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mejomonster · 3 years

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I just watched Japanese dracula musical with no subs

WELL

well

I mean 1 the review:

ITS GREAT I DEFINITELY RECOMMEND WATCHING

Lesbian dracula I REPEAT DRACULA AND MINA ARE ENDGAME

no i don’t care if that’s a spoiler since every dracula adaptation ever I’m like LET Mina and dracula be together I don’t give a fuck (I blame the Winona Ryder Keanu reeves dracula which is the first I saw and Lucy/Mina are kinda a thing and also dracula is sexyyyyy and Mina likes him and there’s this like “reincarnate love” vibe and idk it’s just very Yes

Some interesting choices: dracula is a woman, but Dracula’s sexy like minions (if you’ve seen the dracula movie with Winona Ryder, this drama plays out quite similar and in it dracula has sexy girl minons in his castle that eat johnathan). Well in this version they’re 3 men and they’re the ones who feed on johnathan after ripping his clothes off. I love it for a few reasons; first it gives johnathan a kinda sexy gay scene which is fun, secondly the entire dracula cast with different genders means it still feels very similar to the original in vibe due to the structure of it. So it’s both an interesting change while maintaining an incredibly familiar feel to it. And third ties into dracula being a woman - when dracula eats johnathan it adds almost a romantic element to it, which I never felt watching the dracula with Winona. I never felt anything provocative in the johnathan/dracula scenes. But in this play simply because man/woman tends to just read culturally as romantic/suggestive in combo with johnathan already ravaged by her men minions is a moment that really stands out. In a very vampire gothic romance/enticing sort of way. Which was just really cool and I didn’t expect

I could barely understand anything cause I barely know any Japanese. So I could not pick up if there were any Mina/Lucy vibes. Someone with better Japanese than me, please let me know? All I picked up on was Lucy and her suitors, Lucy being friends with Mina, and Lucy/dracula momentary vibes (again pretty similar to what I remember in the Winona movie as far as Lucy/her suitors and Lucy/dracula) I’d love to know if there was any Lucy/Mina and I just missed it. That said, I think the better culmination of Mina/Dracula’s storyline is a tradeoff im happier with ultimately.

If you’ve either read the original novel, or seen Franz kopulas dracula (the one with Winona Ryder and Keanu reeves) then you will be able to follow the plot of the musical even with little to no Japanese. The kopula movie followed the dracula book pretty well, and this musical also follows a lot of the same scenes in the same order so it’s quite easy to know what’s going on. If you know words like boy, girl, one person, two person, one, two, England, London, sea, please, sorry, thank you, you’ll do fine as that’s I know pretty much ToT also Lucy’s suitor song was very fun I loved it and it really kept the vibe I always love about that part of the story! I loved who was cast as her 3 suitors it AGAIN reminded me of the memorable impression the kopula dracula movie left in my head. Which I think is more a testament to both this musical and that movie likely interpreting the core of the book fairly in their own way (which maybe lead to similar feel in some ways)

The music is sort of rock, sort of opera, also with some slow romantic bits. Very goth horror fitting, a bit repo the genetic opera but more “gentle”. I really loved it.

About the end changes: I loved them. It almost gives the story more Romeo/Juliet vibes but instead of dumb kids it’s more like idk... the rigid ness of society? Even without knowing what was being said precisely - we know dracula is originally about sexuality and it’s repression, how virtue was a necessity for unmarried women (see Lucy and her demonification becoming a vampire despite being generally loved, because ultimately she’s the woman with many suitors who plays and flirts versus Lucy who has one fiancé she is loyal to.. and Lucy falling for dracula and his charm over her and how that sexual allure is ‘demonic’). While interpretations I’ve seen in more modern movies definitely view the sexuality aspect in different ways than the original novel (both in how it’s presented to an audience and probably in interpretation - since I never really related/clicked with the religion/guilt vibes of the book I understand the films much better). But like. Making dracula love Mina has always been an interesting choice I saw in kopulas dracula. It introduced that a monster could feel human emotion, could feel care and perhaps be corrupted toward humanity the same way Mina is ‘corrupted’ and opens up more to her desires because of him. It introduces that he can want things beyond destruction, and on minas end it adds an element. She is no longer a victim completely attacked, she is someone who has formed an attachment and has her own complex feelings on this mess that unfolds (she feels love, freedom, her own desires, and then the horror of losing her friend, her fiancé in danger). I’m not sure if the original novel paints her this way as well (I had a Lot of trouble connecting to it when I read it once in high school lol, but I mainly remember purity being glorified and Mina painted as poor destroyed victim.. Altho the novel is also written all in the form of like letters and things so I don’t remember if we saw her perspective on it or just johnathan and van helsings, and then of course if she felt she was cheating on johnathan then she might have even lied to herself as an unreliable narrator and called her actions possessed/evil etc).

Well making dracula a woman adds another layer! One I think the kopula dracula (and a few others) also tried to add when they make Lucy in love with Mina (which is in a fair number of adaptations). Now part of the exploration is not just: society has this strict view of what is acceptable, what desires are evil and intolerable and will be demonized. Now here is a monster. She makes you feel those desires, makes you want tjem, and girls who already indulge their desires (like lucy) already willingly go to her. You (Mina) do too. You don’t go just because you have a want to indulge your desires like Lucy. You don’t just go because you feel a pull and want to just try. You are in love. You feel care. You feel to you this is more than indulgence. This is valuable.

Dracula is a woman, so are you Mina. Not only does it open itself up as a commentary on purity and expectations, it opens itself up to displays of love (which again I think kopulas dracula movie also aimed to do and I think it’s why dracula being truly in Love with Mina was a plot point). Well to make Mina and dracula two women brings up the topic of same gender attraction into the story as well (like Lucy sometimes does). And by painting dracula and Mina in a loving light, I rather enjoy how this musical decided to execute this change.

More on the change: dracula in the end is not killed by van helsing! A huge change, and one I love! (Fun fact I hate van helsing - he entertains me a little but like I hate him as far as ‘I have never rooted for him in my life’ lol). Also before that, when Mina and dracula unite, not only does Mina willingly offer her neck - but dracula willingly offers her heart. Both metaphorical, and literally as if “drink me too, possess me too, I want you to have me just as much.” I thought it would mean Mina turning into a vampire, turning immortal to be with dracula forever. But after that heart bite the makeup on Mina doesn’t change afterward (like it does with Lucy when she turns into a vampire) so either she’s human still or a kind of immortal that doesn’t seem to corrupt her into having to turn into a blood drinking monster (if I knew more Japanese I’d know what happened lol).

Changes continued: dracula kills herself. From what I understood, she felt it was what she had to do - perhaps to protect Mina from herself the monster, perhaps because she felt they could have no happy ending, perhaps cause she felt van helsing and johnathan would find her and didn’t want to kill people Mina cares about/make Mina think Mina helped kill her. So dracula stabs herself, and has Mina present to help and to understand (spoiler Mina reacts like NO BABE! At first before a very cool song). And of course, after, Mina stabs herself, holds dracula, and dies with her.

Why I like this change: dracula always ends in dracula dying. That’s how the story goes. This ending gives DRACULA the choice and power of it though. I’ve always found Dracula’s death so stupid - hes this powerful monster, this thing lurking in wake, possessing Mina (or loving her depending on adaptation). Then they just find him in his coffin while asleep and weak and stab and kill him. While yeah it makes logical sense, it’s also always a let down and it’s always the guys killing dracula (Mina or Lucy active or helping while there would be much more engaging as they’re the ones who’ve been the most affected and or hurt by dracula). By changing the ending they did a whole bunch of stuff I love: they cut out van helsing doing it (which I think is apt since he’s the symbol of morality and authority and the establishment, so to make him unable to control Dracula’s actions and retain control and “authority” over the world is satisfying), they brought Mina into the scene (giving payoff to the Mina/dracula romance which I feel if it IS included in an adaptation i appreciate a RESOLUTION to it), it gives MINA a choice too - this is not van helsing and her fiancé going to handle the situation. Mina is the one who goes and finds dracula, talks to her, sees her die, and chooses what to do about it. It’s all about Mina and Dracula’s choices, reactions. It’s their moment - and as the core characters in the story, the vampire and the one person she sought out, it’s immensely satisfying to end the story on their scene together making choices themselves on how this will end. No matter WHAT happened in the scene, simply the fact it’s their scene alone makes it so satisfying to me. As they’re the characters who have been affecting each other through the story.

Kopulas dracula I also really appreciate for introducing an importance to dracula in love with Mina. I don’t remember the book ever putting such emphasis on that, just more like “Lucy is dead, now he’s onto the next chosen victim.” (Perhaps a romantic thread was there and I’ve forgotten tho, truly I only read it once). But in the dracula movie I most remember, kopulas, dracula is in love with Mina and romances her. So in this musical, I appreciate that again it seems like dracula is drawn to Mina like some lover from a past life, and talks to Mina in her mind, and wants to know her. I love that aspect in the dracula story, and I love that the romantic aspect is Very much a part of this musical.

The ending of the play is very romantic. Again - I appreciate the ending changes for many reasons. One for me is that it finally gives me a complete STORY of dracula drawn to Mina, Mina falling in love. And dracula falling in love BACK to the point dracula feels she needs to die. while the logic might be arguable, what’s cool to see is that dracula is shown clearly thinking about her affect on another person! Her awareness of Herself as a ‘monster’ and how this affects people. Even in kopulas dracula, I don’t necessarily remember dracula showing any clear sign knowing Mina CHANGED HIM. Made him more self aware and human. So this musical choosing to make this dracula in her final scene, show clearly she’s learned to care? Is amazing to see. It almost feels like it could hint that perhaps Mina and Dracula’s love helped dracula, helped her become human. Helped her heart connect to the living and to their pain. It helped Mina realize herself, but of course we know Dracula’s mere presence also caused destruction in her wake. So to see that perhaps their attraction to each other had at least some personal Positive benefit? Was really nice. It turns the story into one with more grey area, more implication that maybe desire and embracing it does not necessarily always create destruction - it can, and society may certainly punish it even if it’s simply not the norm (Lucy becomes a literal monster, and she’s mainly the victim because she’s that playful flirty girl, even tho the characters themselves don’t demonize her for her actions it’s the world she lives in... to the bigger world girls like her just get hurt, girls like Mina who are ‘good’ don’t). Society can disagree with what one does, but it’s not always bad in itself. Mina embraces her desire, and in itself it does not hurt her, it does not hurt dracula and in some ways it even saves dracula by helping dracula connect to her heart again and caring for others (whereas van helsing - religion, the established way of the world, can only kill dracula and only kill Dracula’s victims since it has no compassionate solution to save - or live - with them. Mina finds away to live with them tho, she can love her friend Lucy (as can Lucy’s suitors who didn’t demonize her even tho ‘in their world of course she was the one destroyed), she can connect to dracula and get dracula to perhaps even feel guilt.

While I think ultimately this musical is overall pretty faithful to the book and similar to kopulas dracula in terms of themes and execution. I also think the ending changes make it a bit more flexible than some previous tellings. And what I love most is it: gives a full story of Mina and dracula as the core of this story (which I love when they ARE the core of it, and I love that in this story they truly ARE through to the end which is not true completely of kopulas). And that it ends with dracula and Mina, instead of van helsing and dracula. I love that so much. The entire mood changes, the feel the audience is left with. When it is ends with van helsing it is the establishment retaining control, as always - it is the killing of the corruption, complete elimination with no other solution or thought, a “thinking rational feeling” person killing a “soulless evil” monster. It is the embodiment of the rules and strict control destroying that single monster that managed to break cracks in the usual control of things. With Mina and dracula, the ending instead is about the victim and monster, the human who “fell” and the monster who started to feel human. It is about two flawed “monsters” that also still have the ability to feel and think, and deserve the power to Decide. While the establishment is a threat they live inside, they may not be able to coexist with even - in that moment, they are the ones in power of themselves. They decide if it ends, how it ends, why it ends. They write and control the story. And they deserve that right. I always felt Mina should be the one TO end the story, since she’s such a key character and to have her perspective and choice he central would mean so much. But she usually isn’t the one in control of the outcome, she usually has little say in it. And in this, she is a part of it, like I always wanted. What’s even more and I never expected - dracula is treated like a person in the ending. When in all the other dracula endings I’ve seen, that’s one of the scenes he is most often depicted as ONLY utterly a monster. Likely because as I said, it’s van helsing and all he represents against dracula simplified into pure evil needing to be eliminated. So to simply have the ending be about these two people so often reduced into victim who other people make choices for and monster who others feel Has to be killed - is so satisfying. That these two are the ones with choice and feelings and their perspective given to us, that control how this ending gets painted, how this ending plays out. I love it so much.

Now that I know this IS AN OPTION on how dracula story can be ended, I want it MORE. ToT

Truly idk if I’m ever gonna be over how much I preferred and liked that ending. Watch me rereading dracula for the first time in like 10 years just so I can read how it wrote Mina and rewrite the story myself with a different take on her more like this. Also watch me rewatching this in several months desperately hoping I improved my Japanese since last time so maybe I can catch some actual dialogue details (ahahah ;-; future mejo try 2 years... ;-;)

The ending sort of reminded me of the book Fingersmith in a way? Because it gave me the same feeling - like the world the exist in has been a mess, they’re in a bad situation, but it’s ending with them together and in control of what to do next. In Fingersmith it ends happily (so feel free to read the book - which gets pretty dark at times, watch the miniseries which I haven’t seen quite yet but hear is faithful, or watch the Korean movie adaptation The Handmaiden). In Dracula musical it does not happy, but dracula never does. What it does do, is ends with them also together, in control, deciding how the story ends. Wow I really have a type with the exact genre of lesbian historical romance I want - when I was scouring historical romance genre a few months back I basically was struggling til I hit gold with Fingersmith. I think in a lot of ways this play shows too just How much what I really want is dracula but make it gay (Fingersmith has no monsters just absolutely monstrous humans, but it feels like reading a book written in the time like the prince and the pauper, and it’s quite horrific in a very similar manner to dracula with the way it paints the world as it’s explored). If anyone has more recs like this please let me know (because when I last scoured the genre there was a Lot of fluff or fluff+ manufactured drama prioritized over characterization, both of which I hate since all I want is good interesting plot - preferably a mystery with themes, great characterization that’s consistent and has good arcs of change, and romance that makes sense for those themes and arcs... I hate fluff for fluffs sake, it’s fine I just personally can’t ;-; )

Also this movie made me wanna rewatch the Winona Ryder dracula if you can’t tell. As far as similar scenes and interpretation, I think that movie is the closest to this musical.

Though again, the choice to make dracula a woman, and to actually fully finish the Mina/dracula romance, and to END IT SO DIFFERENT definitely make this musical version stand out in nice ways.

Oh and of course the sexy music. (And their johnathan though I didn’t mention it was also quite sexy and surprisingly reminded me of Keanu’s version! I did mention though that Lucy’s suitors were just as memorable and charming in this one as in kopulas movie, she ends up marrying the cutest dumbest one).

TRULY if you’ve read the book or seen the winona Ryder dracula then you absolutely can follow the plot of the musical. It’s got most of the same scenes in the same order.

#rant #dracula #dracula musical #dracula Japanese musical

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creepypasta-matchups · 3 years

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OMG a creepypasta match up?!! ON GoD i swear!!! This brings back so much memories.anyways idk if your requests are open or closed, if they are closed PLEASE ignore this.

Anywho if they aren’t um hi. Name’s V I’m a pansexual 5’2” ambiverted ENTJ-A Aries and I go by she/they.I have a light considerate amount of melanin because i’m filipino and i have either very straight hair or wavy/cury hair there’s no in between. People tend to notice my smile/laugh since i tend to do that pretty often in public.

Personality: Um, I'm pretty hot headed and get very irritated very easily. I despise getting purposely provoked and If i do i will not hesitate to hit them or just throw something at them. Cuz well..they get on my nerves. Either that I just get irritated easily and will yell at that person if I'm not in the mood to talk which is kind of often since I like my alone time. Despite getting irritated easily, I don't really like starting fights or conflicts unless absolutely necessary. Because I can either be obnoxiously loud or mysteriously quiet some people find that fairly intimidating about me...idfk how or why? I’m actually nice and will try to strike up a conversation. (random side note about my personality in public i tend to be loud and stuff while at home or just not out in public i can be seen as someone who prefers to be left alone and not talked to despite having guest over)

Hobbies/Things i like/dislike: I do track and field (i’m a thrower). I did martial arts for at least more than two years. I'm just a green belt. Anyways IRRELEVANT um i play violin/piano. I like to listen to different genres of music (don’t really do well with modern day country songs…). I like spicy foods (I have a pretty high spice tolerance) and I like people who I can genuinely vibe with and they’re not clingy. I like people who can make me laugh and make dark jokes with or just really stupid jokes i.e. bee on a chair….yeah it’s wild. Anyways I HATE centipedes and because of my childhood I'm terrified of ladybugs. That’s kind of it. Thanks <33

Requests are open!!! I don’t think I’ve had enough people to close them, but this has been the biggest day for requests!

Anyways, onto the matchup!

Puppeteer/Johnathan Blake

Let’s be honest, first impressions—he’s gonna get hit. He enjoys messing with people! But, he’ll learn when to actually come around and talk with an apology gift that isn’t creepy (probably just some spicy hot chocolate, which I believe is called Mexican hot chocolate? Correct me if I am wrong).

That’s when he learns you’re not just mean and easy to irritate, which while he finds entertaining—he can find that entertainment anywhere. This though? He liked.

He wasn’t intimidated so much as he thought of this as a challenge, but either way, that did change.

He’s not much of a runner since he’s basically like a ghost, but he will 100% make dark humor jokes with you. Although, if it is dumb enough, he will laugh.

He likes to go out to places and just do dumb things that are funny, and sometimes slightly dangerous. He doesn’t realize that though, since he is dead.

100% will trip anyone being an asshole to you with his strings. He’s been known to use them for things other than creepy real people puppets.

His spice tolerance is high, since he is dead. He will ask you for spicy foods to prank others though.

Prank people with him with said spicy foods and he will be happy. Either way though, he will replace your spicy foods.

Also string instrument? The violin especially? Sign him up he is going to watch you practice with a smile. He will recount music he’s heard in the world before as you take breaks from playing.

Also he will, jokingly, offer his strings for you to play on like a violin. He’s probably tell you that they were all e strings, or he may even call them “forbidden b string” when doing this.

Clingy a problem? Well, this isn’t a problem with him as he does have to go out a lot and he tends to do what he does solo, even to a partner he really trusts. It’s destressing for him and he needs alone time too.

Him getting actually, visibly irritated is rare—but even during those times he won’t snap at you and anything playfully dumb or just messing with you jokingly will make him happy again.

Also since he is taller than you, he will make short jokes to tease you. Expect pet names to, things like doll and buttercup. Call him one too and he’ll be dramatic about it and fake a tad bit of disdain to try and get you to say it more. He likes pet names going both ways.

Master of doing hair, he works with his hands and strings to de-stress, so he will be easy to get to do your hair pretty well. It will look pretty, whether it is short or long. He will consider this quality time that isn’t exactly trouble to planning an actual date.

Actual dates may be cheesy though since he hasn’t been in the dating booth in many, many years. He only has learned from little bit. He will make sure you are treated well, though. He does care about you after all. Just maybe not as showy about it in public.

Alone is a whole other story as he is dead and touch-starved, so, a lot of cuddles and hugs. He’s a touchy PDA person in private. In public he can’t be seen, and he just generally keeps a small distance anyway in public—an old habit of his that’ll be hard to break.

I hope you like it! It’s late so many no more requests for the night. I will answer any more tomorrow though.

Edit: fixing some errors and adding a bit because I wrote this really late last night when I shouldn’t have.

#puppeteer #creepypasta matchup #Creepypasta #matchup

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going-dead · 4 years

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A Bit of Space

@phantomsnfae Happy Christmas truce! I wanted to post this either on Christmas or new years but it wasn’t finished by Christmas so happy new decade! You asked for astronaut Danny so here it is! I threw in a dash of Grey Ghost for you as well!

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“Danny you need to calm down.” Valerie chided trying to calm her boyfriend down over the phone.

Danny tapped his fingers on his leg. “I can’t calm down Val! What if I mess something up? It’s already a miracle that I got a job at NASA, but to pass the training and be selected to be part of the astronaut program? I can’t mess this up.”

Danny could hear Valerie roll her eyes. “How could you mess this up? You’ve already died once anything else should pale in comparison.”

“First off ouch. Secondly what if I can’t handle small spaces? Or freak out in zero gravity? What if I don’t know enough and I don’t get admitted, or I’m not fit enough?” He worried.

Valerie gave a small sigh. “You really are dumb aren’t you? How many times have you been trapped in your own thermos, and you can fly. You’ve been studying for ages and after six years of fighting ghosts on an almost weekly basis I don’t think you have to worry about being fit enough, maybe too fit though. You will be fine”

Danny had to agree with that logic, but it didn’t do much to calm him down. He gave a quick goodbye and hung up the phone. He was on a lunch break at the moment and the pause between the testing and training was allowing him to start worrying again. He took a deep breath and headed back into the fray. Now that the break was over it was time for the practical portion.

The person observing him for testing, Anne, waved him over. Standing next to her was a man Danny didn’t recognize. “Johnathan this is Daniel, Daniel this is Johnathan you two will be partnering for this next portion.”

Johnathan reached his hand out and Danny took it. “You can just call me John, I’m assuming you go by Dan?”

Danny flinched at the name but quickly replaced it with a smile. It may have been years ago, but the memories of his alternate future self still haunted him at times. “Actually Danny is fine. Nice to meet you John.”

Anne lead the two over to what looked like a small medical station. “Now before we begin we’re going to give you a small physical. Nothing big don’t worry just to get baselines and make sure nothing is wrong before we start.” She motioned for Danny first.

Danny sat down in the chair provided, suddenly wondering when he last had a physical that wasn’t from a doctor who he could explain his abnormalities off as simply the long term effect of living with ghost biologists. Because he was pretty sure, despite being a government agency, NASA wasn’t in the know about the paranormal. So thinking back it was never, he had never been to a doctor outside of Amity Park. Looked like it was time to panic again.

The doctor who Danny didn’t get the name of and wasn’t wearing a name tag, or maybe she was but Danny was too busy panicking to notice, put an automatic blood pressure cuff on his arm. She looked at the screen brows furrowed and tried again. “Hmm weird, must be acting up. No worries we’ll just do it manually.” Danny at this point was now really panicking. She took his vitals again and looked more satisfied. “Blood pressure and pulse are a bit on the lower end but that’s probably partially due to you being smaller.”

Danny sighed internally, of course his pulse when he is on the verge of a panic attack would be a below average rate for a normal person. When she took his temperature he focused all his power on dampening his core as much as possible. Thankfully the rest of his physical, and all of John’s went smoothly. Finally it was time to start. Anne lead them to a medium sized chamber. Danny recognized it instantly, it was an invention his parents made a few years back trying to recreate a ghosts flight ability. They never were able to control the direction the floated in or stop at will effectively just making a zero gravity chamber, so they scrapped it. Apparently the word got out and NASA picked it up.

Danny and John entered the chamber ropes wrapped around both their waists. Anne’s voice came over the intercom and let them know she was turning on the machine. Soon enough the two were floating. It was definitely different from flying, but easy enough to adapt around. It did take a decent amount of willpower to not use flight to move around, his mind convinced that he was floating willingly. Danny pushed off the walls laughing, it was fun not being in control of exactly where he would float. He looked over to John who wasn’t fairing as well as Danny. He was currently upside down flailing around trying to get to a wall. Danny braced himself against a wall and pushed off to go help the other man.

It was over all too soon for Danny. When he left the chamber Anne looked at him impressed. “You handled that quite well, most candidates have a similar experience as John did.” She laughed. Danny smiled and rubbed the back of his neck. He didn’t say anything, he wouldn’t be able to reasonably explain how he was calm with complete weightlessness.

When Anne started leading them to the next task John walked up to Danny. “I was fine I did not need your help.” He growled.

Danny was a bit taken aback. “Woah dude calm down, I was just trying to help. You looked like you were struggling a bit. Plus you heard Anne, most people react like you did.” John just scoffed and sped past him, bumping his shoulder as he did. Danny rolled his eyes, and here he thought he’d be done with bullies after high school.

They arrived at a model of a rocket cabin. Anne explained that they’ll be sitting in it for a few hours to see how well they respond to both the small space and the fake simulations she’ll be running.

“Wait how long will be in in there exactly though?” John asked looking the cabin up and down.

“Depends on how well you do.” She answered ushering them in. They strapped themselves into the seats and braced themselves for what was to come. Looking around it was definitely a bit cramped, but he could shift around so it was a million times better than being in the thermos. They ran through a few scenarios, like what take off would be like. Both men fared well.

Anne let them out after a while with an approving hum. “Good job you two. That's all for today, I’ll see you both again tomorrow for the rest of your evaluation.” She bid them farewell. She looked down at her phone and furrowed her brow. “Actually Danny do you mind staying for a bit longer?”

Danny nodded his head hanging back. Anne lead him back to where the doctor from earlier was. She looked up from her clipboard and smiled. “Welcome back Mr. Fenton. I was just looking at your chart and was wondering if we could double check some things?”

Danny tensed up but nodded. “Uh yeah sure, everything alright?” He asked as another doctor walked in with a cart.

“Yes of course we just noticed a few odd things with your results. I’d feel better with a second opinion on.” She gave a smile as the new doctor came over and shone a light in his eyes.

“Ah hey!” Danny yelled blinking his eyes rapidly.

The new doctor at least looked a bit sorry. He gave a warning before shining the light into Danny’s eyes again. He placed a stethoscope over Danny’s chest, and also tested his reflexes. “Mr. Fenton do you happen to have any medical history we should know about? Or perhaps anything that runs in your family by chance?”

“Uh no?” Danny looked over at Anne who was now looking at his chart with wide eyes.

The doctor looked almost disappointed in him, before the three of them sent him off. Leaving Danny feel anxious and paranoid.

The incident was never brought up again. A while after all this started, Danny was finally in space. He had just arrived in the space station a few days earlier along with John. He had gotten acquainted with the rest of the crew and was currently eating lunch. Suddenly the space station shuddered and alarms started to blare. Danny and the other five crew members looked at each other before another shudder.

A loud voice blared through the speakers. “HAHAHA! I TECHNUS HAVE TAKEN OVER THE SPACE STATION! FROM HERE I WILL BE ABLE TO RULE THE COSMOS!” Danny was going to scream. It had been months since he’d had to deal with a ghost at all, and now he had to deal with one not only in space but one who could take control of the life support? Not to mention in a space where he would not be able go ghost in privet.

The lights flickered, he sighed. He at least hoped he’d get out of this without being captured and experimented on, he knew he’d be out of a job at least. He gave one last look at his cremates. “In advance, sorry. Please don’t try to kill me.” He took a calming breath and reminded himself to not re-kill Technus. “I’m going ghost!” He yelled out as two white rings bisected him, replacing clothes with a black and white hazmat suit, blue eyes with toxic green, and black hair with glowing white.

He flew through the wall of the station out into open space. “Hey Technus! Mind giving me a bit of space for once?” Technus materialized next to him. “AH PHANTOM!” If ghosts could sweat Danny was pretty sure Technus would be. “I DID NOT EXPECT YOU TO BE HERE, UHH.” He looked at the watch on his wrist. “LOOK AT THE TIME, I HAVE TO GO… UH MAKE DINNER!” He vanished. Danny was grateful he was now powerful enough that most ghosts knew to just leave if he showed up.

Danny reluctantly flew back into the station and reverted back to a human. Giving his crew mates an uncomfortable grin.

“Holy shit that was awesome!”

“Woah what was that dude?” “Are you an alien?” “Of course he’s not an alien, he flew through the wall. He’s a ghost!”

They all clambered about asking him questions. Danny smiled as he answered the questions. He had a feeling his secret, job, and organs were safe with them.

#Christmas truce #Danny Phantom #My fic #fanfiction

36 notes · View notes

writteriguess · 5 years

Text

Escape You | Part Four

Chapter Four:

The Sauna Test.

Steve Harrington x reader

summary: After Robin finds a useful map, a new individual joins you on your journey in finding the Evil Russians.

warnings: cursing

notes: sorry this is a chap is so late. School started for me and I’m still adjusting lol. Anyway hope y’all enjoy this chapter 🥰

(also sorry if there are mistakes, I didn’t really read it :/)

——————

You huffed as you opened the door to the roof of the StarCourt Mall. When you become in contact with the sun, you squint your eyes and pull your hand infront of your face.

“Yo! Henderson!” Dustin turns to face you, the binoculars still glued to his face. You stifle a laugh. “I got your note! What do you want?” You yelled to him. You held up the note he had left you that morning at your shop on the counter.

Meet me at the roof. Come alone - Dustin

“Shhh!” He shushes you quickly. You walk closer to him. He is kneeled on the floor. He pulls you to the floor by your forearm. You fall to the floor with a plop. You hiss at him.

“What the hell!?” You exclaim loudly. He shushes you again, pointing to something down below. You look. Evil Russian’s. “Oh” you whisper out, getting into a comfortable position on the ground. You lean closer to Dustin, “Why are we here?”

He shrugs innocently, “Spying on Evil Russian’s” You nod, moving away, “Right, Right.” It’s silent. You speak up again, “That still doesn’t explain why I’m here” You point to yourself.

Dustin sighs, removing the binoculars from his eyes and placing them on the floor next to him. “I have a bone to pick with you” he looks to you. You snicker, leaning over to grab the binoculars. He lets you, you’re suprised. You put them up to your face. “Yeah? Like what?” You laugh breathlessly.

“Do you like Steve?” His questing catches you off - guard. You peel your eyes away from the binoculars quickly. “What?” You ask.

You’re not really sure if you’d heard him correctly. You were positive that you were good at hiding your feelings but apparently not. First Sarah knew and now Dustin. God probably Steve knew himself! Maybe you can play it off. Say you didn’t like him.

“You heard me. Do you like Steve?” Dustin repeated himself. You scoffed, shaking your head. You put the binoculars up to your face agin. “Now why would you think that?” You chuckled wearily.

Dustin, clearly annoyed, snatched the binoculars from your grip, forcing you to look at him. “Don’t act dumb (y/n)! I saw how sad you looked when you saw him and Robin holding hands!”

You sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of your nose with your thumb and pointer finger. God, he saw that! You were in deep shit now. You didn’t know why but you felt the urge to tell Dustin the truth. You two had grown closer over the pass couple of days. He was probably one of the only people you could trust. So you did. You told him the truth.

“Ok! So what if I did?” You exclaimed. Dustin fist pumped the air, “Yes! I knew it!.” You rolled your eyes at him, putting your head in your hands. “It’s that freaking obvious, huh?” You mumbled in your palm.

“Yea. The way you look at him, it makes me believe love is real” Dustin said. You looked up at him quickly, shaking your head with a laugh. “Woah, Woah, Woah” you let out a shaky laugh, “I don’t love him” you objected.

Dustin sighs again, bringing the binoculars back to his face. “Yea, whatever you say (y/n).” You laugh at him again. “Seriously I don’t.” Dustin doesn’t look at you, letting out an unsure hum and mumbling, “sure you don’t.”

It’s silent again. You pull your knees to your chest, and let out a stressful sigh. You look at Dustin again. “You know you can’t tell anyone about this, right?” Dustin, eyes still in the binoculars, nods. “And I mean anyone. Not your friends. Not Robin. And definitely not Steve”.

He finally takes the binoculars off. “I won’t, I won’t” You nod greatfully at him. Your pinkie raises in the air before him. “Pinkie Promise?” He looked to you in disbelief before scoffing, “Seriously (y/n)?.”

You shrugg innocently, pursing your lips. “Well if you meant it, you would pinkie promise” you start to pull your pinkie away. He groans in annoyance, “Fine! Fine!”

You smirk in victory. His pinkie twist around yours, and he stares you dead in the eyes. He holds up his other hand, showing his uncrossed fingers. “I swear, I will not tell a single soul.”

You smile pulling your pinkie away, “Good.”

In the two hours that follow, you and Dustin had made it to Scoops to tell Robin and Steve the stuff you say the Russians doing with the key cards.

“That keycard opens the door, but unfortunately, the Russian with this keycard also has a massive gun.” Dustin explained, leaning against the wall. Steve and Robin stood across from each other at the small blue and white table. You stood next to Dustin, nodding along to what he explained.

“Whatever’s in this room, whatever’s in those boxes, they really don’t want anybody finding it” you concluded. Steve played with his white sailors hat by flipping it along his finger whilst Robin played with an ice cream scooper. “But there’s gotta be a way in” Robin sighed, leaning back in her seat in defeat.

Steve throws his hat on the table, “Well, you know...” he then leans his elbows on the table, eyeing all three of you. “I could just take him out” Steve shrugged.

Your eyes squinted and you almost scoffed. “Take who out?” Robin asked with wide eyes. Steve shrugged again, as if it was no big deal. “The Russian Gaurd. What? I sneak up behind him, I knock him out and I take his keycard. It’s easy.”

“Did you not hear the part about the massive gun?” Dustin points out bluntly. You chuckle in your fist, looking between both boys humorously. Steve glanced to you before looking back to Dustin. “Yes, Dustin, I did” Steve spoke back in a ‘matter of fact tone’. “And that’s why I would be sneaking.” Steve moves his pointer and middle finger across the table, demonstrating a sneaking motion.

Dustin crosses his arms, “Well, please, tell me this, and be honest, have you ever actually...won a fight?” Dustin seemed to challenge. At that comment, you started laughing into your palm. Steve shot you a look again, but to his dismay you continued to laugh.

Steve butts in, “Okay, that was one time,” Dustin quickly cut him off, “twice. Johnathan. Year prior?”

Ah, you had remembered that day. You had heard that Johnathan Byers has beat the shit out of Steve Harrington’s face. It was amusing really. The geeky camera guy beating up the popular king of the school. Now that was one for the books. You had remembered being so proud of him, but you never had the chance to tell him.

“Listen, that doesn’t count” he begins but you tilt your head to the side letting out a sound of disagreement. “Why wouldn’t it count? Because it looks like he beat the shit out of you” Dustin cut in again. You chuckled into your palm again. Robin looked between the three of you in amusement. Suddenly, her eyes took gaze open a object in the far corner. Her face falls into a blank stare. She then smiled knowingly.

“That just might work” Robin mumbled. Suddenly she escaped through the back, walking to the front of the shop. Her hand dug in the tip jar, scooping the money from inside. You, Steve, and Dustin followed.

“Hey, Robin! What, what are you doing?” Steve asked. Robin turned around, slowly walking out of the ice cream parlor. “I need cash” she shrugged.

“Well, half of thats mine. Where you goin?” Steve projected back. “To find us a way into that room, a safe way. And, in the meantime, sling ice cream, behave, and don’t get beat up. I’ll be back in a jiff” She salutes the three of you before bolting away.

You look to Dustin, who has one of the ice cream scooper’s in his mouth, eating ice cream from the top. Steve glances at him before snatching it away. “Oh, Dude!” He twirls the scooper before placing it in one of his apron pockets. “Come on man, not my scooper.”

You and Dustin stayed in the back of Scoops, waiting for Robin to return. Steve did as he was told, slinging ice cream in the front. You peeked at him through the glass of the sliding windows. A line was forming rapidly, and you watched as Steve frantically moved around, trying to get the orders out quickly.

“Should we help him?” You asked Dustin, who was pacing around the room. You were suprised you haven’t yelled at him to stop yet. He was also quiet, which wasn’t like him. “Not right now, (y/n). I’m sure Steve can handle it.”

You look at Steve again. While rushing to get the whip cream, you watch Steve spill an order of a strawberry milkshake. It falls to the floor, and he bends down to start cleaning it. You indistinctively hear him repeatedly apologizing to the customer.

You quickly ran to the other side of the room, grabbing a spare Scoops Ahoy sailer’s hat and an apron. You put the hat on your head, and tie the apron around your waist tightly.

Dustin furrows his eyebrows at you, “Uh, what are you doing?”. You see one of the blue Scoops Ahoy vests and put it on, covering your work maroon shirt. It wasn’t the complete Scoops Ahoy uniform, but it would have to do. “I’m gonna go out there!”

“Oooo, you gonna make your move?” Dustin wiggles his eyebrows to at you. You give him a dumbfounded look, “No, im gonna help with the shit ton of orders that are piling in”. You rush to the door, ready to open it. “Sure you are (y/n)” Dustin teased sarcastically. You give him a dirty look, before pushing the doors open.

Steve, who was still on his knees, cleaning up the splattered pink and red milkshake, turned back to look at you. He smiled instantly, the smile becoming bigger when he say you wearing some of Scoops uniform. “(y/n)? What, what are you doing?”

You smirked, “Helping your ass.” You then stepped over the mess, and towards the counter, where a line of costumers were waiting.

“Ahoy!” You greeted. “ What can I get you guys?” You asked enthusiastically, in the all to familiar Scoops Ahoy Sailor character. Steve grinned up at you from the ground ever so often. To his astonishisment, you in that uniform was doing something for him. When you two had officially met, you would talk to each other every so often, and Steve had started taking a liking to you, but only in a friendly way. But looking at you now, he’s not sure what he felt. All he knew was that you looked really cute in that sailors hat.

When Steve has finally finished cleaning the milkshake, you two moved around quickly, the orders going out quick and easy. And before you too knew it, the customers slowed down and then there was none left.

You leaned against the counter, your upper arm aching from scooping so much ice cream. Steve leaned next to you, whipping his hand with a blue washcloth. You winced, moving your arm in a circular motion. “God, I’ve never scooped so much ice cream in my life. My arm hurts like hell” you chuckled.

Steve chuckled too and it was like music to your ears. “Yea, I was like that the first week too. But, ya know? You get used to it” he shrugged. “However it’s definitely not worth the 3 dollars I get an hour.” You both laughed at his comment.

When the laughing died down, you hid your smile in your hand. Steve stared at you, the corners of his lips turned up slightly. His eyes trailed along your features. Every crease, every eyelash, every freckle. You were beautiful. Your cheeks wore a light shade of pink, and he wanted nothing more then to hold and kiss them. His eyes trailed to your hair. It was styled down, the hair going along your shoulder and back. It looked so soft and god did he want to touch it. Jesus, was he smitten.

You noticed his staring, removing your hand from your face. You narrowed your eyes and pursed your lips at him. “What?” You giggled out.

Steve chuckled awkwardly, he smiled brightly looking away. “Sorry” he played with his hands, a thing you often saw him do when he was nervous. His gaze was upon you again, “You just look so damn cute in the sailors hat.”

Your cheeks raged pink. Now it was your turn to look away. The corners of your mouth turned up and soon your pearly whites shown. Steve’s fingers reached out, grazing your’s that were rested comfortably along the table that you leaned on. He didn’t hold your hand, no, just his fingers lightly drawing patterns along the front and fingers. You wanted to hold his hand, and you could tell he did too.

Your eyes meet his again. He looked to your lips and then back to your eyes. Your breath seemed to get caught in your throat. Did he want to kiss you? No. He liked Robin. They were holding hands. He had to like her. But the way he looked at you. Could he like you?

Thoughts and possibilities flooded your mind. His face got closer, closer, so close.

“Guys! I got it!” A cheery voice broke you two apart. Steve jolted away quickly. and your head whipped around to the voice. It was Robin. She was holding, a map? She stopped though, watching both you and Steve’s flustered pink faces. Her eyebrows furrowed, “You two alright?”

Steve nodded frantically, running a hand along the back of his neck. “Yea, yea, we’re uh...fine” Steve looks to you. You give a convincing nod Robins way. “Yea, Great!” You agree with Steve.

“Okay...anyway” She holds up the map further, showing you two the map she had found. “I got it!” She repeated again. Steve’s eyes narrowed, “And what is that exactly?”

In the back of Scoops, Robin laid out the map on the table. You, Steve, and Dustin hovered over it. “It is fascinating what 20 bucks will get you at the County Recorders Office”. She flattens the map out, giving each of you her best grin, “StarCourt Mall. The complete blueprint’s”

Dustin smiles up at her, “Not bad.” You agree with him. The map seemed to show all of the Mall. You were impressed. “So, this is us, Scoops” Robin points to a small area near the bottom of the map. You all lean in closer to look. You smile as you see the store you worked at a short way from Scoops.

She points further up the map, “And this is where we want to get.” Your eyebrows furrow, your eyes trailing the map frantically. “How?” You ask breathlessly. Steve looks at you before nodding back down at the map. “Yeah. I mean, I don’t really see a way in” he shrugged his hunched shoulders.

“There’s not” Robin points out quickly. By this point, you and Steve are extremely confused. Suddenly Robin rips the map off, under it is another one. “If you’re talking exclusively about doors.”

Dustin gets it, “Air ducts” he says in astonishment. Robin smiles at the kid, “Exactly.” She rushes over to the whiteboard on the other side of the room. “Turns out, this secret room needs air just like any old room.” The three of your eyes watch Robin as she grabs a marker from the whiteboard. “These air ducts” She circles one of the air ducts on the top with the red marker. “Lead all the way” she drags the marker downward. “Here” She goes down to the bottom, circling the air duct of Scoops.

You, Dustin and Steve look to the small vent. Robin closes the marker with a click.

You stand beside the ladder as Steve unscrews the vent, a screwdriver between his teeth. He hands it to you, to which you then place on the floor. “Flashlight” his voice mumbled against the tool. Dustin hands it to him. They trade, the screwdriver for the flashlight. You hold onto one of the legs of the ladder, making sure Steve doesn’t fall. You could already see that incident taking place.

He flashes the light into the dark vent, his eyes straining to see. You, Robin, and Dustin wait patiently down below. “Yeah, I don’t know, man. I don’t know if you could fit in here. It’s like...super tight” he refers to Dustin. “I’ll fit” Dustin convinces back. You mentally shake your head. There was nooo way Dustin would fit.

“Trust me. No collar bones, remember?” You and Robin look to each other eyes wide. “Uh, excuse me?” Robin asked quickly. Steve jumps down from the later. “Oh, he’s, uh yeah he’s got some disease. Chry, Uh...it’s chrydo, um... Something. Yea, I dunno”

You smile at his cute stuttering. “He’s missing bones and stuff. He can bend like Gumbo.” Your eyebrows furrow. Isn’t it Gumby? “You mean Gumby?” You ask through raised eyebrows. Steve looks to you, “I’m pretty sure it’s Gumbo.”

“Steve, just shut up and push me!” Dustin’s voice echoed due to the vent. “Okay” Steve drawls out, rolling his eyes before moving up the ladder. He grabs Dustin by the feet, lifting him off the ladder, before giving him a solid push into the vent. He doesn’t budge. “Not my feet, dumbass. Push my ass” Dustin yells back angrily.

“What?” Steve says. “Touch my butt! I don’t care!” Dustin screams back. You stifle a laugh. And sure enough, Steve moves further up the ladder, and attempt’s to push Dustin in. “Come on! Harder! Push Harder!”

“I’m pushing!” Steve resorts back. “You’re playing with my legs.” “I’m not playing, I have terrible footing.” God, they sound like a old married couple. Robin looks to you, giving you a ‘what the hell is going on’ face. You giggle and shrug innocently.

“I’m gonna just shove you, ready?” Steve says. He starts counting, Dustin’s legs wrapped around the back of his neck for better support. “One, Two...”

He shoved him. Once again, Dustin doesn’t budge. “Shit!” He exclaims. “One more time” he says to Steve.

Suddenly, the sound of the customer bell rings from the front of Scoops. Robin turns, looking to an annoyed Erica Sinclair. She’s ringing the bell rapidly saying, “Ahoy, sailors! All hands on deck! Ahoy!”

Robin smiles mischievously, and you won’t even try to process the thoughts flowing in that girls head.

Robin leaves you and goes to the front. Your mouth is just forming her name when the swinging door swings back in your direction. You look back over to the boys to see Steve still trying to push Dustin inside the vent. You sigh, moving towards the ladder and nudging Steve’s leg. He looks down to you.

“Both of you come down. It’s clearly not gonna work.” With sighs of defeat Steve and Dustin touch the ground. “Where’s Robin?” Steve asks, looking around, not noticing her presence. You shrugg, “Who the hell knows anymore.”

Suddenly she retreats back with, Erica Sinclair? The little girls eyes widen when they see you. “(y/n)?” she questioned, eyebrows raised. “What are you doing hanging around with these nerds?”

You chuckle. You loved this kid. Steve steps in, “Uh, you two know eachother?” His hands move between you and Erica. “I babysat her for like three years” you shrugged. Steve nods.

Erica looks over to Robin. “What vent were you talking about?” She asks. Robin points to the small vent above them. “That one”

The four of you watch as Erica shines the flashlight into the vent. “Hmm” she hums unsurely. She hops down from the latter, facing the four of you who were leaning against the white and blue wall. “Yeah, I don’t know” Erica says.

“You don’t know if you could fit?” Dustin asks. Erica scoffs, “Oh, I can fit. I just don’t know if I want too.” “Are you claustrophobic?” Robin speaks up. Erica snickers, “I don’t have phobias.”

“Okay, well, what’s the problem?” Steve draws out, the annoyance in his voice increasing with every word. “The problem is, I still haven’t heard what’s in this for Erica.” She sasses back. Steve sucks in his teeth and looks to Robin, who raises her brows.

You watch as Steve moves a gigantic banana split before Erica’s eyes. She examines it before pushing it back to Steve. “More fudge, please.” When Steve doesn’t move, Erica flutters her hand in his direction, prompting him to move. “Go on.” You watch as Steve flashes her the fakiest smile you have ever seen and goes to get her more fudge.

“All right” Robin pulls out the map. “You see this?” She points to the line written in red marker. “This is the route you’re gonna take.” Robin then turns the map over, and points to a big area circled with the red line. “Then we just wait till the last delivery goes out tonight. Then you knock down the grate, jump down, open the door.” Robin explains it as if it were the easiest thing in the world.

“Then you find out what’s in those boxes?” Erica scoops a spoonful of ice cream in her mouth from the remaining few on the table. “Exactly” Robin concludes. Erica makes an unsure sound again. “And you say this guard is armed.”

You and Dustin look at eachother. “Yes, but he won’t be there” you try to convince. Dustin seems to nod along to you for moral support. “And booby traps?” She asks further. Robin cuts in, “Booby traps?” She questions. “Lasers, spikes in the wall?” Erica explains.

Robin laughs at her, so does Dustin. “You know what this half-baked plan of yours sounds like to me?” Erica quirks an eyebrow at the three of you. Dustin makes a face at her. “Child endangerment” She draws out.

You frown quickly at the idea that Erica thought you were willingly trying to danger her. You babysat the kid for three freaking years. You lean up again. “We’ll be in radio contact with you the whole time” you try to persuade. “Ah, ah ah,” she points her finger at you. “Child endangerment” She draws out, once again. You huff, rolling your eyes, plopping back against the red booth.

“Erica? Hi. Uh, we think these Russians want to do harm to our country. Great harm. Don’t you love your country?” Dustin takes a new method in persuading. Erica thinks for a minute before smirking. “You can’t spell “America” without “Erica.”

You and Dustin look to eachother before both nodding your heads. “Uh, Yeah, Yeah” Dustin nods his head. “Oddly, that’s, uh, totally true.”

You lean in closer to her, “So, don’t do this for us. Do it for your country” you shrug at her before, leaning back into the booth. Dustin adds on, “Do it for your fellow man.”

Erica slurps harshly on one of the Scoops Ahoy milkshakes. The drink reminds you of what happened between you and Steve just one hour before. He did try to kiss you. You looked to Robin, who was nodding along to whatever else Dustin was saying to Erica. You knew she liked Steve. You could tell she enjoyed his company and he enjoyed her’s. They held hands. You felt guilty. Just seeming to barge into their friend group like this. And maybe whatever Steve and Robin had going on. You bit at your thumbnail.

Night fell, and it was time. “Erica, do you copy?” Robin spoke into the walkie talkie. Erica’s sassy voice resorts back, “Mm-hmm. I copy. You nerds in position or what?”

“Yeah, we’re in position” Robin says back. “It’s all quiet here, so you’ve got the green light” Robin assures. You stand between Steve and Dustin, and roll your eyes at Dustin’s binoculars, thinking of how those things almost had you all killed the other night. “Green light, roger that.” Her voice then continued, “Commence Operation Child Endangerment.” You couldn’t help but roll your eyes. You grab the walkie talkie from Robins grip.

“Can we maybe not call it that?” You speak into the device. Erica ignores you, her voice coming in again, “See you on the other side, nerds.”

You all look to eachother before taking a comfortable position on the ground, waiting for Erica to open the door. Without even noticing, you lean your head on Steve’s shoulder. He tilts his head over, smiling into your hair. Robin doesn’t notice, keeping her gaze mostly on the door. Dustin eyes the both of you, a small grin ghosting his lips. When you realize what your doing, you try to hold back a smile. Steve was warm against you. It was summer, but the night was cool, prompting a chill to seize your skin every so often. Steve noticed, wrapping his arm around your shoulder before resting his palm against your lower arm. His hands trailed up and down, trying to create a warm friction between the two of you. In a few seconds you stopped shaking.

Before any of you could say something, Erica’s voice comes through the walkie talkie that rested in your palm. “All right, nerds.”

You jolt your head off of Steve’s shoulder, Robin, Steve and Dustin crowding around you. “I’m there.” You all smile at eachother. Robin leans over, “Do you see anything?”

“Yeah, I see those boring boxes you’re so excited about.” You chuckle, putting the communication device to your mouth, “Any guards?” You ask. “Negative” Erica answers back. You sigh in relief. Robin cuts in again, “Booby traps?” She smirks.

“If I could see them, they’d be pretty shit traps, wouldn’t they?” Erica pipes back. You and Dustin look at eachother before nodding. Steve rolled his eyes. “Thank you for that.” Robin depressed a chuckle.

You all hear a yell and then a bang before her voice comes through again. “I’m in” she confirms. Steve untenses from next to you, running his hand through his voluminous hair, before muttering out a “oh god” in relief. You all look to the door anxiously.

The doors open and Erica walks out in all her glory. She puts a hand on her hip, “Free ice cream...for life.” She points at Robin and Steve. The four of you walk down the stairs to the road below.

Once inside, the five of you spent no time to see what’s in those boxes. Steve opens one of the Imperial Panda boxes with a box cutter. He opens the box, you and Robin helping with the sides. It’s...a smaller box?

Your eyebrows furrow. It’s a small beige box with a small metal handle on top. Steve grabs the handle before twisting it open. Air hisses from the action. He gently pulls the lid off. The five of you lean over, looking inside. Before your eyes lay four other small steel handles. “That’s definitely not Chinese food.” Steve jokes. Yup, definitely not.

“Uh, maybe you guys should, you know, stand back.” Steve motions for the four of you to stand back. You, Robin, and Erica do so. Dustin doesn’t move. “No” he protest, moving closer. Steve pushes him away by the chest, “Just step back, okay?”

Dustin moves forward again, “No.” “Step back. Seriously.” Steve warns. “No! No! If you die, I die.” Dustin proclaims. You smile softly. It was sweet, but a little weird. Steve shrugs, “Okay.” The next thing you know, his hand is reaching into the box.

Steve slowly twist one of the handles. It makes a clicking noise before that same air hissing noise from before. He pulls it out. It’s a small container with a green liquid inside. You all stare at eachother in shock.

“What the hell?” Steve whispered breathlessly. “What is that?” Robin asked after him. Suddenly the floor rumbled slightly beneath you. You all look around in panic. What the hell was that?

Dustin’s scarred voice comes next, “Was that just me, or did the room move?” You shook your head, swallowing thickly. “Nope. The room definitely just moved.” You answered. “Booby traps” Erica whispers out from next to you.

The room shakes again, a mechanical whirring being heard from off the walls. “You know what? Let’s just grab that and go” Robin steps forward in panic, grabbing the strange green container. Dustin moves over to the bottons on the wall. He presses the blue botton with the words ‘Door Open’ displayed on the front. The door doesn’t open.

“Which one do I press, Erica?” Dustin shouts, his voice yelling the word panic. “Just press the damn button, nerd” Erica sassed. “Which one? I’m pressing the button, okay?”

“Press ‘open door’!” Erica yelled. Dustin huffs, “I’m pressing ‘open door’.” You move forward, ready to put their bickering to rest. “Maybe try pressing the other button” you say sarcastically. You start pressing all the buttons now, but none of them work. Steve makes his way next you, slightly shoving you away. “Maybe try this one” he presses the glowing green button in the middle.

Another door above slams down before you. It’s silent for a moment. All of you waiting for what was next. However, this one you didn’t expect. The room rattled before then rapidly plunging to the floor.Erica and Robin scream, grabbing onto shelf’s and boxes. You grab onto Steve. He looks to the wall, before letting out an “Oh shit.” You look to the wall too, to see a whole bunch of lights flashing before your eyes. Like floors. Then it hit you.

It wasn’t a room. It was a goddamn elevator.

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@tequilachick @stobinthings @queen1054 @soniasalvatore1 @autumn-blessings @username3549 @iluvmesomemarvelndc @curiousershipper @from-a-forgotten-kingdom @lxstdreams @k-n-teeg @nightmare-mermaid4792 @laneygthememequeen @dracaryswonder @thatlittlered @icons-celebs

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hunnywrites · 5 years

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Arcade Dreams: Chapter Fourteen

Summary: There’s a new girl working at the Palace Arcade and Hawkins’ Family Video. Billy can’t stand her, and the feeling is mutual. No matter what everyone else seems to think.

Pairing: Billy Hargrove/OFC

A/N: Alright so it turns out writing about Billy having feelings other than angst is pretty tough. But you know, we’re finally making progress on the romance front. Enjoy!

Teddi ended up chickening out over calling about the apartment. It had been about a week or so since Hopper had come into the video store, and the idea of living off on her own was still constantly on her mind. If only she could just make herself call. Instead she could only trace the phone number that she had written on the back of one of her notebooks. She hadn’t brought it up with Billy either. He would’ve been supportive of the idea, Teddi knew he would. She didn’t have any siblings to worry about like he did. No strings tying her to her family. And she could already practically hear him joking about her apartment being the new party spot. Like she’d let that happen. But there was this part of her that worried that he might think the whole thing was stupid. That he might tell her she was running from her problems or being a baby. So for now she would keep it to herself.

Now Teddi was in the library during her free period, mindlessly tracing that same phone number as she chewed on her lip. Initially she’d decided to use her free period to finish up on some homework before she had to go to work, but her mind was much, much too busy to focus on any math homework she had. In fact, she was so spaced out that she didn’t even notice that someone was walking up behind her.

“What’s that?” Teddi jumped at the sound of Steve’s voice.

She held a hand to her chest, glaring up at him as he pulled the seat across from her out and plopped down. “It’s nothing.” she said a little too quickly.

Steve raised an eyebrow. “...That definitely doesn’t sound suspicious,” he grinned. “Come on, Ted. It’s me, Steve, you can tell me. You got a boyfriend you’re keeping a secret or something?”

Teddi rolled her eyes. “Nothing so scandalous,” she joked. She supposed there was no real harm in telling Steve. He was a much more impartial party compared to Billy. “...You know that apartment building you told me about at the New Year’s party? The one out by the steel mill? I’ve kinda been thinking of moving there. Like getting out on my own and all.” she eyed Steve nervously while she waited for his reaction.

“Pfft, I sure wish I could move out,” was all he said. “My old man’s constantly down my neck about what I’m gonna do after school. Like I’m supposed to have any idea.” he scoffed.

Teddi let out a small breath of relief and smiled. “You don’t have any colleges lined up?”

“Uh, well I was trying to pick out a few to apply to...but then I couldn’t really decide on any...and then I kinda missed all the deadlines to apply,” he nodded, flashing a sheepish grin. “What about you? I mean, you’ve gotta have schools trying to kick down your door, right?”

College. That was another subject that Teddi wanted to avoid. She’d been busting her ass working two jobs and making sure her grades were nothing short of amazing so that she could make sure to get into a good school...but there wasn’t really anything she dreaded more. And she was completely aware that it didn’t make a lick of sense. “Well, actually I got into NYU which was like...my dream school...but I don’t really know if I’m gonna go if I’m completely honest.”

Steve’s eyebrows shot upwards and he grinned. “Wait, what? Teddi, that’s amazing! Why wouldn’t you want to go there? I’m pretty sure Johnathan Byers would kill you just to take your place.”

Teddi let out a snort before shrugging. “I don’t know...I know it sounds dumb. Trust me. I’ve just been wondering lately if I actually want to go to college or if I’m just doing it because it’s what people our age are supposed to do, you know? Or if it’s just like an excuse for me to get out on my own. And I feel like I finally have actual friends here now and I’m up and leaving. It kinda bums me out.” there was also the added fact that she had absolutely no idea what she would major in. She didn’t like admitting to people that her life wasn’t as put together as they might think.

Steve shot Teddi a knowing look before leaning forwards. “Please tell me this isn’t about Billy Hargrove.”

Teddi scoffed, sinking down in her seat. “Oh please, Steve.” sure Billy was part of it. Of course he was part of it. Teddi was as close with Billy as she was with Steve, maybe even more so now. Which was ironic since they had been sort of mortal enemies, but it wasn’t solely about him.

“What’s the deal with him anyways? You can’t honestly be falling for this whole ‘nice guy’ act he’s been pulling lately, can you?” Teddi could definitely understand Steve’s skepticism. After all, he was the guy that Billy had beaten unconscious just four months ago. At the same time though Teddi had a hard time imagining that the Billy she knew now could ever do something like that.

“Look, I know that he’s not exactly Mr. Rogers,” Teddi said. Steve let out a snort. “But he’s really a lot different now. It’s like a 180...well, maybe more like a 150. We’re not completely there yet. I think if you two can get over your weird alpha male thing you have going you could probably even be friends,” Steve only shot her a disbelieving look. “If I can be friends with him then so can you. You’re friends with Johnathan Byers now, aren’t you?”

Steve held up his hands. “Yeah, yeah. Look, I’ll take your word for it. I mean I don’t think me and him are gonna be hanging out any time soon...I just want you to be careful. If Billy really is trying to not be such a shit head then great. But just...keep an eye out.”

Teddi would be lying if she said she didn’t have her own reservations about Billy’s behavior. There was this tiny part of her that wondered if maybe it was all some sort of an act. Like Billy might be pretending to be a genuinely nice guy to get in her pants. But she always brushed it off. She wanted to have more faith in him than that. And she definitely wasn’t going to voice her paranoia out loud. “Yes, mother hen.” was all she said instead, grinning at Steve.

Steve rolled his eyes. “Cute. Really cute. Hey, do you have the notes from history?”

“You mean you didn’t take any?” Teddi asked with a smile as she started to search through her backpack for her notes.

“...Oh, totally. I just wanted to compare them with mine.”

Teddi let out a snort. “Uh-huh...shit. I don’t have my binder. I think I left it in my gym locker. I’ll be right back, okay?” Steve threw her a thumbs up before Teddi rushed out of the library.

---

Billy usually liked to spend his free period in the gym. It always got quiet after gym class ended, and maybe aside from a few girls that liked to sit on the bleachers while he practiced his free throws no one really bothered him. Teddi had asked if he wanted to join her in the library while she finished up some homework. He’d said that he’d rather chew off his own foot than voluntarily step foot in the school library.

There was also the fact that there was something that was bothering her and she actually seemed to think she could hide it from him. Teddi was somewhat of a shitty liar. Or at least he was really good at seeing through it when she lied. He wasn’t really sure which it was. Probably the latter. The bigger issue was that he had asked if there was something going on and she kept lying. So he had dropped the issue. But he also definitely didn’t want to sit around for a whole hour while she dodged his questions and acted like everything was perfect and told him to stop being so pouty.

“Billy!” someone called just as he gracefully tossed the basketball into the basket. Billy turned, trying his very hardest not to roll his eyes when he spotted Cheryl leaning up against the bleachers. The small group of girls sitting a few feet away didn’t bother to hide the dirty looks they were shooting in her direction.

He had been trying to avoid her for the last week or so. Teddi had been right; Cheryl Burns made him downright miserable. But ignoring a girl like Cheryl was proving to be pretty difficult. She didn’t really like to take no for an answer. Which he found pretty annoying. Just two days ago he had turned her down for a night out at the drive in, and yet there she was wagging those long, red nails at him beckoning him over like it had never happened.

Billy let out a soft huff and jogged over to her, nodding once at her. He wasn’t going to try and charm her like he did with every other girl he spoke to. It would just give her the wrong idea. Cheryl bit her bottom lip, smiling up at him as she batted her eyelashes at him. “You busy?” she asked, tilting her head to the side. Her hands rested just barely at his sides.

Billy looked at her and back out to the basketball court. “...What does it look like to you, Cheryl?”

She playfully rolled her eyes. “I need to talk to you for a sec.” she reached out and took one of Billy’s hands in hers and pulled him towards her.

He pulled away. “Can we do this some other time? Like I said, I’m busy.”

Cheryl definitely wasn’t the sort of girl that got turned down often. Billy wouldn’t really be surprised to find out he was the first to do so. There was a moment where the sweet, seductive look Cheryl was giving him turned into one of annoyance and he hoped that it meant she would throw a fit and stomp out of the gym and leave him alone.

He wasn’t so lucky. “And I said that I need to talk to you.” she nearly spat through her teeth.

Billy rolled his eyes. “Fine. Talk.”

The seductive smile was back just as fast as it had disappeared. Cheryl happily took his hand in hers once again and pulled him out of the gym and into the hall. Whatever it was that she had to say, she clearly didn’t want to do it in front of an audience. She lead him two doors down to the girl’s locker room. Cheryl did a quick scan of the room to make sure they were alone before she spun around, giving Billy a soft shove against a row of one of the lockers and kissing him roughly.

Billy’s hands instinctively went to Cheryl’s waist before his conscience (which he was annoyed to realize seemed to sound a lot like Teddi’s voice) told him to stop. His hands moved to Cheryl’s shoulders and he pushed her away gently. He smirked down at her, raising an eyebrow. “I thought you said you wanted to talk?”

Cheryl blinked up at him innocently, or as innocently as a girl like Cheryl could manage, and ran her hands down his bare chest before resting on his stomach. “Did I say that?” she all but giggled. Billy supposed he should have seen this coming. It was definitely a trick he would try to pull. He knew that he needed to get out before he did something he’d regret later. He was pissed at Cheryl. He didn’t even like Cheryl. So why was he sticking around? Christ, he thought, don’t pull on that thread.

“Cheryl, if you want someone to fool around with how ‘bout you go find that moron Brian Jean?” he asked with an expectant look. After Christmas break ended Billy had offered to kick the shit out Brian for ditching Teddi to hook up with Cheryl at David’s party. Teddi had practically forbidden him, but that didn’t mean Billy wasn’t allowed to fuck with him. And he definitely hadn’t missed the pleased look on Teddi’s face a few days earlier when Billy “accidentally” happened to brush his keys down the entire side of Brian’s shitty little Chevette.

Cheryl rolled her eyes. “Are you honestly still mad about that? That was forever ago, Billy. I didn’t even think you’d care,” Yeah, that’s the problem, he thought with a scoff. Cheryl hands snaked around his neck, pulling him down closer to her. “Come on, Billy, let me make it up to you.” she purred. Billy liked to think of himself as a strong guy. That he wasn’t swayed easily no matter what the situation was. But as annoying as he found Cheryl Burns, there was something about her that seemed to short circuit his brain. The shorter, more simple answer was that it was probably because she looked like the girls in his Playboys.

Everything after that was sort of a blur. He wasn’t sure how long he had been there with Cheryl. The bell hadn’t rung yet. That was really all he was able to discern. Billy had turned the pair of them around, pushing Cheryl’s back up against the lockers. His hands had a firm grip on her ass while her hands were tangled in his hair, her long tails scratching gently at his scalp. He hadn’t really thought much of the situation until he heard the locker room door open and a very familiar voice say “Oh, jeez. Sorry. Jeez. Uh I just…my locker…”

Billy spun around. Teddi was standing by the door with a hand over her eyes. He felt his stomach drop. Cheryl scoffed. “Can we help you?” she asked, glaring daggers at Teddi.

“I, uh, gotta get something out of my locker is all...and then go and die from embarrassment.” she muttered. Teddi rushed passed Billy and Cheryl and disappeared for a moment. Billy heard her locker open and close before Teddi nearly bolted out of the room. He quickly followed after her, ignoring Cheryl’s protests.

“Teddi! Teddi, can you fucking slow down?” he called, jogging to catch up with her quick strides. He grabbed her arm to stop her and spun her around to face him. She refused to make eye contact with him. He wanted to say something. His brain was screaming at him to say something to her. But he couldn’t seem to get anything out. “...I’m sorry.” was all he could manage.

Teddi still wouldn’t look him in the eyes. “Sorry?” she still sounded surprised to hear him use that word. “What’s there for you sorry about?”

“I mean…” he turned and gestured back towards the locker room awkwardly. “What just happened. Cheryl said she wanted to talk and then all the sudden-” all the sudden what? He asked himself. Teddi caught you fooling around with the same girl you said you were gonna stop fooling around with? Idiot.

“You really don’t have to apologize. Really. I just needed some history notes. I’ll see you around, okay?” Billy didn’t think he’d ever seen Teddi so frazzled before. Everything about her at that moment was so unlike the Teddi he knew. He was a little surprised she didn’t give him an earful about how he needs to stop seeing Cheryl and leading her on. Now it just seemed like she would rather be anywhere that wasn’t near him. His jaw set firmly. “Don’t do that.” he didn’t let go of her arm.

“Don’t do what?” she asked with a loud sigh.

“Don’t act like nothing happened. Where’s the lecture?” he asked, leaning down so his eyes would meet hers. “You don’t have anything to say to me? No matters of the flesh comments?” he hated how angry he sounded. He was angry with himself, not Teddi.

“Billy…” Teddi’s eyes were pleading. He felt bad all over again. He dropped her arm quickly as if it had burned him. “...I’ll see you later.” she muttered. All he could really do now was helplessly watch as Teddi nearly ran down the hall and away from him and the locker room.

“God, what is taking you so long?” Billy’s hands clenched into fists at the sound of Cheryl’s voice. He whirled around to see her poking her head out of the locker room. “Are you coming back in here or what?”

“Fuck off, Cheryl.” he spat, stomping past her and back to the gym. This whole being nice thing was definitely stressing him out more than he expected it to. He actually felt embarrassed. Embarrassed that he had been caught doing something so completely stupid. Embarrassed that he cared so much about how upset Teddi seemed by the whole thing. And it was definitely embarrassing to admit to himself that he knew why he cared so much. It wasn’t a secret that he was into Teddi. He definitely hit on her enough. But it was a little more than that.

He couldn’t even say the words in his mind. That he liked Teddi. Something like that seemed so pathetic to say out loud. Not to mention it would get him nowhere. Teddi had turned him down enough times to know he didn’t stand a chance with her. Still, the feeling he’d gotten when he saw that she’d walked in on him and Cheryl was that same feeling he’d had when he’d walked into the Palace Arcade before New Year’s and saw Teddi talking to Steve.

It made that familiar anger bubble inside of him, but in a different way. He was angry at himself. He felt pathetic. Practically pining over some girl. Maybe that was part of why he kept Cheryl hanging on. She was a way to momentarily forget about any sort of feelings he might have. Which was also pretty pathetic.

There was also the option of just saying something. To stop acting like such a little bitch about it. Yeah, he thought with a scoff, I think I’d rather let Max hit me in the dick with that bat than do that. He shoved the gym door open and grabbed his bag before heading back to the locker room for a shower. At the very least they’d have to talk about this. He completely dreaded the idea. He was sure Teddi was dreading it too. But this whole ignoring each other any time shit got tough thing was getting old.

But he underestimated Teddi. When she didn’t want to talk to someone, she meant it. He hadn’t seen even a glimpse of her for the rest of the day. He’d even skipped out on his last period early to catch her in the parking lot. When he got there her van was already gone. When he dropped Max off at the arcade he asked Keith if she was around, and he’d said she was off on her break. Billy still wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth or covering for her.

He felt a little panicked then. Like finally he had gone and really fucked up. Maybe now Teddi wouldn’t want anything to do with him anymore. Maybe he had gone and chased off the one friend he had in Hawkins. To say he was angry with himself was an understatement. He thought about calling, but quickly brushed the idea aside. He’d give her her space. She’d come to him when she was ready to talk. The only problem now was trying not to go absolutely insane while he waited for that to happen.

#billy hargrove #billy hargrove fic #billy hargrove x oc

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laurent--stpierre · 5 years

Text

THIS WILL END IN TEARS [2 / 4]

All right, so this is the start of a series of self paras that all tie into each other. They’re not being posted in chronological order, so make sure to take note of the dates they happened. The information in this self para will spread through the Organization quickly. Enjoy being able to react to it, and be a little bit smug to Johnathan.

Date: August 6th, 2019. Warnings: Typical mob fare. It’s really long tho, so apologies.

“I’m going to level with you, I was looking to make this a bit more dramatic…”

The piece of shit hunched over in front of him didn’t respond.

“It’s not that I don’t care enough about you to put the effort in. It just turns out we picked the one sprawling estate without a fucking basement. Can you believe it?”

As the Frenchman took an exaggerated drag on his cigarette, he glanced around the room for a minute. It really was a world away from the basement he’d been forced to endure; decked out from floor to ceiling in palatial gold that could’ve only been by request of Aurélie. This prick must have thought himself so lucky to have ended up here. It didn’t matter to Laurent, though. Whilst this place mightn’t have had the same looming reputation the Russian torture chamber did, the former Commandant was more than content to make up for its shortcomings with his own hands.

When the man he addressed still didn’t respond, he could feel himself losing patience.

It was no fun if they didn’t play along.

“Come on, now. Did nobody ever tell you it’s rude to ignore your host?” Laurent asked, finally resorting to kicking at the leg of his captive’s chair as he blew smoke in his direction. “If you’re pretending to be unconscious so you don’t have to talk to me, I’m going to be offended.”

“You French cunts really do love the sound of your own voices, don’t you?”

As the man sighed, he appeared to deflate along with it.

“That’s more like it,” Laurent greeted, loudly enough that it visibly startled the Brit. As the Frenchman clapped his hands together in mock jubilation, the man finally looked up at his tormentor through his swollen eyes with a glare so evil, if looks could kill, Laurent would’ve been dead on the floor in a heartbeat. “I personally love the sound of my own voice, but don’t you go stereotyping us all, now. That’s racist.”

“What the fuck do you want, Laurent?”

It seemed an odd question to ask, under the circumstances. Did he even want to know?

“I just want a nice, friendly, productive conversation. How does that sound?”

Plucking this man off the streets had taken more planning than he cared to admit, but the boss had been adamant that this time, the biggest thorn in their side would pay the price for his sins. What happened with Théo had hit them all hard; they were, after all, an organization so used to absolute power that to be limited in this new city was a difficult situation for them to stomach. Whilst they hadn’t been able to intervene when it came to influencing the Met Police, however, they still had just enough eyes inside to know that a certain somebody had paid Théo a visit.

Laurent was sure that he hadn’t seen fire like that in her eyes since Versailles.

It was no secret that Westminster’s Commandant and Aurélie were close. Laurent reasoned that it was the only reason he’d gotten as far as he had in the first place. But for this to be the reason she finally snapped? For Johnathan’s unannounced visit whilst her friend was unattended to be the thing that pushed her over the edge? Unless there was something she wasn’t sharing—and as his short time as head of London, he’d already learned it was better not to ask—he was baffled by the escalation.

That didn’t mean they weren’t all happy to be finally making some moves, however.

Aurélie had been vague but absolute in her orders: Johnathan Parsons was to be reminded that despite what his ego might’ve told him, his actions did have consequences.

Johnathan Parsons was to suffer for all the times he had not suffered before.

The easiest way to get to the brute of a man would’ve been his child, and anybody who’d said the thought hadn’t immediately crossed their mind was a liar. No, they weren’t the Russians, and they tried to keep family off limits as best they could, but this was Parsons. Extreme measures were necessary. Of course, given that she was just about to bring a third into the world, and despite the fact she didn’t doubt they would stoop as low when it came to her, Aurélie had vehemently prohibited any violence against his daughter.

It’d taken slightly more grovelling on his part to spare Jessica Reyes what would’ve no doubt been a painful end. Aurélie hadn’t seemed pleased about that—she’d followed it up with a comment that made him wonder just how closely she was keeping an eye on him—but he had been insistent enough that eventually she’d got bored of arguing. Laurent didn’t regret it; partly because she reminded him of Claudia, but mostly because Johnathan reminded him of himself. The situation was not her fault, and she didn’t deserve to suffer for it.

Eventually, they had settled on the closest person that remained.

“And what exactly do you want to talk about?”

Laurent snorted. Where should they begin?

“I want to talk about everything, Jai. I want to talk about your boss. I want to talk about why one of my people was attacked by the Russians. I want to talk about Théodore Chaussard being behind bars. I want to talk about your business in Tower Hamlets. I want to talk about you slipping me Lara Rutherford’s number to make this go a little easier for you.”

It was his turn to scoff this time.

“No.”

For someone who was such a raging piece of shit, it was almost hard to believe that Johnathan could have any real friends at all. When it had become apparent back in Porto Velho that Jai Dalal was not only his right hand man, but also his most trusted confidant, however, the target on his back grew exponentially with every antagonistic move his best friend made. Jessica and Sarah might not have been ideal candidates, but a man who had committed just as many himself—or been passive to those his boss had in the meantime—was just as deserving of the pain as Parsons was.

“To which part? Don’t say Lara…”

“What the fuck was St. Clair thinking when she sent you here, huh? Her way of saying London is just a joke to the French, by any chance? How does someone like you make it to head of the city?”

If Laurent hadn’t already spent months asking himself those same questions to the point of absolute insensitivity, he might’ve taken the comment to heart. Instead:

“Fucked my way to the top.”

“I—” Jai started, but instead ejected yet another hefty sigh.

“Let me guess, you did the same thing? Johnny boy looks like the type…”

“So you don’t do basements. What, you and your dumb fucking comments like Chinese water torture are the new way of trying to break people?”

“I can send Varden back in, if you’d prefer?”

There was real beauty in seeing fear flash behind eyes that were trying so hard to hide it.

Jai said nothing.

“How about we bring someone else into the mix, instead? Maybe if there’s another person here for you to converse with, I won’t annoy you so much.”

It didn’t take long to tap out a message to his friends in the adjoining room.

“See, you’re the headliner, Jai, but we managed to pick ourselves up a little bonus prize whilst we were out scouting tonight.”

A few silent moments passed in which Laurent contemplated lightning another cigarette, before his action was interrupted by the sound of the dining room door swinging open. Two of his men flanked the hooded figure of a woman; it seemed an excessive entourage, given that she appeared far too injured to even think about fighting back. There was no struggle as they dragged her over, and dumped her square at Laurent’s feet.

It only took a quick once over to realise that the arm she was cradling had been so badly broken, it was visible through the skin. The silent weeping became more obvious as Sylvain and Jean walked away again, as did the realisation that they hadn’t restrained her because they didn’t need to.

“Don’t worry, it isn’t anybody you know,” Laurent assured, like he gave a solitary fuck, leaning forward to take a careful handful of the hood. “This is Ivanna.”

Laurent didn’t know why, but he hadn’t expected her to look worse than Jai did.

He was wrong.

It was a shame it’d come to this, really, because he’d seen her just before Varden and Daniel had been let loose. The woman had beautiful brown eyes, and features so feminine and delicate that it seemed impossible she was a fucking Russian. If she’d been walking down the street, with those same killer legs that were now twisted beneath her in an uncomfortable heap, she would’ve turned his head in a heartbeat. But now? Laurent didn’t doubt that it would take extensive amounts of surgery to give her back any semblance of…well, anything human in definition.

There was so much blood.

Aviv Kasyanenko sure could pick them.

The corner of his mouth turned upward slightly as he glanced down at her hands. The left ring finger was missing as a special fuck you from Daniel, no doubt.

“It’s okay,” Laurent said in a hushed whisper, as though comforting a child, reaching forward slightly to brush against her hair. “I’m not going to hurt you. I promise.”

It didn’t surprise him that nothing more than a strangled sob followed.

“You’re here because I want to talk to you, okay? Nothing else. The more you can help me out here, the less likely it is I send you back to them. I really don’t want to do that, Ivanna, but I’m going to need your help.” Sighing out through his nose, Laurent looked down at the dumb fucking bitch. It was a sight so pathetic he was finding it remarkably difficult not to visually cringe. Might’ve made that feigned sympathy a little less convincing, though… “How about we get you up off that floor and into a chair, huh? You can sit in my seat.”

Luckily enough, Jai had either slipped back into unconsciousness, or had just learned how to behave, because the idiot didn’t speak a word as the Frenchman slowly hoisted the pretzel into the chair. It seemed impossible, but she almost looked more uncomfortable now she was seated. Maybe he’d find a second to feel bad about it later. Until then, and now that he was without his own chair, he slowly crouched so that he was face to face with her.

“Is that better?”

Even though he knew it wasn’t, it seemed as though she’d nodded because she was scared not to.

“Thank you…”

“Did you hear that, Jai?” Laurent gasped, turning his head quickly to glance at the Indian. “That’s what it sounds like to have manners. You could learn a lot from the Russian, here.”

Silence.

Prick.

“Unfortunately, he’s not too chatty, Ivanna, but he’s going to help us with this conversation we’re going to have, is that all right?”

The brunette nodded stiffly, and his warm smile seemed to have comforted her somewhat, because for the first time since she’d entered the room, she finally looked up at him. Laurent immediately wished she hadn’t. They were as badly damaged as the rest of her. As his own gaze travelled down to the hands she cradled in her lap, he slowly took a hold of the one which wasn’t missing a finger or attached to a compound fracture. It felt like ice. As he brushed his thumb across her knuckles, he couldn’t help but wonder whether or not he still had that bottle of hand sanitizer tucked away in his jacket pocket…

“The first thing I need to ask you is when did you get here? When did you come to London?”

The interrogation proved to be an arduous process. Most of her answers were quiet, stuttered, or forced through the sound of what could’ve easily been her choking on her own blood. Jai seemed to have no understanding as to why he was present, and that amused Laurent even more than the bitch before him who genuinely believed that he was going to help her if she was honest. The Frenchman alternated between holding her hand and gently stroking her hair as she answered the basic questions about the Russians, where they were set up, whether she’d come with Aviv, and who else had followed her out to the city.

Ivanna bared all because she was scared.

Because she was not a mobster, and because she just wanted the pain to stop.

Laurent didn’t feel bad for her when she started to cry. All he could think about was how much Claudia must’ve been hurting when the Russians had done the same thing to her.

It wasn’t until he finally got to the most important question of all that Jai would learn why the Frenchman hadn’t conducted this discussion in another room.

“Why did the Russians come to London, Ivanna? Did Aviv tell you?”

When her eyebrows pulled into a confused frown, he gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean the Russians could’ve headed to any city they liked. Why pick London?”

There were other things he’d wanted to ask; perhaps, he could’ve even phrased that more subtly. Unfortunately, it seemed as though her strength was fading by the minute, and as her head lolled back uncomfortably—like a child trying to fight sleep—he quickly moved his hand up to help her. The tears had started to well again. It was almost as though she knew that her answer would condemn her family, even though he was sure she didn’t realise quite how much.

“It’s all right,” he whispered, bringing her head to rest against his shoulder. Blood on his Hugo motherfucking Boss. Unreal. “This is the last thing I need to know, and then you can go, all right?”

“It was what they agreed.”

“What who agreed?”

Laurent spared a glance at Jai.

The man was a professional. There was no way on God’s green Earth the French would’ve been able to get the answers out of him, no matter how long he was left alone with Laurent. What seemed unlikely, however, was that he would be able to stop himself from reacting to somebody weaker spilling everything right in front of him. Ivanna might not have been the most reliable source in the world, but if he could get the back up of a reaction from Jai, then her words would surely hold more weight than that of a woman trying to save her own life.

Not that she seemed intelligent enough to lie.

“I don’t kn—” It sounded as though she was really struggling, now. If she didn’t hurry the fuck up, he might miss out on the confirmation all together. “I don’t know everything. Aviv doesn’t tell me.”

“Who agreed on what, Ivanna?”

“The Rutherfords, when they asked for help in Porto…”

In a split second, it felt like all of the air had been sucked from the room.

Of all the cancerous things he was expecting might leave her mouth, that was not one of them.

Porto? They were in fucking Porto?

“What do you mean? What help did the Rutherfords ask for in Porto Velho?”

“They needed help. Help. The hotel. If we helped with the hotel, they said we could come here…”

If he hadn’t been so stunned by the words that had just left her dumb fucking mouth, he might’ve made a solid attempt at ripping her head from her shoulders. The Russians had been in Porto Velho this whole fucking time, and it had gone unnoticed? Unpunished? Was the hotel she was referring to Versailles? It seemed pretty fucking unlikely they’d enlist Russian help to work on PR for the Chelsea fucking Royal… Laurent could feel every ounce of anger he’d felt about that whole cluster fuck—even if his pain had come at the hands of someone else—flood back in an instant. Aurélie had been stabbed. Alessia was dead.

“You stupid fucking cunt.”

The outburst was a solid reminder that Jai was still in the room, because for a minute there, lost in an absolute flood of wrath, Laurent had forgotten he’d existed.

Whilst he was fully expecting this to go his way—to get solid confirmation that it had, indeed, been the Rutherfords who had invited the Russians to London—he had not expected their desperate collusion to go back so far. For it to have been the Russians who had orchestrated the attack on their hotel, and not the British family they had been blaming for years. Fuck, they should’ve known… They might’ve had the money and the influence, but to attack the heads of two powerful crime families so boldly? It was out there. Too fucking out there.

The fucking Russians.

“Do you mean Versailles?”

It was impossible to keep himself from shaking. Laurent had long ago given up the gentle hand against her head for fear of crushing her skull before she could finish.

“She means Empire. The Russians helped us with funding for Empire.”

That particular bluff might’ve landed better if Aurélie didn’t have Amir, the actual fucking investor, wrapped around her little finger.

“The Russians help at Versailles, and the Rutherfords let some of us move to Haringey. It was the deal. I just wanted a fresh start. We just wanted to be anywhere but Launceston…”

“You people will literally say anything to drag us down,” Jai scoffed.

Even though he was gearing up to shout again, Laurent’s hand had already found its way to the cool metal of his gun. It did nothing physically to soothe the fact he felt like he was on fire, but the deafening sound of the point-blank shot—the sight of Jai slumping back as soon as the bullet smashed through his skull—was satisfying in ways he could only hope to relive with Johnathan. Laurent stared at the carcass as though he expected it to speak up again. Get fucking cocky now, you prick. Ivanna was now in fits of sobs so loud he could hardly hear himself think. Still, his hand held firmly onto his weapon, and he wondered whether he should turn around and shove the thing into her noisy fucking mouth.

“Wasn’t he helpful, Ivanna?”

“You said you weren’t going to hurt me…”

The sound of the door opening, Sylvain and Dan bursting through the door to see what was happening a second later, did little to distract him from the woman in front of him.

“I never break a promise.”

Her pathetic relief was the cherry on the top of the dead Jai sundae.

“But that man over there?” Laurent said quietly, lifting a hand to gesture toward the men with a smile. “This is Daniel. Did Aviv ever mention somebody named Daniel to you? Maybe Noa?”

The way that she seemed to freeze in an instant suggested yes. It hadn’t taken a bullet to drain the life from her; just a boyfriend who couldn’t keep his mouth shut, and the couple of brain cells it took to add two and two together.

“Aviv took some things that belonged to Noa. Wedding and engagement rings. He almost took their baby’s life, too, did you know that?”

Laurent had thought her face couldn’t possibly look even worse than it had done post-beating, but as it contorted into the ugliest fucking crying face he’d seen since Sofia Kurylenko, he realised that he’d been wrong. This was definitely worse. Dan could have dibs on the physical suffering, but Laurent was glad to be the one to make her suffer without having to life a fucking finger.

He would enjoy thinking about it for weeks to come.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Ivanna,” he said, standing up straight and slipping his gun back into the holster. “But Dan? I think Dan is probably going to hurt you a lot.”

#self para #i miss writing laurent aww

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