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findmeabowlofundertale · 3 months

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PART 7 IS HERE

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It might be the longest yet but to be completely honest I have no idea. So uhhhh read it when you have plenty of time bc I thrive on reactions there’s a lot of important stuff in here, just like with part 6.

I took tons of inspiration from many, many sources. I feel like I should have a works cited page or something haha ^^;;

But yeah, as usual there will be notes at the end.

I really wanted to give a better progression of time, but between part 6 and this one, not gonna lie, I got a little mixed up moving things around. So. Sorry, as usual, for the lack of realistic relationship progression. (Though, it has been several weeks for them…) It should be slower, but for one, I’m excited, and for two, when you don’t spend much time around others and then suddenly meet some you really click with, you can get attached pretty fast. I just want them to be good friends already! Realism be darned, this is primarily for myself, so… yeah. Anyway, enjoy(?)

- - - -

Hey! I was just checking if tomorrow was still a good day to meet? <

> HELLO. YES. TOMORROW STILL WORKS FOR ME

> ALPHYS WOULD LIKE TO JOIN US. BUT IS TOO SHY TO ASK.

A new message in a different conversation popped up on Asteri’s phone. It was from Alphys. She opened it.

> HI PLS IGNORE WHATEVER DR G IS SENDIGN

She rolled her eyes with a good-natured sigh.

Alphys chill. You’re welcome to join us if you want. <

Back to Gaster.

I let her know I’d be happy to have her. <

> THANK YOU

> SHE JUST GETS LIKE THIS. SOMETIMES

No problem. See you tomorrow! <

Tomorrow she was finally going to ask him why he texted like that. Her phone dinged. Alphys again.

> If ur like totally sure! I dont wanna impose

You’re not imposing. <

Besides I think I worked out some of the Japanese from the books you guys found. I found a few things in the dump that helped. I wanna run it by you, if you’re free. <

> OMG REALLY?!?

> Ok yeah i’ll totally be there!!

> Happy to help!

Turning it around as an invitation seemed to work well. Asteri smiled. She almost put her phone down, but then an idea struck her.

Can you do me another favor, actually? <

Tell me what you two have eaten lately. <

The typing message came, went away, returned, and went away again several times before Alphys answered.

> well uhh haha so he tried making pasta last week i guess but it didn’t turn out, so he’s just been bringing in the leftovers and “forgetting” them in the break room fridge??

> I was going to eat some so it didn’t go to waste but

> asteri it’s So Bad

> so

> Idk

> but theres been a new box of donuts in here like every day so…

Asteri dragged her wing down her face.

How good of friends do you have to be with someone before you can strangle them <

> LMAO

> u want me to ask him?

Asteri sat up straight in her chair.

DO NOT TELL HIM I SAID THAT <

> LOLLL ok i won’t

Alphys I MEAN IT. <

I don’t want him to take it the wrong way. <

> lmao i won’t tell him don’t worry

> don’t think you can strangle a skeleton anyway

I doubt it. Not when their heads can come off <

> hIS WHAT

Asteri grimaced. Whoops.

My bad I thought you would have known about it considering what happened <

> wHAT DO YOU MEAN CONSIDERING WHAT HAPPENED

She snorted a laugh.

> ASTERI

Apparently skeletons come apart. <

They can move their bodies from their head but if they go too far they lose control of one or the other. And apparently one time he tested that without warning anyone ahead of time and got too far from his head so it was just his body wandering around blind until he ran into someone and freaked them out <

> Oh My God

> I wanna say ur joking but that would literally be just like him

Ask him if he knows he dropped a phalange in the break room and see how long it takes him to tell you that story <

> asdjklf;hsk I can’t just say that!!!!

Trust me he’s way too excited to talk about it. <

If it goes badly you can say I dared you. <

> omg ok i’ll do it

Asteri chuckled and put her phone down. Alphys was a lot of fun to talk to. They had kept in touch since the dump, since she was more adept at texting than Gaster. He absolutely texted like an old man. Which was hilarious considering that he had absolutely no excuse for being out of touch with technology. He quite literally worked with it every single day. Well, who knew? Maybe he just wasn’t one for written communication. After all, people wrote much differently than they spo—

Wait, no, that really didn’t make sense for him.

…Is that how he would talk, if he spoke aloud? Geez.

She shook her head and got up. Not worth thinking about. She should go get her notes on Japanese in order for Alphys.

⁂

Bread was shoved against Gaster’s chest.

“Sandwich.”

He looked down at the plastic baggie-covered-sandwich and took it, then gave a grateful but confused smile. “Thank you, but… why?”

Asteri didn’t have arms to cross, and her wings were too big, but she approximated the gesture well enough and her tail flicking in agitation against the red rock beneath her made her mood clear. “Because I said I would start bringing you food if you didn’t eat.”

A startled, somewhat indignant noise caught in his metaphorical throat as he straightened in mild offense. “I made pasta when I got home last time!”

“Did you eat it?”

The silence and the way his eyelights immediately flitted away were answer enough even if Alphys hadn’t filled her in yesterday.

“Gaster!” she scolded.

He threw his arms in the air and signed with a blue pair of hands that blinked into existence instead. “It was inedible!”

“It can’t have been that bad.” Surely nobody who had been alive this long didn’t have basic cooking skills. No matter what Alphys said.

“H-Hi, um, am- am I interrupting?”

The very same lizard had walked up to them without either of them realizing. Gaster lit up, though more in triumph than delight. “Not at all.”

“Hey! Good to see you again,” Asteri greeted. “You’re just in time to watch me lecture an old man.”

Gaster made another offended noise. “I am not the only monster who fought in the war, you know!”

“Alright, fair enough,” Asteri conceded. “But you’re the only one of my friends who has, so I’m teasing you about it.”

The finger he had held up in anticipation of giving a rebuttal drooped as the indignation melted away, and a slight smile pulled at his expression instead, eyes flicking away with a hint of green. He still wasn’t used to being called anyone’s friend.

Asteri looked down at Alphys. “Did you get some of it?”

The lizard monster nodded and pulled a container out of her bag. Monster food didn’t spoil, so the fact that it was a week and a half old didn’t matter, fortunately. Which was not the case with human food, as Alphys had learned the hard way from scavenging at the dump. She handed the container over. Gaster’s flattered smile immediately disappeared, replaced with dawning horror.

“Asteri.”

She manifested a green hand.

“Asteri, wait.”

She took the lid off. Well… no, it decidedly didn’t smell great, but…

“Asteri, please! Do not eat that. It is inedible.”

She huffed and swung her head back over to look at him in mild annoyance. “It cannot be that bad. Look. I’m a decent cook, so I’ll try it and give you some tips on what could be improved. I’m not going to judge you.”

That was a lie, she had already judged him a little bit.

He looked mortified. “I am begging you.”

Asteri raised an eyebrow and glanced at Alphys for input. She gave an awkward smile, so stretched it was more like a grimace. “I-It’s, um…” The question put her in an uncomfortable position between her two friends.

“Alphys, tell her! It is horrendous! Nobody could eat that!”

“Oh come on! Nobody can be that bad at cooking. It’s PASTA, how bad could it possibly be?”

“BAD! It’s terrible! You will take damage from that penne!”

Asteri scoffed. “You can’t accidentally put malicious intent into food, now I know you’re exaggerating.”

Alphys looked back and forth between them, growing increasingly anxious as they argued, until finally she screwed her eyes shut and clutched her bag and blurted, “Okay, i-it’s awful!”

They both turned to look at her again. There was a beat of silence before Gaster lit up in a triumphant grin.

“See?!”

Asteri made a face. “Hmph. Well, even if it somehow does deal damage, I’ve got plenty of HP.”

A green, drippy hand reached into the container and picked up a fistful of pasta. The two scientists looked on in terror as she opened her mouth and tossed it in. She chewed. They held their breaths. She swallowed.

There was silence at first. The anticipation was tangible. She closed her eyes, took a breath, then opened them again.

“How do you two feel about heading to my place?”

Alphys blinked. “O-Oh! Sure…?? I-I don’t mind the walk.”

“I am not opposed,” Gaster agreed, slightly confused.

“Good. Because I’m teaching you two how to cook. My god, that is the worst thing I’ve ever tasted.”

⁂

The attempt ended four and half hours later with the three of them covered in sauce stains and on the kitchen floor. Asteri held her face in her wings, Gaster was face-down, and Alphys was flopped over onto her side, staring at the various spills and the overturned pan and bowl across the floor from her.

Asteri raised her head and stared upward. There was a splatter of something on the ceiling. She heaved a sigh. “Terrible job everyone. But at least we tried. Let’s get this cleaned up.”

With a grunt, Alphys righted herself. “Okay…”

“Gaster, are you conscious?”

The man didn’t move at all, but a pair of blue hands manifested above him. “Unfortunately.”

“Alright, well, get up. This is no time for embarrassment. You’re helping clean.”

He sighed silently but obeyed, pushing himself up from the ground and onto his knees. His glasses were barely hanging onto his face. He made no effort to correct this. “I am so sorry about this mess. What can I do?”

Asteri stood and dusted herself off with her wings, then gestured upward with her tail. “Help me wipe that splatter off the ceiling.”

He craned his neck to look where she was pointing. “Ah...” How did they even manage that?

She looked around, utterly overwhelmed by the chaos her kitchen had descended into. “Alphys, can you get the dishes in the sink? Then we can collect the rest of the dishes, and… ugh, wait, no. There’s the pans. And I didn’t put away the plates on the drying rack. Uh, okay. I can get the counters, but the leftover ingredients that are still good can… no, um. The rags are… But first, the floor. No.”

There was nowhere to put anything, and stuff was everywhere, and there was ruined food to scoop up, and good food to find containers for, and she needed to find a bucket for the mop, and… This was too overwhelming.

“Th-There’s containers with lids in that cupboard, but the fridge is… If you, uh…”

It was exhausting to even think about. Looking at it just drained her. All she wanted to do was sit back down, but then the spills would just dry and get even harder to clean. She didn’t know how this had even happened. She was exhausted from trying to keep the both of them on track, and as patient as she was, it had run out after two or three hours of damage control. This was so far beyond reckoning, she was beginning to shut down. If she didn’t get a grip, she was going to end up crying in frustration, and nobody needed that right now—

“Asteri.”

She turned her head. Gaster had approached without her having noticed until she saw his hands move. Whatever dismayed look was on her face must have been bad, because he set a hand on the closest thing she had to a shoulder and looked at her with an level of concern she really, really wished she didn’t warrant. He shouldn’t have to worry about her, this was her idea, and… and…

He looked into her eyes, his own flared in a deep blue, almost indigo. She couldn’t seem to look away. They burned like fire magic, warm and captivating. There were shades of blue she didn’t even know existed. The colors danced like flames, swirled like milk in coffee. The stress bled out of her. Her posture relaxed; She felt… calm. Serene.

The color in his eyes slowly faded, and he smiled softly.

“Do not worry about it. Let us clean up our mess.”

“How did you do that?” Asteri asked, a bit hazy, as he steered her to a seat at her kitchen table.

He signed something with his blue hands that she didn’t recognize first, then realized his mistake. “Lighting our eyes with color, or—” He repeated the sign, which she interpreted as “eyeglowing”— “was one way skeletons expressed certain emotions, but it was also how we calmed each other. It was context-sensitive. I was unsure if it would work with you,” he admitted, rubbing the back of his head a bit sheepishly, “but I acted instinctively.”

“It was really nice,” she murmured, leaning forward on the table until her head was resting against her wings. “Made me tired though.”

“It simply calmed you enough to realize that you were already tired.”

“Mm…”

He stepped away. “Just rest.”

“But there’s so much…”

“Alphys and I have cleaned up far worse.” Several more pairs of blue hands manifested around him once he reached the center of her kitchen.

“D-Definitely,” the younger woman chimed in. She wasn’t thrilled to be cleaning up the entire kitchen, but could tell Asteri needed to sit this one out. “Me and Dr. Gaster got this.”

“Technically,” Asteri mumbled into her wing, “‘t’s “Dr. Gaster ‘nd me.””

Alphys stared at her and ignored the correction. “Where are your dish towels, Asteri?” she sighed instead.

The shapeshifter pointed to a drawer with her tail.

She then watched as each of Gaster’s several floating hands went about doing something different, all while he stood in place, real hands folded behind his back except to levitate a few heavier things to different places. Alphys worked on whatever he wasn’t doing at a given moment. They worked in perfect sync, like they had done this dozens of times before. It was fascinating to watch.

They were finished within an hour. It passed in a blur.

“Thank you guys so much,” Asteri said once they finished. “I really appreciate it.”

“It was the least we could do after making such a mess.”

“I know we were going to talk linguistics, Alphys,” she said as she sat up and stretched, “but I don’t think I have the mental energy for it. Do you guys want to watch a movie instead?”

“I can’t remember the last time I watched a film,” Gaster mused. “I would like that.”

“Y-Yeah, a movie sounds nice!”

Asteri stood. “I don’t have much to eat though… I’m sorry.”

“I-I can make sandwiches, if, um, i-if you don’t mind. That’s not really cooking, so…”

“That’s fine with me. Here, I’ll help. I can do that much as a host, at least. Gaster, do you want to look through the movies I’ve got?”

Once they finished making the sandwiches, they met Gaster in the living room. After agreeing on a movie, they sat on the couch, Asteri in the middle. Too tired and distracted with the film starting, she forgot she had wanted to try to watch how Gaster ate. Oh well. She was exhausted. She didn’t last much past the halfway point of the movie, soon thereafter conking out and beginning to slump over. Being much taller than Alphys, the shorter woman had to keep pushing her back up.

“Doctor,” she hissed after the third time. He startled, having been completely engrossed in the film, and looked to his coworker. “Doctor, c-can you help, please?? She keeps falling over.”

“Oh! Yes, my apologies, Alphys.”

It would have been easier to turn her SOUL blue and pull her upright, but this wasn’t a battle, and she wasn’t conscious so he couldn’t ask her if it was alright. So instead, he turned and carefully clasped her not-quite-shoulders, then gently pulled her upright. She started to fall over again as soon as he began to let go, though, so he tilted her towards himself instead. Her head fell limply against his shoulder. She sighed in her sleep, but otherwise did not stir.

Alphys watched the way he smiled down at her before turning his attention back to the movie, noticed the way Asteri settled against him, and she smirked.

The movie ended after midnight, and the two reluctantly woke Asteri up to bid her goodbye. She was only half-awake, but thanked them for coming and told them to be careful on the way home. In the back of her mind, she realized she had ended up leaned on Gaster’s shoulder, but told herself not to think about it too hard and went to bed.

⁂

In lieu of the cooking lesson disaster, Asteri and Alphys met up at the former’s house on a different day to go over Asteri’s notes on Japanese.

“I am s-so sorry about, um, a-about the other day,” Alphys stammered as they approached the house. “I d-didn’t even! I-I didn’t even kn-know cooking c-could go… l-like that.”

“Honestly, neither did I,” Asteri said grimly, holding the door open for her friend. “But it was nice of you two to clean up for me. I appreciate it immensely.”

“I-It was mostly him! Thank goodness f-for blue magic, right?”

“And multiple pairs of hands.”

“O-Oh, r-right!” Alphys chimed as they walked through her front room. “You never saw him with a bunch of hands before, right?”

Asteri led her into a room toward the back of the house, something like an office, where she kept her notes. This room had magical fire burning in a few alcoves to lower the humidity. She flipped the lights on.

“Yeah, I didn’t know he could summon that many,” she mused. “He had three summoned when he showed me green magic, but I assumed that was about the limit. I didn’t expect— what was that? Ten?”

“Y-Yeah, I think ten is- is it. I think he f-felt really bad about the mess, so…”

Asteri gestured to a chair if Alphys wanted to sit, and sighed as she dropped into her own seat at the desk. “Yeah, I know. I told him it was fine, though. I hope he didn’t push himself for my sake.”

The lizard monster plopped into the offered chair and waved a hand. “He’s fine. Just, um, y-y’know, he gets. Self-conscious.”

“I do know that,” Asteri mumbled with a knowing sigh, sitting at her desk.

Alphys’ eyebrows furrowed. “W-Why, um, w-why did he need three extra hands to show you green magic, though?”

The memory of the skeleton shrugging out of his dark coat and yanking his sweater all the way up to his armpits brought heat back to her face. She pushed the feeling down and managed to maintain an otherwise calm expression. “We were discussing SOUL magic, which I wasn’t familiar with since I don’t make a habit of fighting. He said that because we didn’t know each other very well, he didn’t want to use it on me. I didn’t understand, um… turning a SOUL a certain color, so he…” She swallowed, beginning to struggle not to look as embarrassed as she felt by the memory. It wasn’t a big deal, it was educational. Surely it would be more embarrassing to make it a big deal to a scientist of all people. She shrugged as casually as she could manage. “…He showed me.”

Alphys’ eyes turned into dinner plates and she giggled incredulously. “He turned his own SOUL green and SHOWED you?!”

Asteri’s whole face flushed. “I-It stayed in his body!!”

Alphys was grinning, claws over her mouth. “Oh my god.”

“It was purely educational!”

“Did he- D-Did he, like, take his shirt off??”

“He pulled it up,” Asteri muttered. “But it wasn’t a big deal, alright‽”

“You’re preeeeetty defensive f-for it not being a big deal, Asteri,” Alphys teased.

“I-I just didn’t know what to expect! It’s not like I’d seen a skeleton’s body before!”

Alphys wiggled her eyebrows. “Why’re you blushing so hard then?”

“BECAUSE I SAW THE MAN’S SOUL, ALPHYS! That’s not exactly an experience I’m accustomed to having with someone!” She sighed and rubbed her face with her wing, tail reaching over to grab her papers.

Fortunately, Alphys dropped it, though the smirk didn’t quite disappear.

“Here. Look. These are some words I believe I have the meanings of.” Asteri shoved a handful of papers at her with her tail. “But since you’re familiar with the actual speech, I was hoping you could help me by giving me the pronunciation of any words you know. Then, once I know which letters make which sounds, hopefully we can meet again and compare what else I’ve transliterated. The writing has almost no spaces, so I can’t tell where words end and begin. I was hoping you would be able to help with that once we make some progress.”

“A-Ah, okay!” Alphys shuffled through the papers. “Um, so you have the word for “goodbye,” and I know that one!” She held the paper out and pointed to it. “It’s, um, “sayonara.””

Asteri frowned, leaning forward. “That can’t be right. The text is only five letters.”

Alphys’ expression withered into confusion, then uncertainty. “Oh… um, okay, let me look again.” She searched the papers once more. “Okay, here- here’s “yes,” I know that one is- is definitely “hai!” And, um, here, you have a few! A-A few different ones. For “wait.” I’ve heard, uh, “matte o,” uh, th-the most.”

Again, Asteri looked at the papers, and it didn’t make any sense. “None of these have enough letters to be those words… Did I get all of these wrong??”

Both of them stared at the columns of words in silence for at least a solid minute.

“Maybe… M-Maybe you should watch some of, um. Some anime?”

Asteri sighed and flopped back against her seat. “You know, you’re probably right.” Her head turned back to the other woman. “Alright. Hit me. What are we watching?”

Alphys lit up like a lightbulb. Before she could answer, though, Asteri spoke up again.

“Just! Know. That there will be a lot rewinding and pausing.”

“Th-That’s okay! I know exactly what we can watch! And!” Alphys reached into her bag, then pulled out a DVD case and held it aloft. “I always bring my favorite with me in case I meet someone who wants to watch it!”

Asteri squinted at it. “Sailor… Moon?”

It was a lot more productive than Asteri anticipated. Seeing Japanese text in the background occasionally along with hearing the way it was spoken helped her get a better sense of how the language worked. Brief segments of seeing a character write something or sound something out helped immensely. By the time Alphys left, they had tossed around theories ranging from the language not having written vowels to each letter being a word. Some of the words in Japanese that she heard translated to a whole phrase in the subtitles, or vice versa, which fascinated Asteri to no end. She had spent almost the last two decades studying monster languages, but now, to try to puzzle apart a brand new one? Oh, it excited her like nothing else. Words for things that their language didn’t have, entirely different grammar, and most immediately interesting: a new alphabet.

It left her with much to think about. Alphys promised that next time, she would bring some of her other series to pick from. That was great, and Asteri was looking forward to it, but more than anything, this had made her all the more determined to learn more about fonts and speech-based magic from Gaster. The next time they met, she was getting to the bottom of it.

(The next time they met, she did not.)

⁂

This time, their walk was less meandering through Hotland, and more making a beeline for New Home. Gaster had been having actual meals all week, so Asteri agreed that they should get donuts together.

“I feel like you’re the only reason this donut shop is still open, Gaster.”

He grinned, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head as they walked in. “They know my orders by heart here…”

That pulled a little snort from her. “Of course they do.”

“Doctor!” greeted the man behind the counter. “Where have you been!? We haven’t seen you all week, we started to worry you tripped and fell into the CORE!”

He laughed humorlessly. “There are safety rails to preventing that, fortunately.” In most areas, anyway. “Asteri here has been trying to get me to eat a more balanced diet.”

“Oho! Good for you! We sell sandwiches too, you know!”

“Perhaps I will try one, sometime. But today I am being rewarded with donuts for eating well all week.”

The man laughed, hearty and loud, and turned to Asteri. “You’re taking good care of the doctor for us all, huh!?”

“I’m certainly trying,” she answered, unable to help her smile. The worker— owner? —knew Gaster well. She was glad he knew that there were other people who cared about him.

“You picked a good one, Doctor! I’m happy for you! It’s about time you settled down!”

Oh.

Both of their faces flushed with magic. “No, no no no, it’s not like that!” she clarified, while Gaster frantically signed more or less the same thing. The monster behind the counter just shrugged and let it go.

“My bad! I’m sorry, I just got excited for ya, Doctor! But still, glad you’ve got a good friend! So! What can I getcha!?”

After they ordered (though Asteri insisted it not be an entire box of donuts this time, just a couple), they found a booth to sit in and made themselves comfortable.

“He seemed very excitable,” she giggled.

“Every one of his sentences has at least one exclamation point,” Gaster informed her with a chuckle. “Even his questions. I have never seen him use a period.”

“Wow, really? Is that tiring to read?”

He picked up a donut and hummed for a moment. “No, not any more than it is to listen to.”

Alright, this was good! This time, she was finding out more about speech and text magic, and she wasn’t going to let anything derail her!

“Speaking of which, Gaster,” she began, looking up from her own plate, “I was going to aaaaaaa….sk…..”

She had looked up in time to see Gaster mid-bite. Yes, that was right: mid-bite. His mouth hung open as their eyes met in mutual confusion. Then, after a split-second, he finished biting the donut and signed while he… chewed, or whatever it was that happened next. “Asteri? What’s wrong?”

She gaped at him. “Your mouth opens‽”

Well, there went tact.

Understandably, he shot her a confused, mildly worried look as he took another bite. “Asteri, we have eaten together several times now.”

She felt her face heat up. This is why tact is important. Good grief Asteri, does all your sense go out the window when you’re around him‽ Pull it together!!

“W-Well, um. I was busy writing notes the first time we met… and the other time, with the pizza, I got distracted… then, um. Last time, we were sitting in the dark and the movie was starting, and I was exhausted. So I. I never… saw you… do that?”

He raised one brow and stared at her in what could only be described as a mixture of skepticism and concern, then opened and closed his mouth a few times as if to show that yes, it really did work that way. His teeth clicked together. Despite her best efforts, she just stared. It definitely made the way his head was shaped make more sense.

“You truly never saw me open my mouth, this entire time?” She shook her head, eyes still glued to his jaw. He breathed a single laugh and took a sip of his drink. “Perhaps I should teach you about skeleton biology, then.”

Her eyes blew wide and immediately flicked up to meet his, incredulous. If her face wasn’t hot before, it was now. For a split second that felt like an eternity, he just looked back at her, not comprehending what he had said that could have elicited such a response. Then it registered and his face turned red, eyelights blazing hot pink.

“I meant explain it!!! Here! In the booth! In an educational and—” He was signing too quickly, she didn’t make the second word out, but she imagined it was probably “professional” or something— “manner!! Obviously I would not…! Make any such advances!!”

“R-Right, yes,” she stammered, looking away. “O-Obviously.” She debated pointing out that he had practically taken his shirt off and showed her his SOUL a couple weeks ago, but decided that what had just happened was enough embarrassment to both of them for one day.

The awkwardness was palpable.

“I’m...” She released a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding and shook her head. “I’m sorry. I was already a little flustered, so my mind jumped right to…” God, what was wrong with her?! She rubbed her face with her wing. “Th-That was beyond inappropriate of me, I apologize.”

“I certainly could have worded it better,” Gaster objected on her behalf, still embarrassed but fortunately not upset. “It is not your fault.”

Asteri sighed. “I feel like such a heel, though. I don’t know where my mind is today. God. I shouldn’t have even gone there. You’re my friend. Obviously you wouldn’t suggest that. Especially like… that.”

Yeah, it was way too smooth of a line, he’d never be able to swing tha— what is WRONG with me‽

“No, no, please,” he insisted, “do not berate yourself! I was careless in my wording, and neither gave any consideration that you might have been embarrassed by the misunderstanding at the counter. Forgive me.”

The misunderstanding at the…? Oh! Yes. She was a little frazzled by that. But mostly she had been flustered by…

The realization almost knocked the wind out of her.

It was his mouth. I was watching his MOUTH.

God, should she just tell him that? No, no, it would make things uncomfortable because he would think it was for a way weirder reason than it actually was and then he would never want to eat around her again. She just needed to get a grip. There weren’t a lot of monsters with teeth that weren’t covered by something like skin or a beak. The form she preferred to stay in was a lot like her parents’, and lacked lips. They didn’t kiss each other, they would just gently nibble wherever was convenient: shoulder, cheek, neck. (It was only once she got much older that she had learned that biting someone’s neck or shoulder was not considered an innocent display of affection by most other types of monsters.) She had just gotten caught up with the subconscious realization that he was like her in that regard. Skeletons probably didn’t kiss either. Maybe they bit, like her family. That was all. She was thinking about biting (kissing) and how nobody else did that, and then he said that and it completely threw her.

Shoot, she had been quiet a few seconds too long. “Don’t- Don’t worry about it, Gaster! Really. Um, look, I feel terrible about making you uncomfortable, and you feel bad about making me uncomfortable, so now we both feel bad and are uncomfortable. Let’s just start that conversation over, yeah?”

“Yes. I would like that.” He nodded, sitting up a little bit straighter with a grateful smile.

For a moment she hesitated, but then decided that embarrassment aside, it probably would be good to know. “If… If if isn’t too uncomfortable of a topic after all that,” she started, tentative, “it might be beneficial if you did tell me a little about skeleton… biology. J-Just the basics. So there aren’t any future misunderstandings.”

Gaster nodded once more. “I think that would be wise.” He shifted in his seat, getting more comfortable. “Since it has become relevant, I will start with our jaws. I can open mine, as you saw. However, I do not need to, technically speaking. Neither to vocalize, as you have no doubt noticed, nor to eat. Some skeletons had fused skulls, lacking this hollow here.” He pointed to the space between his back teeth and the hinge of his jaw. “They could not open their mouths, so they ate with magic. Like so.”

Asteri watched in stupor as he held a donut up to his closed mouth and it began to disappear.

“This is fine, and sometimes more convenient, but it takes more concentration for me, personally, so I prefer to simply bite my food.

“Some skeletons appeared to have fused skulls, but were just particularly skilled with distortion magic, and pulled the magic that made up their skulls around their mouths so that they could emote more similarly to monsters with skin, showing more or less teeth depending on their expression. All skeletons use distortion magic naturally, which is how our eye sockets emote and we appear to frown and smile.”

Asteri nodded. “Distortion magic is used by shapeshifters as well, to some extent. Though, our nature is to be able to change forms, so it isn’t what allows us to shift, only what we might use while in a particular form.”

“Then you understand.”

“Yeah. Though you use it so subtly I didn’t place it as distortion magic until you said so.”

He smiled at that. “Thank you. I have a decent amount of skill with it, though I am by no means particularly adept. Generally, skeletons emoted with a mixture of eyeglowing and changes in font. But only other skeletons could see fonts, and eyeglowing required knowledge of what each color meant in each context— something other skeletons knew innately— so when confronted with other monsters, or humans, some skeletons chose to use more distortion magic to make their expressions and emotions clearer.” He paused. “Being… the only skeleton left, I admit I am at times tempted to make more use of distortion magic so that others may better read my expression. But, at the same time, I do not want to act like something I am not.”

“That makes sense,” Asteri murmured. “I can understand the pressure to change in order to be understood, while also feeling like you shouldn’t have to abandon your culture.”

He looked on, waiting for her to continue if she wished. She hadn’t meant to get into it, this was about him, but if wanted to listen…

She took a breath.

“My parents were big on that. Shapeshifters were never especially numerous, even on the surface, I guess. Even so, there were many clans, never a single kingdom like other types of monsters had. The one my family was from didn’t generally take bipedal forms. They were more inclined towards the reptilian, amphibian, and piscine or other aquatics. Legs and tails were prioritized over arms. More legs, stronger tail, easier to run or swim, easier to hunt. As a result, the ability to form arms was slowly lost. I can become a many-legged creature easily enough, even something with grasping forelimbs, like a crustacean. But “humanoid” arms? Those are beyond me, no matter how many times I’ve tried over the years.

“When I was a kid, I shifted a lot more. My parents encouraged me, of course, to experiment until I found a form I was comfortable with. But I knew what came easily, I knew what felt nice to exist as. But… I didn’t like how it looked. I didn’t like that I didn’t have arms like everyone else. Even the dogs in Snowdin were bipedal and used their front legs like arms. I wanted to be solid, all in one piece, like everyone else, and I wanted arms. I was always trying to shift to look more like the other kids, especially the lizard monsters, but whenever I tried to form the arms…”

She held her wings out and focused. They condensed and solidified into two humanoid arms, but rather than finish turning lavender like the rest of her body, they stayed a bluish color. Within a matter of seconds, they started dripping, becoming almost goopy, and it only took a few moments for them to melt back into the semi-transparent cloak of magic that draped around her as “wings.”

“Doesn’t work. I learned how to form hands, like you’ve seen me do, but they’re drippy too, and they’ll fade if I don’t stay focused. I used to be really self-conscious about this form, but my parents reminded me that I didn’t have to pretend to be ‘not a shapeshifter.’ Shifting was for my own comfort, not the comfort of those around me. There was no need to imitate others, only to take inspiration. If I preferred to stay in multiple pieces, then the other kids would learn to just accept that that’s how I looked. I didn’t have to look like other monsters; we had our own culture, our own look. We didn’t have arms, or lips, and we didn’t resemble any particular animal like a lot of the other monsters did, but we were us, you know?”

She smiled, bittersweet for a moment as she remembered them, then looked back to him with a happier smile. “Did you know, the first time I saw you summon extra hands, I felt so validated?”

His eyes widened slightly. “Truly? Even though I have hands naturally?”

“Yeah. I’d never seen anyone need to summon them, so it was kind of nice to see that there are other people who do after all. I-I feel a lot less self-conscious about forming them when I’m with you. O-Or Alphys, I guess.”

He smiled down at the donut on his plate. “I am glad that I helped you in some way. There were… not many skeletons who signed, and as such not much accommodation for someone who needed their hands free. So I understand some of the anxiety that comes with summoning hands. Nowadays, though, nearly everyone understands sign language, and no one has ever questioned my extra hands. So don’t feel self-conscious, I am sure no one questions yours either.”

Asteri’s eyes crinkled in a smile. “You might also not get questioned because you’re a bit eccentric,” she teased.

“Heh.” He hid a smile of his own behind a donut. “Is there anything else you would like to know about skeletons?”

Plenty, like what it was like to grow up signing in a culture where speech was so vital to expression, but she wasn’t about to say that. Instead, she pretended to think about it while she chewed. “What do the colors your eyes turn mean?”

“An excellent question,” Gaster commended her. “It is heavily contextual, though...”

She materialized a hand out of her magic and took out her pen and notebook. “Alright, hit me.”

He chuckled at the fact that that was her immediate response, and launched into the explanation.

“Green is happiness, safety, or contentment. It may also flare up when healing or using green SOUL magic. If I had expended much energy or focus when I explained turning a SOUL green, it may have lit my eyes. Green is rarely seen in a negative context, but it can be associated with hope for change or asking for help from another person, such as healing.

“Pink is surprise, or embarrassment. It may also show hesitation or anxiety.

“Red is associated with physical pain, but may also show up as resilience or fortitude despite injury or impending harm.

“Orange, like it, may show resilience in the face of hardship; a call for bravery. An act of defiance, perhaps. However, that is red-orange. A more neutral orange, or yellow-orange, is typically confusion, puzzlement, or, more rarely, betrayal. Using orange magic extensively may light one’s eyes, as with green. This goes for any colored magic.

“Yellow may show stress, fear, or a feeling of righteous indignation. Other times, however, yellow can convey a sense of absoluteness or surety in one’s actions.

“Violet is associated with need. It can also be fear, when it is less saturated in color, but it is fear more in the sense of helplessness. It more often expresses exhaustion or hunger; a display that one is in need of something in order to go on. It can also convey a frightened anger. Certain shades of violet can show sadness as well. It is one of the more versatile colors, like yellow.

“Blue, specifically light blue, is calm, but not in the sense of contentment, as with green. It is a calm in spite of something. A sense of waiting, of…” Something clicked in his mind. “Patience. A conscious decision to wait, to endure. For this, eyes may also glow light blue when highly stressed as an outlet.”

Asteri wrote as fast as she could to get all of that down. When she was finished, she looked up. “What about dark blue, like the color your eyes turned when you calmed me down in my kitchen?”

“Ah,” he hummed. “That is where context becomes important. A skeleton’s personal magic has its own color, similar to how monsters with flesh may have different color irises, hair, fur, or skin. Mine is the deep blue you saw. That is also why the hands I summon are blue. Contrary to what it may seem, my skill with gravity magic—that is, colored magic of the blue variety— is entirely unrelated. Thus, if I glow my eyes intentionally—” His eyelights lit up blue— “it is this color blue. In terms of meaning, though, it is similar to red in that it is a call to endure, but also to green in that it conveys a sense of calm. It is something akin to wholeness, a feeling of completeness… Importance. Community, perhaps? Deep affection for those around you.”

“Love,” Asteri supplied, the word tumbling out of her mouth before she even gave it a second thought.

Gaster stilled, the simple answer taking him by surprise, then slowly broke into a smile. “Yes, that’s it,” he signed slowly. “It is love. Selfless love, specifically.”

She thought it prudent not to comment on how appropriate that color was for the situation in the kitchen.

“That’s fascinating, Gaster,” she said softly, instead. It was always so enjoyable to listen to him. She always learned so much. Even if, yet again, she hadn’t gotten to talk with him about fonts.

Appropriately, his eyes turned green.

“Colors mixed together, flickering, or alternating can also change the meanings,” he added, “but again, context is necessary. Knowing those basics will allow you to understand the essence of what is being conveyed, even if not all of the nuance.”

“Thank you for the lesson. Mm, I should tell you more about shapeshifters sometime,” mused Asteri once she had finished writing everything down. “Since I’m learning so much about skeletons.”

“I would like that very much,” he agreed, perking up more.

“Well, it’s not like I have to be anywhere, if you want to hear now. Is there anything in particular you want to know?”

Gaster thought for a few moments, and Asteri took the opportunity to finish her second donut. It had a lemon drizzle on it, and it was delicious.

“Can you take any form, disregarding arms?”

She grinned and nodded. “Yeah. Want to see something weird?”

He didn’t say no, so she went ahead. Her features melted away and shifted around, and a moment later Gaster was looking at an almost-mirror image of himself. He made a startled noise.

“Oh, this is really weird,” she said in her own voice. Her jaw— his jaw— moved as she spoke. She wasn’t accustomed to speaking in a form like this so she used distortion magic to enunciate, which looked very strange

He shuddered, grimacing. “Stars above, that is not how teeth work.”

She laughed apologetically and let herself melt into something formless again, then into a familiar yellow lizard. “How’s this?”

“Quite good!” Gaster grinned, a little more relaxed. “Alphys has one more head spine, though.”

“Oh, whoops.” With a little melting, she moved the head spines around and added another one. “Better?”

“Perfect.”

Laughing again, Asteri melted once more and then returned to her regular form. “Good! Alphys is easier, I’ve been different types of lizards before. I’ve never been a skeleton. That was my first attempt.”

His brow bones rose. “That was impressive for a first attempt!” He looked to the side and tilted his head. “Highly unnerving, but impressive.”

“Thanks,” she chuckled, flicking her tail out behind her. “Sorry if that was too strange.”

“It was only a little strange,” Gaster admitted with an awkward smile. “It was odd to see another skeleton— but not bad!” he added quickly when he saw her eyes widen. “I know you are going to apologize, but there is no need. It was not odd in a bad way.”

She rubbed the back of her head with her tail. “Ahah… you know me well.”

He might have puffed up just a little at that. “May I ask more about shapeshifters?”

“Oh! Yeah, go for it.”

“I have two questions. Please answer whichever you like first. Can you become larger or smaller? And when you imitated Alphys and myself, you appeared to have arms. How is that?”

Asteri nodded. “Ah, right. Well, they weren’t real, functional arms. Did you notice how it looked like my clothes changed to look like yours? That was all part of me. The imitations were only that: imitations. I couldn’t walk around like that. Well, maybe as Alphys, but not for long. It was more like I shaped my magic around myself like a shell rather than created an actual, functional form.

“And no, I can’t change sizes… exactly.” She held a wing up. “These “wings” are all of my unused magic. Since I can’t form arms, I keep it wrapped around me like a cloak, and I can use it to grab things or gesture. But in essence, it’s all the bodily magic that isn’t being used as part of my current form. If I used all of what’s available to me, I would be huge. And I’m already pretty tall! So I can get bigger, yes… within reason. Getting smaller is more complicated. It would leave more magic left over, which I would have to do something with, so it would likely end up as part of my wings. I prefer to be bipedal, and I think the size I am now looks best in proportion to my wings, so that’s why I stay like this.”

“Fascinating,” Gaster signed, exhaling as he shook his head slightly in wonder. “May I ask why you chose the colors you did for your form?”

“Sure!” She took a sip of her drink and shifted to get more comfortable. “But you may be surprised how little of it was actually a choice. My parents were usually shades of purple and blue, so it’s sort of a default. Shapeshifters do have “base forms,” so to speak. We’re sort of goopy. Not sticky or anything, but kind of… gelatinous? But not totally transparent; complete colorlessness is super rare, I guess. And just like most other monsters, what your parents look like will affect how you look. My parents’ families tended toward cool colors: greens and blues and grays and purples. So this lavender color is actually more or less the color I am naturally. I did decide to make my hair and a few other features green, because I like the color. Sometimes it changes shades, though. My eyelights are purple too, but that wasn’t actually a conscious decision. It’s difficult to go completely white, but I can if I focus for a second.”

Her eyes turned white instead of their usual heliotrope.

“How does it look?”

“A bit unnerving,” Gaster confessed.

She chuckled and let them return to normal. “Yeah, I bet. I think they’re purple because the rest of me is, too. Maybe I’ll experiment with colors, I haven’t done that in a long time.”

Gaster tilted his head, brow bones furrowing slightly. “You are perfect as you are.”

Asteri’s eyebrows shot up, and she gave him an incredulous smile to hide the blush that crept back up her face. “Alright, Mr. Smooth-talker…. You sure you aren’t flirting with me?” she half-teased.

Watching him get flustered again was funnier when she knew he hadn’t meant it that way. “No! I meant that your form suits you! There is no need to change what is already—” His eyes went pink. “I merely intended to say that you need not worry about how you look! That… That is all. You look… like Asteri.”

“You’re sweet, Gaster,” she cooed, propping her head up on her wing. “I knew what you meant that time. Well. Sort of.”

He covered his face with both hands, then dragged them down his skull. “I apologize. I do not know what is wrong with me today.”

“Don’t sweat it. I’m feeling a little off myself. There’s one last thing, if you’re still interested.”

“Yes, please.” Anything to change the subject.

“So, when I melt, I’m mostly purple still, right? Well, if I melt completely, I’m actually more like a gradient. Purple in the center, around my SOUL, and then it fades to this blue-green the further away it goes. So my working theory is that the more “solid” magic is this lavender color, and the magic that’s easier for me to manipulate is this.” She wiggled her other wing. “So all the easier-to-manipulate magic subconsciously ends up together in my wings, rather than being intermingled with the rest of me. It can become solid, and it turns purple then, or whatever color, but this is sort of the color it is “at rest.” Which is also why the hands I make are green. They’re not “summoned” so much as “materialized,” since most of my extra magic is around me at all times.”

“That is very, very interesting.” Gaster studied her wings from across the table. “I did not know other monsters’ “extra” magic was colored, I thought it was only skeletons.”

“Maybe you should study biology next,” she offered with a snicker.

“Perhaps I should.” He thought for a moment. “That is a good idea, actually. Magical biology has much bearing on what I am working on. I know enough for the project, of course, but studying how various monsters’ magic works may be beneficial.”

“Oh?” She hadn’t expected him to agree. “What, like study their magic compared to their bullets or something?”

He perked up and pointed at her. “That is an excellent idea!” He pulled a pen out of his coat pocket and scribbled something on a napkin. Asteri only got a glimpse before he tucked it away, but she couldn’t read any of it.

“You have terrible handwriting, Gaster, yikes.”

His head snapped up so quickly she thought it would go flying off his neck. He looked mortified. Maybe it was a touchy subject. She immediately tried to backpedal.

“N-Not that there’s anything wrong with that! As long as you can read it, that’s all that matters!!”

His eyelights flicked to the side, pink and yellow magic blurring along with them. After a moment of uncertainty, he answered, “I am… a little self-conscious about it.” His signing was slower, more unsure. “Usually I write more… legibly. But I tend to forego that discipline when writing to myself.”

Discipline? Maybe she misunderstood his signing. Either way, she shook her head. “Uh, hey, don’t sweat it. I’m not judging you. I shouldn’t have commented on it, I’m sorry. Nothing wrong with writing however is quick and easy if it’s just a note to yourself.”

He just nodded.

Well, this was going nowhere. He had all but shut down, his eyes were still pink— she was guessing anxiety and embarrassment— and he was sweating bullets. Ah, bullets. Yes. She should change the subject.

“So, um. How would you compare a monster’s magic to their bullets?” She summoned a small one of her own and let it hover above her held-out wing with a big smile. “I made ones that look like asterisks! Isn’t that fun?”

He looked up at the bullet for a moment, just blinking. “You… made it look like an asterisk?”

“Well, yeah. I mean, I thought it was sort of funny, considering my name and their uses as footnotes, and for marking reconstructed or hypothetical words in linguistics. Though I guess that last part is more of an inside joke—”

“No, I meant: you consciously decided what your bullets would look like?”

Asteri blinked at him, face blank, then slowly her mouth pulled in a sheepish smile and she stared down at her lap, letting the bullet disperse. “Is… Is this one of those things that I think everybody does, like biting each other, but it’s actually just a shapeshifter thing?”

“I—” He squinted at her. “I want to ask about the biting, but we can come back to that. Yes, most monsters do not consciously shape their bullets. Mine, for example, are almost exclusively bones. As were most skeletons’. I can change their size, damage output, and orientation, but I cannot change their shape.”

“Oh…” She frowned in thought. “Really?”

“Really.”

“Huh…”

He pulled the napkin back out and wrote on it again. Though, this time he held a hand between her and it so she couldn’t see. She must have really hurt his feelings. She’d have to figure out how to make it up to him.

“I am curious about what you said about shapeshifters biting each other, though,” Gaster prompted once he had put the napkin away again and moved to stand, one brow bone raised.

Asteri smiled anxiously as she stood to follow him to the door. They waved to the man behind the counter before she responded.

“Well! Um. We don’t— well, my family didn’t have lips. Usually. So I never saw my parents kiss, they always just… you know… bit each other.” She shrugged, still clearly awkward about it with the way she was smiling and looking everywhere but at him. “Like a little nibble! Not a chomp or anything!” That was probably more like bedroom stuff. She shuddered. Gross. The last thing she wanted to think about was her dead parents’ intimate life. “Just wherever was convenient: cheek, shoulder, neck…”

She expected him to look alarmed, like most people (including all two of her past partners, as brief as they had been in her life). Instead, he just nodded thoughtfully, looking off somewhere in the distance. “Biting as kissing. That makes a great deal of sense. I am surprised I did not see more skeletons do that.”

She swallowed. “What… did skeletons do to show affection?”

He looked back to her and smiled, fond memories that she couldn’t see playing in his eyes. “We tapped our skulls together. Romantically, yes, but also between family or friends.”

She wondered who he was remembering. His parents? Siblings, maybe? Dear friends? A partner? It dawned on her then that he might have lost children. God. How awful! She desperately hoped that was not the case.

“That sounds really nice,” she said instead. Bumping heads sounded more than nice, actually. She should focus on that. “I think there’s a shortage of physical affection between friends. As a culture, we should have more of that. Physical displays of affection are not inherently romantic!”

His grin widened. “I agree completely.”

Maybe he was thinking along the same line that she was. “Were there any particulars? Like, facing each other was romantic, but from the side was platonic, for example?”

“No. Though, naturally, facing each other could be more intimate. It was not necessarily though.”

“Was it specifically for greetings or goodbyes, or could it be anytime?”

“Anytime it felt right.”

Asteri smiled lopsidedly and leaned toward him. “May I, then, my friend?”

His eye practically turned into stars and lit up green. He leaned down to meet her. “Please.”

They tapped their heads together, his forehead against the top of hers. It only lasted a second, but both of them felt giddy.

“I have not done that in years,” Gaster confessed with a pleased laugh that squinted his eye sockets shut. “I forgot what a pleasant gesture it is.”

It was, too. Just enough to feel important. Not as impersonal as a handshake, but not as vulnerable as a hug. “I liked it,” Asteri agreed. “We should do it to Alphys.”

He giggled. “Good idea! I hope she will be agreeable to it.”

“I think she will be.”

They had started walking, slowly. Since they were all the way in the capital, she should probably head home soon. But, like always, she didn’t want their time to end yet. She hummed a sigh and swung her wings. “It’s too bad I live so far away. It’s like there’s never enough time.”

Gaster hummed softly, silent in thought for a moment, then seemed to settle on a decision. “Asteri,” he began, uncertain. “If I promise to go home and sleep at a reasonable time, would you mind terribly if I accompanied you on your way home?”

The thought was nice, but… “Gaster, you live right by this shop, I’m in the middle of Waterfall. That’s nice of you, but even with the ferry, that’s just too far. You’d have to turn around as soon as we reached my house if you wanted to get home at a decent time. And I know you work tomorrow.”

“Did you know that collapsed stars are so dense, they are thought to affect the fabric of spacetime?”

She squinted, then broke into a knowing smile. “That’s fascinating, but trying to get me wrapped up in something else so we can start walking in that direction without me noticing won’t work. I’ve got another friend who does that. Nice try.”

“No, I am getting at something,” he insisted. “Truly.”

He looked so unsure, it was a little unsettling. Asteri nodded. “Alright… go on.”

He took a breath. “Objects with large amounts of mass have more gravity. Spacetime is like fabric, and things like planets and stars are like marbles sitting atop it. They dip into it, warp it. A gravity field, ultimately, curves spacetime. So if one were to manipulate gravity just so, one could “fold” the fabric of spacetime and jump to another location.”

She blinked. He waved his hands as if to clear his previous explanation away. “Imagine this instead.” The blue hands appeared and held the edge of his lab coat out taut. He located two stray sprinkles from the donuts and stuck them to his coat a few inches apart. Next, he made a fist and gently pushed against the fabric. “It dips,” he explained with yet another pair of hands. “The pressure of my fist on the fabric is like gravity on spacetime. See those two sprinkles? Watch them.”

“Alright,” Asteri murmured. “I’m watching.”

“If I push harder, it pulls the fabric downward.” He did just that, and when the fabric was too taut to stretch, he moved the edges of it inward with the extra pair of hands. He kept going until his fist was all but enveloped in the fabric. “See how the sprinkles are now closer together?”

She nodded.

“Those are points in spacetime. With enough gravity, they get “closer,” even though there is technically just as much fabric between them.”

“I think I understand,” Asteri said. “What are you getting at, though?”

He smiled, lopsided and still a bit hesitant, and all the blue hands disappeared as he went back to signing regularly. “If one can generate enough gravity, one can affect spacetime. If the gravity is high enough, two points in space can be brought close enough together to travel in less time.”

He watched her for a response, his hesitant smile becoming a nervous grin.

It dawned on her. “And you can manipulate gravity. Hang on—” Asteri held one wing out and dragged the other across her face. “Gaster. Gaster. Are you- Are you implying that you can teleport‽”

He giggled.

“Yes?”

The sheepish look, like he had just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar rather than had just told her he could do something largely considered impossible, was simultaneously endearing and infuriating.

“You’re offering to TELEPORT me home‽”

Actually he had meant that he would walk with her, and then teleport himself home later, but the excited glimmer in her eyes that she was trying to hide beneath her incredulity was too much. He shrugged one shoulder and let his grin stretch.

“If you would like?”

She had to bite her tongue to not instantly scream yes. “Please,” she said instead, though that barely restrained her excitement. “That would be so cool.”

Her enthusiasm was beyond endearing. “You will have to hold onto me,” he prefaced. “Tightly. The closer we are, the most smoothly it will go.”

“I can flatten, if that’s better?” Asteri offered, already beginning to spread her magic out. She could wrap around him like a piece of paper, if that was what it took. But he stopped her with a shake of his head.

“No, no, that isn’t necessary. I have taken others with me before, there is no need to change shape.”

“Oh, even better.” Within a matter of seconds she reverted to her usual form. “I’ll try to stay solid, though… in case part of me falls off or something.”

Gaster frowned in thought and rubbed his chin. It should be fine, but… “Just in case,” he agreed.

She focused, and her body fused together. She rolled her head on her neck afterward. “It feels so weird to make my actual form this solid. How do you deal with such a limited range of motion?”

He scrunched up his face. “I have never seen you turn your head especially far…”

Asteri smirked. “Would you like to?”

He tilted his head and returned the smirk. “Would you like to see me remove mine?”

She laughed. “Sure. Here, hang on. Let me turn around. Alright, count of three. One, two…”

She let her magic loosen from her neck—

“…Three!”

— and spun her head 180°. Just in time to see Gaster pop his head off and hold it in his hand. She shrieked in a mixture of surprise and amusement, and he gave a startled giggle. Several passersby did spit takes.

They returned their heads to the way they ought to be and laughed.

“Not many people take well to me doing that,” Asteri confessed.

“Not a single person in the underground thinks it funny when I remove my head either.”

“You do it that often?” she asked, snickering.

“Well, no…”

“That may be for the best, actually.”

“I am glad that you, at least, enjoyed it. We should get going, though. This way.” He led her around the side of a building. “It is better to do out of sight; less questions. As you are no doubt aware, this is not a common ability.”

“Ah, right.”

Once they were away from the main thoroughfare, she moved closer. After making sure she was all in once piece, she nodded. “Alright. How close should I be?”

He shuffled closer. And then closer still. “You will have to hang onto me.”

Oh, that was right, he had said that. “Just…?” She held her wings out.

“Yes. And I will hold onto you, also. Just so you are aware.” He looked a little unsure. “We will be very close.”

Was he uncomfortable with it? She hoped not, but maybe she should check. “Well… I don’t mind if you don’t?”

“I do not mind, I just did not want you to be uncomfortable, after the… misunderstanding earlier.”

She almost snorted. “It’s not a problem, Gaster, don’t worry about it.”

He nodded once and took a breath. “Alright then, here we go.”

They pressed their sides together and she wrapped her wings around him, her tail winding around his hips. Both of his arms curled around her torso. He seemed to realize that she didn’t exactly have shoulders that he could hold easily, so he needed to hold around her waist. They ended up mostly facing each other.

It’s not a big deal Asteri, it’s just for safety. …But good lord, when was the last time anyone held me?

“Ready?” A pair of blue hands asked.

“Ready.”

And the world shifted, blurred, darkening until it seemed it couldn’t possibly get any darker yet somehow it did, until was nothing but pitch black. In a matter of seconds, the bright light of New Home had given way to nothingness. It was the deepest, emptiest dark she had ever known. That such nothingness could even exist was beyond her. Asteri couldn’t see anything, anything, not even the glow of her wings. She couldn’t see her own magic! What was happening!? She was alone…! There was nothing. Nothing. It felt like she couldn’t breathe. Her breathing shuddered. She couldn’t breathe! The absolute and perfect darkness panicked her, and she cried out, grip tightening around the only solid thing there was to hold onto.

And then she was held closer in turn. The feeling of arms tightening around her pulled a gasp from her lungs.

“G-G-Gaster? Gaster?? Wh-Where- Where- Where are you‽” She could feel him holding her, still, that hadn’t changed, but in her panic she wasn’t thinking.

She heard a hum. No real melody, just a hum, but it was a familiar voice, close to her head. Close to her. Close to her. A voice, right there. Her breathing evened out, and she relaxed slightly. Gaster was with her. She wasn’t alone.

He tugged her, gently, in a direction, still humming, and they walked— carefully, awkwardly— toward what she soon realized was a teeny, tiny speck of light, very far away. But the darkness gave way to that light far more swiftly than she expected, and soon she could make out the cave that held her house, in Waterfall, within the light. Despite seeing it, she still couldn’t see herself or Gaster, like the light didn’t reach them somehow. But they reached it, and suddenly they were stepping out into the green-blue grass near her house.

She looked around frantically, still clinging to Gaster. The darkness was gone. She looked down. She could see herself. Her eyes flitted upward, and she realized Gaster was looking down at her with immense concern and, it looked like, guilt. His eyes were rapidly flickering between deep blue, yellow, violet, and red-orange. It took another second for her to realize that a pair of blue hands were signing near her.

“—SO sorry, are you alright??”

“I-I’m okay.” Her voice came out weaker than she meant for it to. “I didn’t catch… what you were saying. I’m sorry, um. J-Just give me a second?”

He gave her as long as she needed, which ended up being closer to a solid minute, after which she realized she was still clinging to him for dear life and disentangled herself, embarrassed.

“Are you alright?” he asked again, worry clear on his face.

“Yeah… Just, um. Just a little rattled.” The wording occurred to her only after she said it aloud, and her head snapped up. “UH! Sorry, not sure if that’s, um. O-Offensive??”

He shook an arm back and forth, rattling his bones. “Not at all.” She smiled a little at that, and he relaxed a little in turn.

Still, he practically dripped with guilt. “Asteri, I am so, profusely sorry for not warning you about the dark. I was so preoccupied with explaining how it works that I neglected to mention that strong enough gravity bends light. I am accustomed to it, but I should have warned you.”

“That was scary,” she admitted quietly, and hated how juvenile it sounded. “It was like it got dark, then even darker.” She wrapped her wings around herself. “I’ve never been unable to see my own magic before.”

He met her eyes. “I am sorry for putting you in a situation that made you afraid.”

The urge to deflect was strong, but once again, the look on his face silenced her before she could even speak. His eyes glowed ultramarine for her. Earnest, always. Never a modicum of condescension or mockery. She had been afraid. “Can we go inside?”

He nodded, and they went to the door. It was dark inside when she opened it; she immediately looked down at her wings. Still visible. Thank god. She wanted to cast some kind of fire magic, but she was embarrassed that the darkness of her own home had her so afraid. She knew where the light switch was, could have found it with her eyes closed, so instead of summoning fire, she took a deep breath to steel herself and then made a beeline for it. The lights came on, and she sagged against the wall in relief. Gaster stepped over the threshold and, after slipping his shoes off, approached her and crouched beside her where she had slid down the wall.

“Asteri…”

She looked up at him with some unnamable, weak emotion. “Gaster?” God, her voice sounded so pathetic.

“Let’s get you off the ground.”

He held out his arms, but she shook her head. “I’m too shaky,” she whispered.

“May I lift you then? With blue magic?”

She paused, unsure, then nodded.

“This will probably feel strange.”

There was a ting sound, and suddenly she felt heavy.

“You are blue now. Just relax.”

He stood. Slowly, she lifted off the ground. The whole time, she kept her wide eyes fixed on Gaster’s continually glowing blue ones. He moved her over near her couch, walking as he did so that he was never more than a few feet away. Once there, he lowered her to her feet, holding out his arms. She fell against him once he released her SOUL. This time she didn’t bother with dignity, she just wrapped her wings and tail around him and pressed her face into his shoulder.

She was still shaking, Gaster noted as he brought his arms around her.

He gave her a second, then carefully moved them until they were sitting on the couch. She clung to him like he might disappear if she let go.

“Can you… hum again? It’s okay if you don’t w—”

He didn’t let her finish, just hummed whatever tune he could think of. She relaxed a little. He wished he could offer her more than humming.

“Are your eyes open?” he signed with blue hands behind his shoulder after a minute or two. He wanted to check if she could see him signing before he tried to say anything. She nodded.

“I don’t wanna close them…”

His heart clenched. He supposed some took better to the darkness of tessering (or “teleporting”), but nobody had even been this affected. Then again, the only people he had taken with him before were Alphys, one of his old lab assistants, and… Well, that was it. He really should have thought this through instead of acting on impulse just to spend more time with her.

“I’m so sorry.”

“Not mad at you,” she mumbled into his sweater. “J-Just. Scared. I don’t even know why.”

“You do not need to have an explanation.”

“Gaster?” She hesitated, then asked, “Could you… do that with your eyes again?”

“Of course.”

His eyes actually had never stopped glowing from the moment Asteri had begun to panic during the tesser, but she couldn’t see him then; all light was pulled away. But he knew what she meant in asking him this. She pulled away, but didn’t completely let go of him. He made no move to let go of her, either. He waited until she looked up at him, then flared his eyes even brighter. Deep shades of blue whirled like eddies.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

He didn’t sign anything, only nodded and hummed another slow tune and let her watch his eyes as long as she needed.

After a few minutes, she had stopped trembling and seemed to have mostly come back to herself. Once she looked away on her own, he let his magic fade. For a regular skeleton, the whole ordeal would have been exhausting. Using gravity magic to bend spacetime, using it again to lift her so delicately, glowing his eyes so brightly for so long, and summoning hands over and over— those things together expended a lot of energy.

For a regular skeleton.

But she didn’t need to know that.

“You have beautiful magic,” she muttered as she finally relaxed back against the couch. Their shoulders pressed together, but he didn’t mind. It seemed like the contact was helping her.

“Thank you.” His eyes glowed a soft, pale green. “I am quite proud of it.”

“No I mean… the stuff that comes naturally. Your eyes.”

His cheekbones and eyelights dusted with pink and he smiled, unsure what do with such a personal, genuine compliment. “Thank you… very much,” was all he managed to say, along with: “Your wings are quite stunning too.”

That warmed her face along with her heart. After another few minutes, she spoke again. “Gaster, you’re a really good friend.”

“Aha,” he chuckled humorlessly. “I do not feel like it after frightening you like this. But thank you.”

“You are though. You keep taking care of me. C’mere.” She pushed herself upward and managed to tap her head against the side of his. The smile it earned when he turned to meet her eyes again was worth the slight exertion.

“You take care of me too.”

“Bullying someone into eating well and making him sandwiches one or twice a week don’t count as taking care of somebody,” Asteri argued with a little smile that betrayed the way his words had warmed her.

“But creating two disasters and then trying to make up for them does?”

She laughed, and the sound made his SOUL feel lighter. “Well when you say it like that…! Maybe we’re both just a little bit of a mess.”

“Only a little,” he agreed with a quiet laugh.

They leaned back against each other, and the ensuing silence was amicable.

“Really though,” Asteri murmured after another few moments. “Thank you for everything you’ve done to calm me down and reassure me. I don’t even know what it was about the darkness that scared me, really. It was just… all-encompassing. It was darker than dark. I’ve never, ever been in total darkness. Maybe that was it. I always have leftover magic, my wings always glow at least a little. But in that… place, I couldn’t even see my own magic.”

Gaster nodded slowly. ““Darker than dark.” That is a good way to describe it.” He let a moment of stillness pass. “I do not know if it is a comfort or not, but so long as we were touching, you were in no danger.”

She looked up at him.

“It is easier to affect the gravity around a smaller area, which is why I said we needed to be so close. If you had pulled away, though, so long as I could still feel where you were, I could bend it in a larger radius around you. It is merely more effort and concentration, but it would not have hurt you.” He wouldn’t have let it.

“What if… someone stepped outside the radius?” She asked quietly, not sure she wanted to know the answer. “What if someone got lost?”

He shook his head slowly. “In truth, I do not know.”

It was probably best not to dwell on it.

“How do you know where to go if you can’t see anything?”

“Hmm…” How to explain it? “I need to know which two points I am traveling between. I cannot do it without a set destination. Otherwise, I would not know the exact way to manipulate gravity. It is much easier to do when I have already traveled to a specific location.”

“Like creasing paper,” Asteri suggested.

He stilled. Creasing paper. Now there was something he had never considered. “I meant that it was a familiar feeling, a better sense of how much gravity to use. But the notion that repeated travel creases spacetime, creates paths that are easier to follow with each subsequent use… that has fascinating implications.”

“Hopefully good ones,” Asteri murmured. “Creased paper is hard to write on, and you can never quite smooth it out again. Would that be… bad? For spacetime? Like if things got caught in the creases?”

What an intriguing concept. He hummed in thought.

“Because… you said collapsed stars warp spacetime, that things with a lot of gravity dip it. I don’t know much about outer space, but aren’t stars actually really, really big?”

He nodded.

“Then…” She pressed the end of her tail against a couch cushion. “They do something like this, right? Make a curve over a large area?” Another nod from him. “Then isn’t what you’re doing more like pinching spacetime? Not curving it?”

He raised his brows and gave a slow, conceding nod. “That is… not incorrect.”

“Is spacetime like lycra? Or like linen?”

He frowned in confusion and looked to her. “What do you mean?”

“Because stretchy material is hard to crease, it goes back to its shape. But linen wrinkles and creases so easily it’s infuriating.”

“I believe it must be fairly elastic,” he answered after a moment of thought. “Or else the movement of small celestial bodies would create permanent effects.”

“Hmm…”

Then again, smaller objects typically had less gravity. ‘Small (relatively speaking) object with a great deal of gravity’ would be approaching the description of a stellar remnant. But she didn’t need to worry about all that. He would do more research on it when he got the chance. For the time being…

“I think that with as long as I have been doing this, it is reasonable to call it safe for the universe at large. I am not the only monster to ever discover a way to traverse a distance in less time.”

“That does make me feel better,” Asteri admitted.

“Good.” He sat up a little, and she did too. “Have you recovered from our travels?”

She stretched and nodded as she began to yawn. “Yeah. I think so. Thank you. Do you want something more to eat? All we had was donuts.”

He waved his hands, “I don’t want to trouble you after all of that.”

“No, it’s no trouble. I would end up cooking for myself anyway.” She stood up and gestured with her head toward the kitchen. “Come keep me company. But I’m doing the cooking.”

That drew a dry laugh from him. “That is probably for the best. I am sorry I cannot help more.”

“Your company is plenty of help. Come on. I was going to make youvarlakia. It sounds… really nice after everything. It’s a soup. I think you’ll like it.”

Asteri cooked, and Gaster followed her around the kitchen, handing her things and making lighthearted conversation about people at work and silly things that had happened. She told him about some of her friends, in turn, and things they had gotten up to in the past.

“They sound like they are a great deal of fun to be around,” Gaster said as she finished a story about one of their last get-togethers. “I would like to meet them one day.”

She laughed. “They would flip. They still don’t believe that I’m friends with you, they think it’s some kind of drawn-out prank.” Granted, she hadn’t talked with them much in the past month or two, so there hadn’t been much opportunity to tell them more details.

“I still do not understand that,” he said with a huff as he helped set the table. “I am only a person. People speak about meeting the king with more nonchalance than they do me.”

“The king isn’t known as a recluse, or the underground’s most brilliant mind.”

His eyelights flicked away, faintly pink. “Hmph.”

“Alphys has mentioned some of her friends too. We should all meet sometime,” suggested Asteri as she dished out the soup.

He tugged at his turtleneck as the sat down, looking uneasy. “That sounds like a… greater than average number of persons.”

Oh, he didn’t like big groups. That made sense. “It doesn’t have to be everyone at once,” she offered instead. “We could just meet one or two people at a time.” She brought her spoon to her mouth to taste the youvarlakia. Ah, delicious. She loved that lemony tang.

“That would be preferable,” Gaster admitted. Turning his attention to the bowl in front of him, he tried the soup. It was thick, and savory, and warmed him from the inside. He smiled. “This is delicious. I was unsure what it would taste like, but it is wonderful.”

Asteri beamed. “Aww, thank you! I’m glad you think our supper tastes… soup-er.”

He snorted mid-bite and almost choked. She laughed.

“My family used to make it after trips to Snowdin,” she continued once he recovered. “Sometimes I just make it because it sounds good, even though never gets very cold here. It’s better with bread, but I didn’t make any this time.”

“I have not visited Snowdin in a long time…” He took another bite and then set his spoon down to sign. “Mm! If you make this again, may I have some? I can pay you for it—”

She reached around the table with her tail and smacked his hand. “You aren’t paying me for anything. Absolutely not. A meal with a friend is its own reward.”

He giggled sheepishly. “Alright. I admit…” His eyes roamed around the room, took in the light and the warmth and the feeling of being there. “…This is much better than eating alone.”

Asteri laughed in agreement and raised her spoon. “Exactly! That’s the spirit! “Better scraps shared with love than a feast shared with loneliness.””

His smile couldn’t get much wider. “Here we have the best of both: a feast, and good company.”

She beamed and lifted her bowl. “To good friends, and terrible jokes!”

He laughed and lifted his bowl in agreement. “Hear hear!”

- - - -

TADA

So, yeah, I know, kind of a weird place to end, but after putting Asteri through that I wanted to leave it on a high note.

I FEEL LIKE I SHOULD LIST SOME REFERENCES! Number one is Handplates, which is where the concept of bone-rattling, Gaster’s blue magic hands (along with ten being the upper limit of how many he can summon at a time), and eyeglowing is from. Though my take on it is a bit different. Glowing various colors happens more often (at least for Gaster), and I changed the meanings of some of the colors. But I really liked the idea that it helped skeletons who had more fixed features emote. However, I also love the idea of highly expressive skeletons, so I borrowed the idea of distortion magic from @ asktheasterfamily! I loved their Gaster, he’s great. (I should reread that sometime…) “Tessering” is a direct reference to A Wrinkle in Time, one of my favorite books as a kid. If you’re wondering how that kind of gravity doesn’t affect everything else around them, especially in such a small space, the answer is, “don’t worry about it.” Something something magic, [insert explanation.]

Oh, also!! Alphys’ favorite anime is Sailor Moon because Mew Mew Kissy Cutie hasn’t been made/released yet.

I felt like I couldn’t fully express just how much and why Asteri was affected so much by the darkness while tessering, but if you can imagine perfect darkness in every direction with no sense of up and down… yeah. Oh, and now imagine that you’ve never been completely immersed in regular darkness before because you glow naturally. Yeah.

She and Gaster are in that awkward friend stage where you’re not sure if the strong feeling of really really liking someone and wanting to be around them all the time is platonic or romantic. Hence all the awkwardness. I guess that isn’t a universal experience, but it sure has been a consistent thread through most of my friendships. So, yeah, no. No real romance yet!! Just the awkward beginnings of a deep friendship~ (Which is the basis of romance anyway.)

Okay wrapping this up, there’s a lot of stuff in here that sets up future events and plots points!! But it might not be the things you expect… ;)

Thanks for reading!! I absolutely love screaming in the tags or replies (YOU ESPECIALLY BENANA), so if you haven’t commented but feel inclined to, don’t be shy!! Even a “!!!” is appreciated. Maybe I should just post this on ao3 man idk

I’ll be working on part 8 soon!!

#WOO IT’S DONE #But as always I’ll probably edit it later pfft #OH AND PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF THE COLORED TEXT IS HARD TO READ AND I’LL CHANGE IT #Asteri backstory #(gonna make another poll for the title soon)#seeker writes #seeker oc #asteri #gaster #⁂ gaster #long post #good lord this is SO long #⁂ fic #⁂

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greypetrel · 9 months

Text

✨9 Ship Songs✨

Rules: List nine songs for one of your ships

Tagged by @shivunin, thank you thank you thank you! :D

It's... It's long, so it goes under the cut. I have at least ten better for Aisling and Cullen I believe, but for now it goes like that. Jackie and Wilson is their ultimate song, the second... I'll keep the Cranberries because the death of Sinead O'Connor made me nostalgic for Ireland all over again, so yeah we're going Cranberries. But still.

Tagging! @ndostairlyrium @rowanisawriter @demandthedoodles @salsedinepicta (if you want!) @rosella-writes @scribbledquillz @heniareth and YOU!

Alyra + Alistair

Siúil a Rúin, Clannad ( Spotify || Youtube ) I'll sell my rock, I'll sell my reel I'll sell my only spinning wheel To buy my love a sword of steel Is go dté tu, mo mhuirnín slán (and may you go safely, my darling) Siúil, siúil, siúil a rúin (Come, come, come, o love) Siúil go socar agus siúil go ciúin (quickly come to me, softly move) Siúil go doras agus éalaigh liom (come to the door and away we'll flee) Is go dté tu, mo mhuirnín slán (and may you go safely, my darling)

Ballata del Carcere di Reading, Vinicio Capossela ( Spotify || Youtube ) (It's the Ballad of Reading Gaol of Oscar Wilde, translated in Italian and put in music, I'll just copy-paste the lyrics of the original poetry) Yet each man kills the thing he loves, By each let this be heard, Some do it with a bitter look, Some with a flattering word, The coward does it with a kiss, The brave man with a sword! Some kill their love when they are young, And some when they are old; Some strangle with the hands of Lust, Some with the hands of Gold: The kindest use a knife, because The dead so soon grow cold.

Alyra + Morrigan

Kamikaze, Susanne Sundfør ( Spotify || Youtube ) Did you ever feel your heart stopping? Did you ever feel like a moth drawn to a flame? It's time to put on your lifejacket 'Cause I'm about to step up the game, oh They say help is near, but no one here can feel our fear It's a minefield, us, it'll never disappear 'Cause you take me back, you take me back I'm your kamikaze And tonight is the night that we might fall together

Hidden Place, Björk ( Spotify || Youtube ) Now I have been slightly shy And I can smell a pinch of hope To almost have allowed Once fingers to stroke The fingers I was given To touch with but careful, careful There lies my passion, hidden There lies my love I'll hide it under a blanket Lull it to sleep I'll keep it in a hidden place

Raina + Isabela

Wetsuit, The Vaccines ( Spotify || Youtube ) Does holy water make you pure? Submerged, your vision's just obscured You're a lot like me In up to our knees In over your chest is way too deep

On Board, Alana Handerson feat. Joshua Burnside ( Spotify || Youtube ) I'll be the figurehead On your ship's bow I'll be the last glimpse of a topsail As we go down I'll be waiting on the seabed Repeating the words Don't forget (you said), ships were not built to be safe And in all my life's mistakes You were not one 'Cause all I've ever done All I've ever done Is love you To the bottom of the deep blue sea

Raina + Merrill

Too Late to Turn Back Now, Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose ( Spotify || Youtube ) I found myself phoning her At least ten times a day You know, that's so unusual for me To carry on this way I'll tell you, I can't sleep at night For wanting to hold her tight I've tried so hard to convince myself This feeling just can't be right Let me tell you It's too late to turn back now I believe, I believe, I believe I'm falling in love

Lay All Your Love on Me, Avantasia ( Spotify || Youtube ) It was like shooting a sitting duck A little small talk, a smile, and baby I was stuck I still don't know what you've done with me A grown-up woman should never fall so easily I feel a kind of fear When I don't have you near Unsatisfied, I skip my pride I beg you, dear Don't go wasting your emotion Lay all your love on me

Aisling + Cullen

Jackie and Wilson, Hozier ( Spotify || Youtube ) She blows outta nowhere, roman candle of the wild Laughing away through my feeble disguise No other version of me I would rather be tonight. And, Lord, she found me just in time 'Cause with my mid-youth crisis all said and done I need to be youthfully felt 'cause, God, I never felt young She's gonna save me, call me "baby" Run her hands through my hair She'll know me crazy, soothe me daily Better yet, she wouldn't care We'll steal her Lexus, be detectives Ride 'round picking up clues We'll name our children, Jackie and Wilson Raise 'em on rhythm and blues

Dreams, The Cranberries ( Spotify || Youtube ) I want more, impossible to ignore Impossible to ignore And they'll come true Impossible not to do Possible not to do [...] Oh, my life is changing everyday In every possible way And oh, my dreams It's never quite as it seems 'Cause you're a dream to me Dream to me

#9 ship songs #tagged petrel #aisling lavellan #alyra mahariel #raina hawke #it's been nice to dig up eheheheheheh #some I've already put in other asks but I hyperfixate on songs to link to characters #Layla by Eric Clapton could be a good Alistair and Alyra song if it wasn't linked permanently to another OC #for example #On Board felt like a must have also ahahahahah #singing petrel

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wizardofrozz · 9 months

Note

Hi again and so sorry for the intrusion but I had a dream about Sawbones last night (probably perused from my first Plo fic) and I have questions! So you confirmed he pulls the Kix 'I out rank you' card and I'm still shaken by this xD ♥

Of the boys, what are your thoughts or how does Saw handle treating them while on a mission (with legroom to work with)?

Wolffe will try to brush out minor injuries.

Sinker being a little shit and overly dramatic while treating Wolffe and is all "Well, I guess at this rate, I'm gonna die. I mean, it's not like I've been hit in the chest or anything." He didn't get hit in the chest, he's just my downer baby and I love him.

Boost being an annoying little shit going over Saw's medkit and be like "do you need anything? Does this help? Is this bacta? Can I do it myself?"

Comet constantly leaving and returning like "Is it my turn yet? No, okay? How about now? My turn? What, not yet? Okay, how about now?"

Warthog just very invasively looming over Saw's shoulder watching him treat Wolffe and it is in such a way that he is literally hovering. Chest almost touching Saw's back but very close, his head is literally over Saw's shoulder.

Plo out here trying not to laugh because he's too proud seeing all his boys alive and he's just there force healing himself because you know, he won't do it to his men when Saw's around because it's his purpose and Plo respects that ♥

Plo's just all:

I fucking love talking about this man and I will happily welcome any and all questions! Also I love that he's already left his mark on you 🥺💕

Okok this is going to get long lol

Wolffe: I wholeheartedly agree that Wolffe is one to brush off injuries, especially when other members of the pack are injured as well. However, Saw does not have the patients or people skills to give a shit. He's threatened Wolffe at blaster point it was on stun...but Wolffe didn't know that. Saw refuses to take Wolffe's shit which had led to the I outrank you line on multiple occasions and Wolffe is pissy about it every time. Although, when it's truly important, Wolffe trusts Saw unequivocally to help him. I think I mentioned that Saw was the medic that worked on and helped Wolffe recover after he lost his eye and that's a time his commander won't forget.

Sinker: Oh man, Saw and Sinker don't really get along all that well 😂 of course, Saw would lay down his life for Sinker and vise versa but on a personal level...Saw wants to strangle him. This reminds me of a headcanon I have for Saw that makes me cackle everytime I think about it (I have to remember to share it because it's hilarious). Anyway lol Saw has even less patience for Sinker's theatrics and will straight up tell him yes you're going to die and Sinker can't tell if he's serious or not. He also doesn't know if it's will be because of his injuries or because Saw's going to suffocate him.

Boost: Oh poor Boost drives him fucking ape shit too. Saw is very particular about his things (this stems from more lore I plan on making a post about in the near future) and Boost just touching his things makes his eye twitch. Also, no, Boost can not do it himself. That might actually send Saw to an early grave.

Comet: Saw wants to glue his ass to a chair so he sits still before he hurts himself worse. Comet constantly being on the move stresses Saw out so it finally get to the point that if Comet's hurt, he gets treated first as long as there's no life-threatening injuries. And if he can't be treated first, Saw secretly enlists Plo's help to keep Comet in one spot.

Warthog: Oh lord. Saw can't stand being touched for extended periods of time without his permission (another things that stems from his past) but he struggles with threatening Warthog to get away from him for one reason. Plainly, Saw is a fucking nerd. This man has memorized the anatomical structures and physiological make up of over a dozen species because he finds it interesting. If you think he's too quiet, ask him a question about wookie muscle mass and he won't shut up. As irritating as having Warthog hovering over his shoulder is, Saw likes to share the knowledge he has so Warthog showing an interest would probably help in Saw letting the contact slide.

Bonus - Plo: It means a lot that Plo respects him and his abilities because it wasn't always like that when he was on Kamino. But, if Saw can get his hands on Plo, he prefers to patch him up. Not that he doesn't trust the Force, but he feels like he owes it to their general to look after him too with how often he throws himself into harms way for them. Saw would never say as much but under his grumbling, Plo knows it comes from a place of love and will indulge his CMO.

#oop still didnt mention that headcanon 💀😂#if youre curious before i get a chance to post it send me another ask lol #works been killing me and i havent had the chance to write out all the Sawbones lore i have lol #but also thank you for loving him so much 🥺#star wars #the clone wars #OC: CT-2697 Sawbones #wizardofrozz asks #wizardofrozz ocs

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the-knightmare · 2 years

Text

Hidden in Plain Slide

@flufftober Prompt: "I hate you" "I love you too."

Louise swallowed thickly as she rearranged her limbs in the cramped space that was the red plastic slide. Its tubed shape meant she was hidden from anyone looking for her, and the late summer afternoon ensured any kid who might have stumbled across her was far away from Wagstaff elementary. Perfect for avoiding a certain boy who had changed the dynamics of their friendship forever.

They had been hanging out at pier along Wonder Wharf, legs dangling over the edge. They had been sharing a bag of overpriced popcorn, making up stories about people they saw lounging on the beach below when Rudy had gone quiet. Louise didn’t notice for a while, until there was no response after pointing out one man with a hot dog shaped tan after falling asleep in the middle of his lunch.

“Earth to Rudy, hot dog guy just rolled over and spread mustard all over himself.”

“Oh, I didn’t really notice.”

Louise rolled her eyes, “I can tell.”

They were quiet for a moment. Rudy staring at the waves as Louise waited for him to break the silence. She knew he would eventually tell her what was on his mind, and that they wouldn’t be able to have any fun until then.

“Hey, Louise, can I tell you something?”

Louise had a sarcastic comment ready, but the look on Rudy’s face had it die in her throat. Instead, she nodded, turning to face what her friend had to say.

“I’ve kept this to myself for a long time so it wouldn’t upset you. I also wanted to stay your friend. But I can’t keep holding it in anymore now that we’ve graduated.”

A cold pit settled in Louise’s stomach as she imagined what Rudy could possibly mean. Had she done something to upset him without realizing? Was he moving across the country for school? As if he could read her mind, Rudy answered her silent questions.

“It’s nothing you’ve done and my plans for community college haven’t changed. I just want to get something off my chest.”

“Louise, I have feelings for you. I’ve lov-liked you for a long time, and I needed to tell you,” Rudy looked away from her, his face flushing bright red as he picked at the hem of his shirt.

“You don’t have to return my feelings. If you don’t than we can pretend I didn’t say anything and go back to being friends.”

In that moment, Louise froze like a deer in headlights. Words failed her when she tried to respond. Not even her hands twitched with the urge to slap her friend for permanently changing their friendship, as there was no way she could ever forget what Rudy had just said.

“Why would he even do that?”

Louise’s voice was as small and strangled as she felt in her hiding place. She had run away after Rudy’s confession without a word. Leaving her best friend calling after her with a voice tinged with both concern and mild rejection.

“Stupid Rudy with his stupid feelings,” Louise kicked the slides walls, punctuating each word with a dull thud, “why can’t things stay the same, things were fine, now I know and can’t not know.”

A treacherous part of her thought this was a good thing. That if she acknowledged her own feelings, they could be happy together. But meant the chance of breaking up and losing Rudy, which is why she had ignored whatever feelings had developed over the years. It had worked, at least had been working. Until now that is, as Louise was confronted with Rudy’s matching feelings for her which tore through any argument of those feelings not being reciprocated.

“Louise?” Rudy’s voice brought her out of her spiraling thoughts.

“Louise, are you okay? Maybe that’s a stupid question right now, but can we talk?”

“How did you know where I was?” she asked instead of answering.

“I figure you were gonna hide and wanted to be alone,” Rudy’s voice got closer as he made his way across the play structure, “and Wagstaff is always empty this time of year with Wonder Wharf open.”

Rudy’s face popped into view as he settled at the top of the slide next to her, squinting in the afternoon sunlight.

“You can come in,” Louise said, “you know you’ll burn if you stay in the sun too long.”

Grinning, Rudy shifted closer. They were pressed together, sides touching, and Louise didn’t move to distance herself from him despite the heat.

“So, uh, about what I said earlier. We can just ignore it and pretend I didn’t say anything.”

Louise was tempted to take his offer of ignoring the confession. Even thought of how much better it would be if she could truly forget. But she knew she couldn’t and wasn’t sure if she wanted to keep ignoring her own feelings.

“I can’t forget what you said, Rudy.”

“Well, um, I can give you space if you want,” Rudy stammered, beginning to stumble out how he’d leave her alone from now on.

“I don’t want that.”

“What do you want, Louise?”

What she wanted was to keep Rudy as her best friend. She wanted to laugh at tourists, get into mischief, and pull pranks together. And if she was honest with herself, she wanted to hold hands and other things that definitely went outside of the friend category.

“What I want,” Louise said, “I want you to stay my friend, and to keep hanging out together.”

“But you just said,” Rudy started but she interrupted him.

“And I want to tell you that I like you.”

Louise felt her heart pound as she waited for Rudy to say something, even though he had been the one to confess the same earlier.

“Do you mean that?”

Louise nodded, slipping her hand on Rudy’s, who laced their fingers together as if they had always held hands.

“Does that mean you’d say yes if I asked you to frozen yogurt?”

“Yeah,” Louise said, “but only if you pay.”

They looked at each other for a moment before breaking into laughter, remembering when Louise had made Rudy pay for their frozen yogurt after breaking his arm after a screening of Hawk and Chick.

“I just want to say,” Rudy said tugging on her hand, “we don’t have to rush anything; we can go as slow as you’re okay with.”

Louise felt herself relax at the words. She didn’t know how it would work out but being with Rudy didn’t scare her. Not like she thought it would. It was this sense of ease that allowed Louise to attempt something she had thought about more and more over the past few weeks.

“Can I…we…try something?” Louise said looking at their joined hands.

“What is it?”

Louise leaned towards him, pressing their foreheads together. Their lips hovered inches apart before she tentatively closed the gap between them. They had kissed before. In this very playground after school in grade four. That kiss hadn’t been more than a childish peck before Louise had pulled back and slapped Rudy square in the face. This time, Louise felt the dry skin of his lips against hers, and instead of disgust as she pulled away, wanted to kiss him again.

It seemed Rudy felt the same, as he breathed out a quiet ‘worth the wait’ in the space between their faces. Despite the flutter in her stomach at his words, Louise rolled her eyes and gave his shoulder a shove.

“Don’t be such a sappy dork.”

“But you love that I’m a sappy dork,” Rudy said, bumping his shoulder against hers in playful retaliation.

“I hate you,” she said, head buried in his shoulder as her cheeks burned.

“I love you too,” Rudy said, pressing a kiss into her hair with a smile.

They stayed like that for a while. Comfortable to take in the closeness of the other without words. Eventually, Louise’s stomach grumbled, and they decided it was a sign to head back to her place to get something to eat. As they walked, Louise could feel the way Rudy’s thumb lazily rubbed her knuckles and was quietly thankful he knew exactly her well enough to have found a friend, now something a little more, in him.

#flufftober2022 #day 16 #roudise #louise/rudy

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demons2003 · 1 year

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My Boys (Chapter 33)

Series List

Y/n's pov

After a long night at my place discussing what all the Russian stuff could be and ideas about the message could be referencing. We now found ourselves back at work, listening to the recording through a pair of headphones. I was in the back area, watching Robin listen to the recording on the other side of the window. We were reading the book that Dustin got for the whole thing when Erica comes to the counter and started to ring the bell in our faces. "Excuse me," She rudely said to us, looking between us both and waiting for one of us to serve her. We continue to ignore her, however, I think Robin just couldn't hear Erica talking at all. "Ahoy!" Erica yells. Robin finally looks up and sighs when she sees Erica and her friends. She turns to face them and takes off her headphones. Erica slowly starts to ring the bell as the two of them stand there and stare at each other. "I'd like to try the peanut butter chocolate swirl, please," Erica says in her sweetest voice. "No. No more samples today," Robin tells her. I look surprised at Robin as Erica asks, "Why not?" "Because you're abusing our company policy," Robin fights back. Dam, this looks good on Rob. If only some other girl that likes her was seeing this unfold right now. "Where's the sailor man?" Erica asks, looking around a little for Steve. "Sorry, he can't help you right now. He's doing something way more important than serving you today," I say as Robin turns back around to face me again. "Busy with what?" Erica asks, obviously wanting to get some free ice cream. Robin and I smile at each other before she turns around and says, "Spycraft."

Steve's pov

Using the binoculars that Dustin gave me I look over to the other side of the mall. "You see anything?" Dustin asks me as I look at everyone in the mall, looking for anything that looks weird or out of the ordinary. "Uh, I guess I don't totally know what I'm looking for," I say to him, still looking around the mall for something. "Evil Russians," Dustin says, as if I know what they would look like. "Yeah, exactly. I don't know what an evil Russian looks like," I snap at him. "Tall, blond, not smiling," Dustin says. "Mm-hmm?" "Also, look for earpieces, camo, duffel bags, that sort of thing," Dustin explains. "Right, okay, duffel bags," I say, continuing to look for something that looks suspicious. On the top balcony, I notice Anna Jacobi and Mark Lewinsky together. "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me," I whisper to myself. "What?" Dustin asks. "Anna Jacobi's talking with the meathead Mark Lewinsky," I tell him, forgetting about what we're really doing here. "If you're not gonna focus, just gimme the binoculars," Dustin says but I ignore him and ask, "Aw, Jesus Christ, whatever happened to standards? I mean, Lewinsky never even came off the bench." "Dude, you are the worst spy in history, you know that?" Dustin asks me, taking the binoculars from my hands. "Stop, hey. Stop." I tell him as the binoculars start to strangle me because the strap is still around my neck as he tries to talk them from me. "Give me those." He says so I pull the strap off of my head so he can't strangle me to death.

"I don't get why you're looking at girls. You have the perfect one in front of you," Dustin tells me as he looks around the mall. "Seriously, if you say Y/n again..." I say, fed up with him saying I should be with her, even though I would love for that to happen. "Y/n," He says. "No, don't. No," I say as he continues to say Y/n's name repeatedly. We continue like that for a bit until I say, "No, man, she's not my type. She's not even... in the ballpark of what my type is, all right?" "What's your type again? Not awesome?" Dustin asks me, looking at me for the last bit of the question. "Thank you," I sarcastically say. "For your information, they're still in school. And he's weird. He's a weirdo. And he's hyper. I don't like that she's hyper. And she did drama. That's a bad look. And he's in a band? No," I ramble, thinking about Y/n and Eddie at the same time. Wait, why the hell did Eddie cross my mind? On shit, did Dustin notice I said he and she?!

I panic and look at Dustin but he doesn't seem to notice what I said and asks, "Now that you're out of high school, which means you're technically an adult, don't you think it's time you move on from primitive constructs such as popularity?". "Oh, primitive constructs? That some stupid shit you learned at Camp... Know... Nothing?" I ask him, feeling slightly attacked for my old lifestyle. "Camp Know Where, actually," Dustin sarcastically corrects me, adding, "And no, it's shit I learned from life. Instead of dating somebody you think's gonna make you cooler, why not date somebody you actually enjoy being around? Like me and Suzie." "Oh, Suzie. Yeah, you mean, 'hotter than Phoebe Cates.' Yeah, that Suzie," I sarcastically say, not really believing that Dustin was able to get a girlfriend that hot. "And, uh, let's think about how exactly did you score that beautiful girlfriend? Oh, yeah. With my advice. Because that's how this works, Henderson. I give you the advice, you follow through. Not the other way around, all right, pea-brain?" I continue to give Dustin attitude. I look back around the mall as I feel Dustin give me a glare on the side of my head. He can not know that I like Y/n. I'll never hear the end of it.

We continue to look over the mall, trying to find anyone that could fit the description Dustin said or that looked suspicious. "Target acquired," Dustin randomly says. I look in the same direction and ask, "Where?" "Ten o'clock. Sam Goody's," Dustin explains but I still couldn't find what he was looking at. I reach for the binoculars and say, "Give me that," looking in the direction he just mentioned. As I look through I find a guy that almost exactly fits the description Dustin said. "Shit. Duffel bag," I whisper, not believing my eyes and following him. I lower the binoculars to look at Dustin, both of us saying, "Evil Russians," at the same time. We quickly get out of our hiding place and run up the escalators to follow behind him. As we move through the crowd of people I realise we aren't walking fast enough. "Slow down," Dustin says. "We're losin' him," I tell Dustin, continuing to follow the Russian, getting a bit faster. "You're getting too close," He tells me. I run into someone and they yell, "Watch it, dickward," at me. I shrug them off a little and look back at the Russian. He stops in the middle of the way and turns his head slightly behind him. Dustin and I quickly move to the side and I stare at a wall while Dustin makes a fake phone call. "Hello. Yes. I am fine." Dustin says in a monotone voice.

The guy looks in our direction a little but continues to walk to where he's trying to go. I move forward again and pull slightly on Dustin's arm to tell him to follow again. We stand behind a corner and slowly peak out to see where he's going to find him walking into a Jazzercise area yelling, "All right, everyone, listen up!" He unzips the bag and yells, "I just have one question for you. Who... is ready to sweat?" The women in the room all cheer for him and he starts to remove his jacket and start the class. I stare shocked, not really knowing if he's hot or I'm just disappointed.

Y/n's pov

"'The week is long. The silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west. A trip to China sounds nice if you tread lightly.'" Robin reads out loud on the windowsill. We'd been trying to decode the message since the boys were out doing spy things but we were finding it a lot harder than what we originally thought. "Any clue what it could mean?" I ask Robin, thinking about the message again. "I don't know, but I think 'Tread lightly' could be something," Robin says as she picks up the Russian book again, flipping through it to look for something. "What are you thinking over there Rob?" I ask her as I get up from leaning on the front counter and move over to her. As she flips through the book, we hear a knock out the back. Robin sighs and opens the window and climbs into the back room. I laugh a little and walk to the back door instead. She opens the door and a guy on the other side says,

"Delivery for you." "Thank you," Robin thanks, taking the package from him and quickly signing it. Robin looks over him a little and seems to get some sort of idea from him. "Have a nice day," The delivery guy finally says. "Yeah, you too," Robin quickly rushes out and watches as the guy walks away from our door. "Silver cat. Silver cat," Robin exclaims quietly, looking at the delivery guy still. I pock my head out the door as well and notice the back of the guy's shirt had a silver cat logo on it. "Holy shit," I whisper, Robin and I looking at each other a little bit excited by the development. "That's gotta be what it's referring to right?" Robin asks me as she pushes her way back into the store. "It has to be. So what, the delivery company is a part of the Russian thing?" I ask, climbing back over the window so one of us is working again. Robin nods and runs out of the back and towards the front of the store. I follow behind her, confused about what's she doing when Dustin and Steve also walk back in.

"Hey, Y/n and Robin, you're not gonna believe who Dustin thought was a Russian," Steve says as they walk in. "You did too," Dustin argues with him. "No I did not," Steve argues back. God, they are such children sometimes. As they continue to argue about whether Steve believed it or not, Robin pushes between the two of them, me close behind her. "Robin?" I ask her, wondering what she's thinking right now. We run across the mall a little and Robin jumps up on a seating area, looking across the whole mall. I jump up as well as Robin whispers over and over, "A trip to China sounds nice." Robin locks onto something and says "A trip to China sounds nice," A little louder than before, seeming to understand the meaning. She looks down at her notes pad and reads, "If you tread lightly." Saying it a few more times as she looks around again. She motions over to the shoe store and says the saying a little louder again. Ok, she's definitely got something that I don't. "When... When blue and yellow meet in the west." Robin reads out loud again, spinning around again to try to find something that fits the description. As she locks onto the big clock Steve comes up to us and says, "Robin. Y/n." We look over to Dustin and Steve as they walk over, Steve asking us, "What are you doing?" "Robins cracked it," I say, pointing at Robin with a wide smile. Steve looks confused and asks, "Cracked what?" Robin jumps off the seat and I follow shortly after her. "I cracked the code," Robin says with the biggest smile.

"Wait, what? How?" Dustin asks us, clearly confused about how Robin cracked it and not him. I smile and push the two of them towards the store again. "The delivery company had a Silver Cat as the logo," I tell them. Steve looks confused and says, "Ok, how does that help?" Robin jumps up and down a little as she explains, "The code has a silver cat, which is in the mall. It talks about Chinatown, we have a Chinese restaurant here. If you tread lightly, there's a shoe store on the second level. When blue and yellow meet in the west, the clock in the mall has hands that are blue and yellow. Everything that's in the code is found here, and it's got something to do with the delivery company." Dustin smiles up at the two of us as we round the corner so we are now all behind the counter. "That makes so much sense," Dustin exclaims, excited that we finally got something. "That's all good and everything, but what the hell are we going to do about it?" Steve asks, standing with his arms on his hips, something I now call his mum pose. "Well, we could go to the loading dock tonight and see if anything suspicious happens?" I ask him, doing the same pose as well. Dustin notices what I'm doing and laughs at me. Steve looks confused at him as Robin begins to laugh as well. "Why the hell is that funny? It makes sense," Steve tries to defend. I laugh at him as well and say, "He's not laughing at my plan Stevie boy." He looks over to me more closely and groans as he realises what I'm doing. He takes his hands off his hips and says, "Fine, we can go to the loading dock. But we go together." We all agree and continue with the rest of our day until we can finally spy on the Russians that are in Hawkins.

#5 seasons #eddie munson #steve harrington #eddie x reader #steve x reader #steve x eddie #eddie munson x reader #steve harrington x reader #robin x reader #steddie #stranger things #steve harrington x eddie munson #steve x eddie x reader

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amortentiaopenheart · 1 year

Text

I wish....

Chapter 2!

Genre: Angsty fluff

Premise: Aftermath of their break up. Ft. Platonic Edenbrook Gang

Word count: 1K+

AGSISFKAGS This is my very first song-fiction and Idk how this is gonna turn out!!!

(Song lyrics are italicized)

Ethan slumped down on the sofa, knees too weak to support his body.

Tears blurred his vision as he bit back a sob.

Every part of his body, his mind, his brain, his heart, were screaming at him, for her, for letting her go, for being so callous.

"Oh Catherine"....he thought, unable to hold back his misery anymore.

♤•♤•♤•♤•♤•♤•♤•♤•♤•♤•♤•♤•♤

Catherine bit her lip hard, trying to hold back tears as she ran all the way back to her apartment.

She burst through the door, making a beeline for her room when Jackie's voice stopped her.

"Yo, what's with the rocket speed? Come on and join us. We're about to watch Wednesday's new episode."

"Umm, maybe some other time. I'm really tired."

No sooner were the words out of her mouth than she felt two hands spin her around, making her come face to face with Sienna.

"You look like you're about to cry. What's up?" Sienna prodded gently.

Unable to hold it in any longer, Catherine collapsed against her, crying her heart out as she told her gang what had happened.

"Oh Coco, it's gonna be okay" Sienna whispered.

The other three quickly left the couch to join them.

"Want me to go punch Ramsey?" Jackie's eyes were spitting fire.

"Forget his existence, Catherine, at least for now. You need to relax." Elijah stated, worriedly.

"It's okay Catherine, come on" Aurora voiced.

Catherine stopped crying. Looking up from Sienna's shoulder, she shook her head with a small smile.

"Thank you guys. I really appreciate it. And Jackie, although the offer is very generous, it was my decision."

"Just let me know if you need anything. And I mean anything Catherine" Jackie said softly.

Suddenly, Jackie charged forward and hugged her. It turned into a group hug.

Catherine emitted a watery laugh. "Thanks guys, you are the best."

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3 months later.....

"Oh my gosh did you hear the news?! Apparently Dr. Valentine got engaged!"

Marlene's excited voice shook Ethan out of his reverie.

His mind went blank as he processed the words.

Dr. Valentine, his Rookie, the person around whom his life evolved, was engaged. And to another person.

Ethan tried to focus on the chart in front of him, but all he could see was another man, holding hands with Catherine, kissing her, making her smile.

After checking on three more patients, he had to step into a supply closet.

Turns out freedom ain't nothin'

But missing you

Wishin' I'd realized what I had

When you were mine.....

I'd go back to December, turn around and make it alright

I go back to December all the time.....

Ethan's body let out as many tears as physically possible, before he fainted from exhaustion and depression.

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Catherine was staring, a blank countenance on her once radiating face.

What had been a beautifully sunny face was now dull, devoid of happiness. Her eyes had lost all sparkle, her smile didn't have that natural glow anymore, there were dark circles under her eyes.

These days, I haven't been sleeping

Staying up playing back myself leaving

"Earth to Catherine!" Sienna tapped her on her back.

"Eh- What?" Catherine turned around to face her fellow dolphin.

"Oh Coco....do you still think of him?" Sienna asked, upset at seeing that haunted look in her eyes.

"Everyday. Every single damn day. I don't know what to do, Sienna. After his hearing, I haven't talked to him and it's tearing me apart." Catherine's voice grew hoarse, a strangled cry escaping her lips.

"Why don't you talk to him then?" Sienna suggested, pulling her friend close.

"What, and get back with him only to have my heart shattered further?"

"I'm not asking you to get back together. Just...talk to him? Hear his side?"

Catherine sighed, deflating physically. "Okay. Thanks, Si."

"Anytime, Coco."

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Catherine walked into a supply closet, intending to get the crepe bandage, when she stumbled upon something.

Somehow regaining balance, she grasped a nearby shelf.

She felt like she tripped over a body.

Feeling uneasy, she turned on the light switch.

On the floor stained with fresh blood, with a deep gash on the forehead, lay Ethan.

She gasped. Somehow pulling him up, she paged a few doctors.

As she saw him being taken to the ER, she threw her head back, wondering just how much more heartbreak she would have to endure.

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Ethan woke up to a headache tearing away at him. Moaning in discomfort, he sat up, to realize he was in a hospital bed.

Just then, Danny entered.

"Oh! Dr. Ramsey! You're finally awake!"

"What d'you mean?"

"You've been unconscious for the last 2 days."

Ethan nodded, feeling his head might burst if he tried to do anything else.

Wincing in pain, he put a hand to his head, finding heavy bandaging. He sighed, as he remembered the sequence of events gradually.

"Wait, Danny, who found me?"

"Dr. Valentine" Danny muttered, looking uncharacteristically abashed.

Ethan closed his eyes, willing away the harsh last memory he had of hers.

"Doctor will be here to check up on you in 2 minutes, Dr. Ramsey." Danny said softly.

Before Ethan could question about who his doctor was, Danny had swept out.

"Good morning, Dr. Ramsey. I need to give you a quick check up."

That voice.

Ethan turned around to see the miserable face of Catherine Valentine staring at him, anguish swirling in the depths of her eyes.

I'm so glad you made time to see me

How's life? Tell me, how's your family?

I haven't seen them in a while

You've been good, busier than ever

We small talk, work in the weather

Your guard is up and I know why

As she treated him, there was no sign of recognition from her. Ethan might have been a stranger from Portugal, for all the informality he received.

"You'll be discharged tomorrow if we see this steady improvement keeping in motion."

He tried to make small talk, only to be put off with one word answers.

At last, desperation pushed through.

"Catherine, I'm sorry. I-"

"I'm not strong enough to do this, Ethan."

She was out of the room before he could do anything else.

He physically deflated, wondering how much more his heart would be shattered.

♤•♤•♤•♤•♤•♤•♤•♤•♤•♤•♤•♤•♤

It was 12:36 am, the whole apartment was asleep, when Sienna woke up to a soft knock on the main door.

She sprang up from bed, confused at who it could be at this late hour.

As she cautiously opened the door, she saw Ethan looking at her, his eyes unfocused, his clothes disheveled, his hair messy, his cheeks streaked with water and an overall very 'un-Ethan Ramsey' look.

"Dr. Trinh" he mumbled. "Is-"

"No."

"Doctor- Sienna- please."

Sienna sighed, before squaring her shoulders and standing tall.

"I said, no."

"It's okay Sienna. Let him in. It's freezing and he doesn't have anything warm on him."

The trembling voice of Catherine Valentine made Sienna nod and move away from the door, but not before shooting Ethan a break-her-heart-further-and-we'll-nailgun-yours glare.

Ethan stumbled in, looking at Catherine as though she was his only lifeline.

So this is me swallowing my pride

Standing in front of you sayin' I'm sorry for that night

And I go back to December all the time

It turns out freedom ain't nothin'

But missin' you

Wishin' I'd realized what I had

When you were mine

I'd go back to December, turn around and change my own mind

I go back to December all the time

Ethan looked as though he might cry.

Catherine moved forward, gently steering him towards her room.

As soon as they were inside, Ethan flopped down on the bed, hiding his face in his hands.

Catherine got him a glass of water, touching the tip of the glass to his lips.

As he drank, she moved behind him, one hand stroking his head while the other worked out knots to relieve the tension from his muscles.

Once he looked sober, she came to sit in front of him.

"Hey."

I miss your tan skin, your sweet smile,

So good to me, so right

And how you held me in your arms that September night

The first time you ever saw me cry

Maybe this is wishful thinkin'

Probably mindless dreamin'

But if we loved again, I swear I'd love you right

Ethan stared at her, before starting to speak. His voice was trembling, his eyes watery.

"I'm sorry are such hollow words, aren't they? And yet, when you commit a mistake, you have to say those words. But what I committed, they weren't mistakes. They were my faults, my insecurities surfacing to push you away. And that isn't an excuse. I was nothing short of callous, and I'm sorry. I truly mean it. It's not said to appease, but to let you know I've realized what I've done. I've missed you. So badly. You're not just my friend, you're my life. You're my whole entire life. No, please let me finish. I know. Dolores, Miami, Naveen, the Diagnostics Team, Amazon, Louise, the hearing....you've been there every time. And you got nothing but heartbreak in return. It shouldn't have taken a break up to bring things into perspective. But I can't move on, Catherine. You're the only one I ever wanted. I'm sorry. I know you're engaged, but I just wanted to let you know how sorry I am and I wish I could do something to make it alright. But it's too late to go back and fix what I've shattered. I wish you all the best Catherine. I love you from the bottom of my heart. I only want you to be happy. And if happiness comes to you in the form of another man, so be it. I'm sorry for intruding at such an ungodly hour but-"

The rest of Ethan's words were muffled by the soft hand she pressed against his mouth.

"Hush."

Ethan looked at her, unable to help the tears. He let them flow, realizing it was a useless effort.

"Ethan. Firstly, it's not okay. It never was. But, I'm willing to give this another shot."

Ethan's eyes went wide. "But you're engag-"

"That's just rumors, Ethan. I'm not engaged. Relax. I'm willing to give this, us, another chance. But you have to work for it."

Ethan couldn't believe it. He nodded and tentatively opened his arms, only to find Catherine flying into him and crashing her lips against his.

His euphoria was unmatched. He wrapped himself around her, crying and laughing at the same time, as she pressed kisses everywhere she could.

Drained from all the tension and sorrow they had been wallowing in for the past 3 months, they collapsed into bed, wrapped around each other, as perfectly as two puzzle pieces fitting.

Love was truly in the air.......

♤•♤•♤•♤•♤•♤•♤•♤•♤•♤•♤•♤•♤

That's it! Hope y'all liked it! >>>>

PS: The song is Back to December by Taylor Swift.

@openheartfanfics

#ethan ramsey #ethan ramsey x mc #ethan x mc #open heart #choices #jamespotterthefirst #open heart choices #pictagram #choices fic writers creations #david gandy

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blondcs · 1 year

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𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐇 𝐇𝐔𝐓: 𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟑𝟒

how are you feeling in your decision to couple up or stay single ?

“oh,” she’s taken aback a moment. “i thought you were gonna ask about the dumping first. um... okay, sorry.” her head shakes as if clearing it, then regroups. “yeah, i’m like, actually really happy, i think? like... i don’t know. it’s kind of a weird start to a relationship. or—not a relationship, but a—whatever. a thing. like... you know? it’s weird to be moving on when josh and naomi are literally right there. probably weird for jude too with romi and dante or whatever, and sometimes i’m worried that it makes it seem like... performative or competitive or something? or—like, i guess my biggest fear is that people think that i’m just settling for jude or something while like, secretly plotting to get josh back and that’s genuinely not the situation. like, at all. it’s more complicated than that. like, what i have with jude is completely different from what i had with josh, but also just completely different from what i expected, i think? like, i had seen this one side of him and was, you know, obviously intrigued right away, but he’s got so many layers. like, he just says things sometimes where i’m like—agh, i’m getting shy.” she ducks her smile into her hands, stomping out her energy in a nervous shuffle but springs back up just as suddenly. “see? this is gonna be a problem because i can feel myself starting to get like, really obsessed with this kid. like, i just want to hang out with him all the time and i literally have no idea what he thinks about me, so... i’m trying not to get anxious, but—i don’t know. i’m getting ahead of myself. it’s really fun spending time with him right now and i like... like him or whatever, so we’ll see.”

are you happy in your couple or do you think your head could be turned ?

“at this point, i really don’t think my head could be turned. like, starting from scratch again would be a bitch and a half and... yeah, i like the kid or whatever.” a good-natured roll of her eyes, shy smile dropping to her lap. “it’s just... early days, though, and i really don’t know where his head’s at, so... it’s not that i’m keeping my options open—like, my eggs are pretty much all in his basket, i think—it’s just kind of figuring out like, how much i’m willing to give? because you know, there’s a chance someone could walk in here tomorrow that’s exactly his type and i just don’t really want to get hurt again. so... yeah, i don’t know. scary stuff.”

what are your thoughts on seb & bash & rhys’ exit last night ? why did you vote the way you did ?

“this was a really hard goodbye for me. like... really hard. god, it’s just like—friendships are hard, you know? i don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but—” the words turn slightly strangled as her eyes well up, turning her somewhere beyond the camera with a brittle laugh as she readjusts her hair. “um... friendships have always been a little harder for me, i think because i naturally just prioritize romantic connections and like, attraction more, and that was something i knew would be kind of a struggle here, but... it was actually so much harder than i expected.” keep it short, jenny. she wipes away the tears that spill over. “and rhys was kind of the first person who was there for me, which—our connection is just really important to me. and then with seb, we had so many ups and downs and i know he can be tough, but so can i, you know? and at the very least i could always count on him to tell it to me straight. like, if i listened to him from the start, i probably would’ve avoided the whole josh fiasco, so... he was only ever looking out for me, i really do believe that. and poor bash—i keep forgetting him because i’m obviously closer with rhys and seb, but he kind of got a shit hand here, didn’t he? anyway, a hard loss. for me. and maybe bash. not for rhys and seb, though. they got to leave together and are probably fucking their way through the french countryside right now, so i’m not worried about them, i just miss them so much already. but i’ll see them soon. it’ll all be okay.”

out of everyone left, who would be the hardest person to see go ?

“i think the only thing that would’ve been harder is if... i was sent home.” she’s not even really joking, though she grins like she is. “and then like, if jude were dumped i would go too. honestly, i’ve had enough experiences in here at this point, i wouldn’t want to stay and try to make something else work just for the fuck of it, you know? ride or die, baby. outside of that, i wouldn’t want to lose angel and callie—they’re kind of like my new besties. and i hope charlene sticks around, but i can kind of give or take everyone else, to be honest. but at the same time... like, even the people i don’t like are starting to feel like some kind of dysfunctional family. it’s weird.”

who seems like the strongest couple right now and why ?

“right now i think callie and angel are the most solid. like, have you seen them interact? i feel like just watching them be so fucking sweet with each other is like, erasing years’ worth of trauma. i’m like ‘wait... you mean the person you’re with is supposed to care about you and listen to you and actually like spending time with you?’ crazy...”

who seems like the weakest couple right now and why ?

“dylan and adela are like, not even a real couple i’m pretty sure. i think she’s a game player and i think dylan’s an easy target because he’s a nice guy... sometimes, and i think she saw the way naomi was able to manipulate him and is just doing the same thing. someone else’ll have to warn him, though, because he’s clearly not gonna listen to it from me.”

#crackon:prompt

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ultimateplaylistmaker · 1 year

Note

The last two were Kaede, and that pathetic wet dog of a sad sack, Shuichi. She decided since Kaede was closer, to ask her first. She hid her bitterness under a well constructed mask. Just looking at Kaede was enough to make her want to strangle her, but she restrained herself.

Tsumugi: Okay. Ultimate....Pianist....and...well, you seem like you'd fit the protagonist role well!

Kaede: Really?

Tsumugi: Sure! No matter what happens, the protagonist always perseveres and wins!

Inner-mugi: In other words, they suffer the most. Seeing all their friends die...seeing the Protag breakdown....I can't wait for you to crumple.

Kaede: Thanks...um, also, I'm sorry.

Tsumugi: Hm?

Kaede: About before. How I called Junko dumb. Or...was it Hope vs. Despair? Maybe Nagito? No, Ryoma called Nagito dumb...

Inner-mugi: You BITCH. IT WAS TWO WEEKS AGO, HOW DO YOU FORGET?!

Kaede: Anyway, I'm really sorry. You really enjoy the series, and while I may not get it nor meant anything mean by it, trashing something isn't cool. Especially if that something is a thing that helped you out of a dark place in your life.

Tsumugi: I don't need YOUR pity.

Kaede notices Tsumugi was staring at her with a gaze. Her eyes were lifeless, and yet...had a murderous intent to them. Tsumugi blinked, clearing her throat.

Tsumugi: Forgive me! What I meant was that I don't need you to apologize! Everyone has their interests and dislikes, so getting upset at you over them is plainly pointless.

Kaede: Huh...well, alright.

Tsumugi: Now then, about your execution.

Kaede: Huh? But...the protagonist doesn't die in these.

Tsumugi: Ppft! It's fan made! If you were found as a blackened, how would you die? What would it feel like?

Tsumugi, creepy stare: I want to hear every last detail of how you'd want to die! You emotions, your face, your pointless struggle! All of it!

Kaede: ...You....are really passionate, aren't you?

Tsumugi: Of course!

Inner-mugi: I'm going to relish seeing you die.

........

Lastly, Shuichi.

Tsumugi: Okay, what do you want?

Shuichi: Uh....well....

Tsumugi rolled her eyes. He was always like this. Hiding behind his hat, so quiet. It'd be endearing if it wasn't so annoying. He couldn't even look her in the eye! Could do with some character development! She'll make it quick.

Tsumugi: You like Kyoko, right?

Shuichi: Huh? What do you-

Tsumugi: Listen, I get it. She's a hottie. Cold stare, cute blush, a voice that would make your spine shive, the whole nine yards. So how about you be the Ultimate Detective?

Shuichi: ....

Tsumugi: Well, if that's all, I'll be heading out.

Shuichi: I want to be the protagonist!

Tsumugi turned and looked at him.

Shuichi: I....really don't like how I am...hiding behind my hat...being so soft-spoken, I can't even look others in the eye half of the time. But....if I was in the shoes of the hero, then... I could be brave enough to do all that. I could finally be a better version of myself. And maybe....Kaede would....

Tsumugi blinked. Kaede again....but this time, he gave her an idea.

Shuichi: Oh, but if the protagonist is already picked, then it's fine! I wouldn't want to mess that up. They're probably better suited for it than me....

Tsumugi: Come now, I haven't even heard all the details! Besides, there isn't a protagonist yet! Let's chat more about this!

And of course....

That was a lie.

tsumugi PLEASE just get therapy girl it aint worth this stick to just writing a really detailed fanfic of your plot that leaves everyone looking at you vaguely concerned like a normal person

#ndrv3 #pregame #musings from the music manager #etrians tsumugis game au

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chickwiththepurpleguitar · 2 years

Note

carrie as a lifeguard and julie as the clumsy but adorable pool-goer that has a massive crush on her lol

Happy birthday, Mimi! (by the time you read this anyway). I was worried this prompt would be hard for me since I've never really written romantic JulieCarrie before, but I ended up having a lot of fun with it! Thanks for the prompt, I hope you enjoy it :D

This takes place in a vague College AU.

Send me prompts (I only need 7 more for the month)!

“Girl,” Flynn says as soon as Julie steps out of the locker room.

“What?” Julie looks down at herself, a little self-consciously. Sure, her new bikini’s a little more revealing than she usually wears— in fact, she doesn’t think she’s ever gone farther into public than Flynn’s backyard hot tub in anything other than a one-piece— but she didn’t think she looked that bad. “Can I not pull it off?”

Flynn makes a strangled sort of scoff sound, gesturing at Julie not unkindly. “Oh, you can pull it off!” they insist, the compliment making Julie blush. “But the reason why you’re trying so hard is not lost on me, and I am judging you.”

Julie makes a face. She suddenly has the urge to cover up, but she settles it by grabbing her towel and flip flops and leading the way out to the pool deck.

“Now, don’t get me wrong,” Flynn continues, teasing even as they follow. “When you said you wanted to spend our last day before classes at the pool, in the fitness center, I can’t deny, I was a little confused. I did think to myself, ‘Self. Why do you think our dear Julie would want to go to an indoor pool funded by our school’s record-breakingly terrible swim team and cleaned probably never, sixteen hours before she has to be in a music forum pretending she sang or played a note all summer? Well, self, I really don’t know, but—’”

“Shut up,” Julie hisses as they pass through the doors into the pool area, their voices immediately starting to echo.

And as much as she tries to be subtle about it, Julie can’t help her gaze straying to the lifeguard chair on the other side of the bleachers.

“‘Well, self,’” Flynn whispers in her ear, audibly grinning, “I really don’t know, but maybe it has something to do with the pretty lifeguard Julie has a massive crush on.”

“It is not—” Julie starts to hiss, shoving Flynn off of her, but the pool deck is slippery, and she almost overbalances, only catching herself by dropping her flip flops with a loud smack against the tile. “It is not massive,” she finishes, just as a piercing whistle makes them both jump.

Julie spins toward the sound and forgets how to breathe. Carrie Wilson, who somehow manages to make a red one-piece look like lingerie and a wet ponytail look straight from the salon, is standing on the rungs of the lifeguard chair, peering down at them over her designer sunglasses.

Peering down at Julie. Looking at Julie. Her face flushes hot.

“Hey!” Carrie calls across the pool. “You girls okay over there?”

“Yep!” Flynn calls back, flashing her a thumbs up.

“Mm-hmm!” Julie adds, her voice an octave higher than it’s supposed to be. “All good here! Thanks… Carrie…”

She can’t read Carrie’s expression from this far away, but it doesn’t look amused. “Okay, well… Just be careful. Walk, please? Don’t slip?”

She pushes her sunglasses back up her nose and turns her attention to the rest of the pool.

Julie spins back around and grabs Flynn by the arm, dragging them toward the exit. “Let’s go.”

“What?” Flynn laughs. “We didn’t even get in the water yet. You didn’t get to show off your new bikini!”

“That’s okay! I’ll try again next year.”

“But you left your flip flops—”

“LET’S GO, FLYNNIGAN!”

Flynn’s echoing cackles follow them out of the gym and all the way home.

Taglist: @whenweremarried @sunsethimb0s @pink-flame @penguin0613 @fighttoshine @sunsetcurvecuddles @teenagedirtbag-dot-jpeg @brightattheorpheum @queenmolina @jandthephantoms @lexilucacia @sapphossidechick @acnhaddict @shrimp-colours @sunset-bobby @lenacarstairspotterstewart @conversationaltreestump @burntchromas @julieandthequeers @joyandthephantoms @it-tastes-like-lizard @jatpfs

#jatp #julie and the phantoms #jatp fanfiction #fanfiction #julie molina #carrie wilson #juliecarrie #college au

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gpark01 · 25 days

Text

1: The Princess

Date: The 15th day of the Winter Solstice

(image credit to Vogue France)

Today was the day of the fitting of my gown. As I stood before the mirror in my chamber, draped in a lavishing gown as white as the morning glistening snow, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of suffocation that closed around me. The large diamonds around my neck felt like a hard stifling pressure crushing against my lungs, making each breath unbearable. It didn’t help that the heavy weight of the gown felt like chains upon my shoulders, maybe even shackles that would soon bind me to a life of eternal unhappiness. But alas, even if I long to cast these chains and flee beyond the mountains of this kingdom, I know such thoughts are reckless; thoughts that a princess cannot afford to have. For I have been born with a fate dictated by the crown placed on my head the day I was born and the duties that I would be responsible for until the day I die. And each day, I am reminded of my responsibilities and the expectations I must fulfill.

I know this with my whole soul, but oh, how I long for the freedom of choice. To do what my heart desires, rather than be stuck in a castle, completing each of my tasks on every passing day. I want to roam the world, dance freely to the sound of pipes, run up the fields barefooted and fall asleep under the sun. Is this so much to ask for? Is it too much that I desire to love, laugh and live as I please?

You see, I have a confession I must write before I slave away for the rest of my life to a man I do not love. A confession I have told no one and must not speak a word of. Beneath the royal duties and expectations of the crown, my heart has already found a man.

(image credit to Stormfantasyart)

Sir Riftan. My knight who has sworn loyalty to me since the year he turned 16. And right now, as he stands outside my door, my face burns and my hand quivers as I write this. Although I know that our love can never be, for he is a knight and I am the princess of Eldoria, I wish for just one day to tell of my feelings and walk alongside him without any worries about my responsibilities. This longing breaks my heart knowing that, that day will never come.

(image credit to Cindy)

And so, as the day of my wedding to King Rupert creeps closer and closer, the shackles of the crown weigh upon me and the suffocation that I cannot escape strangles me. But I vow today, at this very moment, to carry on. I must fulfill my duties to my kingdom and the people of this kingdom. For the future ahead may be filled with sorrow, I will face it with courage and determination. And so, with this heavy heart, I pray to the gods to give me the courage to prove myself worthy of the crown and forget my desires and Sir Riftan. I pray that I will find the courage as I burn this page, forever forget this secret and never let this secret pass my lips.

#fantasy #princess #short story #diary #mixed feelings

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waywardxrhea · 3 months

Text

Part Fifty: Making Amends

[slow burn romance between Steve Rogers and SHIELD agent Emma Baker]

Warnings: 18+, contains humor, fluff, mental health, family trauma, romance, angst, language, violence.

installment list

Word count: 3.6k

Emma and Bucky work toward amending their past.

"Nat?" Emma breathes in disbelief at the sight of her friend on the platform with Steve.

"I told you I'd see you in a minute didn't I?" Natasha asks as she deactivates her suit at the same time as Steve does.

Emma slowly walks up to Nat, and sensing her hesitancy, Steve tells her, "It's really her, Em. It's okay."

"Well in that case," Emma says before wrapping Nat in the bearhug to end bearhugs.

"So you missed me?" Natasha asks as Emma nearly strangles her with affection. Emma simply nods in response, unable to form words because of the many emotions circling through her brain. "Steve told me everything before I went on and helped him put back the other stones. Pretty bold move on your part in that final battle huh?"

Emma laughs sheepishly before saying, "I did what I felt needed to be done." She pauses and finally releases Natasha from her embrace, turning to Steve and asking, "So what did you do to get her back? Didn't Clint say what happened was permanent?"

"Let's just say that I have my ways and I met some people along the way who were very helpful in my mission. Don't worry about it," Steve tells her as he picks her up in his arms and twirls her around in the air. He puts her engagement ring back on her finger and kisses her before saying, "All that matters now is that we're all back together again."

"Hear, hear," Emma agrees with a smile. She looks over to Natasha and thinks out loud, saying, "Well I'm glad I haven't really had time to type up a mission debriefing so now I don't have to tell the world she's gone..."

Natasha finishes up with her reunion with Bruce and Sam before turning back to Emma, saying, "All that time travel got the best of me, how's about one of your famous breakfasts?"

"Oh don't forget that I'm here too," Sam warns her as he gives her another hug.

"Fine, fine, the both of you! Steve and I are super hungry, let's go," she says as she jokingly waves her hands at them with a smile.

"On it!" Sam and Emma shout in unison.

Before the pair can run off though, Steve calls out, "Hey Sam, can I talk with you for a sec?"

Sam nods and heads over to where Steve is standing, calling out to Emma, "Don't you get started without me, Baker!"

"Wouldn't dream of it," Emma calls as she heads back to the cabin along with Bruce, Natasha, and Bucky.

"What's up, Cap?" Sam asks Steve.

"So I've been doing some thinking lately ever since we started to get everyone back and uh... I've decided to retire as Captain America. I've held the title long enough and I think it's time for a simple life."

Sam smiles and pats Steve on the back, saying, "I'm happy for you, finally getting out after all these years." He then pauses and furrows his eyebrows, asking, "But what does this have to do with me?"

"Well throughout the years you've proven yourself time and time again to be a good leader and a great man, so I would be honored if you wanted to take the mantle of Captain America from me." Sam opens his mouth to try and protest, knowing how the world would perceive him with the title, but before he can say anything, Steve chuckles and adds, "Come on Sam you can't say no, I took this shield from myself just so I could give it to you."

Sam chuckles and takes the shield from Steve's outstretched hand, saying, "I'll think about it..."

Steve smiles and tells him, "Well if it's any help you look damn good with that shield."

Sam laughs and jokes, "Oh I know I look good, but it's just what other people will say about it is the thing."

"Well we can cross that bridge when we get there, but if anyone has a problem they can have a word with me, got it?"

"Got it," Sam says with a smile as he looks down at the shield with a sense of pride in his heart.

Soon after Natasha and Steve eat their meal and everyone catches Nat up on what's been going on, Emma gives Nat her phone so she can call Clint and tell him what's going on herself. When she leaves the room, Steve shifts his eyes to the other side of the room where Bucky is sitting alone. He makes his way over and asks, "Everything okay Buck?"

Bucky sighs and admits, "Steve, besides Banner, I have hurt every single person in this house and I just feel bad staying here when you all have those memories of me. I shot Natasha in Odessa and I hurt all of you in DC, I just don't want-"

"Buck," Steve interrupts while putting his hand on his shoulder. Bucky stops talking and Steve continues with, "I can't stop you from feeling bad for something that was out of your control in the first place, but I can give you advice on how to help yourself feel better about it all."

"Steve, there's no fixing what I did."

"I know there isn't, but there is fixing how you feel about what happened," Steve tells him. He excuses himself for a second and goes to his and Emma's room and takes the old journal Emma gave him out of the top drawer. He goes back to where Bucky is and hands him the journal, saying, "This journal got me through the craziness that this world threw at me when I first got into these modern times so I'd like you to have it. You can look through anything I have down in there and you can also add whatever you want."

Bucky starts flipping through the journal and asks, "How is any of this stuff supposed to make me feel better pal? It all seems like a bunch of stuff you did or wanted to try."

"It's just an idea. Maybe in the back pages, you can start your own lists of things you want to do now that you're free from HYDRA and we aren't in a space war right now."

"What I want to do is just... I dunno, somehow make amends for everything I did. Apologize for it all. I don't even know where I'd start though."

Steve looks over to where Emma and Sam are chatting and says, "How about right there?"

Over the next few weeks, wedding planning is back in full swing. Steve and Emma are driving to the town beside where the Compound once stood to see if the bakery there is still operating. As they drive into the town, Steve looks over to Emma and asks, "Remember last time we were here?"

Emma nods. "The snow was beautiful."

"As were you," Steve says as he parks Gramps' old truck down the road from the shop. Emma can't help the smile on her face at the words as she gets out of the car. Steve meets her halfway and quickly takes her into his arms and gives her a kiss before saying, "And I really wish I would have done that way back then..."

"Well we can't change the past, but we can be grateful for what we have now," Emma tells him with a smile as she takes his hand in hers as they walk down the street to the shop.

Steve holds the door open for Emma as they enter, the little bell quietly ringing, signaling their arrival. The same woman from the time before emerges from the kitchen and smiles at the two of them, greeting them with a warm, "Hello dearies! It's been a while since your last visit."

"Life got a bit in the way," Emma tells her with a small laugh as she takes in the warmness of the room and breathes in the smell of fresh bread coming from the kitchen.

"We were just wondering if you happen to make cakes for weddings?" Steve asks her kindly.

The woman smiles and says, "Oh I could just tell there was something special between the two of you! Congratulations on the wedding!"

"Thank you," Emma replies with a wide smile and sparkle in her eye.

The woman comes around the counter with a large binder and puts it on a table, telling them, "Here's my catalog, feel free to start looking while I take this bread out of the oven."

Steve and Emma both nod and pull up chairs beside each other to look through the binder. Emma leans her head on Steve's shoulder as he flips through the pages. He looks over at her and smiles, telling her, "Hey, I love you."

Emma smiles up at him and replies, "I know."

Steve chuckles and asks, "Star Wars?"

"You know it," Emma replies with a laugh. "But in all seriousness, I love you too and I'm so happy you're back here safe."

"Me too," Steve whispers to her as the woman comes out of the kitchen to help them with their cake decision.

A few days pass of everyone getting settled into their new routines and back into the world as it is now. Natasha takes off for a little while to go be with the Bartons as well as her other family. Banner heads back home, so that leaves Emma, Sam, Steve, and Bucky at the lodge.

One afternoon Tony calls them and tells them that after a lengthy talk with people high up in the government, he set up a meeting for all of them to be pardoned for their actions during the events of the Sokovia Accords. Once everything is settled and they're all free, life as normal continues.

Emma is still slowly getting used to living in the same space as Bucky and as much as she hates that it happens, some days her anxiety gets the better of her when she's particularly overwhelmed because of planning the wedding and everything that comes with that. One day Emma is in the living room writing in a journal, trying to figure out what she wants to say at the wedding for her vows. Nothing seems to be perfect enough though so she sits on the couch surrounded by crumbled-up balls of paper.

As she starts again, deep in concentration and not paying attention to her surroundings, suddenly a voice enters her headspace. "Hey Emma?" Emma jumps at the sound and yelps, instinctively picking up a paper ball to throw. She winds up her shot, but then looks up and sees that it's only Bucky standing in the threshold with his phone to his chest.

Emma puts down the paper and says, "Sorry, you just startled me..."

Bucky nods and apologizes, saying, "I'll announce myself better next time. But I came in here to ask if you need anything from the store. Steve's on the phone and he said you weren't answering yours so he got worried."

"Always worried about me, that one is," Emma jokes with a slightly forced laugh. "But I may need a new notebook, this one's almost out of paper..."

Bucky takes his chance at joking around with her and says, "Got it. Journal is out of ammo to make paper balls. Anything else?"

Emma can't help but crack a genuine smile at the joke and replies, "Correct. But yeah, I think that's it, thanks."

Bucky nods shortly and heads into the hall to finish his conversation with Steve. When he's back on the phone, Steve says to him, "So I heard you crack a joke in there, are you two finally warming up to each other?"

Bucky smiles a bit and replies, "I'd like to think so, but she's still been super jumpy around me almost every time she sees me..."

"She's just on edge right now, Buck. When she isn't stressed she seems fine around you, it's just when she's overwhelmed she spirals into her anxious thoughts and her mind goes back to that day. She's actually gotten into contact with her old therapist who got blipped, so maybe things will get better soon once she has that outlet to help."

"I just really want things to be okay between us by the wedding. If I'm gonna be in it, I don't wanna make her uncomfortable."

"And they will be. Just give it a little more time," Steve tells him. He wanted nothing more than to have Bucky be by his side on the big day.

From beside Steve, Sam tells him to put the phone on speaker and he says to Bucky, "Maybe you can both go to the same therapist. That way she can hear both sides and suggest ways to help the two of you repair things with each other."

"Sam, that sounds a lot like couples therapy and we definitely aren't a couple."

Sam chuckles and responds with, "Look, I know what it sounds like, but friendship counseling is a thing in this day and age and I think you two could really benefit."

"I'll think about it. Maybe I can start with a different shrink first though," Bucky replies. As much as he would love to smooth things over with Emma, going to a shrink together seems like a lot...

After a few days and some more talking between the three, Sam and Steve convince Bucky not to go to the therapist that he found on his own, but rather to see Emma's therapist. A few sessions pass and things finally seem to be looking up in terms of Emma and Bucky's friendship.

One afternoon when Emma is off of work, she's looking at her DVD collection debating on what to watch when Bucky hesitantly asks, "Mind if I join?"

"If you can help me choose a movie, Barnes," she jokes.

Bucky walks up behind her and smiles to himself when she doesn't jump in his presence. He scans the shelf and his eyes land on a familiar title. "What about that one?"

"The Hobbit?"

"Yeah," Bucky replies.

"Good choice," Emma says as she takes it off the shelf to pop into the DVD player. "What made you choose this one?"

"Well while I'm impressed with the selection you have, that's the only title that I knew."

"Oh wait! I remember when we first met, Steve told me that you would have loved to see this movie!"

"Oh did he now?"

"Yep, you were always the first one he'd mention when I was showing him new stuff. He always wished that you were there to experience it with him," Emma tells him as she sits down on the couch and curls up in a blanket. "Fair warning, book-to-movie adaptations aren't always the best so beware of that."

"Oh I have extremely high expectations for this film," Bucky jokes as Emma hits play.

Later that night at dinner, Emma and Bucky start talking about their favorite Hobbit moments, Bucky mostly taking scenes from the book because the movie did not live up to his expectations. In the middle of their chat, Sam interrupts them, asking, "Wait, wait, hold on. Bucky, how do you know about Gandalf?"

"Well, first of all, Emma and I watched The Hobbit today while you and Steve were working, but also I read The Hobbit. In 1937 when it first came out."

"When it first came out?" Emma asks, a bit shocked.

"Yeah, why?" Bucky asks, confused at her shock.

"That just proves that you're a huge nerd because that book didn't become super popular for a long time," Emma teases as she takes a sip from her cup.

"And you would be absolutely right," Steve tells her with a laugh.

"And being a nerd got me the ladies," Bucky defends himself. "Back then, they only cared about a few things in a man: smarts, looks, charm, dancing skills, and a uniform."

"None of which I had," Steve adds.

"Oh, hush, Steve," Emma tells him.

"It's true! I was just a skinny kid who always got beat up in Brooklyn alleyways! Buck was the charmer."

"I won't deny that," Bucky smirks, which causes Sam to roll his eyes in response.

Emma leans her head on Steve's shoulder and says, "Well Steve definitely charmed his way into my heart."

"Oh get a room," Sam laughs as Steve kisses her quickly. Steve and Emma ignore the joke and the rest of the night is spent with everyone joking around and laughing together, happy to be together after all has been said and done.

One night Emma wakes up in a cold sweat, her latest nightmare scaring her awake. She debates waking Steve up, but once she sees how peaceful he looks, she decides on getting out of bed to go to the piano to calm herself.

Before going into the den, Emma makes herself a warm cup of tea in the kitchen. Right as she turns around to head to the piano to think, she sees Bucky walking into the kitchen as well. "Hey, what are you doing up?"

Bucky sighs and replies, "I had a nightmare again. What about you?"

"Same..." Emma replies quietly. Emma takes a sip of her tea and then asks, "Want some tea? It's the kind my Grammie always gave me when I had nightmares as a kid. I've found drinking it helps me calm down, maybe it'll help you too."

"I'll try it," Bucky replies as he takes a seat at the table. "I can't guarantee it'll make me feel better, but it's worth a shot."

"Nothing's ever guaranteed with stuff like this, but comfort usually seems to help me," Emma tells him as the tea steeps. Once it's done, she hands him the mug and sits across from him, asking, "So what was the nightmare tonight?"

Bucky hesitates before honestly telling her, "It was about that day that I was tasked with...with killing you. It's been happening a lot more since we've been going to your shrink."

Emma nods, mulling her words as she takes a sip from her cup. When she puts her mug down, she wraps her hands around it for warmth. She takes a breath and tells him, "It makes sense that it's been coming around more often. Our brains usually have dreams and nightmares about stuff that's been on our minds and since we've been discussing it with Dr. Lauren..."

Bucky nods and sighs again, saying, "It just makes me feel so horrible every time it replays in my head. The control they had on me...the number of people I hurt...killed..."

"And that's what you've been trying to make up for the last few weeks. You've been going out and making amends to those you hurt and all of us are so proud of you."

A small smile makes its way onto Bucky's lips at the words. Wanting to return the efforts at making him feel better, Bucky asks, "So what about your nightmare?"

"Oh, mine...it's weird. Complicated. Doesn't make sense at all," Emma tells him, her mind flashing through the scenes again.

"You know what the Doc said, you need to talk about this stuff."

Emma sighs and laughs a little bit, saying, "Gosh you sound just like Steve."

Bucky laughs and then prompts her by asking, "Well...?"

"It really doesn't make sense, it's just crazy, but... So what happened in it was that Steve and I were at the altar and suddenly my...abusive father showed up and started causing chaos. My Grammie was also there; he hurt her while he was at it. Then in all of the chaos, Steve...he just left. Disappeared like he did on the time machine platform. It was all kinds of crazy and overwhelming and yeah..."

"I'm sorry Emma..." Bucky mumbles. He thinks as he finishes off his tea and then says, "So has Steve leaving for some reason been on your mind?"

Emma sighs and replies, "It crossed my mind when he was going back on that mission to return the stones... He had the opportunity to go back to his own time, to be in an era that he understands more than this one, not having to deal with all the crap he's had to endure since he defrosted."

"Emma, sometimes I think you don't realize just how much that man loves you," Bucky tells her sincerely. "The way he looks at you when you aren't paying attention, the way he wants to make sure this wedding doesn't stress you out too much, the way he talks about you when you aren't around. He not only loves you, but he respects you, he would never leave you like that."

A tear escapes Emma's eye and she wipes it quickly before saying, "Wow, that really means a lot to me, thank you."

"Do you need a hug? Hugs usually helped my sisters," Bucky asks, the slightest bit of hesitancy in his voice.

"I would like that," Emma tells him with a nod. Bucky stands up and makes his way to Emma to give her a hug, picturing that she was his sister whom he missed dearly. Emma's voice is muffled in Bucky's shirt as she says with a laugh, "I know a wedding is a happy occasion, but it's also the most stressful thing I've done in my life."

Bucky pulls away from the hug and raises his eyebrows at Emma. "This is really the most stressful thing you've ever done? Weren't you an Avenger for a while?"

"Yes," Emma replies with a laugh.

Bucky laughs too before yawning. "Well that tea really did help, I think I'm gonna try and sleep again. Thank you, Emma."

"Thank you," Emma replies with a smile before they part ways for the night.

a/n: i know we literally only have one chapter left, but considering their past, i just had to make a chapter where Emma and Bucky make amends. keep in mind that this process happens over weeks to months, not overnight, just like this stuff does in real life.

also, y'all, bringing back Nat was one of the most last minute decisions i have made in my entire life lmao! like...i was getting ready to publish the last two chapters on the other app when i was like mmm, i want Nat back for Emma, let's go. so yes, this ended up being a (nearly) everyone survives thing. if you're mad about it, bite me idc lol. i just have always been salty about the Guardians getting a version of Gamora back, so in my little branch of the timeline we get Nat back, deal with it.

next (and final) chapter

taglist: @mrsevans90

#fanfic #marvel #captain america #slow burn #steve rogers #romance #fanfiction #friends to lovers #bucky barnes

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offmykelter · 7 months

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It's another date night, one Endrust has planned. The third one, actually, Kelter comes to realize as he's climbing the clock tower. Which is odd, that he's going on a date on a clock tower, he's gotten used to the idea of the domestic dates he's been taken on before this one. He looks up, to see Endrust climbing and trying his hardest to remember his path he took, and finally when they get up to the top, there's a woven blanket splayed out, with a basket and wine glasses set. It's an incredibly romantic set up, but in the most unconventional way.

It has his heart stuttering in his chest, as Kelter settles besides Endrust. He watches as his partner pulls out a box of snack foods, and three separate bottles, a juice, a wine, and a whiskey bottle. Something so sweet, and it's small but the meaning is huge. They eat together, sharing stories. For a while it's gossip from when they used to watch people, but then it shifts to personal stories. Endrust likes asking Kelter questions, he tries not to dig deep or ask offensive questions. Likes hearing him talk, so he tries to come up with questions that will get him rambling. Kelter notices, and flips it on him. So Endrust complies, it's short answers at first, but then he starts to open up.

"You know, I've been to prison- actually-" he cuts himself off from the middle of telling the story. "You know, I constantly forget that the company is not the first group I've traveled with. I was actually, for- oh I don't know, maybe a year? I was considered a mercenary." Kelter turns his head, dropping the glass before he can even take a sip. He's glad he didn't start, scared he would have choked on the drink. "You? A mercenary?" Its easy to hear the disbelief in his voice, and it makes Endrust laugh. "I swear it's true!" He says through a laugh, before he calms himself to continue. "It was a small group, it was me and 3 others. Ellia, she was my girlfriend at that time, and she was a cleric. Then there was-"

Kelter blinks, before interrupting. "Wait girlfriend? You said you were-"

"I know what I said!" Endrust laughs again, he throws his head back, hand covering his mouth. He waves in the air to calm himself. "She was however, my first and last girlfriend." He blinks a few times, trying to remember the story at hand. "Right, then there was Theodore, he was a drop out of a school, can't remember, then the last was Ocean."

"Ocean?" Kelter can't help but ask questions. "Like, the name was Ocean?"

"Apparently, Ellia found him by the Ocean, that's just what we called him." Endrust raises a glass to his lips. He was drinking whiskey, but he's swapped drinks to let Kelter have the rest, and he's opted to the wine, which was a cherry. "We traveled a bit together, right when I left actually. They protected me, and I.. well okay, I was their thief. I stole for them." Kelter makes another strangled sound, as this doesn't sound real. But Endrust is telling the truth. "Not anymore, not after I got caught."

Kelter side eyes Endrust, waving his hand to let him continue the story.

"What, you want the rest?" Endrust teases, but leans into Kelter. "It was my first time in Vitrea, their second, maybe third time? They actually took me to that one cannoli spot I really like, in Lakonia, and took me on my first ever train ride. In Theramore, there's no... machine that works like that, so I was absolutely floored. It's what sparked my interest for all the mechanical objects, here in Vitrea, though I'm useless to try and work it myself. I guess they were buttering me up, because when we got off on our last stop, I was supposed to steal something pretty big. I had to go into some... leading commanders house and grab some paper, I think an itinerary? It was so they knew where guards and venators were supposed to be posted. We were going to sneak into some... event, at some museum just opening up at the time. I knew about the museum heist, it was a key-" Endrust smiles, as he remembers getting off the train, and when the task of breaking into a house was dawned on him.

"-we needed to take from the museum. Of course, I was wide eyed and bushy tailed at this prospect. I've broken into houses before- don't look at me like that, our first outing was breaking into a house, don't you remember?" Endrust taps Kelter's chest, but continues after he gets an ammused huff as a response. "Found the house, I sneak past the venators, surprisingly, and find the office. I will admit, I snooped a bit. I was in my snooping phase, in this age. I peeked through the office, and I wanted to find more. I was hooked, this guy had another life outside of being some high command soldier. He went fishing! On weekends when he could, with his son! I followed the hallway, and found a room. I'm assuming it was his, because it had a big bed, and a painting of him, and I assumed his wife, at the time."

A brief pause, as Endrust sips the wine again. He's not fond of wine, despises it really, but he's enjoying the taste of this one. He's not sure what's made this so different, but he glances at Kelter, and he smiles and he thinks he knows why.

"The room was gorgeous, well made and well kept, and I'm horrible, but I started searching the room. My mistake, honestly, because I got more of an... intimate view of this man than I was expecting. I was so shocked, when I heard the door open, I didn't know where to go." Kelter finally pulls Endrust away from him, he doesn't want to, he misses the added pressure in his side. But he needs to see Endrust as he finished the story. "Please tell me this is where your original statement comes in." Endrust smiles wolfishly, he raises the glass to his lips, speaking before taking a sip. "I was stuck, the only thing I could do was stare and panic, and only one thing came to mind. I jumped out the window. Now, this was Meshidra, so he jumped out the window right after me." Endrust shrugs, finally taking a sip. Leaving kelter with the statement for a bit. Kelter blinks, and shakes his head. "No, that story sounds like it tracks up until- Meshidra? You broke into Meshidra's house?"

"I didn't know who he was at the time! I just- I jumped out the window, and he followed. Sent me to prison, three months time spent in there." Endrust laughs behind his hand again. Kelter grabs his hand gently, pulling it from his mouth and holding it gently. When they both calm, Kelter finally asks. "What about the group? The mercenary one?" Endrust sighs after his small fit of laughter. "Oh, when Meshidra finally pulled me out, I found out they skipped town, left me behind to save their hides."

"And your girlfriend?" A silly question, knowing how it ended up. Endrust leans into Kelter, eyes closed and kissing his nose. "We were over way before they left me in Securis. She helped me find out a few things about myself, was really cool about all of it, and was a good friend too." He pulls away, just to lean back into Kelter's side. They sit silently for a bit, Kelter soaking in the story, Endrust losing himself in the warmth that Kelter produced. "Okay, what about Meshidra? I mean, you obviously work for him now, but-?"

"He liked my... my ambition. I was the only one to really sneak into his home, into his room. He doesn't say it, but it was like... an impromptu adoption. Took me under his wing, offer me a job. He says, if I didn't dawdle looking at his stuff, I would have gotten away with stealing from him." Endrust waves off the feat. He's sure it's something to be... proud of? But stealing, no, failing to steal was nothing to really brag about. Kelter wraps an arm around Endrust, craning his head up to kiss his cheek, smiling as he presses it into his skin. "God, my boyfriend, the fuckin' thief, and I never even knew." He raises his wine glass, filled with whiskey. "That's my fuckin' guy." Endrust smiles, clinking his own glass against his.

"Yeah, yes. Your thief."

Unedited, probably won't ever be edited

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ur-urmom · 3 years

Text

don’t be shy, request!!

and this one is for my bestie who wanted this so I HOPE I MADE YOU PROUD @gxdcomplxx

(p.s. I’ll make a master list whenever I get some more fics out)

——————

Now You Want Me? - Jacob x Werewolf!Reader

Genre - angst, fluff

Warnings - cussing, jacob black lmao

Summary - Jacob has always been obsessed with Bella, never paying Y/N any attention. Y/N’s reluctantly gotten used to this, until to their surprise Jacob suddenly turns all of his time towards them. The reason being for this leaves Y/N with a burning rage, and maybe... passion?

Jacob Black.

Even just hearing his name makes me want to strangle him and then myself.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate him. Opposite, in fact. All I’ve wanted is to be his friend, but he won’t even look at me for more than three seconds before he just walks away, and I’m literally in his pack!

I didn’t do anything to him, and sometimes I wonder if he ignores me because I’m a late bloomer, I haven’t been able to shift into my form yet. Everyone knows, the whole pack knows, they’re all supportive but I can’t help but think I’m just a burden to them.

Then again, if Jacob has any free time it’s spent bothering Bella Swan, so I don’t think it’s the fact I can’t turn. He’s obsessed with her, it’s rather annoying actually. She’s with Edward Cullen, but he’s still persistent, and really it only makes me even more embarrassed that I tried — and keep trying — to get his attention.

So, here I am, watching Jacob on the front porch talking to Seth. Should I even bother again? To talk to him?

Sure, if he won’t talk to me at least I can annoy him over and over again by trying to get him to do so.

Getting up from the seat I was on, I made my way to where the two of them were, feeling the crisp breeze hit my face as I walked outside.

Seth saw me immediately, and a bright smile broke out onto his features. I returned it, giving a little wave to both him and Jacob.

“Hi guys!” I was now beside them.

“Hey Y/N! We were just talking about you!” Seth put his arm around my shoulder and ruffled my hair with his free fist. His words caught me off guard, surely Jacob wasn’t actually going along with the conversation if it had something to do with me?

“Oh really? Well, perfect timing I guess.” I looked at Jacob, hopeful that he would say something.

And he did, just not to me.

He looked at me for about two seconds before breaking eye contact and moving towards Seth again.

“I’m gonna go see what Bella’s up to.” He gave a light grin to Seth, completely ignoring me again. As he was turning away, I spoke up.

“You know she’s probably with Edward right now.”

Jacob stopped, slowly facing me. I bit the inside of my cheek, eager to see what he would do.

“I know.”

And with that, he continued to walk away from us. I watched him until he was out of eyesight, anger heating up inside my chest.

“Seth, I swear I just wanna...” I glared my eyes and put my hands up in front of my face in a strangling motion, right towards where Jacob disappeared from. “Why doesn’t he like me?”

Seth chuckled from my little action, resting a hand on my shoulder. I looked at him, a frown settled on my face from the previous events.

“I don’t think it’s that he doesn’t like you... did you wanna know what we were saying about you?”

Hm, did I?

“...Thanks Seth, but no.”

I wasn’t ready to hear what Jacob had to say about me. I knew it was probably something about how annoying I was, and I’d rather just keep annoying him without knowing he thinks I’m annoying, it takes the fun out of it.

I gently punched Seth’s chest, quickly hiding my little frown and smiling widely at him.

“I think I’m gonna go over to the beach, you wanna come with?” I changed the topic, waiting for his answer.

“Oh no, I got some things I have to do here, but I’ll be with you in spirit!” He beamed. I laughed, almost forgetting about my sadness. Seth has always been the type of person that can light up your mood with just a smile.

“Okay, see ya!” I began my short journey to La Push. It wasn’t far away at all, so I always like to travel by foot there. It also made me feel more connected to nature, which made me feel like I was speeding up the process of turning into my wolf form. Ducking around forest branches and stepping over giant limbs that had fallen, the walk was nice. It was always refreshing to be outside, I loved the feeling of the damp air and the smell of when it’s just rained, which is partly one of the reasons why I enjoyed it here so much. My thoughts of the earth seemed to distract me from Jacob, which is exactly what I wanted.

Finding my way through the clearing, I stepped out of the woods and let my feet sink into the cold sand. I took off my shoes, finally feeling a little more at ease. I took a deep breath and just let the wind overwhelm me with a positive energy, smelling the salt in the air. I walked along the side of the water until I decided to sit down in the sand.

I watched the ocean waves hit the shore, and as much as I wanted to appreciate the beauty of it, my mind kept slipping back to certain memories of a certain boy.

There was one time in particular that always played over and over again. It was about two or three years ago when this happened, but it’s still one of the best memories I have, considering the fact that Jacob actually seemed like he was having fun with me. We were only playing catch with a football, everyone else had gotten tired or wanted to do something else, so it was just us two. We were laughing and talking, and it felt so easy to do that.

To talk to him.

But then his attitude just completely changed for some reason. He had the ball, and I had the genius idea to tackle him, I mean I was not playing around... even though it was just a friendly game of catch.

He didn’t mind it though, he was having fun, I know he was. But then he got this seriously intense look on his face and said he didn’t feel good and left.

I just thought he had diarrhea or something, but I guess not.

After that he started to get distant again, more so than he already was, without any explanation as to why he was acting that way. I’ve come to terms with it, but now I’m just mad every time I see him. Mad that I’ve tried so hard and mad that I keep trying when I know nothing is going to change... and mad that he keeps doing this shit for no reason.

Not realizing how deep into my thoughts I was, the crashing sound of a huge wave caught my attention, and I saw the seagulls above the water. Good, I didn’t need to think anymore about him.

“It’s so beautiful.” I muttered to myself, a small grin settled on my mouth. “I could stay here for the rest of my life.”

Stretching out, I fully lied my body on the sand so that it was almost as if I was making angels in it, except I wasn’t moving my arms or legs. I closed my eyes, soaking in the wonderful breeze and the immaculate feeling of the dirt underneath my body. It wasn’t long before that was ruined though, because when I opened my eyes next all I saw was a body hovering to the side of me, looking straight down at my face.

“AHH!” I screamed, completely startled at the figure above me, only to calm my breathing when I realized it was Jacob. “What the fuck, man?! Warn a pal next time!”

My heartbeat was still fast, but it was slowing down. Getting up from my position and standing on my feet, I beat any excess sand off of my backside and legs that I could get off. Jacob had an amused look on his features, a tiny smirk tugging at his lips.

He sure does have the audacity.

“Don’t worry, I was just leaving.” I huffed with a roll of my eyes and began to stride past him. To my surprise, his hand gripped my wrist before I could move any further. I stopped, turning my head in his direction, an eyebrow raised in confusion.

“Wait, um, you’re actually the person I was looking for.”

Huh?

“...What?” I asked, more to myself than to him. I shook his palm off of me, and now my whole body was facing him, waiting for him to continue with whatever he was going to go on about. “Okay... that’s a shocker...”

Jacob awkwardly laughed, then stopped when he saw my emotionless expression.

“Um... I need to tell you something. I’ve been too nervous, but after talking to Seth earlier, I feel a little better about it.”

I swear to god if he tells me he’s gay... I mean good for him but it’s not that big of a deal, maybe that’s why he’s so obsessed with Bella, because he couldn’t come to terms with the fact that he likes men.

“Can... can we sit down?” He asked. I was so confused right now, but I nodded my head. Now both of us were sat on the sand, side by side. He kept glancing at me, and I could tell he was getting anxious.

“What is it? Just say it, Jacob.”

I stared at him, waiting for his response.

He took in a breath, and what he said next had me cackling with laughter.

“...I imprinted on you.”

No really, I was doubled over out of air.

“Phew!! Good one, Jacob!!” I let my chuckles die down. His eyes were slightly wide, not expecting my reaction. “Huuuuh, wow. You’re a tool, man. Ignore me for years and then insensitively joke about me? What an ass move.” At this point my smile was gone when I said the last few words.

“Y/N, I’m not joking. I know I’ve been a jerk and I’m sorry, but it’s true! Can we please start over?” His face showed no ‘ha! just kidding, you’re dumb!’ look at all, it was completely serious.

“...I’m sorry, what?” I was livid. “What?!?” I yelled, jumping up on my feet. He followed my actions.

“Y/N I—”

“No! Shut up!” I cut him off. “You do not get the right to do this! You’ve been obsessed with Bella for literal years! And now you want me?!?”

He didn’t say anything.

Good.

“What is your problem!? You think me knowing that you imprinted is gonna magically change things? IT MAKES THEM WORSE, JACOB! You think you have some sort of moronic wolfy claim over me? Like I said, you’ve been OBSESSED with Bella Swan, and NOW you wanna pay attention to me? NOW you wanna be nice to me?” I screamed at him. “Fuck you!” I walked away from him.

“Wait! Y/N!!” Jacob tried to grab me again. I turned around and slapped him straight in the face. He let go, his head turned from the impact and a red print already starting to form.

“...Leave me alone.” I said defeated, my voice quiet.

And with that, I walked back into the woods and left Jacob standing there. I didn’t know where I was gonna go, but I didn’t want to go back home yet in fear that I would just see him sooner than I wanted to, or was ready to.

He imprinted on me? Since when? I still had so many questions for him but my anger wasn’t going to let me get them answered at the moment.

The sun was setting, and it was getting dark. I knew I probably needed to head back but I can’t, not now at least. Besides, it was good to get a long walk in and empty my mind, especially after what just happened. Though I doubt I’ll be able to stop thinking about the previous events, that was practically impossible. I just needed to ponder on it some. Was I too harsh? No. No. He deserved it. Of course I’ll talk to him later, but he needed to be put in his place and I did a fantastic job of doing that in my opinion.

Around thirty minutes had passed before I came to an opening. There was the main road. I wasn’t ready yet, so I kept going forward. No one was coming, not that my eyes could see anyway. But just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean it isn’t there. I was halfway across the road when I saw the bright lights coming towards me at what was definitely faster than what the speed limit here was. There was no way I’d be getting out of this one, not without my wolf, and well...

I don’t even have my wolf.

I was basically a deer in headlights, literally. Except I wasn’t a deer. My eyes were wide and I stood there in shock, not really processing what was about to happen. A car was deadlining it towards me at a very high speed.

I was surely dead, even if I tried to jump out of the way, I’d be too slow.

I glared at the brightness of the lights, and my heartbeat sped up as I was sure I’d meet a certain death.

I braced for impact, but just as the car was about to hit me another force knocked me out of the way. It was soft, and large. But I still ended up rolling across the road and scraping myself up, though I would much rather have this than a casket.

“Uuugh.” I groaned, rubbing my head and sitting up against the tree that had stopped my movement. I looked, squinting as my eyes adjusted to whatever had just happened.

A wolf stood in front of me, pushing my hand with its head. I guess not just a wolf, but Jacob.

I couldn’t say thank you, that’s just embarrassing after what he did, but a slight wince left my lips. He got down on all fours, lowering his head. I knew what he wanted, so I steadily moved towards him, climbing up and situating myself to where I wouldn’t fall off of him when we started moving. I held on as he made his way through the forest, swiftly and quickly going back home.

This is not the way I wanted to see him next, and I have no idea what I’ll say whenever he changes back. I wasn’t ready, I’m not ready.

Not too much time passed before I could see the lights from the house. At least I’d be able to be in the comfort of my own home.

Jacob came to a stop and I slid off, sore from scraping everything up. I made my way to the porch, not waiting on him. I sat down in one of the rocking chairs, watching as Jacob turned back into his regular self. He walked over to me, concern written all over his features.

“Y/N, are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

He looked at my arms and my legs, clearly noticing the small scratches here and there.

“Wait here.” Jacob went inside to do whatever it was he was doing. He’s told me to wait so many times today, it’s annoying.

I was contemplating the entire day when after a few minutes passed Jacob finally came back out with alcohol and a cloth in hand, as well as a cup in the other.

“Here, for you.” He smiled, handing me the cup which was actually filled with hot chocolate. He even put the individual little marshmallows in it. I couldn’t help but form a tiny grin on my lips.

“Oh, um, thank you.” I appreciated his efforts at making me feel better, even though he was the reason this all started. I took a sip of the warm and comforting drink, immediately feeling some of my muscles relax. He dragged another chair next to mine, pouring some of the alcohol onto the soft fabric. I didn’t protest when he gently took my forearm, pressing the damp cloth to the scrape.

It stung a bit, but it was nothing I couldn’t handle.

“I’m sorry.” Jacob spoke, looking me in the eye.

“...I know.” I replied. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner? How long has this been the case? I just need answers Jacob.”

“And I will give them all to you, I promise.” He moved on to the next scratch. “To be honest, you intimidate me. I imprinted on you a while ago, and I mean a while ago.”

I took in this information, still confused.

“So you acted against your own instincts to protect and cherish me... your destined mate, and instead focused all of your time and energy on a girl who’s with somebody else?”

“Well, when you put it like that...”

He strayed off his sentence. I chuckled.

“I think it’s because I was so nervous around you that I kept trying with Bella. I wanted something so badly with you that I wouldn’t even let myself have it because I was scared if I tried it wouldn’t work.” Jacob continued.

“Oh, please,” I scoffed, “I think you’ve been so obsessed with Bella because you couldn’t handle the fact that the girl you thought you liked was already in love with your natural enemy.” I glanced at him. “So you forgot about the person you actually liked... at least I hope you actually liked them...”

Jacob stopped his work on my arm, meeting my gaze.

“Of course I liked them, and I still do. I still really, really do.”

I smiled at his indirect confession, I knew he was talking about me.

“You know, I can’t tell if you’re pretending to be dumb or if you really are just stupid enough to do what you did this whole time.” I was joking around with him, the grin still on my face. “We could’ve been something by now.”

“We still can be something?” He said, but it was more of a question he asked me.

“...Yeah.”

This made him beam, a wide smirk appeared and his eyes twinkled.

“I promise to protect you, and cherish you, and—”

“Woah buddy, we’re not exchanging vows. Even though we grew up together, we’re still basically strangers.” I informed him. “So let’s take it slow and do this right.”

He nodded his head in agreement, his smile still plastered on his face. I let out a little giggle, excited that I was finally able to have a connection with him, that’s all I ever wanted.

“Hey Jacob...” I said. He hummed in response.

I leaned forward, giving him a tiny peck on the cheek. This surprised him, but he was more than ecstatic to get it. His giddiness amused me, and I was also happy to be growing our relationship together.

“Now... will you make me another cup of hot chocolate?” I held my mug out, a grin resting on my features. Jacob gladly took it out of my grip, getting up in the process.

“Of course, anything for you. I’ll make it extra special with a little dash of love.”

I let out a loud laugh as I watched him disappear through the door. Today was rough, but at least it’s ended on a good note.

Jacob and I were getting close, something was blooming between us, and that’s more than I ever could have asked for.

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