#'hi love of my life! oh. flash. don't get the wrong id--' | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

pine-needle1144 · 7 months

Text

Lab Beakers, Vines, and Vibranium

Temporary spot for this Marvel, Non-Canon, multi-chapter fic. If you know me in real life--no you don't. I'll deny it to the grave. No one will believe you.

Anyways.

Multi-chapter fic being posted with both an OC and as an X Reader, whatever floats your boat.

MCU Bruce Banner x OC x Steve Rogers

My poor excuse of a Summary: Bruce Banner and Tony's cousin are playing God with biological exploration at the Stark Tower. What could possibly go wrong. (Steve Rogers doesn't come into play until later so please hold on for his debut). Oh no, I hope no one falls in love with each other and creates drama. I sure hope individual trauma and miscommunications aren't afoot. I sure hope no random threats appear and make things chaotic. That would be sooo crazy.

Warnings: None yet (If you know me--which you don't--and I'm your boss, you're obligated to skip the smut chapters. I don't wanna hear no ifs ands or buts about it.)

Chapter One

Out of all the places in the world–Alaska never seemed to be on the list of possible hiding places in Tony’s eyes. He even made Natasha triple-check her sources before he finally decided to get on a plane. Nothing could’ve prepared him for the horrendous flight he endured. Between the screaming baby and being stuck in one position for hours on end with his legs cramped up–and including a late take off–Bruce better say yes or he’ll have another thing coming.

Tony exited the cab, patting his pockets to make sure he had everything before closing the door behind him. His sunglasses hung over the collar of his sweater, proving useless here. Pepper had told him about the roughly two months of darkness Alaska experienced per year, but he didn’t think it’d be essentially nightfall in the middle of the day. He tapped his phone screen to see the time, just to be sure. Damn, Bruce really knows how to pick his spots.

Without wasting any more time, he began walking toward a small white clinic across the street from where the cab left him. It was small and sleek, practically slapped in the middle of nowhere. This town in general was practically smacked in the middle of nowhere. Easily overlooked if you weren’t a local.

Tony fished around his back pocket until he felt the plastic of his ID card, yanking it out and unwrapping the lanyard he had twisted around the badge. He tossed the badge on, letting it fall to sit directly midway on his chest just as he reached the front of the building. Tony halted in front of the glass doors, poorly attempting to check himself in the reflection before hitting the buzzer.

It smelled just like any doctor's office would as he swung the door open. The scent of Purell and Clorox burned his nose and throat for a moment as he took a breath, the feeling quickly dissipating.

The waiting room was almost eerily empty as he approached the front desk, looking around one last time before settling his hands on the counter.

The young woman at the front desk reached forward, sliding her glass window open. “First and last name?” She asked, hastily turning to type on her computer to pull up the patient database.

“Oh–no, actually,” Tony reached down to grab the badge from around his neck, quickly flashing it toward her before letting it fall back against his chest. “I’m here to speak with Doctor Banner.”

The young woman lifted her fingers away from her keyboard, turning back towards Tony to give him a quizzical look. “Uhuh.” She tutted and reached forward through the window to take a closer look at his ID card.

Tony pulled it away from her in a hurry. “Perhaps you could just page him for me, make this a little easier.”

She leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms over her chest. “Sir, I need to scan your ID to log you into the visitor's admissions. Now, which department are you visiting from and what is the nature of your visit?” She flicked her hand out, palm up as she patiently waited for him to fork over the badge.

Tony grumbled, unclipping the badge from his lanyard and dropping it in her hand. “I’m here on a work order. Gotta check the fire alarm lights and the fire extinguishers in Doctor Banner’s office and the hallway.” He made it up as he went, watching as she spun around in her chair to scan the ID through the copy machine.

“Right, and where is your work order? Oh, and the new fire extinguisher tags?” She asked as she filled out his admission file. Her eyes left the form for only a moment, really taking him in. Tony stood clad in a deep maroon sweater, a bulky leather jacket, jeans, and Doc Martens. The real cherry on top was noticing his sunglasses hanging off the collar of his sweater. No work order and no tags in hand.

Tony shifted his weight back and forth on his feet. “Great question, beautiful. You see, I’m not exactly fulfilling the work order today. Doctor Banner requested that I meet with him and take a look around first. I’m new to the area.” He looked over her unamused face, clearly not buying his story. “First day on the job.” He forced a smile, smacking his hands together awkwardly.

The woman rolled her eyes before taking one last look at his ID card. “Alright, Mister Jones.” She eyed him once more as she held the badge out to him.

Tony hastily clipped it back on the lanyard. “That’s my name, gorgeous, don’t wear it out.”

“Go through that door on the left. Walk all the way down the hallway and his office will be the last door on the right. Don’t let me see you in here ever again or I’m calling security.” She slammed the glass window shut and turned back to her computer.

“I don’t plan on it.” Tony wasted no time making a beeline to the door and vanishing behind it. He kept up a fast pace as he nearly jogged along the tile floor. He finally reached the farthest door on the right, peeking through the small glass window just to be sure he was really in there.

Tony gave a loud and harsh few knocks before letting himself in, eyes falling on his old friend. “Do you have any idea how long it took to find you this time?” Tony’s sarcasm whipped off his tongue with a stinging sharpness, jolting Bruce right out of his chair.

His eyes went wide as he stared slack-jawed in awe at Tony. “I–you,” Bruce stumbled over his words as he adjusted his glasses, running a hand through his hair. “This is unbelievable, Stark.” He shot his hands under her glasses, harshly rubbing his eyes and cheeks. He finally let his hands flop to his sides as he looked Tony over, adjusting to the fact he was truly standing there. “I can’t–How are you–Can I not vacation in peace, Tony?” He rasped in disbelief.

Tony scoffed, slowly and dramatically turning himself to his left and right while reaching his arms out to gesture at the mountain of books, papers, and files surrounding them. “Oh–Oh, I’m sorry–is that what you’re calling this nowadays?”

Bruce shook his head feverishly as he shot up his hands defensively. “Look, Tony, as astonished as I am that you found me and came all this way–I’m not coming back to–”

“I didn’t come here for anything to do with myself, now would ya sit down and listen.” Tony cut him off, grabbing one of the spare chairs from a smaller desk close by and plopping himself down in front of Bruce’s. “Well, scratch that, only partially for me. I’m mainly here on behalf of my cousin. She’s personally requested your expertise.”Tony watched carefully as Bruce lowered himself back into his plush chair, arms resting firmly on his desk as though he were bracing himself.

He let out a deep breath. “Your cousin?” Bruce muttered, carding through the deep files of his brain for any recollection of such a relative.

Tony nodded. “Yeah, you’ve met her.”

Brue stared blankly at Tony, a deer in the headlights.

Tony rolled his eyes. “My New Year's Eve party, like, two years ago,” Tony explained, leaning back in the chair.

Once again, he was met with Bruce’s irritating silence. “Oh, come on. It was the

first and only party of mine you have ever attended. You were there for maybe an hour before vanishing into thin air like always.”

Bruce tapped a finger to his bottom lip, digging around his mess of memories. “You don’t mean the girl that stood on your bar top screaming Mr. Brightside while spilling half a bottle of Pink Whitney all over herself, do you?”

Tony cleared his throat, choosing to push past the surfaced memory. “Well, she just got her Masters in Biology.”

Bruce chuckled, shaking his head both impressed and slightly shocked at the achievement. “I guess she truly is related to you.”

Tony scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Unimportant.” He reached across the desk to grab a stray pen and paper pad that had a few mindless scribbles on it. “Now, just hear me out for a second.”

Bruce allowed himself to relax a bit, the tension leaving his shoulders as he leaned back in his chair.

“Here’s my offer for you.” Tony began scribbling on the paper. “My cousin is going to be staying at the Stark Tower for a while as Pepper and I rebuild and make some changes. How would you like to work with her in my lab on some cutting-edge biological exploration and technology?”

The silence that fell over the room was piercing. Bruce could practically hear his heart beating in his ears. “I think I need a little more of an explanation than that.”

Tony adjusted himself in his seat. “Listen, Banner, my Ellie practically shares a brain with me. I wouldn’t have come all this way if I didn’t think her ideas were worth exploring. The subject matter is in your ballpark. I’m willing to provide investment, tools, the space, etcetera–to make this happen.” Tony waved the pen around as he spoke. “Of course, on top of her developments–assuming all goes well and you two become an unstoppable team–you’ll also be procuring some tech and new advancements for Stark Industries. Consider this partially a business transaction as well.” He leaned forward, sliding the paper pad over to Bruce. “You'll be paid bi-weekly. I’m willing to provide room and board once we get you signed and–”

“Woah, woah.” Bruce raked his hands through his hair, Tony was giving him more grays by the second. “You want me to stay in the Stark Tower? Like I’m dorming? I mean, Jesus–are we in college again?”

Tony crossed his arms over his chest. “I hardly think my Tower is anything akin to a frat house, Banner.”

“On top of that, you want the other guy on ‘Industrial Island’ for an unforeseen amount of time in the Stark Tower?” Bruce was grasping at his current reality.

“I do,” Tony assured him. “I think this is an incredible opportunity for everyone involved.”

Bruce peered down at the number Tony had jotted down, his eyes nearly bugged out of his head. “Tony–I can’t–This is too much! I mean–what the hell is she trying to develop that you would be paying me this much?”

Tony stood from his chair. “Tell ya what, fly back with me tonight. Meet with my cousin and then make your decision. I can’t force you to stay or go, the choice is yours.”

Bruce shook his head in disbelief, stifling an awkward chuckle. “I can’t believe this.”

“Well, believe it, Banner. She refuses to work alongside anyone else. She knows a lot about your work and she only wants the best.”

Bruce sucked in a quick breath through his teeth. “But, she knows about the other guy, doesn’t she?” He toyed with the rolled-up cuff of his dress shirt. “And she still wants me on this project?”

“She does, and she wants no one else but you.” Tony shot him a smile, extending his right hand out to Bruce. “So, what do ya say?”

Bruce finally pushed himself up from his side of the desk, clasping his hand in Tony’s. “I’ll give this a shot, but if it’s not for me–you’re paying for my return flight.”

Tony chuckled and gave his hand a playful squeeze. “It’s good to have you back in my lab, Banner.”

#marvel #bruce banner #tony stark #steve rogers #bruce banner x reader #steve rogers x reader #x reader #x oc #oc #chapter fic #multi chapter

4 notes · View notes

kanjichris · 3 years

Conversation

flash thompson seeing spider-man for the first time: i hope this doesn't awaken something in me

#peterflash #spideyflash #spiderflash #flash thompson #peter parker #spider man #marvel comics #agent venom #sorry i was thinking about that panel where peter answers the phone and says #'hi love of my life! oh. flash. don't get the wrong id--'#😌#it's all about the gay antagonism to gay broship (bro friendship)#c.txt

460 notes · View notes

ironmanfridgemagnet · 2 years

Text

Sitting On The Shelf - Marcus White x Reader

Part 5 - Shoplifter

SOTS Masterlist

As you and Amy pulled up to Cloud 9, you checked off a point on your mental to-do list. In the car ride over you, Amy and Emma had discussed the strongly worded voicemail that had been left by your mother the other day. It had been a difficult conversation - anything to do with your mom was difficult, but the voicemail she'd left had your feelings all up in the air again.

You knew her words were meaningless, that she was just saying things she knew would get to you; but that didn't make them hurt any less. She was your mom after all, and as hard as you tried not to, you couldn't help but hope she'd change, that she'd grow to love you as she was supposed to - like Amy loved Emma.

As you got out of the car, you wiped the stray tear that had fallen from your cheek, taking a deep breath in as to prepare yourself for the day you would have to face once you were inside the store.

Barley through the doors you already heard Garrets cries. "Oh, Jonah touched a dead guy! Jonah touched a dead guy!"

You could do this.

————————————————————————

"Well, we can likely rule out foul play according to his license, he was 87. Probably died of old age." Dina announced to the breakroom, flicking through the contents of the mans wallets to find a slot to place the ID card back into.

"My great-grandma died the same way. Her mom too. Bad genes, I guess." Cheyenne said making you chuckle. Cheyenne had a way with words that made everything she said feel... so perfectly Cheyenne - funny and slightly naïve.

"So, she just kept the dead man's wallet, and we're all okay with that?" Amy asked, sitting across the table from you, her hand caressing a warm mug of coffee; much like the one you had yourself.

"Finders keepers." Dina replied, shrugging her shoulders as she tucked the wallet into her back pocket.

Bringing the cup of coffee Garret had made for you to your lips, you took a long sip, allowing your eyes to close as the warmth seeped through your body. As you opened your eyes they were met with the whiskey hues of Marcus's. Hiding your smile behind the brim of your mug, he flashed you a bright and wide grin, holding his hand up in a small wave. The shared moment between the two of you was far too quickly broken for your liking, by a sharp nudge from Garret. You rolled your eyes at the man beside you, ignoring his look of confusion, choosing to instead take another sip of coffee.

"Anyway, uh, I thought we should all gather as a group in sort of a safe space so that we can share any feelings that we have. About what happened. Um, is anyone feeling any sadness? Or shock? Or guilt? There are no wrong answers. Yes, Garrett." Glenn asked around, worried that someone may be feeling upset due to the man that had been found in the store - though it seemed pretty clear that Glenn was the most upset about it.

"I guess apathy. I don't got any feelings about this dude." Garret stated blankly, causing Glenn to take in a sharp intake of breath.

"I agree with Garret, Glenn, I don't think any of us knew who this guy was before today." You and Garret shared a look as Glenn let out a frustrated whine.

"Okay, uh, Garrett and y/n, thank you for sharing. Um, is anyone else feeling feelings of apathy? Okay, well, that's valid. That's va no, it's not valid! You know what? No one is leaving this room until I see someone express some real g-d emotion!" Glenn's sudden outburst shocked you, while you could tell the incident this morning had effected him, you didn't think it had this much.

"Uh, well, perhaps seeing a dead person today made us all realize how fragile the journey of life really is." Jonah offered, his wide eyed expression revealing that Glenn's outburst had surprised him too.

"Thank you. A little cliché, but points for effort. All right, um, why don't we just all. Bow our heads." Glenn announced, driving the break room in to an attempted prayer.

Though his attempt was quickly stopped by Dina enforcing the stores rules over Glenn's satisfaction. If he didn't have the chance to express how he was feeling now, you knew it'd probably eat at him all day - and then evolve into something much worse then a moment of silence.

"Okay, Amy, could you come and say a few secular words?" Glenn asked, sending a pointed look at Dina who simply gave him a tight lipped smile back.

"Um Charles, uh, wasn't just a man who needed corrective lenses, he was also not an organ donor. And, um, in conclusion, he lived on Oak Street. Thank you." Amy was hesitant in her words, trying to please both Dina and Glenn while working with what little information she had.

"Beautifully said Ames." You cheered, clapping quietly at her as she took her seat across from you again.

"So tragic." Mateo said, a frown forming on his face. Though it quickly returned to a smile as he asked, "What's gonna happen to the couch?

"What? The couch?" Glenn asked, confused and partially offended that people cared more about the couch then the man.

"It was the fanciest one in the store." Mateo affirmed, looking around the break room as people made sounds of upset.

"He died on the fancy couch?" Cheyenne whined, upset there'd be no more fancy (and comfy) couch to sit on when we should be working.

"Does that mean it's gonna be on sale?" You asked, meeting Cheyenne eyes as you spoke. If it was you'd totally chip in to buy it for her; she had the space for it and you'd had loads of good times on that couch talking together.

"We don't have to tell anyone somebody died on it." Dina scoffed, rolling her eyes at the idea of stock being lost of something 'so little' as the death of a customer.

"Not disclosing someone died on it is lying. I'm a man of truth, Dina. Maybe lying's your thing." Glenn snarked, still riled up by being denied his moment of prayer earlier.

"Oh, you like truth, huh?" Dina asked, placing her hand firmly on her hip as she looked threatening over Glenn.

While Dina and Glenn argued, yet again this morning, over whatever you stood to leave the break room as did everyone else. There was work to be done and Dina and Glenn's antics shouldn't stop you. However, as you went to leave, you turned to face where Marcus had once stood - hoping you'd have the chance to talk to him before the long day ahead of you. Unfortunately for you, Marcus was long gone, so you left the break room; a slight slump in your shoulders as you did.

————————————————————————

"You're loading that wrong." Turning to face the familiar voice, you laughed at Emma's observation. Despite being so much younger, and having no formal training, she was right.

"Oh, um, thank you, little girl, but I think I know what I'm doing. There we go. Just got to use a little muscle." Jonah responded, trying to force the pallet into the freezer with all his might.

"Can I have one?" You and Emma asked at the same time, laughing at how I'm sync you were. However as Jonah tried to grab one, with how he stocked them, he couldn't.

"Sure. And I don't know if you..." Jonah's sentence went unfinished as Amy came speeding around the corner.

"Emma, there you are. I told... you loaded it wrong?" Amy clasp her hands around Emma's shoulders, more than ready to drag her away, until she saw Jonah's attempt at stocking the fridge.

"Wait a minute. That's your daughter!" Jonah shouted in shock, waving his hands around in front of him.

"And you knew!" He shouted again this time turning to face you, who was holding a hand to your face in an attempt to smuggle your laughter.

"Shh! We're not allowed to bring our kids to work." Amy whisper shouted at Jonah, pushing Emma behind her as she spoke. "My sitter cancelled, and she's hanging out for a couple hours, but can you please not tell Glenn or, shh Dina."

"No, no, no, no, your secret is safe with me. I'm not telling anybody. Hi, I'm Jonah." Jonah bent down to Emma's height as he spoke to her, making you laugh as he tried to act cool.

"Yeah, I figured. You guys are right, he is incompetent." Emma said looking between both you and Amy as she insulted Jonah.

"You told her I was incompetent? Ba-na-na-na. Talk about me at home? I don't know if I should be flattered or insulted." Jonah flashed Amy a toothy smile as his ego grew at the idea she talked about him at home. Oh they were definitely work flirts.

"Don't be flattered." Amy said, turning away and taking Emma with her. As they left, Emma sent you a small wave over her shoulder, before she turned and follow in time with her mom.

"Yeah you should be insulted." You said to Jonah as you turned back to the fridge to try and fix his miserable attempt at stocking it.

"You talk about me at home too y/n?" Jonah asked, a smug smirk still on his face.

"No, but I do talk about you to Amy and Emma." Ignoring the look of shock on Jonah's face, you continued to take the pallets out and put them back in correctly.

"I used to look after Emma a lot, I still do sometimes, but we'd talk about stuff. Sometimes you'd come up." You shrugged your shoulders as you spoke, acting nonchalant about what you'd said, knowing otherwise it'd just feed into Jonah's ego even more.

As Jonah stumbled over his words, you finished placing in the pallets of stock correctly. You stood up, brushing you hands off onto you jeans before announcing, "I'm going to find Garret."

Turning to leave Jonah, you felt a buzz come from your back pocket. Pulling out your phone, the screen was illuminated by the notification of a text.

Marcus :p | Morning y/n :) Come find me when you've got a minute.

————————————————————————

As you walked towards the customer service counter where you saw Garret sat, you saw Dina approach him.

"Hey, Garrett. I've got a shoplifter in my cross-hairs." Dina bragged, looking around the store floor as she spoke, as if she was waiting to figure out who exactly was shoplifting.

"Hmm, I've taken four breaks today, so I guess we both got stuff to brag about." Garret smirked at his own words, appeasing Dina's antics to get away with his own.

As you heard a cry come from somewhere within the store, you saw Dina ready to run off. "Gotcha, you gorgeous piece of garbage."

"What was all that about Gare." You asked, raising an eyebrow at him as you spoke.

"Dina's got a shoplifter or something, I'm not really sure." His confused look made you both let out a laugh. Dina had always been an interesting character.

"So what's up baby girl?" Garrets look of concern and care made you feel more confident about what you were about to do.

You laughed and shook your head at Dina's words, turning to face Garret as your laughter died down. "I just need to speak to you for a sec, Gare, if that's okay?"

It was now, or never, you had decided. Cheyenne's words filing you with enough confidence to do something that had been working you up for weeks now; you had to tell him.

"Of course you can doll, I'm all ears." He sent you a charming smile, reminding you that nothing should change once you told him. No matter how much bad stuff had happened, he'd still be the same; and for even that, you were grateful.

While you didn't want to talk in front of the audience within the breakroom, you weren't sure if the store full of customers was any better. Listening ears, and the all too nosy people of St Louis, made you worry that someone passing by would relay what you were going to say to one of your co-workers. However, you weren't going to let fear hold you back after coming this far.

"It's a lot. I have a lot I want to say, so please can you just listen until I'm finished speaking?" Garret nodded his head slowly, a curious look crossing his face as he spoke. This was going to be a difficult, yet important, conversation.

"I know you've been suspicious of me getting lots of rides home from Amy, but it's for a good reason. I've been living with her." Garret chocked on his own saliva as the words registered in his mind. You'd been what? Despite his shock, he sat quietly, still giving you the opportunity to speak.

"My mom kicked me out. Amy knows. But only because I'd thought I was the last person left at the store, but she had to lock up the store and she..." You took a deep and slow breath in as you spoke, trying not to let the tears well up in your eyes. "And she found me crying at the bus stop. I'd waited to get the last bus home because I knew I had nowhere to go, and I didn't want to worry anyone. Shit, I didn't think anyone would care if I did tell them."

"Most importantly, I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. Out of everyone in this store you should've known, and you should've known sooner. I was just scared? And I was ashamed. And I was so worried it would change how you looked at me that I thought that maybe it was best to just not say anything at all." Now, you didn't care to stop the tears from spilling over, as you let them fall freely down your cheeks - Garrets hand coming to gently wipe the fallen tears away.

"I thought, maybe, It would make you want to leave me too." A sob wracked your body as you let out those final words, only just understanding yourself why you'd been so reluctant to tell Garret. Though deep down you knew Garret wouldn't change because of something so out of your control, that couldn't stop you from worrying and overthinking.

Garret swiftly pulled you down into a tight hug, holding your shaking body tightly against him. Despite him now having the opportunity to speak, he sat silently against you, not knowing how to respond to such a vulnerable moment shared between the two of you.

As your tears slowly stopped flowing, you leant back away from Garret, letting his hands fall from where it had been stroking your hair. Before you had the chance to say anything to him, Garret finally spoke up.

"Don't you ever - and I mean ever - think that no one cares enough about you to be there for you when you need them. Especially me. I'm not going anywhere doll. You're my one and only baby girl and no matter what happens, I'll be there. Don't worry that you took so long to tell me, I'm just glad you were finally able to talk about it at all." Tears welled up in your eyes once more as Garret spoke, thankful that he had been so incredible as to be so caring after all you've been through.

"Your secret is safe with me." Garret flashed you a gentle and loving smile, rubbing his hand up and down your back as you mouthed a silent thank you to him.

You couldn't have imagined this conversation going any better than it had.

"Well, doll, you best get back to work. God knows you never do any real work around here." Garrets humorous tone made you break the sad atmosphere and let out a quite giggle.

"There's my baby girl." Garret was like the brother you never had, in so many ways that you could not even begin to count. You couldn't be more thankful, especially now, to have him in your life.

Wiping away any stray tears that remained on your face, you stood from Garret and turned to leave towards the depths of the store.

"Hey Garret, thank you." You sent him a genuine and wide smile. letting out yet another laugh as he blew you a kiss as you walked away. It felt so much better having that weight off your chest, and knowing that Garret still loved you the same.

————————————————————————

After speaking with Garret, one more thing checked off of your to-do list, you decided to actually try and get some work done, just like Garret had jokingly suggested. Making your way over towards housewares, as Amy had asked you to this morning, you heard Jonah shout.

"Hey, uh, Dina?"

"I'm in a hurry. If you want to talk, you have to walk with me." Dina commanded, continuing her fast paced walk as she spoke to Jonah.

"Uh, okay, this is gonna sound crazy, but, do you remember your first period? Because..." what? Why on earth would Jonah care about Dina's first period.

"February 4th, 2003. It was a Tuesday. Unseasonably warm." Dina announced, a smug smile making its way onto her face at Jonah undivided attention to what she was saying.

"Okay..." Jonah's voice wobbled as he spoke, clearly getting much more out of Dina then he was hoping to.

"So I was 19. Late bloomer, though I've more than made up for that since. My gyno says I ovulate like a champ. I drop eggs hard." You rose you eyebrow at what Dina said, recoiling slightly deeper into the isle as they came to a stand still next to you.

"All right, uh..." Jonah's words came out above a whisper, his face flushing a deep red as he made eye contact with you; clearly understanding you'd been blessed with hearing this conversation.

"You know my aunt was born with two vaginas? Yeah, she always thought it would help her date, but it didn't. She died alone. Well, she will die alone. She's still alive. She's only like 50 or something." Even though you found Dina story interesting it's not exactly what you wanted to be hearing, especially after the events of this morning (which had been strange enough themselves).

"Okay, thanks. Think I got all the information I need." Jonah said, clapping his hands together as he moved away from Dina's side, down towards where you resided further down the isle.

"God, I'm good at flirting." You heard Dina mutter to herself. what? However, her words were clearly lost on Jonah as he continued to storm towards you. Gently grabbing you by the hand, he began to pull you out of the isle and somewhere else within the store. Without having the chance to ask why, Jonah said:

"Y/n, I really need your help." ————————————————————————

Upon arriving at the toiletries isle, Jonah still held onto your hand pulling you up and down it's lengths in search of what he was looking for.

"ah I'm an 11-year-old girl. Do I like pads or tampons? Hyp... hypothetically." He asked, though to no one in particular, pulling several different brands of products off of the shelves and placing them into a stray shopping cart that stood behind the pair of you.

"Oh, hey, dudes. You want to split a pizza for lunch break?" Garret asked as he came from around the corner, looking between you and Jonah in wait of a response.

"What do you know about periods?" Jonah asked in all seriousness, completely disregarding the pizza.

"Oh, it's bleeding from the uterus that's released through the vagina. Happens every 28 days, give or take a few, depending on the lady. They all snowflakes." Garret explained, raising his eyebrows at Jonah's genuine intrigue of the topic. What was going on here?

"So was that a no for pizza?" Garret asked, ready to leave for the pizza that you oh so wanted.

"I don't think I'm hungry anymore." Jonah answered, pulling you with him towards another row of products, and away from Garret and the promise of pizza.

"Dude, you could've just asked me?" You said, pulling Jonah's attention away from the plethora of boxes and packets in front of him by the hands that still connected you both.

"Sorry y/n, my heads a bit scattered at the moment." With a deep sigh he shovelled more of the products into the cart.

"What's all this about anyway?" You asked, watching as Jonah continued to desperately shove things into the cart.

"Well, Emma-" Before Jonah could say anything more, you'd grabbed the brand of pads Amy kept at home, rushing off to the customer bathrooms. Jonah rushed after you, pushing the cart filled with tampons and pads with him.

————————————————————————

While Jonah hadn't exactly told you what had happened, you could easily put two and two together once he'd told you Emma was involved. Why he hadn't come and found you sooner was beyond you.

"Okay, Uncle Jonah's back. Gross. Please pretend I did not just call myself "Uncle Jonah."" Jonah proclaimed as he entered the customer bathrooms, his cart of pads in hand. You grimaced at his attempt of sounding cool to Emma, 'uncle Jonah' being the best he could come up with.

"Did you get something?" Emma asked, a sense of urgency in her voice. God, how long has the poor girl been stranded here.

"Yep, these are colourful. Oh! And this one has a girl playing soccer on the cover." Jonah dug through his variety of items, picking out the most eye catching and girly ones he could find.

"I just want whatever's easy to use." Emma let out a deep sigh, done with Jonah's antics and wishing anyone but him was helping her right now. God, she'd even take Glenn's help over this.

"I got to be honest, none of these really look easy to use." Jonah said, opening a box of tampons and staring in awe at the applicator.

"It's gonna be okay Emma. Can I come in?" You asked, pressing yourself up against the door of the stall so Emma could hear your hushed tone. With a sigh of relief coming from inside of the stall, you heard the door click open and Emma's face peek out from around the corner. Turing around, you gave Jonah a pointed glare, getting him to turn around as you slid through the gap in the door, and into the stall.

Once inside the stall, you locked the door behind you, turning to face Emma as she fiddled with her hands awkwardly. Breathing in a deep sigh, you began to speak:

"Listen Emma, I know I'm not your mom, but unfortunately I'm the closest you'll get to her right now. So, let's get into this." You gave Emma a weak smile, trying to show her it would be okay.

As you opened the pack of pads you'd brought into the bathroom stall with you, you heard Jonah ripping open packet after packet. What was he doing out there?

After showing Emma how to use the pad, you stepped back out of the stall, only to be met with a pad covered Jonah.

"Uh Emma, look through the crack. I'm a mummy! Ahh!" He groaned like a zombie, sticking his arms out in front of him. Though he quickly stopped his little performance when his eyes met yours; a blush covering his face as he realised you'd come out of the stall.

Before he could begin to say anything, a customer opened the door, smacking it into Jonah who was then pushed into you. You caught him, spinning him around to face the women, who was slowly backing out of the bathroom.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'll be right out. I'm helping a little girl." Jonah rushed out, tripping over his own words as he tried to explain what she had walked in on. Despite this, the woman turned and quickly left the room, the door slamming behind her as she did.

Hands still holding Jonah up, the pair of you dissolved into a fit of laughter, him leaning deeper into you as he tried not to fall over.

As the laughter died down, Emma finally left the stall, standing nervously before the two of you.

"So are we leaving the bathroom or are we all just going to stare at each other?" Emma asked, pushing past you and Jonah as she left the bathroom. While Jonah stayed to peel off his 'costume' before he left, you rushed out in Emma's wake, catching up with her as she walked towards electronics.

After a few moments of silence shared between the two of you as you walked, Emma finally began to speak.

"For the record, it was cool of you to come and help. I'm kind of thankful it was you and not mom, she'd have probably made it into a big thing." Emma let out a nervous chuckle at her words, fiddling with her fingers as she walked. While you had always felt like a big sister figure to Emma, today it felt different, more like you'd been her big sister than just a good family friend.

"Thanks Em, I love you too." Emma let out a groan, speeding off to electronics with her arms folded across her chest. While it wasn't what she'd said, you knew her enough to know it was what she'd meant. And you meant it too. You were glad you were able to be there for Emma today, and only hoped you could continue to be there as long as she'd let you.

————————————————————————

A while after you'd caught up with Emma in electronics, Jonah had come over, finally having found you once he'd peeled himself free of pads.

For a while now you'd been sat on one of the couches on electronics, Jonah leaning over you, as you both shouted to Emma what to do.

"See that? In the back corner? You see the little family over there? Kill 'em." Jonah commanded, waving his hand in the general direction of the tv.

"Blow 'em up!" You added, pointing to the button on the control Emma would need to press in order to do so.

"Here you are. I'm sorry I was gone so long. What'd you do all day?" Amy asked, coming from the back of the store, unfortunately breaking both you and Jonah out of 'the zone.'

"Uh, we mostly played video games. It was fun." Emma replied, looking up briefly at Amy, though quickly turning back to the game before her and blowing up another family.

"Good job. Thanks for, uh, keeping an eye on her." Amy thanked, looking between you and Jonah as she spoke. Though she knew you and Jonah got on well, she couldn't have previously imagined you teaming up to look after Emma- and in any situation of the sort, she imagined you doing all the work.

"It was easy." You replied, waving your hand at Amy as to brush off her compliment. It had been easy for you: you'd only spent the last two hours or so with Emma, unsure how'd she'd ended up in Jonah's care and ready to fix the mess you'd found him in.

"She's a great kid." Jonah added, smiling across at Amy. Emma was a great kid; the best you knew by far. And it would be fair to say she was a sentiment to her mother.

"Yeah, she is." Amy awed proudly, rubbing Emma's head as she leant deeper into the couch.

"Y/n and Jonah taught me how to use a maxi pad." Emma stated bluntly, causing you to choke on the air you were breathing in. While you knew you were going to tell Amy once you got home, you didn't think Emma would be so open about it.

Taking advantage of the awkward silence you stood up, announcing your departure and that you'd be back in a while. Walking away from the group you pulled your phone out of your back pocket, thankful to finally have a free moment today.

Y/n ;) | Hey Marcus! Where can I find you <3

With an almost instant reply, you headed straight towards the break room.

————————————————————————

Upon walking into the break room, you were shocked to find it desolate - apart from the tall figure who sat, back to the door, right in front of you. Marcus.

"Hey you," you teased, acting just like he had the last time you'd spoke, in person at least. Turning away from the table and towards the counter, headed to put on the kettle.

"Oh, hey y/n, I already made some coffee." Marcus pushed a mug across the table, in front of the seat opposite him, before carefully lifting his own mug up to his lips.

A light blush covered your cheeks at the thought he'd made you coffee in advance of you being here. Only Garret had ever done that for you before, and every time he did it - even to this day - it made you feel special, and cared for. For someone to remember the little things, it made you feel important.

"Oh, wow, thank you, that's very sweet." The blush only deepened as you sat across from him, his gaze solely on you as you shuffled deep into your seat.

"So what's up? You just want to have a chat?" You asked, taking a long sip from the steaming up of coffee; it was perfect, maybe even better than perfect. It had just the right amount of milk and sugar, and filled you with comfort and warmth.

"'No, I was going to speak to you this morning, but the dead guy seemed to kill the mood." He shrugged his shoulders, taking another sip from his mug.

You let out a short laugh at his words, the old man who'd died in the store was the reason you were having to stay after your shift had ended - looking after Emma and now talking to Marcus - so you could attend the funeral you'd heard Glenn was planning. I guess you'd have to thank him for that.

"I just wanted to let you know I'm going to be out of town for a few weeks. I've got court out of state." Oh. At least he'd been kind enough to tell you in person.

"Oh Marcus, I'm so sorry. I hope everything's okay." You said, reaching across the table to hold his hand tightly in yours.

"Oh it's not big deal, my grandmas just a psycho." He said, rolling his eyes as he took another sip of his coffee, drinking the last of it as he pushed his cup away from him.

"Well, I hope everything's okay still. When will you be back?" It was strange that Marcus had thought to tell you - to you at least. To Marcus there was no one else he'd thought about telling; since he'd found out he had to leave, all he could think about was if you'd forget him by the time he was finished.

"Um, I'm not sure, maybe four weeks from now if I had to guess. My grandmas not going to make this easy on me." You let out another small laugh, despite him having to go to court, it sounded like a trivial matter, and that he'd be back home sooner than he thought.

"Well, I can't wait for you to come back." Marcus's eyes lit up at your words, though it went unnoticed to you as you stared into the cup of coffee, taking a long sip to fill you with much needed energy and warmth.

"Me either." Marcus flashed you a charming smile, his eyes meeting yours from over the brim of your mug. A comfortable silence fell over the two of you, and the rest of the break room, your hands still connected in the middle of the table.

With few words of small talk shared, the silence was eventually broken by Mateo sticking his head through the door of the break room.

"Guys, it's funeral time." Mateo announced, rushing off as soon as he'd finished in order to round as many people up as possible to attend Glenn's impromptu funeral.

Reluctantly letting go of Marcus's hand, you stood from your chair, pouring what remained of your coffee down the sink as you made your way towards the break room door.

"I'll see you around Marcus." With that you left the break room, catching up to Mateo who was headed out of the back of the store and towards the parking lot.

————————————————————————

"Thank you all for gathering to help me honour and remember Charles Maynard Rand." You linked arms with Mateo, leaning into him and the warmth he provided as you stood around the fancy couch.

"Why do we have to destroy the couch?" Cheyenne whined from the other side of Mateo, upset she'd spent her day fighting for the couch for nothing.

"Well, for one thing, it's a wonderful way to memorialize a man." Glenn suggested, looking longing at the couch that was behind him. Todays events had really effected him huh.

"Plus, I looked up the store policy. If a death occurs on any display furniture, it has to be destroyed. Who knew?" Dina shrugged, standing with her arms crossed beside Amy.

"I knew. Same thing happened at the Kirkwood store a few months ago." An offended gasp came from Mateo; he'd told you how Garret had been monitoring his and Cheyenne's competition for the couch, so to find this out felt like a big betrayal.

"Jonah?" Glenn asked, breaking Jonah out of a daze.

"Right." Jonah's words sounded far away, even though he'd only stood a few feet away from you. Walking quickly towards the couch, he lit it on fire, it soon taking.

"We didn't know Charles, but he chose to spend the last few moments of his life with us. Charles, may your soul or non-denominational life force, I guess, be lifted by the non-gender-specific arms of a loving entity or non-entity..." As Glenn tried to avoid turning this into a religious event, the couch behind him started to become engulfed in flames.

"Hey. Just once. Knock yourself out." Dina said, Glenn's face lighting up at the opportunity he'd been given.

"Jesus Christ! The hands of Jesus Christ, who saves us from our sins. With his precious blood, and welcomes us as little lambs..." As Glenn spouted out his religious words you couldn't help but worry as the ablaze couch continued to burn wildly.

"Is is meant to be burning like that?" You asked Jonah, walking closer to him and Garret, leaning into his side as you had dispersed into little groups to talk.

"How much gas you put on that thing?" Garret asked in shock, the couch completely engulfed in fire now.

"None, and that fabric is supposed to be fire-retardant." Jonah took in a sharp breath as he spoke, worried about the other furniture in the store if the fire-retardant one reacted like this.

"We give you the love, and we take away the evil! Amen! What a day! Okay, uh. God bless us all, and let's get out of here." Glenn finished his mini sermon, taking in a gasp of breath to refill his lungs after his long spiel.

Jonah moved his arm around your shoulders as the three of you walked away from the burning couch, towards the front of the store, wherein you'd wait for Amy. Today had been a long and hard day; but people like Jonah and Garret made everything feel so much easier.

————————————————————————

☆*: .｡. Tag List .｡.:*☆ @write-from-the-heart @despicablylara @whatafreakingloser @flowercrowns-goodvibes @millieb-3199

@lolawassad

Want to be added to the taglist? send an ask to let me know <3

————————————————————————

Hey guys! Bit of a longer part this week, but next weeks will probably be a bit shorter to counteract that. I hope you enjoyed! Please let me know what you think and how I can make this series better.

A few of you picked up on the little crush Jonah has on y/n and though I didn't intend it, it sure has began to make its way into the story - and is a storyline I'm definitely going to divulge into a little bit :)

Have a lovely week <3

#sitting on the shelf marcus white x reader #marcus white #marcus superstore #marcus white imagine #marcus white x reader #superstore imagine #superstore marcus imagine #superstore marcus x reader #superstore x reader #superstore #cloud 9 #jonah simms #garret mcneill #glenn sturgis #amy sosa

55 notes · View notes

burningcowboyhoagietaco · 3 years

Text

A Way to Learn a Lesson

written by:

@burningcowboyhoagietaco

illustrated and edited by the amazing, the one and only:

@lenle-g

Before I publish the story id like to thank @lenle-g from the bottom of my heart for being patient with me, being nice to me the whole time, and for making my story even better and more exciting. Without her I would have stayed in my normal, not that good English story. so thank you for everything!!! <3<3

And here's my part at @tagminibang submission:)

☆☆☆☆☆

Scott, no!!! No way! I am not going to give any lectures to anyone." John's voice comes out tight. "Especially not in front of a crowd. No way."

"Why not?" Scott raises a brow, his voice honeyed with ‘big brother wants something’. "It's not like you're gonna get executed by some children just for talking space at them, right? You love talking about space. It's all I've heard since you were, like, seven."

"No, that's not it." There's a sharp shake of the ginger’s head, "Scott, come on!" John knows for a fact that his oldest brother knows he's the most socially awkward person to have ever lived on Tracy Island (and maybe the entire planet). "You’ve lived with me long enough to know how much I hate social.... anything." John complains. "Why would you ever think I'd want to do this?""

"Well, yes, I know that," Scott shrugs, "I've seen that look you get on your face when there's a lot of people around." He’s well aware that his brother is an introvert who hates socializing with anyone, so he quickly changes the subject to try and make his younger brother feel a little more at ease. "But hey... everyone knows how much you like it when anyone talks about space or anything about astronomy. You'd be amazing at it."

"That's a different thing." John says flatly. Flattery, it seems, wont get Scott very far. "It's like, whenever you guys ask me anything about space, I like to answer them for you, but from random people…? And in huge crowds? I just simply can't." Surely he doesn’t have to explain himself much more than that?

"Oh trust me, everything is going to be fine." Scott was a flippant hand around, talking without really thinking, because all he wants is for his brother to get out of Thunderbird 5, to visit Earth for a little bit, to mingle with people a little. It can't be that bad. "If anything happens, Gordon and Alan'll be in Thunderbird Five doing Space Monitor duty, me and Virgil are gonna keep an eye on everything, and you’re in safe hands with Lady Penelope and Parker. It's all set up, so please go have some fun for once and teach the children something cool."

"My answer is still no." John says persistently, without hesitation. He's pretty sure it'd be worse than being in the middle of a hurricane, or testing one of his Grandma's new cooking experiments. It’s lucky Scott misses his involuntary shudder.

Scott, though, is so done with him at this point, that he's pretty sure there's no choice but to use plan b and hope that that works instead on his unwilling, stubborn, red haired brother. They've got to get him down from orbit and to that lecture somehow. Scott's just not going to stand for anything else.

"Are you sure that's your last answer?" Scott asks, with a heavy sigh, already planning the best way to call in the big guns.

"Yes," John scowls, arms folded. "Yes, it is."

They'll see about that.

...

"Is everything ready?" John adjusts his sleeves, smoothing down his vest and putting the last touches on his collar. Neat, simple, formal. Can't go wrong. "My presentation papers, laptop, and my mini simple dimple?”

"Yes, all in the bag." Scott calls back, rapidly checking everything, "But do you really need that little fidget thing of yours?" He picks his younger brother's old toy up between forefinger and thumb to examine it, remembering the day John made their Mom buy it for when he gets stressed.

"What fidge- oh, yes I need it." The look on John's face leaves no doubt about that. "I've used it ever since Mom bought it for me."

"Hey… Mom would've been proud of you, you know?” Scott tells him, in a quick flash of brotherly pride. “For, you know, going out of your safe zone for a little while and teaching the children and all that."

"Yeah, I know…" John finds him a nervous smile, "But I'm not doing this voluntarily, you've forced me with that plan b of yours."

The second John says that Scott's cheeks dimple, the corners of his eyes crinkle, and he grins victoriously, his teeth a bright white in the earliest rays of morning sun.

“All I had to do was make a call." He shrugs, "Lady Penelope did all the talking and somehow convinced you to go." Scott got a little more excited. He took a couple of steps forward, slightly standing on his toes reaching John's level asking"How did she convince you?" Clearly waiting teasingly for an answer to come out of John's lips

"Huhhhh." John exhales loudly, a little despairing. "She promised me we'd go to the Pagasa Astronomical Observatory after I finish the lecture with the children." He shrugs, keeping his eyes down, embarrassed.

"The what now?" Scott stares at him, thoroughly confused.

"The Pagasa Astronomical Observatory in the Philippines.” John says, like that was obvious, “It's equipped with a 45-cm computer-based telescope. It's so powerful that astronomers and astronomy enthusiasts can now conduct effective observations of stellar bodies and other distant space objects! Scott, it’s been my dream to go since I was, like, 17."

Scott always knew how much of an astrophile his younger brother is; he never cared about his physical appearance, nor his poor eating habits and he always used to make excuses to read his books alone, yet no one has ever interfered in his personal life.

"Okay okay space lover boy,” Scott grins at him. He'd expected Penny to be persuasive, but resigning herself to hours stuck with John in full excited-about-space mode would hardly be in his top ten. Either he's gonna owe her one, or Penny's more resilient than him. “You can go, no one is holding you back."

The short silence between them was broken by a ringing sound from a nearby table, which John answers.

“...Mhm, yes? Oh, the lecture." It must be Penelope calling, "Yeah, I'm ready, I'll head out now." John grabs his bag, wandering toward where the FAB1 must already be idling on the Tracy runway. "Time to go."

"Mhm,” Scott makes an agreeable noise, watching him go. “Please stay safe and please don't make an idiot of yourself." He's teasing… mostly.

"Yeah yeah," John waves at him over his shoulder, not even looking back. "I won't."

…

"Are we there yet?" Despite the consistently amazing views out of FAB1’s windows during the flight, John’s found himself mostly looking down, fidgeting with his fingers. He’s worrying, just a little, about what awaits him in the Philippines - a whole different tropical island to his own, though still in the South of the Pacific Ocean.

"Just give Parker ten more minutes, darling,” Her Ladyship smiles at him, “We'll arrive in no time."

There’s a moment of silence before, unexpectedly, it’s broken by a call flashing up from, of all places, Thunderbird Five. There’s a prickly sense of discomfort as John realises that, of course, it’s not him calling. Gordon must be trying to reach them.

"Heeeeey Lady Penelope,” The kid greets, as Penny flicks it on, seemingly a lot less bothered by the change than he is. “Oh, and Mr. Tracy.” There’s a huge smirk on his face. “How's our newest teacher holding up?"

"Firstly, my name is John.” John points out, flatly, “Second, I'm not your teacher so please don’t call me Mr. Tracy ever again. Thirdly…” He concedes, quirking an eyebrow, “Yeah, I'm good for now, but fourth… How are you holding up, up there in my Thunderbird? She’s not much like Four, is she?"

"Ooooooooo that's a good question,” Gordon looks half like he’s considering it, half like he’s really missing his own ‘bird. “I'm holding up pretty well thanks to Alan. He’s taken all the Monitor duty stuff, so all I gotta do is keep an eye on you guys." He sounds a bit… sarcastic about that. “It’s pretty boring, honestly. How do you survive up here without a pool?”

"Young Master Gordon, are you quite done talking?" Parker glances, unimpressed, at the little floating hologram of John’s brother in his rearview mirror, "Because we're about to arrive at our destination."

"Huh… oh yeah,” Gordon doesn’t seem too bothered about that, but he waves merrily at them all the same, “Okay bye and John, please have fun, you too Lady Penelope, okay bye guys."

It’s only a few moments later that Parker opens his mouth to tell them that they’ve arrived at Chino Roque Theater, pulling up out front to let them both climb out.

John's eyes widen: it’s nothing like what he saw on the internet. It was more enormous, more luminous, more spectacular than anything he’d seen or read online. All he remembers reading is that it's a sphere shaped building located in the Philippines, in Anilao Hill, but the pictures on the webpage didn’t do it justice like being there in person does.

The building was smooth and round; the auditorium shaped like a massive egg nestled in amongst the other buildings. They were early enough that the sun was just cresting the horizon, colouring the sky with reds and oranges, visible through the geometric front of the building - where giant triangles of glass intersect together to give the people inside an amazing view of the sky at night.

"M'lady, you and John can go ahead. I'll park FAB 1." Parker said, before going to the parking lot - unaware just how tiring and long his journey to find a place to park is going to be.

They both head inside the building, admiring the sweeping glass fractals of the roof high above them. It’s incredibly beautiful, really a feat of engineering. So much so, that John almost forgets why he’s even there, until he spots a couple of buses arriving on the other side of the building, and the panic sets in. He was expecting to be a little bit anxious, but this feels like his heart is going to beat right out of his chest. He presses a hand hard against it, trying to calm his racing pulse and stop the sudden shake of his fingers, and Penny must notice, because a little hand settles, ever so lightly, on his shoulder, drawing his attention to her.

"Hey John," Lady Penelope looks him steadily in the eye, projecting warmth and reassurance. "They're just a small, mixed group of children and teens. They can’t possibly hurt you, now can they? They just came to have a small lecture because all of them like space and astronomy just like you. Imagine yourself at their age, meeting a real life astronaut.” John tries very hard not to remind her who, exactly, his Father was, as she goes on - trying to visualise being a kid that didn’t get ‘take your son to work days’ at NASA’. It’s a pretty horrifying concept. “Most importantly,” Penny adds, “it's only for an hour or so, so you don't need to worry so much." She had to smile just to reassure him. “You’ll have filled their heads with space facts and be out before you know it.”

"O-okay,” John takes a deep, steadying breath, “I don't know if I'm supposed to trust you on this, or whatever, but I really don't have any other choice." He also wants to add that they forced him to go, but at the last second he remembers that they never forced him - he agreed to go because Lady Penelope promised him a trip to the observatory.

It seems like a pretty weak reason, now that he’s outside the stage door, knees shaking.

"Mhm, I think it's time to go inside.” She nudges him callously in the right direction, and John’s palms meeting the solid metal of the double doors is the only thing that keeps him from following gravity’s call and landing on his face. “Again, if anything happens, I'll be at the back of the room and I have a plan b if things get too much." John, pretty shocked by just how many plan b's the Lady Penelope might have prepared for the day, can only shake his head, bemused. “So stop worrying and get out there!”

She vanishes off into the atrium, and John can’t help the loud exhale that escapes his mouth before he musters up all the courage he can, and enters the room.

Bright lights startle him for a moment, and he’s pretty sure he does an awful, awkward impression of a blind baby giraffe as he stumbles out onto the stage and freezes as he notices the first smatterings of audience are already taking their seats.

The moment he placed his foot on the smooth wooden floor, his heart had started to beat faster, his hands began to sweat, the more steps he took forward the more he felt anxious. It was, he’ll think later, one of the toughest moments of his life, and he’s been to space. Multiple times.

Come on John. He tries to straighten up, shake off his anxiety, This can’t go worse than your first EVA.

Taking another deep breath, John waits patiently for all the attendees to take a seat inside the room. Waiting doesn’t help his anxiety levels at all, and he can feel them increasing by the second, but, determined, John doesn’t let it stop him from starting his lecture.

"H-Hello everybody,” He starts, incredibly conscious of the hushed silence that falls across his audience. “I'm John Tracy, M.Sci, PgDip, B.Lang Hons,” he rattles off his credentials, his nerves almost blurring them together, “I worked with NASA as an astronaut for three years before going… uh… solo in my astronomical studies, and I'll be your guest lecturer for the day.” He swallows around the lump in his throat, as a ripple of hushed oohhhs and ahhhs goes through the crowd. John’s pretty sure his face has gone bright red. “Thank you for having me at the Chino Roque Theater,” He goes on, before his embarrassment can bet the better of him, “I hope everyone’s had an amazing day so far. We'll be spending the next hour or so talking about astronomy and space physics, so shall we get started?" John thought it was a good opening, and yet his back was really wet from all the people's eyes on him. Glancing offstage, Penelope throws him a thumbs up, and he feels a little better.

"Um,” He blinks. “So does anyone here know how old the universe is?" John ventures, only to be surprised as almost everyone answers at once;

"Almost 13.8 billion years!"

"Yes,” The edge of a smile works its way onto John’s face. Clearly this was going to be a shout out the answer kind of lecture. He can work with that. “That's correct, now does anyone know how the universe started?"

"The Big Bang!" Most of them answer, and John feels a surge of relief. These guys really are into space.

"Okay, okay, not bad at all." He nods affirmatively at them, and the screen behind him lights up with an artist’s rendition of the Big Bang happening. "Now if I were to go and search ‘how old is the universe’ in, say, Google, the answer would be 13,772 billion years. It’d be the same thing if we looked at NASA, or even Wikipedia - so how did people get to know the age of the universe? How do you even start calculating something that old? Well I'm going to explain it for you in two ways: the good, nice way, and the kinda not that good and not that scientific way." There’s a bit of an awkward pause as John wonders whether or not he’s explained that well. When only silence greets him, he very quickly realises he needs to press on.

"So, uh, the good way.” He folds his fingers together behind his back, trying to resist the urge to fidget. “Well, in the middle of the previous century, as telescopes developed, we noticed something strange. We found that stars in very distant galaxies tend to look red… Umm, which is something that’s not supposed to happen.” A chuckle escapes John and, to his relief, the audience laughs with him. Scott never gets his space jokes. “So why’s that?” He asks, “See, if a chemical element gains or loses energy it’ll emit light in certain frequencies, thereby creating certain colors.” A small movement of his hand signals the slide to change, and a picture of the visible section of the electromagnetic spectrum appears, colouring the room with rainbow light. “For example,” John goes on, bathed in blue and violet, “Consider something like… a desk lamp, as like an element. If you give a lamp electrical energy, it’ll release that energy in the form of heat and light, yeah?" There’s a murmur of uncertain understanding in the room. “Electricity goes in, the bulb gets hot, and it gives off light. Well, we know stars do pretty much the same thing - only powered by nuclear fusion rather than a nine volt plug.”

"From studies of the sun and stars that are near Earth, we know that they’re made of helium and hydrogen, yes?” There’s another murmur of agreement in John’s crowd, “Well, hydrogen and helium can create red light, but they don't have the ability to create these shades of red that we see in deep space." The slide behind John clicks to a comparison of the two shades, on two different stars - making the difference clear.

"So, if stars are made of helium and hydrogen then why do distant stars have different colours? Are their compositions different?uh, well It’s possible, but not likely. The strongest explanation is that the color difference is due to the movement of the stars." The room gives a soft gasp at this news, and John knows he’s onto something good.

"So there's something called the redshift and blueshift phenomenon that says that if an object radiates light and approaches you, the color of the light begins to turn blue, and if the object is moving away from you, the color will turn red. This happens because the wavelength of light contracts and expands with movement meaning that something stretching equals red and contraction equals blue."

"And the strange thing is,” John adds, his audience listening raptly, “That most, if not all, stars show the same behavior, so, if we think about it, if all stars are moving away from us, that means that they were close to us at some point, and if we follow their path, we find that everything in space meets at a point named ‘singularity’."

"It was believed, in the past, that everything in the universe, or at least in the visible part that we have observed, that is to say,” John flicks to a graphic on his next slide. “All the galaxies, planets and stars, were all gathered at one point - the singularity. The theory is that this point exploded in what we call the ‘Big Bang’, and from that time onward, the universe has been in constant expansion.”

"So it’s with data from this knowledge that we can calculate the age of the universe:” With a wave of his hand, John puts a series of bullet points up on the screen behind him, then reads them aloud.

“One, the universe began as a very small, single point.” He reaffirms, “Two, the universe is constantly expanding outward from that point, and three, from these we have the ability to calculate the expansion rate of the universe, by calculating the speed of the stars that are moving away from us. If we take the furthest accelerations and enter them into this equation,” John’s board merrily does it’s thing behind him, “Then, we get the age of the universe."

"And, so we don't forget, all this talking was about the good way. There is another way to calculate the age of the universe, the, uh, not as good way, or, more specifically, the less scientific way.” A ripple of laughter goes through John’s audience - and he relaxes a little more. Maybe Scott was right. Maybe these are his kind of people. Scott’s never laughed at a space joke for sure. “There's no problem with it,” He quietens them again with a gentle gesture, “and it does support our theory and calculations, so I guess we should talk about it."

"Since ancient times, humans have been looking at the sky, watching the stars, and giving them names like Cygnus, Canis Major, Orion.” All names any young astronomer in the Southern Hemisphere would recognise, and be able to enthusiastically point out in the night sky. “In those days, there wasn't the internet so they were looking up at the stars instead.” Much like John himself, when he’d been a boy.

“As a way of calculating the age of the universe, astronomers set out to search for the oldest celestial bodies in space.” He goes on to explain, “The idea was that if we find a star whose age equals X, then the age of the universe must be greater than the number X. So we pointed our telescopes up there and started trying to find out their ages from birth, to youth, to their old age until their end."

"Can anyone guess the age of the oldest star we've found?" A lot of answers were guessed, some of them were pretty close, but some, amusingly, were way too far. "Ok, ok…” John puts his hands up to pacify his excited crowd, “Umm I see there are a lot of answers, but the oldest star people discovered was actually estimated to be 13.5 billion years old. The HD-140283, or as you might know it, the Methuselah Star. That number is very close, you’ll notice, to our estimation of the age of the universe."

"But if we found a star that is 13.5 billion years old today, then we could find an even older star next week and that would ruin all of that,” He chuckles, mostly to himself, “We also should note that this method alone isn't suitable for determining the universe’s age, but as long as we have two methods with corroborative results, we can be reassured that the estimate is correct.” He pauses for a second, “So, does anyone have questions?" A couple of hands raised, and John found himself suddenly answering a lot of questions - but he managed all of them despite his fear of the huge crowd.

He’s starting to feel more than a little overwhelmed.

"Umm… W-well that was a lot of questions,” John tries to pull it back in, his allotted lecture time ticking away on the big clock at the back of the hall. He feels a little panicky from the bombardment, and his palms have gone sweaty. “We’d better move on.” To distract himself from the people, as much as anything, “Our next topic is the theory of relativity, so l-let's get started on that."

Lady Penelope, from her fold-out seat at the back of the room, frowns. It’s clear John’s terrified and she wants to use plan b, but as long as he’s still standing on his feet, and giving the lecture, he's probably fine for now. If anything, it’d cause more of a disruption to drag him away now.

"Umm,” John takes a breath, trying to centre himself in the science of it all. “Let's start with a supposition, a hypothesis if you like, and consider it together. Okay, you’ll have to bear with me on this one, but let us suppose that we were all asleep, and the universe suddenly inflated by a thousand times.” There’s a murmur in the crowd at how odd everything abruptly getting that much bigger sounds, “Your bed, your pillow, your desk,” John extrapolates, “even the meter we measure stuff with. If humans became a thousand times bigger, when we woke up would we feel something strange? Would we even notice anything had changed? You’d think so, but no.” John’s settling back into his rhythm now, “So why is that? Because the bed and everything became a thousand times more inflated and our bodies also inflated a thousand times, with everything scaling in parallel relation to each other so that this percentage, this scale, was preserved throughout the room. You’d never know the difference."

"Henri Poincaré, the well known mathematician and theoretical physicist, says that we will never be able to discover that something like this has happened, even if we use all the mathematics and calculations ever invented.” John drives the point home with another illustrated slide, “This hypothesis is called the Poincaré hypothesis, and simply, because the meter with which we measure things will have also expanded a thousand times, there’s never going to be any equation or calculation or any analysis possible that could lead us to the truth, because the ratio is preserved in all parts."

"Now, this is important, because the same thing also happens with time. If everything suddenly got a thousand times faster, we’d still never feel anything different. Why’s that?” He asks, rhetorically, “Because time is also a thousand times faster, your heartbeat is also a thousand times faster, your body would function a thousand times faster to keep up with it all. As long as everything is increased by the same amount, the ratio is preserved, and none of us will be able to detect any change."

"So Poincaré asked the scientific community; is there no way to know that time increased or that things inflated?" John tells the room, "Well, it was Albert Einstein who answered him, deciding that the one and only way to tell, would be to have someone observing what happened to the world from another galaxy, from another world, lightyears away. For someone to point a telescope in our direction, and look through it at us, and say what happened to the Earth? Why are humans walking a thousand times faster than in the past? But this person who realized the situation,” The astronaut waves a flippant hand, starting to feel much more confident again, “would have to be a person standing on a fixed external platform in a different world, so that what happened to us was not also happening to him."

"But, as Einstein commented, this hypothesis is impossible for a simple reason and it's that there is no fixed platform in the universe - the entirety of it is in constant, turbulent motion. For example, the Earth rotates at a speed of 460 meters per second, revolving around the sun at 30 kilometers per second, and at the same time, the sun and it’s planets and dwarf planets and moons and asteroids, all revolve around our galaxy, The Milky Way, at a speed of 300 kilometres per second, and so the whole universe revolves. That's,” John takes a deep breath, finding himself out of air after so much explaining, “why it's impossible for us humans to completely accurately judge the motion of any astral body."

"Because there is no fixed berth, we can only offer relativity. This is the first part of the theory that Einstein came up with, in summary; it cannot be said that the monotony of a body is absolute motion."

"Another thing he said was that, because of the vastness of the universe, it’s impossible to synchronize, what does that mean? Well, I will give you an example.” He flicks his slide, “Say I’m a person in the Philippines, and I'm talking to someone from the United States. We synchronize, and hear each other in real time, because we have a method of fast communication. I can hold my device and say; hello, how are you?” John holds up the slim, sliver slice of his phone to show the audience, “How’s the weather there? And they’d answer me with something like; I’m fine thank you, it's night here so it’s a bit hard to tell what the weather’s doing! What’s the weather like there? And I’d answer them; it's daytime, and maybe ask them something like, what are you eating? They’d answer me; a burger, and then I’d tell them that I'm eating kaldereta, and it’s much better than a burger."

In the audience Penny quietly hopes that Gordon, who's probably listening in with the rest of his brother’s, missed the fact John was making jokes on stage. The poor little bugger’ll never live it down otherwise.

"These two events, each person talking to the other, are compatible.” John goes on, absolutely oblivious, “It’s possible because the two wireless devices, be they mobile phones or more sophisticated comms systems, are on the same globe, creating a fast means of communication.”

"But,” John postulates, “If I was talking to someone from another galaxy and I used the same means of communication to make a call, do you know how long it would take to get to them? It would be about five to six thousand years until my signal reaches the phone of our friend, and they’ll have married, had children and died, and their children would have married and had children and died, and so on, for thousands of years before then."

"And that's why it's impossible to synchronize between the ends of the universe,” John balances his palms like he’s weighing two invisible ends, “It rather puts a damper on our chances of finding and communicating with extraterrestrial life, for sure, but at least it’s possible to synchronize within one system, like the system of the Earth. "

"This is a thing that also applies to light, for example: any star you could look up and see now, the light emanating from it may be coming from thousands of years ago. This means that it’s possible that the star you see shining could have exploded and disappeared, and hasn't existed for a long time. Why? Because it takes a couple of thousand years for the light from that explosion to reach us."

"There isn’t any proof for the hypothesis that the universe is linked by time, but the thing that happens that we’re sure of is that the universe is made up of, sort of, separate islands of different times that have no connection between them. The connection between movement and time in space is something we all know about, for example, a day on Earth equals twenty-four hours, yes?” There’s a chorus of agreement from the audience, “But on Saturn, a day is ten hours because it rotates faster. Astonishingly, a day on Mercury is the same as fifty-eight whole Earth days, which, infact, is also a Mercurian year, because the planet revolves around the sun for the exact same period as it revolves around itself."

"Okay, so, to what extent is movement related to time?” John asks, well and truly into this whole teaching thing now, “Well, Einstein was the first person to discover the connection between them and suggested that; suppose you’re on board a very fast rocket, 100,000 miles per hour for example. The mechanical watch on your wrist would be delayed over the flight, but you wouldn’t feel like time is being delayed. Why’s that? It’s because the rhythm of your heart would slow down - all of the vital processes in your body that are inside the rocket will slow down."

"As you move more, something called the dilation of time will happen.” He steps to the side, as if to illustrate the point, only to find himself stumbling a little, like if the ground beneath his feet had moved. “T-Time slows down,” John tries to recover it smoothly, but everything’s starting to feel, weirdly, like it’s shaking, and he doesn’t think it’s the anxiety anymore, “and that's-"

John doesn’t get to finish his sentence because there’s an abrupt shift and a loud cracking from under him, and getting off the stage suddenly seems like a good idea. Someone screams outside, and the volume in the room skyrockets as the children start panicking. John’s one hundred percent sure this wasn't anything planned.

He knew he shouldn't have come.

Earthquake? He wonders first, then; Tsunami? Ground slip? Hurricane? Whichever it is, John has to prioritise calming the people and evacuating them out of the building. The giant glass panels above them are trembling with the force of the shaking, and, as a professional at this sort of thing, Thunderbird Five’s Space Monitor doesn’t like the look of it one bit.

"Everyone calm down,” He has to shout to make himself heard over the roar of people, even with the microphones pointed his way, “This is a normal thing. All we have to do is evacuate immediately, as calmly. as. possible. I don't want anyone crowding the exits, do you all understand what I just said?" The front rows, white faced with fear, nod encouragingly at him, and he watches as they begin to lead the way toward the glowing green signs that signal the emergency exits. Immediately after making sure the crowd is moving, John pulls up his comm to contact Gordon.

"Gordon, are you on the line?” John’s a little breathless and he climbs down from the precarious stage, into the throng of terrified bodies, “We have a situation in here."

"Let me guess, you caused it?" Gordon seems so excited to hear something other than his brother's boring lecture that humour has outweighed his professionalism.

"Gordon,” John grits his teeth, “I'm being serious right now, there was a huge movement in the ground beneath the Chino Roque Theater, and it's still ongoing. Tell Alan to do a check on what's happening beneath us using the Ground Penetrating Radar." He orders.

"F.A.B." Comes the far more serious response, before Gordon clicks off the line to do just that. Squashing down any fear he’d about the now swelling, shuffling crowd, John opens his arms wide and walks toward them, the motion sort of like he’s trying to herd sheep, as he tries to evacuate the people safely out of the building.

He’s not exactly an expert at being on the scene during rescues.

"John, there's a landslide going on right now,” Alan’s worried little voice comes ringing out of his comm speakers, “Right next to the theatre. You’d better get out of there. I’m monitoring the situation, but it’s looking like you’re going to need International Rescue to get you and the people out of there. The debris field is spreading fast." John would do almost anything to be up there instead, at his own screens. “I've contacted Virgil and Scott, I’m patching them through now.” Alan clicks Scott and Virgil, both clearly just finishing their suit up sequences, into the conversation. It seems important to keep them up to date with John's developing situation.

"Hey Mr. Tracy, how are you holding up?" Scott jokes over the roar of his launching Thunderbird, the sound filling the background of the call with white-noise, "Oh, and how was your lecture?" John thinks he sounds far too casual in contrast to the impending danger all around him.

"Oh my God, Scott, is now really the time?” John groans, and a kid with mousey blond hair not dissimilar to Alan’s looks up at him, very confused, before the astronaut waves him on, “You are an adult person,” He reminds his big brother, “Please don't be like Gordon right now. He’s practically still a child."

"Hey!” Gordon had clearly overheard the conversation between his brothers, and springs up to defend himself. “I'm only two or three years younger than you!" He complains, not about to do the math.

"Gordon, we don't have time for arguing about that now,” John frowns, “and Scott, I'm holding up alright at the moment. Please don't ask me anything about the lecture until I get back home." If his voice cracks a little on that last bit, he’ll never admit it.

"Okay, okay I won't ask anything about that,” Scott reassures him, his amused, big brother grin very much in place, “Keep on evacuating the people safely until we arrive John, you’re doing great. It won’t take us that long. ETA at 15,000 mph is sixteen minutes.” He reassures, “We’ll be there before you know it."

"F.A.B. Scott." He reluctantly signs off. Now that he’s finished talking with Scott, John’s pleased to see that a lot of people have already made their way out of the atrium’s three sets of double doors, evacuating the building to get as far away from the landslide as possible. His fingers itch to pull up the schematics from Thunderbird Five on his comm, no matter what the people around him might think. He quickly caves, and it feels worth it to be able to see the incoming tide of slipping land.

They don’t have much time.

“Let’s go!” He shouts, chivvying. He’s a little breathless with the tension, so he keeps things short. “Come on! Let’s move guys!”

From his vantage near the crumbling stage, John can make out Lady Penelope and Parker by the main doors, ushering people through, and the sight of them fills him instantly with immense relief.

“Okay, that's a good amount of people out.” John has to jog to catch up with them, skirting around a little old lady with a zimmer frame and taking a second to correct her course, “Lady Penelope, Parker, I think you should go and check on the people who’re out. They could have minor injuries from the stampede, and International Rescue are still ten minutes out. I'll make sure the last few stragglers exit safely."

Penelope just nods, pale and worried. Her blond brows are all pinched in together, nervous and Parker looks practically haggard as he claps a reassuring hand on John’s shoulder, her faithful old companion following her pink shape dutifully out the doors. Hopefully they’ll go make sure that no one was badly injured in any way.

Turning back to the slow cascade of cracking rubble behind him, John finds the stage area has been all but obliterated, and his heart aches for the patrons of the Chino Roque Theater who’ll have to rebuild from scratch when this is over. He imagines the Tracy fund can contribute a significant amount toward that though. They often do for worthy causes.

John pushes the damp curl of his slightly sweaty bangs out of his eyes and climbs over what looks like a twisted piece of ceiling girder toward the sound of people, possibly trapped stragglers, who are calling for help.

"I miss Thunderbird 5 so much,” John mutters, keeping it under his breath so that no one hears him, as his palms are scraped raw against the concrete he’s trying to clamber around. There’s a rippp of fabric on a jagged piece of metal and the knee of his previous pristine brown jeans meets much the same fate as his poor, scuffed hands. “Oh, come on!” He’s having no luck today, “I'd so rather be assisting the situation from space. I can’t believe I’m stuck here." John grumbles, to no one in particular. He’s just not built for this kind of thing. Heavy labour and getting sweaty pulling people out of scrap heaps is what his other brothers do. At least rescues in space don’t have all this… gravity to contend with.

"John?” The crackle of a comm cut’s across his complaints, “What’re you still doing in there?” Gordon’s voice breaks him from his thoughts, little brother’s tone heavy with concern. “The building could fall any moment! You're so lucky the landslide isn't moving very fast, but it’s not gonna stay that way forever." Gordon was really worried about the fact that his older brother was still inside. “It could engulf the building! You need to hurry it up, bro.”

"I'm evacuating the people as fast as I can,” John gets both hands under the armpits of a boy who couldn’t be older than seven, and swings him above a pile of rubble toward safety, “I'll be out in no ti- Ah!"

John’s voice gets cut off with a startled cry, and it takes Gordon a second or two, time John might not have, to remember how to breathe so that he can yell in any way coherently into his comm. His eyes are wide, his anxiety levels through the roof as he tries, and fails, to rouse his brother on the other end.

"SCOTT! You need to get there now.” Gordon’s aware that he’s totally losing his cool, panic creeping in over his weak layer of professionalism, “I just lost contact with John.” He gasps, “He was evacuating people and I heard him yell and now he’s not responding! And- and it's not just him. There were other people he was trying to get out."

"Hey Gordon,” Scott tries to keep his voice steady to inject some kind of stability into the conversation, “Don't lose your cool yet. I'm sure nothing that bad happened to John. Just stay your positive self, okay? I’m arriving right now and Virgil isn’t far behind me."

Thunderbird One is panning over the city, low enough to ruffle the hair of people looking up, but it’s not a problem until the usually so sure and steady pilot finds his hands nearly slipping off her controls as Scott catches his first, horrific glimpse of the building that he knows his younger brother is inside.

“What the…?”

The Chino Roque Theater is almost flat.

"Virgil,” Scott swallows hard to try and remove any of the tremor from his voice, “A-Are you seeing what I'm seeing right now?" He almost succeeds.

"Scott this isn't a joke, it looks like half of the building has come down with the landslide! John’s in there!" Virgil sounds more terrified than Scott thinks he’s ever heard him. What scares him the most is that the exit was on the side that has fallen in, which means that a lot of people are trapped under it, their John included. "Scott, we need to help them right now.

"Okay, here's the plan,” Scott’s hands tighten white-knuckled on the steering yoke, “You wear your exo-suit and go clear the debris out of the way so that we can save them, and I'll get rid of that roof with Thunderbird One and check for life signs. Remember that saving lives is our top priority, got it? No matter what’s happened to John."

"F.A.B." Virgil sounds incredibly tense. He lands Thunderbird Two as fast as he can in the crowded, limited space. Local people are beginning to make their way out of their houses to see what all the commotion is about, and the cramped city streets aren’t ideal for International Rescue’s four hundred and six ton workhorse.

Two’s pilot struggles into his exo-suit, rushing to get the Jaws of Life prepared despite Scott’s insistence that he focus and take things slow and sensible. It’s not long until he finds himself digging among the debris looking for buried people and, in the white rush of it all, Virgil’s not even sure how he got there.

"Scott,” he presses on his comm, “Please tell me you’ve got something?"

"Fortunately and thankfully yes,” It’s hard to find the hopefulness in big brother’s clipped Mobile Control voice, but it’s there to Virgil’s expert ear, drizzled in nervous relief. “I've got a whole cluster of life signs,” Scott reports, “BPM signalling in the green. "I think they’re just trapped under the debris." Alan’s echolocation report came back suggesting that there’s a big space under what could be folded sheet metal from the ceiling, that they’ve huddled in. I'm really sure there's nothing that bad, but still we have to continue otherwise it will take a bad turn for us and the people in there."

“I can use the grappling cables in Thunderbird One to take the strain off the roof,” Scott adds, “But I need you in there to get those people out.”

“Already on my way,” Virgil ducks under some rebar, skirting around the rubble and pulling away loose debris as he goes. His heart is loud in his own ears, and Virgil hopes the creak and groan of metal and concrete above him is Scott lifting the weight off the roof, keeping it from collapsing any further onto the people below, and not anything more sinister. Virgil gets peppered by a slide of small stones, but the roof holds steady.

He presses on until he catches sight of the cluster of around forty people, all huddled together around a tall, central figure with a shocking amount of rubble dust smeared over his face, and powdered through his ginger hair.

“John!” Two’s pilot makes a beeline for his brother, despite the fact three of the people are stuck under rubble. Clearly John’s in control of the situation here, and he’s never wanted a mission update from their Space Monitor so much in his life. He can’t help but hone in on the fact John's left arm is crudely wrapped in a piece of cloth from his sleeve, which he must’ve ripped off in order to tie it.

"You have to tell me exactly what happened,” Virgil drops the controls for the Jaws of Life, and grasps his brother’s biceps in both hands instead, resisting the very strong temptation to pull the spaceman in for a hug. “And what happened to your arm?!?" There’s a river of blood seeping from beneath the make-shift bandage, but John, it seems, isn’t bothered by it in the slightest.

"Not now Virgil.” His concerns get thoroughly dismissed, “We’ve got to get these people out of here, and then I'll tell you everything." Virgil didn't like the idea that something happened to his brother and he's silent about it, but after all John was right about saving the people first since his arm is under control for now.

John crouches by the nearest injured person; a pale, skinny teen with a sizable piece of rebar keeping him pinned.

“You’re gonna be out of there in just a second, Lito.” Virgil watches him reassuring the young man for a long moment, “Uh, Virgil?” John prompts. “Any time?”

“What?” He blinks, “Oh, yeah!” His brother is clearly waiting expectantly for him to use the Jaws of Life to get the poor kid out. "I’m on it, but you better tell me everything after we're done saving them." Virgil demands. “But, uh, Scott’s kind of holding the roof up right now, so you’re probably right.”

"Okay,” John literally rolls his eyes, busy stealing a pair of blue rubber gloves from the Med Kit Virgil brought with him, and snapping them on to protect his hands and the fine cuts he’d gotten from climbing over rubble. “I promise I'll tell you everything, but can we start actually rescuing them now?" Rolling his eyes right back, the bigger man uses his exosuit to heft the rubble off Lito, before John swoops in to apply pressure to his injuries.

“Give me the fold out stretcher from your sash.” He orders, hands bloodied “Then go get the next person out. Efifania, Sergio?” John beckons a pair of nearby dad’s in closer, clearly having singled them out as capable stretcher bearers. “Think you can manage Lito here for me?”

As Virgil starts removing the rubble from above the other two trapped people, a middle aged man and a younger woman, it becomes immediately obvious that both of them have more severe wounds than young Lito. They both need medical treatment immediately.

“I’ll carry one of them.” Without the three extra sets of hands he’d need, Virgil has to leave a couple of crowd members applying pressure to their wounds, as he moves back to where John is helping Lito unsteadily to his feet. “Think you can walk, young man? We’re gonna need that stretcher for the big guy.”

“I won’t let you fall.” John promises, and Virgil feels a real swell of pride at how well his brother is handling the situation whilst being outside of both his space station and his comfort zone. It looks like having a rescue and a job to do really gives him no time for anxiety. "I agree that that's our best plan.” He adds, nodding, short and sharp, to confirm it, then John turns, an arm around Lito’s waist and the kid’s arm slung over his shoulder, to address the crowd.

“Anyone not so severely hurt needs to help get the injured out of here.” John instructs, the small crowd listening raptly. The look on the faces of these scared people is one Virgil is all too familiar with, but he knows John has far less experience of in person. They’re really looking to him as their saviour. “Virgil here is going to lead us through the path he just made.” Which is news to Virgil, but does seem like the best plan. “International Rescue will then be able to take us all to the hospital to get checked out, and then I’m sure you’ll be released to go home to your families before you know it. Got it everyone?"

In that moment Virgil finds himself struck with amazement at how John seems to have become almost as fearless as Scott, as they started carrying the two injured people out to safety. It was really a new side to him that Virgil doesn’t think he’s ever seen before.

"Virgil… I need you to check on Lady Penelope and Parker.” John’s keeping pace at his side, helping the boy they’d dug out along as he goes, “I told them to check to see if anyone was hurt."

"Hmm, yeah you're right.” Virgil frowns. If Penny and Parker have any more injured party members, even minor ones that just need a check up, Thunderbird Two will need to evacuate them to the hospital as well. “Have you got any idea where they might be?"

"Well, I told them to get somewhere away from the landslide,” John frowns, as their limping, shocky party stumbles out into the bright light of day, to be greeted by the roar of Thunderbird One’s engines high above them. “They should be near here.” He yells over the sound of it.

As usual, it turns out that John is completely right. Penny and Parker are waiting for them, but neither John nor Virgil find the look on Lady Penelope's face all that reassuring.

"JOHN!” She rushes toward the battered, bloodied spaceman, her arms outstretched. Virgil very quickly and carefully finagles poor Lito out of the way as his brother gets ambushed. “Are you okay?!?” Penelope demands, frantic, “What happened to your arm?” She reaches for the bloodied bandage, and John winces, “I'm so sorry,” All of John’s carefully constructed rules around personal space are shattered as she cups his cheek, inspecting his face for injury. It’s lucky that John is by far the most patient of the Tracy boys. “I shouldn't have left you there.

"She’d been so terrified, perhaps more than anyone else here. The horrific view she’d seen with her own eyes is going to haunt her for a long time yet. One second she was getting out of the building to reassure and check up on the people, and the next she was watching half the structure collapse completely, with John under the side that fell. She still feels a little sick.

"I'm so, so, so sorry John,” She repeats, before he can get a word in edgeways to reassure her, “Please, you must tell me if there's any way I can make it up to you. Ask me anything and I'll do it."

"Okay guys,” Virgil chuckles, “while you talk things out I'll go to get the injured people aboard Thunderbird 2. Make it quick though, we’ve still got people who need immediate medical treatment, got it?"

"F.A.B. Virgil.” John nods, “We'll be quick. Penny, I..."

“I’m so sorry.” She repeats again, and pulls his good arm over her shoulder as if to steady him as they make their way at the back of the crowd toward the big green Thunderbird.

"No no no, Penny, please stop apologising.” John’s fingers tighten for a quick moment on her shoulder, in brief reassurance, “I'm not going to ask you for anything because it was never your fault.” He insists, “It was just some bad luck, that's all. Fortunately I, and most people, got out safe with no severe wounds. These things happen.”

“Your arm.” She points out softly, hoping that all that blood looks worse than it is, “John I can’t believe you stayed behind like that, it’s so...”

“Tracy?” He grins, amused but very weary.

“Scott Tracy.” She corrects, scowling a little as she holds on just that little bit tighter around his waist as his adrenaline from the rescue starts to flag. “I thought you had more common sense.”

“Hate to disappoint.” She feels the warmth of him chuckling, “I’m lucky it was nothing worse than his cut from some shattered glass that fell on my arm while I was helping one of the guys who got stuck. I don’t think any arteries or anything have been damaged, but it is... kinda deep." And he might be getting a little lightheaded from the blood loss. Still, he really wants to reassure her, just like she had reassured him before he’d gone in to give the lecture.

"Hate to interrupt your moment, but are you guys done?" Scott pops up from who-knows-where amongst the crowd to yell at them. He’s clearly joined the relief effort. "Virgil’s just finished getting everyone aboard Thunderbird 2, and he's ready to launch." He adds, squinting at the pale, wobbly mess of his brother. "And you really do need to check your arm. That looks nasty.”

"Yeah Scott,” John wipes a tired hand over his dirty face, dislodging dust, “We're done. Don’t let Thunderbird Two wait for me, I'll hitch a ride with Lady Penelope, uh,” He turns to her, bashful, to check, “If that’s okay?"

“Of course,” Her Ladyship concedes, “Scott?” She is mildly concerned that big brother might want to have the injured member of his flock under his wing so he can smother him.

"Yeah sure, ride whatever you want.” Scott flip flops a dismissive hand at them, “You can ride a pod, I won't care as long as your destination is the hospital."

"How about you, Gordon?” John knows his little brother is still on the line, probably sulking. “Is it okay if I take the ride with Lady P?"

"W-what do you mean by that?” Gordon sounds confused and maybe a little embarrassed, like he’s been caught out. “Scott already said you should go, why’re you asking me?"

"Well, she's your girlfriend.” John grins, teasing, as Penny helps him into the back of FAB1. “Of course I have to get permission from her boyfriend.

"Penny swats at him for that, amused, but careful not to hit his injured arm. She doesn’t need anyone’s permission to do anything, but it is fun to see Gordon squirm - especially as Scott and Virgil both crack up, and even Alan in space starts teasing him.

"What?!?” Gordon’s face, bless that darling young man, has gone bright red. “J-Just go already." He ducks off the comm screen to try and hide his embarrassment, but it’s far too late for that.

He’s lucky that Penelope finds it incredibly endearing.

"John,” She nudges him, as the Tracy’s all click off the line to go do their actual jobs. She’s a little concerned that he’s looking a bit spaced out, if you’ll excuse the pun, and it’s probably a good idea to keep him talking. “You know we're still going to The Pagasa Observatory, just like I promised you, right?"

"Wait really?” John’s head tilts, a little floppy, towards her from where it had been sinking into FAB1’s luxurious headrests. He’s looking a little grey, but it’s good to see his eyes open. “After all that happened?” A ginger eyebrow quirks, “Are you sure there's time for that?"

"Well, we’re on our way to the hospital now, but there’ll be plenty of time this afternoon.” As long as the medics give him a clean bill of health. “You can change your clothes after we're done checking your arm then there should be time for you to go see that big telescope you've been dreaming of visiting. After all, I did promise you we’d go there after we're done."

"Well, that sounds good to me!” John smiles like there’s a supanova fuling him, “Penny you’re the best."

They reach the hospital a little after International Rescue has dropped off the fourty or so injured people, and so there’s quite a wait for a Doctor to be free so that they can have a look at John’s poor, sliced arm. Penny seems to be doing a worried hover at his side, while he waits, shaky from blood loss, and though he’s not used to having so much company, John has to admit it’s nice to have a chance to catch up with his old friend with no rescue alarms blaring.

Alan reports in that the two worst injured in the landslide have been hospitalized as fast as possible, that they were stable - the doctors have said their prognosis looked good. He also tells him that Lito’s family had been asking after the redheaded lecturer who’d helped him out of the rubble, and that John Tracy, M.Sci, PgDip, B.Lang Hons, should probably expect a gift basket in the mail quite soon.

John gets quite flustered about that. He’d just been doing his job.

The spaceman's arm was eventually treated, and Scott calls in to ask what actually happened to his arm. It still hurts, a properly bandaged throb just under his elbow, but not like before. The painkilling injection and little bit of morphine they’d given him when they stitched it up had probably helped with that.

Alan’s reports dug up that the landslide had been caused by a water main leaking under the building, and destabilizing the soil. Over time, water can do a lot of damage, washing away vital infrastructure if it’s not been properly reinforced during construction.

As the Chino Roque Theater was a new build, there must have been a mistake in the installation of the pipes during construction.

Someone was getting a big lawsuit heading their way, and Tracy Enterprises will be more than happy to fund the lawyers for the theatre.

As Lady Penelope promised him, they found John a change of clothes and went to the Pagasa Observatory. Penny’s quite sure she’s never seen anything as wholesome as the moment John sees the telescope - his eyes went all shiny, and the smile on his face was massive.

"Lady Penelope, Parker come take a look at the stars!!!” He calls, over his shoulder, with the enthusiasm of a boy half his age, “They’re really beautiful from here!" With such a high-powered lens pointed up at the cosmos, it rivals even his view from Thunderbird Five.

"Indeed, they are." Lady Penelope and Parker both step up to take turns, but John was the one to look through the telescope the most. With all the stealth her years as a secret agent offered her, Lady Penelope took a picture of him.

"Parker, come take a look." She whispers, beckoning her old companion gleefully over. "He looks so happy and innocent in this picture. Wouldn’t it be lovely to see his face like this always?"

"We still have some time before they close,” Parker points out, a sly grin creeping onto his nosey old face. “How h’bout we leave him like this for a little longer?"

"That, Parker.” she smiles, “Is an excellent idea.”

The End

#tag mini bang 2021 #tagminibang2021 #thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds #john tracy #scott tracy #gordon tracy #virgil tracy #alan tracy #Lady Penelope #Parker #tag #my writing

23 notes · View notes

mindfulwrathwrites · 4 years

Text

Powered (Excerpt): Meet “Cute”

The first appearances of two of our main cast!

Words: 1,931 Warnings: Alcohol use, classism

View on main site | Subscribe

...

Lupe was having the luckiest bad day of their life, and if it didn't let up soon, they were going to collapse from the stress.

First, it had been the flooding—an event that easily could have killed a dozen people or more, but from which Lupe had escaped without getting so much as a toe in the water. Then it was getting trapped in the swanky office building, where they were sure to get caught and arrested, only to see on the news that the only thing stopping them from leaving was some weirdo up on the roof. And then, it was ARCOM's killer robot and its—handler?—which had almost shot Lupe dead on the spot but decided not to at the last second, instead chasing off after the weirdo in the mask and opening, however unintentionally, Lupe's escape.

So Lupe had hidden in the stairwell in case the Division showed up before the water cleared (they hadn't), and had taken the back-alleys and underpasses out of downtown in case the regular cops were looking for them (they weren't), and was now holed up in a booth at the back of the one Powered bar in Albuquerque, accompanied only by the tinnitus ringing in their ears, nursing a gin and tonic and supposing they ought to feel relieved.

They didn't.

An acrylic nail tapping on the table brought them back to the present. Their favorite bartender, Jess, was standing table-side, rainbow dreadlocks bright against dark skin.

"Starting to pick up in here, honey," she said. "You might wanna start thinking about heading out, before you lose all your elbow room."

"You can't just let me out the back again?" Lupe asked.

"I'd love to, except Cindy's working tonight, and she's been looking for an excuse to fire me."

"Is Cindy the racist one?"

"Take a wild guess."

Lupe winced. "Okay. Thanks for letting me know. Is it okay if I finish my drink first, or. . . ?"

"You got time. I'll get you a lemonade to go so we ain't just kicking you out. On the house."

"Are you sure? You don't have to."

She pressed a hand to her chest and sighed hugely. "If I don't, you might leave us a bad review."

"I couldn't even if I wanted to," they said.

"It's a joke, we're already drowning in bad reviews from normies. Zero stars, service was terrible and it was full of mutants, I felt sooooo threatened when everybody got mad at me for calling them slurs."

Lupe snorted. "Has that happened?"

"Weekly, honey, weekly."

"I'm sorry."

She grinned. "It's all good. They never stick around too long." She tapped her nail on the table again, and a breath of blue flame rolled up the back of her hand. "Lemme get you that lemonade before I forget."

Lupe gave her a lazy, two-finger salute as she moved off. They sucked down a few good gulps of their gin and tonic. Maybe Jess had gone a little heavy on the gin, or maybe it was just that Lupe hadn't eaten in almost twenty-four hours, but it was hitting them harder than usual. They checked their pockets for change and found about four dollars—and since they were getting kicked out before they could get another drink, maybe they'd go get a burger, instead. As they stuffed the cash back in their pocket, somebody pulled up to their booth.

"Mind if I join you?"

He was white, mousy, and freckly, with short-cropped brown hair and a midwestern accent. He was wearing thick-rimmed glasses, a green flannel over a band T-shirt, dark jeans washed a few too many times. He had a drink in each hand.

"I—I was actually just leaving, sorry, it's all yours," said Lupe, scooching outward.

The guy's face fell. "You were?"

"Yeah, it just—I just have to—" They cast around for Jess, but she was nowhere to be seen. They didn't need the free lemonade, anyway; they should get out of here while they could, before this poor guy put a foot in the wrong place and got electrocuted.

"I guess I have to drink both of these, now," he sighed, looking down at the two drinks. One was a beer. The other was clear and bubbly and had a slice of orange in it.

"Well," said Lupe. They fidgeted. "You weren't—you didn't—did you. . . ?"

He offered the cocktail to them. "It was supposed to be for you," he said hopefully.

Lupe fidgeted some more. The room wasn't too crowded yet, and one drink couldn't hurt, especially if it was free. Jess was up at the bar now, busy with a large group of young women that had just come in. Lupe gestured to the other side of the booth.

"I'll save you from the spare drink," they said. "Just be careful where you put your feet, I run at a pretty lethal voltage."

The guy stopped halfway to sitting down. He stared. Lupe shrugged.

"No wonder you're back here all by yourself," the guy said faintly.

"Yeah," said Lupe. "It's fine if you—"

The guy slid the rest of the way into the booth and pulled his feet up after him, sitting cross-legged. With one finger, he pushed the cocktail across to Lupe.

"It's a Tom Collins," he said. "You struck me as the ginny type."

"That—that's a nine-dollar drink," Lupe objected, torn between being flattered and gravely suspicious.

"Yeah," said the guy. He gestured to his own. "And this is a three-dollar beer, split the difference."

Lupe struggled for words. They looked from the cocktail to the guy and back again. They swirled the tiny straws around in case it stirred up any suspicious white powder, which it didn't.

"What did you say your name was?" Lupe asked the guy.

"Zach," he said. "He/him pronouns, if anybody's counting."

"Oh—oh," said Lupe. Something fluttered in their chest, a sigh of relief. "I'm Lupe. Um. They/them."

"Pleased to meet you," said Zach. "I'd shake your hand, but—"

"Yeah, don't—don't do that. So, you—so—you're . . . Powered? I mean, Watt's, it's sort of—it's not like they card you, and if that's too personal, obviously, you don't have to answer, I just. . . ."

"Barely," Zach said, amused but taking pity. "Just enough to make my normie friends nervous."

"Do you mind if I ask what it is?"

"Eh, sure. You showed me yours, I'll show you mine."

In the blink of an eye, he was gone—into thin air, without so much as a puff of smoke or a flash of light. Before Lupe had gotten done being surprised, though, he was back, scrunching his nose like he needed to sneeze.

"That's not barely," said Lupe, astounded.

"No, it doesn't work like you think it does. For example—cameras. It doesn't work on cameras, for some reason. I'm like a reverse-vampire or something. And it gives me migraines if I hold it for more than a minute or so."

"Ohhh, yeah, that—that's not great. I guess it's fun at parties?"

"It's the best at parties," Zach said viciously, grinning. "I hate parties. And now nobody can make me stay, because as soon as nobody's looking, I can literally disappear."

Lupe chuckled and had a sip of their cocktail. It was mild and delicious, like a carbonated gin-lemonade, and there was no hint of a salty Rohypnol aftertaste. Maybe, they thought, this guy really was just being nice.

"Silver linings?" they said. "I don't know, I haven't been to a party in . . . Christ, probably twenty years."

Zach sucked in a breath through his teeth, wincing. "Yeah, what with the voltage and everything, I guess that's probably a little fraught. Don't worry, you're not missing much. Parties suck."

"But bars don't?"

"So long as there's no parties going on in them."

Lupe stirred their drink, being careful not to touch the table. At the bar, Jess was entertaining the group of young women, lighting their drinks on fire with her fingers (to their great delight). Zach watched them, amused, his chin on his hand, his beer untouched.

"Um," said Lupe. "I um. Look, before, um . . . I appreciate the drink, and the—the company, but I just want to make it clear that I'm not really, um, interested in—in—not that you're not—but I'm, sort of, very asexual? So—"

Zach turned back to them, startled. "What? No, no, that's not what this is about. I'm straight."

"You're what?" said Lupe. Their face went hot. "Oh, no, of course, right, I just—"

"Not that you're not a good-looking guy—sorry, person. You're just not my type."

"No, yeah, same, but I just kind of . . . forgot about straight people. Hahah."

"You don't get out much, huh," said Zach, with that same amused-pity look from before.

"I'm homeless, I'm always out," said Lupe, and then realized that it was a top-tier idiot thing to say.

"Holy shit, seriously?" Zach said. "You don't look—okay, you kind of do look homeless, but I figured that was just a fashion choice."

"And you don't look like an ignorant dick, but here we are," Lupe retorted. Maybe they'd had a little too much to drink. Whatever. A remark like that deserved a little snappishness.

Zach winced. "Okay, I deserved that," he said. "But—man, that's rough. Do you need a place to stay, or something? I could put you up at a hotel for a couple of days, or—"

"Don't, just—don't," Lupe sighed, holding up a hand. "It doesn't work. Unless you can find a hotel that doesn't use keycards, it won't work. Just—forget I said anything."

"Are you sure?" Zach pressed. "You could stay at my place, if you needed to. Not forever, I'm kind of already maxed out on roommates, but for a while. Until you get—"

"Get my feet back underneath me?" Lupe filled in. "Sure, I just have to find a job where they don't require you to touch any computers, machines, or other people. Oh, and it has to be no-experience-required, too, and no high school diploma, and not need a physical address or an ID or a phone number, and and and. It won't happen. Trust me."

Zach stared at them, full-pity, looking like a lost puppy in the rain. Lupe shook their head and muttered in Spanish under their breath and looked someplace else. The pity was always the hardest to take.

"Well—do you want dinner, then?" Zach asked. "I could buy you dinner, at least."

"I don't want your goddamn charity," Lupe snapped. A bolt cracked off their wrist and earthed in the center of the table. Someone shrieked. Zach froze, whey-faced. The smell of burnt lacquer rose in a plume. Lupe ground their teeth and took deep breaths and waited for the whine in their ears to soften. Before it did, Jess sidled over.

"Hey, honey," she said. "Hate to butt in, but I think it's about time for you to be heading on out."

"Yeah," said Lupe. They abandoned the rest of their cocktail and got up, dizzy. "Sorry about the table."

"Don't worry about it. You ain't hardly the worst thing that's happened to a table in here."

They faked a smile, nodded to her, and headed for the door. Despite the crowd, a wide path opened for them. Every eye in the place watched as they went.

#29 Feb 2020 #w:powered #sci-fi #nonbinary character #asexual character #superpowers #alcohol /#classism /

14 notes · View notes

barnesandrogersfanfics · 5 years

Text

Unexpected Arrival -4

Pairing: Eventual Bucky x Reader, Possible Steve x Reader

Summary: As if working with the Avengers wasn’t exciting enough…. an unexpected visitor is about to change your life forever.

A/N: This part kinda took a little angsty turn! After the next chapter, there may be a little time jump.... i havent decided yet. Thank you to everyone who is reading/sharing, it means alot!

I was cleared by Bruce, as long as i promised to take it easy for a couple of days! Bucky walked with me back to the residential floor, Evie safely tucked into his right arm as i leant on his left for a bit of support.

"Hey Buck, lets just stop in the common room for a bit. I need to eat and not be stuck in a bed for a while"

"You sure? Bruce said to rest...."

"I'll be resting just fine on the sofa, while you make me a sandwich"

"Okay, deal" he chuckled shaking his head as we walked into the common room. I walked over to the sofa and gently lowered myself down, Bucky standing close by waiting for me to get comfortable.

"I'm not sure how much rest you'll get when the team realise you and Evie are in here" he said leaning forward to place Evie in my arms once he saw i was settled "what do you want on your sandwich doll?"

"I really dont mind, id eat anything im that hungry" i scoffed as i snuggled into the sofa with Evie laying on my chest.

"Well i'll be damned!!" Came the booming voice of Sam Wilson.

"Shhhhh she's sleeping bird brain!" Bucky snapped as he playfully shoved Sams shoulder.

"Sorry! I didnt know!" He mumbled as he walked over and sat across from me "i heard what happened but i thought they were all just messing with me!!"

"Nope its true, surprise huh?"

"Id say!! She's beautiful Y/N" Sam flashed a huge grin as he looked down at Evie.

"Thank you Sam" i smiled proudly and looked over to see Bucky keeping a close eye on us while he made my sandwich.

"What are you? The baby bodyguard?" Sam laughed teasing Bucky, Sam had obviously noticed that Bucky was keeping a close eye on us.

"Try the baby daddy!" Bucky replied with a dead straight face and murder in his eyes.

"What??!!" Sam practically squealed at Bucky's reply.

"Oh my god Buck.... did you really just say that?" I laughed at him, his eyes met mine and his facade broke as he burst out laughing "im sorry! I heard Tony say it yesterday" Bucky shrugged as he walked over with the plate holding my sandwich.

"Please don't ever say that again"

"Wait.... are you serious? Or are you fucking with me?? i honestly cant tell!"

Sam said shaking his head and looking super confused.

"Language! Don't swear around my daughter!" Bucky slapped Sam on the back of the head as he passed.

"Switch please" i smiled up at Bucky before taking the plate, once his hands were free he carefully picked up Evie and had her held against his chest in no time.

"Wow..... you’re like... good at the dad thing Buck" Sam said sounding surprised.

"I had younger sisters growing up, it was a long time ago but I'm pretty sure its still the same" he chuckled.

"Wait, how long have you two...."

"You can take this one Buck I'm eating" i said with a shit eating grin.

"Thanks Y/N" he rolled his eyes, looked at Sam and shrugged "it was one time, we're not together.... but we're in this together. Right doll?" He looked at me and smiled.

"Yep, what he said" i replied trying to keep my tone steady, it hurt a little hearing how casual he made it sound. It took me back to when he had acted like nothing had happened between us after we finally slept together all those months ago.

"I cant believe y'all have a baby!"

"Neither can we!" I said around a mouthful of my sandwich "imagine my surprise when Bruce told me i didn't have stomach flu and that i was in fact in labour!"

"Thats crazy sweetheart"

"Sure was, scariest thing I've ever been through Sammy....And the pain.... nothing compares to that!"

"But it was worth it, look what you got out of it" Sam was hovering around Evie clearly wanting to hold her but Bucky wasn't parting with her just yet.

"She was worth every bit of the pain".

Later that afternoon I was walking back to the common room after taking a shower and getting into clean clothes, i stopped by the door when i heard Sam and Bucky talking in hushed voices.

"Oh come on man! These girls are hot! You cant pass that up!" Sam was saying to Bucky.

"I don't know Sam, i don't really think me going out on a date is a good idea right now"

"Why the hell not?? Just because you got a kid now? Im sure Evie wont mind"

"Y/N's been through a lot man, i just feel like i need to be here for her and Evie"

"Buck come onnnn! they will both probably be asleep by 7pm! the date is at 8, you dont need to stay that long..."

I couldn't believe what i was hearing! I pushed the door open making sure it was loud enough that they heard me. Both men turned to face me, Sam with a huge fake smile and Bucky just looked plain guilty.

"Sorry did i interrupt something?" I asked casually as i flipped on the kettle to make some tea.

"No doll of course not"

"I was just telling Bucky about a date i arranged for him.... a double date actually. I needed a wingman"

"Oh...."

"And I was just telling Sam that i didn't think it was a good idea. I thought it'd be best if i stayed here incase you and Evie needed me"

"If you wanna go Buck don't let us stop you" i snapped turning to face them "i'll be fine with Evie on my own"

"See! I told you she'd be cool!"

I was suddenly feeling so angry and on the verge of tears all at once! I just needed to get away from them, I walked over to Bucky and reached down taking Evie.

"She needs feeding" i said simply "go on your date Bucky" i mumbled as i turned around and headed for my room.

I was sat on my bed nursing Evie with tears running down my face when i heard the knock on my door. I chose to ignore it hoping that whoever it was would take the hint and leave me alone.

"Y/N.... doll i know you’re in there i can hear you" Steve called from outside making me sigh and wipe my tears away.

"Im just feeding Evie, i'll be out in a minute"

"Can i come in?.... i can tell you’re upset sweetheart"

"Im fine Steve..." i called back but burst into tears again. The next thing i know the door clicked open and Steve came in, he pushed the door closed behind him and locked it before rushing to my side. He sat next to me on my bed pulling me into him carefully while trying not to disrupt Evie's feeding.

"You wanna tell me whats wrong?" He asked quietly as he stroked my arm trying to calm me down.

"Im just a huge hormonal mess right now Steve" i mumbled not wanting to admit what had set me off "its been a lot to adjust to i guess and i think its all just catching up to me"

"You sure thats all? You know you can talk to me Y/N.... about anything"

"I know" i nodded "I'm not even sure why i got so upset.... not really"

"So something did upset you"

"It was stupid..... don't worry about it" i told him as i sat up seeing that Evie was done feeding, i held her blanket over my chest so i didn't expose myself to Steve.

"Could you take her for a second while i sort this out?"

"Sure" he nodded happily taking Evie.

I straightened out my shirt and settled back against the bed watching Steve burp Evie. His huge hand was rested against her chest supporting her chin and jaw, his free hand gently rubbing her back.

"How do you even know how to wind a baby Steve?" I asked curiously, he looked like a pro!

"I may have done some research" he blushed a little "i wanted to know what kinda stuff needed to be done so i could help out if you needed me to"

I was suddenly crying again!!

"Oh god.... what?? Why are you crying?"

He asked starting to panic.

"That was really thoughtful of you Steve! I cant believe you went to that effort for us... for Evie"

"Of course i did, gotta be there for my favourite girls" he said smiling just as Evie let out a little burp making us both laugh, it was the cutest little sound!

"So why are you in here crying? Talk to me" Steve said a few minutes later.

"Steve...."

"Wouldn't have anything to do with whatever the hell Sam and Bucky were bickering over would it?"

"Probably" I nodded as i picked at a thread on the blanket avoiding looking at Steve "Sam arranged a date for Bucky. I heard them talking.... Bucky said he didn't think he should go considering I've just given birth to his daughter. He feels like he needs to be here incase we need him" i shrugged "i want him to want to be here for her, i don't want him to feel like he has to.... like she's a burden to his dating life" i admitted to Steve then started to laugh at how stupid i sounded "i sound fucking crazy i know!"

"No you don't"

"I told him to go, told him that he should go on his date.... not to let us stop him, that i would be fine on my own"

"But you don't want him to go on that date do you" It wasn't a question, it was Steve stating a fact.

"No..."

"Y/N, why don't you just tell him that?"

"Because i'll sound like a crazy woman!! he doesn't owe me anything Steve, he’s not my boyfriend.... we didn't plan this" i rambled on not even sure if i was making any sense at all "yes, we have a daughter together now but that doesn't mean he has to put his life on hold. If he wants to date who am i to stop him?"

"And what about your feelings for Bucky?"

"W..what?" I asked wide eyed, caught off guard by Steve's comment.

"Im not blind doll, i see the way you are with him... the way you look at him. You love him" Steve stated smiling "and that was before you had Evie!"

"I.... i dont... shit. So what if i do huh?? Steve, it doesnt change the fact that he doesnt feel the same way!"

"How do you know that? Have you asked him??"

"Of course i haven't asked him!! But he made it clear enough back in Alaska" i shrugged.

"What do you mean?"

"if you had finally slept with the woman you loved.... would you act like nothing happened the next day?? Act like everything was normal, ignore her even. Go on dates with other women...."

"I wouldn't no"

"Exactly! There's no point in me telling Bucky how i feel because i know he will never feel the same".

"Y/N...."

"Its fine, honestly. I'll be okay, its just the hormones.... I'm over reacting" i shrugged "please don't say anything to him Steve.... i know he’s your best friend but this stays between us".

"I wont, i promise" he smiled sadly as he held my hand bringing it up to place a kiss on the back of it.

"Thank you Steve".

#bucky barnes #bucky x reader #winter soldier #bucky fanfic #bucky imagine #bucky x you #sebastian stan #steve x reader #unexpectedarrival

100 notes · View notes

creedtheconquer · 5 years

Text

A Christmas Miracle (Pt.1) AU

Request-"Hey hoe I got a request for you do a Micheal Mafia boss au with a female reader and he helps her out like she drops her wallet and he finds it and sees she’s not doing so well so he feels like helping her only to over time fall for her and then so on."

Summary-"(Y/N) is a struggling college student who loses her wallet, only for Michael to find it and he takes a liking to her and starts to shower her with gifts but the catch is, she has no idea who he is."

Pairing- Michael Langdon x Reader

Warnings- slight angst, slow burn, slight fluff

*This story kicks off day 4 and I really hope you enjoy this. This will be a series that I'm already starting to fall in love with! Remember my ask box is open and I'm always taking requests! I write for Cody and any other character he has played minus David for obvious real life reasons and I wish to respect him as a person as. I also write for other AHS characters.*

______________________________________________

Day 1

It was just like any other dull morning, minus the fact it was December first. Michael didn't hate Christmas per se, he just never had a good memory of any past Christmases. His childhood was all sorts of fucked up, a family that never really gave a shit about him and who quiet literally threw him out onto the streets. He bounced around from place to place not really staying for long, never fitting in, never belonging anywhere. As he got older, now in his early 20's he's made a name for himself. Sure it wasn't of the best circumstances but how he saw it the world chewed him up and spit him out like he was poison, so he figured why the hell not and became the poison the world thought he was. He wasn't a fast acting "poison", no he was one of those classy poisons. He never bothered to get his hands dirty, he had people to do that for him. He also wasn't a bad person but if someone pressed his buttons the wrong way they had hell to pay. After his rise to power everyone stop looking at him like the freak no one cared about and started trying to be the biggest kiss ass, trying to get on his good side but he saw through their facade.

(Y/N) was a 22 year old sophomore at college who was just barely scrapping by. Her home life growing up wasn't the best but it wasn't the worst either, her dad left when she was in middle school leaving her mom to raise her alone. Her mom had a steady job so money was never really a problem. Once (Y/N) graduated high school her mom gave her two options, either go to school or be kicked out. So weighing her options she opted for school but her mom was no help really, yeah sure she would send a carepackeage every 3 months or so but that was it. Thankfully she got a full ride thanks to her high test results but that only pays for school. She was stuck with paying for her own place and food, which she was barely managing to afford with her 2 jobs.

Her day was going just as shitty as it could be, she was late to class, got chewed out by her professor and on top of everything her mom called and threatened to disown her because she got a B- in one of her classes. She had just made it home from job number one only to realize she didn't have her wallet on her, "Fucking good one (Y/N) that had all your money in it." She said to herself bitterly.

Michael had just walked out of the small coffee shop when his foot kicked something, "What the hell?" He questions looking down to see a wallet. He bent down picking it up and he opens it, inside he finds an ID that told him the owner of said wallet, one (Y/N) (Y/L/N). Also inside the wallet he found only about $100 max along with credit cards and a few business cards. Turning on his heels he heads back inside to ask, "Um excuse me does anyone know (Y/N) (Y/L/N)?" He asks as he leans against the small little counter, it coming to just above the middle of his thighs due to his towering form.

"She works here, how can I help you?" A guy Michael assumes is the manager comes forward wiping his hands on his apron.

"I'm an old friend, and I just got into town I was just wondering if you had her address wanted to drop by and surprise her." Michael say flashing that charming smile he knows works on everyone. Sure enough the manager nods grabbing a napkin and he writes down the girls address.

"Here you go, she's lucky to have a friend like you." He says shaking softly and Michael smirks enjoying how much power he has over anyone he comes into contact with.

"Thank you." Is all he says before dropping his smile and he turns and walks out of the shop.

"You lost your wallet?" Rachael asks (Y/N) as the dinner rush calms down.

"Yeah it fucking sucks it had all the money I had left for the rest of the week." (Y/N) groans cleaning off the plates she had just picked up.

"Do you know where it is?" She asks and (Y/N) shrugs leaning against the counter looking at the clock.

"My other job, or any where between there and home who knows." (Y/N) says taking off her apron getting ready to leave.

"Well I hope you find it." Rachael says and (Y/N) nods collecting her stuff.

"Thanks Rachael." (Y/N) says giving her a hug before heading home.

Michael knew he shouldn't have entered her house, magic or other wise it wasn't right. When he got to her little apartment he was just going to leave her wallet on her door step with a little note but when he got there he just felt the urge to go in. He chocked it up to not wanting to just leave her wallet out for anyone to take, so he took it upon himself to enter and leave it on her coffee table. He was going to leave right after, he really was but once he got a look around her apartment he noticed she was worse off than he first thought. Not really much food in her pantrie or fridge, a small couch and a small tv on the opposite wall. Not really any decor, it was all just so plain. He cursed himself for entering because now he felt the urge, no the need to help this complete stranger. So he did the best he could do for the time being, he found an envelop and put $500 inside with a little note. Then like that he left not leaving a trace anyone was there and on his way out of the building he told the person at the front desk to put the envelop in her mail box.

"Really good job (Y/N) You can't find your wallet anywhere." She says to herself as she enters her building. She pulls out her keys and goes to her mailbox pulling out the stack of envelops and magazines. She sighs turning and making her way up to her apartment. She opens her door and turns on the light and enters before closing the door behind her. She throws the mail on the coffee table and turns to go walk into the kitchen when she stops and turns back towards the table. There she saw it, her wallet sitting perfectly in the center of the table, right where she had thrown the mail. She walks around her couch and she takes a seat picking up the wallet and she opens it, sure enough it was hers. She laughs shaking her head, had it been here all along? She questions in her head as her eyes shift to the mail and she sees an envelop that simple reads "From A Friend." She sets her wallet down and picks up the envelop and she examines it. She notices it's kinda think and heavy but she shrugs as she opens it. She nearly throws it when she sees the money inside, tears form in her eyes as she takes out the little note.

"I know you don't know me yet, but I've noticed you struggling and I felt the need to help. So I've left you $500 dollars hopefully that is enough for now. I have a feeling this won't be the last time you hear from me or the last times our paths cross." It reads and she sees it's signed with two simple letters, M.L and a tear falls from her eyes.

Day 5

"Ms. Mead I have a job for you." Michael says sitting back in his office chair as his adoptive mother stands on the other side of his desk.

"Yes, what is it?" She asks placing her hands behind her back and he smiles up at her.

"I want you to keep a tab on (Y/N) (Y/L/N) and report to me anything you find out about her." Michael says folding his hands into his lap and his pale icy blue eyes shine with wonder.

"Right away." She says but she gives him a questioning look to which he waves her off.

"Thank you Ms. Mead." He calls after her as she closes the door.

"Do you know who this person is?" (Y/B/F) asks as her and (Y/N) relax at her place.

"No idea but he has left small little gifts after that $500." (Y/N) shrugs placing her drink on the coffee table.

"It sounds like you have a rich, powerful secret admirer." (Y/B/F) teases causing (Y/N) to blush.

"Oh as if." (Y/N) fires back slapping (Y/B/N)'s shoulder.

"So any news?" Michael asks later that night as he gets ready to leave.

"Her favorite color is (Y/F/C) and her favorite flower is a (Y/F/F)." Ms. Mead says and a smiles finds its way on to Michael's lips.

"Perfect." He whispers to himself, grabbing his jacket and he leaves making a beeline for the nearest flower stand.

"How can I help you tonight sir?" The lady at the stand says and he can see her check him out. He scoffs giving her a once over before waving her off.

"I would like a bouquet of 12 (Y/F/C) (Y/F/F) for my girlfriend." Michael says stressing the word girlfriend. It seems to do the trick considering she looked down disgusted.

"That will be $10." She says handing him the flowers and he smiles handing her the money.

"Thank you." He says very curtly before he walks away.

Michael makes it to (Y/N)'s apartment and a small smile pulls at the corners of his lips as he sets the flowers on the door step and knocks on the door before turning and walking away. He sees her open the door and then he sees the biggest smile appear on her face as she picks up the flowers. "There's my beautiful girl." He whispers to himself softly before turning and walking back to his car.

"Was it him?" (Y/B/F) asks from the couch and (Y/N) nods closing the door.

"Yeah it was." She says a smile plastered to her face.

"You're so hopelessly in love with him and you don't even know what he looks like." (Y/B/F) says and (Y/N) rolls her eyes.

"No I'm not." Is all she says setting the flowers on the table as she gets a vase and puts water in it before placing the flowers in it. Little did she know was she was destined to meet her secret admirer and little did she know she will fall so helplessly in love with him and he her.

@madamfae

#cody fern #ahs #ahs apocalypse #michael langdon #ahs coven #ahs murder house #ahs8 #michael langdon x reader #michael langdon imagine

98 notes · View notes

jesus-otaku · 6 years

Text

Title: Reset

Fandom: Mystic Messenger

Pairing: Zen x MC, Yoosung x MC, Jaehee x MC (platonic), etc. I think you get the idea

Word count: 3029

This idea has been bouncing around in my head for ages, so I finally decided to just sit down and write it. I’m so disappointed that Tumblr formatting ruined some of the stuff, but it can’t be helped. Hopefully when it goes up on AO3 the formatting won’t get too messed up. Without any further ado, I present a fic in which all of the characters retain their memories after the reset and are aware of the reset. I haven’t played through all the routes yet and my memory is a little foggy on others so please have mercy on me for my accuracy or lack thereof.

How could she hit the reset so cheerfully?

They had all agreed at the start: there would be no grudges, it was her choice, and none of them would interfere with the others' chances. It was just a game to her, so there was no sense in being dramatic about it. And she couldn't know that they knew about the reset. No, that secret had to stay with them.

Welcome to the RFA!

Zen, though not surprised, was ecstatic to be chosen first. She had seen his charms! He was handsome, he was famous, he was talented, so of course he would be chosen. He threw himself into love headfirst; never mind the others watching on with slight traces of envy. They would get their turns. Phone calls passed by in a blur. He sang to her, dreamed of holding her in his arms, wondered what it might be like to kiss her. When Echo Girl started her ridiculous rumors, his newfound love was only a chat room away to comfort and support him.

And then the bomb came, and real, genuine fear seized his heart. His hands shook as he demanded that Seven give him the address of the apartment. Frankly, he would have liked to deck Seven one in the face for putting her in danger like this. How could he let her stay in an apartment with a bomb all this time and never say anything? How could he not do something? She was supposed to be their princess, wasn't she? And Seven had just left the RFA's princess in an apartment loaded with a bomb, like she was an expendable tool they could demolish whenever they liked.

Zen didn't know who the stranger holding her captive was, and he was too worried about her to care to find out. And when they managed to escape the deadly apartment, he wished he could wrap her up in his arms and never let go. He didn't think he could have borne it if she had been killed.

God, why did there have to be a reset?

Don't leave me.

He was going to make a press statement, and finish these rumors once and for all. And maybe once his love saw how much he cared for her, she wouldn't reset, and they could live happily ever after just like a fairy tale.

Don't leave me.

She loved him, right? She couldn't have been pretending this whole time. He'd opened up to her so much, treated her so well, tried his hardest to overcome his struggles for her. She had to love him, even just a little, didn't she?

Please don't leave me.

Why was she hitting the reset?

Babe, please don't—

Welcome to the RFA!

Yoosung nearly cried with happiness when he realized he had been chosen.

Okay, maybe he did cry.

But just a little.

She didn't stand for any of his nonsense about Rika. He'd thought they were alike, but with a firm kindness she asserted over and over again that she was no replacement for Rika. He came to understand soon enough. She really wasn't Rika. But she was still amazing, in her own beautiful way, and Yoosung fell for her like a ton of bricks. He couldn't even focus on LOLOL when his mind wandered to her. Hell, he would quit games altogether if it meant she would see him as more than a child. It drove him crazy that he wasn't allowed to go see her. He wanted so badly to see what she looked like, to actually experience their first meeting face-to-face.

There was a bomb in the apartment this whole time?

Yoosung wanted to throw something out of sheer frustration. How could V have let something like this happen? What had possessed him to think that letting Rika keep a bomb in her apartment was a good idea? Sure, Seven said that V kept calling him and leaving worried messages, but Seven always defended V just like everyone else did. And why hadn't Seven done anything to deactivate the bomb after Rika's suicide? Why wouldn't he give Yoosung the damn address so he could go and rescue her? He hated not being able to do anything for her. Sitting there and worrying wouldn't save her, but Seven wouldn't allow him to do the one thing he believed he was capable of doing.

Going with Seven to resolve the issue was as close as he was going to get. Yoosung knew he wasn't much of a knight in shining armor, but for her, he would have to try. She was his princess this time, and he had to protect her.

His eye would heal, but if he lost her, his heart would never recover.

Don't reset.

He tried his hardest to warn her before the party that he wasn't going to be looking his best, but he still saw a flash of worry on her face when she saw the bandages for the first time. His heart fluttered. Finally, they could see each other, touch each other, share a kiss.

I've never loved anyone like this before.

She couldn't reset now. She couldn't. They had just gotten to meet in person. There was no way she was already tired of him, right? There was still so much he wanted to do with her, so many places he wanted to take her. Was he still just a child to her after all? Or was this really all just a game for her?

Don't reset.

What had he done wrong?

Please don't reset, I love—

Welcome to the RFA!

Jaehee was pleasantly surprised to be chosen next. She hadn't expected much, since Mr. Han had gone to such great lengths to make sure she wouldn't stand out in any way. She was just an office assistant. Why would she choose such a dull route?

But oh, God, it was glorious to have a female friend. Jaehee couldn't help the grin that would come over her face when she saw her in the chat room, or when her name popped up on the caller ID. And she fought so valiantly for Mr. Han to cut Jaehee some slack. Jaehee would have hugged her forever if she could have, just for that alone. Finally, there was someone else who was willing to fangirl over Zen's musicals, who supported her interests, who would fight tooth and nail to get her better working conditions.

When the presentation was a flop, she was there in the chat room as if she somehow already knew what had happened. Jaehee had an inkling of a suspicion that Zen's visit could be credited to her as well, although she didn't have any proof of that. She just wished she could have offered the same level of support in return.

From Zen and Yoosung's play-throughs before her, she knew there was a bomb in the apartment. But nothing happened this time, and so she kept quiet about the bomb. There was no sense in going through another scare if they didn't have to, and Jaehee was sure that her newfound friend had enough problems of her own without having to worry about the bomb for a third time.

Would she stay if Jaehee asked?

Please, stay.

The coffee shop would be like a dream come true. It was a simple dream, nothing grandiose, but Jaehee was willing to hope that it would be enough to keep them together. Maybe she would stay. Maybe there would be no reset this time, and they could continue like this forever.

Please don't leave me.

Weren't they friends? Hadn't they formed a strong bond with one another? Had this just been a fun diversion from all the drama of the other routes for her? Jaehee had been pushing herself so hard to grow as a person. Was that all for nothing? Would she have to go back to being a mindless assistant at C&R for the rest of her life?

Stay, please, stay.

Had they ever really been friends at all?

I thought you were—

Welcome to the RFA!

As soon as he saw that he had been chosen, Jumin braced himself. He had seen what a mess the others had turned into after their resets, and he didn't want to be the next in a line of broken hearts. He would go through the motions, and play along for the next eleven days, and that was it.

But damn it all, when she tried to win your heart, she really gave it her best effort. Jumin never stood a chance.

He did well at avoiding the inevitable for the first few days. It was stressful, with his father's new fiancée and the nightmares that ensued as a result, but he managed to get through it. And then Elizabeth 3rd escaped.

In the middle of him questioning whether he was really meant to be a pet owner, she stepped fully into the picture. She mentioned that Jaehee had suggested she come, but that didn't matter to him. She was still there. She had agreed to come, and that alone tore down half of the barriers he had built up. He latched onto her, perhaps a little greedily, the only person offering him unconditional comfort in this hellish week.

He couldn't help kissing her. Sarah was just too obnoxious, and he couldn't think of another way to convince his so-called fiancée to leave. Besides, he'd been thinking about going in for the kiss all day. But then he was a goner. Consequences be damned, he loved her.

And now he was terrified of losing her.

I need you by my side.

Maybe saying that he wanted to keep her in the penthouse was a mistake. Maybe that was going to scare her off. He was just so afraid of her leaving and never coming back. He didn't know what else to do. Would getting rid of Sarah and proposing be enough to convince her not to reset?

I can't lose you.

No, no, no, no. What had done it? Where had he gone wrong? Was he too possessive after all? Was she going to go back to one of the others who wasn't so clingy? He couldn't help it. He'd never loved a woman, not like this, not this overwhelming feeling that threatened to engulf him when he so much as looked at her. Had she really loved him? Or was this all a ploy to check another route off the list? Was she actually the same as all those women who threw themselves at his father?

I need you, my love.

How could she hit the reset so cheerfully?

Don't—

Welcome to the RFA!

Seven pumped his fist in victory when he was finally, finally chosen. Truth be told, he had fallen long ago. It had been a slow kind of torture, watching her love stories unfold with everyone else, but it had been worth it to be the last to sweep the princess off her feet. Even someone like him could at least pretend to have happiness, right?

He loved being the one to make her laugh. She matched him joke for joke, prank for prank, like she somehow already knew him inside and out. If he hadn't fallen for her already, he would have thrown his guard up to protect his heart, but he'd been a goner for ages. Everything she did and said just wedged her further into his heart. What really did him in was the fact that she could see right through him when he was pretending to be the “usual” 707. He was completely transparent to her, no matter how he tried to close himself off to protect her.

“I'm dangerous,” he tried to warn her, but that didn't stop her either. Nothing seemed to stop her. Maybe that was part of why he'd fallen for her so hard. No matter what he did—ignore her, warn her, whatever—she didn't leave his side. She didn't force him to tell her anything, but she didn't make him keep it all pent up, either. He found himself being honest with her almost without thinking. It was just unconsiderable to do anything else. He wasn't supposed to leave any traces of himself in this world, but maybe it would be okay if he just left proof of his existence with her.

He was so glad she had chosen him last.

Thank you for giving me happiness.

Finally, after all this time, he had found his brother again. He could have a family again. He even dared to dream that she might be a part of that family. She wouldn't reset. There was no way she would reset. She had finally obtained the true end, so why would she reset?

You are my happiness.

She would never reset. That would be ridiculous. She'd taken his dark life, and lit it up with stars he'd thought he would never see again. You couldn't give someone joy like that and then just leave. She wouldn't reset. No, she couldn't reset. If she reset, he would lose everything.

Please don't take away my happiness.

WHY WOULD SHE HIT THE RESET?

Please—

They walked V through the ground rules carefully. They promised there would be no interference with his love story. As broken as they all were, they couldn't bear to sabotage her new chance at happiness. And there was to be no revealing their reset memories.

Welcome to Mint Eye!

V wasn't sure how to handle being put in the spotlight. He had been in the background for so long, it felt odd and out-of-place to be the love interest. Especially when he was involved with Rika. His sunshine. How on earth was he supposed to be an even halfway decent love interest when he was already in love?

But it didn't take long for him to see why the others had fallen so quickly and so desperately. She was angelically kind, but tough as nails. Nothing seemed to daunt her. And she was nice to Rika—which he hadn't expected at all. He'd been afraid they would be at each other's throats. But Rika seemed to like her well enough, and there was no fighting between the two of them. If she could even deal with her alleged love interest having a significant other already, she had to be heaven-sent.

It was only when he found himself smiling like an idiot after one of their phone calls that he realized he, too, had fallen without noticing.

And he knew he had to get her out of there.

But what about Rika? That was something he couldn't quite stop wrestling over. He loved Rika, didn't he? He wanted to marry her, didn't he?

Or had that all been something else under the mistaken guise of love?

Either way, his conflicted feelings aside, he had to save her. There was no question of that. He couldn't let something happen to her.

I think I love you.

He couldn't believe he had let himself get caught. If he died because of this, he would have no one to blame except himself. He'd seen Rika changing, and he had done nothing. Like an absolute idiot, he had let it happen until it was too far along to be stopped. As he slipped in and out of consciousness, he clung to the single sliver of hope that he had that he would live, and that she would stay with him.

I love you.

Hadn't she loved him? She'd helped him discover what love really felt like—there was no way something like that could have been a lie. Right? So why would she want to reset?

You are my sunshine.

Was it really that easy for her to hit the reset like nothing had happened?

I can't—

Welcome to Mint Eye!

Ray was so happy he thought he might explode. It was finally his turn to be with her, finally his turn to be the one who made her happy. He was going to woo her so much that she would surely fall in love with him in no time. He showered her with flowers and compliments, took her to his garden, told her about the floriography he knew. She seemed happy. He hoped that meant he was doing the right things to win her over.

Then Saeran had to butt in.

She was a toy. What did all this flowery nonsense have to do with anything? She wasn't there to be the protagonist of some chintzy romance novel, she was there to be his plaything. He couldn't do anything too horrible to her, for fear of angering his Savior, but he could at least make sure she knew her place. If that meant she went hungry, so be it. It would make things interesting, if nothing else.

She didn't take the change well. But not in the dramatic, crying and whining and pleading sort of way he had been hoping for. No, she challenged him. Deliberately tried to get under his skin, into his brain. This girl was no passive toy. She was fiercer than anyone he'd ever met before.

She made him start to think…

Do I really need my Savior?

He wasn't sure who he was anymore—Ray or Saeran, it didn't matter. He was himself, whoever that might be, and he was going to help her escape from Mint Eye. To hell with the consequences. He would help her. Maybe even escape with her. It was the first time in a long time he had hoped to be truly free and happy, and it was a wonderful feeling.

I don't need my Savior anymore.

Would she really leave him, after showing such tenacity? Was everything going to end, just like that? He'd thought she had finally fallen in love with him. Had that been yet another betrayal? Was he going to be abandoned again? He didn't think he could take that kind of pain again. Not after finally believing he was free of it.

You saved me.

WHY WOULD SHE BETRAY HIM LIKE THIS?

DON'T LEAVE ME—

Delete “MysticMessenger”?

Deleting this app will also delete its data.

DELETE

#drabble #it's Suffering Time (TM)#mystic messenger #zen #yoosung kim #jaehee kang #jumin han #707 #V #saeran choi #reset #spoilers #(duh)

16 notes · View notes