#chaperones really need to just fucking yell at kids and tell them no

[lizzie-is-here]

ANOTHER IMPORTANT THING FOR A NEW SERIES PLS RESPOND!!!

i really appreciate any feedback on these yall 🥺🤍

but as i finish up girls just wanna have fun, i need to plan the next series! i have some new ideas, and i’ve scrapped a few others. like i said, pls feel free to tell me ur thoughts! <3

option one: like the dawn

ship: stucky x winged! reader

genre: angst to fluff

summary: you, steve rogers, and james “bucky” barnes have been best friends since kindergarten. when they go off to war and you pave your own path into the army, you never expected to lose them both. when you go missing on a search for their bodies and get taken by HYDRA, you become their latest experiment. the angel of death and the winter soldier are an assassin duo that haunt seven decades, but when you encounter a blond man on a bridge 70 years later, it stirs something you forgot was there.

basically a love story spanning the decades, with lots of reunions and relearning things about the people you love, and learning that while some things change, you’ll love them anyways.

preview:

As you three entered the science fair, you spun around, dress swishing at your knees as you took in every invention on display. Even if Bucky was the nerd of your little trio, you could still appreciate good science.

However, when you turned back to smile at your best friends, the shorter one was gone.

“Oh my god. Bucky. Where’s Steve?” The brunet whipped to his side, his hat nearly flying off his head in the process. Another reminder that he was leaving soon.

“Holy shit. Steve?” he yelled, peering over the crowd.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” you whispered. Before you could panic any further, the blond stepped out of the crowd, a pamphlet in hand. “Holy shit, Steve, you can’t run off like that!” you chided, checking him for any bruises.

“You know she’s right, punk,” Bucky added, frowning.

“Why do you two feel the need to chaperone me like I’m some kid?” Steve asked, eyeing you and Bucky as the bright lights of the different booths sent spots across his vision. You rolled your eyes, setting a hand on your hip.

“Because, Stevie,” you sighed, drawing out your words. “You have little-to-no survival instincts, and your mother would smite us if we let you run around on your own.”

Bucky nodded. “C’mon, Steve. I even got you a date.” You whipped towards him, eyebrows raised.

“You did? How?”

“I’m just that good, doll.” He winked at a passing girl, who practically swooned and waved to him.

You scoffed, lightly smacking him on the chest and taking Steve by the hand. “Let’s go, before Buck manages to leave a trail of broken hearts behind him and you have an asthma attack.”

option two: hades and persephone

ship: bucky x plant powers!reader

genre: comedy, fluff

summary: you’ve been in hiding in NYC ever since your escape from a HYDRA facility. in all honesty, it hasn’t been too bad. your power over plant life has made it laughably easy to establish yourself as a small-time florist in new york. you’ve thought about trying to join the avengers, but you’re far from prepared when the whole group comes busting into your store after a bad mission involving a lot of poison ivy. turns out you hadn’t been hiding very well, they were just being polite. (no civil war)

basically a superhero comedy showcasing some fun plant-based powers. isabela madrigal who???

preview:

Carefully making sure no one was watching, you ran a hand over the wilted orchids, watching as they returned to life with a mere touch. You smiled, setting the pots up on a shelf, perusing your store and keeping every plant in top shape. Flowers and houseplants alike lined your shelves, all perfectly healthy without a dead leaf in sight.

You sighed, relaxation taking over your mind. You felt your powers tingle, and when you glanced over to the mirror, you were met with a scattering of lavender flowers growing in your hair.

Frowning, you began to brush it out, waving a hand and dissipating the petals on the floor. Just as you managed to remove the last one, your door burst open with a loud bang, sending you jumping and causing begonias to bloom in place of the lavender.

You shrieked, ducking behind a shelf to furiously remove the pink-orange blooms.

“Sorry! Sorry, miss. You don’t have to hide, we know about your powers,” a voice said. How did they know? You’d been so careful to keep it all secret.

You peeked out from behind the shelf, eyes widening when you saw who was standing in your shop.

The Avengers. Still in their mission gear, covered head-to-toe in rashes. Poison ivy. You were sure of it.

“What the hell happened to you guys?”

option three: lonely is a man without love

(THAT’S RIGHT MOON KNIGHT BABY)

ship: marc spector + steven grant x avenger! assassin! reader (no jake i’m sorry i just don’t have enough screen time to know how to write him😭)

genre: comedy, fluff, slight reverse comfort bc episode five

summary: when you went to london to check out rumors of a new vigilante superhero, you were very shocked to only find a mild-mannered gift shopist. you befriend him nonetheless, and are just about to call the tip a bust when one night, you hear loud noises in his apartment next door. when you break in to check on him, you don’t find your shy friend. instead, you come face-to-face with a snarky mercenary and his… giant skeleton bird? (good ending to endgame, reader can see khonshu for reasons tbd lol. comedic effect??? idk)

basically a girlboss x malewife fic with angst. reader is badass and steven and marc are sweethearts with unresolved trauma.

preview:

“Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,” you said, holding a hand up. Steven- no, Marc, sighed exasperatedly, waiting. “You are a mercenary?”

“Why do you need to know?”

“Just answer the damn question!”

He rolled his eyes. “Fine. Yes.” You sighed, leaning against the bookshelf.

“So what? Was Steven just an alibi?” you asked. You really hoped not. One, because he was sweet and kind and an absolute nerd. And two, because if he wasn’t, then that meant that Marc’s dedication to a cover was better than yours. And that simply would not stand.

“No, it’s more complicated than that. He’s, like, a facet of me. Another personality.” You perked up, visibly relieved.

“Oh, so he’s an alter? Like, you have DID?”

“Is that what it’s called?”

“Do you… Do you not know the name of your own personality disorder?” His silence spoke volumes. You chuckled under your breath, watching him stammer to try and recover from his fumble. You removed the gun from your waistband, preparing to set it on the table. In an instant, Marc had your wrist in a death grip, attempting to jostle the gun from you.

On instinct, you twisted under his arms, kicking out his legs. He rolled over and stood back up, kicking the gun from your hands.

You took a moment to analyze his fighting style, scanning him as he circled you. He was good, yes, but his form was sloppy. Basic US military training, most likely nothing specialized.

Taking one out of Nat’s book, you leapt up, wrap your thighs around Marc’s head, and flip him over, holding him in place as he thrashed on the floor.

“Shut up, holy fuck you are so damn loud Jesus fucking Christ,” you hissed. Eventually, he tapped your leg, wheezing.

“Truce,” he sighed. You rolled off of him, nodding.

“Yeah, truce.”

option four: the soldier and the scythe

ship: bucky x ex hydra! reader

genre: heavy angst, trauma, hurt and some comfort, healing

summary: all you’ve ever known are the walls of HYDRA. you’re the first joint project between the red room and HYDRA, an assassin with a reputation for perfection. you’ve been modified to resist conditions that would kill anyone else, trained to evaluate every situation and to slip away without a trace. you don’t have any weaknesses. except for your long-time partner. the winter soldier. and when a mission goes south and a man on a bridge stirs up memories in him, you’re stuck in the middle of a war between what you’ve been trained and brainwashed to do, and the man you trust more than yourself.

basically a deep dive into what happened to bucky barnes in HYDRA that turned him into the winter soldier and the lingering hold it has on you both. warning: will discuss abuse, PTSD, torture, dehumanization, and possibly sexual assault. it’s gonna be a heavy one.

preview:

Your room was quite literally the only place you had any semblance of privacy in HYDRA. If you could even call it a room. Four concrete walls, bright fluorescent lights that went out at 12:00, a tiny cot, a toilet in the corner with a sink and tiny mirror.

No cameras though. And that was all you could hope for.

With a sigh, you stripped off your tactical suit, grabbing a thin shirt and pants. You slipped them on, running a bent and broken comb through your hair. Not for your appearance. Hell, HYDRA had trained any care for your looks out of you years ago. But untangled hair was easier to braid back, as you’d found after they’d chopped out a large chunk of your hair one time.

You spot a glimpse of the mirror. Dark, tired eyes stare back at you. Your skin is sunken and dull, although the cut across your nose had stopped bleeding and was already almost fully scabbed over.

You tore your gaze away from the machine in the reflection, opening your door slightly. A freedom not afforded to most HYDRA soldiers. But as one of HYDRA’s prized experiments, well, you got a few privileges.

“Как ты думаешь, куда ты идешь? [Where do you think you’re going?]” a guard asks. You kept your eyes low.

“В гостях у Солдата. [To visit The Soldier.]” He begrudgingly nodded, and let you pass. Silently passing down the hallway, you stopped outside his door. Him. The Winter Soldier. Winter, as you knew him. One of HYDRA’s oldest and best assassins. They’d managed to drain most of the humanity out of him a long time ago. But not all of it.

You knocked.

He opened the door instantly. You both schooled your expressions as you stepped inside and he closed the door. Luckily, HYDRA didn’t care what it’s favorite killers did behind closed doors. As long as it didn’t interfere with your work.

“Are you alright?” he asked. Even though his memories were as jumbled as yours, he knew English was his first language. It was what he preferred to speak.

“I will be.” He sat down on his cot and you joined him, the rough fabric bending under the combined weight. He rested his forehead against yours, both of you closing your eyes.

A moment of reprieve in all of the blood.

#marvel #marvel x reader #x reader #avengers x reader #avengers #bucky x reader fluff #bucky x reader angst #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes #bucky x reader #moon knight #moon knight x reader #steven grant x reader #steven grant #marc spector #marc spector x reader #the winter soldier #the winter soldier x reader #sebastian stan #sebastian stan x reader #oscar isaac #oscar isaac x reader #fanfic #help

[sue-me-wright]

I simply do not understand why children will see a display and go "I think I need to make a mess of this and break things."

#volunteering to teach 3rd graders on a fieldtrip about fiber stuff #and like three minutes in with the first group #this little girl is like trying to disassemble a skein of yarn?? #and then she's just like 'you know what a good idea would be? #what if I took MORE yarn out of the basket.' #had to yell at her like 'PLEASE leave the yarn in the basket (you little fucker) #you can touch but don't pick anything up' #and fifteen minutes in the display fibers were all mixed up?? #why did they need to MOVE the fucking sheltie fur #and put the label on the rabbit skin #chaperones really need to just fucking yell at kids and tell them no #like my job is not to tell these kids not to be dumbasses #it's to sit there and crochet and correct all the parents going #'look she's knitting!' idiots. while you're busy misinforming one kid #the other is trying to spill dye on everything #and why the fuck to kids see a sign that says 'do not touch' and be like #'hahahahoohoo I'm gonna touch it. it's opposite day I'm gonna touch it' #swear this is gonna be the year a kid gets their finger torn up by a spinning wheel #teach your damn kids to read and follow signs goddamn #also if they wanted to know WHY they can't touch the spinning wheel #they could literally just ask instead of going 'I'm gonna touch it'

[hb-writes]

The Council

Inspired by the lovely @cecii22me​’s ask. I switched Clara’s age to fifteen and didn’t do “reactions” exactly because the nagging idea of John calling a boys-only family meeting to address the problem wouldn’t leave me be. 

Summary: From the Little Lady Blinder universe and set in 1923. The boy’s reaction to fifteen-year-old Clara Shelby being friends with the Watery Lane boys. 

Characters Featured: Clara Shelby (Shelby!Sister), Arthur Shelby, Tommy Shelby, John Shelby, Finn Shelby, Michael Gray, Isiah Jesus

-----

“Clara!”

John leaned out the door to number six, a toothpick stuck in the corner of his mouth, arms folded across his chest as he watched his sister. She was out there in the lane with Finn, Isiah, and the boys, the only girl left after John had sent his own daughter home. 

His Sarah was at that age where she was eager to test out a handful of identities, and being that she was surrounded by willful Shelby women, it had started giving John pause to let the girl blindly copy after her Aunt Clara, or after Aunt Ada too, for that matter, because though his oldest girl was only eleven, she’d already started asking for lipstick like her aunties wore.

John had actually told Clara to come in at the same time he sent Sarah home, but here she still was, laughing and hollering with the boys, blatantly ignoring John’s solicitations.

Clara had always passed her time with more boys than girls, had grown up surrounded by the men in the shop and with her twin and Isiah for best friends. It really shouldn’t have been a surprise to any of them that as Clara grew she would still prefer to pass her time with the boys, or as happened even more often, to pass her time with no one at all aside from family.

In nearly four years, she’d made only one friend at the all-girls school Tommy sent her to. She’d kept that relationship confined to the school building and the halls of Arrow House. When Clara was on the lane, her company was family, the Blinders, and the handful of boys her twin regularly went around with.

Polly had told John to leave it when he’d first raised the issue, told him there was no harm in Clara being friends with the boys, but John grew hot with annoyance each time he saw her surrounded by the group, boiling a bit every time he saw the lads hanging off her every word with their wide smiles, sinister ones John assumed, growing as they watched his sister’s red-painted lips form each melodious syllable.

And then there was the daily clamoring of the junior peaky boys offering to fetch her from school and accompany wherever it was she needed to be that afternoon, back to Watery Lane, or over to Tommy’s office in the Bull Ring, or to one of the factories, or all the way out to Warwickshire. There was never trouble finding a volunteer.

John huffed, shouting again. “Oi! Clara!”

“Christ, John. What the fuck is it?” Clara turned towards her brother, the whole group did, but Clara was the only one who looked eager for his rebuttal.

They’d been snapping at each other for weeks, John encouraged on by her behavior and his assumptions, Clara encouraged on by John being a belligerent, controlling imbecile. 

“I told you to get the fuck in the house.“

Clara met his eye, heaving a little shrug of her shoulders. "And we’ve decided to come in when Tommy gets here.”

We. John caught the revision, the sentiment that if Finn was allowed out, so was she. If Finn didn’t have to come inside to wait for John’s ever so urgent family meeting to start, neither did she.

“You lot can come in now, then.”

“I’m in the middle of a story,” she answered although the other boys were already showing signs of dispersal, shuffling off like shy wounded animals, all except Finn and Isiah.

Clara rolled her eyes at the triumphant grin on John’s face as the boys mumbled their farewells.

“Looks like story time’s over.” John reached out to guide his sister towards the house but she pulled away before he got a proper grip.

“I’m going for a walk, then,” she said, putting a few steps between them.

“We’re having a fucking meeting!” John shouted.

“And if I’m not there when it fucking starts, you can yell at me then. I’ll not listen to your stupid mouth now.”

Clara glanced at Finn and Isiah as she started to walk away. John had already turned to them, no doubt about to insist someone accompany her, but Clara shouted loud enough for all of Watery Lane to hear. “And I don’t need a goddamn chaperone to take a turn about the block!”

Clara finally slowed her pace after turning the corner and she tucked herself there against the brick façade to take a deep breath. She closed her eyes for a moment, letting the dawdling inhale and exhale calm her as the chill of the brick reached her skin through her sweater.

John was, in the very plainest language Clara could assign to it, getting on her every last nerve as of late. He’d become the frequent source of her frustration, the cause of her perpetually clenched fists and tense shoulders. 

Every day it was some new comment about her hanging around the boys, some new scheme to play keep-away with her as the object of interest. She’d been sequestered to his office to go through the books with him twice in a week, been sent over to help Esme with the kids though she needed not a stitch of assistance, and John had picked her up from school a few afternoons as well, the two of them passing the ride across town in near silence.

“What are you doing?”

Clara kept her eyes closed, taking another breath before opening them and meeting Tommy’s eye. 

“Meditating.”

Tommy raised his eyebrow.

"John’s driving me up a fucking wall.”

Clara shut her eyes again, focused again on her breathing while Tommy watched.

“I imagine he’s not the only one driving.”

“I didn’t do anything, Tommy,” she answered, opening her eyes again. “And I’m not allowed to drive, remember? None of you will fucking teach me.”

Tommy snorted and held out his handkerchief.

“What's–”

“To wipe that lipstick off your mouth.”

Clara shook her head and tried to hand it back to him, having no intention of following his order, but Tommy occupied his hands by pulling the cigarette case from his pocket.

“It’s got your lips talking like you’re twice your age.”

“Ada got to—”

“Your sister didn’t wear lipstick at your age or talk like that and if she tells you differently, she’s only trying to get you in trouble.”

Tommy knew it drove John a bit mad, the shift in their youngest sister’s image, the sudden interest in rouge and heeled shoes and more stylish clothes, but Tommy wasn’t much bothered by it. He had already been through one sister’s adolescence and he was still convinced that Clara’s could be comparatively simple as opposed to whatever they had gone through with Ada. If slightly shorter dresses and a bit of nail varnish and lip stain were to be the worst of it, he would willingly concede Clara those things. 

And he conceded because Clara still told him things, because Tommy, despite his sister being of a certain typically unbearable age, still felt he knew his Clara’s mind and understood her heart. So Tommy asking her to wipe off the lip stain wasn’t about him controlling her sense of expression, and it wasn’t about him not wanting her to wear it in front of the boys.

He’d let Clara wear it when she wanted, found that not fighting her on it let her settle into a habit of wearing it mostly just for special occasions. It wasn’t something she often tried out on Wednesday afternoons on Watery Lane. That bit of rebellion was John’s doing because she was feeling enticed to push his buttons, urged on by his disproportionate reactions, but Tommy wasn’t worried about his sister and boys. He just didn’t like his sister getting too big for herself, didn’t want her thinking that a layer of red and a few cleverly placed curse words made her an adult.

“Go on,” he said, settling a cigarette in the corner of his mouth as he lit it.

Clara rolled her eyes, but she did as she was told, wiping the red away.

“You’re not allowed to wear it at school anyhow.”

“I put it on after,” she answered.

Tommy nodded, taking back the handkerchief and guiding her towards the shop.

“Can’t see why you’d need to wear it on Watery Lane unle—”

“Do you know what all of this is about?” she interrupted. “This urgent meeting John’s called?”

“You, I imagine,” Tommy answered, holding the door open for her.

Clara stopped, turning to him just before she crossed the threshold. “Me?”

Tommy nodded, a hand on her back to shepherd her through. “He’s complained about you four times in half as many weeks.”

“He’s complained about me?” Clara said. “He’s been bloody intolerable! Insufferable!”

“Complained of you and your lipstick and your four-inch heels and your smart mouth. Must be giving him flashbacks to our Ada.” Tommy smirked at her disbelief. “You think you’re innocent?”

“I think I haven’t done anything wrong and John’s being—”

Tommy placed an arm around her shoulders, steering her through the house and toward the shop. “Let’s just hear our brother out and—”

Clara turned to fight him. “No, Tommy, this isn’t fai—”

“Ah, look who’s here, our guest of honor!” Arthur boomed. “Come in, sister.”

Clara turned to face the room at Arthur’s shouting. It was just the boys, just Arthur, John, Finn, and Michael, an empty seat just in front of where they stood or leaned against the desks, the empty shop behind them.

“Where is everyone?”

“This is everyone,” John answered, pushing off the desk to come to her side. “Sit down,” he said, gesturing to the chair.

“I think I’d rather stand.”

John chewed on his toothpick, staring at his sister, both of their arms folded over their chests, the space between them shrinking as John stepped forward.

“Why can’t you do a single thing you’re told lately?”

“Because there’s no reason to do the things you’re telling me.”

“John, if she wants to stand, let her stand,” Tommy said as he leaned against the wooden beam behind him.

“Fine,” John answered, giving his sister another look and bumping her shoulder as he moved to the shop doors which he quickly pulled closed, securing the lock.

Clara glanced at Tommy, his shoulders heaving a deep breath before meeting his sister’s eye for a moment. 

“Unfucking believable,” she muttered to herself. “Right, so I don’t want to sit, but I think I will have some of that whiskey the rest of you are enjoying,” she said, nodding towards Arthur, Michael, and the bottle of whiskey sat between them.

Clara took two steps forward and Tommy pulled her back, settling her into the chair she had refused just seconds before.

“Enough,” Tommy said. 

Clara crossed her legs, folding her arms once again. “You know, it’s awfully convenient for you lot to call this meeting when Aunt Polly’s away.”

Michael cleared his throat. “Convenient is certainly one word for it.”

Both John and Clara sent him a glare. In all honesty, Clara wasn’t entirely sure where her aunt would’ve fallen in, wasn’t sure where Michael and Finn fell in on things either.

“And you two didn’t fucking tell me,” she said, shifting her glance between Michael and Finn. “Also convenient.” 

“Finn didn’t know,” Arthur said. “Sweetheart, if you'll—”

“Don’t you even dare sweetheart me, Arthur. This is—”

Michael chuckled, pulling Clara’s attention again.

“It’s not fucking funny, Michael.”

“It’s a bit funny.”

“This is an ambush,” she answered, “when I haven’t even done anything worth being ambushed for.” 

Tommy cleared his throat. "John, let’s get this over with, eh? We’re expected back for dinner at a decent hour.”

“Right,” John said, brushing his thumb along the side of his mouth. “Well, Clara, you—”

“I what, John?” she asked. “What exactly have I done wrong?”

“If you keep your mouth shut for a fucking second, I’ll tell you,” he answered. “Christ, Tommy. How do you deal with it?”

“Not like this,” she answered, “not by treating me like some fucking—”

“Like a child?” Tommy interrupted, a shift evident in his tone. “No, not unless you’re acting like one. Let John say his piece and you’ll have your turn, alright?”

Clara took a deep breath. She didn’t like it, but since Tommy had finally intervened properly, she didn’t feel she had much of a choice. And it wasn’t exactly the truth anyway because Tommy still frequently treated her like a child, summoning her to his office for lectures when the whim struck, but he never invited the others in for the event.

“Fine, say whatever it is you have to say, John.”

“For one, I don’t like the tone you’ve been—”

“It’s mutual,” she answered.

“What?”

“I don’t particularly like your tone with me lately, either. It’s fuc—”

Tommy rubbed his temple. It wasn’t his meeting. He had no intention of delivering John’s speech to their sister, no intention of reining in the girl any more than he already had, but that word was starting to grate on him, hypocritical as it was. He supposed it was because the word exasperated Grace a bit, because it seemed so incorrectly placed when Clara tried to use it within the walls of Arrow House or at the company offices or at school. He was so used to getting after her for it, it almost didn’t matter that they were in the betting shop, that the word was part of common discourse there. So, Tommy said her name, needing nothing more than that and the accompanying look to get his point across, her rolling eyes serving as acceptance.

“Clara, what John’s trying to say is…”

Her eyes flicked to Arthur and he stumbled in his words.

“…we’re just getting a bit concerned about all the uh…attention you’re getting from the boys on the lane, and all the extra time you’re spending with them.”

Clara blinked a few times, her head tilted as she processed his words. “You’ve called a family meeting because I have some friends who are boys?”

“That’s all the friends you’ve got. Boys.”

“I’ve got female friends.”

“Right, a handful of women twice your age and a pack of boys who hang off your every word while you stand out on the lane in that red lipst—” John had intended on pointing out the evidence, not noticing she’d already wiped it away until it was too late, so he pivoted. “And Lizzie and your sisters-in-law don’t count as friends. You’ve got no proper friends your own age and you’re too old to be playing around with the boys in the lane.”

“What the hell are you on about?” she asked.

“Martha was your age when…" John’s words dwindled to nothing as Clara’s face grew red, her cheeks hot with mortification and anger and embarrassment. 

"She was my age when you played around with her in the lane, you mean?” she asked.

Arthur spit out his whiskey and both Michael and Finn hid their smiles, but John didn’t smile or laugh. His face just grew red and Clara smirked, feeling a minute shift in the conversation.

“See John, Clara already knows. Doesn’t need any talk about what boys are after,” Michael said. 

Clara’s mouth fell open. "What? No, I certainly do not need that. And if I did have a need, I wouldn’t want it from any of you,” she answered.

It was another sentiment that wasn’t exactly true because Clara had already had talks with Tommy, had discussed with him expectations about her and boys. And she’d spoken with Finn and Michael, too, from time to time, seeing as they were something of her steadfast confidants in any matters she’d like to keep hidden from the older brothers or Aunt Polly or even Ada. But Clara had no interest in being lectured by John or Arthur on the subject of boys and sex, not when she’d never done more than kiss a boy.  

“And I don’t even like them like that,” she offered.

"Well, they like you,” John said.

"No, they do not. I’ve known them all since we were kids.”

“Some of them do,” Finn said.

Her twin’s first words felt like a betrayal, just as Michael’s had. They were supposed to be on her side, and most often were, but his words felt accusatory given the context. 

“What? Who?” she asked.

“Doesn’t matter who,” John interrupted. “All that matters is you’re too friendly with them, too trusting.”

“Too trusting?” Clara repeated. 

“Naive,” John corrected. 

Arthur cleared his throat. “Listen, Clara. We just want to make sure when we settle you down, it’s with a nice boy and—”

“When you settle me down with a nice boy? I’m only fifteen, Arthur! And I won’t need your assistance if I decide—" 

"Right, I think what Arthur’s trying to say is that you should be focusing on school and work for now. There’s time for boys later,” Michael offered. 

"I think I’m plenty focused on both of those things, Michael.”

Michael raised his hands in a forfeit, settling back in the chair. 

“No, Michael, what we’re trying to say is that she doesn’t know what she’s getting herself into, acting like that with them,” John said. 

“We just don’t want you getting any unwanted attention, sweetheart,” Arthur offered. “Don’t want you in over your head.”

Tommy could see his sister simmering again, could see this meeting would have no end if they continued like this, so he stepped forward. 

“Clara knows what to do if there’s a boy giving her unwanted attention.”

Clara looked at him. “Yeah, I’ll kick his fucking arse,” she said, raising her arms as she gestured to her brothers and cousin. “Like you boys taught me.”

“Yeah, and if it’s wanted attention?” John grumbled. 

“She knows what to do then, too,” Tommy answered. “Isn’t that right, Clara?”

“Yes,” she mumbled, a quick huff exiting her lips just after. “I have to bring the poor soul round for the most excruciating lunch in history with this council of oafs and hope he’ll stick around afterward." 

-----

Read more Little Lady Blinder stories here.

#peaky blinders #peaky blinder fanfic #shelby!sister #tommy shelby #john shelby #arthur shelby #finn shelby #michael gray #isiah jesus #clara shelby #little lady blinder #shelby sister

[belphies-cuhm-sluht]

Fun Zone (Belphie x GN!Reader)

(Random fic that came about because I was talking to a friend about chaperoning a field trip at a Discovery Zone. Also, the sisters name is just my two favorite sisters names blended together. Enjoy!)

Belphie hated his job, he really, really hated his job. Sure, retail sucked and he’d killed quite a few shitty customers for being a pain in his ass, but this… this was hell. Actual hell was nothing compared to where he was working now. Lucifer had threatened him with this shit hole multiple times if he didn’t get his act together while working at Target, but he just laughed in the face of the oldest brother. It wasn’t until he got fired for almost getting into a fight with some guy who was complaining about the price of every item that Belphie had scanned that Lucifer finally put his foot down.

There was nothing, absolutely nothing, that was more awful to him than the constant sound of children screaming. Everyone knew that, even Lucifer knew, and maybe that’s why his brother had sent him there in the first place, but this was a nightmare. This was torture.

“Slow the hell down.” He grumbled to the group of kids that ran by him, an exhausted looking woman following behind them, probably too tired to even apologize to him for the children’s reckless behaviour. “Fucking hell, I need a nap.” He mumbled to himself, turning away from the exhibit that he was stationed to so he could finally take a break. It was his lunch break, and he never needed one more than he did today.

“Leaving so soon, Belph?” One of his coworkers called after him, and he could hear them walking faster behind him which made him speed up. It’s not that he actually hated them, they were just irritating. They loved their job, they were too peppy, too excited, it made him sick. How could anyone enjoy being in a place like this for eight hours or more a day? It didn’t make sense to him. “Hey! Can ya hear me?” They came up right beside him, and he fought the urge to snap at them, clenching his teeth and balling his fists in his pockets as he grunted in response. “I don’t know why you’re so grumpy. Don’t ya just love working on field trip days?!” They slapped his back, and although he knew it was a kind gesture, he tensed up, whipping his head quickly to look at the employee.

“No. I hate it, actually. And you… you scare me. I’ve seen a lot of scary shit, but your excitement with all of this…” He motioned his hands around the park before dropping his hands at his sides. “It scares the shit out of me. I’m taking my break now. Have fun or whatever. Leave me alone.” He didn’t really care how they reacted to what he said, and even if they went to the boss about it, the worst that could happen is that he’d get fired. Actually… that would be the best thing to happen. There couldn’t possibly be any place that’s worse than this. He’s actually hoping that they do go to the boss.

“Mister, can you help me, please?” Belphie didn’t know how, or why this kid singled him out as soon as he was coming back in from his break, but here it was, staring up at him expectantly… and he hated it. Could they not find literally anyone else? Why couldn’t they have gone to literally any other employee? It would have been simple, and anyone else would have been far more receptive to this nonsense than he is right now. “Please… They’re stuck in the thingy…. They can’t get out.” The kid pointed to the massive jungle gym contraption that climbed up almost to the ceiling in the center of the building.

It wasn’t the first time someone older than the age of twelve had gotten stuck in there, and most of the time he’d push off the task of saving another helpless parent onto one of the other employees who actually cared. He wanted to say no to this kid, but another part of him wanted to actually see this person. See how it was possible for someone to actually get stuck in the jungle gym. He might even find some sort of amusement in it. “Fine. Where are they?” The tone of agitation in his voice didn’t seem to affect the kid at all as they started walking towards the massive jungle gym, rambling about how their group chaperone got stuck while climbing up, and that the other kids in the group couldn’t get them out. “Yeah yeah, whatever…” He mumbled, rolling his eyes at the kid as they climbed back in.

“Don’t worry! I got one of the people to help!” The kid called to the person, and he couldn’t help but laugh when he heard their sigh of both annoyance and embarrassment. That was probably going to be the best part for him, seeing how embarrassed this person will be once he gets them out. Shit, maybe his boss will see it and give him some time off, or at least a raise, even though he feels he should be making more money anyway considering the shit he has to deal with on a daily basis.

“Move. Move it. Scoot over. Would you move?!” He basically yelled at the kids as he climbed down from the second floor of the jungle gym. This was a lot more physical activity and a lot more work in general, than he wanted to actually do today. He’s really hoping that once he gets to this person that their shame and humiliation would make his extra work worth it. It’s not that he particularly enjoyed the suffering of humans, but today just hasn’t been his day, so it would be kind of… nice.

When he got to them, their head was down, still looking at the children below them trying to pull them out from the bottom. The space was cramped, very tight, and now he could understand why so many people got stuck in there. Although now he couldn’t understand why anyone over the age of twelve would even attempt to climb in the thing. Their head finally lifted, looking up at him and he actually froze for a second. They were… cute, really cute. “Sorry about this… dang kids forced me into this thing.” Their flushed cheeks were a sure sign of their embarrassment, but it brought him a different feeling when he saw them. It wasn’t particularly enjoyable, it just made him smile, which felt weird. Genuinely smiling at work? What the hell was wrong with him?

For a second he just stared at them, and it didn’t even feel awkward, or maybe it was the fact that they hadn’t really pushed him to help pull them out. They were still smiling up at him, that is until one of the kids above him started yelling. “Hey! You need us to help ya?!” Within seconds the kids that were a floor above him had surrounded him, making it almost impossible for him to even move. He wouldn’t have tried so hard to hide his anger and irritation if the human didn’t start laughing, moving one hand up to motion to the kids behind him to get out of the way, and they actually listened.

“So uh… which one is yours?” It was a strange question to ask, but what was he supposed to do? It would have been more awkward to do this in complete silence. There was nothing wrong with a bit of small talk. They smiled proudly, looking up at the little girl who was peaking over the side of another ledge, watching as Belphie pushed the humans shoulders. “Oh… nice…” He was kind of disappointed, although it felt silly to feel that way. Of course one of the kids would be theirs, they were chaperoning on a field trip. What other reason would they have to be here?

“My sister, Audrah.” Sister… it was only their sister. He hoped that they didn’t hear the small sigh of relief that escaped him at the revelation. Not that there was anything wrong with them if the kid was theirs, he just dealt with kids all day, could someone blame him for not wanting to deal with them any more than he was paid to do? They waved to their sister and he turned around to see the kid waving back, smiling happily and letting out a little laugh as the human tried to wiggle free again, bringing his attention back to actually freeing them.

“Oh… right, yeah. I uh… I’m sure she’s happy that you’re here…” He mumbled, pushing on their shoulders again. He didn’t know what was more awkward, the small talk that he was trying to make or the fact that every time they spoke he would momentarily forget about freeing them, elongating the time it took to actually get them out. At least they weren’t complaining though.

They nodded up to him, still smiling even under these circumstances. “She’s very happy… and she’s the best kid in the group. Don’t tell the other kids though.” They teased, even though Belphie was pretty sure that they’d think their sibling was the best kid in the group no matter what. Sibling bias existed in all realms, so he understood the feeling.

With one final push he finally got the human free, watching from the little ledge as they wiggled their way all the way to the bottom before climbing out. He quickly followed after, not wanting to be stuck in that little space surrounded by those kids any longer. The human was still waiting at the bottom, most likely expecting one of the kids in their group to come out just based on their expression when he was the one who popped out. There was a lot that he wanted to say, they were attractive, and their smile was kind and genuine. It was usually something that would turn him off from anyone really, he just couldn’t see himself even being able to stand being around someone like that… Hell, that’s why he couldn't be around his coworker for more than five seconds. There was something about this human though… He didn’t want to let them go. “So… uhm…”

“Come on! We don’t have lotsa time!” One of the kids shouted, and he quickly turned around, making sure it wasn’t their sister before glaring at the little brat who had cut him off. He turned back to face them, but their group had already swarmed around the human, dragging them off somewhere else. He wouldn’t see them again, he already knew that much. It was weird to feel so disappointed about it too… And while he was usually hoping that the day would go faster so he could have some sort of peace and quiet, this time he just wanted a little more time. Maybe by some chance he’d be able to see them in passing… He just wanted to talk to them for a second.

Sitting in the little lunch area, he watched as the groups of children and their chaperones filed out of the building. His eyes scanned over everyone, but he couldn’t seem to find the human that he really wanted to see. They couldn’t have possibly left before he would have noticed… right? It would have been impossible… he’s been watching the whole time.

“Hurry, hurry! This is why I told you all to go to the bathroom twenty minutes ago. We’re gonna miss the bus and be stuck here.” His head had never turned so quickly, but that voice… It wasn’t coming from the line of people in front of him, but it was them. They were standing by the restrooms, anxiously rocking on their heels as they waited for the rest of the kids in their group to finish.

“Yay! Let’s get stuck here!” One of the kids shouted, and he almost snorted at their reaction. He could see their eyes roll, and their patient demeanor was definitely wearing thin by now. “Y/N doesn’t wanna be stuck! You wanna go home and take a nap, right?” Their sister said proudly, holding tightly onto their hand. He watched as they nodded, smiling down to their sister before turning back to the bathroom doors. Now was his chance, it was his only chance.

He got up, taking a deep breath as he walked over to where they stood. All the children surrounding them noticed him first, and their eyes on him almost made him turn right back around. “Oh! I’m sorry, I’ve got one more kid in there. They’re taking forever.” They said, sheepishly smiling to him. There was a reason that they got stuck, and maybe it was a sign that he should talk to them… or maybe that one kid drank way too much juice… Either way, he wasn’t going to let this opportunity pass by him.

“It’s alright… The kid couldn’t possibly take much longer.” He joked, and it felt… weird… to joke with them about the kid. That was something that one of the other employees would do, but not him… not in any other situation. They let out a small chuckle, shaking their head. He was sure that they were about to disagree until the bathroom door flew open and the kid walked out. He knew that he didn’t have much time, and they were already lining the kids up and counting heads. They were about to leave.

He grabbed a napkin and quickly scribbled his number on it, hoping that they’d be able to read it. They were already walking towards the door, and if it was for anything or anyone else, he would have just let it go. Nothing was worth running for, but them… they were worth it. He sprinted to the door just as they were about to walk out, grabbing their hand and placing the napkin in it. “Text me after your nap.” He didn’t even care how forward he sounded, but he could also feel his cheeks heating up just from saying it. They would know that he was listening and he wasn’t sure how they’d feel about it.

“Sure…” They looked down at the napkin for a second and then back up at him, letting out a small giggle as they folded it and slid it into their pocket. “I’ll text you later…”

#obey me #obey me shall we date #om! shall we date #obey me belphegor #obey me Belphie #obey me MC #obey me gn!mc #obey me x reader #obey me x mc #obey me x gn!reader #belphegor x reader #belphie x reader #belphegor x mc #belphie x mc

[kevindayscrown]

The one where Kevin Day falls in love with an ice hockey player.

Part 7 Night Lights

(TW: Awkward first dates with Andrew watching from a distance)

Anything included in this head canon takes place the semester after the Foxes won the championship against the Ravens.

Disclaimer: I know next to nothing about varsity teams in the United States so excuse any false information. Head over to the directory to find the previous parts.

Kevin knew that wherever they went in Palmetto, someone was bound to recognize either one or both of them. It didn’t matter where their date would take place, as long as people saw them.

He’d been to dates before. With Thea, after he left the Nest and whenever the two of them had time. It had been less than ideal. But, being the only experience that he had, Kevin used it as an example and booked a table at a restaurant.

It was obvious that Eric was hesitant about it but he agreed nonetheless.

“I think I might have a suit buried somewhere.”

Of course, he had to book two tables, seeing as Andrew and Neil would be joining them. He’d told Andrew that he didn’t need a fucking chaperone, but Andrew had ignored him completely.

Eric offered to pick Kevin up at the parking lot, half an hour before their reservation. Kevin had gone with the suit he’d worn at the last banquet, figuring this wasn’t something he should put too much thought or effort into.

Kevin realized, upon meeting with Eric in the parking lot, that he had had a different idea.

Suit brand new, hair brushed back, freshly shaved, the goaltender looked less like the jock he was and more like the proper date for someone like Kevin.

That thought made Kevin halt. Obviously, his ideal date would have been a woman. Obviously. He wasn’t even attracted to men.

“Come on Day, give me that one million-dollar smile all those fans of yours go crazy over,” Eric said and laughed as he opened the door so that Kevin could get in the car.

Kevin simply glared at him and got in the car. As Eric closed the door, Kevin watched Andrew and Neil heading over to the former’s Maserati.

“This is going to be a long night,” he muttered under his breath as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

The restaurant was packed, which made sense since it was Sunday night. Their tables weren’t as close to one another, which Kevin was grateful for. He sat down across from Eric an picked up his menu.

“Are you going to give me the silent treatment all night?” Eric asked once they’d ordered.

Kevin looked at him and put his hands down on the table. He found himself wishing he had the puck, which had proven to be quite useful as a stress reliever.

“We have nothing to say.”

“I thought you loved hearing yourself talk.”

Kevin narrowed his eyes at him, but decided to let it slide. He almost clenched his left hand again but Eric reached for it and stopped him.

“I told you not to do that.”

Kevin would have pulled away, but the warmth of it reminded him of their night practices, when Eric would take his hand and guide him forward on the ice.

He wasn’t sure if Andrew would come out of nowhere and use the table knife to stab Eric’s hand, but they’d made a new deal and Kevin hoped he would keep it.

“Day, relax. You are too tense. We are supposed to be on a date, no?”

“Why are you enjoying this?” Kevin finally asked as he stared at him, although he tried to not let his anger show.

Eric looked surprised by the question, but quickly shook it off with a shrug.

“I don’t care what people think, Day. They can make assumptions about me all they want. That’s on them. I just want to have a good time.”

He said it so casually, that Kevin was almost jealous of it.

“Are you-,”

“Gay?” Eric completed the sentence for him and then shrugged his shoulders a second time. “I don’t like labels. And I’ve never thought about it really. I’ve only ever dated girls but honestly, who knows?”

Kevin stared at him as if Eric was speaking a foreign language but said nothing else as their food arrived. Eric pulled his hand away; Kevin’s own almost instinctively reaching for it until he forced it to stop.

They ate in silence.

Eric shifted in his seat when they were done.

“I have an idea. But you’ll have to trust me.”

Kevin didn’t like the sound of that so he only arched an eyebrow at him.

“Look, no offense, but this is kinda boring and I want both of us to enjoy this. Plus, we may manage to get rid of your legal guardian over there,” Eric said as he glanced at the table where Neil and Andrew were at.

Kevin thought for a moment but nodded. They both insisted on paying but eventually settled with each of them paying for what they’d ordered.

Sneaking out of the restaurant without being seen was easier than expected, but perhaps it was because Neil and Andrew unexpectedly ended up having their own date, which kept Andrew occupied.

Eric wouldn’t tell Kevin where they were going, but Kevin was just glad to be out of there and not have Andrew on his back, watching them.

The building they stopped at was not enough on the outside to alert Kevin of what was waiting for him. Eric looked excited, which scared Kevin further as they made their way inside.

“Seriously? A public rink?”

Children yelling and laughing as they slid and fell across the ice, couples holding hands, groups of friends messing around, amatueurs holding onto the ledge. It was loud and busy.

Eric grinned at him. “I brought our skates just in case,” he said as he held up the duffel bag he’d taken from the trunk of his car.

The goaltender seemed to know his way around. He found them lockers after talking with some people he was quite friendly with and Kevin removed the blazer of his suit and the tie, shoving them inside, with no care whether they’ll get wrinkled.

Eric handed him his skates and as Kevin put them on, the other reached forward and undid a few buttons from Kevin’s shirt.  

“It’s not ideal to skate in this but let’s make the most of it.”

People in and out of the rink instantly recognized them as they slid on the ice. Kevin told himself that that was the only reason Eric reached to take his hand again.

“Relax,” he whispered in his ear as he leaned closer to him. Feeling Eric’s warmth breath against his skin in an otherwise cold room made Kevin shudder.

He turned his head to look at him, but almost fell back at how close their faces were. Thankfully, he had practiced enough to keep his balance.

Eric smiled at him and then moved forward, taking Kevin with him. Kevin tried to dodge all the kids and anyone who was in their way. Some would come up to him on purpose, introducing themselves, saying they were big fans. Kevin gave them all his flashing press smile, saying he was glad to meet them, while still holding onto Eric’s hand.

“If you’d excuse us, we are on a date,” Eric eventually told yet another person who had approached them. Despite the words, the way he went about it reminded Kevin of how calm he was on the rink during games.

People mostly left them alone after that. Kevin was grateful for it. Sometimes, he got too lost in the persona, in the ‘who he was supposed to be’ that he lost the meaning of what he did.

Besides that, however, Kevin realized that he was genuinely having fun. The two of them would challenge each other as to who would skate a certain number of circles faster, and in the end, they’d banter about it while still holding hands.

Kevin forgot which part of it was an act and which was real, the lines blurred.

It dragged on long enough that they’d have to leave because the rink was closing for the night.

“The night doesn’t have to end here, you know?” Eric said when they were both in the car.

Kevin smiled. It was a genuine smile, nothing more than one of the corners of his lips quirked upwards. But it was still there.

“No. No, it doesn’t have to end here.”

#aftg #aftg headcanon #aftg oc #all for the game #kevin day #kevin day x oc #OC: Jiang Eric #the raven king #the foxhole court #the kings men #andrew minyard #neil josten #andreil #nicky hemmick #aaron minyard #dan wilds #matt boyd #allison reynolds #renee walker #jean moreau #jeremy knox #jerejean

[angelicamerlinbarnes]

Albus Dumbledore being an awesome teacher and human being

Bubblegum Bitch - MARINA

(Imma be honest with y’all, it’s mostly just him being a crackhead.)

He tells stories about Grindelwald, about their marriage and their beliefs and their lives together. All of the stories have lessons - sure, a lot of those lessons are about how NOT to make pasta, but they’re still lessons!

He likes to matchmake students using seating charts and certain magical spell assignments. He’s very good at it. I mean, he’s shit at figuring out who likes each other, but he is great at meddling, so Mcgonogall tells him who to mess with and he does as he’s told. They make a great team (and are invited to a lot of weddings). Couples they’ve helped include but are not limited to: Dean and Seamus, Luna and Ginny, Hermione and Harry and Ron, Sirius and Remus, Peter and Maxwell Needles, Peter and Regulus (that was later), Lily and Severus and James, Fred and Lee plus George and Lee, Charlie and Newt (queerplatonic), Leta and Newt (queerplatonic), Harry and Luna (queerplatonic), and Sirius and James and Remus (queerplatonic). They’ve been very busy.

He and Mcgonogall have teatime almost every day. They talk about their students and work on their matchmaking plans. There’s a lot of sass and deadpanning involved. Sometimes they invite Remus, Sirius, and James. (Not Peter. He doesn’t need the same level of torturing that they do.) Bubbles of all shapes and sizes and colors float around the room the whole time. It’s fantastic.

He accepts gossip in exchange for extra credit. He’s a really good secret keeper too, so a lot of students go for it. (It hasn’t broken any friendships. There’s an understanding among the student population that Dumbledore is like Ms. Potts from that Muggle film Beauty and the Beast - well-meaning and trustworthy, but terribly, terribly bored.)

Everything in his classroom is pink. And glittery. And covered in sequins. Once a student asked him why and he just smirked for a solid minute before whispering, “Lemonade.” (As if that makes any fucking sense.)

He once taught class in a full-fledged glittery ballgown that faded from light pink to deep purple. He did not once acknowledge it or act like anything was out of the ordinary. One student raised their hand and asked timidly, “Professor? Why are you wearing a ballgown?” And his brow furrowed as he frowned, looked down at himself, and muttered, “Thought it was a bathrobe.” (Harry does not let him live this one down. His dad is not much help - Severus took many, many pictures.) (Not that it mattered. On Wednesdays Dumbledore wears pink (glittery ballgowns).)

He speaks to kids who have parents, friends, and relatives in prison, whether for being Death Eaters or otherwise. He chaperones visits to Azkaban for them so they can see their loved ones. He casts protective and invisibility charms on them so only the one they’re visiting can see or hear them, and he teaches them Patronuses (with Remus’ help, of course). He often spends these visits on the other side of Grindelwald’s bars, playing wizard’s chess against him. (Sometimes Grindelwald gives him flowers. It always makes Dumbledore smile. There may be no one left in the world who understands why they love each other, but they don’t need to understand it for it to be true.)

He stands at the front of the classroom and makes funny faces during tests and waits to see how long it takes for a student to look up. His latest record is seven minutes.

When he’s teaching Grindelwald’s history, he makes snarky comments about his husband. They range from “I mean really. Who the fuck thought wizards ruling Muggles was a good idea?” (Rest in peace that one student who thought it was a good idea to say, “You did, Professor.”) to “Honestly, that man has no concept of romance. I ask him for a nice night out and he takes me to a Muggle rally about witchcraft and tries to impress me by playing practical magical jokes on the speaker. A toddler could do that.” (He often gets mushy during those stories though, usually trailing off like “But that time he took me to my childhood home for my birthday was sweet… brought me flowers for Ariana’s grave and everything. Sure, he killed her, but… he has a sweet side…” and from there on out he’s basically a lost cause and you might as well go to your next class because he’s not going to stop humming that fucking Elvis song).

He “loses” his glasses all the time by casting an invisibility charm on them and forces his students to search the classroom for them when they’re on his face the whole time. He thinks it’s funny. Harry does not. (But Severus and Mcgonogall do, and that’s really what matters.) (Severus and Mcgonogall and Dumbledore are  a fantastic trio full of snark and sarcasm and shit, I have just decided.)

He makes little animals out of multi-colored magical dust and they fly around the classroom and perch on his favorite students’ heads. Once a dragon fell asleep on Newt’s head and wouldn’t leave even when class was over. Newt had to wait for the magic to wear off so it would disintegrate. (Of course, he had named it by that point and had a meltdown when it disappeared, so Dumbledore recreates the dragon (Robert) every class and just lets Newt coo at it, even during tests.)

He conjured and charmed two giant (I mean Egypt half-animal half-man guard statue size giant) fluffy pink teddy bears that are alive and stand on either side of him like bodyguards during class. A Slytherin student punched one in the stomach once and it vomited enough M&Ms over their head to completely bury them. The student’s partner, a Ravenclaw student, punched the other one in an ill-advised burst of illogical thought and received the same treatment, but in Skittles. (Luckily their Gryffindor aro-ace friend and nonbinary Hufflepuff friend stayed after class and ate until they could move again. Safe to say no one has dared punch the bears again.) (Though I hear they do give very good hugs. And they eat homework if you ask nicely enough!)

He has a bunch of cloaks that act as portals to realms like Merlin’s Celestiums (S.G.E., Soman Chainani). He gives one to each student for tests, and they are transported to their ideal test-taking environments, complete with whatever song they feel like listening to at any given minute playing all around them. Unsurprisingly, his students have the best grades in all of Hogwarts. (He also has a secret cloak that he uses for himself, to see Grindelwald. Grindelwald has his own matching one so he can always make it home for Thursday date night.) (They have been caught. Of course they have. But no one is going to challenge Dumbledore for his right to see his husband, even if he did marry a murderer.) (Sirius and Remus used to steal the cloak for their own dates. And later on James would steal it to take the two of them on friend-dates. Inspired by that, Dumbledore made a special cloak for Mcgonogall that he gifted her on her fiftieth birthday. The smile she gave him then is his favorite of all time.)

He bickers with Fawkes constantly. This often evolves into full-fledged screaming matches with spastic hand gestures, gratuitous spit, and angry hops on both sides. Once Dumbledore drew wand on his “useless babbling bastard of a bird”. No one has bothered to tell Dumbledore that Fawkes probably can’t understand a word of their arguments. (They do evacuate the classroom when these fights start though. The last time they stayed their hair was gone for a week, and when it grew back it was glittery and pink.) (Harry looked especially fantastic. Sirius thought he looked great. He laughed until he was in tears. Harry was not amused.) (Remus was.)

Sometimes he’s absent from class and Mcgonogall teaches them instead. When asked if he’s alright, Mcgonogall simply answers, “My partner is away on personal business for the day. Now, turn to page -” Soon enough people figured out that “personal business” meant “conjugal visit with Genocidal Maniac Husband™ in prison”. They stopped asking.

He gives all of his students the red button test (without knowing what it does, do you press the red button?). Those who pass get automatic A’s and a lollipop. Those who fail get a talking pet pygmy puff. The thing that usually trips people up is that Dumbledore considers the “correct” answer to be pressing the goddamn button. (Seamus is the only one who has ever passed (enthusiastically too!). Newt half-passed because Niffy the Niffler sat on it.) (Sirius and James would have passed too if they had not been the life partners of one Remus Lupin, whose creativity with threats and extensive curse-word vocabulary rivaled Mcgonogall’s even at the tender age of fifteen.)

He has floating war maps just lying around. He plays battleship with his students on them. What he neglects to tell them is that their moves have actual consequences in the world, as the maps are magical and reflect real battles and places. When Harry finds out (he blew up Denmark, completely unawares) he shows up at Dumbledore’s door soaking wet at five-thirty in the morning with a newspaper, his fists clenched, his face red, and his chest heaving. He wouldn’t stop glaring for weeks. (Alas, Dumbledore’s glorious beard has great resistance to fire spells.) (Following an incident involving the original four Marauders in their third year. Shhh… we do not speak of that.)

He has a habit of walking into random classrooms, gesturing for a student to come with him with his finger, and then taking them to his office for teatime. He usually asks them inane questions about a specific theme (fish, pasta strainers, socks, throw pillows, mooses, etc.) for hours until finally dismissing them. It drives Mcgonogall crazy. (She’s yelled at him plenty for “kidnapping students to ask them questions you know you could easily find on that Muggle infer-het thing! They have exams, Albus -” but he just smiles at her while calmly sipping his tea and she always ends up collapsing in the chair across from him with a sigh, taking the tea from his hands and chugging it before wiping her mouth, slamming it down on the desk, and asking, “So. Fish. What’s up with them?” and Albus just beams.)

He spends half of his class lessons babbling on about how Merlin was gay for Arthur and Arthur was gay for Merlin, but not in long tangents. Just a bunch of random comments without context, warning, or explanation. (He mentions “poetry” a lot and waggles his eyebrows for some reason, so… what’s up with that? (Merlin BBC))

He overshares A LOT about his and Grindelwald’s lives. It’s a problem because 90% of the time it’s something sweet or innocent like “Oh, he brought me a tiger lily that bloomed open to show a gold and ruby ring nestled inside on our first anniversary. That’s how he proposed to me” and “He used to hum while he did the housework, you know? He’d stand in the middle of the house and close his eyes and just hum. Almost entire symphonies too, just waving his wand in the air like a conductor” to “This one time in bed he…” and there is NO warning. The amount of things these poor children’s ears have had to endure… (*shakes head in mock disappointment*)

He often cooks during class using wandless magic. The pots and pans heat themselves and float around in the air. Sometimes Dumbledore dances and then they start dancing too. He whistles and creates a base beat for the sizzling, popping, clanging, and other kitchen noises to follow. This usually happens during tests. Oh joy.

He leaves the windows open when it rains, but somehow nothing ever gets wet. Harry and Hermione have a theory that it’s protection charms. (Really it’s a spell Severus made up when he was drunk because he was angry that umbrellas don’t have enough room under them for three, and he’s always been the most self-sacrificial person in his marriage.)

He regularly makes bets with Mcgonogall about the students’ love lives. Not money, but little things the other doesn’t want to do or buy. Dumbledore usually has to handle the Marauders’ detentions or give up one of his teddy bear guards for Mcgonogall’s experimental enjoyments. Mcgonogall has to do something embarrassing or let him borrow one of her glittery hats. They should really stop making bets at this point; the stakes and the winners are dreadfully predictable. He always wins when the bet is on a student’s sexuality or gender and she always wins when the bet is on who a student will end up with. Nonetheless, the bets continue. So too does their grumbling amusement.

He figured out how to make a broom invisible when he and Grindelwald first fell in love, so they could be showy with each other at their Greater Good rallies. They later used it for dates, prison breaks, and daring escapes complete with kisses under the moon. Once Grindelwald went to Azkaban, Dumbledore used it to find some privacy where he could grieve. Now, he uses it to travel around his classroom and Hogwarts and trick everyone into thinking he can fly by sheer will. Only Mcgonogall knows his secret. (And Severus, but Dumbledore doesn’t know that because he told him when he was black out drunk. So.)

He lets pygmy puffs sleep in his beard. Sorry, I don’t make the rules.

He once taught class while teetering on his feet because he had somehow gotten himself tangled in Christmas lights from shoulders to ankles and couldn’t move. (Sirius wandered in and saw this, cried he was laughing so hard, and then warbled his off-key way through as many Christmas carols as he could remember for the rest of class.) (Dumbledore tried to Silencio him but just fell over trying to make the wand movement. He broke his nose. Sirius almost had a panic attack because he couldn’t breathe from how hard he was laughing. By the end of this he had curled up in a fetal position on the floor, Remus was lying down next to him and muttering jokes to him, Mcgonogall was trying to fix Dumbledore’s face, and Severus had taken over the class. Not that they got much done - James was visiting that day. And him, Sirius, and Remus all laughing about the same thing rarely leads to a quiet and calm learning environment.) (They gave him a joint present of rainbow Christmas lights for his birthday - “Happy Gay Day, Professor!” - and he was not amused.) (Grindelwald was though. So was everyone else.)

He tends to mix up holidays in his head and often decorates for the wrong one. He goes all out too. He’s kind of a disaster, and so is his classroom. It became such a problem that the Marauders actually took pity on him and made him a very big calendar with all the holidays marked on it in glitter and fake jewels and flowers. It sits behind his desk and occasionally works.) (Occasionally.)

He’s queerplatonic partners with Mcgonogall. They held a friend-wedding and forced Severus to be the flowergirl. Harry officiated, Remus was Dumbledore’s best man, Sirius was Mcgonogall’s, James wasn’t given a job cause he was crying too much, Lily was in charge of taking care of James, and Peter was the ring bearer (he only lost them TWICE and they were ring pops anyway). Mcgonogall screeches at him a lot and Dumbledore can be depressive and neglectful because he misses Grindelwald but they love each other so it works. (And they’re the prime source of advice for James, Sirius, and Remus regarding their own queerplatonic relationship, for better or for worse.)

He puts his feet up on the desk even though it’s bad for his knees. Mcgonogall told him it’s bad for his knees and he has stubbornly put them up there every class since. (His knees are killing him but he will not give in to “a paranoid, batty old witch who doesn’t know shit about what’s good for me and wouldn’t if she was hit with an Imperio and I told her -” “I’M YOUR FUCKING PARTNER, YOU BLASPHEMOUS ARROGANT BRAT OF AN OLD FART!”)

Instead of walking around his classroom, he struts. (Yes, it worsens his knees.) He does strike poses, he does make obnoxious expressions, and he does look fabulous. WORK! (Yes, that was a Hamilton reference.)

He once taught class without a  face because Mcgonogall cursed him for “fucking up the alphabetical organization of my tea, you old twit. Honestly, Albus, it’s not that hard”. (How did he teach without a mouth, you ask? Easy, he used intermediate BSL (deaf students, plus Azkaban isn’t great on old men’s ears and he and Grindelwald are both gettin’ up there) and Sirius interpreted.) (Incredibly wrongly, crudely, and foul-mouth-ly, but nonetheless he interpreted.)

He has difficulty understanding the straight people in his class. He is fully accepting of everyone and wants the best for all of them, but when it comes to relationship advice, he’s shit.

Excerpt pulled from Pensieve of a conversation he had with a student who identified as female:

Dumbledore: “So your boyfriend is a dick, is what you’re saying?”

Student’s best friend: “Yes. Merlin, he’s such a dick. Would you believe he -”

Dumbledore: *looks at student and points to her best friend* “Why don’t you just date her?”

*cue red faces and sputtering*

(They did not take his advice.)

He wears bowties ALL THE TIME. If he’s not wearing a bowtie, there are bows in his hair and tying the ends of his beard together. Once he wore pigtails. It was great.

He has a habit of bursting into song randomly and performing full-blown Broadway musical numbers (yes, he can rap Guns and Ships at full speed). This usually involves all of the complex moves to be expected in a musical - dramatically climbing up the stairs while looking forlorn, leaping onto the desk and squatting as you launch into a whispered limerick, speedy costume changes - you know, the works. Sometimes Sirius and James back him up, if they’re there. Severus will take over teaching with a bored look on his face (“What are you looking at, Harry?” “Dad, there’s -” “I don’t see anything interesting happening, Harry.” *glares*) while Mcgonogall screeches at Dumbledore to “GET THE FUCK DOWN, YOU NARCISSISTIC HEATHEN!” It’s a problem.

When the Marauders challenge the dress code, Dumbledore is the first Professor to encourage it. While Sirius is perfectly confident in a skirt and Regulus isn’t far behind (neither is Severus, surprisingly), James and Remus are far more insecure. Dumbledore wears a tutu to class one day to show his support, and Remus wouldn’t stop smiling the rest of the day. (James just turned bright red and beamed when Sirius started laughing.) He also backed Lily up when she wore pants (along with Marlene, Dorcas, and Mary) by convincing Mcgonogall to wear pantsuits for a week. (Sirius, despite being a hardcore gay, was quite affected by this. Remus did not appreciate the water spit in his face and refused to kiss Sirius for a week.)

He plays Cecily Smith (Will Connolly) on the ukulele on late nights and stares out at the stars thinking of Grindelwald. Sometimes he forgets to turn off the Sonorus from earlier that day and ends up broadcasting his little song to the whole school. Sirius and Remus will dance to it in the common room while James watches his partners with a happy smile on his face (and Peter sleeps, because he’s tired and doesn’t force himself to stay up simply for the purpose of being cool or finishing that one assignment that isn’t due for another two weeks) (I’m sorry, do you feel called out?).

This man has weed brownies stashed away in his desk and he does eat them during class. He also offered one to Remus once, who is the only student that knows about the stash and tends to use marijuana for medical purposes (helping with anxiety and pain regarding the full moon, courtesy of my beautiful girlfriend who has never read nor seen Harry Potter but nonetheless insists to me that Remus Lupin is a stoner who wears red beanies). This prompted Sirius to ask for one, which Dumbledore refused, but then James joined in and they started a riot by standing on their desks and pumping their fists in the air and screaming, “BROWNIES FOR ALL!” while Remus giggled into his hand and was no help at all, so Dumbledore gave them each a brownie just to shut them up. (Sirius wouldn’t stop rambling about how pretty Remus’ eyes were, James was babbling on about unicorns, Severus was hissing at something no one else could see, Regulus was hissing at the same thing for some reason, Peter was crying because he couldn’t tell the difference between hamsters and gerbils and guinea pigs, and Lily was muttering pi under her breath until she fell asleep.) (Mcgonogall was unimpressed.) (No teatime for eight weeks. Damn.)

Dumbledore cares about all of his students, however little he shows it. He wants them to lead a better life than he did. And maybe fall in love with better people than he did.

#albus dumbledore #albus wulfric percival brian dumbledore #mcgonogall &x dumbledore #&x means queerplatonic i have just decided #grindledore #wolfstar #james &x remus &x sirius #severus & mcgonogall & dumbledore #james x lily x severus #albus dumbledore is a crackhead 2021 #i dunno please enjoy this shit #i'm really fucking tired #harry potter #have a nice day y'all

[incorrect-karasuno]

〚Karasuno at Pride 🏳️‍🌈〛

Happy Pride y'all! Thought to do a short little bunch of headcanons for the gang in celebration.

Personally, I've never been to a Pride Parade of any sorts, but I'd love to go to one sometime in the future!

Feel free to add on your own headcanons!

---

Daichi:

• He's got a bit of face paint and pride clothing

• He's designated supervisor of everyone (along with Ennoshita) because we all know how wild everyone gets

• Despite everyone giving him a headache, he's enjoying himself

• It would be nice if Suga would stop telling him to "relax and let loose" every five minutes

• Speaking of Suga,,, Daichi is very embarrassed by his boyfriend's loud singing and dancing but ooohhh boy,, if he didn't love Suga, he definitely does now

• This is kinda his first time going and it's definitely not going to be his last

Suga:

• He is having the time of his LIFE.

• You know those people decked out with pride merch? Yeah, that's Suga.

• Of course, he's also looking out for all his kids. Meaning, he's making sure they don't die or get lost. But anything else? Nope! That's Daichi's problem.

• Okay, but when someone *cough* Hinata *cough* manages to get lost, he kinda loses it and panics

• But everyone around them is super friendly and helpful and they find Hinata like,, ten minutes later with the Nekoma guys, thus saving Suga from having a heart attack

• He's been to pride a few times before, but this is his first time with the whole team

• He LOVES being there and he makes sure to show it

Asahi:

• Nishinoya made hin wear a rainbow flag as a cape

• Aaahh,, he's a bit overwhelmed by everything but he's doing his best to have fun and enjoy it

• Nishinoya being there and supporting him makes it a lot easier to endure

• Everyone being super friendly is really helpful too and he finds himself enjoying himself more than he thought he would

• He's only been to pride once before, being dragged by Suga to attend once in their second year

Nishinoya:

• He's also wearing a flag as a cape because one) it's hella cool and 2) to match Asahi

• He's going all out,, it's almost scary

• Knows all the lyrics to the songs that someone is blasting from a giant ass speaker somehow??

• He and Tanaka can and will attack any one at Pride who came to be rude and rain on the parade

• He's holding Asahi's hand for a lot of it and at one point, he got on his shoulders (he was looking for Hinata)

• He's been to Pride before with the other second years, this is his first time with everyone on the team

Tanaka:

• AN ALLY AT PRIDE

• Ehhhhh,, sorta because what the fuck?? Ennoshita is actually like,, pretty cute too??

• Woah,, he's realizing that he might not be as straight as he thinks he is and tells the team at the end of the day and everyone is very accepting and very happy for him

• Okay, but he absolutely loves it at pride and is alongside Nishinoya being as chaotic as ever

• Dude will ATTACK if he sees any kind of -phobe and nobody will stop him (Lies, Daichi will yell at him to not)

Ennoshita:

• He's got subtle pride, a little face paint and pins, but he's happy to be there

• OH! And rainbow glasses. Fucking rainbow glasses.

• He's making sure Nishinoya and Tanaka don't do anything stupid

• Speaking of Tanaka...

• Woah, what?? Tanaka comes out to them?? He might have a chance?? (He's never going to act on it though)

• He and Daichi are like the only ones there making sure everyone stays together

• He brought SNACKS! And Tanaka ate half of them on the bus ride there

• He's been to Pride before with the other second years, it was kind of a tradition for them

Kinoshita:

• Him and Narita have matching shirts because they're cheesy like that

• Keeps laughing at Nishinoya and Tanaka's usual antics

• Ennoshita does not appreciate Narita and him hanging up on him in an attempt to convince him to spill his feelings for Tanaka

• They won't give up though, just you wait

• Sings along with Nishinoya and joins in on the boyfriend hand holding

• Loves the tradition of going to Pride with the 2nd years but going with everyone is nice because there's less stress

Narita:

• He's matching with Kinoshita and everyone keeps teasing them about it

• He's doing his best to help Ennoshita out with Tanaka and Nishinoya

• Kinoshita will NOT let go of his hand and he doesn't mind that one bit

• He's taking all the pictures because he says he's gotta "document" this

• He and Kinoshita got together after a pride parade actually, so he loves going to these things with them

Kageyama:

• Subtle pride,, Hinata and Suga cornered him and painted rainbows on his cheeks

• He's got a crown on hin by the time he gets to the parade and Hinata and Nishinoya and trying to convince him to wear a flag as a cape with them

• Eventually he gives in and he does

• Pretends he doesn't want to be there at first but by the end of the day, he's loving and and being really clingy and emotional with everyone (even Tsukishima)

• He saw Aobai Josahi at one point and did a full 180° trying to avoid them, but failed because Iwazumi has no chill and never missed an opportunity to annoy Oikawa

• This was his first pride and he enjoyed it a lot more than he thought he would

Hinata:

• Decked oUT with pride,, shirt, bracelets, glasses, flags, shoes, pants, everytHING

• He's very excited about this and is literally shaking at how excited he is to be at Pride with his team

• He's like a dog really,, looking at everything, getting excited at everything, being his friendly self and making hugs

• Trying VERY hard to make Kageyama enjoy it a little bit but immediately forgets about it when he sees Kenma and takes off

• Eventually he's the reason why Karasuno, at the end of the day, is joined by literally almost all of the other schools somehow

• It was his first Pride and he loved the experience so much (he cried several times)

Tsukishima:

• He's got like,, a pin,, and that's it

• UNTIL Yamaguchi comes with a pride shirt with a dinosaur on it and now he's got that on but he zipped up his jacket

• It took a LOT of convincing on the team's part until he agreed to go with them

• He is not happy that his brother is also there with Saeko and the neighborhood association, but at LEAST they promised not to cross paths (initially)

• At one point, his glasses became those plastic rainbow ones and he had to hold onto Yamaguchi to use as a guide

• Reads homophobes and the whole lot to FILTH since Daichi doesn't let Nishinoya and Tanaka physically hurt them

• This was his first pride and he enjoyed it a lot more than he admitted/let on

Yamaguchi:

• He joined in on face painting with Hinata and got Tsukishima a Dino pride shirt

• He was a little scared of going at first, but having everyone else there was very comforting and he managed to have a LOT of fun

• He and Hinata are like actual puppies, getting excited by everything and wanting to see everything

• He does his best to get Tsukishima to lighten up a bit and it ends up working in the end (like, how could you say no to him?)

• He, Hinata, and Yachi are their own little first time at Pride trio and Suga's crying because they're so cute

• First time at Pride! He had tried to get Tsukishima to go with him before because he didn't want to go alone

Kiyoko:

• Kiyoko at pride is like a totally different person and it surprises the first years

• She's loud, super friendly, giving lots of hugs, and just being her goddess self, it's amazing

• The third years are used to this of course, the second years more or less so, but not the first years and their reactions are priceless

• She sings with Nishinoya and gets Yachi to singalong with them as well

• She's got a huge flag she made of all the flags of Karasuno stitched together that she brings

• Pride is one of her favorite things of the year and enjoys it every time they go

Yachi:

• Poor baby doesn't know what she's getting into when she agreed to go to pride with the lot of them

• Hinata gets her to paint her flags on her cheeks with him and Yamaguchi

• She spends the first half of it being nervous and stressed out about everything until Daichi reassures her that she doesn't need to worry about everyone

• So in the last half of it, she gets to enjoy herself, running around with Hinata, talking with Kiyoko, getting raised up by the first years at one point

• It was her first pride and she loved it a lot,, she ended up crying at the end of it with Hinata

Ukai & Takeda:

• Parental chaperones and their drive home

• They're the reasons why nobody dies or something because there's no way Daichi and Ennoshita can handle everyone by themselves

• They kinda stick to the back of the group, holding hands and taking the time to be cheesy and loveydovey

• They've been to several Prides before, but seeing all of them there makes Takeda tear up and cry,, making Suga, Hinata, and Yachi to cry

• Ukai gets them to stop crying by offering to buy dinner for everyone at the end

#haikyuu!! #incorrect haikyuu quotes #incorrect haikyuu #haikyuu #hq #hinata shouyou #sugawara koushi #daichi sawamura #nishinoya yuu #tsukishima kei #takeda ittetsu #tadashi yamaguchi #kageyama tobio #tanaka ryuunosuke #azumane asahi #yachi hitoka #shimizu kiyoko #ennoshita chikara #narita kazuhito #kinoshita hisashi #incorrect karasuno #karasuno #haikyuu headcanons #lgbt pride #pride #happy pride 🌈

[redmaneroster]

Our Home Away From Home, Away From Home

[1] [2] [3] [4-5] [6] [7] [x-x] [10]

PART 8 – Permutation

Its almost strange to call it home, Yang thinks, staring up at the house she grew up in. She'd spent so much time in a cozy little dorm and a browning two-bedroom apartment that a house in the woods almost seems like a distant memory. (She hadn't spent Summer here either. She was in Menagerie with Blake then Mistral with her dad for a getaway, and the rest she spent kicking back with Jaune).

"A lot happened this year," she says.

Jaune's eying the woods around them, trying to see a break in the pattern outside of a few distant houses lost between the bark and autumn leaves. He swallows cause he knows that, if it weren't for Yang, he'd have been terribly lost. "Hm? Uh… huh?" he garbles, unable to hide the tinge of panic.

"A lot happened this year," she repeats. "What's up with you?"

"The woods are thick is all. How you only got lost in it once is beyond me… So, what's with the nostalgia? Old house got you thinking?"

"Something like that. Mostly, I didn't think I'd end up here, getting ready to reacquaint with Raven, and getting you of all people to meet my parents."

"Yeah, didn't think I'd end up introducing another blonde to my sisters either. Future seemed full of redheads and I stuck with it like an act of defiance."

"Defiance? Why's that?"

"If you haven't noticed, we're all terribly blonde. Even Adrian's hair is a dirty gold and we thought for sure he'd be a brunette. It's either a curse, or fate is terrible at jokes and uncomfortable at parties."

She chuckles. "Calling fate out like a loser isn't going to win you any favors. Besides, can't help it when both your folks are blondes."

"One of my sisters is adopted. A blind adoption, mind you. From Vacuo. You know what we got? Chocolate brown skin and dusty blonde hair. Boom. Curse."

There's the sound of fluttering feathers behind them. Qrow straightens his back with a snap as he shapeshifts. "Ngh, agh! Ha… What are two doing just standing outside? Expecting another invitation?"

Jaune and Yang exchange a look. "Stalling," they say in unison.

"W-what? How did you two…? Nevermind." He pinches his forehead cause the moment is too familiar and he feels an irrational envy creep up his cheeks. "You two coming in or not?"

"Why so impatient all of a sudden?" Jaune asks.

"I don't take enjoyment out of watching a train wreck but if I can't stop it, I'll at least hope it's over quickly."

Yang puts a hand on her hip. "Not very optimistic, are you?"

"I prefer cautious," he says as he waves a dismissive hand and stalks ahead of them. "Besides, I don't want you two walking in there expecting things to go off without a hitch." He glances back to see them roll their eyes at the same time and that uncomfortable shiver is back.

"Now that you're here, a disaster's all but guaranteed," Jaune quips.

Qrow glares but neither of them lose their cheek. He rolls his eyes too, but doesn't show them his smile when he's got his back turned. He isn't too sensitive about his semblance – if anything, he's glad Jaune can treat him like he isn't a wounded animal – but he notices the twitch in Jaune's eye. It's there cause he's too soft a soul to have all the bite that quips demand. He almost wants to say sorry for it. "He's a good kid,"

Qrow thinks.

With a twist of the knob, he opens the door and then kicks up his heel to slam it open the rest of the way. He wanders in with a swagger and a mischievous grin. Both fit him naturally.

"Rae!" he shouts. "Your brat and her boyfriend are at the door!"

Jaune balks and shoots Yang a look. She gives him a quick, "He's just like that when he talks to her," and ushers him in.

"And you didn't let them in like a normal fucking person!?" Raven shouts back and it's like a nostalgic gust has poured over Yang. Raven's every inflection is recognizable, echoing deeply from buried memories. They argued like this often when she was small.

"They can walk through a door just fine," Qrow says, swinging into the archway that leads into a tall kitchen. "And lest you forget, I'm a guest here, too. Not your chaperone."

Jaune lets Yang wander ahead, eying her backside as she inches a trail behind Qrow.

Yang peeks in to see her mother chopping something on the kitchen table by the sink. Bravado has taken a backseat and the very reality of the situation has settled in like a bat to Yang's blindside.

"Do you really have to be difficult with me right now?" Raven says with a huff but there's no bite to it, just lazy exasperation.

"Yeah, I do…" Qrow replies. "This is our normal. The minute I go easy on you, assume I'm dead and you've encountered a terribly tolerable doppelganger."

Raven's cheek quirks and it triggers in Yang things she half remembers, and half convinces herself she'd seen in a dream.

"Hmph. Bold of you to assume I won't just take the trade as an act of divine mercy. Maybe this doppelganger can cook for the house every once in a while instead of free loading off my dinner."

"If you wanted me to cook venison, you could have asked."

"Not the deer again… Tai hates it when you bring the kill into the kitchen. I personally don't care that you track blood on the carpet, but he refuses to agree with my sentiments about a house that's lived in and not one you find sterilized in catalogs. Ugh, I'm getting tired just thinking of that argument."

"I know," Qrow agrees, leaning on the counter. "That's why I do it on purpose."

Raven tilts her head back to give her brother a smirk. "You're a scoundrel, Qrow," she says just before her eyes catch Yang's.

"Hey, Mom," Yang says out of instinct. It's too late to take it back.

"Yang, you–" she crosses her arms, "–who is this?"

Jaune's heat presses against her arm like the partner he is. Not in front like her protector, but beside her like her equal. She can feel the way he's hiding his nerves with the shudder in his arm. "Dad didn't tell you?" she says. "This is Jaune. My boyfriend."

Jaune, borrowing confidence he's learned from her, doesn't back down. "Good afternoon, ma'am," he greets, standing proudly. His fingers twitch against Yang's arm.

"Oh, he told me about him alright. I just wasn't expecting a familiar face." Her eyes lock onto him. She smirks when she sees he doesn't flinch. "You're an Arc, I take it? I recognize that face. Your father was in the news once or twice."

"Oh, you heard about the manticore horde? Or was it the behemoth at Glenn?"

"Neither. He blew up a dust shop."

Oddly enough, Yang feels him relax.

"Yeah," he says, scratching his head, "Arcs really shouldn't have guns."

Raven nods. There's no tension here, and Yang feels it's gone all too smoothly.

"Perhaps you can tell me the story," Raven offers as she turns back to chopping. "I have an old bet with Qrow I'd like to settle."

"What did you bet on?" Jaune asks.

Raven snorts. "And let you lie to give my brother the win? Please. I know you two are friendly." She glances back. It's the only other time through this whole conversation that she's looked Yang in the eye and it's still only for a second. She goes back to chopping. "Why don't you two go into the living room and wait for Tai while my silent shadow of a brother here helps me sort out this recipe."

Qrow shrugs and continues to say nothing other than whisper something to Raven that makes her blush angrily.

Yang peels off of Jaune and her insides broil unsteadily.

"Sounds like she's changed," Jaune says when he's in the living room alone with her on a wide U-shaped sofa.

She shakes her head. "She hasn't though."

"What? But the way you described her before–"

"–is all hearsay. I had a mom who left out of the blue. Before that she was jabbing back and forth with Qrow, needing help in the kitchen, and trying her best to be on top of things. Everything I said about her between that time was just me making assumptions about a woman who wasn't around for me to judge in person. I never actually knew if she changed any since leaving."

"So this is Raven Branwen: Unfiltered? If this is what she was like before, then maybe she's just trying to fit back into place the only way she knows how."'

She raises her knees to curl up but she forces them back down. She doesn't want to appear too obviously vulnerable. Not when her mother is still in the house. She tosses Jaune a meaningful glance. "Is it wrong for me to hate that?"

"Some people might say it is, but I think it's too much to ask someone who has had to raise her little sister all on her own to let her absentee mother just waltz back into her life like nothing's changed."

"I still don't know if you're agreeing with me or not."

"Cause I don't know either. Give me a minute to think on it and I'll probably pick a side but I'd much rather stay right where I am. On neutral ground." He squeezes her hand. "I'm here to be your backup, not your coach." Because they don't solve each other's issues, not every time, but they always help each other along.

She knows this, of course. She hasn't deluded herself into thinking that they could crack every case just because love had lofty ideas about making everything right. Being in love doesn't solve everything, it just gives you a partner to solve them with.

"I think I'm suddenly very tired," she says, leaning on his arm. "Wake me in an hour when dinner's ready."

"Uh… shouldn't it be done sooner?"

"Raven used to wake up at five AM to make breakfast in time for school. She takes breaks cause she doesn't always have the patience for it. Don't expect it to go any faster with Uncle Qrow in there. He's just there to make sure she doesn't skip any steps."

"That doesn't fill my with confidence," he says but she's already snuggling into his arm with a contented sigh.

With the sound of clattered pans and restrained yelling from the kitchen, Jaune decides to shut his eyes too.

-0-

Jaune is violently awoken by someone grabbing him by the collar and shaking him awake.

"You!" says the messy tuft of blonde hair presently pressed against his face. "You're… yer…. Hic!" The scent of alcohol is palpable. The smell is dizzying.

He blinks himself awake. "Uh, you're Mr. Xiao Long, I'm guessing? I'm Jaune. Yang said she mentioned me?"

The tuft of hair pulls up revealing the chiseled scruff of a well-worn huntsman. Faded scars litter his neck and chin, but that's where all the menace in him ends. Despite his tone, Taiyang has the look of a desperate man. His eyes are wide and a solid, beautiful blue. His cheeks have a slight plump to them that make him just shy of an Adonis.

Jaune makes the executive decision not to think along that line any further. But it's clear that Yang's got stellar genes and – No! Bad Jaune! Stop it!

Tai glances at the slumbering Yang, snoring softly against Jaune's arm. "What did you do to my daughter?" he says with a drunken pout that would look more intimidating on a pug.

"Uh, nothing!" he whispers urgently. "Nothing I swear."

He squints so much that he closes his eyes and nearly passes out before he jolts himself awake. "You… You and Qrow really are friends. 'Nothing,' he says… that's just code for plowed her till sunrise."

Still in a sleepy haze, Yang pushes her father's face away until he falls back onto the coffee table behind him. "Dad… leave him alone," she groans. "He wouldn't touch me even if I tore off his clothes and –" Her eyes shoot open, fully awake and painfully aware. Her scream then is almost silent, Jaune thinks, but he's pretty certain that's cause Yang's vivid horror is blasted like shellshock when she abruptly screams louder next to his ear and scrambles over the sofa to hide behind it.

He's still shaking his head to get the ringing out.

Qrow bursts in, Raven meekly peeking behind him. "What the fuck – Oh."

Tai is sprawled over the coffee table, squinting angrily at everything.

"Bird!" Tai accuses, swinging his arm out to point at him but slamming it on the hardwood coffee table. "Ow," he mutters as his aura flares.

"Drunk," Qrow greets. He hoists the man over his shoulder. "Sorry about this, kids. I think Tai's got his nerves bundled up again. I'll get him to detox upstairs after a nap."

"Uh, it looks like he'll be out for the week," Jaune says, shaking his head still. "I doubt a nap will fix him by dinner."

"Nah. Tai can burn all the alcohol out of his system with enough motivation and calories. He'll be ready by the time Rae manages to get something on the table."

Tai wiggles like an insolent child, fists lightly beating on the man's back. "Back off, Qrow!" he slurs. "You're not taking this one – hic – too… guh…"

"That's my twin sister, you dunce."

"Really?" Tai pushes his head up, eying Raven. "Pfft! Qrow, you are not that pretty."

Once the two of them have rounded the corner into Tai's bedroom, Jaune asks the quietly smiling Raven, "This happen often?"

"Not as much as it used to," she says. "Was a time when there were two whole families in this house and it was never quiet. Two men and enough testosterone to make a third made competition between them frequent. Qrow got Tai to drink and you can see that he hasn't acclimated to it as well as my brother does."

"Do you drink?"

"I'm a Branwen," she shrugs, "our blood is two parts alcohol. Small mercy that Yang hasn't picked up our habits. Or Ruby for that matter."

Jaune raises a brow. "Ruby's a Branwen?"

Yang nearly gasps from behind the couch, hands clutching her mouth.

"No," Raven says. "Well, she should have been but Qrow basically raised her all the same. He even knit her a tiny red hood when she was barely a foot tall, and it's been her motif ever since." Raven, eying him, closes her arms a little tighter around herself. As if guarded. Uncertain. "Despite how it may appear," she says, "I am glad my daughter found you but there's something you should know moving forward…"

Jaune prepares for the inevitability of the 'boyfriend' talk. It doesn't come. Raven is beside herself, eying the floor. "No matter what happens today, I do not intend to reconcile with my daughter."

He realizes that she doesn't know that Yang is in the room, just by the sofa. His heart knots. "You don't know if she wants that yet."

She laughs. It's bitter. "It doesn't matter. What Yang wants isn't coming into the equation. She needs to distance herself from me."

"What was the point of coming here if not to bridge the gap between you two?"

Raven chews her lip, wanting nothing more than to end the conversation and walk out of the room. She doesn't. Can't. "To prove that things have changed here. That me and my brother talk, and that Tai has… met me halfway."

"So this – all of this – is for show?"

Her features darken, her face hardens. "Yes."

He pushes himself up, almost prepares to march up to her. His feet don't push him any further. His willful restraint is there but it's paper thin. "And if she wants more?" he asks, inwardly begging her to give him a reason to meet her up close.

Her eyes narrow at the floor. "All you have to do is make her an Arc and she'll live a life better than anything I can give her!" Her gaze is at him, dangerous and unafraid, but its desperate. She's asking him a favor. "Asking me to be a part of her life is like active theft. You will give her all she'll ever want, but me? I'll only ever take things away. And if you give me the chance, I'll end up taking her too. She'll leave you like I did Tai."

The silence wanes and Jaune can hear the thumping in his own chest. She's making claims for things that haven't happened yet. As if she can't promise to give as well as she takes. As if she can't meet her own daughter halfway. As if she can't compromise. His ears strain to hear anything from Yang, but she's so deftly quiet that he feels alone in the room with her mother.

Muscle fastens onto bone, curling his fist inward till digs into his palm. His aura flares. The sound of it jolts him awake. He'd been holding his breath.

Then… he plops down onto his seat. Tension in his skin unwinds. All his disbelief slips away. Any anger he feels pools into his back to weigh him against the cushions. "But why?" is all he asks, looking up at her.

Raven is so taken aback by his sudden shift that she shows the tangled fear she'd tucked away for a moment. The question is genuine and – like her many nights moonlighting bars – she is tempted to bare her soul to a stranger. "Because I'm a Branwen," she says, eyes deadened. Scowling as if the name is a profane. "And even a terrible mother wouldn't wish that name on her daughter."

When she leaves the room, Yang rises from behind the couch. She doesn't focus on anything. She looks bewildered, pained.

Qrow comes down the steps and they look at him. He looks like how she feels. "I'm sorry if this wasn't what you were expecting," he says.

Yang clutches the backrest of the sofa. "I don't know what I was expecting."

Qrow gives her a worried look. "Maybe… maybe it's better that way."

He wanders into the kitchen, leaving them alone.

Jaune doesn't hold Yang. Instead, he fishes her gauntlets from the duffel bag, takes her by the hand, and pulls her outside.

-0-

She sets fire to a dead tree. The blast of Ember Celica ripples through the woods, scatters wildlife, shakes the canopy, and rustles the owls awake. She doesn't care. The blowback from her gauntlets as it makes contact with the deadwood is cathartic. Reflective of what she's feeling inside.

But it isn't anger.

"What does she even… Ugh!" Another blast, sending out a spent shell, light casting over her cheek and hair with accompanying heat. "I don't get it!"

She breathes in and out. Blinks moisture into her eyes. She's been doing the very opposite of crying and drying the liquid in her sockets. She's starting to feel dizzy. She slumps back onto a rock Jaune is sitting on, using his shoulder as a backrest. "I'm not… mad at her. I'm confused. And I'm mad that I'm confused. Does that make sense?"

"About as much sense as she was making," he says with a sarcastic smile.

She's trying to smile back. Even a little one might do but her lips down-curl. Her frown tightens and she sighs into the open sky. "I wanted to give her a chance," she says. "Maybe see where this goes but… now that I know she won't even try? How am I supposed to process this? Do I just do what she wants and not try either?"

He plucks a twig from a dead branch, snapping its length into little pieces. "Do you even want to do that? I mean, if leaving things as they are isn't what you want, then ideally how would you like all this to end?"

She takes half of the twig – snapping it between them. She picks it apart too.

An answer doesn't come.

They gather the tiny bits of branch and bunch it into Jaune's hands. Yang pulls out a fire dust shell from her gauntlet and cracks it open over them. Red particles filter over and into the loose wood bits. He spools them into a ball and his semblance surges over his arm.

His muscles tighten when he approaches the dead tree. It's barely as tall as he is now. His arm pulls back. The chunks in his palm ignite. He throws them like a man-propelled buckshot, scattering burning holes through it.

Even charred, the thing has dangerous embers dancing off its broken pieces.

"We should put this out," she says.

"Mm!" He kicks it down, unrooting it. Then he hoists it up. "Got another good punch in ya'?"

"I've got a few, yeah, but I'll save the rest for later. I only need one for this."

He crouches low, prepping to toss. "Ready?" he asks.

"Pull!" she shouts.

He tosses it into the air, scattering the scent of ash and char, and she swings her fist into it. The sheer force of the blow consumes the flame as it rockets and splinters into a tall rock.

"Y'know what?" she says. "If it's taking me this long to even answer, maybe this isn't what I want."

"So what now, chief?"

She snorts. "Don't give me ideas. Anyway, I say we take the aggressive approach. We got them a present, I say we break it out instead of handing them the box. Invite them to try it with us."

Jaune turns to the house where they left the duffel bag. He winces. "Are you sure about this?"

"I don't see an elegant solution. And it's probably stupid, yeah, but stupid has worked for us so far."

"Really? How exactly has it worked for us so far?"

"In what universe do hickeys stop two primed teenagers from having sex?"

"Ours, apparently…"

"Gets the tension out. Would be genius if I didn't find it by accident."

"Speaking of which…"

He comes up behind her and pushes her hair off her shoulder, exposing her neck.

"What are you – Ah!" she gasps when he bites her neck. Her aura lowers on instinct, letting him mark her.

He pulls away and wipes her dry with a handkerchief. "You taste like saltwater and ash."

She rubs her neck as the pain subsides rapidly. "We should bathe when we get back. What was that for anyway?"

"Revenge, mostly. Feeling petty."

"On me?"

"Your mom."

"Heh, yeah, she's gonna ask questions or implode trying not to. Actually, since we're getting shiners, we should get ones to match."

He doesn't protest but he's not happy about it. With a sigh he leans down but she's already jumped up to latch onto him.

She bites down so hard that he swears that she was actually trying to eat him. He'd be more okay with it if she didn't keep trying to one-up herself.

-0-

Dinner, somehow, is always pleasant. True to Qrow's word, Tai comes in completely sober. Jaune chalks it up to having a very useful semblance.

Tai is a chill dad. He nudges Yang when he sees the hickey, even when Qrow refuses to make eye contact with Jaune and Raven squints while warring with herself to say something but won't. Tai reintroduces himself and sits next to Jaune to strike up a conversation with him.

It takes minutes for Tai to fish out that Jaune has seven sisters, that he met Yang by throwing up on her boots, and that he used to have a crush on Ruby. The last bit comes as a surprise to everyone but Tai who pats himself on the back for having incredible girls in the family.

Jaune finds out that Tai is very much like Yang. Despite closing himself off for a good chunk of her childhood, he's clearly had a great influence on her disposition. Father and daughter joke and jab at each other, laugh just as loudly, crack the same kind of jokes (he tries not to think of them as mom jokes when he looks at his girilfriend).

Jaune eventually gets to tell the story of how his dad blew up a dust shop during his third year in Beacon. Just a mishap with a loose dust feeder, a weapon he didn't know how to use, and a particularly handsy bully. By the end, Raven cheers when she wins the bet. Apolian Arc punched a cop. Qrow bet that he punched a civilian.

They're unwinding in the living room when Jaune's eying the wall of photos. Summer's only in a handful of the group shots. Qrow explains that she insisted on being the photographer and didn't like being in photos herself. It's why she has the hood. It's comforting when she can pretend to be hiding.

She sounds like Ruby.

"I just noticed," Jaune says to Yang, "your mom's smiling in every photo. Qrow's the only one who occasionally doesn't."

"It was a different time," she says. "Qrow told me that she was cheery and crass. Would even crack a joke or two whenever she found the time to stop training and be a teenager."

"I'll be honest, it's still weird seeing her smile so much. I came in here expecting a variation of Glynda Goodwitch, not Qrow Branwen. Speaking of which," he glances back at the adults huddled laughing by the sofa, "we should probably break out the gift."

"Speaking of speaking of things," she rubs the hickey on her neck, "it still stings."

"Oh, sorry. Let me heal it."

She pushes his hands away. "No, I –" Her eyes widen. Pressing two digits into the bruised flesh, she feels the ache but doesn't hate it. "Okay, heal me quick before this turns into a fetish!"

Warmth pools out of his palms.

"Could you not make out in full view of her family?" Qrow calls from across the room, and they realize they're leaned a little too close.

"We weren't gonna!" Jaune calls out.

Yang rolls her eyes cause she's comfortable with them coming to their own conclusions about her relationship but Jaune's stint with Tai made him want to make a good impression. It was already easy enough what with Tai admitting that as long as Yang chose and continues to choose him, then he'll rest easy knowing she's in good hands, but Jaune wants to pile on the goodwill.

Those thoughts take a backseat when Yang reaches for the duffel bag by the coffee table. Goodwill be damned.

It's time.

Yang parts a few clothes and a hollowed-out cushion for their scrolls to fish out a crystalline bottle. "We wanted to hand this off in the box but we figured we might as well crack it open tonight."

With the way they're all staring at the bottle, it's clear they recognize it.

Qrow roars with laughter. "Ha! Diadem, the dirtiest fucking drink on the planet!" He comes up to it and holds the bottle aloft, fingers running over the bumpy, crystalline surface. "Ah, look at it. All prettied up for the upper class. Diadem used to be homemade and brewed in a shack. Used to be so strong that you could feel nothing for hours."

"'Course, the stuff's a little better refined nowadays. You used to taste fire dust in it too cause their shoddy furnaces were held together by spit and prayers. But look at it! Pricks like Jacques fucking Schnee or that Lucius ass-end-of-an-ass Merrigold would down this like it's water, having no idea that they're chugging the equivalent of desert moonshine."

Tai licks his lips and it almost feels like a bad idea before he shoots up from his seat. "I'll get the shot glasses!" he announces.

Raven is the only one not smiling. She's suspicious, but the minute the drink touches her lips and she's made wide awake, she melts into the same stupor as everyone else.

-0-

Yang barely registers what their plan was supposed to be. Loosening Raven's lips with the stiffest drink since frozen stalactites seemed a half-baked plan at best, but they didn't plan passed that. They might have been able to salvage it if they didn't take many drinks themselves.

Jaune took exactly one and he's already left her alone to start an intimate relationship with the toilet.

He did, however, get the ball rolling about last names for some reason. He might have explained why to her but she can't remember.

"They'll lose sleep over a friend who's had a bad day," Raven says with a snarl that isn't sincere so much as it appears to be her permanent tipsy-face. "Worrying up and down but will leave you alone after a smile cause that's all they need to calm their nerves. Their hearts are too kind…"

"Who…?" Yang slurs, struggles to think of the rest of the sentence, then starts over. "Who… who are you talking about?"

Raven scrunches her nose. "The Roses," she answers.

Yang buries her head in her hands and curls into her seat. "No… I don't wanna hear about Uncle Qrow's god-damn garden again…"

Qrow, sporting alcohol like one does water, kicks back beside her. There's something in his eye though. The alcohol is getting to him. "We're talking about the Rose half of the family. Y'know, Summer and Ruby?"

"Hm?" She squints. "Oh yeah… Ruby's a worrywart."

"Qrow!" Tai calls from beside Raven, looping an arm around her. "What's a Xiao Long like then?"

"They're all fucking crazy," he jabs. Yang and Tai simultaneously pretend to be hurt. "But! I've found that the more obnoxious they seem on the outside, the more worth you'll find underneath."

Raven leans into Tai and stares at Yang's feet curled up on the cushion. It's the closest she'll get to meeting her eyes. "They can be in your face," Raven says, "deftly abrasive, louder than foghorns, and wilder than ursa! But they're steadfast partners…" She looks up at Tai who has a half-lidded gawk to him that's like he's falling in love with her again. "Painfully loyal… and… dangerously persistent."

Yang feels a heat roll over her side. She leans into it until she realizes that Jaune's slid beside her and pulling her in by the waist. "She's right, y'know?" Jaune tells her quietly. "You never did listen when I asked you not to pursue me and, yet, here we are. You never did know when to quit but I'm glad you never quit on me."

She wants to return the sentiment somehow but words don't form and she's making faces that she worries he'll misunderstand. She's just mad at herself for not finding words. "F-fuck… That was a human sentence you just made. Why aren't you drinking?" she says instead, pushing an empty shot glass to his lips.

"No thanks. Diadem will literally kill me. I felt like I was throwing up my own organs. I swear I felt my lungs pull up into my throat. I am not touching that decanter ever again." He turns to Qrow who is squinting at them as if they're all out of focus. "Oh, shit, sorry, Qrow," Jaune says. Cause the man is sat alone in front of two couples.

Jaune tries not to wince when Qrow downs a shot and his eyes go glassy.

He is sat slumped at the last corner of the large U-shaped sofa. His scroll, set neatly below him on the coffee table, flashes over his gawk face as he leans into it. His hands are beside him, palms pointing upwards while his fingers twitch like roots animating in intervals. His slack jaw regards them with his deep gaunt, eyes meeting every face before he points his head to the ceiling as he falls back into the seat. Seems he's not quite as adept with so many drinks in him. Or maybe Diadem is a weakness.

He lets each eye blink individually before he announces, "I'm dating again!"

Everyone sits up. Okay, only kind of. They lean out but can't peel off the sofa. Except for Jaune who is sober. "Since when do you have time to date?" he asks.

"I don't," he chuckles, shaking his head as he comes back to his senses. "I flirt while on the job. Closest thing either of us will get to a date at this point."

Yang mumbles something.

Jaune strains his ears to hear her. Maybe the ringing from earlier hasn't stopped. "What was that? I'm sitting right next to you and even I couldn't hear you."

She pulls up before falling sideways onto Jaune's shoulder. "Who!?" she calls out to the room cause she doesn't know where Qrow is. Her eyes are still closed.

Qrow grins. "Winter… Schnee."

At first, when he starts talking about a mission they had together in Mistral, they think he's going to segway into a conquest. But he doesn't. He starts talking about how he and Winter shared in the fact that they both had a responsibility they shirked for duty. To protect the world their loved ones live in, they've chosen to abandon having lives of their own.

No one calls him out for clearly being drunk out of his mind nor for opening up.

He's got an anthology of moments with Winter. And each time he finishes a story, they're surprised whenever it doesn't end in heat. One time they do end it in a kiss, but it was on the cheek. She'd done it comfort him but they both knew it was hollow. It was an appreciated gesture, but it wasn't something that could help. They aren't wired to let something like that heal any kind of wound.

Winter doesn't know what it's like to have a delicate heart anymore and the idea of quiet comforts like a hug or a kiss feels so… unsubstantial to them both. They either needed more or that wasn't the kind of comfort they needed. Realizing this is why they started dating.

The stories are nicer then. They leave a movie theater ten minutes in when they realize that sitting around to watch actors pretend to be heroes isn't for them. They instead find a quiet corner in a bar but they don't drink. They talk and he jokes and she's smiling and they kiss and…

Raven is curled up into Tai now, staring at her brother with a look that can only be pride.

Jaune is smiling sleepily at him. Yang nestles into his chest as they scoop together on the sofa's corner.

Qrow gets up, scroll in hand, and leaves the room to call Winter.

Tai and Jaune fall asleep.

Yang catches Raven staring but is so out of it that she isn't sure if Raven caught her staring instead. The quiet makes the crickets fill the spaces beside something crackling outside.

"What are Branwens like?" Yang asks.

Raven squints, pulling herself out of her dreariness. "…What?"

"If a Rose cares too much but loves unconditionally, and a Xiao Long is a dependable but gets in your face, then what is a Branwen?"

She huddles into Tai, looking vulnerable. "We…" Her eyes narrow at the floor and she hisses quietly to herself. "I…"

A pang of empathy makes her sit up. "Mom…" she says consciously.

Raven stares at her. Yang can't tell if she's touched or just shocked, but when her eyes draw away and she clutches at Tai's shirt, words pour shaking out of her lips. "Branwens… are a curse." Something awful crawls into her cheeks, her features squeezing together so her few wrinkles cast shadows. There's a pain there that almost looks familiar, as if she'd had this look about her forever but only now is Yang seeing it for what it is. And whatever that pain is, it's old. Maybe even older than she is.

Raven whispers something to Tai before getting up. Halfway up the steps, she looks at Yang and Jaune before saying, "You should take him to bed. I don't care what you do with him but I'm sure he'll appreciate a warm mattress over a sofa."

"That's very considerate of you," Yang says as she eases Jaune's arm over her shoulder. "Thanks."

Raven blushes, deeper than the alcohol might, as she marches back up the steps. "Don't get used to it," she says, not meaning it.

Jaune sleepily wakes up with a good shake. "Ugh, babe, could ya' not?"

"Pfft! Since when do you call me babe?"

"In my head, mostly. Giving you a pet name will actively worsen my experience. You've got enough ammunition to tease me with."

"I'll fish them out of you yet. Pick up your feet a little. I'm taking you to bed."

"Please, no," he says, pretending to resist. "I'm still tender…"

She rolls her eyes. Even in a drowsy state, he still finds time mess around. "Don't cooperate and I'll sling you over my shoulder."

He scoffs playfully. "As if a free ride is gonna stop me."

Her eyes narrow. "I'm really going to do it."

"Whoa, whoa! Hey, I'll do it…" He yawns. "See?" His shin hits the coffee table and he stumbles.

Yang grabs him and leads him by the arm.

Tai stirs when they pass him by. "Honey?"

"Go to bed, Dad."

"Good night, Mr. Xiao Long."

"Please," Tai grins, "call me Tai."

Jaune squints. "Yeah, I'm not doing that."

"You're not –" Yang starts. "Oh, hey, look at us. Still in sync!"

"I think there just isn't a universe where I call your dad Tai." His nose scrunches up. "Yup, even sounds weird saying it out loud."

-0-

Yang's room is as she remembers it. Only, for once, it's completely tidy. She always had a habit of leaving a little mess somewhere. Sometimes it was hidden, like in a drawer or a corner under her desk, but not this time. Her dad (or maybe Qrow) keeps it cleaner than she ever would have.

Even her strung-up photos along the ceiling are still there. Dates and names and faces she thought would be her whole world. Only now she has a new circle of friends.

"This feels like a room for a different person," she says to Jaune after she's laid him in her bed. Her comforter is freshly pressed and still warm. "Like I'm looking at old me through a lens."

Jaune's eyes are still closed but he reaches for her hand over the sheets and says, "Or maybe this is the version of you your dad remembers. How different are you now from back then?"

"Not a lot, I think. I mean, we're only over a year apart," she spies a photo of her and Ruby glistening in the moonlight. It's of her last day in Signal. It was Ruby's last day too, apparently. "Or maybe I just haven't noticed." She shoots him a look and he can feel her stare enough to crack an eye open. "Comparing me now to when we met. Was I different?"

He shuts his eyes again, but he finds her hand and tugs once. Yang willfully falls onto the mattress next to him. "Hm… well you used to have anger issues in the ring. Even Ms. Goodwitch is starting to notice how you've mellowed out."

"Heh, I guess I have you to thank for that."

He places a hand over her face. He's still not opening his eyes but his nose scrunches up again. "No you don't."

She moves his hand off her face. "Eh?"

"That's all you, Yang. You made that change. If I helped at all, our friends did just as much."

Her lip tilts. "I was trying to flirt."

"I know but… we can't about this. Part of me still worries we'll do that stupid couple thing and forget we have friends."

"Hey, we've been good so far, I think… Look, we can talk to them and figure things out."

"Yeah, compromises."

"Yeah!" She curls into his arm. "But not tonight, please… I've enough things to worry about right here."

"Right… Okay, big picture later." He kisses her forehead. "Now sleep. We've had a day…"

"Yeah, a day…"

She gets comfortable under the sheets and on his shoulder for exactly a minute before she remembers something. "Fuck…" she whispers as she pulls out.

"What is it?"

"Forgot the duffel. I'll go get it and be back in a minute."

"Leave it, Yang. Come back to bed."

"Not taking any chances without our scrolls. Ruby might call us." She's already at the door. "Just a minute, I swear."

She finds her dad slumped against the railing that overlooks the living room. Steam billows hazily off his skin and through his jacket, his semblance burning away the alcohol. The area smells thinly like Diadem but mostly of water vapor. Yang's nose twitches at the familiar scent.

He's blinking a lot, head shaking.

"Dad?"

He turns in a start. Breaths pass through him in labored chunks, chest heaving. His eyes are puffy. Fingers twitch and his eyes steal glances at her as he turns away. There's a want – need – to reach out but she can tell that he doesn't think he's worthy of it.

So, she crashes into his back and hugs him.

A palm runs down his face. "I'm so… so sorry, honey," he says.

He tucks his arms into his chest so she can hold all of him. His hands clutch over her encircled wrists. "Dad… Dad it's okay. You were in a rough spot…"

"That doesn't matter… I'm still your father. You needed a parent and you ended up having to be one for Ruby. I… I hate myself everyday thinking about how you didn't have anyone… I… I should have… I'm so sorry…"

She knows telling him that he didn't do anything wrong or that he didn't have any control over himself would only be excuses upon excuses, perhaps only a handful compared to the thousands he'd piled for himself over the years. He knew he did wrong, and none of her strength coming out the other end of it is going to change that.

So, instead, she shifts to his front and pulls up his head. She wraps her arms around his neck. "I don't care about any of that anymore… I already forgive you. I did a long, long time ago."

She feels his tears running down her neck. Then she realizes that some of them are hers.

-0-

Jaune winces. He's been up for over an hour now. Yang slipped into bed with him but she'd been shaking and sniffling. He could tell that she'd been crying but the tears had dried and she'd been fighting off all that was left of whatever it was in his arms. Now she's sleeping soundly while he's been trying to piece together what happened on his own whilst constructing a speech in case it's Raven's fault.

Finally, he settles with getting up and loosening his nerves before really doing anything. Yang groans from the missing warmth as he stumbles out, scroll in hand.

"No new messages…" he mutters. "I hope you're alright, Rubes."

Pushing the door open, he notices an orange glow coming from downstairs. Over the railing, there's nothing below but darkness and moonlight through the windows. Even then, dark shadows waft passed the moon, clawing darkness across the floor.

"Strong, windy clouds tonight… It didn't look like it was gonna rain earlier."

The smell of ash filters into the air. "Ick… Wait."

He's awake now as he stumbles down the steps. The shadows in the window are moving too rapidly for any passing cloud. That's smog, and it clears passed the window for a moment long enough to show the orange glow outside.

The forest is on fire.

"Shit!" he howls as he runs back up the steps. Thinking quickly, he sets his scroll to Seven Rapids and blasts the heavy chorus riff at max. Leaving it in the hall, he can already hear everyone else waking up, groans and thuds all.

He busts through Yang's door. She's rubbing her eyes awake. "Jaune, what –"

"Forest fire," he says quickly, pulling out their weapons from the duffel bag.

She shakes awake. "What?"

Ember Celica crashes into her hands when he tosses them at her.

"The forest is on fire!" he says, not even waiting for her as he busts through the door again and leaps over the railing.

He tucks and rolls along the carpet, nearly colliding with a lamp as he slams through the front door into the suffocating smoke.

Heat rolls through the air like he's sitting in a boiling pot. Even his aura flares at the licking flames that whip in the wind, coiling off the trees like infernal tendrils.

Jaune thinks back to the embers they tried to douse. "Did we do this?" He shakes his head. The thought is useless right now.

The fire burns over a host of trees like charred pillars to the darkened sky, but they're all centered ahead. Most the forest is untouched still. They can contain it if they hurry. They can't stop the fire, but they can stop it from growing.

So he speeds towards the outer rim of the roaring flame where the trees are unburnt and pours his semblance into his arms. One enhanced swing fells a tree, then another, and another, but he knows he can't keep it up. He can't cut these down so easily once he's out of juice.

Qrow blows passed him, slicing a tree himself, clad in only his pants and the greatsword in his hands. "I'm guessing you and Yang have the same plan?"

"Cut off its fuel?"

Tai runs by them as sand pours out of his skin in layers. He's using his semblance and earth dust in his palms to cover the dried leaves on the ground. "Fell those quick!" he shouts. "We don't have much time!"

On the other end of the fire, Yang and Raven are busting a row of trees. Yang's fists tighten with every strike, but even if she can split a tree in a single blow, her aura suffers from the blowback. It isn't any better with Raven whose forearms flare with every swing against the sturdy oaks.

"This isn't working!" Raven shouts.

Tai sprints passed them with the familiar glow of Jaune's semblance running over him like a white shell. A layer of sand up to their ankles forms underneath them, burying dry leaves and loose branches. They could really use Jaune's semblance too. Their arms are aching.

"There are people in these woods," Yang says. "We can't let this get any bigger. Vale's never gonna send any help here fast enough without someone getting hurt."

The fire spits pillars of ash and smoke their way by a rogue wind. They turn to shield their eyes. Yang blinks through the haze and sees something in the distant dark of the woods behind them. Glowing red eyes bob rapidly between the trees, charging towards them.

Yang growls. "Ugh, we do not have time for this!" The cylinders in her gauntlets click together as she loads in fresh shells. "Raven, you're clearing the wood better than I can. Keep at it while I cover you."

Raven's hand fall quickly on her shoulder. "No," she says sternly, "this is all pointless. We're destroying our bodies for a cause we've not the strength for."

"I don't care!" Yang hisses. "I'm still doing this. Whether or not you're behind me helping at all won't change that." And with that, she bolts into the dark and the twisting red eyes in the woods collide with her.

Flashes of her gauntlet colliding with grimm flesh light up the yawning dark. Blackened fur rimmed with pale external bone all scorch and smolder with her every blow, a comet to meet the streaks of vicious red eyes.

Raven backs away from the sight, seeing Summer Rose instead.

Jaune comes up behind her and Raven feels a rush of power coursing through her veins. Her pain vanishes. Her strength feels like it's multiplying. Trees fall with ease then, matching rhythm with her daughter as Jaune runs to her side to fell grimm together.

Raven sees Tai in Jaune's place too.

Minutes pass as the fire is choked on all sides but one. Raven sees Qrow and Tai on the other end, making progress. They're exhausted, heaving through labored lungs, and she can feel her own trying to crawl out of her throat.

She dares to glance back at Jaune and Yang. Something looms overhead of them: a single red eye in the canopy. There's no time to parse what it is. Raven's already sprinting over to them.

She cuts a portal mid-sprint and she leaps into it. Her momentum carries through and into the air as she rockets up from the other end of the portal that manifests at Yang's side. Omen surges with dust as she empties the canister in her sheath and swings into the red eye above.

Fire dust surges in a swath against a mass of stone and charred bark. It's a geist amalgamated into solid wall of wood and stone.

Raven swings again, ice dust crashing into it and pushing it up. Again and again and again. Wind, earth, lightning, gravity. The last one splashes a purple glow over the grimm as it slowly floats, all of its form ensconced in a gravity well that tugs it into the sky.

She swings but she's out of dust… And she's falling. Her skin rustles like pinpricks as she starts to shapeshift into a bird, but she stops when Yang zooms passed her. Jaune's semblance is folded over her, making her glow like an ascending meteor as she crashes dead center into the red eye.

With a thunderous crackle, she breaks through and the night sky gleams passed her. She whoops while she's up there against the moon.

Raven falls into Jaune's arms below. His semblance is already working its way to ease the ache but she pushes off of him. "Thank you," she manages behind a heave of her chest, "ha… but the boys aren't done yet. Help them with the fire. They'll need it more."

Jaune nods without hesitating and sprints off towards the remains of the flame.

Yang falls into a controlled descent as Ember Celica slows her momentum with a few blasts. Her arms aren't blasting evenly. They probably still hurt. She lands into a stumble and lets herself fall into a sitting up position. She's breathing a lot.

Raven sits beside her. Somewhere in the distance, the boys are cheering.

"We did it," Yang says.

"You sound surprised," Raven says.

"Cause just like you, I didn't think we could do it either."

Raven lifts a brow. "So why did you keep pushing?"

"To prove to us both that we were wrong."

And Raven laughs, hardy and true till she's tearing up in one eye for a moment. "You really are Summer's daughter," she says. Her smile is infectious.

Yang hides her smile in her knees, huddling them close to her chest. "I'm yours, too."

Raven's mouth thins sadly. "But you shouldn't be."

"I don't think you have a choice."

There's a blue shimmer through the treeline now. The boys are trying to finish this quicker by using ice dust to enclose the largest parts of the fire in pillars of ice. The pale light resembles frosted glass.

"We're pragmatists," Raven says.

"What?"

Raven tilts her head at her. "You asked what the Branwens are. That's it. Pragmatists." Not a curse this time. This is her honest answer.

Yang huddles closer as Raven's gaze turns faraway. She knows what's coming because Raven, in her disheveled shorts and worn shirt, her ragged hair and muddied skin, is vulnerable. Her artifice, the one of strength that championed her tribe, is gone.

"We like to pretend we have room for love," Raven continues. "That's never the case. Never true. My mother and father died at a burning beach while Qrow and I fled with the tribe. Nevermind that our eldest sister died with them, more brilliant than either of us will ever be. It didn't matter that she deserved a life brighter than either us could ever make it. A Branwen is hardwired to protect something bigger than they are. To us, that was always the tribe. The whole of it. Not its members, not its kin, nor the ones we dared to love. Just the tribe. The larger whole."

She sighs slowly, letting her breath catch in the now cold air. "Then Beacon came and Ozpin changed all that. Suddenly the tribe wasn't our greatest responsibility. Ozpin had drilled in us the want to protect the world of all things, and he gave us the means to do just that… I remember being excited to save lives. Plucking civilians from impossible odds and reveling in the praise. Summer and I even seemed like sisters for a while – we were so giddy. Like sisters…"

Yang unfurls when Raven tucks into herself. Yang's hand is warm on her shoulder. "The day Summer died was the day we realized we'd made her a Branwen. That she chose the world over us. Over her daughter." She glances at Qrow slumped against the ice wall. "Over her fiancé."

"It wasn't why I left, mind you. That was different. That was futility on my part. I couldn't save the world from something impossible, not with what Ozpin had us face. The tribe had to be my answer after that. Something I could save. Thought I'd find a little peace in scaling back. Scaling down. It felt like I was regressing but I wasn't like Summer. Didn't have the courage to face insurmountable odds like the compassionate fool she was…"

"Mom…"

"You… don't have to do that. You don't have to call me that. I know it doesn't mean anything."

Yang chuckles. "It means whatever I want it to. And right now, it means this." She squeezes her arm again. She knows it isn't forgiveness – not quite yet – but it's a step in that direction. More than she expects. More than she deserves.

"No room for doubt," Raven says. "You're Tai's alright."

"So, I've got some Rose and Xiao Long in me," Yang says proudly. "Doesn't mean there's any shame in having a part of me still be a Branwen."

Raven's lips thin. "Yang…"

"Hush," she says quickly. "Part of me still wants to save the world but I'm also in it for the thrills. I might not end up like Summer. I might not choose to martyr myself if I know I have people waiting for me. I can be selfish too. We all are. I think… I think there's value in being a part of all three."

"Four," Raven says. "That boy you've tied yourself to. You seem content when you're with him. Comfortable even. If he's involved, you're as much an Arc as you are a Branwen…"

"God…" Yang blushes. "You make sound like I'm married to him already."

"If it comes to that, you have our blessing."

"W-what!? Mom, isn't it a little soon for that?" Yang's shock fizzles at her mother's sad smile. "…Mom?"

Raven's gaze is on the house now. She's tearing up. "It's… it's funny," she says with some difficulty. Not through sobs but grit, almost anger. "I feel like I have everything I dreamed about having. I've got family again, a daughter that might love me, a loyal husband, an honest brother. I've even got a quiet home in the middle of the woods. It already has a rose garden and a dog. All its missing is the white picket fence." Her teeth grinds. Her head shakes in disbelief. "But I have to throw it all away…"

Yang's chest squeezes. "What… what do you mean?"

Raven won't look at her. "By Summer's end, that house will be empty. And it will stay that way until you decide to enter. To come back here." Raven's hand finds Yang's. "Because we – your father, uncle, and I – will be going back to Ozpin. We'll be gone for months doing work for him. And maybe we'll see each other again, but it won't be much and never for long enough."

Yang's skin grows cold and clammy. She doesn't like what she's seeing, the sheer finality in her mother's eyes. Resigned to some inevitability. So this is what it means to be a Branwen. Somehow, she understands but she has coasted along the unknown for long enough.

"What is Ozpin doing, Mom?" She asks. "He sent out Ruby earlier this week and –"

Raven jolts into standing. "What!? He has Ruby!?" Her eyes are white with fear. She doesn't wait for Yang to answer, sprinting back in the direction of the boys. "Qrow! Ozpin has Ruby!"

Yang follows, jogging behind her.

Qrow curses. "No, no, no!" Frantically, he fumbles for his scroll. "This can't be real…" His face is going red with panic.

Tai snatches his scroll from him. "Enough! The both of you!" He breathes. "Enough… If Ruby is with him, then she did so willingly."

"But she… she…!" Qrow stammers.

His hand goes to squeeze his shoulder. "I know…"

"I can't lose another Rose to him," Raven gasps. Her sword is already out, prepared to open another portal. Tai's hand takes her by the wrist.

"And we won't," he assures. "We'll cover every gap and protect her ourselves. Maybe even see her on the field."

Jaune joins Yang's side as the other three huddle together. "What's happening?" he asks her, squeezing her hand. "They mentioned Ruby and I'm more than a little worried right now, I'll be honest."

"I don't completely know either," she says. "But it's larger than we are… Than all of us."

Raven rips open a portal before hugging Tai. She nods to Qrow, and they step into it, leaving Tai behind. With a sigh, he ambles over to Jaune and Yang.

"We should talk."

-0-

Tai explains that they all had a job from Ozpin a long time ago. That there was a serial killer and a disgraced Atlesian scientist, and that those two unsavory sorts were only scratching the surface. It was saving-the-world type stuff, and along the way they lost Summer because of it.

It still isn't done. Those two are still at large and there's word of there being more in league with them. That's all he's allowed to say but Tai has – for the past few years – allowed himself to grow complacent since they went underground.

Not anymore. He, Raven, Qrow, and Weiss's sister, Winter, will spend everyday onward tracking them down.

He lets slip that there's whispers of missing huntsmen in Mistral. Yang mentions that Ozpin had Ruby go out to that kingdom to meet someone. Tai tries not to show how much that bothers him.

They won't be seeing each other much from then on, he says. They'll try to keep in touch but they'll be knee deep in places the CCT has no signal in. He doesn't look forward to it but it'd make Summer proud that they're out there doing what needs be done.

The next morning, Yang wakes up alone in bed.

She stumbles down the steps into an empty living room, but then she hears the clamber of porcelain plates in the kitchen. She runs in only to find Jaune at the sink.

Behind him, the dining table has five plates of a warm breakfast. Omelets, tiny sausages, and a minced venison smothered in soy sauce till it's a blackish brown. Three of the plates are half eaten. They were here but left in a rush.

She slides into her seat. The noise of the chair catches Jaune's attention. He drops a letter beside her. Both their names are scrawled onto the poorly folded note.

He sits beside her. "I didn't get to see them myself but I found this and a set of keys." She shows her the worn keys and drops them neatly by her plate. She recognizes them. They're for the house and they aren't spares. One of them even has the word "FRONT" roughly carved into it. It's filled in with golden stencil. She and Ruby did that, back when they were kids.

She opens the letter and reads it aloud. "Sorry. We'll try to be home by tonight. Don't wait. House is yours."

"Not very eloquent," Jaune says after swallowing, "but they were probably in a hurry."

"Eloquent?" Yang laughs. "Where'd you pick that up?"

"Weiss had a few choice words for my poor poetry back in first year. I told you I picked up a few things from her."

He's already finished the sausages on his plate. Yang remembers to eat.

"So, what now?" he asks her. "We house sit for a few days until Ruby shows up?"

Yang shakes her head. "No… that isn't what they mean by the house being ours. They don't actually know when they'll be back. School year might even end before they do."

"That's… a long time."

"It is, but in the meantime," – she wiggles the keys – "we actually own the house."

Jaune frowns. It's deep and it cuts just as well. "That sounds like a parting gift."

Swallowing an omelet, her head falls onto his shoulder. "It is."

Then the door busts open and they hear Qrow slurring in the next room. He's accompanied with another voice, Winter's, as she shoulders him into the kitchen. She's stringing together insults whilst blushing up a storm. They're quiet them when they find Jaune and Yang.

Qrow squints as if unsure of what he's seeing. "Ohhhh," he bellows before whipping his head back. "They're still here!"

"Ahem," Winter says. "Forgive my intrusion. Present company often ends our meetings this way."

"Which is weird," Jaune says, "cause Qrow can walk just fine when he's drunk."

"He can… what?" She shoots Qrow a glare and he gives her that stupid grin of his. He's not even close to sorry. She shoves him off her and blushes against her pale skin. "You're insufferable. Trying to get a rise out of me.."

He hobbles back a step but his grin seems carved into his cheeks. "Heh, nah. I just like being close to you."

Raven peeks into the room then with Tai close behind. Her hesitation lasts only a moment before she hurries in and Yang's already bolted out of her seat to hug her.

"You came back…" Yang says. Her hands reach out grab her dad so they can sandwich her mother between them.

Raven squeezes. "I'm as much a Rose and Xiao Long as you are. I figured the world could wait till we could all say goodbye. At least."

They pull away. Raven's age shows along the harsh circles around her eyes.

"So, this really is goodbye," Yang fathoms, weaving her digits into that of her parents'. "This… doesn't feel real. Everything's happening so quickly and I just got you back and… and…"

Tai pushes strands of her hair behind her ear. "Life's abrupt," he says. "Especially when you become a huntress. You'll often find that your whole world can change in a day. Adapting to that is a skill you have to learn."

Raven's eyes narrow. "But we're not worried. I was scared for you all my life but every time I looked back, you were already over another hurdle." She holds her daughter again. "And just like then, I'll miss you every day."

Yang's grip tightens around her. Like she's hanging off the edge, held on by a thread. She can feel it slipping, digging into her palm. She knows she has to let go but there's a part of her now that's made her an Arc. She's defiant. Foolishly, optimistically, defiant. And it's with that nonchalance that she peels away and suggests, "We're all home. We should have breakfast. Like a family."

Qrow's already sat down and Winter has already eaten most of his venison. Tai insists on sitting next to Jaune again, and Yang huddles the closest she's had in years next to her mother.

Ruby never makes it to Patch. All they get is a nerve-wracking call from her that's more apology than explanation. Qrow tells them she's in a good hands.

They don't tell him that that isn't the point.

-0-

It's halfway through their second year that Jaune and Yang step back into their dorm rooms. They'd come two days early since they didn't want to stay in an empty house and an empty apartment didn't feel much better.

Jaune finds Ren and Nora snuggling by a bean bag. (Nora's messing with his hair while he goes through a book on Vacuan flora). Pyrrha isn't home since she's with her family, but Sun is lying on her bed and he greets Jaune with the kind of enthusiasm he needed.

It takes him a while to realize that his smile is forced. "Sun, please tell me there's nothing wrong with you and Pyr."

"What? Oh, no! Everything's fine with us!"

"He's been fussing about something else," Nora chimes in as she twists knots in Ren's hair. "And he won't tell his big sister, Nora, so you know it's gotta be big."

"Uh, I'm a year older than you."

She squints. "Why is everyone older than me!? I know Ruby's sixteen but I'm starting to feel like a toddler here."

"Nora," Ren says, "I'm younger than you."

Nora wraps her arms around his head to squeeze him against her chest whilst clasping tightly over his mouth. "Shh, same age, honey."

Sun turns to Jaune. "What…?"

"Nora made them have the same birthday when they were kids. Flipped a coin on who got to keep theirs. Ren lost." Jaune decides not to mention that it was to simplify a holiday for two survivors in the woods. Less stress on their resources when they buy only one cake a year and have to share it. "But enough about them. What's got you all knackered?"

"Knackered? Who even says that anymore?"

"Ylda Braveheart. Now quit stalling! What's going on, man?"

There's a knock on the door. "Come in!" Ren says. He's already put his book down and is snuggling back into Nora. She and Jaune exchange a look. Something's up.

Yang and Blake walk in. Yang joins Jaune on the bed while Blake crouches by Ren and Nora who both drag her into the bean bag with a yelp. They laugh at her expense, and for a moment it seems like it's just a visit.

Then Weiss and Neptune walk in and stand there in front of them all, locking the door behind them.

There's a thickness in the air. Jaune and Yang are already holding each other for strength. Sun curls into his knees beside them but Jaune won't have that. He reaches over and grabs his shoulder. He shuffles a tiny bit closer in response.

Weiss shuts her eyes, squeezes Neptune's hand, and stands tall. Like a performance demands, she is rigid and neutral, but it's too much and her knees wobble. Neptune catches her and reaches for a nearby chair. He rubs her shoulders after he sits her down and she's starting to breathe evenly.

"Nice and quick," Neptune whispers to her, and it's audible in the relative silence.

Yang and Blake have been standing since she buckled, unsure if they should run over and hug her. She spots them and raises a hand. "Sit, please. This will be easier if I do this without having to cry on something…"

Neptune kisses her head. Her hand finds his massaging her shoulder, and her other balls into a fist. "I'm… leaving team RWBY."

PART 9 – Adaptation

Yang is afraid she's hurting Jaune when she hears the news and tenses up, her fingers closing tightly over his. Little parts of her feel pain, like her pulse is bulging in her veins and stretching out of her skin. Then she realizes that it's her body telling her to go and hold Weiss close. Stop her talking cause it's easy to see how much all of this is hurting her and she's still so painfully afraid that her friends are going to hate her.

Yang bites her lip and leans out. Her hand is suddenly cold. Jaune had let go of it. "Go," he whispers.

She's off the bed and crashes into Weiss just as she's inhaling. Neptune backs away just as Blake runs over to join them.

Weiss stops talking cause she can't at this point. Her arms reach around them both but her nails curl into their backs as her fingers twitch and anything she wants to say is lost in her sobs.

"It's okay," Yang says. "We know you have a good reason."

"We'll still love you," Blake adds. "Doesn't matter if you're here or not. We're still a team."

To Weiss, that all seemed enough to uncoil her fears and breathe relief.

-0-

"I have to be his daughter. His heir," Weiss explains when they're all gathered at the empty cafeteria. "I'll have to play his games and do everything I can to keep my integrity and still be me."

Her sister informed her around the time of the boat trip that her father was planning to discredit her and seat her brother as next-in-line. "I know it sounds almost foolish but my plan was always to juggle life as a huntress and as an heiress. To prove that I could follow in my sister's footsteps without needing to make any of her sacrifices." Her hand, the one not holding Neptune's, falls to Myrtenaster resting magnetically at her hip. "Winter gave me so much when she trained me. I wanted to prove to father that none of that was a waste of time. It worked for a while, too. Atlas was abuzz with news on my departure. That I'd taken the strength of the old Schnee vanguard and vowed to marry it with the capitalist empire. That we were still the staunch knights we always were and that our nobility hadn't tarnished that."

"Why can't you just stay?" Nora asks, eyes gleaming like the absent Ruby. "Why does your dad get to take even more from you?"

Weiss smiles placatively at her and wishes Ruby was here too. "Because I've learned a lot in my time here with all of you. I've learned that Remnant will always have enough amazing huntsmen – there's already so many at this table." She eyes them all but stops at Blake. "But I've also learned that there's a lot of good I could be doing. A different kind of good for my people in Atlas. Human and faunus."

Blake gasps. There's a sting in her chest. "I'm… so sorry."

"Don't be. All that time staying up together has given me perspective. The kind I feel is uniquely distinct to a Schnee. I need to use that. Maybe get my brother to see it the same way."

"Will you have help?" Yang asks, locking eyes. "I'm not willing to let you go alone."

Weiss leans into Neptune. "I won't be alone."

"We'll have to keep our relationship secret," Neptune explains, "but I'll be at every function, every gala, every fancy dinner. Dad's a shipping baron so we've already let rumor spread that I'm looking into partnering with the Schnees to get trade into Vacuo."

"In a few months' time we'll be married, too," Weiss adds, giggling in way that's resigned and heartbreaking. "It's hardly the way we wanted it to go but it's how it has to happen so father doesn't marry me off for a business venture. We'd do it today if I was already eighteen."

"Are you sure he won't reject you at the door?" Jaune asks.

"Not when I come in as bargaining chip. I'll flirt my way through a few prospective suitors and he'll see I'm still too useful to throw out." She snuggles into Neptune's side and he wraps an arm around her. "We've spent weeks planning. And though I'm sure things are going to go terribly wrong at some point…"

"…We'll adapt," Neptune finishes.

Even though there's hope here, the moment feels strained. A tension in the air is either like knots in the heart or the tightening of a noose. So Jaune and Yang put on brave faces and stand up.

"This isn't how we should be spending this day together, isn't it?" she asks with a grin.

"It's a going-away party," he says, "so we should have a party. Ren? Join us in the kitchen. Let's bake a cake."

Nora's already on Weiss and Blake. "C'mon! I know a buffet outside of town that sells their raws cheap. I'll even show you two how me and Renny grilled fish! I guarantee that you two princesses won't find anything like that at your fancy dinners."

Blake opens her mouth. "Actually, we–"

"Hush! Mommy's talking."

Neptune and Sun trade looks.

"Should we get the drinks?" Sun asks him. "I know a way into campus we can smuggle alcohol through."

"Actually, just pump me full of sugar. This might be the last time I get to have soda since I'll be spending the next few years getting used to wine."

"Ew!"

"I know!"

-0-

When the semester starts, Glynda Goodwitch announces that Ozpin won't be back for a month or so still, so she'll be acting headmistress.

The sister teams are all worried about Ruby but she sends them messages with a few photos that she's on a mission with Ozpin and what looks to be a farmhand. They don't expect to be back for a while and she isn't even allowed to update them but she slips them messages anyway. (She doesn't know how long she can keep up the ruse that she had a spare scroll from before Beacon).

Yang's nerves get the better of her until Jaune convinces Qrow to give them an update. Somehow the photo of Qrow, Raven, Tai, Winter, and Ruby together like the disjointed family they are is a monumental comfort. She makes it her wallpaper. Jaune promises that they'll all get a chance to get in that picture together at some point.

With Goodwitch so busy, it leaves combat class to Professor Port. It's a blessing in disguise since the extra class drains him enough to sleep through most of his own class. He gets worried for a while until everyone gets visibly excited for what is effectively a free period and some students actually get comfortable enough to sit with him on his desk and share real stories for a change. He isn't always telling them this time either.

The teams spend a lot of time on the roof where they're allowed to grill. Jaune, Nora, and Blake make a show of their techniques and Weiss, who is sitting on the sideline, lets the collective aroma of their sizzling platters soak into her skin.

They also take turns teaching Weiss and Neptune how to cook. It'll be useful when they get a place of their own. They hadn't considered an apartment yet, actually.

"Trust me," Yang says, "after what you two are gonna go through, you could use a getaway that's just yours." She shares a meaningful glance with Jaune who blushes, suddenly unable to keep eye contact.

They make that second boat trip with the same crusty boatman. Sun and Blake tie on the number of lobsters.

They spend a night in the apartment, cramped together and drinking till sunrise. (Pyrrha learned to mix drinks with her uncle over the break and Jaune hasn't puked so much in his entire life).

They joyride in Jaune's new Highway Aries and the boatman's Beluga van to the same cabin they went to with Saph and Terra. Joan can drive too, apparently, and they decide that seating her next to the excitable Nora is a recipe for turning the winding country roads into a roller coaster. (Jaune, Yang, Weiss, and Neptune end up trailing behind the van because of it.)

They rent out a thawed ice rink and have their own school dance. (Jaune spent the week teaching Neptune how to lose his second left foot).

And they skip class on Friday to spend their last day together. Ruby even manages to call Weiss and they find out that they might even meet in Atlas for a while. (Jaune and Yang are starting to suspect that Ozpin already knows about the scroll).

In the next morning, Weiss's bed is empty cause she had to go alone in a separate flight. Neptune has to arrive a day later on a separate trip. It's abrupt and even though they all knew it was going to happen, it still feels like it came out of nowhere. The space Weiss leaves behind is palpable.

She manages to send them all one final message with a photo. She's holding Blake's little triangular team flags she made for them during last year's Vytal Festival against the window of the bullhead.

"We'll always be a team."

-0-

Jaune cracks an eye open at the sound of clicking on screen . He's in the apartment, in his room, but his door is open halfway. Through the dark he can see Yang and Blake's faces lit against a scroll on the couch. Blake is sleeping on her shoulder.

They set her up with the guest room (Yang's long since migrated all her things into his anyway) and they must've gotten up at some point last night to chat.

He shuffles out of bed, scratching his bare chest and blinking away his drowsiness.

Yang can hear him. "Mornin'… Evening? Morning. It's one-AM."

He peels around the doorframe. "Shouldn't we be quiet?" he says in a hush.

"Nope," she says, not even looking up from her scroll. "Blake said she wanted to wake up to the sound of people so the room feels less empty."

Regardless, he sits on the softly beside her. "Is that why she stayed up so late?"

"She used to wake up early with Weiss. Sometimes she'd fall back asleep when Weiss got her early morning shower, but with her gone she's hoping to sync up with me instead."

"Maybe Ren's more her speed. He gets up early to get breakfast prepped for Nora the rest of the team if she didn't eat it all when we got there."

"Too bad they're not roommates."

"Yeah…"

Blake shuffles. Her ears twitch and there's a smile on her lips.

"She seems comfy," he says, laughing. He can't help but think they've adopted a stray though he won't say it aloud.

Yang's thinking the same thing but keeps her mouth shut too. "She met with Sun and Ilia for brunch yesterday. She came in when they were already talking about him losing Neptune. She felt like an outsider listening in."

"She didn't walk away, did she?"

"No, she sat with them and they talked. Even admitted to how she felt. They tried to make her feel comfortable and Sun had no trouble talking about it, but even they admitted that it feels like she's just a step out of her element. She's going with Pyrrha to meet with them again later tonight."

"I'm guessing she's not particularly enthused?"

Yang nods. Blake stirs but doesn't wake. "She thinks losing Weiss is upsetting everything else in her life. She usually doesn't feel that kind of doubt when talking to them. Pyrrha's doing her best to help on her end, too, but she might need some more outside help to get her out of this funk."

Her scroll buzzes. Jaune instantly recognizes the sender. "Ruby?" His voice is hopeful, almost desperate.

She ruffles his hair. "Don't worry about it. If you start losing your cool, then I will too."

He rolls his eyes with a smile. "Sorry, I just miss her."

"She wanted to talk to you but she's only got enough courage to message her big sister. She's still beating herself up for being gone so long. She's afraid you might hate her."

He fishes his scroll out of his pocket, squeezes his face next to Yang and Blake's, and takes a photo. "Morning…" he types, "…Crater …Face." A moment passes after he sends it.

Yang's scroll is then blasted with exclamation points before a video call starts. Their hearts soar when they hear her whine for the first time in weeks. "Yang…! I wasn't ready!"

It's dark wherever she is, huddled in a closet judging by the hangars swinging above her. Zwei is whining and scratching somewhere in the background.

"Sorry, Sis, but we're a package deal now!" Yang says.

"We miss you," Jaune says, the look of him is anything but teasing.

"I miss you guys, too…" she looks away, head half hunched in shadow. Her expression is unreadable.

There's a shuffling on her end of the call, she looks up, eyes wide, as some light pours into the closet she's in. "Ruby?" a hushed boy's voice says. "Is everything alright?"

Her eyes dart and she gets up in a panic. Jaune and Yang stay quiet as the closet is shut and the scroll spins in the dark for a moment before her face shows up again next to the same farmhand in her photo with Ozpin. "Keep this a secret. Please?" she asks him.

"I… sure. Lips sealed. What are you–?"

"Yang, Jaune," she says quickly. "This is Oscar. He's my, um, partner for the mission I'm on."

"I, oh, uh, hi," Oscar stammers. "I'm Oscar." He slaps his forehead. "Stupid. She already said that…" Ruby giggles.

"Aw, Jaune," Yang nudges him. "He's you, freshman year."

Jaune huffs. "I like to think I was as confident as I was awkward." He gets up. "I'm getting peckish. You want any coffee?"

"The orange juice, please."

"Weak!" Ruby teases through the screen. "Milk is the way to go. Keep up the store-bought pulp and I'll be taller in no time!"

"I prefer oranges freshly squeezed myself," Oscar adds before he shuts himself up. He seems afraid to add to the conversation.

"They are freshly squeezed though," Yang says. "Right, Jaune?"

"If two days ago counts as fresh, then yeah. Reminds me of home."

Yang sniffs the air. "Are you cooking tuna and eggs again?"

"What? Clove didn't have much fish and poultry. We had beef, pork, and way too many vegetables."

"It's one-A.M.!"

"And we're out of snacks. Now do you want some of this or am I gonna split it with Blake?"

Blake rolls her cheek up the backrest to look at Jaune. The smell probably woke her. "Mm… You'll have no objection from me."

"He was a farmer?" Yang hears Oscar ask Ruby. "I thought he was a huntsman."

"Huntsman-in-training," Ruby clarifies for him. "He grew up in a farm. I don't think that counts as a farmer but he used to herd cows. Even had this brief stint when he was ten where he'd run with the farm dog and bark at the cows to help wrangle the cattle."

"Pfft!" Yang and Blake snicker. "What?"

"What are you laughing at?" Jaune asks from the kitchenette, stood in the lowlight.

"Nothing!" Yang calls back. "Feeling better, Oscar?"

"Oh. You noticed?"

"It's okay. Meeting new people can be scary. Can't have been any easier with Ruby."

"Actually, she could barely look me in the eye." Ruby bumps him but can't deny it. Oscar stays smug. "Ha ha… Had to ease into meeting her. She caught me in the middle of work and she scared me so much that I almost fell off the hayloft with the way she squeaked her greeting. I thought a mouse got in the feed again."

"Oscar!" Ruby whines. "I'm putting you through the ringer for this."

He looks scared. "Uh… mercy?"

They spend the some of that morning together. Ruby builds confidence enough to promise to make another call if Oscar can keep covering for her. They also find out Ruby is training Oscar and Yang couldn't be more proud.

They're somewhere remote and secret so Ozpin isn't taking chances with the security breach but Ruby hopes that a closet is enough to be inconspicuous. She still can't tell them why she's there but she will when they arrive.

They. As in both of them. Oscar is coming to Beacon. It should be exciting, even just a little bit. It's not going to fill the gap Weiss left behind but it means less quiet. Plus, Penny is with them and she might come too. But Yang picks up the sadness in Ruby's eyes whenever Oscar asks about Beacon. There's something wrong.

When Oscar goes off to distract Ozpin and Jaune takes Blake to the convenience store, Yang asks, "Sis, what's going on that you're not telling me?"

Ruby chews her lip. "I can't say," she says for the umpteenth time, but Yang can feel the weight of it now that it's coming out of her mouth and not through text on a screen. Somehow, that makes it harder to let it go.

"I'm scared for you," Yang admits, "I'm worried that something else irreversible is coming and…" No, she tells herself. She can't put this on Ruby. "It's okay. I trust you. I'm worried but I trust you and before you say anything, nothing you say will break that trust."

Ruby curls closer to the scroll, like she wants to hug her. "Thank you…" she whispers.

"Just come home safe…"

"I love you, Yang."

"I love you, too, Sis."

-0-

The dorm room doesn't have the comforts it used to. Yang almost feels ashamed for leaving it behind half the time but Blake tells her that it isn't something she should worry about. She always made time, even if her memories seem like a blur of blonde hair and blue eyes. It doesn't mean she valued her time with them any less.

No one can blame her for falling in love.

Still, with Blake snoozing under some double-wide bedding across the room, Yang feels alone in the room.

She sits up and she hears a startle somewhere. She realizes the silhouette she thought was Blake has been just a mess of pillows. (Blake pulled her and Weiss's beds together to get comfortable. Didn't work. All she's got now is more room to feel cold in. They still miss her).

Another hushed sound reaches her. She gets up and walks around but she stops when she spots Blake sitting on the floor against the wall. Her ears are twitching.

"What's happening?" Yang asks.

"I can hear Goodwitch in the JNPR dorm."

Yang shuffles closer. She can hear the faint tap of the headmistress's heels but nothing more. "What is she saying? Are they in trouble?"

"I thought so at first, but no. It's something about a transfer."

"A transfer? Like a student?"

"I don't know. I'll keep listening."

Yang wants to go back to bed and grab her scroll. Jaune could answer her if she asked. She bites her lip.

"There's someone else," Blake says. Yang's limbs stiffen again. "She sounds familiar but I could be wrong. She's talking about… Moving furniture?" She peels off the wall. "Maybe I shouldn't be listening in."

Yang realizes that she's probably working herself up over nothing too. "Maybe, but it got you out of bed at least." She laughs. "I've been worrying myself ragged about this team, but unlike the other two, you're actually here." Arms wrap around Blake's thinner shoulders. "I hope you aren't blaming yourself for all of this."

"I am but I know it's stupid," she admits. "Weiss having an epiphany was bound to happen anyway. And her father would have forced her to leave whether we turned out to be friends or not. But there's always that little side of me scraping at the back of my head. I'm so painfully aware that it's there that I could almost reach out and strangle it."

"Pfft! You sound like Weiss."

"Heh, well we'd spent over a year together. Some things were bound to rub off on each of us. In fact," she looks at Yang meaningfully, "you didn't explode once during that whole talk about Weiss's dad. Jaune have anything to do with that? You've been minding your temper."

She rubs the back of her head. "No, not entirely. I mean, we've helped each other along but we can't give each other all the credit. I've mellowed out cause we lost at Vytal and I crashed at a bar. Cause I came home a mess and you girls set me straight. I won't say that solved it completely. I think I gave myself enough time to ease out of my anger issues over the summer and finding Jaune and ending up in his apartment gave me places to feel normal and happy for a change." She's blushing now, can't help the heat rolling tight circles in her cheeks. "Did I ever tell you about that? No… I don't think I've told anyone. Being in that apartment let me glimpse a life of being a civilian. Not a huntress-to-be, just a girl living in the city she swears she'll die in. It felt simpler, domestic. And I kind of liked that. I kind of really, really liked that."

"I envy that," Blake says with a knowing smile lying sideways on her knees. "Not the civie life but the happiness. I'm glad you found someone. Honestly, it's kind of crazy you two aren't completely official yet."

"I, uh, I think we are? I mean, it's not like we've talked about it again since all this craziness happened but we've said the three-word thing, named our kids, we own a house together and –"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What? Rewind there for a second."

"To which part?"

"I don't know, all of it?"

Yang shrugs and that is equal parts everything so like her and everything that's frustrating. "I don't know. They all just kind of… happened?"

"How do you just happen to own a house now?"

"A couple birds left it on my dining table and flew out the open door."

Blake squints. "I… I can't tell if you're joking."

Yang grins.

Blake's ear twitches to the faint sound of a door closing. "JNPR…" she mouths as she hears it. "…moving out?"

-0-

Blake thinks she heard it wrong. Yang tries to tell herself they could be misunderstanding something but when they meet with JNPR, they don't mention a thing. Jaune and Pyrrha are all smiles, whilst Ren is keeping Nora from any more antics. Nothing's changed.

It eats up at Yang more than she's willing to admit but Blake doesn't need to be told in order to notice her best friend writhing inside of herself.

On occasion she can see Jaune stealing glances at Yang. He's noticed that something's off too. Sure, Yang is keeping it close to her chest, but she isn't loose in the way she usually is. And even though her being a little more guarded might make sense given recent events, Jaune's been with her long enough to notice that she's been easing back into her old self. The regression should be obvious.

Blake nudges him at the end of Port's class. "Talk to her," she says.

He nods, a determined look to him. "I was gonna wait till she was ready. I guess I have to act this time."

Blake smiles. "Just like you, she'll need a nudge sometimes."

Jaune jogs over to Yang as she rolls her eyes at something Nora says. She should be laughing instead. His eyes narrow.

"Yang."

"Oh! Hey, sorry, I thought you were with Blake and Pyrrha. Did you need something?"

His hand clasp over hers and people around them pull away and snicker. He takes her hand and pulls her to the wall and out of the way. "Don't think I haven't noticed you worrying about something. What's wrong?"

Normally she'd come out and say it. Even before they got this close. Before they were together. She isn't the kind of girl that lets these things lie. But she's lost so much in the past few weeks and she's feeling more and more vulnerable. More and more fatigued.

And this? What she's worried about? Hushed whispers in the night that might ultimately mean nothing? Half of her thinks it's fears she's digging up for herself to pile on the already rich avalanche of things she has to deal with. Another hates herself for doubting him, and that she's ashamed to reveal she doubted him at all.

But they were supposed to be able to talk about anything, right?

Her mouth opens.

She remembers her mother. She'd looked so stoic when she said goodbye, daring not to fall apart and swallowing her fears. With a sigh, she lets it go.

"It's nothing," she says with an easy sigh. "I'll tell you about it later if you're so curious but I'd like to stop worrying about nothing and focus on the things that actually need my attention."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Now I'm hungry."

"We still have class."

She takes his hand. "I don't care. Your girlfriend needs a pick-me-up."

-0-

Yang walks back into the dorm with a spring in her step. "Evenin'," she greets Blake who's lounging on the bed.

"Had a good night, I see? He not kissing you goodbye at the door?"

"We parted ways earlier. Said he had an errand to run."

Blake stares at her with a smile. Yang returns it before going back to her scroll. Blake's nose scrunches in confusion. "Well?" Blake asks.

"Huh?"

"What did he tell you?"

Yang winks. "Sweet nothings if that's what you're asking."

Blake's face goes through a series of emotion. "Yeah. Good. Great. Perfect." She sits up as her ears sharpen. "But what about last night? With the whispering and all that?"

"Oh! I, uh, I didn't ask about it."

Blake slips out of bed. "Okay, I've had it. Waited all this time to find out so let's just go over there and ask."

"Right. Sure." Yang picks up after her and doesn't bother to put her school shoes back on.

Blake stops just as she exits the door. Across from them is the JNPR dorm and the door is ajar. She twists back to Yang. "Was that open when you passed it by?"

"I didn't notice."

They approach the door and feel a draft coming through. The door swings to the side as they enter and the thud against the wall is the only sound.

The JNPR dorm is empty. Even the blinds have been stripped away and one of the windows is cracked open.

A hole opens in Yang's stomach. Confusion, mostly. Anger, even if she can't place it. She doesn't know what's happening.

Blake's hands are sweating too when they reach for hers. "Your scroll is buzzing," she says and they run back to their room.

Yang has a message from Jaune.

'are you decent?' it reads.

'uh…. Yeah?' she replies after a cursory glance at her uniform.

'perfect'

Yang stares at the word. His scroll didn't even get to auto-punctuate it. She's already typing another message. Where are you right now? I was at your dorm and it's empty – She stops typing when they hear a grunt and a thud.

Blake's ears perk up. "Nora?"

Something breaks, like snapping wood, then Yang can hear it too.

"Hah!" Nora shouts. The thud after shakes something in their room. "Hah!" Another shudder, louder and resonant. "Hng…!" They can feel the way she's inhaling. "Hah!" Then their wall shakes.

"Hah!" Then a chunk of the wall pops out and swings aside like a portal door. They can see Nora behind the hole. She's in the next dorm room. They transferred next door instead of across the hall.

Nora peeks in with a wide grin, the light behind her shining over her features like a beacon. She pulls away and her hammer carves down into the hole till its roughly the shape of her silhouette. She kicks away the loose boards and cement around her and stomps into the room.

"Evenin' roomies!" she announces with gusto and caked in dust.

Jaune slips passed her in shorts and a worn shirt, pillow under his arm and eyes half awake. He walks up to Yang and takes her hand. "Sleepy?" he asks.

She realizes she's exhausted. Relief lets her body feel its fatigue. "Yeah…"

He pulls her to bed and they fall in together. She's confused but doesn't focus on it.

"What is happening?" Blake asks Ren as he comes in with Pyrrha in tow. (Who has already apologized but her smile doesn't slip away even once).

"Jaune said that it was starting to get a little quiet here in your dorm," Ren explains. "So, we hatched an idea to trade rooms with your neighbor's. Team ASHE took a room on a different floor instead of taking ours."

"Miss Goodwitch was very accommodating," Pyrrha says. "Went so far as to levitate most of our things from one room to another."

"She almost said no," Jaune says with a yawn, "but when I explained why we were doing it, she just sighed and drew up the permit."

"You need a permit to switch dorms?" Blake asked. "Wait, there's a permit for that?"

Nora hoists the hammer back onto her shoulder. "Permit's not for the dorm. It's for breaking down the wall."

Blake can't help but a feel a tingle under her skin, and it rolls into heat when Pyrrha and Ren squeeze her between them.

The night draws down and they got rid of the bits of dust and talk about how they're supposed to tear the down the wall. They'll put up two beams they'll have to pay for themselves but the rest of the wall can go away and there will be nothing between the two rooms in a few days.

And when they're all cleaned up (and splitting two bathrooms between six people), they push the four RWBY beds together so they can crawl under the collective sheets. In the middle, Yang sees Blake shiver happily between Ren and Nora, calmer than she has been in weeks.

Nestled against the curve of Jaune's neck, she nudges him. "Thank you for this," she whispers.

"It wasn't all me," he murmurs.

She flicks his forehead. "You're allowed to take credit for the idea, at least. Besides, I feel like I should reward you somehow."

"Fine," he grumbles but his smile doesn't sell it. "As for the reward, I'd ask about the rent but I think we should stay out and keep the bill thin this month. I don't think I can meet the payment this time if it gets any bigger with electric and water."

Yang chuckles. "Hey, you asked for the heavy down payment so you could sidestep the interest. That car is a money sink and you should've seen this one coming." He whines and she kisses his nose, making him whine some more. "Still, I'll still have to find a way to thank you."

"Missionary always works for Sun," Pyrrha chimes in from behind her.

Jaune and Yang's eyes go wide.

"What?" Pyrrha asks as they stare at her. "Too vanilla?"

Yang squeezes a pillow to her own face. "Pyrrha!"

"What? Oh! Sorry. I hadn't realized that you… It's just that Sun's been gentlemanly and I tried to get him to talk dirty to spice things up so I ended up having to do it myself and –"

"Uh, Pyr?" Jaune stops her. "That's not it. We, uh, we haven't done it yet."

She tilts her head. "Missionary?"

"Sex," Yang whimpers.

Nora shoots up. "What!?"

Yang shrinks even further. "Are you all awake!?"

Ren turns an open eye behind him and Blake peers sheepishly over the length of his arm. No one looks sorry.

"Ugh…" she groans. "Is it too late to call this a bad idea?"

Pyrrha pulls her away from Jaune and into the collective cuddle of everyone else. "Not on your life, Xiao Long."

She mouths a "help me" to Jaune.

He reaches under his pillow, pulls out his scroll into its camera, and mouths a coy "No," before the shutter snaps.

The photo goes up with the rest of the stringed ones Ruby set up earlier that year. Eventually, they flood it with more memories till the ceiling is lined with their found family gleaming from wall to wall to wall.

#jaune x yang #yang x jaune #Jaune Arc #yang xiao long #rwby dragonslayer

[hailing-stars]

@febuwhump day 14 

meddling kids

summary

“Ned, you’re a genius,” says Peter. “We’ll just play some cupid, get them together for real, and they’ll be so distracted we can go back to movie days at the Tower.”

“Because that plan doesn’t have the potential to turn into a big, fucking disaster,” says MJ.

“It’ll be fine,” says Peter. “It’ll be good. It’s almost Valentine’s Day. Even they deserve to be happy.”

OR

Peter attempts to meddle in Sam and Bucky’s relationship, and Flash meddles in Peter’s and MJ’s. 

Rain hits the windows of Avengers Tower, and Peter pulls MJ a little bit closer. His eyes are glued to the TV screen, where it’s also raining, and where the two leads in the cheesy, rom-com Ned had switched on argue in the midst of the downpour. It isn’t long before the argument turns to kissing.

“That’s so romantic,” says Peter. That’s really what he’d rather be doing. Kissing MJ in the rain.

“Dude,” says Flash, shoving a fist full of popcorn in his mouth, from where he sat on the floor. “You’re such a sap.”

Peter scrunches up his face. “I’m not a sap.”

“Kind of are,” says Ned.

Peter turns to MJ for help, and their faces are so close, their noses almost brush up against each other. Forget the rain. He’d rather be kissing her now, in the common room, on the Avengers favorite couch.

“You’re totally a sap,” she tells him. “But you’re my sap.”  

“You two are disgusting,” says Flash. “Just get a room and let Ned and I finish watching this in peace.”

Peter doesn’t think that sounds like such a bad idea, and he’s about to say so when he’s startled into sitting up straight.

“Parker!”

He turns his head and sees Sam and Bucky entering the common area.

“Oh,” says Peter. He and MJ scoot to opposite ends of the couch, as if it mattered and they hadn’t already been seen. “Um, hey Sam. Bucky.”

“What is this?” asks Sam, gesturing to the common room. “What have we told you about using the Tower as your own personal clubhouse for you and your school friends?”

“That I’m definitely welcomed to do it?”

“Well that’s one interpretation of hell no,” says Bucky.

Peter could strange both of them right there on the spot. They’re the annoying big brothers he never wanted, and he hates how they only ever agree with each other when it disadvantages him in some way.

“Take your Scooby Squad and scram,” says Sam.

“We’re not the Scooby Squad,” says Flash. He doesn’t take his eyes off the screen, and his hand stays in the bowl of popcorn. “We’re the FlashMob, don’t forget it.”

“We’re not the FlashMob,” says Ned. “We’re the FOS gang.”

“FOS?” questions Bucky.

“Friends of Spider-Man,” answers Ned.

“Meddling kids seems more appropriate,” says Sam. “Parker. Get them out.”

“If we’re the Scooby Squad you’re the grumpy old men,” says Peter, with a sigh. He stands, snatches the bowl of popcorn from Flash, and orders Friday to switch off the movie.

Peter, MJ, Ned and Flash file out the room, listening to Sam and Bucky as their bickering turns towards each other. Apparently Bucky’s chosen spot on the couch was where Sam sits, apparently the throw pillow Sam claims actually belongs to Bucky, and so on.

“I swear,” says Peter. “They bicker more than Mr. Stark and Gerald.”

“Gerald?” asks MJ.

“He’s going through a phase.”

“Well it’s obvious why they bicker,” MJ tells them.

All three stare at her.

“..It is?” asks Ned.

“Come on, guys,” says MJ. “It’s classic. They’re in love.”

All eyes turn back to the couch. They’re both sitting at opposite ends and they both take turns telling Friday to switch the channel on the TV. Doesn’t seem like a very productive war. Peter develops whiplash from just standing off in the background, watching the TV screen flip back and forth between Jaws and some old timey black and white film.

“I bet they just kicked us out so they could be alone together,” she continues.

“Enemies to lovers?” asks Ned, still staring at them, with a tilted head.

“I’d ship it,” says Flash.

“Wish they’d get a room, or an apartment,” says Ned. “So we could get back to our movie day.”

“Ned, you’re a genius,” says Peter. “We’ll just play some cupid, get them together for real, and they’ll be so distracted we can go back to movie days at the Tower.”

“Because that plan doesn’t have the potential to turn into a big, fucking disaster,” says MJ.

“It’ll be fine,” says Peter. “It’ll be good. It’s almost Valentine’s Day. Even they deserve to be happy.”

MJ kisses him on the cheek, and links his arm with hers as they march off towards the elevators.

“You really are such a sap,” she tells him, a fondness in her tone that causes Peter to realize he doesn’t actually mind being a romantic so much, not when MJ was the one saying it.

*

Peter leads Bucky down the season aisles at Target, and figures he’s really on his last shot of this cupid business.

He hasn’t exactly been subtle over the last couple of days. Bucky’s already wondering why Peter had insisted on him tagging along on his trip to Target with him.

They pass by heart shaped boxes of candy, and Peter digs through the bin of cute stuffed animals until he finds a unicorn. When he squeezes it, it’s teeth turn pointy and it’s eyes turn mean. It’s perfect.

“For MJ?” asks Bucky.

“No way, man,” says Peter. He turns his attention to the chocolate boxes with cartoon characters printed on the front, and grabs the one with “I got her presents months ago. This stuff is for Morgan.”

“How’s Stark handling Valentine's Day as a father, anyway?”

“He loves it,” says Peter. “He’s a little bit obsessed, actually. He wants Morgan to pass out the best Valentine's cards in her class, so he stayed up all night designing them online and he’s having candy delivered for some fancy chocolate shop in Germany.”

“I don’t think kids really care about fancy chocolate,” says Bucky, and Peter watches as he eyes the boxes of chocolate. His eyes go back and forth between two different brands.

“They don't,” says Peter. “But they do if you bribe the chocolate makers into molding the chocolate into the replicas of famous Avengers.”

Bucky doesn’t respond. All his focus is on the candies.

“What kind of chocolate do you think Sam likes?” asks Peter.

Bucky snaps his head around and narrows his eyes at him. “Why would you ask that?”

Peter shrugs. “I dunno. Maybe we should get him some. It’d be nice.”

Bucky stares at him, and Peter shuffles his feet around, dying to come out with his suggestion that he and Sam should just go out already. That they’ll be a lot happier together, way less grumpy.

“How do you know?” asks Bucky.

“How what?”

“Don’t play dumb.”

“I don’t have to play dumb,” says Peter. “I really don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“Come on,” says Bucky. “What’s the deal with you crawling around on the ceiling hanging mistletoe above wherever Sam and I are standing? Or that night you made us dinner and set the table with candles and rose petals?”

“I was just being nice. Who doesn’t like roses?”

“I know you know about me and Sam,” says Bucky. “So quit harassing us, and keep your mouth shut about it.”

“Wait…. You and Sam… are already together?” asks Peter, with a gasp of disbelief. “I was trying to set you up!”

“You didn’t know?” asks Bucky. “We thought you knew and were being an asshole about it.”

“Holy shit,” says Peter. He shifts Morgan’s presents to one hand, and pulls his phone out of his pocket with the other. “I gotta tell MJ.”

Bucky swipes his phone. “You can’t tell anybody. We’re keeping it a secret for now.”

“Fine, fine,” says Peter. “Secret safe with me.”

“No secret is safe with you, Parker,” Bucky tells him, before marching past him, and to the next aisle where he continues looking for Sam’s present.

Peter frowns. He’s got no clue why people think he’s incapable of keeping things secret.

*

Peter manages to keep Sam and Bucky’s relationship to himself, until the day of the Midtown High Valentine’s day dance. And it’s not exactly Peter’s fault. He isn’t exactly to see the two of them in his school’s gym, with linked arms, wearing identical grins.

“You two cannot be here,” whispers Peter. His eyes darted around the gym, at all his classmates, somehow forgetting no connection could realistically be made between Peter Parker and two Avengers.

“Sure we can,” says Bucky. “We’re chaperones.”

“And I’m Captain America. I can go anywhere.”

“I hate you both,” says Peter.

Sam claps him on the shoulder. “Consider this revenge.”

“For what?!?”

“For being annoying,” says Bucky.

“And young,” adds Sam. “And for torturing us with mistletoes.”

“Oh, look,” says MJ, emerging from the crowd of students on the dance floor. “I was right. Who’s surprised?”

“Yeah, congratulations,” says Sam. “Now take your irritatingly observant selves over to the refreshment table, get yourselves some Scooby snacks and leave us to our chaperoning.”

Peter doesn’t need to be told twice. He’s ready to put so much distance between himself and the old, grumpy chaperones. He and MJ are crossing the dance floor when they’re favorite song starts to play, but it’s something else that grabs Peter’s attention.

It’s Flash, standing on the bleachers, holding a lighter up to the smoke alarm.

“THIS IS FOR YOU PENIS PARRKKKERRRR,” he yells across the gym, just as the smoke alarm blares to life.

He’s confused, until sprinklers on the ceiling turn on, and water begins to rain down on the entire student body, soaking dresses and suits and splashing into the probably already spiked punch bowl.

“I guess you were right about something too,” says MJ, with a small smile. They’re standing in the middle of the dance floor, while most others run and duck for cover under chairs or in the hallway, while Bucky and Sam chase Flash around the gym. “This is kind of romantic.”

“I can start an argument with you,” says Peter. He hooks his arm around her waist and pulls her closer. “If you want it to be like the movies.”

“Nah,” she tells him. “We can skip that part.”

She brushes his soaked hair out of his face, and they kiss. It’s every bit as romantic as it is in the movies.

#febuwhumpday14 #my fic #spideychelle #flash Thompson is a good bro #kissing in the rain

[edasnest]

Fair enough my friend. In any case it probably won't be canon, (to me) because its too good to be true. Though at least its clear the Good Witch Azura is no mere book series and has a role to play. Anyway, allow me one headcanon ask!: How would Camila react to Willow and Amity and specially to know they are in a relationship with her Luz? And how would Amity and Willow feel about meeting Camila for the first time?

(This took me forever and I’m so sorry)

This one’s a lot lmao

Camila:

I think after Luz introduces them as her girlfriends Camila had to have a Conversation with Luz after the girls have gone home for the night. Like, she watches them interact in the time that she meets them but her Mom Alarms are ringing in her head. Two girlfriends???? 🤔 they all seem to get along fairly well (which is actually almost a little jarring to Camila; she’s used to kids Luz’s age thinking her “too weird” to hang out with unless they had no other choice) and she sees these girls....actually look at Luz without judgement. In fact, they look at her with adoration, even when Luz starts acting “weird” in the way that would make other kids uncomfortable. These girls laugh at Luz’s antics, but in a kind way, a way that says they love the way she is.

Camila, as a nurse, didn’t exactly have “the Talk” with Luz so much as she just answered Luz’s questions as she grew up. When Luz was about four or five and asked where babies came from, Camila left out some details, but explained the scientific process to her on their drive home from kindergarten. Luz yelled about how yucky it was because “boys have cooties!!!” And didn’t bring it up again until she was maybe 10 and got her first period. It was then Camila went into more depth about the whole “baby making” process and the concept of intercourse in a strictly medical sense that made Luz super uncomfortable and hate everything about human biology. She wished so desperately to live in the world of her Azura books where Azura never got a period, she was too busy adventuring and saving the day.

So when Luz goes missing and then comes back with not just one, but two girlfriends?? That’s another layer of The Talk that Camila hasn’t gotten to yet. So after the girls go home, Camila sits Luz down at the kitchen table and starts asking her questions about Amity and Willow, just trying to get to know them from Luz’s perspective a little more and get a gauge on how their relationship started. Camila is relieved beyond all else that Luz goes on one of her patented Exciteable Babbling Sessions; absolutely cooing over how adorable her girlfriends are, how smart and brave and talented they are, how they were the first real friends (besides Gus) that she made on the Boiling Isles, the adventures they’ve gone through together, the wacky antics they got caught up in, etc.

Camila’s genuinely happy for Luz at this point, but she still has Mom Responsibilities. So she asks Luz if they done anything more...intimate. And Luz flushes bright red before vehemently denying the accusation and hiding in her hoodie out of embarrassment. Which is exactly the reaction Camila was hoping for, so she finally relaxes and laughs and coaxes Luz out of her hoodie to give her a hug, letting her know that as long those girls make Luz happy, Camila will be happy for her. AND as long as they make smart decisions and don’t do anything crossing that line until they’re older to which Luz just groans and buries her face in her mom’s shoulder, begging her to stop.

After all the introductions and reassurances are out of the way though, Camila finds that she loves Luz’s girlfriends. Luz was absolutely right; they’re both smart and talented and extremely bright young ladies that are both eager and exciteable like Luz, but have a grounding element in each of them that helps tether Luz and brings her back to earth when she starts getting carried away. Camila is amused at how curious they are about human devices too; Amity is especially taken with Camila’s meal prep without the use of any magic at all. Willow is in awe of the computer mostly; she’s certain it works similarly to a crystal ball, but she can’t figure out how it’s supposed to work without magic.

Willow and Amity:

Willow and Amity are scared shitless the first time they meet Camila.

Luz being able to go home to her mom has been a primary goal of hers ever since the portal was first destroyed. Ever since then, there have been countless times Luz has sought comfort from her friends and eventually her girlfriends. So when they were able to access a new portal, they were so scared about what that meant for the three of them. Luz insisted that she go back to the Human Realm; not forever, she’d never just abandon the life she made on the Boiling Isles, not unless she didn’t have a choice. But she needed to go back to her mother and see what she could do to convince her to let her come back to them. She promised it wasn’t a goodbye, it wasn’t a breakup, and it wasn’t the last time she’d see them. So Willow and Amity held Luz and cried and eventually let her go and they slept over at the Owl House that night (with Gus too, he was part of that See Ya Later party and made sure the girls stayed hydrated what with all their crying).

When Luz returned a few weeks later, in her school uniform and scaring her girlfriends half to death by sneaking up on them, they tackled her to the ground, hugging and crying and laughing in relief. She explained the deal she had with her mom and that she wanted to bring them all to the Human Realm to meet her (Camila had actually already been to the Demon Realm in this time; Luz gave her a grand tour of everything she knew about while also keeping their heads low so as to not draw attention. It’s in this time that Camila came to understand what the boiling isles meant to Luz, reaching an understanding with Eda, and telling Luz she needed to finish Human School too, but she could do so online. So now that Camila knows about and has accepted Luz’s life in the Boiling Isles, Luz wants her to meet all the amazing people she’s met).

So the following weekend, they planned a trip over to the Human Realm (Willow, Gus and Amity with Eda as the chaperone) where they all finally got to meet Camila for the first time.

To everyone’s relief, Luz opens the door first to welcome them inside. She leads them to the couch to sit down and her mom enters with a (probably overeager; she’s very nervous) hello and a tray with several glasses and a pitcher of batida de lechosa. She sets down the tray on the coffee table and introduces herself to the kids one by one and Amity has to summon her inner Blight Poise to make her voice not shake. Willow has to pretend this isn’t her girlfriend’s mom she’s introducing herself to. (Camila is secretly just as nervous as they are; she wants to make a good first impression on Luz’s friends.)

Once they start talking though, everyone manages to relax. The kids are all extremely enthusiastic about the batida de lechosa (and tell Camila as much) and Gus can barely contain his excitement and at some point just starts shooting rapidfire questions about human life.

Overall their visit goes well, although Willow and Amity are on edge the entire time, doing their best to be polite and gracious and answer Mrs. Noceda’s questions. They really want to make a good impression on Mrs. Noceda, but Luz’s constant flattery and talking up their accomplishments (*cough*bragging*cough*) leaves them both flustered and blushing.

When they return to the Demon Realm after that visit, they’re both lamenting about how nervous they were, how they must’ve fucked up since Mrs. Noceda seemed so reserved and on guard during their visit. Eda has to remind them that the existence of the Demon Realm is still p new to Camila which does ease some of their fears, but certainly not all of them.

Luz texts them later about the MORTIFYING conversation she’d just had with her mom about “intimacy” and “waiting til we’re older” and “consent is no laughing matter, Luz” and as embarrassed as Willow and Amity are at the implications, they’re both relieved that that is what made Mrs. Noceda act so stiff during their visit. Nothing to do with them being Witches or from another world, just a mom protecting her baby.

From that point on tho, they totally hit it off with Camila; Camila loves sharing Luz’s most embarrassing baby pictures (which Luz complains about but takes it in stride). The girls love discussing more of the nuanced aspects of Human Culture and are extremely interested in Camila’s job as a Healer Nurse. Camila loves watching the girls perform magic like it’s second nature to them and absolutely delights in the flowers Willow grows in pots that she never had the time or energy to take care of herself.

#180 degree head tilt (ask tag) #wam-hope #the owl house #Camila Noceda #luz noceda #amity blight #willow park #willumity #willumity au #thank you for your patience lmao it’s been like a month and a half since you sent this

[penaltbox]

your side of the bed - roman ahcan

feedback & reblogs are always so appreciated!! if you like it, let me know your favorite line or part 😊

word count: 3k

__

You glance up from your phone, seeing the tv show playing far later at night than you needed to be awake, but not remembering a single thing that had happened during that episode or any prior. You glance over to your left and see the back of someone who had been there plenty of times now but who you still weren’t used to. 

Technically speaking he was your boyfriend. He did everything you asked, went out of his way to be sweet to you, and his mom thought the world of you. From the outside looking in you had it all and you felt like you owed him for all the good things he did for you, but something always felt missing. Something was always off. He didn’t feel like home the way Roman had. 

__

You think about the night everything fell apart more frequently than you wanted to admit. The two of you didn’t always get along but you didn’t fight every time you were together either. You were quick to butt heads on some things, but being together always had a spark that you knew you’d be chasing your whole life. 

You were out with Ro and his friends one night, trying to wind down after a long week and two tough games on their end. You’d been a little irritated that day, but you didn’t think you were super crabby. He had other thoughts though and made them known. 

“If you’re gonna have an attitude all night just go home. I don’t want to deal with it,” he says, shaking his head after you glare at some girl who had come to try and talk to the boys. 

“What are you talking about?” You ask, not realizing your face had betrayed your thoughts that way. 

He laughs a little, but there’s no humor behind it, “don’t act better than her just because you hang out with my friends now. You used to be in her position not that long ago.”

“I didn’t even do anything. What’s your problem?” You ask, your temper flaring a tad over his accusations. 

“Oh don't start with that. Why do you always have to pick a fight when I put you in your place?” He says, quickly backing you against the wall so he can keep the inevitable argument between you two. 

You lean back against it and glare up at him, knowing this tactic well. It wasn’t your first fight at the bar and sometimes you both lost your temper so he’d started corralling you to try and keep things calm. It worked sometimes, when he didn’t talk down to you like he was now, but other times the boys still picked up on the problems that would arise as your voices got louder and would usually have to intervene. 

“I’m not picking the fight. You started this!” You poke his chest, knowing it would start him up. 

He takes a deep breath before he mumbles through his teeth, “don’t fucking poke me like that.”

“Or what? What are you gonna do, Roman?”

“I’m gonna tell you to shut the fuck up and check your attitude. Why are you so goddamn crabby tonight?” He asks, his voice raising a little already. 

“I wasn’t crabby but if you keep being a dick and telling me what you think I am, it’ll change really fast,” you roll your eyes and try to push him out of your way. 

“I’m not dealing with this tonight. I’m not your babysitter,” he scoffs, but puts his hands on the wall on either side of you to keep you in front of him. 

You clench your jaw then, hating that he was pushing you around in public, “let me go. I wasn’t in a bad mood until you started being an ass and telling me I was. You won’t stand here and act like you’ve got all this power over me because you can hold me in place.”

He smirks then, like this is some game, “you never seem to complain when I hold you in place in bed.”

Your patience has worn out and his comment is ill-timed. You push his arm down and step around him, determined to go back to your drink and talk with people like you had been before he decided to unnecessarily give you a hard time. 

“I’m sick of you treating me like a little kid when we fight,” you say, looking over your shoulder at him, “why can’t you just be fucking nice to me?”

“Are you kidding me?” He asks louder than you expect, but he’s quick to glance around. A couple of the boys look over and you know you’re being watched after that outburst, “I am nice to you and it’s not fair for you to try and say that. I’m just trying to make sure everyone has a good time tonight by checking your attitude early.”

You feel your jaw tense again and you somehow cool your tone down as you explain, “I’m not a child, Roman, and I would really appreciate it if you let me be my own person rather than making sure I fit into your little group here. If you want someone that just does what you say then I’m not the girl for you.” 

Roman’s jaw drops a little at how even your tone is and how serious you sound. He’s quickly stuttering, trying to spit out an apology but you’re quicker than him. 

“I’m fucking done. I can’t deal with the bullshit that comes with you and this team anymore,” you say, a statement that would end up being so untrue but you had no clue then, “We’re done.”

You weren’t sure exactly what you expected, but suddenly Roman straightens up and shrugs his shoulders. You frown a little at the action and he seems to finally know what he wants to say. 

“Fine, go then but don’t talk to us anymore either. This isn’t your group to be friends with,” he says, his tone cold and unfamiliar. 

You glance around at the boys you’d become close with, the ones who you’d spent so much time with over the last half a year, and especially the ones you really liked. You swallow hard but know you have to play it like this doesn’t hurt. But it really fucking does. 

You look back at Roman and give him a little nod before turning and brushing past Owen who calls your name softly. You can’t look at him, your composure wavering at the sound of your name coming from him, but you swear you hear him yell something at Roman as you stay on your path out of there. 

You make your way out of the door, spilling out onto the sidewalk of Lake Street. You have to take a couple deep breaths as you try to stop the tears from falling but it doesn’t work. You turn and head towards your apartment, not having any patience to wait for an Uber. You hardly make the turn onto State Street when you hear your name called. 

This had to be a sick joke. He embarrassed you like that in front of so many people and now he wanted to chase you down and make amends? You feel the sadness start to quickly switch over to anger as you quickly turn towards the voice, tears still burning down your face. 

“What do you want?” You spit out, but you gasp right after, “Mike, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it was you.”

He gives you a little smile as his hand scratches the back of his neck, “he shouldn’t have done that. He shouldn’t argue in public with you just because he thinks you were in a mood. It just makes problems for everyone.”

“Oh,” you mumble as you wipe at the tear tracks, surprised by the closest thing you’ll get to an apology for the situation, “thank you?”

Mike blushes a little and gestures randomly towards the street, “I didn’t want you to have to walk home alone either. That’s not safe.”

“You coming with me then, Vorlicky? Am I the chaperone here or is that you?” You joke, finally smiling a little. 

“Hey now,” he laughs, walking past you down the road, “you coming with, pretty, or are you just gonna cry in the street all night?” 

It’s your turn to blush then as your stomach flutters a little. You duck your head to try and hide your smile, but you quickly match his pace. It had been a long time since you flirted the way you and Mike did that night. It was light and the banter came easily. He’s good at getting your mind off the issue at hand and before you know it the late hours turn into early morning and you let him crash on your couch eventually.  

When you didn’t hear from Roman for the next week, you figured he really was over it. You’re heartbroken and you hate that it ended the way it did. You had so many questions and problems with him just giving up on you two, but Mike provided a pretty good distraction that you didn’t expect to have. 

—

You knew Roman’s friends hated you. How could they not? You had broken up with one boy and then pursued another on the team. They didn’t say anything out loud but you saw the looks you got from his group whenever you were all in the same place. 

You never brought it up though. You opted to stay quiet and take on a different approach than the first time. You didn’t get drunk around them anymore or argue loudly, even when you had an opinion on something. You kept to yourself unless one of them asked you something and you always deferred to Mike when a decision needed to be made. 

You hated every minute of it. You were a shell of what you used to be but you had yourself convinced if you just got through school then things would turn out okay eventually. You wouldn’t have to see the team anymore and you wouldn’t have the reminder of the one you’d lost staring you in the face every time you wanted to see your new boy. If he even lasted that long. 

It wasn’t like Roman was completely gone though. It wasn’t just seeing him with the guys that happened every now and then; no, there was more than that. There was still this odd level of contact that was happening and it was on purpose from you, but you weren’t sure about him. Every Instagram story was checked by one another, always being one of the first few to watch it. Neither of you had unfollowed the other on anything and you refused to take down any pictures from vsco. That didn’t set extremely well with Mike but he never said too much on it either. You couldn’t quite let go of him even though you technically had someone new. 

You stare at your bed one Saturday, silently thinking about all the nights Roman has been taking up the space, and some of yours as well. You can’t help but wonder what would have happened if you tried harder to get him back. When you look back on things you know he deserved an apology, too. You’d gotten a little out of hand and let your temper run the show. Not once did you take a step back and tell yourself to calm down for a second rather than escalating the situation. 

You know you could have done things differently but you didn’t and now you had what you had. You were stuck home on a weekend but you were more than okay to have the place to yourself for once and you were soaking in the quiet. 

You would finally get to sleep alone that night, the boys having plans to go out and you definitely didn’t get those invites anymore. As you get changed, you swap his shirt out for one of Roman’s to wear to bed that night. You know you should have gotten rid of it when you broke up but you just couldn’t do it. You knew it wasn’t right, but you stored it in the back of a drawer and only pulled it out when you knew Mike wouldn’t be around. 

You slip into bed, mind racing all over again. It was quickly nearing 2:00 in the morning and yet you couldn’t seem to slow down. You realize you’re laying on his side of the bed and you pull an extra pillow closer, hugging it tight. Your heart strings tug a little as you remember how much he used to beg to be the little spoon. You never denied it, but you did pick on him just a bit for it. 

—

“You’re too big for this,” you giggle, but do your best to wrap your arms around him. 

“No, it works! I promise,” he says, his laugh easily filling the quietness of the room with a sound you loved to hear. 

He scoots down the bed a little and wraps his arms around your waist, lifting your leg up over his hip. He finally gets comfortable and lets out a sigh as your fingers begin to run through his hair, gently massaging his head every few swipes. 

“I love that you always do this,” you admit quietly, barely above a whisper. 

He hums and keeps himself squished against you, “I’m glad you still let me. Don’t tell the boys.”

“And risk you not doing this anymore?” You ask, “not a chance.”

—

You never did tell any of the boys about it and you never would. It was too intimate of a moment, only a memory to you now, for other people to know about it. It was also something you didn’t have with Mike and you weren’t sure you ever wanted him to try. He didn’t ask for it or pull you close and bury his head in your chest like Roman would. He liked to have his hair played with but everyone pretty much does so you never saw it as a big deal. 

Sometimes you really missed having a big tough hockey player all curled up and needing some extra attention, especially once it got dark outside and you were left alone with your thoughts of how things used to be. 

You know you’re not about to fall asleep so you do what you’d been doing for the last couple months since things ended: Post a story and see what Roman would do about it. He would be the only one who would know you weren’t on your side of the bed and you wondered if he even remembered or not anymore. 

It’s a simple picture, one that someone else would glance over in an instant. The soft glow from the string lights over your bed showed the side you were on and a little slip of red fabric - his shirt - with your tv on in the background. You put a little ‘no sleep’ comment with a crying emoji and shrink it, placing it right above the spot where you can see the shirt. 

It’s all so subtle that you’re not sure he’ll even realize it but you have this feeling that you need to just post it. Your heart is hammering for some reason as you tap through the screens, posting it to your story and then making sure it uploads right away. 2:03am is what your phone tells you and you sigh, swallowing at the lump that formed suddenly from your next thought. He probably had someone else keeping his attention. They were out at the bar and some new girl probably was getting that signature smirk from him instead of you. He didn’t need to check on you anymore. 

You lay back down and get comfy all over again, still holding the pillow close like it would somehow make things feel better and make the tugging feeling in your heart go away one of these days. Your mind wanders to the last time he was in your bed and you have to shake your thoughts. 

He was gone. He wasn’t yours to miss anymore. Why couldn’t you just accept that and move on?

You feel your eyes finally getting heavy as you do anything you can to think about something, anything else but him. You’re about to doze off when your phone vibrates in your hand. You frown and lift it up, heart stopping when you see what the notification is on the screen. 

‘roman_ahcan3 sent you a message.’

You read it over and over, trying to see if you’re imagining things, but you’re not. You open your phone to pull up the message as quickly as the page will load and you’d be lying if you said the contents of it didn’t take your breath away. 

‘That’s not your side of the bed’

You have to pull yourself together and read it again. He noticed. He had taken the time to watch your story, look at it, and then send you a message. You can’t believe this played out the way you’d wanted it to.

But why now? Why did he choose this story to respond to? There had been plenty of other chances to say something or make a comment. This wasn’t the one you expected to get a reaction from. 

‘No, it’s yours’ 

It’s bold and feels too forward. You regret it immediately and consider unsending it but he reads it almost as quickly as you send it. You’re panicking now because you’re sure he’s about to tell you to knock it off or that you can’t say that anymore. But he doesn’t. 

‘Is it really mine though? Still?’

You know your response as soon as you read his questions and you type it out faster than you can even process it. Every word is honest and you know you mean what you’re saying. 

‘If you come back it is.’

#roman ahcan #wisconsin hockey #mine #my writing #hockey fic #college hockey fic #hockey writing #college writing

[rae-is-typing]

Anything For You

NOTE: If you ever feel as though you want to purposefully harm yourself or even commit suicide, please get some help. I encourage you to reach out. Don’t hesitate to message me.

Description: You’re struggling. Between school and the movie making process, your blood is made of stress and the only way you can get any sort of rest is by taking sleeping pills. One night, you take too many.

Characters: The reader, Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan, the rest of the Civil War cast are mentioned, a doctor and medics

Warnings: Accidental overdose, descriptions of an anxiety attack, pills, destructive self talk, the reader is really mean to herself, hospitals, blood, concussion, crying, self harm, mentions of shitty parents. This one is heavy.

Disclaimers: I mean no disrespect to any of the people mentioned, even the reader. I’ve also never overdosed so this might not be accurate nor have I been to the hospital for a serious injury, so that may also be inaccurate. My apologies if it is.

Word count: ~6k

Your tired eyes leer at your computer screen. Ugly, ugly math stared back at you. You sigh, rubbing your eyes. This assignment was due at midnight. It was already 11 PM and you had barely started.

I’m so fucked. Why am I so stupid? I bet third graders can do better than me on this shit.

You thought, shoving your computer to the back of the shitty hotel desk. Groaning, you lay your head on the table.

My parents were right. I’m just a dumb kid, I can’t even do dumb math problems. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

You pick up your head and drop it back down to the desk a few times, trying to get the gears to start turning. Or give yourself a mild concussion. Whatever came first.

You sit up, rubbing your forehead a little and look around the hotel room you’re in. It was small with a queen bed in the middle of the room. It was nice. Of course it was nice, one of the biggest movie franchises had paid for it. You were lucky to get your own room. The hotel was overbooked, so some actors had to pair up. Your room was between Sebastian and Chris’s room and Robert’s room- three people that would fight (and possibly die) for you. It made sense though, they would do the same for most of Civil War’s cast. But you brought out their more protective sides. That also made sense- you were still a kid, barely 16 years old and already trying to figure shit out on your own.

Kids shouldn’t have to get emancipated at 15 even if they can afford it. You thought bitterly. Kids shouldn’t hate themselves. Kids shouldn’t be this stressed.

You couldn’t do this shit anymore. School was kicking your ass. So was this god damn press tour. You couldn’t get one plain day off. It was always work work work and school school school. Even worse is the fact that you went from an honors student with a perfect 4.0 to flunking three of four classes. 

Maybe I’m just a fucking failure. Maybe I should quit while I’m ahead. Maybe I should just give up. I can’t do this anymore, fuck. This is too much. All of it is too much. I’m never going to this shit right. I’m too fucking stupid. Too dumb to do a fucking math problem. 

Tears prick at your eyes. You hold your breath and squeeze your eyes shut, trying to fight off the inevitable sobs. You hate crying, it makes you feel dumb and even more childish. Your breathing only picked up and you began hitching out quiet sobs.

I can’t do this anymore. I don’t want to do this anymore. I can’t I can’t I don’t wanna do this I can’t do it any longer. 

You couldn’t breath as you sobbed in your hands. You could never catch a break. It was all too much. You had no time for anything else, just work and school. No time for friends outside of the cast. Hell, you barely had time for the people in the cast and you felt awkward when you wanted to spend time with them because you were 16 and everyone but Tom was almost twice your age. And sure, Tom was nice or whatever, but he was also an adult that didn’t need a fucking chaperone accompanying him if they wanted to go down the road to get away from set. 

You did know that stress was going to be high and there really wouldn’t be a lot of time to relax and take it easy going into the movie, but you seriously overestimated your ability to handle this level of stress. The late nights, early mornings, always needing to be perfect at everything; it was killing you.

Why do I have to keep doing this? I can’t do it anymore I can’t. I need a break. 

You sobbed for a good few minutes before dissolving into a coughing fit. You glanced at the alarm clock on the table. It was 11:30 PM. You choked another sob out, realizing that you were definitely failing this assignment. 

Tears stream down your face while you finish answering all the questions wrong and turn in the assignment. 

Giving up again? Nothing new. Fucking idiot. Suck it up and do it, you privileged fuck. Stop being such a fucking baby and maybe you’d actually get somewhere.

You wiped your eyes aggressively. You weren’t getting anywhere by crying like a baby. 

Might as well just go to sleep. I can’t even do that without help, fuck.

You stood up from the desk chair and made your way to your bags. You pulled out an opaque black makeup and looked through it. There was an empty bottle of sleeping pills sitting in it. 

Empty of fucking course. Can’t even keep track of simple things. Idiot. 

There were a lot of stores around the hotel you were in, but it was almost midnight. And as a 16 year old girl, you had to be accompanied by a chaperone over the age of 25 if you wanted to go somewhere off set or outside the hotel. Even though you are emancipated, there was still a lot of legal risks Marvel was just not going to take with you. 

Everyone else was likely asleep at this point. You had to be up at 5 AM to catch your flight the next morning. You could just not sleep tonight, but after that crying spell, you knew you needed to. The only problem was that you couldn’t sleep without help and you had no more pills left. 

Besides, no one would agree to go with you to a store to get anything they didn’t perceive as an absolute necessity. Unless…

You pulled out your phone and sent a message to Chris, someone you knew would be up, especially because he had to share a room with Sebastaian. They acted like school girls when they were together. 

you: hey you up

cap cap cap: yeah whats up?

you: can you come to a store with me?

cap cap cap: it’s a little late for that kid. can it wait till morning? we have to be up in 5 hours for the flight

you: I need girl stuff and none of the others are up

cap cap cap: meet me outside of our rooms seb is coming too

you: k thanks

You slipped on a sweater, grabbed your wallet and phone and made your way to the lobby. Sure enough, Sebastian and Chris were standing there, both in sweats and sweatshirts. You offered a sheepish smile.

“Thanks guys,” You say. They smile back at you.

“No thanks needed, kid. You have needs.” Chris says.

Sure, you felt bad about lying about the real reason you wanted to go to a store. But it was either leave and get a bit of sleep or stay and not sleep at all.

“There’s a small convenience store a few blocks west,” Sebastian says, looking up from his phone.

“Where the fuck is west?” Chris asks.

“That way,” Sebastian responds, pointing in a general direction. Chris frowned, looking down at your blank face.

“Y/N?” Chris asks. Your head snaps up at the sound of your name.

“Yeah?”

“You usually tell me to ‘watch my fucking language’ when I swear.”

“Oh, sorry.” You clear your throat. “Watch your fucking language, Evans.” You say without the usual fervor.

“You feeling okay, doll?” He asks,moving to place a hand on your forehead.

“Yeah, fine. Girl shit,” You duck away from his hand, moving in the direction Seb was pointing. 

Chris furrows his eyebrows, trying to read you. But his small investigation was cut short by a loud group of drunk, and possibly high, men stumbling out of a bar. It was pretty early for people to be this shit faced. 

They were stumbling, shoving each other in a bunch of different ways and laughing, whooping and yelling incoherently. You watched as one threw up over the road, only being supported by one of his buddies who appeared to be as drunk as he was.

“Y/N, stay close.” Sebastian says, putting an arm around you and pulling you closer to him. Chris moves closer to the both of you, covering the side of you that was left vulnerable. 

The group parted like the red sea when the three of you walked towards them. Apparently they weren’t drunk enough to pick a fight with people that could quite literally rip them apart.

You looked up at Chris and Sebastian. Their faces were stone cold, clearly intimidating to anyone that looked at them, even their friends. It was a far cry from the warm smiles they usually dawned. You glanced around to see one of the guys in the group ogling you. He locked eyes with you, licked his lips then bit down on his bottom one. You moved closer to Sebastian, turning your face into his side. He shot a glare at the guy who immediately called for his buddies that had moved on to wait for him. You wrap your arms around your stomach and settled into a nice walking pace.

“Are you okay?” Sebastian asks softly, looking down to you and rubbing your shoulder with his thumb. You simply nodded, fixing your gaze to the sidewalk in front of you.

“That was gross. What kinda person stares at a girl walking down the street?” Chris asks. You knew that if it wouldn’t get him in serious trouble, he’d fist fight that guy. 

The rest of the walk was of Chris trying to cheer you up a bit. He told you funny stories of him and his buddies, of the cast on past tours, and just about anything he thought would get you to laugh. Nothing was working. 

Sebastian held the door for you as you went in. Chris and Sebastian followed you in, waiting for your wordlessly as you picked up what you needed. The only occupant was a lonely, very tired clerk sitting at the counter looking like he was going to sleep for weeks when he got off shift. You shopped pretty quickly, grabbing a few candy bars, a bottled drink, tampons, some generic brand Tylenol and a pack of sleeping pills before heading to the zombie clerk.

“You have to buy Naloxone with this purchase because you’re buying an acetaminophen. Store policy.” His dead eyes bore into you as you pulled some money from your wallet.

You give a small nod of acknowledgment. He rings up the box and throws the Naloxone in the small plastic bag with all of your other items. You hand him some cash and he gives you your change.

“Ready?” Chris asks, yawning slightly.

“Yeah,” You felt the way zombie clerk looked: tired and totally fucking dead inside.

The three of you walked back to the hotel at the same pace as before. This time it was silent. The walk lasted about the same time, 10 minutes or so each way. The three of you took the stairs up to the third floor.

You held the door to the stairs open for them.

“Thanks again, guys. I really appreciated this.”

“Anything for you, Y/N.” Chris smiles sleepily. 

“Yeah, you’re welcome. Get some rest.” Sebastian says, moving to hug you goodnight. You wrapped your arms around Sebastian’s neck and he wrapped his arms around your back. He was warm and smelled like old spice. It was nice and you felt safe. Safe enough to want to spill your heart out, safe enough to tell him what you’ve been thinking, how you’ve been so hard on yourself with no good results. You want him to help you. You want him to tell you that everything was going to work out and that you’ll be okay. But you don’t. You simply let go and hug Chris.

Chris was warmer than Sebastian, and he smelled like soft mint. You felt just as safe. Tears pricked your eyes; you really didn’t want to go back to your room and be alone. You wanted to stay with them and talk or listen to them talk. Just being around them makes you feel a little better.

But you let go. You willed your tears away and thanked them one last time before going to your room, unaware that the two men had stayed in the hallway.

You walked down the small entryway and set your bag on the desk by your laptop bag. You pulled out the sleeping pill, popped two in your hand and swallowed them dry. You stayed seated at the desk. A stack of failed papers sat adjacent to the laptop bag. Frowning, you picked them up, barely able to make out the critiques in the dull light of your hotel room. Red pen was scribbled on a paper that you had wrote reviewing FDR’s presidency.

45%. You had received a 45 % on this essay. It took you almost two weeks to write and you got a 45%.

I’m fucking useless. I can’t even write an essay right.

You moved on to another essay you had written, This was your worst, You got a 30% on it. 30% was the lowest grade you had gotten on something that you put genuine effort into.

God, why do I even try anymore. What’s the point of school. I should just drop out, fuck. I should focus on acting. I can at least do that okay.

A drop of water fell on the paper in front of you, smearing the red ink that covered the page. Huh. You didn’t even realize you were crying again.

I’m just a dumb baby. Why do I try anymore? I should go home. My parents were right about me. I’ll never be good enough, I should just go home.

Your breathing sped up and you choked on your sobs in a weak attempt to stay quiet.

Why aren’t the pills working? I want to sleep.

You fumbled with the packaging of the pills, four more falling into your hands. You throw them in your mouth and swallow them dry. 

Your hands start to burn. It blossoms through your arms and through your chest, moving down to your feet. Your head throbs as though someone is leading a marching band through your cerebral cortex. You wince, rubbing your temples.

The pounding gets stronger and stronger until you can’t take it. You reach for the plastic shopping bag on your desk. You snatch the painkillers from it, rip off the packaging on grab a small handful. Without thinking, you shoved them into your mouth and swallowed. 

You couldn’t breath. They had gotten stuck while you attempted to swallow them. You needed water. You spotted your water bottle on the nightstand. You jumped up and rushed over to the nightstand, you tripped on something. The world is a blur around you as your forehead collides with the sharp corner of the wooden table. You yelp, sucking in a sharp breath. You push your head into your hands, putting pressure on the wound. 

The pain moves quickly. Soon, all you could think about was the burning and the pounding in your head. You push yourself against the small space between the wall and the nightstand, head still held by your hand.

You heard three dull thumps resonate through the room. Then you heard your name. More thumps then nothing. The pain was the only thing on your mind. That and the fact that your hands and cheeks were wet and beginning to grow sticky.

Why are my hands wet? I cry from my eyes, not my forehead. Oh, fuck this hurts.

You didn’t know how much time had passed from the thumping and someone pulling at your hands. You didn’t try to resist them. You were fading. Everything was blurry, the blob in front of you reminded you of your friend Chris. He was a real cool guy with really pretty eyes. But there were two of the colored blobs and Chris didn’t have a twin so it couldn’t be him.

Then you were being laid down on your side with your arms being manipulated. You tried to keep your eyes open but you were tired and in pain. You wanted it to go away. 

Why isn’t it going away?

_____________________

You reminded Chris of a puppy- energetic, affectionate and adorable in a way that only young and small things could be.

So he knew that something was up when you walked out of your hotel room with red and puffy eyes. This was more than pain and your hormones being out of whack. The walk confirmed his suspicions. You were quite- too quiet. You barely spoke. You barely looked at the two of them.

The hug made him want to stay with you for the rest of the night and talk. You almost cried when you hugged him. The only time you ever cried was when you had to for a scene.

Truth be told, he didn’t want to let you go. He holds you tightly, even when you loosen your grip on him.

“There’s something wrong, man,” Chris said after the door to your room closed. “She never cries.”

“She’s probably in pain. We aren’t girls, but we’ve heard how painful periods can be.”

“This is different.”

“Let’s talk to her in the morning, She’s probably stressed and in pain,”

Chris relented, following Sebastian to their room and laying in his bed, He didn’t get to sleep at all. He doesn’t know how much time had passed before he heard a loud thump and a yelp through the wall. He sat up, throwing the covers off of him. That was from your room. He bit his lip and stood up, slipping on some slide on shoes, he went to your room next door.

He knocked, “Y/N?” He knocked more. “Are you okay? Can you let me in, hon? I want to talk to you.”

No answer. He frowned. He tried one more time. Nothing, again. Chris looked around the hall while he waited impatiently for you to answer. His heart began to pump a little faster and something tugged in his gut. He needed to make sure you were okay and you really weren’t making it easy. After nothing happened again, he went down the stairs and to the front desk. Unsurprisingly, the front desk was empty. He rang a small bell they had. A tired young woman came from the back.

“Hi, how can I help you?" 

‘I lost the card to my room, can I get a new one?” Chris quickly lied. 

“Sure, what room?”

“321.”

She pulled out a key and magnetized it. In any other situation, he would be appalled that this woman didn’t ask for his name or even check that he was the right occupant of the room, but he was grateful for it now.

He practically sprinted up the stairs to your room, opened the door and walked in. It was dark, the only thing lighting the room was the lamp on the desk.

He fully expected to see you asleep on the bed and confirm that the thump and yelp was something else. But the only thing on the bed was your wallet and phone. He frowned, looking around. The bathroom door was open and you weren’t there.

He turned, looking around some more. Then he saw you. You were curled up between the nightstand and the bed. Your hands were cradling your forehead in shaking hands.

“Y/N, sweetie? Are you okay? Did something happen?” He spoke gently, trying not to startle you.

You didn’t even look up at him. He crouched down by you, gently pulling a hand away from your face. It was shaking horribly and covered in a red substance he prayed wasn’t blood. He pulled the other one away too. This one was drenched in what was most definitely blood and shaking as well. Your face was covered in it; it was dripping down your cheeks, over your nose, in your hair and even on your clothes.

“Y/N? Oh, my god! What happened to you?” He asked, brushing some hair that got caught in the mess away from your face. 

You eyes were heavily lidded and unfocused. You were staring him in the face but it was like he wasn’t there. Then he looked at your face closer. Your lips were turning purple.

“Fuck!” He exclaimed, patting his pockets for his phone. He stood up from his crouched position he quickly grabbed your phone, opened emergency contacts and dialed 911.

“911, what is your emergency?” A woman answered.

“Something is wrong with my friend. Her head is covered in blood, she’s shaking uncontrollably, and her lips are turning purple, I need an ambulance.”

“Okay, what is your location?”

“W Hotel on west seventh and main. Hurry, please.” Chris begged, pacing in front of your limp body.

“Okay, we have one en route. What’s your name sir?”

“Chris,”

“Okay, Chris. What room are you in?”

“I’m in room 321.”

“Is she responsive?“

"No, she’s just staring at me. I don’t think she knows I’m here,” Chris was crying at this point. With tears steadily flowing down his cheeks, he tried to stay calm for you.

“Did she consume any dangerous substances?”

“I-I don’t know. Fuck, how far is the ambulance?”

“They’re almost there.”

“Okay, please hurry, I think she’s dying.” Chris choked the last part out. This wasn’t real. There was no way that you, a 16 year old girl had just attempted suicide. 

No way. 

But it was real. You were laying in front of him, dying and he could do nothing about it.

Its takes too long for the medics to get there. But when they do, Chris steps back and panics in the corner.

They’re leaning over you and asking him things but he can’t think. He can’t breathe. Everything he knew about managing his anxiety went out the fucking window. 

He ended up riding to a hospital in the same car as you, holding your hand as they stabilized you. When they got to the hospital, he filled out paperwork for you.

Then he waited. 

He was led to a smaller, private waiting room and he sat. And he waited. The rest of the cast came in. Most of them were still in the clothes they had slept in. Sebastian and Robert had gotten their first, awoken by the medics and the noise in the hall. They got in a cab or something and followed the ambulance to the hospital. They just sat together in silence while everyone else trickled in.

Lizzie was crying. Hell, they all were in a state of shock. Chris just sat in a chair in a corner, trying to process what he saw.

How did she bleed that much? Why was she bleeding in the first place? Was it on purpose? Was it pills? Did she commit suicide? Why didn’t I see it? Is she dead? How could I have let this happen? His mind was going a mile a minute, but he sat completely still.

He was obviously oblivious to something because if he had done something earlier than this wouldn’t have done this. He could have stopped this from happening. 

The doctor comes in about two hours after everyone arrives. Its 3 AM.

“Are you here for Y/N Y/L/N?” He asks, holding a clipboard.

“Yes, we are.” Robert says, standing up. 

“What happened?”

“Is she okay?”

“My name is Dr. Ashby,” He began. "Y/N overdosed on drugs. We pumped her stomach. It’s highly unlikely any permanent damage has been done from the pills, but she has fractured a small part of her forehead. We believe that she has a concussion. She’s resting right now. We don’t know when she’ll wake up, but she will be okay.”

“Do you think she did it on purpose?” Tom asks softly, eyes glistening and red. 

The doctor sighed. “In my professional opinion, no. There wasn’t enough in her system to kill her or do any permanent damage. However, if you want a more accurate opinion, you should ask the officers that went to the hotel or Y/N after she’s had some time to recover.”

“Thank you Dr. Asby," 

The doctor left. The sounds of sniffling and soft crying still filled the room. Hours ticked by slowly. Too slowly.

"Are you okay, Chris?” Robert asked, placing a hand on his shoulder. Chris looked up at him. His dark hair was messy and his eyes were watery like the rest of theirs. Chris sighed and shook his head.

“There was so much blood,” He started. “Her lips were purple- she was dying. She didn’t even know I was there.” Robert sat next to him.

“I was with her before it happened. I could-”

“Don’t do that to yourself, Chris. You couldn’t have known that this was going to happen.”

“I know,” Chris rubbed his face, then ran a hand through his hair.

“You found her, and she’s going to be okay. That’s what matters right now,”

_____________________

The sound of beeping and ringing woke you up. It was constant, loud and probably the most annoying thing that you could have ever imagined waking up to. You patted your bedside, looking for your phone to turn off the alarm and stop the ringing. The sharp stench of bleach filled your nose, making you cringe. Your hotel did not smell like bleach.

Something’s wrong.

You opened your eyes, wincing at the bright lights. You brought an arm up cover your eyes only to find that you were hooked up to a machine. A heart monitor was at your side.

Okay. Why the fuck am I in a hospital? What the fuck? Why does my head hurt so fucking bad?

You sat up, despite feeling weak. You glanced around and began to panic, half tempted to bolt. You hated hospitals. That was a mistake. With the heart rate speeding up , the heart monitor followed suit. Your head throbbed from the added noise. Lying back down, you closed your eyes, taking deep breaths to try and think through whatever the fuck landed you in a hospital with this amount of head pain.

I was on a walk. It was night and I was with Seb and Chris. I went to a store. I bought some sleeping pills. I took them. Oh, my god. I overdosed. But why does my head hurt so fucking much?

You tried sitting up again after a few minutes. This time, you did it slow enough and kept calm enough to process everything that happened and why you were in a hospital.

Soon enough, a nurse came in. She smiled gently when she saw you awake. “Hi, Y/N. How are feeling?”

“My head hurts. A lot. What happened?”

“You overdosed on pills and you fractured your forehead I’m going to call your doctor, hang tight.” She said, still smiling.

Okay. I overdosed on pills by accident. And broke my skull. Okay. What the fuck. I could have died. Cool. What the fuck is wrong with me?

You took a few deep breaths as you waited for the doctor. He didn’t take long to get there, surprisingly. He was older, had thinning hair and a small beer belly. “Good evening, Miss Y/L/N. My name is Dr. Ashby. How is your head?”

“It hurts. A lot. My ears are ringing”

He nods, writing what you said on a clipboard. “Do you remember what happened?”

“I was on a walk with two of my coworkers and I bought some sleeping pills. I took some and I woke up here.”

“Were you trying to harm yourself at all?”

You shake your head. Another mistake. More pain shot through your head, making your wince, and hold your forehead where the pain was at its worst. “No, no. I just wanted to sleep.”

He gives you another nod, writing that down as well. 

“What happened?” You ask. 

"You overdosed on pills. We don’t think any permanent damage was done, but we’d like to run some tests to confirm that,” He began, placing his pen in the clipboard. “You hit your head and you likely have a moderate concussion. We’ll run some tests for that too." 

"What time is it?” The doctor checks his watch. 

“It is 1 AM." 

"How long was I out?" 

"A little more than a day." 

"When can I leave?” You ask, trying to keep the desperation out of your voice. 

“We’re going to start running some tests, and once those come back we’ll discuss them and after that, we can let you go.”

“How long will that be?”

“We have a few blood tests that need to be run. Those will take a week to ten days to get back. Don’t worry, you don’t have to tay for those. However, we do have to run a couple diagnostics to see what happened to your head. We can have you out tomorrow or the day after. 

You let out a sigh of relief, shoulders slumping. “Thanks Dr. Ashby.”

He asked a series of questions and had you do a series of tasks, confirming that you did give yourself a concussion. After that was done, a nurse came into take your blood. After she left, you laid back in your bed, the ringing in your ears growing louder. 

Fuck. The media probably has their dirty little paws all over this. Y/N Y/L/N in the Hospital After Overdose. Marvel Actress Dies After Overdose, just kidding she’s alive. 

You sigh and close your eyes, wishing this was just a bad dream that you could wake up from. But the bandages on your head, the ringing in your ears and the monitors say otherwise. You struggle to fall back asleep, but when you do its fitful and full of unrest.

The morning came too quickly. Visiting hours started at nine and you knew your co-stars and likely a bunch of reporters were going to want to see you. It wasn’t that you didn’t care about your co-stars- it wasn’t that at all. You loved the people you worked with, but you scared of how they were going to react to what happened. 

“Good morning, Y/N,” Your nurse said. She was really sweet and wore a smile whenever you saw her. 

“Good morning,” You smile back, taking the meds she gave you. 

“Visiting hours begin in 15 minutes. I know you’re nervous. Don’t worry about any reporters or anyone like that coming in. We’ve made sure that no one of those sorts are allowed in.” That was a huge relief. 

“Thank you,” You’re sure you visibly relaxed. 

“You’re welcome, dear. Do you need anything else?" 

"No, thanks again,” She left the room, leaving you to your own devices. 

At exactly nine in the morning, Chris shuffles into your room with a bear and a small bouquet of sunflowers. 

“Hey,” He said softly. He looked rough. His hair was clean but untamed and his eyes were red. He was wearing a sweater and some jeans. You looked back down at the bed because what the fuck were you supposed to say? 

Hi, I’m so sorry for almost killing myself accidentally. Oops, guess my hand slipped and took too many pills when I was just trying to get to sleep. Yeah, no. 

“How are you feeling?” He pressed when you said nothing, placing a hand on your shoulder, rubbing it lightly. You shrugged, picking at the blanket on the bed. 

“C'mon, talk to me. What’s been goin’ on, kid?" 

"I don’t wanna talk about it,” You say softly. 

“Not talking about it isn’t working,” His voice hardened slightly.

“It was an accident,” You say, voice cracking. “I didn’t mean to, I just wanted to sleep.” Chris sighs, laying the flowers and bear on a chairs behind him. 

“Scoot over,” He says. You gave him a strange look as he stood above your bed, tears welling up in your eyes.

“I won’t bite. Promise,” 

You scoot to the other side of the bed. He half-sits half-stands and wraps his arms around you, placing a gentle hand on the back of your head, mindful of your injury, and cradles your head against his warm chest. He smells like soft mint. You feel safe. More tears well up in your eyes as you wrapped your arms around him in return. 

“Did you want to hurt yourself?” He was shaking lightly.

“No, I swear. I just wanted to get some sleep. That’s it. I don’t remember anything but taking a couple pills.” He sighed, your head rising and falling with his chest. 

“You scared the shit out of us, kid.” His voice wobbled, some tears fell in your hair. “God, don’t ever do that again,” He buried his face in your hair. You knew he was crying. You were too, the tears flowing freely down your face. 

“I’m sorry,” You say softly. “I really didn’t mean to.” He didn’t say anything else, he just held onto you. 

Maybe I can tell him. He can help. He obviously cares. He wouldn’t show up if he didn’t care about me. Just be honest. 

“I was doing homework,” You mumble, hiding your face in his chest. If you were going to tell him what’s been going on, there was no way you could look at him in the face. You’d back out and pretend everything was okay. He didn’t say anything. And if he reacted, you couldn’t see it. 

“I’m failing three of my classes. It was too hard to focus so I just turned it in. I wanted to go to bed so I looked for my sleeping pills, but I ran out. That’s why I asked you to go to the store with me.” You sit up and wipe the tears off your eyes. “I took some and they weren’t working so I took more. Then my hands were burning. That’s all I remember,”

Chris’s arms tightened around you, drawing you back to him. “You hit your head. There was a lot of blood, and your lips turned purple. I thought you were dying.”

“I’m sorry,” You say, breath hitching as you began to cry steadily again. You spent the next few moments crying into his chest. 

He must’ve found me. Fuck. Fuck me, fuck me. I’m terrible. 

“I’m so sorry, Chris, I am. I’m sorry,” You sputtered out, clutching his shirt in your hands. 

“I know. I forgive you now that I know you’re okay. Take a deep breath. It’s okay,” He says, running a hand up and down your back. He started to breath melodramatically and you followed suit, soon calming down enough to stop crying. 

“Everyone else wants to see you, but there’s a two person limit." 

"Then why’d you come alone?” Chris shook his head, reaching for the bear. He handed it to you.

“A bear?” A brown bear specifically. A brown bear dressed as Captain America with black dark blue buttons for eyes even more specifically.

“Yeah, I thought that if I couldn’t be there for you then another Captain America could,” 

“You know I’m not six, right?” You couldn’t help the smile that tugged on your lips. 

Chris shrugged, eyes still wet. You leaned over and hugged him again. 

“Thank you,” You say, voice cracking. “For everything.”

“Anything for you, Y/N.”

#tw: overdose #tw: hospital #tw: self loathing #tw: self deprecation #avengers cast x reader #chris evans x reader #sebastian stan x reader #teen!reader #avengers cast x teen!reader #chris evans x teen!reader #sebastian stan x teen!reader #self-hate #depression #overdose #accidental overdose #self harm

[troop-scoop]

Mistakes & Regrets XX

Summary: When a trip to your Dad’s hometown of Hawkins goes wrong, you end up in the year 1983, and have to learn how to cope with being stuck in the past.

Pairing: Steve Harrington / Future!Reader (like, a really slow burn)

Warnings: Swearing probably,

• • •

The sounds of crickets and the distant sound of an owl somewhere in the woods was pretty much the only things you could hear from your position by the control box. Other than the occasional very soft sound of someone’s clothing moving as they moved or shifted their weight. 

Lucas was next to you, leaning against the box. Everyone had remained silent after Jonathan and Nancy got into the car and drove up to the lab. 

“Is Will your dad?” He asked in a hushed voice.

Looking down at Lucas, his arms were crossed, and he was looking up at you with a mixed look of frustration and sadness. 

“What makes you think that?” Your voice was equally as quiet.

“You fell through a hole, ended up in the Upside Down and then crawled out in a different time period, that is, if you’re telling the truth. And you just said that you and Jonathan are family. “

Looking down at the pavement you sighed a bit, lifting up your backpack that was mostly empty. But, Steve forgot to empty out the smallest pocket in the bag, where you usually kept your school ID, and some extra cash in a wallet. It was the same one you’d had from home. 

Taking the pale faux yellow wallet out, you zipped it open, hesitating for a second, looking at the middle compartment you always refused to open. 

But, by all rights except blood, Lucas was your uncle. He’d sneak you cash at theme parks whenever all of you got together for the summer. You still remembered your fathers telling him he didn’t need to, and yet, he persisted. 

Opening the center compartment of the wallet you pulled out a small photo taken from an instax camera, of you and your dad. Often you forgot you had it. 

You didn’t look at it, but you just handed it to him. You’d been in sixth grade at some place for a field trip that he volunteered to chaperone. 

Lucas took it from you and looked at the photo. Your hair had been cut short, and you were clearly younger in the photo. And your dad had a smile on his face, an arm around your shoulders in a protective manner, his hair loosely styled, so a strand was in his face. 

And ever since this young version of your uncle Lucas met you, he thought you actually looked truly happy. Unbothered, like a normal kid with normal dreams and oblivious to the future or past she’d have to endure.

“This is Will?” It was obvious, but he still asked anyway, feeling the need to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating. 

“Yeah. That’s my dad.” 

“Who’s your mom?”

Shaking your head a bit you closed your wallet, not taking the photo back. “Her name’s Anne.” 

“Don’t you want this?” He asked, holding the photo out to you. Looking at it for a split second you could almost hear the clanging of a baking sheet while your dad placed it on the stove to make those halloween cookies every year. And you could see the burnt edges creeping towards the pumpkin in the center. It was no secret that Will was a good cook, but terrible at baking and trying to put premade things in the oven. 

“Not really.” 

“But he’s your dad-”

“And I don’t know him anymore.” It was dramatic, but it was true. It had been over a year since you last saw him as you wanted to remember him. If you’d known that being in that restaurant would be the last time you’d see him, you wouldn’t have yelled at Pa, you would’ve taken it all in, you would have said your goodbyes, and tried to remember how your fathers and little brother looked in the moment. 

You went over to Steve who was leaning against the yellow post at the other side of the box, hitting the butt of the flashlight on his palm. “Hey,” You breathed out.

Looking up at you, he smiled a bit. “Hi,” 

“Guys?”

Max was staring at the drive that lead up to the lab, and you could hear the sound of tires against the pavement. Looking over you saw Jonathan’s car and Hopper’s truck speeding towards them. 

Reaching over you grabbed Max as Steve grabbed Lucas and Dustin, pulling them out of the way. Jonathan sped past you, but Hopper stopped, looking at you five through the open passenger window. 

“Let’s go!”

Steve opened the door, rushing you and the middle schoolers into the back, with the three of them behind you, and you, leaning between the two front seats, as Steve got into the passenger side.

“What the fuck’s going on?”

“The gate, it’s wide open, and letting things through.” 

“Jesus.”

• • •

Sitting on the edge of the bathtub you had your head in your hands, only seeing your knees, the tile, and a few strands of hair that fell around your face in a type of curtain. 

You were convinced that from the day you were born, you’d admired and looked up to your dad. He was one of many male figures in your life. He gave you good morals, and taught you to be strong, how to be you, and not to let anyone control you. 

His biggest fear when you were growing up was that a man would try and control you, or that anyone who had a power dynamic with you, would try and manipulate you. But he was always paranoid. 

You had another thing to admire him for- bringing two kids into a world that he knew was fucked. Being confident enough in himself and Pa that they could protect you and Daniel. That you wouldn’t get hurt. 

Closing your eyes you concentrated, lowering yourself onto the floor, hugging yourself and grasping onto Steve’s jacket. You wanted to know how he’d done it. Gotten through such a fucked up time in his life at such a young age. How any of them did. Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Max. You were older, and all you wanted to do was close your eyes and disappear. 

Opening your eyes, everything around you was black, with about an inch of water around your feet. But ahead of you, you could see a familiar looking table, with familiar looking cookies, and a few pieces of cloth on the table. 

You saw your uncle Dustin sitting at the table, while your uncle Lucas sat across from him. 

“Should we tell them?” Lucas asked, looking down at something beside him. Slowly walking over, you could see a stroller next to him, an older baby in the seat, dressed in yellow and pink, with a blue sippy cup gripped tightly in their hands. They were maybe a year old. 

“You’re insane.” Dustin responded.  

Finally you placed it. It was one of the tables at the coffee shop you’d always gone to on Fridays with your dad. And the cloth on the table was a set of dirty baby clothes that had been neatly folded. 

“What?”

“We can’t. You know that. Will’s already terrified enough as it is, you don’t want him turning their condo into a baby friendly prison, do you?” 

Lucas’ face changed a bit as he looked down at the baby again. You could hear a muffled voice call out an order, and watched as Dustin got up, leaving Lucas sitting with an infant who was half asleep. 

He leaned over to the baby, unbuckling them from the seat and pulling them into his arms. “Hey, princess.” He greeted her with a sad smile. He stayed quiet, letting the baby lean against his shoulder, the sippy cup still in a death grip, almost empty, and you assumed that the infant was just a little too happy about having been given what looked like apple juice

But when you looked at her arm, you saw the birthmark you once had, the one that, after you burnt your arm, disappeared. 

It was you. 

You were a chubby baby.

Who wouldn’t let go of her juice even though Lucas tried to put it on the table. 

“Okay, I won’t take it.” He relented, pushing her messy hair back, watching as she began to drink from the bottle. “You’re gonna be strong one day, you know that?” He was quiet about it. “One of the strongest women I ever met. And brave.”

The baby looked up at him, done drinking.

“You remain kind, somehow. You’re going to be so loving and compassionate that sometimes, it’s annoying. You’re gonna save a lot of people, so don’t hold onto the guilt, don’t let it hurt you, or hold you back. You’re gonna go-”

“Y/n?” Opening your eyes, Steve was kneeling down in front of you. “Do you know what the hell a Mind Flayer is?” 

Furrowing your eyebrows, you nodded. You played DnD so often before that you knew plenty of the creatures, and the bosses you could fight, not to mention your dad talked about them all the time when helping you plan DnD games with the four friends you would hang out with. “Yeah, it takes over people’s brains. Wants to conquer shit like It's a British empire, why does that matter?” 

Looking over to the doorway you saw almost everyone peaking into the bathroom, staring at the two of you. 

“Steve? What’s going on?” 

Looking back at Steve, you saw that he was looking at them too, a hand holding your arm before he focused on you. “Did you have episodes? Like Will’s?” 

You nodded, slowly. Sitting up a bit more, your hand grabbing the one on your arm. How did he know about those? Did somebody tell him?

“When did they stop?” 

“A day or two, after Halloween.”

“Did you have one on Halloween?” Mike asked, suddenly pushing past Dustin and into the room, next to Steve. 

The memory of sitting in your shower, sobbing before it ended and you found Steve in your living room.

“Yeah. . . Why?”

“This Mind Flayer. . . you said it felt like it wanted to kill you?” Hopper asked.

“Wait, are we calling that weird cloud thingy Will and I saw a Mind Flayer?” You inquired. 

Everyone looked at each other, exchanging looks. But then you realized what Hopper said about Will. And the day he started acting weird. The same day you had your last episode. 

“It’s in Will, isn’t it? So. . . if it spies on us, through Will. . . is he gonna try and kill me?” 

“That’s the leading theory.” 

Within a few minutes, you were tucked away in a corner of the kitchen, looking out the window as the shed was basically torn apart, with everything pulled out, so they could take Will in there. 

You didn’t know why the Mind Flayer wanted to hurt you, if it even did. But you were scared, and as usual, you wanted your dad. 

Watching as Steve and Nancy helped Hopper take everything out, you climbed onto the kitchen counter, basically sitting in the empty sink and taking in the backyard that would be a pain to clean up. 

What was El up to? Last you saw her, you told her to ‘call’ you if Hopper agreed to trick or treating. And by call, you meant manipulating your radio in the Volkswagen. But that never happened and so you didn’t get to take her trick or treating like she wanted to. 

“Steve compared the Mind Flayer to Germans.” Jonathan spoke up, walking over to you , handing you a glass of water. 

“You mean. . . Arian Nazies?” You furrowed your brows, looking up at your uncle who shook his head. 

“No, I mean Germans. He said Germans. Dustin called him on it.” Smiling a bit you nodded, looking down at the ice water. Steve could have stupid moments. Especially when he hadn’t gotten sleep since the night before, when you’d gone to Dustin’s cellar. 

A comfortable silence took over, except for the rustling outside where they were setting the shed up to hold Will in. But you knew something was on Jonathan’s mind. You were family after all. 

“What’s wrong?” You asked, looking over to him. 

He shrugged, shaking his head a bit. He fought with himself for a split second before finally talking. “You’ve been here for over a year, and it’s kinda obvious to everyone.” 

“What’s obvious?” You asked, an amused smile on your face while you tilted your head. 

He gave a look, reaching out to your arm and tugging a bit at the sleeve of the jacket. “It’s like 50 degrees outside, and he still let you keep the jacket, even though the radiator’s on.”

You shrugged, “Steve’s forgetful, and when he’s tired he doesn’t seem to remember what kind of weather it is outside.” excusing it you looked at the window, not quite knowing what Jonathan was trying to get at. 

“You know that about him. According to Nancy he knows you usually get from the gas station, and that your favorite movie is Red Dawn after he took you to see it-”

“Nancy wouldn’t have gone, it’s a war movie-”

“Y/n,” he started in a firm, yet affectionate tone as he took the glass from you, setting it on the counter. “You’ve been friends since last year, and he cares about you. A lot.” You were going to say that it was because you were friends, but you knew he would have stopped you. 

“You’re both oblivious.” he scoffed in an amused tone, handing you the water again, before walking out into the backyard. 

Hopping out of the sink, you followed after him, leaving the glass. 

Zipping up the jacket you caught up with Jonathan, grabbing onto his arm and following him to the clothes line where Joyce was taking clothes down so they could use the rope. 

“Jonathan, what are you talking about?” 

You were confused, and frankly? A bit worried. Everything that was going on, and Jonathan was being cryptic and ominous about your friendship with Steve. Talking about the way you guys treated each other and knew things and trusted each other in ways that plenty of other people didn’t. 

Like how you knew that when he cried, it sounded like his entire heart was shattering, and that he wouldn’t be able to put it back together. And how you trusted him to get you home when you were drunk off your ass on New Years eve. How he trusted you enough to share things he usually didn’t, so much to the point where he’d cry in front of you and go to you for comfort, just like you would with him, if everything ever made you cry didn’t revolve around your biggest mistake. 

Oh.

Oh.

Oh no.

Stopping dead in your tracks, you were sure you looked like a deer caught in headlights, clinging onto the hem of the jacket, and staring at the wet grass. 

Was it obvious to everyone else? That you’d trust Steve with your life more than your grandma? More than Hopper? Was it obvious because you didn’t hesitate to punch him when he was being homophobic with Jonathan after committing a hate crime? A hate crime that you tried to make him go fix, that he eventually did after running from the cops. 

Was it obvious because you forgave him so quickly right afterwards? 

You didn’t know where it started or where it ended. 

Was Jonathan implying that you had feelings for your best friend who, time wise, was almost forty years older than you, but biologically only two? 

Or were you making that up in your head? Drawing assumptions of what other people thought without reason? 

But if that was what Jonathan thought, then did you have feelings for Steve? 

No, no of course not, he was just a friend. Right?

• • • 

@disneyprincessbuffyannesummers​ @nxncywheeler​ @yllwtaxi​ @songofcosplay​ @potatopooper05​ @cheesecakeisapie @robinsdolan​ @yall-wildin-like-siriusly​  @bisexualpears​ @ilovebucketbarnes​ @random-thoughts-003​ @mochminnie  @abbyg217​​ @stevexscoops​​ @cashmereandtears​​ @iris-suoh​​  @supred12​

#steve harrington #steve x reader #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington x you #Steve Harrington slow burn

[sawyersick]

ok I’m forever going to be pissy about this so it deserves its own post

Read under the cut for why I’m BIG MAD about my teenage years this was a lot longer than I thought it would be so I’m sorry but I would appreciate it if you read it nonetheless even though I’m probs yelling into the void <3 mwah luv u 

I am SOOOOoooOOOOooOOO fucking mad that I had super controlling parents as a teenager and still do. I feel simultaneously too old and too immature at the same time because I wasn't allowed to do anything thanks to my parents and their crazy rules and their mean world syndrome and the fact that I had a 7pm curfew and I had to tell them where I was going and for how long and who I would be with and what we would be doing and who their parents were and what their number was every single time I left the house for more than 10 minutes

Like it makes me feel really immature because I just simply never got the same experiences that other peers my age had and I couldn't go to parties and stuff like that and I’m just experientially behind. Like I remember at around 19 or 20 years old I literally took sex advice from a 15 year old (I am not a pedo I promise) and I was going to concerts where the lead singers were 16 and I was 18 with my fucking dad as a chaperone sitting on the punk couch in the back. but I also feel too old because I'm at the point where even though I'm still relatively young, I'm old enough where it would be pathetic to do stupid stuff like get drunk or go out for "night drives" and fuck around or whatever and I can't get those years back

It's like if everyone got to go to Disney World as a kid in elementary school and then came back and talked about it and I always wanted to go to Disney World too because everyone else did but then I couldn't go to Disney World until I was like 26 or whatever and the magic just isn't there and it's not the same and it's never going to be the same and even though I still made it to Disney World it's not the same as going to Disney World as a small child and I will never be able to experience that magic the same way people around me did when they were younger >:(

and sometimes people try to make me feel better by saying “oh, well partying isn't even that fun it's lame and I didn't go to prom either so it's okay you didn't miss out on much!! Getting smashed and high is dumb!” But the point is that they HAD that choice and chose not to when I never got that choice in the first place and it was taken away from me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I feel like I had my adolescence taken away from me and I'm so mad that I'm never going to get it back and I probably need a therapist

#shut up sawyer #i am big mad

[strangeartwritingoaf]

|| So in honor of the S4 being out for almost a year come early June I wrote this for a group of friends, and I highly doubt anyone outside of them will see this, but if you do and you like it, let me know ❤. I've been working on it the last couple of days, and I have a sequel coming up of Justin actually crossing over and finding peace.

LOVE IS GONE

🎵 I'm sorry. Don't leave me. I want you here with me. I know that your love is gone. I can't breathe. I'm so weak. I know this isn't easy. Don't tell me that your love is gone, that your love is gone. 🎵

Prom. It was something that Justin had been looking forward to all year. How could he not? After all, what could possibly be better than dancing with the love of his life and making memories with those he loved the most? Nothing, that's what.

In recent weeks however, Justin hadn't been himself at all. He was hardly eating, and when he was he would always seemed so sickly. He was having terrible night sweats, coughing and headaches were also something Justin couldn't seem to be able to get rid of recently as well. At first Justin chalked it up to be withdraw symptoms or allergies, but that couldn't be it. After all the allergy and flu meds he had been given nothing was helping, if anything it was making the sickness worse, and he hadn't relapsed in months. On top of that he seemed to have marks on his neck that he didn't know how he had gotten. It looked almost like a bruise of some sort, yet he hadn't been in a single fight since the Riot, and even then he came out unharmed.

Regardless of how he was feeling, he knew he needed to force himself up out of bed, put on the tuxedo, and get his ass to this dance. Jessica and Clay were depending on him being there. Jessica had put a lot on the line to make prom possible in the first place and he wasn't about to let all of her hard work go to waist.

As the brunette pushes himself up weakly off the bed he could here Jensen's voice ringing in his head. "I'm really worried about you." 

"Yeah?" Justin remembered commenting  back. "I'm worried about me too...." Justin couldn't allow himself to be the reason that Clay and Jessica wouldn't have a good time  tonight. After all the shit he had managed to put them through in the past year, he'd be dammed if he was going to let them worry about him instead of dancing and having fun. They didn't deserve that.

It took the boy awhile, but upon getting dressed and fixing his hair he headed into the main house, seeing Matt getting ready to watch a movie. "Justin, hey.. what're you still doing here? I thought you guys had already left for the dance?"  Matt asked sitting his popcorn to the side. "No--C-Clay did. He went with Charlie and Alex. Clay offered to let me tag along earlier but I wasn't feeling much like going then."

Mr. Jensen's face filled with worry at the boy's comment. "Don't worry though-- I'm feeling much better now. I promise."  Justin lied as he put on a soft fake smile. Justin could tell by Matt's face that he wasn't buying it. He knew something was wrong, but he didn't want to pry too much. "Ohh? You are? That's good to hear. Care to join me for a movie? Lanny's at the dace chaperoning, so it's just us guys here tonight. If that's something you're up for?"

Justin was tempted to take him up on the movie offer, but he couldn't let Jessica and Clay down. He was determined to let them have the prom that they both deserved. "A-actually, if you don't mind, c-could you maybe drive me to the dance? I could ride back home with Clay so you wouldn't have to worry about picking me up. I just--I really wanna go to be with all of them, you know?"  Justin asked, watching as the older male nodded to him, standing up from the couch to find his keys. "Of course. Just let me get my keys and we'll head out."  Justin nods as he looks around the room, his hand resting on the arm of the couch so he could  keep his balance up.

This didn't go unnoticed from Matt who's eyes instantly fill with worry upon finding the keys. "You sure you're okay? You're not just saying that? Maybe you should just go lay back down and rest--"  Matt began to say as Justin shakes his head in protest.

"I've been resting, Mr. Jensen. That's all I've been doing here lately. And I really wanna go to this dance. I'm not letting anything get in my way of dancing with Jessica. Even if it kills me, I won't let her miss out on a memorable prom." Justin protested stubbornly. Mr. Jensen laughed softly at Justin's over dramatic comment as the two made their way to Matt's car.

The drive to the prom was only about 30 minutes long, but to Justin it felt like an eternity. He just wanted to be there already. He wanted to feel the warm embrace of Jessica in his arms, hearing the sound of her voice as they danced to the music. That alone would make him the happiest person on earth.

Matt parks the car in the lot giving Justin a soft smile and a pat on the back as Justin headed out of the car. "Justin, wait..."  Justin stops in his tracks as he heard Matt's voice. What could he possibly want? "Yeah?" Justin asked. "Have fun tonight, kid. And if you start feeling bad again I'm just a phone call away. I wouldn't mind coming and picking you back up. Be safe."

Justin nods, smiling gratefully to him as he headed into the dace. Matt never would've imagined that would be the very last time he would ever talk to Justin again. Nobody ever could've imagined what was to come for their beloved jock.

Upon entering the dance hall, Justin's eyes light up with excitement. It was so beautiful, more beautiful than he ever thought it would be. Jessica did an amazing job helping decorate. He couldn't wait to boast about how /his/ girlfriend did all of this.

As he looks around the room he sees Charlie and Alex in their own little world enjoying each other's company. He sees Clay and Mrs. Jensen talking, and Tony of course was with Caleb, over by the food area.  Out of all the people he laid eyes on none of them were Jessica. He almost started to doubt that she had even came to the dance in the first place.

After all, who could blame her? She had put all the hard work into this dance only to not have been asked to go by the one person she loved the most. He had been so distracted with everything that had happened with Clay and his own sickness that he never got around to asking her.

Justin turned to the door, about to leave the dance when he caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye. Was that her? Did Jessica come to the dance after all? When Justin turned back around sure enough there she was. Jessica Davis. The love of his life. She looked as beautiful as always. No matter how he was feeling at the moment, the look on her face when she laid eyes on him said it all.

He made the right decision by coming after all. Everything in that moment was worth it to him. All the pain he was in, all the sickness didn't matter to him anymore. He was done letting it control his life.

Justin watched as Jessica approached him, offering her a warm smile. "Hey." He tried his best to ignore his body's want to sit down, but he could feel his balance wanting to give out. Not wanting to alarm her over something as being a little dizzy, Justin cups her cheeks with his hands gently, but enough to keep him on his feet. He feels her head rest on his shoulder as her arms go around his neck "I love you more than life." He says softly in her ear. "Don't love anything more than life." Jessica reminds him, leaning up from his shoulder to meet his eyes. "Yeah, okay.. whatever you want." 

Usually Justin would argue or protest, but if he were being honest, Justin didn't have the energy to do too much of anything. It took everything he had to keep himself up. "Look who decided to show up after all...." Justin heard Charlie say, as the male approached the two of them. Alex and Clay followed close behind.

"I told you he would change his mind. See! Nothing to worry about!" Alex commented glancing over to Clay. "Yeah, what he said. Nothing to worry about..."  Justin says more to himself than to those around him.

"Are you hungry? You should try the seafood bar they have set up over there! It's fucking amazing!"  Clay asked gesturing to where Tony and Caleb had been Justin moments earlier. "No thanks, I'm good. I already ate before I came." Justin lies, he didn't wanna take the risk of potentially getting sick again and make everyone worry.

"Maybe later...you guys should go ahead though. I was kinda coming here for another reason other then food..." Justin hinted, looking to Jessica and then back to the three of them. "Okay, okay, we're going! Have fun! We'll be around!"  Justin watches as the three leave, walking back to their table as he was left alone with Jessica.

As the night progresses on, Justin continues to dance with Jessica. Despite his body's efforts to get him to slow down, he was having the time of his life. He loved every minute with the brunette, cherishing every second he got to be with her in this moment.

He wanted to remember this moment for the rest of his life. Just the two of them, dancing happily without a care in the world. Little did he know all of the joy he was feeling right now would all come to an end so soon.

As Justin twirled Jessica around he could feel himself getting dizzy once again. Just as he had done many times before he tries his best to dance past the feeling and continue on as normal but this time it was different. He could feel his heartbeat beginning to pick up speed rapidly. Breathing became more difficult for the male as he clutched on to Jessica's arm for support. What was going on? "Jess..."  Justin managed to get out as he feels himself falling to the floor.

He could hear everything around him but he couldn't get his body to listen. He had no way of opening his eyes or letting anyone know he was alright.

All he wanted to do was give everyone the prom they deserved but all he did was make it worse for everyone, especially for Jessica and Clay.

"JUSTIN!" Clay yells as he rushes over to the males side. "HELP! SOMEBODY HELP!"  Jessica calls out panicked. Justin's pulse was very low, and his breathing was shallow to none. "Mom...what's happening? What's going on?" Clay asked his voice breaking, looking to his mother, who stood beside him, hand over her mouth in fear. Clay's eyes filled with tears as everyone watched Justin being taken out of the room on a stretcher, headed for the ambulance. "I don't know, sweetie. But it's gonna be okay. It has to be." Lanny says softly, barley above a whisper. "JUSTIN! NO! LET ME GO WITH HIM! PLEASE! JUS-" Jessica begged the paramedics as they shove her back. Clay grabs her from behind, pulling her close to him to calm her down. "Jess, it's gonna be okay! It's okay! Ride with us to the hospital. He's gonna be okay. " 

Jessica turns around to face Clay, wrapping her arms around him as she cries into his chest. "What's happening to him?" Jessica choked out. Clay shakes his head as he continues to hold her. "I have absolutely no idea."  As the teens rush to Mrs. Jensen's car, Clay calls Matt letting him know what happened and to meet the three of them at the hospital. 

Once at the hospital with tear soaked faces and puffy noses they waited eagerly for the doctors arrival. "Party for Justin Foley..."  The doctor calls out after what felt like hours. "Th-That's us. is Justin gonna be alright?"

Mrs. Jensen asked as she clutched her husband's hand nervously. The doctor watched as she seen who she could only believe was most of his friends around. "Are you mom?" The doctor asked. Lanny nods her head. "I'm his adoptive mom, yes." The doctor looks to her and offers a soft smile. "Is there somewhere we can talk privately? Only immediate family." 

Clay's heart sank as he heard those words. This couldn't be good. Usually if it were good news doctors wouldn't pull someone away privately, would they? Clay and his parents stood up from their seats, following the doctor as Clay stops in his tracks, turning back to look at a sniffing Jessica. "Mom--would it be okay if Jess comes with us?"  Lanny thought about it for a moment as she shook her head. "Clay, I don't know if that's such a good idea... maybe we could just-" Matt began to say as Clay shakes his head in protest. "Dad--please, she's gonna find out regardless. Why can't she find out with us? She means everything to him, more than anyone else. She's family."  Clay pleaded with his parents. His dad sighs heavily as his mom nods in agreement. "He does have a point, hunny. What could it hurt?"

His mom asked, looking up to her husband. "Fine, okay. She can come with us." Mr. Jensen sniffled as Clay extended his hand to Jessica, her hesitantly accepting it. What if she couldn't handle the news? What if none of them could? The two walk behind his parents as the doctor leads the four of them to a private room.

The doctor makes sure they are each seated before she gives them the heartbreaking news. "I'm afraid I have some difficult news to share. Justin has tested positive for HIV one, and based on his symptoms we believe that it has progressed to AIDs." Jessica covers her mouth, tears starting to stream down her face once again as she heard the news.

" How is that possible? He had the flu. He's been tired..." Mr Jensen thought out loud. "Well, HIV has a long period of latency after infection. Which means that Justin may not have shown any symptoms for such a long time. With his IV drug use and extended periods of homelessness this would've made him more susceptible to rapid progression, and according to his records he was never tested."

The doctor continued.  Jessica wanted to leave. She didn't want to hear another word come out of the doctor's mouth. All she wanted was to throw herself in Justin's arms and for him to tell her everything was gonna be okay, but her feet wouldn't move. Instead she clutched onto Clay's arm the best she could. Resting her head on his shoulder and prayed that this was all just one horrible nightmare.

"How has he never been tested? He had a complete physical."  Mrs. Jensen protested in disbelief. "Testing requires patient consent. It's not uncommon for a young man with a history of  IV drug use and sex work to avoid testing." Clay couldn't believe what she was saying. Had he heard correctly? Sex work? Justin never mentioned anything about sex work to him before.

" Sex work?" Clay asked out loud. "Justin never spoke to you about the time he spent homeless?"  The doctor asked puzzled. Clay shakes his head. "Not about that. No." Clay looks to Jessica for a moment. "Did you know?" Jessica nods her head sadly wiping her eyes with the  sleeve of her shirt. "Yeah, he-- we talked about it once, after the assembly a few months ago. But we never talked about it since." Jessica stated honestly.

Clay felt so hurt by that statement. How come Justin felt comfortable enough to talk about it with Jessica but not with him? Did Justin not trust him? Did he think it would effect their relationship by Clay knowing what he did? Surely it wasn't that. It couldn't be. Justin should know that no matter what, he'd always be there and care for him, regardless of anything he's done. Justin's his brother. That's what siblings do for each other.

"I'm afraid his symptoms are too progressed for treatment. I give him a few days before the inevitable unfortunately takes place."  Clay shakes his head, not wanting to hear another word. "So...you're-- you're telling me he's--dying?"  Clay asked. The doctor nods sadly not being able to give him a verbal answer as she excuses herself.

Clay could feel his world shattering all over again. First he lost Jeff in the car accident, then he lost Hannah, and now he was losing Justin. Why? Why didn't Justin let himself get tested sooner? How was he supposed to go on with his life without his brother by his side? This couldn't be happening. This wasn't real.

"I can't believe this is actually happening..." Jessica says softly, crying into Clay's shoulder once more. This wasn't supposed to be how they would spend prom. They were supposed to graduate. Get married. Start a family and watch their kids grow up. Have grandchildren and tell them all the exciting adventures that happened while their parents were their age. Now none of that was ever gonna happen.

Nobody would ever love her the way Justin did. Sure, maybe eventually she'd move on from him and find someone new, but she didn't want just anyone. She wanted him. He was the Jack to her Rose. The Sid to her Nancy. He was her lifeline. How was she supposed to live with the knowing that he wasn't going to be around to protect her?

As the next day approached the rest of their group of friends learned about Justin's unfortunate fate. It was also the day Justin would have to start giving out his goodbyes to everyone.

He knew he was dying a few hours after Clay had been notified, Justin awoke in the hospital to learn of his fate. This was never how he imagined his own death. He hadn't planned on dying anytime soon, but then again, does anyone?

Sure, maybe a few who have lived out there lives and are ready to see the great beyond, but someone Justin's age shouldn't have to think about things like this, not yet.

Clay was the first person to enter the room that morning, trying to give Justin a soft smile. Justin tries to return the smile, his eyes filled with sadness as he sees Clay. What had he done? Clay looked like a total disaster. He looked as though he hadn't slept and had been crying all night.

Clay takes a shakey breath as he approaches Justin, sitting in the hospital seat beside the Male's bedside. "Justin... I- I don't know what to say, or even where to begin. I wish I could just find a way to fix you and make you better again." Justin laughs sadly, trying to lighten the mood a bit. He wanted to make a playful comment like he normally would but he couldn't.

It was hard for Justin to say much of anything at the moment. "Same.." Was the only thing Justin managed to get out. "I never would've thought I'd live to see the day that  my middle school bully would turn out to be my best friend and the best brother anyone could ever ask for." Clay managed to wipe the small tear from his eye, hoping Justin didn't notice.  Justin too felt his eyes watering, knowing this would probably be the last time he would ever speak to his brother again.

"Thank you for saving my life. I mean, more times than you even know. You've always been there for me through everything in the past year. I just wish I could've been there for you. I'm so sorry for everything I've ever said to you.  I never meant any of those things I said at the party or any of those other times."

Clay once again felt himself crying as he tried to cover his face, not wanting Justin to see him breakdown.  "I'm so sorry, Justin, I don't know how to do this. I don't know what to say. I don't want to say goodbye because I can't lose you. How am I supposed to do this without you? "

Justin gives him a soft, weak smile, as he listens to Clay's words. "You're doing--- you're doing it great." Justin reassures Clay softly.  "I know the feeling-- I do. I don't know-- what to say either. It's okay."  Justin coughs for a moment before regaining his composure. "I-I know you never meant any of those things.  You have to-- to stop-- blaming yourself for everything all the time, okay, Clay?"

Justin had so much he wanted to say, so much he knew Clay needed to hear, but he couldn't say as much as he wanted to. "I love you, so much." Clay says softly, his voice breaking a bit. "I love--I love you--too, man."  Justin replies, trying his best to speak. His voice barley wanted to get anything out. 

It was silent for a moment. Neither one knowing much of anything to say to the other. After a few moments of silence Clay finally spoke once again. "Aren't you afraid?" He asked. Justin nods, giving a soft look to the brunette. "Yeah-- I am." Justin extended his hand to Clay, causing the male to raise a curious eyebrow. "Will you-- will you hold my hand--bro?" Justin asked. Clay takes his hand and nods as he rubs it gently with his thumb. He continued to hold Justin's hand until the sick boy fell asleep.

The next morning, Justin awoke to Clay by his bedside. Upon seeing that Justin was awake he went and alerted the others of the news. One by one they each took their turns saying their goodbyes to Justin. Alex, Charlie, even coach Kerba stopped by to pay his respects.

"Hey! How's my favorite football player feeling today?" Coach asked, walking into the room with a warm smile. "Oh you know, the same as yesterday. Just a little worse." Justin let's out a soft laugh. Kerba nods sadly to Justin, watching as the male tries to adjust himself comfortably in the hospital bed.

"Listen, man, I'm not really the best at saying goodbyes or anything, so I'm just gonna say thank you. Thank you for being one of my best students and the best football player I've ever had. You're a true leader. You're one of the strongest people I've ever known, you've always had your team's back whenever they've needed you, and you've powered through things that a kid your age should've never had to go through." Kerba says softly, doing his best to keep his composure. He had hoped he would've never had to say goodbye to one of his most beloved students so soon.

"H-How? How could you possibly say that? I-I let the team down. I let you down. I should've just went to you and none of this would've--" Justin began to say as Kerba shakes his head. "Could've, should've, would've, none of that matters now. What matters is very moment right here, okay? You made an unfortunate mistake, but you listen to me right now. You /did not/ let anyone down. You couldn't have possibly knew what was gonna happen to you. You've always put everyone above yourself, and that's what makes you an incredible team leader. And you best believe I'm always gonna tell my students about all the struggles and the sacrifices you've made to try to make those around you better people, how you've made me a better person."

Justin only nods sadly, taking Kerba's hand for a moment. "You've always believed in me, even when it seemed like no one else did. I just wish I could make it up to you." Justin managed to speak out. "You will. I promise you. You know how? You're gonna be watching over me, and everyone else that you've ever loved. I'm sure you'll be at every football game and who knows, maybe you can help us win a few games every now and then, even if it is in spirit."

Kerba jokes lightly, causing a soft smile on Justin's face. Justin nods, coughing lightly for a moment. "Yea, okay.." Kerba gives his hand a soft pat as he stands up from his seat. "Get some rest kid. I'll see you later."  Kerba knew there wasn't going to be a next time, but he couldn't bring himself to think about it just yet. "Yeah--yeah, I'll see you later."

Kerba headed out of the room, turning back only for a moment to get one last glimpse of the boy. If only he could trade places with Justin, he would do it in a heartbeat. It wasn't too long before he found himself back in the waiting room, taking a seat by Jessica as he let out a soft sigh.

"How is he?" Jessica asked, sniffling before

She wipes her eyes. "He's--"  Kerba began to say. "He isn't doing to well, he seems pretty weak. I'm no doctor but I don't give him much more time left. If you haven't had the chance to see him yet, I would go ahead and do it soon before--..." Kerba trails off, not being able to bring himself to finish the sentence.

Jessica shakes her head. "I-I can't. I can't do it. How can I say goodbye to someone who means everything to me? I can't lose him. He's the first person I've truly ever loved. How could I possibly go into that room knowing that when I come out I'll never see him again? I'll never hold him or hear his voice again. How am I supposed to live with that?" Jessica asked, looking Kerba sadly in the eyes.

"Saying goodbye is never easy. It isn't supposed to be. Just try not to think about it. Instead, focus on all the good times you shared together. Let him know how much you love him, and tell him all the things you've always wanted to say. Don't over think it, just speak from the heart. It's like I told Justin, try not to think of it as goodbye. Think of it as 'until we meet again' , because even when he is gone from this earth he'll always be in your heart."

Jessica listens to the coach as she wipes her eyes, taking a deep breath as she stood from her seat. "You're right. I'm going in. Wish me luck." Jessica says, trying to keep her voice from cracking. "Good luck, kid. Remember, I'm here if you need me." Kurba reminds the girl as she nods, giving him a soft smile. Heading to his hospital room, Jessica once again took a deep breath before opening the door.

"Just breath and try not to think of it as goodbye." Jessica mutters to herself under her own breath, turning the door knob to the hospital room. "Jess.." Justin says softly, his voice barley audible he was speaking so softly. Despite Jessica's best efforts to keep her composure together, seeing him like this broke her heart.

Justin watched the tears escape her eyes as his own eyes began to water. This was undoubtedly his hardest goodbye. That's why he chose to say goodbye to her last. He was trying to avoid saying goodbye to her because the thought of leaving her scared him. "No tears, Jess...please."

Jessica quickly wipes her cheeks once again with her sleeves. "I'm sorry....I thought I could be stronger. I--" Jessica knew this was going to be hard, but she never imagined it would be this hard. All the things she wanted to say to him before, it was like her brain couldn't think of it. Her mind was blank. It's as if none of this felt real. It was like all of this was one terrible nightmare and she was going to wake up with Justin holding her close. But this wasn't a dream.

This was reality. "You're so strong Jess..." Justin says to her, patting the bed beside him. "Come here..."  Jessica gets in bed with him, laying as close as she possibly could. "You're the greatest thing to ever happen to me." Jessica says, planting a kiss softly on his forehead, before resting her head on his for a moment. "You're out of-- you're out of your mind. I ruined your fucking life."

Justin couldn't possibly understand how he could be the greatest thing to have ever happened to her. After everything he had done, after everything he had put her through, how could she still love him? "No." Jessica insisted, shaking her head. "You taught me what love is." She reassured the male gently. "Yeah?" Justin asked. "Yes!" Jessica laughs sadly, nodding her head before cuddling close to him, breathing in his scent. "You'll always have that.."

Jessica was quite for a moment before she spoke again. "I'm scared, Justin."  Jessica says, looking into his eyes. "D-Don't be scared. There's nothing to be scared of, as long as I'm here--" Justin cuts himself off, realizing once again he wouldn't be here. He was leaving her. Alone. He wasn't going to be there to protect her when she needed him. Once again guilt set in. "That's just the thing. You're aren't gonna be here. How am I supposed to do this without you? You've always been there, to protect me, to love me, you've always supported me when I've needed you most, and now, I-I can't imagine my life without you in it."

All of their plans, all their dreams were shattering right in front of Jessica and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. "I will always be with you. I promise. I'll be like-- like your guardian angel or some shit.--" Justin laughed softly, Jessica gives a sad laugh of her own as she brushes the hair behind her ear.

"Whenever you feel like you can't go on, or if you get scared, or if you just need someone to talk to, just close your eyes and just picture me there. I'll always be here for you-- even if it isn't in human form. I promise you. Okay Jess?" Jessica nods kissing his head once again as she lays there with him, rubbing his hair until he falls asleep.

Once she knew he was asleep she headed back into the waiting room, taking her seat back in the waiting room. Clay and his parents offered to let her sit in the room with him until he passed, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. Instead she sat beside Coach Kerba, waiting for the inevitable.

Inside the hospital room, Justin could hear everything going on around him, but he couldn't speak. He couldn't move. He wouldn't even be able to breathe properly had it not been for the ventilator breathing for him. But he wasn't in any pain. He was relaxed. He never thought dying would feel like this. His eyes were closed, but he could feel Clay's hand on top of his brushing it with his thumb gently, telling him that if he were ready to go that he could. He promised Justin that he would continue to look after Jessica for him as best he could.

Justin could feel Clay's parents at his feet, leaning against the bed as he let out one final breath, completely relaxing after a few moments. The next thing Justin hears is his heart monitor flatline. He could see his life flash before his eyes, almost like he was watching a movie, seeing all the great memories he had ever made. In that moment, there was no more pain, no more suffering. He was free. But there was a few things he knew he still had to do first before he crossed over. He wasn't ready to leave just yet.

#13 reasons why #justin foley #13 rw season 4 #13rw rp

[thatbitchassstay]

Lee Know smut #3

This is so fucking long so yea

If you want the whole story and not just the smut scenes go to my wattpad @thatbitchassstay If its not there than they took down my account lol.

You waited outside your school with 10 other people. Your school had organized an overnight trip to an amusement park as a bonding experience for your grade. There were 5 busses. Each bus held about 20 people (except for one which only held 10), and you happened to be on the last bus, which was the smallest bus, which had no other girls on it.

You look around at the people who will be on your bus ride. You saw 8 of your classmates, Chan, Jisung, Minho, Hyunjin, Jeongin, Seungmin, Felix, and Changbin. There were also two chaperones on your bus Professor Woojin and the bus driver, your principal; Park Jin Young.

Once everyone was ready, you all got on the busses and drove off. The bus ride was going to be 5 hours, so you decided to see who you would be sitting next to. On the bus, You sat next to Minho. He was a strange kid. He only seemed to open up around Jisung, and what he posted on his Instagram was honestly questionable. You two had been lab partners before, so you knew that he was smart and liked to insult other people for fun. You knew everyone else on the bus pretty well.

After around 1 1/2 hours You felt the bus slow down and you saw the busses in front of you pull away. You buss slowly puttered to a stop and everyone took out a headphone to see what was happening. JYP (that is what everyone called your principle) stood up and said "we seem to have run out of gas. I will call a replacement bus to come, but I will expect that it will take up to 3 hours, at least 2." You all groan as he and professor Woojin walk out of the bus.

You are about to put in one earphone when you hear Minho say "Well, it is a good thing I am sitting next to a cutie." You turn really red. "Confident much?" you ask still blushing from his remark. Then professor Woojin gets back on the bus for a second. "We just called a replacement bus, they should be here in 2 1/2 hours. For now, you guys can go to the convenience store just down the road. They have some tables there for you to sit at while you wait."

"Ok, let's go." chan says as everyone stands up and gets some essential things before getting off the bus. You walked for about 2 minutes before getting to the store. You all took turns in the bathroom and bought some food before sitting down at the tables.

After about 10 minutes you heard the cashier call out to the back, "Mark, your shift starts in 5, get changed already!" you then heard a male voice yell out "Fine, give me a second!" The guy had a slight Canadian accent you noticed. You didn't pay too much attention to this though until around 5 minutes later when a guy came up to your table and asked "I am sorry, but how long do you guys plan to stay here?" You looked up and saw his face. You almost said the word handsome out loud! "Sorry, our bus broke down and we are waiting for a replacement. we should be here for another 3 hours at most." He looked satisfied enough with your answer. "ok, my name is Mark Lee, you can just call my name if you need anything!" He then turned around and walked away from you "Mark..." you said "Yes?" he turned around "Nothing, I just really like that name, it suits you!" there was some pinkness on his cheeks when he said "Thank you." and walked away towards the cash register. The only person who didn't seem amused about you flirting with the employee was Minho which you did not realize till later. After another 30 minutes, you got bored of playing games on your phone and decided to go and talk to Mark, who also seemed bored.

You walked up to the cash register "hey mark!" you said. He looked up at you, "Hey, do you need help with anything?" "No, I am just bored." "Honestly same...." You looked at him for a few seconds before realizing that you never told him your name "Oh, my name is Y/N by the way." "Y/N, that's a way better name than Mark!" he joked with you "really, I like Mark better!" You two playfully flirted for 5 minutes before he checked his watch. "I am on break now for 30 minutes, you want to take a walk with me?" "Yea!" you replied enthusiastically. "K, let me change back into my regular clothes, these are really uncomfortable!" "Ok, I will wait outside!" You started to walk out the door when you got stopped by chan "where are you going?" he asked, "I am going on a walk with Mar, don't worry I will be back in max 30 minutes!" "Ok, I will text you if anything goes wrong." He said as he allowed you to go outside and wait for Mark.

He walks out of the building wearing an oversized white shirt and some jeans looking a little bit scared. "Let's go!" he says trying to shake it off. He and you walk for few minutes just talking and laughing when you had to ask "What happened inside that made you so shaken up?" he averted his eyes and said "The guy with the blond hair and Australian accent, the tall one. He scares me..." "What did Chan do?" He laughs and says "He told me that if I was mean to you and didn't shows you a good time that he would break all my bones and tie me in a knot." "yea... he kind of thinks of me like I am his sister, to be honest, all of us are his family so that probably why he was so protective!"

Mark suddenly grabs your hand and leads you underneath some cherry blossom trees. There is a slight breeze and you feel yourself blush as you look at your hand that he has not yet let go of. "Wow!" he remarks "Everything here is so pretty!" "Yea, these are some of my favorite trees!" He then turns to you with a small smile on his face, You could not tell if he was blushing or if it was just the lighting, "I was not just talking about the trees..." He walks a little bit closer to you and you feel you here rate go from 100bpm to around 1000bpm. He then grabs your other hand and leans in. You do the same and as your lips touch, you felt something. like this represented more than just a kiss. Then he pulled away. "Sorry, I just really like you." This time you knew it was a blush "I like you too." You say you find his phone in his back pocket and use the face recognition to open it. You then put in your number in his contacts.

"We should probably start to head back. Chan is expecting us soon." He continues to hold one of your hands as you walk, "yea, let's go."

Minho POV

You watch as he kisses her. At that moment you had never been more mad. Of course she likes mark, she does not like you! you yell at yourself as they walk away hand in hand. Chan had sent you to check on them, now you wish he would have sent anyone but you!

This is why we don't have crushes... you tell yourself as you start to walk back to the convenience store.

Y/N POV

Once you and Mark got back he had to change because his shift was starting soon so you went back to your table. "where is Minho?" you ask Jisung because he is the closest one to him "ah, I don't know. he should be back soon though." A few minutes later you hear the door open, You look over and see Minho walk-in. You see him glance at You before approaching mark in a menacing manner. Your eyes widened as you thought that Minho was going to yell at him. Instead, Minho brought him outside, past where you could see. Everybody looked over at you as you started to panic. 

"Y/N, are you ok?" Hyunjin asked as you realized how terrified you must look. Did he see the kiss? does he like me? Why did he approach Mark? what is happening? what are they doing? all of these thoughts blasted through your head as you found yourself say "No, I am not fine!" You tried to get up from the table but Jeongin put his hand on your shoulder, "What happened?" You almost broke down in tears as you explained everything that happened, From when Minho called you cute, to when you got back to the convenience store. The whole time they looked at you kind of baffled. 

"Y/N, You really are an idiot." You turned around to see that it was Chan who said that. "Excuse me!" "Omg Y/N, They both obviously like you! And from what I understood, Minho was flirting with you, he probably thought that you two were going to go somewhere! If he did see the kiss, imagine how mad you would be!" You started to understand as everything clicked in your head. You put your head in your hands and started crying. "Y/N, what the hell? Why are you crying?" this was from Changbin, "I just feel bad!" you blurt out in a slur of words. You hear someone laughing, and you feel Felix's hand on your shoulder. "S'all right mate, why don't you go get yourself cleaned up in the washroom?" you nodded as you wiped a tear from your cheek. "ok." you stood up to go to the bathroom when Minho walked into the store. 

He spotted you, grabbed your arm, and took you out of the store.You had been walking for around 15 minutes in silence. a few minutes ago he let go of your arm, so that was a small relief. When you were starting to wonder where you were going he stopped and turned around to face you."So, You and Mark huh." He looked at you straight in the eye as he said this and it felt like someone had just stabbed you. His glare went straight through you. "Are you going to respond or are you just going to stand there?" There was also a lot of hostility in his voice this time around. 

"Um, well I am not sure if we are a thing yet..." you respond "ok, I will make sure to tell Mark that." "Wait, don't tell Mark I said that!" "Why, do you like him?" "Well yes..." "Then why are you not being honest with me?" "I am being honest!" "So did the kiss mean anything to you?" "Yes!" "So are you a thing!?" With this last comment, he stared at you kind of hurt. Not knowing what else to say at this point you just blurted out "I guess so, yes! But why would you care anyway, It's not like we are even friends!" He stared at you open-mouthed for a few seconds. Then he shut his mouth and eyes and said "You're right, sorry." and started to walk away. 

"Minho, Wait I didn't mean it like that!" You try to run after him and put your hand on his arm but he pushes you away. "Why are you touching me, it's not like we are even friends right." and he continues to walk away. You stop running after him when he is about 30 feet away from you, he too stops, and for a split second, You thought he was going to say something. But then he just shook his head and kept walking.You got a notification on your phone, It was from Hyunjin.

Hyunjin

Hey, the bus is here, can you and Minho start heading back?

Me

Sure, we are on our way right now.

You started walking back in the direction of the busses. You walked fast, so it cut your walk time down to around 6 minutes. When you got to the bus everyone was already there.

Minho gave you an icy glare before everybody got on the bus. The rest of the bus ride was pretty silent. You sat next to Hyunjin and listened to music the whole time. By the time you got to the hotel, everyone split off to go to their room. You and Minho were the only ones on your bus who were on the top floor. 

After everybody got off, you and Minho stood there in awkward silence as you waited for the elevator to stop. As it slowed to a halt you both got off and started walking to your rooms. At room 37-10 you stopped and pulled out your key to go into your room while Minho kept walking. not being able to handle it anymore, you said: "But why do you care if I am with Mark in the first place."

 Minho stopped dead in the middle of the hallway. You saw him take a shuddering breath as he turned around He looked you in the eye and you could have sworn that you saw a small blush on his face. "Because... Look. I like you." You stood there, frozen not sure what to say. You didn't know what to do! You wanted to reject him, but you felt your heart telling you not to, so you just stood there looking him in the eye. Now you could definitely tell that he was blushing. 

"Yep, that's how I thought you would react. Forget it, Good night." He turned around to start walking again, and before you realized what you were doing, you ran up to him, turned him around, and kissed him.You were scared because for a moment, He didn't kiss back, But then he started kissing back. You two stood there in the hallway, the only time your lips were not touching was when you needed to breathe. You grabbed his hand and lead him into your room while you locked the door. 

You two started kissing again as his hand ran along your back lifting your shirt up. The two of you started to strip until the only clothing that was left on your body was your underwear and bra. you lead him to the bed and he leaned over you. The two of you started making out again as his hands started running the length of your body. He started kissing your neck, leaving a trail of hickeys as you arched your back in pleasure. he then stopped for a moment, "I am sorry, may I?" he gestured to your undergarments. "Only if you take off yours also." He smiled as he first took off your bra and panties, "No, You take mine off for me." You sneered and put your teeth of the elastic band of his underwear as you pulled it down. 

he then pushed you back so that he was lying over you again. He leaned down as his tongue teased your entrance.He started to lick and you felt his wet tongue run through your folds and you moaned with pleasure. He then pulled away and without warning started to finger-fuck you. 

You arched your back and moaned even louder. He pulled his fingers out and spanked you "We are in a hotel princess, don't be too loud..." you nodded aggressively just wanting him to stick himself inside you. He started to finger you again when all of a sudden he thrust in a third finger and hit your g-spot. It was so hard for you to not moan. He then took his fingers out and had you sit up."Suck." He commanded as he put his dick in front of you. You started lightly sucking your tongue rolling all over it. Then you took it out for a second and started stroking it. He then started to moan ever so quietly when you decided to go all in. You stuck it in your mouth and started to deep-throat it. You saw the surprise in his eyes as he obviously suppressed his urges to moan, he grabbed the back of your head and pushed it further into you, you were suppressing your urge to gag. 

"I am going to cum~" he said quietly before you felt the white fluid coat the inside of your throat. You swallowed. "Good girl!" he said as he leaned you down again and positioned his member at your entrance. "Just before I do this, I want to ask you a question. Are you and Mark a thing?" You violently shook your head. "good, either way, I am going to fuck you so hard that you won't be able to walk tomorrow." And just like that, he was inside you. (A/N yes, he has a condom on)At first, it was painful because of his size "Ahh, Y/N! You're so tight!" "Sorry!" you say as he starts to thrust in and out of you and you get more accustomed to him. After a few thrusts, he starts hitting your g-spot harder and after. "ah!" you moan and this time he does not even care. You feel the pleasure rip through you as you feel him thrusting in and out of you. "I told you you would not be able to walk in the morning!" he says slyly as he keeps thrusting in and out of you. When he pulls out, You cuddle right next to him, exhausted. And just like that, You fall asleep on top of him. "Haha, good night princess~" he says finally before sinking into your bed and falling asleep.

#lee know #lee know smut #stray kids smut