up a plan to jog some more memories. 

        “So we just need to talk more. Maybe if I bring you some items to help bring some stuff back.”

        “Items?”

        “Yeah, a few things I have from you. You get kind of...emotionally attached to material things. I’ve grown quite a collection over the time we’ve spent.”

        “Ooh, maybe if you could bring me a few pictures to look at. That might help.” She watched him pace around the room. It felt as if they were a team working together to solve a mystery. Or find hidden treasure. The treasure in this case were her memories. They seemed so valuable and delicate since she didn’t have them anymore.

        “I have to go home in a few hours. I can bring some things when I come back.”

        She looked up at him as if he’d just killed her best friend. “You’re leaving?”

        “Only for a while, honey. I just have to get some things in line. I kind of left without any notice. But I plan on taking more time off to spend with you.”

        “Is um...Nate gonna be okay with the amount of time you took off? That’s his name, right?”

        “Hah, yeah. It’s Nate. And everyone is very understanding of the circumstances. They all just want to see you get better.” He looked up at her with optimism as he sat back down. Anytime she would bring up the outside world or his very real responsibilities, he would shut her down. Ruel was dead set on focusing just on Y/N and what she needed at all times. It made her wonder about their relationship sometimes. Made her wonder if she gave him half as much love as he gave her. Trying to somehow figure out what she did to deserve such kind people to take care of her.

        “Well, tell them that I appreciate it.”

        He reached out to place his hand on top of hers. His fingertips graced on top of the IV coming out of her hand. His were much larger than hers. It was kind of funny to look at. “Will do,” he remarked with a smile.

        “So you don’t think there will be any consequences to the sudden break you’re taking in your career? Like, won’t the fans be disappointed?” He had told her a little about his life, but not in too much detail. All she knew was that he was a singer and he was pretty popular among teenage white girls. When he showed her some of his music online, she was shocked by the amount of success he’d acquired over such a short time period. Her favorites were “Younger” and “Don’t Cry” but she really enjoyed all of it. He loved watching her listen to his music for the first time. Well, the second first time. 

       He took her hand in a firm grip. “They’ll all understand. They love you almost as much as I do.” She smiled back at him. The connection was obviously still there. He always told her he loved her in middle of conversations or right before he would leave, but she never said it back. Ruel told her he understood. He understood that she didn’t want to say anything she didn’t mean. But he also explained to her that even though her feelings had gone away, his never did.

        “Yeah well hopefully you can last this plane ride without leaking any other cover art to them,” she turned her head at him in a joking manner.

        He laughed, “Yeah hopefully.” Ruel looked back up at her. He couldn’t believe it.    

        “Wait, what?” The last time Ruel took the long flight from visiting Y/N, he’d been so disoriented from lack of sleep that he accidentally posted a picture of the new cover art for an unreleased song on his story instead of sending it to a friend. He never mentioned that to her.

        She looked confused. “What?”

        “Y/N, you remember that? You just remembered that. The thing about the picture. How’d you remember that?”

        Her smile revealed her teeth this time. “Huh, I don’t know. I guess I just did.”

#ruel #oneruel #ruel van dijk #one ruel #rueledits #ruelvincentvandijk #ruel imagine #ruel imagines #one shot #ruel one shot #writers on tumblr #x reader #rueledit #ruel edits #ruel edit #ruel x reader #ruel fic

[tomhiddlestonfanfic]

A Step Too Far? Chapter Nine A Moon of My Own

Ch. 1 - Ch. 2 - Ch. 3 - Ch. 4 - Ch. 5 - Ch. 6 - Ch. 7 - Ch. 8 - Ch. 9 - Ch. 10 - Ch. 11

TITLE: A Step Too Far? NUMBER OF CHAPTERS/ONE SHOT: 9/? WHICH TOM CHARACTER: Stepfather Tom OTHER CHARACTERS: Benedict Cumberbatch, Andrew Scott PAIRING: Tom/OFC, Benedict Cumberbatch/OFC GENRE: Drama, Hurt/Comfort WARNINGS: Spanking, Infidelity, Sex

CHAPTER NINE A Moon of My Own

Nina spent the weekend at home, bonding with baby William. She sang swedish songs to him and found that Tom was listening intently, trying to understand the lyrics. She ended up translating for him and teaching him swedish nursery rhymes and pop songs.

"I want a moon of my own, that I can go to, and forget that you left me. I can sit on my moon, and do whatever I want, I'll stay there until everything's alright," Nina translated one of her mother's favourite songs for Tom.

"Thank you for translating," Tom told her with a warm smile.

"No problem," Nina replied and continued to sing for her baby brother. "Jag är fattig bonddräng men jag lever ändå…"

"What was that song about?" Tom asked curiously from the sofa where he was laying down and watching her interactions with the baby.

"It's about a poor farmer boy who works hard everyday," Nina explained. "He gets drunk on Saturdays, gets into fights and sleeps with women. On Sundays he sleeps instead of going to church. Then the work week begins again. Eventually he dies and stands before God, regretful of his sins. But God forgives him and welcomes him into heaven."

"Is that really a children's song?" Tom questioned amusedly.

"The farm boy sings it in 'Emil i Lönneberga', so it’s sort of a children's song, I guess. Or maybe it's meant for the grown ups watching with their children," Nina replied. "It's written by Astrid Lindgren, so it’s for everyone."

"I see. I appreciate the existential theme," Tom told her.

"Me too," Nina agreed and smiled at him. She realised that she enjoyed spending time in his company. Things had become different between them ever since they started working together. She felt like she knew him a bit better now, and ever since he became a father, she had seen a more sensitive side of him. He had expressed his worry for her in more tactful ways and they hadn't been arguing as much as they used to do.

“You’ve spent most weekends at home lately, is something up?” Nina’s mother asked her during dinner.

“I’ve just been tired from work, so I haven’t really felt like doing anything on the weekends,” Nina replied with a shrug.

“Perhaps you should work fewer hours if work is making you so tired,” Helena suggested, looking a bit concerned as she gently caressed her daughter’s cheek. “She could do that, right Tom?”

“I’ve already offered that,” Tom replied, also assuming a look of concern as he looked at Nina. “The offer still stands.”

“No thanks, I’m good,” Nina insisted.

“But you don’t seem to have any energy left for your friends,” Helena objected.

“Isn’t that what life is like as a grown up? All work, no play, and then you die?” Nina questioned gloomily.

“Nina, are you getting depressed again? Are you taking your medications?” Helena asked concernedly.

Nina sighed heavily in response. “I can’t recall ever becoming undepressed,” she muttered and got up from the dinner table, grabbing her plate and glass. “Thanks for the food.”

“You’re welcome,” Tom replied as she left the dining room.

Nina threw away the rest of the food and placed the dishes in the dishwasher before heading to the fridge, grabbing another one of her precious energy drinks. At least they presented her with some joy in her quite lonely life. She would occassionally call Jim over for sex, but other than that, she spent most of her time alone. Nina’s loneliness had been a source of concern for her mother for many years. It had even gotten to the point that Nina sometimes went out for hour long walks, telling her mother that she was seeing a friend. She had done that a lot during the summer, taking a book with her to sit and read by the sea. Her favourite book was one that Tom had gifted her for her nineteenth birthday. It was called The Stranger and was about the absurdity of life and the feeling of alienation. Nina felt alienated a lot of the time, as though she did not belong anywhere in this world.

During the evening, Tom came by her room to check on her.

“Can I come in?” he requested and Nina nodded at him as she sat up in her bed, putting her laptop aside. “We worry about you.”

“There’s nothing to worry about,” Nina told him, pulling her knees up to her chest, hugging them.

“You seem... lonely,” Tom said carefully.

“I need to be alone a lot,” Nina told him. “Being around people takes a lot of energy.”

“Then maybe you should work shorter hours, so you have energy to do fun things with friends and not only work,” Tom suggested. Nina snorted in response.

“What friends?” she asked.

“How about the one you spent a lot of time with this summer? Viktoria?” Tom said.

“Viktoria is not real,” Nina admitted.

“What?” Tom asked confusedly.

“I made her up so mom wouldn’t worry so much about me being alone,” she explained.

“But you were away for hours at a time, sometimes all day and sometimes all night,” Tom said frowningly.

“Yeah, it was kind of fun actually, how you never figured it out when you never got to meet her,” Nina told him with a sad smile. “It’s kind of pathetic, isn’t it? Making up imaginary friends when you’re twenty? And still living with your mother because you’re too afraid of what you would do to yourself if you had to live alone?” she confided in him.

“It’s not pathetic,” Tom said earnestly and put an arm around her shoulders. “I had no idea you were feeling that way. I thought you lived with your mom because you were comfortable that way, not because you were afraid to live alone.”

“Please don’t tell mom about this. I’ve told her that Viktoria moved to Stockholm, so please don’t tell her that she never even existed. She was so happy when she thought I had a best friend,” Nina pleaded.

“I won’t tell her. But I think you need to see someone about this. Didn’t you have a psychologist?” Tom asked.

“It didn’t work out between us, so I stopped going,” Nina reminded him.

“Right,” Tom remembered. “How about finding you a new one. I’ll be more than happy to pay for it.”

“You don’t have to pay for it,” Nina told him. “You gave me a job, remember? I can pay for therapy myself now. Especially as I’m living here for free.”

“I want you to save your money for the future or use them to have fun. I’m paying for your therapy,” Tom insisted.

“I never even agreed that I would go see a therapist,” Nina said.

“Please, see a therapist. It would give your mother and I some peace of mind to know that you have someone to talk to about those things,” Tom pleaded.

“I'll think about it,” Nina told him.

“Thank you,” Tom said with an appreciative smile.

The weekend passed and it was soon Monday again. Nina looked up to see Benedict standing by her desk. He didn’t look pleased. He was probably still upset by the fact that she had spied on him and his family.

“I would like to have a word with you in my office, miss Andersson,” he requested calmly, seemingly holding back on his anger. Nina looked up at him defiantly.

“How about no?” she told him irritably. She didn’t want to be alone with him, because she would probably end up almost having sex with him.

“No?” he questioned incredulously and leaned down over the desk, so that their faces were just decimetres away from each other. She could feel the smell of his cologne and felt an involuntary thrill of excitement run through her body as she looked him in his darkened eyes. “My office now,” he told her firmly in a low voice.

“Fine,” Nina finally agreed, afraid that Benedict would make a scene otherwise. He looked like he could barely contain his anger. She glanced over her shoulder at her colleagues as she followed him to his office. They all seemed busy doing their jobs, not taking notice of what was going on between her and Benedict. She felt relieved. It would be embarrassing if they thought she made major work related mistakes that would have one of her bosses get angry with her. While she had made a major mistake, at least it was not work related.

Benedict shut the curtain and locked the door, just like he had done preceding week. Nina swallowed nervously. Was he going to beat her again? She knew she would agree to it, even if she wished she would have had the integrity and self-respect to tell him no.

"What the hell were you thinking sneaking around my house?" he demanded angrily. "What if Sophie had seen you?"

"Then you would probably be able to come up with a good lie to explain my presence. Because it comes naturally to you, doesn't it? Lying," Nina told him bitterly.

"I hate lying to my wife," Benedict told her. "I already told you that."

"Then don't give yourself any reasons to lie," she replied.

He approached her angrily and Nina found herself slapping him hard across the face. He looked at her in astonishment for a brief moment, then grabbed her by the arm dragging her with him towards the desk. Nina felt herself grow moist between the legs and a tingling sensation in her lower abdomen as he bent her over the desk. She shut her eyes tightly as he pressed her face down against the desk surface and she bit her lip hard as she braced herself for the pain to come. Benedict slapped her bottom hard with his hand several times, before undoing his belt. This time, he waited between the lashes for Nina to recover before landing the next one across her buttocks. Nina whimpered slightly as she neared her limit and he stopped hitting her with the belt. He roughly grabbed her ass, squeezing it with his hands before rolling up her tight pencil skirt over her hips. Nina gasped as he unexpectedly ripped her tights open in the groin and put his hand between her thighs.

“You naughty girl,” he told her as he felt how wet she was. He touched her, moved the thong to the side and entered her with two fingers at a time. He fingerfucked her until he felt her convulse around him, she was shuddering with pleasure and panting heavily. “Did you come?” he asked smirkingly as she stood up and turned around towards him. She put her arms around his neck and brought him into a kiss. They made out and she began to feel horny again. She touched his erect penis through his trousers and stroked it eagerly.

“Fuck me,” she whispered lustfully into his ear. She didn’t need to ask twice. Benedict lifted her up on the desk, undid his black trousers and released his erect penis. Nina smiled satisfiedly at the sight of it before it entered her. “Fuck me hard,” she requested, and he did. She had to bite her lip hard to suppress a loud moan as he fucked her quickly. She orgasmed again and he pulled out of her.

“On your knees,” he ordered, his voice demanding and his eyes darkened with lust. Nina fell to her knees before him and viciously smiled up at him. “Open your mouth,” he said and she quickly obeyed. She felt like a porn star as he ejaculated into her mouth. “Swallow,” Benedict said, but she grimaced in disgust and shook her head at him as she got up to spit out his cum into his coffee cup.

“Oh, you naughty girl,” Benedict commented with a grin as he watched her trying to make herself look presentable.

“How’s my makeup?” she asked him and he looked at her closely before running his thumbs underneath her eyes, wiping away some mascara.

“Did you cry?” he asked her surprisedly as he continued to gently wipe mascara from her cheeks.

“A little bit,” Nina admitted with a shrug and managed to smile at him. The guilt had overwhelmed her the moment she orgasmed for the second time.

“Your makeup probably needs some touch ups, but it looks fine,” Benedict told her as he pulled out his wallet from his pocket. He took out a thousand krona bill and handed it to her. “For a morning-after pill,” he explained as she looked at him confusedly. “I think I might have come a little bit inside of you.”

“You’re making me feel like a cheap whore,” Nina muttered, but accepted the money. Benedict pulled out a couple of more bills from his wallet and tried giving them to her. “No thanks,” she told him and refused to take the money.

“Do you promise you will take a morning-after pill?” he asked her as she turned to leave.

“Of course, I don’t want a child with someone like you,” Nina told him irritably.

“Don’t forget to take the coffee cup with you,” Benedict reminded her with a smirk. Nina angrily went back towards his desk and grabbed the coffee cup, before stalking out of his office. What the hell had she just done?

Nina went into the kitchen and angrily threw the coffee cup into the trash. She then proceeded to kick the trash can until a familiar voice interrupted her.

“Did mister Cumberbatch yell at you again?” Stina asked concernedly.

“He did,” Nina replied, her eyes filling up with tears. Stina went up to her and hugged her.

“I’m sorry that he’s being such an ass to you,” Stina told her sympathetically. “If you want to talk about it, I’m all ears.”

“Thank you, Stina,” Nina told her appreciatively and tightened the hug. They stood like that for a long moment until another colleague entered the kitchen.

“Nina, what’s the company’s policy on workplace relationships?” Erik asked her provocatively. He must have somehow heard about their date.

“It’s fine, as long as you’re keeping it professional at work,” Nina told him as she stepped away from Stina.

“That didn’t look very professional to me,” Erik told her.

“It was just a hug, Erik,” Stina told him and smiled carefreely at him. “I can give you one too, if you like,” she offered cheerfully. “You look like you could use one.”

“No thanks,” Erik said with a grimace and hurriedly left the kitchen.

Nina and Stina shared amused looks before heading back to work.

Nina felt weighed down by guilt for what she had done, but somehow managed to get through the workday. Benedict cheerfully told her goodbye before heading homewards and she replied with an exaggeratedly gleeful ‘see you tomorrow!’ Her smile faded the moment he turned away from her and was replaced by a dark glare.

“What are you glaring at Ben for?” Andrew asked her curiously and she flinched. She hadn’t noticed him standing there a few metres away, watching her interaction with Benedict. “Did something happen?”

“He yelled at me,” Nina said and noticed Stina looking at them from a distance. She couldn’t exactly tell Andrew the truth, now could she? She felt like she wanted to come clean to someone about it, but didn’t know who.

“What for?” Andrew asked and Nina searched her mind for some error she could have made that would make Benedict yell at her.

“I misspelled his name in an important mail,” she lied. “I wrote Cucumberbatch and he found it humiliating.” She couldn’t help but smile at her own lie. Andrew returned her smile.

“I see,” he said amusedly. “I could talk to him about treating you more gently, if you like,” he offered, but Nina shook her head at him in response.

“I’m fine. Now that it’s over, I do find it kind of funny,” she assured him with a genuinely bright smile. She wanted so badly to believe her own lie. How great it would have been if only it had been true.

But it wasn’t true. On the way home, Tom put on her mother’s favourite song about wanting a moon of your own to go to and stay there until everything was alright again. Nina’s filled with tears as she thought about how she just wanted to escape somewhere far away from everything. She wanted a moon of her own to go to.

“Are you alright?” Tom asked her concernedly.

“Yes, I was just thinking about Ted,” Nina told him.

“Ted Gärdestad? Who sings the song?” Tom asked her.

“Yeah. I was thinking about how beautifully he sang and how sadly he died. He killed himself,” Nina told him sadly.

“That’s very tragic,” Tom replied seriously and threw her concerned looks for the rest of the car ride home.

“I’m going for a walk,” Nina informed her mother and Tom after taking a shower and getting dressed into a pair of jeans and a David Bowie t-shirt.

“But dinner is almost ready,” her mother objected.

“I’ll eat when I get back,” Nina assured her and put her shoes and jacket on. Tom took out the trash bags out of the kitchen bins and put on a pair of slippers, following her out.

“Nina,” he said as they reached the bins outside the house. She turned around to look at him. He had a concerned look on his face. “You’re not thinking about doing something rash, are you?” he asked her seriously. Nina frowned slightly and then remembered their conversation in the car earlier.

“I’m not thinking of killing myself, if that’s what you’re talking about,” she told him frankly.

“Good,” Tom replied with a brief smile. His blue eyes still conveyed concern. “Don’t be too long or we’ll get worried.”

“I’m twenty years old,” Nina reminded him. “Not a kid, I can look after myself.”

“I know. But I still want you to be careful and not stay out too long,” Tom insisted. “Remember that you have work tomorrow.”

“I know. See you in a bit,” Nina told him.

Nina just kept walking as she listened to music and tried not to think too much about what was weighing her down. Eventually, she sat down by a lake and looked at the full moon in the sky. Its light was mirrored by the water surface of the lake and she found it breathtakingly beautiful. She turned off the music on her phone and sang softly to herself where she sat on the rocks. She sang the song about the moon as tears rolled down her face. She imagined what Ted must have felt like during his last moments of life and was filled by death agony. She put her phone and headphones down on the rocks before standing up. She looked at the water surface and dived into the cold water with her clothes on. As she reached the surface, Nina gasped at how cold it was and swam back up to the rocks where she climbed up and grabbed her phone.

She was shuddering with cold as she walked back home in soaking wet clothes. As she got inside, Tom came to greet her in the hallway and looked at her in shock.

“What happened?” he asked frowningly.

“I fell,” Nina lied.

“Should I put your phone in a bag of rice?” he offered.

“The phone is fine,” Nina told him. Tom looked at her suspiciously.

“You didn’t fall, did you?” he asked frankly. Nina shrugged at him. “I asked you not to do anything rash.”

“It wasn’t rash, I spared my phone and headphones,” Nina objected.

“Your lips are blue. Come, let’s go down to the basement so your mother doesn’t see you like this,” Tom told her, putting a gentle arm around her shoulder as he walked her down to the basement. “Clothes off and step in the shower, I’ll get you some dry clothes,” he instructed and respectfully turned away as Nina immodestly began to take her clothes off in front of him. She wasn’t trying to seduce him or anything, she was just too cold to care if he saw her naked body.

Nina took a hot shower and smiled sadly to herself as she found a towel and clothes laid out for her. Tom was always being so nice and gentle towards her. For once she felt grateful that he was a little bit boring and not more like Benedict. She realised that she would never be able to live with the guilt if she managed to get Tom to be unfaithful to her mother. She got dressed and went upstairs to find Tom on the sofa in the living room. She walked up to him and smiled.

“Thank you for being so boring,” she told him, causing him to laugh surprisedly.

“I don’t think I’m that boring,” he objected as she sat down in the armchair next to the sofa.

“You’re just the right amount of boring,” Nina said. “I mean it as a compliment.”

“Thanks, I guess,” Tom told her amusedly. “You seem a bit happier now.”

“I am,” Nina told him with a smile.

#tom hiddleston #tom hiddleston real person fanfiction #tom hiddleston fanfiction #benedict cumberbatch #benedict cumberbatch fanfiction #dad tom hiddleston #tom hiddleston father #a step too far?

[aty-altiria]

It’s Not Me Burning

No 14. IS SOMETHING BURNING? Branding | Heat Exhaustion | Fire

Word count: 1253

Universe: Harry Potter, My Hero Academia

Pairings: Fem!Harry/Dabi

Rating: T

Themes: Fire, Burns

Summary: Dabi has less control over his fire than he’d like to admit, and he isn’t sure whether he blames his mothers body or his sperm-donors existence more for that. Especially as he looses control in front of the one person he doesn’t want to kill. But Holly seems rather uncaring to the flames licking up her body. As if it doesn’t affect her at all.

@whumptober2020 Never written for Dabi before so this was an interesting experiment >.>

----

It was a fact of his life, everyone asked. They took one look at him, at the piercings and the severe burns that destroyed a vast majority of his body, and they asked. Sometimes T- Dabi couldn't fathom how moronic some people were. That they'd actually go out of their way to stare him down and ask him how he'd been burnt. How they whispered when they thought he couldn't hear them. Their disgusted faces that Dabi twisted about in his head and mixed up with his. Because surely it was Dabi's lack of power, not that the combination of quirks within his body ensured he would never have the kind of control he wanted.

Dabi had gotten something from both of his parents, just like his father wanted. But he hadn't gotten the right parts, and that made him a failure. Dabi ended up with enormously powerful flames and a chilled body. The desired level of fire and a body that ensured those flames burnt him every time he used his quirk, all because his body was freezing. Because it was designed for ice powers, he'd never gotten.

Dabi would never forget the damned bitch who he'd actually decided to date complaining about how cold his body ran. Like it was some sort of inconvenience to her-

"You're always so cold t-…- I thought people with fire quirks ran hot-"

She died in a fire, ironically, the same one that killed Toya Todoroki, how… tragic.

But his Lady of Death, she never asked, and that was just one more reason he loved Holly Lilith Potter. Oh, Dabi could go into great detail the other reasons he also loved Holly, but in the end, he didn't need to. She knew he loved her, he knew she loved him, it was enough. They were themselves and nothing like his parents before him. Not matched simply because of their quirks. Not matched just because they were soulmates. Their connection was real. Their interactions were genuine.

But every one in awhile… even they ran into problems.

"Dabi…"

"Leave-" he choked. Dabi flinched as his flames licked higher and higher along his chest. It hurt- it was agony every time this happened. People would be mistaken if they thought the scar tissue made him feel nothing, those burns, that part of skin felt even more. It was a damned miracle no one had realized the blatant weakness. Dabi thanked his excellent poker face for that… though the damned bird may have an inkling. "Holly- leave!"

It was rare that he lost control of his flames now, much rarer than when he'd been a child. Now it only happened after a particularly brutal fight, and the one he'd had with that damned kid certainly counted.

Flames licked up his body, blue lighting up the darkness of their secret apartment. Minutes before, he'd staggered into the room thinking himself under control, had spent hours in the rain to ensure it only for Dabi to lose control at the very last moment. He'd woken Holly with a muffled cry of pain, from dead asleep to instantly awake all because she'd sensed the sound. Now, the carpet was burnt beyond repair- dammit, Holly had really liked that one- and his flames were getting dangerously close to the bed- he liked that bed! It made the perfect amount of sound for extracurricular activities, just enough to piss off the people below them.

"Aquamenti," Holly mumbled the spell casually, and the bed was immediately soaked. Dabi could hear it dripping and felt himself relax slightly before another surge of his flames threatened to add more burnt tissue onto his chest. He grunted, staggering while trying to stay in one place, so he didn't set fire to anything else they owned. Dabi was painfully aware that if he moved a little too much that he could burn Holly, to give her the scarring that his father had left on his back- no.

"Fawkes!" and then Holly was right in his space. Out of terrified instinct, Dabi backed off, he knew the smell of burnt flesh intimately, and the way a woman would scream as she burned- and Holly's arms snagged around his middle.

"Holly- fu- woman! Don't!" Dabi struggled backward, ignored his own burning skin to get away from her. He wouldn't lose Holly too- but she was… fine? He stilled slightly as she locked those green eyes with his own. Holly was calm, and… his body wasn't hurting anymore?

"What?" Dabi exhaled hands resting at her arms left there from when he'd been trying to pry her off him.

"It's alright," Holly soothed as she loosened the bruising grip she had around his middle. A grip she no longer needed quite as much, now that he'd stopped struggling. "You're fine… it's fine."

He glanced at his flames; they hadn't calmed at all. He was still out of control, but he wasn't burning, and neither was Holly. But his mind was quick, and he had the background knowledge to figure this out.

"What magic did you use?"

This was why she was matched to him, this was one more reason for it. If Holly could prevent herself from being burned, from him from being burned.

"It's not mine," Holly nodded her head to the side. Dabi followed the look and spotted her bird, the bright red and orange thing that was annoying infatuated with the chicken nugget of a hero. Fawkes, Holly's pet, or Familiar as she tended to correct him. "Fawkes is a phoenix, Dabi."

Yet one more impossibility that was Holly Potter, the pet was imaginary.

"And…" she emphasized as if sensing his turning thoughts, "phoenixes are immune to fire, and since he's my familiar, I'm also a tiny bit fire repellent."

"He's not my familiar, yet my flames aren't burning me. So you're talking bulls-" Holly poked his nose; she poked his damned nose. "-Woman!"

"Soul. Mate."

Oh.

Well, now he felt stupid. Obviously, because the familiar was attached to Holly's soul, it was also linked to his… and Dabi only knew that because she kept spouting out random magical facts. Well damn, it wasn't like he couldn't remember every tiny detail- "So." Holly interrupted his thoughts again, "the next time this happens, just tell me."

"Next time," Dabi scoffed, "that bird isn't leaving my side for a damned second. The heroes won't know hit them." Fire-repellent, yes, he could definitely use that soon.

Holly rolled her eyes. Dabi was now plotting, and he hadn't even realized his flames had wholly calmed. Not that she was complaining, he hadn't yet realized he was effectively cuddling her in his scheming either. That wasn't something she got very often, and she appreciated it. So Holly would take what she'd get when he was distracted, instead of tricking him into losing a bet like she usually did.

Holly snuggled in close and smirked.

She'd probably just unleashed something she didn't understand yet, but all well, as long as Dabi was happy and no too many innocents died.

#whumptober2020 #dabi fanfic #my hero academia #BNHA #mha #fem harry potter #fire #burns #fem!harry potter

[danielbailey]

Name: Daniel Bailey

Faceclaim: Zac Efron

Gender & Pronouns: cismale and he/him

Age: 31

Occupation: firefighter

Neighborhood: university heights

 a few headcanons about Daniel:

tw animal abuse

He has a Husky that he helped to rescue, she used to have an owner that was terrible to her.

He volunteers in an organization that saves animals from abusive owners

Had an imaginary friend when he was a little kid.

Believes in ghosts and aliens, he is also terrified of the former. Once he and his friends stayed in a house that people said was haunted and the first noise he heard, he ran away from there faster than the flash.

He visited the orphanage he was left at until he moved away for college

biography

tw abortion mention, tw death, tw heart disease, tw alcoholism, tw drugs, tw abandonment

The date was 14th February from 1990, London, in a hospital, a woman was brought in a rush to have her first baby, she knew that, that night, she could end up dying. The doctor said since the first moment she found out that she was pregnant, that it would be a risky one, and that in the end, she may not be able to make it. She had a heart disease, but she still decided to go through with it. She was terrified, but she would rather try to have the baby, than to abort him, the father was completely lost, how does one pick between the mother and their kid? It was almost an impossible choice, but it didn’t matter, she had made her decision, so nothing he said would change her mind. Her parents were no longer with her, and she didn’t have any siblings, so the only person that she could truly count on, was her loving husband, who stayed by her side holding her hand as she pushed the baby out and that cried his eyes out seconds after it happened, because sadly, she didn’t make it.

In the beginning, the father tried his hardest to take care of the kid, despite how devastate he was, he didn’t want the kid to be without a father too, but the grief was too much for him to handle. Soon enough, he started to rely on drugs and alcohol to stop the pain, to help him go through the death of his wife. After some time Daniel started to stop being important to him, and he barely fed the boy. There were times that he stayed crying the whole night because of how hungry he was, the only reason why he survived, was both because at some point, he got annoyed at his screams, and finally gave him something to eat, and because when he was 3, he completely gave up, lost himself in the world of drugs and alcohol, and took the boy to an orphanage. He didn’t even get inside, he just left him at the door, knocked and left without saying a word. By that time, Daniel was as skinny as one could be, due to not being fed properly, but at least he was in a better place, where he would be taken care of.

While in there, he made quite a few friends, so his stay wasn’t that bad, not to mention that everyone that worked there seemed to love the boy deeply. Despite everything that happened to him, he was a kid full of life and brightness. He treated everyone with kindness, and despite the fact that you could see in his eyes the sadness because of what happened, at the same time, he started to be happy there, which was a good thing, since he spent a few years without being adopted, until he was 5 years old, it was when Richard and Jasmine visited the place. They were completely taken aback by how bright his smile was and how he insisted on taking the nice couple to a tour around the place. They fell in love in seconds, and adopted him on that day.

In the beginning he felt this mix of feelings, he was happy that he would go home with a nice family, but he was sad to leave his friends behind. There was a certain guilty, because he got to go and they would stay. He insisted that his new parents would take him to visit them, they thought it would be best not to go, they thought would be better for the kid, but one night, he ran away from home to visit his friends, and it was then that they saw they had no choice, so they changed their mind.

It took some time for the boy to get used to the family, they showered him with love, so it had nothing to do with that. But he stayed two years as an orphan, and he was kind of starting to see the orphanage like home. After a few years, he finally called them mom and dad, it was an emotional moment, and shortly after, another one happened, the arrival of his sister, Abigail. You would think that he would be jealous, but it was the opposite, the moment he saw her, he felt this wave of love, and knew that he had to do everything to protect her. As they grew, that love and that affection just grew each second more, he got more protective, and would give his life if that meant she would be safe.

She was one of the reasons why when he graduated school, was so hard to leave London. He was so close to his family, and would hate not being able to see them any time he wanted, but as he grew up watching tv shows that were located in the USA, he fell in love with the place, California, especially, it was his dream to go there, so it was what he did. He left as soon as his classes started at college, which he was majoring in Fire Science, despite the fact his parents’ took him and his sister to adventures with them, he ended up going for something different anyway. At first he considered going for biology, zoology specifically, he loved animals, so why not? But the day that a firefighter went to his school, he fell in love with the career, he found his calling, and he knew his parents would support him no matter what, so he told them without worrying how they would react.

The first months away from them were really hard, he was so homesick that he almost went back home, but he fought against that urge. As hard as it was, he knew that it would be good for him. He was so attached to his family, which, while it wasn’t exactly a bad thing, he knew that he needed to be more independent, so he stayed. He was glad that he did, because otherwise, he would never have met the first girl he fell for. He never dated anyone before, there were flings, but never something serious, he was always terrified of getting hurt and was scared of them dumping him, maybe it was because of what his dad did, but she broke down his walls, and before he knew, he was in love. At first, he was in deep denial, but soon enough, he knew that he had to face his feelings, and for his delight, she felt the same. He dated her for years, he could swear that she was the one, that he would be with her for the rest of his life, later on he would find out that it wasn’t exactly the truth, love wasn’t always enough.

As the college years went by, he fell more and more in love with her, they stayed together after he got his degree, and after he started to work as a firefighter. They fought like any other couple, but things seemed to be good between the two, seemed like their relationship was strong. Despite the fact dating a firefighter was hard for her, he could see how worried she got every time he went out for another shift, clearly their love was stronger, because they didn’t break up. He took more time than he would like to admit to finally purpose to her, years, probably because of how scared he was that he would eventually end up getting hurt, it wasn’t her fault, she had done nothing to cause him to take so long to trust her, his life experiences did. You can’t blame him, not after everything he went through, and in the end, it turned out that he did get hurt, since she left him, out of a sudden, leaving nothing but a note behind, telling him she couldn’t marry him, but he still didn’t know why.

He had a lot of people in Cali that would be able to help him move on from it, but nothing was better than family, it was why he moved to Providence Peak, because he needed to be close to his family, to his sister. She was someone that he spent so long with, that didn’t mean that he didn’t love his parents, but the bond he had with his sister was so huge, besides, he was still trying to get them to move away from London, to move in the small town, it just seemed to be calmer there, not to mention that it would mean the whole family would be together again.

#providence.intro #tw abortion mention #tw death #tw heart disease #tw alcohlism #tw drugs #tw abandonment #tw animal abuse #heavy on the tw

[xenoredux]

The Legend of Silver Fang - Episode 2: The Invasion

If you haven’t read episode 1 yet, you can do so here.

As mentioned before, the major story beats and overarching plot are the same. This is written under the supposition that, in fantasy land, this is a mini series with episodes that run about 2 hours in length each.

Some things to be aware of going in:

This story is violent as shit!!! CONTENT WARNING FOR: Animal and human injuries, firearms, other weapons, animal death, and just a whole lotta spilled blood. Basically if any form of violence upsets you, it’d be a good idea not to read ahead

I was trying to achieve a decent adaptation that combines the strongest elements of the anime and manga. It will not be precisely like either and will occasionally totally deviate from both

This isn’t meant to be “better” then the canon. It’s just the way I’d go about rewriting the Akakabuto arc if I had that level of ungodly power lol

Character designs made to represent several mentioned characters can be found here and here. Others will be left up to the reader’s interpretation. A link to the next episode will also be provided at the end. If a link isn’t available, the next episode just hasn’t been posted yet!

HAVE FUN READING OR ELSE!!!

Everyone has just recovered from Daisuke's nasty fall when Gohei has a fall of his own. The old man's antics (and his drinking too lbr) have finally caught up to him, and he collapses in the snow. Before he slips away, Gohei's mind is filled not with the hurried voices of those around him but with images of Gin.

He imagines Gin fully grown, a silver clone of his father. Imaginary Gin is leaping across a gorge like he did while bird hunting, and once again he falls. Except this time as he falls he morphs into Riki, and a trail of blood follows him during his descent into the void below.

Gohei's eyes snap open, and he's greeted with the electric hum of hospital overhead lights. He's greeted by not just the harsh white walls and flurescent lighting, but by Daisuke and Gin, who Gohei realizes has grown substantially. Daisuke explains that the old timer bit shit and has been in a short coma, but he's under the care of Dr. Hidetoshi now. As if summoned, Hidetoshi enters the room, reassured Gohei that he'll be overseeing his care for the next few months, and allows the three the privacy he'd initially interrupted.

Gohei pouts in the way only elderly men can at the knowledge that he won't be able to haul ass outta here while flipping off the doctors again. He's too weak to get out of bed now. Daisuke promises him that he'll be taking Gin's training into his own hands.

Oldie McGee appreciatively places his hand on Daisuke's shoulder, then on Gin's head. He looks down at the dog, relieved to see he's still got silver brindle fur instead of the red from his dream. Gin licks his hand affectionately.

Daisuke is just about to leave and take Gin home when he notices something out of the corner of his eye. He turns a corner to find Hidetoshi's indoor archery range, cementing just how much disposable income the good doctor has. Hidetoshi fires an arrow right in the middle of the target across the room. The customized red, purple, and blue tail of the arrow bobs rapidly as it strikes the back wall.

Daisuke gapes in amazement. Hidetoshi laughs and tells the kid not to underestimate how powerful a bow can be. Daisuke enthusiastically grabs for the bow, and Hidetoshi allows him to, but soon the child finds he doesn't have enough arm strength to so much as pull the arrow back.

Daisuke is disheartened, but to make up for his abysmal performance, Hidetoshi says he'd like to show him something. He allows Daisuke and Gin into his office, which contains a multitude of taxidermied animals, photos of the man's hunting trips across the Western world, and a couple of dog beds. One of those beds contains John, and he smugly rises to meet everyone. John smirks as Gin stares at the photos of John adorning the walls, all of which showcase the dog sitting or lying beside a dead animal twice his size.

Hidetoshi elaborates on the adventures he's had with John, many of which he used a bow during. His face then falls as he explains something a lot less riveting: Gohei's meatsuit is too fucked for him to return to his old life. He'll never hunt again. He wouldn't be able to handle the physical strain. He will never get to kill Akakabuto.

Daisuke and Gin leave the hospital. Daisuke is struck with an existential crisis about what meaning Gohei's life will have now and how he'll never get to avenge Riki's death. Gin whines supportively, watching as Hidetoshi and John enter their car and leave. As soon as they're out of sight, Gin runs back into the archery range and snags up Hidetoshi's bow. His intention may have been to play fetch, or it may have been to stop the kid from crying, but Daisuke takes this as a sign that Gin and he will simply have to kill Akakabastard themselves.

For the next few months, Daisuke and Gin both work hella hard to improve their physical prowess. Daisuke jumps rope, goes for runs, lifts weights, and probably punches rocks or whatever it is body builders do. Meanwhile, Gin joins him on runs and, in his own time, makes an honest effort to leap across the rooftops of houses as if they were his mortal enemy: cliffs. The two boys do everything to get ripped shy of frequenting body builder forums and subreddits, and that's just because the internet isn't a thing yet.

The two have made amazing strides since they began their regimens. Daisuke has arms freaky large for a kid his age, and Gin, now just over a year old, has the most profound dog pecs anyone who hasn't experienced Ginga has ever seen. It's a good thing, too, because they'll need the strength. Though Akakabuto never truly rests, he's not the only thing frequenting the forests now. Winter will soon be over, which means that hibernation for the other bears will be over too.

One day Diasuke comes to Hidetoshi requesting to use his bow. Amused, Hidetoshi allows it. Daisuke finally manages to pull the arrow back and let 'er rip, hitting the target dead on. Hidetoshi is stunned. He knew Daisuke was tryna get beefed up, but he didn't expect the boy's self discipline to get him this far. He praises the boy for his achievement, and so does Gin. Gin and Daisuke have become inseparable outside of their individual training regimines, cementing their brohood more then ever before.

As Daisuke and Gin are walking home, they're met with a surprise. It's Gohei! The stubborn cuss has once again decided he's tired of waiting around inactive, and he commands Gin to come with him and hunt bears. But the ancient dude can barely chuff out the last few words before he collapses to his knees both real and artificial. He topples over, out cold.

Daisuke rushes to his side and tells Gin to retrieve Hidetoshi. Gin  understands because frankly he was gonna do that anyway, and he takes off like a rocket (or should I say a shooting star?) to find Doc. As Gin books it, Daisuke does the weirdest flex of all by lifting the old man unassisted.

Daisuke manages to carry Gohei halfway to the hospital when Gin arrives back with Hidetoshi. After some running around in a fuss, Doctor x Hunter has Gohei settled back into his own bed. The old man is murmuring something to himself about Akakabuto, but nobody pays it much mind. Hidetoshi thanks Daisuke for his help and allows him to go home - he'll stay beside the wacky ole spitfire tonight to make sure he doesn't get up to his old tricks again.

As Daisuke and Gin leave, Daisuke decides he's had enough. Tomorrow he and Gin are going into the forest and they're not coming back out until Akakabuto is Akakadead, Bro. Gin appreciates the conviction in the young man's voice, but shit dude, you sure?

Tomorrow arrives, as it usually does. Gin and Daisuke depart super early in the morning so the parentals don't notice. They only stop to borrow Hidetoshi's bow, taking care not to attract any attention. They've just entered the woods when their first roadblock presents itself.

The bridge across the river has been busted up. The heavy snow has begun melting into the now overflowing river beneath it, and the raging current finally did the shitty wooden walkway in. Now the two will have to go upstream to cross. Before they do, Gin pauses and snarls at something across the way. Daisuke notices several dark masses moving through the underbrush.

It's a mother bear and her two cubs, and it's instantly clear who their father is. Each twin bearbabe has a streak of dark, shiny red fur running from the top of its head to the tip of its tail. Daisuke is certain the family is taking a field trip to Daddy Bear's territory, so he and Gin follow the bears alongside the stream as they make their way to the pass.

Having risen only a little later then Daisuke, Hidetoshi is having a lark of his own. He, John, and a few of his friends are all packed into his Jeep and heading into the forest. This trip isn't for pleasure, though. It seems as if some of Hidetoshi's friends' livestock has been mauled to death and stolen, and nobody wants to stand by and let that happen.

The men come across the same thing the two kiddos did, the busted up bridge, and groan in frustration. However, just before they can start heading to the other pass, Hidetoshi pulls out a rope and passes it to John.

He begins giving John commands in English, commands which I wish I could understand, and John jumps over the stream and secures the rope around a tree. Hidetoshi also uses this show-offy moment to teach us all a valuable lesson in being overprepared by producing a pulley from out his Jeep. The other men are having a hard time knowing what to do with this information, but at least they don't have to hike up a different trail.

A ways away, Daisuke and Gin have finally located Akakabuto's territory. They know this to be true because they've found a freshly plopped pile of bear poop. Daisuke has never been more afraid of a pile of shit before, his knees quaking and his breath quickening at the sight.

He decides now is the time to take a breather, so he and Gin settle beside a tree to have breakfast. But Daisuke's anxiety has given him a gut ache, so he just passes the dog his food. Gin tries to enjoy the rice when a torrent of noisy crows descends upon the trees. The birds caw incessently, their calls blaring in Daisuke's overwhelmed noggin. Some of them even begin to land and try to steal from a snarling Gin.

Daisuke's overstimulation has reached its peak, and in an effort to get the flying vagrants to fuck off, he takes out the bow and fires a warning shot at one of the birds. Only it's less a warning shot and more a bullseye.

The arrow plows right through the bird's greedy guts, and though it does scatter the other bothersome thieves, it wasn't what Daisuke had in mind. He's never killed before, and he gets a hard hitting rush of guilt, shame, and astonishment in the pit of his gut. He comes to realize he'll have to make peace with this feeling if he's to slay Akakabuto, so he swallows his emotions and tells Gin to hurry up. They've got a bear to kill.

The two trod through the forest before a drop of moisture hits Gin's nose. Then one hits Daisuke right in the eye (he totally wasn't crying you guys). Daisuke looks up. Just their luck - it's started to rain. Perturbed, Daisuke says he and Gin should find some shelter. Gin begins looking for a cave to hide in, and he has the good fortune of finding one. Psych, did I say good fortune? I meant THERE IS A BEAR IN THE CAVE.

Daisuke almost pees his pants at the sight of the thing. It's not nearly as big as Akakabuto, but it IS massive, and it looks pretty peeved. Gin's prey drive kicks into high gear and he starts wailing on the bear, snapping at its face and leaping around its body to land a few good bites. He's actually managing very well for himself despite his lack of hands-on experience.

Daisuke, on the other hand, ain't doing so hot, having collapsed into a hyperventilating mess beside a fallen tree. Who knew life and death situations would be so scary?!

Elsewhere, Hidetoshi's squad have found one of the missing horses. They're surprised to find it alive... kinda, sorta, for a moment. When they get a better peek at it through the foliage, they see it's barely breathing, mostly because its neck is being chomped on by a bear.

This bear is not Akakabuto, but unlike Daisuke's find, it's almost his size. It takes one look at the men before turning tail and galloping away, leaving the corpse of the horse behind. The men ready their guns while Hidetoshi commands John to tail behind the animal, which the dog does without a moment's hesitation.

The battle between Gin and the bear rages on. In between his blows, Gin repeatedly looks over his shoulder at Daisuke, urging him to join the fray. Daisuke is too busy going into panic induced shock to help, so Gin is forced to keep up the brawl alone. He throws himself into the bear repeatedly, snapping and snarling and trying to draw blood, but the animal is too much for him to handle alone.

With a well placed swipe of a gargantuan paw, Gin is sent whimpering to the forest floor. A rivulet of blood follows him in his descent, the sight of which finally snaps Daisuke out of his stupor. Lightening strikes somewhere nearby. The bear's roars are indistinguishable from the thunder above. Gin stumbles weakly to his feet, blood dribbling down his face as it mixes with the falling rain. Four deep, long gashes span the length of Gin's forehead.

Daisuke stops wallowing in his own fear long enough to begin thinking of how to save the dog from the fiend that just performed minor surgery on his scalp. Through tears and sobs, Daisuke tries to remember what Gohei once told him about bear hunting. The center line. He needs to hit the center line.

While Daisuke is having a callback/bruh moment, Gin is still getting his ass handed to him. The bear sweeps all four of his legs and sends him flying once more, the poor poochie yelping miserably. Gin crumples to the ground, the blood from his mauled forehead running into his eyes. The landscape goes red as Gin sees Daisuke finally take some goddamn initiative and aim the bow at the bear's face. Daisuke doesn't manage to hit the illusive center line, but he does take out the animal's right eye.

The bear reels back in pain, even more furious then its default state of being. It swipes at Daisuke instead of Gin for a change, but Gin recovers from his bloody stupor and drags Daisuke out of harm's way. When the two are a safe distance from the bear, Daisuke realizes that he'd dropped the bow, and now it's too close to the pissed off wildlife to retrieve.

Gin doesn't take notice to this because all his brainpower is focused on getting back to ass kicking. The dog returns to baiting the bear just long enough for Daisuke to snatch up the bow and let loose one, then another, then another arrow into the animal's face.

One arrow pierces a nearby tree. Another enters the bear's left nostril, drawing more blood. The last lodges itself dead center in the animal's throat. The bear topples backwards, scratching wildly at the projectiles stuck in its skin, which causes the arrow in its throat to shoot sideward and pierce its jugular vein. As the two youngsters watch, the bear collapses to the ground and bleeds to death.

Daisuke practically passes out beside the fallen tree, and Gin howls victoriously into the rainy night sky. At that moment, the clouds depart and the rain ceases.

Gin licks Daisuke's face to rouse him. Daisuke hugs Gin, crying out happily at their amazing victory. An unfamiliar sound joins in with Daisuke's whoops of jubilation, and the two lads turn to the forgotten cave. Within it they see two sets of shining eyes gazing back at them. Two small shadows rush from the cave's entrance and half run, half waddle to the fallen bear's side. It's the two red-backed cubs they'd seen earlier. Daisuke and Gin have just killed their mother.

Elsewhere in the forest, Hidetoshi and Company have just managed to down the bear that was chomping on the horse. Hidetoshi praises John for his involvement in the hunt before going to reload his rifle. John seems almost dismissive of the compliment. Of course he did a good job, has he ever failed before?

Despite it's magnificent size, the dog's ego isn't large enough to blot out the smell of something else in the area. Something that smells awfully familiar. While the men are distracted, John heads deeper into the woods.

Back at the new monument to matricide, the bear cubs are trying to awaken their mother and scare off Daisuke and Gin with pitifully small snarls. Gin stands and stares slack jawed at the orphaned twins while Daisuke sobs an apology to them. He can't help but connect what he's done to the cubs to what Akakabuto did first to Riki, then to Gin. Maybe this hunting thing isn't all it's cracked up to be.

The sound of a dog barking fills the air, and the two turn to see who's making all the racket. It's John, snarling and running towards them. It takes them a moment to realize that John isn't actually running at them, but at the cubs huddled by the dead bear.

As Daisuke tries fruitlessly to scare the cubs away, Gin yells demands at John to stop in the name of all that is good and wholesome. John doesn't know the meaning of the words, but he is familiar with snapping animals' necks, which he now does to one of the cubs.

John then flings himself headlong at the remaining little bear only to be intercepted by a flash of silver. Gin knocks John on his ass and away from the fleeing cub. He scolds John for the cruelly and proudly killing infants, but John doesn't seem to care. All he does is snort, gaze silently at the new scars on Gin's head, and then lunge at the Akita. He introduces Gin's cheek to his hind foot and sends him flying. Gin almost swears he hears John utter "Ha, gottem" before he tears the throat out of the remaining cub. The baby had been too slow to outrun him.

This starts a scuffle between the two dogs with, to John's amazement, Gin gaining the upper hand. He flings John ass-side up, asserting his dominance via animu protag posturing, and the two have a staredown. While they toss schoolyard insults at each other in their hackles-raising contest, Daisuke has other things on his mind.

If John is here, Hidetoshi is sure to be nearby. Daisuke begins yanking arrows out of the dead bear, then calls for Gin to join him in escaping the scene of the crime. The two pound pavement (or the forest equivilent of) as John barks for his master's attention.

Hidetoshi's crew come to find John and are taken aback by the sight of a dead bear and its two cubs. At first they believe that John somehow managed to slay them all, but Hidetoshi notices something that changes their minds. He draws attention to the arrow sticking out of the tree trunk nearby. It's impossible to miss the arrow among the desaturated greens and browns of the forest because of its red, purple, and blue tail.

Hidetoshi and friends begin their own trek home. Both the men and the boys share a similar experience while leaving the woods. While leaving, both Gin and John notice a peculiar smell coming from the surrounding mountains. Both are too distracted to pay the faint whiffs much mind, but without their knowing, they are being watched by at least 100 sets of eyes, all gazing down at them from the mountain cliffs. Tens of four-legged shadows disappear from the clifftops just as swiftly and soundlessly as they'd appeared.

Daisuke and Gin make it back to civilization first. Daisuke tells Gin to make believe they've been here in Hidetoshi's shooting range the whole time. Gin doesn't understand how he's supposed to aid the illusion, so he just sits and chews on himself. Shortly after, Hidetoshi and John pull up in their Jeep. John leaves the car and settles down beside it to rest. Hidetoshi enters the hospital to inform Gohei of what has just transpired in the woods.

Daisuke is pretending to practice when Hidetoshi enters the room. Daisuke greets him nonchalantly without meeting his eyes. Hidetoshi greets Daisuke by telling him he forgot something as he produces the abandoned arrow. Daisuke just about shits.

Hidetoshi scolds Daisuke for his recklessness, tells him he's too irresponsible to use weapons, and bans him from using his bow and arrows ever again. Daisuke responds like any mature young man would by throwing a temper tantrum and storming off with his dog to run through the streets and holler about how nobody understands them. We've all been there, kid.

Later that night, Gin stands atop Daisuke's house, gazing off into the abyss of space. His head is throbbing from where the bear got him, and Daisuke's parents had angrily let their son know that each mark would forever be a scar carved into his loyal friend's head.

Gin wasn't afraid of having scars. At anything, he decided that from now on he'd consider them a trophy from his first real victory over The Enemy. Before he climbs down for the night, he watches as a shooting star crosses the speckled black sky.

The next day, spring really starts gettin' sprung. While this would normally be a relief to the village people (not the band, the phenomenon) no snowfall means no more hibernation for the wildlife, which means all of Akakabuto's allies are sure to be around. Daisuke and Gin are especially aware of this, and Daisuke's feeling the pressure to do something about it.

That said, Gin's mind has been wandering elsewhere. A strange smell from the mountains has been wafting through the village. Gin can't quite put his finger on what it is, but it's neither bears nor God lettin' one rip. Something strange is occupying the woods.

Daisuke and Gin go to visit Hidetoshi. Daisuke plans on begging Doc to let him borrow his bow so he can help stop the ever growing Winnie The Pooh Lookalike Competition sweeping the forest. When the two arrive, they find Hidetoshi and his friends loading back up into the Jeep. They plan on going back to the forest and bringing back both the bear they killed and the one Daisuke killed. Hidetoshi greets Daisuke with a disapproving glare, and John matches Gin's annoyed expression.

Before Daisuke has a chance to ask, Hidetoshi reads his mind and tells him no, he can't have the bow, but yes, he can instead fuck off. Daisuke has proven he shouldn't be allowed to have it, and Hidetoshi, being a doctor, doesn't feel comfortable purposefully setting someone up to get hurt.

As the men depart, Daisuke regresses to 5 years old again. He stomps his feet and screams every obscenity he's ever learned. From his hospital room window, Gohei is looking down at the kinder, his face unreadable. All he thinks is that the little shit sure is serious about this bear killing thing.

Meanwhile, The Master Blaster Squad has reentered the forest. John leads the men back to the bear he helped slaughter, but his reaction is unexpected. His hackles raise and he utters vaguelly panicked sounding barks, two things he's usually too full of himself to do.

The men instantly see why - the bear's carcass has been stripped clean of fur and flesh! All that's left of the animal is a few scraps of muscle on its skull and a slimy pile of white bones. John continues snarling and barking as he gazes at something on the nearby cliff's edge. The men look up.

It's dogs. Dogs of all different breeds are lining the cliff as if in military formation. Everyone becomes more then a little anxious, concerned about being surrounded on all sides by feral animals. The dogs gaze down at the men for a moment (one of them totally does that "I'll be watching you" gesture with a forepaw) before departing, swiftly disappearing from sight. A strong feeling of What The Fuck lingers in the air.

Back in town, Daisuke has stopped screeching long enough to come to an obvious conclusion: couldn't he just, like, ask his dad to buy him a bow? He and Gin head home to ask pops if he's willing to drop a few yen on a deadly weapon for his 12 year old when Momma Daisuke makes them aware of the fact that Dad is outski. He's at a town meeting that's been organized to sort out the whole Man-Eating Bear business. Daisuke, overcome with a need to be involved again, invites himself and his dog to participate.

The meeting is more enlightening then most town meetings are. Akakabuto is obviously mentioned, as are the sightings regarding his children, but so are two newer threats.

Another bear named Madara ("mottled" or "spotted", guess what she looks like) who was originally being hunted in neighboring Miyagi has made her way to Akakabuto's territory. She's not known for picnicking on people, but she is aggressive and willing to attack anything in her way. She's powerful, too, refusing to die even after getting several bullets stuck in her gut.

The other bear is named Mosa. He's traveled here from Iwata, and the easiest way to recognize him is by his missing right foreleg. He's infamous for having killed several lumberjacks and woodsmen on his trek over. It's believed that both bears are making the effort to move into Futago Pass, aka Redhead Central, for good.

Daisuke and Gin have been watching the meeting from a window. Daisuke is seething with hatred at all the beary big invaders while Gin is trying to image the heinous power of three giant killing machines tearing through the mountains. All the men in the meeting are too chickenshit to wanna confront the bears, so they just sorta shrug and say "What can ya do?" This pisses Daisuke off enough to get him to yell at the men from outside, calling them out for not wanting to die in bear maulings.

The dude leading the meeting opens the window and begins scolding Daisuke for rudely interrupting when another rude interruption barges in and tells everyone to shut the fuck up. A rude interruption by any other name is Gohei Takeda, and he's hobbled here from the hospital, getting up the moment the words "bear" and "meeting" were used in the same sentence.

Exhausted from the walk there, Gohei pants to everyone in the room that Akakabuto and his ilk will not stop until they ruin everyone's lives forever. Then he tumbles into the meeting room table, swearing. Several men get up to help him as he tells them, and especially Diasuke, that no matter what, Akakabuto MUST die.

Unbeknownst to the human populace, Futago Pass's Fight Club has just opened, and it's first participants are Akakabuto and Madara. The bears have the arm wrestling match of the century to prove if Madara's allowed to walk around wherever she wants.

Akakabuto defeats her, but he allows her to hang around under one condition: she and any bear she either recruits or births must fall in line as Akakabuto's body guards. She figures that's not a bad deal for free room and board, so she agrees to be his right hand bear. With any luck, they'll all be enjoying human hamburger very soon.

Gohei has been taken back to the hospital, much to his dismay. Hidetoshi is trying to comfort him, saying that he'll get revenge enough for both of them. Gohei doesn't seem pleased at the idea of being left out, but he's actually less concerned about the ego bruising and more worried about Daisuke.

That damn kid has got it in his head that he can kill a 10 foot tall bear with a bow he barely knows how to use and a dog who's not fully grown yet. Hidetoshi says that Daisuke's lost his bow privileges, but Gohei doesn't care. He doesn't believe being disallowed the doc's toys will stop the stubborn child.

He's right to think so, because Diasuke and Gin are hauling ass AND their snowmobile into town. Diasuke barges into the weapons shop and strikes up a trade with the man behind the counter: the snowmobile in exchange for the most bitchin' bow and arrow set he's got.

The man can barely stop himself from laughing, taking Daisuke for an overzealous kid who can't tell the difference between a toy and a deadly weapon. Daisuke strikes up another deal almost instantly: for the bitchin' bow, he'll give the dude the snowmobile AND prove he can fire an arrow himself.

The Weapons Seller is about to protest that the traveler cannot handle his strongest weapons when he schanges his mind and takes Daisuke up on the offer. If Daisuke can hit the tree out back from the other side of the yard, he can have the bow. As expected by everyone who's reading this, Daisuke strikes the tree without breaking a sweat, and so he and Gin hop, skip, and jump home with a new, genuine bow and arrow set of their own. It's time to prepare.

Daisuke and Gin head into the forest in the same fashion they log into Disney.com - without their parents' permission. Daisuke is so overjoyed at having his own flying spears that he's firing off into tree trunks like it's no one's business, making believe each one is a monster bear.

Gin's not paying any mind, though. Not because he's seen Daisuke do this before, but because that strong, unfamiliar scent is even stronger here. His hackles raise and he begins growling involuntarily. There's a power to the strength of the scent that he can't ignore.

In an instant, Gin takes off after the weird smell. Daisuke is confused before scrambling to his feet and following. The sound of snarling and... is that barking? fills their ears as Gin follows the scent. Along the way, they find the battered body of a dog who's clearly picked a fight with a bear.

The dog is white with brown spots, and its head has been crushed as if stomped on. Gin gazes sadly at the corpse for a moment before continuing after the smell. The dead dog isn't the only unusual thing out here.

At the end of the scent trail, the two come to a small hollow in the woods. In a little sand embankment is a young Japanese black bear snarling at a large pack of domestic dogs. The dogs are standing over the body of a freshly killed deer, no doubt telling Tubby Teddy to back off 'cause they ain't sharing. The bear doesn't take the hint, so the dogs begin their attack.

A particular dog, a dark fawn great dane with a collar of red beads around his neck, barks commands at the others. Team 1, attack the legs! Team 2, go for the arms! Team 3, see if you can reach the eyes!

Gin and Daisuke watch spellbound as the dogs organize into units to slay the bear, downing it in mere minutes. Daisuke can't understand what the Great Dane is saying, but he gets the idea of how clever the dogs are. Gin watches spellbound, amazed at the pack's organization and power.

Unable to contain himself any longer, Gin slides down into the hollow to meet the canine coterie. The Dane's gaze meets his first, and every other dog turns and snarls at the Akita. Gin utters a weak "Hi" before the entire pack starts growling at him in warning.

Daisuke's understandably scared, but he knows there's not much he can do against a pack of this many animals. Luckily, the dogs' attention is torn away from Gin by a howl in the distance. Everyone turns to look.

Standing atop a nearby hill is the silhouette of another dog, a dark splotch against the setting sun. His howl is powerful and visceral, and it instantly draws the attention and command of the pack.

Gin is especially taken with the sound. He can't pinpoint why, but the voice stirs up something primal and powerful inside him. He wants to follow it. He wants to follow the pack.

----------

End of episode 2, wherein we finally see where this story is going. More mysterious dog antics are yet to come, which is what I know all you dog weebs are actually here for.

Episode 3: The Soldiers

#ginga #ginga nagareboshi gin #silver fang #hopeanuoli #yoshihiro takahashi #ginga words #rewrite #fanfic

[sumeshi-t]

the idea of making hc’s of children is sosososo cute. i’ll follow ur steps chloe @akaashit-baeji lolol this is gonna be really self-indulgent buuut my excuse is that it’s my birthday so here it goes... i'm writing the last half of this with a hangover and a bad case of dysmenorrhea... sucks 2 be me

Oikawa Teru (及川 輝)

his name “輝“ means “bright”, and this boi lives up to it because, let’s face it, he’s gonna be like his dad. he embodies this “brightness”, in a way that he’s smart, and he makes sure he and his team’s (or whichever team he’s going to be in) will shine on the court

wavy/curly hair and a victim of my and his dad’s astigmatism. always has this cheeky smile, and he gets my brimming energy so he’s really approachable and charming

very good with words; it’s like he always knows what to say

when he plays he also wears contact lenses

but don’t be fooled. in their generation, it’s him who has to put iwaizumi’s son in check. he knows everything about his teammates too, he knows more than what he lets on (which sometimes, they find creepy, but they all know he means well)

anyway, unlike his dad, he doesn’t really mind having geniuses around. instead, he watches them very closely; something like “mutualism”. he knows what he lacks and he knows he can learn from them too, vice versa.

is into horror games. in his free time, he and his sister take turns playing. and they decide it by seeing who can last the longest without flinching/screaming. he’s annoyed because his sister’s better at it 

has fans, ngl. i mean look at him. however, the female fans especially, are pretty on guard. he’s approachable, but anytime they see him with his sister... they back out. he doesn’t mind, he loves his sister and it actually amuses him. he’s the same when it comes to the boys who hang around her too!

basically protective siblings who are always there for eo

is very neat. can’t concentrate when something is out of place. he keeps his nails short, has a somewhat flowery scent. yes, he uses female perfumes because he despises strong smells.

bug-catching was his childhood hobby just like mine’s was. used to sneak beetles in iwaizumi’s son’s backpack back then

he will never admit it but he actually asks his sister for fashion tips because his taste sucks ass so bad

basically his major problem or issue in life is getting compared to his father (he’s also a setter). he hates that so much, being hidden in the shadow of his dad, and when people just recognize him for being oikawa tooru’s son.

something he and ushijima’s child relate to so strongly. they’re friendly rivals; might end up being teammates in their career hmm

so when he’s the one stressed, he skips practice for a day just so he could recollect his thoughts. usually stays in the library to read books he picked up based on the titles; might either open up to iwa or his sister later on, it depends. then when he’s okay, he doubles the amount of training

Oikawa Rie (及川 麗恵) it’s /ri-ye/ oki

so the kanjis are: "麗" meaning, beautiful and "恵" is blessed. tooru thought of this name obviously

also has curly hair like mine. has that tiny mole below her eye just like i do. actually has lots of moles over her body; one time she fell asleep on the couch her brother drew connecting lines between the moles on her arm and called them constellations. it was nice she thought but still, the next day, teru had to wear a band-aid over his nose bridge.

she’s just a year younger. is less “vibrant” than her brother, a bit more serious. has a resting bitch face and she’s not even sorry about it and i love her for that

she’s actually relieved she looks like that, or else she knows the girls in her class would flock to her just to get in her brother’s pants. usually brushes them off with “ask him, not me” or “do you think that’s any of my concern?” 

her tongue her words damn never get to this baby girl’s bad side she’s gonna burn you alive. like fr when she’s angry, oh she’s gonna show you that she’s angry. but tbh she's very sweet, leaves little notes or little gifts to her friends every now and then

she just doesn’t want her brother’s heart to be broken (she’s heard stories from her mom about her dad’s many hs exes), and she knows teru’s struggles

therefore

doesn’t really like volleyball that much. it’s because she didn’t get to grow up with her dad around, she felt like it separated her from him. she’s not mad at him though. she’s very supportive of him and her brother.

used to play vb though when they were kids. but that’s all it was for her

she’s the team’s honorary manager lol the occasional “i brought you guys sumn” or “something-kun, a girl from my class says she likes you so do your best” etc

the team’s lil sister how bout that

despite being tolerant of horror games, this girl is vvvv squeamish. she cries at the sight of internal organs or blood. biology lab was the worst time of her life 

when she dug up my hs videos she was shook to discover i once did theater. and thus begins her interest in theater too

and??? baby girl is actually???? really really good???? 

the girls she used to shut down nicknamed her “prima”, short for “prima donna” she hates it. hates it more when her closest theater buddy was the one who spread that around

immediately went to the gym to spike some balls from her brother. baby girl was crying because she was just so pissed.

she was given ice cream and sweets afterwards. ugh it’s so cute idk she’s baby to the team skksksk they protecc

in that upcoming play, her first ever performance, the whole team got front row seats and howled when she came on during curtain call; it was vvv sweet and memorable even if the guys were kinda reprimanded afterwards lmao

which is why, in return, boiis also have a hard time approaching her because damn??? the vb team as your knights???? excuse me??? 

oh have i mentioned she has a sweet tooth? mygod. she has a stash of sweets in her room. teru has had to sneak some away because she might get tooth aches or diabetes

her pastel nail polish is arranged by shade, her body clock is fucked up lmao she hates the mornings; has succulents by her window which she names after various characters from books/plays etc she’s for sure gonna be a theater actress tho

asks help from iwa’s son for math. even her brother’s 0% help. teru is smart but a terrible teacher. she’s an above-average student and that’s all that matters for her. she can leave the spotlight to her brother because she only craves one type of spotlight

Miya Seiichi (宮 聖一) and Miya Seiji (宮 聖二)

their names literally mean “聖” sacred then “一” is one, and “二” is two

atsumu thought it was funny. when they were kids, seiichi’s nickname was “juan” and seiji’s was “tutu” (i gave them the nicknames)

when the twins discovered the meaning behind the nicknames, they hated it. especially seiji, he despises it vvv much

so when they were hs, seiichi = chi, seiji = ji for the people they're close with

as we can see here, the twins unfortunately got my curls. seiichi likes his hair as is. he doesn’t like the thought of dyeing his hair just to be differentiated from his twin. in fact he enjoys twin jokes, enjoys tripping people up about it. seiji on the other hand, grew tired of his brother’s jokes and by the time hs started, he sacrifices his soft hair. 

between the two, seiji is the one who has my ugly eyesight. add to the fact that he reads a lot (once he starts he can’t put it down. so he reads in the dark, in a moving car etc)

the piercings was a thing that happened between them, and their cousins (which were also twins wtf)–it was a 2v2 vb thing and they lost

surprisingly, the cousins weren't pleased bc atsumu didn't scold them for getting piercings (but for playing half-heartedly). seiichi wanted the piercings tho tbh it was the perfect excuse. ngl, seiji also wanted them.

first let's talk abt seiichi, aside from the fact he also got my mole (he feels it makes him look cuter tho)

seiichi's into vb, but not a setter. he's the ace. may or may not push through with it as a career. he hasn't decided yet. is actually a bit sad that seiji didn't join the vb club in hs, he wanted them to be like his dad and uncle.

seiichi doesn't have any uh, quirks like shutting the whole cheer squad up like his dad does. but he usually dribbles the ball five times before any serve (this is something i did before) and he likes the 'ooooh hey' thing the crowd does when he goes for a serve

his side of the room doesn't have much stuff going on except workout equipment. he follows what exercise plan i give him as da PT mom that i am, and he is very strict with his diet and with what he eats–he's close to not needing a calorie counter anymore; but not a picky eater. he loves his uncle's cooking very much and he is jealous he can't cook even if he tries

he can do beatboxing, he learned it through youtube lmao his spotify playlists are da bombest; he learns a lot in youtube tho in his free time. his current interest is magic tricks and french (he thinks he can use it to woo that girl from class 4)

he hates insects, and hates mess. he has had to scold his twin about it that it escalated to them having this imaginary line in the middle of the room

anyway, he's straightforward. but not rude. he just doesn't like any pretenses so he says what he thinks or feels is right. may or may not have led to some misunderstandings, but he owns up to his mistakes if he crossed a line

next, seiji

even if he looks like a nerd with his glasses tbh he is not he actually hates studying. you can love reading without having to love studying right? he's that dude

the only time that he regrets dyeing his hair was when he realizes couldn't change identities so his brother could take his exam for him

his side of the room is littered with his sketches, notes from books, pencils everywhere – he drew a bunch of ants one time on a paper and made it look like they're real ass ants and placed it on seiichi's pillow

to solve this problem, atsumu has planned to give him a tablet for his next birthday

quits vb in hs because he kinda lost interest? he still finds it fun but he doesn't wanna be put under the pressure that his dad and uncle left for them lmao

he's in art clubs tho

he designs banners/posters for the team anyway. they use his strategic mind from the shit he's read for any plays and stuff so when he's not drawing, he's thinking

he might look like he has no emotions, but tbh he is more emotional and empathetic than his brother. he cries easily over the simplest things, like those grandparents vids, or rescuing animals and stuff

and thats why he doesn't let people in too much bc he knows he'll be hurt (dw seiichi knows this vvv well, and even if they do have arguments, he loves his lil bro and helps him about this)

has once begged to have a cat at home–seiichi didn't want bc he knows his twin is gonna leave him for clean up lmao

he can cook period.

he's gonna either be an architect or an animator, still hasn't decided.

his music taste sucks lmao. his youtube recents are filled with cooking stuff; in constant conversation with his uncle abt cooking lol it be cute sometimes atsumu is jealous bc he feels his son is closer to his brother than with him

he is forgetful that's why his stuff is messy lol he keeps misplacing stuff, sometimes it's literally in front of him and he's just 'where????'

but remembers dates well, remembers plays well. he's good at nitpicking tiny nearly insignificant details. just anything outside studying? he's good. dw he passes his classes but he hates giving effort for that shit lololol

#haikyuu #haikyuu headcanons #saleeta

[dulcidyne]

Experiments in Diplomacy: Compiling [8/?]

There’s nothing in the Interspecies Diplomacy subsection of the Initiative handbook that covers sharing a tech lab with an angara who can kill her in her sleep. She knows, she’s read every page. Twice. (A collection of in-between vignettes from the Tempest tech lab) 

//Jaal x Ryder // Humor. Romance. SFW // Previous chapters: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] or read on Ao3

Somewhere along the way to age seven, in Citadel docking bay 223, Se-ah Ryder decides crying, hugs, tantrums, and other public displays of emotion are things she has outgrown. Perfunctory, precise, she shuts them away as if embarrassing emotional habits can be sealed into donation boxes for young needy children in the Lower Wards like her half-melted asari dolls.

Donated or lost, the box she puts them in stays shut. She doesn’t cry when they pay their respects to her grandmother’s urn at the columbarium. Or, much later, in another docking bay, when Scott waves goodbye as he ships off for Arcturus. She doesn’t cry the first time Iraenya plays down their relationship to her colleagues, embarrassed and ashamed.  And when her mother dies, she takes a page out of her father’s book and finds a hospital supply closet and stifles her tears into her shirt collar.

It stays shut, that is, until now. Until twenty-eight uninterrupted minutes of sobbing into Jaal’s chest, followed by forty-one additional minutes of sporadic weeping interspersed with flailing grasps at composure. So, obviously, there is only one logical conclusion to make.

“Just run them again,” Se-ah hisses.

“Once again, Ryder, my scans do not detect any pathologic neurological patterns outside of baseline variation.”

She woke up to the dim ambient glow of the powered-down machine displays running through their background system scans, half-reclining in Jaal’s arms, in his cot, having cried herself to sleep in his embrace  like an infant--that alone is an abnormality. She doesn’t understand why SAM is having difficulty with the concept.

“Outside of baseline,” she pauses, the gnarled tangle that is her hair fluttering as Jaal’s snores gust over her head. It tickles her temples but she doesn’t want to dislodge the warm arm banding around her shoulders to brush it back. “Wait, SAM, does that mean you normally detect pathologic patterns?” “It exceeds my functional parameters to parse this data into a clinical diagnosis. It would be unethical to make an attempt. Dr. T’Perro would undoubtedly provide better insight.”

Maggie’s lights pulse unhurried staccato patterns from the corner. Se-ah stiffens in Jaal’s loose embrace, indignant. “ Unethical. You’re an AI integrated into my entire body. Little late to be worried about ethics isn’t it?”

“A relevant point. I additionally lack subjective expertise. My data collection is limited to two genetically similar individuals. It is therefore relatively impossible for me to extrapolate what is normal and abnormal outside of overt structural dysfunction.”

“Further,” SAM says, “I am not an inert observer. It cannot definitively quantify what impact my integration and ongoing observation and interaction has had on your baseline neurological state.”

Disquieting. Se-ah stills and attempts to parse this new revelation while Jaal’s chest rumbles against her ear like the purr of a massive but very contented kitten. It’s nice. She wishes she were still half asleep and allowed to enjoy it and not awake and mortified over her predicament. Mortified and now, thanks to SAM, horrified.

“So not only can you not tell me if my brain is broken, you’re also saying that just by being in my head, you’re changing how it works and doing so in a way that you lack the ability to detect? Like some kind of quantum observer effect?”

SAM doles out a calculated pause for her benefit. All his pauses are for her benefit as he processes information in nanoseconds, but this one feels especially so. A pity pause. Bad news pause.

“Correct.”

“Great,” she mutters, “I’m Schroedinger’s basketcase.”

“My scans do detect significant decreases to harmful neurological metabolites and reduced cortisol levels...likely the product of sufficient rest.”

So that’s what it is. No creaking limbs, phantom aches or raw fatigue scraping the inside of her eyelids raw. A loose, shivery sensation clings like mist in her chest. It feels like a lungful of the air on Mr. Orleal, saturated in starlight and the ozone tingle of the eezo deposits under the lake.

Melatonin has nothing on Jaal. Lexi would be thrilled. Happiness flutters against her ribs. She hides her smile against the vast sloping ridge of Jaal’s alien chest even though there’s no one else there to see how foolish it looks. A familiar scent tickles her nose and she sniffles back a sneeze. He smells warm and herbal, like grapefruit orchards and Earth sunsets--carnelian, blush,and gold-- if Earth sunsets prickled in her sinuses like wasabi.

As far as smiles go, this one caught on the precipice of a sneeze, feels the stupidest.

“Pathfinder, if you have a moment, I would like to discuss some of the data I obtained earlier…”

The tentative flutter of joy in her chest curls inwards on itself, recoiling. She screws up her face, tipping her head back over Jaal’s arm, his r ofjinn bunching up against the tiny hairs at the nape of her neck.

“SAM, I don’t want to waste all this beautiful mental clarity on parsing out my emotional breakdown.”

It’s not fair and she regrets saying it. He provides more than his share of explanations for her and this is supposed to be a reciprocal relationship after all.

“That classification is interesting, Pathfinder. Noradrenaline phasic signalling was decreased, indicating the absence of a stress response. You rate the subjective experience, however, as a negative one?”

Half the words don’t even sound familiar. Despite being the daughter of a neuroscientist, she picked up precious little on the subject. Latching on to what she understands, she attempts an answer.

“No. Not negative. The opposite, I guess?”

“I see.”

She absurdly pictures SAM fitting the L of his imaginary thumb and pointer finger to his imaginary chin in a gesture of academic interest. Her father used to do that, unwittingly providing Scott with ample ammo for his ‘Alec Ryder, mad scientist’ impressions.

“This supports my observations of the intense activity within the mesolimbic circuit--”

Se-ah winces. “You know, it’s pretty weird to hear all the gory details.”

“I do not comprehend the discomfort.” SAM states, an echo of her father’s scientific fascination faint in the synthetic voice modulation. Her own imagination, she’s sure. “Your emotions are best described as the limited interpretation of this signalling process.”

For some indefinable reason, she bristles.

“Maybe technically, but...it was this amazing, overwhelming experience and it didn’t feel limited . It felt...immense. Bigger than anything. Like I couldn’t possibly keep it in without bursting and then I did burst and apparently that looks like a lot of crying.”

Ugly crying. There was a not-small-amount of snot involved.

“It’s more than mesolimbic circuits,” she persists, words coming faster and her voice tightening,  “Sometimes things are more than their physical, observable state. When I’m on a summit, what I experience isn’t just snow and stars and rocks...it's…well I wouldn’t bother with it if that was all I got out of it. Look, I don’t think I could ever explain it in a way you’d be able to understand.”

The channel goes silent, longer than the normal exaggerated pauses SAM inserts into his responses. The silence is deafening on the heels of her tirade. As if he’s...affronted.

“Thank you Ryder.” SAM says at last. Clipped and professional. Is it her imagination or is it too professional? If there were such a thing? “I will attempt an analysis with this feedback in mind.”

Se-ah nods, unnecessarily given that it is SAM, her heart sinking. Who knows what havoc a peeved AI could wreck in her brain, apparently without either of them any the wiser? And if she can’t explain it to SAM she doesn’t know how she’s supposed to explain what happened to Jaal. Not that she didn’t try before, during all the sobbing, but it was impossible to get anything out that wasn’t ‘I’m fine, I just...’ before dissolving into tears again. He didn’t press her for more.

But maybe now that she isn’t an emotional wreck, he might. Whether she has answers is less certain.

‘Sorry, SAM says you overloaded my mesolimbic circuit and that it’s all very scientific and reasonable and I’m not crazy. Or I might be. Have you heard the human folk tale about the cat?”

Awful. The shivering sensation in her chest unfurls again and spreads out into her fingers. She furrows them into the crease of Jaal’s side and the cot, letting his warmth soothe the trembling overtaking her frame. His arm wraps tighter reflexively. This is the sort of moment she wants to soak in, slow, like sunlight filtering through leaves stippling ancient Morse-code patterns over her face. Eyes closed, she inhales and vague memories sift warm impressions on the backs of her eyelids.

Hands, scarred and calloused and massive sweeping soft, reassuring circles against her back. His chin on the top of her head, her face tucked into the graceful sweep of his neck where a crook would be on hers. A low thrum: his voice, unintelligable, but soothing. A musical hum buzzes through the air.

Se-ah sighs and blinks her eyes open to glance up. He’s still deep asleep, snoring away. A hazy, contented smile gathers at the corners of his mouth and makes him look, for all the universe, like someone having a pleasant dream.

Despite spending the vast majority of her waking moments on the ship in his makeshift bedroom, she’s never seen him this way. The quiet of the ship is unsettling, he claims. Unlike his naps on the NOMAD, the only sleep she sees him take on the ship is fitful, almost violent--covers twisting, his hands clutching, face grimacing, the names of the lost wrenching out of him as he jolts awake. But even the sleep he snatches on the NOMAD doesn’t look this peaceful. It takes him quick and fast, like something joyless and inevitable. She grimaces. Like death.  

Studying his lidded eyes, she shifts on the cot to lean her weight more on his chest and tip her head back, peering up at the sweeping planes of his cheekbones, the point of his chin, and the fine ridge of his brow. He’s beautiful. All angara are, to her eye-- all grace and noble carved profiles like ancient Athame sculptures given color, life, and a Romanesque bone structure. But Jaal’s beauty is sharper, more defined than anything out of asari or human antiquity. War and grief etch his face in a landscape of visible and invisible scars, throwing the softness that remains, obstinate and miraculous, in high relief. The softness is all she sees now.  It is the face of a man who dreams, hopes, composes poems and perfumes, and is always seeking, searching, finding bits of wonder. If it weren’t for the kett, this might always be his face and Andromeda would be a place where it would fit. The dreamer. The tinkerer. The explorer.

But the kett stole that place away from him. War is spare. Merciless. There is little room for anything else but soldiers. Se-ah bites the inside of her lip, hard. Jaal is the first to insist he isn’t much of a soldier.

She doesn’t realize the snoring stops until he, without bothering to open his eyes, asks, “Yes, Ryder?”

Chagrined and surprised over how close she’s gotten, she immediately jolts away. “You’ve been awake? How long?” The slant of his smile changes but his eyes stay closed, “Long enough. Were you under the impression that you were being discreet?”

Fair point.

“So why didn’t you say something?” “I was trying to sleep. Speaking seemed counterproductive.”

“Uh huh. To your eavesdropping, maybe.”

Jaal doesn’t look at her, on account of the fact that he’d yet to bother opening his eyes, but the resigned set of his shoulders conveys a beleaguered expression that comes with an air of ‘No, I don’t think I’ll even bother ’. It’s one he wears around Liam with regularity. “Please do not attempt to explain that one. If I cannot sleep I’d much rather occupy my mind elsewhere.”

He makes a point of settling further into the cot, the large divot his body forms in the fabric deepening. Maybe he’s trying to free up the arm underneath her she realizes, belatedly. Renewed mortification crowds up her neck and she coughs to clear her throat. “Oh, then I should...leave you to that then,” she says, cheeks burning as she draws back against the gravitational pull of his weight on the cot, narrowly avoiding toppling on top of him.

“Stay.” At last Jaal blinks open his eyelids, a slow reveal of vivid blue. He looks at her, uncharacteristically uncertain, before saying, simply, “If...you’d like. You could join me.”

She hesitates. “Join you--elsewhere?”

“No, just here.”

Somehow he feels...closer. Not physically. It’s as if the gap in the universe between them has vanished overnight. She’s no longer on the precipice, her thoughts and feelings a faint, distorted comm. She’s there , a few bare centimeters in front of him and he’s looking at her as if he can see every detail of her with absolute clarity. It’s dreamer’s look with a tinkerer’s focus and his eyes are luminous, twin helium nebulae lit from within with something like wonder. She mistook it for morbid fascination once. This time she knows better. He smiles as if he might laugh. Fond. Unbearably so. Her chest hurts to look at it.

“No idioms, nothing else. Just this. Right now.” The words linger, rippling against her skin in gentle, rumbling waves. Jaal crooks his pinned arm and brushes back the fluttering snarl of her hair.

A quiet bubble settles around the tiny cot, enclosing them within the warm, sunset smell of him. It feels safe. Like home. She doesn’t know the last time she felt those things. Not since-- It should be strange to find them here, an entire galaxy away, with an alien who openly spoke about killing her after they’d just met.

Jaal’s huff of a laugh skips across the quiet like a smooth stone on a lake surface. Something about it tells her he’s picked up on the precise turn of her thoughts--too perceptive by half. “You know, you are remarkably expressive. Almost angaran.”

She tucks her face into the slope of his neck and pulls a scowl, even though it isn’t an insult. The memory of her tragic poker loss to Gil is still all too fresh and she feels a little too raw, a little too exposed with nowhere to hide her vulnerabilities. Instead of answering, she buries a noncommittal sound into his bare skin.

He laughs again, rueful and soft. “It was a clumsy effort, but it was intended as a compliment. We are a vocal people. More than words and expressions. In addition to combative and deliberate communication uses, our bioelectrics have subtle subconscious patterns and pulses. I believe your hanar are similar, in the visible electromagnetic spectrum. It is difficult to suppress. Few have scrupulous reasons to try.”

His fused fingers twine into her hair. It seems a point of endless fascination for him. Even in the Milky Way, hair is something of a novelty.

“The emotions of those around us pervade all our senses. It saturates our lives. My first days on this ship were so...disorienting. I felt the absence keenly, like a limb lost in battle.”

Her scowl vanishes and she looks up to meet his eyes again. Of course, she’d suspected his trouble adjusting, but never knew the full extent. He kept so much hidden then. “It must have made it that much more difficult, deciding if you could trust us.”

Jaal laughs. It sounds pained. “Very. I learned to look harder, with time. There is a beauty in subtlety. Underappreciated among my people, but I’ve grown quite fond of it. Humans were easier. And then, there was you.”

“About as subtle as a flaming ship crashing on your planet?”

Genuine mirth threads into his laughter, his eyes tracing over her upturned face. “Yes. An apt comparison. Vivid, exciting… deeply alarming to some.”

She brightens and his smile deepens. The hand at her temple curls against her skin to brush a soft line over her cheek with the backs of his knuckles.

“It made trusting you more easy than wise, considering the risk.”

“I’m sure Evfra disapproved,” she says.

“Of course. Evfra is a cautious strategist. He despaired of me.”

Jaal leans his cheek against her head, looking off towards the dim ambient glow of the machines running through their downtime routines.

“My caution was always a feeble force and your face...says such beautiful things. I didn’t understand why you struggled  so desperately to hide them away.” He adds, blunt as ever, “Not... well, of course . But with an extraordinary amount of effort. I imagine it was exhausting. Inexpressibly painful. My heart ached just to see it.”

The corners of her eyes begin to prickle. Machine lights catch on the dust motes, adrift on the flickering electrostatic currents weaving around and between them, setting each pinpoint aglow like rippling eddies of distant stars.

“I thought the same about you, you know. Before we rescued the Moshae.”

Caution shackling his expressions and the strategic withdrawals into clipped one-word answers calculated to give as little away as possible. She’s more glad than she can say to have earned his trust and the chance to see his genuine self without the fetters of fear and uncertainty. He said getting to know her would be a gift and that is how knowing him better feels--like the best gift she didn’t even know to ask for.

He nods. “Yes. I wept for joy that she was safe and for the wrenching horror of what we learned that day but also I wept for my freedom from my own fears. Escaping them was...liberating despite my grief. Cathartic. I think perhaps you felt something of that same freedom. Earlier, when you cried.”

Catharsis. Freedom-- but from what? She wasn’t on a diplomatic mission with alien intruders. She was just-- her . A touch-starved awkward hugger with a trigger-happy mesolimbic circuit. But, that feels insufficient as far as explanations go. Instead, she remembers Scott crying, wailing, hands fisting over his eyes. It’s gone. I have to find it. People are looking. Mom ignores them and kneels despite the crowd, attempting to soothe him. Alec Ryder’s stonefaced expression fractures into a grimace. Pained. He turns away. His hand presses down on her own small shoulder and squeezes. It feels like pride. She forces her chin to stop quivering. She won’t cry. Nothing will ever be okay and everything is wrong but she is Alec Ryder’s daughter and she is old enough to do that much.

A tear slips into her hairline and Jaal’s thumb rubs it away. Breath held, she reaches up between them to capture his hand in her own. His eyes are full of reflected stars, twin galaxies pulling her into their inexorable spin. At the point of her outstretched fingernail is a pinprick of light, fanning off, faintly luminous, refracting off her tears.Se-ah pauses, taken aback, blinking away the moisture collecting on her lashes. It’s not a trick of the light. Her fingertips are actually glowing. And, she realizes, the air is...humming.

“SAM, are we about to fry anything with this corona discharge?” she asks. All at once the air changes, the charged dust motes around them still and the lights on her fingertips flicker out. It smells and feels like a storm just swept out of the tech lab.

“Appropriate precautions have already been taken to accommodate non-combat angaran electromagnetic field manipulation, Pathfinder. Ozone levels are also within acceptable limits.”

Jaal coughs and looks away, suddenly awkward.  “Ahh...as I was saying, it requires some concentration to suppress.”

“Can you stop? Concentrating that is? It’s not as if--well, SAM said it wouldn’t hurt anything.”

Now that she’s paying better attention, she can feel the tingling pressure building and shifting around them. The hairs stand up on her arms. The air smells bright and clean. Light collects on her fingertips again. Faint, but visible. Se-ah laughs, delighted, and slowly bends her fingers, watching the blue flicker and reappear. Ionized plasma balancing on the edge of an electromagnetic field pierced by the short point of her nail. Hardly seemed subtle in her book. Little about him was.

“We call this St. Elmo’s Fire,” she tells him. “It was considered a good omen by ancient human voyagers.”

“Ah. I’m your good omen then?”

“Well, we haven’t crashed once since you got here.”

He brings his free palm to hers, one fused, two separate for her five. She adds, sincerely, “It’s beautiful. Does this happen to you a lot? I’ve never noticed before.”

“No. This is...it’s more. It is special. Explaining would be difficult. Clumsy. I cannot do it justice.”

Hands pressed together, his palm dwarfing hers, a swell of emotion courses through her and a stubborn tear traces down her cheek. She laughs and a sniffle turns it into a tremulous, hiccuping burst of happiness.

“Is there a word for it in Shelesh?”

“No,” he says simply. “There is just this.”

Churning waves of electrons are crashing against her fingertips, caught in the lunar pull of him. Everything dissolves in the watery film of tears and she’s floating, falling, swept by tidal forces into an endless depth of variegated blue. There can be no words, in Shelesh or any other language. But she knows anyway. Floating in an electron sea of his design, palms pressed, wrapped in his embrace--she knows exactly what he is saying.

#jaal ama darav #mass effect andromeda #jaal x ryder #jaal romance

[silyabeeodess]

Fusionfall Headcanons: The Fates of Characters (Future)

When you arrive in the Future, you find that several of the characters simply "aren't around anymore," their fates either kept quiet about or left to speculation by those remaining. This is going to go into some dark territory given the topic, but the following will include a list of ideas focusing on the fates of those characters. Given that this will largely cover MIAs--many of which were listed due to being cut off and losing contact with various bases--and that we already meet several characters in the future portion of the game, I won’t be listing everyone/explaining all of their disappearances; however I will try to cover as many as possible in the context of “reports” known by the majority of Fusion Fighters:

Sector V KND Operatives:

Numbuh 1--Status: TERMINATED

Numbuh 1 fought hard in the Battle of Tech Square, however, he suffered grave injuries from both fusion monsters and overexposure to fusion matter.  To ensure that both his friends and the time-travelers survived, he remained behind and sacrificed himself. 

Numbuh 2--Status: ALIVE

Numbuh 3--Status: TERMINATED

Numbuh 4--Status: TERMINATED

Both Numbuh 3 and Numbuh 4 were confirmed losses after the KND Jungle Outpost was overtaken by fusion matter’s devastation of The Wilds.  As leaders, they stayed behind to the very end to ensure that as many people as possible could escape the base.    

Numbuh 5--Status: ALIVE

The Kanker Sisters:

Lee Kanker--Status: TERMINATED

Marie Kanker--Status: TERMINATED

When the fusion matter infection began to heavily settle in Peach Creek, both Lee and Marie were swept up in the destruction. They weren’t in a good spot and the ground collapsed under them, burying them with a ton of fusion matter.  If the collapse itself didn’t kill them, overexposure to fusion matter did as no one was around to reach them in time. 

May Kanker--Status: MIA

The Eds:

Ed--Status: MIA

Edd--Status: TERMINATED

When Lee and Marie Kanker stopped trying to get into the Cul-de-sac, everyone knew that in itself was a bad sign. Edd felt partially responsible for their disappearance, even though he wasn’t the only one who wanted to keep the sisters out, so he left with a small squad to go find them.  Unfortunately, only a few members of the squad made it back: The rest were ambushed by fusion monsters, Edd included.

Eddy--Status: ALIVE

Eddy was pretty stubborn when it came to both the Kankers and Edd’s decision to look for them, holding a fearful grudge against the girls for all of the stunts they’ve pulled both before and during the war--and, honestly, they were such a thorn in the Eds sides that he didn’t expect anything to happen to them.  When none of them came back ok, he became a little more serious, maintain an outwardly confident, business persona, but also trying to make up for what happened by trying to be a better leader.  It’s a lot harder without either of the other Eds by his side, and he has a lot of self-blame for their disappearances and not appreciating them sooner.

Father:

Status: DESERTED

When things started to really get bad, Father decided to “cut his losses” and abandon Peach Creek.  However, this was also around the same time when a report came out saying that the Delightful Children had gone MIA.  It’s assumed that Father went looking for them, possibly taking his family into hiding if he managed to find them.  

Stickybeard:

Status: AWOL/MIA

According to candy pirate Root Canal Rita, Stickybeard went missing while he was looking for a new ship.  Many of those who served under him claim that, while he left his post, he wouldn’t have done so to abandon the war effort, but rather to become an active fighter again.  Whatever the case, no one’s seen him at Candy Cove or anywhere else since. 

The Powerpuff Girls:

Blossom--Status: ALIVE

Bubbles--Status: ALIVE

After the Battle of Tech Square, Blossom and Bubbles opted to stay on one of Dexter’s airships to guard the survivors and search for any others. Able to fly at rapid speed, they were able to make great cover for the airship against any further attacks as well as split off to the collapsing structures in the area to save people. 

Buttercup--Status: ALIVE

Having Buttercup back in the fight was a huge morale boost for the Fusion Fighters, especially after facing a string of devastating losses.  Remaining primarily on the battlefront, she tends to go wherever she’s needed most for a fight.  After the Battle of Tech Square, that meant returning with the rest of the heroes to guard the remaining bases and ensure the time-travelers were prepared to face off against Fuse’s army.  

Professor Utonium:

Status: POW (Presumed Dead)

When Buttercup went missing, it took a large toll on the professor.  Seeing people around her age fight in the war--and knowing his other two daughters were also out there fighting a gradually losing battle--pushed him to taking a more active role as a soldier instead of just leading scientific/technological endeavors in Genius Grove. Unfortunately, while he was able to protect civilians, he was captured.  Fusion monsters don’t take many POWs, so the worst could only be assumed.  

Mojo Jojo:

Status: MIA (Presumed Dead)

At the point of the time-travelers’ arrivals, the Monkey Minions haven’t seen their leader for days.  Two theories, however, surround his absence.  The first is that Mojo effectively “went down with his ship,” unwilling to let Fuse get any of his tech from his volcano base to the point of dying over it.  The second is that he tried pushing forward on the frontlines and was inevitably killed in battle.  Either way, all of the monkeys insist that he wouldn’t have just turned tail on them.

Him:

Status: DESERTED

“Gentlemen, it’s been a pleasure.”  These were the last words and sole warning from Him just before the Fusion Fighters lose Endsville.  Leaving them to hand the area’s collapse, it’s believed he returned to the Underworld to spend however much more time Earth had there. People are just glad that things didn’t get worse.

Grim, Billy, and Mandy:

Status: ALIVE/AWOL

Placing these three together, because it’d be more difficult to talk about them otherwise. When things got bad, the Fusion Fighters were still somehow able to convince Grim to maintain the last few Resurrect ‘Ems--even if the reaper didn’t think there was much use for them up to that point.  Nevertheless, Grim opted to head back to the Underworld and Billy and Mandy tagged along, per his obligations as their “friend.”  No one really sees much of the three besides Grim on rare occasions, who spends his time out of the Underworld to vent when he’s not working.  According to him, Billy’s a pain, but at least Mandy’s still technically trying to help... if by getting into some pretty dark arts...

Dee Dee:

Status: ALIVE

It’s confirmed by Dexbot Q-33 that Dee Dee’s ok, however, she stays in her house at Genius Grove.  While still a kind of home-giver like she in the past at the base, she takes an even more active role now as a nurse as well, which always keeps her busy.  That, and that she’s also a target as Dexter’s sister pushes her to stay safe.

The Foster’s Home Gang:

Pretty much everyone at Foster’s was TERMINATED or has gone MIA, because one of the first things Fuse did when closing in on some of the more secure areas was wipe out Foster’s Home.  This includes Frankie, Mr. Herriman, Wilt and Mac--the last two having gone there to try to protect Foster’s for as long as they could.  Three to have survived are Coco, Bloo, and Eduardo.  These survivors were split apart so that, in the event of Fuse capturing another base, they’ll still be a few imaginary friends left around.

Bloo fell into kind of a depression after losing Mac.  He lost his usual self and has gotten pretty reserved, unwilling to see much of anyone. Sometimes, he blames Coco, since Mac initially split off from him to protect her, but he also largely blames himself for not being there for Mac and the others in the end.

Coco is kept under constant protection by the Fusion Fighters, who are always worried about losing her support and all that she supplies to the war effort such as her eggs and her strength as an imaginary friend.  

Courage:

Status: MIA (Presumed Dead)

A loyal pet to the end, the Fusion Fighters last saw Courage trying to save Eustace and Muriel from the overtaking fusion matter claiming Nowhere.  They never saw him again after that, and at best could only hope that he and the elderly couple managed to meet up somewhere with some of the Eggplants/Chickens.

Juniper Lee: 

Status: MIA

Juniper just went missing one day in the middle of leading a battle, and while no one knows what happened many assume that Fuse or possibly even someone from the Underworld kidnapped her for her connections/abilities as the Te-Xuan-Ze.  Grim was asked to keep an eye out for her, given her ties to him, but there’d been no update.

Ben 10 Characters:

Vilgax--Status: DESERTED

As soon as things took a turn for the worst, Vilgax bolted.  He did try targeting Ben one last time, claiming that it was worthless to allow the Omnitrix to be destroyed along with himself and Earth; however, Ben beat him.  Everyone saw it coming anyway and nobody grieved.

Max Tennyson--Status: TERMINATED

Max perished with several other Plumbers trying to protect civilians from fusion monsters during the City’s final days.  

Hex--Status: MIA

Gwen Tennyson--Status: MIA

Kevin Levin--Status: AWOL/POW

When Fusion Fighters lost contact with the base in the Pimpleback Mountains, Kevin abandoned his post to go looking for Gwen despite all orders against it.  His last transmission was to report that the base had been overtaken, right before it cut to himself being caught by fusion monsters. It’s believed he was captured for his Osmosian DNA so that Fuse could experiment on him. 

Ben Tennyson--Status: ALIVE (wounded)

Ben fought hard in the Battle of Tech Square, but sustained heavy injuries and slipped into a coma-like state.  It’s a miracle at all that he survived, and it’s assumed he only managed to because of some alien DNA in the Omnitrix protecting him as the device’s host.  

Tetrax--Status: ALIVE

His initial plans were to study Fuse and while he has no personal investment in Earth, he’s remained loyal to protecting it from the remaining airships.  Nevertheless, he doesn’t have much faith in Earth’s survival, and so he mostly tries to convince several Fusion Fighters into leaving the planet--citing that they could do more good and save their species if they left and shared their powers/knowledge regarding Imaginary Energy and nanos with the galaxy, thus preventing Fuse from conquering anymore planets. If all else failed and Earth was lost, he planned to kidnapped some Earthlings anyway (including Ben) so that not all hope would be lost.   

Albedo--Status: DESERTED

Hardly anyone had any faith in Albedo’s intentions when he first signed on for the war, and the former Galvan never helped his situation thanks to a series of incidents where he actually sabotaged the Fusion Fighters–particularly to get to Ben and his aliens. To be honest though, it usually wasn’t much different than any of other villains’ antics, be it on purpose or not. Although he did takes things too far to the point where he got locked up more than once, like them, he was largely given a pass because of Fuse being a bigger threat and thanks to his abilities. Needless to say, no one shed a tear when he vanished one day–either still somewhere plotting how to take the Omnitrix from Ben or trying to find/craft a ship to escape Earth.  

The Scotsman:

Status: ALIVE

No one understood how this man’s survived everything he’s been through beyond sheer luck.  He constantly remains on the frontlines, determined to keep fighting for Earth until the very end no matter how hopeless things seem.  It’d really be encouraging in the med team and Resurrect ‘Ems didn’t have to keep pulling him back from the brink of death...

Demongo:

Status: DESERTED

The turn of war had already moved against the Fusion Fighters. In the middle of one of the final battles for the Darklands, after Samurai Jack had to return to the city, Demongo betrayed them--claiming many of their strongest soldiers before vanishing.  It’s assumed that he returned to Aku’s side, but there’s been no move by him or his master since.

#oye this was a long one! #I think I got everyone as of the point in Retro #Maybe I'll come back to this if more characters are introduce idk #fusionfall #fusionfall retro #headcanons #the future #future #demongo #the scotsman #samurai jack #ben 10 #gwen tennyson #ben tennyson #kevin levin #tetrax #vilgax #hex #billy #mandy #grim #the grim adventures of billy and mandy #gaobam #fosters home for imaginary friends #fhfif #mac #bloo #coco #eduardo #juniper lee

[seth-storm]

Gaining Our Colors (Part 1/4)

(Had this in the drafts for some time, finally decided to finish it!)

The sides didn’t gain their colors until they made a name for themself, chose a trait. Those were simpler times. In the beginning, he was white, with chalk-like hair, a snow-colored crop top, and cloud-like jeans. He glowed brightly when he walked into every room, but he wasn’t really sure what he was, back then. Every time Thomas’s parents taught him a lesson or Thomas learned something about right and wrong, though, he felt something in him that felt like home. Thomas’s parents couldn’t see him, and so he became Thomas’s imaginary friend. Thomas called him Patton. He wasn’t quite sure what his purpose was, or what he was doing here. Thomas was still small, around five years old. But the man loved Thomas like a father. And while it was fun sitting alone with white trees and rustling frosty grass, the glowing loner wanted something more.

One day, another person wandered into the wide, empty space he inhabited. He must have existed before they met, but Patton had never seen him before. This newcomer was gray.

“Hello!” Patton said happily. “It’s nice to meet you! Who are you?”

“I’m... not sure.” The gray man replied. He wore a gray T-shirt, along with some slate colored slacks. His hair was perfectly gelled back and styled. He looked like he was made of stone. “Who are you?”

Patton thought about it for a moment. “I don’t exactly know yet either.” He smiled. “I guess we’ll find out together, huh?”

“How do we find out?” The gray man tilted his head. “Do we ask a series of questions? Do we analyze the data around us, however small it may be?” He gestured to the landscape and the gray grass and leaves of the trees, contrasting the white trunks and sky they were set against. As he continued to talk, a pair of gray glasses materialized on his face, and his T-shirt changed to a suit and tie. “Do we continue to gather data? Do we simply wait? That would follow logic, would it not?” As soon as he said the word logic, he turned blue. Dark blue. Just for a moment though, and then he was back to white and gray.

“You turned blue for a second!” His glowing companion told him excitedly. “When you said logic!” Patton looked down at himself, but the same did not happen to him. “Hm.”

“When I said logic?” The gray man asked, turning blue once more. The glowing man nodded eagerly. “Interesting. Maybe our colors correspond to our purpose. Perhaps mine is to be Logical. I wonder why it is only temporary.”

“I don’t know.” Patton frowned. “...Should I call you Logic, then?”

“Hm... no. I think I’d better choose a proper name for myself. How about... London?” He frowns.

“Hm... no I don’t think so.”

“Lance?”

Patton shook his head.

“How about Logan?” He asked

“Huh. It does have a nice ring to it.” The chalk like man smiled. “Logan Logic.”

“Logan Logic. Yes, that will be my name.” He smiled, and suddenly the gray of his features melted away into a navy blue. The pond nearby changed too, the only color in a sea of white and gray. “Oh, I see. We need a name and a purpose.”

“I wonder what my purpose is.” Patton asked. “Maybe it’s to be creative! Or to be tricky and mischievous. Or to be happy and kind!” He laughed, but seeing as his color did not change, he gave up on trying to guess. “I’ll figure it out eventually, I guess. I’ve known my name for a while though. Thomas calls me Patton.”

“You interact with him?” Logan frowned. “I only hover over his shoulder and correct his spelling every once in a while.”

“I wonder why we’ve never seen eachother before.” Patton frowned. “Maybe now that we know eachother’s names, we can see each other when we watch over Thomas!”

“Hello? Is anyone there?” Someone yelled in the distance. Another gray man wearing a T-shirt and a crop top walked up to the pair. “Finally! I feel like I’ve been wandering alone forever. How long have you two been here? And why is he blue?”

Why did these people start meeting each other all of a sudden after five years of loneliness? Perhaps it was because at five years old, Thomas was going to kindergarten, starting to really develop. He was getting friends, a personality, and he was learning. So it was finally time for the aspects that would shape him to meet.

“We’ve been here since Thomas grew into being.” Logan said, adjusting his glasses. “I am blue because I have figured out my function and my name. Logan Logic, nice to meet you.” He stuck out a hand.

The gray man smiled. “Nice to meet you too! Man, I always thought there was something more than watching Thomas by day and coming to a gray and white world by night. But then I saw some dark blue flowers and decided to go look for whatever had caused this color to appear!” He laughed. “You know, I’ve always fancied the name Roman.” He flashed red. “Or maybe Remus.” He flashed green. “I haven’t decided yet.”

“Woah.” Patton’s eyes widened. “You said two names and flashed two different colors!”

“Opposite colors as well, as it would seem.” Logan frowned. “Is he going to fulfill two functions, or can he only pick one?”

The gray man shrugged. “I guess we’ll have to wait and see!”

Patton nodded. “I’m waiting, too! I don’t really know where to start though.”

“Well I always found any logical action Thomas took to be pleasing to me. Are there any undertakings that intrigue you whenever Thomas decides to effectuate them?”

“English, Logan.” The slate colored man rolled his eyes.

“Are there any actions that interest you whenever Thomas decides to do them?” Logan asked huffily, crossing his arms.

“Potty humor!” The slate colored man grinned. “Oh, and drawing and coloring! And sticking a fork in an electrical socket! And singing!”

“He’s stuck a fork in an electrical socket?!” Patton asked. “When did this happen?!?!”

“When you guys weren’t looking, I guess. I thought it was a good idea at the time.” The smoky man shrugged.

“You could have hurt him!” Patton exclaimed. “You could have killed him! That’s just wrong!”

The lead colored man clutched his head in agony, staggering backward a pace. He clutched his chest in agony as the rock colored skin there split in two. The other two called out to him, making sure he was ok. Eventually his breathing slowed, the crack in his chest mended, and his head stopped feeling like it was splitting in two.

Patton kneeled down next to the man in pain. “Are you ok? Was it something I said?! I am so so sorry!!!”

“I don’t know why that hurt so much.” The fallen man said with tears in his eyes. “But I guess you’re right, those thoughts were wrong. But they were also so right! But they were wrong.” He shook his head, conflicted. “Golly gee this is confusing.”

“I’m so sorry for any distress either of us may have caused, Roman.” Logan said apologetically. The gray man winced again, flashing red briefly. “Or sorry, Remus?” Logan amended, and was confused when the man winced again and flashed green.

“It’s alright, nerd. It’s just like I’m... torn between what to be.”

“Well singing, drawing, and writing sounds like some sort of creative function to me.”

“Hm. But what about the other things?”

Patton shrugged. “I don’t know, but they seem like they could put Thomas in danger! If I were you, I’d stick with the creative one.”

“Well... I don’t want to hurt Thomas...” The slate colored man frowned. “But those other thoughts seem more fun to me than singing and drawing or whatever. What if I can be both?”

“When you tried before it seemed to put you in a state of major discomfort.” Logan frowned. “Are you willing to put yourself through that again?”

“I’ll only have to go through it once... right?” Roman-Remus smiled. “Then I can be more colorful than both of you nerds! But what’s the function of my other half...?”

“It seems like bad thoughts to me!” Patton said.

“But it doesn’t feel bad! In the moment...” The gray man frowned, faintly pulsing green.

“Perhaps ‘intrusive’ is a kinder word.” Logan suggested.

“Sure!” The man grinned, slightly devilishly. “I hereby and henceforth decree that I am Roman Creativity and Remus Intrusive Thoughts!”

He barely had time to register that he had flashed red and green before a splitting headache overtook him. Literally. His head felt like (and was) splitting in two. Before too long, two people who looked identical were lying on the floor, unconscious. One was red. One was green. The ground around them seemed to draw color from Roman and Remus, making the gray grass slowly turn green and red flowers sprout up across the landscape. Logan frowned. “Well that can’t be good.”

Patton frowned. “Why not? Now we have two new friends!”

“Well, now we have Creativity and Intrusive Thoughts. Separately. If you didn’t like when he would have Intrusive Thoughts when they were together, why would you like Remus as a person?” Logan frowned.

“Oh. You’re right.” The other frowned. “Well... maybe he’s just morally grey, that’s all!” He gasped. When he had said ‘morally’, he had flashed a light blue. “Wait, Logan, that’s it! I must be morality, right?” He flashed bright blue again.

“It would appear so, Patton.” Logan smiled slightly.

“I am Patton Morality!” He giggled, and his glowing and pure whiteness faded to a light blue. Morality may not always be right and perfectly pure like he was back then, but he still tries to be as kind and pure as he can be. As if a symbol of his fading purity, but the beauty of development, the sky turned a brilliant blue.

Roman and Remus stirred on the ground. “Woah... what happened?” They said in unison, sitting up.

“You split in two.” Logan informed them.

“Into a butthole?” They both grinned before Roman winced in pain, while Remus looked perfectly fine. “Ow...” Roman grimaced.

“You’re two separate people, you two don’t have to speak in unison.” Logan said, confused.

They both drew a breath, preparing to speak, then stopped to let the other speak first. They both said together, defeated, “It doesn’t feel like we’re two separate people. It just feels like I lost part of myself. Like...”

“My arm was brutally cut off and is now waving at me!” Remus said, cackling.

“Looking through a fun house mirror.” Roman said over top of Remus.

They looked at each other. “We... we are different.” Roman frowned.

“I... I guess we are.” Remus furrowed his eyebrows.

Logan nodded. “Well, if that’s in order, I believe it is almost time to take care of Thomas again.”

Patton frowned. “Remus, try to keep Thomas out of trouble, ok? I don’t want him getting hurt...”

Remus giggled. “No promises.”

When they went to watch over Thomas during the day, the personalities found they could all see each other. Thomas was delighted to see that Patton was colorful, and was happy to let Roman help him color and Logan help him do some simple math. But when Remus tried to play with Thomas, he was silenced by glares coming from Patton. There were still questions that resided in the glances between them. Were there more of them? Would they be (by Morality’s standards) ‘bad’ like Remus? When the day was over, Logan comforted a crying Roman when they showed up in the dreamscape after the long day of keeping Remus at bay. For some reason, Remus was nowhere to be found, and didn’t seem to be coming back. He might have simply disappeared because he was being repressed all day, but more likely he had run away from the influence of Patton. One thing was certain, Logan thought to himself. Whatever happened, someday this was all going to come to a head.

#sanders sides #Gaining Our Colors #sanders sides fan fic #fan fic #color!au #roman #remus #logan #patton #unsympathetic patton? #sympathetic remus #morally gray patton

[disappearinginq]

New Bingo Card

Crankiness is apparently a powerful motivator, but so are awesome people randomly swinging by with words of encouragement. 

Currently, the fandom is Magnum, PI, but I plan to add in some from Prodigal Son over the break.

Fic can be found on AO3: Found Family

and FFN.net: Found Family 

and below the cut: 

Rick tugged at the stiff collar of his dress blues for the umpteeth time, stretching the starched material a little further every time. The fabric no longer lined up to make an even line, and the top button was in danger of popping loose. His face was starting to itch from his five o’clock shadow, and the colonel had made it abundantly clear that he was to shave before they were picked up by their escort, but after 18 months and 11 days of no shaving, he just felt naked without at least some scruff.

Besides.

Clean shaven he looked like he was 12.

Well, used to. The rounded features he’d had almost his entire adult life that had bartenders carding him well into his thirties – a source of never ending amusement for Nuzo and TC and a shared affliction for Thomas – were gone. They’d been out of the Valley for almost four months now, but weight and muscle were slow to return.

“Why in the fuck do we have to stay in our dress uniforms for this bullshit?” he grumbled. The uniforms were never what one would call roomy but now they just felt like woolen weighted blankets slowly suffocating him. With the high collar, it felt like a really weak guy trying to strangle him all day. It didn’t allow for slouching or raising arms or even stretching, and Rick had to resist the urge to gnaw on the collar that jabbed uncomfortably at the underside of his chin. “Why do we even have to do this bullshit?”

TC heaved a long suffering sigh of someone who’d had to explain to a whiny toddler one too many times already – “because we’re a big deal. People want some good news for a change, and we’re it.”

“If people want a happy story, they can fucking watch the Hallmark Channel,” Rick growled. “This is the last of things I want to do on my To Do list.”

TC played along. He looked utterly unbothered by his uniform, the new Major insignia gleaming in the midmorning sun. “Oh yeah? What’s above it?”

“Chug a bottle of bleach, for starters,” Rick said.

The abrupt bark of laughter at his shoulder was worth the dark scowl from Nuzo and TC.

Thomas looked better than he had, but that was a pretty low bar. The same missing baby fat from Rick’s cheeks hollowed out Thomas’s entire face, making him look gaunt and worn. His hair was still too long for regs, but the admiralty let it slide, if only because Thomas wouldn’t let anyone close enough with a pair of scissors to cut it. He still wasn’t talking much, and rarely strayed any further than a few feet from any of them, but at least he was mobile. And alive.

He fidgeted with his pristine white uniform, pulling absently at the sleeves every few minutes to cover up the still healing skin graft scars.

“That’s a corker of a To Do list, brother,” TC said easily. “Anything else?”

“Well, if we’re still talking ‘Things I Would Rather Do Than a Press Tour’, then I’m going to have say  eating a nest of spiders, getting kicked in the teeth by a mule, having recreational surgery to remove a testicle,” he animatedly counted off on his fingers as he prattled off worse and worse things, ignoring Nuzo’s eye rolling and TC’s look of abject disgust while watching Thomas’s smile grow to the point it crinkled the corners of his eyes. Worth it, Rick thought. 

“Is there anything actually fun on this list of yours?” TC interrupted before Rick could come up with worse things.

“Food,” Rick said. “I plan to eat myself stupid now that we’re out of that godforsaken hospital. And I’m sorry, but German food is not my thing. I want an Americanized pizza, with something gross for toppings. I want whatever the hell that thing is,” he pointed to a six foot tall advertisement for something pink from Starbucks. “I want an all-American hot dog made from kangaroo meat and old boots.”

“That is not what hot dogs are made of,” TC sighed, making a face. “Shut up before you ruin all the things I’ve been looking forward to.”

They were sitting in the VIP lounge of LaGuardia, waiting on a ‘personal escort’ to some talk show – Rick honestly hadn’t been paying any attention when the general spoke. Fallon? Kimmel? SNL? Something that was supposed to impress him, and instead all Rick heard was ‘the first time you’ve been on American soil in over two years, and for the next six weeks, we have your entire lives mapped out for you – where you eat, where you sleep, who you talk to’ and he couldn’t shake the feeling it sounded suspiciously like they were still prisoners.

Just fewer bars and indoor plumbing.

They hadn’t been home in over two years – Rick hadn’t been state side in almost three. He’d been in the middle of back to back tours when they were captured. He almost forgot what it sounded like to hear people speaking primarily in a language he understood.

But his nerves were far from soothed just stepping onto American soil. They’d spent weeks in Germany recovering, trying to undo the damage done in a year a half, and Rick felt like it was like slapping a new coat of paint on rust – looked pretty on the outside, while everything still rotted away underneath.

They were flown first class from Bagram. Well, first from Bagram to the UAE, and then to the USA. The comfy seats didn’t mean much when he had to sit in the most uncomfortable uniform ever made for thirteen hours, with the military escort reminding them they weren’t allowed to drink in uniform.

When Rick had threatened to strip down then and there, the escort had relented, but he’d caught the exaggeratedly disappointed looks from the stewardesses. He’d smiled as they refilled his drink when out of the blue the thought struck him so hard he’d flinched, almost spilling it – would they still smile if they saw the scars?

He’d avoided any further attempts at conversation with them, just the general pleases and thank yous for service and tried not to throw up.

Nuzo laughed, interrupting the dark line of thoughts. “You idiots are gonna be the one doing the junket, not me.” He elbowed Thomas with half his usual force and tried not to let the hurt show when Thomas still noticeably flinched. “I guess married man, father of one doesn’t interest the people like three singles ready to mingle.”

“Don’t be hatin’ ‘cause we have the celebrity looks,” TC joked, fussing with his own dress blues that were still pristine.

“Yeah,” Rick piped in, slinging his arm around TC’s shoulders. “Look at these mugs. We’re gorgeous. And you somehow still have a bald head despite being stuck in a cave for 18 months and 11 days without access to a razor. Who would you want on camera?” He smiled broadly.

“It’s because Lara said no,” Thomas said quietly, before Nuzo could reply. He barely met Nuzo’s gaze, dark brown eyes looking away even before they connected. “And everyone is afraid of Lara.”

Nuzo stared for a moment. They all did. It was the first attempt at humor – actual humor, not dark, gallows jokes that made the therapists scribble madly in their notebooks to up his meds – since the Valley.

The ghost of Thomas’s former grin faltered, those same dark eyes that spoke more than the man did himself these days shifting away suddenly as he bit his lip, suddenly unsure if he’d overstepped an imaginary line.

It was more than a little crushing to see someone who once spoke so freely stop and second guess almost everything they said. Even to their friends.  

Rick saved him.

Seemed like he was doing that a lot lately. But it gave him a purpose – a mission. And isn’t that what the counselor kept saying returning servicemen struggled with? A lack of purpose in the absence of mission?

Guess they were saving each other still.

“Thomas has a point, Nuz,” Rick said. “Lara is a lovely and terrifying woman. No fair getting her to spring you.”

“Are you trying to tell me that Lara, love of my life, sun in my sky, to whom the angels pale in comparison, is intimidating enough that she can bully an Admiral into letting her beloved husband out of an unwanted assignment?” Nuzo put a hand over his ribbon rack, mouth opened in feigned shock before shrugging one shoulder in agreement. “Damn right she is.”

The frightened rabbit look faded slowly from Thomas’s expression as they continued to banter back and forth, the familiar rhythm of their teasing soothing frazzled nerves better than any therapy. It worked in the cave, it worked at the airport.

TC and Nuzo were still talking, Rick occasionally butting in with an opinion that no one asked for or needed, just to keep things lively. But mostly he kept an eye on Thomas.

Thomas, whose attention waned easily these days, and more often than not, drifted back to less pleasant times. He fidgeted in place almost constantly, clenching and unclenching his hands, only following the conversation when voices were raised and even then, only to make sure it wasn’t a danger loud, before staring off into space again. The press conference they’d already had in Bagram was a nightmare – everyone wanted to talk to Thomas.

And Thomas held his own for a while. He really did. But the questions started to get a little too personal. Once he’d answered about finding something that let him help people, now that they were being early retired from their military service, the reporters took it as an invitation to ask him more invasive and personal questions that somehow also still made political statements out of it – like “Does that mean you don’t agree with the US’s involvement with Afghanistan?”, or “Do you believe that the military presence isn’t helping people?”

Rick was all ready to come to his brother’s aide, but TC beat him to the punch with a solid, rumbling: “You’re gonna ask a man who went through hell to solve a war that’s been going on since before we left Africa as a species?”

The following “get fucked” that even had flustered Thomas laughing because TC rarely ever swore, even in the Cave, probably had more to do with the abrupt end to the questioning, but…eh. It was worth the ass chewing from the higher ups.

 Now he was starting to fidget again, despite the familiar bantering, pulling at invisible threads on his uniform as he tried not to make the constant rolling of his shoulders obvious.

“I’m bored stiff. You wanna come take a walk around the airport?” he asked, already heading for the door to the lounge. “Get some air? Stretch these legs? I think I’m losing circulation to my feet in these things.”

“Sure,” Thomas agreed, practically jumping out of his seat at the invite. “It’s stuffy in here.”

It wasn’t, but Rick let it slide. He held the door open for his friend, sending a quick ‘okay’ sign behind his back towards Nuzo and TC, letting them know he had this one.

The airport was crowded, but not claustrophobically so.  The concourse was packed with people waiting for food and flights, the enormous floor to ceiling windows looking out onto the tarmac for people to watch incoming and outgoing flights making the crowd tolerable.

Except for the part where people stared at them as they walked around.

It had nothing to do with who they were – Rick doubted that many people really watched the news. But the military dress uniforms were eye catching. Something that he never minded in the past, but now felt like he was under a microscope. He found himself walking closer than necessary to Thomas, studying the ceiling with closer intensity than it probably warranted.

“I don’t think I can take this for another six weeks,” Thomas said, so quietly Rick almost missed it. Rick hadn’t been paying all that much attention, preoccupied with his own feelings of being under a microscope, but now that he actually looked at Thomas, he wasn’t looking so hot.

The damage done by the Taliban was a slow recovery. Damage done by raging infections and Thomas’s own recklessness was even slower. Long walks winded him still, but now Magnum was looking positively gray.

“I know…I know what we did was important,” Thomas said softly. “But…I don’t want to keep reliving it. Letting people ask us like it’s some part of a movie, or somehow entertaining. And the more I try to convince myself that these people…” he gestured absently with a flick of his hand that made him wince. “They’re the reason why it should be worth it, the more I keep thinking of that press release, and the more…the more I hate it.” The more he hated them.

Rick considered it for a long moment before replying, trying to channel his inner TC to find something that might actually mean something. “We took an oath to stand against all threats, foreign and domestic. We signed up to fight for them. Not to suffer for them. You don’t owe them more than you’ve given.”

Thomas shrugged like he didn’t believe him but was too tired to argue. The higher ups made the press tour a non-optional request. As long as they were still in, they were supposed to ‘obey the orders of those appointed over them’.

What was irritating was that Thomas used to have no problem telling the chain to get bent when needed. Or just pretending like he didn’t hear them in the first place. He even said some unpleasant things to the Taliban holding them prisoners, but now…now he just didn’t seem to have it in him to complain.

Like someone had snuffed that spark.

“But first things first – I’m getting out of this monkey suit.” He veered abruptly into the clothing store, boasting hoodies with ‘I heart NYC’ in every color imaginable and Yankees and Mets gear stacked to the ceiling. He almost gagged when he saw the outrageous pricing, but hey – he had back pay for a year and a half of hazardous duty coming his way. He could afford it.

They were supposed to stay in uniform while traveling, according to the military.

Well, they could go fuck themselves, Rick thought darkly. If he was gonna be gawked at, it was gonna be because people thought he was an overcompensating tourist – not a Marine who just returned from hell.

“Here,” he tossed Thomas an overpriced t-shirt. “Take that. I’ve never been more appreciative of airlines catering to the idea that at least half their customers have lost all their stuff in customs, but I am getting out of this uniform, and so are you.”

Thomas stared blankly at the plain black shirt in his hands. Rick watched as he carefully traced scarred fingertips over the soft fabric, touching at the collar before fingering the sleeves that would only come to just past his upper arm.

“It’s softer than dress whites,” he conceded. He almost headed for the changing room before he stopped, glancing back the racks.  “I need something with sleeves,” he pointed out hesitantly.

Rick nodded his chin towards the display of hoodies. “Take your pick. Personally, I dig the pink one, so if you’re not down for looking like twinsies, pick a different color.”

Thomas laughed at that. Rick had never been ‘conservative’ when it came to civilian clothes – mostly because it annoyed everyone else, but as more than one woman had told him – ladies liked a daring man with more color in their wardrobe than that of Johnny Cash.

Their obscenely expensive clothing bought and tags ripped off, they headed back towards the lounge where TC and Nuzo were probably beginning to wonder where exactly they wandered off to.

Rick’s stepfather once told him ‘clothes make the man’, and for the most part, Rick flatly ignored him. But the change in Thomas was…tangible.

Dressed in jeans which cost more than a car rental, shoes better served for a teenager on a skateboard but were the only ones soft enough to accommodate sensitive scar tissue, and a hoodie two times too big for him, Thomas actually looked…relaxed.

No one was staring at him. No one even batted an eye as they walked past them – not even the ones who’d openly stared at the dress uniforms not twenty minutes earlier.

It was like they were invisible.

For the first time in a year and a half, no one paid any attention at all to them. Not to demand questions of them, not to decide who they were going to take away to the Pit, not to mock from behind bars, not to question whether they’d followed the doctor’s advice or if they’d eaten anything that day.

Nobody cared.

And.

It.

Was.

Marvelous.

“Like a magic cloak,” Thomas half whispered in awe. He still tugged at the long sleeves of the sweatshirt, but they were long enough he could actually pull the ends over his hands, hiding the scars completely.

It also made him look like he was fifteen.

But there was a kindling light in those dark, expressive eyes, and that was all that Rick cared about.

“Told you,” he teased gently, opening the door back to the lounge.

There was an indignant squawk of abject betrayal when TC saw them in civilian clothes.

“Really, guys?” TC gaped, a hand of mock betrayal going to his chest. “You gonna do a brother like that?”

Rick huffed. “Like we would leave you hanging.” He tossed a bag of clothes at the pilot, who caught them deftly in one hand before peering suspiciously inside. “No, I didn’t get you pink. We decided yellow was more your color anyway.”

“What in the hell is this?” TC demanded, yanking out a bumblebee yellow button up. “TM, is this your doing?”

Thomas shrugged innocently. “There’s a limited selection in the big and tall in an airport.”

TC scowled without anger. “Sure.”

“Nah, the kid’s right – you had your pick of that or lime green. I don’t know why they think a 6’2”, 240 pound man needs to be more noticeable, but it’s what you get,” Rick defended, even as Thomas shot another scowl his way at the mention of age.

“Nothing for me?” Nuzo asked. “I see how it is.”

“Your wife and kid are coming to pick you up in like an hour – don’t pretend like Lara and Jake aren’t going to have a change of clothes,” TC pointed out. “Watch the youngin’s – I’m getting out of this clown suit.”

Before Nuzo could protest, TC was out the door with a speed that belied his size.

Nuzo shook his head, then quickly darted his gaze back to Thomas who was looking out the floor to ceiling window at the parking lots, not paying them any attention. He met Rick’s gaze, cocking his head to one side, questioning.

How’s our boy?

Rick held a hand out and teetered it back and forth. Not great. But not terrible.

“Any word on our hurry up and wait status?” he asked aloud. Their flight had been bumped back in Dubai – they arrived two and a half hours ahead of schedule, and Lara and Jake had to drive up from Virginia Beach to pick Nuzo up. The others were left waiting – as per usually with the military – until someone filed paperwork to get them a ride. Their escort was supposedly off conversing with the USO representatives, but that was over an hour ago, and Rick not so secretly hoped they’d been forgotten.

“No news yet,” Nuzo answered, glancing at his phone.

Having phones again was just weird now. How fucking handy would it have been to just reach into a back pocket and call for help?

TC practically kicked in the door when he returned, grinning like an idiot, holding his arms above his head like the statue of Adonis. “I can move my arms again,” he crowed. He rolled his massive shoulders, relishing the freedom of movement out of the restrictive uniform. He pulled at the hem of the large shirt. “You know what, I ain’t even mad about the color. I look fantastic. I’m getting more of these when I get…”

The word they all dreaded died in his throat.

Home.

The only one who even had one was Nuzo, and even that came with its own perils. Trying to readjust after deployment was hard enough on married couples. Readjusting after…everything…seemed like an unwinnable purgatorial task.

“I guess this is just a temporary patch job, huh.” TC faltered. He glanced down at the bag that now held his carefully folded uniform. “We’re going to have to get changed again as soon as the guards – escorts – come back.”

Thomas flinched at the word guards, his shoulders coming up quick and sharp as he ducked his head, automatically making himself smaller than he already was. Somehow, it was made worse by the oversize sweatshirt – perhaps because it made him look even younger than he already did.

Nuzo had mentioned going to Hawaii back in Bagram, when Thomas quietly admitted he wasn’t ready to go home. But none of them had anything set up in Hawaii, either. Not for another six weeks, at least. The older man had reached out to Robin Masters, hoping the former journalist would be willing to help out the man who’s life made him a millionaire that owned half the island, but he’d only reached a very polite but very firm assistant who informed him that Mr. Masters was very busy on world tour, but she would pass along the message but couldn’t guarantee when he would be able to return the call.

“First of all, if they want me back in uniform, they’re going to have to wrestle me back into it,” Rick declared, crossing his arms over the Yankees emblem on his shirt. “And I plan to go out like a honey badger on meth.”

TC raised a questioning eyebrow at the metaphor but shrugged one shoulder in agreement. “Yeah. I can see that.”

“What if…”

All three heads turned to Thomas.

The younger man had one palm up against the window, fingers splayed out on the cold glass as it fogged around his hand. But he wasn’t looking up. He was looking down at the parking lot. At the rental car return lot.

They waited patiently.

“What if…we ran away?” Thomas asked, voice hesitant and barely above a whisper. “What if we didn’t wait around for them to decide for us? What if…what if we just left. We could just...go. Anywhere. Anywhere we wanted to.”

He shot a glance over his shoulder back at the group that was so cautiously hopeful, the first real spark back in his eyes since last September – and Rick realized he would’ve agreed to anything that kept that look on his friend’s face.

“I’m down,” he said immediately, before glancing back at TC. “Could use a pilot though.”

“Hell, yeah.” TC tossed his bag to Nuzo who caught it one handed. “Cover for us?”

Nuzo smirked. “I’ll do you one better. I’ll get Lara to do it.”

*

Fortunately, LaGuardia had an overabundance of rentals available, and while Rick pointed out the flashy sports cars in the lineup, TC argued against being forced to sit in the back seat with his knees up his nose at any point of the trip.

“Then don’t sit in the back!” Rick protested, pointing out the sport car again.

“I am supposed to believe that you and Thomas aren’t even once going to want to both be up front at the same time?” TC shot back and pointed to the SUV that looked like it would be better suited for a drive by or government agencies.

 “What about this one?” Thomas asked.

The car had no business being there. It was almost fifty years old and completely out of place amongst the minivans and crossovers, but there it was – a 1968 Chevelle convertible, in mint condition.

“I think someone just parked it in the wrong spot, buddy,” Rick said. “I don’t think it’s a rental.”

Thomas leaned over the passenger side door, fishing into the glove box. “No, look,” he said, holding up a piece of paper. “It is a rental. It’s from Auto Classics Enterprise, apparently.”

“It gets like six miles to the gallon,” TC pointed out. “We’ll need to refill twice before we even get out of the city.”

Rick glanced up at him. “You got somewhere you need to be?”

“Just stating facts, bro. Though…” he considered the front seat and back. “It is pretty roomy.”

“It’s got class,” Rick agreed. “And leg room. Not to mention zero to sixty in six point four seconds.”

“We’re in downtown Queens, Orville. We’ll be lucky to see anything about 13 miles an hour until we get out of the city.”

“Why you always gotta be a negative Nancy, Theodore?” Rick asked, squinting up at the larger man before hissing: “Who hurt you?”

“I’m a realist,” TC corrected. “And one of us has to have at least one foot on the ground while you got your head up in the clouds.”

“There’s no roof,” Thomas interrupted, making both men stop mid argument. He looked sheepish, like he hadn’t meant to say anything aloud, but couldn’t take it back. “I’m just…sick of walls, you know? Of not being able to see out. We can get a different one, I just…” he shrugged, offering a faint echo of his normal Cheshire grin. “Something without a roof?”

Rick and TC glanced at each other. It’d been hard to deny Thomas anything even before they were captured – he was just that kind of guy. He called in a million favors, but he racked them and stacked them the same way some people stacked bodies. Everyone always owed Thomas because Thomas was always, always giving something. Hard to deny became impossible – especially since lately, he asked very little. 

Rick sighed, held one hand out, palm flat and his other hand clenched in a fist on top. “On the count of three?”

“Nah,” TC grinned, giving Rick an affectionate shove. “You’re enlisted. I know your ass is broke, back pay or not. I got this.”

“That stings.”

“Not as much as your empty wallet.”

*

Poor investment or not, the car was what they needed. All of them, not just Thomas.

Rick was always a bit of a car fanatic – he liked anything that’s entire existence could be summed up with a robust vrooooom. And he could find one anywhere – no one was entirely sure how or where he’d drummed up a 1935 Rolls Royce in the middle of the Helmand province and most were afraid to ask.

TC appreciated anything with a solid engine and good mechanics under the hood that could accommodate his large frame.

Even the stop and go traffic of downtown New York couldn’t do anything to deter the animated conversation from the front seat.

“Isn’t this the car from Dukes of Hazard?” TC teased, easing the classic further out of the city while Rick had a minor coronary over it most certainly was not, how could you spin such lies?

He hadn’t been to NYC in decades, and he’d honestly forgotten how quickly the city disappeared once they were across the bridge. It didn’t exactly up and vanish in the blink of an eye, but as they crossed from New York into Jersey, the sky scrapers and towering apartment complexes with convenience stores and neon lights gave way to suburbia, the hill houses of the Palisades Parkway offering glimpses of the Hudson between the billion dollar homes as they cruised along to nowhere in particular. The million dollar homes became farm houses and ranches, vast expanses of green instead of concrete jungle and the rumble of steady traffic faded away to the occasional semi rig or farm truck. The roar of the wind dulled as they dropped from 60 to 30, winding their way deeper into the state forests of upstate Jersey and lower New York.

It was hard to believe that less than an hour from one of the largest cities in the US was rolling farm lands.

Shit, there were even cows.

Rick scrolled continuously through the radio channels, changing the station as soon as an ad came on or he heard someone talking instead of music. “You know, you would think in a year and some change, someone would’ve come along with more talent than Justin Bieber.”

“Talent isn’t what makes that kid famous,” TC argued. “Pop music hasn’t been about the music since the 70’s.”

Rick grumbled under his breath as he continued to tweak the dial back and forth before finally stopping on “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”, cranking the volume several decibels.

TC shot him an incredulous look. “This is what you stop on? This is what says bro trip to you?”

Rick smirked, putting both hands up in ‘white dude shuffle’ pose, the closest thing he could get to dancing while in the front seat of a car. “When men are confident enough to write songs about their friendships, then I’ll put those on – but until then, Cyndi has us covered.”

“You gonna sit there and deny, to my face, Queen’s ‘You’re My Best Friend’, or Bill Withers’s classic ‘Somebody to Lean On’?” TC demanded. “What about ‘You Got a Friend In Me’?”

“The theme song to Toy Story?! How is that better?”

“How is it not better than an 80’s women power ballad? TM, back me up here!”

When Thomas didn’t respond, TC risked a glance in the rearview as Rick whipped around as if he expected Thomas to have vanished from the backseat while they were driving.

But he was still there, sitting in the middle of the bench seat. Head tilted back against the seat with his eyes closed behind his sunglasses, arms above his head as he played with the wind currents like his hands were paper planes, lost in his own little world.

The dark shadows under his eyes from months of sleepless nights were lost in the bold noon day sun, and his clean shaven face looked years younger without the stubble and lines from worry and illness.

A smile as wide as the sky above them plastered across his face.

For the first time in forever, Thomas looked…well, like Thomas.

“Play whatever you want, guys," Thomas said without looking up. His too-large sleeves pooled around his elbows, and he didn’t seem to care, despite the still healing scars plainly visible. “The sun is warm. The grass is green. Today is a good day.”

#found family bingo #i decided to be nice to my characters #for once

[kim-seungmine]

stay inside the hourglass

title: stay inside the hourglass

characters: reader x felix of stray kids

genre: slice-of-life (growing up is hard y’all), romance, gap year

warnings: mentions of drinking, kind of felix-centric, this has the ugliest title ever, sometimes dialog-heavy

word count: 4475 words

summary: time is about to eat him alive and felix wonders if it’s better to leave things unsaid. 

a/n: so here it is, the story based on chronosaurus and 19. i honestly don’t know if it’s good enough because i’m not in my best condition now but i hope you can relate and find comfort (and motivation!)

Seoul, D-90

“What is this?”

“Your birthday present.”

“I said I didn’t want presents, did I?”

“You did.”

“So why bother—”

“So you’ll always remember me. The one who still gave you presents no matter how many times you said no.”

Felix chuckled, staring at the small white box you forced him to take. He opened it, taking out a keyring you specially made for him. He could guess the meaning behind each pendant; a star because you adored his constellation-like freckles, a mosquito because his only talent that you acknowledged was his ability to imitate mosquito noises, a four-leaf clover because his name literally meant luck.

The last pendant, however, was something he didn’t expect. An hourglass. He stared at it long, racking his brain so he didn’t have to ask you what it meant. You were going to nag at him for hours for not getting it right and he hated it.

That, and he just didn’t want to disappoint you.

“What does this one mean?”

He didn’t want to disappoint you, but he also really had no idea. You smiled, watching the sand slowly trickled to the lower part of the chamber. “I’ll tell you later,” you chirped before flicking his forehead. “Happy birthday, Lee Yongbok.”

Felix would’ve flipped if it was anyone else who hurt him and called him Yongbok. But this was you, one of his very few true friends in Seoul, and he would keep you by his side for a lifetime, even though he knew that time would eventually eat him alive before he could tell you how much you meant to him.

“Okay,” he replied, already used to you and your so-called mysteriousness.  He opened his drawer to take out his airpods case. You instantly pouted as he attached your keyring to it while he just grinned at you. “You really know how to disappoint me,” you mumbled.

“Everyone knows you only use your Beats earphones, dipshit. You can’t fool me!”

Felix didn’t know which part of “I don’t wanna celebrate my birthday this year” that his friends failed to understand, but there was nothing he could do when Seo Changbin dragged him out of their shared apartment later that day, telling him that everyone threw him a party.

“You don’t even need to change, you’re already wearing black.”

“There’s a dresscode?” Felix snarked. “Even I didn’t know about that.”

Changbin sighed as they stopped in front of Bang Chan’s apartment, which was only 2 floors above theirs. Lee Minho opened the door, the glint in his eyes indicated that he was already drunk. He grinned, patting Felix’s back before smooching his left cheek. Changbin quickly maneuvered his way in and abandoned his housemate who was now struggling to get out of Minho’s tight embrace. “Are you sad now that you’re 20?” he slurred. “Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. Look at me!” Felix removed Minho’s arms from his shoulders, giving him a pat on the shoulder as he slowly lost consciousness.

Walking to the living room, Felix finally realized what kind of party his friends threw for him. Black balloons were sloppily glued to Chan’s gray curtain, most of them already scattered on the floor. The host had covered his white sofa with a black cloth and exchanged his usual glass table with black wooden table. Someone had written “HAPPY MOURNDAY FELIX!” on the whiteboard pinned on the wall. He assumed it was you, since it was written with a bright red marker instead of the blue ones that Chan owned.

His eyes caught a glimpse of empty boxes of pizza and bottles of soju on the floor, causing him to scoff. His friends threw him a party but didn’t even wait for him to come before actually starting the party. “Hey Felix!” Chan yelled, smiling from ear to ear from the other side of the living room. Felix gave him a distracted wave since he finally saw you, playing Charades with Hwang Hyunjin while sitting on the countertop.

“O—oh! I know this one!” you yelled, biting your lips in frustration. “Come on Y/N we played this set before!” Hyunjin groaned, proceeding to give you more hints. Felix chuckled, knowing how much you hated losing to Hyunjin.

“Aladdin!” Felix quipped, laughing as you whipped your head at him in utter despair. “Don’t be so proud.” You punched his stomach playfully. “This just means you spend too much time watching cartoons.”

Felix placed his hand around your waist loosely, unable to contain his amusement at your rambles. He swore to God he had tried to keep his distance from you, to draw a straight line between best friends and something more. It never worked—especially when you didn’t push him away—but maybe Felix never tried hard enough, and he hated himself for that. Hyunjin gave him the look, which roughly translated to, “Stop being a dick and just confess!”

“Felix, play with Y/N. We gotta prepare your cake,” Hyunjin announced, winking at the birthday boy before dashing to the balcony, where Kim Seungmin was taking photos of the cake with his new Canon camera.  

“You have really nice friends,” you commented, shaking your phone so it showed a new word. Felix bit an imaginary apple before collapsing on the floor, his eyeballs rolled to the back of his eyes. “Snow White didn’t pass out like that, you’re so dramatic,” you said, smiling as he pretended to offer you the poisoned apple.

“So did you join the photography club?” he asked. You furrowed your brows, trying to understand what he was acting out. “Tiana?” you murmured. He nodded, signaling at you to move on to the next question. “Well,” you started. “I did. Seungmin was very persuasive.”

Felix darted his eyes to the drunken Minho who was fast asleep on the couch. “Did you tell your parents yet?” Your voice was barely a whisper, breaking Felix’s heart into pieces. This was the conversation he dreaded to have; he wanted to enjoy his last few months in Seoul without thinking that he wouldn’t meet you ever again.

“I did,” he answered, glancing at the word Peter Pan written on your phone screen. “Mum said no, but my Dad said he’d consider.”

“When are you leaving?” You no longer held your phone up, shoving it back to your jeans pocket instead.

“In three months.”

You huffed, resting your head on his shoulder. “Is this why you’ve been so gloomy these days?” you pointed out. Felix rested his head on top of yours, the familiar warmth of your body calmed his senses. “Who knows I’d get so attached to dumbasses like you guys?” he attempted to joke.

Last year, all Felix wanted was to figure out what his passion was and explore Korea. His parents were ecstatic because their son finally showed interest in his home country and let him take a gap year, with a condition that he’d enroll in university as soon as he returned to Sydney. He stayed with his aunt, accidentally met Chan at a restaurant where he struggled to order kimchi fried rice with his super limited Korean, and then he introduced him to all his close friends—including you.

Fast forward to a year later, Felix now lived with Changbin who desperately needed a housemate, got a part-time job at Ediya Coffee, discovered a burning passion in dancing, had 8 annoying brothers, and was helplessly in love with you.

“What did you tell them?” you said quickly, as if wanting to stop yourself. Felix pulled away to look into your eyes that he already got used to seeing at least 10 hours a day. “I told them I want to stay here and major in dance.”

“You did?”

“What did you expect me to say?”

“Well—”

“HAPPY MOURNDAY FELIX!!!!”

Chan carried the black cake (Felix wasn’t sure if it was edible) while the others sang for him. “Blow the candles! We don’t give a shit whether you want to do it or not, you have to blow candles on your birthday!” Han Jisung said. Seungmin snapped a photo as Felix closed his eyes to blow the colorful candles.

“Thanks guys, although I specifically said not to do anything today.”

“Y/N wanted to throw you a party, and they specifically said not to care about anything you said.”

You shrugged. “This isn’t even a birthday party, this is a funeral.”

“Goodbye 19!” Seungmin fake-wailed, dunking Felix’s face into the cake. The others clapped, smearing each other’s faces with whipped cream. You giggled, trying to run away but Felix caught you by the waist before squishing your cheeks with his palms.

“Ah, you’re back!” you exclaimed, looking into his eyes in a way that always made his heart stopped for a while. Felix wondered if you ever looked at anyone else the same way, but for now, he felt a bit reassured. You looked at him like he had stars in his eyes (in this case, his cheeks, but now they were all covered by whipped cream anyways), and at moments like this, Felix thought that maybe he wouldn’t lose you.

“I’m… back?”

You paused to step away from Changbin who wanted to ruin your face more before glancing back at him, still with that loving gaze Felix wanted to take a picture of and hang on his wall.

“The sparks,” you pointed at his eyes. “You’re happy again.”

The rest of the group turned to look at him better, and by the look on their faces, Felix knew they agreed with you.

Seoul, D-57

“Yongbok-ah, your Dad is calling!” Changbin shouted from the kitchen. Felix sighed, dragging his feet to where his phone was located. He didn’t need to answer the call to know what his father was going to say.

“Hi Dad.”

“Your Mum and I have talked. Are you serious with dancing?”

Changbin gave him a concerned look as Felix’s face hardened. “Yes,” he answered, firm and clear. “I have thought about everything, Dad. I want to dance. And I want to stay here.”

His father sighed on the other line, his Mum yelling something that sounded like, “That naïve boy knows nothing!”

“Have I ever disobeyed you before?” Felix argued. “I just want to do something that I love. That’s right, I was clueless when I first got here, but I’m not the same boy anymore. You guys can trust me.”

“I don’t know, son. You got good grades, why don’t you try challenging yourself?”

“Dancing is not easy, Dad.”

“We know that. Just, come home, okay? We’ll discuss this later.”

Felix let out a frustrated groan once the call ended. Changbin sat across him, opening a can of beer. “You know things won’t work out if you keep being like that, right?”

“Like what?”

“Like this. Snobbish and stubborn.”

Felix met his housemate’s eyes, biting his lips when he realized how serious Changbin’s eyes looked. “All you do is mopping around everywhere while you only have a few months to be here. Y/N and the others are trying to make you as happy as possible, and what have you done?”

“I never asked you guys to do any of that for me.” His tone was harsh and Felix regretted it as soon as those words slipped out of his month. Changbin got up from his seat, throwing the empty beer can to the trashcan.

“You’re right,” he answered. “You never asked anything but we did it anyways. Why? Because we think of you as our friend. Do you even realize how much Y/N has done for you?”

“It’s not my fault that I have to leave! It’s not my fault that I like Y/N, and it’s definitely not my fault that I can’t tell them that,” Felix challenged. Changbin shrugged, taking his jacket from the nightstand before walking out.

“None of this is your fault,” he agreed. “But acting like you’re the most unlucky person in the world and doing nothing to change that isn’t right either. Especially when feelings are involved. But you do you, man.”

When your name appeared on his phone screen, Felix wasn’t sure whether he wanted to cry in happiness or bang his head on the wall. He hadn’t seen you for weeks, and it wasn’t that he tried to avoid you, but he had been dancing any chance he got. He begged Minho to take him to every of his gig to observe, but after the second gig the dancer officially asked him to join his crew. But the truth was, he did kind of use it as a reason to reply to your messages late.

Felix had no idea how to face you and hid his feelings. Maybe he didn’t have to, but it would be unfair. He tried to ask Chan what to do, but his Sydney mate only said that all he needed to do was listen to himself. A very cliché, movie-like answer—although it wasn’t exactly wrong.

Another message from you came in, and as much as Felix wanted to make this easier for you (and him), he missed you a lot. So he replied, got out of his bed, and sprinted to your place.

“Can we order pizza?” he said as soon as you opened your door. You nodded, looking somehow surprised at his presence. “I thought you weren’t coming,” you mumbled, letting him in. Felix slipped into the pink slippers you specially prepared for him whenever he came over, and somehow, he felt like he was home.

“Where are the others?”

You plopped onto your beanbag, scrolling through movies on Netflix that had “zombie” in the titles. Felix took a seat beside you, watching you read the movies’ descriptions. “Jisung has a date—”

“Oh that’s surprising.”

You chuckled. “Changbin and Woojin are at work, Chan is busy composing for—wait. You didn’t read the group chat?”

Felix scratched the back of his head as if he had been caught. He hadn’t been really talking to any of his friends except Minho since his fight with Changbin. “I-I,” he stuttered. “Probably accidentally turned the notifs off.”

You frowned, but was quickly distracted as you finally found the movie you wanted to watch—which didn’t have any correlation to zombies. “I wanted to believe you, but I think you’re avoiding us. Am I right?”

The movie had started playing, but you shifted your gaze to him. “What’s wrong? Are you upset because we threw you a party when you said you didn’t one? Are you upset with me?”

Felix shook his head. “Not at all, but things have been pretty… complicated.”

“Mind to elaborate?”

“I’m leaving soon.”

“We’re fully aware of that, Felix.”

He ran his hand through his hair, desperately trying to form words that wouldn’t make him sound like an ungrateful asshole. “Yeah, it’s just—it’s hard. I want to stay, but—”

“Do you really want to stay?” you whispered, pausing the movie before giving him a stern look.

Felix felt his body burning—why was it so hard for you, Changbin, his other friends, and his parents to understand that he never wanted to leave? That he had found a new home which could be scary, but also beautiful?

“Oh God. First Changbin, now you. Why won’t anyone believe me?!”

You tried to blink your tears away, which broke Felix’s heart because he knew how much you hated crying in front of other people.  “Because you’re not fighting for it, Felix! You’re not fighting for us or even yourself and suddenly I’m not sure about anything anymore. Time never slows down for anyone!”

Now you were sobbing, your head hung low. Felix threw his arms around you, rubbing your back slowly as you let out everything you had been holding in. You didn’t say anything for the rest of the night, not even when he said he would come over again later.  

When Felix reached his aunt’s house at 2:48 AM, still wearing your pink slippers, it hit him. Out of all things he was afraid of, disappointing you was what he feared the most. Sadly, just like how this world worked, the one you were closest with was always the one whom disappointed you the most.

Felix had become that person for you, probably since a long time ago and he only realized it now. Tears started rolling down his cheeks, and before he could stop himself, he was already sobbing the way you did a few hours ago. He cried and cried and cried until his eyes felt dry and his throat felt raw.

He didn’t feel any better.

“You’re earl—wait what happened?!”

Minho panicked as he spotted Felix entering the dance studio with a camcorder and swollen eyes. The latter only shook his head and waved his camcorder. “Minho, can I record myself dancing for the rest of my time here?” he asked.

“Sure you can, we usually record ourselves anyways, but why?”

Felix smiled, turning on his camcorder and setting it next to Minho’s laptop before warming up. Minho joined him, and the stretching session soon turned into a flexibility showoff. Both of them laughed when Felix managed to do a perfect split and surprised himself.  

“Seriously though, why are you doing this?” Minho repeated, waving to the camera.

“I want to stay here.”

Minho ran to his laptop to play a new song. “Isn’t that clear?” he teased, glancing at his friend.

“Yeah, but not clear enough.”

“Y/N I need to tell you something,” Felix rasped the moment you opened the door. You made a way for him to enter your flat, ignoring his Converse that he forgot to wear on his way out yesterday. Before he reached the living room, you stopped him. “Leave them in the bathroom, they’re dirty,” you said, pointing at your slippers he was wearing.

“I’m sorry,” Felix responded. “For the slippers, and for everything.” He stared at them before taking them off. “I didn’t want to disappoint you, but I did just that, didn’t I?”

Felix cupped your face, automatically wiping the corners of your eyes when he noticed you tearing up. “You were so bright, like these slippers,” he whispered. “I did everything with you, but forgot to take care of you. Too scared to show how much you mean to me. Now you’re even crying in front of me.”

“I didn’t want to say I love you because I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to stay with you. I didn’t want you to be sad, but maybe I didn’t want me to be sad. I know this is too late and I’ve kept you waiting for so long, but I love you.”

“I really want to stay, I really want to be with the others, I really want to dance. And most importantly, I really want to be with you, and I’m going to do everything in my power to make that happen. I’m sorry that the fight with Changbin and you needed to happen before I came back to my senses, I’m—”

You caught his lips with your fingers, chuckling at how much he resembled a fish with his lips puckered. “If you’re sorry, wash the slippers yourself, okay?”

Felix whined, but walked towards the bathroom immediately. “Wait, there’s no ‘I forgive you Felix?’, ‘I love you too, Felix’, ‘Please stay with me, Felix’?” he protested, pouting as you returned to your room.

“Make sure to turn off the lights when you leave, Yongbok!”

Seoul, D-15

“Where’s the submit button?”

“There, bottom right.”

“Where?!”

“Goddamn it, Felix it’s right. there!”

Changbin grabbed the mouse from Felix and scrolled down, clicking the submit button. “Okay, it’s done!”

“Now what do we do?” Felix asked, plopping back to his bed. “The announcement for early admission is still two months away, I feel so empty now.”

“Still no words from your parents?”

“Well they said we’ll discuss this again if I get accepted.”

“What if you don’t?”

“I’ll apply again? The new semester won’t start until next year anyways.”

Felix had decided to apply to one of the most prestigious Arts colleges in Korea after recording all his dance practices and competitions (he only joined 2, but Minho was kind enough to let him be the center for all of them).

You opened the door with a loud bang, your eyes twinkled even brighter than usual. “What happened? Did they respond?” Changbin muttered, getting more excited as you nodded rapidly.

“Who responded to what?” Felix frowned, but both Changbin and you ignored him and were busy talking among yourselves. “They’re gonna tell him soon. We did it!” you shouted and pulled him into a tight hug.

“Guys, what’s going on?!”

You finally looked at Felix who looked lost and betrayed. Changbin punched his biceps with a huge grin on his face before leaving with no words. As soon as the door was shut, you jumped to his lap, curling your arms around his neck.

“Mind to tell me what’s making you so happy that you forgot about me and hugged Changbin instead?” he said, failed to keep his sarcastic tone since your eyes twinkled with so much joy he hadn’t seen for quite a long time.

You released him, running to his balcony—where you two often hung out when it wasn’t too cold or too hot. Felix followed you, taking your extended hand before pulling you into his arms. “Come on, babe,” he begged. “I’m dying here.”

“You’re going to stay here,” you stated, adjusting your position so you could look into his eyes. “Stay… where?” he asked, completely dumfounded.

“Here. With us.”

Felix tightened his hold on you as his legs wobbled. “WHAT?! HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?”

You took out your phone from your pocket and played a video for him. “We took turns to record you during your last few months here, starting on your birthday. I thought that the only way to convince your parents that you love it here is by showing them.”

The video showed Felix on many occasions with you and his 8 friends; during his mournday party, during a movie night at Chan’s flat, during a dinner Felix’s aunt invited you to, during the random but entertaining dance battle with Minho, and also during a totally mundane afternoon with Changbin. 

Felix knew he was happy with all of you, but he never realized he was that happy. He felt his eyes brim with tears when he got to the last part of the video, in which he played Charades with you on his birthday.

Felix was the happiest with you, and he never wanted to let go.

“How in the world did you guys do this?” he sniffled, pulling you back to his embrace. You pulled him even closer, listening to his heartbeat. “How in the world did you not notice?” you giggled. Felix laughed along with you, pressing a kiss on the top of your head.

“I asked your aunt to contact your parents, and they allowed me to send the video,” you explained. “They called me this morning and told me that you don’t need to go back.”

“They told you before they told me?”

You slapped his back. “We dedicated a masterpiece for you and this is your response?”

“Sorry,” Felix winced. “And thank you.”

Felix pulled away, melting as you smiled at him. “Well done.” You patted his hair. “You’ve practiced so hard, I’m proud of you.” 

His heart clenched a little bit when you said that you were proud of him. That was exactly what he wanted to hear, but at the same time he wanted to hear more.

“And I love you.”

You gave Felix a quick peck on his lips and he desperately wanted to have your lips on his again, but he decided to stay still. You finally said that you loved him; that was all he needed to hear.

“You won’t ever have to doubt me anymore,” he said. “I’m not going to promise that I will never make you sad again, but I promise that I’ll always try my hardest for you. For us. I’m not going to hold back anymore, okay? Even if we’re running out of time.”

You were about to give him another peck, but he stopped you. “Speaking about time, will you tell me about the hourglass pendant you gave me? Can you tell me what it means now?”

Felix showed his phone to you, causing you to yelp when you found out that he had removed the said pendant from the original keyring and attached it to his phone instead. “Well, you’ve said it yourself,” you began. “I didn’t expect you to know what it means because it feels so personal.”

“Hourglass represents time, a reminder for us that time doesn’t stop for anyone, that everyone in this world has limited time. Time will catch up on us; we’ll run out of time and die, but I don’t care about that. Our time is limited, and I want to spend my limited time with you.”

“Is there anything else you want to say?” Felix asked after you stopped talking.

“Why?”

“I want to listen anything you say about time with that pretty voice of yours, but I also really want to kiss you.”

“Oh alright, kiss me then. But tell them to close the curtain first, please.”

Felix darted his eyes to the window, perplexed when he saw all of his friends standing there watching him and you. “No way!” Seungmin shouted, lifting his phone. “We have to show your parents this!” Hyunjin and Minho whistled along with the rest of the boys, causing Felix to hide his face on the crook of your neck.

“I was the one editing the video and I have many clips of your ugly faces that I won’t hesitate to post,” you threatened, still with a sweet smile on your face. The boys groaned, letting Chan drag them outside.

You caressed your boyfriend’s hair while he was muttering about how embarrassed he was. “You were acting so cool a few minutes ago, wanting to kiss me and all. Where did that Felix go?”

He lifted his head, his cheeks still a bit flushed. “Do you still want me to talk with this pretty voice of mine or—”

As soon as Felix captured your lips with his, everything that happened the past few months didn’t matter anymore. You were right there in his arms, mumbling about how you doubted that this was his first kiss because he was “so damn good in this.” His heart felt light and warm, and while he knows that this was only the beginning, he wasn’t afraid.

Felix was finally ready to confront time, to make every second of it worth the pain.  

more a/n: if you’ve reached this part, congratulations and thank you, as always! i’m sorry if felix can be so frustrating here, but that’s the whole point of this story: to allow him learn and grow from his mistakes. 

#stray kids scenarios #stray kids #stray kids felix #skzinc #sk-writersnet #stray kids scenario #lee felix #felix lee #felix scenarios #lee felix scenarios #felix lee scenarios #felix stray kids #lee yongbok #stray kids felix scenarios #felix imagines #stray kids au #stray kids imagines #stray kids fanfic #stray kids fanfics #stray kids fanfiction #stray kids fandom #stray kids felix imagines #kpop fanfics #kpop fanfic #kpop fanfiction #kpop angst #kpop au #stray kids fluff #stray kids angst #stray kids imagine

[francisdominictan]

________________________________________________________________ I always caught myself reading books about creatures of the unknown. It started probably when I was a young kid and would watch documentaries series about aliens, elemento, Bigfoot, and the likes.

Because of that I earned my fair shares of names and bullying in school due to my obsession. Like a good freshman I pushed up my glasses and disregarded it and moved onto college where I earned degree in Zoology and eventually masters and now PhD. Along the way I had discovered the things life had to offer; women, gym, sex, alcohols, and other things. Though, my first love was cryptozoology.

Together with famous scientists, zoologists, and marine biologists, we’re looking for new species and studying others of whom, we knew very little. I spent my late 20’s traveling around the globe. My colleagues and I found new insects, birds, reptiles, but none would fall into the strange or imaginary. In the scientific community, I made myself a name. I might find anything except Bigfoot, people liked to say. I enjoyed my little popularity.

I chose to work somewhere more conventional after those exciting years. As it was fun to create footprints around the world, I was sick of never being in one place over a couple of weeks. I would also like to spend more time to try to find these storied creatures than work on someone else's expedition.

I ended up teaching in the department of biology in a major state university in Northern part of Mindanao in the Philippines. I also started a club in cryptozoology that attracted a large number of students. I would take students to the alleged unearthly places, hot spots of unknown animals, and the likes with permission from the university. We always have a documentary of our trip; a blurred video and a grainy picture. It was enjoyable for the students and me. We never had any definitive information, but it helped them to think outside the box about what our world really is. My curiosity in it was a deep passion for trying to find the elusive that I want to witness.

Like I said before, my first love is cryptozoology until one foundation day of the University. I met Nap there.  She was this beautiful brown haired woman about my age, who taught creative writing in the English department. I knew that I instantly fell for her. I'm not now the scrawny nerd from high school anymore. I was fit, effective in my profession, and not too bad looking (I told myself that, at least).I used a corny pickup to show myself. We've smiled, spoke the whole party and exchanged number, and the rest is history.

We moved in together a few months after we began dating. We had many shared interests, but there were also many differences. She preferred to stay in, and I enjoyed the outside. She was more reserved and I was the extrovert. But we both liked a good book and wine. She’s also a writer who particularly likes to write about simulated creatures, which is why we clicked.

“Nap,” I said closing and setting aside her newest book as I lounged out on the sofa in our living room one night. “Did I already told you that you are an excellent writer?”

She was in our room folding the ‘fresh from the laundry’ clothes. “You already did. But I won’t mind if you tell me again,” she playfully responded.

“I’m wondering, where did you get your inspirations for these stories?”

She came towards me. I corrected my sitting and she sophistically took a seat to me. “I got them from my grandmother’s story.”

“Tell me more, please,” I said with agog evident on my face.

“With my cousins,” she began with a look of commemoration on her face, “Each summer, we would visit my grandmother in the Visayas. She was living in a Remote Village neighborhood. Many people haven't been there. It was a lovely town shaded by the dense canopies of the tree. Between the town and the nearest mountain, there was a large forest. Perhaps it was about a few hundred acres. Glassy lake, filled with fish and that emptied into a small river can be found at the base of the mountain. All children in the town would play in the wood, the river and the lake, yet past sunset was strictly forbidden. The town’s people, including my grandma, have strictly implemented this.”

“Continue,” I encouraged her with a smile.

“So my grandmother told me about the forest fairies and how they liked to trick people. They'd take me away forever if I disobeyed my elders. Such tales have always been disturbing to me. My parents didn't like that, but they agree that I should be inside before dark. The stories didn't get me too much worry, until one of the young boys I was playing with got missing in the woods. One night after a fight with his father, he ran away into the forest. They never found him, and the people of the town did not bother to look for him until after sunrise. I can't just believe that people would not go in the forest looking for the boy until it was sunrise, except that they all really believed in the fairies. My books contain fairies that are scary but are much better than those in the tales of my grandma. They never took people away.”

She raised her one eyebrow and asked, “It is your kind of thing, isn’t it?”

“What do you mean by that?” I asked at her, frowning.

“You know… The unexplained creatures of the dark.” She looked at me with a smart-ass grin.

“Well, I heard and read about fairy folklore, but many cryptozoologists don't spend a long time on it. I never heard of a city that is fearful of fairies, particularly from an account on the first hand. Anything like that should be investigated.”

A vexatious grin stretching from ear to ear plastered on Nap’s face.” Very Good! My parents would like to meet you and I'd like you to meet them. When I was young, my grandmother died and my parents inherited the house. And a couple of years ago they retired. This summer, you can come with me and solve the fairy problem of the town.” She stood over me and gave me the puppy eyes to agree.

Like this, our summer plans were drawn up, and in early March, with Nap and a bag filled with my recording equipment, we booked a plane ride from Cagayan to Siquijor located in Central Visayas. Once there, we hired a rental car and drove into the forest mountains, which felt like hours. We left the winding road for an even hazardous two-lane mountain road. After 15 minutes, we reached at what looked like a ghost town. Several small businesses were shut down and looked like an unfinished hotel in the 1960s.

We pulled into the driveway of her parent a couple of minutes later. Her parent’s house was sitting in a few dozen houses on a short dead end road. The dark, majestic forest that she described to me lies behind her home. A majestic moon hidden by the cumulus cloud loomed in the distant background.

Her parents greeted us at the door with a smile. Nap kissed her mom and dad with excitement. I tried to cover my nerves and for the first time met my girlfriend's parents, shook their hands quickly and introduced myself as Francis, the man who was here to solve their fairy problem. Before saying through their teeth, they both smiled and paused, “Come now. The dinner is about ready.”

My awkward attempt to be funny seemed to be an outrage. Dinner went well and we spoke about our trip and what I've done at work. With our bellies full, Nap’s father invited me on to the rear porch for a beer.

"So you are a university professor of cryptozoology?” Nap’s father asked until he took a big swig of beer from his bottle.

"No, I'm teaching animal behavior and social interaction. I'd like to teach cryptozoology, but before I can, I need a written and approval of the curriculum." I sat in my porch chair and started enjoying my beer.

"I guess Nap told you a lot of insane fairy tales in our forests?" I took another sip from my bottle and looked at him and nodded a bit. "Everything’s real. Sounds dumb, but the whole thing is true. Those stories have been told by my wife, and I wouldn’t believe them if I had not seen a crazy thing or experienced that one night. Our neighbor's niece disappeared in that forest two summers ago.” He pointed at the wooden line right at the back of his yard and takes a second swig from his bottle.

“You want to see a magic trick?” He asked me excitedly.

"Um, sure," I said half waiting for him to take the coin out from behind my ear.

"Look at the back door. Today's sunrise is around 21:00. The lock will pop up around this time and it will swing open. No hands." He responds shaking his hands upward.

The courtyard of Nap’s parent was closed with one back door that leads directly into the forest. Some of the branches of the forest trees hang over the entrance. I didn't know how to take the statement from Nap’s dad. So I've been waiting. Behind the mountains, the sun slowly crept and the clock reached 21 pm.

As we sat silently in the back porch, I finished my beer. I was about to get up and let Nap’s father know it was the longer trick that I had ever been waiting for, the scraping sound caught my ear from the opposite side of the fence.

It started at the rear of the valley. It sounded like a child dragging a stick over his pickets while he was walking. Towards the gate the sound intensified. I concentrated on the gate and didn't pay attention to Nap and her mother, who had gone with us to the deck. The door latch went Ching and the gate slowly swayed as if softly pushed by an unseen force.

"No way," I murmured, as I started to walk away slowly from the deck to the back gate. I was pulled up on the deck by a powerful hand. I whipped my head around to see Nap’s father violently grab my wrist.

He said with a stern voice and look. "Don't go over there," he said.

Nap pulled me out of her dad. "Mom, dad… stop." She turned to me and said, "Tomorrow, I'm going to take you into the woods. It's all right. You are going to see.” She turned back into the house and graciously marched.

"All you want during the day, you can go into the forest, but once the sun sets you have to come back," Robert cut me off before I could go in. I stopped and looked at him. His face was genuinely anxious. Nap’s mother has the same look on her face.

I agreed and that, as Nap’s parents insist upon being away from the woods after darkness, I came inside feeling a little confused.

That evening Nap and I prepared for bed and she laid her head on my chest. I tried to work together if her family had really believed in "fairies" and if their facial concern was sincere earlier.

"Doesn’t your family really believe in the fairies?" I ask Nap.

She turned around and put up her head in front of me.” "It's humiliating, not because they really believe in this, but because they’re so strongly confident that the woods are a bad place. I would have run into the woods many times if I had been rebellious as a kid. When I was a child, they started to act as my grandmother. I don't know how the gate trick is done by my father, but it gets older. Two years ago he pulled it on me, saying it wasn't him.”

The more she spoke, the more annoyed Nap became. "Tomorrow, I will bring you to the woods. You’ll see. As a child, I used to play there. Nothing's wrong with it.

I firmly held her to my side, gently kissed her. "Ok, we'll go to have an adventure tomorrow." I said before dozing off

After breakfast Nap took me into the forest the next morning. She showed me everything she had been able to remember from her childhood. She showed me her favorite trails, which had slightly become overgrown. She showed me her favorite river spot and her favorite lake shore. Here and there, the lakeshore was littered with dead fish but oddly no trace of rotting fish.

An old foundation to a building that never began was on the lakeshore. Nap said in the 60's it was intended to be a lodge for tourists but it was never done. The crumbling foundation was covered in moss, and looked more than anything else like a pathetic version of Stonehenge.

It was about noon and we decided to go back into the woods to have some lunch at the house of her father. As we walked hand in hand through the woods on trails I was surprised she was still able to navigate memories from her childhood. I noticed the mahogany were almost all brown or brownish green. Their trunks were rather large, even swollen, as if they were stuffed with something, and most of the underbrush was dead or seemed as if it were dying.

Nap reported that the summer and spring of the last few years had been little rain. I thought it was odd that the forest was going to dry out but the river and the lake didn't seem to be at low levels.

Robert brought the subject of cryptozoology and my interest, “Have a chat with John Salon. He is town detective, who lives down a few streets. He is also the last of a tribe who lived here once. He's kind of an amateur historian for the region and has lots of stories to share about the woodland fairies. I'll call him and tell him that you're coming over. "Robert gave me his address and that afternoon, at Nap’s encouragement, I went to his house as Nap and her mother planned to go shopping in the next town.

I knocked on John’s door. The lock unlatched and the door slowly opened revealing an older man.

“Are you John?” I stick out my hand for handshake.” I’m Francis Tan and..-“

“You want to know about the fairies at the woods?” He said cutting me off. “Robert already told me about you. Please come in. I have only few hours before I need to head to work to cover a night shift.”

I walked into his house. It was huge and packed with mounted animals, fish and a number of what seemed to be memorabilia from farther south. He led me to his living room, and guided me to sit down. His living room walled by filing cabinets and bookshelves on all sides. There was no TV, and the most surfaces were caked with a thick layer of dust.

"So what can I tell you," said John, slowly taking a seat in the chair opposite me.

"Well, whatever you know about the forest, or the supposed forest monsters," I started. "I'm researching unknown beings, mythological creatures, or whatever you want to name them, and I'm familiar with folklore fairies, but I've never seen a whole town that seemed to fear these monsters."

For a moment, John leaned back and looked up at the ceiling, as if to recall his thoughts.

"My tribe was the first to settle that area, or rather my ancestors. We were once, as the oral tradition goes, a large and proud tribe that had great numbers in Siquijor long before the Spanish came. A harsh winter run and war with other tribes cut down our numbers and our enemies drove us out of our original land. We wandered around until we found the place. Cold, hungry and desperate for shelter, we felt blessed to have found a place with good hunting, the mountains to shelter us, and a river and lake to provide fresh water for us.”

I looked eagerly at him, as he took a little break to remember his words. He sat up in his chair, and leaned forward.

"Some strange creatures that lived here prevented us from entering the forest. My people would call them Engkantos. They said that they were here before, guarding the forest. The chief seeing his people starving and having no place to live struck a deal with the creatures from the forest. We could hunt fish, stay here and they'd protect us as long as we agreed to give them one of our own once every moon cycle.”

"Wait," I cut. "So ...... just like a sacrifice?”                            

"Yes" continued John. "We'd send one person into the forest each full moon. The cries will fill the sky of the night. It was a terrible thing but the chief made the offer for us to live and we stuck to it. Many years passed, as we lost ourselves one after another. Our numbers would gradually decrease over time, but those who remained had hunting food and fresh water.”

John got up from his seat and walked up to his bookshelf, pulling out a leather bound book, the edges were yellowed from age.

"This book," he said, "Contains all the stories about Engkantos that have been passed down to my tribe from generation to generation. When I was young, I had started writing them down before they all died. I'm the last one and I thought somebody could record it so others could know what we've been experiencing.”

"When the Spanish came into our land, it all changed. It was one man at first. He was an explorer. We didn't consider him a threat so we let him pass. However, he did find gold in the water and he told other people. Eventually many others turned up in the river looking for gold. They brought crucifix, meats, beads, and weaponry and taught us religions. They were willing to trade for small pieces of land so that they could prospect in here. We consented. The prospectors supplied us with new stuff and we were exchanging small parcels of land for them. The Spanish people cut down trees to make the clearing that now sits out of town. They constructed houses. They fished and hunted. Each full moon, we no longer sent one of our own to the forest.”

"So the sacrifices stopped because you got necessity from the settlers?" I asked. "What about the creatures that you deal with?”

"We lived alongside the Spanish in harmony," John began again. "There was rage among the Engkantos because we broke our deal. They'd watch us in the shadows, from the tree line. The extreme fury could be felt. One night, several prospectors who were fishing the lake in the forest came late. One of them was taken violently by the Engkantos upfront the others. Their screams had filled the air of the night. The survivors did flee and never came back. They left their possessions and even their money for they were so frightened. Those who had been past dark in the woods soon began to disappear. No trace was found.”

John sat down and breathed deeply. "As people began to flee the woods after dark, they tried to trick people into going into the woods. During the night they would imitate the sounds of kids or loved ones. Anyone who enters into the woods would be taken. They took our tribe's three mothers once because the creatures were crying out on the forest line like children. The women fled to save the "babies" only to be killed. They only took one person at a time but began to take more as revenge.”

"They can imitate voices?" I asked.

"Yeah" he began as he rubbed his head. "They can use anybody's voice or sound so you’d be lured into the woods.”

"Why do people still live here, then?" I asked. "If it is cursed, why not leaved?”

“My people agreed to keep this place guarded and keep people from going here. They made a deal and broke it. But, regardless of what they did or said, the word still made it out about the fishing and hunting or gold in the river. People would come and they would vanish. A party heard about fishing, and tried to build a lodge on the shore on the lake. All are gone. We were trying to warn them but they were calling us crazy. This town and forest has only recently gone unnoticed by the outside. In the last 10 years there have been only a few disappearances.”

"I saw the foundation." I sat up in the chair as I got drawn more and more into his stories.

John got up and walked to one of his filing cabinets. He pulled a black binder full of paperwork.

"Here," he said with a motion to take the binder.

"What is it?" I asked him as I take the big binder.

"I am in charge of all the missing people’s cases. They're all here.”

"That’s crazy," I said while opening the binder.

"Many people say I'm a useless detective. I know what happened to those people, but you can't put it on an official report and still keep your job. If you look at the reports, the pattern is the same for everyone. All of those people were last seen in the forest before darkness.”

I finished my conversation with John, as he was about to get ready for work. He had been operating from two towns on a missing person case. He let me borrow the case binder and the book about the stories of his family.

The next day after taking Nap over to the next town for breakfast, I went door to door asking people what they knew about the creatures. Many hesitated to speak with me until I explained who I was, what I believed, and that I intended to study what was happening. I had been warmly welcomed into their homes.

People in the town had a vast array of stories. Tales ranged from family members vanishing to hearing odd voices at night, to seeing groups of travelers vanish without trace. Many were older tales of loved ones wandering late into the forest and failing to make it out before sunset. It seemed that everybody believed in the creatures that inhabited the forest, but no one had ever seen one. An older gentleman reported that his sister had gone on an afternoon walk into the forest and never returned. He could hear her voice calling from the woods to him every night, but he doesn't dare to enter. Eventually the voice stopped.

I devoted the rest of the afternoon to taking notes on all the missing people’s cases. I just stopped kissing Nap farewell, as she and her mother left to get chico fruits in the forest. In an hour, or two, she had expected to be home. I was comfortable with her leaving as it would have been many hours before the sun had gone down.

Every case had the same set of circumstances. No clear explanation was given as to why the people were missing. News clippings placed the blame on people getting lost in the vast outback, or on the likelihood that these people could run into wild animals.

I closed the binder full of cases and sat back in my seat in the living room, exhausted after all my note taking. I took a deep breath and stood up to collect the binder and book that John had let me borrow.

I finished collecting my stuff and walked to John’s house to return his articles. He was sitting at his front porch when I arrived, still in his police uniform with a beer.

I handed the book and binder to him, and took a seat next to him.

“What do they look like?” I asked.

"Who?” John answered sitting up a little straight as if shocked by my question.

"Engkantos or the fairies or whatever you want to call them. So what do they look like? I don't have any descriptions in the text you gave me." I stood up and looked at John with a stern look.

"It's a full moon tonight. In the last ten years just a few people were lost in the woods. They are mad. You can sense them in the current. I will be retiring in two years. I have spent my life trying to find those people that were missing. During day I’m in the forest. They are difficult to see. They are very slender and tall. You can see their outline amongst the trees if you look hard. It's very hard to figure out but hundreds of them are there. They're not going to move until dark but you can look among the tree line and see them standing still, even now.”

John pointed from to the woods that were across the road. I looked hard but in the fading light, I could see nothing but trees. I thanked him for his time and resources, and made my way back to the fading light of Nap’s parents ' house. The sun had set, and a cool breeze swept across the road and into the woods as if the forest itself were breathing in. I walked down the broken sidewalk looking into the dark trees to see if I could get a glimpse of what John had described. The moon was full and bright. With a slightly bluish hue, it seemed almost like day out. There was no echo. No crickets. No animals scratching. The night air was packed with just the wind and my footsteps.

"FRANCIS!!!!!"A scream of blood-curdling echoed just inside the line of the trees.

That voice. I knew that voice. It was from Nap. The hair on my neck was standing up straight. My heart started pounding with a violent fervor. Nap and her mother hadn't come back when I left. What if she did not make it from the woods? What if they hurt her? What if they had taken her?

"FRANCIS!!!!"The scream echoed again. This time it sounded as though she was in anguished agony.

I was twenty yards deep in the woods before realizing what I was doing. My eyes agitatedly scanned everywhere. "NAP!" I screamed. Only dead silence. The moon was so vivid that from the light shining through the tree branches I could make out almost everything. "NAP!”

I was breathing through my mouth. My breaths matched my heart's tempestuous pace. I stood in silence. I looked closely at the thick canopies before me. My vision spotted movement. I'm not alone. There was movement but I could not see exactly what it was. It didn't make any noise whatsoever and it seemed opaque, almost invisible. As if opaque forms melded into reality from nowhere.

They were the height of man. The skin was pale. Their legs, arms, and body structure were thin. Their skin looked dry and it was ridging like worms. A head was in the shape of large white sideways cones with no features but a small black hole in the forehead.

My muscles tensed as pure terror flows through me. I couldn't move. I was awestruck and was filled with terror. There were dozens of those things before me. They all looked the same appallingly. I wanted to run but I couldn't. One slowly moved toward me. It stopped 20 ft away from me. It was dead quiet. My heart shook so hard that I could hear it.

The hole at the front of his head was growing bigger as if something were pushing out of it. Like the peeling of a sausage casing this thing's skin pulled back and the head of a young woman seems to be out of the black.

My jaws dropped. I felt my heart was beating in my ears. Her hair looked black and greasy. Her eyes were ovals black. Her skin blenched. She stares at me. It felt like an eternity as I looked upon at this monstrosity. She opened her mouth.

"Francis," she spoke. I recognized that voice. It was Nap’s. Confusion took over. The woman head on this creature bent sideways in a horrible way while staring at me with a blank expression.

"Francis... Francis... Francis..." Nap’s voice echoed more frequently and more intensely. Then from her mouth burst an ear shattering maniacal laugh. My face was strewn with tears as my lips began to shake. It stopped. The woman's face split from jaw to forehead in half spreading from side to side as if it had been cut by, exposing a mass of razor-sharp teeth and flailing tentacles like tongues.

The creature shrieked. It was so high pitched and growling that it shook the forest and buzzed my ears. I fell on my back and for the first time since I saw the entity, I could now move. I amokly shuffled my legs backwards to propel me away from the entity. The creature fell to all fours, and then charged me as inhumanly as possible. I realized that there was no way I could get up and out run it in time. It was about to consume me. I put my hand up to cover my lip.

"No!" I cried as I looked away. Nothing. I didn’t feel any pain. There was no creature landed upon me.

"FRANCIS... MOM... DAD... NOOOO!!!!" It sounded like a scream from Nap, but this time it sounded like it came from her home's direction. I got up straight away trying to understand what was going on. The creatures had gone but something moved violently away from me in the underbrush, tearing up ground and shaking branches as it went.

"Ana, NO! “Another voice resounded. It was owned by Robert. I was still confused and afraid but I wasn't going to stay any longer in this woods. I raced to Nap’s parents’ house as fast as my legs could manage.

Robert restrained Ana who was sobbing in the backyards, "Let me go... Let me go..."

"She's already gone. They might also take you,' replied Robert, hugging his wife with all his might.

“What happened?” I commanded.

"Oh my God, Francis," said Robert in horror, turning to me. "Nap swore that she heard you scream in the woods, and ran after you. We tried to get her to stop."

In the distance, a cry of Nap’s agony rang out. My fear and the rush of adrenaline transformed into rage. They took my wife. Those hideous things took the woman I loved. I went to the garage without thought, and scooped up the gas can that Robert filled up earlier in the day. I searched the garage frenzied, and found a torch of propane on the shelf. I quickly made my way through their backyard to the tree line.

"Robert, hold this," I ordered while shoving the lighter propane into his arms.

I started to pour the gas on the trees carelessly, and the brush along the forest line.

“What are you doing?” he asked with a puzzled look on his face.

I looked at him dead in the eye and coldly stated, “Give me the torch. I'm taking the woods from them, if they want to take her.”

He gave the torch that I just forced him to hold reluctantly.

The woods were dry. The wind blew in through the forest. I opened the valve for propane, lit a torch and threw it into the brush. There was a towering hell ahead of me in seconds. Robert and Ana were stunned by what I had just done. The fire burned fast and moved faster. Soon the whole town stood on the road, watching the forest they knew about consumed by blaze. With rage in my eyes, I stood still between them.

Suddenly, horror and pain filled the air with inhuman shrieks. They were like a knife cutting other people's ears. The people of the town tightly held their ears to block the screams. Most ran home in terror or grabbed each other for protection.

The shouts resonated tumultuous as the fire burned until suddenly the shouts ceased and only the blaze could be heard.

The fire department was called by someone who warned the forest guards. They couldn't do anything. The fire spread so quickly that the whole forest was burnt to the ground before a plan was drawn up. I admitted that I was the one starting the fire and was arrested by the police that night.

With little or no human contact, I was in prison for three days. The police were going through the office in an uncomfortable way as though they had more work than they could handle. They ignored and only fed me and checking on me before night.

John was there to welcome me when I woke up in my jail cell on the third morning.

I said groggily, "Good morning."

He opened the cell. “You’re free to go, Francis.” He nods at me to follow him. “Come with me." I got up and did as he requested. "They found Nap."  

"Is she all right? Is she hurt?" I asked delighted.

“She had some burns, cuts, bruises, suffered from some inhalation of smoke, and she seems to be in shock but is alive.”

“Thank God!” I shouted.

The car ride to the hospital was an hour or so. During our way over, John explained that I was now the least of the problems the town had to deal with. None of the town's houses got damaged. The wind blew the fire the opposite way. Search and rescue teams searched the forest at night and found Nap on the lake shore early in the morning. She was naked and shocked but alive.

The biggest problem the town had to tackle was the hundreds of skeletons discovered in the forest. They weren't scattered around like the victims of a forest fire. The burnt-out trunks of the narra trees contained dozens of skeletons, as if stuffed into the trees. John showed me a picture he'd taken at one of the scenes on his phone. The picture showed a tree trunk that looked bloated and had been burned out. Inside the bark you could clearly see a human skeleton contorted with the tree growing around it in horrible fashion. What appeared like wooden bark threads fused into the skeleton, as if they formed together. Some of the skeletons were identified as missing people in the woods in the 1900’s. Others had been estimated to be centuries old.

At the hospital, John dropped me off and I made my way to Nap’s room. Here were her parents. She was swollen and wounded but lying in her bed looking ahead, agape mouth, not blinking at all. She turned towards me slowly as I came in, not blinking. When our eyes met she started sobbing. I rushed to her, and warmly embraced her.

"They've took me," she said with heavy sobbing. "They ripped my clothes and tried to put me in there."

"Where?" I asked fighting off my own tears as I kept holding her closely.

"In the forest... In the trees," she said sobbing. "They feed the forest with us. The forest was dying and it starved to death.”

No other word was spoken. I just hugged her close, until she stopped sobbing.

With the forest gone, a development company bought all the land and turned it into homes. To my knowledge, no one has since disappeared. There are some rumors that the place is haunted and that odd voices and cries can still be heard at night.

The night of the fire, my camera was recording. I looked at the video once before deleting it. My voice can be heard in frightened tone calling Nap’s name. One can see Nap running into the woods calling for me. As she disappears beyond what the camera can see, there is a voice that giggles like a little child and then, in a raspy high voice, states, "We take." The brush all around is shifting quickly towards where Nap was last seen until her cries can be heard.

#@queenlupitajones #short story

[collecting-stories]

Crush - Adam (Supernatural)

Could you do something where the reader hunts with Bobby and the boys, and falls for Adam?

Crush - Adam x reader

“Here you go,” you announced, stepping into the small guest room at Bobby’s, holding the glass of water out to Adam. Your hand was shakier than was typical and once he took the glass you found yourself standing awkwardly by the door, unsure of yourself. He’d sequestered himself up here almost immediately after Sam and Dean had suggested that he didn’t know what he was getting into.

The first time you had met Adam he had turned out to be a ghoul disguising himself as John Winchester’s illegitimate son. A friendly ghoul who had charmed you even easier than he had Sam but still a ghoul who fully intended on eating both brothers and you. It was unfortunate and afterwards you had to wonder why you hadn’t questioned the possibility in the first place. Maybe because you thought Adam was cute and you had the beginnings of a superficial crush on him. Or maybe because you really didn’t know him and the oddly optimistic memories of an absent father who came around once in a blue moon for a baseball game seemed normal. Either way, you and Sam both fell into the trap of a well-meaning kid who needed help and turned to John Winchester, unaware his once mythic father was dead.  

“Do you need anything else?” You asked, the silence making you anxious. You missed the appropriate cue to leave and now you were overwhelmingly aware that you had overstayed your welcome in Adam’s room.  

He shook his head and continued to stare at the glass of water in his hands.  

Crushes were funny things, like itches that you couldn’t scratch. Even when the situation at hand didn’t call for it you found that nagging at the back of your brain reminding you of stupid things like how cute, and slightly helpless, Adam looked. He was a sore spot for Dean who had spent the entirety of his life convinced his father never loved anyone but his mom. Adam felt like a betrayal, even now that he was no longer a monster in disguise and the disdain he held for John proof that the patriarch never did find love after Mary. Sam, who only remembered a John post Mary, was more welcoming of the idea of an illegitimate other Winchester, a more normal one he could be normal with. Turning out to be a ghoul had dampened his optimism and further turning out to be a risen-from-the-dead vessel for Michael was the nail in the coffin. Adam was their brother but only half and the half that made him not their brother seemed to be truly defining, even as they warned him against making any rash decisions.

You wanted to see him make the right decision, or the decision where he told Michael to go fuck himself, too, but you weren’t nearly as invested in the sibling squabble. Possibly because you weren’t a sibling but also because your own father had a countless lineage of ‘other’ children scattered across the Midwest. That and you thought Adam was cute, something Dean was quick to point out when you attempted to stick up for his motivates.  

“Some of us are thinking about the apocalypse that’s supposed to be happening. If you want to re-join that conversation and stop making heart eyes at the kid.” He’d been understandably frustrated by your lack of supposed self-control. And maybe you were staring at Adam a little too intensely but who could fault you. Living with Bobby didn’t exactly introduce you to a whole lot of eligible guys your age. Mostly all you saw were rowdy hunters. The Winchesters, despite their good looks, were no different. Adam was the first guy your age that you’d seen in months and you were seeing him for a second time, who could help having a little, harmless crush on him.  

“I was not making heart eyes.”  

Dean had taken up the role of older brother/well-meaning but emotionally distance father and that led to plenty of clashes between the two of you.  

“Guys, this isn’t the time.” Sam was designated referee for all your arguments. So while the two of them argued null points further you had taken a glass of water up to Adam, mostly to make sure he was doing alright but also, apparently, to stare at his cute face until you spontaneously combusted.  

You attempted a step further into the room. Then further and further until you were grabbing the wooden seat from the corner and sitting down by Adam’s bed. Maybe some insight into his headspace would help determine what he was going through. He was just risen from the dead to be a vessel for Michael after being eaten by ghouls not too long ago. And here you thought having the sister you lived with turn to witchcraft to send your father to an early grave was the weirdest it could get for a person.  

“I know this is all a little overwhelming.” You announced, picking imaginary threads off your flannel in hopes to ease your nerves. Ganking monsters was nothing compared to talking to cute boys. Talking to cute boys about not starting to apocalypse and potentially saving mankind was a weird way of flirting but it certainly gave you something to say.  

“Until a couple of hours ago I was in heaven and now I’m here and I’m supposed to be Michael’s vessel and you’re telling me not to? Like I told Sam and Dean, he’s promised to bring back my mom.” He snapped.  

Alright well, you didn’t exactly want the guy you thought was cute thinking that you were a major dick who didn’t care about him as a person only about the greater good and your own personal need for overdramatic heroics. That category was better reserved for Sam and Dean and sometimes Castiel in all honesty. But not you. Not you who, to some extent understood what Adam was going through. Weren’t you just a normal kid until all that freaky shit started happening and your sister’s irresponsibility got you possessed by a demon.  

Saying ‘I know’ again would only piss him off and you couldn’t imagine a sentence along the lines of ‘I get it’ or ‘I understand’ would go over quite so well either.

“Dean and Sam-”

“Dean and Sam only care about themselves. I’m not family to them and they’re not family to me.”

That didn’t help either. There was no reasoning with him. Regardless of his lineage or his willingness to be Michael’s vessel, you knew that consequences of him going through with this would be detrimental to everyone, yourself included. But then, was protecting yourself from the apocalypse at the expense of a kid who just wants his mom back selfish or were you truly looking out for the greater good?

“I don’t want you to get hurt.”  

“You don’t even know me.”  

Well, true. But you’d known a very charming ghoul-version of him that had flirted you into compliance. Granted the risen-from-the-dead version was a little less trusting of you. Though that had nothing to do with whether he thought you were cute in return and everything to do with the fact that he wasn’t planning on eating you.

“Doesn’t matter,” you lied, trying to explain to the ghoul thing to him now would be even more overwhelming than all the other things he was trying to come to terms with, “what matters is that you’re putting yourself and all of humanity at risk doing this.”  

“I don’t care.” He repeated his prior statement, emphasizing each word as if you hadn’t heard them the other twelve times.  

“Yeah I got that. But none of this will be worth it because everything will be gone and your mom won’t really be back. Michael will never keep his promise.”  

“Whatever you’re trying to do isn’t going to work. I’m doing this.”

“Don’t waste your breath on him.” Dean’s voice came from the doorway. He was as effective as having a parent around because you stood and headed for the door immediately. Dean moved so you could pass him into the hallway and then he followed you back down to Bobby’s kitchen. You couldn’t help the sullen attitude you had as you sunk into a chair.  

Adam didn’t come down from his room until later that night. Both of the brothers and Bobby had gone to sleep but you were still awake, pouring over lore books in the living room as if something you already read was going to change midway through and provide an answer that saved both the world and this damn kid that you were crushing on. But everything was the same as before and the only answer that seemed even remotely good was the one Dean had offered up over dinner, he take Adam’s place. A force of hand on both sides.  

But that answer sucked too because you didn’t want Dean to get hurt.  

“You’re still awake?” Adam asked, lingering at the bottom of the stairs awkwardly. He wasn’t sure what to say to any of the people in this house much less you, the only one who seemed interested in both telling him not to accept Michael and arguing that he had no choice.  

“It’s a combination of terrible coffee and anxiety.” You replied, glancing up from one of your books, “you should try it.”

“The coffee or the anxiety?”  

You hummed, “both?”  

He smiled and you watched him walk to the kitchen where Bobby’s coffee pot sat half full on the burner. Pouring himself a cup Adam came back over and sat beside you on the couch, an improvement from earlier when he could hardly look at you as you loomed over him in the guest room. “What are you reading?”

“Trying to solve this end of the world problem in a way that gets none of the Winchesters, yourself included, killed.” You supplied. “though so far I’m at a dead end.”

“I’m okay with being Michael’s vessel. I’ve accepted it.” Despite his vehement refusal to be associated in any way with his half-brothers that sentence alone secured his place as a Winchester.  

“Of course you did.” You muttered, thumbing through the text. It was a fool’s errand at this point but it was distracting enough to keep your mind only half on the hopelessness of the situation.  

“Why do you care?”

“Because I care about Dean and Sam. And Bobby and Cas and I don’t want any of this shit to go down like I know it’s going to. Sorry but they’re my family. I don’t have the luxury of ‘bringing my mom back’ and I know better than to try that shit.” You confessed. It was all partially true. The other part being that you felt drawn to Adam in a way that half made you believe you were trapped in one of Gabriel’s stupid time-warp tv drama universes. Like this was some teen romcom and together you would figure everything out and walk off into the sunset in time for your prom like Footloose.  

“You don’t understand than.”

“I do, but I don’t wanna see you get hurt either.”  

“Why? Because I’m a ‘Winchester’? I’m not.” He replied. He took a sip of the coffee and grimaced, “you’re right, this is terrible.”

You huffed a laugh and smiled just the slightest at his comment. Bobby did make terrible coffee. “I know you ‘aren’t a Winchester’ and all that...but I still am worried about you and it has nothing to do with Dean and Sam. I don’t want to see anyone get hurt and even if Michael doesn’t hurt you I don’t want you getting your hopes up for nothing.”

“I have to take the chance.”  

You nodded and looked away. Dean had once told you that hunting was complicated and that relationships couldn’t happen in the life they led. It just wasn’t a possibility for them and if you chose to join them on the road than you would have to give up those friendships that you had back home. At the time it didn’t bother you but now you were starting to understand, even potential crushes were a waste of time because they either turned out to be monsters or boys with misguided senses of heroism that wanted to sacrifice themselves for a cause they believed in.  

“Hey, I’m sorry.” Adam’s hand covered yours, his thumb rubbing gently over the side of your hand, the slightest tickling sensation causing goosebumps to breakout on your arm. “You seem like a great person, I wish things could’ve been different.”

“Tell me about it.” You replied, deciding not to torture yourself by reading too far into the phrase ‘great person’.  

“Do you want help?” He offered, “I don’t know what I’m looking for but, I can’t sleep.”

You pulled your hand away to reach for a book on the coffee table, “I’ll take all the help I can get.” It was true, you could use an extra set of eyes. And if this was the most you could ask for from Adam than you would take it.  

-

Sorry this took so long. Honestly I’ve been writing this since I got the request in my inbox and it’s just taken me this long to put thoughts into words. I don’t even know if this is decent, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that it is. 

#Adam (supernatural) imagine #Adam (supernatural) x reader #Adam (supernatural) fanfic #supernatural fanfiction #supernatural imagine #supernatural fanfic #collecting stories imagine

[taehyungiestummy]

Blood, Sweat, and Tears -- Chapter Seventeen

Masterlist     Previous     Next

Warnings: Swearing

Word Count: 6290

         I twirl my pencil between my fingers, staring up at the board as the professor continues to fill in a chart detailing the characters for The Lost Princess and connecting them to popular figures today. If only I could pay attention to what he is saying, but my mind is bouncing between the information that I learned about my mom and the surprise that Taehyung is going to give me when I finally leave this hell.

         “I know that we have spent a lot of time on this book, but we have been having such great discussions, that I think it is worth it,” the literature professor, Dr. Wang, places the dry-erase marker on the desk. “Next time that we meet, I will give a test to wrap this up, and then we can start on the last half with some short stories.”

         I scribble down the information that he just said into my notebook.

         “If you review your notes, and can recall the major points for the story, you will be fine. Now, I hope you all are getting ready for the cold. Have a great rest of your day. Class dismissed.”

         Everyone around me rushes to pack up and get out of the room as quickly as possible. I used to worry about being the last one to leave, but now I feel no pressure.

         “Areum, it is nice to see you back in the classroom,” Dr. Wang speaks up as the last students trickle out of the classroom.

         “Just felt like a good time to come back,” I sling my backpack over my shoulder. “If I don’t take the plunge sometime, I’ll just continue to be stuck in whatever I find comfortable.”

         “That is an interesting way of looking at it,” he chuckles. “You have always been one interesting girl.”

         “See you later professor,” I briefly wave, quickly exiting the room so he doesn’t see the disgust take over my face. He is another person to add to the list with the Fakes that I will not miss once this semester is over.

         “Areum,” the sweet voice of Haru fills my ears as the girl skips up to me. “I think it is finally safe for me to come up to you without fear that those girls will push me out of the way.” A wide smile on her face causes the dimples in both her cheeks to appear.

         Haru is a smaller girl at around 165 centimeters, and on the plumper side of what I can only guess as close to 56 kilograms. She is round because of the extra weight, and I have always found that it matches her sweet personality perfectly. Her long black hair is like silk as it runs down to the middle or her back, bringing out the light brown in her big eyes. A nice patch of freckles rests on her plump cheeks and button nose, causing her to even be cuter and more likable. If I remember correctly, she is a year older than I am, but we are in the same year. She mentioned a learning disability some time back, but I never pushed her on the issue.

         I giggle, “Sorry about that. They were like leeches, and no matter what I did, I just could not get rid of them.”

         “Don’t worry about it,” Haru waves off my apology. “Their dads are big and powerful, and Bangtan needs them. I just wish you would partner up more with the little guy. My dad has little coffee shops all over the city, and each has a different animal theme. I’d love for him to partner with a big name to get more recognition.” She pulls her hands back into her sweatshirt sleeves, waving them around in a nervous habit.

         “I’d love to get in contact with your dad, Haru. The little guy means more to me than those big corporations,” I shrug. “I’m sick of sucking up to them to make sure we can do deals.”

         “That boy those girls were talking about; Taehyung I think they said. Is that really your boyfriend? Is he the reason you have us lie to your brother about being at the club?”

         “Um, yeah, Taehyung is my boyfriend,” I feel my cheeks heating up as I get to tell someone outside of Bangtan about my relationship. “Please keep the lie up for Yoongi. I still haven’t found out a good way to tell him about being in a relationship.”

         “Your secret is safe with the book club,” Haru turns the key on an imaginary lock on the middle of her lips. “You’ve always been so good to us, and it is the least we can do to pay you back.”

         “Oh, never feel like you have to give back to me,” I shake my head as we turn to stop at a common area. “I do things like that out of the goodness of my heart. It keeps the balance for the evil things that run through my mind.”

         “Still, you asked us a favor, and we felt it was only right to do as you ask,” she shrugs. “Your brother is just looking out for you, which I find sweet.”

         I roll my eyes, letting a scoff pass through my lips. “He likes to forget that I am in college, though. Him worrying about me started when I was born, and has gone on until this day.”

         “That just makes him ever sweeter,” Haru giggles, a light blush spreading across her cheeks.

         I feel my eyes widen as a wave of realization crashes over me.

         Haru is the one who has her number down for the book club, meaning she answers each call or text sent her way for it. This means she has to talk to Yoongi when he calls asking about me, and she never once questioned why I would need to lie to him. She also planned the trips over to the mansion to check out the library we have; at times she would wander off on her own, and I would find her talking with Yoongi deep in the library. Though, she never would have met Yoongi if she didn’t invite me to the book club, become a friend, and then have me invite the members over.

         “You have a crush on my brother,” I gush, feeling the gummy smile take over. “How did I not figure that out until right now?”

         “What?” Haru’s eyes flutter around as she looks anywhere but my face. “I have no clue what you are talking about. Yoongi is just someone that I enjoy talking to every once in a while. I barely know the boy.” She awkwardly chuckles, waving around her sweater paws.

         “Holy shit, Haru,” I shake my head in awe. “I never thought there would be a girl out there who wasn’t going after my brother for money or fame or whatever else. You like him because he cares about me, and you find that sweet.”

         “Shut up,” she squeals, giving me a small shove. “Please, don’t let anyone know about this. He has so many girls going after him, and I don’t want him to think that I am one of those girls. I just want to keep talking to him and see where it takes us.”

         “Well, you do have his number from him calling to ask about me, so you might as well take advantage of that and send him a text. He may look tough, but that boy has a soft inside,” I chuckle.

         “Thanks Areum,” Haru takes a deep breath. “I actually have his number saved in my phone. His suggestion, not mine.”

         “He doesn’t give his number out to just anyone, you know,” I shoot a wink at Haru. “You are already on the path to something special.”

         “I should probably go to the book club,” she motions in the direction of the library. “Make sure that they are all planning for the book drive for the kids for the holidays. You probably have a boyfriend to get to.”

         “Sorry to have kept you, but at least I got to talk to someone I actually like,” I reach out and place a hand on Haru’s shoulder for a few seconds. “I’ll try to come to book club meetings once I figure a few things out. Life it crazy when you’re a Min.”

         Haru giggles, “I am sure it is.”

         We slightly bow to each other before turning and heading our separate ways. New information having spread between us, and our relationship having changed forever. Something that I am excited about.

         I make it to the ground floor in peace and quiet, but that tranquility does not last longer than thirty seconds.

         “Hey, bitch,” Blondie steps up to me with the other three trailing close behind.

         “Wow,” I roll my eyes. “Did you come up with that by yourself, or was that a group effort?”

         “You shut up,” Chewing Gum snaps.

         “Actually, I think all of you should shut the fuck up and leave me alone before you regret something,” I pick up my pace, seeing the doors that will lead me outside.

         “No, you are not getting away that easily after embarrassing me in front of all those kids,” Blondie grabs my wrist, pulling me back into line with her. “You are a spoiled brat, you know that? I have been nothing but nice to you for years, and that is the kind of thanks I get? Shouting for no reason at us as we just try to make sure that you are okay.”

         “That’s bullshit and you know it,” I yank my hand out of her grasp. “First of all, how can you seriously still think about yourself in this kind of situation? Fuck you, and I could give a shit if you felt embarrassed. I have had to deal with you for years, so that is what you get.” I take a deep breath, running a hand through my hair. “Also, if you think for a second that I am spoiled, a girl who has lost both of her parents for reasons that she may never know, and has to go to school while leading a business with her brother, and wishes for one day to live like a normal girl. I am far from being spoiled through all the hard work that I have been through. So you, miss Blondie, can suck it.” I shove the doors open, bursting out into the crisp fresh outside air.

         “My father is going to make you pay,” Blondie growls, picking up her pace to keep up with me. “I don’t care how much I like Yoongi, I will do whatever it takes to make you pay for what you have done.”

         “Your fathers don’t give two shits about our friendship,” I scan the area for a BMW, but my eyes land on something much better: a motorcycle. “So, fuck off, all of you, and I hope that you have finally learned your lesson,” I scoff, breaking into a jog to reach the one that can fix this day.

         Taehyung has his boxy smile on his face as he spots me looking like a dork. Him picking me up will never get old.

         “Taehyungie,” I almost squeal, wrapping my arms around his neck as I leap into his arms. “Thank you so much for coming. I needed you. There is so much to talk about.”

         “Ah, look at the little slut going to go off with her boyfriend,” Blondie scoffs.

         I groan, not even bothering to lift my head from Taehyung’s shoulder. “I swear, I cannot get kicked out of this school, or else I would kick each of their asses.”

         “I’ll take care of them, babe,” Taehyung presses a kiss to my temple, pulling me away from his body. “Suit up, so we can leave.”

         I turn to see Blondie at the front of the group, with Chewing Gum not too far behind. However, Glasses and Cheekbones are some meters away. Their gazes shifting all over the place. I’m sure they were dragged along even if they really didn’t want to come.

         “I would appreciate it if you didn’t call my girlfriend a slut,” Taehyung’s voice has lowered as he enters his bad boy persona. “I would also like it if you could leave her alone like she has asked you countless times. She does not want to be friends with you, and you should respect that request. Now, if you will excuse us, we have places to be.”

         “Fuck you,” Chewing Gum takes a step forward, but Blondie holds her arm out to keep the girl back.

         “You are such a bitch,” Blondie clenches her fists, lowering her arm. “I don’t know why everyone looks up to you. You are just a bitch who does not care about the feelings of others. All you want is to get by without making friends.”

         I let a venom filled laugh leave my mouth, “Being called a bitch is the least of my concern. You don’t know me if you think that, and I am done pretending for you.” I place my helmet on my head.

         “Areum is the sweetest, kindest, all around badass, and you missed out on that by never trying to get to know her,” Taehyung takes a step towards the girls. “You never looked past where she came from. Your eyes were focused on the money. Now get out of my face, and I hope that I never see you again.”

         “Argh!” Blondie fumes. “Fine, come on girls, we don’t need to deal with this bitch anymore.”

         In the next moment, the Fakes turn on their heels, and walk back into the building. It is hard to tell if this will be my last encounter with them, but I think that they finally learned their lesson. They will finally stay away, and I hope that they will stop acting fake.

         “Thank you, Tae,” I reach out to grab his fingers. “Thank you for being a bad boy for a minute to tell those girls off.”

         “You already did most of the work,” Taehyung turns to me. A tender smile has spread over his lips. “I just finished the little you left me.” He secures my helmet on my head, peering right into my eyes. “Bad boy, though? What are you talking about?” His tender smile turns to a smirk.

         “Your voice got deeper, and your eyes kind of cloud over, so like a bad boy.”

         “God, I love you,” he leans down to place a gentle kiss on my lips.

         “Hmm, I love you,” I breath out when his lips release mine.

         “Come on, I have a special place that I want to take you that I think you will love.”

         “Don’t hold back this time,” I grin. “I want to feel a little adrenaline after what has happened today.”

         Taehyung places his helmet on his head, a boxy smile on his face. “You might regret those words, kitten, but your wish is my command.”

********

         “This is amazing,” I widely smile at the old bookstore that Taehyung has parked his motorcycle in front of. “You know me so well, Taehyung,” I squeeze his torso, nuzzling my head into the top of his back as best I can with a helmet on. “Thank you for bringing me here.”

         “You’re welcome, Areum,” Taehyung places his hands on my arms. “Would you like to go inside? Get some books?”

         “I’d love to,” I lean back, releasing him from my hold. “This is the kind of date that I doubt anyone would ever take me on.”

         “No one knows you like I do,” Taehyung slides off the motorcycle, setting his helmet on the seat. “I’d ask if you are looking forward to getting a certain book, but most of the books in there are old, and there are no new releases.”

         “Someone did tell me that I should start reading the classics,” I grin, climbing off the bike, and setting my helmet on what I have deemed as my seat.

         “Sounds like they give some good advice,” Taehyung grabs my hand, intertwining our fingers. “They might also advise not leaving your backpack with the bike since it can’t be locked.”

         I giggle, placing my free hand on the strap of my backpack. “Good thing my backpack has a lot of space so I can put my books in it.”

         Taehyung gives me a tug, and we head into the store. “I have a little storage thing, but I doubt it would fit more than one book. I only have it for computer parts, and if I need something bigger, I’ll take a car.”

         “I’ve been wondering something about your motorcycle for a while now,” I pull us towards a certain aisle that has a big ‘Classics’ sign hanging on it.

         “Really? Why haven’t you asked until now? I told you that I am an open book?” He chuckles.

         “Well, I didn’t think it was the important to know, so I just pushed the thought away. But now, I just want to keep learning things about you, so I might as well ask.”

         “Ask away, babe,” Taehyung pulls a book off a shelf.

         “Why do you have a two-seater? You’ve been single for a while. At least that is what you have told me, so there is no need to have a motorcycle with two seats.”

         “Oh, um,” he places the book back on the shelf. His head tilting to look down at me with a slight blush spreading across his cheeks. “That is cute of you to even notice.”

         “Your cheeks are reddening,” I tenderly smile.

         “I have a two-seater because I hoped that one day you would be able to ride with me,” he whispers, like he is afraid to admit his reason. “When I went out to get that bike out there, I had been watching you for quite some time, and I knew that I would probably never get close to you, but I still got two seats. It was a dream that I never thought would come true.”

         I push up on my tiptoes to give me the height to press my lips to his. “Dreams come true when you wish hard enough.”

         “I guess I wished hard enough then,” he grins, pressing our lips together for a few more seconds.

         “Maybe we should stop gushing over one another and actually look at some books,” I fall back on my heels.

         “Sure, I mean, that is why I brought you here. Actually, I have been waiting to see if a certain book that I think you will love will come in, and I knew exactly where to look.”

         “Do you want to rush off and find it?” I giggle, pulling my hand out of his. “Nothing is going to happen to me. There is no one here besides us, so I think I can handle looking at some books for a few minutes.”

         “You better have found at least one book by the time I get back,” he grins, pressing a kiss to my forehead before rushing off.

         I chuckle, turning to focus in on the shelf crammed with books in all stages of use. “That boy, I don’t know what to do with him sometimes.”

         The ding of a bell fills my ears as another person must have made their way into the shop. There must be something about the weather turning towards cold that makes people want to sit down with a nice used book.

         “Hm, what kind of book do I want to read?” I look over the tabs that indicate the genre of books. “Fantasy would be nice to transport my mind.” I pull Howl’s Moving Castle off the shelf, smiling at the worn nature of it. “I bet this is where the anime got its inspiration.” I tuck the book under my arm, looking back at the shelf to find other one.

         “Look at the princess, picking out her books,” the voice of a woman that sends my whole body into paralysis speaks up from right behind me. “What happened to your precious boyfriend, huh? He’s been your protector, and now he just leaves you all alone?”

         I will myself to take slow breaths to make sure that I don’t have a full-blown panic attack.

         “It was sweet to see the two of you dance at the little Halloween party that your brother and you hosted. That kiss you two shared just warmed my heart,” she sighs, but her hatred can be heard. “He’s not the one that the Red Wolves picked out for you though, so this little fling will have to end.”

         “Shut up,” I choke out.

         “Oh, does the cat have your tongue?”

         “You have no say over my life,” I take a deep breath to settle myself.

         “You weren’t this timid just a few hours ago when you yelled at those poor girls. All they have ever wanted is to be your friend, and you have never given them a chance.”

         “You have no idea what you are talking about, and I am giving you a chance to leave me alone.”

         “Oh, sweet naïve Ari, one day you will embrace all that is destined for you. You just have to give it a chance.”

         I feel the air stick in my throat as the nickname leaves her vile mouth. “Nobody calls me that anymore. Not since…”

         “You’re mother left. Oh, we know. You seem to forget that we know a lot about you, my dear. You are our princess, and you will come back to us,” she places a hand gently on my upper arm.

         “Don’t touch me!” I exclaim, turning around to give the woman a big shove, sending to the floor in a tumble. The book in my hold flying across the floor.

         I wish that I could take a second to take in what she looks like, but all I want to do is find Taehyung to make sure that I am safe. Even though I know I could take this lady with an arm tied behind my back, she has too many mind tricks up her sleeve. She knows too much about me, and that scares me more than it should.

         I turn on my heel, rushing away from the shocked woman sprawled on the floor. The only trait of hers sticking in my mind is the rich auburn hair that obscures her face.

         “Taehyung,” I try not to shout for him too loudly. “Tae, where are you?”

         I turn a corner, skidding a bit before rushing down the aisle. The store isn’t that big, so it shouldn’t be that hard to find Taehyung. In the state that I am in, this place seems like a maze that has walls closing in on me.

         “Tae, please, speak up.” I feel like my lungs are fighting to fill with air. “I don’t want to be alone.”

         I skid to a stop at the end of the aisle, taking my time to look down the next few until I finally spot my boyfriend looking intently at the shelf. It feels like the whole world explodes as my body calms down just at the sight of him.

         “Taehyung,” I rush at him, feeling silly but not wanting him to disappear if I don’t wrap my arms around him.

         “Huh?” Taehyung looks at me and has just enough time to open his arms for me to fall into his hold. “Areum? What’s wrong? What happened?”

         “Her…she’s here,” I wrap my arms tighter around his middle as I nuzzle my head into his chest. The last thing I want to do is cry in the middle of this bookstore.

         “Her?” Taehyung questions. “Wait, are you talking about the Red Wolves lady?”

         “Yes,” I shudder.

         “How the fuck did they know we were here?”

         “They are always watching,” I pull my head away from his chest, looking up at him. “She knew about the Halloween party, and me yelling at the Fakes, and about you. They know that I am with you, but they want me to be with someone else. She even called me Ari. No one calls me that anymore. Only in our chatroom am I called Ari anymore.”

         “Those fuckers,” Taehyung runs his hands up my arms before cupping my face. “I am sick of them doing this to you. I hate that they know so much about you. I hate that they are coming for you because your mother used to be one of them.”

         “I hate them because they come after Bangtan for a reason that is too old for anyone to remember.” I feel the effects that the woman had on me washing slowly away. “She’s playing mind games.”

         “I should have never left you alone,” he lets go of my face. “I am so sorry. I didn’t think that they were watching us so closely.”

         “You have no reason to apologize,” I pull my hands back to me. “You are not the one to blame. Those bastards are,” I clench my hands into tight fists. “They are tracking me, Tae. They know where I am all the time. How am I ever going to feel safe?” I feel the tears begin to drip down my cheeks. “How can I know who is following me for them?”

         “Babe, don’t cry,” Taehyung reaches up to wipe away the tears on my cheeks with his thumb. “Don’t let them get to you. You are strong, and they are trying to scare you. You have too many people around you that would never let something bad happen to you. They would have to go through so many people to ever touch you.”

         I sniffle, focusing on my breathing so the tears stop.

         “In fact, I will take a vow right now to always be by your side until this whole issue is sorted out. I will work in your room, I will pick you up from school, I will watch the school’s CCTV’s, and whatever else it takes to make sure that you are always safe. That is what your father told me to do, and I will step up my game to make sure that you are never really alone.”

         “What about when we figure all of this out?” I tilt my head slightly. “I don’t want to be alone ever again after this.”

         “Then, I will always be by your side,” he tenderly smiles, leaning down to press a kiss to my lips. “You sure you won’t get tired of me?”

         I giggle, “No, I will never get tired of you.”

         “That’s good, because I think you are it for me. After waiting so long, I don’t think I could be with anyone else.”

         “That is good to hear, because I feel the same.” I run a hand through his hair. “I still want to get some books.”

         “Do you feel okay?”

         “After that kiss you gave me, yeah, I am good,” I gently pinch his cheek. “What book were you looking for?” I turn to face the shelf, reaching down to grab his hand.

         “It was a science fiction novel, and it has to be here somewhere.” He squeezes my hand, focusing his eyes on books in front of us.

         “Tell me and I can help,” I pout.

         “No, I want to surprise you,” he swings our clasped hands. “Ah, here it is,” he pulls a book off the shelf.

         “Can I see it now?” I widen my eyes as I look up at my boyfriend.

         “Sure,” he holds the book out for me to see that it is called The Man in the High Castle. “I was looking up old books, stumbled across his one, and I thought you would like it. It’s about an alternate world after World War II.”

         “Sounds interesting,” I nod a few times. “I am excited to read.”

         “Did you find a book before that lady found you?”

         “Oh, um, yes, I did actually. When I shoved her it flew out of my arm, so it should still be on the ground back in the aisle I was in.”

         “What was it?” Taehyung starts leading us back to where we first started.

         “It was the book that inspired Howl’s Moving Castle. It is even the same name. I liked that movie, so I thought that it would be cool to read what, in a way, started it all.”

         “That is cute. You are cute,” Taehyung chuckles. “Sorry, I am just in awe at what I am doing right now. This kind of stuff will always make me so happy.”

         “Being on a date with me?” I goofily grin as I look down at my shoes.

         “Being on a date, holding your hand, talking about everything. It all makes me happy beyond belief.”

         “I’m glad that I am not the only one gushing over our relationship.”

         We reach the aisle that the Red Wolves’ lady approached me in, and I notice that the book is still on the floor. Though, I don’t trust that the bitch didn’t tamper with it.

         “I hope there is another one still on the shelf,” I pick the book off the ground, looking at the shelf where I took it.

         “Right here,” Taehyung pulls a book off the shelf. “Put that one back and then we can check out.”

         I slide the book in my hand back on the shelf. “Anything to get me home where hopefully this day will have a calm ending.”

********

         “There are few things in life that have stayed normal, and that is eating dinner with my lovely brother,” I smile, pushing my plate away.

         “You are such a brat; you know that?” Yoongi grins, taking a sip of his water.

         “That is what you tell me, but I don’t believe it,” I giggle. “How has your week been, Yoongi? I feel like a lot has been going on and we haven’t been able to talk.”

         He shrugs, leaning back in his seat. “Nothing much other than contacting each of our business partners to set up a new game plan. Everyone is being quite flexible and understanding, so that part has been easy. Trying to break the codes on the things in dad’s office is another thing entirely. I think we are making progress, but it is hard to tell.”

         “How is hacking into his computer? Can the hackers tell if they are close or not?”

         “I make them tell me updates every four hours that they work, but it still seems that they have a lot of work to do. What surprises me is that Taehyung can’t get in. I would have thought he would have been the one to lock the computer up in the first place.”

         I nibble on my bottom lip at the mention of my boyfriend’s name. All I want is to tell Yoongi about my relationship, and more than that, to tell him about the Red Wolves’ situation. I’m just afraid at what his reaction will be that I can’t bring myself to slip the news.

         “What about you? How has school been?”

         “School is school,” I wave my hand across my face. “I wish that you hadn’t forced me to go to class, but I think what happened turned about fine.”

         “It has to do with the Fakes, right?” Yoongi smirks. “Their dads called me, and they told me that their little girls are a little power hungry. Money is how they have always gotten through life, so it only makes sense that they would go to you. Their fathers really could give a fuck if all of you play nice. This is not about them, but about big businesses. You did good, Bambi,” he sends a wink my way.

         “Yeah, well, I just couldn’t take it anymore,” I run a hand through my hair. “There’s a lot that has been making my life crazy.”

         “Like what?”

         I open my mouth to answer, but I shut it before I say anything that could get me into whatever trouble my brother could do.

         If I tell him about the lady from the Red Wolves and how she keeps telling me that I am their princess, then I have to tell him that Taehyung and I are dating. I have to tell him that I have not been going to book club after my classes, and instead going on dates with Taehyung. If I tell him that I have a ton of information on our mother, I again have to tell him that I have been communicating with Taehyung more than I have let on. If I tell him that some of my memories have come back, all about Taehyung, then I have to say that he’s my boyfriend. I could talk about my nightmares, but that would also cause more worry than Yoongi needs to worry about. There is no winning for me.

         “If you have something on your mind that you don’t feel comfortable enough to share with me, I can always contact your therapist,” Yoongi speaks up. “He has helped you in the past, so I am sure that he can help now.”

         I feel my heart shatter at even the thought of seeing the man who stole my memories from me. “Are you fucking serious?!” I slap my hands on the table, resisting the urge to fly out of my seat. “I will never go back to that fucking creep after what he did to me! He took my memories from me, Yoongi. He took precious moments stored in my brain from me that I fear will never come back. No matter how much I want to remember those things, even if they were taken for a reason. That man is a fucker, and I will never see or speak to him ever again. I would rather die than have to go into his office again. You understand me?” I growl. “That is not up for debate. Never even bring that up again. Not even as a joke.”

         Yoongi’s eyes are wide as he stares at me. He even looks to have scooted away a little.

         With all the stress that is pushing down on me, I have had more outbursts recently than I normally do. I rarely snap at Yoongi though, when I know he is probably just trying to help me. He’s not one to push my buttons, which makes him the best brother. But he doesn’t know what hell that I have been put through thanks to that dick of a therapist.

         “I’m sorry, Areum,” Yoongi takes a deep breath, leaning back towards me. “I didn’t know how much that doctor hurt you. All I really know is that dad sent you to him, and you would come back seeming better. I was young when it was all happening, and I wasn’t told too much about it.”

         “Yeah, well, if there is a hell on Earth, it is in his office,” I lift my hands up, gently sitting my hands in my lap.

         “If you want those memories back, though, then I will help you in anyway that I can.” Yoongi grins, firmly nodding to confirm his statement.

         “Really?” I sputter out. “You don’t even know what he took.”

         “I don’t need to know,” he shrugs. “You want to remember, so I will help to make that possible. I’ll start looking into ways to trigger memories, and hopefully whatever comes back isn’t too much for you.”

         I take a deep breath, “Yeah, well, I am sick of having blanks in my mind when thinking of the past. Even if the memories taken from me were taken so that I could be happier or what other bullshit he told dad. I want it all back. I need to feel full again.”

         “Then it is settled.”

         “Thanks Yoongi,” I sink down in my seat, feeling like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

         “Now, I think there is still one other thing on your mind, and I have been meaning to talk to you about it.”

         I let my eyebrows furrow together as I look at my brother. “What are you talking about?”

         “Well, I had my suspicions before the Halloween party, and then you mysteriously got sick near the end, and with all this new interest in the book club, I couldn’t help but try to figure out what was actually going on.”

         I feel my heart jump into my throat as my whole body stiffens.

         “That’s when I decided to ask around the people that you are closest with, and since I am their boss, I got the answers that I wanted.”

         If I wasn’t so scared of what Yoongi is going to say, the anger the bubbles within me would last longer.

         “So, who is the boy you have been seeing? Because that is the only thing that makes sense with what you have been doing recently. You can tell me Areum, or I can just call the book club and find out which one of them has made my little sister so happy as of late.”

         The air is sucked out of my lungs as the accusation settles around me. I feel like I am going to pass out.

         How am I going to tell him that it is not a book club member? That I don’t even attend the book club meetings. That it is all a cover up for the person I am actually going out and seeing. How am I going to tell my brother that I am in love with a mafia boy?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I am so happy that I have finally gotten a chapter out! I am so sorry that it took so long! First was school, then I got motivation to work on other stories, and this just takes me a long time to type these up! I want to make it perfect, and I have to pack in so much. I really hope that you enjoyed, especially with that cliffhanger. Please, please, please, let me know what you thought. It really means a lot to hear your thoughts. And, I will try to get another chapter up soon! :D

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