archester-creations

[archester-creations]

Rated: T

Pairing: Chris Halliwell/Wyatt Halliwell

Word Count: ~400

A/N: hurt no comfort, incest, hanahaki disease, @hanahaki4hanami prompt: cyclamen

Chris stares at Wyatt. Past Wyatt. Two year old Wyatt. He is pure, good still, and Chris knows it. He can feel it in the thrumming of the magic inside him, in the bond that doesn’t quite connect them yet but will once he is born. The bond that holds on stubbornly despite being twenty years in the past, grasping onto his wrists like iron shackles when once it was the weave of a dorky friendship bracelet. Chris breathes. Wyatt breathes, too, face peaceful as he sleeps. Tears burn behind Chris’ eyes and roots twist in his lungs. He orbs with apologies falling like flower petals.

Cyclamen. Bianca helped him learn the name of the flower, months after they became friends, when she caught him coughing up a few of the petals. They researched it together, more for her curiosity than his. All he knew was that it would kill him one day, and that was all he needed. One way or another, Wyatt would be his death, whether his older brother wanted it or not. That didn’t satisfy Bianca. She wanted to know about the disease– hanahaki, the magic books they could get their hands on called it– and she wanted to know about the flowers—cyclamen, flowers that mean lasting feelings, deep affection, innocent and passionate love. Resignation. Devotion. Goodbyes.

Bianca made him talk about it– his feelings for Wyatt, how he missed the big brother he grew up with, how he sometimes still saw him in flashes like echoes and how that almost hurt worse– because that’s the only solution the books offered that was available to them. He couldn’t tell Wyatt and if they used the removal potion he would forget Wyatt, and that wouldn’t be good for Wyatt. It wouldn’t be good for Chris, either. Chris couldn’t lose the last family he had, no matter how fucked. So he talked to Bianca through a clenched jaw until time loosened it, because it made Bianca feel better, and it made the roots in his lungs brittle; a plant with no water. Until he got better. Until they thought he could go to the past, where his Wyatt wasn’t, and the flowers would die fully as he saved his brother.

Except that’s not what happened. Except young Wyatt and Piper and Phoebe and Paige remind him of the brother he grew up with, and the roots in his lungs swell with the influx of water until Chris feels petals tickling at his ribcage and crawling up his throat. He is in the past and Wyatt will kill him, whether his older brother wants to or not, but Chris will save him first.

#charmed #chris halliwell #chris x wyatt #hanahaki4hanami #hanahaki disease #hurt no comfort #incest #cyclamen #i typed all these tags with a cat on my lap #with his head on my arm #so be proud of me. i guess? #hes making it easier than he usually does tbh #writings

[archester-creations]

Rated: T

Pairing: Guy Hamdon/Ben Tennyson

Word Count: ~4k

A/N: Written for @hanahaki4hanami and while it doesn't have vomiting one scene is definitely inspired by it

Flowers. It’s a little hard to tell with the way they glow, colours flashing between a scarlet red and aqua, and the feel of the petals between his fingers, somewhere between silk and a soft wood. But the smell, once you get past the bile and blood, and the shape of the petals makes it clear they’re flowers.

“Kelly, why am I spitting these up?” Guy asks from his seat on the table, kicking his legs absently. Kelly looks up from the Shemanual with something akin to worry in her eyes, her face pale. It doesn’t make him feel great. There are a lot of good things with being Shezow, but he’s found a lot of rough consequences too. He still remembers his brief attempt at a “dark and gritty” phase.

“Are you…” Kelly looks back down at the book, biting her lip. “In love?”

“In love?” Guy scoffs, laughing in disbelief. He hasn’t been in love in– ever, he thinks.

“Are you… sure?” Kelly asks, looking up at him and the stack of petals next to him again with a frown.

“... what does the book say?” Guy asks, feeling suspicious now. Kelly licks her lips, tasting the grape of her chapstick.

“It says when a Zow becomes trapped in unspoken love they start coughing up flowers. Till they confess or till it… kills them,” Kelly looks down. “The shemanual calls it hanahaki.”

“Oh,” Guy says. He stares at the petals next to him, watching them rotate between their two colours, taking in the shape of the petals. They glitter like sequins, they’re soft like silk behind the flaking red. After a few moments he begins to laugh. “Then I’m fine, because I’m not in love.”

“Guy…” Kelly says sadly.

“I’m not,” Guy repeats, looking at her. She sighs.

“Fine. Can you at least ask one of your alien buddies about them?” Guy opens his mouth, but she’s quick to speak over him. “They’re clearly not terrestrial and I’d like to know more about them, at least. It’d make me feel better.”

Guy sighs. “Alright, next time I see one of them, okay?”

“Thank you,” Kelly says, tone sarcastic but eyes sincere.

“Hey, do you know anything about flowers?” Shezow asks Diamondhead as he’s holding a shield up for them, stopping this stupid laser some smuck left firing.

“Flowers?” Diamondhead asks incredulously, looking back at her. “No, why?”

Shezow shakes her head. “No reason, just found some alien ones and my partner’s curious. I think she wants to see if she can make a cutting and grow more, but she needs to know more about them first and we don’t really know where to start looking.”

“So you ask the first big alien you see?” Diamondhead asks and Shezow shrugs.

“I’ll ask my si- sidekick and see what she says. She knows shit like that better than me,” Diamondhead says. It’s not the first time one of these aliens has nearly slipped on the word ‘sister’, and sometimes Shezow wonders what it means. Have they just not been doing the superhero gig for very long? Was their sister not a secret before? Or do they just trust Shezow enough that a part of them wants to tell her the secret, but the importance of a secret identity won out every time? Shezow’s chest tightens and she coughs, just slightly.

“Thanks, big guy.” Shezow winks. “Now I think it’s time to fight a little laser with laser.”

It wasn’t very hard to realize the ten aliens he fought with as Shezow occasionally were all one person. Maybe it would’ve been if Guy didn’t have his own– albeit much smaller– transformation, but it wasn’t too hard to put two and two together when one guy would run off and then another, different guy would show up several minutes later with the first nowhere in sight. There aren’t many aliens in Megadale. Not ones that look so obvious or fight crime, at least.

He sighs, looking at the petals he coughed up after Diamondhead left and tapping his fingers against the table. The shemanual has never been wrong before, but… Guy scrubs his hands over his face before he can consider the possible smudging of his eyeliner. The worst part is, given the flower, there’s only one possible answer if the shemanual is right and he’s pretty sure Kelly knows it.

“The flowers are supposed to represent the person you love in some way,” she’d said before he left. Guy gathers up the flowers a little rougher than he needs to and throws them in the container with all the rest. Since they don’t know what they are exactly, they haven’t been able to throw them out or even burn them. Just because they’re fine in his body, doesn’t mean they’d be okay when introduced to other conditions. Or so Kelly said. Personally, Guy thinks if they grew inside him they should be perfectly safe even if they’re alien. Maybe they even only look like the alien flowers they represent, but are much closer biologically to something from earth.

But what’s he know? Science is his worst subject.

It’s stupid anyhow, whatever this is. Guy’s never been in love before and he’s not in love now. Especially with some boy he only kinda knows who turns into ten, admittedly really cool, different aliens. If he was, he’d know it.

“Hey! Shezow!” Diamondhead calls, running up to him. Shezow turns and nearly laughs at the dents Diamondhead is leaving in the sidewalk. “I have the info on those flowers you wanted!” He stops in front of him with a wide smile, holding out a pile of pages held together with a paperclip with print Shezow is sure is too neat to be his. Too neat to be Diamondhead’s, at least. One of the other alien forms could’ve written it, or his human form, or one of his partners. The idea the boy behind Diamondhead could’ve taken the time to handwrite multiple pages of information on an alien flower for him makes him flush. He swallows down the swirl of flowers.

“Thanks,” Shezow says, keeping his eyes on the packet as he takes it from him.

“Sure thing!” Diamondhead smiles at him. “Anything for my favourite super-powered sidekick.”

“Sidekick?” Shezow repeats, looking up at him. “Excuse you, you’re the sidekick here.”

Diamondhead snorts, but it’s fond and amused. It’s an old joke between friends, not distaste like he got from those assholes when he was just starting and considered joining a bigger team. He’s still glad he’d decided against it in the end. And glad he tried, if just to force the old heroes too stuck in their ways to see past themselves to actually look at other heroes for a change. Shezow folds the papers to store them in an empty pouch on his utility belt.

Later, he throws up the petals he’d swallowed down.

“This is a dangerous place right now, you know.” Guy jolts at the hissing voice and looks up into XLR8’s visor. He showed up out of nowhere, right as Guy was about to transform. Though it’s not very surprising. It’s more XLR8’s thing than any of the others to show up suddenly, completely silent. She curls her hand into a fist, hiding her ring, despite knowing no one else who’s noticed it has ever connected the dots so the idea of XLR8 being able to is a little silly. But she also knows he’s a good hero. She won’t risk it.

“Is it?” Guy asks, coughing as she nearly uses her Shezow voice on instinct. If XLR8 notices the slight way her voice warbles, she can’t tell.

“Well yeah,” he gestures out of the alley, to where the villain of the week is making a giant mess of the road. Without a doubt, her dad will be complaining about it during dinner. Though he’s started to complain less, between the years of living in Megadale and Shezow starting to do the best she can to keep the damage to a minimum during the fight as well as helping fix things after. “There’s a villain right there, you can’t seriously tell me you missed it.”

Guy shrugs. “There are a lot of villains here. If I hid or whatever everytime one popped up, I’d never get to do anything.” Even with the visor, she feels like she knows the exact expression XLR8 is making. Eyes narrowed, staring at her like he thinks she’s a little off-kilter but unable to say anything because she’s not exactly wrong. “Aren’t you supposed to protect me, anyway?”

XLR8 snorts. It’s a noise he’s made before and it makes Guy just as curious as it has every other time he’s made it. As far as Guy can tell, XLR8 has no nose. How can you snort without a nose? He picks her up, dashing off before one of the androids spots them in their little alleyway. It’s always a little dizzying to travel by someone else’s super speed.

“You’re not gonna fight them?” Guy asks once she’s put down. They’re far away from the action now, though she can still hear it.

“I’m waiting for my partner. She’s later than she usually is,” XLR8 says, looking around.

“Can’t you do it without her?” Guy asks, feeling her heart pound. He has to be talking about her. In all the time they’ve worked together, whenever he talks about the people he works with he calls them his sidekicks, so it has to be her.

“Yeah, but this is her city and it’d feel weird,” XLR8 says. The petals shift in her chest as she breathes.

“That’s nice of you,” Guy says and XLR8 laughs, the sound crackling like tv static before he runs off. Guy watches him go. Once he’s out of sight, she transforms.

“Where were you?” Kelly asks quietly once Shezow is by her side.

“XLR8 caught me before I could transform, so I had to make a detour,” Shezow says, refusing to look at her sister. It didn’t help that she’d had to cough up more petals before she could even transform. The flowers were starting to get annoying, scraping against her insides. Kelly tilts her head and Shezow moves to join XLR8 before Kelly can connect any dots. Before she can see Kelly connect the dots. It wouldn’t be the full picture, anyway. Because if Shezow really is in love with XLR8, then she’s also in love with multiple other boys. And as far as she knows Kelly still thinks all the aliens are different people.

“You’re in love with him,” Kelly says.

No I’m not, Guy wants to say, but “which one do you mean?:” slips out instead. He wants to bash his head into the counter. It’s cruel of her to confront him on this when he hasn’t even had his breakfast.

“I don’t know. All of them?” Kelly shrugs. “I have a theory about them, but I haven’t really been able to confirm it yet.”

“What’s your theory?” Guy asks, hoping to distract her away from whatever her original intent was.

“I think all the aliens might actually be one, shapeshifting alien,” Kelly says quietly, like a conspiracy. Despite the fact they’re in the She-Lair. “We never see them all together, even when multiple of them help you in the same day. And none of them ever stick around despite helping you.”

I wouldn’t say that… Guy thinks, remembering several times he’s hung out with one of them after they’ve saved the city. Playing in the park with Wildmutt or getting a fizzy burp with Four Arms… He doesn’t say anything, though. It’d only give Kelly more fuel.

“So you think they’re all the same person?” Guy asks

“Yeah. But like I said, it’s just a theory.”

“A game theory, thanks for watching,” Guy mumbles around his spoon and Kelly gives him a flat look.

“Can’t you be serious about this, at least?” Kelly asks. “You know, since it’ll kill you eventually.”

“See, the key word there is eventually.” Guy hops up onto the counter. “And if I’m even in love, instead of this being some other weird flower disease.”

“Another weird flower disease,” Kelly says flatly.

“Yeah! I work with aliens constantly, a magic ring’s messed with my dna, who knows what I could’ve caught that a normal human wouldn’t?” Guy says. Kelly sighs. “Maybe it’s not a Shezow thing.”

“But what if it is?” Kelly asks.

“Then I’m fine,” Guy says, hoping off the counter, and taking Kelly’s hands in his. “Because I’m not in love.”

Kelly, like any sister, is lovely, helpful, and a major pain in the ass. She doesn’t drop it, which leads to him being out more. He can’t take it to Maz, because Maz is on Kelly’s side. So he only has one friend to turn to. Or, ten friends.

The sun is bright enough to glitter off Diamondhead in rainbows. It’s something Guy would’ve said looks dumb, back when he was twelve and only just starting out as Shezow. And only just learning about himself. Now, he just thinks it looks cool and kind of pretty, the way the colours paint the sidewalk and grass. “So what’s up, Zow? You don’t usually call.”

He doesn’t. He should, probably, but he doesn’t. He doesn’t know where their base is, or when they’re in the area, so he’s never bothered before. “My sister’s being a nuisance,” she says and Diamondhead nods. “I know she doesn’t mean to be, she’s just worried, but I’ve told her she doesn’t have to be. And now she’s dragged my best friend into it, too.”

“I thought I was your best friend,” Diamondhead pouts, and Shezow laughs.

“One of them,” she says with a smile. Diamondhead looks at her like he knows she’s not just talking about the friends he has as Guy Hamdon, but he doesn’t say anything. She wonders if he would’ve as Greymatter.

“So you want me to distract you?” Diamondhead asks.

“It’d be nice,” Shezow sighs. Diamondhead mimes cracking his knuckles.

“That I can do,” Diamondhead says with a wide smile, and Shezow smiles back.

Maybe it’s the days he spends hanging out with the different forms his alien friend takes that does him in. But he feels good around the aliens, feels happy and distracted, and he needs the distraction. Wants the distraction with Kelly, Maz, and even Sheila breathing down his neck. So he ignores the tickling of his chest, the painful squeeze of his ribcage, holding in the petals and flowers until he has no choice but to speed away to cough them up. They always look worried when he comes back, despite Shezow making sure to wipe away any spit or blood. To make sure there is no evidence of this disease which isn’t a sign of love, slowly twisting his running thoughts into knots around his lungs and heart.

It’s what kills him, except it doesn’t, because he is Shezow and if it did Kelly would find a way to kill him herself instead.

Four Arms catches him as he stumbles, coughs wracking painfully up his throat, too sudden and powerful for him to hold down. When the heaving starts, the petals and flowers forcing their way up and out, Four Arms scrambles before holding his hair back. It makes him want to smile. Then the stems squeeze more painfully, making him gasp and choke.

“Shezow?” Four Arms asks, worry dripping from his voice. Shezow wants to reassure him, wants to tell him she’s fine, but the flowers are more insistent. They don’t want to stop. She coughs until her lungs are on fire, until her throat feels like she ate seven bags of super-spicy nachos. And then she coughs past it. Flowers and blood and spit lay on the ground in front of Shezow, blurred by tears. Then it’s done. Shezow sits there for several long minutes, breathing slow through a burning throat, until she registers Four Arms with one hand still holding back her hair and another rubbing her back as he makes soft sounds, like he’s done this before.

It is quite possibly the stupidest moment to have the sudden realization that Kelly might just be right.

She scrubs her arm across her eyes, the cloth of the gloves brushing away the tears.

“Are those the flowers you asked Diamondhead about two months ago?” Four Arms asks, looking over her shoulder. Shezow swallows once, twice, feeling the burn of acid in her throat.

“Yeah.” Her voice croaks. She doesn’t risk clearing her throat.

“Why’d you spit them up?” He asks.

“It’s a Shezow thing,” Shezow answers, doing her best to smile. Four Arms raises an eyebrow.

“Are you dying?” Four Arms asks quietly. Shezow wants to say no. Thinks she should say maybe, since it’s closer to the truth, and ends up saying “Naybe” instead. It makes Four Arms snort, at least. The petals in her chest flutter at the sound. She clears her throat on instinct. Regrets it immediately.

“I should head out.” She stands up, feeling rocky in a way she hasn’t since she traded in her high heels for hightops.

“Wait!” Four Arms quickly moves to standing as well, holding out all four of his hands. He gestures to himself with two of them. “Maybe I should take you back or something.”

“Thanks, but I’m a big girl. I can make it back to my lair on my own, I promise,” Shezow says.

She leaves behind the flowers, too busy running to think about them. Even if she wasn’t, she’s not sure she wouldn’t have left them there anyway despite what Kelly would say, leaving them behind like evidence of guilt.

“I’m in love with all of them,” Guy admits to Kelly once he’s back in the She-lair, catching her and Sheila off guard and interrupting their conversation. Kelly stares at him for several seconds before jumping to her feet.

“Guy! You look-” Kelly breaks off, mouth open, just staring more.

“Like she-it?” Guy says, laughing bitterly.

“I think I just coughed up about three entire bouquets. You know, maybe I should get into the flower arranging business.”

“Guy.” Kelly’s using her serious tone and Guy’s shoulders droop.

“Can we not do this right now? I’m feeling pretty tired actually,” Guy says. It doesn’t take much work for him to sound pathetic. He feels pathetic. He feels like he just got run over by a steam engine. Kelly frowns.

“What happened?” She asks, tone gentled, and Guy isn’t sure if it’s better or worse. Guy shrugs, because he doesn’t want to admit she’s right when already she knows she is. “How bad was it?”

“Remember that bad I ate? The one you told me not to?” Guy asks. Kelly hisses between her teeth.

“That’s bad.”

“Yeah.” Guy sighs. He doesn’t really know what else to do. Usually Kelly is the one with all the bigger-picture ideas. And the only solution he knows is one he really doesn’t want to do.

It’s also the one he knows Kelly will give.

“You going to tell them?” Kelly asks.

“I don’t want to,” Guy whines, pouting at her. He’d bat his eyelashes, too, but he was still transformed and didn’t want to accidentally activate his wind winkers. There is not much pity to be had when your ‘pity me’ act is interrupted by near-bodily harm. Kelly pats his shoulder.

“Too bad.”

“Kelllyyyyy,” Guy whines. “Don’t make me.”

“Oh, I can’t make you do anything,” Kelly says and pokes him in the chest. “But your body can. Promise me you’ll say something before your stupidity actually does manage to kill you, yeah?”

Guy huffs out a breath, gently knocking her hand away. “Fine. Though just remember, technically you’re giving up any chance to take over being Shezow.”

“An incredible sacrifice on my part,” Kelly says drily.

If Guy is anything, it’s awkward. He wishes he still had the super empathy because at least then he seemed to know what to say, but now he can only rely on his own twisting tongue and pounding heart. The flowers choking up his throat don’t help. She rocks back on the heels of her white sneakers, looking up at Heatblast. “Did Four Arms tell you about me coughing up flowers in front of him?” Heatblast blinks at her. She holds onto the end of her gloves, arms crossed behind her back.

“Yeah.” He says slowly, giving her a searching look. His eyes flicker across her torso and limbs like she may fall apart into petals, right there in front of him. Maybe she will. Neither Kelly or she knows just how a Shezow dies to this, if the petals will choke her until the stems come out her throat like a vase or if they’ll simply expand outwards until she’s nothing but flowers and roots. The thought doesn’t push her like she wishes it did. Who knew it was this hard to just tell someone you kinda-sorta like them? (Maz. Maz probably knew.) “Hey said you might be dying?”

Shezow swallows, adam’s apple bobbing painfully. “I am.”

“Oh.” Heatblast’s fire crackles in the silence between them, and Shezow knows she really should say something, but she doesn’t know how.

“I have a secret?” Shezow says, voice turning up into a question instead of staying steady for a statement and she winces. Heatblast’s head tilts. “I know you’re all one alien. Person?”

Heatblast’s fire splutters. “W-whaaat? No we’re not, have you seen those other guys?”

“Yeah.” Shezow licks her lips, tastes the oddly waxy taste of her lipstick. Quieter, “I have another secret.”

Heatblast’s denials cut off. This time, he looks nervous. “Yeah…?”

“I think I like all of you. Uh. Like-like. The gross mushy kind. Except maybe not the mushy kind? I’ve never really… done this before, so I’m not sure, but definitely the romantic kind,” she rambles, looking at the ground. The sidewalk is cracked; a dandelion is popping through, bright and yellow. When she glances up, Heatblast’s mouth is agape.

“What.” There’s no inflection to his voice, but his flame’s gotten lighter. He’s blushing. Shezow feels her own face heat at the realization.

“Uh- Y-yeah,” Shezow says.

“Wh- what does this have to do with you… dying?” Heatblast asks. Shezow laughs, the sound strangled and high.

“Apparently when a Shezow falls in love, flowers grow in her lungs until she admits it!” She laughs again. It feels hysterical, like helium going to her head.

“Well that’s stupid.” Heatblast frowns. Shezow gives a flat smile and nods.

“She-yeah it is. A surprising amount of rules are bullshit. They really like ‘Zows to be honest with their feelings, or whatever,” Shezow says. Heatblast makes a noise Shezow recognizes as a snort, but sounds more like a flame spluttering.

“You don’t like it?” Heatblast asks with a smile.

“Yeah, sure, I love the feeling of flowers curling into my ribs. Feels great,” Shezow says drily. She takes a breath and finally realizes just how much oxygen fills her lungs. She didn’t even realize she was breathing smaller breaths before now. She takes another breath, just to feel it completely fill her lungs, the taste of flowers still tainting it. Each breath makes the air feel clearer.

“If it helps any, I think I have gross mushy romantic feelings for you, too,” Heatblast says. Shezow smiles.

“It might,” she says and Heatblast laughs. The sound makes her chest flutter— butterflies, not flowers. The relief makes her laugh as well.

#shezow #ben 10 #ben tennyson aliens #guy hamdon #hamyson #hanahaki disease #writings

[archester-creations]

“We’re dating,” Sky says, a serious note to his voice as he takes her hand, and Yang looks at him in surprise. He’s rarely ever serious. It’s one of the things that makes them fit, neither of them take things very seriously. Yang only does when she has to. Even when she asked him out, it was with a smile and a joke (“Will you be the yee to my haw?”). “If you fuckers want to be mad about that, then you can die mad because I don’t plan for that to change anytime soon.”

Yang feels her cheeks redden at his declaration. It drips with permeance. It’s the promise to stay, no matter how badly those around them may react to it. It’s a promise only three others have made; one only two of them have kept.

Somehow she thinks he will, too. She grips his hand back and he smiles at her.

“Yeah,” Yang says, managing to meet Ruby’s eyes despite knowing what she finds there could make her fold like a house of cards, could end what’s between her and Sky and quite possibly break both their hearts in a single fell swoop.She finds a slightly confused, definitely amused smile, and wonders why she ever doubted her sister.

@rwbyrarepairs

#dawn #my edits #writings

[archester-creations]

Rated: T

Pairing: Gen, Akako & Kaito, Akako & Hakuba

Word Count: ~1k

A/N: A bit of canon-typical violence

Akako was willing to let a lot go. Despite what Kuroba may say, she has patience. She has a lot of patience. It’s honestly amazing just how patient she is.

This is where her patience snaps. Her fists tighten.

There wasn’t really a lot to do today. It was saturday and Akako planned for it to be a quiet day. She’d watch a few movies she’s been putting off, eat popcorn, and maybe use her crystal ball to check in on Kuroba’s heist. But during the second movie, she feels an uncomfortable pinch. A feeling she can’t explain, one she’s never felt before, but something similar to a hose being bent and the water being forced to a trickle. She scrambles from the couch, calling her crystal ball to her and waving it through her friends. Aoko is in her kitchen, humming with the news of the night’s KID heist in the background. Hakuba is running outside, fear in his eyes. Kuroba is hanging off a fence, the spike of it sticking out through his back and blood seeping from the tear in his jacket to the dirt. His hang glider is splayed out beside him, broken and useless. He is going to die. It pings through Akako, the pinch now a burn, and she knows with certainty he won’t live past this night unless she intervenes. One of his crows has finally managed to break his wings and hold him so he can’t escape. Except this crow has apparently become a shrike. Her teeth grit. Her fists tighten. Before she fully thinks of it, she is by Kaito’s side.

The first thing she registers is the noises Kuroba is making. Small whines and quick, labored breaths. The second thing she registers is a gunshot and the sound of Hakuba crumpling. The third is a large man, wearing a black fedora and trench coat. Kuroba’s unlucky shrike. When the man turns back to Kuroba, he jumps.

“Where the fuck did you come from?” He snarls, raising the pistol he’d used to shoot Kuroba and Hakuba to align with her heart. She gives it an unimpressed look.

“Hell,” Akako says, looking up at him with a smile. She’s lying, of course. Tea with Lucifer only happens on the third friday of a month, and this is the beginning of the month. The man’s lip curls.

“Akako?” Hakuba whispers, looking up, and Akako inclines her head. It was enough already to have her magic tell her Hakuba wasn’t dead. She appreciates the confirmation nonetheless.

“Then let me send you back,” he says and pulls the trigger. The bullet flies toward her, its path and their close distance no doubt allowing for great damage and most likely death. If she were normal. If she weren’t a powerful witch. (Quite possibly the most powerful red witch alive, if you ask her.) But she is not normal, and is in fact quite pissed off at this man damaging two of her favourite things, so she stands still in the path of the bullet instead of dodging so this man can see just how much damage his little toy does not do. The man’s jaw drops when all it causes is a brief stumble, the force rocking her back as the bullet clatters harmlessly to the pavement. He fires twice more with the same results, his hand shaking. One of the bullets flies slightly off course and nearly strikes Kuroba. She mutters a spell and the bullet oozes to the ground, the kinetic energy transferring to thermal and melting the iron. The man drops the gun.

“Finished?” Akako asks with a smirk, flicking her wrist to send the gun spinning toward Hakuba before the man can say anything. He splutters, eyes snapping to the gun before returning to her. When she takes a step forward he takes a step back. “Are you afraid of me? Good.”

He glares at her, angered. “I don’t know who or what the fuck you are, but you don’t know who you’re messing with. I am part of a very powerful organization.”

Akako laughs, hand over her mouth like one of those 90s villains in the magical girl animes Aoko and Kuroba like to watch so much. He flinches back a step and she takes a breath to reign herself in. Or at least reign in the laughter. There’s been enough holding back, she thinks. She’s allowed the organization to play, because she knows Kuroba likes the show and Hakuba likes the chase. Because she doesn’t make a habit of placing her hands within dishes which don’t concern her. But they have very much made themselves her problem now, and she thinks maybe she has let them play for too long.

“You think what hides in the shadows is true power,” Akako says, tilting her head. “But you’ve never witnessed it before. Never seen even a taste of what they have you chase. None of you have, but they will all learn.”

“For who I am, I am no Kaitou KID, nor am I a mistaken curse like Pandora. I am not some crow hiding in the shadows, make-pretending power.” Akako straightens, expression flat but fierce. Her eyes flash like blood, like violence, like impending doom. “I am a true magician and I do not like having my things broken. I am a descendant of Sekhmet and I take my payments in blood.”

The man pales behind the shadows of his fedora. “You don’t even have a weapon,” he spits, wavered.

Akako smiles. “Cute. You think I need a weapon.” She waves her hand and the shrike falls to his knees, hacking up black bile. Akako turns to Kuroba, and her mind stutters a moment on his impalement. Disease she can do, but healing is something the Koizumi line lost long ago. All she can do is send him to the hospital and hope they are quick enough.

“Hakuba,” Akako says.

“Yes?” Hakuba says, looking away from the shrike to her. She looks him over, checks for where the blood pools. It’s in his side. The bullet which hung Kuroba truly was simply a lucky shot.

Or, perhaps, a very unlucky shot.

“Watch over Kuroba. And perhaps tell him you found him there after a watchful eye sent a note to your own room?” Akako says. Akako asks. Hakuba nods. “We wouldn’t want him to throw a tantrum.”

“He can be quite a kid when the mood strikes him,” Hakuba agrees with a pained smirk. The way he’s only looked at Kuroba once doesn’t escape her notice. “And you, Lady Akako?”

“I have work to do,” Akako says and sends them off, only KID’s suit left behind, impaled on a spike.

The sun rises in the morning with reports of several buildings razed to the ground, leaving nothing but ash in their wake; multiple cases of spontaneous combustion; and one unlucky dead man in a highrise, face locked in pain and diseased lines of red scarred deep into his skin, all leading out from a javelin-like wound in his torso.

Later that morning a first grader gets a packet filled with several files of research with a note taped to it, telling her it’s from “one fate-breaker to another”.

Kuroba Kaito wakes several days later to two worried parents, a worried sister, a detective in a cast, and one witch. He stares at the witch in surprise and says nothing when she tells him he’ll have to continue his search without the crow’s aid.

#dcmk #akako #writings #akako & kaito #akako & hakuba

[archester-creations]

you got me trippin' (oh) stumblin' (oh) flippin (oh) fumblin (oh), clumsy 'cause i'm falling in love

got dawn on the brain <3 @rwbyrarepairs

(zoomins of some below cut)

#rwby #yang xiao long #sky lark #dawn #dawn rwby #rwby dawn #my art #rwby rarepairs #sky x yang #yang x sky #i am SO proud of that counter kiss

[archester-creations]

i just watched kung fu panda 4 and i rewrote one of the final scenes for po/tai lung so spoilers ahoy

“I’m gonna get back my staff, give all of you your kung fu back, and then I’m going to kiss you,” Po says seriously.

“What?” Tai Lung says, taken aback. Po’s eyes widen.

“I’m going to give you back your kung fu,” Po says.

“No, the other thing,” Tai Lung says.

“I’m going to get my staff back?” Po says.

“The other thing,” Tai Lung says.

“I’m going to defeat the Chameleon,” Po says.

“Not that, you stupid panda, the last thing!” Tai Lung hisses quietly.

“Wha-what last thing?” Po says, looking away. “I didn’t say a last thing. Do you remember me saying a last thing? Cause-” he breaks off with a strained laugh. “ I didn’t.”

“Panda…” Tai Lung says lowly, reaching through the bars and grabbing Po’s face to force him to look at him. “Get me my kung fu back and you can have as many kisses as you want.”

Po flushes, then perks up. “Wait, really?”

“Yes,” Tai Lung sighs, regretting it already.

“Alright! Okay!” Po nods, dislodging his hands without even noticing, and dances away, giving a “no take backs!” and finger guns over his shoulder, nearly tripping as he does. Tai Lung settles in to watch the fight, not even dreaming about taking back his words to this strange, excited panda who he once thought he hated.

#kung fu panda #kfp4 spoilers #po x tai lung #writings

[archester-creations]

Rated: G

Pairing: pre-slash James/Peter

Word Count: ~700

A/N: AU where they meet differently and also Tink (and all fairies) is a cat

"Oh. You have a cat." James looks down nervously at the blonde tabby currently rubbing herself against Peter’s legs and purring. Peter smiles, picking her up.

"Yeah! Are you allergic?" He asks, tilting his head at the older man.

"No." James shifts, staring at Tinkerbell like she might launch herself at him. Honestly, she might. Tink's always had a bit of a temper, above any other cat Peter’s met. "They just... don't tend to like me."

"That's okay. She won't hurt you." Peter smiles sunnily, and it's against his better judgement, but James trusts the smile enough to inch closer. Peter's smile widens and he lifts the cat closer to him. "Her name's Tinkerbell."

"Hello, Miss Tin-" James cuts off, the cat reaching out with a hiss as Peter steps closer and clawing him across the cheek and nose. James backpedals in the shock of pain, hand going to the claw marks. The skin is wet under his fingers. To his annoyance, Peter laughs at his cat's actions, dropping her as the force of his humour bows him over, hands moving instead to clasp his knees in an attempt to keep his balance. Tinkerbell takes a swipe at his leg as she passes, thankfully failing to get past the material of his pants, her nose in the air as she walks further into the house with her tail swishing.

"You lied to me." James says.

"Maybe," Peter smiles up at him, grin toothy with laughter. James feels his own mouth twitch betrayingly upward.

"May I perhaps have a bandaid?" James asks, pulling out a handkerchief to dab at the blood.

"For something so small?" Peter’s smile plays at his attempt of a pout, eyelashes batting innocently.

"If you can spare one from your vast collection," James says. Peter rolls his eyes.

"They're in the bathroom, come on." Peter leads him further into the apartment and James takes a seat on the toilet when Peter directs him to. The boy pulls out what truly only can be considered a collection. It's a spiral bound folder, like one might use for displaying cds or stickers or even for scrapbooking. There are pages and pages of bandaids of all different sizes and designs within little pouches. Peter removes two bandages, one with gold coins on a red background and the other with a little tricorn hat with a skull and crossbones flag next to it. James snorts.

"Pirate ones?" James asks.

"Only the best for my favourite inspiration and cover artist," Peter says haughtily, messing with the sink and a rag, and James looks away to hide the pleased flush of his face at Peter's words. They're joking, anyway.

"I thought your brothers were your favourite inspiration," James says. He glances back at Peter just in time to see his nose scrunch up in thought.

"True," Peter says. He wrings out the cloth. "Guess you're just my favourite cover artist, then."

"I thought I was your only cover artist," James says, because apparently he can not keep his foot out of his mouth today.

"Maybe," Peter says mysteriously. James looks at him when Peter takes gentle hold of his chin to wipe at the cat scratch and for the life of him, James can't tell whether or not Peter truly has someone else making covers for his books. He hopes not. It'd make him awfully jealous.

"It's a shame," Peter says with a hum.

"What is?" James asks.

Peter turns his face this way and that, tilting it so the bathroom's fluorescents shine more fully on his skin. "I don't think it'll scar."

"A tragedy," James agrees seriously.

"Probably for the best, though. This way you'll only have the scar I gave you." Peter says, words nearly dark, as he puts the first bandaid on, the tricorn hat across the bridge of James' nose. James nearly touches the scar Peter gave him a year ago, stark across the expanse of his ribs. It'd been an accident, gotten while Peter was acting something out with a blade too sharp to be moving it like he'd been. But Peter held all the marks of a swordsman and James was too caught up in watching to say anything. The look on Peter's face when the doctor said it'd scar was proud.

"I guess it is for the best, then," James agrees, quieter. Peter slaps the second bandaid to his cheek. Literally. James hisses through his teeth at the sting.

#peter darling #james x peter #book cover au #writings

[archester-creations]

Rated: G

Pairing: friendship: Ayumi, Genta, Mitsuhiko, Conan, and Haibara

Word Count: ~900

A/N: Kuroba Ayumi au, transboy Ayumi

It was the first day of the new school year and Ayumi was as excited as he was nervous. There hadn’t been (much) trouble keeping his adoption a secret from his friends at first or over the break. But now that his name had changed, that would also change. All of them were nosy at heart. That was what made them such great detectives. (His dad said once, “the greater the detective, the nosier they are”. Though he refused to elaborate about Hakuba-kun.) They would definitely question him about his new family situation once they heard the new family name and while Ayumi and his dad did go over what to say, it didn’t make the thought of lying to his friends easier.

He really hoped he could fool Conan.

“Can you guys promise to remain cool during attendance?” Ayumi asked aa they all filed into the room.

The other three boys all looked at each other, then at Ai who shrugged. What followed was a chorus of ‘sure’s and ‘okay’s. Ayumi breathed a tentative sigh of relief as they sat down. Conan leaned closer to him.

“Why did you want us to promise?” Conan asked.

“I’ll tell you all during break,” Ayumi said. It probably wasn’t good to put it off, but Ayumi wanted some time. Conan looked a little suspicious, but he nodded so he wouldn't ask again until break. Good. Hopefully Ayumi could figure out what he wanted to say. They'd already planned their story, but that didn't change that his dad was KID and one of his best friends was basically KID's greatest enemy. The Lupin to his Holmes. If Ayumi wasn't cool about it, Conan would know something was up, and Ayumi wasn't exactly the greatest liar yet.

The teacher started to go through the list of names and Ayumi reminded himself that he would be one of the first names now, instead of the very last. It still took a few seconds and a repeat of "Kuroba Ayumi" for Ayumi to register it and respond with a quick "Here!"

“WHAT?” Genta exclaimed and Ayumi winced. The teacher sent Genta a look that made him slouch in his seat. As the teacher went on, Ayumi could feel his friends' eyes on him. The feeling barely went away even as class began.

Break came much too soon. It was hard to think with four sets of eyes practically boring into him from different parts of the classroom. Four sets of eyes from four people who knew him way too well and one set from someone way too observant. Ayumi tried his best not to fidget as they walked over to him.

"So?" Genta placed his hands on Ayumi's desk loudly, barely under a slam, like he was doing an interrogation. "Explain."

"Genta," Mitsuhiko admonished, though Ayumi knew he was just as curious. Ayumi took a breath.

“I was adopted,” Ayumi said, adding a mental ‘legally, now’ before he threw that thought out. It couldn’t show on his face that his dad was kind-of-sort-of a criminal. That would make Conan and the others even more interested. Conan couldn’t know. This was easier before his name was changed. Though Ayumi preferred Kuroba Ayumi to Yoshida Ayumi. Either way, he still had his luck (more now, with Kuroba Kaito on his side) so he could do this. “during the break. Somethings happened and my parents couldn’t take care of me anymore, so they asked another family member to. I’m living with him now.”

Mitsuhiko and Genta stared at him, Genta’s head tilting and Mitsuhiko’s hand coming to rest against his chin, and Ayumi suddenly thought he understood a little bit what his dad meant when he called detectives nosey. Ayumi didn’t know what to say if they questioned him further. On one hand, he didn’t think he quite wanted to tell his friends what happened with his parents just yet, even with how much he trusted them. On the other hand, if he did tell them, he didn’t know how many more jumps it would take Conan to get to ‘Kuroba = KID’. Maybe he was too careful about it, but Ayumi felt like he should be.

“Oooh,” Conan said, like it made all the sense in the world to him, cutting off Ayumi’s thoughts. Mitsuhiko and Genta turned to him and Ayumi could practically see the curiosity bleed out of them. He nearly thanked Conan for it right then and there.

“How is he?” Genta asked.

“Dad’s pretty cool and really nice.” Ayumi smiled. The smile fell just slightly when he noticed the way Conan looked at him then and he got the most distinct feeling he’d said something wrong. Though he didn’t know where. It’s not until break is nearly over and Genta and Mitsuhiko have followed Ai back over to their desks, exhausted of questions for now, that he learned where. He’d called Kaito dad, not something someone would call a family member just watching them.

“You told your parents, didn’t you?” Conan asked, looking over at where the other members of their group sit instead of at Ayumi.

“Yeah.” Ayumi deflated a bit. Conan turned to him, mouth twisted slightly.

“You seem to really like where you are now,” Conan said.

“I do,” Ayumi agreed with a smile. Conan nodded.

“Good.”

Ayumi was a little surprised when there were no more questions. But he appreciated it, too, as Conan left it there.

“How was school?” His dad asked him later, when he returned home, and Ayumi smiled as he launched into telling him all about how his friends reacted to the adoption, about his new teacher, and about the lost cat the Detective Boys returned to its owner on their way home.

#kuroba ayumi au #detective conan #magic kaito #detective boys #conan #haibara #ayumi #genta #mitsuhiko #fluff #friendship #my writings

[archester-creations]

Rated: G

Pairing: Mavpunzel (Mavis Dracula/Rapunzel)

Word Count: ~2k

A/N: Librarian Rapunzel and maybe human Mavis?

“Uh, do you have any books on Vlad the Impaler?” Rapunzel looks up just in time to see the prettiest girl she’s probably ever seen brush her hair behind her ear. It’s short enough that parts of it fall back in front of her face immediately; black wisps framing blue eyes.

Rapunzel blinks. “Vlad the Impaler?”

“Yeah,” the girl says. “I’m doing a report on him.”

Rapunzel feels her eyebrows rise in surprise. That’s not a typical report request. It’s not a typical request in general, really.

“You think that’s weird.” The girl seems to deflate, shoulders drooping like a balloon losing air.

“A little,” Rapunzel laughs, then backtracks as she realizes how that probably sounded. “I just mean he’s not usually people’s first choice. Or their second. It’s pretty cool, actually.”

The girl looks at her, head tilted and eyebrows drawn a bit. After a second, she smiles. “Thanks. My professor actually tried to get me to choose someone else, but Vlad’s pretty important to my family, you know?”

“I get it,” Rapunzel says, thinking of Varian. “My little brother is like that with Leonardo Davinci. I think he’d try to date him if he had a time machine.”

“Well, not quite to that level,” the girl laughs, her eyes shining. Rapunzel smiles.

“I can take you to his books, if you want?” Rapunzel says.

“Leonardo Davinci’s?” The girl asks, eyebrows quirking, mouth still wavering in amusement.

“Vlad the Impaler,” Rapunzel says.

“That’d be nice, thanks,” the girl says and Rapunzel slips from behind the counter to lead her to the biographies.

“So why’s he important?” Rapunzel asks as she scans the stickers on the books for ‘Vlad’. When the girl hums a questioning tone, she clarifies. “You said Vlad was important to your family.”

“Ah, yeah,” the girl chuckles. Rapunzel glances out the corner of her eye to see the girl rub her arm, her cheeks pinkened. “We’re sort of related to him. It’s actually, like, a whole gimmick of our family,–”

“Ah-ha!” Rapunzel grabs the book, brandishing it, then flushes. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt you.”

The girl shakes her head. “No, it’s fine. Is that the book?”

“What were you saying?” Rapunzel asks as she hands it over.

“Oh, uh, nothing.” The girl shakes her head again, taking the book and tucking it to her chest. Rapunzel has to stop herself from pouting. Curse her overly excited nature. She checks her out back at the counter, the name Mavis Drăculești catching her eye, and then Mavis is out the automatic doors and back into the setting sun.

“Do you have any vampire books that aren’t Twilight or like Twilight?” Mavis asks, leaning her elbows on the divider that rims the edge of the front desk. Rapunzel swivels her chair slightly to be able to see her better, humming an amused note.

“Classical vampires.” Rapunzel nods to herself. “But not Dracula, I’m guessing?”

Mavis shakes her head. “Nah, had it read to me as a bedtime story all the time growing up.”

Rapunzel bites back a laugh and turns to the computer. It’s cute somehow to imagine a small girl, all tucked in, falling asleep while a parent reads her a gothic horror novel. Rapunzel wonders if Mavis ever slept with a stuffed animal, before she mentally shakes the thought from her head. It’s probably not appropriate to wonder that about a patron. It doesn’t stop her from wondering if she ever slept with a nightlight, though. Somehow, Rapunzel gets the feeling she didn’t. Looking at Mavis, Rapunzel thinks she’s always been a friend of the night.

There is a list of books, Twilight included, that she scrolls through, before she stops on one. “Have you considered Draculaura’s book?”

Mavis barks a laugh. The sound is throaty, like it came from the chest, and Rapunzel smiles. “You mean the girl from Monster High?”

“Yeah.” Rapunzel looks up at her, smile full of humour. “It’s currently on shelf if you want to read it.”

“Maybe.” Mavis snorts.

By the time they’re done Mavis is walking out with four vampire books– Draculaura’s diary on top– and possibly a piece of Rapunzel’s heart.

When Rapunzel walks out of the backroom, a paper in her hands and the conversation she’d just had with the page on duty lingering on her tongue, she spots Mavis softly lingering next to the desk like she’s looking for something or someone. Rapunzel stops without meaning to. Mavis’ attention is elsewhere and Rapunzel takes the opportunity to soak the other girl in. She’s wearing a black Metallica t-shirt today, with a black and white striped long sleeve shirt under it. Her thumbs poke out from the thumb holes, and the fingers of her left hand are curled into the sleeve. Her combat boots have blood red laces, something Rapunzel noticed when she first took her to Vlad’s biography. The blue of her eyes shines like turquoise in the midst of all the black.

“I like your shirt,” Rapunzel says, stepping next to her.

“Thanks.” Mavis turns to her without a flinch, smiling. It’s an odd feeling, almost. Rapunzel walks so quietly, she’s grown used to people being surprised at her presence. It’s not a bad odd feeling. “My friend Johnny let me borrow it.”

“He has good taste,” Rapunzel says and Mavis laughs.

“Sometimes,” she says. “You’ve never had a movie night with him.”

“That’s true,” Rapunzel says. “So what can I do you for?”

“Children’s fantasy. Vampires not needed,” Mavis says.

“But appreciated?” Rapunzel asks and Mavis smiles.

“Always.”

“Great!” Rapunzel says, reaching for the books she’s been keeping in the bottom drawer of the front desk. “Because I spotted these and thought maybe you might like them.”

The books are from the The Little Vampire series by Angela Sommer-Bodenburg and Mavis’ eyes light up when she sees them. She takes them from Rapunzel, staring at the art on their covers, and Rapunzel feels her chest warm. Somehow she’d managed to do really good.

“I love this series. My dad read it to me all the time as a kid,” Mavis says.

“I thought that was Dracula?” Rapunzel asks.

“That too,” Mavis says, glancing up at her. “But these, too. He read them every October, it was a tradition until I just… got too old, I guess.” Mavis shrugs.

“I’m glad to get them back to you,” Rapunzel says. Mavis looks at her again with a smile that stops her heart then resets it a few seconds later, like restarting a laptop.

“Thank you.”

“What’s your dad like?” Rapunzel asks as she scans through the catalogue for Mavis.

Mavis shrugs. “Pretty cool, I guess, though he’s a bit of a worrier. He owns a hotel, actually.”

“Just one?” Rapunzel asks.

“Yeah, any more and I think he might blow a gasket,” Mavis laughs and Rapunzel laughs with her.

“So what’s it called?” Rapunzel asks, curious.

Mavis looks around them conspiratorially before she leans in. “Hotel Transylvania,” she says like it’s a secret. Rapunzel’s pretty sure it’s not.

“Hotel Transylvania?” Rapunzel repeats, looking at her, and Mavis shrugs again. There’s a sly smile curving her lips.

“Like I said, my family’s really into the being-related-to-Vlad the Impaler thing. Especially my grandfather. He actually named my dad Dracula,” Mavis says, straightening up again.

“My grandfather was really into it, even named my dad Dracula.”

“Wait, doesn’t that mean-”

“My dad is Dracula Drăculești?” Mavis laughs. “Yeah.”

Rapunzel laughs a little, smiling wide, “That’s pretty cool.”

“Don’t let my dad hear you say that,” Mavis says. Her eyes twinkle like stars and Rapunzel finds herself staring at them, trying to see if she can find the constellations she’s memorized in the night air within their depths before she shakes herself from it and returns to the computer screen.

“I have to admit something to you. I’m not much of a reader,” Mavis says and Rapunzel stares at her in surprise.

“But you’re here nearly every week?” She doesn’t add that Mavis also gets books every time she comes in. She figures it’s implied.

“Yeah.” Mavis shifts, looking down at the grey carpet. Rapunzel tilts her head.

“So… why do you come in?” Rapunzel asks. It’s not to use the internet, or do college courses, because Mavis always walks immediately to the front desk, interacts with her, gets a pile of books checked out, and leaves.

“To see you,” Mavis says, cheeks darkening. Rapunzel thinks she feels her own cheeks heat.

“Oh.”

“Sorry if you don’t want that.” Mavis pushes her hair out of her face like Rapunzel has seen her do a number of times.

“No, I do,” Rapunzel is quick to assure Mavis, hands coming up to touch her, before she forces her arms to her sides. Mavis looks up at her through her lashes, eyes glittering with surprise.

“Really?” Mavis asks.

“Yeah,” Rapunzel says. “I love helping you.”

“Oh,” Mavis says, sounding small. It confuses Rapunzel for a moment, before she realizes what she said and what it probably sounds like.

“I mean! I- You-” Rapunzel clears her throat. “I- I like helping you. Specifically, not just cause it’s my job.”

Mavis perks up, eyebrows raising, and Rapunzel feels her heart lift with it. “Oh.”

“Oh.” Rapunzel nods. She has no idea why she repeated Mavis, but it feels right. It’s a confirmation, an understanding. “I close tonight, but if you want to stay…”

“Yes.” Mavis smiles. “I’ll take you out for food, if you want.”

“That’d be great,” Rapunzel says.

Rapunzel spots Mavis outside the library and waves a goodbye to the other librarian, the LAs, and the page she worked with that night before she runs over to meet her, pulling off her sneakers as she goes. The page smiles knowingly at her and Rapunzel nearly flushes.

"Ready to go?" Mavis pushes off the stone wall and Rapunzel nods before glancing around. There are no cars in the parking lot other than the ones she recognizes as her coworker's.

"Did you drive here?" Rapunzel asks, curious now.

"No." Mavis shakes her head. Rapunzel laughs, making Mavis frown.

"I didn't drive here, either. I walk through the woods," Rapunzel says, pointing at the trees behind them, and Mavis laughs as well.

"Come on," Mavis says. "I know a pretty good 24-hr burger place in walking distance." She holds out her hand and Rapunzel takes it gladly, smiling as much as Mavis does if the pull of her cheeks means anything.

Mavis walks her to a place she already knows and holds the door open for her like a gentleman, a move that would've made Rapunzel smile if she ever stopped smiling practically from the moment Mavis asked her out. Instead Rapunzel just thanks her as she steps inside. Mavis shoves her hands into her pockets as soon as they're both in the building, looking up at the menu.

"Do you usually get the same thing or do you try new things whenever you come?" Rapunzel asks. Mavis shrugs.

"It really depends. The first time I came to one of these places I actually tried to order everything on the menu. Johnny stopped me before I could," Mavis says, snorting. Rapunzel laughs, too, imagining an eager Mavis at the counter, nearly overwhelming the server before Johnny steps in.

"Will I ever meet him?"

"Johnny?" Mavis questions. "Yeah, of course."

"Awesome. He sounds pretty fun," Rapunzel says.

"He is," Mavis says.

The two of them sit at a booth in the corner, close together despite the diner being completely empty beside the workers. They split their fries between them and share a strawberry shake. Rapunzel makes Mavis laugh so hard at one point the milkshake nearly comes out her nose. As it was, the only casuality were a few bits of chewed fry they had to wipe off the table. It's a great first date in Rapunzel's opinion, and if the shine of Mavis' eyes means anything she agrees. Rapunzel chews a bite of her burger and wonders how to ask Mavis on another as well as how to ask for her number.

#mavpunzel #femslash february #writings #librarian rapunzel #fluff

[archester-creations]

Ivy teaches Carmen to drive date?

“Alright, so you want to take it slow-” Ivy starts, cutting off as Carmen touches the accelerator too hard too quickly and they jolt forward a few inches before Carmen panics and slams on the brake. It’s good Ivy remembered to put on her seatbelt. That combo almost put her through the windshield.

“I’m so sorry,” Carmen says. She’s all scrunched now so her shoulders come up to her ears, but at least her legs are still loose and stretched out for the pedals.

“It’s fine.” Ivy waves it away. “You should’ve seen it when Zack started.

“Really?” Carmen asks.

“Yeah. Nearly sent us into the harbor.”  Though it was also because they were starting off with plans to race, old games of Hard Drivin’ dancing in their heads. Zack drifted when he should’ve braked, and they had to spend that summer working for Old Man Murray to make up for the shop window. Carmen smiles, unscrunching just a bit. Ivy looks back at the asphalt in front of them as Carmen slowly lets off the brake. They’re in a parking lot, Zack and Ivy’s own first attempts at driving making her think teaching Carmen in an empty lot would be for the best. So far, she’s pretty sure she was right.

“Okay, so touch the pedals lightly. This car’s a smart gal, she’ll know what you want without you forcing her,” Ivy says and Carmen snorts a little as she does what Ivy told her, making Ivy look over at her with a raised brow. “What?”

“You sound like Zack,” Carmen says.

“Eugh. If anything, Zack sounds like me,” Ivy says, making a face, and Carmen shakes her head. She’s calmer than she was a few seconds ago. It makes Ivy smile despite herself.

“Turn here,” Ivy says, pointing right, away from the shops. Carmen hesitates a moment before she turns, yanking the wheel slightly too hard and running the wheel slightly over a curb. She grimaces as all four tires touch asphalt again. “It’s fine,” Ivy assures. Carmen gives an unsteady laugh and Ivy puts a hand on her shoulder. “Do you want to take a break?”

“Yeah,” Carmen sighs. She breaks, then throws the car in park so she can hang her head.

“You’ll get there,” Ivy says with a smile. Carmen turns to her, her own smile wry.

“Thanks for being willing to teach me,” Carmen says.

“Of course! It was a pretty awesome date idea,” Ivy says, reaching over to punch Carmen’s shoulder, and Carmen’s cheeks turn a soft pink.

“Player suggested it.” Carmen says with a shrug.

“Smart kid,” Ivy says. “Now what about we swap seats and I take us to get ice cream?”Carmen pushes herself from the wheel. “That sounds great.”

#carmivy #carmen sandiego #writings #first date

[archester-creations]

Rated: G

Pairing: Maribug (Marinette/Ladybug)

Word Count: ~500

A/N: @mlbfemslashfebruary I don’t know if they’ll count since it’s technically selfcest femslash (even if they’re separate people in this), but I’d already had this all written up when I found out about the mlb month and figured ‘hey, why the heck not?’

Being a superhero was hard. Being the lead superhero, with all of Paris on your shoulders and a box of miraculi to protect, just made it seem impossible. But there was one place she could go where she wasn't just a superhero. A place she could go to relax and forget about her responsibilities. The Dupain-Cheng bakery. Just the smell of the baked goods took all the tension from her shoulders. Ladybug swings onto the roof, then down through the trapdoor. Once she's in Marinette's room, she lowers the hood of the jacket she's taken to wearing when she wants to see Marinette but doesn't want to be recognized by any outsider who might be watching. (Not transforming would be the easiest solution, of course, but much as she trusts the other girl she can't share her secret identity, so a jacket, jeans, and sneakers over her costume is the next best thing. The fact that Marinette is the one who made the jacket for her when Ladybug mentioned the problem just makes it better.)

"Marinette?" Ladybug whispers, toeing off her sneakers. The light is on, but Marinette is hunched over her desk and Ladybug doesn't if she's awake or asleep. She tiptoes over to touch the other girl's shoulder and Marinette jolts. Asleep, then. "I'm sorry I woke you."

"No, no," Marinette waves away her apology, yawning wide. She stretches backwards and the chair tips with it but doesn't fall. "It would've been bad for my spine if I stayed like that. So what's up?"

Ladybug shakes her head. "Nothing, I'm just done for the night and wanted to see you."

"Oh." Marinette looks down at her open sketchbook, blushing, and Ladybug smiles to herself. The other girl blushed so prettily, freckles stark against the soft pink. "Then do you want to hang out here?"

"I'd love that," Ladybug says, sitting down in the beanbag Marinette placed in the corner just for her.

"So what are you designing?" Ladybug says. Marinette lights up, blue eyes sparkling.

"It's a vest for you!-" Marinette speaks excitedly, words fast, and Ladybug listens as she explains the vest she wanted to make so Ladybug would stay in uniform and recognizable, but also warm during the colder months. Ladybug doesn't have the heart to remind her that whatever magic is behind her suit actually regulates her temperature. The conversation drifts from there and eventually Ladybug directs Marinette to the bed where both of them sleep for a few hours.

Ladybug wakes at sunrise. For a moment she watches Marinette sleep, face calm and eyelashes fanning across her cheeks, then she sneaks away into the pinks and golds of the early morning. It's best if she's not discovered, either by Marinette's parents or anyone connected to the news. Even Marinette's best friend. She leaves a note for Marinette, though Marinette is used to this by now. She knows the thought will be appreciated. Plus, it's nice.

The morning feels soft as Ladybug swings to her own place, and she smiles to herself, knowing in a few hours Marinette will be looking her direction with her own smile and a note clutched in her hands.

#miraculous ladybug #maribug #writings

[archester-creations]

Rated: G

Pairing/Character: Rapunzel

Word Count: 100

A/N: I wanted to write something since this is international fanworks day ten year anniversary. Implied future mavunzel since it's femfeb!

-

The first time Rapunzel ever noticed the stars that weren’t really stars was on her tenth birthday. She remembers gazing out her window, checking for familiar constellations and double checking with the astronomy books her mother had gotten her. She remembers the girl she saw among them, flying. The next day she asked about the traditions and history of the land they lived in, and her mother gave her a curious look, but gave her a lesson on them anyway. None of the lessons explained the girl. Rapunzel doesn't ask her mom about her. Eight years later, she meets her.

#mavpunzel #golden blond and jet black #rapunzel #tangled #my writings

[archester-creations]

Rated: G

Pairing: Mavpunzel (Mavis Dracula/Rapunzel)

Word Count: ~700

A/N: Happy femslash februaury! Have one of my favourites

Mavis stretches her arms, trying to tie the apron’s ribbon around her waist into a neat bow at the small despite the discomfort in her joints. She’s untied and retied the bow multiple times at this point. Her arms are tired.

“I can get that!” She hears a voice chirp and nearly cries when she turns to Rapunzel walking towards her.

“Please,” Mavis says, dropping her arms to her sides. The bow for Rapunzel’s apron is always so neat. It’s straight, with each part of it perfectly symmetrical, and Mavis is half-convinced she’s a witch because of it. No ordinary human can tie a bow that looks ripped straight from a Christmas ad on their own back.

Rapunzel smiles at her and moves to fix the bow, asking Mavis if it’s too tight as she ties it. She says other things as she ties it, rambles here and there about random stuff, her voice calming as it ever is. Mavis smiles to herself. This girl almost makes her not want to leave, but she’ll have to eventually. The maid cafe is only supposed to be a summer job.

“Thanks, Rapunzel.” Mavis takes a step away from her when she’s done, brushing down her apron and the dress with it.

“Sure thing,” Rapunzel says, smile still sunny. It’s always so sunny. Like nothing can hold her down.

It’s busy this time of year, but Rapunzel flits around talking to everybody like they’re regulars— even the people Mavis is fairly certain have never come in before. The people who are actually regulars she talks to like she remembers every little thing they’ve ever told her. (Mavis isn’t actually sure if she doesn’t.) She asks questions, smiles at the good news and frowns at the bad, laughs at jokes, and wishes people well, all with genuine care. Heartachingly genuine. Mavis wishes she could be like Rapunzel is, because that’s the one thing that makes her nervous about taking over the hotel one day.

“Only two more weeks,” Rapunzel says as they’re cleaning up and Mavis jolts, eyes whipping toward the calendar. It can’t be already. But it is. On a wednesday fourteen days from now, summer will end, and that friday will be Mavis’ last day. Something crawls into her chest and squeezes tight around her heart. No more Rapunzel. No more sunny smiles and excited chatter. Mavis grips the broomhandle until it feels like the wood might snap in her hands.

“That was fast,” Mavis says with what she hopes is a smile.

“Yeah!” Rapunzel laughs. Her eyes crinkle at the corners with it, the green of her irises shining. “But you know what they say, time goes fast when you’re having fun.”

Mavis blinks. Her grip slackens, revealing the long crack she put in the wood. “You have fun with me?”

“Of course!” Rapunzel looks over at her, smiling with the weight of the sun, and Mavis feels warm in its rays.

“Quit with me.”

“What?” Rapunzel’s eyebrows lower in confusion.

“Qu- quit with me,” Mavis repeats, a bit more hesitantly now that she’s saying it with purpose instead of the words suddenly bursting out of her. “Come work at the hotel. I think you’ll do great there.”

Rapunzel’s lips part slightly in surprise, her eyes wide as she stares at Mavis. Mavis swallows hard. Suddenly she is a lot more nervous. “I- Sure,” Rapunzel says. Mavis’ heart stops.

“What?” Mavis asks, because she can’t have possibly heard correctly.

“I like working with you.” When Rapunzel shrugs, she does it with her whole body. Her shoulders lift up to her ears, her weight rocks from her toes to her heels, and her arms splay out before they come back to dangle by her sides, her hands swaying gently. “It’s fun. More fun than any other shift. So, yeah. I’d like to come with you, if you still mean it.”

“Of course,” Mavis finds herself answering, her head nodding on its own until it catches up to her and she smiles wide, walking quickly between the tables to grab Rapunzel in a hug and twirl them in her excitement. “This is great!”

“It is?” Rapunzel smiles, hands on the arms still around her. Mavis drops them, stepping away to brush her hair back behind her ear.

“Yeah, I really didn’t want to leave you,” Mavis admits.

“I didn’t want you to leave,” Rapunzel says, and Mavis smiles.

#mavpunzel #golden blond and jet black #writings #femslash february

[archester-creations]

Jaune (Ordinary)

Rated: G

Pairing: Archester (Jaune Arc/Cardin Winchester)

Word Count: ~600

All Jaune can see is wide, scared eyes and the largest sudden burst of aura he’s ever seen from Cardin. From anyone not in a fight. There’s still pressure on his lips, but he knows it’s not really there. It’s just a phantom. A phantom of lips that are warm and chapped and just a little wet. That press just a little too hard. He buries his face into his hands. It felt like a dream. It still feels like a dream. He knew Cardin felt something for him. Despite what Nora says, he isn’t that blind, he sees the looks. Even if he didn’t fully suspect…

It hurts to be pushed away. And not just emotionally, Cardin barely held back his strength. If he hadn't caught himself, he would've hit the floor. Jaune scratches his hands into his scalp, letting his fingers catch and pull at every tangle in their path. What does he do? If he wants to, he can just forget about it. Completely let it go and act as if it never happened; as if the press of Cardin’s lips on his doesn’t linger like adrenaline. The thought’s tempting. Just be a mostly normal student, make it through school without being the student who was kissed by the boy who blackmailed him during the first quarter. It’s so tempting Jaune feels guilty for it. But he lets himself think about it as he sits there, looking at his hands clasped between his knees, until he huffs and shakes his head.

He can’t. He can’t pretend it was a dream, can’t act as if nothing changed, when that one kiss flipped his entire world inside out. When his lips still tingle with it. When there is a boy, who blackmailed him for their first quarter and has since become his friend, sitting in his own dorm. When the thought of that boy makes Jaune nervous. Makes his palms sweaty and his heart light.

Jaune looks up at the door, and he finds his feet moving toward it, out of the room and into the hallway in the space of a single blink. A single thought. Fuck it. Never once has he wanted to be plain, or normal, and this boy who’s slowly become his friend– who he’s slowly developed a crush on through days and weeks and months of time– has kissed him. He’s not going to let Cardin just— Just get away with it. He’s not stopping with just one kiss.

Jaune refuses to just let them move past it. To forget. He’s not letting it be just a dream.

He enters the dorm without knocking and doesn’t stop until he’s in front of Cardin. The other boy looks up at him from Russel’s shoulder with dry eyes and whipping aura, bright with confusion. Jaune grabs him by the collar and pulls up at the same time he leans down, until their lips press together again, firm and hard, fireworks lighting up behind his eyes. Real. When he pulls back, he breathes, and watches Cardin do the same.

“I want this,” Jaune says, voice firm as his kiss. “I want to be here, I want you.”

Cardin grips his forearms, fingers pressing into Jaune’s skin till it crinkles and Cardin’s nails leave moon-shaped indents. His mouth opens, but nothing comes out. Jaune leans down, pressing his lips to Cardin’s again, brushing them softly together in answer anyway. When Cardin’s hands loosen, and he pulls back to see the disbelieving smile, Jaune kisses him again just to taste the curve of his mouth. This time, Cardin kisses back, soft.

#archester #jaune arc #cardin winchester #rwby #writings

[archester-creations]

Cardin (Little Miss Perfect)

Rated: G

Pairing: Archester (Jaune Arc/Cardin Winchester)

Word Count: ~700

Despite having blackmailed Jaune, Cardin was rarely ever alone with him. As was his own plan. If he ignored Jaune as much as possible, he could ignore the way his heart fluttered around him like something small and weak. Cliched. Falling for the straight guy. Even after they formed a weird friendship, after Jaune stood up to him, after Cardin apologized, he kept that space. Still, they end up alone in Cardin’s team dorm, at the little bench he’d set up next to the window within his first week at Beacon so he could watch the stars. Neither of them are in armour. Like they can actually trust each other enough to be vulnerable. Though Cardin knows it’s only because it is night. As soon as Jaune leaves this room, he’ll probably get ready for bed even if he won’t sleep. A socked foot nudges his own. Cardin looks up to see Jaune standing over him. Wisps of blonde frame his face unevenly and the lights from outside play in his eyes like glowing stars. There’s a chuckle. A smile much softer than Cardin could ever deserve gets directed down at him. His body warms, spreading out from his chest and into his extremities like a campfire. Jaune tilts his head and his hair brushes his collarbone.

“You’re not paying attention, are you?” Jaune’s voice isn’t accusatory. If anything, it’s amused. The corner of his mouth lifts in a smirk. “Am I not entertaining enough? Do I have to get you to blackmail me again?”

Cardin snorts. A harsh, inelegant sound that makes Jaune’s smile widen so Cardin can see the incisor that grew in crooked. Whatever breath that’s in his lungs feels like it gets stuck there. Jaune’s eyes are closed. He reaches out and his hands grip onto the collar of Jaune’s shirt. There’s a confused noise from Jaune, but it gets cut off as Cardin pushes up at the same time he pulls Jaune down. Their lips connect. His brain blocks everything out except the pressure. Except warmth. They're soft. They’re chapped and smooth in uneven patches. Just as Cardin figured they’d be from all the times he’s seen Jaune biting at them. Once they part, the air stuck in Cardin’s lungs finally releases. Opposite it a shaky breath is taken. Cardin’s eyes snap open and all he can see is his own reflection in Jaune’s wide eyes as Jaune stares down at him.

Every bit of warmth leaves at once. He pushes Jaune away hard. No no no. This isn’t something he can do. He can’t. It’s not- It’s not good, it’s not worth it, he won’t be the gay guy who falls for the straight guy. He won't be. He can’t be. Love isn’t even anything he really knows, not like this. Jaune looks confused and Cardin turns his head to look out the window. “Get out.”

“Car-”

“Get out!” Cardin barks. It’s quiet for a moment, an audible indicator of Jaune’s hesitation, before footsteps and the door closing. The second it does Cardin curls into himself. The glass is cold where he presses his side to it. He breathes deeply until it stops hitching oddly.

In the quiet he drifts. Eventually the door opens behind him again, but he’s not clear on how much time passed. It feels like a lot. At the same time, it doesn’t feel like enough. He doesn’t look over. The possibility is so low because of his actions tonight, but he doesn’t want to take the chance Jaune actually came back. A hand settles on his shoulder. He glances at it just enough to see chipped, sparkly silver nail polish. Like a balloon he deflates.

“Cardin?” Russel asks.

“What did I do?” Is all Cardin can say. There are no tears in his eyes nor emotion in his voice. When Russel sits down next to him and wraps an arm around his shoulders, Cardin leans into him.

#archester #jaune arc #cardin winchester #rwby #light angst #writings

[archester-creations]

Rated: G

Pairing: None; Characters: The King, mentioned Nageki

Word Count: ~500

A/N: It's after midnight where I am so I can finally post this! Spoilers for Hatoful Boyfriend Holida Star and happy holidays to @aierie--dragonslayer hope you like it!

The King stares at the mourning dove, unsure if he feels hate or fear. His memories anymore are scattered, faded and broken and darkened. There are others in his memories, now, others in him. They feel nothing but confusion, but his insides twist and turn at the boy in front of him and The King can feel it pressing upwards. He thinks it’s fear. He feels like crying. The boy feels familiar, somehow, but he doesn’t know why. There is a voice in his ear, and he recognizes it. It sounds like love. It sounds like death.

He remembers this boy, though he’s never met him.

He does not want this boy to be here; he doesn’t want him to join everyone else inside him.

The King cries, because there is so much sorrow in him that crying is practically his natural state, though he doesn’t remember if it’s always been that way. He wants the boy to leave him be.

“The King asked, would you listen to The King’s request instead?”

There is a voice in his head, and it is louder than the others. It’s his own. It’s always been his own, but it says new things, now. He remembers.

Some part of him always knew he was just a replacement, The King thinks. There was always a certain light in his eyes when he talked about the boy that wasn’t there when he talked to him. Though sometimes, late at night, The King could pretend. Sometimes when he comforted The King, the light was there, and The King wasn’t sure if he was being seen or if someone else was being seen through him. Maybe being a replacement drove him to this. Maybe having someone else seen, instead of him, was why he took on everybirdie else who followed his lighthouse.

The King cast him far away when he appeared on his star, trapped him in caramel where he couldn’t leave. He wants to do the same to the boy. He wants to lock him up, far away. He wants him gone from his star and its everlasting holiday. He wants to make sure he can never leave. He wants his planisphere, wants the large star on it, so he can bring more people to his neverending holiday. So can have more friends. So he can keep them all safe, keep them without fear or sadness. But the mourning dove will take that away. Somehow he knows, the mourning dove will take that away.

His memories are becoming louder. They are separating from his Citizens.

“The King does not want to be friends with that mourning dove. You don’t have to come.”

“The King commanded, you shall stay away."

#hatoful boyfriend #the king #my writings

[archester-creations]

Rated: T

Pairing: platonic cr(r)dlawn

Word Count: ~7k

A/N: @stellarfoam @rwbyplatonicweek

Nora is vibrating. Practically jumping out of her skin. She's never truly been to an autumn festival. Not like this, with friends and not sneaking around to steal crisp apples and whatever baked goods Ren and her could manage to grab. There are so many things to do. Cardin and Weiss kept consulting their list, Sky right with them and arguing that they don't need to rehash a conversation they'd had seven times before while they planned everything out. Those two planned a lot. More than Nora ever did her entire life. More than Ren, too. Before either can stop him, Sky grabs the list from Cardin's hands. Weiss makes an affronted sound.

"Come on, before the day ends." Sky folds it and tucks it into the pocket of his jeans before he sets off in the direction of the gates. The rest of them watch him for a moment before they look at each other. Weiss follows him at a stomp, nose in the air. Jaune sighs.

"Well, we might as well follow them," Jaune says. Without another word, Nora rushes in. There are sights and sounds, but the crowd is small. Only a few other people are here. The expectation is for it to stay like that all day, since it's a weekday and the middle of the festival. It's one of the things Cardin and Weiss and Sky made sure of as they planned, and Nora knows it's partly for her.

Somehow the air smells crisper inside the fence. Like coloured leaves and autumn chill and crisp apples all rolled into one. The fence is wooden and only comes to her waist, but wraps around the entire area. She hasn't lived in Vale long enough to know if it's permanent or was just set up for the festival. There are trees inside the fence, climbable natural fixtures of reds and oranges and yellows. Further in she can see apple trees, too, and maybe even the pumpkin patch Weiss mentioned while they were planning this and that Ruby and Yang laughed about. There are stalls, too. Little pop up stands that drive around to events like these. One of them is selling corn on the cob and she makes a break for it, Russel on her heels. Behind them, Nora can hear Ren follow. Cardin is with him when Ren joins them.

"Can we?" Nora looks at Cardin, eyes wide and pleading. Cardin sighs and digs his wallet out of the brown leather jacket Velvet got him for his birthday last year. Both Russel and Nora whoop.

For a few seconds Cardin pauses, until Ren speaks up.

"Six," Ren says and Cardin nods.

"Six ears, please," Cardin tells the person at the counter. Mentally, Nora counts the group. Somehow that feels like too many and too little at once. Her, Russel, Ren, Cardin, Weiss, Sky, Dove, Jaune. Eight people. Ren is off by two, but Cardin didn't notice. When he's handed the first two ears of roasted, buttered corncob on a stick, he hands them to Nora and Russel. The other four are split between Ren and him. As soon as Ren and Cardin head back to the group, Nora and Russel look at each other. There’s a connect there, and Nora knows exactly what they’re going to do. Once they're back with the group, Cardin and Ren hand out the corn. Weiss seems a little confused, but she takes it anyway when Cardin hands it to her.

"So," Weiss juggles the list that she must've gotten back when they left in one hand and the stick of corn in the other. "First we have the petting zoo."

"There's a petting zoo?!" Nora asks excitedly. "I love petting zoos!"

"You've been to one?"

"Duh, Ren and I did have fun growing up!" Nora says.

"I took her to one after she almost got us kicked out of the zoo when we were ten," Ren says.

"If they didn't want me in the bear exhibit, they shouldn't've made it so easy to get in!" Nora says, a finger in the air. Cardin gives her the look he gives her sometimes, the one where he looks confused for a few seconds before he takes a breath and seemingly shakes away whatever questions he has instead of asking them.

“Well that’s rather enlightening,” Weiss mutters.

"I don't think we should take these into a petting zoo," Russel says and gets Cardin to take a few bites of the corn. Nora follows suit with Ren. On the walk over, Nora and Russel continue to give Ren and Cardin bites of their food and Nora thinks they might know what's going on, but neither mention it.

The petting zoo area is a large pen off to the side in the front. As they get closer to it, Nora realizes it’s not a single pen full of animals, but three pens of varying sizes in a square. The biggest had goats and sheep grazing at the grass; the next had smaller-sized pigs; the smallest pin held rabbits with a machine to feed them next to the gate. Nora has no clue which she wants to see first.

"Rabbits!" Russel says, and runs closer to the pen. Weiss looks at the pen with a smile; she is the first one inside it, with Russel and Nora on her heels, the decision made for Nora. There is the sound of a quarter being turned in a cog before something falls from the dispenser behind them. The gate opens and Cardin holds a hand full of rabbit food out to the three of them. They split it equally and Nora immediately goes to try and feed some in a corner. Three of them sit, trembles in their ears, their fur white with brown and black spots and looking soft. She crouches there and it takes a long minute before one approaches. The others follow and eat carefully from her hand. Nora smiles and pets them with her other hand. They’re softer than they look. The gate opens again, and the rabbits jump away, to the center where Dove sits on the ground. He’s covered in rabbits. A look around shows that all of them are with him. It makes Nora laugh, though she can’t quite help but be a little jealous too.

“They like you,” Nora says, standing near him because she’s not sure if she’ll disturb them if she sits with him, though she wants to. If she did, would they climb on her too? Dove shrugs and pats the ground next to him. Now, Nora doesn't hesitate to sit down. (Though she does it carefully.) He hands her some more rabbit food.

"They just like the food," Dove says. Nora watches how he sits, legs crossed and food held unmoving in front of the space his ankles meet, and mimics it. A few jump over to her. One of their nose's twitches at the juncture between her palm and thumb. Dove directs her to pet its forehead. The rabbit closes its eyes. It sinks lower into the grass as she moves to behind its ears, again with Dove's direction. One of the other rabbits settles into her lap, tiny claws gripping at her tights for a moment as it climbs in. She smiles.

"How do you know this?" Nora asks quietly. Dove shrugs.

They move to the pig pen next, though Weiss refuses to follow. Nora can't understand why. There's no mud in the pen, just an outcropping for shade when the day gets warmer– though according to Cardin, it shouldn't get much warmer. One of the pigs snorts happily at her.

"I am not getting into a pen with pigs!" Weiss crosses her arms over her t-shirt and plants her feet in the dirt, heeled boots making divots in it, sticking her nose up just slightly.

"But Weiss, they're cute." Russel picks one up and it squeals before he holds it to his chest to walk it over toward her. "Look, they're even clean!"

"Pigs are one of the cleanest mammals," Ren says and Russel shoots him a smile.

"See?" Russel gets as close to the fence as Nora thinks he can without possibly getting in trouble. The heiress huffs again, but steps closer and touches the pig who snuffs against her palm. "They like you," Russel says.

"Yes, well, I'm not sure how I feel about them," Weiss says even as she pets the pig. Russel backs away slowly, like he's luring her, and Weiss rolls her eyes but joins them in the pen. Once she's actually in with them, Russel places the pig back on the ground. It sticks around for a minute or so to let Weiss kneel next to it to pet it.

The last pen they enter is the goats. It turns into chaos in maybe a minute, maybe a little longer. Nora has always been bad with time.

It seems like nearly the second Russel enters the pen, an old goat narrows in on him. The goat has wicked horns and a scraggly beard, and possibly eyebrows, if goats can have those. All of the goat is white and that shade of grey you only get when you've lost the colour your hair actually was. Nora is patting a sheep when Russel shouts. She turns toward him, hand still on the wool, and sees him running across the pen with the goat closer on his heels than she would expect from someone with a speed semblance. Cardin shouts at him to jump out of the pen. Instead, he turns and runs behind Dove. This doesn't deter the goat. Dove calmly steps to the side as the goat follows Russel and Nora watches him run toward Ren instead, who is petting a sheep near her. Nora isn't sure if she should run, too, as the goat makes its way to them.

"What did I do to you?" Russel cries out, directed toward the goat of course.

"You probably have food," Dove says.

"Would it attack him just for food?" Weiss asks and Dove raises an eyebrow with a pointed look toward the goat apparently trying to do just that before nodding.

"Throw out whatever food you have!" Nora says. Russel pats down his pant pockets, then the ones in his vest where he pulls some candy wrapper from. The wrapper is silver and looks pretty perfectly square.

"But my fruit rollup," Russel says with a frown Nora is just able to make out.

"Russel!" Cardin barks. Russel throws it to the side, where Nora is, who catches it on instinct. The goat follows the fruity candy.

"Shit!" Nora books it, throwing the candy toward Ren who also catches it and throws it toward Sky, who passes it to Weiss, who passes it to Jaune, who passes it to Dove, who (calmer than anyone else, except Ren), passes it on to Cardin. The entire time the goat follows, chasing whoever has it like the world's most dangerous game of hot potato. On the second full go around, Cardin throws it out of the gate. The goat bashes its head against the fence as it tries to follow. While it’s disoriented, they all quickly leave before it decides to wreak vengeance. All of them pause to catch their breath.

Weiss is the first to compose herself, brushing herself off like it never happened. "Who let those beasts be in a place for children?" The goat rams its horns into the fence, this time without disorienting itself, like it understood her and she yelps. Jaune snickers.

"They're usually in petting zoos, as far as I know," Ren says.

"I wouldn't know why," Weiss glares at the pen. The goat snorts once.

"At least I still have this," Russel says, scooping the candy up from the grass and shoving it back in his pocket after making sure it wasn't torn open.

"Can we do that again?" Sky asks.

"No!" Weiss and Cardin say together. Sky rolls his eyes.

"You two combined are the most boring person," Sky says. Weiss gasps, putting a hand to her chest.

"They've planned a pretty fun day for us!" Russel says.

"Thank you," Weiss says.

Nora's eyes begin to wander. The petting zoo is sort of out of the way, but there are still plenty of things around it. It makes Nora think it's probably more an area for kids. There are empty places where she thinks food stands will set up later in the day, closer to lunch. Some are already set up– like the corn– and others are currently setting up. In the middle of all of them, like the early morning sun is shining a light on it, is a booth with a sign that reads 'face paint' next to it. Well, she calls it a booth. In actuality it's a white tent with two paint-stained, white tables with four chairs, two of which were occupied by a worker.

"Mom!" Nora grabs Cardin's hand and yanks him toward the booth, not quite noticing his stumble. "Face painting! I wanna get a matching one!" The others follow behind them more sedately. But Nora doesn't really care about that, because there is an empty chair with a woman sitting in a chair across from it with paint. Nora sits down, Cardin's hand still in hers. The woman looks amused.

"What would you like?" She asks.

"Matching tiger faces!" Nora said. "Please. Oo! And a crown for mine."

The woman nods. "I can do that."

As she gathers the paints and scoots closer to Nora, Nora hears one of the others sit in the empty chair from the pair across the table. She turns to see Sky wink at her. The woman asks her to look forward and sit still, so she does.

The paint is cold against her face. Cold and vaguely damp. It feels odd, like it'll crumple if she twitches her nose. She stays as still as she can, her right foot knocking against her left ankle before long. When the woman directs her to, she closes her eyes. The sponge swabs paint against her eyelids. Once the woman is done, Nora excitedly looks in the mirror to take in the black and orange stripes, and the whiskers, and the golden swirl of her tiara, a pink gem in the middle of it.

"Your turn!" Nora stands to her feet quickly enough that her knee nearly knocks against the woman's, has the grace to briefly look apologetic, then uses her grip on Cardin to put him in the chair. He goes without being forced. The woman looks amused again.

It seems to take less time for the face to form along Cardin's skin, stripes and whiskers matching Nora's own paint-made set. She smiles when he's done, admiring both of their faces in the mirror afterwards, then watches as the woman paints Weiss and Dove. A single, pink butterfly glitters to life on Weiss' cheek, the wing like a flower with the yellow at its middle and the head of the butterfly made of stick on gems above the bridge of her nose, pink antenna swirling from it. Swirls of feathered greens, blues, and a black form across Dove's face from his one cheek, across the bridge of his nose, to his forehead on the other side. The others join Nora and Cardin as they finish: Sky has glittering purple and white mermaid scales trailing next to his eyes, down to his upper cheek; a cartoon frog smiles happily on Ren's forehead and white swirls like wings fan out from under his eyes; pinks and greens and yellows and oranges cover Russel's eyelids like eyeshadow before they swirl upwards with white to form flowers, some of the white trailing down to a cheek for berries; light blue covers Jaune’s forehead in something like wings, rising from his nose and swirling down to his cheeks, a white snowflake topping it.

After everyone is finished, Dove takes a picture of them all. Nora sticks her tongue out for it and she can see Sky putting bunny ears over Cardin's head out the corner of her eye.

"Alright." Weiss clears her throat. The butterfly wing matches surprisingly well with the serious look she has. "Now for the corn maze."

Jaune smiles thinly. It looks painful, the way his eyebrows scrunch up. "Do we have to?"

"Of course we do," Weiss shoots him a look. "What kind of autumn festival family trip would it be if we didn't go in the maze?"

"Yeah, Jaune." Sky smiles. "You wouldn't want to ruin a family trip by skipping the maze, would you?"

"I- I mean no, but-" Jaune sighs. His lower lip sticks out in a pout and Dove pats his shoulder on his way toward the maze. The others follow after Dove and Jaune sighs again before following.

The corn that makes up the maze is tall and while Nora can't actually see much into the maze because of that, she did get a look on their way there, and it looked like it went on for acres then. She knows it's probably just an exaggeration, but it feels right as she stares through the opening. There are holes between stalks and all she sees through them is more corn. Even blinking to be sure her contacts are fine doesn't change the sheer thickness of corn. Someone could get lost in there for days. Nora smiles.

There is a stack of paper right outside the entrance with shapes to find inside the maze and a barrel of flags so the people on the platforms can help. They will not get help, because that's cheating. And it's not as fun. Weiss tucks the schedule in her skirt pocket and grabs three flags.

"We're splitting up for this," Weiss says. "Since that will allow us to cover the most ground."

Sky smiles. "Well I'm clearly Daphne, and Weiss and Dove are Fred and Velma so we should stick together."

"… who's everyone else?" Jaune asks.

"Well you're Shaggy," Sky lists, "Russel is Scooby, Nora is Scrappy, and Ren and Cardin can be extras." Sky ends it with a grin.

Nora has no idea what they're talking about. She looks at the others, but they all look just as confused. Except maybe Dove? It's hard to tell with him. The silence seems to clue Sky and Jaune into their confusion, because Sky's eyebrows lower and he asks, "Have none of you ever watched Scooby Doo?"

"No?" Russel shrugs with an apologetic half-smile.

Sky blinks. "That's a crime. We're watching Scooby Doo and the Ghoul School when we get back."

"And Witch’s Ghost," Jaune adds, to which Sky nods.

“... alright,” Weiss says after a moment of silence. She turns to the rest of the group. “Everybody else?”

Ren and Cardin look at each other silently, expressions unchanging. They did this sometimes, ever since Nora herself caused their introduction. For a moment, they glance at Jaune, who nods.

“Cardin and I’ll take Nora,” Jaune says. “Ren will go with Russel.”

“Alright.” Russel takes a flag from Weiss and goes to stand with Ren. Nora pops over and takes a flag from her as well. The last is taken by Dove, instead of being kept by her.

“How else do we separate?" Ren asks.

Weiss passes a paper to Ren, one to Jaune, and keeps the last as she answers. “One team will go one way, two will go the other. When the two come to a second junction, they’ll split again.”

“We’ll walk together!” Nora says, grabbing Ren’s wrist.

The first fork is in the entrance; Weiss' group heads right and Nora and Ren's head left. They walk together for what feels like a long stretch before there is another fork, and they go right again as Ren and Russel go left with a goodbye wave from Russel. This time the walk to the next fork is much shorter. The path splits into three, the middle path stretching until it simply shrinks into the corn. The maze somehow seems even larger on the inside than it does the outside.

“Which one?” Nora asks.

“Uh…” Jaune sticks out his finger, gesturing to a path with each word. Cardin gives him a slightly incredulous look. “Eenie, meenie, miney, mo, catch a tiger by the toe-”

“Really?” Cardin sighs.

“-if he hollers let him go, eenie, meenie, miney, mo. That one!” Jaune points at the middle path. Both Jaune and Nora immediately start down it.

“Why not,” Cardin says and follows.

The path feels just as long as it looked. Nora walks ahead of both Jaune and Cardin, looking for the next break in the path or for a hole punch station. It turns once, probably about where the path stopped making sense back at the fork, and Nora stares at the corn around the corner. It’s brown, but it’s corn. Maybe it’s still good? She takes the stalk in hand and pulls it off. The husk feels dry and crinkly and Nora manages to peel some from it before she hears footsteps behind her.

“Nora, where did you get that?” Cardin asks and she turns around, corn behind her back. In the split second she saw of it, the corn inside looked dry and cracked.

“Nothing,” Nora says.

“I said ‘where’ not ‘what’,” Cardin says drily.

“I know that,” Nora says. She drops the corn and continues walking down the path. Cardin rolls his eyes.

There are several turns they make, somehow never once running into any of the others. There is so much corn. It’s tall and thick and there’s just so much. Nora wants to know how they managed to make the maze. She wants to know if anybody got lost while they were cutting it. With the wooden platforms, there were probably people standing over the maze and directing people where to cut. A wooden box is in a corner at a dead end when she turns a new corner and she gasps.

“I found it!” Nora says, running to the box that’s not actually a box. It’s a stand with a hole puncher chained to it and a backboard with a star. Jaune punches a hole into a spot on the paper; it’s shaped like a star. Nora cheers and Jaune and Cardin smile. With one found, she’s excited to find the others. Nora hands the flag to Jaune so she can run backwards out of the dead end and continue on, to hopefully get a sense of where the path might split again and to maybe even find another hole punch station. He fumbles the flag a moment before he gets an actual hold on it.

“Uh, here?” He passes the paper to Cardin.

  It’s really hard to tell how much time passes. Nora doesn’t wear a watch and she doesn’t have the scroll Professor Ozpin gave her when Ren and she enrolled, deciding to leave it back in the dormroom instead since Jaune had his. But it feels long in the corn. The corn doesn’t so much press in on her as just… expands outwards. Continuously. “How long have we been here?”

“Thirty minutes,” Jaune answers her after a moment of fumbling for his scroll. They’ve only managed to find two of the five hole punches so far and Nora’s pretty sure they’re no where near the exit. She looks in the gaps between the corn and only sees more corn.

A minute later, Sky appears in front of them, nearly face planting into the corner. The two of them stare at each other for a moment. Then Nora and Sky purposely stumble into each other to stand leaning against each other. Because of their height difference, Sky bends his knees so their shoulders touch. He puts a hand to his forehead and Nora puts one against her chest, putting her head back; the backs of their heads konk together but neither pays it mind. Instead they just groan dramatically.

"Mother," Sky calls. "Mother, please, I've not a drop of water in days."

"Yes mother, could we please spare some? We're so thirsty," Nora says.

Cardin groans loudly and both of them open their eyes to watch him dig through the diaper bag as he grumbles under his breath. He pulls out two metal water bottles and hands them off to them. Jaune snickers behind him.

“What are you doing?” Cardin asks.

“I’m helping Weiss and Dove make a map,” Sky says. He hands the water bottle back after taking a few long swigs.

"They're making a map?" Jaune asks.

"Yeah." Sky shrugs. "They think it'll help."

"Have you found any hole punching stations?" Jaune asks, like a cheater.

"There's a heart one that way. Just keep going left for like three turns. Or maybe five." Sky points back the way they came.

"Thanks!" Nora shoves the water bottle back in the diaper bag, unbalancing Cardin on the way so he stumbles and possibly almost falls, before she runs for it. It may be cheating, but it was a heart one. And maybe they were all technically kinda working together, so it wasn't really actually cheating.

"Nora, wait!" Jaune calls from behind her, before thanking Sky. To Cardin, he says, "She moves so fast, I'm not sure she doesn't have two semblances," and Cardin laughs.

  "This is more confusing than the research said it would be," Weiss laments, looking around when they run into her, Dove, and Sky. Nora stands on her tiptoes to see what's on the new piece of paper she has in her hands. It looks like a map. It must be the map.

"You researched it?" Jaune asks.

"Are you surprised?" Sky asks. Jaune tilts his head, looking at Weiss, and then he smiles.

"Nope," Jaune says.

"It's better than not knowing what to expect," Weiss says, nose pointedly in the air.

"Isn't that the point of a maze?" Russel asks and Jaune, Sky, and Nora laugh as Weiss sends him a betrayed look. Russel smiles apologetically.

“I’m pretty sure the point of a maze is to get out,” Dove says.

"Exactly." Weiss says. "Thus the map." She doesn’t so much gesture to the piece of paper as she just hits it. The pencil between her fingers makes a light thump against the book that's in the same hand as the map. It must be the hard surface she was using to write on. Nora wonders if Weiss brought the book for that purpose or if it was just to read when they stop for lunch.

"How much do you have on that?" Nora asks.

Weiss sighs. "I wish I knew. This corn maze is confusing and unfeasibly large. And I assume none of you remember any of the places you've been to."

"Sorry." Jaune shrugs.

"Of course." Weiss sighs again. Her eyes return to the map, now held more against the book, and she runs her finger down a path before she turns her eyes to the corn around them. She glances between paper and maze a few times. Finally, she points to one of the walls. "Sky, can you check behind that?" Sky does a salute, and teleports through the corn. Cardin looks over the map from Weiss' other side.

"There was a fork around here with two paths, the left had a deadend." Cardin points to the last fork they came to. "And if you continue through the right, you eventually come to a three path fork. We came down the middle to that one and didn't check far down the other two paths. They didn't look interesting."

Weiss makes a note of it in the margins of the paper with a smile. "Thank you." Cardin shrugs.

  A beanie covering a head of dyed mint hair is seen briefly before it disappears behind Jaune, who is what it runs straight into it with a cutoff noise of pain. Both Jaune and Russel– who Nora knows it definitely is– tumble to the dirt. Several stalks of corn bend under the weight of their fall. Their flag managed to get wedged between some of the other stalks. Nora goes to pull it out as Ren and Cardin help Jaune and Russel up.

"Sorry about that," Jaune says.

"I'm sorry too," Russel chuckles. He adjusts his beanie. "I don't know which of us has the harder head."

"Both of you," Cardin says, tone flat. Ren hums in agreement and both Russel and Jaune manage to look offended at it. Jaune mumbles something about Cardin having the hardest head in the group. Which Nora disagrees with. Ren has the hardest head in the group. She's seen him walk into a cave wall while half awake and not even notice.

"So have you found everything yet?" Russel asks.

"Most of it!" Nora takes the paper from Cardin to show Russel. As soon as his hand is free, he starts to dig around in the diaper bag's front pocket. "We're missing the circle and the diamond."

"Oh, the diamond was the first one we found,” Russel says.

“You mean we have to go all the way back to the beginning?” Nora says tragically.

“Sorry,” Russel says.

"Here." Cardin hands them both a packet of gummies and rolls his eyes but hands one to Jaune as well when he makes grabby hands.

"Thanks!" Russel smiles, popping a blue one into his mouth before he takes back off. Ren shares a look with Cardin before he follows after him.

  "That's it." Nora rolls up the sleeves of the long sleeve shirt she stole from Pyrrha. "I'm goin' through!"

Cardin and Jaune grab her arms to stop her and she pulls them along a few steps as they dig their heels into the ground, Cardin more successfully than Jaune. "We can't break the maze!" Jaune says, making Nora pause. "That's cheating."

"But Russel and Sky are using their semblances," Nora says.

"Sky is just helping make a map," Jaune says.

"Russel just wants to go faster." Cardin shrugs.

"But I also want to go faster!" Nora complains. "This maze is taking forever!"

"That's what makes it so a-maze-ing," Jaune says with a big smile. "Ey? Ey?"

Nora and Cardin look at him with matching deadpan faces. Normally Nora would be all for terrible jokes, but she was getting bored.

"No?" Jaune asks.

Cardin turns and continues walking and Nora follows.

"Oh, come on, it wasn't that bad," Jaune complains from behind them.

  They all meet at a corn crossroads. Nora, Cardin, and Jaune from the left; Russel and Ren from the right; Dove, Sky, and Weiss from the center. Weiss looks up from her map and groans.

"Don't sound so happy to see us," Jaune says and Cardin and Nora simultaneously smack him. "Ow!"

Ren raises his eyebrows. "He's been making jokes for the past-" "half hour" "-half hour," Nora explains, with a little help from Cardin.

"Ah," Ren says with a nod, and all three of them ignore Jaune's small, affronted gasp.

"This maze is so much harder than it has any right to be," Weiss says. Her eyebrows are furrowed as she stares at the paper, briefly looking up every so often to look around them, her mouth drawn in a pout. Dove points to something on the map and she scribbles something down.

“How long have we even been in here?” Jaune asks.

“Two hours,” Ren says.

Weiss’ eyes snap to them. “Two hour-”

"Do you remember the story Mamma told us? About the labyrinth," Russel asks Cardin, who nods. "What if we got some twine or yarn and tied it around a corn stalk?"

Cardin hums. "It might work."

"But who has yarn or twine?" Nora grumbes.

"Sky, probably," Dove says, looking at him.

"Do I look like the kind of guy who carries around craft supplies?" Sky asks. Everyone looks at him and he shrugs. He reaches into his bag and pulls out a rather large ball of red yarn. There is a pair of knitting needles in it, which has a bit of knitting on it that he starts to undo. "You guys are just lucky I have so little of this one done."

"Oh, hey, it's red!" Russel says. "Appropriate!"

"Why's it appropriate?" Nora asks.

"When Mamma told it, she always made the thread red," Russel says as Sky hands him the ball. He ties the end of it to the bottom of one of the corn stalks, close to the ground, and walks to the middle as he begins to unravel it. “Alright, Weiss, which path?”

  Three hours after they go into the maze, they make it out together. It's a combination of Weiss' map and Russel's yarn idea that lets them get out. Nora is sure of that. All eight of them collapse in a pile on the ground, limbs splayed on top of limbs. She feels exhausted, but she's not sure in what way. Physically? Mentally? Maybe all of the above. She doesn't know if she can make it through the rest of the day after that, but she certainly wants to try.

"I didn't think I'd say this," Sky says. "But after that I think I'm actually glad to pick apples, even if the ladders are rickety as fuck.”

"Let's agree to never do another of these mazes," Weiss says.

"Thank you," Jaune says and Dove laughs.

"Alright, Sky. You want to teleport back to the yarn and grab it?" Weiss says.

"What?" Sky sits up. "I used my semblance for an hour and a half, I don't wanna use it anymore right now."

"Can't we just pull it towards us?" Russel asks, and Sky points at him.

"That. Let's do that."

Dove turns his head to watch with a slight smile, and Cardin frowns when he sees it.

“Didn’t we tie it to a corn stalk…?” Jaune asks quietly.

Cardin’s eyes go wide. “Wait-” But it’s already too late. Nora’s pulling the yarn toward them. There isn’t much resistance, either, past the first pull, so she’s not sure why Cardin is so worried. She slowly rolls it back into a ball for Sky, handing it back to him when the end finally reaches them. He picks up the end with a half-open mouthed frown.

“At least we didn’t destroy the corn,” Cardin says.

“My yarn.” Sky looks pitifully at the yarn. The end is frayed now. It probably ripped when Nora initially yanked it. His mouth closes and he turns the frown to Nora, except his lower lip is sticking out now to change the frown to a pout.

“Sorry.” Nora smiles apologetically.

“My yarn,” he repeats, adding some actual dramatics to his voice this time. He shakes the frayed end at her, making it flop uselessly. It almost makes her laugh.

“We can get you a new one,” Russel suggests.

“This is the last time I let you use my yarn to get out of a maze,” Sky grumbles.

“Because this is the last maze we’re going in, right?” Jaune says.

Weiss stretches as she stands up. “Everybody ready for the orchard?”

“I think so,” Ren says.

“Right?” Jaune repeats. Sky smiles at him. Nora, Dove, and Russel place their flags in the stands outside the maze exit, and Nora is disappointed to see there’s no prize for finding all of the hole punches. There should be a prize, in her opinion. It was hard work with at least one sacrifice.

  The apple orchard is huge.

Okay, not actually huge, Nora has seen plenty of huge orchards in her travels with Ren, but it seems a pretty good size! There’s at least twenty trees, all but maybe two with apples still on them to pick. It’s good enough for the group of them. It’s certainly good enough for her, the apples bright and ripe. Ren opens the gate before she can clamber over the fence, but Sky jumps it anyway and she follows suit with Weiss rolling her eyes at them. Cardin grabs a basket on his way in.

“We can’t go overboard,” Weiss says. “So only two per person.”

“Seriously?” Nora whines. “There’s gotta be, like, a hundred out here!” Weiss raises her eyebrow doubtfully. Nora dutifully ignores it.

“What if we just fill the basket?” Russel asks. “No more than one basket.”

Weiss purses her lips, thinking, before she nods. “That seems reasonable.”

“WOO!” Nora pumps her fists in the air then grabs Sky and Russel, who are closest to her. She is ready to climb, something she’s done a lot of over the years. Personally, she’d says she’s an A+ climber. She’s never broken a bone falling out of something, while Ren broke a bone when he fell out of the hayloft they slept in while they were climbing down in the morning. Of course, they did climb down in a bit of a rush.

“You climb up this one, Russel climbs up that one, and I got this one,” Nora says once they get to the trees proper, and Sky blanches.

“I’m not climbing any trees,” Sky says.

“Aw, but why not?” Nora pouts.

Sky looks up at the tree, up to where the apples are, his eyebrows knit. “I don’t really like heights.”

“Even just a tree?” Nora asks.

“Yeah.” Sky shrugs. “Even just a tree.”

Nora sighs, but nods. After a second, she nods more seriously. “Then you will hold the basket. We’ll pass the apples to you.”

“Thank you,” Sky says.

“Everyone else can pick from the bottom branches,” Nora says.

“Actually, I'd like to climb one,” Weiss says.

“Have you ever climbed a tree before?” Sky asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Have you?” Weiss asks, raising both eyebrows in response.

“Fuck you,” Sky says.

Sky watches Weiss carefully as she climbs up the branches, Nora watching with him to make sure Weiss makes it. Once she is securely in her tree, Nora clambers up her own. The apples are bright and red high in the branches and they come off easily with just a twist. They smell heavenly, too, and Nora can’t stop herself from biting into one before she drops it down to Ren, so he can hand it to Sky. It crunches delightfully between her teeth, sweetness filling her mouth. She catches Ren’s sigh and eyeroll when he notices she took a bite. Nora glances over to the other trees; Russel drops two apples down to Cardin and Weiss nearly hits Jaune on the head with one of her own, not realizing that he wasn’t paying attention.

“Sorry,” Weiss calls down.

“You’re lucky I have a hard head,” Jaune calls up, rubbing the back of it.

“Yeah, lucky,” Weiss drawls and Jaune sticks his tongue out at her as Dove snorts.

It doesn’t take them long to fill the basket with all of them working together. Or, most of them. Dove, Cardin, and Russel left a few minutes ago. Nora jumps down when Sky says the basket’s done and Weiss climbs down her own tree. Weiss brushes herself off.

“That’s a lot of apples,” Weiss says when she sees the basket, and Nora has to happily agree.

“Don’t eat them all without us,” Russel says and Nora turns to see the three missing boys with a covered paper coffee cup in each hand, except for Dove who held two in each hand. Russel lifts the ones in his hands. “Picnic time!”

“Picnic?” Nora asks, looking from Russel to Weiss and Cardin.

“Of course,” Weiss says. “We’re not going to spend a whole day here and not eat our midday meal.”

“We got apple cider for it,” Russel says. With a proud smile he adds, “And our team made the food.”

On that note, Cardin hands his cups over to Jaune and Ren. He kneels in front of the diaper bag he’d left under one of the trees and starts to dig through it, Sky and the basket of apples by his side. Everything he pulls out gets handed to Sky; a blanket first, then a few containers. Nora can’t tell what’s in them from just the outside. Once everything is out, Cardin zips the bag up and takes the containers back, also grabbing the basket. Sky and Weiss spread the blanket under the trees they picked through, so the shadows fall across the plaid fabric. The drinks, containers, and baskets are all placed atop it in the center, and the lids are removed to reveal hand pies, grapes, and blackberries. It all looks so good and she can smell the hand pies already, the spices mixing with the spice of the cider and the scent of the apple trees to become something soft that makes her mouth water and reminds her that she’s hungry.

“What’s in them?” Nora asks, though she’s already taking a bite of one, letting the flavour fill her mouth.

“Beef stew,” Sky says. “I figured something autumnal would be good.”

Nora hums around her second bite, nodding her head in agreement. The filling is soft, somehow, and the crust is flaky. And she has to steal crdl to cook for her team sometime. Or just for her. She’s had Russel’s cookies before and she will actually fight Ren in hand-to-hand combat for his ginger cookies.

“... why is there a bite in one of these?” Weiss asks, picking up an apple to look from it to the lot of them. There are teeth marks in it, surrounding the chunk missing from its flesh. Nora shrugs, trying to keep a straight face. Russel makes an amused noise.

“Nora,” Jaune, Ren, and Cardin chorus.

Weiss’ face scrunches up. “Gross.” She drops it on the blanket so the bite is facing the sky, instead of placing it back in the basket, and grabs one from the bottom.

  “Wait, we forgot something!” Russel says, looking around after they’ve all eaten and most cider cups are drained. Nora perks up, taking her clean fingers from her mouth to rub them on the blue tights she stole from Sky.

“I left them in the bag purposely,” Cardin says. “You can grab them now.”

Russel grabs a lost container from Cardin’s diaper bag, and the lid pops off to ginger cookies, and Nora reaches over to snag the container– or as many cookies as she can manage before she’s stopped– because she’s a woman of her word.

#crdlpawns #cr(r)dlawn #rwby #writings