#because it makes no sense for Nia to be so worried about clearing up his misunderstanding about the poetry too

[petalouda85]

Birth

Fandom: Blades of Light and Shadow 2

Pairings: Tyril x f!human!MC (Kassandra)

Word count: 1.4k

Concept: Kade, Imtura, and Mal wait for news of the newest member of their family

Tags: @liviusofpella, @megas-choices, @starlight-starfury, @dutifullynuttywitch, @thosehallowedhalls @choicesficwriterscreations

AO3 link: x

A/N: Finally. The fic I’ve wanted to post for a very long time. I can finally reveal the name for Baby Starfury 🥰 after the emotional rollercoaster of Forever (in my Mind), you guys deserve a fluffy treat. Enjoy.

Reading had always been easy for Kade. Almost as easy as breathing. He could grab any tome and easily be lost in the words, his mind taken to places far away and times long gone, it all brought to life with his imagination. Tonight, however, it was hard to concentrate as his mind constantly drifted towards the cabin near to where he sat, his stomach twisting with the knowledge of what was happening inside. He tried to listen for any noise coming from the home, despite knowing it was pointless; Nia and Tyril had made sure of that.

Unable to focus on his book, Kade looked towards the other two that kept him quiet company in the homestead. Mal practiced a few quick movements with his dagger, stabbing into an imaginary foe, while Imtura stood off to the side, aiming and hurling her axes into a nearby tree, the bark splitting more each time. Boredom could rationalize their weapon practice, but Kade knew better.

A few weeks prior, when everyone had finally arrived in Riverbend, the villagers warned them of a group of elves that had recently traveled through. While no direct questions were asked, their apparent interest in the “Hero of Morella” had set off alarm bells in everyone and precautions were taken.

When Kassandra went into labor, Nia and Tyril had cast a spell over the clearing, masking the homestead, and then a silencing spell over the cabin. Once the door shut behind them, Mal and Imtura had pulled their weapons closer, ready to be grabbed at the first sign of trouble. Several hours had passed since then, the high afternoon sun now replaced by a bright moon; Kade reckoned it was past midnight already.

He snapped his book shut and leaned forward with a great sigh, rubbing his eyes and face trying to relieve the tension and growing exhaustion.

“I can’t believe I’m going to be an uncle.” He said softly. He must’ve been louder than he thought because in a split second, Mal stood before him.

“You and me both, buddy.” The rogue said, sitting down next to him. “It’s happening and I still have trouble wrapping my head around it. Elf boy and kit are going to be parents. Who would’ve thought the wet blanket and the life of the party would ever reach this point.”

“It is hard to wrap your head around it all.” Kade said. “For so long, it was just me and my sister. Now she’s having a baby.” He let out a weak chuckle. “It’s stupid to think so but, part of me is scared that she’ll forget me; a child takes priority after all.”

“I wouldn’t worry about that.” Imtura said, pulling her axe from the tree before joining the two men. “I’ve travelled with Kassandra long enough to know that she’d never forget you or any of us. We’re all her family and nothing’s gonna change that, not even a new tiny landrat.”

“Would be nice if the little tyke made headway.” Mal said, letting out a loud yawn. “All this doing nothing is making me tired.” His yawn was replaced with a yelp when Imtura slapped him across his head. “Hey!”

“You can’t rush these things.” She scolded. “The tyke gets here when they get here. And that could be in the next 5 minutes or in the next few hours. Hells, little guy could already be here and Kassandra’s just not up for visitors right now. We just got to wait.”

“I know, I know! Doesn’t mean I can’t complain about the waiting. It’s not like we got a lot to do besides that and there’s only so many fake guys I can stab.”

“I’d offer a book, but I get the sense neither of you are readers, even when faced with endless boredom.” All three laughed.

“We’ll leave the reading to you, kid.” Mal stood up from the bench and pulled forth a deck of cards from his pocket. “Up for a game?” He asked the orc, who smiled.

“Always. Be ready to lose.” The two found a patch of grass to sit on and began their game. Kade watched them half-heartedly for a moment before opening his book once more, trying his best not to nod off.

He shut his eyes briefly and when he opened them next, his face was glued against the cover of the book and his back was stiff from the hard bench. With a groan, he sat up, a thin blanket falling off him. Looking around him, he found Imtura and Mal also asleep in the grass, their card game replaced by a now extinguished fire, and the birds singing their morning song as the sun’s beams began to peak through the trees. He stretched his back and checked the state of the cabin, finding the spell still on it, before moving towards his slumbering companions.

“Rise and shine.” Kade said as Mal woke up.

“Morning already? Nothing yet?”

“Nothing yet.” Kade moved to wake Imtura next. Soon, the three sat down for a silent breakfast, ready for the prospect of another day of waiting. After their quick meal, Kade returned to the bench and grabbed his book, ready to try reading it yet again, when a magical hum came from the cabin. He immediately abandoned the tome, jumping to his feet when some low noises could be heard from inside. The door clicked open, and everyone ran to it as Nia appeared in the frame, looking frazzled and tired. Despite her weary state, the priestess was smiling.

“Everything’s fine.” She quickly said, seeing the worry on their faces. “Mom and baby are doing fine. They were born just after midnight. They’re all cleaned up and have already been resting for some time.”

“Midnight? But-“ Mal began to protest but Imtura gave him another slap. The priestess fought down a snicker at his incredulous look before she opened the door a bit wider.

“You can come in but only for a little while; Kassandra’s still very tired.”

Kade ran in first, finding Aderyn preparing some food in the kitchen. He quickly sent her a grateful smile before dashing towards the bedroom, the others on his heels. The moment he stepped into the entrance way, he froze.

Mal unceremoniously bumped into him, but any complaint was quickly gone when the three heard the soft gurgling noises coming from the little bundle resting in Kassandra’s arms.

She was lying in bed, looking exhausted and worn out. Tyril, seated in a chair next to the bed, appeared exhausted as well but both were staring down at the bundle with immeasurable love and affection in their eyes. The two looked up as the visitors slowly entered the room.

“Hi.” Kassandra said, her eyes brimming with tears, before looking down at her child. “Look who’s here.”

Kade stood frozen in place for a moment, alternating his gaze between his sister and the child in her arms, before rushing to the bed and embracing her tightly, tears forming in his eyes.

“I’m so proud of you.” He whispered to her. He continued holding her, hearing her sniffle before she returned the embrace

“Thank you.” He gave her a kiss on her cheek before pulling away. He then quickly turned towards Tyril and embraced him too; it took the elf a moment to return the gesture.

“Congratulations.”

“Thank you.”

Kade pulled away and sat down on the bed, watching the child with pride swelling in his chest.

“Do you want to hold them?” Kassandra asked after a while.

“Yes.”

Gently, she passed the bundle to him, the man gawking down at the baby nestled in the blanket their mother had made for them. They were beautiful, dark-skinned and a barely visible black fuzz on their head. They looked almost entirely human, if not for their ears. Granted, they were shorter than the standard elven ears but there was no denying the point at the end of them.

“Hi.” Kade said softly and in disbelief. He took their little hand, the tiny digits not even wrapping entirely around his thumb. “I’m your uncle.” He turned to look at Mal, Imtura and Nia; none had a dry eye. “And your other uncle and aunts are here too.” He looked back to the new parents, who beamed with pride as they held each other’s hand. “What’s their name?”

Tyril looked to Kassandra, who nodded.

“Everyone,” Tyril began with a proud smile, “meet our daughter, Kaya.”

#tyril starfury #tyril x mc #tyril x kassandra #baby starfury #kade of riverbend #mal volari #imtura tal kaelen #nia ellarious #my writing #blades of light and shadow #bolas 2 #playchoices

[oetravia]

Every Brainia Scene Ever: 5x02 [4/6]

#supergirl #supergirledit #brainia #brainiaedit #dreamdox #brainiac 5 #nia nal #querl dox #we stan healthy and honest communication in this house #(but do you ever wonder what would’ve happened if Taylor Swift had been the thing he’d latched onto rather than poetry? 🧐) #her little smile in the second gif - she loves him so much and she KNOWS he’s doing his best and that this is all very new for him #and her immediate reaction to realising WHY he’s gone so overboard with the food - because of her reaction at breakfast - #and the fact that she immediately reassures him that she appreciates it all and knows it’s coming from a place #of love and just wanting to make her happy 🥺 #’just spending time with you’ ‘I love that too’ they’re so cute and were so robbed of being able to enjoy that time together in 5B #once they’d gotten past all the communication hurdles and could finally be in a really solid place with their relationship 💔 #but the thing that frustrates me most about this scene is how well Brainy actually took this (miscommunication aside) #because it makes no sense for Nia to be so worried about clearing up his misunderstanding about the poetry too #sure it might be awkward and seem like nothing he tries is good enough #but COMMUNICATION is so important and a face to face conversation would’ve been far smoother #or even if she hadn’t immediately corrected him - stopping the poetry after poem 27 instead of 127+ #anyway #mine #my gifs #otp: what does love feel like? #*ebs

[teshamerkel]

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Seekers of Soul

[Chapter 20] (24 Pages)

<< First | < Previous | Next >

Nia finally gets to talk with Xander, and Team Scarlet prepares for their trip to Ghatha.

-

The morning after their training session with Val, Nia and Tobias head to the guildmaster’s quarters. Verene must be out on some kind of business, because August answers the door instead of the mantis. The giant, leafy gorilla greets them warmly, inviting them in and settling himself back into his chair. From the parchment scattered across his desk, it seems he was busy filling out forms.

“What can I do for you two?” He asks, deep voice a pleasant rumble.

“W-Well, uh.” Nia glances nervously at Tobias, and the charmander urges her on with a wave of his hand. “You know that we’re leaving for Ghatha tomorrow, right?”

August nods. “Yes. Tobias notified me of your trip a while ago. Have your plans changed?”

“Oh! No, w-we, uh, talked to Andyn and Ezra yesterday—from Team Evergreen? They said they heard something from a traveling Pokémon about some…tension. Between Pokémon and former humans. A fight or something? They said they told Verene, but we were wondering if you’d heard anything about it?”

“Basically, should we worry about getting jumped since Nia’s human?” Tobias summarizes, crossing his arms and giving August a serious stare.

August’s warm, friendly expression slowly falls as Nia speaks. At Tobias’ question, he heaves a sigh. “I see. Yes, Verene informed me of Team Evergreen’s report. I wish I could say that it was only a rumor, but I’m afraid some of the mail carriers have confirmed it.”

Nia’s stomach sinks, and she shoots Tobias a worried look.

“So there are actual fights happening between Pokémon and humans?” Tobias asks, frowning.

August makes a troubled sound and runs a hand through his leafy mane. “Only one notable argument so far, at least that I know of. It happened far from here, on the other edge of the continent. Nothing serious, but enough to catch attention.”

“D-Did they say why the fight broke out?” Nia asks. She can’t imagine why Pokémon would get so upset by someone claiming to be human—it’s not like the humans tried to bring themselves to this world. And why would someone in her position be so mad at the Pokémon? So far everyone has been incredibly kind to her.

“The reports are vague and scattered,” August hedges. “Apparently each side claims that the other started it, and they were just acting in self-defense. I suspect there is more to it than that, but only those who were there could clear it up.”

Nia furrows her brow. “And this is completely new? I-In all of the years that humans have been appearing here, there hasn’t ever been a serious fight like this?”

“Not caused by the origins of the Pokemon involved, no. At least not that I’m aware of. There have been a few disagreements, I’m sure, but this is the first I’ve heard of them escalating into a serious physical altercation.”

There’s a beat of quiet, and then Tobias speaks up again. “So what does this mean for us? Is it something we need to watch out for or not?”

August brings a hand to his chin, looking thoughtfully between the two of them. “If I were to guess, I would say this is an isolated incident that will soon pass. Don’t worry too much about secrecy on your trip, but perhaps be cautious about openly discussing your human past unless you’re sure of your safety, Nia. Lie if you feel you have to.”

Nia’s head snaps up. What? Sure, she’s a Pokémon for now, and in this situation it makes sense, but...not admitting her past almost feels like denying it even happened. Like it wasn’t even real.

“That’s not exactly practical when the whole reason we’re going to Ghatha is for a human meet-up,” Tobias points out. Nia latches onto that more logical reasoning.

“I-I’m sure we’ll be fine!” She pipes up. “We’ll be careful, and I won’t go shouting it from the rooftops or anything!”

Nia knows she sounds a little shrill, but she tries to ignore the feeling of Tobias’ eyes burning into her. August stares at her for a few moments with something like concern, then finally sighs.  “It’s unlikely you two will run into any trouble. Just be prepared in case you do.”

Nia nods, trying on a shaky smile.

August waves them out. “Unless you have other matters to discuss with me, go on. I’m sure you have a lot to prepare before you leave tomorrow. Have a safe trip.” 

Nia and Tobias say their thanks, turning to leave. As soon as the heavy doors are closed behind them and they start making their way down the staircase, Tobias speaks up.

“So what was with your little freak-out in there?”

Nia swallows hard past the lump in her throat. “I...I don’t want to have to lie about being human.”

“Why?” Tobias asks, sounding genuinely baffled.

Nia isn’t sure how to articulate why she’s so upset with the idea. Finally, she settles on saying, “Because if I lie about it then it feels like I’m saying it didn’t happen. That I wasn’t ever actually human. But I was. I am.”

Tobias doesn’t answer this time, probably hearing the distress in her voice, and Nia is grateful for it. They make their way down the tree in silence, passing a few Pokémon on the way back to their room on the medical floor. Nia tries to calm down along the way.

It’s fine. So there were a few disagreements half a world away. It was bound to happen eventually. That’s not going to scare her into hiding that she used to be a human—that she is human still, on the inside. It’s an important part of who she is, after all. She won’t go out of her way to bring it up, but she won’t deny it either if someone calls her out on it.

Nia’s so wrapped up in her thoughts that she walks right past their floor. Tobias calls her back with a roll of his eyes and Nia follows him with an embarrassed smile. When the two of them reach the doorway to Maggie’s quarters, Nia is surprised to see a familiar crew of fluffy black and blue Pokémon in the room. Xander, and all three of his little siblings. The lion cubs—shinxes?— are happily chasing each other around the space, weaving between Maggie’s legs and leaping over Xander’s flicking tail as they play tag, squealing.

Laine is the first one to notice Nia and Tobias, and skids to a stop to shout, “They’re here!”

Luca stops to look too, and Leor slams into him with an “Oof!” The two go tumbling into a lump of fluffy shinx fur.

Xander and Maggie were talking, but both look over at the kids’ ruckus. Xander’s eyes skim past Tobias and land on Nia, staying there. His expression drops into something serious, ears flicking back in an uncharacteristic nervous gesture, and Nia swallows. They haven’t talked since the other day, when Nia told the luxio his aura color and he completely shut down. She can’t help feeling a bit apprehensive about him suddenly showing up now.

“H-Hi?” She manages.

The shinx triplets race up to them, all three excitedly talking at once. They hop and circle around her and Tobias, and Nia smiles despite herself.

“Slow down, furballs, we can’t understand a word you’re saying,” Tobias says, voice edging on a laugh.

Even now, Nia is still surprised to see an openly happy grin on the charmander’s face. He shuffles into the room and flops back onto the floor. Immediately, the kids swarm him, shrieking with joy and talking a mile a minute as they climb on top of him and bury him in blue-and-black fluff. Nia smothers her laughter as she watches.

Xander pads over to her side, eyes trained on Tobias and his siblings. His brow is furrowed in an unreadable expression, but Nia would almost say he looks...puzzled. After a moment of silence between them, he finally looks at her. “Hey. Would you, uh. Have time to talk?” 

Neither of them have to say what about. Nia hesitantly nods, desperately wanting to clear the air between them but nervous about the conversation ahead.

“Great. We’ll be back in a few,” Xander says, louder, directing his voice to his siblings. “Be good, all right?”

“Yeah, yeah!” Luca says, pausing in his clambering to stick his tongue out at his older brother.

Xander sighs, and Nia barks out a laugh. Then, the luxio turns and heads out of the room, flicking his tail in a beckoning gesture. Nia follows.

There’s a moment of heavy silence, before Xander glances at Nia over his shoulder. “Your scarf looks nice.”

It’s an awkward start to the conversation at best, but Nia feels herself relax a bit, eyes trailing down to where her red attack scarf is tied around her bicep. She’d already forgotten that she had it on. True to his word, Tobias had helped her with it this morning, only grumbling to himself a little as he did so. Honestly, she suspects that he was more embarrassed by their close proximity than actually irritated about having to help her with tying it. He’s funny like that.

“Thanks,” Nia says, voice soft. Then, not wanting to drown in silence again before they reach wherever the luxio is leading them, she adds, “Your siblings are adorable, by the way. I don’t know if I ever told you that.”

Xander snorts. “Adorable little pawfuls are what they are. Especially Luca. Every time I visit them, Arlo has to fill me in on what trouble he’s gotten into in the last 24 hours. He usually drags his more well-behaved siblings down with him.”

Nia shrugs, biting back a laugh. “He’s a kid. Trouble is what they do.”

“I suppose,” Xander grumbles. Then, his gaze grows thoughtful. “You know, the kids have been telling me for years about how fun Tobias is to play with, and I never understood why they’d say that, with...well, how he is. But seeing how he was with them back there...”

Nia smiles, feeling an unfamiliar surge of pride for her partner. “Pretty different, right?”

“Completely,” Xander admits. He still looks shell-shocked as he glances at her. “Is he like that around you?”

Nia’s expression falls a bit. “He talks to me, but he’s not exactly like...that, no. I’ve only ever seen him that open around kids. I know he’s really fond of your siblings.”

Xander frowns, looking forward again as he leads them down another corridor. “I‘ve always worried about that. I was afraid he was being mean to them, or teaching them how to cause more trouble than they already do. But any time I visited the nursery, Arlo always insisted that Tobias was a good influence.”

Nia looks at Xander’s face, and sees the conflicting emotions there.

“He’s one of the only Pokémon in the guild with a good opinion of your partner, you know,” Xander adds. “Arlo, that is. It makes sense now, since he’s one of the only Pokémon to ever see Tobias like...well, like that.”

Nia takes a moment to gather her thoughts, tracing her fingers along the wooden walls of the hallway they’re walking down. Lattice-like windows are woven here and there out of the twisting bark, and Nia admires the bright flashes of green and blue that she catches as they walk. They pass through patches of warm sunlight, standing in sharp contrast to the otherwise cool, dim lighting of the hall.

“Tobias isn’t a bad Pokemon,” Nia eventually says, voice quieter than she’d like. She thinks of the charmander and how he’s been the past week, how he endures her constant questions about the Pokemon world and how he’s actually talking to her now. “I know a lot of people at the guild seem to think he is, but really, he’s...he’s trying. And he’s already a lot nicer to me than he was when I first met him!”

Nia knows her voice is a bit uncertain, knows that was a pathetically weak defense of her partner. But it’s hard to defend someone who started out treating her so badly, especially when she really admires and likes being friends with Xander. She doesn’t want to drive him away by disagreeing with him.

After a few moments, Xander makes a quiet, thoughtful noise. “I suppose I can’t really argue with you about that. Other than Pokemon like Maggie and Arlo and Fen, you’re the one who knows him best.”

Nia stops in her tracks, the casual truth of that statement slamming into her. She always feels like she hardly knows Tobias, but Xander’s right. Nia’s only been here for…what? Three weeks? And already she knows the charmander better than almost anyone else in the guild.

Could anyone else name his favorite berry? Or his favorite color? Could anyone else recognize when he’s biting back a laugh or notice that he rubs his scarf between his fingers when he’s nervous? She only knows the simple things about him, the surface-level tidbits, but at least it’s something. The two of them may not be that close, but it’s still a stark contrast to how distant Tobias is to everyone else.

Or how distant they are to him.

The riolu frowns, meeting Xander’s eyes where he’s stopped a few feet ahead, looking back. “Has...Has anyone ever actually tried to be Tobias’ friend?”

The luxio’s ears flick, and when he speaks again, he sounds frustrated. “When he first came here, sure. But all he did was pick fights and snarl at us to leave him alone. So eventually we did.”

Maggie’s words flash through Nia’s head, about the state she’d found the young charmander in when they met. Scared and hurt and completely alone. He was just a child, and it sounded like he’d just lost every shred of normalcy in his life. Of course he didn’t want to push aside all of that turmoil and make new friends at the guild. He was upset.

“Did you even think about why he was brought here?” Nia asks, surprising herself with the heat in her tone. “Why he was so angry all the time? He—“

Nia abruptly remembers that this is not her story to tell, and she snaps her mouth shut. She looks down at her hands, now curled into fists. She lets out a shaky breath. She shouldn’t be angry with Xander. This was years ago. And it’s understandable that he wouldn’t want to be friends with someone who clearly hated his company. Xander didn’t know about Tobias’ past. He still doesn’t.

Besides, if she’s being honest, then the only reason Tobias is as neutral towards her as he is is because he has to be. She threatened to end their partnership if he didn’t at least try to be nice. Nia feels a sudden and unexpected pang of guilt. She’d told Tobias she wasn’t blackmailing him, but...she kind of is, isn’t she? She’d felt so justified at the time when offering him her ultimatum, but Xander probably felt justified too in avoiding the temperamental charmander when they were younger. And yet here she is getting mad at the luxio, like she’s any better than him. If she grew up here, was a Pokémon all her life, she might have ignored and avoided Tobias the same way. She probably would have in this life if circumstances hadn’t brought her to live in the same space as him and Maggie.

She feels like an awful person, all of a sudden.

Nia takes a deep breath, trying to pack the remaining anger into her chest, and lets it out with a heavy exhale. It helps a little. Xander doesn’t say anything, and when Nia looks up, the luxio is watching her with an unreadable expression. His tail is flicking, claws out and kneading into the wooden floor, and for a heartbeat Nia thinks she sees that red aura of his trying to act out, sees the burst of emotion he smothers under a carefully calm expression.

Then, he sighs, and all of that explosive, contained energy seems to leave him. He casts a quick glance over his shoulder before sitting down. “This isn’t where I was going to tell you, but it’ll have to do.”

“What?”

“The reason I...shut down. A few days ago. I wanted to apologize and explain. You’re...what you said about Tobias. It reminded me of what I wanted to talk to you about in the first place.”

Xander waits, not gesturing her closer in any way but clearly hoping she’ll agree to talk. Nia doesn’t really feel like sitting down and hashing out their feelings anymore, still feeling oddly protective of her partner, but she steps closer and slides down the wall to sit with her knees tucked up to her chest.

When Xander realizes she isn’t going to speak first, he sighs. “First, I wanted to say I’m sorry. For just going quiet like that, and not explaining anything to you. And I’m sorry too for being less than...encouraging. About your choice in partner.”

Nia blinks at Xander, not expecting him to jump in so quickly.

“I’m really not fond of Tobias,” he continues, sitting down and curling his tail over his paws. “But my siblings love him, and he’s your partner. I should try to be more...open. To accepting that maybe he is actually improving. Or at least that he can. How he acted in the past wasn’t right and I stand by that, but…maybe there was at least a reason for how he behaved.”

Nia stares at Xander’s earnest expression, immediately wanting to forget her brief stint of anger towards him. After all, him and his teammates are some of her closest friends here in the Pokemon world, alongside Andyn’s team.

The riolu forces herself to relax her tense posture. “I-It’s fine. Sorry for getting so upset with you. Just...give him a chance? Please? I know it’s hard, but…”

Xander’s tail twitches where it’s curled around his paws, but he nods. “I’ll try to be more open to the idea.”

Nia smiles, relieved. “Thank you. And I wasn’t mad about you not explaining things the other day. Just worried that I did something wrong.”

“And that makes me feel even worse,” Xander mumbles, some self-deprecating humor in his tone. Then, his expression sobers into something serious. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure?”

“Have you ever wondered why my siblings are here at the guild with me? Why they aren’t being raised in an actual home instead of in the daycare?”

Nia’s blinks, caught off-guard by the question. “I...No, I haven’t really thought about it. Sorry.”

“It’s fine. I’m glad you haven’t.” The luxio is clearly lost in memories, gaze going distant. “I’d rather Pokémon not know where we came from. It’s better for the cubs to be guild kids than to grow up with...“

Xander trails off, then shakes his head, meeting Nia’s eyes. “To keep a very long story short, we didn’t come from the greatest home. Our mother was...not a good parent. I just kind of took it when I was her only target, but that changed when the cubs were born. As soon as they could walk, I got us out of there. Ended up finding the guild and never looked back.”

Nia stares at Xander with wide eyes. “How old were you?”

“About twelve or thirteen. Old enough to realize that she wasn’t going to treat the kids better than she had me. Probably worse. I could defend myself a bit at the end since I was a luxio, but I knew the kids didn’t have a chance. They...they were just so tiny. I had nightmares for weeks that she was going to hurt one of them.”

“I’m so sorry,” Nia says, quietly. She’s trying to keep the horror out of her voice, but she knows it’s still there on her face. She doesn’t remember her family in detail, but she remembers how she feels towards them, the emotional connection that’s still there, even worlds apart. Everything in her recoils at the thought of any real fear between them.

Xander shakes his head, the faintest of smiles on his face. “It’s fine, Nia. Really. We found refuge here at the guild with August, and it’s been years since then. I’m doing much better now. It’s just...” Xander hesitates. “I always think I’m over it. Over her. But then something happens and I...”

Nia isn’t sure what to say in the silence that follows. Eventually, Xander speaks up again, voice rough.

“When I think of her, I always think of how explosive she was. Her temper, her mood swings, how strong her emotions were. It didn’t even matter if she was happy or sad—every reaction was just...devastating. If it wasn’t a forest fire, it was a flood. So when you told me about my own aura—“

Nia’s stomach drops as she sees where this is going, recalling her own description of Xander’s aura. Passionate. Intense. 

“I’ve never felt someone’s emotions as strongly as I did yours.”

Before her panic can spill out in a rush of apologies, Xander holds up a paw.

“Don’t apologize. It’s fine. I gave you permission to read my aura and didn’t stop to think about what it might say about me. That was my fault.”

“But—“

“I’m fine, Nia. Really. Avery already talked me down. Just because I’m like my mother in some ways doesn’t mean I am my mother.”

Nia lets out a breath of relief, thanking God for the kirlia’s cool head and seemingly infinite wisdom. “Right. F-From what I can tell, I don’t think a person’s aura really takes into account like...how they choose to act. Even if you’re a really emotional person, clearly you keep a handle on your feelings so you don’t lash out at others or anything. I mean, you’re one of the calmest people I’ve ever met!”

Xander huffs a laugh. “Handling my emotions is a skill I’ve been working on with Avery for a long time. Glad to hear it’s paying off.”

They’re quiet for a moment, and then Xander shakes his head. “Maybe that’s why I’ve had such a hard time giving Tobias a chance. He’s just so...angry and aggressive. Unrestrained. I’ve spent so long trying to learn how to control myself and he’s just...”

Nia frowns, absently smoothing her hands down the sleek fur of her legs. Xander isn’t...wrong. Tobias doesn’t really bother with filtering his thoughts to avoid hurting others’ feelings, aside from her. And that’s just because he has to, per their deal to stay a team.

“Tobias is a bit rough around the edges,” Nia admits. “But he’s had my back whenever I really needed him, even from the start.”

Her gaze flicks to her arm, to where her bite marks lie hidden under her scarf. He’d bandaged her up after that fight and helped her back to her bed. Made sure she was fit enough to fight before having them train again. And even when they first met, before she even had a name, he didn’t ditch her in the dungeon she’d dragged them into.

“I trust him,” she says. “W-We’re not friends, not really, but I know I can rely on him to do his best and to make sure I’m not left behind.”

Xander doesn’t necessarily look pleased by those words, but he nods. He seems thoughtful, if nothing else. “You’re hoping you’ll be friends, one day,” he guesses.

Nia winces, peeking up at him. “You think it’s a lost cause?”

“Do you?”

“No.” The answer comes immediately, before she can even think about it. Nia thinks she’s more surprised by her answer than Xander is.

The luxio smiles. “Well, there you go. You know him better than I do, so if you don’t think it’s hopeless then you’re probably right.”

Nia looks down, brow furrowed. Even if she still feels like she hardly knows Tobias at all, she does want to get to know him better. She wants to be more than just his Seekers partner--she wants to be his friend, too.

A soft weight drops onto Nia’s head, and then Xander’s got her trapped in something like a headlock, giving her the noogie of a lifetime. Nia shrieks a laugh, struggling to shove the luxio away.

When she finally succeeds, Xander smiles down at her. “You looked a little lost in your head. Thought I’d help you find your way back.”

Nia’s still reigning in her giggles, smoothing the mussed fur on top of her head and shooting him a playful glare. “Jeez, no wonder Luca likes causing you trouble!”

Xander usually seems more like a parent to his siblings than an actual big brother, but Nia can see that part of him shine through on occasion. In some weird way, even his interactions with her are starting to feel almost brotherly.

Brother.

Nia stills, feeling her chest suddenly ache at the word. Longing and grief for someone she doesn’t remember rips painfully through her lungs. She chokes on her breath.

“Nia?” Xander asks, sounding a thousand miles away.

But Nia’s drowning in the emotion of lost memories, feeling tears well up in her eyes, flooding her vision in a messy watercolor mosaic. Brother. Did she—does she have one of those? She must, to feel this aching loss. To feel it carving its way through her body from the inside out.

She has a brother. She doesn’t remember him, but she misses him so so much.

Nia doesn’t even realize she’s crying until Xander pulls her into a hug, foreleg around her back and pressing her close. She buries her face in his chest and tries to stifle her sobs. Xander’s warm and soft and solid, and he smells like hay and something like ozone. It’s weirdly comforting. Distantly, she notes that there’s a very slight tingle on her face, where her tears press into his fur—his electricity causing static?

The riolu tries to bury her sorrow, tries to calm down from this overwhelming, unexpected wave of anguish, but it takes longer than she would like. After a few minutes of sniffling, she manages to calm herself down and box up the emotions to deal with later. When she lifts her head from Xander’s chest, the luxio leans back to look at her, concern tightening his expression.

“Sorry,” she rasps, rubbing the last of the tears from her eyes. “You just...reminded me of someone, suddenly. From the human world. It c-caught me off guard.”

Xander offers a tentative smile, looking like he’s not quite sure how to respond. “It’s fine.”

The riolu smiles back. It’s watery and pathetic, she’s sure, but it’s there. She gently pushes away from Xander’s hold. It feels colder without him sheltering her from her own emotions.

“C’mon,” Nia says. “They’ll be wondering where we are.”

Xander hesitates. “You sure you’re okay to go back? If you need to talk about it we can—"

Nia cuts him off with a shake of her head. “I’ll be o-okay, Xander. Thanks.”

The luxio still looks unsure, but he nods and follows Nia as she sets off down the hallway. When the two of them make it back to Maggie’s quarters, Tobias and the shinx kids are crowded around an array of herbs on the ground. Luca is leaning over the charmander’s shoulder to look, and the other two are glued to his sides.

“Ooh! What’s this one do?” Laine asks, pointing with a tiny paw to a purple flower.

“Helps fight infection,” Tobias responds. “You mash it up and put it on a wound under the bandages.”

“It’s awful pretty,” Leor says quietly. “I dunno if I’d want to hurt it.”

Luca’s ears twitch, and he looks up at Nia and Xander, face breaking into a smile. “Nia, did Xander say he was sorry?”

Tobias and the other cubs look up, and Nia giggles. So the kids were in on this? “Yeah, he did.”

“Good!” Laine says, puffing out her chest in a proud sort of way. “He was all mopey, and Av’ry said it was ‘cause Xander hurt your feelings, so we made him come apologize!”

Tobias had been looking at Nia’s puffy eyes, but at that news he moves his focus to Xander, a devious grin putting all his sharp teeth on display. “Really? The kids had to get you to come apologize? That’s pathetic.”

Nia bites back another laugh and glances at Xander. The luxio is clearly mortified, ears pinned back as he shoots the shinx cubs an embarrassed glare. “Hey, kids? I love you, but shut up.”

The kids burst into peals of laughter. Tobias just looks smug about seeing Xander so off-kilter for once. The luxio sighs, accepting his fate, and bends his head to give his chest fur a few rushed licks. Does he do that when he’s embarrassed? That’s adorable!

“Sounds like I missed all the fun while I was out!”

Nia turns towards Maggie’s voice in the doorway. The meganium looks unbearably fond of the good mood spilling from the room, a small pile of documents held in her vines. She carefully steps into the room between the smaller Pokémon, making her way over to her desk. “Did Tobias teach you kids anything while I was out?”

“Yeah!” Luca jumps up from his seat. “He’s been telling us about medicine, and how to do all kinds of cool stuff!”

“We even learned how to wrap bandages!” Leor adds, starry-eyed.

“A little too well,” Tobias says. “You looked like a trio of tangela.”

Laine nods, looking proud. “Toby said we’re basically doctors now!”

Maggie gives the charmander an amused look, and he shrugs. “Sarcasm isn’t their strong point.”

The cubs don’t catch that comment, already back to chattering with each other about what duties each of them will handle in their medical office. Poor Leor seems to be taking the worst jobs without much complaint.

“It’s nice to see them dreaming about something other than becoming Seekers,” Xander says softly. “It’s a dangerous job, and even if they decide to follow that path, I want them to know that there are other options.”

Nia frowns at that. Her and Tobias are only E-rank, and already she thinks she’s going to have lasting scars from that outlaw fight. She can only imagine how difficult it’s going to be farther down the road.

She looks over to where Tobias is answering the cubs’ questions about the different jobs of medicinal Pokémon. The shinx cubs are still so little—she can hardly imagine any of them going out into a dungeon. She doesn’t want to.

“But they won’t have to choose for a while yet, right?”

Xander nods. “They have plenty of time to decide.”

They’re quiet for a few moments, and then Xander stands. “Well, kids, let’s get going. I’m sure Tobias has other things to do.”

The three cubs let out an overdramatic “Aww!” in unison. Xander looks unimpressed. Tobias snorts.

“I’ll come visit as soon as we‘re back from Ghatha,” the charmander promises.

Xander‘s ears swivel forward with interest as he looks to Nia. “You’re going to Ghatha?”

“O-Oh! Yeah, I guess I hadn’t gotten to telling you with, uh. Everything else. We’re leaving tomorrow. Should be back in a couple of days.”

The luxio hums. “Well, have fun and be careful. You won’t be in our little community anymore.”

Tobias rolls his eyes. “Duh. We’re not idiots.”

“Yeah! Toby’s really smart!” Luca cuts in. “He knows medicine stuff and Seeker stuff!”

Xander gives his little brother a dry look. “All right, smart guy, c’mon. We’ll visit the training floor before I take you three back to Arlo.”

The cubs seem disappointed, but obediently press against Tobias one at a time in an armless hug, mumbling, “Bye, Toby.”

The charmander gives each of them a short squeeze before releasing them. “If you mope, the coaches in the training area will make you run laps,” he warns.

Laine perks up. “Really?!”

Luca bounces on his paws. “Ooh! That sounds awesome! We’d be like real Seekers getting trained!”

Leor’s the only one to not look thrilled at the thought, shifting his stocky little body. “Uh. I don’t wanna run laps, though.”

“No one’s running laps,” Xander says, patiently corralling the cubs with his tail. He smiles gratefully at Maggie. “Sorry for dropping in so suddenly.”

“It’s fine, dear! I love the company. It’s quiet here nowadays without Tobias and Nia around as often.”

Tobias winces. Nia tries to catch his eye, concerned (is he still worried about leaving Maggie on her own for medicinal duties?), but Xander turns to her before she can.

“Thanks again,” the luxio says. “If you two need anything before you go, let me know.”

And Nia knows he means it, too. She smiles warmly at him. “Will do, Xander. Thanks.”

Then, to her surprise, the luxio turns to Tobias. “Thanks for, uh, for watching the cubs, Tobias.”

The charmander looks just as shocked as she feels for a second. Then he hurries to hide it, scoffing as he starts to collect the herbs strewn across the floor. “Whatever. I didn’t do it for you.”

The cubs look confused about the tension between their brother and their favorite charmander. Xander, however, doesn’t seem offended. He just narrows his eyes, looking thoughtful, before nodding and turning to leave. “Come on, kids.”

The shinx cubs hurry towards the hall, waving their tails as they call out their goodbyes over their shoulders. “Bye Toby! Bye Maggie! Bye Nia!”

Nia waves back as she watches them leave. Then, she kneels by Tobias to help him gather the scattered herbs.

“Such good kids,” Maggie comments when they’re gone. “A lively bunch, too.”

Tobias snorts. “That’s one way to put it.”

“You love it,” Nia teases, daring to give him a grin.

Tobias gives her a halfhearted glare in return and blows a puff of smoke in her face. She yelps and falls back onto her butt, laughing and waving the smoke away. “Not fair!”

Tobias doesn’t answer, but he’s smirking as he collects the rest of the herbs. While he places the herbs back in their rightful spots in Maggie’s storage, Nia goes to their bag. She plops down to rummage through it and double-check that they have everything packed for tomorrow.

“Ready for your trip?” Maggie asks.

“I think so! Tobias took the lead in shopping since I, uh, had no idea what we’d need.”

The meganium sets aside her forms and steps over to peer curiously into their satchel. “You have food? Healing items?”

Tobias joins them, rolling his eyes. “Yes and yes. We’re good.”

“Maybe you two should’ve had Vera make you some coats before you left. What if it’s cold in Ghatha?” Maggie frets.

Nia laughs. “We’ll be fine, Maggie! Really. Don’t worry.”

The meganium still looks concerned, and Nia is intensely glad that they had elected not to tell her the news about a human-Pokemon conflict popping up. She’d be a nervous wreck if she knew.

“And you know the way to the flying outpost?” Maggie asks.

“It’s like an hour’s walk from here, Mags, you can see it from the tree. Chill,” Tobias says.

Nia’s ears prick up. “Really? You can see it from here?”

“Up on the mail floor, yeah.”

“Oh! That reminds me,” Nia leans back to look at Maggie. “How do you send mail to other Pokémon?”

“I’ve never had to, so I told her to ask you,” Tobias adds, pulling the bag into his lap to dig through it himself.

The meganium blinks. “Mail?”

“Yeah! I wanted to, um, send a letter to Hazel? In Afon’s Cap. I told her I’d keep in contact, but I uh. Don’t know how.”

Maggie’s confusion clears. “Oh! Yes, of course. Don’t worry, it’s simple. You just need to write the details of who it’s from and who it’s to. Name, species, location, those kinds of things. Then send it off with one of the mail-mon.”

“That’s a lot like how we do it in the human world, actually,” Nia says. “Huh. They’ll be able to find Hazel with just that?”

Maggie nods. “Mail-mon tend to handle specifically assigned areas, from what I understand. So anyone who delivers to that area should be able to find her!”

Nia straightens up, beaming. “Thank you! That’s a relief. I think I’ll wait until after we get back from Ghatha to write her. W-Would you, uh, mind helping me write it?”

The meganium laughs, no doubt remembering the riolu’s last attempt at writing in the Pokémon language. It was a wobbly disaster. “Of course, dear.”

“Okay, so here’s your money,” Tobias interrupts. He tosses a small sack of coins to Nia, and it lands with a muffled clink at her feet. “I’ve got mine, too—“ he pats another small pouch at his side. “And then we still have a bit of team money left over after shopping today.” He pulls out another small sack and places it on the floor.

As Maggie returns to her desk, Nia tilts her head and opens her pouch, slowly counting through the coins there. It takes longer than she’d like with the strange currency, but she thinks it’s around 700 poke. Which sounds like a lot? But she isn’t really sure. She knows that even in the lower ranks, Seeker jobs pay pretty well, and they haven’t really bought much since they started out as a team, but...

“H-How much do we have left in the team pouch?” She asks. They usually put half of their money found from jobs and dungeons into that stash, and then split the other half between them for their own personal funds.

Tobias frowns, glancing over the coins again. “Maybe around 800 poke?”

Nia hums. “That doesn’t sound too bad. How much does flying cost?”

“Not sure. Probably around 500 poke for a trip all the way to Ghatha, but we get a huge discount since we’re Seekers. So maybe like 300? 400?”

“Oh.” Nia nibbles at her lip, thinking hard. “W-Will we have enough for the trip? Like to eat and stay somewhere for a couple of days?”

Tobias brings a hand to his chin in thought. “We should be fine as long as we don’t go overboard. We’ll have to eat cheap.”

Nia nods, way too excited about the trip and Tobias’ good mood to even consider being disappointed by a lack of fancy food. She doubts she would have anyways. “That’s fine by me!”

“It’s still warm enough that we could camp out too, if we have to,” Tobias adds in a mumble, talking more to himself than Nia.

She grins. “I don’t even care! I’m just so excited to be going. I’m gonna meet more humans, Tobias!”

The charmander gives her a look, but it’s more of a tired sort of exasperation than anything. “You don’t say?”

Nia laughs again. “It’s just...even if we don’t have a way to go back home yet, it’s so nice to have someone who understands what you’re going through. Hazel was amazing, but she’s kind of already made her life here, y’know?”

Tobias shrugs. “I guess. I don’t really get it, but I’m also not a human.”

Nia ties her money bag closed and drops it into their satchel, shooting her partner a warm smile. “I’m just...really happy. Thanks again for agreeing to go with me, Tobias. I appreciate it.”

Right on cue, the charmander rolls his eyes, focusing on organizing their items as his cheeks flush. So easily embarrassed. “Yeah, yeah. Remember, we’re gonna ask about the outlaw trio too while we’re there.”

“Of course!”

“Are you sure you two have enough poke?” Maggie asks worriedly, looking over at them from her desk. “I can give you a little extra just in case—“

“Nope,” Tobias objects, tone final. “We’re good, Mags. Keep your money.”

“Thank you, though!” Nia adds.

Maggie frowns, looking concerned. “Okay...if you do end up needing anything, remember I’m just a short letter away. Call on me right away if you need me.”

“Yup!” Nia springs to her feet and stretches, skipping over to Maggie’s side to look at what the older woman is working on. Documentation of her herb stores?

“You’re gonna be like this the whole way there, aren’t you?” Tobias drawls, walking over to Maggie’s other side to peek at her work as well.

It takes Nia a moment to realize he’s speaking to her. “Like what?”

The charmander raises a brow, gaze flicking down to her legs then back up to her face. Nia realizes she’s bouncing in place, tail wagging. She forces herself to a stop. “Oh.”

“Yeah.”

Maggie laughs, looking down at the riolu. “You certainly do seem excited.”

“I am! I have no idea how I’m going to sleep tonight. I wish it was tomorrow already!”

Tobias snorts and points out a tiny mistake on the meganium’s form, which she dutifully fixes. “Just don’t keep me awake.”

Nia agrees and resumes bouncing on her toes. Dawn can’t come soon enough.

#pmd #pokemon mystery dungeon #pokemon #shinx #charmander #pmd seekers of soul #tesha draws #tesha writes

[headinthe-fridge]

My Grandfather’s Lawyer (pt. 1)

⁂ – Ushijima Wakatoshi x reader –  ⁂

warning: nsfw, swearing

Summary: Your grandfather, Washijo Tanji, disowned your mother when she was pregnant with you and her hatred towards him was passed on to you. Now, your estranged grandfather wants you to leave your life in Tokyo and come live with him in his estate in the Miyagi Prefecture.

You took a day off and a 6-hour trip, intending to give him a piece of your mind before disappearing from their lives forever. You didn’t expect to see an ailing and fragile old man. Your day trip stretched into weeks and soon, you patched things up with your estranged family and warmed up to everyone -except to one: Ushijima Wakatoshi -your grandfather’s lawyer.

He thinks you have ulterior motives in reuniting with your grandfather.

You weren’t suppose to care what he thinks of you. His opinion didn’t matter.

But it did.

MASTERLIST

AN:  So, here’s part 1 and it’s going to be a little fast-paced, with like 5 parts. tops.  Lemme know if you wanna get tagged.

⁂ – ⁂ – ⁂ – ⁂ – ⁂ – ⁂ – ⁂ – ⁂ – ⁂ – ⁂ – ⁂ – ⁂ – ⁂ – ⁂ – ⁂ – ⁂ – ⁂ – ⁂ – ⁂ –

"If you need anything, I'm only a call away."

You recalled Kiyoko's words earlier this morning. She was the one who dropped you off at the bus station for your six-hour trip from Tokyo to Miyagi prefecture. You and Kiyoko were childhood friends and since the death of your parents, she had been living with you in the house that your parents left you. You knew each other's life stories so it wasn't news to her the hatred and animosity that you harbored for your estranged grandfather.

She was worried at first and voiced out her concern, thinking that maybe your emotions were getting the best of you. But you reassured her, saying that you can handle yourself. And so, you two parted ways with her advice at the forefront of your mind.

You regretted your rash decision, not because you're worried about how your grandfather would react to finally seeing you but because of the long, exhausting, and dusty road that you have been trudging for the past hour.

The nearest train station is one hour away from the Washijo estate -which is located in the Katta District (which has a population density of 77 people per square kilometer). It was a ghost town compared to Tokyo, you thought. The train conductor informed you that from here on, the road is Washijo's property and that you would be very very lucky if a stray cab passed by.

You would've appreciated the scenic view before you, lush green forest by the roadside, mountain ranges stretched in the far distance, clear blue skies plus the unnaturally mild summer wind, if it weren't for the pile of dust and dirt clinging to your skin as you trudge along the damned road.

The hatred within you flared. This is all your grandfather's fault, you seethed. He disowned your mother when she was pregnant with you, he refused your family when your father begged him to help with your mother treatments, and he didn't even come to her own daughter's funeral when she died.

A lone tear escaped your eye at the bitter memory. You have one goal today; and that is to say to your grandfather's face that he's a worthless piece of shit. And that if it weren't for him, your parents would still be alive. After this, you will go back to your life in Tokyo and forget the Washijo name until your dying day. You will remember it only to curse it once more.

A loud honk made you jump, pulling you from your dark thoughts. You turned around with a scowl on your face, because who the hell does that in a deserted road?

A sleek black car pulled over behind you and seconds later, a man boarded off the driver's side. He had spiky black hair swept to the side, his cat-like eyes looked at you curiously.

"Are you y/n?"

You nodded, apprehensive.

The man breathed out a sigh of relief. His whole body relaxed. "Ah, thank god, I was just in time."

"Excuse me, but who are you?" You raised a brow.

"Oh, my bad. I'm Kuroo, your cousin. The one who kept calling you on the phone?"

"Ah..." You tipped your head in acknowledgment. "How did you know I was here."

"I tried calling your phone but I can't reach you, so I called your home phone and your friend, Shimizu, said you were on your way here. I must've missed you at the station."

"I see."

"Come, I'll give you a ride." he gestured towards the passenger seat.

You narrowed your eyes at him, unsure if you should believe his words. For all you know, this might be a human trafficking scheme.

He must've have sensed your hesitation. "I know it's weird, we haven't met each other before but here," he pulled out his wallet, took out an id card and showed it to you.

Washijo Kuroo

"You can hold onto my phone if you want, and have 110 on speed dial if you think you're in danger." He offered you his phone.

You took it after a few seconds of hesitation but in the end, you let yourself be guided towards the car. You also wouldn't want to triple the amount of dust and dirt that already clung to your skin so you welcomed the airconditioned vehicle and the comfortable seat that it offered.

"Ji-ji would be thrilled to see you. I thought you would keep on rejecting his request to come live with us, what made you change your mind?"

"Sorry to burst your bubble but I don't intend to live with any of you." You spat.

"Ooh, is that hatred I sense in your voice?" He teased, despite your hostility. "It seems our cousins are wrong about your reasons for coming here."

"Wrong about what?"

"Nothing, don't mind it, my little cousin. Can I call you that?"

"No, you may not." Your cousin chuckled and that annoyed you. "What's so funny?"

"Did you know that your mother, was closest to my father, out of all her brothers? Oto-san was really heartbroken when Oba-san cut off her ties with everyone. Oto-san would say you have her spirit if he was still alive."

His words confused you. All this time, you thought everyone in the family hated your mother. But what did he say? Your uncle was heartbroken?

"I don't understand, if what you say is true then why didn't, uhm.. uncle reached out? Why did no one come to mama's funeral?"

"We didn't know. Your father kept it from us. Ji-ji almost swept the whole of Tokyo to be able to see her daughter one last time but he wasn’t ableto find her."

"Then how were you able to contact me? How did you get my number?"

"That was an accident. You know Lev Haiba, right?"

Your ears perked up at the familiar name. He was a regular at the cafe where you worked. "Yes. He's a customer."

"Yeah, well he wouldn't shut up about his huge crush on you, we were classmates in high school by the way. One day, he sent a picture of you two in our group chat, and then I recognized you."

You raised a brow. "We haven't met before, how would you recognize me?"

"Oh that, I'll let Ji-ji explain. But yeah, that's how we found you, after that, Ji-ji wouldn't stop gushing about your coming here. I really thought you wouldn't give in."

"Well, I wouldn't be staying long so there's no need to make this a big deal. And whatever your cousins think about me, I really don't care, I mean if that's the kind of people that I'll be living with then no thanks, I'm good with my small apartment back in Tokyo."

"Man, the hatred runs deep, huh? Don't worry, they wouldn't dare do anything against you while Ji-ji's around. Plus, I'll be right behind you. I feel like we would get along well."

You decided not to respond to that and opted to watch the road before you throughout the whole ride.

You knew that your grandfather is a wealthy man. But the moment you stepped foot inside the Washijo Minka, it only dawned on you what wealthy really meant. The house was ornately decorated. The ranma panels that let the daylight in are carved with intricate details of dragons, the tatami floors are spotless, the zabutons are wrapped in silken cloth (what glorious ass wouldn't seat on silken pillows?), and the fusuma slides' designs are hand-painted.

Every object in this house screamed at whoever was in it that the owner is wealthy. So why? Your family only asked for a small amount for your mother's treatment compared to the luxuries that surround you now. Your jaw clenched as your hatred towards your grandfather resurfaced.

"Look who's here y/n, it seems your cousin couldn't wait to finally meet you," Kuroo remarked.

You heard someone scoff and you turned to the person with a piercing look.

"Can't I welcome the new member of the Washijo family? I wanted to meet Noriko's child, too."

The way your mother's name rolled off on the woman's tongue didn't sit well with you. Your eyes swept her form from head to toe, she was tall and beautiful. Gorgeous, in fact, if it weren't for her attitude. You decided she wasn't worth your time. You didn't waste this day to bandy crooked words with her. You're here for your grandfather.

"What, cat got your tongue?" She goaded.

"Stop it, Hoshina-chan. If Ji-ji catches you starting a fight, you wouldn't like it." Kuroo warned.

The one called Hoshina just harrumphed in response. She threw you one last look before stomping off to god knows where. You don't care, actually, you don't have time to deal with brats.

"By the way, here comes Atsumu and Osamu. They're also our cousins." Kuroo informed.

The newcomers made a beeline towards you and Kuroo and you barely had time to compose yourself when they were already shaking your -both- hands and welcoming you in unison.

"N-nice to meet you too, Atsumu-san and Osamu-san."

"Please don't forget that the better Washijo twin is me," the blonde pointed towards himself while the other just scoffed.

A soft chuckle escaped your lips and you were about to reply when someone behind you cleared his throat.

Part 2

Tagging all you lovelies: @thegrumpyhag​ @sushij1ma​ @valoryess​ @yakus-yakult​

@ly-nia​

#haikyuu fanfiction #haikyuu #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu x you #ushijima wakatoshi #ushijima x you #ushijima x reader #wakatoshi x reader #wakatoshi x you #ushiwaka #ushijima wakatoshi x reader #ushijima wakatoshi x you

[soldrawss]

Alright, so it's pretty clear which Bab is who, But how oh how did he Obtain these four boys in your Human Rottmnt au?

~SO! Bear with me, there’s a LOT of info here and it kinda turned into a fic half way down so yeah~

In my au, Yoshi is still the famous movie and action star, Lou Jitsu! (In his private life, he goes by Yoshi Hamato, but in the public eye he is Lou Jitsu. Sorta like a Hannah Montana situation) Anyway, while he’s a big-time hotshot, he starts dating fellow hotshot movie star Kuroko Gumo (Big Mama)(I gave her a Japanese name basically meaning spider don’t @ me) They date for a long time and for a while are the celebrity couple of the century... that is, until Yoshi asks Big Mama to marry him. She turns him down in a very public and horrible way (Basically saying that what they had was just a fun fling and also for clout) and leaves Yoshi absolutely wrecked. He becomes incredibly depressed and spirals into unhealthy habits and kinda goes off the deep end. (Showing up to interviews and public events wasted. Sleeping around with lots of other famous celebrities and models. Causing a PUBLIC SCENE literally every time he goes out. It wasn’t a good time for Yoshi OR Lou at ALL. This went on for about 4-5 years on and off.)

Until his ‘manager’ finally hired him a PR agent to put him into shape. (Yoshi had PR agents in the past. But all of them quit after a while of not being able to DEAL with Yoshi’s tantrums) And boy, did this PR agent NOT fuck around. Barry Draxum, though he prefers just Draxum, single-handedly saved Yoshi’s carrier and Lou Jitsu’s image practically overnight. And even though his methods for getting Yoshi to shower before a photoshoot or ‘eat a fucking vegetable Hamato or so help me GOD I will shave your head completely bald and then you’ll have to wear a wig for the rest of filming, do not TEMPT me’ are a little unorthodox, he gets the job done. And even though the two butt heads and bicker on the daily, they end up being a pretty good team, and slowly but surely, Yoshi starts to heal and get better and get his life/career back on track.

That is, until the consequences of his actions came a-knocking. 

It was Draxum who found out first, through a late-night phone call in Yoshi’s living room while the two were discussing a film shoot for later on that week. 

Yoshi had really only seen two sides of Draxum’s emotional range up until that point, and Yoshi was pretty sure he didn’t have any other settings besides passively annoyed and downright fed up, but the look on Draxum’s face, going pale with confusion and concern had Yoshi waiting at the edge of the couch in acute apprehension. The blood in his veins turning to ice under his skin.

It was about a woman named Nia Okoro. A vibrant and outgoing woman, with freckles like constellations dusted on her dark skin and dimples so deep that Yoshi loved to make her laugh just so he could see how deep they’d go. He had had previous relations with her, often seeking her out when he was at his loneliest and lowest points only because she had a personality that was loud and warm, and that could win smiles out of him as easy as breathing. 

But he hadn’t seen her in almost a year. Right before Draxum came around and knocked some sense into him, Yoshi even said so when Draxum asked, worry a knotted, tangled mess in his stomach when he asks why. What’s wrong? Did something happen?

A car accident, Draxum explains slowly like he’s approaching a feral animal and he doesn’t know if it will fight or flee if he approaches with any more information. A semi collided with the driver's side of her car. She didn’t make it. Died on route to the hospital.

Yoshi, Draxum says in a low voice, not giving Yoshi a second to wrap his head around the grief pumping back into his system like an all too familiar and painful drug when he adds, she left behind two sons. And apparently, before she died, she claimed they were both yours.

Yoshi was on the next flight out to Chicago that night, Draxum trailing behind after him trying to get Yoshi to see reason, Hamato. We don’t really know if they’re yours, and even if they were, which is highly unlikely, what are you going to do? You can’t raise children right now, your career is still in a fragile state. YOU’RE still in a fragile state.

But Yoshi wasn’t listening as he takes his window seat, Draxum perfectly harrumphing defeatedly in the seat beside him, and Yoshi spends the next two and a half hours looking out into the cloudless night, not listening to anything but the sound of his own racing heart trying to burst out between his ribcage.

When they get to the hospital, it’s 2:30 in the morning and Draxum has to practically pull Yoshi from slamming his fists down on the reception desk. Draxum had told him it was a longshot that the children would even still be here at this hour, if they even existed at all and weren’t just some wild goose chase of a prank someone was pulling on them, but Yoshi still had to know. Had to make sure.

When Draxum finally manages to explain their situation to the woman at the front desk, it's with a sad but knowing smile when she nods, knowing exactly the children they were looking for, and leads them through the hospital for what feels like endless years to Yoshi till they reach a closed examination room.

Yoshi is greeted by two pairs of almond-shaped brown eyes, one pair wide and bright and the other sleepy and heavy-lidded, and it takes all his strength not to crumble to the hospital floor right then and there.

A little boy was sitting on a large hospital bed, covered in scratches and bruises and head half wrapped in colorful red gauze with yellow stars on it, looks up at Yoshi with watery alert eyes. He clutches at the drowsy infant half asleep in the circle of his arms almost protectively, and it takes another bow of strength from Yoshi to remain calm when the boy bites out a quiet, you can’t take him either. 

Take who away, Yoshi asks back in a voice almost as quiet at the boy’s, and the little boy tightens his hold around the baby. Eyes bright like daggers and mouth thin with a determination that could move mountains, like he wasn’t a child and the ugly road rash and bruising skin under her clothes didn’t exist, when he glares at Yoshi.

Mikey! They took mama away, but you can’t take Mikey too! He’s my baby brother. Mama said I have to protect him, so you can’t take him! You can’t! Please!

It took several weeks and an ocean load of paperwork on Yoshi’s and Draxum’s part, but sure enough, Raphael and Michelangelo Okoro were indeed Yoshi’s sons, and having no other relatives they could go to, were finally allowed to be adopted and come home with the movie star.

Yoshi was whole worlds out of depths with parenthood, having absolutely no experience with children in general prior to his son’s moving in with him, and it showed with every backward diaper and screaming tantrum fit and sleepless night. And Yoshi asked himself about a million and a half times a day if he had gotten over his head. Taken on too much, more than he could handle. If he was cut out to be a dad, let alone a dad they needed, at all.

But Mikey had a giggle that filled up every corner of the room with something warm and delighted, and Raph’s tough and hesitant exterior against Yoshi at first melted into something akin to fierce and toothed love for his baby brother. So he was patient with Yoshi, and taught him all the best tricks to get Mikey to hold still long enough to change his clothes or wash behind his ears with a smile and fondness that downright glowed. And when he finally called out a hey pops to Yoshi, wearing a broad and comfortable confidence and joy like a badge on his chest, Yoshi finally gave in to his emotions and sleep deprivation and cried right there with both of his boys in his arms. 

And he really was awful at being a dad, but dangit if he wasn’t going to try his best anyway because it was so worth it just to have those two pairs of smiling eyes turn his way.

But the experience with Raph and Mikey opened up a pandora's box inside Yoshi’s heart.

Because Raph was four years old. That was four years of Yoshi not knowing he had a son, let alone two... Was it possible that there was more he didn’t know about?

And with the, albeit begrudging, help from Draxum, (Draxum, who had collected the embarrassingly long list of lovers and ex’s from Yoshi and began reaching out to them in inquiry about children and possible visitation rights and the such. Because Yoshi was sure that if he had more children, their situations wouldn’t be like Raph’s and Mikey’s where Yoshi could just take full custody of them. Especially when none of the mothers had ever reached out in the first place) he found that answer out.

It was yes, and the exact number was two more.

Two more sons. One in Seattle and one in San Antonio.

Donatello Martelli was relatively easy to find. His mother, Bria, as beautiful as she was vain and obsessed with her image, didn’t hesitate to point Draxum and Yoshi in the direction of the nearest foster home. Because Bria was not the motherly type, and she never had the patience or tolerance or room in her heart to fit parenthood into her world of glamour and glitz the way Yoshi did. So with what little kindness she had to her name, she put up her son for adoption and wiped her hands clean of what was left of Yoshi’s and her’s short-lived romance.

Donatello, as Yoshi had come to discover, was a handful of a child, but in all the ways that made Yoshi’s heart burst with affection and pride.

He was smarter and craftier than anyone would ever give a 3-year-old credit for, and his short temper and passive boredom towards the world around him was only because he lacked the stimulus and opportunity to shine as brightly as he could. He was in his 8th foster home in that year alone when Draxum had located him; being swapped around from home to home because no one knew how to handle the child's sharp wit and even sharper tongue, and the list of appliances and machines he had ‘destroyed’ had labeled him as a trouble maker and problem child.  

It was only until Yoshi had made the journey to Seattle himself and met the keen-eyed and brazen child that Yoshi discovered just how soft-hearted Donatello truly was. 

He was just curious. That’s all he ever was. Curious and hungry for knowledge and wanting to use that knowledge for good and kind and wonderfully brilliant things.

I wanted to know how the toaster works, Donatello’s admits quietly, more to himself than to Yoshi but Yoshi listens anyway. Mrs. Brown’s burns the toast and Mr. Brown doesn’t like it. I just wanted to see if I could make it better.

Donnie’s adoption was almost too easy, no one willing to put up any fight against Yoshi steadfast resolution, and the bespectacled brown-eyed child thrived in Yoshi’s endless supply of toasters he could take apart and reassemble too his heart's content, and Raph’s and Mikey’s constant adoration and fondness for their newest brother.

It took almost 2 months after Donnie’s adoption for Draxum to even learn about a fourth child, let alone find him.

Maria Guerrero was the only woman they couldn’t reach out to, seemingly dropping off the face of the earth like she had never existed in it to begin with and was just a well-spun fever dream of Yoshi’s past. Draxum had almost exhausted every string he had left to even prove the woman existed, let alone where she was, and it was only because of Yoshi’s begging and pleading and she’s out there somewhere, Barry. Please. I don’t want to give up without knowing for sure, that Draxum kept up the search longer than the 2-month mark. 

And then he had found something. A tiny, sliver of a half baked chance at something and Yoshi clung to it like a lifeline.

I don’t know if it’s anything at all. Maria isn’t even mentioned by name it’s just... with the description you gave and the time frame set... a couple of years ago, there was this child with the last name Guerrero in San Antonio who was left at the hospital just a few hours after he was born. The mother disappeared without a trace and with no explanation, but she matches the description of Maria-

What’s the child’s name, Yoshi finds himself interrupting, a tugging feeling at the bottom of his stomach making him feel equal parts sick and hungry with hope and morbid curiosity.

Leonardo. Leonardo Guerrero. He’d be about 3 now.

Yoshi knew. He just knew. As soon as he stepped out of his car and onto the dusty laneway of the shabby and overpacked halfway home in Texas and walked up to the metal chain-linked fence separating himself from the front yard of children of varying ages and races, he knew. He didn’t even need the owner and self-designated father of the home to point the child out to Yoshi.

Leonardo was a scrawny and scrappy child. The patched-up sweater 3 times his size dropping over limbs covered in bandaids and vitiligo patches alike. His hair was a curly mess, long and tangled and held out of his face by different types of hair clips and scrunchies. He was playing by himself off in the farthest corner of the yard, head down and tracing the ground with a stick, and it wasn’t until the other man called out a thickly accented, GUERRERO, that the boy looked up.

Brown eyes. Brown eyes like Raph’s and Donnie’s and Mikey’s. Brown eyes like Yoshi’s. Round and rich and shining like a spotlight and something clicked inside of Yoshi’s chest. Like the final piece of a long-overdue jigsaw puzzle was finally where it belonged, fitting into the empty spot in Yoshi’s heart like it had always owned a place there, right alongside all the other pieces that had claimed their space within the past few months. 

Yoshi didn’t think his heart could get any fuller. 

But then Leo smiled at him, and Yoshi couldn’t have been more happy to be proven wrong. 

#rottmnt human #rottmnt human au #ill come up with a name to this au someday #but anyway take this super long answer that sorta got away from me #man i fucking love this family i don't have words for it #but yeah anyway #all the boys are half brothers #kinda like what they are in the show #(except Raph and Mikey cause idk i just wanted that relationship for them) #also donnie and leo aren't twins but listen #they're the same age and they cling to each other like velcro and are best friends and are a fucking FORCE to be reckoned with #yoshi has his fucking hands FULL #and he wouldn't have it any other way #Draxum is absolutely not fond that his client and sorta 'friend' has decided to invite four little heathens into his life #and essentially make draxums life and job harder because now he has to work TWICE as hard to keep lou jitsu's appearances and popularity up #and the boys #mainly leo and donnie #are kinda jerks to him #i have once short comic scene with them i wanna draw at some point of draxum interacting with the kids but we'll see #anyway yeah hope you enjoy this #i love the hamatos and will die on the hill that is yoshi learning how to parent

[lardguz]

Zeke’s Just Desserts

This is a "little" story I worked on a couple weeks ago that I kept forgetting to make a new blog to post it to, so uh, here it is! It's about characters from Xe//nobla//de 2 because I have been like really into that game lately haha.

The calm night air of the Urayan Titan made for an intoxicating atmosphere to relax in after a long day of fighting and adventuring. Zeke von Genbu, the prince of Tantal, was currently taking in this beautiful weather while sitting outside a vacant shop front. The muscular man was sitting at a café table, watching flower petals falling from the trees and dancing in the breeze. He was waiting on his Blade, Gorg, to finish… whatever it was he was doing in that vacant store, when Zeke caught a whiff of something delicious on the breeze. The one eyed warrior inhaled deeply, smelling the intoxicating scent of something sugary and delicious. Closing his eye to try taking his mind off the smell, Zeke was taken off guard by the clatter of a plate sounding right next to his feet that were reclined on top of the table. His one good eye shooting open, the prince was greeted by the sight of his newest Blade, the merman Gorg, standing proudly next to a plate piled high with freshly baked cookies.

“What’s all this, chum?” Zeke inquired, staring down at the plate of cookies in front of him, and glancing back up at the aquatic Blade.

“Cookies, sir. Made ‘em myself,” Gorg replied proudly. “Try ‘em! They’re my special new test recipe for the café!”

Zeke took a cookie in his surprisingly delicate grasp, sniffing it suspiciously before taking a pensive nibble. The flavor surprised him, spicy but sweet at the same time. Within seconds the cookie was devoured, and the muscular prince immediately grabbed another. As he was reaching for his fourth cookie, a metallic hand gently grabbed his wrist.

“Ah, sir, I didn’t need you to eat them all at once,” Gorg smiled apologetically. “I just needed you to taste one for me and tell me if anything needs improvement.”

Zeke’s face flushed a slight pink as he hurriedly looked anywhere but at his Blade or the plate of cookies. “A-ah, yes, right, ahem. I did in fact realize this, but you see, the bearer of the Eye of Shining Justice has a mighty appetite, and needed to taste more than just one cookie for the full effect!”

Gorg placed his mechanical hands on his muscular hips and chuckled heartily at the embarrassment on his Driver’s face. “Sure thing, Prince, that makes perfect sense to me! But if you wanna help me out even more, you can just finish off that plate of cookies and tell me if you think they’re good enough to sell at the shop once and for all!”

Zeke cleared his throat, about to pass of gorging himself any further on the delicious cookies, when the smell of the spicy treats reached his nose again. Damn, why did he have to love spicy food so much? Sighing deeply, the one eyed prince vowed to himself that he’d train extra hard with Pandoria tomorrow to work off the extra calories he was about to consume. Then, he proceeded to shovel the test batch of cookies into his mouth one after another in steady succession, even after his stomach was already painfully full. The Zekenator didn’t back down from a challenge, whether on the battle field, or at the dinner table.

Finally, after clearing the plate of every cookie that was once upon it, the unlucky prince groaned in pain as he rubbed at his exposed midsection, his stomach slightly distended from all the food he’d just packed into it. The overstuffed swordsman slowly got up and walked to the local inn to go sleep off his food coma, hoping he would feel better tomorrow so he could begin working off the excess he’d just devoured.

 A week had past since that first taste testing day that Zeke and Gorg had had, and the aquatic Blade had only amped up his recipe experiments since then. The day after that first trial run, Zeke woke up feeling more sluggish than usual, his gut still feeling slightly heavy. He had been about to go train with Pandoria when Gorg stopped him in the lobby of the inn and asked for his help tasting another batch of a different cookie recipe for him. This happened again and again over the next six days, a never ending cycle of delicious baked goods being handed off to the prince for an honest opinion on their flavors, and Zeke being unable to stop himself from gorging on the entire batch. This led to the man’s current predicament.

Zeke stood in his rented bedroom at the Fonsa Myma inn, staring at himself in a full length mirror. His hands were currently holding onto his stomach, which had a budding layer of fat forming on it that was blatantly obvious to anyone with at least one eye, seeing as he never wore a shirt under his long tattered coat. His hands groped and prodded at his once-chiseled chest and abdomen, now sporting a much softer, rounded physique. Zeke was about to go out and train a little on his own to see if he could burn the fat off of him before it became too much of a hindrance, when he heard a knock at his door.

Opening the door slightly, Zeke was greeted by the ever-enthused face of Gorg, the budding pastry chef Blade. “Hey there, good morning to you, Prince! Just thought I’d stop by and ask for your help again at the shop today! I made a bunch of a test recipe for flans and need to know what a human thinks of them, if that’s okay with you?” The Blade grinned proudly, obviously excited to have finally moved past cookies.

Zeke almost didn’t have it in his heart to turn the excited merman down, but if he kept up these eating habits, no one would ever look at him the same again. The prince cleared his throat and looked Gorg in the eye. “Gorg, my friend, you see, there’s a bit of a smallish problem with me being your designated taste tester. You see, a strong, handsome, powerful prince such as myself can’t do nothing but eat desserts all day. If I keep doing that, I’ll lose my combative edge, and then what? No one will fear the great Thunderbolt Zeke, the Zekenator, the Eye of Shining Justice, if they think he’s gone soft, right, chum?”

Gorg looked down apologetically before responding. “Yeah, you see, Prince, I did kind of already notice you’d been putting on a little weight from the cookie taste test trials, and I’m sorry I didn’t do anything to stop or help. But I did come up with a plan for the flan tests! I’m using much less fattening ingredients in this trial run, so you should be able to shed the excess weight from the cookies in no time!”

“Wha—really?!” Zeke exclaimed, “That’s fantastic news, Gorg! Well, in that case, I’m all yours for the day! Point me towards the flans, and Thunderbolt Zeke will see to it they never see the light of day again! Hah!” He struck one of his usual dramatic poses, the soft layer of flab on his stomach wobbling slightly as he did so. Gorg led him to the shop front, with a table laid with an array of his latest attempt at a flan flavor, enough to feed a small family for a week. Zeke managed to put it all away in the space of an hour, and then asked for seconds, to which the chef Blade was happy to oblige. He loved baking, but what he loved more was seeing people enjoy his desserts, but Gorg had never imagined someone would ever enjoy them to the extent that his beloved Driver did. So he promised himself that he would do nothing else aside from keep cooking marvelous dishes to please the Tantalese prince for the rest of their time together.

Zeke woke up groggily one morning because of a sudden loud noise interrupting his slumber. He blinked his eye slowly, trying to determine the source of the sound, when it happened again: a low, gurgling rumble, coming directly from his stomach. The prince grumbled and slowly rolled over, swinging his feet over the edge of his bed. Heaving his considerable bulk up into a standing position, the topless prince made his way over to the mirror to take a look at his body.

The first immediately noticable thing was his face, which was much less sharp, and softened considerably by round chubby cheeks and a double chin. His neck was covered in a layer of fat as well, which caused him to have a triple chin when he looked down. His once-hardened muscular chest had softened to a flabby set of moobs, which sagged to the sides of his massive gut. His six pack was long gone, replaced now by a double-decker flabby stomach that split right across the middle, where the top roll folded over the belly button. His arms were much larger than they once were, but not in a muscular way; his biceps oozed with flab, dangling off his arms in true bingo wing fashion. His hands were even starting to get fatter too now. His massive thighs and rear gave were large compared to most other humans, but not enough to give him pear shaped body, his gigantic round gut giving him an undeniable apple shape. His thighs were covered in flabby rolls, a fold of fat beginning to form over his knees, and his ass cheeks were each the size of a large melon, wobbling every time he even took a slight step. His footsteps were now an exaggerated waddle to prevent his enormous thighs from rubbing together too much.

Sighing, Zeke donned his coat, which was now painfully tight around his shoulders and armpits. It had been a month and a half since the warrior prince had begun helping his Blade, Gorg, pursue his dream of opening a dessert shop, and Zeke had since resigned himself to his new fate of being a fatass. Sure, Nia gave him a hard time, and Rex and Mórag were constantly worrying about his health, but he was strong and was able to push off their comments about his size quite easily at this point. If it meant making his Blade friend happy, and getting to enjoy his delicious cooking every day, the prince was happy.

Thankfully, the inn was a single floor building, and Gorg’s shop was right outside the front door, because Zeke was not in the best shape anymore. As the massive prince waddled his way to the store front, he plopped himself heavily into the nearest chair at a table, ignoring the creaking of the wooden seat as his gigantic behind sat down upon it, the flab of his ass and thighs oozing over the sides and threatening to swallow the chair whole. Wheezing from the exertion of just getting over to the store from the inn, Zeke was thankful when he saw Gorg approaching with plates piled high with drinks and cakes: milkshakes to cool him down after his exercise of waddling less than 200 feet, and piles of cakes for him to taste test for the shop. Gorg watched, pleased beyond words at the look of blissful satisfaction on his Driver’s fattening face as Zeke shoved slices of cake into his greedy mouth with barely any breaks or pauses, aside from slurping down milkshakes to clear his throat of crumbs. The strained seams of Zeke’s pants and coat popped in some places from this onslaught of gluttony, causing small bubbles of fat to seep through. Something about his Driver enjoying his food so much that he was outgrowing his clothes because of it sent a thrill rushing through Gorg’s chest, and he realized he wanted to cause the Tantalese prince to outgrow his clothes entirely.

Zeke chugged down the last milkshake, belching into a closed fist as he did so. His fat face was covered in frosting and crumbs, which he didn’t even seem to notice. “Really good stuff, there, Gorg! I think that’ll be some top-hole stuff to sell at your shop, chum.” Zeke patted his overfed middle joyously to emphasize his point.

Gorg grinned enthusiastically as he clapped the prince on his jiggly shoulder. “That’s great to hear! Well if that’s the successful cake recipe, then I think I’m ready to open the shop tomorrow. I’ll just need you and the others to help me advertise. Can you do that for me, Prince?”

Zeke huffed as he hoisted himself up from his table. Breathing heavily as he stood, balancing himself with a hand on the table, he finally responded. “Sure, chum, I can definitely help out with that. What’ll you need me to do?” Gorg looked thoughtful for a second before responding. “You, sir? I’ll give you a whole hell of a lot of free samples to try and entice people to our store, sound good?”

The obese prince nodded enthusiastically, chins wobbling as he did so. “Oh, absolutely! Nothing that the great Thunderbolt Zeke can’t handle!” Placing his chubby hands on his flabby love handles, he laughed heartily, his entire body jiggling as he did so. Tomorrow would be a day to remember for him, getting to participate in the grand opening of the first-ever Blade-made dessert store!

 The day of the grand opening of Gorg’s Just Desserts arrived, and the sample table in the square in front of the shop was absolutely piled high with desserts. The overfed swordsman, Zeke, scratched at the upper roll of his round gut as he stared in awe at the display. “So he wants me to hand out all of these? For  free??” He scoffed, and reached a hand out to grab some cookies. “There’s far too much here for just samples. I doubt we’ll really need all of it.”

As his pudgy fingers were about to grasp a cookie, a much smaller and skinnier hand slapped his away. “Wh- Hey!” Zeke turned his lard-stuffed body towards the aggressor, being confronted by the much smaller form of his comrade, the salvager, Rex. The brown-haired boy grinned up at the jiggly obese mountain of a man, patting him on his exposed gut. “What d’you think you’re doing with that, Zeke? Those samples are for everyone, you can’t just steal some for yourself, that’s bad for business y’know!”

Zeke sighed dramatically. “Rex, my treasured chum, you simply don’t understand! I haven’t had anything to eat since breakfast today, and there’s far more here than we could reasonably give away to everyone who walks by! Gorg has been having my extraordinary taste buds to test his recipes all this time, so he must have thought ahead and put extra out for me to dull my impressive hunger! He’s my Blade, you know. We have a special bond, so of course he’d know that!”

“Oh, sure, guess that makes sense. I did figure that might be a bit too much product for free samples,” Rex mumbled as he messed with his hair embarrassedly. “Well then, maybe you should pull up a chair? I reckon standing for too long’s probably out of the question for you now, yeah?”

Zeke huffed in an annoyed manner as he pulled a chair up and lowered his considerable bulk down into it, once again oblivious to the ominous wooden creaks as he did so. Rex chuckled as he headed back to his spot for calling patrons into the shop, wondering to himself if Nia was gonna complain about Zeke’s size again.

Now comfortable in his comparably small café chair, which was dwarfed by his absolutely disgustingly oversized ass and thighs, the morbidly obese prince promptly began stuffing his face with cookies, flans, and cakes, grabbing each with his fingerless-gloved hands, his plump sausage fingers coated in frosting and crumbs and the fabric of his gloves stained from his weeks of wanton gorging. His jiggling jowls and multiple chins wobbled back and forth as he chewed ravenously, and his flabby bingo wings slapped against his overstuffed pillow moobs and numerous side rolls every time he lifted a handful of sweets to his hungry mouth. His overfed gut pooled in his lap, forcing his massive tree trunk thick thighs apart on the inside and drooping over them on the outside. His love handles squeezed out of the top of the waist of his pants, pushing the sides of his long tattered coat even further back than he used to wear it.  His lardy, misshapen ass oozed over the sides of the chair, each cheek now the size of an average bean bag chair. His flabby thighs ripped through the fabric of his overburdened pants in many different spots, and he could no longer properly bend his legs because of the fat covering his knees.

The spectacle of the gigantic man attracted more onlookers than even Rex or Nia’s shouted introductions of the shop, every Urayan fascinated by the massive Tantalese man absolutely stuffing himself in a strange attempt at advertising. Entire personal-sized cakes vanished down his greedy throat at an alarming rate. Yet, none of the observers were put off by this gluttonous display at all; in fact, quite the contrary. Urayan made their way to Gorg’s Just Desserts by the dozen, walking away with their own personal mountains of confectioneries. Nia, the Gormotti Driver who had been traveling with Rex for longer than anyone else now, was absolutely stunned by this marketing strategy.

The furry-eared girl muttered to Rex as they watched Zeke pop a few more seams on his pants and coat while shoving handfuls of cookies into his mouth. “Hey, Rex, why d’you think people are so obsessed with watchin’ Shellhead stuff himself silly? Seems a little weird, don’t it?”

Rex gave her a little bit of a reprimanding look before responding. “Nia, you’ve got to stop being so mean to poor Zeke. He’s just trying to help make Gorg’s dream a reality, isn’t he? And isn’t that why we decided to travel to Elysium together?”

“What, so Shellhead could become a gluttonous blob?” Nia snickered

Rex looked baffled. “Wha… No! To make our dreams a reality! Me and Pyra’s, remember?”

The Gormotti Driver rolled her eyes. “Yeah, thanks, I know Rex. I was only jokin’. You know, humor? Laughs? That stuff?” She sighed heavily. “Anyways, I guess you’re right about Zeke. He always was a bit too willin’ tae help others. Maybe I’ll cut him some slack from now on. I mean, his clothes sure ain’t cuttin’ him any.”

Right as she said that, the sound of ripping fabric rent the air, and Nia and Rex both turned their gazes towards their flabby companion just in time to watch the last threads of his shredded pants give way. Scraps of the fabric caught in his love handles and under his drooping stomach rolls, as the rest drifted to the ground below his chair. Zeke didn’t seem to notice that his strained pair of boxers, which barely contained his pasty ass now and looked more like an oversized bikini bottom, was now exposed to every onlooker. Nia averted her gaze, blushing furiously. “Ey, Rex, go and tell Shellhead to cover up his unmentionables! I don’t wanna see any of that!”

Rex blushed as well at the realization that Zeke was this close to being nude in front of potential customers. “Oh, er, right! I’ll, er, take care of that I guess. But uh, I think his guy’s big enough now to cover up any, er, wardrobe malfunctions, isn’t it?”

Nia closed her eyes and snapped back at the oblivious Salvager. “’Ow should I know?! I’m not lookin’ at my fatass friend’s body tae see if his one-eyed monster is on display for all to see or not!”

Rex looked at Nia, amused. “Oh hey, so you do know what that means after al—”

“JUST SHUT UP AND GO COVER UP SHELLHEAD’S FAT ASS BEFORE HE SCARES OFF OUR CUSTOMERS!”

Rex hastily scurried off and came back with lots of fabrics he’d been holding onto from various stores, all from his travels with his friends. He usually used them to give to his Blades, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Zeke didn’t even notice his approach, the corpulent man continuing to stuff his face even more with the “samples” provided by Gorg. Placing a massive quilt over Zeke’s ever-growing lap, Rex heard a strange creaking noise as he did so. Creaking… and then… splintering wood?

“Oh, that can’t be good.” the Aegis Driver thought to himself, right before an ominous cracking noise came from under Zeke’s monumentally-sized ass. A split second later, the morbidly obese prince plummeted to the ground, his landing causing the entire area to shake as his considerable bulk hit the floor. Blinking slowly, Zeke looked around at all the awestruck onlookers, then to Rex, who was next to him looking concerned, to Nia, who was standing a fair distance away trying not to burst out laughing, and finally down to himself. He couldn’t even see past the rolls of fat that made up his massive round stomach anymore, so he wasn’t aware of his missing trousers. He felt a chill breeze hitting his back and shoulders, alerting him to the fact that his favorite coat was no more, and his entire upper half was devoid of clothing as well now. The rotund man realized that his arms were now so swaddled with fat that he couldn’t properly bend them anymore, and he also couldn’t put them down at his sides due to the abundance of flabby side rolls and his oversized moobs getting in the way. He also realized that his massive gut was currently pinning his legs to the ground, so he had no way of getting up onto his feet on his own.

 The portly prince turned his lard-wreathed face towards his comrades, beseeching them for assistance. “Um, a little help here, chaps? Having a bit of a predicament with standing up, you know.” Rex immediately grabbed one of his fat hands and started heaving upwards, while Nia made her way over to do the same with the other arm. Once he was standing, it was quite apparent to all just how much Zeke had grown during this “marketing exercise” today. His massively round stomach now drooped down to the middle of his calves, the lowest roll dangling just a few inches off the ground. His fat-covered arms and legs were beginning to absorb his hands and feet respectively, both being gradually sunken into the lardy rolls of his arms and legs. The massive pillow sized biceps on his arms, which stuck out at an angle because of his moobs and love handles, were now extra apparent as the reason for his inability to lower them fully anymore. His good eye was in a permanent squint, due to the fat of his cheeks now forming a drooping set of jowls on his face. His double chin had graduated to a full-sized triple chin, and his neck was no longer visible at all, completely absorbed by rolls upon rolls of fat. His rear was covered in massive rolls of back fat, which would probably make it so he would never be able to lie on his back again. His flabby, shapeless ass cheeks drooped nearly as far as his gut when standing, most of the fat seeping out from under his overburdened boxers.

 Wheezing after the exertion of just standing up, the mountainously obese man addressed the crowd of observers. “Huff… huff… ahem. As you can all see, Gorg’s Just Desserts are the best desserts you can find this side of Alrest! So go on over and buy some for yourselves!”

As the crowd dispersed to go rush over to the dessert shop, Zeke turned his round face as best as he could to address Nia and Rex. “Now, if you chaps’ll excuse me, I should probably go sleep this off at the inn.” He began slowly waddling the short distance to the building, his flab jiggling and slapping against itself the entire time. Rex and Nia stood transfixed by the hypnotic sway of his pendulous ass cheeks as he inched each tree trunk thigh forward step by step, the lower rolls of his gut slapping against his flabby ankles every time. His labored wheezing could be heard by anyone in a 100 foot radius, but no one seemed to pay the pudgy prince any mind. Nia turned to Rex, a smirk forming on her face. “D’you reckon he can even fit through the door to the inn at this point?”

 Zeke von Genbu spent the entire afternoon and evening of the grand opening of his trusted Blade’s dessert shop sleeping off his food coma in his rented bedroom at the inn. He awoke with a start when there was a rapping at his door, blearily opening his eye to see pale moonlight filtering through the window. His insatiable stomach let out a loud rumble as he woke, and he called out to the door, “Who is it? If you don’t have food, you can bugger off!”

The bedroom door opened, revealing Gorg pushing a trolley cart loaded with desserts from his shop. The water Blade smiled at his blob of a Driver, watching him heave his considerable bulk into a sitting position on his bed, panting with the effort of doing even just that. He’s absolutely massive now… He must be getting close to 800 pounds, maybe even more than that! Gorg thought to himself, before wheeling the cart of desserts over to right beside his Prince’s bedside .

“What’s all this, then, chum?” Zeke asked, a look of confusion upon his flabby face. His apron of a belly was just beginning to push up to his toes when he laid down, and Gorg couldn’t help but notice how soft and comfortable his chest and tummy looked. The Blade cleared his mind and spoke up. “Well, because of your PR for the shop today, my debut as a patissier was a massive success! So I figured I’d bring you a thank you gift so we could celebrate my grand opening… together!”

Zeke’s overstuffed sausage fingers scratched at one of his highest love handle rolls, the only part of his enormous body he could still reach with his pillowy arms. “That’s great news, Gorg! But, ah, how am I supposed to eat all this when I can barely move my arms to grab any of the food with my arms this size?” Gorg didn’t use any words, but instead used action to answer the Prince’s question. Grabbing a tray of cakes, the athletic Blade scrambled up the rolls of Zeke’s belly, perching on his massive, cushiony breasts, and shoved a cake directly in between his plump lips. Zeke let out a muffled exclamation of surprise which promptly turned into a moan of pleasure as he tasted the cake. Gorg must have made it special for him, as its flavor was unlike any he had ever tasted before in his life. The one-eyed prince and his loyal Blade stayed up all night, Gorg stuffing more and more desserts into his Driver’s mouth as Zeke grew rounder, fatter, heavier, bigger, all because of his trusted companion. At one point during the night, the bed completely gave way under the immense weight perched upon it, but neither of its occupants cared; they just kept eating and feeding, Zeke crossing the threshold into complete immobility.

 Local Urayan gossip spoke of the Blade-owned desserts shop and the massive house of its owner. Strange loud noises could often be heard emanating from it, but no one knew what it was. Many assumed it was a ghost or a pet or something, but in reality, it was the former Prince of Tantal, Zeke von Genbu. The man had reached full-on blob status thanks to a constant feeding schedule of desserts baked by Gorg,his Blade. His massive body filled an entire large room on its own, his shapeless ass cheeks and countless stomach rolls pressing against the walls of his quarters. His thighs as thick as couches now, dimpled with rolls of lard all over their massive expanse, were forced even further apart by his mountainous belly, which seeped in the space between his thighs with no effort whatsoever. His hands and feet had long ago been swallowed up by the flab encasing his appendages, his body a shapeless mass of rolls and fat that showed no signs of ever once being human at all. That is, unless you could find his head in all the expanse, the easiest way to do so being to listen for the sounds of eating and heavy breathing. Nestled between two enormous flabby jowls, an uncountable array of chins and neck rolls, and an expanse of back rolls that threatened to cascade over his head any day now, was a mop of silvery hair atop a comparably minuscule face adorned with one eye patch. The spoiled Prince’s face was always covered in small smears of frosting and crumbs from the Blade-powered conveyor belt of desserts built to deliver directly to his greedy mouth at all hours of the day, his blobby body growing ever larger every day. This was of course why Gorg purchased such a large house for just two occupants: so he could freely knock down any walls or ceilings needed to give his cherished Driver room to further grow.

#weight gain #male weight gain #ssbhm #my writing #fat!xenoblade

[peachyaone]

Lonely Heart pt.4

Warning: Mentions of alcohol.

Iris arrived at the airport along with Ashley. Iris rubbed her eyes and stretched. She lets out a groan, sleeping on an airplane seat wasn’t exactly comfortable. Iris's bandmates, Helena, Maia and Julia was making small talks with each other so they can keep up with what's going on. As they waited for their luggage, Iris went to checked on her phone.

10 texts messages from Lemon Boy 2 missed calls from Boatboi and Mikey 1 voicemails from Si<3 20 texts messages from Lukey<3

She listened to Sierra’s voicemail.

"Hey, angel." Sierra said on the voice mail. "I know I'm the last person you want to hear from right now after what happened, and I just want to say that we're both sorry." Sierra said. "I'm sorry I didn't take your side, sorry that I didn't understand from your point of view. I'm sorry for giving up so easily, but I understand if you don't forgive me but at least forgive Luke." she took in a breath. " He’s been beating himself up. And he barely slept. We went to Ashton's and he explained everything to us. We were so foolish for not give you a chance to explain. We're sorry."

Julia, who’s the bassist of her band, turned around to see Iris with tears in her eyes. "Hey, Iris?" she called out. Iris's head shot up, she cleared her throat and wiped away her tears. "Yeah?" she said. " We got your luggage, ready to leave?" Julia said. Iris nodded. "Wanna borrow my sunglasses? It can help cover up... only if you want to." she offered. "Thank you." she said quietly. Iris took the sunglasses. "No problem, bub." Julia beamed, patted Iris in the head. "Now come on, let’s head to the hotel, but let's go greet some fans, first." Helena said. Well, when Helena said "some fans" she meant crowds of people waiting to meet them.

"OH MY GOD! THEY'RE HERE!" "Hey Iris, can I get a picture?' "I LOVE YOU, IRIS" "WE LOVE YOU"

Iris smiled and took a few pictures with them. "uh..I-Iris?" She heard a small voice  muttered out. She turned to see a girl with brown skin and long black hair."Hey sweetie, what's wrong?" she asked. "I-I made you something!" she said as she handed her a bag. Iris took the bag, in it was a painting of Luke, Sierra and her, and other stuff. Her heart ached. She forced a smile, "Oh my god, did you paint this? It's so beautiful!" The girl blushed profusely and nodded. Iris hugged the girl. "Thank you, sweetie. What's your name?" The girl smiled. "Nia, it's Nia." she said. "Well, Nia, thank you again for this beautiful painting! Are you coming to the shows?" Iris asked. "Y-Yeah I'm going to the one tomorrow." Iris hugged her again. "Can't wait to see you tomorrow then!" She smiled and waved goodbye. Helena, after overheard her conversation with Julia earlier, stayed awhile to wait for Iris. “You okay, shortcake?” she asked. Usually, Iris would protest when Helena called her “shortcake”. But she didn’t this time.

*timeskip*

As they reached the hotel, it was midnight. They got their keycard, and told each other goodnight. She unpacked her stuff, placed her guitar and her gift beside the vanity. She took a warm shower, the water cascading down her back, relieving her tense muscles. She dried off and changed into her boy-boxers and oversized hoodie she stole from Luke. She forgotten that she put that in. The smell of cashmere and him filled her senses and she felt her mood dampened.

She unlocked her phone and opened Instagram. She saw that Luke had posted. The caption said:

For Buttercup xoxo.

He was holding his guitar, as he played a rhythm the she recognized, but she couldn’t remember the lyrics. She had heard them boys talking about this before, but never sung it. He looked so tired, she could see the circles underneath his eyes.

Your type of mind, so hard to find, Native of mine, you're just my kind, Down on my knees, I’ll always follow, I promise you until the end of time.

Her heart yearned to hold the man in her arms and forgive him for every wrong he had committed over the past few days. She knew he was hurting. She had avoided his messages because she was too blinded by her own betrayal and sadness to truly realize what her absence had done to the man.

Such a lonely heart, oh woah Such a lonely heart, oh woah If you can't find another reason to stay Then I know I'm gonna always have a lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely Heart, oh woah Heart

He looked physically in pain, yet his emotions was conveyed by the lyrics of the song. Tears fell from her own eyes as she witnessed the man she loved experience such heartache.

Your precious heart, can't watch it break So I close my eyes while you walk away Can I have a second chance? Can I have another dance? Can I start another life, with you? When I wake up in a haze, and I haven't slept in days You're a thousand miles away-

But then she remembered he had hurt her so deeply. But also, she could feel his apology through the verse itself. She knew he wasn't great with words so he'll depend on songs to express what he felt. It was too much. Iris looked away, the sharp pain in her heart gave a shock, her hand reaching up to grasp over her heart. She feels lightheaded. Her chest ached, a heaviness was pressing on her chest. Iris shaked her head, slowly reaching for keycard on her nightstand. Staggering, she stood and made her way to Helena's room. A sob escapes her, her weak attempts of keeping it in failed. "Helena-" she called out. "please...open the door." She curl herself into a ball, tears slipping down her face. She felt the door open. "Iris!" Helena exclaimed.

She open her eyes as Helena's arm wrapped around her, her hand rubbing soothing circles on her back. Maia heard the commotion outside and rushed outside. “What’s wrong?” She asked. She looked at the pair on the floor.  “Hey Iris.” She cooed. “Hey. It’s okay. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. I’ve got you, okay?” she said. “Iris. Iris, grab my hand.” She look at Helena, confused. "Just do it." She moved her gaze from her hands to Helena's, slowly taking it and holding it in her palm. “Squeeze.” She told her, Iris's eyes drifting up to meet hers. She smiled reassuringly. “Go on. Squeeze as hard as you can.” Iris's tightened her hands around Helena's palm, her eyes still on her face. "Keep going.” She nodded.

“Now match my breathing. In, out. In, out.” Maia whispered, her hand still rubbing circles on Iris’s back. Iris tried to concentrate on the way Maia’s chest, moving up and down, attempting to copy with her own breathing. There’s an overwhelming scent of Luke lingering on every breath she take. “Hey, hey, hey. Focus on me, Iris.” Helena said, snapping Iris out her thoughts, “That’s it. Well done sweetheart, you can do it.” Maia reasurred. They stayed like that for a while; Helena whispering reassurance, Iris’s matching Maia’s breathing. Finally, after what felt like forever, She stopped shaking and her heart rate slowed back down.

"You okay, now? Do you need anything? I could get you water, snacks, anything..?" Maia asked. "Just stay with me, please." She clinged to them ."Alright." She said. "Would you like to tell us what happened?" Helena asked. Iris told them about Luke and about Sierra's voicemail. "He looked so sad, did I mess everything up?" She whispered. "No, Iris. He snapped at you. He should've listened to your reasons before jumping into conclusions like that." Maia reassured. “Look, I want you to stay with me for a little bit, okay?” Iris began shaking her head, ready to pull out of her grasp. “Oh, ‘Lena, no, it’s okay, I ca—” “Iris, please,” Helena begged. “Just for tonight, yeah? You’re not in a right headspace for you to be alone right now.” Iris nibbled on her lip, sniffling and conflicted as she timidly asked, “Are you sure?” Helena nodded firmly. "Alright then." Iris whispered.

"Can you walk?" Maia asked. "I-I think s-so" She said, attempting to stand. The pair supported her back so she could stand. And helped Iris to back to Helena’s bed. "Sit tight, I'll grab some stuff from your room, okay?" Maia asked her. "Okay." Iris mumbled. "Just rest, do you want to postpone the concert tomorrow?" Helena softly asked. Iris rapidly shook her head. "No, no, no. I'll be fine, don't worry. i can do it." she rambled. "Alright, now go get proper sleep." Helena said.

*The next day*

Ashley went to check her phone. There was a text from Ashton.

[7:10 am, 11/10/2019] Ashton 5sos: Hey Ashley

[7:10 am, 11/10/2019] Ashley: Hey Ashton, what's up?

[7:11 am, 11/10/2019] Ashton 5sos: Nothing much

[7:11 am, 11/10/2019] Ashton 5sos: I only wanted to know how is Iris, she doing okay?

Ashley looked at the woman on the bed, She went to check on her in the morning, to find she’s in Helena’s room. Iris was curled up in the covers, her eyes slightly puffy and her cheeks are flushed. But other than that, she sleeping so soundly.

[7:12 am, 11/10/2019] Ashley : She's okay. Helena told me had a breakdown last night but she okay now. She still sleeping though. She said she had pains in her chest, I’m worried.

[7:14 am, 11/10/2019] Ashton 5sos: Oh god, I knew that something was wrong. Is there something I can do to help?

[7:14 am, 11/10/2019] Ashton 5sos: Please tell me, I want to help.

[7:15 am, 11/10/2019] Ashley : I don’t know about that, Ashton. And you're in LA and we're halfway around the world. We went to check up on her, she was burning up.

[7:18 am, 11/10/2019] Ashley: i think she's getting sick.

[7:20 am, 11/10/2019]  Ashton 5sos: But I can fly out there, I can go see her

[7:20 am, 11/10/2019]  Ashton 5sos: I want to see Iris better, she’s like family to me.

Iris stirred, little whimpers could be heard from her. “No……please” she whimpered. Helena shushed her back to sleep.  Ashley lightly felt Iris’s forehead for any signs of fever, and she was unusually warm.

[7:21 am, 11/10/2019] Ashley : Ashton, your band needs you more, you're working on your album. what would your management say, when they finds out that you’re flying out, just for her.

[7:23 am, 11/10/2019] Ashley : I can take care of her, Ashton. Trust me.

[7:24 am, 11/10/2019] Ashton 5sos: The album can wait, we have a lot of time, and the boys, I’m sure that would understand. Fuck the management! I don’t give a damn. I want to know if she’s okay,  I need to see her if she’s physically and mentally okay.

[7:27 am, 11/10/2019] Ashley: Fine, but wait, if she gets worse, you can come and also, don't come to me if Iris starts throwing hands. You know how she is, chaotic yet so kept-together.

[7:30 am, 11/10/2019] Ashton 5sos: I don’t mind if she tries to throw hands, you have no idea how many times she did. But I be glad to see her okay.

[7:30 am, 11/10/2019] Ashley: alright then. Look i have to go, duty calls y'know. See you later, Ashton. I’ll update you if anything happens.

[7:30 am, 11/10/2019]  Ashton 5sos : Alright!  Thank you, Ashley.

[7:33 am, 11/10/2019] Ashley: No problem.

Ashley placed down her phone, sighing.  Iris stirred awake. “ Iris, you’re awake. You feeling better?” Helena said softly, stroking Iris's bed hair so it'll look a little bit neat.  They heard a muffled "yes" from her. “Come on, now, we have an live session to go to” Ashley said. “Oh yeah.” she got up, stretched for a bit and yawned. “Go get ready, We’re leaving in few hours.” Ashley reminded. “Okay, see you then.” Then Iris went back to her room.

Her phone was still on the bed. She switched it on. What greeted her was hundreds of notifications from Twitter and Instagram. Fans tagged her in a news post. 

“TROUBLE IN PARADISE? POLY TRIAD, LUKE HEMMINGS, IRIS ADLER AND SIERRA DEATON, DID THEY BROKE IT OFF? OR SOMETHING REALLY DIFFERENT?”

“Days after the pictures of the lead vocalist of The Temptresses, Iris Josephine Alder, who was assumed to be cheating on her partners, Luke Hemmings from 5 Seconds of Summer and Sierra Deaton, former singer from Alex & Sierra.”

“The lead vocalist of 5SOS posted a 2 minute clip of a new song for their upcoming album, CALM. Following it, was a caption that said, “For Buttercup xoxo.” Is the mysterious “Buttercup” , Iris herself? The rockstar was seen with singer, Halsey at the Heathrow Airport in London the day before for Halsey’s Manic world tour with Iris as the opener.”

Iris scrolled through the news, until one specific line she read struck her hard.

“The couple was seen walking out of Starbuck at Midtown, LA. They looked pretty happy, maybe they would much be better off without Iris-“

Better off without Iris.

Better off without her.

Iris threw her phone at the mattress, rushed to her bag and pulled a flask. She knew it was bad, and Ashton would give her a lecture about it. But she couldn’t resist.  She drank.  When she emptied the flask, she was buzzed. It wasn’t enough but it numbed her for a bit. She prepared herself, slick backed her mullet,  put on light makeup and wore presentable clothes. She chewed on some mints, just to make sure. She was ready.

here's the outfit: 

It slightly covered her neck tattoo, a reminder of them. She wanted to cover up or hide anything that reminded her of them. She couldn't handle the sight. She reminisced the passionate nights they had. The quiet mornings they shared, Iris loved those moments, when she was with them, everything felt right.

*Flashback*

It was December. Snow slowly fall from the sky, Sierra knows just how much Iris adores the snow. They both do. Luke enjoys the way he see the pure amazement light up in her eyes. They stared at her as Iris looked out into the world outside. It like giving a child the gift they always wanted on their birthday. Sierra was the first one to break, she slipped on Iris’s oversized cardigan. Her steps are quiet as she crosses the room to sit beside Iris. “Hey angel” she cooed, her palm caressed her face. Iris’s fluttered shut, her lips curled into soft smile. “Mornin’ Si “  she mumbled, face instinctively nuzzled into her palm.

Luke decides to join them, he put on his sweatpants, and stood behind Iris but his arms snaking around her waist , she shuddered at the coldness of his fingertips. “ You’re freezing, Lu.” She said. “Couldn’t help it, lovey. M’two girls left me to fend the coldness all by m’self” He said as he pouted. “Sorry, Lu” Iris said. She reached out to brush a stray curl behind his ear. “M’can properly see your pretty eyes now, Lu. It’s so blue, like the sea, very pretty.” She rambled. She turned to Sierra, “Your’s pretty too. It reminds me of nature. I wanna paint both of your eyes, but it wouldn’t be the same.” She rambled again. “And why’s that, angel?” Sierra asked, stroking her cheek with thumb. “I couldn’t get the colors just right. Yours, It’s like different shades of browns and blacks. And Luke’s different shades of blue.” She said. “I don’t have the talent to do it either. My skills….they’re mediocre.” She said, her concentration on the subject faltered. Her eyes was glued to the window, watching the snowflakes falling, some sticking to the glass and others falling to cover the ground below.

“Angel?” “Hm?” Her eyes still glued to the snow covered scenery outside. “Look at us, honey.” Luke he asked quietly. Iris looked at them. “Your art skills are extraordinary, don’t ever let yourself down like that.” Luke said.  “That’s right, Lu” Sierra agreed. Iris sheepishly looked away. “Hey, don’t look away..” Sierra cooed. She hooked her finger under Iris’s chin and lifted it up . They both gave her a kiss on her cheek. “Wanna go outside and play with the snow?” Luke said. “Mhm, maybe later. It’s too early in the morning. Wanna spend this moment with m’favorite people.” She whispered. That morning was quiet and peaceful. She would give everything she had to experience it aga-

“Iris.”

*Flashback ends*

“Iris.”

Iris snapped awake from her daydream from the knocking outside her door. "Coming!" She said. Ashley, Helena, Julia and Maia was outside. "We've been calling you for minutes now, you okay?" Ashley asked concernedly. “We almost had to restrain Julia for breaking down the door.” Maia joked. "Just got lost in thought, that's all. Look I'm ready, I just have to grab my bag and guitar, then we'll be off." She rushed into room, shoved her phone into her bag and slunged her guitar over her shoulder.

"Let's go."

#5sos #lierra x oc #poly!lierra #poly!5sos #poly!sos #luke hemmings #sierra deaton #luke hemmings x oc #sierra deaton x oc #MY OCs #lonely heart

[liviusofpella]

the aftermath

pairing: Tyril x human!f!MC (Selene)

word count: 3224

warnings: mentions of corruption; written under the premise that MC gets injured by Zathra’s whip and then decides to stay in Undermount with Tyril.

a/n: this was supposed to be 1k words long fic describing Adrina’s birthday ball but i guess i have serious inclinations for bitter-sweet angst so here we go.

tags: i don’t really have a tag list so if you’re interested then let me know :) and in the meantime i decided to tag a few people who i thought might be interested (but if you’re not then also let me know :D) @lxdy-starfury @tyrils-star @keviriass @masquerade-reimagined @brycesgirl @jaxsmutsuo​

“We don’t have to go,” Selene proposed, her hand caressing his bare back.

“Yes, we do,” Tyril smiled as he rubbed his sleepy eyes. Selene slowly sat up next to him and kissed his shoulder. Altogether they slept three hours that night and were exhausted after all night of passionate lovemaking but Tyril’s sense of duty was too strong to skip any ball, let alone his little sister’s 25th birthday.

“I know but I wanted to cheer you up.”

The elf chuckled and intertwined his fingers with hers. A yawn escaped his mouth, making Selene laugh.

“I don’t think I have ever seen you so tired. But I have no regrets,” she pecked his lips and got up. “What a mess.”

Tyril looked over their clothes lying all over the chamber’s floor and snickered. “If my memory serves me right you were the impatient one last night so it is your fault.”

“Well, you can’t blame me! You were gone for two weeks!”

“I asked whether you wanted to go with me.”

“I had things to do, Tyril.” The elf shook his head, an amused smile playing on his lips.

Tyril watched her put on her underwear then comb and braid her long hair. She then returned to her place next to him on the bed, and Tyril reached over to the night stand in order to grab a jar of salve. Having taken a little on his finger, he delicately applied it on the wound on her thigh. It’s been almost two months since their fight with the Shadow Court and since Countess Zathra had cut her flesh with the whip, and the wound still wouldn’t heal.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled, seeing her wincing in pain but not daring to make any sound.

“Don’t be. It’s not your fault,” Selene rested her hand on the side of his bare stomach and brushed the skin with her thumb. “It’s a small price for being rid of them. It will heal eventually.”

Waiting for her skin to absorb the salve, Tyril examined the wound thoroughly, his jaw clenched, anger clearly visible on his face, but his fingers were featherlight around the cut.

“How do you feel?” He asked a few minutes later, breaking the grave silence of the room. Selene expected his voice to be dominated by anger and disappointment, but instead heard a delicate timbre heavy with concern and fear.

“My whole body hurts, I’m tired, and so, so angry,” she whispered, tears welling up in her eyes. “I didn’t want to worry you but I’m terrified, Tyril.” 

Once the salve was absorbed, Tyril carefully put a piece of muslin on the wound and wrapped her thigh with a bandage. The elf looked up at her face, covered with wet streaks but this time didn’t raise his hand to wipe them off. He also was terrified because he knew exactly what was happening.

“I will inform Nia at once, and ask her to visit as soon as possible. I will try to find some information in the library. In the evening we can try to cleanse the wound one more time.”

“Thank you,” Selene whispered and gently squeezed his hand. “Now get up. Duty calls, Lord Starfury.”

She winked at him, smiling playfully, and threw his clothes at him. Tyril smiled and quickly got dressed, the tension in his shoulder muscles gone for a second. “You’re limping,” he noticed but Selene just waved her hand dismissively. “You were not when I left two weeks ago. What did you do?” She was about to protest, but he cut her off with the deadpan expression on his face. This time he was mad as it was clear she hasn’t been resting like she promised him and their friends. She didn’t take this seriously.

“I might have persuaded Mal to train with me.”

“Are you serious?” Tyril rebuked, his eyes shooting daggers. He was expecting something stupid but this answer was beyond his wildest expectations. “Were you going to tell me about this?” The elf added although he already knew the answer.

“Kade already chewed my ass about that, you don’t have to do it.”

Tyril spluttered and turned around to take a few calming breaths. Selene watched his back intently, biting her lower lip and praying in her mind that he would just let it go.

She was about to address Tyril when a loud knock reverberated in the room and Mal’s voice asking for permission to enter followed. Selene panicked because she knew Tyril was going to chew him out for her condition. Her mind went rigid trying to come up with an excuse, but she was too slow.

“Tyril, no-”

“Exactly whom I wanted to see,” Tyril opened the door, letting Mal in. The adventurer quickly looked around the room and its two inhabitants, and instantly could feel something heavy in the pit of his stomach. Trouble.

“It’s not his fault, Tyril! He didn’t even do anything,” Selene stood up protectively in front of Mal. “My hand failed me before we even got to the place and my dagger fell to the ground. I wanted to pick it up but I put too much weight on my leg and the wound ripped!”

But he wouldn’t listen to her any more. His blue eyes were shooting daggers at Mal whose face expressed nothing but remorse and guilt. Mal blamed himself ever since the accident although deep down he knew the truth was that it was Selene’s stubbornness that caused this situation.

“I asked you only one thing, Volari, and you still failed. Do you even realize how much you imperilled her life or do you think it was nothing, just like her? Do you remember that it is something more than just a regular wound? That we still face the dangers of the Shadow or do you just not care?”

The elf’s harsh voice reverberated in the chamber, drawing the attention of Imtura who just happened to be passing by and felt invited by the terrified look on Selene’s face. Tyril’s jaw was clenched, hands curled into fists, and a vivid glow of his magic was swirling around them.

Mal knew that he was not blameless in this situation, and seeing how in his anger Tyril treated Selene, he felt like he had to take him down a notch.

“You can be mad at me all you want, elf boy, but it won’t change the fact that you weren’t here and you don’t know what we all went through,” Mal retorted with a raised eyebrow. “You’re so prim and proper, always do what’s right, and truly you are nothing less than ideal,” he continued, smiling mockingly at the confusion colouring Tyril’s face. “Yet you still can’t make her confess to you what’s really bothering her.”

“I’m going to kill both of you,” Selene mumbled and limped away from them in order to take her cloak from the chair and wrap herself in it. “And I am going to enjoy it.”

Imtura snorted and slumped against the door frame with her arms crossed on her chest. “This one’s gon’ be real interesting.”

“What are you talking about?” Tyril asked cautiously, his eyes fixed on Mal who smirked sarcastically.

“Despite all your effort, she doesn’t want to be here, elf boy.” Tyril’s heart dropped to the pit of his stomach at Mal’s words but his face would not give it away. “And before you ask how I know that, I will tell you. It’s simple, really. Selene trusts me enough to tell me such things. And that's a lot more than I can say about you.”

Mal knew that what he'd just said was a bit of a stretch and that Selene probably hated him right now but he would have said that over and over again just to see the confusion and consternation on Tyril’s face.

The two men continued to bicker and ignore Selene who was just a bundle of nerves for a few more minutes until Mal’s hand was stopped mid-air by Selene with magic when he tried to punch the elf and Imtura yelled at them. “If you’re quite done I believe we have a problem.”

With Imtura’s help, Selene sat down on the near chaise longue and unfastened her cloak to see the bandage soaked in blood as well as her whole leg covered in the red streaks. Not being able to control the shaking of her hands any more she unfastened the bandage quickly and threw it next to the small pool of blood that was left where she had been standing.

“I’ll fetch water,” said Mal and seconds later was out of the room. Tyril ordered Imtura to find his sister and ask her to call the medic, and he began to clear the wound, not daring to say a word to her. However, he would take a peek at her face to see her reaction, and he definitely didn’t like the present one. She was pale as a ghost, her lips quivering and this. Black veins on her neck, sprawling so quickly he could see it with a bare eye. Once the wound was cleansed of the blood, he noticed the same thing there.

“How bad is it?” Adrina rushed into the room and stood next to her brother. “Oh no.”

“We can’t cleanse it with magic, she’s too weak,” he said, still trying to stop the bleeding but the second he noticed Selene slowly losing consciousness he left the gauzes and sat closer to her, taking her face into his warm but slightly trembling hands. He tried to keep her awake, but she was too weak. Tyril figured she must have been sensible of the corruption and tried to fight this on her own.

Mal and Imtura arrived seconds later, visibly distressed, with a medic by their side. Tyril and Adrina greeted the old friend with a nod and stepped away from the chaise longue, giving the old man space, but he only shook his head.

“Leave us for a while,” he ordered and the group obeyed. Except Tyril who was about to ask him for the permission to stay. “You too, Lord Tyril.”

For half an hour nobody dared to say a word. Mal was anxiously spinning a dagger in his hand, Imtura was looking out the window trying to focus on anything else, Adrina was sitting on a chair, toying with the lace on her dress and Tyril leaned against the wall facing the door to her chamber with arms crossed on his chest and a pensive look on his face. The silence was interrupted by Threep casually walking into the corridor, looking for his friends.

“Why the long faces? Shouldn’t you be getting ready for tonight’s ball?”

As a response Mal only shook his head and the nesper fluttered onto Adrina’s lap. She began to pet him and quietly explained what happened.

The next twenty minutes passed in the same grave silence until the door opened and the medic asked Tyril to come in.

“There was a tiny piece of the whip buried deep in the wound,” said Iston, the medic, while packing his belongings to a case. “I managed to retrieve it and properly cleanse the cut. It looks better already but there is still a long recovery awaiting her.”

Tyril nodded, listening intently to the medic and peeked at Selene for the first time. Her body was covered with two blankets, and her face looked already much healthier. He even noticed the tiniest trace of a blush on her cheeks.

“I will check on her tomorrow morning but should anything happen do not hesitate to inform me,” Iston warned the elf. “Now she’s resting. When she wakes up, check on the cut, cleanse it and rub down with the medications,” the old man ordered pointing on bottles of medication on a table. “No physical activities, no emotional distress. It is now your duty, Lord Tyril, to help her recover.” 

The elf thanked Iston and walked him to the door where he was immediately attacked by the rest of the group. Tyril delicately and carefully took Selene’s frail body into his hands and moved her to the bed, where he covered her with a duvet and placed a featherlight kiss on her forehead. Then he took the bloodied towel that Iston used and threw it on the puddle of blood on the floor and after making sure everything was cleaned he quietly left the room.      

 A few hours later, Tyril decided to check on her. The elf quickly covered the distance between the ballroom, where he helped Adrina with some last-minute changes, and Selene’s room. The door was already open ajar, so he just pushed it forwards and entered the chamber. She was awake and already in the middle of examining the wound.

“Hi,” she muttered without even looking at him. “Imtura just left.”

Tyril scoped the bed with his eyes and nodded, seeing an empty tray with tableware for three and a sleeping Threep next to it. Selene rubbed a medication left by Iston onto the cut and then wiped her hands with the used bandage.

“Please, tell Adrina that I am sorry for distressing her today and for not being able to attend her ball.” She rested her leg on top of the duvet, letting the wound breathe. “Once I am able to walk freely, I will leave Undermount.”

“What?”

He didn’t expect that. Tyril braced himself for her anger, possibly some tears, but not for her leaving

“Mal’s right, we don’t talk. Or rather, I don’t talk to you,” she sighed and looked up at him for the first time. Her heart sank when she saw the sadness in his eyes. “Please, don’t think that I made this decision because of something you did. This time it’s all my fault.”

Tyril sat down on the edge of the bed and shyly took her hand. “You don’t have to leave, Selene. We will work on that, together.”

But she just shook her head.

“I knew that coming here would be hard, but I think I overestimated myself. I was too much in love to think straight, and it’s only now that I realize how foolish I was. Except for Mal, who’s just visiting, I’m the only human in Undermount. When you spend your whole days at meetings, I’m stuck here alone. Your father is my only companion,” she smiled weakly at him. “But he also has responsibilities. I tried to go out and make friends, help people, just try to be useful in any way but no one wants to talk to me, Tyril. They barely tolerate me when we are somewhere together but when I go out alone?” she laughed humourlessly and Tyril’s heart sank. “I’m invisible. I really tried to wait it out for you, hoping they would eventually change their mind, but it’s been a few months now, and it’s even worse. And I understand it, I’m an outsider in a very hermetic society. I’m not angry. Just tired and lonely.”

Tyril was a mess. He wanted to get down on his knees and beg her to stay, to apologize for everything that she went through in Undermount and for not realizing it sooner. He tried to come up with something, anything that would make her stay but “I don’t want you to leave,” was all that passed through his throat. Selene seemed unimpressed, but she practised this so many times that she managed to distance herself from her feelings. “Selene, love, I am begging you,” he continued, brushing her cheek with his thumb. “Please, don’t leave.”

“I will go back to Riverbend and spend some time with Kade and then... We will see. I am not saying we should end things between us, but I think we need a break,” she added and felt hot tears welling up in her eyes. “I need a break.”

“You two are making me very uncomfortable right now,” Threep murmured, stretching, and slowly left the room. They both chuckled sadly.

“I don’t like this idea but if that’s what you truly want then I’ll respect that,” Tyril stated a few minutes later.

“I love you,” Selene whispered, looking into his eyes. “And I am sorry for putting you in such a position.”

“I am sorry for what happened before. I am ashamed for letting my emotions slip from under my control.”

“Tyril, we’ve talked about this before, remember?” Selene brushed a strand of his long hair from his face and tucked it behind his ear. “You don’t have to apologize for your emotions. You were scared and worried and your reaction was very normal,” she smiled at him. “At least in human terms. Although you could apologize to Mal.”

Tyril chuckled and kissing her forehead delicately whispered a tender thank-you. The pair spent another half an hour together during which Selene was convincing Tyril to attend his sister’s ball alone and Tyril made sure ten times that Selene was truly alright with this idea. As the warm sun began to descend from the sky, the elf was lying next to Selene who rested her head on his chest and played with his fingers, feeling more relaxed than she’s felt in the past few weeks.

“You could visit us in Riverbend, you know,” she mumbled, feeling the sleep slowly pulling her into its embrace. “It’s nothing in comparison with Undermount, but I would like to show you off to the people who raised me,” Tyril chuckled and a smile crept on her face. “And it would make Kade really happy.”

“What about you?”

“You can be expecting a welcoming party and a week of celebration.”

Tyril snorted and shook his head, drawing some figures on her back.

“I do love festivals celebrating me,” he joked, making Selene’s grin widen. “In all seriousness, there is nothing I would enjoy more.”

Selene looked up at him only to see him smiling down at her. She felt a flutter in the pit of her stomach just by looking at him, a feeling she hasn’t felt in a long time, and pulling herself up, she kissed him. Slowly and sweetly, brushing his jaw with her thumb.

“You should go,” she whispered, gently biting his lower lip. “Go and have some fun,” Selene added, physically feeling his reluctance to leave her. “When you come back, I will still be here waiting for you. I want you to remember that.”

“What do you mean? Of course I will remember that,” Tyril furrowed his brows in confusion.

“I don’t think you realize how many women here really want to offer you their hand in marriage,” Selene propped her head on her hand and shrugged her shoulders. “Almost every single noblewoman is envious of you and I can’t really blame them because you are a great catch,” Selene grinned and Tyril snorted, blushing heavily.

“I will be back by midnight,” he stated eventually, smiling slightly.

The elf was about to close the door behind him when he heard Selene’s voice call out to him.

“You have to say it back, you know,” she smiled and winked at him, reaching for a book lying on the nightstand.

“I love you too, Selene. Now rest before I come back.”

#it's my first fic here i'm so exited omg #tyril starfury #tyril x mc #blades of light and shadow #bolas fic #choices bolas #pixelberry #mal #tyril fic #imtura tal kaelen #mal volari #i swear i can't do tags lmao

[shushushleep]

A Broken Heart And A Spotless Mind (Part 4)

Word count: 2053

Warnings: A bit of Angst and I think there’s one swear word in there...

Hello again lovely people, hope you enjoy reading this one.

B!D isn’t in this part. 

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5

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

Alex’s phone rings “Kara? Is it ready?” in an anxious tone “Yes the suit is almost ready but we have to hurry, Alex.” The red head is bothered by the blonde’s distressed tone “Why? What happen?” “Lillian just cut the hours, instead of twenty hours we only have three hours left, what do we have to do?”  Your sisters’ emotion are mixed of fear, worry, and stress because they don’t have much time left due to Lillian’s rescheduled deadline. “I don’t know, Kara” Alex is over whelmed by her emotions she’s going to lose it. “Hey, we will figure something out. We will get our little dork back. I promise, just clear your mind for now and get ready ok?” Kara reassures your oldest sister. “Ok, I’ll inform them and Kara…” “Yes?” Kara answers her “Thank you” She said causing Kara to smile for a moment. “No problem Alex…Oh I think the suit is ready, Lena and I will be there soon.” The call ended. Kara head over to Lena who’s quietly typing something on her tablet. “Is it ready?” “It will be ready in about thirty minutes.” Kara began to grow impatient as time passes. “Can it go any faster?” “Kara, the suit needs twenty minutes to be finished just wait.” Lena answered her without looking at her, still busy typing. So Kara peaked at the tablet, trying to figure out what’s taking so long because the suit looks like it’s finished then she saw that the suit is having some re-modifications and then she grew antsier. “Lena now is not the time to modify the suit, it’s ready and we have to go now.” The black haired woman is getting more annoyed, in a level we’re she can’t contain herself by snapping at your sister being impatient, to her using that suit with unfinished with its re-modification is just reckless. “Kara. My girlfriend’s life is at risk. And I can’t let you wear this without having any backup features, you could say that I’m being a perfectionist right now because yes, that’s who I am when it comes to (Y/N)’s safety. Aren’t you?”   Kara was taken aback because she also wants you to be safe and also but what she is pointing out that “What’s the use of the machine when my sister could be dead because we didn’t arrive there on time.” Lena was pissed by the heroine’s statement. “I’m doing as fast as I can, Kara! I can’t risk (Y/N)’s safety! I can’t watch you going there unprepared for the battle and somehow lose it because I’ve let a small implication in that suit slide because I’ve underestimated it and that later could be the reason why both of  you would get hurt or much worse, dead. And I can’t have that. I won’t lose (Y/N) again and even though I’m mad at you. That I wanted to hurt you, to make you feel what I felt when Lex told me that that people that I trusted lie to my face every day, taking me for a fool! How can you do that to me, Kara! How could you? Am I just another Luthor to you? I let down my walls to let you in! I told you secrets that I don’t just simply share to people, you are my best friend…but it seems like I wasn’t yours. Kara’s lips start to tremble and her eyes welled up with tears, “Suit completed.” Lena’s AI system Hope announces. Lena wiped her tears and turns around to face the suite and after running diagnostics and it seems like it works perfectly and she’s satisfied with it she press the center of the suit to transform it into it’s a compact triangular gadget, she gave it to Kara whose still sobbing. “Lena, I’m so sorry.” “Kara, I can’t accept your apology right now just because you’ve asked for it but I’ll set aside my hatred towards you so we can save (Y/N).”

Lena tucked the isotope and the lead dispersing device inside a metallic suitcase. She prepares the transmatter portal to teleport her to the DEO but she sees Kara wasn’t wearing the suite, so she comes over to her. “Give it to me.” Lena says using a cold tone that she uses during business meetings, Kara gave it to her, Lena places the device on Kara’s chest and she presses it to activate the suit. “Hope, will be with you in there, she’ll inform you about everything that you need to know, and what’s going on in your suite, she’ll inform you if there are any damages in the suit and how to operate its features.” Kara nods “Now there’s no time to waste, we have to save (Y/N).” They’ve used the portal to get to the DEO.

Alex goes to the main room to inform all the agents, including Nia, Kelly, and J’onn about the change of time. “Lillian did what? Oh I will put her to sleep alrightt…” Nia said while ready to charge. “Hey, calm down we’re not there yet.” Alex says to Nia to chill out. “So what’s the plan?” J’onn asked her. “I’ll discuss the plan as soon as Lena and Kara arrived for now we have to prepare ourselves, meeting adjourned.” All of them nodded and goes back to their task. “How are you feeling?” Kelly asked her girlfriend in a loving tone. “Honestly, I don’t know…because I’m worried about (Y/N) and scared of what could’ve Lillian and that cyborg goon of hers did to my sister, not to mention that I haven’t informed mom about this cause she’ll lose her mind when she knows about this and…” “Hey.” Kelly grabs Alex’s shoulder to calm down “Look at me babe, breathe for me, We will get her back from Lillian Luthor, (Y/N)’s going to be fine and you can worry about breaking the news to Eliza later,  alright.” Alex inhales deeply and then exhales and then smiled at Kelly as she tucks a strand of Kelly’s hair to her right her ear. “Thank you for reassuring me, not that the girl of steel’s words aren’t enough…” They both chuckle. “Don’t tell that to Kara.” She says to her girlfriend. “Don’t tell Kara what?” They saw Kara in the suit with Lena exiting the portal. “Nice, entrance Kar.” Nia shouts, as she welcomes Kara with a hug and as she was about to hug Lena, Lena steps back and only gave her a weak smile and a handshake. “Oh…ok, hi Lena.” She warmly greets her but Lena gave her a cold shoulder. “Hello, Nia.” Alex could sense the awkwardness. “So, since Lena and Kara are here, Shall we start the briefing?” “Let’s go.” Kara flatly says. Alex led them to the meeting room and inside of it were all the other agents including J’onn. “Listen up here’s the plan…” Alex discusses the plan step by step in order to make everything clear because she doesn’t want to make any mistake or making you a collateral damage. “Lena, do you have any ideas of what kind of weapons does Lex have in there?” She looks at her expectantly. “I knew that Lex had installed a Kryptonian radar that could detect any Kryptonian by sixty kilometres away… good thing that I have installed a camouflage mode so that any alien detector specifically kryptonian detector, won’t be able to scan her heat signatures so she should be fine.” The rest of them were relieved knowing that. “So, we’re all set, let’s go, Lena can we use the portal to get us there?.” “I mean I could make it bigger so we can fit the vans but it’ll have me about two hours.” Lena said. “Brainy, how much time do we have?” Alex looks at him. “One and a half hours, director.” “Guess we ride then.” Alex cocks her gun and everyone piles out to the meeting room and goes to the armored vehicles. Alex checks all the agents, weapons and equipment that they need. “Let’s move. Move. Move! People… Agent Williams, stay alert here in the headquarters and always keep a line available just in case we need back up, and set up the medbay, alright.” The agent nodded as Alex climbs on the car and shuts the door, she look back from the passenger side. “You guys ready?” She asked them. Nia, Lena, and the other agent nodded while Brainy is busy typing something in his tablet. So Alex faces the road again and fixes the mirror. “Let’s go for a road trip kids.” Kara and J’onn are already there. “Supergirl, J’onn. What’s the status?” Alex speaks through her coms, “I can’t see anything the whole place is covered with lead…But I can definitely pickup (Y/N)’s heartbeat.” Alex was relieved hearing that you’re still alive. “Director Danvers, ask them if they could find a route or any entrance that we could access.” Brainy says. “Can you find us a route so we can get closer to the lair?” She asked them “Sure thing.” Kara replied. Both Kara and J’onn scan the place and it seems like there are three ways the one that has a bridge in it, the one with the tunnel and the other one that is steep and narrow, so narrow only one van at a time could fit. Lena realizes something “Alex, ask them to check the bridge and the tunnel if there are any traps.” “Good call, Luthor.” Alex asked J’onn and Kara to check the bridge and the tunnel. J’onn checks the bridge while Kara checks the tunnel. J’onn examines the bridge it seems pretty normal, but he check underneath it and it shocked him. “Alex, don’t head for the bridge, it has a bomb underneath it and I think that there is also a detector here that would cause the bridge to detonate the bombs.” “Thanks for the heads up, J’onn…Kara what do we got in the tunnel?” Kara uses her x-ray vision to inspect the surroundings. “Nothing unusual it’s just dark, really dark in here.” “Wait, I think something is happening.” “What? What’s going on in there?” she hears a bunch of metal noises and then she realizes that it was a machine gun cocking. “Uhm Lena? Please tell me this suit is bulletproof.” “Kara, get out of there, now.” Alex commands her. Kara made a run for it and gets to a safe distance and she hears the rapid gun fires. “So don’t go to that path, don’t go to the tunnel.” So that makes it the third option the steep and narrow road. “Alex.” Nia calls her. “Yes, Nia?” She turns to face Nia, expecting another brilliant suggestion. “Do you have a candy bar or a bag of chips in here?” Alex narrows her eyes to Nia. “Are you kidding me right now?” The red head raises her eyebrow realizing that Nia is being serious causes her to sigh. “Agent Dox, give Dreamer (Y/N)’s “Emergency Stash”.” Brainy asked Lena to scoot over so he can lift the hood of Lena’s seat. revealing a stash of snacks, candy bars and “What! There’s even a mini fridge here.” Nia opens it. “And it’s fully stocked!” Lena chuckles at the thought of you having that inside of an armored truck and the fact that you called it “Emergency stash.” Now she wonders if you have something similar to that inside of your car. Nia saw how Lena’s face subtly lights up when she hears your name but she didn’t mention it. And after a two solid minutes of deciding what to pick she chooses the bag of Cheetos and a can of Mountain Dew.  Then she happily munch. An hour later they’ve arrived. They’ve already crossed the steep road, so all is left to do was for Lena to call her step mother to give her access to the entrance, Kara landed beside her. “Hope, activate invisibility cloak.” With Lena’s command, Kara’s suite became invisible within five seconds. Alex hands Lena a pair of pearl earrings, “Ok, what are these for?” Lena asked her, while Alex is setting it up. “It’s a special type of earpiece, so Lillian won’t notice that you have back up.” Lena just simply nodded then she calls Lillian. “I’m here.”

“Lena, right on time.” Lillian smirks.

#lena luthor x reader #b!d imagines #supergirl imagine #lena luthor imagine #baby!danvers #lena luthor x female reader #lena luthor x fem #supergirl cw #lena luthor #lena luthor fic

[six-of-woes]

The Clown and the Potato Sack (Aerin Valleros x MC)

Chapter 1/? : ...What Now?

Paring: Aerin Valleros x MC

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24533863

Word count: 2381

Summary: Now with the Dreadlord defeated and her friends out of Whitetower, Cassia Nightbloom, is bored. Extremely bored. She wants to do literally anything, but she doesn't know what. Her solution? Try to get some answers from a certain corrupt prince. Unfortunately, that leads to a wacky yet angsty adventure involving a potato sack, a wooden spoon, and A LOT of clowning around.At least she's doing something...right?

Authors Note: Hi so this is my first time posting fic on Tumblr so if I’m doing something wrong feel free to tell me just be nice about it because my ego is fragile Anyway! I hope you guys like it, I thought we clowns could use some content until book 2 comes out. Idk if i’ll ever continue this, i meant for it to be a one-shot but I couldn’t really get my whole plan into one chapter. So. Hopefully there’s more. No promises tho lol

@what-do-you-mean-theyre-evil @theclowneryqueen @findmeafterlife @0oi-io0 @thatgirlbuhle @mirabelle-choices @souhmhey @king-erzsebet @vlastomilsworm @diamonds-and-decorum @xsweetnspookyx

~~~

Cassia watched from the castle balcony as a raggedy caravan rolled out of Whitetower. They’re really gone now, she thought, turning her back on the city. There was a new kind of…emptiness inside her now that Mal, Nia, Tyril, and Imtura were all gone. Maybe they’d only known each other a few months, but to someone who barely had any family to call their own—it struck a certain chord with Cassia to see them go.

She sighed and noted the setting sun—her reminder that she should probably get to dinner. Not that Cassia wanted to spend yet another dinner answering the pointless questions of all those stuffy nobles, but she felt obliged to as Morella’s hero—at least until she figured out where she was going to go from here.

As Cassia walked through the towering corridors, she thought some more about where she wanted to go. Kade wanted to go back to Riverbend(but only after he’d exhausted the library), not in any particular mood to experience any more danger than he already had. Of course, Cassia couldn’t blame him. If she’d spent months in a realm of pure darkness being tortured, she would want at least a break as well.

But that was the thing: she hadn’t been in the Shadow Realm and she wasn’t like Kade. Cassia always thirsted for adventure and as much as she loved Riverbend, she spent twenty out of the almost twenty-one years of her life there. There was so much more out there and if her nightmare had any shred of truth, Cassia knew she had to be there.

But where? She’d already decided against going with any of the others when they left—Cassia’s injuries would make intense sailing with Imtura or any of what Mal had planned painful and difficult, and she wanted to give Nia the room to figure things out on her own. The idea that seemed most plausible for her was going undercount with Tyril. It would’ve been a prime opportunity to learn more about where she came from, after all. Yet…she still felt awkward going there—Cassia knew almost nothing of the elven societal cues and would feel a little useless when trying to help out Tyril with her duties.

She shook her head as she reached the doors of the dining hall. “Never mind all that.” She muttered. “I made my decision.”

“Finally!” Called a voice. “You had me thinking you were going to bail!”

Cassia looked up to see Kade, sitting on one of the corridor benches. He held a new book in his hand, different from the one Cassia had seen him reading at breakfast.

“Sorry,” she muttered, leaning against the closed doors. “Just wanted to make sure the others made it out of town safely.” She swallowed the knot in her throat and nodded toward the dining hall. “Let’s just get to dinner.”

Kade raised an eyebrow, but nonetheless followed Cassia into the hall.

When they entered, Cassia was surprised to see only King Arlan, Threep, and Loola sitting at the table. None of them looked particularly cheerful—not even Threep, who just stared at his dinner plate with a somber expression.

“Your majesty,” Cassia breathed, dipping into a curtsy. “It’s a pleasure to be in your—“

“Oh hush, Cassia,” Arlan said, shaking his head. “There’s no one else here and you’ve more than cemented yourself as a friend of the crown.”

Cassia coughed and straightened up. “Right…Is there any particular reason for the ah—grim mood and significant lack of nobles?”

Arlan cleared his throat and eyed the nespers. “Well…there’s news.”

Cassia felt her heart catch in her throat. News? It can’t have anything to do with what that hooded being said in my dream, could it? No, of course not. It was just a nightmare…right?

“Is something wrong?” Kade piped, eyebrows already creasing with worry.

The king shared a look with Threep and Loola, who looked back at Kade and Cassia.

“Aerin’s awake now,” Threep said, stretching his wings. “I saw him myself in the dungeons—he’s still very much corrupted, but—“

“He’s quiet,” Loola spoke. “All he’s done is hug his knees and stare at the wall.”

Kade scoffed. “Sounds to me like he’s scheming. Want me to punch him again?”

Cassia elbowed her brother (lightly) in the side. “I’m sure it’s fine. Even if he was scheming, there’s really nothing he can do. His cell is surrounded by guards 24/7, there’s a magical barrier around it, and besides, if for some reason he gets out—“ she gestured to the three weapons of legend she had strapped to her body. “I’ll have it handed.”

“Sure,” Kade said, rolling his eyes as he took a seat at the table. He went to drink from his goblet, but a playful smirk graced his lips. “You’re just saying that because you kissed him.”

Cassia grumbled as she took a seat next to Kade at the table. “We don’t have to keep bringing that up,” she whispered through gritted teeth. “That was like, a month ago—before he was you know—evil.”

“Whatever you say,” Kade taunted, still smirking as he took a sip from his goblet.

~~~

The rest of dinner was relatively low-key. Cassia filled Arlan in on what the others were going to do now that they were gone and Kade entertained them all with wild stories from the deep corners of his mind.

Once dinner was over, however, and Kade, Loola, and Threep all returned to their previous business, leaving Cassia to do as she pleased. Problem was, Cassia didn’t really have anything to do.

She found herself standing in the middle of the corridor for what was longer than considered usual—even for Cassia.

“Dammit!” She cried, hours later. “I’m bored as all hells!” In a fit of rage, Cassia kicked the solid gold leg of a nearby bench. Solid. Gold. Promptly after kicking it, Cassia let out a pained yelp and brought her foot up to her arms.

After a few more seconds of hopping on one foot and whisper-shouting an array of curses, Cassia collapsed onto the bench and buried her face in her hands.

“Gods…” she groaned. “I really need to get out of here and do something more dangerous than stubbing my toe.”

But, what was there to do? The most dangerous place Cassia could think of was the Nooks and Crannies—but the real danger was really the guards and Cassia wasn’t interested in picking fights with them right now. She and Mal had already informed Arlan of the corruption, there was no need to escalate a situation that was already under control.

She thought back to visiting them with Mal…and how they got out of their scuffle with the guards.

Unconsciously, Cassia ran her fingers over the ring Aerin had given her. She still hadn’t taken it off, even after the betrayal. It was a reminder of their night at the lake.

She let out another groan. There were so many things about that night that didn’t make sense. Why would he save the unicorn? Sure, it could’ve been to defy Baldur, but…the character he’d been playing didn’t seem like the kind to do that kind of thing. And besides—it was a living thing. Cassia kinda figured the shadow realm had a thing against them—as long as they weren’t a part of their little posse. So why? Why would he do it?

And as a matter of fact, why did he actually not not want to be with her when she “pretend” (as she liked to tell herself) flirting with him during the final battle? That was weird. For someone with such a cold and hardened heart he certainly seemed pretty open to still having her be with him. Were her seduction skills really that good?

Well, to be fair, she did seduce a giant bug. So maybe they were.

So many questions and no way to get answers. Unless…?

He’s awake. Cassia thought. You could go down there…I’m sure the guards would let us—a hero of the realm—go see him. Maybe you could get some answers. Only answers though. You don’t like him anymore, remember? He kinda tried to kill you and all your friends. Also tried to take of the world. So only answers. Nothing else.

She thought about it for a few minutes. No one other than the guards would have to know, right? Not Threep, not Loola, not Arlan or Kade…and especially not Mal. The snitch.

“Godsdammit,” Cassia groaned, looking up at the ceiling. “I can’t believe I’m this bored.”

And with that, she got up and headed toward the dungeons, against her better judgement, yes, but even if she didn’t want to admit it…

…Cassia was a horny bitch.

~~~

Aerin had been put at the lowest level of the dungeons, about four stories below ground. Why the castle need that many floors was beyond Cassia, but nonetheless, she continued her journey down. Down. Down. Down.

Aaaannnnd it turns out walking down stairs for what feels like an eternity is just as boring as standing in the middle of the corridor. Only difference is the corridor is WARM!

“Do you hear that?” Echoed a guard’s voice.

Cassia stopped in her tracks.

“Yeah. Sounds like footsteps. Probably Woodworth and Highmourn coming to relieve us early. Let’s just get going early, tonight’s my anniversary and I don’t want to have to make it up to the ol’ husband again.”

“What about the prince? Weren’t we given strict orders to not leave him alone?”

“Ack, who cares? I mean, look at him—what’s he gonna do, cry about it?”

There was a bout of hearty laughter followed by the clanking of armor. Thinking fast and remembering Mal’s trick, Cassia dodged out of the guards sight and held her breath until they passed. Once she was sure they were long gone, she sprinted the rest of the way down the stairs until she reached Aerin’s cell.

At first glance, it looked like any other cell—dark, damp, and decrepit. But when Cassia got closer, she could see the gold haze of the magical barrier keeping him in. Well, if nothing else, he should at least have a hard time getting out of that. Cassia thought, slowing down to a tip toe the closer she got.

Finally, she reached Aerin’s cell. Unsure if whether or not he was aware of her presence, Cassia just stared. He looked so small. Of course, before all of this, Cassia still had maybe a few inches on him, but then, he wasn’t absolutely helpless. He wasn’t wearing the brilliant red and gold suit he wore the whole time they knew each other, instead wearing a brown tunic and pants that looked more like poorly-stitched together potato sacks than actual clothes. Even in the dark, Cassia’s elven vision could see that he was still grey. Many of the dark veins had gone, but he was still very much corrupted by the shadow.

What do I even say to him? She thought, slipping the Gauntlet of Pain on and off her wrist. Obviously, I’m just here to get questions, so like, just ask him a question. Duh. Easy. Don’t make it awkward. It’s not like you kissed him or anything—oh wait.

“Ahem—“ Cassia started.

“—I already said, I don’t want any food, Highmourn. Now please, if both of you could shut up while I brood I would much appreciate it!”

Cassia coughed. “Sounds like somebody didn’t get their beauty sleep.”

Aerin gasped and whipped around, scowl deepening when he saw Cassia standing over him.

“What are you doing here?!” He spat, rising to his full height(which unfortunately for him, didn’t really look intimidating to Castalia). “Are you here to rub it in? To gloat? Where are all your friends? Am I just not worth their time?”

Cassia sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Calm down, Aerin. I’m not here to antagonize you—you’ve already done that enough—“

“—You just antagonized me! You lie!”

Cassia raised an eyebrow. “…And you’re a drama queen. I’m just here to ask you a few questions and I’ll be out of your hair.”

Aerin scoffed and turned his back to her. “What reason could I possibly have to answer to you? You won, Cassia. You got everything you wanted and I have nothing. Why do I have to give you anymore?”

A few seconds of silence passed. Cassia tried to deny how much that stung, but the tears that started to well up in her eyes proved otherwise.

“Fine,” she snapped, voice wavering. “I’ll only ask you one thing. Then I’ll leave you alone for the rest of your miserable life. Is that enough for you?”

Aerin’s shoulders hunched. “Only if it’ll get you to leave.”

“Alright.” Cassia’s hands balled into fists. “What happened?”

Her words echoed through the dungeon. Seconds passed where the only movement was that of the salty, salty tears rolled down Cassia’s cheeks.

Eventually, Aerin’s shoulders relaxed. “Why do you want to know?”

“Because you were my friend, Aerin. And I want to know why you could so easily go from someone sweet, kind, and compassionate to literally trying to take over the world.”

“Easy,” he spat. “I’ve been corrupted by the shadow court and had a damn good way of hiding it. Can you go now?”

Cassia sighed. “But that night at the lake…you saved that unicorn. If you had such a hatred for human life, why would you save it?”

“That’s more than one question.”

Gods, is this who he really is? Incredibly difficult?

“Fine,” she sighed. “I’ll leave. Have a nice life.”

Cassia wiped her face and turned to leave. Of course she wasn’t gonna get the answers she so desperately wanted. They were right there. What was the point of coming down there anyway?

“Wait!”

She stopped.

“I’ll tell you what happened, Cassia. But…it’s a long story.”

Cassia turned back around and saw Aerin, grasping the bars of his cell with the same vulnerable, hurt, look she remembered from the Deadwood.

She walked back over and took a seat on the ground.

“I have time.”

#blades of light and shadow #bolas #aerin valleros #prince aerin #Aerin x mc #blades of light and shadow fan fiction #fan fiction #playchoices #pixelberry

[c-optimistic]

kiss

Kara Danvers has never been kissed.

(And neither, for that matter, has Kara Zor-El. Supergirl has been kissed, but it was by an enthusiastic kindergartener, and the sloppy kiss had landed on Supergirl’s cheek as the little girl proclaimed how much she loved the hero. The memory is fond, but not exactly the sort of thing friends get drunk over and gush about.)

No, Kara has never been kissed, and now in her late twenties, she wonders where she went wrong.

Perhaps it was soon after arriving on this planet. At sixteen, still unfamiliar with Earth and full of a general distaste for its obnoxiously loud inhabitants, Kara was first approached in, well, in a romantic sense. Though perhaps ‘romantic’ is a stretch—could the pasty boy sitting next to her in the mind-numbingly boring calculus class turning to her and asking her awkwardly on a date before insulting her truly be considered romantic? Kara doesn’t exactly think so.

Yet, what Alex and Eliza had applauded as her taking a stand against an ‘obnoxious and entitled’ boy (with Alex’s colorful descriptions of his ‘assholishness’ earning a stern look from her mother), was now something Kara almost regretted. Because perhaps, had she been less annoyed by his stupidity and his general smug look every time Kara was forced to hide how utterly asinine she found the class, she could’ve gotten her first kiss out of the way at sixteen.

(She prefers not to think of the pretty girl with kind eyes and wavy hair who was in nearly all of her writing courses in college.

She prefers not to think of how she’d sometimes go to class only to catch a glimpse of her; she prefers not to think of how she’d been too cowardly to speak to her.)

Kara Danvers has never been kissed. Alex claims it’s because she has high standards, because it takes her so long to actually like someone enough to want to kiss them. Eliza always repeats that it would happen on its own time, when Kara least expects it.

And Kara? Well, Kara doesn’t quite care most days. Her lack of a romantic life hadn’t affected her thus far, and barring the idle twinge of regret every time she thought of the people she truly liked and how nothing came of it (like James, or Lucy, or Mon-El, or even Cat), it’s not like she’s particularly bothered.

Still. Some days, when she’s with Alex and Kelly or Nia and Brainy, she wonders.

(She wonders if there’s just something wrong with her, that even worse, Eliza is wrong and Kara is destined to be alone forever.)

Kara Danvers has never been kissed, and it’s all well and good until it somehow becomes front page news.

x

She can count the number of people she dislikes (legitimately dislikes) on one hand. The fact that Andrea Rojas, their new Editor-In-Chief, joins the list and quickly topples the others is quite frankly the least surprising thing to ever happen to Kara.

(Which says quite a bit, considering all that’s happened to Kara.)

The foundation of the dislike is there immediately, when Rojas talks about clicks over substance. It simmers each time Kara’s work is turned into a mangled, biased, unrecognizable mess. But it really hits the necessary threshold the day Rojas calls Kara into her office, a sly smile on her lips.

“I have an assignment for you, Kara,” she says primly, still smiling. “An undercover assignment.”

Kara blinks, once, twice, and clears her throat, certain she’s misheard. “I’m sorry, what?”

“You’re going undercover,” Rojas explains slowly, getting up from her chair and circling around her desk, eyeing Kara like her prey. “You’ll be investigating the previous owner of CatCo Worldwide Media. You know her, don’t you? Lena Luthor?”

(Know her? Not really. Not beyond the handful of conversations as Supergirl, content to trust the DEO—namely Winn, Alex, and Brainy—to keep an eye on the Luthor.

And the distance hasn’t mattered really. Beyond the odd dip into making kryptonite, experimenting on a Worldkiller in an attempt to cure her, and making human super-people, Lena Luthor hasn’t done all that much to draw attention to herself.

But, Kara is willing to concede, Lena does manage to draw a lot of attention with only her looks—specifically Kara’s.)

“Lena,” Rojas continues, taking Kara’s silence for ignorance, “is the younger sister to Lex Luthor and the last remaining member of the disgraced Luthor family.” She smiles briefly, as if she’s letting Kara in on some inside joke, then shrugs. “It seems that the number of attempts on her life have recently, well, decreased. The word on the street is that she’s looking for a bodyguard—a female bodyguard, if you know what I mean.”

“I’m not sure I do.”

“Do I have to spell it out for you, Kara? She’s looking to date again, someone the tabloids won’t take a second look at, someone unassuming and easily dismissed—someone like you.”

Kara takes a step back, shaking her head. “N-no. I’m not a bodyguard, I can’t do that.” She doesn’t have to fake the panic in her tone; a part of Kara is legitimately worried about just how much Andrea Rojas knows about her. “I’m clumsy, and awkward, and chatty, and—”

“Aren’t you listening?” Rojas interrupts, rolling her eyes, turning slightly to pick up a thin folder sitting on her desk, holding it out to Kara expectantly. “The bodyguard position is fake. All you need to do is meet my contact at L-Corp. He’s already got an entry level job lined up for you. The second Lena sees you, I’ve no doubt she’ll be interested.”

“E-excuse me?”

“Come on, Kara, don’t fish for compliments,” Rojas says, waving the folder in an attempt to get Kara to take it. “You’re fit, beautiful, and smart. Just Lena’s type. Trust me, I would know.”

“That’s not what I mean. You’re asking me to infiltrate a company, pursue a fake relationship with the CEO, then put myself in the line of danger if and when she asks me to be her pretend bodyguard so that the paparazzi don’t catch wind of that fake relationship.” Kara shakes her head almost violently, taking another step back. “That’s crazy. Unethical. Probably illegal!”

“Don’t be so dramatic. Besides, do this and you can write whatever you want here, for as long as you work for CatCo. No more binned pitches, no more input from me or anyone else. Give me this one story, Kara, and I’ll give you free rein.” She shakes the folder once more, and Kara realizes this is her final chance. Slowly, hesitantly, and knowing it’s a mistake, Kara accepts the folder.

(It feels a lot like selling her soul to the devil.)

“What do you even want me to write about? What’s the story?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Rojas replies, turning away from Kara and waving her away, signalling the end of the conversation. “As long as Lena Luthor’s fall from grace is spectacular.”

x

Kara doesn’t want to do this. She really doesn’t want to do this.

(She isn’t quite sure any job is worth so many lies, so much deceit.

Then again, she does work for the DEO….)

“Quit,” Alex suggests for the umpteenth time, her eyes following Kara as she paces in the living room. “Just leave CatCo.”

“And never write again? I can’t do that.”

“Then go back and tell her you don’t want the story.”

“Then I’m stuck writing stupid pieces and I’ll never be a real journalist.”

“Kara—”

“Alex, I don’t want to do this, but I have to.” Kara pauses, looks at her sister, waits for her to do something other than return her gaze with wide eyes. “Alex?” Kara prods when Alex merely hugs a pillow to her chest, sinking deeper into the couch.

“What do you want me to say? You’ve made up your mind.”

“Lena Luthor won’t even be interested in me, so I’ll go tomorrow and then just tell Andrea that I failed.”

“That’s a good point,” Alex says, but there’s hesitance in her tone.

“What?”

“Well, don’t get mad, but what if she does like you? I mean, you’re almost annoyingly likeable. James liked you, Winn liked you, Lucy liked you, even Cat Grant like—”

“—I get it, Alex.”

“I don’t know what the right answer is,” Alex continues unhelpfully before she gets up and stops Kara’s pacing, taking her hands gently and squeezing them briefly before pulling her into a tight hug. “But whatever you choose, I’ll have your back. Like always.”

“The Danvers sisters,” Kara mutters into her sister’s ear.

“—we should come with a warning,” Alex finishes, grinning as she pulls away and studies Kara’s face. “Now let’s eat and do some research on your soon to be girlfriend.”

“Alex.”

(Her admonishment falls on deaf ears though—Alex just laughs in response.)

x

When Andrea had mentioned an “entry-level” job, Kara had imagined it was something in HR or a position as someone’s assistant. She had not, not even for a second, imagined that Andrea would bother looking at her resume and fit her in one of the many labs at L-Corp.

“Frankly, Dr. Danvers,” says Jess, the woman who’d taken her for a tour around the lab, taking care to have Kara sign NDAs before she mentioned any of L-Corps many projects, “you’re vastly overqualified for the position you applied for. I mean, you’ll be a glorified lab tech—are you sure that’s what you’re looking for?”

(Kara sighs internally, realizing that Andrea hadn’t looked at her resume, she’d just pushed Kara into the first opening L-Corp had.)

“It’s just Kara. And honestly, yes.” At Jess’s skeptical look, Kara clears her throat and tries again. “Working here, in any capacity, would be a dream come true. L-Corp is an incredible force for good. I just want to be a part of it.” It’s not a lie, Kara tells herself as Jess smiles approvingly at the answer. In fact, it’s the most honest thing she’s said to Jess since stepping inside the building and introducing herself.

It’s just that...well….

She wishes she could’ve been a part of such a force for good without an ulterior motive hanging over her head.

“Speaking of dreams,” she continues as Jess leads her down another hallway, pointing out current research and scientists, “I’ve always wanted to meet Lena Luthor. Is there any chance a lowly tech like me would be able to meet her one day?”

Jess laughs as she comes to a halt in front of the elevators. “The chances are actually quite high,” she says, gesturing for Kara to enter the small enclosed space. “Ms. Luthor spends a great deal of time in the labs herself. But I’m afraid she’s not in National City at the moment, so it may be some time before you see her.”

“Oh really? Away for business?”

Jess grins and leans towards Kara conspiratorially, “A romantic getaway, actually. If you ask me, she deserves the time off. Though I doubt the Board will be happy if they ever found out.” She laughs and shrugs. “CEO running off for pleasure isn’t the greatest for business if you know what I mean.”

“...right,” Kara manages, frowning and feeling the sudden need to step away from Jess. She’s no stranger to being the assistant to someone as powerful as Lena Luthor and all the secrets one became privy to due to that position—after all, Cat Grant was nothing if not full of secrets and mystery—but the key to any good assistant was keeping their mouth shut.

Kara suddenly feels immeasurably sorry for Lena. If the person closest to her at work feels so at ease in betraying her confidence in this way...Lena really is in need of someone to protect her.

The elevator comes to a lurching stop (though Kara thinks part of that is her imagination due to the guilt pooling in her belly), and the doors slide open. She follows Jess to the entrance of the building, where she’s introduced to the security guards and given a keycard. When it’s all done, Jess crosses her arms over her chest and smiles at Kara warmly.

“Well. I suppose I’ll see you tomorrow,” she says, some sort of undercurrent to her tone that puts Kara on edge.

And as Kara leaves L-Corp, she wonders just what kind of insanity Andrea got her into.

x

Nearly a month passes by, Kara becoming more and more incensed at the way Lena’s employees talk about her each day. The rumors that fly around about the CEO are wild, unsubstantiated, and incredibly embarrassing. There’s chatter about Lena’s sex life, her family, her hobbies, and even one nasty suggestion that there’s one secret lab in the basement that’s used solely to experiment on aliens in a continuation of Lex’s work.

(Kara had, of course, checked every nook and cranny of the building as Supergirl, so she knows it’s not true.

And it’s maddening to hear employees repeat such vile lies, seemingly only to the new lab tech.)

It comes to a head one afternoon when she’s taking her lunch break, sitting alone at one of the tables outside the building. Just as she’s biting into her sandwich, two researchers who work in the lab adjacent to hers walk by, whispering loudly about how Lena’s credibly accused of murder.

“You’re both ridiculous,” Kara snaps at them, getting up from her chair so violently that it’s thrown to the ground with a loud clatter. It attracts one of the security guards, and he ambles over quickly. “Lena Luthor has done nothing to deserve such hateful talk, and you all should be ashamed of yourselves,” she hisses at the others milling about, staring at her with a strange expression. “If you don’t like her, then quit. Why are you here?”

“Dr. Danvers,” the security guard—Peter—says, picking up her chair and then gently taking her elbow, “if you could come with me.”

“Pete,” one of the researchers who caused Kara’s outburst suddenly pipes up, “take her to Jess. Tell her the experiment was a success.”

“The experiment? What—”

“Dr. Danvers, if you could just follow me,” Peter repeats, smiling genially at her, waiting for her to nod. He motions for her to head towards the elevator, and he starts chatting amicably, but Kara’s attention is on the bright smiles of the employees she’d just shouted at. She doesn’t understand—was something bad about to happen? Was it time to call Alex and the DEO? Did Andrea really send her into something dangerous?

Peter claps her on the back when the get to the very top floor, leaving her with Jess and a quick good luck. Jess, for her part, is no longer the smiling, cheerful, chatty assistant Kara met the day she got her job.

“For the record,” Jess tells her as she moves towards what clearly must be Lena’s office, knocking on the door twice and pushing it open at the soft come in from behind the wood, “I still don’t trust you, even if the experiment was a success.”

“Wha—”

“Ms. Luthor is waiting for you.”

Jess all but shoves Kara forward, and then there’s nothing separating Kara from Lena Luthor except a large white desk stacked with papers and a laptop that clicks shut the moment Lena meets her gaze.

“Kara Danvers,” she says, getting to her feet gracefully and holding out her hand. “It’s nice to finally meet you. I’m sure you have questions.”

x

Somewhere, across the city, Kara can hear the pounding of keys on a piano, of a woman cursing under her breath as she gets a papercut, of a child’s laugh. Somewhere, across the city, there’s Alex’s reassuring, steady heartbeat, pounding in Kara’s ears. And yet, despite all that, the silence in Lena’s office is deafening.

“You seem shocked, Ms. Danvers,” Lena says with a smirk, one eyebrow raised. “You don’t mean to tell me you believed those rumors you didn’t sell to the press, did you?”

“Kara,” she automatically corrects, swallowing when this just makes Lena’s eyebrow rise further. “Call me Kara.”

“All right, Kara. Do sit down, we have a lot to talk about. You’re vastly overqualified as a tech and I was hoping—”

“—wait,” Kara interrupts, holding up one hand, the other fidgeting with her glasses. “Can we just, um, rewind for a second? What’s—what’s going on? What’s the ‘experiment?’”

Lena sighs, looking almost disappointed in the question.

“I’m an extremely unpopular woman, Kara. I also happen to be quite wealthy and in charge of one of the most influential companies in the world. Everything I do, from what I wear to where I go, is scrutinized and reported on. Excessively.” She sits down, pausing long enough that Kara’s brain kicks into gear and she does as well, sitting on the literal edge of her seat as she waits for Lena to continue, guilt eating away at her. “I’ve had people fake resumes, references, anything, to get a job here just to get a story. So Jess—my assistant, very clever and far too good to me—came up with the experiment. When a particularly suspicious application, such as yours, comes in, we inundate you with false stories. If any of them leak, well. Needless to say, there’s legal action taken. You signed quite a few NDAs, I do hope you read them all carefully.” Her eyes sparkle as she makes the joke, and despite Kara’s guilt (knowing she’s at L-Corp to do the very thing Lena and her employees are trying so hard to combat), she can’t help but marvel at Lena Luthor.

(She’s, in a word, beautiful.

She’s clever, well-spoken, charming, and so gentle, and it breaks Kara’s heart a little.)

“Why let me through the front doors if my application was suspicious?”

“Well, even if we thought you were too good to be true, we wanted to be sure. There’s one project in particular I think you’d be a perfect fit for—” Lena starts to dig through one of the stacks on her desk, and suddenly Kara can’t take the guilt anymore.

“You should fire me,” she all but shouts, getting to her feet. Lena leans back in shock, clearly perplexed.

“Pardon?”

“I’m not who you think I am—I mean, I am, because that resume is real but I’m not.” Kara’s hands instinctively go to her glasses, fiddling with them as she tries to figure out her next words.

“You need to speak slower,” Lena says, her shock slowly being replaced by something cold and hard. “And far more clearly. Explain.”

(It’s said as an order, and Kara knows it is because it is an order.)

“I am Kara Danvers. And everything on that resume is true. I was good at school.” Good at school is an understatement, but she figures right now is not the time to brag about her academic achievements on Krypton. Rao, Earth science is so easy in comparison. “But I’m not a researcher, and I’m not here to help L-Corp do good, though I wish I was.”

“Then what do you do?” Lena asks, tone dangerous.

“I’m a cub reporter,” Kara admits breathlessly. “At CatCo. Worldwide Media?”

“Yes, I’ve heard of it,” Lena bites out sarcastically. “Continue.”

“Our new Editor-In-Chief, Andrea Rojas, she um. Well, she wants a story. And she sent me here to get it. Probably because of my background in science, now that I think about it. She forced me into an impossible choice, take this assignment or never write anything real, and I was forcing myself to do it because I want to be a journalist, but a month here and I just can’t. I can’t. I don’t want to ruin any of this so please. Please just fire me.” She ends her ramble by literally snapping her mouth shut, looking at Lena apprehensively.

“And what exactly was the story? My technology? Is she trying to sabotage my work?”

“Um. Well, no? You’re the story. I was,” Kara blushes hard, hating herself for the words she forces out next, “I was supposed to get to you. Become your, um, bodyguard.”

Shockingly, Lena just...laughs.

“You mean to tell me that my best friend from boarding school sent you, a woman with an impressive resume—” far more than impressive, Kara thinks to herself, half of her accomplishments weren’t even listed on it “—but literally zero ability to lie, to try to seduce me and get a story?”

“Yep,” Kara says, popping the ‘p,’ wondering just how much Lena Luthor would eat her words if she knew about Kara’s ability to keep Supergirl secret, “that’s it in a nutshell. So if you could just fire me now, I’d—”

“Fire you?” Lena shakes her head. “I’m not going to fire you. I wasn’t lying, I need someone with your talents. And while you’re working in the lab, I’ll help you with a story you can give to Andrea that will save your job and be beneficial to me.”

“Right, okay,” Kara responds slowly. “And the bodyguard thing….” She trails off, unsure how to phrase her question.

“I’m afraid that’s out of the question,” Lena says smoothly. “Besides, it seems Andrea doesn’t know me as well as she thought, you’re not exactly my type.”

For whatever reason, even though Kara is relieved that she won’t have to fake a relationship, Lena’s words still sting. Smartly. Powerfully.

“Right, right,” she says, ducking her head and hoping she’s hiding her flushed cheeks and hurt, “I’m not—I’m not even gay, so. That’s, um, good.”

(And months down the line, Kara will think back to the moment they make eye contact, as they make plans to meet the next morning and discuss everything in more detail, and she’ll remember the swoop in her belly that replaced the guilt churning away there, and she’ll realize that was the first moment she started to fall for Lena Luthor.)  

x

She’s seen in public with Lena Luthor once, once, and suddenly it’s all anyone can talk about.

Contrary to what Andrea thinks when Kara meets her for their obligatory clandestine check-in on the progress of the ‘story,’ it’s not that their nefarious plot to get some sort of embarrassing admission from Lena is working. Not even close. The only reason they land in the tabloids is because Kara just happened to be leaving L-Corp late one night (after a grueling day of research, frustrated by this planet’s backwards and practically obsolete understanding of science), coincidentally around the same time Lena chose to go home, bumping into the CEO awkwardly before clearing her throat and holding the door open for the woman who was—for all intents and purposes—her boss.

Not that that matters to any of the trashy magazines that publish the photo taken of them, pointing to a non-existent blush on Lena’s cheeks, to Kara’s mussed hair, to some sort of imagined “gaze” that Kara apparently bestowed on the second most powerful woman in National City. (Cat Grant always has been, and always will be no matter where she is in the world, the most powerful woman to Kara.)

Does Lena Luthor have a new gal pal?

Lena Luthor’s secret fling!

Caught in the act! Lena Luthor’s new lover!

The headlines make Kara cringe.

(She hates it. Even if Alex laughs away when she hears about it and Andrea sends her a congratulatory email and a renewed promise to let her write about whatever “stupid political story” Kara wants.

Kara hates it so much.)

The headlines are awful, so Kara thinks she’s understandably stressed when she’s called to Lena’s office the very next day.

(This is it, she’s going to be fired.

She’s just going to go back to writing about dresses and fashion shows and not the blatant discrimination in the juvenile criminal justice system and the pervasiveness of corruption and racism in sentencing.)

Except, all her dread about dresses is for naught because when she enters Lena’s office, Lena isn’t seething with rage or even cold with disinterest (as she’d been with Kara since finding out about the whole ‘I’m a journalist’ thing). No, Lena is smiling.

“You know what’s remarkable?” she tells Kara as she motions for her to sit down and offers a water that Kara quickly refuses. “I’ve been in this city for years. I’ve donated millions, developed dozens of new technologies to help people, practically took over the National City Children’s Hospital from a bunch of greedy men in suits in order to save lives, and even owned one of the biggest media companies in the world for a hot minute, but this is the best press day I’ve had since Lex dragged our name through the mud.”

Kara, who’s ready with an apology on her lips, frowns, not quite understanding. “You’re not upset? About the photo?”

“I mean, the photo is ridiculous,” Lena waves her comment off, though Kara can hear the tiny bump up in her heart rate, giving away the lie, “but because of the photo, people are asking about my philanthropic work, about the STEM scholarships I offer to young girls that no one applies to anymore because of the name attached to it, about the climate change efforts L-Corp has made.” She smiles widely, leaning against her desk and looking at Kara in a way that Kara feels distinctly uncomfortable with—like she’s prey, like she’s to be devoured, like she’s been caught in a trap. “Who knew all it would take for people to ignore my last name is a pretty blonde woman smiling as she holds the door open for me?”

(Kara tries not to blush at the ‘pretty’ comment, she really does, but she doesn’t think she’s successful. Lena’s smile becomes a smirk and Kara finds herself ducking her head, fiddling with her glasses.)

“Well, I’m glad I could help, Ms. Luthor.”

“Lena.”

“Sorry?”

“It’s Lena. From now on,” the CEO says, still smiling. “I think I owe you an apology, Kara.”

“I—for what?”

“For tossing out the bodyguard idea so quickly.” Lena pauses, rolls her eyes, and shakes her head. “I mean, that’s entirely ludicrous, I’m not going to ask a journalist to put herself in the line of fire, but I think being seen together, every now and then, in public, isn’t the worst thing that could happen.”

“I’m sorry, I think I must have misunderstood—are you...are you asking that I pretend to go on dates with you?”

“Yes, exactly,” Lena says brightly, as if the whole thing has been decided. “Nice to see you’re paying attention,” she continues, her tone light and almost flirty and Kara’s dealt with a lot in her life but she decides then and there that this is the worst whiplash she’s ever gotten. “I know on Tuesdays you have your supposedly secret meetings with Andrea about the progress of your story, so how are your Wednesdays?”

Lena’s knowledge of the ‘secret’ meetings is somehow the least surprising part of everything that’s been said since Kara stepped into her office.

“My Wednesdays?”

“Yes, for our weekly lunches from now on,” Lena says, looking amused by Kara’s expression.

“I mean, um, Wednesdays are fine.”

“Great. I’ll text you the details.”

Kara doesn’t even ask how Lena has her cell number. She just nods, her only thought that she needs to find Alex—and quick.

x

“Do you think it’s lying?” Kara asks her sister and friends from where she’s floating, arms crossed over her chest, staring intently at the ceiling as though the answers would be written there. “I’m a journalist—is it unethical to be misleading the public this way?”

Nia snorts from where she sits, covering her laugh up with a cough when Kara floats down to the ground just to glare.

“I think you’re overthinking this,” Alex says, just as Nia offers a mumbled: “Who says you’re misleading anyone?”

Alex and Nia look at each other with conspiratorial grins, and even though Kelly sighs, she looks vaguely amused. Only J’onn and Brainy seem just as confused as Kara.

“I don’t understand,” Kara says, looking at her sister and friend with a frown.

“It’s like this,” Nia explains slowly, looking to Alex for support, “you’ve talked about Lena Luthor a lot lately, you know?”

“Well, yeah. She’s my boss.”

“No, Kara,” Alex chuckles, “you talk and think about her a lot. Do you see what we mean?” J’onn’s expression clears into understanding and he smiles, nodding along. Even Brainy, who had been sitting with a frown, now has his hands clasped together in front of him, nodding along with Alex and Nia. Finally, it’s Kelly who takes pity on Kara.

“I think what they’re trying to say is that you have a little crush on Lena Luthor,” Kelly explains, holding up a hand when Kara immediately starts to deny it. “Even if you don’t like her in a romantic sense, you certainly like her. Just...take these lunches one day at a time. Think of it as making a new friend rather than a pretend date if you have to.”

“Or,” Nia says with a laugh, “you could save everyone a lot of time and just tell Lena Luthor you have a thing for her and want the pretend dates to be real dates.” At Kara’s shocked look, she held up her hands. “But you do you, obviously!”

x

The article comes out just a few months later.

Before the poorly written, gossipy, nonsense riddled article ruins everything, things finally settle enough that Kara thinks she can actually do this. Her weekly lunches with Lena are enjoyable and fun, the two of them spending several hours chatting about science, life, and causes they are passionate about. In fact, they begin to see each other outside the weekly lunches too, and not just on planned out “events” meant to give the press something to talk about. (Lena comes to game night and Kara goes with Lena to her father’s grave on the anniversary of his death to provide moral support, where there are no cameras or ulterior motive.) In between all the pretend dates, they spend time together for real, bonding over being adopted and a mutual love for Big Belly Burger. Together, they attempt to brainstorm ideas of what pitch Kara could give to Andrea that would secure her job and help Lena with the media.

And it’s...refreshing. It’s nice. It’s something Kara rarely gets to experience.

With Lena, all she is is Kara. With Lena, she can let her guard down a little, can avoid dumbing herself down, and just talk—like she did with her parents, or other members of the Science Guild. And Kara knows Lena is slightly curious about her—she’s made a few comments about it—but she lets it go in order to continue their discussions on the latest project, on a problem that’s cropped up, on potential solutions.

(It’s rare, this thing she has with Lena. It’s rare for humans to be able to keep up with her, and it’s rare that she doesn’t have to slow down for them.

It’s even rarer for someone to be so casual about just how intelligent they are—to keep up easily and to treat it as though it’s not a big deal, as though it’s all just normal talk.

And Kara likes it, enjoys it, doesn’t want it to end. She has this with Alex or Eliza or Brainy, but with Lena there’s something else—a challenge, a give and take, a back and forth that leaves her breathless and wanting for more.

With Lena, it’s electric.)

It’s going well, much better than it should be, considering all of Kara’s initial misgivings and guilt (and the realization—as she and Lena move from ‘business partners’ as Lena calls it to legitimate friends—that soon Supergirl has to come out to Lena). It’s going well enough that Kara should’ve expected it, should’ve known something would come along and ruin everything.

Lena Luthor’s New Gal Pal Has Never Been Kissed!

Is Something Wrong With Luthor? New Girlfriend Wants ZERO Kisses, Sources Say!

The L in L-Corp Definitely Does Not Stand For Love: Lena Luthor’s New Relationship Destined to Fail!

“Of course the good press wasn’t meant to last. Apparently, you’ve never been kissed,” Lena says the Wednesday after the articles are first published. They’re in her office today, which was where they had lunch every day the past week, something Kara had decided was best not to bring up, lest it didn’t mean what she hoped it meant.

“Oh, well, um, I haven’t actually,” Kara says through a mouthful of sushi.

Lena blinks, looking taken aback. “You haven’t?” she asks, sounding as though she thinks this is a joke. “But you’re—I mean, look at you. Why?”

(Kara doesn’t exactly like this question.

For one, it implies there’s something wrong with her, something broken, mirroring her own thoughts on the issue. For another—and much more importantly—explaining why would take explaining how she landed on this planet, how it took her years to feel comfortable with humans, how it takes time for her to even want that sort of intimacy from someone else, how she hasn’t yet felt the urge or the need or the desire, and any of those people she thought she may one day feel that way for had slipped out of her life before they got to that point.)

Perhaps it’s because Kara doesn’t respond right away, or perhaps it’s just because Lena is better at reading her than Kara gives her credit for, but almost immediately after the question escapes Lena’s lips, she blushes and shakes her head. “I’m so sorry,” she says, reaching out slowly enough that Kara has time to pull away if she wants to, gently taking Kara’s hand and swiping her thumb over the back of it when Kara doesn’t move, “that was crass and rude of me. It’s none of my business. You have every right to live your life the way you want to.”

“You don’t think it’s strange?”

“No,” Lena replies with zero hesitation. When Kara fixes her with a look, she chuckles, swiping her thumb over the back of Kara’s hand once more. It does something funny to Kara’s chest. “I admit, I’m surprised. But that’s just my own bias, you know?” She starts to move her thumb back and forth, almost as if she doesn’t know she’s doing it. “Just because someone’s life experiences are different from my own doesn’t make it any better or worse. It’s your life, Kara. No one is allowed to tell you how to live it.” She bites her lip, and Kara squeezes Lena’s hand gently, knowing what Lena wants to ask.

“I’m waiting,” she explains softly, not meeting Lena’s eyes. “For someone who’d wait for me to want it. Does that make sense?”

Lena likely senses that the topic isn’t something Kara wants to get deeper into, because she clears her throat and moves bravely on. “Since I chose lunch today, I suppose you could pick tomorrow, but Kara, I’m not willing to have potstickers again, it’s not—”

“—what are we going to do about the story?” Kara interrupts, listening to the way Lena’s heart rate increases, the way she’s trying to hide her stress. “There are a few articles that make fun of you because of me.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Lena waves her off, shifting on the couch so that she and Kara were sitting shoulder to shoulder. “It’ll blow over soon.”

“But the whole point of this in the first place was to give you good press. And because of me—”

“—because of you, what? People associate me as the girlfriend of a beautiful woman instead of my homicidal brother? How terrible of you,” Lena says, narrowing her eyes playfully, and smiling at Kara. It’s clear she wants to talk about something else, but it feels wrong to brush past this.

“Lena, please,” Kara tries, and shockingly, Lena deflates. She gives in so easily, and Kara’s not exactly sure how she managed that.

“We could get Jess to leak that we’ve been affectionate behind closed doors, and we just don’t like doing so in public.”

“It’s one thing to let the press come to its own conclusions, but I can’t lie, Lena,” Kara immediately disagrees. She watches with interest and Lena ducks her head, mumbling something about integrity affectionately under her breath, before she turns back to Kara with a raised eyebrow.

“Well, you could always just go for it.”

“What?”

“You could just kiss me.”

(Kara’s heart thumps in her chest, and she can’t do much other than swallow hard.

She realizes, suddenly, that her hand is still in Lena’s, that their fingers have become intertwined, that Lena’s thumb is still stroking the back of Kara’s hand.)

“Lena, I want it to mean something.”

(This is it, Kara thinks. This is the moment Lena will laugh and say it’s all a joke.

This is the moment, Kara thinks. This is the moment that she’ll have her heart broken.)

“I know,” Lena says, turning fully so that she’s facing Kara, one leg folded under her, her free hand reaching out to tuck a stray lock of hair behind Kara’s ear. “I’ll wait, however long you want me to.”

“Wait. What?”

Lena smiles, something impossibly vulnerable in her eyes. “I don’t want this to be fake anymore,” she says softly, but quickly, as if she can’t bear to bare it all, and yet can’t stop herself from doing so anyway. “I want to go on dates. To celebrate with you when you get your huge break. To hold your hand,” she looks down at their hands, squeezing as if to make a point. “And I’ll wait. For you. If you choose to want it too.”

“Oh,” Kara mutters, and it occurs to her in that moment that Eliza and Alex were right. She did have high standards, and Lena met them. And it did happen when she least expected it—at lunch, with someone she never even expected to become friends with, let alone something more. “You don’t have to wait.”

“What? I don't—” Lena starts to question, cut off when Kara closes the few inches of space between them.

And as far as first kisses go, Kara thinks, it was well worth the wait.

x

“How I Infiltrated L-Corp, Fell in Love With the CEO, and Had My First Kiss, by Kara Danvers,” Andrea reads aloud, grimacing as she looks up at Kara. “I can’t publish this.”

“That’s unfortunate, Ms. Rojas,” Kara says with a smile, shrugging. “You’re welcome to fire me though. But I do have a great piece on juvenile sentencing, if you want to read it.”

Andrea narrows her eyes, but then, she...laughs. “I’m a woman of my word. Send me your new piece.” Kara nods and is nearly out the door when Andrea speaks again. “And Kara? When you see Lena, tell her I said we’re even now, won’t you?”

Kara doesn’t ask or care what she means—she chalks it up to a boarding school thing and leaves it at that.  

#supercorp #fanfic #new #kara danvers #lena luthor

[teshamerkel]

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Seekers of Soul

Chapter 16 (18 Pages)

<< First | < Previous | Next >

Nia spends time with Xander’s team, learning more about aura in the process.

 -

Nia yawns, finally giving up on her book for today and slipping a furret bookmark that Maggie had given her between the pages. No matter how hard Nia tries to focus on the words about different types of Pokémon evolution, the sentences are starting to blur and jumble before her eyes, so she figures it’s time to give it a rest.

She looks up at the two Pokemon lying a few feet away on a mossy rug, comfortably sprawled out in Xander’s team quarters. The luxio and his wartortle partner are playing some sort of game with dice-like stones. Felix is clearly losing, his fluffy ears twitching as he grumbles under his breath. Xander’s cat-like face is smug with victory, his tail flicking side to side with lazy patience.

Avery is sitting at Nia’s side, the two of them relaxing back against the wooden wall on a bed of straw and moss. Nia doesn’t want to disrupt the kirlia’s concentration as they focus on their own book, but the atmosphere is so peaceful and relaxed, bathed in the warm evening sunlight coming through the lattice window, and she can’t help but feel comfortable enough to speak up.

“Can I ask you guys something?”

All three Pokemon look up, faces open and curious.

“‘Course,” Felix says.

Nia smiles, a little embarrassed. “I know your team is just as busy as ours, if not more so. How are you not, like...exhausted? Literally all the time?”

Xander looks back to the game, laughter in his voice as he responds, “Oh trust me, we are. It used to be worse, before we got used to the job and the demanding work hours.”

“Naps help a lot, when you can manage ‘em,” Felix adds, frowning as he rolls the dice. He’s had horrible luck this whole game. At least, that’s what he’s been saying. Nia still hasn’t quite picked up the rules from watching. “You feeling worn down?”

Nia leans back against the wood of the tree. The bark making up the architecture of the tree is smooth, and thanks to her fur it isn’t even uncomfortable to lean against. She closes her eyes and hums.

“Yeah, I guess.  I know I’ve been here a few weeks, but I think I’m just not used to everything yet.”

“I’ll never get used to waking up so early,” Felix grumbles. “Mornings are suffering.”

Nia laughs. “Actually, that part’s not too bad. It’s more the battling, I think. And just...I dunno, emotional stuff.”

“Mental exhaustion can take a big toll,” Avery says at her side, voice soft. They close their own book to turn their full attention to the conversation.

“I’d be exhausted too if I had Tobias for a partner,” Felix says. He’s clearly teasing, but Nia knows that on some level the wartortle actually means it. “I don’t know how you put up with him every day, Nia.”

Nia’s torn between a laugh and the urge to roll her eyes. She settles on a light tone to match the wartortle’s. “Come on, I told you we worked everything out the other day. He’s trying harder to be nice.”

Felix and Xander both make a doubtful noise.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Xander says.

“Well, I think it’s great that Tobias is trying to grow,” Avery says, giving Nia a soft smile.

Nia smiles back and leans forward to watch the boys’ game again, cupping her chin in her hands.

“He’s been really patient with all of my questions since we talked,” Nia says, feeling like she should defend her partner somehow. It’s clear that he’s been trying hard to reign in his temper and be more considerate the last few days, even if he still struggles with it. “When we cleaned out the guild’s food storage this morning, he didn’t even snap at me when I bumped into some shelves and buried us in rice.”

Xander snorts. “That’s called being a decent Pokémon, Nia. Don’t give him too much credit.”

“I’m not! I’m just saying he’s doing better, y’know?”

Felix gives Nia a grin, tilting his head in consideration. “You’re too sweet, ya know that?”

Nia doesn’t know what to say to that, so she blushes under her fur and makes a show of moving her book to her side with a quiet word of thanks.

“Yo! I’m back. Did Felix get whooped yet?”

Nia jumps and looks up to see that Kry has returned from her trip to the cafeteria to find a snack. The dinosaur-like pokemon is munching on an apple as she plops down next to Felix and Xander.

“Hey, I could still win,” Felix protests.

“Ha! Yeah, and bagon can fly.”

“You do know they can fly when they evolve, right?”

“Not anymore, genius! No evolution, no wings!”

Felix deflates and grumbles to himself as he goes back to the game. Nia tilts her head and leans closer to Avery.

“S-Sorry. Uh, what kind of Pokémon is Kry again?”

“A fraxure. Dragon type, middle evolution like the rest of us.”

Nia nods. Right. Fraxure. It certainly looks like the aggressive Pokémon could live up to her name and fracture some bones, from the brief interactions Nia’s seen. Kry’s a bit...rough around the edges. But it’s clear she fits right in with the rest of Xander’s team. Somehow.

“What have you been reading, if you don’t mind me asking?” Avery asks, polite as ever.

Nia shakes herself out of her thoughts. “No, of course I don’t mind!” She holds up the book. “It’s about different kinds of evolution? I still don’t exactly, uh. Get it. As a process. But it’s fascinating to learn about all the different ways it’s triggered.”

Avery tilts their head, looking at Nia with thoughtful consideration. “You don’t understand evolution?”

Nia’s ears flatten. “W-Well, uh, no, but—“

“Does evolution not happen to humans?”

It’s clear that Avery isn’t judging Nia’s confusion, just curious in return. Still, Nia is thankful that they keep their voice hushed.

“N-No, definitely not,” Nia says. “At least, not in the same way? I think? When Pokémon evolve, they change...suddenly, right? Like, Xander used to look like Luca and then he suddenly turned into a luxio?”

Avery hums. “More or less, yes.”

“Is...Is that...how Pokémon grow up, uh...physically? By evolving?”

The kirlia shakes their head, eyes softening into something almost sad. “No. If that were the case we’d all be in danger of dying out, with how Pokemon can no longer evolve. Don’t worry, you’re an adult by Pokémon standards, even as a riolu.”

Nia relaxes at the confirmation. With the way everyone has been treating her, she was pretty sure they’d been seeing her as the adult she felt she was in the human world, but it’s still nice to know for sure.

“Pokemon can stay unevolved forever,” Avery goes on. “They’ll grow larger than a child Pokémon of the same species, though, and physically mature. Their...statures would simply be smaller than if they evolved. Weaker.”

Nia nods. That...makes some sense, in a way. Even with humans, there were grown women who ended up much shorter than some teenage boys. Different statures among the same species.

“Humans don’t ever...change so radically. So suddenly. At least not naturally.”

Avery turns curious eyes onto Nia, so the riolu continues.

“We start out tiny, and then just grow gradually until we reach adulthood. We can change parts of ourselves, of course—darken our skin, cut our hair, change our clothes or our entire style. But...that’s not what evolution is for, right? Aesthetics, individuality? Comfort?”

The kirlia hums. “No. Evolution is typically for...strength, I suppose. Increased speed, strength, defense, sheer size.”

“So for battling?” Nia asks, confusion edging into her voice. She knew that Pokémon were more biologically geared towards fighting, with their toughened defense and incredible healing capabilities, but she also knows that most Pokémon don’t seem to prefer fighting aside from playful battles. At least, not anymore. Now they’re bakers, florists, carvers and artisans. A society.

Maybe Avery understands what Nia’s getting at, because the kirlia looks thoughtful. “There’s a reason so many Pokémon evolve through battling experience and so few from exposure to stones, or travel. Most Pokémon evolve by training themselves and growing stronger. Legends say that Pokémon used to be more...primitive. Less civilized. I believe it used to be less about strength and more about survival.”

Nia watches as Felix tries to creep his hand over the dice to cheat a turn of the stones. Xander, discussing strategies in-depth with Kry, doesn’t even look before batting the turtle’s hand away with a paw. Felix yelps, and Nia giggles.

“Maybe that’s why evolution stopped working?” Nia suggests. “Maybe Pokémon have just...evolved to the point that strength evolution isn’t necessary anymore. You’re a society now, after all. You didn’t need to be physically strong to have a lot of power or be successful in the human world. We have systems, laws, protectors. Technology and weapons. Maybe you’ve just reached a point in society where that changed enough for you guys, too.”

Avery suddenly laughs, tinkling and light. Nia isn’t sure whether to feel happy at the sound or embarrassed that she’d apparently said something stupid. She settles for staring at the kirlia with wide eyes and heated fur.

“Apologies,” Avery says, meeting Nia’s eyes, ruby to ruby. “It wasn’t a stupid thought at all. Fascinating, actually. I was just...struck. By finding such a kindred spirit in you. Xander’s the only one who even tries to humor my philosophical ramblings.”

Nia feels herself relax, and laughs as well. “Two curious souls, huh?”

Avery just smiles, warm and soft.

“What’re you two nerds laughing about?” Kry asks.

Nia looks up to see the other three Pokémon staring at them.

Avery waves their hand in a dismissive motion. “My usual ramblings, Kry. Don’t mind us.”

“Talking about evolution!” Nia adds.

At that, Xander and Felix go back to their game with amused smirks. Kry, however, rolls her eyes. “Why? We can’t evolve anyways.”

“But maybe it could be fixed?” Nia suggests. When Kry turns a doubtful look on her, the riolu shrinks back. “I-I mean, maybe not, but...”

“No harm in discussing it, right?” Avery says.

Kry snorts and goes back to the game. “Guess not.”

Nia relaxes. She knows there’s no reason for Kry to put her on edge, but she just has such a...strong personality. Nia’s become more used to Tobias’ sharp attitude, but Kry? Not so much.

“Would you evolve? If you could?”

Nia blinks and turns to Avery at the unexpected question. “W-What?”

"Would you like to evolve if it were possible?” Avery repeats. Maybe this is a normal question for most Pokémon. Or for their teammates and friends, at least.

“U-Um. I don’t know? Maybe?” Nia flicks her tail into her lap, trying to sound confident. “I mean, it doesn’t really matter much to me, since I’m going back to the human world as soon as I can find a way to return, s-so...”

Avery doesn’t respond aside from a soft sound that Nia can’t quite decipher. She’s too afraid to look at the kirlia’s expression, too scared of seeing the pity or doubt she might find there, so she deflects. “Besides, to evolve I’d have to form an affection, um...”

“Bond?”

“Yeah! An affection bond with someone. And from what I’ve read, that doesn’t seem to mean just a casual friendship.”

Avery nods, eyeing their teammates. “Correct. An affection bond that can lead to evolution only occurs between Pokemon who trust each other with anything. Who see each other as they truly are and would likely die for each other.”

Nia flicks her ear, nervously. “Th-That’s a bit, uh. Extreme.”

Avery laughs lightly under their breath. “Indeed. It’s simply how we tend to describe it. It’s...the deepest form of love, whether platonic or romantic.”

Nia nods, shifting uncomfortably. “Yeah, so...I mean, don’t get me wrong! I’m really glad I met you guys and Andyn’s group and Maggie and, uh, even Tobias, in a weird way. But...”

“You don’t think you’ll ever have that sort of bond with us,” Avery guesses.

Nia flinches. The psychic type’s words aren’t cold or insulted, but it still sounds...harsh.

“Yeah, I guess,” Nia rasps, pulling her knees up to her chest. “It’s just...I’m planning on leaving, you know? I don’t wanna get too close to anyone just to leave us both heartbroken when I go.”

Avery doesn’t answer, but the silence doesn’t feel heavy. Still, Nia rests her chin on her hands, sighing. She wants to go home, nice as it is here, but she still feels bad just leaving these people behind after their kindness.

She’ll miss them.

Maybe Avery picks up on Nia’s mood change, because they turn to the riolu with an encouraging smile. “Xander mentioned that you can read the aura of other Pokemon now. Would you like to try it on me, if it’s not too much strain?”

Nia recognizes the distraction technique, but can’t help feeling grateful for it. She lifts her head, blinking. “R-Really?”

“I’m a psychic type. I know how exciting it is to try out a new mental technique with someone willing.”

Nia straightens up and turns to the kirlia, feeling a smile edge at her lips. It’s not every day she gets to test her aura abilities on someone new! So far she’s only felt Val and Maggie’s auras, and Amani’s blossoming pink during a different training session. “O-Okay. You know it’s pretty, uh…personal, though, right? Like, I’m kind looking at your soul, I think?”

Avery nods with a smile. “I’m aware.”

“J-Just let me know if you want me to stop, okay? I’ll need your hand, though.”

Avery offers a delicate hand.

Nia takes it and closes her eyes, summoning her aura (it gets easier every time she does it!), pouring it down her arm and into her hand, brushing it against the kirlia’s skin to find their aura. When Avery’s silhouette sparks to life behind Nia’s eyes, she laughs. Even without looking deeper towards the core of Avery’s aura, Nia can feel the prickle of their curiosity.

“Your aura’s blue like mine!” Nia explains.

The kirlia laughs too, quietly. “Kindred spirits indeed.”

Nia nods. “Your aura is more of a...purpley-blue, though. Deeper. Kind of indigo.” It feels...serene. Filled with a boundless curiosity and something deeply wise. It’s a dusk sky just as stars begin to shine, a calm evening full of possibilities. It’s actually a little difficult to put her finger on, to interpret the color into a personality, more difficult than it has been so far. Before Nia can go on, Felix’s hushed voice breaks through her concentration.

“That’s so cool!”

Nia jumps, yanking her hand back as the tear drops at her head drop lightly to the collar of fur around her neck. Nia turns to find Xander, Felix, and even Kry sitting close to her and Avery and watching the whole ordeal with fascination.

“Ooh! Can you do me next?” Felix asks excitedly, scooting closer as if she won’t see him there, practically bouncing in his seat.

Xander gives Felix a reprimanding look. “Dude, chill, she might need to rest or something. You know how Avery gets when they’re overworked.”

Before Felix can deflate under the scolding, Nia smiles. “N-No, I can do it, don’t worry. Just give me a second. I’m still learning so it kind of wipes me out, but that’s why I need to practice. You don’t mind me reading your aura? It’s kind of, um. Personal.”

Felix grins at her with shining eyes. “Nah, I don’t mind if it’s not too exhausting for you.”

Nia exchanges an amused look with Avery, then turns her body to Felix. She closes her eyes, holds out her hand for him to take, and then repeats the process of finding her aura, and sending it to where she’s touching the wartortle’s skin.

Felix’s aura flares to life behind Nia’s eyes, and she feels her face drop slack in surprise as the color registers. “Oh. Felix, you’re green.”

The turtle sounds as surprised as his aura feels, the green energy jumping in intensity. “Really?”

“Yeah. Like...a calm, leafy sort of green.” Not calm in the typical sense because the wartortle is certainly not that, but…flexible, she supposes. Purposefully not anxious. Like the changing seasons and the trees that follow them, very go-with-the-flow and easygoing. As unexpectedly sturdy as an oak tree, too. Comforting. It does make sense for the wartortle, in a way, but she has to admit she’s surprised by how deep into his very being his instincts to comfort amuse stabilize go. Oh, he is a very kind soul. A very open, alive soul.

Kry snorts. “Calm. Sure. Clearly you’ve never seen him after being rejected by someone.”

“Hey!” Felix says, indignant.

Nia’s concentration is broken again, and Felix’s hand is yanked away. She blinks back into reality only to sees Kry and Felix play wrestling. Xander rolls his eyes at them, but then looks back at Nia, ears swiveling forward and his brow furrowing with concern. “You okay?”

Oh, she’s breathing harder as her powers take a toll on her. But she doesn’t feel nauseous yet, which must mean she’s getting better! She gives Xander a smile. “I’m fine. This is already leagues better than I was a few days ago! Want me to check your aura, too?”

Xander blinks, exchanging a glance with Avery. Just as Nia’s about to reassure him he doesn’t have to agree, he nods. “You sure you’re okay? I don’t want you to push yourself too hard.”

For a moment, Nia’s thrown by the obvious concern in the luxio’s voice, and her heart squeezes with something fond—

(She said she wasn’t going to make strong friendships here, she can’t, she’s leaving, but—)

—but then she just laughs it off, shaking her head. “N-No, I’m fine. Really.”

Xander looks at her face a moment longer, as if he’s worried she’s lying to him and about to pass out. But then he nods and lifts a paw for her to take.

Nia smiles and closes her eyes, curious despite herself. She’s only known Xander for a couple of weeks, but the more auras that Nia reads the more interesting they become, the more exciting it is to reconcile them with a person’s outward personality. So she reaches out eagerly with her aura, ignoring the strain that she’d just reassured she wasn’t feeling, and nearly recoils in surprise when Xander’s silhouette lights up in a very distinct color. It’s not a deep, protective blue, as she would have guessed, or really any color that she would have predicted.

It’s bright red.

Red, like blood pulsing from a wound, but it doesn’t bring to mind pain or aggression. It’s the blood of a beating heart, it’s the red of passion and emotion, almost too bright in its intensity, almost volatile, and oh, she never would have guessed that this was such an integral part of cool and collected Xander, that he would feel emotions so strongly they hurt. His aura is the blood of a fierce battle, of a pulse pounding away to act, to protect. It’s the red of a heart willing to bleed out before losing those close to him.

A surge of what Nia now recognizes as concern flows through his aura and slams into her like a tidal wave. Nia feels herself physically knocked back from the strength of it, pulling her hands away to catch herself. She snaps back to reality, breathing hard and loud in the quiet of the room, her heart pounding.

Xander is watching her with wide eyes, one paw lifted as if he’d reached out to help but then feared making things worse. Avery is watching her too. The sounds of Kry and Felix’s tussling have stopped.

“Nia? Are you all right?” Avery finally asks, voice soft and level.

Nia swallows hard, her own heart just starting to slow from the overwhelming intensity of Xander’s aura. She looks at the luxio again, and that’s what finally prompts her to pant, “I-I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?” Xander asks. “I didn’t hurt you?”

“Y-Yeah, no, sorry, that was just, uh. Unexpected? You’re red, by the way.” Just saying Xander’s aura is red is the understatement of the century, but how is she supposed to explain what she just felt?

“Red?” Xander echoes, his stiff posture finally starting to relax again. Kry and Felix move closer to listen.

Avery hums. “Interesting. And that means?”

Nia fiddles with the collar of fur around her neck, gaze flicking up to the sun-washed ceiling as she thinks. “W-Well...I’m not sure how good I am at explaining it...”

“Wait, but you said green meant calm, right?” Felix asks. “Isn’t there like...a color cheat sheet or something? Like a list of what each color means?”

“Your green is calm,” Nia corrects. “The colors sort of tell me about someone’s personality and who they are, but I don’t think there’s like...a strict color-code?”

Nia looks to Avery for help, but the kirlia only offers a sympathetic shrug. Oh. Apparently their psychic powers don’t work the same way.

“U-Um. Okay. So for example, my aura is sort of a turquoise blue, but Avery’s is more purple, like a royal blue or indigo. Their aura feels...calmer than mine does, I guess? And Felix, yours is green because you’re so adaptable, like the trees. Very go-with-the-flow, but still sturdy and reliable. Someone else’s aura might be green too but feel super different to me.”

There’s a moment of quiet as they all digest that information, and Nia cringes. “...At least, I think that’s how it works.”

“So what did my aura feel like?” Xander finally asks. “Mine seemed to…affect you differently than the others’ did.”

Nia hesitates, still fiddling with her fur. How does she describe this? “Yours is red, but it’s red like…passion, I guess would be the word. It’s just really emotional? Kind of intense, actually. I’ve never felt someone’s emotions as strongly as I did yours. They kind of swept me away and knocked me right out of my aura state.”

When Nia looks away from the ceiling to gauge the others’ reaction to that, her stomach drops. Xander is staring at her in something close to horror, his fur lifting like a startled cat. She catches Felix shooting Xander a worried look. Wait, what…what happened? She just described his aura to him. Why does he look so upset?

Before the silence can grow too tense, Kry snorts and crosses her arms, apparently tone-deaf to the sudden shift of the room’s mood. “That’s a load of crap. Xander’s the most level-headed one here. Do mine next.”

Nia opens her mouth to say no, watching Xander back away with a gaze like he isn’t totally here. Avery and Felix exchange a concerned look before the kirlia moves to follow the luxio, approaching him with soft words and a hand soothing the spiked fur along his spine.

“Well?” Kry grunts, shifting to cut into Nia’s line of sight.

“W-Wait, Xander—”

“You admittin’ you were wrong?” Kry says, almost like a challenge. “Too afraid to read mine?”

Nia focuses on the fraxure, huffing in irritation. She just upset Xander—and something in her recoils at that thought, already flooded with guilt—and Kry hasn’t even noticed? Fine, if reading Kry’s aura will get her to shut up and move so Nia can check on Xander, she’ll do it. Nia closes her eyes and touches Kry’s open palm. She shoots her aura down her arm and into her paw almost angrily, and Kry’s energy flares to life. Once again, the color that she finds there isn’t quite what she’s expecting.

“You’re…gold,” Nia says. It’s the gold shine of priceless treasure, something proud and hard-fought. But it’s also the gold of armor, of a shield, determined and immovable. Protective. She feels the fraxure’s emotions shift too rapidly for her to catch, but she doesn’t really care too much anyways, with what’s happening to Xander three feet away. Nia pulls back and opens her eyes, meeting Kry’s hard stare with her own.

“So what’s gold mean?”

Nia frowns. “It feels...determined. Proud, I guess. I dunno, I’m not very good at this yet.” Nia’s attention is elsewhere, and she leans past the dinosaur to see Xander, only to find that Xander and Avery have disappeared from the room entirely. Felix meets her panicked gaze with a sad, soothing smile.

“Sorry, Nia, Xander just…had to get some air. Don’t worry, he’ll be fine.”

“Wait, what…what happened?” Nia rasps. “Is Xander okay? He looked...”

Felix and Kry exchange a meaningful look. The wartortle nods, and Kry moves to start cleaning up the game abandoned on the rug a few feet away, completely silent. It’s such a shift from her aggressive prodding moments before that Nia wonders if the fraxure wasn’t as oblivious to Xander’s sudden emotional turn as she thought.

Was Kry distracting her?

“Nia,” Felix says, catching her attention again. He gives her a small smile. “You didn’t do anything wrong. Just…accidentally brought up some unhappy memories for Xander.”

Nia wilts, her heart sinking in her chest. She really likes Xander—she didn’t mean to upset him! Why would learning about his aura have upset him so much? Is this what Val was warning her about, about using her powers responsibly? But she didn’t do it without asking. He wanted to know! Should she have not told him what she saw? But then she would have had to lie to him!

“I didn’t mean to upset him,” Nia whimpers.

Felix’s expression softens. “I know you didn’t. And he does too, don’t worry. But maybe for tonight you should head back to Maggie’s. C’mon, I’ll walk with you.”

Nia opens her mouth to protest—she doesn’t want to just leave without talking to Xander or at least apologizing to him! But Felix is already at the doorway to the hall, beckoning her with a twitch of his fluffy tail. He doesn’t seem angry with her, but it’s clear that he’s nudging her to leave for today. Feeling upset and a lot less proud of her aura abilities, Nia grabs her book and follows him out the door, shuffling up the guild’s stairs and hoping Maggie doesn’t ask her what’s wrong.

#pmd #pokemon mystery dungeon #wartortle #fraxure #luxio #pokemon #pmd seekers of soul #riolu #kirlia #tesha draws #tesha writes

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

Legacy is a Lonely Color [a post 5x11 ficlet]

If there is one person Lena would least expect to see standing on her balcony, it's Winslow Schott.

She'd seen the news about the Toyman, and admittedly felt a pang of regret that the shift in reality had so ill-served such a bright personality. But the man on her balcony doesn't have the manic glee Lena glimpsed in the news footage. Instead, the smile that greets her with a small wave is calm, his gaze steady as he regards her through the glass.

Curiosity spurs Lena to open the door, though she can imagine what has brought a Legionnaire to her doorstep.

"Good to see you're not insane," she greets as Winn steps inside her office. "Or should I be worried about any cymbal-clapping monkeys rolling around here?"

"Har har," he retorts. He turns towards her as though reaching for a friendly hug, but stops short when Lena stiffens and turns away. He diverts his intention by sucking in a deep breath. "Nope, no murderous monkeys this time. But if you're interested, I know a guy."

He clicks his tongue with a wink and a pair of finger guns, and Lena fails to keep a smile from pulling at her lips. Mutual grins linger between them for a long moment, before Winn's fades and Lena remembers herself.

"What are you doing, Lena?"

Lena folds her arms stiffly across her chest, jaw clenching as she squares her shoulders against the accusation that falls softly in the evening shadows.

"Excuse me?"

"Non Nocere? J'onn showed me what almost happened, and Lena-- this is not the way."

Leveling her very best Luthor glare at the Legionnaire. "I'm curious, Agent Schott... do I miraculously survive into the 23rd century?"

Winn blinks, his features scrunching in confusion. "Um-- no...?"

"Then I'm curious as to when we became friends enough that you can presume to know anything about me."

To her surprise, Winn only smiles, even as he ducks his head as though to hide it. "No... I know. We're not friends. In fact it's really my only true regret about going with the Legion."

Lena doesn't understand. Despite the high-octane circumstances of thor previous encounters, they never became personal. Perhaps, over time, they could have been true friends, but Winn had been long gone before Lena was admitted so deep into Kara's circle.

Sensing her confusion, Winn continues.

"Yeah, turns out when people in the future know you used to hang with the OG Supergirl, they want to know everything. Including what you know about her brilliant and beautiful best friend Lena Luthor."

Lena scowls. "Your future has its details wrong. We're not friends."

Winn's lips pull into a grimace. "Yeah. I heard that too."

"If this is some kind of ploy for me to--"

"Kara doesn't know I'm here. She's not that kind of person."

Resentment coils in its nest, deep in her chest. Lena's fingers tighten painfully on her biceps. "Well, I'm sure you have reason to believe that."

Winn's lips pinch together, but he moves on. "Anyway, my point is that those guys knew more about you than I did. And the more I learned trying to catch up, the more  I wished I'd made more of an effort to know you when I had the chance. I mean, I always knew I liked you-- you're AWESOME-- but I didn't realize just how much."

Lena shakes her head. She's had enough lip service to last her a lifetime, anf she has no interest in empty words from Kara's closest friend--let alone one who doesn't look like he'll be abandoning the future to rectify the situation. "We're both intelligent people, Mr. Schott. We both know you're not here to learn my favorite color and braid my hair. And knowing your history with Supergirl and her friends, I'm going to cut to the chase: there's nothing you can say to me tonight or two hundred years from now that will convince me to trust her again." She is done giving second chances. She is done offering her heart to others and having it returned to her in pieces. But Winn regards Lena with a smile that rests on his features with a maturity she doesn't remember seeing before. "The only person you need to trust again is yourself." A jolt arcs clean through Lena's core. It takes all her control not to recoil from the soft accusation, but Winn must see the reflexive flinch, because the next thing she knows, warm hands take her by the shoulders. Somehow the soft touch lays her bare, slicing through the bubble that's surrounded her since the night she killed her brother. Tears spring unbidden to her eyes. "No one can survive as an island. Not even the great Lena Luthor." Winn's own smile turns damp, even as it broadens. "El mayarah." Just like that, Lena's defenses snap back up. She blinks away her sudden emotion, scoffing. "Another load of--" Winn interrupts her curse. "Stronger together isn't just Supergirl's motto," he tells her. "It's L-Corp's too." Lena freezes. L-Corp? That means-- she stares at Winn in question, but he doesn't elaborate. "Non Nocere is not your legacy." He says it with such certainty that Lena can't find any protest within her. "Trust yourself," Winn says, "and you will find your way. Whether or not that way lies with Supergirl is up to you. But if you abandon yourself... you'll be lost forever." She's already lost. Lena knows it, however much she tries to deny. Non Nocere was as much about DOING something as it was about fixing something. It's all the more clear now that her company is Lex's again and she has absolutely nothing to show for the last four years of her life. But maybe it's not gone for good. Maybe Lena has a future ahead of her after all. And now she has a direction in how to get there. "It was good to see you." Winn pulls away, and backs up towards the balcony. When he floats to step onto the rail of the balcony, Lena calls out. "Winn." He pauses, pivoting to face her recklessly enough to make Lena's heart lurch in alarm. She swallows it down, though, and focuses on him rather than the drop at his heels. "Are you really not going to ask why I have the interface cube from your ship?" He's got to have noticed it missing by now. But his eyebrows lift indiscernably. "Do you really think I wouldn't know a piece of 23rd century tech when I see it?" Winn affects an innocent shrug. "I don't know what you're talking about." Leaning against the doorframe, Lena folds her arms with a smirk of her own. "I think I would have liked to know you too, Mr. Schott." Her confession earns a grin, and another wink. "Catch you around, Miss Luthor." With that, Winn spreads his arms wide and simply tips himself backwards, plunging into empty space. Just as a cry catches in Lena's throat, his head pops back into view, gleeful and giggling. "I've always wanted to do that!" And there goes Earth's very own Legionnaire, zooming up towards the cloud covered sky. Lena watches him go, her thoughts racing as swiftly as he flies. In the days that follow, his words continue tumble about Lena's brain. She weighs them carefully, lets them lead down a multitude of potential paths until she settles on the one that suits her best. It's risky, with a high probabilty of failure, but alternatives leave her with more certain, but less favorable outcomes. And there is always one way she can up her odds. She bites the bullet late one evening and knocks loudly on a beige metal door on the rent-controlled side of down. The sound is almost lost in the laughter she can hear from within, but in just a few moments the knob turns and the door opens to reveal Kara Danvers gaping on the other side. "Lena!" she blurts, cheeks flushing. "You're here!" Lena shrugs. "Well, it is second-friday." Game night. Kara steps aside, and Lena deigns to step inside. As she does she, she casts a cursory glance across the stunned faces staring at her. Only Brainy seems to be missing, but his seat is filled neatly by Winn, whose eyes crinkle behind a disguise of glasses and nothing else. Her own seat has been comandeered by William Dey, who regards her with a stare that feels particularly loathsome. Reflexively, Lena does the math since his arrival in National City, and has to swallow the scoff that scrapes up her throat. Kara invites a coworker she hates in a third of the time it took Lena to earn her inclusion. It doesn't surprise Lena. Not now. "Don't worry," she delivers, half to Kara and half to the staring audience. "I'm not here to participate. Not that you're low on numbers." Kara comes even with her, eyes wide and unblinking, as though Lena might disappear in an instant. "Then... why are you here?" she asks. "Is everything okay?" "No," Lena clips shortly. She revels in the flinch she earns. Nothing is okay. Kara knows that. "H-how can we help?" Kara stammers. "You can't. I have a job for Supergirl." William Dey, of all people, is the first to react. "Supergirl doesn't answer to Luthors," he declares, rising to his feet. Before Lena rolls her own eyes, she notes a flash of irritation that travels across Kara's features. Perhaps she still has some spine after all. "The salary we issue to her direct deposit every month says otherwise," Lena drawls. "And I fail to recall where you were invited into the conversation, Mr. Dey." "I'd be happy to relay a message," Kara interjects before Dey could fire back. "What can I tell her?" Lena tilts her head towards Dey. "I'm afraid it's personal." Kara adjusts her glasses. "Oh, um-- I trust him." "That means nothing to me." Again, Lena revels in the way Kara jerks under the pointed barb, cheeks flushing. Lena almost hopes Kara will tell her to fuck off. Having Supergirl's assistance would make her work easier, but she doesn't exactly enjoy the thought of spending the time with her either. In the end, Kara turns to the rest of the room. "We're calling it an early night," she says. "Sorry, William." "You don't have to drop everything just because she--" "Welp, I'm pooped anyway," Nia announces, climbing her feet. "Next time I'm gonna have to take a nap before game night. Really takes it out of you, huh?" "Right," Winn nods. He claps Dey on the shoulder. "Come on, man. There's probably still time to catch a taxi." Nia feigns a bathroom break, giving her a reason to linger as Winn guides Dey out the door. Lena ignores the glare the reporter levels at her on his way out, focusing instead on the way Alex kisses Kelly goodbye and promises to be home as soon as she can. Soon it's only Alex and Kara left. Nia emerges as soon as Dey leaves, and a few minutes later Winn re-enters through Kara's open window. This time, when Lena turns her gaze back to Kara, she finds Supergirl gazing back at her. She's still in civilian clothing, her hair still twisted up like Kara Danvers', but it's the hero whose eyes lock on her, a large presence even as she regards Lena with a gaze that isn't anywhere near accusatory. Interesting. "What do you need?" Supergirl asks. Lena recenters herself with a silent, fortifying breath. "Lex. He's planning something, and I intend to stop him. And I will, with or without your help, but it would be faster with more bodies." She looks at the people who lied to her for years, held her at arm's length even as they made a show of embracing her. She doesn't need them, but to reclaim her legacy, Lena's willing to invite them in. If only enough to remove her brother from the field of play. "Who's interested?"

#sg spoilers #legacy is a lonely color #angst #brotp #lena and winn #titles are hard #reveal fallout

[winslow-schott-4-the-winn]

The 4 Times Winn Schott Tried to Confess, and the One Time Kara Did It First  Part 3/5

Summary: When Clark and Kara haven’t seen each other in a while 

A/N: I am so sorry this took to so long to get up, I just got some writers block in the middle but I know I am going to try my hardest to get the next part up 

It had been a while since Kara and Clark had actually seen each other so they thought it would be nice to hold a little BBQ with both the Danvers and Kents. Sure, Kara brought along Winn, James, Nia, and Brainy but they counted as family at this point. Especially since James was friends with both Kara and Clark. They planned this a week before it even happened, yet when the day came everyone was beyond excited. They all agreed to meet up at Kara’s apartment so they could all drive to Clark’s farm. Kara had been up since 7, getting some snacks and drinks into a bag for the road trip. She also made sure to pack the chargers and books for herself. By the time 8:30 came around, only James and Alex had showed u p to her house. Kara was just about to say something when there was a knock on the door.

“Well, I’ll get that” James said, sending a smile to Kara. He was hoping it would calm her down, anyone could sense how stressed she was. As James opened the door, in walked Brainy and Nia. Nia carried a small picnic basket, a big smile on her face. 

“Sorry we’re late, I got carried away trying to finish these cookies and my mother's famous egg salad. We then stopped by the store to pick up some various food items” she explained as she sat the basket down,Brainy followed by putting down what seemed to be a bag of alcohol. 

“Oh please say that’s whisky” Alex said as she tried to rush over to it, but Kara’s arm stopped her.

“Now is not the time for that” she said before glancing between James and Brainy, “Any news on Winn?’ she asked, putting her hands in her pocket. 

“Well, I heard that he was running by a do-” Brainy started to say until Nia nudged him, giving him a look.

“He’s on his way now, don’t worry” she said as the look turned into a smile. Kara was confused and shrugged it off, 

“Well, let’s get packed up. I think two cars should be enough. I can drive car one and Alex can drive car two” Kara explained as she grabbed her bag.

“Then James and Winn will be riding with me” Alex said, plucking the whisky from the table and heading out the door. James chuckled and shook his head, smiling a bit. 

“I’ll make sure to keep on her, both of them actually” he said before following Alex. Kara and Nia looked at each other with a knowing look,

“Disney music the whole time?” Kara asked and Nia immediately nodded. They high fived before grabbing what they needed and heading down to the cars. When Alex got down to her car, Winn was just pulling up to his. He stepped out of his car before going to the drivers side, pulling you a bag and a box. Kara squealed a bit when she saw him. He couldn’t tell if it was because of him or what was in the box. He didn’t care as long as he gotta see her smile.

“Oh Winn, please tell me you got me some crullers” she said as she walked up to him. He didn’t even put his bag away before opening the box to show her, 

“You know I did,” he said, smiling at her.

“Oh I love you!” she said,l grabbing one before kissing his cheek and heading over to her car. Winn was frozen in shock, his cheeks turning a light shade of pink. James chuckled, putting a hand on Winn’s shoulder, 

“I see someone is slowly getting out of the friendzone,”  he joked. Winn was just speechless, incoherent words came out of his mouth as he tried to process what was going on. This just made James laugh even more. Then, as if on cue there was a car honk. They both turned to see Alex, rolling a window down. 

“Get in losers, we’re going to a bbq”  she said, putting some sunglasses on. Both boys laughed before getting in the car. James took the passenger seat while Winn sat in the back. Of course, he didn’t mind it, he could easily fall asleep if he got tired. 

“Hey Alex, did you hear what Winn did?” James asked, a small smirk on his face.

“Oh no no no, we don’t have to talk about that” Winn said, hoping they might just ignore it.

“No I did not, but do explain” she said, glancing back at Winn through her rearview mirror. 

“He brought your sister some donuts , which earned him a kiss on the cheek”

“Oh really?”

‘Yes but it doesn’t matter, it meant nothing” Winn said, trying to shrug it off. Alex gave him a look through the rearview mirror again. He said, annoyed with how well Alex could read him. “Alright fine… it meant something”

“Oh we know” James said before Alex joined in,

“All of us know about your feelings towards Kara, besides Kara herself. She is just too wrapped up in work and being Supergirl to realise anyone liking her” Winn was just quite the rest of the trip, a blush never leaving his cheeks. It took only three hours to get to the Kent farm, where they all agreed to have the bbq. When Alex, Winn, and James got out of their car Clark and Jereamiah were already at the grill, making various meat items. 

Hi dad, hey Clark” Alex said, walking up to them and hugging them both. Winn helps bring various bags and items. 

“Aw thanks Winn, you’re such a sweetie” Eliza said, unpacking some food from the bags he brought in.

“Of course, anything for you Mrs,Danvers. Anything else I can help you with?” he asked, leaning against the counter a bit. 

“Oh no, I think I’ve got it under control from here but I will be sure to call for you if I need any help”  she said before Winn left to go sit with James in the living room. They spent most of the time watching a movie while waiting for some food, soon enough everyone was called outside. There was a few tables with chairs,

“You guys serve yourselves and sit wherever” Clark said as he helped Lois set up a few things at the table. Winn went up, beyond excited to eat the cheeseburger. He grabbed a few before grabbing an empty chair, the chair beside him was soon filled by Kara. 

“Hey Winn”

“Oh hey Kara, how’s the bbq been so far?” he asked, striking up a conversation as he ate his burger. He hummed in content at the first bite, he knew Clark could cook but he didn;t think it would taste that good. Kara noticed and laughed a bit, 

“Is it that good?” she asked, taking a bite of her hot dog. 

“Oh it’s amazing!” he said before taking another bite from the burger. Kara justed watched in enjoyment as the boy beside her devoured his burger, she couldn't help but smile at his reaction. 

“So Kara, how’s your love life?”  ELiza asked as she ate some potato salad. Kara just laughed, shaking her head before putting a strawberry into her mouth.

“My love life is basically nonexistent. I’ve been focusing on my work” 

“So there’s no one who peaks your interest?” her mom asks as she starts to eat some of the steak off her plate. Clearly she had someone in mind but she wasn’t wanting to say it. 

“No, Eliza, there isn’t anyone” Kara responded, being adamant that Eliza would listen to her. Eliza sighed a bit, sticking some steak in her mouth. Then, various conversations went around the table and Winn would jump in at certain moments. The dinner finally ended and everyone beside Winn and Kara went inside to play various board games. Winn had thought he was outside by himself, wanting the time to look up at the stars. But when he heard the sound of shoe’s against the pavement, he looked over. That’s when he saw Kara with her cardigan wrapped around her.  

“I’m assuming you’re out here for the stars too?” she asked, walking up to her. He chuckled, looking back up. 

“Of course I am. I am Agent Schott afterall, protector of the stars”  Kara chuckled and tried not to lean against Winn, although she kinda wanted to. 

“So, what do you see?” she asked, trying to spark a conversation. 

“Well, do you see that right there?” he asked, pointing to a point at the sky. She squinted a bit, sighing when she couldn’t see it, “Come here” he said, gesturing for Kara to come to him. She nibbled on her bottom lip before she moved to stand in front of him. He was honestly shocked, he didn’t expect for Kara to actually move over to him. But he did put her arms around her slightly before lifting one arm up to the sky again. “Well, do you see that right there?” he asked. He could feel the small smile grow in her face, 

“Yeah, it’s a constellation. Right?” he asked, not moving from between Winn’s arms. 

“Yeah, it’s actually the Little Dipper, in Ursa Minor.”

“Oh yeah, I can see it,” she said, not moving from her spot. 

“If you follow the star at the tip of the handle…” His finger moved as he spoke. “You can find the Big Dipper, in Ursa Major. And between the two is Draco.”

“Malfoy?”  Winn laughed.

“Well, it is what he’s named after.” he said. 

“Wait really?” she said, looking back at him. Although she had to look up a little bit, with Winn being just 2 inches taller than her. Winn laughed and shrugged, 

“I honestly don’t know but it’s a safe assumption. They got the name Beetlejuice from the Betelgeuse star” 

“God you're such a nerd” she said, chuckling while turning to face him. She forgot she was between his arms before they were nose to nose. They both felt their breathing hitch a bit but they didn’t move. Winn found himself glancing down at Kara’s lips. He wished he had the confidence to actually try to kiss her but instead he cleared her throat. 

“Yeah so...I have something to say,” he said, gaining enough confidence to admit something. Her eyebrow quirked a bit, he opened his mouth to say something till they heard the sliding door open. 

“Kara honey, could you please come in. Nia and James want smores and it’s too windy for a fire”  Eliza said, getting Kara’s attention.

“Uh… I gotta go” she said in a hushed tone before snaking her way out of Winn’s arms and heading inside. Winn sighed, his eyes following her inside. When Kara got inside, she was soon asked questions from her mother. 

“What was happening out there sweetie?”

“I..uh.. I actually don’t know” she said, trying to ignore the blush on her cheeks. 

“Your blush tells a different story,” Alex said from her spot at the counter, taking a sip of wine after she spoke.

#winnara #supergirl #winn schott #kara danvers #i will go down with this ship

[notwritinganyflufftoday]

How to Break Every Rule in The Caretaker’s Handbook: Excerpt

The First (of many?) Group Sessions with Sunflare

Characters: Dewdrop, Fifi, Helia (mentioned), Plume, Sunflare, Violet

Themes: how to keep an open mind, reminiscing, character study

Words: 1297

"I'm only here to observe," Sunflare says while hanging off my arm. It's the third time he repeats himself and I still don't know what he wants to hear from me.

Maybe he just wants to turn back to spend time together in the privacy of my room. I won't lie, that does sound tempting, but we shouldn't right now.

I tug Sunflare along the road to the meeting place and sense his ever-growing resistance as he starts dragging his feet. I stop in my tracks and turn to him.

Placing both of my hands on his shoulders, I say: "My Sunbeam, no one is gonna force you to talk, but I would really appreciate it if you could go into this with an open mind and don't be afraid to voice your opinions."

"I can't make you any promises," Sunflare fixes me that warm, 'you're so irritating but I like you regardless' look and sighs, "but I'll try my best to be open-minded today."

"That's all I can hope for."

"Now let's go before I change my mind."

I let go of his shoulders and lead him further into the garden. I feel his hand slip into mine, oh so naturally, and suddenly it's like we're young saplings again, exploring our world with a naïve sense of wonder. Our adventures would last hours or even days if we were lucky. They always left me more energised, but in hindsight, I think Sunflare had trouble keeping up with me.

Our adventure in the garden lasts only a few minutes before we reach a clearing where the others are already waiting for us. Fifi's sitting behind Violet, braiding little daisies in her hair. Plume lies down in the grass beside them, one foot sticking up in the air, twirling idly in circles.

"Do I wanna know where Helia is?" I ask, as countless doom-scenarios fill my mind.

Violet opens her mouth to speak, but Plume is faster, "No, but she's gonna regret she missed you bringing your beau over."

My attention is pulled back to my hand still holding Sunflare's. I inconspicuously slip my hand out of his hold in favour of crossing my arms. I ignore Plume's remark and turn to Violet. "What were you about to say, Violet?"

Violet smiles like she bit into a sour plum and says, "Well, it's just, Helia told me to tell you that she's, um, busy reading a book."

"Wow, she really didn't even try with that lie, did she?" Plume comments dryly and receives a punch from Violet in the shoulder along with distressed shushing noises.

They're acting as if I haven't already figured out how Helia works. If I didn't know her any better, I'd assume this was indeed a poorly crafted lie, but Helia very well may be reading a book right now...  in the library... from which she is banned to enter. Well, if she manages to break in, then I'm sure she'll worm her way out of trouble as well.

I let all thoughts and worries about Helia drift from my mind (for now) and sit down cross-legged on the grass. It takes only a few moments and a couple of looks from Violet and Fifi, for me to realise Sunflare is still standing up, like his feet are frozen to the ground.

"You can sit down, you know," Plume says without looking. Even though they've switched which foot to stick in the air, the twirling motion never stops. It’s a nervous tic, but who it’s making more nervous I don’t know. Plume, Sunflare or me?

Sunflare focuses his dark brown eyes on me and for a split-second I struggle to breathe.

"Where do you want me to sit?"

It's difficult to hear him speak when his voice gets soft like that, but not impossible.

I reply, "Sit wherever you want."

"On the grass?"

"Did you expect us to sit on chairs placed in a neat circle or something?" My question is 90 percent sarcasm, but from the way Sunflare stays quiet, I realise that yes, he did think that. "Never mind, just..." I end my sentence by patting the empty spot on the grass next to me.

I don't even need to look at Sunflare to know he's on edge. The tension is so thick it practically radiates off of him. After what seems like ages, he obliges, but the tension doesn't let up.

I decide not to waste anymore time with idle chatter and jump right into this meeting.

"Violet, why don't you start," I suggest, "I believe you had something you wanted to discuss during this session?"

"Right, right," She mutters. It's clear she hasn't prepared what she's planning to say yet, but she makes a valiant attempt anyway. "I've, uh, been having a bit of trouble with Nia lately. She's really excited about going to college and all, but I think she's been taking on too much stuff, you know? I just know it's gonna take a toll on her physical and mental well-being in the long run, but... I really don't know how I can broach the topic without bursting the happy bubble she's in." Her eyes make contact with Sunflare and she needlessly adds, "Nia's my human by the way."

"I figured as much," replies Sunflare.

Plume puffs their cheeks and groans as if listening to the problems of others is the greatest kind of punishment they could suffer through. "I think you should just rip off the band-aid and give her a reality check."

Fifi, who's only been observing up till now, shakes her head vigorously. "Slow down." She gestures by trailing her index finger up her arm. "There's more to consider before offering advice."

Plume has a tendency to ignore Fifi, purely because they don't look at others when speaking. However, Fifi makes a good point, so I reiterate what she said to Plume.

Plume's foot stops moving for a moment and they open their eyes. "Sorry, Fifi."

She raises her thumb. "It's okay."

"Anything else you want to add, Fifi?"

"Nia is taking on too much stuff, how come?" She directs this question to Violet.

"Oh, well, she's taken up art classes again and sighed up to be a student council member. On top of that she has to balance her actual classes. It's only the beginning of the semester so she doesn't have too many assignments yet, but... she will soon."

"Is it possible that you might be getting worried a bit prematurely?" I ask.

"No offense, Dewdrop, but her human has a history of frequent hospital stays and health scares. She has every right to be concerned," Plume interjects.

I raise my hands up in defense, "Hold on, Plume, I was merely considering the possibility."

"And it isn't possible, obviously," Plume snaps in return. Something is clearly going on with them, but confronting them right here and now about their negative attitude would be the singlemost foolish thing to do.

Plume will have to talk eventually (I hope) and my focus now should be on de-escalating the conversation and bring it back to the topic at hand. 

I wonder what Sunflare is thinking about all of this. I'm slightly surprised he hasn't attempted to run away yet, considering how tense he was at the start of this. Furthermore, he's always been terrified of even the slightest hint of a conflict brewing. And Plume is singlehandedly brewing up a storm.

But instead of meeting a frightened little sapling, I'm greeted by a seasoned caretaker who has seen his fair share of conflict over the many centuries he's been alive. The expression on Sunflare's face is a far cry from fear, it's interest and a hint of amusement.

"What's so funny?" I lean in to whisper to him.

"Seems like keeping an open mind to consider all possibilities isn't doing you any favours, is it?"

***

Taglist: @theramwrites, @giosele

#wip: how to break every rule in tch #wip: htberitch #oc dewdrop #my writing #wip excerpt #extra scene that won't make it into the story #group therapy-esque scene to get to know my ocs #character study #unedited writing #sorry for any typos

[yume-x-hanabi]

Echoing Song ~Kresnik Fragments~ (4th Night)

This is a translation of the fourth short story from the Tales of Xillia 2 Official World Guidance book. Prepare tissues.

--

The World Riding On A See-Saw

“Aah! I’m against tomatoes!” Elle’s tantrum could be heard all throughout the vegetable corner.

“They’re not just tomatoes, they’re cherry tomatoes. Aren’t they cute? You should try them at least once.”

“Boo! I won’t get tricked by a cute name!”

“Hey! Stop yelling, it’s embarrassing!”

Ludger and Elle both turned to me at the same time. “You’re the loudest one here.”

A nearby client snorted. My cheeks turned red. “You’re the ones who’re making me raise my voice!”

“Meow...” Rollo seemed to sigh in his carrier.

It had been a while since Spirius gave us a break. I was dragged on grocery shopping with Ludger and Elle.

Ludger looked like he was having fun as he pushed the cart around. Didn’t he have anything better to do on his rare holidays? … Well, not like I’m one to talk.

Setting foot in Trigleph’s giant supermarket was a shocking experience. A staggering amount of food was lined up in this stupidly huge building, in which more than ten times the total population of Nia Khera came and went to do their shopping. And perhaps the most incredible was that the food was replenished as soon as it was sold.

I had no idea there was such a world outside of Rieze Maxia… No, it was more that I had severed my ties to that world when I received my mission, because everything about the food lined up here—its production, export, sale—was based on devices using spyrix technology.

“Why do you hate tomatoes so much?” Ludger asked Elle.

“Because they’re all squishy and mushy.”

“But you like eggs, don’t you? Aren’t they squishy and mushy as well?”

They continued their chit-chat, ignoring how I was lost in thought. It was hard to believe this was an agent who destroyed worlds.

“Don’t compare eggs and tomatoes! It��s an affront to eggs!”

Elle tried to sound mature—and where did she learn that kind of expression anyway?—but the effect was a bit lost with her brown pigtails bouncing.

“Do you even know what an affront is?”

“I-I know! It’s when you make fun of someone.”

“Hmm. If you say so.”

“Hey! That’s an affront to me!”

Oh, so she understood after all. When you thought she was just trying to have the last word, it turned out she actually got the essential part down.

Ludger and Elle’s argument eventually settled on the decision to make rice omelette for dinner. In other words, Elle won. She marched toward the egg’s aisle with a triumphant look on her face.

“How soft.”

“Hm? Oh, she wants the sauce to be demi-glace. Instead of the usual, she asked me to cover the rice with a soft, fluffy omelet, like a bride’s lacy dress. She saw it on TV, apparently.”

“Not the food. You.”

Ludger’s eyes clouded from my brusque words. “That’s not true,” he answered bitterly.

I suddenly felt like water filled my lungs. …Ah, right. There was no way he was soft.

After all, you deceived me, killed my sister, and destroyed my world. What’s the point of acting humble now? It’s not like I’d ever forgive you. You, whose job is to destroy other people’s worlds. I’ll never forgive—

“Ludger! I found cheap eggs!”

The icy tension between Ludger and I was broken by Elle’s innocent voice. She was running toward us holding a pack of eggs.

“Look! It’s only 20 gald for a pack of six!”

“Don’t run! It’s dangerous.”

Just when Ludger yelled that, Elle ran into a cart pushed by a middle-aged woman.

“Elle!!” I screamed.

Packs of food and vegetables fell on the floor in slow-motion.

 Fortunately, Elle’s only injuries were slightly scrapped knees. However, Ludger was forced to pay for the food that was ruined due to her carelessness.

“You’re really stupid!” I told Elle. Relief turned my worry into anger.

We were sitting on a bench on the place in front of the supermarket. Elle’s clothes were sticky with egg yolk, and she looked dejected. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. At least you didn’t get hurt,” Ludger replied, wiping her shirt with a towel. He was being soft again.

Dude, that’s not how… Wait, why am I feeling so shaken?

“But you learned a lesson, didn’t you? Be more aware of your surroundings next time.”

“…Okay.”

I gasped.

Sparks ignited through my head. This was just like… just like the words of my sister when she protected me from Exodus fifteen years ago.

“You learned a lesson, didn’t you? You have to be more careful, Milla.”

“But… Muzét… Your eyes…”

Stop! Is this a joke!? It’s just eggs! Muzét lost her light because of that injury! That’s why she started hating me and she…

She…

“Unfortunately, the omelette will have to wait. …I’m broke.”

“You need to work, right? I’ll help!”

Like mirrors, the two smiled at each other.

“It’s not funny! Think of how it’d feel to be destroyed for some omelette!” Before I knew it, I had started screaming. “Destroying worlds! That’s what you mean by ‘work’!!”

“W-What’s wrong, Milla?” Elle asked in a shaky voice.

When I came to my senses, I was running through the streets aimlessly. There was nowhere I could go in this spyrix-infested world. My chest felt like it was going to burst open, but I couldn’t stop running.

 I knew what they were going through. I didn’t want to understand, but I did.

I kept screaming in my mind, and after running around for a while, I ended up at the park in front of Ludger’s apartment building. There was a long shadow basked in sunset. It looked silly, trembling along my unsteady breathing.

“Well, of course. It’s my shadow after all.”

I felt so tired… I sat down on a see-saw.

“In the end, there’s nowhere I can go…”

I sat alone in a city of steel and stone and spyrix.

An unknown city. Unknown people. An unknown world. The only thing that felt real was the warmth of my knees as I hugged them to my chest.

The shadow at my feet smiled faintly. “Haven’t you always been alone?” it said.

Back in Nia Khera, I knew the believers’ faces, but not their names. I didn’t know anything—not the meaning of my mission nor the true shape of the world. I didn’t know anything, did I?

“…No!”

I had a sister. A kind sister.

The shadow swayed eerily and whispered. “But that Muzét died because of you.”

No!

“Because you betrayed her.”

No!

“You killed her.”

No!

“She died hating you.”

No, no, no!!

I gasped. The shadow swirled and from its center came out my sister’s silhouette. I held my breath. Blood oozed from her mouth. A lance was sticking out from her chest and she glared at me, screaming…

“Milla!”

Something warm appeared by my side suddenly and called my name.

I raised my head and saw my red-eyed reflection in wide turquoise eyes. Elle’s face was so close I was startled. She looked like she wanted to say something but didn’t know how to word it. What a silly face. Heh heh heh… It’s funny how her feelings showed on her face, clear as day.

The moment I let out a breath, Elle jumped into my arms and hugged me. Just like that time when my world shattered.

“Don’t worry me like that! I thought you disappeared for good!”

Why was she angry? It didn’t make any sense. But…

“…I’m sorry.” I found myself apologizing, though I did not know what for.

The piece of board holding me and Elle creaked and lifted us in the air.

“Uwah!” Elle squealed excitedly, clinging to me.

On the other side of the see-saw were Ludger and Rollo. He looked like he wanted to say something but didn’t know how to word it. Pfft, peas in a pod, those two.

“Milla, the see-saw!” Elle adjusted her posture in my lap and rocked her body.

How complacent. The shadow sneered again. Playing with those who robbed you of—Yes, you’re right. I know that, painfully. But… Still…

“You know, that’s the first time I ride a see-saw!” Elle exclaimed.

My reflection in her turquoise eyes smiled.

I started rocking the see-saw vigorously, stomping on the shadow with all my force.

“Me too, actually!”

The world swayed, Elle laughed.

Ludger started humming a funny song following the rhythm of the see-saw going up and down. Elle joined him. How carefree, Mr. world-destroying agent. But that song felt nostalgic, as though I had heard it before… Should I start humming too? Only if I feel like it.

Ludger and Rollo. Elle and I. Back and forth. Up and down. The “world” riding on a see-saw in the corner of a city colored in dusk did indeed seem balanced.

 Extract from Spirius Corporation archives

Name: Ludger Will Kresnik

Address: Frères Apartments, Room 302, Trigleph

Date of birth: Primia 4285

Home situation: Foundling. Deposited at Zorya General Hospital, Trigleph. Family register and parents’ names unknown. Raised in Rodo Private Orphanage. Adopted in Primia 4290. Dependent of Julius Will Kresnik (foster brother).

Information compiled by: Julius Will Kresnik, Examiner

* P.S.: Evidence of tampering with the above data was found. Permission to investigate granted.

Signed, Vera Lou Leshy CEO’s Secretary

#tales of xillia 2 #fractured milla #ludger will kresnik #elle mel marta #yume translations #i cried while translating this