#how does he look so small in his gear Cass??

[cupcakeslushie]

I just wanted to draw a baby. Just an absolute little man. A small guy. A widdle dude.

Thank you @somerandomdudelmao for this adorable infant Leo.

#rottmnt #rottmnt fanart #tmnt #tmnt fanart #rise of the tmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise leo #future leo #cass apocalyptic series #cass apocalypse fanart #my art #I’m sure I’ll just be a screaming mess when he’s thrown into the Kraang deep end #somebody protect him #how does he look so small in his gear Cass??

[robinsdearest]

This isn't what it looks like

Bruce Wayne x F!Reader

Five times the birds catch you, and the one time Bruce finally does.

Damian catches you first. It’s late in the night, or early in the morning, depending on how you view the clock. Six one way, half a dozen the other. No matter because your youngest is already demanding an answer for your whereabouts. He can tell something is wrong from the way you jump from your skin when he surprises you. He found you walking up the stairs from the BatCave, and your question regarding his bedtime was dismissed quickly.  You have a certain smell to you that he immediately places. His interrogation is thorough, you do admit to yourself, because he simply cares about you and your safety. He also loves his father and you can see the conflict in his eyes as the gears in his head turn and turn.  You try your very best to explain the circumstance, but you are failing miserably and cannot fully mitigate this instance. You think your secret will be revealed to Bruce before Damian gives you a slight nod after careful consideration.  Damian promises to keep your secret in return for a new pet. Your immediate question is to know which one he wants. You're not above buying compliance.

Jason catches you second. His confrontation is less aggressive than Damian’s turned out to be. You’re not even home when the Red Hood finds you. You’re coming out of an unremarkable garage when he drops from the roof right in front of you. Your yelp of surprise sends a flock of birds scattering to the wind. Jason only crosses his arm to stare at you in silence while you fidget under his glare.  You are blessedly given another chance to explain the circumstance, and Jason is much more receptive and understanding. His gaze flicks between you and the open door to the garage. When he finally spots what sits there, his arms go slack. He takes off the hood and simply listens to the rest of your story. Once you’re done and you think he’s going to call Bruce, Jason throws an arm around your shoulder and steers you back to the garage. He has a few items to negotiate for his silence. 

Tim catches you third. In truth, you had thought he would be the first to catch you. His hacking and investigative skills rivaled that of Bruce’s on a bad day and far exceeded Question’s on a good day.  You thought you had erased any trail of your small venture out of town, but it seems even attempting to cover your tracks was foolish, as this was child’s play for Red Robin. Tim sits in front of the computer and brings up a map of the area you have just returned from. Your face is hot with strong embarrassment as you grip your bag. He slowly turns the chair to face you, an inquisitive eyebrow raised waiting for your defense. You try to plead your case with hard evidence and logical reasoning: it really was a small venture, and you were only gone for less than ten hours, which is amazing in this day of age, and- In an incredibly surprising twist of fate, Tim only acknowledges your story by removing the map from the screen and deleting the record logs. He sips his coffee and tosses his head towards the exit, dismissing you entirely. Your knuckles are white and tight wrapped around your bag as you head upstairs. 

Cassandra catches you fourth. She’s so quiet, you didn’t even realize she was with you until she tapped your shoulder. Your scream is shrill and you thought the glass from the small window would burst. After your body doesn’t fail you with an imminent heart attack, you look back to Cass as her small smile grows into something more sinister.  You don’t even have a good explanation for tonight’s journey. Your plans are in ten minutes, and if you don't show up on time, your company is going to be so upset. You try and explain as quickly as possible. As she sits there and listens to you, you finally realize that maybe your kids are in on it all together and are waiting for the perfect moment to expose you. Too many people are going to know, and you know Bruce would kill you- even worse, potentially divorce you- if he found out.  She signs something that allows your shoulders to finally relax. 

Dick catches you fifth. He’s more disappointed than angry, in reality. Damian had confessed to him in a bit of panic when you hadn’t returned to the Manor after a few hours of being gone. Dick had cornered you in your study as you were finishing a few additional work papers the next day. He demanded to know why you were doing it, if Bruce’s happiness wasn’t enough for you, or if you wanted to send the man to an early grave. You could tell Dick is hurt, and you feel more guilty than you ever had before. You hadn’t taken into account the feelings of your own kids until this conversation.  You know your begging doesn’t work on your oldest; he learned his puppy dog eyes from you, and they’re not very effective when used on each other. Instead, you offer him another solution as an explanation enough. He begrudgingly agrees and follows you out of the manor. A few hours later, Dick is breathless, yet still promises to keep his mouth shut for the time being.

When Bruce finally catches you, he’s shocked, to say the least. Devastated at best.  “You’ve got to be joking.” He’s standing in the middle of the Batcave, sans any and all gear or kevlar. Damn, you had really banked on the Batman being in Metropolis tonight.  “I can explain, I promise!” You have the thought to tell him how good he looks in gray sweatpants, but his face is contorted in anger.  “How long has this been going on? How many times?” He’s circling you in that predator way that you’ve seen Batman circle villains on the street.  You can do nothing but toy with the hem of your shirt that still smells like gasoline and the outside winter air. You sit in the chair next to the Batcycle, the heat of the motor singing a few hairs on your arm.  You had finally been caught, by Bruce, nonetheless. He is for sure going to divorce you; death would be too kind. You explain what has been going on, and like too good of a man, he listens until you are finished speaking.  Bruce calls each of your kids to the cave. When they finally arrive, Bruce demands the truth. To their credit, not one of them lies, and they confirm your story. 

“Hold on.” He stops them from speaking as he pinches the bridge of his nose. “You’re standing there, telling me, that my wife- my wife with almost no training- has been going out at night in the military-grade vehicles specifically made for fighting crime, for months, and not a single one of you was going to tell me?”  You didn't think you had the heart to tell him it was closer to a year. Damian spoke though. “Father, I found her after taking the Batcopter a few months ago.” You couldn’t sleep that night while Bruce was patrolling, so you took the helicopter to Wayne Enterprises to get a few things of work done. It wasn’t the first time you had stolen one of the many vehicles Batman hoards, but it was the first time you had gotten caught.  Bruce’s eyes are digging into you, and you do feel a little guilty now for not telling him any of this.  Jason yells from across the cave. “She had the Batmobile across town.” You had taken the tumbler out to go meet Lucius for a few improvements to the vehicle’s controls; the brake was sticking and you knew it would cause problems for Bruce eventually. You could see Jason’s shit-eating grin from your seat. Bruce held his head with both hands now. “We switched out the tires, too old man.”  Tim didn’t even look up from the computer. “Batplane. She flew to Jamaica and back a couple weeks ago.”  Bruce whips his head to you.  “Alfred said he needed jerk spice, and you know he only likes the traditional kind from the stores in Kingston!” You cry.  Cassandra is only sitting on the boat, which is confirmation enough for Bruce as he turns her way. She had been sitting in the boat cabin while you crossed the Delaware Bay to visit Metropolis for a happy hour with Lois and Diana. You let Cassandra drive the boat back while you talked about your night with the other women.  Dick calls out finally. “B, I was going to tell you after I caught her with the motorcycle.” Bruce throws his arms up as he knows that a contrasting statement is coming. You crack a small smile when it does. “But she challenged me to a race, and I couldn’t say no. She beat me across town, and the punishment for not winning was keeping quiet. That was a few days ago.”  Bruce lets out a mirthless laugh before turning back to you. You give your husband of nearly two decades a sheepish grin. He comes over and drops to squat before you. He takes your left hand where your wedding band proudly sits on your ring finger. He toys with it for a second before turning your hand over and kissing your palm. He sighs dejectedly and lifts his head to kiss you properly.  “You should have told me. I would have made time to make sure things were safe.”  “I didn’t want to worry you. Also, I can take care of myself with my minimum training." You kiss his nose so that he stops scrunching it. "Besides, be proud that our children worked together to help me keep this secret to maintain your sanity. We love you, just remember that." “So you told everyone but me and Alfred?”  You wince, and the movement makes Bruce slap his forehead. He mutters something small beneath his breath that sounds an awful lot like a prayer.  “Alfred might have been the one who gave me the keys for everything.”

#dc fanfic #robinsdearest #bruce wayne x batmom #bruce wayne x reader #bruce wayne #batman fanfic #alfred is an enabler at his core #of course batmom knows how to drive every single vehicle

[ldouble]

More To It | Bucky Barnes x Reader

summary: a heart to heart with Bucky at the Wilson household

You can’t help the smile you hide behind your cup of coffee. It’s been a long time since you’ve seen such pure joy. It’s so close you could reach out and touch it. But if you make any sudden movement you’re scared to interrupt whatever battle is occurring.

AJ and Cass voice their actions with whooshes and grunts. The thing inspiring the imaginative play is far from a toy...and yet they share it like every mother hopes their kids would.

The shield looks out of place in the house. Then again, the boys aren’t in the house. They’re in war.

If only they knew.

A quick retreat on the boys’ part raises your brow. What could’ve gone wrong in their play to send them packing?

Only the movement of the enemy. Who you hear conveniently sigh.

It’s a sound you’ve heard plenty of times. Still, it somehow brightens your grin.

“Don’t fret. I gave the ok.” You round the corner with a small nod to the weapon. It sits, spilling half out of the ancient bag it lives in. It glimmers despite it being ditched haphazardly. It’s always had that effect, you guess.

Your eyes flutter away from the shield. It’s not you job to stare at it in deep thought. It’s Bucky’s.

As if he knew you were thinking of him, you catch him looking up at you. All you want to do is return the look - one of so much love - but you can’t. It’s time to talk business.

He catches your tone without you saying anything and in seconds his smile dissipates. He chips a little bit away at you every time he does that. When he hides himself.

“It’s not a toy.” He mumbles, sitting up. His dog tags move with him and immediately your hands goes to where yours once sat. You parted with them long ago.

You clear your throat. “And yet it toys with you all day.”

He grumbles, his non-metal hand running over his face. “What are you talking about?”

“Just how you see Steve in the red and white and the oceans you crossed together in the blue.”

Bucky stops - squatting in a half sitting down and half standing up. The blanket begins to fall and you’re grateful as he readjusts. There’s too much going on and that’s without him in his boxers.

“Stop-”

“It’s metal, Bucky. And you let it get to you more than your arm does.”

He flexes is vibranium fingers at the mention of them. While his eyes flare and his knuckles make a fist so tight you’re sure the metal itself turns white, you’re not afraid.

You haven’t been afraid for a long time. While it’s not as strong as it once way, the love - at least the feeling of not hating - is always between you. It’s not sleepless nights and stolen kisses or even hugs you never want to let go of anymore. But it’s strong. Stronger than anything.

At least you hope so. Or this conversation is gonna hurt you a lot more than it’s gonna hurt him.

Bucky catches your glance at his hand and he immediately tucked it under the blanket. He would never. He knew that. And he really needs you to know it too. He just doesn’t want to say it.

“I’m sorry.”

Bucky looks up at your sudden apology and honestly you’re just as shocked. It tumbled out. It always did. You were sorry for so much in his life.

“It’s all I’ve got left.” Bucky turns toward the windows, continuing the conversation you suddenly halted.

“That’s not true.” You find yourself stepping toward him but you stop yourself. The same way you don’t need him half dressed, you don’t need to touch him. A light burns between you two. You’re both a spark and one wrong move...boom.

“It’s not.” You gulp. “And you know that.”

Bucky considers you, leaning back into the couch. You see the gears turning in his head. It’s a mirror image as you both try to work one another out without getting too close.

Close scares him. It’s the reason you got here after him. The reason you slept in the guest bedroom. The reason you woke up and had coffee by yourself. The reason you stand as far away as you can without letting go.

It’s how you live your life.

And you can’t stand watching him live his in control of a pice of weaponry. It’s behavior of his old life. He left that. He knew that. So why couldn’t you two be together and get past it?

You shake the thought out of your head. This isn’t about you.

And this shield isn’t about him.

You open your mouth to tell him this but you look up to see him staring at you. Something tells you that you don’t have to say it. He knows. He knows it all. Whatever anger caused him to snap is gone.

You kick the shield gently, sliding it closer to him, in a peace offering. It’s not need as you already see that he’s forgotten you bombarding him first thing in the morning.

“With a little practice, I think the boys could toss this around just like you did back in the day.” You step on it, flipping the shield up to your arm before glancing across the room. “All you need is a partner. And I think we both know where the boys get it.”

Bucky turns, hiding his smile. You don’t need to see it to know it’s there. And what it means.

"Don’t let it make up your own mind.” You say as you set it down to lean against the wall. “Or else I’m giving it to the boys.”

“Then what’s supposed to take up all the hours in the day?”

You’ve turned around at this point and you’re grateful. Despite the amount of humor and sarcasm you throw to ensure you don’t get too close, Bucky always seems to pull you back in.

“I guess you’ll just have to find something else to worry over.”

“Or someone.”

You look at him over your shoulder and decide it’s your turn to cut the distance. “Or someone.” You repeat with a tap on the wall as your exit.

#Bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #x reader #marvel #tfatws #sam wislon #bucky barnes one shot #one shot

[kayssweetdreams]

Nightmaren Babies Ch 21

When the groups returned to the Isle of Tims, they were met with the confusing plights of what had happened. Balan's group noticed a scratched up Leo, with a very calm Reala in Aria's arms, his icy eyes giving everyone a very hard glare. While Lance's group noticed a very angry Kaylo in a very strange (if not semi-destroyed) outfit, and a sleeping NiGHTS in Balan's Arms.

The two groups found that they didn't want to share their...rather strange experiences, so they summed it up to 2 words said at the exact same time to each other.

Don't. Ask.

Later, they had put NiGHTS and Reala in a small play pin (this one with a top to ENSURE they didn't escape again) while Balan and Lance went to see if the Age Watch was fixed. Stopping back at Cass's stage, and into the small clock shop, they saw the Chrono Hare standing over the watch, a very large magnifying glass between him and the small magical clock as he used his tools to fiddle around with the machinery inside.

The two maestros could hear him muttering something along the lines of "Truly Fascinating" and "Goodness Gracious" before they decided to make their presence known. "Hello again! We don't mean to be rude But we have come for the watch, that's the cause of our intrude." Balan said. The Chrono Hare looked up from his work to see the maestros walking inside.

"Ah! Maestros! Right on time! I think I have finally fixed it." He said, carefully taking the watch in his aged hands "It took a while, but I think I finally have repaired your strange watch. So many curious magical gears and springs inside of it!" He said cheerfully. "Well that truly is a delight! But the main question is: does it work right?" Lance asked, tilting his head to the side.

"Well...I have been testing it one this small flower here. And I would say that it works right." The bunny said, pulling out a small potted plant with a Clock Camellia in it before pointing the watch at it. Almost instantly, it had the words "Clock Camellia", as well as the various stages the flower would go through where the numbers would be. The Chrono Hare then began to wind the watch backward to 'Seed' and the flower found itself blooming in reverse, until a small gear like Seed was in its place.

He then wound the watch forward to 'Wither' and the flower then bloomed, and wilted just as quickly, bending over and losing its color. Finally rewinding it to "Full Bloom" the flower regained its beauty in seconds, as if nothing ever happened to it. "Yep! It definitely works alright!" The bunny said, handing the maestros the fixed watch. "I'm not sure how it works on Nightmaren however...but there's no better way to find out." He said.

The maestros got worried. If the flower was the only thing he tested the watch on...would it even work on NiGHTS and Reala? They only had one way to find out...

Aria belongs to @shadowqueen402

#Balan Wonderworld #NiGHTS into Dreams #NiGHTS Journey of Dreams #Balan #Lance #NiGHTS #Reala

[i-mybrunettelady]

motion, road, roots, favourite and change for cass and alternate for the three commanders in a modern day au <3

Ayy <3 Will do three Commanders first!

alternate: What would your OC's alternate universe look be? If they're a fantasy character, what's their modern look? If they're sci-fi, what's their fantasy look? What AU would you want to see your OC in, and how would they dress themself? Bonus: Prompt an AU! // modern AU

Nyra always has this vibe of confidence and power to her, but also simplicity, with some drama. Her clothing in any AU wants to get heads turning her way, but also she uses herself as the main selling point to get the impression across, if that makes sense? She's also not very revealing in her clothing, so modern AU Nyra can absolutely be seen in jeans and tight fitting t-shirts that go as high as her collarbones, or even turtlenecks. She owns one (1) leather jacket and one (1) pair of combat boots, probably.

But the main thing is that she's also a suit-wearer, coat and suit wearer. She'd unironically wear a suit. Think something like this.

El is equally slutty in canon and in modern AU. He'd still rock thigh highs, boob windows, booty shorts, fishnets, all the drama. Lots of jewelry. Has his hair in a manbun. He wants people to look at him; he wants attention; he wants people to see how comfortable in his body and sexuality he is. (And I don't mean the fact he's gay - sexuality as a whole.) Cares equally little for decorum.

That being said, since modern AU El is a uni professor, he does dress somewhat more academically at work, but still in vibrant colors and popping details that make him, him.

Likewise, Ren preserves her love of fashion and femininity. She loves the color pink, so I imagine her in flowery tops, skirts (not necessarily miniskirts - I think she'd go more for an under the knee length), lacy shirts and heels.

She'd also go for a more timeless and classy look, cocktail dresses, a small black dress. Nails are always on point and done, not really long, but not short either (discounting the lesbian nails, of course.)

Cassposting on main

motion: How does your OC move? How does their clothing help or hinder their range of motion? Are they flexible, coordinated, clumsy?

Cass is one graceful bastard. The way I see it, he always moves as if he's about to run, or at least be able to easily spring into a run. He's also a long bastard, so his steps are very big and he walks kinda fast. It's very hard to walk beside him sometimes. He also moves with absolute awareness of his height, because he doesn't feel like hitting his head against something. He's also kinda flexible too.

road: What does your OC wear while traveling? Do they have high-quality equipment, or are they making do? What does their gear look like?

I only have vague details here, unfortunately. What I do know is that his clothes and gear are patched as shit. He wears something until it's absolutely falling apart. His pants are always too short and reveal his ankles. He also has a hard time finding a big enough boot so he wears what he can find until it's in fucking tatters. (Honestly, it's just the fact that he's big, just all around big, and has appropriately big hands and feet. Cons of being a giant I suppose. Zenaida, provide your contracted Wayfarer with high quality clothes and replacements for them.)

change: Has your OC ever drastically changed their appearance? Significant haircuts, big tattoos, complete wardrobe swap, etc? Why? How do they feel about the change?

When he was living in Vodena, he had long hair, as is fashionable; when he moved to the Spire, he kept his hair short and started growing it out near graduation. He's kept it long since and the absolute longest it's been is waist-length, which is what he has up until episode 2, where he cuts 1/3rd of it off because Rona absolutely devastated it and he hadn't really had the time and resources to properly take care of it. Right now, his hair is boob length.

He had both tattoos done between the fall of the Spire and meeting with Aeran in Karth. They're pretty big tattoos, two half-sleeves, and plans on getting more inked in the future, with at least one whole tattoo sleeve.

As I mentioned in the Discord server once, his tattoos are a sign of his love for places and people. He doesn't just get them done for the sake of having tats; he wants memories on his skin, and reminders of love, which comes rarely to him. Every tattoo he gets means something to him, although not everyone will get an explanation as to what exactly.

And uhh.. his feelings on his hair are... a lot. It's been a source of shame, reclamation, pride, comfort and beauty to him throughout the years. His hair is a straight up narrative element to his story, I swear! He wouldn't change it for anything. And good luck trying to get him to have short hair again.

roots: Is your OC's look inspired by any specific style of clothing or fashion trend? What are the roots and/or inspiration for their look?

I may have mentioned in passing, somewhere, that if he had all the money in the world and was able to dress however he pleased, he would end up with a look that's very Vestran in vibe. In my personal headcanon, Vestrans aren't as flashy with their clothing as opposed to Arathians, who absolutely have had an influence on Vestran fashion, so things are changing a bit, but y'know. The vibe is still there - Vestra is still its own culture.

Only thing he's able to realistically do about this is with hair. He's had a lot of practical braids that are just very inspired by him going all around the country during the civil war. He doesn't flaunt it, but if you're familiar with the way Vestrans style their hair, you're defo gonna be able to see it in the hairstyles Cass wears.

#cassposting on main #alysannyra #elandrin aien #renira sulver #cassander inteus #you get one extra cass question bc i'm dumb and cannot read

[melodyalanaroster]

 Once Upon A Dream

"I can't wait to design and make everyone's costumes! Even though I haven't been, officially, the designated fashion coordinator...." Rosa seemed unsure in her excitement. "Rosa, I can easily bet that you'll get the designation. The play was just announced! Alana smiled as she pulled something out of her pocket. "I got you a little something." She mused as she handed the small box to Rosa. "When did you get this?" Rosa asked as she took the box and opened it. "While you were looking at the clothes in Clara's, I found a pin that made me think of you. I know pins aren't your style, but it spoke to me, so I bought it.” Alana explained. The pin was a mermaid with long white hair, translucent skin, a purple bikini top, and a black tail. “Alana! It's beautiful! Thank you so much! ” Rosa gasped as she put the pin in her pocket and hugged her. "Can I admit something to you?" Alana asked. "Of course!" Rosa beamed. "I kind of want to audition for a role in whatever play gets picked, but I have horrible stage fright." Alana explained. “Alana! I'm sure you can do it! You just have to believe in yourself!” Rosa cheered. “That is easier said than done. I've been told that I should go into acting, or singing... But, every time I think of all the people who would be watching me, I freeze up.” Alana looked down and put her left hand on her right arm. “I know you can do it! Heck, you could even go after the lead role if you wanted to!” Rosa smiled. “I don’t think I could go that far...” Alana sighed. “Alana, anything is possible if you put your mind to it. Don’t let your fear control you! Letting your fear decide your actions will lead you down a life that is not worth living! Believe in yourself and you will never go wrong!” Rosa insisted as she put her hand on Alana’s shoulder.

Throughout the day, excitement flooded through Alana. Most of the students had made it clear that they weren’t really that interested in the event. “We have to make sure that everything is perfect!” Melody had told her. Kim wanted to not bother going. “I hope I can make my parents proud!” Violette had said. “Do you think your parents will come? I know you told me that they’re never home because of their jobs...” She started when she walked up to Castiel. “I hope not. Maybe I’ll get lucky and they’ll have to work a flight that day...” Castiel sighed. “Cass... I hope they come for your sake. If not, you can always hang out with my family.” She smiled. “Your mom is gonna come?” He asked. “Most likely. She always tries to jump at the opportunity to be a part of Sam’s and my lives.” She grinned. When she got to Lysander, he was more optimistic. He talked about how his parents didn’t like classical plays because of them having opposite taste on mostly everything. Armin complained that he had no interest in the play unless it had something to do with the Metal Gear series. As expected, Alexy was excited about the play, disagreed with his brother and even argued with him over it. When she got to Nathaniel, he looked sickly pale and was pacing the floor, nervously. “Nath? Are you okay?” She asked, concerned. “The open house needs to go well... I know my parents will be there.” He did his best to not let his voice crack. “Surely they won’t be too harsh...” She tried to calm him. “You don’t know my dad.” He choked. “I’m sure it will go well! You’ll be surrounded by friends, so, even if your parents aren’t kind, you’ll have us.” She sweetly grinned. “Thank you Alana. That does make me feel a little better.” He smiled as he quickly hugged her. “A-Any time!” She blushed as she walked off. “I actually wanna audition.” She happily told he sister. “Good! You should! You’ve been a wallflower in public for far too long.” Sam blurted out. “Yeah... Why is it that you only ever show your true talents at home?” Ken asked. Alana looked down. “Because when I’m at home, either no one is watching, or the people who are are people I know won’t judge me too harshly.” She muttered. “Even though you’re one of those people who is artistically talented in multiple forms. Hell, you did Choir in middle school!” Sam snapped back. “I never had solos and I was often in the middle where no one would pay too much attention to me!” Alana shot. “Ah, yes, because despite being talented, you have crippling stage fright.” Ken chuckled. “Shut up Ken! You know how bad it is!” Alana shot. “I know, I know! I must admit, I am excited. It’ll be nice to have an event that I can take part in!” He cheered.

“A play! Oh Nate! Let’s go to it together!” Lynne cheered when Sam and Alana told her about the open house. “Are you sure you want me to come with you all?” Nate asked. “Its fine. You’ve been with mom long enough that you might as well be our dad.” Alana smiled. “Yeah, so at this point, it wouldn’t be right if you didn’t come along.” Sam grinned. Lynne signed the forms and handed them back to her daughters. “I can’t wait! I hope you two are on stage! Do you know what play it is?” She asked. “No, we’re deciding on that tomorrow. I think its gonna be one of the typical fairy tales.” Sam explained. “Whatever it is, I think I’m gonna audition for one of the roles.” Alana piped up. “Ah! Melody are you finally taking an interest in the theater?” Nate asked, a smile on his face. “Sweetie, are you sure you can do this?” Lynne asked, concerned. “I’m gonna try.” Alana smiled. “Then I can’t wait to watch you BOTH shine!” Lynne mused. “It’ll be grand!” Nate cheered.

“Your options are “Little Red Riding Hood”, “Alice In Wonderland” and “Sleeping Beauty”. Yes, we’re going with more of the Disney versions for Alice and Sleeping Beauty.” Mr. Faraize announced. Most of the students collectively groaned and several of them had begun to complain. “Little Red Riding Hood sounds fun.” Sam smirked. “Its the same old stuff!” Castiel spat. “I like the idea of Sleeping Beauty.” Alana suggested. “Now there’s an idea! I wouldn’t mind making those outfits! Plus, Sleeping Beauty is such a cute story!” Rosa boomed. “Ah, yes, Mels could be princess Aurora!” Sam suggested. Alana instantly became flustered. “I think I know who would be the perfect prince Phillip!” Rosa mused. Nathaniel and Castiel instantly began to blush. “I-I wouldn’t g-go that f-far.” She stuttered. When Sleeping Beauty became the official choice, Amber instantly began boasting about how she was going to get the lead role. “Not in your life, you stuck up bitch!” Sam called as she and Ken left the room. “Alana, do you wanna practice lines?” Nathaniel asked, cheerfully. “Sure!” Alana smiled as they left the room.

“Oh god... Sam is on a warpath! Lucy! Did you really have to flirt with Ken?!” Alana whined as she caught up with Lucy in the school hallway. “I’m sorry! I didn’t realize it was him! But, since it is little geeky Ken, he’s not even hot anymore!” Lucy blurted out. “And here we go again. Lucy, you need to quit this whole superficial thing you’ve got going on. Its not nice and you need to apologize to both Sam and Ken.” Alana ordered. “But Mels!” Lucy whined. “No “butts”! Now go!” Alana commanded. “Fine... I’ll say “sorry”.” Lucy sighed as she ran off in the direction of Sam. “And it had BETTER be sincere!” Alana called. “Who was that?” Nathaniel asked when he caught up to her. “Lucy. She’s a friend from Weathering... Apparently she’s visiting our school for the day and she just pissed Sam off...” Alana sighed.

When the day of the audition arrived, Alana had worn a special outfit to boost her confidence. She wore blue skinny jeans, a blue t-shirt, and blue high top Converse. She had been practicing her lines and going over everything all day. She had spent all day making sure that everything was ready for her to give a good performance. “Damn it! Where are the auditions taking place?” She thought as she walked the halls of the school. Suddenly, she heard a noise come from the basement. “Maybe everyone is in here?” She thought as she walked down the stairs to investigate. The room was empty. Within seconds, cackling could be heard from the top of the stairs as the door was slammed shut and locked. She instantly recognized the cackling and ran up the stairs. “AMBER! LET ME OUT OF HERE!” She yelled as she started banging on the door. “I told you that I’m getting the lead role!” Amber called as her footsteps became more and more distant. “AMBER YOU BLOODY LOWLIFE! AUDITIONS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT MERRIT!” She yelled. Too late, Amber’s footsteps were already too far gone. “GOD DAMN IT! I actually try to step into the spotlight for once and I get shut out by that little snake!” She yelled into the empty room. She pulled out her phone to try to get ahold of her sister. “Damn it! No service!” She hissed. Alana paced around the basement for several minutes. “The one day I don’t have anything that I can pick the lock with!” She whined as she kicked the ground. 

“Alana! Where are you!” A voice called from the top of the stairs. “Nathaniel!” Alana called as she ran up the stairs and started banging on the door. “ALANA!” He called. “NATHANIEL! I’M IN HERE!” She yelled as she hit the door even harder. “ALANA! How did you get locked in there?!” He asked as he hit the door. “Your sister wanted me out of the running for the auditions!” She explained. “Of course she did... That’s why she looked so smug a few minutes ago.” He sighed. “I don’t wanna miss it! Please help me!” She pleaded. The pair continued banging on the door until the lock became loose. She then started jimmying the handle until it opened. “NATH!” She cried as she threw her arms around him. “Let’s go. Maybe we can still make it.” He smiled as he held out his hand. “Yeah!” She beamed as she took his hand. 

“I’m sorry miss Roster. The auditions are over!” Mr. Faraize looked down. “Amber Jacott locked me in the basement and you won’t even give me a chance?” Alana looked disgusted. “That’s not fair!” Nathaniel barked. “LET MY SISTER AUDITION! She’s put in a lot of work just to pluck up the courage to even do this!” Sam ordered. “Yeah! Give her a chance!” Ken nodded. “Sorry guys! It looks like I won!” Amber cackled. “SHUT UP WENCH!” Armin blurted out. “Give Alana a chance! Give Alana a chance!” Alexy chanted. “If she’s willing to audition, she should be allowed to do so.” Castiel agreed. “She deserves a fair opportunity.” Lysander smiled. Several of the other students nodded and cheered in agreeance. “Give Alana a chance!” Rosa and Kim joined Alexy in his chanting. “Please?” Alana begged. The teachers looked at the chanting students, then at Amber, then back at Alana. “Alright, alright! Miss Jacott, go to the Principal’s office. The rest of you, please give us the privacy that you were all allowed during your auditions. Alana, you may audition.” Mr. Faraize smiled. “YEAH!” A bunch of the students cheered. When the room only contained the teachers and Alana, she stood in front of them and took a deep breath. “For my audition, I will be performing the scene where Briar Rose is talking about meeting her true love in her dreams to her forest friends. I will stop right before she sings the song “Once Upon A Dream”.” She explained. “As you wish. Start when you’re ready.” Mr. Faraize nodded. 

When the audition was over, she walked out of the room and found Nathaniel, waiting with Sam and Ken. “You should have sang “Once Upon A Dream”.” Sam smiled. “You can sing?” Nathaniel asked. “I don’t...” Alana looked down. “She can. Her voice is really beautiful.” Sam explained. “Yeah, you should hear her!” Ken cheered. “How have you heard me?” Alana asked Ken. “When we were living in Weathering, Ken and I would wander the property... There were several times we’d find you singing and dancing to that exact song.” Sam clarified. Alana’s face instantly became red. “Oh dear god.” She muttered. “Its not a bad thing! You’re a great singer!” Ken smiled. “I’d like to hear you sing one day.” Nathaniel grinned. “I’m not as good as they say.” Alana sighed. As Sam and Ken walked several feet ahead of them, Nathaniel took her hand and whispered into her ear. “I’m sure your voice is beautiful.” He blushed. 

★

“Melody! You should sing! You’re such a beautiful singer! I know you can perform “Once Upon A Dream!”.” Severina suggested as she and Alana shared a video call. Alana sat in front of her computer and looked at her friend. “Rini, you know about my stage fright! I’m out of my element just by acting!” Alana looked anxious. “Mels! You can definitely do this! Your voice is lovely and you’re a great actor! You were always the best Sailor Moon and Princess Serenity when we were kids!” Severina cheered. “We were in my back yard with just Sam, Viktor, you and me when I did that! There wasn’t an actual audience!” Alana spat. “But, if you can do that with just the three of us, then you can do it in front of an actual audience!” Severina smiled. “Rini! We don’t even know what part I got!” Alana anxiously whined. “I’m sure you got the lead. I bet that you got the role of Aurora and that your little prince got the role of Prince Philip!” Severina sounded cocky. “And what does the winner of the bet win?” Alana asked, curiously. “Simply the ability to tell the loser “I told you so!”. Unless you wanna put an actual prize into the bet.” Severina keenly replied. “Nah, the humiliation or pride should be enough.” Alana laughed.

★

“MELS! YOU GOT THE LEAD ROLE!” Sam called as Alana and Nathaniel entered the Gym. “WHAT?!” Alana called back, shocked as they walked up to the Cast List. Sure enough, listed next to the role of Sleeping Beauty was Alana’s name. “Nathaniel is the prince too! That means you two will have a kissing scene!” Rosalaya cheered. “Well then.” Nathaniel looked at Alana and blushed. “Does that mean, I’ll actually get to kiss Nathaniel?” Alana thought. “It would be about time!” The voice in her head piped up. “Well, it looks like Rini won that bet.” Sam commented as she elbowed Alana lightly in the side. “Yep. And she’s going to hold this over me for a while.” Alana sighed. Castiel looked at Nathaniel, annoyed. “Looks like someone is jealous.” Sam snickered in Alana’s ear. “What do you mean?” She asked, innocently. “Good, god, sis... Its obvious that Cass wishes he was Nath right now... Your “Prince Charming”....” Sam quietly laughed. “Shut up Sam, you don’t know what you’re talking about.” Alana quietly spat. “And you’re blind.” Sam quietly scoffed. “Alana... Do you think we could practice our lines together after school for a while?” Nathaniel nervously asked. “S-sure! We c-could practice a-at my a-apartment if y-you’d like!” She stuttered. “I’d like that!” He beamed. “I was supposed to be the princess!” Amber shouted. “Okay, first of all, your brother is the prince. Don’t advocate for incest! Secondly, my sister gave that audition her all, she has known the role by heart since we were children, and she is overcoming her stage fright to do this, Mels deserves the part!” Sam shot. Alana looked at the cast list and began laughing. “Uh, Sam... You got the role of Oma’s favorite character... In her human form. Ken and Armin got the parts of being her dragon form.” She explained while she continued to laugh. “Haha! I got Maleficent! That’s awesome!” Sam laughed. “Well, at least I don’t have to wear a dress!” Armin chuckled. “And Maleficent is a MAJOR Kingdom Hearts villain!” Alana mused. She went back to reading the cast list. Castiel and Lysander were the kings, Castiel being Phillip’s father, and Lysander being Aurora’s father. Li was Fauna (the green fairy), Kim was Flora (the red fairy) and Peggy was Merryweather (the blue fairy). Amber was a flower and Charlotte was a stage hand. Most of the other students were crew. Alexy joined Rosalaya in the costume design team.

“Nathaniel! Step down as the prince! Trade that role with Castiel!” Amber ordered. “I am not doing that! Even if I did, you wouldn’t be the princess! You locked Alana in the basement! The teachers are mad about that!” Nathaniel growled. “I just wanted the lead role! I couldn’t let HER get in the way!” Amber yelled. “That doesn’t give you the right to do what you did! Just be happy that the teachers are even allowing you in the play at all!” Nathaniel commanded. “Oh really? And how would DAD feel if I told him that you didn’t help me get the role I wanted? I’m sure he wouldn’t like it!” Amber sneered. Sam and Alana walked through the halls, hid behind a set of lockers, and listened in on the situation. Alana couldn’t hold back any longer. “Using your father as a weapon is never a good sign.” She stated as she walked up to them. “Stay out of this freak!” Amber snapped at her. “No! Every time I turn around, you’re being nothing more than a pathetic brat and whenever anyone calls you out on it, especially your brother, you act like Draco Malfoy and say some bullshit version of “My father will hear about this!”. Well guess what?! I’m sure your father has absolutely NO power over my family. So, if you wanna take aim at anyone, you need to take that wretched target off of your brother and put it on me! Because, I’ll have you know, my pacifism has its limits and I don’t have to get violent to go after you.” She snarled. “Do you really wanna do this?” Amber’s eyes turned livid. “Do you?” Sam asked as she came out from around the lockers. Amber looked at the two sisters annoyed and ran off in a huff. “You know what Nathaniel? I wanna meet your father! If he wants to be an asshole, he can come after the Rosters!” Sam demanded.

The following day, Alana walked up to Alexy and Rosalaya. “Alana! We were looking for you! We’ve designed your outfit and we’d like your opinion on it!” Alexy cheered. “Okay...” Alana looked down. Rosa pulled out her sketchbook. For a split second, Alana wanted to vomit. The dress on the drawing being held before her could only be described as “Gaudy”. A lace top around her neck, white padding across the top of the bust, a purple dress that dropped down into a puff of purple and white clouds with stars to accent it, white lace gloves, and a plain gold tiara. “I will NOT be wearing that travesty!” she thought. “Alana, what’s wrong?” Rosa asked. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you two about Aurora’s wardrobe... My aunt Agatha has insisted on making it. She and my mother are here discussing it with Principal Shermansky. It means the world to Agatha that she does this.” Alana explained. “But! This outfit is genius! You’ll look fantastic in it!” Alexy blurted out. “I’m sorry! This is out of my hands.” Alana sighed. Rosalaya looked heartbroken. “Why are they doing this?” She asked. “Because this is the first time I’ve EVER taken center stage and Agatha wants to design the outfit I wear when I do so.” Alana shrugged her shoulders. “Hello!” A voice cooed as a woman entered the room. Standing before them was a woman with long purple hair and wearing a fairy outfit. “Agatha!” Alana smiled. “This is your aunt?” Alexy asked. “Yes. Agatha’s my mom’s little sister.” Alana nodded. “And you two must be Alexy and Rosalaya! It’s lovely to meet you! My little Mels has told me so much about the two of you!” Agatha cheered as she shook Alexy’s and Rosalaya’s hands. Rosa looked at Agatha annoyed. “Miss DeMeilhan, I’ve also been told that your true love is the designer behind the locally famous Ainsworth fashion line. I absolutely LOVE his work!” Agatha beamed. The annoyance in Rosa’s face lessened. “And you’re impeding on my work.” She slightly spat. “I’m sure I am. I truly don’t mean to and I am sorry for that! But, Melody has never performed for a legitimate audience before, I just HAD to make her outfit!” Agatha smiled. “Will you at least use my sketch?” Rosa asked as she handed Agatha the paper. “Sadly, no. This is very fashionable, but it will not flatter my niece. She looks her best in blue. Melody’s body type is better suited for a more formal ballgown. Your design is best suited for a nightclub.” Agatha explained. “But its modern! And I’ve already taken her measurements!” Rosa blurted out. “I’m sure it is, but as a young fashion designer, you need to learn when to take criticism from us older designers. Your dress would not flatter my niece.” Agatha cooed. She pulled a sketchbook from her bag and opened it. On the open page was the design for a blue off the shoulder slim ballgown with a small bow at the top, blue pumps, a silver necklace with a blue pendant, and a slim silver tiara that had several blue jewels. “I did this last night. It will look elegant!” Agatha cheered. “Agatha! Its beautiful!” Alana burst. “Are you going to do Sam’s costume too?” Rosa asked, still slightly annoyed. “The school is only letting me work on one costume. My little Sammy’s costume will be left to you!” Agatha smiled. “Good.” Rosa muttered.

Several students began to laugh as Amber entered the school, angrily. “IRIS!” She yelled. Iris cringed as Amber stormed up to her. Sam instantly threw herself in between the blonde and the red head. “Get out of my way Roster!” Amber snarled. “No.” Sam growled. “I’m sorry Amber! I thought I had gotten that paint taken care of last night!” Iris begged. “There is no washing this out! I have to go to my salon to fix this!” Amber hissed. “Oh no! The little preppy rich girl HAS to go to her salon! I’m sure you were just itching for a reason to do that anyway, so take it as a win!” Sam sneered. “If you actually went to the salon every once in a while, you’d know how good it feels! But your mother is too CHEAP!” Amber blurted out. “Please. MY mother has instilled in us that we don’t need a shit load of product on our bodies to make us like ourselves! Just because you’re an air headed lizard person who has to put loads of makeup on just to make yourself look human, doesn’t mean the rest of us are!” Sam shot. “I hope I don’t get into trouble with the teachers!” Iris bleated. “I’m sure they know it was just an accident.” Nathaniel smiled. “Don’t defend her!” Amber ordered as she looked at her brother. “Enough Miss Jacott.” Mr. Faraize called from behind them. Amber growled, ordered her friends to follow her and walked off. 

The students gathered in the gym to go over the script. “I think we should make it a musical!” Sam laughed. “Sam! Stop it!” Alana called. “Come on! You should sing! I know you know “Once Upon A Dream” by heart!” Sam sweetly sneered. “Or you could give either Nathaniel or Castiel a private performance!” Sam snickered into her ear. Alana’s eyes widened as the image of her singing to either of them alone in her room entered her mind. “S-Shut-t u-up-p S-Sa-am!” She stuttered. “Alana singing... That would be an interesting sight.” Castiel chuckled as he turned away from them an in attempt to hide the blush that was overcoming his face. “I’m sure you sing beautifully.” Nathaniel cooed. “This will not be a musical. We’d have to pay Disney a lot of money for the rights to that.” Mr. Faraize announced as he entered the room. “Yes!” Alana quietly cheered. “Awe! No singing for my sister!” Sam whined.

“We’re gonna run this errand for Rosa. Go ahead on home without me.” Sam texted Alana as she got to the school doors. “Oh, okay.” Alana replied. “Are you walking home alone?” Castiel asked as he walked up behind her. “Yeah, Sam and Ken are running errands and Nath’s dad ordered him to go straight home.” She sighed. “I’ll walk you home.” He suggested. “You sure?” She asked. “Yeah, come on.” He smiled. When they walked through the park, Alana noticed Amber walking with a woman she didn’t recognize. “Nathaniel must be alone with his dad.” Castiel commented. “Why do you say that?” Alana inquired. “Amber is with her mom.” He stated. “That’s their mom?” She sounded a little stunned. “Their dad isn’t any better. In fact, he’s more of a pompous douche.” He explained. “Let me guess.... They’re the type who wants to be part of the aristocracy, but whose blood is just common enough to never be let in?” She raised an eyebrow. “Sounds like you know the type all too well.” He remarked. “I’ve told you before about how Carol is.” She looked down. “Right... How could I forget?” Castiel looked down. “These people will stop at nothing to gain the supposed power, privilege and prestige that comes with being part of the aristocracy... What they don’t realize is that its horribly limiting... My best friends have been groomed from day one to be the next heads of their fathers’ company. They were ripped away from us within weeks of Viktor’s mom’s death and sent to a fancy boarding school in England... And they’ll most likely be forced to marry each other because of their fathers arranging the union. Severina will be reduced to nothing more than a pretty face and a baby factory, just like her mother was in the public eye because of the institution... Just like what Carol wants me to be. They don’t care about the damage it does... So long as it makes them look good to the posh elite.” She explained. “What about your mom? Your family is old and your mom doesn’t seem to want that life for you and Sam.” He asked. “Despite the fact that my family is old, has a crest, and has three main sections spanning three countries, there is no pressure for perfection on us. Our goals are to just have a good life, and be a close family. As it is, we worked hard for our positions... Only the last few generations were born into anything resembling the “prestige” that is given to the aristocracy.” She explained. When they got to the apartment building, she turned to look at him. “Thanks for walking me home!” She smiled. “I-Its was n-nothing.” He blushed. As she went inside, Castiel stood at the door, sighed with a longing look, and walked away.

“I DIDN’T WANT THEM TO COME!” Castiel yelled. Word had gotten out that the Veilmonts were coming to the open house, only for Castiel to find out that it was Nathaniel who invited them. “ENOUGH!” Alana called as Castiel made a fist while staring at Nathaniel with rage in his eyes. The boys looked at her, quite shocked. “The last thing we need is you two fighting again!” Alana huffed. The boys looked at her, a little annoyed. “We need to go see our costumes anyway, Alana.” Nathaniel smiled. When they got to the classroom, they were greeted by Rosalaya and Agatha. “Our stars have arrived!” Agatha cheered. “You two look a lot happier working together!” Alana smiled. “I must admit, your aunt butting in on my work did upset me, but she’s actually quite delightful!” Rosa mused. “She did go a bit over budget... But, I compensated for it! The students shouldn’t have to pay for their own costumes!” Agatha added. “That was sweet of you!” Nathaniel cooed. Alexy brought out the models with the main costumes. “I made it blue!” Agatha cheered. Standing on the model before them was a floor length, off the shoulder, periwinkle blue, dress with a sapphire blue ribbon around the base of the bust that was pinned to the side by a blue flower. At the center of the top of the bust was a little blue bow tying together the top of the dress. “We also have a simple silver and blue tiara, earrings and necklace set, blue pumps and white lace gloves to finish the look.” Agatha explained. “Your hair will be down and flowy as well.” Rosa added. “It’s beautiful!” Alana blurted out. “You’ll look amazing in it.” Nathaniel blushed. “And for our prince, we have something that will match!” Rosa explained as she instructed Alexy to bring Nathaniel’s outfit out. The outfit on the model was a blue and white fairytale prince outfit with gold outfits and a matching hat. “Nath! You’ll look so handsome in that!” Alana blurted out before she could gather her thoughts.

The day for the school play had finally arrived. The school was buzzing with students making their final preparations for their parents to fill the halls. “This is going to be fantastic! I can’t wait to see my girls shine!” Lynne cheered as she walked the halls with her daughters. “I’m not gonna be on stage for very long mom.” Sam sighed. “But you’re Maleficent’s normal form! That’s a fun role!” Lynne smiled. “And our Mels is gonna be great as Aurora!” Nate mused as he caught up with them. “I don’t think so...” Alana muttered. “Sweetie! You’re a wonderful actress! You’ve just gotta have faith, trust, and gumption!” Lynne boomed. “A little pixie dust doesn’t hurt either!” Agatha chuckled as she ushered for Alana to go into the classroom she was in. “Its time for our princess to get dressed!” Agatha beamed. “Alright! We love you sweetie!” Lynne called. “Don’t forget to be confident and have fun!” Nate nodded. “Thanks guys! I love you!” Alana smiled as she walked past Agatha. “We’ll be waiting for you when the show is over!” Lynne waved as the door shut behind Agatha. “I’ve gotta go. It’s time for me to become villainous.” Sam smirked as she walked off, leaving her parents alone in the hallway. “Have fun sweetie!” Lynne cooed.

After the final rehearsals, it was time for the show to start. Everyone assembled in auditorium. The students gathered backstage and did their best to keep their composure. “Alright everyone! Places!” Mr. Faraize called. Everyone took their first positions and the play began. Charlotte entered the stage and began narrating the story. The school decided to save more money by not having a Briar Rose costume made. Sam brought her a-game to the role of Maleficent. “She must have re-watched the movie recently.” Alana thought as she watched her sister curse the baby. She did her best to give a good performance, but, throughout the show, she couldn’t take her mind off of how handsome Nathaniel looked in that suit. As Nathaniel slightly stumbled over his lines, Castiel laughed. Sam made a motion from behind the curtain telling Castiel to “cut it out” and continue the play. When it was time for her to say her lines, she slightly stuttered at first, but then recited the rest of them perfectly. The curtain closed, students rushed around to set up the “home” set while the fairies took their places. Alana took the change of scenery to think of sad things that would make her fake tears more real. “Come one Melody! You can do this! Think of abandoned kittens... Dead puppies... Maes Hughes’ funeral scene from Fullmetal Alchemist... Bambi’s mom dying... The scene from Mewtwo Vs Mew where Ash is turned to stone and Pikachu tries to revive him, only to begin crying... The scene from Sailor Moon where Darien breaks up with Serena and she crumples down crying in a phone booth...” She thought. Tears came to her eyes and she began to cry at exactly the right moment when she expressed her sadness towards not being able to be with her prince.

The fairies did their best to sneak Aurora into the castle in their efforts to avoid Maleficent. As the fairies went on ahead without her, she wandered the castle. Suddenly, a force overcame her and she was lead by magic to an isolated room. Inside the room was a spindle. Maleficent’s sadistic laugh could be lightly heard as Aurora pricked her finger on the spindle and fell asleep. Alana discreetly left the stage so that Sam and Nathaniel could act out the battle between the prince and Maleficent. The audience started laughing when Kiki wandered onto the stage in his dragon costume. “Miss Jacott! Catch my dog!” Principal Shermansky ordered. “But the play!” Amber called. “You’ve been playing a plant this whole time. Now, GO!” Principal Shermansky barked. Amber gave the principal a dirty look, sighed, and ran off the stage in her flower costume. The moment Amber had left the stage, Armin and Kentin brought out the real dragon costume. “This is a disaster!” Rosalaya cried. “I don’t even need to make trouble. They did it all on their own.” Castiel commented. Alana rolled her eyes. “At least it made you laugh.” She smirked.

The curtain closed and the sets changed to the show’s finale. Students made quick work of moving a small bed onto the stage and fluffing up the pillows. “I sure hope Nathaniel actually kisses my sister!” Sam laughed as she walked closely past the two of them. “Uh...” Nathaniel muttered as his face turned bright red. Castiel looked away, annoyed. “Sam! Don’t psyche our leads out! They need to make up for the mistakes that were made!” Rosa spat. “Thanks for putting more pressure on us!” Alana sarcastically shot. “Mels! Look at you gaining confidence!” Sam smiled. “Now, now! Go on!” Rosa demanded. “Alright, alright.” Alana sighed as she walked towards the bed, laid down and pretended to be asleep. “Come on Nathaniel! Get out there and kiss my sister!” Sam urged as she pushed Nathaniel onto the stage. She could feel Nathaniel getting closer to her. Her nerves were set ablaze. “He won’t actually kiss me... Will he?” She thought. “Would it be a bad thing? You already like him.” The voice in her head piped up. “O-Oh h-how you are beautiful, s-sweet creature...” Nathaniel nervously began. She could hear Castiel, Armin and someone else laugh from backstage. She wanted to think something snarky, but her mind stayed glued to the boy kneeling over her as she did her best to stay perfectly still. “I-I will wake you from this nightmare...” Nathaniel continued as he got closer to her face. “Oh god... Is he going to do it? He’s so close to me...” She thought. He put his hat in front of their faces and didn’t move any closer. “Damn it! Come on man!” The voice in her head piped up. “I don’t want our first kiss to be on stage. As it is, I don’t even know if he likes me like that!” She thought back. Alana opened her eyes and smiled at him. “We made it!” She whispered. “Yeah... It could have been worse...” He whispered back. He removed his hat and she sat up. The play finished with a curtain call then Charlotte closed the curtains.

Suddenly, a white storm flew past them and rushed over to Armin and Kentin. “You IMBECILES! You RUINED EVERYTHING! The principal’s dog... You’re both crazy!” Rosa shouted. “Hey, your costume wasn’t that great, we wanted to do something a little more fun...” Armin laughed. “My costume wasn’t WHAT?!” Rosa shouted. “Oh dear god... May your souls find peace in the afterlife, boys...” Alana muttered as she hung her head in embarrassment. Rosa looked like she was going to lunge at them. Sam got in between Rosa and the boys. “That’s enough! The dragon costume wasn’t the best, but it was fine enough for this! For fuck’s sake, this isn’t a movie set! It’s just a high school play! And Rosa, it doesn’t have to be “perfect” it just needed to be “good”! I think we accomplished that!” She spat. “Come on guys! Our families are waiting.” Alana smiled as she headed in the direction of the girls’ changing room.

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

This covers Episodes 20 and 21 of HSL.

I was going to leave Armin as Maleficent’s role... But I thought it would be more fun to have Sam in that spot. 

#my candy love #my candy love fanfiction #my candy love fan fiction #the melancholy of melody alana roster #melodyalanaroster #melody that's enough with the jealousy #mcl alana #Alana x Nathaniel #my candy love alana #alana roster #mcl #mclhsl #my candy love high school life #mcl fanfiction #mcl fanfic #mcl fan fiction #sweet amoris #amor doce #amour sucre #Sweet kiss #sweet love #Sweet flirt #sweet crush #Corazon de Melon #corazon de bombon #cdm #slodki flirt #dolce flirt #alana's canon #ChiNoMiko

[incorrectbatfam]

Stepmom!Selina?

She sees what she's getting into from a mile away, but she welcomes it because Bruce's kids are a part of him, and she loves all of Bruce.

The kids all see it coming too, and while some (Damian) take longer to warm up to her, she's welcomed into the fold with open arms.

Selina's got a heart as big as her partner and while she's not always perfect, you can see how much she cares.

As a former foster child herself, Selina understands Duke's unique experiences and traumas from the foster care system, so whenever he needs to talk, she's the first one he goes to. Sometimes he doesn't want to (or need to) talk, so they'll watch boxing matches or she'll teach him little bits of Mandarin. If the kitchen isn't busy, they'll try their hand at new TikTok recipes, and film themselves either succeeding or debunking the original poster.

Being raised in isolation to be a human weapon meant Cass missed out on a lot of the things daughters typically learn as children/teens. The evening of Cass's first gala, she didn't know the first thing about doing her own hair and makeup. She's braved assassin armies, but her self-made disaster of bobby pins and eyeshadow nearly drives her to tears. Selina swoops in, wipes Cass's face with gentle reassurances, and walks her through step-by-step.

Selina considers it a privilege to have watched Dick grow from the spunky little Robin to the man he is today. Even though he's taller than her, she still ruffled his hair when he does a good job. She also keeps the first ever birthday card he gave her, which includes a pop-up bat signal and scented stickers, and remembers all of his favorite radio stations. Also, when Bruce does something, Dick goes tattling to Selina.

For a while, Carrie mooched off of her siblings' Netflix profiles, but everyone got tired of her messing up their algorithm and she was forced to make her own. She soon realized how much freedom she had because no one could see what she was watching. Selina caught on to the power trip and started researching and watching snippets whenever a new show comes out. That's how she stopped a bunch of preteen girls from watching Squid Game.

Tim often gets overlooked as not just the middle child, but the child who appears put-together and regularly takes on adult responsibilities. Selina, however, remembers that he's still a teenager. She regularly checks in and gradually teaches him that it's okay to let go and act his age. Selina encourages him to call his Young Justice friends outside of missions and take small acts of rebellion against Bruce. When Tim and his boyfriend snuck out to a famous lover's lookout, Selina gave them the car keys and covered for them.

She noticed that Jason really enjoys hanging out with Harley Quinn, bonding over not just Joker trauma but other shared interests like music taste. After Harley turns to the antihero side, Selina discusses with Bruce and they start inviting Aunt Harley and Aunt Ivy to dinner. The first time they do that, Harley is so excited that she baked a three-layer cake just for Jason. Literally, in strawberry frosting, it said, "THIS CAKE IS FOR JASON ONLY." Finding someone that Jason can relate to remains one of Selina's proudest accomplishments.

She's trying her best, but she makes mistakes too. For instance, although Wayne Manor has plenty of kitchen space, Selina does her cooking at Harley and Ivy's because Ivy can offer her fresh plant-based ingredients that suited Damian's needs. When Alfred's not available, she sends Damian to school with healthy, flavorful vegan lunches shaped into Cheese Viking characters. One time, she was tasked with bringing brownies to a PTA meeting. Incidentally, Harley was simultaneously baking a... different kind of brownie for a block party (you can see where this is heading). When an angry superintendent demanded to know who was responsible, Selina wisely kept her mouth shut and thankfully, so did Damian.

Cullen loves concerts, but he's a huge introvert who gets anxiety when he's left alone in a crowd. Selina becomes his concert buddy, and she'll go as all-out as he does. Sometimes that's showing up to a garage band dressed-down in hoodies and sunglasses. Other times it's painting their faces and looking like they just came out of a Hot Topic blowout sale. She even listens to the discography beforehand so she can blend in. Selina learns a lot about Cullen through this, because nothing says more about a person than the music they listen to.

Harper, though looking rough around the edges, turns into a giddy little kid at interactive science museums. During one of these trips, Harper got distracted by the giant Newton's Cradle so she didn't notice a fourth grade field trip sweeping up Selina. When they reunited at the gift shop, a chaperone had given Selina a school t-shirt and she was put in charge of grading ten kids' assignments. Harper laughed so hard that she spewed lemonade on the museum owner. Neither of them will let the other live that day down.

Selina and Barbara openly talk about guy stuff, and Selina is more than happy to offer advice in times of need. They're both pretty liberal talking about that stuff, and one time they did a tier ranking of all the Gotham Rogues based on how effective their gimmick is (Joker was the only S-tier). They then proceeded to get into a debate on whether or not Man-Bat and Killer Croc should qualify for the list, which led to them staring each other down at dinner while the other family members sat around them confused.

Steph's school offered a Mother's Day breakfast. Although Crystal Brown was doing her best and wanted to make it, she was scheduled a double-shift that the breakfast fell right in the middle of. Selina reached out to Crystal and with permission, went in her place. Afraid that Steph would publicly reject her, Selina sat in the parking lot for ten minutes as Bruce amped her up over the phone. Steph, thinking that no one would no up, was ecstatic and said that she couldn't have thought of anyone better. They enjoyed stacking up waffles and making the girls who bully Steph envious.

Long before she and Bruce got married, Selina made it clear that she would not be relegated to the gender-typical role of a homemaker, and Bruce happily concurred because it's 2021. They knew that to give Alfred a break, they'd have to take on some chores themselves. Instead of dividing up a boring old chore chart, they find ways to make cleaning fun and collaborative. They'll dance around the halls in mop slippers, play "guess the stain", and race their roombas. The kids see this and start modeling the behavior in their own ways—Dick swings from high places to dust them, Damian trains his pets to pick up garbage, and Cass and Duke compete to see who can clean the most bathtubs.

Some parts of the Manor are due for redecorating, so Selina and Alfred make a day trip out of interior design sketches, flipping through furniture catalogues, and looking at paint swatches. It sounds boring at first, but the menial tasks meant they had plenty of time for conversation, and she finally understood why everyone respects him. They also made room in the afternoon for a stroll through the park and afternoon tea, where he told her and her only the secret to a perfect scone.

The other Justice League partners welcome her into the group too. Whenever Selina's in Metropolis, she joins Lois and Ma and Pa for Sunday brunch where they share what their kids have been up to. Iris shows her life hacks to cooking large batches of food in a short time. Selina and Dinah discover an online store dedicated to selling vigilante gear and go on a Cyber Monday spree for their whole families. Steve Trevor, Diana's partner, teaches Selina how to fly with the invisible jet so she can surprise Bruce with the batplane.

After overcoming their initial conflicts, Selina and Talia hold a high amount of respect for each other. Talia sees Selina as not just a capable combatant, but a worthy partner to her former beloved and stepmother to her son. Selina, after spending all that time with the kids, understands the motherly love that Talia holds for Damian and makes it abundantly clear that she would never try to replace Talia in the boy's life. Regardless, looking after all those kids is hard, so they are very much open to the idea of co-parenting.

(Selina doesn't know it, but all this makes Bruce fall in love with her all over again.)

#ask #anonymous #selina kyle #catwoman #gotham city sirens #gotham rogues #batfamily #batfam #batkids #batsibings #batclan #batman family #dc comics #headcanon #tw food mention #tw mental health mention #tw drug mention

[nightingaelic]

FNV Companions react to being re-united with the Courier after the Second Battle of Hoover Dam (NCR Best Ending)

TW: Blood, gore

As the screams of men, metal and guns petered out, movement on the Hoover Dam slowed. The sun was low, red as the ground beneath it, and the heat rising from the concrete and hundreds of gun barrels gave the area a faint shimmer. Most of the Legion lay dead or dying, their last gasps covered by the sounds of NCR soldiers calling to each other, looking for friends or officers or just reassurance that what had happened was true.

Victory.

Arcade Gannon: Though plenty of the NCR heavy troopers were popping off their helmets as the battle came to a close, Arcade kept his on out of fear someone would recognize him. The Brotherhood of Steel attendees appeared to be of the same mind, so he did his best to linger between the two groups and hoped both would assume he had arrived with the other.

Someone slapped the side of his metal-encased arm, and he looked down to find the courier beaming up at him, gasping like they had just run a marathon. "Hey, Six," Arcade said, surprised. "I thought General Oliver would've packed you on a flight to Shady Sands by now."

"Not yet. How're you holding up in there?" the courier asked breathlessly. "Looks like it'd be an oven under the sun."

"Oh, it is," Arcade assured them. "But it also stopped a few bullets and a machete or two, so no complaints here."

The courier bent over and put their hands on their knees. "I saw Daisy... saw her chopper off with the others after the fighting stopped. Oliver's confused as all hell, he doesn't know who they are, where they came from or where they went, but he's got bigger problems to deal with right now than chasing them down."

They looked up with a grin. "Thanks. Tell them all I said hi."

Arcade laughed. "Will do. And thank you."

"For what, dragging you and your only surviving family into this?"

"Well, yeah." Arcade looked down sheepishly. "Fortune favors the bold."

The courier nodded. "Fortis fortuna adiuvat."

"You remembered?"

"Of course I did." They gestured at the broken and scattered weapons and men of Caesar's Legion that lay around them. "After today, we're running low on people who know how to speak Latin."

Craig Boone: Though the other NCR snipers around him packed up their gear and headed toward the dam, Boone stayed put with his rifle until the courier made their way up the rocks to his position. They waved when they spotted him, and he put up a hand of greeting as well.

"And it's over," they said, plopping down to take a seat next to him and dangle their legs over the drop-off.

"Yep."

"Was that you who got that shot in and made Lanius drop his sword?"

Boone smiled. "Mm-hmm."

They smiled back. "Thanks."

The two of them sat together in silence, watching the activity below. Boone's smile grew and grew, wider than it had in years.

"Do you want to go down and join in?" the courier asked, when a group of NCR soldiers started putting broken defenses and wooden Legion weapons into a pile to burn.

Boone straightened his sunglasses and looked toward the horizon. "Yeah. I do."

Lily Bowen: "Pumpkin!" Lily bellowed when she spotted the courier across the dam, leaning on the concrete barrier next to the edge. She pushed her way past several surprised NCR troops, who yelped and jumped out of her path. "Pumpkin, are you alright?"

"Lily." The courier was pale, nursing a jagged wound on their arm. "I'm okay, Lily. I just need..."

Lily barred anyone else from approaching them as they rooted around in their pack. Finally, they extracted a stimpak and jabbed it into their arm, hissing as the medicine found its way into their bloodstream.

Lily inspected the cut carefully. Aside from its ragged appearance and the blood surrounding it, the wound was clean. The stimpak was working its magic, and the redness seeping out was already slowing. "Is that better, dearie?" she asked.

"Much." The courier sighed and leaned back against the concrete. "Legate Lanius had a sword. Not as... as big as yours, but big enough to slice me up when I got too close."

"You rest, pumpkin." Lily sat down on the barrier next to them, careful to hold her hat on in the breeze. "The fight is over now. Leo is quiet again."

"Mmmm-hm." The courier nodded sagely, before turning to face the steep drop below to the bottom of the dam. "We did it."

"How do you feel?"

The courier opened their mouth to answer, but instead threw up over the barrier and into the crevasse below. Lily carefully patted them on the back and produced a box of gum drops from her overalls pocket. "Here. For your breath, dearie."

Raul Alfonso Tejada: "Courier!" Raul pushed his sombrero back with the tip of his revolver, scanning the battlefield atop the dam. "Six, dónde estás?"

An injured NCR soldier looked up from the curb he was sitting on. "What's a ghoul doing here? He's not with us, is he?"

"Chinga tu madre," Raul swore, pausing his search. "You see the courier anywhere around here?"

"Raul!"

He turned back to the devastated landscape and there they were, jogging through the mess of bodies, shell casings and busted concrete. Raul laughed and spread his arms in relief, in welcome. The courier dropped their gun and threw themselves into his embrace, ignoring the blood and dust that covered his costume. Truthfully, they were just as covered in the battle's detritus as he was.

"I lost you so quickly," they breathed hard in his ear. "No wonder... no wonder they call you the ghost vaquero."

"Mij@." Raul embraced them tightly, then held them at arm's length to inspect them. "You had me worried. I thought I was the one who was going to have to track down twelve mariachi bands to play at your funeral."

The courier grinned. "Still want your medal?"

"Think the NCR'll give me one?"

They made a face at that. "If they wanna give me one, they'll have to give you one, too. Come on. I want to see the look on General Oliver's face when I tell him that you did just as much work here as me."

Rose of Sharon Cassidy: A lone NCR trooper stood by the nearest flag pole, hoisting a scrap of fabric high above the scene. Cass could make out the two-headed bear emblazoned upon it, and something in her heart rose. She was still standing there, watching the red star whip in the breeze atop the dam, when the courier made their way over to her.

"Cap for your thoughts?" they asked.

For a moment, Cass tried to find the words for that feeling inside her. When she failed, she turned away from the flag. "Nah. Nothing you don't already know. What next, Six?"

The courier scratched their head and looked around. "Clean-up. Round up the Legion boys who are still kicking, grab everything that isn't nailed down before anyone else does, and pull this place back into some kinda shape."

"And then?"

"And then we drink." The courier pulled out their canteen and offered it to Cass. "But here's a little something for right now. Go on, keep it."

Cass drank deeply. Whiskey, just the way she liked it. "The NCR did good today."

Her traveling companion smiled. "We did good today."

"Mmm, not yet." Cass waved them off. "Don't lump me in with the bear before the work's all done. Ask me later, we'll see how I feel."

"Way I see it, if you had any actual qualms about this, you wouldn't have come," the courier replied with a chuckle. "But I'm damn glad you did."

They'd walked off toward the NCR top brass before Cass could answer, but she let the wind take the words anyway, small as they were. "Me too."

Veronica Santangelo: As soon as the courier was finished speaking to General Oliver, Veronica pulled them away and unearthed a handkerchief from inside her robes to wipe away the worst of the gore from their face. "Eugh. Is this... did somebody explode on you?"

"Hard to say." The courier pulled out their own bandanna and began wiping Veronica's face down in return. "How do you feel?"

Veronica laughed and accepted the help. "Honestly? I'm not sure what my parents would think of me fighting for the NCR, but for New Vegas it seemed like this was the best chance at stability. I don't regret it, if that's what you're asking."

The courier gestured at the Brotherhood of Steel Knights and Paladins that were milling about next to and among the NCR soldiers. "Your family doesn't seem to regret it either."

"Yeah." Veronica brightened somewhat. "They actually came. That ought to show both the Elders and the NCR that this, this is possible."

She watched her brothers and sisters from afar, making awkward introductions and conversation with the defenders of the dam and even comparing power armor pieces with the NCR heavy troopers. She smiled faintly.

The courier followed her gaze. "Did you want to join them?"

"No." Veronica looked down at her power glove, flexing the joints as if lost in thought. "No, that's okay."

ED-E: The courier found ED-E stuck beneath a collapsed barricade, where it had been knocked during the fighting by a lucky Legion swipe. They pulled the eyebot out and dusted it off. "You okay, buddy?"

ED-E beeped its reassurance and pulled itself from the courier's grasp, shaking in midair to dislodge any remaining debris. It did one final loop-de-loop to lose a large splinter before blasting its triumphant music at top volume.

Surprised, the courier laughed. "That's right. We did it. We won."

Rex: The chaos around Rex began to fade into the background, overwhelmed by the scent that clung to the courier at his side. A rush of endorphins, dopamine, a whiff of serotonin- Rex didn't know the words, but he knew what they meant when mixed together in that way. Relief. Happy relief.

The cyberdog yawned, signaling his own stress, and looked up at the courier. They noticed his movement and dropped down to his level immediately, running their hands through the ruff of fur around his neck and inspecting his mechanical parts carefully. "Good dog. Good boy. We did good today, you and me."

Under their touch, Rex relaxed. He opened his mouth to pant. It had been a long, hot day.

#dm me your best argument for why the ncr is or isn't the best faction to side with #fallout #fallout new vegas #fnv #fallout companions react #fallout new vegas companions react #fnv companions react #fallout new vegas companions #fnv companions #arcade israel gannon #arcade gannon #craig boone #lily bowen #raul alfonso tejada #raul tejada #rose of sharon cassidy #cassidy #veronica santangelo #ed-e #rex #ncr #new california republic #tw blood #tw gore #cw blood #cw gore

[redjaybathood]

You caught my attention with the talia hiring steph to find out jason died one, care to elaborate further?

It's a small (so far, 1 chapter) fic where the newly Batgirl Steph meets a mysterious femme fatale Talia who offers her gear and money to enable her vigilante career, if only she can find out what happened to her son.

Basically, what I wrote and posted so far is their meeting (and maybe Steph talking about it with Babs), but I know how it's supposed to go. First, Steph ties the son's disappearance to Red Hood, who was active at the time (and only that time). But there is not much information on him. GCPD doesn't know his identity, goals, or even scope of operations. Nightwing was dealing with Bludhaven at the time, Cass was there too; Tim with Teen Titans. Barbara was in another state running Birds of Prey. Steph was dead.

And Batman, the only one who confronted him, isn't talking. He isn't even keeping any files on him nowhere anyone has access to.

Then, Steph starts to get hints to who the woman really is, and who her son might be. Red Hood is the son. But where did he go? League of Assassins is notorious about loyalty. It's possible, she's been suggested, that the son wanted out of the game and thus, after failing his assignment, decided to dissapear rather than get punished. But it doesn't make sense: Talia says that it wasn't an assignment, she never wanted her son to step into this city. It was his decision, a mission he assigned himself. And he was so tenacious! If he failed once, he would just get up and do it again.

So Steph looks into what exactly was his mission. And who might have wanted to take him out. Black Mask, Joker, Deathstroke, who was around at the time running Secret Society's errands - byt then again, she finds out Talia was in the society, you would think if they killed her son she would know.

Little by little, Joker is the only suspect that remains. And it makes sense. Red Hood disappeared right after he broke out of prison. Well, Black Mask broke him out to take out Red Hood.

She's onto something, Steph thinks. Only, when she goes to interrogate Joker, he tells her a funny story. About Batman leaving a bleeding out man with striking resemblance to a kid Joker killed once, in a building rigged to explode.

There wasn't a body. There wasn't enough to identify. It was, in a typical corrupt and lazy GCPD fashion, ruled out as an accident due to illegal possession and improper storage of exlosives. A homeless person falling asleep in a condemned building that had bad luck to be Batman and Joker's fighting theatre. It exploded, the guy died, case closed.

Nobody knew about it. It didn't raise any flags.

Well, nobody knew except for Batman. And Steph is like, okay, I can't believe anything Joker says, it's Joker. So she confronts Batman about it. Just straight up asks if the guy who died in an explosion was the Red Hood? Batman scoffs. Nobody died in the explosion: it's what Red Hood does. He faked his death once, making it seem like Black Mask killed him; that was the second time.

Stephanie doesn't let go: do you know his identity? Have you checked the DNA?

Batman becomes angry. It's not your case, Stephanie, it's over, Red Hood's identity is need-to-know.

But then Tim, Timmothy Timmy Tim, inserts himself into a conversation and tells another funny story. About a visitor he had once, at Titans Tower, who beat him up pretty roughly. But then again, he was for sure he was hallucinating, because that visitor was the Red Hood - and, after he took off his mask, Jason Todd.

They do compare DNA. It's a match. Steph, her mind completely blank, calls up Talia for a meeting and says that her son is dead. Tells what she knows about what happened.

"I see," Talia replies. She holds up her end of bargain re: equipment safe houses, money. Training, even.

But she never steps into Gotham again.

(there's another son Talia has, he's named Damian; but he never shows up in Gotham at all)

What do you need to know about this story, is I wanted a villain love interest for Steph, just like most of the boys have: Deathsroke for Dick, Joker for Bats, Roman for Jason, Ra's for Tim etc.

Talia was supposed to be just a sugar mama, bankrolling Steph's vigilante career, flirting when she asked for small favors, etc.

Then my mind hiccuped and said it has to have noir vibes. Then it hiccuped again and the story I actually planned to write had nothing noir-y about it. Just regular Batman bullshit. I need to overhaul this completely, make it more about who watches the watchmen, maybe; complacentment of GCPD in regards to Batman that made him get away with literal, though accidental, murder and not even know about it.... Something with meaning, you know? haven't figured out yet.

#stephanie brown #talia al ghul #jason todd #bruce wayne #asks #fic ideas

[miraculous-trinity-leo]

Whacky Gotham, Goofy New York, and Chaotic Paris.

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) (Part 6) (Part 7) (Part 8)

Chapter 6: Evade The Bats, and Beat The Crows

•—–—–·†·–—–—•

The girls are in the old living room setting up clues (that are absolutely... useless) around Gotham. One being a picture Harley and Multimouse took earlier that day.

"They might think to look here after they realize the clues are fake." - Steph

"Then where else would they not think to look?" - Maria

"W.E, I can get you and Harley in without them knowing easily." - Barbara said with a confident smile.

"But they'll have to go incognito... especially you Harley, no offense, but your outfit stands out just a tad." - Steph

"Ehhh, none taken, I'm sure I can tink of somthin' else tuh wear." - Harley

"I can help with that, but I'll need some clothes and some sewing supplies." - Maria said already thinking of what she could make.

Cass gave a nod and headed out of the room, after a few minutes she came back with t-shirts, jackets, sweaters, shorts, jeans, etc. and droped the pile of clothes infront of the group. She then handed Maria a sewing set she got from Alfred.

"Thanks Cass. I'll get to work on making our costumes." - Maria

"Let me help yuh wit' dat hun." - Harley said as she picked up most of the clothes for Maria

"Thanks." Maria

•—–·Let's see the Chaos shall we·–—•

"You never told us she could use magic!" - Red Hood looking under the table

"I wonder if she can infuse magic with coffee..." - Red Robin said looking in the cabinets for the third time.

"Stop looking for coffee!" - Red Hood

"She could've hidden in here." - Red Robin said while crabbing a mug

"I haven't had enough sleep to deal with this." - Selina then walked over and flopped herself on the couch and proceeded to fall asleep on impact.

"Maria get your tiny self back here right now or else!" - Tony

"Or else what? She Knows MAGIC! What else does she know that you haven't told us?!" - Red Hood

"... I never told you becuase it's meant to be a secret!" - Tony

"Oh, so now you agree with keeping things a secret?" - Red Robin grabbing the coffee

"What else can she do Tony." - Batman

"Well... she's great with tech, can kick butt in a LOT of different ways, has magic, and if she wants to, she can find and know where everyone or anyone is, but I think she gets massive headaches from a wide search like that." - Tony

"Anything else?" - Batman

(Tony thinkng of all the tiny gods she has in jewelery, and that she keeps Paris/friends and family safe on a daily basis, and that she is the well known designer MDC...)"No..." - Tony

As ivy was listening to them talk, she continued to search her garden, until one of her plants had a message fo her.

"Hello Ms. Ivy, please don't help Batman and Iron Man find us, we promise we'll be careful." - Maria

"Where are you?" - Ivy asked whispering into the plant.

After a few minutes Ivy got a detailed plan that Maria, Harley and the girls came up with to evade The IronBat group (Maria thought that would be better than ManMan group 'But it's Bat MAN and Iron MAN, so it has tuh be The ManMan group.' was Harleys defence, but Maria won that one.) and Ivy agreed to help as best she could.

•—–· Over to the Miraculous gang ·–—•

Plagg is cackling like there's no tomorrow.

"Guys something must be wrong, Plagg won't stop cackling, he won't even touch the cheese I gave him!!!" - Adrien

"There's no time for that, we need to find out where the hell Maria is!!" - Chloé

"Hahahaha, Ti- heheh Tikk- pffhaaaaaaahaha!!!" - Plagg

"He's trying to form words!" Adrien cradling Plagg in his hands "What is it my friend? Don't do this, you're to young...*sniff * you're to beautiful!"

"Hehehehe Shhhh- hahaha, she- she- haha...heheh- I'm so p-hehe-Proud wahahaha " - Plagg

"Proud?! She?! Where?! Who, is it Maria?!" - Chloé

"Hhhhhhhhahhaaaaaaaaaa" - Plagg

"Oh God he's wheezing!" - Adrien

"Hey guys, Peter and I got the snacks, found out where Maria might- oh kwami." - Alix walking into the room to a zombie looking Chloé, a panicked Adrien and the Kwami of death/bad luck/chaos laughing himself to death.

"Has he finally lost it?" - Peter

"She has become a true cat! hahahahahaaaaa heheheheeeeeee." - Plagg

Everyone in the room but Plagg "Oh fu-"

•—–· Over to the Batfam ·–—•

So everyone is panicking because for the past hour none of them could find Multimouse. Robin is sitting on the couch next to a now fully awake Selina, Red Hood and Nightwing are once again feeding each other the worst possible situation she could be in, Tony may or may not be hyperventilating, Red Robin is drinking coffee, and Batman is as stoic as ever... well on the outside anyway, on the inside, it's a warzone. Ivy is drinking her tea, slightly worried, but also hiding a small smile.

"What if we ask Oracle to try and help us find her?" - Red Robin

"... Right... Yes, ok let's do that... Bats you do it, I need to sit down." - Tony

•—–· Back to the girls ·–—•

The girls moved everything to the Bat-cave so they could set the route they would take, then the Bat-Computer started ringing.

"Hide!" - Steph

"Where, dere's nuttin' tuh hide behind!" - Harley

"Quick under the Bat-Computer." - Barbara

As soon as Harley and Maria hid under the Bat-Computer, Batman and the rest of the Batfam was on video call.

"Hey guys, what do you need?" - Barbara acting like nothing happened

"We need you to search for Maria, she's in a dark gray suit with pink accents, and she's with Harley." - Batman

"Ok, no prob, I'll contact you when I've found something." - and with that Barbara exited the call.

"Should we start heading out?" - Maria

"Yup, and here are your ID badges, don't lose them. I'll give our Batfam fake sightings, and lead them far away, then once you reach W.E I'll slowly start leading them closer to you." - Barbara

"Thanks, keep in touch if they decide to split up." - Maria

"Roger that." - Steph said giving a solute

•—–·–—•

Soon Multimouse and Harley are running over roof tops again, doing tricks, and stopping petty crimes, Barbara is leading the Batfam all over Gotham, and then they got to W.E, after Maria transformed back, they entered the building. Thanks to Babs, they entered without any problems and had free roam for the entire building, with some exceptions like new weapons designs, or the roof. They were hiding in the building for about an hour on the 7th floor when Barbara called in.

"Hey girls, you might want to be careful, I spotted some of Scarecrows goons a few blocks away, they seem to be heading in your direction, I'd say about 6mins tops until they reach W.E. Best to find a good room to stay in, or get out of there." - Barbara

"Thanks fawh de heads up Babs." - Harley

"Ok, we'll try to get out, let us know if we should turn back or not." - Maria

"Got it, and be careful." - Barbara

Maria and Harley then made their way back down, they were taking the stairs, because they figured it would be quicker, once they were on the second floor, they started to calmly make their way through the doors of the stairwell. That's when Scarecrows goons busted in, shouting for everyone to get down, Harley made sure to stay as close to Maria as possible as the goons gathered everyone to a wall. They were told to not move, talk, or do anything to anger them, once everyone was up against the wall, that's when Scarecrow came in. As he entered the room some of the employees started to look very scared, when Maria looked over to Harley, she saw her mouth 'it's ok', afterwards the goons had them all tied up and on the floor sitting down. Scarecrow scanned them before speaking.

"One of you will be testing my newest and most potent fear toxin as of yet. We can do this one out of two ways." He said lifting up two of his needle syringed fingers. "1. You can be a hero, and let yourself be my newest test subject, aka the boring way or 2. I pick whoever I want, aka the slightly less boring way. Now, who wants to go first?"

•—–· Over to Batman ·–—•

The Batfam was running around the other side of Gotham, now without Tony, because someone ( ehem Thor, ehem) was making a giant mess at Avengers Tower, and was fighting Loki... again. It was when they decided to call Oracle that things took another turn.

"Oracle have you foun- " - Batman

"They're at W.E. and Scarecrows there, I can't get in contact with them, and I can't get into the cameras at the moment, I need you to get your butts over there now!" - Oracle

"Wait you were in contact with them?!" - Red Hood

"Not the time! Just get over there before someone gets hurt!" - Oracle

"We're on our way." - Batman

They all then kicked it into high gear and were running to W.E, and out of everyone, Damian seemed to be the most visibly panicked, if him running twice as fast as everyone was any indication. At the speed they were going, they would be there in 20mins or less... hopefully.

•—–· Back to Maria and Harley ·–—•

So while Scarecrow was giving his little speech, Maria whispered into a plant to let Ivy know their situation, she wasn't able to get an answer before she and Harley were pulled away from the crowd.

"And what do we have here? Harley Quinn and a child. How interesting, well then, which one of you would like to test my new fear toxin?" - Scarecrow

"Eh, do me, I bet I got a lot o' trauma and fears from my time wit' Mistuh J. dat yuh would just love tuh see." - Harley

"... As tempting as that sounds I think I'll test it on your little friend here, after all, I know better than to mess with one of the Sirens." - As Scarecrow said that, one of the goons dragged Maria over to him. She didn't panic, she was actually really calm, which worried Harley even more because, remember all that emotional trauma she saw Maria had? Yeah, not the best match for the fear toxin.

As Scarecrow grabbed Maria, she locked eyes with Harley, and gave a brief smile before she felt a sharp jabbing pain in the side of her neck. Her vision went hazy, and from Harleys' point of view, she went a little limp from it.

As Maria started to see again she could hear screams, car alarms going off, and explosion in the distance, when she looked up, she saw them, her friends, her team... her family, they were all there lying infront of her... none of them moving, all of them were lifeless, looking as though turned into a gray husk of what they once were, and beside them were all the Kwamis, and their respective Jewelery, broken and shattered. She felt the tears fall as she looked around. Paris, the once beautiful city of lights, was now a wasteland, everything had a gray tone to it, people, animals, everything that had life... was dead.

And then she heard laughing, a sick disturbing laugh that was all to familiar... Lila. When she turned and saw Vulpina, she felt sick just looking at her.

"You have failed Maria, everyone you knew and loved is gone, all because you weren't here." - Lila

All she felt in that moment... was pure anger, she began to struggle, but somthing was holding her. She kept hearing that stupid laugh, and kept struggling harder and harder.

"You were never good enough, you were meant to always be our everyday Ladybug, but you never were, you never cared for us, and that's why, they're all gone, because you weren't good enough." - Lila

The last four words kept playing over and over in her head, until something clicked, she wasn't in Paris, so how did she get there? The last place she was at... was with Harley, she was in the W.E. building, and had fear toxin injected into her. As she came to that realization, she could hear the laughing fade just a bit, she closed her eyes and focused on finding everyone's souls, when she did, she saw that Scarecrow was right infront of her, a goon next to Harley, and a goon behind her, the other goons had left and were on the first floor. She snapped back when she heard Lilas' voice again.

"You always were stubborn and never accepted the real truth, as class president aren't you supposed to just roll over and do as you're told." - Lila

Maria was done listening to her, and decided to kick Lila in the face (since someone didn't think to tie up her ankles.)

"Just go rott in hell already you lieing fox!" - Maria

Maria didn't get any answer, all she knew was that she hit whatever was really infront of her hard. Maria then heard Lilas' voice morph into a heavier, more distorted voice.

"That's a first, guess I'll have to increase the dosage." - Scarecrow

She then felt another jabbing pain in her neck, all she could do was scream from the pain, her head was spinning, and all she could hear was laughing, sickening laughter that came from both Lila, and now Hawkmoth. One thing Scarecrow didn't account for, was the deep hatred Maria held for both individuals he made her see. Because soon after he gave her more fear toxin she got her footing, pushing back into the goon behind her before using the goons' grib on her to do a half backflip into kicking the guys face in, quickly knocking the goon out, when she stood back up she only saw Hawkmoth, surrounded by her lifeless team and family, she only saw red, and charge right at him. She kept punching and roundhouse kicking him, giving one final charge, ramming into Hawkmoth before she felt weightless. She never heard the panicked scream Harley let out, she never heard the shouts that came from the Batfam just reaching the second floor, before she hit something... something rapped around her holding her from falling any further, causing her to start thrashing around thinking it was Hawkmoth, before seeing he was also grabbed by something. She struggled ignoring the slight pain that went through her harms and legs. She slowly calmed down as she felt her feet touch the ground again, she then saw another Hawkmoth that was now mixed with Lila hug her, she tried to break free, but realized that it wasn't Lila or Hawkmoth... It was calming, and her voice was gentle, it was Ivy. She only heard a few words, that's when she felt something blow on her face, and after a few seconds, she lost conscientiousness.

Harley came sprinting down and was by Ivys' side in less than a minute. Ivy could tell Harley was worried and joined her in hugging a now sleeping Maria.

"I'm sawhry Ives, It all just happened so fast, and she was so awesome at kickin' Cranes @ss, I din't get her out of dere quick enough." - Harley said as she looked Ivy in the eyes, with tears threatening to escape.

"It's alright Harley, none of this is your fault." - Ivy replied comfortingly to Harley

As the two hugged Maria Batman came over.

"We'll take it from here." - Batman

"Hell no. We ain't leavin' her side." - Harley

Batman just let out a sigh, after he dealt with Scarecrow and his goons, Batman, along with his sons, Ivy and Harley, all headed back to the Bat-cave where the other girls and Alfred were waiting.

If anyone noticed Robin looking over to Maria with a concerned look, they just ignored it, and continued their way back home.

•—–·†·–—•

Chapter 6 complete! Hope you'll liked it, and are havin' a fantabulous day, stay safe and rock all those positive vibes. !BUG-OUT! 🐞💮🐞

〜(꒪꒳꒪)〜 Tag List 〜(꒪꒳꒪)〜

1st Place★: @animegirlweeb☕ , 2nd Place★: @jumpingjoy82, 3rd Place★: @zalladane, 4th Place★: @jayjayspixiepop, 5th Place★: @arty-shadow-morningstar, 6th Place★: @smol-book-nerd, 7th Place★: @irontimetravelflower, 8th Place★: @fandom-trapped-03, 9th Place★: @meme991001, 10th Place★: @buginetye, 11th Place★: @blackroserelina, 12th Place★: @jessigurl-design, 13th Place★: @adrestar , 14th Place★: @moon5608, 15th Place★: @little-bluestar, 17th Place★: @myazael, 18th Place★: @our-preciousss, 19th Place★: @wolf2118, 20th Place★: @nyx-in-line, 21st Place★: @kking13, 22nd Place★: @lunerlover2024, 23rd Place★: @moonlightstar64, 24th Place★: @corporeal-terrestrial, 25th Place★: @kashlyn, 26th Place★: @tbehartoo, 27th Place★: @heart-charming, 28th Place★: @solangelo252, 29th Place★: @t1dwarrior-of-earth, 30th Place★: @lady-phoenix-of-tardis, @lupagrimm

#miraculous ladybug #damian x marinette #marinette dupain cheng #damianette #marinette x damian #damimari #harley quinn #shenanigans #badass marinette #poison ivy #catwoman #batfam #miraculous fanfic #fanfic #mlb fanfic #class salt #fluff fic #gotham sirens #choas #mlb x dc #mlb crossover #mlb x marvel #mlb fanart #digital art #fanart #miraculous marinette #miraculous damian wayne #foryou #maribat #Whacky Gotham Goofy New York and Chaotic Paris

[missorgana]

call me what you want

pairing: bucky barnes/sam wilson

fandom: marvel cinematic universe

rating: general

word count: 2741

warning: alcohol, swearing

summary: Bucky thinks he quite likes Sam calling him nicknames, but he likes his smile more. (more tfatws canon compliant fluff.. just because!)

(look at me, once again ignoring exams to write stupid fluff instead. anyways! don’t have much to say but hope u enjoy!! <333 missing them already)

read on ao3

Bucky doesn’t realise just how long he’s been looking at Sam until the man glances over and calls him Buck.

When he thinks about it, his eyes never leave him. Not after those staring contests of theirs, which he’ll admit to himself and no one else that he’s the most responsible for. Not when Sam turns his back to him, focus returning to the mission and Joaquín and Redwing.

He’d roll his eyes at the nickname, but that would mean looking away from Sam, and losing eye contact with Sam.

“Don’t call me that,” he says instead, hopefully conveying his disagreement with a tight-lipped look. He considers smiling. Seems inappropriate.

The other man does smile, “Why not? It’s what Steve called you.”

Sam’s smile looks right. Feels right. Bucky’s had people smile at him before, sure, plenty, but it hasn’t ever felt exactly like this. He’s not sure what it means, though, so he pushes it the furthest way back into his consciousness.

“He knew me longer,” Bucky explains, pretending like it matters, “And Steve had a plan.”

The shorter man seems like he’s holding in a laugh, a smug one. That suggests he knows the obvious lie when he hears it. 

Bucky can see the gap between his teeth.

If he turns his own lips into a smile when Sam turns away again, the man currently preparing to jump out the chute doesn’t need to know. If he spots it and gives him a funny look, he doesn’t need to know the reason behind the smile. Bucky knows.

*

Because Sam’s always calling him a  cyborg, Bucky fumbles for some sort of retaliation. His name’s too short to make fun of, he contemplates. Damn him.

“I can see the gears turning,” the shorter man laughs, hard and out of breath. Bucky still can’t stop looking at him, for some reason. He bends over a bit when he laughs, picking up a faster pace than himself. Bucky makes sure to catch up.

His comeback ends up being, “Sure you can, birdman.”

He can tell the other man feigns offence, raised brows and nose scrunching at the edges. Sam smiles so easily. Bucky wonders what that’s like.

“Oh, I see how it is,” the man next to him speaks up, eyes dancing easily over the open, practically deserted field they’re surrounded by. There’s a car buzzing faintly a fair amount of miles away, Sam wouldn’t notice but he does, super soldier senses and all, “For the record, that movie’s not too bad.”

Bucky kicks a rock and some dirt to the side. The rock’s weird looking, all sharp edges, almost like spikes. Yet it’s so small. He decides to look at Sam instead, “What movie?”

A honk lets them know they’re not alone. He thinks this might be what disappointment feels like, because the other man stops himself after “I-” and shakes his head instead, causing Bucky’s brows to furrow and right hand to twitch and something sinking inside his stomach, “Nevermind.”

He has to remember to google that later.

*

Bucky doesn’t really care that Karli told Sam to come alone, because Sam also knows that he’ll be coming with him, no matter the protest.

He’s got a hunch Sam also knows that he was lying, again, reattaching his vibranium arm and gaining the senses back and pretending not to be all that shocked.

“You okay?” the man asks and he answers, “I’m fine.”

Of course. It’s fine. Kind of annoying, how Sam looks at him with a worried glance, trying to hide it but failing miserably. Bucky doesn’t look away when their eyes meet. The shorter man blinks, slowly, like a question.

And he always gestures for Sam to go first.

So he does, too, on the Wilsons’ boat, when he’s tightened near every damn screw and lifted every imaginable thing like it’s nothing, and yet the other man still refuses to ask for help. He accepts it when Bucky decides to put a cool hand on his hip, though.

Sam stills. He himself doesn’t move till the man in front of him does. Seconds seem like years.

“Alright, show-off, don’t overwork yourself,” he tells Bucky, laughing without much of the familiar smugness. The dimples in his cheeks are deeper now, wide eyes. Bucky expects Sam to be looking at his left arm, but his gaze is resting somewhere under his chin. His throat, above his chest.

He thinks he’s getting the hang of this nickname thing, “Sure thing, Sammy.”

And the other man throws a towel at him in response. “Sammy? What are you, five?”

Sam’s sweatshirt has a small hole in it. Near his hip, a tiny thread poking out. The fabric slides up when he raises his arm, revealing a sliver of his stomach. He imagines his skin to be soft, like his arm. It seems the man notices his fixated stare on the spot, looking for whatever the subject of his attention, wiping his forehead in the hem.

Bucky shrugs, “Give or take a hundred years.”

He understands why Sam’s chuckle doesn’t reach his brown eyes at that. What he doesn’t understand is his pupils, significantly dilated. Stupid serum advancement, stupid awareness.

A spot of sunlight touches the other man’s face, and he squints, covering himself with a hand, moving out of Bucky’s sight.

This is how he realises he’s still holding a grip on the now tightened pipe, harder than he thought. He’ll make sure to fix the bending he caused before Sam notices.

*

Sam is a good dancer. Not that Bucky’s an expert on it or anything, far from it, but he’s not tripping over his own feet or cursing or slinging his sister around like a ragdoll.

His nephews are jumping around them, too, a couple of their neighbours in a slow dance, another reaching out and offering Bucky a beer, which he accepts. The serum doesn’t allow him to be affected much, unless he deliberately seeks being unsensibly drunk, but he likes the bitter taste, regardless.

Sarah straightens her brother’s arm and rolls her eyes in the direction of himself.

Sam turns his head about a millisecond later, winking before spinning her around. It’s smooth as hell, despite not breaking eye contact with Bucky. 

"Come on, Buckaroo!" the shorter man raises his voice, nickname just plain awful, "Get up here."

Bucky decides to shake his head as a reply, he's always preferred observing, really. Besides, he thinks he might be too quick on his feet. Too spinny, urging to not stand still.

Sam doesn't drag him up. He didn't expect him to, but it still surprised him, for some reason. The shorter man looks severely gentle with his hands on the small of Sarah's back, not surprising.

He gets a shake of the man's head and a shimmy of his shoulders. "Man, you're no fun."

Bucky huffs, “Whatever you say, darling.” Sam blinks in disbelief at the name. Sarah snaps him out to carry on with the dance. He likes having the man’s attention, he thinks.

He considers hiding his smile behind the rim of the glass. But really, there’s no need to, and he doesn’t feel like it.

The other man always grins as opposed to simply smiling. It grows just an inch when he notices Bucky smiling back, and there’s these tiny, sensitive hairs standing up on the back of his neck, he feels it immediately. Blood rushing to his face. Maybe it’s just the alcohol.

Just about every window in their house is open, his t-shirt sticks ever so slightly to his lower back with sweat, and a moth is fluttering around the lamp in the corner. It’s comical, tiny wings and body staying so close to that light, not really doing anything.

Eventually it’ll die, he guesses. Well, it has to, of course. But when the living room thins out and the light dies and everything turns quiet, it’ll simply wander around, lost, until that warm glow returns.

That stupid bug bathes in the light like it’s the only thing in life that matters. Bucky feels a sudden urge to look at Sam again, and the other man isn’t looking at him anymore, but it doesn't matter, his presence is enough.

Actually, he thinks he might fear looking away from Sam. Scared he’ll miss something, anything. A look or a smile or a joke or a movement. Some warmth radiating off of him, because the man has so much that he doesn’t even mind giving away a little to his surroundings. 

Bucky’s quite like the moth, in that sense.

*

Now, Bucky didn’t plan on kissing Sam today.

He’d been planning on it, or he wanted to  ask , but most times it was like the certain moment faded too quickly and he felt guilty for not doing anything about it.

When he woke up to AJ and Cass playing with the shield and the man cooking breakfast in a tank top, Bucky wondered if he should do it, then. It felt weird to try with both his nephews and sister in the kitchen though. He also sort of wished he had gone for it on the lower deck of the boat. Maybe Sam would think it was inappropriate when they were working.

When they circulated around each other the last few days, training, talking, Bucky gaining a deeper understanding for the other man and finding a way to convey an apology that sounds  right, it feels like they’re more of a team.

Connected. Stronger, maybe. Sam doesn’t need his super soldier strength at all, though, but it being wanted anyway, that makes him want to smile more. As much as the shorter man, maybe, if he’s capable.

Bucky decides the next time, the next moment, it’ll come, like all the other moments he’s been discovering and making him sort of breathless. In a good way.

“Thanks for the help,” Sam tells him, instead of a goodbye, “It meant a lot.”

Usually, these sentimental moments they keep having will be ended by the other man lightening the mood, so to speak. Not breaking it, just making it airy and familiar. His stupid jokes that aren’t even stupid, or annoying, anymore, they just remind Bucky of something like safety. He hasn’t asked, and Sam hasn’t said, but he feels like he’ll be there if he falls down. He’d do the same for him.

The man doesn’t joke around, now, despite himself attempting to muster the same smugness, “Of course.” He feels like it sounds more sarcastic than he intended. 

He quite likes that boat. Likes the people on it more. One particular person.

Bucky really thinks that’s the end of their conversation, their own way of saying  see you around  , but instead a voice catches him when he turns around, “I’m just telling the truth, baby.”

Naturally, he turns back, but now Sam’s got his back turned.

Funny, how they keep going back and forth like that. Watching, even when the other isn’t looking. He knows he’s been doing that a lot, there’s no denying it.

A feeling in his hand, the way it twitches, makes Bucky feel like this might be a new moment.

“Wilson!”

He doesn’t really wait for a reaction before following. Like the moth. Meant to follow. When Sam stops, he stops. Then, reaches over the shield in the man’s grasp and lets his fingers touch the nape of Sam’s neck.

Bucky half-expects him to push him away, but the shorter man kisses him back immediately, and  that makes him want to smile. So he does.

It’s short, close-mouthed, the softest experience he’s ever had. Soft lips, stubble meeting, even if the shield pokes his stomach, doesn’t matter.

When Bucky draws back, Sam’s grinning like an idiot.

He also lifts an expectant eyebrow, like he’s waiting for him to explain himself. Maybe say some romantic bullshit, but he’s scared the words will fail him. Too focused on the other man’s Adam's apple when he swallows, too busy counting his eyelashes, so he doesn’t forget.

Bucky doesn’t want to forget anything about Sam, ever, for the life of him.

He adjusts the bag on his shoulder, before giving the man one last smile. Sam looks weirdly proud of him. “It’s for luck.”

*

Bucky guesses a kiss is the sort of thing you talk about, but the mission at hand doesn’t allow much talking. He manages to hear Sam’s speech, grab every word and hide it within him and completely pretend he didn’t. The other man knows his bullshitting, again.

“Great job, Cap,” he tries to smile, showing his teeth, like Sam. The man next to him eyes him curiously, for the first time since Bucky met him, looking endearingly shy.

He still laughs, sounding almost like a song Bucky’s trying to remember, “It’s Cap now?”

“Obviously.”

And given Sharon’s wound, he can’t stick around, but the text he receives about a  party  at the Wilsons, a cookout, that doesn’t surprise him, actually. Doesn’t surprise him that he’d go to Louisiana in a heartbeat and pick up the cake Sarah asked for, even if it slides around in the carseat and doesn’t look all that appetizing when he arrives.

The Wilson siblings roll their eyes at him. They both smile. Sam looks like the sun.

Bucky’s so busy being overrun with kids staring at his left arm that he doesn’t notice Sam slipping out of the group. If it makes him panic just a little not knowing where he was, well, that’s nobody’s business but his own.

The shorter man hasn’t gone far though. He’s looking out at the water, the sunset.

It’s pretty. Looks prettier when Sam stands there.

He knows, he  knows he’s not damn good with communication. The other man told him so himself. But he can’t stop trying, even if it feels like he’ll swallow his tongue.

Sam doesn’t acknowledge him when he comes up behind him, not at first, but Bucky thinks about his easy smile and red shirt and the lines in his palm and the ghost of his lips on his when he says the first feeling that comes to mind.

“I hate everyone else in the world, but you.”

It makes the other man chuckle and turn his face towards him. When he smiles hard, really, really hard, his warm eyes crinkle at the corners.

There’s a small birthmark on Sam’s throat, he notices. And one on his earlobe.

“Really?” he asks, as if it’s up for discussion.

“Yeah.”

Then that smugness returns like a charm with the comment, “So you like me more than Steve?”

And he would be annoyed, but his own smile is kind of preventing that feeling to surface. “I hate Steve,” he answers, with a certainty that surprises them both. Sam’s tugging at the hem of his shirt.

Then, “You liked Natasha, though,” and Bucky wants to roll his eyes so goddamn badly, which is clearly what the other man was looking for. He thinks he finds him adorable. The pink hue of the sky touches his being so perfectly. Hazy eyes, teeth nearly gleaming in the light.

“No, I mean what I said,” and Bucky knows what’s coming, of course he does, “But you can’t not like Rhodey, I mean...”

Sam is so fucking ridiculous. He doesn’t ever want him to stop making him smile like this.

“Sam, please, I’m trying to-” but Bucky doesn’t quite get to finish that sentence. Not because the other man interrupts him, at least not with his lips, which he wouldn’t complain about, or his words, but because both of Sam’s hands come up to cradle his face in the most tender fashion. He thinks he might be going crazy.

So he just looks at the man for a minute. Contemplating how loud his beauty is, how much love is in his eyes and how it’s somehow directed at himself. It feels overwhelmingly peaceful.

And Bucky feels Sam’s breath on his cheeks before they connect their lips again. Long overdue. His tongue tastes like coffee and butterscotch.

When they pull apart, the shorter man bumps their noses together. Bucky quite gladly could stay like this forever.

Then Sam asks, an unspoken conclusion, but voices the question regardless, because, well. He’s pretty sure they both need it, “You plan on sticking around?”

This smiling thing is kind of straining Bucky’s jaw. He’ll get used to it.

“Don’t even need to ask, sweetheart.”

#mine #my writing #marveledit #winterfalcon #tfatws #sambucky #fanfiction #mcu #sam x bucky #eloquencenet #queernet #mlm #canon compliant #fluff #general rating #tw: swearing #tw: alcohol #first kiss #marvel fanfiction #nicknames #love confession #bucky barnes pov #sabrinasfamily #lutkasfamily #the falcon and the winter soldier

[the-shared-brain-in-retrograde]

Ant-Man

A joint review...

The Shared Brain was clearly working on overdrive last night because we have written essentially the same (like near word for word in parts) notes for Ant-Man, so there shall be no fighting today. Well maybe a little, but that's neither here nor there.

We both reet enjoyed this film, including the most stupid thing we've ever heard Cass say. But that is a treat for the end, suffice to say that she got distracted by a pretty face - no thoughts, just eyelashes...

1989, the year Becks was born, and Michael Douglas looked like Emilio Estévez (which Becks has just had to check the spelling of, because she didn't have Cass' bony finger jabbing at it from across the sofa... Can you tell we're gearing up for Civil War?) Cass got confused by Howard Stark and made mean comments about Peggy's hair. Her hair was very big, yes you're right, but then she went on a diatribe about Peggy and Steve and then said some very mean things, and then we got into talk about fiddling and Bucky Barnes, neither of which appear in this film so we're going to stop now. What we do both agree on is how impressive that punch to the face was, there are numerous punches in this film, and all of them are good. It then leads us to the best burn we've ever encountered in the MCU, 'How's your face?'. It felt quite northern, so we both approved of it.

There are some proper good uses of music in this film. We liked the party vibe, the cheerful latin party vibe. We are here for it. Yes.

Becks: Who should we discuss first?

Cass: *no hesitation* SAM

Becks: [wheezes] Who got his arse handed to him by a mini man?

Cass: But looked fabulous whilst doing so.

Becks: Anything else you'd like to add about Sam Wilson?

Cass: He's just lovely. (sighs dreamily)

Becks: I'm not putting that...

Now that we are done discussing the star of the show we shall move on to the supporting actors, who were also very good.

Scott Lang

We like Scott, he's a good egg. Perhaps one day Becks will get drunk and tell him so too, and I bet he'd get back to me. Cass has just called him a decent sort of chap, and we both had a small breakdown, but she's not wrong. He seems kind, with good morals but not self-righteous (like some people), smart, but not too smart (like some people), funny, but not irritating (LIKE SOME PEOPLE**), and secret abs, which took both of us and Hope by surprise, but as they remain secret most of the time it lets people concentrate which we are thankful for. He's a skilled burglar...

Becks: Do you know who else is a burglar?

Cass: Oh no...

But actually that wasn't where I was going, I was going with Bilbo. Bilbo is in the Hobbit, and do you know who has read the Hobbit? Everyone present.

What we didn't get on board for was that he put on the suit he nicked. That was kinda weird. Cass thinks the helmet looks a bit like a gas mask, and we all know her feelings on the war. Unfavourable. We enjoy his commitment to being a good dad, a rare sight in the MCU. This is quite the film for good dads, Hank Pym has his moments, and even stupid Paxton does what is right for his stepdaughter at the end. We do plan on rating all the MCU Dads at one point, so stay tunes for that Daddy Post (which given that title will not be what anyone expects it to be, or even expects from us given some of our questionable comments from other reviews...). We then had a discussion about him being a good friend, which thinking about it we don't really have proof for, it’s more just a feeling, and we can't just start writing untruths that we have no proof for on that internet - that would be insanity. We did approve of his kiss with Hope at the end, and the silliness that followed. Unlike Gamora, we can see what Hope sees in him.

** I have edited out the bubbling tension that was had over the phone during these moments.

Hope Pym

Ah, the mean pretty lady. Here's a fact, she's very good undercover, although you can see in her eyes how much she wants to twat that baldy man in the face, and who can blame her. We wish she'd had the opportunity, because we saw her swing and it was good. We were worried that she seemed to have ants in her car, but I reckon if you spend any time near Hank Pym you're gonna get ants in something. ANTS.

Hope is also the only point of contention we have in our entire notes. Her hair to be exact. Cass thinks is very Pulp Fiction chic, whilst Becks gets am dram Cabaret. We haven't been able to put aside our disagreement, so we shall simply gloss over it and carry on. We enjoyed that she taught Scott the thighs round the neck move that he then used on Sam, and I suggested to Cass she might also like to use it on Sam and she ignored me (she says she didn't ignore me she just can't think about it too hard...). Hope did look pretty cool in the training montage, and as we said before we respect her cool punches. We're glad she made up with her dad and that she got her suit in the end. We bet she'll be reet good in it. Although Cass is basing this on the fact she has seen Ant-Man and the Wasp, and so knows she will. Becks is confused if she actually has seen Ant-Man and the Wasp, but what's new there?

Hank Pym

Well, there is only one place to start with Hank Pym, and that is that he has filled his very nice house with ANTS, like a maniac. He really loves ants. Cass can't think about his obsession with ants for too long without verging into hysteria. ANTS. He really has got them doing everything, yet seemed quite taken aback by the thought of using them to help in the heist. His reasoning for not doing it was, 'They're ants Scott!' which he didn't really seem to mind when they're fetching him sugar. Becks wished there had been a version of the film with Ant Commentary over the top, because they must have been right fucked off when they brought the sugar and then were dismissed. It’s not easy moving sugar cubes, and we should know we've eaten enough. Hank Pym did some questionable dad things, but got his shit together and said sorry, which was good to see and we liked it. Were there moments of manipulation? Yes, but we shall gloss over that. Let us have one good dad, please.

Outside of the film, his role in the trailer was honestly the one of the best things we've ever seen. Best trailer ever. Perfectly captured his ant obsession, and our near hysteria. We imagine it is what being inside Hank Pym's head is like. ANTS.

Hank also uses the phrase sub atomic quite a lot, which also sends Cass. And to be fair, the Quantum Realm was a horrible place, so you wouldn't want to go sub atomic, but the way he said it was very ominous. (Becks forgot the word for ominous and had to act out what she meant using noises, and Cass had to work out the word I was trying to use. It did work though, the perks of the Shared Brain.)

What army of creatures would you like to command?

Cass: Bats. That was my instant thought because it would be well goth and I’d look fucking cool. Like in Dracula Untold. My only gripe is that there is already a bat superhero, but not in this universe so I’m gonna say it’s fine.

Becks: Dogs. All the dogs. An army of dogs. And they would call me The Bitch!

Anthony - R.I.P

The ant had our hearts and when that bastard shot him, and the single wing fell we were FURIOUS, and saddened. We're glad he got stuck in the bug zapper. We hope it hurt, A LOT. Bastard baldy man.

Baldy Man (Darren Cross)

The most basic of villains Marvel has ever shown us. Bald, evil, walks like a cunt, bald, wore a leather coat AND leather driving gloves, bald, had a gold chopper, and did we mention bald? SO bald. He was awful. Now we usually can get behind a villain, but it was a hard pass for us. All he wanted to do was shrink things and fight people. And he killed that lamb and turned it to jam, (oooh a poem) and we hated it.

His origin story just seemed to be that he was pushed away by Hank Pym, and honestly bro just take rejection better. You were clearly bordering on madness, and just need to calm your tits. Baldies Gone Batshit, a new show in the style of Girls Gone Wild but it’s just rejected men fighting out their inadequacies cos they can’t deal with their feelings, probably outside a pub.

Also we discussed it, and you should have put your security team in tactical gear and not suits. Moron.

However, speaking of SCIENCE. Becks is currently doing science herself (what would Cap say?!) as the wick in her Sea Salt Pumpkin candle is slight askew and hasn't burnt the full candle down. Whacked a bit of tin foil round it and waiting for it to melt down to match the rest. Cass is waiting for Steve Rogers to burst in at any moment and slap it out of Becks' hands, thereby haplessly setting the whole house ablaze. Becks would like that...

Back to Cross. A direct quote from Cass when we find him in Hank's house, and he says that the doors were unlocked:

"Why are you rattling the handles, baldy boy?"

We have no respect for this man, and as a villain you should have respect, because otherwise you're just a little cross feeble minded man. THE END.

We did however love the train fight between him and Scott, and the fight in the briefcase.

Film chat with Becks and Cass.

Becks: Mini people on mini things look like normal people on normal things.

Cass: Perspective innit?

It was good though. Very actiony but also fun to watch when the camera zoomed out to see the ridiculousness of it all. There was a moment earlier on in the film where Becks remembered about Thomas the Tank growing ginormous, and was very scared of what was to come, but in the end it wasn't as creepy as she recalled.

His death by shrinkage was quite pleasing. He deserved it after jamming those lambs and that one man. We're glad he's dead.

Our Favourite Gang in the Whole World

Luis

What a story teller. The whole film is good, but the stories might even be our favourite bits. They're excellent. His cultured lifestyle, wine tasting and art galleries, juxtaposed with the moments of nothing behind the eyes, 10/10. We would have enjoyed watching the whole film told in this style. Perhaps we should have done the whole review like it - DAMN OUR EYES FOR NOT THINKING OF IT SOONER. He's also good at the punches. Knocking people out left right and centre. And he looked pretty swish in that suit he nicked.

Kurt

The man we're all VERY jealous of (please refer to What If?… Zombies and see if you can fathom why) but also love for his instant supernatural explanations. It’s very us, we often turn to Baba Yaga in a pinch. He has good hair, and was good on the computers, and made sure that Scott wasn't sliced to death in that tube thing with the lasers. SCIENCE.

Dave

Excellent getaway driver. Can drive backwards in a straight line, which Becks admires a lot. Loved how he averted disaster by stealing that car when Hank nearly got caught. 10/10.

As a team - perfection. Well done boys. Very funny, but also in the end very capable. Not bad for a gang of wombats.

Cassie

"He's so ugly. I love him!"

We loved Cassie. Sometimes kids in films are really annoying, but she wasn't. She was sassy and really loved her dad, which was sort of cute.

Paxton

Was a bit useless as a police man, but did a good dad thing at the end, so that turned us around slightly. That is all.

We loved the film ending on one of Luis' stories. The most fitting way for it to have finished. We really enjoyed the whole film in general. It’s just good fun, and if it’s ever on tv we'd be happy to settle down to watch it (we understand that you don’t have to do this in the streaming age but we are old and still think in terms of live television programming). It was a glorious moment of peace for both of us, before what is to come next week. And just in the MCU in general, it is a palette cleanser, a well deserved comic break. It’s nice not to have to think of anything distressing or have to pick a side. Also who doesn't love a heist film, especially one that involves ANTS.

Now for the bit that you've all been waiting for: Cass' stupid statement. In the second end credit scene we get a taste of what is to come in the next film (because obvs we both haven't seen it a million times - well one of us hasn't, one of us has maybe watched it a million times just this past year) and we both had a reaction, as you could imagine, but only one of us was so thrown by two of the sweet boys on screen (it’s fine Becks and Steve are busy burning shit...) that they forgot how to use their brain. We always ring each other for a debrief after the film, and there was a genuine puzzlement in Cass' voice when she asked, 'I wonder who this guy is that Sam knows?' Becks nearly lost her mind. You know those moments when you can't tell if someone is joking? Cass was most definitely not joking. It still sends Becks a bit giggly thinking about it. Who is this guy?! AAAAAHHHHHH. When Becks had managed to recover herself enough to speak she screeched 'Ant-Man you dick!' and then reminded Cass of the entire plot of the film she had just spent all evening enjoying. We're wondering when an intervention might need to be staged. Can you loose brain cells over looking at handsome people too much? Apparently yes, yes you can.

See you next week when we see if Cass can keep her mind on the job. Spoiler alert, it’s not looking promising. A quick disclaimer, next week is going to be something. We've just thought about it and both our finances and our mental stability aren't looking good. Get help.

#mcu #marvel cinematic universe #marvel marathon #marvel #film review #movie review #ant man #scott lang #hank pym #ants ants antman #ants #hope pym #the wasp #darren cross #the yellow jacket #luis #dave #kurt #baba yaga #heist film #anthony #sam wilson #the falcon #i didnt use one my many thief gifs because i am issuing restrain youre welcome #marvel rewatch #marvel opinions #such fun #Spotify #Paxton #cassie lang

[ecoamerica]

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

#ACLA24 #ACLA24Leaders #youtube #youtube video #climate leaders #climate solutions #climate action #climate and environment #climate #climate change #climate and health #climate blog #climate justice #climate news #weather and climate #environmental news #environment #environmental awareness #environment and health #environmental #environmental issues #environmental justice #environment protection #environmental health #Youtube

[ncssian]

A Favor: Part One

Nessian Modern AU

Summary: Nesta Archeron isn't good with change. When her car breaks down in the middle of a storm and her sister sends one of her friends to pick her up, Nesta thinks there could be nothing worse than having to spend the night with a total stranger. Until she suddenly finds herself without an apartment. Despite only a night of knowing Nesta, Cassian is quick to offer her a room in his cabin free of charge, and Nesta, broke and without many social contacts, has no choice but to accept.

A/N: This fic is loosely inspired by @lady-therion 's fic Close Quarters. I couldn't stop thinking about Nesta and Cassian sitting in front of a fire, slowly getting to know each other, so this fic is a whole lot of that :) There's no strict plot structure to this so I'm not sure how long it's gonna be, but expect warm and fuzzy content in the beginning. Enjoy!

Masterlist

***

Cassian is in bed when he gets the text.

Feyre: hey i know it's late but i need you to do a huuuge favor for me

Feyre: i really hope you're not asleep yet

Cassian furrows his brows in concern, immediately thumbing back a text.

Cass: what's wrong?

Feyre takes a long minute to type back; wind howls and rain thrashes against his window while he waits. A long message finally appears.

Feyre: you know the shortcut through the woods off of main st? my sister's car broke down there and there's no 24/7 towing around. im all the way in velaris and won't be able to get there for another two hours, but i dont want her waiting in the woods in the middle of the night like murder bait. she's too proud to ask for help, but if you could go and pick her up that would mean a lot to me, please.

At the last sentence, Cassian immediately knows which sister Feyre is talking about. He glances out his window and curses under his breath. It's storming hell outside, and Nesta Archeron is sitting in a broken car in the middle of the woods somewhere.

He's already grabbed his keys and stuffed his feet into shoes when he realizes he never answered Feyre's text. He types out a short on my way and heads out the front door of the cabin, assaulted by rain and wind before he's even fully outside.

Cassian follows the location Feyre sends him, what should be a five minute drive taking almost fifteen in the storm.

Cassian has interacted with the oldest Archeron sister maybe twice in his three years of knowing Feyre. Once for an initial family meeting, where she gave a terse hello upon introduction to Cassian and his friends, before ignoring everybody for the rest of the dinner, and another time when he accidentally bumped into her as she was leaving Feyre's apartment. He remembers apologizing profusely, only to be given a weird look before she turned and left.

In summary, Cassian knows enough about Nesta to know that this won't be the most fun task he's ever been given. Still, he isn’t about to leave any woman rotting on the side of an empty road at this hour, in this weather.

There’s so much rain that he almost misses the car. His headlights catch on a lump of metal, and he slowly brings the truck to a stop. Throwing the gear in park, Cassian flips his hood over his head and runs out into the rain.

She’s already waiting for him when he reaches the car, standing in the freezing rain in nothing but a drenched sweater and jeans.

His first real words to Nesta Archeron come out surprisingly easy: “What the hell are you doing here?” he yells over the torrent.

“Making sure you could see me,” she shouts back. “You drive like a blind dog!”

Whatever Cassian says back gets lost in the rain, but soon he's ushering Nesta over to his truck and slamming the passenger door shut behind her. He returns to the driver's seat, Nesta audibly shuddering beside him.

He flips the air vents blowing hot air towards her. “You should’ve stayed in the car.”

Even soaked and freezing, Nesta summons up the energy to glare. “So you could run me over with your truck? No, thanks.”

“That’s an overreaction.”

Nesta doesn’t bother to reply. Silence fills the truck for a couple of minutes as Cassian tries to maneuver them out of the small backroad, carefully turning back for his cabin. There’s no way he can get Nesta back to her place tonight, and he suspects his phone notifications are already full of flash flood warnings.

Finally, he says, “I’m Cassian, by the way.”

Nesta looks at him like he’s stupid. “I know who you are.”

That takes him a little by surprise, but he only murmurs, “Okay, then.” He wonders how much Feyre told her sister about how this was going to go.

“We’re getting my car picked up first thing tomorrow,” Nesta says into the silence, “and Feyre will take me home so you don’t have to bother yourself.”

“It’s not a bother,” he responds a little too quickly. She only gives him another weird look, like she’s judging him to hell and back, and Cassian decides to quit speaking forever.

By the grace of some higher power, the drive back is faster than the drive to. The pounding of rain only gets heavier as Cassian pulls up to the house, until it becomes an unmistakable thunk. Nesta’s eyes shoot to the roof of the car. “What’s that,” she says sharply. Everything she says is sharp; he wonders if she does it consciously or not.

Another thunk hits the car, this time the windshield. Cassian sighs deeply at the ice assaulting the truck from all sides. “Hail,” he says, resigned with this whole night.

He and Nesta end up making another mad dash to the door, trying not to get hit by increasingly larger chunks of ice as they go. Nesta has a backpack that she holds close to her chest instead of using for protection from the hail, as if it’s a baby.

Once safely inside the cabin, she doesn’t let go of her grip on her bag as she looks around his home. “Nice place,” she breathes, eyeing the exposed wooden beams and towering glass windows. An iron-wrought chandelier lights up the main living area they’re in, lightning occasionally casting twisted shadows across the walls.

Cassian almost apologizes for it, before deciding that apologizing for having too nice of a house is one of those things that would earn him another weird look from Nesta. “Bathrooms are that way,” he says instead, pointing down the main hall. “I can get you some dry clothes…”

She’s already nodding sharply and heading for the bathroom, leaving Cassian to stand awkwardly in the entryway, soaked to the bone in the same sweats he was about to go to sleep in just an hour ago.

Upstairs, after changing into blissfully dry clothes, it takes Cassian a good five minutes to decide which of his shirts will work best for Nesta’s slim figure.

When he finally returns downstairs with sweats four times Nesta’s size, she snatches them out of his hands without a word and slams the bathroom door shut on his face. He stands there a moment longer, nods resolutely, and heads for the kitchen to whip up a hot beverage. Cassian has a feeling he won’t be getting any sleep tonight.

A couple of minutes later, Nesta appears in the kitchen doorway, looking hesitant and absolutely dwarfed in Cassian’s gray sweats. Somehow, she’s made the pants work, likely by rolling them up a hundred times.

Cassian’s eyes widen for a moment, realizing this is the longest look he’s gotten at Nesta since… well, since he first met her.

He remembers thinking she was stunning at that initial dinner at Feyre’s house all those years ago, but damn, he must have forgotten just how much. Because even messy and rumpled, Cassian can’t stop staring at her.

Nesta breaks the silence first. “Is that hot chocolate?” The hard edge has mostly left her voice, like the warm clothes have soothed her frayed nerves from the car ride.

“Um.” Cassian glances down at the steaming mug in his hands. “Yeah. You want some?” he offers before he can check himself.

Nesta further surprises him by nodding, tucking her sweater paws under her armpits. The position would look vulnerable and reserved on most people, but on her it’s just another fortification to her stiff demeanor. Cassian slides his mug over the marble island to her before starting on another drink for himself.

Feeling an urge to fill the silence while he works, Cassian babbles, “The guest rooms are upstairs. You can have your choice, but the master bedroom is mine, obviously.” He pours melted chocolate into a mug and grabs for cinnamon.

Nesta watches him move with her unnerving hawk eyes and nods slowly, taking careful sips from her mug. “I think I’m going to stay up and study for my midterms,” she finally responds. “You mind if I use your fancy living room?”

Cassian almost smiles at that. “The whole house is fancy,” he says. “But yeah, go for it.”

He’s surprised at how nice this feels. Not that having Feyre’s scary older sister over isn’t weird for him, but… having another presence in the cabin, especially at this late hour— it’s warm where Cassian’s nights are usually cold.

***

It’s past two in the morning when Nesta finally glances up from her laptop screen, eyes bleary and unable to take in another word of theoretical law. She’s rubbing her hands down her face when a sudden clap of thunder booms outside the cabin windows, making her nearly fall off the couch. “Christ,” she swears, unconsciously curling into herself.

“Scared of thunder?”

Nesta internalizes her surprise at the unexpected voice and glances up to see Cassian coming down the stairs, looking as awake as he did when he went to bed over an hour ago. Nesta becomes terribly aware of the state she’s in and has to fight to maintain her composure.

She peeled off Cassian’s oversized sweatpants as soon as he went upstairs, not having been able to take a step without almost tripping, and made up for the coldness of her bare legs by dragging the fur throw off the back of his leather couch and using it as a blanket.

“That's usually for decoration, you know.” Cassian gestures at the thick fur.

Embarrassment claws up her throat, for coming into this strange man’s house and taking his nice things and using them incorrectly. Her first instinct is to apologize, but the only thing she hates more than embarrassment is the word sorry. “I thought you were asleep,” she says instead.

Cassian only shakes his head as he takes a seat on the far end of the couch. “Sleep and I aren't friends tonight. I was thinking about watching a movie, but if you're still studying—”

Nesta quickly shuts her laptop, shaking her head. “I was just about to go upstairs,” she says, packing her things into her backpack. Despite the day she’s had and how heavy her eyelids are, she knows she won’t be able to sleep with the sporadic thunder still booming. She wants to ask Cassian if he has noise-canceling earplugs, but the last thing she wants is to inconvenience him further.

The fur throw slips off her as she stands, revealing her bare legs. She might be wearing the largest, least sexy sweater of all time, so she doesn’t know why she suddenly feels naked in front of Cassian. Risking a glance at the man himself, he only takes his eyes off the TV remote in his hand to say, “You can leave the pants behind if you don’t need them.”

Right. She neatly folded his sweats as soon as she took them off earlier, and now they sit patiently on the coffee table.

“It gets a little drafty at night,” Cassian adds, “but I stocked your room with blankets. It’s the second door on the left; I hope you don’t mind that I chose for you.”

Nesta distantly remembers him saying she could have her pick of bedroom. “I don’t care,” she says honestly. “But— thanks.” She clasps her bag to her chest and shuffles towards the stairs, only stopping at the foot of them when she remembers not to be rude. “Goodnight,” she calls out awkwardly, trying not to race up the stairs as she hears him say goodnight back.

Cassian’s cabin is without a doubt gorgeous, but Nesta still feels a little shock of surprise when she finds her designated room. Decked out with a four-poster bed and floor-to-ceiling windows, it’s nicer than any place Nesta’s ever stayed in before.

A bright flash of lightning fills the room, and Nesta’s shoulders immediately bunch up to her ears— the preparation doesn’t make the ensuing clap of thunder any less heart-thumping. Withholding a weary sigh, she moves to draw the thick curtains over the windows, hoping to add a barrier between herself and the storm. It’s going to be a long night.

***

The next morning, Nesta dials Feyre’s number for the third time, growing more irritated by the second. It’s eight a.m., but Feyre is supposed to be picking Nesta up before noon so she can take her car in and return home to her shitty basement apartment.

Finally, the line clicks. “Hello?” a groggy voice drawls over the phone.

“When are you coming?” Nesta demands.

“Uh, what?” Feyre still sounds like she’s waking up. Nesta could hiss.

“You promised you’d be here first thing today, Feyre. I can’t hang around at your friend’s place all day. I want to wear my own clothes and use my own toothbrush.”

“Oh, that,” Feyre says. “Listen, can you just have Cassian take you home?”

“Feyre—”

“I know you hate interacting with strangers, but he’s one of my best friends. It’s a two-hour drive up to the mountains, Nesta,” she speaks as if she’s trying to reason with a kindergartener.

Frustration boils up in Nesta, feelings that she’s in too much disbelief to put words to right now. Her jaw works, and all she ends up spitting is, “You promised.”

“You’re being dramatic. I’m going back to sleep now, call me when you get home safe.” Over the line, Nesta can hear mumbling— probably Feyre’s boyfriend waking up.

Nesta has to hang up before she says something she’ll be made to regret. Her fingers are bone-white around her phone, and she releases a restrained shriek before flinging her phone at the bed.

Still pissed but just a little mollified after the release of energy, Nesta takes a deep breath and heads downstairs to get breakfast.

Cassian is in the kitchen when she enters, sipping from a cup of coffee and watching another one brew in the coffee maker. His eyes are ringed with tired circles, proving he got about as much sleep as Nesta did the night before, but he seems content. She doesn’t miss his quick glance at her still-bare legs before his eyes flick up to her. “Good morning,” he offers with a quiet smile.

Nesta didn’t know Cassian was capable of such quietness— it’s a stark difference from how he is with Feyre and his friends, and maybe the nicest surprise she’s received since this shitty weekend began.

She cuts straight to it. “Feyre’s not coming,” she says, trying to gauge how he’ll react to this new inconvenience. “She told me to let you take me home.”

“I know,” is all Cassian says. His brow furrows when he sees her obvious disappointment. “She called me last night. Didn’t she tell you?”

Nesta’s hands curl under the long sleeves of Cassian’s sweatshirt, but she only shakes her head once. She’s distantly aware that she’s overreacting about a simple car ride, but nothing can take away her discomfort at asking favors from people she barely knows.

Not knowing how to continue the conversation, she says stiffly, “I want to wear my own clothes again.” Is that a good addition to the discussion? She genuinely can’t remember the last time she interacted with a man for non-work related purposes.

Cassian’s eyes light up and he sets down his coffee. “That reminds me, I put your clothes through the laundry this morning. They might still be warm from the dryer.”

Nesta wants to sag in relief at the first good news she’s gotten all morning. She follows Cassian’s directions to the laundry room and almost hugs her neatly folded clothes. While she changes into her clothes from the night before, she makes a list of today’s activities in her head:

1) Eat breakfast. Keep it quick and keep interactions with Cassian to a minimum, but don’t seem ungrateful.

2) Drive to her ancient rustbucket of a car. Make sure it’s okay after the hail and call the towing company.

3) Let Cassian drop her home.

4) Return to her room and not leave for a week.

Nesta sighs as her blue sweater settles around her frame. Only four tasks; it’s achievable enough.

Her first task is relatively easy. She wishes Cassian wouldn’t talk so much, because sometimes she doesn’t know what to say in return, but she also finds that she likes what she has to say. His opinion on the horror movie he watched last night doesn’t make her want to crawl out of the nearest window.

Cassian keeps breakfast short and gets them in the car by nine. It’s only after they’ve dialed a tow truck and Cassian kindly withholds judgment at Nesta’s faded blue lump of metal she calls a car that she gets the call.

It’s from her tenant, or rather, the nice elderly lady who lets Nesta live in her basement-turned-apartment.

“Lorene?” Nesta answers, confused.

“Oh, hun,” the woman answers, and from the sympathy in her voice, Nesta tenses up. “I headed downstairs this morning to check for mold and the rain...the whole basement’s flooded. There must have been a leak or something wrong with the entrance door, but I tried to grab as many of your things before I left.”

Nesta closes her eyes. Presses a forceful hand to her chest and tries to take calming breaths. “O-okay,” she says. “What does that mean, what do I do next?”

Cassian gives her a concerned look from where he leans against his truck. She ignores him.

“I’m getting the basement cleaned out and fixed as soon as I can, but the water damage looks pretty bad. The floors are probably gonna have to be replaced, and I don't know if insurance will cover this.”

She thinks of all her books and valuables in that apartment, taken out by the storm last night.

“You're going to have to find a new place to stay, hun. Most likely for a while.”

Nesta is on the verge of full-out panicking, but the last thing she needs is to have a breakdown in front of Feyre’s best friend. She clenches her fist so hard it hurts, and the bite of her nails takes away the sharp edge of her panic.

She breathes deep, but finally says, “I can do that.” She doesn't know if she can.

After a few more apologies from Lorene, Nesta finally hangs up, only to turn and brace her hands against the roof of her car.

“Everything alright?” Cassian asks slowly.

She needs a place to stay. Her mind works rapidly, going through the short, short list of people she might be able to ask for a bed to sleep on. Coming up empty, she moves on to the next option: motels.

Does she even have the money—?

“Nesta?” Cassian repeats. “What's going on?”

“I’m fine,” she says out loud, still not facing him. “I just need to break the bank a little and find a new place to stay, but it’ll be fine.”

“Find a new place to stay? What do you mean?” A light hand touches her elbow, and she whirls around in alarm. Cassian holds his hands up in placation. “Sorry, sorry,” he says.

Red-hot embarrassment creeps up Nesta’s cheeks. She’s losing it in front of this completely nice stranger—

She reins herself in, tries to remember things like common sense and social etiquette. “It’s okay,” she breathes out. “It’s really nothing. My apartment got flooded during the storm and I need to find a place to stay, and I’m upset, but I’ll get over it.” She nods resolutely, like the grown adult she is. Like she can afford to fix her car and pay for lodging at the same time.

Cassian considers her silently for a long moment, and Nesta thinks he must still be freaked out by her near-breakdown, when he finally says, “Well, you can always stay at my place.”

Her eyes might pop out of her head. “What? No. No.”

“Why not?” He turns hesitant. “Unless you have somewhere else to stay?”

Nesta’s silence is answer enough. She sees his gaze flip from questioning to determined and rushes to change his mind. “I won’t do that to you— I hate asking for favors and I hate making people go out of their way for me even more.” She sounds so forceful it comes off as harsh, which is all the better for convincing Cassian not to make her stay at his cabin.

“I have a feeling you hate a lot of things, Nesta.” He doesn’t back down. “You’re Feyre’s sister; the least I can offer you is free lodging.” After a moment, he adds, “Please.”

Nesta wants to laugh; he’s pleading with her to let her invade his home life. All because she’s Feyre’s sister. The reasoning leaves a bitter taste in her throat, but she doesn’t have the energy to argue with it. Not as the tow truck finally appears at the end of the road, driving up towards them. Cassian only looks at her. Decide now, he says silently.

Nesta exhales deeply through her nose. “Fine,” she grits. So much for getting through the day with her sanity unscathed.

***

Part Two

tagging: @ladywitchling @sjm-things @thewayshedreamed @drielecarla

#nessian fic #modern au #ncssianwrites #nesta archeron #nessian #cassian #nesta #acotar #a favor

[pl-panda]

The vines that bind us - Chapter 9

Chapter 1 || Previous || Next

------

She opened the window and picked a pencil. With deadly precision she tossed it. The wooden tool sailed through the air until it hit the binoculars and broke one side of them. She huffed and closed the window before pulling the curtains closed. How rude.

Jason cursed under his breath. Any other day he would probably avoid the projectile, but it caught him completely by surprise. By all accounts, it was physically impossible to use a pencil with such precision and force to destroy military-grade night-vision binoculars. At least the memory card was safe so he could give it to replacement later on for analysis.

Still in bad mood after having his gear ruined, Jason zipped to Dupain-Cheng’s window and gave a light knock. No response. Another knock. Still no response. Finally, after the third knock, the blinders opened and the window itself followed, revealing a very angry girl. Jason finally had a chance to get a better look at her. She did, in fact, have blue hair and now that he’d seen it close, he would bet half his paycheque that it was somehow a natural color. The purple too. She must have had her hair dyed for the first day of work. Her eyes were another part that he memorized. They were blue and iridescent green at the same time, giving a slight unnatural aura. Or maybe it was just that she looked ready to murder him.

“Are you done staring?” She asked, clearly annoyed. “You are not my type and much too old. And the stalker routine is plain creepy. Get lost old guy.”

She was about to close the window when he started speaking.

“I actually came to apologize. I did not ‘stalk’ you, thank you very much. I was just checking on you, miss. You do realize that you single-handedly kicked Riddler’s ass and got quite a bit of publicity.”

“Suuure. You do that for every brave citizen?” She asked with a raised eyebrow and a small grin. “You would be really short-staffed. I hope that overgrown furry does pay you for the overtime.” Any traces of amusement disappeared from her face. “Now get lost before I sic Chloe on you. She recently started dating Damian Wayne and the two seem to bond over ruining people. I’m sure you would make a decent target.” Without further ado, Mari closed the window and put the blinders back in place, completely cutting him off. 

Jason didn’t protest. He was too busy processing the fact that Demon Spawn apparently started dating someone. Oh, he would have so much fun teasing the little menace. 

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

When the motorbike entered the Batcave, Jason expected to meet perhaps the Replacement or Demon Spawn. He definitely did not expect to see the entire family sans B and Alfred. 

“Do you want to perhaps explain why dad received an angry call about ‘some idiot in red bucket’ stalking her through the window?” Barbara asked. frowning deeply. 

“Or at least why were you stalking her?” Dick added.

“Or where you hid my coffee?” Tim joined.

“Timothy!” Several of them shouted.

“What? It’s important!”

“Back to the matter at hand.” Dick turned back to Jason. “What exactly were you thinking?!” He screamed.

“Geez. You thought about joining some opera?”

“Tt. Answer the question.” Damian interrupted.

“That reminds me. Did you know Demon Spawn got himself a girlfriend?” Jason asked, trying to deflect. He really did not like how they jumped at him.

“Not… important.” Cass stared daggers at him. “Talk.”

“Fine!” he threw hands in the air. “I followed a hunch. And I was right. She is a meta!” He procured his destroyed binoculars. “There is no human way to destroy military-grade equipment like that with just a pencil.”

Tim picked it up and quickly tossed it onto the table nearby. A blue light scanned the products and the bat-computer started to display the scan plus introductory analysis.

“Well, he is right. There is no way that a simple pencil could destroy it.” He pressed some buttons and recording from the last seconds of the item’s life played. They could clearly see her throw a pencil at it and then everything went black. “Or I was wrong.” Tim started to do a series of calculations. 

“Bucket-head might be onto something. With her muscle mass, it would be impossible to throw a pen with enough force. Actually, it’s almost impossible to make that throw. Not with human muscle density…”

Barbara rolled over to him and the two started to work side by side. “But that’s also not probable since the body is not…” 

“She would probably…” 

“Plant fibers have a similar structure, but she would…” 

“Maybe… Unless she is not strong and instead…”

“Um… earth to nerd corner. Can you explain?”

“Jason might have hit the bullseye.” Tim grinned and several groans could’ve been heard. “She is definitely a meta. It still doesn’t explain why you stalked her.”

“Is that not reason enough?” Red Hood asked. He immediately regretted it when Duke stared daggers at him. 

“You do realize, that metahumans are not as rare as it was believed at the beginning?” Tim asked.

“What?”

“Roughly ten percent of humans are born with dormant meta-gene and the number is increasing each year. And about one in twenty people have an active meta-gene. They just don’t go around wrecking everything or don a cape and run around beating people.” Tim spoke in a matter-of-factly tone. 

“What?”

“Yeah. Eidetic memory, or perfect recall for our uneducated bucket-head,” Tim snickered while Jason grumbled.

“I hate that name.”

“I think it will stay for a while.” Stephanie was smiling. “She does have a way with nicknames. First an overgrown furry, then red Buckethead…” She was on the verge of laughing. “I wonder what she does next?”

“As I was saying,” Tim regained the control of the conversation, “eidetic memory is actually one of the earliest forms of registered active meta-ability.”

“What?”

“The gene tends to activate under extreme duress, but, as we learned, the definition of extreme duress varies from person to person.”

“So what? A guy afraid of failing an exam might accidentally unlock super memory?” Jason dismissed it.

“More like if someone lived in years under pressure and is about to crack.” Dick pointed. “I mean there was even this large awareness campaign about four years ago led by Beast Boy. Where were you?”

“Dead.” Jason deadpanned. “I was dead.”

“Oh… I guess you didn’t see Garfield’s movies then?” Steph asked, being the first to break through the heavy atmosphere.

“She is still a meta.” Jason tried to fight, but his arguments were wavering. 

“Which changes nothing. You will go to her tomorrow and apologize.” Tim said categorically. 

“Ugh! Fine. But I got one more interesting fact: Demon Spawn got himself a girlfriend.” He grinned and turned to Damian. Everyone followed his gaze.

“Tt. I have no idea what you are talking about Todd.” 

“That blonde! Charlie saw you two sitting and eating pastries together! She is the new intern!” Dick had a big fat smile on his face and his eyes were almost glittering. “Who is she? How did you two meet?”

“Blonde?” Tim suddenly paled considerably. “There is only one blonde intern. Please tell me you aren’t dating Chloe Bourgeoise of all people!” He squeaked.

Damian wanted to deny it further, but seeing the Replacement’s reaction he changed his mind. The grin that formed on his face was borderline malicious before turning back to the emotionless mask he wore every day. “Yes. She finally admitted that I was not at fault for the cake incident. She is actually tolerable now.” 

“What cake incident?” Steph asked, smelling some juicy story about her ex. That kind of story was the best.

“Tt. When we were at this gala in Paris two years ago, Replacement attacked me and we fell into the birthday cake.”

“It doesn’t sound…” Dick started, but Damian interrupted him.

“The cake had six levels and was about as tall as I am now. Mayor Bourgeoise was not happy that we ruined his precious princess’s birthday.”

“So that’s why we no longer go to Paris?”

“Tt. No. That’s because Jason almost trashed the Louvre.” 

“Right…” Tim mumbled while his eyes closed. In just a moment, he was snoring away on the chair.

“Damn. I thought it would work faster.” Barbara complained while peeling the near-invisible sticker away from his neck. 

-----

Thursday actually passed without any trouble for Marinette. The class finally got it through their collective single brain cell that she had the power to end their trip with two words. She was slowly getting the grip on the work and after some talk with Penny, where the woman practically forced Mari to listen to some additional advice. She was actually offended that the girl didn’t call her immediately. 

She did have to practically drag her barely conscious boss to a meeting in the afternoon, but he didn’t put up much of a fight after she gave him a Tikki Special Coffee. The small goddess giggled inside her pocket the entire time as the boy begged on his knees.

After work, she and Chloe went to the Gotham Zoological Garden. At first, she wanted to go to the Botanic Garden first, but their class was supposed to visit there after work, so the girls went to Zoo instead. Gotham had a much broader collection of birds than Paris did. And the less chance of running into their classmates, the better.

“...He did what?” Chloe asked louder than necessary, but nobody paid the two girls in smart outfits any attention.

“Yeah. But don’t worry. I gave him a piece of my mind.” Mari dismissed it.

“It’s still creepy.”

“I know. That’s why I sicced the police at him.”

“That’s my girl!” 

“Well, I threatened to send you and Damian after him, but I decided it would be too cruel.” She smiled. “Besides, I’ve seen that Red Buckethead is trending already.” She pulled out her phone and showed a post there was a picture of Red Hood next to a reversed red bucket.

FashionMari @QueenGoldie Someone in a red bucket was stalking me. I was torn between calling the police and criticizing their fashion choice. In the end, I did both. 

“Only you Goldie. Only you…”

--------

Friday was press conference day. For once, Mari woke up earlier and got dressed in record time. Chloe watched from the side-lines as the girl moved around like a tornado, preparing everything and triple-checking all arrangements. She changed outfits four times before finally the blonde grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to sit down. 

“Goldie! You know I love you and I would kill for you,” She started, “but if you don’t calm down I will tie you up and leave you here for the day.”

“But…!” Bluenette tried to protest, but Chloe cut her off.

“No buts. We are only sixteen. I for one came here to learn a bit and maybe meet someone. You are supposed to be learning. Nobody said anything about getting a full-time job.”

“The deal…”

“So what if they fire you?” Chloe raised her hands over her head. “Ridiculous! Utterly Ridiculous! You have Gabriel Agreste and Audrey Bourgeoise fighting over who will get you while Jagged Stone is willing to fly over half the world just to give your references in person. You run a very successful flower shop and even more successful boutique.”

“But…” She tried to muster a weak protest, but Chloe’s angry gaze made her wither. 

“I will not let you run yourself dry!” The blonde stated firmly. “So either you take a step back and breathe or I will call your uncle.”

“Not uncle Jagged! he already banned me from drinking coffee!”

“So you will behave?” Chloe asked with a smirk. 

“Fiiiinneee!” Mari couldn’t help but smile. “Thanks, Queenie. I needed this. I’m glad I have you as my friend. And sister.” 

“Well of course you needed me! Everyone needs me!” She huffed before her expression became more gentle and she pulled Mari into a hug. 

Downstairs the class was waiting for them. Probably they finally gathered the courage to confront her about Alya’s fate. The girl shouldn’t have lied while filing for promotion. Mari and Chloe stormed past them not even sparing them a glance. Outside, Adrien was already waiting inside the limousine with Gerard at the driver’s seat. 

“I’m glad your driver is finally here.”

“Me too!” The blond boy was practically beaming. “I’m free from Lila’s clutches.”

“Could you drop us at… No. 2 Twine Street?” Mari asked the gorilla, who only grunted in response.

“Um… We should be going to Wayne Tower.”

“Nope.” Mari popped the ‘p’. “You,” she pointed at Adrien, “are an intern in PR. I asked for you to be present at the press conference to help move stuff around and so on.” 

“And me?” Chloe asked. “If you expect me to…” 

“You’re there to support your boyfriend. He was the one that practically demanded that I get you there. He hates publicity.”

“Oh… Good then. Let’s go.”

“Boyfriend?” Adrien asked curiously. “You mean Wayne?”

“Yeah. Apparently Chloe found herself a partner in scheming.”

“I bet that their dates are filled with planning to take over the world.”

“We could’ve taken the world over by lunch if we wanted.” Chloe looked almost offended. “The question is what way would be the most suitable one.” 

All three of them broke into laughter as the car rode through the city of crime.

----

About fifteen minutes before the press conference was scheduled to start, Tim Drake was still not there. None of the Waynes were there in fact. She sent about fifteen angry messages to Mr. Drake and he was still not here, which only fueled her stress and anger. 

The press had no idea so far and they were eagerly awaiting whatever news the company wanted to present. She bit her lower lips. Chloe was on the phone, trying to reach her boyfriend.

“If that idiot doesn’t get here in the next ten minutes, I’m going to consider stabbing him.” 

“Damian?!” Chloe shouted into her phone. 

“Tt. What do you want?”

“First of all, that’s not how you talk to your girlfriend. Second of all, where in the world is your excuse of a brother?! Mari is an inch from going ballistic!”

“Tt. He’s asleep.” Damian answered in an impassionate tone.

Mari leaped over and wrestled the phone from Chloe. “You go to him right this moment or I swear to all that’s holy and…”

“I get it.” He interrupted her, showing signs of irritation. There were some static and the camera blurred for a moment from the fast motion. When it returned, she saw barely awake Tim Drake wearing blue onesies. 

“wah…”

“Get yourself cleaned up and into a suit in the next three minutes!” She shouted. God bless the soundproof backstage.

“Um… But I will never make…”

“I’m certain you have a great webcam somewhere in this big mansion of yours. Set it in the library and call me in the next few minutes. I so hope you were not supposed to be the model because gods help me…” She took a look at his terrified face. “Of course you were…” 

“In my defense…”

“Shut up. Get going!” She hanged up and turned to Adrien and Chloe, who were looking at her with a mixture of fear and awe. “What are you waiting for?!” She tossed a package to the boy. “You get dressed in the new product.” She pushed him outside and into the janitor’s closet on the other side. “And you’re coming with me!” She dragged Chloe toward the main room. The blonde was sent to the technics room to get the feed started while Mari stepped on the scene. The chatter died quickly and all reporters turned to her.

“Hi. Please forgive us for the slight delay. We have minor technical difficulties that are being solved as we speak. In the meantime, you are free to take the seats. The conference is about to start.” 

Behind her, a screen slowly descended. She saw Adrien leaning from the doors leading backstage and smiling at her. 

“Without further ado, I present you Tim Drake, CEO of Wayne Enterprises.”

The image of the teen with black hair appeared on the screen and he waved everyone. He was holding a red cup of coffee with black polka dots, the same Tikki summoned for him the first time. 

Satisfied with herself, Marinette allowed herself a moment of rest. The conference was going well and after a minute of silence for the dead in the recent attack, the presentation began. Adrien was a natural model so it all went great. Wayne Tech in co-operation with Gabriel brand was introducing a new line of ‘smart’ fabric that could withstand medium stress and was almost impossible to dirty or stain. She had to admit it was quite amazing. Apparently, it was partially how Mr. Agreste got her class internship. Granted, Adrien was not supposed to be the model but you don’t look a gifted horse in the mouth. 

Everything was going great until the doors to the room were kicked open and several goons barged in, followed by none other than Two-face. Everyone immediately fell onto the floor. Mari couldn’t help but sigh exasperatedly. Why did it have to go wrong at every turn?

Ignoring the terrified stares, she stormed toward the intruders. “Excuse me, sir?” She asked with an emotionless face.

“What?” The man looked clearly irritated.

“I don’t see your name on the guest list. Did you remember to call in advance?”

“Of course not! Do I look like…” The criminal was clearly angry. 

“Then I apologize, but I must ask you to leave now.” 

“Do you have any idea who I am?” Two-face pulled his gun.

“I’m sorry, sir, but if you are not on on the list, I can’t let you stay.” She said in an emotionless voice. Mari was honestly too tired to care at this point. Maybe at least the evening would be better.

“I’m not sure you get the situation, miss. I’m not here for the interviews. Everyone pull out your wallets and drop them in the sacks!” He shouted while his men started to walk around.

“Hm… That won’t do.” She said. After muttering something under her breath, Mari tossed her clipboard. The spinning board hit one of the mooks in the head, knocking him cold, before bouncing and hitting the next one. After that, it returned to her hand. 

That was enough for Two-Face. He aimed his gun at her, but she moved faster than he anticipated. Within seconds, she grabbed his wrist and pushed it up so he was aiming at the ceiling. She squeezed it hard enough to make him drop the gun right into her other waiting hand. The girl let go of his wrist and disassembled the gun into pieces in what could become record time. 

Now irritated, Mari grabbed Two-face by his tie and pulled him down until they were at the same eye-level. 

“I was trying to do it peacefully sir. I am now ordering you to leave. Otherwise, I will actually have to hurt you.” She leaned closer until she was able to whisper. “And don’t make mistakes, Dent. I can and will hurt you.” For a moment her eyes lost the blue coloring and became entirely iridescent green, glowing slightly. 

Harvey Dent rarely felt fear. His life was more often than not guided by the toss of a coin. Now though, he stared in the eyes of Poison Ivy, except ten times scarier. He was already afraid of that woman after she almost fed him to her ‘precious’.

“I… I am deeply sorry madame.” He spoke carefully. “Men! We are moving out. Leave the bags!” And with that, they were all gone. 

Most of the reporters gave Mari big applause. There was only one angry old man that stared daggers at the girl. 

“You let that scum go away!” He shouted. “He was a criminal.”

“Sir. You are free to go after him if that’s your wish. I’m at work and my job description never included chasing after criminals.”

“But… But…” 

“Anyway, we were in the middle of the press conference if I’m not mistaken.”

-------

NEXT

#miraculous #miraculous ladybug #miraculous lb #batman #BatFam #maribat #marinette dupain cheng #BAMF Marinette #Mother!Ivy #redeemed!chloe #Good!Adrien Agreste #dc #MLB #mlb x dc

[ilguna]

Anteric - Chapter Eight (f.o)

summary: secrets have more worth than you gave them credit for.

warnings; swearing, blackmail, mention of underage drinking, BURIED ALIVE IN DETAIL, GORE, DEATH, SPIDERS, mild CLAUSTROPHOBIA

wc; 14.1k

NOTES; I give reader a last name to fit the world.

–

The hallway’s silence is deafening, filled with only your breaths. Bodies are lined up against the wall on each side, all sitting. Across from you are the Dauntless-born initiates, and on both of your sides are your fellow transfers. The person that stares at you through the darkness is Blaire, who twists the end of his shirt around his finger, stretching it and leaving wrinkles.

He’s obviously distracted, eyes not seeing you, but the space beyond it. It’s the exact same look that a few others have. It’s gone quickly, though, all with a simple accidental bump from Nestor. A smile spreads across Blaire’s face, eyes immediately going to his friend to give a gentle push back, ultimately starting a shoving match.

Down the line, from left to right, is Sydney, Nestor, Blaire and Ameer. As for Mirza, Horace, Cass and Lennox, they’ve already been called into the room with Laurel. She takes each of you one by one, in no particular order. You originally thought it was alphabetical, the theory was gone as quickly as it came when she called Thyme first. Her last name is Tattrie.

To your left is Trink, she twirls a strand of her blonde hair around her finger, laughing at Blaire and Nestor. To your right is Finnick, with Eytelle on the very end. There’s a large gap between you and Finnick, and that’s because Allio and Thyme were there before they were called in.

For the first stage of initiation, your two groups were ranked separately. The real challenge begins here, now that you’ve been combined. You had started with eighteen, but with four being cut in the last stage, there are now fourteen. On the way here, Laurel told you not to stress out, no one will be getting cut this time around. The next stage, the final stage, is when all final decisions will be made. This is just the preparation.

You watch as Nestor bounces against Sydney too hard, sending her to the side. Her hand slaps against the ground, stopping her from hitting the floor. Instantly, her hair flies out of her face as she glares at the back of Nestor’s head, “Can the two of you stop it?”

Blaire is laughing too loudly, causing Nestor not to hear. He knocks into Sydney, she doesn’t waste time making her point known. She shoves Nestor from behind, sending him flying into Blaire.

You crack a smile, watching as the two boys then go to gang up on her. In no time, the hallway is filled with screeching giggles, kicking to get them off. For a moment, Blaire turns his attention to you, eyebrows and hands raised as a challenge. If he even dares...

You back away from him, sitting flush against the wall, “Unlike Sydney, I’ll aim for the face.”

Trink lets out a noise that’s closest to a laugh, “Oh! That’s true, and she’s brutal.”

No one responds to what she says immediately, until Ameer is leaning forward, barely coming out of the shadows and into the soft blue light, “Brutal?” he challenges, “What did you rank, again?”

Sydney and Nestor are beginning to relax now, interested in the conversation that’s about to be had. You accidentally catch a glimpse of their hands intertwining, and end up forcing yourself to look at Ameer for a distraction. You can already feel the judgement rolling back on. After what happened during breakfast, you’re not sure if you want your friends to catch on again.

In Abnegation, relationships happen, obviously, but they are not physical and out in the open like this. They are supposed to be private and to keep others from feeling uncomfortable. Your parents had been married for years and there’s not a single time you can recall them kissing. Hugging, maybe, but all the intimate movements would have to be saved for private.

This is different, new and something you have to overcome before it’s recognized as a weakness by others.

Your eyes lock with Ameer, “Second.”

Something flashes across his face, disbelief, you think it is, “How many wins did you have?”

“Two.”

The doubt is settling in, you can tell by the way he squints his eyes, mouth puckering as he watches you carefully, “Who was first?”

“Allio, he had three wins.” your hands find each other, fingers intertwining. He’s going to come to the same exact realization that the rest of you did. That there is foul play and you are undeserving of your title.

Ameer’s eyes break contact with yours to find Finnick. His head is tilted in your direction, listening in on the conversation like he’s anticipating his turn to be the topic. But he doesn’t say anything, only waits patiently.

“I thought Finnick was leading?” Ameer asks, eyebrows drawing in.

“Not anymore,” your words are crisp, “He’s third, with three wins.”

There it is, the questioning look from Ameer. He doesn’t have to tell you that it doesn’t make sense, you’re already nodding. You know, Finnick knows, everyone else in your group knows. There is nothing you can do about it, not that you would want to anyway.

“I’m brutal,” you give him a smile, like that statement alone is enough to erase his questions. You won’t leave him hanging, it’s hard not to brag with the next sentence, “Who do you think did that to his face?”

Ameer doesn’t respond at first.

Since yesterday, you’ve decided that you shouldn’t let the others know that you’re semi-friendly with Finnick. On the off-chance that they let Thyme know, or she somehow finds out, you’ll automatically be fucked. However, it doesn’t matter that much, anyway. You were stopped in your tracks when you realized that this is the fastest that Finnick has ever turned around. It’s a red flag.

And it could be because of a number of things you’ve said to him. It could be because you’ve known each other since forever, since you were infants. To him, you are the last thing he has from home. He is almost the same to you, except you have someone to fill that gap of homesickness.

His name does not start with an F.

What you know for sure, is that you don’t want to head into things blindly regarding Finnick, not with Thyme around.

Ameer glances at Finnick again, the gears turning in his head. You watch his eyebrows raise slightly, “You have to be kidding. Finnick’s like a whole foot taller than you.”

You cross your arms instead, it feels more natural this way, “So?”

“So,” he mocks your tone, “You couldn’t possibly reach up that far, right?”

There’s a few things wrong with what Ameer is saying, and the first thing is that Finnick is not a whole foot taller than you. You and Finnick have got distance, but it is a much easier gap to close than what Amos had against Eytelle. The second, is that he’s suggesting that you’re not good enough. And you’re not sure if he wants to head down that path with you.

You can feel your face darken, teeth pressing into each other, “Would you like to test that theory?”

Ameer opens his mouth, going to speak, but nothing comes out. He closes his mouth, shakes his head, and falls back against the wall like he’s trying to escape the door he had just opened.

It’s too bad for him, because you still have more to say, “I’m not sure if you’re one to talk, anyway.” you lift your head back up, eyebrows in, “If I remember right, you placed fifth. Which is kinda embarrassing, considering you’re the son of one of the leaders.” 

His eyes narrow, mind changing again, “At least we know I didn’t cheat.”

You smile, “Ameer if it’s a fight that you’re looking for, all you have to do is ask.”

He stares at you, jaw clenching and unclenching. It’s pretty obvious to you that whatever minor friendship that had been forming between the two of you, is now gone. Which means that you can probably go ahead and assume that Mirza is off the table too. 

It’s a shame because Ameer isn’t all that bad to be around, but the timing of all of this is wrong. You’ve been walked on too many times in the past couple of days and it’s starting to get irritating. You’re not about to bite your tongue with him, especially since you don’t know him all that well, anyway.

In the end, this could all be reversed, you’re sure. A little spout like this won’t stick in Dauntless. Not when initiation ends and all of you have met the end of the tunnel. It’ll be like water under the bridge, a memory you can laugh at.

The door at the end of the hallway opens, making you all look over. Laurel is the one standing in the doorway, leaned up against the frame, “(Y/n).”

You rise from the floor, making a point to avoid Ameer’s extended legs, just in case he gets any bright ideas. Unfortunately, you think you’ve had more than your fair share of tripping during school. After Erudite started releasing the reports, it just got worse.

Laurel moves back and out of the way, allowing you to come inside. You only get a few steps in, looking around the room before you stop. Laurel has already reached out, pulling the door shut behind the two of you. She slips by as if your stillness isn’t a surprise.

In the middle of the room sits the same exact chair that you had sat in during the aptitude test. Beside it is the machine that looks a lot like the one that was used to measure your decisions for your future faction. However, in this room, there are no mirrors for you to stare into. There’s barely any light, and the only other object in the room is a computer sitting on a desk in the corner, emitting a small amount of light.

“Go ahead and sit.” Laurel says, standing in front of the machine, you slowly make your way over.

If the chair is here, it means that you’re going to be subjected to another simulation, there’s no question about that. What you’re really worried about is the results and whether or not they’re going to be reported. Laurel and Caspian might be okay with it, but they’re just two out of the several hundreds of people in Dauntless.

If Laurel has to report the results, there’s no way she’s going to be able to manually insert them like last time, not without seeming suspicious.

You slowly slide into the chair, “What simulation do I have to go through today?”

“You’ll be facing one of your fears today,” her eyes meet yours, “your results will be sent to the administrators for review.”

You press your lips together, wanting to ask her if there’s danger in doing this. But you don’t even have to ask, you already know the answer, and it’s yes. Mox told you plainly that this would be easy for you, which is basically a red flag, especially after how hard the first stage was. This should be just as, maybe more, difficult.

“Okay,” you say, as if you’re agreeing. You don’t really have much of a choice.

“Stay still, I have to inject the serum.” she says, coming around the chair. In her hands is the syringe, tinted orange because of the liquid. She has her thumb against the plunger, ready to go. The needle looks longer than what you’re used to at the doctor’s office.

With a shaky hand, you move your hair behind your shoulder so that she has easy access to your neck. You wonder why they can’t just make you drink the liquid instead of injecting it. Sometimes needles aren’t a bother with you--you’re sure that it won’t show up during the simulation--but it’s bigger than usual.

Either way, you sit as still as possible when Laurel presses the needle into your neck. The pinch is much more painful this time around, the ache begins before it’s even been removed. You stare straight ahead at the door, wondering what the others are talking about now that you’re gone. It might even include Finnick.

It’s an instant relief when the needle is removed, “You have sixty seconds before it kicks in,” Laurel sounds like she’s standing behind you, probably next to the machine again, “To put this stage simply, we’ll be training you to get over your fears--or at least make them manageable. Just in case you were to come across a situation that would involve it in the real world.

“The serum induces a hallucination, and I’ll get to monitor what you’re doing the entire time. After, this will all be submitted to the administrators, as I told you before. You will stay in the hallucination until you can calm yourself down by lowering your heart rate and controlling your breathing.”

While she talks, you can feel your heart start pounding in your chest, hands automatically gripping onto the arms of the chair. They slip against the metal because of the sweat, making it impossible for you to feel stable. When you realize this, you try taking deep breaths, desperate to know if you can end the simulation before it begins.

Laurel gently places her hand on your shoulder, coming around the chair and into your line of sight, near the door. Your eyes flicker to her.

“Take your time, you’ll be okay.” she smiles.

You fall back against the headrest.

And jolt awake hard enough to hit your head on the ceiling above you. A groan leaves your lips as you press your head back down against the floor beneath you. Wherever you are, it’s dark and it’s going to take you a second to adjust to see. 

You run your fingers against the floor, eyebrows knit together as you try to figure out what it is. It’s not cold or grooved, so you’d like to confidently say that it isn’t concrete or wood. It feels smooth, almost soft against your fingertips--silk? You move your hand to touch your forehead, still aching from your initial wake, when your elbow hits a wall.

You lift your head now, staring down at your feet through the darkness. When you extend your toe, you can feel another wall. The final one sits behind your head, which has to mean that you’re boxed in somewhere. You press your hands firmly against the top, pushing as hard as you can. They don’t think that you’re claustrophobic, do they?

You could sit in this box for the rest of your life if it weren’t for the elements. The problem is that Laurel said she’s just monitoring, she’s not actually picking and choosing the scenes you go into, unlike the aptitude test. She might be able to end the test early if needed, but you think that would be the extent of it.

The top of the box isn’t budging, and you’ve got your arms locked out straight, shoulder blades pressing into the fabric beneath you. You don’t know what’s locking you in here, maybe steel or wood, but you’re pretty sure you’re not going to be able to get out. Even a solid half-kick doesn’t break anything, only sends pains shooting through your toes.

Well, for a fear-facing simulation, it really missed the mark. A box with no escape doesn’t really have any effect on you, which means that with a couple of deep breaths, you’ll be out of here in no time. 

Resting your head against the box again, you close your eyes and try to focus on your breathing. Even a couple of seconds later, you feel much better. You can see yourself waking up in the chair, with Laurel standing two feet or so away.

The silence is disturbed by a thudding sound on the other side of the ceiling. You stare, mouth turned into a frown, “Hello?”

As you wait, you press your hand to the ceiling in front of you again, wanting to know if it’s going to come loose now, but it’s just as stuck as it was before. There’s no vocal response that you can hear, just another thud, except it sounds like rocks raining down on the other side, dirt that sounds like sand.

Maybe you weren’t loud enough, “Hello?”

Still nothing, besides the rock sound. 

Actually, there’s a faint murmur, you have to strain to hear what’s being said. Even then, you can make out only half of the words. You think you hear ‘dead’, ‘coffin’ and ‘dirt’ all in the same sentence. Which is ridiculous, right? You’re not dead, so there would be no reason to bury you. But it would explain the rock sound.

“Hey!” You scream, face twisting as you slam your hands against the lid. If this is a coffin, then the lid should’ve budged by now. It isn’t moving, though, not as far as you can tell.

You keep screaming, slamming the toe of your shoe in the same place over and over, hoping that you can kick a hole through the wood. Unless it isn’t wood, which would explain why they can’t hear you, concrete absorbs sounds like they don’t even exist.

They’re going to leave you down here if you don’t find a way to catch their attention. Then you’ll be left to starve, your family mourning even though they don’t have to. You scream louder, your throat becomes sore, tears appear in your eyes. You pause, huffing out air, making you realize just how warm it is in here, and how limited your air is.

“Help!” you fall back against the floor, breathing through your mouth, “please!”

The thudding on the other side of the coffin is much softer now, not as prominent before. You can already picture the dirt encasing you, ensuring that you won’t escape. It’ll look exactly like when your parents had been buried, one after the other. You remember thinking that you’ll never see them in person again.

You grit your teeth, letting the tears roll down the sides of your face and into your ears. You need to get out of here, and the only way you can do that is if you let this go.

Your nails dig into your palm, trying to ignore the music that’s playing above you. Laurel told you that the trick to this is deep breaths and slowing your heartbeat. It’s just a hallucination, you’re not actually buried underground. You’re in the chair, you’re in the chair, you’re in the chair…

You open your eyes, only to be blinded by the one light in the room. Without being prompted, you get to your feet, arms wrapping around your upper body as a hug. You don’t care what happens next, all you know is that you can’t be laying down anymore. The way that the chair is angled is too similar to how you were inside of the coffin.

Laurel is pulling wires off of her face with a neutral expression. Her eyes find yours briefly, before she heads over to the machine, which is clearly more important than your wellbeing. 

A gust of cold air from a vent makes you remember the tears on your face, and you work quickly to wipe the wetness off with your shirt. You sniff and readjust and rub your knuckles, the feeling of pounding on the lid won’t go away. It’s a phantom feeling, the sister of the pain in your feet from trying to kick free.

“Well,” Laurel drags out the word slightly, “In comparison to the other initiates I’ve seen today, you were, by far, the quickest to come out.”

You have to ask, “Is that good or bad?”

“If you keep it up, you’ll be number one when the rankings come out.” She doesn’t say it outright, but her eyes do. If you’re in and out then you’ll definitely attract attention, something that you don’t want.

“What’s the average time?”

“Sixteen to eighteen,” she presses her lips together, “You were out in a little less than four minutes.”

Oh.

Oh, that is not good at all.

“Okay,” you say, but it’s not, you feel like screaming. You need to find a way to purposely spend more time in the hallucinations. But you’re not sure how to do that, because what felt like ten minutes inside of the hallucination, was only four minutes for you.

“You can leave the same way you came in.” Laurel gives you a smile, “Don’t worry about it too much, okay? I’ll see you later.”

“Thank you.” you murmur, slipping out of the door and back into the hallway’s darkness.

Unfortunately, on the way out, you have to pass by your friends. When all of the others had come out of the room, you weren’t paying attention to their faces. Most of them, like Horace and Cass, you didn’t really care for. But now it matters, especially since it’s only friends that are left. And they’re definitely going to want to look at you.

Their laughter quiets the closer you get. The first person to look up is Finnick, eyebrows together as he looks over your face. You force a quick smile, passing by him while being careful to avoid Ameer’s feet again. No one speaks, until Blaire grabs your hand.

“Any advice?”

You place your hand over his, “Focus on your breathing.”

He lets you go, just in time for the need to hug yourself comes back. You carefully wrap your arms around your upper body, before taking the next corner.

You wait in that hallway for a while, leaned up against the wall to blend in. You don’t know who you want to see first, Blaire or Trink? Or maybe Finnick? You’re hoping it’s not Ameer, but you really wouldn’t mind hanging out with only Sydney and Nestor again.

The person that rounds the corner first is Finnick, you reach out to grab his arm, ultimately scaring him. When his eyes land on you, you can see that he’s already pretty shaken, so maybe this wasn’t the best move. You’re not sure standing in the middle of the hallway would have been much better, though.

“Hey,” you say, “Are you busy?”

He shakes his head, you go ahead and readjust your grip on his arm, pulling him along with you. You make sure to take the hallways that won’t bring you to the dormitory, or anywhere near it. If there’s a chance that Thyme is waiting for him nearby, you’d rather take the long route to the chasm.

The silence isn’t as uncomfortable as you thought it would be. However, you are surprised that Finnick doesn’t try to start a conversation on the way. You guess that since you’re the one taking him somewhere, you should be the one to talk. But it’s always been Finnick that can’t stand the silence, you know how to sit through it.

He’s lucky that the chasm isn’t a far walk. As soon as the roaring of the rushing water comes into earshot, you release him and let him decide how close he wants to get. The first couple of times you came out here, you didn’t want to get near the railing, unsure of how sturdy it was. Now you know it can hold your bodyweight, doesn’t tilt or come loose or anything.

“I would’ve talked in the dorm but I thought I’d show you where I disappear to all the time,” you say, turning to face him while practically sitting on the railing. You can feel the breeze blow against your back, reminding you not to lean too far, “I don’t want to argue, Finnick, so please just bite your tongue for a minute.”

He’s making his way towards you at his own pace, “Okay.”

You watch his face for a moment to make sure that he actually is calm this time, because every time the two of you talk, it always seems to end in an argument. It doesn’t help that the irritation is already high because Thyme is trailing him. But for once, with her not here, you feel good.

“I want to tell you everything, but I would rather do the meaningless stuff first.” you can be honest with Finnick, you know this. You’re just afraid of creating a problem that doesn’t need to be made.

Finnick stops across from you, leaning against the rock wall. He hums out a response.

“You also can’t tell Thyme I’m talking to you,” your words pick up pace, “I’ll explain it all later, she just can’t catch wind of this.”

A crease appears between his eyebrows, “Okay.”

You begin picking at your nails, feeling smaller than him. This shouldn’t feel like a confession, but it does, “It was mostly during the first stage, because we were fighting the others. And kinda during the gun training too, actually.” you shrug, “I don’t like it when you brag.”

His face relaxes, a smile peeking at the corner of his mouth, “That’s it? That’s why you were going off alone?”

“I told you it was meaningless.” you roll your eyes.

He’s not hiding his smile anymore, “Anything else while you’re at it?”

You shrug, “You should probably get back to the dormitory before it looks like you got lost in the halls,” you smile, “After all, I disappear all the time.”

“Right,” he says, standing up fully, “I’ll talk to you later, then.”

“Yeah, remember what I said about Thyme.”

Finnick winks, takes a couple of steps to leave, and then pauses. When he turns to you, his eyebrows are raised, “Can I ask you a question real quick?”

You grip onto the railing, “Shoot.”

He’s no longer smiling, “Did Thyme say something to you?”

--

Finnick sits across from you in the hallway, patiently waiting to be called into the fear facing room like the rest of you. There’s a noticeable distance between him and Thyme, an unmistakable glare in her eyes. You’re not sure what he said to her yesterday evening, but it’s made her sour. Not enough to push her away, though, she’s still sticking pretty close to him. Still, the distance between them is satisfying.

Much to his annoyance, you couldn’t tell Finnick everything. The root of the Thyme problem starts with you, and you can’t just outright tell him you’re Divergent. You know you keep saying that the two of you have known each other since you were kids, but if a person like Thyme can come in and wreck shit within a week… 

You told him what you could, specifically what Mox and Keely said about her. You couldn’t go into great detail, mostly because they didn’t give you anything to go off of in the first place. However, the moment you told Finnick that Mox was dead serious, he seemed to sober up and believe you.

If there’s one tell tale sign that Mox isn’t lying, it’s when he’s completely serious. It’s such a stark contrast to his normal lighthearted demeanor, and he never abuses the look. Unlike Reed, who’s had the same expression on his face ever since your parents died. It’s like the joy was sucked right out of him.

Anyway, you and Finnick are definitely making progress. He might not know all the details just yet, but at the pace you’re going, you two will be back to normal in no time. He knows that Thyme isn’t what she appears to be, and that she said something to you after your family left.

Thyme’s blackmail will end as quickly as it started.

“What was your fear?” Lennox asks Trink, fixing the laces on his shoe.

Trink half-shrugs, “Something stupid, I’m not even that scared of it.”

You resist the urge to contradict her. No one got a full night of sleep last night, which isn’t her fault. Everyone was stuck in their own personal nightmare as soon as they fell asleep. Sucked into a world they thought was under control and torn to shreds immediately because they didn’t make the rules in there.

Let’s just say you didn’t sleep in your bed for long after realizing that you might as well have been back in that coffin. Hard bed, dark room, only your thoughts to accompany you. There’s a sick feeling in your stomach each time you think about going back to bed. 

“You don’t have to act tough,” you murmur, causing Lennox, Trink and Blaire to turn in your direction, “I couldn’t even sleep last night.”

“Yeah, we know,” Thyme says, not missing a beat, “You’re so fucking loud.”

You look at her, “Are you sure it wasn’t the sound of your own sobs that woke you up?”

Her face twists, “Don’t you forget--”

“Thyme!” a voice shouts, it’s Laurel. She’s a few steps out of the doorway, “Are you fucking deaf? Let’s get going!”

Thyme shoots you a glare, not finishing her sentence. She gets to her feet, shuffling down the hallway and vanishing behind the Door of Hell.

It’s quiet for a moment, Trink is the one to break the silence, “Forget what?”

You wave your hand, trying to come up with some excuse. Trink will pry, and Lennox will go with it to add peer pressure. You’ve seen it too many times now, with Sydney and Nestor. They are purebred Dauntless, and they will raise the stakes to get what they want.

You need a pacifier, a sacrifice that’s small and insignificant to keep them from pushing later on.

A laugh peels from you, “She found out the fear from yesterday, and she thinks that she’s going to use it against me,” your eyes find Finnick’s, hoping that he catches the subtle hint, “But if I tell you guys, it’ll have no effect, right?”

Trink nods, bobbing her head right next to Lennox. The two of them are so hungry for drama that it hurts. You’re glad to know that you have one humble friend, Blaire tells you that you don’t have to tell them if you don’t want to.

“Oh, it’s okay. I don’t think any of you will get the chance to bury me alive.” you wink at Blaire, who smiles shyly back at you, “It’s one of those things that are ridiculous.”

Trink keeps nodding, “Yours makes me feel so much better about mine,” her face is turning a slight shade of red, “Like, public humiliation is the least of my worries, honestly. Not getting into Dauntless is my big number one.”

“Isn’t it everyone’s?” Blaire sighs.

Lennox lets out a scoff that sounds like a snort, “Not mine, I’m going to trump you losers in the next ranking round.”

You press your lips together, because unless he’s going to magically beat four minutes, he’s not trumping anything. You’re sure that it’s important to be confident in Dauntless, but you can’t imagine how many times people have to eat their words.

And that gives you an idea.

You turn to Lennox, “I bet the remainder of my points that you won’t be number one.”

Blaire sucks in air through his teeth, “Are you sure that’s a good idea? Lennox is the epitome of perfection when it comes to Dauntless standards.”

Lennox smirks a little, you know that he won’t turn down the challenge, “How many points?”

“I’m sporting nineteen right now.”

The smirk widens into a grin, “I have twenty.”

You hold your hand out, he takes it without a hint of hesitation. He’s going to get his ass kicked, and he doesn’t even realize. The two of you shake, and when you fall back against the wall, Finnick has a smile too. 

“What do you even need twenty more points for?” Trink asks.

“A new wardrobe.”

She lets out a dreamy breath, “Okay, I approve.”

You let out a laugh, which the others join in on.

About fifteen minutes later, Laurel opens the door, letting Thyme out and calling you in, “(Y/n).”

You take your time getting to your feet, thanking your friends when they wish you luck. You’re sure you’re not going to need it, it’s them who will have to worry about the rankings when they come out. You slip past Thyme, the door clicking shut behind you. 

“Good afternoon,” you say, heading over to the chair.

“Same to you.” Laurel murmurs, “The needle will go into your arm today.”

You’d prefer that, anyway. Having needles go into your neck is just wrong somehow. All the shots that have ever been delivered to you, have been through your arm. It’s less of a risk of doing permanent damage, besides scarring.

You slip in the chair, face twisting when you realize how warm it is.

“She was sweating,” Laurel comes around the side, syringe in hand, “You’re lucky that I could wipe it down.” You give Laurel a look, and after a moment she cracks a smile, “Sit still and stop mean mugging me.”

You let your head lay against the headrest, curling your toes when her needle breaks skin. The ache in your arm is a lot more forgettable this time, compared to your neck. The pinch is gone quickly, and you watch as she goes to tend to the machine. Once again, you’re left to stare into the empty room.

“You have sixty seconds before it kicks it.”

You don’t bother to tell her that you know already, and the fact that you can feel the effects begin to kick in around fifteen seconds. Unlike yesterday, today your throat squeezes tightly as if you’re having an allergic reaction, making it difficult to breathe. It doesn’t help that the urge to run is beginning to settle in, you grip the arms of the metal chair to keep yourself grounded.

“Remember to breathe,” Laurel’s voice is sounding faraway, a whisper compared to the rapid beating in your chest, “And take your time.”

You want to tell her that you will, but your teeth are glued to each other, mouth dry, and you’re drifting. Once again, you find yourself trying to hold on through the little things. Like how the metal is digging into your palm, and there’s sobbing coming from somewhere.

You fall, head slamming into the ground beneath you. Your face immediately twists, eyes squeezing shut. When you reach to rub the spot, you notice that you’re not confined in a coffin this time, but it is dark enough for you to feel like you’re blind. So, you take it easy while trying to sit up.

The floor beneath you is wood, you can tell because of the paneling. It feels worn, like it hasn’t been replaced in years. And a little uneven, some will dip in the middle, gaps between wood, drop offs that’ll catch the tip of shoes. Almost like the rock flooring in Dauntless, except wood is rare here. Besides the dormitory, the only other place is the training room.

With that, a single light floods the dark room as a reward for cracking the code. The light is on you, once again blinding you. You cover your eyes as you look around, you can see the door to leave is on the right, so you must be sitting where you used to stand during the fights. And if that’s right, then the circle is in front of you.

The light shifts as you raise to your feet, trying to squint through the white. You don’t know what fear this correlates to, but the sick feeling rising in your stomach is telling you not to underestimate the situation. Everything was fine in the last simulation up until you started to become aware of your surroundings.

You shuffle forward, being careful not to snag your shoes on the floorboards. As you get closer to the circle, there’s a familiar smell in the air. The stench is strong, though, enough for your stomach to hurl, pushing you to the edge. You cough to ease the tension in your throat, but it ends in a gag.

Sucking in air through your nose just makes it worse. The smell of blood is normally manageable for you, since it’s always been small or in adrenaline-fueled hazes, but this is different. This is all you can smell, all you can think about. You need to find the source, find who’s bleeding and stop it.

A few more steps, and you come crashing to the world. You slip hard, falling on your ass. The pain in your tailbone is enough to bring tears to your eyes, but you’re more concerned about the pool of blood you’re sitting in. And the person it’s coming from.

His face is tilted away from you, blood soaking his brown hair. You get on your knees so that you can lean over him, hands trembling. He’s pale, his green eyes are staring into the darkness. They quickly flicker to you when you accidentally let out the shaky breath you were holding.

Finnick Odair is bleeding out in the training room.

And you don’t know what to do about it.

His black shirt is stuck to his skin, riding up slightly. You think that the source is his stomach, but there’s no holes or anything. Which makes you think it’s his back, you shouldn’t move him though, right?

“I…” you whisper, he’s waiting on you, he wants you to save him, “I don’t…”

He looks exactly like he did after the fight, when you beat him to near unconsciousness. You can picture the way his head rolled to the side once he was on the wheelchair, Cleo pushing him out. How his eyes stuck with yours until he couldn’t look anymore.

Except, this time he’s bleeding out.

“Okay,” you breathe, even though it’s not, “I’m going to--I’m gonna help.”

You sniff, hands gliding through the air to grab the end of his shirt. You carefully pull it up, trying your best to avoid the red, even though your jeans are already soaked in it. If you took off your clothes, you’d be stained, permanently tinted.

No. No, only temporarily.

The wound is on his stomach, a slit that mimics the one of a knife, making you freeze. 

This is what your dad looked light, bleeding out in the factionless streets, all by himself. Hurt, pale, the grey clothes of Abnegation selflessness soaked the angry shade of maroon. And he was dead, curled up and clutching to his wedding ring.

You sob, throat still swollen, the back of your hand pressed to your mouth. You tilt your head back, white light shining in your eyes as you cry. You try to suck in air through your mouth, but the revolting smell of metal and dirt has infiltrated your senses, and you can’t without violently gagging.

A gentle touch startles you out of your train of thought, reminding you that he’s there. Finnick gives you a closed-lipped smile that reaches his eyes. He breathes in through his nose too sharply, triggering him to cough, sending blood out. His face is twisted in pain, you jerk forward to help him lower his head back to the ground.

You need to focus.

“Okay,” you breathe again, tilting your head to the side, “This will hurt.”

And it does. You press your hands to the wound on his stomach, hoping that will be enough to stifle the blood. There’s not much you can do in the first place without a doctor, and that job is normally dedicated to the Erudite. In the meantime, you need to get out of here.

The moment you start breathing deeply, a new problem arises. A second hole that you didn’t see before, further up his chest. But the more you move his shirt, more appears, like the simulation is trying to keep you from saving him. You have to, though, and you will.

You move to take off your shirt, placing it on the--what you now recognize as--bullet holes. You press down on the area with the other hand, since it’s separate from the first. You try to give Finnick a comforting smile, it’s hard to because you don’t know what you’re doing. The pool of blood is just widening, reaching the circle’s white line.

It gets worse, some pain in his leg appears, and then his arm. You can hear him moaning in pain, but there’s only so much you can do. You try to cut off the blood flow, and a wound will appear above it, defeating the purpose, getting you more wet. You’re sure that he should be dead by now.

It’s like he’s a test dummy, seeing how many injuries they can rack up on him. And instead of torturing him, it’s torturing you. You’ve used your belt, and your shirt. His shirt is too risky to take off, and Finnick doesn’t normally wear a belt. And you have both of your hands stopping blood, both of his barely pressing hard anymore, and a leg draped over his thigh as if you’re fucking helping anymore.

All the while his eyes are drooping, and you think he’s saying something to you but you can’t hear him, can’t read his lips through the tears in your eyes. Not to mention, you can’t breathe, can’t speak, can’t keep him awake. You can’t fucking help. Why was it you that found him? Why couldn’t someone else have walked in?

“Finnick, please,” your voice is scratchy, throat incredibly sore from the sobs, “Please don’t go, please stay with me.”

His head is rocking from side to side, is he shaking his head? You don’t know, you don’t understand. He can’t leave you, Finnick can’t leave you, not like this. He’ll hate you forever because you can’t fucking save him. All you want to do is save him.

You rock forward, hands sliding when you press your forehead to his collarbone. All you can do is apologize as you clutch onto his shirt. You can feel his arm shift from beneath you, rubbing up your back. You can’t do it, it’s a simple task and you can’t even do it.

“It’s okay.” Finnick’s voice is small, but it cuts through the silence. You raise your head to look at him, he’s got so little time left, “Breathe.”

You let out a sob, hand over your mouth. You don’t think it’s you controlling your body anymore. You think it’s autopilot, because you reach forward and cup his cheek in your right hand. A tear rolls down, creating a streak of cleanliness in a sea of blood on his face.

“Let go.” he whispers.

You jerk forward, suddenly awake in the fear facing room. Your hand is clamped over your mouth to make as little noise as possible, but you can’t help the cry that comes out. 

“Three and a half minutes.” Laurel says.

You slide out of the chair, wanting to scream because you don’t care. Five minutes, thirty minutes, one minute, it all feels the same! It feels like you’ve been holding onto dying Finnick for days, pleading for him not to leave you. You’ll be living this woken nightmare for the next few months, and you’re supposed to care that it took you three and a half minutes to get out?

You can’t shake the look that Finnick gave you at the end, the look of knowing. He knew that his time was up, and he opted for you to leave. And the worst part of it all is you don’t even know what fear that was supposed to encompass. 

“I’m done,” you say, “I can’t fucking do this anymore, I’m done.”

Laurel lets out a quiet noise, when you look at her, she’s shaking her head, “It gets easier.”

“Easier?” You ask before yelling, “Easier?! I just watched Finnick bleed to death in my arms, how does it get any easier?”

She hushes you, setting the face wires off to the side, “That’s one of your fears, something you need to come to terms with.”

You grit your teeth, “When is Finnick ever going to bleed out? Chocked full of bullet holes with no origin?”

“Fears are typically irrational, you have to know this already.” She reaches for the sleeve on her arm, yanking it up to reveal the mannequin tattoo, “I work with mannequins all day, so tell me why I would feel afraid of them if I already know that they’re harmless?”

You don’t know, how are you supposed to know?

She must not like your silence because she lets out an annoyed sigh. One that you’re all too familiar with, it sounds just like Reed’s sigh. The lecture is coming, “Haven’t you noticed the pattern so far? It’s been two days and I can already tell what you’re afraid of.”

“So tell me.” your voice is hoarse, a side effect from the simulation.

“Maybe you should spend some time trying to figure it out by yourself.”

The problem is that you don’t want to. You’ll already suffer later on tonight, so why should you bother torturing yourself right now? So much is on your plate, and more keeps getting shoved on. 

First it’s Caspian finding out that you’re Divergent, second it’s Thyme blackmailing you with it. Then Finnick crawls out of hell and decides that he wants to be friendly again, and you can’t even get help from Caspian because he’s been interfering too much already. And now you’re suffering through your own fears just so you can stay in a faction that--surprise, surprise!--is more ruthless than you initially thought.

And she wants you to spend your time thinking it over.

No. No, if anything, you think you need to get away from here.

You wave your hand, heading for the exit.

“Take the other door, you won’t be disrupted.” she says.

You spin around, heading for the door she’s talking about. It’s on the left wall, in the back corner. Compared to the right, which has the computer that contains your escape from Finnick’s demise.

You shove the door open, letting it slam against the wall on your way out. The hallway is a straight path for a while, there’s no side paths that you can take and it’ll magically bring you back to the others. Not that it matters much, it’s not like you can talk to any of them about it.

Your feet know where to bring you, straight to the same place you go every time there’s a dilemma. You don’t sit against the railing today, there’s no reason to. Finnick’s not here to talk to you, and you’re pretty sure that he’s not going to be out of the simulation for a while. And that’s under the assumption that he’s next.

You close your eyes and rest your head against the wall. The sound of the water is similar to the noise of static, making it easy to numb the mind. You need to seriously make a dent on Finnick before Thyme finds a way to draw him in again. The two of you are tugging at each of his arms, trying to get him to stay long enough to hesitate on going back to the other.

It’s been three days since the final fight, and two days since Thyme has blackmailed you. You want to think that it’s too soon to start pulling harder, especially since the peace has only been recently established, but you also don’t know how much time you have before Thyme comes in.

Plus, it’s not like Finnick has given up on you completely, right? There’s been a few instances where you’ve hit a chink in his armor, and all of them start with you. It’s never been the surface stuff, like the fact that you came from the same place. That can be easily forgotten, the saying ‘faction before blood’ doesn’t come from nowhere.

As soon as you told him that you left your family for him, he broke. And you’ll bet it’s because he knows how much family means to you. After everything that’s happened in your life, the one thing you had going was family, something that you would have never traded, but you did it for him.

It happened again later on, during the fight too. It was the vulnerability of your voice that made him hesitate. He also trailed you into the bathroom that morning, despite being tired. And you’ll bet that he wanted to talk to you, not use the toilet or whatever.

You think you’ve done it, finally cracked the code. 

He lives for the real moments, and you’re not talking about the heat of the moment when the two of you are arguing. It’s the softness, no secrets, no guards in front of the palace. The second it all started falling apart was the second you were told you were Divergent.

You and Finnick have never really had a reason to keep secrets from each other.

The sound of someone clicking their tongue fills the air, making you jump slightly. When you open your eyes, you’re met with Sydney and Nestor, both of them staring down at you. Sydney’s pulling her hair into a ponytail, Nestor has his hands shoved into his pockets, leaning back with a ruined posture.

“Are you crying?” Sydney asks, the words are slightly muffled because she doesn’t move her teeth. You think you can see a hair tie in her mouth, which is probably why.

“No,” you say. 

The tears dried themselves on the way here.

“Are you sure? Because you’re sitting out here all by yourself.” Sydney speaks normally.

“Looked like you were having a moment.” Nestor agrees.

“Haha.” you roll your eyes, getting to your feet, “What do you two want?”

Nestor half-shrugs, “Banding together a party. Ameer found some alcohol in the kitchen.”

You press your lips together, not sure which part of this story you don’t like, “Found it?”

“Ameer has sticky fingers, Mirza knows how to get in,” Sydney says, “If it helps, Maarja and a bunch of other older siblings will be there.”

You tilt your head, a sour face coming on, “Are you sure that Ameer wants me there?”

Nestor lets out a laugh, “Ameer doesn’t care, he’s probably forgotten about your argument already. Same goes for Mirza, the two of them don’t get hung up. They give it up, forget, and forgive. It’s their whole motto.”

“Which is lucky for you, because Maarja knows how to throw bomb ass parties.” Sydney says, “We just need to know whether or not Finnick should come.”

“Thyme’s already out of the question, no one wants to deal with her.”

“She’s going to know something’s up.” you say.

Sydney shrugs, “So? What’s she going to do about it?”

They’re right, as long as your name isn’t connected to the party in any way, you can’t be blamed for the fact she wasn’t invited. However, Finnick is another story. She might think you’re the one that wanted him there.

“Finnick is okay to come, but I can’t be the one to invite him. It has to be Blaire or something.” 

“We gotcha covered, we’ll pass on the message.”

Sydney grabs your upper arm, pulling you with them, “In the meantime, we’re gonna drop you off with the others.”

“The others?” you ask.

“Maarja and them, they think that you’re going to help out and get shit done since you’re from Abnegation,” Sydney says, “And we tried to tell them it was a stereotype but they said it’s worth a try.”

You can’t help but laugh, this is exactly the type of behavior that you’d expect from them. Pick at the stereotypes and hope for the best, they never really think things through. Yet, they’re in charge of important jobs like security and the entire army. 

God, is Dauntless ridiculous.

“I mean, I guess they were right.” You laugh, Sydney cracks a grin.

She slaps your upper back, “That’s the spirit! The more people you please, the more people will like you.”

“Or they’ll keep going to you for help, one or the other.” Nestor shrugs.

“And by the way, we were going to invite you either way, help or not. Maarja just wanted to push her luck.” 

“I don’t mind, seriously.”

And you don’t, because this is what Dauntless is all about. The ziplining, the fighting, facing your fears, and going to parties. You rinse and repeat the next day, and it’s just like this, over and over for the rest of your life. This is why you’re here, this is why you can’t quit.

Your two friends bring you down a series of hallways, straight to a single door. Sydney pushes it open with her hip, opening out one of your arms, as if she’s telling you to marvel. There’s not much to be amazed at, so you shoot her a questioning look.

She cracks, her laughter echoing through the large room. She catches the attention of the older siblings, they turn their bodies so that they can see. Sydney holds up a hand, “It’s just us, (Y/n) said she’d help out.”

Maarja cheers.

The floors in this room are wood, the walls rock and stone. Basically like the training room, except this room is much smaller, brighter, and there’s only one exit. You guess that makes it an easy way to lock up, but it’s definitely a fire hazard. You can’t imagine the last time anyone has been in here, though.

“I knew you’d help,” she smiles, “Do you think your Abnegation friend will too?”

“He hasn’t even been invited yet, Maar.” Sydney says.

“And he’s not exactly the selfless type, anyway.” you slide your hands into your pockets, “Hated it there.”

She shrugs, “Whatever, bring him anyway.”

You crack a smile, “So what do you need help with?”

“Everything, but shit will start coming in one at a time. We should be done before dinner.” Maarja looks past you, “Keep taking people, will you?”

“Sure.” Sydney begins backing up, “Good luck, (Y/n).”

You don’t need luck, because spending time with Maarja and the others isn’t nearly as bad as Sydney and Nestor makes it out to be. They’re fun to be around, they know how to break someone out of their shell if they’re shy. In no time, the lot of you are laughing, tears in your eyes as you change lightbulbs and set up speakers for music.

You can definitely see the resemblance between Sydney and Maarja, they’re sisters through and through. Of course, they look a lot like each other, but they also have the same laugh, the desire to be on the edge of danger all the time. Sydney had stood on the edge of that building, and Maarja stands at the top of her ladder on her toes, with no one to steady the bottom.

They playfully fight, as all siblings do in Dauntless, and bounce back as if hurtful words were nothing. If you tried half of this with Reed, you would have been scolded. Mox might have been easier, but it would have never been this fun. Mox and Reed are alike in most ways--more than you will ever know, according to Caspian--but you and Finnick are closer.

You guess it’s the age gap that does it. Mox and Reed are only two years apart, Maarja and Sydney are one and a half, you and Finnick are the same. Compared to Mox, who’s three years older, and Reed who’s five. It doesn’t seem like a gap, but it really is. Plus, all three of you have managed to have different childhoods, you can’t imagine what’s in store for Alyssum.

It’s weird to picture you and Finnick as siblings, though. The two of you don’t fight like that, don’t talk to each other like that. You wouldn’t exactly call each other polar opposites, either. However, you guess that definition fits better. You see the things he doesn’t, and he sees the things that you don’t.

“You know what they say about polar opposites,” Daziel says, he’s Lennox’s older brother. 

He’s got the exact same looks as Lennox, with the brown hair and brown eyes. He’s taller than Lennox, but shorter than Horace. When he laughs, it’s childish, yet there’s an edge to him. He leans forward as he talks, like he’s always delivering some sort of threat. 

Because of him, you’ve noticed that there’s two ends to Dauntless. The first side is like Maarja, carfree, party hard, laugh as loudly as you can and have fun because this is your youth. On the other side is Daziel, intense, scary, probably guards the walls or patrols the factionless areas, and he talks quietly because he knows that the room will fall quiet to hear. Everyone else, besides them, falls somewhere in-between.

If you were to put Daziel and Lennox together, you’d go ahead and say that they’re siblings. Their personalities don’t come close to each other--although, you do have a suspicion that Lennox looks up to Daziel, which explains the behavior--but they aren’t the same person. And yet, they were born a year apart, which contradicts what you said earlier.

You suppose that every statement has an anomaly to make it false, right?

“What do they say?” you ask. You’re currently crouched down to the floor, opening a water bottle. You’ve been trying to get the speaker to work for five minutes now, you’re sure that Trink would be better at this than you.

Torrac, Nestor’s brother, says, “They attract.”

It doesn’t take a genius to decipher that one. 

You roll your eyes, drinking the water. Like Daziel, Torrac looks a lot like Nestor, except he’s shorter. He doesn’t have that same bad posture either, and his voice is a whole lot deeper. On the spectrum that you made, he’d be closer to Maarja than Daziel.

“No, I’m serious.” Torrac stops, “It happens a lot. Sydney and Nestor weren’t always dating--”

“Much less, friends.” Maarja mutters.

“--but suddenly they came to some middle ground and started dating. Now there’s almost no difference between them. They balance each other out.” Torrac finishes.

There’s a long silence between you all, allowing actual work to get done. You get the speaker to work, and after that Daziel thinks it’s funny to speak into the mic and not help out. It’s a little annoying at first, but once Maarja cracks, you and Torrac aren’t that far behind.

“You know, you talk about Finnick a lot.” Maarja says, “Are you sure you don’t have some sort of crush on him?”

“Are you kidding?” Daziel doesn’t give you a chance to answer, “Lennox says Finnick talks shit about her all the time.” 

You were right when you said that Lennox is hungry for drama.

“I think you missed the part where she said that they were like this--” she crosses her fingers, one over the other, “--besides, a lot of people hate each other and then get together. Torrac literally said that ten minutes ago. Do you have cotton for brains?”

Daziel, who still holds the microphone, says, “You are the one that nearly killed yourself because you didn’t know how to harness yourself correctly. Please, keep talking.”

Maarja points her finger at him, which quickly changes into the middle finger. After that, she looks over at you, “Anyway, do you have a crush?”

You shrug, shaking your head, “No…?”

“Oh, she’s unsure!” Torrac says, he’s smiling.

“It’s official, (Y/n) has a crush on Finnick.” Daziel’s words echo loudly, “A stiff likes a stiff, why am I not surprised?”

“It’s not like that,” you say, looking to Maarja for help.

“You’ve just never thought about him like that before?” she says, you nod, “Well, congrats on your awakening, good luck.”

You open your mouth for a sarcastic response, but the door opens. The four of you look up and over to see Finnick, Ameer, Blaire and Horace. They’re all carrying different objects, with the exception of Finnick, who looks like he just came from facing his fears.

“We brought the goods.” Ameer says, holding two bottles of alcohol by the neck.

“Over here.” Torrac says, motioning them over, “Finnick, you can join (Y/n).”

You don’t like the wink that Torrac sends you, but the wolf whistle that Daziel lets loose into the microphone is worse. You cap the water bottle in your hand before hurling it at him. He has enough time to dodge, laughter filling the air.

“Hey, Finn.” You stand, he’s coming into the room, heading towards you, “Maarja is the one on the ladder, she’s Sydney’s older sister. Torrac is the one setting up the tables, related to Nestor, and,” you shoot a glare at Daziel, who gives you a bright smile, “the dumbass on the mic is Lennox’s monkey brother, Daziel.”

“They’re all older siblings?��� Finnick asks.

“Yeah, they’re cool. Daziel’s on thin fucking ice.”

“I can tell,” he smiles, “Have you been here all day? Trink’s looking for you.”

“Yeah, Sydney and Nestor found me. Did Trink say what she needed?”

He shrugs, stopping next to you. He takes a look around the room, “Doesn’t look like much of a party.”

“We still have a long way to go,” Maarja agrees, she’s coming down the ladder again, “I think we just need to remove a few more bulbs and cover up the windows. Torrac can set up the tables with Blaire…” she trails off for a moment, looking at Ameer, “Hey, that’s not all you took, right?”

Ameer scoffs, “Of course not. Mirza’s taking more and he’ll be over with Lennox. I have to find a way to get us snack food, though.”

“We’ll have some chocolate cake, I know that for sure.” Horace says.

Maarja snaps, “That’s right. Okay, so snacks won’t matter, just drinks.”

“And we’ve got that covered.” Ameer is heading towards the door with Horace, “See you guys in a few.”

“Thanks!” Maarja says, she then turns towards you and Finnick, “You two work together to pull out lightbulbs.”

“Sure,” you push Finnick forward, “He’ll be the one on the ladder, though.”

“I thought you got over your fear of heights?” Maarja asks, Blaire briefly looks up from his table.

“Chicken shit.” Daziel says.

You ignore him, “I don’t feel like risking my life today.”

And you’re not lying, because you honestly don’t feel like standing on the top of the ladder like Maarja was. But the moment you see Finnick start going up, you begin picturing him standing at the top, falling, cracking his head and bleeding out on the floor, and you change your mind.

You grab the end of his shirt, “Get down.”

“What?” he asks, his face twists as he looks you over.

“Get down, I’ll go up,” you say.

“I can do it, if you don’t want to. It’s not a problem for me.”

“I know that, just... get down, please.”

He gives you a weird look, getting down. You head up the ladder, ignoring the screaming in your head. If you fall, Finnick will probably be able to catch you, but not the other way around. And you’d much rather take the chance, anyway, because he’s still recovering from the beating you gave him.

Finnick holds the ladder while you unscrew the light bulbs. When you ask Maarja how she expects all of these to get back in, she shrugs and says it’s not her problem. They plan on leaving the bulbs in a box by the door. You don’t bother to mention anything about someone stumbling along and turning on the colored lights.

Finnick does, and he’s immediately met with Daziel’s criticism. 

“You know, the older siblings are typically the smarter ones,” Finnick starts, he has to look over his shoulder to see Daziel, “It’s nice to know that you’re helping Lennox break the standards.”

You can see the sarcastic smile Finnick gives Daziel, you can’t help the giggle that leaves you. Daziel mocks it into the microphone, “Shut up and work.”

“You should be on one of these ladders, actually,” Maarja says, “You’re the tallest out of us.”

Daziel shrugs, not moving from where he sits.

“What did Daziel place in the final rankings?” Blaire asks.

“Like, fifth or something,”

“That’s not hard to believe.” Finnick mutters.

The room slowly comes together, with the lightbulbs out and the windows covered, the atmosphere is already setting in. There’s a row of tables along one wall that’s covered in the food that keeps coming, and Daziel gets up to start mixing the alcohol into other juices with Torrac and Lennox.

At some point, the only job left is to wait for the cake and start retrieving the only people that don’t know how to get to the room--Trink, Eytelle and Allio. Everyone else is on their own time schedule, and they look right at home when they enter. It’s always in clusters of three to four, with brightly colored hair and piercings that catch the light.

Maarja takes the microphone from Daziel and hides it somewhere. Then, she starts to play music somehow, none of which you and Finnick are familiar with. Music is typically only for enjoyment, so that was out of the question in Abnegation. Plus, you thought it was supposed to be an Amity-exclusive thing to listen to, anyway.

The tempo is typically upbeat, and if the artist isn’t screaming the words, then you can understand it fairly well. It isn’t long before Finnick has blended into the crowd, singing along to the repeated chorus and bouncing around. You watch him for a while, standing off to the side with Maarja as she watches the scene she created.

“Have you ever been to a party before?”

“Dinner parties with the neighbors.” you tell her.

“Dinner what?” Daziel shouts, leaning forward.

“Dinner parties! You guys probably don’t have those very often,” the looks on their faces makes you stop, “or at all, I guess. We all eat in the same room so it’s a foreign concept to you.”

“Not to me! I know what you’re talking about.” Trink nods, “Normally you invite someone over from a different house and cook for them. Sometimes they bring food so that they don’t feel awkward.”

You motion to Trink, “Except, in Abnegation it’s a custom to bring a few dishes. To let the entire other family cook would be extremely rude.”

Maarja and Daziel look vaguely horrified, “Okay, what do you do at those parties?”

“Eat, but you can’t talk about yourself. And typically gossip is rude, unless you know the family you’re eating with, really well.” you say, “You could always run the risk of someone else hearing, and reputation is very important.”

Trink’s twirling her hair around her finger, “Intelligent conversations, mostly. My family would have competitions to see who could come up with inventions that could improve lifestyle. I always won.”

Daziel stands up straight, “You two are incredibly boring.”

“How are your factions not getting along? Like, seriously?”

“Power.” you say, Trink’s bobbing her head in agreement.

Somewhere in the middle of the crowd, you spot Finnick motioning to you. You tilt your head, beginning to shake no, but Daziel shoves you forward, “Go get him!”

“I don’t dance.” you say, “It’s self-indulgent in Abnegation.”

“It’s a good time to learn, you’ll be doing a lot of it in Dauntless.” Maarja says, she then leans forward on your shoulders, talking in your ear, “Have a drink, if you’re really that nervous.” She pats you once or twice as encouragement, letting go. 

You sigh, dragging your feet as you go to find Finnick. He’s easy to lose in the crowd, since he’s just as tall as the rest of them. Still, you manage to catch a glimpse of his hair in the purple light, eyes locking with his. He moves forward slightly, hand extended to you. You slip your hand in his, and instantly get yanked forward.

It’s too loud to just speak normally here, so he leans down, “I figured out the trick, it’s just a bunch of jumping.”

He backs away, joining the crowd’s rhythm, a smile on his face. You stare at him, not moving at first, so he grabs a hold of your hands and starts moving them like a puppeteer. 

“Come on, (Y/n)! Feel the music!” he laughs, forcing you to twirl.

You want to tell him no, but you’ve already done a lot in Dauntless that you never pictured yourself doing. You’ve broken so many boundaries, disobeyed everything you’ve learned in Abnegation, and you’re refusing to dance? You ziplined off a building, hung hundreds of feet in the air, and you can’t do this?

You know, there’s a lot of things that you couldn’t do today, but this is something you can do. As long as it keeps that smile on Finnick’s face. If it stays, then you think you can do this.

“Okay!” you agree, waiting a beat or two before beginning to bounce too.

Finnick’s laughter fills the air, and for the first time in your life, you finally notice the butterflies. Light, swarming, and suffocating. You laugh too, holding onto his hands a little tighter. This is how it should be between you.

You’ve got a hold of Finnick again, and you’re never going to let go. Thyme can try to get in the way, but she won’t succeed. Finnick’s yours, he’s always been yours. By the time the rankings come out, she’ll be gone. Finnick will know your secrets, and he’ll help make sure that they don’t get out.

His smile fades a little, hand tilting your face up, “What’s wrong?”

You hadn’t even realized that you stopped smiling, “Nothing.” you grab his hand, squeezing it, “I’ll tell you later.”

Finnick gives you a look, “Promise?”

You won’t ruin tonight. You’ll tell him tomorrow if you can.

You beam, “Promise.”

--

It’s so painfully obvious that something went on last night. Every single initiate, with the exception of Thyme, is dragging their feet. A few people act like they turned into vampires overnight when they wince at bright lights and loud noises. Others are just in irritable moods in general, hungover from the alcohol.

Thyme is still sour from yesterday, you think, so there’s that. However, when you all came into the dormitory at three in the morning, she exploded. She didn’t yell, she managed to keep her voice level, but it was like all of you were in an interrogation.

One of the Dauntless-borns had said something to her along the lines of, “Shut the fuck up, this is why you weren’t invited.” and it worked. Thyme just glared daggers at the back of their head as they trudged their way to the bathroom. Now that you think about it, it might have been Lennox.

You also may have forgotten to mention an important detail about the dormitory now--it’s now occupied by the Dauntless-borns too. As it’s been said a hundred times before already, your groups had been kept apart. Now they’re combined, there’s four new bunk beds, and you get the pleasure of listening to Lennox and Sydney bicker in the mornings.

Anyway, Thyme went to bed after making a fuss with Finnick. He didn’t say much to her at all at first, then she wore on his patience--as she always does--and he snapped and told her to leave him alone. He was just invited to it, it’s not like he controlled the guest list. It was run by a bunch of the older Dauntless siblings.

And Thyme went, “Like who?”

Which made, literally everyone, point to either Sydney, Nestor, or towards the bathroom, where Lennox had disappeared inside of. Three people she doesn’t know, and therefore had no chance to actually build up some sort of friendship. It did raise the question on how Finnick got in, which was quickly answered by Blaire.

And, as if the salt wasn’t already bad enough, Cass went ahead and said, “Just face it Thyme, you’re fucking unlikable.”

A line with such irony, since the Amity are supposed to be the most liked. Yet here, she’s the most hated. Anyone could go ahead and say that Dauntless just hated Amity, and by default, Abnegation too. But then they’d have to explain why, especially since a former Abnegation is helping lead Dauntless, and you and Finnick are good in the books too.

Anyway, you can confidently say that Thyme is pissed. She’s been giving you a few looks every now and then, which is your fault because you’re the only other person that hasn’t been a complete asshole today. It’s weird to see, you came back with the rest of them, a little buzzed too. You shouldn’t be as on-top of it as you have been this morning.

You think it might have something to do with the adrenaline. To be completely honest, you don’t remember falling asleep, and each time you think of talking to Finnick, your stomach flips. Most of it has something to do with the fact of telling him you’re Divergent, but the other…

“Thyme.” Laurel says, hanging out of the door.

Thyme doesn’t move from her spot in the hallway, eyes on you, “Can you call someone else in?”

“No.” Laurel says, “You’ve had a shitty attitude all day, I want you over with. Get in here.”

Today also happened to be the day where gun training resumed. So, the first thing you got to do this morning was shoot. A lot of people complained, namely the ones who drank too much, but Caspian and Laurel were thoroughly enjoying themselves. You guess that the party was no secret, and you can’t really be surprised. The music just seemed to get louder the more time went on.

Not to mention when Maaja started playing popular songs, and the sing-alongs started. You swear that you’ve never heard a crowd yell that loud, drinks protruding into the air, swaying, harmonious. You and Finnick didn’t know what to do besides watch in awe.

Thyme gets to her feet, purposely kicking your ankle. You dig your nails into your palm, staring after her. Once the door swings shut, conversation takes over, forgetting her immediately.

“Does anyone remember how we got back?” Sydney asks, her hair is tied up messily, it looks like she got dressed in the dark.

“We walked back in a crowd.” you say, Cass immediately nods.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Cass agrees.

“I wish someone could tell me how much I drank.” Lennox groans, leaning his head back onto the wall.

You could probably tell him, but you think you stopped counting after three. Plus, you think he likes the attention he gets from Trink in response, how she immediately leans into him with a coo.

“We have to plan another party, right after initiation,” Ameer says.

Mirza nods, “We probably won’t be able to get as much alcohol as we did, but if we start taking some now��”

“I wouldn’t push it, we’re lucky we got any at all. Caspian had to pull some real strings.” Nestor says, earning two agreements from Sydney and Lennox.

“Wait,” you say, “Caspian helped?”

“Yeah!” Cass sits up straighter, “He’s the one that started the tradition, after all.”

You share a look with Finnick, “Why am I not surprised?”

“Caspian would start something like that.” Finnick laughs, you join in.

“Is Thyme always like that?” Horace asks.

There’s a lot of nodding, “Yeah, pretty much.”

“It’s a good thing she wasn’t invited, then.” Cass says.

“You can thank (Y/n) for that,” Sydney tucks some of her hair behind her ear.

Finnick gives you a glance, and for some reason, you remember that you need to talk to him. The only problem is that Thyme is obviously on your tail, so it might not be the smartest idea to talk to him just yet.

While the others talk about the party, you lean to the left, into Finnick. He leans back, already knowing what’s going on. He tilts his head a certain way, offering his ear to you. It’s a habit for the two of you, never listening to the Abnegation ideals. Abnegation says not to disturb others, which is typically interpreted as silence, Finnick finds a way to speak quietly. It took a couple of weeks for you to master, but you’re just as good as he is.

“I think we should cool it for a little while.” you watch his face, the crease appearing between his eyebrows, “I don’t want to upset Thyme, and after last night, she’s definitely pissed.”

“So when?” he asks back, it’s his turn to watch you.

You press your lips together and shrug, “A couple of days?”

A warning look.

“I promised.” you remind him.

He nods, sitting up. It doesn’t look like any of the others noticed the brief conversation. Which would be good, but it’s not like it matters anymore. Everyone saw you with Finnick last night, and you two hardly left each other’s sides. You’ll be lucky if they don’t say anything to Thyme, especially since you haven’t told them what’s happening between you and her.

Slowly but surely, one by one, you all get called into the room, with the previous person coming out. When Thyme comes out again, you criss-cross your legs, and watch as she gets to Ameer before his leg shoots out to trip her. She barely catches herself, and doesn’t even dignify Ameer with a look.

However, you all know she’s fuming when the laughter starts.

About eight people later, the only people left are you, Sydney, Lennox, Cass and Blaire. The conversation isn’t so much about the party anymore, and more so about what you think of their siblings. You had been left with them for four hours by yourself, you got the authentic experience.

Honestly, they aren’t all that bad. For Dauntless members, they’re pretty chill. The only intense one was Daziel, but it wasn’t all the time. Blaire is glad to know that he’s not the only one that thinks that. You go ahead and tell them about the microphone and most of the things that he said while he was in control. And then you inflate Lennox’s ego a little bit by saying he’s definitely the smarter one.

Sydney is proud to know that you think she has a cool older sister. She says that she’ll pass on the word, because there’s no way in hell that Maarja hasn’t grown attached to you in some way. As for Torrac, there’s not much to say, besides he was the most level-headed one, and he shares a close resemblance with Nestor.

“But would you hang out with them again?” Lennox asks.

“Oh yeah, for sure.”

Ameer comes out of the room, keeping you from going any further. Laurel points at you, gives a big motion for you to go after her, and then disappears into the room. 

“We’ll see you later.” Cass says.

You give them a smile, rising to your feet. Ameer looks like a zombie when you pass him, you wouldn’t be surprised if he was in some sort of autopilot mode. You gently push the door shut behind you, heading toward the chair. Laurel lets out a breath of air.

“How’d you like your first Dauntless party?” she says, you can see her preparing the syringe.

“It was exactly how I expected it to be.”

She laughs, “Yeah, but I’m pretty sure I saw you having fun.”

Your eyes flash to her, “You were there?”

“In the corner, I was there for Caspian. He couldn’t make it.”

“Leader business?” you guess, sitting in the chair.

“Something like that,” she comes around the side. You offer up your arm for her, she slides the needle in and slowly presses down on the plunger. “I need you to focus for a moment, okay?”

You nod.

“Let’s say you have twelve fears, about four to six of those will come out in the second stage, and the other half or so will stay hidden until the final stage. There’s a good chance that your fears will start repeating, since we still have a week and a half of initiation left.”

You don’t have the heart to tell her that you can’t focus on her face for more than a second. You know that the simulations are hallucinations, but this is a pre-hallucination hallucination. There’s little black objects zipping across her body, and the urge to reach out and grab one is strong.

You are hearing what she’s saying, though.

“You’re going to get a lot of practice in with the fears that do repeat, but you’ll be left in the dark when the final stage comes around, because all those hidden fears will reveal themselves.”

“Sounds like a nightmare,” you murmur, you think you’re going to be motion sick. The jolt from setting your head against the headrest, is enough to make you want to puke.

“It is. There are advantages, especially for people like you.”

“That’s phrased like an insult.” 

Most families in Abnegation are religious, it’s part of the traditional family roles stereotype. It was never that way for yours, and after your parents died, the idea was buried with them. You like to think that hell isn’t real, then shit like this happens. You’re staring face to face with Laurel, who no longer has eyes, just black holes and tiny black dots coming and going as they please.

With that, you’ve decided that you won’t try and fight off the simulation. 

You think you hear Laurel say something back. The words don’t sound like they’re in your language, much less coherent. And really, that is the least of your concerns, mainly because you blink and the scenery changes around you. You’re inside of an empty tank, which is, of course, inside of a dark room.

You let out a huff of air, getting to your feet, “I’m not afraid of the dark.”

There’s no one around you this time, no dirt to come raining down. You shift on your feet for a while, calves incredibly sore from all the jumping. Torrac had set up no chairs, claiming that no one would want to sit down, anyway. He must’ve forgotten that he had six inexperienced partiers inside of the room.

Needless to say, getting down from the top bunk was, most certainly, your own personal nightmare.

A tickling sensation ghosts over your ankle, making you absentmindedly lift your other foot to itch through your jeans. The feeling leaves for a few seconds, before quickly returning. It’s not just your right leg anymore, though, it’s both, and it kinda hurts. When you look down to see where it’s coming from, you see why.

A scream rips through your throat, loud and raw. It’s been less than a second, and tears have already appeared in your eyes. You can’t escape this box, yet you slam your hands against the walls anyway.

Spiders coat the floor, hundreds of them, of all different sizes, climb up anything possible, including your jeans. On top, underneath, the floor, the walls. You slap a shaky hand over your mouth, sobbing through your fingers, struggling to breathe.

You try to dodge them, kick them off. In an adrenaline rush, you try brushing them off your jeans but end up making it worse when they hang off your arms. They jump, attach themselves to your shirts, staring up at you.

“No!” You scream, stomping to get them off, “No, please!”

A strike of pain goes through your arm, a red welt immediately forming. You can hardly see, hardly breathe, anymore as you brush them off. This is worse, this is so much worse. You brush off the spiders that you can’t, and you’re forced to watch them crawl up your body in front row seating.

The lightheadedness only gets worse with the hyperventilation. You lean against an empty part of the wall to keep yourself upright. You need to get out. You need out. You need to leave. 

You close your eyes and grit your teeth hard enough for them to squeak. With your head leaned up toward the ceiling, you try to breathe normally. You’re going to get out now. You don’t care how quick it is, you want out immediately. It hurts, the spiders bite, and you think it’s starting to itch.

“Please.” you moan, the inhales through your nose are full of snot. A shudder runs down your spine when you feel a spider coming up, “Please…”

And just as it comes up your neck, heading straight for your chin, you wake in the metal chair.

“One minute--”

Your scream cuts her off.

--

ANTERIC IS A SPIN-OFF DIVERGENT AU //MASTERLIST//

add yourself to the TAGLIST

@amixedwitch / @justthatfangirloverthere / @fnnshelbys / @neenieweenie / @vxntae / @liaaacantwrite / @terezasworld / @i-dumb-bitch 

#ilguna #finnick odair #finnick odair imagine #finnick odair oneshot #finnick odair fanfic #finnick odair x reader #finnick odair anteric #anteric chapter eight #anteric

[cosplaydude637]

Chapter 10: Knowledge and new friends

Hours later the group of Parabatai returned to the institute, their heads hanging low. Izzy was running up to them as they walked in but draw up short as she sees them. Running up next to her came Xander and Ruthie. Seeing their face they all went ghost white.

“What happened?” Ruthie asked?

“We failed…” Angelique sighs. Jace and Mekyle punch the wall they were each standing next to. This made Clary jump a little. Alec walked over and placed his hand on Jace’s shoulder.

“Hurting yourself is not going to do us any good. We need to find the Prince of hell and send him back,” Alec says.

“Or kill him!” Simon snaps

“We will make this right. We are Shadowhunters,” Izzy says, offering them all a warm smile.

“Plus we got a leg up on Sinara now,” Ruthie says with a bright smile.

Jace worlds around and glares at her. This makes Ruthie cringe back, losing her smiles. “A leg up! A leg up! How the hell is letting a prince of hell free into our world a Damn leg up newbie!”

Xander steps in front of Ruthie and right into Jace’s face. “I respect that you're our institute head and I know you could most likely kill me six ways from Sunday but I won’t let any member of my squad be talked to like that!”

Jace’s face goes red and he balls up his fist and starts to swing at the young Shadowhunter when faster than anyone could blink Alec has grabbed Jace by the arms and was halling him back. Jace was fighting Alec the whole way. Xander however did not move from in front of his teammate.

Clary quickly got into Jace’s face and glared at him. “Jace knock it off. They were not there they don’t know what happened plus let’s see what this leg up Ruthie is talking about really is.”

Jace goes limp in Alec’s arms, his face Softening. Clary turns and looks at Xander and Ruthie. “Ok guys, what is this leg up you are talking about?”

Ruthie gives out a little squeak and steps out from behind Xander. “Is he going to yell at me again?”

“No honey it’s ok now,” Clary says with a soft voice.

“We have one of the gatekeeper here.” Ruthie slowly replied.

“What?” Simon spoke up and moved in front of Jace, Alec, and Clary.

“We made a trip to the Shadow Market and Learned. That an old friend of mine is one of the gatekeepers.” Izzy explained.

“You know a really old Shadowhunter?” Mekyle asks, raising an eyebrow.

“No, she is a downworlder.” She replays

“Huh,” the group of Parabatai all looked very dumbfounded.

Izzy leads them to the infirmary with Xander and Ruthie at each side of her. Cassandra was laying in one of the beds, her right arm was wrapped in bandages. She slowly set up her eyes flicking yellow like a dog.

“Guys this is Cassandra Willows she is a warlock,” Izzy says and points to Cass.

“Sup guys great place you got here,” Cass says with a cheerful voice. Ruthie walks over and looks at the bandages and shakes her head and starts unwrapping the bandages and points to Xander then to the cabinet that has the clean new bandages. “Sorry, Doc the wound started itching.”

“You're healing fast and all but I want you to keep this clean and wrapped,” Ruthie orders her as Xander hands her the new bandages. Ruthie starts wrapping Cass’s arm again.

“Push little thing ant she?” Cass says with a giggle.

“You have no idea.” Xander, Mekyle and Angelique say in unison.

Alec walks over to Cass and puts his hand out. “Hello, Cassandra, I am Alec Bane-Lightwood, Console of the Clave.” Cass blinked and shocked his hand with a look of duda I know who you are. “We understand you are one of the Gatekeepers. What gate do you look over and where is it?”

This made Cass go white and her eyes darted around the room mental mapping a way out of the room. Right as she was about to throw the blanket off and head for the exit. Xander lad a hand on her shoulder and smiles at her.

“Trust us Cass, we want to keep all the Gates safe.” He says and ameetly Cass softens and looks back at Alec.

“I guard over the gate of Gluttony.” Cass answers but was cut off by Simon before she could finish

“The Gate of what?” Simon asks

“The Gate of Gluttony you know like the sin,” Cass states coldly looking at Simon. “You do know what the 9 circles of hell are, don’t you?” Everyone turns to Simon and he just stands there looking confused.

“You mean like the Anime?” He asks.

“No you nerd the Book!” Jace snaps.

“It’s the same thing,” Simon mutters.

“The gate here in New York is Limbo. Seeing as New York was the place where other countries came to the U.S. Hersheypark of Pennsylvania sits the Gate of Gluttony.” Cass says, laying one of her hands on top of Xander’s.

“Why there?” Angelique asks

“Most sites of the gates have some ties to what gate is belt there. Gluttony is simple with a theme park.” Cass answers, trying to sit up on the side of the bad. Xander held his hand out to her and she smiled and blushed, taking his hand. “I will take you to the gate. If this Sinara wants to open my gate she has got one hell of a fight on her hands.”

“We can’t all go,” Alec says

“And why not?” Izzy asks.

“We need to keep A group of Shadowhunters here so that New York stays safe” Alec explains

“He is right, we can’t leave New York unprotected,” Clary adds.

As the group tried to decide who was going and who was staying. A ring from the Institute doorbell came. Jace, Alec, Clary, and Angelique break away to go answer the door. Standing at the door when Jace opened it was Bat the local werewolf clans secant in command. Alec gave him a very odd look. “Bat what are you doing here?”

“Is Maia here?” He barks out.

“Huh?” Jace says

“Are all you Shadowhunter stuped or death? Where is Maia” Bat snaps out his eyes glowing yellow.

“Stand down Lykin. Don’t make me put you down!” Jace yells out moving into Bat’s personal space.

“Like to see you try. No one to stop me this time blondy.” Bat growls low in his through.

Before Alec could move in between the two men Angelique was already there pushing them apart. In a very Com and even voice, she speaks to them “ok guys this is not the time and remember we are at peace here. Bat, Maia is not here, she has not been here. Jace, he is only worried about this alpha.”

Bat looks down at the small hand that was on his chest pushing him away from Jace and he starts to chuckle. “Your one brave little girl.”

“She is right though. Bat you have not heard from Maia?” Alec asks.

Bat steps away and ruffles Angelique’s hair. “No she was sent to meet with you and the other members of the Alliance and she never came back.”

“That was weeks ago,” Alec says in shock and a tinge of panic in his voice.

“I know after a few days I thought it was odd but it’s Maia and she does as she wants. After all, she is the Alpha. But after a week it’s not normal.” Bat explains.

“We need to look into this.” Angelique states.

“Ok, I want you to put together a team and look into this Angelique.” Alec orders.

“Me?!?!?” Angelique shouts.

“Yes you, I need to stay here and deal with clave business and the rest will be going with Cass,” Alec says.

“Xander should lead then,” Angelique says.

“There is no way he is not going to go with Cass,” Clay says.

“Oh, you got that too.” Jace chimes in clary smiles and nods.

“This is your mission Angelique as order by your Console.” Alec orders again. This time Angelique just nods. Bat looks at Alec and Angelique. “Bat return to the pack and Angelique will come to you with her team,” Alec adds.

“Ok see you soon Shadowhunter,” Bat says and bonds down the steers.

All the Shadowhunters and Magnus, who had portaled to the institute a few minutes ago now sit around a huge round table in the war room. Alec leads the meeting deciding who is going on what mission and agreeing with the Shadowhunters Angelique picked to take on hers.

Angelique chose Mekyle and Ruthie for her mission Simon and Izzy were picked by Alec to back them up. This leaves Jace, Clary, Xander, and Cass going to the gate.

“We have one more idam we need to deal with,” Alec announces.

“We do?” Simon asks puzzled.

“Yes the names of are Young Shadowhunters,”

“Oh yes, the last name ceremony.” Magnus snickers. Alec shouts him a living eye roll.

“Anyway Xander, Angelique and Mekyle have you chosen your Shadowhunter name?”

Xander stands up. “I have out of respect and honor for my Headmaster and her amazing Daughter. I like to become a Fairchild.” He looks over at Clary and she gives him a small nod.

Alec smiles seeing this. “So be it, welcome Xander Fairchild.” Xander smiles and sits back down. “Angelique, Mekyle, have you?”

“Yes I would like Waterheart.” Angelique says standing up. Mekyle jumps up next to her.

“This was not an easy choice for me but if you would allow. I like to be Mekyle WolfScar.”

Alec gives them a soft smile. “Welcome Angelique WaterHeart and Mekyle WolfScar.”

With the teams assigned they split up and head off to get what gear that they would need and even a little sleep if they could before heading off. This gave the couples some time to be alone leaving the Newbies and Cass to find something to pass their time with if they don’t want to sleep.

Angelique and Ruthie decided they would sleep in the same room for the night so they could talk about the mission and some boys they liked back at the academy. Mekyle was not going to sleep at all so he headed up to the Training Room to punch the bag a little and work on his dagger throws. This left Xander alone with Cass.

Xander leads Cass to the common room where the TV was playing Ghosthunters on the Discovery channel. “I know now that I am a Shadowhunter. I have been rewatching them and the Taps crow came really close a few times to finding a real ghost. I wonder if one of them is related to the Herondales?” Xander says.

“I am a bit shocked to see a TV at all in an Institute,” Cass replies.

“Ya most are still old-fashioned but Clary and Simon need their Anime, is what i got told,” Xander explained.

“Oh man, I love me some Death Note.” Cass giggled.

“You have the cutest laugh, Hold on did you say you like Death Note,” Xander says looking a little flushed. Cass just smiles and winks at him as Xander turns a bright red.

#shadowhunters #shadow world #jace herondale #clary fairchild #clary x jace #alec lightwood #magnus bane #alec x magnus #izzy lightwood #simon lovelace #simon x izzy #epic #cool #cosplaydude637