#i literally die several deaths every time i read this. easily one of the fics out there for sure.

[helisol]

Who else would know, wench? Who else could see you in all this darkness?

@wickedjaime made me cry so many tears with this fic they turned into art <3

#HUBHUBHBUHBHUBHHBH POINTS AND CRIES #jaime lannister #brienne of tarth #braime #jaime x brienne #asoiaf #game of thrones #i literally die several deaths every time i read this. easily one of the fics out there for sure. #tw blood #valyrianscrolls

[honey-hippie-harper]

through the burning shell

Hello it’s been 84 years.

This is fun :): I wrote this as a Christmas present for @obsidianfr3sk (YES DAWNIE KEEP POSTING YOU CHRISTMAS FICS DURING MARCH. YOU GO GIRL) and it’s a sequel to my other fic “through the bleeding shell” where I basically try to save Simon and Hugh from the queerbaiting MM turned them into by adding a certain degree of complexity to their relationship. This is a story about gays, grief and a dead friend + Simon defending Nova bc I don’t roll with Supernova. Hence, I am not morally obligated to obey canon <3

Anyway afgdhjafghsj i don’t think you need to read the first part to understand this, and I hope you like it <3. I don’t want to give much away, but this sort of turned into a collaboration that got out of control and @obsidianfr3sk might write a third part in the future ;)

through the burning shell

“There have been rumors that the public revealing of Agent N is to include a public execution as well.”

Being all together, right there, Simon saw Hugh narrowing his eyes, staring directly at Genissa Clark, formerly Frostbite, now neutralized, along with the rest of her team.

Well.

Almost all of them.

“That’s true.” Hugh started, and Simon couldn’t help but think he shouldn’t have answered. A part of him was getting a pretty bad feeling from this. “For his crimes against humanity, Ace Anarchy has been sentenced to death.”

“Why stop there?” Said Genissa. “I would argue that his accomplices deserve the same fate.”

The same fate.

His brain struggled to make a connection between that sentence and the one Hugh had uttered. At first, he didn’t understand. A couple of fast seconds later, Simon realized that, by saying “fate”, she was referencing something.

She was referencing, more specifically, Ace Anarchy’s sentence.

A death sentence.

Accomplices.

The Anarchists.

“Nightmare deserves the same fate.” Nova deserves the same fate. “Nightmare must die… And I want to be the one to do it.”

Nova must die.

And I want to be the one to do it.

A child killing another child, publicly, with the Renegades’ permission.

A child they had taken under their wing, Genissa Clark that is, killing another child, who had been in Simon’s house, who had touched Adrian’s heart, and who had made bad choices but was still a person. The official version of the events said she had stabbed Max, and Danna claimed she was Nightmare, but they hadn’t taken any declarations or anything, so that story might as well just change.

Simon couldn’t help but feel she didn’t deserve to die.

Maybe because she actually didn’t. It didn’t feel fair.

One thing was sentencing Ace Anarchy, the man who had lifted an entire city, leaving a ridiculously huge number of deaths in the process, who had stolen, broken and burned, who had killed a man (the mayor) and his pregnant wife, who had killed his own brother, sister-in-law and possibly his two nieces...and another, pretty different thing was to allow this 19 year old girl kill a 16 year old one, who had some crimes that could put her into jail for like 3 or 5 years, but weren’t horrible enough to give her a death sentence. She was a minor. She wasn’t yet beyond repair…

And if she was to be executed, then she was still a minor. She didn’t deserve to be humiliated like that. She didn’t deserve her life to be taken away with so little dignity.

Not by Genissa Clark.

Not like that.

And, stars, please, not now.

Not right now.

It was unthinkable, it was barbaric, it was animal, it was almost as if…

A quiet chuckle.

A quiet chuckle that, suddenly, interrupted his train of thought and, with all the pain in his heart, he was able to recognize in a blink.

Evander was chuckling.

Genissa Clark, nonchalantly, was blackmailing them. She was trading her silence for the legal permission to kill someone, in front of a crowded arena. And Evander was chuckling.

Genissa Clark wanted to murder Nova, and Evander was chuckling.

“Is that all it will take to quit their complaining?”

What else did he want?

“Works for me.”

Simon almost flinched to the audacity. To the severity of the implication. To the way he was saying it. So smug. So relaxed, so….Evander it almost made Simon mad.

That was so Evander lately.

Because, lately, Evander didn’t understand anything. Not even because he had a pregnant wife waiting for him at home. There was life inside that woman. Life that had come from him.

How couldn’t he understand?

How could somebody be so cold?

“These are lives we’re discussing.” Simon reminded him, shooting a look in his direction.

“Villains’ lives.” Evander responded. “Nightmare doesn’t deserve mercy any more than Ace Anarchy does. She was the one who neutralized them, so it seems fair to me.”

Villains’ lives were still lives.

Nova was a person.

Nova was...Nightmare, but before Nightmare, she was Nova, and Hugh and him had met her personally. Adrian had met her personally.

And, besides, with this logic, then all the Renegades were to be executed.

After all, Agent N was meant to be used by Renegades. They were the ones who were planning to neutralize people when they felt threatened. But when Nightmare did it, then she immediately deserved the death penalty.

Hugh would understand that. Everyone would understand that, just like Simon did.

They had to understand it.

Hugh had to understand it.

-.-

Yet, he didn’t.

Some time ago, Hugh had pledged to understand. Not directly per se, but he had pledged it in the name of his cause.

He promised he would understand.

And then, when he needed to understand the most, he didn’t.

He said he would.

Then he fucking didn’t.

“How can we run a city, much less an entire world, if we’re busy dealing with every trivial bit of bureaucratic nonsense that comes up?” He said.

“This solves two problems at once.” He said.

And he said that to Adrian’s, their son, face. Their son, who was just trying to help, by questioning how morally correct was to do something like that, just like Tamaya, Kasumi and himself had done, being ignored in the process.

“We need that right now. And we need to be united in this decision.”

“And why’s that, exactly?” Adrian asked. “Do we not want the world to know this is actually a dictatorship?”

In that moment, Simon knew Adrian had never spoken to Hugh like that. He had always been a pretty calm kid, who liked to question their decisions sometimes because, as a Renegade himself, of course he would feel uncomfortable or have doubts sometimes. But never had he called Hugh out. Not in that tone. Not with that entire bottle of venom flowing out of his mouth, melting his teeth, and mixing with his boiling blood.

Simon felt unable to tell him to stop, after his own voice had been ignored, and Hugh pretended Evander was the only one who mattered in the team. And it wasn’t that Evander didn’t matter.

It was just that he was wrong.

Besides, harsh as that sounded, Simon still couldn’t believe that those stinky, rotting, putrid, nauseating words had come from Hugh’s mouth. His Hugh. The man he had decided to marry, because he loved him so, so much, for him had been able to see him even when he was invisible. Literally.

Right in front of his eyes, Hugh morphed into a caricaturesque villain. His hands, which Simon had held so many times, were suddenly covered in both dry and fresh blood, red as an apple, but smelling like death.

Death.

The same death that was living like a parasite inside of his eyes, the only place that other people could harm. And the parasite was traveling through his system, all the way to his brain, spinning it around like a mirrorball, and eating from it like he was nothing.

Hugh’s hands were tied, too, and the strings were made of rope, a material he could easily tear apart, but seemed to have forgotten about that.

He was like a puppet, as the press, as society, and as tons and tons of eyes pulled from the ropes.

And nobody knew how to free him, not even himself.

“Do we not want the world to know this is actually a dictatorship?”

Adrian’s voice haunted him for days. The way in which he said that haunted him for days, and after a while, Simon just accepted he wouldn’t be able to get rid of it. It had become another one of the wounds he carried, open and bleeding, through life. The worst part of it all, was that Simon knew Adrian was right. That, at this point, everyone but Hugh, Evander and Genissa Clark were right.

But if he knew where had they gone wrong, and if he knew he didn’t agree with this monstrosity...why did it hurt so much?

How did you speak to a person who didn’t want to listen?

And, most importantly: Where were you supposed to get the courage to do it from?

 -.-

 Nova had spent seventeen days in Cragmoor Penitentiary when Adrian said he wanted to see her. He had been so mad at her, that it caught Simon off guard.

Not that he wasn’t able to understand it.

Adrian had had a couple of girlfriends and boyfriends throughout his life but, from what Simon could see, Nova was by far the one he had been the most serious about, to the point it almost seemed she was the one who would stay. Simon would’ve wanted to see his partner too, no matter how mad he was at said partner, if he knew they had been sentenced to death.

As fast as they could, knowing they were facing an authority (Adrian had asked them to be with him in the room), the wardens brought her right away, in a matter of minutes.

Through the glass, Simon saw her, on the metal platform, with her arms and legs being held, tightly, by braces, which were equally made of metal. For the look in her eye, Simon could almost hear her desperate begs for her visitor not to be Adrian. Yet, he had been, and he wasn’t alone, which, if anything, only made it worse.

Simon, from his part, was staring at two different glasses at the time. The one that divided them from Nova, and Adrian’s glasses, which revealed the pain he was penetrating Nova’s soul with, and also the rage he was entitled to feel.

But Nova looked small.

She, in fact, looked as small as she actually was.

She was almost a kid. She hadn’t yet started living. Yet, she was locked up here, and would only be taken out to be killed.

Nova’s body was shaking, just like Adrian’s. Her chin was quivering so much it almost seemed like she was cold, and Simon felt a twinge in his stomach. He felt nauseous and dizzy. And so evil and so guilty.

For some reason, he pictured a child, because Nova had been a younger child once, full of joy and innocence.

 He pictured a child. Just like that.

 Maybe she was wearing pigtails, had a gap between two of her teeth, and bruised legs, because she liked to play outside with her friends. Maybe, before she became Nightmare, she had something else to hold on to. Maybe she, like many people out there,  had hoped for the Renegades to come, and when they didn’t do it, something became numb, and cold, and she started freezing to death, just like she would remain freezing, suspended in History, as the interrupted life who was the proof the Renegades had become the one thing they promised they would never be.

And Simon didn’t want to be part of that, yet he was still here.

He was still here, thinking about how fortunate he was that Nova wasn’t staring back at him, but at Adrian instead, as selfish as that might’ve sounded.

Simon felt he had lost the right to look her in the eye, having been the one who promised her, on several occasions, that she could look into theirs.

With each one of his limbs becoming tense, Simon took a deep breath. His mouth tasted like bile, and his whole body was pounding along with this heart. It felt like one of those times when you were almost a hundred percent sure you were having a heart attack, despite knowing that, if that was the case, you would already be on the floor crying for help.

Next thing he felt was the sudden and strong urge to speak.

He would’ve liked to talk to Nova, but through this glass, she couldn’t hear anything.

Besides, Simon knew that this moment wasn’t about him, or Hugh. They were involved in it. They were carrying it in their backs like a cross, but it wasn’t about them. It was about Nova and Adrian. There was glass between the two. They could press their hands together through it, but they couldn’t touch the other’s skin. They couldn’t feel the air the other breathed in the short distance. They couldn’t kiss. It was scary. It was sad. And it wasn’t awfully familiar.

But it wasn’t about Simon or Hugh.

“Do you need some privacy?” Simon asked, perhaps to both of them, knowing one wouldn’t be able to hear him, even if she tried.

In response, Adrian turned his gaze away from Nova, staring at Simon instead, nodding.

“I think that would be nice.”

Before Simon could say anything else, Hugh reached for his son’s shoulder, and once he touched it, he caressed the fabric, and the skin beneath the fabric, briefly.

“We’ll be in the lobby.”

Adrian nodded again and then, after gulping, he said:

“I love you, okay?”

The weird thing was, he didn’t look them in the eye for much. He did, but he turned his gaze away pretty fast, barely leaving time to process his own words. For that reason, nor Hugh or him responded.

They left right after that, leaving Adrian alone inside the room.

With Nova, but alone.

 -.-

They dropped Adrian at the hospital once they left Cragmoon. There was barely any sound throughout the whole ride, except when Hugh asked if they wanted something from the store, and when they said goodbye to Adrian.

Obviously, Adrian couldn’t get close to Max. Not if he wanted to avoid being neutralized by him, but sometimes, according to Adrian himself, he liked to stay in the waiting room, and help the staff with whatever they needed, for he liked Max to know he came to visit often, and that he wasn’t alone, even if he couldn’t touch, or be in the same room with him. So they just allowed him to stay in the hospital as much as he needed. After all, it’s not like he was hurting anybody.

After that, everything was silent, all the way home, because, instead of driving towards the Headquarters, Hugh drove towards the mansion, leaving Tamaya in charge, under the excuse they would take a two hour break to have lunch together at home. She wasn’t so happy about it, but agreed anyway, because it’s not like Hugh had given her an option in the first place. He had just notified her. At this point, Hugh’s volume was getting the tiniest bit loud.  And Simon wasn’t talking about his voice.

Upon arriving into the house, Hugh threw the keys by the entrance’s table and proceeded to walk all the way towards the living room, to lay on the couch, one arm covering his eyes, without even taking his costume off. He didn’t have a reason to, because they were supposed to be back at the Headquarters in two hours and, besides, the elephant in the room was making it cold. Maybe he felt his armor would protect him from what they were doing, and from what they were still doing.

Sadly, the fabric of Simon’s costume wasn’t as warm. And as he took his mask off and placed it next to keys, he felt nothing but cold wind. He was back again at being Simon, and Simon only, without anything protecting him, in the same room as the husband who rarely ever kissed him anymore.

There was an elephant in the room, and it was killing both of them, though Hugh looked like he was already dead.

Simon tried not to pay attention to him, but when he was crossing to the kitchen, he couldn’t help but ask, in an unintentionally harsh tone:

“Are we going to have lunch or did you just want to make Tamaya more stressed?”

Hugh lowered his arm, staring at him with an arched eyebrow, lifting his neck just a little, to have a clearer view. Simon was starting to feel bad for having snapped at him, but not enough to take it back.

Sometimes you had to do the right thing, and sometimes the right thing was not taking it back.

His husband, from his part, looked rather confused, as if he couldn’t recognize the person in front of him.

“Are you feeling okay?” He asked.

The question caught him off guard.

Was he okay? Simon wasn’t sure, nor did he want to answer. In times like these, Hugh wanted people to answer him what he wanted to hear and, sadly, this time Simon didn’t have any answer he would like.

“Did you take your pills, Si?”

Something inside of his body turned into a tight knot, and Simon turned his gaze towards him, in a violent act. He frowned so deeply he felt his skin itching, and though he knew that, under normal circumstances, he would’ve just interpreted this as a routinary question, this time it wasn’t the case at all. This time it felt like an attack. Like something Hugh had to take back immediately because it was not his place to ask it, that is:  a question he always asked anyway.

But not this time.

Because ,this time, he wasn’t okay.

“Don’t pull the anxiety card on me, Hugh.” Saying that left a bitter, disgusting firm on his mouth, right under his tongue, which was dry. He felt like he had just chewed on a pill.

“The anxie--” Hugh narrowed his eyes, shifting into a sitting position. “I’m not pulling that card on you. I’m just asking a question.”

“Then don’t ask that question.” Simon snapped again, heading towards the kitchen to get a class of water. His feet were making too much noise when in contact with the floor, and his mouth was too dry. It was making him crazy.

It was only then that he realized they still had something else pending, and for some reason that was enough to make him stay. Simon spun on his toes, facing him. Hugh was breathing heavily, and his brows were almost touching each other.

“You didn’t answer my question, though.” He told him, in a dry tone. “Did you want to have lunch with me or did you just think taking a break while Tamaya loses her mind would be fun?”

“If Tamaya didn’t want to be in charge, she would’ve told me, and you know that.”

“Tamaya talks back when she is given a chance to.”

An empty feeling of freedom filled Simon’s body, pushing his way into the hollow all his mixed feelings had been carving at the center of his stomach.

And it wasn’t just about Tamaya, really. It wasn’t just about how lately none of her ideas were taken into consideration. Rather, it was about how nor were Kasumi’s, or his own ideas, when they tried to speak up. It was about how things were getting weirder and weirder as time went by, to the point where Simon would see a very pregnant Tamaya in the hallway, apparently fine, but stating she didn’t know if her water was breaking or if she just really needed to use the restroom (the restroom where she didn’t fit in); it was about how everyone knew damn well that Kasumi wasn’t good at public speaking and that, if anything, it just worsened her selective mutism, and yet many important speeches were given to her; it was about how Simon felt like he was talking to a wall, and how that made him feel, suspect, even, that Hugh was back to being trapped in a closet he was already too big for.

It wasn’t just about that, in conclusion.

It was just the tip of a bigger and more messed up problem.

“Well, if you want Tamaya to go bathe in her Greek goddess shower-pool-whatever that thing is, then fine. I’ll call her, I’ll tell her to take the day off, and we go back to the Headquarters.”

 “That would be great, actually!” Simon laughed sarcastically. “But you know what would be even better?”

“I don’t, Si. You tell me.”

It was a rhetorical question.

The nerve.

“That we would act like a team. That we would stop lollygagging around and take realistic turns to have our breaks, because each one of us have lives, and we’re not the only ones who have needs.” And that was about Kasumi feeling like she couldn’t do it today but having to anyway; it was about Tamaya crying in the BBQ Sunday, explaining to her husband how she wanted her baby to be with her, as a baby bawled into her arms, trying to reach for his father, because she spent so little time at home her youngest son wouldn’t recognize her sometimes; it was about Evander claiming Sandy didn’t feel like being alone with her baby bump today, but showing up at work anyway.

And yes, they had pledged to do this, but they were supposed to be in it together.

“But how should I know?” Simon hissed. “It’s not like we’re a Council or anything.”

The bile was all over his mouth now, and Simon felt possessed. He didn’t know how to stop it, and the words just kept coming, and coming and coming, as Hugh stared, half-startled, half mad.

Simon felt like he was a loaded gun that was ready to kill everything that moved, for a reason and a cause.

All those repressed feelings. All those things he desperately wanted to say but never could. The anxiety. The desperate, insatiable craving for a touch that never came. For a kiss. For anything. For a sign. A sign of whatever. One single sign, that would just let him know Hugh was still here.

“It’s not like you needed the majority of us to agree to sentence that minor to death.” He let it go, and all the air, along with his soul, left Simon’s body. “It’s not like Evander and you needed such thing, did you?”

Hugh’s confusion frown suddenly shifted.

Then, all Simon saw was the embodiment of anger, with his cheeks becoming flushed, and his knuckles becoming yellow.

“So that’s what this is all about.”

There was one word to describe that tone, and that word was condescension.

To Simon, the gut-wrenching feeling of frustration that caused him was indiscriptable, and he didn’t wish it to anybody. He would’ve preferred Hugh to scream at him, or just refuse to answer at all, because he couldn’t take it.

He had had people talking down to him his entire life. He wasn’t willing to keep tolerating that.

And in the moment he stared into Hugh’s blue eyes, Simon knew there was no turning back. Because sometimes the right thing to do was not taking it back.

Others, it was not holding it back.

“No. In fact, it’s not about that.”

“WHAT IS IT, THEN?!”

“YOU TELL ME!” Simon howled, getting one step closer to him, and all the memories started flowing...more likely, overflowing, including that time when he had talked to Kasumi and Tamaya in the living room, just like as if they were teenagers, instead of grown ass people, about how Hugh was leaving, even though he was still right there.

Right there, looking like a corpse.

A blue, stiff corpse.

“Why don’t you ever kiss me anymore?” Simon asked, and his voice sounded way less threatening than he had intended. “Why?”

“Are you really going to pull that card on me?”

“I am going to pull it because I want to know!” Simon barked, pointing at his own chest, which was getting tighter and tighter with every second. “Why don’t you ever touch me anymore? Why am I always invisible to you, even when I’m not? Why are you so fucking cold all the time? Why won’t you tell me what’s wrong?!”

Hugh wheezed, maybe pretending it didn’t make sense, or maybe pretending he hadn’t understood at all. Still smirking, he ran his fingers through his hair, and stared at Simon, scratching his chin, and clicking his tongue.

“So...Sex.”

Simon’s heart was pounding.

“Yes, sex!” He yelled, shameless. “And kisses, and hugs and my husband! That is what am I asking for!”

“WHAT DO YOU EXPECT ME TO DO?! WE’RE BUSY!”

“WE’RE NOT BUSY NOW!”

“SO YOU WANT TO GET LAID NOW?!”

“I’M NOT GETTING LAID WHILE THINKING ABOUT HOW A CHILD WILL BE EXECUTED BY ANOTHER CHILD BECAUSE I WASN’T ALLOWED TO DO ANYTHING TO STOP IT FROM HAPPENING!”

“SHE TRIED TO KILL ME! SHE TRIED TO KILL MAX!”

“FIRST: AN ATTEMPTED ASSASINATION IS NOT ENOUGH TO GIVE SOMEBODY A DEATH PENALTY, AND, SECOND: THAT’S WHAT GENISSA SAID!”

“ISN’T THAT ENOUGH?!”

“THAT’S NOT ENOUGH!” Simon screamed, covering his ears with hands.

He didn’t know why, specifically, the ears, knowing that, in reality, his eyes were the problem, because every time he closed them, he saw Nova in that chair, like an animal. And he saw Genissa standing in the lobby, playing with them like puppets; he saw Evander’s despicable smirk when he told Genissa to go ahead; he saw Adrian’s furious eyes as he called his own dad a dictator; he saw Hugh.

Mostly, he saw Hugh, and the caricaturesque villain version of him, which Simon despised with every inch of his being.

Then he was back at the beginning. At Nova.

Nova, who had tan skin, pitch black hair and slanted blue eyes. And Nova, who looked familiar when she smiled, because she looked similar to that man who had come to the Headquarters asking for help, whose smile looked similar to the other person who carried their blood.

And Simon couldn’t help but consider it as a real possibility. And if he happened to be right, then they were failing her.

For the second time.

“It’ll never be enough, Hugh.” He declared. “Because she…”

Simon’s internal knots became tighter, to the point they were suffocating him.

“How do we know who this girl is?” he questioned. “How do we know it isn’t her?”

“Her, who? What are you talking about?”

“Her. The one we failed to protect.” Simon felt a tear slipping from his eye, as he became closer and Hugh walked backwards. “Uh? How do we know that? How do we…?”

But something stopped him.

 And that something was Hugh’s eyes, turning grey as chromium.

He was breathing fast. Faster with every second, and where maybe he saw anger, Simon saw nothing but deep, stored pain, flowing out of him like sweat, or like the tears that weren’t there.

There was Hugh’s bleeding shell again, protecting him like he was a small child curled up on the floor, in a ball, through a polarized surface where Simon and him couldn’t touch, and where nothing could hurt him, while everything could at the same time.

There it was.

The despicable, horrid, bleeding shell.

Except this time it wasn’t bleeding. No. No.

This time, the dense, bubbling blood was falling off it, reaching Simon’s feet, and the shell was in flames. Tall, untamable flames, that were burning the roof and everything surrounding them.

The shell was burning, while Hugh was inside of it, and nobody could get him out before he was burned to death.

Why didn’t he let anyone help him?

Why did he insist the flames weren’t there?

Why couldn’t Simon hold his hand?

Why was he so far?

“We didn’t fail to protect her. She died.” Hugh declared, and when Simon saw his lips quivering, he realized they weren’t talking about Nova anymore.

“She didn’t fail. She died. “ Simon saw the silver painting Hugh’s fingertips, as tears started rolling down his face. “She died! SHE DIED, WHEN IT SHOULD’VE BEEN ME, SIMON!”

The bleeding shell was burning, and Simon still couldn’t find his way in.

“IT SHOULD’VE BEEN ME! AND SHE DIED! SHE DIDN’T FAIL TO PROTECT ANYONE! SHE DIED! IT SHOULD’VE BEEN ME! SHE DIED, SIMON! SHE DIED!”

Their eyes met for a couple of second, and the connection vanished after a blink.

“IT’S NOT HER FAULT SHE DIED, IT’S MINE!”

Hugh was sobbing, like a small child, and Simon was too.

“...It’s...it’s mine, Simon. Always has been.”

And they were so far, despite being so close, that they were left with holding themselves tight.

Because there was no way to get into the burning shell, for Hugh, strangely as it sounded, had never said those words out loud, because he thought the picture on the wall behind him, the one with the woman wearing a floral pink dress with their son -who was also hers- sitting on her lap, would hear him and that would make her sad.

Yet, Simon knew she wasn’t sad at the moment.

He knew her well enough to know she would’ve been disappointed, instead.

Anybody would be if they had to see their family kill the one thing they had died trying to protect.

“No.” Simon declared, calmly. “But I’m not going to go and try to convince you otherwise because I know it’s not the right time.”

Hugh started shaking.

“Si…”

“And I won’t be a part of this, either.” Simon declared, firm, still staring at the picture through the corner of his eye, yet still fully focused on Hugh. “From now on, all you’ll get from me is silence in regards to the issue. I’m not willing to be a part of it. I don’t agree with this. I will never agree.”

“You don’t understand.”

“And I’m glad I don’t. In fact, I hope I never do.” Simon wiped his tears with his palm, and before continuing, he tried to find his Hugh one more time.

He was still there.

Simon hadn’t yet given up on him, but he didn’t feel like telling him that at the moment.

For some reason.

“If Adrian wants to see me, tell him I’ll be at Kasumi’s.”

“Simon.” Hugh grabbed him by the wrist, and a simple wave from Simon’s hand was enough to get it off. Way too easy, for a person who happened to have super-strength. “Simon, please. Don’t do this again. Please. SIMON!”

But Simon did it again anyway.

Later, he wondered what Adrian had felt when he abducted Max from the hospital and left a note for them.

He also wondered what everyone else had felt when the real Nightmare showed up.

Not that he was mad at them.

He just wondered what they had felt.

#renegades trilogy #dawnie writes #renegays #humon #simon westwood #the dread warder #hugh everhart #captain chromium #nova artino #nightmare #adrian everhart-westwood #sketch

[queerianto]

28 with Janto?

Ver, I cannot believe you sent me nine prompts dsjhdfkjhaj thank you so much and I apologize if it takes me literal years to write all of them. Here’s the first one I’ve finished!

Prompt: 28. feeling for each other in the dark.

Word count: 707

Summary: Jack has a nightmare about The Year That Never Was.

Warnings: Death/severe injuries/captivity in an alternate timeline, nightmares. I’m putting the whole fic under a read more button because the first paragraph is pretty graphic.

*

Ianto was on the ground in front of him, his leg broken, covered in blood and bruises, out of reach. Tosh was already dead. Her lifeless body was sprawled out a few yards away from Ianto. Jack pulled desperately at the unyielding chains around his wrists. He fought back tears, not wanting to give his captor the satisfaction of seeing him cry.

"What would be more painful," that awful voice mused, "just shooting him dead now or letting you have a heartfelt reunion first so he can bleed out in your arms? Maybe you can bleed out together! And you'll be back, but he won't. It wouldn't be much fun to come back knowing the last of your silly little team is gone, but then, it never is, is it?"

Jack knew what would happen next. He was almost aware that this was a dream--he'd had it plenty of times before. He'd be let down from his chains, fall to the ground and pull Ianto close, just as two shots rang out. And they would die together, but at least he had gotten to hold Ianto one last time--

A single gunshot. Ianto slumped over, dead.

Jack screamed.

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

And there were hands on his shoulders, and he pulled away, crying out again. "No--NO!"

"Easy, Jack, it's just me."

"Please, let me--I have to--" Jack curled in on himself. He couldn't stop seeing the blood. Not how it's supposed to be. He felt sick.

"You're safe. It was just a dream."

As Jack registered who was talking to him, the pieces fell into place. Ianto wasn't dead. That had never happened. He scrambled to sit up, reaching for Ianto clumsily. "Ianto," he choked out.

"I'm right here." Ianto sounded so tired. 

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry I woke you," Jack said through a few sobs. He was still reaching for Ianto, feeling around in the darkness, needing to touch him, to make sure he was really there, really alive…

The lamp next to the bed switched on, driving the darkness away with a flood of dim golden light. Ianto sat up and let Jack pull him close. Jack held him tightly, focusing on the warmth of his skin and the sound of his breathing. "Don't worry about it, I don't mind," Ianto mumbled. "D'you want to talk?"

"It was the year again, it was you…"

Ianto understood, of course. This was the third time in as many days that Jack had woken up from a nightmare like this. It was approaching the time in the year where that had happened in the other timeline, and Jack felt it bleeding through in his consciousness. He couldn't help but be terrified that something like it was going to happen again.

"They didn't let me go to you," Jack whispered, hugging him closer. "I-I dreamed that they didn't…"

"I'm here. It didn't happen." Ianto shifted into a more comfortable position. He brought his hand up and cupped it around Jack's cheek, wiping away tears with his thumb. "Everything's alright. We're alright."

Jack closed his eyes and tried to memorize the feeling of Ianto's hand on his face, the rhythm of his breathing and his heartbeat. He had been lucky enough to get a second chance with Ianto, but that just meant he knew exactly how easily this could be taken away. Every second with him was precious. He felt Ianto's forehead press gently against his, felt his other hand stroke down his side. Exhaustion claimed him as the panic retreated. He was vaguely aware of lying down again, his arms still wrapped loosely around Ianto's waist.

"Try to go back to sleep," Ianto told him. He stretched his arm out to turn the lamp back off. "I'm not going anywhere, and we both need to sleep."

He wanted to argue, to say that sleeping was a waste of time when they already had so little time. Unfortunately, his body seemed to agree with Ianto and was already pulling him back to sleep despite his best efforts. “I’m glad you’re here,” he murmured. “Thank you for...for being here.”

“Always, Jack.” Ianto kissed him.

Not always, Jack thought, but he couldn’t think about that. Not yet. They still had some time. Not enough, never enough, but some.

#my writing #jack/ianto #jack/ianto fanfiction #thanks ver ily <3

[mc-slowwalker]

hahahahha that’s funny lol (saying that the author of the common enemy fics is c!dream) but yeah common enemy definitely won’t fix the issues cause it’s the cycle of violence that they have to break and that definitely will not be fixed easily

woooo syndicate supremacy (I’ve finally learned how to spell syndicate correctly through our conversation lol) they’re definitely doing better than other people on the server and I love that for them! oh yeah either or both c!tommy and c!dream definitely need to reflect on the fact that they’re both make eachother worse. I absolutely loved how that fic handled that aspect of it because closure and freedom is exactly what I want for c!dream and c!tommy more than anything. yeah exactly!! which is why I don’t like the idea of c!dream dying either cause it just leaves everything unresolved. I doubt that’ll happen in canon tho

yea!! can’t wait for the angst! cc!wilbur just posted on reddit about ghostbur so we’ve already got some more of it 😔✌️which also reminds me that I’m sooo interested to see how c!dream is like once he’s out of prison because so much of the fandom believes different thing and there’s no way that he’s gonna be better or changed cause he’s had no opportunity to plus he’s been through terrible torture for so long and I can’t wait to see the effect of that. which also reminds me that I’ve seen lately that a lot of the fandom seems to think that c!dream was put in the prison as a punishment when it was less about that and more about the fact that he could revive people and that his last canon life would have been taken if not for that fact. a lot of the fandom says he deserves the prison but not the torture as a punishment but that’s not why he was put in the prison and if that was the case literally every other character would deserve the same punishment as well as they’re all characters that have done bad things. I feel like my typing is just getting more and more rambly and less and less well punctuated lol sorry

oh yeah those fandom rules definitely make sense. especially as someone who has been in online fandom spaces for like a long time and has seen all the tumblr discourse lol. like yeah those rules were actually not bad and don’t send death threats or harass people shouldn’t have to be said as much as it is in mcyttwt. I really do wish that the young people in this fandom realise that they’re allowed to just have fun and do what they like in fandom

I think that taking into account the fact that a character is a minor is definitely important I just disagree with the way that a lot of people use it as such a final argument that doesn’t leave room for discussion. yeah I’m the same like when I was younger I used to think I was so grown up but like I’m 18 now and I realise that that’s still so young even though at 18 I’m an adult. basically like the “child” argument is not so black and white either like instead of a defence I think it’s more something that should be taken into account when discussing a characters actions and I definitely agree with the characters you’ve added as people who that can be extended to. and yeah like in real life the minors would face soo many more consequences it’s kind of funny like everyone would but with it being such a prominent topic of discussion it’s funnier applying real life rules to dsmp is often so funny. I agree c!tommy should 100% pay taxes that would be hilarious

ooh yeah the three life system interesting cause at first glance you’d think it makes them worth less but evidently not and I do wonder how the characters see it. like you said with c!foolish and c!puffy it was traumatic to take a first life but for some it just seems as chances and the last life is what actually matters. who it’s against and also circumstance I think matters. I also tend to brush off c!tommy taking two of c!dream’s lives but I also tend to brush off the canon lives lost during the first l’manburg war as it was war and c!dteam and co were just better. I suppose I’m an everything but l’manburg apologist because of its foundations ig although I can still understand and acknowledge it’s importance to the characters such as c!tommy. I’ve seen it said that c!dream deserves prison because he took two of c!tommy’s canon, amongst other reasons of course, but so many other characters have taken canon lives and how do you determine the consequence of that in the dsmp cause in irl it’s very different and in the dsmp so far there really is no consequence for murder. like for example c!punz took two of c!wilburs canon lives (I stan him for that I’m a punz simp what can I say) and other characters have taken canon lives too. hmm I wonder what determined the severity of crimes on the dsmp cause the one character that’s in prison wasn’t actually put in there for his crimes.

hahahaha yeah I just can’t wait till we finally don’t have to reach that much

ahaha fair enough I just sometimes type too fast and autocorrect never seems to know what I want to say and I do not have the brain power to proof read a single thing I write. also I type out the asks in notes and after I sent the last one I was like damn that was really long and pasted it into pages to check. and oh my god this one is over a thousand words that’s like longer than one of essays I wrote for my philosophy final exam😭😭 I am so sorry

I will say though that I am quite enjoying this discussion cause it’s the most in depth discussion I’ve been able to have about this

I saw the angst wilbur put on reddit that mother fucker (affectionate) I actually have a rewlly weird relationship with wilbur’s meta lore. Things I accept: sally is a salmon, fridge mom, all the characters being morally gray. Things I don’t accept: whatever he was trying to do with character ages, also saying revivebur was straight when c!tommy saw him and quackity making out like nice try king. One of my biggest issues with the sever is that I get so easily attached to mobs/npcs in dream smp and they die so easy so Im always sobbing,,,, if anything happens to shroud, yogurt, michael (notchill), or fran I’ll mcfucking lose it

For c!dream getting out of prison I see there being only two routes: 1. he’s worse by a lot more evil more fucked up or 2. He’ll be actually too fucked up/tired/traumatized to do shit. Either of which is gonna hurt the sever so I’m looking forward to it personally

Other real life things I think should be implemented into dream smp: jury duty, required 3 life insurance, dentsits, and OSHA

I do think the rebellion against c!dream (in the final control room) is really interrsting in that c!tommy/c!punz was about to organize a bunch of the server against dream? I know c!tommy has amazing puppy eyes tm but c!punz was able to organize a big group of people, half of them didn’t really have that much against dream (other than the l’manburg people) and were only there on more vague terms. Like c!hbomb and c!ponk really didn’t have shit against dream but still helped in getting him into prison

I feel like we’re always gonna have to reach a little bit and oh shit 1,000 words? Bruh half my classes require that and I have yet to actually right that much. it’s way easier with stuff you’re passionate about and with all the content dream smp has gives way more to analyze

#anon #ask #long post #would have typed more but I’m extremely distracted by tubbo getting upset by a video game my b

[vaguely-concerned]

I am reading the Rogue One visual guide and I’m going to ramble at you about it

Starting with Baze and Chirrut facts because nothing is more important than Baze and Chirrut

- The Guardians of the Whills believe very deeply in the Force but their cosmology doesn’t center any fight between light and dark and they believe mortal minds can ‘encompass the totality of the Force’ with the right training (seemingly even for non-Force sensitives). *thinks of a little green baby who’s going to need some help with his place in the universe one day and how reductive the light/dark side dichotomy can be* good to know good to know. yes everything eventually comes down to baby yoda and his poor stressed out dad. protect them

- “Opposites in balance. Chirrut Îmwe and Baze Malbus share a homeworld and a history, although they strike a compelling contrast. Baze is a hardened pragmatist, while Chirrut’s faith flourishes even in trying times. They both claim to act as the protector of the other.” 

in every way they are #goals. bffs/partners to lovers is Everything. ‘They both claim to act as the protector of the other’ is very funny and very sweet and very true; my favourite thing

- this book describes chirrut as baze’s ‘best friend and moral compass’, which is a funny way of spelling ‘husband of 30 years’ but who am I to criticize 

- baze is just. he’s so good. they say here pragmatism is his biggest trait but you can tell how much love has been at the center of him (and probably continues to be under it all) from the totality of his rage. I don’t think you can be this deeply hurt without loving just as deeply first. (like chirrut says, he used to believe more than anyone and now he’s thrown aside literally everything about the guardians except chirrut) it’s like he’s suffered a moral wound just seeing what’s happened to his home and it won’t heal and it never does, he just loses chirrut too and then at least it’s over. jesus christ it’s so soul crushingly sad in a quiet undramatic way 

- “Though both are Guardians of the Whills, Baze and Chirrut could not be more different in their approach to combat. Traditionalist Chirrut still carries weapons associated with the ancient order, while Baze adopts an implement of modern warfare. Their methods suit them individually, and both are effective extensions of their distinctive personalities. Though Baze may chide Chirrut for his antiques, and Chirrut may decry Baze’s reliance on soulless tools, they trust each other’s defences to such weapons.”

THEY TRUST EACH OTHER’S DEFENCES TO SUCH WEAPONS. YOU HAD TO WORD IT LIKE THAT HUH. YOU HAD TO GO AND MAKE IT CLEAR THEY’RE EACH OTHER’S MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WHOLE WORLD. WHAT. THE FUCK

- it’s implied baze’s hair used to be shorter when he was a Guardian! he’s just let it grow past what’s customary for them (and an excellent choice too his hair is wonderful)

- his repeating blaster is described as ‘modified and highly illegal’ hahaha

it also weighs 30 kg and is meant to be mounted on a tank

baze is the best

- chirrut built his own lightbow! apparently used to be a thing the guardians did to symbolize the end of their training. I wonder if baze used to have one too? even more I wonder if they’ve always been part of the same uh ‘divisions’ or what have you within the guardians, because I think there are some implications that baze has been more of an assassin/focused on violent conflicts even before the empire came and chirrut hasn’t

- this book does not adequately capture chirrut’s trickster/funny side, making me wonder how much of that was an addition by the actor and how much was planned out

- honestly... more baze & chirrut (well baze/chirrut let’s not play here) prequel books WHEN. what does their living room look like (because we do know they live together) how did they meet, when exactly did baze lose his faith and chirrut his sight, what was their first kiss like 

inquiring minds want to know (it’s me I want to know) 

- unless the wording is deliberately misleading here chirrut was not born blind (though he won’t discuss how he ended up this way) and he’s learned his current fighting technique over a prolonged period of time 

- bodhi is a bit of a gambling addict! and specifically one who’s pretty good at it; even after the empire knows he’s a defector he gets past their restrictions because he’s saved up all the credits/favours/even id-vouchers he’s owed by other imperial grunts fsdhfksdjf precious I love him 

- saw gerrera’s medical droid a) has been modified so its programming won’t stop it from being able to dispense drugs at dangerous intervals, b) professes sheer bafflement that saw is still alive and c) is ‘frequently deactivated to prevent it from building an ethical case to discontinue treatment’. I find the whole thing darkly hilarious.  

- there are literally whole subplots going on in the crowd scenes on Jedha about a mad evil surgeon who ‘decraniates’ people (essentially turning them into mindless servile husks with all of their head above the nose cut off, somehow), a masked cop from the Milvayne Authority who’s gone rogue to do the right thing and hunt him down against orders, a death cult, a bunch of different religious sects, a translation droid who has befriended a group of local orphans and shares his credits with them so they can eat and he’s SAVING UP FOR A PROCESSOR UPGRADE SO HE CAN BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND THE NATURE OF SPIRITUALITY ;_____; what the fuck I want a tv-series about this droid IMMEDIATELY 

- this book shows you just how crucial K-2 is as an asset and what a masterstroke cassian’s reprogramming of him is... and it says some very, very sweet things about cassian as a person under all the trauma and spy stuff that he essentially treats him as his best friend instead of a tool. cASSIAN he deserved to survive and have SO much therapy ;_____; ah well at least we’re getting a prequel series about him right? pls be good

- oh cassian was a proper separatist during the clone wars! he probably has some very interesting points of view about the republic pre- and post empire huh (this is what I love about the clone wars era; they have built SUCH a believable and interesting political world here, all shades of grey. there were separatists with very valid points even thought they were lead by a guy named COUNT DOOKU played by CHRISTOPHER LEE, the first sign that you should look inwards and ask yourself... wait are we the bad guys)

- it’s so much more understandable to me now who in the rebel leadership is for following jyn’s plan and who is not. (namely: the ministers of finance and industry are both Not Into challenging the empire directly, kind of understandably)

in depth description of weapons technology... I sleep. deep dives into the political structure of the alliance leadership and their backgrounds and motivations? I have never been happier

(this. sort of should have been in the actual movie tho things would have made more sense)

- BAIL ORGANA Leia’s actual dad out there lookin’ fiiine, being righteous and good, almost making me forget he’s going to die SO SOON oh fuck :( 

- orson krennic is, presumably straight faced, described as ‘a cruel but brilliant man’ which is PATENTLY LUDICROUS because krennic is by literally every indication a fucking idiot, he needs galen to do all the real work for him, he mouths off to DARTH VADER and then tarkin just effortlessly swoops in and fucks him over in the end, easily outmaneuvering him... orson krennic is a fucking loser I don’t care if he’s the one who introduced brutalist architecture to coruscant

lol lol lol *arrow pointing towards krennic’s head* ‘Keen mind dissects architectural puzzles and conspiratorial plots’ okay I see what happened here orson krennic wrote this book 

- oh galen erso is kind of one of the most interesting and heartbreaking characters in all of star wars. (and I do not say this just because of mads mikkelsen’s cheek bones) he’s incredibly intelligent but from a really poor family and wanted to eliminate the difference between rich and poor and invent a new form of infinitely renewable energy... and technically he did achieve that, except his old college buddy orson krennic immediately found a way to use his technology for genocide and he didn’t realize until it was too late :’) there is something so comforting in the fact that in the end galen still got the last laugh in the most epic but unsung way. he’s the sort of quiet Magnificent Bastard who doesn’t even care he’ll never get the credit as long as it worked. u did good on that one jyn

also several of the scientists galen is leading on eadu are in the same category as him -- captured and forced to work for the empire. so that’s great and not at all upsetting 

- galen and lyra’s falling in love story is kind of sweet (though naturally it pales against baze and chirrut’s whole deal but then who could compare) and the sheer effort and detail that’s gone into building the farmstead in the beginning we end up seeing for 5 minutes... dude (it feels very convincingly like somewhere a family would live though) 

- *sees that ‘databook’ is a concept that exists apparently; groans in fic research I thought ‘holodisc’ might do the job but maybe this is a better fit*

- I will say that my largest gripe with this movie is how glaringly unnecessarily male it is. there’s literally no reason for most of the rebels and ESPECIALLY all of the scientists to be male but here we are. 

well the stormtroopers could all canonically be any gender behind the armor so uh that’s. something lol

- despite being all desert-y jedha is apparently quite cool! temperature-wise I mean though the huge ancient statues lying everywhere are pretty awesome too

- wow stormtrooper armor really does just suck huh. it’s like ‘well it might protect you from a blaster bolt if you stand upwind and angle yourself just right, who knows’. I guess this is why everyone and their grandmothers are drooling over mando’s beskar lol

- star wars’ insistence on sticking to single-biome planets is so silly and I love it. stick to that incomprehensible world building decision lucasfilm I respect you

- mon mothma! basically the most important character in the star wars universe who most people won’t know about lol she’s like the anti-palps. for the most part she is one of the most Big Goods in all of star wars (along with bail) but also she’s played by the actress who voices moira in overwatch so I do instinctively distrust her whenever I hear her talk haha. called palpatine a ‘lying executioner’ to his face which is both admirably bold and remarkably restrained, considering all the things palpatine is.

- oof the two people mentioned the most on anakin/vader’s pages are palpatine and obi wan. that’s. hurtful and bad and awful. the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was making me watch ‘clone wars’ because watching ‘clone wars’ actually made me care about anakin skywalker :(

-ah shit this is a lot of pages about pasty empire dudes i’ll uh come back to these lol

#first post of 2020! keeping it on rambling brand into the new decade #star wars #rogue one #baze x chirrut #meta #if you're here for information about baze's hair and how overwatch has coloured my view of a star wars character... #boy have I got a post for you lol

[alo-piss-trancy]

SD/R2 OMO HEADCANONS (Pt1)

Decided it was probably time for me to post a list of my omo hcs for this game since I did the THH chars! Like with the other list, I'll be excluding a couple I have no interest in thinking of omo content of (in this case, Hiy/oko and Teru/teru). I'm breaking this one into multiple posts throughout the week as I compile my thoughts (I'll add a link to all of them on the fic masterlist page later so you can find them all) because I feel this is gonna be a lot longer than my THH post haha!

Here we go, the first 3 (or 4) chars! Please stop reading now if you don't want spoilers for the game bc there will be several!!!

~~~

Gun/dham:

* I firmly hc him as vegetarian (not vegan. He will consume byproducts like milk/cheese/eggs/etc, but only harvested himself or from small farms/sources that he has personally vetted/researched where he knows 100% that the creatures are treated ethically.)

* That's actually not omo-related besides milk oops but it relates to my next point, which is that for the most part he prefers Natural food/drink. Water, fruit or vegetable juices/smoothies, etc. He's not really used to strange 'Human' confections like soda or coffee, so the caffeine and diuretics hit him hard and fast and make it difficult for him to estimate how much time he has. It also makes him jittery/hyped as hell which Does Not Help.

* As long as he isn't screwed over by caffeine or a ton of drinks, he has a decently strong bladder and can hold for a long time. He has a lot of practice from hiding/waiting to help certain animals, laying trapped under sleeping cats/dogs, etc. And also avoiding public restrooms like the Plagues they are for most of the day...

* He's bladdershy AF and has been since early childhood. I saw he had signs drawn on the doors/curtain in his room during my playthrough (including the bathroom) and that is definitely his safezone. Can't go outside either bc 1. He's paranoid he'll be seen by other ppl and 2. That feels disrespectful to the nature deities despite the logic that animals do it all the time. He knows that's dumb and he hates himself for it.

* Sometimes I do like to ignore the bladdershy hc just for some variety. Even in that case tho he'd still be a bit of a diva about which public bathrooms he uses. If it's gross or weird he's gonna avoid it/complain/refuse to go even if bursting. He's stubborn af

* We all know he canonically goes commando. Therefore he is in extra danger because any leaks will go straight to his pants RIP Since he usually wears black it isn't that visable (as long as it's just a bit and not a full wetting), but if he ever has to wear smth else u know he's screwed c':

* He's not very vocal when desperate at all. Mostly strangled whines or grunts (only when alone or if so urgent he can't hide it), he's just so easily embarrassed that he can choke most sound.

* He can also hide his body language pretty well. He can manage to keep himself to rigid posture and the occasional shudder or fidget if needed. Only when he's beyond caught and about to wet will he resort to obvious grabs or dances in front of others.

* Even if he wet he wouldn't cry (I don't seem him crying much for anything tbh, barring extreme things like death). He's angry at himself and extremely ashamed. He would get red as a tomato, attempt to slink away and avoid any witnesses for several days. Could get snippy or hide in his shell all pitiful, depending on the person.

* When alone or sure he can't be caught, he'll fidget more once things are dire. Mostly his long-ass legs. Jiggling, crossing, bending at the knees or bouncing up and down, shuffling from foot-to-foot, everything. He doesn't really do much with his hands beyond a quick crotch-squeeze.

* He'd def let Haj/ime or So/nia dom tf out of him as far as making him hold/lose control, he's submissive and enjoys the challenging test of limits. However, I could also see him totally having a thing for 'marking' his partners during the times he doms.

So/nia:

* Lowkey has a bladder of steel tbh, tho you'd never expect it by looking at her. It takes a lot to get her desperate and even more for her to crack enough to show her needs to others.

* She had a lot of long lectures/lessons, meetings, social events, formal balls, etc. growing up, so she just got used to waiting a lot between breaks so as not to interrupt or be rude to her guests. This also makes her wicked good at remaining completely calm on the outside and keeping the quiver out of her tone even when she's absolutely dying.

* Even once people know her problem, she would NEVER grab herself or dance. Literally the most you'll get out of her is legs crossed at the ankles. For the most part the only sign of her desperation is the slight fullbody shivering where she has her muscles and posture strained. If you're very lucky she may wince or her voice will start shaking/get breathy (her breathing gets super fast and shallow when at her absolute limit. Like nearly hyperventilating fast).

* While not shy at all about asking/telling others where she's going, she was raised with manners. She refuses to interrupt while others are busy, and will wait until she feels the time is appropriate to but into convos or leave the room, even if that could take a long time. She will not skip out on a group task if she can help it bc she feels very strongly about doing her part and not coming off as a slacker (so group investigations/new island exploring/building for Us/ami in Island Mode are all LONG tasks she will force herself to stick out without complaint, even if she's about to wet herself).

* Despite being a princess, she definitely doesn't view anything as being 'beneath' her. If someone asks her to just go outside/in a sketchy place/strange receptacle, she'll do it without question as soon as they agree to glance away. In fact, sometimes it's actually a little thrilling.

* If she did wet herself she would certainly be embarrassed, maybe even teary-eyed depending on the situation/who was around. However, it certainly isn't the end of the world for her, and she would be able to brush it off fairly easily once she got cleaned up and had a chance to breathe. Could probably start making jokes about it by the next day, or just wait patiently for everyone to forget about it.

* Probably has a big piss kink (for others. She isn't much on doing holds herself, minus an occasional 'Damsel in Distress' type roleplay). And honestly just a big one for domming others (sometimes sweetly, sometimes cold/cruel like True Royalty). She looks cute but She Nasty (tm). Gun/dham and Haji/me (to a lesser extent, bc his smart-ass take-no-shit attitude makes him a bit of a brat sometimes lol) are her bitches.

M/ikan (I have to split hers in two bc I have polar opposite hcs) :

Non-Despair M/ikan -

* Is every bit as shy uwu ohnoooo~ as you'd imagine. Super blushy and fidgety and teary-eyed but never admits what's wrong even once it's obvious, to the point of potty-dancing in place (but she's Totally Fine she can hang in there and doesn't need to stop what she's doing)! You literally have to drag her away to the bathroom if u don't want her to have an accident. Would rather die than inconvenience anyone by telling them she has to go, will berate herself for the inconvenience when that backfires and she's made a mess of herself, 120% convinced everyone hates her and p much refuses any comfort bc she's so trapped in the spiral. Bawls her eyes out.

* If on a rare occasion she does work up the nerve to speak up and is denied, that's it. She will not dare ask again even if the person didn't realize how badly she had to go. Nope. Clearly her only option is to hold it until she can't anymore, or until she's alone and can run off by herself.

*Also she totally would whimper to herself in The Worst omo video star voice lmao "Oh noooo I'm leaking into my panties~, it's cOmIng OuTtttt~ uwu uwu uwu" (i'm not making fun of those istg but u know Exactly what 'sexy baby' voice I mean. That is Mi/kan. Don't be so fake bitch We Know u didn't fall spread eagle naturally)

* Says 'Potty' unironically. It's the only word she uses for the bathroom.

* Surprisingly not bladdershy at all. She's actually the opposite. Will go Anywhere (but will be embarrassed while doing it).

* She's used to holding a lot bc afraid to leave class/stuck helping patients for hours on end. However while she has a wicked high capacity and stays very hydrated, she has pretty shaky control. Leaks A LOT, be it in general or bc she gets startled/nervous. She's like a chihuahua lmao. She wears medical liners when on duty as a nurse or during school, but for general hangouts she forgoes them (totally bc she forgot and Not bc she wanted to show her wet panties off to strangers/peers when she falls again, that would be Slu/tty and Improper).

* Once held for ages and then ended up wetting herself just bc Hiy/oko told her to. It wasn't actually a request, just a one-off snippy comment that H forgot about like 10 min after she said it and walked away. When she found out Mi/kan took it seriously she absolutely lost it laughing for the next few days

*Her potty dances include lots of thighs rubbing together/hunching over, hands wandering dangerously close only to pause and grip her skirt/dress hem, hopping from leg to leg and shaking at the knees. She's pitiful when desperate and very cute. Pants and whimpers near constantly, nibbles at her knuckles to try and muffle it.

* Knows when she's at risk of actual damage from holding, but it's still a 50/50 shot of whether she'll break down and go or keep trying to hold. She knows it's unwise, but due to her complete lack of self worth she doesn't really care if her own body is damaged.

* That said, she monitors everyone else very closely and will harass them firmly to take breaks if they're at risk.

Despair/True Mik/an -

* MASSIVE PISS KI/NK. Loves to be dommed/told to hold until she wets. LOVES to do the same to others and tell them all the mean things for a change. She will borderline Break You.

* Takes great satisfaction in watching others struggle. If given an opportunity to make others desperate/prevent them from getting to a bathroom without revealing herself, she will definitely take it. She has no sympathy.

* The Queen of lacing things with diuretics, but can also often find that boring/too easy. A bit disdainful of that method tbh.

* Tying ppl down to hold or hooking them to IVs and 'misplacing' the call button is more her style.

* Used to hold for Jun/ko a lot to appease her. Would be willing to hold for Na/gito, but tbh he's just as willing to hold for her so it's a bit of a stalemate and they've yet to work out who does what.

* Will piss on her victim/lover while staring them directly in the eyes. Does not flinch. She toes the line between sexy and just plain creepy lol

#omocute #omorashi #fandomo #fictomo #bear txt #drspoilers

[everythinginslowmotion]

Season 8 Rewrite- Ep1: Launch Date

AO3 |X|

So obviously with everyone hating how basically the entirety of season 8 ended, I have been requested to do a rewrite. Some things from the season will be changed, some will be left, but everything that people were unhappy with will be kept out (i.e. Allura’s death or anything like that). 

Shout out to my girlfriend @imtheonlybeefcow for beta reading this first chapter. She also has an archive account with great fics and her archive is also imtheonlybeefcow. 

Anyway, here is the first chapter, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy!

(Also the other chapters will not be updated on a specific schedule due to school and other outside commitments, but all 13 episodes will be rewritten). 

~Allura~

The hallway seemed darker than it had been the past several times she had stood outside of this window. From the outside, she could hear the sounds of the monitors and screens hooked up to the Altean girl that lay unconscious on the bed. It all seemed very surreal, the knowledge that her and Coran weren’t the only Alteans left in the universe was still so shocking. So surreal in fact, that it felt like a dream every time she stood behind the glass that separated her and the red headed Altean that seemed as if she would never wake up.

Footsteps echoed in the hallway behind her as they approached her side. Romelle. It was always Romelle. Coran joined her on occasion as she waited outside the patient's room, but she thinks that as more Alteans started showing up in their lives, it began to remind him of a better time. A time when this war wasn’t looming over their heads, determining their very being. So she didn’t ask him to come often.

Romelle, however, became Allura’s most recurring company. All of the paladins were off with their families or in meetings or just enjoying their time that they have left on Earth in general. Romelle didn’t have that. Romelle had lost just as much as Allura had, and now they both were experiencing that loss all over again as one of their own laid stone cold only just out of reach.

“You know, back on the colony, Luca and I didn’t always get along. But despite that, I had always respected her. She had strength and desire that few had. But it was never malicious in intent. She wanted good and fairness among our people. I don’t know what would ever drive her to turn against an innocent planet, especially after what happened to her own home planet.”

Allura remained quiet for a moment, continuing to stare through the glass. She knew all about the strength and determination that ran through Altean veins. She grew up with it. Found it within herself when she was thrown into the war so suddenly. She saw it every day in Coran as she had in her father before he had passed. And even in Lotor, who had a different sort of stubborn determination driving his very life, she felt it within him. He was the only one though that she had ever seen that determination turn into something that worked against itself. That quickly changed into a harmful path that got put above anything else that he may have believed in.

“Desire for something greater than yourself can be dangerous. If she was so desperate for something to believe in, she may have been susceptible to being easily manipulated.”

She didn’t need to say who. She was so sure that he had disappeared for good now, but he was always capable of much more than she had ever imagined.

She was so sure that this desire for a greater good could only stem from the one person who had control over the former colony.

Lotor.

~Lance~

The table was cool against his hands as they rested on the top. He stared down at them as Hunk had gone off to help his family and Sal make a few special request food items before they took off tomorrow. He heard them speaking in the background but their words came and went through his mind like white noise. He couldn’t pay attention to them. He couldn’t pay attention to much of anything really lately. He looked up at Hunk and his parents as they gave him two boxes. Hunk lifted the lid of one releasing the smell of freshly baked banana cake into the room, taking Lance back to the days when he would stay the night at Hunk’s house and his mom would make it for them to eat after dinner. They would always sneak down to the kitchen in the early hours of the morning and get themselves more slices to take back up to Hunk’s room as they talked about anything that their minds could conjure up.  

Hunks parents left the room with a simple “I love you” before Hunk turned and made his way back towards the table where Lance had been sitting the entire time.

“Big day tomorrow, isn’t it. It seems like almost forever ago when we found the Blue lion and piled in just to blasted out into space. Man, we had no idea what we were getting into! And now look at us, defenders of the universe.”

Lance didn’t look up at him, and he certainly didn’t meet his enthusiasm with his simple reply of “Yeah”.

“We are veterans now. We’ve seen it all, man. Going back into battle for the last time. Or hopefully the last time, I guess we could all fail miserably and die horrible deaths out in space. But here we go, back out into the unknown. Guess that makes us real heroes or something, doesn’t it?”

“Hm, yep.”

“Heroes enough that they made a show about us! Already! Can you believe it? Have you seen it yet? It’s not like the Voltron Show that we did to promote the coalition either. It’s like with real characters based on us. None of us really fit though, but it’s still cool. Coran is all serious and Allura isn’t really like Allura. Pidge can do cool flips and stuff but kind of sounds like a gremlin. They mixed up me and Keith pretty bad too! I’m all tough and mean and Keith is friendly! Can you believe it? Keith beling happy all of the time?” Lance had seen it. Everyone had seen it. They had to do some interviews with the writers about themselves. Hunk was right, they had gotten it all wrong. Lance just didn’t bother to stop his friends rambling though. “It’s weird though. I don’t know where they got it from, but I think they are even hinting at a romance between him and Allura.”

Lance’s head snapped up, drawing his attention from his fidgeting hands that had now been slammed down on the table to his friends shocked expression. He hadn’t meant to react like that- so abruptly. But it was reflex. Somehow this conversation went from being about absolutely nothing to everything that he had been thinking about since they were on that dumb space game show.

“What?! Allura and Keith . Nonononono, that’s not how it’s supposed to be!”

“Woah, a love triangle forming. I like where you are taking that.”

“Wh- what? A long triangle? What do you mean a love triangle… that would imply…”

“Well it would be perfect for that story. Obviously Keith has no real interest in Allura and you clearly do so it would work with you guys’ whole dynamic of going against each other and all.”

Lance looked down. So that was what he meant. Not about him…

“Oh wait dude, you said you were going to ask Allura on a date! Oh no, she didn’t say no did she buddy? Oh, oh man. I’m so sorry. That’s rough, I shouldn’t have said any…”

“She didn’t say no, Hunk. I just… I haven't gotten around to asking her yet, I guess. I’ve just had a lot on my mind about some stuff and she has been really busy with the new Altean girl that I don’t know if I should anymore. Maybe it just isn’t the right time.” He sat back down in his seat completely and folded his hands again, staring down at his fingers as they rubbed nervously together.

“No, Lance. It’s the only time. We leave tomorrow. It’s now or never dude, literally,” his brows furrowed as he put on his serious face. It was a face that Lance didn’t see often from his friend, mainly from when he was giving orders in the kitchen or protecting the ones he loved. Lance knew that Hunk figured out something was wrong. It isn’t like Lance was really trying to hide it. But he didn’t think Hunk knew the real reason why… Lancedidn’t even know completely why. “You are asking her tonight, and thats final,” he completed as he hit his palm gently on the table.

Lance didn’t say anything in protest.

~Shiro~

Never in a million years would he have thought he would be standing at the head of a table in the Galaxy Garrison giving orders to a room full of people. Not just any people, but commanders, officers, people of major importance. And he was their head. Their leader. Even when he wasn’t technically a part of team Voltron anymore he still formed the head. The person in charge. The leader and the one who knows exactly what to do and say in the exact moment that it is needed.

He didn’t particularly enjoy the position but he believed in duty and honor and even though in an ideal world he would be off exploring the unknown corners of the galaxy, this was what he was meant to do. And he was going to do it.

He took a breath in as the last people made their way into the large room and got settled.

“Everyone, welcome to our final Earth briefing. We’ve made a lot of progress over the past few months, but our work is not close to being done. Tomorrow we launch to continue the liberation efforts. There are several planets still under galra control and in order for this war to finally come to an end, we need to free those planets and their people.” He looked over at Sam, the man he once looked up to as his hero, but who was now looking up to him as if he had all the answers. “Commander Holt, what is the latest from your team?”

“We know there is no Galra activity in galaxies near the milky way. Sendak appeared to only have targeted Earth. However, we do have a new development. The Altean girl had several devices on her, one of them appearing to be a communication device. Earlier today it activated itself in what seemed to be a distress signal. It may just be a trap, but if not then then some of the pilots that we thought we lost when Earth was first invaded may still be alive.”

Shiro’s breath caught in his throat. Pilots still alive. But that could mean that he… Adam… could be out there. Somewhere.

He pulled himself back into the situation, turning his attention away from Sam to Keith.

Every time Shiro looked in the mirror, he doesn’t recognize the man that he sees. He remembers seeing a young man with dark black hair and a face filled with hope for the future. Now his age is showing at only 25, he is missing an arm, has white hair, and a scar that runs the width of his face as a constant reminder of what he went through and what all he has lost. But his transformation over the past couple of years will never shock him more than Keith’s.

Keith. The kid who stole his car. The pilot prodigy and genius. Turned from a delinquent, to his student, to his brother, to a leader. Before, when he would look at Keith, he would still see the 12 year old kid with messy hair and a scowl always on his face. Ready to fight and ready for adventure. Now he sees the scar that runs across his cheek. Sees how long his hair has gotten. Hears the change in pitch and even tone in his voice when he talks. It used to be so in the moment, sparse with quick decisions. Now he is all seriousness and strength. He isn’t the kid that Shiro took under his wing so many years ago. He is Keith, paladin of the Black lion.

“How are Earth’s defenses?” He said turning his focus to Keith as he brought his attention back to the meeting.

“All of the Garrison facilities around the globe have checked in. Everything is in place and they are ready to keep Earth safe.”

“Good. And the Atlas?” He said turning to Veronica who was standing behind him.

“All repairs have been made, and all tests have been passed. The IGF-Atlas is good to go.”

“And updates on the Altean pilot?” Allura’s face turned down when he mentioned it.

“Maybe if we had a couple of more days, she would wake and we can find out who sent her.”

Keith turned to face her next to him, “There is no telling how long it will take her to wake, or even if she will tell us anything when she does wake up. There are too many risks and we can’t wait any longer. Especially if those pilots really are out there somewhere. We need to get back out there.”

“Keith is right Allura. We will make sure to keep constant communication with Earth in case any new developments happen, but tomorrow is the day we have to leave. I’m sorry, I know you were hoping to get to speak to her.” He turned his head away trying to ignore the disappointment that washed over Allura’s face. He knew she didn’t like the decision, but she knew it had to be done. There was no other choice. “I have one more item to discuss. Tonight is the last night we have on Earth. We may not be home for years, so take this as an order. Take time for yourself and be with the ones you love. You have all earned it.”

He himself didn’t even know what that meant for him. He didn’t have any family anymore and the closest thing to family he has now is the paladins and the Holts. Both who will be on the mission with him. Maybe he would go out and do stuff with N-7. Maybe he would just stay home and watch some old movie that he still had in his abandoned apartment. He just needed something. Some distraction to take away from the fact that he might be out there.

That Adam may still be alive.

~Lance~

Be with the ones you love.

His family.

Well he was going to do that anyway. His mom is cooking his favorite meal tonight for him before they take off tomorrow.

He looked over the crowded room of people. All of them had their own ways that they were going to celebrate tonight. Or not really celebrate, but spend the night. All so hopefully in their victory and return.

An elbow nudged its way into his arm. He looked over at Hunk who motioned his head towards the front of the table. He knew what Hunk was thinking.

Be with the ones you love.

Hunk was going to make him ask her out. There was no doubt about it. No time for Lance to back out, for him to stop and think about if this was really what he wanted.

It had seemed like what he wanted for so long. He still remembers their first day in the castle ship when the pod opened and the most beautiful girl he had ever seen fell out and literally into his open arms.

Lance turned his head towards where she was sitting. Her position was very similar to the one he had been in earlier. Slouched over, staring down at her hands. She was upset over the possibility of missing one of her own people wake up when they had come so close. Waited so long.

She was still just as beautiful as she was that first day he met her. Her long white hair was up into its usual bun. Her altean wear replaced with a uniform similar to the very one he had worn as a student here so many years ago. The orange hue didn’t drown out her complexion as it had done with most of the students who had passed through these halls though. She still radiated power and beauty. But somewhere lost out in space, Lance’s childish crush started to be replaced with something else. Her power and beauty stopped making him lose his breath every time he looked at her, but instead he found himself admiring it all in a different way.

Be with the ones you love.

Just beyond Allura, in the chair next to her, sat Keith. Back straight. Face drawn tight in determination. He wasn’t going to let this mission fail. They were going to come back one way or another. Lance knew that. He trusted Keith. The very same Keith who, in the beginning, was all intuition and act-first-think-later, headstrong and who never stopped or slowed down for anything. Lance couldn’t pinpoint when, but as it had with switched with Allura, his own jealousy for Keith changed into something… Respect. Friendship. Trust. Stability. All though those things were true, in Lance’s head there was a pull that told him those emotions weren’t quite fitting .

He watched as Keith rose from his chair and stood next to Shiro. The meeting was now officially dismissed causing everyone else who had been gathered around the table to quietly get up and begin to shuffle out to their own activities.

Lance had barely made it one step out of the room before he felt a big hand on his back pushing him forward. He took one last look into the room, taking his attention towards the very front where Keith and Shiro were in deep conversation with one another. Turning his head to the right where he saw Allura and Romelle walking down the hall, he inhaled deeply before taking a step forward.

“Uh, hey Allura,” he said continuing to walk forward to catch up with them slightly. The two of them stopped and turned around to face him. Suddenly the room had become very warm as he felt his face heat up.

“What is it Lance?”

He turned his head to the floor. Back out. “Oh nothing much. Just wanted to check in. You’ve been spending a lot of time in the med bay and I just wanted to make sure you both were doing alright. So, uh, how are… things?”

“Lance I... I really need to be getting back.”

“Oh, right, sorry. Well… I don’t want to keep you waiting then… so talk to you later I guess.” He began to turn around to walk away as they had also done in front of him. The difference is he was faced with a towering and disappointed looking Hunk who took him by the shoulders, turned him around in one motion and pushed him forward again.

So close.

“Actually, Allura! I was wondering if you, maybe wanted to have dinner. Tonight. Dinner tonight with me? And my family. My, uh, my mom is cooking so I just thought you might join us.”

She looked at the floor. She doesn't want to. “Thank you for the offer Lance, it sounds wonderful. But I… I can’t.”

Romelle put a hand on her shoulder. “I know you are worried about Luca, but everyone else is worried about you. Go spend your last night experiencing Earth and I can take care of watching her. Get away and clear you head before you take off tomorrow.”

“Yeah, everything she just said. Totally. Great idea, Romelle,” Hunk said as he walked up and put one of his hands on each of their shoulders. Allura’s face still looked as unsure as Lance felt.

“Perhaps dinner would be nice… I’d love to Lance.”

Lance brought his head up completely, straightening out his posture. “Woah, really? Uh, awesome. Alright, tonight. Us. Yes.” He started to back up once again. Allura gave him a small smile that made his heart jump before she turned around and started walking in the opposite direction once again with Romelle.

“Yes! Dude! I knew you could do it. Good job, a date… with Allura. It’s only been years that you’ve been wanting this. How do you feel, man?”

He smiled up at his friend, “Great. Thank you for making me do this.” But when he looked back towards the silhouettes disappearing down the hallway towards the med bay, the jump in his heart had gone away.

~Pidge~

She got why her mom was angry with her. But did she think it was fair? No. She was 15 now. And without her, Earth would be destroyed, overrun by Galra, and her mom would have never seen her husband or son ever again. And what does she get for bringing them back and helping save the universe on multiple occasions? Grounded.

Grounded as if she was 7 again and her and Matt had gotten into a stupid fight where she had called him a bad name and she was the one who got in trouble for that, where he didn’t get in trouble for starting the fight in the first place.

But there was no point in fighting her mom. It was always a lost battle. Pidge may be smart but her parents are by far smarter, but her mom is where her stubbornness comes from. So instead she was spending her last night on Earth collecting data on plants species and making sure they had enough food growing to last the entire team out in space.

“Pidge, do you have a moment?” Allura’s voice sounded nervous, something Pidge hadn’t heard more than a handful of times before.

“Yeah, sure. What’s up?” Anything to take a break from staring at plants.

She watched out of the corner of her eye as Allura folded her hands together and looked off to the side. “I uh, I might have a…”

“She has a date tonight with the pointy chinned one!” Romelle butted in excitedly. “She needs your assistance in choosing proper courting attire for the occasion.”

Pidge froze in front of the plants she was looking at, shocked. “Wait, pointy chin as in Lance? You have a date? With Lance?” She turned towards Allura who still wasn’t looking at her. “Ew. Weird,” Pidge said awkwardly as she turned back away from Allura and Romelle.

She had a feeling that she wasn’t the only one who found this weird based on Allura’s actions.

“I was hoping you would be able to accompany me to find appropriate attire for Earth’s custom.”

Pidge heard her mom laugh from behind her, “Katie and clothes? They don’t exactly go hand and hand girls.”

She gave her mom a glare before looking back up at Allura’s face. “The mall I think has finally reopened and I was going to check it out, but I’m grounded meaning I am stuck here until we take off tomorrow.”

Both of the girls looked confused. “Grounded? I wasn’t aware that humans ever floated,” Romelle said.

“Not grounded like stuck on the ground. It’s her punishment for running off into deep space for years and leaving her mother worried and alone. It means she isn’t allowed to leave my supervision for quite some time.”

Pidge turned quickly to stare down her mother. She knew it was no use it fighting, they’d had this conversation multiple occasions before this. But the urge just rose up in her until the words just broke free. “Well sorry! I thought that saving my brother, father and the world would make up for the fact that I didn’t exactly get permission!”

Her mother just stared her down. Allura and Romelle had moved behind Pidge now, obviously scared of the showdown between the two. It wasn’t anything serious. Just a pointless and loud conversation between her and her mother.

“Not on your life would it get you a pass. And you already know that.”

Pidge did know that. She didn’t like being grounded. She hated it. Hated what it meant. Hated what it made her feel like. But while she did think it was unjust because of what all she had accomplished by going into space, she can’t even imagine how her mom had felt on Earth, alone, having lost every member of her family except for their dog.

“Please, Colleen. We could really use the help. I promise we won’t let her out of our sight,” Allura added in. Her mom just stared down at them and then smiled. Pidge knew that look.

“Fine. I’ll let her go with you. But only because Katie hates shopping. But after you get back it is right back in here to work.”

Oh. Shopping. She had been so caught up in thinking of how to get out of being grounded and then caught up by Allura and Lance going out on an actual date. It was still gross. But regardless, she was now stuck shopping which her mom was right, it might just be more of a punishment than it is a break from being grounded.

“Thank you, Colleen. We will have her back as soon as we can!” Allura grabbed her arm and started to drag her out of the room. The last thing she saw before turning the corner was her mom’s smug smile as she typed something into her tablet.

Their next destinations were to the only other girls that Allura could really think of that were around their age. Rizavi and Ina.

They had found them along with James and Kinkade in a room. Rizavi and James were in the middle of an arm wrestling battle when they walked in, Ina and Kinkade just sat at the other end of the table watching as their friends struggled against the others strength. James looked up, taking his focus off of his opponent for a moment when they walked in. Of course, Rizavi took this opportunity to force his arm down on the table.

“Ha! I told you I was stronger!”

James got up from his chair and stood in position. “Princess, how can we help you?” Rizavi turned around, not having realized the three of them had even walked in. She also stood at attention.

“Please, you guys can call me Allura. You don’t need to treat me any different than you treat the others.” They relaxed and sat back down in their seats. “But I do need help from you girls if you aren’t too occupied at the moment,” she said as she looked back and forth between James and Rizavi.

Pidge hadn’t gotten to know any of the MFE pilots well. She mainly stuck with her family and the paladins- well lately she has been just staying by her moms side- and they usually stayed around each other and the occasional other person they knew from the garrison. Outside of training, every one of them had been so caught up in their individual lives here on earth and preparing for the war that it never even crossed her mind to get to know the others better. But regardless, she was grateful that Allura hadn’t come to her as the sole person to get advice from for an outfit choice. For a date. Pidge had never even been on a date before.

“Sure, anything Allura! I’ve already kicked Griffin’s butt in armwrestling so my schedule’s clear for the day. What did you have in mind?”

“I need assistance in choosing proper attire for a date.”

“OOOOH, shopping! But a date? With who? Keith? That show that got made about you guys I think is starting to hint at something between the two of you.”

Ew. The only thing that could be worse than Allura going on a date with Lance would be Allura going on a date with Keith. That show had gotten everything so wrong about them. She wasn’t even sure if Keith actually interested in girls.

She looked up at Allura as her face twisted unintentionally into a slightly disgusted look. “No, um, with Lance. We are eating dinner with his family tonight.”

Pidge looked back over to where the others were sitting across the room. Rizavi was already out of her seat again gathering up her things and encouraging Ina to follow along. She seemed less excited about the idea of spending the afternoon shopping on their last day on Earth. Kinkade appeared uninterested in the entire topic of conversation. But James looked somewhat… relieved? Hmm, that could be interesting.

Rizavi made her way with Ina being dragged closely behind her by the wrist over to where they were standing in the doorway.

“So ladies, where to first?”

---

The location of the mall is exactly where it was when she was a little girl. Her dad would give her and Matt each a certain amount of money and while their parents shopped, the two of them would run off into store after store trying to find something that they could get for themselves.

Other than the location and the general appearance of the outside, that was the only similar thing about the mall she knew from her childhood. Inside, a lot of the stores had been replaced with individuals booths selling various items from all over space. Human retail workers had been replaced by shopkeepers and traders of every alien race that had joined the alliance and made their way to Earth.

“Okay girls, operation Date Dress is a go! We will scour every store if we have to, but we will not come out of this mission unsuccessful, team! Oh, I just love shopping,” Rizavi said before grabbing a bored looking Ina by the wrist and pulling her off into a direction of a clothing shop. Romelle did the same to Allura, following closely behind them. Pidge just crossed her arms and walked as the two groups of girls walked towards a store front.

They went on like this for a while. Walk into clothing store, try on several unsuccessful outfits, walk out towards the next one. Each time Rizavi and Romelle excitedly moving from store to store as if they couldn’t get enough of this.

Pidge, however, has had enough of it.

Shopping was all waiting. And while Ina looked like she was having some fun with going from store to store with her friends, Allura only looked excited while choosing clothes and trying them on. As soon as Lance was mentioned, her smile turned into something else. Something nervous. Something that seemed like she didn’t think this date was going to turn out like the rest of them seemed to. But that look didn’t last for long before she smiled again and politely turned down the option and they moved onto the next outfit or location.

~Allura~

Shopping had been rather enjoyable. It made her feel free, something that she hadn’t gotten to experience since before she was put into the pod thousands of years ago. Why Pidge didn’t find this enjoyable, she didn’t quite understand, but at the same time she knew Pidge was never one to enjoy what typical teenage Earth girls seemed to.

They had gone through store after store, trying on piles of clothes for the date, but none of them seemed right. Everytime she remembered what the occasion was, her vision turned against her and tainted the dress.While she was having fun,she could admit that this was absolutely exhausting and was coming close to giving up. Part of her felt like she should give up.

“No no no no. We can’t give up! We still have like 3 more stores that we can go to! We have to find you a dress for tonight. It’s your first date! Your first impression on his family! You look good all of the time Allura, but tonight you have to make that boy speechless.”

“It really will be fine Nadia if we can’t find anything. I really appreciate everything you all are doing for me but we have been at this for a while. Maybe it is just time to go back.”

“Nope, not happening Princess. I’ll tell you what, we try one more store. Each of us pick out one entire outfit for you and you pick the one that you like the absolute best. That’s the one we get. Sound good?”

Allura just nodded in reply. Really, she would rather just go. She didn’t feel like she even needed to dress up as much as she originally thought in the first place. It was simply just dinner with his family. But Nadia, Romelle and Ina all seemed to be enjoying themselves and Pidge pretend to be enjoying it simply for the sake of not going back and being “grounded” again.

They made their way across the mall to what Nadia claimed would be their last store.

“Oh, do I have a good feeling about this place,” she looked back and forth between all of them standing around her before crouching down slightly, her face suddenly turning extremely serious. “Allura, leave this to us. Ladies, divide and conquer.”

The store was the largest one they had been to so far, which is probably why Nadia had picked it as their last in the first place. Each of them went their own separate ways within the store, off to find their own version of her outfit for tonight.

I guess I should also start looking.

She walked around the store for quite sometime by herself. On occasion she would come across one of the other girls looking through a rack of clothing items. She would run her hands through a rack every so often, looking mindlessly for options that may be suitable for the date.

By the time Pidge had come over to find her to ask if she was ready to try anything on, she had yet to pick up more than a single item of actual clothing. She looked down in her hand at the only item she had picked up, a pair of earrings. They were golden but their shape was similar to that of a juniberry flower. She had decided once she saw them that they would be leaving this store with her regardless of whether they found an actual out fit or not.

“I… I haven’t had much luck in finding clothing,” she said looking back up at Pidge.

“Allura, is everything alright?” Pidge asked. She seemed concerned and Allura understood why. Nothing about her today really seemed to hint that she was okay. But truthfully, other than being worried about Luca, she couldn’t pinpoint what was wrong.

“Yes, Pidge. It’s just nerves, and with everything going on with Luca, I just feel like I’m not…” She didn’t really know where to finish that sentence. She wasn’t doing what? Waiting outside a glass window for one of her people to wake up? Not spending her time doing something productive to help out before they launch tomorrow?

Shiro had told them to be with the ones they love tonight and as of this moment she felt that was what she was doing. But it still felt wrong.

“Well Romelle, Rizavi and Ina are waiting by the dressing room, so unless you want to keep looking a little longer than the rest of us are ready for you to try on these outfits.” She nodded along and followed Pidge to the room by where the others were waiting. Nadia and Romelle were excitedly bouncing up and down as they had at every other store prior to this when they got to where she would actually try the outfits on.

“Okay, Princess. This is it. Here try on mine first,” Nadia said quickly as she shoved the large pile of clothing into her arms. She walked into the little room and pulled the curtain shut behind her before putting the pile on the bench.

She pulled up the clothing item in front of her. It was soft and light blue and as she pulled it up it just continued to pull up into what appeared to be an outfit similar to what she wore normally. Just looser rather than tight fitting, but it was certainly not a dress.

Carefully, she placed her legs through their each individual hole and pulled it up the rest of the way over her shoulders. It was a comfortable piece of clothing, probably one of the better ones that they had tried on today. She examined her reflexion in the mirror.

No.

She didn’t want this blue. She felt out of place in it. Other than the color, she loved almost everything else about this piece. But her mind just kept telling her no, no, no. Wrong.

She opened the curtain to show the others anyway, they all stared for a moment before shaking their heads back and forth in a silent agreement with her own thoughts.

Ina handed her the outfit she had chosen next. It was already more her color, light pink and white, but even as she held it up just to look at it she could tell it was too stiff. Ina had brought together 3 things for her to try on, and they were very obviously a set that she had found. Pants that went halfway up her midsection but not all the way down to her ankles, a jacket that wrapped all the way around her, covering the rest of her stomach from where the pants stopped, and shoes that had the same colors and pattern as the jacket.

She was right. It was too stiff. The entire ensemble made her feel much older, or as if she was going to a formal meeting with members of the coalition.

When she opened the curtain, everyone's reaction was much more immediate than with the last. This one very clearly wasn’t the right choice, at least not for tonight.

When the last set of clothes was in her hand and she had closed the curtain, Allura had let out a sigh.

Hopefully this one is good enough.

And it was.

The outfit that Pidge had picked out was a simple white dress with white shoes. The material was soft to the touch and the dress hung loosely halfway down her legs. It wasn’t too serious. It wasn’t too formal. It wasn’t too casual.

And from what she had learned in her brief lesson about earthly dating attire, this seemed to be somewhere in the middle of what it needed to be.

So this is it.

She didn’t even go out to show the rest of the girls what it looked like on her.

This is actually happening now.

She took off the dress and folded it quickly before opening up the curtain and stepping back out.

“We did it!” Nadia said, pumping her fist up in the air.

As they checked out and made their way out of the mall and back to the Garrison, Allura couldn’t help but notice the growing feeling inside of her that continued to nag at her thoughts.

Wrong.

~Lance~

Everything was just wrong.

His hands were sweating. His throat felt dry but also as if something was stuck in it- or worse, trying to come up. His clothes felt as if they were clinging to him, making him feel as if he needed to take them off right this very moment or else they were bound to suffocate him any minute.

He had already been pacing up and down the hallway for what had probably been 10 minutes at this point. He just didn’t get why he was so nervous. He had always enjoyed talking to Coran before. It brought an odd sense of calm over him in his worst moments when they were in space. But now the very thought of it made him wish that he could be lost in space right now instead of approaching Coran’s bedroom door.

It’s not like he had never asked for permission to date a girl before. He was old fashioned in that way. Despite his carefree and flirty attitude, he had only ever been out with a handful of girls in his lifetime, and each time he made sure to go to who the girl seemed closest to and get their permission before ever even asking.

Maybe that’s why he felt so wrong right now. That had to be it. He already asked Allura and she said yes before he had even thought to go to Coran first. Yeah. That was the reason. Totally the only reason.

“Come on, McClain. You can do this. It’s just Coran. It’s just a date. Everything will be fine. Just be cool.”

He exhaled completely, letting it all go before lifting his hand and knocking on the metal door that separated himself and the moment he had been dreading since he asked Allura out. The door opened, exposing Coran in his orange Garrison uniform putting away his old clothes.

“Lance! To what do I owe this visit?”

“Hey, Coran,” he said as he took a step in the room. It’s now or never. “I uh, I have a question to ask you about Allura.”

“Well then son, you came to the right place. Would you like to have a seat?”

“No, no. This shouldn’t take long. I just uh, I wanted to let you know that I asked Allura on a date and I…”

“You what?1 You aren’t Altean royalty! Nor are you either of those things separately! What makes you qualified enough to make you think that you can go on a date with Allura!? And you didn’t even ask permission from her primary guardian, which is me!”

This is exactly what he was afraid of. Partly.

“Woah woah, Coran. That’s kind of what I came here to do. I know it was wrong of me to not get your input first, but Hunk kind of made me do it as a spur of the moment kind of thing, and I didn’t have time.”

“Well I demand you ask permission, and if you pass the test then you may take her out tonight. So go back outside and start again.”

“But Allura already…” he started, but Coran was already pushing him out the door. It closed behind him. He slouched over and sighed.

Chickening out of this whole date probably would have just been a better idea. Why did he let Hunk talk him into this?

He took in a couple of breaths to calm himself down before a panic even started to come over him, straightened his back, and knocked on the door again.

As it had before, the door opened right up for him, but instead of revealing a calm and friendly Coran in a standard Garrison room as it had before, the room had been rearranged and he was sitting in a chair underneath a picture of him and Alfor that was now hanging on the wall.

How did he even manage to do that? And where did he get that painting from? Lance figured it was probably one of the few items he rescued from the castle, but regardless, the things that Coran could do in such short amounts of time always amazed Lance.

“Ah, Lance, come in. What brings you to my quarters this evening?”

Well this is definitely a lot harder than he ever could’ve imagined it being.

Lance made his way over to stand in front of Coran’s chair. “I came to ask your permission to take Allura out on a date tonight,” he said. He could hear the nervousness in his voice now.

Coran just looked at Lance up and down as if he was inspecting him for any possible imperfections, which Lance was sure he could find plenty.

“Do you have references of people who can vouch for your character?”

“Uh… no. But I can tell you exactly what we are doing and how long I plan to have her out for…”

“And that would be?”

“Well we are just eating dinner with my family because my mom is cooking for our last night here, and then I was going to take her to the park that I used to walk through when I went to the Garrison. And then I was going to take her back here. The latest she would be out is 10 tops.”

“Hmmm. Well, I can see that you really thought this through. And I guess I do know your character rather well being that you are one of the paladins,” he continued to scan his eyes over Lance. “I guess you have my permission. But, you will have to fix your outfit immediately. And seeing as you earthlings don’t have any Altean courting attire, we will just have to make do.”

Lance didn’t know what was scarier. The fact that Coran has never been more intimidating in his life than in this moment right now or that he had no idea what Coran was about to put him in.

---

When he said he had no idea, he really had no idea. Coran had immediately dragged him out of his room and all throughout the Garrison hallways to find things to replace “Altean courting attire”. Honestly, Lance thought that Coran was just trying to make him look as ridiculous as possible in order to embarrass and scare him out of even going out in public- much less on a date with Allura.

Luckily, just as Coran had found a bucket in a supply closet to place on Lance’s head, they heard footsteps running towards them. Both of them turned to face the Garrison employee that Lance had never seen before coming straight at them. The worker stopped briefly, taking a few short breaths in before pointing at Coran.

“Commander Holt has requested your presence in the med bay immediately sir.”

Lance turned back to look at Coran who’s face had drained of color. The Altean. Coran swallowed before looking at Lance and saying “That’ll do,” before going off with the worker in the direction of the med bay.

Lance just looked down at his new attire and sighed. How did he get into this mess?

He walked down the hallway until he found a clock. He still had quite a bit of time until he had to go back to his house but nothing to do.

Hunk was off with his own family and Shay, Pidge was grounded, he thinks Shiro went out for the night with Matt and his robot girlfriend.

He supposed he could go out to his house early, but his mom would scold him for not spending more of his free time with his friends. He didn’t even really get that because he saw them all of the time but she always told him that fighting a war with them didn’t count as spending time with them. She wouldn’t want him back home until the time that he said he would be home.

Be with the ones you love.

Keith. He would go find Keith. And he is pretty sure he knows exactly where he will be able to find him.

~Keith~

Keith had never realized the small things he missed from Earth while they were out in space. When they all got into the Blue Lion and launched themselves into the mission of a lifetime, he didn’t even think he was capable of missing anything. He had lost his mom before he could even speak, lost his dad at 12 along with his house. Lost Shiro at 16 and his spot as top student in his class at the Garrison only a few months later. He had lost everything in his life, and there is only so much loss a person can take before they stop missing things all together. Or at least, that is, what they convince themselves.

Truthfully, he missed Shiro so much that he was willing to rig up bombs and follow strange signals across the desert to find him. He hadn’t realized how much he missed having a mom he didn’t even know existed until he found her again. After being in the castle for a while, he realized how much he missed belonging to something, being special to people who actually cared about him. But even after realizing all of that, he still never got homesick.

Maybe it was because he never felt quite right at home on Earth. As if he didn’t quite belong. Maybe even because he just felt as if he didn’t have anything left here to miss.

But oh was he wrong.

For instance, the sun setting behind the New Mexico desert mountains was one of those things that he really missed but didn’t realize until he got it back. And now everything was about to be taken away from him again for who knows how long.

The light from the sun was so bright on the horizon, illuminating everything it could reach in its golden glow. But as the light began to fade into the sky, the colors changed from bright yellow to orange to a lilac field with few clouds in sight.

Part of him felt guilty for hiding out on top of Black with Kosmo alone for his last night on Earth. But all of his friends were out doing things with other people they cared about and Kolivan and his mom told him they would meet up with him later. So he decided that until then, this is how he would spend his night and not much could make it better than this.

The sunset was so mesmerizing that he just sat there, lost in his own thoughts. Thinking about how things could have been so different.

There was a clanging and grunting coming from behind him, but he decided that whoever it was was not as important as what he was already looking at.

“Man, you can a real hard guy to find when you wanna be.”

And of course, Keith once again found himself wrong.

“Hey Lance,” he said turning his head as the boy finished climbing to the top of Black’s head. He almost turned his attention back to the horizon, but his eyes did a double take at the sight that had presented itself in front of him. “Woah! W… what are you wearing?”

Lance just sighed, taking a seat next to him as he removed the metal bucket from him head and sat it down beside him. “Coran is making me wear this for my date with Allura.”

Oh.

“A… a date. With Allura? Uh, wow. Well done, Lance,” he said looking down to where their hands were. Just barely apart.

Keep it together.

“ Thanks. But I think it might be our last.”

OH.

“What? Why do you say that? You’ve been wanting this literally since then moment you’ve met her.”

“I don't know, man. I just… I’ve been having this weird feeling about it all day. Well actually for a while. And I don’t even know if she actually likes me. Now I have to worry about all of these Altean customs that I can’t even begin to keep up with. It just doesn't feel right, if that makes sense.”

“Listen, Lance, if she is going out with you, it’s because she likes you,” he looked down and smiled to himself. “The annoying, stupid, earth version of you.” He heard Lance chuckle but neither of them looked up or at each other.

“Thanks, Keith. Still though, I don't know what it is, but there is this feeling that I can’t seem to shake when I start to think about the date.” He paused for a moment, before looking back up at Keith. “Have you… have you ever been in love before.”

He thinks he is in love with her.

Keith just laughed quietly and looked back out at the sunset. “Yeah, surprisingly enough, I think I have.”

“What did it feel like?”

“I’m not sure,” he said as he turned his head back towards Lance. “I’m still trying to figure that out.”

They sat for a moment then, just looking out at the almost set sun.

“So, you watching the sunset?”

“Yeah, I figured it might be awhile before we get to see it again.”

“Man, I’m really going to miss this place. It was hard being gone the first time, but now that we’ve been back again, I think it’ll be so much harder to leave. Especially not really knowing, ya know, what’s going to happen out there…”

“That’s why we have to go out there and win this war. Together. With the Lance that is the Paladin of the Red Lion,” he looked down again, thinking of all that has changed between the two of them. “The Lance that’s always got my back,” he closed his eyes just for a moment before getting the courage to get one last look at him before he has to go chase someone else. “And the Lance who knows exactly who he is and what he has to offer.”

Lance’s expression was stilled, stuck in a moment between shocked and awe. Keith just smiled slightly at him. “You’ll be fine tonight, Lance. I know it.”

Lance’s face softened as the corners of his mouth turned up to smile back at him before turning his attention back to the horizon.

Keith just looked back down to where their hands were only inches apart from the one another. He pulled his back, wrapping it around his knee before following Lance's gaze to watch the final moments as the sun hid behind the shadow of the mountains.

He didn’t feel like he was the type to be wrong often but tonight he had been wrong on quite a few occasions. His biggest mistake was, however, believing even for a moment that surely the sunset was the most beautiful thing he would be seeing that night.

~Sam~

The hallway just seemed to get longer and longer with every single step towards the door.

‘Sir. The Altean has woken up.’

Of course it would be now, with everyone so busy preparing for take off tomorrow and Allura gone for the rest of the night. Even Romelle, who actually knew the Altean- Luca - was gone.

‘Someone go get Coran immediately.’

He put his hand to the palm reader on the wall and the door opened up. The are was just like any other hospital room he had ever been in. The only difference was that in this one was a girl who could absolutely guarantee their success in the war. He heard the door open behind him and footsteps come up beside him.

“She’s awake,” Coran whispered next to him. The two of them just stared in awe at the girl who was being helped up by the workers in the room. More footsteps shuffled up behind them.

“How’s she doing?” Shiro asked quietly.

“She just woke up not long ago. I wanted a familiar face in here when she first woke up, but both of the girls are gone.”

They all watched as Luca sat up, pushing the hands of the men helping her off. Her hair covered her face partly as she looked down. She glanced up at them sadly.

“You. You’re altean,” she said. Her voice was soft and hoarse from being asleep for so long. Her eyes were barely looking at them, but the glare was sharp as a knife.

“It’s alright. We can help you,” Coran said as he held his arms out.

“I don’t want any help from the great destroyers,” she said as she looked down. They waited in the room a little longer to see if she was going to do anything else but anytime someone came towards her or tried to speak she responded only with a glare and flinch and a tightening of her arms around her folded up knees. She wouldn’t be speaking anymore anytime soon.

~Romelle~

It hadn’t been more than thirty ticks that she had been back before she was being rushed off towards the med bay. She had meant to help Allura get ready but people came to get her just before they entered Allura’s quarters.

“What is it Romelle? Is there a problem?”

“No, uh, everything is all good. There… there uh just has been an emergency in the kitchen and Hunk is off and can’t fix it. He had put the trust of the kitchen in my hands before he left the building. Anyway, very important. Gotta go, Princess. Have fun with pointy chin!”

She turned quickly and followed the uniformed Garrison employees down the hallway towards the med bay. Luca was awake. They could finally have their answers. Maybe she could even go home.

She saw how she was curled up in herself on her medical bed through the window before she had even entered the room. Luca was scared. Understandably.

She just smiled and stood at the door, hoping that a familiar face would encourage her to be less frightened by the situation, but didn’t want to invade her space while she was so vulnerable.

“It’s so good to see you all right and awake, Luca.”

Luca’s head shot up, the red hair that had fallen in front of her face while looking down moved itself revealing her pale skin and frightened face. A face that quickly turned sour.

“We want to help you. Where is the colony?”

“Traitor. I would never tell you anything!”

“Traitor? Luca, what are you…”

“She told us what you had done. How you left us for the ones who killed our great leader. How dare you abandon us for them, Romelle, and then come in here to tell me you want to help me.”

Romelle was taken aback with shock. “What? No, you don’t understand! It’s not like that. Luca you…” She tried to take a step towards her.

“Don’t come near me, you traitor! You are with the great destroyers now! She told us all about you and their lies. She is going to fix everything and you won’t even get a glimpse of the new Altea that we will live in. Honerva…” As the name fell from her lips, her body fell back on the bed. Limp. Lifeless- or so it appeared. Romelle didn’t know what to do.

The great destroyers? Honerva… but she had been dead long ago. What did it all mean?

She didn’t move from her spot near the door as people rushed in around her to try and get the monitors connected to Luca’s unresponsive body under control.

“No,” she shook her head. “I’m not… I’m not a traitor. No. What does she mean?” She felt hands grab ahold of her arms on either side. They started to pull her away from the view she had of Luca and out of the room. She struggled in their grip, but they had ahold of her too well.

“I’m not a traitor!” She yelled as she let her body fall to the floor. She looked to the ground as a tear ran down her cheek. She saw one of the bodies of whoever dragged her out kneel down next to her as they placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“You aren’t a traitor, Romelle. She will come around eventually. We just need to give her some time,” Commander Holt said softly. She looked up towards the window where she saw Coran looking sadly through at the men working endlessly to try and figure out how to revive the one shot they have at guaranteeing they win this war.

~Lance~

When he had gotten up from Black to start to make his way to his house, Keith had made him ditch his ridiculous outfit.

-

“You won’t need all of that stuff to impress her.”

“You think? Coran seemed pretty sure…”

“Yeah man, I’m sure. Just be yourself and everything will go fine,” Keith had stood up to follow him down the lion. “It’ll be great Lance. Go have fun.”

-

Now he was stuck standing in front of the small bathroom mirror attempting to fix his hair into a better fashion than what it had been after taking off that helmet.

The doorbell rang below, reminding him of even more of the reality of this situation. He gave himself one last look in the mirror before nodding to himself. As he stepped out into the hallway to make his way down the stairs he straightened out his shirt one last time. He was halfway down the stairs before he actually heard the door open.

“Oh, come in! Allura you look wonderful, my dear.”

Lance looked up, pausing mid step on the stairs. His mom was right. Allura looked wonderful. No, more than that. She was stunning.

Allura was the type of person who no matter what they did, they always looked good. Everything about her radiated beauty, but the only time Lance remembers being this shocked by how she looked was when she fell out of the pod and right into his arms.

“Lance, doesn't she look wonderful?” His mom said opening the door wider to let Allura the rest of the way into the house. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but the words got caught in the back of his throat.

He made his way down the rest of the stairs, “Wow Allura, you look… amazing,” he said finally as his feet hit the floor.

“Thank you. You look good yourself.”

He laughed to himself, “Well, it’s no Altean vestments, but…”

“You? In a Forlongian brill hat? I can’t even imagine it.” Lance had no idea what that was, but he was pretty sure that the bucket Coran had put on him earlier didn’t compare.

He put his hand on his mom's back, “Allura, you know my mom and Veronica already.” He used his other hand out to gesture to the rest of his family, “That’s my dad, Rachel, my brother Marco, my other brother Luis and his wife Lisa. And those are their kids Silvio and Nadia.”

“Hello, it’s nice to finally meet the rest of you. Lance talked about you all quite a bit when we were up in space,” Allura said as she walked next to Lance more into the living room where the rest of his family was gathered.

“Well we have all certainly heard about you,” Marco said as he walked up to Lance and threw his arm around his shoulder. “Haven’t we little bro?”

Truthfully, no. They haven’t heard much about Allura. Not from him at least. Not anymore than they had heard about the rest of the paladins. The only time Allura had been brought up outside of stories about what they had all done in space was when Veronica teased him about his crush on her. But he knew Marco was only saying this to embarrass him, and it was working. He felt his face start to heat up rather quickly as he heard Allura’s soft laugh towards his brothers comment.

“Who’s hungry? I sure am! Is dinner all ready mom?” He said quickly, trying to change the topic as smoothly as possible. It didn’t really work, Marco just patted him on the back and chuckled as he took a step back.

They all made their way into the dining room where the table was already set and the food was laid out. Lance pulled out the chair Rachel usually was in next to his mom for Allura and then sat down next to her in his usual spot.

The food was passed around and it wasn’t long after they started eating when the embarrassing stories about him started to find their way into the conversation. Lance, having lost his appetite long ago, just sat there pushing around his food listening in only occasionally.

“Oh, there was that time when we were kids and Veronica mixed dirt with water and told Lance it was chocolate milk,” Marco started with his new story.

“Oh really?” Allura said, laughing. “That’s rather interesting. Did he drink it?” Lance looked up from his plate and crossed his arms. This story somehow always managed to make its way into conversations about him when he was a kid. Especially when it was someone he wanted to impress.

“Did he drink it? He practically chugged the whole thing down before he realized what it was!” Veronica said, causing everyone at the table to laugh along with her. “Yeah, I still can’t believe he fell for it!”

“What did he do?”

“Well he told on me of course. Then pop-pop took him out for ice cream while I got put in time out for the day.”

“Yeah, Lance has always been the baby. It took him bringing you over to promote him from the kids table,” Luis said gesturing to the small fold out square table where his kids were. Again, just something said to embarrass him. Rachel only had to sit at the kids table tonight because Allura needed a place at the regular table, but he hasn’t sat at the kids table since he was, well, a kid.

“Okay everyone, stop trying to scare the poor girl off,” his mom cut in. Thank god. “Lance never has brought a girl home before, so you must really mean something to him,” she added. Of course it got worse. Lance just put his face in his hands and continued as the torture kept coming.

“That’s strange. He always gave off the impression that he was rather popular with women.”

“Well, he gets that from his father. But it’s all just talk. If you can get past that show though, you’ll find a good boy with a big heart.”

“Thanks mom,” he said with his face still buried in his hands.

“Hey Lance, speaking of dates,” Veronica said. Lance didn’t think that that starter could go anywhere good. “Maybe you could put in a good word for me with that long-haired friend of yours.”

Lance’s head shot back up as his hands hit the table harder than he meant for them to. He looked at Veronica who was just smiling smugly. “What?! Keith? No, no, no, no! No way. Not in a million deca-pheobes should you go out with Keith! All that guy likes are knives and space wolves. So why would you ever be interested in him. Plus he’s got that stupid mullet. So no. Just… no. No .” He looked up at everyone. They were all staring at him as if he had gone a little crazy.

“Calm down, Lance. I’m just kidding,” Veronica said breaking the silence. He felt his face start to heat up again. Why did I do that. “Anyway, a toast. To family,” Veronica said standing up out of her seat. “Though we may be apart after tomorrow, we will always remain close at heart. Family is forever.”

They all raised their glasses in the air. “To family,” they said in partial unison. Lance looked over at Allura whos smile had turned down. But regardless she lifted her glass and repeated “to family” softly before taking a sip of her water. Lance looked back down at his plate as he felt the odd feeling that had been eating at him begin to crawl back up his throat.

-

He doesn’t know why he decided that walking through the park was his first idea for the rest of their date. He had only ever been here during the day back in his Garrison years with Hunk or with his family when they would come to visit him on certain weekends. So he had really never seen it at night, and it didn’t even occur to him the damage that Sendak’s invasion would’ve done on the whole place.

The trees were bare and dead. Lifeless forms destroyed under the vicious attack. They loomed over the two of them as they walked along the path, the branches appearing as cracks in the clear night sky above them.

Together, they walked side by side, Lance’s hands in his pockets, Allura’s clasped together in front of her. They walked in a silence that Lance couldn’t decide was comfortable or awkward. Or some strange mix between the two as if this situation was both right and wrong at the same time. Like they were supposed to be here, but not like this. Crickets chirped in the background only making silence between Allura and himself that much louder in his mind.

I shouldn’t have brought her here. She probably thinks this date is boring- just walking through a dead park in silence.

They hadn’t talked a lot since they left his house. Just a small conversation about how his family was lovely and how his mom’s food was amazing. He briefly mentioned how his mothers food was great but it didn’t compare to his grandma’s cooking when he was younger and would visit her in Cuba. Allura then mentioned her mom cooking food for them back on Altea when she was younger, but her story faded into silence fast and that was the last of the conversation that they had.

They had approached the tree that marked the center of the park and stopped, sitting on a bench facing it nearby.

Allura looked up to the sky. “The stars are really lovely tonight.”

Lance’s gaze followed her’s upward, “Yeah, when I was a kid you could see them like this all the time where I lived. As I got older though, the world got more and more polluted and they got harder to see at night, even outside of the larger cities. The promise of adventure and the hope that one day I’d be able to see the stars again is what drove me to the Garrison.”

“And you did.”

“Yeah, thanks to you, I did.” He looked back out among the park, “This place, it used to be so beautiful. This tree, it was the oldest tree in the state. That’s why the park was built here, around this tree. Kind of like to make a home for it where it could be properly seen in all of its greatness.”

“It’s all my fault that the Galra did this to your home,” she said as she looked sadly at the dead tree in front of them.

“No. It’s not your fault. Without you, Earth wouldn’t even exist anymore.”

She stood up from the bench and began to walk towards the tree. Lance just watched from where he was as she stopped in front of it and gently placed her hand on the trunk. She closed her eyes and leaned forward as if she was giving herself to the tree.

A white light started to glow from underneath her hand that slowly moved up and wrapped itself around the entirety of the tree.

Lance stood up, amazed at what he was seeing. The entire tree eventually started to glow a bright blue that then traveled along the ground, making its way in all directions outward causing the grass and other trees surrounding them to light up in the same way.

As she started to take her hand down, the light began to fade, revealing a newly revived park filled with bright green grass, blooming flowers, and trees covered in leaves once again.

She put her head down, still keeping her body turned away from Lance. “When we were out there fighting against the Galra, I somehow… I felt like we were a family. And while each of us was alone, we were alone together.”

Lance put his hands back into his pockets and took a few steps towards her. The feeling from before began rising to his throat again, though now he was thinking he was starting to get what it meant.

“But now, being here, back on Earth, I see that everyone already has a family,” she turned around to face him again. “A place to return to once the war is over. Everyone except me and for the first time, I feel completely uncertain about what my future holds.”

“What are you talking about Allura, we are a family now.” They were family.

“It’s silly. I used to think that the entire team relied on me. The I was the one who needed to be strong for everyone else, but now I see that it was I that needed you.”

“Allura, meeting you was one of the best things that could have ever happened to me. We- all of us- were all meant to find each other. To be together.” He looked around at the park and then back at her. She was still beautiful. She always had been. But now, he realized that her beauty was just a background thought to a much bigger picture. She was just like any of them. “You are not alone, Allura. And no matter what happens, you will never be alone. Not with us around, your family.”

“Thank you, Lance. I really appreciate that. And all of this, tonight has been great. I just…”

He took a few more steps towards her and held up his hand. He took a breath in and closed his eyes before letting out what has been eating him up inside for a long time.

“I think I already know where you were about to go with that statement. Allura, I know this is our first date, but you are right, we are family. And while I know we are meant to be together, we aren’t meant to be together like this,” he said gesturing between the two of them. She just looked at him and smiled, looking the calmest she has seen all night.

“Yes, I… I know what you mean. Together but not together.”

“I’m sorry it took me so long to realize that. I can imagine it was a little irritating being hit on by a guy you didn’t even like all of the time.”

“No, Lance, I’m sorry. I feel like recently, ever since… Lotor, ” She paused for a moment to take a breath in, “I haven’t exactly been turning away your attention. That was wrong of me.”

“Everything is okay now. But no matter what,” he reached forward and grabbed her hand, “just remember that we are a family. And that I- or any one of us- would gladly follow you across the universe without hesitation.” She smiled at him and squeezed his hand, “And more importantly, that we will never leave you alone.”

He let go of her hand and looked around the park smiling.

One would think that after years of trying to get a girl to like you that a failed first date with her would be soul crushing. But she was only what he wanted, not what he needed, and her was surprisingly okay with that. Besides, he had a feeling that it was only a matter of time before what he needed would fall right into his arms.

---The Next Day---

~Shiro~

Coran, Allura, and Romelle were already in the meeting room waiting on him when he arrived.

Ever since the girl woke up, he was dreading this moment. What do you even begin to say to the people who have lost everything? The people who thought they were the last of their kind left, only to find out they aren’t just to be called a traitor of their own kind.

He was never meant to be a leader, but now he was one, so it didn’t matter that he didn’t know what to say to them because someone had to say something. And he was the only person who could.

“I still think I should try and talk to her. Maybe she…”

“No, Allura. You didn’t see what she was like. She won’t talk to anyone. Especially not an Altean, she thinks we are all traitors,” Romelle almost whispered that last part. He could tell she was still shaken up from it.

“But we need to find out more of what Honerva has to do with this. If Honerva sent that beast, then the mission has to change.”

Adam.

“No. We have a plan and we are sticking to it. If Honerva is really behind this, then I’m sure we will find her along the way. Also our first mission is to try and find those missing pilots and if she is behind it all then it’ll probably be sooner than we even expect.”

Allura’s face turned down into a scowl. He knew she was upset about not being able to see Luca, but it was for the best. But regardless, she didn’t say anything more on the subject. Instead she stood up and began to walk towards the door.

“We better get going,” she said before she left the room, not even turning to look back at any of them. “It’s almost time for the send off.”

---

The crowd in front of them was huge. Probably the biggest he had seen in a long time. Maybe ever. It was comprised of everyone who was not about to go off into space for an unknown amount of time. Families. Friends. Aliens. Garrison faculty who would be staying on the ground. And anyone in between. All waiting to see if the people standing on the podium in front of them could truly save them all.

And here he was, just a man who had stumbled upon several misfortunate events in a row that led him to standing up here, in front of them all as they looked up to him for hope. For a reason to believe that everything would be okay. He stood tall with his head held high as Sam spoke next to him.

“This will be perhaps the most defining moment in our history. The day humankind reaches out from our world to help the immense universe of which we inhabit such a small part.”

They had rehearsed their speeches quite a bit in the days leading up. Sam first. Keith next.

“In the blink of an eye, the world as we knew it became much larger than we’d ever thought possible. And now we rise up to join the fight alongside so many other different from us, but of like minds, to stand strong against tyranny.”

Allura goes next. All the leaders speak. It’s what the people need to hear.

“For all deserve to decide their own future, as we have decided to spend our’s ensuring the freedom of the universe.”

“Each and every one of you have given something to this fight. We have all lost something, many themselves have been lost, but not in vein. Because through their sacrifice, so many more will live on,” he knew his next line would be his hardest. Simply because it was the only one that nobody could actually be sure of. “I make you this promise now. We will return triumphant!”

The crowd began to cheer as the speech came to a close. Shiro let himself breathe out and relax.

They stayed on the stage for just a little longer before the atlas doors were opened and the ramp to go inside was let out. He watched from the stage as Hunk and Lance said goodbye to their families. As Pidge and Matt gathered around their mom and dad to have a quick word before making their way towards the loading area. He watched as Keith’s mom wrapped him into a hug before they followed the rest of the Blade up the ramp and into the ship.

He looked around as everyone but him said their goodbyes and loaded onto the Atlas. He didn’t have anything here for him. Nothing but those people out in the crowd that were waiting for him to take off. Everyone he needed was aboard that ship now.

Everyone but one.

He turned away from the crowd and made his own way over to the loading dock of the Atlas, his ship, and walked on board. All of the paladins were already standing in the main bridge waiting for him. He took a step up to his place at the captain’s station and looked out the window as they rose up and out of Earth’s atmosphere. He looked down at his own family standing in front of him and all the worries he had during the speech were gone. He was certain now.

All of them would return triumphant.

AO3 |x|

#Voltron #vld #keith #lance #klance #voltron fanfiction #klance fics #allura #lotor #shiro #pidge #hunk #shadam #season 8 rewrite #keith kogane #lance mcclain #princess allura #takashi shirogane #hunk garrett #pidge gunderson #my writing #fanfiction #fandom textposts

[deepdarkwaters]

Kingsman: The Golden Circle

Got back from the Kingsman double bill a bit ago and am trying to put my brain into words even though I'm very tired and a bit numb and I smuggled five hours' worth of gin into the cinema in an Evian bottle so I'm as drunk as Harry at breakfast time.

OBVIOUSLY THERE ARE SPOILERS BELOW

Watching them back to back like this was interesting because it highlighted so clearly how much better the first one is than this fumbly ridiculous sequel. Not saying it's not good or not worth watching or whatever because it absolutely is worth watching for several reasons I will babble after another teacup of gin, but holy god is this really the best they could come up with? REALLY? A 100% true fact that I believe with my entire heart: YOU reading this, you are a better writer than people being paid obscene money to write films. I could easily name thirty fic writers off the top of my head right now who have an infinitely better grasp on pacing and plot and characterisation and dialogue than the people responsible for this stuff. I've not read any press or fan reviews but I imagine there's going to be a hell of a lot of backlash over so much in this from every angle because it's just so incredibly lazy and sometimes ugly and absolutely cannot stand up to its own hype.

Really good things:

* SPECTACULAR, EH!

* Eggsy/Harry and Eggsy/Merlin shippers, goddamn we have a lot of new stuff to work with. Chemistry through the roof, especially Eggsy/Harry (including possibly the best clingy desperate hug I have ever seen on film in my entire life WE HAVE WAITED SO LONG AND IT'S HERE AND IT'S BEAUTIFUL). That was the heart and backbone of the first film, I'm so relieved that it's not only survived but evolved into something fiercer and often messier. So so good to watch. Pretty sure I've got Harry/Merlin written down the inside of my heart like the words in a stick of rock, and though it's not romantic you get much more of a sense of their friendship here and it's all just a bit shattering and gorgeous.

* Pretty much everything to do with Harry's memory loss and Eggsy and Merlin trying to shock him into remembering was great, Y E S  P L E A S E. And Harry's matter of fact comments about his loneliness, fuckkk. Angst writers, go forth with all this new information and break my heart some more! Fluff writers, fix him!

* Lots of beautiful intricate fight choreography which is literally all I need in my action films, so even if I did think the rest was complete balls (which I don't entirely) then I'd still be happy. Nothing comes near the vivid glorious gutpunch of the church scene as a standalone set piece, BUT there's so much Harry & Eggsy teamwork and please just inject this directly into my veins, it's amazing. Prepare for several years of me writing many more elaborate fight scenes than I already do.

* Part B to the above: Whiskey is a lot of fun and his fighting style is full on hardcore pornography to me.

* Merlin in a flawless Kingsman suit, RIP me.

* One of my Bespoke WIPs is about Merlin and Eggsy getting into the habit of going to the pub together sometimes and rolling home completely drunk with a kebab in each hand then trying to get in the house really quietly because Harry's asleep but they end up waking him because they think it'll be really nice to cook him breakfast in bed and Harry comes stomping downstairs in his dressing gown like "it's four o'fucking clock, put those frying pans away and drink some water!" while Merlin and Eggsy side eye each other and try not to giggle. So maudlin singing drunk Merlin was very nice to see :P

* Eggsy and Roxy bromance. There’s such lovely chemistry between them as well, it feels so natural and real, and it’s so good (and miserably rare) to see platonic friendships that aren’t shoehorned into some shitty boring love triangle.

* Eggsy and Tilde were seriously adorable. It ended up not at all satisfying as a romance plot arc because it was like CUTE - fight - marriage, it needed so much more screen time. Like all the important stuff was there, but it was just so abrupt. Include a satisfying romance or don't include one at all, fuck your lazy bullet points. But it started so well and I hope there's a ton of fic that treats them better than the script did. I appreciate the anti-Bond-ness of it all, that Eggsy's genuinely in love and wants to settle and is figuring out how that and his job can possibly fit together, especially with the complications of marrying into royalty. Interested to see where they take that if there's another film. Until then, soo much scope for fic.

* I'm shipping Harry/Elton like burning.

* Poppy was terrifying in a vaguely Umbridge-ish way. That sort of characterisation is always freaky, Julianne was great. So glossy and cheerful but absolutely dead in the eyes. And I'm ambivalent on Charlie, but I ABSOLUTELY want lots of brutal older woman villain/pathetic younger male minion smut. Please provide asap.

* T H E   M Y T H I C A L  B R E A K F A S T   S C E N E   I S   R E A L

Really bad things: well where the merry fuck do I start haha.

* I will never ever understand why they thought it was a good idea to wipe out all the locations and almost all the existing characters at the very beginning. It's lazy shitty writing. If you feel like you need to shake up your fictional world you don't just knock it all down and start over. It's cheap and very shallow angst.

* I only have two middle fingers but I need about seventeen million to even begin to profess my disgust at them killing Roxy. I knew it was going to happen, it was the only spoiler I asked someone for ahead of time and it was not at all a surprise to find out for sure. Still utterly infuriating. The way people responded so positively to her in the first one is a real indication of how ridiculously low the bar is for female characters in action films ("good at something" and "not the hero's love interest" are literally the only two requirements), and JG/MV didn't even think enough of her to follow through on the absolute base level achievement they made before. Fuck everyarse involved in this decision.

* Absolutely revolting honeypot mission scene. Not really the fact that it exists, just the entire way it was handled and shot - so predictably male-gazey and laddishly "waheyyy!" that it kind of turned my stomach. Horrible and completely unnecessary.

* A million new characters and not enough time spent on any of them to care. Tequila was barely more than a cameo. Champ and Ginger hardly had anything to do. All the Statesmen (except Whiskey) were completely two dimensional and it's such a jarring contrast to the obvious care taken over Eggsy, Merlin, and Harry. It's not even because we already know them, I don't think? It's weird to try and explain. The Statesman characters just feel so rushed and shallow, there's no substance to any of them. Kill off Roxy and replace her with paper cut-outs, ok that makes loads of sense!!! Whiskey’s a level up from the others because he gets loads more screen time and some beautiful fight scenes, but his ~emotional plot twist fell completely flat. I don’t know what it was, the pacing or a boring cliche backstory or what. It was just dull as fuck. WE HAVE HEARD THIS EXACT STORY FIVE MILLION TIMES.

A bad thing that's somehow not really a bad thing even though I'm fucking numb and want a hug:

* I've been raving for ages to people about Roxy being killed off and trying to figure out a way to satisfactorily explain how I feel about a character dying for a reason and a character dying because a writer is a lazy bastard who wants some quick angst. Merlin's death was an A+ wonderful death along the lines of my dear fictional boyfrends Quincey Morris and Lee Scoresby and a million others. Maybe it comes from all the swashbuckly historical adventure stories I grew up loving, but I'm a desperate sucker for a good noble death. Characters brave and self-aware enough to look at the bigger picture of an impossible situation and realise that their death means a better outcome for the people they love? This is ABSOLUTE CATNIP to me. Characters who go down fighting to the very end. If a character I love with my entire soul has to die, this is how I want it to happen. Give them some agency and a proper goodbye.

I mean I fully expect him to be magically resurrected with fancy prosthetic legs if there's another film because we saw those wedding set photos of him in the nice neon green cgi stockings, so really I should be saying "death". I totally reject this one. (I reject Roxy and JB's deaths as well, but the big difference is I really can't see the filmmakers bringing them back. Eyeroll.) Maybe that's what's making it easier to deal with? A not-real noble courageous self-sacrificing death. That's about as good as it gets. All three of them get Oscars for this whole sequence.

Anyway the tl;dr of it is:

This film is a very beautiful, very patchy mess. The good stuff is absolutely gloriously perfectly incredibly wonderful. Most of said good stuff is the interaction between Eggsy, Merlin, and Harry, which is written and performed with real care and heart. Nearly everything else is relatively lacklustre filler, misogyny, and shitty nonsensical decisions. These people cannot write women.

I liked it? I will definitely see it 900 more times, mainly for wet terrified Harry and gorgeous fight scenes. But ffs, how can it possibly be this difficult to pinpoint the reasons why people loved your extremely successful creation and consider including them in future plans?

I'm feeling fairly zen about everything. I kind of trained myself ages ago to think of sequels as just another bit of fanfic, so it's going to make absolutely no difference to the cheerful fluff porn and fight scenes I like to write. What I'm annoyed about isn't so much to do with ~new canon~ limiting what we're allowed to create for ourselves now, because that's just silly. It's more about being pissed off at the shoddy state of action films, particularly women in action films, when it seems like it should be SO EASY to take these astronomical budgets and create something groundbreaking. I'm so tired of this unimaginative lazy narrow-minded bullshit.

#kingsman #kingsman 2 #kingsman spoilers #kingsman: the golden circle #kingsman: the golden circle spoilers #tgc spoilers #is this enough spoiler tags haha

[feitanswife]

Day three- brotp

Wise guy

Summary: dual-story! Checking another piece off the long Shotgun Verse to-do list and fulfilling a Nanbaka Week prompt!  This one was either relationship or brotp and I went with the cutest bros to ever bro, Seitorou and Nico! Also this is a story about Nico getting his wisdom teeth removed, and discovering that needles aren’t the only medical thing he’s afraid of. And I’m also projecting real hard because basically this is what happened to me. I’m petrified of medication don’t blame me it’s basically drilled into us in this state like some kind of anti-everything cult.

-

              Nico was crying, gauze stuffed in his creeks, looking hypothetically cute, but more pity inducing than anything else.

              “H-Hajime” the muffled voice calls out, “don’t weave me hewre awone! I’m gonna die!”

              Hajime pushes him gently off, “you won’t die Nico, it’s just a half dose of pain medication, you literally could not be more careful if you tried.”

              “But… But… it’s inside me!”

              “and? You take worse shit daily!”

              Nico slunk to the floor, sobbing. No one could make out the words he was trying to say anymore.

              Rock pulled Hajime to the side, “listen man, I can explain. It’s an American thing. Especially in the city where we grew up, that word printed on that bottle? That… we don’t even say it. It’s like that old saying, ‘speak of the devil and he shall appear’. That shit’s a death sentence in pill form. There is no coming back from that. If it doesn’t kill you directly it’ll starve you by siphoning your money until you lose everything.”

              “maybe in a higher dosage, it’s 75% Tylenol what they gave him. And he only took a one when the thing said two pills.”

              Rock shook his head, and clenched his jaw before sighing, “It’s still scary, even for someone like Nico, not to mention the anesthesia hasn’t completely worn off, he’s going to get emotional. Just… please don’t force him to take them. If the pin gets bad enough he will, but for now just let him take the standard Tylenol.”

               Hajime threw his hands up, “fine, whatever, but I’m going home. I have a pregnant fiancée to take care of!”

              Nico had stopped crying, “I-I’m sowry Rovk, if I didn’t have this stupid allergy to Ibu…ibe… that thing, we wouldn’t have had to get the alternative ones.”

              Rock helped Nico back into the recliner, “Nico, it’s fine, you’re fine. You head what hajime said, that only made up ¼ of the pill, and you only took a ½ dose. And from here on out you don’t have to take any more unless you want to. I’ll leave them here, in case you need them. Seitorou will be here in a minute, and he’ll keep you safe!”

              Nico had sat watching food network for a while until Seitorou wandered in with a shopping bag.

              “Ah, there you are! Hajime said I was going to be watching you tonight. Are you doing better?”

              Nico shrugs, but pointed to the pile of used up gauze on the table next to him.

              “Yeah, you always have been a bleeder. I bought some extra gauze just in case. Do you think you’re up to eat something?”

              Nico removed some gauze to talk somewhat normally, “tongue’s still numb but I am hungry.”

              They managed to get some jello into Nico’s stomach, but he didn’t look satisfied.

              “tummy feels bad.”

              Seitorou furrows his brow, “your stomach? Did you take an medicine?”

              “half dose of that- had a panic attack after.”

              Seitorou picked up the bottle Nico had pointed to and read over it, grimacing, “oh wow, I guess with your allergies they didn’t have much of a choice. But this probably could upset your stomach, even at a half dose. But you’re half way through the time so at a half dose it should wear soon. Are you planning on taking more of these? Or do you want to try with just the normal ones for a while?”

              “Normal.” Nico murmurd, “Hajime got mad though.”

              “Well he’s not too well versed in American drug culture, so he probably thought you were being overly dramatic. But Rock explained it to me before I came it. Anyway, enough about pills and culture, why don’t we watch some anime? I never did get around to watching that one that came out last November that everyone loved to much.”

              Nico’s face lit up even though he couldn’t smile. Seitorou didn’t know what he was missing!

-

              Several hours later, they sat crying happy tears in the dark lounge, Nico’s head resting against Seitorou’s shoulder. The dramatic near-death of the main character’s beloved pet and eventual tearful reunion between the love interests was just too much to bear. It was Nico’s third watch, but it still got him every time. Or maybe it was the sleep deprivation and lack of proper sustenance. Hard to eat anything when you can only open your mouth an inch or so.

              He had wanted to sleep but he kept thinking the gauze would fall out of place and he’d choke on it. It was a rational fear! But he couldn’t take it out to sleep because A. he’s still bleeding after like ten hours, B. having it out hurt for some reason, and C. although he hadn’t fully read the instructions, it sounded like something he wasn’t supposed to do.

              And apparently if you somehow screw this up, it’ll ruin your life forever, according to the internet.

              So instead they decided to Re-watch One Punch Man for like the fifth time and hopefully be lulled to sleep by the sounds of breaking bones and explosions.

              It worked. Somehow.

-

              Day two was fine, not much happened.

              But day three, oh god day three.

              Day three is the worst, lemme tell you.

              Nico sat, the bottle of pills in his hand, jaw throbbing like Saitama himself had just socked him right in the face. It was excruciating, and it had begun to swell and bruise a dark, ugly yellow.

              Go to a mirror and puff out your creeks as hard as you can. Now imagine that it looked like you just lost a fistfight with god. Combine those images. And you have Nico’s current predicament.

              At least it had stopped bleeding? But it still felt better to have the gauze supporting his jaw.

              Seitorou had stepped out to go to the bathroom, and Nico knew this was his only chance. He had just downed a bowl of terrible chicken soup and a jello cup, meaning he was more than set for the nausea to come.

              But… maybe he’d do a one-fourth dose, just in case.

              He had to swallow his pride before the pill, but he managed it before Seitorou returned.

              And the regret was immediate. His knees went immediately week, the room spinning more than it already had been in his weakened state. He dropped to the floor next to the mirror he used to help take the pills while he couldn’t open his mouth like he normally would. He’d cry, but with how much it hurt to do anything, it likely wasn’t a solid idea.

              Seitorou had returned then.

              “Nico! Nico what happened?” his voice was high, trembling.

              “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I couldn’t take it!” Nico cried, handing over the bottle and pill cutter, “it hurts too much.”

              Seitorou kneeled next to Nico’s trembling form, hushing him gently, “you’re okay, you survived the first one right? And this one’s even less.”

              “but I can’t Sei! I can’t!”

              Seitorou took his hand, “Yes you can. The doctor wouldn’t do anything to hurt you, you know that. Come on, lets go back to the couch and watch something, to take your mind off it. How about we check out a show Hitoshi recommended to me? It’s a magical girl show themed around princesses and apparently it’s really good.”

              There was around 50 episodes of it, so they’d easily be busy watching for the rest of the recovery time at least. And it really was a good series. It was unique, nothing like the rest of it’s franchise, but it brought a fresh spin to the concept and the execution was just great. It was the sort of show that reminded the viewer why they jumped down the anime rabbit hole in the first place.

              And, as Seitorou had so expertly predicted, Nico was quickly and surely distracted.

-

              It had taken five days for Nico to be up and about at all, even though the surgeon had estimated he’d be back in his cell in four, tops. But Seitorou had been glad to spend the extra time with him, as there really was no need to watch the halls these days. Everyone, even the prisoners, were too focused on the wedding to cause mischief.

              An when Seitorou was finally tore away from his coddling/anime binge session, something just didn’t feel right about returning to his post.

              “don’t tell me you’re getting attached to the kid now.” Hajime grumbled.

              “w-well he’s really not that bad Hajime!”

              “still, you’re a prison guard! And regardless of how ridiculous his circumstance is, he cant just be your friend like that!”

              Seitorou frowned, “and what makes you say that? Your future wife doesn’t seem to have much of an issue with it.”

              They both turned to Momoko, who was reading through some mail, “what? Don’t drag me into your fight. It’s hardly my business what Seitorou does with his free time as long as he doesn’t cause any trouble.”

              Seitorou grinned smugly, “you know, he even gave me a nickname~”

              Hajime’s head hit the table so hard it cracked.

(A/N: hey, if you’re curious about the rest of this crazy AU then check out the Nanbaka tag on ao3, you’ll find my incomplete mess of fics there! i swear i’m going to be publishing new chapters of both Who I Am and Shotgun itself the minute this week of prompts ends! and when I finish Who I Am, i’m going to start on the Honey and Trois mini arc... or maybe the Rock and Liang mini arc? idk i’ll see where my muse takes me.) 

#nanbaka week #nanbakaweek #my writing #nanbaka nico #idk i'm out of tag ideas #sorry this is kind of late i ran out of ideas

[percontaion-points]

Misc Fanfictions (6/4/18)

These are fics with less than five stories in each category. Use ctrl+F to look for whichever category that you want. Categories are as follows: Scorpion, Ace Attorney, Avatar: TLA/LOK, Avengers, Agent Carter, Beauty and the Beast, Bob's Burgers, Dead Like Me, Disney's The Little Mermaid, Doctor Who, Fruits Basket, FullMetal Alchemist, Guardians of the Galaxy, Hannibal, Hellsing, Hey Arnold!, How to Train Your Dragon, Howl's Moving Castle, Jupiter Ascending, Labyrinth, The Librarians, Moana, Mulan, Pirates of the Caribbean, Pokemon, Shall We Date: Wizardess Heart, Sherlock, Sky High, Stargate: SG1/Atlantis/Universe, Stranger Things, Teen Titans, Torchwood, Twilight, What's Your Number New stories are marked with [NEW] before them.

scorpion

Just Like High School by Browneyesparker Description: It was like high school all over again. He would pull on her proverbial braids and say things just to get her attention. Toby/Quinn. Words: 1087 Timeline: Normal/none Pairing: Toby/Happy Minor: Paige/Walter Rating: Teen and up Warnings: You will literally die from fluff overload

Highly Educated & Informed Conclusions by MyseryLuvsCompany Description: Paige hasn't been well as of late and in true genius style, the boys immediately jump to the wrong conclusion. Words: 1298 Timeline: None/normal Pairing: Paige/Walter Rating: General audiences Warnings: Just some goofy genius antics

Modus Operandi by shirasade Description: Sex, if not aimed at procreation, was simple physical release, and Walter never understood why the rest of the world appeared to constantly obsess over it. Words: 1085 Timeline: None/normal Pairing: Toby/Walter, with minor mentions of Walter/Paige and Toby/Happy Rating: Teen, but should probably be Mature Warnings: Mild sex scenes

Baseline of Attraction by ChaoticByDesign Description: Paige hadn't expected or been prepared for the feelings that Walter stirred within her heart. There were days when his smug arrogance made her want to throttle him and his 197 IQ, but then there were those unexpected moments when he would do or say something that proved his emotional quotient wasn't as low as he claimed. -----OoO----- Paige was brave, compassionate and completely un-intimidated by the genius minds that surrounded her. She was, in a word, extraordinary, and every day that passed made it harder and harder for Walter to ignore the way his heart clenched every time she smiled at him. Words: 2142 Timeline: Normal Pairing: Paige/Walter Rating: Teen and up Warnings: Just some random fluff

Ace Attorney

Where We Feast by Pyrasaur Description: They'd both made it this far, so how bad could things be? Godot/Maya, spoilers for T&T Words: 1671 Timeline: Post Trials and Tribulations Pairing: Diego/Maya Rating: M Warnings: Some sex

Avatar: TLA/LOK

First by Lord Death's Paramour Description: She nearly always understood him, but it seemed that she could never quite see the "I love you" in his eyes. Words: 3550 Timeline: It starts up probably before Aang woke up in the ice, and goes past Jet's death Pairing: Smellerbee/Longshot Rating: Mature Warnings: Some sex, but not overly graphic

Prince Zuko: An Owner's Guide & Maintenance Manual by whirleeQ Description: Congratulations! Now that you've become the owner of a dead sexy firebender, this guide will teach you all you need to know about your PRINCE ZUKO. Non-Fic,Parody Words: ??? Timeline: Season 1 only Pairing: Um... I guess one might say you/Zuko... it makes sense when you read it Rating: N/A Warnings: There's some mentions of nakkey time with your PRINCE ZUKO and stuff like that, but it's pretty safe to read, I think

Avengers

Mr. & Mrs. Barton (Or: Why Natasha Sends Jennifer Aniston an Annual Apologetic Fruit Basket) by shellybelle Description: Five years before they meet as Hawkeye and the Black Widow, they meet as Clint and Natasha. There is a romance, a marriage, and then, predictably, everything goes absolutely to hell, and Clint still thinks they should be getting royalty money from the DVD sales of Mr. & Mrs. Smith. (Or: boy meets girl. Boy and girl fall in love. Boy and girl get married. Boy and girl neglect to do background checks.) Words: 13630 Timeline: AU; Mr. and Mrs. Smith AU Pairing: Clint/Natasha Rating: Explicit Warnings: Violence, sex

Agent Carter

Too Soon by ohmyohpioneer Description: Daniel Sousa knows exactly how many vacation days Peggy has remaining. Words: 1606 Timeline: Starts in the middle of season 2, and then goes past beyond where Peggy was hurt and diverges from canon and tiny bit. Pairing: Peggy/Daniel Sousa Rating: T+ Warnings: Implications of sex, but it's rated T for a reason...

Beauty and the Beast The Reddest Rose by FizzyLemon Description: Belle stared up at the figure in horror, falling back over a broken marble bench. She'd meant to be brave. She'd meant to not cry. Yet tears streamed down her cheeks and tremors took her body. She'd done this for her father. The minute he crawled in through the front door coughing and retching with fear, she knew she'd be giving something up. Words: 26,796 Timeline: It's like a mishmash of all different variations of the Beauty and the Beast story, including the one where Belle has a bunch of shitty sisters, Cupid and Psyche, and the Disney version. Pairing: Belle/Beast (Adam) Rating: M Warnings: There's some sex, but the violence is what I really need to warn about.

Bob's Burgers

Make You Better by weatheredlaw

Description:

Being a teenager is fucking hard sometimes.

Words:

2918

Timeline:

Future where Tina's older

Pairing:

Tina/Zeke

Rating:

T

Warnings:

Some mild slut-shaming and name calling

girl, you just don't realize by agreaterlove Description: The girl lets her arms fall to her sides and says, "I'm going to inevitably fall in love with one of you." She pauses. "And I pick Jimmy Jr." Zeke's hungry, so he's not really paying attention, but Jimmy Jr's eyebrows immediately shoot up and he exclaims, "I'm sorry, but--who are you?" (basically the growth of tina and zeke's relationship) Words: 5620 Timeline: It starts before the beginning of Bob's Burgers, and goes until Tina and Zeke are in their senior year of high school Pairing: Tina/Zeke Rating: Teen Warnings: Tina-related awkwardness

Dead Like Me

Addicted by Emania

Description:

[One Shot] Mason has always been an addict, that isn't going to change...but some addictions just might kill him. Angst. [MasonGeorge] Cross posted under user id803999

Words:

2428

Timeline:

None/normal

Pairing:

George/Mason (onesided?)

Rating:

Teen

Warnings:

Drug use, mild voyurism

Disney's The Little Mermaid

A Fish out of Water by enigmawing

Description:

Perhaps a missing chapter from one of our favorite movies about a certain little mermaid. Rated M for a small amount of sexual selfexploration.

Words:

1637

Timeline:

Normal/None

Pairing:

Eric/Ariel

Rating:

Mature

Warnings:

Graphic female masturbation, minor mentions of penatrative sex

Doctor Who

A Book Before Bedtime by Random-Battlecry

Description:

The Doctor reads a bedtime story. Rose is easily amused. Warning for gratuitous corruption of Dr. Seuss. Oneshot. 9Rose.

Words:

1444

Timeline:

Sometime during 2005 series 1 reboot, I guess

Pairing:

Nine/Rose

Rating:

K

Warnings:

Fluff overload

I'm Sorry by OneWhoSitsWithTheTurtles Description: When Rose finally tells the Doctor how she feels, he gets scared and tells her it can never be. Will he be able to turn back the clock and tell her how he feels? [relatively long songfic] 9Rose Words: 2101 Timeline: I don't know Pairing: Rose/Nine Rating: K Warnings: Some angst, you might cry if you cry easily, fluff

Ode to a Throwaway Line by LilacFree Description: Based on a bit of dialogue from the 9th Doctor's first story: 'Rose' and depicts other things going on in London the night of the Auton attack. Words: 289 Timeline: Set during the very first episode of the 2005 reboot Pairing: None Rating: Mature Warnings: It's goofy and a little bit on the mature side, but it makes sense when you read it

Rose Tyler's History of Sex Description: At eight, Rose Tyler learns about sex. It all sounds very peculiar. [DoctorRose, RoseMickey, Others] Words: 3931 Timeline: Goes from the time that Rose is 8 until she dies of old age Pairing: Rose/9 and 10, Rose/Micky, Rose/several OMCs Rating: Mature Warnings: Obviously a lot of talk about sex, but the physical act isn't very graphic at all It's a bit of a tearjerker at the end

Fruits Basket

A Battle Lost by Mizaya

Description:

Kyoru. 'It was a weakness, letting her into his heart so firmly that he found himself dreaming of being with her forever.' Three-part fic with lime ending. COMPLETE

Words:

14297

Timeline:

Lord knows; don't ask me this

Pairing:

Tohru/Kyo

Rating:

Mature

Warnings:

Mildly graphic sex scenes

Home Schooling by gretel_chan Description: Shigure gives Tohru some lessons. . . PWP,M/F Words: ??? Timeline: I don't know/Normal? Pairing: Shigure/Tohru Rating: N/A Warnings: Graphic sex

FullMetal Alchemist

Riza Hawkeye, Cock Inspector by Anne Packrat

Description:

Not quite as bad as it sounds. Though I'm still going to hell for writing it. Riza Hawkeye vs. Roy Mustang in a bad hardboiled detective story. Rated for really bad double entendres, sexual language and situations, and excessive abuse of a single joke.

Words:

1752

Timeline:

I think this counts as an AU?

Pairing:

Um, I'm going to put Riza/Roy and just go...

Rating:

Mature

Warnings:

It makes sense when you read it until the end

Paperwork by Anne Packrat Description: Roy Mustang will jump at anything that gets him out of paperwork. Unfortunately, this time Riza Hawkeye is that distraction! Rated for sexual language and scenes. Royai. Roy Riza Words: 903 Timeline: Normal Pairing: Riza/Roy Rating: Mature Warnings: Slightly sexual but nothing very graphic

Guardians of the Galaxy

I Am Groot by sherlocksmyth

Description:

EXTREMELY NSFW fic told from the perspective of Groot.

(Follow me on Tumblr -> marvelcolm.tumblr.com

Twitter: @marvelcolm)

Words:

1308

Timeline:

Normal/none

Pairing:

None

Rating:

Explicit

Warnings:

It makes sense when you read it

Hannibal

CLICK HERE FOR F R E E S L U T S by headbuttingbears

Description:

Will stared at the screen, his face blank.

"Throwback Thursday is a popular theme on the internet," Frederick said, grin audible. "These are from, what? Twenty years ago? How old is… Hot Cops 8: Bareback to the Academy?"

Words:

4,593

Timeline:

It says that it takes place in season 1

Pairing:

Chilton/Grahm

Rating:

Explicit

Warnings:

Gay oral sex, mentions of masturbation, porn consumption

Hellsing

Needing and Wanting by little-boo

Description:

Walter and Seras spend some time together as she can’t sleep. One shot.

Words:

2,519

Timeline:

Normal/none

Pairing:

Seras/Walter

Rating:

Mature

Warnings:

Mild sex scenes. There used to be the full, very graphic, version up on aff.net, but I can no longer find it

Day's Eyes and Moon Pennies by DreadNot Description: Yes, a Valentine's Day fic. Walter and Seras study Victorian flower language. Words: 1,132 Timeline: None/Normal Pairing: Seras/Walter Rating: K+ Warnings: Just some sweet fluff

Valentine's Day Blunder by kelles Description: This is my first attempt at humor. Pip wants to give Seras the perfect gift for Valentine's Day and seeks Walter advice. But, the advice was not the best. One shot, PxS. Words: 922 Timeline: Normal/none Pairing: Seras/Pip Rating: K+ Warnings: Sexy lingerie, but it's not worn, so I'd say that it's exceptionally safe

Eternal Rose by TeaRoses Description: Walter muses on his feelings for Seras Victoria (W x S). Very short. Spoilers. Words: 841 Timeline: Normal/None Pairing: Onesided Walter/Seras Rating: K+ Warnings: Just angsty fluff

Hey Arnold!

Second Helpings by AibouFTW Description: This can’t be happening. But, sure enough it is. Those emerald eyes, that kind smile, that football-shaped head…Yeah, there’s no mistaking it. He’s here. Fuck. Words: 18,743 Timeline: They're all like... in their 20's or something, IDK Pairing: Helga/Arnold, mentions of Phoebe/Gerald and Rhonda/Curly Rating: Explicit Warnings: Sex. Hella awkward, too

How to Train Your Dragon

Enough by astrxd

Description:

[Cross posted on my tumblr!] Life on Berk is just beginning to pick back up after Drago's defeat, and everybody has been coping with major changes. When Astrid takes a liking to a particular song (one that sparks many, many memories for Hiccup), the young chief reacts.

Words:

1041

Timeline:

Post second movie

Pairing:

Astrid/Hiccup, minor mentions of Stoick/Valka

Rating:

Not rated, but it's pretty clean

Warnings:

You might cry a little bit

Viking #2 by neurosis (bigspoonnoya) Description: Normally, Astrid didn’t begrudge the opinions of strangers (or she at least preferred to seem as though she didn’t), but when the whole archipelago is hunting you down because they’re mistakenly convinced you’re dating the Pride of Berk, Hope and Heir of the Hooligan Tribe, Dragon Master et al—that’s annoying. And mortifying. Mainly mortifying. Words: 59856 Timeline: Post the first movie Pairing: Astrid/Hiccup Rating: Mature Warnings: Some sex, some violence

Summer Goes by Barkour Description: Summer goes, but Astrid stays. That must stand for something. (Or: Hiccup and Astrid make out and discuss feelings in a meadow.) Words: 5555 Timeline: Post second movie Pairing: Astric/Hiccup Rating: Explicit Warnings: Graphic oral sex

Seize My Heart by oh_you_pretty_things Description: He was so persistent and his tenacity annoyed her. He was so clever and his innovation annoyed her. He wore his emotions on his face so openly and that annoyed her. But what annoyed her more than anything was how much she noticed him. A series of short vignettes about Astrid and Hiccup. HTTYD2 spoilers. Words: 51,459 Timeline: It starts off when Astrid and Hiccup are pretty young, and then goes way past the second movie Pairing: Hiccup/Astrid Rating: M Warnings: Sex, miscarriage, violence, brief mentions of torture, PTSD You will probably cry.

Howl's Moving Castle

As Others See by JediShampoo

Description:

A magical misfire ends with the wrong Howls in the wrong worlds. HMC movie crossover with HMC book. Romance, light humor, light angst. Warning for adult scenes. Complete.

Words:

39368

Timeline:

It's a crossover between the book and the movie; both post their respective endings (but the book timeline is before the sequel)

Pairing:

Book Howell/Book Sophie, Movie Howl/Movie Sophie, Movie Howl/Book Sophie, Book Howell/Movie Sophie

Rating:

Mature

Warnings:

Some mild sex scenes

Jupiter Ascending

out of the woods by encroix

Description:

A girl wanders into the woods, and is led off the path by a wolf who devours her.

A girl wanders into the woods. A girl falls off the path. A girl finds a wolf.

This is not the same story.

Words:

15,247

Timeline:

Post movie

Pairing:

Jupiter/Caine

Rating:

Explicit

Warnings:

Sex

Labyrinth

An After Dark Fairy Tale by Mrs. Pepperpot

Description:

Sarah Williams never believed her experience in the Labyrinth was anything more than a dream. Nine years later, she's a struggling actress in desperate need of a job. What's to become of her when she falls into the Midnight Prince's grasp?

Words:

26,343

Timeline:

9 years after the movie

Pairing:

Jareth/Sarah

Rating:

M

Warnings:

Mildly graphic sex that's a little on the dubious side, human and sex trafficking

A Carnival of Dreams by PaintedGlass Description: He's held control of her dreams for so long; it can only be a matter of time before he comes to claim her. Words: 74225 Timeline: 6 years after the movie Pairing: Sarah/Jareth Rating: Explicit Warnings: Graphic sex, lots of angst, hella long

Redefine by Woubazoid Description:They know how to play games. It's once the pieces are put away and the game is over that they're not sure what to do. Ten years after the end of Labyrinth. Words: 30428 Timeline: Ten years after the movie Pairing: Sarah/Jareth Rating: Mature Warnings: Mildly graphic sex, it's pretty long and crammed into one chapter

Mad World by Annissa Description: Later, Jareth would look back on the moment just before her sudden and unexpected arrival to reassure himself that he hadn’t made any wishes. Wishes always demand payment, and some wishes have far higher prices than others. Words: 98,809 Timeline: It's ~3 years after the movie? And then it just goes wild for a long time Pairing: Sarah/Jareth Rating: Explicit Warnings: Graphic sex Some implied child molestation and various child abuse, but it all feeds back into the "The gobling king takes children away from shitty situations". (But the story totally could have gone on without them, though, so I feel like it's just sort of shitty... Whatever.)

The Librarians

Summer of Fluff by angellwings, Imagination_Parade, justlook3

Description:

A collection of short, unrelated one-shots written from prompts sent to us on the JassandraTrash Tumblr blog as part of our Summer Fluffathon Celebration

Words:

12,008

Timeline:

They're all sort of all over the place...

Pairing:

Jacob/Cassandra

Rating:

General

Warnings:

Just a bunch of fluff. Some brief mentions of characters having had sex, but the actual sex is always off screen.

And the Global Phenomenon by Imagination_Parade Description: Some of the Librarians have gotten swept up in the Pokemon Go craze that's currently sweeping the globe...while others are left wondering what the heck has come over the team. A fun little team fic that you'll probably be able to relate to, whether you play the game or not! Words: 1699 Timeline: Obviously right after Pokemon Go came out... Pairing: None Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Mayhem and job ignoring because of Pokemon

Under the Mistletoe by Imagination_Parade Description: The Library knows what's going on between Stone and Cassandra. He sees all the looks, the smiles, the gentle flirting. Now, Christmas is approaching, and before the festive season is over, the Library's going to make sure those two end up under the mistletoe every time the opportunity presents itself. Maybe all they need is a gentle nudge in the right direction. Words: 3171 Timeline: Post that one episode with Jake's dad Pairing: Jake/Cassandra Rating: General Warnings: Just some holiday fluff; nothing more!

Moana

Totally Worth It by BadOctopus Description: "Do you really think I came all the way here, and stole you from your island on the night before your wedding, because I feel sorry for you?" Timeline: Post Movie Pairing: Maui/Moana Rating: Teen Warnings: A lot of awkward fluff and some makeouts

Smitten by NRGburst Description: “I am a demigod, okay? Stop that! I will smite you! You want to get… smote? Smoten?” Timeline: Post movie Pairing: Maui/Moana Rating: Mature Warnings: Masturbation, although the actual sex is rather glossed over and it's a little disapointing.

By Skies and Sea by Islenthatur Description: She prayed to the god's for Maui to find that love he desired, to fine anyone who would forever be by his side so he didn't have to suffer the frailty of mortality to an endless sky of immortality. It just took a while for her to realise they already did. Timeline: Post movie Pairing: Maui/Moana Rating: Teen Warnings: Just some mildly angsty fluff

Mulan

Sweet Water by wendybyrd

(Sequel:

Chasing Madame Cloud Splendor by Illyana Lian-hua Wendybyrd

)

Description:

Mulan, Shang, a river by moonlight..... Those who would see this as profane look away! Hide your eyes, for yes! I have brought sex into the story. (By popular request, a continuation of Wendybrd's "Sweet Water." Take note of the rating, this is our evocative version of Mulan.)

Words:

4,917 (28,200)

Timeline:

The first part happens just before Shang tries to send “Ping” home, and the sequel spans across the rest of the movie, and then some

Pairing:

Mulan (Ping)/Shang

Rating:

Mature/Mature

Warnings:

Graphic sex, some homosexuality until Shang realizes that Ping is actually Mulan

Pirates of the Caribbean

The Kiss by Lost and Found Puppy

Description:

It was worth it. Bugger, was it worth it. JackElizabeth, shortshort

Words:

569

Timeline:

Second movie (I think?)

Pairing:

Jack/Elizabeth

Rating:

Teen

Warnings:

Um... fluffy Jack thoughts about Liz?

Pokemon

1NEW1

Growth by thatonewriterchick

Description:

Guzma’s done a lot of growing in the decade since reemerging from the wormhole. But he’s still fighting to get and keep things he feels he doesn’t really deserve.

Words:

27,089

Timeline:

Ten years after the end of Sun/Moon

Pairing:

Guzma/Moon, mentions of Gladion/Moon

Rating:

Explicit

Warnings:

Sex, mentions of physical child abuse

1NEW1 Healing by irinokat Description: Seeing Guzma back with his parents is a bit more painful than you might realize at first. Words: 78,561 Timeline: It's a few months after the end of Sun/Moon Pairing: Guzma/You (female reader) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Sex, physical/domestic abuse

1NEW1 Not Safe For Work by filthy_rat Description: It's been a year and a half since Team Skull was actually a thing, and ex-boss Guzma is trying his best to be a better person. He's gotten a job at the local Pokecenter cafe, catering to demanding customers day in and day out to pay the rent on a crappy trailer he shares with his golisopod. He meets Crysta a few months after Team Skull disbands, and the two become fast friends. When he leaves his hoodie, the only thing he's kept from those days, at her apartment during a party, she decides to keep it... Just for a little bit. Words: 9007 Timeline: A year and a half post game, I guess? Pairing: Guzma/OC Rating: Mature Warnings: Sex. There's also a mildly NSFW picture about halfway into the story, so... take warning

Shall We Date: Wizardess Heart

What's Mine Is Yours by caustickitty

Description:

In which we discover that Elias and Klaus are good at sharing... at least when it comes to MC.

A warning: I didn’t tag this with incest, because there isn’t any physical contact or attraction between Klaus and Elias. There is more of a voyeurism kink to this story than anything else. But it’s still a story about group sex with two brothers, so… yeah, if that kind of thing bothers you, you should probably skip this.

Words:

7420

Timeline:

I'm not quite sure, but sometime after she's accepted, although it's probably during her Klaus route.

Pairing:

Klaus/MC/Elias threesome

Rating:

Mature

Warnings:

Graphic sex and some mild language

Sherlock

Three-Quarters Curiosity by Tallulah99

Description:

Curiosity has always been the driving force in the life of Sherlock Holmes. Tonight it drives him to embark on a potential experiment that means working with volatile elements and potentially explosive results...and Molly Hooper. Written for the '50 Reasons to Have (Sherlolly) Sex' meme on tumblr. Sherlolly. Rated M for a reason. Incredible cover art byFlavialikestodraw.

Words:

6846

Timeline:

Don't ask me this/Normal?

Pairing:

Molly/Sherlock

Rating:

Mature

Warnings:

Graphic Sex

Sky High

Honestly by pandacowhipster

Description:

“We’ve gotta stop meeting like this."

“I wouldn’t call you stalking me at work every time you get stood up ‘meeting’, but I agree, please stop.”

Words:

4275

Timeline:

Post high school

Pairing:

Warren/Layla

Rating:

T

Warnings:

There was some mild mentions of sex, but you have to squint to see it

And kissing. There's some kissing, too

When we were strangers (or five ways Layla and Warren never met) Description: Five ways Layla and Warren never met Words: 5110 Timeline: All AUs Pairing: Warren/Layla, some mentions of Layla/Wil and Warren/random girl Rating: General audiences Warnings: There was some mild mentions of sex/one night stands, but it was really minor

Stargate: SG1/Atlantis/Universe

The Cat by Kuna Yashmaa

Description:

This is an old Wraith–related story. I’m just resubmitting it.

Words:

2,246

Timeline:

Um... none?

Pairing:

None

Rating:

T

Warnings:

The ending is mildly depressing

Stranger Things

The Time After The First Time by apollos Description: This is a love like no other. The first time Nancy and Jonathan have sex after the gate closes and all the emotions and realizations that come along with it. Words: 5841 Timeline: Post Season 2 Pairing: Johnathan/Nancy Rating: Mature Warnings: Sex

Teen Titans

Badedas by Salmon Pink

Description:

Starfire wants to learn of Earth customs, and she wants to experience everything, and she wants to experience EVERYTHING. Starfire x Raven

Words:

2836

Timeline:

Normal?

Pairing:

Main: Starfire/Raven (onesided)

Minor mentions of: Starfire/Nightwing

Rating:

Mature

Warnings:

Female masturbation

It's All Tamaranean to Me by Takashi Miike Description: One shot: Robin and Starfire, at last, have time to become intimate. Warning: graphic sexual content. First posted fic. Review please. Words: 3119 Timeline: Normal? Pairing: Robin/Starfire Rating: Mature Warnings: Pretty graphic sex ...I'm not quite sure that I can properly describe what happens at the end, but just read it, okay?

Torchwood

In Heat by samstjames

Description:

N/A

Words:

???

Timeline:

I don't know

Pairing:

Jack/Gwen

Rating:

R

Warnings:

Graphic Sex

Twilight

If Bella Were Sane by The One Called Demetra

Description:

The events of Twilight, had Bella been the only sane woman in the Twilight universe. Diarystyle. T because normal teenagers don't say 'Holy crow' when they swear.

Words:

4675

Timeline:

It spans the entire Twilight series

Pairing:

Bella/Mike, Bella/Jacob, one-sided Bella/Edward

Rating:

Teen

Warnings:

Mostly just some swearing and Edward being creepy as fuck, but there is some talk of rape at the end (it makes sense when you read it)

What's Your Number?

be the change by torigates Description: Colin lived in his apartment for almost four years before he ever said more than a “Hello,” or “Good morning,” to the girl in 6C, Allison Darling. Words: 6148 Timeline: Before and during the movie, and a tiny little bit after it Pairing: Ally/Colin Rating: Explicit Warnings: Sex, but it's about in line with the movie, with the exception of an oral scene

#recommended fanfiction

[5typesoftrash]

Pray in the Dark

Author: quicksilvermalec Artist: nathyfaith Rating: T (for swearing) Pairings: Sastiel, Destiel Warnings: Major Character Death, Graphic Depictions of Violence Brief Tags: Soulmates, Angst, Unrequited, Suicide Summary: Sam is desperately, hopelessly, miserably in love with an angel. His problem? The angel is in love with his brother, and he doesn't have it in him to make any attempt to break up their relationship.

Sam never even learns that his angel is his soulmate.

[longer tags, link to art post, and fic under the cut]

Extended Tags: Angst, Unrequited Love, Possibly Unrequited Love, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Sad Ending, Sad Sam Winchester, Hurt Sam Winchester, Drunk Sam Winchester, Wedding, Heavy Angst, Suicide, Murder, Hurt No Comfort, Blood, Blood and Violence, Death, Season/Series 09, Dean Winchester Bears the Mark of Cain, Mark of Cain (Supernatural), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Sad Castiel, Hurt Castiel, Divorce, this story is pretty dark, i think y'all might cry js :/, enjoy... ?

Here’s the art and you can read this story on AO3 as well! Enjoy <3

******

Some people have mundane things. “Did you get the mail?” “How was work today?” “Where are my keys?” That’s painful because people just simply don’t know when it’ll come. Every time the simplest, most everyday things happen, their blood goes cold.

Some people have things like “did you do the homework?” “My mom said it was okay.” “This is my least favorite class.” That hurts worse for their parents, because they know it’ll come early and they can’t protect them, and while it’s one thing to love and to lose, it hurts worse to never know at all.

Still others have words like “can I get your phone number?” “What’s your name, hon?” “That’s 14.46 at the next window.” And it’s quite possibly the cruelest thing of all to know that you’ll meet them once and never know them at all.

But Sam has spent his entire life tortured by the words He’s the only one who understands.

He wishes he knew what they were about. He wishes he knew who his soulmate was or why they say those words but he’s heard them a fair number of times in his life, always with someone he’d spoken to again later.

This is the story of how Sam came to realize who his soulmate was, and subsequently lose them.

~~

It starts when an angel falls into bed with his brother. Well… another angel. Dean’s already had sex with at least two.

Sam finds them just minutes post-coitus, spread out on the couch naked and barely covered with the blanket over their waists. He walks into the den and his heart breaks, so he covers it with disgust and mild disdain and thinly veiled support.

“Jesus,” he mutters, just walking past them into the kitchen. “At least the next time you do this, don’t do it on the couch. This is a communal space and I still live here, okay guys?”

Dean looks relieved and relaxed, and grins at him. “Yeah,” he replies. “Thanks, Sammy.”

Sam forces a soft smile at them. “Anytime. But seriously, get some clothes on.” He glances in the pantry before scoffing and fishing around in Dean’s discarded jeans for the keys to the Impala. “I’m getting fast food drive thru. Text me what you want from Arby’s.”

Dean scoffs but doesn’t argue. “Alright, see you later.”

Sam smiles and watches him relax against Castiel. It’s amazing and makes him happy to see Dean so comfortable and himself with someone. Sam’s never seen him this exposed and vulnerable. If Cas is what it takes, Sam will swallow his feelings for his brother’s sake.

Dean closes his eyes and curls closer, resting on Cas’s chest. Sam stands in the doorway, just watching them, for a long moment before he opens the door and disappears to get them dinner.

By the time he gets back, they’re decent and they’ve cleaned themselves up. He can almost forget the very vivid mental images he has of what they may or may not have done to each other.

~~

Sam supposes the next part is when Cas comes to him with an interesting proposition.

“I would like to marry your brother,” he says bluntly. Sam stares at him.

“Uh…” he says. “Okay. Cool. You’re telling me this because why?”

Cas bites his lip. “I understand it is customary for one to ask their intended’s family for their permission and or approval before proposing.”

Sam snorts. “Not anymore. That was about forty to fifty years ago, at least. And usually that’s a man proposing to a woman, and he’d normally ask her father. Dean’s not a woman, he’s a male-identifying person, and you’re not a man, you’re a multidimensional wavelength of celestial intent shaped vaguely like a man, and I’m not Dean’s father, I’m his younger brother, so really none of that applies here.”

Cas purses his lips in the way that some people do when they’re trying very, very hard to keep from laughing. “Very well, Sam. Would you mind helping me pick out a ring, at least?”

Yes, Sam wants to say. Yes, I would mind so very incredibly much, because the very thought of you being with Dean tears me into pieces in a way that I never thought I could feel. Because somehow, despite being tortured and raped in the Cage for thousands of years, I have never felt such intense pain as I have in the months since you and Dean inadvertently revealed your relationship to me. I would mind, Castiel, because I’m in love with you, too. Dean isn’t the only Winchester to fall for our angel.

But he can’t say any of those things. Because he’s a good and faithful little brother, not to mention he can’t corrupt a literal angel that way, not as an upstanding Christian, and he refuses to destroy their relationship when he loves them both so incredibly much.

So he doesn’t say those things, and instead he forces a smile and says “yeah, I could do that.”

Castiel lights up like the sun peeking out from behind a cloud, and Sam knows he made the right decision.

~~

They go ring shopping together that weekend. In honesty, it makes Sam feel a little pathetic. He’s out and about with his best friend whom he’s secretly madly in love with helping him buy a ring to propose to someone else. It makes him feel sick. He’s miserable.

But if having Dean Winchester as his one active parental figure during the most formative years of his life taught him anything, it’s how to play through pain, repress your emotions, and convince everyone around you – including yourself – that you’re totally fine at all times.

So Sam does.

His faked enthusiasm must be pretty believable because Cas buys it, and so does the cashier. They pick out two options – platinum and white gold – and they’re looking at them both side by side. “The white gold is more easily damageable, but it’s lighter,” she explains to them. “The platinum is heavier and more expensive, but also more durable.”

Sam glances at Cas. “Well, money is a nonissue for us, so honestly? I think you should go with the platinum.”

Cas smiles. “I would be inclined to agree. Thank you, Sam.”

Sam nods. “You’re welcome,” he murmurs softly. The cashier smiles at them.

“I don’t see a lot of couples ring shopping together,” she tells them as she rings up their purchase. “It’s actually really sweet that you’re choosing your rings together.”

Cas shakes his head. “No, Sam and I are not a couple. I am  hoping to end up marrying his brother.”

Her face instantly pales. “Oh,” she manages. “It’s just… you seem so… Are you sure you’re not soulmates?”

Sam purses his lips. “Cas doesn’t have one, and… how can anyone be sure? No one really knows if they’ve met their soulmate until they die or walk out of your life forever.”

She nods. “Of course. Silly of me to ask. Here are the rings, anyway, and, uh… well, I hope your brother says yes.”

Cas takes them from her graciously. “Thank you,” he manages. “I hope his brother says yes as well.”

~~

Dean says yes.

~~

More accurately, he screams it like a girl being proposed to on a fancy dinner date in some clichéd heterosexual romantic comedy or chick flick. Sam can hear him from the other end of the Bunker.

It would be cute. If Sam’s heart wasn’t currently lying on the floor smashed into a million pieces by a sledgehammer.

~~

And then comes the part that really ties the bow on all the beautifully horrifically miserable events of the past several months. Dean and Cas ask Sam to officiate their wedding.

And Sam… Sam is an idiot, and a guilty one at that. So Sam agrees.

He gets ordained online, Dean picks up the marriage license from the county clerk’s office, and they’re legally married in the library of the Bunker.

Sam is only a little ashamed to admit he cries himself to sleep that night.

But Cas and Dean are happy. He keeps reminding himself of that. Cas and Dean are together, and happy, and that’s all he’s ever wanted for his friends, no matter what his personal feelings might be. No matter if those personal feelings are partially feeling his entire being torn in half every time he sees them together and partially wishing he could tear his brother in half every time he sees them together. It doesn’t matter. He has to remember that.

It doesn’t matter. It will never matter. He will be miserable happy on his own and Dean and Cas will be happy together.

The world spins on. Sam’s heart remains broken.

~~

The turning point, the thing that simultaneously fixes everything and makes it a thousand times more painful, comes on Dean and Cas’s first wedding anniversary.

Sam makes them a video, because he doesn’t know what else to do for them, and then he disappears to let them have loud sex while he gets drunk alone.

Cas finds him around two in the morning, which Sam supposes is technically no longer their wedding anniversary, but he doesn’t really care because he’s drunk and tired and he’s been awake for twenty-seven hours and he wants to die. But Castiel is here, his angel, the angel he’s been in love with practically since that first far-too-long handshake. And he’s happy, because he’s always happy with Cas, but he’s depressed, too. Because Cas belongs to someone else. Cas always has and always will belong to Sam’s brother, and never to him.

Dean doesn’t have a soulmate. Sam’s happy that he found someone else without a soulmate who makes him happy. Sam’s happy that Cas managed to somehow be at peace with himself, to love someone so deeply and truly that Sam’s measly, weak, moronic human brain could never comprehend. And he knows it’s selfish to wish that he were the one being loved like that.

He’s torn apart. He can’t fix this.

And that is how Castiel finds him, laying on the floor, drunk out of his mind and depressed enough to put a bullet in his mouth if he had the energy to lift his gun.

Cas sits down on the floor next to him. “Are you alright, Sam?” he asks quietly. Sam shakes his head.

“What part of this… gives you the okay that I’m idea.” He frowns. “Idea that I’m okay. Yeah. That.”

Cas purses his lips. “Well, at least you’re being honest, I suppose. What are you feeling right now, Sam?”

Sam laughs bitterly. “Nothing,” he confesses. “I feel… nothing. I’m broken and… and cruel… and mean. I suck. You should- you should hate me, Cas. I’m the worst.”

Cas shakes his head. “No, Sam, I will never hate you. You are my best friend.”

“I don’t wanna be your best friend!” Sam shouts, slurring wildly. “I don’t wanna.” He sounds a little like a petulant child, but he doesn’t particularly have an issue with that. It’s just his alcohol-blurred brain anyway.

Cas gently pries the bottle from his hands and sets it on the floor, far out of his reach. “What’s wrong, Sam?” he asks.

“Why did you marry Dean?” Sam wonders aloud. “What- why?”

Cas sighs. “Well… I married your brother because he’s hotheaded and passionate and he cares a lot about people even if he doesn’t show it. I married him because I’ve seen his soul and it’s one of the most beautiful things in the world. I married him because he needed someone to be close to him, to help him heal from everything that’s happened and he needed someone besides you because the two of you… you escalate each other. I married him because I was in love with him, Sam.”

Sam sighs and stands up. “I’mna go to bed,” he mumbles.

“I’ll help you,” Cas offers, holding him steady and leading him toward his bedroom. Sam leans subconsciously into the comforting touch and the warm promise of more, drawing them from Cas as long as he could until Cas inevitably leaves him again.

It’s just that… Sam knows he will never be enough. He’ll never be enough for Cas – Cas who wants Dean, who wants his green eyes and his bowlegs and his symmetrical face and his gender-conforming male normality. Cas who wants Dean in all his fucked-up, dysfunctional glory, who wants to heal him, because Sam can’t do it because – he’ll never be enough for Dean, either – Dean, who is ruined in so many ways, who was abused and maltreated, who hated himself all his life. Dean who believes he is broken in so many ways that cannot be fixed, Dean who resists Sam’s every attempt to help him because all Sam has ever wanted was for Dean to feel okay, even just for a little while, because Dean never takes anything for himself and that’s why Sam has to sacrifice the angel to him, because Cas is the one thing Dean will accept for his own wellbeing and Cas can help him in all the ways Sam will never be good enough to. Sam can’t help him.

Sam will never be good enough, and he’s long since made his peace with that.

But as Cas deposits him in his bed, walks away from it, Sam calls out his name, makes him pause in the doorway and turn. “Yes?” he asks patiently, always so patient, so good, putting up with Sam and all his bullshit on his anniversary when he should be with Dean, should be celebrating how happy he is with the man that isn’t Sam. Sam hates himself for this, hates himself for everything. The guilt is overwhelming.

“It’s because he understands you, isn’t it?” he asks. It’s a miracle he can get through that full sentence.

Cas nods sadly. “Dean is…” he trails off, staring at the wall. “He’s the only one who understands.”

He closes the door behind him, and Sam is far too drunk and far too close to sleep to figure out why those words seem so goddamn familiar.

~~

Sam wakes up screaming.

~~

Sam wakes up with one of only two people in this world still living that he really loves standing over him, a blade pressed to his throat. Sam screams and looks up at him and pleads for mercy, and Dean’s cold, emotionless eyes don’t soften in the slightest.

“Dean,” Sam sobs. “Please. It’s me, I’m your brother, I love you. Please…”

Dean doesn’t say anything. He just lifts the First Blade above his head and plunges it deep into Sam’s chest.

The light dies in Sam’s eyes, and the second it goes out, Dean is himself again.

Just a second too late.

~~

Dean will never forgive himself, Cas knows. When he returns to the Bunker from his pie run he finds Dean vomiting into the toilet, and he drops everything to be at Dean’s side. “Dean,” he whispers urgently. “Dean, are you alright? What happened, are you sick?”

Dean wipes his mouth on his sleeve and looks at Cas through empty eyes laced with horror. “I killed him,” he whispers. “He’s dead, Cas, I killed him. This thing, the Mark… I didn’t even know what I was doing. It was like I just woke up, and I was in his room, and he was dead.”

It takes Cas another couple seconds to figure out what he’s talking about. His heart drops into his stomach. “Sam?” he croaks. His voice is low and horrified.

“I lost control,” Dean whispers, and then he lets out a choked, miserable sob, a horrible sound from deep in his chest that breaks Cas’s heart. He never wants to hear it again.

Cas pulls him into his chest, holds him close, and doesn’t try to say anything. He knows there is nothing in all the world that anyone can say that will make this better. Nothing will ever fix what Dean has lost, and a death by the First Blade… that’s irreversible. They’ll never get him back.

They go back to him, to find him, and they peel off his shirt to clean him up, to put him in a new one. But Cas’s heart sinks lower, from the pit of his stomach into the floor, because in a delicate scrawl across Sam’s left bicep, where he always used to wear his armband, are the words He’s the only one who understands. But they’re not black like most people’s words. They’re blue.

They’ve already been said.

Blue like my eyes, Cas thinks, and he thinks back to the night before, the last words he’d said to this friend, and he wonders if Sam loved him that way. Why wouldn’t he tell me? he thinks, but even as he thinks it he knows the answer.

He will never be the same again. He and Dean will never be the same.

He closes his eyes, extends his wings to fly into the city, to fly anywhere else, and a set of Enochian words float across his vision.

His heart must be in the center of the Earth now.

He pulls one large, invisible, dark wing in front of himself and sees them, seared into his feathers.

It’s because he understands you, isn’t it?

“I thought I didn’t have one,” Cas breathes. “I always thought I didn’t have a Gracemate.”

He does.

He does, and it’s the brother of the man he married. He does, and he pushed him away again and again, repressed his feelings for him because he swore to be monogamous to Dean and he’s not an angel who breaks his promises. He does have a Gracemate, and he promised himself to the wrong person, gave his heart to them, committed himself fully to Dean when Sam was right there.

If he could have had them both…

But there’s no use in thinking that way now, not when Sam is gone and there is nothing Castiel can do to change that. He doubts it will stop him from thinking it, though, because knowing too late is one of the cruelest things in the world.

~~

They give Sam a hunter’s funeral. They burn him behind the Bunker, in the woods near where he used to love to jog. Cas remembers his favorite places.

They don’t take any cases for a while. Instead, they go across the country on an unofficial Goodbye, Sam Winchester tour. They visit his favorite diners, play his favorite songs, find his favorite spots in nature in all fifty states. They finish back in Kansas, they go back to Lawrence, and they see the house. Cas can’t bring himself to touch Dean at all, and Dean doesn’t ask.

Cas waits a full week after they return to the Bunker.

“Dean,” he says quietly. “Dean, we need to talk.”

Dean sits down at the table. “Alright,” he says softly. “What about?”

“About Sam,” Cas replies. “About… us.”

“What about us?” Dean asks, his guards instantly up. Cas takes a shaky and completely unnecessary deep breath.

“I can’t stay married to you,” he replies softly.

Dean’s face visibly pales and Cas thinks idly that Dean is wearing the same expression he himself wore just over a year ago when Dean told him he couldn’t continue to live in the Bunker.

“What?” Dean asks weakly. “I’ve lost so much and now you’re going to take my marriage?”

“Just listen to me, Dean,” Cas implores. “The words on your brother’s arm, did you see them?”

Dean swallows and nods. “‘He’s the only one who understands’?” he recalls. Cas casts his eyes down to the floor.

“Those were the last words I said when I left Sam’s room that night. Before—” you killed him “—he died. And now… I have the words Sam said to me right before that tattooed on my wings in Enochian. Dean, your brother and I were soulmates. And I don’t feel right continuing in this relationship with you. I feel as though I am dishonoring his memory.”

“Did you love him?” Dean asks abruptly.

Cas glances at him and slowly nods.

“Then why were you with me? You shoulda been with him.”

“Because… because I loved you too. And I never thought Sam would love me. I never thought I had a Gracemate, either, until Sam died. I thought you and I were more compatible, as two beings without mates.”

“But you would have made Sam happy. I didn’t have to fall in love with you,” Dean snarls, sounding angry. “I wasn’t fated to. But Sam was. Instead of letting us be happy you just strung us both along.”

“I didn’t know!” Cas insists.

“I don’t care,” Dean growls. “Get out of my sight.”

~~

Within three months, they’re divorced.

Dean never apologizes for the things that he said to Cas that night. Not even in the note on his bedside table the night Cas finds him hanging from the ceiling in his room, a rope around his neck.

And then Cas is alone again, to wander this strange, cruel world without his two closest friends to guide him.

This is how it was intended, he knows. He was never meant to fall for two human men. The fact that he did just proves that he cannot be trusted with his own destiny.

But if this is how he was created, why does it feel so unjust?

If he was meant to live this way, why is he so lonely?

He wonders. Will he ever feel happy again?

Will he ever feel anything again?

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