#I didn’t cry when I watched Goodbye Solar

[jam-showtoonz]

So I was drawing (my au) Solar and I decided to add Jack bc why not-

The thing is I want to give Jack a stuffed toy (probably given to him by Solar to destroy but he didn’t so Solar just lets him keep it) but I have no idea what to make it- so I’m asking for help!

Here’s the drawing I’m making- (also this is my first time drawing Jack.)

#tsams #the sun and moon show #sun and moon show #sams #sams au #sams art #tsams au #tsams art #tsams jack #tsams solar #sams solar #sams jack o moon #tsams jack o moon #I know solars dead #let me draw the twink #love jack/p #I might start an ask blog to do with my au #still a work in progress #I didn’t cry when I watched Goodbye Solar #but the video where Lunar and Earth found out broke me

[twoheadedcas]

do it like mary magdalene 

dean/cas, 3k, inspired by john 20

“Just let me see him. I never even got to say goodbye, I-I didn’t get to say it back, you have to let me say it back, you have to, I—”

“Dean.”

And his heart stops, because the voice isn’t right, the pitch isn’t the same, but the cadence is unmistakable. Reverence, adoration, devotion. Holy, holy, holy. There’s only one being in the whole world, in the entire universe that says his name like that.

- read the whole thing on ao3 or under the cut

(13) And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.

(14) And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.

(15) Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.

(16) Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. (John 20:13-16)

*******************

The hardest part is forcing himself to burn the handprint. It’s stupid, because just looking at it makes him sick, but the thought of parting with it is somehow even worse. Dean can’t live with it and he can’t live without it. 

Of course, none of that will matter if everything goes according to plan. Dean will have no need for a bloody facsimile because he’ll have the real thing back. It’s just the niggling voice that keeps saying something always goes wrong, something always goes wrong, you know that. You know that. Something always goes wrong. 

It takes Dean a few tries to flick the lighter on because his hands are shaking that badly. He drops it into the small silver bowl, watches the stained fabric catch aflame with the other ingredients for the summoning spell. Smoke shimmers in the air above, and for a second everything is still.

Nothing happens.

Dean’s going to be sick. Nothing happens, nothing at all, and it’s his worst nightmare.

Then there’s an awful screeching noise, and Dean doubles over, pressing his palms over his ears. Something flashes in front of him, and suddenly there’s a—a thing, a spinning, floating thing hovering three feet away. It’s a sphere of light, of gold and silver and metals, but it’s also a web, like gossamer lined with drops of dew, and it’s a blue star, burning and consuming and hot, and it’s a solar system in and of itself, mini-spheres following some invisible orbit. It’s brilliant and bright, all shiny and reflective and glowy, but interspersed in the shape are streaks of black, moving with the fluidity of something liquid. Like flexible strips of the abyss. Emptiness. That’s how Dean knows he got it right.

“Alright,” he chokes out, “listen up, you son of a bitch. I want him back.”

“Who do you seek?”

And whoa, that is not what he thought the Empty would sound like. Actually, nothing about the Empty so far has been what Dean was expecting, but that’s not important. The sphere pulses as the words are emitted, loud and alien and dissonant. 

“You know who I want. Y-You took him from me, I know you have him. Give him back.” He hates that his voice is starting to crack but he can’t stop it. His heart is beating so fast, and he can feel his cheeks becoming wet, and he’s weak, so weak. 

“Why are you crying?” 

Dean bristles, wipes his face and growls, because fuck that noise. He has no idea what the hell kinda game the Empty is trying to play, but he’s not in the mood. "Shut up, you son of a bitch. Tell me where the fuck he is or I swear to G—”

“Who do you seek?”

“You know who I’m looking for. Don’t make me say it. You know, you know what I want.” The words are pouring out of his mouth now, gaining momentum with each syllable. “I don’t care what I have to do. I don’t care if I have to go through every single goddamn angel stuffed in you, I don’t care if it rips me apart, just—just give me a chance to find him. Just tell me where he is. Please.”

He's blinking tears from his eyes and forcing himself to look away from the Empty, away from where it’s suspended in the air, rotating at mesmerizing speeds. 

“Just let me see him. I never even got to say goodbye, I-I didn’t get to say it back, you have to let me say it back, you have to, I—”

“Dean.”

And his heart stops, because the voice isn’t right, the pitch isn’t the same, but the cadence is unmistakable. Reverence, adoration, devotion. Holy, holy, holy. There’s only one being in the whole world, in the entire universe that says his name like that.

“C-Cas?” 

He looks up, and the silver tendrils are solidifying, twisting, weaving back into tendons and ligaments and muscle, and the white spirals are calcifying to bone, to a spine and ribcage, and the rotating spheres are flattening on top of each other like scales, laying themselves down, grafting and stretching like skin—no, as skin, fitting itself to the body forming right in front of him. Shadows mold into features and the last thing to come together are his eyes, blank and milky white until those electric blue wisps of a star dissolve into his face, absorbed into his skin, flashing as they concentrate into irises. 

It’s Cas. There’s a residual glow around him, framing his face in a twisted imitation of a halo. He’s wearing plain black clothes, the dark streaky goo from his orb-metaphysical-form-thingy having turned to fabric, akin to the transformations of other elements. Dark jeans and a soft looking t-shirt, like he’s dressed for comfort. It’s so human, so not cosmic entity-esque, and above all, it’s so, so very Cas.

It’s Cas, and he’s walking towards Dean, who can’t breathe, can’t even open his mouth. 

“Dean.”

He's reaching out, slowly, like a man approaching a cornered animal. Dean flinches, he can't help flinching, because it's Cas and the last time he reached out like that, it was to shove him away before he fucking died. So yeah, he flinches, and it stops Cas in his tracks. 

"Dean?" 

"Don't move," he whispers. "Just—just stay there."

Hurt briefly flashes across Cas's face, though it's quickly replaced with confusion. "Dean, I'm not going to hurt you." 

"No, I know, I know you won't, I just—" He breathes in through the nose, exhales through the mouth. Repeats once or twice. 

"Just give me a second," Dean says quietly. It's a plea, not a request. He forces his feet to move, jaw tight, gritting his teeth, until he's inches away from Cas, patiently waiting for Dean to get his head out of his ass. 

"Cas?" he asks again, because he's still scared this is too good to be true. He's lifting a finger to Cas's cheek and he's so fucking terrified he'll somehow pass through him, like a projected illusion. Just a trick of the light, just an array of electromagnetic wavelengths manipulated specifically to drive Dean insane. 

"Yes, Dean," Cas replies gently. He's smiling but it's a little sad. Dean feels like shit but he has to ask one more time, chokes out one last "Cas?" for good measure. 

"Dean, I'm real. I'm here. You—" He sucks in a breath, sharp. "You can touch me, I promise." 

Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.

So Dean does. He steps forward, and he’s touching his face, the palms of his hands—he’s real, he’s real, he’s real—the curve of his lips, the hollow of his throat. His skin is warm and alive, and Dean is drinking it in like a disciple, like Paul, like Thomas. He’s touching Cas and it’s a fucking religious experience, it’s divine, he feels like faith incarnate—

And then Cas touches him.

All Cas does is fit his hand to Dean’s bicep, and it’s enough to make him cry. He goes weak in the knees, half-collapsing onto Cas, who doesn't bend an inch under his weight. 

"Dean, it's okay," he's saying, and Dean doesn't understand why. Then he realizes he's hyperventilating, still standing only because Cas is holding him up. He opens his mouth to tell Cas that he knows, that he's fine, but what comes out is a sob, and that's when he gives up. That's when he stops pretending.

The truth is it’s a revelation. It’s breaking free. It’s too much, it’s wholly overwhelming, it’s drowning in the shallow end of the neighborhood pool. More than anything, it’s coming home. Finally coming home.  

"Shh, Dean. I'm here. It's okay. I'm right here." 

"I missed you," Dean gasps, "I missed you, I love you, I love you so much, I'm sorry I didn't say it before but I-I love you, I love you and you left—" 

"I know, I know, I'm so sorry," Cas soothes, keeping him close to his chest where Dean practically threw himself at him. They have their arms wrapped around each other, though Cas is doing most of the work to stop them from falling over. Dean just cries and cries and cries, lost in how warm and strong and solid Cas's body is. 

"I love you, p-please don't leave again, you can't leave again, Cas, I can’t lose you anymore, I can’t, I can’t—”

“Dean. Breathe.” And he’s trying to but he genuinely can’t, and then Cas is pushing him away and Dean seizes up because no, not again. But he doesn’t hit the ground this time; no, there’s two hands cupping his face, tender, and he can see them glowing and there’s a rush of warm-cold through his cheeks and suddenly he feels much less light-headed than before. Cas starts to pull his hands away but Dean grabs his wrists lightning-quick, lets his weight rest against his blessed palms. He inhales and the air is sweeter.

“Dude,” and he giggles, “did you just fuckin’, like, reoxygenate me through my face?” 

“Maybe. You weren't breathing.” Cas smiles and it makes Dean’s heart do little backflips, makes him feel so impossibly fond. He really fucking loves him. Jesus Christ, he really, really loves him. 

“Cas,” he starts, and his breath catches because he can feel the energy thrumming in the pads of Cas’s fingers. He can see something more in the blue of his eyes, something even more than Grace, than angel, and he’s not scared but he doesn’t understand.

"Cas, what—what are you, man?" 

The smile slides right off of Cas’s face, and instantly Dean regrets saying anything.

“I-I honestly don’t know.” He looks nervous, and Dean squeezes his wrists, reassuring. “Something happened when the Empty took Billie and I. They touched, and it was like—” Cas shivers. “I don’t even know how to describe it, but it was almost like they—they melted into one another. Barriers broke, and two cosmic entities became one cohesive mass of energy, and it latched onto the nearest thing.”

Something sinks in Dean’s stomach. “Oh,” he whispers, the horror of it beginning to sink in. “That—that was you.”

Cas nods. “Yes. I was all that was left for this concept of eternal rest, this sense of cosmic finality to imbue itself in. Death, the Empty, whatever you want to call it. The name is inconsequential. It’s all just one now, as it should’ve been from the beginning. I am simply,” he waves his hand, “the end.” 

“So what—what does that mean, Cas? Do you still have your Grace, your wings?” Dean’s eyes widen. “Holy shit, did I see your true form? Earlier? Was that what that little spinny ball thing was?”

“Kind of?” Cas shrugs. “That’s not what my true form used to look like. It’s… warped now, different. I still have my Grace but it’s not the same as it once was. I don’t know how to explain it.” 

Dean doesn’t know how to respond. He pulls Cas’s hands away from his face, intertwines their fingers between them, and Cas sighs and bites his lip.

“I don’t know what I am anymore, Dean. Certainly not an angel. Whatever I’ve become, I have the power and responsibility Death did overseeing the reaping of souls, as well as the authority over the fate of angels and demons."

And there's the catch, Dean thinks. Of course Cas couldn't just come back, no strings attached. Of course they wouldn't be allowed to be happy, to finally get what they want. 

"Okay," Dean says calmly, like his world isn't falling apart all over again, like he isn't about to lose Cas for good this time. He leans forward, lets his forehead rest on Cas's shoulder, buries his nose in Cas's shirt. 

He still smells the same, Dean thinks hopelessly. God help him, Cas still smells like Cas. 

"Okay," he repeats, and he’s horrified at the way his voice trembles, the way his fists shake where they’re clenched in Cas’s shirt. Pathetic, needy, clingy, his head screams at him. Of course he's going again, why would anyone ever stay for you? When has anyone ever stayed for you? 

"I-I understand," Dean mumbles into the curve of Cas's collarbone. He sniffles, and then there's a hand on the back of his neck, and an arm around his waist, and Cas is pulling him in even tighter. Words are trying to claw their way out of his chest but he can’t say them and it burns, the way his lungs are in tatters and shreds. 

"Dean. I'm not leaving," Cas says, gentle but exasperated. 

And that just can't be true. Dean whips his head up, his face inches away from Cas, who looks dead serious. "But—but you're, like, the Empty now. I summoned you here with the Empty spell. You gotta keep track of all the angels and demons, you can't just ignore what you are." 

"I’ve… made some changes, so to speak.”

Uh oh. Dean isn't sure how much he likes the sound of that. 

"What do you mean," he says, slow, "you made some changes?" 

Cas shuffles his feet, shifts his weight around uncomfortably. "I may or may not have, ah, resurrected every being sleeping in the Empty." 

"You what?" 

"To be fair, it was an accident," Cas quickly justifies, a little huffy. "I'd like to see you have the full combined powers of both Death and the Empty and not be overwhelmed." Then he looks away. 

"You—you can't imagine what it feels like. To hold the essence of every angel and demon ever killed. To have that in you, to be responsible for it. It was a gut reaction." His voice drops, coated in something like shame. "I think I somehow recognized the too full sensation, what it's like to be filled beyond capacity, and instinctively pushed everything out. I couldn't do it again."

Oh. 

It takes a second but eventually Dean gets it. He knows Cas has never forgiven himself for his time playing God, for releasing the Leviathan, everything that followed in the terrible aftermath. 

‘Okay, Cas,” he says softly. Cas still isn’t looking at him, so he hooks a finger under his jaw, drags it back so they’re eye-to-eye again. “It’s okay.”

Cas is looking at him with tears in his eyes, and Dean has to swallow back a scream, push down the urge to vomit, because he’s only seen Cas like that a few times. The last time it got him dead. 

“But it’s not okay, Dean,” and it’s a complete 180 from the slightly defensive tone he was just using. “It’s not okay. Everything we’ve ever defeated, everyone we’ve ever killed—Azazel, Raphael, Abaddon, Alistair, all of them—they’re back, and it’s my fault. It’s my fault.” Dean realizes he’s trembling, and he quickly draws him into his chest, tucks him underneath his chin.

“Hey, c’mere. It’s okay, Cas. It’s okay.” He pauses, tries to think of what Cas needs to hear. “Listen, this doesn’t have to be all a bad thing. You resurrected every being in the Empty, right?” There’s movement up and down against his sternum, and Dean assumes it to be a nod.

“So that means all the angels are back, right? You told me once that—that you devastated the Host, when you had all that soul power.” Cas freezes in his arms, and Dean rubs his hands up and down his back, because he knows this is a hard topic for him. “All your brothers and sisters you killed, you have a second chance with now. Every angel that’s died, whether by your hands or not—Balthazar, Anna, Samandriel, Hannah. You get them back. And Heaven can run at full power again. This could be good, Cas.”

“It doesn't matter,” Cas whispers, and he sounds so small, too small for someone who’s supposed to be an all-powerful eldritch creature. “Dean, you don’t understand—I slaughtered my family. I was merciless. I single-handedly massacred hundreds of my siblings, and every other angel that’s died since the Apocalypse has met their fate in some part due to me. They should all hate me.” He shifts his head, looks up at Dean, pale. He’s staring at Dean like he’s expecting judgement, like he’s expecting Dean to agree and condemn him too.

Fuck that. 

“Cas,” Dean growls, and the ferocity in his voice surprises the both of them. “Okay, maybe you let some demons topside again. Maybe the angels will never forgive you. Maybe you’re some freak hybrid celestial abomination. So what?”

Cas’s eyes are big and shiny, like he’s looking at the moon. Dean keeps going. “I don’t care. I don’t care about any of that. I got you back and that’s all that matters to me. You’re here with me. Fuck everything else.”

“Dean—”

“No,” he cuts him off, “listen to me. I’m serious, Cas. We’ve kicked the asses of every bad guy we’ve gone up against, we can do it again. Hell, you’re like, almost as powerful as God.”

“I’m scared,” Cas admits quietly. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with—with all the power I have. I don’t know the limits of what I am.” He looks down. “You should be scared of me.”

And goddamn does that piss Dean off. “Fuck you,” he hisses, startling Cas. “Fuck you, and fuck that. I don’t care what you are, or what you think you are. You’re still Cas, my Cas. Angel or not. I’m not gonna leave you just because you’re freaked out.” His voice begins to shake, just a little bit. “And I’m not gonna let you leave because you’re being stupid. I don’t know what I gotta say to make you stay but I need you to not leave me. I can’t handle that shit anymore.”

“Dean.” He tightens his arms around Dean’s waist as Dean’s throat closes again. Jesus Christ, how many times is he gonna cry today? “I already told you. I’m not leaving. Even—even if I think it would be better for you, I’m not leaving, okay? I promise. And I’m sorry for hurting you. That was never my intention.” Cas pauses, raises a thumb to Dean’s face and swipes it under his left eye, catching a stray tear. 

“If this is really what you want, I’ll stay.” Dean almost laughs hysterically at that, because that’s all he’s ever fucking wanted. That’s all he’s wanted for over a fucking decade, and Cas never even knew.

"And you're sure you can? With your new responsibilities and whatever? Because you can't just promise that and walk it back later. You can't do that to me." 

Cas frowns. "I don't know what exactly my powers entail, but whatever I do, I promise to do with you next to me. We'll figure it out together." 

"Okay," Dean exhales. "Okay, I can work with that." There's an inexplicably happy feeling bubbling in his chest, and he's almost giddy with relief. Cas is back and he's going to stay. Cas is going to stay. He ducks his head, hides his smile in Cas's shoulder. 

"I'm so glad you're back," he whispers, like it's a secret. "I don't know what I was gonna do without you." 

"I always come back to you." Cas turns his face to the side and kisses Dean's head. It makes him feel warm all over. "I'll always find a way to get back to you. Always have, always will."

Huh. He thinks about that for a second, and he realizes Cas is right. "Yeah, I guess you have, haven't you?" Dean looks up at Cas and he's smiling. 

"Yes. I always come back," Cas says, and the words are bursting with pride, with sincerity. He's pinning Dean with his eyes and there's no mistaking the look in them as anything other than love. "This is your problem, Dean. You have no faith." 

It's meant to be light, teasing, but it hits Dean like a shot to the heart, because Cas is wrong. He's so wrong. 

"You make me wanna have faith, y'know?" Dean steps back and pokes Cas in the chest, accentuating his words. "Maybe I don't have a lot of faith, but I'm workin' on it. I really am." 

Cas is beaming now, and he grabs Dean's hand from his chest, tangles their fingers again. 

"Guess I'll just have to keep giving you something to believe in then, won't I?" He squeezes Dean's hand, and Dean just smiles and smiles and smiles. God, he's so in love. 

Dean doesn't know what's coming next. He knows there's a cosmic crap ton of problems they're gonna have to deal with soon. He knows life's gonna keep kicking him in the teeth, because he's Dean Winchester and that's just what life does. But right now, all he can see is Cas standing in front of him, breathing and whole and his, completely and wholly his. 

He sees something to believe in, and that's enough.

(if you read all the way through THANK YOU I LOVE YOU!! pls consider showing me some love on ao3)

#ahhhh this is my first time making a post for a fic #if u like n rb i will in fact love u forever mwah #destiel #destiel fic #mine #my fic

[thesuitkovian]

“You’re just a softie.” + “You make me a better person. Thank you.” w/ Carol

A/N: This got way sadder and more angsty at the end than I was expecting, but hey what can you do

Prompt: “You’re just a softie.” + “You made me a better person. Thank you.” w/ Carol

Word Count: 544

Content Warnings: Carol Danvers x gn! reader, fluff, kinda angsty at the end

It wasn’t often Carol was on earth, having to be responsible for the whole Galaxy and all that, but when she was she always made time for you. Even if that’s just stopping by for five minutes for a quick hug and kiss goodbye, you’re thankful for the little time you get with her. Today is no different, and she only has a little time before she has to leave again.

Right now the two of you sit on your porch together, on the bench your grandmother passed down to you, holding hands in silence.

“I’m sorry.” She whispers into the cool evening air between, running her thumb over your knuckles. “I wish I could be here more, be with you more.”

You know if you continue down this path of sad talks then you will start crying so you decide to steer it in a funnier direction. “Are you kidding?” She looks at you surprised, “If you didn’t do what you do then who would help the people you help? Who would save the people you save? You’re a superhero, Car, you’re an amazing person. I mean, you make me a better person, just by being around me. Thank you for that, by the way.”

She laughs at your last sentence, shaking her head. She wraps an arm around your shoulder and pulls you in to lightly brush her lips against your own. “I love you…” She murmurs as she pulls away, looking into your eyes unwaveringly.

“I love you too.” You say back, pecking her on the lips once more before snuggling up under her arm. “You know, you have a lot of people fooled. Nick, Maria, the Kree. They all think you’re a badass. But you’re just a softie.” You tease, and she playfully gasps, resting a hand over her heart.

“A softie! Take that back!” She pushes you back on the bench, pouncing forward to tickle you until you’re begging for mercy.

With soft pants and giggles the two of you relax back into each other, and you wonder to yourself just how selfish it would be to ask her to stay just this one time. You open your mouth to ask her just that, and then the armband of her suit begins to ding, signalling that it’s time for her to leave.

On instinct tears spring to your eyes at the sound, but you squeeze your eyes shut and take a deep breath as she leads you off the porch and down to the open lawn in front of it.

“I love you. And I’ll see you again soon.” She says in a soft voice, cupping your face in her hands for one last goodbye kiss.

You grip her wrists tightly as she pulls away, not sure if you are ready to let go yet. You can see it in her eyes how much she wants to stay… an equal amount to the sense of duty to the solar system that also resides there.

“I love you too. Come back as soon as you can, okay?”

She nods, and then with one last look over her shoulders you are left alone to watch her light grow smaller and smaller as she moves further and further away from you.

#carol danvers #captain marvel #mcu #marvel #carol danvers x reader #fluff #angst #drabble #gn! reader

[teacup-set]

time will wash every tower to the sea

"Sakura." he says, with the sacredness of a prayer. 'That's not my name', she thinks, but there is such an aching familiarity in his voice that she swears it could have been.

FFN.

-x-

Time will wash every tower to the sea, but never you and me.

-x-

Fated

When Sakiko wakes up that morning, she feels electricity in the air. Static at her fingertips, the taste of metal in her mouth, the weight of lead in her stomach. 

Life at the hospital is too fast paced though, and there is no free moment to consider the anticipation that has been building in her chest till the end of her sixteen-hour shift. Standing over the metal sink, clawing to get out the blood that has dried in the crevices around her fingernails, she finally pauses long enough to feel the zing in the atmosphere. ‘What is it?’, she wonders, ‘Am I forgetting something?’ 

Staring in the mirror over the sink, she regards her tired green eyes and limp pink hair falling out of her ponytail. She frowns as she tries to remember if something was supposed to happen today. It feels like a half forgotten memory trying to reach the tip of her tongue but getting lost somewhere in her throat. She goes over every patient she is assigned one by one, trying to remember if there is something she has forgotten, but comes up empty. 

Frustrated, she gathers her things and leaves the locker room. Walking down the hospital hallway, she ticks off things in her mind. ‘Groceries? I don’t need to shop for another week, I think. Electricity bill? Wait no, I paid that already. What could it be?’ She feels the tingling on her skin grow stronger as she nears the hospital doors. Waving a cheery goodbye to the people at the reception, she turns the handle of the staff exit door and steps out into the dying sunlight. Breathing in the cool evening air, she immediately feels relief in her muscles and wonders if the rumbling apprehension was just a consequence of being cooped up inside all day.

She has barely finished the thought when her gaze meets mismatched onyx and purple eyes that mirror the alarm and surprise in her own, and suddenly every muscle in her body is more coiled than ever before. She feels her throat closing, her body running out of air, and the sudden clarity of her mind.

She has never seen this man before, she knows, but a voice inside her head whispers ‘This is it.’

-x-

Salvation

In every lifetime, Sasuke wonders what it will be like when he finds her again (because he will, this much he knows), but he never imagined it would be quite like this. 

Stumbling upon her in a small satellite town, where he only stopped by to post a letter. 

He was on his way out of the town when he was suddenly trapped by gravity, rooted in place by a feeling he couldn’t name growing in his chest. 

And just like that, she walked out through the most unremarkable doors, extraordinary forest green eyes finding his. 

He thinks this is what it must be like to find the face of God at the end of a pilgrimage.

-x-

Pinnacle

Sakiko isn’t religious, not particularly spiritual either, but staring at his dark hair against alabaster skin with eyes she could never forget but somehow can’t remember, she thinks she has found enlightenment. 

She feels like an eternity has passed her by as they stare at each other across the street. Suddenly he is moving, unmindful of the traffic passing by, looking every bit as bewildered as her. 

In a blink he is in front of her, eyes drinking her in like she is the pinnacle of some journey, an artist’s magnum opus, a scientist’s greatest discovery, a ghost. 

“Sakura.” he says, with the sacredness of a prayer. 

‘That’s not my name’, she thinks, but there is such an aching familiarity in his voice that she swears it could have been.

-x-

Remembrances 

It doesn’t take long for him to realize she doesn’t know who he is, not in the way he knows her, but there is still a shard of remembrance buried within her mortal soul that has transcended the same lifetimes he has. 

Why else would she bring a man she never met into her home without either of them uttering a word of explanation. 

He sits on her deep navy couch and takes in the small apartment. It feels like an out-of-body experience to see her new life reflected all over the space. Pictures with people he has never known, shelves lined with books he has never heard of, little trinkets with histories that are foreign to him. He feels a pang in his chest. 

But his eyes find her again, leaning against the kitchen counter twiddling her thumb like she did when she was nervous, dressed in blue hospital scrubs (of course she would be a healer, of course), the same vision of pink and green he has yearned for across ages, and he knows with utmost clarity that the entirety of time couldn’t chip away at their familiarity.

“My name is Sakiko.” she says, frowning.

Sakiko, he mulls. He supposes he should have expected her name would be different, but he rejoices that even now her name is the personification of spring. Even after all this time spent searching for her, he has no idea where to start telling her about him and their history.

“I’m Sasuke.” he says, deciding that’s as good a place to start as any. 

Her doe eyes widen as she swallows a small gasp, like the name had been inside her all along, asleep beneath her consciousness, and he wonders perhaps there isn’t as much to explain as he had thought.

-x-

Transcendental 

‘We were lovers,’ he had told her, choking slightly on the were.

Sakiko wonders when all her scientific aptitude her teachers gushed about went down the drain because she believes him with the utmost confidence.

He told her that many lifetimes ago they had been shinobi from the village hidden in the Leaves, that they had been on the same team, had fought in a war together, had fallen in love, gotten married, and had a child together. 

Her mind is reeling as she struggles to catch up. She knew about shinobi, but she never imagined she could be one. She had no idea where the Hidden Leaf was. She certainly hadn’t ever fought in a war. 

But staring into his clashing eyes, feeling the reverb of his voice in her bones, ‘I could have loved him’ she thinks.

-x-

Dread 

He cradles the mug of hot tea she had made for him, watching the steam rise and dissipate into the air. Sakur-Sakiko is sitting on the floor on the opposite side of the coffee table, quietly listening as he recounted their past lives. 

Through his journey recounting his first birth as Indra, to the incarnation of the Sasuke she had known, and the many lifetimes that had passed by since then till now, she hung onto every word in rapture. Frowning in confusion, smiling in amusement, even crying some tears at the many tragedies that had punctuated his and her life, but she never once looked surprised or disbelieving. 

Many quiet moments pass as he drinks his tea and she lets the information sink in. 

“How do you remember everything?” she asks him, looking helpless at her own lack of memory. 

He sets his cup down. “In every life since the one I knew you, when I turn seventeen, my rinnegan awakens and I remember every past life. Naruto awakens the Six Paths Sage Mode and he remembers too. In most lifetimes we both find each other. Sometimes we don’t.”

“Did you find him this time?” 

“Aa.” 

“Where is he now?”

“He is looking for Hinata, his partner.” 

“Oh. Has he found her before?” 

“Yeah, he mostly does. She is a descendant of the Otsusuki too, and most of the time she remembers and they find each other. Even if she doesn’t, she always remembers when he finds her.” 

Something in her expression shifts. 

“I loved you, didn’t I? Why don’t I remember?” she says, her voice sounding small. 

He feels a tectonic shift in his chest, like his entire heart has been displaced by the fears he had been trying to run from all these years. He doesn’t know how to tell her how absolutely terrified he had been that he would never find her, that her mortal ancestry meant that she was never reborn. How he and Naruto, and even Hinata, had searched for her like savages to the ends of the earth, starting over from scratch every new cycle. How on every deathbed he had longed for her, and prayed for his life to end once and for all if she was no longer on the earth. He wants to tell her what a miracle it is that she is here and he has found her, that her memory is a small price to pay because he will tell her a thousand times if he has to, but he knows the words will crush him on their way out. 

He doesn’t even realize she has moved till he feels the dip in the couch where she rests her knee, and then the embrace of her arms around him. Neither of them has said anything but he knows she understands.

-x-

Kindered

One look at him and she knows what he is thinking. She can read the terror in his eyes as clear as day: I thought I'd never find you. 

She feels the landslide in her own chest, tumbling down to her stomach and weighing her down. 

"Why did you keep looking?" She asks, burrowing her head in his shoulders, crying for a man she has loved without ever knowing. 

He is quiet for a long time and she thinks he isn't going to answer. Then he says- 

"You told me once that you knew we were soulmates when you and Naruto were looking for me after I left, and when you were combing through Kaguya's worlds to find me. You said you could find me through every age, solar system, and dimension. That there was a current that pulled you to where I was-” 

He feels her still. 

“-When I was reborn that first time without you, I understood what you had meant.”

-x-

Luminsecent

She can’t breathe. 

It's all too much. The buzz in the air all morning, the weight of ancient history, the indescribable pull towards the man sitting on her couch. He looked so completely wrecked at the hands of time, like a man who had no choice but to endure in his quest, only to pause at the finish line long enough to take in just how tired he is. He had suffered the ruthlessnesss of so many lives, looking for her. 

‘I’ve been looking for you, too’ something inside her whispers, ‘I just never knew till I found you.’

She knows she is crying, and though she can’t see his face from her position in their embrace, she thinks he is too. 

She looks over behind her shoulder to watch the spring sunrise pour in through her window and slowly inch towards them across the living room floor. She never realized when the entire night passed them by. 

Detangling her arms from around him, she settles on the couch, angling herself towards him. He lifts his head from his arms and looks at her. 

She breathes in deeply...and then begins-

“I was born in a smaller village on the outskirts of this town. I went to the Land of Earth to study medicine, and then returned here to work at the hospital. I never knew my parents, I was raised by my aunt. I like reading philosophy and history, and...I guess I still like sweets.”

He stares at her with wide eyes as he slowly realizes what she is trying to do. She carries on telling him about the life she has lived, the one he missed, and watches as he clings on to every word, like every little insignificant fact she told him gave him a second chance, another rebirth. 

By the time she is finished they are drenched in sunlight, from the same sun they sat under together in their past lives, and she feels like her skin is on fire. 

It’s a new morning, another beginning, another chance. 

“Do you want to grab some lunch?” she asks, struck by the mundaneness of the question in the aftermath of such a transcendental disclosure. 

He clears his throats and nods. 

She flashes him a smile and wonders how it pairs with her tear streaked cheeks, and parts with him briefly to wash her face and grab her keys. 

She pauses at the apartment door and waits for him to join her, only to find him staring at her with an intensity that takes her breath away. 

“I…” he begins, “Thank you, Sakiko”

Something in his words ignites something within her, and she feels like a trapeze sailing through the air but falling just short of waiting hands. 

“Sakura.” she says abruptly, “You.. can call me Sakura.” she announces. 

For a moment he looks surprised, and then smiles like he has been set free. 

“Thank you, Sakura.” 

There is magic in those words that she can feel in her soul, a certainty that surpasses the transience of life, the finality of physics.

‘In the next life, I will look for you.’ she vows, ‘but first, this one.’

They step out into the daylight.

Fin.

-x-

A very indulgent piece I wrote inspired from Samsara by @kuriquinn and Queitus by SeraphinaScribes, both of which I recommend you read. Hope you enjoy!

#ss #ss fanfiction #sasusaku #ss fic #sasuke uchiha #sakura haruno

[gone-daddy-gone]

Could you write an angsty one shot where reader is Kyoya’s fiancee but he hides the fact that they’re engaged because of the host club and he's always busy ?

Pairing: Kyoya x you

Rating: None. 

Genre: Angst.

Word Count: 1,927

                                  You Liar

  Love was not easy. Love was a game that some won, and some were stuck in the notion that they could eventually win. You had seen so many marriages fail from your uncles and aunties, your cousins that got shipped off to marry the rich kid two countries away. Your own father had cheated on your mother. Leaving a loveless marriage in its wake. Love was not real, and it would never be, you decided long before you were out of middle school. 

 That’s why when Kyoya came into your life, for the first time in your life your belief system was shaken. Love for the first time in your short lived life, was attainable. 

 He came to you in a way that was unconventional, but nonetheless welcomed with open arms. You were at the store, reaching for the last set of expensive teas that your mother loved so dearly. When a large hand engulfed the item within its digits, you watched in both horror and intrigue as it disappeared. Instinctively you had turned around, and you were met with a quiet handsome young man with glasses, his slight smile on his lips calling to you. Ignoring the call, you moved your lips, trying to form a “what” or a “why”, but as his hand descended from above you, you let a small thank you slip past your now needy lips. 

 He gave you a smile, he asked if he had your last name correct. Which to your shock and almost horror, he had. Your eyes widening and a miniscule gasp that came from your small form had him chuckling. 

 “We go to the same school. Your family owns the solar panel company right?” You racked your brain to try and remember if you knew him as well, but all you could come up with was a club you remember hearing about.

 “Yes that would be the one. Um, forgive me but I don’t remember you…” 

 “That’s alright. I didn’t think you would know me. I’m a grade above you so I don’t think underclassmen concern themselves too hard with the upperclassman.” He let out another chuckle. 

 “What your family does is very commendable. My father wants to work with yours but can’t seem to get his ducks in a row.” 

 Before long you two had been talking in that aisle for hours. The topics that had come up had ranged from school, to forign policy, to how to properly bake a cake. Of course the two of you couldn’t just stand in that store forever. So, eventually you made an attempt to say goodbye, and it had almost worked. The two of you were gonna walk away and you would never see him again. But that just wasn’t Kyoya’s style, he knew everyone and anyone. You could be a possible strong and useful connection! He couldn’t just let you walk away. Yeah that’s why I want her number. He called out to you as you were almost out of the aisle. You could have swore you’ve never heard someone say your name like that before. Something about it felt right, it felt homey. 

 You exchanged numbers, and you figured you wouldn’t hear much from him. And you didn’t, not until it was another charity ball that club you couldn’t remember the name of was hosting. He asked you to be there, and you obliged. If you had paid attention at all, you would have seen he only saw you in private away from everyone else. He had such a way of hiding it. You had not seen the first sign, and you didn’t see the others.

 Silly you never realized that you had never met any of his friends, but you met his family so you let yourself believe it was real. He took you on the most exquisite dates whatever popped into your head, you got. He spared no expense on you, treating you in a way that every man should treat the one he loves. However, when he was in school, you could never seem to locate your boyfriend. Of course you didn’t mind, you should be focusing on school and not your boyfriend. There would be time for that when class was over. Maybe if he wasn’t busy with the host club. Still, you could wait. Love was about sacrifice, right?

 No matter how many doubts you had, you chose to let yourself fall, let yourself be happy. The prospect of love couldn’t be completely shut out for the rest of your life. You counted yourself lucky that he was your first and last. A lucky girl you were, you had a supportive family, a handsome, kind fiancee, you had it all. 

 So why couldn’t you stifle this feeling of distance from the love of your life. Sure he was busy a lot, but everyone gets busy sometimes. But wasn’t it weird it was all the time? On top of all of that, you never got to go see what he was up to. He told you all of the stories, you knew about the host clubs antics. Every adventure the characters he claimed to be his best friends took. But you never got to meet them. He told you how excited they were to meet you when the host club wasn’t busy. He promised, you would meet them. Of course when the timing was right. 

 The day you had enough was a day the sky was painted gray and black. There was supposed to be a rain storm rolling through at any moment. 

 The door handle in your hand felt so cold, felt like the contents inside were things you weren’t ready to see. Even if after all these months of knowing, knowing isn’t the same as seeing. You felt your resolve slipping and blowing away. Maybe this “gut feeling” is just your paranoia. How long were you gonna keep holding onto to sins that weren’t yours? 

 You let your eyes flutter up from the metal to the beautiful wood finish on the door. Cowardice would get you nowhere. You knew that. Pushing away all the feelings in your tummy you pushed the door, letting the smell of tea, coffee and cake fill up your senses. Your eyes went to two boys who looked the same, without skipping a beat within your pounding heart you approached. You had heard of the twins. The goofy, insisucre “incest” twins. 

 The two boys cocked their heads when you said that you were Kyoya���s fiance. Oh no. You held onto the cuffs of your uniform, praying that their synapses would fire and remember hearing about you. Maybe if you said your name? The words beginning, middle, and end didn’t spark any sense of recolence. Swallowing the lump that was beginning to sting, you turned to see a rather tall gentleman with a rather small one. 

 These two were Mori and Honey. Those two had to know you. On wobblingknees, you stalked over to them as the twins whispered doubts to each other. Doubts and accusations. Accusations that you were just some fangirl. Like you meant nothing. It was almost hard to not believe them yourself. How could his best friends know nothing about you? 

 “I’m looking for Kyoya… I’m his fiancee.” The two gave each other this, look. A look that made your stomach cry out in agony. The small blonde spoke first.

 “He’s uh, well he’s in the back but-” You cut him off, too embarrassed to hear the rest of his doubts. With cold determination you marched your way over to the back that was covered in drapes. Swallowing that lump that seemed to find its home in your esophagus. You pulled back the curtains to see your fiance holding a smaller boy with brown hair. The way he cooed into his ears was a tenderness you had never seen him exhibit before. You searched your brain to find words, the scene in front of you far too much to take in all at once.

 “Why?” Was the only thing you could force yourself to mutter. He tensed up, the recognition flowing over his body as he let go of the boy. You peeled your eyes off of him to look at the boy, he had a girlish face and you recognized that one. Haruhi. The only girl in the club, the cross dresser of the club. The one who had no interest in any of the club members he promised. From where you stood it looked to be the exact opposite. He reached out his hand, and you moved yours away. Before forming your fingers into a half pointer.

 “Why? Why would you… lie… why would you hide me?” You let your eyes wander to the ground. Biting your lip in pain. 

 “Listen, baby I can… it’s been hard around here you need to-”

 “Shut up Kyoya… it’s been hard? It’s been hard? That is so rich coming from you. Do you know how many nights I’ve stayed up searching mind body and soul for a reason I never met any of your friends.” You were steadily raising your voice, calling out for the other host members to come check out the commotion. 

 “You don’t know what hard is… how could you.” By this point you were already tearing up. “I can’t believe I let myself believe love is real… I told you things I’ve never let another person know… things my own mother doesn’t know.” He swallowed deeply before trying yet again, in vain albeit, to get you to listen to him. 

 “Listen this isn’t what it looks like…” You let out a scoff, leaning on a snarl. 

 “This isn’t what it looks like… this isn’t what it looks like!” Finally letting out all of the frustrations. “You don’t tell all your little host club buddies that you have a whole fiancee they don’t know about! And…and if that wasn’t enough you’re all cuddled up with Haruhi…” You let your voice all into a whisper. “The only girl in the host club.” Finally having enough of your unwelcome, accusatory rage. He let his emotions run wild, letting his thin long fingers take in your much smaller forearm.

 “Do not fucking touch me.” You let your cold retort hang in the air. As stubborn as ever, he refused to let you go.

 “You listen here, I need you to just… listen to me for once. It’s not what you think ok… you see.” The prying eyes of now not only the host club, but the customers in it causing him to lose his nerve. Even now, as he was about to lose you, all he could think about was saving face for his rich friends and customers. 

 “Do you know what Kyoya… I don’t care.” You turned to his face, if you looked past the embarrassment you could almost see his panic. Almost.

 “You can take this back.” You slipped the ring off your finger, letting the silver and diamond object hit the ground. The clank of the metal on tile rang out in the deafening silence in the music room. 

 “Now let me go.” You gave him five seconds to do what you asked. When he didn’t, you turned around and let your hand collide with his cheek. He let go of your hand, reaching for his stinging cheek. You let your hand curl into a fist before making your way to the door.

 “I love you…” Was all he could croak out.

“No, no you don’t. You’re nothing but a liar.”

#ohshc #ohshc x reader #ohshc fanfiction #ohshc imagines #ohshc imagine #ohshcscenerios #ohshc headcanons #ohshc scenario #ohshc kyoya #kyoya ootori #kyoya x reader #kyoya ootori x reader #ouran high school host club #ouran high school host club x reader #ouran high school host club imagine #ouran high school host club x you #asks #my posts #anon #anonymous

[wiypt-writes]

Riding On

Ch 16- A Whole Fucking Hand Of Aces Part 1

Summary: It’s the run up to Christmas now for our favourite family, but it isn’t all happiness and smiles as Greg brings Fliss and Frank some worrying news about their adoption application. When Fliss enrols Bonnie’s help and the two women turn detective they uncover something that leaves Fliss both stunned and shocked. But, after a little contemplation, her and Frank realise that maybe, just maybe, they can work this to their advantage after all.

Warnings: Some VERY Bad Language words (Frank has a potty mouth…) Descriptions of panic attack-please avoid if this triggers.

Pairing: Frank Adler x Fliss Gallagher

A/N:  Some nitty, gritty action and angst over this chapter so I hope you’re ready… buckle up! Big thanks to @icanfeelastormbrewing for reading this (sorry Frank had to put a shirt on) and @southerngracela for helping me with a crucial bit here that I have very limited experience on.

Disclaimer: This is a pure work of fiction and classified as 18+. Please respect this and do not read if you are underage. I do not own any characters in this series bar Fliss Gallagher and the other OCs. By reading beyond this point you understand and accept the terms of this disclaimer.

Riding On Masterlist // Main Masterlist

Chapter 15

When you’re weak, I’ll be strong. When you let go, I’ll hold on. When you need to cry, I swear that I’ll be there to dry your eyes. When you feel lost and scared to death, like you can’t take one more step, just take my hand, together we can do it. I’m gonna love you through it.

December 2019

Fliss set the mug down on the coffee table in front of where Greg sat in the arm chair. Their friend had called earlier that day to say he had finally had a response from an attorney representing Bradley Polland, Mary’s biological father regarding the Adoption.

And it hadn’t been good news. Frank’s worse fear had been realised, the man was contesting. Frank hadn’t received the news particularly well, storming out of work and straight home, blazing in a fit of anger that was very unlike him, and Fliss had taken charge and asked Greg to come over later that night once Mary was in bed so they could discuss it in a calm and hopefully logical manner. As always, he was happy to oblige.

Greg flashed Fliss a smile and thanked her before she sat next to Frank on the sofa, her hand reaching for his. Their fingers laced together and she gave a little squeeze and he looked at her, giving her a tight smile.

“Don’t get too despondent yet.” Greg sighed, “I know it’s shitty but like I said on the phone Frank, we have a damned good chance on winning this in court.”

“I just don’t fucking understand Greg.” Frank shook his head “Why? Why is he contesting? He doesn’t give a shit about her, we know that. He’s never even laid eyes on her in person. Fucking ass hole.” His tone we venomous, his face creased in anger and Fliss gently squeezed his fingers again. He took a deep breath and shook his head “Sorry, I’m just…” “Buddy, I can’t begin to imagine how you feel.” Greg sighed, “And I’m sorry I can’t answer your question because I don’t know what his reasoning is.” The man shrugged as he took a sip of his tea. “Maybe the fact that the adoption would completely remove any rights he has to her has sparked some deep buried paternal instinct...” “Bull shit.” Frank scoffed, leaning back in his chair. Greg looked at Fliss who took a deep breath.

“So, what happens now?” she asked, trying to keep calm. One of them had to have a level head after all.

“Well, there’ll be a little to-ing and fro-ing before court but my first action, which I did as soon as that letter landed this morning, was to get onto Child Welfare. They’ll prep a report on Mary, how settled she is, happy, basically in support of the adoption.” Greg licked his lips “But I want you both to know, that there is absolutely no way that Mary is gonna get taken away from you.” He looked at Frank straight in the eyes as Frank looked back. “Even if Polland petitions for custody, which he won’t…” he held his hand up, cutting Frank off before he could start again “No Court in their right mind is gonna rip her out of her home here and put her with him, not now. You have Legal Guardian Status Frank, that’s not gonna change. At most he will get visitation.”

“What if Mary doesn’t want to see him?” Fliss asked as Frank looked away, his eyes roving over the garden are which was light up by the various solar lights speckled around the decking and lawn, the pool lights turning the whole area to the left of the garden a vivid shade of aqua, desperately trying to keep his cool.

“Then the CWD will reflect that in their report.” Greg nodded. “But this is absolute worst case scenario. You both need to understand that there is a really, really high chance that the court will overrule his objection and allow the Adoption to go through anyway. She’s been with you all her life Frank, whilst he may have a biological link to her, he has nothing else. And the court won’t look favourably on his actions. We saw that in the case versus your mother.” “So this might actually not mean a thing?” Fliss looked at Greg.

“Exactly.” Greg smiled “You’re in a very good position. This…it’s just a little bump in the road.”

“Then why does it feel like a huge fucking road block?” Frank looked at Greg and his best friend sighed.

“Because you’re panicking.” Greg said simply “You’re over thinking it, like you always do. Trust me Frank, this is going to change nothing…” “How can you say that?” Frank looked at him. “Of course it’s gonna change something, that little girl up there thinks we’re gonna be adopting her and now I’m gonna haff to tell her that that might naht be the case…”

His accent grew thicker, the way it always did when he was emotional and Fliss squeezed his hand once more and turned to face him.

“Frank, nothing changes from our home front, that’s what Greg means.” She said, and Greg nodded in agreement. “And as for telling her, then we do what we always do. We be honest, we explain it simply and we reassure her if she gets anxious. That’s all we can do for now. And then, whatever happens we face it together as a family.” Frank sighed and looked down at his feet before he looked at Greg, shaking his head “Sorry man, I didn’t mean to snap.” “Don’t sweat it.” Greg shook his head “But I mean what I say pal, this isn’t like last time when, I’ll be honest, I didn’t think we had a cat in hells chance of keeping her from your mother, despite how much I was behind you, and you know that. This time, well, not only have your entire circumstances changed now in that she has a perfect home, a family, stability…” he took a deep breath, “And you are her legal guardian. No court will strip that from you unless there’s exceptional circumstances. And these are not. The only card Polland has to play is that he still has his Parental Rights, he’s got nothing else. He has never met her, never talked to her, never paid a dime towards her. In contrast, you on the other hand have a whole fucking hand of Aces to play back. There’s no way she’s going anywhere, adoption or not, which is the main thing here. That she stays with you. You two are her parents in everything but name and the court and CWD will see that.”

There was nothing much more that Greg could tell them at that point, other than to walk them through the next steps in a little more detail. He talked them through how the CWD would be in contact and that they’d want to speak to Mary alone, then they’d want to speak to both of them too, and that was as far as he was prepared to go, refusing to even think about anything beyond that. Which in itself was frustrating the hell out of Frank, but Fliss understood exactly why Greg was being so reserved. It was information overload, and Frank being the very analytical and cerebral person he was would end up even more frustrated as Greg would have no answer to the barrage of questions he was likely to have.

It was only when Alex made the familiar noises of hunger that the 3 of them called time on their discussion and Fliss stood up and headed to the bassinet to the side of the sofa. 

"He's getting so big." Greg beamed and Alex, momentarily forgetting his hunger, locked his eyes onto his godfather's and gave him a huge smile. "Hey fella!" Greg ran a finger down his cheek and Alex wiggled his arms in response. "He looks like you pal." Greg looked at Frank as he grinned. "Poor little bugger." 

“Fuck you.” Frank snorted, and Fliss pouted dramatically.

"I happen to think is daddy is very handsome." She looked at Frank whose lips curled into a smile at one side for what felt like the first time that day before he turned to Greg. 

"I'll see you out."

Greg looked at him and then nodded, and with a final goodbye to Fliss, he left the family room with Frank behind him

“Tell me honestly Greg, and no bullshit…” Frank looked ad his friend as they strode towards Greg’s silver benz which was parked behind Fliss’ Cherokee “Am I gonna lose her?”

“Have you just listened to a damned word I said Frank?” Greg looked at him. “Read my lips. Not a chance. Honestly Frank, you have the upper hand here. This is nothing like last time.”

Frank nodded and gave his friend a tight smile as he climbed into his car, turning and heading back inside giving a whistle for Thor to follow him, the dog having wandered outside at the same time he had. But despite his friend’s assurances, he just couldn’t shake the worry from the back of his mind that this entire thing was going to rip their family apart.

He paused in the doorway and watched Fliss who was now feeding Alex his bottle, her eyes locked on that of their son and he felt a little lump in his throat. He swallowed and spoke, his voice sounding strangely far away to him.

“Want me to do that?” he asked. Fliss looked at him, immediately recognising his offer for what it actually was, a request. He wanted to do it. And she knew why. It was a way to keep himself grounded, away from the spiralling thoughts in his mind.

“Sure.” She nodded as Frank sat down. She handed Alex over and then kissed Frank’s cheek. “Try not to worry sweetheart, I know it’s a shitty set back but it’ll work out.”

“You’re optimistic.” Frank looked down at Alex as he took his milk before he glanced up at Fliss “I wish I was.”

“You heard Greg.” She gently lay her hand on his neck, her fingers softly stroking at his skin of the nape “This isn’t like last time.”

“I know.”  He nodded, before he fixed a smile on his face “Why don’t you go for that bath you were talking about before?”

“You gonna be ok?”

He nodded “Yeah, I’ll be up once he’s finished.”

“Ok.” Fliss nodded, kissing him again before she stood up and left Frank alone with his son.

**** Try as he might Frank couldn’t sleep that night, his mind was whirring at 100 miles an hour, and in the end he gave up before his tossing and turning disturbed either Fliss or Alex. He climbed out of bed, pulled on a pair of sweats and a t-shirt before he peered down at Alex who was asleep in his crib. As he headed to the door he reached down and gave Thor’s ears a scratch as the dog looked up from his spot in his basket before he padded silently into the hallway and softly pushed Mary’s bedroom door open. She too was fast asleep, Fred curled up next to her head on the pillow. She looked so peaceful, so content. And Frank knew that’s because she was. She was safe, she was loved, she was wanted- boy was she wanted- and the thought that her life, that their lives might be upturned by that shit head Polland made Frank’s stomach churn.

He knew he was over thinking things. He had always been the same. He retreated into his mind, and no matter how many times Fliss or Greg had told him not to worry that night he just couldn’t help it. He’d almost lost her once, and the thought that he might actually lose her for good this time was unbearable. His mouth suddenly became dry and he needed a drink, so closing the door behind him softly he headed down the stairs and pulled open the fridge, reaching for a bottle of water.

He drained the bottle in one but that did nothing to help the hot and clammy feeling that was now washing over him, causing a light beading of sweat to dust his brow. He wiped it away with the back of his hand and as he did so his belly dropped out from him and a sick feeling spread across his body, almost like he was going to puke. He gripped the edge of the counter, hovering over the sink, eyes closed as the room began to spin and his chest suddenly began to hurt. He found himself unable to catch his breath as his throat tightened and he scrunched his eyes shut as they were burning from the unshed, salty tears. Then, he could hold the feeling of desperation and panic no more and he turned, sliding to the floor in a dishevelled heap, his back banging painfully against the lower kitchen cabinets as he struggled to ground himself. When his chest finally released enough for him to take a huge, shaky, painful breath it was all too much and his anxiety poured out in a flood of uncontrollable tears, the deep emotions stirring with no other outlet but his silent crying.

How long he was there he had no idea, locked in his own mind and worries, but then a voice broke through the cloud in his mind and a familiar presence filled his senses.

“Frankie…” Fliss gently placed her hand on Frank’s shoulder as she knelt down next to him. “Oh Baby…”

He mumbled something incoherent, choking on his sobs, his face buried between his arms as they hugged his knees to his chest, and she moved to wrap her arms around him. His own arms moved and he wrapped them around her back, clinging to her with a desperation she’d never seen or felt from him before as he pressed his face into the crook of her shoulder.

“Shhhh, I got you…” she whispered to him, kissing his head. “I got you.”

The two of them sat on the kitchen floor, Fliss soothing him, pressing the odd kiss to his head, running her hand up his spine over his t-shirt with one hand, the fingers of the other fingers brushing the back of his neck, a movement she knew he found comforting. Knowing from her own experiences, there was nothing else to be done other than stay with him and let him cry it out she did just that. Eventually, she felt his broad shoulders begin to relax a little as his sobs turned into smaller cries, which then morphed into small hiccups, until eventually they subsided completely and there was no sound in the room bar his deep, ragged breathing. After a moment or so of relative quiet,  he pulled away and Fliss turned her head towards him, taking in his appearance and it broke her heart. His face was red and blotchy, those blue eyes she could drown in were bloodshot and looked at her sadly from beneath puffy eyelids. He moved his arm to wipe at his nose and then took a deep, stuttering breath.

“You with me?” Fliss asked gently and he nodded, taking another shaky breath.

“Sorry, I didn’t want to wake you.” He spoke, his throat felt raw and his voice was gruff and croaky, not sounding like his own. Fliss shook her head.

“Don’t you dare apologise Frank.” She said gently “There’s nothing to be sorry for.”

“We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving a few weeks ago, and we should be looking forward to Alex’s first Christmas and now…” “Hey, hey…” Fliss cut him off, her hands taking his face gently, pads of her fingers threading into his beard. “Thanksgiving was wonderful, because we were all together. Christmas is gonna be wonderful because we will still all be together.”

“I can’t lose her Liss, I can’t lose any of you, I just…” “And you’re not gonna.” She said, her voice calm and quiet. “Greg told you this before. The worst that can happen is Polland is gonna get visitations.” “But what if she wants to live with him? What if she-“ “Oh Frank.” Fliss sighed “That’s not even a remote possibility. Mary worships the ground you walk on. She adores Alex. She loves her home, her life…if anything, I think she’s going to refuse to even see him. You saw how heartbroken she was that day we had to talk her out of the bathroom during the court-case. She won’t have forgotten that.”

Frank raised his eyes to Fliss’ and she smiled at him softly, her hands still on his face “Baby, she might only be 9 but she’s not stupid. She knows you gave everything you had to make sure she’s had a good life. You kept her safe, loved. I’ll say it over and over till I’m blue in the face Frank, you ARE her father. In everything but biology. And Bill and I are proof here that biology doesn’t mean a fucking thing.”

“She adores you too you know.” Frank said, and Fliss smiled softly pressing her forehead to his

“Good because I adore her right back. And her big, soft, lump of an uncle-slash-father who happens to be a wonderful man with a huge heart, who knows he isn’t perfect but doesn’t try to be.” Her hands slid down from his face, one resting on his shoulder, the other back to stroking the nape of his neck. Frank closed his eyes, taking a deep breath as her touch washed over him. “A man who strives every day to be the best version of himself, but doesn’t really need to because he’s already the best daddy and partner in the world.”

“Liss I’m not-“ “You’re not perfect, yes I know.” She smiled “But that makes you perfect to me.”

Frank took a deep breath and closed his eyes as her fingers continued to gently stroke at his neck, all the time her movements sending gently sparks of warmth down his back. His breathing had settled down now, his tears stopped. He felt calmer.

“I love you.” He said softly and Fliss smiled, pulling back a little

“I know.” She looked at him “I love you too.”

His hand reached up for the one that was resting on his shoulder and his fingers tangled with hers, and he squeezed gently, relishing the feel of her engagement ring as it pressed against his middle and ring finger. And then, almost by magic, a soft gurgle came from the baby monitor on the side in the kitchen.

“See, Bean loves his daddy too.” Fliss smiled and Frank gave a little chuckle. “Wanna come back to bed?”

He nodded.

Fliss stood up and offered Frank her hand, tugging him up beside her. Without a word she led him down the hall and up the stairs. Frank headed straight to Alex who was on his back, his eyes flickering as he slept, his head turned gently to the right, little hand curling by his cheek. Frank tenderly ran a finger over his soft skin and the little boy reacted to the touch, his limbs stretching a little before he settled back down, his breathing even, his eyes closing.

“I still don’t know how we made something so special.” Fliss whispered, her arms curling round Frank’s waist from behind.

“He’s part you.” Frank replied softly, and Fliss gave a chuckle.

“Yeah, well, like I said, his daddy’s pretty awesome too.” Frank turned round to face her and dropped a gentle kiss to her mouth, his nose sliding against hers before he gave a little yawn. “Sorry…” he said as Fliss chuckled.

“Come on Sailor, let’s try and get some sleep before he wakes us up.”

Frank moved and slid into the covers, settling down as Fliss led besides him. He turned onto his side to look at her and she brushed her hand through his untidy, fluffy hair and then opened her arms. With the air of a small child he sank into them, his head resting against her chest, arms moving so that they wrapped around her, like a koala bear. Her hand once more resumed its gentle stroking on his neck and it wasn’t long before Fliss felt his tense shoulders relax, his breathing grew even and she glanced down to see those long eyelashes resting against his freckled cheeks as he slept. She pressed a kiss to his head and closed her eyes and finally let her own emotion crash over her as she let out a few silent tears of her own.

***** “I just don’t get it Bonnie.” Fliss sighed gently, as Bonnie took the coffee she was offering, the two women heading over to the breakfast bar. “Why now? Why after so fucking long is he suddenly interested?”

“I wish I could answer that for you.” Bonnie was sympathetic, as Fliss’ eyes flicked over to Mary who was led on the play-mat by the TV with Alex. He was led on his back and Mary was playing peek-a-boo with him, hiding her face behind his large stuffed Elephant pillow which had been a present from Steve and Sian when they’d taken the kids to the zoo.  Alex showing his appreciation by smiling at her and giggling, his arms and leg waving as he shrieked with happiness.

“I just can’t shake the feeling that there’s more to it.” Fliss bit her lip and Bonnie looked at her.

“What do you mean?”

“Well…” Fliss shifted a little, dropping her voice even more. “When Polland turned up in the Custody case, Frank was always adamant that Evelyn had paid him, even though he denied it and she denied it and we had no evidence. Frank’s still to this day 100% convinced that’s why he came forward. He wasn’t interested in Mary…”

“Has he asked Evelyn since?”

“No.” Fliss shook her head. “They’re in a good place. It’s not perfect but its ok, and they have this unspoken agreement now that they don’t talk about it. They moved on so…”

“Maybe you should ask her.” Bonnie said.

Fliss shrugged “I don’t know if I want to drag it all back up.”

“Yeah, but if you think someone is putting him up to this…”

“I don’t, well, I do, maybe…”  Fliss hesitated as she tried to put what she was thinking into words “I don’t know, what I think to be honest, other than there must be something else in it for Pollland. Sorry, I’m not making much sense.” “No, I get it.” Bonnie assured him. The two women sat in silence before Bonnie clicked her fingers as she looked at Fliss “Facebook. Have you checked him out?”

“Already tried, he’s blocked me and Frank…same on Instagram. Not that I’m sure it would help but…”

“Well he won’t have blocked me…” Bonnie shrugged “Might be a dead end but you never know. Worth a good old social media stalk, don’t you think?”

Fliss looked at Mary, then to Bonnie again before she nodded “Ok…do it.”

Bonnie pulled her phone out and scrolled down, tapping open the App. “What’s his name?”

“Polland.” Fliss said gently “Brad…”

Bonnie tapped at the screen and then turned it to Fliss, “That him?”

Fliss nodded. “Yeah…”

“Damned it his profile is locked down…” Bonnie said, her eyes roving over the screen. “Let me try his insta…” She continued to tap at her phone and grinned “Well he hasn’t locked this down…”she started to scroll down the screen and then stopped, frowning a little “Hang on…why do I recognise this woman?”

“Let me see?”

She pushed the phone over the counter and Fliss stared at it for a moment. It was a picture of Polland in a suit, with a team of people she assumed must be work colleagues. “Which one?”

“The one 2 down from him to his right.”

Fliss looked closer and then she felt her heart skip a beat. “I don’t fucking believe it…”

“What?”

“That’s Anna.” She said gently “Richard’s wife.” “Richard as in…” Bonnie trailed off as Fliss swallowed and looked at her.

“My ex brother in law. We saw them in Miami…” The realisation crashed over Fliss in a huge wave as she stared at the photo, the ghosts once again of her past back to haunt her only this time in a way she could never have imagined. This was the link, the Stazikers. She’d bet her life on it.

“Why now?” Bonnie asked gently “I mean this photo is from a few years back, so…” “I wasn’t with Frank when the case went down, not fully anyway.” Fliss said, biting her lip “None of them would have made the connection back then, they didn’t even know where I was. This will be their way of punishing me. John died whilst in prison for an attack on me, Richard did a few months inside too for his part. They’ve always blamed me, even when John pleaded guilty.” She took a deep breath and looked at Bonnie “Ok, can you go through and screen shot ANYTHING you see that links him to the Stazikers, then send it to me.” “What you gonna do?” Bonnie asked “Tell Frank?”

“Not yet.” Fliss said, “I need to speak to Evelyn first.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m gonna ask her once and for all if she paid Polland.” Fliss looked at Bonnie, her eyes blazing “Because if she did, it makes it all the more likely he’s taking a back hander again.” *****

“Fliss?” Evelyn’s voice hit Fliss’ ears as she sat in the study, sitting at the desk.  

“HI Evelyn.” Fliss said, taking a deep breath “Have you got a minute?”

“Yes, of course…what’s the matter?”

“I need to ask you something. And I want an honest answer. Bradley Polland…” “What about him?” Evelyn’s voice took a gruff turn.

“Did you pay him?”

“What?”

“When he appeared at Mary’s case. Did you pay him?”

“Why are you asking me this?”

“Because yesterday we had notification he’s actively contesting the Adoption application.” Fliss said, keeping her voice calm “And I’m trying to understand why. I have a theory but…”

“It’s nothing to do with me if that’s what you think…” “No, I don’t.” Fliss appeased as Evelyn’s voice was harsh. “I’m just trying to gather the facts before I go back to Greg. But I need to know honestly Evelyn, did you pay him.”

She sighed “Not exactly, no.” “Well what exactly did you do?”

“Polland works for an accountancy company.” Evelyn hesitated slightly before she continued “He’s in charge of their New Business department. I had a word with my contacts at the University and it ended up in a very lucrative deal for his firm, meaning he got a promotion. I’m not proud of it…but…”

Fliss took a deep breath. There was some satisfaction that her suspicion had been correct but also an underlying sense of frustration at how Evelyn could have ever been so damned sneaky. But, she had to remind herself that this was all in the past now. They had all moved on, and made some pretty monumental steps in that department. But this was now threatening to blow all of this out of the water.

“Thank you for being honest with me.” She replied after a second or two.

“Fliss, you have to understand, I was desperate.” Evelyn said gently. “I’d do anything to take it all back.”

“Look, I’m not interested in dragging this up for an argument.” Fliss shook her head as she spoke “As we all keep saying, what’s done is done. I just needed to know if I was right.” “You think someone is paying him to do this?”

“Yes.” Fliss said bluntly “And I have a good idea who.”

“Are you going to tell me?”

“Not yet.” Fliss licked her lips. “I need to talk to Frank first.”

“Ok, well if there’s anything I can do please let me know.”

“Of course, I’ll let you know.

After bidding her mother-in-law goodbye, Fliss hung up and dropped the phone onto the desk before she let out a little groan and stood up, heading back into the living room. Mary looked up at her where she was sat on the sofa, and Fliss smiled as she saw Alex was curled up on-top of his comforter on the play-mat, cuddling to his beloved elephant.

“He fell asleep” Mary said, “I was watching him but you said not to try and lift him without you here so…” “Mary, he’s fine babe.” Fliss smiled, “Honestly, you did good. Top babysitter.” She leaned over and gave the girl a hi-five before she took a quick photo and sent it to Frank. Placing her phone on the coffee table she dropped down besides Mary. “What you looking at?” Fliss nodded at the laptop.

“I’m chatting to Rosie.” Mary said, turning the Macbook so Fliss could she see had the instant messenger service from the school network open “We were talking about Christmas and stuff. She asked if I can go and sleep over tomorrow night seeing as it’s the holidays.”

“You wanna?”

“Yeah.” “Then fine by me.” Fliss said, giving a little yawn “I can’t see Frank having a problem with it. I’m teaching in the afternoon so I can drop you either before or after.”

“Ok, I’ll tell her you said yes.” Mary smiled, “See what time she says I can go over. I can ride Monty in the morning again like I did today.”

“Sounds like plan, kiddo.” Fliss nodded “We can do the trail if you want when I’ve done the classes for the morning.”

“Awesome!” Mary grinned.

“Oh, and I know I said I was gonna make chicken parm for dinner but I seriously cannot be bothered. I’m thinking I might throw some frozen pizzas in and do some dirty fries instead.”

Mary grinned “I love dirty fries.” “So does Frank.” Fliss smiled

“He needs cheering up.” Mary nodded “He looked sad this morning.”

“He just has some stuff going on at work.” Fliss said, batting the question away “He’ll be fine.”

At that point her phone went off, it was a message back from the man in question responding to her photo of Alex.

Lucky little bastard!  I’d kill for a nap right now, I’m exhausted. Finishing early so should be home in an hour or so. Love you all xxx

“See.” She showed it to Mary “Just tired.”

“Can we bake some brownies?” Mary asked, her face hopeful “They always cheer him up.”

“Sure.” Fliss smiled, standing up, completely not bothering to point out to Mary that was more hassle than the chicken parm, it was such a thoughtful thing to want to do that Fliss instantly felt her heart melt as she agreed. “Go get the bowls and stuff ready, I’ll put Bean in the crib.” To be fair it only took half an hour to mix the batter and get it in the oven. They then turned their attention to the fries and pizzas, shoving those in too before they returned back to the sofa, Fliss finding “Miracle on 34th Street” on one of the channels so they settled down to watch, the Christmas tree lights twinkling in the corner of the room. And that was how Frank found them when he came in from work about 20 minutes or so later. Both of them sat on the sofa, Mary snuggled into Fliss as they were giggling at the TV in the now dim-light of the room.

“Hey.” He smiled and Fliss looked up at him, taking the kiss he offered before he ruffled Mary’s head “Again?” he nodded to the TV and Mary glared at him.

“It happens to be one of my favourites.” “Don’t I know it.” He rolled his eyes. He then paused, the smell of baking hitting his nostrils, and looked around, before he glanced back at them, grinning “You made brownies?”

“Not just any brownies…” Mary grinned “Salted caramel ones.” Frank groaned “I love you both.”

Mary sniggered “Fliss said you would say that.”

Frank smiled “Imma take a shower ok? Be down in a second.”

“Actually, I need to talk to you.” Fliss said, looking at him significantly.

“Ok.” He frowned.

“You ok here Mary?” Fliss looked at her. “Keep an eye on Alex for me again?”

“What are you going to talk about?”

“Nonya.” Frank looked at her.

“Nonya?” Mary frowned.

“Yeah, Nonya-business.” He said, straightening up as she gave a groan.

“That’s so lame.” Mary sighed, rolling her eyes. Fliss and Frank headed upstairs into their bedroom, where Fliss took a deep breath. She didn’t even bother telling Frank to stay calm, because she knew it was futile. And, true to her prediction, when she explained what she’d found out he reacted exactly how she had predicted. Angry, upset, frustrated. He grit his teeth, swore and then started stomping around the room.

“I know, I know…” she soothed as he slammed a drawer shut, tossing a pair of joggers onto the bed. “But, this is good Frank.” “Good, how is any of this good Lissy?” he seethed “I…” “Because it gives us an angle.” She said gently “If we tell Greg about this…whilst we may not have any solid proof it provides him with a line of attack. Raises questions. And we have Evelyn too, I’m pretty sure she’ll go on record about what went down last time. It’s a total smear on his character.”

Frank took a deep breath, running his hand through his hair. “You know what, I can’t…I can’t process this now, I need to think.”

“Ok.” Fliss said, looking down at the carpet, swallowing a little as she took a deep breath. “I’m sorry.” “Sorry?” Frank frowned “What are you sorry for?”

“Because this is my fault isn’t it?” she stated, more than asked, and Frank was horrified to see the tears in her eyes. “It’s all down to John, again.” “Stop.” Frank said firmly, shaking his head as he strode round the side of the bed to where she was stood. “Lissy, this isn’t your fault baby. Not at all. I’m not mad at you, I promise.”

“Maybe, but if I wasn’t involved, this wouldn’t be happening and…” she took a deep breath and Frank shook his head once more, wiping her tears away. “He’s fucking dead Frank and still…” “Look.” Frank sighed, “You don’t control what that shit head family do now any more than you did back then, ok? I’m sorry for snapping I just…” “I know.” She nodded, her hands wrapping around his wrists as his calloused fingers caressed her cheek.

“But please don’t for one second think I blame you for any of this. This is down to him, and if the Stazikers are the only reason he’s doing this then he’s an even bigger shit head than we thought.”

“You know, Steeb says he can make him vanish.” Fliss shrugged “Concrete shoes, bottom of the ocean.”

Frank chuckled and his hands dropped to her hips “Don’t tempt me.”  

“So what do you want to do about it?” Fliss asked. Frank bit his lip for a moment as he considered his play and then he looked back at her, determination on his face.

“Once I’ve showered I’ll call Evelyn and check she’s ok, as no doubt she’s pacing the floor at home now, panicking.”

“You not mad at her?”

“Mad? I’m fucking raging but what’s the point of going over it all?” he sighed, “I always knew deep down she’d done something and we worked so hard to put it behind us…”

“And the rest of it?”

“Well after I speak to Mother, I’ll get onto Greg, tell him what we know.” He spoke determinedly “If the fucking cunts want a dirty fight, then they can have one.”

**** Chapter 16 Part 2

#frank adler #frank adler x ofc #frank adler x original female character #gifted #gifted fan fic #chris evans #chris evans characters

[grumpyhedgehogs]

I'm a platonic hurt/comfort kinda gal, so.. anxciet apologizing for the argument that drove them apart?

You, my friend, are a gal after my own heart. But first, can I tempt you with a side order of angst-ridden rehashing of the argument before the hurt/comfort?

~

“So you’re sticking around then.”

Janus slaps on a smirk and ignores how tight his shoulders feel. He straightens his gloves and turns to Virgil.

The anxious side is hunched up inside his hoodie--the new purple and black one, the one he never had before- before-- and staring somewhere over Janus’s right shoulder. 

“Disappointed?”

Virgil’s eyes flash to Janus’s for a second, sharp and dark, before flickering away again. He ducks his head and his bangs fall across them; Janus always used to push his hair back for him when they were young. “Are you?”

Janus arches a brow, although his aloof bravado is probably put off by the lost expression he’s sporting. Trust Virgil not to allow him his feigned disinterest for long. “Why would I be disappointed that Thomas is listening to me for once?”

“Not that,” Virgil snaps. His shoulders hitch higher, brushing the bottoms of his ears. He must truly be upset. Something twists in Janus’s stomach. “It’s just-- you’re staying with us.”

That...did not help clarify anything. “Uh...yes?”

Virgil gives him a significant look. 

Janus blinks back.

“With me.”

“I,” Janus says slowly, picking his words deliberately, “have no idea what you’re trying to say right now.”

“I thought you’d be disappointed to see me.” Virgil sounds like he’s gritting his teeth. He is once again looking anywhere but at Janus. He’s probably balling his hands into fists; tension makes him vibrate slightly where he stands.

Janus’s teeth are set on edge just looking at him; he can feel the tightness in his shoulders spreading to the muscles in his back now, sending his spine ramrod straight. His stomach turns again but Janus ignores the queasy feeling for the burn of old, hurt anger in his chest. 

“I was under the opposite impression, of course.” Janus breathes in deep when the other side doesn’t look up for more than a second. Something flashes across Virgil’s face. Confusion, maybe. Janus tips his head courteously, dangerously. “You’re the one who left, Virg. Not me.”

Virgil flinches, but something in him seems to turn to steel. He takes a step forward and Janus tenses even more. “It’s not like I had no reason to.”

“Oh yes, here come the accusations. What will it be this time, hm? I didn’t pay enough attention to you even though I was the one to teach you how to stop the panic attacks? I didn’t do enough to help Thomas in high school, even when I was the one who made Thomas able to stand going to class by lying to him that everything would be fine? Or how about something new, huh? How about something like, ‘Janus, you may be the one who helped me choose my own name, but you’re still the bad guy because you didn’t coddle me enough?’ How about it, what’s the new insult going to be--”

Virgil flares up to the challenge, unable to resist a good argument. “Oh, that’s rich. Who was it that told me I was gonna be the death of Thomas if I didn’t do my job, huh? Or, oh, yeah, who actually made sure Thomas didn’t go out to do those stupid stunts he could’ve gotten hurt at, ‘cause I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the guy who told him everything was gonna be fine! And who told him something wasn't right about that guy he met last month who turned out to be a huge creep, huh? Because it sure wasn’t the one who said I was probably just overreacting!”

“You think I’m a villain just for doing my job!” Janus accuses, voice also rising. He steps close too, unwilling to give any ground. “Which, let me remind you, you’d complain about the Light Sides doing to you all the time! I’m one half of self-preservation too, you know, I have just as much of a say in protecting Thomas as you do. I help make decisions by providing a new perspective and you’re just mad because now you’re gonna have to actually found your arguments on something other than fear.”

“You made me believe I had to be a jerk to the other sides just to make sure Thomas listened to me.” Virgil is even closer now, and he jabs a finger into Janus’s solar plexus. Janus grinds his molars together and glares down at the other side. Virgil isn’t looking away now.

“We did! They never used to listen to us otherwise, and you know it. I taught you how to survive. I taught you how to take care of yourself and Thomas. And then you had to go and make other friends and suddenly my teachings weren’t good enough for the high and mighty Anxiety, is that it? Had to make room for your new friends and they didn’t like to play rough, huh?”

“You told me to leave!”

Janus closes his mouth with a snap and stares. Virgil, too, seems surprised by his outburst, slapping a hand over his mouth. His eyes are wide over dark shadows; his knuckles are white with how hard he’s pressing his fingers against his mouth, like he’s holding in another scream. 

There is silence.

Then, slowly, Virgil lowers his hand. “You told me to leave,” he says softly now. “You--you told me I wasn’t one of you anymore and that I should just get out, so I did. You…” He trails off, voice shaking, and Janus closes his eyes against the last, worst blow. “You told me to never come back.”

“I didn’t mean it,” Janus says, his voice sounding small to his own ears. “I didn’t mean it.”

He feels more than sees Virgil rear back. His voice is choked when he speaks. “You liar.”

A pit opens at the bottom of Janus’s stomach and he forces his eyes open. Virgil’s eyeshadow is black as death and he’s pale now, black and purple veins standing out at the corners of his eyes as he gasps for breath with too-small lungs. He staggers back from Janus but Janus can’t let him walk away. Not this time.

“No!” 

With an uncharacteristically clumsy lunge forward, Janus manages to snatch Virgil’s wrist before the side can sink out. Virgil tugs mightily at his hold but Janus adds his second right arm to the mix and keeps them both anchored. 

“I’m not lying,” Janus tries. He’s discombobulated, upset, not half as put together as he usually appears. Is this what Patton has to deal with every day? All these weird, squirming emotions in his chest? God, he’s never going to make fun of the man again. “I’m not lying, Virgil, please.”

“No,” Virgil is shaking under his hands, denying, “No, you are. You are.”

They're both babbling, struggling, upset. This is getting them nowhere. Janus breathes deep, even if it seems there’s no air left in the room.

“Virgil. Remember your breathing.” He tries a stern voice, but soft, gentle. He uses another hand to press gently at the center of Virgil’s chest, a mirror of a moment ago. Virgil shudders, breath stuttering. “Four-seven-eight, right?”

Virgil’s eyes are squeezed shut, but his arm is limp in Janus’s grip now, and he nods, just a little. “R-ri-rig-”

“Shh. Let’s count.”

It takes a while. Janus keeps ahold of him in the meantime, counting aloud. “Six, seven, good. Now out, Virg, you’re doing so well. One, two…”

“Why are you doing this?” Virgil mutters after the third time he can exhale without his breath hitching too much. Janus would prefer he be fully recovered, but Janus almost never gets what he wants. 

There are so many things Janus could say right now. Lies flit like birds through his mind; he wants Thomas to be safe from panic attacks, he’s looking out for the equilibrium of the sides now that he’s been accepted, he just doesn’t want Vigil to complain to the other Lights that Janus was being mean. They all sound paltry and weak.

Oh, horror of horrors. He’s going to have to tell the truth on this one. It’s going to be a conversation. 

“Because I’m telling the truth, Virg.” It comes out softer than he means it to. Virgil has to rock forward just a little to hear him. He watches and feels how the other side tenses when he says it, but doesn’t drop his hands from where they’re connected. He isn’t quite sure he can let go right now. “I never wanted you to leave. I just-- I didn’t actually think you would. And then when you did…”

Virgil isn’t pulling away anymore. Janus swallowed the lump in his throat. “When you did leave, I kept waiting for you to come back.”

“I thought you didn’t want me back,” Virgil breathes. “You told me--”

“I lied, Virg. I do that from time to time.”

To his surprise, Virgil huffs lightly. Janus lets his fingers loosen around his wrist but is loath to drop his palm from Virgil’s chest. He’s unconsciously counting breaths, measuring how far Virgil’s chest expands on every intake of air. 

“I shouldn’t have said those things to you.” Virgil says abruptly. It startles Janus enough to step back and get a better look at his face. Virgil doesn’t move, but this time, he meets Janus’s eyes directly. His face is doing something strange, working wonkily like he’s maybe trying not to cry. Janus feels his heart lurch. “I didn’t mean any of them. I--I missed you, ya know. I didn’t want-- when I left I didn’t think I’d never see-- yeah. I missed you. I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry too.” Janus tries to smile but his face is behaving strangely too, and it comes out mangled and wrong. Virgil doesn’t point that out, though. He’s polite like that. “I really didn’t mean to push you the rest of the way out. I was scared.”

Virgil blinks and Janus curses himself. “I didn’t want you to go. I was afraid of how much it would hurt to say goodbye so I just-- just--”

“Made sure we could never say it?”

“Well. Yes.”

Virgil smiles now, and it’s watery but that’s okay. It’s better than okay, actually. Janus feels his own smile become more natural in return. “You’re a pretty dumb guy, Jay, you know that?”

“It takes one to know one.” Janus thinks for a second and then hisses in realization. “And I’m sorry I called you Anxiety. You didn’t deserve that, Virg.”

Somehow he must have said the wrong thing, though, because Virgil’s face crumples again unexpectedly and Janus stutters again, worried. He raises his hands in surrender, trying to think of what would make Virgil stop crying, please, for the love of all that is holy. Instead, however, he just gets an armful of crying side.

The solution is easy to see after that.

Janus squeezes as tight as he dares, wraps his arms as far as he can reach around Virgil, wraps them both up in his cape and ignores the way his hat goes flying when he leans his head against Virgil’s. Virgil’s hair tickles his cheek and Janus holds on even tighter, closing his eyes. It seems like he can actually breathe for the first time in a very long time. Virgil’s hands are fisted in the back of his shirt and his forehead is hot where it presses against Janus’s neck. He doesn’t even protest when Janus wraps his other two pairs of arms around him, just lets them sway slightly in a soothing rhythm. 

“Not that I don’t like this,” Janus tries for conversational and winds up somewhere in the wet territory, “but can I ask what prompted this spontaneous display of affection?”

“You’re the only one who calls me Virg.”

Janus hides a smile in Virgil’s hair and hums.

#ts #sanders sides #virgil #virgil sanders #ts virgil #sanders sides virgil #ts deceit #sanders sides deceit #deceit sanders #ts janus #janus sanders #platonic anxceit #anxciet #my writing #sanders side fic #panic attack #mentions of creepy people and stupid stunts #arguing #hugs #hurt/comfort

[what-is-your-plan-today]

Riding On

Ch 16- A Whole Fucking Hand Of Aces

Part 1

Summary: It’s the run up to Christmas now for our favourite family, but it isn’t all happiness and smiles as Greg brings Fliss and Frank some worrying news about their adoption application. When Fliss enrols Bonnie’s help and the two women turn detective they uncover something that leaves Fliss both stunned and shocked. But, after a little contemplation, her and Frank realise that maybe, just maybe, they can work this to their advantage after all.

Warnings: Some VERY Bad Language words (Frank has a potty mouth…) Descriptions of panic attack-please avoid if this triggers.

Pairing: Frank Adler x Fliss Gallagher

A/N:  Some nitty, gritty action and angst over this chapter so I hope you’re ready… buckle up! Big thanks to @icanfeelastormbrewing​ for reading this (sorry Frank had to put a shirt on) and @southerngracela​ for helping me with a crucial bit here that I have very limited experience on. And to @sweater-daddiesdumbdork​ for her opinions and also being as in love with dirty boat daddy as I am...

Chapter Song: I’m Gonna Love You Through It by Martina McBride (Ok, so this song makes me damned cry due to the sentiment behind it, and fits Frank and Fliss here so much…)

Series Masterlist //  WIYPT Masterlist

When you’re weak, I’ll be strong. When you let go, I’ll hold on. When you need to cry, I swear that I’ll be there to dry your eyes. When you feel lost and scared to death, like you can’t take one more step, just take my hand, together we can do it. I’m gonna love you through it.

December 2019

Fliss set the mug down on the coffee table in front of where Greg sat in the arm chair. Their friend had called earlier that day to say he had finally had a response from an attorney representing Bradley Polland, Mary’s biological father regarding the Adoption.

And it hadn’t been good news. Frank’s worse fear had been realised, the man was contesting. Frank hadn’t received the news particularly well, storming out of work and straight home, blazing in a fit of anger that was very unlike him, and Fliss had taken charge and asked Greg to come over later that night once Mary was in bed so they could discuss it in a calm and hopefully logical manner. As always, he was happy to oblige.

Greg flashed Fliss a smile and thanked her before she sat next to Frank on the sofa, her hand reaching for his. Their fingers laced together and she gave a little squeeze and he looked at her, giving her a tight smile.

“Don’t get too despondent yet.” Greg sighed, “I know it’s shitty but like I said on the phone Frank, we have a damned good chance on winning this in court.”

“I just don’t fucking understand Greg.” Frank shook his head “Why? Why is he contesting? He doesn’t give a shit about her, we know that. He’s never even laid eyes on her in person. Fucking ass hole.” His tone we venomous, his face creased in anger and Fliss gently squeezed his fingers again. He took a deep breath and shook his head “Sorry, I’m just…” “Buddy, I can’t begin to imagine how you feel.” Greg sighed, “And I’m sorry I can’t answer your question because I don’t know what his reasoning is.” The man shrugged as he took a sip of his tea. “Maybe the fact that the adoption would completely remove any rights he has to her has sparked some deep buried paternal instinct...” “Bull shit.” Frank scoffed, leaning back in his chair. Greg looked at Fliss who took a deep breath.

“So, what happens now?” she asked, trying to keep calm. One of them had to have a level head after all.

“Well, there’ll be a little to-ing and fro-ing before court but my first action, which I did as soon as that letter landed this morning, was to get onto Child Welfare. They’ll prep a report on Mary, how settled she is, happy, basically in support of the adoption.” Greg licked his lips “But I want you both to know, that there is absolutely no way that Mary is gonna get taken away from you.” He looked at Frank straight in the eyes as Frank looked back. “Even if Polland petitions for custody, which he won’t…” he held his hand up, cutting Frank off before he could start again “No Court in their right mind is gonna rip her out of her home here and put her with him, not now. You have Legal Guardian Status Frank, that’s not gonna change. At most he will get visitation.”

“What if Mary doesn’t want to see him?” Fliss asked as Frank looked away, his eyes roving over the garden are which was light up by the various solar lights speckled around the decking and lawn, the pool lights turning the whole area to the left of the garden a vivid shade of aqua, desperately trying to keep his cool.

“Then the CWD will reflect that in their report.” Greg nodded. “But this is absolute worst case scenario. You both need to understand that there is a really, really high chance that the court will overrule his objection and allow the Adoption to go through anyway. She’s been with you all her life Frank, whilst he may have a biological link to her, he has nothing else. And the court won’t look favourably on his actions. We saw that in the case versus your mother.” “So this might actually not mean a thing?” Fliss looked at Greg.

“Exactly.” Greg smiled “You’re in a very good position. This…it’s just a little bump in the road.”

“Then why does it feel like a huge fucking road block?” Frank looked at Greg and his best friend sighed.

“Because you’re panicking.” Greg said simply “You’re over thinking it, like you always do. Trust me Frank, this is going to change nothing…” “How can you say that?” Frank looked at him. “Of course it’s gonna change something, that little girl up there thinks we’re gonna be adopting her and now I’m gonna haff to tell her that that might naht be the case…”

His accent grew thicker, the way it always did when he was emotional and Fliss squeezed his hand once more and turned to face him.

“Frank, nothing changes from our home front, that’s what Greg means.” She said, and Greg nodded in agreement. “And as for telling her, then we do what we always do. We be honest, we explain it simply and we reassure her if she gets anxious. That’s all we can do for now. And then, whatever happens we face it together as a family.” Frank sighed and looked down at his feet before he looked at Greg, shaking his head “Sorry man, I didn’t mean to snap.” “Don’t sweat it.” Greg shook his head “But I mean what I say pal, this isn’t like last time when, I’ll be honest, I didn’t think we had a cat in hells chance of keeping her from your mother, despite how much I was behind you, and you know that. This time, well, not only have your entire circumstances changed now in that she has a perfect home, a family, stability…” he took a deep breath, “And you are her legal guardian. No court will strip that from you unless there’s exceptional circumstances. And these are not. The only card Polland has to play is that he still has his Parental Rights, he’s got nothing else. He has never met her, never talked to her, never paid a dime towards her. In contrast, you on the other hand have a whole fucking hand of Aces to play back. There’s no way she’s going anywhere, adoption or not, which is the main thing here. That she stays with you. You two are her parents in everything but name and the court and CWD will see that.”

There was nothing much more that Greg could tell them at that point, other than to walk them through the next steps in a little more detail. He talked them through how the CWD would be in contact and that they’d want to speak to Mary alone, then they’d want to speak to both of them too, and that was as far as he was prepared to go, refusing to even think about anything beyond that. Which in itself was frustrating the hell out of Frank, but Fliss understood exactly why Greg was being so reserved. It was information overload, and Frank being the very analytical and cerebral person he was would end up even more frustrated as Greg would have no answer to the barrage of questions he was likely to have.

It was only when Alex made the familiar noises of hunger that the 3 of them called time on their discussion and Fliss stood up and headed to the bassinet to the side of the sofa. 

"He's getting so big." Greg beamed and Alex, momentarily forgetting his hunger, locked his eyes onto his godfather's and gave him a huge smile. "Hey fella!" Greg ran a finger down his cheek and Alex wiggled his arms in response. "He looks like you pal." Greg looked at Frank as he grinned. "Poor little bugger." 

“Fuck you.” Frank snorted, and Fliss pouted dramatically.

"I happen to think is daddy is very handsome." She looked at Frank whose lips curled into a smile at one side for what felt like the first time that day before he turned to Greg. 

"I'll see you out."

Greg looked at him and then nodded, and with a final goodbye to Fliss, he left the family room with Frank behind him

“Tell me honestly Greg, and no bullshit…” Frank looked ad his friend as they strode towards Greg’s silver benz which was parked behind Fliss’ Cherokee “Am I gonna lose her?”

“Have you just listened to a damned word I said Frank?” Greg looked at him. “Read my lips. Not a chance. Honestly Frank, you have the upper hand here. This is nothing like last time.”

Frank nodded and gave his friend a tight smile.

“Thanks for coming over.” he nodded and Greg smiled.

“Any time, I got your back. You know that.” he promised as he climbed into his car. Frank watched him leave, tossing a hand at the tailgate to the car before he turned and headed back inside, giving a whistle for Thor to follow him, the dog having wandered outside at the same time he had. But despite his friend’s assurances, he just couldn’t shake the worry from the back of his mind that this entire thing was going to rip their family apart.

He paused in the doorway and watched Fliss who was now feeding Alex his bottle, her eyes locked on that of their son and he felt a little lump in his throat. He swallowed and spoke, his voice sounding strangely far away to him.

“Want me to do that?” he asked. Fliss looked at him, immediately recognising his offer for what it actually was, a request. He wanted to do it. And she knew why. It was a way to keep himself grounded, away from the spiralling thoughts in his mind.

“Sure.” She nodded as Frank sat down. She handed Alex over and then kissed Frank’s cheek. “Try not to worry sweetheart, I know it’s a shitty set back but it’ll work out.”

“You’re optimistic.” Frank looked down at Alex as he took his milk before he glanced up at Fliss “I wish I was.”

“You heard Greg.” She gently lay her hand on his neck, her fingers softly stroking at his skin of the nape “This isn’t like last time.”

“I know.”  He nodded, before he fixed a smile on his face “Why don’t you go for that bath you were talking about before?”

“You gonna be ok?”

He nodded “Yeah, I’ll be up once he’s finished.”

��Ok.” Fliss nodded, kissing him again before she stood up and left Frank alone with his son.

**** Try as he might Frank couldn’t sleep that night, his mind was whirring at 100 miles an hour, and in the end he gave up before his tossing and turning disturbed either Fliss or Alex. He climbed out of bed, pulled on a pair of sweats and a t-shirt before he peered down at Alex who was asleep in his crib. As he headed to the door he reached down and gave Thor’s ears a scratch as the dog looked up from his spot in his basket before he padded silently into the hallway and softly pushed Mary’s bedroom door open. She too was fast asleep, Fred curled up next to her head on the pillow. She looked so peaceful, so content. And Frank knew that’s because she was. She was safe, she was loved, she was wanted- boy was she wanted- and the thought that her life, that their lives might be upturned by that shit head Polland made Frank’s stomach churn.

He knew he was over thinking things. He had always been the same. He retreated into his mind, and no matter how many times Fliss or Greg had told him not to worry that night he just couldn’t help it. He’d almost lost her once, and the thought that he might actually lose her for good this time was unbearable. His mouth suddenly became dry and he needed a drink, so closing the door behind him softly he headed down the stairs and pulled open the fridge, reaching for a bottle of water.

He the cool liquid in one but that did nothing to help the hot and clammy feeling that was now washing over him, causing a light beading of sweat to dust his brow. He wiped it away with the back of his hand and as he did so his belly dropped out from him and a sick feeling spread across his body, almost like he was going to puke. He gripped the edge of the counter, hovering over the sink, eyes closed as the room began to spin and his chest suddenly began to hurt. He found himself unable to catch his breath as his throat tightened and he scrunched his eyes shut as they were burning from the unshed, salty tears. Then, he could hold the feeling of desperation and panic no more and he turned, sliding to the floor in a dishevelled heap, his back banging painfully against the lower kitchen cabinets as he struggled to ground himself. When his chest finally released enough for him to take a huge, shaky, painful breath it was all too much and his anxiety poured out in a flood of uncontrollable tears, the deep emotions stirring with no other outlet but his silent crying.

How long he was there he had no idea, locked in his own mind and worries, but then a voice broke through the cloud in his mind and a familiar presence filled his senses.

“Frankie…” Fliss gently placed her hand on Frank’s shoulder as she knelt down next to him. “Oh Baby…”

He mumbled something incoherent, choking on his sobs, his face buried between his arms as they hugged his knees to his chest, and she moved to wrap her arms around him. His own arms moved and he wrapped them around her back, clinging to her with a desperation she’d never seen or felt from him before as he pressed his face into the crook of her shoulder.

“Shhhh, I got you…” she whispered to him, kissing his head. “I got you.”

The two of them sat on the kitchen floor, Fliss soothing him, pressing the odd kiss to his head, running her hand up his spine over his t-shirt with one hand, the fingers of the other fingers brushing the back of his neck, a movement she knew he found comforting. Knowing from her own experiences, there was nothing else to be done other than stay with him and let him cry it out she did just that. Eventually, she felt his broad shoulders begin to relax a little as his sobs turned into smaller cries, which then morphed into small hiccups, until eventually they subsided completely and there was no sound in the room bar his deep, ragged breathing. After a moment or so of relative quiet,  he pulled away and Fliss turned her head towards him, taking in his appearance and it broke her heart. His face was red and blotchy, those blue eyes she could drown in were bloodshot and looked at her sadly from beneath puffy eyelids. He moved his arm to wipe at his nose and then took a deep, stuttering breath.

“You with me?” Fliss asked gently and he nodded, taking another shaky breath.

“Sorry, I didn’t want to wake you.” He spoke, his throat felt raw and his voice was gruff and croaky, not sounding like his own. Fliss shook her head.

“Don’t you dare apologise Frank.” She said gently “There’s nothing to be sorry for.”

“We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving a few weeks ago, and we should be looking forward to Alex’s first Christmas and now…” “Hey, hey…” Fliss cut him off, her hands taking his face gently, pads of her fingers threading into his beard. “Thanksgiving was wonderful, because we were all together. Christmas is gonna be wonderful because we will still all be together.”

“I can’t lose her Liss, I can’t lose any of you, I just…” “And you’re not gonna.” She said, her voice calm and quiet. “Greg told you this before. The worst that can happen is Polland is gonna get visitations.” “But what if she wants to live with him? What if she-“ “Oh Frank.” Fliss sighed “That’s not even a remote possibility. Mary worships the ground you walk on. She adores Alex. She loves her home, her life…if anything, I think she’s going to refuse to even see him. You saw how heartbroken she was that day we had to talk her out of the bathroom during the court-case. She won’t have forgotten that.”

Frank raised his eyes to Fliss’ and she smiled at him softly, her hands still on his face “Baby, she might only be 9 but she’s not stupid. She knows you gave everything you had to make sure she’s had a good life. You kept her safe, loved. I’ll say it over and over till I’m blue in the face Frank, you ARE her father. In everything but biology. And Bill and I are proof here that biology doesn’t mean a fucking thing.”

“She adores you too you know.” Frank said, and Fliss smiled softly pressing her forehead to his

“Good because I adore her right back. And her big, soft, lump of an uncle-slash-father who happens to be a wonderful man with a huge heart, who knows he isn’t perfect but doesn’t try to be.” Her hands slid down from his face, one resting on his shoulder, the other back to stroking the nape of his neck. Frank closed his eyes, taking a deep breath as her touch washed over him. “A man who strives every day to be the best version of himself, but doesn’t really need to because he’s already the best daddy and partner in the world.”

“Liss I’m not-“ “You’re not perfect, yes I know.” She smiled “But that makes you perfect to me.”

Frank took a deep breath and closed his eyes as her fingers continued to gently stroke at his neck, all the time her movements sending gently sparks of warmth down his back. His breathing had settled down now, his tears stopped. He felt calmer.

“I love you.” He said softly and Fliss smiled, pulling back a little

“I know.” She looked at him “I love you too.”

His hand reached up for the one that was resting on his shoulder and his fingers tangled with hers, and he squeezed gently, relishing the feel of her engagement ring as it pressed against his middle and ring finger. And then, almost by magic, a soft gurgle came from the baby monitor on the side in the kitchen.

“See, Bean loves his daddy too.” Fliss smiled and Frank gave a little chuckle. “Wanna come back to bed?”

He nodded.

Fliss stood up and offered Frank her hand, tugging him up beside her. Without a word she led him down the hall and up the stairs. Frank headed straight to Alex who was on his back, his eyes flickering as he was clearly still sleepy, his head turned gently to the right, little hand curling by his cheek. Frank softly ran a finger over his soft skin and the little boy reacted to the touch, his limbs stretching a little before he settled back down, his breathing even, his eyes closing.

“I still don’t know how we made something so special.” Fliss whispered, her arms curling round Frank’s waist from behind.

“He’s part you.” Franks replied softly, and Fliss gave a chuckle.

“Yeah, well, like I said, his daddy’s pretty awesome too.” Frank turned round to face her and dropped a gentle kiss to her mouth, his nose sliding against hers before he gave a little yawn. “Sorry…” he said as Fliss chuckled.

“Come on Sailor, let’s try and get some sleep before he wakes us up.”

Frank moved and slid into the covers, settling down as Fliss led besides him. He turned onto his side to look at her and she brushed her hand through his untidy, fluffy hair and then opened her arms. With the air of a small child he sank into them, his head resting against her chest, arms moving so that they wrapped around her, like a koala bear. Her hand once more resumed its gentle stroking on his neck and it wasn’t long before Fliss felt his tense shoulders relax, his breathing grew even and she glanced down to see those long eyelashes resting against his freckled cheeks as he slept. She pressed a kiss to his head and closed her eyes and finally let her own emotion crash over her as she let out a few silent tears of her own.

***** “I just don’t get it Bonnie.” Fliss said gently, as Bonnie took the coffee she was offering, the two women heading over to the breakfast bar. “Why now? Why after so fucking long is he suddenly interested?”

“I wish I could answer that for you.” Bonnie sighed, as Fliss’ eyes flicked over to Mary who was led on the play-mat by the TV with Alex. He was led on his back and Mary was playing peek-a-boo with him, hiding her face behind his large stuffed Elephant pillow which had been a present from Steve and Sian when they’d taken the kids to the zoo.  Alex showing his appreciation by smiling at her and giggling, his arms and leg waving as he shrieked with happiness.

“I just can’t shake the feeling that there’s more to it.” Fliss bit her lip and Bonnie looked at her.

“What do you mean?”

“Well…” Fliss shifted a little, dropping her voice even more. “When Polland turned up in the Custody case, Frank was always adamant that Evelyn had paid him, even though he denied it and she denied it and we had no evidence. Frank’s still to this day 100% convinced that’s why he came forward. He wasn’t interested in Mary…”

“Has he asked Evelyn since?”

“No.” Fliss shook her head. “They’re in a good place. It’s not perfect but its ok, and they have this unspoken agreement now that they don’t talk about it. They moved on so…”

“Maybe you should ask her.” Bonnie said.

Fliss shrugged “I don’t know if I want to drag it all back up.”

“Yeah, but if you think someone is putting him up to this…”

“I don’t, well, I do, maybe…”  Fliss hesitated as she tried to put what she was thinking into words “I don’t know, what I think to be honest, other than there must be something else in it for Pollland. Sorry, I’m not making much sense.” “No, I get it.” Bonnie assured him. The two women sat in silence before Bonnie clicked her fingers as she looked at Fliss “Facebook. Have you checked him out?”

“Already tried, he’s blocked me and Frank…same on Instagram. Not that I’m sure it would help but…”

“Well he won’t have blocked me…” Bonnie shrugged “Might be a dead end but you never know. Worth a good old social media stalk, don’t you think?”

Fliss looked at Mary, then to Bonnie again before she nodded “Ok…do it.”

Bonnie pulled her phone out and scrolled down, tapping open the App. “What’s his name?”

“Polland.” Fliss said gently “Brad…”

Bonnie tapped at the screen and then turned it to Fliss, “That him?”

Fliss nodded. “Yeah…”

“Damned it his profile is locked down…” Bonnie said, her eyes roving over the screen. “Let me try his insta…” She continued to tap at her phone and grinned “Well he hasn’t locked this down…”she started to scroll down the screen and then stopped, frowning a little “Hang on…why do I recognise this woman?”

“Let me see?”

She pushed the phone over the counter and Fliss stared at it for a moment. It was a picture of Polland in a suit, with a team of people she assumed must be work colleagues. “Which one?”

“The one 2 down from him to his right.”

Fliss looked closer and then she felt her heart skip a beat. “I don’t fucking believe it…”

“What?”

“That’s Anna.” She said gently “Richard’s wife.” “Richard as in…” Bonnie trailed off as Fliss swallowed and looked at her.

“My ex brother in law. We saw them in Miami…” The realisation crashed over Fliss in a huge wave as she stared at the photo, the ghosts once again of her past back to haunt her only this time in a way she could never have imagined. This was the link, the Stazikers. She’d bet her life on it.

“Why now?” Bonnie asked gently “I mean this photo is from a few years back, so…” “I wasn’t with Frank when the case went down, not fully anyway.” Fliss said, biting her lip “None of them would have made the connection back then, they didn’t even know where I was. This will be their way of punishing me. John died whilst in prison for an attack on me, Richard did a few months inside too for his part. They’ve always blamed me, even when John pleaded guilty.” She took a deep breath and looked at Bonnie “Ok, can you go through and screen shot ANYTHING you see that links him to the Stazikers, then send it to me.” “What you gonna do?” Bonnie asked “Tell Frank?”

“Not yet.” Fliss said, “I need to speak to Evelyn first.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m gonna ask her once and for all if she paid Polland.” Fliss looked at Bonnie, her eyes blazing “Because if she did, it makes it all the more likely he’s taking a back hander again.” *****

“Fliss?” Evelyn’s voice hit Fliss’ ears as she sat in the study, sitting at the desk.  

“HI Evelyn.” Fliss said, taking a deep breath “Have you got a minute?”

“Yes, of course…what’s the matter?”

“I need to ask you something. And I want an honest answer. Bradley Polland…” “What about him?” Evelyn’s voice took a gruff turn.

“Did you pay him?”

“What?”

“When he appeared at Mary’s case. Did you pay him?”

“Why are you asking me this?”

“Because yesterday we had notification he’s actively contesting the Adoption application.” Fliss said, keeping her voice calm “And I’m trying to understand why. I have a theory but…”

“It’s nothing to do with me if that’s what you think…” “No, I don’t.” Fliss appeased as Evelyn’s voice was harsh. “I’m just trying to gather the facts before I go back to Greg. But I need to know honestly Evelyn, did you pay him.”

She sighed “Not exactly, no.” “Well what exactly did you do?”

“Polland works for an accountancy company.” Evelyn hesitated slightly before she continued “He’s in charge of their New Business department. I had a word with my contacts at the University and it ended up in a very lucrative deal for his firm, meaning he got a promotion. I’m not proud of it…but…”

Fliss took a deep breath. There was some satisfaction that her suspicion had been correct but also an underlying sense of frustration at how Evelyn could have ever been so damned sneaky. But, she had to remind herself that this was all in the past now. They had all moved on, and made some pretty monumental steps in that department. But this was now threatening to blow all of this out of the water.

“Thank you for being honest with me.” She replied after a second or two.

“Fliss, you have to understand, I was desperate.” Evelyn said gently. “I’d do anything to take it all back.”

“Look, I’m not interested in dragging this up for an argument.” Fliss shook her head as she spoke “As we all keep saying, what’s done is done. I just needed to know if I was right.” “You think someone is paying him to do this?”

“Yes.” Fliss said bluntly “And I have a good idea who.”

“Are you going to tell me?”

“Not yet.” Fliss licked her lips. “I need to talk to Frank first.”

“Ok, well if there’s anything I can do please let me know.”

“Of course, I’ll let you know.”

After bidding her mother-in-law goodbye, Fliss hung up and dropped the phone onto the desk before she let out a little groan and stood up, heading back into the living room. Mary looked up at her where she was sat on the sofa, and Fliss smiled as she saw Alex was curled up on-top of his comforter on the play-mat, cuddling to his beloved elephant.

“He fell asleep” Mary said, “I was watching him but you said not to try and lift him without you here so…” “It’s fine babe, he looks comfy enough.” Fliss smiled, “Honestly, you did good. Top babysitter.” She leaned over and gave the girl a hi-five before she took a quick photo and sent it to Frank. Placing her phone on the coffee table she dropped down besides Mary. “What you looking at?” Fliss nodded at the laptop.

“I’m chatting to Rosie.” Mary said, turning the Macbook so Fliss could she see had the instant messenger service from the school network open “We were talking about Christmas and stuff. She asked if I can go and sleep over tomorrow night.”

“You wanna?”

“Yeah.” “Then fine by me.” Fliss said, giving a little yawn “I can’t see Frank having a problem with it. I’m teaching in the afternoon so I can drop you either before or after.”

“Ok, I’ll tell her you said yes.” Mary smiled, “See what time she says I can go over. I can ride Monty in the morning again like I did today.”

“Sounds like plan, kiddo.” Fliss nodded “We can do the trail if you want when I’ve done the classes for the morning.”

“Awesome!” Mary grinned.

“Oh, and I know I said I was gonna make chicken parm for dinner but I seriously cannot be bothered. I’m thinking I might throw some frozen pizzas in and do some dirty fries instead.”

Mary grinned “I love dirty fries.” “So does Frank.” Fliss smiled

“He needs cheering up.” Mary nodded “He looked sad this morning.”

“He just has some stuff going on at work.” Fliss said, batting the question away “He’ll be fine.”

At that point her phone went off, it was a message back from the man in question responding to her photo of Alex.

Lucky little bastard!  I’d kill for a nap right now, I’m exhausted. Finishing early so should be home in an hour or so. Love you all xxx

“See.” She showed it to Mary “Just tired.”

“Can we bake some brownies?” Mary asked, her face hopeful “They always cheer him up.”

“Sure.” Fliss smiled, standing up, completely not bothering to point out to Mary that was more hassle than the chicken parm, it was such a thoughtful thing to want to do that Fliss instantly felt her heart melt as she agreed. “Go get the bowls and stuff ready, I’ll put Bean in the crib.” To be fair it only took half an hour to mix the batter and get it in the oven. They then turned their attention to the fries and pizzas, shoving those in too before they returned back to the sofa, Fliss finding “Miracle on 34th Street” on one of the channels so they settled down to watch, the Christmas tree lights twinkling in the corner of the room. And that was how Frank found them when he came in from work about 20 minutes or so later. Both of them sat on the sofa, Mary snuggled into Fliss as they were giggling at the TV in the now dim-light of the room.

“Hey.” He smiled and Fliss looked up at him, taking the kiss he offered before he ruffled Mary’s head “Again?” he nodded to the TV and Mary glared at him.

“It happens to be one of my favourites.” “Don’t I know it.” He rolled his eyes. He then paused, the smell of baking hitting his nostrils, and looked around, before he glanced back at them, grinning “You made brownies?”

“Not just any brownies…” Mary grinned “Salted caramel ones.” Frank groaned “I love you both.”

Mary sniggered “Fliss said you would say that.”

Frank smiled “Imma take a shower ok? Be down in a second.”

“Actually, I need to talk to you.” Fliss said, looking at him significantly.

“Ok.” He frowned.

“You ok here Mary?” Fliss looked at her. “Keep an eye on Alex for me again?”

“What are you going to talk about?”

“Nonya.” Frank looked at her.

“Nonya?” Mary frowned. “Who’s Nonya.”

“Nonya-business.” Frank retorted, straightening up as Mary gave a groan.

“That’s so lame.” she sighed, rolling her eyes. Fliss and Frank headed upstairs into their bedroom, where Fliss took a deep breath. She didn’t even bother telling Frank to stay calm, because she knew it was futile. And, true to her prediction, when she explained what she’d found out he reacted exactly how she had predicted. Angry, upset, frustrated. He grit his teeth, swore and then started stomping around the room.

“I know, I know…” she soothed as he slammed a drawer shut, tossing a pair of joggers onto the bed. “But, this is good Frank.” “Good, how is any of this good Lissy?” he seethed “I…” “Because it gives us an angle.” She said gently “If we tell Greg about this…whilst we may not have any solid proof it provides him with a line of attack. Raises questions. And we have Evelyn too, I’m pretty sure she’ll go on record about what went down last time. It’s a total smear on his character.”

Frank took a deep breath, running his hand through his hair. “You know what, I can’t…I can’t process this now, I need to think.”

“Ok.” Fliss said, looking down at the carpet, swallowing a little as she took a deep breath. “I’m sorry.” “Sorry?” Frank frowned “What are you sorry for?”

“Because this is my fault isn’t it?” she stated, more than asked, and Frank was horrified to see the tears in her eyes. “It’s all down to John, again.” “Stop.” Frank said firmly, shaking his head as he strode round the side of the bed to where she was stood. “Lissy, this isn’t your fault baby. Not at all. I’m not mad at you, I promise.”

“Maybe, but if I wasn’t involved, this wouldn’t be happening and…” she took a deep breath and Frank shook his head once more, wiping her tears away. “He’s fucking dead Frank and still…” “Look.” Frank sighed, “You don’t control what that shit head family do now any more than you did back then, ok? I’m sorry for snapping I just…” “I know.” She nodded, her hands wrapping around his wrists as his calloused fingers caressed her cheeks.

“But please don’t for one second think I blame you for any of this. This is down to him, and if the Stazikers are the only reason he’s doing this then he’s an even bigger shit head than we thought.”

“You know, Steeb says he can make him vanish.” Fliss shrugged “Concrete shoes, bottom of the ocean.”

Frank chuckled and his hands dropped to her hips “Don’t tempt me.”  

“So what do you want to do about it?” Fliss asked. Frank bit his lip for a moment as he considered his play and then he looked back at her, determination on his face.

“Once I’ve showered I’ll call Evelyn and check she’s ok, as no doubt she’s pacing the floor at home now, panicking.”

“You not mad at her?”

“Mad? I’m fucking raging but what’s the point of going over it all?” he sighed, “I always knew deep down she’d done something and we worked so hard to put it behind us…”

“And the rest of it?”

“Well after I speak to Mother, I’ll get onto Greg, tell him what we know.” He spoke determinedly “If the fucking cunts want a dirty fight, then they can have one.”

PART 2 

#riding on #frank adler #frank adler x ofc #gifted fan fic #gifted #frank adler fan fic

[hell-much]

RFTA - Cutting Room Floor - 4

An early version of Margaery and Sansa saying goodbye at the dawn of the war. Fits between chapter 33 and 34, but with a twist that didn’t make it into the story.

...

Sansa could not say that she was surprised that Margaery had chosen horseback. Even if she’d only given birth barely more than a fortnight ago. If it meant getting her son to safety faster, she would have probably been on the back of a horse an hour after he had been pulled from her.

Olin was strapped to her chest with a clever way of scarfs and leather. A line of fur to keep him warm beneath the construct.

Next to her, Brienne was preparing her horse. She had asked her to accompany her to Dragon Stone. Sansa felt bad for it, because she knew Brienne would have been a great asset in the war in the North, and was a far to great warrior to waste her abilities on accompanying a group of weak and defenceless through the country, but as Margaery was one of those, she could not, not make her go. It would help her sleep if someone she trusted would be with her.

“All set to go?” she asked as she strode towards the group. She did her best, to keep her tone light and her face positive, but most likely failed miserably.

Margaery nodded and Sansa tried to ignore how swollen and red her eyes looked.

She even managed a smile. “I wish you safe travels,” she said, fisting up her hands so she would not reach out and take Margaery’s hand as she wanted. She could not. As much as she longed for Margaery’s touch, missed her already, she could let herself touch her. Because otherwise, she would fall to her knees and beg of her to stay. To not leave her alone in a time like this.

“I wish you strength for the battles to come,” Margaery told her, a brave look on her face.

“May the gods mean well with us,” Sansa recalled Margaery’s words from the previous night. “So that we will see each other again very soon.”

With strength she did not know she had, she turned away from Margaery and went to Brienne. “Protect them as you would protect me,” she demanded.

Brienne nodded. “With my life,” she promised.

She reached out for Brienne’s hand. “Thank you for everything, Brienne.”

“It’s been an honour, serving you, Lady Sansa,” Brienne returned solemnly.

Was it bad luck, that they all spoke like they would never see each other again? Sansa did not know. But it were words that needed to be spoken. And if there had ever been a time appropriate it was now.

The next time, she dared to look at her, Margaery was already up on her horse, leash in one hand, her other protective on Olin’s head. A dagger made of dragon glass safely secured to her hip.

Sansa tore her eyes away and forced her legs to start walking. Don’t look back, she told herself. Don’t look back or you’ll run after her. Beg her to stay.

Focus. She needed to focus. She needed distraction. She needed to be practical. She needed to focus on what was important. There were still twenty letters she had to write, demanding more grain and more men of other houses. Informing the rest of the realm of the graviety of the situation they had found themselves in. She had to find and rearrange rooms, so everyone would have a place to sleep. Needed to find someone to assist the Maester in treating the injured, so they’d be prepared for what was to come.

Determined, she strodded inside, only finding Tyrion sitting in the small room that lately served as dinner room, strategy room and solar all together.

Tyrion sat on one of the chairs, face deeply concentrated as he looked up and found her standing next to him.

“Have they all left?” He asked, not bothering to look up at her.

She wanted to affirm, asking what he was pondering over, if he could assist her with the structure of the lazaret. Instead she felt the tears spillng out of her eyes. The sob that escaped her throat even surprised herself. Her shoulders started to tremble, her legs felt weak and for only this moment, she allowed the tears to flow freely. She held onto the back of the chair, her body shaking with more sobs and tears that drenched her face. She cried over the loss of Margaery. She cried because she was afraid. She cried for her siblings, who were riding off into the most dangerous war there ever had been.

She barely noticed Tyrion standing up and putting a comforting hand on top of her own. He did not offer her words of comfort or consolation, did not say anything just waited patiently and let her cry.

It took her some time to compose herself. To pull herself together enough to even wipe away the tears and snot from her face.

“I’m sorry,” she said once her sobs had died down into a sad hiccupping.

He simply pulled her hand of the backrest and gestured for her to sit down on the chair instead. She followed his demand hesitantly, but obeyed and took the cup of wine he filled for her.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me,” she breathed after a first sip of wine, that warmed her insides comfortably.

“As it was denied to us, to die with our beloved on the front lines, let us raise our glass in their honour,” he spoke and did just that.

Sansa drank again, and put an empty cup down.

Tyrion’s eyebrows shot up as he eyed the empty cup. “If I had known you could down wine quite like that, maybe I would not have given up on our marriage quite so quickly,” he remarked.

Sansa only gave him a look out of bloodshed eyes, that was sharp enough to have him raise his hands in defense.

“Not in the mood to muse over happier times,” he said sarcastically. “Understood.”

Sansa wanted to answer, but found herself unable to. She felt comfortably empty. All her tears cried. Not the strength to think about any of the things that had caused her tears.

Only Tyrion was not quite as ready to just leave her alone and enjoy her emptiness. “So we have two possibilities now. You could tell me what it is, that lays so heavy on your heart.” She gave him a look that let him know that that was not an option. At all. “Or you pull yourself together and help me figure out this map of Winterfell. Because whoever drew it, was either a lot smarter than me, or a lot drunker than I have ever been.”

She remained silent for a moment longer, before she leaned forward and took a look at the paper on the table.

Focus.

“What is it that you are looking for?” she asked then.

Tyrion’s eyes remained on her face for only a moment longer, before they followed hers and looked down on the map. “I need to know the exact extent of the crypts. And of the cellars.”

She did not bother asking why.

“First of all, you might be luckier if you would not look at the outlay of the upper rooms,” she said neutrally and skimmed through the stack of papers until she found the correct one.

“That might help,” Tyrion said dryly, his eyes darting over the map. “Which of these are still accessible?”

Her finger flew over the map as she explained the exact layout to him. Showed him which ones were part of the crypts, which ones had collapsed a long time ago. Which ones she had stocked up with supplies.

“Smart of you, storing the supplies down there,” he said, approval in his tone.

“These crypts are partly older than some parts of Winterfell,” she said. “The top parts had to be rebuild several times. The crypts have not been touched since the first wall was erected.”

“How many people do you think could find protection down there, if it would come to it?”

Sansa shrugged. “That depends. Comfortably? Maybe a couple of dozens. Packed up – probably a few hundred.”

Tyrion came to his feet. “Would you be so kind and give me a tour through those parts of your home?”

Sansa did not think she had the strength within her to stand up. Let alone climb the steep stairs down to the crypt. But she got to her feet anyway. “Follow me,” she ordered.

The main entry to the crypt lay on the other side of Winterfell, and she went ahead of him, with big steps, to which she wondered, how he kept up.

It was bad behaviour of her, to show him as little curtesy as slowing her step, even after he had comforted her, but if she slowed down she was afraid, her thoughts might slow down as well and she would start to cry again.

Only on the steps down to the crypt he got a chance to catch up with her, as they both had to watch their step and carefully hold on to the walls. The flares on the wall only providing a poor light.

She stood still at the entry, letting him wander around beneath the stone eyes of the lords of the North. He came to a stop in front of a certain statue, and she knew exactly which one it was.

Only then she slowly followed up with him and stood beside him.

“These days would have been quite to his liking,” Tyrion reckoned. “All the great houses coming together to beat a common enemy.”

“I think he preferred the times when there was no enemy at all,” Sansa disagreed. But it was true what he had said. Her father would have achieved great things, had he had the support of the Houses and troups that currently rode North.

“Do you think he’d consider it impious, if we’d used these walls as a protection?” Tyrion asked. “If we decide to bring the people down here, not much of this peace that is within this halls right now, will remain.”

“No, but we will have protection here, there is about ten feet of soil and walls above us,” she was intrigued by the idea. And almost a little envious, that she had not come up with the idea herself.

“People will eat, sleep, cry, scream, piss and shit down here,” Tyrion told her not so vaguely. “I’m asking if that is something you could endure.”

“I think the dead, should not dictate how the living choose to survive,” Sansa replied. “And dead would understand if they’d faced what we are about to.”

“Very pragmatic of you,” he noted with a nod. “So I can start having everything set up down here?”

Sansa nodded. “You have free reign. Do as you see fit.”

They made their way up the stairs again, talking about specifics, about what they needed. What would be issues of bringing people to the crypts, in case of another attack.

“As much protection as these crypts offer, there is also the not to minor menance, that it turns from a safe harbour to a trap,” Tyron pointed out, as he panted slightly climbing the stairs. “Is there any other exit besides this one?”

“Not that I am aware of,” Sansa admitted. “I’ll talk to the stonemason, see if –”

The words died on her lips, when she looked up. The first rays of daylight illuminated the exit to the courtyard and she stopped right there in her tracks. Tyrion almost bumping into her.

“What the—” the complain died on his lips, when he saw what captured her attention. His eyes darted back and forth for a moment, before he pushed passed her towards the exit.

“Good to have you back Lady Margaery,” he said as he passed her by, where she stood by the stair head. “Let’s hope you don’t regret it,” he mumbled.

Only when it was just the two of them, Margaery made a helpless gesture, that resembled half a shrug. Sansa supposed it meant as much as, What will you have me do?

This gesture was enough for her to bring movement back into her body. She surged forward and slung her arms around Margaery. Tears one more time in her eyes. She cupped her face as if to reassure herself that she was really here. Laughing and crying at the same time. Looking at her like she had no seen her in ten years.

“You fool,” she told her, leaning her forehead against Margaery’s. “You damn fool.”

#rfta cutting room floor #rfta #sansa x margaery #sansaery

[trashfor-imagines]

How I Met Your Mother Father: Haikyū Edition! | 3

Ft. Daichi / Sugawara / Asahi / K. Ukai

Summary: How you met your husband-o! This is also the last part. Let me know if you’d like to see any dating / wedding / married life scenarios with any of the boys I featured in this HIMYMF series. I’m also not afraid to write something a lil spicy spicy dirty for these boys either, you just have to reply / message me what you want. ;) Warnings: None. Sorry for any typos. I’ll be going back and editing. :)

Part 1: Ft. Kuroo / Bokuto / Akaashi / Yaku Part 2: Ft. Oikawa / Iwaizumi / Ushijima / Tendo / Semi

-

Daichi Sawamura

A shove from behind sent you flying forward onto the ground, rolling your ankle on the way down. A cry escaped your lips from the pain and tears pricked at your eyes as you felt your knee get skimmed from the sidewalk.

A series of shouts became louder and were fast approaching. Glancing up, you watched as the person who had knocked you over scramble to his feet.

You tried to move out of the way quickly as a police officer tackled them back down. Another officer slowed to a jog, kneeling beside you while a third went to help the first officer make the arrest for petty theft from what you could tell.

“I’m Officer Daichi. Are you alright?” he asked, resting a comforting hand on your shoulder. He had sweet brown eyes and a kind smile on his face. Looking him over, you felt your mouth go a bit dry.

Hot cop.

You were today years old when you realized that men in uniform could do it for you.

“I... my ankle hurts,” you managed to say.

His eyes widened and he looked at your feet. He asked for permission before checking out your ankle. The hiss you made when he barely touched you told him it was most likely a sprain.

“Let’s get you to the hospital. Since you were injured, I’d like to get a statement for some paperwork. Is that ok?”

You nodded, allowing him to help you up. He was extremely thoughtful and careful with you as he took you to the hospital, holding your hand and making sure you didn’t place too much weight on your injury.

He stayed with you, even after he was done with his paperwork, and the two of you conversed.

Conversation with him was so easy and felt natural. He was quite enigmatic and mature, but every once in a while he’d let his silliness slip, telling jokes to make you laugh.

You talked about everything from your childhoods, your likes and dislikes, beliefs and motivations, work, and honestly no topic felt out of bounds.

When he offered to walk you home, you knew he was doing more than just his civic duty, but you couldn’t say anything other than yes.

You wanted more time with him.

“Miss (Y/N),” he spoke, taking his uniform hat off and holding it in his hands. “I don’t want to abuse my position, but could I freely call you and take you to dinner some time?”

And that was how you and Daichi Sawamura met, confidently marrying a year and a half later.

Sugawara Koshi

It was your first day of school.

Teaching that is.

You moved to Miyagi for an open teaching position for the First Grade.

Last year you were a teaching assistant, however the school didn’t have a classroom for you or a position teaching First Graders so you had to look elsewhere for work.

Invigorated by the excitement of your future here, you were all in and threw yourself into your lesson plans completing them within the first month before school began.

When you saw your classroom, you spent a two days decorating the ceiling of your classroom to reflect the solar system, hanging homemade planets and sticking glow-in-the-dark stars carefully so if you looked closely you could see the constellations.

You had 30 students, so you purchased picture frames, planning for the students to paint or draw something so you could hang them up on the blank wall. You had other art projects for the kids so they could decorate the classroom throughout the year, like making suncatchers and growing their own plant.

On the chalkboard, you wrote out the aisatsu (morning greeting) you wanted your kids to learn, as well as their homework for the first day: “Good morning. If we try, we can do it. Let’s do our best today.”

With your classroom organized how you liked and prepped for tomorrow, you headed to the teacher’s room to review your lesson plans.

The teacher’s desks were grouped in fours and personalized in their own ways. On your desk were a couple of succulents, textbooks for your classes, a cute twin bell clock, an architect desk lamp, and a framed photo of you and your parents the day you graduated from university. Your office supplies were neatly locked away in your desk drawers.

“Hello, you must be (Y/N) Sensei. Welcome,” sounded a kind voice across from you. “I’m Sugawara.”

Looking up, you watched as a man with light grey hair, hazel-brown eyes with a beauty mark under his left eye, and a gentle smile, set his things down on the desk in front of you. Quickly you stood, bowing politely before extending your hand. “It’s so nice to met you, Sugawara Sensei.”

“Just Sugawara will be fine,” he laughed, shaking your hand.

You smiled sweetly. “(Y/N) is fine for me as well.”

“First Grade as well then?” He motioned to the cluster of four desks you were a part of. “We get grouped together by year.”

You nodded, sitting down when he also made a move to sit. “That’s right. I’m really excited. I can’t wait to meet the other teachers.”

“Well between us,” he pointed at the desk beside you, “Yamasaki’s much older than us and usually sleeps at his desk.” He then pointed at the desk beside him. “And Nakamura is also older than us and I’ve noticed she doesn’t get along with other women.”

Your lips formed an O, surprised at this insider information. “Thank you for the warning.”

“We’ve got to look out for each other,” he replied, tidying a few things before picking up his briefcase. “See you tomorrow, (Y/N).”

You could hardly sleep that night, excitement refusing to let your mind rest. When morning came, you were a bit early to school, a coffee and variety of pastries in hand. Dropping your things off at your desk, you left a note on the pastry box, letting Sugawara, Yamasaki, and Nakamura know they should help themselves, before dropping a few things off at your classroom desk and heading to the school gates to line up with the rest of the teachers.

“(Y/N)! Over here.” Looking around, you spotted Sugawara waving at you, that same gentle smile on his face.

“Good morning, Sugawara.”

“Good morning. I hope you have a great first day.”

“Thank you! You as well.”

You enjoyed greeting the students as the filed in through the school gates. They were so cute with their bright yellow bucket hats and wide eyes. It was almost too easy to tell who were first graders.

“Cute, right?”

You glanced at Sugawara and matched his happy smile. “Absolutely!”

When the gates closed, Sugawara asked to walk you to your classroom. It turned out his class was right next to yours.

You went through the morning routine with your class before helping them get settled in and assigning cubby holes and desks.

“Okay students, let’s get along, ok?”

“Okay (Y/N) Sensei!” You almost swooned at how sweet they were.

“The best way to get along is to get to know each other right?”

“Right, (Y/N) Sensei!”

“Today we’re going to go outside and learn how to make friends. Then at the end of the day, you’ll vote on your favorite person to be the class representative. Does that sound good?”

“Yes, (Y/N) Sensei!”

Lining your students up, they quietly held hands and walked in a straight line as you directed them to the grassy school yard that your classroom over looked, a volleyball in hand.

Having them form a big circle with you, class began with introductions around the circle consisting of their names, age, what was a dream they had for their future, what their favorite food was, and what was their favorite hobby.

Sitting in the grass, you started a game where you rolled the volleyball to a student and you would ask them a question about themselves, then they’d roll the ball to someone else and ask them a question. This game went on for a few hours and they were having so much fun, laughing and getting along.

Glancing up at the school building, you thought about how lucky you were to have such a sweet and well behaved class. A figure in a window caught your eye. It was Sugawara. He had opened the window and was leaning against the sill, grinning down at you.

He made a gesture down to you and your class, as if asking “What are you doing?” You bit your bottom lip as you smiled, throwing your hands up and shrugging back at him. Shaking his head, he ducked back inside his classroom, the smile never leaving his face.

Soon, the class went back inside and had lunch. Nap time was after that. Finally at the end of the day, you had them draw pictures you could frame and hang on the wall, and held a class election.

When school was over, you reminded them to do their history book reading for tomorrow and said goodbye to each student individually as they left the classroom, allowing them to hug your legs and say goodbye while you gave them a gentle pat on the head and told each one they did great today.

Leaning against the door frame, you sighed softly, smiling as the last of them disappeared.

“They’re great aren’t they?”

Glancing over your shoulder, you smiled as Sugawara approached you, leaning on the door frame opposite you, the toes of your shoes touching. “They really are.”

It was the end of your first week and the day ended the same, with each student hugging you goodbye and you telling them they did great. And just like every day this week, Sugawara leaned on your classroom’s door frame and chatted with you.

“You really have a special way with them.”

“Yeah?” You tucked a loose strand of hair behind your ear.

“It’s true. Even the other first grade students have started whispering about you.”

“W-What? Really?"

He began to list off the whispers he’s heard. “(Y/N) Sensei’s so kind. (Y/N) Sensei’s so fun. (Y/N) Sensei’s cool. (Y/N) Sensei makes me feel good. (Y/N) Sensei’s the best.” He paused, glancing up and meeting your eyes, “(Y/N) Sensei’s beautiful.”

Your heart skipped a beat, a faint blush staining your cheeks. “Oh.”

“I’m inclined to agree with our students,” his voice dropping low so no one could overhear.

And that’s how you met Sugawara and began dating, marrying two years later.

Asahi Azumane

“Who’s that guy?” you asked your friend who was the project manager running this photoshoot. You adjusted the settings on your camera, eyes dancing between the numbers you were programming and the man in question.

He was insanely tall and physical build was quite intimidating. You wondered if he was a delinquent in school as you snapped a series of test photos, using him as your subject.

“Asahi Azumane. He’s the apparel designer. He created the line you’re shooting today,” she responded, barely glancing up from her phone. “And don’t even think about it.”

“What? Are you worried about me? Is he a bad boy?” you asked, wiggling your brows at her in jest.

She paused and looked you in the eye seriously, before bursting into a loud fit of laughter and walking away. “Let’s get this started already!”

An irritated expression settled onto your features before you cast Asahi another glance, snapping a few more candid photographs of him.

The shoot was long. Drama with the models. You weren’t concerned though. Your rate was hourly and they were paying you big yen for this spread. No, you were more concerned with the tall babe hanging out at the snack table.

Adjusting your camera strap like you were wearing a crossbody purse, you moseyed over to the refreshments, picking up an assortment of things before standing next to the man casually.

“So you designed this line?” you asked. You almost dropped your plate when he jumped in surprise.

“Aha... Sorry, just, you’re asking me?” He smiled awkwardly, clearly embarrassed of his reaction.

You looked at him incredulously, before laughing, gently bumping your hip against the spot just below his own. Good grief he was so much taller than you. He was absolutely your type.

“Yeah. I don’t usually get to talk to the designers when I do these types of shoots. It’s usually an assistant, project manager, or a marketing rep, so this is a really cool moment for me.”

He smiled with more confidence, relaxing visibly.

“So... Tell me about what your vision for this whole line is.”

Just as he became fully confident and the two of you had finally gotten the conversation flowing freely, it had been thirty minutes and it was time to wrap up. You kept in mind your conversation with Asahi and used your knowledge and skillset to capture what it was he envisioned.

Unfortunately, you didn’t get to speak to him again.

You didn’t reach out to your friend to bother her about Asahi; you just weren’t that type of girl. Instead you resigned yourself to sighing thoughtfully as you daydreamed about him every once in a while, staring at the photos you’d taken of him in secret.

It was a week after the shoot when your friend called you to meet at her office to pick up your check. You were wondering if you should dress to embarrass her or not when you realized that you might run into Asahi in the same building. Fashionable it was; you even added heels.

You walked confidently into your friend’s office building, slipping into the elevator and pressing the button for her floor.

Glancing up as the elevator sounded, you sighed - someone was just getting on. You wore a bored expression as the doors opened, but the person standing there immediately changed your attitude.

He looked at you with realization and smiled as he stepped in. “Miss Photographer,” he spoke, his voice friendly and kind.

“Mr. Designer,” you greeted cheekily.

“It’s good to see you again.” He pressed for the floor above your destination. “I saw the photos you submitted. I really loved them. The pictures were exactly what I was hoping for. And I heard marketing is really impressed with your work. I might have overheard them tell the project manager she should hire you again.”

“I think you should give yourself more credit,” you spoke, leaning your head back against the elevator wall. “I wouldn’t have changed my approach if I hadn’t spoken to you.”

Asahi blushed and the two of you started to banter, but you were an observant person and you almost wondered if this man realized he was flirting back with you.

He gravitated closer to you, also leaning against the wall beside you. You watched from the corner of your eyes as he shifted closer and closer before his arm finally touched your own.

Bingo.

The elevator bell pinged your stop and you quickly pulled a business card from your purse and slipped it into his front pants pocket bravely.

“Call me and ask me out, okay? Or I’ll come down here looking for you,” you teased, walking backwards out of the elevator.

“W-What?” he floundered, blushing as he watched you with wide eyes.

You sent him a wink, “Don’t let me wait too long, okay?”

The doors closed and you were absolutely pleased with yourself.

And that’s how you met Asahi Azumane, going on a date two days later and marrying three years after, but this time, you didn’t have to ask.

Ukai Keishin

“Excuse me, do you have-”

“We’re out,” was the dull and bored cut off reply from the employee, his feet propped up on the counter and his face hidden by the newspaper he was reading.

Are you kidding me? Aha!

You snatched the bandaids and alcohol wipes off the shelf, walking up and setting the items on the counter. Your voice was monotone as you spoke, “Found it. Thanks for your help.”

He lowered his newspaper to peek at you before bursting out in large gestures, scrambling to his feet. “Is, uh, is this it for you?” It was almost cute how he was trying to be cool.

“A pack of Cherry cigarettes,” you replied, pulling out your coin purse.

“You know... it’s a bad habit,” he said, grabbing a pack and placing it on the counter.

“Says the man who reeks of smoke.”

“Touché,” he replied, staring at the counter and realizing he definitely messed up his shot.

With a sigh, you brushed your hair behind your ear, “They’re not for me.”

“Oh...” He tried to peek at you inconspicuously. “Boyfriend?”

“If you must know, they’re for my father.”

“Oh!” he visibly perked up at that. You had to restrain yourself from laughing at him.

“So what’s my total?” you asked when he hadn’t said anything for a while.

“Right. It’s 950¥.”

“Thank you,” you replied, pulling out some coins and bills.

“Keishin! Keishin, is that a young woman I hear?” a voice from the back room called out. There was some shuffling of footsteps and the man behind the counter visibly stiffened. “Keishin! Is she single?”

“Mom! Please!” he yelled back.

You bit your lip, trying not to laugh, but you couldn’t stop your lips from stretching into a smile.

“Keishin! Don’t yell!” An older woman poked her head out, her eyes landing on you, “She’s beautiful!” She quickly beelined to you around the counter, bowing deeply to you.

“Oh... thank... you,” you froze, unsure of what was happening. You glanced at the man behind the counter - Keishin, you assumed - who looked like he wanted the ground to swallow him whole.

“Young miss, my son looks rough, but he’s really a good man. He’s not the smartest, but he’s very strong and has a good heart. He’ll treat his future wife very good. Please consider him.” She stayed bowed and it was getting extremely uncomfortable.

He leaned over the counter and whispered, “She won’t get up unless you give her an answer. Sorry about this.”

You observed the way he looked at his mother and it struck a heartstring. He didn’t look mad or annoyed, or anything of the sort. You could just see that he loved his mother very much.

Turning back to older woman before you, you sighed softly, resigned, and bowed to her in return. “Ma’am, I will consider him.”

The two of them looked up at you in shock.

“WAIT YOU WILL?!”

And that’s how you met Ukai Keishin, marrying exactly one year later.

#daichi sawamura #daichi x reader #sugawara koshi #sugawara x reader #asahi azumane #asahi x reader #ukai keishin #ukai x reader #haikyuu!! #haikyū!! #haikyu #volleyboys #how i met your father #reader insert #fanfic #imagine #karasuno

[queenraikichi94]

A song to heal a tired soul 21 (Raikichi x Piers)

Rated: Teen and mature

Warnings: Bad language and some NSFW

Notes: Raikichi is around 25 years old

--------------------------PART 21-------------------------------

I was in that forest again, but the fog was thicker than before. I called Glaceon, but I didn’t get any answer. I kept walking until I found the same Pokemon I encountered yesterday. They were talking about names that had been forgotten long ago, and then, everything turned black before I was in front of giant Pokemon. The sky was dark and dark clouds seemed to hide something REALLY big. I tried to scream, but then...Everything turned black again.

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

I groaned as I opened my eyes as I tried to think in the dream I had. I looked at the hour on my phone and I groaned again, but then, I smiled when I saw Glaceon and Mimikyu sleeping peacefully. Slowly, I stood up and after putting my glasses on, I picked Mimikyu on my arms with care as Glaceon woke up and yawned before following me. I put Mimikyu on the couch and as I let her sleep, I started to prepare her porridge and the food that the Pokemon would eat. Once I prepared their food and served it on their bowls, I watched as the porridge kept cooking before preparing my breakfast. When the porridge was ready, I removed it from the stove and let it cool as I had breakfast, taking some hot cocoa and toasts for breakfast as I watched some news on my Rotom Phone. I yawned as I scrolled the news, trying not to think too much on my dream but, I couldn’t. I used to have weird dreams all the times I encountered with legendary Pokemon, but no one of those dreams were that weird as the one I had yesterday.

“Fuck it...”

“Is too early to swear like that, kiddo”

“Morning, uncle” I said with another yawn as I drank more of my hot cocoa before eating another cookie 

“What are you doing awake at this hour?” he asked serving some coffee for him

“I had weird dreams and I couldn’t sleep more” I replied as I finished my breakfast before putting my service on the sink. Then, Mimikyu started to cry for food, so I put some porridge on a plate and after doing that, I picked the plate and went to the couch were Mimikyu was waiting for her food. Happily, she ate the porridge, enjoying it. “It’s tasty, isn’t it?” I said giving her the porridge and Mimikyu chirped happily as she kept eating

“You’re following your parent’s recipe to make porridges that make the Pokemon that eat them been satisfied for hours, aren’t you?” uncle Kabu asked as he sat next to me 

“Yes, I always prepare it when a Pokemon needs it. It’s full of nutrients and it helps them to grow up healthy” I said as Mimikyu finished eating her porridge before cuddling between my uncle and me, letting Glaceon cuddling next to me as well “You’re doing well, little one”

“Are you going to catch her?” my uncle asked as he finished his coffee “Yesterday you didn’t catch her”

“Yeah, I was exhausted” I said with a chuckle and then, Glaceon went to my room and brought me my bag. I searched a Pokeball and when I found a Dusk Ball, I showed it to Mimikyu “So, Mimikyu. Do you want to stay with me?” Mimikyu chirped happily and after touching the Dusk Ball, she entered on it.

One.

Two.

Three.

And Mimikyu was mine. I let her get out of her Pokeball and she quickly jumped onto my lap with Glaceon. I chuckled as I stroked both Pokemon before letting Glaceon watch over Mimikyu since I had to take a bath. Today I was going to Hulbury cause Nessa wanted to show me how her Gym mission worked. I took clean clothes and I went to take a bath. While I was in the bathtub, I thought on the dream I had. It was weird cause other times I knew that there were legends about legendary Pokemon in the regions I visited but in Galar, the only mention to Pokemon in the legends are the ones who turned giant, but not mention to the Pokemon I saw in the forest. I didn’t know if I should tell my uncle about the dream. He knew about my other encounters with legendary Pokemon, and he believed me, but since the Oniria Forest was known to have the strange power of creating illusions...I didn’t know what to do. With a sigh, I finished bathing and I exited the bathtub, getting dried and dressed and ocne I was done, I exited the bathroom and after taking my bag, I called Mimikyu back to her Pokeball. “Uncle, I’m going now to Hulbury. Maybe I’ll spend some time training Raboot in the Mines before coming back here. And don’t worry, I will be here in order to help you in the Gym”

“Don’t worry, kiddo” uncle Kabu said ruffling my hair “I’ve showed you how my Gym mission works, so you can take your time”

“I know, but ya know I told you I was going to help you” I replaid exiting the house “See you later!”

I took a Flying Taxi and I went to Hulbury after more than thirty minutes. During the flight, I checked my messages, and when I saw Piers’ messages, I blushed as I replied them, and when I told him that I caught Mimikyu, he sent me a message with a lot of hearts and thumbs up.

I arrived at Hulbury and once I exited the Flying Taxi with Glaceon, we went to Hulbury Gym. The market was full of people that were taking the chance to be outside due the sunny day. I ended removing my jacket due the high temperatures. I entered the Gym and there, one of Nessa’s Gym trainers, Heather, greeted me and guided me to the place where Nessa was. She was checking the switchs that would allow the trainers to cross trough the maze, trying to find their way in order to avoid the water that fell from the different pipes, and also, they would have to battle with the Gym trainers. Nessa was having some troubles with one of the switch, so I approached her to help her.

“Hi, Nessa” I greeted her “What’s wrong?”

“This damn switch doesn’t move. Something is blocking it”

“Lemme help” 

“I tried most of the things I thought. I don’t want to break it” she said with a sigh

“Then let’s see...Oh, look” I said pointing at one of the joints “It looks that there is something blocking it. I have an idea” I added taking one of my Pokeballs “Go, Mimikyu!” Mimikyu got out of her Pokeball and she quickly jumped to my arms, and I giggled. “Alright, little girl. See that little item? It’s blocking the switch and I need you to take it away”

Mimikyu looked at the switch, then at me, and then, she jumped and to my surprise, she used Shadow Claw to remove the thing that was blocking the switch, and when Nessa moved it and allowed the water to fall, Mimikyu got scared and quickly jumped again to my arms. “Easy, girl, it’s okay” I said stroking her “You did it very well, little one” I said letting Mimikyu enter in her Pokeball cause she wanted to take a nap. “It looks that a this thing was blocking the switch” I told Nessa showing her the thing that Mimikyu took away

“It could be that this got on the switch during one of our training battles” she said “Thank you, Raikichi. Now all the switchs are working perfectly”

“That’s nice to hear”

“So, now that you’re here and after seeing how my Gym mission works...What about having a training battle? I want to make sure my Pokemon are strong enough to face the challengers”

“Sure. Count with me” I said as I lremoved my jacket and left it with my bag next to Glaceon once we arrived to the place where Nessa and me were going to battle “One versus one?”

“Yeah” Nessa said as she choosed her Drednaw to battle

“Drednaw, I see...” I murmured as I took a Pokeball “Then, let’s do this. Serperior, I choose you!” I said as Serperior exited from her Pokeball and looked with fierce at Drednaw “Let’s do the first move, Serperior. Use Sunny Day!!”

Serperior used Sunny Day and the sun started to hit hard. I smirked and then, I decided to push Nessa to her limits a bit, but then, Nessa decided to act. “Drednaw, Rock Tomb!”

“Serperior, dodge!” I commanded and Serperior dodged the attack “Now, use Dragon Tail!!” Serperior hitted Drednaw and then, she waited for my next order “Dragon Tail again!”

“Drednaw, block it with Crunch!” Nessa ordered and both attacks collided “We’ve got you”

“Sure? Serperior, Solar Beam!”

Serperior charged Solar Beam and since she used Sunny day, she could use the attack in the same turn, so Solar Beam hitted Drednaw and made her fly away, landing next to Nessa. “Drednaw, can you continue battling?” Nessa asked and her Pokemon nodded “You’re really strong, Raikichi”

“Thanks, but we’re not done yet since we’re not going to allow you to Dynamax!” I said putting my Drassium Z in my Z Power Ring and performing the Z move. “Hidden in the deepest jungles, you watch over everyone with your hunter eyes, ready to hit with all the power of the nature! Serperior, use Bloom Doom!!”

Bloom Doom hitted Drednaw, creating a very big cloud of dust, and when it was over, the referee declared Drednaw out of combat. Glaceon went to celebrate with Serperior and when I was giving her a Citrus Berry, Mimikyu got out of her Pokeball and quickly climbed my legs and managed to get onto my shoulders, making me laugh. “You’re hungry, aren’t you?” I said and Mimikyu chirped happily, so I gave her a soft Poffin that she ate happily as Glaceon ate the sweet Poffin I gave her. As my Pokemon ate the Poffins, Nessa and me watched how our Water type Pokemon played in the pools that were inside the Gym. Then, after Glaceon and Mimikyu ate her Poffins and Mimikyu asked me to return to her Pokeball to take a nap, we called our Pokemon back to their Pokeballs and went to visit the market. Glaceon walked at my side, trotting happily as we saw the different things that the market had to offer to the people. I bought some things for Piers and for my uncle Kabu. Also, I bought few things for my parents, and for my uncle Juan and for my uncle Nanu. I was sure uncle Nanu would be a bit stressed since tonight was the opening of the Pokemon League in Alola and I thought this little gift would cheer him up.

After near two hours, I said goodbye to Nessa and to her Gym trainers since I wanted to train my Pokemon during my way back to Mototoske. My plans were going to the Galar Mine No. 2 and training Raboot there, since he looked ready to evolve. I noticed that some days ago, and of course, since that made him remembering the trauma he’ve gotten when his former trainer left him when he evolved from Scorbunny to Raboot, I had to calm him down, telling him that I wasn’t going to get angry if he evolved.

We arrived at the entrance of the mine and I got Raboot out if his Pokeball, letting him greet Glaceon before looking at me. “Alright, Raboot. We’re going to train as we keep our way back to Mototoske. This mine is full of Pokemon that will be a challenge, but I’m sure you’ll do it very well, and if we do it well, I’m sure you’ll finally evolve today!” I said and when I saw him looking sad, I stroked his head “Hey, I’m not going to be mad at you if you evolve, Raboot. Evolving is something natural, and I’m going to be at your side once you evolve, ‘kay?” I added and he nodded, nuzzling his head on my hand, making me chuckle “Alright, let’s do this!”

We went through the Galar Mine No. 2, battling againts wild Pokemon and also againts some trainers that we found there. Raboot won all the battles, some of them were hard since the mine was full of Rock and Water type Pokemon. After many battles through the mine, we finally reached the exit. We arrived at Route 3, the one that connected with Mototoske. Then, I gave a Sitrus Berry to Raboot while I told him how proud of him I was for doing a very good work battling. “One or two battles more and you’ll finally evolve, buddy” I said stroking his head, Glaceon chirping happily as she congratuled him. Then, Glaceon twitched her ears and growled when she heard something. I looked at her and I put all my senses in alert, but before I could say something, we heard an explosion, and it looked that it was from the place near the eastern entrance of Mototoske. “Glaceon, Raboot, let’s go!” I said and we ran to the place. 

When we arrived, we found out that my uncle Kabu was battling againts a group of black dressed people. Furtives. I growled and when I saw that some of them were going to attack him by his back, I ordered Glaceon and Raboot to stop the attack in order to protect my uncle, who then looked at me when Glaceon and Raboot’s attacks collised againts the furtives’. “Raikichi!” he said as I ran to him with Glaceon and Raboot following me. “What are you doing here?”

“I was training in the mines with Raboot and when we exited at Route 3 we heard and explosion and we came here” I said and then, I growled when I saw the furtives “Those bastards were the ones that killed Mimikyu’s mother. Their appearence is the same as Banette told me yesterday”

“So you’re the filthy World Champion that has OUR Mimikyu” one of the furtives said growling “Give that Pokemon back to us!”

“NEVER!” I said with a growl and then, I looked to my uncle “Uncle, cover my back. I got this” I added putting my Firium Z on my Z Power Ring. “Raboot, are you ready?” I asked and when Raboot nodded, I smirked “From the deepest volcanos, and from the most fierce fires that also burn inside you with the ever burning flame of courage, show us your fierce potential! Raboot, use Inferno Overdrive!!”

Inferno Overdrive hit the furtives’ Pokemon and when the move and the dust were gone, my uncle and I saw that our enemies were defeated. Raboot let out a victory cry before starting to glow. “Look, uncle! Raboot is evolving!” I said and my uncle nodded proudly and then, when the light was over, we saw that Raboot had evolved into Cinderace. At first, he was shocked cause he was afraid of my reaction, but when he saw me hugging him, he chirped happily. “See? Evolving isn’t something bad, Cinderace. I’m really proud of you, buddy” I said and then, Glaceon and Cinderace twitched their ears and in that moment, Glaceon used Ice Shard and Cinderace used a new move againts something that was hidding on the bushes, and we discovered that it was a furtive ready to attack us but he was discovered by my Pokemon. “That was...” I said checking my Rotom Phone as my uncle made sure that all the furtives we had faced were tied down to the ground “Oh, buddy, you’ve learnt Pyro Ball!” I said petting his head as Glaceon congratuled him as well.

“Well done, kiddo” uncle Kabu said ruffling my hair as the police took care of the furtives “Thanks to all the hard work you did, Raboot managed to surpass his trauma and now he is a full growth Cinderace”

“Thanks, uncle” I said as I returned Cinderace to his Pokeball before looking to the furtives that were being taken back to Mototoske. I growled as I closed my hands into fists, something that my uncle noticed and when he put his hand on my shoulder, I blinked twice “Sorry, uncle” I said with a sigh 

“Don’t worry, kiddo. Those furtives won’t give us more problems” he said “C’mon, let’s go back home”

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

Nighttime arrived and I decided to help my uncle to prepare dinner after spending two hours sending the souvenirs I bought for my relatives. As we prepared dinner, Glaceon watched over Mimikyu, who was playing with Salazzle, trying to catch her tail. “Kiddo, can I ask you something?” uncle Kabu asked as he made sure the curry had the perfect point of salt.

“Yeah, sure” I said as I prepared some meat and then, a salad

“This thing of the furtives...It looks that we aren’t going to stop dealing with them...Did you talk to Chairman Rose about that?”

“I texted him, and I didn’t get any reply” I said with a growl “I texted him many times telling him about the problems that furtives are making, specially after the thing that happened in the Wild Area, and he didn’t reply. I called him and also, I didn’t get a reply” I growled “If he isn’t going to help us, Rose can go and fuck himself for good”

“Raikichi, control that tongue” uncle Kabu said, serious tone on his voice

“Oh, c’mon. You don’t trust him, I don’t trust him. Even Glaceon glares at him every time she sees him. A man that says that worries about Galar but then he doesn’t give a fuck when people tells him about dealing with the furtives problem isn’t a good person, and also, isn’t the proper person to be the one that has the control of all the companies of this region” I replied and my uncle rose an eyebrow “And he is the damn chariman of the League? How a man like him can be on that position?!”

“Raikichi, calm youself” my uncle said as he removed the food from the stove before putting his hands on my shoulders “I know you’re angry, I know you are frustrated, but you have to calm yourself. C’mon, take a deep breath”

“Uncle, how do you want...”

“Calm down, kiddo” he ordered, his grip tighting a bit. I sighed and then, I took a deep breath before sighing “Better?”

“Yes, I think...” I said sighing again before removing the apron “The boxing bag is in the same place with the exercise machine, right?”

My uncle nodded and then, I put the apron on its place before going to take my sport fingerless gloves, the ones I used to do martial arts and protected my fists when I had to punch the boxing bag. Once I was ready, I went to the exercise room and I started to punch the boxing bag as I cursed the furtives and Rose. I needed to let my anger leave my body and punching the boxing bag would help me with that. “Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT!” I yelled as I punched the boxing bag too hard that I thought it would fall but I didn’t care about that in that moment. I kept punching and kicking it until I started to feel tired. After the last hit, I sat down on the floor, panting as I tried to control my breath.

“Here, take this” uncle Kabu said giving me a clean towel that I used to clean the sweat of my face and forehead “I think I should make sure that the boxing bag is well anchored there if you want to keep kicking and punching it” he added as I stood up before stretching “You should take a shower, kiddo. Piers has arrived near an hour ago”

“What? You could have tell me” I said as I removed the gloves and massaged my hands and fingers”

“And get him scared seeing you that angry as you punch and kick that boxing bag thinking that it is the furtives or Rose?” he asked and then, he chuckled a bit “At least I hope punching the boxing bag allowed you to get all your anger get out of you”

“Yeah, it helped” I replied with a soft smile as I went quickly to my room in order to get some clean underwear and my pajamas, and then, I went to take a quick bath, smiling when I heard Piers playing with Glaceon and Mimikyu before entering the bathroom. Once I was ready, I got dried and dressed, smiling at the vanilla scent from the shampoo I choosed to was my hair. After putting my dirty clothes on the washing machine, I went to the living room, chuckling when I saw Mimikyu trying to grab Piers’ chocker. “She likes you” I said sitting next to him in the floor and kissing his lips with tender “She can’t stop calling you ‘dadda’“

“Really?” Piers asked and I nodded, before chuckling when Mimikyu called me ‘momma’ again “You won’t be alone with this, babe. I’ll help you taking care of Mimikyu” he said and I smiled “Should I tell Marnie that she is now aunt?”

“Do you want to prank her?” I asked rising an eyebrow before chuckling

“I would tell her ‘Hey, you are now the aunt of a baby Mimikyu!’“

I couldn’t help but laugh, Piers joining me with his laugh before being tacklehugged by Glaceon, who demanded some pets. Then, my Rotom Phone showed me that someone was calling me and when I saw who was, I answered the call. “Finally you call me back, uncle Nanu” I teased him with a chuckle and he groaned “Did you recieve the souvenir I sent you?”

“Yeah, it arrived just in time before I came here to the place where we are going to stay during the League” uncle Nanu said “Oh, speaking about that...Are you going to return to your duties of World Champion?”

“Uncle, I’m doing my duties of...”

“Not those” he said interrupting me “I’m talking about your duties defending the title. Last time you defended the title you were in Kalos, and since thar you decided not to do more official matches. People is starting to think that you have abandon your title and there are rumours about people that want to claim it now”

“Wait, what? Hey, I’m still the World Champion” I said “They can’t claim the title if they don’t defeat me, and not every trainer can challenge me, or you don’t remember that normal trainers can’t challenge me in order to get my title?”

“I remember it, but I want you to act, Raikichi. You need to return to action, kiddo”

“But...”

“But what? Are you scared of not being able to do the things you do as World Champion if someone takes your title or you are scared of seeing them failing on the things that you do well?”

“...Both...”

“Raikichi, since you defended your title the first time, you really enjoyed having those battles...I know that something made you change and have those fears and I think it is the moment to tell me about them”

I swallowed as I stood up and went to my room, closing the door behind me before taking a deep breath. “Uncle, I have my reasons to...”

“Tell me them now” he demanded “Or let me guess...You don’t want to fail. You don’t want to see yourself as an useless person, right?”

“...Yeah...”

“I told you not to be involve with Guzma”

“This is not cause Guzma, uncle” I said as I stroked gently the petals of the gracideas I had on a vase “It’s true that what he told me that day affected me a lot...But the truth is that since I was near of dying a second time, in Kalos...I though I was going to have enough with my tasks as World Champion and...”

“And now I see it...You still working on recovering some self confidence, right?” he said and he took my silence as a yes “Remember the last battle we had in Alola before you went to Galar? Remember that you said that you weren’t going to enjoy it but in fact, you really enjoyed it?”

“Yeah, I remember it”

“Then, have those memories on your mind, the memories of how you used to enjoy like that the battles. C’mon, I’m sure you are enjoying the battles you’re having there in Galar”

“Of course I do!”

“Then, I want to see you enjoying again in an official match defending your title. I want to see you shutting the mouths of those fuckin’ bastards that don’t stop insulting you and calling you weak in the social media only cause you’re only doing exhibition matches” uncle Nanu said, speaking as the Kahuna he was “You can do this, offering only one official match in Galar, then, you win it and then you return to offer only exhibition matches until you decide to offer more official matches. It’s a pretty good idea”

I kept silence as I though on my uncle words. He was right. I was trying to ignore the people that called me weak and useless, but there were comments that were crossing a line that I wasn’t going to allow them to cross. Also, one of the things that made me back off when I wanted to return to do official matches were Guzma’s words. By instinct, I stroked the scars of my face with my fingers as I though on all the things I had to pass since the day I exited that Pokemon Center until the actual day. My uncle cleared his throat and I blinked twice. “You’re right, uncle. If I’m honest, I think I was ready to give up many times, but I can’t. I can’t give up since we don’t know anyone with the guts I have to deal with things I usually deal, right?” I said and uncle Nanu chuckled “It’s time to return”

“And to make people swallow their own words?”

“Yeah”

“That’s my girl” uncle Nanu said and laughed “You know, if you weren’t World Champion, you could have been a very talented Kahuna”

“That’s your job, uncle” I replied with a chuckle “Uncle?”

“Yes, kiddo?”

“Thank you” I said smiling “I’m going to tell Piers and uncle Kabu about my choice. Oh, can I ask you something before hanging out the call?”

“Yeah, sure”

“Help me to spread the word” I said “Let the people know that the World Champion is back to action, ready to defend the title”

“That’s what I wanted to hear, kiddo” uncle Nanu said “Oh, Kukui is calling the Kahunas. We have to attend the League opening.”

“Good luck then, uncle. Show them the power of a true Kahuna”

Uncle Nanu chuckled and after saying goodbye, he hanged out the call and I did the same. Then, I took a deep breath and I exited my room, finding my uncle and Piers in the living room waiting for me, and when they saw me, they stood up. “Kiddo?” my uncle asked “Everything’s alright?”

“Yeah”

“Then, tell us what happened” Piers asked gently

I sighed but then, I smiled “This World Champion is going to return to defend her title” I said and they looked at me confused “Uncle Nanu called me and he told me he was starting to get tired of the people calling me useless and weak for not accepting more official matches. I was ignoring those messages, but it’s time to return. I can’t be the World Champion if I don’t defend my title”

“We don’t want to see you stressed, Raikichi”

“Don’t worry, uncle” I said “Uncle Nanu gave me an idea; offering only one official match, since I don’t want to take all the leadership when the important thing here is the Gym Challenge, and once I win the match, I’ll return to the exhibition ones until I decided to do another offical one. I’m going to make those people to shut their damn mouths and show everyone that I’m not done yet and I’m staying on my throne for a very long time”

Without words, my uncle hugged me laughing as he ruffled my heart “This is what I wanted to see on you. That expression of yorus telling the world that you aren’t going to give up”

Then, my uncle let me go, but I found myself on Piers’ arms, who lifted me in the air, spinning a bit before landing in the couch. Luckily, Glaceon and Mimikyu were on the carpet, playing. “I’m going to tell Team Yell to cheer you up, babe, and I’m going to be there as well” he said as he peppered my face with kisses as I laughed when he tickled me with his hair. 

“Alright, alright. Let me put it on the social media” I said and he let me put the challenge on the media before hugging me again

“So...The ones that can challenge you are Gym leaders, Elite Four, Champions and Kahunas, right?” Piers asked

“Yeah”

“And only one of them can accept it...”

“Yes, and I think I know who is going to accept it once he see the day I choosed for the match”

“He?” Piers asked a bit confused and then, I showed him a photo of the person I was talking about “Lance? The Johto Champion also known as one of the best Dragon Masters?”

“The same” I said “Oh, and look, he has quickly accepted the my challenge” I replied with a chuckle before showing Piers and uncle Kabu the day I’ve chosen “On a day like the one I’ve chosen, years ago, I defended my World title for the first time againts Lance, in Mahogany Town, after a hard training with Pryce, the Gym Leader of that place” I added “And it looks that Lance decided to accept my challenge since that day has a very important meaning for me, and of course, for him, since he was the first rival I battled to defend my title for the very first time”

“Then, we should check you Champion cape” uncle Kabu said and I nodded

“Wait, do you have a cape like Leon’s?” Piers asked

“At least mine is prettier and not a disaster againts fashion” I said and laughed “But let’s speak about that tomorrow, ‘kay? I’m hungry and it’s time to have dinner”

Uncle Kabu laughed as I stood up in order to help him to put the dishes on the table as Piers gave Mimikyu her porridge. Mimikyu was bonding with Piers pretty well, now calling him ‘dadda’ more often, but then, when she ate all her porridge, she went to me asking for her after dinner treat. “Alright, alright, here is your soft Poffin” I said giving her the Poffin and smiling when she ate it happily before returning to play with Glaceon, Obstagoon and my uncle’s Pokemon. Once we were done washing the dishes, I went to sit next to Piers on the couch, who was petting Mimikyu and then, Glaceon jumped onto my lap and I chuckled as I stroked her fur. “Oh, it’s going to start. Uncle Kabu! The opening of the first Pokemon League in Alola is going to start right now!”

Uncle Kabu came and sat next to us as I cuddled more next to Piers. We watched Kukui’s speech and then, the Kahunas spoke in order. I was surprised of knowing that finally, Poni had found a new Kahuna since I had left Alola when the Kahunas were still three. Uncle Nanu looked a bit tired of the press, but he did his best to keep a good posture in front of the cameras. “That grumpy uncle of yours could smile a bit more, by the love of Arceus” uncle Kabu said “He’s in an official event”

“You know how uncle Nanu is...And I have to say that you don’t smile very often, uncle. Maybe you are also another grumpy uncle of mine” I said with a chuckle before laughing when uncle Kabu threw me a cushion before laughing as well. 

At the middle of the ceremony, I started to fall asleep. Piers chuckled as he kissed my temple before picking me up in bridal style and taking me to my room after saying good night to my uncle, who went to bed after us once he turned off the TV. I put my glasses on my night table before slipping under the covers, waiting for Piers, who had removed his ponytail and changed his clothes, now wearing the pajamas I bought for him. I patted the bed with a little urge and he couldn’t help but laugh as he slipped under the covers in order to hug me. Glaceon and Mimikyu were at out feet, and the little baby Pokemon quickly fell asleep. “So, tomorrow we’ll have a lot of stuff to do” Piers said stroking my back and hair “And cause that, we’ll have to get up early since I want to do most of that stuff before returning to Spikemuth”

“At what time do you want to wake up, babe?” I asked with a little purr when I felt his hand on the place I had the tattoo

“4:30 a.m″

I rose an eyebrow as I looked at him giving him a look that meant’Are you fucking serious?’ and he couldn’t help but laugh. “I was joking, babe” he said kissing me “What about 5:30 a.m?”

“That sounds better...” I replied with a yawn and nuzzling him before leaning my head on his chest “Good night, babe...”

“Sleep well, my brave Queen” he said kissing my forehead before falling asleep together with me.

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

“C’mon, my beautiful Queen, time to wake up”

“Piers...It’s too early...” I said with a groan

“Babe, it’s 5:30 a.m” he said kissing my lips “Remember that we agreed to wake up at this hour”

“Wait, when did you wake up?” I asked leaning a bit with a yawn

“At 5:00 a.m” Piers replied with Mimikyu on his arms “C’mon, breakfast is ready”

“Only if you kiss me again, babe~”

“As you wish, my Queen” he purred as he kissed me with tender and sweetnes. Holy Arceus, I though I was going to melt with that love of his. “C’mon, Sleeping Beauty, don’t fall asleep again”

“Okay, okay” I said with a chuckle as I put my glasses on and I went to the living room with Glaceon and sat down in the couch as Piers brought breackfast to the couch cause we were going to speak about different strategies that I could use againts Lance, and I let out a small gasp when I saw different notebooks and pencils next to us “You are really into this, babe” I said drinking a bit of my hot cocoa as Piers gave food to the Pokemon before giving Mimikyu a soft Poffin “Wait, did she eat her porrigde?”

“She did, and pretty well” he said as Glaceon jumped onto my side and started to lick her fur while Mimikyu was on my lap before going to Piers’ cause he was holding the toy she loved. “Alright, let’s start. Do you remember your first battle againts Lance?”

“Of course I do. It was my first title defense, remember?” I said “Also, I’m sure my uncle has it recorded...Let me find it...Oh, there it is. ‘Raikichi’s first title defense’. My mother sent it to my uncle once the programm that was showing the battle finished” I said as I put the DVD on the DVD reader and played it 

“Then let’s watch it. We can stop it on the important parts and take notes”

“First things first” I said as I took him to the garden “Here, take this” I said as I gave him a box. Piers took it and once he opened it, he took the item that was inside “It’s a Dusk Stone. It allows some Pokemon to evolve, like Murkrow. Murkrow is ready to go with you since he can fly by his own”

Murkrow chirped happily as we saw him flying without getting tired like before. Piers looked at me, then at Murkrow and then at Corviknight. Corviknight nodded and after nuzzling her son, she allowed Murkrow to approach his trainer. “What do you say, buddy?” Piers said showing him the Dusk Stone. Murkrow chirped and when he touched the Dusk Stone, he started to glow as his form changed, and then, when the light dissappeared, Piers was amazed when he saw his Murkrow had evolved into Honchkrow. Honchkrow quickly tried to land on Piers’ head, but since he was now heavier than when he was a Murkrow, he couldn’t stay on his trainer for too long before he flew to greet his mother. Corviknight nuzzle her son and let him stay at her side while Piers and me returned inside after Piers stroked Honchkrow.

“Thank you so much, babe” Piers said kissing me as we sat down on the couch “I promise Honchkrow will turn stronger”

“I’m sure he will, thanks to you” I said purring as he nuzzled me

“Now, how about watching that match of yours?” he asked kissing me

I nodded and together we watched the match as we had breakfast, pausing the DVD when we had to take notes and replaying it again once we were done. Also, we wrote new ideas for the strategies, and when I mention that I was thinking on using Z moves since I was going to use Glaceon, Piers was nearly to tacklehug cause he wanted to see that in my defense match since Z moves seemed to be something interesting for him. As we ate our breakfast, we kept taking notes as we watched the DVD without having in mind that the hours passed until my uncle woke up and told us that it was near 8 o���clock of the morning. Piers and me picked all the notes we wrote and after putting our breakfast service in the sink, I took the DVD out and put it back on its case, I went to my room to get clean clothes and with Piers, I went to take a quick bath as Glaceon watched on Mimikyu. 

“Babe?” Piers asked as he washed my hair

“Yeah?” I said with a purr

“Did I tell you how much I love you? How much grateful I am of being with you?”

I chuckled as he removed the shampoo before allowing me to kiss him. “Many times...But I want to hear you telling me a lot of times”

Piers chuckled as he let me wash his hair. Then, as I washed his hair, he asked me about the missions I had to do when I was collaborating with the Internatian Police cause he was curious. At first I told him about my training with them after I became the World Champion, then, I told him about my first official mission, that was inflitrating in Team Galatic Head Quarters disguised as a high rank grunt named Cassiopea. After telling him about what I’d done there and how we managed to stop Team Galactic. Then, I told him about how I dealt with Team Plasma in Unova and with Team Flare in Kalos, and when I gave him more details about how I was near of dying when I was dealing with Team Plasma and then with Team Flare, Piers quickly wrapped his arms around me, pulling me on a tight hug, like if I was going to leave and he didn’t want me to leave. 

“Piers...Babe...I need breath...”

“Sorry...” he mumbled. Was he crying? Yeah, he was crying. I wipped his tears away, making him look at me “I...”

“Hey, babe, you don’t have to worry” I said with a soft smile “I’m not working with the International Police anymore, so my life isn’t in a bigger risk than before starting to work with them”

“I know but knowing how you were near to die...I...I can’t avoid feeling bad cause I don’t want to see you dying...Like...Well...”

“When I was near dying of pneumonia”

Piers nodded and I sighed as I hugged him. I hated seeing him like this. I made the grip a bit tight, smeeling the vanilla scent from the body gel as the water kept falling over us. With another sigh, we closed the water tap and exited the bathtub in order to get dried and dressed. “Babe?” Piers asked as we finished getting dressed and putting our hair into ponytails.

“Something’s wrong?”

But instead of replying, he pressed his lips againts mine as he hugged me close to him. “Promise me that you’re not going to put yourself in danger...” he murmured

“Hey, as World Champion, sometimes I have to take risks...But since I’m not longer working for the International Police, my life is in less risk, and I can take things easier”

Piers sighed and kissed me again before nuzzling me. “It’s just...I can’t loose you...Since you were near to die that day when you fell into that lake...I felt so lonely...”

“Hey...I’m here...I’m not going to leave you alone, babe...” I said stroking his face “C’mon, we need to be hurry or you will miss the Flying Taxi to Spikemuth”

He smiled and after stealing a kiss from my lips, we exited the bathroom and after calling Mimikyu back to her Pokeball, we exited the house, with Glaceon at my side. I went with him to the Flyin Taxi, giving him a kiss before he took it back to Spikemuth after telling me he would call me to spend another night with me when he had free time. I sighed, starting to miss his lips and kisses. I shook my head as I let Corviknight get out of her Pokeball since I had planned going to Stow-On-Side since I wanted to see how it was going to be the Gym mission of the Stadium of that town since Allister and Bea were both Gym Leaders of the town. Also, uncle Kabu told me that since he showed me how his Gym misison worked few days after I arrived to Galar, I didn’t have the need of seeing again his Gym mission, giving me more free time for myself. 

I arrived at Sow-On-Side after a calm flight, and then, I landed next to the Stadium, where Allister and Bea were waiting for me. After dismounting with Glaceon, I called my Corviknight back to her Pokeball before greeting both Gym Leaders. “Whoa, that was a good landing” Bea said happily

“Thanks” I said “I prefer to fly with Corviknight when I don’t have too much to do, so that makes me enjoying the fresh air as we fly, right Glaceon?” Glaceon chirped happilly

“So, ready to see the Gym mission?” Bea asked and I nodded. “C’mon, let’s go then.”

Allister looked at me before letting Glaceon sniff his hand, but when she nuzzled him, he stepped back, a little scared. “Don’t worry, Allister is very shy” Bea said as we entered the Gym

“How are you going to do the Gym Challenge since you and Allister are both Gym Leaders of the same town?”

“I’ll face some Challengers and Allister will face another group of them” Bea replied “The same happens with Melony and Gordie since both are Gym Leaders of Circhester”

“I see...” I said as we went to the place where the Gym mission would take place and when I saw it, I was amazed “By Arceus, that has to be so funny! Well, except for the part of do spins many times”

“That’s the plan. They have to move through the maze on that spinning tea cup, and once they got to the platforms, they have to fight againts the Gym trainers. Of course, they can help themselves with some of the obstacles, but the goal is not to fall in places where the obstacles could trap them”

“D-Do you want to try the Gym mission?” Allister asked shyly

“I would like, but I’m sorry I have to reject it” I said “I want to see the ancient mural that is in the town since it could have information that could help my reasearch about the legends and stories of Galar. And also, I want to train since in two days is my match againts Lance”

“I can’t believe that we’re going to see an official match between you and Lance, right Allister?”

“Y-Yea...” Allister said, as shy as always “I’m sure Raikichi will win...” 

I smiled softly before gasping surprised when Mimikyu got out of her Pokeball and went to play with Allister’s Gengar, who got out of his Pokeball cause he wanted. “Mimikyu, be careful” I said and then she cretaed a dark ball, that quickly dissapeared “Girl, are you trying to sue Shadow Ball?” I asked and she nodded 

“M-Maybe my Gengar could help Mimikyu with that...Would y-you help her, Gengar?” Allister asked and Gengar nodded

Gengar created a Shadow Ball and Mimikyu tried to do the same, failing, but she wasn’t going to give up. After many tries and after near two hours, Mimikyu managed to create a Shadow Ball properly before getting exhausted. I picked her up and I greeted her as I gave her a Poffin before returning her to her Pokeball. “You did it well, Mimikyu” I said and then, I petted Gengar “Thank you, Gengar” I said and he chirped happily “Well, I should go to see that mural before paying a quick visit to Raihan in Hammerlock. He told he’s found some interesting books that I might like to read”

“See you then, and good luck with your research. And don’t forget we’ll be cheering you up in your match” Bea said

“Thank you” I said and once I got Corviknight out of her Pokeball, Glaceon and me mounted on her and flew to the mural. Corviknight landed and she stayed out of her Pokeball as Glaceon and me dismounted and looked to the mural. My Rotom Phone flew and started to take some photos of the mural as I took some notes, reading the old inscriptions that the mural had. Some of the inscriptions were so old that were partially erased, some of them were toatlly erased, so I had to do great efforts to take notes of the inscriptions that I would translate later, and with luck, I would be able to translate it with the help of the books Raihan would give to me. 

Once I got all the notes I wanted and after taking the enough photos, I took my Rotom Phone and with Glaceon, I mounted on Corviknight and we flew to Hammerlock, taking a long route since we didn’t want to encounter Flying Taxis in our way to Hammerlocke, since it was the time of the day when people would use more Flying Taxis. We arrived to Hammerlock and after landing near of the Gym, Glaceon and me dismounted and I returned Corviknight to her Pokeball, and then, we went to find Raihan. “Let’s see if we can find Dragon Boy...Glaceon, you know what to do”

Glaceon nodded and went to find Raihan as I waited at the Gym doors, trying to hide myself from some people that had seen me landing and wanted some autographs and photos. I wasn’t in the mood for that, so I hoped that Glaceon would find Raihan as soon as possible. As I checked my Rotom Phone, I switched my gaze between the social media and the surroundings, ready to hide again if I saw too many people trying to approach me. Maybe I was now back to the official things, but I didn’t want the people think that they could be after me like before. Then, Raihan’s curses told me that Glaceon had found him and now he was approaching me, Glaceon at his side.

“Why do you have to send her every time you want to find me?” he asked as he shivered cause Glaceon tried to freeze him a bit

“Because I don’t like crowds” I said as I took my Rotom Phone back as Glaceon ate the Poffin I gave to her “So, where are the books I asked you for?”

“Follow me, Little Champion”

“Why do you keep calling me like that, Dragon Boy?” I asked with a groan

“Because you’re tiny, and you’re the World Champion” Raihan chuckled with a smirk

I groaned again as I followed him to one of the biggest buildings of Hammerlocke, the second biggest after the Hammerlocke Stadium. It was the Hammerlocke University, one of the most important places full of information, and with the Vault, they kept all the records of Galarian history. I followed him into the inside of the University, with Glaceon at my side. Some of the scholars that were inside looked at me with weird gazes, like telling me that for them, I wasn’t very welcomed there, but I didn’t care. 

“Oh, here we are” Raihan said after entering in the library and guiding me between the corridors formed by the shelves that the library had, and after searching between the books, he found what he was searching “Here they are” he said taking the books and giving them to me. There were only three books, but they were heavy and very thick. “Well, those are the only books that we have about the things you’re searching for”

“Only these three books?” I asked as I swifted the books on my arms to pick them easier

“You know, we don’t have a lot of information about the Darkest Day since most of the records are gone cause not all of them were kept properly. I hope those books would help you, despite this little thing”

“I’m sure they will” I said before looking the hour on my phone “Oh, I should get going back to Mototoske. I told my uncle I was going to have lunch with him and then, training with him since in two days is my match againts Lance”

“Oh, by Arceus, I can’t still believe I wasn’t fast enough to reply your challenge” Raihan said with a soft groan before smirking and using my as an armrest, putting his arm on my head “But I hope you will win Lance cause I want to be able to challenge you for your title”

“And what about all that thing of beating Leon to get his Champion title?” I smirked as I put the books on my bag “First beat him and then, we’ll talk about our future match, Dragon Boy. Well, I have to go” I added as we exited outside the University, and once we were outside, I let my Corviknight out of her Pokeball, and together with Glaceon, we mounted on Glaceon “See you, Raihan, and thank you” I said and then, Corviknight flew away, leaving Raihan on the ground, waving to us.

We made some stops in our way back to Mototoske in order to get some berries and some ingredients that a chef near the Wild Area selled in order to make more curry recipes. Once I got them, we returned back home. Corviknight landed in the garden and sighed when she saw the nest empy. Glaceon and me dismounted and I petted Corviknight. “Don’t worry, girl. Honchkrow is fine with Piers. I know you feel a bit sad cause your son left the nest, but you should feel proud for him, and also for yourself” Corviknight tilted her head “Of course, girl. You did really well rising him since he was an egg and now he has grown up very well, and all is thanks to you” I said smiling and she nuzzled me before going to her nest. Then, I let Mimikyu out of her Pokeball and with her on my arms and Glaceon following me, we entered inside. Uncle Kabu didn’t arrive yet, so I decided to put Mimikyu on the couch, being watched by Glaceon and some of my Pokemon as I prepared lunch. As I prepared lunch, I thought on the different estrategies I would use againts Lance. I was sure that he remembered our first and only battle, and how I managed to defeat him, but I was sure I would defeat him again. I put some music as I prepared lunch, and of course, it was Piers’ music most of them. Singing his songs as I prepared meals helped me when I was thinking in a lot of things.

“Hello, kiddo” uncle Kabu said once he entered the house as he removed his coat before closing the door. “You could have send me a message once you arrived at home”

“And I sent it to you, but I suppoused you were too busy with your training that you didn’t have time to read it”

“Did you...Oh, true” he said checking his phone “Sorry, kiddo”

“Don’t worry, uncle” I said putting the food on the table and once it was all on it, I took Mimikyu in order to give her the porridge I made for her as my uncle went to take a shower. Mimikyu was growing pretty well, and she was showing us that despite of his very young age, she was doing very well. “Easy there, little girl” I said as Glaceon chuckled while she watched Mimikyu finishing her food.

Uncle Kabu exited the bathroom wearing comfy clothes and a towel on his head, near of falling. “Uncle, one day you will slip due the water you’re dropping cause you don’t get your hair dried in the bathroom”

“Who tells you that I didn’t slip before cause that?” he said with a chuckle as he got his hair dried at least before taking the towel to the washing machine 

“You’re giving me more reasons to worry about that and to avoid you doing that” I replied putting Mimikyu in the couch before giving the food to our Pokemon and then, I took a seat in order to have lunch

“You don’t have to worry, Raikichi” uncle Kabu said pouring some fresh water in our glasses “I didn’t get anything broken those times”

“But you’re getting older and you could getting something broken”

Uncle Kabu rose an eyebrow before laughing. “Maybe you have a point. Maybe. But I’m serious, kiddo, you don’t have to worry that much. Now, let’s enjoy this delicious meal. I promise I’ll make a really delicious meal for dinner”

“We’re going to run out of Tamato Berries and of other spicy ingredients if you keep preparing spicy meals” I said with a chuckle as I served the food

“You know I don’t prepare spicy meals for dinner” he replied as he tasted the fool “Delicious. New recipe?”

“Yeah, I wanted to try something new” I said drinking a bit of water before keeping eating the food “I’m happy you like it”

We kept eating and talking as we had the TV accompanying us and once we were done, we put our service in the dishwasher before finish picking up the things we had used from the table. After that, we took a short break in order to enjoy a pacefull tea as we watched some silly shows in the TV. Well, my uncle was watching the TV; I was doing some work on my laptop as MImikyu took a nap on my uncle’s lap, and Glaceon was curled next to me.

Two hours later, we decided to go to do some training cause in two days was my match with Lance and I wanted to show my uncle the strategies I thought to use againts Lance. We went to the enarest spot of the Wild Area that was next to Mototoske and once there, my uncle choosed the Pokemon he would use and I choosed Glaceon since I was going to use her in the match. “Are you ready, kiddo?” my uncle asked

“I’m always ready!”

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

“We should stop for now...” uncle Kabu said panting as we were sitting on the ground

“Yeah...We should...” I replied after drinking a bit of water “It got pretty dark here”

Uncle Kabu laughed as we recovered our breath. Our Pokemon were also trying to recover theirs after spending all the evening and the first hours of the night training. Once we recovered our breaths, we called our Pokemon back to their Pokeballs, except Glaceon, who wanted to stay outside of hers, and after taking a Flying Taxi, we went back to Mototoske. It didn’t take us too long to arrive to Mototoske, so once we were there, we went first to a Pokemon Center and after that, we went back home. Once inside home, I went directly to the bathroom in order to take a bath just before I let Mimikyu stay out of her Pokeball. I took a quick shower since I had to prepare food for our Pokemon, and of course, since I wanted to keep working with my laptop.

After taking the shower, I got dried and I put my bath cloth on and went to my room in order to get dressed with my sleeping clothes before putting my glasses on and telling my uncle that the bathroom was free. I wanted to keep working, but I was so tired that I was feeling my eyes getting closed as I tried to keep awake.

“Kiddo, you should take the rest of the day free” uncle Kabu said once he exited the bathroom, wearing his sleeping clothes “Tomorrow you have to be Lance’s guide, and I’m sure you want to talk with him about the things that happened those years after the last time you’ve seen him”

“I know, but I need to...” I said and then, I yawned “Nevermind, I think this can wait”

My uncle chuckled before starting to prepare the dinner since he said he would take care of it. As he prepared dinner, I gave Mimikyu her porridge, but this time, she wanted to eat it by her own, and I was surprised when I saw her eating her food by her own, showing me that she was growing up very well. Then, it was time for me and my uncle to have dinner after giving food to our Pokemon, and during the dinner we spoke about the training we had this evening and about the battle I was going to have in two days. 

After having dinner, I went to wash my teeth after helping my uncle to wash our dishes and then, I went with Glaceon and Mimikyu to my room, and after lying down on the bed and removing my glasses, I quickly fell asleep.

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

“Lance should be arriving in some minutes” I said checking the hour in my phone “Don’t worry, Glaceon, everything will be fine”

Glaceon made a sound and I shook my head. “Don’t worry, if press starts to be a problem, we’ll make sure to put them on their place” I said and she nodded.

That day I woke up early and after preparing myself, I quickly came to Mototoske Airport; of course, after having breakfast. I checked again the time and I sighed again. I told Lance to take the plane that would take him to Mototoske Airport since the one in Wyndon would be more full of people, and I didn’t want to deal with the press there. Then, Glaceon twitched her ears and started and moved her tail and chirped happily, and she called my attention. Then, I sppoted Lance. He looked the same of seven years ago, but with the first hints of white hair on his hair and little wrinkles, but he still looked the same young as always. I smiled when I remembered that day, when I was 19 years old, and Lance told me not to lock my heart forever, and of course, well, I remembered that night I spent with him. The first months after that night I couldn’t help but blush when I remember that night, but now...I remembered that, of course, but I didn’t blush, I only smiled. He was wearing comfy clothes, and always that black cape of his. I looked to Glaceon and when she nodded, I approached him.

“Hello there, Johto Pokemon Champion” I said, teasing him with a smile “Welcome to Galar”

“Raikichi, please, don’t tease me like that” he said with a sigh and then he looked at me, eyes open wide “Whoa, you’ve changed a lot”

“You say that cause the scars,l the burns, the hair and the fact that I grew a bit more?” I said and I laughed “C’mon Lance, last time we’ve seen I was 19 years old, and it was seven years ago. Now I’m 26; of course I’ve grown up a bit more, you know”

“Yeah, I know” Lance said and when he dropped his bags, he hugged me “I’m glad to see you again” he added and when he let me go, he looked at me again “I don’t if I should ask about those scars...”

“Don’t worry, I’ll tell you later” I replied patting his arm “The scars in my face and the burns on my left shoulder and part of my back were the only ones I didn’t get working with the International Police”

Lance rose an eyebrow as he picked his bags up and then, I guided him outside the airport in order to get a Flying Taxi and then, I noticed that he was looking at my lower back. “Lance?” I asked and he mumbled something as he blushed, making me laugh “I see that you’ve found my tattoo interesting, haven’t you?”

“Well, I didn’t know you would have gotten one”

I chuckled and shook my head as we mounted on the Flying Taxi, chuckling again when Lance got amazed when he saw the Corviknight that would take us to Wyndon. “C’mon, enter. We have to go to Wyndon at time!” I said entering in the taxi and followed by Lance. Once he closed the door, we started to fly and I smirked when Lance gasped in surprise. “Corviknight are very strong Pokemon. Their size and strength allow them to work moving these cabins, and that’s how Flying Taxis work here”

“I see...” he mumbled to himself before looking to me “What was that?”

“Oh, a message from my boyfriend” I said as I replied the message using my Rotom Phone and smiling and blushing when I saw the photo of Piers with Honchkrow. 

“Cute pic” Lance said and I blushed a bit more when I noticed that he was seeing the photo “That’s your boyfriend, isn’t he?”

“Yeah. He’s Piers, and he is the Gym Leader of Spikemuth. Also, he is the third most powerful trainer of all Galar and without using Dynamax”

“Dynamax? I read a bit about that when I was on the plane”

“Yeah, but there isn’t a Power Spot in Spikemuth so they can’t use that in the town, but Piers is strong without Dynamax and Gigantamax” I said “And also, this is going to surprise you, but Piers is the first Dark type Gym Leader that I’ve met”

“Wait, really? I didn’t hear about a Dark type Gym Leader before” Lance replied surprised

I couldn’t help but laugh when he said he wanted to battle him and I had to calm him down. “Relax, Champion” I said and then, I told him to look down through the window of the cabin. “Look, that’s Wyndon Stadium. There is where we are going to battle in two days. Also, when the Gym Challenge finishes, the finalist go to that Stadium to face the next part of the Challenge”

“I want to have that battle right now” Lance said and I laughed “Today I’ll take you to the main places here in Wyndon”

“And that boyfriend of yours is going to come with us?” he asked, a teasing tone on his voice as he smirked

“Of course he is going to be with us” I replied, smirking as well. If he wanted to play this teasing game, I would play it along. 

“Whoa, look at you” he said with a laugh “Near seven years ago you were blushing madly with my teasings”

“But that was near seven years ago, a year after I became the World Champion and I beated you, but I’ve changed”

“Yeah, you’ve changed a lot, Raikichi, and that’s good. It’s true that I’ll miss that shy girl I met years ago, but seeing you like this...I can’t help but feel proud”

“Really?” I asked rising an eyebrow

Lance nodded and I chuckled as I shook my head. Then, the owner of the Corviknight that was taking us to Wyndon told us that we were going to land very soon, so I texted Piers to tell him to book a place where we could have lunch without having the press disturbing us. When the Flying Taxi landed in front of The Rose of the Rondelands, we exited the cabin and we entered in the hotel. We went to the hotel recepcionist and once we got the key for Lance’s room, I guided him since I knew exactly where his room was. We took the elevator and went to the floor where the most expensive rooms were, and Lance looked at me, eyes open wide. “Raikichi, you didn’t have to...”

“You are a guest here, and I wanted you to be the most comfy as possible” I said before he could finish the question as he opened the door. He entered first and I followed him, closing the door behind me and leaning on the wall as Lance left his lugagge while I checked my social media in my Rotom Phone. “So...Tell me, how did you and Piers...?”

I looked at him as my Rotom Phone flew around me. “Well, in Alola I met a boy that managed to unlock my heart...But before I could confess my feelings, he broke them, and also, he broke my heart, and I got my heart locked again. But then, I came here, I met Piers and...Well, his love is like a song that is healing me. He really loves me and he does everything to help me to heal that wound that Guzma left on my heart when he yelled at me that day...”

“Guzma? Yelled? I think i’m getting a bit lost” Lance said as he removed his cape

“Guzma was the boy I met in Alola” I said going to be in front on a mirrow, next of the wardrobe “One day, I saved a grunt from Team Skull of being slashed by a Totem Salazzle. I pulled him away and I ended recieving the attack” I added touching slightly the scars of my face as I looked at my reflection in the mirror “After she wounded me in the face, she hitted me and threw me inside the Wela, the great mountain of Akala. Luckily, my Pokemon got me out of there before I getting charred in the lava...But I was so near of dying...Days after waking up in the Pokemon Center that is in Paniola Town, Guzma went there and before I could confess my feelings, he yelled at me, saying that I shouldn’t have done something like that and...Well, that’s now part of the past and since I beated him hard when he dared to show up here in Galar, I’m pretty sure he will think again about coming here”

“Raikichi...” Lance started to say putting a hand on my shoulder and making me turn to see him before being on his arms, as he pulled me into a tight hug “Why you didn’t tell me? We are friends, afterall, and we promised each other seven years ago that we would be pending of each other...After you left the International Police I didn’t know anything about you and...Oh, sorry” he said letting me go when I patted his back in roder to ask him to let me breath “Why you didn’t tell me?”

“I didn’t want to have more people worried about that, Lance” I said after taking a deep breath and kneeling down in order to stroke Glaceon “During the days I was in Alola after exiting the Pokemon center, my uncle Nanu was my pillar, the pillar to hold when I was passing throught all that pain and suffering...And when I recovered a bit, I decided to come here to Galar” I said standing up and smiling at him “Now that wound is healing thanks to Piers. It’s true that the wound is still there, but it doesn’t hurt anymore like before”

“I’m glad of hearing that” Lance said with a smile before trying to ruffle my hair, but failed “See? You’ve changed”

“And that’s bad?”

“No, of course not” he replied smiling again “It’s good, really good. You are more self confidence, and you aren’t that shy you used to be. I remember that shy girl that always blushed for everything, specially after the first day we’ve met during the battle for your title.”

“And you were always trying to find the proper words and you ended mumbling things without sense” I said chuckling, and he couldn’t help but laugh

“Point taken” he replied as he got shirtless. I noticed the scars he got on his back an arms, and I remembered the day we’ve met when he told me about how he got those scars dealing with his Dragon type Pokemon. I smiled as I saw my notifications when I noticed that Lance was looking at me. “Look at you”

“Uh?”

“You aren’t blushing” Lance pointed out as he entered in the bathroom to refresh himself. Then, some minutes later, he came out with his hair, face and shoulders wet and a towel on his head before using it to dry his hair and face. “Remember that day when you saw me shirtless? You blushed a lot. Oh, and every time we talked about that night before our paths got separated...You were so red that you looked like a Tamato Berry”

“Oh, c’mon” I said with a sigh before shaking my head

“It’s true, you were someone that blush easily, and now, look at you. I’m in front of you shirtless and you aren’t blushing. Should I get more clothes off?”

“Your teasins aren’t going to work on me now, Dragon Master”

“Dragon Master? Since when are you on nicknames?”

“Since I wanted to use them” I replied smirking “C’mon, we have things to do. Wyndon is really big and there are a lot of places to see”

“Alright, alright” he said “Let me get changed. Ahm...”

“C’mon, Lance” I said with a soft chuckle “I’ve seen you naked, remember?”

Lance blinked and blushed when I said that and I couldn’t help but laugh at his expression as he got changed. I went to the balcony in order to see the outside, but when Glaceon twitched her ears and made a soft sound, I quickly retreated inside again. “Something wrong?” Lance asked, now with all his clothes changed as he put his black cape on.

“Eh? No, nothing” I said but then, Glaceon used Ice Shard againts something she saw flying around the balcony. It was a Rotom Phone, and when I went to the balcony, I saw that it was from a journalist, one of the group that disturbed me when I was in that party with the other Gym leaders in Rose Tower. “Fuckin’ press...” I growled as the Rotom Phone returned to its owner before I closed the bay windows of the balcony with a groan. 

“You didn’t think that of them years ago” Lance said as we exited his room 

“Things changed, and I’ve changed too as well, Lance” I said smirking as we went to the elevator “Well, I’ll take you first to have some tipycal sweets from Galar, and then, time for the cultural visit. So, are you ready?”

“Of course I am”

I smiled and we exited the hotel, with Glaceon at my side, and then, she quickle growled to some press that was waiting for us, making them back off. After seeing the journalists running away, I sighed before looking at Lance when I heard him chuckling a bit. “What?”

“Since when you are like that with the press, if I can ask?”

“Since they turned more annoying”

The tone of my voice made him not to asl about that anymore. As I said, our first stop was in one of the most famous coffee shops in Wyndon. After saying hello to the waitress, I removed my jacket, revealing the tattoo and the scars I had on my back. “Gracideas?”

“Eh? Ah, yeah” I said as we took a seat on one of the VIP tables “I got the tattoo when I was in Alola. It was made by the Kahunas Hala, Olivia and of cours,e my uncle Nanu that is also a Kahuna, using hammer and cishel and...”

“Okay, okay, I think I don’t need to know the details” he quickly said as he swallowed a bit before asking for the food he wanted for breakfast “Do you want something?”

“Yeah, I’ll take a bottle of fresh water” 

The waitress took note of our orders and then, we kept talking about what we had done on the past years since the last time we had seen. Lance had asked himself multple times about turning down the title of Champhion in Johto cause sometimes he felt overwhelmed, but when he told me why he kept being the Champion, I couldn’t help but nod and smile. I felt the same way with the World Champion. Then, our orders arrived and I rose an eyebrow when I saw what Lance ordered, and then, I chuckled. “You and your big stomach won’t stop surprising me, Lance” I said and he laughed before starting eating. He was the Lance I usded to know, a bit more older, but he was still him. “So tell me, Dragon Champion, did you have problems defending your title?” I asked teasing him, and making him cough. “C’mon, too old for nicknames?”

“Of course not” he replied after drinking some water 

“You know, Raihan was a bit jealous cause he wanted to challenge me for the title but you replied first to my challenge” I said with a chuckle

“Raihan? Hammerlock Gym Leader?”

“Yeah. He’s a Dragon type expert, like you, and I heard tha the’s your biggest fan”

“More than you?” he asked , teasing tone on his voice 

“Maybe” I replied with a chuckle “I think that part of me is...gone, I guess? I mean, I’ve grew up more and well...Hey, I still admire you, but I’m not that girl that started to fangirl like a crazy fangirl”

“Yeah, it’s true” he said smiling “You’ve grown mature and wise during these years, and that’s good is that helped you”

“Many things happened...But yeah, you’re right...You know, I think I found my home here in Galar after these years going through different regions...A relative of mine is living here and the man I love the most is here as well, so yeah, I think this will be my home for many years, and don’t worry, I will pay a visit for you and for my family as well, so don’t put that puppy face to me”

Lance laughed before finishing his breakfast and once he was done with the food, I paid the orders and we went outside, with Lance complaining cause I paid his food. “You’re the guest, so stop complaining”

“Or what?” he said and when he felt Glaceon’s freezing paw on his leg, he nodded “Alright, alright”

I laughed and Glaceon chuckled as well while I took him to visit some of the places I know in Wyndon. During the visits, we had to deal with annoying press that quickly retreated when Glaceon glared at them, and in some point, Lance had to call his Dragonite to help Glaceon with the press. Hours passed and lunch time arrived, but since Piers told me he wanted to join us for lunch and then, visiting more places that Piers knew better than me, so now, we were waiting next to the big fountain on the main square in the city. Glaceon and Dragonite were playing with some kids that asked us first if the could play with them, and watching them play with our Pokemon made me remember the talk I had with Piers about forming a family with him and I couldn’t help but smile at the image of me with Piers and with our future kids. Lance noticed my smile and chuckled, making me look at him. “What?”

“Nothing, it’s just...Tell me, were you thinking in Piers?”

“Uh? Why do you ask that?”

“C’mon, your cheeks are red and that smile is an honest one” he said “You were right when you told me you’ve found someone that really loves you”

I couldn’t help but smile and then, my smile grew more when I felt Piers’ hands covering my eyes, and his voice confirmed that it was him. “Hello, babe” I said with a purr and he retired his hands before kissing my cheek. 

“How did you know it was me?” he said putting his arms over my shoulders and resting his chin on my head

“Your steps and your voice are unique, Piers” I said and when he sighed before chuckle, I chuckled as well “Oh, Piers, this is Lance. He’s the Champion of the Pokemon league in Johto. Lance, this is Piers, Gym Leader of Spikemuth and an expert in Dark type Pokemon”

“Oh, a pleasure to meet you” Lance said shaking his hand with Piers’ “I’m really happy for both of you. She looks very happy”

“I’m doing everything to make her happy because I love her and I love to see that beautiful smile on her face” Piers said with a smile on his lips and then, he kissed my cheek when I blushed madly

“I see...” Lance replied and then, he blushed when his stomach growled “Sorry”

“Don’t worry” I said and then, I stood up and called Glaceon as Lance made his Dragonite return to his Pokeball “Did you manage to book a table on that restaurant, babe?” I asked Piers

“Of course, babe. In the most VIP place of it”

“Then, let’s go. I’m hungry as well”

We went to the restaurant and a waiter guided us to the table that Piers booked. It was pulled apart of the other tables, and it was safe from curious looks and ears. Both me and Piers put our jackets on the backrest of ther chairs, and Piers rose an eyebrow when he saw that Lance didn’t take off his cape. “Why you don’t take the cape off?” Piers asked

“My cape is sacred, and I like it” Lance replied and I couldn’t help but laugh

“He only gets it off when he isn’t outside a building” I said once I controlled my laugh

“Oh, c’mon, do I have to remember you that time after our match that I founf you using my cape as a blanket because you had fallen asleep during the picnic we were having with Pryce in order to celebrate your victory?”

“I wasn’t going to use the picnic cloth, you know” I replied with a chuckle

“Something is telling me that there was something between you, right?” Piers asked after the waiter went to the kitchen with the paper with out orders 

“Wanna know it, babe?”

“Yeah, I’m curious to know more things about you, my Queen” he said as he nuzzled my hand before kissing it and making me blush

“Alright...Do you want first the short version or the long one?” I asked after drinking a bit of my soda while we waited for our food

“The short one first”

“Alright...Lance was my first” I replied and when I saw Piers blinking twice as he looked at me, I couldn’t help but chuckle when I saw his expresion “Yeah, my first time having sex was with Lance. It was near a year later after I beated him in the battle we had in which I defended my World title. He arrived to the Interpol heardquarters in Hoenn cause he was asked to teach me some infiltration tips and well, things happened and we ended having sex. But after that, I said that next time I would have sex it would be with someone that I really loved, and then, you arrived to my life, Piers” I said smiling and kissing his cheek “Are you jealous?”

“Maybe a little bit...Nah, I’m joking” Piers chuckled and then, the food arrived. Once the waiters were gone, we continued our talk “But now you’re my treasure, babe...” he said as he kissed me, making Lance chuckled 

“You’re speaking as a Dragon type trainer” Lance commented with a chuckle as we ate the food “So, when is the wedding?”

That made Piers chocked with the soda he was drinking and I quickly gave him a napkin to clean himself while he coughed. “You had to drop the question, hadn’t you?” I asked as I tried to control my blush 

“Well, I need to know to choose the suit”

I threw him a glare before sighing and shaking my head. Once I made sure Piers was fine, we kept eating the lunch trying to avoid the marriage topic. After the lunch, we went to visit more places of Wyndon, and few times we had to deal with more annoying journalist during the rest of the evening. 

“Oh, there is going to be a firework show here in Wyndon at night” I said as me and Piers entered in the Flying Taxi “I’ll sent you a text telling you the hour and the place to meet here in Wyndon”

“Alright, see you later” Lance said and then, our Flying Taxi flew to Mototoske. 

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

“Kiddo, are you sure about this? It has been years after the last time I put one of these”

“C’mon, uncle, you know that we use to wear these when there was a firework show” I said putting the haori over his shoulders “Aaaand you’re done. Now I’ll put mine before helping Piers with his”

“If you need help, tell me” uncle Kabu said stroking Ninetales’ head

“I’ll do, don’t worry” I replied going to my room and removing my bath coat before starting to put the kimono with all its parts in order. The last time I put a kimono was the one with Lunala patterns that mu uncle asked a tailor to make a kimono with those patterns for me in order to cheer me up when I was suffering a depression caused by Guzma’s words, but for this time, I decided to wear my blue kimono with snowflake patterns based on Glaceon. When I was going to put the obiage, the obi, the obijime and the obidome, I had to ask my uncle for help cause I couldn’t put them by myself. Once he was done helping me, I finished putting the rest of the things, including the accesories for my hair. Then, I put my Keystone around my neck and the Z-Power Ring on my left wrist. My Dynamax Band was on the kimono purse with my Rotom Phone and my wallet. Once I was ready, I called Piers to come to my room and when he saw me with the kimono, he dropped his jaw as he blushed a lot.

“Whoa, you look...I...I don’t have words, babe” he said approaching me in order to kiss me “You look amazing, gorgeous, beautiful...As the Queen you are, so pretty and...”

“Stop, you’re making me blush and getting me more red than a Tamato berry” I said blushing madly as I chuckled before letting him getting undressed in roder to help him with his kimono.

“That’s the goal, babe” Piers said chuckling as he got undressed and once he got on his underwear, I helped him with the kimono, explaining the differences between female and male kimonos as I helped him. “Whoa, it feels a bit bad cause your has a lot of things and mine is...tasteless. Don’t get me wrong, I really love it but...I feel like...”

“C’mon, Piers, you will look amazing with your kimono. Alright, there you go” I said as I made him give a soft spin in order to see how the kimono looked on him “Holy Arceus, babe, you look handsome and fabulous”

“Are you sure?” he asked, seeing himself in the mirror as his eyes scanned the black and white kimono he was wearing 

“Of course, babe” I said as I told him to sit down in order to put him a black and white adornment on his hair “Men normally don’t use these things wearing kimono but I thought you would look more pretty with this on your hair” I added as I finished putting the adornment and letting him stand up and see himself in the mirror again “So? Do you like it?”

“Like it? I love it!” he said kissing me “Thank you, my love”

“Your welcome, Piers” I purred as I kissed him back before taking my hand fan and my purse before giving a black and white kimono purse to him “Are you ready?”

“Of course I am” 

I smiled and then, we exited the house with my uncle, who said that Piers looked like if he had been wearing a kimono for years, making my boyfriend blush madly as we took the Flying Taxi that took as to Wyndon. Once there, we met with Lance in front of the hotel he was staying and of course, he was wearing his kimono as well, and I couldn’t help but chuckle when he laid his eyes on me. 

“Hello, Lance. I knew you would be wearing that too” I said with a smile

“Well, I’m from Johto, and these things cannot be forgotten easily” he replied “You look beautiful, by the way.”

“Thank you”

I was near to say something more when Raihan and Leon appeared in order to greet us, but then, Dragon Boy’s eyes were on me, and then, he looked at Piers when he blinked twice. “Whoa, Piers, I didn’t thought you would look good in a kimono. May I ask...?”

“Because I wanted to wear it cause I felt curiosity for it. If you have problems with that...” Piers started to said

“No, no, it’s okay” Raihan said, hands up, before putting them down “It’s just that it’s rare seeing you wearing a kimono”

“You should try one too, Dragon Boy” I said teasing Raihan and making him blush a bit before going with my uncle to see some of the food stalls in order to buy something for dinner cause we didn’t have anything for dinner. Glaceon was walking at our side, in alert since the place was full of people and we didn’t know how many journalist were there and how many of the annoying ones were there as well. Piers looked curious about some of the food and when he tasted them, he told me to tell him the recipe cause he wanted to make them. I couldn’t help but laugh seeing him enjoying the moment like that. As he told me one day, he wasn’t comfy in that type of parties, but he was really enjoying this night.

Midnight arrived and we were on a very good spot to watch the fireworks after having dinner. There we were Piers and me, sitting down on a bench and cuddling each other, with my uncle Kabu speaking with Lance and with the other Gym Leaders. Leon was with them as well; it looked that he was hiding from Chairman Rose and Oleana, and I understood him. He deserved some rest from those two.

The firework show started and when I saw the first ones, I couldn’t help but remember the times when my parents took me to see fireworks when I was in Sinnoh. That made me smile and Piers noticed that, cause I felt his grip around me a bit tightly when he saw me smiling. “I adore your smile, babe” he said kissing me “Did you remember something that made you smile?”

“Yeah...The times when my parents and me used to watch fireworks when I was in Sinnoh...Good times...And I’m very happy of creating new memories with you, babe...”

“You’re going to get me as red as a Tamato Berry” Piers said blushing as he kissed my neck

“That’s the goal” I replied, holding a soft moan when he bite my neck softly. Holy Arceus, we were lucky that no one was watching us “P-Piers...This is not the place for this...” I whispered to him

“Do you want to continue this in home?”

“Yeah...But first we should see the firework show ‘ill the end”

Piers nodded, understanding why I said that. If we went back home before the show ended, my uncle could suspect the reason and he wouldn’t stop teasing us with that. The last fireworks were thrown and the show ended with a wave of applauses, but the party wasn’t near to end. We stood up and after telling my uncle and Lance that we were going back home, we took a Flying Taxi back to Mototoske, giggling so softly that anyone could hear us.

Once we arrived, we exited the taxi and we went home, closing the main door as we kissed, letting Glaceon to stay in the living room as we were going to be busy on my room. “You know how to turn me on, right babe?” he teased me as he kissed me again

“I always do, love~” I replied with a purr while we entered in my room. Once we closed the door, we started to undress. Piers was the first on getting naked, but it took me more time since I had more things to remove. Piers helped me as we kissed and once I got naked as well, I pulled him to be the bed, making him sitting on the edge. “Now, let me taste that candy of yours~”

Piers blushed madly and then, a moan escaped from his lips when I kissed his neck, my hand around his hard member. Then, I went down slowly, leaving kisses on my way and when I knelt down and kissed the tip of his cock, he shivered with a moan. I wanted to tease him a bit more, so I kissed the tip again and then, I left kisses and soft bitemarks on his tights, enjoying with that beautiful voice of his. “P-Please, babe...D-Don’t tease me like this...” he moaned, his hand on my hair. That made me smirk and after another kiss on the tip, I started licking it, making him moan again. A few licks more and I started to suck his lenght, having my free hand busy with my clit. Both of us moaned and groaned, as I sucked him slowly and as I stroked my clit slowly as well, trying to keep the same peace for both of us. “Holy shit, you’re so fucking good, babe...” he groaned as I sucked him a bit faster, moving my fingers at the same speed as well. Then, after some minutes, I started to feel him getting tense and with a soft moan, he spilled his seed in my mouth. I pulled his member out of my mouth and after swallow, I made a fake put since I couldn’t reach my orgasm with him. 

“Tasty as always~” I said as I clean myself before having my back againts the sheets and his fingers appraching my tights “Ah...”

“Lemme help you with this...” he murmured as he went down and kissed my sensitive clit before licking it while his three fingers where now inside my pussy “You’re so wet...Naughty girl...My naughty Queen...”

“Oh, c’mon, you...” I tried to say but a moan interrupted me when he sucked faster as he moved his fingers inside me faster as well. Holy Arceus, he knew how to drive me that mad during sex. “Fuck, Piers, don’t stop, babe...More, please...”

“As you wish, my dear” he said before returning to lick and suck my clit as his fingers were busy fingering me. My body started to tremble and the grip I was making on his hair got tighter as I felt the orgasm hitting me. And it hitted me; I came with a soft cry. “You’re tasty as well, babe” Piers said retiring his fingers from inside me and kissing me, making me taste myself on his leep before cleaning himself “So...How do you want to do it this night?” he asked as he put a condom on his cock

“Lemme ride you, dear~” I purred as I made him lay down on the bed, back againts the sheets 

“As you wish, my Queen” Piers said kissing me before letting me line his cock with my entrance. I slowly went down, moaning as I felt his cock inside me and once I got him inside me, he started to rock his hips. I followed his peace, my breasts bouncing up and down with every move. Sometimes I played with them; sometimes I was busy with my hands over his. His hands were grabbing my hips tightly, but not very tightly since he didn’t want to leave marks. Then, I leaned over him in order to kiss him and he took his chance to increase the speed of his moves, making me moan louder. “I love you so much, Raikichi...I’m so lucky of being with you...” he said between moans before kissing me again

“P-Piers...I...” I tried to say, but the moans avoided me to say something. I wanted to say something sweet to him, but the pleasure I was feeling was so big that I couldn’t thinkg in something coherent as he felt him pushing faster “Holy shit, more...More...D-Don’t stop, babe...” I moaned and then, I bite his low lip softly before smirking “Let’s rock together, my King~”

That made Piers smirk as well as he went faster since both of us were near of our orgasms. I reached mine first, and Piers pushed few more times until he reached his. We panted as we tried to recover our breath, and once we recovered it, I let him pulling out his member with care and once he covered the condom with tissues and threw it to the trash bin, he returned to bed after opening a bit the door of my room and letting Glaceon enter and jump on the bed. “She knews when to enter in the room” he chuckled as he slipped under the covers like I did just few minutes before, and then, he hugged me, his chin on top of my head. “I really enjoyed this night”

“Really?” I asked with a soft yawn

“Of course, babe” he said letting me look at his beautiful light eyes “I told ya before,I enjoy doing things with you”

“Including wearing a kimono? You looked a bit uncomfortable whit it at the beginning...”

“Look at me, Raikichi” Piers said and I looked at him again “It took me by surprise cause I’ve never worn a kimono, but I really liked wearing it”

“Would you ear it again another time?”

“Of course, babe...” he said kissing me and then, he chuckle when I pouted cause a yawn made me break the kiss “Alright, now let’s sleep” he added yawning as well “Good night, my love”

“Good night...” I said before falling asleep

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

----------------------------PIERS’ POV---------------------------------

I groaned as I moved a bit, trying to get back to sleep. I didn’t want to leave the bed since I had the most precious person of my life sleeping at my side, with scars and burns decorating her body, together with the tattoo. I smiled as I removed the hair from her face softly, being careful of not waking her up. She was so amazing...Then, our talk about marriage popped into my mind. Me and Raikichi getting married...It was time to ask her the question, but I couldn’t help but being a bit afraid. What if she said no? What if she felt uncomfortable or overwhelmed? I shook my head, removing those thoughts from my mind as I stroked her cheek gently, making her smile, and when she opened her eyes, her smile grew wider.

“Morning, babe” I said kissing her as I made her being closer to me 

“Morning...” she said purring as she kissed me back before yawning a bit “Did you sleep well?”

“With you sleeping at my side? Of course babe...And it looks that you slept very well too”

“Yeah...” Raikichi replied before yawning again and then, she stretched a bit “Today I have special training with a friend of mine in the morning. I want to be prepared for my match againts Lance...Do you have plans for today?”

“Well, I was thinking on talking with Gordie and Melony since they are right before me in the Gym Challenge and I wanted to discuss with them some strategies”

“That sounds nice...” she said and then, she stole a kiss from my lips before taking her sleeping clothes and putting them on. I let out a soft sigh and then I smiled as I saw her putting her glasses on before pulling hair into a simple bun. “Alright, let’s go and have breakfast”

I nodded and I stood up, putting my sleeping clothes on and once I was ready, I exited her room followed by Glaceon, who trotted and meowed to Raikichi while Mimikyu, who exited her Pokeball, asked for attention and food as well. “Okay, okay” Raikichi said “Let me prepare you some food, ‘kay?”

Both Pokemon chirped and I couldn’t help but laugh before noticing that there was a note on the table. I read it and then, I told Raikichi that her uncle was out doing his daily exercise routine. She nodded as she gave the food to the Pokemon before preparing some breakfast for us and for Kabu. I loved helping her with the food, cause every time I did it, she taught me some new recipes from her homeland. “So, that friend of yours...” I said as we put the breakfast on the table before taking a seat in order to eat 

“Oh, I met her during my second journey through Sinnoh” she said after sipping a bit of her hot cocoa “She has some health issues but she is a stronger trainer. She is an expert in Dark type Pokemon, despite not having a full team of those Pokemon, but that didn’t avoid her to take the leadership over her father’s place position as Gym Leader in Viridian City, in Kanto”

“So she’s a Dark type Gym Leader...Interesting. I thought I was the only one”

“Well, maybe not the only one but you are the first one” Raikichi replied before turning her attention to the main door “Oh, hello uncle” she said smiling as Kabu entered inside, covered in sweat and panting a bit after doing jogging around the Stadium “I prepared you some coffee and the bread is in the toaster ready to toast”

“Alright, thanks kiddo” he said before going to his room and then, to the bathroom

Raikichi and me ate our breakfast hearing the news in the TV and when we were done, we put our service in the sink as we waited to have the bathroom free. Once Kabu exited the bathroom, bathed and dressed in clean clothes, we went to Raikichi’s room and once we got our clothes, we went to have a bath. I couldn’t help but say sorry when I saw the little bite marks I left on her skin, but she shook her head as she told me not to be sorry and when she pointed the bite marks she left on my skin, I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit when she chuckled as well.

“Did I tell you today how beautiful are you and how much I love you?” I asked as we washed our hairs and bodies

“You know that I love hearing that, babe” she replied as we removed the shampoo from our bodies and hair “And of course, I love you as well, dear”

I couldn’t help but blush as we got dried and dressed. Once we were ready, we put the used clothes in the washing machine, we went to the living room were Kabu was speaking with a young girl that was Raikichi’s age more less. She had dark purple hair, pale skin and bright red eyes, and one of her hands was busy petting the fur of her Alolan Persian. Then, the girl looked at us and smiled and before I could say something, Raikichi smiled back and went to greet the girl.

“Welcome, Sakura” my girlfriend said as Persian greeted Glaceon with a meow “Piers, I want to present you Sakura. She’s a good friend of mine. She is staying here in Galar as well”

“Hi” I said a lil shy cause I didn’t know what to say since her red eyes were on me, like if she was analyzing me 

“So you’re the boy who unlocked Raikichi’s heart...” Sakura said before smiling “Is a pleasure to meet the first Dark type Gym Leader, and if I’m not wrong, the only Gym Leader in all Galar that refuses to use Dynamax and Gigantamax, and despite that you managed to be the third strongest trainer in all Galar behind the Champion and the Hammerlocke Gym Leader...Curious...”

“I don’t need Dynamax or Gigantamax to offer a great battle” I replied crossing my arms before relaxing a bit when I saw Raikichi smiling to me

“Oh, I didn’t pretend to offense you, Piers” Sakura said

“You didn’t, Sakura” Raikichi said and I sighed in relief cause I was feeling a bit uncomfy under Sakura’s glare “Spikemuth isn’t near of a Power Spot, but Piers managed to be a strong trainer and Gym Leader without Dynamax and Gigantamax. In fact, he is the seventh Gym Leader the challengers have to beat if they want to continue their journey”

“I see...Well, since I took my father’s position as Gym Leader in Viridian City, I know what is being a real obstacle to the challengers” Sakura said stroking her Persian before looking at Raikichi “We should start your training. I want to see you beating Lance again.”

“Alright, alright” Raikcihi said with a chuckle before tugging me softly by my necklace in order to make me lean and then, she kissed me “I’ll see you at lunch, ‘kay?”

“Okay, babe” I said kissing her back “Have fun and don’t get hurt”

“C’mon, we’re going only to train. Don’t worry, babe, I’ll be fine” she said and with Sakura, they exited the house, followed by Glaceon and Persian. With a sigh, I sat down in the couch and when I heard Kabu chuckling, I looked at him. 

“What?” I asked

“Sakura is someone that can put you in your nerves, but she’s a good girl, and I’m very grateful that she isn’t like the filthy bastard of her father”

“Her father?”

“Giovanni” Kabu replied, a despective tone on his tone when he said that name “The boss of Team Rocket that had my niece on his blacklist of people he wants to see death”

“Wait, WHAT?! Why?!”

“I don’t know, but recently, Raikichi knew that Giovanni decided to remove her from that blacklist. I think it was Sakura who made him do that”

Great, now I was nervous again cause my girflfriend was the friend of the daughter of a dangerous mafia boss, just great...But as Kabu said, Sakura looked nice, and she was friendly, at least with Raikichi. With a sigh, I shook my head and I stood up. I had to take a Flying Taxi to Circhester in order to meet Gordie and Melony. “I have to go. I don’t want to make Gordie and Melony wait for me”

“Go, then” Kabu said as he stood up as well, going with me to the Flying Taxi stop “Oh, I was thinking on having lunch in Wyndon. I’ll send you the place and the hour of the lunch”

“Okay. See you there then” I said and then, I entered in the cabin and once I closed the door, the Flyin Taxi took me to Circhester.

Near half an hour, I arrived to Circhester, and I shivered a bit when I felt the cold breeze piercing my skin through my jacket. I went to the Hero’s Bath structure to meet Gordie and Melony, who were waiting for me there. “Hey, Piers, here!” Gordie greeted me with a big smirk on his face “So, ready to choose the perfect ring for your future wife?”

“Yeah, that’s why I called you since you know more about rocks and stones and...” I said but I was interrupted by Melony when she hugged me tightly, taking me by surprise

“Awwwww, I can’t believe you will be giving that big step, Piers” she said and then, she let me go when I patted her arm “Sorry”

“I want to keep this in secret cause is going to be a surprise” I said once I recovered my breath 

“That’s why you didn’t bring Raihan with you, right? Gordie asked

“Yeah...I’m sure he would be doing a livestream and all Galar will know first before Raikichi”

“Typical from Raihan” Melony said with a sigh “Well, let’s go to the jewelry”

I nodded and I followed them to the jewelry. There, the owener started to show me different engagement rings with different stones and different adornments. They were beautiful indeed, but I couldn’t decided between them. If choosing the engagement ring was going to be this ahrd, I didn’t want to know how hard was going to be the wedding preparations. With a heavy sigh, I looked the rings again and then, Gordie cleared his throat. “It looks that you are having doubts, right?” he asked and I nodded. Gordie smirked and looked to the rings. “If you want to choose the perfect ring for Raikichi, let’s find one that fits her...She’s strong and brave, cause she wants to protect Pokemon and people not only cause is her duty as World Champion, but also because she really wants to protect them, and despite of being brave and strong, she’s also soft and kind” he said discarding some rings “Sometimes she can show herself as someone with cold heart, hiding behind that serious mask, but the reality is that she has a sweet heart full of kindess” he added, discarding more rings “Now you have it more easy. You know her better than us, so it’s your turn to choose the ring”

I looked at him before nodding and then, I looked at the ring. Raikichi, my muse, my goddess, my Queen...Brave and strong, with a kind heart full of tender. As I thought on her, my hand went to one silver ring, with a regular size sapphire and with two little diamonds at both sides of the sapphire. I picked it in my hand and I examinated it before showing it to Gordie and Melony. “THis one. This one will fit her” I said

“I’m sure it will, Piers” Gordie said, with a big smile on his face “See? It wasn’t hard to choose it, right?”

“You’re the rock expert, not me” I replied as the jewelry owner put the ring on its box and gave the package to me. Once I got it in a safe place, I paid the ring and together with Gordie and Melony, we exited the place. “Thanks for everything, really”

“Don’t worry, Piers. We’re glad of helping you” Melony said “Now, it’s time to speak about battle strategies!”

--------------------RAIKICHI’S POV----------------------

“Persian, use Black Hole Eclipse!!”

“Glaceon, use Subzero Slammer!!”

Both Z moves collished in the air, and after the explosion, we saw that the crush of both moves created a soft hail that quickly stopped. “Whoa, that Subzero Slammer was really strong” Sakura commented as we took a seat in one of the benchs in front of Mototoske Stadium. Both of us were panting, as well as our Pokemon, after a very intense training. “You really got very strong, Raikichi” she said after drinking a bit of ice tea from her bottle “When you told me that you didn’t stop training during your journey through different regions you were being serious”

“Of couse I kept training and I’m keeping training” I replied after drinking some of my ice tea as well “As World Champion, my duty is protecting people and Pokemon, as well as giving the best of me during the official matches againts the Gym Leaders, Elite Four, Champions, and even Kahunas ask me for cause they want the title”

“But you have been without offering official matches since you left Kalos, right?”

“Yeah, that’s true...I offered exhibition matches but it’s time to return to the official ones...It’s time to shut the fuckin’ mouths of the fuckin’ bastards that think that I don’t derserve my title anymore only cause I wanted to get some rest”

“That’s the Raikichi I know” Sakura said with a chuckle as she petted her Persian “You are going to offer more official battles after the one you’ll have today, aren’t you?”

“No” I replied and when she looked at me confused, I quickly shook my head “I mean, I’ll be offering more official matches, but not right after this one. I’ll take my time and when I feel myself ready to do more official battles, I’ll do them, but after this one, I’ll return to the exhibition ones for a while”

“That’s good” my friend said and then, we stood up cause I wanted to go home and refresh myself before going to Wyndon, and I was sure Sakura wanted to refresh herself as well “You know, I saw you the other day helping Milo with the preparations of his Gym mission”

“Really? I didn’t see you there”

“I was buying some flowers for Milo in one of the shops when I spotted you helping him”

“I see...Speaking of that...Milo and you...” I said, teasing her a little and making her chuckle as a soft blush appeared on her face

“Yeah, yeah, I’m dating him” Sakura said smiling softly “He’s a sweetheart, ready to help me and of course, ready to pick me on his arms when he has the chance”

I couldn’t help but laugh soflty when she said that. “Piers likes to pick me on his arms as well” I commented as we entered inside my uncle’s house in order to refresh ourselves.

“Have you tried to pick him on your arms?” she asked as we refreshed in the bathroom “You’re strong and I’m sure that you can pick him up despite him being taller than you”

“You gave me an idea”

“I always do”

Both of us laughed as we finished refreshing ourselves and making Glaceon and Persian recover their strength, we exited the house and took a Flyin Taxi to Wyndon. Once we arrived, we went to the terrace of the restaurant where my uncle and Piers were waiting for us. “Hi, babe” I purred as I kissed my boyfriend, smirking when I heard Sakura made a sound that meant ‘You can kiss him later, now we are going to eat’. We took seat on the table my uncle booked and after ordering the food we would eat, we talked about many things. Piers looked nervous, and when I looked at him as I put my hand on his, he jumped a bit startled. “Piers, babe, is everything alright?”

“Yes, yes, don’t worry” he said smiling “I was lost on my own thoughts”

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

The moment of truth arrived. It was evening, and the Wyndon Stadium was FULL of people, ready to see my match againts Lance. I was in the locker room, without my black and blue jacket cause I was putting my light blue cape over my shoulders. That was the cape I used to wear when I was going to have an official match and, for some reason, I missed wearing it. Glaceon rubbed her fur againts my bare leg, making me smile. “Don’t worry, girl, I’m fine” I said and when I heard the referee through the speakers saying my name, I took a deep breath before exhaling slowly. “Are you ready, Glaceon?” I asked and she nodded with determination. I smiled and together, we went to the battlefield.

Lance was waiting there, a smile on his face. I smiled back, a serious and determinated bright on my eyes as I took my place, with Glaceon at my side. The referee presented the match, saying that this was the second time Lance would try to take my title away. I couldn’t help but smirk cause I wouldn’t give my title so easily. Then, the referee gave us the sign to start the battle, and I took my chance to remove the cape that landed next to me. Lance, by his hand, took his Pokeball and called his loyal Dragonite out of it. I looked at Glaceon and after nodding, she proceed to take position, glaring at Dragonite.

“Dragonite, use Fire Punch!!”

“Glaceon, block it with Water Pulse!!”

Both moves collised in the air, showing everyone that both Pokemon were ready to give everything. “You and Glaceon got stronger” Lance said

“You’re the second person that tells me that” I replied “Now, I’ll make you regret of challenging me. Glaceon, Hail at full power!!”

A very strong Hail started, and it didn’t take too long to Dragonite to be in problems due the damage he was suffering from Hail. Then, Glaceon’s special ability activated, making me smirk. “Now, Double Team as you use Quick Attack!”

Dragonite became overwhelmed at the sight of Glaceon’s copies, but also, he was dealing with the damage that she was making to him with Quick Attack. I was doint it again, putting my opponent againts the ropes. That made Lance think quickly if he wanted to avoid his Pokemon getting more damage. “Dragonite, Iron Tail!”

Iron Tail hitted Glaceon, but not very much. She rolled on the ground but she quickly got on her paws again, hissing. I didn’t need to ask her if she was okay; the gaze she gave me before glaring at Dragonite was enough to tell me that she was fine. “Use Hail again!!”

“What?!” Lance said as the Hail turned stronger and when I ordered Glaceon to put herself behind Dragonite and use Ice Shard to freeze his wings, he got surprised and confused at the same time while Glaceon returned with me “Dragonite!!”

Glaceon returned to me, a smirk on her face as Dragonite tried to remove the ice from his wings without success. Then, Lance ordered his Pokemon to use Hyper Beam, and I ordered Glaceon to block it with Ice Beam, with this Ice move empowered by the Hail, collised with the Hyper Beam and hitted Dragonite, who gave a step back.

“Now, is time to show you our secret weapon!!” I said with loud voice as I activated my Icinium Z, getting Lance surprised  “From the coldest and hardest blizzards, from the most beautiful winters you rise up and shows your eternal beauty, shining with the first rays of the winter sun” I said “Glaceon, use Subzero Slammer!!!”

The Z move hitted Dragonite, creating a dust cloud mixed with the hail, and when it dissapeared, all the people saw that Lance’s Pokemon was out of combat. The referee declared me as the winner and I smirked  viewing that once more, I kept my title with me. Glaceon ran to me and I gave her a Sitrus Berry, showing my gratefull for her big effort during the battle. Lance, by his hand, returned Dragonite to his Pokeball, and once I took my cape and put it again over my shoulders, I walked to Lance, with Glaceon at my side. “That was a really good battle, Lance, but once more, I keep the title with me” I said.

“You really got stronger, Raikichi” he replied, smiling as he shook my hand “This battle was even better than our first battle”

“I agree with that” I replied before clearing my throat and speaking to all the crowd “Alright, people of Galar!! I’ll return to exhibiton matches until I want to offer another official one, but don’t worry, be sure that I’ll keep my title with me!! Now, I want a great applause for our guest, Lance!!” 

Everyone applaused and Lance couldn’t help but blush, and as the crowd cheered and applauded, both of us went to the locker room. I wanted to take a quick shower, so I took my bag from the lockers and after taking a quick shower, I put the outfit I used to wear in Alola, jacket included, and then, I exited the Stadium, only to end on my boyfriend’s arms. “You did it, babe!!” he said giving a spin with me and making me laugh. He put me down and then, he kissed me with passion, in front of all our friends. My uncle cleared his throat and that made us break our kiss, both of us blussing.

“That was a really great battle, kiddo” uncle Kabu said

“Now I want to challenge you” Raihan added “I want to defeat you with all the power of the Dragon type Pokemon”

“I’ll beat you once more, Dragon Boy” I said with a smirk before blushing when I heard my stomach growling. “Sorry”

“Don’t worry” uncle Kabu said with a laugh “C’mon, we have a dinner party in the restaurant where we’ve had lunch. Sakura and Milo are there, waiting for us. They went there while you were in the locker rooms”

I nodded and togheter, we went to the restaurant. Sakura and Milo greeted us and she hugged me so tightly that I had to pat her arm. “Sorry, but I had to do it. You beat him and made him bite the dust, like the last time” she said before looking at Lance “Are you going to say again that you will be able to defeat her, Lance? Cause I would love to see you bite the dust. Again”

“Oh, c’mon” Lance groaned as he shook his head

Minutes later, we took a seat in the table and ordered the food, talking about the battle as some of our friends said that they wanted to see more imrpessive battles. We spent the dinner speaking and laughing at some stories, and when we were going to have the desserts, Piers kissed my cheek after kissing my hand. I looked at him and when he smiled, I rose an eyebrow, a bit confused. Then, he took my hands on his as he cleaned his throat. “I have something to ask you, Raikichi” he said

“Uh?” I said and when he picked a box from his pocket, I blushed madly 

“Raikichi, I love you, with all my heart and soul, and this...This is something really important for me. I asked this to myself multiple times cause I wanted to make sure of asking this to you...Raikichi, my love, my Queen...” he said opening the box and revealling a silver ring with a sapphite and two little diamonds in both sides “Would you marry me?”

There was a silence that made me feel a bit tense. My heart was beating fast and despite of having my eyes looking to Piers’ eyes, I could feel our friends’ gazes over us. I swallowed harder as I looked at him and then, I put my mind in order. “Y-Yes...I want to marry you, Piers” I said

“R-Really?”

“Yes...Yes, yes, yes!!” I said, tears of happines in my eyes

Piers smiled as he slipped the ring in my finger and then, I hugged him, and luckyly, he grabbed himself to the table cause we were near to fall from the chairs and then, our friends broke the silence and applauded, cheering as well.

“I love you, Piers, I love you so much” I said

“I love you too, Raikichi”

I smiled, really happy of this moment. This would be like a new start point in our lives. Now, we were engaged, and soon, we would be married.

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

@vanillasaaku​ Here is your Sakura owo

#raikichi pkmn #trainersona #piers x oc #piers #kabu #lance pokemon #raihan #pokemon sword and shield

[cozykhaos]

A New Sun Part 13

Saturday morning I woke up to my head throbbing, my vision blurred every time I moved. My stomach lurched if I moved too quickly and my mouth tasted and felt like I had licked the field from one end of the farm to the other. After brushing my teeth several times and many cups of coffee I started to feel normal again. I spent the rest of the day in the Community Center writing lists of what I need to find. I realized I would need help. What was a Fiddlehead Fern? Where would I find an Eel? I obviously needed animals on the farm. Did someone have 25,000G laying around? I sure didn’t. How the hell do you grow a pomegranate?

I laid back on the floor, the ground underneath me groaned with my weight and the carpet squished against my body. I dug my palms into my eyes, what had I gotten myself into? Asher put his head on my shoulder and sighed.

“You’re telling me,” I looked at him. He had spent the days chasing the Junimos, every time he was close enough to catch them they would disappear in a cloud of sparkles. My dog would stare at the spot in confusion, once they reappeared they would start the game over.

I frowned at the list, if I had checked the mail sooner I would already have two bundles done. At this point it would a year before I finished. I pinched the bridge of my nose and headed out. Tomorrow was the first day of Summer and I wasn’t prepared at all. I would have enough money to buy seeds but until my first harvest it would be tight. Sitting on the front porch of my house I looked across the fields, the sun was starting to melt behind trees, the crickets started to chirp.

I remembered coming here the first day of my Summer vacation. Grandpa would always buy corn seeds, telling me how they lasted all the way through Fall. The fields would be blossoming with life.

Blueberries, melons, sunflowers, peppers, radishes, tomatoes. It was a lot of work, but now I was starting to realize that grandpa didn’t make me do that much. He would always let me go off and hang out with the others. Letting me enjoy my Summer.

Eos Farm wouldn’t have half that life this Summer.

Next year. The little voice inside me said and I agreed with it. With that in mind I went inside and rested up for the next day.

I made sure to be waiting outside of Pierre’s when it opened. I had a long day ahead of me and I was ready to get to work. As soon as the door unlocked I pulled it open, Asher darted inside, Pierre looked at me, shock written across his face.

“Good morning Kit!” He said.

“Morning!” I shoved a to go cup of coffee at him.

“Oh, thank you,” he took the cup. Ash had found a bone on one of the lower shelves, he marched up to me, drool already all over the bone. I frowned. “Not like we can put it back now.”

I picked up the seeds I needed, remembering the bundles I pulled out my list. My frown deepen.

“Everything okay?” Pierre asked from behind the counter.

I looked at him from over the shelf and gave him a thumbs up. I needed tomatoes and hot peppers to complete the bundle, I hadn’t considered budgeting for them. I put back a couple of corn seed packets.

I went to the front and paid.

It will all be worth it. The voice encouraged as I walked back home, bag in hand. Ash paraded in front of me, bone in mouth. My footsteps came to a halt as I noticed a black pick up parked outside the farm gate. Ash was now at my heels as I ran the rest of the way.

“Hey there Sunshine!” My dad waved from the front porch. I blinked back the tears that were threatening to fall. “What are you standing around for, let’s get to work.”

We sat on the porch the sun was melting behind the trees. We drank water infused with mint and lemons and ate cucumber and ranch sandwiches. The was valley was still, a few birds nested on my fence post, chirping.

“You know, this farming thing is hard,” my dad spoke in between bites of his sandwich.

“Yeah it is,” I nodded. “I thought I knew what I was getting myself into, helping grandpa out all those years. Turns out I have no fucking idea what I’m doing.”

“I don’t know, it looks like you have some fucking idea,” Dad nudged me with his elbow, shoving his chin towards the field. We had planted in neat rows, each mound damp with water. I had made little signs for each row and carved the name of the crop then shoved them deep into the soil.

“I wish I would of paid more attention when I was here. I wish I would of helped him more,” my voice broke.

“Sunshine, you were the light of your grandfather’s life and he appreciated you so much. He lived for these summers.”

Then you stopped coming.

Then he died.

Then Eos died.

I shook my head and focused on my fields, my farm.

“You’re going to be alright,” Dad said.

I looked at him and smiled. “Yeah, yeah I am.”

I slept that night in my old sleeping bag, Ash betrayed me and snuggled up to my dad who snuggled the pup to his chest and kissed his forehead goodnight. I don’t blame him, the bed was way more comfortable than the floor. One day I’d need a guest bedroom and a bigger bed.

My internal alarm didn’t fail me and woke me up before the actual alarm did. I woke dad up by pulling the pillow out from under his head. He bolted upright, Ash fell to the floor, scrambling under the bed. Dad had his gun out and was aiming it at no one. He blinked up at me. “Why would you do that!?”

“Power hour!” I yelled and started squatting, my knees popped loudly in protest.

His eyes went wide before he burst into laughter. I did my morning routine and met dad outside, he was  sitting on the porch with Ash, coffee cup in hand.

“Sunrises are something else here.”

I looked towards the horizon, it was ablaze with golds and burst of pink.

“There is something else about the Valley.”

Dad left that afternoon, deciding that I had everything under control. His fair Irish skin was burned, his red hair disheveled and red beard was already grown out. I called him a pansy and hugged him goodbye. I finished weeding the field, and broke down more stones adding them to the pile next to my house. Sweat dripped down my forehead and into my eyes, stinging them. I pulled my boots off and set them by the front door. Ash stuck his head in one immediately pulling it back out and rubbed his nose on the ground.

“I’m gross, why would you even do that?” I asked him. He responded with a sneeze. I headed towards the mountains, barefoot. I’d search for the Foraging bundle that I needed for the Community Center. It was just the start of Summer and the heat was overbearing. The dry heat pressed down and very little of the ocean breeze reached the farm.

I passed in front of Robin’s house, I hadn’t talked to Linus since the Egg Festival and still wasn’t sure about the older man. I paused spying my dark haired friend in front of the mountain lake, looking out over the still glassy water. I thought back to when we would spend the morning in that lake, then running to the beach in the afternoon, ice creams in hand. I started running towards the water, passed Sebastian and canon balled into the lake. I heard a cry of surprise as I plunged downward into the crisp, cool water. I let myself sink to the bottom of the lake then kicked back to the surface. Sebastian was kneeling down, cigarette between two fingers. “A little warning next time?”

I beamed at him and swam to the edge of the lake. Ash and Asha were just off the shore playing together.

“Next time I scream while I’m running through the mountains.”

“Oh yeah, really set off the small town murder vibe,” he took a drag off his cigarette. “You know that water is gross.”

“Yeah, I heard fish pee in here,” I scrunched up my face in disgust. Sebastian cocked an eyebrow at me, but let out a little chuckle. “But seriously, I was disgusting just a few minutes ago, my stench alone probably killed a few plants on the way over.”

This time he snorted and shook his head. The dogs stopped at the sound, observing us then going back to their play time.

“So you came all this way to swim?” Sebastian asked. He was still kneeling down, his face hovered right above mine. I could easily grab him by the front of his shirt, pull his face down to mine..

STOP IT.

I shook the thoughts from my head. “I was actually looking for some things.”

“Ooh, scavenger hunt.”

“Not an exciting one.”

“Can we go into the mines?” Sebastian asked.

“Maybe later,” I thought back to my list that was in my bag at home. There was a lot I could use from the mine, slime, solar essence, quartz, a copper, iron and gold bar. “Right now I just need a grape, spice berry and sweet pea.”

Sebastian furrowed together in confusion. “What?”

I raised my voice. “A GRAPE, A SPICE BERRY AND A SWEET PEA.”

“Damn woman I heard you, I’m just confused.” Sebastian rubbed his ears. I chuckled, letting go of the side and floated backwards.

“A girl has to eat.”

“Can you even eat sweet peas?”

I thought back to a show I had watched the other night, ‘Living off the Land’ sweet peas were edible, but had no benefits. I shrugged then swam back over to the side and pulled myself out of the water. My clothes clung to me and water puddled around my feet. “So, are we going on this adventure?” I asked Sebastian.

He didn’t answer. I felt his dark eyes drag over my curves, roam over my body, ending at my bare toes.

“Bash?” My voice was barely a whisper, suddenly gone under his gaze.

“Kit,” my name coming from his lips caused a zip to run up my spine. “Kit,” he echoed and his eyes snapped to mine. “Towel?”

“Oh uh,” I looked down at toes, wiggling them in the puddle. Ash came over and licked at my legs. I glanced up and noticed Sebastian swallow and suddenly become extremely interested in a near by plant. “I can just go home and change, I probably should before I catch a cold.”

“Yeah,” Sebastian let out a nervous laugh. “We have to go by Marnie and Leah’s any ways. Best place to look is in that field.”

I was surprised, I expected him to back out. We walked back towards Eos, in silence but a comfortable one. At one point our hands bumped together, Sebastian withdrew his and buried them into his pockets. My heart clenched. Rejection. My greatest fear.

#A New Sun #Stardew Valley #Stardew Valley Fanfic #Stardew Valley Sebastian #Sebastian Stardew Valley #sdv sebastian #Sebastian SDV #Stardew Valley OC #Sebastian Stardew Valley Fanfiction #Sebastian x Farmer #Sebastian x OC

[numgul123]

21 Of The Greatest Love Tales From Actual Individuals

Love is actual and these love tales reinforce the magic of affection.

We surveyed our associates and located the perfect love tales on the market. Get pleasure from all these magical tales of true

love

.

1. “I knew I used to be in love the primary time I noticed him cry in entrance of me. We had been in an extended distance relationship, I used to be dropping him off on the airport after our first week collectively. We had spent quick instances collectively on both aspect of the nation, however this was the primary time we had spent a major time period collectively. It was raining outdoors and I seen his eyes effectively up as I pulled up close to the airport. We embraced and it took all the things I needed to let go. I knew leaving me was so onerous for him as a result of he hadn’t cried in years; he’s not the sort to be susceptible. I needed to verify we by no means needed to say goodbye like that once more. It’s been Four years and there’s now not a 5 hour aircraft trip separating us, each time I have a look at him I really feel simply as cherished as I did in that second.” — Melissa, 27

2. “I watched her maintain her little brother whereas he cried as a result of he was too little to know that their mother was coming again. She’d by no means appeared extra stunning, I felt in that second that she was the perfect particular person I’d ever know.” — Chris, 24

3. “I went to Philly and noticed a mural avenue artwork tour the place you journey on a practice line and all of the murals appear to be they had been written by somebody attempting to inform a practice passenger that they love them, it’s referred to as A Love Letter For You. Each single one felt prefer it was about him, like listening to a music on a loop. ” — Sharanya, 2

4. “We had been strolling my roommates canine and the solar was taking place, it was fall. She checked out me simply because the brightest ray hit her eyes, that are usually a really customary brown, however in that cut up second they had been the brightest gold, and I simply needed to inform her I used to be in love.” — Joseph, 24

5. “He held my hair again whereas I vomited all night time after blacking out at his celebration and making a idiot of myself. The subsequent morning, he had breakfast and ibuprofen on deck. If that aint love, then I don’t know what love is.” — Erin, 25

6. “I knew I cherished her when she was puking in a bin after we acquired house from consuming, she stored yelling “don’t look!” and I swear I simply needed to kiss her.” — Andrew, 22

7. “I heard her snicker within the eating corridor. It was obnoxious. I may hear it from outdoors, up the steps, within the foyer. I needed to discover the woman with that snicker, I swear to God I knew that I felt like if I may make her snicker, I’d have all the things I wanted.” — Cody, 27

8. “He learn a brief story out loud at school. I heard his accent and I used to be hooked, after which his writing moved me to tears, and I used to be so embarrassed and much more hooked.” — Heather, 28

9. “We met on-line and I used to be so nervous going to our date. After I sat down, the very first thing she mentioned to me was, ‘Oh, thank god, you’re not a dude.’ (Apparently guys use lesbian courting apps to fulfill ladies?) And I simply laughed so onerous at that. It actually broke the ice. I don’t know, I believe, wanting again after 2 years collectively, I should have recognized I cherished her then.” — Kim, 27

10. “I noticed him dancing on the bar, like rubbing his ass on one in all my associates. We had been all out collectively and he was laying it on thick to get my associates to love him. He appeared so silly.” — Jamie, 21

11. “We’d solely been seeing one another for 2 weeks when she acquired into a very unhealthy automobile accident. She was within the hospital for a complete weekend, she wakened and barely remembered who I used to be, so I gave her an envelope stuffed with all our texts and the receipts for the primary date we now have printed out. It got here again to her and I noticed I may by no means lose her.” — Luke, 29

12. “I knew I cherished him once I requested him for a cigarette outdoors of a bar and he took out a pack of Marlboro reds, my model.” — Kate, 25

13. “I used to be courting his greatest pal and we had been fairly sad, and I used to be going via my pal’s texts to see if she had been texting her ex once I noticed texts from him, saying that he was in love with me and couldn’t assist it. I do know it’s tousled as a result of I used to be together with his pal, however in that second I knew I used to be silly, head over heels, off my ass in love with him too.” — Christina, 31

14. “My boyfriend and I had been collectively about Three months once I realized I cherished him. It hit me out of nowhere, really. I actually wasn’t positive if him and I had been going to get to that time. One night time, we had been driving again to his condominium and we acquired off the freeway and there was this younger lady crying frantically on the aspect of the street and so he advised me to drag over and he jumped out of the automobile and helped this lady, who had apparently misplaced her cat. He acquired again within the automobile after that and I checked out him like he was a totally totally different particular person. Yeah, that was 5 years in the past. Nonetheless in love.” — Rose, 32

15. “She adopted me into the toilet on the bar simply to make out with me. How may I not fall in love together with her?” — Owen, 24

16. “He met my mother and father and I hadn’t come out but. He was indignant with me for not having come out and I believed the assembly would go horribly fallacious, however when my mother and father requested him how he knew me, he instantly answered by saying ‘I’m his girlfriend’s greatest pal!’ They cherished him. I got here out the following day.” — Sam, 27

17. “He fell on his ass in entrance of me and large group of individuals, it was snowing. I went to assist him up and he pulled me down with him and mentioned ‘it’s not so unhealthy down right here with a reasonably woman.’ So tacky, so excellent.” — Sarah, 23

18. “I do know that is the cheesiest factor ever and I by no means thought this type of stuff occurs till it occurred to me. I knew i cherished her the second I noticed her. It was immediate. I used to be utterly mesmerized by her. Then, she laughed at one thing her pal mentioned, and I used to be like, that is it for me. I must know this lady instantly. Fortunately, she fell in love with me, too.” — Kwesi, 29

19. “Wakened from a dream the place she didn’t exist, that was the entire dream. We’d solely been courting for a couple of weeks, however I had this dream the place I couldn’t discover her and I wakened sweating. I felt like I knew what love felt like, the sensation that you just couldn’t probably lose that particular person.” — Brendan, 23

20. “Once we kissed for the primary time and he or she was AWFUL however I needed to maintain kissing her anyway, I knew it was love.” — Kyle, 20

21. “I’ve been in love earlier than however I’m undecided if there was ever a particular second the place I simply ‘knew.’ I believe love kind of occurs slowly, then all of sudden. It’s just like the particular person is there, they’ve at all times been there, however you begin noticing little particulars about them – the way in which they snicker once they assume one thing is de facto humorous, how they give the impression of being within the morning once they’re drained and quiet, the small noises they make once they’re getting snug – all of this stuff they’ve been doing for years they don’t even understand they do anymore however are utterly distinctive to them and new to you. Every second of discovery will increase simply how endearing you discover them till it builds up and builds up after which you don't have any selection however to blurt out “I LOVE YOU!” when doing one thing completely mundane collectively like searching for glassware at Goal or standing in line at a live performance.” — Jeanne, 25

Be happy to share your real love tales within the feedback!

Bonus: 6 Heartwarming Love Tales About Misplaced Loves Lastly Reuniting

1. like being struck by lightning: “Reuniting with my misplaced love was like being struck by lightning. He and I had been in a severe relationship again in highschool 30 years in the past. My mom didn't approve of our relationship and sadly despatched me out of the realm to maintain me away from him….Then this previous October I obtained an e mail….We emailed forwards and backwards for a couple of weeks after which I spoke with him on the telephone and that’s when the dam broke! All of the feelings got here pouring down on me simply listening to his voice. In a really quick time it grew to become clear that we had very robust emotions for each other….Proper now we're going to be seeing one another month-to-month, and I might be promoting my property on the finish of the college 12 months to maneuver as much as his space. I really like him with all my coronary heart and soul and don’t care what faults he has. I might do something for him. It’s onerous for those who haven’t skilled this to know it. By no means in my wildest desires may I've imagined this to occur. It's a curler coaster of very intense emotions that don’t at all times make sense to me! And it’s so onerous to be other than him now! When my mom broke us up, she returned his class ring that he had given me to his mom. For Christmas, he discovered the category ring, and wrapped it up for me, I used to be very touched. I put on it round my neck on a gold chain now to remind me of him. I look to our future with a lot hope and optimism.”

2. I'm so pleased: “In 1998 I met the love of my life in Sudan. A beautiful Sudanese musician who introduced out the perfect in me day by day. His presence in my life was just like the solar shining in. When he carried out, he sang for me solely. I used to be working in Sudan on the time, we had been going to get married and have stunning youngsters and reside fortunately ever after. There was a battle happening, I used to be working with war-affected youngsters and the federal government kicked me out. I used to be devastated and cried for six months. Heartbroken for years. We didn't handle to fulfill up once more and we each married unhappily. Final week, after 14 years, we had been reunited for two days and the love is as robust as ever. I really feel so blessed. Too previous to have these youngsters now, however that is going to be the perfect 12 months ever as we're free to journey and see one another. My dream of gracefully rising previous with him is coming true in spite of everything….I'm so pleased.”

3. The emotions and feelings got here flooding again with a vengeance: “Met my misplaced love virtually 30 years in the past in highschool….In a nutshell we shared chemistry and a sexual rigidity that was palpable to these round us. We often kissed (typically passionately), however by no means crossed the road from associates to lovers. After three years of being associates, hanging out and serving to one another (right here and there) our friendship blossomed into one thing extra. We lastly shared a kiss that was simple. Sadly, parental disapproval was the trigger for me leaving my love. We drifted aside and our contact to one another grew to become much less and fewer. Nonetheless, I by no means forgot her though after 20 years I ‘thought’ the previous was the previous. We just lately reconnected and determined to fulfill one afternoon and get caught up on the intervening years, nothing extra. What occurred subsequent was so surprising. The emotions and feelings got here flooding again with a vengeance. It was as if our relationship had been positioned on maintain. We rekindled our relationship inside of 1 week. Our second-chance relationship has been essentially the most emotionally charged relationship of my life. The fears, feelings, grief, regrets, all the things—all the things got here again like a flood. Over the following few months we talked about all the things possible. We married in simply over 6 months. My soulmate, my love, and now—my spouse….Our rekindled relationship has been essentially the most unbelievable journey, that began virtually three a long time in the past and lasted via all these lonely years.”

4. I needed to combat again tears: “As a young person, I had the type of love that everybody desires of discovering. My most cherished reminiscence is an unbelievable feeling of oneness once we would maintain one another and shed tears of pleasure whereas being overwhelmed by love. At such instances, there was no want for phrases as a result of we simply knew. She had extra of an affect on my life than anybody else that I've recognized….After drawing me away from unhealthy influences once we acquired collectively, she began hanging out with the fallacious crowd 4 years later. Being younger, formidable, and silly, I broke up together with her so as to save myself from being drawn again within the fallacious path. I at all times had second ideas about that call and by no means stopped loving her. I used to be haunted by the reminiscence of her final phrases once we broke up, which had been ‘I really like you.’…I lastly determined that I needed to contact her about 30 years after we broke up, 25 years since I final noticed her, and 20 years since her final letter….I used to be thrilled that she was pleased to listen to from me and that she had been looking for me….Throughout the lengthy drive to our hometown, I needed to combat again tears each time I believed what it might be prefer to look into her eyes for the primary time in a long time…I instantly felt snug together with her, and we picked up proper the place left off a few years in the past. She stored her hair lengthy, and it felt so good to run a brush via it once more. Behaving like youngsters, we spent the primary night going parking and listening to our favourite songs….We by no means acquired to spend the night time collectively as youngsters. When it lastly occurred, I lay there beside her awake all night time pondering how fortunate I used to be to have her again.”

5. even a continent couldn’t separate us: “Three-year-old Anne moved together with her household to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, simply 4 homes down from my household; I used to be 5, and we two grew to become instant associates. I used to be Anne’s protector and hero….I hadn’t spoken to Anne in additional than 30 years, however I knew her sister lived in Denver so I gave her a name once I arrived. She advised me that Anne additionally lived on the town, and he or she advised that all of us get collectively. As quickly as Anne and I noticed one another, our hearts had been singing. All the pleasure and pleasure they we had skilled collectively as youngsters reworked itself right into a mature kind; we had been in love. We noticed one another as soon as extra earlier than I returned to Pennsylvania and Anne left for Europe to spend the Christmas vacation season together with her youngsters. However now even a continent couldn’t separate us. At the moment we live our lives collectively, once more with pleasure, enthusiasm, and pleasure!…And naturally now we now have our youngsters, too. What a miracle!”

6. Now we’ve misplaced all of our teenage inhibitions: “Eric and I met in 1950 and from the second we started courting I knew we had been made for one another. We had a lot enjoyable—Eric was at all times making me snicker…I by no means forgot about Eric. Each time I heard our music, ‘Jealous Coronary heart’, by Connie Francis, I recalled the primary time Eric kissed me….[Then one day] I used to be serving on the bar when a voice I’d not heard for practically 40 years requested me if there was any likelihood of a pint. I appeared up and there was Eric, the hair was greyer and the face a bit of extra wrinkled however aside from that he was simply as good-looking as ever….Our relationship is simply as passionate and bodily as earlier than, though now we’ve misplaced all of our teenage inhibitions.”

#selfimprovement selfimprovements SelfImprovementEveryday SelfImprovementsDaily selfimprovementcoach selfimprovementismydrug selfimprovementp

[onwardintolight]

Han x Leia, ESB, Trip to Bespin, angst, hurt/comfort, fluff

Summary: ESB from Leia's POV. A journey from despair to hope, a blossoming, an opening to vulnerability and love.

Warnings: Deals with some heavy themes, incl. working through trauma, depression, self-harm, attempted sexual assault. Each chapter will be individually warned.

Note: I’m currently in the process of reposting the first nine chapters here in full, since when I first wrote this fic, I only shared links to the chapters on AO3 and FFN. I will try to post at least weekly. In the meantime, if you’d prefer to binge-read it, the entire fic is posted in full on AO3 and FFN.

Part: Masterlist | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | Epilogue

~~~

Author’s note from 1/2020: 

Wow. Where to begin? I can hardly believe that after almost three and a half years, The Opening is finally coming to end. A HUGE thank you to all of you who have supported me, whether in those early days of writing or recently as I've been posting. Your encouragement and responses have kept me going when I felt like giving up and have given me more joy than I can possibly express.

This fic has meant so very much to me, more than words can say. It is Leia's story, but it is also my story. I've poured out my entire heart and soul into it, and in turn it's helped me heal. I hope that even a tiny bit of that encouragement spills over to you, even if it's just the knowledge that it's okay to not be okay. Struggling doesn't make you weak—just the opposite. Healing is a long journey, but it is possible. Hope always wins.

If you finish this and would like more, my one-shot Found is a companion piece of sorts—a happy, final epilogue after what's lost has been found again.

You can also check out the soundtrack I made to go with this fic here!

Again, thank you so much for going on this journey with me. May we all open ourselves more and more.

~~~

Epilogue

She talked to Luke before they reached the Alliance; she waited until he was awake again and starting to ask questions. The look of shock, horror, and grief on his face when she told him about Han nearly made her weep all over again. Soon, though, he was all determination, somehow her sun once more despite the pain that still haunted the hollows of his face. “We’ll get him back, Leia,” he said, grasping her hand in his remaining one. His eyes flickered to the side, staring unseeing at a spot on the wall. “We’ve got to trust the Force,” he murmured.

The Force. She closed her eyes, prepared to swallow down a wave of bitterness that never came. Instead, she was left with a vague sense of emptiness, sadness, and confusion. Perhaps it was their nothing-short-of-miraculous escape from Bespin that had softened her resentment. The Force had certainly seemed to… intervene, somehow, what with that vision she’d had of Luke. She let out a breath.

Was he right? Could the Force be trusted? Was the Force truly, as her parents had told her—as she herself had once believed—at work in the galaxy, ensuring hope and light would never be fully lost? Luke seemed determined to think so, despite whatever he had suffered; despite whatever heaviness he wore on his heart that made her fear he might crumple.

Relating what had happened to Alliance Intelligence and the few present members of High Command after their arrival on the Remembrance was just as difficult as her conversation with Luke and far less rewarding. She was quizzed about every aspect of their escape from Hoth and their subsequent ordeal on Bespin. She found she couldn’t look anyone in the eyes as she told them about the particular torture methods the Empire had used this time, both sanctioned and unsanctioned. And it took every ounce of her resolve to keep from breaking down as she relayed what had happened to Han.

For a moment, her eyes darted across the table to Rieekan. He was looking at her with such sorrow, understanding, and compassion that she somehow wanted to both shrink away from him and fall crying into his arms like she’d once done with her parents as a little girl. He caught up with her in the hallway afterwards as she walked back to the Falcon to grab her things. “Leia,” he said, “If you need anything—if there’s anything I can do—”

“Thank you, Carlist,” she replied, echoing his informality.

He paused. “I know Intelligence wasn’t too happy about Chewbacca and Calrissian’s plans to leave for Tatooine, but I want you to know I’m behind them all the way.” He lowered his voice. “Han Solo was a good man,” he said, his eyes piercing Leia with a meaningful stare. “Don’t give up hope. We’ll do what we can.”

Nodding, she swallowed down the lump in her throat. She doubted the Alliance would ever be able to spare the resources to mount a rescue operation for one person, but she appreciated Rieekan’s support anyway.

“For so long I thought… I thought…” He stopped, shaking his head, and smiled at her wistfully. “I’m just glad you’re back.”

She smiled back at him. It felt foreign—had she smiled at all since Bespin?—but somehow her heart felt a little warmer.

After she had located her packing crates from Hoth and moved into her new quarters, she headed for the conference room she had reserved for her meeting with Luke, Chewie, and Lando. Their plan didn’t take long to formulate—by necessity, it wasn’t much of one; not yet. Chewie and Lando would scout ahead on Tatooine, locate Han, and figure out what they were up against. When the time was right, Luke and Leia would join them for the extraction. If High Command will let me, Leia thought cynically. If I let me. She was already feeling the pull of her duty to the Alliance and, along with it, the familiar impulse to sacrifice all personal desires.

She frowned, remembering where that impulse had gotten her in the past. She’d had no hope, then—for the Alliance, yes, but not for herself. It had not gotten her far. While she would still gladly lay down her life for the Rebellion, she could no longer neglect the things that made life worth living in the first place.

Somehow, she’d have to fight for both. She’d just have to figure out how.

~~~

The next day, after giving Chewie a goodbye hug—«Take good care of yourself, Little Princess,» he had said—she headed to Luke’s room in the medbay.

It was still too soon, she knew, for them to talk much about what had happened. Aside from the knowledge that he had fought Vader on Cloud City, she still didn’t know the details about what haunted him, and she didn’t ask. Likewise, she didn’t yet feel able to tell him about what had blossomed between her and Han on the trip to Bespin. Somehow, though, she felt that he already knew, and that comforted her.

Mostly, they were silent, taking solace in each other’s nearness. Now, in their suffering, they seemed to understand each other more than they ever had before.

The medical droid returned to activate the brand new prosthetic hand Luke had received the night before. Leia watched, mildly intrigued, as it ran a series of tests to ensure the hand had been calibrated correctly.

Artoo and Threepio, now whole, gleaming, and happily reunited, had come to visit, too. They stood uncharacteristically silent in front of the large window, looking out on the newborn solar system nearby. The protostar at the center burst with brilliant light, illuminating the vast clouds of dust and matter that ringed it. It was a spectacular sight.

Once again, Leia wondered at the depth of the droids’ sentience. Emotion and appreciation for beauty were not things one normally expected in a droid… but then again, homesickness and a longing for companionship weren’t, either, and she had learned that lesson well to the contrary.

“Luke,” Lando’s voice broke through the comm, “we’re ready for takeoff.”

“Good luck, Lando,” he replied.

“When we find Jabba the Hutt and that bounty hunter, we’ll contact you.”

“I’ll meet you at the rendezvous point on Tatooine.”

“Princess,” Lando said, his voice growing somber, “we’ll find Han. I promise.”

Another rush of emotion filled her at Han’s name. There’d been so many of those lately, threatening her with sudden tears, and she hated it. Better this than being numb and hopeless, she thought. Better this than never having loved him.

“Chewie, I’ll be waiting for your signal,” Luke was saying. “Take care you two. May the Force be with you.”

«Until our branches entwine again, cubs,» said Chewie. «I won’t be around to rip the arms off your enemies for awhile, so don’t get into too much trouble!”

Leia almost laughed, and Luke grinned back at her.

She missed Han’s laugh.

Her smile fading, she walked over to the window. He was out there, somewhere. The distance between them seemed impossibly far, the search impossibly long. There was a chance he was already gone forever. There was an aching hole in her heart that she wasn’t sure could ever be healed.

Luke came up beside her, and she glanced at him.

He knew. He understood.

He wrapped his arm around her, his new hand gently squeezing her shoulder. She leaned into him, taking a deep breath.

Whatever happened, she would be brave. She would love. She would live.

She would open herself up to a galaxy of hope.

And someday, she told herself, it would all be worth it.

It was worth it already.

The Millennium Falcon rose in front of them, soaring away into the stars.

#Leia Organa #Han x Leia #HanLeia #Han x Leia fic #HanLeia fic #Leia fic #Star Wars fic #Star Wars fanfic #SW fic #SW fanfic #Luke Skywalker #Han Solo #Chewbacca #Lando Calrissian #IT'S DONE #this is so surreal #I don't know what to do with myself now #I suppose I could write more fic #that sounds good #my fanfic #my fic #my writing #The Opening #thoughts

[artemisegeria]

The Picture of the Mind Revives Again (Chapter 4/?)

Title: The Picture of the Mind Revives Again (4/?)

Rating: T

Word count: 1832

Warnings: None

Summary: Sequel to “A Formula, A Phrase Remains.” Title is from “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” by William Wordsworth.

Vision has gone missing after Shuri, Bruce, and Helen revived him. Now they must tell Wanda what they did without her knowledge.

Chapter Summary: Wanda spends some more time with the assembled Avengers and allies and receives an intriguing new offer.

A/N: After I posted the last chapter, I was reviewing what I already have written for this story going forward. It made me excited to get to those parts, so here’s another chapter. I hope you enjoy.

“Pay attention, Maximoff.”

“Be careful what you wish for, Wilson.”

Wanda reset her stance while she squared off against Sam. True hand to hand combat, no weapons of any kind. The other Avengers formed a ring around them, hurling cheers and playful insults. She and Sam were the last two standing in this round of sparring during the quarterly full meeting. They did have an advantage because they trained more frequently than some of the others, but Wanda still crowed at getting to the finals.

But that sense of victory was a danger. She had accidentally let herself think that she wished Vision could be here to see this. Such thoughts always sent her down a dangerous path of distraction. They had barely been in contact for the last few weeks. The only messages she had sent him were Shuri’s technical blueprints for the solar jewel and the other enhancements that they had given him and a note that he now had access to his bank account again. There were countless other things she wanted to tell him, but she was trying to honor his request for space.

Sam’s second reminder was less gentle. A sharp blow landed against her side. Wanda felt her eyes flash scarlet briefly. She reset her stance, hands raised in a defensive position as they circled each other.

When she saw an opening, she aimed a kick at Sam’s own side. He dodged out of the way, but left himself unbalanced. He opened his arms to try to remain upright. Wanda pressed her advantage, aiming a blow at his now unprotected stomach. Sam avoided that one as well, but it was enough to tip him over.

He returned to his feet before Wanda could pounce. But she knew she almost had him. He threw a desperate bunch that she blocked easily. They went a few more rounds before Wanda saw a chance to use one of her favorite moves. She used Sam’s greater mass against him as she swept a kick against the back of his legs, causing him to topple over. Wanda held him down for the count. He finally tapped out, and everyone cheered or groaned, depending on whether they had won or lost the bets going around.

“You’ve definitely been practicing in secret, Red.” It was the truth, but she wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of admitting that. She merely shrugged and gave him a hand up.

All the combatants hit the showers before reconvening for dinner. Tonight they broke up into many small tables. She was sitting with Bucky, Valkyrie, and Mantis. They had all found a certain kinship during the year and a half since the final battle against Thanos. But tonight they set aside their shared histories to laugh and joke. There was still pain behind their smiles, but it was to take a break from all their grief with people who understood.

As usual the evening ended with music and dancing, instigated by Quill, Carol, and Thor. Wanda found herself enjoying the night more than she expected, the great weight of Vision’s death lifted from her shoulder. She hoped that, wherever he was, he was having as much fun as she was.

***

Wanda practiced her meditation in one of the training rooms, levitating in cross-legged position, surrounded by candles to set the mood. She was so lost in her breathing that she did not realize anyone else had come in until she opened her eyes, face to face with Stephen.

“Hello, Wanda, sorry to intrude, but business has called me away. Before I left, there was something that I intended to discuss with you. May we talk?”

“Sure, Stephen.” She drew herself to a standing position and put out the candles, using her powers to flip the light switch. Stephen watched her intensely; it made her want to fidget. He summoned some chairs. Wanda had to admit, if only to herself, that she was envious of the effortless way he conjured things. “What did you want to talk about?”

“I had wondered if you’ve given anymore thought to my offer to teach you the mystic arts. I thought that perhaps with your recent good news, you might be willing to consider it.”

“I don’t know. Avenging is a full-time job.”

“I realize that, but the two are not mutually exclusive. You could be a powerful ally against cosmic and mystical threats. I believe we could work well together.”

Wanda bit her lip. “I’ll think about it.”

“Very well. I will be out of reach for a few days, but you can leave a message with the Sanctum if you decide to accept.”

“Fine. Good luck.” With a final decisive nod, Stephen activated a sling ring and was gone.

Wanda remained alone in the room, thinking about what she would do next.

***

Wanda stood at the front of the training room counting out reps as Peter, Shuri, Cassie, and Amadeus did push-ups. All of the adult Avengers insisted that the teens keep up their conditioning regimen. Wanda was impressed by their tenacity. Her counting faltered a bit when her eye fell on Shuri. Things were still a bit awkward between them since Wanda learned of her deception. She was grateful for all the work she did to bring Vision back, but she should have been honest.

Wanda shook her head to bring herself back to the present. Moving on to the next exercise, she ordered them to partner up. As the sweat poured off of them, she grinned to herself, taking a sip from her water bottle. There were advantages to being in charge.

At the end of the workout, Wanda congratulated them on a job well done and gave them the rest of the day off. She was surprised when Shuri approached. “Wanda, can we talk later?”

“Of course, Shuri. I’ll be in the library. You can join me when you’re ready.”

Sometime later, Wanda sat with a book open in her lap, but not really seeing the page. Shuri knocked and entered. Wanda patted the chair beside her. “What did you want to talk about, Shuri?”

“I wondered if you had heard from Vision.”

“No, I sent him your plans for the stone, but he has not contacted me since.”

“I hope he knows he can contact me as well if he has any problems.”

“I passed your message along to him as well. I just have to believe that no news is good news.”

Shuri nodded. She made as if to rise, and Wanda prepared to say goodbye, but then the girl faced her more directly. “And I wished to apologize again. I was wrong to keep our efforts from you for so long.”

Wanda willed herself not to cry. It had occurred to her many times that maybe she could have revived Vision sooner if she had helped Shuri, Bruce, and Helen, that maybe he would have stayed if she had been there when he woke up. “Thank you, Shuri.”

“I told myself that I was sparing your feelings in case we failed, but I think the true reason is that I feared having the extra pressure. I am sorry.”

Wanda was so used to Shuri being in control and confident in her intellect that she didn’t know what to do with her obvious guilt. So she leaned over and embraced her. “I fully accept your apology, Shuri. I’m sure Vision is fine. He knows how to get in touch with us if he needs anything. He’ll come back when he’s ready.”

When they separated, Wanda was glad to see Shuri calmer and smiling again. She guessed that she had made the right move. “Thank you for letting me get that off my chest.”

“Of course.”

“See you later tonight. Peter, Ned, and I are building the new Death Star set if you want to join.”

“Thank you, but I think I’ll pass.”

Shuri left with a cheery wave that Wanda returned. No sooner did Shuri leave than Cassie walked in. “I thought I would find you here.” Wanda merely smiled and gestured to the spot that Shuri had just vacated.

“Have you changed your mind about arguing for me to join?”

“No, and I won’t. You’re seventeen now. In less than a year you’ll be eighteen and technically an adult. I bet Sam and Carol will reconsider your case then.”

“Alright. Do you have any new missions to tell me about in compensation?” Wanda ignored the lure.

“Things have been quiet lately.” It worried her sometimes. She did not know why the Avengers had not been called to avert any crises for a few months. Cassie pouted in disappointment. Wanda smiled. “But if you promise not to tell, I’ll let you in on the prank Carol and I are planning on the boys…”

***

Hope, Jane, Darcy, Valkyrie, Pepper, Okoye, Ayo, and Wanda were all taking advantage of an unusually warm fall day by eating outside. It meant they were subject to more curious stares and eager paparazzi, but they decided the trade-off was worth it. Wanda let their talk wash over her. She had never had any girlfriends growing up. It was only her and Pietro. And she was still getting to know these women.

Pepper told a story about a negotiation that was going south until Morgan, who clearly took after both her parents, came in and charmed Pepper’s competitors into accepting her deal. Wanda could see that Mother and Daughter were going to be a formidable duo.

After some food and conversation had relaxed everyone more, Wanda talked with Darcy and Jane about their work in the lab. She didn’t understand a quarter of what Jane said, but her passion for her research was infectious. During one burst of explanation, Darcy shook her head and quietly commiserated with Wanda about supporting Jane despite having no comprehension of what she was saying.

Okoye and Valkyrie compared the problems of their respective governments.

Finally, talk turned more generally to the still-recovering world at large. They discussed the renewed United Nations’ initiatives to restore peace, order, and wellbeing to countries around the world.

***

At the beginning of October, on a blustery morning, Wanda showed up at the New York Sanctum. Her routine with the Avengers was getting stale, and she was ready to take on a new challenge. Stephen answered before she could even ring the bell. “Hello, Wanda. Come in.”

“Did you predict I would come today?”

“Nothing so arcane. We have numerous wards placed around the building to warn us of approaching visitors.” He moved aside and ushered her in. Wanda’s eye was instantly drawn to the artifacts scattered around. “What can I do for you?”

“I want to take you up on your offer.”

“I’m glad.”

“Can we start now?”

“I don’t see why not. My schedule is clear today. Come with me.” Wanda followed him deeper into the Sanctum, ready to start out on this new adventure.

#fanfiction #scarlet vision #wanda maximoff

[slothcritic]

Dragon Ball Z Abridged - Episode 10 Review

A satisfying conclusion with plenty of jabs, jibs and a ghost whatnow?

While The Punchline has been split up into three parts, I will be reviewing and judging all three parts as a single episode within a single review. I will be giving out scores for each part just for posterity however, but only the overall score will be considered this episode’s actual rating.

In the cold open, Vegeta is absolutely thrilled over snapping Nappa out of existence, and Goku asks Krillin and Gohan to retreat while he deals with Vegeta. Krillin is already gone, screaming and crying. Gohan and Goku have a brief conversation about putting dinner on, because he's hungry. There might be some reference I'm not getting here, or if it's really just a face-value scene, but I think it would've been funnier if the title sequence had begun just after Krillin is shown running (flying) away to safety.

[Title Sequence, Part 1]

Goku and Vegeta opt to find a new battlefield, as the one where Nappa decimated the Z Fighters is a little "corpsey." King Kai starts taking bets on which of them is going to win, and even the Narrator tries to get in on that, despite already knowing the outcome.

The delivery on Vegeta's lines early on is not promising. I'm not sure if it's poor audio quality caused by a crappy microphone or if Lanipator was struggling with some kind of throat infection while recording these lines, but it's noticeable as there's a long extended conversation with a voice that sounds like sandpaper to the ears. I actually went back to check on the previous episodes to see if I was taking crazy pills, and no, Vegeta sounded just fine before. I have no idea what the reason or cause of this change might be, whether it was a deliberately different delivery or if they were rushing to put this episode out, but Vegeta sounds consistently more raspy in this episode than the gravelly deadpan to which I've become accustomed. For all I know, yelling as Vegeta might just by taxing on his vocal chords.

Putting the voice issue aside, Goku's oblivious lack of understanding for the word "elite" and the back and forth between the two of them works on the whole as a great scene.

"I'm going to start beating you now. I don't know when I'll stop."

I can't remember whether or not that's a reference, but I love the delivery on it. Vegeta has just finished dealing with Nappa and now has absolutely zero patience for someone just as braindead.

Sure enough, after being taunted about a cave full of gumdrops and ice cream, Vegeta drops the "That's it! EVERYONE DIES!" which might be one of my favorite things said in this episode, but it’s followed closely by:

"Say goodbye to your planet, Kakarot." "Well that's not very nice." "OF COURSE NOT! I'M FUCKING EVIL!"

The dynamic here works astoundingly well. It's very different from Vegeta and Nappa's duo, but works on similar foundations. With Vegeta and Nappa, Nappa was the ridiculous one and Vegeta served as his anchor. With Vegeta and Goku, the roles are flipped and Vegeta is now the ridiculous one, screaming his head off in frustration and writhing around in the death throes of his pride, while Goku's complete obliviousness and innocence keeping him grounded as the anchor. Nappa was purposefully annoying because he was a bratty, childish mook, while Goku is just annoying by happenstance and being very, very hard to put down. It doesn't help that Vegeta actually wants to kill Goku, and unlike Nappa, he's having less than success with this one.

The overall production of the climatic beam struggle is surprisingly well executed, and is perhaps the best moment in this entire episode from a technical perspective. Goku speaking as he charges up the Kamehameha doesn't sound cheesy, canned or forced, and neither does Vegeta's delivery. The sound effects and music are also on point here. This is an important moment in the series and I'm glad they got it just right. I have no objections with anything here.

If anything, at about five and a half minutes in, the viewer has had enough time to adjust to Vegeta's new raspier voice and it no longer seems out of place. If he had been speaking "normally" up until this point, I probably would have criticized the delivery on these lines, but it almost feels like it fits on the whole now that this has been established as the "new normal" for the last five minutes. The main point I'm attempting and probably failing at making is that my original complaint was that the new voice took me out of the episode, but in this moment with the beam struggle, Vegeta's voice flows naturally and I honestly wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't just (as of now) dedicated two whole paragraphs of this review to JUST talking about how Vegeta sounds slightly different now.

Alright, now it's time to back up a tad, which isn't something I like to do a lot. Twice in this episode, Goku has used the Kaio-Ken and then the Kaio-Ken times three. The first time he used it, he seemed to at least match Vegeta. The second time he used it, he jobbed Vegeta straight into a rocky wall. But it's only good for a few seconds, so it has no sustain. It's essentially one really strong punch or a really quick beat down, but leaves Goku winded and struggling at the end of it.

The reason I didn't bring these up as they happened was because frankly the scenes didn't do enough for me to write about it. I write about what I feel is significant to my review to give context or explanation to my thought process, not to give a play by play. Simply put, they were funny, but nothing notable happened because of it. It was a quick skit, okay, move on. But it's now important to draw attention to those two moments, because while they did very little for me the first two times... Well, during this beam struggle, just as Vegeta feels like he’s gaining the upper hand, the dramatic music quiets to nothing but the sounds of the beams clashing, and all we hear is...

"Kaio-Ken..." Vegeta look on in horror.  "...No..." "Times..." "No no no..." "FOUR!"

Vegeta is sent skyward with a loud FFFFUUUUUU- and then twinkles like Team Rocket just blasted off again. Goku is the victor... of this fight at least.

Then there's an odd cutaway back to Roshi's island that's slow to start, but eventually got me to smile. It's all the characters from Dragon Ball reminiscing of times where they used to be relevant to the story. Guest appearance by Baba who almost doesn't appear in Z at all!

It initially felt like a bit of tone whiplash but it warmed up to me. And "Whatever happened to Launch?" actually got a laugh out of me. Seems like Toriyama isn't the only person who forgot about her.

I'm not sure what the point of this scene was, but I agree with the decision that after that climax, a break or calming down period in the tension it had built up was definitely necessary, even if the transition felt a little jarring at first.

"Meanwhile, back at the plot", which is an amazing segue, Vegeta gets off Mr Goku's Wild Ride and the beam continues on without him into the pink sky.

I don't think -UUUUUUCK! counts as an F-Bomb so it doesn't get censored. Booyah!

Vegeta then undergoes a post ass-kicking identity crisis. After devising a plan to turn into the mighty Ozaru, he then undergoes a where's-the-damned-moon crisis.

Good thing Blutz Waves are a thing. He yeets the artificial moon into the sky and boom, King Kong. The other King K attempts to coach Goku through dealing with this beast (that is canonically stronger than Captain Ginyu at this point) and advises Goku to find a safe, secluded location to charge up the Spirit Bomb.

Goku however decides to do it right out in the open. Just as Ape Vegeta's massive fist obliterates Goku, King Kai's crystal ball turns to static and gets the operator disconnected message. I think a dial tone would've been slightly funnier, but this has the same energy so I'll take it with no complaints. An excellent way to end the first part of this episode!

[Part 2]

This part begins with Goku hitting a rock so hard he thinks he's in Dragonball Evolution for a moment. After blinding Vegeta with a solar flare, which I'm still not entirely sure how that works or why people don't use it more often to get cheap surprise shots on blinded targets, Goku finds a quiet spot that he can use to charge the Spirit Bomb. He ends up borrowing so much energy from the planet that he may or may not have drained all the life from an old father deer. Dark, but morbidly hilarious.

Goku tries to fling the Spirit Bomb at Vegeta, but surprise: He's got a mouth laser! Knocks the Spirit Bomb right out of him and sends him tumbling against a rock.

"Hey Kakarot, what's the opposite of Christopher Walken?" "Huh?" "Christopher Reeves!"

CRUNCH! The giant monkey stomps down right on Goku's legs, crushing and immobilizing him.

This is such a bad, good joke. I still think about this one from time to time. And honestly, considering how I started binge-watching these in high school (where I more or less developed into an entirely different person), this joke here might very well be the genesis of my love for black humor. I'm fully willing to admit I'm biased on this, but I think this is one of the funniest dark jokes in DBZA, full stop. If not the whole series, then at least within Season 1. Don't care, evil.

Just as he's about to be crushed for good, Goku shoots a quick energy blast into Vegeta's eye, causing him to stagger backwards. This is where Goku makes his cunning escape, dodging, weaving and doing aerial acrobatics around the massive monkey man, accompanied by victorious fanfare. Or not. Goku's legs are still broken. But it's nice to just imagine how cool that would’ve looked, y’know?

Vegeta then decides he's just going to squeeze the life out of Goku, and his screams can be heard well into the distance, all the way to Krillin and Gohan.

The giant monkey keeps squeezing Goku until he squeaks like a rubber ducky, or a chew toy. He does it again, and another squeak.

"Oh my god, that's hilarious."

In the middle of squeaking Goku relentlessly, Gohan decides to make a stand, having blown back to fight Ape Vegeta. He gives a verbose speech that culminates in "The bigger they are, the harder they fall." and then strikes a fighting pose like his five year old ass is going to do anything against a fifty foot behemoth. Battle gong and everything playing in the background.

Vegeta just stares at Gohan, and then after a pause, squeaks Goku again. This has delightfully petty energy to it, especially coming from Vegeta.

While Gohan has caught Vegeta monologuing, Krillin attempts a sneak attack on Vegeta, but he effortlessly humiliates him and thwarts his efforts by simply hopping over the Kienzan that was coming from behind.

However, he couldn't anticipate two sneak attacks. That or Yajirobe was simply that unlikely of a hero, but here he comes sword and all to save literally everyone's lives as he slices Vegeta's tail clean off his rump.

With no more tail, Vegeta regresses to his original Saiyan form. He's no less dangerous, however, and just as Krillin tries to bring the hype, he gets immediately pinballed into the nearest rocky structure and the owned count strikes 9.

The writing on Vegeta's speech following this is actually quite good. "I thought I'd be angrier" is not a take I expected from someone who's had such major meltdowns and cataclysmic conniptions thus far. It does a good job of illustrating how far down the rabbit hole we've gone, to the point where he has become so angry that he's encountered a stack overflow.

Goku and Gohan have a touching moment, both broken, beaten and bloody, but as they share a heart to heart, and their hands extend towards one another's like a Michelangelo painting, Vegeta comes in like a good fiend and gives Goku a killer knee-shot to the ribs. You have to wait for the right moment!

They immediately cut away to an intermission, which they never do in any other episode, but honestly it fits here. The alternative would be to end the episode here and we've still got another three minutes and some change to go. It's an arbitrary production joke but it's necessary and well done for the scene as a whole so it gets a pass and then some from me.

When we resume, Vegeta and Gohan duke it out, which provides a convenient distraction for Goku to hand off part of the Spirit Bomb to Krillin. It turns out he'd been saving some of the earth juices from when he got the snot knocked out of him earlier, but only a little bit of it. Krillin is confused as to why Goku would trust him of all people with it, and Goku concedes that his back is kind of against the wall on this one.

With a yipee-kay-yay and a booyah motherfucker, Krillin lobs the Spirit Bomb Lite at Vegeta, who simply jumps Krillin’s attack for the second time. Maybe aim a little higher next time, or better yet don’t loudly announce your attacks. Not that anyone in this series would understand that concept anyways.

Now the Spirit Bomb is heading straight for Gohan. But it's okay because Gohan is a main character, so he just Uno Reverse Card’s the Spirit Bomb off his hands and it sproings upwards towards Vegeta once more.

Side note, I don't think it's ever explained, either in the abridged or the original series, how Goku is able to communicate telepathically with Gohan. Yes, Master Roshi says in Dragon Ball that "any highly skilled martial artist can read minds" but does that just mean reading minds or actually communicating between them? And if that's the case, why doesn't Goku use this more often? I could probably find at least one plot point that could've been avoided by this, but the answer is probably extremely simple. Goku is a moron. It's very easy to explain away forgetfulness or inconsistent writing when you can just default to saying that your main character is an idiot who forgot he could do those techniques that you forgot existed as a writer. Don't think about it too much I guess.

"What smells like deer?"

I’ve actually missed this joke every single time I've watched this episode so far, except for just now, when I watched it to write this review. The old father deer from before! That is such a cool and unexpected callback.

Anyways, Vegeta gets punked by the Diet Spirit Bomb and goes sailing into the sky. The Z Fighters - which is now just Goku, Gohan and Krillin - are ecstatic in celebration.

"It's been tough, but now, we'll never have to see that rotten Saiyan ever again."

Cue Vegeta's lifeless body ragdolling to the ground with a meaty thwap. Krillin tempts fate by approaching the body, and that goes as expected. Vegeta opens one eye and screams. Then the others all start screaming.

Very weird production mis-step or weird decision with the source footage here. Vegeta's face at least moves, but because all the others have panning shots, they freeze in weird, awkward positions. The action lines don't move, some characters aren't fully in frame, and it's very obviously a still image instead of  something like a loop. Maybe this is just what they had to work with. Still, very immersion breaking. Though honestly, I'm almost glad that if something like this had to happen in this part, it was at least in the last ten seconds.

Goku is confused because he can't move. I mean, they won right? Why is everyone screaming.

[Part 3]

This part begins immediately with Krillin getting bitch slapped, earning a 10/10 on the owned counter. Vegeta then decides he has had exactly enough of everyone and everything, and goes for the nuclear option.

Fortunately for our heroes, Vegeta has been so worn down, battered, sent through the ringer, and has suffered so much damage to that one eye in particular, that he doesn't have enough energy left to kill everyone all at once. Instead, he opts to get his hands dirty and cut them each of them down one at a time. Speaking of cut, here comes Yajirobe with his sword. It can pierce through Vegeta's armor, which is wonderful news but ultimately pointless. However, it serves as an excellent distraction.

Remember that fake moon? Remember how Vegeta only returned to normal form because his tail was amputated? Remember earlier how Piccolo had to destroy the Earth's actual moon because Gohan was a rampaging Donkey Kong lunatic? Well guess who just woke up staring right at that fake moon in the sky.

Lacking any barrels in the vicinity, Ape Gohan decides to throw around some rocks.

Goku, again, reaches to him telepathically and reminds him not to go on a rampage killing everyone.

"Remember Icarus? He did it."

Now, purely within this episode, this isn’t an issue. It’s a funny haha moment. However, this scene gets a little more irritating or perplexing once you’ve seen some of the DBZA movies. This knowledge did hamper my enjoyment of this scene on rewatch. However, that ultimately isn’t fair to this episode as a stand alone product, and my gut instinct of “My knowledge of episodes that came out well after this one retroactively makes this episode worse!” is also something I try tooth and nail to avoid. So I’m going to talk about this for a bit and get it out of my system so I can approach it fairly.

Simply put, Icarus is a headache. He's Gohan's friend and pet dragon of sorts, for like three random movies, some episodes of Z and then never gets mentioned again. Goku implies that Vegeta is responsible for Icarus' death, despite the fact that Icarus is still alive at some point after Goku defeats Freeza. I would normally take up the stance of “okay, let’s ignore the official canon / non-canon and just stick to DBZA” but he ALSO features in the DBZA movie Cooler’s Revenge, so this is multiple layers of crazy. 

I understand that DBZA exists primarily as a form of parody and thus prioritizes humor and “working with what you’ve got” over some things a harsh anal-retentive person might deflagrate them for (cough cough) and are not afraid to contradict themselves on points of little significance for the sake of humor. I also don’t think they had any long-standing plans to incorporate Icarus into Z at the time this episode was made - They may have simply wanted to make a joke about the DBZ equivalent of Poochie the Dog from Itchy & Scratchy.

Like I said, Icarus is headache. However, simply in this moment and nothing else, I do feel it works. It’s shows a cute dragon geting exploded. Who couldn’t feel bad for this poor random dragon that I totally haven’t ever seen before? It also works within the story itself -  Gohan gets sufficiently angry, and Vegeta starts treading the tightrope of desperation. 

Gohan's Ozaru form isn't long lived however, as Vegeta suddenly learns the Kienzan and slices his tail off with it. Small problem though, Gohan was airborne, and the regression back to a normal Saiyan form is not instantaneous. His massive body looms over him, and with a Big NO, Vegeta go splat.

He's down but not out. He at least has enough energy to call for his Space Uber to come and pick him up. As he's crawling hands and knees into his escape pod, Krillin suddenly decides he wants to be important, and appears with Yajirobe's sword, poised to strike. 

Vegeta is understandably terrified, because after the day Krillin's had, he's gone full ride or die mode and isn't about to wait on an invitation to go full Thanksgiving turkey on this maniac.

However, Goku wants the pacifist ending and gives a very simplified version of the original speech to Krillin. If he's sorry, we have to let him leave. Because that's what being a good boy is all about. It's noteworthy that one of my all-time favorite Vegeta quotes happens right here in the original dub.

"When I come back to this planet, you're all going to suffer. And when you beg me for mercy, I'll stare into your eyes as I crush the life out of you."

However in this version, we're treated to "Yes, I'm very very sorry. Sorry that you're all still alive, suckers!"

And honestly, both versions are fitting for their respective interpretations of Vegeta.

As we pan out, the narrator waxes on the victory of the heroes and how he made bank from his bet with King Kai. Next time, don't make bets with the narrator you stupid idiot. Big dumb idiot god. 

I'm writing this at close to 4am if you couldn't tell. Scheduled uploads!

"Has anyone really not seen this show already? Find out in the next season of Dragon Ball Z Abridged!"

And that's it folks! Well, almost. We have one final scene to go through first.

Vegeta is hurdling through space in his Saiyan pod, lamenting his laundry list of losses and failures, but at least concedes that his situation cannot get worse. But we all know what happens to people who tempt fate.

"Vegeta... VEGEEEEEETA..." "Wh-What?" *DING* "I'm haunting you."

And thus, we've reached the end of Season 1! The Ghost Nappa song plays and the outro credits roll.

Conclusion

First off, definitely a longer review than I'm used to writing. Secondly, this was a great three-parter. I wasn't sure if the format would hold up like it does for single segment episodes, but it does. Now I'm sure there are bad episodes to come in the future, but for now I'm happy that the last three or four episodes have all scored relatively high. TFS is going into Season 2 with some great foundations built upon their older, more crude material, and they still have a lot of room yet to improve. I should consider being more critical with this next season as the expectations will be higher!

There’s one noteworthy gripe I have with each of these three parts, but only one worth writing about. -Vegeta suddenly sounding different, as if I didn't talk about that enough. I swear I'm not taking crazy pills. -Weird freeze frames at the end of Part 2. -Icarus, simply because he messes with me on a personal level. This fucking dragon doesn't make any god damned sense.

Other than that, I liked it. I don't know if I'd say "I loved it" but for the series as a whole, we're getting there at breakneck speed.

The first part had some great back and forth interactions with Goku and Vegeta, both the dialogues and the beam struggle, while the second part had more stand-out moments with just Vegeta, from the squeaking Goku, to the "I thought I'd be angrier" speech, his perfectly timed knee to ribs, and the famous last words "What smells like deer?"

The last part... didn't actually have much of this. I didn't find the talk about Vegeta’s father to be terribly funny and nothing else he said was extremely stand-out like in the previous two parts. This part didn't so much have humor as it was the "let's wrap things up" segment. Most of the noteworthy moments happen close to the tail end. I will admit, even ten years later, I still got a little sentimental hearing that outro from LK, and let's not sleep on Ghost Nappa. They may have done you dirty in Kai 3 but we still love you!

Overall, I'm happy that this was as good as I remembered it. I found jokes I didn't pick up the first few times, flaws that I didn't know existed, and a new appreciation for some subtle details that may have glossed over me while I was busy laughing about Christopher Reeves.

Part 1: 75 Part 2: 78 Part 3: 72

Score: 75

Passing Thoughts

"Kaio-Ken!" "Kaio-What?"

Small error on my part - Piccolo blows up the moon in Episode 4, and in my review of that episode, I mistakenly attribute a scene from this episode to DBZ Kai Abridged.

"I'm going to enjoy this far more than I should." - And like that, Vegeta has suddenly become relatable.

"Thank God, I thought he meant penis!"

"Time to crush you like an Arlian." "A what?" "Exactly."

"I haven't killed a damned thing since I got to this god-forsaken planet! Not for lack of trying mind you."

#slothcritic #DBZ #Dragon Ball Z Abridged #TFS #teamfourstar