#Makes me wanna scratch behind his ears when they flop around after he removes his hood HE LOOKS SO CUTEEEE | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

razorblade180 · 3 years

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Twin snowflakes part 24: Date Night.

Part 23 here! <-

Still exhausted, Veronica flopped back onto her bed with the help of Nick. The girl let the mattress steal all tension from her body, letting out a sigh of satisfaction. “Aaahhhh! That’s the stuff. Appreciate the help.”

“Don’t mention it. Especially after what you just did. Frankly I had no plan to get Summer to cooperate.”

Veronica chuckled the best she could. “Hehe, not often Nicholas Schnee doesn’t have a plan. I guess you owe me then? Lucky for you I take words of affirmation as payment all the time.”

Nick smiled. It was nice to see Veronica joking. Encountering Shiva always put a dread over him, but she seemed to not care much. That’s Veronica alright, refusing to take crap from anybody. “I could praise you, or how about I praise you over a nice dinner?” Nick quickly responded.

All the neurons in Veronica’s brain suddenly came to a screeching halt. Her body immediately came flinging forward to sit upright to stare at the smiling boy. “What…?” She asked, still processing the question.

“Let me take you dinner.” He said again, “I have a reservation at this place in Atlas tonight. I was gonna cancel but we could just have a night out together. You still haven’t tried much food from here right? Plus I know you still have to be hungry. This works out.”

Veronica couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Did Nick just ask her out on a dinner date? That didn’t sound right, even if it was a thank you gift. As quickly as her eyes lit up, they began to squint at him with skepticism. “What happened with Valerie?”

Now his eyes got big. He wasn’t expecting that response. “Uhhhh what?” His voice gave away his nervousness and Veronica could clearly tell.

“Don’t play dumb with me Nick. I’m not gonna call you a liar or anything, but I know you, and you know me; as well as my feelings.” She said that last part sheepishly. “You aren’t the kind of person to play with my emotions or offer a dinner date when you’re crushing on Val, so what’s up? Be straight with me”

It was becoming clear to Nick that he apparently could be read like a book. This is the third person within twenty four hours to look at him and automatically knew to ask about Valerie. This was ridiculous! His life had many things that made him bummed out. How are people guessing right on the first try!?”

“Uhhhhh” he scratched the back of his head and sighed. No point tip toeing around it. Not like it was a secret or anything, yet his stomach felt queasy all the same. “I ran into her yesterday. She was pretty upset that I didn’t tell her I got sick. I apologized and tried to smooth our recent bickering over with dinner. It was going okay, but then…Val immediately started to brush me off. I got upset, she started deflecting, people started staring, then she really started saying some things that really got me upset; kinda made a little scene out of it before walking off. Nor really princely, huh?” He tried smiling at the self jab, but failed. “Anyways, next time we meet per her request more a less will be at the tournament. We currently aren’t on speaking terms. Something she should be fine with since distance was what she wanted in the first place.”

Veronica could hear a little venom in those words. Val really did have Nick upset. He’s never this openly bitter. Though maybe it was being behind closed doors that allowed him to drop the facade of being consistently pleasant. Frankly, that made Veronica a little happy for him, in an odd way. However… “I see. So I assume that this dinner reservation was for you and her?” An answer wasn’t needed. Nick’s moment of sulking was replaced with a guilt ridden look on his face the moment she asked. “You know, kinda shitty you’re asking me to a dinner meant for another girl that turned you down. Not a fan of being someone’s second choice.”

Nick closed his eyes and let in a sharp breath like he had just been hit. “Oooo yeah, yeah that was pretty messed up for me.”

“Mhmm, big time. No girl wants to hear that you know?”

“I didn’t mean- I wasn’t trying to...sorry. That was tasteless and selfish of me.” He looked down, shamefully and with genuine guilt. It was only when Veronica’s hand lifted his head by his chin did he see the girl stare at him with an observing gaze and lips pouting to the side. She then crossed her arms and looked away from him, ears tucked and a tinge of red visible on her.

“You’re lucky you’re a good person and I am hungry. I…guess you could apologize with a good dinner?” Veronica knew he wasn’t trying to be insensitive. Still, she was more than a little ticked off at herself for letting him off easy. Darn his good qualities! Being mad towards him for long was never gonna happen. Not to mention having a calm outing together is a golden opportunity. No way she wasn’t gonna capitalize off of Valerie’s mistakes. Her eyes shifted towards Nick to see a relieved smile that only made staying upset harder.

“This place better be good! Also I’m gonna order every expensive thing possible!” Veronica declared, attempting to save face.

“Hehe, thank you, and go right ahead and order anything you want. It’s not until around nine so please, get some rest.”

“I should be saying that to you. Isn’t going out at night in the cold while moody only gonna give you more sniffles?”

“Pfft, I’m sick anymore. Just focus on healing and rest. Not that I have to tell you this, but you gotta dress nice for where we’re eating.”

Veronica smirked, pointing at a closet of designed outfits. “Careful. I may not be worth billions but I’ll make you look like a pocket change if you don’t wear you best.”

The boy let out a cocky chuckle before walking to the door. “For your information, I’m two billion.” He said puffing out his chest playfully, leaving on that note. He could hear her gentle laughter behind the door. At least he could lift one girl’s spirit. As for the other, Nick looked at his sister’s locked door. He couldn’t help himself. He wasn’t going to knock, but he had to at least walk to it. Come to think of it, Nick had a hard time remembering when this door remained open. Most days it kept either the warmth in, while shutting others out. Slowly he rested his hand against it. The wood, cool to the touch.

“Tell me what you need.” He thought, “I’m not a mind reader…” Nick could only sigh. He removed his hand and stepped back. As he began to walk, the door moved. As if something was pressed against it from the other side.

“I know you’re there.” Summer said from the other side. Nick quickly walked back to it. Somehow he could imagine how she was on the other side. One leg extended while the other was bent as she pressed her back to the door. Nick took a seat himself, mimicking the pose he envisioned.

“You okay?”

“Far from it, but that’s par for course…” Summer looked over her shoulder as if she was actually resting against her brother’s back. “Honestly I feel so fucked up some days that therapy feels like a joke. I think I need a break.”

“What kind of break?”

“The usual…” Summer let her words draw out lazily. The back of her head rhythmically tapped the door. “Care to join me?”

Nick tugged at the carpet fibers, mulling it over. “Mmmm sorry, I’m not in the mood for that kind of relief. Besides, I already have plans. I’ll cover for you though. I think venting could do some real good for ya. Just don’t stay out too long. Leave around… half past nine.”

“Will do, thanks Nick.” Even though a door separated them, Summer could feel the care from the other side. Veronica’s words back in the forest about Nick and how Summer treats their relationship struck an all too sensitive cord. “I promise not to worry you. Have fun with whatever you’re doing tonight. I’ll keep you updated and everything.”

“Don’t stress about it. I believe in you. Anyways, I gotta get going. I think I’ll do a bit of distressing in my own way.” Nick stands up. “Better go while there’s daylight.”

“Gonna pay respects?”

“Yep. Enjoy your outing. I’ll see ya tomorrow if I don’t see ya tonight before I leave. Love ya.” He walked away after that, not expecting a response. Didn’t need one. After all, Summer coming to the door said enough.

All in all, things felt okay. Life felt okay. By no means was it perfect, but Nick was thankful he had blessings to count. He’d feel better after the tournament. What should’ve been an exciting time was getting more troublesome. Training, performing, fighting Darren in the duos, and now a not so friendly rematch with Valerie. At least Eliza still had a sportsmanship attitude. He still needed to ask her favor as well. By the end of this she would certainly be sick of him. Nick was surprised she didn't block his number yet. That would royally suck.

His slow walk took down the stairs and back to the front of the manor. He heard dishes clanking from the door to the far left while he grabbed his dark blue winter coat off the rack. “That you dad?” The kitchen door swung open to show Jaune drying a cup and Yang waving in the background as she held a slice in her mouth while talking to Blake. How they managed to swipe pizza out of Veronica’s room was beyond Nick.

“What’s up?” Jaune said, noticing his son put his jacket on. “Heading out? Your mom and aunts should be back soon. Pretty sure they’d want-”

“Veronica and I are going on a dinner date later.” Nick interjected. As planned, his father was derailed. Stammering footsteps came plopping out of the kitchen in the form of a very wide eyed blonde, and a shocked ninja. Blake’s ears even did the little twitch Nick as seen Veronica do whenever she’s caught off guard. “Yeah I thought you all should now. I’d say don’t bug her about it and let her rest, but considering Yang’s feet are already pointed towards the stairs…”

Yang looked down. “Huh...how about that?” She said, walking up the stairs with Blake trying to stop her.”

“Let her rest Yang!”

“But I wanna say stuff~” she whined, “I guarantee you she’s listening to us right now.”

Yang was right on the money. Veronica was currently judging how much strength it would take to lock the door. Her odds were bad. “Okay I don’t care how cute he is. This was cruel!” Veronica thought loudly to herself.

Jaune watched Blake slowly get dragged up the stairs by trying to stop Yang. Without looking, he leaned forward and reached out to grab Nick’s shoulder, who was trying to slowly back up to the door. He faced forward and smiled. “Good attempt, but you’d need a better distraction than that.”

“Eh it was worth a shot…” Nick sighed. He was pulled forward and fell into a surprise hug. He stood silently for a minute before wrapping his arms around his dad. “You needed a hug?”

“Not really, but you looked like you did.” Jaune said, squeezing tired. “You know you’re growing up into a fine young man. Better than me by a long shot at your age. I hope you know your entire family is proud of you.”

“I know dad…” Nick said, his voice getting stuck in his throat a little.

“I know I can’t relate to some of the pressures you feel. Honestly being a part of a household with this much attention and expectation still gets me anxious from time to time. So don’t hesitate to vent to me. You’re a young adult yeah, but I’m still my son and sixteen. Weiss and I would much rather see you yell at an annoying cameraman or get scrappy with a bully than see you try to hold it in for the sake of family image. Remember that.”

How did he do it? It was unfair, downright cheating almost in Nick’s eyes. How could so many people easily call him out? “What’s the point of enduring if everyone I wanna reassure sees right through the act? So much for a brave face.” He muttered. Jaune finally let go of him. The compassionate father poked Nick right where his heart was.

“Enduring an ordeal for the sake of others is pretty brave in my book, but who said you couldn’t endure hardships and still be open to those who matter? Have you meant your friends and family? Besides your sister I don’t think there’s a soul close to you who isn’t an expert of seeing past masks. Val and Vee live with bleeding hearts and the rest have had to put up with me!” He chuckled, “Just like I’m sure you know when someone is upset.”

Nick had his doubts. “Mmmmm, starting to think I might not know them as well as I think. Val is...ugh, I don’t know she is. Learned about Vee’s traits recently for the first time, and Summer-”

“Okay, I see your point. But! Learning new things about them and knowing there’s things you don’t know, doesn’t erase what you did. Y’all are teens. There’s a bunch of things to sort through. At the end of the day though, you know them where it counts. Does that make sense?”

“....Yeah, I think I do.” Nick nodded, thanks dad. Seriously. It’s kinda scary how good at talking you are.”

“Comes with practice, specifically learning to listen and just watch closely. You may not realize it but you do this plenty. It’s a big reason people gravitate towards you. Well… people who are just money hungry anyways, but that’s more of a rich person policy than a Nick-ism. I digress! You better get going before your mother comes back and give you her own talk.” Jaune said. He opened up the door for Nick to leave. “From the way you’ve been acting I assume you’re heading to pay your respects?”

Nick nodded, “I’ll try not to be terribly long. Don’t tell mom unless she asks. You know how she gets?” Nick walked through the door, fist bumping his dad on the way out.

Jaune closed the door and went back to the kitchen. Somewhere above him he could hear giggles and a few squealing. “Hopefully nothing catches on fire up there.”

“You are starting a fire!” Blake yelled, trying to contain Yang’s excitement so the blonde’s hair would stop flaring up. “Use your words.” Blake laughed.

“Please…” Veronica groaned. This level of energy was higher than usual. “You’re more excited than me. It’s just a dinner date. Barely even that. More like a thank you gift I suppose.” That being said the blush coming to her face clearly sung a different tune. “Can we please talk about anything else? I mean mom, you’re here!”

Blake crossed her arms. “So I heard you got into a fight? Let’s talk about that.”

“Ummm, so this date, any suggestions on what to wear?” Veronica poorly deflected. Blake didn’t even respond and Yang was smart enough not to. There was no choice but to talk about it unfortunately. “Sigh….I know okay? Ma told me I should’ve eaten and I didn’t listen. I should’ve, or learn to walk away from-”

“I’ll stop you right there. Don’t think for a second I wasn’t okay with a person getting hit when they were clearing harassing you.” Blake took a seat on the bed. “Expecting you to balance instinct, emotions, and logic here in Atlas was never in the cards, because frankly we don’t know what that balance is. Not to say I assumed you’d fight here. All I wanted was for you to try and...take a break from the norm.”

“If that’s the case then school should’ve been removed right off the back. It doesn’t matter the location, people act the same. Different faces, same insufferability. Only difference is these bozos are rich and human.”

“You make it sound like you aren’t crushing on a rich human whose parents are allowing you to stay in their manor.” Yang deadpanned. “Not making you go to school would only leave you bored and gods know what you’ll do with too much time on your hands. Then again you managed to stir things up already by stealing a spot on the cheer team.”

Blake did a double take. That wasn’t mentioned earlier. “Cheer team? How did that happen?”

“A girl got cocky with me so I out performed her. Honestly I was more than a little surprised by it all. Holding pom-poms, doing flips on mats, and even the couch blowing the whistle, kinda forgot what those things were like until I was in the moment.”

“See? That’s a change from norm.”

“Pretty sure that counts as a return to form.” Veronica countered. “It’s whatever though. Just a temporary thing. Although I’ll admit that Eliza chick, Marigold’s kid, she’s pretty decent.”

Blake wasn’t expecting that easier. “Oh? Well that’s nice. Sounds like that could be not so temporary?”

“Eh, whatever happens, happens.” It was a nice thought. Veronica couldn’t deny that. “Any other thing you wanted to discuss with me? I’d like to lay down for a bit longer.”

“How’s it feel to discuss all this genetic stuff with Nick and Summer? Call it what you want, but telling them was no different from a therapy session if it made you feel better.” Blake stated.

Veronica frowned. “Not how I see it. I’m pretty indifferent for the most part I’d say. Haven’t thought deeply about it. Veronica plopped her head on the pillows and turned away.

Blake and Yang took their scrappy daughter’s hint to leave. Blake got off the bed and was more than fine revisiting the discussion later. Yang briefly bent over Veronica’s covered face and kissed her head.

“Muah! By the way, I’m pretty sure Nick would love to see you in his colors. No heels though. He’s a little touchy about his height.” Yang left after that, closing the door gently. Veronica could only lay there pondering the advice.

“Hmmmm that could work.”

xxxx

While the youth finally got some rest, Adults were hard at work trying to piece together all that’s happened. Ruby and Weiss scoped out the undisturbed frozen lake along with Winter, Nora, and Penny most importantly. Though there wasn’t much to go on. Just crushed rocks, claw marks from ferocious grimm, and a mix of blue and red blood that made Weiss particularly uncomfortable. Ruby sensed that uneasiness and quickly began rubbing her partner’s back.

“Your daughter’s fine.” Ruby reassured. “If what she said is accurate then she never actually lost control.”

“Yeah but the blue dyed snow before us means she just barely held on. That’s too close for comfort.” Weiss held her hands together gently. “It feels like things are getting worse.”

“Because you’re in the thick of it.” Nora spoke, projecting her voice to get their attention. The strong and prideful woman made her way over to them. “Every day you’re worried for her and wake up knowing your daughter is a few rooms away upset. A parent is only as happy as their saddest child, and seeing Summer so distant makes it difficult to see the good stuff. This situation is trying, yes, but Summer still fought back. Your daughter fought Shiva off and killed grimm to protect someone. Determination like that is a sign Summer isn’t done fighting by a long shot, so that means you shouldn’t mope. I mean she gets all that strength to defy assholes from you.”

Ruby gave a big smile. She couldn’t have said it better herself. “Yeah! Nora’s right. We’ll turn this around.”

“....Geez, you two ever stop being helpful?” Weiss said, smiling gently. She was happy to have them here. “Thank you, especially you Nora.”

“Considerate my way of apologizing if Valerie really upset Nick. I told her she needed to call him, especially after him having the decency to call me so I could keep her in the loop about this. Apparently she wasn’t very pleased that he was ill and didn’t mention it. She’s….a lot sometimes.”

“Hey, so were we. I’m sure she means well and I’m not oblivious to the fact Nick can be...a lot as well. I’m partly to blame. I enable some of his actions towards her from time to time. I think I’m projecting a bit. Maybe I should tell him to move on?” Weiss sighed. Perhaps she played matchmaker too much and misread things.

Nora could only chuckle. “Hehe, I wouldn’t. Believe me when I tell you Valerie doesn’t hate having Nick look her way. A little forwardness is the only way she’ll acknowledge problems she doesn’t want to deal with. I can’t say for certainty what those problems are but I don’t pin any of it Nick. Val has a way of wanting her cake and eating it too. She’s gotta learn hard ways that’s not how life goes. I just hope Nick finds it in himself to not hate her because of this.”

“Pfft, I don’t think hate truly exists in his vocabulary.” Weiss laughed. She could count on her hand how many times Nick truly despised a person. “He’ll be petty about it I’m sure, but that’ll go away. Space between them might be good. At the end of the day I at least want them to still be close. Val has a way of motivating him that I like. He actually has fun.”

“Yeah, my Little Thunderhead excels at moving people, that’s for sure. Her semblance would be pretty mediocre otherwise if she wasn’t.”

The three continued talking lightly until Penny eventually walked up with Winter. “Okay, so I’ve finished running some tests of the area and the deposit of Diamond Dust. I have….unique results.” Penny said, a bit baffled.

Ruby wasn’t a fan of that statement. “Ummm that doesn’t sound great coming from a person who reads books written in binary. What did you find?”

“This dust is less volatile than the samples in my lab, even though it’s been untouched for longer. By all means it should be more refined.”

“Well isn’t it a good thing that it isn’t?” Weiss asked. “We barely handle what we have.”

“True, but it’s strange. There’s a couple possibilities that may explain this. Summer may have used up some unintentionally, or maybe Shiva herself was syphoning it.”

Winter folded her arms, “Not a fan of that second option. Based on the story though, what if it wasn’t touched at all?”

“Panic attack.” Penny said immediately. “She hasn’t been here since the accident, right? It’s entirely plausible that Summer’s mind and body remembered the trauma. Repressed memories or outright fear and anxiety could be the basis for this entire event. I tried contacting Oscar if he’s noticed anything different in Summer’s behavior, but I can’t get in contact with him. The seas have been rather violent lately due to weather changes.”

“So what you're basically saying is we're as lost as usual?” Weiss said, falling backwards into the snow. “Juuuuuust great. I’m going to assume the pain attack option then. That’s something I can work on with her. If Shiva is by any chance stronger now then the only thing we can do is what we always do. Brace ourselves.”

Ruby looked down at Weiss. “And option one actually means we have less dust to deal with. That’s a plus!” She knew it was a small amount of positivity but every bit helped. Weiss smiled at her and sat up.

“Here’s hoping for option one as well I suppose. We should probably head back. This place creeps me out a bit.”

Ruby helped Weiss up and everyone began leaving. Penny kept staring at the data she collected and trying to call Oscar. Unfortunately the man wasn’t answering. Her displeased sigh was heard by Winter, who rubbed the girl’s back.

“Not to be insensitive, but your son and Qrow wouldn’t do anything too crazy out a sea would they?”

Winter laughed nervously. “Hehehe….I’m sorry.”

“That doesn’t inspire confidence!” Penny yelped. Now she was only going to think about them being stranded by the gods or in a storm. Hopefully she would hear from him soon. “I guess a deeper study will have to wait. Ruby, can I stay at your place with Whitley for a bit? I don’t wanna go home yet. Too lonely.

“Sure thing! Door is always open. Though I bet you’ll have a livelier time at the manor these days.”

Penny tried her best to act like that would be a good idea. “Tempting, but a certain blonde teenage girl wouldn’t like that much, considering her parents so desperately want my husband to be her therapist. Summer also sees me enough as is. Nick would be happy I was there.” She said in a happier tune.

“He’s not home if I know him well enough.” Weiss frowned. “Times like these, I’m sure he’ll visit the graveyards.”

Truly, her son was easy to read.

xxxx

Right now the boy in question walked through an alley of tombstones and snow, his and covered in pollen. Atlas’s central graveyard had become a place for Nick over the years. The wide space and solitude became a welcoming barrier that blocked out most strangers from approaching him. Even the paparazzi had enough tact to not disturb a person here. His feet carried him down multiple lanes towards an old tree barren of any leaves looming over a grave with no actual tombstone. Standing before it was Eliza, wearing a dark blue winter coat and deep in thought. He wasn’t expecting to see her today.

Nick kept approaching until he stood beside her silently. A cool breeze went by them as the air itself felt still. Eliza eventually shifted her gaze to him, completely aware he was there. She looked down at his dusty yellow hands before speaking. “Talking to your grandma again?”

“Yeah. She says I should eat more sandwiches. Afraid I’m a little too then.”

“Heh, always witty. Visited your gramps yet?”

Nick shook his head, “No that’s halfway across Atlas from here and further from my home. It’s the next stop. What about you? Didn’t expect you to be here today.”

“Haven’t been in awhile.” Eliza waved her hand to cause a brief gust that blew away the snow from the grave and several others. “It needed cleaning and I was in the area. So what brings you here specifically? You only visit here on anniversaries, holidays, and when you’re moody. Last time I checked this is a random day, soooo”

“Eh don’t worry about it. Everything is alright now. Just decompressing.”

“Fair enough.” Eliza put her hands in her pocket and went back to thinking, until she realized Nick was looking at her again. “Uhh can I help you?” She said a little confrontational.

Nick got a little defensive and spoke quickly. “No, just surprised you’re not pressing me to open up.”

“Why? Your business is your business unless you make it my business. Something you’ll do if your attitude negatively affects the preparation for the tournament.”

“Ouch...well if that’s the case then the favor I’m about to ask you shouldn’t refuse.”

That peaked her interest. Eliza actually turned around fully. “You’ve been asking a lot of favors of me lately.”

“I’ve asked like two favors, and you’re the one telling me to directly involve you if-”

Eliza covered his mouth, irritated by him being right. “I know what I said! Sigh… what’s up?”

Nick looked down at the hand on his mouth, getting Eliza to remove it. “You’re lucky I didn’t lick it.”

“You’re lucky I don’t beat you up on hollow ground.”

Nick smirked. “Oh, so you think you can finally take me?”

Eliza squinted at him as her face got a little red. Why the hell did he have to be like this sometimes!? “The next words you speak better be your favor, or I’m walking away.”

“Well I wouldn’t exactly call it a favor but if you’re training by the harbor tonight, I’d appreciate it if you swooped by the seventh dock. The one with the huge building they rarely put cargo in. Summer is going to be there blowing off some steam. I don’t think anything will go wrong but you know, if you got the time…?”

“Hmmm I guess that’s not unreasonable. Wait, how do you know I train by the harbor!?”

“Did you forget my cousin literally owns a ship? If I’m correct, one time he said his sail caught on fire when a random bolt of lightning came down one day.”

“......” Eliza put her hand back in her pocket and began walking. “You’re really annoying Nick.”

“I’ve done nothing! Also I’m not done talking! I actually do have a real favor I’ve been mulling over for about a day!” Eliza kept walking away from him. “Hey! Don’t just- Can you train me!?” He shouted, hoping to gain her interest again.

It worked wonderfully. Eliza stopped mid-step and pivoted around. “Excuse me?”

“Training, yeah uh there’s this thing Schnee’s do called the candle test. Helps with our glyphs. Long story short, I’m ass at it hehe. Summer has stuff going on and it’s not really clicking with my mom or aunt. Since your magic is sorta like what I have to do, I thought maybe-”

“We are in a contest against each other, Nicholas.” She said firmly. “You are my opponent! One of two people currently in my way from reaching the top. Why on Remnant would I help you?”

Nick’s eyes avoided contact with hers. He began to scratch the back of his head as if he’d been caught red handed in a lie. “Because… you value sportsmanship?” He looked at her to receive an unamused blank stare that was colder than the snow. “Uh, and also you helping me in any capacity will let you in on a proposition that you’d find very intriguing. But I’ll only tell you when we’re training.”

“Tsk, I would think a Schnee would know better how to do business negotiations. Why would I make a deal when I don’t know if I even care about it? You tell me now or not at all.”

“I can’t say it now! I gotta smooth out details.”

“Then I guess we’re done here.”

“Fine, then I guess you don’t want a shot at gold with a sure fire way of at least getting silver!” He boasted, catching Eliza off guard. Nick slicked his hair back and crossed his arms to intimate his uncle’s calm yet assertive demeanor. “Yeah that’s right. I’m saying I have an idea crazy enough to benefit you and I. Everyone wants gold of course. However, you got a little more riding on this, don’t you?”

Eliza remained silent. Nick began walking a little closer to refrain from speaking too loud. “Last year was your real debut to the public eye and it was pretty good one at that. Third place is nothing to snuff at in the singles bracket. However...trust me when I say I know third is the worst seat in the house. That’s where the pressure and stress is. One mistake and you're off the podium and that feels terrible when people finally start looking your way.”

Eliza began tapping her foot. He wasn’t wrong. Not by a long shot. Confident as she was, Eliza was aware of her only two options. Do better, or hit the same bar. Winning was the goal but no one was gonna give her shit for losing to the top two contests. Nick and Valerie have been dominating for about three years now, and here he was saying he can get her to second. “Get to the point.”

Nick unfolded his arms. Time to be gentle again. “I cannot get into specifics at this time, but if you wanna show up at the manor anytime this week to help me, we can talk. I can get you second at minimum in King of the Hill.

His eyes burned with eagerness. Eliza had so many questions but obviously he wouldn’t answer them. This plan clearly had to be in his favor to get first, which neither of them had earned before. However, Valerie was first. How did she fit into this? What was going through his head!? Eliza had to know what regardless if she’d actually be okay with it. Her eyes narrowed at him. “Tsk, I take back what I said. Guess you are a Schnee. I will see when I can come over and help. Now, any other obnoxious request before I get driven away from this conversation?”

“Well……” Nick could feel just how dangerous this situation was. “It’s quite a walk to the other cemetery from here….hehe.” Laughing was hard when someone’s nostrils were flaring at you in frustration. Getting closer might’ve been a terrible decision.

Eliza closed her eyes briefly, then turned around to walk away. She went a few steps before briefly stopping. “Knock the snow off your shoes before you step in.”

Nick lit up like a Christmas tree. “You’re the best!!!”

“Why did he get more votes than me!?” Eliza internally screamed.

xxxxx

The day seemed to drag on. It had taken some time for Weiss to return home with the company of her sister and Ruby. Nora had departed earlier to check in on her family. Penny had opted to head towards Ruby’s home before her. They would’ve gone together but Ruby did want to see her niece and Blake. Penny had yet to properly see her friends. Though she wanted to, she thought it best to hold off for now.

The trio walked into the house and were assaulted by the strong scent of what had to be Jaune’s amazing cooking. They could practically see the aroma of spices dance in the air. One spice in particular hit Ruby. It was subtle but sharp at the same time. The kind of spice that sent a zing through your nose and hit your tastebuds. A mouth watering smile spread on her face and her stomach growled.

“Mmmmmm” Ruby hummed, “Somebody brought spices with them from Menagerie.” She sang. Ruby and Weiss wasted no time heading to the kitchen. Inside was an apron-wearing knight stirring a pot of stew, and their favorite faunus in the whole wide world in an apron cutting vegetables.

Blake didn’t even need to turn around to know what giggling pair just entered the kitchen. She put the knife down all the same and turned around with her arms wide open. “Well-” she couldn’t even say her boastful introduction before her two cheecky smile teammates dove in for a hug. All three of them just became a choir of happy laughter as they embraced one another.

Weiss finally let her friend go to get a good look at her. “Look at you! Traveled all this way and you’re helping make dinner!? I don’t deserve you!”

“Well I saw Jaune breakout a pot and I figured he’d enjoy some help without fear of something burning.” Blake jabbed. Ruby immediately tucked her lips to stop herself from snickering at the diss.

Weiss’s jaw dropped. She still smiled however, crossing her arms. “Oh ha ha, I’ll have you know my cooking is leagues better than what you remember since last time you had it. I can cook amazing meals all by myself!”

“As long as it doesn’t involve a fryer.” Jaune added, walking over to kiss his wife’s cheek really quick.

Weiss’s face got a little flushed. “Grease is bothersome.” She mumbled. Blake could only chuckle at the remark while walking to the pot and dumping the vegetables inside. The smell of the stew intensified and reminded Weiss she is still very much the weakest in her friend group when cooking was involved. “How are you going to outdo me in my own home? Why’d you bring spices in the first place!?”

“Don’t question it!” Ruby shouted. Her body went on autopilot to grab the plates and cups for the dinner.

“Ruby, aren’t gonna make dinner at home?” The room said, thinking about Whitley.

Ruby then proceeded to grab one of Jaune’s tupperware containers. Apparently they were now feeding Whitley as well. Ruby knew they wouldn’t mind, so she felt no remorse when filling it. Her boldness knew no bonds.

“Ruby, how do you know they aren’t making enough food for the people in this house?”

“Because this household would crumble anytime Jaune did a mission and didn’t make enough food for weeks.”

“I can cook!!!!” Weiss yelled.

Jaune playfully rolled his eyes and patted Weiss’s back. “Ruby isn’t completely wrong. Anyways she can take as much as she wants. Nick and Veronica have a dinner date tonight so they won’t be joining us for dinner. Then I don’t if Summer-”

“Nick and Veronica have a date!?” Weiss and Ruby shouted.

“Oh yeah… that happened while you left.” Jaune tried to reach for the ladle for the stew but Weiss swatted his hand before turning his head back to her. Fortunately Blake swooped in to continue stirring. “Yeah so they’re going on a date tonight. I don’t know details.”

Weiss turned to Blake who shrugged. “I didn’t press Veronica too much about it. Yang should be upstairs with her trying on dresses.

“Behold! A beautiful sunflower in the snow!” Yang cried out from outside the kitchen unexpectedly.

“Or I guess she’s downstairs now.” Blake turned off the burner on the stove and moved the pot before following her friends out to the main hall. Outside was Yang standing proudly with her hands on her hips and staring up the stairs proudly. Jaune and Weiss’s eyes went wide while Winter seemed….impressed? As much as she could be. Her feelings towards Veronica in general were mixed. The girl was definitely beautiful though. That was just a fact.

Blake looked up to see her daughter all dressed up at the top of the steps. She wore a white, thin strapped dress that had a light blue sash around her waist. The skirt portion went down to about knee level and the flats she wore were also white. The bottom of the skirt brought more color in by being an intense light blue that faded to white half way up; lace snowflakes were intricately etched on to that portion to break the color up. Gloves that went just passed her elbows followed a similar scheme but started white at the hands before transitioning to blue. To top it all off, a pretty little light blue ribbon formed a bow on top of her head. It was that accessory that made Blake notice that not only wet her ears gone from sight, but so was her tail.

Veronica’s face was stricken with a decent shade of red. Her feet shuffling in place a little as she rubbed her left arm. “So….ummm thoughts?” She said anxiously. “This is just one of several ideas so no need to hold back.”

“Several? What, did you make these in a couple hours?” Winter asked.

“No. I’ve been working on a Fire and Ice collection recently. This dress in particular was already put together for the most part. Although the snowflakes at the bottom was a last minute decision I made half an hour ago.” Veronica swayed to make the skirt flow side to side. “Normally I’d say adding flames or snowflakes is a bit heavy handed since the colors of the outfit already speak fire and ice, but I don’t know. Felt appropriate. Especially since the white lace is on the blue. I even have them on the upper rim of the gloves. Made sleeve versions too.” Veronica inspected the stitching to make sure it was okay. “Hmm not my best work, but I kinda like it.”

“I kinda love it!” Yang proudly said. “Oh it takes me back to the Beacon dance a little. Back then another Schnee was outdone by a Xiao Long wearing white.”

“Ha, no! Your dress didn’t even look done!” Weiss shot back, refusing to take such slander. “This dress is ten times better than what you wore.”

Ruby nodded. “Yeah sis, your dress was pretty plain. Didn’t even have a bow.”

“I couldn’t find one!” Yang defended.

Judging by the banter, Veronica was getting positive vibes from the dress. She looked at Winter since the woman was there. Surprisingly, a thumbs up was given. “Well that was more positive than I expected from her.” Veronica thought. The only person who remained silent was Blake. Veronica turned to see her mother assessing what her daughter had on. The silence she gave made Veronica a little concerned. “What’s up mom? Not a fan of how thin the straps are? It’s not a low cut anywhere.”

“No, all that is fine. I just have to ask, why-” before Blake finished, the front door opened once again with Nick coming through it this time. Everyone froze in place by his sudden entrance. Including him!

“Uhhh why is everyone just standing in the front of the house?” Nick questioned. It was only when he looked up the left staircase did he get his answer. “Oh, that’s why. You look...wow.” He said, rather clumsily. “I didn’t think you’d get ready three hours ahead of schedule. I still gotta wash up from the grav- I mean my walk. Yeah, walk, around town. With no real location stopped at.” He had no idea why he kept saying things. The deadpanned look on Winter and Weiss’s face clearly showed they knew where he was.

Weiss gave a reassuring smile and poked his forehead. “No need to lie, especially so poorly. If talking to them brought you some form of clarity then by all means have at it.”

“Yeah it’s not my business either.” Winter added, ruffling his hair.

Veronica wasn’t exactly sure what they were discussing, but it looked like things were going well. Nick even looked like he was in a better mood then when he left. His eyes went back to Veronica and made her fidget a little. The gaze he gave her was focused, deliberate even.She didn’t know how to feel about it until Nick began to look a tad displeased. “I-Is something wrong?” Veronica asked hesitantly.

“Not wrong, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen you cover your ears. Tail yeah, since it can get in the way a bit, but why the bow?” He asked, pointing at it from afar. Everyone looked towards her for an answer, especially Blake. Nick had beaten her to the question.

Veronica looked down at her feet for a moment before looking at her family, crush, others. She never really knew what to call Weiss or her siblings. “Well normally I wouldn’t cover them, but while you were gone I kept thinking about this date…and how I wanted it to be a simple night out.” Heat began to rush to her cheeks. “So you know, people will stare and judge less if I’m like this. Not that their opinions matter, but I’d like to keep things peaceful as much as possible tonight. That’s all.” She looked at Blake who was looking right back at her. The answer didn’t seem to upset or surprise the mother. Veronica played with her a bit. “Is...that okay?”

“Hmm? You’re asking permission? It caught me off guard seeing it. Whether it be for aesthetic or personal reasons, I won’t dictate how you wanna design your clothes as long as it’s appropriate. After all, ribbons and I have a history. Couldn’t judge you if I wanted.”

That was a relief to hear. Veronica had completely forgotten her mother wasn’t a stranger to trying to blend in. “Well if that’s settled-”

“Hold on.” Nick softly said, his calm footsteps walking up the stairs to meet her. Everyone fell speechless as they watched him. Veronica for some reason felt as if the mood had changed. The room was quieter, air completely still. The face of the boy in front of her began to look more earnest than it has ever been as it got closer, stifling her breath. Nick extended his hand out slowly till his fingers clasped a corner of the bow, then unraveled it.

The ribbon flowed slowly into his palm and then was brought down towards Veronica’s. “If a calm night means you have to hide, then is it really a calm worth having? Like you said, those people don’t matter. Besides, I like your ears.”

Burst, Veronica felt like her heart could’ve burst. The blush on her cheeks deepened greatly and her eyes went wide from the shocking words. She had barely remembered to breathe. If she paid attention to the audience below then she would’ve been embarrassed by the grins that went ear to ear but no. Veronica only noticed Nick and his gentle smile that matched his words. Her mind finally caught up with itself and Veronica grasped the ribbon ever so slowly.

“O-Okay…” she said without thinking. Anybody else may have gotten more of a debate on it. Not him though. Not after words like those. “I’ll...make a few adjustments then.” She said, flattered and flustered as she walked back to her room without any more words.

“Take your time. You still have about three hours like I said, plus I gotta wash up.” He reminded her, not realizing just how sweet his words were. He turned back around to see smug faces and contained laughter. “What?”

“Nick…” Winter said, smiling with her hands on her hips. “And you wonder why girls flock to you obsessively. You’re too much.”

“I’ll say.” Blake said, admiring the boy. “But you know what? There’s something perfect about that. Nicholas, thank you.”

He wasn’t entirely sure what he did but he got embarrassed all the same, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. At least things finally felt relaxed in this house. “Umm you’re welcome?”

With teasing done and the mood lightened, everyone went back to doing their respective things. Jaune and Blake went back to prepping food. Weiss went with Ruby to set tables and properly catch up, while Yang decided to keep Winter company since both her son and Qrow were off adventuring. The chatter filled the hallways and even reached upstairs to not only Veronica, but Summer, who finally managed to fall asleep peacefully. Even Nick found a bit of proper rest in the bath. The soothing warm water filled with epsom salt was more than enough to make him doze off. Time steadily went forward and the adults began winding down. However, the kids were just getting ready for the night.

xxxxx

Dusk finally came. Winter leaned up against the main door waiting until she saw Nick coming walking down the stairs looking dashing. His crisp white suit, ice blue tie and handkerchief were perfectly in place along with his slick back hair.

“Hey Whitley jr.”

He groaned, “Please don’t. This is why I do nothing with my hair. One minute I look like dad, then the next I’m uncle.”

“Grow it out more then.” Winter suggested.

He shook his head. “That’s a slippery slope. Too long and I’ll be compared to you, mom, and sis. I guess my face is just too great.”

“Pfft, you just know you can’t compete with all this.” Winter sassed, turning her head to sway her hair. Nick would have objected if she wasn’t right.

“Whatever hehe. Anyways, everybody still here?”

“No, Ruby eventually headed home, but everyone else is strung about. I’m heading out myself but I figured I could drop you and Veronica off for your date.”

Nick gave her aunt a huge smile. “Awww, auntie!”

“Oh hush, don’t make it a big deal. It’s convenient, that’s all.”

“Well I appreciate it nonetheless. Veronica will too.”

Winter mumbled,“She better show it by not getting you or sister into trouble.”

“I heard that.” Veronica called from up the staircase. Winter and Nick looked in that direction to see her walking down. Nick wasn’t prepared.

Veronica had switched the gloves out for detachable sleeves that still exposed her shoulders. They also followed the same white to blue pattern. What really changed was she used the ribbon to make a high ponytail and now dawning jewelry. A pearl white necklace rested around her neck and complemented the pearl earrings she wore. Slowly she approached Nick with her hands holding each other in front of her. Veronica’s face was still a healthy shade of red. This close, Nick couldn’t help but smell of peach nectar. An interesting and oddly refreshing choice for perfume.

“Well...ummm...you weren’t kidding when you said you would out dress me.” Nick said, captivated. “I’d say you’re one billion, easily.”

Veronica chuckled nervously. “Hehe,th...thanks. I wouldn’t go that far, but I appreciate it.” Looking at him was harder than usual. Men’s dress shoes had a bit of heel, so Nick actually was a bit taller then her now since she chose flats. It could only be by an inch or two but it made a hell of a difference to her. “I had a little help near the end. These are actually your sister’s pearls.”

“Really? Oh, that’s right! I think the only reason she got them was so this other rude girl couldn’t. I don’t remember the specifics.”

“Wow. You two are….extremely petty at times.” Veronica said. Yeah pettiness was nothing new to her, but she’d never bought something to spite someone else. That’s the lifestyle in Atlas she supposed. “Anyways, if you’re ready to go then I am too. I’d really like to avoid-”

Click! The sound of a camera cut her off. The two teens looked back to see their parents all taking photos. Trying to stop them would be impossible. The only thing they could do is quietly wait for the clicking to stop, which was thankfully over in seconds.

“Gee I didn’t realize I lived with paparazzi.” Nick quipped. Another flash came from up above the second floor. Summer and her bed head leaned against the railing. “Summer!? You too!?”

“I came down to eat and saw we were embarrassing you. How could I not?” She took one more photo and then made her way down to the kitchen. “Have fun. I’m gonna eat and go right back to bed.”

Nick knew she was lying of course. That was the real reason she came down now, to announce she’d be sleeping in her room so nobody would disturb her. Summer, never missing an opening, also collected everything she needed from upstairs without anyone noticing. It was scary how far she’d plan ahead sometimes.

Winter finally decided to open the front door and head out. “Let’s move people. Rich or not, it’s rude to be late for reservations.”

“So strict. Almost think that you’re about to go drill instructor on me.” Veronica jokes, walking out the door.

“Don’t think I won’t make you drop and give me twenty just because you’re in a dress.” Winter shot back, closing the door as Nick walked out.

“The sad thing is she isn’t kidding…” Weiss nervously said. “That’s gonna be a long car ride.”

Summer came out of the kitchen with a bowl of stew and an evil look in her eye. “Why are there less left overs than usual? Who had seconds?”

“Ruby took some for Whitley. As well as had seconds…”

Summer squinted as if Ruby was there to actually receive the grumpy look before putts spoonful in her mouth and walking back upstairs.

“Ma’am, the table. Not your room.” Weiss said, using her mom voice.

Summer did a heel turn to the dining room. “Who made this stew!?” She said annoyed. Jaune and Blake both raised their hands. “It’s fantastic!” Was all she said as she continued walking.

Blake and Yang looked at each other confused before looking at their friends.

“Hangry.” Was all Jaune said.

“Ah…” the couple said together.

The moment Summer was out of sight from everyone she put the bowl down and searched around the living room quickly until she found her guitar case. Quickly, she grabbed it and opened a window towards the side of the estate and tossed it on a set of glyphs that hopefully propelled it right into her open room window. She then ran back to the dining room to sit down and eat comfortably.

“Phew! That was the last thing. And now I wait.” She took another bite of the stew happily. Nothing tastes better than an escape plan coming together.

#rwby #rwby au #rwby twin snowflakes #jaune arc #ruby rose #weiss schnee #yang xiao long #blake belladonna #nora valkyrie #nicholas schnee #summer schnee #val valkyrie #winter schnee #penny polendina #veronica belladonna #rwby whiteknight

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novantinuum · 4 years

Text

Tides of Renewal (SU one-shot)

Fandom: Steven Universe

Rating: T (Mild TW for vague allusions to past suicidal thoughts.)

Words: 2500~

Summary: Now twenty years old and living on the other side of the country, Steven spends his morning relaxing on the beach, musing about his past, and having a chat with his dad.

Hi folks! This is actually my two-months-late “Happy Birthday, Steven” fic, ahah- amusingly, posted two months late to the day. I’m quite happy with how this short turned out.

If you read this and enjoy, I’d greatly appreciate your support through reblogs here, or kudos/comments on AO3 as well. AO3 link will be provided in the reblogs. Thank you! <3

____

Tides of Renewal

Steven rises alongside the sun, but not by choice.

As he abruptly stirs, jerking onto his side under his tangled blanket, he soon realizes that he has little lingering memory of the nightmare that shook him from his slumber. Nevertheless, his heart pounds so hard it feels like it’s hanging in his throat. There’s feelings, faint impressions— someone’s blood (his, or hers?), Connie’s screams, a bubble of terror boiling from within— but that’s all he’s left with. The young man clutches at his sheets, struggling to catch his breath as is the norm most mornings. Dim light sneaks in between the edges of the curtains, offering a rough estimate of the time.

Once it’s clear his chances of sleeping in have become null and void, he entices himself out of bed with the promise of buying himself a muffin at the local coffee shop later today, a birthday treat. His routine is sluggish, but precise. He uses the bathroom, throws on his swim trunks and a thin cotton shirt, downs the pills he forgot to take last night with a quick swig of water, carefully runs his fingers through his long curls to work out the tangles, and slips his feet into the flip flops he always leaves lying right at the foot of his bed.

The young adult only takes his guitar, phone, and keys with him as he walks the mile distance from his humble studio apartment to the public beach. Around him, the world is at peace. The only sound intermingling with the gentle ebb and flow of the Pacific at this hour of the morning is the chattering of puffins that nest on the large rock outcroppings in the tide pools nearby. The edge of his lip quirks up when he finally crosses that sacred boundary— the sidewalk meeting the shore— and removes his sandals, reveling in the satisfying, grainy texture of sand squishing between his toes. Hah... the beach. Funny, that. All his traveling these past years, from mountains, to prairies, to sprawling suburbs to wooded forest towns, and it only succeeded in deepening his childhood love for the familiarity of saltwater air and tourist-filled boardwalks. Still, the secluded, rustic charm of Haystack Cove is a far cry from the Beach City he grew up in. Different people, different sights, different types of seafood sold at the markets. This place feels like a home all his own, appropriately distant from the Gem influenced settlement he’d left behind.

He crosses the fine grained sands towards his favorite sitting spot, a hefty stone jutting out from the ground, its surface buffed to a glossy finish over the years by the high tides. The water’s still distant this early in the morning, glimmers of sunlight sparkling off of the foam and spray. Yawning, he plops himself down on the stone and lifts his guitar into his lap. He strums a few random chords as a warm-up before settling into an experimental melodic sequence.

As he plays, the early morning breeze teases at the ends of his shoulder-length hair, untied and let free in all its curly splendor. It’s still quite chilly, but with the sun peaking over the horizon behind him and not a cloud in sight, the air’s bound to heat up in no time. Steven inhales deeply, soaking in the salt and light and pushing away the shadows lurking at the periphery of his mind, that twitching, exhausting anxiety that never quite seems to leave him alone these days. Unfortunately, functional does not mean carefree. While far fewer in number then when he was a teen, he still runs into plenty of moments where he’s struck blind by particularly painful reminders of his past, his gem snapping into overdrive in an instant. He’s a bit better at coping in these moments now, and walking himself down from panic attacks, but deep-rooted traumas don’t simply melt away. With that in mind, at this point he suspects he’ll likely have to deal with a mixture of therapy and meds for the rest of his life. That’s fine, though. If that’s what it takes to be at peace. He’s thankfully reached a point in his recovery where he’s more than willing to work for it.

Startling him out of his roaming thoughts, his phone chimes to life, touting the same cheery ring tone he had as a kid. He gently sets his guitar down in the sand and fishes his cell phone out of his pocket, a silent bet as to who’s calling rising within his mind. Sure enough, his dad’s contact photo proudly greets him. Hah— he called it. Steven stifles a giggle as he hits accept and lifts the phone to his ear.

“Hey, Dad!”

“Hey, Schtu-ball!” his father chimes from the other side of the country, three hours ahead. He hears a faint shuffle over the line, and then the beginnings of guitar accompaniment as the man begins to sing:

“Happy birthday to you~!”

Dad ends the line with a resounding vibrato, and a few extra jazzy chords for good measure.

“Heh heh, thanks,” he says, bashfully blushing at the attention, and gazing across the loose sands as if ensuring the secret of his birth hasn’t swelled into a nauseatingly public affair like half of his birthdays had since the start of Era 3. “Gotta say, the impromptu guitar solo pushed that to a whole new level. You just get up?”

“Yep! Bright and early. Garnet said you’d probably be awake by now, so I figured I’d call and give ya’ a good greeting to start the day. Lemme guess, you’re down there at the beach already? I think I heard waves.”

Steven’s glance lifts to admire the slowly rising tides, and the promise of each tomorrow that lies beyond. “Hah, you know me,” he says softly, taking a deep lungful of that precious salt-touched air he’s always adored. “I live for the water. Might force myself to go for a swim later before all of you come. Not sure yet,” he says, shrugging as he turns and squints in the wake of the steadily rising sun. “But my therapist said I should probably keep as active as po—“

“It’s your birthday. You do whatever makes you happy, bud,” his dad promptly reminds him, slight concern sticking to his voice. And yes, it’s practically a father’s job to worry, but his chest tightens with lingering guilt for pressing that upon him anyways. Ugh, this is because he said ‘force myself,’ isn’t it?

“Doing my best to,” he lamely offers, hoping it’ll at least end that segment of conversation. He twirls a stray strand of hair around his finger as he scours his memory for something new to offer. Thankfully, his mind quickly lands on the exciting email he received last night. He grins, knowing for sure his dad’ll love this. “Oh, uh- topic change, but I got that last job I applied for, by the way.”

“Oh? The taffy shop one?”

“Yeah! I start on Tuesday.”

“Wow, that’s- that’s awesome! They responded fast, then.”

“Yup,” Steven nods, popping the ‘p.’ “Honestly, it’s nothing much, just stocking and working the register, but it’ll give me some cash to work with.”

Some cash to finally pay for his own food instead of continuously bumming money off his dad. There’s no way he can handle full month’s rent on his own with this minimum wage job, (who on Earth could in this economy), but it might be enough to cover the smaller things. Groceries, electricity, internet. That sorta stuff. Fidgeting on the edge of the stone outcropping, his bare toes dig narrow lines in the sand. He hasn’t really had this discussion with Dad yet, but the mere concept of being wholly reliant on other people steers his mind uncomfortably close to the I’m a Burden Zone. He’d far prefer to feel like he has a stake in the game.

“I know you said you don’t mind supporting me,” he continues in a hesitant tone, twirling his finger through one of his curls, “but I still feel kinda bad—“

“Don’t. I’d rather you not have to stress yourself to the bone about money like I did when I was your age.”

The line shakes for a second. He’s pretty sure he hears the faint clink of a bowl meeting the counter from his dad’s side.

“Dad...?”

“Sorry, bud. Just putting ya’ on speaker. Figured I’d make myself some instant oatmeal,” he says, his voice sounding a bit further away from the microphone. “Goodness, though. Twenty years. That still boggles the mind.”

He gives a soft laugh. “You’re telling me. Could’ve sworn I was twelve just yesterday. And to be honest, it’s... it’s kinda weird sometimes, you know?”

“What is?”

“Being another year older. ‘Cause... well, uh...”

Steven grits his teeth, searching for the most delicate manner in which he can discuss these emotions. The feelings of his past are a really hard topic to dwell on sometimes, even in therapy, and even though he and his dad have long since had scattered discussions about what a poor mental state he was in then, he doesn’t wanna upset him too much.

“There were definitely days I assumed I wouldn’t have a future, or didn’t want one to begin with,” he continues, throat thick. “Back during all the conflict, before Homeworld reformed. And even after that, when I was... you know. And things are better, now, they’re definitely a lot better. But the idea of a ‘future’... even if I’ve got a job, a home, a girlfriend... it’s still weird to think about, I guess.“

There’s a brief silence on the line as this vulnerable admission sinks in.

“Yeah,” Dad replies eventually, clear sorrow in his voice despite how careful he thought he was in phrasing these matters. “I hear ya’.”

With a quick nervous laugh, he scratches at the nape of his neck, fingertips brushing against the thin, wispy strands of hair growing back there. “Geeze, sorry for bringing the mood down so quick. Didn’t even know I had all that on my mind until it spilled right out.”

“No, no! No need for apologies, I’m always here to listen. And in any case, I’m glad you’re in a better place now.”

Steven nods his head to himself in full agreement (momentarily forgetting that his dad isn’t actually here in the flesh to see this response). Sixteen and seventeen really, really weren’t good years for him. And even though he’s put lot of work into himself since then, he can’t help but constantly fear the possibility of relapse. His therapist told him a few sessions ago when he expressed this worry that... relapses into old thinking patterns can be common for people living with C-PSTD, and that it’s important for him to be cognizant of any unusual changes in his patterns and routines so he can quickly intervene with his box of healthy coping tactics, but... geeze. The dark, traumatic destinations his wandering thoughts end up stagnating in when the concept of relapse brushes his mind aren’t fun to acknowledge. It makes him yearn with deafening hunger for a simple switch he could flip, some magic cure-all for his brain that would stop him from having to deal with any of this awful shit in the first place— but of course, cruel universe this can be at times, those don’t exist.

“Speaking of that,” Dad speaks up again after clearing his throat, “how are those new meds treating you? You said last call your doctor was gonna change them, yes?”

“Nah, not change. There’s no need to change types,” he shrugs. “It’s just a dosage shift. And it’s fine, I think. I’ve been on ‘em for a few days, and there’s no problems so far. Brain's been treating me a little better.”

Nightmares aren’t quite as bad.

His energy isn’t totally zapped by noon.

The whirling, panicked trajectory of his thought patterns is a little easier to wrest control of.

All in all, nothing’s perfect, but he certainly feels a good deal more stable than before. Now, if only he can remember to consistently take his meds before he goes to bed like he’s supposed to instead of totally forgetting like he did last night and having to scarf it down when he sees that forsaken capsule in his pill box the next morning. Tsk, tsk.

“That’s real good to hear,” his dad responds to his news.

He flexes his knuckles against his lap, gaze reflexively drifting back towards the welcomed distraction of the tides. “Yeah.”

“Anyways, I, uh...”

“So, party logistics,” he cuts in with an overly cheery tone, changing the topic from his boring mental health crap entirely. “We should probably hash this out now. I know Connie’s planning on dropping around about noon. What’s your guys’ plan? She can probably send Lion to you after she gets here, if you want.”

“Yeah, that’d be best. Pearl said there weren’t any convenient warps nearby. Well, there’s one- but apparently it empties out into an active lava tube. And that’s not exactly Dad-friendly.”

“Aww, you mean you’re not filled with the intense desire to dip your hand into molten lava and shlorp it up like it’s soup?” Steven retorts, only barely holding back his laughter as he thinks of this absurd text thread he had going with Connie a few weeks back, wherein she sent him a video of some volcanic flows and told him, verbatim, that 'despite all logic and reason sometimes I can’t help but look at super viscous lava and think... forbidden s o u p, mmmm.’

“Not particularly, no,” his dad says, sounding thoroughly confused. “I’m- why are you laughing? Is this some sort of weird internet thing I’m not familiar with again?”

He wipes tears from his eyes as he tries to catch his breath. “You, ah- you kinda had to be there, sorry. Anyways, yeah. I’ll have Connie send Lion. I’ll text you right before, how’s that?”

“Sounds great! Can’t wait to see ya’, bud. I’m gonna let you go, now, okay? I can talk your ears off later. Go enjoy your morning. Love you.”

“Love you too, Dad,” he says, grinning. “Bye.”

“Buh-bye.”

Once his dad hangs up he sets his phone beside him on the rock and takes a deep, steady breath, trying to capture the full nuance of each diverse scent in the air. He may just be imagining it, but he swears he’s able to pick out the faint scent of taffy intermingling with the ocean saltiness and the hint of cedar from the nearby state forest. In the end though, whether it’s real or not it’s a welcomed reminder of all the possibility the future holds for him.

He’s twenty now. It’s a brand new decade of life. He’s got a new job lined up, a stable and loving relationship, a supportive family, and plenty of courage in facing the shadows of his past. Sure, so maybe he’ll never know with certainty what will happen— maybe he’ll relapse a little, maybe he’ll still have some bad days sprinkled amongst the good ones— but as he watches the tides flow in to greet him, he smiles... and resolves to just take this year as a renewal of his vow to care for himself as best he can.

#su #su future #steven universe #greg universe #su fanfiction #my writing stuff

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hewwocopter · 3 years

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Bros. Here’s a little taste of what I write when I’m not writing fanfiction, but rather my own original works. I wrote this at the end of 2019, so my writing is bound to be different than it is now, but I think you guys will get a kick out of it!

Also, all my two brain cells are spent on writing fanfiction.

Two McFricking Idiots

Sam and Cheyenne go to the mall.

Sam was bored.

Scratch that, he was extremely bored. Sam isn’t sure that he’s ever felt this bored before, but hey, there’s a first time for everything.

Like that one time he nailed Chicky in the face with a pie? Sure she nearly beat the crap out of him but it was totally worth her reaction. He’d pay to see her get hit in the face again.

Preferably with him ten miles away when that happens of course...

Sam groaned and flopped onto his back, staring up at the sky. He was in a park under a tree, laying in the grass. Cheyenne was sitting next to him staring into space (he could tell she was just as bored as he was). It was mostly void of people as it was too hot for anyone to spend their spare time sweating all over the grass.

Unless they were total idiots.

Which that description fit Sam and Chey perfectly.

Which was why they were here.

Actually, the main reason they were starting to form into puddles of fur and flesh was because Chicky had kicked them out of the house. Apparently, she couldn’t handle a little prank! Who cares if the house was on fire, they could just get another!

Chey looked over at him. “First time?”

“If you don’t stop making meme references I will be forced to skin you alive.”

The cat stopped and stared at him. “But you love meme references, man.”

Sam groaned. “Not if it’s a hundred degree weather and I’m too hot to care about anything right now!” He threw his arms up in the air and let them fall to the ground in defeat. “There’s gotta be something we can do about this.”

”Well, we can either take our fur off which would be incredibly painful, or we can go back to the h-e-double-hockey-sticks which is our house. Which is in flames right now.” She stopped and flicked her ear up. “I can still hear the sirens from the fire trucks, actually.”

Sam snorted. “And my mixtape.”

Chey let out a laugh. “Heyyy! There we go! You’re getting back into the meme spirit already! Although that meme has been dead for like, a year man.”

“Nyehhh. I’m too hot to care.” Sam rolled back onto his stomach, muffling his words into the grass.

There wasn’t much to say after that, so the two sat in silence. An occasional breeze blew into their sweat matted fur, which was blissful for Sam.

After a few minutes, Sam shot straight back up, startling Chey.

“We have to do something!”

“You said that five minutes ago.”

“This time it’s for real. I’m getting sick and tired of this heat,” He stood up, legs tingly from sitting down for so long. “I’m going to get some daggone AC.”

Chey hummed, as though entertaining his thoughts. “That doesn’t sound too bad, actually... where would we go, though?”

Sam smiled, looking down at her. “The store. They’ve got some ice cream and stuff there, duh.”

“That’s a fantastic idea and all, but weren’t we banned from all stores within a twenty mile radius of our house?”

“...”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about....”

A deadpan look. “You were going around the fish section at the grocery, dumping out the fish tanks yelling ‘BE FREE, MY FISH CHILDREN! BE FREE!’”

“I was releasing them from their captivity! And you’re not so innocent either! You were there with me, helping me dump out the tanks!”

“Hey! I’m not about to deny a free snack when I see one!”

“...Fair.”

Chey huffed. “Aight. Good thing we came to an agreement.”

“...Uh huh.”

More silence.

“Remember that one time at Taco Bell where we harassed the employees?”

“Wait, which time? There was that one where you pelted a jerk with Mild Sauce packets and the other where you flipped over three tables before you had to be forcibly removed from the premises.”

Sam piped in. “Hey- don’t forget about when you made their soda fountain explode!”

“Ahh, good times, good times.”

“Yyyyep.”

For what seemed like horrible pacing and a long time, they sat there reminiscing about their shenanigans.

“Wanna go to the mall?”

“Frick yeah.”

—

The two preteens (although they very much did not look like preteens) walked down the tile floor of the mall through the crowd of people. Some looked down and recognized them from their previous... adventures, wisely stepping out of their way.

Pff. Weenies.

There was a wide variety of smells, some varying from delicious foods to even MORE delicious foods. It made Cheyenne’s mouth water. Maybe they could go to the pretzel stand at some point...

They were walking past the generic toy shop when Sam stopped abruptly. “Here!”

Chey looked up at the store, then peered inside of it. There were children bounding around from one display to another, begging their parents to get one.

“Here?”

“I can feel it. There is something in there... it’s... it’s drawing me towards it.”

“You said that at Taco Bell when you snuck into their kitchen and ate their entire supply of nacho fries… which you remember how well that ended, but let’s go anyway.”

“Heck yeah.”

Without further ado, they stepped inside.

Some of the parents took one look at them and dropped the toy they were holding, picked up their child,, and left. One of them even hoisted their daughter over their shoulder like a sack of potatoes. She hadn’t even paid for the doll that the kid was holding.

Well, that was somewhat uncalled for. They hadn’t even done anything yet!

“Sam, what did you say about...?” She trailed off when she saw that the anthropomorphic boy was gone.

She looked around the store, seeing a brunette robot- lady- whatever she was, holding a nerf machine gun. When the lady turned, she was holding the item with a malicious grin as well as a glint in her eyes. Chey stepped back, opting to look for Sam.

“Oh. My. God.”

“Sam?”

“CHEY LOOK I FOUND HIM!”

“Him?” Chey frowned as she rounded the display with a yellow mouse wearing sunglasses and holding a machine gun on it. Behind it, Sam was hugging a box in his arms.

“Wassat?”

“Our child.”

“...What.”

“Hear me out, Chey.”

“You have a few seconds to explain to me why you’re hugging a water gun, before we get kicked out of the store.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Chey could see the store cashier nervously hiding behind the counter, presumably calling for security. They hadn’t. Even. Done anything yet! Give them a break!!

“This... this is no water gun, Chey. He’s special. I can feel it.”

“You’re hugging the box, so, yeah, I guess you can feel it...”

“Nonono! I can FEEL. IT. This water gun- he’s destined for greatness! And that’s with us!”

Chey could hear the footsteps of the security guards coming their way. “Sam...”

“C’mon, Chey! Pleeeease?”

One look into those puppy dog eyes- those dang eyes- had Chey caving in. “Fine, man! Let’s pay for it and get the heck outta here.”

At that moment, the guards stepped into the store. Parents and their kids were looking around confusedly, until their eyes laid on the sight that was Chey and Sam. Another mother picked up her son, hauled him over her shoulders like sandbags, and booked it out of there.

Goodness.

Sam was already on it, though. He jumped and grabbed Chey with his tail, dragging her towards the entrance. She barely had time to throw the money at the cashier, who was cowering behind the counter.

They were met with resistance of course, but Sam was prepared. Somehow the water gun had made it out of the box, and Sam whacked the guard in the face with it.

“VIBE CHECK!”

Another smack, the guard letting out curses as Sam cackled wildly. He let go of Chey and they bolted into the main area of the mall. People were scattering as soon as they saw the two hellions make their way towards the foot court.

One of the guards behind them yelled out. “Oi! Get back-! You’re not supposed to be here!”

Sam, being the entity of chaos he was, ignored the men and went straight for the tables. Chey resisted the urge to groan as he slid under them, knocking them over (while people were still eating at them no less) in an effort to... well, Chey had no idea what he was doing, actually.

Chey shook her head as she sidestepped fallen chairs and the mess of food that littered the floor. Sam was up ahead of her, crashing into more tables and chairs.

The normal noisy chatter of the food court soon became loud yelling and screaming as the customers tried to avoid the onslaught of the entity that was Sam. There was no escape, however. Chey had learned that the hard way.

“SAM!”

Somehow, somehow- Sam had spawned a sock in his hand. He held the water gun in the other, while spinning the sock in circles uncontrollably. There was something at the end of it, and oh g-

More tables went down as the sock knocked them over. It hit people too, socking some in the stomach as they fell down in defeat. The boy(?) left a trail of fallen tables and people behind him as he continued his escape.

Chicky was going to murder them...

Although, this scenario has happened many times before. Why would it be any different this time? Eh, they’d live.

...Hopefully.

#you don’t need to know anything about them to read!#go ham!!#hewwocs #writing #posted 6/27/21 #it’s a butter sock. he was holding a butter sock #the people are fine; just tired of Sam’s bs #hewwo writes

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icyhotheartwritings · 3 years

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DQXI OC Week, Day 1: First Impressions

Aha! It’s still within the week so it still counts! Enjoy the origins of Esja, my sabrecat-obsessed OC! This got way away from me. It was supposed to be 300 words and somehow contains an A3 reference!

Word count: 2748

Content warnings: Animal injury

Esja sighed as she secured a bandage around the paw of a young sabrecat that was currently curled up in her lap. Various other bandages adorned the poor cub’s body, more of a protection to keep things out rather than holding anything together. She wished she could help more, but this recent string of injuries had depleted her magic so she couldn’t completely seal the wounds.

“You poor darlin’,” she cooed when the cub let out a small noise. “It’s okay, sweetie. You’re safe now.” She picked the cub up off her lap and carried it over to her bed, setting it at the bottom of her mattress where it began to purr and knead at her sheets. She needed new ones anyway. “Here, ya can stay with me tonight. I can fix ya up better in the mornin’.” She took one more look around the room, making sure the other cats scattered around the room were alright, before crawling under the covers. When she found out who was doing this to her babies, in the middle of the night no less, she was going to make them regret it.

She awoke the next morning to a gentle tapping on her cheek. She opened her eyes, blinking rapidly, before realizing it was the cub from the night before that was trying to get her attention.

“Mornin’, cubby,” she mumbled, voice heavy with sleep. “Ya hungry?” she asked as she sat up in bed. “If you let me up I’ll getcha some breakfast.” The cub squeaked in reply, but moved back down to the foot of the bed to let Esja swing her legs over the side of the bed.

“Mornin’, everyone!” she called to the rest of the sabrecats scattered around the cave. “Wakey wakey kitties, it’s time for brekky!” She picked the cub up off the bed and set it gently on the ground so it wouldn’t attempt to jump off. Then, she made her way to her food stores and picked up a few slabs of meat. She frowned at the stack as she began passing out the food, turning her attention to a group of three adults sitting near the front door. “Can ya bring back some more meat next time ya hunt? We’re runnin’ low.” The frontmost cat chirped in reply before digging into the meat Esja laid in front of them. “Thanks, girls. I’ll owe ya some extra pets next time ya visit us.”

As soon as all the sabrecats were settled with their food, she began to prepare her own breakfast in her makeshift kitchen. As she pulled ingredients off the shelves, she felt a warm body rub against her legs.

“Hey, Sindri,” she greeted without looking. “I know, I just gotta eat and heal some more wounds and we can go out. I know how pent up ya get.” Sindri purred and nuzzled against her leg before moving to lay on his bed. “What do ya wanna do today? We just went to town last week, and we might wanna take that cub back to its mama, so do ya wanna go fishin’ or somethin’ after we return the little cubby?”

Sindri let out a chirp in reply, flicking his tail in excitement.

“Alright, fishin’ it is! Don’t let me forget my bait this time, alright?” She smiled as she moved her food to her small table, sitting on the floor next to one of the adult sabrecats.

“Dandelion, scoot,” she mumbled as he leaned hard into her leg. “Dandy, you’re heavy!” She sighed as he rolled over, setting his head in her lap upside down. “Fine, fine, I’ll scratch your chin.” She moved her right hand down to scratch under his chin while she continued to eat, earning a loud purr from the creature as he began kneading the air. “You’re lucky you’re so damn cute…”

“Alright, is this gonna be everyone?” Esja called out into the cave, glancing over all the cats. “Looks like it’s just you, little one,” she muttered to the cub from the night before, who was curled up in her lap once again. “Alright, just gotta take these bandages off ya.” She gently unwrapped the bandages, starting from the cub’s ear and moving backwards on its body. “It’s okay, I’ve got ya,” she reassured, letting one hand pet the cub soothingly as she took a bandage off a particularly bad injury. She smiled and kissed its soft forehead after she removed the last bandage. “There ya go, that’s all the bandages. Now hold still for me, okay?” She laid her hands on the cub gently and chanted a spell, watching as the wounds closed completely.

“There ya go, darlin’. All fixed up. Do ya wanna go back now or stay here another night?” In response, the cub rolled off her lap and bounced over to an unoccupied mat, flopping down and rolling back and forth. Esja let out a laugh, but was quickly interrupted by a large head rubbing against her shoulder.

“Alright, Sindri. Gimme a few minutes to get dressed, yeah? We get some extra fishin’ time today anyway.” She pushed up on the ground and gave Sindri a pat on the head before shuffling towards her dresser. From the air that slipped past her dilapidated door, she guessed that she’d need to dress extra warm. Sindri would be fine, of course, but she was only human.

“Remind me why I brought my wand,” Esja grumbled to Sindri as she shifted the weapon on her back. Sindri chirped in reply, and she rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, in case I find someone injured, I know. It’s just so heavy.” Sindri rubbed up against her legs again, and she scratched his head fondly. “Yes, I know you’re carryin’ all the fish and my pole, plus all the berries I managed to resist eating. And I appreciate it. Just let me whine.” Sindri purred, and she smiled down at the sabrecat.

“How about we go to the library in the next few days? I’m just about done with the books we borrowed last time, and I know how much ya like sneaking’ past the monsters with me.” Sindri pushed into her roughly, and Esja had to use him to pull herself back upright. “Alright, alright, library it is. It has been a while, hasn’t it?” she asked with a laugh. Suddenly, Sindri leapt in front of her protectively and started growling at something in the distance.

“What is it, Sin-sin?” Esja asked, squinting in the direction of Sindri’s growling. A group of figures moved in the distance, directly towards them. Were those… people? She signaled Sindri to lay down behind a large rock so the strangers wouldn’t notice him by the equipment strapped to his back. She knelt down behind a bit of snow, leaving her head exposed just enough so she could watch. Were they headed to the Royal Library?

As the figures got closer, she was able to discern more about them. There were eight of them, and the one in front with the short hair and purple clothes appeared to be the leader of the group. Each of them held at least one weapon on their person, from simple knives to large whips. They looked dangerous. She cursed as they walked ever closer. Maybe she and Sindri could escape without them noticing, or at least hide until they passed...

“Hey, you!” the short blonde girl suddenly shouted across the snow. “What are you doing out here?”

“Sindri, hup!” Esja yelled as she jumped to her feet, alarmed at being spotted. Sindri came sprinting towards her, and she hopped on his back and held on to his mane tightly. “Time to go home!” Sindri immediately started running back in the direction of their cave, and Esja buried her face in his neck as he sprinted, to both save her face from the cold air and catch the tears that were falling.

“Are these the monsters that have been hurtin’ everyone?” she mumbled into Sindri’s fur. Sindri let out a low, comforting rumble, a promise of protection against these strangers. Whatever happened, she and Sindri wouldn’t go down easily. They had a family to protect, after all.

The moment she and Sindri were through the door, she slammed it shut and barricaded it with all the furniture she could comfortably move. As soon as she knew it wasn’t going to budge, she kneeled down and uncinched the strap around Sindri’s middle.

“Watch the door, Sindri,” she ordered as she took the pack and quickly set about putting away the fish they had caught and plants they gathered before anything could spoil. “It’s okay, kitties. I’ll protect you,” she promised as she glanced back to the dozen or so cats watching her intently. “Me and Sindri, we’ve got ya.” She let out a quick laugh as Dandelion began growling lightly in the direction of the door. “Yes, Dandelion, you’ll help protect everyone. I know ya will.”

“Hello? Is anyone home?” An uncomfortably familiar voice called. Dandelion and Sindri brought themselves lower to the ground, growling at the door loudly.

“Shit, you weren’t just being overprotective,” she whispered to herself as she pulled her staff from her back and walked closer to the door, gripping the shaft like her life depended on it. For all she knew, it would.

“We’re not going to hurt you,” a second, softer voice reassured.

“How do I know I can trust you?” Esja called back, flinching at the volume and tone of her own voice.

“We would be willing to leave our weapons outside,” a third voice offered. Was that… a Heliodorian accent? Who were these people?

“Leave all your weapons outside. I keep mine, and my sabrecats will be watching your every move.” Esja moved closer towards the door as she heard the sounds of weapons being dropped haphazardly into the snow.

“Alright, we’re unarmed,” the third voice called out again. Esja began moving the furniture out of the way, hoping that she wasn’t making a mistake by allowing them in. Sindri and Dandelion stood on either side of her as she took a deep breath and opened the door, revealing the eight travellers.

“Come in before ya let the cold in,” she lightly scolded. The group shuffled in, and Esja shut the door behind them. “Are you the ones who hurt all my babies?” she accused, gesturing to the various sabrecats scattered around the cave. A few members of the group turned away awkwardly, looking anywhere but towards her.

“We apologize, but they attacked us first,” the tall woman with black hair spoke. Esja recognized her as the third voice that had spoken outside her door.

“That doesn’t sound like my babies,” she replied, skeptical.

“They may have been riled up by the soldiers,” the man wearing a Sniflheim scholar’s outfit supplied.

“Soldiers?” Esja asked. “As of last week, Sniflheim was still frozen solid.”

“Heliodorian soldiers,” the man with blue hair clarified. “Including Sir Hendrik himself,” he muttered with a roll of his eyes.

“Ya sound like you’ve got history,” Esja accused. “Who are you guys, anyways?”

“I’m Veronica,” the short blonde girl introduced. “And this is my younger sister, Serena.”

“We’re twins,” Serena gently corrected. It sounded like she was the second voice she heard behind the door. But… twins? Esja blinked a couple of times, she’d have to get that story out of them before they left.

“Erik,” the man with the spiked up hair finally offered after a look from one of his companions.

“Jade,” the black haired woman spoke with a tone that invited no questions, which only made Esja all the more curious about her. The rest of the group introduced themselves in turn, until there was only one member left.

“And this is Eleven,” Erik gestured to the person Esja had pegged as the leader of the group, who gave a small wave in greeting. “They’re the Luminary.”

“The Luminary of legend, eh?” she asked somewhat skeptically. “I’m Esja. Just Esja,” she introduced. “And this,” she gestured to Sindri, “is Sindri Bartholomew Squidzilla the Fourth, Esquire.” As if on cue, Sindri stepped forward and sniffed Erik’s hand softly. “He likes you, Erik. You can pet him,” she offered, trying to hide her surprise. Dandelion was usually the friendly one. Erik moved his hand to the top of Sindri’s head, gently scratching at it. Esja softened as Sindri began purring loudly at the touch. If Sindri trusted them, so could she. At least until they gave her a reason not to.

“We’ll get right to the point,” Jade spoke. “How familiar are you with the Royal Library?”

“Very familiar. There’s not much else for me to do out here while the town’s frozen, after all.” She looked over the group, sighing at their excitement. “Were ya lookin’ for a guide?”

“We are, if you would be willing. We need to find an enchanted grimoire in order to thaw the city, but none of us know where to look,” Snorri explained. Eleven quickly signed something to Erik, who turned his attention back to Esja.

“They said that you don’t have to worry about fighting if you don’t want to, we can take care of it if you just show us where to go.” Esja sighed and nodded, sparing a glance at her normally standoffish Sindri turning into a cub at Erik’s touch.

“Alright, I’ll take ya. But first, let’s get you warmed up. Some of ya look like you’re about to freeze to death,” she said, looking pointedly at Eleven and Sylvando as she moved towards her dresser to retrieve blankets.

“Thank you, darling!” Sylvando exclaimed, immediately perking up even more.

“It’s about to get dark out, anyway. If you’re all comfortable sleepin’ on the floor, ya can stay the night and we can leave in the mornin’. I’ve got plenty of blankets,” she offered.

“Would that really be alright?” Serena asked.

“If ya think ya can get Sniflheim back to normal, I’ll do what I can to help. But I wouldn’t be opposed if ya had some spare food, with town frozen over there’s no way I can buy anythin’ to eat, and I’ve already taken most of the food that wasn’t frozen.” She began passing out blankets as she spoke, Dandelion following her wherever she walked while Sindri stayed by Erik. “Feel free to set up wherever you’d like, and ya can go get your weapons so they don’t get damaged.”

“Thank you, Esja,” Serena spoke genuinely. “Is there anywhere you’d like me to set them when I bring them inside?” she asked as she set her blanket down next to where Veronica sat and moved towards the door.

“Anywhere’s fine. If my babies trust ya, so will I,” she said, gesturing to Sindri laying his head in Erik’s lap. “I’m going to feed the kids and get some rest myself, you’re welcome to stay up as long as ya like, and my kitchen is free to use if you have anythin’ ya want to cook. I probably have enough food to make breakfast for everyone in the mornin’ if ya like fish,” she offered as she began passing out food to her cats.

“Ah, thank you, lassie,” Rab said from his spot on the floor, a sabrecub sniffing at his leg.

“We will repay you as soon as we can,” Jade promised. Esja hummed noncommittally. She forgot how exhausting being around people could be. Maybe it was better that the town was frozen… She shook her head lightly to herself as she laid down the last piece of food. She could be around people if it meant not starving to death.

“Alright, just make yourselves comfortable. Move anythin’ around, it won’t take too long for me to move back.” She retreated towards her bed, thankful she had set it up in an alcove so she wouldn’t feel like they were watching her sleep. “I’m callin’ it a night. Make sure ya get plenty of rest, the monsters in the library aren’t to be trifled with.” Before anyone could reply, she slipped under the covers, cringing as she felt her outerwear press against her. She could live with this for just one night.

She smiled to herself as a now-familiar presence jumped onto the bed, the warmth of the little cub curled up at her feet helping to soothe her to sleep. Just a bit longer, and everything would be back to normal.

#dqxi oc npc week #my writing #cat mom hours

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need-a-fugue · 4 years

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We Grow Together (18)

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Tessa Sullivan (OFC)

Chapter Summary: A romantic getaway goes just a wee bit awry…

Summary: Relationships can be tough, especially when one person is a recovering-from-being-brainwashed-and-tortured former assassin and the other is an overworked mutant scientist. But hey, every couple has their struggles. Right?

Tony’s house is absolutely amazing. Of course, it’s far more than just another getaway spot for the billionaire. It’s the first of several planned (extremely) high-end villas in one of the most sought-after tourist destinations in the world. “He’s actually going to start a resort,” Tessa hums in awe as they enter the ocean-side palace.

“That is correct,” says a voice coming from… somewhere. “Oh, I’m so sorry,” the slightly accented voice goes on after noticing the startled response from Bucky. Tessa is too busy exploring her new surroundings to pay much attention to the computerized creation. Besides, she talks to Friday so much that having a voice in the walls somehow seems completely normal to her. “My name is Nisa.”

Bucky grunts in response. “Makes sense,” he mutters. “When in Rome…”

“Oh, you are not in Rome, sir. You are in Baa Atoll, the Maldives.”

“Thank you,” he deadpans as he finds the master suite and drops off their luggage.

“You’re welcome. Would you like to know a bit about the area?”

In unison, both Bucky and Tessa respond… he with an adamant “No,” and she with an excited, “Yes, please.”

“Perhaps I’ll give you some time to settle into the villa first,” Nisa suggests. “Your chef will arrive at six to prepare your first meal.” Chef, Tessa mouths to Bucky, a look of pure joy on her face. “Until then, you have the villa and surrounding beach to yourselves. Please do let me know if there’s anything I can assist you with.”

“Thank you, Nisa!” Tessa flops down on the king-size bed, splaying her arms and legs out as far as they’ll go. “It’s huge,” she breathes out, turning to roll over onto her stomach. She looks over at Bucky, who’s standing nervously in the doorway, and wiggles her eyebrows at him. “Wanna take it for a spin?”

“It doesn’t make you nervous at all? All of the… tech? The disembodied voices?” He pushes off the doorframe and moves to the side of the bed.

She army crawls over to him and reaches her hands around to grab onto his upper thighs. “Nope,” she says, tugging at him.

He lays his hands on her shoulders to steady himself, seemingly unfazed by her attempts to get him into the bed. His eyes ping suspiciously around the room. “I feel like Stark could be watching us.”

“Ugh,” she lets out dramatically, dropping her hold on him and sitting up onto her knees. “That’s gross.” She wraps her arms around his neck and pulls him in for a long, deep kiss. When she releases him and sits back on her heels, she can see that his face is only a teeny bit more relaxed. She rolls her eyes. “Tony’s a lot of things. But he’s not a voyeur.” She scoots to the edge of the bed and jumps up. “His life is far too exciting for him to care about what other people do with theirs.”

“Where are you going?” He spins around to follow her as she glides through the double glass doors. Just outside of the bedroom is a large deck that overlooks the ocean. At the edge of the deck, built into the steep rock face is an infinity pool surrounded by the most beautiful tropical garden.

“I’m dead,” she states, standing stark still in the center of the deck. “I’ve died and gone to Heaven.”

She turns around and takes in Bucky’s expression. He’s gazing out over the serene blue waters, the bright white beach that lies below. He doesn’t seem quite as awestruck as she is, but his face is noticeably more relaxed, and intrigued. He shifts his gaze to her and his face softens even further, a genuine smile taking over. “We should probably go for a swim,” he states simply, a glimmer in his eye.

Tessa takes no time at all stripping down, flipping her flats off and launching them across the deck as she shimmies out of her pants. She doesn’t bother to undo the buttons on her linen shirt, opting instead to yank it off along with the tight tank top underneath. But she somehow gets caught in the two shirts and Bucky has to come rescue her.

He’s laughing like a maniac as he helps to peel the clothing off of her. In the process, some of her hair gets stuck between the metal plates of his palm and she screeches in pain. That only makes him laugh harder. “Hold on,” he says, somewhat out of breath. “Just give me a sec.” And he works the clump of hair loose with his right hand.

Once she’s free, she shakes out her hair and reaches around to undo her bra. “You’re still dressed,” she chides him, noting that he hasn’t so much as removed his shoes.

“Yeah, well, I was going to go inside and change. I didn’t realize we brought bathing suits for nothing.”

She tosses him her bra and shimmies out of her panties. “You heard the disembodied voice. We have the whole place to ourselves.” She cocks a single brow at him and puts her hands on her naked hips. “There are no clothes needed in Heaven,” she says. “So I plan to stay naked all day.”

He breathes out deeply, wide smirk on his face. “I have never loved you more than I do right now,” he says before quickly shedding his shoes and running full force at her. She squeals with surprise as he grabs her and leaps into the pool.

They spend the next several hours either in the pool or right beside it, laughing, kissing, talking, and baking in the sun. They lose all track of time until Nisa calls out to them to tell them that their dinner is ready and waiting in out on the front terrace. Tessa throws on a T-shirt and nothing else. And Bucky can barely focus on anything but that fact… until he actually takes a bite of the food.

“Oh my God,” Tessa moans out, mouth full. “I feel so bad eating this, but it’s soooo good.” She looks over at him and sees a similar look of delight on his face.

“Is it the fact that it still has a face that makes it so much better than other fish?”

“It’s staring at me,” she says, tearing into it with her fork. “But I can’t stop.”

It may well be the best meal either of them has ever eaten.

They head back to the pool after and watch the sun set from matching lounge chairs. Just as Bucky’s about to drift off, he hears the creak of the chair and feels the weight of his girl in his lap. She squeezes her knees tight around his hips and leans down to nibble at his neck. “Wake up,” she whispers in his ear as her fingers lazily drift around his waistband. He grins and sighs contentedly, but doesn’t open his eyes. “I’m naked again,” she singsongs, sitting back on her heels.

He brings both of his hands up to the small of her back and slowly blinks his eyes open. The moon is very nearly full and almost every star is visible in the sky. But all he can see is the beauty sitting before him, her skin luminescent in the moonlight. He runs his fingertips delicately up her sides and tenderly cups each breast. But he makes no move to sit upright, or to speak, or to do anything other than silently gaze up at her.

“What, baby?” she asks with a small frown. “What’s wrong?”

He shakes his head and lets out a little laugh. “Absolutely nothing in the world,” he tells her before wrapping her up in his arms and carrying her inside.

000

The rest of their trip is… less than ideal.

They begin Day 2 by waking to crisp, warm sunshine beaming in through the glass doors. Another day in paradise. They decide to start the day with a shower. Together. But the huge rain shower is freshly minted with the smoothest of granite, and the moment that Bucky makes a move to hike Tessa up around his hips, his heel slides out from under him. They both go down. Hard. Bucky splits the back of his head open on the corner of the built-in bench and bleeds everywhere.

“Just stop,” Tessa tells him as he tries to stand back up. “Wait.” She hurriedly tries to scurry over him to get out of the shower and grab some towels. But her feet fly out from under her as well and she drops a knee into Bucky’s gut, knocking the wind out of him.

By the time she manages to get him into bed, the bathroom looks like a murder scene. He refuses any sort of medical treatment – it’ll heal on its own – so she quickly dresses the wound with some gauze from the first aid kit that Nisa directed them to, and positions a towel behind his head in case the dressing starts to weep.

Tessa spends the next hour and a half scrubbing the bathroom. Bucky spends the rest of the day lying in bed, watching as the ceiling spins above him.

That night he starts to feel better, so they take dinner out on the terrace again. It’s amazing and delicious and absolutely perfect. And it seems that their shit day is about to become just another sad, silly memory. Bucky’s already joking about how the worst part was her knobby knee collapsing his diaphragm.

At the dinner table, Tessa embarks on a journey of self-discovery. First, she unearths a new favorite food.

“How have you never had mango?” Bucky asks her.

“I don’t know,” she replies with cheeks full of the sweet, succulent fruit. “But I’m never gonna stop eating it.”

Just a few short minutes later, she makes another discovery – she’s deathly allergic to mango.

They spend the next several hours at the closest hospital. It is not the nice tourist hospital where westerners are treated like the rich near-royalty they often are. This is the place the locals go, and poor locals at that. Neither of them are at all convinced that they’ll make it out of there without a raging staph infection. By the time they finally get back to the villa, it’s almost sunrise and Tessa has so much Benadryl in her system that Bucky has to carry her to bed.

Day 3 consists of Tessa, still somewhat puffy, tossing and turning and scratching at hives while Bucky hangs out by the pool. He falls asleep in the mid-afternoon sun, his metal arm uncovered as it lies beside him on the wooden lounge chair. No big deal. Until he shifts in his sleep and rolls over onto the arm, giving himself a massive second-degree burn across his torso.

Day 4 starts out with Tessa demanding that they get out and do something fun. “Let’s go snorkeling!” she tries.

But Bucky hates the water. Well, he hates the idea of being under the water. Ever since Steve almost drown at Coney Island and he went in after him and got sucked out by a riptide. So… “No. No way in hell.”

The compromise, it seems, is to sit on the beach together all afternoon, silently stewing.

The moment they arrive back at the villa, Nisa tells Tessa that she’s had several phone calls and texts come in from New York. “It’s Claire,” she tells Bucky, as though mentioning the name of her assistant is enough to explain why she has to spend the next four hours combing through some sort of statistical analysis of something on her laptop.

And how is it that the laptop is even here? “I thought I took that out of your bag,” he says, watching her from the doorway to the sitting room. His arms are folded over his chest, his face drawn and pinched.

“You did,” she responds shortly. “Which was rude.” She looks back up at him, takes in his almost threatening posture, and lets out a long, frustrated sigh. “I repacked it,” she says simply, turning her focus to her work.

They do not eat dinner together on the terrace that night.

Day 5, the final day, begins with Bucky waking to find the bed empty, save a note that says simply, Went for a swim. He heads to the far end of the deck that overlooks the beach below, and he sees her lazily floating on her back about thirty feet out. Every so often she rolls over and freestyles against the current for several minutes before pausing to catch her breath and bask in the early morning sun. Then she lets go again and floats closer to the shore. He watches her intently. Observes how relaxed she seems as she lets the ocean guide her, falling back against the waiting water so it can pull her back to where she started. Then, all at once, she’s at it again, fighting the tide, straining to move forward, struggling to get… somewhere.

He shakes his head and lets out a strange, small laugh. “You and me both, babe,” he mutters under his breath. “You and me both.”

#bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes fanfic #bucky barnes x oc #bucky barnes x ofc #bucky barnes x original female character #marvel fanfic #avengers fanfiction #bucky barnes au #marvelau #Supernova

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franklyshipping · 5 years

Text

Never Underestimate Them ~ A Markiplier and Jacksepticeye Ego Fanfic

THIS IS A SNAZZY AWESOME PROMPT FROM A SNAZZY AWESOME ANON! Just fyi this does reference violence, but mostly at the beginning sooooOOOO LEEET'S GET TO IT!

TAGGING: @anti-switch-glitch and @yandere-ipli-ler

There was always a fire of some kind blazing in Yandere's eyes, except today you could see real fire reflected inside them as Yan tended to the hearth. It was one of Yandere's favourite things to do, coaxing the sparks, tending to the coals, feeling the heat build. Yandere didn't see it as a chore, they just loved it. They were humming to themselves as they set the poker down, watching the flames dance as the crackle filled the room, making the atmosphere simply sublime.

'Ohhhh what a day!'

Yandere pursed their lips, but smiled when they turned to see Anti flopping down on the couch behind them, cleaning one of his knives which had a rather suspicious amount of crimson on the blade. Yandere raised an amused eyebrow.

'Someone's been causing trouble I see.'

Anti grinned toothily, giggling a little before donning an innocent expression as he replied.

'They started it! They accused me of cheating at the card table and got their undies in a bunch!'

'Uh huh....'

Yan mused, folding their arms as they purred.

'DID you cheat?'

That made Anti purse his lips and glance at Yan for a moment, before averting his gaze and mumbling like a kid who was fibbing about starting a fight in the playground.

'.....maybe.'

'Anti!'

'Whaaat?! They were scum anyway, they deserved to be taught a lesson!'

Yandere huffed, standing up and un-creasing their red tartan skirt before putting their hands on their hips in an attempt to be reprimanding.

'You better not have gone all the way, you KNOW how fussy Dark gets if he has to clean up after you!'

Anti gasped, as if offended, and looked up at Yan with his mouth wide open.

'Do I look like an amateur to you? And since when do you have the right to lecture me on this, you've barely even flicked someone aggressively in the last month!'

Anti sneered, not maliciously though, because honestly whenever Yandere or Anti did something remotely kind, each of them would tease the other about them going soft, every single time. At his words, Yandere narrowed their eyes and bent at the hips a tad so that they were leaning over him.

'I am inches away from a hot poker, don't tempt me to break my clean streak!'

Anti faked a fearful shiver, before smirking.

'Oh! You have terrified me into submission!'

Yandere growled at Anti's sneering sarcasm and was grateful for the ping of their timer going off in the kitchen to let them know their red velvet cupcakes were ready; on the downside though....the kitchen and living area was open plan, so they couldn't escape Anti's taunting even as they removed their baked goods.

'I'm serious! If I had boots on I'd SO be quaking in them!'

Yandere pursed their lips, purposefully ignoring the glitch and focusing on getting their cupcakes onto wire racks so they could cool down. Anti was leaning backwards over the couch, giggling as he continued.

'Wow, not even a comeback? I knew you were going soft, but aren't you even gonna defend your honour?'

Yandere rolled their eyes, huffing out a laugh as they took off their oven gloves and set their gaze on Anti as they sneered.

'Why should I, I mean, it's not as if your opinion even means anything.'

Anti's eyes widened as he developed a grin, now THAT was more like it! He vaulted over the back of the couch, sauntering over to the kitchen side of the room until only the kitchen counter pod separated him and Yandere from one another. Anti set his knife down before leaning against the counter, smirking at the prospect of more banter.

'That may be true...but you still can't deny facts. Look at you, baking cupcakes on a weekend because you have nothing else to do! I remember when you itch for a fix of....well....ruthlessness.'

Yandere raised an eyebrow, starting to pace around the counter, their crimson nails dragging across the granite as they purred.

'You can be ruthless without causing pain....if you can't see that then I truly pity your tiny, unimaginative brain....'

Anti straightened up, narrowing his eyes at the insult whilst also starting to feel curious. He knew he'd most likely regret it, but he so badly wanted to know what Yandere was alluding to with their cryptic words. Yandere was waiting for him to reply with a sly smile in place....dammit, he had to know.

'....alright, I'll bite. How can you be ruthless without pain?'

Yandere nibbled their bottom lip, feeling a rush of adrenaline surge through them as they finally reached Anti. Their eyes met as Yandere purred.

'Oh I'm so glad that you asked....please....'

Anti's breath hitched nervously when Yandere suddenly gripped his bicep.

'....allow me to show you what I mean.'

Anti tried to hide how nervous he was, but with Yan's tight grip on his arm and the sneering smile growing on their face....now he was starting to regret suggesting that Yandere had gone soft. That regret set in more promptly however when Yan suddenly, and with alarming strength, hauled the man over the back of the couch and forced him down onto it on his front. Anti spluttered and grunted as his face was buried in a cushion, but by the time he tilted his head to free his face, Yan had planted themselves on the small of his back....securely.

'If your plan is to smother me then that's not really imaginati-woah c-careful where y-you putting your hands!'

Anti started off relatively smooth and snide....until he felt Yandere's hands slide to his sides; they didn't do anything, they merely rested there, but Yandere smirked....since for some reason, Anti had grown rather tense at their action.

'Ihi'm not doing anything sweetie, what's wrong?'

Anti pursed his lips, growling lowly at their badly faked tone of innocence as he twitched. Yes, Yandere's hands may not have been moving or doing anything but they were still there, touching him, touching his nerves in a manner that made his whole system tense up in defensive anticipation. It's not that Anti was sensitive or anything....he just got defensive easily....that was all!

'W-Well y-you're invading my personal s-space!'

Anti exclaimed indignantly as he struggled, but with his arms pinned beneath him and Yandere sat on him, it was useless. Yandere smirked at his stammered speech, knowing damn well how they were affecting him with their ''casual'' touch. They hummed, absently and slowly rubbing Anti's sides as they replied.

'Oh I'm EVER so sorry....but you see, I've gotten rather comfortable, you don't mind too much do you?'

Anti gritted his teeth, smiling into the couch cushion under his head as he grunted and let out a little hiss through his teeth; plus, he now started talking very quickly for some reason.

'I-It's fine okay whatever, you wanna be comfy th-thehen f-fine, s-so are you g-gohonna explain y-your ruthlessness w-wihithout pain thing o-or what?'

Anti was hoping that Yandere was simply being briefly annoying to get him of his high horse before they explained themselves....but Anti didn't fathom that Yandere's teasing touches were about to develop into so much more. Yandere grinned a feral grin as they leant down to whisper in Anti's ear.

'Oho you silly, silly boy....I am showing you.'

Anti's eyes widened. Before he could try and glitch away whilst he still had the energy and focus to do so, Yandere's sharp nails were skittering fast at his sides; Anti's cackling soon followed.

'WOHOHOAH HEYHEYHEY DOHON'T YOHOU DAHARE!'

Yandere snickered, their crimson eyes gleaming as they skittered, scratched and purred.

'With all the things I've done, do you really think a giggly warning from you is going to do anything?'

Yandere focused their scratching in the dips of Anti's sides, which made Anti cackle harder as he squeezed his eyes shut. He was head-butting the couch cushion and arching his back, just trying to struggle and do anything to distract himself from how much it tickled him.

'THIHIHIHIS IHIHIS DUHUHUHUMB!!'

Anti cried, filled with embarrassment at his ticklishness of all things being exploited. At his cry, Yandere raised an amused eyebrow.

'Is it? It seems rather effective to me, you already seem like less of an arrogant ass.'

Yandere giggled with a hint of arrogance of their own, which made Anti growl through his mirth....but he couldn't even BEGIN to look angry because of how much he was smiling.

'YOHOHOU'RE AHA BIHITCH!!'

Yandere smirked, since frankly they took that as a compliment. Their scratches at Anti's sides were so fast now that their fingers were practically a blur as they sneered through their reply.

'Takes one to know one, glitch bitch.'

Now, Anti was shrieking. Not just from the insane speed of Yandere's tickling, but also from hearing Yandere use that awful, embarrassing nickname against him! His cheeks were hot, his form was writhing, and his face was screwed up with desperation.

'NAHAHAHA YAHAHAHAHAN!!'

Yandere giggled, and let their fingers slip away from their targets for the moment; Yandere didn't want to bring Anti to the end of his tether quite yet, they did have a point to prove after all.

'Doing alright down there?'

Anti groaned amidst his panting, Yandere's query allowing his embarrassment to still rage as he replied.

'Nohohoho....'

Even as he giggled residually, Anti had his head bowed, and soon enough he'd developed quite the flustered frown. Well, Yandere was absolutely NOT going to have that!

'Awww what's with that frown? You looked so happy just a second ago!'

Yandere cooed, which spurred Anti to growl and tilt his head so he could fix them with a glare....which only served to tell Yan that Anti was well recovered from that first bout of tickles. Yandere slipped their fingers down to where Anti's jeans had slipped by just a few millimetres, which had allowed his pale hipbones to become exposed; Yandere decided that tracing them would be a good thing to do.

'Is that your angry puppy impression? Daaaawww shall we turn that wittle frown upside dooown?'

Yandere was eager to coax out Anti's mirth once more, but it seemed that the glitch had decided to be a little more defiant. After an initial snort, he'd bitten his bottom lip and started forcing his impending giggles away, only releasing the bare minimum. After being called a damn puppy AND being cooed at, he wasn't going let Yan get what they wanted so easily!

'N-N-Noho....'

Yandere nibbled their own bottom lip with giddy glee, oh how they loved breaking people! In the nicest possible way of course. They softly drew circles against his hipbones with the very tips of their nails, adoring watching Anti tremble with ticklishness.

'I bet this tickles you so bad.....it might not feel as bad if you just let yourself laaaugh....'

They cooed, keeping up the gentle, teasing treatment as Anti frantically shook his head. He could feel the titters building inside him, begging to be released, but he couldn't let himself succumb!

'I-Iwon'tIwon'tIwohon't! Y-Youcan'tmakeme!'

Yandere laughed at that. A full on joyous, mirthful laugh they made them throw their head back....whilst Anti tried to hide his face more because hearing Yandere laugh at him like that was more flustering than he ever could have fathomed. Then their reply came into play, and Anti REALLY knew the feeling of utter flusteredness.

'Mahake you? I don't need to make you! I know if I just keep this up, this softness, you'll break down aaall by yourself.....pretty ruthless, don't you think?'

Anti squirmed as his fists, trapped under his own body, clenched with his embarrassed frustration. Every scrape, every trace of Yandere's nails just chipped away at him a little more....he knew Yandere was right. It was getting to him more and more as second after agonising second passed by; Anti even started to whimper.

'Sh-shutupshutup!'

Yandere smirked.

'I'd like to see you make me.'

Anti whined through gritted teeth, because he knew damn well he barely had enough energy to even struggle properly now. Anti had had a shred of hope inside him, hope that Yandere would get bored of the gentleness....but the tracing just didn't stop; thus, Anti broke.

'Gahahad d-dahahamit stahahappit plehease stahahappit!'

Anti's giggles were frantic and high pitched as a smile spread across his face, which made Yandere snicker with satisfaction.

'But I'm barely doing anything! Surely a ruthless man like yourself can handle some simple tracing?'

'Ihihihi cahan't ohohokahay Ihihi cahahan't!'

....yep, you heard right, Anti DID just admit that. He was a little shocked himself, frankly he was mortified at his own confession, but with the gentle torture draining him he didn't have the capacity to even take it back. Yandere had a shred of mercy once more, allowing Anti gasp and try to regain some sense of thought, whilst of course being very genuinely sympathetic.

'You poor, poor boy....if you couldn't handle that, then I imagine this will REALLY break you.'

.....look I said shred of mercy okay! Plus, it had only been gentle tickling, so Anti had some semblance of good lung capacity and such-like....until Yandere scratched the backs of his thighs with reckless abandon that is.

'NAHAHAHA STAHAHAHA AHAHAHAHA!!!'

Anti was a shrieking, babbling mess. His usual crow's nest of hair looked like a seriously strewn mop-head whilst his blush crept all the way down to his neck, his wild, scratching laughter streaming from him as Yandere's lips parted in gleeful shock. They weren't even scratching that hard, AND Anti was wearing his skinny jeans, so it wasn't like he was completely unprotected.

'Wohow, since when were you this ticklish? Have you been holding out on me?'

Yandere gasped dramatically, but Anti could only wail and wail with his wide eyes and wide mouth....he answered in his head though. He answered yes in his mind because, aside from right now, he'd always worked to try and maintain some form of dignity, to hide to certain tickle spots and to always be ready for an attack. Now though, he had no semblance of control, and was just hysterical, his body twitching and glitching as his nervous system became overrun by the sensations. To be frank, he couldn't handle it.

'PLEHEHEHEHEEEEASE!!!'

Yandere twisted their lips a tad....ohhh there was nothing the wanted more than to carry on and see how deep and intense Anti's ticklishness really meant....well, except, there was ONE thing they wanted more. Their friend's comfort. Yandere decided that in depth exploration would most likely be better at another time when Anti's energy was full. So after beg after beg after beg, Yandere lifted their fingers up and away from the backs of Anti's thighs; now it was definitely time for MORE than a shred of mercy.

'Alright, alright I'm done! I assume you now see that I was right about my point on ruthlessness?'

Anti just nodded. Nodded and let out incoherent whines as his body slumped as his teary eyes blinked and twitched, it was almost as if the treatment he'd received was rather ruthless. He didn't even move when Yandere got off of him because of how exhausted he was, and there he lay, for probably a good twenty minutes until he heard the shuffling noise that signified Yan coming back over to him. What spurred Anti to push himself into a sitting position however, was not Yandere per say, but actually what Yandere was carrying. Namely a platter of fully frosted cupcakes. Yandere giggled fondly when Anti snatched two and wolfed them down, smiling bashfully; after a few moments, he mumbled.

'I guess....non-painful stuff c-can be uh....canberuthless....'

Anti pursed his lips as he hurried through his last few words, he couldn't believe he'd been fricking bested! Meanwhile, Yandere gigged and plopped down on the couch, leaning into their friend who spend the next half an hour alternating between brushing crumbs off himself and brushing away the after tingles from the most amazingly ruthless torture that he'd ever had the good fortune of experiencing.

HOPE YOU GUYS LIKED THIS FIC LEMME KNOW IF YA DID WOOOOO LUV YOUS XX

#markiplier #markiplier egos #yandereplier #yandere #jacksepticeye #jacksepticeye egos #antisepticeye #anti #sfw #platonic #prompt #ego fic #ego fanfic #tickle fic #tickle fanfic #tickle #tickles #tickling #ticklish

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ghost-nabbers-imagines · 5 years

Text

Best Friends: Sal x reader

*your pov*

I sat on the bed in in cross cross position listening to my best friend rant about being different. We were hanging out at his apartment as we usually did listening to music. "I mean it's bad enough I have to deal with that shit at school do they really need to follow me home and taunt me?" He complained. I honestly hated the way Sal was treated. I mean he was a really great guy but all because of a few scars he was a freak? "I know muffin they're just stupid high school assholes who's lives aren't going anywhere once we graduate." I said trying to comfort him. Muffin had been the nickname I had given him a couple weeks after we met and it just stuck. He insisted that I was the only one allowed to call him that. He even dated a girl very briefly who tried it and they got into a huge fight. They ended up breaking up less than a week later but I was never sure if that was related to the nickname or not. "Not you though. You'll be helping so many people! Doing your dream job by day and chilling in your dream house by night. With some gorgeous hottie no doubt." I boasted about him. He turned towards me smirking his blue eye slightly sparkling from behind his mask. Despite what some girls seemed to think he really was good looking. His bright blue eyes complimented his matching hair, and pink lips that curled into the cutest smile. Although not many get to see that. And no one gets to see it often. I’ve only had the privilege once. Not to mention his personality. He was smart but not in the know it all way, kind and thoughtful, but also brave and hilarious. He really didn't deserve all the pain these people caused. "Thanks (nickname). I'll never be alone with you around will I?" He asked with a small chuckle. "Nope your stuck with me muffin!" I beamed. He rolled his eyes and came over so he was sitting in front of me. He got really close to me so we were face to face. His eyes deadly serious. "Pinky promise?" He whispered holding out his pinky. I smiled at him and linked my pinky with his. "Pinky promise." I repeated. We unlinked our pinky's and laid back on his bed. After a couple seconds he sighed again. "Oh know what the worst part was?" He asked turning to his side facing me. "What's that?" I asked doing the same. "They weren't wrong about the teasing this time. One of Travis’s friends was mocking the fact that I’m 18 and still a virgin. I mean Not that I really care but he’s right no one will ever want to have sex with me when my face is this fucked up. It’d be a huge turn off. I’ll be a virgin forever, how pathetic is that!?" He groaned. I couldn't help the small blush that appeared on my face at his comment. I squeezed his hand trying to comfort him. "It's not pathetic. I mean I'm still a virgin. And so is Travis." I told him a little embarrassed at the confession. "Yeah but you could sleep with anyone if you wanted. And Travis is probably saving himself for marriage. Not to mention the fact he’s secretly gay." He replied throwing his hands over his covered face. A soft knock at the door made us both jump. "Sorry to scare you both but Sal lovely will (y/n) be joining us for dinner?" Sal’s step mom Lisa asked. Sal looked towards me expecting an answer. "Yes please Lisa. If I'm not imposing." I answered smiling. Lisa was like a second mom to me, always being there for advice and a shoulder to cry on. "Of course sweetie. You're welcome anytime. Dinner will be ready in five minutes." She said pulling the door shut and retreating down the hallway. "You're like a part of this family you know." Sal said placing his hand on mine. I smiled at his sweetness. Sal losened the bottom part of his mask. He lifted it up a small bit and leaned forward placing a soft gentle kiss on my cheek before getting up and making his way to the door holding it open for me. I jumped up and we made our way down to the table.

~~~~~~~~~time skip~~~~~~~~~

Sal and I reentered his room after another wonderful meal. "Lisa sure is a great cook muffin." I laughed flopping myself onto his bed again. I was so beyond full I didn't wanna move. I heard Sal let out a small chuckle at my actions. He watched me for a few minutes before going over to the closet. He pulled out a shoe box and joined me on the bed. I sat up looking at him confused. "I wanted to show you this." He said nervously scratching the back of his neck. He pushed the shoebox in front of me signaling for me to take it. I curiously took the lid off wondering what my best friend could be up to. The first thing I saw in the box was a small photo album. I picked it up flipping through it. It held every picture we had ever taken starting with the first one we took in front of Addison on his first week here, and ending with the Polaroid Ash had taken of me sitting on Sal’s lap both of us covered in paint as Larry tried to teach us both. The next thing I pulled out was a blue bow tie. I recognized it from our first school dance. I was so excited when this guy asked me. I bought a new dress, curled my hair, got a pair of heels, and did my makeup. Then he ended up changing his mind and going with a much prettier cheerleader. I was so heart broken when I got the text that I didn’t even want to go, but Sal didn't let me stay home and sulk. He showed up all dressed up with a corsage and everything. The next thing in the box was a little box full of movie tickets and rental recipts. One from every movie we'd been too or rented.The next thing was a busted pair of glasses. A year ago I was dating this guy named Nick, in the beginning we were very happy and in love. But he started cheating on me with one of my very best friends. When I found out I couldn't get out of bed I was so crushed. I was shocked to find out the next day Sal and Larry went and beat the shit out of the guy. I mean Sal wasn’t one for fighting so he got a bit beaten up but nevertheless he kicked his ass for hurting me. The next thing was the first best friend bracelet I made him that had broken. And the very last thing was a folded up piece of paper. I carefully unfolded recognizing my own handwriting. It was this project I made for my literature class next year. I had to write about something I found beautiful and describe it using an assortment of adjectives, so I wrote about Sal’s face. I remember the look in his eyes when he read it. He actually started to cry. I thought I had thrown it out. He had kept all of this stuff but why? "I thought I threw this away." I said showing him the paper. “You did but I took it out of your trash that night. I know it’s a little weird but after you showed it to me there was no way I was letting it get thrown away. No ones ever described my face like that. I just had to keep it.” He explained. He pulled his arm around my shoulders bringing me closer. “I can’t believe you kept it all.” I whispered. "You're my best friend. Of course I did." He chuckled.

He moved the box up to his dresser before laying on the bed with his head on my lap. I brought my hand up to his hair softly taking out his hair ties and setting them aside. Running my hands through his electric blue locks I smiled down at my best friend. “Feeling any better?” I asked. "I just don't get it. I know I’ve got a fucked up face but I’m a nice guy. I've always been polite to everyone and romantic to my girlfriends. Well the one I've actually dated. You've known me for years am I just that unloveable? Am I that much of a freak?" "Sal no! There's noting wrong with you! You are not even close to a fuck up!" I tried to assure him. It was no use, he still looked so upset. "Come on (Y/n) clearly I’m just a monster like Travis says since no one wants me." He sighed sitting up and staring at his floor. Seeing him like this hurt me. I had to do something there was no way I was just gonna seat here and let him convince himself he's fucked up. So I mustered up all my courage getting off the bed and standing in front of him. "If it'll make you feel better I'll sleep with you." I suggested. Sal immediately looked up towards me wide eyed. He was probably horrified at the idea. "I-I'm sorry that was stupid. Of course you don't wanna sleep with me." I sighed sitting next to him. He immediately shook his head and pulled himself closer to me. "No no that's not it (Y/n)! I do I mean hell I've liked you for a long time. I just... don't want you to only do it for that reason. You should lose your virginity to someone you love. Someone who’s not a monster." He chuckled a blush covering his ears. "I've liked you for a long time too muffin. And I would be honored to lose it to you. You’re definitely not a monster." I explained while I looked up into his bright blue eyes that were staring at me. He leaned closer to my face moving some of my (y/h/c) hair out of my face. I suddenly lost the ability to breathe. He was so close to my face. "(Y-Y/n) can I kiss you?" He asked. I nodded with a blush. “If you take this off.” I answered gently touching his mask. He let out a shaky breath removing the mask revealing his scarred up face. I reached my hand up tracing several scars. “You’re so beautiful muffin.” I giggled making him passionately press his lips against mine. I kissed him back loving the feeling of his soft sort of chapped lips. Our lips moved in sync and his hands moved to my waist as my arms wrapped around his neck. His tongue licked at my bottom lip asking for entrance. I allowed him and soon we were having a pretty heated makeout session. He lightly pushed me back so he was laying on top of me.

~~~~~~~sexy time skip~~~~~~~~

Sal laid down next to me panting and exhausted. He disposed of the condom in a trash bin near by. "Wow." He panted wrapping his arms around me pulling me closer. "Yeah wow." I giggled. His fingers lightly traced my skin sending shivers down my spine. “I guess I owe Larry a condom.” Sal chuckled. “Guess so. Not like he was gonna use it. Except to maybe make water balloons with.” I teased. Sal chuckled holding me closer. I reach my hands up holding his face in my palms. The door clicking open caused us to shoot up. Sal immediately pulled the blanket up so it was covering my exposed body. "Hey Sal dude, mom wants to know if (y/n)-" Larry started to say before he saw us. "Larry it's um- it’s- not what it looks like.” Sal stuttered hoping his step brother and best friend wouldn't bust us. "I see you finally got the balls to go after (y/n). And you actually fucked her I’m proud man.” he chuckled. Sal looked at me then back to his brother his cheeks slightly redder. "Uh yeah I guess I did." He smiled. "So are you guys like a thing now or what?" Larry asked closing the door. Sal and I shared a look smiling. "Will you be mine?" He asked goofily making Larry roll his eyes and fake a gagging sound. "Of course muffin!” I giggled kissing him. "Ok gross. Tone it down before I puke. Mom wants to know if (Y/n) is staying over by the way." He laughed sitting down on his own bed. Sal got up and handed me my bra and panties. I slipped them on under the blanket. He reached into his dresser pulling out my favorite hoodie of his and a pair of sweatpants handing them to me before getting himself dressed. When we were both done we crawled back into bed cuddling. Sal laid on his back his arms around me as I laid on my side curled up against his chest "I've loved you for a long time (y/n)." He whispered. "I love you too muffin." I giggled into his chest. "Sal, Larry, (y/n)! I made dessert!" Lisa called out though the walkie. "I suppose we should go tell her we're dating." Sal chuckled grabbing his mask and buckling it into place leaving his hair down. "Yeah might as well tell her the good news." I replied getting out of bed. “She’ll be fuckin stoked man. She loves (Y/n) like a daughter already.” Larry pointed out making me smile. Sal got up putting his arm around my shoulders. Larry got up too putting an arm around Sal’s shoulders. “This is fuckin awesome. Now I have a brother and a sister! Wel in law someday I guess.” He chuckled. “Hell yeah Johnson!” I agreed making Sal give me a supportive squeeze. The three of us made our way up to Lisa and Henry’s apartment. “Oh hey Sal! Tomorrow if they give you shit about not being a virgin you can tell em to go fuck themselves!” I said nudging my boyfriend. “Travis can’t say shit he’s a fuckin virgin too.” Larry scoffed. “Oh yeah in speaking of that. I owe you a condom Larry Face.” Sal chuckled. “You used one of my condoms?! Dude it was my last one.” Larry laughed. “Don’t worry Lar bear you can’t get your left hand pregnant.” I giggled. Sal let out a laugh and Larry pretended to be offended. “I fucking love you.” Sal chuckled hugging me. “Jokes on both of you. It was expired.” Larry chuckled making his way into the kitchen first. Both Sal and I to look at each other worriedly. “He was kidding right?” I asked hopefully. “I’ll find out.” Sal groaned as we entered the kitchen.

Lisa turned around handing us each a bowl of ice cream covered brownie. “Thanks Lisa.” Sal and I both said taking a seat at the table. “Fuck you’re not gonna become one of those couples that only talks in we terms are you?” Larry asked. “We love the winter.” I mocked in a fake basic bitch accent like the girls Larry was referring to. “We never use deodorant.” Sal said in the same voice making both Larry and I laugh. “Wait a couple? Sal love did you ask her out?” Lisa asked excitedly. “Did a lot more than fuckin ask.” Larry chuckled. “Yes Lisa I did. I finally took your advice.” Sal said kicking Larry under the table. Lisa screamed excitedly coming over and wrapping her arms around us. “Oh yay! I love you both I’m so happy you’re finally happy together!” She cheered. “Me too Lisa.” I giggled grabbing Sal’s hand.

#larry johnson sally face #sal fisher x reader #sally face x reader #sally face imagines #sal fisher #sally face #sal fisher sally face #indie games

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cost-of-chaos · 5 years

Text

All you Need is Love (Chapter Three)

Roger Taylor x OC

Word Count: 1.8k+

Warnings: Phonesex, masturbation

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

It had just past 9 and I had finally found myself some peace from nosy relatives, in the corner of the grand ballroom. I sat with my back against the baroque style panelling, cradling my cake in my lap as a sat cross-legged on the floor, giving some respite to my aching feet. I should have insisted against these new pair of heals, since when is wearing heels in for six hours ever a good idea?

I still couldn’t get my head around the fact that my 22 year old sister was getting married to some annoyingly pompous asshole she met while studying at her fancy pansy American college. As I watched her sway offbeat to a poor rendition of Elvis’s ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’ by a tone-deaf wedding singer, I couldn’t help but judge her a little bit. Don’t get me wrong the song brings a tear to my eyes on a good day, but she was literally throwing her life away for someone she met a year ago. I reached for my flute of champagne and downed the whole thing in one gulp.

When I was her age, I’d only just started dating Roger, now here we are seven years later and I’ve not thought of marriage once. I’ve never been happier with my life. My art is growing in popularity, gallery showings are becoming more frequent and living together with Roger has been just as amazing as I thought it would be. We are best friends, lovers and dare I say even soul mates, but alas my little sister was showing more commitment to her man than I had ever shown to the love of my life. All we had to show for our relationship was a rented out flat and a cat. Just like that, I was feeling inferior to my baby sister for what felt like the hundredth time this week.

I was transfixed by the happy couple, in the middle of the dance floor completely oblivious to the world around them and I began to really miss my man after a week apart. Right. That’s it, enough of listening to lame music surrounded by most boring people in the whole of Connecticut making fools of themselves on the dance floor and enough weaving to avoid horribly awkward conversations with distant relatives. I stood up and walked up to the waiter who had just popped the cork of a Moët Chandon, I swiped it from his hand and kept walking, I needed to get drunk. I took another glance at my surroundings once more, scratch that, I need to get drunk and be alone.

After finding my way back to my room after getting lost in the rabbit warren that was this fancy hotel I undid the zip on my dress all the way down to the bright pink bow sitting over my ass. I shimmied out of the heavy taffeta and flopped onto the large bed, open bottle of champagne still clutched in my hand.

I brought the bottle to my lips and took a large gulp of the bubbly yellow liquid. I nestled the bottle between my breasts so I could take my hair out of its intricate updo. As I was removing the many clips keeping my hair up, I noticed the underwear I was wearing. It was the pale pink lace underwear set which Roger had bought for me for Valentine’s Day last year. And just like that, I was overwhelmed by the desperate need to hear his voice.

I pulled the phone off the bedside table and dialled the number he’d told me he’d be reachable on for the next couple of days. “Hee-loo” I heard the groggy raspy voice I was so used to hearing when I woke up.

“Hiya Rog” I said sheepily, now feeling slightly guilty for waking him up.

“Ronnie, its 4 in the morning, is everything okay? Are you okay?”

“Everything is fine… sorry for waking you up I just miss you is all” I said, wrapping the phone cord around my finger as I counted the ceiling tiles above me. “I miss you soo much, your touch, your kisses, I want to feel you next to me, holding me. I long to feel your skin next to mine and feel you inside of me again,”

“Oh!” Roger exclaimed with excitement as he realised what was happening.

“A week is too long Roggie.”

“I miss you too V, You wanna know what I’d do if you were with me right now? I’d kiss you, leaving a trail from your lips to your neck, between your tits, to that tender spot on your upper thigh, leaving hickeys all over your body. I want to feel your wetness through your panties while I tease you.” I was growing wetter with every word he was saying, I could feel my breathing deepen as my desire for him grew.

“Alright love, I better get back to sleep, I have to get up early in the morning”

“Oh no you don’t bucko! “You’ve gotten me all wet, now you’re not going anywhere until I cum”. I took another swig of the champagne, this was going to be fun.

“Did I tell you what I bought the other day while I was in New York City for the bachelorette party? I visited a little store called Eve’s Garden and they have all sorts of wonderful inventions. Truly wonderful inventions. I bought one and it’s been keeping me company while I’ve been soo many miles away from you but… I think this will be muuuch better”. I could hear Rogers breath hitch through the phone when he realised what I was talking about. I scooted off the bed and rifled through my bag until I found the wand. I plugged it into the socket and laid back down on the bed.

“You ready baby?” I asked, in the most sultry innocent voice I could manage.

“More ready than you could imagine, I’m already so hard thinking about you baby girl.”

“Good. Picture this. We’re in our apartment. I push you up against the wall and I crash my lips onto yours, I lick your lips for permission to enter and you quickly allow…” I let out a quiet moan as I turned on the device and the vibrations made me arch my back up off the bed in pleasure. “I trail my hands up the back of your shirt and I feel our muscles relax. I kiss you breathless before moving my kisses down your neck. I pull off your shirt and place wet kisses down your chest and trace down the waistband of your pants.” I licked my lips as I thought of Rogers manhood, “I miss sucking that big cock baby.”

The line was silent, and I was worried I was the only one still turned on but he faintly heard him moan, before speaking again. “Sorry love, I got a little carried away, you’re so hot, is your pussy nice and wet for me angel?”

“Mmhmmm” Was all I could murmer into the phone, even him calling me angel was almost hot enough to be my undoing, I needed him to keep going and keep going now.”

“I kiss you deeply, breaking the kiss only to remove your shirt, I reach around and unclasp your bra, moving my kisses lower and sneaking my hands past your thighs, under the hem of your skirt to your knickers, and baby they’re so wet for me already, are you wet for me baby?”

I let out a strangled moan. “Roger, I miss you, I need you. I want to feel you, I need to feel you inside of me”

I could hear Roger’s own breathing starting to become heavy, he moaned as I begged for his cock. I want you to suck those fingers of yours love, insert them into your tight pussy.” I eagerly followed his orders, loving this sense of dominance which I didn’t see an awful lot of and I quickly found my g spot.

“Roggie… Rog… I’m going to cum baby” I said as I bucked my hips violently into my hand.

“Love I’m not far behind you” He said breathlessly. It only took seconds but I could already feel myself start to shake, and my moans of extasy were soon joined by Rogers as we rode out or orgasms together.

I turned the massager off and dropped it beside me on the bed, as I lifelessly lay there panting, my ear glued to the phone listening Rog do the same thing. After our breathing finally regulated, I was the first one to speak.

“I really miss you babe, I can’t believe we still have a week left until I get to see you again”. I said, sadness washed over me as I realised I was only halfway through my trip to America.

“I miss you too V, but it doesn’t have to be another week if you don’t want it to be.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, truly confused as to what he was talking about.

“Look inside your suitcase, I believe there may be something in there with your intimates which might help us out.” He said, I could tell he was smiling on the other end of the line. I jumped up with haste and excitement and fell to the floor where my suitcase lay open beside the bed. I rifled through the suitcase until I found a little piece of paper, I pulled it out and as I read it, I couldn’t contain a scream.

“I take it that you like my little surprise?” He asked chuckling. Sitting in my hand was a one-way ticket from Bradley International to Narita International, for tomorrow morning.

“Oh my god! Roger! I can’t believe you did this! I’m going to be in your arms this time tomorrow! I don’t know what to say!”

“You don’t need to say anything! I honestly can’t wait love. I don’t know how I lasted this long without you... Is that totally pathetic?”

“No! It’s like magic to my ears, because if I’m being completely honest, I’ve been missing you like crazy! It’s all love central over here aswell which isn’t making things any easier!”

“Try being surrounded by thousands of girls screaming for you! And the guys… well, let's just say they’re making the most of the attention” My stomach dropped, I hadn’t actually thought of all the girls who would be throwing themselves all over the boys over there.

I sat there, frozen in place as a sense of dread slowly filled my stomach as my mind flipped between different scenes of Roger in precarious situations.

“I love you, Veronica. I can’t wait to see you later, I have a car organised to pick you up from the airport, I really wanted to do it myself, but apparently, there is a safety issue. I’ve missed you so much... No girl even comes close to you.” He said, reassuring me. Why was I even worried, I knew how amazing he was, of course he’s not going to hurt me. “Well love, I’d love a round two but I need to get up in a few hours, and I believe someONE has some packing to do.”

I groaned in response, knowing our conversation had to come to an end. “ Love you babe, thanks for this chat, I’ll be seeing you later!”

“Love you Ron, keep that pussy ready for me because I’m going to fuck you so hard you won’t be able to see straight.” The line went deed and I looked around my mess of a room, and back at my large electronic friend beside me. The packing could wait a little longer, I wasn’t quite ready to pack this baby up.

Tags: @perriwiinkle @theglowissodivine

#ben hardy! roger taylor #ben hardy!roger x reader #ben hardy! roger taylor x oc #roger taylor #roger taylor x oc #roger taylor x reader #roger taylor fanfic #roger taylor fanfiction #roger taylor imagine #bohemian rhapsody #queen #queen imagine #fanfiction #all you need is love

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askcarlyle · 5 years

Text

[A contribution (in conjunction with @askbarnum and @askbennett) to FanFicFeb on @theothersidediscord for Prompts #10 (Facing your fear), 18 (Children), and 19 (Ambition) and . Edited from the live version, which concluded on server yesterday.]

Carlyle

A new day brings with it the sounds of birdsong, the gentle lapping of water along the shore of the lake, and the deep rumbling snore of the newly adopted bear, with Barnum's only slightly less sonorous snore delivered in perfect counterpoint.

Mmmppphh... BT dammit, my face is not a cushion...

mumbles and bats irritably at the mass of fur only to start awake upon realizing it is attached to a much larger creature. Blinks blearily at their sleep pile, including the bear currently shoving a shaggy elbow into his chin

Right. Good morning to you, too.

Barnum

Mmm it's not morning yet Helen go back to sleep sweetheart.

Tugs the blanket over his head for a few minutes before groggily coming into consciousness

Oh...good morning.

Sits up and stretches out his arms before leaning into the bears large warm body. Glances at Phillip, lips twitching into a grin

You suit the ruffled unwashed look. Its rugged.

Carlyle

runs hand through hair, giving up after a few tries when it refuses to do anything but pop back up at odd angles

Rugged? That's a generous estimation. We've been stumbling through mud and bracken for two days, I feel like something Ellie dragged in from the sewers.

peers at Barnum in puzzlement

How did you manage to sprout that much facial hair in the course of a weekend, anyway? That's practically a full beard. It's like it spontaneously regenerates overnight if you don't shave.

shakes head and pulls off shirt, heading down to the water's edge

Might as well take advantage of the surroundings. You could use a wash, too.

Barnum

Gives his beard a rub and chuckles

That is generally quite normal for men. You just seem to grow hair slower than most. You are sporting a rather good beginning to a moustache there though.

Scratches behind Grylls ears before standing up too, unbuttoning his pants and removing his underwear before joining Phillip

Could be a bit more subtle about telling me I smell.

Gets to the waters edge and wades in until he is covered to his waist, then without hesitation dunks his head under, splashing Phil when he comes back up for air.

Mm the natural cologne of pond water. I feel cleaner already.

Carlyle

wipes water out of eyes with studied indifference and rubs face clean with another scoop of water

This rather reminds me of when the girls "camp" in the tent when they visit. Making the blanket tent in the middle of the rings, roasting sausages over a small fire, the way they jump off the dock in the morning in lieu of a bath, trying to soak as many people with their splashes as possible.

ducks another wave of water while trying to scrub mud out of hair

You taught them that, didn't you? I can't imagine Charity performing a flying cannonball, somehow.

Barnum

You'd be surprised. Charity could out splash me any day. She also does incredible dolphin impressions.

gives his hair and chest a light scrub with his hands before allowing himself to float on the surface of the water, glancing at the clouds

They'd love it here. The outdoors and building your own shelters. Hunting for food. And they'd love Grylls. I wonder if they're worried about us.

Carlyle

gives up and dunks head in water, raking hair back into a somewhat acceptable configuration

They must have notified the authorities by now. We never showed up at the ball or anywhere after. There's a chance the horses made it home by now.

stands in the shallow water, watching Barnum float by

That looks like fun. Maybe we could have swimming lessons someday, when we are in a slightly less remote location? Or perhaps I should be asking Charity?

Barnum

Hey, she might be better at the cannonball but I can easily beat her in a race. I have had many more years of swimming practise than she has. Here.

Shifts back under the water and paddles over, standing next to Phillip in the shallows and holding out his arms

Lay on your front, I'll hold you up. Once you learn to not panic and how to move your arms and legs you'll be fine. Swimming is like riding a bicycle.

Carlyle

looks down at the water uncertainly, caught offguard by the sudden offer

Now?

glances back towards the shore, then seems to realize they have absolutely no schedule to follow, a nearly unheard of luxury. shrugs and flops forward, nearly sending Barnum toppling

Barnum

Oof ...Alright first thing, stop being so tense. You're like a rock. Let your shoulders go loose, there we go.

Holds him near the surface of the water, ducking a little to let himself sink under a bit too.

Now all the power to keep yourself up comes from your legs, moving your arms is for steadying and direction. You wanna kick your legs like you're running, then when you feel steady, get your arms going too. One over one under, like you've seen me do.

Carlyle

holds head above water and gives a few experimental kicks, flailing a little with arms as he sinks lower in the water

Bicycles don't drown you if you fall, you know.

Barnum

You're not going to drown either, I am holding you up. Relax, you are going stiff again.

Leans slightly to press a kiss against the others soaked hair

I won't let go, kick harder. A mans body naturally floats unless you will it otherwise. Hard kicks, try moving your arms as if they are a pair of dolphins leaping in and out of the water. Big arches. No not at the same time, one after the other. You're doing great, still need to kick harder but we are moving.

Carlyle

follows instructions as best as possible, pushing away fears and grounding self in the feeling of strong, capable hands steadying his somewhat halting progress

feels, for the first time, the water actually buoying him up rather than pushing down from all sides. As if stepping out of a smokey tent into the clear night air, something finally clicks and the last dragging chains of memories past are shed

Barnum

Chuckles with an overjoyed grin

You're doing it! You're swimming, Phil! I am still ready to catch you but I'm moving my hands away alright. Just keep going, don’t panic. I will put them right back if I think you need them. Stead- AGH

Feels something sink its teeth into his leg and yelps, slipping back in the wet river mud and splashing around to regain his balance. About to resume steadying Phillip he feels another set of sharp teeth sink into his rear and nearly jumps out of the water.

LeSsOn OvEr! Ack! Oww Back to land, don't put your feet down there’s something- ack!!

Carlyle

shoots forward in the water as Barnum lets go, then promptly starts flailing when he realizes the training wheels have come off

"Something"?! What

splutter

constitutes

splash

"something"?

yelps as foot touches something fast and slimy when he tries to feel the lakebed with his feet

half dashes and half dogpaddles until finally able to run the rest of the way to shore

Barnum

Flails for a few moments as he uses one hand to protect his unmentionables and the other to try to keep himself balanced in the water. Scrambling back towards the shore in a fit of yelps as he slips and slides on the muddy pond edge, noticing a nasty looking trout with its teeth still stuck in his thigh and slipping straight over into the mud in shock. Which thankfully prompts the creature to let go and slip back into the water.

Well on the bright side, I think you may have set a new world record for fastest dogpaddle swimming, and only minutes after your first lesson.

Attention is suddenly torn away by the bear as she casually plods forward into the water and returns moments later with the same hefty trout in her mouth, proudly bringing it back to the shore and dumping it on the ground near them before returning to find another.

Carlyle

plods over to stare at the monstrous trout, soggy and still panting

Huh. Well. That happened.

gives Barnum a quick visual examination and, upon noting the bites are superficial, skewers the fish, perhaps a bit vengefully, with a nearby stick and heads back to camp

Breakfast will be ready in half an hour.

Barnum

After an hour of drying off by the fire and finishing up their fish breakfast, they begin heading once again in the direction of the road. The blanket tied around his shoulders to keep his muddy bare torso from freezing, one arm scritching the bears ears as they walk.

The first thing I'm going to do when we get back home is have a bath. You forget the luxury it is to have clean warm water. Then I'm going to eat warm toast with jam and never take it for granted again.

Climbs over a large log and holds out a hand to steady Phil as he does so too

And shave. I'm not sure a beard suits me. However, you have a moustache coming through and it's rather charming.

Carlyle

scrunches nose and mouth experimentally

It's itchy. But I think the beard makes you look rather dashing in a roguish way.

clambers over log and pushes through some more undergrowth

Coffee. I miss coffee. Had even considered roasting some plant roots to attempt a substitute this morning.

Barnum

Runs a hand through his hair and breaths out a sigh

Hm yes. The lack of caffeine is giving me headaches. A comfortable bed would be nice too. I'm so stiff I feel like an old man. The thought of living in the wilderness with you freely for the rest of my days was appealing until I noticed the only surface we would have available is the compacted rocky dirt. My back is too sore to spend any sort of pleasurable night this way.

Carlyle

pats Grylls on one fluffy haunch

Luckily we had a soft pillow at least. Do you suppose she would let you ride her? If you're really that sore. You shouldn't strain your back.

Barnum

Good question.

Pauses and gives the bear a friendly pat on the side, when she pauses he vaults himself atop of her, settling comfortably against her fur as she pauses for a moment then keeps walking

...I think I have found my new show entrance. Care to join me?

Carlyle

shakes head and gives the bear an affectionate ear scratch

No thanks, don't want to strain her too much. This does open up a host of new performance possibilities, though.

Barnum

Do you think she would be open to us dressing her in a tutu? She has some elegance in her gait. I think she could be taught ballet. Or perhaps she could ride a unicycle across the tightrope. Can you imagine the possibilities?

Carlyle

She is one of the brightest animals I've met. We could give her the option and see if she likes it after she gets better. Caroline would love creating a routine for her.

stops and puts a hand on Gryll's neck to halt her

Did you hear something? I think those were carriage wheels.

Barnum

Leans forwards as he squints to listen closely

....Those are carriage wheels!

Gives Grylls a gentle nudge with his foot to send her running in the direction of the sound, gesturing for Phil to follow

STOP! STOP! WAIT! HELP!

Carlyle

They burst through the last stand of trees and onto the dirt road, muddied, grizzled, and partially clothed, with Barnum astride a large black bear wielding a sharpened stick. The carriage pulls to a halt several yards ahead of them.

Bennett

Opens carriage door slowly and steps out to observe the scene with an expression of pure incredulity.

Mr. Carlyle. You have been gone for barely over two days. And yet, in that time, you seem to have forgotten all sense of decorum, and acquired, not one, but two bears.

Barnum

Glances from Bennett to the carriage in utter bewilderment, slowly sliding off of the bear

Confusion slowly melts into delight and he chuckles incredulously, throwing his arms around Bennett before he can protest

I never thought I'd say this, but I am so happy to see you, Mr Bennett.

Carlyle

Indeed. You are not the hero we were expecting, but you are our savior all the same.

glances down at disheveled state

We did end up having a few more difficulties in our travels than expected. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Bennett

Endeavours to extricate himself from Barnum’s enthusiastic embrace.

Desperate measures including removing half of your clothing, and adopting a large furry carnivore as your steed? How did you even...actually, never mind. Just get in the carriage.

Barnum

We owe you our lives. I thought we may be stuck out here for weeks.

Releases him after a few moments, dumping his sharpened branch spear at the edge of the road.

You don't mind if Grylls rides on the roof do you? I am sure she'll fi-

As if on cue, the bear rises to stand on two feet and snarls at Bennett, towering over them and lashing out with a huge paw. Barnum stepping in front protectively and ending up with a matching gash on his other shoulder, cursing under his breath

Hey! No attacking. Get up on there right now.

The bear, almost as if understanding, growls at them before climbing up on top of the carriage, scraping off the nice paintwork with her claws and denting the roof as she does so.

Good girl.

Hops up inside of the carriage

Will you drop us off at the Circus? I need to find a pen for her before we head home. I doubt she will fit in the town house comfortably.

Carlyle

fade to black

finis

#tgs #the greatest showman #phillip carlyle #pt barnum #mr bennett from the herald #AskblogTGSFanFicFeb2019 #TGSFanFicFeb2019 #discord thread

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letmeletmetrashyourlove · 6 years

Text

Landslide

Summary: Henderson sister reader. That’s all I’m gonna say bc it’s just a mess.

Authors Note: Holy fucking shit this took me FOREVER to write. Like a month. I’ve really been hating my work lately, and I don't know how I feel about this one. I can’t tell if I don’t like it because I’ve read it too many times, or if it’s not good. I’m really scared to post this. Kinda wanna vomit, kinda wanna cry. This baby is 12k word because I couldn’t make myself shut up.

LET THE SHIT SHOW BEGIN

“We’ve got a few minutes to kill,” Billy smirked as he glanced up from his watch.

“Yeah, and what do you suggest we do?”

His reaction was simply to unbuckle my seatbelt, yank me from my spot in the passenger seat and onto his lap. His lips were on mine in an instant, still curled into a grin as he drew my bottom lip between his teeth.

I wiggled my hips, making him let out a grunt as his hands shot to my waist to still me,

“Stop it.” He grumbled against my lips, his tone firm as his fingertips sank into my midriff.

“I’m not doing anything,” I replied sweetly, shifting my weight slightly. Once again, pushing my hips against his,

“Seriously, stop it.” He cautioned, his grip tightening.”

“Or what, Hargrove?” I purred, “You gonna punish me?”

He growled, hands grasping for the top buttons on my blouse as he fervently kissed me, his teeth clashing with mine. He launched off the back of his seat, leaning me backward against the steering wheel. I let out a laugh as I bumped the horn. He welcomed the opportunity to shove his tongue in my mouth. Without catching my attention, he had managed to unbutton my top and was running his hands over my bra.

“Okay, okay, that’s enough.” I murmured between kisses, bringing my hands to rest on his wrists.

“Mmm not done, though” he countered, knitting his hands in my hair and tugging my head back to suck on my neck, his lips trailing down to my collarbone,

“The kids are gonna come out soon.” I gasped as he nipped at me.

“When do they ever come out on time?” He replied, lips lingering against my skin.

“Since you berated them last time.” I quipped,

Despite the firmness in my tone, I couldn’t bring myself to pull away. The boy knew how tantalizing his touch was, invariably providing me just little enough to make me plead for more. I planted my hand on his neck, softly raking my nails down his chest in a way that always made him writhe. And writhe he did, sinking his teeth into my collar as I did so. I dared not move my hips another time, for fear of being arrested for public indecency.

“When we get home I’m gonna-”

His threat was interrupted by knocking on the car window,

“Hey, pervert! Get your tongue out of my sister’s throat!” Dustin shouted, his voice distorted by the glass that was between us.

I let out a bubbly laugh as I climbed off Billy, much to his chagrin. He clicked the doors unlocked and stepped out to let the kids climb in behind his seat. I hastily buttoned up my blouse before they could get in. Lucas, Dustin, Max, and Mike climbed in and fastened their seatbelts. Dustin had perched himself on Mike’s lap since there wasn’t sufficient room for all four of them back there. I had offered Ms. Byers to drive Will to and from the arcade, but she was too paranoid for her own good after what happened last year.

“Ew, you guys fogged up the windows!” Mike exclaimed, passing his sleeve over the glass, squeaking as the condensation was wiped away. Billy let out a chuckle, shooting me a wink as he started the Camaro.

Come to think of it, I couldn’t blame Ms. Byers for not wanting Will to be in the car with Billy behind the wheel. He was an erratic driver to say the least, but he had never gotten us into an accident. Despite many many close calls.

We all sat in tense silence for a few moments, until Max shattered it,

“I was wondering if you could drop Lucas and I off at the movies tomorrow,” Max asked delicately.

“No.” Billy barked, without even asking for more detail.

I threw him a glare telling him to be nice. Billy had good intentions, he just buried them under a guise of hostility. He was protective of Max, actually cared about her. Although, you wouldn’t be able to see that by watching them interact. Every conversation involved at least one of them yelling and cursing. And even if you couldn’t tell what they were saying, even if they were only talking about something mundane, Max was on edge. Billy hovered over her like a storm cloud threatening to erupt with thunder at any moment. His frustration didn’t come without cause. Whether or not Max knew it, she was in control over if Billy took a beating or not. Hell, I wasn’t convinced that Max knew about what Neil did to Billy. Despite Billy thinking she knew and misbehaved just to get him in trouble.

“What time?” Billy grumbled, eyes glued to the pavement in front of him.

“Three.”

“What movie?”

“They’re doing a screening of Star Wars at The Hawk,” Max replied.

“Just you and Lucas?” Billy pressed, his tone lowering as he did so.

Max didn’t answer, she merely looked to her feet,

“Max.” Billy demanded, “Answer me.”

“Yeah.” She whispered, nervously tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

“No. You’re not going.” Billy asserted, peering at her in the rear-view mirror.

“But Bi-”

“I said no!” Billy snapped.

Despite their improving relationship, Billy still wouldn’t let Max and Lucas be alone together. He was already pissed enough about her hanging out with a bunch of boys, let alone going to sleepovers at their houses.

I turned to Max, resting my hand on her knee,

“I can take you, kiddos.” I offered.

“Y/N!” Billy blurted, shooting me a disapproving glance.

“Come on, Billy. What kind of trouble do you think they’re going to get into?”

“The same kind of trouble we were just getting into!” He retorted, throwing his hand up in the air in frustration.

I rolled my eyes,

“Lucas isn’t a perv like you are.” I defended the boy, causing the back seat to erupt with laughter.

“Can it!” Billy growled as we pulled into the Wheeler’s driveway.

Mike let out a groan as he squirmed out from under Dustin’s lap,

“Bye!” Dustin hollered

As we pulled out of the driveway, Max continued to beg,

“Please, Billy!?”

“What’s in it for me?”

“The rewarding feeling of being a good big brother,” I interjected.

Max and Lucas batted their eyelashes at Billy. He let out a defeated groan,

“Fine.” He grunted.

“Thank you!” Max burst, throwing her arms around the back of Billy’s seat to engulf him in a hug. Lucas smiled to himself, but sat with his hands politely folded in his lap. Dustin playfully bumped shoulders with him,

“Max and Lucas sitting in a tree, K-I-S- oof!” He was cut off by Lucas’ elbow colliding with his gut. I shook my head, reaching for Billy’s hand where it sat on the gear shift. I presented him a smile as he intertwined our fingers.

He dropped Max at home before driving back over to Dustin and I’s place. We all climbed out and made our way to the door. Dustin slid the glass open, trudging in and setting his backpack on the counter before getting into the fridge.

“Don’t give yourself a sugar rush.” I cautioned as I watched him pluck out a couple of pudding cups and a can of soda.

He stuck his tongue out at me as he retreated to his bedroom. I followed behind him, going into the door on the opposite side of the hall. Billy trailed not far behind, closing the door once he came in.

Tews let out a chirp when he realized I was home. He got up from his spot on the bed and stretched out. Billy sat on the edge of the bed, baiting the cat to move over and sit on his lap. I unbuttoned my blouse, taking it off and putting it on a hanger. Billy let out a whistle from behind me. I rolled my eyes, pulling out my old Hawkins Middle School AV club shirt.

“That’s my seat, Tews.” I cooed as I scratched his chin.

Billy gave him the boot when I said those words, seizing me by the hips and hauling me to stand between his legs.

“You’re a tease, you know that?” Billy murmured, staring up at me with eyes that held a mischievous glint as his palms drifted up my waist and to the hem of my shirt.

“Don’t even think about it, Hargrove,” I replied, stepping from his clutch to sit down beside him. I flopped backward, head landing on my pillows as I threw my legs over Billy’s lap. I reached over to my nightstand, picking up the fortune cookie that came with our Chinese takeout earlier in the day.

I unwrapped it, breaking it in half. I handed Billy the half that didn’t have the fortune in it. I removed the white strip from my half, reading it over as I popped the wafer in my mouth.

“You will receive a gift from somebody who cares about you.” I read between crunches, “Babe, what d'you get me? A new El Camino?” I joked.

He caressed my legs with his calloused hands, letting out a nervous chuckle as he drew something from his pocket.

“I uh… That’s kinda creepy actually… because I do have a present for you.”

I raised my eyebrow at him, giving him grabby hands,

He shifted so he was laying on his side next to me, his head propped on his hand as he gave me a red and white Marlboro box.

“Is my present a disgusting habit?” I questioned, cocking my eyebrows at him.

“No.”

“Your garbage, then?” I teased.

“No, just open it!” He pleaded without the same hint of playfulness that I had.

I flipped the top of the pack, tipping it over. Something spilled out and into my hand,

A silver necklace chain with a ring dangling from it. The ring had a red jewel on it and a skinny band, it certainly looked like it belonged to a woman. I held it up in front of me, observing the light from the lamp on my bedside table shone through the stone.

“It’s… Uh… it belonged to my mom.” He stuttered, staring down at the mattress instead of at me.

I reached out and tilted his chin up to look at me, giving him a softened smile to encourage him to speak,

“I just… I feel like she would’ve loved you… and I love you… and I… I don’t know… I didn’t want to give you just a ring? You know.... Like… I didn’t want you to… be uncomfortable or like… think I was proposing or something. I mean, not that I don’t ever want that but I didn’t want to scare you by making you think I was proposin-

“B.” I cut off, capturing his hand as he gestured wildly while he babbled.

I leaned over and kissed him gingerly. He let out a breath of relief against my lips, hand coming up to caress my cheek. When I pulled away, he studied my face for a moment before relaxing his forehead on mine.

“It’s beautiful. I love it. I love you.” I reassured, pecking him on the lips once more before I unclasped the necklace, wrapping it around my neck and fastening it.

The ring hung just below my collarbone, peering out of the v neck of my tee shirt. I took his hand in mine, interlacing our fingers. My other hand reached around behind his neck, twirling his curls around my finger.

It was rare to see Billy vulnerable. Every breath he took, every word he said, every move he made dripped with confidence and he was reduced to a stuttering mess when he gave me this gift.

Billy hadn’t spoken much of his mother, not until I found the picture of her he kept tucked in the visor of the Camaro. The photo fluttered down into my lap. The blue California sky shone in the background. The woman in the photo wore a white bathing suit and a sun hat with flowers on the brim. Her dirty blonde, curly hair blew in the beach breeze. Her hand rested on the top of her head to keep her hat from flying off. A small boy wearing a pair of yellow corduroy overalls sat in her lap with the same mop of curly hair and bright blue eyes, a daisy tucked behind his ear as he beamed up at her.

I had to beg him to start talking about her, but once he started talking, he couldn’t stop. How they would always go to the ice cream parlor after school on Friday. She got vanilla, and he got chocolate and they would mix them together. How they ran from the waves on the beach as the tide rolled in. How they would go to the bay and look for crabs and starfish.

How she would sing Fleetwood Mac at the top of her lungs while she made breakfast in the morning, and that's how he woke up every day. The sound of his mother’s voice echoing through the hallway to his bedroom. The first time I sang ‘Landslide’ to myself when I was studying, I glanced up to see Billy staring at me with wide, teary eyes.

How she always read Where the Sidewalk Ends or The Giving Tree. I couldn’t help but think that was what happened to Billy. He gave and gave and gave until he didn’t have anything left to give. That’s when he changed from the boy in corduroy overalls with a daisy tucked behind his ear to the boy in leather jackets with a cigarette between his lips.

I rested my head against Billy’s chest,

“I know how important she is to you.” I whispered to him, “It means so much to me that you’re comfortable sharing her with me.”

I could hear his heart start to race as he swallowed a lump in his throat. He didn’t get to talk about his mom very often. He couldn’t talk to his dad, he had stopped caring about his mother long before she passed away. He could talk to Max if only the two of them could stop going at each other’s throats for more than two seconds at a time.

Billy traced his hand around the back of my neck and down the chain, wrapping it slightly around his finger,

“She got this when she was sixteen,” Billy whispered, “Said she shoplifted it when she found out the manager of the store was screwing her best friend’s mom… who was married…”

“Wow, mama Hargrove was a troublemaker, wasn’t she?” I beamed, “Now I understand where you get it from.”

“She only did things when she thought somebody deserved some payback.”

“Ah. A little vigilante justice?” I smiled.

“Exactly.” He grinned, the chuckle that escaped his lips made his chest vibrate.

“Like Daredevil.” I murmured, mostly to myself.

“Like what?”

“Daredevil. He’s a character in one of Dusty’s comics.” I clarified. Dustin suggested that I read it, considering I never much liked the X Men anyway, especially not after the situation with the Demogorgon. But this was different, it was about somebody taking down human villains rather than monsters.

“You aren’t turning into a nerd on me, are you?” He asked, glancing down at me with a brow raised,

“Maybe.” I rebutted, reaching over and taking out the comic book from under my pillow.

“No!” Billy gasped, “Aww, come on!”

I laughed as I brandished it in his face teasingly while he pretended to be horrified. We rolled over so he was leaning on my chest. He took the comic from my grasp and dropped it to the floor before kissing me. It was sweeter than earlier in the night in the Camaro, his hand settled on my cheek instead of trying to undo my shirt. It lacked the desperation but strengthened the intimacy. His thumb brushed my cheek before he trailed his hand to the back of my neck, tangling his fingers in my hair.

He drew away with a gasp, his eyes scanning me up and down. They trained on the collar of my shirt. He hooked his finger into it, stretching it aside and brushing his thumb over my skin.

“Oops.” He murmured, although the smirk on his face told me that it probably wasn’t an accident.

“Did you give me another hickey?” I fussed.

His reply was to dip his head back into my neck and press a delicate kiss on the spot,

“Sorry.”

“No, you’re not.” I retorted, playfully smacking his arm, “Get off me, you oaf.”

He rolled over onto his back. I tucked myself under his arm, leaning against his shoulder.

Tews let out a trill before hopping back up on the bed, the bell on his collar jingling as he settled on Billy’s belly.

“Guess I’m staying the night then.” Billy smirked, “Can’t disturb the cat.”

I rolled my eyes, reaching over to turn off my lamp.

When I awoke, Billy wasn’t there. It was how it usually worked when he spent the night. I would never hear the end of it from Dustin if he found out Billy had stayed overnight. I threw my covers off, pulling myself out of bed and into the kitchen, enticed by the smell of breakfast cooking.

“Morning, mama.” I greeted, pecking her on the cheek before reaching for a glass from the cabinet. I poured myself some orange juice before hopping up on the counter beside the stove.

“What’s that?” She inquired, reaching for my necklace.

I had forgotten I was wearing it until she mentioned it.

“Oh, uh. It’s from my boyfriend.” I told her.

She knew I had a boyfriend, but that was about it. She had become more distant since dad left almost 6 years ago. The goings on of Dustin and I’s lives were far from the first thing on her mind.

He did it without warning. We woke up one morning to discover his dresser and closet empty. The drawers had been neatly closed, hangers put back up on the rod. And his wedding band lying on top of his nightstand.

I was silently thankful that Dustin had been so young when it happened, he didn’t remember the panic we went through. The suffering that came along with being left without an explanation. Without a goodbye. But the downside to him forgetting was that he now talked to dad once a week on the phone. Still talked to the man who betrayed us and left us without enough income and without a car.

“That’s nice, baby.” She smiled, going back to scrambling the eggs.

Dustin soon came scrabbling into the kitchen, snatching his backpack from its hook and flinging the front door open,

“Dusty! You didn’t eat breakfast!” Mom called after him.

“Not hungry! Bye!” He hollered, slamming the door shut behind him.

I didn’t think anything of it, he was probably off going on his usual Saturday morning adventures with the party. Mom scooped a spoonful of eggs onto a plate and handed it to me,

“Thanks.” I smiled, pulling a fork from the drawer and shoveling them into my mouth.

A honk from the driveway made us both jump,

“Who could that be?” Mom questioned, peering out the window, “Wow, fancy car.”

I set my plate aside, hopping off the counter and running to the door,

“That’s my boyfriend,” I replied, a hint of apprehension in my voice.

He hadn’t told me he was coming over, which generally meant only one thing.

“Oh, can I meet him?”

“I- uh… I don’t think now is a good time, mom.” I murmured, swinging the front door open and abruptly closing it behind me.

He didn’t even have to get out of the car for me to see his blackened eye and bloodied nose. I hurried across the frost covered pavement barefooted and yanked his car door open, tugging him out and into my arms. He wrapped his arms around me, pressing me against his body with all his might.

“You’re okay.” I murmured, “I got you.”

I stepped up onto the toes of his boots, mostly to take my bare feet out of the frosty sheen that covered the driveway, but also to pull myself closer to him.

He let a shaking breath out into my shoulder before inhaling, taking in my scent as I gently swayed him back and forth.

“Let me go get some shoes and we’ll go where ever you want, yeah?” I proposed, sweeping the curls from his face.

He nodded, getting back into the car while he waited for me. I hurried inside, grabbing my hole-riddled converse and slipping them on my feet.

“Thanks for breakfast mom, love you! Be back later!” I called before quickly sliding back out the door. She hollered something behind me but it was lost when I slammed the door shut and climbed into the car with Billy.

“Benny’s?” I suggested, glancing over at him as he wiped a tear from his cheek and let out a sniffle.

I pouted, once again reaching out to brush his hair from his face, running my fingers softly over his bruised skin. He leaned into my touch, closing his eyes and letting out a sigh.

“I… uh… I’m not… I’m not hungry.” He stammered.

“Okay. Wanna go to our spot?”

He nodded, putting the car in gear and pulling out of the driveway. We cruised in silence, our fingers entwined and resting beside the gear shift. The gray sky told us that snow was threatening to fall, one of the many flurries of this winter so far. Billy wouldn’t admit it, but I think he was starting to enjoy the weather. It gave us an excuse to spend our time together wrapped up in each other.

The edge of Sattler’s Quarry was the conventional lover’s lane destination for Hawkins’ students, but Billy and I had found a clearing through the trees that overlooked the quarry. Much more secluded from the designated make-out spot.

The gravel crunched under the Camaro’s tires as Billy got off the main road and to our spot. He put the car in park, glancing over at me with bloodshot eyes. I unbuckled my seatbelt, clambering into the backseat and patting the space beside me on the bench. The broad-shouldered boy followed behind me, struggling to squirm his way into the back the same way I had. He awkwardly threw himself down beside me, his legs draped over my lap and his back against the door.

“Spill,” I instructed, passing my hand up and down his calf.

His breaths came out shallow and shaking,

“Max… She… She snuck out when I was with you last night… Ended up spending the night at the Wheeler’s… Susan and Dad got back before she came home this morning and…” He pointed to his face.

“Billy, you have to tell Max what’s going on.” I urged, “You can’t keep getting blamed for what she does.”

“I can’t.” He whispered.

“Billy-”

“I can’t!” He bellowed, his voice breaking.

“She’ll understand, Billy.” I assured, “She’s wise beyond her years, you know.”

“I know. And that’ll be the death of me.”

“Literally, if you don’t talk to her.” I murmured, leaning over to rest on his shoulder.

“I got really mad at her last night…. I… I think I actually scared her.” He uttered, “I just…. God. It was a punch in the gut.”

“Did you apologize?”

“I tried… I just… I couldn’t make myself look at her. She was just… her eyes were huge and I… I tried to step towards her and she flinched and I just…” He croaked, pressing his lips together in an effort to not start crying again.

“Hey, hey.” I soothed, “It’s okay… Try again later.”

He set his head on top of mine, wrapping his arms around me tightly. His hand ran down my collar bone and clutched the necklace, twirling the ring around on its chain.

“You get any sleep last night?” I whispered, propping my hand on his chest and giving it a couple of pats.

He scoffed,

“I’ll take that as a no.” I came back, “Go to sleep. We can talk more when you wake up.”

It didn’t take much after I stopped talking for the weight of his head to become heavier on top of mine, for his chest to rise and fall at a steady rate.

I let out a sigh as I came through the front door, kicking off my shoes. Before I could take another step, Dustin was in front of me with his crossed over his chest.

“Max said Billy got really pissed at her last night.” He told me.

“Yeah. I know.” I exhaled, driving past him to go into the kitchen. I took out a glass from the cabinet,

“You know and you still put up with him?” He exclaimed.

"Dustin, trust me, there’s a lot more going on there than you think,” I told him, filling up my glass with water from the tap.

“Like what?” He interrogated.

“I can’t tell you.” I countered, taking a sip of my water. Dustin didn’t know about Neil, no matter how much I craved to tell him about it. The two of us told each other everything. How when he was five, he broke Mom’s favorite vase and buried it in the backyard. When I asked him why he buried it, he said: “Maybe one day an arcadeologist will find it!” “You mean an archaeologist?” “Yeah, an arcadeologist!”

How when I first got my heart broken when I was 15 and he was 11, he got all of his friends to let me play dungeons and dragons with them. They didn’t tell me, but they had rigged the entire campaign based on me being the winner and slaying a prince who stole gold from my castle.

He told me all about Will and El and the upside down and the Demogorgon and the demodogs and Hawkins Lab and Dr. Brenner. What happened to Barb and Bob Newby.

But this was the one thing I couldn’t tell him about. And he had only found out about Billy and I when Billy let it spill to Max and she passed it on.

“Why not!?”

“Because you’re a blabbermouth!”

“Am not!”

“You are.” I rebutted, turning away from him to go to my bedroom. As I started to close the door, Dustin began to shout again,

“What happens when he gets pissed at you like that?” Dustin threw out, “Is he gonna hit you!?”

“Did he hit Max?” I gasped, spinning around to face him. My heart jumped into my throat at his words. Billy had never raised a hand at me, or Max that I knew of.

“No, not yet, anyway.” Dustin grumbled, putting his hands on his hips and shaking his head.

“He wouldn’t hit her.”

Despite his ‘tough love’ approach, he really did care for Max. Want to keep her safe, but it was hard for him to explain to her what happens when she doesn’t listen to his instructions, what Neil does. He felt like she could never understand anyway, so why bother to tell her?

“And you? What about you?” Dustin pressed,

“Dustin-”

“No, what if he hit you, Y/N!?” He screamed.

“I’m not having a conversation about this based on ‘what ifs’, Dustin!” I shouted, “But you can be damn sure the second he lays and hand on Max or I is the second he’s gone.”

I slammed my bedroom door shut in his face, letting out a groan as I threw myself face first onto my bed. I pulled the framed picture I had of the two of us from its spot on my bedside table. It was from when we got Yertle. Dustin held him up for the camera with a toothless grin, I was in the background giving him bunny ears and sticking my tongue out at him. I prayed to myself that we wouldn’t let this ruin our relationship. I paused for a couple moments, glancing back towards the door.

I swallowed my pride and got off the bed, glancing around the corner to find Dustin to apologize for shouting at him. I found him in the kitchen, as usual.

“Hey, Dusty.” I alerted.

He held his finger up to me as he had the phone pressed to his ear. He listened for a couple seconds,

“Son of a bitch!” Dustin screamed as he slammed the phone down on the receiver.

I jolted slightly, blinking at him,

“What the hell was that?”

“Dad isn’t picking up.”

I let out a scoff, rolling my eyes.

“Figures.”

“What does that mean?”

“It was only a matter of time before he forgot about us, Dustin.”

“He didn’t forget. He talks about you all the time.”

“Tell him to keep my name out of his filthy mouth.” I snarled. He had no right to talk about me, not after what he did to mom, to our family. I had to get a job at fourteen just to support us until mom could get back on her feet after being completely shattered by him leaving us like that.

I let out a sigh as I looked at Dustin,

“Sorry for getting mad at you, kid.” I breathed, throwing my arm around his shoulder and pulling him against me. He rested his head on my shoulder,

“I’m just worried about you.”

“I know, bud. Tell you what, I order pizza, you go get it on your bike on the way home from the Wheeler’s place?”

“Star Wars marathon when I get back?” He exclaimed, looking at me with a bright smile.

“Of course.”

He snagged his backpack and his walkie and was out the door. I was just getting ready to relax down on the couch when the phone rang. I straightened myself up and trotted over to the phone,

“Henderson house,” I answered, mindlessly twirling the cord around my finger.

“Mrs. Henderson?”

“Uh, no. This is her daughter. Can I take a message?”

People always told me I sounded just like my mom, so I was never surprised when somebody mistook us for each other on the phone,

“Miss Henderson, I regret to inform you that there was an accident.”

My heart vaulted into my throat, my mind instantly jumping to the conclusion that something happened to Dustin. I tucked the phone under my ear, stretching the cord as I stumbled over to put on my boots

“Is everything okay?” I hollered, staggering on one foot while I crammed the other into my shoe. I was about to grab my coat when she replied,

“Greg Henderson was in an accident. He passed away from his injuries.”

“Greg Henderson?” I breathed, “Greg?”

“Yes. This number was one of his emergency contacts. Is it not correct?”

“No… uh… I mean… Yeah, it’s the right number. I just…. Uh… hadn’t heard from him in a while.” I sputtered, my mind reeling, “An- a- an accident? You said it was an accident? What happened?”

“He was in his car, driving on an icy road. He was t-boned by a semi-truck. The car rolled several times and ended up in a ditch.”

I drew in a sharp gasp, sticking my hand over my mouth in dismay,

“Oh my god… Was… did he… make it to the hospital?” I sputtered.

“Doctor said he died on impact. I’m terribly sorry, ma’am.” She murmured.

“What about passengers? The truck driver? Is everybody else okay?” I inquired.

“The truck driver was fine, there was a middle-aged female passenger with your father. She’s alive but in critical condition.”

“I-uh-um. Thanks for… thanks for calling… Is there anything…. Anything I need to do?”

“Not at this time, ma’am. We’ve contacted your father’s mother who is making arrangements for him.”

“Okay… Thank you… Wait… wait… wait… Where was the accident?”

“It was on I-80.”

“I-80? What… what state is that?”

“Utah.”

“Utah…” I muttered under my breath, “Thanks…. again...Bye.”

I hung the phone up, letting out a shuddering breath. Utah. He had been telling Dustin that he was still in Indiana, he talked about coming to visit all the time. I convinced Dustin that it wasn’t good for mom to see him again, so they never arranged a time.

A woman was in the car with him.

I trudged into my bedroom, laying down and bringing my teddy bear to my chest. It was one that he bought me when he traveled to Montana on a business trip. It wore a little red tee shirt that said, ‘somebody I love went to Montana and all I got was this lousy bear’. That was what I named him, Louis the Lousy Bear. His aftershave spilled in his suitcase on the way home, got all over his clothes and the bear. So it still smelled like him, even ten years later.

It transported me back to when he taught me how to tie a tie when I was 7. I would sit on the bathroom counter while he did his hair and practice tying and untying his tie before he left for work.

“You gotta go under and then over, sunshine.” He’d remind me, his patience never wavering.

I couldn’t even begin to count all of the days he was late because of this routine. I wouldn’t let him leave until I was satisfied that the tie looked perfect.

When he got home from work, I would sprint into the kitchen to greet him. When Dustin was old enough to walk, I would hold his hand and we both dashed into the kitchen together. He’d pick us both up, one under each arm and give us kisses on the cheek.

He’d run into his bedroom and tear off his suit before following us into the backyard to play on the rickety old swing set. He’d push us as high as he could, leaving us both squealing as the swings nearly flew over the top of the set. He’d always play with us first, no matter how much paperwork he had to do. When mom would tell us it was time to come in for dinner, he’d always join in when Dustin and I whined “five more minutes?”

I hadn’t appreciated those memories the past few years. And now he was gone. And I couldn’t tell him how much I missed that. But the memories only made me wonder more what drove him to leave. He may as well have put the sun in the sky, that’s how much Dustin and I looked up to him. And he just up and left us. With no warning. No goodbye.

“Hey, I brought home pizza!” Dustin shouted,

His voice sounded like it was underwater as I peered up at the clock. I had somehow managed to zone out for the past two hours, just thinking about dad. The sun had gone down since then, leaving me to sit in the dark. I hadn’t even begun to consider what to tell Dustin or my mom.

“Y/N!? Pizza!” He shrieked, stomping into the house and slamming the front door behind him.

His shadow appeared in the doorway of my bedroom, backlit by the hall light.

“Y/N? Come on. Get your lazy ass up, let’s go!”

He flipped the lights on. I threw my arm over my eyes,

“Dusty….” I began, my heart pounding in my chest as the dread of telling him about the phone call intensified.

“What?” He questioned.

“I… I’ve got a headache.” I lied,

“Girl problems? Do you need some more tampons? I can go get some from the store!”

“No… Not girl problems, Dusty. I just have a headache. Eat without me, bud.” I breathed, closing my eyes.

“Are you okay?” He murmured, moving to sit down on the edge of the bed, “Did Billy do something? Because I swear to god I will beat that shitlord into a pulp if he-”

“Dustin. Billy didn’t do anything. Please, just go.” I uttered, struggling to keep my voice from quivering.

“Okay.” He whispered, getting up and heading back out to the living room, closing my bedroom door behind him.

I awoke again even later, the sun now starting to peer over the horizon. Mom had just come into the room, yanking the curtains open. I groaned and tugged the blankets over my head. I still wore my jeans from yesterday, my boots still on.

“Come on, sunshine!” She cooed, giving me a nudge, “Time for school.”

My heart plummeted at the phrase, the same one my father always used for me in the mornings before he headed to work.

“Mom.” I whimpered, “I don’t feel well.”

She shuffled over to the side of the bed, sitting down beside me and drawing the blankets back. I let out a groan as she placed her hand on my forehead.

“You don’t feel like you have a fever, sweetheart.” She told me, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.

“Can I stay home?” I whimpered.

“Of course. Dusty’s friend is picking him up for school today anyway.”

“Thanks, mom.”

The next two days were the same. Lying in bed, thinking over every memory of my father. Every last detail of him that I hadn’t appreciated over the past few years. I had managed to eat some toast, but it still made my stomach turn. My mom constantly begged for me to get out of bed, her worry only growing the more I laid around. She left food on my bedside table for me, only to come in and replace it with something different when I didn’t eat it.

She told me that Billy had been calling. That he sounded worried and that he missed me. He even came over and brought flowers for me, probably thinking that he had done something wrong. I couldn’t see him right now, I didn’t want him to see me like this, broken down. I was his rock, he told me that so many times. But I couldn’t even be strong for myself, let alone for the sake of another person.

Dustin came in too. He sat beside me and read his comics out loud to me, told me all about his day and tried to add extra jokes to make me laugh. But not even he could cheer me up.

A soft knock on my door pulled me from my state. It wasn’t the frantic knocking I was used to from Dustin, it wasn’t the pleading whispers from my mother, either.

Without waiting for my reply, the door opened, a sliver of light shining onto where I laid on the bed. Based on the footsteps alone, I could tell it was Billy. Before his signature scent of cologne and smoke hit my nose, before the smooth cadence of his voice, before the gentle touch he laid on my back as he kneeled on the bed behind me.

“You awake?” He murmured.

“No.” I breathed, closing my eyes tighter.

He was the last person I wanted to see me like this, yet the only person I wanted to talk to.

“Okay. Me neither.” He sighed, pulling back the covers and sliding under them with me. The cool denim of his jeans brushed against the back of my bare thighs as he scooted up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist. He pressed a kiss to the back of my head and another on my bare shoulder before letting out a sigh.

I savored his warmth as he laid beside me. He didn’t want me to talk, he didn’t want me to get up, he wasn’t asking anything of me, he just laid with me. I drifted off to sleep a little while longer, turning over to face him when I started to stir.

“Hey,” Billy breathed,

He brought his hand up to caress my cheek, gliding it up and over my hair before kissing the tip of my nose. It was entirely dark outside now, but the streetlights reflected off the snow, giving me just enough light to make out his furrowed brows in the dark.

“You gonna tell me what’s going on?”

I had nearly forgotten the reason he had come over in the first place. The thought still crippled me. To me, dad had essentially been dead for years. He stopped being my father the second he left. But Dustin fought to maintain contact with him, to form a relationship even though he abandoned us. And I couldn’t bear to tell him what happened.

“I- I-... I can’t… I’m not… I’m not ready to talk about it.” I stuttered.

“Dustin said you haven’t been out of bed in a couple of days.”

“Yeah… I uh… I haven’t really.” I replied.

He sat up at that moment, getting to his feet and coming over to my side of the bed. He grabbed my arms to help me sit up,

“Let’s go.” He ordered, dragging the blankets off my legs,

“Go where?” I whined.

“Shower.”

I let out a groan, rubbing my eyes.

“It’ll make you feel better, I promise. Come on, you smell like a dog rolled in road kill.”

“Thanks, honey.” I retorted, swinging my legs over the edge of the bed.

“Like… A cute dog though… You know… one of those little annoying fluffy ones.”

“Oh, I’m annoying and I smell like roadkill.” I giggled, rolling my eyes as I stared up at him.

He didn’t try to fix his misstep this time, he just wore a goofy grin.

“What?”

“There’s your smile.”

Billy helped me step out of my clothes and adjusted the temperature before helping me step in the shower. I sighed in relief as the hot water hit my muscles, sore from lying in bed for so long.

“See? Feels better already, doesn’t it?” He hollered over the sound of the water. The clang of his belt buckle on the tile floor told me he was about to step in as well.

I stood in the shower facing the stream. Billy stood behind me, arms wrapped around my waist and head tucked into my shoulder. He rubbed reassuring circles on my stomach, occasionally pressing a kiss to my neck.

“You gonna tell me what’s going on now?” He whispered, barely audible over the sound of the water hitting the tile floor of the shower.

“My dad is dead,” I whispered, finally saying the words out loud for the first time.

Billy spun me in his arms,

“What? When? What happened?”

“Car accident.”

“Jeez.” He exhaled.

“I haven’t talked to him in five years, Billy.” I breathed, “I’m still mad as hell at him but…

“He’s your dad.”

“Yeah… I… I haven’t told Dusty yet. Or mom.”

“Don’t worry about it right now, okay? Just… relax for a bit.”

“I’ve been relaxing for the past three days, Billy.”

He shushed me, reaching for the bottle of shampoo before massaging it into my hair. I leaned into his touch, his fingers glided over my scalp, letting out a satisfied hum. He turned me around to hose off the suds, running his fingers through my hair as the soap washed down the drain. He picked up a washcloth, running it over my face and gently wiping the days old smeared makeup off. He wordlessly scrubbed his own hair while I stepped out and toweled off, grabbing my toothbrush and wetting it.

He got out a couple moments later, just as I spat toothpaste into the sink. With a towel wrapped around his waist, he wrapped his arms around me from behind, resting his chin in the crook of my neck. I leaned my head against his, closing my eyes and savoring the peaceful moment, despite my mind sounding like a raging storm. He gave me one last peck on my cheek before stepping away from me. He dropped his towel and tugged his jeans on,

“Hey, B.” I murmured, looking at him in the mirror.

He turned to face me, belt still unbuckled and his wet hair stuck to his skin,

“Thanks.”

He shook his head, turning me around to face him and pulled me into his arms, kissing the top of my head.

“You do the same for me.” He breathed. We stood with our arms around each other in silence for a few seconds,

“Plus, I’ll use any excuse to get you naked.”

“You always gotta ruin a nice moment, don’t you?” I scoffed, playfully punching him in the stomach, “I still gotta tell Dustin.”

“I can tell him.” He offered.

“No… He’s gotta hear it from me.” I sighed, looking at the bathroom door with dread.

I emerged from the bathroom with Billy in tow. I expected Dustin to start screaming about how gross it was that we had taken a shower together, but instead he came sprinting over and threw his arms around my middle. The bill of his hat hit me in the middle of my chest. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, pressing a kiss to the top of his head and resting my chin on it.

“You had me worried!” He exclaimed.

“I figured since you called Billy.” I teased, offering him a meek smile as he glanced up at me, “Hey. I gotta talk to you about something. Let me get some clothes on, okay?”

He nodded, eyes following me as I returned to my bedroom, “So, do you just… not know how to wear shirts or…?” Dustin asked Billy just as I shut the door behind me. I smiled to myself as I pulled on my jeans, fighting friction with damp skin against denim. I pulled on the flannel I had borrowed from Billy before snagging my coat from the hook and opening the bedroom door,

“Look, all I’m saying is that you don’t ever have them buttoned all the way, so I was just wondering if you didn’t know how to button them or something.” Dustin defended, looking up at Billy who was bristling with annoyance towards my little brother.

“Dusty. Leave him alone.” I ordered, “Come outside with me.”

“It’s freezing!” He exclaimed.

“Then go get your coat and meet me out there!”

I slid my jacket on and zipped it up, looking to Billy for support. He gave me a peck on the lips before giving me a push towards the door. I stepped outside into the frigid night, Dustin not too far behind me. I trekked through the snow to the old swing set. Rust had begun to form on it as the years passed by, but dad had it so overbuilt, we joked that after a nuclear war, it would survive alongside the cockroaches and the tomato plants. I sat in the swing beside Dustin, swaying to the side so my swing bumped into his.

“Dusty… You… you know how dad didn’t answer the phone the other day?” I began,

“Yeah.”

“Well… It’s… it’s because he got in a car accident an-”

“Is he okay!?” Dustin interrupted, looking at me with wild eyes.

I drew my lip between my teeth as I felt the sting of tears in my eyes. I didn’t even have to say the words and Dustin knew what had happened. He turned away from me, bringing his hands up over his face.

“Dusty. I’m so, so, sorry.” I breathed, vapor from my breath forming in front of me.

I pulled him up off the swing and into my arms.

He wasn’t crying, not out loud, at least. But his breaths came out shallow and shaking.

“What happened?”

“His car got hit by a semi….”

“Was anybody else hurt?”

“The truck driver was fine…. But... There…. Dustin…. Dad was with a woman…”

He looked up at me with watery eyes,

“A woman.” He repeated.

“She’s hurt, but alive.”

He pondered it for a moment,

“We can’t tell mom.” He uttered.

“About the woman?”

“About him.” He clarified, his blue eyes piercing into mine.

“We can’t just not tell her!” I exclaimed.

“Think about it! You know how upset she was when Mews got lost.”

“When your pet lizard ate Mews.” I corrected.

“You’re never gonna let me live that down, are you?”

“That’s not the point! We can’t just keep something like that from her!” I reasoned.

But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense to not tell her. When dad left, she fell into a depressive state for a couple of weeks. Only eating enough to keep herself alive, staying in bed most of the day. We had to go live with our aunt until she convinced our mom to go get help. The antidepressants didn’t do much but exhaust her more, so she stopped taking them. Then she got withdrawal symptoms, even ended up in the hospital for a few days after she passed out at work.

And that was just from him leaving. God knows what would happen if we told her he was dead.

It was easy to see that she still held onto the hope that he would come back. She always wanted to talk to him on the phone when Dustin had his calls, she kept looking for a card from him on holidays and birthdays, despite the years that passed without so much as a generic Christmas card.

“You’re right.” I murmured, “We can’t.”

Dustin and I both fell asleep on the couch that night, leaning on each other while the lights from the TV danced on our faces. Billy had gone home once I assured him that Dustin and I were okay.

When I woke up, I decided to give him a call to thank him again for comforting me and to ask if he wanted to go grab breakfast.

I called the Hargrove’s house for what seemed like the dozenth time, but the phone still rang until the answering machine picked up. It was Susan’s sickeningly sweet voice as usual. I let out a sigh, hanging up.

“Dusty!” I called.

He emerged from his bedroom, finger stuck in his place in the book he was reading,

“Have you talked to Max recently?” I questioned

Worries flew around my head like a twister. Billy never ignored my calls unless he was busy, and if he was ever going to be busy, he told me what he was doing. Not that I expected him to, he was entitled to his privacy same as me. But he knew that I worried far too much about him.

Not only was he not picking up the phone, but he stood me up for our lunch date. He was supposed to pick me up two hours ago.

“Uh, yeah. Why?”

“I can’t get ahold of Billy.”

“Max said something about Susan and Neil getting into a fight the other night.”

I felt a knot form in my chest. Billy and I practically took bets on how long it would take for Neil to turn his aggression off Billy and onto his stepmother. It was a morbid thought, but we both knew it was coming. I couldn’t help but think the worst had happened. Billy told me of the first time Neil hit his mother, how it seemed like time stopped for a minute. They all stood in stunned silence before his mother scooped him up off the floor and locked the two of them in Billy’s bedroom while Neil stormed around smashing things down the hall.

I decided to jump in the car and drive over to see him. He lived hardly two blocks over, if it weren’t for the cold, I would’ve just walked. I snuck around behind the Hargrove’s house, hearing Billy’s stereo blasting from his bedroom. The glass window was rattling from the bass beat as I tapped on it. Billy sat on the bed with a cigarette between his lips and a scowl etched into his brow.

I tapped a little bit harder, finally catching his attention. I offered a small wave and smile,

He let out a puff of smoke before coming over to the window and sliding it open. He didn’t say anything, just turned away and retreated back to his seat on the bed. He normally helped me climb through, pulled me into his arms and pressed kisses all over my face.

The green drapery blew in the cool fall air that rushed through the open window and the overwhelming smell of smoke hit me in the nose.

I scrambled in, knocking a couple things off of his makeshift vanity before my boots hit the hardwood floor. I shuffled over to the bed, sitting beside him and waving the smoke from my face. I scooted close to him, our thighs touching. He refused to look at me, eyes fixed on the half-naked playboy poster across the room.

I couldn’t ignore the fresh purple bruise across his jawline,

“B?” I whispered, cupping his cheek to turn his head toward me.

“Don’t fucking touch me.” He spat, swatting my hand aside.

I blinked in confusion and shock as I glanced up at him,

“What happened?”

“It’s none of your fucking business.” He growled, stamping out his cigarette only to immediately light another one.

“I thought we were past you keeping shit from me.” I pressed.

“Things change.”

“Billy.” I breathed, studying his face. The muscles in his jaw clenched and unclenched, his temples bulging as he did so.

“What?” He barked, finally looking at me with a burning intensity that I had never seen from him. At least not directed towards me.

I felt the sting of tears in my eyes. Things change. What changed? Did I do something wrong?

“Forget it.” I hissed, getting up from the bed and heading back towards the window, this time purposely knocking a couple of things to the ground as I wiggled out into the yard. He didn’t so much as look out the window after me as I left.

I had a plan to take Billy out to his favorite diner after talking to him. But seeing as the conversation appeared to be one-sided, I was going to go by myself. There was no way in hell I was going to miss the waffles that I had been craving all week just because Billy wanted to act like an asshole.

I shoved the keys into the ignition only for the engine to turn over and make a pathetic rumbling sound.

“Fuck!” I screamed, laying on the horn.

I climbed out of the car and kicked the tires a few times,

“Fuck, this, shit!” I shouted between kicks before slamming my hands down on the hood.

“You okay there?” A male voice called from behind me.

I glanced over my shoulder to see a boy I recognized from school, but whose name I couldn’t place.

“Oh… uh… yeah. I think my battery is dead.” I grumbled.

“Need a jump?” He asked, “I can pull my car out of the garage.”

“You’re a lifesaver.” I breathed.

I would rather take a bullet right now than swallow my pride and trudge back over to the Hargrove’s house to ask Billy for a jump. The boy pulled his car around beside mine, climbing out and pulling the cables from his trunk,

“Name’s Craig, by the way.” He smiled, holding his hand out for me to shake.

“Y/N.” I returned a halfhearted grin.

He lifted the hood of his car as I did the same. I watched for a minute as he fumbled with the cords,

“Need help?” I questioned.

“Uh… Yeah… I… have no clue what I’m doing.” He smiled sheepishly, chuckling as he did so.

“I’ll show you.” I took the cables from him, leaning over the hood of his car and pointed to the parts of the battery, “You put the red clips on the positive, and the black on the negative. Super easy.”

He did as I told him,

“Then you put the other black clip on the little stand thingy.” I pointed to the metal rod that held the hood open, “And on my car…. You put the red on the positive.” I turned and clipped the last clamp on.

“Now you just start your car and we wait a minute.”

He did as I told him, starting up his car and letting it idle.

“Ohh… Now I know why I recognize you.” Craig blurted, pointing his finger at me, “You’re Billy Hargrove’s girl.”

“Guilty as charged.” I held up my hand, rolling my eyes slightly, Billy being the last thing I wanted to talk about at the moment.

“Why didn’t you park out front?”

“Huh?”

“Out front of Billy’s house.”

I let out a sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose. Billy’s parents didn’t know about me, and that’s the way Billy wanted it to stay. He didn’t want me getting wrapped up in his family’s drama or becoming yet another target for Neil’s unchecked rage. And there was no way in hell I wanted to explain that to a stranger.

“I wanted to surprise him.” I lied, “Thanks for the jump.”

He shut off his car and unhooked it, allowing me to head back home.

My first day back at school in nearly a week was anything but routine. Billy didn’t bother to pick me up from school, I hitched a ride with Steve and Dustin instead. Steve greeted me with a silent hug. I assumed that Dustin had told him what happened. To say I was glad that Dustin had a good male figure in his life. Despite how much I loved Billy, he was far from a role model and he and Dustin bickered like cats and dogs.

Eyes from every corner of the halls were glued to me. It wasn’t like me to miss school, let alone for a week at a time. Not to mention the absence of Billy glued to my side, hand tucked in my back pocket as we walked between classes.

I entered first period expecting to sit in my usual seat, only to see that Tommy had taken the seat beside Billy. I bit my lip, every eye on me as I shuffled to a seat at the back of the room.

“Where the hell have you been?” Jennifer questioned, smacking her gum.

I couldn’t process the question, my attention focused on Billy who clenched his jaw as he turned around to look at me only to quickly glance away when our eyes met.

“Trouble in paradise?” She questioned, blowing a bubble and letting it pop against her lips.

“No.” I lied, opening my textbook to the page that was scribbled on the chalkboard.

My attempts to concentrate were thwarted by the disgusting squishing sound of Jennifer gnashing at her gum. She pulled part of it out of her mouth, twirling it around her finger as she read before shoving it back in her mouth and popping it once again. I felt every muscle in my body tense up, Jennifer blissfully unaware of how badly I wanted to knock out her teeth. She blew one last bubble,

“Oh my god, Jen! Knock it off!” I blurted in the otherwise silent classroom.

Everybody turned around to stare, the teacher removing her glasses.

“Is there a problem, ladies?” She questioned.

“Yeah, apparently Jennifer never learned any manners,” I grumbled to myself, looking back to my textbook.

I read the words on the page but retained no information as I continued. My mind flying ten thousand different places at once. Keeping my father’s death a secret from my mother, whatever the hell Billy’s problem was, going through every interaction I had with him over the last week, trying to think of anything I could’ve done to upset him.

The bell rang, followed by the shuffling of students shoving their book in their backpacks and mindlessly moving to their next class. Algebra was yet another class I had with Billy, and once again, my seat was taken by one of his moronic friends. I ground my teeth together in frustration before finding another place to sit. It happened to be beside Craig, the boy who helped me with my car the other day. I offered him a soft smile as I sat down beside him,

“Hey.” He whispered.

Yet another class. Reading what was written down on the board, copying the numbers, but retaining zero information. Bell ring. Shuffling of bags. Teacher hollers something after the kids as they leave. I bumped into Billy as we exited to classroom,

“Sorry.” He grumbled, not bothering to look at me.

I stared up at him in dismay as he brushed past me and out into the hallway.

“Are you ever going to fucking talk to me again!?” I screamed after him.

His head whirled around, having never expected me to bring this to a head in the school hallway. Every eye in the place was on us. We had somehow become the ‘it’ couple of Hawkins. Since Nancy and Steve broke up, and Billy was the newest panty dropper in Hawkins, we rose to the top of the food chain. It was never a place I thought I would be. Never a place I really wanted to be. But it was nice to have people around you stay off your back, not give you any shit.

They had to have noticed that something was off the past couple of weeks, and they were all expecting this ticking time bomb to explode.

Billy strode up to me, grabbing me by my arm and dragging me out into the parking lot despite my attempts to free myself from his grasp.

“What were you doing with him?” Billy snarled.

“Him?”

“Craig.”

“Craig? He helped me jump my car.”

“Yeah. I know. Is he your new toy or something?”

“My new toy!? What the hell is the matter with you?”

“You’ve been smiling at each other whenever you walk by.

“Yeah, because I’m a nice person. I smile at everybody!” I shouted.

“No… He looks at you differently. I heard him talking in the locker room the other day. About what he would do to you if he got you alone.”

“And you think I would let any of that happen? Do you not trust me!?”

“I don’t know anymore!”

“Billy, do you know how many times I’ve heard girls talking about how they want to lick your abs? Or other things!?” I shouted, “And I don’t take is seriously because I trust you not to let them do it!

“You sat next to him in Algebra.”

“Yeah, because Jacob took my seat. Guess that means he wants to suck your dick, right?” I retorted with a scoff.

“He’s trying to pull you away from me.”

“You’re doing a good enough job pushing me away that he won’t have to try very hard.” I spat, spinning away from him. He grabbed me by the wrist again, twirling me back around to face him. I expected to see fire in his eyes, but it had been extinguished. His features softened,

“I’m sorry.” Billy whispered, “It’s just… it’s my dad.”

“You think you’re the only one with daddy issues!? Welcome to the fucking club.” I spat, “I didn’t push everybody away! I didn’t push you away! Because I knew you’d understand what I was going through! And I trust you! But I come over and I try to help you and you tell me things change. What the hell does that mean!?”

“I… I can’t…”

“What? You can’t tell me? What a fucking surprise!

I reached for the clasp on the necklace he had given me, the one with the ring his mother had gifted to him before she passed.

“Please don’t.” He begged, his tear brimmed eyes trained on his feet.

“B.” I breathed, sliding the ring off the chain and into the palm of my hand.

“Please, don’t” Billy uttered as I extended my hand out to him, placing the ring in his palm.

“Billy. It’s over. Don’t make it harder than it needs to be.” I urged, fighting back the tears that were threatening to spill.

“I can’t… I need you. I’m better when I’m with you.”

“You can’t expect me to fix you, Billy. That’s not fair.”

“I… I know… I know I ask a lot of you. And I know I can do better. I want to do better. But I can’t do it without you.”

“You’re gonna have to figure out how. Because I can’t stay if you’re going to keep pushing me aside.”

“I’ll do better. I’ll be better. I promise.”

“Too little, too late.” I breathed, turning away from him and heading back to my car.

I was hyper-aware of every eye trained on me as I walked away, the whispers from every corner of the parking lot, but I couldn’t let them bother me. I had to keep my cool until I left, or I knew I would be crawling back to him in an instant.

I couldn’t let myself cry in the car either. I couldn’t let the rest of the kids see me cry, I was already humiliated enough by putting our breakup on display for the entire school to see. I looked at Billy in the rear-view mirror, he was frozen exactly where I had left him, eyes trained on the car as I backed out of the parking lot and peeled off down the road,

When I arrived home, I scrambled out of the car and up the front step of my porch. As soon as I closed the front door behind me, I melted to the floor and let out an echoing sob. Dustin looked up from the kitchen, a spoon in his mouth and a jar of peanut butter beside him. He scrambled over to me,

“What happened?! What’s wrong!?” He hollered, dropping to his knees beside me.

“You were right.” I sobbed, pulling my knees to my chest and resting my forehead on them as I wept.

“About what?”

“Billy.”

“That son of a bitch, I swear to god I’m going to shove his goddamn cigarettes so far down his throat that he shits them out.” Dustin growled, pulling me to my feet and dragging me in to sit on the couch. He grabbed the throw that sat was draped over mom’s chair and wrapped it around my shoulders before going back in the kitchen. He returned with the jar of peanut butter and two spoons, handing me one as he sat beside me and tucked himself under the blanket too.

“Want me to call Steve? He always knows what to do.” Dustin asked.

“And have you two plot some scheme to kill him? No.” I sniffled, feeling a grin tug on my lips.

“We won’t kill him. Just maim him. That motherfucker deserves it,” Dustin defended, “Slash his tires…. Break his windshield…”

I shook my head, resting it on Dustin’s shoulder and got a spoonful of peanut butter, shoving it in my mouth.

“El could make him pee himself.” He suggested.

I let out a snort, nearly choking on my peanut butter,

“Dustin!” I exclaimed.

“What!? She could!” He shouted, “Hurt is pride a little bit.”

“I already broke up with him in front of the entire school, I think his pride is already shot.”

“Ooh… that bad, huh?”

“Oh yeah. Everybody saw it.” I murmured.

A knock on our door made me lift my head from Dustin’s shoulder. He got up before I could, running over to the door and looking out the frosted glass window.

“Oh, this motherfucker…” He grumbled, throwing the door open.

“What the hell are you doing here?!” He shouted.

“Is your sister home?” A familiar voice sounded from behind the door.

I drew in a sharp, shaking breath, getting to my feet,

“Yeah. What about it?” Dustin snarled, crossing his arms and blocking the doorway.

“Can I talk to her?”

“After the way you’ve been treating her the past week?” He bellowed, “There’s no way in hell.”

“Look, kid. Please. I need to talk to her.” Billy pleaded.

“You should’ve thought of that befor-“

“Dustin.” I interrupted, stepping behind him as he confronted Billy.

Billy’s face was red and splotchy, eyes bloodshot like he had been crying. His usual overly confident stance had been replaced with slumped shoulders, his head hanging.

Dustin shot him another glare before allowing me to step out onto the front porch with Billy. I mimicked my brother’s posture, crossing my arms over my chest as I stared at the boy.

“Talk.” I spat.

“Baby-“ He began, reaching out for my upper arm.

“No. Don’t call me that.” I croaked, feeling the lump in my throat rise as I dodged his grasp.

“I’m sorry…I… I shouldn’t have… I should’ve just talked to you about what was going on. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, you gotta know that.” He sniffled.

“It was hard to tell, considering you wouldn’t even fucking look at me.” I snapped.

“I know… I know… god, I’m such a piece of shit.” He growled, running his hands over his hair as he gritted his teeth.

“So what are you here to do?” I questioned, “Beg for me to come back? What? Get on with it.”

My words came out more hostile than I intended, but I was angry beyond belief that he could just decide to ignore me during one of the hardest weeks of my life when I always bent over backward to be there for him. How he could just drop me and leave me thinking that I had done something wrong.

“I…” He breathed, digging in his pocket.

He pulled out the necklace I had handed him back earlier,

“Even… even if we aren’t together… I want you to have this.” He uttered, holding his hand out to me,

“Billy. No. I can’t take that from-“

“You aren’t taking it. I’m giving it.”

“Billy. No… Your mom means so much to you, I can’t just let you give that to me.”

“My mom would’ve loved you, Y/N… I see so much of her in you.” He gulped, trying to hide the tears that were welling in his eyes, “And I can practically hear her now, yelling at me for being such an ass to you.”

“I can’t take this, Billy.” I repeated.

“Yeah, you can. And you’re going to.” He told me, grabbing my hand and shoving the necklace in it, “Maybe you can decide to forgive me for being a dick. Maybe not. But either way, that belongs to you now.”

Silent tears now dripped down both of our cheeks as we stared at each other. All I wanted was to pull him into my arms and hold him and tell him that I forgive him. It wouldn’t be the truth, not yet anyway, but his mom was his entire world up until the day she died. He held so much admiration for her, his eyes lit up when he talked about her, when he showed me the photo album he hid under his bed filled with pictures of them together. When he lost his first tooth, on the first day of school, when they got his first pet, his first basketball game. Pictures from every birthday party and holiday, holding hands as they walked through the park or the zoo. She had this ring on in all the pictures, the ring she stole from a shop owner who hurt her best friend.

Maybe I could forgive him, but not now. Not today.

“You can be mad at me for as long as you need to. But I’ll… I’ll feel better knowing that she’s with you… watching over you too… I… I really do love you, Y/N…”

I gnawed on my lip, hard enough that it would surely leave a bruise.

“I love you too, Billy… I just… I can’t…. I can’t right now…” I cried.

He nodded knowingly, daring to press a kiss to my temple as he walked off the porch and got back into his Camaro.

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