#i might put a pause on fic prompts to actually figure the rewrite out
Note
I know you did a prompt a while ago about Amy having a fan and Sonic told him to basically get lost. So could you do something like that but make the guy feel more entitled to Amy and she owes him her love. And when she rejects him he gets really aggressive so it justifies Sonic being more aggressive in turn? I love how your depict protective Sonic soooo cute!
So, I have MANY jealous and protective Sonamy stories XD Shifting through them, I think you meant this one? (x) For future reference, if any of you lovely Anons want to maybe just... link?... the actual prompt I would be very much appreciative since I have over 900+ lol
(Preview prompt image provided by ArtsyAnnieRose (x) Please support the artist :)b)
As I mentioned when reviewing this Prompt on my youtube --> Pajama Blogs Ep. 1 Prompt Requests (x) Timecode: - 54:21 - I try and not do the same prompt twice, which means I like to rewrite things so that I don’t just keep making the same stories for different requests. So with this one, I’ve thought a lot about how to present it, and I think this will be fun! (Also, side note: I’m not making this cute and parody-like, I’ve changed my mind XD I have the right to do that! lol)
***TRIGGER WARNING***: (now you know it’s gonna get good.) I have subtly littered red flags throughout this story, if you have experienced stalking or manipulation strategies in your life please be aware they will be showing up in this fic. Due to the subtle nature of these traits, please be informed that I am in no way trying to downplay the danger of these situations, but showing that to the main character currently in these situations, her view of them is naïve and she sees no danger. Therefore, the gravity of the situation seems friendly and kind, but in no form am I saying these techniques are alright or acceptable. The ‘stranger’ character in this story is a creep, no matter how ‘charming’ or ‘sweet’ he may be portrayed in the innocent main character’s view. (If I write this correctly, hopefully, that message will be more clearer towards the end of the story.) I encourage any who recognize these toxic behaviors to please question your relationship with that individual and find safe, healthy relationships to pursue/keep instead. Whether your relationship with these kinds of people are platonic, friendship, or romantic in nature--please keep yourselves, families, friends, and other such loved ones safe. I will not be listing or detailing all occurrences of these moments within the story; however, with some psychology basics or google searching, you can find these common red flags or complexed manipulation strategies and how to better identify them.
Prompts are on shutdown! Do not send in any prompt requests at this time. Thank you!
Okay... let’s dive right in.
DIVE, DIVE, DIVE.
Note: This is another unconventional, more mature-themed story that I- well...
But my hope is that it’s still a story worth telling, so if you choose to, please enjoy.
Prompt:
Upon a rather dark and greying sky, as though the mentions of brief rainfall and storm weren’t apparent, many citizens in this bustling city were making their usual rounds around the mall. Carrying a thin jacket with an umbrella’s strap swinging at her side, Amy light-heartedly mused over a recent magazine’s article on the most eligible men, and read the chatty writer’s remarks on how Sonic The Hedgehog seemed to be away when the interviews for them were called.
She thought that so like Sonic, always away, but secretly just close enough to still keep tabs on what’s going on with the many locations in the world.
Eggman seemed to have a base everywhere, and while things had been pretty quiet as of late, she looked up from her magazine and once again wondered where in the wide, blue world he could be.
Was he bored? Off on another adventure? ... Napping? Eating? Was he eating enough?
She sighed with a dreamy look on her face, lost in her thoughts before a stranger flicked his wrist as he approached her, and a charging wind blasted in her direction. Blowing her back, it swiftly hit against her loosely closed umbrella, since Amy wanted to be prepared for any sudden downpour, and triggered it’s spring to further yank her back.
“Ah!” Amy tried to turn around to catch herself, the strap around her wrist forcing the sudden about-face as she grabbed her umbrella’s long steel pole to try and counter the pull.
“Woah!” the stranger that was passing her from the front suddenly stumbled at the sight and quickly rushed behind her, leaning over and grabbing where her hand was on the open umbrella as the wind suddenly stopped. His hand lingered by her side as though to brace with her and help, before noticing the wind stop and looking dumbfounded at the umbrella.
There was a silence as Amy felt the stranger was almost holding her, and turned to him with blinks, “Heh-heh... umm... Thank you.” her body was bent as she tried to use her heels against the pavement to counter-force the sudden rush of heavy wind, but with it’s immediate halt, she stepped forward and away from the strange, intimate moment to close her umbrella.
He stood more straighter, fixing himself up too before smiling kindly to her, “Does this happen to you often? Sudden, emmmm...” He swirled his palm-facing upwards hands around as he held the long, hummed note. “Bursts of photo-aesthetic air through your hair?”
Amy chuckled lightly, briefly looking back at him before continuing to fix her umbrella, worried it may be broken as the spring wasn’t going down well enough. Realizing it was probably jammed, she blew up some air to her bangs, figuring the worst, “Yeah, real convenient for a photoshoot. Maybe the photographer will settle for a water effect?” she gestured humorously up to the clouds, “All I need is a chair,” she teased, “Thanks again for the help. Really! You came out of nowhere!”
“Much like wind.” He joked back, putting his hands in his pockets, tilting his head to her. “You... wouldn’t mind if I take in the view of that shot, would you?”
“Huh?” she didn’t quite understand what he was making reference to.
He smiled as if realizing she didn’t get it and shook his head, “Nothing, nevermind. I’m clearly wasting your time,” he took out his own umbrella, looked at her a moment, then back to it. His long, brown and heavy jacket then flopped back to his side as he offered her it, “No offense, but I did just meet you. I would offer you my umbrella, but I’m worried I may never see it again. However, I have a solution,” He opened the umbrella and then gestured his hand to a restaurant near him. “So that we’re not strangers anymore, and I can trust you with something so dearly precious to me as an old, fifty cent umbrella I literally picked up from a second-hand store... might I entreat you to a meal?”
Amy smiled, relieved he was being so gentlemanly. “I wouldn’t mind at all!” she cheerily perked up, looking at her umbrella and tossing it in a garbage can. “I’m Amy,” She took his hand, curtseying. “Amy Rose.”
She did notice he was probably older than her, but he did a little bow and she realized she hadn’t notice his real height until his eyes matched her level. He held his eyes with her sights... and she wondered why he was pausing so long, “I know...” He finally whispered out, tilting his umbrella over her head, “You’re pretty famous, you know. Anyone would be lucky to help you out in a pinch. I’m Oscar, I work around here.”
Guiding her into the outdoor restaurant, he sat her at one of the white tables with it’s own umbrella on it and closed his, settling down on the opposite side of her. “Well, then! Do you mind this spot?”
“Oh, it’s my favorite, actually!” Amy chimed, knowing the location very well.
“Really?” He seemed a little less intrigued at that than Amy would have normally supposed someone would, but then after putting his umbrella away, leaned forward as though very attentive and putting his fingers together, his elbows on the wooden round table of white and letting his nose press down against his hands. He had gotten comfortable, and Amy, thinking this was his way of showing interest in what she meant, continued to sweetly respond.
“This is so funny, but I come here almost every Thursday and Friday for the new deals at my favorite store! I usually order the same thing too,... I really love ice cream.” Amy felt a strange new energy at meeting someone for the first time, and continued to feel refresh at this new-found friendship.
“Ice cream? No way! That’s my favorite too!” Oscar parted his fingers as though excited to hear this. “I have a sweet tooth. I know, I know, so silly of a man like me.”
“Oh, no! Not at all!” Amy waved her hands out, “What’s your favorite kind?”
“Well,...” He thought a moment, before smiling back to her and holding a wink, “I have an idea, you tell me yours first. I bet it’s probably very different.”
“I’m a simple girl, Vanilla is mostly my cup of tea. But... whenever I’m feeling adventurous, I go for it! Scoops of Vanilla and Chocolate with some random new flavor of mint or cookie flavored and then I top it with all sorts of stuff!”
He coughed as though shocked, “...That’s literally my favorite too!”
“What!?” Amy was excited to hear this, “I thought I was the only one that eccentric!”
“I know! That’s why I thought your answer would be completely different!” As Oscar continued to review Amy’s interests, he kept nodding along and reaffirming that they shared many similar interest and hobbies before the waiter appeared. “I love to chase certain thrills and excitements. I’m sure, being an adventurer, I figured that may be the reason why you place yourself in such perilous circumstances as well.”
“Your orders, lady? Sir?” The waiter asked, trying to kindly cut in as Oscar pulled out his wallet.
“Strawberry sunday with a hint of vanilla, you?” he looked back to her.
“Ha! That’s my Thursday order!” she giggled into her hand, “Same here, please!”
He shook his head, a little theatrically, “It’s almost like... where have you been all my life?”
“I mean, I know, right!? And you work around here! That’s so weird that I’ve never seen you before... where-”
“Ah, there’s really nothing interesting about me. I’m much more fascinated in the adventures you take. What with your friends always weighing you down and everything.” He basically ignored the waiter as he tried to ask any follow-up questions, and Amy just looked between the two and then smiled politely to the waiter, showing that that was all they were going to have.
“Weighing me down..? Oh no, without Sonic and the others, I couldn’t do anything as big as saving the world! We all need each other, you know?” She happily confirmed before he spoke again, sighing.
“I guess they would have you think that way, huh?” a offhanded comment that made Amy’s eyebrows furrow, but she just continued to speak about the wonderful traits and abilities of her friends, in which case, he kept shaking his head as though she was wrong.
“What?” She finally asked, “You don’t seem to like Sonic, Tails, or Knuckles...”
“I just think you could do with some different friends.” He shrugged, “Some that wouldn’t constantly leave you behind or undergrade your merit.” In that moment, the waiter came back to place down their orders.
“U-undergrade..?” She looked down a moment, “N-no, no one’s holding me back or anything. I choose how I help out, I can’t always keep up with Sonic and the others so-” she stopped a second and shook her head, getting frustrated, “I-I mean, I can go with them whenever I want!” she retorted, and noticing her shift in demeanor, he took some ice cream and then held out his hand.
“Oh no, no, no. I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to imply you couldn’t keep up. I meant that you’re invaluable and they don’t treat you as such. But don’t worry, I’m here now, and I’ll show you how a true heroine should be treated. This meal is on me.” he gestured to her ice cream, “After this, I’ll show you some places that you probably haven’t been to before.”
“O-oh... T-That does sounds exciting!”
For a few weeks after that, Amy began to hang out with Oscar frequently. They would text back and forth, and she couldn’t help but smile when he always called her beautiful and made her feel so special. However, although the places they first went to weren’t so bad... he started showing her back alleyways with clubs and other ‘themed’ places that made her slightly uneasy.
She knew he was older than her, but would decline any invitation if he stated, “But I know a guy, he’ll let you in.” and continued to protest and remind him of her age.
That being said, the parks were lovely though!
He would often bring her little gifts and flowers too, stating that the next time she came with him, he’d bring some home-made food and had a habit of patting her head or brushing something off her hair if it landed on her. Though, Amy never noticed the ‘leaf’ that had fallen on her shoulder, or the ‘bug’ that was buzzing around her headband.
He also would usually lead her when they walked and talked, if they came to a corner, he would lightly put his hand to her back, until one time she mentioned his hand went just slightly lower than normal and he apologized profusely.
All was going very well, he even carried her bags and offered to take them home with her, but she insisted she would take the train and that he needn’t worry.
Finally, on a Friday when she was heading down for her sale, texting Oscar, a familiar wind picked up and almost brought up her dress.
“Oh, look out!” Oscar appeared and grabbed her dress, pushing it down. “Phew! Close one, aye?”
“W-where did you come from?” Amy adjusted her dress as he held his hands to the rim of her dress still, but when she looked up at him, he immediately released them.
“I suppose I just naturally come when you need me.” he scratched the back of his head, looking away as though shy. “I don’t know... sometimes, I can’t sit still, I get this feeling like you need me, and lo and behold!” He gestured to her, “You really do need someone looking after you twenty-four seven, huh?” he squatted down to look up at her, then his face turned to concern. “It’s a shame you don’t have anyone to look after you... especially in moments like this.”
“W-what are you talking about? I have Sonic!” Amy placed her Miles-Electric away and gestured for him to stand upright, but instead, he took her hands and placed them on his cheeks, acting cute but a lot younger than he actually was.
“But he didn’t save you, I did~” he whined, squishing her hands to his cheeks and rotating them around as she thought him slightly weird and took them away, pushing him back as he stumbled. “H-hey!”
“Oh, you! Sonic is just the same way! He can’t sit still when he senses someone needs him... hey, that reminds me of my article...” Amy remembered the magazine she was subscribed too, and looked over to see that within his usual trench coat, was a page of that article sticking out. “Ah!” She pointed to it, amazed, “You read ‘Famous Quips’ too!?!”
“Doesn’t everyone?” he seemed to speak quickly, before shoving the magazine back in deeper. “Ehem, kinda a girlie magazine... promise not to tell anyone? I don’t wanna lose my street-cred!”
She laughed, “You are like Sonic! Always acting so cool...” she shook her head and took his arm, what she had started doing since he offered it so many times, and they walked down the street.
He bought anything her eye rested on, which made her beg him to at least let her pay for food, as he mentioned a concert happening at the club he kept trying to get her to go to.
“Come on, you’ll love this band! We adore the same music too! I know a perfect spot in the back where no one will see us and the bouncer is my friend!” his voice was enthusiastic, nudging her every now and then with his elbow as she looked away and rolled her eyes. “You’re not a babe anymore, Amy! You’re gonna end up going to clubs eventually, might as well be with someone you know, right?”
“I don’t know...” Amy looked down,... and he gently stopped walking to look away from her.
“...Do you not trust me?”
“W-what?” Amy let go of his arm, “What do you mean? Of course I do!” she was very hurt by his accusation, “I mean, we’ve hung out so much, I just don’t really think clubbing is my thing...”
“You never want to do what I suggest.” He looked down, “I go to your favorite store with you and help you bargain hunt, I take you around the park... I’m just saying, the one time I want to go and do something, you keep saying no.” he folded his arms, and Amy began to panic that he was really offended by her.
“T-that’s not true, Oscar! I...” she looked away a moment, and he looked back at her.
“...Ah, I can’t stay mad at you.” He pulled her into a hug, holding her there. He took a deep breath, “I’m sorry, hey, let’s go get ice cream and talk about it later, okay? I’ll pay again.”
Her eyes shifted about, not sure what that was all about. “N-no, I’ll pay.” she tried to move away but kept an arm around her and led her on.
“I wouldn’t be considered a man if I let the woman pay!” he insisted, and ended up paying for the meal.
As it got late, he offered to carry her bags home again, and whined in a goofy way when she kept saying it was too late to have guests over, but maybe sometime.
“If you won’t see the concert with me, at least take me to your place sometime. It’s the least you could do for me.” He gave her the bags, then stroked her hair again, “You really shouldn’t be taking the train at night, you never know what sicko might be on it. You’re tough, Amy dear, but you’re still a girl and you know how you’re prone to cause problems.” he laughed, but that stung Amy’s pride a bit.
She held her bags and looked away a moment, “...Is that... how I come off to people?”
“Oh sure!” he then continued to stroke her head, “...You ... didn’t notice?”
“...That I look weak?” Amy shook her head and he instinctively removed his hand.
He held it in the air a moment, before letting it rest on Amy’s head again, as though realizing she wasn’t doing that to make him stop.
“No... the part where I... gave you a new nickname.” He smiled, tenderly and squatted down to her level again, keeping his hand on her head. “Amy dear. I think it’s cute!”
“...O-oh, I mean, I don’t really like how it could appear though.” Amy had a bead of sweat form and he abruptly got up, looking upset.
“Don’t like how it could appear!? What does that mean!?” He snapped.
She flinched at his sudden uproar, as he grabbed a bag from her, “I’ve been wanting to introduce the nickname to you all day! And that’s how you think about it!?” he looked as though he was going to either smash or rip the bag, but just looked furiously away from her, “I thought about it a lot, you know! It was suppose to mean something!”
Amy grew slightly afraid, but not taking this sudden mood-swing again, she opened her mouth to say something.
He interjected and looked dead in her face, “You really don’t trust me, do you, Amy?”
Thinking she didn’t want to hurt him, she shook her head, “I-I never said that!”
“Don’t yell at me,” he looked downhearted suddenly, even though she wasn’t raising her voice that much, not like he was.
“I’m not-”
“You are, and it’s really making me feel like you’re just... you don’t consider me a friend. I told you people usually reject me,... I was vulnerable to you!”
“Oscar, calm down a moment and-”
“You’re the one who’s not ‘calming down’ you can’t do a single thing I want to do! You’re being... selfish!” he flopped the bag down in front of her, startling her as he took off stomps and a hissy-fit.
Not able to process that sudden shift in behavior, Amy was lost to her thoughts and... slowly... proceeded to get the bag and head to the train station.
Numerous texts came flooding in that week as she hadn’t gone back to the plaza and mall, and she kept wondering how he knew she wasn’t there. They had hung out multiple times, maybe he was just expecting another hang out without actually asking this time...
Still, she felt somewhat obliged to text back: Sorry, I’ll see you Friday. This Thursday, I just felt sick.
Oscar: Do you need anything? Send me your address, I’ll bring you medicine and make you some food! I really am sorry if I scared you, I shouldn’t have done that. You’re beautiful and I’m just insecure. You know how I can be, just like you, I get really attached to people and just want to be accepted. I’m really sorry, please don’t not see me again! I promise I’ll get myself under control, we’ll do whatever you want to do this time! Honest!
Amy didn’t text back...
Oscar: The concert is next Friday, I won’t mention it again but... it would be really awesome if we could see Pop Pinkies together... I know it’s my favorite band and our favorite music is what they play so... just think about it at least, alright?
That Friday, Amy was wearing something that made her almost blend in with the crowd. Unlike her usual bubbly skip in the streets, she was hiding beneath her umbrella and coat, as though not wanting to be spotted.
A sudden burst of wind and she panicked, darting behind a corner and putting her umbrella away. “Dumb wind.” she mumbled, looking around to make sure Oscar wasn’t there...
The wind suddenly shifted as she poked her head out, “That’s odd, wind doesn’t usually change direction unless...” she turned and gasped as she saw Sonic, leaning his head towards her and looking confused.
“...Since when did you start taking the back-alley ways? Don’t you know that’s dangerous, Amy?” He blinked, furrowing his brow as he straightened up and folded his arms, “Heh, long time no-”
Amy’s mind was suddenly triggered by something Oscar had said, and she tuned out Sonic completely, her world going dark...
“I just think you could do with some different friends. Some that wouldn’t constantly leave you behind or undergrade your merit.”
“You’re tough, Amy dear, but you’re still a girl and you know how you’re prone to cause problems.“
“Is that... really how I appear to you?” Amy’s voice quaked as she spoke it, “Do I really look weak... even to you?”
Sonic was taken aback by the tears forming in her eyes, and immediately dropped the friendly banter, “Amy? What’s wrong? Weak?” he didn’t know where she got that notion from. “N-no, I-... Amy, is something wrong?” he moved forward to reach for her but pulled away, something Amy wasn’t used to as she really did--for a brief moment--think he was going to place his hand on her head.
Almost as if expecting that, she leaned her head in a strange way and then back, not sure why she did that.
He didn’t notice the action though, but she hugged herself, also remembering that after the light head pats was usually a strong and forceful embrace...
“...Amy?” she hadn’t responded to him, and now, Sonic was noticing a very clear change in Amy.
“N-no, of course you wouldn’t think that... I’m sorry, I really don’t... I don’t want to be around people right now.” she looked away, “I... I made someone feel really bad and I don’t know what to do.”
“Really? What did you do?” Sonic lifted his hand and she immediately looked at it, which made him pause. “...Umm... I was just gesturing... Amy...” His ears bent back, not sure why she looked so squarely at his hand. “Is everything okay?”
She really thought he was offering her hand, but she didn’t want to take it... not this time.
“I made a new friend, and he’s mad at me. I’m worried... if I hurt him again, he’ll really be in a bad emotional state, and it’ll be all my fault.” Amy put her umbrella up and started to walk away from Sonic, “I want to take a new route, I didn’t even want to come out today...”
“...Amy, you don’t control this new friend’s behavior, they do.” Sonic corrected her and walked beside her, focusing heavily on the signs of uncomfortability Amy was showing. “...What happened with this ‘new friend’ of yours?” He directly asked, and Amy relayed to him how she met him, then how he liked all the things she liked and agreed with everything in the beginning, how charming he was before the more time she spent with him, he seemed to change and start acting funny... but not in the good way.
“...He likes everything you like?” Sonic lowered his head a little, honing in on some things Amy briefly mentioned.
“Yeah, isn’t that crazy? He’s a guy but he totally loves sweet things and a popular girl’s magazine I enjoy.” Amy smiled, closing her eyes as though cheering up when thinking about it.
“...And he knew your order before you even made it?” Sonic folded his arms, putting two and two together.
“Yeah...” Amy suddenly slowed down in her steps, her eyes widening.
Sonic closed his eyes, matching her speed as he began to help her focus on the more important parts of her story, “And this... strange wind that passes by here... only comes at you and blows your dress up or opens your umbrella?”
She stopped.
He continued to walk, “And you say he works around here... which means he may have seen you come and go multiple times... and probably watched you ordered and heard what you liked, and saw what you read, and knew about you from the news and press... he disliked your friends and took you places and then entitled himself to being in charge over your Thursday and Friday venues... then, to really top it all off with the icing on the cake and all that jazz... he’s been insisting you go to a adult-themed club with him and throws a tissy-fit when you say no?”
Sonic stopped, his fists had already tightened into such hard balls of fury that he had to take silent deep breaths just to contain himself.
“And worst of all... he’s tried to copy me and put it in your mind that your friends don’t respect you the way we should... isolating you,” He put out a finger, “Grooming and manipulating you... Amy, you should have written this guy the moment he snapped at you... and probably sooner, but I’ll take that as you were just seeing the best sides of him... and not the dirty kind.” he didn’t turn around, but he felt Amy lingering behind him and knew if he said anymore, she may just start crying. “...Where do you think this creep is now?”
“He... He’s not a creep.” Amy lied, feeling in her heart that she just did lie, for Oscar’s sake...
Sonic tsk’ed and turned around, “How can you stand there and defend him!? Do you even know what Grooming is!?”
“...I... I don’t.” she wiped her eyes, “I don’t think I know anything...”
The manipulation had really set in on Amy, she was denying something she knew was true and didn’t know why. She was defending a man who clearly was up to no good, and yet... she cared about him still.
“Sonic... I think... I think I’m sick.” she held her stomach, the realization setting in. “You don’t think... he wanted me to take him to my house to..?”
“He wanted to what!?” Sonic lunged forward, holding his fists back and to his sides as he tried to remain level-headed, pulling away from her. “Amy, you know the truth now, it’s time to end this... ‘friendship’ you two have.”
Amy fell to her knees, “That’ll kill him!”
Sonic immediately looked behind him, Amy almost begging him not to make her do it as Sonic couldn’t stand to see her this broken and twisted up from Oscar’s scheming.
“Amy...” he wanted to say so many things..! But instead, just turned around and held a strong look, “You have to face this... but you won’t be alone.” He offered her his hand, “I won’t leave your side, and I’ll be there the whole way through. You deserve to go out and have fun without someone telling you that it can only be ‘their’ way of fun.” He looked so serious... but she felt a peace wash over her at how she knew his words were never lies or deceits for something devious. His words were for her and her well-being... not once did Sonic ever yell or enforce his way about things at all. He listened to her, even though she knew he must be raging inside at his friend’s predicament... it’s not like she purposefully got herself into this mess.
“You know how you’re prone to cause problems.“
She placed her hands up against her eyes, crying. “Am I... being a burden to my friends, Sonic?”
He immediately scooped her up into a bridal-style hold, “Which store did you want to visit today, Amy? Or do you want to just go home?”
“Please, I want to go home.” Amy held onto him as without a second word, he zoomed off.
The next few days, Sonic instructed that Amy block the number, but text messages seemed to not be the only thing Oscar knew... He called her home number, which surprised both of them, and the phone never stopped ringing.
That next Thursday, Sonic accompanied Amy everywhere she went, and they didn’t spot Oscar anywhere. But come that Friday...
Sonic was carrying some of Amy’s bags, she didn’t look fully recovered from anything, but at least she was wearing brighter colors in her coat she wore that day, and a nice sun hat as Sonic held the umbrella up for her.
He looked a little bored, but kept his eyes peeled when a sudden wind shoved him to the pavement.
“Ah! Sonic!” Amy turned around but was immediately grabbed around the waist, pulled back. “Gah!”
“I can’t believe you let him back into your life!!!”
Amy’s ears rang with Oscar’s voice, before shoving him back and falling down beside Sonic, who quickly shook off the wind blast and spun around to pick up Amy’s things, placing the bags by the store’s window.
“So, this is the wind-manipulator, eh?” Sonic rotated his shoulder out, having landed on it pretty roughly, “Look, I don’t know anything about you, and neither does Amy, really! So either get the hint and quit bothering Amy, or I’ll have to take matters into my own hands!” he hunkered down, getting ready for a fight, but... he also seemed not to be putting on airs or a show.
Sonic... although smiling a bit as he spoke to him, suddenly took a darker and more focused attention on how Oscar was holding himself.
Oscar looked to Amy, not even talking to Sonic, “I told you everything about me... What does that lying Sonic know about you!? I’m the one that’s been with you this whole time while he’s been off, probably with some other girl!”
Amy thought that ridiculous, and seeing him in a new light, she was able to at last come to fact with this pervert in front of her. “You... you were never my friend... were you, Oscar?”
He bit his teeth down, “Is that what he made you think?!”
“No, that’s what he made he realize!” She threw up her hammer and blasted wind at her.
She was forced to slide against the concrete, “I don’t mean to hurt you, Amy dear!” he cried out, “We’ll settle this when he isn’t around!”
“I think you’ve got it backwards, Oz!” Sonic, seeing that his hands controlled the wind, kicked it away from Amy’s direction and then spun in a rotation within the air to punch him down.
He stumbled, as though not used to physical fighting and tumbled all the way over into the street.
“I’ve known Amy much longer and deeper than you have! You’re just some creep who takes advantage of little girls!” Sonic’s fists was shaking, clearly, he didn’t want to just leave it at one blow. “Amy, get behind me!” He gestured out his hand and Amy immediately got up and moved behind him.
“I can... I think I can fight him!” She tried to state, but Sonic looked behind his shoulder and she put her head down. “I... I want to but...”
“...You still care about me, don’t you, Amy dear?”
“Quit calling me that!” Amy threw her arms down, “You used me! You weren’t my friend! I can’t believe I trusted you!”
Sonic turned to the man, “Why are you even answering him, Amy? He’s not talking to you, he’s talking to some Amy Dear girl he’s been building in his mind. You were never anything to him... it was the girl he was crafting that he was interested in.” Sonic slowly walked towards him as the man started to scoot back, clearly not able to fight Sonic The Hedgehog.
“Let’s play a new game...” Sonic suddenly lifted up a device, “Is your real name Warner Windstrom? You’ve got a bounty on your head that the cops are just dying to claim...” he pressed the button as suddenly an alarm went out, and from around the corners, police vehicles blocked his way of escape. “Oh, and that club? A typical place where your old ‘hostages’ claimed they were drugged. Trust me, pal, I’ll personally make sure you don’t get out of jail again.” Sonic let the police start moving in but Warner immediately shoved air beneath him and flew into the sky, shocking everyone as Sonic held up a arm over his eyes and moved back to Amy, shielding her as well.
She was in shock, that kind man she knew was suddenly a criminal and had previously hurt and abused other women... She didn’t know Sonic set this all up, but she probably wouldn’t have let him if she had known.
“I thought we were just gonna talk to him!” she cried out, putting her hand on his shoulder before shaking her head, “I’m defending him again... aren’t I?”
“Amy shouldn’t be with a loser like you, Sonic!” Warner cried out, “You can’t always save her! You can’t always be around to-!”
Before he could finish, a hammer slammed into his gut.
“Nice one, Amy.” Sonic complimented, as Amy stood up beside him.
She didn’t say anything, but judging from the neutral expression... and tears streaming down her eyes...
He just looked back at Warner, “I know this is a lot to take in... but trust me on this one... You’ll be alright.”
Amy summoned another hammer, “Want to give me a lift?”
“Certainly.” Sonic spun into a ball that lifted him up into the wind, then uncurled to reach out for Amy as she jumped, “Hit him hard!” he encouraged as he threw her up the rest of the length.
She pushed her dress down as he extended his arms to her, “Amy, please! You know me! I love-!”
She just growled and let out a piercing war-cry, slamming her hammer down on his face, “I’m not your friend, I’m not your anything, buzz off!!!!”
He slammed to the ground, and as the wind ceased, Sonic landed and caught her immediately, and the two watched as the police immediately took him.
He kept trying to call out to Amy but she didn’t say anything back, just ducking her head into Sonic’s shoulder.
Sonic’s eyes never left Warner’s face... but leaving the scattered bags around, he took her to the park near by and sat her down.
He waited there... as Amy was just frozen in her thoughts... unable to speak.
After some time, she got up and walked to stand beside him, “What about the bags?”
“Not concerned.” Sonic stated, then looked back to her, “You okay?”
“No,” Amy admitted, “You were right. It’s gonna take time... but I wish it would all just go away now.” she placed her hands on the side of her arms, “How... how did you know? When I was telling you about him... how did you know he was no good?”
Sonic tilted his head back and forth, then tapped his head. “When you’ve been around the block a few times... helping justice here and there... you learn a thing or two about red flags, Amy... you don’t have a lot of dating experience--or just knowing bad dudes are like that--in general! I don’t blame you... but I do think that you should be careful who your friends are.”
She scooted closer to him... then tilted her head to his shoulder.
“..Can you help me get better?”
“No,” he lightly tilted his head to hers, “But I can be with you while you figure it out.”
There was a long moment of silence as they held that comforting moment...
“Will I ever be me again?” she asked, her voice cracking slightly.
“...No,” He responded, tenderly, as though a whisper as he looked up at the rain being to slowly drop all around them. “But I can be with you as you learn to accept her.”
Amy closed her eyes, feeling the small drops of rain before it all at once, speedily came down on them.
“...Will you still love me? At the end of it all?”
Silence...
“I already do.”
Rain scattered as Sonic held his eyes straight up into the clouds... the storm in his heart subsiding as Amy cried and her shoulder’s bounced beside him.
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Champagne Problems-Diego Hargreeves
a/n: WHO’S READY FOR THE ANGST?! here we go lol. i’ve never written a song-inspired fic but here we are. this part 1 of of my 2 valentine’s day fics. the other is a cute luther fic and hopefully I’ll be able to write more umbrella academy so... NO I HAVE NOT FINISHED SEASON 2 DON’T COME FOR ME. i’m also totally willing to write a second part to this, especially after i hurt myself so bad so if it’s something you’re interested in, please let me know. listening to champagne problems during this is probably a good idea. this also exists minorly in my law and order: special victims unit x the umbrella academy universe but it’s really only slight mentions of ADA work, so no real connection.
masterlist | prompt list
warnings: ANGST, Hazel, Agnes, and Eudora live and Ben comes back to life because I said so, post-Texas apocalypse but my own storyline because I haven’t finished season 2 yet, my own thoughts and feeling in the form of the main character, Ben’s secretly a history nerd, Tumblr fucked with my spacing and I’m salty
word count: 3,064 (including song lyrics)
You booked the night train for a reason
So you could sit there in this hurt
Bustling crowds or silent sleepers
You're not sure which is worse
-
You always opted to take the cases that kept you up the latest at night, working the hardest to get victims justice. You refused to sleep at night until you knew you’d be able to put a killer or rapist away the next day. Which, in turn, meant that there’d often be nights a detective would call in need of a warrant, already knowing you’d still be awake. However, there would be nights, weeks, even, where it was a small case or no cases at all. Those were the days you’d busy yourself in the office until you had no other reason to be there, finding the later you took the subway home, the fewer people there would be. Usually, the quiet of the night calmed you and gave you time to reflect. Sometimes though, your mind would wander to him.
-
Because I dropped your hand while dancing
Left you out there standing
Crestfallen on the landing
Champagne problems
-
Diego had taken you on a drive, bringing you to the city of Manhattan. You always spoke of your love of the city, missing your time spent there while in law school. The two of you had gone for a walk and picnic through Central Park and as the sun was beginning to set, leaving the New York sky a dusty pink, he grabbed your hand as you talked about your favorite memory at the Chinese place just down the road. You paused, looking up at him, seeing the love for swimming within his features. After that night, you had grown to hate the sight of Central Park and avoided it by all means necessary. Your team had never been able to figure out why.
-
Your mom's ring in your pocket
My picture in your wallet
-
Although never actually married to Reginald, and despite the fact that she was an AI, Grace had a wedding band she kept tucked away. When Diego had introduced you to Grace, he knew that you would be the one he’d marry. You were so kind to the AI, not batting an eyelash at her charging port or her sometimes distant nature. She was Diego’s mom by all accounts, and he’d be damned if he was going to live the rest of his life with a girl who didn’t respect his mother. Despite Diego’s fear, you and the AI got on splendidly and at the end of the night, when you were talking to Pogo, Grace brought the boy upstairs and slipped him the small band. She smiled at him and Diego had to restrain himself from crushing the sweet women in a hug. “Just in case.” she had said.
-
Your heart was glass, I dropped it
Champagne problems
-
Diego had tried from the very beginning to be honest with you that he came with a lot of issues. Building trust had been difficult and a fragile process. You had been patient and kind and understanding and everything he was certain he didn’t deserve. Diego slowly learned to let his walls and heart open to you and by the end of it, Diego believed that you had melted his heart of ice and worked your way into his life and family. Until you turned away, dropping the ice heart, shattering it.
-
You told your family for a reason
You couldn't keep it in
-
When you and Diego had first met, it had been purely by accident. You were just moving into the apartment across the hall from Vanya’s and he had come barreling down the stairs after Five. After knocking you and one too many boxes to the ground, Diego profusely apologized, concerned eyes flitting across you to make sure that you indeed weren’t hurt. He had offered to help you finish moving your belongings, wanting a few more minutes with the pretty girl on the stairs. You agreed and asked if he would be interested in grabbing dinner with you that night since you didn’t know anywhere in town. He agreed and the two of you had always considered that your unofficial first date. As the two of you grew closer and Diego’s family became interested in the mysterious ADA with whom he spent all his time, the more determined Diego became to shelter you from them. His family came with a lot of baggage, a lot of trouble, and you had enough just trying to put the bad guys away. But as he became more certain he wanted you in his life for a long time, the more he knew he wanted to tell his siblings. After the apocalypse, he and his siblings had tried to repair the broken bridges and had been successful for the most part. So, one night, at family dinner, he looked around at his siblings, laughing at some witty comment Five had made, and he blurted it out before he could stop himself. The siblings went quiet, looking over at him. You had just met Grace a few days ago, and he was sure he wanted to spend the rest of his life with you. “I think I’m going to marry her.”
-
Your sister splashed out on the bottle
Now no one's celebrating
-
Allison had been the most excited, wanting to plan an elaborate engagement scheme, wanted to help him pick out the ring. He let her too, unsure of really what to do, and was happy to see her so excited about something. She had convinced Diego to introduce you to her and Vanya, wanting to get to know you, to accurately help Diego (and of course to get to know her future sister-in-law, with whom she was determined to be best friends). As the date that they had settled on drew nearer, she bought an expensive bottle of champagne, stating that only the finest would do for her brother’s engagement. Diego rolled his eyes, but deep down he appreciated that she cared about him this much to help him. When Diego returned to the Academy that night, unannounced and much later than originally intended, Allison immediately knew something was wrong. The siblings looked around at each other, in shock and disbelief. No one had really thought you’d say no.
-
Dom Pérignon, you brought it
No crowd of friends applauded
-
You weren’t sure why Diego brought the bottle of champagne with him, and he wasn’t sure either, both knowing you didn’t drink. As you stared at him, and he stared at you, hurt flickering across the other’s face, all Diego could focus on was the fact that he brought that stupid bottle of champagne. Why had he listened to Allison, or Vanya, or any of the Hargreeves for that matter? Diego was not meant to get a happy ending, he was sure of it. And he had gone and tempted fate and had gotten the heart-breaking answer he knew all along.
-
Your hometown skeptics called it
Champagne problems
-
The Hargreeves had taken Diego out to Griddy’s that night, not sure what else to do with him. Hazel and Agnes looked at him, pity in their eyes. The police chief of the town was there, the one who had despised Diego entirely and was entirely infuriated when he had found out his favorite ADA was “messing around” with the disgraced ex-police officer-turned-vigilante. He looked at the pity party that seemed to be happening in honor of Diego and laughed. “She always was too good for you. Glad she finally realized it.”
-
You had a speech, you're speechless
Love slipped beyond your reaches
And I couldn't give a reason
-
Diego had a speech, he had. He’d prepared it with Grace and Allison and had practiced it a million times over, to make sure he wouldn’t stutter. Klaus and Ben had listened patiently, giving him pointers and Vanya had even helped him rewrite it when he thought it wasn’t conveying what he wanted to say. And yet, as he looked at you, he couldn’t think of a single word of it. He was nervous, sure, but he was so consumed by the love he felt for you, that he just blurted out, “Wanna get married?”. He offered wondered if he had given you a speech, told you how much he loved you, why he loved you, if you’d still be with him.
-
Champagne problems
Your Midas touch on the Chevy door
November flush and your flannel cure
"This dorm was once a madhouse"
I made a joke, "Well, it's made for me"
-
Diego had been so nervous bringing you to the Academy to meet his siblings. He wasn’t sure how’d you react to the dysfunction of his family and he was terrified in anticipation of what the siblings might say or do that would scare you off. Luckily, you and Klaus had immediately become attached at the hip and you were already familiar with Vanya. Luthor and Five had been cold at first, waiting to see if they were up to their standards and if you had ulterior motives with Diego. You, of course, passed with flying colors and by the end of the night, you had them laughing and sharing embarrassing stories of Diego. Allison was enthused and happy to welcome you to the family. Ben had engaged you in a deep conversation about the legacy of ancient civilizations long after anyone else cared to listen or contribute. Still, Diego had been nervous it was all a front as to not have the dinner be awkward and uncomfortable. As he drove back to your (unofficially shared) apartment, he had joked that his house was a madhouse. You had seen right through him, knowing he was trying to apologize for the chaos that is his family and that is, well, Klaus. You had laughed and told him that if you could survive in your madhouse of a family, you could survive in his too.
-
How evergreen, our group of friends
Don't think we'll say that word again
-
As Diego looked back on your relationship, he looked for signs that you were unhappy, or wanting to leave. He was unable to come up with any, with the exception of one. You and Diego never fought. It couldn’t have been healthy but there was… never anything to fight about. You were both okay with the other’s line of work, and while not perfect, Diego was learning to be open and honest with you about what he needed from the relationship and you had always been so receptive to that. Ben had once joked that he hadn’t seen plants so evergreen as your relationship. You had laughed and Diego smiled, happy he had someone that was so easy to be with after all the hardship he’d experienced in his life. Now all Diego could do was look back on that memory with the bitter taste of regret.
-
And soon they'll have the nerve to deck the halls
That we once walked through
-
Christmas had been your favorite holiday ever since you were a child. As you had gotten older, the excitement faded, but the cheer and happiness that came from watching old Christmas films and dancing to songs in your kitchen as you baked cookies found its way into your heart without fail every year. So, when the first Christmas with Diego came around, you had cautiously asked him if he’d like to celebrate it with you. Diego tried not to speak too much on Reginald, and from what you knew about the man, Christmas didn’t seem like something that was being celebrated at the Umbrella Academy. Diego had shrugged, saying he didn’t really know what Christmas was about to know if he’d enjoy celebrating it or not. Thus, you had taken Diego to look at lights and watched all your favorite Christmas movies as a child and listened to songs while baking family recipes and he had even helped you decorate the apartment. By the time Christmas rolled around, Diego had started to understand why you cherished the holiday so much. But waking up the morning of Christmas to gifts you had picked out for him, one making up for every year he lost out on what Christmas was supposed to be like, he felt his heart growing three sizes more, like the Grinch from the night before. Diego had never felt a love as pure when he looked at you.
The next year had been no different, just on a larger scale as the whole Hargreeves clan joined in this time. That year, Christmas morning found the Hargreeves boys whisper-yelling at Diego about how he had found the perfect woman as they woke to an abundant amount of gifts under the tree. You dragged Vanya and Allison down the stairs, insisting the family had to open presents together. Klaus had insisted he act as Santa, stating the real Santa should get to sit with her boyfriend. You hadn’t protested, seeing how much a kick he got out of the hat and curled up into Diego as he sat with his back against the arm of the couch. Diego ran his fingers through your hair, and you laid your head against his chest. Luther, wide-eyed, asked you how you were able to pay for all of it. You had shrugged and stated that being an ADA paid you a much larger salary than you knew what to do with and moving out of Manhattan meant a lot less on rent. When Vanya asked why you’d bother spending all that money on them, your response had ensured to Diego that he’d found the right one. “Well, you guys are like family to me. And you never got the Christmases I grew up with and it’s all about making other people happy. I wanted to give you back the Christmas you never had.”
As he looked around at the decorated Academy this year, Klaus and Ben insisting on continuing the tradition you left behind, Diego just felt an overwhelming sense of hatred of the colors and lights. All just painful reminders of what he lost. Of the girl who left.
-
One for the money, two for the show
I never was ready, so I watch you go
Sometimes you just don't know the answer
'Til someone's on their knees and asks you
-
Luther was the only one who could never quite believe you were with Diego totally and completely. Maybe the misgivings came from his strained relationship with the second Hargreeves boy but he always believed you were in it for one of two reasons. Either the money that came with Hargreeves fortune or the fame that came with the Hargreeves name. Of course, Luther wasn’t you, and would never understand the real reason you had said…
“No.” Diego looked at you, hand on his pocket, ready to give you Grace’s ring, unsure if his fear was playing tricks with his head. You shook your head, “No, Diego. I’m sorry.” When those words had left Diego’s mouth, your heart had stopped. You loved Diego, more than anything you had ever known, but the untold horrors of your life before Diego came rushing to the surface and began to choke you. How could you marry Diego when you couldn’t disclose the worst moments of your life to him for fear of being a burden on the already broken boy? You realized at that moment, you could be everything Diego needed, but you would never allow Diego to be everything you needed, setting your relationship hurtling for sure-fire failure. You gasped, the tears threatening to render you breathless. “Diego, I-” And in a moment of pure, blind panic, you grabbed your things and ran, leaving the boy devastated behind you.
-
"She would've made such a lovely bride
What a shame she's fucked in her head, " they said
-
A few weeks after that night, Diego found himself alone at the Academy with Five. The two of them were sitting at the bar, not saying much. Finally, Five put his drink down on the table and looked at Diego. “I am really sorry about her, Diego.” Diego looked up at Five. “It’s a shame she’s got too many issues up here,” he said, tapping his head, “to give you what you wanted. She was one-of-a-kind.”
“What are you talking about Five?” Diego questioned, mildly annoyed Five brought you up.
“Did she give you a reason why, Diego?” Number 2 shook his head. “She always seemed to have her own issues, her own baggage, she was never willing to discuss. Maybe her issues with marriage was one of them.”
“That’s ridiculous Five, she would’ve told me.” Diego said, taking a sip of his drink. But as he thought about it, the more he wondered if Five was right. You had told him about your less-than-ideal relationship with your family and disclosed the fact that you didn’t drink due to a genetic predisposition of being an alcoholic, but he had always sensed there was something more you wouldn’t share.
-
But you'll find the real thing instead
She'll patch up your tapestry that I shred
And hold your hand while dancing
-
One night, he ran into Eudora at Griddy’s making a midnight waffle run for the family. She told him she had heard about the failed proposal and that if he ever wanted or needed to talk, she’d be there. He called her a few days later, and the two of them met up at a bar for a few drinks. He told her about you and that night, and as Diego talked about it, he realized that pain subsided. The outings to the bar became weekly occurrences and he found himself enjoying the company and comfort Eudora offered. And as Eudora found her way back into his life, as time went on, Diego realized he thought of you less and less.
-
Never leave you standing
Crestfallen on the landing
With champagne problems
Your mom's ring in your pocket
Her picture in your wallet
You won't remember all my
Champagne problems
You won't remember all my
Champagne problems
#champagne problems by taylor swift#champagne problems#diego hargreeves#diego hargreeves imagines#diego hargreeves imagine#diego hargreeves fic
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A Very Unusual Visitor
I really love @kieraelieson’s Tiny Tenants AU, and the other day, I sent her an ask: you know what. I am filled with soft gt longing. I want to be tiny and friends with your Tiny Tenants Logan. I want him to hold me and fiddle gently with me and let me sleep in his pocket. Virgil’s got a good thing going on here!
This is a story about that. More or less.
Wordcount: 2.2 K
[More of my writing]
~~~~~
Logan sat down at his desk, intending to read. However, as he glanced over the wooden surface, his gaze fell on a small form. A borrower. And an unfamiliar one, too. Logan thought he knew all of the borrowers living in his house— Virgil, with whom he believed he could confidently say he was friends, and the much more timid Patton and Dee, and Dee’s young charges, the twins Roman and Remus, who were doing their best to be friends with Logan too, despite their guardian’s wishes to keep him away from them.
This borrower was not any of those. The easiest difference to recognize at a glance was that they had red hair, where the others had shades of brown and black. Yet, despite Logan never having even caught a glimpse of them before, here they were, sitting calmly on his desk, as if they were waiting for him.
“Um,” Logan said, surprised. “Hello?”
The little borrower grinned, looking up at him, and got to their feet. “Hello! You must be Logan, right?”
Logan nodded. Perhaps this borrower had just moved in? The others would have told them about Logan, and Virgil probably would have told them that he was trying his best to be the good kind of human, and wasn’t to be feared. But even so, Logan would never have expected a borrower to be so comfortable around him this quickly. Unless they had been around for some time, watching, and only just now came out to introduce theirself, after they’d felt reasonably sure that Logan was nonthreatening. But then why would they need confirmation on who he was? Unless it was just smalltalk to get the conversation going.
“I’m Hann,” the borrower continued, sticking their hand out at Logan. He recognized the gesture, of course, but had never shook hands with a borrower before. Logan lifted his own hand, trying to figure out how he was supposed to shake the hand of someone who could fit entirely in his hand with room to spare. The borrower didn’t even flinch, still looking up at him expectantly.
Gently, Logan pinched their hand between his thumb and the first knuckle of his pointer finger, lifted it minutely, lowered it again, and then let go, pulling his hand back.
“It is… nice to meet you, Hann,” Logan said. “If extremely unexpected.”
“Sorry,” Hann said, looking at their hand and flexing it. “I didn’t really bother to think of a more plausible introduction.” Softer, more to theirself, they murmured, “I guess I could retcon something…”
Suddenly, Logan’s mind started to fill with unfamiliar memories. A snapshot of this same borrower, soaked to the bones, and Logan’s own hands reaching down to lift them out of a puddle. Another, contrasting and completely detached, yet somehow equally real, of Virgil wrapping a white bandage around Hann’s ankle and scolding them, while both sat on Logan’s desk. A third, of a shivering redheaded borrower leaning against Logan’s steaming mug of coffee, as snow fell outside.
Logan shook his head sharply, pushing back his chair in alarm. “Stop, stop!”
The stream of false pasts abruptly ceased, and the ones already in his head faded.
“Sorry.”
“What…” Logan hesitated. “What just happened? Who are you?”
“It’s… kind of a long story.”
“I have time,” Logan insisted.
“Okay.” Hann paused for a bit. “I’m not actually a borrower. Well, right now I am, technically, but most of the time I’m not.”
“What are you, then?” Despite the incredibly unnerving experience he’d just had, Logan found himself feeling very curious. What kind of being had the power to do that? Up until recently, borrowers had been the stuff of myths; were other “fantasy” creatures real as well? Fairies, perhaps?
“I’m human.”
Wait. What?
“But more relevently, I’m an Author.”
“An author,” Logan repeated. Somehow the word didn’t quite sound the same when he said it.
Hann nodded. “At the moment, I’m your Author.”
Logan looked down at himself, then back at the borrower— the Author— standing on his desk. “I’m not sure I like the implications of that.”
“That’s… That’s fair.” Hann rubbed the back of their neck with a little chuckle. “Sorry. I promise, I didn’t come here intending to make you nervous.”
They’d succeeded anyway, Logan thought to himself. But, despite all that, he was still extremely curious. “What all does being an author entail? Can you control me, like… like a puppet?”
Hann wiggled a hand in the ‘sort of’ gesture. “Eh. Yes and no.”
That… wasn’t very comforting.
“I can control your environment, and to a certain extent, what happens, but living things are trickier. Mostly, I can put you in a setting, and watch as you navigate it.” Well, that didn’t sound too bad— “And if I don’t think it’s interesting enough, or I wanted it to go a different way, I can rewind time and give you a nudge in a different direction, and try it again.” Nevermind, still frightening.
“So I have free will unless you don’t like what I do,” Logan surmised.
“You could put it that way, yeah.” Hann shrugged. “But you’d be surprised how many times a story goes off the rails, way outside the original plan, and I just watch it go, because whatever new thing that’s happening is more interesting.”
“Hm.”
“Take right now, for example. I didn’t plan for the conversation to go here, but it did. I could rewind it, but it’s interesting, so I’ll probably leave it.”
Logan pursed his lips uncomfortably. He didn’t much like feeling like a mere source of entertainment, he found. “I don’t suppose it matters if I don’t want to be rewound?”
“Usually? No. But, this is a special case. Very meta, and you’re actually aware of me. I have a feeling you’d know if I rolled time back, unlike most fics. So… I’ll only make minor edits. Wording and flow, stuff like that.”
“Thanks,” Logan said. “I think.”
“Though I’ll probably roll it back if we get too angsty, too,” Hann mused. “This is supposed to be a fluff piece.”
Logan wasn’t sure he knew what those words meant. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know. That was an unusual occurrence.
“Did you make me?”
“Oh, no! Not at all! This isn’t even an original fanfic, it’s recursive!”
Logan opened his mouth to ask a question. Then he closed it again to try to figure out where to even start.
“Okay, so I’m willing to explain, but it might give you a bit of an existential crisis,” Hann warned. “Or a lot of one.”
Logan considered it. He sighed. “Tell me.”
Hann nodded. “Okay, so the original Logan belongs to a show called ‘Sanders Sides’. In short, it’s about this guy, Thomas Sanders, and he has the ability to imagine the parts of his personality as metaphysical beings in the room with him, and they have discussions about… well, an assortment of topics. Logan represents— primarily— Thomas’s intellect. Logic. He’s my favorite. Following so far?”
Logan nodded. “Mind if I take notes?”
“Go ahead.”
Logan pulled out a notepad and a pen, jotting down what they’d said so far. He’d have to go back and get notes on the whole Author thing too, but one thing at a time. When he’d gotten it down, he looked up again, and Hann continued.
“You are an alternate version of that Logan. This is what we call an ‘AU’ or ‘Alternate Universe’. Instead of being a portion of one man’s personality, you’re your own human.”
“I see,” Logan said, writing that down.
“The rest of the sides got turned into borrowers. That’s Virgil, Dee, the twins, and Patton.”
Logan nodded. Would it be too intrusive on their privacy to ask what his miniature housemates represented in the apparent ‘original universe’? Considering how much they preferred to keep to themselves, he thought it might be. Instead, he asked, “I live in an alternate universe? How did it come to be?”
Hann grinned. “My friend made it, based on the original universe!”
Logan nodded slowly. “Were the differences intentional?”
“Oh yeah, definitely. She’s been going through a long list of gt prompts, writing short stories for each, in various different AUs, and there’s a bunch here. The first one was when you and Virgil met.”
“‘Gee tea’?” Logan questioned, deciding to leave the mention of even more alternate universes for later.
“Giant and tiny,” Hann explained. “Anything with a major size difference, really. Some of ‘em have giants and humans interacting, some have humans and borrowers, or humans and fairies, or tiny merfolk, or whatever.”
“Do those all exist in your universe— the one you’re from, originally?” If so, Logan wasn’t entirely sure whether to be glad or sad he was here instead, where there were only borrowers.
The tiny Author drooped sadly. “No. Unfortunately. Just humans. No giants, no tinies.”
“Oh. My condolences.”
Hann shrugged. “It is what it is. And that’s what fiction is for, anyway.”
Logan didn’t read much fiction, but he nonetheless supposed that rang true. “So… you said earlier that you’re my author. How is that, if your friend was the one to create my universe?”
“Oh, I’m just borrowing you,” Hann said.
“‘Borrowing’ me,” Logan repeated.
“Just for a bit.”
“I think i would have liked to have been asked first,” Logan said, once again feeling uncomfortably like a plaything.
“Sorry.” Hann paused for a moment. “May I borrow you?”
“Am I allowed to say no?”
“Of course you are! I mean, I’d really rather you didn’t, but if you really don’t want me here, I’ll leave. I’ll even delete the whole story if you want.” They paused. “Though that might feel even weirder for you than me just rewriting a scene. I wonder if you’d even remember, though, once I did it?”
Before they could continue too far along that peculiar line of thought, Logan asked, “If I tell you to go, you won’t just back up to before and ‘nudge’ me toward the other answer, will you?”
Hann shook their head. “No, that seems unnecessarily cruel. If you want me to go, I’ll go. No tricks.”
Logan thought about it. The little redhead waited, looking around his desk. Finally, Logan said, “Alright. You may… borrow me a little bit longer.”
“Yay!” Hann cheered, throwing their hands up happily. “Thank you!”
Logan smiled. Terrifyingly powerful or not, they were kinda adorable. “Why did you want to borrow me in the first place, anyway?”
“Oh!” Hann grinned. “You know that thing you do with Virgil, where you hold him and play with him like a living stim toy? I want that.”
“You… you want me to fiddle with you?”
Hann nodded quickly. “Yes, please! I’ve always wanted to be manhandled by a well-meaning and gentle, but extremely curious giant, and then yesterday I read Kiera’s latest updates to your story, and one of them had you playing with Virgil, and another had you playing with the twins, and I just was filled with a soft but intense longing.”
“Well, alright.” Logan set his notes aside, bringing his hands instead over to the waiting borrower. They bounced excitedly on the balls of their feet.
Carefully, Logan wrapped his hand around them. Hann was smaller than Virgil, though not as small as the twins. They stilled, beaming up at him.
“You’re not even a little bit intimidated, are you,” Logan said with a chuckle, brushing his thumb across the top of their head.
“Oh, I am, but only in the good way,” Hann answered. “Like I said, I’ve seen how gentle and considerate you are. I know you won’t hurt me.”
They were right. Logan didn’t answer, just picked them up. He began to poke gently at them, similarly to how he would interact with Virgil. Hann giggled happily and offered no resistance. Logan pinched their tiny limbs between his fingers, rolled them around on his palm, rubbed his thumb against their back and their sides, and draped them across the back of his hand. Just as with Virgil, he found the activity to be quite pleasant. Hann, meanwhile, appeared to be enjoying it just as much, practically melting in his hands.
Finally, Logan stopped, holding the little author in cupped palms.
They lay, utterly relaxed, with their eyes partly closed, a smile on their lips.
“Was that… good?”
Hann nodded. “That was great!” they said, sitting up. “Thanks so much.”
Logan found himself grinning back. “You’re welcome.”
“I guess I probably ought to be getting out of your hair,” Hann said reluctantly, glancing off to the side. “Let you get back to what you were doing before.”
Logan hesitated. “Well,” he said. “I was intending to read. And if you’ve been, er, ‘watching’ me, you know that I enjoy fiddling with Virgil as I read, so…”
Hann perked up again. “Really?”
“As long as you don’t object to me not paying much attention to you,” Logan said.
“That’s fine!” Hann grinned happily up at him. “You’re doing me a favor, anyway. I’ll take whatever I can get.”
Logan smiled, shifted the tiny author to one hand, and with the other, pulled a thick book from his shelf.
#original#my writing#sanders sides#gt#sanders sides gt#my Sanders Sides writing#recursive fic#kieraelieson#a very meta fic#extremely self-indulgent
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The unofficial Follow up
Tumblr is a fucking nightmare. It deleted this entire thing when I edited the fucking tags.
Anywho. This is a follow up to Commander Fox Deal With A lot which itself is a follow up to my Interviews fic.
I call it unofficial because a) I’m not sure if this is really how it’ll go within the Interviews Universe and b) If this happens in the Interviews Universe, it’d be after the Anakin follow up (That I am still writing, Anakin doesn’t like me okay? He’s a dama bitch whenever I try) Hence I’m not putting it up on AO3 right now.
But I still want to share it because idk how long the Anakin follow up is gonna take and I like what I wrote. And am rewriting this verbatim because someone reblogged this so thank you because I didn’t want to figure out what the fuck I wrote up here.
Also, if you don’t want to read those two fics but want to try this one out, all you really need to know is that the Coruscant Guard has become a Daycare. Other than that, this is a pretty independent work.
Now Idk what I wrote down here so bear with me if you’re rereading this after April 4th because this has some slight changes I’m sure. Also. I edited the thing here so, let’s hope I remember my edits.
Characters: Commander Fox, Clone OCs
Words: 870 (or somewhere around there)
Warnings: Mentioned Character Death.
Mando’a translations:
Vod -> Brother
Di’kut -> idiot (lit. someone who forgets to put on their pants)
Utreekov -> idiot, fool, emptyheaded
Gar mirsh solus* -> your brain cell is lonely
Jorbe** -> Reason
Ade -> child
*The one on Mandoa.org is actually Kaysh mirsh solus (His brain cell is lonely) but Gar means your and I figured it’d work. Let me know if it doesn’t.
**Yes I named a clone ‘Reason’ in Mandoa. Take a guess at what’s notable about him.
Now the story
“Explain. Now.” Fox really wanted to know what Ink and Hive were thinking.
Both troopers shuffle a bit, glancing at each other, before Hive starts talking, “So, the safety lady came by to check if our base was safe for kids because the Chancellor wanted to be certain. We knew it would be so we didn’t care, but it wasn’t. The lady gave us a day to clean up before she came back to ascertain it was safe. It is now. But there were dangerous things in reach of the kids that no vod would leave out. So, Ink and I went through the security footage to see what di’kut was leaving dangerous shit around.”
Ink takes over the story, “It was one of the Chancellors aids. She had come down and put dangerous stuff in easily accessible areas for children. It was deliberate. So,” Ink shrugs, “we bugged the Chancellors office and set up hidden cameras. We needed to know if he was telling her to or if she just really hated kids.”
Hive cuts in, “While we recorded everything, we set it up so it only triggered our comms when she went into his office. And when she did, we got this recording,” Hive holds out a holorecorder and turns it on. An image of the Chancellor and one of his aids came to life, paused for a second before Hive played it.
”And?” The Chancellor prompts.
“I set up everything you told me to. Their daycare will be shut down before the days out.” The aid states.
“Good. Leave.” With that, the aid leaves the office.
And the recording stops.
This still does not explain the actions those two had taken. Fox looked at both for more of an explanation.
Hive speaks up first, “We went through the recordings later and found him in an upset over the daycare not being shut down. I don’t have it on me but he was talking about maybe sending a bounty hunter to attack the base. Make it unfit for kids. We couldn’t let that stand, vod.”
Fox sighs heavily, “Let me make this clear. You two assassinated the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic because he threatened our base and daycare?” Fox really wanted to make sure he was hearing this correctly.
“He debated to himself on whether to attack the base when the kids were here!” Ink protests.
Which, while a good point, changes little.
Fox groans, “You two are true utreekov. Seriously, gar mirsh solus.”
Both troopers were silent, but were clearly upset with the insults. But not fighting them.
First smart action from both of them.
Would it of killed them to go through more of their recordings from the Chancellors office?
Fox and Jorbe had gone through it and found some rather damning footage.
Fox pulls out his own holorecorder and played a clip that Ink and Hive’s bugs and cameras had picked up.
Chancellors Palpatine stands up from his desk and goes over to a holocaller, pulling on a robe and pulling the hood up to hide his face. After pressing the call button, Count Yan Dooku appears.
“Lord Sidious how might I be of service?” Count Dooku asks.
The Chancellor answers, “There will be a Jedi battalion lead by Master Gallia at Bo’lim. Win the system, she will not be able to call in reinforcements.”
Count Dooku bows, “Of course, Master.” with that, the holocall cuts out.
Fox shuts off the holorecorder and levels the pair of troopers with a Look.
“Did General Gallia-”
“I requisitioned reinforcements and changed certain travel plans for other battalions so she’d have backup.” Fox states, it had been one of the first things he’d done upon hearing that, “Now, please explain why you assassinated our Chancellor who was a Sith Lord and working with the enemy?” Fox’s voice was hard. He wanted these two to get with the program. They weren’t. He was not happy.
He rarely was. But that was beside the point.
“We assassinated him because he threatened our ade.” Ink states.
Fox sighs again. Seriously?
“You two are fucking morons.”
“Are we in trouble?” Hive asks.
“Yes you two are in deep trouble for assassinating our Supreme Chancellor who was committing treason against the Galactic Republic.” Fox was pretty sure his sarcasm wasn’t coming through his anger, but he really didn’t care. “The fuck do you think?”
Hive’s answer was hesitant, “No?”
Fox sighs heavily, “You’re both on latrine duty. Get out of my office.”
It wasn’t really a punishment. Not the one they should have gotten for assasinating the Supreme Chancellor.
But Palpatine had been a traitor to the republic. Jorbe was leaking the illegal footage, making sure it had no connection to the Guard.
Soon everyone would know the Chancellor was a traitor.
And a Sith Lord.
Fox probably should of punished Ink and Hive harder.
If anyone found out it had been them and all they got was latrine duty?
Fox would be decommissioned with them.
But he couldn’t bring himself to punish them more.
The Chancellor was a Traitor to the Republic Fox was sworn to protect.
Also.
Fox really hated the man.
#Commander Fox#CC 1010#Clone Ocs#Star Wars Fanfiction#My writing#Star wars fanfic#Star Wars#Star Wars the Clone Wars#boderline crack#Interviews AU
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Upwards Spiral
(AN: the ‘what would change if carter had lived’ question is one i’ve shied away from writing a fic about because carter is such a pivotal character that having her live would require a full rewrite and…i’ve already done one of those. so that’s not exactly what this is. @winged-mammal left it up to me if i wrote it in the canon universe or in the universe of my fic sliding towards chaos, and in the end i chose the latter. and i cheated. because i didn’t change everything, i just placed carter into the existing events. that was the only way to keep this from being another 300k words which noooOOoooOo.
like most prompts i write for chaos au i tried to keep things easy to pick up on for anyone who hasn’t read it, but this one might be a little tougher in that regard. because it’s a bit long for tumblr (7k words), i’ll be posting it to ao3 in the next day or two for easier reading. anyway, enjoy).
Shaw couldn’t remember ever having been in a social situation where she’d wished Reese was present, but, sitting in her chair at the all-night diner halfway between Root and Carter, she spared a moment to send some uncharitable thoughts in Reese’s direction for his absence.
Root was smiling, at least, but on her a smile was just as likely to mean that she was enthusiastically contemplating multiple homicides than that she was being friendly.
Carter, for her part, was coolly assessing Root over the top of her coffee mug.
No one had said anything for the full fifteen minutes they’d been there and Shaw was starting to wonder if she could slip away unnoticed and swing by later to mop up the remains.
“So, here we are,” Carter finally said, pulling Shaw’s attention away from her inspection of her water glass.
When Carter didn’t immediately add anything to her initial thought, Root widened her smile in what was an unmistakably patronizing manner.
Shaw kicked her in the shin hard enough that Root let out a strangled whimper through clenched teeth.
Carter’s eyes flicked back and forth between them and, for a split second, Shaw wondered if she could somehow figure out everything from just watching them. The taser incidents, the almost-torture, the time in the CIA safe-house, the multiple times in Finch’s safe-house, the time in the backseat of a very expensive car they’d borrowed, the time on the desk in the library…the list went on. There wasn’t any way that Carter could know about that stuff no matter how good a detective she was, but still.
“Pretty sure this is the same woman I helped John track down a while back after she kidnapped Finch. Called herself Root, if I remember correctly.”
Root straightened up from rubbing at her bruised shin. “I can see why you’re a detective.”
She actually yelped this time when Shaw kicked her.
Carter didn’t look impressed with either of them. She turned to stare down Shaw.
“How about you tell me what’s going on here before I arrest her, or you accidentally break her leg? I thought you were going to let me in on how you lot always know about crimes before they happen. You’re not going to try and convince me that’s her doing, I hope.”
“That’s…complicated.” Shaw wasn’t completely sure where to begin. Root did work for the Machine now, so Carter’s skeptical theory wasn’t completely off base.
“Uh-huh, well what’s not complicated is that she murdered a woman named Alicia Corwin. So how about you give me a good reason not to arrest her right here?”
“Oh, right. I forgot about her.” Root gave a dreamy little smile. “Fun times back in the bad old days.”
Shaw made a mental note to wear steel-toed boots next time.
“She saved your life,” she quickly interjected. “From Simmons that night.”
Carter frowned. “No, you did. Showed up out of nowhere and shot the bastard.”
“Only reason I knew to be there was because of her.”
Root tilted her head to one side and shrugged minutely, and yeah, okay, that wasn’t quite the whole story, but this had to be explained in parts and Shaw needed both of them to ease up a bit.
“She’s another computer genius like Finch.” Carter tapped a finger on the side of her mug. “Always figured he’d made some kind of illegal surveillance program to tap into the city’s camera feeds or something. Only thing that made sense. She take it over after he went missing?”
Shaw was impressed, though not too surprised. Carter had always been really damned sharp. She was wasted on the NYPD.
And Root was looking over Carter like she was readjusting her evaluation of her.
“It’s not exactly a program.” Shaw wasn’t sure how she of all people had ended up in the position of explaining this to Carter, but Finch had vanished at the bank that day and Reese was too busy chasing after dead-end leads to be useful for anything right now. “It’s-” She glanced at Root. “-an Artificial Intelligence.”
Carter put her mug down on the table with a thud. “An Artific…you mean whatever this surveillance thing is, it’s alive?”
Shaw raised her eyebrows meaningfully at Root. This was her territory.
“She’s very much alive.” Root looked more serious now and Shaw suspected that this was the part of the conversation where Root would actually make up her mind about Carter. And possibly vis versa.
“She, huh.” Carter thought that over. “And this Artificial Intelligence, what exactly can it, or she, do?”
“Not very much on Her own. Mostly She watches and listens. She still relies almost completely on Her human agents to get things done.”
“And John and Finch and you two are these human agents?”
“Yes, though my relationship with Her is a bit…different.”
Shaw wondered if Root would ever get tired of saying that with a little smirk and suggestive eyebrow raise.
“Root works directly for the Machine, and not with the rest of us so much.” Though that was starting to change.
“The Machine? Is that its name?” Carter shook her head. “Let me guess, Finch chose the name.”
“I think it would be more accurate to say Finch chose not to name Her.”
“Anyway,” Shaw interrupted before Root had a chance to go off on a tangent, “the Machine told Root you were in trouble, and Root told me.”
There was a good bit more to it than that of course. She’d stopped by the library to drop Bear off that night and, on a whim, had decided to check in on Root. She’d been avoiding her since Finch had locked her up, but it had gotten beyond the point of being ridiculous to keep her in there and she’d decided to assess the situation on her own.
“Well, this is a nice surprise.” Root looked up from the book she had spread open in her lap. “Conjugal visit?”
Shaw thought about turning back around and leaving, but that would have felt a lot like letting Root win a point in whatever game it was they were playing.
Root shut her book with a snap. “Or are you here because the boys are still in trouble?”
“And how would you know about that?” Shaw asked, stepping up to the gate of the cage. “Thought this thing Finch had us rig up was supposed to put you in a no-service zone.”
Root only smiled.
“Trouble seems to have died down for now, though there’s still a couple loose ends that need tying up.” Shaw kept feeling like they’d missed something, though she couldn’t put her finger on what.
“Well, I’m really good at tying things up, if you need a hand.”
Shaw rolled her eyes. This had definitely been a mistake. She started to turn away from the cage.
“Shaw, wait.”
Root sounded serious enough that she paused and looked back.
Root got up and drifted across the floor to the cage door. “Did you find Simmons yet? She was concerned about him in particular.”
“Not yet, but not much he can do with HR completely gutted. We got Quinn.”
“I think She was more worried about Simmons personally than about his influence within HR. He’s a real piece of work apparently.” Root hooked her fingers through the cage fence. “If you let me out and give me a phone for five minutes, I can find out if there’s anything to worry about still.”
“Let you out? Yeah, not happening.”
“You’re armed and much better at, ah, hand to hand, as we found out. How much of a threat can I possibly pose?”
She wasn’t technically wrong, but Shaw also knew that a lot of the danger Root presented didn’t come from physical violence. But….
“My phone do?”
Root’s eyes widened like she couldn’t believe Shaw was actually agreeing and she nodded.
Shaw took her gun out before she picked the lock on the door. She kept her gun pointed at Root as she handed the phone over and took a step or two back just to play it safe. Root couldn’t actually leave the cage with the ankle monitor Finch had put on her, so she stood in the doorway, Shaw’s phone clutched in her hands like it was some priceless treasure.
The phone rang almost at once and Root’s entire face lit up as she quickly answered it.
“I can hear you.”
There was something so desperately grateful in Root’s voice that Shaw felt like she was intruding.
The smile fell off of Root’s face. “I understand. I’ll tell her.” She lowered the phone and then handed it back to Shaw. “There’s an address in your phone. You have to go there. Now.”
“Why do I…”
“No time, Shaw. Lives are at stake.” Root took a step back and pulled the cage door shut herself. “Lock me back in and go.”
“Why not insist on coming with me?” Shaw asked as she clicked the lock back into place.
“Because you don’t trust me yet and that’ll slow you down. There’s no time for that. Now go.”
And Shaw went.
She still wondered if she should have left the cage unlocked, let Root escape. Even after she’d explained Root’s part in saving Reese and Carter, Finch hadn’t been willing to let her out.
Maybe that was part of why she hadn’t thought twice about going back to rescue Root from Hersh and Control.
Part of it, anyway.
Carter was trying to put all the pieces together. “Why didn’t this…machine…warn you the way…” She paused. “Okay, is this AI a she or an it?” She directed the last part towards Shaw.
“Hell if I know. Only talks to her.”
Carter’s exasperated look made her realize she’d probably only confused the question more. She shrugged helplessly. Fancy computer gender was above her pay-grade. Or had been. With Finch missing, all sorts of things that hadn’t been her problem before were now giving her a headache.
Carter gave up. “Why didn’t the Machine warn you the way she usually does?”
“She tried.” Root was more relaxed now, and almost looked like she was enjoying herself. “But nobody was picking up the call.”
“Call? What call?”
Shaw raised her hand to flag down the waiter. She had a feeling they were going to be here a while.
“Your turn to babysit me, is it?” Root flopped down on the couch in the safe-house still wrapped in her towel from the shower.
“If I had my way, you’d be in protective custody. Or better yet, regular police custody.” Carter didn’t look up from whatever she was doing on her phone. “Shaw didn’t want the police officially involved, which, considering your record, I guess isn’t surprising. But I’m not a babysitter. You want to run out there, I’m not going to be the one to stop you.”
“Unfortunately, I’m not going anywhere at the moment.”
Carter nodded and didn’t say anything else until Root had mostly tuned out the physical room, drifting away into Her whispers. She still wasn’t overly concerned with the supposed threat against her, but the Machine had asked her to stay in the safe-house for now and she’d stay for Her even if she didn’t think it was necessary.
“Why aren’t you going anywhere?”
Carter’s voice pulled her back to reality.
“Hour ago you were ready to take off without a care in the world.”
“The Machine didn’t want me to.”
“You always listen to her?”
“Yes.”
“And why’s that?”
Root cocked her head to one side. “Why all the questions? Thought you didn’t much like me.”
“I don’t. You’re a killer and a threat, but Shaw thinks you’re valuable for some reason and this AI you answer to seems to be using you to help people. Even if she is the only thing holding you in check.”
“And you want to know why I listen to Her because you’re worried one day I’ll stop and go back to my wicked ways?”
Carter shrugged. “Sounds about right. I don’t have any reason to trust you other than Shaw’s word, and I’m not quite sure why she trusts you.”
That was a topic Root definitely wanted to steer clear of, though the amount of weight Carter put on Shaw’s word pleased her.
“The Machine offered me a job.”
“A job that has you getting tortured and shot. Because you don’t strike me as the type to walk into gunfire for some stranger all on your own. Which means she must have told you to.”
The wound from the bullet Root had taken saving Cyrus Wells’s life the day before ached. Carter hadn’t been there, but John or Shaw must have filled her in on how she’d gotten hurt.
As for why she’d done it…that was still a bit baffling to her. Maybe she’d hoped it would give her some understanding of why the Machine thought people were worth saving, or maybe she just hadn’t wanted to disappoint Her.
Or maybe she hadn’t much liked feeling responsible for how Cyrus Wells had been unable to do anything but watch as someone close to him was taken away, a scenario that was not at all unfamiliar to her.
She glanced up to find Carter watching her a little too closely for comfort and quickly continued.
“I don’t mind a little risk. I work for Her because She chose me and She cares about me.” She fidgeted with the edge of her towel with one hand. “The truth is I played a very small role in saving your life, and only because She asked me to. She’s the real reason you’re alive. She cares about all of us, including you.”
Carter looked surprised; clearly not the answer she’d expected. “Well, tell her thank you from me then.” She sounded sincere. “And thank you as well, whatever your reasons.”
Root looked down at her feet. She hadn’t figured out yet how to handle Carter’s straightforwardness. She decided to counter it in kind. “You found Hanna, made sure she got a proper burial. I thanked John for that, but I never got a chance to thank you.”
“Just doing my job. That little girl and her family deserved to be at peace.”
Root’s fingers tightened their clutch on the edge of her towel. She’d brought it up, but she didn’t actually want to discuss it.
She stood up. “I left something in the other room.”
The door swung open then, and Root breathed out a sigh of relief as Shaw came in.
“I hate winter in this city.” Her nose was red from the cold.
Root smiled at her and felt herself relax fractionally. “Did you get me something nice?”
“They’re just normal clothes.” Shaw thrust the bags at her. “Go get dressed.”
“Might need a hand with that.” Root motioned at her injured arm.
Shaw froze for half a second. “Uh, right. Guess it might be difficult for you right now.”
Root saw Carter watching them, cataloguing everything they said and did. It was a bit annoying having a competent detective around all the time.
“I don’t have all day.” Shaw stalked past her towards the bedroom. “You coming?”
Root turned away from Carter’s scrutiny to follow Shaw to the privacy of the bedroom.
“We’re clear for this hall.” Shaw kicked the gun away from the unconscious Vigilance agent. If she got shot rescuing Root after she’d gotten her dumb ass kidnapped she was never speaking to her.
“Good thing we made John leave his grenade launcher in the car,” Carter said. “He’d have had this whole place on high alert shooting that thing all over.”
“He brings it everywhere now. Think he’s still upset about that time I borrowed it for you.” The look on his face had been so incredibly satisfying. Shaw wondered if the Machine had that on tape. And speaking of the Machine…. “She says it’s this way.”
“So what’s it like having the Machine talking directly to you?” Carter asked. She was covering the hallway behind them, just in case.
“Dunno. Bit weird. Useful.” It had been great for allowing her to speed out on the highway.
“Didn’t think she’d ever talk to anyone but Root.”
They set off down the hall together, falling into a natural pattern of covering each other as they moved around corners. Shaw hadn’t gotten out in the field with Carter that much recently and it was damn good to work with her again.
“Special circumstances. She’s worried about Root.”
“You’re worried about her, too.” Carter sounded amused.
“She’s part of the team. Sort of. She would be if she weren’t so bad at team work.”
“Case in point,” Carter agreed. “And how long have you two been…?”
“What?” Shaw asked, hoping that someone would show up for her to shoot right then. “How long have we been what?”
“By my guess there was something already going on before we took down HR, but I’ve got no way of checking that.”
“There’s nothing going on.”
The look on Carter’s face spoke volumes.
Shaw scowled. “We’re just…it’s not a thing, okay?” She thought guiltily about her new couch. “Definitely not.”
“Uh-huh. That why you broke the sound barrier getting here to rescue her?”
“I’d have done that for anyone on my team.” Which was completely true even though it didn’t explain why this had felt slightly different than if it had been John in trouble. “Why did you show up? You don’t even like her.”
“I don’t like everyone whose life I save. Goes with the job. I wouldn’t say I hate her either. We just don’t see eye to eye on a lot of things.”
“Hope this means no speech about watching my back then.”
They had to pause the conversation to knee-cap two more Vigilance agents.
“You’re an adult. Don’t need me butting into your personal life.”
“You brought it up.”
“I’m a detective. Can’t turn that off.”
The Machine let Shaw know that there was a good chance Root was behind the door up ahead.
“Root’s…important. Uh, to our work, I mean. Analogue Interface and all.”
Thankfully, Carter let it drop, though she did look amused when Root smacked Shaw in the head with the door a few seconds later. And she definitely looked smug when Root basically hung all over Shaw on the way out and Shaw let her.
At least she didn’t know about the couch.
“Shaw?”
There was no mistaking her even with most of her hair hidden under a beanie, but she was about that last person Carter had expected to wander by right now.
Shaw looked equally confused as she came over to the parked car Carter was sitting in.
“So I know why I’m freezing my ass off out here, but why are you?” Shaw asked.
Carter motioned for her to get in and turned the heat up a little. Shaw climbed into the passenger’s seat and held her hands in front of one of the vents.
“I should steal a badge someday,” she said. “Would make it easier to park closer to stakeouts.”
“Why don’t you just borrow one of Root’s? She seems to have quite a collection.” She couldn’t keep the note of disapproval from her voice. Root had no respect for what any of those badges were meant to represent. They were another game of dress up for her.
“I don’t borrow things from Root.”
Carter raised an eyebrow at the immediate defensiveness in Shaw’s voice. Did she really think she and Root were fooling anyone?
“What’s this stakeout you’re on then?” It was more than a little suspicious that they were both keeping watch outside the same building.
“The Machine had some mission for Root. Thought she might need backup.”
“Root’s in that building?”
“Yeah, why?” Shaw narrowed her eyes. “What’s going on?”
“John went in there ten minutes ago. Off to help some number. Told me he could handle it. I figured I’d give him another five minutes before I went in and bailed him out of whatever mess he got himself into.” She couldn’t remember a single occasion where John had correctly claimed he didn’t need backup.
“I didn’t know we had a number.” Shaw frowned. “What the hell is he playing at? What the hell are both of them playing at?”
Carter unbuckled her seatbelt. “Only one way to find out.”
The building appeared empty, but the elevator dinged and the doors opened as they entered the lobby. They exchanged a look and went to investigate. A floor number lit up as they got in and Shaw huffed a little and shook her head.
“If the Machine wanted us to keep them out of trouble, she shouldn’t have sent them off on their own in the first place.”
“I don’t think even an AI can keep those two out of trouble.” It seemed unfair to compare John to Root, but, in some matters at least, the comparison worked too well to ignore.
Carter wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting to see when the elevator doors opened on the fifth floor, but it definitely wasn’t the scene unfolding before her.
The first thing she noticed was that the ceiling sprinkler system was on, water spraying everywhere. One of the ceiling lights in the big room was flickering and spitting sparks out while a very unconscious man dangled from it by a wire tied around his foot.
There were several other bodies in the room, and one or two men clutching their knee and groaning in pain. Sitting on a desk in the middle of the chaos was Root, kicking her feet back and forth, and tapping a taser against her leg. There was a man tied up and twitching in a chair in front of her who appeared to be wearing the remains of a clown costume.
Right before Carter recovered enough to say something, John Reese splashed into the back of the room holding what was almost definitely a small, angry pekingese dog under his arm.
“Root! I caught it!” He sounded so proud of himself.
“I knew you were useful for something. Now let’s see if this will make him talk.”
The elevator door started to close on its own as Reese triumphantly carried the struggling bundle of fur over towards the desk. Neither Carter nor Shaw moved.
As the doors closed (cutting off some angry yipping noises), Shaw reached out to stab the lobby button several times with one finger.
They stayed silent as the elevator descended and both headed out of the lobby and towards Carter’s car.
“You know, there’s a new restaurant around the corner,” Carter said. “Hear it’s supposed to be pretty decent.”
“I could eat.”
They veered away from the car and started down the street.
Carter was pretty certain they were on the same page here, but some things were worth confirming. “Just to be absolutely clear, we’re never mentioning any of that. Ever.”
“No arguments here.” Shaw made a pained noise. “I’m trying to forget it ever happened.”
“I wouldn’t even know where to start on the arrest report.”
Shaw muttered something angrily under her breath that was undoubtedly about Root. “This place we’re going to, does it have drinks?”
“It better.”
“You drew the short straw for babysitting duty again, I see,” Root said as she led Carter towards the safe-house where her team was staying. She had both hands wrapped tightly around a takeout cup of coffee that Shaw had brought her earlier for no particular reason. It wasn’t great coffee, but there was no way she was going to throw it out.
“I’m here to meet this little team of yours I’ve heard almost nothing about. Nothing else.”
“I’m not going to hand myself over to Decima in the next hour. So if you have somewhere you’d rather be…” She still got edgy with Carter hanging over her shoulder. Fusco was easy to befuddle and deflect, but Carter was trickier.
“You were ready to before. Shaw must have been pretty convincing to talk you down.”
“Convincing…” Root thought about Shaw showing up in the library the previous day, and how she’d woken up in her bed this morning. “Yes, she can be very convincing when she puts her mind to it.”
Carter snorted somewhat inelegantly and Root wondered again how much Carter knew about her and Shaw. Even the worst detective would have been able to guess they were sleeping together. But the other stuff….
“Why were you so eager to turn yourself over in the first place? Didn’t think you even knew Finch that well and he locked you up twice.”
Root could still remember the conversation where Carter had found out about that. She might not agree with Carter on most things, but Carter’s complete disgust with how her double incarceration had fallen out had been gratifying.
“We have jails for a reason,” Carter had snapped when Reese had made a weak effort to explain (it hadn’t sounded like his heart was really in it). “There’s a word for people who keep other people locked up in cages in their house. Or secret base or whatever. A couple words, actually, and none of them are good. Criminals go to jail.”
Root hadn’t enjoyed all the insistence about going to jail, but still. A bit gratifying.
“She wants Harold back. And even if we had our differences, I don’t want Decima to have him.”
“Anything you wouldn’t do for the Machine if she asked?”
The Machine hadn’t asked her to turn herself over (had in fact been very firmly against the idea), but she didn’t want to get into that right now.
“Doing what She asks is my entire life.”
“Your entire life. Right.” Carter sounded like she didn’t buy it.
Yeah, she definitely knew about her and Shaw.
“Hanging out with vigilantes isn’t exactly what I pictured you doing,” Root said to change the subject. “Detective law and order. Why not arrest all of us?”
“John and Shaw help save lives, even if I don’t always like the way they do it. They’re not the criminals who I joined the force to protect people from.”
“No, that would be me, right?” Root smiled sweetly.
Carter looked sideways at her for a minute. “You keep pointing out how bad you used to be every time you get a chance. Rubbing it in my face. Almost like it’d bother you if I thought you’d changed even a little.”
Root choked on her coffee. That was completely untrue and unfair. She opened her mouth to tell Carter how ridiculous it was and then paused when the Machine played a single note in her ear.
She had a running bet with Her that she could get through an entire day without lying to another person. It was past noon today (which made this her new record), and she really didn’t want to blow it. She sulked quietly instead.
Carter rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
Shaw wondered if she ignored the pounding on her door if whomever was out there would go away. She turned the volume up on the tv and settled back on the couch in her new apartment.
There were a lot of things to get used to in the new life hiding from Samaritan had forced her into, but the plush new apartment wasn’t that bad comparatively.
The pounding on her door got louder.
“Shaw, I know you’re in there!”
Shaw sighed but got up. If it had been anyone but Carter she’d probably have kept ignoring them.
She opened the door a crack and looked back and forth between the two people standing in her hallway.
“Yeah, no.” She tried to shut the door again, but Carter had stuck her foot in the way. Shaw sighed. “Okay, what did she do this time?”
Next to Carter, Root grinned. “Hey, Sameen.” She looked way too cheerful for someone who had a bandage around their arm that was soaked through with blood in a few places.
“You got shot again?”
“Stabbed this time. But only a tiny bit.”
“And arrested,” Carter added as if that were worse.
Root raised her cuffed hands and wiggled her fingers at Shaw. Carter shoved her hands back down. “Shaw, can’t you keep her on a leash or something?”
“How is she my responsibility?” Shaw asked as quickly as she could to preempt whatever horrifying innuendo Root was undoubtedly concocting about the leash thing.
Carter just looked at her.
“Could say the same to you about Reese then,” Shaw grumbled.
Carter glared and gave Root a shove towards her. “Maybe you can ground her for a week.”
Shaw opened the door a little more to let Root in because they all knew she was going to so might as well go with it.
“You want a beer or something?” she asked Carter.
“I’m on my way home. Raincheck?”
“You know where to find me.”
“What about these?” Root held up her cuffed hands again.
“Since you spent the entire ride telling me how you had all sorts of handcuffs and keys stashed here, I figure those won’t be a problem.”
Shaw shut her eyes for a moment, hoping that when she opened them again she’d find that she’d imagined this whole thing. No such luck.
“Well, I’ll leave you to deal with her.” Carter waved goodnight and left down the hall.
“Do I even wanna know what happened?” Shaw asked as she headed for where she kept her medical supplies.
Root considered the question. “Probably not.”
“Sit.” Shaw motioned her towards the couch and went to work cutting off the useless bandage. “And if you promise me you’ll go at least a month without getting shot or stabbed I’ll think about taking the cuffs off.”
“Think I’m going to take a nap.” Reese looked beyond exhausted. Understandably so. Carter had missed out on all the post-stock exchange excitement, but she didn’t think he’d gotten to sleep at all since they’d escaped the basement with Shaw half-dead in Root’s arms.
Shaw was stable now, but from the little Reese had told her, Root had caused some…problems. When she’d picked them up out in Brooklyn, Reese had looked asleep on his feet and Root was out cold. He’d had to drug her apparently.
Carter wasn’t sure what Root had been trying to do, but knowing Root probably some extreme reaction to Shaw getting hurt that would have ended up with her (and a lot of other people) dead.
“You sticking around?” Reese asked.
“For a bit maybe.” She didn’t feel right leaving after everything that had gone down.
“Thanks.” Reese nodded tiredly and staggered off down the hall towards the free bedroom.
Carter waited until his door shut and then went back to the door of the bedroom Shaw and Root were in. She listened at the door for a second and then opened it just a crack.
Shaw was still unconscious in the hospital bed they’d stolen for her, and while she was obviously badly injured and drugged, she looked a lot better than she had a few hours ago. Seeing her breathing steadily made the knot of tension inside Carter loosen a little.
Root was similarly passed out on the real bed, one wrist cuffed to the headboard. Her clothes were covered in dried blood (Shaw’s most likely), and Carter wondered if she should try and at least cut her shirt off so she didn’t wake up like that. In the end she decided against it, not wanting to risk disturbing either of them.
She shut the door again and turned around to contemplate the door to the last bedroom. It was probably a bad idea, but…. She made up her mind and went in, immediately cold in the temperature-controlled server room Root had built there.
She faced the monitor setup on the desk.
“Not quite sure how this works, but I figure you’ll answer if you want to.”
The screen stayed dark for a few long, cold seconds, but then a cursor started blinking in the top left corner.
“Hello?” Shaw’s vague description of talking to the Machine hadn’t given Carter much insight into what to expect.
Hello.
It was only a single word, but Carter felt a small thrill run through her. She’d been hearing about the Machine for so long now, basically working side by side with her without ever meeting her. That had just changed.
She wasn’t quite sure what to say next, or even why she’d come in here.
Thank you for helping the others.
“Not sure I helped enough. Seems like I’m the only one still on my feet.”
I am not sure I helped enough either.
Definitely not what Carter had expected from her.
“They’re all alive. That’s what matters.”
Sameen Shaw was hurt very badly. As was Root. I could not protect either of them.
“Root was hurt?” She’d assumed the blood all over her had been Shaw’s, but surely John wouldn’t have let her injuries go untreated.
In a different way.
Carter thought back to what John had said while they were driving out of Brooklyn with Root unconscious in the back seat.
“It’s easy to get lost when someone important is taken from you. This was a pretty close call.”
She’d thought about that picture she still had of Reese and Jessica. Someday she hoped he’d tell her about that on his own.
She snapped back to the present when more words crawled across the screen.
I am not certain how best to help them. Perhaps it would be better if I let them be.
“Can’t imagine Root would be okay with that.”
She did not want to talk to me earlier.
Nothing in her life had given Carter any kind of reference for how to deal with a worried AI, but she knew how to reassure a human.
“We all had a long day, and no one has been thinking too clearly. Let’s see where things stand after we’ve all gotten some sleep.” She thought about Root’s face on their way out of the stock exchange, and later at the doctor’s. “Like you said, she got hurt, but she’s going to need you to help her get better.”
She was a bit surprised at how worried she was herself about Root. Shaw had been her friend since the start, but Root was a different matter. But something about how fiercely and openly Root cared about Shaw and the Machine (and lately John as well) made it hard to uniformly dislike her now.
How? I want to help both of them, but I am uncertain I have the means.
“Well, Shaw you’ve already helped a lot. Getting us to that doctor saved her life. And Root.… I think you know her better than I do. Maybe you and Shaw can talk about it.”
That is a very good strategy. Thank you.
The screen blanked out and new text appeared.
You came in to ask me something?
“I think I came in to ask if there was anything I could do to help.” She chuckled. “Turns out neither of us has all the answers.” But since she was here, she had another question. “This thing you do, helping us save people, is it something you do because you have to, or because you want to?”
I think perhaps it is both.
“Both?”
Your job is also to save people’s lives. Is it not both for you as well?
“Yeah, but I’m not…forced to do it. I could walk away if I wanted to.”
Could you? What are morals if not code?
“Shaw did say you get all philosophical sometimes.” Carter nodded. “I think I get what you’re saying, though. Now I’m going to leave before I freeze to death.”
Goodbye.
Carter paused on her way out. “Oh, and I know I told you through Root way back, but I meant it. Thank you for protecting me and John that night.”
You are welcome.
She left, feeling better than when she’d entered even though she hadn’t gotten an answer to the question she’d gone in with.
When she checked in on Root and Shaw again later, Shaw was still asleep, but Root had somehow gotten out of the handcuffs and curled up next to Shaw on the hospital bed. When the door opened, Root raised her head slightly, eyes furious and full of violence. As soon as she registered that it was Carter in the doorway, she relaxed and put her head back down.
The whole thing was strangely reassuring.
Carter shut the door quietly and left them to rest.
“Don’t touch anything.”
Root resisted the sudden, almost-overwhelming urge to put her hands all over everything in Carter’s car.
“Is this the part where you finally arrest me?” She’d been surprised by Carter’s request that she come along with her today, but Shaw was out of town on a mission with John, and Root had been worrying about her enough that she’d have taken any distraction.
“I seem to recall arresting you several times already, and letting you go every time.”
“True. So why am I here?”
Root couldn’t tell where they were headed, and the Machine hadn’t told her. But She hadn’t told her not to go, either.
“Got a case I’m working on. Thought you could lend me a hand. Make my life easier for once.”
Root turned to look at her, but her face gave away nothing. “Something you need some computer skills for?”
“Not particularly. Just a second set of eyes.”
Why her then? Admittedly the other two were out of town for a few days, but Fusco was still around.
“Guess I thought you might want something to do today with Shaw being away for the first time since…” Carter shrugged. “I can take you back if you want.”
Had the Machine put her up to this? Or had something Root had done finally tipped Carter’s opinion of her?
“No, it’s…I could use something to do.” Spending a day with Carter was much more appealing than it once had been. She chewed her lip and then added, “Thanks.”
“You can thank me by not making me regret this. No traumatizing my witnesses.”
“I’ll be on my best behavior.” Whatever that was. “So what’s this case about?”
“You sure you don’t need any more help tomorrow?” Carter asked.
Shaw sighed. She really wished they could bring Carter with them. “Not sure of that at all, but I do think the chances of us getting spotted early increase if more people go.” They only had one shot at taking down Samaritan.
“Doesn’t feel right letting you two go off into danger with no backup.”
“The Machine will be our backup, which is why you and John have to keep her safe.”
“Well, if you change your mind…”
“Noted. And thanks.” There was one thing, though, a problem she’d been turning over in her mind since Root had told her the code to take down Samaritan was done. “If something happens to me or the Machine, or both of us…” This was awkward.
Carter looked over towards the subway car that Root had retreated into after dinner.
“I’ll keep an eye on her for both of you, but only if you promise you’ll do your damn best to make sure I don’t have to.”
“Not a problem. I don’t have a death wish like those two.” Sometimes it felt like Root and Reese were having a competition to see who could almost die the most.
“On that note, in our situations are flipped, you make sure to keep an eye on John.”
“I’ll lock him in the subway car until he stops being an idiot.” She knew Carter had made arrangements for Taylor already.
Carter chuckled and they lapsed into companionable silence, both worried but maybe a little less worried than they’d been before.
“Feels like we’ve come full circle,” Carter said, looking around the all-night diner.
It was the same one where she’d first met Root and found out about the Machine, but this outing definitely was different. John was there, for starters, and Root had her chair shoved as close to Shaw’s as it would go and kept whispering things to her that made Shaw roll her eyes.
“Guess we have,” Shaw agreed. Next to her Root winced in a way that suggested Shaw had just kicked her under the table (Carter wasn’t sure why she would have, but she was sure she didn’t want to know). Some things hadn’t changed apparently.
“She says it’s actually more like a spiral,” Root said, once she’d recovered. “Back around to the same spot, but at a higher point. An upwards spiral.”
“I thought things usually spiraled downwards.” Reese sipped his coffee and froze in horror. Carter wondered if she should have warned him about all the sugar packets she’d seen Root dump in it (ten by her count).
“Matter of perspective, maybe,” she said. “From Samaritan’s perspective things definitely spiraled downwards.” Not that it had a perspective anymore.
Shaw flicked one of the few remaining sugar packets at Reese, who was still making horrible faces. “Way I see it, we won. It lost. We’re all alive. It’s not. Doesn’t matter if it’s a circle, or a spiral, or a different perspective. Facts are facts, and the facts are on our side.”
“That was surprisingly sentimental of you, Sameen,” Root teased.
Shaw flicked a sugar packet at her this time and Carter held back a smile.
Reese got up to go hunt down some fresh coffee, and Shaw and Root started a friendly bickering match about Shaw’s supposed sentimentality. Carter sat back in her chair with her (hopefully uncontaminated) coffee, glad to be a part of this small, strange group she’d adopted. Or maybe they’d adopted her. Either way, there was no one she’d rather be stuck with.
(AN: no animals were harmed during this fic. the dog got a bit soggy and chewed a hole in reese’s arm as revenge. later he found it a good home.
thank you to @ancillaryjurisprudence for the beta read).
#person of interest#poi prompt#my tumblr fics#mp#poi chaos au#long post#there was...a lot more i wanted to write#maybe someday#i really hope the read more line works correctly in this post or sorry in advance
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