#I am a bulletin board queen

[187days]

Day One Hundred Eighty-Six

Today was the last day of the school year. Since we can count the two evenings of parent-teacher conferences as a “day,” we still end with up with 187 days, but not really, but it still counts. 

Anyways. 

I’d already done my grading and cleaned my classroom, so I thought I wouldn’t have much to do this morning, but then The Principal came to give me my first official task as social studies department head: filling out the paperwork to get money for teachers to do curriculum work over the summer. Long story short, US History and Civics- traditionally junior and senior classes- are being combined into one yearlong sophomore class called American Studies, so there’s some work that needs doing, and folks ought to be paid for it. So I spoke to the teachers who’ll be taking that on, did the paperwork, submitted it, and ended up having a long conversation with Mr. I about that work, about vertical alignment between freshman and sophomore year, about me being a department head, and some other stuff. 

And THEN I had nothing more to do, so I asked the office assistants if I could put new paper and borders on the bulletin boards used for school news, sports and club announcements, etc... Mrs. R ended up helping me, and now all those boards look nice and fresh for the fall. So we filled the time, we made our hall look nice, it’s good stuff. 

After lunch with basically all of The Cacophony, we all went back to wrap-up little things, then headed to the auditorium for our final faculty meeting (which was basically just The Principal saying thank you to everyone who’s retiring or moving onto other things, plus a few housekeeping items). After that, it was out into the sunshine! 

I went home to change clothes, grabbed some cupcakes from the store, and headed over to Mr. E’s house because he was throwing a celebratory year-end cookout. I just got home from that, and have no more plans for a little bit. Going to enjoy whatever summer brings!

#teaching #teacher #teachblr #edublr #education #educhums #teacher workshop #high school #social studies #department head #the principal #Mrs. R #the cacophony #I am a bulletin board queen #Mr. E #Mr. I #day one hundred eighty six #it's summer

[dilfkuza]

Sagawa content incoming 👉👈😔

#this is your only warning lmao ive got that old man stuck in my brain #the fic's been done for like 2 weeks ive just been trying to figure out how to tag and title it properly #i got slapped in the face with the title on my way to work the other morning though. literally pulled over so i could write it down #bc i am constantly coming up with banger titles while im busy and then immediately forgetting them #anyways. proofreading and then posting that one tonight so i can finally turn my attention back on my Goromi fics #so sorry queen i promise im almost done with one. im just having too much fun writing baby-face Kiryu interacting with her #bulletin board

[our-happygirl500-fan]

During the episode Portal Jacked Leo & Señor Hueso disguise themselves as pirates in order to sneak onto the Queen Alexis, Capitán Piel’s ship

And later on in the episode One Mans Junk, we later see a wanted poster for Leo’s pirate persona on a bulletin board located in what is possibly Run of the Mill.

But other than thinking about the fact that Señor Hueso possibly put up Leo’s wanted poster from their adventure together up in Run of the Mill, something that made me kind of curious about Leo’s wanted poster is I sort of wondered, why Leo’s pirate person even has a wanted poster considering that the episode Portal Jacked is where Leo seemed to help Señor Hueso clear his name.

Hueso: Then I am off the most wanted list?

So something I was kind of wondering about was how Leo ended up with a wanted poster when the Portal Jacked adventure seemed to help clear Señor Hueso’s name & a possible explanation might be that Leo ended up with a wanted poster due to inadvertently helping the pirates escape.

Leo: I guarantee I sent him to the worst place possible.

Piel [In Tahiti]: And what is the deal plundering?

When Leo’s brothers kind of demand that he send them back to Tahiti, Leo accidentally portals Capitán Piel & his crew to Tahiti instead which might have possibly ended up being viewed as helping Capitán Piel’s crew escape by the Hidden City’s law enforcement.

So the episode Portal Jacked might have possibly ended with Señor Hueso’s name being cleared by fighting Capitán Piel & his crew but Leo might have possibly ended up with a wanted poster due to accidentally helping them escape to Tahiti.

#rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #teenage mutant ninja turtles #leonardo hamato #senor hueso #rottmnt #tmnt

[renhaswritersblock]

hello!! could you do w, i, and o for abner on the nsfw alphabet? i am so desperate for content abt him lmao 😭😭 thank u for still writing him

Abner Krill (Polka-dot-man) - NSFW Request (I, O, W)

Me: Oh boy, Abner! I’ve always been wanting to write something about this colorful dancing king queen since I watched TSS. This is going to be fun!

[Two/half months later.]

Me: *Staring intently at a bulletin board covered in pictures and notes with red string connecting to them, not knowing what time or day it is.*

Life [Walks in.]: Hey, uhh– friendly reminder that you still have that Government paper due tomorrow.

Me: MUTHERFU–

[Weeks later.]

Me [On the floor, defeated by the heavy mass of writer's block, reaching towards laptop to press enter.]: Finished– *Get’s crushed by an anvil of more writing tasks.*

—

A/N: I had made a Venn Diagram of Abs, Bob, and Lonny to differ the boys since they all fall under the meow meow category. So, thank you for the wait.

Ima say this takes place after the TSS movie – don’t care if he died, as James A. Janisse would maybe say, “No body, no count.” (Same with Flag. *kicks book of Necromancy For Dummies under bed*)

Warning: Usual NSFW stuff, nothing too extreme. Made some parts long (cause I do what I want). Some head cannons that totally didn’t come up to me randomly while I was halfway through finishing. No proofreading, I go down in style. Is there anything smutty in the first half? No, not really. Did I get carried away again and build a oneshot sort of story? Perhaps. Will I ever make a long smutty moment in any of the alphabet requests? Idk. Hotel? Trivago.

Leans toward female reader pov, but mostly towards gender neutral.

Anyhoo, happy readings!

===

I: Intimacy (*looks over at the letter C* Perhaps, I misjudged you.)

Abner lacks physical and emotional intimacy – and you can’t really blame him for it. Being locked up in Belle Reve and made fun of by the other inmates for so long – and to top it all off, his condition and past – he doesn’t have good social skills nor the confidence to approach someone for friendly/flirtatious banter. Even when he and his Task Force X friends go out to celebrate their new freedom at a local club, he still remains reserved and hidden. So he thought.

Throughout the night, Abner watched everyone have fun while sitting in a booth next to a large – totally not a man-eating shark – distinguish gentleman with a mustache, staring intently at a fish tank behind them. Cleo was out dancing wildly on the dance floor with a group of people, Harley sat across the room drinking with three intimidating women, and both Flag and Dubois went somewhere private to chat and drink alone. He consistently looks around the large room, scanning the neon interior and dancing occupant exotically swaying side to side, sipping his drink until his eyes land on a certain someone sitting by the bar. You.

You idly sat on one of the empty stools, swirling your drink in apathy and wearing the most eccentric, colorful outfit that made you stick out of the crowd. Abner nearly choked, spitting his drink through his nose, and erupted into a coughing fit. He didn’t notice Cleo returning to the booth, rushing to sit beside him, gently hitting his back. You were alone – in fact – you looked like you were waiting for someone, glancing at your surroundings and at your phone every minute. 

Supposedly, your date should’ve been here an hour ago. They texted you the address to this place to meet you at a time that was way past your curfew. Without a second thought, you agreed. You spend your whole evening prepping yourself to look nice. The only attire suitable for your first night out was the one that made it look like a clown puked on you. Looking around once more, you scan the room in hopes of seeing your date, not spotting Abner a few feet away staring gawkily at you, swiftly ducking his head to avoid glances.

Abner could feel his face burn red hot, he couldn’t hear Cleo’s muffled words over the sound of his heart pounding in his ear. He finally drew his attention towards Cleo when he heard her say, your glowing. Instantly, he slaps his face out of instinct to check if his glowing rash started popping up – knowing already he expelled the dots before they left. This is a first… Cleo gaped as his face began to flare up into dim hues of blue and red to green and yellow. His eyes move back to you, staring at your phone with a bleak expression. 

Honestly, you weren’t surprised when the screen showed they left you on read. You figured they would bail at the last minute, wasting half of your night to embarrass yourself. Thoughts began running through your head as you felt your chest grow heavy. I think that’s enough for one night. Holding back your tears, you took a shot of your drink and tapped the glass on the counter, going to spin your chair towards the exit when a tall man wearing what seems to be also a colorful button-up blouse blocks your way, startling you. Abner stood stiff as a board, nervously smiling at you. There was a moment of silence between you two. You watched as he glanced over and back at you, sending you mixed signals. Curious at what he was looking at, you turned and spotted two girls looking directly at you, one waving shyly, the other giving a thumbs up, and a– Wait is that a shark in disguise and a rat also waving at us?

You snap your attention back to the man in front of you, hearing him clear his throat out of discomfort before introducing himself as Abner, reaching his hand out towards you. To your dismay, you mindlessly took his hand, shaking it while telling him your name. Abner’s heart flutters at the sight of you smiling softly at him. You catch a glimpse of his cheeks glowing strangely, thinking it could be the lighting in the room. He takes a seat next to you, mumbling if he can buy you a drink, his smile widening when you accept the offer.

Shortly after your second drink, you hit it off pretty quickly, talking about certain things the two of you like, such as movies, and him introducing you to the group – keeping a very close eye on Nana– Bob doesn’t do anything to you. 

Soon you two were on the dance floor, swaying and bobbing your heads to the music, and before you knew it, you were face-to-face. Abner remembered sharing a long gaze with you, feeling as if time suddenly froze. He felt his cheeks boil achingly, noticing your expression contort into a bewildered look. Random patches of colorful glowing dots appeared and disappeared on his face. His eyes seemed to change color, following the primitive colors. 

Although you admired the way he looked, Abner on the other hand took it as a sign of being repulsed, causing something to trigger in his mind. But before he could let the imagery into his head, he hears you call out his name, slowly approaching him. You ask if you could hold his hand, reaching out for it when he accepts. You both stood in the middle for a while, only listening to the music playing on the speakers. Once he felt himself subside, he pulls towards him, wrapping his arms around your waist. You did the same, putting your arms around his neck, whispering reassuring words. He burrows his face into your shoulder, embracing the unknown feeling in his chest as his face emits a dim glow once again.

O: Oral 

*Abner: Clitoris?! Labia Majora?! Damn girl, how many pussies you got?!*

Abs is ok with giving oral to his partner. He’s a lil’ confuse at first, but he got spirit. He isn’t on the top 3, but somewhere around maybe 4-5. Krill prefers to use his hands to stimulate you than his mouth – since he can be flamboyant. It’s also a way for him to be slightly dominant and in control, edging you as soon as you near climaxing. 

When receiving oral from you, he melts into a whimpering puddle – he’s squirmish and restless at times, but only because you keep teasing his tip and shaft for revenge. To him, the sensation never gets old.

W: Wild Card (*cracks knuckles*)

*inhales*

Liiiiisten.

There’s a hc I have for this guy, but I prefer not to say what it is since it’s quite…vulgar. That and it also goes with a letter that rhymes with see. So here’s two headcannons that are pretty tame. Also, I hc Abner to be a vers.

Anyways.

Whenever Abner is having sexual intercourse with his partner, showing his emotions can be rather complex than his platonic relationship with you. Thus when he’s trying to gaze into your eyes, all you receive is a wide-eyed stare as he thrusts into you. Another aspect of his is uncontrollable giggling. At any moment, when you're riding him, something in his head switches and causes him to be a laughing mess. You remembered briefly stopping to ask him why he keeps laughing every single time you ask that question his response is the same, it feels good.

===

A/N: Hope ya'll enjoyed reading, and thank you for liking/reblogging. I find it hard to express my emotions sometimes and overthink it. When I see that I'm getting positive remarks on a couple of stuff I wrote, I acknowledge and appreciate the kindness, but never respond to it. So again, thank you so much for the support. Next one's gonna be a Johnson request, and then whatevers on the to-do list.

#david dastmalchian #abner krill x reader #abner krill smut #polka dot man x reader #polka dot man

[youwearfinethingswellwriter]

Hearts & Doodles

This extra/alternative universe scene was inspired by a comment on Chapter 35 by halbrander emarasmoak, talking about how Halbron would have drawn “little hearts and a doodle of them as King and Queen” on the parchment next to their names!

The scene would be set somewhere between chapter 36 (where they create the list of people for the expedition) and chapter 47 (before they go public).

Galadriel made her way to the town hall with swift steps, passing by the bulletin board next to the door without so much as a second glance. But when she grasped at the door knob, she did a double take. Slowly, she stepped backwards, towards the board, where they had hung up the list of expedition groups the evening prior.

She couldn't believe her eyes. Someone had drawn hearts next to her and Halbrand's name in black ink, along with two stick figures, holding hands. One of them had long wavy hair, the other shorter hair, and both were wearing crowns.

“What, in the actual f-”

“Galadriel!” he voice boomed across the town square as he strode energetically towards her.

“What is this?” she asked, turning from him and pointing to the paper.

“What is what?” He glanced at the parchment, taking a closer look at it. “Wow. Beautiful artistry Galadriel! Where did you acquire such stunning drawing skills?”

“Do not play games with me. Who did this? Did you do this?”

“Me? Do you think I could ever draw so majestically?”

“These are stick figures,” she hissed. “This is the drawing of a child.”

“What are you implying?”

“I am implying that you have been talking about us to your trainees and that they have taken it into their own hands to express their support, and show that they ship us.”

“Ship us?” He gave a chuckle. “Whatever does that mean?”

“Forget it. It is an elven saying you would not understand,” she huffed as she turned back to it. There was no way she could get it off the paper. And it wasn’t like she could take it down and rewrite it. Only this parchment had been stamped by the council. And she could not bring herself to return it to them and explain the situation to have them stamp another one.

“So what you are saying is that I have been telling my students that we are in love, and that one of them ran off and decided to graffiti the list?”

She glared at him. “Yes. That is exactly what I am implying. I'd even wager that you directly asked one of them to do this.”

"Galadriel,” he scolded as he tilted his head.

“Halbrand,” she mocked, copying his pose.

A little smile formed on his lips. “Let me tell you the truth of it.”

“The truth of it? So you do know who did this.”

“As a matter of fact, I do.”

“Then tell me who it is!” That only made him smile. “Don't you even think about blackmailing me. I need to know who did it.”

“Why? So that you can kill them?”

“What? No. So I can let them know that our relationship is none of their business!”

“Why then has your hand gone to your dagger again?”

She looked down to her hand, indeed grasping at the hilt of her dagger. She slowly let it go, trying not to blush.

“A force of habit,” she snarled.

“Fine,” he said. She snapped to attention. “I'll tell you… Under one condition.”

She glared at him, but his expression was unyielding. “Fine! What is it?”

“That you promise to forgive whoever did this. That you will not be mad at them.”

“Fine!”

“I did it.”

She laughed into the cold air before her expression became grave once more. “Enough with the games. Tell me who truly did it!”

“I did,” he repeated.

“You are making fun of me.”

“I am not I assure you.” He leaned forwards, closer until his head was next to hers, before whispering in her ear. “I drew it.”

She stepped back, holding at bay the way his soft voice had made her feel, focusing instead on the anger pulsing through her veins. “You are only protecting your students you-”

He lifted his hand, spots of black ink on his palm. Her eyes widened. “You did this?”

She wasn’t sure if she was to be mad, amused, or confused.

“I did.”

“You drew hearts. Next to our names. And those... stick figures.”

He smiled at her childishly. Fitting. “The stick figures,” he explained, “Represent us, by the way, in case it was not clear enough. See,” he pointed. “That’s you, with the long wavy, beautiful hair, and that, next to you, holding your hand, is me!” He sounded so self-satisfied. Way too self-satisfied.

She stood, frozen in place, as half of her wanted to slap him and the other half wanted to make out with him right then and there.

In the end, all she could do was glare at him with all the hatred in the world.

He looked back at her. “What is it? Do you not like it? I mean, I must admit, I feel like my drawing of you in particular does not do your beauty justice.”

“You... you…”

That made him smile. “I, I what?” he mocked her, stepping towards her.

Gosh she hated him for doing this, but she loved him for it even more.

“Come,” she said as she grabbed his wrist violently and marched into the town hall.

“I believe you promised not to be mad at the culprit, so if you are planning to kill me… in the closet…?”

She pulled him into the closet, bringing one hand into his hair, pushing his head down to kiss him while her other hand shut the door behind her.

She sighed into his lips as he kissed her back, holding her close.

“So... you... like my drawing then?” he panted between their kisses.

She smiled as she kissed him again. “Your drawing was atrocious.”

“Was it?”

He kissed her back before she could answer, covering her in his touch as he hands ran up and down her back. She lost herself in his touch.

“I-” she uttered as he moved his face downwards, kissing her neck as she tilted her head to the side. She lost her way to words.

“You what?” he asked, surely knowing that she was lost in bliss as his hand traced along her nape and the other side of her neck as he brushed his lips over her skin.

“I… I loved it,” she finally managed to croak.

“You did?” he asked between kisses.

“I did,” she sighed.

“Oh Galadriel...”

---

Hope you enjoyed that extra! ^^ And again thanks for the idea, it was so much fun to write!

#fic extra #haladriel #yes i made the banner for this scene all by myself #i'm somewhat of an artist you know

[gangler]

Would be funny to have a fantasy hero, who’s trapped in one of those Fantasy Porn settings, where people keep trying to reward his heroism with sexual favors. And he’s just getting incredibly frustrated trying to explain that they need to pay him in cash money.

Villager: “Noble hero! A terrible dragon plagues our village! Won’t you slay the terrible beast!”

Hero: “Now, to be clear, when you say ‘dragon’, you mean like a giant ferocious firebreathing lizard? I’m not gonna get there find some milf with horns and a dubious understanding of consent trying to rope me into bdsm play, am I?”

Villager: ”I’ll have you know The Bitch Queen is no trifling matter. I wish you’d take this seriously.”

Hero: “Okay, I think I’ve heard enough.” *heads back to the bulletin board to look for more job postings.*

[kcuf-ad]

Chapter 5 of Yugioh GX: Rewrite!

Somehow, Jaden and Syrus are suspended and have to be in a tag team so they don't get expelled, because someone saw them near the abandoned dorm. They don't know who saw them. *Cough* Crowler *Cough*

Featuring Episode 7 and 8 and Zane vs Jaden!

It can be found on my Wattpad, AO3 site and Fanfiction.site (Name: kcuf_ad)

Hope you enjoy!

���I can’t take it anymore!” yelled Crowler as he flipped his desk with papers that had ideas of expelling Jaden. In his room there was champagne with a label of ‘When that slacker gets expelled’ in his mini fridge. On his door was a bulletin board with Jaden’s face on it. Under his queen sized bed were all the names of the people he sent to beat Jaden, but failed. On the walls there were scratches, for each day he wasn’t expelled. To say that he despised Jaden with every fiber in his body, would be the understatement in the century. 

Everything he tried, nothing worked! 

That time to send him the Obelisk Blue Girl Dorm? Syrus went in first and won against Alexis.

That time he gave Chazz rare cards, the ones he didn’t return? He beat his ass in his own turn. 

The last two days of him hiring a Shadow Duelist to scare him off the island? He scared the duelist. 

He punched the wall in frustration, making a hole inside of it. “Damn it, slacker! Not only you make my life miserable, but now you broke my hand! Is there no way of not making me hate every fiber of your being?!” 

Before he could make any more ideas, he heard one of his students yell, “Damn it Crowler! I am trying to study! Be quiet!” That was one of his most promising students in the other room, Chazz, studying for Professor Marco’s test of Dueling linguistics. 

“Like you have the right to yell at me. You lost to Jaden with the cards I gave you!” thought Crowler as he went to the only thing that wasn’t flipped out of frustration, his chair. He noticed that he spent around 12 hours trying to find the perfect way to expel him, so that makes sense why he was dead tired.

Until he remembered something. A rule that they broke yesterday. The reason why Titan was there in the first place. They went into the forbidden place, the abandoned dorm. He smiled maliciously as he grabbed his phone. He dialed the number of the Disciplinary Action Squad’s general. 

After a minute of corny elevator music, the number was finally picked up, “This is the General of the Disciplinary Action Squad! Which student has broken the rules and what dorm are they in?” 

“Hello this is Vellian Crowler, but you can call me Doctor Crowler.” The General rolled her eyes after he said that, “I will report the students Jaden Yuki,” and then he had a worse idea for this, he remembered a certain blue haired boy going with him, “and Syrus Truesdale in the Slifer Red dorm. They went to the abandoned dorm yesterday. They were told by their professors that it was forbidden, but they didn’t listen to their warnings.”

The General nodded, “Alright, thanks for the input, Doctor Crowler. Me and my men will bring them into the Chancellor’s office to report them about their rule breaking tomorrow. Have a nice day.”

As soon as the call ended, Doctor Crowler started laughing. His laugh roared all around the Obelisk Blue dorm annoying everyone. Especially a certain raven haired duelist, “What did I tell you, Crowler!? SHUT UP!” 

Crowler stopped laughing and he looked at the wall, “Fine, fine! I will stop!” He went to clean his room while mumbling, “Jerk.” 

Tomorrow morning

Military submarines, helicopters and boats with minivans on them arrived at Duel Academy, landing at the shore. Soldiers went out to bow as the minivans with soldiers and the General inside it went down from the boats, going at the Slifer Red Dorms, for two students in mind. The General was in the front seat, driving it while being the lead to show others where they were going. 

Call them dramatic, but before they went in squads, most Generals either lost their lives or were hospitalized to the point of quitting their jobs. Safe to say, their fear of Duel Academy students were justified. 

In a short time, about 3 minutes, they were at the Slifer Red Dorm. Every soldier inside of the minivan exited, behind the General, protecting her. The General went to the door close to right most room. 

But before she can knock on the door, she heard, um, interesting noises, “Give…it…up Jaden.” Celina panted.

“You can not…beat us,” also panted Syrus. 

“No way! I will finish both of you off,” Jaden said while trying to catch his breath. The General covered her mouth. 

“Are you sure, Jaden?” asked Chumley, “Because you have been on top for about 10 minutes and you look like you are almost done.”

“I am sure that…I can finish both of them at the same time.” said Jaden as the General heard shuffling around the room. She didn’t dare open the door, she didn’t want to go to jail and ruin her eyes. 

For about 2 minutes the General heard noises inside of their room, ignoring professor Banner. The soldiers were confused why she hadn't opened the door yet, until they heard what was going on. 

Thankfully for all of them, they heard Jaden yelling, “Yes! I finished both of you at the same time!” he clapped his hands together as he started dancing.

“How is he so flexible?” asked Syrus as he looked at Celina. 

“I don’t know!” groaned Celina as she looked at Jaden, “We have been trying to beat him for about a week and nothing!”

“Yeah, tell me about it!” they looked at Chumley, Jaden was still dancing, “I mean he beat both of you at Twister like 18 times in a row! That’s impressive if I say so.”

“Wait what?”

Jaden stopped dancing as he looked at his friends, “That’s right! You can not beat the champion at Twister!” He clapped his hands as he brought Celina and Syrus at the same time. 

“Okay that’s it!” The General had no more patience, especially after they gave the worst imagery anyone can ever see, as she kicked the door so hard that it opened itself, scaring everyone inside. Luckily for her, and the rest of the soldiers, they were wearing their pajamas. It was around an hour before class started so why not play Twister with the buddies. 

She pointed at Syrus and Jaden, “You two come with us! We are the Disciplinary Action Squad, and you have broken the rules of Duel Academy! You went inside of the abandoned dorm!” Before they could talk things through, the soldiers took both Jaden and Syrus by their shoulders. 

“Wait! We can’t go to school in our pajamas!” yelled Syrus as the General bit her lip, knowing that wasn’t the school dress code, she looked at the soldiers and waved her hand, indicating to release them.

“Fine. But make sure to follow us after you dress up. Got it?” asked the General as they both nodded their heads, “Good. You have 5 minutes.” She and her men walked off, waiting outside of the dorm, still ignoring Banner. 

Jaden and Syrus closed the door and before they could change, Celina and Chumley ran towards them, “How do they know that we went to the abandoned dorm?!” she whispered.

Jaden shrugged his shoulders, “Beats me. But I do wonder, what is this Disciplinary Action Squad?” he talked as he opened the wardrobe and took his and Syrus’ Slifer Red uniform, and tossed Syrus his jacket. 

Chumley looked at Jaden, “It’s an army for the specific purpose of catching students who broke the rules and sending them to Shepards’ office.” Syrus’ eyes widened as continued to change, but with a shocked expression on his face. 

“Wait, isn’t the main punishment expulsion?!” said Syrus as his question was answered by a nod by Chumley. Syrus looked at Jaden with a sad face, but he didn’t really notice Syrus as he grabbed jeans for him and Syrus, “Jaden aren’t you worried?!”

“Please, Syrus. I am not worried about that. He might just give us detention, that’s all.” assured Jaden with optimism. They were shocked at how he is so optimistic about everything, but then Jaden remembered something, “Hey Celina, don’t you have detention for trying to steal Pharaoh?”

Celina groaned, “And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for Professor Banner’s fast legs.” She tried to lighten up the room, and it worked as everyone got a good chuckle from the joke. “Hey wait a minute!” She remembered something that the General said, “Chumley and I also went into the abandoned dorm, so why did they go against you two?!” 

Jaden just shrugged as he got the jeans from the wardrobe, “I don’t know, maybe someone saw the back of my and Syrus’ heads. Also, Celina leave this room.” She turned to Jaden, confused, but then she saw him holding jeans and shirts. 

“Ahh, I gotcha. Well good luck!” Celina said as she opened the dorm door and saw the soldiers, not moving a muscle, looking at her as she went into her room to grab her clothes and a towel. The General was confused, but she saw a towel, so she waved her hand to tell the soldiers to get out of her so she could shower. 

After about 4 minutes of Syrus panicking on what will happen to them, Chumley trying to reassure that it will be fine and Jaden getting his deck box with him. As soon as the door was opened, they were dragged by the General and her men. 

They got them inside of the minivan, and they drove straight ahead of Duel Academy. Jaden tried to make small talk with the men, but they didn’t say anything. He looked at his buddy, who was about 15 seconds away from having a panic attack. 

He patted him on his back to which Syrus looked at his friend, Jaden gave him a thumbs up, trying to lighten the mood. That calmed him down just a little bit. 

He took a deep breath, but then the minivan stopped. That confused both of them, so they went to check why they stopped, but they were at Duel Academy’s front gates. “That was fast!” they both thought at the same time. 

The General went outside of the minivan, called the Chancellor and Vice Chancellor of Duel Academy. The phone call ended and she snapped her fingers so the soldiers grabbed Jaden and Syrus and went inside of the Duel school. 

They went through many classrooms, Fonda’s office and even the big stadium like PE class. They stopped at the room with a door that said ‘THE PUNISHMENT ROOM’. Syrus gulped while Jaden looked confused. The General said to wait a minute or two for some reason. 

Like what she said, one of the soldiers got an order from the General, opening the door and shoving Jaden and Syrus in it. Syrus fell flat on his face while Jaden just dusted off dust from his jacket, “They could have just asked us to come in. How rude can they be?” 

Jaden went to his buddy and grabbed his hand, picking him off. Syrus got on his feet, thanking him. Before they could ask anymore questions, the three bigger than life televisions were then activated, scaring the life of them. 

On the left was the Head of the Obelisk Blue dorm, the professor that hates Jaden’s guts the most and yells at people that don’t call him Doctor, Doctor Crowler who was smirking the whole way through. 

On the right was the head of the Disciplinary Action Squad, the lady that shoved Jaden and Syrus into the minivan, the General of the military. 

In the middle was the head of the most prestigious dueling school on the planet, the person that wore a uniform similar to that of the Slifer Red jacket and the only person that wasn’t mean to Jaden and Syrus, Chancellor Sheppard.

“Hello Jaden Yuki and Syrus Truesdale.” greeted Sheppard  as the students waved at the chancellor, “Now I know that you are confused on why you are here in the first place, but from the information that Doctor Crowler gave us,” Crowler waved at the students with fake happiness, “You have broken one of the biggest rules of Duel Academy, and that is entering the abandoned dorm. I have to inform you that you two will be suspended until we can find a proper punishment for the both of you.” He calmly stated as Jaden and Syrus took a step back. 

“What?! Suspended?!” both of them yelled at the same time as Sheppard nodded. 

The General looked at the duo, “That’s what I suggest. You trespassed into a forbidden part of the island. A punishment must be enforced to give an example for our students.”

“But what kind of an example are we setting if all they get is suspension for a few weeks? I suggest an expulsion duel!” suggested Doctor Crowler as he looked at Sheppard to which the bald Chancellor looked at him, “A tag team duel to be specific! You see, you, Jaden, will team up with your good pal Syrus to defeat a tag team we pick, and if you win, you stay here and the suspension is off. But if you lose, you are expelled forever!” 

Jaden didn’t seem to mind the conditions, in fact he loved it! I mean, a tag team with one of his best friends? An awesome opportunity! They can make awesome combos and talk strategy on how they can win and all that jazz. 

But Syrus didn’t not like that. Not one bit. He looked at Sheppard with hope, hope that Jaden gets a different team mate, but to his dismay, “A brilliant idea, Doctor Crowler. I will allow it.” Syrus dropped to his knees as he continued, “Both of you have two weeks to prepare. Have a good day.” As then the monitors were shut off. 

Jaden clapped his hands, “Okay! Time to get moving!” Jaden started walking out of the room, but noticed that his friend was behind him. He walked towards him and Syrus didn’t move a muscle. He looked him in the eyes, but nothing. He moved his hands up and down trying to get his attention, but nothing. “Hello, Earth to Syrus?” He put his hands down and lowered his head and shook, “Not again.”

He stretched his back as he put his hands on Syrus’ knees and put Syrus’ arms around his neck as he walked to the Slifer Red dorm. It was a quick walk, only around 10 minutes, as they reached their destination. 

He saw Celina walking out of the bathroom with her uniform on as she stretched her arms. “Nothing puts me in an energetic mood than a hot shower.” she said to herself as she looked around to see Jaden giving Syrus a piggy back ride, waving at her.  

She walked towards the not paralyzed teenager and asked, “So why is Syrus paralyzed this time?” 

Jaden only shrugged his shoulders, “Oh nothing too bad. Only that we have to duel in an expulsion tag duel.”

Celina’s eyes widened as Chumley opened the door faster than Chazz getting annoyed at Jaden, “A WHAT?!”

“Are you serious J?!” Chumley ran, that’s right, ran towards Jaden and shook him, forgetting that Syrus was being carried by him. Jaden nodded, “Why did they pick you and Syrus and not us?!”

“I don’t know! It’s not a big deal guys! We just have to win a duel. That’s it.” assured Jaden as they looked at him with worried faces. 

“But if you lose the duel you get-”

“Yeah yeah expelled. I got it the first time, jeez. What do you guys have a problem with that?” Jaden looked at his friends in confusion. 

“Well it’s just that, well…” started off Chumley. 

“Syrus isn’t the best at dueling.” stated Celina as Jaden didn’t mind that. 

“Come on, I believe that Syrus can do this.” Jaden smiled as he remembered to wake up Syrus so he put him down and looked at Celina, “Oh yeah can you wake him up?”

Celina sighed, “Sure.” She raised her hand and gave Syrus a hard SMACK on the forehead hard enough to wake him up.

“AAAHHH! What was that for?!” yelled Syrus as he then rubbed his forehead, seriously how is she so strong? Did she get training tips from Might Guy or something? 

Celina brushed her hand, “Because you were paralyzed for the third time this month.” Syrus bit his lip, understanding what she meant, “Also are you gonna participate in the expulsion duel with Jaden?” Syrus’ eyes widened as he dropped to his knees, wanting to be replaced by a better duel. 

“Please be Jaden’s partner! Please!” he begged as Jaden coughed, but he ignored him, “I don’t wanna get him expelled! Please help me! I will do anything! Ple-”

“Alright fine! I hate to see a man beg!” yelled Chumley as he went towards Duel Academy to help them. Even though he wasn’t the best at it, even he knew that he was a better choice than poor old Syrus. 

Celina went to her room, got her stuff and went outside going at Duel Academy, but first she looked at the duo, “I’ll help too.” she said that she went to Duel Academy. 

Jaden looked at Syrus, “Sy, don’t worry. You being in the duel would make it better. I don’t care if you aren’t amazing at it, I just want to have fun with you.” He said as Syrus looked at Jaden with teary eyes. 

“I know, but I don’t want to get you expelled.” said Syrus. 

Jaden patted him on the back, “Don’t worry, Sy.” He then reached for his PDA, “Want to watch One Punch Man to lighten your mood?”

Syrus looked at him with a smile, “Sure, Jay!” 

In Duel Academy

Celina was running towards Chancellor Shepard’s voice for the specific purpose of changing Jaden’s partner in the tag team duel, already above Chumley. She went in the room, “Hello, Chancellor Sheppard, I wanted to talk to you about the expul-” She stopped when she saw a weird site. 

Chancellor Sheppard, the principal of Duel Academy, one of the most respected people in the dueling school, was holding a picture of Dorothy, the shop owner of the Card shop, with lust visible on his eyes, “Oh, Miss Dorothy, how much I want to tell you what I feel about you.” He then continued stroking the picture of it.

Celina didn’t want to ruin her eyes anymore so she coughed into her hand, catching his attention. Sheppard threw the picture out of the window behind him, making a huge mess and making Seto pay for the damage later today. 

He looked at her nervous, not wanting to ask how much she saw. He cleared his throat and lifted his head, “So, uh, you wanted to see me?”

Celina nodded, “I wanted to talk about the expulsion duel with Jaden and Syrus. And I wanted to be Syrus as Jaden’s partner.” Chancellor Sheppard leaned in, “I knew the way of the abandoned dorm, so I feel like I am responsible for them. So I wanted to Jaden’s part-”

Before she can finish her sentence, the door was opened to reveal the 3rd year Slifer Red, Chumley Huffington, panting to indicate that he was running, “No! It is my fault!” he walked towards the principal of the dueling school, “It was my fault that they were in the dorm! I wanted to see the abandoned cafeteria! Please make me Jaden’s partner! It is my fau-”

He didn’t even finish his sentence as the door was opened once again, but this time it was the Obelisk Blue Queen, Alexis Rhodes, “No! Make me his partner! I was the reason they were here! I went there before all four of them went into it! Make me his duel partner!” 

And thus, a huge argument was made between the two Slifers and the one Obelisk. Arguing on who can be Jaden’s partner, not Syrus’ partner. They all wanted to be Jaden’s partner like he was a harem protagonist.

Sheppard laughed, before clapping his hands together to catch their attention at him, “As much I am happy that you wanted to stick out of your classmate, but I am afraid that Syrus would be Jaden’s partner at the expulsion duel. I hope all three of you understand. Now off you go! I need to call Seto Kaiba for…” he looks behind him at the big mess he made with the windows, “...reasons.” Celina wanted to put bleach on her eyes for remembering the sight. 

The three students wanted to protest, but it would be meaningless, they knew that it wouldn’t change their minds, but that doesn’t mean they like it. It just wasn’t fair! Not that they hated Syrus or anything, it’s just that he isn’t very skilled at dueling, if at all. They took a deep breath and went off to the dorm, since school was canceled because of the Disciplinary Action Squad. 

But Celina felt a hand on her shoulder. She gripped her hand and turned around, ready to give someone an ass whooping. But only to be her homeroom teacher looking at her with a grin, “Now, now, Celina. You must remember what I said about detention, don’t you?” 

She sighed as she went to the detention room with the other students in it. She looked all over the class room only to see only a few students. Some from Slifer, some from Ra and some even from Obelisk Blue. She looked around and grabbed a seat. 

She and the other students couldn’t do anything other than do their homework, sit and say nothing or nothing at all. “This will be a long hour.” she leaned in her seat with her eyes closed. 

An hour later

Professor Banner looked at his watch while he was petting Pharaoh with his legs on the table. “Oh their detention is done already?”  He cleared his throat as he looked at his students and clapped his hands, “Okay, everyone! Your detention time is done for today, you can all have a wonderful day for the rest of the day.” As soon as he finished his sentence all the students ran to the door happy away from their hell. 

“Finally, it’s over! I can see what happened to Syrus and Jaden.” Celina thought as she stood up from her seat and exited from the room. She walked away from the other rooms and exited Duel Academy. 

She breathed out and stretched her legs, and then she took off! Thanks to the morning jogs that she, Jaden and unfortunately Syrus took every morning before class, she was easily able to get to the dorm. 

She then saw Chumley and Alexis staring down the cliff so she ran to them too see what they are watching. To her shock it was a duel between Syrus and Jaden. 

“Wait, why are they dueling each other?” she asked as she looked at both Chumley and Alexis, before the blond answered to her question, “To practice for their upcoming match.”

She bit her lip, “Welp, good luck for Syrus.” Both Chumley and Alexis nodded in agreement. 

To the duel

Turn 4. Syrus - 2600 lp - 5 cards

Field: No monsters, No Spells or Traps 

Jaden: 4000 lp - 3 cards

Field: Elemental HERO Avian and Sparkman, No Spells or Traps 

“Okay, here goes.” said Syrus as he drew the top card from his deck. He looked at it and smiled, “I activate the Spell card, Pot of Greed!” Then a pot appeared onto the Syrus’ empty field, with a malicious smile on the pot, “And by using its magical charm, I can draw 2 cards from my deck!” Syrus did so.

As soon as he drew the top two cards from his decks, his eyes widened at one of the cards he drew. One of them was a standard Polymerization while the other one was a card he hoped to never use again, despite being in his deck. It was the Machine type Fusion Spell card known as Power Bond.  

“Judging by Sy’s look, he must have drawn a sweet card.” thought Jaden as he looked at Syrus who was still looking at his hand. 

“Power Bond may be a better card than Polymerization, but I am not good enough to play it, according to my brother at least.” thought Syrus as he remembered the last time he played Power Bond. 

It was a nice evening with the sun shining down at two young duelists dueling each other. One of the kids was an average height with above average weight for an 8 year old kid. The kid had Gearfried The Iron Knight on his field and a face down card. While Syrus had Steamroid and Gyroid in his field. 

Syrus looked at the card in his hand, the card that his older brother gave him, Power Bond! “Alright, all I have to do is play Power Bond and attack him!” Syrus picked up the card and showed it to the bully, “This duel is over! Do you know why? Because I play the Spell card Power Bo-” 

“Stop!” he heard the voice of his big brother shouting, making him trip on his face, nearly breaking his glasses. He looked at his big brother walking towards the bully with a rare card in his hands, “Take this and leave my brother alone. This duel never happened. Got it?” he asked as the bully grinned. 

“You got yourself a deal!” The bully said as he grabbed the card and walked home, satisfied that he got a rare card. 

“What are you doing Zane?! I was about to win!” Syrus yelled at his big brother, now known as Zane. He didn’t know why he stopped the duel like that! He was about to win!

“No you weren’t.” stated Zane as he looked at his little brother, “ And I would have never given you that card if you would play it like that.” 

“Misplay it? What are you talking about?” Syrus asked. 

Zane sighed as he grabbed the card that the bully had on his field, it was the Continuous Trap card known as Spellbinding Circle! A card that stops his monster from attacking! “The attack of your monster would have been doubled, but it would stop you from attacking and you would have taken damage and lose the duel on your turn. You weren’t thinking, Sy, if you did, you would have taken observing his face down card. Sure you may know how to play a card, but there is more to dueling than just that!” That was enough to make Syrus drop to his knees. 

Syrus, in present time, shook his head. Looking at the card that he was given and putting it in his hand, holding the other card drawn by Pot Of Greed, Polymerization. “I activate this Spell card, Polymerization! I fuse Steamroid and Gyroid from my hand so I can Fusion summon!” Onto Syrus’ field, a cartoonish looking locomotive and helicopter appeared onto the field, only to be sucked in by a Red-Blue Spiral Vortex. 

“Fly to the scene, Steam Gyroid!” as then from the vortex came out a combination of a locomotive and a helicopter while still looking cartoonish. The same monster used in the promotion exam against Celina. 

(Steam Gyroid: Fusion - Level 6 - Earth Machine - Attack: 2200. Defense: 1600.)

“Hey, that’s the monster that was used against me!” cheered Celina. 

Syrus looked at his monster before pointing at Jaden’s Avian, “How about I give your Avian a free ticket to his nearest stop? To the graveyard! Go Train Twister!” Syrus yelled as his Fusion monster spun around its wings so fast that it caught the Wind Hero in shock. 

Avian tried its hardest to escape, but faster than a locomotive, Steam Gyroid flew towards him and slashing him apart. 

Jaden: 4000 - 2800 life points

Syrus: 2600 lp

Jaden lifted his head, “Not bad, Sy! You might actually got this!” 

Syrus rubbed the back side of his head, “Really? Thanks Jay! Well, that’s it for my turn!”

Turn 5. Jaden - 2800 lp - 3 cards

Jaden drew his card and looked at it. He grinned, “Well, Sy, since you used Polymerization, how about I returned the favour!” Syrus gulped as Jaden took the card and inserted it into his duel disk, “I activate the Spell card Polymerization! I fuse the Sparkman on my field and the Clayman in my hand so I can Fusion summon!” A clay like hero monster appeared onto Jaden’s field, only for it and Sparkman pulled into a Red-Blue Spiral Vortex. 

Before any of them can react, dark clouds appeared out of nowhere, surrounding Duel Academy as a whole. They heard students run to their dorms judging by those high pitched screams. They looked down, as they saw Syrus in a panicked movement while Jaden stood calm, almost like he was expecting someone or something to show up. To their, sans Jaden, shock, the clouds were a result of Jaden’s newest Fusion monster. 

From the Vortex came out, a Hero wearing tight dark yellow spandex on its legs, torso and arms while it also wore dark light purple spandex like pants and on its biceps. On its palms and middle of its torso, it had lightning orbs, indicating that it can shoot lightning from it. It also wore a helmet that covered his eyes, “Come out! The Hero that will shock you to your core! Elemental HERO Thunder Giant!” 

(Elemental HERO Thunder Giant: Fusion - Level 6 - Light Warrior - Attack: 2400. Defense: 1500.) 

As soon as it was summoned, the dark heavy clouds disappeared before they could notice it, but they ignored it for now. The sheer imagery of this powerful Hero was strong, from its aura, to its name. Jaden cleared his throat, “And this Giant has an effect that will shock you! When he is summoned, he can destroy a monster with lower attack points than him!” Everyone’s eyes widened, “Go Thunder Giant! Ruin Steam Gyroid gears with Static Blast!” 

Thunder Giant raised his index finger and electricity was all around it, they were tiny but effective. He pointed at the locomotive helicopter Fusion and shot the electricity from it and the poor machine couldn’t handle all those volts. 

If you think that Jaden was done, you’d be dead wrong as he reached into his hand and took one of the cards, “I will cool you down with my Elemental HERO Ice Edge!” 

Onto the left of the Light Hero, appeared little glaciers, smaller than his opponent. Thunder Giant looked at Jaden, who nodded at his request. He smashed the glaciers with his might and from it jumped a small Hero wearing tight light blue colours. The little monster had glaciers all over his back and the back of his head.

(Elemental HERO Ice Edge: Level 4 - Water Warrior - Attack: 800. Defense: 900.)

Syrus took a step backwards as he looked at the Water and Light Hero stared him down, with Jaden grinning and everyone were almost breathless as they were shocked on how he changed the tide in one turn with only 2 cards. “Here goes the double attack! Thunder Giant and Ice Edge attack Sy directly!”

Ice Edge created a glacier in his hands as he dashed towards Syrus while Thunder Giant created a ball made of electricity that was the size of a football, but with enough to power up a lighthouse for 5 years, and shot it at the bluenette after Ice Edge slashed him. Making a small explosion. 

After the dust was cleared, the smaller Slifer Red dropped to his knees, hands onto the ground. 

Syrus: 2600 - 1800 - 0 life points

Jaden: 2800 lp

JADEN YUKI: WINNER! 

Jaden put his index and middle finger together as he pointed with them at the now down Slifer Red, “That’s game, Sy! And a pretty fun one at that.” From the corner of his eyes he saw Celina, Alexis and Chumley going down towards the both of them, but that to him was less important than knowing why his eyes widened, “Although, I wonder, what card you drew that shocked you?” Before the smaller Slifer Red could protest, Jaden took his hand and looked towards. 

The hand was standard for his deck, Shield Crush, Weapon Change, Monster Reborn, but the card that shocked him the most was the leftmost card in his hand, Power Bond. 

“Power Bond? Why didn’t you activate it, Sy? With it, your Steam Gyroid’s attack would have been doubled and you would have a powerful monster.” said a confused Jaden, “Actually, I am kinda glad you didn’t summon it.” 

Syrus jumped to his feet and grabbed the Spell out of Jaden’s hands and looked at him, “You don’t understand! My bro says I am not good enough to use it and I am afraid you will never beat the tag team duel if I am your partner!” Syrus then took off, running past Celina, Alexis and Chumley, to his dorm. 

Chumley turned around and ran after him, trying his best to catch up while Celina and Alexis went to Jaden who looked at the ocean. Celina began, “I guess practice doesn’t always make you perfect, right Jaden?” she looked at the brunette who didn’t turn around, “Is something wrong?” 

Jaden turned around to see Celina, “It’s nothing, it's just that I want Sy to see what I see in him. That the only thing holding him back was himself. I mean he could’ve summoned a powerful monster and defeat me on his turn. But he doesn’t use it, you know why?!” the two females took a step back, “Because his ‘brother’ told him not to! I just wanna give him a piece of my mind!” 

Alexis gasped, remembering a conversation she had with Zane yesterday.

It was a dark, gloomy, foggy night with the only light source being that of a lighthouse for the ships that come to Duel Academy. If you have a sharp eye, you could see two bodies in the mist. One of them had a slender body with long hair that reached even down to her neck, Alexis, and the other one had a fit physique with dark blue hair and ocean deep eyes that looked like he was always glaring at someone, Zane Truesdale. 

“Zane?” Alexis said, trying to catch his attention, failing to do so, “Hello?” she tried again, but failed. She then walked over towards the senior, “What are you doing here?”

“Nothing.” Zane said with his typical cold tone, but then he remembered something, “Weren’t we supposed to meet yesterday, but you didn’t come?” 

Alexis bit her lip, wondering whether or not to answer the question or not, but she ultimately decided to answer this question, “Sorry about that Zane. I just went to the abandoned dorm, but was abushed by one person that Jaden managed to defeat.” Zane tried his hardest not to burst into questions and why she would enter it, even when she knew that 2 of his best friends were missing, but she quickly told him, “But look on what I found.”

Zane turned his head away from the ocean and his eyes widened. That was one of his missing friends! Atticus! He would have taken the photo away from her, but knew that this was more important to her than to him. But someone was missing, “Have you seen a photo of Yusuke Fujiwara?” She turned to him, confused, “Large green hair with silver eyes?”

“No, I haven’t.” Zane dropped his head, saddened, “I am sorry, Zane.” He waved his hand to show it was alright. She nodded, before telling him, “I have been wondering. I thought ever since your brother, Syrus, would be here, you could be less lonely, not more.”

Zane sighed, already regretting telling her this, “Maybe because he shouldn’t be here.” He said, shocking Alexis.

“Hello? Earth to Alexis?” Jaden waved his hand over her eyes. It was weird that they would do this, but to her surprise she was zoning out for about 2 minutes and she did gasp. Jaden stopped as he sighed, “Celina, can you wake her up as well?” 

Celina cracked her knuckles, “Sure, why not.” She raised her hand, managing to wake Alexis up from her zoning. Celina was surprised, “Huh. That usually doesn’t happen.” she said to herself before looking at the other female, “So why did you zone out?” 

Alexis shook her head as she looked at both Jaden and Celina, “Nothing, I remembered what his brother said.” Jaden looked at her, “He is actually on this island as a senior in the Obelisk Blue,” Jaden made a confused face, “Seriously? He is the so-called ‘Kaiser’ of Duel Academy, the strongest duelist on the island.” Celina gasped, but Jaden was even more confused, “Hello? Zane Truesdale, his older brother.” 

“Well I tell ya, Alexis, he doesn’t sound like he is nice to his little brother,” said Jaden as he continued watching the ocean, “Man, I wonder what happened between them.” 

“Jaden,” Alexis tried to comfort Jaden, “Don’t pry.”

Jaden grinned, “Oh I won’t pry.” He smacked his hands together, “I will duel this guy to get the information.” he stated. 

Celina’s jaw dropped, “Are you insane?! Jaden, you are good, extremely good in fact, but even I know my limits and you can’t beat Zane Truesdale! He is the toughest duelist here for a reason! Hell, he dueled North Academy in the school duel twice!” 

“Don’t worry, Celina, even if I do lose, which I don’t plan on, I just wanna see how much I stack beside him.” Both Celina and Alexis sighed, knowing that nothing can stop him from dueling Zane. “Here I come Zane!” He yelled as he ran towards the other side of the coast to go to climb up the cliff to challenge Zane. 

Celina looked at Alexis, to which the blonde returned the favour, “Nothing will stop him. I just know it.” She sighed as Alexis shrugged, “Well I better get Syrus and you talk to Zane.” Alexis nodded as she followed where Jaden ran off to. 

At Duel Academy

Jaden walked inside of the Card Shop, the only part of the Duel Academy that wasn’t currently closed, asked for a duel suggestion, got it and grabbed a seat. He sat there with a pencil in his hands and a paper on his desk, questioning if you spell Zane with 2 N’s, yes he was serious. 

While it was time consuming, to his dismay, Doctor Vellian Crowler showed up at the exact time he was writing the duel request. He was confused on why he was here despite being suspended, but then he realized that he is still allowed to be in the school, but not go to classes. 

Crowler sighed low enough for Jaden not to recognize him, so he walked up to him to see what he was writing. To his surprise he was writing a duel request, but he was completely shocked on who he wanted to duel, Zane Truesdale, The Kaiser of Duel Academy. “Haha, are you joking?! Zane?! The what you call, the Top Dog of the School?” 

“No I am not! I want to fix Sy’s confidence problem by dueling him. Y’know for the tag team duel?” Jaden wanted to reach for the paper, but Crowler was waving it like a cat to a ball of yarn. 

“Oh yes, the tag team duel where you lose the duel, you get expelled. And you think if you duel Zane, you will fix your problems? Well there is just one problem.” said Crowler as he got the paper in his hands as Jaden leaned in, “Because you aren’t getting a duel!” he said as he ripped the paper faster than a paper shredder to which Jaden yelled as in response to what is doing. 

At the Slifer Red Dorm

Chumley and Celina are trying to get Syrus out of his dorm room to talk to them, but he wasn’t going out. Chumley was doing the peaceful way of shouting to the door, while Celina was knocking to the door that everyone was shocked that the door was still standing. 

“Come on, Sy! Get out of here! Seriously, I think the door is gonna be kicked down by Celina if you don’t open the door in about 10 minutes!” said Chumley as Celina glared at him. 

“Pardon? What did you just say?” said Celina as Chumley was now sweating bullets. 

“Uh, I mean, uh, I need to go to the bathroom!” He yelled as he ran down the stairs and towards the bathroom, missing the bathroom about 75 meters, but she ignored him as she continued to knock on the door.

“Phew! I saved myself from that one- UF!” Chumley accidently ran into Jaden, who was in a very bad mood, scared that he will also kick his butt if he angers him, “Is something wrong?” 

Jaden looked at Chumley with an angry look, “Yes, something is wrong! I couldn’t get my duel request to work because I didn’t triple write it with a number 8 pencil while doing 10 backflips. I mean I can write 3 times and do a backflip, but I don’t have a number 8 pen- Uh, what are these cards?” He asked as he looked around the fallen cards. 

Yes, somehow all of Chumley’s cards fell down when he bumped into Jaden, but his cards were perfectly in his deck box. Jaden looked at the cards and they were Chumley’s. He picked up one of his cards and looked at it. It was Des Koala, a card that somewhat resembles Chumley in a way. He picked all of them up and saw all of the cards. They all were koalas. 

“Man, Chum. There are like a dozen koala cards here!” said Jaden as Chumley smiled. 

“Yeah, they are cool. Wanna have a pick up duel with them?” asked Chumley as then a lightbulb was lit above Jaden’s head. 

“A pick up duel! Great idea, Chum!” Jaden hopped to his feet as he went towards the Obelisk Blue dorm, “I can duel Zane there!”

“Okay, see you Ja- Wait, Zane?!” he yelled as he saw the brunette running towards Obelisk Blue Dorm. He wanted to run after him, but he saw how further he was then Chumley so he gave up. Besides, he needed to go to the bathroom. 

Inside of Syrus’ room

Syrus was in his room, looking at the card his brother gave him. Power Bond. He was looking at the card, remembering all of the words that his older brother said to him.

I shouldn’t have given you that card. 

You weren’t thinking! 

Sure you may know how to play a card, but there is more to dueling than just that!

Syrus gripped the card, with a saddened look on his eyes, ignoring the knocking on the door and the threats. “What is the difference between playing a card and knowing how to use it?” he thought to himself, before imagining a scenario of Jaden and him in the tag team duel. 

The duel was tough for the Slifer Red duo. With Jaden’s Hero combos and Syrus trying his best to keep up with Jaden, but failing horribly to defeat the Tag Team duo. They were more difficult than any other duelist in Duel Academy any of them have ever faced. 

“Are you kidding, me?! That’s all that you did!? Summoning a submarine and thinking that will stop the both of us?!” yelled one of the team members, while his partner nodded at what he said. 

“No wonder you two are in Slifer Red! Time to finish both of you! With your own monster!” Syrus took a step back to what he meant by that, “Go, Submarineroid! Finish the other one!” To both of the Slifers' shock, the Roid monster shot a blast towards making Jaden fall down to his stomach. 

“Jaden!” yelled Syrus as both of their life points hit zero, meaning that they are expelled. “I am so sorry!”

The crowd, Crowler and the Tag Team were howling with laughter, even their own friends laughed at how pathetic they were. He zoned them out as he heard Jaden looking up, and hatred and anger was all over his face, “I lost! You think your sorry can fix this!? It was all your fault, Syrus! I hate you!” 

Syrus fell down to his knees, tears were flowing down like a river on a stormy night, but to add to his horrible day, he heard a voice, “Like I said before,” Syrus looked at one of the team members and his eyes widened, “You don’t belong here.” 

It was his older brother, Zane.

Syrus looked at the wall with tears in his eyes. He shook his head, that was only his imagination, right? 

He couldn’t let him down like this! He needed to get off this island! He heard the knocking stop, so he had to write a letter to Jaden and get off of here.

He sat on his seat, took a piece of paper and started writing, “Dear Jaden and the others, I am here to say that I will be leaving Duel Academy for good! I am no good to this island! I just can’t live with the guilt of you getting expelled! I am sorry for this and don’t try to stop me! Love, Syrus.” 

He put the letter down on the desk that they usually use for deck building and for doing their homework. He took all the stuff he needed, water bottles, food and his deck into a backpack, but didn’t notice that it wrote, ‘belongs to: Chumley Huffington’. He got up and ran faster than Banner and any other Slifer could notice. “Goodbye, Duel Academy!” 

He ran and ran until he couldn’t feel his legs anymore and stopped at what he saw. They were logs and some rope. And then a lightbulb appeared above Syrus’ head. He will make a raft and sail to shore rather than swimming. He didn’t want to remember that incident at duel camp. 

He picked up one of the logs and he immediately felt his back exploding. What did he expect, he had no muscle in his chicken sized arms and they weighed at least a couple of pounds. But he didn’t care about that! He needed to make a raft!

After a painful amount of splinters and rope pain he got from trying to tie together the ropes so it can stay together without him drowning into  the ocean. He swore for a second he could hear both Celina and Jaden screaming his name out loud, but maybe it was his imagination. 

He put the boat on the shore and stretched his arms and legs, it would have been the last time he would stretch on a solid surface. He put the boat on the ocean and grabbed the two ores that he made, the same ones that he may or may not have splinters from making them.

But then from the corner of his eyes, he saw two different shades of brown and  indigo and that’s when he knew he had to go right now. He jumped on the boat and rowed fast enough to go at least 10 meters, but that didn’t stop Jaden from running towards the boat and screaming, “It’s a good thing I played all of that Assassins Creed Threeeeeeeeeeeee!” before successfully jumping on the boat and landing perfectly. 

Too bad for both Jaden and Syrus, the boat was only stable enough to hold Syrus and so the boat was destroyed, making the two Slifers fall down the river, catching Zane and Alexis’ attention from the lighthouse. 

Both of the Slifers’ heads went up, to catch their breath, making everyone relieved. Only for the relief to die down as Syrus went to Jaden saying, “Help me, I can’t swim!”

“And you were planning to go with a raft to the ocean?!” he yelled as his head was dragged down by Syrus, almost impossible for both of them to breathe. 

Celina ran down to help them, but stopped when she saw how deep it was, or rather how shallow it was. Celina tried getting their attention, “Guys.” it failed so she tried again, “Guys!” again failed, so she took a deep breath before shouting, “GUYS!” That caught everyone’s attention, “The thing is only a few centimeters deep! It is impossible for both of you to drown!”

Syrus and Jaden jumped to confirm what she said, and she was right. The water barely reached their kneecaps. They thanked Celina. Syrus looked at his tag team partner, “Jaden, why did you save me? I am just a burden for your duel.” He said as Jaden grabbed his shoulder and made him look at his eyes. 

“Sy, that’s what your jerk of a brother said. I know you! I know that inside of you is a great duelist!” yelled back Jaden as both Celina and Chumley agreed to that last part. 

Before Syrus could say anything back in return, he heard a familiar voice, “Hello Syrus.” 

Everyone turned around to see Alexis and a guy wearing an Obelisk Blue uniform. Everyone’s, sans Jaden, eyes widened as they saw the best duelist in the whole school, Zane Truesdale. “Hello bro.” said Syrus, weakly.

“I heard that you are planning to drop out of Duel Academy,” said Zane. 

Syrus dropped his head, “Yeah.”

Zane looked at his brother with pity in his eyes, “Good.”

That was not the best thing to say when Jaden was present. That made his blood boil, he gritted his teeth, “Oh that is it!” he looked at Zane and pointed at him, “Oj, kreten! Ti i ja ćemo se boriti! Razumiješ li me?!” 

Silence, it was all quiet as they saw Jaden still pointing at Zane, with fires in his eyes rivaling that of a certain Hashira. No one dared to say anything, until Celina coughed into her hand, “I am sorry, but what did you just say?” She asked as she didn’t want to sound rude. 

Jaden blinked for a second and realized for a second, he looked at everyone around him, before asking, “Oh shoot. I spoke in my native language, didn’t I?” 

Chumley looked at Jaden, “Yes, but what language was that?”

Jaden rubbed the back of his head, “Oh, Croatian. Sorry about that. I don’t make that mistake often.” He looked around to see everyone saying it was alright. He then looked at Zane who was still looking at him, “What I said was; Oi, jerk! You and I are gonna duel! Do you understand?!” 

Everyone turned to see Zane’s reaction. And to their surprise, he looked intrigued, like he was ready to duel him anytime. “Really? I hoped Alexis was right.” he looked at the Slifer Red, “Well then, Jaden, I accept your challenge. Just don’t be sad when I beat you.” 

Jaden grinned, “Well good luck then because that isn’t going to happen!” 

While everyone was going to the lighthouse for the duel, they couldn’t help, but think to themselves in unison, “He accepted it?!” 

At the lighthouse

While they waited for a while for Jaden to dry, they were excited to see the duel. How couldn’t they? One was the best freshman in the year while the other was the so-called Kaiser of Duel Academy. The combos those two could make, made them extremely excited to see the duel between them. 

Zane got his deck from his deck box and put it in his duel disk, “Are you ready, Jaden? This is your last chance to backaway.” 

Jaden returned the favour as he looked at Zane, “No way, Zane! If anything, I should ask you that question!”

If one had a keen eye, they could see Zane smile, “Well then. Good luck because you are gonna need it.” 

“Thanks, you two. So you won’t forget to get your game on!” yelled Jaden as both of them yelled at the same time, “DUEL!” 

Zane Truesdale: 4000 lp

Jaden Yuki: 4000 lp 

Turn 1.

Both of them drew 5 cards from their deck, Zane looked at his hand and nodded his head, “Jaden, you can have the first move if you like.”

Jaden looked at him and grinned, “Why thank you, Kaiser,” he said as he reached for his deck and drew his card. He took a card from his hand and said, “I summon Elemental HERO Lady Heat in attack mode!” 

In front of Jaden appeared a small fire, not hot enough to melt the ground beneath it, but deadly enough to knock anyone out. As the fire evaporated, the figure showed itself. It was a petite heroine with a tight red clad suit and a small fire symbol as a belt. 

(Elemental HERO Lady Heat:  Level 4 - Fire Pyro - Attack: 1300. Defense: 1000.)

Jaden put his duel disk down as he looked at Zane, “I end my turn! And now Lady Heat’s effect activates! During the End Phase, you take 200 points of damage for every Hero on the field!” 

From the palm of Lady Heat, appeared a small fireball and threw it at Zane, to which the senior didn’t even flinch. 

Zane: 4000 - 3800 life points

Jaden: 4000 lp

“He did damage on his very first turn!” cheered Chumley.

Alexis looked at the senior Slifer Red, “Yes, but not much compared to what Zane usually does.”

“Still,” everyone turned to Celina, “Still impressive to deal damage on the End Phase.” 

Turn 2. Zane - 3800 lp - 5 cards

Zane dusted off his clothes with his eyes closed, “Not bad, Jaden. But you could do better,” he reached for his deck and drew his deck. He looked at it and immediately put it in his monster slot on his duel disk, “I summon the Cyber Dragon in attack mode.” 

Many widened at the name of the monster, especially Syrus, but Jaden tilted his head in confusion as from above, flew down a mechanical dragon. As soon as it was summoned, it looked at Lady Heat, the Fire Hero taking a step back, and its eyes glowed a deep shade of green. It roared, nearly shattering Lady Heat’s eardrums. 

(Cyber Dragon: Level 5 - Light Machine - Attack: 2100. Defense: 1600.)

Jaden gulped at the attack of the monster, but then he saw the number of levels on it, “Hey wait a minute! How did you summon a Level 5 monster without a tribute?!” 

Zane glanced at the spectators. Syrus knew full well of that dragon robot, as soon it was summoned in their duels during his childhood, it was basically over. “Jay,” the brunette looked at the bluenette, “Cyber Dragon has an effect. If you control a monster, but Zane doesn’t, he can special summon it without a tribute.”

“Not to mention that Zane has 3 of them in his deck,” explained Alexis, which made Jaden gasp. 

“Not only that card is powerful, but it was so powerful, it changed the game when released.” stated Celina as Zane nodded. 

“Oh. Oh dear.” That's all that Jaden could say as Cyber Dragon was staring down at his Fire Heroine. 

“That’s right and now you will face the very blast coming from this beast! Cyber Dragon attack his Lady Heat with Strident Blast!” Zane said as his dragon charged a beam from its mouth and shot it at the Fire Heroine, making a small explosion. 

Zane: 3800 lp

Jaden: 4000 - 3100 life points

The Kaiser of Duel Academy then took a card from his hand, “I activate Different Dimension Capsule!” an Egyptian-styled coffin appeared in front of Zane, “This card allows me to take a card from my deck,” He took his deck and took a card from it, “And then after 2 turns, I get the card in my hand.” He said as he threw the card he needed into the coffin. 

Zane took a card from his hand, “I end my turn with a face down.” A card was set vertically behind the Cyber Dragon. 

Turn 3. Jaden - 3100 lp - 5 cards

Jaden looked up and grinned, “Man, I am glad to duel you, Kaiser. Couldn’t think of a better match.” He put his fingers on the top of his deck and drew it, and then he smiled. He put the card back in his hand and took another card, “I activate the Spell card Warrior Returning Alive! This card allows me to take a Warrior in my graveyard,” Lady Heat appeared on his duel disk, “and return it back to my hand!”

He took the card that he drew and activated it, “I activate the Spell card Polymerization! I fuse Lady Heat and Heat from my hand so I can Fusion summon!” On his field, the Fire Heroine that was summoned on his previous turn was summoned along with a hero with a tight red clad suit with a fire symbol on his belt. They were both sucked into a Red-Blue Spiral Vortex. 

From the Vortex came out a Hero with both a white and a red clad suit. On his chest area were little heat patterns, fire of some sorts with spikes on his shoulders. The monster also wore red gauntlets with little holes inside of them, “Here comes the Hero that will melt your dragon, Elemental HERO Inferno!” 

(Elemental HERO Inferno: Fusion - Level 8 - Fire Warrior - Attack: 2300. Defense: 1600.)

Zane looked at the monster, not impressed to say the least. Jaden pointed at the Kaiser’s dragon, “Now it's time to torch your monster! Go Inferno attack Cyber Dragon with Vanishing Fist!” 

Inferno nodded as he rushed towards the cyber dragon, and then his fist was engulfed by the flame. Cyber Dragon tried to stop the attack, but the Fire Fusion Hero was too quick and delivered a nasty hook, melting it. 

Zane: 3800 - 3600 life points

Jaden: 3100 lp

Zane didn’t even flinch, making Jaden even more excited. He took a card from his hand, “I end my turn with a facedown! Your move Kaiser!” a card was set vertically. 

Turn 4. Zane - 3600 lp - 3 cards (Different Dimension Capsule: 1 turn away)

Zane drew his card and looked at it. He put the card in his hand and pointed at his set card, “I activate the Trap card, Call Of The Haunted! I bring back Cyber Dragon from my graveyard.” A tomb appeared in front of Zane, but then Cyber Dragon emerged from it. 

(Cyber Dragon: Level 5 - Light Machine - Attack: 2100. Defense: 1600.)

“Ah come on! I just took down that thing!” Jaden thought as he saw Zane took a card from his hand. 

“Now since I have 2 Cyber Dragons on either my hand or field, I can activate Polymerization to fuse them together.” Onto Zane’s field, another Cyber Dragon was summoned onto his field, roaring like his other part, only for both of them to be sucked into a Red-Blue Spiral Vortex.

“Dragons unite! I Fusion summon!” from the Vortex appeared a mechanical dragon similar to the Cyber Dragon. The only difference is that it had two heads, instead of one. The two heads looked at Inferno, and their eyes glew even brighter, “Cyber Twin Dragon!”

(Cyber Twin Dragon: Fusion - Level 8 - Light Machine - Attack: 2800. Defense: 2100.)

“Two dragons!? One was bad enough!” exclaimed Chumley. 

“And his effect is that it can attack twice per turn.” Jaden’s eyes widened at the effect, “And I will use the first attack to destroy your Inferno! Double Strident Blast!” From one of the mouths of Cyber Twin Dragon a bright purple beam charged in itself, and shot it at Jaden’s Fire Fusion Hero.

Zane: 3600 lp

Jaden: 3100 - 2600 life points

Jaden was taken aback at the attack, but quickly had a grin on his face, “Thanks, Kaiser, since you destroyed Inferno, I can activate my Trap card, Hero Signal!” Then from the activated Trap came out a light signal went ahead of Zane with a stylized H on it, “You remembered when I used it against Chazz, right? Well if you forgot it, let me explain it once again! When a monster is destroyed, I can take Elemental Hero from my deck or hand and summon it! But before I can do all of that, I chain Inferno’s destruction effect!” Zane narrowed his eyes, “When it is destroyed, I can take a Spell card from my graveyard and return it to my hand!”

A card appeared in his graveyard slot and Jaden took it, it was his trusty Polymerization card. Jaden then took his deck and searched for a card. He took the card he needed and summoned it in defense mode, it was his Fire Heroine with a questionable red clad suit. Elemental Hero Burstinatrix.

(Elemental HERO Burstinatrix: Level 3 - Fire Warrior - Attack: 1200. Defense: 800,)

Zane nodded in approval, impressed with the turn itself made in his own Battle Phase, but he had a long way to go, “Not bad, Jaden. But your monster will still be destroyed with Double Strident Blast!” From the other head of Cyber Twin Dragon a bright green beam charged in itself, and shot it at Burstinatrix. Luckily for Jaden, she was in defense mode. 

Zane looked at his hand and contemplated on playing a certain Quick-Play Spell card, but decided not to use it, at least for now. He took a card from his hand, “I end my turn with a face down.” a card was set vertically behind Cyber Twin Dragon. 

Turn 5. Jaden - 2600 lp - 3 cards

Jaden wiped his mouth as he grinned, “Man, you are better than I can ever imagine! No wonder you are the best, but now, let’s see how I stack up!” Jaden drew his card, and grinned, “I activate the Spell card known as Monster Reborn! I can revive a monster from either of our graveyards, so I will revive my Inferno!” From the ground, a Fire Fusion Hero jumped from the ground to land in a dramatic fashion. 

(Elemental HERO Inferno: Fusion - Level 8 - Fire Warrior - Attack: 2300. Defense: 1600.)

Jaden then took a card from his hand, “And now I will show you the power of the Earth itself with the Spell card known as Polymerization! I fuse from my hand Elemental HERO Ocean and Woodsman so I can Fusion summon!” Onto Jaden’s field, an aquatic Hero with a trident and a Hero with a trunk of half of its body, only for them to be sucked into a Red-Blue Spiral Vortex. 

From the Vortex came out a Hero in a dramatic fashion, in a kneeling position, making a crater on the ground and nearly knocking everyone, sans Zane, from their feets and into the water. The Hero looked up and straightened his back. The Hero had a white skin and three dark blue orbs, one of his head and the other two on his shoulders, and a big red orb on his chest. The monster looked like an outer alien, rather than a Hero, “Here comes, Elemental HERO Terra Firma!”

(Elemental HERO Terra Firma: Fusion - Level 8 - Earth Warrior - Attack: 2500. Defense: 2000.)

When everyone got to their feet, most of them their eyes widened at the rare monster. Celina decided to ask, “How do you have that card?” 

“Yeah, I wonder too.” Zane was also intrigued by the card. 

Everyone looked at Jaden, the Slifer Red looked at all of them, “Oh? Terra Firma? My tata made me that card!” Their jaws dropped when he said. 

And poor old Syrus was the only one missing around from all of this, “Why is it so shocking?”

Alexis turned to the smaller Slifer Red, “Syrus, there are only 5 copies of those cards ever made. The fact that Jaden has that card because his…dad?” Jaden nodded, “Yeah his dad works for Industrial Illusions is an amazing achievement.” 

Jaden rubbed his head in embarrassment, “Aww, thanks Lexs! But let’s go back to the duel shall we?” Everyone’s attention on the duel returned as Jaden pointed at his Terra Firma, “His effect’s activates! I tribute one Elemental Hero,” he pointed at Inferno, “And he gains the same stats of the Hero for the rest of the turn!”

Terra Firma looked at Inferno, to see that the Fire Hero agreed to the command. Inferno jumped into the air and went straight ahead towards Terra Firma, and like a Fusion, they combined, but only Terra Firma stayed. The Earth Hero’s muscles grew even bigger than before as it left out a mighty battle cry. 

Terra Firma: 2500 - 4800 attack points/2000 - 3600 defense points

Jaden grinned as he looked at the monster he just summoned, “And now, like the Cyber Dragon before, my Hero will crush your Twin Dragon with Earth Impact!” Terra Firma charged at the Light Machine Fusion monster with the speed of that of a jet, but unfortunately, Zane revealed his trap. 

“I activate the Trap, Cybernetic Firewall! This card protects my monster from battle and effect destruction for this turn!”

“Yeah, but you still take damage!” yelled Jaden. Electricity uncovered the Twin headed behemoth, protecting it from the might of Terra Firma, but not strong enough to stop the attack as the machine went back from the punch. 

Zane: 3600 - 1600 life points

Jaden: 2600 lp

Jaden, for the first time took advantage in the duel, but something in him felt that this victory would be short lived. He looked at his hand and saw that he used all of his ability to do this, but couldn’t take him down. He smiled at Zane, “You really are impressive. Your move, Kaiser. And give it your best!”

Terra Firma: 4800  - 2500 attack points/3600 - 2000 defense points

Turn 6. Zane - 1600 lp - 1 card (Different Dimension Capsule: This Turn!) 

Zane drew his card and looked at his hand. He looked at Jaden, “You wanted my best, and then I will show it to you, but first Different Dimension Capsule’s two turn effect activates.” The same Egyptian-style coffin appeared in front of Zane and a card flew into his hand. By the way he looked at the card, they knew that this was over. 

“I activate De-Fusion. It defuses any Fusion monster into their Fusion materials, and I pick my Cyber Twin Dragon.” A quick Red-Blue Vortex appeared in front of the Light Machine sucking it in. From the Vortex came out the two Cyber Dragons used for the summon. 

“And since I have another Cyber Dragon in my hand, I think it is time to show you how much you have to learn, Jaden.” Zane took out a card from his hand and showed it to them. Everyone gasped as the card revealed the Spell card he gave Syrus years ago, Power Bond. 

“Jaden, you played a good game, but I am afraid that it wasn’t good enough. I activate Power Bond! I fuse the two Cyber Dragons on my field and the other Cyber Dragon in my hand so I can Fusion summon!” A third and final copy of Cyber Dragon was summoned onto the field, roaring with his meal brethren. They were then sucked into a Green-Blue Spiral Vortex. 

From the Green-Blue Vortex, came out one of the  heads of one the monsters used to summon it, and then it showed another one, and a second later the middle head was revealed. After the three heads were shown, the entire body was shown and Jaden widened at the look of this majestic beast. The size was bigger than that of a volcano, and it looked like it could destroy it with one mighty blast. The wings covered the lighthouse and the ocean behind it.  The monster looked more like a monster from a fantasy game rather than from Duel Monsters, “Here comes my trump card, Cyber End Dragon!” 

(Cyber End Dragon: Fusion - Level 10 - Light Machine - Attack: 4000. Defense: 2800.)

“No way.” 

“I thought I would never see that.”

“I can’t believe Zane would use that against Jaden!”

Celina, Chumley and Alexis voiced their opinions on the summon of the mighty beast, but Syrus wanted to see Jaden’s reaction to it. He remembered this one time when Syrus was only an attack away from winning against his elder brother, only for him to summon it and destroy him. To Syrus that was a list to his bad memories of playing this game, and he didn’t want his best friend to feel the same way, but to his shock, he saw sparkles in Jaden’s eyes. Almost like he wants to see the monster in combat, melting any worry for his friend. 

Zane looked at Cyber End Dragon, before looking at Jaden, “And don’t forget Power Bond’s effect. The Machine Fusion summoned by it, their attack doubles for the price of taking the original attack points of the monster on my End Phase.” The Chimera roared in power. 

Cyber End Dragon: 4000 - 8000 attack points

“So, this is how much I stack up, huh Kaiser?” asked Jaden as he looked at the machine with respect in his eyes. 

Zane had a small, the tiniest, smile he could make while pointing at Jaden’s Terra Firma, “Yes and I am glad I dueled you Jaden. Cyber End Dragon attack Terra Firma with Super Strident Blaze!”

From all of the mouths of the Chimera charged a combination of a green, purple and yellow light laser. It was charging inside of them until the beam itself looked like the size of a watermelon and it shot at the Earth Hero and, for the first time in his school year, wiping off all of Jaden’s life points. The Slifer Red dropped down to his knees as the attack landed on him. 

Zane: 1600 lp

Jaden: 2600 - 0 life points

ZANE TRUESDALE: WINNER! 

As the holograms began disappearing, everyone finally addressed what happened in this duel, “Jaden lost!?” Syrus looked at the fallen Slifer, and saw that his eyes were covered by his hair, unable to see his reaction. He couldn’t imagine what was going through Jaden’s head right now so he ran to comfort him, but he saw Jaden’s true reaction. 

Admiration. 

Jaden lifted his head and smiled at Zane, “That…was…awesome! You really are great, Kaiser!”

Zane responded with, “And you too are impressive. Hope to see you win the tag team duel so I can see your progress.” He said as he began walking off. 

“And you bet! One day, I will beat you, Kaiser!” yelled Jaden as his friends began walking up to him and picking him up, complimenting him on the amazing duel. 

Alexis, however, saw Zane walking the opposite direction of the Obelisk Blue dorm, “Um, Zane?” The Senior turned to her with his eyebrows raised, “You do know that you are going in the opposite direction, right?” 

Zane turned his head away from her, “I just want to get some fresh air before going back to my dorm.” Despite him being the opposite of Alexis' direction, he could tell that she was nodding, so he began walking towards a certain dorm. 

Meanwhile, the Slifer Reds began walking down to their dorm, “Man, Sy, they weren’t kidding when your brother can duel! He was the best I have ever seen, other than Yugi of course.” Said Jaden as the smallest Slifer Red looked at him. 

“Yeah, he may have the skills, but mom says that I have the looks!” said Syrus as everyone sweatdropped, not wanting to crush his already low self-esteem. 

“Yeah, Sy.” faked nodded Chumley. 

Celina decided to change the subject of having an idea for about couple of hours now, she had them when she was knocking on their door, she grinned devilishly, “Syrus, I see that you may have some dueling problems,” the other three Slifers turned to her, “So I would like to train you by the time of the exam begins, what do you say?” she patted him on the back as Syrus saw through that nice way to help someone. 

But Jaden wasn’t as smart as Syrus, “Great idea, Celina! That way I can have dueling strategies and get some more cards while you are training him! We would love that!” Celina smiled sadistically.

Syrus looked at Chumley, but he saw the koala man avoiding eye contact, “Why?!” 

Meanwhile at Chancellor Sheppards’ office

Chancellor Sheppard sat on his chair, sitting on the opposite side of the table next to Vice Chancellor Crowler, “So, Doctor Crowler, you said that you are hiring someone at the expulsion duel?” he asked. 

Crowler nodded, “Yes, I did, Chancellor. I have hired the best tag team duel on the planet to duel those two.”

Sheppard raised his eyebrows, “Yugi Muto and Seto Kaiba?” 

Crowler deadpanned, “Chancellor, Seto is our boss. We would be paying him his own money. And I don’t think we can hire even one of them with both of our paychecks combined.”

“Ahh, sorry, bad question. Para and Dox?”

“They retired 4 years ago.”

“Lumis and Umbra?”

“They died in Battle City.”

“Then who are you hiring?” asked Sheppard as Crowler grinned. 

“Oh, just the newest tag team. You heard that they have, what the youngsters say, spunk. It would be a glory for Duel Academy for them to show up. Maybe they would be graceful in their duel.” explained Crowler as Sheppard realized who he was hiring and he nodded, accepting them as the Slifer Red duo. 

Meanwhile at a certain dorm 

The Obelisk Blue Senior, best student of Duel Academy, Zane saw the entrance of a certain dorm where he last saw his two best friends, Yusuke and Atticus. He was at the abandoned dorm. 

He knew that he would be in trouble if he got in there, but he didn’t care, he needed to see where his two best friends were. If a picture was left here, then there has to be something else inside of there to remember by. Like an instrument, a picture or even a card that they used, he would be happy to remember them. 

He remembered that day like it was yesterday, one day when Yusuke was feeling down in the morning, so he went in there and Atticus, being the good friend that he was, wanted to cheer him up. And that was the last time he would ever see them again. 

That was the day he began being distant, from Alexis, other duelists and even from his younger brother. He wanted to be with them, but knew that would be impossible. 

He went inside of the dorm and began looking around. From the main hall, to the library, to the cafeteria to most students' rooms, but nothing. He couldn’t even get an image from any other student. 

He swore that he heard a demon growling, but that didn’t matter to him, he was on a mission to get his friends back. He went to every other place he could go, but nothing. It was like God was playing him around. 

Zane walked around to the halls, until he saw a door and a sign reading ‘Yusuke Fujiwara’. That was tough for him to swallow and put his hand on the doorknob. He took a deep breath and opened the door and saw the mess of a room. 

Pictures all over the floor, carvings on the wall and on the floor, books opened from pretty much every angle he could see, blood, a dirty bed, but to him, what caught his attention the most was a red box with a jewel on the front. 

He walked over it and put his hands on the box and felt a strange, but familiar presence. He thought of opening the box, and thought of letting the box stay unopened, but the former won. He opened the box and a bright light emerged from the box.

Zane covered his eyes to shield him from the light and then, when the light became weaker, he saw someone, or rather something. The monster had a halo on its head, with wings that would make a peacock jealous. The monster had long brown curly hair down to its shoulders. The monster looked like an angel rather than a monster. 

The angel raised his wings in a threatening manner, “Who are you and what have you done with Master Fujiwara?” 

Zane stepped back, but realized that the monster used one of his friends' last name. He tried to catch his breath, “I am Zane Truesdale, one of Yusuke Fujiwara’s friends and I don’t know where he is.” He dropped down his head in shame, unable to see the angle of his face. 

The angel widened at the sheer mention of the name of his Master and the fact that he addressed him as his friend. He lowered his wings and observed his body, and he remembered dueling with the boy, “Zane? You are friends with Master Fujiwara?” Zane nodded, “My apologies for the horrible way of introducing myself. I am Honest. Master Fujiwara’s favourite monster.” 

Zane almost choked, he quickly looked up and saw everything to confirm one thing. There was something to remember about one of his friends, showing that there is a way to get them back. A tear ran down his face and Honest got to him, “What’s wrong Zane?”

Zane wiped the tear from his face as he looked at Honest, “Nothing, its just that I am happy that there is something to remember my friends and to show that there is a chance that they are here.” Honest nodded his head, understanding what he meant, “Especially after they disappeared.” He mumbled. 

“I see, I understand what you are going through. The same way that Master Fujiwara put me inside of the box, I felt the same way as you,” Zane lifted his head up, “Zane, I want to promise me something. I want you to promise me that Master Fujiwara gets home safely, I want him back. Will you do that for me?” 

The Kaiser of Duel Academy, the person that defeated Jaden Yuki, almost broke down crying when he heard that plie, almost he doesn’t trust him. He wanted to get them back, even if it is just one of them, he will be happy. 

He looked at Honest, giving him a handshake and determination in his eyes, “I promise Honest.” 

“I promise that I will get him back.” And then a friendship between a duel spirit and a human was born. 

Authors Note: 

*Puts on party hat and grabs a bottle of Sprite* Yeah! This chapter is done on the same day as summer vacation begins! Sorry for the long wait, guys. Finals and a vacation ruined my nonexistent schedule apart. I plan on making more chapters during this time!

This chapter was fun to write and I am happy with the result. Honestly some of this, especially that abandoned dorm part, could be part of its own story and I am happy for this one. 

I decided to write episode 7 and 8 into the mix of this story since it would have been awkward to try to write this into 2 chapters, but hey y’all get a 13K word chapter!

The Duels of this were close to the canon, but I decided to mix it up a little to make it different, but still feel the same. 

Also the part of Croatian Jaden and his dad working at Industrial Illusions bit? i headcanon that Jaden is part Croatian, so why not? And I want to make his dad appear in this fic as an important character for a chapter and would explain how Jaden has all of these new Heroes. 

Yes, I am changing the Tag Team and I left hints on who those two could be, so you guys have to guess. 

Anyways that is it for now and hope you enjoy the rest of my story! 

Made up card: 

Cybernetic Firewall - A trap card that protects Machines from being destroyed, might add this in the tag team duel. 

#gx rewrite #yugioh gx #jaden yuki #celina yugioh #syrus truesdale #alexis rhodes #yugioh arc v #zane truesdale #chumley huffington #vellian crowler #chancellor sheppard

[tank-grunt]

im bout to reveal a controversial take up my sleeve, perhaps my most insane one yet, but i don’t think olive... actually loves the grim reaper!!! :o i know, i know, they woohoo’d and have a child together! there’s clearly something going on, right? and she supposedly... kills! for what purpose, other than a love for the grim reaper?

well, i already don’t believe she’s actually a murderer, though i do think she has been tried and convicted for murder in-universe (which is how she lost custody of nervous) - so it’s not like i would need an answer to “why does she kill?” because the answer, to me, is already “she doesn’t.” 

but wait, her household bio in sims 3 states that 1. she was furious with the grim reaper at one point 2.  is later said to have both “started a relationship with him” and that their “relationship ended quickly” and 3. explicitly spells out that nervous is the grim reapers son, as a reminder of the relationship! if she doesn’t love him what do i think the story is? why do i think she doesn’t love him???

well, in sims 3 she’s an unlucky sim, which means that more than anything she’s just entertaining to the grim reaper. unlucky sims live longer and are frequently saved from near-death experiences simply on the basis that the grim reaper enjoys their suffering - and he says as much to them if they almost die.

(screenshot from the sims wiki because i cant run sims 3 on my computer to grab my own :/) 

so while while she has a memory of woohooing with the grim reaper, olive doesn’t have a memory of falling in love with the grim reaper in sims 2, for obvious reasons. and as a knowledge sim she often rolls wants to defy death itself in some way - to be saved from death, to raise the dead, ect - so it’s not like she respects his authority all that much on principal.

i think woohooing with the grim reaper was just a fling - a fling born of many complex emotions. loneliness, and loss, and the thrill of the back and forth being unlucky brings... because olive doesn’t love the grim reaper or even death itself. she loves the idea of overcoming death on her own terms, with ingenuity and charm rather than simply because she is seen as a toy... and she loves the macabre, defiant nature of the undead. she loves zombies and vampires and she loves ghosts, those who have faced death and cling to life in some form and refuse to stay gone. 

#bulletin board #headcanon labs #yes i literally only ever talk about the grunts and the specters this is who i am mom #anyways olive specter is just the queen of hatefucking and necromancy

[thelarriefics]

HISTORICAL FIC REC, PART IV: Below you’ll find additional fics that take place in historical times. 

📖 playing by hands by @bottomlinsons (164k)

Harry and Louis are finally engaged. That, unfortunately, is the easy part.

The course to true love never did run smooth and with Queens and countries on the board, nothing is certain. It is down to them both to find a path onwards, but will be it together or alone?

📖 Lightning Strikes The Heart by @fournipplesau & @justalarryblog (130k)

Shrewsbury, 1814

Dearest reader, I present to you your new bulletin of news regarding Shrewsbury citizen's activities. My name is Lady Merriweather and I will be in charge of the updates. I will make sure you are to know all the important details of what is to happen this season. You must know that you do not know who I am and you never shall. But be forewarned; I certainly do know you. I advise you to be on your best behaviour, lest you want the whole town to be privy of your business.

📖 For You, I will Fall by @larryislove (80k)

It is clear from the start Harry doesn't belong in this cruel new world, but like everything in life, the path you follow stops and everything changes. Two unlikely souls find each other.

📖 an everlasting eclipse by @nobodymoves (63k)

Anne of Green Gables/Anne With An E AU. In 1891, orphan Harry is adopted by the Teasdales and goes to live on their small farm in Holmes Chapel. In his new life he finds supportive relationships, he finds himself, and eventually, he finds a home.

📖 Glitter in the sky, glitter in our eyes by @softfonds (59k)

What happens when a Duke who will only marry for love and a courtesan who only sells it create a public ruse? Well, nothing boring for sure. An Edwardian AU.

📖 The Earl and His Duke by @becomeawendybird (52k)

Lord Tomlinson, the elusive Duke of Leeds, has suddenly emerged in London for the first time in six years. He is believed to have been abroad. He is believed to have been widowed. He is believed to want to withdraw from society.

Harry doesn’t know what is true and what isn’t. He only knows that the older brother of one of his best friends is back in town to stay, and that time has taken him from merely the most beautiful man Harry knew, to the most handsome man to ever walk the earth. A man whose gaze probably still skips over Harry like he doesn’t exist the same way it did when they were young.

📖 An Invincible Summer by @twopoppies (44k)

Never content to stay in one place for long, a few months down south researching for his novel seemed like an idyllic, slow-paced summer to Louis. He wasn't ready for the blistering heat, the backbreaking work of watermelon picking, or how stifling the attitudes in rural Georgia would feel. And he definitely hadn’t anticipated falling in love with the farmer’s son.

The summer of 1946 would turn out to be everything worth writing about.

📖 Lies & Liability by @evilovesyou (34k)

Harry Styles has only three wishes when he leaves River Dane Manor to go to Town for his first season: that his sister has rented a townhouse that will provide him as many of the comforts of the country life he has grown accustomed to as possible, that he will not trip and fall when he is presented to Her Majesty the Queen, and that he will enter matrimony out of true love, no matter how favourable the match with any which alpha may be.

📖 Fate & Chance by @zanniscaramouche (31k)

Haunted by his own ghost, the Duke von Tomlin fears for his safety and sanity as the days tick down to his certain engagement with the Crown Prince of Vienna. Meanwhile the travelling magician Hassenheim takes residency in a well established theatre, drawing mass crowds with his awe-inspiring illusions. Is it fate or chance that entwines their paths?

📖 a world with octobers by @the28thofseptemberr (28k)

louis is stubborn, harry is sweet, and old childhood grudges die hard.

an anne of green gables au

📖 Forever Never Comes by @larryyouknow (25k)

Victorian au, where Harry Styles, the youngest son of the Duke of Sutherland, was always a little in love with his childhood friend Louis Tomlinson, the young Earl of Doncaster, though he would never have told him in a million years. Especially since Louis never showed him any signs of romantic affection. But now Louis has invited him (and his sister Gemma) to London, and many things may not be as they have seemed.

📖 falling in love (with you) by @stylesthebrave (24k)

it's 1970, Harry needs a ride to the first ever pride parade in New York City, and Louis happens to be in the right place at the right time.

📖 as in olden days by @scrunchyharry (18k)

Château Frontenac hotel, Christmas 1925 When his father insisted the entire family spend Christmas abroad in one of his new investments, Harry dreaded the prospect of being trapped for weeks in the biting Canadian cold, so far away from the roaring excitement of his London life. As he crossed half of the world to be buried under a thick blanket of snow, he never imagined he would meet a charming bellhop who would do his best to keep him warm.

📖 Trust Me Tonight by @vintageumbroshirt (10k)

After Harry’s eighteenth birthday, his father calls him into a meeting to say that he is to be married to Prince Louis of France in just over a week.

Harry is excited, of course. The arrangement is better than any he could’ve hoped for, with such a young, handsome and kind husband.

There is just one issue: Harry doesn’t know what happens on his nuptials, or how to get pregnant to give Louis the heir that he needs.

📖 Rapture by @allwaswell16 (3k)

It was New Year's Eve in Victorian London, and a lonely vampire could no longer resist the stunning lamplighter he watched night after night.

Or, a vampire Harry fic because what says the holidays like Victorian vampires?

#historical fics #historical fic rec #1dsource #hledit #hlcreators #hljournal

[diamaker-moon]

Moving Forward - Chapter 4

Chapter Four

First day and investigations

—————

"Haven't you heard?" She asked back in a cold tone.

"Heard what?"

"You're class... drove Marinette to transfer schools. All because of you guys." She said in an icy tone before passing by him then rest left him in the locker room— gaping.

— previous chapter... —

Adrien was stunned.

'Marinette transferred schools?! When did that happen?!'

He stood there for a few minutes before fishing up his phone and texted Marinette, he waited for a reply, but nothing came. He came back to his classroom in a daze.

He didn't bother sharing the information with anyone, thinking that Lila might steal the spotlight again. And besides, he was too busy thinking why Marinette needed to transfer, and why she didn't inform him— her friend.

Nino was worried for his best bro. Adrien barely spoke throughout the day.

Meanwhile, Marinette was given a few hours in the morning to roam and get acquainted inside campus grounds. She was joined by Allegra, who happily toured her and introduce her as well to every student they pass by.

She was enjoying her time in Jeanne.

But behind all the happiness she was feeling at the moment, there's a huge responsibility whispering in her ear. The Cat Miraculous is currently in camouflage mode in her right ring finger as a rose gold ring. She needed to find either a new permanent cat holder or a temporary one. Part of her wants to trust her dormmates. She couldn't trust her temporary heroes anymore, aside from Viperion and Ryuko. 

She could imagine Allan using the Turtle miraculous since he is already protective of his friends. She was stuck between Claude and Allegra for the Fox miraculous.

Claude is a theatre kid, he can imagine a lot of things and that can help during battles but he's more of a fighter than hiding in the shadows. Allegra, however, can do the opposite.

But for now, her main priority is to find a cat holder, even if it has to be temporary. It was a good thing that she had bought a mini fridge for Plagg's camembert stash and stored it in her room or else her dormmates might think she's a cheese hoarder!

All the teachers and students in Jeanne were very welcoming. Her classmates were friendly to her, and her teachers are fair educators. When there is a disturbance in the class, they reprimand both students not only one, and Marinette noticed that there's no 'model student' treatment like the one she had in Dupont.

It was lunchtime, she and her dormmates decided to eat in a nearby restaurant. She missed how she just goes home and eats lunch in her home then sometimes returns with a bag of pastries as snacks. She missed her home and her parents' bakery.

Marinette and Allegra were busy chatting about Marinette's current state in Jeanne, while Claude and Allan are busy bickerings on who will win if Batman and Iron Man fought.

Félix just observed them, and from time to time read on his book.

None of them saw a blonde looking at them with a melancholic look. The blonde smiled bitterly before they left the restaurant.

"Are you all done? Lunchtime is almost up." Félix announced.

The other four nodded and paid for their meal, then walked back to school.

Marinette wants to thank her luck and Tikki, for not having any Akuma throughout the rest of the afternoon.

Upon returning to the dorm, she went inside her bathroom and stared at the mirror. She was looking at her reflection, but somehow it felt unfamiliar to her.

The girl in the mirror, has her hair down, wearing a white button-up shirt underneath a black blazer that had red accents and trimming, the school crest sewed on top of the front pocket and a red tie. Paired with it is a plaid red, white and black skirt that reaches up to her mid-thighs, she also wore black knee-high socks and strapped two-inched heels.

She moved her hair on the right side a bit and saw her signature black stud earrings which are actually the camouflaged ladybug's miraculous earrings, then the rose gold cat miraculous on her right hand that moved her hair.

It was a huge change.

She was used to seeing her previous look since Dupont doesn't require school uniforms but Jeanne does.

Marinette sighed then stripped out of her uniform to take a short shower.

Once she came out of the bathroom, she was wearing light pink high-waisted shorts, a white halter-top with her signature flower design, then a sheer black cardigan.

She turned the soundproofing on then locked her bedroom door before she let the kwamis out of the miracle box.

"Did you have fun on your first day, Marinette?" Tikki asked.

Marinette hummed before answering. "Yeah. It was quite strange to see all the students wear the same outfit, but everyone was very welcoming. Quite different in Dupont. And there were no Akuma attacks today!"

Tikki smiled at her holder. The kwami thought that the girl deserves it. She needed a new environment away from the previous one since it was toxic.

Marinette was skimming through the Grimoire, and the kwamis knew not to be close enough since it is prohibited to know about the knowledge inside the book.

Shadowmoth. A unified Butterfly and Peacock miraculous holder.

Hawkmoth was becoming stronger, and Marinette needed to be ten steps ahead of him. She cannot use her previous temporary heroes.

Rena Rouge, Carapace, Pegasus and Roi Singe betrayed her in their civilian lives, unknowingly. She cannot trust them in battle, even if they were efficient heroes.

She was alone at the moment. No temporary allies, and no partner.

But she might have a lead on who Hawk—Shadowmoth is.

She looked at her bulletin board that is hanged on the wall.

If anyone ever saw the board, they might think she is a detective, due to having a map of Paris wide opened, with marks, sticky notes, red strings, etc.

She closed the book before putting on a sleeve cover for the book then plainly placed it on her desk together with a stack of books.

"Marinette?"

She hummed before looking at her left seeing the kwamis stare at her.

"We finally might have a lead on who Hawk—Shadowmoth is. Why does he need to change his name? The hawkmoth is already a stupid name, but he had to change it to Shadowmoth! Ugh!"

The kwamis laughed at their guardian's frustrations.

"Who do you suspect, Master?" Wayzz asked.

"Plagg, do you know where your previous holder got the book and tablet?" She asked the cat kwami who's busy eating a wheel of Camembert on top of her chaise.

Plagg looked to her before swallowing the rest of the whole wheel then answered.

"In his deadbeat of a father's office. That's where we found the book first, inside a safe behind her mother's painting."

Marinette hummed.

She had valid points at the moment to suspect him. And no one can prevent her from suspecting the fashion guru like before when she had Chat Noir as her partner. He was adamant that the guru isn't Hawkmoth, but now she understood. The man was his father. If the fashion guru is Hawkmoth, he'll be losing both his Mother and Father.

Something clicked in her mind. The alternate reality that she prevented: Chat Blanc.

She gasped. Then hurriedly grabbed her notebook that has all her points and suspect list with a list of reasons. She flipped the pages towards Gabriel Agreste's page.

Possible Suspect: Gabriel Agreste

Affliation: Fashion Designer

Relationships: 

◈ Emilie Agreste (Wife)

◈ Adrien Agreste (Son)

◈ Nathalie Sancoeur (Assistant)

  Reasons why suspected?

- Mme Agreste has been gone for three years, can use the ultimate power to wish her back.

- Secluded from the outside world.

- Assitant is very devoted, can possibly be the ally— Mayura.

- Another possible ally— Lila Rossi. Got akumatized after leaving from the first bathroom confrontation looking all smug, and has been akumatized repeatedly. Also might be involved with the Heroe's day illusion of Dark 'Ladybug'.

- Akumatized when suspected before. Hypothesis: possibly to divert attention?

- Very attentive and tried to reach for earrings and ring before during 'The Collector' after getting de-akumatized...

- Briefly saw an intrigue look on his face when he saw Chloé open a miraculous box in public.

- Has the Grimoire. Now, he also had Master Fu's tablet (stolen possibly during Miracle Queen battle)

-Theory: Chat Blanc said that Hawkmoth was a reason why the alternate timeline was destroyed by Blanc, Marinette is almost akumatized before (in original timeline), is it possible that in that timeline, Hawkmoth tried to akumatize Marinette then accidentally finds out Chat Noir's identity, leading up to a possible confrontation? It is quite hard to choose between a family relative and a relationship...

Marinette observed the page. If she was impulsive, she'd probably march up to the Agreste Mansion, but if her possible suspect is truly a villain, she cannot impulsively attack since he had two miraculouses that can create an Akuma and a Sentimonster.

She was a tactician. She always thinks about how she can use her lucky charm, and mostly in the most complex ways on how to use it.

The only thing she can do for a while is observing the Older Agreste.

"It's decided then," She looked at the kwamis then continued her sentence.

"We're going on a stake-out outside the Agreste Mansion, and possibly the inside as well. But that mansion is heavily guarded with cameras! How am I going to enter it?!"

She annoyingly said the huffed.

"Kwamis can help with the cameras and if there are alarms!" Trixx reasoned.

"Hmm... That can be useful... But how am I going to get an inside look? If there's a hidden safe behind Mme Agreste's painting in M. Agreste's atelier, I need an entrance."

Plagg thought about it before gasping.

"I can look around! I've been in the mansion for a long time, I can search around that room to see any open windows or entrance!"

Marinette actually smiled at that statement, she scratches Plagg behind one of his ears which made the cat kwami purr in happiness.

"Looks like someone earned a prize!"

The kwamis laughed in seeing the stubborn cat kwami happily purring due to the young guardian scratching him. Marinette needed a thorough plan. A plan to look around M. Agreste's atelier without being detected. And if she is lucky maybe retrieve one of the missing miraculous.

—————

"Nathalie!"

The woman flinched before she composed herself and made her way towards her boss's atelier with a tablet in one hand.

"Yes, M. Agreste?"

The man was seething, and she didn't know why. The last time she saw him like this was when they caught Adrien taking the miraculous book to school.

"Where's the Grimoire and the tablet?"

Nathalie blinked. "It's in your hands Monsier. Or maybe safely hidden in the safe."

Gabriel sighed deeply. "The book and the tablet is missing. I check the cameras, Adrien got it again, but when I asked for it back, he said you had it."

"I'm sorry, M. Agreste, but I didn't even know that it was in Adrien's possessions. I'll look around the mansion, maybe Adrien misplaced it, I'll also ask him to remember where he left it."

Gabriel nodded and dismissed her.

Inside Nathalie's head, it was trouble. They were fortunate to steal the previous Guardian's tablet that has a translated version of the book, to fix the Peacock miraculous. They had also found a translated pages about the power-ups but we haven't figure out what it actually means. They also don't have a backup copy of the translated pages!

"Adrien? Adrien."

Nathalie knocked on the younger Agreste's door. She heard a faint 'wait, Nathalie!'. Soon the door opened and revealed a dishevelled Adrien who was currently drying his hair with a towel.

"Yes, Nathalie?"

"I heard from your Father that you had the book and tablet he's looking for. Do you remember where you left it?" She said and noticed how Adrien paled.

"I was only looking at it, I left it on my desk but the next morning it was gone. I figured that you might've found it on the desk and took it back to Father... That's the only place I left it before going to bed."

She observes the young boy and hummed. She instructed Adrien to try and look around thinking that it might've been misplaced.

'I have a bad feeling about this. It's already bad that it's missing, but if my theory is right that it is in Ladybug's possession, we might be at a disadvantage.'

Chapter 3 — Moving Forward: Masterlist — Chapter 5 

#miraculousladybug #marinette dupain-cheng #movingforward #adrien agreste #class salt

[187days]

Day One Hundred Seventy-Eight

I didn’t have anything to prep or grade this morning, so I spent my prep time redoing the bulletin board in my classroom. Mrs. T came by while I was working on it, and we chatted for a while- mostly about who’s retiring or leaving, who’s been hired, which positions are still open. Typical end-of-the-year stuff. I finished the bulletin board after she left to go talk to Dean 1, and my World students gave me compliments on it when they came in, so that’s a win.

It was another really fun day in World, as well. I asked everyone to show me what they’d done so far on their multi-genre projects, which they seemed pretty happy to do. I mostly gave quick comments and suggestions, but I also sat with some students and did full conferences on their finished drafts, or gave one-on-one help to those who were behind on their work. It was good to do a check-in like that, and I think that by the end of each block everyone was in a good spot. 

And that’s really all I have to write about today. It’s graduation day tomorrow, though, and then I’m off on an adventure as a Project Grad chaperon. Expect a post about all of that on Sunday!

#teaching #teacher #teachblr #edublr #educhums #education #high school #social studies #Mrs. T #Dean 1 #I am a bulletin board queen #day one hundred seventy eight

[unmaskedagain]

Marinette’s Week Off

This is a one-shot. Sorry, I kind of forgot Adrien.

           One week. Just one week. Marinette took one week off a year. One week where she didn’t work herself to death as Marinette. Or nearly get herself killed as Ladybug. One week where she didn’t do any favors, any designs, didn’t work in the bakery, didn’t save anyone. A week to relax. A week to meditate. A week to destress and just take care of herself. Just one week every year. To prepare for it she sent reminders to all her friends and family. She posted a flyer on the class bulletin board. Marinette finished all her commission and school work in advance. 

She made Fu aware that Ladybug wouldn’t be active, told Chat Noir that Queen Bee would be his partner while she was gone. Marinette always made sure everyone was prepared for her absence. And made it clear that she would be unavailable. No matter what. She didn’t care if the world was ending.

           However, this year was different than the ones that came before. For starters, Marinette now only had two or three good friends in class, and one or two mediocre ones. She only warned those three people. While she still posted her usual flyer, she had done it knowing it would be disregarded.

           Marinette was no longer class president either; she no longer had to plan class trips, parties, or dances. Or anything of the sort. When she was class president, Marinette always made sure to plan her week off around the class’s busiest time of the year. That year, she didn’t have to so she didn’t. In fact, she planned her week off during the biggest dance of year, the class musical, the class’s big fundraiser. It was usually her most stressful week of the year.

           Not this time.

           On the Friday before her week off, Marinette reminded Bustier of her absence for the next week, and then walked out of class with a relieved smile on her face. She was almost there. Just two more days. She used her weekend to finish up any last minutes details of her vacations; confirm her reservation; spend most of the time with her parents.

           And on the stroke of midnight that turned Sunday to Monday, Marinette got her bags, kissed her parents goodbye and was gone in her Uber. She knew how this week worked. By six am, the ‘emergency’ calls would start; everyone screaming fire. However, she wouldn’t be there to put them out, metaphorical fires or real ones.

Not today, Satan, Marinette thought.

           Marinette got to the airport, slept on the plane ride, arrived at her luxury beach resort, a little after sunrise. She had saved up her money and did extra commissions all year to pay for it. It was beautiful. However, there was just one problem…

“Marinette, love!” Jagged called, somehow looking more awake in the wee hours of the morning than he did at 3 in the afternoon. Penny, however, looked half-asleep. Even Fangs slept on the luggage being moved by a rather fearful looking bellhop.

           Marinette’s parents couldn’t get time off the bakery; it was their busiest time too. Her grandma was in Peru. Mariette needed an adult with her at the resort. Jagged happened to overhear her mother asking if she found a chaperone yet. It wasn’t like Marinette had any other options.

“I have so many Rockin’ plans!” Jagged said. “Scuba diving! Sky diving. Swimming with sharks. Parasailing! Bungee jumping!”

           Marinette narrowed her eyes at her favorite rockstar and honorary Uncle, “Sleep.” She said.

           Jagged waved her off, “We’ll sleep when we’re dead.”

“Sleep,” Marinette hissed darkly.

           As amazing as that all sounded it could wait. Marinette was there to relax, not fight a shark. “Not today, Satan,” She whispered when she checked into her room. Leaving Penny to drag away a protesting Jagger to get some sleep as well. She called her parents to let her she had gotten there safely, called to re-confirm her spa reservation for that afternoon and then check her texts.

           She had gotten quite a few as expected. Chloe wishing her a good vacation and promising to keep an eye on Chat. Luka sent her funny vacation memes. Nathaniel sent pics or didn’t happen texts; he found the possibility of Marinette all people actually taking a vacation hilarious and improbable. She’d show him though.

           Then there were a few texts from her ex-friends. And it seemed like the fires had started…

           When class started on Monday, most didn’t realize that Marinette wasn’t there until Bustier reminded Chloe to remind Chloe about the test next week. They all shrugged it off. Glad not to have to deal with the drama Marinette brought to class.

           When Alya, the new class president, brought up the dance that Friday, things got a little tense.

“We need volunteers,” The glasses-wearing girl said. “People to decorate and to clean up and all that. We also need to get decorations.”

           She received confused looks.

“Isn’t that your job?” Alix asked. “The class president does all that.”

           Alya crossed her arms, “No it’s not my job. I organize and plan but I can’t do everything by myself.”

“Marinette did,” Kim shrugged. “It can’t be that hard.”

“Do you wanna do it?” Alya asked him but he quickly shook his head. “Thought so. We don’t have a big budget. So can anyone chip in for decorations and food?”

           Mylene frowned, “Marinette made all the decorations and food.” They never had to chip in before. “Maybe she’d do it again.”

There were nods. They may not be friends with the girl anymore but she was still very helpful.

“OH! I need a dress,” Rose brightened up the room with her smile. “Marinette made mine last year. It was so beautiful. I’ll ask her to make another.”

           A few of the girls said the same.

“Not gonna happen,” Chloe smirked. “You guys are on your own.”

           Alya shot her a glare. “And we’ll be just fine.” She wasn’t happy about asking her ex-bestie for anything, anyway.

           They were not fine.

           Monday they had all talked a big game about not needing Marinette but by Tuesday, they realized that was a lie.

           Because everything was falling apart.

           Mylene’s musical was Friday, the day before the dance. More than half the class were either in it or helping with it. That meant Alya had barely any volunteers for the Dance committee. And had been reminded by Bustier about the annual fundraiser they did every year to pay for the class trip. Alya had been class president since the beginning of the year, and had been responsible for planning it. She had forgot all about it.

           Alya was confident she managed though. They’d pull in enough money to pay for the entire trip and she’d get to rub it in Marinette’s face that no one needed. Alya hoped Lila was back in time from her trip with Prince Ali to see it.

           In addition, neither she nor Bustier seem to remember that the fundraiser was always biggest because it was the last one of the year. Marinette usually had done several different ones by then.

           Mylene was struggling. None of the sets were done. The costumes were terrible. The entire play seemed to be falling apart. They had forgot to only put up flyers promoting the play but they never even made them. She didn’t understand, normally everything would be going as smooth as silk by then. Silk…

“Marinette,” She gasped. Yes, she remembered, Marinette always helped out with the school plays. The Bluenette would fix the costumes. She’d even help out with the flyers and the set. Mylene pulled out her phone and quickly called her ex-friend. It went to voice mail. She frantically sent a dozen texts, all screaming emergency. But she never got a reply.

           Marinette laid on the beach, drinking virgin Pina Colada, while talking with a boy she met while surfing and subtly eyeing him. He was a seventeen-year-old, tanned, dark haired Adonis, literally named Adonis. He was ripped in a way Marinette had only every previously seen on guys in magazines or on TV. Marinette was fifteen, (Sixteen in just a few months) had grown remarkably into her looks, and smirked a bit every time she caught Adonis eyeing her back.

“I got to go,” Adonis said. “Work.” He leaned a bit closer to Marinette. “If you wanna drop by, I wouldn’t mind. Maybe we can go for a swim together.”

Marinette flushed with excitement and blushed a lovely pink by the offer, “That sounds amazing! What do you do?”

           He grinned a sparkling white smile that lit up his gray eyes, and caused Marinette to let out a dreamy sigh. “I work with my dad. We do underwater scuba tours and explore sea wildlife and dormant underwater volcanos. We just got be careful to avoid sharks.”

           Marinette’s fell open, and she just stared at the older boy for a moment, “I’m a little busy today. But can we meet up later,” She squeaked.

           They said they goodbyes. And once Adonis was out sight, Marinette’s eyes narrowed, “Not today, Satan.”

           An image of the first time saw Adonis suddenly floated to the front of her mind. Adonis coming out of the water, with his surfer board and red swim trucks, running towards dry land.

           Marinette took a deep breath to stead herself; fight the urge to go running after Adonis. Because there was no way in hell she was going to deal with a “Dormant” volcano. And she didn’t mess with sharks. Neither did Jagged anymore and he had to learn his lessons the hard way. He was lucky to come back with all his limbs.

           By Wednesday, everyone was panicking. Alya refused to give in and attempted to rally her troops; with a divide and conquer plan. Lila had even come back early and graciously offered to take time away from her busy schedule to help. Alya decided they’d work on the play first. Then prepare for the dance, it shouldn’t take that long to decorate anyway, Alya had guess. Then finally they work on the fundraiser.  Everything would go perfectly.

           …Everything went wrong.

           They worked the entire morning on the Mylene’s musical. They tried to work on the costumes. But they had no one who could fix the costumes. Any tailor they went to cost an arm and a leg. Lila’s personal tailor was away helping the Duchess of Manchester with her wedding dress. Max could print flyer but only generic ones. Not the creative ones Marinette had always made. And it wasn’t like they could ask Nathaniel for help without him spitting acid at them. The sets had to be rushed; and ended up poorly painted. Not even close to as good as the ones Marinette had help do the year before and even worse than the ones other classes had done. To make matters worse, the light fixtures they had installed started a small fire.

           Mylene had a full blown panic attacked that caused one of the strongest Akuma Queen Bee and Chat Noir had ever faced.

           The musical had taken up most of the day. So Alya and the class spent the rest of it and most of the night trying to prepare for the dance. The problem was their budget was small. Apparently it had always been that small which had shocked Alya and the others as they remembered the amazing dances Marinette had always thrown. The only decorations came from the local party story and were as cheap as possible. But they hadn’t gotten nearly enough when they got to gym and fully realize the size of it. But most of their budget was already shot on what they did get.

           While for the last few years, Marinette’s had supplied most of the food for the dances from the bakery. It was clear to Alya that, it wouldn’t be happening. Most of the class had been banned from the shop. Alya ended up having to buy dollar store chips and drinks; and ended up with a cliché fruit punch bowl.

           Everyone got in trouble with their parents for being out so late. Even if they had been at school. All the kids were exhausted and overly stressed. When Alya got home that night, she got a text from Nino that caused her to burst into tears. His DJ gear had fried. They had no music for the dance.

           Not to mention Alya hadn’t even thought about the fundraiser. What was she going to do? What could she do?

           Alya cried herself to sleep. Knowing that in the morning she’d have to swallow her pride and call in the big guns. She needed Marinette. They all did.

           Marinette was having the time of her life. She laughed as let Heinrich and Mila twirl her around the dance floor. She was at a local teen club, out late, and truly partying for the first time in her life. He was a sixteen-year-old, six foot tall, blond, gorgeous fut-baller, with cheekbones that could cut glass. He had come to the city with his team for a charity match all the way from Germany. Mila was a beautiful redhead from Ireland, with startling blue eyes and a face dusted with freckles. She was a futballer too and was the most competitive person Marinette had ever met.

           Marinette had met the futball players, the girls’ team and the boys’ team at the beach. When the girls realized they only had five plays to the boys’ six and needed another girl. They saw Marinette alone and invited her to play. They all had a blast. Afterwards, they invited her to the club that night.

           Marinette had danced with everyone. However, somehow she had found herself smashed between Heinrich and Mila, more often than anyone else.

           The three laughed their way off the dance floor when Tonya, a local girl with green hair, and a futballer herself, had waved them over.

“We’re going to Fairy Ridge,” Tonya shouted over the music.

           Marinette’s interest was piqued. “Fairy Ridge?”

           Tonya answered happily, “It’s beautiful at night. An underground cave, near the ocean. It has this opening at the top and you can see all stars. It has a bunch of colorful crystals that glow in the moonlight, and fill up the cave.”

“Sweet,” Mila said, her arm still around Marinette. “Sounds like a party, mate.”

           Everyone agreed quickly. But Marinette wasn’t too sure. It was really late to the point where Jagged would be proud when she got back. Penny had made Marinette promise to avoid doing anything that would make Jagged proud; apart from the Bluenette’s usual awesomeness of course.

“You are coming, yes, Marinette?” Heinrich gave her his most charming smile that made Marinette go weak in the knees.

“Marinette, the ridge is so cool,” Tonya exclaimed, a bright smile on her face. “It’s supposed to be magic. They say fairies used to really live there. It’s cursed. They say all who enter are given a test of worth. Those who pass are stolen away to live under fae rule forever more as a fairy.”

           Marinette just looked at her. She thought of Tikki, the small magical god of creation, who was enjoying her vacation in the luxury sweet as well. When Marinette left her, she had been in a bowl of cookies finally getting caught up on Game of Thrones. A god who’s power turned Marinette into a magical superhero. Magical was real. And if A kwami was real, fairies could be too.

           The bluenette pursed her lips, and feigned a look of disappoint, “Sorry, guys. It’s so late. I’m already super passed my curfew. You guys go. We’ll hang tomorrow, okay?”

           The other teens expressed their disappointment, though Mila and Heinrich tried to convince her a bit more as they left the club. Jagger’s personal driver already waited for her.

           Once they had parted ways, Marinette got into the car and drove off. She waved brightly to the backs of the beautiful teens, “Not today, Satan.”

           Thursday, the entire class was freaking out. They had all gotten there early, desperate to try to fix the mess they were in. Even Alya could admit she needed some serious help. They all waited for Marinette to show up. Surely, it had to be back by now, right? They needed her!

           When the school bell rang starting class, and once again, Marinette didn’t appear. Alya nearly screamed. “Where is she?” She asked. “Marinette can’t miss this much school!”

“She’s not replying to my texts,” Mylene said, her eyes frantic with worry. Her boyfriend Ivan tried to calm her down.

“She never got back to me either,” Rose frowned. “Normally I’d get a bunch of questions asking about the style of wanted for my dress by now.”

           Alya stomped her foot. “Marinette hasn’t answered a single of calls. What part of S.O.S doesn’t she understand? The dance is falling apart. I have no idea what to do about the fundraiser on Sunday. We need her. I swear if that girl lost her phone again…”

“You’ll do what?” Surprising it was Nathanial who asked this. There was silence at his questions. “That’s what I thought. You’ll do nothing. One, because you have no right to text the girl you disowned as a friend and ridiculed for the last year for help. Two, you couldn’t take Marinette in a fight with everyone in this class helping you. And three, you’re the one who turned down her offers to help all year; citing that you didn’t need her. You don’t get to beg for help at the last minute, and be surprised that she can’t do it.” The speech had turned into an angry rant by the end as the once quiet redhead glared at them with poorly concealed disgust.

           Chloe knew bringing Nathanial into their fold had been a smart idea. She sent a vicious smile to the class, “Marinette’s on vacation. She won’t be back until Monday.” Chloe relaxed in her seat. “For her ex-friends; it’s her one week. You should know what that means”

           There were gasps. Alya’s face drained of color. They all knew what that meant. Marinette was gone in the wind, and she wouldn’t come back or answer her phone even if fire rained from the sky as furbys finally revealed the truth of their evilness and declared themselves the new rules of earth.

           They were on their own.

           Lila watched with a frown as her classmates fell apart. She didn’t think this would happened when she got Alya to replace Marinette as class president. Who knew the idiots could survive without the girl?

“No dresses,” Rose realized. All the girls in class looked ready to cry. Marinette always made their dresses, always. What were they going to do? They never saved up any money for a dress because they never had to before.

           Mylene started crying, “The play is ruined.” She sobbed. “I worked so hard on it.”

“What about the fundraiser?” Alix asked. “So much for going to New York or anywhere! Our class trip is ruined!”

           Bustier looked at a loss of what to do as her student began to panic. “Now everyone calm down. Breath.” She said calmly. “It. Will. Be. Fine.”

           Alya paced around the class, her hair wild, her eyes bloodshot from the lack of sleep. “Ok, we can do this! I can do this!” She hissed. “I don’t need Marinette. I’ve never needed Marinette!” She looked around at the class. “None of us do. Anything she can do, we can do better, right?” Some looked unsure but Alya manage to rally everyone. “We can get our own dresses!” She yelled. “We can decorate our own dance. We fix the school play. And we will do the fund raiser. Without her, who need that bully anyway?”

           Nathaniel and Chloe shared a look and rolled their eyes. This would be good.

           The next few days would go down in Bustier’s class history as the worst three days of the students’ lives. And the most embarrassing.

           Barely anyone showed up for Mylene’s musical. None of the costumes were finished. The sets were a disaster. The actors were so frazzled, they couldn’t remember their lines. Three people walked out. One of them was Kim’s grandmother. Kim who had been one of the lead actors.

           On the day of Mylene’s play, Marinette woke up from her second nap of day to Penny banging on her door. When the bluenette opened it, the woman screamed, “Get ready!”

“What?” Marinette yawned, still half-asleep.

“Get. Ready. Now,” Excitement shown in the older woman eyes. She bounced around the room, opened Marinette’s closet and started throwing out clothes. “Hurry!”

“Why?” It was her vacation. Marinette didn’t want to rush. Or move.

“Zac Efron,” Penny squealed. That got Marinette’s attention and it was all Marinette need to shoot to attention and start scrambling to get ready. “Tom Holland, and Zendaya are filming a movie on an island close by. Jagged got us passed to go set.”

           As Marinette got dressed she asked, “What’s the movie about?”

           Penny gave a dreamy sigh, “Pirates and adventures. It’s a musical. Zendaya plays a kickass pirate who takes control of her father’s ship after he dies to rescue her genius half-brother, played by Tom Holland, who managed to figure out the location of the greatest treasure in all of history, from the evil Pirate King, played by Zac Efron.”

“Now that’s a musical I’d watch,” Marinette finished her make up in the mirror.

“And get this!” Penny paused for dramatic effect. “Harry Styles is the love interest. He supposed to be on set sometime this week.”

           Marinette screamed.

           They took a helicopter to the island. It was the best day of her life. She got to meet the goddess that was Zendaya, Her real life prince charming Tom Holland, and the man of her dreams Zac Efron. They were nice. They were sweet. They took so many pictures and videos with her.

           When Jagged mentioned Marinette designed most of his wardrobe. Marinette even got to show off her sketch book she had brought when the cast was too busy and it got boring. Zendaya commissioned a dress. She nearly right there.

           Then the director got a call, “Okay Harry’s arrived. He’s waiting at the cave. Time to shoot the act 5, scene 1.”

           They all moved to leave.

“Cave?” Marinette found herself asking.

           Penny nodded, “Its historically accurate. The real life Captain Wolfblood, the guy who’s treasure everyone wants, supposedly buried his there. Pirates fought and died there all the time trying to find it. Supposed to be cursed. So whoever died was bound there for eternity; their ghosts protect the treasure. Killing all who enter their domain.”

           Marinette found herself stopping in her tracks, “Pirate Ghosts.” She stated. “Cursed treasure.”

“Harry Styles…” Penny sang, causing Jagged to give her a sour look.

           Harry Styles… For the first time that vacation Marinette was tempted to go. Tempted to risk pirates’ curses and murderous ghosts just to see the man who had caused ten-year-old Marinette to write Mrs. Harry Styles in her diary for a month.

“I actually have to facetime my parents,” Marinette frowned. “Reception terrible out here.”

           After promising to meet them for dinner, Marinette booked it off the island. As it faded from sight, and all her wishes of being the future Mrs. Harry Styles burned, she whispered, “You stepped of your game. I’m impressed.” She glared at the window. “But Not today, Satan.”

           The dance was a catastrophe. Everyone in class could admit to that. All the girls wore their dresses from the year before. For the first time, there was no live performance. Just Nino’s play music from his phone. Until it died midsong. They forgot to get helium for the balloons, so they had to blow them up themselves. The chips were stale. The punch tasted like rotten bananas. No one alerted the proper staff regarding the dance so no one warned the janitor not to wax the gym floor the night before. Five kids hurt themselves. Alya forgot to get chaperones. And found Damocles and Mendeleiev shut down the entire dance before it even got passed its first hour.

           The night of the dance would go down as the best night of Marinette’s life. The director from the day before had liked Marinette so much that gave her the role of Lunaris, mermaid princess, originally played by an actress who had backed out of the role at the last second. Like literally right before they were supposed to shoot her scenes. It was a small role; Marinette didn’t have many lines and only two songs to herself (and fillers song lines throughout the movie). Plus she died. (The entire part took five days to film, and Marinette ended up staying on her vacation an additional two days. Her parents instantly approved; wanting their daughter away from the drama of her ex-friends. However, Marinette would be called in for additional reshoots and scenes, a month later. Then more after that as they would expand her role) She spent the entire time in a mermaid costume. Up until the last act of the movie.

           However, her character was in love with Harry Styles’ character, a mermaid prince who became human for chance to win the love of Zendaya’s character. Her character more or less had been the prince’s childhood best friend who never admitted to being in love with him until it was too late. She had spent the entire movie supporting him to win the main character’s heart. Her first song was sang as she helped him escape the underwater kingdom to go to his true love while she hid her own; choosing to put him before herself. The next day it was revealed that they were supposed to have been betrothed and united their kingdoms. Her second song happened after she chose to fight on land to save her friend and taking a killing blow for him; she died singing to the prince about not waiting to tell someone you love until its’ too late; especially if the love’s worth dying for. Or walking on land for.

           After shooting her scenes for the day; she was invited by the cast to go meet Chris Heimsworth who was vacationing at a nearby island resort. They were going to go budging jumping of the highest mountain on the Island, near shark infested waters. Again Marinette only had one thing to say to that, “Not today, Satan.” She was not going to fight a shark. Not that week. No matter how much she loved Thor. (She’d later find out Tom Hiddleston was there and cry.)

           The fundraiser had cost more than it raised. That was all anyone was willing to say on the subject. Particularly Alya who was missing her eyebrows.

           The day of the fundraiser, the Day Marinette was supposed to return home, was bliss. At the end of it, Marinette found herself watching the sunset with Jagged and Penny.

“We should visit mermaid isle,” Penny suggested. “I heard it’s magical. There’s a spot that grants wishes… At a price.”

           Marinette didn’t bother to ask for anymore. She just smiled, “Not today, Satan.”

           The next morning, the Monday Marinette should have already been back home, instead she was getting ready to shoot some more scene for the movie. Then she got a call.

“Hey Marinette!” Kimi, the director, said. “We were hoping you could come in early today. We have to shoot your death scene.”

“Oh! Sweet! Where?”

“Shark cove. It will be perfect,” Kimi said cheerfully. “This time before your last breath, Harry’s going to kiss you goodbye. So eat a mint.”

           Marinette mind froze. Kiss… Harry? “Shark cove?”

“Yeah, we’ll have to be careful not to attract any, you know?” Kimi sighed. “It’ll be a bit dangerous. You okay with that?”

           The bluenette wanted to scream no way. But it was a new week. “I’m there,” She said firmly. For a kiss from Harry Styles, she’d do anything.

           Vacation time was over. Marinette was going to fight a shark.

           When Marinette returned to school on Wednesday, it was to the frustrated faces of her classmates. None of them talked to her. Just glared coldly. Though Alya did give her a sarcastic, welcome back.

           Marinette just shrugged and went to sit at her desk next to Chloe and Nathaniel, who were both grinning.

“How was it?” Marinette asked them.

           Nathaniel smirked, “Epic! Three fires. Two poisonings. A kid broke his leg. Four more ended up in the emergency room.”

“The play was a disaster,” Chloe added. “The dance was shut down after an hour. The fire department came to the so called fund raiser. You were gone for little more than a week and these morons nearly got themselves killed like four times.”

“We got in on video!” Nathaniel laughed.

           Marinette laughed.

           She looked at the stressed and embarrassed students of Bustier’s class, even the teacher looked worse for wear.

           Marinette smirked.

           Somebody obviously needed a vacation. Or rather… Everybody.

#ml salt #ml fic #marinette dupen chang #Marinette deserves better

[infini-tree]

FANFIC: in post

Summary: A unexpected reunion takes place. Captain may be the one who starts it, but its Benjamin who ends it.

A/N: (alternate title - i don’t know what possessed me to write this post in fic form, but its here now and you all have to deal with it)

in post stuff isn’t going to be an ongoing multi-chapter thing, let alone in order, but just a place to put all the little drabbles I have. Unlike what the name suggests not all of them happen after the main story of the AU, though this one definitely does. The only way I can imagine this is after years after the main story has wrapped up.

though lbr i mostly because I got tired of trying to figure out titles for WIPs.

And just in case: slight content warning for verbal abuse from a parent. Its nothing explicit and is just a flashback, but it does take up the entire paragraph chunk its in and starts with “Suddenly he was back at his living room”.

                                                        ——–

Captain comes back to a gymnasium full of people and music, which wasn’t the weirdest part. Nor was the fact that the people were grown-ups. 

No, the weirdest part was that the gym wasn’t the one he had come to associate with Jerome Horwitz. Though, it was difficult to appreciate the novelty; between the sudden noise and people, he feels out of his depth.

His body moved automatically. Every accidental bump into someone was a shock, each trumpet blare was like a blow to his skull, and he dimly recalled thinking ah, that’s it when hearing the sound of snapping in the music. The clothes, while leagues comfier than his counterpart’s go-to, it was still there.

After what felt like ages of wading through a sea of people, he stumbled into a hallway just as unfamiliar as the gym. He really, really wanted to get out of this place quickly-- or at least, bring Benjamin back to deal with whatever this place is himself.

(Which bears the question: why did Benjamin come here? Parties aren’t exactly his Thing.)

The music faded as he moved away from the gymnasium, which helped a little.  Captain forced himself to look around. The walls looked the same as Jerome Horwitz was, but if the details were reshuffled. The lockers were in different places, the corridors weren’t exactly where he expected them to be and neither were the bulletin boards with posters on it-- wait, posters!

There were a lot of random stuff about clubs and other announcements, but one stood out. Its top edges curled in on itself, so he couldn’t read the top part, but the rest read: REUNION.

“Welcome back, class of--” Captain repeated, until--

Someone cleared their throat. He leapt up in the air with a short yell, nearly stumbling over his shoe-covered feet.

The newcomer winced, but nonetheless stayed silent. If the Waistband Warrior could describe her, then it would be... sharp. Sharp look, sharp flat top, sharp gaze. Not mean, though it could be. It reminded her of his sidekicks’ freshly sharpened pencils, ready and full of potential.

“...Are you lost?”

“Beg pardon?”

“You’ve been wandering the same hallway intersection and--” she pointed a thumb towards a distant hallway. “The gymnasium is over there.”

Captain blinked for a moment, letting her words sink in. “Oh-- ohhh. Oh no, I meant to get out of the gymnasium,” he said matter-of-factly. “Though yes, I am lost. Do you, ah, could you show me where the nearest washroom or... water fountain is around here, er--”

“Moxie.” It looked like she was expecting something, but when nothing did, her shoulders untensed.

“Captain!” he beamed.

The sharp look turned severe. “Is that a joke?”

He flinched, unsure of what set her off. “U-- uh, no?”

Sensing his nervous energy, the severe look shifted to apprehension. Her brow furrowed. Did she not know either?

“Ma’am?”

“...Do I know you from somewhere?” she asked, crossing her arms. “I’m no good with faces.”

Captain paled. Either she knew Benjamin-- which was not a conversation he was equipped for-- or she recognized him as Captain Underpants-- which was a whole other, potentially dangerous can of worms.

“Uh, nope!” he chirped. “About that washroom--”

“Uh, yeah, sure,” she said after a moment, pointing a thumb down a nearby corridor. “There should be one down the hall.”

"Alrighty, thank you! Have a lovely night, Moxie.” And with that, Captain rushed to the washroom to wash his face and get out of whatever that was.

And only when he looked in the mirror of the dingy washroom, to the clothes that made it hard to think did he slap a hand to his forehead. He really did just introduce himself as himself while dressed up as Benjamin. 

He was definitely going to read an essay’s worth of complaining after this whole thing.

                                                       ——–

“Hey, Captain.”

Benjamin gripped at his chest at the sudden voice. He just stepped outside and into the parking lot only to find Moxie Swaggerman, straight A student, the envy of literally half the school, now astronaut just...

“Uh, what are you doing out here?” his lip curls up wryly out of old habit-- he’ll address the whole Captain thing later-- what did that idiot do while he was out?! “Got tired of people asking for your autograph?”

She tilted her head, adjusting her aviator glasses. “Oh, so you do know me.” She almost seemed... disappointed by that. “Why, you want one?”

“Urgh, no.” He crinkled his nose. Opinions about her aside, that just sounded... weird to ask from someone he knew, even if said knowledge was periphery at best and non-existent at worst.

Moxie let out an amused huff. “Good, because I can only take so much people trying to kiss up to me.”

Despite himself, Benjamin couldn’t help but let out a laugh, short and loud and practically a cackle. The woman’s brow quirked up as she regarded him.

“What?” he snapped back.

“The lack of hair threw me off, since I remember you with that weird swoop back, but I finally figured it out--” And he couldn’t help but adjust his toupee as she swept back her hands on both sides as a pale imitation of how his hair was all those decades ago. “You were the one who competed against me for Prom Queen.”

Benjamin wanted to say something, but all that came out was half-noises. His entire body grew hot and his hands became clammy as she just... continued to stare. The worst part about all this was that, with the low light of outside, he couldn’t tell why. 

Suddenly he was back at his living room-- but not his, not anymore, he refused to consider that place his own-- staring down at the floor and clutching at the hems. Seeing his brother just peering in in his periphery vision as his mother continued her tirade, each word bullwhip-precise at hitting him in his core. But this was different; he was older and under no one’s thumb.

“A-- and what about it,” he managed to pry out of his throat.

Moxie’s posture shifted, and he could see her surprised expression now. If the circumstances were a bit different, then he would be reveling in the fact. Right now, though, he felt exposed, which was saying something considering who his counterpart was.

“Whoa-- hey, I didn’t mean it like that,” she clarified, and was that a hint of awkwardness? Remorse in her voice? “Honestly, it’s... nice to see you again.”

It was his turn to gawk. “...Really?”

“I mean, yeah. It’s uh-- like, its nice to see, ah... people like me still kicking.”

And it was then that Benjamin remembered the old rumors about Swaggerman-- about why she couldn’t get a nice guy to fall for her, and the girl from the rival school that clung by her side like a second shadow during summer vacation.

“I’ve always wondered for the longest time if you did that whole thing as a...” she paused, pursing her lips. “A joke, or something.”

“Oh,” he managed. “No, it wasn’t.”

“OK.” She nodded. “OK. Good to know.”

“Why, was that eating away at you?”

A passing car lit up her features in relief. When had her annoyingly cool façade been just that? It looked guarded now. A little more awkward. Funny how a few decades of separation can do.

Moxie shrugged. “Would have been nice to know back then.”

Benjamin wasn’t sure what to say to that, so he shrugged sympathetically and began to fiddle with the keys in his hand-- he had almost forgotten why he was out here in the first place.

She gaze followed the source of the glint. “Leaving early? Figure I should head out too.” She sighed. “Thanks.”

“...For what?”

“For making my last night before I get put to my paces a little more bearable.” She stretched her arms in front of her.

“Really, last night before you go to space and you choose to come here,” Benjamin deadpanned.

“First of all, no that’s not--” she shook her head. “Never mind. Basically, I wanted a normal night, and at least I got a bit of that. So, thanks, Captain.”

Benjamin had half a mind to correct her, but the moment had long passed and frankly he didn’t want to break the moment he was in now.

“Uh, yeah.” He waved her off awkwardly. “See you later.” 

She's going to space, idiot, not a weekend road trip, his own mind admonished.

Moxie only nodded in reply before she went off as well-- presumably to her own car.

#mellsian fanfics #captain underpants #sticky notes au #im not sure How to end this but its There #the au can have bits of tetocu in its continuity as a Treat

[i-mybrunettelady]

cause i'm curious--nyra + any part of lws1 that you'd like to chat about? :D @kerra-and-company

Ty for the ask!! Since it's baby Nyra hours and I haven't yet played season 1 (nor am I as familiar with it unfortunately) I can only relay little snippets of what struck me as interesting!

First off, Kasmeer: she can't be that older than Nyra, right? Some 3 years or so right? And I've read the first introduction between Kas and the Comm and thought; given that they're close in age/both nobles, they must've met before. Probably even at Queensdale Academy? If that's the case, Kas' first introduction to Nyra was as a "a tactician of mischief," if students of the academy were to be believed.

Secondly, I think Nyra still sometimes goes to the bulletin boards in LA for missing persons. Some of them have never been found.

Thirdly, and to end on a sweet note: both Nyra and Hearne were present during the Queen's Jubilee and the Marshal was noted to have been "uncharacteristically romantic with his dragon-slaying lover." Of course it went to shit but we're not mentioning that cause #fluff.

#gw2 #ask meme #alysannyra #trahearne #trammander #baby nyra hours!! yes #good #guild wars 2

[not-studying-with-may]

7th January 2021 • thursday • 2:15 AM

yes. i’ve done it again.

another late night study session

a productive night indeed. i sleep during the day and work at night and then sleep during the day again because i’m tired from staying up at night??? a vicious cycle.

feat. my DIY, waste-friendly bulletin board made out of an egg carton!!!

anyway, Gender Trouble (Judith Butler) update:

kinda still struggling but I have a better system now (i’m using the kindle app on my macbook) which has made it a lot easier to work efficiently. definitely behind schedule but that’s fine.

have a great day ahead lovelies <3

#2 am brain cell murder time #chaotic academia #i cleaned my table today i swear i don’t know what happened #i miss jenna marbles #i hope jenna marbles is doing okay #taylor swift rocks #peace out homies #studyblr #studyspo #study motivation #late night studying #sociology #gender trouble #judith butler #drop a PSYCH if u made it till here love u #Spotify

[cruecifymesixx]

Love and Leather /part eighty/

Word Count: 5.9k

A/N: woohoo! 80 chapters! thanks for reading! feedback is always appreciated

Warnings: angst, language

Taglist:  @aryssav , @miserablecunt , @dangerous-like-a-loaded-pistol, @fandomshit6000, @anntheboneless,  @justjodeye, @supernaturalvikingwhore, @hi-my-name-is-riley, @extremesadnerding, @thatbandchick39, @awkwrdcait, @countrygirlswonderland, @awesomealmostdopestudent, , @tashy-bear, @krazykatkay456, @terror-triplet, @shouttatthedevill @beachystars, @rodriguez025, @kickstart-myheart-sixx, @s-outhie, @anxious-diabetic, @awkwardblackgirls, @rockersbox, @shamelessobsessions, @jerseytaint, @lilytalebi, @criminalyetminimal, @motley-queen, @trapt-in-a-dream, @lunamadhatter99, @broke-n-bitchy @thanks2pete,  @lovesick-heart0, @keepcalm-and-beyou, @miriampraez, @teenwolflover28, @lilyhw1, @motherloovebone, @random-internet-user-4471, @falcon-arrows, @talranocchia2001,  @waywardprincess666, @malibubarbievince, @iluvmesomemarvelndc, @zoenicoles, @vamprlestat, @supersoldierballerina, @primal-screamer @electradestiny, @marshbev, @n0-sh0rtage-0f-faults, @cruebaby, @ggorehorror, @valentines-in-london, @miss2001babe, @nassauartist  @cmft-jr-winchester, @bokkie92, @notworthyofyou1120 @xrosegoldwolfx, @lauravic​, @mgkobsessed, @chaoticvybe​,  @kellysimagines​ @thoughtsoftheantagonist​ @marvelismylifffe​, @sleepyjunhong​  @meetthesixxter​ @sparxx27​ @gingerspicetalks​ @kaitieskidmore1​ @unknownoblivion​ @nevergoodenuffbutokaaayyy​ @sublimeprincesswasteland​ @kylieinwonderland​ @haileynicoleseavey17​ @lavendersoundbarrier​ @youretheonlyonewhomakesme​, @xxisxxisxxis​, @dogmom2014​, @cruesixxlover1991​, @xpoisonousrosesx​, @cranberrirolls​, @m0rnlngstar​, @love-struck-aries​, @findingmyths​, @patheticgay69​, @i-want-to-shoot-myself​, @arianareirg​, @fentitrbl​, , @motleycrueprincess​, @redlipscrystalskies14​, @samanthadegaro​, @oskea93​, @idkmanhereisshitilike​, @idumpyourgrass​, @makaelahdelvalle​, @brideofdraculana​

Nikki’s hand felt like a damn weight wrapped around mine as we walked into Arianna’s school to drop her off. It was the first day back from winter break and she wanted the both of us to escort her in. She walked in front of us smiling big as other teachers greeted her as we forced our smiles and pretended like everything is a-okay.

His hand kept twitching around mine, well squeezing lightly as he knew I didn’t want to be holding it. Why would I? It’s been a week since everything and all we’ve done is argue after Arianna goes to sleep.

We arrived at her kindergarten classroom, Arianna excitedly running to her cubby to put away her backpack and give her lunchbox to Miss. Martinez to put in the fridge for later.

“Bye mom!” Arianna came over, crushing her face into my knees as she wrapped her arms around me. I bent over and kissed the top of her head.

“I’ll see you after school, alright? Be good today.” I smiled at her, smoothing my hand over her hair to tame it.

“No auntie?” She asked me, out of the corner of my eye I saw Nikki rolling his. I elbowed his side before crouching down to her level.

“We talked about this Ari.” I spoke softly as I held her hand, “Auntie will only be picking you up if me or daddy can’t. She’s living with Tommy now, so we need to be big girls and do things without her. You’ll still see her later this week maybe, okay?”

She nodded with a pout on her lips, “Okay...bye daddy.” She mumbled raising her arms up as he scooped her up in his arms.

“You have fun today, babe and I’ll see you later.” Nikki kisses her cheek and ran his hands up her sides, making her giggle as he put her back down. She waved to us as she went to go sit at the table with her other classmates.

“Vanity, it’s nice to see you. Happy holidays.” Her teacher came up to us, peppy as always.

“You too, Elaine.” I smiled at her, “I had to tell Arianna she couldn’t bring all the toys she got from Christmas to school.”

“Of course, it’s nice to see you again Nikki. I hope to see you more this semester. Could always use another dad on the PTA, I know Vanity has caught a few of our meetings.”

I smiled at Nikki, watching his nose wrinkle up in disgust, “No thank you. I’m sure I would scare them but yes you’ll see me more. With Arianna’s aunt out of the house, I’ll probably be the one picking her up from school because Vanity will be at work, right doll?” He snaked his arm around my waist and kisses the top of my head.

“Of course, honey.” I forced a smile, but my teeth were gritted.

“Ah, Clementine. That’s too bad, I know Arianna was extremely fond of her. She would sometimes talk my ear off about her auntie all day. Oh! If you two want to sign Arianna up for some little league sports, the paperwork is down by the office. I know she enjoys running around and kicking the ball around at recess with the boys.”

“She does?” Nikki seemed genuinely surprised as I had to hold back an eye roll and a laugh.

“Yeah, how do you think she came home last semester with that giant scratch on her leg?” I told him bitterly, “We’ll stop by the office before we leave and discuss it tonight at dinner. Thank you Elaine.”

We both waved by to Arianna before leaving her classroom, “Okay, I gotta get to the studio-where are you going? Van, I’m already running late.” Nikki groaned as I turned the opposite way of him.

“Didn’t you hear me? I’m going to the office to pick up paperwork for sports.” I rolled my eyes as he followed me down the hallway.

“Vanity, we don’t have time for little league sports. You know, with the album being produced and then we’ll be going on tour before we know it.”

“Huh, I don’t remember being a member of Mötley Crüe?” I turned the corner, making sure not to bump into kids as I walked up to the bulletin board near the office and examined it.

“Well you aren’t, but you two will be going on tour with me.” I laughed as his statement as I looked between soccer and softball.

“Says who?”

“Vanity, don’t fucking start.” He said in a lower tone as I reached up and took a packet.

“You keep making decisions for us Nikki without bothering to tell me.” I glared at him, “I am not going on tour with you and neither is Arianna. I’m not just gonna rip her away from school and home just because you want us to be with you.” I shook my head, growing frustrated with him already. And it was barely nine in the morning.

“You use to love going on tour with me.” Nikki mumbled as I laughed.

“Because I was twenty five years old without a care in the world who just wanted to get fucked by a hot rockstar and plug my nose up with blow.” I folded the papers up and placed them into my purse, “We’re not kids anymore, Nikki.”

I started walking away from him, feeling him grab my hand as I quickly pulled it away from, “Jesus fu- are you really still mad at me?”

I glared at him, “Am I really still mad at you?” I tapped my chin, “Hm, let me go pay off Tommy to get him to shut up and back off so you and I can be together for my own selfish reasons. How would you feel about it?”

Nikki pretended to think hard, “I actually wouldn’t mind.” I rolled my eyes as we walked out the front doors of her school, “But Tommy’s my best friend, he would know when to back off. That’s something you can’t say about Clementine because she doesn’t know her fucking boundaries.”

“Yes she does.” I raised my voice just enough as he stared me down when he opened up the car door for me.

“No, she fucking didn’t. She was always in our space Vanity, we never had a moment alone without her calling for you.” Nikki spoke before slamming the door. I closed my eyes for a brief second and took a few deep breaths.

“Just take me home so you can get to the studio on time.” I spoke to him as he got in and buckled up. I reached for the dial knob to turn on the radio.

“I’m already late so you’re coming with me.” He stated as he turned out of the parking lot and started driving down the street.

I groaned, “Nikki, really? It’s my day off I want to be at home. There’s laundry to do and I needed to go grocery shopping and Anarchy has to go to the groomers today as well.”

“Can you chill for five seconds? It’s barely eight thirty in the morning. And I only have to be there till noon. I’ll help with laundry and we can go to the store after I’m done at the studio and Anarchy’s appointment isn’t until three-“

“..And three is when Arianna gets out of school. And she’ll want a snack and she’ll need help with her homework.”

Nikki laughed, “Oh come on! How hard can her homework be? Ain’t it just coloring?” He shook his head as he took a sip from his water.

“No, it’s counting and tracing shapes and letters and she struggles with writing out things. If you helped with her homework you’d know that.” I explained to him as I saw him roll his eyes under his sunglasses.

“I do too help her. We count guitar picks or her gummies. Unlike you who makes her count on her fingers, that’s boring. I make learning fun at least.” Nikki said in a matter of fact type tone.

“Whatever. She doesn’t stay focused long enough when I help her with math-“

“Because you’re boring, doll.”

I scoffed and lightly smacked his arm, “I am not!”

Nikki reached for my hand and kisses my knuckles through a smile when we came to a stop at a red light, “I love you.” He rested our hands on the center console as he brushed his thumb over my skin repeatedly.

“Yeah, yeah I love you too.”

Some days I think Nikki and I are okay. That things are good and normal, if you can even call our relationship normal. Today was one of those days. I mean, yeah we’re arguing a bit but it’s not volatile like it usually would be. It’s tolerable. Then there’s days like how it has been with New Years and the Clementine situation that makes me believe we aren’t okay. But I also know we have more good days than bad days.

I sat comfortably in the silence as Nikki traced shapes with his fingertips, “Is Clementine gonna be there? I haven’t seen her..” I quietly spoke. I was nervous about seeing her again and how she would be. I don’t think she would hold it against me. But still, I was worried.

“Yeah probably. She’s been there every day this past week acting like an abused little puppy. She sits on the couch and doesn’t say anything unless Tommy or Mick talks to her.” Nikki said bitterly as I sighed.

“Great...” I mumbled as he pulled up to the gates of the studio. The security guard buzzed us in as we soon parked after.

“You’ll be fine.” Nikki reassured me as I nodded. He wrapped his arm around my shoulder as we walked in. The white walls were riddled with gold, platinum and diamond record plaques of all the artists that have worked here. We walked down the hallways before Nikki opened up the door for me.

“Hey guys, sorry I’m late. It was Arianna’s first day back at school.” Nikki explained as he took off his jacket and hanged it up and went straight over to the other three right away.

I stood by the door seeing Clementine sitting on the couch reading a book, not even bothering to say hi to me. I noticed there was refreshments off to the side, I grabbed a water bottle and a lollipop.

“Good morning, Van.” I turned around to look at John, I quickly moved out of his way.

“Uh morning. How are you?” I questioned as I unwrapped the candy and stuck it in my mouth.

“I’m great, you?”

I shrugged, “I’m here.”

John chuckled and poured himself a cup of coffee, “Ain’t it a bit early for candy?” 

I watched as he dumped sugar packet after sugar packet into coffee and when he was done he reached for a donut, “What’s the difference between this and that?” I asked as he glanced at the items in his hand.

“That’s fair.” He laughed, “It’s nice to see you. You barely come to band practice.”

I nodded, sucking on the tip of the lollipop before taking it out of my mouth and licking the sticky residue off my lips, “It’s boring. I’ve been to too many. Plus Arianna and me working now. I’m only here because I was forced to come.”

John grinned, “You poor princess.”

“I’m only allowed out when my captor says it’s okay.” I joked. Sorta.

“Well you two aren’t together so why does he have a say?” John asked confused as he took a sip of his coffee.

“Huh, I think I like you even more now.” I smiled wide.

“So I’m guessing you won’t like to be on tour with him when we end up going?”

I shrugged, “I would love to go on tour, but again we have a child so it’s kinda difficult. It’s just something him and I have to discuss.”

*Nikki’s POV*

I grabbed my bass out of the case as I started to tune it, strumming the strings lightly as I went. I looked up when Tommy hit my knee, “What?”

“I found those pamphlets you were asking for.” He said as I watched him pull out his wallet and hand me a folded up laminate paper.

“Dude. Really? She’s right there.” I quickly took it from his hands as I spoke in a hush tone, “I haven’t brought it up to her yet.”

Tommy raised an eyebrow, “No? That’s gonna go over well. You know how hard it was to just get her to go to therapy in New York? It was fuckin difficult, Sixx.”

I rolled my eyes as I stuffed the paper into my front pocket, “Well I think we need to go together. You went to this?” I asked him and he nodded.

“Yeah-“ he glanced at Clementine for a moment and then leaned a bit closer to me, “Before I got with Clem, Heather and I were going. We only went to like three sessions though before we decided divorce would be better. But a lot of the stuff the therapist was saying made sense and I’m sure it could help you guys, if stubborn over there gets on board with it.”

I sighed, “I’m gonna make her favorite tonight and then after talk to her about it. We can’t keep doing this fighting with Arianna in the house and I know she’s sick of it like I am.”

“Good luck Nikki.” Tommy laughed as he patted my shoulder, “What’s Corabi doing?”

I looked over my shoulder seeing him and Van talking, “He has a crush on her or something. Kinda like how you did.” I shook my head and laughed as I turned back to the bass.

“Well I’d be mad if the roles were switched and he was trying to make a move on Clementine.” Tommy pointed out as I rolled my eyes.

“Hey baby!” I yelled for her as she looked over at me, “Can you make me a cup of coffee and bring me a donut. The maple one please.” Van nodded and started getting it for me.

“I’m not worried about him. He isn’t even her type.”

“What’s her type then?” Tommy asked as I smirked when Van came over.

“Tommy wants to know what your type is.” I asked her as she stared at me.

“My type? Like guys? Or?”

“Guys.”

She chuckled, “Asshole bassists named Nikki.” Van handed me my cup of coffee and donut, “Why?”

Tommy and I both looked at each other and shrugged, “Guy talk.”

She rolled her eyes at us, “Whatever, thanks for getting me away from John. He wouldn’t shut the fuck up.”

I glanced at Tommy giving him a told you so type look. I patted the stool next to me for her to sit down, “It’s too early for candy.” I pointed at the lollipop.

“Oh shut it and let me rot my teeth in peace. I’m gonna get my period soon.”

“Ew.” Tommy stated, his nose wrinkling you in disgust.

I chuckled, “Dude, you have a girlfriend.”

“Yeah I know, but that’s different. It’s Vanity.”

I laughed and continued tuning the bass so we could get started. I noticed Van kept looking over at Clementine. I nudged her side, “Just go talk to her.” I said quietly but she shook her head, “Van..”

“She’s reading.” Vanity retorted, “So how’s the album coming?”

“Van, stop being a puss and go talk to her. She’s nervous just like you are.” Tommy butted in as he twirled his drumsticks, “She’s worried you hate her.”

I rolled my eyes, “That’s fuckin dramatic. Just go talk to her so we can work.”

*Vanity’s POV*

I stared at Nikki as he gave me the cold shoulder after he snapped at me. I looked at Tommy and he shrugged his shoulders and motioned me to go to Clem.

I sighed and got off the stool and walked over to the other couch adjacent to Clementine. I saw her eyes flicker to me before she continued to read her book, “Hey..” I squeaked, twiddling with my thumbs. I took a step or two to sit down on the couch but she quickly put her legs up on the cushion. Well that sure as hell made it clear.

I swallowed the lump in my throat, feeling my heart beat in my ears, “What’s up?” I asked, grabbing a rolling chair from the nearby desk and sitting in it.

“Not much.”

I nodded, watching as she went back to reading the book. I tilted my head, “Oh! Interview With a Vampire. I didn’t know it was a book. The movie was really good.”

Clementine shook her head and spoke in a monotone, “They missed a lot of important parts.”

“How are you doing?” I asked, seeing her glance at me as I smiled brightly.

“Fine. You?”

“I’m okay..” I looked over at the guys practicing a new song, “They sound good.”

“Yep.”

My hands were lightly trembling so I held them in my lap, “Um, did you get settled into Tommy’s okay?”

I watched as Clementine turned the next page, “Yeah, it’s been nice.”

“Good, good. I’m glad. I am sorry it happened the way it did. You having to leave and everything..”I spoke as she finally looked at me for longer than a millisecond.

“I’m sure Nikki is pleased. He got what he wanted finally.”

I frowned at her words, “No, no. It’s not like that at all. I am so sorry Clemmy.” I repeated myself as she chuckled and put the book on her thigh.

“Really? So you’re sorry for him? Because he doesn’t think he did nothing wrong?” She scowled as I shook my head at her words.

“N-no I’m not, I’m not trying to apologize for him. I’m saying sorry for how it happened and how I was yelling.”

She rolled her eyes and picked her book up, “Yeah, whatever V.”

“Maybe we can go grab lunch or-“ I stopped talking immediately when I noticed her cold hard stare, “...or not.”

“I’m busy with some commissions. So thanks for the offer.”

“Oh! That’s great Clem! I’m happy you’re finally getting commissions done for people other than me and Tommy.” I smiled, speaking harmlessly but then my  smile went away as she scoffed at my words. 

“I’m not some useless artist after all.”

I was taken back by her words, “Useless? Clem, I have have never said that and neither has Nikki. So you can’t say that about him either.”

“Yes he has. Multiple times. Can I get back to reading now? I have nothing else to talk about with you.”

My eyebrows scrunched together as I got up, “Yeah, sorry for interrupting you.”

I did not ever imagine Clementine would be that standoffish towards me. I sighed as I went over and sat on an amp next to Nikki. He stopped strumming a melody and looked at me, “I told you she didn’t want to talk to me.” I frowned, eyed beginning to get heavy with tears, “She hates me Nikki.” I mumbled to him as he sighed and gave my thigh a squeeze before reaching for my hand and kissing it.

“Baby, if she can’t get over it and just let it go then that’s her own damn problem.”

I shrugged at his words, “Yeah, maybe you’re right.” I glanced over at her, pretending like I wasn’t even in the room.

“She’ll be crying over you in a week Van, saying how much she misses you. Quit overthinking it. I see those gears turning up there.”

“I doubt it.”

“Vanity.” Nikki gave me a stern look, “It’s going to blow over. It’s still fresh, okay? If she’s being a bitch do you want me to say something to her?”

I looked at him, “No, no. Please, I don’t want you to do that. You’ve already said enough to her. It’s fine.”

I watched as Nikki glared, sending sharp daggers Clementines way. I noticed her squirm a bit as she adjusted on the couch and brought her book up higher to her face.

“Nikki, stop glaring.” I lightly swatted his chest, seeing the jaw muscle twitching.

“You don’t deserve the coldness from her. I do, it was my fault. So that shit ain’t right to me, Van. Where are you going?” Nikki questioned as I stood up to grab my purse.

“I’m gonna go get my nails done and I will come back to get you when I’m finished.” I told Nikki as he reached for my hand and pulled me to him.

“But I want you here, baby. Just hang out with me and the guys.”

I shook my head and leaned down to give him a kiss on the lips before bringing my lips to his ear, “You’re working and I’m uncomfortable and I’m going to end up crying if I don’t leave.” I stepped back and moved some pieces of hair out of his face, “So I will see you in a few hours.”

Nikki nodded as he dug into his back pocket, pulling out his wallet and handing me his credit card, “Be good.” He warned.

I smiled a bit and took his card, “You be good too.”

*Later that evening*

After dinner, I was sitting on the couch watching tv, or attempting to watch the tv as Arianna kept running back and forth between the living room and the backyard with Anarchy. I smiled and scooted over when Nikki came over with a glass of wine for me and sat down.

“Dinner was so good. I’m stuffed. Thank you baby.” I leaned over to give him a kiss on the cheek. I took a sip of the wine before putting it on the coffee table.

“Anytime doll, you know I don’t mind cooking.” Nikki smiled as he lifted his arm up to wrap around my shoulders. I leaned into his side as we watched TV.

“Actually, while we have a moment of peace and quiet since the terror is occupied. I have something for you.” Nikki grinned as he lifted his hips up and pulled out a folded up white piece of paper and handed it to me:

‘Santa Monica Therapy and Behavioral Health’

“There’s a uh, therapist there. Her name is Crystal Peterson and she specializes in a lot of different issues. Like uh, anger management, anxiety and depression. Um, and couples that kinda...well that are kinda like us...”

I stared at the pamphlet with the list of areas the doctors their specialize in.

“Tommy, he went to see her with Heather when they were still trying to work things out. He said she was really good and that maybe she could help us-“

“No.”

I folded it up and handed it back to him. I reached for my glass of wine and the remote to change the channel.

“Why not? Van, I think it could be really good for us to maybe go talk to someone.”

I shook my head, “I’m not gonna pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars just for some therapist to tell us shit we already know. No, I’m not going Nikki.”

“But-“

I groaned and got off the couch, “I’m not going to therapy, relationship counseling, life coaching whatever the fuck it is you want to do. I’m not doing it. So you can take this nice little pamphlet and shove it.”

Nikki glared at me through choppy bangs, “Well, that kinda sucks for you because I already scheduled an appointment for the beginning of next month. We are going, Vanity.”

I breathed out, “Of course you did.” I rolled my eyes, “Nikki, why do you keep doing shit behind my back and just decide to drop it on me?”

“Because of this right here, Vanity! Because of the stupid, pointless bickering I have to go through every day with you. We need to do this!”

“We need to talk about stuff like this! Jesus Christ, why does it have to be always about what you want?! What about what I want!?”

Nikki laughed, “Oh knock it off. It’s always about what you want. And you always get it! You should want this Van!”

I shrugged, “Well I don’t, Nikki.”

He scoffed as he got off the couch and grabbed his boots that were sitting by the TV and his jacket off the back of the couch, “Where are you going?” I asked him, following him through the entry way as he walked to the front door, “Hello? I’m talking to you.”

Nikki quickly turned around, making me take a step back. I felt like a cunt when I saw his eyes were red and starting to feel with tears, “You should want this, Vanity.” He spoke through gritted teeth, “You should want to talk to a therapist with me for us! For our fucking daughter! But you don’t, so guess what that makes me think? It makes me think that you don’t even want this relationship. That you don’t want me.”

“Oh come on.” I laughed in disbelief, You can’t be serious, Nikki.”

Nikki closed his eyes for a split second, shaking his head as he let out a huff of hot air before he opened up the front door and quickly walked out. I watched his figure get distorted behind the glass panel as he went to his car and drove out of the gates.

*Later that night*

“Anarchy come on!” I shouted from my bedroom as she was barking up a storm downstairs, “Anarchy come here.” I whistle for her, hearing her tags on her collar jingle as she went up the stairs. I sat up in bed and reached across to turn on the lamp, “What are you barking about?” I asked as she jumped up on my bed before quickly running back down the stairs.

I yawned and saw that it was little after two in the morning. I slid off my bed, grabbing the black silk robe off my dresser before putting it on and walking out my door. I leaned over the railing when I heard light banging on the front door.

“Nikki?” I spoke out as I went to his bedroom, flipping on the light to see he still wasn’t back after leaving earlier.

I went down the stairs, Anarchy coming to my feet as I patted the top of her head. I heard muffled voices on the other side as the doorknob started rattling followed by more knocking against the wood.

“Fuck...” I muttered to myself as I disarmed the alarm with the code and opened up the door, jumping a bit when I saw John holding up Nikki in front of me.

“He’s, he’s like super drunk.” John slightly slurred with a laugh as he let go of Nikki, making him stumble over to me.

“I told you not to take me fucking home.” Nikki grumbled as he leaned against the archway, before tripping over his feet. I quickly wrapped my arms his waist to keep him standing up right, but he tried shoving me away “I-I don’t need a damn speech how I’m a fucking terrible person and just ruins the princesses fucking life.”

I sighed, “Thank you for making sure he got home safe.” I told John as he nodded in return.

“Of course. Goodnight guys.”

Nikki slung his arm over my shoulder, my cheek being pressed into his beer soaked shirt as I helped him walk inside the house. His fingers fumbled over the alarm panel to lock the house back up.

“Move Anarchy.” I nudged her out of the way with my foot as I brought Nikki over to the couch, almost missing it as he plopped down and laid on his side.

“Go yell at me.” He mumbled as he buried his face in the cushions. I reached for his foot and started untying the laces to his boot.

“I wasn’t going to say anything, Nikki.” I pulled on his leather boot and tossed it to the side before moving on to the other.

“Bullshit. There’s always something with you.” Nikki spoke harshly as he sat up and watched me, “I hate when you get mad at me.”

I tried ignoring him as I started unbuttoning the black dress shirt he’s wearing, “Well theres nothing now and I’m not mad at you. Can you lean forward? Your shirt smells like booze and it needs to be washed.” I looked at him as I pushed the fabric off his shoulders.

“You were mad earlier.” He shuffled on the couch as he pulled the shirt off his arms and handed it to me, “I-I think we should still see someone, V.”

I grabbed the shirt from his hand and took it to the laundry room and tossed it in the washer. I went back to him seeing him bent over petting Anarchy, “Come on, let’s get you to bed” He shook his head, “Nikki, seriously. You need to sleep.”

“I don’t want to loose you again.”

“Nikki, I’m right here.”

He rolled his eyes, “That’s not what I mean and I think-“ he spoke through a hiccup, “I think we, we both have things we need to get off our chest.”

I sat down on the couch next to him watching as he fumbled with my fingers and kissed my hand. With a sigh, “Why do we need to have someone tell us how to be in a relationship? I have nothing to talk about Nikki.”

Nikki slumped down on the couch as he rested his head against my arm, “You always have something to talk about. I just wanna have a happy life with you and Arianna..”

“We went to therapy in New York-“

“Yeah, a half assed session because you decided to blackout and drive. That’s not the same Vanity.”

I chewed on my nail as he sat up again and looked at me, “I’m happy, Nikki. Yeah we argue, but we’ve always argued.”

“I know you’re lying. You haven’t been happy here.”

I rolled my eyes and looked away from him, “Yes I have. Don’t tell me what I’ve been feeling because only I know that.”

“You don’t share a bed with me, you don’t give me hugs or kiss me, you barely like to hold my hand. We don’t talk like we use too. It’s like I’m just talking to an old friend, like, do you even still love me anymore?”

“Jesus Nikki, you’re drunk.” I got off the couch and stood in front of him, “Of course I love you so don’t ask me that question. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t. I don’t want to have some stranger sit across from me and tell me how bad we are for one another because I know we aren’t. Why can’t we just figure it out in our own? Why do we need some dumb therapist?”

“And maybe this one won’t. We clearly can’t figure it out on our own, Van. Can we at least try? It worked for you in New York, so why can’t we do it here too?” I scoffed at Nikkis words.

“Oh? I don’t remember you being there when I was at my lowest and crying to my therapist. So how the fuck would you know if it worked? You don’t, because it didn’t.”

“Because you didn’t go! And don’t tell me you went because I know you and I know you didn’t bother. Therapy works as long as you keep continuing it constantly. It’s not just a one time thing and poof you’re fixed. We could really benefit from it.”

“You keep saying we, like we’ve discussed this before and we haven’t! You spring shit on me and wonder why I get so upset with you.”

“I’m not springing anything up on you! I am trying to talk to you about it. Fuck, you can sure talk to Clementine about everything that’s wrong but you can’t talk to me. Makes fucking perfect sense.” Nikki barked bitterly as I stared at him.

“Huh, well I don’t have that now because she won’t even look at me! You saw how it went today at the studio! You ruined my friendship Nikki-“

“And I’m sorry for that but for fucks sake she needed to go!”

“No, you wanted her to go Nikki! You wanted that. Fuck, just go to bed. I can’t talk to you when you’re like this.” I shook my head and picked up his boots before tossing them over by the stairs near his other pair.

“Oh? So we can’t talk at all then. Got it loud and clear.” Nikki argued back as he pulled himself off the couch and stood up, wobbling just a bit.

I stared at him, “I meant because you’re drunk, you fucking psycho.”

“You’re the one whose fucking nuts.”

“Me? I’m nuts?” I questioned, watching him nod as he sat back down when I stepped up to him. I laughed, “Here’s a thought, maybe take a step back and realize why I get so upset and irritated with you, Nikki. You have done every shitty thing in the book to me! Drugging me, playing with my emotions for years, acting psycho and possessive when I even think of talking to another man that isn’t you. Dying on me, knocking me up just to cheat on me. Coming back into my life and just dangling me along your string for months because you couldn’t decide if you want me or your slut of an ex wife. Paying off my best friend just because you’re a selfish, egomaniacal, drowning in mommy issues and numbing it with drugs and alcohol brat! I’m going to fucking bed.”

I breathed out and turned to walk away from him only to stop when a decorative pillow hit my back.

“Fuck you.”

I raised an eyebrow, “Fuck me?” I picked it up and threw it back at him, “Real mature, asshole. This is bullshit Nikki. You can speak your mind and express how you feel whenever you want, but god forbid I do it as well.”

“Because you never have anything nice to say about me! It’s always Nikki’s an asshole or Nikki ruins everything for me!” He rolled his eyes, mocking my voice as his tone was riddled with disgust it seemed like.

“I always say such good things about you Nikki, but lately you have been an asshole!”

He was quiet for a moment before grabbing the pillow he threw and placed it on the couch, “Whatever Vanity. Go fuck someone else if you’re so unhappy with me. Let someone else deal with your bullshit like I do.”

I watched as he laid down on the couch, grabbing the maroon blanket from the arm rest and put it over his face, “Goodnight Nikki.” I hit the light switch, feeling my hands shake as I walked up the stairs. I sighed seeing Arianna staring at me with her purple fairy blanket wrapped around her head and shoulders.

“Let’s go back to sleep.” I picked her up as she wrapped her arms around around me and I carried her to my bedroom and laid her down. I got in beside her, anarchy jumping up and laying by my feet.

“Did you hear me and daddy yelling?” I asked as I got comfortable and played with her hair. She nodded a bit and curled up next to me.

“I’m sorry baby.” I wrapped my arm around her and kissed the top of her head, “Me and daddy are just having a bad day.”

A bad day, week, month and a bad everything.

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