#i had literally just gotten off the bullet train i was wandering around and there she appeared

[no-brand-gays]

if i became a school idol and the other members made my image color gray i would try to take down the group from the inside

#i’ve never said it but i’ve always thought it and i think a lot of people have given all the attempts to pretend kotori’s color is green #i do actually think it works for yoshiko but just for me it would feel so much like the short end of the stick #like everyone else is wearing sakura pink and sky blue and warm orange and i’m over here in a gray costume like yes this was my first choice #the reason I’m thinking about idols actually is that it took me 2 months of living in japan to realize i can go see idols #more specifically it took 2 months and the member of an idol group to hand me a flyer on the street and like very persistently and cutely #ask me to come until i was like okay yes ofc #i had literally just gotten off the bullet train i was wandering around and there she appeared #i love idols dude I really love idols so much #kpop is so much more accessible between fandom loudness and content more regularly being available for free but jpop!!!!!!!!! #jpop is my first love!!!! #i saw that live Friday and they said they were performing again Monday and o just happened to be staying in akiba again #so guess what i did last night #i am not immune to idols also you get to take pictures with your oshi as a thank you for your first and second time coming #so after both shows i got to talk a little w the member who found me #ik it’s their job but she remembered me the second time around and also the performances themselves were so fun and cute #it just really reignited the jpop flame in me i love idols so so so much #personal #hope you are all having a nice start to your week!!!

[midgardianweasley]

I‘d love to see you write an angsty fanfic with Natasha x reader (male or female is up to you) with a bad ending of your choice.

No pressure of course ✨

as requested Violet!! I hope it's okay<3

How could you do this to me?

Natasha Romanoff x fem!reader

Summary: Natasha hasn’t been around recently and Y/N’s been really missing her company, but that changes when some CCTV footage is discovered.

Warnings: Cheating, swearing.

Word Count: 3.6k

there was an attempted proof read, but sorry in advance if i've missed anything!!

message/ask to be added to the taglist<3

Requests are open!

You weren’t surprised when you woke up to an empty bed once again, the space beside you missing a red-head assassin. You’d grown used to the sight of bedsheets spread lazily on your side of the bed, almost completely thrown off of the edge. It wasn’t unusual, however, the feeling of disappointment that lingered in your chest every morning never eased with time.

‘I’m just off to train, baby.’

‘I need to go and see Fury about this next mission, you go back to sleep’

‘I forgot to debrief the team last night, so we need to have a meeting this morning instead.’

‘Off to get some breakfast, my love. I’ll save you some eggs.’

Those were the typical reasons you received whenever you questioned where she was going in such a hurry in the mornings. You knew she was busy, of course you did. But, you missed the mornings when she’d pull you back into her chest, refusing to let you leave until you gave her a few kisses, which never ended up just being kisses, but you always gave in either way.

Now that you think of it, you can’t remember the last time she held you. Not properly. She used to hold you in a death grip, so tight that you could almost feel her heartbeat in your own chest. Nowadays, you were lucky to get more than a few taps on the back, it felt like you were being congratulated for something.

You’d always brushed it off, thinking that you must’ve been selfish for wanting so much of her attention, you had to be more understanding of how demanding her job is. It wasn’t like you never tried, you did, everyday. It would just be nice to feel her love for you a little more, even if it was just a quick peck before she left in the mornings.

“Hey Wan’, Hey Vis” You smiled at the pair as they stood at the kitchen counter, cracking eggs and buttering some toast. They loved cooking together, Wanda always told you how cute it was when Vision was trying to learn, especially after his fiasco with the Paprika.

“Hi Y/N, want something to eat?” Wanda handed you some toast, which you took gratefully, slowly munching on it.

Vision looked up as though to engage in conversation, when he then looked around in confusion. “Where’s Ms. Romanoff?”. You shrugged.

“I’m not sure, I think she’s training, I’ve not heard from her yet.”

You were looking at Vision, but it was near impossible to miss the sympathetic look Wanda was giving you. She knew about how you’d been feeling with Natasha not being around so much, she had tried to help, to hint to Nat that you’d been feeling a bit neglected for a while now, but she hadn’t gotten very far.

“Nat, nat, I just think that maybe you should spend a little more time with Y/N” It was obvious the assassin wasn’t listening to her, shrugging it off and trying to walk past the witch, only to have a hand pressed on her chest to push her backwards.

“Wanda, I need to go, I'm running late.”

“you’re always running somewhere. I'm sure Fury, or Tony or whoever you’re in such a rush to see, can wait. You haven’t seen your girlfriend in forever.”

“I saw her last night.”

“Crawling into bed in the early hours of the morning and sleeping next to her, isn’t seeing her, Nat.”

Her words fell on deaf ears as she watched her friend turn around and walk the other way. She could’ve used her powers to stop her, she didn’t see a point though. She wasn’t listening, and she couldn’t force her to.

“It's fine though, honestly! I can hang out with you guys today if you’re not busy?”

the couple shared a look of awkwardness before looking back towards you.

“Actually, we were going to go into town and do some sightseeing. You’re welcome to join us though!” She smiled, not wanting you to be alone, which you were grateful for, but you couldn’t intrude.

“No no, don’t worry! I think I've got something Tony wanted me to check out in the Lab, now that I think about it.” You didn’t. “You guys have fun though! take pictures!” You winked, knowing full well that your best friend didn’t believe you, she hesitated before nodding her head in agreement and beginning to walk off with Vision in tow.

__________________

An hour or so went by, you still hadn’t seen Natasha at all, or anyone, really. They all seemed to have disappeared to do their own thing, leaving you to find yours. So, you found yourself wandering into your lab, where you found Tony observing the screens with an endless amount of data changing every couple of seconds. You never really understood how he made sense of it all so quickly, but you’d always been intrigued nonetheless.

He must’ve sensed someone was there, as he broke away from his train of thought and glanced over towards you, fully acknowledging how your shoulders were slumped and your eyes lacked your usual sparkle. Tony alway had a soft spot for you, he’d known you for years, taking on a role similar to a father’s. Seeing you look so defeated recently, it’d hurt him a little more than he cared to admit.

Gesturing for you to come in with a gentle smile before moving and adjusting various chunks of metal on the table in the centre of the lab.

“Ah ah!” He tapped the bridge of his nose

“You can’t be serious! Tony I-”

“Nope”

“I’m a grown woman!” You laughed in disbelief at his

“Yes, you are, and I do not plan on taking said grown woman to medical because she got a shot of electricity through her eyeball. Put them on.”

You rolled your eyes, picking up a pair of the obnoxiously large lab goggles and put them over your face. He really took being a ‘father figure’ too seriously sometimes. With your goggles on, you took yourself over to where he stood, hoping to help him out somehow and keep yourself occupied.

You watched him move around blueprints on the screen above. “So, whatcha working on?”

“Well, remember that last mission we went on? How that ended?”

“Well, considering I had to get bullets removed for the last two hours, I’d say I remember pretty well.”

His face cringed slightly “Yeah, that’s the one. I’m basically just trying to layer the suits more, but keep the weight to a minimum so that there’s more protection, but the speed and mobility is almost, if not, the same.” He pondered, mind wandering off again to try and figure out how he could make this work.

Suddenly springing to action, he started assembling some pieces together, chucking some aside and reaching for different tools he required.

Looking towards you, he tilted his head “Can you pass me the-”

His sentence was interrupted. “Hey Tony, hey-” Banner. You didn’t mind Bruce, he was always quite quiet and polite most of the time, a little awkward, but, when you have a literal Hulk inside of you, it’s probably the least of your concerns.

You waved at the Avenger. “Hi Bruce” You gave him a friendly smile, for it to be returned with an awkward gaze, which he tried to quickly shove off.

“Yeah, uh, hi, Y/N. W-what brings you here?”

“Oh, no particular reason, I wanted something to do so I thought I'd come down, just pay a visit.” He nodded, acknowledging your words but appearing a little on edge, almost.

“Hey, you okay?” You asked “You look a little pale?”

“Yeah, yeah n-no I'm fine, just a-a bit tired.” He stuttered before suddenly directing his attention towards the man standing beside you. “How’s it coming along, Ton’?”

“Not bad, I have a wonderful assistant to help me out.” he nudged you playfully.

“Haha, yeah. She’s great. Anyways, you seem to have a good hold on things, so, I’ll leave you to it and come back later.”

Neither of you had managed to get a word out before Banner had walked out and was already out of sight. You turned to face Tony again.

“Was that- did you find that weird at all?”

“I find most of the people in this compound weird.”

It was a serious question, but you couldn’t help but let out a laugh at the millionaire’s response.

“I do pride myself on it.”

“As you should. You’re the weirdest one.”

“Hey!” You slapped his arm. “Rude!”

“I’m kidding! Now, pass me that screwdriver, goggles.”

Chuckling, you threw him the screwdriver and zoned out thinking about Bruce’s weird behaviour. While Tony was right, the majority of us are weird. You couldn’t stop thinking about how unusual it was, even for him. You put it to the back of your mind though, focusing back on what the man beside you was working on. You’re sure it’s fine.

________________________

You thought you were going crazy. First you had Nat, who was disappearing every chance she got, Then you had Bruce who couldn’t look you in the eye and when you finally believed it couldn’t get any weirder, you picked up on some strange vibes from Steve.

“Oh finally! I was beginning to think no one else actually lives here.” You approached Steve who seemed to be walking and talking with Bruce, both taking a step back when they looked towards you.

“Hey Y/N, we were just-”

“We were just about to go and have a shower. Training.” Steve cut in, earning himself a glare and a shake of the head from the scientist beside him, subtle, so you hadn’t noticed, otherwise you would’ve questioned it.

“Oh? You were training too, Bruce?”

“Well, I-” He glanced at Steve. “Yeah. Yeah, I, uh, wanted to get some combat down, just in case I needed it.”

“Considering our last mission, I think we all should.” the super soldier quickly added, sending you an enthusiastic smile, which you had returned. You went to speak again, possibly inquiring as to whether or not they knew where your girlfriend was, but you hadn't had the chance as the pair of them quickly rushed off, muttering something about catching you later, leaving you on your own, once again.

What the hell was going on?

_____________________

Feeling defeated, you trudged your way into your bedroom, just wanting to shower, get into bed and sleep, and hope for some form of normality.

What you hadn’t expected, was to walk in and see the back of a familiar figure sporting the black suit she practically lived in, tying her hair into a low bun and beginning to change into some more comfortable clothes.

You were dating, so it wasn’t new to see Nat changing, but you still thought it would be decent to make her aware of your presence. The small “ahem” was enough to make her spin round and flash you a smile, her pearly white teeth on show.

“Hi babe, i’m just changing for bed. You okay?”

The words felt so unfamiliar to you, having not heard them in what felt like forever. Still, you decided to humour it.

“Yeah, yeah I'm okay. A bit of a weird day is all.”

She laughed, returning to laying out her clothes. “Well, we are surrounded by some weird people.”

“That’s what Tony said.”

There was an atmosphere in the air that you couldn’t quite pinpoint. It had always felt comfortable with Natasha, you would describe her company as being like a safety blanket, enveloping you with warmth and a sense of security. This felt different. It didn’t feel familiar anymore, it was like you were face to face with a stranger and the more you looked at her, the more it upset you.

“Hey, hey, what’s wrong?” Natasha put her palms on your cheeks, bringing your Y/E/C eyes to meet her emerald ones in the process. You hadn’t realised that tears had fallen until the pad of her thumbs gently brushed them away.

“I just, it sounds so stupid.”

“Tell me.”

You let out a sigh, eyes beginning to dart around the room. “It just feels like I’ve never seen you, I don’t remember the last time we’ve spoken and it’s, it’s been lonely.” Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion at your response, lips falling into a frown, but you were quick to speak again.

“It hasn’t just been you though, I understand that work gets in the way, but, it felt like some members of the team were acting differently around me.”

“Really? Like who?”

“Well, I mean, Bruce could barely bring himself to say anything more than a sentence to me and I tried to speak to Steve just before I came here and he rushed off like his life depended on it. I don’t know, maybe I’m just being a bit paranoid.”

“I’m sure it’s nothing, Detka, I wouldn’t worry about it.” She whispered, hands pulling you forward with ease to bring your lips together. You smiled at the contact, you’d missed it.

You were so caught up in it, that you hadn’t noticed you were the only one smiling.

It wasn’t long before the both of you were interrupted by an electronic voice in the room.

“Miss Romanoff, Miss Y/L/N.” It was F.R.I.D.A.Y. “Mr Stark is asking for you both in the conference room.”

“Alright, thanks F.R.I.D.A.Y., we’re on our way.” Your girlfriend replied, rushing away from the kiss and leading you to the door.

Why was everyone in such a rush today?

_______________________

“So, I was messing around with some things in the lab, and I think I've found a solution to our suit issue. It’s still a work in progress because I'll need to tweak some things and then tailor them blah blah blah, but I thought I'd show you guys the latest. JARVIS?”

“Bringing up footage 182.”

While you waited for the video to be up and running, you took note of everyone sitting around you. For the most part, they looked tired, though you don’t blame them, it was pretty late.

Shuffling to your left, you held Natasha’s hand in yours, sending her a loving gaze before resting your head on her shoulder, just content that she was close by. She sat a little straighter at the action, careful not to push you off of her, but not entirely relaxing either.

The large tv screen lit up, a view from the corner of the lab came into sight where you could see Tony installing different wires and pieces of loose metal into the suit, watching it light up as he did so. He was in the middle of explaining what he was doing as the recording went on, when the screen suddenly turned to static, black and white lines taking over the screen.

“JARVIS?”

“Minor technical issue, working on it, Mr Stark.”

You caught Wanda’s eye across the table, a playful smirk plastered onto her face at the mishap, watching the billionaire get stressed over a television. You couldn’t help but laugh at the words flying from his mouth as he started hitting the remote, as if he was someone who didn’t understand technology.

It wasn’t long before an image appeared back on the screen, however, this wasn’t the same recording. This is from the gym. It focused on one of the square mats in the middle of the room where two people were sparring. One of which, you immediately recognised as Natasha.

The other person definitely wasn’t a girl, their hair was short and muscles so big you were worried that one slice would be the end. It zoomed in a little, and from the blonde hair and dark blue outfit, you pieced together who it was.

“Oooh, Black Widow and the SuperSoldier, one vs one. Now this should be interesting.” A previously tired looking Sam clapped his hands and leaned forward, now fully invested in the scene in front of him.

You turned to Nat, who now looked a little paler than she did before.

“You look like you’ve just seen a ghost, don’t tell me, you lost this spar?” You joked, expecting her to join in and tease you back. Instead, her face displayed an emotion you weren’t entirely sure of.

Before you could question it, you noticed the room fall silent. Not even a breath could be heard in the room. Your head turned slowly, meeting a mixture of shocked and sympathetic faces. And that was when you saw it.

Nat had kissed Steve, and he didn’t stop her.

If you weren't aware of your heartbeat before, you couldn’t be now, for it felt like it had completely stopped. Your jaw fell as your eyes filled with tears, only worsening the longer you saw the two of them on the screen. It was only turned off when a third person walked into view, not needing to ponder on who it could be, you immediately faced guilty stares. Three of them.

“You- you kissed-” You stuttered, incapable of forming a sentence towards your teammate. “And, you knew?” Your voice broke, tears now beginning to find their way down your cheeks for the second time as Bruce couldn’t bring himself to answer you.

You swiftly rose out of your seat, attempting to keep yourself composed until you could be alone.

“Baby-” Natasha murmured, trying to take hold of your hand, which you snatched back before she could lay a finger on it.

“Don’t.”

“Please-”

“Leave me alone.” You spat, speed walking out of what now felt like an overcrowded room.

You didn’t hear it, you’d left too early, but if you had stayed, you would’ve heard the team give Nat and Steve the scolding of their lives, mainly from Wanda and Tony, telling them how disappointed they were in them both. How they’d be lucky if you were to forgive them for what they did.

________________________

You don’t know how long you’d been sitting on your shared bed for. It could’ve been an hour, it could’ve been a couple of minutes. All you knew, was that you couldn’t stay in this room much longer, looking at the picture frames and the shared wardrobe, it just felt painful.

So, you walked over to your wardrobe and gathered every item of your clothing into your arms, lacking any care for if there were hangers or labels in the way, and chucked them on the bed and started to chuck it all into a suitcase intended for holidays but, you don’t see that happening anytime soon.

The sound of sniffles and rustling was all you could hear in the room, so much so that it was suffocating, and it didn’t help when you heard the door creak open.

“What are you doing?” A voice squeaked. Natasha stood beside the door, fidgeting with her fingers as she anxiously bounced from one foot to the other. You didn’t even bother to look up in her direction, focusing solely on getting out of there as soon as you could.

“Baby, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what happened, I didn’t mean it.” You scoffed at her attempt at an explanation. “I love you.”

That’s what made you whip your head to see her red and puffy eyes, if this was any other situation, you would’ve rushed over and engulfed her in a hug, tell her that everything would be okay and you’re there for her. Now? All you felt was anger.

“If you loved me, you wouldn’t have kissed him.”

“I didn’t know-”

You stood up straight, almost laughing at her choice of words. “You didn’t know? Bullshit. I’m pretty fucking sure everyone is aware when they kiss someone. Did you know when you were kissing me then? Or did you not know that either?”

“I wasn’t thinking.”

“I don’t think I care.”

She tries to step closer to you, only for you to take one back, holding your hand out, indicating for her to stop.

“No. no, you know what Nat, you don’t get to do this. You don’t get to treat me like a stranger for weeks, like I'm sharing a bed with someone I don’t know, for you to then kiss someone else and expect me to forgive you. You have no idea how I've felt these past weeks, blaming myself and thinking I was selfish for wanting your time. It’s funny, really.”

She looked away from you, regret taking over her features, both of you now having tear stains covering your rosy red cheeks.

You broke the silence once again. “Was that the first time?”

“What?”

“You heard me.”

“Y/N-” She pleaded

“Answer the question, Natasha.” You spoke through gritted teeth.

Silence returned to the four walls.

“Get out.”

“No, no, we-” She stepped forward, only to halt herself when she realised what she was doing.

“There is no ‘we’. We’re done. I’ll have my stuff moved back into my room by tonight, though I'm sure it won’t make much of a difference to you.”

“I’m really sorry.”

“Whatever.”

She walked out of the room, hesitating slightly, wondering if it’s worth staying and trying to figure out whatever this is. She shook her head to herself, knowing she’d fucked up. There wasn’t a fight anymore. It was done.

Collapsing on the bed, the feeling washed over you again as the finality of it all set in. You didn’t stop though. You packed your clothes, your perfumes, all of your loose hair ties and left the room with only one thought on your mind.

Natasha won’t even notice the difference.

Taglist: @natashas-favourite-knives @wandaromanova

#Natasha romanoff #Natasha romanoff x reader #Natasha x reader #Natasha romanoff x Y/N #Natasha romanova #Natasha x fem!reader #Natasha romanoff angst #Natasha angst #Black widow #Black widow x reader #Marvel #Natasha romanoff imagine #Natasha romanoff oneshot #Natasha romanoff fanfiction #Natasha romanoff smut #Natasha romanoff fluff #Natasha romanoff x fem!reader

[putseraphinaonthaphone]

Groupchat pt. I

CW// recreational drug use, group sex, poly dynamics, virgin reader, queer reader who uses she/her pronouns and feminine descriptors, intoxicated sex

It was an interesting group of friends that you had. Well, 'friends' was a stretch, but you had a groupchat. The name was simply 'fuckers' because for some reason Bakugou was allowed to name the chat. You had the same group of stoners you ended up partying with every weekend, getting high off the strongest shit you could buy and letting loose to work off the stress of the week. It was cliche but true, you blew off steam getting high and dancing like a slut-- self care. Somehow it had evolved to more of a four person party that wasn't really a party, but you played music, smoked, and the boys watched you dance while devouring the healthy but tasty food you prepared because when you're high everything tastes 100 times better and you'd been on a restricted diet because of your chronic health issues since you were a teenager. When you'd explained this in the group chat, the most concise response you got was "so you'll cook for us?" Stoners were just your people honestly. Or maybe it was these stoners.

Bakugou mellowed out considerably after a few blunts, and he offered to blow up whoever made you cry the first time you met coming out of a party to smoke after you had a call with your best friend from back home. He'd told you that your dynamic as friends only worked if he was single. You didn't know if you'd ever have another friend like him. And there was Bakugou, offering you a blunt and violence that seemed like just the kind of friendship you craved in that moment.

Shinsou was one of the few people who came to the party simply to find people to smoke with. He rarely talked, but he was really good company you thought. He always brought indica strains-- your personal favorite as well as his you found out. Sometimes you guys talked about how it was cruel to have so many dreams but so little energy to pursue them. Sometimes you guys went back to his place and smoked yourself into a sleepy haze that always ended up in the warmest cuddles you've ever experienced.

Dabi had a viper's tongue and an even worse attitude than Bakugou. But he was cool, you bumped into him at a party when you were looking for another smoker to borrow a light from. You were feeling caustic after a phone call from home. "You got a lighter bro?" He seemed a bit amused by your masculine energy wrapped in a lush femme presenting form, like he was relieved to finally seeing someone interesting. "You look like you got all sorts of daddy issues, why haven't we met before?" His tone was both flirtatious and condescending at the time. "Whatever gave it away?" You snorted as you lit up your blunt, white grape game wrappers. But your tone was flirtatous as well as you handed your blunt to him, "We're meeting now. To shitty dads who deserve to sleep in the bed they made."

Shoto was the anomaly. You saw him around your department, guessing he was an upperclassman in your major. And one day he was at Dabi's place when you all got together to celebrate finally getting an off campus hangout spot. Apparently Dabi was an old friend, kind of like an older brother to Shoto. They definitely had a thing going on, but thinking about it too long made your face burn. His preppy appearance was shattered when he wore a short sleeve shirt instead of his usual button downs, and you saw the traditional japanese tattoos that made a full sleeve in white ink. You also noticed his silver gauges that were almost hidden by his white hair and when he pushed his hair back you saw more piercings on his ears. But when he smoked you under the table you decided you were almost in love.

If you happened to hope that one day at least one of the hot but dumb fuckers you smoked with took the hint of your many personal dance shows and fucked you, that was no one's business but your own.

You worked through the week, bullshitting assignments- but well because you were a fucking genius in your field, and on friday you decided to just wear a bra, shorts and an over shirt to the party with a beanie on your shaved head to complete the look. The pregame was at Shoto and Dabi's place this time, a short walk if you thought about the liquor and weed waiting for you. You weren't prepared for the brisk wind to meet you when you stepped out of your dorm.

"Hoes don't get cold." You chanted under your breath as you started walking. Your construction boots kept your feet warm, but the black booty shorts that were frayed at the edges left your lush thighs and your entire legs exposed to the cold wind. But after a few more minutes of walking you gave up- you weren't a good enough hoe, and you were cold. So you bit the bullet and put into the group chat:

smokerdeepthroat 11:19pm

Someone come pick me up, I'm freezing my literal ass off.

blueflamer 11:22pm

Walk bitch.

boomboi 11:24

Cash gas or ass, you know the drill.

smokerdeepthroat 11:25

Y'all can run a train on my ass if someone just picks me up before I freeze to death.

sleepystoner, icyhot, boomboi, blueflamer | read

Shit. You hadn't actually meant to send that. And of course the one time Shinsou checks the chat had to be now. "Fuckers," you grumbled under your breath. At this point it was almost like calling them your boys in a fond tone, and that thought had you almost puking onto the concrete. The fact that you were blushing was completely irrelevant.

Before you could freak out too much- internally of course, you were not going to be caught simping with one of them on the way to pick you up- you heard the familiar roar of Bakugou's car coming down the street. The bass of his emo ass rock music shook the street and you were climbing into the car before he could yell at you to get your ass inside.

You might have moaned at the heated seats, rubbing your hands over your freezing thighs. "Thanks Bakubro. It's cold as fuck and I was too excited to pregame to bring a jacket."

"A jacket isn't the problem. Your ass is hanging out." His words as usual were followed by a plume of smoke. His crimson eyes trailed over your body and a heated smirk curved his lips. "But that just means easier access for us."

"Y'all dusty ass hoes know I was joking-" You tried to bluff, tried to deflect with bravado as you took the blunt from him. But your hands shook, and Bakugou met your gaze with a quiet intensity that was somehow worse than his explosions.

"You dance like you need a dick in you. And only for us. We waited for you to make your choice, but this is less complicated." Damn it, he was smoking the horny weed. But if you were honest all weed was horny weed to your squad. There was an eroticism in the craving just one more hit. Just one more epic high. Just one more shudder of pleasure, as touching yourself to the thought of the boy's eyes on you when you got back to your dorm was as much a part of your friday night ritual as the weed.

Whenever you started smoking you felt yourself happily descending into hedonism. Bakugou's voice certainly wasn't helping. Your throat was impossibly dry- from the smoke, from desire- as you admitted quietly,

"I'm a virgin." You weren't going to apologize, compromise or argue. It was a statement and he could take it or leave it.

Bakugou wasn't an idiot. But he also was a possessive bastard in a way that made you wet even though you rolled your eyes at it.

"I'll make it good for you when I pop your cherry. I met you first, I'll take you first. I got you." It wasn't a promise, it was confident statement you knew he would stop at nothing to make a reality. His relentlessness was something that drew you to him in the first place if you told yourself the truth. He shifted gears smoothly and rested his warm hand on your bare thigh as he drove you back to the off campus house. You smoked half the blunt listening to his music and getting wet from his hands wandering higher and higher up your thigh.

You walked in to the house and realized how much you'd underestimated how serious Bakugou's words were. It seemed like it was a long time coming when you walked into Dabi's low lit living room to find him with his hand on Shoto's dick, Shoto's hand on his, and Shinsou lazily palming himself.

"It's about time you got here, you can't just drop shit like that in the chat when you're not here to bend over for us." Shoto's white and red hair was a mess, and given that it looked like the two of them were edging each other (sadists), his fucked out face made sense.

"She's a virgin, Icy Hot, you're gonna have to wait. I gotta open her up first." You in the mean time were going to start the music while smoking a bit hurriedly, hoping you were well and truly high before they actually started to run a train on you.

"Play the dick down playlist." Shinsou rasped from the couch and you wanted to cry at the head assery you had to put up with from these morons. (/s) But they're your morons, some lonely part of you whispered.

"It actually better have good music on it." You griped, but yeah, you were feeling the impact of whatever Bakugou had given you to smoke because your words weren't as harsh as you meant them to be.

"I call dibs on her ass cherry." Dabi's low voice cut throat the soft grunts from Shoto.

"Next time." Bakugou muttered watching the way you started to dance, having shed your overshirt to simply dance in your shorts and bra. None of the boys danced with you, a rule you'd had to put in place when they literally started fighting like children over who's turn it was to dance with you. Somehow it hadn't gotten better, these jealous bitches would sulk if you didn't give them all equal attention during your provocative performance. You solved this by closing your eyes and not looking at any of them while you let your body follow the nasty beat of the playlist. Sometimes you murmured lyrics if you remembered them and all four men were enraptured by the sight of you surrounded by smoke and dancing like a ancient goddess that could command them all in an instant.

It was moments like these that made you think maybe you were all a little more than friends by now. More than just groupchat contacts. But friends. Maybe more?

The blunt you finished yourself, until you were light headed and craving more. More music, more bass to move your hips too, maybe something to move your hips against. You didn't hesitate when Bakugou patted his thighs.

In fact, the weed in your system convinced you it only made sense to take your shorts off before straddling him. Better that than having to stop just when you're finally getting what you want right? You forgot you were just wearing some lace boyshorts with pale pink roses framing your luscious curves and dusky skin until you heard;

"Slutty girl." It was a groan as Shoto's grip on Dabi's cock tightened from the view of your fat ass sitting on Bakugou's lap.

"Nah, not yet. She's just needy." Katsuki smirked when you blushed from his words, even as you started grinding down on him in revenge. The choked moan that escaped him and the cocky glare you turned on all of them made all of them crave you that much more.

"You're needy to fuck me too, you all are. Don't forget that, explosion bitch."

"Point made. But watch it, little girl. It's gonna be a long night." His words were low and raspy from smoke, and even thought it should have been a threat your pussy gushed and soaked your panties anyway.

Four pairs of eyes watched your every move, drinking in the sight of you half naked, boldly staking your claim on all of them-- which only made them want to return the favor. Claiming you over and over until you wouldn't deny you belonged to them.

A long night, huh?

To be continued.....

#bakugou x reader #shinsou x reader #dabi x reader #shoto x reader #tw dubcon #tw dark content #tw: dubcon #tw: pseudoincest #tw: recreational drug use #tw: degradation #tw: kink

[ricinbach]

for the record. | chapter 1 - alpha

off-duty time would not last you for too long.

After all these years, the world never ceased to remind you that rules never changed.

While the players of the game always rotated along with the enemy and the friendly alike, this dangerous life that many chose to lead had undeniable constants - etched onto your brain in a devout mantra, something to remember in your darkest or most fleeting moments.

Kill, or be killed.

That was the first thing that they taught you, at the beginning of those long and arduous days of training in the barracks. Scout out the situation and if there is any sign of remote danger, pull your gun first, or you will end up with a bullet in your head. Sometimes, it was better to shoot first and then ask questions - if you were still alive by then.

Though in your line of work, the learning phase never ended. Warfare shifted and changed constantly, forcing you to adapt. It was something you had to just come in terms with. At that point in your career, as sad as it was to think about it from a civilian’s perspective, it was all more creative and effective ways of getting confirmed kills. New weapons, new tactics brought with them new problems - along with new ways of dealing with them. Technology tackled advanced aircraft and armor, adding up to your arsenal.

One thing remained the same.

It all added up to the big stirring pot of the everlasting recipe - mass destruction.

And with destruction came in the casualties. The aftermath of modern combat. The rivers of blood on pavement, hands clawing at the burnt metal, scathed bodies crawling out of the smoky debris. Sights and sounds and screams you wanted to erase from your memory for a lifetime. The pain coarsing through the body after the penetration of a bullet. Sickening roars of helicopter engines giving out.  

Yet, as a soldier, all you could do, all you were authorized to do was to bury them deep down - so you could live to see another day. Another day to fight for the flag. For peace, for honor and for the sake of lives.

The lives of many against your only.

The warm mug a welcome distraction in your hands, your eyes would wander around the busy Regent Street of London, people walking around in the usual hustle and bustle of the shopping district. The smell of freshly ground beans from the cafes scattered around, mixing in with the pleasantness of the gray post-rainfall. A spectrum of vibrant colors of shopping bags and clothes pleasing your eyes - it had been a while since you had gotten to enjoy a couple of hours all saved for yourself. The book whose pages were between your fingers moments ago then closed, as your conscience lost itself within the faces creating the sea of people.

The lives you were sworn to protect. Sometimes it felt like remembering another life, far far away - that you had been one of them. A civilian. Who needed protection in times of immediate danger.

Some were smiling and laughing, without a care in the world, radiating energy and happiness which had been a blessing in the usual London gloom. Some were in professional attire, their strides just a bit faster  and their expressions harboring that of stress, concern and exhaustion. Not too long ago, you had been one of them - but your brain did not let you dissociate from the constucted reality you had left just yet.

None of those troubles mattered when snipers left and right rained bullets on you. The stress of studying for a big test was nothing compared to being caught in blast radius, fearing to look around you so you do not see your friends dead and gone.

The echoes of your last name originating from an accented, deep voice reached your ears, rippling inside the busy cafe you had chosen to visit for the day. Coming closer and closer until they associated with a couple thuds of heavy feet and finally, a face, as you turned around to face whomever was looking for you.

Out of all places, Captain.

It did not take you too long to get to your feet out of respect and sheer habit, offering him a nod in an attempt to hide your surprise. “Sergeant,” he would greet you with your rank, the commanding voice he used on the field to lead dampened - yet still powerful. It even had a small smile attached to it too, which was not unusual.

It made the thumping of your heart slow down. A civilian visit from your Captain usually meant bad news and noticing his mouth curl up under the beard calmed you down more than you ever thought.

“Captain Price,” you greeted back, arm gesturing to the seat right in front of you across the marble table, inviting him. “Please.”

The man, whom you had become so used to seeing in the famous military green was dressed in the simple and casual combination of a black jacket   with jeans. It was a welcome change - not often did you see your commanding officer at a coffee shop in the heart of the city. Consequently, the air had been a bit awkward - just like how it felt when you felt the need to always show your best self, like there had been no room for mistakes.

That did not mean you could not try to get on his better side.

“Can I get you anything, Sir? Tea? I doubt they have a good pint here.”

That was when he looked directly in your eyes.

They said all soldiers had this blur in their eyes wherever they looked at. That no matter how happy they had been, no matter how much sparkle covered their worn-out irises, the dusty haze that veiled them was ever present. His familiar blue glint was subdued by some unknown, yet not lifeless. Not soulless. There was some sort of drive fueling him, the origins of it unbeknownst to you - the only thing you could discern was that it must have been for some good, judging by his chuckle and the slight shake of his head.

A file stamped with the all-too-familiar red confidential sign slid across the white marble along with him as he got settled in the chair, leaning his elbows slightly over the top.

“Raincheck, Sergeant, but I do have something that you might like.”

And with that, his fingers pushed the rather thin file over to you, blue eyes gazing around the shop as he undoubtedly made sure everyone was minding their own business. Here at London, he knew he had been safer than most places and yet you could only attest to the cautiousness of the man.

An eyebrow slightly raised as you leaned a bit forward, the initial welcome surprise slowly yielding to apprehension of what was inside the document. Another mission assingment had been the last thing you wanted to see after the literal living hellhole of the battlezone you had last been to. A part of you did not want to open up that cover but the other half of you yearned desperately to.

With a quick look to confirm, once you got his nod, you yielded to your other half.

And with every second spent looking at the papers containing profiles and overviews adorned with the faint Crusader shield watermarks, your eyebrows would furrow even more in confusion. Towards the bottom of the page, you could spot the one-liner character profiles for soldiers - some you had recognized and worked with, some names ringing no bells at all.

Then there it was. It was a mystery to you why it had taken you that long to find it. Right under the line occupied by a certain “John ‘Soap’ Mactavish” was your full name, with a old picture of you that belonged to one of your earlier days of training.

What the hell kind of a name is Soap?

“Now, I know you’re on the reserve for the time being,” Price spoke, breaking you out of your silent concentration as your head snapped up to divert focus into him. “But your skills in combat were not unnoticed.”

That made you proud inside, yet on the outside - it manifested in a subtle way of a simple yet courteous nod as you waited for him to continue. Closing the file for the time being, you felt the air shift as he leaned in towards you - voice dropping lower and tone growing grave.

“We have a huge war looming in the horizon, Sergeant,” he said, piercing orbs staring right into your soul. The kind of stare that could have the toughest of soldiers crack and break down, that could stop the bullet in trajectory.

“Millions of lives are at stake. You saw what happened in Urzikistan - you were there, on the frontlines.”

The mere mention of the place made your jaw clench and a gulp run down your throat, the memories of utter bloodshed still fresh in your mind.

“It is going to happen again.”

“How can I help?” slipped out of your mouth before your brain could control it, completely forgetting the fact that you had been granted off-duty time and was currently on it. Forgetting that you had to worry about taking care of your own demons in your head first, before jumping right into a war you thought you had just ended.

“I want you to be on my team,” he simply said, a look of reassurance thrown your way as he folded his arms on the table, head tilting just a bit to gauge yur reaction. His finger reached out to gently tap on the folder, gently opening the tab and pointing to the list of soldiers including yours truly.

“You will be working with handpicked warriors, the toughest of them all. Undertaking the most covert and dangerous operations - changing the world as you do it.”

There was this tone of finality in his voice that made it feel natural for you to follow everything he was instructing you to. Of course it was - he was your commanding officer, yet what he was asking out of you this time was much more than a simple recruitment for an operation.

No, what he made it sound like was that his team would be something akin to a ghost - working behind enemy lines, not alerting a single soul. It honored you that he had included you along with the names of seemingly renown soldiers, selected for off-the-grid duty due to your previous success. But was there really a need to add any additional danger to your already-risky life? It was a miracle you had not died yet and you were not so sure if another covert operation team would help with your chances. These kinds of operations only ended in either of the two ways - your mutilated corpse in a body bag or carrying your friend’s instead.

There probably also would not be many other occassions where Captain Price, one of the most trusted officers in the Services, would approach you with such an opportunity.

As your mind raced in crazy thought traffic, the sounds of the outside world and the otherwise peaceful cafe had been muffled. It was only you, him, and that little paper file you grazed your fingertips on, in order to maintain at least a slice of reality. Decisions like these had never been easy to make, especially when they would completely change your life and possibly your entire outlook. They never would be easy - there was not much “easy” associated to your line of work.

And yet going into it in the first place was something you had willingly chosen.

After all of that blood, sweat and lead - how could you say no?

Taking a deep breath as your lips moved to echo your determined voice, you spoke sofly with a nod. Chest loosening as you let out a breath you had no idea you had been holding for so long.

“I’m in, Sir.”

The ghost of a smile turned into a real one as his hand extended itself over the table, an almost proud nod as you shook it as firmly as you could.

“Welcome to the 141.”

next chapter

#here we GOOOO #lmk what you think!!! #john mactavish x reader #john soap mactavish #soap mactavish x reader #cod #modern warfare #cod reader insert #lets goooooo #john price #captain price #mw #mw2

[thirstyandbeautiful]

LVL Ever After: The Final Part  -or- it’s time Hoe Fairy ends this hot mess.

PART EIGHT: THE BABY DADDY

Whoever said arguing and having a public outburst in a hotel bar was a good idea obviously wasn’t an F1 driver. But some things will just never change. You get closer to getting your shit together as the boys are what they usually are- just along for the ride. 

part 1 ~ part 2 ~ part 3 ~ part 4 ~ part 5 ~ part 6 ~ part 7 ~ part 9

Lando grumbled as his alarm clock blared beside his head. He blinked until his eye sight wasn’t blurry and groaned when he saw he’d only gotten four hours of sleep. 

After Lance and his run in with Daniel, the two of them decided that they might as well get absolutely blackout drunk. Well, actually, the partying culprit was Lance, who had a shocking tolerance to tequila. Lando was shocked by the Canadian, but easily followed along. It had been a great night, even if Lando could only remember it in random increments. 

The next morning hadn’t been so great.

He had missed his flight, which got him a great telling off from the travel coordinator before he finally sent Lando a new travel pass. A travel pass for a trip that had not one, but two layovers. 

He knew the travel coordinator was salty when people missed team flights, but he hadn’t expected him to be downright cruel.

So with a massive hangover, Lando made his trek home, arriving nearly four hours ago, already dreading going to McLaren HQ in the afternoon.

Now, he was really regretting that night, and the fact that he could perfectly remember Daniel freaking out. And he could remember how much of an asshole he was back. Lando felt a tinge of anxiety over seeing his teammate as he rolled out of bed. It wasn’t in Lando’s character to be apologetic, but he knew he’d have to bite this bullet. 

Blaming Daniel for being the last one to know about the paternity disaster hadn’t been right, and remembering all his mental fortitude training- Lando knew he had to figure out the root of the disdain he felt for his teammate. 

Even if he knew he wouldn’t like the answer. 

And then there was the conversation with you for him to think about as he brushed his teeth. The way you had sounded, so alarmed and so panicked, so completely unprepared. He’d never heard you like that before this mess, and it was quickly losing it’s pathetic points. Why couldn’t you just accept that this was the way things were?

What was the big deal in finally telling Daniel? He argued with himself, Cause she didn’t want him to know yet.

That’s bullshit.

He shook his head and grabbed his phone, wandering into his room to grab some clothes as he swiped past all his notifications and clicked on your text thread.

I don’t regret telling him

it is what it is

he had a right to know

Lando felt like he could breathe a bit easier, sticking to his guns always had that effect over him. He had his own reasons for finally telling Daniel. Lando was sick of feeling sick. He walked around with this weight, this ever bearing secret that he couldn’t share. And it wasn’t fair that he couldn’t share it, couldn’t confide in anyone but you cause it wasn’t just your secret, it was his too.

It had been hard enough telling Lance, but once that bandaid was ripped off, Lando felt so much lighter. Going to a race weekend, to work, was absolute torture. He felt dirty when he talked to Daniel, and exactly as Daniel had said, he had kept this from him. He had known something as big as this pregnancy and kept his silence for you.

And that made him almost physically sick.

He really liked Daniel, if he was being honest. He was loud, and obnoxious at times, but he really was a nice bloke. He was honest, always, and he was friendly. Daniel challenged him on the track and joked with him off of it. Daniel really was the ideal teammate, and he’d fucked it away by literally fucking you. Crashing into him had been a nightmare, and Lando knew he looked guilty running off the track after as he had, but he had to run before he burst into tears on the track.  

If it was one thing Lando couldn’t stand, it was being dishonest. 

Even when he was cruel, there was honesty in his biting remarks. His cruelness towards Daniel had been real, it had been truthful, and that’s how he knew it would hurt Daniel. But now Lando was just hurt himself. He sighed and knew he’d have to find Daniel and apologize to him today. 

A buzzing had him lifting his phone to read new messages. He swiped open the notification from Charlotte and almost slipped down his own staircase.

COMMs Charlotte: Why in the world would you two do this?

Under her message was a link to a newspaper and he felt his heart stop as he recognized the thumbnail as Daniel standing in front of him and Lance, the headline reading ‘TROUBLE ON TRACK, TROUBLE OFF TRACK: The tension between McLaren’s star drivers caught on tape’.

-

Daniel was walking from the kitchen to the dining table, juggling two plates of breakfast in his arms. It was a tradition now: having breakfast after getting home in the afternoon from a race weekend. 

He hummed to himself as he walked barefoot towards the table. He could see Michael’s head was down, his phone in his hands.

“Fuck your self righteous ass!”

Lance’s voice was like an instant throwback to Sunday night, and Daniel almost dropped the food as he approached Michael. 

Michael looked at Daniel and tilted his phone screen towards him, letting him see that there he was, on camera, giving Lando and Lance the finger before disappearing out of the bar. He exhaled hard as the camera panned back to the pair in the booth, catching them share a look before they burst into laughter.

“Daniel, what happened last night?” 

“I was mad. So I made things worse.” Daniel admitted honestly, placing Michael’s plate in front of him, “Let me see.” 

He took Michael’s phone and rewound the feed, going back to the beginning so he could hear exactly what had been captured. His food sat untouched in front of him, and he laid the phone on the table so it wouldn’t be so obvious how badly his hands were shaking.

“You do that while I was showering?” Michael asked as he shoveled his food into his mouth. 

“Yeah.” Daniel sighed, knowing how impulsive he had been, “I had just been so mad, I-”

A shuffling sound from the screen captured Daniel’s attention and he watched as the feed began, the camera struggling to focus in the dim lighting of the hotel bar. He could see himself in front of the table, his arms out stretched, but not necessarily aggressive. The camera sounded like it was underwater as it struggled to focus on the blurry image of the three of them together.

The image suddenly came into focus, and the volume boomed.

“Oh, that’s when this all happened, isn’t it?”

“The two of you are assholes.”

“Yeah, fuck you, Daniel!” 

“Fuck you!”

“Fuck your self righteous ass!”

Daniel heavily exhaled and fell back in his seat, letting his head hang back as the video cut to a gossip columnist stirring the pot, asking her viewers what could possibly be going on between the McLaren and Aston Martin drivers. 

“Holy fuck, thank God.” Daniel rubbed at his face and leaned forward, looking down at his food as he tried to decide whether or not he could stomach it.

“You got lucky. Very, very lucky.” Michael told him between bites, “I’m guessing they could’ve caught a whole lot more.” 

“Yeah, but they had a shitty phone, serves them right.” 

“I mean, yeah, these people are vultures, but Daniel, why the fuck would you go looking for a fight like that in public? You know better.”

“I know, I just-”

“I get you’re upset, but you can’t lash out like that.” Michael put down his fork to level with Daniel, “You have to apologize to Lando, he’s your teammate, Lance too, for Scotty’s sake.”

Daniel grimaced as he realized he couldn’t have picked worse enemies, “Yeah, I’ll text Lance. I’ll talk to Lando when we get to HQ.” 

He leaned forward in his chair and picked up his fork, willing himself to eat his breakfast as Michael hummed beside him. The other Aussie reached out and squeezed his shoulder, lightly shaking it.

“It’s gonna be alright.” Michael’s lips twitched, “Just stop acting like these kids, old man.” 

“I was just upset.” Daniel nodded, “I’m just, I can’t believe they didn’t tell me. I can’t believe she didn’t tell me.”

Michael leaned back and sipped his coffee, “So, are you upset with her?”

“No, not like, I’m not mad at her.” Daniel mimicked Michael’s posture as he leveled with him, “I’m not mad at her,” he repeated, “I just,”

“Just spit it out, come on now.” Michael’s tone was soft, and Daniel knew he was just trying to push him to verbalize his feelings. 

“I don’t get why she felt like she couldn’t tell me.”

Michael’s head tilted and he looked down at his coffee cup in his hand. Daniel sighed, already knowing it wasn’t up to Michael to give him answers, Michael couldn’t give him answers, could only walk him through what he was feeling. Daniel would have to wait for you to come to him.

His phone dinged and he nodded at Michael to check the phone that was closest to him on the other side of the table.

“Ah, fuck, it’s Charlotte.” Michael muttered as Daniel groaned. 

-

Daniel and Lando never stood a chance. They had only gotten to awkwardly glance at each other before Charlotte came rushing into the room. She looked very official, which only made the two men more nervous. She smoothed her black dress’ skirt down with her hands as she sighed and stood in front of them.

It didn’t help that the room was empty, save for the two chairs the boy sat in. 

“I want to know why the two of you thought it was appropriate to fight in public.” When Daniel tried to open his mouth, Charlotte held up her hand to silence him, “It is unacceptable. There is absolutely no excuse for whatever the two of you have been up to.”

And thus came the disappointed mom speech to end all disappointed mom speeches. Lando and Daniel were relatively good kids, so that just made them feel worse and worse as Charlotte struggled to keep herself composed as she went over how unacceptable their fight was, read all the questions she’d received that morning from news outlets, and talked through some of the more outlandish theories that were circulating online.

It was a complete PR nightmare. 

Lando never thought he’d wish for a ‘dad talk’ with Zak more than in this moment. But just as quickly as that thought came, a chill ran down his spine. If Charlotte was like this, how would Zak have been? Lando’d never been so scared of Charlotte in his life. 

“I don’t care what this fight was about,” she was practically shaking as Lando and Daniel shared anxious glances, “what I care about is that you were both careless enough to try to fight each other in public.”

“You,” she pointed at Daniel, “are going to answer one of the many Instagram comments on your most recent post that alludes to this mess, and you’re going to joke and say the three of you were having a great time.”

Daniel nodded obediently. 

“And you,” she pointed to Lando, “are going to go live on stream tonight and when someone in your chat asks, you are going to make up a story. I don’t care how elaborate it is, as long as its believable, cause if you make it unbelievable I might just show up to your house.”

Lando gulped. 

Charlotte sighed at the nodding heads in front of her, “I cannot believe the two of you fought in public.”

“We weren’t-”

“Daniel, I can’t stress this enough,” Daniel’s lips press together as he took in the enraged woman in front of him, “I do not care. The two of you are doing major damage control. Major. I’m going to take you into the next room, you’re going to film a funny video, it’s going to look happy and sound happy and you’re going to both ham it up and be silly and funny and charming and act like the best mates that I don’t care you aren’t.”

Daniel and Lando both nod their heads.

“Good boys.” Charlotte takes a deep breath, her shoulders rolling back before she gives them both a small smile, “Let’s go.”

Lando stepped in front of Daniel to follow Charlotte when a warm hand stopped him. Daniel’s hand was wrapped around his bicep, holding him in place as the Brit turned toward him.

“Lando, hey, look mate, I’m sorry. I was a right prick and I shouldn’t have.”

Daniel looked at Lando sincerely, making eye contact and looking every bit apologetic. Lando breathed out and looked down at the ground, thankful that the Aussie apologized first. He bit his lip, feeling more tension leave his body as he realized that Daniel really didn’t hate him after last night. 

“Ah, don’t worry about it.” Lando lifted his head and shrugged nonchalantly, “I considered you forgiven when you started making fun of Lance.” Lando laughed as Daniel grimaced at the reminder of how cruel he was.

“Ah, yeah, I got to apologize to him too.”

“I mean,” Lando tilted his head at the Aussie, “do you?”

“You just like making bad decisions and convincing everyone else to make them too, huh?”

Lando laughed, relieved and giddy to have things back to as they were with his teammate, “You got me this figured out?”

“Kid, I got you all figured out.”

“Maybe off track, but definitely not on track.”

Daniel and Lando both giggled as Daniel shoved Lando out the door.

-

Daniel sighed as he walked to his car. It had been a long afternoon that quickly morphed into night, but he was content. He was freshly showered, and loved the smell of his soap getting picked up by the wind as he walked outside of McLaren HQ. 

He had to shower after the ridiculous challenge that Charlotte put him and Lando through. They had to paint each other’s helmets for the race that was three weeks from now, and when Charlotte thought they were being too quiet, too focused on their work, she had urged them to do something to interact.

Which resulted in his teammate slinging paint at him. 

The two had been covered in paint, but had a good time, and somehow they’d managed not to sabotage each other’s helmets in the paint fight. Daniel hadn’t laughed that hard in a while, and it was never not funny to witness Lando cry from laughing so hard.

The boy is an ugly crier. 

Daniel chuckled to himself as he unlocked the car, the purple McLaren dazzling even in the starlight of the long driveway. He had just about reached the door of the car when his phone began ringing, cutting through the peaceful silence of the night.

“Hello?” 

“Daniel?” Your voice was like cold water washing over him, he could feel himself standing up straighter, felt hyper focused, all on your voice. 

“Yeah, yeah, hi.” He rasped out, “I was going to call you tonight, I-”

“Daniel, I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you. I’m so sorry Lando told you, and the fight, on tape, I-”

“No, no, no,” Daniel interrupted, scratching the back of his head before squatting down beside his car, “really, none of that was your fault, we were being stupid. And it’s okay, I just-” he fumbled his words a bit as he let his head hang by his knees, “why didn’t you think you could tell me?” 

“I never meant to keep it from you,” Daniel’s heart broke at the sound of your sniffling, “I was going to tell you, that night I came over.”

Daniel lifted his hand in the air as he listened to you, “So, why-”

“You started talking about being like a real family, about marriage and kids and all after you retire and I just I couldn’t bring myself to ruining that without knowing for sure whether I was or not. I-”

“You’re not ruining anything, please-” Daniel could feel his own franticness start to match yours, this wasn’t a conversation to have over the phone, “Can I come over? Are you home?”

“Yeah, yeah, I think that’d be best.” You agreed. 

“Alright, text me your address. I’m on my way.”

Daniel pulled the door to his car open, basically crawling in from the floor, unable to wait for the door to open all the way. And he didn’t wait for it to open all the way before he was using the strength of his arm to pull the door down and shut. 

He was very relieved that he hadn’t brought a normal street car to work that day. 

Zooming down the dark streets, he let the hum of the car relax him as he tried to clear his head. You sounded so freaked out on the phone, and he could only imagine how fried your nerves must have been at this point. Cursing under his breath, Daniel felt a new wave of guilt pass him as he realized you’d mentioned the video. 

Fuck, we are so lucky that person didn’t get there sooner, didn’t hear what we were fighting about. All our business would’ve been out by then.

Daniel shook the shiver that went down his spine off as he willed his imagination to not picture how horrible that would have been. For the first time since this all went down, Daniel thought honestly about himself, Lance and Lando.

When you had first mentioned that you had been sleeping with Lance and Lando, Daniel felt shocked and admittedly a little jealous. And he had been on a self righteous war path the night before when he confronted Lance and Lando. He had been stuck up, and talked to the two younger drivers like they were kids, which to him- they were. But now as he drove to your place to talk things through- he found himself souring at the mention of Lando and Lance. 

He liked you, like a lot. 

How would things change if Lando or Lance were the father of your baby? Would that change his feelings? He wasn’t completely sure, and looking that far ahead wasn’t going to help him when he still had the now to figure out. 

And your own feelings, duh. He had no idea how you felt about any one of them. You’d been hurt by Lando and Lance, but that didn’t mean you didn’t have real feelings for one of them. 

Daniel braced himself for every possible outcome as he pulled up in front of your place. Taking a deep breath, he got out of the car with the same urgency he’d gotten into it with, and jogged up to your door.

You must have been waiting by the door, cause he’d barely knocked twice when the door opened. Daniel stood on your stoop looking at you, taking in your appearance for a split second. Your oversized sweater, the leggings you wore, your puffy lips and glassy eyes.

“I-”

“I’m sorry!” You sobbed out.

Daniel wrapped his arms around you and held you to him as he walked you inside and kicked the door shut. You stood there at the bottom of the stairs being held by the Aussie as you cried. Daniel could feel how you meant it, how you really were defeated by the stress of this. He couldn’t believe you could be so stressed out and yet still looking to spare him the stress. The selflessness of it all struck him and made him feel warm inside, but now wasn’t the time for that.

“Shhh, shhh,” Daniel cooed, petting your hair as he held you against his chest, “it’s alright, let’s talk, yeah?”

He felt you self soothing, taking deep, deep breaths to calm your breathing. Your heart was practically beating out of your chest. With one hand in your hair and the other against your back, Daniel could feel you trembling. 

“Let’s talk, yeah?” Daniel repeated in a low voice, still holding you tight.

You took a few more calming breaths before you slowly pulled away from him and nodded, wiping your eyes before looking up at him. Daniel gently wiped a few tear tracks you’d missed from your cheeks and tapped your nose, happy to see you smile from the small gesture. 

“I’m sorry,” you sighed, “I’m not usually such a mess, I think it’s because- you know.” 

Daniel’s eyes zeroed in on how your hands instantly dropped to your lower stomach, before they dropped to your sides. 

It’s really true. She’s really pregnant.

He felt like he had entered the twilight zone as he followed you up the stairs and to your living room. The large L shaped couch looked comfy, and when you settled on one side, Daniel thought it was best to put a couple of feet between you. Sitting down a couple of feet away, he turned to his side so he could see you.

“So-”

“I’m pregnant.” 

Daniel exhaled heavily, “For sure?”

“I’m 12 or 13ish weeks now.” You told him, “I had my check up earlier today.” 

“Wow,” It’s really real, “And I’m, I could be the father?”

“I wasn’t sure who the father was, Daniel, please don’t feel like I was keeping this from you cause I wasn’t, honestly, I-”

“Calm down, I’m not mad,” Daniel clarified, “I just, I was shocked, and a little confused.” You nodded, “But, I’m not mad. I guess I was more- like I said before, I didn’t get why you wouldn’t, why you wouldn’t be comfortable telling me.”

“I’m so sorry. I just didn’t want to stress you, and I never knew how it was affecting Lando, you know he, he doesn’t say these things, he doesn’t tell me what he feels, so I had no idea it was affecting him like that. When I saw the crash, God, Daniel, when I saw the crash I felt horrible.” You leaned forward and held your head in your hands, “I felt so horrible, knowing that I caused that, that I caused such a colossal fuck up, that I keep causing these fuck ups.”

“A baby isn’t a fuck up,” Daniel waved his hand so you’d look at him, “it’s definitely a surprise.” You both laughed, “But not a fuck up. How other people choose to react to you is not your responsibility.”

Your nose scrunched for a second, “Michael?” 

Daniel laughed and shook his head, “You know, sometimes I do have things to say that are smart and don’t come from him.” 

“Does he know?” You looked down at the carpeted space between the two of you.

“Yeah,” Daniel nodded, “he was there when Lando had his meltdown and told us.”

You nodded, silent. 

“Does anyone else know?” Daniel asked curiously. 

“Toto and Lewis.” Daniel looked at you wide eyed, “They don’t, fuck no, they don’t know about the three of you, but they guessed that I was pregnant. They said some really nice stuff the other day before I left, and it just, it really helped actually... but yeah, they know.”

Daniel nodded, “You can tell whoever you want, it’s your business as much as it’s any of ours really, and obviously, from what we can see with Lando, we all need to talk to someone about this shit.”

You both laughed nervously as flashes of the crash went through both your minds. But there was something far more pressing in Daniel’s. He had to ask, he had to know. Everything relied on this moment. 

“You know who the father is?” He breathed out, calmly and clearly. 

It sounded like a statement, but you knew as well as he did that it was a question. 

He watched as your eyes welled with tears and your lips pulled tight as you nodded. His own heart began to split as he saw the uncertainty, the timidness that was so unlike you and that he hated to see on your face. Whole body stiff, he prepared himself like he was taught to prepare for crashes.

“She’s yours, Daniel.” 

Daniel felt the whole axis of his world shift, and he could’ve fell over had he not been already sitting. He felt the nervousness, the anxiety come in a large wave, but it wasn’t bad, no, he could feel the happiness too, the idea of it settling in his chest. 

A baby.

Daniel moved across the couch until your knees were pressed to each other and he held your hands in his, “Our baby?” 

“Yeah.” you whimpered, giving him a small smile as the tears dripped down your cheeks. 

Daniel could feel the nervous giggles coming out, and his cheeks hurt from smiling, but it was worth it when he saw the smile grow on your own face.

“Wait,” he mumbled, “she?”

“She,” you nodded, “she’s a girl. According to all the bloodwork and from what they can see so far.”

“A little girl...” Daniel mumbled, squeezing your hands as he leaned his forehead against yours, “I’m gonna be here, okay? I’m going to be here for the two of you, always, you know that, don’t you? I mean it, I’m gonna be here.” Daniel pressed his lips to your forehead, “We’re gonna make this work.”

“Daniel, Daniel,” you mumbled as you squeezed his hands and leaned away from him so you could look him in the face, “I’m not expecting anything of you, I know this wasn’t in your plans, and this isn’t how you wan-”

“Shhhh,” Daniel cooed at you, one of his hands coming up to stroke your cheek, “it doesn’t matter what I wanted before, cause I want this now.” 

“Daniel, I’m so sorry.” you choked out, “I know this isn’t how you wanted things to be, and I never meant for-”

“Don’t worry about that now, okay? That’s life, things fall how they fall, and really, right now...” Daniel chuckled and tapped your cheek with the tip of his finger, “Right now I know we can work this out, we can figure this out, I could still have everything... with you.”

“You don’t have to.” You pushed, “You don’t have to be with me, you don’t have to to make this work. We can figure things out as parents, but-”

“I guess I didn’t make it that obvious,” Daniel huffed under his breath, “I like you, I did before we slept together, and kinda more ever since we did. I was kind of hoping,” he looked at you before looking back down at your hands in his, “that you felt the same, or at least like we could get there.” He looked up at you with rosy cheeks. 

You shook your head and looked down at your hands in his before playfully mumbling, “You’re not so bad.” 

“There we go,” Dan laughed, “Great start.” 

You giggled in each other’s faces until you felt it. The pull between the two of you, the attraction that had promised so much before it put a little life in your tummy. Leaning your head against his, you looked into his deep brown eyes until you leaned in and closed the space between your mouths. 

The pressure between your lips kept fluctuating, pushing against each other harder and then softer, like you couldn’t decide whether or not you could live without the other. The passion swung from smoldering to sweet, and you could barely do anything but focus on the press of his lips to yours. 

He kissed you sweetly, delicately, and you melted against him until you gently parted from him. He pressed two feather light kisses to your lips before pulling away and smiling at you, squeezing your cheek playfully as you blushed. 

“We make it work, day by day,” You said clearly to him, “and we see where we go.”

“Between us.” Daniel agreed, “But my baby girl is going to have me in her life.”

“Absolutely, regardless of what happens between us,” you pulled his hands into your lap and pressed them to the tiny, barely there swell, “she’s ours, yours and mine.” 

Daniel looked down with a soft smile, and you could see how glassy his eyes had gotten. His fingers pressed to your sweater covered skin, gently rubbing against you and feeling the area that had yet to make room for your child. You leaned your head against his shoulder and hummed into it, finally feeling calmer than you’d felt in months.

“Wait,” Daniel stiffened and pulled away from you gently, slow enough that you wouldn’t fall forward on to him, “have you told the other two?” 

You shook your head, “No, not yet. I wanted you to know first.” 

“Tell them.” Daniel told you, pulling his hands from your lap and passing you your phone from where you’d left it on the coffee table.

You nodded and looked up from your phone at him, pushing yourself up from the couch and starting towards the door. You’d almost made it to the doorway to the hallway when quick footsteps had you turning around, catching a quick glimpse of Daniel before his hands were in your hair and his mouth was back on yours. 

He gently but firmly pressed you into the wall, his hands cradling your head as his tongue slipped between your lips and found yours. You shivered and held his waist as you let him devour you. You kissed him and kissed him and kissed him until you felt lightheaded. 

Daniel slowed the kiss and abruptly pulled away, taking a few steps back. He looked at you and nodded, “Go on.” 

You looked at him, and felt frozen in place, “Come here.” you whispered.

Daniel looked at you for a moment, and you could watch the control draining from him. You crashed back into each other, this time Daniel squatting to your height before lifting you and placing you against the wall. You whined into his mouth as he sloppily licked your lip. He let out his own sound when you sucked his lip between yours and nipped at it with your teeth. 

I want to hear more of that.

Hands tangling into each other’s hair, you rubbed your bodies against each other, desperate to get closer and closer as you felt your fates aligned now. His hands snuck under your shirt, squeezing your waist and pressing his thumbs into your skin, making you cry out in frustration. 

When he pulled your hair, you moaned loudly, and when he nipped at your throat you began to beg.

“Daniel, please, I want-”

“Tell me.” He rasped against your ear. 

“I want you just like that night.” 

Daniel growled, his chest vibrating against your still covered but aching tits, “You have to tell them.” 

He cursed under his breath, but smiled up at you as he slowly slid you down between himself and the wall, kissing all over your face until you were giggling. He let you press your hips to his, your shoulders leaned against the wall to bridge the gap between your bodies. His hands felt like fire as they squeezed your hips, pulling them against his own so you could feel his arousal, before abruptly pressing you into the wall until you were standing up right, his heavy breath in your ear. 

Daniel pulled away from you like it pained him, the expression on his face so dramatic and torn. 

You laughed breathlessly as you leaned against the wall for another minute before shyly lowering your head and ducking into the hallway. You smiled the whole way to your room, and while every part of you practically begged for Daniel to come into your bedroom, you knew you had to stay realistic.

And being realistic included putting Lando and Lance out of their misery.

-

“Right, so for all of you who are going around saying, ‘oh Danny and Lando hate each other’- you’re dead wrong.” Lando leaned forward so his lips brushed against his mic, “Dead. Wrong.”

He giggled as he watched the chat explode. The second he had begun streaming the questions came piling in, and he’d simply gone into a typical Lando tirade about how him, Daniel and Lance were fucking around, and someone misconstrued it for fighting. 

“I would never fight Daniel!” he yelled back at his screen, still giggling. 

Luckily, no one was pointing out that he laughed when he was lying. 

“He’s my teammate, I-” 

A dinging and a slight vibration brought his attention away from his chat. Seeing your name on his screen, he rolled his eyes and leaned back in his chair, swiping his screen so he could see what you’d messaged him about now. 

Went to the doctor this morning

His whole body froze, and he simultaneously felt hot and freezing at the same time. He could feel his brows furrowed as his heart beat in his ears like a seashell was being held up to them. He could see the chat popping in his peripheral vision, but he couldn’t tear his eyes or focus from the three little pulsing dots at the bottom of the screen. 

This is it, he thought, this is it. 

He felt his eyes begin to get glassy and well up with tears as he waited every painstaking moment for you to just finish typing and to tell him whether or not this baby was his. 

As the moments began to slow down, he realized he was still on stream so he sighed and tried to loosen his shoulders. He was live on stream.

Fuck.

He’d have to throw his camera out the window depending on what was about to happen. 

The chat kept writing in, asking what was so interesting. Thousands of people watched in suspense as Lando stared at his phone screen, his body hunched down but his screen tilted upward so no amount of fine tuning of the picture of Lando would reveal what exactly had caught his attention so hard.

A moment later, a slight ting was heard, and in less than 5 seconds, the whole crowd of viewers got their eardrums blown out.

“FUCK YES!” Lando screeched, jumping out of his chair and bouncing on his toes as he hysterically laughed, his boisterous laugh loud and clear. 

“I knew it!” He choked out, doubled over with a red face as he continued celebrating for reasons unknown to his viewers. 

His laugh dragged as his body silently shook between screeches. He collapsed into his chair just to stand and shove it back, leaping over it as it toppled to the ground, blocking the doorway. 

They could still hear Lando screaming as he ran around his house.

-

Texting Lando as you walked down the hallway was easy, but stepping into your room, you could feel your heartbeat picking up. You shut the door behind you and leaned against it as you scrolled for Lance’s number. You needed to tell him, but he definitely wasn’t the texting type like Lando. Being pregnant, or not, with his baby was definitely a phone call for Lance. 

You quickly stabbed your thumb against the symbol and lifted the phone to your ear. You stared at the painting on your wall until you finally heard the telltale signs of the line being picked up. 

“Who’s is it?” Lance answered less than eloquently. 

The fact that Lance obviously had your number still saved kind of shocked you, but not enough to stop you from quickly responding with, “Not yours.” 

“Oh, good.” You listened carefully to his tone, but he wasn’t giving away much, “Am I the actual first person you told?”

You froze for a second, and resisted the urge to curse out loud. You had promised Lance you’d tell him first, and instead you had ran to Daniel and then texted Lando and now you were calling him. He had become the last to know. 

Lance picked up on this in your silence and laughed. 

“Good luck to you, babe.” And with that, he hung up.

Even after such a shitty encounter, you’d felt all the weight lift from you. You’d released yourself from Lando and Lance. Lando would stay a friend, and Lance could stay as far from you as he pleased. You had Daniel, you had yourself and you were going to have a daughter. 

My daughter, you thought, feeling drunk with amazement.

Letting yourself practically skip, you quickly made your way back down the hallway, passing through the living room quickly when you noticed it empty. In the kitchen, Daniel stood leaned over the island, swiping on his phone screen.

Your fingers curled around the doorframe as you watched him. Feeling your eyes on him, Daniel looked at you expectantly. A small smile pulled on your lips, growing bigger as you saw the same expression reflected on Daniel’s.

“It’s just us now.”

#w #hoe fairy #AND THE BABY DADDY ISSSSSSSS #ln #ls #dr #oooo boy #the pure drama it took to get to this point #when i tell you picking one was HARD #it was HARD #i was on the fence #a lot of late night chats #meltdowns #BUT WE MADE IT #this isn't the end tho so dont think this story is over #muahahahaha #all is revealed!!!!!! #okay bye #remember to like this and leave your hot takes in the asks #i know yall got feelins about this #share them! #like this so you can get the next part sooner! #((there's still two more parts so things can only get better or go completely to shit)) #HAPPY READING HOES

[stxn-the-mxn]

Supergirl || Freddy Freeman X Reader

Request: Could you write something where the reader is the daughter of Superman and meets Freddy and he starts crushing on her really hard and she crushes on him hard too and eventually Superman and Shazam get them together? - Anon

A/N: This is literally 23k+ words pls read

Warnings: Shazam spoilers

***

Y/N Kent was the new student at Fawcett Central School. Her father had decided that she needed an actual education and not just hero training, and she had been on board until her dad set out the rules.

No powers. No cheating. No this, no that.

Was he trying to kill her? She’d never survive school at this rate. She was no longer looking forward to the first day of school. But unfortunately, Monday rolled around, as it did every week.

***

“Dad, why are you setting so many rules? It’s just school…” You said through mouthfuls of toast, and your dad sighed for the millionth time that morning.

“Y/N, it’s a public school. With regular people. It’s a place for learning, and hanging up the cape for six hours.”

You dropped your toast straight onto the butter knife, which rocketed it towards your dad. Naturally, he caught it without even looking away from his newspaper, which he still chose to read for some reason.

“It goes for six hours?” He nodded, and you collapsed backwards in your chair. Six hours… legally, they can’t make you do that, could they?

“And those six hours start soon, so you better head off.”

You slung your back over your shoulder, looking both ways before speeding to school. People probably saw, but they were also probably used to it, what with the Justice League and everything. 

You came to a stop in an alleyway across the road from the school, where no one would see you. Walking out, you saw a group of six kids standing in a line.

“Big school. 2,000 students. You might think ‘wow, so many strangers’ but not if you think of each of them as possible future friends, then it’s ‘wow, so many friends’!” The shortest girl said as you all crossed the road.

The young girl kept talking, saying something about the principal. Someone in that group must be new too. Walking into the school, you felt a tad overwhelmed by everything. Security guards checked all the bags as you entered the halls, and you began to panic.

Had you left some alien thing in there? Were you about to expose yourself on your first day? Would everyone figure out who you are? Would that affect your dad? Would th-

“Excuse me?” 

A boy, about your age, looked at you with concern etched on his face. His eyes were trained on your face, examining it. Was this a regular occurrence? Would I have to deal with this daily? Why did I not mind this boy staring at me?

“You’re new here, right? I haven’t seen you around before, so I figured.”

You passed the security guard your bag, forgetting all your thoughts as the boy talked to you.

“You seem scared. Don’t be. It’s just a new school.” He smiled, and you felt like you would melt on the spot. Who was this perfect boy? He picked up his bag, giving you a small goodbye before walking off to the girl who had been talking before.

You noted that he had a crutch. A disability, most likely.

Maybe school wouldn’t be so bad. 

***

By the time lunch rolled around, you had discovered that school was definitely bad.

Classes were boring, teachers were aggravating and some kids just weren’t fun. 

Stepping into the cafeteria, you were overwhelmed by the smell of it all. Was any of this legal? You grabbed a tray, copying everyone else and stood in line for food. A small tap sound from behind you made you aware of the boy from this morning standing behind you.

As you were pushed out of the line, you faced all the tables of kids, not exactly knowing what to do. 

“Follow me.” Crutch boy - you still didn’t have a name - led you to a table where another boy was already sitting.

“Flight or invisibility?” He said, and the boy with the red hoodie looked up, annoyance on his face.

“If you could have one superpower, what would you pick?” No one had time to respond before he kept talking. “Everybody chooses flight! You know why?”

Red hoodie - once again, you still didn’t have a name - spoke up, a shit-eating grin on his face.

“So they can fly away from this conversation?” You chuckled, thinking about the times you’d do just that when you and your dad argued.

“No, ‘cause heroes fly! Who doesn’t want people to think they’re a hero, right?” This kid was trying to get some kind of point across, but you weren’t sure what exactly that point was.

“But-But invisibility? No way. I mean, that’s pervy! Spying around on people who don’t even know you’re there. Sneaking around everywhere.” Red hoodie stood up, leaving the table, storming away. Crutchie’s voice grew louder.

“It’s a total villain power, right?” The whole cafeteria stared at crutchie as he picked up his crutch and went after hoodie.

You stood in silence, everyone’s eyes moving to you. Crutchie turned around, gesturing for you to follow him again, so you did.

“Then they did this study, and this is a real thing. They asked people the same question, you know, what power would you want? But this time, they made it so that the answers were anonymous.”

Shit, this was actually really interesting… 

“And-And most people, since they knew that it was secret, said invisibility. And I think that’s ‘cause most people don’t feel like heroes on the inside, deep down.”

You had followed hoodie and crutchie down the hall to the boys' bathroom, hoodie trying to escape this conversation.

“You’re gonna run away. I mean, you stole my Superman bullet.” Your head shot up at the mention of a Superman bullet. If he lost it, you could always get him a new one…

“Dude, I get it, I get it. You’ve been screwed over way too many times. You don’t trust anyone,”

You stood by crutchie’s side awkwardly, feeling like you weren’t meant to be hearing this.

“But that’s the thing about invisibility. You end up all by yourself.” You kept your eyes focused on anything that wasn't crutchie or hoodie. This seemed like a personal conversation.

“I didn’t steal your dumb bullet.”

Hoodie slammed the bathroom door behind him, leaving you and crutchie outside.

“Sorry about that. Billy’s just like that.”

So that was Billy. You still didn’t know who crutchie was, though. He didn’t seem like he was planning on introducing himself, so you took that job for him.

“I’m Y/N.” You stuck out your hand out of instinct. That’s what your dad always told you to do. Crutchie shook it gently, giving you a confused smile.

“I’m Freddy.” Crut- Freddy said. 

“Look, we still have ten minutes of lunch left. You wanna discuss superheroes over some shitty cafeteria food?”

You watched his jaw drop before it changed into a smile. He held out his hand, which you happily took, leading you back to the cafeteria.

“So, who’s your favourite superhero?” He questioned before you’d even sat down.

“How about we say it at the same time? Like on the count of three?”

You watched as his smile widened, yours automatically doing the same. He counted up from one, taking pauses in between, at the times when he started laughing a bit.

He reached three, both of you yelling a bit louder than intended.

“Superman!”

“Superman!”

He let out an odd, yet adorable, laugh, which made you giggle too.

“God, you’re literally the best person I’ve ever met.”

Your mind wandered back to the conversation earlier, and the stolen bullet.

“Hey, if you want, I could get you another Superman bullet.”

Once again, Freddy’s jaw hit the ground. Jesus, could you be any more amazing?

“Wait, really? How?”

“My dad, uh, he knows Superman.”

Nice save Y/N. 

“Holy shit! Have you met him?”

You were in deep shit now.

“Oh, yeah, a few times…”

***

The bell rang, and students piled out of their classrooms, in a mad dash to get home. You waited for Freddy, who happened to be in your current class, to finish talking with the teacher about the mark he’d gotten on a report.

“Freds, we should probably go.” 

You’d started using the nickname at lunch after a small game of Superhero Would You Rather. When asked if he’d rather have his childhood nickname as his superhero name or have his least favourite person pick his superhero name, he had decided that Freds would be a better name than anything the Breyers would come up with.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming.” The teacher sent him off with a wave. 

You walked outside with him, neither person noticing your incredibly close proximity. He walked over to the group of kids from this morning. His friends, maybe. He greeted them all, apologising for holding them up.

“No, actually we’re waiting for Billy. Did you see him insi- oh, hello.” 

Four pairs of eyes met you, and you tried not to freak out.

“Oh, guys! This is Y/N. She’s my new best friend. Y/N, this is Darla, Mary, Eugene and Pedro.” Freddy smiled proudly, acting as if he’d just won an award for something.

“Well, Y/N, it’s lovely to meet you.” The tallest girl, Mary, said, her voice incredibly sweet.

“Not to be so forward, but would you like to come over for dinner tonight?” Freddy spluttered out, his smile not faltering.

You smiled too, nodding in acceptance. From behind the group, you saw Billy coming down the stairs.

“Hey, how was it today?” The same girl asked, but got no response.

“That good, huh?” You joked, Billy sending a small glare your way, which surprised you. You hadn’t done anything to him.

The whole group headed to cross the road, only for a car to come speeding down the street, headed straight in your direction. Fuck, you couldn’t get hit by a car. Not here. If you did, everyone would find out your little secret.

Freddy noticed the car and immediately pushed you away, allowing himself to be rammed into.

“Freddy!” You screamed as he was knocked to the ground, his crutch being tossed aside. Two boys jumped out of the car, laughing.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” You yelled, gearing up to punch the two unless they had some reasonable excuse, which was impossible.

They picked Freddy up off the ground, shoving him against the car. 

“No way that’s gonna buff out.” One of the boys said, shoving Freddy again.

“You gonna pay for that?” 

“For the dent you made almost hitting me? Yeah, sure, um, do you guys take these?”

He held up his two middle fingers, making you snicker louder than intended. Your laughter ceased as they threw Freddy to the ground.

“What’s so funny, new kid?”

You stepped forward, not listening to Freddy’s yells for you to stay back.

“New kid? That’s the best you’ve got? Jeez, at least try to be creative.”

You hands curled into fists, trying your hardest to not just obliterate them right there.

“Aww, do you need your fake family to stand up for you?”

You were seething by this point, but you knew that if you did anything, you were absolutely screwed. All you could do was watch, hoping for some assistance. The boys kept taunting Freddy, kicking him as you all yelled for them to stop.

“What are you gonna do? Go home and cry to mommy? Oh, yeah, you don’t have a mommy.” 

That was the last straw. Just as you reared back to punch the dickwads, they were hit over the head by Freddy’s crutch. Billy threw the crutch over to you, and you caught it with ease.

“Man, sorry about that. That wasn’t fair, but then again, guys don’t play fair, so.”

As Billy took off, the boys in pursuit, you kneeled beside Freddy, easing him onto his feet. Handing him his crutch, he ignored it at first, leaning against you in a hug/physically support kinda situation.

“You’re still coming over tonight, right?”

“Jeez, Freds, you could’ve died and that’s what you’re worried about?”

He shrugged, smiling sheepishly.

“Yeah, I’m coming over tonight.”

***

Slamming open the door to your home, you ran in yelling about your day. Your dad was at the dining room table, reading some book he’d recently bought. You skidded to a halt, slamming your hands onto the table, causing a chunk of wood to break off.

Your dad raised an eyebrow, as you chuckled nervously, chucking the wood into a trashcan full of other wood pieces. Your end of the table grew smaller constantly.

“Sorry. Anyway! I made a new friend at school!” Your dad smiled, finding your excitement extremely infectious.

“And! And! He invited me over to his house for dinner!” Clark couldn’t say no to you, especially not when you’d been so adamant about not enjoying school earlier.

“Well, since we won’t be able to have our daily conversation over dinner, we might as well have it now.” You sat down, bouncing your leg extremely quickly.

“So, how did you meet?”

“Uh, he just helped me get over my first-day nerves. And we sat together at lunch, talking about superheroes. He absolutely loves superheroes! You’re his favourite, by the way.” You smiled, leaning on your hand.

“And then after school, these kids almost hit me with a car, but he jumped in front of me… they beat him up.” You trailed off, feeling tears spring to your eyes. “They, uh, they beat him up ‘cause he has a disability. And something about a ‘fake family’.” Your father leaned over, wiping away your tears.

“Oh, uh, it’s getting close to dinner time. I should head out.”

“Maybe get changed first. Dress up for your new best friend.” He winked, as you lit up red. 

“Dad, seriously? I really can’t do anything with you around.” You tried to act seriously, but your dad kept winking with different eyes, and you walked away, sighing as you tried to hold in laughter.

You hated that he was right. You also hated that you were going to be late because you were trying so hard to look nice. Why were you trying to look so nice? Were you trying to impress his family? Maybe. Yeah, that was it. Impress his family.

“Y/N, you’re aware of the time, right?”

You were out the door without a response.

***

Freddy paced in his room, as fast a pace as he could manage, panicking. Billy hadn’t come home, Y/N was coming over and everything was in utter chaos.

The doorbell rang, and Freddy wished that he was able to run down and get the door for you, but he was still getting down the stairs as Darla swung the door open. 

“Y/N!” She immediately pulled you into a hug which you happily accepted.

“Darla, I wasn’t expecting to see you.” 

Freddy slapped his forehead. God, you were about to be so confused. He didn’t explain the whole ‘group home’ situation. He wanted to explain everything, but Eugene had already appeared at the door.

“Eugene?”

Freddy moved as quickly as possible but still wasn’t able to beat Mary to the door. He saw your eyes darting around the room, your eyebrows furrowing more and more.

“What’s next, Pedro?”

Said boy, upon hearing his name, poked his head around the corner.

“Okay, I’m very confused.”

“Y/N! Follow me!” Freddy called from the stairs, and you walked through the crowd of kids, stopping to hug Darla.

“Welcome to my home. Sorry about that, I should’ve said I lived in a group home. I’m a foster kid, by the way.” He looked down, as if ashamed.

“Freds, if you think I’m gonna judge you for being a foster kid, you’re dumber than I thought.” You laughed by at the end, making Freddy laugh softly too.

Looking up, you saw a Batarang on a shelf. Walking over, you admired it, examining it closely.

“Yeah, that’s my Batarang. It’s a replica, obviously, but it’s really sharp. Like ‘could definitely kill you’ level sharp.”

You gave him a jokingly concerned look.

“I’d show you my Superman bullet, but, yknow…”

“Hey, as I said, I can get you a new one.” Placing a hand on his back in comfort, you felt him tense under your touch. You pulled away, afraid you were being too forward with the boy you’d met that morning.

“Hey, what happened to Billy?” 

“Oh, he probably ran away. I wouldn't be surprised.” He shrugged, going to sit down at his desk. You chose to sit on the bed, being careful not to hit your head.

You sat in silence for a while, both of your minds racing. Freddy thought about you, and how he actually had a girl, who wasn’t his family, talking to him. A pretty girl, none the less. You thought about Freddy, your first-ever friend. In less than 24 hours, he had quickly become the second most important person in your life.

He moved from the chair to beside you, sitting close to you, but with enough distance that it wasn’t awkward or uncomfortable.

“Yknow, I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who likes superheroes as much as you.” You broke the silence, glancing over at him through the hair that fell around your face.

“I could say the same about you. I was amazed when you said you liked them. And we both think Superman is the best, which makes it even better.”

He was utterly adorable. The way he rambled, stumbling over words as his mind worked faster than his mouth, never ceased to make you smile. You hadn’t even known him for 12 hours, but there was already something there.

“Dinner!”

Freddy glanced over at you and took this as another opportunity to continue the little trend you’d started. He stood up, smirking slightly, and held out his hand.

“Follow me, again?”

“You’re a dork, Freddy.” You laughed, immediately placing your hand in his.

***

“Freddy, could you do the dishes, please?” Rosa gestured to the kitchen, and Freddy huffed, making his way to the sink.

“If you want, Mrs Vasquez, I could help him with the dishes.” You offered, Rosa smiling warmly, thanking you for your offer.

You walked into the kitchen, seeing Freddy at the sink, collecting the dish soap and sponges. 

“Need any help?” He turned his head, nodding slowly. He handed you a towel, mentally telling you to dry the dishes after he’d cleaned them.

You could hear Rosa and Victor in the other room, talking about Billy. Rosa was on the phone, talking to someone about Billy. She mentioned something about him running away 23 times.

Freddy was also listening in, unaware he was splashing soapy water everywhere. 

“You know guys, I’m happy to look for Billy. More than happy.” He splashed soap onto your nose, and you blew it off. He was yelling back into the living room but eventually gave up and turned back to the dishes. “But no, you gotta wash the dishes, that’s what’s more important. What are you gonna do, Freddy? Run after him? Hahaha. Very funny.” 

You placed your hand on his wrist, and his eyes flicked up to yours. His tense expression softened, and his dishwashing pace slowed. Neither of you broke the eye contact, finding no actual reason to.

A slam on the window made you yelp, clutching Freddy’s wrist tighter. He screamed, clinging onto your arm. The man at the window held up a sign, saying not to scream. Both of you had done so anyway.

“No, no! I said don’t scream!” 

Freddy ignored his request, screaming out for Victor.

“It’s me! It’s Billy! It’s Billy!” The man whisper-yelled, trying to stop Freddy, who continued to yell out for Victor. 

“You asked me ‘flight or invisibility?’. I thought it was stupid but now I look like this and I need your help! Meet me back here after lights out?”

Holy shit. It was Billy.

As Victor entered the room, Billy ducked back behind the wall.

“‘Sup, bud? You alright?” Victor said, and Freddy froze, thinking of a lie.

“Sorry, Victor, we’re just a bit distraught about Billy.” You spoke quickly, trying to sound truthful.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m just… I’m really sad. Because Billy’s gone.” Freddy spoke, far less convincing than you. “And, you know, maybe it’s my fault. Maybe I did it. Uh, you know, maybe I-I snore.”

“Hey, hey, hey. Not your fault, son, all right?” Victor pulled him into a hug, Freddy standing awkwardly still, as you stood beside them, eyes darting to the window. “We’ll find him, ‘kay?”

“You don’t snore that bad. But you kinda smell.” Victor left the kitchen, as you tried not to laugh. Freddy gave you a “haha very funny” look, before turning back to the sink.

***

“Hi, Dad, uh, I’m gonna be home a little late tonight.” Freddy watched you talk on the phone, making sure no one woke up or caught you sneaking around.

“No, yeah, I understand. I just figured you wouldn’t mind. No, I’m not going out this late. Just, the family decided to watch a movie and wondered if I wanted to stay.” Freddy was impressed at how easily you lied to your dad.

“Yes, thanks, dad. I’ll be home later. Goodnight, love you.”

You hung up, turning around to meet Freddy. With a raise of your eyebrows, you held out your hand. Freddy giggled like a little schoolboy, grabbing your hand. You snuck down the stairs, helping Freddy to miss the bum step.

He unlocked the door, pushing it open incredibly slowly to avoid it making any noise, closing it in the same fashion. He brought you round to the back of the house, seeing Maybe-Billy ahead of you, looking in a car mirror.

Freddy charged over, as fast as he could charge.

“Hey, stop right there! How do we know you’re not a supervillain using telepathic abilities to make us believe that you’re Billy?” He held up his phone, 911 pre-dialled. “All I have to do is press dial on this thing.”

“No, no, no I have proof! I have proof, here. Look, I lied okay.” He grabbed his backpack, ripping it open accidentally. “I took your bullet.” 

He pulled out the bullet, in its plastic bag, only for it to slip out. You lunged forward, catching it just in time. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, Freddy and Billy worried about the bullet while you were more concerned about them noticing your reflexes.

“That was close. Nice catch.” 

“Guys, you know it’s me. And I know we’re not close friends or anything, but you guys are the only people I know that know anything about this caped crusaders stuff.”

“That’s Batman.” You and Freddy muttered in sync, leaving Billy extremely confused.

“What?”

“Forget it. Can I?” Freddy gestured to the glowing lightning on Billy’s chest. Billy nodded, and Freddy moved closer, outstretching his hand towards the suit. The lightning substance had some kind of elasticity to it, as it reached out to meet Freddy’s fingertips.

Freddy let out some kind of shriek or joy, which made you giggle lightly. He truly was a dork. He continued to play with the lightning, as you decided to try as well. The feeling was strange and sent a tingle down your spine, but you kinda liked it.

“Oh my god…” You whispered, a smile growing on your face.

“It’s crazy, right?” 

“What are your superpowers?” Freddy piped up, and you eyed Billy excitedly.

“Superpowers? Dude, I don’t even know how to pee in this thing?”

“Oh, that’s far too much information, Billy.” You said in disgust.

“Okay, c-can you fly?” Freddy suggested.

“Freds, he just got his powers and you think he’s able to fly already? Flying is difficult.” You said, not even realising what you said. The boys looked your way confused but didn’t question it.

Not even a minute later did Freddy have his phone out to keep video evidence of this. 

“Okay, let’s do this,” Billy said, preparing for his first flying attempt. “How do we do this?”

How the hell did he end up getting superpowers?

“Just, um, just like, Superman it.” Freddy imitated the sound of Superman flying, and you raised an eyebrow. Dork. “Obviously, you have to jump. Come on.”

“How is any of that obvious?”

“Try, uh, to believe you can fly. I know it sounds stupid but, I did this deep dive into the pyramid studies of superpowers and, uh, in 6 out of 10 cases, belief is the key.” 

You looked down, embarrassed by your rambling. Unfortunately, by looking down, you missed Freddy’s lovestruck gaze and Billy’s knowing look.

“Belief, belief, belief. Okay, okay. I believe I can fly?” Billy questioned his own words, which really didn’t help the belief part.

“No, yeah, I believe I can fly.” Billy ran towards a nearby car, leaping onto the hood. “I believe I can fly.”

He came crashing to the ground, and not in a graceful manner whatsoever. Billy looked at you and Freddy, both of you busy crying from laughter at his descent.

“D-did you believe?” You struggled out between the laughter. You found yourself struggling to breathe, laughter still pouring out. Freddy noticed the pain in your eyes as your chest and throat clogged with giggles.

“Woah, you okay, Y/N?” He said wiping away the stray tears escaping from your eyes. He had stopped laughing some time ago, but after he had heard your laughter, which sounded beautiful to him, he hadn’t wanted to stop you.

But now you were basically choking on laughter. Freddy flicked your arm, quite hard, and you stopped laughing, instead having to fake a yelp of pain. Blending in with humans was hard.

“Thanks, but also, ow.” You rubbed the spot he hit, hoping to at least come across as hurt. They seemed to believe, luckily.

“Oh, you wanna try invisibility?” Freddy suggested, still holding his phone out. Wait, did that mean he had video evidence of you actually dying from laughter?

“How do I do…?” Billy looked at you and Freddy for help.

“You… Forget it, you know.” Freddy sighed, deciding to give up on the whole ‘believing’ thing.

Billy stood still, eyes closed, possibly believing he was invisible. Freddy nudged you, before whispering something about tricking Billy. You were definitely on board.

“Oh my god! It worked!” You yelled, and Billy snapped his head up.

“Where’d you go?” Freddy looked bewildered. He was surprisingly very convincing.

“I’m right here, you can’t see me?” Billy had a stupid look on his face, not knowing you could see everything.

“I’m invisible!”

Billy danced around, looking like a complete idiot. You were trying everything to not burst out laughing again, but it was very difficult, considering how much of a fool he looked like.

“Hey! Nice outfit, dipshit!” A random passerby called out, breaking Billy’s gleeful jig. He looked at you and Freddy, and you both cracked up again.

“W-we may have been testing invisibility and super-intelligence at the same time.” Freddy wheezed out, his phone shaking from the laughter that reverberated through his entire body.

“Freeman, Kent, I’m gonna come over there and beat you two.”

Billy pointed angrily at the two of you, a spark of lightning exploding from his fingertip, hitting an electricity box on a pole. It sparked and exploded, and since you were right beneath the pole, Freddy pulled you into him to get you away from the sparks.

“Are you alright?” Freddy asked, dropping his phone to place his hand on your face. He had genuine worry in his eyes, his eyebrows furrowed softly.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m good.” You mumbled, not even noticing yourself lean into his hand. He did notice, as did Billy, and while Billy stifled obvious schoolboy giggles, Freddy was an alarming shade of red.

After a few seconds, he pulled his hand away and you tried not to whimper at the loss of his warmth. A small whine escaped, but it was quiet enough to go unnoticed. 

Freddy picked up his phone, which was still recording, and checked for cracks, of which there was none. He sighed in relief and turned back to Billy.

“The lightning emblem! It was staring us in the face the whole time. Literally!” He exclaimed, both his and Billy’s face lighting up with excitement.

You spotted a metal climbing frame at a nearby park. Metal conducts electricity. Could Billy do something to it?

“Hey, guys? You wanna try that electricity business on that thing?”

Billy and Freddy shared similar expressions, probably of weird and possibly dangerous ideas forming in their minds. 

Billy walked faster than everyone, mainly because you stayed behind him to talk with Freddy, though you would’ve been able to keep pace with Billy.

“This is insane, right?” Freddy exclaimed though you shushed him, as you were passing by homes. “We know an actual superhero now!”

If only you knew, Freds. If only you knew.

“I know, it’s kinda strange. You think he’ll be good at it?”

“With some training, maybe. Maybe Robin level, but nowhere near Superman.”

“No, no one can compete with Superman.” You smiled.

“Well, maybe Batm-”

“I’m gonna have to stop you there.” You giggled. Freddy chuckled too, agreeing that his statement was a bit far-fetched.

Up ahead of you, you could see Billy messing with the metal climbing frame. His electricity was surging through it. The metal was a conductor after all. He looked impressed with himself for actually controlling his powers.

After another minute or two, you and Freddy reached Billy, in awe of what he had done. You stayed back, still a bit worried that something could go wrong, and your invulnerability would show through and then there’d be a shit ton of explaining to do.

“Billy, we gotta give you a lightning themed superhero name now.”

A screech resounded in your ears, and you had to fight the urge to scream in pain. Unlike your dad, you hadn’t fully controlled your superhuman hearing. So distant sounds were extremely loud, and it hurt. A lot.

Freddy gestured in the direction of the scream, telling Billy to go be a hero. It wasn’t getting through to him, though.

“Jeez, Billy, you kinda suck at being a hero.” You said, pushing him in the direction of the scream.

“Oh, right!” He started to run in the right direction but suddenly shot across the park, crashing into a figure.

“Hyperspeed, check!” Freddy cheered.

You groaned, massaging your temples. It was painful, not being able to just give Billy real superhero advice that you had gotten from your dad.

You heard the interaction, trying not to scream. Billy was utterly useless. You were so caught up being frustrated with Billy that you didn’t notice Freddy walking over to join Billy. When you did notice has wasn’t by your side, you looked around for him.

Jogging after him, you got to his side pretty quickly.

“I’m sorry, who are you?” The woman with Bill asked, concern on her face.

“His name,” Freddy approached them all, a smile on his face “is Thundercrack. Hero to the people. With the power and speed of lightning all in one.”

You were about ready to ditch the boys, just out of pure frustration. 

“Dude that sounds like a butt thing.” 

“Mr Philadelphia.”

“That’s a cream cheese thing, dude!”

You hit your head against a tree repeatedly, not realising it was splintering until it toppled over in your direction. It was about to land on you when someone stopped it. It didn’t take a genius to figure out it was Billy.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” You walked back to Freddy’s side. Freddy’s eyes were wide with concern as he hugged you quickly. He didn’t need words to convey his worry for you.

“Uh, as I was saying,” Freddy started again, “Powerboy, cause he’s got all the powers. Cause sometimes, pepper spray can’t protect against evil.”

“Powerboy, do you know these children?”

“Like, like a teeny little bit. I don’t really know-” Freddy smacked him in the chest. “Yeah, they’re like, my managers. They’re like miniature managers.” 

“Yeah, we’re his managers.” Freddy nodded, and you once again sighed in disappointment. This was difficult work, and you were unsure when you became a babysitter.

“Powerboy’s not gonna work either, okay? So work on something else…”

“Hey, hey, hey...”

“Electricity manipulation, hyperspeed, super strength! Dude, you’re stacked!” Freddy had that giddy look on his face again, that you couldn’t help but love. “You’re as cool as Superman!”

“Almost.” You corrected, in sync with Freddy. 

Looking into his eyes, everything seemed to go in slow motion for a second. Was that normal, or some time-stopping ability you were yet to discover? You made a mental note to ask your dad later about it.

You were thrown back into a regular pace by the woman Billy was “protecting” shoving cash into your hands.

“I didn’t see you or what’s happened here. I don’t wanna know, just don’t hurt me.” The woman jogged away, leaving the three of you behind.

You looked at the money in your hands, Freddy glancing over to look at it too.

“Holy shit… we just made 73 bucks!” He took it out of your hands, but not in a rude snatching way, as he gave you an apologetic look afterwards. 

“73 bucks?” Billy gaped at the money, and an idea flashed through his mind.

“Guys? It’s late. You should go home…” You said, but the boys didn’t listen, too busy awing over the money. “Guys?”

Billy muttered something about having an idea, and just like that, they were walking away, leaving you behind. You contemplated leaving them behind and going home, but when Freddy turned around, and everything went slow again, you had to grab his outstretched hand once again.

***

“I’d like to purchase some of your finest beer, please,” Billy told the woman working the counter, in quite an over-the-top voice. You and Freddy stood behind Billy, hidden by his wide figure.

As he walked away, you and Freddy met the eyes of the cashier, and with an awkward moment of silent eye contact, walked back to join Billy at the fridges. You kept glancing back at the counter, suddenly nervous for some reason.

Something didn’t feel right.

“I don’t know about this…” You muttered, hearing Freddy hum in agreement.

“I mean, we don’t have a fake ID.” He continued your thought perfectly. Maybe he was the one with the superpowers.

“Guys, would you two relax? Look at me, I am the fake ID.”

A terrifying thought crossed your mind. Was Billy gonna take this seriously? Or would he abuse these new powers for his own personal gain? 

The doorbell jingled, and all of a sudden there was shouting from behind you. Spinning around, you saw two men in ski masks with guns. You let out a surprised yelp, alerting the two robbers to your presence.

Their guns pointed towards you before their eyes even reached the three of you. Freddy stood to Billy’s side, while you were directly in front of him. No one has time to think before a gun is fired.

The bullet zooms towards you, and at the last second, Freddy pulled your arm extremely hard, the bullet just grazing your arm as you collapsed onto him. The bullet hit Billy in the torso, right where you had just been.

The bullet clattered to the ground, as the three of you breathed heavily. You and Billy had just almost died, and your entire weight was on top of Freddy. 

“Bullet immunity.” You gasped, as the bullet rolled next to you. You got off Freddy, wildly aware of your red face, and his very similar one.

“Y-you have bullet immunity!” Freddy exclaimed as you helped him up, handing him his crutch. He pulled out his phone, opening the camera.

“I’m bulletproof.”

“Today is December 8th and this is video proof of authenticity.” That damn smile was back. That damn smile that you couldn’t help but replicate. “Shoot him again.”

“Freddy, what the hell?” You expected Billy to argue with Freddy, and avoid getting shot again. But no, he encouraged it, inviting the robbers to shoot him in the chest. And they did, each bullet like the last. 

You watched as Freddy shoved them in his pocket, and when he noticed you staring, he murmured something about memorabilia.

“W-w-w-wait!” Everyone faced Freddy, who still had his camera out. “We don’t know if the suit is bulletproof, or if you are. Shoot him in the face.”

You sighed into your hands, walking away from the group of idiots. You walked down another aisle, listening to the gunshots ringing. Dumbasses, the lot of them. You tuned out everything, simply pacing up and down the aisle.

The smash of glass hurls you back into reality, as you watch the robbers land outside on the pavement. Freddy joins you, a familiar concern on his face.

“You almost got shot…” He places his hand where the bullet grazed, his panic and worry blinding him from the fact that his hand was very close to your waist. 

You were very much aware of his hand but tried to ignore the warm feeling it brought.

“Yeah, I’ve had a bit of a shitty night, huh?” A sudden boost of confidence struck you. “Luckily, I’ve had two heroes to look after me.”

Freddy turned a light shade of red, nervously giggling. Billy appeared behind him, a smirk on his face and beers in his hands. 

“You two done being gross? I got the beers.” 

You happily took a beer, needing one after tonight. Your dad wouldn’t care. You couldn't get drunk, anyway.

“Sorry about your window! But you’re welcome for not getting robbed!” 

Freddy and Billy took a sip of their beers, immediately spitting them out. You, however, kept drinking yours. Their eyes widened as you chugged the whole bottle in a minute.

“Damn, alright.” Billy chuckled, as Freddy just watched you with amazement.

“You guys aren’t gonna drink those, are you?”

“No, not at all. Tasted like vomit.”

Billy headed back inside, buying some regular junk food, using up the rest of the $73.

“Yknow, habanero jerky, if you eat enough of it, could burn a hole in your stomach,” Freddy said, earning a disgusted noise from you. “Probably not you, though. Probably got stomach superpowers.”

You snorted softly. Stomach superpowers? Weird. You glanced at your phone, noticing the time. It was late. Very late.

“Shit, I’m sorry guys, I have to head home.” You sighed. “I wish I could stay later, but my dad wants me home now. It is a school night, after all.”

Freddy and Billy shared similar, sad expressions, though Freddy’s looked sadder. You awkwardly hugged Billy’s giant form, not noticing Freddy’s glare on the tall boy-man. 

And then, you moved to hug Freddy. It was much tighter than the one you gave Billy. You didn’t want to let go, and something told you he didn’t want to either. As you did pull away, you pressed a kiss to his cheek.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” You smiled, walking away from the boys, a stupid smile forming on your face. 

A similar smile appeared on Freddy’s face, as he placed a hand on his cheek. Billy nudged his shoulder, as they watched you leave.

“You’re whipped, Freeman, absolutely whipped.”

“Yeah,” Freddy grew extremely flustered, “Yeah I am.”

***

You rushed home, almost slamming through the door in excitement. Your dad flicked on the hall lights, making you freeze in your tracks.

“Uh, hi dad! I just got lost finding the bathroom.” You didn’t even try to sound convincing. 

“You are aware of the time, right?” He leaned in the doorway, pointing at the clock on the wall. It read 12pm.

“Yeah, uh, the movie was long.” Your dad raised his eyebrow, and you sighed. “No, uh, one of the kids, Billy, just got superpowers. Freddy and I were helping him out.”

“He got superpowers?” You dad asked, curiosity splashing across his face. “Overnight?”

“Yeah, basically. And since Freddy and I know the most about heroes, we had to help him get used to it.” You walked into the living room and sat your dad down. “Let me tell you everything.”

And so, you did. You explained everything; the lightning and sparks, and how Freddy had pulled you out of the way. The woman, and the tree, and how Freddy had comforted you after it had almost crushed you. The service station, the robbers and how Freddy had pulled you out of the way of a bullet.

You were about to tell him about Billy being bulletproof when your dad cut you off.

“You talk about Freddy a lot.” He smirked and your eyes widened. Talking about Freddy a lot hadn’t been intentional, but he was just always there. He was your first friend, and he liked the things you liked, and he talked to you and he was adorable and sweet and kind and h-

“Do you like Freddy?”

You froze. Did you like Freddy? With everything you’ve said in the past few minutes, all signs pointed to yes.

“I… I think I do. But I only met him today. Is that too soon?” You fell into a panicked ramble, every thought about Freddy spilling out into a chaotic sentence that didn’t make sense to anyone but you.

“Okay, okay, calm down. It’s okay to like people early on. Ever heard of ‘love at first sight’?”

“Dad! It’s not ‘love at first sight’.” You argued though something told you that maybe, just maybe, that was exactly what it was. Was ‘like at first sight’ a thing. Love seemed too strong at this point.

“You wanna talk about it?” Your dad placed a hand on your shoulder, as small tears slowly slipped out of your eyes. Why were you crying? This situation didn’t warrant tears. You weren’t sad, or angry or anything. You were just overwhelmed.

Overwhelmed. 

There were far too many emotions swirling in your head. Good and bad. You couldn’t do this right now. You hadn’t known Freddy Freeman for a day, and yet you were undoubtedly head over heels for him, but you weren’t ready to admit that to anyone.

“I… I’m tired. I’m gonna go to bed.”

You ran out of the room without a second thought.

***

Arriving at school, you instantly spotted Freddy and his family across the street. They were hard to miss, in a good way, of course. After last night, you were conflicted about whether to avoid Freddy or be around him, but unfortunately for you, your mouth moved faster than your brain.

“Freddy, wait up!”

He spun around, smiling brightly as he locked eyes with you. It was then that you noticed that Billy wasn’t there. Odd. but he did technically run away yesterday, so maybe he didn’t go with Freddy last night.

“H-Hey, Y/N!” He stumbled over his words, earning small giggles and chuckles from his family as they headed up to school without him.

“So, you have first period with me and Billy, right?” He asked, very clearly planning something. Freddy, you now discovered, always looked like he was up to something. 

“Um, maybe? Do you have science first, with Ms White?” He nodded, his smile still there. “Well, then I guess we have first period together. Why?”

“You’ll see. Just stick with me and Billy.” You raised an eyebrow at the mention of Billy, who was still a no-show. “Yeah, no, he’ll be here. He had something he needed to do first.”

As if on cue, a loud crash caused you to jump out of your skin. Spinning around, you saw the same boys who had beaten up Freddy staring at their destroyed truck.

“I’m gonna assume that’s what he needed to do.” 

“Yeah. Come with me, I wanna rub it in a little more.” 

Walking over to the boys, you both examined the destruction. The car was absolutely destroyed, and there was absolutely no way it could be restored. Freddy wandered over to the boys, a smirk on his face.

“You know guys… I don’t think that’s gonna buff out.”

You subtly high-fived him as you walked away from the car, but as your hands met, he intertwined your fingers. From the way he kept walking, he hadn’t even acknowledged what he’d done, and from the way your mind was racing, you really didn’t mind.

You entered the school building, passing through security easily and heading over to your locker. Freddy’s locker was across the hall from yours, so while you did, unfortunately, have to let go of Freddy’s hand, you easily kept your conversation going across the hall.

When you went across to join him, the conversation topic quickly switched to Billy and his new superhero alter-ego. You wished you had the confidence to reach over and hold his hand, but luckily for you, Freddy instinctively did it for you. 

“So, last night, when we went home, we found out how he can switch between forms.” He whispered excitedly, his voice rising every now and again as his excitement grew, but a soft hand squeeze from you was enough to quiet him down.

Out of the corner of your eye, you saw a flash of red and brown darting towards you and Freddy.

“Morning, Billy.” You said as Billy caught up to you, eyes instantly darting to you and Freddy’s interlocked hands. He raised an eyebrow, directing it specifically at you, and you really didn’t have an explanation.

“Nice job with the Breyers car.” 

The school bell rang, and as everyone else moved off to class, the two boys pushed you into a storage room to hide. You tried your best to ignore the lack of distance between you and Freddy.

You looked up, meeting Freddy’s eyes. His face was as red as yours felt. As awkward as you both felt being so close to each other, you couldn’t look away from him. Without even noticing, you shuffled closer to him.

“Coast is clear, let’s go.” Billy stepped outside, scanning up and down the hallway. He went to leave, but upon not hearing the sound of Freddy’s crutch hitting the ground, he looked back into the closet, seeing you and Freddy.

“Guys? Guys! Seriously, can you do this some other time?” He groaned, causing Freddy to whip his head around, still blushing. Billy chuckled, and Freddy gave Billy a look that screamed ‘we don’t speak a word of this’.

As Billy headed for the front door of the school, you still stood frozen in place. Freddy had been so fucking close to you. Your heart had been racing, your mind screaming and all the emotions from last night had almost come tumbling out.

“Y/N? You okay?” You reached for his hand, even though he hadn’t reached out as he usually did. He happily accepted your hand in his, feeling a familiar warmth as your hand slid perfectly into his.

Billy had been watching over his shoulder, finding a certain enjoyment in the pure awkwardness of the whole situation between his- his friends. As you and Freddy walked down the hall, hand-in-hand, Billy caught the soft smile on Freddy’s face. 

“Absolutely whipped.” He muttered to himself.

***

You sat on an empty oil barrel, watching as Billy used his lightning powers to blow up his school books. Freddy was throwing the books, both of them quite enjoying themselves. You didn’t know what to think.

Billy was a superhero now, and sure, he was still figuring out his abilities, but he didn’t show any signs of wanting to be an actual hero.

You had hoped that Freddy would teach him what actual heroes did, and yet he was encouraging Billy. You couldn't hate them, though. Billy was your friend, and Freddy was- well, he was something special.

“Hey, Freds?” 

Freddy dropped the English book he was holding, jumping at your voice which he hadn’t heard since the three of you had found the abandoned warehouse. He had been surprised that you didn’t want to participate but didn’t question it, afraid that if he was nosey he would lose any chance of actually getting you to like him.

“Y-yeah? What’s up?”

“I was just wondering if we were gonna spend the whole day exploding things? Why not test out some other skills?” You suggested, hoping to actually get something done today, and not have wasted a day that you could’ve spent actually learning something at school.

“Well, yeah, we could. What do you have in mind?”

“You’ve got your camera with you, right?” Freddy nodded, and your idea fell into place.

You brought the boys over to another part of the warehouse, pulling an empty notebook out of your bag.

“Freds, can you set up your camera, please?” He happily obliged, as you scribbled out a warning message onto the notebook. Freddy finished setting up the camera and started recording. You held up the sign in front of the lense.

A few seconds later, you flicked it over to reveal the page reading ‘Super Strenght Test 1’. 

“Right, super strength test, go!” Freddy informed Billy as you moved the page away, only to reveal Billy doing some weird dance-thing. You gave him a death stare, careful not to trigger your heat vision accidentally. 

Billy noticed your glare, and he was surprisingly intimidated.

“Oh.” He walked over to a stone pillar, rearing his arm back to punch it, and as his fist collided with the stone, it cracked and crumbled, leaving Billy and Freddy wide-eyed, while you simply watched on, impressed.

“Right, well, how about we test flight next?” You pointed to the old skate ramp outside, the boys’ faces lighting up.

***

The next few days continued much the same, with you writing down what test you were doing and making notes of Billy’s attempts, Freddy recording it all, sometimes helping Billy with the tests and Billy just trying not to die as you put him through all these tasks.

Your dad was yet to find out about you skipping school, though you knew he wouldn’t be too mad, especially if he knew what you were doing.

Billy had failed most of the tests, only succeding in hyperspeed and super strength currently. Freddy had pulled out the weirdest tests, like time-reversal and telepathy, while you stuck with the more classic superhero ones. He couldn’t teleport, but he was immune to fire, as you and Freddy found out the hard way. 

At the end of the day, you always found yourself at Freddy’s house, uploading the videos of Billy on YouTube. With each video, the superhero name changed, your personal favourite being ZAP-tain AMERICA. 

During these days of “superhero training” you found it difficult to stay out of the Superman-related conversations. Freddy often compared Billy to your father, and recently, you were discovering a new-found struggle of lying and keeping secrets from Freddy.

You told your dad everything, so he was up to date on Billy’s situation, often giving you tips that you always had to say you “read online” to keep from being suspicious. He still didn’t know you were skipping school, thinking that this training was the reason you were always home late.

In reality, you were home late because you didn’t want to leave Freddy’s home. You liked it there, and you liked his family, and yeah, you definitely liked him.

***

This morning, after you’d obviously ditched school, you once again found yourself discussing Superman.

“More powerful than a locomotive.” You nodded, agreeing with Freddy

“Locomotive? What are you, an old prospector?” Billy teased, as you thwacked him in the chest.

“He can leap tall buildings in a single bound.” You stated, gesturing to a massive office building in the city. It was a way away, but Billy hoisted you and Freddy over his shoulders and just ran.

Freddy looked dizzy when he was set down, so you rushed to steady him. He thanked you, that adorable smile returning. You smiled back, as Freddy fumbled for his camcorder. He almost dropped it, and you went to catch it, before realising he had added a wrist strap onto it.

“Right, so, single bound, ‘kay?” You turned to Billy, before looking at the giant building. Maybe you should’ve picked a smaller one.

Billy prepared to jump, and as he left the ground, he went flying into one of the windows. You gasped, hearing the screams from inside. You hit the recording button on the camera, stopping it in a rushed panic.

“Let’s edit that one before posting it.”

A few minutes later, Billy came out of the building, looking quite embarrassed.

“What’s up, Bill?” You giggled at his expression.

“I had to take the elevator.” He mumbled under his breath, but you heard it anyway. You laughed loudly, Freddy looking extremely confused. You whispered what Billy had told you, and Freddy lost it.

“Oh, yeah, yeah very funny.” Billy glared at the two of you, who were clinging to each other in an uncontrollable fit of giggles.

“You two are useless. I’m hungry, let’s get food.” Billy started walking towards a nearby shopping strip. As your fit of giggles ended, you trailed behind Billy, your hand in Freddy’s once again. It was a force of habit, now.

As per usual, you and Freddy wandered a tiny bit back from Billy, discussing whatever came to mind.

“Your phone’s charged.” Electricity came out of Billy’s fingers, hitting passerby’s phones. He kept doing it, some people looking impressed, while others looked weirded out. 

You caught up with Billy, both of you stopping for Freddy. Freddy had his typical expression on, which meant he was either planning something or that something was just on his mind.

“You know what? You really need, like, a mic-drop catchphrase after you do something cool.”

You sighed. A catchphrase? You loved Freddy dearly, but sometimes his ideas weren't exactly that good.

“I’ve been thinking about that,” Of course Billy had been. Billy and Freddy were two halves of a whole idiot.  “I was thinking, what about, what about this? ‘That’s why you don’t mess with electricity.’.”

You snorted. That was truly, utterly terrible. Freddy seemed to agree, considering his raised eyebrow, and humoured smile.

“Catchphrases, obviously, aren’t one of your superpowers.”

“Your phone’s charged,” Billy said, again, striking one man’s phone which sparked and exploded, and the man was most certainly not impressed.

“You need to stop doing that.” You patted Billy on the back, making Freddy laugh.

Billy, however, wasn’t laughing, a suspicious expression on his face. You went to ask what he was planning, but he picked you and flung you over his shoulder, hyperspeeding his way out of the shopping mall, leaving Freddy behind.

“Billy? Y/N? You’re coming back, right? Guys?”

***

After that day, you found yourself being pushed aside in Freddy and Billy’s escapades. Everything became less about training Billy to properly control his powers and use them for good, and more about just figuring out what they could get away with.

Billy claimed that everything was helping him become a better superhero, but you weren’t sure how a strip club, lair, and video games helped with that. Freddy didn’t agree nor deny with what Billy said, and you honestly felt a little upset about that.

You would have thought that Freddy, of all people, would take this at least somewhat serious, considering his love for superheroes. Even your argument that Superman wouldn’t abuse his abilities like this had no effect on the boys.

So that evening, after uploading all the videos Freddy had taken while the boys played video games, you packed up your stuff to leave.

“I’ll see you guys at school, hopefully.”

They didn’t notice, too wrapped up in their game. You couldn’t ignore the tears that rapidly fell from your eyes. Going down the stairs, you were met by Rosa and Victor, who were still hanging up Christmas decorations.

You really loved Rosa and Victor, and you hoped they liked you too, considering how often you were around. It would be awkward if they didn’t like you.

“Hey, Y/N, are you alright?” Rosa asked, and in a split second of confusion, you forgot about the tears streaming down your face.

“Uh, I just hit my elbow on a table edge. Yknow how much that hurts, haha.” You could tell that they didn’t believe you. “Uh, Freddy and Billy were ignoring me. It’s stupid, don’t worry.” You spoke quickly, trying to pass it off as nothing, but the crack in your voice said otherwise.

Rosa brought you over to the living room, inviting you to sit down. She sat beside you, while Victor sat across, both looking at you with concern in their eyes.

“They’re ignoring you?” Rosa placed a hand on your knee, in a comforting manner. God, she was the best mother on this planet. 

You nodded, not speaking in fear of your voice breaking again. You wondered if you were stupid, being so broken over two boys, who you’d only known for a week, ignoring you.

“Just know that they don’t hate you, especially not Freddy.” You looked at Victor in surprise. What did that mean? “You’re all he talks about, ever. Not even Darla gets to speak at the dinner table now.” He chuckled, while you flushed.

“H-he talks about me?” You wiped away some tears, a small smile forming. Freddy talked about you. All the time. Rosa and Victor nodded, smiles on their faces too.

“He really likes you, Y/N. Billy does too, but nowhere near as much as Freddy does. We honestly can’t thank you enough for bringing them closer.” Rosa hugged you, Victor piling on top.

“Thank you, so much. But, uh, I should head home. My dad will start to worry.” 

They nodded, walking you to the front door. As you opened the door, a creak from the stairs alerted you to Freddy’s presence. He came down to the door, hugging you tightly.

“See you at school tomorrow.” He whispered, kissing your cheek quickly. You were frozen as Freddy gave you a final hug and went back upstairs. You had forgotten that Rosa and Victor were there until Victor whispered a “told you so”.

“Heh, um, well, I’ll probably see you tomorrow?” You smiled, hand instinctively going to your cheek.

“And probably more days after that.” Rosa giggled. 

With a smile, you left the Vasquezes home, now looking forward to tomorrow. 

When you arrived home, you didn’t even notice your dad in the kitchen. He definitely noticed you, and the stupid smile on your face, and the way you were humming to yourself. It didn’t take a genius to know what was going on.

“What did I say about love at first sight?” He said, to no one but himself.

***

Walking the school halls, all you heard were whispers about Philadelphia’s newest superhero. Thanks to the videos you and Freddy had taken, Billy- you were yet to decide on a superhero name- was quickly gaining popularity.

It seemed as though everyone only had superheroes on their mind. Obviously, that included your little trio of friends. It was somewhat nice, being the talk of the town, even if no one knew you were the talk of the town.

“Hey, yknow, you guys gotta wonder who’s filming those, right?” You looked curiously at Freddy, as did other students. A wave of worry crashed over you, something feeling off. “I mean, that’s bravery in and of itself.” 

“I mean, is it, though?” Billy commented, and then you knew that something was definitely not gonna go well today, so you kept your mouth shut.

“Yeah. I’d argue maybe even more brave.” 

“Holding a camera?” 

“Staring in the face of danger?” You felt the urge to make some comment about how neither of them had faced any real danger before, but you knew that would simply lead to a neverending run of questions, curious ones from Billy and concerned ones from Freddy.

You blocked their bickering out as best as you could, but the second the Breyer brother approached, you got ready to punch either of them if needed. They grabbed Freddy’s shirt, and you stepped closer to him, protectively.

“Hey, Freeman.”

“I-I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Freddy glanced at the fist around his shirt, before looking back at Burke.

“What? Is your bestie gonna hit us with a wheelchair this time?” Brett raised an eyebrow, mocking Billy. Your teeth clenched together. 

“No, maybe not him, but I have another best friend.” Shit. You could see where this was going.

The brothers turned to you, half of your body covering the side of Freddy.

“Oh, so you need your girlfriend to protect you, too?” They mocked, using stupid sing-songy voices. You flipped them off, glaring.

“She’s not my gir- No. My other best friend. Who might hunt you down and destroy both of you.” You really wished Freddy could shut his mouth every once in a while.

“Okay, Freddy.” You and Billy both whispered, attempting to drag Freddy away from the Breyers, but to no avail, Freddy stood his ground.

“You may have heard of him… Uh, uh, The Human Power Storm. Frequency Flinger, Sir Zaps-A-Lot. Yeah. He’s a man of many names.” You sighed. Neither you nor Billy looked impressed in the slightest. Freddy was wonderful, but sometimes he really needed to know when to stop.

“You know the Red Cyclone?” The Breyers, understandably, didn’t believe Freddy in the slightest. I mean, why would you? “You? My ass you do.”

“Oh, we’re a lot closer than you think. Maybe even at this very moment.” 

“Prove it.”

Oh no. Oh god no. It would’ve been a great time for you or Billy to jump in and shut Freddy up, but both of you knew how suspicious that sounded.

“I will, tomorrow. Tomorrow he’s gonna come to lunch.” You stared at Freddy, wide-eyed. This was not happening. “And… Right, right, Billy?”

Billy looked petrified, eyes darting between Brett, Burke, Freddy and you. Both your faces held concern and just a hint of fear.

“Oh, yeah, and then Superman’s gonna be bringing us dessert, right?” Freddy’s eyes immediately landed on you, and for once you didn’t fluster at this.

“Yeah, Y/N here knows Superman. Right, Y/N?” 

Everyone's eyes fell to you, including the highly skeptical eyes of the Breyers. If there was any time to be frozen with fear, this was not the time you expected. With a sharp inhale, you nodded quickly, as to get it over and done with.

The bell rang, and finally, the crowd of students disappeared. It felt stupid, but you wanted to cry. The Breyers remained in front of you, and you had never felt so intimidated.

“Tomorrow at lunch. You’ll see.”

“And when they don’t show,” Shit, they were including Superman in this? “Then we’ll kick both of your asses.”

Your hand found Freddy’s, squeezing it tightly out of fear and pressure. What were you meant to do now? Freddy started walking, Billy following quickly behind.

“So, wait, my identity's a secret so no one I know can get hurt. Except when it makes you look cool, then it’s all good.”

In a common occurrence from the past few days, you insisted on keeping your mouth shut, instead choosing to focus on the feeling of Freddy’s hand against yours.

“Billy, it’s not like they’re supervillains-”

“They’re close enough.” You murmured.

“They're just super douchebags.” 

“So you’re breaking your own rule? Got it.” 

You were amazed that no one had figured out Billy’s identity, considering the volume at which the two boys spoke. For someone determined to keep a secret, Billy was awfully loud.

“This thing is as much mine as it is yours.” You couldn't even find it in you to argue that; 1) no, it really wasn’t and 2) why didn’t he include you.

“Starting to think you think it’s all your thing.” Billy stormed into his classroom, Freddy hopelessly calling after him. When he gave up on Billy, he turned to you, a desperate look on his face.

“Y/N? Do you want to stay for dinner tonight?”

***

“All hands on deck,” Victor called, everyone besides Billy putting their hand in the centre of the table. You hesitated, until Freddy placed his other hand on yours, bringing it up to meet the others.

“Thank you for this family. Thank you for this day. Thank you for this food. Sorry Billy’s hand’s on vacay.”

You absolutely adored the Vasquezes and their crazy family that all perfectly worked together. Everyone’s hands dropped, grabbing cutlery and eating.

“Big news in Philly. Got a costumed hero. He’s doing good.” You smiled at the mention of Billy until you saw the looks on Freddy and Billy’s faces.

“Yeah, but is he, though?” Eugene piped up, everyone immediately intrigued by his comment.

“Ooh! Controversy, into it. Share with us your perspective, Eugene.” 

This was sure to be an interesting dinner.

“Just saying, he’s what? Charging people’s phones? So what? I can charge a phone with a plug.” You smiled at Eugene. That was an extremely valid point. Billy was, in no offence to him, kinda useless right now.

“Preach. Pedro, any thoughts?”

“Costume’s stupid.” You giggled, fully agreeing. It did look kinda dorky. Everyone else laughed along too, except Billy, which was even funnier to you. “Big white cape like he’s getting married or something.” You burst out into giggles, remembering when you had told Billy exactly that.

As you giggled, you didn’t notice Freddy’s hand on top of yours, or the smitten gaze he had. Everyone else, however, most definitely did.

“What if he didn’t get to pick his costume?” Billy finally spoke up, drawing everyone’s eyes to him. “Ever think about that?”

“You’re a specialist Freddy, and I’ve heard that you are too, Y/N. What do you two think?” Rosa prompted you and Freddy.

“Yeah, guys, let’s manage to see the positive.” Billy eyed you both warily, and as you went to speak, Freddy immediately cut you off.

“Okay, well, I think it looks likes he doesn’t have gratitude for what he’s been given.”

You wished Freddy had telepathy, just so you could tell him to not make this personal. But alas, he had no such ability.

“Very specific. All right. Y/N, what were you going to s-”

“Maybe to the superhero, gratitude doesn’t mean having to be clingy.” Bill retorted.

“Clingy? Wow, interesting take.” 

You didn’t want to be overdramatic, but you were sure you had never been more stressed in your entire life. 

“You know, maybe sometimes a superhero just wants a little me-time.”

Shit, they were making it personal. You kicked Billy under the table, only getting a glare in return.

“You know, me-time could also be construed as pushing away his family.”

You could feel the confused gazes burning into you like lasers. This had to be the most suspicious conversation ever.

“Family. Is that what they are now?” 

You hid your face in your hands, sighing in annoyance. Why did you ever think that this would be a nice, normal dinner with your friends and their family, especially after school today?

“It’s a classic symptom of “Superhero Syndrome”. Coined by German psychologist Heinrich Von German-Something, where superpowers become an all-consuming narcotic.”

Billy immediately got up from the table, and you watched with a fearful look in your eyes as the chaos came to an upsetting end.

“Son, we’re still eating dinner.” Victor tried to call Billy back, but it was useless at this point.

“What he needs is a sidekick,” Freddy called after the boy, and then everything clicked. 

“Name one cool sidekick.” Billy stormed up the stairs, leaving the rest of the family sitting awkwardly. You didn’t realise how nervous you looked until you felt Freddy’s fingers tracing small circles on your leg. The action was calming, and you shuffled closer to him.

“Darla, why are you so quiet over there, baby? You’re never at a loss for words.”

From the way in which Darla glanced at Freddy, Billy’s empty chair and you, you realised that Darla knew a lot more than you thought. 

“I’m eating.” The small girl mumbled through food, just to get her point across.

Once dinner wrapped up, Freddy went to head upstairs, until you reminded him that Billy was up there, and that didn’t seem like a good idea right now. Instead, you took him out to the front porch, sitting on the steps, gazing up at the sky.

“It’s beautiful up there.” You mumbled as Freddy sat beside you. For a while, the two of you sat in silence, just gazing at the sky and the few stars you could see. The night sky always reminded you of the first flying lessons you had with your dad, back when you first started developing your powers.

“Yknow, I’ve always wanted to fly.” Freddy broke the silence. “It probably sounds stupid, but flying sure sounds better than walking, especially with this stupid thing.” He chucks his crutch to the ground, both of you wincing at the sound of it hitting the ground.

You don’t speak, not because you’re ignoring him, you just don’t know what to say.

“This… This was a bad night for you to come over. I’m sorry it went like that.”

“It’s fine. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of other dinners for me to join in.” You didn’t notice the impact of your words, but for Freddy, the idea of you coming to more dinners was like getting hit with a ton of bricks.

Freddy instinctively moved closer to you, which was no longer a big deal to either of you, but this time Freddy was trying a something else. He moved ever so slightly closer, and you finally realised what was happening.

You moved closer too, your heart practically running a marathon. The moment seemed perfect, and for a while, it was. He was about a centimetre away from you now, and that distance was only getting smaller.

“Freddy!” He jumped away quickly as the front door swung open. Rosa smiled sweetly, not realising what had just been happening. “Could you walk Y/N home, please?”

***

By lunch the next day, you were still thinking about last night. You had almost kissed Freddy Freeman. Twice. The first time, Rosa had stopped you just in time, asking if Freddy could walk you home.

The second had been outside your home. He had just dropped you off and thought that would be his chance. Unfortunately, your dad had other plans, swinging the door open, also not aware of what had been going on. He had thanked Freddy for walking you home, and you looked forward to the day when Freddy realised he had just met his idol.

They were the only thoughts that clouded your mind as you sat with Freddy at the lunch table, a massive crowd waiting for Billy and apparently Superman to appear.

You were unfortunately skeptical about Billy showing up, especially after what Freddy told you about this morning. Billy had walked to school with Freddy, and then immediately ditched. Freddy didn’t want to believe it, but he didn’t think Billy would show either.

You looked worriedly at Freddy, knowing that there was no chance Billy would show. The Breyers were staring you two down, and you were getting very nervous with all the eyes on you.

“I’ll just call him. I’ll just make sure.” He got out his phone, holding it up to his ear. “It’s ringing.” 

Freddy was not a good liar in any way, shape or form. Not one single person here believed him. You knew that if you didn’t know the truth, you wouldn’t believe him.

“Red Cyclone, hey! Hey, what’s going on?” He paused for belief. Of which there was none. “Oh, that’s crazy! Yeah, it’s Freddy, by the way. Yeah, it’s crazy! Great story.” Someone from behind you snatched his phone away and you knew you were screwed.

“He’s not talking to anyone.” The crowd laughed and booed, and you immediately lived in fear of what the Breyers were gonna do.

“I was! I was! We’re friends. I know him, I do!” The crowd dissipated. “I know him! I know him! Uh, yeah.”

The Breyers laughed at your humiliation, and you latched onto Freddy in fear. You were royally screwed now.

“Shit.” You muttered in unison, giving each other frightened glances.

The Breyers dragged you out to the back of the school, to the alleyway between the school building and the hall.

Brett dragged Freddy aside, while Burke grabbed onto your shirt. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Brett carrying Freddy by his underwear, and when you looked back, Burke’s fist collided with your face. It didn’t hurt, nor did it leave much of a bruise, so you simply let him at it.

Better to let him get it all out now.

You did, however, get in one good punch on Burke’s face.

“Eat shit and die, Kent,” Burke yelled, punching you again.

“Eat shit and live, Breyer.”

Once the boys let you be, you rushed to help Freddy back to his feet. He looked like he was in a lot of pain, so you tried to act like you were hurt too, just to make him feel better.

“Are you alright? Burke packs a pretty mean punch…” Freddy’s hand traced where he had seen Burke punch you.

“Nothing I can’t handle.” You grinned, which made Freddy smile too. His smile, however, quickly turned to a grimace.

“We need to find Billy,” Freddy grumbled, not just annoyance, but anger in his voice. As if on cue, you spotted a spark of lightning in the distance. You spun Freddy around so he could see the sparks too.

“Found him.” 

***

Freddy marched up to Billy, who was performing some stupid show in front of a crowd of people. What a surprise. Billy was abusing his powers. He even had a box laid out for money. Why, of all people, did Billy get to have superpowers?

“Hey. Hey!” Freddy pushed the crowds out of the way, anger seeping through his words.

“Hey, young man!” Freddy kicked Billy’s speaker, causing the music to stop. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! What are you doing? I’m in the middle of a show right now. How can I help you?”

You scoffed, rolling your eyes. Was Billy really this much of an idiot?

“We just wanted to say thank you for showing up to lunch today.” From the look on Billy’s face, he had just recalled his plans. “Yeah, I got a little something called a, uh, suitcase wedgie, right? I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of it, but it’s when someone grabs your underwear like that,” Freddy acts out his words as he goes, the crowd all with their phones out, “and holds you like a suitcase and walks you down the hallway.”

You scrunched up your nose imagining how painful that would be.

“And this was my underwear.” He throws the stretched out fabric in Billy’s direction, though it doesn’t go anywhere near him. 

“Gross.”

You stepped in line with Freddy, looking up at Billy in disappointment. 

“You said you’d come.” You uttered sadly.

“You said I would come!” You jumped at the outburst, grabbing Freddy’s wrist in shock. “I never said I was… I’m a superhero, dude!” 

You very quickly went from being disappointed to just angry.

“Yeah? Well, you’re acting real heroic.” You spat out. “How much people paying you today?” The venom lacing your words was thick, even Freddy looked at you in surprise.

“Listen, I have serious responsibilities now, okay?”

“Oh yeah, very se-”

“But that’s cool because I can carry that burden with my… hands! Lightning with my hands!” 

One strike of lightning struck much further away than you anticipated, hitting a distant bridge. It hit a wheel on a bus, and the bus came crashing off the side of the bridge. You gasped, catching Billy’s attention. He looked at the accident, before hyperspeeding away.

“We’ll just walk, I guess?” You asked, turning around to see Freddy already walking in Billy’s direction. 

The walk was long and tiring, and probably not good for Freddy in the slightest. You could see the whole situation unfolding, sighing as Billy did all the wrong things. What you wouldn’t give to go be better than him.

Reaching Billy, you saw a news reporter leaving, but there were still news cameras everywhere.

“Guys! Did you see that?”

“Yeah. You electrocuted a bus and almost killed these people.” Freddy stated, but it clearly wasn’t getting through to Billy.

“And then I caught it! Guys, I caught a bus with my bare hands! I caught a bus like people catch fly balls!” If it was any other day, you’d be impressed, and proud of Billy for using his power for good, but today you weren’t happy, and neither was Freddy. “Like, who does that? I do that!”

“Billy! You do nothing.” Freddy cut him off. “You take selfies and make people pay you.” You placed a hand on Freddy’s shoulder in comfort. “You know, forget it. I can’t really talk to you when you look like this.”

You and Freddy turned to leave, Freddy’s hand finding yours instantly. 

“You just wish it was you.”

You both froze, turning back around to face Billy. 

“No shit! You think? I would kill to have what you have.” You felt tears welling in your eyes. You had figured out why Freddy was so angry not too long ago. “Because everything I do is, like, some desperate attempt to get people to notice me. To not feel sorry for me.” He glanced over at you, seeing the tears on your cheeks. 

“I mean, look at me! Look at me. Do you even see me? ‘Cause most people don’t. ‘Cause they don’t want to. And now you don’t either. I mean, you think this is who you are? I mean, Billy, you’re 14 and now you’re no better than the Breyers.”

You could hear Freddy choking up, so you stepped in to help him.

“All this power, and all you did was turn into a show-off and a bully.” Your voice cracked, tears heavily flowing now. Freddy took your hand again, his one source of comfort, leaving Billy alone.

“Whatever, kid! I do what I want! And I’m like mid-20s probably! Maybe even, like, 30.”

You and Freddy didn’t turn back, storming away from the asshole you had once considered a friend. 

You were a fair distance away when you heard the sound of glass shattering from behind you. Judging from the height of the broken window, there was only one person it could be.

“Billy?” Freddy questioned, as said boy flew- wait flew?- towards you.

“Guys! I need your help!”

“You can fly?” Freddy exclaimed, his smile coming back. Billy was about to respond when another figure flew from the building, grabbing Billy and sending him to the ground. The concrete where they hit broke as easily as the glass, and you immediately went to inspect it.

Freddy joined you, staring into the open floor.

“Who’s the other guy?”

There was no response, but you and Freddy had the same thought.

“Supervillain.”

Screams could be heard in front of you, and you looked up to see swarms of people running out of a nearby shopping mall. That’s where they had to be. Why else would people act like that?

“Freds, this way.”

Freddy made his best attempt to run, only tripping a few times. Eventually, you made it into the mall, seeing the heard of people running in a panic. Billy was nowhere to be seen.

“Billy?” Freddy called out. “Billy?”

“Billy, where are you?” You joined in, yelling, searching for any sign of Billy.

So far, nothing. Freddy called out a few more times, but you had stopped, seeing the bald man scanning the mall. That was him. The supervillain. It took a few more seconds for you to register that the supervillain was flying towards you.

He grabbed both you and Freddy, slamming the two of you up against some lockers. Your heart was beating at an irregular pace. How did your dad do this?

“Billy. Where is he?” The bald man asked, and you tried your best to stay calm. Freddy was not doing well in the calm department.

“Supervillain…” He said quietly, his eye wide with fear. This was the sort of shit you see on TV and in comics, not everyday life. “Supervillain! Supervillain!” 

His screams were useless. No one was coming to your rescue. 

“Worse. Much worse.”

You didn’t want to cry, but there was a high probability you would.

“Radioactive anthromorph?” Freddy asked. “Psychic energy manipulator? I won’t let you read my mind. My mind is blank. You can’t get in.”

“I don’t need to read your mind.” He slammed both of you against the lockers again, making you whimper in fear. “Because you are going to tell me. Where is he?”

As hard as you tried, you couldn’t find Freddy’s hand.

***

You found yourself outside Freddy’s home, still being held by the supervillain. Fear was rushing through your veins, and guilt, knowing that if you were able to use your powers, you could’ve easily stopped this.

The supervillain rang the doorbell, and the door was immediately swung open, Darla only seeing Freddy at first. He was shoved inside, you pushed in next, hitting into a wall. You hissed in pain and caught Freddy’s concerned glance.

“How quaint.” Mr Supervillain said, glancing around the room. Everyone’s faces held similar expressions of terror. “Actually, I take that back. What a shithole.”

You were grabbed by the supervillain again, and he scanned you up and down, his brow furrowing. Shit, did he figure you out? He threw you back with the other kids, and you stumbled backwards into Freddy.

Freddy dug in his pocket, hoping to find his phone, but an ominous chuckle from Mr Supervillain gave you a good idea of where Freddy’s phone actually was. He pulled out the familiar black phone, dangling it mockingly in your face.

You were all shoved onto the couch, ordered to stay like you were dogs. Mr Supervillain unlocked the phone, his eye glowing. When did he have hacking as a power? You all watched him, too scared to look away.

A sudden pressure on your hand made you look down, seeing a familiar hand in yours. It had only been an hour, but it felt like much longer since you had had Freddy’s comfort. You moved closer to him, shaking with pure terror. 

“F-Freddy?” He looked down at you, and you didn’t have to say anything for him to pull you in closer. You had Freddy, but you wanted Billy here too. You wanted protection and safety and the knowledge that you’d be alright. You wanted your dad.

The familiar sound of a phone ringing startled you, and whoever was on the other side quickly picked up.

“Freddy, you were right. I’m so sorry I yelled at you.” You heard Billy through the phone, and both panic and relief set in. 

“Come home, Billy. Come home.” Mr Supervillain spoke, eyeing you all evilly. You shuddered under his gaze, holding Freddy tighter.

“Billy! Supervillain! Supervillain!” Freddy yelled, hoping to be heard through the phone. The call abruptly ended, Mr Supervillain stalking around the house once more. He picked up a Christmas wreath on a door, throwing it to the ground.

“Who are you? What do you want?” Mary asked, Darla clinging to her jacket.

What do I want? I want...” The lights flickered, and the sounds of rumbling thunder could be heard from outside. You saw the golden glow outside the frosted window, knowing who was on the other side of that door. “That.”

Eugene whispered a quiet “Whoa” from beside you as Billy landed outside. 

“Kick his ass, Billy!” All five of you turned to Pedro in surprise. You had never heard him speak that loudly.

Mr Supervillain pointed his hand at you all, a cloud of dust and smoke billowing out, the face of a monster forming in the cloud.

“No, no, no, this isn’t real. This isn’t happening.” You repeated your mantra to yourself, only stopping as Billy pushed some hair out of your eyes. You looked up at him, as he leaned close and whispered in your ear.

“Don’t look at that. Just focus on me.”

And you did. You gazed at Freddy, studying his face. For a while, you managed to forget about your surroundings. Not fully- how could you forget about the monster snarling and growling at you?- but enough for Freddy to be the main thought circling your mind.

“Let them go and I’ll come inside,” Billy yelled.

“Oh, first you come inside, and then maybe I’ll let them go.”

Billy did as told, storming towards the house. As he did, Mr Supervillain pulled the monster cloud away from you, and you relaxed a little. You were still on edge, but noticeably less so. Billy opened the door, fully entering the house.

“Good boy.” Mr Supervillain walked towards Billy, a smirk on his face. “Cause that’s all you are, isn’t it? How old are you?”

Billy stared the supervillain down, taking into account his glowing blue eye.

“Basically 15.” Mr Supervillain grabbed Billy’s face, humming in disdain.

“When I was a child, the old man told me I wasn’t good enough,” From beside you, you heard a faint whisper of “Evil monologue.” from Freddy. “Yet here you are, a coward. Run from me and the wizard chooses you? You’re not a hero.”

You almost yelled that he was more of a hero than Mr Supervillain would ever be, but the sudden feeling of Eugene clinging to your coat stopped you from going anywhere.

“But I’m gonna give you the opportunity to be one.” Mr Supervillain continued. “Give me the power of the champion.”

“No, don’t do it, Billy!” Freddy yelled, regaining the attention of both Billy and Mr Supervillain. The supervillain walked towards the couch, all six of you tensing up. You jumped slightly as a beam of lightning, not dissimilar from Billy’s, shot out from his hand.

It hit a door, seven rows of repeating images appearing, and an ominous glow from beneath it, as well as smoke that most certainly didn’t give you a good vibe. It opened itself, revealing what looked like a cavern of some sorts. 

“Give me the power and I’ll let them go.”

“Billy, no! You can’t do that!” You found your voice, yelling at your friend. From beside Freddy, Darla stood up, running to Billy. Mary followed behind her, calling for Darla not to go over there.

“Don’t go, Billy!” She pleaded over and over again, hugging the tall boy-man. You felt tears prick at your eyes, huddling your face in Freddy’s side more, so as to not see anything that could unfold.

“No, I have to.” Billy stumbled out, and you looked up, seeing Mary trying to pull Darla away. This was all too much. “It’s what a good brother would do. Right?” 

Billy walked towards the open door, Mr Supervillain not far behind.

“Billy,” Freddy said, trying with any hope to get Billy to stay. His attempts were useless, as Billy entered the door. You all watched on hopelessly, but the still-open door gave you and Freddy an idea.

“Freddy, we have to go help him.” You said, quickly forgetting how afraid you had been just a few minutes ago. You heard scuffling behind you, spinning around to see everyone gone. “Guys?”

“Y/N!” Freddy’s voice called from upstairs. “Get a weapon!”

You looked around, spotting the open kitchen door. You ran in, grabbing a small, but a sharp, knife and running back out to join the others. They all had their own weapons, but you glanced wearily at Pedro’s.

“Pedro, is that a lamp?” You asked, and he looked between you and the lamp.

“It’s an ugly one.” He stated, and you saw no reason to argue.

“Well, let’s go get your brother back.” 

You stepped through the door, glancing around everywhere. You marvelled at the beautifully terrifying cave surrounding you. It seemed to go one forever.

“Well, Y/N, where do we go now?” Mary asked, still holding onto Darla.

A familiar yelp of pain echoed through the cavern, followed by the voice of Mr Supervillain. It didn’t seem like much to go off, but you had some help. You pointed forwards, knowing exactly where to go. 

“There.”  

The cavern tunnels opened up into a strange temple-like place. You pushed everyone behind some rocks, blocking them from sight. You couldn’t have them getting hurt. You watched on, as the supervillain continued to speak, telling Billy of his past.

Billy started to push himself off the ground.

“I get it. I get what that’s like. Feeling like you’re all alone in the world.” Mr Supervillain demanded Billy to stand. “Feeling like there’s that one thing, if you could just find it. Then you’d finally be good enough.”

Billy stood, Mr Supervillain holding out some staff-thing.

“The champion’s name. Say it.”

Your leg bounced in anticipation, as the same dust clouds swarmed around the supervillain like earlier, except this time they formed seven full monsters. They surrounded Billy, snarling and baring their teeth.

Each one was horrifying, towering over Billy. Their mangled faces sent shivers down your spine, yet you couldn’t look away from them. Their glowing red eyes seemed to speak, digging into the deepest corners of your mind.

“Look, no offence, mister, but I don’t think those things have your best interest at heart,” Billy argued, and as you stared intensely at the scene unfolding, you missed Freddy’s call for everyone to follow him.

But his hand back in yours, pulling you with the group was enough to get your attention. The monsters spoke, their gravelly voices haunting. They spoke to the supervillain, telling him of his actions. 

“Don’t listen to this child.”

“Take the staff.”

“Hold it and say the champion’s name.”

They were using him. This wasn’t a team effort for them. These monsters had simply taken another victim for their own personal gain. From what Billy said next, it seemed he had realised what was going on too.

“They’re using you. You have to see that, that they are using you.” He said as you and the five others gathered in the centre of the room. Freddy poised himself, replica Batarang in hand. 

He looked at you for confirmation, and you nodded. He threw the Batarang as hard as he could, and everyone watched as it soared through the air. As he threw it, you handed him your knife, so he’d still have some protection. You could fight without a weapon, he couldn’t.

“Say your name.” Mr Supervillain said, just as the Batarang came in contact with his head. It clattered to the ground, Mr Supervillain, the monsters and Billy all turning to face you.

“His name…” Freddy smirked, as you all got into a fighting position. “Is Captain Sparklefingers.” You finished.

“And we’re gonna keep throwing things at your big, fat, ugly-eyed head until you let our brother go,” Darla said, and you were amazed by the young girl’s bravery.

The monsters were taken back into the supervillain's body, taking quite a dramatic exit. He moved towards your little group, each of you taking a few steps back in fear. Out of the corner of your eyes, you saw Billy reaching for the discarded Batarang.

You drew your eyes away from Billy, scared to give away his plan. Sparks erupted as he picked up the Batarang, and even more flew as he stabbed it into Mr Supervillain’s shoulder. Billy flung the supervillain into the rock wall, hopefully knocking him out for a bit.

“Boy, am I glad I didn’t sell that Batarang.”

Now wasn’t the time to be mad about Billy trying to sell Freddy’s stuff, but you’d grill him later about it. Billy came down the stairs, looking back at the supervillain every now and again, juts checking he was still out.

“Pedro, is that a lamp?” You let out a soft snort at the question you had asked earlier. Pedro sighed, muttering the same answer he had given you earlier.

“Come on, come on, come on.” Billy pushed you all to start running, and you did, not wanting to be there when Mr Supervillain came to. “Guys, I appreciate the thought, I really do, but I don’t think your weapons are gonna help. I mean, Y/N, you don’t even have a weapon.”

“Don’t need one.” You shrugged, Billy giving you a skeptical look. 

As you turned the corner, you all stopped, one singular thought in everyone’s minds. Eugene was the one to voice the collective thoughts.

“The door was right here.”

“Billy, how do we get outta here?” Mary asked, but everyone knew that it was unlikely that Billy had any idea.

“What, you think I know? I don’t know!” He rushed over his words, as he so often did.

“This way!” Darla pointed at a tunnel through the caves.

“Go, go, go. Follow Darla. Good job Darla. Go, go, go!” You all ran through the cave, waiting to find some kind of exit. Or at least something that wasn’t a tunnel. Unfortunately, it just seemed like tunnels.

“How long are these tunnels?” You groaned as you turned yet another corner into yet another long strip of rocks.

“Hey, Y/N?” Freddy spoke up, completely out of breath. This was unfair for him, having to run so much. “I’m sorry I dragged you into all this.”

You looked at him, bewildered. His eyes were downcast, staring at his feet as you both strayed behind the group. You lifted his chin up, looking into his gorgeous brown eyes.

“You didn’t drag me into this. I chose to come along, and up til now, it’s been pretty fun.”

He would’ve kissed you right then and there if it weren’t for Billy’s frantic screams for you to catch up, and the looming knowledge or the supervillain finding you. So you simply took his hand, as you so often did and ran as fast as Freddy could bear.

“Pedro, Pedro, come on.” You heard Billy up ahead, growing more frantic with each second. He turned around, seeing you and Freddy up the back of the group. “Freddy? Freddy, keep up. Darla, stay in front. We gotta hurry.” 

The tunnel ended, and you found yourselves on a bridge, stretching across a frighteningly deep chasm. You tried not to look down, but your curiosity overpowered your sensibility, as you glanced into the neverending pit.

Any wrong move and you could be falling down there. Great, well at least it was a motivator and not just a giant pit of doom. Past the bridge, there were simply more rocky passageways.

“Would it have hurt,” You complained. “To put up a signpost, maybe?”

Pedro, Darla and Eugene stopped, scanning their eyes over the room. As you moved closer, you saw that it was filled with doors. So many doors, it could have beaten the scene from Monsters Inc.

One of these has to be a way out, right?” Mary asked, and everyone’s eyes trailed upwards, even more doors coming into view.

“Yeah, I would hope so.” 

Eugene opened a door, and you peered inside. Three alligators in suits sat at a table, seemingly playing cards. Their heads snapped towards the open door, charging forwards. Eugene slammed the door in time, shaking his head.

“Not this one.”

Pedro opened the next one, revealing a misty view. A shadow moved forward, and as it broke through the fog, you saw a strange-looking creature. It reminded you of something out of ‘The Mist’, a book you had read earlier this year. It snapped suddenly, lunging at Pedro, who slammed the door on it. It kept writhing until Pedro finally got it inside.

You opened a door, seeing nothing but a forest inside until a giant eight-legged creature descended from the treetops. It’s eight beady eyes glared into your soul and you found yourself frozen in fear. The spider snapped its fangs, scuttling forwards. You felt like you could cry, almost screaming until someone closed the door on it.

“Y/N? Are you alright?” You nodded, only barely registering Freddy’s voice. 

“Okay, no more doors. Nobody open any more doors.” Billy announced, watching Freddy shaking you away from you fearful state.

When Freddy did bring you back, he sighed in relief.

“Jeez, let’s keep you away from doors, huh?” You smiled, thankful for Freddy and everything he ever did for you. You moved back to the group, standing exceptionally close.

“Come on, Billy. What are we gonna do?” Darla cried.

“Darla, I don’t know.”

“Yes, you do. Just think. How’d you get out last time?”  Everyone’s voices were filled with panic, fear and nervousness, the sound of rocks breaking alerting you to a certain supervillain’s nearing presence.

“Uh, last time, I thought about the subway, and I was on the subway.”

“Okay. then, Billy, look, think about the subway.” Freddy babbled. “Think about any place except for here, okay?”

“What is this, The Wizard of Oz?” You said, trying to bring a bit of light into the situation. Only Freddy laughed, and it was more of a short sound than a laugh. Everyone was far too on edge right now.

You saw the moving glow of the staff from down the tunnel. You didn’t have much time now. If Billy didn’t think of someplace soon, you’d all be dead. Or injured, at the very least. Either way, it didn’t end well for you and the Vasquezes.

“Billy? Any time now…” Your eyes darted between Billy and Mr Supervillain, panic rising like a volcano, waiting to explode. The lightning symbol on Billy’s chest glowed brighter, but so did the light emanating from the staff held by the supervillain.

Your eyes remained on Mr Supervillain as he shot his hand out, a beam of light coming straight for you. If Billy didn’t get you out of there soon, you were all dead meat. To everyone’s relief, your cave surroundings disappeared just as the lightning was about to hit you.

When regained your bearings, your jaw dropped at your surroundings. Mary frantically covered Darla’s eyes, while you did the same to Eugene. In the midst of the chaos, you lost Freddy in the crowd. Billy’s height helped to navigate the exit, and as much as you tried to focus on the red and white in front of you, the noises coming from left and right were heavily distracting.

You pushed open the doors, feeling relieved to be out of there. It was crowded, and sweaty and sticky and you hated it. None of you were particularly impressed with Billy right now.

“Why are you covering my eyes?” Darla asked, Eugene nodding in agreement.

“Really? This is the first place you think of? Wow!” Mary rolled her eyes.

“You’re welcome!” Billy had a point. At least you weren’t dead.

“Why can’t I see what’s inside?” Darla asked again, Eugene nodding again.

“You two are not old enough.” You and Mary said, only taking your hands off their eyes once the door had properly shut.

“Old enough to know that was great music.” Darla smiled, and you couldn’t help but smile at the girl’s innocence.

“Not my thing,” Pedro muttered softly, and you suppressed a slight chuckle. You looked around, realising a certain blue jacket-wearing boy was missing.

“Where’s Freddy?” 

As if on cue, the strip club door swung open again, Freddy stumbling out, saying something about “Siracha”. You raised an eyebrow, but hearing Freddy wish them a “holly, jolly Christmas” made you laugh.

“Freddy! What are you doing?” Billy yelled as Freddy rejoined the group.

“Uh, n-nice people.” 

“Nice people? Come on.” You marched over to Freddy, grabbing his arm gently.

“Is that glitter? They have glitter! Can I get glitter?” You had to commend Darla for always finding a positive, even when they were all being chased by an evil supervillain. 

“No, not from them.”

A sudden crack of thunder had you all turning around to look back at where you came from, seeing a flash of lighting, much like Billy’s. Mr Supervillain was back on your trails. He burst out of the roof, a plume of smoke billowing from the building.

“Shit.” You muttered. 

“Go, go go. Everybody, go!” Billy pushed everyone to start running, but you simply looked worriedly at Freddy, who was trailing.

“Freddy, Freddy, Freddy!” Billy rushed behind him. “One, two three. Up, up. Up we go.” He picked up Freddy, bridal style, hyperspeeding ahead of everyone. You all kept running, not looking back at the supervillain, in fear of being spotted.

You all ran into an alleyway, the Christmas Village just across the road. Glancing around, you did a headcount, finding exactly six others, thank god.

“Alright, all people accounted for, let’s move.” You spoke, mainly to yourself. As long as you could count the six heads, you knew that you hadn’t lost anyone. Six heads. Just six. Six. Wait, zero?

Everyone else had run into the carnival, leaving you in the alleyway. Your eyes darted around, searching for Billy’s towering figure. In the distance, you spotted a familiar white cape in the distance and ran in that direction.

Billy was being surrounded by people with their phones, all taking photos and videos f him. You pushed through the crowd, only getting hit a few times. One person’s phone connected with your nose, and you yelped in surprise.

“Y/N?” Freddy’s voice sounded from inside the circle. He could recognize you just from you exclaiming out of pain? You couldn’t tell if that was a good thing or not. Right now, it was very good as he fought his way through the crowd to drag you with him.

“Shazam!” 

A lightning strike hit the ground, and soon Billy’s tall alter-ego was gone, replaced by his regular self, who was refreshing to see amidst all the chaos. You pulled Billy into a quick hug, finally finding a chance to.

The crowd murmured about the sudden disappearance of “Powerboy” and you and the Vasquezes made your way out of the crowd, hiding behind one of the booths. You thought you had a moment to rest until you realised that Mr Supervillian would have seen the transformation lightning. Your cover was blown.

“Champion!”

“Shit.” You muttered as the seven of you watched the supervillain fly over the top of the carnival

“You don’t deserve that name. Hiding behind innocent people who will now die. Because deep down you’re still just a scared, little boy.” You all shared very similar glances at the mention of people dying. Fuck, where was your dad when you needed him?

The crowd of carnival-goers was silent, simply watching Mr Supervillain above them. Then, all at once, all hell broke loose. People were running everywhere to get away from the ensuing battle. Mr Supervillain began his destructive descend upon the carnival, blowing boots up and striking the Ferris wheel.

It sparked, shifting to the side. You could see everyone on the ride, panicked and fearful. You even felt bad for the Breyers. Even they didn’t deserve to die. The wheel was collapsing, and none of you could do anything. Except for-

“Well, you guys wanted me to be a hero.”

“You kidding? Okay, no. Old guy’s up there, harbouring multiple spiritual entities.” Freddy rambled, tripping over his words.

“Plus, he has the same powers as you.” You added, “And, no offence, but I mean, he knows what he’s doing.”

“Plus, I mean, you’re one of my best friends I don’t want you to die.” Freddy finished, muttering the last part nervously, his eyes moving between you and Billy.

“If a superhero can’t save his family, he’s not much of a hero.” As panicked as you were, a smile spread across your face at Billy’s words. You were well aware of Billy’s familial struggles, having been both Freddy and Billy’s go-to person to talk about problems they had.

“That was a decent catchphrase,” Freddy said, making you both smile and smack him in the chest at the same time.

“Shazam!” And just like that, your big red friend was back, ready to destroy whoever dared to mess with his family and friends, in your case. He jumped into flight, seeming to have already perfected a skill he gained that morning.

You felt useless, watching Billy do all the work as you simply stood with the others. You should have been up there, by his side, kicking evil ass with your friend. But then again, Billy could protect all of Philadelphia, you just needed to protect his family.

You all watched the fight intensely, trying not to alert anyone to your whereabouts. Billy seemed to be winning, from what you could see. He sent the supervillain hurtling to the ground, a resounding thud echoing throughout the empty carnival.

Billy flew down, landing across from where you were all huddled.

“Or try that again!” He looked to you all for approval, only receiving an ‘eh, sure’ from Freddy and a ‘never say that again’ from you.

“Billy, look out!” Freddy yelled, having seen Mr Supervillain preparing for his next move. Billy ducked just in time, but you and Freddy both felt that his move was not over yet.

“Laser eyes! Guys, he’s got laser eyes! Too bad your aim sucks balls!” 

You were about to tell him that, no they weren’t laser eyes, when the wooden planks behind him exploded, revealing one of those damn monsters again. It lifted up Billy, throwing him with ease.

You all watched on in fear as Billy landed in a nearby carnival game booth, Mr Supervillain stalking over to him.

“That’s his power matrix.” You said, watching both his glowing staff and glowing eye.

“His what-what?” Eugene looked at you in bewilderment.

“When the demon guys leave his eye, he loses his powers,” Freddy explained, you simply nodding along with what he said. “That’s why the Batarang hurt him.”

“Hey!” Mary suddenly shouts, you all turning to stare wide-eyed at her. “Over here!”

“Wait, what are you doing?” Concern and confusion are etched onto Freddy’s face, but realisation flashes across yours.

“Divide and conquer.” You said, Mary confirming your statement. “If we separate the monsters from the eye, he’s just an old man.”

“Gather the mutts” Mr Supervillain unleashes the monsters, and you all take off running. Mary and Darla are leading, while you help Freddy at the back of the pack.

Freddy is snatched away from you, and you speed up, yelling at yourself to not look back and keep running. You hear Pedro and Eugene yelping, knowing they got taken to. You speed ahead of Darla and Mary, only to hear the sounds of them screaming for each other as one more monster takes away your last two friends.

It’s just you, running as fast as you can. As fast as you can without using hyperspeed. You hide in a ring toss booth, hoping that the monster didn’t see your tumble in. Your breathing is heavy and ragged, but when the coast is all clear, you make a run for it.

Turning the corner, you see Mr Supervillain holding Billy, and not superhero Billy, but regular Billy, down into ice water. He’s not transforming, so you figure he isn’t able to. You look around for anything to help with, seeing a gun from some shooting gallery game lying discarded beside you.

You pick it up, aiming it towards the supervillain.

“Hey!” He turns to face you and the barrel of the gun. You fire, sending the bullet hurtling towards him. You suspect he’ll catch it, and it won’t do anything, but maybe it’ll distract him just long enough for Billy to transform.

And that’s exactly what happens. He perfectly catches the bullet, which was level with his eyes. You can sense the monster behind you, and now it’s too late to stop it. Just as it reaches out to grab you, you see Billy’s head leaving the water. You sigh in relief, happy that your plan at least worked out for him.

“Shazam!”

The lightning strike sends Mr Supervillain flying backwards, but he catches himself, properly flying to the open tent where you and your friends are held captive. Billy rises from the shattered ice, seeing all of you held kidnapped.

You’re struggling against the arms of your captor, as are your friends, but the monsters are stubborn, and they’re not planning on letting go anytime soon. Mr Supervillain stands at the centre of it all, awaiting Billy’s first move.

“Nice trick. Catchy. One simple word. I have a better trick. Four words.” You all stare at the supervillain, fear, stress and now pain on everyone’s faces. You can’t look away from Freddy and his face contorted in pain, and you find him doing the same.

“Kill the special one.” 

Everyone’s eyes flick to Billy, expecting a monster to go after him. What they aren’t expecting, however, is for the monster holding you captive to growl, bearing its teeth, poised and ready to kill you with no hesitation.

There are screams of protest, and the monster nears. You can’t tell if you’re breathing properly, but your guess is no. The loudest screams are from Freddy, who you can tell is crying from just his voice.

“Don’t hurt her!” He screams, only to be cut off by the monster holding him tighter, his words turning to hisses of pain.

Your head is in the mouth of the monster, and by now you’ve given up fighting. If this is how it ends, so be it. There could be worse ways to go out.

“Stop!” Billy yells, and you let out a breath you were unaware you were holding in. the monster puts you down, and all you want is to be by Freddy’s side. Billy comes closer to the tent, Mr Supervillain smirking as if he’d achieved something. As he walked closer, the monsters held on tighter, taunting and tormenting Billy.

“Billy, there’s one more demon guy in his eyes! You gotta just rip it out of his face hole.” Freddy yelled, before having a monster hand clamp over his mouth. He fought against the monster but to no avail.

“It’s where he gets his power!” Mary finished. The monsters moved in, surrounding Billy, all of you still held tightly in their many, many arms.

“Reach for it. I dare you.” Mr Supervillain taunted, as Billy knelt to the ground before him. “Wise decision. Hands on the staff.”

“Billy, don’t do this. Billy!” Freddy protested, but once again, no one listened to his pleas. You all joined in his plea, begging Billy to not do as told. 

Billy ignored you all, doing as he was told, wrapping his hand around the glowing staff. As he did, the monsters dissolved, leaving all of you to gather yourselves. Freddy stumbled right over to you. You caught him in a hug, feeling the exact level of comfort you both needed after that.

“He called you special. Why?” Freddy’s hands found your face, holding it softly as if he was scared to hurt you in any way.

“You saying I’m not special, Freeman? I’m a little offended.” Now did not seem the time for jokes, but hey, wasn’t that the perfect time to pull one out?

“You are so special, Y/N, but I need to know what he me-” He was cut off by Billy grabbing the staff, and slamming it into Mr Supervillain. He went flying backwards, buying you all some time.

“All hands on deck.” 

You knew what Billy was doing. He had told you exactly how he got turned into his superhero self, so you stayed behind when everyone else held onto the staff. They all waited for you to join, but you didn’t move.

“Y/N? All hands on deck. That includes you.” Freddy smiled, but you just shook your head. He tilted his head in confusion, going to pull you over as Billy said something about running out of time.

“Y/N, come on.”

“I think I’ll be fine on my own.” You smiled, knowing that finally, the time had come.

“Freddy, come on, we gotta do this now.”

They all grabbed the staff, waiting for Billy’s next instruction. Freddy and Billy kept looking back at you, as you kept an eye on Mr Supervillain in the back.

“Say my name.” 

At the same time, all five of this Vasquezes yelled out the same thing.

“Billy!”

You laughed softly, having had a feeling that that would happen.

“No, not my name. Say the name I say to turn into this guy.” You saw the realisation on their faces, as they all got ready to yell again.

“Shazam!”

The most powerful lightning strike you’d ever seen came crashing down, and for once, you didn’t have to run or hide from the sparks. It felt nice finally being able to be yourself. Once the light died down, you saw that the five kids and teens had been replaced with five adults.

Freddy’s crutch fell to the ground, and your excitement grew wilder. You stood beside Billy, seeing the five identical lightning-shaped glows coming through the fog. Your smile widened as they emerged, buzzing with happiness. This was probably the best-worst day of your life.

Pedro stood in green, Darla in purple, Eugene in grey, Mary in red and Freddy, your Freddy, down the end in blue.

You watched as they all gawked at themselves, impressed by their superhero counterparts. You were kinda jealous that you didn’t get a cool adult transformation, but that had been your choice so you wouldn’t say anything.

“Guys,” Freddy said, and when you looked at him, you saw that his feet weren’t on the ground. “What’s happening?” He kept moving upwards slowly, and something clicked in your mind. “I can fly!”

You giggled at his excitement, unable to forget your current thought. Freddy said something, back when Billy first became a hero. Belief was the key. Freddy had always believed he could fly.

Even in a grown-up body, his excited laughter was still as dorky as it was usually. You were so distracted by Freddy and his everything, that no one noticed Mr Supervillain rising from the floor.

“Guys. check out these guns.” Pedro said, and everyone looked at them grinning in shock and surprise, Darla even leaning over to poke said ‘guns’.

“Hey, Y/N, are you sure you’ll be fine without superpowers?” Freddy asked, to which you just smiled and shook your head.

“No, I’ll be fine without your superpowers, specifically.” You explained, leaving them as confused as they were before. 

“No. It’s not possible.” You all turned to see Mr Supervillain, rising from the ground.

“Gee-whiz mister,” You had to hold yourself back from laughing at Billy’s childish words coming from his grown-up body, “Sorry I took your cane. You want it back?” Billy snapped it in half, and you couldn’t stop smiling like an idiot.

“Guys, I don’t believe in violence, but I think we should kick this guy’s butt, like, really hard,” Darla said, everyone getting ready to fight. Freddy floated in the corner, holding up two middle fingers at the supervillain.

Mr Supervillain shot out his lightning at Darla, sending her flying backwards. The blast set the booth alight, but you watched Darla speed away from it. She ran back over to you all, stumbling a bit, but you steadied her.

“Guys, I think I can move really…” She sped her way inbetween Mary and Freddy, “fast.”

“Hyperspeed! Check!” Freddy pointed excitedly.

Mr Supervillain sent out the monsters again, and for once you weren’t scared of them. You eyed one up and down, searching for where you thought would be it’s weaker spots. All hell was about to properly break loose.

“Billy! The eye!”

Mr Supervillain lunged at Billy, sending them both up and out of the tent. It was just the six of you now, against six monsters. Perfectly balanced. 

“Look out!” Eugene spun around just in time, as a monster lunged for him. Lightning strikes sparked from his fingers, sending the monster flying backwards. He looked down as his electrified hands, as did everyone.

He accidentally set off another spark, hitting exactly where Darla was. She was, once again, flung backwards, but ran around to where Eugene was.

“You almost exploded me.”

Another monster appeared behind Pedro, and he put out his arm to defend himself. He hadn’t been expecting to catch the monster's arm and hold it away from himself. He threw the arm down, punching the monsters, as it soared backwards.

You and Freddy held similar expressions of unadulterated joy and excitement. Sure, Philadelphia could be destroyed by a supervillain and actual demons, but you were superheroes!

You saw a monster sneaking up behind Freddy, and without thinking, set your heat vision in action. You burned the monster, not stopping until it had run away to deal with its injuries. Everyone watched you, slacked jaws.

“What? I said I didn’t need your superpowers.” You said nonchalantly, though your mind was screaming about how good of a reveal that was.

“Y/N, you have superpowers? Oh my god, you have superpowers!” he went to lift you up to his level, but you simply floated your own way up. “Holy shit, you can fly, too!”

“Freddy, you’re flying right now, don’t be too impressed.”

“Yeah, but you can fly without having to say the word!” You had never seen Freddy geek out as much as he was right now. He was questioning everything you could do but didn’t ask how you got your powers. You told him everything you could do, and you felt that if he wasn’t losing his mind, he might have made the connection he needed to make.

The monsters didn’t seem to get hurt easily, as they kept coming back to attack you again. Mary got tangled up in the branch-like hands of one but threw it off her. You were busy helping Darla with an exceptionally big one when you heard Freddy from beside you.

“Dude, I’ve studied the fighting techniques of every single superhero. What do you got?” The monster you were fighting had scurried off to fight someone else, so you kept a watchful eye on Freddy.

The monster flicked its long claws out before they grew and sharpened even more.

“Well, that’s terrifying.” The monster prepared to lunge for Freddy, but he started running away from it. He took to the sky, the monster, unfortunately, having wings and following him. You wanted to go after him and help, but Eugene was having some problems and he would’ve needed more help.

“Eugene! Zap him over here!” You called, gaining Eugene’s attention. He zapped the monster, and as it flew towards you, you readied yourself to punch the ugly thing. You did, sending it soaring, ripping a hole in the tent.

You had to stand on your toes to high-five the now very tall boy. You used your arctic breath to freeze on of the monsters temporarily, allowing Pedro to weaken it more. The sound of whooping caught your attention, looking over to see Freddy flying through the carnival, the winged beast not far behind.

The monster crashed into the Ferris wheel, and it was then that you remembered that there were still people on the wheel. The impact from the monster caused the wheel to bend more, sitting at a terrifying slant.

“Oh my gosh, those people!”

You watched as one woman fell out of the side of her chair, clinging on for dear life. You wanted to go save them, but you couldn’t. You didn’t have anything masking your identity, and the Breyers were up there. 

The woman fell, and Darla ran to catch her. As the woman landed in her arms, you sighed in relief, before pinning around to punch the beast sneaking up behind you. Looking back, the wheel was still bending under its own weight.

“Pedro! Try and hold it up!” You instructed, said boy doing exactly that. And he did it well. The wheel was no longer collapsing, perfectly held in place by Pedro. You once again sighed, only for it to be revoked when you saw a four-armed monster on top of the wheel.

“Shit.” You didn’t really have anyone else to send out after the monsters. Did you risk the reveal of your identity? Your thoughts were whisked away by Darla cartwheeling in to save the day. She grabbed the two citizens, taking them safely to the ground, as Freddy flew past, still battling the flying beast.

“You’re not gonna believe this,” You used your enhanced hearing to listen in on him, only half paying attention to the monster you were fighting. “but you’re actually the first villain I've ever fought. It’s, like, kind of a huge deal for me.”

The monster growled, sending Freddy off flying again. You turned your full attention to fighting a beast, punching it a few more time, successfully knocking it out. Your mind drifted to Billy, wondering how his epic showdown was going. Hopefully, he was winning.

You watched Darla save a screaming Santa Claus, running him to safety, as Eugene electrocuted the monster, yelling out some Street Fighter reference while doing so. The monster you had just been fighting rose, targeting Pedro next.

You could see the conflict on his face, as the monster charged. You had to help, so you lunged onto the monsters back, punching it repeatedly. It simply flung you off its back, and slammed you against a wooden wall. You felt dizzy, trying to stand up, only to fall back down.

You saw Pedro getting tossed aside, same as you had been, and watched as the beast pulled the Ferris wheel down. The support beam snapped, while the other one continued to bend, the monster still pulling it as hard as it could. It continued to tip over, at a much more rapid rate now.

It seemed that everyone besides the Breyers had been saved, and you could hear them screaming. You were about to risk everything and save them when a blue streak pulled them from their seat. The wheel hit the ground, all people finally off the ride.

From above you, you could hear the Breyers screaming, while Freddy had an amused expression on his face.

“Is he giving us suitcase wedgies?”

You giggled softly, busy finishing off another monster fight with Mary. Freddy finally got his comeuppance with the Breyers. He landed, harsher than the other times, just to get the last laugh. You rolled your eyes at his childishness, before flying up to meet him.

“Nice going, hotshot.” You smiled, earning one back. 

“Yeah, I really showed those monsters what I’ve got.” He grinned proudly, his cape flapping in the wind. He looked happier than he ever had.

“I know, the Breyers were really screaming.” You giggled. Freddy suddenly dove down, swooping you up into his arms, which only made you giggle more. He flew back down to meet the others, and it seemed that the monsters had backed off for a bit.

“M’lady,” He said, placing you softly on the ground. You floated back up, pecking him on the cheek before touching the floor again.

“My hero.” You said, in an overly-dramatic and mocking tone. That sent you both into a fit of giggles, the other four watching with amused looks.

“This is nice, but maybe do it when you both look the same age,” Eugene commented, which made you and Freddy glow a bright red. “It’s just a little weird.”

The other nodded, and you smiled at the ground bashfully. No one noticed the monsters charging at you again. 

Two of them latched onto Eugene, who kicked and punched as hard as he could but couldn’t shake them off. Mary swooped in to kick the one that Pedro hadn’t seen, sending it hurling out of the tent, landing near two more of the creatures.

Mary and Darla went to take care of those three, while one more came after you, Pedro and Freddy. It was easy enough to keep one down with the three of you, so you ran to help Darla, who’s hyperspeed wasn’t doing much right now.

You went to land a hit on its ugly face when it dissolved right in front of you. Turning around, you saw Billy reaching in to rip our Mr Supervillain’s eye. You all watched as the glowing blue orb was torn from the socket, the demon entities being sucked back inside.

Eventually, the orb was fully removed, and the supervillain collapsed to the floor. Billy held the glowing orb in his hand, staring at it.

“Here’s the thing about power. What good’s power, if you got nobody to share it with?” 

All five of your friends landed behind Billy- Freddy had insisted on carrying you bridal-syle, and who were you to deny him his fun- looking at the defeated man before you. 

“Ta-da!” Billy exclaimed, presenting the evil orb to you all.

“That’s disgusting,” Pedro stated, and you had to agree with him.

“Fatality.” Eugene once again referenced Street Fighter and laughed in amazement of himself. “I got the voice.” He smiled, everyone smiling in approval too.

“What’s that?” Your heads snapped in Billy’s direction, the laughter ceasing quickly. Billy was staring at the orb, bringing it closer to himself. “I can have anything I’ve ever wanted?”

“Billy.” You said, your eyebrows furrowing. What was he doing? Realisation dawned on everyone, protests coming from every person.

“No, no, no!”

“Stop it!”

“Don’t look at that!”

The orb was at eye level now. Was Billy really about to do exactly what Mr Supervillain had done? He couldn’t be that stupid, could he?

“Billy don’t do it!” Freddy yelled, and you all jumped as Billy suddenly pulled the orb away from him. You groaned, rolling your eyes.

“That wasn’t funny, Billy.” You walked up to him and punched him in the shoulder. He yelped in pain, grabbing his shoulder. You walked back beside Freddy, happy with yourself.

“Jeez, you pack a mean punch.” It was then that the six of you realised that Billy didn’t know you had superpowers yet. Well, he’d find out eventually. “You got super-strength or something?”

“Actually, yeah, she does,” Freddy announced, the others nodding in agreement.

“Well, anyway, we can talk more about that later. You really think I’m gonna put a demon ball in my head? That’s disgusting,”

There was a debate between the seven of you as to whether Billy’s joke had indeed been funny or not. The consensus said no, except Eugene.

“Uh… Guys.” Mary said, regaining everyone’s attention.

You all looked to see a crowd of people walking your way. You ducked behind Freddy and Pedro, jumping down to hide in the fallen Ferris wheel, both of them looking at you strangely.

“No disguise. No secret identity.” You whispered, Freddy immediately nodding and making sure to cover up your entire figure while you hid, along with Pedro. 

The crowd clapped and cheered, while you all just stood awkwardly. Darla waved to the people, in her energetic little kid manner. 

“Alright, we did it!” Billy cheered, his family moving to line up with him. You wanted to be up there, but you’d have to wait until you got a costume and an alter-ego for that. “Hey, alright, yeah! We did it! We did it!”

The crowd cheered louder and louder, more people coming to applaud the heroes. You smiled from below the Ferris wheel, picturing Freddy’s face as all his dreams come true.

“Hey, you guys are all safe. There’s no more danger anymore.”

Your friends still stood awkwardly, not really knowing what to do, besides Freddy who was completely owning this moment. He was truly in his element. 

Eventually, the crowd died down, people leaving to go home after that night’s adventures. You floated up to join everyone else, who were still on a high from everything that had happened in just an hour.

“They all really love you guys.” You mused, earning happy smiles from everyone.

“They’ll love you, too, once we get you a costume,” You smiled softly at Freddy, his compliment meaning a lot to you, “I mean, how could someone not love you.” He rushed out his words, mumbling them quietly.

If he had been in his normal teenage body, you would’ve kissed him right there.

“Oh, guys, what do we do with this?” Billy gestured to the orb.

“Put it back where it came from, I guess.” You shrugged, not really having any other idea. “Which would be the temple cave thing. You transported us out of there, can you get us back in?”

Billy gave you his typical “I don’t know” face before it switched to one of concentration. He focused on taking you all back to the temple. Nothing seemed to happen, so you thought of something else.

“What if you all try?”

You watched them all concentrate on teleportation. You thought you might as well try too, closing your eyes tightly. When you opened them again, the bright lights and skyline of the city were gone, replaced by the rock walls of the temple.

“You guys can teleport!” You said, in a very Freddy-like manner.

Billy held the orb, looking for where it went. His eyes darted wildly, but Freddy’s locked on to something, Terminator-style.

“The pedestal, over there.”

“You sure this is gonna work?” Billy asked, placing the orb over the pedestal. A weird cage thing solidified around it, holding it floating in place.

“Told ya,” Freddy announced, as seven plumes of smoke left the orb. The plumes rebuilt broken statues of the monsters you had fought, each one even as terrifying in stone as they were in real life.

You just hoped they remained as stone for many years to come.

“You guys know what this place is, right?” Freddy asked, and you nodded in excitement. He had whispered it to you earlier, and you had to try very hard not to geek out.

“A dark, haunted cave with demon statues,” Darla said, and she wasn’t wrong.

“Well, yes, but also…” You and Freddy looked over at Billy, who looked at you weirdly. You saw the confusion being replaced by realisation, and then excitement.

“Lair! We got a lair!”

No one else was anywhere near as excited as you, Billy and Freddy were, but that didn’t matter.

“We got a lair.” Freddy smiled stupidly, giggling to himself.

“What’s a lair?” 

***

That night, after Freddy had flown you home, even though you insisted you’d be fine on your own, you had told your dad every single detail of the events that had just occurred. 

Two hours after your return, your dad knew everything. Billy skipping school, going with Freddy to find him, the bus, the argument, the supervillain, getting kidnapped briefly, the monsters, the temple, and the final battle.

He had listened intensely, saving his questions for the end of your story. When you wrapped up your story with Freddy bringing you home, your dad opened his mouth to start his questions.

“Are you hurt?” Head shake no.

“Did any of them get hurt?” Head shake no, again.

“So they know about your powers?” Head nod yes.

“And Freddy brought you home?” Head nod yes.

“And you’re together now?” Head nod y- wait, what?

Your jaw dropped open, as your dad didn’t try to hide his laughter. You burned red, fiddling with your hands. Your dad either maintained boundaries or never had them, and there was no in-between. 

“W-We’re not together. Sure, I like him and I think mayb-” You looked down, not only because you were saying too much, but because you felt your phone buzzing in your pocket.

You saw Billy’s contact, looking at it in confusion, but you picked up the call.

“Billy? What’s up?” You saw your dad listening in.

“I need your help with something. You said the other day that your dad knows Superman.” Once again, your comment has landed you in deep shit.

“Uh, yeah, what about it?”

“Can you get him to come to school for lunch tomorrow?” Your eyes darted up to your dad, who could hear the entire conversation.

“I’ll, uh, see… what are you planning?”

“I thought you’d want to help me surprise Freddy.” Now that Freddy was in the picture, you couldn’t back out.

“Oh, yeah I’ll see if I can get him immediately.”

“Thank you so much, Freddy will be thrilled. See ya tomorrow.” He hung up, and you looked sheepishly at your dad.

“So, uh, abo-”

“I’m going.” You blinked a few times as if that would confirm that you heard your dad correctly. “Look, I want to meet this Freddy you keep talking about. Make sure he’s good enough for my baby daughter.”

“Fine, just be gentle with Freddy. I don’t want him running away from me.”

“He’s in love, he won’t go running.” Your dad smirked, seeing how flustered you got. You stood up from the couch, heading out into the hallways, but not before turning back around, trying not to laugh at your dad’s childish actions.

“I’m going to bed before you embarrass me more.”

***

Freddy walked through the cafeteria, trying to find a table with some empty seats. He spotted one up near the back and redirected his path. Sitting down at the table, it wasn’t long before everyone at the table got up and left.

Freddy acted like he didn’t care, but deep down, he felt a pang of sadness. He hadn’t seen you since before school, and he already missed you. He wasn’t ashamed to say that maybe he might be in love with you.

“What are you doing?” The annoying voice of Brett Breyer came from beside him. “Waiting for your imaginary BFF to show up?” Burke went to grab a chip from Freddy’s plate when his hand was swatted away by yours.

“No, just waiting for me.” You sat down at the table, moving your chair closer to Freddy’s. The brothers walked away to a different table, not before Burke knocked Freddy in the head with his elbow. You gave them both middle fingers, much like Freddy had done when they almost ran him over. 

“Sorry, I'm late. I got caught up in class,” You lied, “Teacher wanted to talk to me about a paper we had to write.”

“All good things, I suppose?” Freddy smiled, leaning on his hand. 

“Yeah, yeah. She said it was an outstanding piece of writing.” You kept lying, only feeling a pang of slight guilt.

“Well, yeah, duh. You’re smart enough to go to MIT or Harvard or something.” You went an alarming shade of red. Freddy always knew the right thing to say, even when you were blatantly lying to him. “Just, don’t go there without me.”

“I’d never dream of it, Freeman.”

Your little moment was interrupted by four trays hitting the table, and four people sitting in chairs. Freddy looked at his siblings in confusion.

“What are you guys doing here?” 

“Well, we’re having lunch with you,” Mary said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“But you guys have different lunch periods.” 

“Well, we made a very special arrangement.” They all nodded in agreement. You tried to look past their not so great acting and lying skills.

Freddy’s eyes moved to his little sister.

“Darla, what’s going on?”

“Why are you asking me?” She asked, innocently, though she suffered from Freddy’s issue of always looking slightly suspicious.

“Freddy Freeman.” You all hid your smiles as Billy walked into the cafeteria. You heard a wave of silence pass across the entire room. Freddy covered his face in surprise and embarrassment. “This guy taught me everything I know about being a dope superhero. True story. You should get some pointers from him.”

Billy sat down on the seat besides Freddy, really laying his acting on thick. “What’s going on, my best bud in the whole world? Hey, Y/N, you’re here too! And also new kids that I’m meeting for the first time but seem very cool.”

You let out a short string of giggles, only continuing when you saw the dumbfounded looks on the Breyers faces. 

“Uh… I invited another friend. I hope that’s okay.”

You couldn’t keep the smile off your face as you saw your dad walk in, red cape and all. Every single person in the room gasped, pointing at the man that just walked through the door. As your dad approached the table, Freddy turned his head away from Billy, noticing the shadow.

He looked up, letting out an adorable yelp of shock as his idol stands beside him. You move a seat over, letting your dad sit down. Freddy seemed to be frozen in shock, only his eyes moving. You had a stupid look of affection on your face, so utterly in love with this dork.

Freddy suddenly broke out of his frozen state, a sudden tsunami of questions spilling out. He barely left any time for your dad to speak. Your dad glanced down, seeing your gaze on Freddy and the lovestruck expression on your face.

The bell rang, and Freddy sighed, going to grab his crutch and go to class. Billy held out an arm to stop him, and Freddy looked at his brother in surprise.

 “We got special permission to miss the last lessons of class, we just have to stay in here.” You explained, “But they only let the two of us stay. Apparently any more than that, and it would be way harder to explain.”

Freddy said goodbye to his sibling, your dad also wishing them farewell. Once they were gone, your dad dropped his proper superhero facade, but not completely.

“So, Freddy,” You smiled at Freddy’s gasp of shock at hearing his name coming from his idol’s mouth, “I hear that you’re some new, hotshot superhero, alongside Billy here.” Freddy nodded along, wondering if Billy had told Superman everything.

“Well, if you need any tips, I’ll make sure to get back to you.”

“Sure, dad, you can’t even message me back and I’m your own kid.” You snorted, not realising what you had said. Freddy and Billy stared at you wide-eyed. “What? Did I say som- Oh. well, haha, surprise?”

You looked to your dad for help, but he was looking at the clock on the wall.

“Well, my time is up, I have work. See you after school, Y/N. Have fun explaining. It was great to meet you, boys. Freddy, you have permission to date her.”

And with that comment that left you and Freddy a burning red, your dad ran out of the school building. Billy went to speak but just ran out with no words.

You turned to the curly-haired boy, who was staring at the door in which your dad had run out of.

“Freddy, I’m s-”

“I’m in love with you.”

“W-what?”

Freddy grabbed your face, practically smashing his lips against yours. It was extremely messy and chaotic, and neither of you knew what you were doing, but it was perfect. You pulled apart eventually, both of you giggling like preschoolers.

“I’m in love with you, too.”

#freddy freeman #freddy freeman x reader #shazam #shazam x reader #dc #dc x reader #dceu #dceu x reader

[sourwolf-sterek32]

Unforgettable Memories ( Daryl Dixon x Reader )

Summary: Y/N Grimes is Rick’s younger sister. You used to be in the military and have enough PTSD to last a lifetime. With Shane’s help you created the quarry camp and came across the Dixon brother’s in the woods. You bought them back to camp, but after that everything changed and you were still trying to figure out if that was a good thing or not. 

Pairings: Daryl Dixon x Rick’s Sister!Reader

Word Count: 3.7k

Warnings: Blood, guts, language (just usual twd warnings), 

Chapter 22- 

Broken glass and metal flew everywhere as the truck rolled for nearly 50 metres before coming to a stop. It laid in the middle of the field on it's roof and if your brain was actually working you would have been thankful that you decided to put your seat belt on. But, the only thing you could actually get your brain to process was the fact that the truck had crashed and that you were still strapped to your seat and sitting upside down.

You couldn't hear anything over the ringing in your ears as you looked over to Shane who was lying face down into the roof of the car which was now the bottom of the car since the damn truck had landed on it's roof. He clearly didn't have his seat belt on and if it wasn't for the herd of walkers that were no doubt heading towards you, you would have ripped into him about basic fucking safety, but now was not the time.

"Shane." You shouted in a whisper, not wanting to draw any more walkers towards you by shouting, but he seemed to be passed out because you could see his chest slowly moving up and down so you knew he wasn't dead. Well, he wasn't dead yet. You guys were literally sitting ducks right now. 

"God damnit, Walsh." You muttered as your shakily reached for your seatbelt buckle before taking a deep breath as you clicked the button. Your body crashed to the ground and you couldn't stop the scream escaping your lips as your broken wrist slammed against roof of the truck, the sudden pain sending tears to your eyes.

Without wasting anytime dwelling over your wrist, you quickly rolled your body over and scrambled to your hands and knees. You grabbed your backpack which somehow was still beside you as you threw it out your open window and crawled out the gap, ignoring how the broken glass scraped against your bare arms.

Once you were out you quickly grabbed your backpack, throwing it over your shoulders as you rushed around to Shane's side of the truck. You took a split second to glance towards the herd and you wished you didn't because they were coming and shit they were getting close.

"Walsh! Wake up!" You shouted, not caring about raising your voice since the walkers were coming anyway as you crouched down beside his open window to find him still lying face down where he was earlier.

"Shit." You cursed under your breath as you grabbed Shane's hands and bit your tongue in the process to stop yourself from screaming at the pain it was causing your broken wrist as you began to pull him out through the window.

You only managed to pull his body halfway out before his eyes suddenly snapped open and you sighed with relief as he stared up at you in confusion. You could pinpoint the exact moment his brain clicked into gear because he suddenly rolled over and crawled the rest of the way out the truck before scrambling to his feet.

"The woods. Now." You yelled, pulling your handgun from it's holster as you fired at a few of the walkers that were getting too close and Shane followed suit, pulling out his own pistol and firing off a few rounds before the two of you sprinted towards the woods.

Neither of you dared to look back as you reached the woods and kept running. The moonlight proving you with enough light to see the trees as you dodged and weaved through them. Neither of you were running very fast since your knee was still recovering and you knew Shane's ankle was still screwed up from that night at the school with Otis.

You ran for nearly 10 minutes before Shane grabbed your arm and you both stopped running as he grabbed onto the nearest tree for support and he tried to catch his breath.

"D-did you see Daryl? Did he make it out? Did you see?" You asked breathlessly as you leant your back against the tree beside you and cradled your broken wrist to your chest. You were pretty sure the others had made it out, but you never saw if Daryl did or not, God you hoped he did.

"I couldn't see anything." Shane replied a few seconds later as he took in a couple deep breaths, trying to get air back into his lungs and that's when you saw the nasty bruise forming over the left side of Shane's forehead which he got during the crash and was clearly hard enough to knock him out.

"I'm fine, just a bruise." He reassured noticing your sudden worry and you nodded, not wanting to waste energy in speaking as you focused on trying the breath.

You pulled your handgun out and checked the clip which only had four bullets left inside and by the expression on Shane's face he didn't have many rounds left either as he checked his gun before tucking it back through his belt.

"We sho-" You began to say when suddenly the groans of walkers began to fill the air and your blood ran cold as you spun around and spotted the herd in the distance. Shit, they were quick. You couldn't out run them.

"C'mon!" Shane whispered nodding in the other direction as the two of you took off running again, but you were both already exhausted and it was clear you weren't going to be able to outrun the herd.

"Get in the tree." Shane suddenly instructed as you both stopped running and you quickly looked over at him thinking you heard him wrong.

"What?"

"We can't outrun them and I don't see any other options." Shane responded, but you quickly shook your head. No, like hell you were climbing a fucking tree and if the walkers could bust through a secure fence then they could probably knock down a damn tree. 

"Y/N, you need to trust me." Shane said as he pointed towards one of the thicker trees to your left and you sighed. Fuck it, might as well try.

"I hate this." You grumbled, double checking that your handgun was secure in your holster before you began to climb up the tree, Shane helping you up the first few steps since your left hand was practically useless before he began climbing up behind you.

You focused on making sure your feet were on secure branches as you climbed higher until you were a good 10 feet in the air before you sat down on a thicker branch that seemed the strongest. Your legs were dangling off either side as you carefully pulled your backpack off and rested it over your lap so you could lean your back against the trunk of the tree as Shane sat down beside you on another thick branch.

You tried not to look down as you rested your head back against the tree, your legs gripped around the branch tightly and your good hand holding onto another branch to your right for support. You weren't a big fan of heights and jumping out the school window with Shane that day was enough for you, but this was a whole different story.

"You won't fall. Relax." Shane whispered from beside you and if you weren't sitting 10 feet up in a tree you would have wacked him because seriously saying 'relax' was not helping in the slightest.

"If this doesn't work, I'm killing you." You said quietly, glancing over at him as he chuckled.

"If this doesn't work, we'll be dead anyway." He replied honestly and you rolled your eyes.

"That makes me feel so much better." You muttered turning away from him as you stared up at the moon in the sky, trying anything to distract you from what you and Shane were doing.

It didn't take long before the herd caught up to you, the groans of the walkers getting louder and louder every minute before you finally spotted them in the distance as they stumbled through the woods in your general direction.

Neither of you dared to speak as you stared at the walkers, hoping, praying that they would just walk straight past. It took nearly 30 minutes before the herd finally walked past and continued heading in the opposite direction, but of course life seemed to hate you. 

The next thing you heard was Shane mumbling 'oops' as you watched his knife fall to the ground, smashing into every single tree branch possible on the way down before it landed on the leafy floor below with a loud of enough thud for the last few walkers in the herd to hear.

"You couldn't have waited five more minutes?" You whispered, glaring at Shane as he stared down at his knife in a mixture of frustration and guilt before he glanced back towards the herd which were now walking back in your direction. Oh, that was just perfect.

You rested your head back against the tree with a sigh and just sat there as you waited to see what the walkers were going to do. But, of course, they all just end up milling around by your tree trying to find the source of the noise, but little did they know that the dumbass who made the noise was sitting 10 feet above them.

You both sat there for nearly an hour, some of the herd had gotten bored and began to wander off further into the woods, but others seemed happy to just stumble around your tree with nothing better to do. 

"What time do you think it is?" You whispered as you very carefully began to unzip the front pocket of your backpack as quietly as possible.

"Maybe two, three in the morning?" Shane answered, but it sounded more like a questioned as he watched you curiously as you pulled out your military radio. "The hell you got that for? It's useless."

"It's more useful than your police radios." You responded quietly as you flicked it on and sighed with relied when it actually turned on. "I can set an alarm to go off on here at a certain time. We got taught how to do it in training, but never actually thought an alarm would come in handy until now." You explained as fiddled with the radio until you found the alarm setting and it was telling you to enter a time. You had to make sure you set the right time because if it was actually four in the morning and you set the alarm to go off at three in the morning then you were gonna have to wait 23 hours before it would go off.

"Tell me what time you think it is and then add another hour onto it just to be sure, because I would rather sit here for an extra hour than have to sit in this damn tree for a whole day because you got the time wrong." You whispered, glancing over at Shane who was staring up at the sky clearly trying to figure it out in his head. You tried to think of what the little digital screen said on the dashboard of the truck you guys were driving around in, but the last thing you were worried about in that moment was the time.

"Shit, I don't know. It wouldn't be any earlier than five in the morning, that's the only thing I'm certain on." Shane replied and well if that was the only thing he was positive about then that was what you were going to use.

"Five in the morning it is." You whispered as you set the alarm and turned the volume up to MAX before you threw the radio in the opposite direction of the farm as it landed on the ground 20 metres away with a thud.

A few of the walkers began heading towards it already, but most of them still stayed by your tree as you closed your backpack up and leant back against the tree as you waited for the alarm to go off.

You weren't sure how long you ended up sitting there for, but eventually the alarm began to ring, catching the walkers attention straight away as they all began to stumble over to the radio. The two of you quickly but quietly began climbing back down the tree while they were distracted.

Once you both reached the ground Shane grabbed his knife before you began running back in the direction of the farm, the walkers too focused on the alarm to hear or notice you at all.

By the time you reached the farm it was daylight, making the aftereffects of the herd even more presentable as you slowly walked up the dirt road towards the farmhouse which somehow still looked perfectly fine. There were still a few stray walkers stumbling around the property and were easy enough to kill with your knifes as you walked into the farmhouse.

You held your knife up ready in case there were any walkers inside, but the place seemed clean as you two did a quick sweep of the building, but nobody was inside. You walked back out onto the porch as Shane began packing up supplies into another backpack as you scanned the property. 

The barn had been completely demolished, just a pile of smoking coals and ashes. The fences around the farm were all busted and broken and you could still very clearly see the blue pick-up truck lying on its roof in the distance.

"Y/N, you got any room in your bag?" Shane's voice suddenly called out as you walked back inside to find him in the kitchen, shoving plastic water bottles into his bag before he pointed towards the lounge room. You nodded knowing what he meant as you walked in and immediately grabbed your blanket, knowing it could easily fold up into a small pile and fit perfectly inside your backpack before you began going through the rest of the groups bags and shoving anything useful inside.

"Grab any clothes you can, the nights are starting to get colder." Shane instructed as he appeared by the doorway and dropped his backpack as he began grabbing various clothes from peoples bags as you grabbed your military jacket that was lying over one of the mattresses and tied it around your waist. "Rick would have went back to the highway where we left that sign for Sophia. Hopefully the others were smart enough to go there as well."

"That's over a days walk from here." You replied, throwing your backpack over your shoulders as Shane did the same with his before you both began to head back outside. The others were all in cars which meant they would all be there already... well that was if they all went there in the first place.

"Let's just hope we can find some place to camp the night on the way." Shane responded and with that the two of you set off down the dirt and began heading in the direction of the highway.

-

You managed to come across an abandon house on the side of the road when the sun began to set and figured it was a good of a place as any to spend the night. One of you slept while the other kept watch before you swapped halfway through the night and by sunrise you were back on the road and continued heading towards the highway.

It was about midday by the time you reached the highway and after following it for another hour you finally reached the sign you left Sophia, but the group wasn't there, nobody was there.

"This was the truck T-Dog and Andrea were in, they were here. Were the others here too?" You questioned out loud as you pointed to the familiar rusty truck that was covered in walker blood and guts as you scanned the area trying to find any other signs of the rest of the group before Shane spoke up.

"I don't think Andrea was here, Y/N. But the rest of the group definitely was." He suddenly said and you turned around to find him standing by the car where the supplies were left for Sophia, but he was holding a piece of a paper. "Read this." He said holding the paper out towards you as you jogged over to him and took the paper.

'Y/N, Shane, Andrea,

We couldn't wait any longer, the highway isn't safe with the number of walkers around. We've left you half the supplies and we'll be heading east, following the highway for as long as we can. We left the Greene truck as well if you need it, if you don't then take its fuel and head east. We will find each other again, but until then stay safe, please.

From, Rick, Lori, Carl, Daryl, Hershel, Maggie, Beth, Glenn, Carol and T-Dog.'

"Thank God," You whispered, staring at the paper as tears began rising in your eyes. Your family had made it out, Daryl had made it out, most of them had made it out and they were all together. 

"They're alive, they made it." You repeated looking over at Shane who seemed to be relieved about it as well before he began loading the supplies into the truck, but made sure he left some for Andrea in case she had made it out as well.

You tucked the piece of paper under a few of the tin cans so Andrea knew which way to go if she happened to read it before you and Shane climbed into the rusty old truck and took off down the road.

You followed the main road for a few days, cyphaning fuel from any vehicles you passed along the way. You drove through a few small towns, but didn't dare to stop and try scavenge them, there were too many walkers and you guys had enough supplies to last the two of you for a few months.

Day 4:

Four days later you came across an intersection, it wasn't the first intersection you had come across, but it was the first one where the main road that was heading east was completely blocked by broken down cars and there was no way you'd get through. You thought about which direction Rick would take the group, but neither of you could figure out it out so you ended up turning right and hoped for the best.

Day 15:

You must have fallen asleep because when you opened your eyes the truck was moving and you glanced to your left to find Shane sitting in the drivers seat. You weren't sure why, but you've been really tired lately although that wasn't anything new these days those, you were just glad Shane was with you so you could keep switching watch duties at night while the other slept.

"Sleeping beauty is awake. You dozed off on me a few hours ago." Shane commented, glancing over at you noticing you were awake before he focused back on the road. You groaned sleepily as you rubbed your tired eyes and sat up straighter in your seat trying to wake yourself up. "About what I said yesterday-" Shane began to say before you cut him off.

"No. I'm not going to stop looking for them, I'm never going to stop looking for them." You responded, turning to look out your side window as you crossed your arms over your chest. 

Shane had bought up the topic that you both had been thinking for a while, but neither of you wanted to say it. It has been over two weeks and you hadn't seen any sign of the group, they could be on the other side of the country by now and you knew that was a very real possibility, but when Shane said it out loud you refused to believe it.

"I'm not saying we should stop looking, I'd never stop looking either, but we can't keep living on the road like this. We need to find a place to say for a while, it's going to be winter soon." Shane said logically and you hated that he was right, but the thought of stopping and staying somewhere for a few months when you could be driving and covering more ground to find the group just didn't sit right with you, but you knew Shane was right.

Before you had a chance to say anything back sudden nausea hit you like a truck and you barely had any time to wonder why the hell you started to feel nauseas because you knew you were about to throw up.

"Stop the car." You quickly said, already reaching for the doorhandle as Shane hit the brakes without asking why, clearly sensing something wasn't right by the tone of your voice. As soon as the truck came to a stop you opened the door, not even having time to step out the car as you leant out the door and threw up the little food you had inside you.

"Shit." You thought you heard Shane mutter from some somewhere behind you, but all you could focus on was your stomach retracting violently as you continued to throw up.

It felt like hours, but was probably only a five or so minutes before the nausea seemed to fade away, leaving you sitting on the edged of your seat as you leant your forearms against your knees trying to remember how to breath.

"Here." Shane's voice suddenly said as he handed you a plastic water bottle and you took it, rinsing out the disgusting taste in your mouth before you took a few sips. "You alright?" He asked after a few seconds and you nodded, screwing the lid back onto the water bottle as you handed it back to him before you shut your car door and leant back in your seat.

"I better not be getting sick." You muttered, glancing over at Shane who was staring at you with a hint of concern etched into his face. "Don't look at me like that, I'll be fine. Let's just find a place to stay for the winter." You responded and Shane looked like he wanted to argue about the first part, but for the first time he kept his mouth shut and started the truck up before he continued driving down the road.

-

NEXT CHAPTER

-

A/N- Link in bio for my Masterlist. I will reblog with my Daryl Dixon Tag List, if you want to be added to the list, just comment below. 

Like I said in my last chapter, the next few chapters won't have much of Daryl in them, but I promise it will be worth it. So bare with me for a bit because things are about to get even more complicated for Y/N and Shane. 

The next chapter will be up next weekend and luckily today is a public holiday in Australia, so I can watch twd when it airs in a few hours, I am so excited!! 

Anyway, until next time stay safe everyone and have a great day xx

#Daryl Dixon #Daryl DIxon x Reader #The Walking Dead #twd #daryl dixon fanfiction #daryl dixon fanfic #daryl dixon imagine #the walking dead fanfiction #the walking dead imagine #Norman Reedus #Rick Grimes #Shane Walsh

[hyperionswrath--archived]

@corleonis45

If it has been anyone else standing in front of him, Cor would have suggested going to the med bay to get looked at, but he knew better. Seifer wouldn’t go willingly, even if he was severely injured. In his mind a potion would suit him best. He knew the man would rather have the scars as a reminder, than have them healed properly.

Cor sat patiently with a raised brow, and leaned back while Seifer went off on the beginning of his tangent, knowing there was going to be more too it. While sitting like this was more informal than the Marshal typically was, he wasn’t there as The Marshal anymore; He was there as Cor, which to some, there wasn’t much difference. When the man had finally finished, he shook his head.

“Maybe if you thought of anyone else but yourself, you may have realized I stated that so I wouldn’t have to deal with the issues that would arise putting you two together? I’m not coddling you, Seifer. I’m trying to make both of our lives less difficult. But by all means..” Cor gestured with his right hand. “Please go cause more issues and dig yourself a deeper hole.”

Folding his arms, Cor sighed and really looked over Seifer. The way he held himself, even after the potion. The way he adverted his gaze. He was infuriating on many levels, but Cor knew there was something else there under it all. “What lesson would you learn if I simply threw a punishment at you and left without forcing you to look at the reason why it happened? Besides…”

Cor stood up, taking a few steps away from him to look across the training grounds. “ I’m here as Cor, not The Marshal. I’m not going to dish out punishments, at least not until you’re officially assigned to the wall.”

Grinding his teeth, the tall blond still held his gaze fixed on the Training Grounds, despite not really focusing on anything in particular. He had often been deemed egoistic, and for some reason, the statement always rubbed him the wrong way. He did care about other people. Not too many, granted, but a few ones he would even take a bullet for. Quite literally, if he thought about it. Shifting his left shoulder a little, he found himself reminded of an occasion that had occurred a couple of days ago, when he had met his former rival. He had accidentally gotten mixed up in an undercover mission and ended up taking a shot, protecting the man.

"He's a racist piece of shit and would deserve it," Seifer muttered at length, his attention returning to the situation at hand and remembering the disgusting display the Crownsguard showed whenever he got a chance to rub his unwanted opinion into a Glaive's face.

Glancing at the Marshal from the corner of his eye, he wrinkles his nose and shrugs onesided, ignoring another spike of pain. "I won't do anything." Well, there was never a promise in what he said because he knew himself better than that. There was always a chance of something or someone happening to flick a switch and make him lash out, but when presented with a task - or even punishment - that he did not deem useless or unnecessary, he usually followed protocol.

Seifer finally turned around to fully look at Cor when he prompted the question of how he was supposed to teach him a lesson, which earned the man an inquisitive raise of a brow. "I don't need to learn a lesson, Sir. I full-well know getting a Glaive into the sickbay is pretty much a bad idea and that I went too far." His answer is deadpan and he wonders for a moment if the other man really believes he could change the behavioral pattern he had been falling back on for more than two decades now.

Following the Marshal's movements as he got up and approached the Grounds, the tall blond let his attention wander once more, taking in the pillars and construction sites at the far end where reparations of damage were done. "Well, in that case, Cor, tell me what you are planning to do instead. I'm curious." Barely hidden taunt laces his tone of voice as he keeps staring ahead, taking a couple of steps to approach a nearby pillar and lean against it with one shoulder, arms still crossed, his face only twitching just so at the pain.

#corleonis45 #rp #.incorrigible little shit that he is #.oh well

[varvesivy]

lost. (pt. 2)

Prompt: "Dwale - v., to wander about deliriously or as if asleep"

Word Count: 769

Rating: M

Warnings: None

A/N: Day 17 of Aureate August 2018

Natasha stumbles, half-delirious as she schlepps through the soggy leaves gathered on the sidewalk, her brain barely processing the numbers on the apartment before one sticks out to her. She almost trips on the stairs to the doorway but there’s a little overhang where the buzzer is, providing her a welcome relief from the rain that had been pelting her moments earlier.

She raises her hand up, almost drunkenly, buzzing apartment number two-eleven and there’s a crackle as a familiar voice sounds through the tinny speaker.

“Let me in,” Natasha mumbles and Maria says something, her tone concerned but Natasha’s too tired to process what she’s said, only caring about the click as the door unlocks.

Natasha limps up a flight of stairs, not caring about the wet and bloody footprints that probably follow her and she stumbles a little as she reaches the landing, walking down a hallway before reaching a door with the number eleven written on it. She’s barely even raised her hand to knock before the door swings open, revealing a very-concerned looking Maria.

“What the-” Maria mutters as Natasha stumbles in and literally collapses into Maria’s couch, streaking blood on the floor behind her.  

“Natasha, what the fuck happened?” Maria asks, sounding pissed and concerned at the same time and Natasha can barely get the words out as her vision starts to blur.

“Gunshot… calf…,” Natasha gets out before leaning her head back on the couch armrest, her eyes struggling to keep open, “knife… met hip…”

“What?” Maria literally shouts, jolting Natasha slightly as she runs into her bathroom, grabbing the first-aid kit and other medical supplies she kept in stock.

“Shouldn’t have let you leave the apartment,” Maria mumbles as she dashes back, her hands clad in blue rubber gloves, kneeling down on a knee as she inspects Natasha’s left calf, unwrapping a bloodstained sweater as she looks at the wound.

“You need to go to a hospital,” Maria says and Natasha can see the clear blue of her eyes, even in her delirious state.

“Just a,” Natasha winces as Maria moves her leg, “scratch.”

“You got grazed by a fucking bullet, Natasha!” Maria yells. Natasha’s obviously in no state to go to the hospital and Maria has the right supplies to tend to Natasha’s injuries, her medical training from the army coming into use as she starts to disinfect Natasha’s leg.

It almost feels instinctual, as if taking care of Natasha is something she does regularly and Maria finds that she doesn’t mind.

---

Hours later, Natasha has showered, changed, gotten her stab wound and bullet graze disinfected and bandaged and after Maria makes sure Natasha doesn’t have a concussion, she finally allows Natasha to sleep.

Maria listens to the even sounds of Natasha breathing, Maria lying in her bed next to Natasha as her brain processes the whirlwind of events.

Natasha had left her apartment a couple of weeks earlier after Maria had pointed out that she was lost, citing that she needed to go “find herself.”

(“You’re right,” Natasha says, standing at the door with her backpack in hand at three in the morning, “I am lost.”

“Don’t leave,” Maria protests but she knows it’s no use, Natasha’s made her mind up already.

“I’m trying to find myself again, Maria.” Natasha pauses for a moment, staring deep into Maria’s eyes. “I can’t do that here.”)

And Maria, being the idiot that she was, let Natasha go.

Maria stares at Natasha’s sleeping figure, her face peaceful with her eyes closed and she looks younger, more carefree almost in this state and Maria turns around, flicking her lamp off before sinking down in the mattress so that her body is level with Natasha’s.

The sudden urge to reach over and stoke Natasha’s face washes over her and she almost does it, stopping herself at the last minute.

The weeks where Natasha had disappeared afterward were admittedly hard to get through as she sorted through her own feelings and Maria remembers the moment where she’d realized that Natasha’s presence, even for a couple of hours, was the most grounding thing she had felt in a long time; making Maria feel like almost herself again.

Slowly, hesitantly, Maria finds Natasha’s hand in the dark, lightly intertwining her fingers with Natasha’s and she’s relieved when Natasha doesn’t stir.

She’ll deal with the consequences in the morning but right now, with Natasha sleeping next to her, it almost feels like home and even for a moment, she feels like herself again.

Maria drifts off to sleep peacefully, grasping onto Natasha’s hand in the dead of the night.

#aureateaugust2018 #blackhill #natasha romanoff #maria hill #mcu #marvel #tbc

[wanna1things]

Mafia AU! Park Woojin

yall i love park woojin

Genre;; kinda fluff + friends to lovers AGAIN WHAT IS IT WITH ME AND THIS and angsty themes?? + mafia AU

Warnings;;  yes there’s def some violence here

Pairing;; Park Woojin x reader

Requested;; yes by anon here and also here

Summary;; You’re reunited with your old best friend in the strangest of ways….

Style;; bullet point

Word Count;; 2204

Others in the series;; Daniel | Jihoon | Minhyun | Seongwoo

masterlist • request rules • request something

me? posting before midnight? interesting...

you never forgot park woojin

you two were neighbours ever since you were born, you were best friends from the very start

you were literally inseparable even in school

woojin once cried so hard they had to call his parents in because he wasn't put in the same class as you so he had to change class HDKKF

but really,, you two were more like the same person than anything else

you'd spend all of your time together, always going to each other's houses and sleeping over I mean you were neighbours

when woojin got a trampoline you were there almost every day to play on it

and when you got a game console he was always over at yours to play on it

but one day he disappeared suddenly with no word said to you

it was the middle of high school, you two had stopped being in the same classes all the time and although you each had your own group of friends you two were ,,, the closest

still spending most of your time together and doing homework together for the classes you shared

but then woojin missed a day of school

and then another

and another

until it was a whole week

you immediately thought the worst, that he was sick

so after you got home from school that day you ran straight to his house only to see a 'for sale' sign in the yard and the house completely empty

when you got back to your house you asked your parents about it and they just mumbled something about the mafia

and just like that you never saw him again

you got on with your life, but it was difficult

you hadn't got a friend to say everything to anymore

nobody as close to you

and it made you feel very,, alone

and if what your parents had said about the mafia was true then

for all you know woojin could be a gangster or worse, dead

you'd just never know now

but you poured yourself into your work

you studied as hard as possible, partially because it was a distraction but also because something in you made you think that maybe, just maybe, if you did well woojin would be proud of you

wherever he was, that is

and you really did do well

you went to one of the top colleges in the country with a high gpa

but even though you'd succeeded it didn't feel right

you didn't have woojin there to celebrate with you

you didn't have woojin going to college with you

it was... different

but you got on with it

you found a small apartment in the suburbs to live in while you attended uni, and although it was kind of cramped it was homey and also very cheap

your friends at college said it was ,, in a kind of dodgy area,,, but you ignored them because well

you'd never seen anything bad happened and your neighbours were a crazy cat lady and a photographer how dodgy could it be???

that was until you were walking home one day, later than usual

you'd been doing work in the library for an essay that was due in a few weeks time

when you came across something odd - dodgy

3 men stood with their guns pointed towards another man on his own, with his own gun

all the men had your backs to you but

one of them seemed familiar

you approached further, making sure they didn't notice you because haha you didn't want to be shot

he... reminded you of someone

or was he the someone he was reminding you of?

wait

it's?

"Woojin?"

it was only a whisper but

the man closest to you, turned around, his gun pointing to the floor

and as he looked you in the eye you knew

it was definitely woojin

as much as you wanted to run to him and hug him for 2991934 hours to make up for the years you'd missed together

there was a dangerous situation

just as one of the other men tutted and turned to woojin

the person they were all facing ran away into the night

the tallest man fired in the mans disappearing shadow before walking off, followed by the other man

"Woojin? Are you coming with us?"

"I'm just going to stay here for a bit. See if he comes back."

the tallest hummed in approval before turning to walk away

"You shouldn't have lost focus."

as soon as they were out of sight woojin ran over to you and hugged you tighter than you've ever been hugged before

"I've missed you so much, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

you smiled into his shoulder and took a deep breath

"It's okay, as long as you're okay it's all okay."

he pulled back from the hug and looked at your face properly, lit up by the streetlights

"You've gotten prettier, I'm sure!"

you rolled your eyes at him and smacked his shoulder

"Shut up, if anything you've got... handsome.... er???"

he laughed at your attempt at a compliment and stepped back

"It's dark, do you want to come to mine? I live nearby!"

and he did

he lived closer to your college than you did which made you jealous,,, but his apartment was also way bigger than yours with 2 bedrooms which made you even moRE JEALOUS

he went to make you some tea and when he returned you two sat on the sofa, watching tv

to be honest,, neither of you were focused on the tv,, more on how good it felt to be back together again

"I really missed you woojin, I thought you were dead."

you sighed and breathed slowly, your chest heavy

"I wouldn't die on you, you know that."

his tone was serious but he looked at you next to him with a smile

and you felt your heart jump a bit

it hasn't been long since you last saw him but you were sure he'd gotten even more handsome

in fact he was really,,, good looking ,,,

he explained that when he left it wasn't really,,, his fault

his dad was Kang Daniel's dad's, the head of the mafia, old friend, and he'd called in a favour which meant he needed woojin's dad's help

and the area you lived in wasn't really ideal,,,

so woojin moved away and then with all that happened

he managed to get involved in the mafia himself

but he wasn't really heavily involved

not as much as his friends minhyun and jihoon, who were with him earlier

minhyun was higher up,, and jihoon was as good as a trained assassin who watched over newbies like a hawk in case they tried to stray

but woojin wasn't nearly as involved as them

he just did small jobs, jobs that didn't need a lot of work or violence because although he was good with a gun they said he had ""too much of a heart""

and he was totally fine with that,,, he didn't really want to go around doing bank robberies or hits

before long you got talking about yourself, your uni life

when you mentioned your grades you noticed the proud look on woojins face and it made it all worth it

because not only did you make him proud but the grades brought you here where you saw him again

when you mentioned where you live you noticed woojin started to look like he was

,,, in thought ,,,

and he suddenly spoke up before you'd even finished your sentence

"Do you want to live with me? I'm closer and you don't have to pay me rent!"

WELL YOU WERENT ABOUT TO SAY NO

something in your mind was thinking about,,, living with a mafia member would be dangerous,,, but he was low down so you assumed it would be totally okay

also he claimed that you ‘might be recognised by that guy!!!’ and it was protection lmao nice one

and so you moved in together

it was ;; real fun being together all the time again

it was exactly like nothing had change

you'd order takeout like every night and just eat it and watch tv

I mean of course you'd do your work for college too but

it was like the 2+ years without him never happened

but there was one difference

somewhere in your heart, feelings were starting to grow for woojin

not bad ones lol

LOVE

he had gotten so handsome,,, and so caring ,,, and the way he looked at you sometimes gave you butterflies

but he was in the mafia...????!!!!!

that ain't safe

one day you were home earlier than usual, one of your classes were cancelled

when you heard woojin come in,, accompanied by who you assumed were minhyun and jihoon

of course you realised you pROBABLY HAD TO SHUT UP AND NOT SAY ANYTHING BECAUSE THEY DIDNT KNOW YOU EXISTED

so you went and hid out in the bathroom

as you hid,,, you could hear some of their talking

they were just talking about Daniel,,,, really ,,, and his cool penthouse suite in the hq and how jealous they were of it lmAO

as you got bored of their conversing you looked to the side and noticed

boy had literally used up all of the toilet paper

completely forgetting about keeping quiet you sighed loudly and mumbled "every damn time"

uh oh

bad idea

them mafia guys got MAD good hearing

"What the hell was that??"

"It sounded like a person..."

"Uh.... it's the ghost that haunts this apartment??"

nice lie woojin

"It sounded like it came from the bathroom, I'm going to check-"

before anyone could barge in on you, you stepped out from the bathroom and were greeted by the shocked faces of ,,, minhyun and jihoon,,, and woojin facepalming

"Really y/n? You couldn't keep quiet?"

"Why is there a GIRL in your bathroom? I thought you lived alone"

the taller, older one - you guessed he must be minhyun- seemed more shocked and confused than angry

but as for jihoon...

"She isn't one of us. Who is she?"

"She's my friend from before, she goes to uni nearby so she lives in the spare bedroom is that so bad?"

minhyun shrugged and wandered off back to the living room but jihoon looked at you suspiciously

"You know what you're getting her involved in?"

"Yeah."

"Hmm."

and then jihoon was gone too

and I guess that was how you met woojins friends

straight away minhyun started to come over every evening to teach you some self defence

nothing with a gun,,, because that's too much for someone who isn't even part of the mafia,,, but just how to protect yourself from attacks just in case

and every time you'd successfully do something, woojin would have that proud look on his face again

which gave you butterflies

before long you were pretty much perfect at defending yourself

if someone even tapped your shoulder,,, you could have them on the floor in 0.2 seconds

even minhyun was impressed by how quickly you caught on

and so your self defence classes finished

in celebration of your completion, you text woojin as soon as minhyun left to ask him what takeout he wanted

he responded quickly with

"Pizza! I'll be back soon!!!"

and so you got to ordering it

it came quickly, before woojin even got home

and so you went to unpack it, leaving the front door unlocked so woojin could get in easily

as you started to unpack the pizza you heard a faint knock at the door

assuming it was woojin, you shouted to him that the door was unlocked, he could come straight in

you heard the squeak of the door opening and closing, still not turning around from the pizza

and that was when you felt it

a cold knife was pressed against your neck from behind, a gloved hand pressing it close to your throat

before you even had time to process the situation your training had kicked in

you couldn't do much in the way of beating the guy up, but you managed to disarm him and chuck his knife out of the window

as you stood face to face with him, your own kitchen knife in your hand the door swung open and there was woojin

you looked over at him and noticed the complete shock as he pulled the gun from his pocket and the intruder backed away

"Get out!!! Do you hear me?? Get out of here!!"

he waved the gun in the direction of the door and within  seconds the intruder was gone

an odd silence fell in the apartment, with the only noise being the wind through the open door

Woojin looked up at you, a strange look in his eyes

"Woojin-"

he walked straight up to you, holding your face in his hands for a few seconds saying nothing at all

and then his lips were on yours

all you could think about was how much you loved him,, not even what had just happened

he pulled back slightly, resting his forehead against yours

"I really need to stop letting the one I love get hurt."

aha i love writing these

#park woojin #wanna one imagines #wannaone imagines #wanna one scenarios #produce 101 imagines #produce 101 scenarios #p101 imagines #woojin #mafia au #au #pwj

[stripesquadsideblog]

Naruto talk: Deidara’s family

Ok so ive spent ALLLLLL DAY looking for this one post that set all this off but i CANNOT FIND IT ANYWHERE.

Tl:dr of the post was OP thought Deidaras last name was Namikazi and i am 10000% on board but it also made me think like, how did he wind up in iwa??? There was also another post about the akatsuki and how deidara just wanted to be appreciated for his damn art but  no one in iwa cared but i cant find that either????

So.SO

Headcanon time

Deidara is a lil war orphan. (like 99%of the akatsuki are orphans???)

One of his parents is an explosion release user from Kiri and one is from konohas Namikazi clan

Everyone in the Namikazi clan has blond hair and big blue eyes/ Nordic features which are all really rare among ninja in the land of fire.

Namikazi’s also have a propensity for Wind style chakra. Deidara has this too but was only ever trained to use his Explosion release.

Im not sure if his parents are both ninja but i think whoever had explosion release was at least Chunin .

Parent A with explosion release was declared a missing nin and killed while they and deidara were travelling forcing the remaining parent B to flee .

Unfortunately second parent B was killed at the start of the 3rd ninja war because it was discovered that they were a konoha nin living in Iwa leaving bby deidara wandering the streets alone.

At this stage he's like 3-5 years old .

He has no idea his last name is Namikazi. He knows his parents died but he didn’t actually watch them die ( unlike konan and nagato for example) so it was more like they just went away rather than being really traumatizing. Onoki , kurotsuchi and Kitsuchi are the only family he knows.

honestly doesnt really remember his parents at all. 

While out surveying the damage Onoki and Kitsuchi find baby deidei wandering around in rubble possibly near dead parent B waiting for them to wake up.

Onoki and kitsuchi contemplated leaving deidara to the mercy of the war but Kitsuchi had just had Kurotsuchi and couldn’t stand to hear a little kid cry.

Kitsuchi brings deidara home like a stray puppy while his wife is giving him “theres a war on how we going to feed another child” face.

Deidara spends a lot of time with Onoki while Kitsuchi and his wife are out at war.

Kurotsuchi is like 2-4 and is happy to have a new sibling with pretty doll hair that she can totally mess up. This is why she calls him Big Brother Deidara.

His birthday isnt actually May 5th, thats just the day Kitsuchi found him.

Even though he's been adopted and thats a lot better than being completely orphaned and left on the streets like the ame trio things still aren’t great for deidara.

His new family are all Iwa born and bred. Iwa is a VERY militaristic place,just look at their shinobi’s attitude. Kurotsuchi is a daddies girl so she gets things better than him, gets away with a lot more than he does.

For Deidara his life is run like hes constantly at military boot camp.

Even from a young age deidara showed more intrest in art than fighting . this has always been a point of contention between him and Onoki/Kitsuchi. They frequently threw out or ruined deidaras art projects in an attempt to get him to serve the village more.

Deidara and Kurotsuchi were always the top of their class in Iwa Academy. Kitsuchi is secretly very proud of his powerful kekkai genkai children but he’d never tell them.

No matter what deidara did in ninjutsu he always tried to make it artistic

Baby deidara always had trouble controlling his explosion release ( because his wind chakra made things a little....volatile?) he’d blow things up by sneezing or smacking his hand down on something too fast.

When it was discovered deidara had explosion release he was instantly taken up by Onoki as his student because Iwa was one of the few nations who still held up Kekkai Genkai users as the best weapons of war the ninja world had to offer. Deidara wasn’t happy about this but he wasn’t given any say.

It was Kurotsuchis mom who suggested he mould his chakra into clay since it was a very stable material.

She didn’t discourage his artistic persuits like her husband but because iwa is so focused on war and fighting she couldn’t really encourage him either knowing he’d have to give it up at some point.

Literally no one in Iwa cares about art and if they do they tend to keep it to themselves

I cant help but feel if deidara had gotten praise from one person for his art and not being a weapon he wouldn’t have gone postal.

Now he's grown up he’s 99% of his own praise.

If someone had gotten to him before he got all egotistical and given him some praise he would latch onto them like a lamprey eel.

Deidara was only like 14 when he left the village. he’d had enough of everyone either ignoring him and his art or treating him like a Tool .

Kurotsuchi was about 12 and didnt really understand why he left ( even to this day) she asked kitsuchi a few times but he would usually just lie or paint deidara in a bad light so as to put kurotsuchi against the idea of looking for him/ against deidara himself.

I have SO many feels about Deidara. i only ment for this to be like 4 bullet points but woops.

anyway if anyone knows what post i was talking about at the top hmu so i can reblog and tag it and so on.

#Deidara #deidara namikazi #kurostuchi #kitsuchi #onoki #iwa #headcanons #deidara headcanons #naruto talk #naruto #iwagakure #caxy had a thought

[cmcrson-blog]

WHATS UP Y’ALL ITS YA BITCH NICKI AGAIN N IM SO EXCITED TO INTRODUCE YOU TO MY SOFT LIL FIGHTER BABY EMERSON WHO I LOVE V MUCH AND I HOPE YALL WILL TOO. LIKE THIS N ILL COME TO U FOR PLOTS (for both her n mack if we havent already!!)

ABOUT EMERSON 

TW VIOLENCE AND FIGHTING

EMERSON BLACKWOOD. 20. ENGLISH LIT MAJOR. PISCES. WEREWOLF. COULD PROBABLY SNAP UR SPINE LIKE A TOOTHPICK BUT REALLY JUST WANTS TO CUDDLE.

ok so while most, if not all, the students at hexlore were raised supernatural, em wasn't 

emerson was actually born human and had a perfectly normal childhood up until around the age of 15 

for reasons she doesn't readily talk about, she was hexed by a very powerful witch with the lycanthropy curse 

her parents and siblings obviously didnt believe her, so when she transformed one night unexpectedly, they ended up thinking she was a wild wolf who had gotten into the house and killed her. they attacked her and she was left within an inch of her life before she could escape

she would have died that night if it weren't for pure luck that a travelling pack was passing through the wooded area where she had ended up collapsing. they stayed there with her for the night and healed her up, taking her in and initiating her into their pack. with nothing left to lose and a spirit as broken as hers, she accepted it and left with them. 

not only did she join a big pack, she joined a freaking strong one, and as the newest recruit she was the runt of the group. she felt more like a burden than an actual pack member, so she began to train in order to earn her place 

though they were a wandering pack, they'd stop in cities long enough for her and the other minors in the pack to be able to finish a solid school year, and in each new city, em would become a permanent fixture at their local gym. every day, she was there, working on getting stronger and more powerful and being able to prove herself. too swole to control bro

 all the bullshit she had gone through ignited something within her, something equal parts destructive and encouraging. her pain transformed itself into pure, unfiltered rage, which has become the staple of emerson's personality 

first off— she is (thankfully) the OPPOSITE of mack's dumb ass lmaooo

she’s really reserved and not very outgoing (just a lil shy..... wow how cute). she’s this tol cute bean with this long curly hair and these big blue eyes so she’s not exactly unapproachable but she’s also buff as FUQ and has this mysterious, enigmatic energy to her and tbh that makes her lowkey scary to approach

esp also considering that she’s almost ALWAYS got a black eye or bloodied knuckles or bruises scattering her body, she kinda looks terrifying and like she might try to snap ur arm in half

she’s honestly a super sweet soft soul, she genuinely is just bubbling with kindness and good intentions but she tries to keep her distance from the world bc oh dear 

emerson has a fucking TEMPER

and it’s not the “i’ll snap and be petty” it’s a “i won’t react until you keep pushing my buttons and then i’ll fucking snap and smash a table in half, punch a hole in the wall, and say a LOT of things i’ll regret”

she recognizes how dangerous and harmful this pent up aggression and rage is so she genuinely tries to keep it under check by withdrawing from a lot of over-stimulating situations and environments

she’s that bitch™ who’s always like “i...... i should go....” 

you would expect her to be this angry cynical bitch but honestly?? she keeps the anger beneath the surface tbh she’s really sweet and gentle. she’s also like.... a hopeless romantic and believes in being kind to the world and she’s SUCH A GOOD ARTIST but her main passion is honestly fighting so that’s why she hasn’t dropped it entirely despite how dangerous it is

she’s really scared that one of these days, her feelings are just gonna shut down and she’ll lose her humanity and get consumed my her own darkness and just become this awful angry monster of a person, which is why she tries SO DAMN HARD to be kind and gentle and good

(lowkey she’s gonna turn it off eventually for a hot minute bc i def want to play dark!emerson at some point HKJFHKHF)

also.... she’s loyal to a fucking FAULT nd would prob take a bullet for her loved ones. its altruism at its finest with this one. she’s also pretty softspoken but definitely stands up for what’s right, she won’t hesitate to literally snap ur fucking femur if you’re fucking with someone you shouldn’t be

on that note— she’s STRONG. like almost excessively strong, partially bc of her training 24/7, also partially bc her anger fuels her additional strength. but like.... she has the potential to honestly be an alpha if she really pushed herself

if i had to compare her to some characters from modern media..... stefan salvatore, the iron giant, scott mccall??

tldr: basically a big dreamy beefcake with anger issues who could probably snap u in half if u fuck with her loved ones. also has a sad past but is tryna turn her shit around without hurting anyone in the process which makes her reserved n secretive oh nooo

WANTED CONNECTIONS

crushes: one sided, mutual, lowkey, highkey infatuation, pls just give em the ability to be cute and sweet but also sometimes a bumbling fool

i want a plot where em admires someone from afar and is just like.... soft n always leaves them flowers or draws them in her little sketchbook

besties: emerson literally goes along w everything thus making her a valuable member to any and all squads. she’s also versatile, she can go from being that art nerd friend to that jock/fighter friend to that mom friend to that innocent friend to that leader friend. literally give my puppy of a person some buds pls

fighting plots: people who help her train, people who want her to stop, a love interest who bandages her up every time after a bad fight, anything pls

guardian: someone em looks out for fiercely and protectively or someone who looks out for her too n checks up on her when she has her bad moments

exes: she’s demisexual & demiromantic so she only starts to fall for people that she’s gotten to know or at least knows about. i really want an ex (or a few??) that were super cute and sweet when they dated but then em just kinda ended things out of nowhere? maybe she ghosted them, broke up over text, literally so out of nowhere and ur muse doesnt know why??? but it’s actually because em was too scared she’d end up hurting them so she ended things as a preemptive move to protect everyone

coworkers/customers: she works on campus somewhere bc she needs that cash money (im thinkin library) so i’d love a few plots of either people who work with her or people she sees constantly bc theyre always coming in??

“but nicki,” u may be asking, “where’s the fwb plots??” 

SURPRISE BITCH EMERSON’S A    V I R G I N

considering that mack is a heathen who prob has enough sex for the both of them i wanted to make emerson way more inexperienced since this bitch doesn’t like to get too attached to ppl

which means new potential wanted connection: her first time

#sapphic.intro #❛ planet god damn ❜ — OOC

[confusedunit]

Universe of Unreality - Chapter 7

Chapter 7 -  "Benry, would you kill someone for me?"

Dr. Freeman has a scare, as do the rest of the Science Team. Bubby thinks. Dr. Coomer has an idea. Tommy gets a visitor. Gordon takes a call.

Dr. Freeman barely remembered anything, after they left the cafeteria. He knew they were all scrambling around, fighting off aliens and zombies (zombie aliens? Mutated human husks with parasitic aliens controlling their bodies, at the very least), and...just a few moments ago they had started to encounter turret gunfire.

Why the fuck did they have turrets in Black Mesa?? And who the fuck was controlling them if almost everyone they encountered was dead? Was no one controlling them, was that the problem?

He'd seen the four others hurry through a doorway to get away from the bullets, while he'd crawled across the floor to a hallway to protect himself, pulling himself up to sit and lean against the wall. There was very little he could do here. He didn't have gun training, he wasn't security cleared, all he had was his crowbar and a flawed sense of self preservation. And his glasses, which had been returned to him...back in the lockers, maybe? He really wasn't processing anything going on around him well at all.

And he was in pain again, unsure if it was caused by a stray bullet catching him unaware, or if his slowly draining health state was the cause. He hated that the HEV suit quantified his health into a percentage. Made him feel less human, if he was honest about it. Not like he'd have anyone to complain to about it, anymore. The damn thing was saving his life, he could bite his tongue and be grateful.

He pressed the lambda on his chest, with a sigh. "Well?" He mumbled to himself.

"User health, 63%"

"God fucking damn it." He curled over, rubbing at his temples.

"Warning! Internal damage, detected!"

"I'm fucked, aren't I?"

The suit didn't respond, and it was almost as irritating as if it had told him the truth. He was so tired. This was hell. He still felt sick, mind cloudy, pain medication long worn off, and he wished he could just be home and sleeping off the lingering bits of his illness. God, laying on the couch and watching Cooking Live while drinking obnoxious amounts of soup sounded so good right then.

He had forgotten to pay attention to his surroundings, so distracted by his frustration and distress, until he heard a sharp chirp behind him. He shouted in panic, blood running cold as he felt two sharp claws pierce the back of his neck. He reached up just in time to grab the headcrab with his hands, keep it from covering his head, but with the back claws digging harder into his neck and the front claws scrabbling for purchase on his forehead, the most he could do was struggle with it to keep it that way.

He heard footsteps across the way, the sound of kinetic energy bouncing around the turret room, and finally shouts of panic in reply to his own. Something sprinted at him, and in a single solid thud the alien had been disconnected from him, flying back in the air. He turned quickly to keep an eye on it, eyes widening as it first caught fire, before being pierced with a single pistol shot.

The headcrab landed on the ground with a thump, unmoving.

He turned back around quickly, startling as he realized the Science Team was crouched in front of him.

"Dr. Freeman, what the hell happened?" Bubby poked and prodded, examining Dr. Freeman's wounds on his face.

Dr. Coomer glanced over from checking the wounds on the back of his neck. "He may have been dissociating again. And I do not think he could hear our calls for him over the turret fire." He hummed. "These don't look too deep, but we should sterilize them as soon as we get the chance."

"Minor lacerations, detected." The HEV suit quipped, and in that moment Dr. Freeman hated it more than anything else.

"Mr. Freeman, are- are you okay...?" Tommy wrung his hands, full of concern.

"he's hurtin' kinda bad." Benry wandered into the hallway, hands in his pockets as his eyes focused on Dr. Freeman. "something's wrong inside, keeps uh, losing health."

"What?" Bubby looked back at the guard, before looking forward at Dr. Freeman again. "You're three quarters alright, aren't you?" He reached forward.

"Don't touch-" He tried to grab the hand to stop him, but was too slow.

"User health, 61%."

He groaned, pressing at his temples again.

"Warning! Internal damage, detected!"

"...There's no way that did that much damage to you-"

"Benry, when I told you that information, I told it to you in confidence."

"wha?"

"That means," He glared up at the guard. "that you weren't supposed to tell anyone!"

"oh. how was i supposed to know that?"

"Hold on a moment." Dr. Coomer leaned over. "Dr. Freeman, how long has this been happening?"

He sighed. "Since I woke up after the test, I guess. You guys patch me up, but...there's something wrong that it hasn't been able to fix yet."

The Science Team shared a look above him, that he ignored. God he was tired.

"...Come along, Dr. Freeman." Dr. Coomer gave him a faint smile. "We need to get going, so we can get somewhere safe you can rest."

-

After the headcrab incident, Bubby burried himself into his thoughts again. He didn't have all the information, in fact he was pretty sure he didn't even have half of it yet, but even with what he knew it wasn't painting a good picture.

Tommy had said that this was not just one experiment, but multiple. Which likely meant that each of them was in fact their own experiment. He could figure out his own, easily enough. Guess they didn't 'terminate' his project after all, just...put him...somewhere. It looked like work, but it couldn't be, not if it could keep repeating like this. Back there would be the control, and this would be the test. But what the hell was it?

He had no idea what Tommy's test could be, or if he was even being tested at all. With him saying he knew what was going on...was Tommy supposed to run the tests? That would be out of place for him...but with his lighter protective nature, and his contact higher up in the chain of command that let him get away with almost anything...he could see the younger man taking the role if just to make sure they were safe. So that was probably what his deal was. He could ask him later.

Harold...it had to have something to do with the clones, there were never as many of those back home as there had been there. Bubby recalled a maximum of five total Dr. Coomers, including the original, back in 2003. It was possible that there had been more after he had been 'dealt with', but he doubted it. That, plus whatever...block they put on Harold, was concerning. It had to be cybernetic, or at least he hoped it was cybernetic, because he hadn't noticed Harold's memory failing until after his surgeries. He'd hoped at the time it was just...stress. God, he hadn't remembered that until earlier. Curse Black Mesa and their bullshit. He'd burn the whole damn thing to the ground, this time.

As far as Benry was concerned, he had no memories of meeting the guard until after the newly reclaimed memory of burning shit down. Which meant he was a newer development. So, either a new Black Mesa project...or someone who just ended up there somehow. He had no fucking idea about anything when it came to Benry, and honestly he was loathe to speak to him privately. Even if it was just to figure out what was going on, the thought of talking together made his skin crawl.

That left Dr. Freeman, which...was far more questions than answers. The man had been missing for years before Bubby had gotten punished, and who knew what had happened during that time? He recalled a few times seeing him after his fire memory, but...they were few and far between, and still quite hazy. They hadn't always been running crystal tests. He couldn't just be for Resonation. So what the hell were they doing to the young man? And why the fuck had it hurt him so severely that his body was unable to heal properly, even with assistance?

He would need more information. And he wasn't looking forward to talking to anyone that would have any. Tommy was uncomfortable talking about it, Harold couldn't talk about it, who knew what Benry even knew, and Dr. Freeman had literally no idea what was going on even in the current moment.

He pulled off his glasses, cleaning them on his sweater. This was going to be a long day...but hopefully they could get somewhere secure soon. Take a rest. Try not to panic for just a few moments. He just needed a little bit of downtime to think, and he'd figure it out. He was sure of it.

-

Dr. Coomer knew what was coming up. He remembered it very well.

They were waiting for the elevator, to take them higher into the facility. Through the doors, there would be a man who would scream and panic, run off down a hallway, and explode. They would have to fight tooth and nail through military forces, turrets owned by both sides, water hazards, and other dangerous situations, until they were able to double back and open the door to the missile silo. They would all be wounded severely, other than Gordon, and would somehow return unscathed.

But that was Gordon, not Dr. Freeman. He was already wounded, and Dr. Coomer couldn't imagine willingly putting him through that. He didn't have to deal with that. He couldn't.

He glanced back down the hall, watching Tommy and Bubby try to both calm Dr. Freeman down, and also take his glasses away from him to clean them. They were definitely stronger than him, but the younger man was fighty and feverish and didn't understand why they wouldn't let him go. While normally he would have intervened...this would be a perfect oppertunity. To talk.

He looked back over to the elevator door, raising an eyebrow at Benry as the guard leaned back against the wall. "Benry."

"hmm?" He rolled his shoulders. "what's up, dr. coomer?"

Well, time to see what he could and could not speak about. "I need to ask for a favor."

The guard blinked slowly, before nodding once. "uhh, sure man. what's up?"

He focused on the thought for a moment, and at the lack of pain he spoke the words. "Benry, would you kill someone for me?"

Benry didn't tend to emote much at the best of times, but even he could tell the man was unsettled by his words. "uhh, what?"

"You do remember where we are, yes?" He took a few steps closer, gesturing to the elevator. "Once we go upstairs, there will be an explosive death, doors will close, turrets will be active..." He glanced back for a moment. "...Dr. Freeman cannot handle all of that."

"...yeah, probably not. uh, who do...uhm."

"I have seen you travel in ways that are not mortal, Benry." He pointed up. "I need you to go up there, unlock the door to the silo controls, and kill the scientist before he explodes. ...Actually, while you're up there, close off that blast door as well. No need to give him the option of running off into danger."

Benry slowly blinked, staring at him. "...you're really advocating for violence. different, than last time."

"Aren't we all, my friend? On both accounts." He gave a small smile. "Please. For Dr. Freeman."

He shifted on his feet, before he adjusted his helmet. "...okay, see you in a bit, bye." He glanced over at Dr. Freeman for a split second, before he flew up into the ceiling and out of sight.

Dr. Coomer sighed, closing his eyes. He was sure he should feel awful for requesting that, but he just felt...content. Pleased, even. Like getting a minor bit of revenge, for something he cannot remember. It's disconcerting.

He elects to ignore it.

-

Tommy was tense, as the elevator rose. He checked his pistol at least five times, before he put it away in his lab coat pocket again.

Dr. Freeman was in the corner, arms crossed and sulking about being treated 'like a child' after the others had heard of his declining health. They knew he could still manage, but that didn't mean he had to. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to get that. Bubby was near him, grinding his teeth as he rambled on about something or other. Just noise to fill the space. Dr. Coomer was standing right by the door, as if he was waiting for something.

The elevator finally let out a ding, and as it opened Benrey gave a halfhearted wave. "hey. about time you showed up."

"Is the area secure, Security Chief?" Dr. Coomer quickly moved to his side, starting to walk down the hall.

"oh, yeah, see? door locked, and door closed, and door open."

Bubby grabbed Dr. Freeman's arm, pulling him along. "Come on. Hopefully we have somewhere where you can take the goddamn nap you need."

"Fuck off, Bubby, I'm not in the mood..." He stumbled, but followed as fast as he had to to keep from being pulled over.

Tommy was about to join them, when he felt a pressure at the back of his mind, and for the first time in hours he properly relaxed. He hit the door close button, and once he was alone the world twisted blue and stood still.

"...Tommy."

He felt like he could cry. He slowly turned, smiling at the man behind him. "...Hey, dad."

"I...take it you've been, having some...difficulties."

"Y-you have no idea..." He rubbed at his eyes, moving closer. "What's- what's going on? I thought...W-we beat the test, didn't- didn't we?"

"I...had hoped, that, I would...have finished my, work. Before...your party. Un, fortunately...I had not." His eyes were still their faded blue, watching him. No emotions were betrayed on his face, but Tommy knew his father. Knew his tells. "However, I...have located my. Contact."

"Contact? For- for getting us o-out of here?"

"Yes, Tommy. It...took me more, than I had, expected. But. It should...only be a few, days, longer before...I have made it, there."

Ah, that explained it. "...You're...you're not- not here, are you?"

He shook his head. "...No, Tommy. I am, sorry. I can, visit, but not..."

"I understand." He really wished he could hug his father, but...he'd already waited this long. What was a bit longer, really? "How...how many?"

"I am...uncertain. But I hope, to, have contact...before you reach, Lambda. This would, be best, for...everyone."

"O-okay." He shifted on his feet. "...And- and they'll help you?"

For the briefest of moments, Mr. Coolatta smiled. "Oh Tommy...He'll be, glad, to help you."

Tommy smiled back. "Okay. I...I trust you."

"Thank you, for that...trust, my son." He reached out, attempting to mimic patting his son's hair, even if neither of them could feel it. "I will...visit again, soon."

"Bye, dad."

"Good...bye, Tommy. Take, care."

The world faded back to normal, and the door opened again.

Tommy walked out, alone.

-

Gordon sighed quietly, as the sound of his phone interrupted his thoughts. He'd settled in on the couch to watch cartoons with Joshua, even if the boy was more interested in drawing his own stories than watching the ones on the screen, and had finally felt like he could relax. But with the phone ringing...better to rip that band aid right off.

"Hey, Josh, I'll be back in a bit, okay? Got a phone call I gotta take."

"Okay." He smiled up at Gordon. "Can you bring juice when you come back?"

"Sure thing, bud. Capri Sun, or apple juice?"

"Capri please!"

He stood, stretching out his back. "One vintage Capri Sun in the pouch, coming up."

He moved into the kitchen, rubbing at his face as he came to terms with the conversation he was about to have. He wasn't looking forward to it at all, but he pulled out his phone regardless, taking a breath before he answered.

He forced a smile onto his face. "Hello?"

"Ah, I had worried I would never be able to contact you again, Mr. Dyson." Her voice was sickly sweet, the passive aggressive kind of kindness. It made his blood boil immediately.

"As I've said, Cassie, please call me Gordon. Mr. Dyson is my father." He held back a quip about how she should know that, and was quite proud of himself for doing so. "He told me that you wanted to see Josh."

"Yes, it's been so long since I've been able to see my boy, since you've...been taking care of him while his father is away." She didn't like to admit he was as much his father's son as Josh was. He was tired of her baggage.

"And for how long? I believe I may have heard from him incorrectly."

"A week, of course. I know I used to get alternating Saturdays, but since it's been...almost four months, I think a week should suffice. To make up for lost time, of course."

"Of course, Cassie. I'm sure Josh will be happy to see you." For reasons he couldn't understand. Of course, Joshua was younger, didn't see the harsh behavior his mother had for the rest of his family. He could be forgiven. She would not be, however.

"Oh, that's wonderful to hear. I've missed him so dearly..."

"Of course, ma'am." He took a slow breath, to calm his frustrations. "When would you like to pick him up?"

"How about tomorrow? Gives me a bit of time to finish getting the place ready, after all!"

Damn, that fast? He didn't like that at all...but the sooner she saw him, the sooner she'd leave them alone again. "That sounds fine, Cassie. I'll make sure he's all packed up. Morning, I take it?"

"I'll be there to pick him up at 8am sharp. Don't be late!"

He forced out a chuckle. "Wouldn't dream of it, ma'am. See you tomorrow."

"See you." She hung up as quickly as she could.

He sighed, leaning back against the counters as he slid to the floor. He hated dealing with her. Maybe he'd just cool down for a minute, before he took the juice out. That should be fine. Just a minute...

#*confused fanfiction noises* #UoU AU #Universe of Unreality

[180abroad]

Day 175: To Bruges

Having completed our relatively relaxing week on the Rhine, we barreled onward into the final two weeks of the trip. We would be spending a brief but enjoyable few days in Bruges, a fairytale town filled with medieval spires, cobbled streets, tourist-laden canal boats, and some of the world's best beer and chocolate.

Bruges also represented an especially significant milestone for our trip. Not only was it one of the first places we knew we wanted to visit together, but in a way it would be our last. Yes, we still had two more cities to visit after Bruges (Amsterdam and Reykjavik), but Jessica's brother Nicolas would be joining us for both of them and escorting us back home to California. The three of us were going to have an amazing time in those two cities, but it also meant that these next few days in Bruges would be our last as a duo.

As always, experience with the German rail system was blissfully uneventful. As we walked our way to the station from our wonderful flat in Oberwesel, we got to hear the morning bell chimes from the big red Church of Our Lady, which stands as the town's southern counterpart to the big white Church of St. Martin.

Our first transfer was in Cologne. Besides giving its name to male perfume, the city is best known for its magnificent Gothic cathedral--one of the largest and most-visited in all of Europe.

We only had a 40 minute gap between trains, but luckily the cathedral was right next door to the train station. Jessica very kindly offered to stay behind and buy our lunch for the next leg of the trip while I went out and sightsaw for the both of us.

It was only when I reached the station's main entrance that I realized just how close the cathedral really was. It was right there.

The cathedral is strikingly huge, even as someone who's seen enough huge cathedrals to have become fairly jaded to them. The only ones we'd seen that were bigger were St. Peter's in the Vatican, Seville Cathedral, Liverpool Cathedral, and the Duomo in Florence. And that's just by floor space. The Cologne Cathedral is more than six stories taller than any of them. And it doesn't just have a dainty spire but two massive bell towers--giving it the largest façade of any church in the world

Impressively, the church is still mostly original. It was hit by 15 bombs during WWII, but the structure stayed strong, and the people had plenty of time to safely stow the important art and artifacts beforehand.

In the square facing the cathedral façade is an ancient stone archway that marks the northern gate of the city's original Roman settlement. The name Cologne is actually derived from the Latin word colonia, meaning colony.

I knew I was pushing it, but I just had to go inside, even if only for a minute. So I did.

I went in just long enough to look around and snap a few pictures. It wasn't nearly enough time to appreciate the cathedral's impressiveness, but it was still enough time to be thoroughly impressed. On the way out, I noticed a lion-head brass door knocker whose nose apparently serves as a popular good luck charm.

Jessica was looking a bit anxiously for me when I made it back to the station, but I made it in plenty of time with at least several whole minutes to spare.

Our next leg was on a bullet train from Cologne to Brussels. It was hot and crowded, but luckily we had reserved seats. And it wasn't too long of a trip.

The last train from Brussels to Bruges was mercifully cool and empty. Jessica and I had an entire floor of our train car all to ourselves. At least, we did until a middle-aged woman boarded and decided to choose a seat facing us just two rows up. We would have been mildly annoyed, but instead we were mildly worried for her.

The woman was wheezing alarmingly throughout the entire ride and seemed ready to keel over at any second. Jessica and I were mentally preparing ourselves to call for emergency services the moment she did so, but the woman seemed remarkably composed, all things considered. So instead we just spent the rest of the ride pretending everything was totally cool and normal.

Finally, we had arrived in Bruges, and as usual we had a clear set of objectives. We didn't have our tickets out of town yet, so we had to get our tickets out of town. We didn't have a kitchen at our Airbnb, so we needed to buy something for dinner that we could eat cold. And we were staying out in the suburbs, so we needed a bus pass.

After a bit of confused wandering and backtracking, we found the ticket counter and waited in line to buy our tickets to Amsterdam. Check.

Next, we split up. I would go buy our bus passes while Jessica ordered sandwiches at a deli in the station.

My mission did not go as smoothly as I would have hoped. I found the automated kiosks for the local transit system easily enough, but that was just the beginning. Like literally every ticket kiosk we'd come across on our trip, the kiosks had an English language option. Unfortunately for me, these particular kiosks only managed to translate about half the words into English. And it wasn't the half I would have chosen.

Afraid of accidentally choosing the wrong tickets--there were several with close variations of the name I was looking for--my fight-or-flight response kicked in, and I headed back to Jessica to regroup. As we always said, between the two of us we can always constitute the brainpower of one competent traveler.

Meanwhile, Jessica was having no problems buying our sandwiches for dinner. And as we always do, she immediately started noticing the funny little things that differentiate one country from another.

Together, we made it back to the ticket kiosks. It wasn't five minutes after I'd left, but in the meantime they'd all been closed off for the day. Apparently the ticket machines in Bruges work union hours, too.

Buying tickets from the bus driver instead was a non-starter. Even if we were willing to "waste" money on a ticket instead of a pass--which I stubbornly wasn't--the bus drivers didn't take cards and would only accept exact change, which we didn't have.

It was Sunday evening, and everything around us was rapidly shutting down.

Feeling helpless, frustrated, and misused, I got back in the painfully slow line for the train ticket counter to ask if they knew anywhere in walking distance we could buy the bus passes we needed. The man at the counter said that he could sell us some passes, but not the kind of passes I was wanting to buy.

I admit that I came dangerously close to falling into the ugly stereotype of the angry entitled American tourist. I managed to (mostly) hang onto my dignity, however, and after expressing only a few pathetically whiny sentiments, I went ahead and bought the passes he'd offered.

As I did some mental math on the bus ride over to our Airbnb, I realized that the passes we'd gotten were actually a better deal for us than the ones I'd been trying to get. Whoops.

The bus dropped us off right at our place, but we didn't get to see any of the city's historic core. We did find out how to get to the hospital, however, which was nice. But no worries, we would have two full days to explore the city center to our hearts’ content.

Our Airbnb host wasn't home when we arrived, but she had left the keys for us in a bowl outside her door. Not hidden under a mat or anything--just in a bowl. Like dog food. It still surprises me how trusting people are in some parts of the world, especially when dealing with strangers.

The house was nice and thoughtfully furnished, but our room in it was small. It was also hot and full of flies and mosquitoes. We were a little stressed out from the day's adventures, and we had one of our more heated spats of the trip. It was completely stupid, as most spats are, and it resolved itself quickly enough. Thankfully, after nearly six months on the road together, we've learned the importance not just of knowing how to get along but also of how to be angry at each other in the least destructive way possible.

Once our tempers had cooled, we celebrated our arrival by watching In Bruges, the British dark comedy that had first put the city on our mental radar. It feels a little silly to say that we planned part of our itinerary around visiting a city that happened to be featured in a movie we both kind of like, but I'm finding that some of life's best discoveries are made for silly reasons. And as we'd learn the following day, in this case we're apparently far from alone.

#180abroad #bruges #belgium #oberwesel #train #travel #europe #cologne #koln #cologne cathedral #ticket machines need breaks too