#so I think they should be the inciting incident couple instead | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ribbononline · 3 years

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When the joke AU gets out of hand and now its like, a whole thing

SO uhm here is the post about the fake marriage on Pasio au! Where the whole fake marriage thing ended up becoming more of a B plot more then anything, oops. The premise kind of got lost on me as I went along.

First things first, here’s the information I gathered from the Hoenn timeline in Pokemas itself so yall know what im working with (and as a side note, if you have no idea about the basic story of Pokemon Masters, the rest of this entire post might be a little confusing);

-Brendan is Normans son, and May the daughter of professor Birch. Brendan has at least defeated Normans gym, and neither of them have met Aqua or Magma, nor Archie or Maxie.

-Magma and Aqua don’t seem to be publicly known as bad in any way.

-The meteor with Zinnia has already happened, and someone else took that destiny from her. (I’ll be honest- I never end up really explaining this here. I had no idea how to even begin making sense of this considering this is post game stuff and Brendan never even seems to have made it to the Elite Four as far as we know)

And with that ! Here’s the actual story I managed to make out of that.

-The backstories for Archie and Maxie are the same as they’d normally be. Things only get different once the ORAS plots would normally start.

Magma and Aqua both don’t commit crimes (such as orb or submarine stealing) with their uniforms on and under their team names. As such, they’re still seen as regular, legit environment organisations trying to better the region.

May and Brendan never get involved with them either. Between no meddling kids and their crimes not being tied back to them, things end up going pretty fast on their end.

-Their crimes aren’t connected nor is anyone looking into them as something bigger- right up until the orbs get stolen. Those are considered important enough artifacts to raise some attention, and so, Steven and Wallace brought on the case to investigate as the Hoenn champions.

-It’s a lot easier said then done, and while they start to suspect Aqua and Magma have something to do with it, they have no concrete proof. Still, they do their best to figure out if it’s them and what their intentions with it would be.

-Regrettably for them they are too slow. Maxie and Archie both make it to the sea cavern , and both raise their respective legendaries. Kyogre is there, Groudon is there, as a result even Rayquaza shows up. There’s a lot going on— and then, within a couple of minutes, there isn’t. All legendaries vanish into thin air, so fast that the population of Hoenn never even realised what was happening out on sea. Except for some unfortunate swimmers who never end up being believed.

Maxie and Archie feel devestated, and the Hoenn League who did notice what happened is very alarmed. Keeping the incident quiet as to not incite a panic, Steven and Wallace are pushed onto this case instead now- to locate the missing legendaries, and ensure they won’t cause any harm- and maybe figure out what caused them to awaken in the first place.

Wallace and Steven immediately link that to the orbs, and as such, Aqua and Magma. Still, they have no actual proof- no one outside their teams saw Archie or Maxie doing anything.

-The reason behind the sudden disappearances turns out to be Hoopa! Who brought all of them to Pasio. The legendaries immediately went from fighting mode into very confused mode. They don’t know where they are or what happened. Groudon ends up hiding in the volcano on the island, while Kyogre keeps to the bottom of the water surrounding the island. -Rayquaza however doesn’t hide itself- and instead, floats around on a mountain top on the island. Rumors start floating around about it, and before long Zinnia shows up and becomes a sync pair with it.

-Steven and Wallace hear Rayquaza is over in Pasio, and figure the other two might be as well- so they go over to investigate. They also talk some with Zinnia about Rayquaza, but since it appears to be fine and calm and Zinnia is not planning on giving it up, she ends up keeping it and they leave her be to search for Groudon and Kyogre instead.

-Magma and Aqua also catch wind of Rayquaza being over there, and even hear about some sightings of what appear to be Kyogre and Groudon around the island. Now the plan is to get over there and get them…. but the problem is that Steven and Wallace are both there, and they’re well aware those two suspect them- and that suddenly showing up for no reason would probably only worsen those suspicions. While the both of them have complete faith in their power as a team, they’d rather not pick a fight with two champions if they can avoid it- especially when they’re on an island full of other champions and elite four members who would probably back them up if asked.

-Going with their entire team would definitely be too suspicious. That’s out. Going with their admins might still be risky- Plus, they can’t exactly leave their teams unattended back in Hoenn. So, Maxie and Archie end up figuring that the best course of action would be for them to go alone, at least for the time being. Scout out if they can locate the legendaries and a way to get to them- and then call backup if needed.

…But if they both go alone at the same time and end up fighting each other while they’re there… it wouldn’t help their case.

-And so, after some thinking things over, Maxie ends up deciding it’d be best if they went together under a temporary truce. So off to Aqua to talk it over with Archie he goes! There, they come up with their plan; faking a marriage, and going to Pasio under the excuse of being on honeymoon. Steven and Wallace wouldn’t be expecting it, so maybe it’d throw them off track! And for the rest of the trainers on Pasio- well, who isn’t happy for a couple living their best life? With a little luck it’d immediately make people trust them a bit more.

-So to Pasio they go! Maxie takes Camerupt as his sync partner, Archie partners with his Sharpedo. They rent a little vacation home- for obvious reasons, they’ll have to live together for a while, but with a little luck they can just avoid each other most of the time. Besides, at least the ad specified there being two beds.

-They misread the ad. There’s one single two person bed. Archie is promptly demoted to sleeping on the couch.

In general, while they do well enough at faking being very affectionate and loving in front of people, the moment they’re back in their house it’s a lot of fighting.

-Steven and Wallace are not stupid, and are immediately wary when Maxie and Archie suddenly show up no matter how well they’re putting on an act. Still, there’s not a lot they can do except keep an eye on them and ensure they stay away from the areas Kyogre and Groudon are spotted.

-The rest of the island however thinks they’re nice! Look at the cute couple having fun. Good for them.

-Overall, while things are going decently okay for Archie and Maxie, Steven and Wallace constantly blocking off areas where they could gather intel and trailing their every move is really hindering their ability to be able to do much of anything. And so the four of them enter an awkward stand still, where neither can really get the other off the island.

-For a while, Maxie and Archie just try to put on the act as best as they can, to hopefully get Steven and Wallace to lower their guard. They go on ‚dates‘ together, hang out with the other people around the island, attend events together, etc. Steven and Wallace still don’t trust them for shit however, and end up pushing May and Brendan towards them in the hopes that they might be able to spot something off.

-Brendan and May have no idea what anyone is trying to do here, and actually really like Archie and Maxie. They help show them all there is on Pasio and introduce them to new people time and time again.

-Eventually, Maxie and Archie realise that this is going to take a lot longer then they were hoping for- between Steven and Wallace not budging, and the trainers on Pasio constantly keeping them busy- they’re going to need an excuse to keep staying here. And they don’t actually need to wait long! -While being a lot less aggressive and in people’s face about it, Archie still talks about the environmental impact the island has on the ocean around it a good bit to some of the other trainers there- he is leader of an environmental group focused on the sea back at home, after all! People actually start agreeing with him, to a point it even reaches Lear. Conceding something should be done, Sawyer starts working on putting a team together that would help undo the damage they’ve caused by making the oceans around the island more habitable for the Pokemon that were made homeless because of them. Archie is one of the first people to get asked to join the team- and having a job there makes a great excuse to stay a while longer. Besides, it’s still working towards his goal to some extent, so he’s down! -A bit after that Maxie ends up joining the team that made the island and is currently in charge of keeping it thriving. Same for him- the job still aligns with his ideals, so he doesn’t mind doing it.

-This was also the time Archie started having serious back pain from sleeping on the couch each night, so he took the bed as well. Maxie threatened to kick him out, Archie wished him luck with that and… well, they both just keep to their side of the bed now.

-Back at home, Magma and Aqua are being good legit environmental groups working within the law. It’s been gaining them a great reputation, and being fully legitimate and not having to fear getting charged for crimes is also very nice for the teens working as grunts there.

-And so back in Pasio, Maxie and Archie forcefully have to take a step back from their plans… to live relatively normal lives instead. Surprise surprise, it’s not actually that bad! They enjoy their jobs, they actually start making some friends, half the kids on the island seem to have adopted them as cool new uncles… and they even start fighting less in private! They can actually get along sometimes.

Eventually the realisation hits that they’re living out the lives they wanted- before they ever joined Rocket and everything went so terribly wrong. Except their marriage being ‚fake‘, this was more or less the future they envisioned… and it’s very weird to think about.

-For Maxie, he does get sad reminiscing, and reminisce he does- but as long as Archie keeps going , he’d never give up his plans. While originally raising Groudon was truly out of his ideals, over time (and when their original breakup happened) it became less about that- and more about ‚winning‘ - winning out over Archie, and proving to both himself and the other he’d been right all along. Even when the evidence started pointing towards that not being the case and Tabitha only agreeing this was a bad idea, he was so caught up in not being able to lose now he never backed down- and just reassured himself the science had to be wrong.

As long as Archie is going, so is he.

-Archie however…. Archie’s plans of flooding the world to reset it- undo the damage humanity caused by ending it entirely- were born out of feeling like there truly was no other option, truly was no other good left. Being focused on that goal every day, it wasn’t hard to stay in that mindset. But now, having to forcibly take a step back- suddenly getting to live a normal life again, with a way to help that doesn’t require death and a support system outside of Aqua… Suddenly the hope returns that maybe there is more out there- maybe there is another way to go about this.

And so, after a lot of thinking, and a lot of doubting every answer he came up with- finally he rang up Shelly and Matt to talk things over, and talk about leaving Kyogre be. Shelly was thrilled- at the end she didn’t trust his plans with Kyogre anymore anways and seeing Archie finally with agree with her on that was a big relief to her. Matt didn’t entirely understand, but Archie seemed happier with this idea, and Shelly definitely seemed happier with this idea- so he certainly didn’t mind.

Afterwards, Shelly ends up privately talking to Archie some more, where he confided a lot in her about stuff he never told her before. It was a lot to take in, and she definitely wasn’t happy about his plans having always been to more or less commit genocide on humanity without ever having told them- but at the end of the day, he’s still her friend, no damage has actually been done, and he’s finally talking to her about it so they can work it out. As such, with some help from her, Archie ends up going to therapy on the regular to help keep him in a better headset.

-After all of this, Archie pulls Maxie aside to let him know he’s giving up on Kyogre, and Maxie… just doesn’t know how to feel about it at all- doesn’t even know if he can trust him. He certainly wasn’t expecting this either way. For a while, Archie just goes about his day on Pasio, while Maxie went very very quiet, just watching him from a distance.

They both spend so much time on this- suddenly given up was something he never thought would be an option, and it’s a lot to process. Besides, Archie could be lying. ….But truthfully, he’s known the other way too long to believe that. Archie is serious about this, and it’s not particularly hard to tell.

So, after a lot of hemming and hawing, he too finally rings up Courtney and Tabitha and calls of their mission with Groudon.

Magma and Aqua are both just legit regular environmental organisations now.

-Now with that decision made, they end up talking a lot over between each other themselves. About their past, about their teams, and about what they want to do now. This is where they finally decide to actually give their relationship another chance as well. Not necessarily as a romantic relationship- thought not strictly as just friends either. They decide to just take it slow, see what they’re comfortable with, and see where it takes them from there.

(A lot of trainers in Pasio actually worry this is when they got into a fight- since they stop acting overly affectionate to put on an act, and instead get to have awkward conversations trying to rekindle their relationship. Everyone is so worried about what happened. Sorry guys, they’ll be okay)

-Though they fully intent on going back to Hoenn and their teams, they’re not in a hurry to leave and stick out their job contract which only were for about half a year total anyways. During this, even Steven and Wallace start noticing a change in them and finally lower their guard a bit. They never do end up attempting to get to the legendaries- they’re just enjoying their time here now.

-When they do finally get back to Hoenn, they merge the teams and help the land and the sea together now. Archie also ends up convincing Maxie to join him for therapy sometimes- even without them almost ending the world, they do still both have their things to work trough.

-Groudon and Kyogre just vibe on Pasio now. They let kids battle them for fun sometimes. They’re doing alright.

-Brendan and May end up visiting Archie and Maxie a lot! That’s their cool gay uncles now.

-Somewhere along the way, as time passes, they actually end up legitimising the marriage documents they faked at the very start. And they still return to Pasio from time to time to meet up with the friends they made there. :]

Apologies if any of this was messy or unclear! it was a lot to try and condense down into a single post and I did my best, but ykno. if there did appear to be smth missing feel free to shoot me a message or an ask orz also this is my second time writing this post- first time i made the stupid mistake of typing it up in browser. And after over an hour of typing this all up…. tumblr refreshed for no reason, and deleted all of it. so writing this all a second time has been even harder then the first. ;; it hurt so bad.

Also, I do have a lot of thoughts n ideas abt the actual relationships they end up having w other characters on the island, but I’m saving that for another post! With the premise of Pasio there’s just so much potential to stuff all these diff characters from diff games into a place togehter and i want to make the most of that- so its prolly gonna b another long post lmao. i wont make this one even longer then it already is, so diff post it is

just know that they did in fact once see Giovanni on the island, and they almost ended up throwing hands.

(bonus; the link to the page where I keep all my oras HC posts and comics sorted)

#oras #pokemon oras #magma leader maxie #team magma maxie #team aqua archie #aqua leader archie #hardenshipping #fuck man #i was done w the OG post at 3am #n i was gonna go to bed #then it self destructed #its 5am now. i hate it here #AT LEAST ITS DONE. HELP #welcome to the shitshow <3 where i write up a Lot #i hope this makes sense ! it took uh. too much time #n i cant wait to get to character interactions wwwww #i like how the premise was a fake marriage au for funni hijinks then it immediately became the B plot #i promise the funni hijinks exist. theyre just more minor n as such not included in full on writeup posts where i have to keep an entire #plot going lmao #ok i post this now before the site crashes again #also i meant to get done on the starting the teams main timeline hc post first but #brainwaves suddenly hit hard for this one KJHFDS #i was bored one day at work n the brain was like congrats. we r making this a serious au now #n i was like HUH

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lupinsx · 4 years

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Hopeless Romantics

masterlist

Request: Hello love! I loved petty rivals! Would you consider writing a second part?

Pairing: Draco Malfoy x Slytherin!Reader

Summary: After a near-death Quidditch incident, Draco becomes the target of some juvenile teasing, leaving the formerly unconscious Y/N terribly confused. (Sequel to Petty Rivals)

Word Count: 3.4k

Warnings: Brief usage of swear words.

part one

a/n — I'm so happy y'all enjoyed Petty Rivals enough to request a part two. I hope this gives the storyline enough justice. Make sure to read part one first! (link provided above)

tags: @bi-andready-tocry

——————————

Numb. That was all you felt as your eyes slowly crept open, adjusting to the harsh light.

You found yourself sitting on the uncomfortable hospital wing bed. Eyebrows furrowed in confusion, you attempted to bring to mind the string of events leading to your arrival here. The last thing you remembered was being in the middle of a Quidditch game, and the surge of determination as you reached for the Quaffle.

Ah, yes, I got hit by the Bludger, you recalled with a slight grimace.

With the intent to stretch out your sore limbs, you tried to sit up properly, only to be restricted from further movement. You felt something heavy on your abdomen, holding you down. Glancing towards your lower body, you nearly yelped at the sight.

There, laying on your stomach soundlessly, was a head of platinum blond hair. The very head of your notorious rival, Draco Malfoy.

You held back from making a commotion, knowing Madam Pomfrey or any of the others might rush to the scene. Instead, you kept quiet, wondering why in the hell would he be here. Draco was still clad in his emerald green uniform, meaning he stayed for the duration of time you were unconscious. Seeing how tired he was, asleep on the chair with his head on your stomach, you could assume it hasn't been a mere hour. You almost felt a little sorry.

With a tentative motion, you tapped his shoulder. "Uh, Draco?"

His body stirred gently and repositioned before falling back into a deep slumber, this time in a more uncomfortable position. His head was now facing you, body inched closer, and arms wrapped around your waist as his face laid comfortably over your abdomen. Your cheeks took on a cherry shade at the increased contact. Although you'd hate to admit it, seeing him peaceful without any discontent made your heart flutter ever so slightly.

No, you interrupted your thoughts, don't think that way about him. He's your enemy. With those words in mind, you proceeded to tap his shoulder again, this time a little more aggressively.

"Five more minutes," Draco croaked, his raspy morning voice sending shivers down your spine. Ignoring the sensation, you nudged his body impatiently. It was then when he finally opened his eyes.

"I said five more—" Upon sight of your unamused glare looking down on him, he immediately shot up, eyes wide as he got up from his chair.

Glancing at him suspiciously, you cocked an eyebrow at his behaviour. "What were you doing here?" you asked, desperate to know the answer before your delusional mind took over.

Draco diverted his gaze to the floor, rubbing the back of his neck uncomfortably as he scrambles to find a reasonable excuse. "Flint told me to stay here. As, uh... punishment! Yeah, a punishment."

Since when was he ever nervous around me? "Did he tell you to stay for the entire time?"

"Uh, yes—I mean, no, I just fell asleep on accident."

"Alright then," you mumbled awkwardly, playing with your fingers. You didn't know what else to say at the moment, and neither did he, judging by the way he still wouldn't make proper eye contact.

Clearing his throat, he hesitantly turned towards you. "Madam Pomfrey said you're free to go once you wake up. So, uh, I guess I'll head out now..."

And with that, he strode towards the door, leaving before you could even think to respond. While you got off the hospital bed and stretched your body, there was a nagging feeling you couldn't ignore, present ever since you caught sight of his heavy-eyed countenance on top of you.

Why is my heart beating this fast?

~~~

The next day, you were finally able to return to your classes. You felt bad when Madam Pomfrey told you it has been nearly two whole days before you woke up. Was Draco there for that long? You hoped this wouldn't end up being a ploy for him to acquire blackmail material. Strangely enough, you completely didn't doubt it.

Walking into the Grand Hall, you were met with the sight of an angry Draco speaking aggressively to the Slytherin table, only to receive puckish grins in response from them. Although the words were incoherent, you managed to catch one ominous line at the end.

"Don't speak of it to her."

It was at that moment when all eyes suddenly diverted to your frame. Draco sat back down upon noticing your presence, eating silently as he kept to himself.

"Hey Y/N!" Pansy shouted, patting the seat next to her for you to come to sit. "How's your head feeling?"

With a tired plop, you settled down and shoved a spoonful of eggs into your mouth. "Wonderful. Madam Pomfrey is a miracle worker."

As you spoke, you failed to notice the various teasing glances shot at the boy sitting across from you. But still, he merely kept his glance downwards, refusing to utter a word.

"How did it feel when you fell down?" Blaise asked, biting back his tongue in case a laugh threatens to emit. You paused your chewing, trying to recall the sensation.

"I don't remember. Right as I got hit I was knocked out, so the fall was mostly unconscious."

After sending conspicuous looks to each other, Pansy continued, "Do you recall, perhaps, hitting the ground at the end of the drop?"

"I don't think so?"

Before the pair can press further, a fist to the table interrupted them. With a murderous glare, Draco lifted his head and stared at the two Slytherins dead in the eye.

"Guys," he growled, earning nervous gulps from Blaise and Pansy, "cut it out. She fell, simple as that."

"Okay Drakey," Blaise muttered under his breath before him and Pansy burst into a fit of giggles. Rolling his eyes, Draco stormed off, presumably to head to class early. Although, the effort went in vain as the bell chimes shortly after his departure.

"You seriously don't remember anything after getting knocked out?" Pansy asked in a final attempt as you two stood up. You simply offered a shrug in response, wondering why they asked those questions when they saw everything. As you headed towards your class, a stubborn question remained in your head. Why did Draco storm off so angrily?

~~~

"Settle down, class, today we'll be learning about some more advanced potions."

There was a chorus of groans following Professor Snape's announcement—yours being particularly loud. You were always filled with worry whenever a potion of higher difficulty was to be attempted. To you, it was just another opportunity to make a fool out of yourself in front of your peers.

"Now, can anyone tell me what this potion is?" asked Snape, lifting the lid to reveal an intoxicating scent. Rather than eager hands shooting up, everyone slowly inched closer, desperate to get another whiff.

While you appeared to be in pure bliss, Draco took a couple of curious sniffs before leaning back in his seat with an expression of revulsion.

"Doesn't it smell wonderful?" Blaise sighed, addressing the moody boy by his left. Draco gave a slight scoff in response.

"Gross, no. It smells like whatever Y/N douses herself in every morning."

With a suspicious glance, Blaise sat back down. Soon, Professor Snape put the lid back on, and the rest of the students snapped out of their dreamy trance. It was then when Hermione raised her hand.

"Sir, it's Amortentia," she started, taking a small pause before continuing. "The most powerful love potion to exist. It causes the drinker to feel a powerful infatuation, and it smells different to each person, according to what attracts them."

Upon seeing the description confirmed with a nod from Snape, Draco's cheeks took on a prominent red shade. His friend had his mouth wide open, staring at the blond boy with a puckish sort of surprise.

"We do not speak of this," Draco muttered through gritted teeth. Blaise merely nodded in response, a teasing grin still visible on his face.

Before Snape could go on, a noisy Gryffindor spoke up from the corner, inciting a string of laughter with his comment.

"Malfoy, was that what possessed you to play Prince Charming out there? Or was it your own sheer will?"

It seemed it was only you left confused by the jibe. While you pondered over why Draco of all people was supposedly playing Prince Charming, the said boy glared at every giggling student. It was only until Professor Snape cleared his throat when the class went silent again.

"Today, we will be recreating this potion in groups of two. I'll allow you all to sort this amongst yourselves."

Thank god, you thought to yourself. The result was horrid last time you were forced into a pair with Draco. Looking towards your usual partner, Pansy, you frowned at the sight.

Pansy immediately went to Blaise, ignoring your curious gaze. Everybody had already gone with their usual picks in the class, leaving only Blaise's former partner alone with an angry expression.

Of fucking course, they left me with him.

Burrowing your head into your palms, you waited until a presence was felt next to you. Cautiously looking up, you were surprised with the sight of Draco's face merely inches away. He paused for a moment, staring deep into your irises before you broke the eye contact with an awkward cough to your left.

"So, uh, I guess we should start," Draco mumbled, pulling out his textbook and flipping to the instructions page. As you leaned in slightly to read the fine print, Draco found himself distracted by the smell of your hair.

It was the very same scent found earlier in the steam of Amortentia.

"Should I begin cutting the peppermint? Or do you think you're a better fit for the task?" you interrupted his thoughts with a faint snarl. His eyebrows furrowed at the comment before he remembered the events of the previous Potions class.

"Hey, I really am sorry—"

"Don't worry, you already apologized. I'm just being petty," you chuckled, patting his shoulder jokingly. However, Draco kept his gaze on you, staring with a solemn expression.

"It wasn't a proper apology if I acted like a git afterward. What I said was uncalled for, and frankly, I was just being jealous."

"You? Jealous? Very funny, Draco, but you don't have to lie to make me feel better," you sighed with a bitter smile, but he was quick to shake his head.

"I mean it!" he piped up, rubbing his neck with that same awkward look from the hospital wing. "You are absolutely brilliant at everything else. I guess it made me prideful to be more adept in this one class."

You stared at him with an unreadable expression. He paused, assuming you were weirded out by his words and thus went back to focusing on the textbook. Meanwhile, you felt a growing admiration for the boy.

"How about you cut the peppermint?" Draco said, offering a gentle smile.

"You're not afraid I'll mess it up?"

"You won't. I'll teach you how to do it."

The whole rivalry was momentarily forgotten as Draco guides your hands in cutting peppermint, spending the rest of the time in class with airy giggles and crimson cheeks.

~~~

Later that day, you decided to get some fresh air, opting to practice Quidditch for a while to clear your head. The entire day has been very puzzling to you. With Pansy and Blaise's strange questioning, Draco's odd behaviour, and the teasing comments suddenly directed towards him. You felt out of the loop, confused with everything despite only being gone for three days.

Something had to have happened while you were gone, and you were determined to find out. After blowing off some steam with your trusty broomstick, of course.

However, you were quick to realize you weren't the sole Slytherin there when a voice speaks up from behind you.

"Oh, Y/N? You've awoken?" said Marcus Flint, walking down the stands to approach your figure by the railing.

"Yeah, just yesterday. I came to catch up on the practice."

"Cool. How are you feeling?" he asked, briefly scanning your body only to find no visible bruises. You sent him a thumbs up in response, earning a sigh of relief from the Slytherin team captain.

"Ah, this could have been a lot worst. Thank god we still have one of our best Chasers."

You paused, eyes squinting as you let out a small chuckle. "What do you mean it could have been worst?"

"It was bad enough you got knocked out by a Bludger, but at least you never hit the ground. That would have been deadly," Flint explained with a playful tone. You simply stood in front of him with more confusion.

"How did I not hit the ground?"

"Wait, you don't remember?" he asked, emitting a loud chortle. "Oh god, it was the funniest thing ever! Draco flew past us so quickly just to catch you."

You found yourself taking on a red shade as you hear his words. Ignoring the burning sensation, you pressed further. "Draco caught me?"

"Yeah. Held you bridal-style and everything. Quite a charming fellow, isn't he?"

Failing to notice your wide-eyed expression, Flint continued with an amused tone. "Even after Madam Pomfrey arrived, he still wouldn't let go. Carried you to the hospital wing himself even though I told him to get back into the game. Poor boy even slept there."

At that point, your frame was motionless as you stared off into the distance. You had trouble grasping his words, believing what he says was really the truth, but his explanation seems to justify the teasing and odd looks from the morning.

As if a lightbulb went off in his head, Marcus Flint piped up once more with a sly grin. "I think Malfoy has a not-so-little crush on you."

"W-what?" you snapped out of your trance with a defensive look. "Draco doesn't like me!"

"Yeah, definitely, he only refused to leave your unconscious side because he sees you as a friend. His uncontrollable need to hold you was certainly platonic."

With a scowl on your face, you grabbed your broomstick while slinging your bag over your shoulder. "I need to talk to him," you mumbled under your breath, storming off with determined strides.

You wanted answers. You needed answers. Because why in the hell would Draco care that much? He's never expressed the slightest bit of concern for you, so what's with the sudden change in behaviour?

He even had the nerve to lie and say Flint made him stay with you at the hospital wing.

You entered the castle with a glare capable to kill. Marching through the corridors, you made your way to the dungeons in record time.

"Draco Malfoy!" you shouted upon entering the portrait hole. A small crowd of onlookers formed at the sight of your furious arrival, though most lingering students seemed to file out instantaneously.

Scanning the common room with narrowed eyes, your eyes landed on the couches where a group of fifth years laid. Amongst them was Draco, sitting nonchalantly as if your call was left unheard.

Striding over there, you stood in front of the blond boy, arms lazily crossed. With an unreadable expression, Draco mumbled teasingly, "Yes?"

"Come with me, now."

"I don't know, I got quite comfortable here," he remarked with his usual smirk painting his face. You rolled your eyes, deciding on resorting to physical means rather than verbal negotiation.

Without further consideration, you grabbed Draco's arm and yanked him up. His eyes widened at the action, and before he could protest against the forcefulness, you dragged him out of the portrait hole and into the hallway.

"Where are you taking me?" he groaned as you pull him by the wrist towards the nearest exit. Once located, you yanked harder as you turned your direction. It was only when you two finally touched the grass that his wrist was released from your grip.

"What the hell Y/N?"

Instead of replying to his angry self, you stared at him, eyes holding a mixture of confusion and anger. "Why did you lie to me?"

"Lie?" Draco asked, his expression morphing into one of nervousness. "W-what do you mean lie?"

"You told me Flint made you stay at the hospital wing. As a punishment, remember?"

It was then when the colour drained from Draco's face. His lips parted slightly, shock evident in his widened eyes. With a tentative pause, he stammered, "He told you everything... didn't he?"

"Yeah, he did. Were you planning to stop being a coward and tell me, or keep quiet about it forever?"

It seemed as though your comment got to Draco since his anxious demeanour turned angry in nearly an instant. Stepping closer in an intimidating manner, he snapped, "Well what did you expect me to do?"

His fuming expression told you it wasn't a question needing an answer. Instead, you stayed still in anticipation of his next words.

"What the hell did you expect me to do? Watch as you fall to your death? Get back into the game after my heart gets physically ripped from my chest?"

There was a pause in his speech, where he scanned your face for traces of emotions within them. Then, he took your silence as permission to continue.

"I almost thought I lost you! I thought you were going to fucking die out there. So yeah, I apologize for not telling you how afraid I was. For not explaining how goddamn desperate I was to see you awake and healthy again that I'd stay in the hospital wing for days with no hesitation."

Draco's voice was rising with every syllable, to the point where he shouted this last statement. "Don't you get it? I'd do anything for you.

"Heck, I'm in love with you!"

It was then when his angry countenance wavered, and Draco repeated in a softer tone. "I'm so hopelessly in love with you, Y/N. I always have been."

Your stillness remained throughout his rant, though your face altered with shock and confusion upon his confession. He's in love with you. The notorious Draco Malfoy has admitted to being in love with you. You didn't know how to respond, but one thing kept repeating in your head; you most certainly felt the same way.

"Now, I don't expect my feelings to be reciprocated—" Draco was promptly cut off by you crashing into his arms, holding his frame tightly in a hug.

"But they are. Draco, I love you too," you replied, voice muffled by his chest. Although his face wasn't visible, you could practically feel the warmth of his smile radiating as he hesitantly wraps his arms around you.

However, before much time could be spent enjoying each other's embrace, a shout from the distance pulled you two out of your dreamlike trance.

"Ask her out already!"

Heads whipping to the side, the majority of the Slytherin fifth year population was made visible in their position by the entryway. As you two glared at the pesky onlookers, Blaise and Pansy held a sheepish grin in front of the crowd.

Rolling his eyes, Draco turned his attention back to you shortly after sending a less-than-friendly hand gesture towards them. "You know, I think I do have something to ask you."

"And what might that be?"

"Would you, Y/N L/N, do me the honour of accompanying me to Hogsmede next Saturday?"

"Of course, Draco Malfoy," you drawled through widened lips. The smile painting your face soon became replicated onto his as he became giddy at your reply, though quickly afterward, he went back to his usual stoicism. It was a poor attempt overall to hide his excitement.

Ignoring the loud cheers coming from not too far away, Draco kept his eyes locked on yours, the silence between you two broken when he mumbled, "I'll meet you by the portrait hall at 10. See you later?"

"Yeah, I'll see you later." Draco then took his exit, but not before landing a small peck on your forehead and turning away before his cheeks went visibly red.

As a small grin took over your expression, you stared at the retreating figure of Draco Malfoy. You couldn't help but think about how he used to be a mere petty rival. Now, he's the one person running through your mind at every waking moment, the one who turns you into a hopeless romantic.

And you wouldn't want it any other way.

——————————

a/n — Ah, this was definitely a fun one-shot to make. I love writing about a flustered/angry Draco! Please like, comment, and reblog to show support. Feel free to submit requests in my inbox or let me know how I did with this one. 💘

#harry potter fanfiction #harry potter one shot #my prompts #writing #draco malfoy #draco malfoy imagines #draco fanfiction #draco malfoy one shot #draco malfoy x reader #draco one shot #draco malfoy fanfiction #draco x reader imagines #draco x reader #draco imagines #harry potter

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im-like-if-a-girl · 3 years

Text

*THE* mean-girl-dean-girl's Supernatural reboot MEGAPOST!

I'm gonna stick a little "keeping reading" here because hoooooo boy, this is a very long post.

Let's start with

Plot

Season 1

Dean kills John while they are out on a hunt in a crime of passion, but Dean doesn't remember because he blacked out. Cue Dean going to Stanford to get Sam and tell him "Dad's on a hunting trip... and he hasn't been home in a couple days."

The audience doesn't know what happened to John, but slowly figures it out with Dean and Sam as Dean slowly remembers what happened that night.

The entire first season, the boys are following the trail John left and fighting monsters as well. They find out Dean was with John, Sam realizes Dean has an unreliable memory, they have heart to hearts about their childhood and the fire, they find John's body, "how could you kill Dad?" but maybe Dean didn't kill dad, whooaaaaaa, misdirection.

It was actually good ole yeller eyes (Azazel) and he made it look like Dean killed John.

Okay, now let's move on to the first episode

Not sure how the opening would work, I would like the story of the fire to be revealed over the course of the first season, but maybe the opening scene could be a little bit of an establishing character relationships and backstory, idk, I haven't thought that far yet.

I'm thinking maybe it's like, Dean gets back to a motel room covered in blood and he listens to a voicemail on his phone from John saying he was on a hunt or something, I don't really know lol.

HOWEVER

I do know that after the intro rolls, we get a scene of Sam waking up to his alarm and "Nine to Five" by Dolly Parton starts playing.

Y'all know where this is going.

Cue a montage of Sam's normal Stanford college life (him sitting through lectures, walking through the campus with friends) spliced with scenes of Dean absolutely slaughtering a nest of vampires (or some other monsters, whatever works best.)

But

Now onto

Characters!!! (And descriptions)

Dean Winchester

Some lovely person on this site made edits of Dean with platinum blond hair and it made me feel some kind of way so we're doing that, homie's gonna have platinum blond hair

Side note about the hair, later when the brothers are running from the FBI he dyes it a dirty blond/light brown (insert jackles hair color controversy here) as a disguise.

He also gets tattoos because we were robbed.

Speaking of tattoos, concept: when Dean comes back from Hell, all of his tattoos are gone. His body is a clean slate, devoid of tattoos, scars, etc. So he gets his tattoos done all over again, which he doesn't mind because he made some bad, drunk tattoo decisions in his youth.

(And before you ask, yes, he does get one for Cas, either a bee or Cas's name in enochian, something cute.)

Dean goes to therapy after Sam gets sent to the Cage.

It's actually court mandated because he got in trouble, lol, he would never go to therapy on his own.

Along with the hair, Dean gets to be the grade A twunk we all know he is.

Sam Winchester

His hair gets longer in every scene he's in

No jk, but imagine

King of Microaggressions

Sam starts off like the sweetheart he is in season 1 but in later seasons he starts enjoying killing a little too much...

It's that demon blood, ba-by!!!

He brings up issues of morality to Dean, i.e. killing monsters who aren't hurting anyone. (Yes I know this is contradictory to my previous statement, but these two facets of Sam can and will coexist.)

Sam and Jess's relationship is explored further, meaning we'll need to start with a different inciting incident, but that's fine, I think everyone can agree fridgings are *(thumbs down)*

Sam doesn't truly know what happened the night of the fire until later, and then he understands why Dean is so protective of him.

Jess

She gets to live beyond the first episode

She is also trans

No, I don't feel like I have to explain myself and I won't 💜

She urges Sam to join Dean in a search for their brother, kind of gets pulled into the hunter lifestyle by association lol.

She dies on a rusty nail after fighting vampires on a routine hunt with Sam

No jk!!!

But imagine....

She's amazing and I love her and Lucifer also uses her as leverage against Sam and possesses her because I think that'd be cool.

She supports Sam 100% and also she and Dean are buddies, pals if you will.

She meets Cas Thee El and immediately she Knows, that is a homosexual.

She dies still so that we can have a Saileen Endgame but she's not dying the first episode or in a fridging. Not on my watch.

Castiel

He gets to keep his raw, light-fixture-exploding power.

I want more of that "I pulled you out of hell, I can throw you back in" energy except over dumb shit like Dean not cleaning up after himself.

He looks like a Dilf in every scene he's in, yeah, that's right, dilf with a capital D for *(GUNSHOTS)* *(gets sent to horny jail)*

Claire

She gets pink hair

And more time with Cas

And maybe a nose piercing

Feel like she should be able to kill a couple angels onscreen, punch a couple homophobes

She gets to meet Jack and teaches him swears and fun slang words.

She deserves it.

Jack

I says "that's my baby and I'm proud."

Jack starts off as a baby, but like Amara he grows up super quickly.

Like, baby to 11 year old in a couple days or less.

This is because Jack's emotional age on the show is on par with that of a 5th grader.

It's at this point when he's a young kid that he runs away from the Bunker and shenanigans ensue.

It's also at this point that Dean threatens to k*ll him.

(Still not sure if I want that in my Supernatural (threatened infanticide? In my Supernatural? It's more likely than you think) but we'll see. We'll see.)

Throughout a majority of season 13, Jack is like an 11 y.o. kid

Season 14 he's like a 16 y.o. teenager

Season 15 he's 21, you get the picture.

Listen, I love Alex Calvert a lot. He's great.

But Jack is a child and should be a child.

Kelly Kline

Kelly, baby, stay right where you are, you're perfect.

Eileen

SHE DOESN'T DIE

SHE GETS TO BE IN THE FINALE BECAUSE SHE'S AMAZING AND I LOVE HER.

BLURRY WIFE WHO? I ONLY KNOW SAILEEN ENDGAME!

She teaches Claire and Jack swears in sign-language. Castiel is not impressed.

John

J*hn W*nchester stans, DNI.

He's dead.

We only see him in flashbacks and only sometimes hear his voice in voice overs.

He's not "down the road" from Dean in Heaven, in fact he instead gets to wander around in some Purgatory like Hell for the rest of his time :)

People who get to say "fuck" on the show:

Cas (but only Once)

Jody

Bobby

Now onto other things

I want more of

Ghostfacers

(they need more screentime because I love them)

Dean/Benny

We know they had a thing.

They definitely had a thing.

Demon Dean

Again, I feel like more should've been done with this. All that build up for what, 2 episodes? was not utilized well at all.

Dean's Bisexuality

Straight Dean truthers DNI, my Supernatural is a show about love and being true to yourself

You think Supernatural is a show about 2 straight brothers fighting monsters?

Naw bitch, this is a show about the Gay Experience

He will get to have relations with men on this show.

Of course, only after John dies does he, y'know, display it. Maybe he kisses Cas on his dad's grave just to fuck John over, make him roll in grave.

We all agree John would be/is a homophobe piece of shit, right?

Okay, glad we're on the same page.

Dads

3 men and a baby with Jack is what I'm saying.

I love it when the Trio are father-figures to younger troubled characters they see themselves in, even better if it's like reluctant-but-loving father figure, oh, that trope gets me every time :'^)

Dadstiel and DadDean are my favorites, but I like it when Sam plays "Uncle Sam" to kids too lol.

"Fellas, is it gay to want a tight knit family with your husband, his son, his vessel's daughter, your brother, his wife, your cop mother figure and her wife and their adopted daughters? Asking for a friend."

Garth

Biggest flaw of Supernatural was underutilizing Garth.

I will never not be bitter that Garth was only in like, 7 episodes out of the whole 15 season series.

Every episode with Garth gets immediately 5 times better.

I love Garth.

Follow ups on characters who had entire episodes featured around them and then just... vanished???

This is mostly about Jesse, the magic kid whose imagination ruled an entire town like, his daddy was a demon and nothing came of that kid??? Only one episode about him?? No follow up???

KID CAN MANIPULATE REALITY AND WE'RE NOT GONNA GET A FOLLOW UP ON THAT?????

Uh, there was that one episode with Ennis the guy whose girlfriend was killed by a monster? I think?? Who we never see again, that was weird.

Tamara from season 3, episode 1.

And of course-

Cassie

She was so cool, and then we never saw her again :////

She gets to be a badass.

Religious imagery

As a former Catholic school student who has become for the most part, disillusioned with religion, religious imagery in TV shows like Supernatural make my brain go "brrrrrr."

Fun episodes!!!

Like, after season 6 or so, there's a drop in funny episodes

I'm talking Changing Channels, The French Mistake type stuff. (Scoobynatural is an outlier and should not be counted.)

So anyway

In my version we would have more fun episodes

I'm thinking

GENDER-SWAP EPISODE, BABY!!

(why they didn't do that in the original, we'll never know.)

An episode where Dean gets to wear eyeliner

That's it, end of post.

I want less

Racism

Yeah I feel like this is self explanatory, nearly every reoccurring character in SPN is white, and black side characters normally die in the episode they first appear in, or they'll be featured as a villain (Uriel, Raphael, Billie, etc)

Also there's a lot of... uh... asian fetishism featured in the show (what with "Busty Asian Beauties) that's really gross, also Kevin was a bit of a stereotype...

Also also it's super yucky how they kill the gods from other religions like???? Uh??? That's super disrespectful, let's not do that????

I know Supernatural is like, inherently racist because monsters are a separate race that are seen as some dangerous "other" that must be eradicated by hunters in a form of genocide-

Okay we won't get into that but

Still

Stop killing all your POC

Fridgings/Unecessary murders of female characters

I know Supernatural starts with a fridging, so this will be a hard thing to remedy, but

One death that really pissed me off was the death of Charlie

Yeah, that was pointless and we're not doing that. Charlie gets to live and be an awesome aunt to Jack.

And also Claire

Charlie Bradbury Superiority

Charlie and Garth get to meet because they're nerd/geek solidarity.

British Men of Letters

I fucking hate these guys

They're "litcherally" the worst.

The worst part is that the actors they have playing the British AREN'T. EVEN. BRITISH.

And you can tell

Uh, and that's all for now, I'll add more later.

tag list for people who liked my "if this post gets one like I'll post my SPN reboot masterpost" post.

@darianyunidi @sarasidlesaid @crazybananaalpaca @playfulpanthress @ultfreakme @fififeelsmellow @heller-char @luna8eaton @princessmeganfire @insanebot109 @queenofnightsnow @mongoose-underthehouse

Thank you for the support, hope the wait was worth it.

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technospotatoes · 3 years

Text

C!SAM - Redeemable Qualities Analysis (Dream SMP)

Hallo! I’m back with another brain rot post for ya’ll instead of doing my schoolwork :]

Recently, I’ve been doing some thinking and theorizing with some friends on discord following Quackity’s huge lore stream (if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend you watch it). I woke up this morning with a head full of many thoughts about C!Awesamdude and where his story could take us. Seeing as how there is going to be lots of change in the future with the server, there must be changes in these characters as well-- evil to good, good to evil, and the like. With these changes comes my thought: “can these characters be redeemed?” Here are my thoughts on how this applies to C!Sam.

Please let me know your thoughts and theories, I’d love to discuss with you! As always, strap in, it’s gonna be a long one :]

I hope you enjoy!

Author’s note: I want to start this off by saying that all of the contents being discussed are fictional, and are from the Dream SMP universe. I do not support the actions of these characters, but merely have interest in analyzing them through a lens of psychology and for entertainment purposes. Content of this post will contain spoilers up to 3/25/21 of the DSMP lore. I will also talk about ATLA a little bit ;)

Content warning: mentions of torture, manipulation, death, possible psychological trauma

(pls be safe ily)

What makes a redeemable character?

Redeemable characters are some of the most pleasing and favored characters in modern media. Their stories are rich with emotion, and they can even evoke some form of catharsis within the most skeptic consumers. Redeemable characters are memorable and inspiring, and without one, a story can feel empty. Before we apply this character trope to the Dream SMP and C!Sam, we need to answer a basic question in order to fully understand the complexity of redeemable characters and how they are so universally significant.

What is a redeemable character?

Simply put, a redeeming character or characteristic counteracts or corrects something negative. From a storytelling standpoint, a redeemable character is someone who has roots in good qualities, turns bad, and has the ability to revert their wrong choices to become a better person.

Examples of redeemed characters in popular media include:

Zuko - Avatar the Last Airbender

Boromir - Lord of the Rings

Kylo Ren - Star Wars

Severus Snape - Harry Potter

Zuko, for example, starts his story off as the villain. He tirelessly hunts down the protagonist, and will stop at nothing to achieve his goal to please his father. However, as the show progresses, we learn that Zuko wasn’t always bad. He was only driven to his path of villainy because of his fear of failure, of his father (the firelord and true antagonist of the show), and of a greater punishment than what he had already received. With the help of his uncle, Zuko learned to push through and accept his past, while also making amends with his wrongs and coming to the realization of who the true enemy was; ultimately choosing peace and unity over destruction and fear. Zuko’s story is so appealing because it was drawn out. It was raw, it was real, and it was a genuine telling of how damaged people can heal, change, and come to accept themselves. Because he went through the process of redemption, he was not only able to be loved by those around him, but also by his audience-- And I believe that this can be the same case with any redeemable character.

So how does this relate to C!Sam? How could he possibly be redeemable if he is not evil?

C!Sam has become increasingly interesting to me in the DSMP lore, and he has shown how complex his character is-- in contrast to many first impressions that people have of him. Based upon his actions from the past, and his willingness to remain neutral in times of conflict, we can conclude that he sustains both “neutral good” and “lawful neutral/good” qualities. This means that Sam is a reliable character, driven by his own personal values, and is devoted to helping others (when he sees fit). Evidence of these qualities emerge…

When he sided with Pogtopia during the Manberg War to maintain good relations with Tommy and Tubbo.

When he saved Hannah from the Egg

Created Sam Nook to assist Tommy in building his hotel

Built Pandora’s Vault for Dream

Showed concern for Ranboo after one of his denied prison visits

Sam’s moral code is deeply rooted with good intentions; he keeps an eye out for his friends, maintains his relationships, assists in builds/projects, and also serves as a “stable adult figure” for some of the younger members of the server. In contrast to his logical outward appearance, C!Sam lets his emotions drive his decision making-- which can lead to many severe consequences depending on how he acts. However, recently Sam’s actions indicate that he is experiencing a flip in morals.

Below are incidents that have led to C!Sam’s recent change in moral code.

Incident 1: Trapped with the Egg

Many weeks ago, during the height of character involvement with the Egg lore, C!Sam was lured into a trap by BBH and Antfrost. He spent about a day trapped in close contact with the Egg, and after he was saved by Puffy and Tommy, he was clearly changed. It is likely that the Egg is behind these sudden changes in character motivation for Sam… similarly to how it corrupted BBH, Ant, and Punz. Whether this is the case with Sam is unclear.

Incident 2: Tommy’s death

C!Sam and C!Tommy’s relationship within the DSMP lore is one of my favorite things to talk about. After his victory over the disk war and finally landing his nemesis in prison, Tommy was left empty, without much to do. He decided to take upon a new project to incite a new era of peace, and was able to enlist the help of Sam with building his hotel. Throughout this process (and under the watchful eye of Sam Nook), Tommy and Sam were able to develop a bond with each other through their work, along with their interactions at the Prison.

Sam has made it clear that he intends to defend Tommy no matter what-- but after his untimely death at the hands of C!Dream, Sam was deeply wounded. He felt as if he failed his promise to keep Tommy safe, and he made it clear that the blame for the “security issue” and C!Tommy’s death should be placed fully on him. No matter how selfless and responsible this makes his character appear, this event will only serve as the basis for severe consequences in moral change in the future.

Incident 3: Confrontation with Quackity

Following the large emotional impact of Tommy’s death, C!Sam is very vulnerable, because he is still within the stages of grief. C!Quackity came to Sam for a partnership, to take advantage of Sam while he was low to gain the upper hand. It’s no question that Q’s character is a talented manipulator, we can see that clearly in his interaction with Sam. Q restates again and again that Sam failed, further cementing Sam’s existing guilt and desire for revenge for his failure. Sam gives in to the manipulation, and somewhat reluctantly allows Quackity to torture Dream to get information and to get payback for what he did to Tommy... which completely goes against what his responsibility of Warden entails.

As Warden, C!Sam is supposed to uphold the law and rules of visitation, but because of his leniency with Quackity (in breaking the rules) and because he is still emotionally raw, he no longer defends good from evil, but is now biased against it. C!Sam probably wants Dream dead, but as Warden, his opinion shouldn’t matter. Because Sam fully blames himself for failing Tommy, he's lost the "lawful good" in his character, meaning Warden Sam (as a set of morals) truly doesn't exist anymore.

Incident 4: Ponk’s mistake

To recap a stream briefly, Ponk did a prank on Sam a couple days ago, and stole a few of the expired keycards to Pandora’s Vault. Rightfully, Sam was very angry, and not only took back the keycards, but also imprisoned Ponk. However, where this interaction should have ended, C!Sam only took it to the extreme. (TW!!!!) Out of anger and frustration, C!Sam tortured Ponk for his wrongdoing by setting him on fire, and amputating his arm (END TW!!!).

This only proves my point from Incident 3. Warden Sam is fading, only bits and pieces of his morally neutral character remain within him for basic tasks. His encounter with Quackity had a huge impact on his psyche, not only is he allowing the torture of the prison occupants, but he is doing it himself as well. C!Sam is now starting to believe that pain and torture are the only solutions for punishment, which is the complete opposite of what he believed before Dream was imprisoned.

In short...

C!Sam is losing his grip on moral and mental stability because of his emotional insecurity due to his psychological trauma. Because of this, I believe that it is entirely possible for Sam’s character to explore the route of evil and unlawful values-- which furthers the possibility for a redemption arc. Even currently, Sam is eligible for redemption as well.

If C!Sam is willing to acknowledge his wrongs from today and improve himself upon them, he will likely become a more memorable, lovable, and even more human character than we’ve seen in the SMP before.

SIDENOTE!

IRL Sam recently posted in his discord talking about his character. Here are a few key things to keep in mind as the story goes forward:

“There is a LOT of things in the plan for me as a character and a very big change is coming about for me as the story moves along.”

I believe this change could be a villain arc, or a turn towards evil that incites the possibility for redemption.

“My character is playing a role that I think is VITAL for the server and a role that I like to think was a good one for me to pick up and accept.”

You can read the reddit post I referenced for this here (ty to my friend on discord for providing me with the link <3)

TYSM FOR READING!! <3 <3 <3

#dreamsmp #awesamdude #ponk #tommyinnit #tubbo #mcyt #captainpuffy #dsmplore #dream smp lore #dream #dream smp analysis #QUACKITY #my work

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thatscarletflycatcher · 3 years

Text

I watched Wuthering Heights (2009)

Disclaimer: I haven't read the novel, I'm going to talk of the series and of the story as it is portrayed there.

Assorted thoughts:

- Tom Hardy carried this adaptation on his back, 10/10. Heathcliff comes across as intelligent, passionate, bitter, dangerous, and all around unhinged.

- The rest of the cast I found to be good, except Catherine Linton, who in the first part was a little painful to watch. Her likeness with Linton Heathcliff, though, was scary, and both really do look like the actors that played Edgar and Isabella. So, all in all, kudos to the casting department, I think.

- It is a bit complicated trying to understand who is who at first, the way the story begins in media res, and I think some things would have been more significant if, for example, we knew Edgar beforehand, instead of just being dropped at the scene where he takes Linton to Wuthering Heights and we have no clue who these people are or how are they related (specially considering that, once you get the gist of the story, they are all very tightly related).

- In that sense I also think there are small gaps in the story that obscure the characters and their development. The last we see of Isabella is her begging Edgar to help her, and then jump to sick older Linton, and I think to actually make a picture of the three, Edgar, Linton and Catherine Linton, you need to know more about what happened in between.

- I knew going in that I was very likely to dislike Cathy and Heathcliff and like whoever was the third, but I have to say that even if that was true, I was interested in seeing what was going to happen in the story.

- I really liked the concept of how every unmerciful deed runs back to bite you. Earnshaw whips Heathcliff, his wife dies. Heathcliff and Cathy making fun of Edgar ends with Cathy injured and the inciting incident of her marriage to Edgar. Edgar's refusal to rescue Isabella seems to be the main cause, down the line, of the kidnapping of Cathy. Heathcliff's revenge ends up being his undoing, bringing actual healing and triumph in the descendants of Cathy, Edgar and Earnshaw.

- The costumes were nothing to write home about, but they were generally better than I expected (which could be my thoughts on the adaptation overall). However, Cathy's wild child outfits could easily be found in a sewing magazine circa 2003.

- The OST was... strange.

- Cathy and Edgar's wedding was more beautiful than it had any right to be XD

- I understand the sex scene between Isabella and Heathcliff making narrative sense, but the ones between Heathcliff and Cathy and Edgar and Cathy... not so much. The first one makes little sense. In one hand because said, like, a couple scenes before, that her reputation is important, second, because Heathcliff had just being flogged, and I cannot imagine someone having any energy or desire to have sex right after that. The second one... I mean, we know they did it, we have known it since Catherine Linton was properly introduced. And I don't think this series really could afford the luxury of filler scenes.

- A lot of the dialogue sounded very modern, and I have the suspicion that took a lot from the overall mood and feel the adaptation seemed to should have had.

Bottom line: it was a generally enjoyable piece of media, but wouldn't revisit it.

#Wuthering Heights 2009

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stellarstarwarsimagines · 4 years

Text

Lie For Me

Pairing - Modern!Ben Solo x Reader

Summary - Ben Solo’s relationship with you has never been great. Something about the two of you didn’t mesh well. Now though, Ben needs someone to pretend to be his girlfriend at a party where a major job opportunity for you will be. Is having to put up with him all night worth it?

Word Count - 6,791 (Once again, this was supposed to be a drabble)

Warnings - Language (P.S. if you guys want more of this let me know. I have ideas)

“Place your bets!”

“One hour!”

“Ten minutes!”

“I’m going for an hour and a half.”

“You guys are terrible. I’m betting on the whole night.”

You scowled at the people you were supposed to call your friends. “Thank you Rose, for being the only one with faith in me.”

“You’re welcome,” she replied, turning to everyone else in the car, “and the rest of you should be ashamed of yourselves.”

“Hey, we have faith in you.” Poe spoke up from the front seat. “We just don’t have faith in the two of you together.”

Almost as if there had been some unspoken signal between you and the man sitting beside you, you both turned to each other at the same time, matching looks of displeasure on your faces.

“Come on guys, can’t you see how in love they are?” Rey asked, unable to hold back her giggles.

With a flick of your thumb you hit your best friend in the back of the head with the gum wrapper you had used.

“Oh, that is so gross,” She gasped in outrage, throwing it back at you.

You ducked in time for it to hit the window, bounce off, and hit Ben in the shoulder. The look on his face had you biting your lip so you didn’t laugh out loud. “You’re not going to do that tonight are you?” He asked, picking up the gum like it was an annoying bug that had flown onto his shirt and tossing it in the cupholder beside him.

“So what if I am?” You crossed your arms over your chest, your eyes narrowing at him. “You could stand to loosen up a bit, Solo.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be making a good impression? Not acting like a child.” He replied, his fingers tapping his thighs.

That stung a little.

“Oh, come on Ben, you know Han’s going to love her.” Poe spoke up from the front.

“That’s not a high praise.” Ben replied, rolling his eyes as his gaze turned back to the window, watching as the group approached the museum.

You stuck your tongue out at him.

To this day, you still weren’t sure what the inciting incident had been that triggered the dislike between Ben Solo and you. From the moment Rey had introduced the two of you, there seemed to be a tension between you and Ben. It might’ve been because both of you considered her your best friend, the fact that the two of you had very different views on about everything, or according to your friends, the stubbornness that you both exhibited. Either way, no matter what you said about having faith, the evening was going to be a struggle. Why?

Because you had to pretend to be dating each other.

The idea had started as a joke. Or at least that’s what you thought when Ben Solo had come knocking on your door, but it became clear from the uncomfortable look on his face that it wasn’t. Apparently his parents had become very concerned about his bachelorhood while he overworked himself, and because of that, had been setting him up with woman after woman, much to his dismay. He wanted them off his back, and there was only one way to do that. Considering other than Rey, you were the only single woman he knew, the choice was obvious.

You had almost shut the door in his face then before he told you where you would be going. This was your chance. A chance you had been waiting years for to put yourself out there and get noticed by the right people. After chasing your dreams for so long, you couldn’t in good conscience turn it down. Even if it meant being stuck by Ben Solo’s side all night.

Besides, all of your friends would be going and there was free food with an open bar.

“Here we are!” Poe announced, sounding far too excited as he almost hopped out of the driver’s seat.

A little sigh left your lips, and you heard a matching one from beside you. “Let’s get this over with.”

“Try not to sound so enthusiastic, honey.” You said in the sweetest tone you could muster, a fake smile on your face.

Ben had started to climb out of the car, difficult due to his extreme tallness, but at your words he turned back around, pointing his finger. “We’re not doing nicknames.”

“But nicknames are essential to the plot, darling.” You said. Honestly, you loved riling him up. It was way too easy and too much fun.

He glowered at you. “You’re infuriating.”

You put your hands on his broad shoulders, shoving him out of the way as you climbed out of the car. “Sorry I’m not such a ray of sunshine like you.” You snapped.

Ben opened his mouth, no doubt ready to get into the usual argument when Finn yelled out, “hey Han and Leia!”

It was like he flipped a switch. You were startled when Ben slipped his arm around your waist, tucking you close to his side as he turned in the direction that Finn was looking, the most pained fake smile you had ever seen on his face. After a couple of seconds the smile turned to a frown as your friends burst into laughter. “Hilarious.” Ben said, turning back to them and immediately dropping his arm from around you.

“It was pretty good wasn’t it?” Finn said, his arm slung around Poe’s shoulder as they both laughed.

Rolling your eyes, you took a deep breath and turned back to face Ben, crossing your arms in front of your chest. “If this is going to work, we have to stop arguing.”

“You’re the one who -” At your pointed look, he let out a sigh. “You’re right.”

As a testament to being committed to this deal, you didn’t point out that it was the first time that he had ever said that you were right. “We can do this. We can get your parents to back off, and maybe I’ll leave tonight with a better job.”

Ben nodded.

And because you couldn’t resist a quip, you spoke again, “and maybe try not to look like you’re in desperate need of a toilet every time you have to touch me.”

He glared at you.

“Okay, okay, sorry, last one,” you turned back to the stairs you friends were currently waving at the two of you from. “I’m ready.” You started up the stairs without him, proud of yourself for not even pausing when you felt Ben’s hand on the small of your back.

God had his hands always been so large? It felt like he was covering up almost all of your back with his touch. You couldn’t think of a single person you had ever met that had hands that big. Could he break a Guinness world record? You were shaken from your thoughts as you both reached the door, and he reached forward to open it for you. Surprised, but pleased, you gave him a weak smile as you headed inside. “I’ve - uh, I’ve got to go sign us in.” He told you, nodding his head over to the booth near the entrance. “You can stay here.”

You nodded, smoothing down the edges of your dress. You had worried at first that it would be too much. It had a deep v neckline that without some tape could have been a great attention grabber, and was long sleeved in a dark crimson. It almost brushed the ground when you walked, so you had to wear heels, but the flare at the waist hit you so perfectly you had to get it. Not to mention you loved the slit on the side that showed off a leg you had worked out very hard for. You knew you looked great which was important because everything had to be perfect tonight. It had to be.

Which is why you had a moment of panic as someone stumbled into you, and you had to regain your balance before disaster could strike. Thankfully, the stranger grabbed your arm, pulling you back upright. “Geez Kid, I’m sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was going. There’s too many damn people in here.”

He wasn’t wrong. You couldn’t move a few steps forward without running into someone. “It’s all right. No harm done.” You looked up at the man. He was older, with disheveled gray hair, but a delightful smile. You were sure back in the day he had no problems charming the ladies. “I’m not sure how they’re going to fit all of us in that hall. Are there normally this many people here at these things?”

The man grinned at you. “More. Your first one?”

A faint flush fell on your cheeks. “That obvious?”

“Eh, you’re not walking around with your nose in the air so I assumed.” He said.

That made you laugh. “Is that a thing? You would think the alcohol would loosen everyone up a bit.”

“Not this watered down stuff.” He told you. “So what brings you to the party anyway?”

Here it goes, if you can convince this stranger, his parents couldn’t be that hard. “Oh, I’m here with my boyfriend -”

And suddenly, he was beside you. “Hey, Dad.” Ben said in a strained tone.

Your eyes widened as you glanced back and forth between the two. This was Han Solo? He was not at all what you expected. Nowhere to be found was the sourness and serious side of Ben Solo. Instead this man looked genuinely pleased to see his son. “Hey Kid, it’s good to see you. Now where’s this date of yours? Just to let you know, your Mom has a backup one in case you were lying -”

Once again, you had to fight back a laugh. Seemed Leia Organa was nothing if not thorough.

“Seems you’ve already met her.” Ben said stiffly, wrapping an arm around you. It was a little awkward because of how tense he was, but you went with it, turning into him.

“This is your Dad?” You asked him, raising your eyebrows before putting on your best smile. “Sorry, he doesn’t ever show me pictures or anything.” You held out your hand to him. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Han was surprised, that was easy to see. It was clear that his family hadn’t expected him to actually show up with a date. In a moment though he returned your smile and handshake. “It’s nice to meet you too. I guess we need to introduce you to the missus, huh?”

“I’d love to meet her.” You said with sincerity in your tone. After meeting Ben’s dad, you couldn’t help but be curious. Would she be as different as Han was?

“Come on then. Last I saw her, she was over there talking to some Senator.” He told us, nodding to an area behind where we were standing, gesturing us along. As he passed Ben, you saw him grasp his shoulder, and were pretty sure you heard the words, “good job kid,” whispered to him.

Your suspicions were confirmed by Ben rolling his eyes.

As soon as Han’s back was turned, you tugged on Ben’s tie, trying to get him to bend down since there was no way you could whisper in his ear from here. He didn’t take the hint. “Ow, what the hell?” He said, looking down at you and rubbing his neck.

“Why do you have to be such a freaking tree?” You hissed at him. “Ben, you need to loosen up!”

“What the tie?” He asked, clearly confused.

You took a deep breath, willing yourself not to lose it. “No, not the tie! You’re acting like a robot which I get is your default, but we’re supposed to be dating. You have to pretend you’re comfortable with me!”

“Easier said than done.” He snapped.

“Do you want me to go? Let your Mom put you with the backup date she brought you? Because I’m sure you’ll love getting to know her all night with watered down alcohol.” You threatened.

“Fine, fine, I’ll try.” Ben said quickly, and you felt him take a deep breath against your side as you approached a beautiful brunette woman with her hair in an intricate updo in a gorgeous white gown.

“Ben,” she said with a fond smile, the very definition of warmth in her gaze as she looked at him, holding her arms out to embrace him.

With a grudging smile, you watched Ben embrace his mother. “Mom. How are you?” He asked, pulling away from the hug rather soon to wrap his arm back around your waist.

It was lower this time, his large hand resting on your hip, and you were pleased to no longer feel the tenseness in his arm. He almost did seem relaxed. If not for the rigidness of his jaw. His mother and father seemed too distracted by your presence to notice though. “Oh, you know, the usual. Is this your date?”

Ben introduced you as his girlfriend, and man if that wasn’t the last thing you had ever expected to hear out of Ben Solo’s mouth. The smile on his mom’s face when he said it was so genuine and pleased that it kind of hurt that you were having to lie about it. “I can’t wait to learn all about you at dinner.” She said, “and how you two met of course.” Leia added, gesturing to the two of you.

“Oh, it’s such a great story.” Seemed your meddling friends had caught up with you at last, Poe popping up between the two of you and wrapping his arms around you both, pulling you and Ben so close you would have knocked heads if you were anywhere near his height. “It should be a book.”

Cursing Poe in your head, you turned to look at Ben and give him a smile, hoping it was convincing, shaking your head. “It’s not that interesting. We just -”

“Oh, don’t settle yourself short guys. It’s great.” Rey interrupted, giving Han and Leia her own greeting.

“Well either way, I’d love to hear it.” Leia said. “Let’s go find our seats, this thing is about to start soon anyway.”

When Han and Leia turned away and headed inside, you all held back as Rey and Poe burst into giggles. “I’m officially denouncing any friendship with any of you. Except Rose, who is an angel.” You hissed.

“Agreed,” Ben said.

“Wait a minute,” Finn said, making everyone pause. “Did they just agree on something?”

“Are we witnessing History?” Poe added.

“Or is this a dream?” Rey added.

“Could be either.” Finn said, shrugging his shoulders. “Ow!” He said as Rose smacked his arm.

Ben turned away from them, annoyance clear on his face as he tugged you along after his parents.

As you walked with him, ignoring your friends behind you, a thought struck you. You were pretty sure that was the first time that you and Ben Solo had ever agreed on something.

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

Dinner turned out not to be that bad. There were some similarities between Ben and his parents, but it wasn’t what you had expected. Leia Organa was one of the most intelligent women that you had ever met in your life. The way she talked about her work and some of the things she had accomplished left you in awe. Ben had gotten that drive from her, that was for sure. Because as much as the two of you didn’t get along, you couldn’t deny that he was one of the smartest and most driven people you had ever met.

Han Solo, on the other hand, was a whole different story. He was entertaining, regaling the whole table with stories of various adventures he had been on while traveling the world. He was so easy to talk to, and while Ben didn’t carry that same trait, the confidence that he displayed was a hidden characteristic that his son sometimes showed.

You didn’t understand how Ben could seem to dislike spending time with them so much.

The dessert portion had just been laid out on your table when the question you had been dreading started. “So . . . you and Ben. How did it start? Did you like each other from the beginning?”

Poe let out a snort that you kicked him hard under the table for. “Ow!” He said, glaring at you.

You could have sworn for the briefest moment Ben, who was sitting next to you, flashed a grin as he took a sip from his drink.

“Not exactly . . .” You finally answered.

“That’s one way to put it. These two were constantly at each other’s throats.” Finn spoke up.

Your glare turned to Finn, but this didn’t seem to phase Leia and Han.

“That’s the way to do it kid. Your mom hated me at first too, and then you turn on the charm. Hate isn’t so far from love you know, right Leia?” Han said.

You choked on the sip of your wine you had taken while Ben rubbed his forehead as if he had a headache. “Dad,” he groaned.

Leia gave her husband a slap on the arm, “That’s not how it happened, Han.”

Han shot her an incredulous look. “Oh really? Then tell me, how did it happen?” He asked.

It was kind of adorable. They way they argued with each other with so much love in their eyes. Your attention was pulled from their quarrel when Ben leaned close to you and whispered in your ear. “Your guest of honor is sitting at that table over there, and she’s alone. Want me to make an introduction?”

You looked over to where Ben was talking about and felt your heart rate pick up dramatically. Here it was. Your one chance to get what you had been working so hard for. The whole reason you had wanted an invitation to this night in the first place. When you looked back at him, you were sure that the panic in your eyes was visible.

He looked utterly confused. “Why do you look so freaked out?” He whispered. “I thought this was why you wanted to come?”

“Maybe I look so freaked out because I am freaked out.” You whispered back, but the words didn’t have your usual bite to them. “This might be my one chance, and I could blow it all right now.”

Ben rolled his eyes before standing up and interrupting his parents who were still arguing. “Mom, Dad, we’ll be back.” He grabbed your hand and pulled you out of your seat so fast you stumbled after him.

“Solo, what the actual hell, stop!” Your panic only grew the closer you came to the table. You tried to yank your hand away from his, but it was pointless. He had too strong of a grip. “I can’t do this!” You hissed at him.

He abruptly stopped and turned around, causing you to almost run into him. He didn’t move away though, even as your bodies brushed each other. “Yes you can, because if you don’t, you’re going to regret it, and we’ll look stupid walking over here for nothing. So get it together.”

You hated him. You hated him so fucking much. Mostly because you knew he was right. You had to get it together. You would regret it for the rest of your life if you didn’t, and you’d have no one to blame but yourself.

Ben seemed to sense your resolve when you took a deep breath, finally letting air fill your lungs. “Are you ready?”

Nodding, because you weren’t sure you trusted your voice yet, you let him lead you over to the table where she was sitting.

“Ms. Holdo.” Ben said, grabbing the woman’s attention.

“Ben! I can’t believe Leia managed to talk you into coming. It’s good to see you.” She said, standing up and letting Ben give her a kiss on the cheek in greeting.

“Well, I thought it might be a good opportunity to introduce them to my girlfriend.” Ben said with a soft smile in your direction before introducing you.

Heat flushed to your cheeks as her attention turned to you, and she repeated your name. “I’ve heard of you. You’ve done some great work in the City.” She said, looking pleased.

“I have?” You squeaked, then cleared your throat as you heard Ben snort, which he managed to turn into a cough. “I mean thank you. It’s nothing compared to what you guys do, but I try.”

She waved off your compliment, and then gestured to the chairs beside her. “It’s just the job, but come sit down, I want to hear all about what you did last month. I read about it, and it sounded so interesting.”

You were sure you were beaming like a crazy person, but sat down anyway, with Ben sitting beside you.

Conversation flowed easily, and to your shock, Ben was a big help with that. He smiled and spoke and was polite. Not to mention charming. You had never seen this side of him, and you found that you didn’t hate it. You were distracted from your thoughts though when Ms. Holdo spoke up. “You know, we had a big opening come up, and your name was tossed around. We thought you were happy with your current position.”

Trying not to let your utter excitement spill out, you simply shrugged your shoulders. “I think it would be closed minded of me to not be looking for opportunities to grow. Working with you would definitely be one of those.”

She smiled then turned her attention to Ben, patting his hand. “You’ve got a good one here Ben.” She told him before turning back to me. “You give us a call Monday morning, and we’ll see about getting you in for an interview. Sound good?”

“That sounds great.” You replied, still in disbelief that this moment was happening.

“Wonderful. Now, I’m sorry to leave you two here, but I have to go meet with another friend of mine who owes me a drink.” When she stood up, the two of you did too. “It was great seeing you Ben, and I’ll be expecting a phone call from you.” She added to you.

After you all said your goodbyes, and she was safely out of earshot, you turned to Ben, a huge smile on your face, and couldn’t help yourself. You threw your arms around his waist in a tight hug. He went stiff almost instantly, but after you didn’t pull away, you felt him relax and return your hug with loose arms. When you looked up at him, you noticed a little smile on his own face. “You did good.” He told you.

“Only after you made me get my shit together. I owe you one, Solo.” You said.

His attention had been caught elsewhere though, and an exasperated look overtook him. “Yeah, I think you’re about to have to pay up on that one.”

Confused, you turned to face where Ben was looking to find Han and Leia making their way over to the two of you. You hadn’t even realized the two of you were still hugging until Leia pointed it out. “Good! You two look ready to dance, come on.”

“Dance?” You squeaked in surprise. Of course you had thought that there might be some dancing. Somewhere far, far in the back of your mind. Somewhere that you had forgotten about until this very moment. Han shot you an apologetic look followed by a shrug as he let Leia lead him out onto the dance floor as a slow song began to play.

Ben and you let go of each other then, and you watched as he reached up to rub the back of his neck. “We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. I’ll make up some excuse.”

But you shook your head. After Ben had helped you so much, the very least that you could do was try and keep his Mom off his back about dating for a little while. “It’s fine, Ben. I mean as long as you don’t mind.” You said, uncertainty now in your tone. Why on Earth was the idea of dancing with Ben making you feel so weird all of the sudden?

“No, I don’t mind.” He answered you, and you watched what seemed to be conflict in his eyes before he reached out and took your hand, pulling you out onto the dance floor in a much more gentle way than he had taken you over to Ms. Holdo.

While the two of you had been close to each other’s sides almost the whole night, this was different. His large hands found your waist while yours, tiny in comparison to his, slid up and around his neck. It was harder to avoid each other’s gaze, and you couldn’t keep a respectable distance. It was supposed to feel strange, and it did, but not the kind of strange that you were expecting.

His arms around you sort of felt . . . nice. It had been a long time, longer than you cared to admit, since you had danced with a guy and even if it was Ben, a guy who hated you, it was comforting.

For the first time that night, you also couldn’t sense any tenseness from Ben. His body was relaxed as he held you, his face almost soft, and suddenly you caught a glimpse of that warmth of his mother’s eyes. It was why you blurted what you did. “Why do you hate your parents?”

That startled him. His brow furrowed together for a moment. “I don’t hate my parents.” Before you could ask anything else, his face closed off again, a clear look that told you the subject was dropped.

So you said something else. “Well why do you hate me?”

“What?” Once again, you startled him out of being closed off. “You’re - you’re the one that hates me.”

“Because you hate me.” You said as if it was obvious.

You expected him to close himself off again, but he didn’t, he just shook his head. “I don’t hate you.”

But he had to hate you. Everything he did pointed to him hating you. “Ben, you argue with me all the time. Everything about me annoys you. You act like you can’t stand to be around me. I . . . I don’t remember how it started.” And now that you were saying it, you realized you had to know. It had been bothering you for longer than you cared to admit, wondering how the two of you had gotten off to such a horrible start when you couldn’t remember it.

Ben looked down at the ground for a moment, seeming to collect his thoughts, and then he met your eyes again. “Listen, I don’t . . . I argue with you because you’re smart enough to keep up with me, and your points are out of the box. It’s - it’s frustrating that you always have a counter to everything I say, but it’s impressive too.”

Before you could even process that bomb, he continued.

“And yes, you annoy me a lot. You act like a child sometimes, when we all go over to your apartment, it’s always a mess, and when you start daydreaming you can’t stop tapping your foot -”

“I can’t?” You interrupted, unaware of this information, but he kept going as if you hadn’t spoken.

“But you’re also funny, and entertaining, and you always have things to do that everyone enjoys.” He had been glancing around the room as he spoke, but now his gaze landed back on you. “And I don’t hate being around you. I just suck at being around people in general. You’re actually one of the only people I don’t mind hanging out with.”

Your head was spinning with all this new information. Had the both of you really been misinterpreting this relationship the whole time? You only hated Ben because of how he acted towards you. Well that and his general demeanor. Tonight you had seen a different side of him, a side you hadn’t known existed, and that side wasn’t so bad. You could see spending time with that side of him and enjoying it. Not to mention he had given you more compliments in the span of five minutes than he had in the whole time you had known him. Then he had said that he didn’t mind hanging out with you? How could you respond to that? “Well, you sure have a weird way of showing it.” You mumbled.

“I think I’m doing better tonight though.” Ben said.

You looked at him, once again startled. Had he made a joke? First the warmth in his eyes and then an actual joke? Maybe he wasn’t so different from his parents at all. A laugh left you, and an actual smile, albeit a small one, formed on Ben’s lips.

The two of you kept dancing in silence for a few moments then, you still trying to wrap your head around what Ben had said to you until you felt Ben stiffen. Sensing something was wrong, you looked up again. “What’s wrong?”

He let out a sigh and then leaned down to whisper in your ear, sending a shiver down your spine in the process. “My parents are gesturing for me to kiss you.”

Pushing down your panic, you bit your lip. You had known this was going to happen. How could you pull off an authentic relationship without even a kiss? The way your heart rate picked up at the mention of it, you hadn’t expected. You took a deep breath to calm yourself down, and then nodded. “Well, better kiss me then, Solo. If you want to convince your parents.”

His arms tightened around you, not in anger, but to bring you closer to him. You closed your eyes as you felt his forehead resting against yours, his breath, scented with what he had been drinking, caressed your lips. It didn’t make any sense, but you could swear for a brief moment all the noise stopped as you waited for him. You were starting to get anxious, wondering if he was going to do it when you felt the softest brush against your lips.

Was that it?

No, it turned out that wasn’t it. Because within seconds, you felt him again, and this time his lips weren’t hesitant at all when they met yours, full and soft and tasting of scotch. Immediately you kissed him back, parting your lips to deepen the kiss, and surprised once again at how it felt.

If someone had asked you before tonight how you thought it would have felt to kiss Ben Solo you would have had plenty of things to say and none of them would be nice.

You would have been wrong, because it turns out, Ben Solo is an excellent kisser. His lips moved like a dream against yours, none of the gross habits such as too much tongue or saliva that you had the displeasure of dealing with previously were present. No, it was . . . pleasant.

So pleasant that when he pulled away, you followed his lips for a brief moment before you realized what you were doing and stopped. You were sure your cheeks were flooded red, and didn’t want him to see that, so you turned your head, just in time to catch sight of your friend’s faces.

You let out a laugh, burying your face in Ben’s shoulder to hide your reaction which was hard to do with your whole body shaking.

Ben stiffened and when he spoke, his deep voice was rougher than normal. “You don’t have to laugh.”

Suddenly, you realized how he must have taken your reaction, you pulled back, shaking your head. “No, no, Ben, look at our friends.” You said, biting your lip to try and stop your laughter once again. You wondered if Poe had realized that he dropped his fork, if Rey had noticed her mouth hanging open, and if Finn’s eyes had gone back in his head yet.

When he turned his head, you couldn’t see it, but you did feel the moment his body relaxed, and then started shaking. Your breath caught in your throat for a brief moment as he buried his face in your neck where he could release his chuckle without anyone hearing it. His lips were almost touching your skin, and after the rather good kiss that the two of you shared, your hormones betrayed you, thinking about how nice his kiss would feel there as well. You tried to push those thoughts away, wondering if you were starting to go crazy, but his next words didn’t help.

“Do you want to sneak out of here?” He whispered in your ear, his large hands splaying across your back.

“What?” You squeaked, shocked by his words and actions.

He leaned back then, taking in your expression with a mixture of confusion and annoyance. “Why do you keep doing that thing with your voice?” Ben asked before leaning down to whisper in your ear once more. “I mean why don’t we go hide, and make them think we’re sneaking off to go makeout or something?”

“Oh, oh!” Yes, his idea made much more sense than what you were thinking. “That’s genius, Solo, let’s do it.” You said with a nod, letting him take your hand and pull you away from the dance floor with a fake giggle that you made sure your friends could see.

As soon as you left the room, the two of you scurried into what turned out to be a coat closet, hiding in the back corner behind a curtain. When you turned to Ben, you couldn’t help but grin at the genuine smile on the man’s face. “You know, I didn’t think you had it in you.” You whispered.

“Well, there’s a lot you don’t know about me.” Ben said, but there was no spite in his words.

“I think I’m learning that tonight. You might not actually be as terrible as I thought. It’s still early though.” You teased him, bumping his arm with your shoulder.

“And you still act like a child.” He teased back.

“Might I remind you it was your idea to do this.” You said, raising your eyebrows at him.

“Your bad behavior must be rubbing off on me.” Ben responded.

You rolled your eyes, but the smile never left your face. It was then that you noticed the two of you were still holding hands. But you didn’t let go, and neither did he.

“Hey did you see Ben Solo’s date?” A voice interrupted your train of thoughts. You didn’t recognize it, and couldn’t see who it was because of the curtain, but something about the tone made you uncomfortable.

“I did. Guess she really is trying to fuck her way to the top.” You felt Ben stiffen beside you, and your grip tightened on his hand, but you couldn’t bring yourself to look at him.

“It’s what you have to do when you’re not talented enough.” The first voice responded, farther away now, and the two of them laughed as they exited the coat closet.

Almost immediately, Ben ripped the curtain aside, his fierce reaction startling you so much you didn’t notice that he had dropped your hand and was halfway across the room before you realized it. “Ben! Wait! What are you doing?!” You hurried to catch up, grabbing a hold of his arm to stop him.

“To go figure out who those two were!” He answered, his tone so violent it was a little scary.

“Why?” You asked, panicked at the way he was acting.

When Ben turned to face you where there had once been warmth, there was now fire in his eyes, an intense look that you thought could burn you where you stood. You had never seen him display such an emotion. “What do you mean, why?! They can’t talk about you like that! I’m the one who invited you here, and you got to the top all by yourself on your own damn talent! They’re just jealous bitches -”

“Exactly,” You interrupted.

“I - what?” You had confused him so many times tonight you were starting to be proud of yourself.

“They’re jealous bitches, and I’ve had a great time tonight. I’m not going to let them ruin it.” You said shrugging your shoulders, and after a moment’s hesitation, you grasped his hand, giving it another squeeze. “Besides, we still have friends to mess with. Do you think we’ve been hiding long enough?” You asked.

Ben Solo looked completely dumbfounded. You were just glad that fire had left his eyes. It took him several moments of staring at you before he managed to form a response, even if it was only a nod.

After a second, you reached up and grabbed his tie, loosening it somewhat, and while he was down at your level, you ran your hands through his hair, messing it up a bit while marveling at how nice and soft it was. When you noticed his confused expression, a smirk settled on your lips. “Got to make it believable, Solo.”

A ghost of a smile formed on his lips, and you started to pull him back outside when he stopped you. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

You nodded, “I do appreciate you caring though. Didn’t know robots could do that.”

Ben rolled his eyes.

____________________

“So you’re still not going to tell us where you two went?”

“Really Dameron? Drop it.” You replied, annoyed at this point. From the moment Ben and you had reappeared, the two of you had been bombarded with question after question about where you had been. It had almost made you regret hiding from them.

Almost.

“Okay! Fine! We’re here anyway.” Poe said, pulling to a stop in front of your apartment. It was the last one on the drop off since Poe and Ben lived together.

“Here, I’ll walk you,” Ben said, surprising you, and before you could say anything he was already out of the car, keeping the door open for you.

“Thanks,” you said with a soft smile that he returned. The walk up to your doorstep was silent, but not uncomfortable. You did feel like there was something you should say, you just had no idea what.

Thankfully, Ben broke the silence first. “I wanted to say thanks for doing this tonight. Maybe it’ll keep my parents off my back for a while since they liked you.”

“They did?” You don’t know why that information pleased you so much. It wasn’t like the two of you were in a relationship, and you wanted their approval.

“Oh yeah,” Ben replied, running a hand through his hair. “It’ll definitely hurt them when we break up.”

You frowned. You had forgotten about that part. That the two of you would have to break up at some point of course. You brushed that aside for now, it could be a thought for later. “Well, I wanted to say thanks too. If you hadn’t invited me I might never have even met Ms. Holdo.”

“You’re welcome,” he replied, “but I think you would have anyway.” At that point the two of you had reached your door. “I guess this is goodnight.”

Getting out your key to unlock the door, you gave him a smile. “I guess so. Thanks again Ben. To be honest I thought tonight would go a lot worse.”

“Me too,” he agreed, sending you his own grin. “Glad it wasn’t though.” He said, and turned around walking back down the stairs.

“Hey Solo!” What made you say it, you had no idea. It was almost as if the words left your mouth without your knowledge or agreement. Like your mouth suddenly had a mind of its own as soon as he turned around to look at you, raising a questioning eyebrow. “For the record, your kissing? Nothing to laugh about.”

All you saw was a slight flush to his cheeks before you slammed the door behind you and hurried up to your apartment.

____________________

Two hours later, curled up in bed with a warm drink and nice and comfy in your pajamas, you had almost forgotten about what you said.

Until your phone beeped with a text.

So, my parents want you to come over for dinner next week. Are you up for it? I’ll buy a bottle of your favorite wine as payment?

P.S. - Your kissing is nothing to laugh about either.

You bit your lip to fight back a smile.

#ben solo #ben solo x reader #ben solo x you #ben solo imagine #star wars imagine #kylo ren x reader

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spoopity-boopity · 4 years

Text

Cheeky

(gender neutral) A du Mortain x (gender neutral) detective

(about 1,000 words) (written in 2nd person narrative)

@chaoticbooklover here it is, hope you like it!

Warning/s: we’re a lil sht here

An anxious week had passed after the news of the bounty, you’re alone in the living room with A; their presence like an incense that relaxes your nerves. You both sit on the couch on opposing ends no words exchanged after the unusually stiff greetings.

Because today was supposedly F’s turn to keep an eye on you while the others were tasked to continue looking into where these fliers were coming from. You and F had plans on binging trash television tonight but F had teasingly asked A if they could take over, to F’s surprise & slight dismay they agreed then made their way to the living room without even leaving F room to respond. A was... very concerned about how you were doing, more than they felt like you ever needed to know. It was a perfect opportunity to make sure that you were okay today, like they did every other day and they trusted no one else more than themselves to make sure you stayed that way.

About an hour passes by with both of you simply orbiting in the peaceful hum of each other’s space. You lift your eyes from your phone to catch A staring at you intensely once again but something in your reciprocating stare makes their focus stay instead of ripping it away like they usually do. In the tension filled silence while making meaningful eye contact you say.

“Tu Omnia.”

You incite a startle and shock on their face that they can’t hide. Emotions flash across their face, you catch surprise and bewilderment before their face goes forcibly grows stoic once more. They look away but even in the silence you can hear the noise of their thoughts racing in their mind and you feel like you could almost hear their heart race just as fast. After a few moments that felt like hours they make a bitter pained face and their shoulders sag as they open their mouth hoping to find the right words, or any words to say at all. They let out a strained breath as they prepare themselves to say words that you know are feeble lies but lies you know will hurt to hear nonetheless.

“Detective, I—”

“What does it mean?” you interrupt. You catch them off guard once more judging from how they snap their head back to you.

“What?” they ask, their voice a bit softer than they intended.

“Oh I was just looking through pictures on the internet, and I came across a pair of rings with the words ‘Tu Omnia’ inscribed in them. I was wondering if you knew what they meant.” you lie slyly, knowing the meaning by heart as they haunt your waking and sleeping hours more than the incident with Murphy ever did. A teasing tug from both corners of your mouth threatening to blow your cover, before you quickly smooth them out without incident.

But the shock seemed to have shaken A enough that they do not see through your lie. They quickly snap their head away and they fold their arms, the tension in them making it harder to stifle a giggle but you manage.

After all, it’s not your fault you find yourself falling for them over and over, this is the least you should be allowed to do. With their yearning gazes and soulful ‘accidental’ slips of tongue the question as to why you feel the way you do has become rhetorical. They need to learn that their shambling attempts at holding their feelings back has consequences, consequences you’re more than eager to give them.

They exhale a long breath that you’re not sure whether to identify it as either relief or exasperation before they turn to you once more.

“They are words not meant to be said so lightly detective.”

“If they’re inscribed on wedding rings I would think so,” you say lightly cementing in your fun lie.

“They are words you say to someone important to you, and words that you should only say when you mean them.” In their self indignation at what they thought you meant to say, you can hear the disappointment drawing the words. It might be horrible to think this under normal circumstances but with the emotional acrobatics that you experience every day, if not moment, spent in their presence you couldn’t help but think that it’s nice to see them being on the disappointed side for once.

“You still haven’t told me what they mean A,” you say, sliding closer to their end of the couch. They grow rigid at your casual approach and nearing proximity.

“But you probably have your reasons knowing you,” you gesture to them with a one sided shrug.

“Although if they mean what you say they mean, then...” you roll your lips together trying to hold the smile back.

“Tu Omnia, A. You are important to me.” The smile breaks through.

Strike Two! The only thing you could compare to the sight of A in this moment, was a deer in the headlights, a very proud and built deer caught in your headlights. You think they forget how to breathe, and even when it is your joke at their expense you feel yourself holding yours too. But before this develops into anything more that would have you building up your expectations just to tear them down, you get up and take a few steps away, placing your phone on the ledge of the fireplace then loosely cross your arms.

“Guess I should say it to the rest of the Unit, they’re important to me too after all.” you state with your wide jesting grin shining through.

“NO!” they yell, getting out of their seat with a force that topples the long sofa by a couple of inches. Your joke being met by full seriousness with an intent that you can read clearly, that they want to be the only person you ever say those words to. Their brash reaction only reminding you the true meaning those Latin words carry, reminding you of feelings you both know you carry.

“That’s not--” they stop, coming to a realization that you understood what their explanation meant in saying those words because they know, they know that you may be human and that you may be what they consider as weak but you are no fool.

Their hands curl into fists and the tension rises onto their shoulders, before they turn their body away from you. A then proceeds to groan loudly and rub their hand over their face while they perch the other on their hip.

You hum your chuckle. If they can get away with shots to your heart then so can you.

#twc #the wayhaven chronicles #A du mortain #Sorry yall had to read this #Im not very good at this #but I hope you like it #Have a nice day #Hope its not too ooc #I made this

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snowdice · 4 years

Text

Finding the Time to Study Fic 2 [Day 12]

Here is my starting post for today’s study break stories session. See this post for more details and feel free to send me asks to keep me going! It’s been a lot of fun so far! I will reblog this post with the story as I write them today. I’ll be constantly looking for ideas of times and places for Janus to have missions, so feel free to send in any you can think of at any point!

If you are a new follower or just don’t want all of these posts clogging your dash, please feel free to block the tag “study break stories” as all posts and voting about it will go there. You can still see the finished product of the story even if you are blocking that tag as I will not tag the edited chapters with “study break stories” but with the tag “folds in paper.” See edited chapters below. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 are under the cut.

My Masterpost Part 1 Part 2

I also have a playlist on youtube (because Spotify didn’t have one of the songs I wanted). It’s short, and not really for serious listening, but I had fun with it.

Going to do a bit of studying. Might get interrupted.

Inciting Incident

Chapter 3

Janus and Remus both appeared at the same moment a couple of feet apart in what looked like the inside of a garden shed. There was already a man waiting for them a few feet away. “Sup babes,” Remy said, just like he always did. The T-Agent looked their costumes up and down and whistled. “Now that,” he said, “almost makes me want to be one of you time jockeys.”

“They wouldn’t let me have a gun or a canister of moonshine,” Remus pouted.

Remy snorted. “Sorry, babes, but that makes my job a lot easier. If I’ve gotta fish you outta the 1920s criminal justice system, I’d rather it not be because you shot someone on accident ‘cause you don’t know how to use the safety.”

Remus groaned dramatically. “Everyone is lame.”

Remy just shook his head. “Meet back here when you’ve got the necklace,” he said. “Don’t make a move until after 11:05pm and before 11:17. That’s your window.”

“We know,” Janus said. “See you then.”

“Have fun at the party boys,” Remy said and then lowered his shades to look at Remus, “but not too much fun.”

“Yeah, yeah,” said Remus, already towing Janus out of the garden shed. The way had been specifically cleared for them, so they met no other people before they’d rounded the house the party was taking place and had gotten onto the driveway in front of the house.

Without missing a beat, they strolled up to the front of the house, just as a car pulled into the end of the driveway. Janus rang the doorbell, and a few moments later, a man who was clearly the butler answered the door. They handed over their invitation, and the man immediately let them in.

The party had already started when they slipped into the medium sized ballroom that had been decked out in streamers and other decorations. Janus’s nose immediately wanted to scrunch as the smell of sweat from all the dancing already going on as well as the too strong perfume meant to cover that stench wafted over him. It was by far not the worst smelling time period, but he was pretty sure some people still weren’t aware deodorant had been recently invented.

He checked his time piece which had been disguised as a fancy wristwatch for this trip. “Okay,” he said. “We have about two hours before we need to make our move. We should…”

Remus’s attention was already being dragged away by a young man who seemed to be providing guests with food. “I’m going to go ‘mingle’,” he said, winking.

“No!” Janus hissed. “Re- Richard! No!”

Yet, he was already disappearing into the horde of stinky bodies, likely to go scandalize a bunch of rich folks, and leaving Janus alone. Janus mumbled a curse under his breath that he was sure no one around him would understand even if they could make it out.

Unsure what to do with himself, he wandered over towards where the live musicians were playing jazz music, being sure to keep out of the way of the dancers. He was edging around the makeshift dancefloor, when one of said dancers must have misstepped and knocked into another one. The second man stumbled right towards Janus, arms pinwheeling. Janus reached out on instinct to catch the man as he fell.

There was a moment where the two of them just stared at each other, surprise evident on the other man’s face. He was wearing a mask that just covered the area around his eyes and the top of his nose, revealing a smattering of freckles across his cheeks that Janus imagined extended to his nose.

The mask was a light blue velvet with a flower stuck on the side near his right ear, and a trail of curled golden ribbon bobbed down around his chin. The party continued on around them, a blur of movement and sound.

“Are you alright?” Janus asked.

The man blinked up at him and then tilted his head slightly to the side as though confused, before a smile slowly grew on his face. “Oh, I’m fine Dove.”

“Dove?” Janus asked.

He giggled. “You have dove feathers on your mask,” he explained, reaching up a hand to touch one. His finger brushed the tip of Janus’s ear, “and I don’t know what else I am supposed to call you.”

“My name is Lee,” he automatically lied.

“Is it?” he asked, sounding amused. “Doesn’t seem to fit you well. I like Dove better.”

“Oh?” asked Janus. “And what’s your name so I can not call you that?”

The man chuckled. “Call me Pat.”

“Hello Pat,” Janus said.

“I thought you didn’t want to call me by my name.”

“I changed my mind.”

“Hmmm,” Pat said, finger tracing idly across Janus’s forearm which was when Janus realized with a start that he was still holding the man in his arms. He quickly went to release him, which Pat allowed with clear amusement.

Yet, instead of completely stepping away, Pat grabbed Janus’s arm. “What are you doing all the way over here by the way?” he asked. “Don’t you want to dance.”

“Oh,” Janus hesitated. “I don’t really dance.” Or at least not in the way the people around him were. He’d had basic training for this style, but it had been a while and he was a bit rusty.

“Everyone dances Dove,” Pat claimed. “At least if they know the steps and have the right partner.”

“But I don’t know the steps,” Janus said with an eyebrow raise.

He hummed. “Well, I know the dance pretty well by this point,” Pat said. “Why don’t I teach you how it goes.”

He was agreeing with the soft beseeching tone before he even realized it. Pat pulled him into the middle of the throng of people. He seemed to think, bopping his head to the music playing for a moment, before looking back at Janus. “Heard of James Johnson?”

Janus inclined his head.

“Well, have you heard his new song? Because there’s a dance that goes with it.”

He took a few steps away from Janus and started to dance. Despite his claim to know the steps, he wasn’t particularly good, but he made up for any loss of rhythm with pure enthusiasm.

Janus found himself smiling at the man, and after a few moments, joined in with the dance. Despite his lack of practice, he ended up having a better natural rhythm than Pat. Pat didn’t seem to mind that he was being outperformed, however. On the contrary, he giggled at himself the couple of times he stumbled.

When he fell into Janus’s arms for the second time that night, Janus decided he’d probably had enough dancing for the moment and pulled him off to the side to get something to drink and cool down a bit.

He watched the man take a snack and some punch from one of servers and thank him happily before turning back to Janus. Pat was easily able to keep Janus’s attention as they chatted. He was bubbly and soft, and Janus found himself enchanted as they talked.

He was explaining the steps of a different dance, a couples one. “Knowing how to perform the tango will entrance any girl you want,” Pat said, something mischievous sparkling in his eyes. “Assuming you’re that type of fella.”

“As opposed to what?” Janus asked.

Pat leaned in a bit closer. Not too much, but enough that he was definitely in Janus’s space. “A different type of fella,” he said simply, before smiling and leaning back.

Janus let out a shaky exhale and took a sip of punch. He glanced over at Pat. “Tell me about yourself, Pat,” he said.

Pat hummed in contemplation. “Well, I went to France recently.”

“You did?”

“Oui, c'était amusant, mais j'ai eu des ennuis”

“What kind of trouble?” Janus asked curiously.

“Oh, the kind with a pretty boy and crepes that were way too sweet. Anyway,” he continued. “Other than that, I mostly help out my friend. He’s an inventor.”

“And how do you help him.”

He shrugged, “Running errands mostly, and making sure he gets enough sleep, because otherwise he gets distracted and forgets. And you?”

“I’m a banker,” he said, remembering his cover, but felt compelled to add, “but I like to travel as well.”

“You do look the type?”

“And how is that?”

Pat shrugged. “I can always tell a wandering spirt from the masses, and you are easy to spot.” Pat looked at him then with a secret smile on his face, and Janus felt suddenly known, like the man in front of him had known him for years even though they’d only just met. Looking at him then, he wanted suddenly for that to be fact and not a flight of fancy.

He was brought firmly back to reality in the next moment. “Lee,” a pointed and familiar voice said. Janus’s head snapped up to see Remus, staring at him. He tapped his wrist. Janus glanced at his own wrist: 10:58pm. He just barely managed not to curse.

“I,” he said looking up at Pat. “I’m sorry, but I have to go.”

“That’s okay,” Pat said easily. “It is getting rather late.”

“Yes,” Janus agreed. “Well… goodbye.”

Pat, titled his head, a half smile on his face. “I’ll be seeing you around.”

Janus nodded, and turned away from him towards Remus. He didn’t look back as they excited the ballroom. They snuck into a small side closet for coats that wasn’t being used as it was summer.

“So,” Remus said when the door closed behind them.

“Don’t,” warned Janus.

“I’m not one to judge,” Remus said.

“Shut up.” He glanced at his watch. It was 11:02. “We’ll go in 5.”

“I have to give it to you. He was very cute.”

“We’re not talking about it.”

Remus just laughed joyfully, and Janus did his best to halt the blood rushing to his cheeks.

At 11:07, well into their window, they slipped back out of the closet, and towards the stairs as the party raged on.

Despite how Remus usually never shut up, he was able to be quiet when it counted. They snuck to the master bedroom of the home’s owners in silence. The door was already wide open by the time they got there, and Janus didn’t think anything of it. At least, he didn’t until they entered the bedroom, and there was someone already there.

He turned from the dresser he’d been standing in front of to face them, sending Janus the same smile he had down in the ballroom. Janus and Remus both froze. “Sorry, sweetie,” Pat said. “Were you here for this too?” he held up the necklace they’d been sent for. He closed his fist around the charm made out of time travel tech.

“What?” Janus said.

Pat giggled and winked. “Unfortunately, I need it a bit more than you at the moment. So, I’m gonna have to go.” Janus stepped forward, not really sure what he was intending to do, but Pat just smiled. “See you some other time, my Turtle Dove.” With a snap of his fingers and loud crack, he disappeared. The mask he’d been wearing fluttered to the ground.

Arc I: Finding Cinderella

Chapter 4

Janus was frozen in surprise for a few long moments after Pat disappeared. Which had been, admittedly, his mistake, because, while their window had technically been until 11:17pm and it was only 11:10, the loud crack that whatever Pat had been using for time travel made, garnered the attention of someone else.

“Uh oh,” Remus said, likely hearing footsteps. “Hide.”

That snapped Janus into action, but instead of hiding immediately like a sensible human being, he chose to go for the only link to the man who’d just stolen time travel tech and waltzed away, the mask.

Which was why he ended up getting arrested.

Remy tsked the moment they were all alone in the police car having come to ‘transfer Lee to another facility.’ Remus was already waiting in the front seat, and flashed Janus a smug smile. If Janus wasn’t still handcuffed, he’d slap him.

“Well,” Remy said. “At least you didn’t shoot anybody like I asked. I was joking by the way. I didn’t really want to pick you up from a 1920s police station period.”

“It wasn’t my fault.”

“Mmm, nah, ‘cause Remus managed to not get arrested this time, so you defiantly screwed something up.”

“Oh, he defiantly wanted to screw something all right,” Remus said joyfully.

“Remus,” Janus hissed.

“What?” he asked. “I’m not the horny one for once. Well, no, that’s a lie, but it didn’t affect the job this time.”

Janus groaned and leaned his head back against the seat.

Remy pulled into a seemingly random garage around 20 minutes later. “Alright,” he said. “Here we are.” He got out of the car and then helped Janus out before uncuffing him. “Here’s your ‘watch,’” Remy handed him the timepiece that had been confiscated when he’d been arrested.

Janus put it on and activated it. “Shit,” he said.

“What?” Remus asked.

“An appointment with cultural outreach has already been downloaded to my calendar for once we get out of decon.”

“Oof. Going to baby jail,” Remy laughed. Remus was cackling.

“This,” Janus said, “was not a cultural faux pas. I did nothing that indicated that I was not from this time. I am not some rookie.”

“Don’t forget cell phones don’t exist in the 1920s,” Remus sang.

“The real question is whether or not my foot exists in your…” Remus disappeared before he could finish, a smirk on his face. Janus growled. “By Remy,” he gritted out. He selected the decontamination chamber from his queue, ignoring the appointment that came after it for now.

He knew exactly where Remus would be standing when he landed, which was why he stepped forward on reentry to ram into him.

He yelped in surprise. “Sorry,” Janus said pleasantly. “I must have also forgotten landing procedures.

Remus laughed good naturally. “Aw, come on Jay,” he said, bumping Janus back, albeit much gentler than Janus had been. “It’s not a big deal. You just go talk with some crusty old college professor who is far too interested in spoons and then everything’s fine.”

“It’s the principle of the thing,” he growled. “They’re treating me like I’m an idiot who accidently invented disco in the 1920s when I was conned by some free agent time traveler.”

“‘Conned,’ Remus said. Is that what they’re calling it now?”

“I know where and when you live Remus,” Janus said.

Remus gave him a dopey smile as the decontamination cycle finished and the door unlocked. Janus’s wrist buzzed telling him that the coordinates to the cultural outreach office were now unlocked. Instead of pulling them up, Janus walked to the door.

“Um,” Remus said, following him. “Aren’t you supposed to be going to your appointment?” Janus just kept walking towards their office. “Uh… Jan?”

“It’s absolutely ridiculous that I have to go to cultural outreach,” Janus said. “In fact, no one can make me. If they want me to go have a discussion about the definition of ‘bushwa,’ they’re going to have to have me dragged there.”

“Mmm, I feel like The Boss won’t be too happy about that, and I have a feeling she’d be 100% down to dragging you there herself.”

“Well, then, let her,” Janus said, stalking through the door to his office. “I’m not going to…”

“Ah, Agent Picani,” the woman standing next to his desk, clearly waiting for him, said when he came through the door. “Dr. Picani was informed that there were complications with your last mission and wishes to have a conversation with you and asks that you meet him in his office at the AMO.”

“Oh, um,” Janus said, stumbling a bit before plastering on a regretful half smile. “Unfortunately, I actually have an appointment right now at Cultural Outreach. It’s mandatory and very important, and I have to go now. So, I’ll have to take a raincheck on that.”

“But-” she started, frowning.

“Remus, work on the report!” Janus said quickly as he waved his hand to bring up his timepiece display and jammed his finger at the glowing appointment card in his queue. A few moments later, Janus was at Cultural Outreach.

Cultural Outreach was not part of the TPI, though it often worked very closely with them. It was a collaboration between the government and multiple universities to help government workers, politicians, and other citizens understand and bridge cultural gaps. It had existed before time travel was invented but had expanded to also teach people who needed to time travel how to behave in unfamiliar times and cultures.

After it had to be expanded to provide for the TPI, it had been moved to Silver Mountains University. The building had once just been a museum, but it had been thoroughly renovated and there had been add-ons for office space and some classrooms. It was still a museum, however, its purpose had expanded greatly and there were many areas that were off limits to the general public.

One of these areas was the fourth floor, where Janus’s timepiece had dumped him. This was the floor that was almost exclusively for TPI agents and staff of Cultural Outreach who worked with them.

He immediately turned away from the reception area, hoping that he could escape and go sit on the university’s quad or something of the like for the next hour or so in hopes the woman his brother sent to fetch him would give up and go back to the AMO. Yet, the receptionist apparently saw him.

“Janus Picani?” he asked.

Janus grimaced and turned back towards him. “Yes,” he said.

“Is something wrong?” he asked. “You’re 5 minutes late for your appointment and seem disoriented.

“Nothing’s wrong.”

“Is your timepiece malfunctioning?”

“No.”

“Uh… okay. Well, if you sign in here, I can take you to your appointment.”

“…Fine.”

He begrudgingly stepped forward and touched the screen he’d gestured to sign with his fingerprint, and then let the man lead him down the hall.

The door they stopped at was propped open slightly, but he still paused and knocked. “Professor Eran? Your 2:30 is here.”

Janus had just a moment upon hearing the name to think that maybe there was actually some sort of intelligent design of the universe and whatever being of ultimate power had crafted it was a dick.

The door opened and Virgil Eran’s eyes immediately narrowed on him. “Janus.”

“Virgil.”

“I see you’re still late for everything.”

“I see you’re still a bastard.”

Janus saw the receptionist slowly back away in the direction they’d come.

“Why don’t you come in?” Virgil said faux pleasantly.

Janus did, because he really didn’t have much of a choice at this point unless he wanted to jump out of a window… or push someone out of a window.

Virgil turned back into his office and took a seat behind his desk. Janus unhappily followed him in and sat across from him.

He took his time pulling up whatever the TPI sent him and reading it over. “So, I see you failed your recovery mission and were arrested in 1923.”

“It wasn’t like that,” Janus said. “I shouldn’t be here.”

Virgil gave him that same suspicious look he used to give Janus whenever Janus claimed to have not eaten his hot pockets out of the freezer in the middle of the night. He’d only been lying 80% of the time. Virgil had a tendency to forget what he’d eaten in a half-conscious state at 3 o’clock in the morning.

“I shouldn’t,” Janus snapped defensively. “Nothing went wrong with anyone from the time period. An illegal time traveler screwed up the mission details.”

“Well, it is still protocol to make sure nothing slipped when agents go off script. You weren’t prepared to be in a jail cell, and it is possible that you screwed something up.”

“I didn’t screw anything up,” Janus growled.

“Alright,” Virgil said pulling up a document on his desk. “The mission started on July 27th, 1923 at 9:58pm, correct?”

“Oh, god, we’re not really going to fill out a time sheet. I don’t have time for that today.”

“It is protocol and best that the information is documented when it is still fresh in your mind. Besides, your schedule has been cleared for the rest of the workday.” The bastard was enjoying this. He knew how much Janus hated this stuff.

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Janus said, “it was the damned illicit time traveler.”

“And I will be the judge of that,” Virgil said. Janus should have just bit the bullet and had coffee with his brother. “If you truly did nothing wrong, your supervisor will see that when I send this to her.”

Yet, despite the fact that Virgil clearly relished in his suffering, he was charitable enough to do most of the actual filling out of the forms. He’d read out the questions and write down what Janus said instead of making him do it himself. Janus really only had to do a quick quality check and sign it at the end.

He still was an asshole about the details, but really he’d been like that about stupid thing like the settings for the dish washer and how the pantry was organized during their college days before they’d had their falling out, so Janus wasn’t particularly surprised. When they were finally done, Virgil sent it off to get filed by the TPI.

Then, they were left staring at each other with nothing between them but almost a decade of radio silence and a whole lot of awkwardness.

“I should go,” Janus finally said, standing up.

Virgil tilted his head slightly to the side and gave him a half smile. “Don’t lock the door behind you,” he said. “Not that I’d expect you too.”

Janus took it for the clear attempt at a joke it was intended to be and puffed out a breath of amusement with a head shake. “No risk of that,” he said. Then, he turned and walked out of the office.

Chapter 5

Janus stepped back into the reception area and booted up his time piece. Instinct said to go back to the office despite the fact that it was late enough that most people had gone home, but he hesitated. Surely Emile had given up by now, but considering he’d sent someone to ambush him in his office, Janus wasn’t sure if he should trust that. He could just go home, but he already knew his mind was racing too much to sleep tonight so he’d probably just end up staring at the lake for the next 6 hours. So, he decided on the only other legitimate option he had. He pulled up Remus’s home coordinates and selected.

The home that Remus had chosen (after his long line of rejected requests) managed to somehow make no and absolute sense simultaneously to anyone who knew him. It was a small farm in the United States just west of the Mississippi in 1842 in what would be ratified as the state of Iowa in a few years. When asked why he would choose that time and place, Remus always responded with “I thought it was funny,” whatever that meant.

Unlike most time agents who simply used the identities assigned to them by the AMO as a cover, Remus actually lived his part time.

Janus was… fairly certain he was cheating a bit to get everything done, but he maintained his small farm all on his own, growing most of his own food. The neighbors he had lived very far away, but he still spoke with them far more than Janus did his own.

Janus appeared inside the small home, his eyes already shut. “Are you hear and dressed?” Janus called. Something bumped lightly into his legs.

“I’m in the kitchen!”

Janus peaked his eyes open and squatted to pet the cat at his feet. “That doesn’t answer my question!” he called back to Remus.

“It’s a surprise!” Remus said.

“Remus.” Diesel Fuel the cat flopped to her side on the ground as Janus continued to pet her ears. He heard Remus’s footsteps, and saw cloth covering his legs, so risked looking up. He was currently not only dressed, but wearing an apron that Janus was fairly sure was not time appropriate judging by the fabric and cat pawprint design. He had a bit of flour on his hands, and it may have been a bit too white for the time and place, but Janus couldn’t be completely sure.

“What’re you doing here?” Remus asked.

“My day has been an endless series of frustrations,” Janus said. “So, I have come to see the only tolerable being in the history of the universe.”

Remus snorted. “Since I know that isn’t me, I’ll assume you’re talking about the cat.”

“I still don’t understand why you tolerate this creature,” Janus addressed Diesel Fuel. She blinked slowly up at him. “To be fair, he was assigned as my partner. I didn’t have much of a choice in it. You could go always run away and become feral in the woods if you’d like.”

“So could you, technically,” Remus pointed out.

“I’m thinking about it after today.”

“Would you like some bread?” Remus asked. “That’s all I’ve been making this afternoon. Some fresh should be coming out of the oven in a few minutes.”

“Do you have anything stronger made out of wheat?”

“Ew, no, but I do have vodka.”

“Vodka works.”

“Want me to mix it with something?”

“No.”

“One of those night then,” Remus said, easily. “Let me finish up the bread, so I don’t burn the kitchen down. You can go get the alcohol from the cellar while you wait if you want, or you can just flop down on the couch.”

He was going to just flop down on the couch.

He did just that as Remus disappeared back into his kitchen. The cat hopped onto his stomach, proceeding to purr loudly and kneed at chest. Janus petted the cat and listened to the noise of Remus moving around in the other room, letting his mind drift. His mind drifted to Virgil for a bit and he steadfastly did not allow it to drift to his brother. Yet, the thing that most was on his mind was the strange man who had flirted and charmed Janus all night before mercilessly screwing him over. ‘Pat’ he’d said his name was, but surely that was not his real name.

Janus sighed and scratched the cat’s ear. “He certainly wasn’t an amateur,” Janus mused to the cat. “With that amount of precision to get in before we did, he must have someone not on the ground feeding him information. Perhaps more than one.” He was part of a group of time traveling thieves perhaps or something worse. “I didn’t get a good look at his face since he was wearing a mask,” Janus said, “but I spent a lot of time with him, and I’m sure Remy swiped the mask from the police since it had been on me when I was arrested. It’s a good lead.”

He continued to pet Diesel Fuel. Eventually, Remus came back in, noticed Janus hadn’t bothered to get the alcohol and went outside to the cellar. “I’m going to find him,” Janus told Diesel Fuel. “I’ll stop whatever it is he’s doing, and I’ll bring him in.” Diesel Fuel mewed her support, and Janus patted her on top of the head.

Remus came back in with the bottle of vodka and handed it to him without a word. He sat down on the couch near Janus’s feet and patted his lap so Diesel Fuel would come over to him and allow Janus to sit up.

The bastard waited until he was approximately 3 shots in (he didn’t have a shot glass and was just taking drinks from the bottle) to ask the questions Janus really didn’t want to answer. “Are you mad at Emile?” Remus asked.

Janus groaned, trying to wash out the bitter taste of shame and grief with the sharp sting of vodka. It didn’t work. “No,” he said to Remus.

“Then why have you been avoiding him?”

“Shit, I’m here because I didn’t want to think about it. Can’t we just not.”

“Don’t want to think about what?

“It’s none of your business, Remus.”

He could feel Remus frowning at him, but Janus stared resolutely ahead. At least, he did until a foot poked his face. He slapped it away, but it did the job of getting Janus to look at Remus.

“It is my business,” Remus said, foot still in the air. “I’m your partner and your friend.”

“If I’m your friend, you’ll drop it.”

“So, you’re not mad at Emile,” Remus continued, contemplatively. “Did you do something to him, then?” Janus bit his lip and looked away. “What?” Remus asked. Janus didn’t respond. “Look, I’m sure he’ll forgive you for whatever it is. He’s a good guy. Just talk to him about it.”

“I can’t,” Janus said.

“Whatever it is, it’s probably been long enough that he forgives you. You literally just have to have a conversation, say you’re sorry, and everything will be A-OK.”

“I can’t,” Janus repeated.

“Why not?”

“He doesn’t know about it.”

Remus paused. “So, as far as he knows, you just cut contact with him all of a sudden for no reason and have been avoiding him ever since?”

Janus looked at his shoes. “Yeah.”

“That…” Remus said, “is not fucking fair Janus.”

“I know.”

“Then why the hell are you doing that to him? He’s like… soft and feeling-y. He’s probably really upset.”

“I know, Remus.”

“Tell him. Whatever it is.”

“I can’t.”

“Look,” Remus said. “You tell him and he either forgives you or he doesn’t. If he does, everything’s fine. If he doesn’t… well, it’s not like it would be any different from you two never being in the same room the last few years. Either way, you can’t just do this to him. He’ll probably forgive you. He’s your brother. Brothers don’t… brothers would forgive each other.”

Janus laughed softly and met Remus’s eyes. “That’s the problem,” he said. “He’d definitely forgive me.” He turned away and opened the vodka bottle again. “Now, if you’ll shut up for a few minutes, I’m going to drink until I black out.”

Chapter 6

“Really, Khalid,” Janus said, storming into his boss’s office. “A yellow?” It had been about a week since the 1920s incident, and his incident report had finally been cleared. Sure, it wasn’t a red or a black and he wasn’t facing any reprimand, but it should have been a green.

She looked up at him, clearly unconcerned. “There was an incident,” she said. “You handled it well, but there was one. Therefore, yellow.”

“It wasn’t a time travel incident! It was a rouge time traveler.”

“Janus, you helped me make these rules,” she said impatiently.

“Which is why I know this is bullshit,” he snapped.

She rolled her eyes. “If it was anyone else, you would agree with me. While you didn’t go against protocol and had no time related incidents, the fact of the matter is, you were still distracted by this ‘rouge time traveler,’ didn’t complete your mission, and were arrested.”

“He was good,” Janus said. “You can’t fault me for that. He also could be dangerous and you’re busy handing out yellows instead of working to track him down.”

She raised an eyebrow. “We are working on tracking him down,” she said. “We have done an analysis on the mask and found fibers dating to the 2010s and some DNA. Though it isn’t exactly a high priority.”

“We have no idea who he is or what he’s planning to do. Why is that not a high priority thing?”

“At the moment?” she asked. “Because we have reports of a time bomb being activated.”

“What?” Janus asked sitting up. “When?”

“New Years Eve going into the year 3,000 in Brazil,” she said. “Which you’d know about if you’d bothered to check your integration port this morning before storming into my office.”

“It’s my mission?” Janus asked.

“The incident investigation is over and your active again despite the dreaded yellow,” she said, clearly making fun of him a bit. “So, yes, and it’s a high priority mission, so I’ll be running it.”

“Who all is going?” he asked.

“Other than the two of us, Remus, Lena, and Fred,” she told him. “We leave in three hours, so, you might want to run off to Rhi before Fred gets to her and ties her up for an hour on details.”

Janus nodded and got to his feet. He turned back at the door. “I still don’t deserve the yellow,” he hissed.

She waved him off. “I’ll see you in a few hours, Picani.”

He ground his teeth a bit about the dismissal of his worries, but his resentment was slightly soothed by the fact that she’d assigned him to go on such a high priority mission and with only senior agents.

He took the advice and grabbed Remus from the office, noting Lena hadn’t been able to wrangle Fred yet as she was still at her desk, and they both headed off to see Rhi.

A few hours later, they were all in decontamination together, decked out in truly god-awful costumes. The turn of the third millennia had been a wild event, and the best way to fit in was to look like you’d grabbed something from every century in recorded human history, dyed it in neon paint, and rolled around in a vat of glitter.

Remus had opted to stick his head in a vat of glow in the dark green paint that costuming had offered them, and it wasn’t even going to be slightly disruptive to their covertness.

#study break stories #not writing

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catsafarithewriter · 4 years

Note

“I want to say it was worth it. For a while, it was.” I think it’s cute of how Haru is now grown from a girl who couldn’t dance with Baron from a girl who could fight and make remarks better than baron. I just imagine how Haru is either in a situation where she dances with Baron for both of them to get out of a dangerous situation and both get carried away with the dancing cause it reminds them of their first dance. Sorry I just love fluffs and Haru is just so amazing in your stories.

A/N: I’ll be honest, the line itself is so beautifully tragic that using it for fluff stumped me for a good while, until I eventually remembered the music box scene out of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang that I loved as a child, so I’m stealing that concept for this.

Also, this is set in a timeline when Haru and Baron have finished dancing around each other (metaphorically) and are adorable together.

The plan had been simple.

The plan had been simple and flawless and brilliant and definitely hadn’t involved Baron getting kidnapped by a mechanically-obsessed monarch.

The execution of aforementioned plan... had left some things to be desired.

“Hey, Chicky, I really don’t think this suits me...”

Haru tugged the rough tweed jacket around Muta’s broad shoulders and slapped the flat cap between his ears. “Yes, well you should have thought of that before you let Baron get kidnapped by a crazy king.” She paused, recalling her own first encounter with the Bureau, and snorted. “Not that the Bureau has a stellar record when it comes to that.”

“The birdbrain also lost him, and he’s on escape duty.”

“Toto’s on escape duty because he’s very, very good at it.” She finished fiddling with the cap. “So unless you want to be dancing instead, you’re filling the role of toy-maker extraordinaire. Honestly, Muta, it doesn’t look that bad.”

“I look like I should be yodelling from the nearest mountain.”

Haru snorted and gestured loosely to her own outfit - a white blouse layered over by a blue pinafore, with a yellow apron tied around the waist. “All I need is a shepherd’s crook, and I’d be ready to join you. Now, help me up into this box before I chicken out.”

Muta did so, and he didn’t miss the way Haru tensed as she stepped up. “Yer gonna be okay in there, Chicky?”

“Fine. Dandy. I’m just getting boxed up like some sort of twisted Christmas present so we can sneak into the palace for this royal celebration, then I’m going to have to dance like a wind up music box, and hope nobody spots the fact that I’m very much not a wind up music box until we get Baron back, and then escape without the kind of mishap that we are oh so well known for.” She grinned, far too brightly, at Muta. “I don’t know why you’d think I’d be worried.”

He raised an eyebrow.

“Just... be careful wheeling me up to the palace.”

“Gotcha. Run over every pothole and speed-bump I find, roger that.”

Haru laughed and bunched up her skirts. “Thanks, Muta.” Somewhere, a clock tower began to boom. “Alright, it’s time. Box me up.”

Baron had been mistaken for many things in his long lifetime. Some more flattering than others - there had been at least once incident where a Bible had been thrown at him - but being mistaken for a mechanical toy was fairly unusual, even for him.

He sat in the seat he’d been assigned, head drooped, shoulders gently slumped, and hands tucked neatly on his lap, and tried, for all the world, to look like a clockwork creature wound down. At first, he had tried to convince the king that he was no mechanical toy, but a living, breathing individual, but that had only incited the monarch’s greed more and he had proclaimed the ‘unique, unrivalled design’ of the newest addition to his collection for all to hear.

Somehow, Baron had suspected that if the king learnt of Creations, he would just become an even more valued part of the collection.

So he had decided to play along. Eventually, the king’s interest would wane and he would be able to escape while attention was grabbed by the next new toy. Especially since he had feigned ‘winding down;’ sinking into a seat and refusing to move, and nobody had been able to work out how to wind him back up again.

Even so, the king had still seated him along the royal table, like a prized pet for display, and it seemed escape would have to delay a little longer.

He kept his eyes dulled, his breathing shallow, and wondered how long this farce was going to go on for. He listened as three of the entertainers’ acts were deemed unsatisfactory by the king and his short attention span - citing each one as nowhere near as impressive as the mechanical figure beside him - and sent packing.

“Whoever’s next better make it good!” the king roared, and Baron nearly smirked, reminded of another monarch with a very similar outcry. Now, if he wasn’t the one captured, this would have been the perfect time for a dramatic entrance-

“Your Majesty, I can make the toy dance.”

It took everything in Baron to not immediately look up at Muta.

“Impossible,” the king grunted. “My finest toy-makers have examined the toy and have produced nothing-”

Surprisingly quick for one of his girth - at least to those who didn’t know him - Muta made his way around the royal table and set to examining the ‘toy’. Baron felt his head tilted back, and was treated to the unexpected image of Muta in a tweed suit and flat cap. He felt his eye twitch at the attempt not to laugh.

He suspected Muta saw it regardless, for he was dropped back to his original position rather harshly. “Yeah, see this is part of a set, so once it’s wound down, it ain’t gonna work again until it’s reunited with its partner.”

‘What are you playing at?’ Baron wondered. His head dropped down, he could only listen as Muta paraded back across the room to what Baron had briefly glimpsed as a large red box.

“And you have found this partner?” the king asked, his scepticism only outweighed by his hope.

“Course I have. I made ‘em both.” There was the sound of Muta opening something, followed by awed muttering from the royal guests. Baron caught a few strains of “well, they don’t look the same,” from a couple of onlookers, and dearly wished Muta had left his head at a more convenient tilt.

“So how does this work?” the king asked. “Do you have to wind them both up or...?”

“Nah, it’s... uh, wireless winding,” Muta bluffed.”Look, just wait and see.”

Baron wondered whether that was Muta-speak for: no idea how this is going to pan out, so let’s not make any promises. All the same, he could have done with a better indication of what Muta had planned. As things went, he could only listen as there was a mechanical whirring, and then a strain of music box melody. A few delighted gasps.

He raised his head and saw Haru.

She was poised on a red stand, the interior of the box opened out into a trifold mirror that reflected back on her still form. As the music fell into a familiar tune, her head snapped up. It ticked from side to side in time with the music, searching, searching, until her eyes settled on him.

Then, with precise movements, she stepped down from the box and made her clockwork way to the royal table. Her path wasn’t direct - the steps were that of a waltz, a shifting box step - but there was little surprise in him when she halted before him. A single sure hand rested between them.

“Would you care to dance?” her eyes asked.

Mechanical toys did not smile, he reminded himself as he took the hand.

Still, he knew his eyes replied, “Always.”

Around the table he was led and he found himself surprised when Haru’s eyes were level with his. He shouldn’t have been, he noted; they had adventured much together in the ensuing years and she had not grown since her return to the Bureau, and yet...

His mind went, unbidden, to a dance under similar circumstances a good decade ago, only he had been the rescuer and she the rescued then. How the tables had turned. How things had changed as, with a confidence that had only been a foundation all that time ago, she guided his hand to her waist and laid her own on his shoulder. She leant in.

“I suppose this makes you the damsel in distress then, huh?” she breathed, a teasing smile ghosting her lips.

“I could get used to it with such a fetching knight in shining armour,” he returned.

“Oh shush. If I blush, I’ll blow my cover.”

With a flick of his wrist, she spun, her skirts swaying and her steps sure, and when she was swept back into his arms, it was not awe, but calculations that lit her eyes. Her gaze slid past him and across the room.

“I take it you have a plan?” he asked, drawing her close to hide the telltale flicker of lips.

“Of course I do. Unlike some, I don’t rush in without an exit strategy.”

“You did, however, stop for a costume change.”

He heard the quick intake of breath, a laugh smothered. “I needed to look the part, and combat boots and trench coat don’t exactly match the music box aesthetic.”

“It looks lovely on you.”

“I want to say it was worth it. For a while, it was.” She wiggled her eyebrows, their faces so close that no onlookers would catch the discrepancy. “But this dress has like a hundred layers to shape it properly and I’m melting like a snowball in summer right now. Be glad I love you enough to suffer through this.”

“Be careful, Haru; keep proclaiming your love for me and I’ll have no choice but to kiss you and that’ll definitely blow your cover.”

“Oh, just shut up and dance with me.” She twirled away as if to remove the temptation, but when she settled back into his arms they were closer than ever. “Kiss me when this is all over and I’m not melting into a puddle.”

“Is that a request?”

“It’s a promise.”

Somewhere along the way they had both forgone their mechanical deceit and their movements had smoothed into an intimate duet that sent Haru spinning again, head tilting back in unshed laughter that nearly broke through as she was gathered back into his arms and dipped.

“That wasn’t part of the dance I remember, Mr Gikkingen,” she admonished. Her hair, which had been so carefully pinned back into a doll’s bob, had now begun to lose its way, and wayward strands curled about her face.

“Things change,” Baron whispered back, and he resisted the urge to tuck her hair away.

Another sudden breath, another laugh hidden away, and Haru dropped her head back, knowing full well that if she stared into those emerald green eyes any longer she was definitely going to do something to give the game away. She let her gaze drift across the grand hall, across the king and his royal entourage, across the amassed guests, across Muta furiously gesturing--

“Shoot,” Haru muttered. She shifted her weight, signalling to Baron to pull her out of the recklessly romantic dip. “Okay, I think we’ve just been rumbled.”

“Why?”

“The music box ran down a good thirty seconds ago.”

The king slammed to his feet with a sound like a gunshot. “You’re not a toy! Guards, seize her!”

“Ah,” Baron said. “Would now be a good time for your exit strategy?”

“Yeah. Run.”

#Anon #the cat returns #replies #I felt like some fluff is needed after TBF #also effs sake it keeps effing up the keep reading line #i'm so sorry fokls #excuse me vvhile i go beat up tumblr #everything said and done though that was an adorable prompt to get #also i now have both 'truly scrumptious' and 'doll on a music box' stuck in my head #lowkey slain by the understated romance of Potts singing about how much he loves Truly while he's meant to be on rescue duty #like that's just meant to be their disguises #ya didn't have to go so hard with the romance #and yet here we are #the cat queues #cat writes

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seagreen-meets-grey · 4 years

Text

Hooked On A Feeling Ch. 2

When Hiccup and Astrid realize they’ve never hung out alone before, they decide to change that. And how do you better spend time with your Good Friend than by playing Mario Kart all night?

[Chapter 1: Come A Little Bit Closer] [Chapter 2: Fooled Around And Fell In Love] [Chapter 3: Go All The Way]

Crossposted on ao3 and ff.net

_______________

Hiccup needed to pee so badly.

Ever since he’d dozed off earlier, he’d become more uncomfortable by the minute. He really didn’t want to leave his position now. It had taken him so long to shuffle ever closer to Astrid again and his whole slow process of inch by inch would be lost. But another painful pinch from his bladder later, he couldn’t take it anymore.

Pausing the game mid-race, he put his controller to the side, moved to sit up, and did the next without thinking. He leaned over, kissed Astrid on the cheek as if it were the most natural thing in the world and left to the bathroom.

As soon as he’d closed the door behind him, he froze, eyes wide as saucers. What had just happened? Why the hell had he done that?!

Only his bladder was able to get him to move again and after he’d relieved himself, he began pacing through the bathroom.

He couldn’t just go back now; it would be so awkward. He’d just ruined the night. Maybe he should just stay in here forever or sneak out the window and never come back. But his Switch was still here and he couldn’t just jump from the second floor.

It shouldn’t even be that big of a deal. They were good friends – best friends, even. And it was just a kiss on the cheek. But for some reason, it suddenly felt like so much more.

Too afraid to go back and face her reaction, he continued pacing back and forth, then in circles, then he lay face down on the floor with a loud muffled groan. He didn’t know how long he’d been in here by now. She must be thinking he was either taking a very huge dump or that he’d fallen asleep on the bowl.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” he chastised himself, accentuating every word by banging his forehead on the fluffy carpet.

The knock on the door made him wince. “Hiccup?” Fuck. “Everything okay?”

He scrambled to get up, mussing up his hair in an attempt to smooth it, and opened the door, leaning as casually as possible against the frame. “’M fine.”

“Right,” she frowned and pushed her bangs out of her face. “Do you want to go outside for a bit? Take a walk, clear our head of… the tiredness?”

“Yes,” he said maybe a little too immediately. Some fresh air while walking through the dark where they couldn’t see each other’s face very well sounded so much better than sitting next to each other in a stuffy room after such a terribly awkward situation.

They donned their coats and left the house. The cold air hit their faces, cooling the blood that was still rushing through their veins.

Astrid was glad that she’d taken the time to go back to her room to get her warm hat and mittens while Hiccup had been waiting for her outside. In the soft light of the moon reflecting off the snow beneath their feet, her breath condensed in front of her face. Wiggling her toes inside her boots to warm them up for the walk, she switched on her flashlight and tested the range of the light cone. The batteries should hold for a while.

They walked down the quiet street, only the flashlight and a few lamps here and there illuminating their path. It had stopped snowing for the most part, a handful of stars blinking in the sky in-between thick clouds. Her light reflected off the sign that informed them they were leaving Berk, right over the smaller sign pointing in the direction of Raven Point Lake.

For a while, neither of them talked. Astrid was rather glad about the silence that was only interrupted by the snow scrunching under their every step, still a little flustered by this new tension between herself and her friend. She was wondering if her heart was beating that fast because of Hiccup or because she’d had way too much sugar and caffeine. It was probably both.

She watched him from the corner of her eye, taking note of the thoughtful lines on his face. Was he having similar thoughts, maybe overthinking everything in true Hiccup fashion, or was she the one attributing too much importance to every interaction?

“Look, I’m vaping,” Hiccup broke the silence and exhaled a large cloud of breath.

Astrid snorted. “Wow, I’m amazed. I thought you were contemplating the meaning of the universe just now, but turns out there is a hamster inside your brain running backwards on its wheel.”

“His name is Sharpshot, because he’s such a sharp shot,” Hiccup said. “He’s a hamster that knows how to run backwards, that must count for something.”

“You’re not funny.”

“Astrid, I can see you grin.”

She switched off her flashlight. “No, you can’t.”

Naturally, he tripped only the blink of an eye later. But instead of faceplanting into the snow, which would have been pretty hilarious, he got hold of her arm and saved himself. “I don’t want to walk straight into the lake,” he declared and held onto her.

“I can still push you or lead you right into the water.”

“Nope, I’m smarter than you,” he claimed and let go of her arm to fish his phone out of his pocket and turned on its flash. She cursed the drop of her stomach at the loss of his touch.

“Cheater,” she huffed and switched her own light back on. When Hiccup put his phone back into his pocket, there was a tiny victorious smirk on his face which she deliberately chose to ignore.

They turned one more corner and reached the lake. The water was black and smooth as glass, the reflection of the moon nearly undistorted, only a few snowflakes softly creating miniature ripples on the surface. They trudged down the path along the shore, leisurely passing the ghosts of people jogging during the day, families on their Sunday stroll, sniffing dogs and their shivering owners, and the occasional old couple watching the commotion from one of the benches now covered in ice and snow.

There was that look on his face again, the one that creased his forehead, paled the many freckles on his skin and drenched his eyes in a darker color. She didn’t like it, had always felt like there was something wrong with the world when a spirit such as Hiccup’s could be pulled out of the sky by something stronger than gravity.

She’d seen a variation of that look before, albeit a much heavier, soul-crushing one, not quite two years ago. And now she couldn’t bear it either.

“How’s your mom doing?” she tentatively asked.

He looked up as if surprised she was still there, in the world outside his own head. “Mom’s doing fine.” The creases were gone and he playfully kicked at a frozen clump of grass, and Astrid wondered if he had even realized he’d drifted off into his own galaxy there for a moment.

She bit her lip and, for the first time since it had invaded her head, voiced the thought that had been sitting in a corner of her mind for months and had only come out again recently. “I’m sorry. I feel like I haven’t been there for you enough.”

He stopped walking. “Where is this suddenly coming from?”

“Well…” she shrugged, searching the lake for words. “We realized we’d never hung out alone before. That makes me think that I probably also wasn’t there for you enough when your mom was, you know…” Almost dying of cancer. Even she wasn’t brave enough to say it out loud, for she hated what it did to the life in Hiccup’s eyes.

He regarded her for a minute, then gave her a reassuring smile and continued down the path again. “Don’t worry. You were actually the most helpful, you know.”

“Really?” She caught up to him and frowned, remembering several incidents where she probably could have been more tactful, blurting out bold words before her sensitivity could join the party. “How so?”

“You didn’t pamper me or act like I was a bomb ready to go off any second. You were real with me when everyone else pretended that everything was fine. I don’t think I ever said thank you, so… Thanks.”

The sincerity in his voice warmed her from the inside, untwisting the knot there, and she punched him lightly on the arm. “You’re welcome.”

He pretended to be hurt but the twitching corners of his mouth betrayed him, so he quit the dramatics and draped an arm over her shoulder. “I’m glad you’re my friend.”

When she glanced over, she was caught in his smile. It was so genuine and soft and so close that she couldn’t think of a witty comeback on the fly, so she just nodded. “Me too.”

They had slowed to a stop, standing there in a halfway hug. As if it had waited for the invitation, the weird sexual tension from before snuck back up on them, dashing down the path and enveloping them with a thousand volts that gave Astrid goosebumps all over her arms and back.

Hiccup was the first to clear his throat and step away, rubbing at his neck. She brought the light up to his face, illuminating his skin, and she wondered if it was red from the cold or something else.

Her own runny nose and numb cheeks reminded her of the cold as well, inciting a longing for her fluffy socks and warm, cozy bed. “Let’s head back.”

“Good idea, my toes are freezing off.”

“Rather your toes than your fingers,” she said before shaking her head, competitive grin back on her face. “Scratch that, I can beat you faster if you lose your fingers.”

“Milady!” Hiccup mock-gasped. “That’s so cruel. I didn’t know you had it in you.”

“Yeah, you did.”

He shrugged and nodded. “Okay, yes, I did.” When he bumped her shoulder with his own, she retaliated by shoving him, making him stagger precariously. He caught himself and used his momentum to come after her, chasing her down the path. Laughing, she ran ahead of him, back to the street, and scooped up a handful of snow that she hurled at him the moment he turned the corner. He’d anticipated the attack, though, and ducked just in time to avoid being hit in the face. When he came back up, his hands were already forming a snowball, and the game was officially on.

They reached her house completely covered in white. Hiccup’s hair was wet from the snow she’d showered him with after he had stuck a handful down the back of her shirt, and her mittens were soaked.

After she put their boots next to the heater and hung her jacket, she still felt the adrenaline from their battle coursing through her. When Hiccup was tugging at his clammy socks, she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

“Just letting you know that I’m going to the bathroom.” She even winked for good measure before she left the room, his eyes burning through her all the way down the hall.

Not much later, they were lounging on her bed again, warm and dry and competitive, drinking their energy drinks and handling their controllers as if it was second nature at this point.

“How’d it go at Doctor Mala’s?” Hiccup broke the silence after a while of concentrated racing, only to backtrack right after. “Um, sorry. You don’t have to answer that if it’s too personal.”

A quick glance reassured him she was smiling, not glaring at him ready to strike. Asking the friend you’ve prior to now never spent time alone with how their visit at the dermatologist went probably overstepped some kind of line.

“First of all, why wouldn’t I tell you? You’re one of my closest friends.” Upon him opening his mouth to object, she added, “Even though we never hung out alone before now. I don’t define my closest friends by that kind of bullshit argument. Second, she said all my moles look fine. Nothing to worry about.”

He hadn’t even noticed the tension in his shoulders before they relaxed at her words. With her family history of skin cancer, nothing to worry about was music to his ears. “That’s great. Both of what you said.” He bumped her elbow with his and earned her immediate complain.

“Hey, jackass! Are you trying to force me off the road?!”

“That’s the plan, Baby Peach.”

All she did in response was grumble and he was sure the name Waluigi was mentioned in the same breath as a few of her favorite swear words. The smile on his face was wiped clean, though, the second he took a look at the current positions of the characters and cursed. “We fucked up, Astrid. Look who’s up front!”

“What?!” She leaned forward and smacked her hands complete with controller on her crossed legs, exasperated. “Not him! He’s the most boring one!”

“Well, step on it, milady! We can’t let him win!”

For the next few races, they actually worked together to bring Mario down a few positions, burying their rivalry until he was defeated. After that, their truce was dropped immediately.

During a break in-between races, Astrid stretched her arms over her head and Hiccup had to avert his eyes when her shirt rode up a few inches and revealed a patch of skin right above the waistline of her sweatpants. The cute noises she made while stretching and yawning at the same time didn’t help at all and he felt his face go very warm.

“I don’t know about you,” she yawned, “but I could kill for some hot cacao right now. You want some?”

“Hm-hmm.”

“Sweet.” In one motion, she swung her legs over the edge of the bed, stood up and bounced on her toes. It took him a bit longer to get out of his comfortable position, tired as he was, so he accepted her outstretched hand gladly. He blamed it on his lack of sleep that he didn’t let go right away, allowing her to pull him out of the room before dropping her hand.

The kitchen still smelled of pizza, even though one window was slightly ajar. The underfloor-heating warmed his feet and for a minute he considered warming up a piece of the pizza. But he decided that would require too much effort. Instead, he was content with watching Astrid grab two mugs from her cupboard, fill them with milk and cacao powder and put them in the microwave.

She, too, had briefly considered eating more pizza. But her mind had gotten sidetracked when she’d looked over at Hiccup and found him staring bleary-eyed at the food. Her inner voice screamed cute so loudly, it drowned out every other thought.

She had to force herself back to her task at hand, which was to prepare the hot cacao, not to drool over the sight of her suddenly hard to resist friend. Sure, he’d always been adorable, but right now, when she looked at him in her kitchen in the middle of the night, wearing pajamas and leaning against the fridge like he belonged here, her heart began racing in her chest like it was a Mario Kart player and her stomach felt like it was zooming over Rainbow Road.

Where was all this coming from all of a sudden? She tried figuring out if she’d always felt this way or if it was just now developing at rapid speed, but she wasn’t capable of thinking clearly at the moment; she was way too distracted – and tired. Her fingers started twitching against the mugs as she put them in the microwave and set the timer.

For a minute, she watched the porcelain spin slowly as the invisible heat waves did their thing. When she turned around, she found Hiccup regarding her through sleepy eyes, and a sudden urge, spurred on by her raving heart, set her muscles into motion.

Before she could think about it, she crossed the space between them, grabbed the collar of his shirt and yanked his lips down to hers. The muffled sound of surprise got stuck in his throat as he completely froze against her. When several moments had passed and he was still imitating a statue, the rational part of her brain caught up with her. This had been a very bad idea.

The ping of the microwave suddenly brought life back into Hiccup. He pulled back from her and awkwardly shuffled out of her grasp that left his shirt crumpled where her fist had held onto it like the tattered end of a rope dangling over a bottomless abyss.

“Oh, look at that,” he exclaimed, voice a little too loud, and dedicated his entire focus to the microwave and its content. “The hot cacao is done. Ow, and it’s hot!” An awkward chuckle escaped him while he fumbled with the mugs, avoiding looking at her at any cost. “Who would have thought, right? That hot cacao is hot? Not me, certainly.” He made a face as if he’d just bitten into a big lemon and regretted it deeply.

Astrid didn’t regret anything – but she had to admit, certain decisions of hers hadn’t played out very favorable. For once in her life, she should have thought before taking action. Her knack for impulse decisions had finally come to bite her in the butt. She knew Hiccup, and she knew he was going to avoid the whole topic for a while until he felt like the awkwardness of the situation had cooled down, and then he was going to avoid ever talking about it again.

But she wanted to talk about it. Because her impulses didn’t just happen, they were based on instinct. And her instincts had given her the impression that there was something between them tonight, a tension that certainly couldn’t have been only one-sided. Or was that just wishful thinking?

Her thoughts racing, she quietly followed Hiccup back to her room. Neither of them said a word as they settled back on the bed, quite some space between them. They sipped at their chocolate drinks and stared at the TV for a while until Astrid couldn’t take the uncomfortable silence anymore and exchanged her mug for her controller. Hiccup followed her lead and soon enough they were back at insulting each other over the game.

Astrid almost let out a sigh of relief when the awkward tension from earlier dissolved and made way for their usual playful banter. At some point, they would have to talk about what happened there in the kitchen, but for now, she was content with kicking his ass at a video game that he was way better at than she would have liked. He was serious competition and somehow, that sent a shiver down her spine as her lips tingled pleasantly.

After every race, the amount of liquid in their mugs became lesser and the final races came closer. They were head to head at the top of the ranking list, too far ahead of the rest of the characters to be outrun by anyone anymore. It was just her and Hiccup fighting for the ultimate victory, for the pride and bragging rights that came with it, and the privilege of receiving an extra Christmas present.

She tipped her head back to chug down the last of her chocolate, put her mug away and reached for her controller to start the next race, when Hiccup suddenly leaned towards her.

“Hold on,” he mumbled and lifted his hand to her face. “You got some foam right there.” His brows furrowed in concentration as his finger gingerly stroked over the skin at the edge of her lips. She didn’t dare to move when he hesitated to pull his hand back.

His fingers wandered further, every micromotion leaving fiery tingles in its wake. Her breath hitched when his skin touched her lips and lightly traced over every line and curve, with undivided attention to first her lower, then her upper lip. Transfixed, she didn’t realize she was leaning forward until he moved his hand to her neck and brought his face closer to hers, equally mesmerized.

This time, he didn’t freeze. The first brush of lips was chaste and hesitant, like he was testing the waters, as if her blatantly kissing him earlier hadn’t been obvious enough. When she leaned more firmly into him, signaling him that she wouldn’t reject him, he grew more confident, burying his other hand in her hair, pulling her closer. She sat on her legs and wrapped her arms around his neck.

He tasted like liquid chocolate, and when she slid her tongue along his lower lip, there was something else sugary, something more artificial – energy drink. Her heart was pounding, pumping blood through her veins that she was sure was made of sheer viscous caffeine.

Her chest felt like it was flooded with molten caramel, powered by the rush of soft lips meeting hers over and over again, of teeth colliding, followed by a breathy chuckle and a new approach to get it right. She tilted her head a little further and goosebumps broke out over her neck when the hand in her hair wandered lower to join the other.

Trivial concepts like time and space became irrelevant. If sleep hadn’t been pressing against the insides of her temple, she’d have embraced the idea of staying like this forever.

But, as bubblegum had been teaching humanity for ages, every bubble had to burst at some point. This particular one was maliciously speared by the razor-sharp tip of the pike that was her alarm clock.

She almost bit her tongue – or Hiccup’s, because who was to say at this point – in an effort to scramble up and get to her phone. She knew it was somewhere on her desk, discarded underneath various folders and clothes she’d thrown there while half-heartedly cleaning her room earlier that day. And there it was, blaring her latest favorite metalcore song, buried underneath a t-shirt and an old bra. After a few hectic swipes of her thumb, she shut the alarm off and shoved the bra back underneath the pile of chaos.

“Sorry, forgot to turn it off.” Blasted mood killer at seven in the morning!

When she turned around, though, she doubted Hiccup had heard a word of what she’d just said. He was sitting there staring in her general direction through foggy eyes, dreamy smile on his face. She settled back next to him, shoulder to shoulder, and experimentally said, “I really think Baby Peach is the best character of them all, seriously. And Waluigi? I’d do him, if you know what I mean.”

His elaborate answer consisted of an absentminded hum as his eyes never left her profile. Very nice, she could work with that.

Without further ado, she took her controller, leaned more comfortably against Hiccup and started the next race. She didn’t say a word, just concentrated on the game, a shrewd smile on her face. It wasn’t as if she was hiding anything from him. He just didn’t pay attention, and she wasn’t going to let that opportunity go in favor of her victory looming on the horizon.

It took him an embarrassing time of two laps around the race course to notice.

“Hey!” he complained, finally returning to planet Earth and grabbing his controller. “Now who’s the cheater?!”

Her grin only grew wider. “What am I supposed to do when you’re too busy staring at me?”

“How about ‘not cheat’?!” Waluigi slowly joined the race, his cart jerkily moving across the bumpy grass where he’d been catapulted by the other racers passing him on their war to victory.

“I wasn’t cheating,” she said with as much sweet innocence as she could muster, fully aware he wasn’t buying any of it. “I thought you would notice that the game was back on.”

He huffed and feigned being offended. “You did that on purpose. Is everything you do just a trick to make sure you win?”

“Of course. I thought you knew that by now, slowpoke.” And with that, she crossed the finish line. Despite his best efforts, Hiccup came in last, unable to make up for the distance even the slowest character had on him at this point.

With the advance Astrid had just gained, it was impossible for him to beat her now, and two races later, she threw her hands in the air with a cry of victory.

“YES! Eat my dust, losers! See that, Waluigi? I won!”

“Why do you have to say Waluigi’s name like it’s an insult? He would have destroyed you if you hadn’t cheated.” Hiccup pretended to sulk, but her cheery demeanor was contagious.

“Because Waluigi is…” she put her chin on his shoulder, “a big…” the hand holding her controller poked his cheek, “ugly…” it poked his forehead, “loooser!”

Hiccup pouted but she could see the corners of his mouth twitch. “You’re really proud of this, aren’t you? Winning in a family-friendly video game that children could play?”

“Don’t even try and play my victory down, loser. You know it’s an achievement.”

He raised an eyebrow and glanced at her from the corner of his eye. “You saying winning against me is an achievement? Because you’re right, it is. Not in your case, however, ‘cause you cheated, Baby Peach.”

In retort, she poked him in the side and watched with satisfaction as he winced. She repeated the motion and he continuously flinched away from her, until he grabbed her hands and pushed them away from him. “Stop tickling me, you’re defiling your already spoiled victory!”

“You said yourself that it’s not possible to cheat on Mario Kart.” Despite his efforts to keep her fingers at bay, she didn’t even think about giving up and pushed against his defense. “Hence, I won fair and square.”

“Can’t cheat in the game but can manipulate the other players. Fair and square my ass!”

“Are you trying to make me your enemy, loser?” She threw herself against him, successfully breaching his defense and tackling him to her bed for the second time that night. Once again, she felt the warmth of his body radiate through his clothes, could count the freckles on his face and admire the green of his eyes. This time, however, she didn’t get overwhelmed and push him off the mattress. And neither did he.

His arms enveloped her and pulled her closer until she was pressed down on his chest and her face was buried in his shoulder.

“Hmm,” he mused, “somehow, I feel like I won something, too.”

“You’re more cheesy than our pizza,” she told his shoulder, voice muffled against his shirt. Struggling against his hold on her, she tried to sit up, but he just tightened his arms around her.

“Nuh-uh, you’re not getting away! Ow!”

Kicking her knees into his bony legs seemed effective so she continued until he retaliated by jabbing his fingers into her sides. Now she was the one twitching from his attack, trying to escape while uncontrollable laughter filled her lungs and took her breath away.

After more than 24 hours of living on zero sleep and the adrenaline level built up by the caffeine crashing down, it wasn’t long until they both ran out of energy. Sitting up took a lot of joined effort, but it was worth it when she was leaning back against him in his loose embrace, his chin resting on her shoulder.

Outside her window, trees and roofs stood out as silhouettes against the dark gray sky. With every passing minute, a new detail appeared in the growing light. Soon enough, the first beam of golden fire glistened on the white mantle, illuminating the few silent snowflakes coming down from heady heights.

It was so comfortable, the picture so quiet and peaceful, the human blanket enveloping her so warm and cozy. The weight of her eyelids became heavier, the urge to succumb to sleep ever stronger. The land of dreams was calling for her like a siren singing for a poor sailor on his ship.

“You still awake?” the voice of her blanket mumbled.

“Hmm.”

The blanket stifled a yawn. “Do you think we would have ended up here sooner if we had hung out together much earlier?”

Astrid needed a minute to make sense of the words, her brain as foggy as the wafts of mist traveling through the fields outside her window. “Dunno, maybe. But for what it’s worth,” she opened her mouth wide for a yawn so long she almost forgot what she wanted to say, “but for what it’s worth, I always thought you were cute.”

The blanket chuckled and she could feel the low vibrations against her back. “I think I prefer sleep-deprived Astrid over regular Astrid. She says nice things to me.”

“Shut up.” For more she wasn’t capable. The talking blanket helped her lie under a different blanket and removed the socks from her feet before it settled back next to her.

“Sleep tight,” a voice she somehow associated with love songs, caramel and snowball fights whispered in her ear, and it was the last thing she remembered before she fell asleep.

The first time she woke up, she had trouble making sense of her surroundings. She was wearing her sweatpants and comfiest bra to sleep and there was someone sawing logs inside her room. Blinking her eyes open just a crack, she immediately closed them again against the light shining through her window like it was trying to blind her.

After a minute of orientation, she traced the lumberjack back to the extra body in her bed. With a groan, she half-heartedly shook it and complained, picking up an equally half-hearted sleep-filled apology before she felt the body change position, and the lumberjack was gone.

The second time she woke was when a heat wave broke out over her body. Her legs were cooking in her sweatpants and her bra was sticking to her skin. With closed eyes so they wouldn’t get burned by the light, she wiggled out of her pants and sat up to remove her bra, then teetered over to the window like a drunk person to open it a small crack.

When she settled back on her pillow, heat finally under control, a long arm sneaked over her waist and pulled her closer. Somehow, that new heat wasn’t that bad, and sleep pulled her back in.

#httyd #hiccstrid #hiccup haddock #astrid hofferson #ff #fanfiction #modern au #fluff #maja writes #mario kart

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