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svnflowervol666 · 3 years

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Ma Petite Chérie: Christmas Now (Harry Styles x fem!Reader)

Read more from this little universe, Ma Petite Chérie, in my masterlist!

Word Count: 3.7k

Summary: Their first Christmas as a family of four. Underwhelming gifts, naughty kitchen counter shenanigans, being suspicious of Santa Claus, baby kissies, oat milk.

Author’s Note: Baby bub is here! I’ve been so excited to finally be able to write about them, and I’m even more excited that you all get to read about them! This is the second part of my Christmas bits for this year. Unlike the last one, this one is obnoxiously adorable and no where near as upsetting (I really hurt my own feelings with that one). Reblogs, likes, tags, and feedback of any kind is always greatly appreciated! If you don’t see me before the year is up, I want to wish you a Happy New Year! Enjoy, take care, and tpwk.

“Two.”

“No. One.”

“Two.”

“One.”

“Four.”

“Now that’s just bein’ greedy,” Harry spoke in a wounded tone with his brows furrowed together as if he were genuinely offended.

“But if Santa’s coming tonight and bringing more presents, why can’t I open these ones right now?”

Tallulah was on her knees in front of the sofa, fingers laced together with her chin resting on top of them. She was quite literally begging her father, who sat above her with one leg crossed over the other and an arm slung around his wife, to allow her to open the gifts that were prematurely nestled underneath the festive fir tree in their living room. Well, they weren’t married yet, but Harry couldn’t help that he preferred how the word felt rolling off of his tongue than “fiance.”

“Because they’re Christmas presents,” he stressed.

“Makes no sense t’ open them the day before.”

His freshly six-year-old daughter clearly didn’t like that answer - the pouty jut on her lip and subsequent huff told Harry all he needed to know.

“I already told ya, sweet pea. You can open one tonight. That’s it. The rest are for tomorrow.”

“Fiiiiiine,” the small girl said, although it was implied in her tone that it very much was not.

Tallulah hobbled over to the tree whilst still on her knees, and began riffling through the small litter of perfectly wrapped boxes to inspect which one would elicit the most satisfaction on her end. She seemed keen on a rather large one, decorated with tartan print and a red gift tag that read, “To: Lulah, From: Daddy & Mummy.” What she hadn’t realized, though, was that Harry had already made the selection for her.

“Not tha’ one,” Harry reprimanded over the steaming mug of coffee in the hand that wasn’t rubbing circles on Y/N’s shoulder.

He typically strayed away from caffeine this late in the evening, but he knew he was in for a long night of waiting up until Tallulah was fast asleep so he could take on the role of Santa and deliver all of the gifts he had promised her for being good enough to make an appearance on the Nice List. Knowing how much shit he had packed in his office that stayed locked this time of year, he really wasn’t sure how he was going to do it successfully.

Another exasperated sigh left his eldest child’s lips, to which she replied, “But this one’s the biggest.”

“But it’s not the one we want yeh t’ open, Lulah. ‘S the one with polar bears on it,” Harry stated, though not with full confidence.

“It is the one with polar bears on it, right?” he whispered to Y/N.

This earned a laugh from Y/N, who muttered a quiet, “Yes,” in return. She laid her head in the crook of Harry’s neck, basking in the warmth that radiated from his body. He smelled like cinnamon and the nutmeg-flavored coffee beans he’d ground up just a few minutes before, and maybe a hint like baby barf.

Tallulah scavenged the space under the tree like a predator hunting its prey - all on the lookout for the present fitting the description Harry had given her. Harry and Y/N found themselves thoroughly entertained by watching her overturn almost every gift, and shared a similar giggle when she narrowed in on the box in question before letting out a victorious, “Aha!” into the room only lit by a firelog in the chimney.

“Grab the one for Olive too, please. Don’t want her feelin’ left out,” Harry called out to Talulah.

“Okay, daddy!”

Her small arms stretched to the limit, trying to grab both packages without toppling over onto the others. Tallulah noted that they both felt the exact same underneath the wrapping paper, only her baby sister’s was much smaller than the one addressed to her.

“They feel like clothes,” Tallulah stated matter-of-factly as she took back her place on the floor with both presents in hand.

Harry sighed, leaning down to rest his mug near his feet against the sofa.

“Good grief. Just open it, will yeh?”

She needed no further instruction. Her fingers dug into the paper, piercing it with her nails and ruining the pastel blue parchment that was covered in dozens of cartoon polar bears partaking in various yoga poses. When Tallulah was able to tear the gift away from its wrapping, her hands grasped something soft.

“It’s....pajamas.”

Her tone was flat and unamused. Harry sensed her disappointment, though in his heart he certainly felt like he’d done a great job concocting his plan to have her open this particular gift on Christmas Eve.

“Yeah, but they’re Christmas pajamas. Don’t yeh want t’ look nice when Santa comes to visit tonight?”

This seemed to...disturb Tallulah. That was really the only way to describe how she looked at her dad - with her eyebrows scrunched up and her normally-plush lips pressed together in a thin line.

“...He’s gonna come in my room when I’m sleeping?”

Y/N hadn’t meant to, but a loud cackle erupted from her chest, which jostled the four-month-old baby girl that had the beginnings of sleepiness settling into her body. In contrast to the laugh from Y/N, Olive let out the tiniest of shrills, obviously upset that her mother had interupted the peacefulness she’d felt whilst being curled up against her chest.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, bubby,” Y/N cooed quitely, quickly moving to pat her daughter’s bum and comfort her.

“Mummy didn’t mean to wake you up.”

Y/N pressed a quick kiss to the sparse tufts of hair atop Olive’s head before returning her attention back to Tallulah.

“Lulah, I promise you that Santa will not come in your room while you’re sleeping. What your dad means,” she snuck a glance in Harry’s direction in which he smirked back at her, “Is that you want to look nice on Christmas morning, don’t you? You know Nana’s gonna take a thousand pictures of you and Olive tomorrow, so now you don’t have to change when she gets here, yeah?”

Tallulah nodded, though it didn’t do much to lift her spirits. She fumbled the cream-colored thermal set adorned with gold stars between her fingers, the motion she was always somehow doing whether it be to her dad’s t-shirt while she laid next to him during a movie, Y/N’s lotus pendant when she was smaller and could fit on her chest, or otherwise.

“Plus,” Y/N added, a hint of irony in her voice, “I’d imagine the presents Santa’s going to bring you are much less boring than this.”

They shared a knowing smile, Tallulah’s cheeks growing rosey and her eyes twinkling at the mention of the magical, bearded man.

“I’m offended,” Harry scoffed.

“Really thought those pajamas were proper cute.”

“They are cute, daddy!” Tallulah chimed in, “I like them a lot. Thank you.”

It appeared that the young girl had realized her moping about not receiving the nail polish kit she’d asked for didn’t do her any good. And whether Harry was joking about being upset or not, she’d never want to hurt her dad’s feelings. He’d raised her too kindly to do otherwise.

“You’re welcome, bug,” Harry smiled at her.

“Let’s help Olive open hers, yeah?”

“I bet it’s pajamas,” Tallulah mumbled under her breath.

That earned her a light tug on one of her two braided plaits on her head from Harry. The two of them chuckled at each other, their faces almost looking like identical portraits of each other.

“Humor me for a second then, Lulah. ‘S your sister’s first Christmas.”

Tallulah scoots over on the floor to stand on her knees, this time by Y/N’s legs as she turned Olive around to sit up straight in her lap. Olive, who was once determined to fall asleep right there on the couch beside her mum and dad, was now awake and had taken an interest in the crinkling sound of the wrapping paper on the gift her big sister placed on top of her chunky thighs.

“Here, Livvy,” Tallulah cooed, “You tear it like this.”

She tried to show Olive how to tear away the present by ripping it halfway open, but her effort proved to be unsuccessful the second Olive managed to get her fingers around a scrap of paper and immediately placed it in her mouth. It appeared that Olive was much more interested in the gift wrap than she was her early Christmas present.

“Well, there goes that,” Harry said as he fetched the then soggy parchment from his infant daughter’s lips, making somewhat of a disgusted face as he wiped the excess drool on the leg of his pants.

Tallulah takes the honor of opening Olive’s present for her, and is unable to stop herself from rolling her eyes when her eyes meet a set of thermal pajamas like the ones she’d just received herself, only Olive’s were green with tiny, silver stars. She’d parted her lips to make an undoubtedly flippant comment, but Harry cut her off before she even had the chance to mutter the first syllable.

“Don’t do it, stink head,” Harry quipped, reaching for the discarded paper that was scattered on the rug beneath him so he could put it in the bin later.

“How about you go put on your lovely new pajamas so we can get everything set up f’ Santa to come, alright?”

“Okayyyyyy,” the small girl grumbled before snatching the thermal set from the floor and darting off to her room.

“That didn’t really go the way I hoped,” Harry mumbled as he reached over to take Olive from Y/N.

“It’s Christmas, baby,” Y/N reminded him.

“Kids want toys, not pajamas.”

“Yeah but,” Harry focused his attention at worming the tight-fitting pajamas up his baby girl’s abnormally chubby legs.

“’S what mum used t’ do for us when we were little. Always got pajamas on Christmas Eve. Figured it’d be nice t’ do it for the girls, too.”

“It is sweet, Harry. Just wouldn’t expect a six-year-old to be that enthused about it,” Y/N snickered.

Harry hummed in agreement, his tongue poked out as he fed Olive’s arm into the tight sleeve of her top, struggling a bit to get her balled up fist through the other side.

“Ahh, there we go. Thank god ya only have t’ wear these tomorrow, Chunk. They’ll be too snug by next week.”

“Leave my fat baby alone,” Y/N scolded.

“There’s nothing wrong with being well fed,” she added, leaning over to lightly pinch on her daughter’s round tummy in an attempt to get her to smile at her.

A gummy grin took over Olive’s features at the sight of her mother, a true mummy’s girl at heart. She was much like Tallulah in many ways, but so different at the same time. Olive was still nearly bald, whereas Tallulah’s hair grew like a sprout when she was Olive’s age. Tallulah had always been teeny tiny, no doubt due to her premature birth, and Olive clearly made up in weight for what Tallulah lacked when she was a baby. They both loved cuddles with Harry and listening to the sound of his voice as they fell asleep, but it always puzzled him when Olive didn’t respond to some of his antics in the way that Tallulah had.

“‘M not bein’ mean. I’d jump on the chance to suck on your tits all day if I could, too.”

“Har-” Y/N began to reprimand him about how she can’t say that because there are little ears in the room, but was stopped short.

“I’m back! Can we set out the cookies now?”

Tallulah breathed heavily as if she just sprinted a marathon into the living room.

“Sure can,” Harry responded.

“Come tell Livvy good night first, though. Mummy’s gotta feed her and put her t’ bed.”

She smiled at the mention of her little sister, whom she was always keeping at an arm’s reach. If Tallulah was awake, she was in the same room as Olive. It made Harry’s heart ache in the best way to watch the two of them interact with each other. The feeling he felt when he first saw Olive in Tallulah’s arms at the hospital never subsided. He was absolutely besotted for his girls.

“Bonne nuit, ma petite soeur,” Tallulah whispered to Olive, reaching down to hug her sister and kiss the crown of her head, which she happily accepted in the form of weaving her pudgy fingers into Tallulah’s braids and pulling them rather harshly.

Before he handed her off to Y/N to be fed and put down for the night, he gave Olive a kiss of his own.

“Bonne nuit, ma petite chérie.”

“‘How do you know Santa likes oat milk? Did he tell you that? Luna at school told me he likes chocolate almond milk.’ What kinda shit is that?!” Harry exclaimed with a mouth full of sugar cookie and in the quietest voice he could muster.

He’d just spent the last hour with Y/N, silently digging Tallulah’s gifts from Santa out of his office and placing them underneath the tree. Thankfully, he hadn’t tripped over his own feet and woken her up or else he would have cried right there on the spot.

All Y/N could do was giggle back at him from where she sat on top of the counter, bare legs swinging as she had a mouthful of the very same oat milk in question swishing in her mouth.

“She’s asking too many questions n’ I don’t like it one bit.”

“Think she’s just growing up, babe. The magic doesn’t last forever. She’s about at that age. Probably only have one or two more Christmases before she figures it out.”

Harry stared at the remaining half of the frosted cookie Tallulah left for Santa in his palm, eyes quiet and sullen.

“Don’t like that one bit, either,” he muttered.

“I know you don’t, bubby,” Y/N cooed, pulling Harry into her so he stood between her parted legs on the countertop.

“But you’ve still got Olive.”

He seemed to perk up at that, looking up at her through thick lashes with a smirk.

“Just Olive? We stoppin’ there?”

“I mean,” Y/N pursed her lips.

“Wouldn’t mind trying for a boy.”

Harry placed his hands on either side of her thighs, stroking her skin with his thumbs.

“Might not happen on the first go, though,” he tisked.

“Could take havin’ a few more for that t’ happen. Yeh alright with that?”

“As long as you’re not tired of me by then, then sure,” Y/N jested.

“’M never gonna be tired of you.”

He leaned in close to her, touching his forehead to hers. He was a split second away from kissing her, but then Y/N spoke up again.

“Harry,” she called out.

“Hmm,” Harry’s voice oozed with desire and darkness beginning to turn his eyes a deep shade of juniper.

“Can I please have a bite of your cookie?”

He softly bumped his forehead against hers as they both broke out into a fit of chuckles.

“Allumeuse,” Harry uttered, raising the sickeningly sweet cookie to her lips.

She chewed the baked good tantilizingly slow, making a scene of rolling her eyes back and moaning as if the taste was euphoric.

“Tu aimes ça,” she snided.

“Je fais.”

The two sat in silence after that, finishing up what was left of the small plate of sweets Tallulah had left by the chimney. It wasn’t often that the house was this quiet. Normally, there was a crying Olive to attend to or a needy Tallulah begging for one of them to get more paper out of Harry’s office printer so she could draw pictures of the plants in their garden out back. It would have been eerie, had the multi-colored lights from their Christmas tree not illuminated the majority of their open living space. The twinkling bulbs brought a sense of peacefulness about them. Maybe it was the season, or maybe it was because they’d been feeling so grateful for their small family as of late.

“Honey,” Harry broke the silence.

“What?” she looked up from where she’d been fussing with the hem of her shorts decorated with tiny snowflakes.

“Yeh got a little,” he gestured to her mouth before bringing his thumb to the corner of Y/N’s mouth.

Harry swiped a rogue dollop of blue frosting that rested there and pressed it onto her tongue. She wrapped her lips around his digit, sucking lightly to remove the sticky icing from his skin. Her eyes met his, not once straying as he applied just the slightest bit more of pressure with his thumb. He noted the way her breathing slowed and how she gently shuddered when he tightened the grip of her jaw with the rest of his fingers.

“So pretty,” he purred, marveling at the sight in front of him.

God, how Harry wished it weren’t just his finger resting on the soft, welcoming warmth of her tongue.

Y/N slid off his thumb with a calculated pop of her lips, licking them to ensure she’d rid herself completely of any stray crumbs.

“Kissy?” she posed, smirking.

“I’d be pretty rotten if I said no,” Harry replied before pressing his mouth against hers.

She wrapped her arms around him, forcing him to stand flush against the counter and even closer to her body. He teased her with this tongue, gliding it along the plush skin of the inside of her lip. Y/N welcomed him and parted her lips enough for Harry to get through. Both of them taste the saccharine remnants of the cookies they’d shared, and soon all that’s heard in the house are the suckling noises and heavy pants coming from Harry and Y/N. It’s not loud enough to be a disturbance, but it’s just enough to have them both yearning for more.

“Talk t’ me, lapine,” Harry broke away from her for long enough to mumble one sentence, still pressed against her lips.

“Tell me what yeh want.”

“Want you,” Y/N said in a shaky exhale, chasing Harry’s mouth to reconnect with her own.

“Yeah?” he taunted.

“Want me right here in the kitchen?”

“Ideally, no. But I wouldn’t stop you.”

She parted her legs even wider, attempting to rut against the thick fabric of Harry’s fleece sweatpants. Her center met something stiff and Harry pulled her even closer by the flesh of both bum cheeks, massaging them with his massive palms in a manner that he knew drove her mad.

“That’d be pretty naughty of us, wouldn’t it? Not sure if Santa would approve of that one.”

Before she’s given a chance to respond, Harry snuck his hand between their thighs and began softly petting Y/N over her shorts. Her head fell back in pleasure, temporarily detaching her lips from Harry’s. She knows she can’t make a single sound or else she’ll wake up the entire house so she just sits there with her brows furrowed, silently gasping and letting these sweet, broken moans spill from her throat that spur Harry on even further.

“Can feel you even through your fuckin’ shorts, Y/N,” he grunted, slowing grinding against his own palm that was the only thing separating him from her heat.

This time, it’s Y/N that reached between them, feeling for the stifness that lies between his legs. She wraps her fingers around him through his sweatpants, leisurely tugging at his cock. Harry’s all but forced to begin sucking on the sensitive skin of her neck to keep himself from crying out at the contact, working at blossoming deep lilac and mulberry colored bruises there.

“Bet you could cum just like this, couldn’t you?” he muffles into her collarbone.

Y/N hummed, crossing her legs around Harry’s back as he began to focus his attention to rubbing her clit over the material of her shorts.

“Bet you could too,” she whined.

“’S that what you want, hm? Want me t’ make you cum without even touchin’ you right?”

“‘M not gonna have a choice if you don’t do something else pretty soon.”

She sped up the work she’s doing near Harry’s crotch, paying mind to what she can make of his tip between his boxers. With her thumb, she rubbed expert circles around him, massaging him in the way that he’s doing to her. Both of them could feel it, the slow build up of pressure deep in their abdomen - a coil winding tighter and tight with the threat of snapping.

“Fuckin’ hell, Y/N.”

He was biting her neck now, completely consumed by the feeling of both the damp patch seeping through Y/N’s shorts and onto his fingers and the precum dripping onto her more delicate ones through his sweatpants.

In an attempt to not embarass himself like a horny teenager, Harry withdrew his hand from in between her thighs and places it around her bum all in the same breath. Y/N sighed defeatedly at the loss of friction against the place she needed it most, dropping her head into Harry’s shoulder and whining rather noisily. Before she even has the chance to curse him for stopping, he scooped her off the counter with all of his strength and began walking both of them to their bedroom so he could fuck her properly.

Their lips detach when Harry drops her onto the bed and a woosh of air leaves the down comforter, causing the hem of Y/N’s top to fly up and expose her tummy. She still wore the deep, almost-metallic stretch marks she’d acquired when she was pregnant with Olive, but it wasn’t with shame. Her and Harry had a talk not that long ago about how much he loved them because it reminded him of how much he cherished watching his baby girl grow before she made her grand, earthside appearance. She’d not mentioned the slightest bit of disdain for them after that.

Just as Harry tugged his jumper over his head and threw it off somewhere that he’d worry about in the morning, his eyes caught the digital clock that rested on the wooden night stand on his side of the bed.

“’S past midnight,” he said with a lopsided grin, climbing on top of the girl he vowed to spend his last dying breath beside.

“Yeah?” Y/N asked, for the life of her unable to understand why that was relevant when just minutes ago, he was rutting into her hands and aching for release.

“Yeah,” Harry smiled against her lips.

He pulled up once more to add, “Happy Christmas.”

She had half the mind to smack him, but all she did was shake her head and smile.

“Happy Christmas, Harry. Will you please fuck me now?”

“Think I can manage that.”

It was the first of many Christmas presents for Y/N.

#harry styles x reader #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles imagine #harry styles one shot #harry styles writing #dad!harry #dad!Harry styles #dad!harry styles x reader #dad!harry x reader #harry styles smut

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shewhotellsstories · 3 years

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Have you ever thought about that if Suyin was a man, or a little less attractive, she probably would have gotten a lot more hate from fans? I certainly did. I see so often people simp for Suyin and defend her character at the same time, and think that after they made up, she and Lin had a good relationship. So like yay sibling goals and both made equally mistakes, but now they are reunited and whutnot ... that always seems so delusional to me, do you feel the same way? Or am I just trying to ruin these fluffy and cozy thoughts for these people? 😂

Hmmm. Truth be told I don't know. There are a lot of convoluted reasons people end up loving characters.

I'm honestly not trying to be condescending, but paraphrasing a book I read viewers who don't think critically will follow what the narrative is saying. Unfortunately, the narrative said in some subtle and not at all subtle ways that the problem between the Beifongs was that Lin needed to stop being a bitter loner and forgive Suyin. So if you accept what the show is saying then if Lin can be bullied into accepts Suyin's half-assed apology, we should too.

I guess if you look at it from a different angle maybe if you're a viewer who was a problem child growing up then Suyin represents hope that you can turn things around and be forgiven. Not that she had to actually earn it by doing pesky things like making amends or apologizing sincerely.

Bringing up gender presents an interesting question. Yeah, female characters have an unfortunate tendency to be hated for breathing and are held to some unfair double standards. Flashback to 2019 when I went to Book Con and an author said she had a male character who'd killed a lot of people and fans thought he was a cinnamon roll, but then her female protagonist killed one person and fans were in her mentions saying she was a bitch and they wanted her to die (I don't care enough at the moment to find the journal I was keeping at the time to find the name and series).

The other side of the coin is that some behaviors aren't taken as seriously in my experience. Before I broke up with Once Upon a Time I questioned if people would be able to see that Regina's behavior towards her son was abusive and that she'd raped Graham if she'd been a man. On Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, a show that does a really good job of holding Rebecca accountable, when Rebecca apologizes to Josh she admits that if she were a guy her shenanigans (so much stalking and breaking and entering one time) might've landed her in jail. That soap operaey trope of "slap your boyfriend because he's cheated/has upset you in some way" is never followed up with any PSAs on domestic violence because the consensus is, "well it's not like she can really hurt him." I digress.

To your last point I’m with you. I just don’t buy that Suyin and Lin could have had a healthy sibling relationship considering that Suyin’s behavior so frequently clashes with Lin’s values. There are relationships where one person is more serious and the other person convinces them to let their hair down. But for Suyin its probably always going to be all of the fun without any accountability. I just can’t see Lin ever being okay with that.

And there is just something about seeing someone who had every right to cut ties bullied into a relationship with someone who so thoroughly wronged them that makes me wanna scream. So anon, if you’re a killjoy then I am too.

#asked and answered #lin beifong #anti suyin beifong #tlok critical #tlok salt #rebecca bunch #anti regina mills

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koala-otter · 4 years

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gaang modern AU part ii

here’s part 2 to this modern AU I wrote

this is coming a day later than I said it would, but in my defense it got really long, and now I simply can’t keep looking at it

I’m not sure if I want to write a part 3, but it’s been fun, so we’ll see!!

anyways, have some toph beifong and gaang pool shenanigans and a couple of kisses and some light drinking

3.5k words

Suki understands what her friends have been trying to explain as soon as they roll into the driveway.

“Oh,” she breathes, looking out the window. She turns around to look at Katara. “It’s a villa villa.”

An ancient, eight-foot high stone wall stretches in front of them, with a wide set of wood doors that open to reveal the structure they can already sort of see behind it. The Beifong summer home is a stunning example of old Earth Kingdom architecture, an elegant stone structure built around a courtyard on a raised platform. The house’s front holds a wide entryway decorated with enormous pillars, and between its bright colors and delicate construction, the house itself almost looks like a tiered cake. The central section of the building is four stories, and each of the upper floors is surrounded by a wraparound balcony with its own pillars, all pulling the viewer’s eye up to a roof of spotless, yellow, glazed ceramic tiles that shine under the blue of the cloudless sky.

Everyone in the car takes a moment to gaze up at the edifice, this testament to the longevity of the Beifongs, their symbol of power and endurance.

Except one.

“Yep, it’s old as hell,” Sokka says, putting the car into park. He turns off the engine. “Wait until you see the movie theater inside, though. Now that’s something to look at.”

“Sokka,” Katara says disapprovingly.

They all pile out of the car and begin pulling their bags from the trunk when a voice rings out across the courtyard.

“Look alive, knuckleheads!”

Toph comes barreling out of the entrance in a way that is only possible through years of familiarization, and she stops in the middle of the courtyard.

“All right, you all have to come to me now,” she says, her arms outstretched.

“Toph!” Sokka cries excitedly. He rushes over to her and scoops her off the stone tiles and into a tight hug.

Toph sounds like she’s choking. “Keep me on the ground, dumbass,” she says, “so I can know where I am.”

He releases her, and her feet hit the ground with a slight thud. She keeps a tight hold on his arm.

“Thank God you’re all here,” Toph says. “My mom didn’t want me to be alone before you guys arrived, so she made Yu stay with me.” She rolls her eyes. “Let me tell you, it has not been fun.”

As if having heard his cue, Yu pops out of the house and starts after Toph. The older man, one of the most senior servants in the Beifong household, looks thoroughly exhausted as he approaches the group.

“Miss Toph,” he calls, “you left your balled melon untouched. If you leave it for too long, it’ll get warm!”

Katara and Aang snicker behind their hands, but they stop abruptly when Toph’s face tilts threateningly toward them.

Toph ignores Yu’s statement once she hears him stand next to her. “Yu, my friends are here,” she says, shaking Sokka’s arm almost in demonstration. “You can go now.”

“But, Miss Toph, I’m sure your mother—”

Toph sighs loudly to cut him off. “Did you buy the groceries?”

“Why, yes, of course,” Yu replies hurriedly.

“And the rooms are ready?”

“Yes.”

“And the pool’s open?”

Aang feels Katara perk up next to him as she waits for the answer.

“Yes,” Yu says again, and Aang can’t help smiling when he hears a hiss of excitement leave Katara.

“And the bar’s stocked?”

“Of course,” Yu says, now with a slight roll of his eyes.

“And my friends are here,” Toph says with a sweeping motion of her arm. No one tells her she’s just gestured toward a bush. “Now if I remember right, this is the part where you go.”

Yu bows to the group. “You’re right, Miss Toph,” he says. “I hope you all have a wonderful stay here.”

He turns to go back into the house, but pauses to face them once more with a grimace. “Please don’t break anything this time,” he adds before he goes, too full of worry for his words to have been an afterthought.

“He’s so dramatic,” Toph says with a wave of her hand once he’s gone. “It was just a Quartz Dynasty vase.”

“Right,” Sokka says sheepishly, exchanging a furtive look with Zuko, who’s suddenly taken great interest in the Beifongs’ landscaping.

“All right,” Toph says, tugging Sokka’s arm. “Let’s go to the pool before Katara loses her mind.”

“Really?” Katara cries excitedly, already stepping in line with them.

“It was cleaned this morning just for you, Sweetness.”

Zuko stops them. “Hold on, I think Suki’s still taking it in,” he says in an amused tone.

Suki snaps her head back down and grins self-consciously. “I was looking at the little people,” she says in a high-pitched explanation, pointing to a small, ceramic procession of a dragon, a camelephant, and a winged boar on the eaves of the roof. She grabs her bag and follows them.

They walk clear through the first floor to reveal that the house stands on the crest of a hill, the rest of which tumbles before them as a garden full of sprawling lawns and blooming peony bushes and trees thick with pink and white blossoms. Before the drop of the hill, overlooking the lush green landscape, is the swimming pool full of crystal clear water. As soon as it comes into sight, Katara drops her bag and pulls her shirt off to reveal she already has her swimsuit on underneath, a simple white bikini.

“Last one in’s a rotten egg!” she calls, kicking off her shorts, and before anyone can say anything else, she’s crossed the grass and the sandstone patio and dived into the pool in one precise, fluid motion.

“That’s not fair, she already put her suit on,” Sokka says. He notices Aang suddenly dropping to his knees, rifling through his own bag and grabbing something before running toward the poolhouse. “And where are you going?”

“I don’t wanna be a rotten egg, Sokka!” Aang yells. The door slams behind him so he can pull on his orange trunks.

Once everyone’s changed and finally joined Katara in the pool, it turns out Toph is the rotten egg, because she refuses to join them in the water.

“Come on, Toph,” Aang pleads once more.

“You know I don’t like swimming,” she says from the side.

“Won’t you just come to the shallow end? I’ll stay with you the whole time.” He holds his hand up in an oath even though he knows she can’t see it. “Promise.”

Toph considers him for a moment.

“All right,” she finally says, holding out her hand for him to take. “But if you let me drown, I will murder you.”

Aang only laughs and helps her down, keeping a hold on her hand as they stand side by side in the water.

The wind whistles through the leaves of the garden’s trees and ruffles Suki’s chin-length hair. She plunges under the water.

“We should have a hawk-rooster fight,” she says when she resurfaces. She slicks her wet hair away from her face with her hands.

“You’re right, Suki,” Sokka says brightly. He turns to Zuko and pats himself on the shoulder. “Zuko, hop on.”

Katara pauses mid-lap. “Are you kidding? That’s not a fair team.” She swims over to Zuko and pulls him by the arm. “Come on, Zuko, you’re helping me beat my brother.”

Zuko sighs as Katara clambers onto his shoulders. “Why does everything have to be a competition between you two?”

“You sound like Bato,” Sokka laughs. “Every game night he—”

“Sokka, quit talking and help me up,” Suki says from his back.

“Sorry, sorry, okay.” Sokka lifts her easily onto his shoulders and plants himself in front of Zuko.

“Ready?” Zuko asks.

Sokka leans forward and places a quick kiss on Zuko’s lips. “Don’t get upset when we beat you,” he says with a smirk.

Zuko wears a small, dreamy smile as he replies, “I won’t.”

He feels a repeated, urgent patting on the top of his head.

“He’s trying to distract you,” Katara hisses. “Focus! Do not lose this for us!”

Zuko rolls his eyes and falls into his stance, his hands clasped around Katara’s ankles.

“One, two, three, go!” Sokka yells shrilly, and Suki and Katara fall into grappling.

Toph crosses her arms. “I think I’d be good at this game,” she says idly.

“Probably,” Aang replies, smiling when he sees Sokka narrowly avoid a foot to the eye— “Jesus, Suki, be careful!” he cries—and patting Toph on the shoulder. “You always beat me up on land.”

Toph snorts. “That’s nothing. Talk to me about how I pinned Sokka last week. Now that was fun.”

They keep watching the fight playing out in front of them, Suki and Katara’s hands intertwined, each trying to push the other off. Both yell at the young men beneath them to hold steady.

“Oh, shit,” Toph suddenly says. “I forgot to ask Yu to pick up ice before he left.”

Aang glances at her before looking back in time to see Suki nearly lose her balance. She recovers and jabs Katara in the shoulder. “I can go,” he offers.

“You don’t have to,” Toph says.

“No, I will.”

With one more well-timed shove from Suki, Katara goes sailing off of Zuko’s shoulders and into the water in front of Aang and Toph with a loud splash.

Toph pulls herself closer to Aang. “A little warning for the blind girl next time!” she yells in the direction of the group.

Katara comes up laughing, trying desperately to push the hair out of her eyes. “Sorry, Toph,” she says.

“It’s really Suki’s fault,” Sokka points out before plunging under the water himself to let her off his shoulders.

“Wow, nice scapegoating,” Toph says dryly. “No wonder you guys broke up.”

Suki laughs. “Actually, I think it had more to do with the huge crush he had on his best friend,” she says, tilting her head in Zuko’s direction.

Zuko shrugs with an awkward smile.

Sokka’s head and shoulders emerge from the water. He tugs on his wolftail to stop its dripping. “Are we playing again?” he asks.

“I’m out,” Zuko says. He swims toward the shallow end and hops out to sit on the side of the pool. “I don’t think I can take Katara yelling at me anymore.”

Katara narrows her eyes at him before turning to Aang. “Looks like I need a new teammate,” she says. “Do you want to play?”

Aang smiles at her regretfully. “I would, but Toph just asked me to go pick up some ice.”

“In town?” Katara asks, wringing out her wet hair.

“Yup.”

“I’ll go with you,” she says brightly. She starts making her way toward the pool steps.

Aang’s lips spread into a goofy grin. “Okay,” he agrees.

Katara towels off while Aang gets Sokka’s keys from Zuko and guides Toph up on the side of the pool next to him. As he rises from being bent over Toph and Zuko, laughing at something Zuko’s said, Katara cannot help staring at him. He’s been taller than her for a long time, so his stature is nothing new, but he’s filled out significantly in the past couple of years, and she does not often get the opportunity to see the evidence in full display. The broad planes of his chest and shoulders practically shine in the late afternoon sun, and the clean lines and ridges of his abdomen contract with his laughter, guiding her gaze further down to the angled cut of his hips, across which his shorts are slung low.

Katara almost gasps when Aang addresses her.

“Ready?” he asks, pulling a T-shirt over his head.

It seems he hasn’t noticed her staring.

“Let’s go,” she replies in a rush, grabbing her sunglasses and following him back through the house and out to the car.

The doors slam shut behind them, and Katara concerns herself with rolling all of the windows down so they can still feel the summer breeze. Aang checks his mirrors and starts out of the driveway when he notices what Katara’s wearing.

“Uh, I’m pretty sure the ‘no shirt, no service’ rule still applies all the way out here,” he teases her as he guides the car back onto the winding, mountain road.

“It’s not like I’m not going to wear it at all,” Katara says defensively, though she’s smiling. She holds up her shirt in her hand. “I need to dry off first.”

Aang glances at her from the road and realizes she means the bikini top, which is more or less still soaked through. If she put the shirt on now, it would only seep through and leave an obvious stain on the front. He turns resolutely to look back at the road, swallowing hard.

The last time he saw her in the white top, with just the two of them together, was on a road trip to Omashu to celebrate Zuko’s college graduation. On the last day before they reached the city, Katara insisted on going to see a little-known cave nearby with an underground spring, and that night, after several cupfuls of terrible Earth Kingdom grain alcohol, raised the idea of going to swim in it again, under the full moon. Aang was the only one who could be convinced to go with her. They ventured back into the cave with a flashlight and turned it off once they got to the pool at the bottom, the night quiet but for the occasional sound of droplets falling from the stalagmites. They stayed close to each other in the dark water, but it was Katara who wrapped herself around Aang, and after a while, pressed her chest to his, separated only by the fabric of her white top. She looked up at him with her half-lidded eyes and boozy blush and only hesitated briefly before kissing him under the silver light of the moon.

Katara woke the next morning with a wicked hangover, and Aang drove the rest of the way to Omashu with Sokka sitting next to him, any hope of talking to Katara about their kiss drowned out by Sokka’s elaborate stories about another student in his department named Wing Fan. Neither mentioned what happened the night before, Aang wondering whether Katara even remembered it, and it never happened again, so they let it go.

But Aang remembered it. And if he had asked, he would have known that Katara did, too.

The winding road lets out to a stretch devoid of surrounding trees, and the glare of the early evening sun hits Aang right in the eyes. He pulls the sun visor down, but the light still shines through and makes him squint.

“I should have brought sunglasses,” he said absentmindedly, vaguely holding up his hand to see the road.

“Here, have mine,” Katara pipes up, and takes them off to carefully place them on Aang’s face. She giggles at the sight. “They look perfect on you.”

Aang sneaks a grin at her, his gray eyes obscured by the bright blue flowered frames thrifted by Sokka for Katara’s birthday. “Thanks, I try.”

He keeps them on even when they drive into town and walk into the supermarket, Katara pulling her shirt back on on the way in. He refuses even to push them onto his head, looking at the signs above the aisles through the darkened lenses, insisting, “But, Katara, I still need them for the ride back.”

Katara only shakes her head in amusement and pulls him after her toward the frozen aisle.

“Oh, mangoes!” Aang cries, and he stops in the middle of the produce to admire the piles of fruit. “These are Gyatso’s favorite.”

“Should we get some?” Katara asks. “Or any other fruit? Or snacks for the house or something?”

“If you think so,” Aang says noncommittally.

“What do you want?” she asks. She examines the assortment and wrinkles her nose when she notices the papaya.

Aang shrugs. “Ah, you know me. I don’t really care what we eat.”

“Really?” Katara asks disbelievingly. “This from the vegetarian who tried to convince Sokka to participate in meatless Mondays.”

Aang laughs. “It was worth a shot.” He picks up a mango. “Besides, it worked on you.”

“Hey, I’m meatless everyday now because of you, and you better not forget it,” Katara says, poking a finger to his chest.

Aang looks down at her hand, those goofy sunglasses still hiding his eyes, and then grins widely at her. “I won’t,” he says sincerely.

“Good.” Katara swipes the mango from his hand and grabs one more before taking off again toward the frozen food aisle.

They drive back to the house in no rush, the ice and the mangoes safely stowed in the backseat. They don’t talk but they don’t need to, the sound of the radio tangling with the air rushing by outside and through the windows. Katara smiles contentedly as she sits next to Aang, occasionally sneaking glances at him, at the veins of his forearm as he keeps his hand on the wheel, and at the angle of his jaw. Before they reach the house, she silently leans toward him and reaches for the back of his neck. His chin tilts up as her touch startles him, and he looks at her quickly out of the corner of his eye, but she feels him relax beneath her hand as soon she tucks the tag back into the collar of his shirt. Her fingertips brush lightly against the back of his neck before she brings her hand back to her lap, and she spies a small smile on his face as they pull back into the driveway of the home.

They’re both quiet, feeling content and a little contemplative, as they walk back through the house.

“You made it!” Suki cries a little too loudly, standing next to Zuko at the outdoor bar on the right side of the pool patio. Her arms rise above her head, and she reveals a tall glass in her hand that’s now only a quarter full.

“So this is what you’ve been up to while we were gone?” Katara asks in an amused tone.

“Not all of us,” Zuko says, exchanging a look with her.

“Yeah, some of us were waiting for ice,” Toph chirps, abandoning Sokka at the pool’s edge to walk up to Zuko. “You promised me a frozen marg, Sparky, let’s go.”

Aang laughs and brings the ice over to Zuko, while Katara balances the mangoes on the countertop.

Zuko pulls out a blender. “Do you want one, too?” he asks the pair.

“I will have another,” Suki declares.

“You’ve been cut off,” he replies, only half-serious. He notices Katara eyeing the water again. “As you can see, I do have experience in poolside service,” he says, pointing out Sokka floating idly in the pool, an empty glass near the stone’s edge.

Katara smiles and touches his arm, kissing him quickly on the cheek. “You’re the best,” she says before tossing her clothes off again and jumping once more into the water.

“Katara!” they hear Sokka shriek.

Aang laughs and turns back to Zuko. “Need any help?” he asks enthusiastically.

“Not now that we have the ice,” Zuko replies. He looks at Aang curiously, but before he can say anything, Sokka stops splashing Katara to greet Aang.

“Hey, Aang! Nice glasses.”

Aang’s forgotten he’s wearing them; he blushes once his hand comes up to touch them. “They’re Katara’s,” he explains.

“Cute,” Suki comments before sucking once more on her straw.

Zuko chuckles. “Makes sense.”

Sokka rolls his eyes, and Katara splashes him in the face.

“Aang, are you coming?” she calls.

“Yeah, just a second!” he calls back.

He turns back to Zuko and misses the sight of Sokka picking Katara up and throwing her into the deep end.

“Go hang out with her,” Zuko says quietly to Aang, a light smile on his face.

“Yeah,” Toph says, significantly louder, “go with Katara. And Zuko,” she says, slamming her hands on the countertop, “what is going on? I hear no blending.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Aang says, taking the sunglasses off and folding them carefully next to the mangoes.

“I may be blind, Twinkletoes, but I’m not an idiot,” Toph says, crossing her arms.

“Toph sees things,” Suki says seriously from her perch on the bar counter. Her eyes widen as she faces the group. “Below-the-surface things.”

“Thanks, Suki.” Toph grins mischievously.

Aang laughs good-naturedly. “You guys are crazy.”

Zuko watches as the younger man throws off his shirt and walks toward the pool, only to stop dead at the edge. Katara emerges from below the water’s surface, smoothing her hair back into a thick curtain of waves falling behind her. The soft evening light creates shadows across her form that only soften her curves and make her skin look even smoother. She looks almost ethereal, like one of the benevolent spirits of the sea.

She notices Aang and looks up at him eagerly. “Are you coming in?”

“Uh, yeah, of course,” he replies, shaking himself out of his reverie and finally slipping into the water next to her.

She grins in delight and holds his hand under the water. “I’ll race you to the bottom,” she challenges him.

“You’re on,” Aang laughs, and the two disappear into the deep end.

Sokka turns around from retrieving his glass to find himself alone. “Where did they go?” he asks the trio at the bar.

They ignore him.

“Twinkletoes just did it again, didn’t he?” Toph snickers.

“Yep,” Zuko says, and he switches on the blender.

#atla #atla fanfic #atla fanfiction #fanfiction #modern AU #avatar the last airbender #kataang #kataangtag #zukka #aang #katara #sokka #zuko #toph #suki #this is a lottt of fluff #my writing

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not-close-to-straight · 4 years

Text

More Than Words (Thirty-One)

Apparently 11K word chapters are just a thing I do now? So that’s nice.

Anyway, we see some tooth rotting sweetness and support between our boys, Wade meets the friends and Aunt May, the expected shenanigans ensue.

MASTERLIST HERE

************* “Gwen is the blond one.” Wade helped Peter from the cab and waited for the Omega to pay the driver before finishing, “Nosy, opinionated, would definitely kill someone for you.”

“For us.” Peter pocketed his wallet and steered his mate down the sidewalk towards May’s house. “Once Gwen meets you as my Alpha, she would kill someone for us. Don’t test the theory though, we don’t really want her going to jail.”

“Noted.” Wade dropped a kiss on Peter’s forehead when the Omega entwined their fingers, then lingered when his mate stayed close for an extra minute and soaked up the physical affection. "What’s up, cuddle bug?”

“You know what’s up.” Peter snarked and Wade laughed down at him. “You’re a big strong Alpha and I’m a delicate little Omega. Definitely need to stay close while we walk down this scary street.”

“Yeah, the street is real frightening.” Wade peered over his sunglasses at the wide sidewalks and neatly manicured lawns, the carbon copy homes all lined up in neat rows. “You should definitely let me carry you just in case something terrifying jumps out from behind the rose bush to grab you.”

“I think you should carry me whether there’s something lurking behind the rose bush or not.” Peter hooked his fingers in Wade’s belt loop and rubbed up against the Alpha’s side suggestively. He was feeling needy in a way only his mate could soothe and five minutes before dinner with May wasn’t the time to try and dry hump his Alpha but..... “You know I’m weak for your muscles.”

“You weigh about as much as a sack’a weeds.” The Alpha wasn’t going to miss a chance to hold his mate, so right there in the street he paused and leaned down to rest their foreheads together, one big arm secure at Peter’s waist and the other hand resting at the base of the Omega’s neck. “Don’t need muscles to hold you, Pete.”

“Mmmm, but I like your muscles anyway.” Peter purred encouragingly and Wade promptly gave him a kiss. “How are you doing? You looked halfway to panicked in the cab. Settled down now?”

“I think we should just walk everywhere from now on.” Wade grimaced remembering the ride in an ubber-- oober-- whatever the car service had been called. “Don’t like traffic, don’t like the feeling of going so fast. We almost crashed half a dozen times.”

“The driver was a little reckless.” the Omega traced absent minded circles through the lines on Wade’s forearm. “But it’s not like you could get hurt, my mate. Don’t stress about it.”

“I worry about you getting hurt.” Wade swept his fingers over Peter’s jawline and to the sensitive spot behind his ear. “In Haven I could protect you from everything. Here I don’t know what to protect you from, and definitely not how to protect you. Bothers me.”

“Well I’m always safe when I’m right here.” It was interesting the way their dynamic had shifted after Wade’s break down in the bathroom. Peter had gone from soaking up all the reassurance and love from his mate to being the steady one, the one who eased fears and calmed situations and the shift had happened so naturally that Wade never had time to feel self conscious, and Peter never put any thought into how to adjust.

It was just natural now for the Omega to step closer to his mate and trill his tongue sweetly into Wade’s ear, to flatten his palm over Wade’s bonding spot and rub slow circles until the Alpha leaned into the touch and sighed in relief. In Haven, Wade had dealt with every mood swing and mild panic attack and bout of worry without blinking, without faltering, and Peter loved that he could do the same for his mate now.

“I love you.” he whispered. “And I am always safe with you, I don’t ever worry about that, so you shouldn’t either. I don’t worry now that you’re home with me again.”

“I love you too.” Wade reveled in the comfort from his mate for a moment longer, breathed in the suppressant muted scent of acceptance and adoration, then cleared his throat. “Okay. Back to your friends. Um, Harry’s dad owns some big company that works with the army to make weapons. He’s real nice and protective over you and Mary Jane but sorta out of touch with the real world.”

“The first time Auntie May gave him pizza on a paper plate, I thought he’d actually die.” Peter confirmed. “Never seen a kid look so horrified in my entire life. We love Harry, but he lives in a mansion and got a car worth more than Auntie’s house for his sixteenth birthday. Thoroughly out of touch.”

“Mary Jane is the redhead.” the Alpha followed when Peter started walking again. “Best friends and neighbors since you were six, one of your favorite people in the entire world. Calls you Tiger and will love that I have fangs. She’s the only other Omega in your group.”

“Right. We used to share heats together before we were old enough for Alphas.” Peter skirted a crack in the sidewalk. “Do you remember about Johnny?”

“Blond, obnoxious and gives his kisses away for quarters.” Wade cracked a grin. “Flashy and only half as charming as he thinks but one of the best Alphas in the group.”

“He offered to platonic bond with me after I got out of the hospital.” Peter reminded the Alpha quietly, and Wade tried to smother a snarl. “You need to thank him for that, thank him for trying to take care of me.”

“M’not gonna thank another Alpha for trying to bond with you, Pete.” he immediately objected. “Don’t ask me to do that.”

“Platonic bond.” the Omega emphasized. “Platonic. He was willing to give up the chance to date around and find a real mate so I’d be okay. You need to thank him for that, Alpha to Alpha. There’s not many people out there who would be willing to put their own life on hold to protect someone else.”

“No, there’s not.” Wade set his jaw and pursed his lips as they crossed the street to May’s door. “And no matter what he said then, no Alpha in the world would platonic bond with someone and not expect it to turn romantic at some point. Can’t share all that with an Omega and not need more eventually.”

“Alpha--”

“Pete.” He pulled his mate to a gentle stop and cupped Peter’s chin in his palm. “What you and I have. Can you imagine having this sorta connection but not ever touching? Kissing?” his voice roughed as he thumbed over Peter’s bond mark. “Lettin’ me bite you so you get all soft and sweet for me? Sleeping together and not waking up needy and--”

“Don’t you dare say horny.”

“--and horny--”

“God dammit.”

“-and not being able to do anything about it?” Wade finished. “I know we haven’t really done nothin’ about feeling like that lately, but we’ll get there again and when we do-- I mean, can you imagine waking up every morning and knowing it wasn’t your right to touch me? Kiss me if you want? Hold me down and bite me?”

“No, I’d hate that.” the Omega’s eyes flashed, the suppressants in his system not enough to stop a flush of molten in his scent. “It’s sorta crazy how bad I want to hold you down and bite you. But Johnny is--”

“I’d platonic bond with you if you needed it.” the Alpha cut in. “If you couldn’t handle more cos of the time travel or if our ‘enough’ never made it this far. We’d platonic bond because you’re my mate and the other half’a my soul and I’d settle for just looking at you so long as I could stay close. But it’s less than I want and I’d be miserable every day trying to keep myself from pushing for more. Only thing that would settle me is knowing you’re meant to be mine, being soulmates means the other stuff isn’t as important.”

“But that Alpha isn’t your soulmate.” Wade wanted to growl even suggesting someone else belonged with Peter. “So the offer to bond is cos he loves you and wants more with you. No Alpha would platonic bond with anyone they didn’t want to fully mate. Your friend might’ve been willin’ to do it, but I guarantee he wants more from you and I dunno if I can thank another Alpha for that sorta thing.”

“You think Johnny loves me.” Peter realized with a frown. “Like, really loves me, not just the way the rest of the Alphas love me and MJ both.”

“Did the other Alphas offer a platonic bond?”

“...no.” Peter’s scent flickered towards troubled. “Now I feel bad. He offered and I turned him down so quickly and even though I told him it was because of you, because I was already mated he was so upset at first. Do you think I broke his heart?”

“My mate.” Wade ran his tongue over his fangs as he thought about how to phrase this without sounding like an asshole. “I uh--- I don’t really care if you broke his heart or not. I sorta hope you did just so he knows there’s no contest between us. You’re mine, Omega. Mine. I don’t like him thinking you could ever be his.”

It came out harsher than Wade intended, a flare of jealousy and possession strong enough to break through the suppressants and flash sharp in the air, and Peter turned around to plant a loud kiss on his Alpha’s mouth, linking their left hands so Wade could feel the round edge of the ring he never ever took off.

“Stop that.” he murmured. “I’m yours and Johnny knows full well I will always be yours. The second I told him I was mated, he stopped talking about a bond and wanted to talk about you, wanted to know how we met and where you were and all that sort of thing. Don’t act like a possessive, jealous Alpha around him because of this, okay? Please? You have nothing to worry about from him. I’m yours.”

“Mine.” Hooked teeth dug into Peter’s bottom lip and the Omega squealed over the sting. “Should bite you again just so it’s real obvious.”

“I’m only saying no to that cos If I show up bitten up and bleeding, May will thrash you.” Peter shivered when his mate only bit him harder, and sighed when Wade immediately licked at the marks to soothe them. Damn it, he missed his mate. “Are you going to be nice to Johnny?”

“I’ll be nice.” Wade relented begrudgingly. “Only since it was a good thing he was willing to do for you and only so long as his heart is real fuckin’ broken.”

“--MATE!”

“I’ll be nice!” he finished loudly. “I’ll be nice, Pete! I promise!”

“I mean it.” the Omega smoothed his hands down Wade’s chest to his waist and hugged him close. “This is my family, Wade. My friends. It’s important to me that they know you as my mate, and it's important to me that you know and love them. You’re my entire world, Alpha, but they matter too. This is important. Please be nice.”

“I’ll be nice.” Wade kissed his mate’s knuckles and then his palm. “I will. I know this is important. I’ll play nice.”

“Don’t be nervous either.” Peter added almost as an afterthought. “I know this is a lot today, the car was a lot and meeting my family and dealing with my crazy friends is a lot but you don’t have to worry. Everything will be fine.”

“I’m not nervous.” Wade lied and his mate clicked at him comfortingly. “But I sure won’t hate it when we’re back home and in bed together. Let’s get this over with.”

“Don’t be nervous.” Peter knocked at May’s door. “Everything’s gonna be just--”

“Peter!” the door wrenched open before Peter had even finished knocking, and Wade didn’t have time for half a breath before his mate was yanked right out of his arms and up against another Alpha.

“Wait--!” He started to snarl, but the lady Alpha bared her teeth in an equally fierce snarl and ordered, “Don’t you glare at me, young man. You might think you’re fierce with those fangs and red eyes but I’ve dealt with meaner Alphas in my day, so you don’t scare me one whit. You stand there and you wait for your own hug, do you hear me?”

“Uh, my own hug…?”

“Peter Benjamin Parker.” the Alpha framed Peter’s face in both her hands and pushed their foreheads together, growling in frustration. “If you ever go so long without coming to visit me again, I’ll move you out of that hole in the wall apartment and right back upstairs in this house myself, understood? I tried to give you your space and Lord knows I wasn’t half as nosy and overbearing as I could have been but you cannot worry me like this! I can’t take it! My hair has gone gray!”

“Auntie May.” Peter purred and chirped at the distraught Alpha, looped his arms around her little frame and hugged her close. “Your hair went gray when I was in high school--”

“Peter!”

“-- but I do appreciate you giving me some space.” he leaned in and nuzzled at her and May huffed and fussed a moment more before finally relenting and squeezing him tight. “And I’m sorry for making you worry. I’m okay now though, so you should come here and meet my mate.”

“Your mate.” May bussed another kiss to Peter’s cheek and turned to Wade, hands on her hips and gaze measuring as she looked him over. “You know, I’m half tempted to kick your butt for what you’ve put my boy through.”

“May.” Peter rolled his eyes. “Please? This is Wade and he is my mate so play nice! Why have I had to say that so many times today!”

“I’m playing nice by not biting him.” May announced, but her eyes softened as she approached the big Alpha. “But since you’re family, I suppose I’ll let it go. Also because you’re gorgeous and I can see why my nephew is so smitten. Welcome to the family, darling.”

Thoroughly thrown by the abrupt change in direction from the tiny woman, Wade didn’t do much more than make a surprised noise when he was pulled down into a hug. “You can call me Auntie like all the other kids do, or you can call me May or whatever else you’d like, alright?”

“Um.” Wade put careful arms around May to hold her for a few seconds. “Thank you?”

“Do they hurt terribly? The scars?” she whispered into his ear and Wade hesitated before nodding only once. “Well don’t you worry about how they look. None of Peter’s friends care about looks and your mate is staring at you as if you’ve hung the moon. Don’t be nervous.”

This time Wade’s muttered thank you was entirely sincere, and May patted at his arm gently before letting go.

“Well then!” She brightened immediately as they parted. “Peter, I’ve got to get a few more things set out before your friends arrive, why don’t you show your mate around the house? I haven’t hardly touched your room, you know. I’m sure there’s still loads of embarrassing pictures up there to show off!”

“Wonderful.” Peter scrunched his nose at his Aunt, and reached for Wade’s hand again. “C’mon, I’ll show you my old room, let you sit on my bed, all that sort of stuff. I might even show you my underwear drawer.”

“Ooh, underwear drawer? Scandalous.” Wade waggled his eyebrows and May barked a laugh from the kitchen. “Will we need a chaperone, Pete?”

“Yes my Alpha, we will definitely require a chaperone to go up a dozen stairs to my teeny tiny bedroom.” Peter linked their fingers and stood on his toes to kiss his mate gently, then lowered his voice to ask, “How are you doing on the suppressants? Still feeling muffled?”

“I don’t like it.” Wade brushed his knuckles over Peter’s cheek and pressed his thumb to the corner of the Omega’s pretty mouth. “It’s like I’m stuck in a blanket. Didn’t hardly catch your Aunt’s scent and can’t feel a whole lot, but I can still feel you and that’s all I care about, sweetheart.”

“Okay.” Predictably, Peter blushed sweetly pink over the endearment. “That’s all I care about too. So long as you can feel me, we’ll be alright.”

“Come on and show me your room.” The Alpha palmed low over Peter’s rear and pushed him up the stairs in the same motion. “You saw where I lived the last hundred years, c’mere and show me where you grew up.”

“Oh well it’s very interesting.” Peter said blandly, leading his mate up the steep stairs and sweeping his hands out to encompass the beige walls. “Here we have the worlds most narrow hallway where no less than two hundred family pictures ranging from hilariously outdated to cringeworthy school photos.”

Wade grinned as he passed frame after frame of Peter, May and a man who must have been Uncle Ben. The Omega had glasses and a goofy grin in most of the younger pictures, awkwardly shaggy hair and brackets on his teeth in the middle ones and then ridiculously fluffed hair and that gorgeous smile Wade knew so well in the most recent pictures.

“What’s that on your teeth, Pete?” Wade tapped at one where Peter couldn’t have been more than thirteen. “The brackets and pieces? What is that?”

“Braces. Don’t look too long at them, my crooked teeth will burn your eyes.” Peter tugged his mate past the offending picture and down the hall some more. “Puberty was a really terrible time for me. Funky eyes and funky teeth and funky friends. I dunno how any of us survived without dying of shame.”

Wade only vaguely remembered being thirteen, but he crooned sympathetically when his mate covered up a different picture with a muttered, “You’ll never look at me without laughing if you see that one, so just keep on moving and I’ll burn it later.”

The last door at the end of the hall opened into a little bedroom and Peter was sort of shy as he motioned his mate through and onto the bed.

“I never thought I’d have an Alpha on my bed.” he explained in embarrassment when Wade sent him a curious look. “I didn’t share a heat with an Alpha until after I moved out, and May didn’t let Harry or Johnny or Gwen stay in my room when we had sleep overs, we all slept downstairs. It’s weird to have an Alpha--” he gestured lamely. “--I dunno. It feels weird.”

“M’the only Alpha you’ve ever had on your bed?” Wade looked inexplicably pleased with the news. “Really?”

“I told you I didn’t really do relationships before you.” Peter folded his arms and leaned back against his desk, his expression wistful as he looked around the old room. “In fact outside of my group of friends, I didn’t do anything. They dated and messed around with other people, partied and all that sort of thing. I only went to school and came home, when I got the internship at Oscorp I did that all the time, and after Uncle Ben passed and I got into research and reporting, I sort of obsessed about it. No time for dating, no time for Alphas. I was busy all the time and even with my friends I was lonely all the time too. Right up until you, my mate.”

Wade rumbled at him and Peter scrunched his nose teasingly. “You love that, don’t you? That younger me just came home and studied every night instead of going out getting kissed by a bunch of Alphas? You love that you’re basically my first for everything?”

“Feel like if I say ‘yes’ I sound like one of those asshole Alphas that require their mates to be virgins.” Wade snorted. “So m’not gonna say yes, but damn Pete yes I like knowing I’m the only one who gets to see you all naked and horny and savin’ up all those kisses just for me. Makes me wanna howl or something. Stake my claim and beat my chest and--”

“Stop!” Peter laughed out loud at his mate. “You are ridiculous, oh my god. If you beat your chest and howl at my friends I’m going to make you walk back home tonight. Make you clean the kitchen tomorrow. You will not go all gorilla Alpha on my friends without having to make it up to me in some extravagant way.”

“I’d walk all day to get home to you.” the Alpha promised seriously, held out his hand and curled his fingers coaxingly. “Make it up to you in whichever way you want. C’mere Pete. C’mere and let me hold you for a minute. I don’t like thinkin’ about you being lonely growing up here. That makes me sad.”

“It wasn’t all that sad.” Peter’s eyes went very soft as he let the Alpha pull him in close. “I didn’t hardly notice for a while and I had friends and May to keep the worst of it away. It wasn’t really bad until right when I met you, and once I had you nothing else mattered. Soulmate.”

“Soulmate.” the Alpha echoed, his touch damn near reverent at Peter’s sides. “I love you, Pete.”

“I love you too.” Interest warmed low in the Omega’s belly when Wade nuzzled at his stomach, breath warm through the thin shirt and sending butterflies scattering through his core. “Oh Alpha, we should--- we should go back downstairs before everyone else gets here. May probably needs help.”

“Maybe.” Wade hadn’t missed the way Peter’s breath hitched, and his fingers tightened reflexively at his waist. “Orrrrr you could come sit with me and we could figure out other things to do that would be a first for this bed.”

“Wade.” Peter’s faint blush darkened but he didn’t resist Wade pulling him down onto the mattress. “I know we’ve been missing each other lately, but we are absolutely not getting naked upstairs in my Aunt’s house on my old bed. No way.”

“Why not, seems as good a place as any.” The Alpha smooshed a kiss onto Peter’s mouth before he could protest, and Peter made a helpless, hungry little noise when Wade’s hand landed warm and heavy and significantly south of his waist.

“Wade--”

“You call me Alpha, my mate.” Wade rumbled and Peter’s answering whine was both pleading and permission all at once, so the Alpha surged forward to seal their lips together again.

The emotional upheaval of the last month had left little energy for anything other than kisses that settled into languid hugs, the mental strain of Wade adjusting to a new world and Peter adjusting his world to fit them both hadn’t eased enough to allow other, more fun thoughts. Some days it felt like they could pick up right where they left off in Haven, other days it felt like they were starting from square one, and in the middle of it all neither Alpha nor Omega had done anything about the way their bodies yearned and souls ached. Just waking up next to each other took Wade’s breath away, Peter’s entire being shuddered when his mate’s teeth broke skin and spilled blood and they didn’t need anything else.

It was enough.

Or rather it had been enough.

But the last few days after Logan and Clint visited had been calmer, easier, their minds calm and emotions stable and Peter had woken up parched for his mate, Wade was going to bed starving for drops of honeysuckle and lavender on his tongue and now--

--well now wasn’t the time to give in to the muted scent of arousal and want, but Wade was determined to erase the last bit of loneliness from Peter’s eyes, ready to remind the Omega that he would never be alone again, ready to forget where they were and remember his mate. It didn’t take much for Peter to give in past his half hearted protests either, not when the kiss turned long and tongues ventured to slide slick and taste and his core clenched with immediate need just hearing the way his mate growled into his ear.

“I miss you.” the words were weighted, hoarse as if Wade was finally letting himself say what he’d been holding back for weeks. “Miss ya like this, Pete. Feel like m’gonna climb outta my skin to get to you lately. Need you.”

“I need you too.” Peter’s knees automatically parted when Wade’s traced the seam of his jeans up the inside of his thigh. “Oh-h-h- my mate. It feels like it’s been forever.”

“Sorry s’taken me so long to work things out.” Wade sucked in a quick breath when slim fingers dipped under his waistband and then changed direction to shove beneath his shirt and scratch over his abdomen. “Wish I could’a gotten my head screwed on better so we could do this sooner. Feel like I couldn’t handle more than what we had goin’ on and I know I’ve been neglectin’ you, know that’s why you haven’t gone under and hazy for me. Sorry my mate, so sorry.”

“No no, my love.” the Omega went back on the bed with only the barest pressure from his mate, laying onto the pillows and bringing Wade right down against him too. “No.” he whispered into another kiss, and another and another, arched his back and moaned when the Alpha fit between his hips. “No no no I would have waited forever-- would have always waited for you Alpha.”

“Omega.” Wade’s eyes blurred scarlet as the moment twisted hot and breaking, and the Omega whimpered, panted, dragged his nails down Wade’s back and--

“Peter!”

“Pete!”

“Where are you, Omega? Get your butt down here so I can hug it!”

“Auntie May, you look wonderful but where the hell is Peter?”

“--Damn it.” Peter’s head thumped onto the pillow.. “Damn it, that’s my friends. We gotta go down and see them.”

The Alpha swore frustrated and hungry, grip too tight at his mate’s hips and fangs aching with the need to bite, throbbing in his jeans and rocking his hips forward helplessly against every wriggle and push of Peter’s body.

“Shit.” he swore again, gnawed down into his own lip until it split beneath his fangs and healed over again almost immediately. “Pete.”

“I know.” the Omega’s fingers were shaking as they tracked along the lines of Wade’s scalp and gently gently down his neck. “My mate, I know. I-- I-- this is not the place-- I told you not at Auntie May’s--”

“I know.” It was the most difficult thing in the world to ease from Peter’s body and when Peter mewled plaintively, Wade thoroughly considered forgetting about the people waiting downstairs and taking his mate apart right then and there.

“I know.” he finally said though, and with one last bruising kiss at Peter’s mouth, rolled away from the pretty Omega and right off the bed to his feet. “I know, Pete. I know this is important to you, I won’t make you miss it. Shit, I just uh-- just need a minute.”

“Thank you.” Peter wrestled a pillow out from beneath his head and dropped it over his lap, then covered his eyes with his arm so he wouldn’t have to see how badly his Alpha wanted. “Um, but when we go home again do you think we could-- I mean, I know we probably will have lots to talk about but Alpha I think I’m gonna explode if I can’t have you soon.”

“I think you won’t make it through the livin’ room before I get you stuck on my knot, mate.” the Alpha’s voice was low and rough, eyes still heartstoppingly red even as he tried to blink and clear them, and Peter whined, pressing at the pillow over his lap in a vain attempt at relief. “Be a few days before I let you off me, too. I’ve missed you, Pete. Missed my Omega.”

“I’ve missed you too.” Peter could barely breathe, but if they had any chance of surviving the rest of the afternoon he had to put a stop to everything right the hell now. “I um-- I’ll go down before you, okay? Take an extra suppressant dose and give it a few minutes to kick in.”

“Don’t wanna take anymore suppressants.” Wade shook his head and turned his head so he didn’t have to look at the Omega still stretched out on the bed. “Don’t wanna be muffled around you, Pete, specially not when you smell all sweet like this.”

“I know you don’t.” the Omega took in a deep breath and swung unsteady legs over to the floor. “But you don’t want the other Alphas scenting us and knowing what we were doing, right? And if I can scent you like this, it’s going to drive me crazy and make my own suppressants quit working. Please, you gotta take another one to keep me even while we’re here.”

The Alpha set his jaw stubbornly and Peter whispered, “We’ve waited this long, my mate. Through being separated and finding each other again trying to figure out everything else these last few weeks. Another couple hours staying settled won’t kill us. We’ll be home soon, okay? Okay?”

“Okay.” The chance of a kiss getting out of control again was damn high, but Wade took the risk anyway so he could lick the love from his mate’s mouth, lingering at Peter’s lips and threading his fingers into the thick hair to direct the Omega right where he wanted. “We’ll go home soon. Not -- not too soon, though. We can stay as long as you want, Pete. You’re right, this is important.”

“I love you so much.” Peter rubbed their noses together and trilled into Wade’s ear, grateful the Alpha had broken through the month long mental block to touch and kiss like this, more grateful his mate was strong enough and cared enough to keep them from going too far and spoiling the afternoon with his friends. “Thank you. Thank you.”

The Omega escaped out the bedroom door while Wade was throwing back another couple of quick acting suppressants to get his scent under control, and Peter ducked into the bathroom long enough to smooth down his hair and blink the naked need from his eyes before jogging down the stairs to see everyone.

“Pete!” Gwen saw him first and the pretty Alpha shoved a six pack of beer into Johnny’s arms before vaulting over the couch and tackling Peter into a hug. “Oh my god! Where the hell have you been?!”

“Gwen.” Peter pushed his face into her neck and inhaled her muted but still familiar scent. “It’s good to see you.”

“Good to see me?” Gwen ran her hands through his hair and then down his back to wrap tight around his waist. “Good to see me? Which one of us has been AWOL for a solid month and half at this point? I’ve missed you, Pete! I was so worried! I was getting ready to stage an intervention--”

��--and whoever his Alpha is probably would have torn your face off.” Johnny interrupted Gwen’s rambling and pried the two apart. “Let go and let him breathe, Gwen. Or at least let the rest of us get a hug in.”

“Johnny.” The Omega hesitated only a split second before falling into his friend’s arms, Wade’s words about love and bonding ringing through his ears. “Hey. I’ve missed you.”

“Missed you too, Pete.” Johnny lay a gentle kiss on his temple, and touched just there and gone at his throat, asking in a near whisper, “Your mate? You found him?”

“He found me.” Peter confirmed, and Johnny’s smile didn’t seem any less brilliant, any less thrilled so Peter burrowed in closer for a moment longer, sinking into the same comfort he’d known for years. “I can’t wait to introduce the two of you.”

“Heya Tiger.” Harry was on his way over next, but Mary Jane shoved him out of the way and got to Peter first, purring and trilling into his ear when he immediately grabbed her up tight. “Hey hey hey, we’re alright. It’s alright, honey.” she crooned and Peter only hugged her closer. “Oh, Pete. I’ve missed you.”

“Missed you.” Peter had been so deliriously happy with Wade he hadn’t thought about how seeing his friends for the first time in a long time would feel, and he was embarrassingly close to tears as he clutched at Mary Jane and breathed in her ginger peach scent. “M’so happy to be back again, MJ.”

“Back from where, love?” she murmured, petting through his hair. “Back from where?”

“Just--” Peter’s lean frame shook with the effort of getting himself back under control. “Just um-- just back to myself. I’m happy to be back to myself.”

“We’re happy you’re back too, Pete.” Harry carefully carefully unwound MJ’s arms from Peter’s shoulders and turned the Omega around into another hug, cuddling Peter up over his heart and nosing over his cheek tenderly. “Worried about you, buddy. Everything okay now? You back and settled?”

“Sure as hell getting there.” Peter didn’t pull away when the Alpha dotted a quick kiss to his brow, and pressed at Harry’s hand happily when the Alpha repeated the motion on his cheek. “I’m so happy to see you guys, Christ. Didn’t realize how much I missed you until right now.”

“Well we’ve got an entire month of catching up to do, so someone toss me a beer and let’s get to reminiscing!” Gwen crowed. “Omega! On my lap! You owe me at least an hours worth of solid cuddles to make up for all my gray hair.”

“I tried to tell him the same thing, and Peter informed me I’ve been gray since he was in high school.” May appeared with a bowl of chips from the kitchen and Johnny hip checked Harry out of the way to grab it first. “Mouthy Omega.”

“Seriously mouthy.” Gwen laughed out loud at May and snagged Peter in for another hug before tumbling back onto the couch with the Omega held close. “C’mon love, tell us everything we’ve missed. Or what changed and why you’re feeling better!”

“Or who the hell you’ve been shacking up with the last few weeks.” Mary Jane chimed in.” Because I dunno if I’m jealous or worried or--”

“MJ if you need an Alpha to shack up with, I’ll send the limo over.” Harry informed the Omega. “You can move right the hell in with me.”

MJ made an interested noise while Johnny protested how he was never invited to shack up with rich people and Gwen crowed about how Harry wishes such pretty Omega wanted to live with him and Peter sank into his friends arms and let himself just enjoy the chaos for a minute.

He had been too busy in Haven to realize how much he’d missed just this, just being with his friends. After Haven Peter had been too miserable to even want to miss his friends and now he was taken aback by how much he ached with wanting their normal back. Life would be different moving forward now, they wouldn’t ever be just a group of single friends hanging out together and it was maybe sad in a bittersweet sort of way that things had changed in their group without any of them even realizing.

That last dinner before Peter had gone to meet Cable had really been a last dinner and now things were never going to be the same.

“Pete?” Wade’s voice cut into the noise and all thoughts of melancholy fled once the Omega wriggled himself off Gwen’s lap and darted towards the stairs.

“Hi again.” Peter’s kiss was maybe a little too enthusiastic, maybe a little too long judging by how Wade huffed in surprise and the room fell silent behind them, but he didn’t really care. He didn’t really care if everyone thought it was weird to see him kissing an Alpha, he only cared about the way his mind and soul settled as soon as Wade’s arms went around him. “How are you?”

“Suppressants kick in?” Wade didn’t take his eyes off the gathered people at the bottom of the steps, and his hand went strong and possessive at Peter’s waist. “Can you scent me?”

“Just barely.” Peter pushed his nose into Wade’s neck and inhaled. “You’re fine, my mate. Come on. Come on and meet my friends.”

There was only shocked silence as Peter led the Alpha down into the living room, only wide eyes and dropped jaws as the group watched Peter tuck into the strange Alpha’s side, apparently perfectly content to nuzzle into the myriad of scars and hold tight to massive hands.

Not even Gwen had anything to say, and Peter smirked a little at the gobsmacked Alpha before clearing his throat and announcing, “Everyone, this is my mate. My Alpha. This is Wade.”

“Wade.” Johnny was the first to move forward with his hand outstretched and a big smile. “Hey, it’s a real pleasure to meet you. I’m Johnny and uh--” his smile stretched even wider when Wade shook his hand easily. “--man, I’m glad to see you around. We were really worried about Pete for a while, good to know you.”

“Good to know you.” Wade repeated, and Peter left a grateful kiss on his mate’s shoulder. “I owe you a thank you for bein’ so willing to look after my mate.”

“You’re welcome.” Johnny crooned over at Peter, who blushed and hugged Wade a little tighter. “He’s a real special Omega, you’re lucky.”

“Don’t gotta tell me twice.” Wade left a kiss on Peter’s forehead. “Really though. Pete told me what you were willing to do for him and uh--” he coughed quietly. “Thank you. You’re a good friend, a good Alpha.”

“Oh please, Johnny is a putz and con man.” Gwen’s eyes were very wide as she glanced between Peter and Wade. “I once saw him swindle someone out of a hundred dollars with some bullshit wager. Don’t trust anything he says. I’m Gwen, by the way.”

“You’re Gwen.” Wade tried hard not to laugh at the offended squawk from Johnny, and didn’t look away when the female Alpha tilted her chin up and gave him a searing once over. “Nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot.”

“All terrible, I’m sure.” Gwen’s blue eyes flickered curiously over Wade’s scars and then down to where he was still holding onto Peter. “You can let go of the Omega you know, he won’t fall to pieces if you aren’t touching him.”

“Think I’ll keep just as much a hold on my mate as I see fit.” The other Alpha drawled the words, deceptively lazy and entirely dangerous. “Ain’t that right, Pete?”

“Stop.” Peter said firmly, pointing first at Gwen and then at Wade. “Both of you stop. I won’t have you marking your territory like a couple of knot heads. Gwen? Cut it out.”

“He never lets me have any fun!” Just that quick, Gwen’s shoulders relaxed and she grinned at the pair. “It’s good to know you, Wade and it’s really good to see Peter smiling again. Later I'll bust your balls for taking so long to come around but for now do you want a beer or do you want some of the super secret stuff May doesn’t think we know about?”

“He’ll take a beer.” Peter answered for his mate and Gwen finger gunned at him before meandering to the kitchen to get some more bottles. “MJ, come here and meet my mate.”

“Hi.” Mary Jane was gorgeous, red hair and green eyes and the sort of sweet Omega smile that put even mated Alphas to their knees and Wade was crooning before he ever realized what he was doing, cradling MJ’s dainty hand in his own and letting his eyes melt dark red in full approval as he murmured, “Mary Jane, good to know you.”

“Oh my.” Mary Jane nearly swooned over the noise, over her tiny hand disappearing between both of Wade’s, over the flash of fangs and glint of red eyes and she fanned at herself helplessly. “It’s um-- wow. It’s nice to um--”

“Pretty Omega.” Wade’s voice lowered into a rumble. “How are you?”

“Oh fuck me.” Mary Jane blurted, then clapped a hand over her and blushed bright red as Gwen collapsed screaming in laughter. “Oh I-- I need to um-- Pete! Help me!”

“Why don’t you go sit down?” Peter asked dryly, and mortified to her very soul, MJ extricated her hand from Wade’s grip and ran for the kitchen and the sanctuary of Aunt May.

Except of course, May was laughing as loud as she could as MJ whispered what had happened and Johnny rolled his eyes, “Guess we should go rescue her. Pete, can I get you something to drink?”

“Please.” Peter blew kisses at Johnny and Gwen as they went to console MJ, then elbowed his mate in the ribs and hissed, “Don’t do that! I don’t like that!”

“Don’t do what?” the Alpha looked genuinely perplexed and Peter muttered, “Call her pretty Omega. That’s what you call me, don’t do that with her. I don’t want anyone else blushing over you.”

Wade only waited, a smirk at the corner of his lips and both relief and adoration in his gaze, and finally Peter huffed, “Yes! Okay! I wasn’t prepared to be jealous for someone else thinking you are handsome! Shut up about it!”

He pulled away in exasperation, but the Alpha snatched him right back up and crushed a kiss to his mate’s mouth, not letting up until Peter was melting and soft and trembling a little against Wade’s body.

“Baby boy.” he rumbled and Peter clutched at him tighter. “M’only yours.”

“Damn right you’re only mine.” The Omega whispered back. “No more calling other Omega’s pretty, no matter how ridiculous their reaction is.”

“Never again.” Wade tapped pointedly at the raised bite marks over Peter’s bonding spot. “Yours, sweetheart.”

“Mine.” Peter let his head fall back, fully trusting his mate to catch him before twinging his neck. “I love you.”

“Love you too.” the Alpha smoothed over the bonding spot one more time. “Go see if your Aunt needs help?”

“Yeah, I’ll be right back.” he squeezed at Wade’s head and headed to the kitchen, pausing long enough to poke Harry in the side and order, “Go say hi, stop being a jerk.”

Harry only snorted after the Omega, then folded his arms and squared his shoulders as Wade came down the final few steps to the living room floor. The two Alphas were of similar height though Wade was wider by at least half and his entire being held like coiled danger, while Harry was less intimidating in his sweater vest and artfully combed hair.

But the difference didn’t stop Harry from letting his eyes run red and his voice roll angry as he said, “I’m not your biggest fan, Wade. You let Pete mourn and cry for three full months before you decided to show back up. He nearly died, do you know that? Couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep, couldn’t even function and then you showed back up and now none of us have seen him for a month. Doesn’t seem real healthy in my opinion.”

“In your opinion?” Wade asked casually, far too casually for how badly it hurt to hear that Peter had nearly died of grief. “In my opinion, what you think doesn’t really matter to me or my mate.”

“See, that’s where you’re wrong.” Harry’s lip curled in a warning snarl. “I’ve known Peter longer than you have, damn near our whole lives. And he can say what he wants about soulmates and you guys being meant to be, but it doesn’t change the fact that you were gone when he needed you most and for some reason, there’s things about you Pete won’t tell us. Things about your relationship he isn’t willing to talk about.”

“Now listen here--” Wade started but the other Alpha cut him off, “And now you’re making moves on Mary Jane too? Seems to me like you aren’t the sort of Alpha that would be good for any of my friends, leastwise Pete whose never so much as dated. And now all the sudden you’re mated and he can’t be without you for more than a few minutes? His mark isn’t even silver, how are we supposed to know your bond is actually--”

“You should be careful tryna say our bond isn’t real.” Wade interrupted, and Harry took an uncomfortable step backwards when he was suddenly staring at blood red eyes and long, curving fangs. “I appreciate you looking out for Pete, and he loves you a lot which is the only reason I’m not tearing out your throat right now.”

“I--I--”

Wade hadn’t even moved, not even a bare inch towards Harry but the smaller Alpha backed up yet again when Wade simply shifted his weight forward. “Pete is my Omega and nobody’s gonna say we aren’t good for each other.” He growled. “I know you think you’re protecting him but that’s my job, I’m his Alpha, I’m his mate and I couldn’t help us being apart for a while but I’m here now and m’not gonna stand for you being suspicious of our bond, got it?”

“Do you love him?” Harry asked bluntly. “Cos Pete’s never loved anyone except for us and I don’t care how big you are, if you’re messing with my friend without loving him I’ll—“

“You’ll what?” Peter came back from the kitchen with a beer in each hand but he stopped and stared between the two Alphas uncertainly when he felt the tension in the room. “Alpha? Harry? Everything okay?”

Neither Alpha answered so Peter handed off the beers to an equally worried May and crossed to his mate, humming soothingly as he set his palm flat against Wade’s heart and murmured, “My love? What is it?”

Harry watched with no small degree of interest and maybe even suspicion as Wade physically couldn't stop himself from responding to the Omega. The red in Wade’s eyes faded to soft hazel, the fangs that were obviously capable of ripping someone apart covered as the Alpha smiled a little. The huge shoulders relaxed, frame curving in protective and sheltering over Peter's smaller self and when Wade put his own hand over Peter's and rumbled something soft and adoring… well the little scene answered all the important questions Harry had about whether or not Wade really loved his friend.

Everything about Peter and his Alpha was so clearly in tune that Harry swallowed back the rest of his demands about where Wade had been for three months and why he was suddenly back, and held up both hands peacefully to tell the Omega, “Everything’s fine, Pete. You know how Alphas can get. But we’re fine.”

“How Alphas can get.” Johnny bumped shoulders with Harry and grinned. “Look at you acting like a knot head about an Omega that has clearly chosen his mate. Cut that out.”

“He was making sure I’m treating you right.” Wade lifted Peter's knuckles to his mouth for a soft kiss, and in the background Mary Jane made a strangled noise and clutched at her chest. “Being a good friend, a good Alpha. No harm.”

“No harm.” Harry repeated, and when Wade looked up the other Alpha nodded shortly to acknowledge the boundary lines drawn.

“Well if we’re all done with that?” May clapped her hands to break the awkwardness in the room. “I’ve been cooking for half the day to make sure I have enough food to feed you all, but since Wade's twice the size of you other bratty Alphas I’m a little worried about running out. Gwen, I suggest you get a plate first after the Omegas so there’s still some food left before the hordes—“ she gestured towards Johnny specifically. “—descend.”

“One time!” Johnny cried mournfully. “One time I eat two pizzas by myself and now she acts like I’ll eat her out of house and home every night! It was one time, May! I had the munchies!”

May only waved him off and the Alpha insisted, “Last year Mary Jane ate an entire chocolate cake and no one blinked! But I can’t live down the night of two pizzas? It was six years ago and I was stoned outta my—“

Harry cleated his throat loudly while Gwen hissed, “Narc!!” And Johnny corrected, “I was a growing boy and needed the calories. That’s what I was, a growing boy.”

“A growing boy who raided my pot stash.” May retorted and Mary Jane squealed with laughter. “I’m onto you, Johnny. Don’t think I’m not. Come and eat now before it gets cold and I really get fussy.”

“God forbid Auntie gets fussy.” Peter teases and the Alpha popped her teeth at him playfully as she shooed everyone into the kitchen for grub.

“My mate?” As soon as the room was clear, Peter turned back to Wade and tugged at his hand anxiously. “What happened with Harry? Are you guys going to be okay? I was so worried about how things would go with Johnny I forgot Harry was definitely going to be protective and probably rude.”

“S’fine, baby.” The Alpha assured him. “M’glad you have friends who care so much about you. Logan would literally leave me hanging off a cliff if a rescue inconvenienced him at all, so this is fine.”

“Logan wouldn't—“ Peter started to object and then stopped. “Yeah okay. You sure you’re alright?”

“I’m here with you, aren't I?” The kiss was gentle and almost chaste, a far cry from the greedy, grasping kisses of earlier. “That’s all I need, Pete. Just you.”

“I feel like I’ve said this a lot today, but good god do I love you.” the Omega bumped their noses together. “Thank you for this. I promise I won’t make you be social for a while, okay?”

“Yeah, I’m gonna hold you to that.” his mate retorted. “One party a month is my social quota and I’ll need at least a month to recoup.”

“Ridiculous Alpha.”

******************

“I need to know everything.” Once most of food had been eaten by Johnny and conversation in the living room had switched from terribly embarrassing stories of Peter and friends growing up to other matters, Mary Jane snuck away to the kitchen to help the other Omega with dishes and to gossip.

“Pete.” she poked at his side when he didn’t respond. “I need to know everything immediately.”

“What do you mean, everything?” Peter kissed her cheek then went back to drying a plate. “We’ve been sitting in there talking for hours! Wade’s Canadian, his scars are from an event right around the time he presented as an Alpha. We met through a mutual friend Nathan Summers, we scent matched and spent every day together until I took a bad fall and had to be Mede-vac’ed down to Haven Mercy. It took us forever to find each other again because we didn’t really know last names or actual addresses and Nathan Summers helped with that again. Now we’re together and once I go through an actual heat, we’ll officially mate so we’ve got silver marks. There’s nothing else to know, MJ.”

“Don’t give me that shit.” the pretty Omega snorted. “I want the good details, Peter Parker. Tell me right this instant how big that dick is.”

“MARY JANE!” Peter slipped and nearly cut himself on a knife when he wheeled around in shock. “HOW DARE YOU--”

“I’m thinking it’s nine inches and an additional few bits of goodness fully knotted up.” she interrupted and Peter’s mouth clicked shut. “He’s got good thighs and that’s always proportionate so he’s hefty and I refuse to believe wild mountain men Alpha’s are anything less than tree trunk endowed, so actually don’t even bother correcting me if I’m wrong.”

“Mary Jane.”

“I’ve chosen my fantasy and I’m happy with it.”

“Mary Jane.”

“Either give me some goddamn details or leave me alone, Pete. Your choice.”

“Alright, alright.” Peter smiled reluctantly when MJ clapped her hands in theatrical excitement. “Wade is-- he’s huge, okay? I couldn’t hardly walk the day after he knotted me up right.”

“I knew it!” the Omega crowed. “Bigger than our Alphas right?”

“Not even a contest.”

“Gwen will be so jealous!”

“There’s no reason for Gwen to know how big my mate is.” Peter said flatly and MJ cracked up laughing. “But I um--” he bit at his lip shyly and the other Omega’s eyes widened in anticipation. “-- the first time he fit inside me I um-- I--”

“SPILL IT!”

“I came with out anything.” Peter said all in a rush, and Mary Jane did another one of those chest clutches. “He didn’t even have to, you know-- didn’t even have to move. He just got all the way in me and I think I blacked out. Just completely lost my mind right there, he didn’t have to do anything.”

“Jesus, Pete.”

“It was like being heat desperate except it wasn’t heat, it was just him.” the Omega confided. “Just Wade, just my Alpha. My soulmate.”

“Oh, Tiger.” Mary Janes green eyes softened with affection. “Massive dong aside, you really do love him, don’t you?”

“You’ve been spending way too much time with Gwen if you’re talking like that.” Peter flicked water at her. “And yes, I really do love him. More than I thought it was possible to love anyone, especially an Alpha.”

“Is it weird to be so happy with him after thinking you’d never want a mate?” Mary Jane finally took over washing dishes so Peter could keep drying and putting them away. “And you’re actually scent matched? I didn’t think that was a real thing outside of those vintage romance novels.”

“Yeah, I literally got myself one of those Alphas from the cover of those bad romance stories.” The Omega wasn’t one bit ashamed. “Rippling muscles, insanely hot fangs, my scent makes him bat shit crazy and seriously, MJ when my Alpha growls…”

Peter shivered in delight. “It’s unreal. I can’t even explain it. We don’t wear suppressants around each other cos reading each others scent is too amazing. I can tell what he’s thinking all the time, if he’s happy or sad or-- or worried. And Christ, when he wants me I just--”

The sentence failed so Peter just shrugged, helpless and pleased.

“I’m jealous.” Mary Jane informed him. “I can’t believe out of the two of us, you got the most Alpha of any Alpha to ever Alpha ever. He is ridiculously good looking, the muscles are outrageous and he obviously worships the ground you walk on. I’m jealous.”

“Well, that worship goes both ways.” he said matter of factly. “I didn’t know love like this was even possible and now it’s so easy to have with my mate. Half the time I feel like I won’t breathe without him there in the room, other times I think we are so connected I would be able to sense his heart beat from miles away. It’s incredible, MJ. It’s just-- there’s no--”

He made another one of those helpless shrugs. “More than words, that’s what it is. You could hand me a full dictionary and I wouldn’t be able to find a word that describes our bond. He’s everything I didn’t know I wanted and a thousand other things I need more than I need air.”

“Jealous.” she sighed again. “And by the way, you scent horny even under your suppressants. Does he just never let you out of bed?”

“I hate that word so much.” Peter pulled a face and grimaced. “And yeah, we pretty much lay in bed together or out on the couch together constantly right now, but we actually haven’t--” he hesitated a little. “-- we actually haven’t been together since we found each other again.”

“How the heck have you stayed off of him, Pete?”

“I think you need to cool it a little bit.” The male Omega huffed at her. “That’s my mate you’re getting all worked up about. Cut it out.”

“I’ll do no such thing.” she retorted primly. “I fully remember a conversation we had about how I’d probably kill someone to have an Alpha with fangs pin me up against a door and bite me and then you just show up with one? Oh no, Peter Parker, I will be as worked up as I want.”

“Slutty Omega.”

“Well someone should be slutty about him!” MJ laughed again when Peter finally relented and smiled. “Seriously, how are you not jumping him right now. It’s been a month! And before that you were separated for like three months! Get some, Pete!”

“We came pretty close to definitely defiling my childhood bedroom earlier.” Peter admitted. “But we’ve had so much to figure out and catch up on these last few weeks that I guess sex just sorta.. Just sorta didn’t matter. And you know it never really mattered to me, anyway. He’s the first Alpha I’ve ever looked at outside of heat and wanted, you know? But just holding each other has been enough, just being back together after thinking we’d never see each other again.”

“Uh-huh.” Mary Jane didn’t sound impressed. “That’s nice. So when are you going to do the deed. I need recent details and I need them quickly. Is your Alpha um-- textured?-- all over his body or just above waist or--”

“I’m done talking to you.” Peter snapped at her butt with a towel and then tossed it away. “In fact I think I’m done with this whole party. It’s been good to see everyone but you’re right, I haven’t been laid in a month and that’s an actual travesty. Get out of the way.”

“Go get some, Tiger.” MJ lay a sweet kiss on his lips and purred when he immediately kissed her back. “I’m really happy for you. Honestly. Dick jokes aside--”

“---seriously, stop hanging out with Gwen.”

“-- I’m happy you’re back to smiling, okay?” she kissed him one more time. “Call me later this week and we can have coffee?”

“I’ll call you.” he promised, and on his way out the door he stopped to kiss May and promised, “I’ll call you too, Auntie. We’re over due for a talk I think.”

“The only talk we need to have is whether or not you two will be giving me grandkids!” she called to Peter’s retreating back and Mary Jane started laughing again. “I want six! Peter! I want SIX!”

“What’s May hollering about?” Harry intercepted Peter on the way into the living room. “By the way, you might need to rescue your mate. Gwen and Johnny have been talking sports for the last fifteen minutes and Wade’s starting to look a little glassy eyed. Go save him before Gwen starts talking about how the Miracle on Ice was just propaganda and not actually a technical miracle.”

“Oh god, has she gotten back into hockey again?”

“Weirdly obsessed with it, yeah.”

“Thanks for the heads up.” Peter blew the Alpha a kiss and went to rescue his mate from an increasingly heated discussion about the merits of hockey versus soccer. “Gwen, Johnny, lay off the crazy talk. It’s time for me and my Alpha to go home.”

“No no no, wait!” Gwen shook her head at him, waving her arms wildly. “I refuse to believe your mate is Canadian and has never heard of the Miracle on Ice! I refuse to believe it! Wade, how are you a damn Maple Leaf and don’t support the sport? That doesn’t even make any--”

“Gwen!” Peter growled, low pitched and damn near a snarl and the noise was so unexpected from the Omega that both Gwen and Johnny shut up immediately, eyes wide and mouths falling open in shock.

“...Pete?” Wade’s eyes jolted red when he heard his mate’s little growl, his entire body tightening in anticipation. “You okay?”

“Take me home, my mate.” Peter let his growl taper off into a coaxing purr, holding out his hand for the Alpha and opening up the line of his throat as a blatant invitation. “Please.”

“My mate.” Wade’s growl was much deeper than Peter’s had been, halfway to subsonic and vibrating through the floor as he licked over his fangs. “Home. Yes. Now.”

******************

It was Johnny who broke the stunned and almost uncomfortable silence after the mated pair had all but run from the house, Peter calling a car and shouting for the driver to hurry up, Wade unable to stop growling and grabbing at the Omega tight.

Harry was speechless and maybe even icked out by the display, Gwen kept clearing her throat and shuffling her feet because the surge of needy Omega scent still lingered in the room behind Peter, Mary Jane and May in the kitchen doorway sharing surprised looks and speculative glances.

So it was Johnny who coughed once, twice, and decided out loud, “So. Not gonna see them for a while, right? I’ve got twenty bucks that says it will be a full week before Peter even thinks to text one of us to let us know he’s still in one piece. Any takers?”

“Yep.”

“Here.”

“Count me in.”

“You should be ashamed of yourselves.” May sniffed. “Betting on how long it will take for a newly bonded pair to leave each other’s side. You should be happy for Peter, not complaining and making wagers!”

Harry only looked at the Alpha and May conceded, “It will be no more than three days, not even the randiest mated pairs can last long without food. Ben and I never did, though we sure tried like hell.”

“OH MY GOD!” Gwen shrieked and covered her ears while Johnny shouted about never wanting to hear about old people sex and Harry blushed clear to the roots of his hair, the room dissolving into dramatic groans and horrified gasps.

“Bratty kids.” May waved them off and went back to the kitchen. “Just wait till you’re all mated, then you’ll understand. Sheesh.”

Listening to the background noise with a fond smile-- it was so nice to have a full house again-- May sent a quick text off to Peter.

From Auntie May: SIX grandchildren, Omega. Tell your mate I expect a houseful of baby laughs and tiny feet. Get busy and remember to stop for protein snacks.

From Peter: OH MY GOD AUNTIE STOP

*************

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**************

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#ncts fics #spideypool #peter parker #wade wilson #gwen stacy #mary jane watson #harry osborn #may parker #johnny storm #abo dynamic #soulmate au #time travel au #alpha wade wilson #omega peter parker

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rallis-fatalis · 3 years

Text

Home is Where the Spirit is

Across a river, in the depths of ancient magic, or even in her very dreams, Rallis had a knack of making friends in the most unusual places. That trend seems to continue as her journey brings her to the wizarding town of Yanille, where she uncovers a whole new world of wonders, and quite literally at that. Friends will be made, relationships will be mended, and many cats will be pet as Rallis finds a family and a home that she can truly call her own.

The sun broke through the shady covering of the treetop overhead, dappling Rallis the sleeping blue dragon underneath with dollops of gold. A beam of light peeked through the gaps in the leaves and shone right on her closed eyes, making her groan annoyedly. She covered her face and rolled over, only for the grass beneath her to tickle her nose. She sneezed and whined as she finally sat up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes with a yawn. It was very bright and sunny out for having just woken up. Perhaps it was noon or soon to be. Rallis pulled a pilfered banana out of one of her pack pockets and enjoyed her sweet breakfast as she listened to the birds above her and flicked her tail in the sun. It had been quite some time since Rallis left Varrock to go on her own adventure by herself. For exactly how long she wasn't certain, she never was good at getting a feel for and remembering the passing of time of any kind, but the full moon had come at least twice. So maybe two months? She couldn't be bothered to remember. In that time, though, she had certainly caused some trouble, and right now she found herself having to hide from an entire city because of it. Not long ago Rallis had helped a native of Karamja steal something of his back from a spoiled rich man in Ardougne and she may have stolen something for herself as well, something that was as of right now very poorly hidden in her pack. When she returned to Ardougne after her successful mission, the city was on high alert. People were interrogated and searched, some even jailed, all because that spoiled brat didn't like that his stolen goods had been taken back. She could feel some of the knights of the city wanted to question her, likely due to her obviously different appearance, so she ran off before she could be considered suspect. She ran south, exploring Yanille, petting larupias, enjoying the hot tubs of Corsair, and just having fun seeing all the new things the world had to offer. Rallis finished her banana and left the peel for the nearby gopher to feast upon. She was currently hanging around a short ways north of Yanille, keeping an eye on the people who came and went, looking to see if any of them might be knights, and keeping an ear trained on news from the north. She wanted to continue exploring but she couldn't get past Ardougne until things calmed down. How obnoxious. Rallis flopped against her overly stuffed pack with a huff. The thing had been nearly empty when she started her adventure and now it was bursting at the seams with goodies she found. And she was starting to get tired of all the nasty bugs trying to raid her pouches for her fruit while she snoozed outside. She wished she had a place to store her stuff where no one could find it. Or a nice place to stay, like her old cave with her family or her rooms back in Taverley and Varrock. Traveling was nice, but having a place to call her own was nicer. She threw her pack on and brushed the grass off her clothes and made her way back to Yanille. There had to be something to do to pass the days until Ardougne calmed down. Everywhere she went, Rallis was greeted by harsh glares and mistreatment due to her unusual appearance, until people came to learn she wasn't going to burn down their town, that is. Yanille was no different, but the people here seemed to be even more on edge with her. They whispered things about her being a spy for the ogre shamans or things of the like and she was thoroughly interrogated upon entry into the city. When they realized she didn't even know what an "oh-grr" was, most left her alone, but there were still a few guardsmen and mages that gave her a nasty stink eye when she passed through the gates once more. She ignored them and walked through the town to see if anyone needed any help. She couldn't quite put a finger on it, but there was something about Yanille Rallis loved far more than any other town she had been to thus far. Perhaps it was how magical the place was. Perhaps it was how secluded from other cities it was. Perhaps it was how wild and natural most of the lands around it were. Or perhaps it was something she just couldn't identify. Either way, Rallis knew she liked the place and she was starting to grow almost happy her illegal shenanigans in Ardougne had forced her here. As she walked through town looking for something to do, a black cat came up to her. He sat down in front of her and stared expectantly. "Hello pretty kitty!" Rallis chirped. She knelt down and held a hand out. The cat sniffed her claws and rubbed his face against them with a purr. Rallis purred back in kind which only seemed to make the cat happier. "You're so cute and friendly, kitty cat! Where did you come from?" The cat said nothing and continued to rub his face against her hand. Rallis scratched his head with her other hand and the cat flopped on the ground. She scratched his chin with one hand and his belly with the other. He closed his eyes with a purr and enjoyed the warm stone beneath him as he was pet and scratched. "You're so friendly for a stray I've never met. And you're so silky and soft too. Someone must look after you. Did you get lost?" The cat continued to lay down and purr as she pet him, without a single care in the world. Suddenly, a scream and small explosion shook the quiet. The cat jumped up with a start and ran off as a burst of smoke puffed out of a now shattered glass window of the Wizard's Guild. Rallis could see the other windows quickly being thrown open by the wizards as they coughed and shooed the smoke out. It didn't seem like a dangerous affair but she figured she would check to see if everyone was alright anyway. Rallis turned to say goodbye to the cat but he was already long gone. She ran toward the guild with a frown. Hopefully she would find the kitty again later so she could continue petting it. Three wizards were lugging the charred remains of a table out of the guild. The poor table had been mostly reduced to ash and smoke and it reeked of chemicals. Zavistic, the guild leader, oversaw the train of wizards carting out burnt supplies with a sigh and a shake of his head. Rallis wrinkled her nose and bounced over. "What happened?" Rallis asked. "Blow up a death rune?" "Hello again, dragon. No, nothing like that. Some fool simply mislabeled some of the chemicals upstairs and someone else set fire to the lab tables upon mixing them. Everything is fine, save the poor tables." Someone came with a half burnt chair and tossed it outside. Rallis choked. "It's so stinky! At least you're all fine though. Need some help?" "Thank you but I think we'll be fine. Everything is almost cleared out and the fires weren't big by any means. T'was simply a small accident. Though I suppose we will be doing work on the floor for the next week or so." Another table, half burnt away, was tossed onto the pile of ruined furniture. Someone called 'that's it' from above. "'That's it,'" Zavistic snorted. "That's most of the things we had! What a day." Rallis took a look at the discarded wood. Not all of it was beyond repair. Some pieces were salvageable. "I can fix you a couple things if you want," she offered. "I'm good at building stuff." The guild leader was surprised. "Oh really? You're an incredible mage, a skilled botanist, and a builder now? Aren't you the accomplished monster." "Uncle Cake said I am a 'dragon of many talents!' If you have tools, I can make tables." "I'm sure I can find something." After some searching for a hammer and other things the wizards thought might be useful, Rallis got to work. It was incredible watching the dragon cut through the wood scraps with such speed and accuracy. Sometimes she didn't even need the saw they found for her, claws working just as well. While some wizards went back to work, others watched as they pretended to study. Zavisitic was impressed. Rallis was already getting to work on making the scraps into a table. "Where did you learn to build so quickly? I've never seen a beast build a table out of scraps in minutes!" "Falador," Rallis answered as she measured. "I was just as fast there too. I've always been good at building things for as long as I can't remember." "You mean can?" Zavistic corrected. "No." The wizard scowled. What a weird creature this visitor to Yanille was. As he was about to go off to continue his own work, a black cat strolled up to Rallis and sat down next to her. The dragon in turn chirped happily and pet the cat as it contently purred at her side. "Is that your cat?" Zavistic asked. Rallis shook her head. "Nope! I bumped into him on my way into town today. Isn't he adorable? He's so cuddly!" "But... it's a black cat," he said. "That's a witch's cat. Ominous if you ask me." "Black fur is no different from any other color. He's a sweet little thing who's keeping me company." The wizard grumbled. "Well when you start getting bad luck don't come whining to me." He left Rallis to her work. Rallis spent the next hour or so fixing and carving a set of tables for the wizards, stopping to pet her new feline friend as she worked. Perhaps she would have to find his owner and return him when she was done. Though she did enjoy his company, she had to admit. She almost wanted to keep him as a traveling buddy. As Rallis was testing the stability of the second table, the cat jumped to attention and hissed toward to eastern entrance of town. She tried to see what he was so upset about. "What's wrong kitty cat?" The sound of clinking armor grew closer as a group of Ardougne knights strode through the entrance. The cat hissed and ran off and Rallis paled. The head of the Yanillian guard went to meet them. Rallis braved getting close enough to listen while remaining hidden behind some bushes. "...to believe the culprit is a mage. The mansion they robbed could have only been broken into with the use of powerful dispelling magic. Have you seen any suspicious characters that might be our suspect?" Rallis whined. So they were here looking for her. She had to get out of here fast. Carefully, Rallis made her way closer to the western entrance to town. She squawked in dismay at the group of knights stationed there as well. They had blocked both the exits. She could try climbing the walls, she figured, or maybe try to squeeze through the hole that led under them. The former would grab their attention though and the latter let out right next to one of the guard barracks. What was she going to do? Something soft padded her leg. The black cat was back and it had something in its mouth. He gently placed it on the floor and meowed. Rallis picked it up and gave it a look over. "This is a magic tablet. I've never seen one with this design though. Kitty cat, did you steal this from the wizards?" The cat ignored her question and began to walk away. When he realized his friend wasn't following, he meowed and motioned to her with his tail. Keeping low, Rallis followed the cat to the western part of town. The cat led her dangerously close to the knights standing guard by the western entrance. They were chatting with the local guard and telling them to keep an eye out for suspicious activity. A dragon hiding in some bushes trying to follow a weird cat could definitely be considered suspicious activity. The cat bounded right out into the open and hopped onto an odd circular stone sculpture Rallis had passed by on her first trip into town. She had no idea what it could be, but it was certainly out of place and held some faint kind of magic. The cat curled onto the sculpture's steps and looked at the stone ring that stood behind him with a meow. The guards were confused at the weird cat but ultimately decided it wasn't worth their time. It was just a cat after all. They went back to the knights by the entrance and Rallis edged closer to the stone sculpture. She slithered quickly behind it and laid flat on the ground, hiding as best she could behind the raised almost stair-like base of the sculpture. "What now?" she whispered to the cat. The cat slammed his paws on the sculpture where he stood, then walked toward the edge of the stone ring and vanished. Rallis' ears shot up in surprise. "Where did you go, kitty?!" Some of the knights were heading her way from the eastern entrance, meticulously taking in every detail of the town. There was no way they wouldn't see her. Rallis hissed and flattened herself more, gripping the tablet worriedly. 'What am I supposed to do?!' The tablet burned in her hand for a moment. '...Break it here? But I don't even know what it does.' The knights were getting closer. She didn't have any other options. She slammed the stone as hard as she could against the base of the sculpture. As the tablet turned to dust in her hand, the ring of the sculpture crackled into a shower of purple sparks. The knights and the guards ran over at the commotion. Rallis whined and hunkered lower as they drew closer. They would spot her any moment! Something grabbed her roughly by her pack and yanked her through the sputtering magic before it fizzled into nothingness, leaving everyone left behind to their confusion. _________________________________________________ "Really? This is what you had me waste my power on?" An excited meow. "It looks weird. Smells weird too. I can't believe you had me rescue this thing." Rallis jumped up from the noise with a gasp and immediately wished she hadn't. She felt sick and the view around her was disorienting with how suddenly different from Yanille it was. She fell back to the ground and smacked her head on something metal. She clutched her head with a whine and glared at whatever she hit. It was a metal ring, similar in size and structure to the stone ring of the statue in Yanille, only this one was made of intricately woven rusted bronze in the shape of vines. Something poked Rallis' leg and she turned around with a start. A creature was looking down at her, some kind of weird bipedal cat that stood only a couple inches taller than her. It had pale dusty brown fur and rows of menacing black spines running over its body. It almost looked like if you forced a larupia to stand upright. It scowled at the dragon with its empty white eyes. "What are you? And what's your name?" the creature asked. "R-Rallis. My name is Rallis. And I'm a dragon." She was surprised the beast spoke to her in Common and it just added to her confusion. She looked around slowly, taking in her surroundings. She was sitting in a grassy clearing surrounded by huge thick trees. Flowers of various colors sprouted throughout the clearing, little splotches of color to break the monotony of green. Two old crumbling stone statues of dragons stood proudly overhead. "A dragon?" the cat creature before her snorted. "I guess if you want to be. Not like any dragon I've seen though." They addressed a figure next to Rallis again. "What did you do to get caught up with a beast like this?" A happy meow answered back. Rallis turned to find the same black cat from earlier sitting by her side. "Kitty!" She began to scratch the cat under its chin and he purred loudly, rubbing his face against her. "Well I'll be..." the creature said. "Sissel really does like you." "So that's your name?" Rallis cooed. "Sissel. What a nice name. A nice name for a nice kitty. Is he yours?" "Is he my what?" the creature growled. A row of black spines bristled on the back of its neck. "Your friend? He didn't seem like a stray, he's too well fed. You must take good care of him, he's so silky and such a sweetheart." The creature calmed itself, running a hand over its spines to flatten them. "Sorry, I thought you were going to ask if he was my pet." It spat the word out like poison. "Sissel is owned by no one, as are all cats, but I do take care of him." "So you are friends!" Rallis chirped. She pulled herself from the ground. "Hello friend of cats who is also a cat! What's your name?" "...Sen," they muttered. "Nice to meet you then, Sen! Thanks for saving me from those knights! I was about to be in a lot of trouble. Where am I now?" "Where I live," they answered. "It's a refuge for... lots of things. Sissel was watching you and thought you might have need of this place." "I did! Thanks for saving me, pretty kitty." Rallis picked up Sissel and carried him. "I know you said this is your home but where exactly is this? It almost doesn't feel... real. Like it's... how do I put this... not in the world?" Sen nodded. "That's because it's not." They pointed to the bronze portal frame behind Rallis. "Through there is your world of Gielinor. This place is its own small world, in its own pocket between worlds. It's a home for those who need one, and it's very difficult to access, making it safe and private. You'll find creatures from many worlds call this home." "That's so cool!" Rallis exclaimed, stars in her eyes. "Are you from another world then?!" Sen ignored the question and turned away. "The human that found this place built a castle on the highest point." They pointed to the mountaintop in the distance. A block of white and green sat on top. "You may stay there as long as you like until you have no more need of this place. I will be there too if you have need of me. Please don't have need of me." "Wait!" Rallis called after them as they sped away. "I don't know how to get up there! Please show me!" Sen growled as they quickly skirted through the forest and up the winding mountain path, ignoring Rallis' questions as they went. The dragon was pestering them with countless questions and they didn't feel like opening up to a total stranger. They soon reached the mountaintop, the house looming before them. Rallis finally shushed as she took in every detail of the vine covered dragon adorned entrance. "Here is the old human castle," Sen began. "You are free to stay as long as you like and in any room you like except mine. Top floor, claw marks on the door, can't miss it but please try to." "Thank you," Rallis said. "But please, before you go, I have so many questions! Like--!" Sen hissed the dragon into silence. "I know you have questions! I heard it the whole walk up here! I'm not answering them, I'm taking a nap. Ask Sissel your damn sea of questions." Rallis blinked at the cat in her arms. "I don't speak cat. I can't talk to him!" "You don't?! What kind of useless dragon...?" Sen angrily muttered to themself as they ripped out a spine from their shoulder. They crushed it into pieces in their hands, enchanted something unintelligible until the crushed bits started to glow, and finally threw the spell glowing in their hands at Rallis. Rallis flinched as the spell splashed in her face and faded. Sen grumbled and walked through the entrance to the massive house. "Another one wasted on a dragon that can't speak right. Congratulations! You can understand cat now! You're welcome!" They slammed the door behind them. Rallis blinked at Sissel in her arms. "So I can understand you now?" "You can," Sissel meowed. Rallis' eyes went so wide they nearly popped out of her head. "I CAN UNDERSTAND CATS!!! This is amazing! I have so many questions, pretty kitty! But first, how are you? Thank you for helping me! Are you doing okay? Do you need anything? Oh my god I can't believe I can understand cats!" She very excitedly ran into the house with Sissel as he gave a tour of the place. The interior of the house was as overgrown with wildlife as the exterior. A rectangular garden filled with weeds and vines crawled up the supports of the rooms surrounding it. Some plant life even crawled its way into some of the rooms. Most of the furniture was smashed or rotted away from time and neglect. Despite the disarray, Rallis could surmise the place was built like a one-stop shop. Storerooms for herbs and seeds, a workshop to craft in, a now crumbling library, and more resided downstairs. Upstairs held traces of vaults meant to store valuables, rooms meant to access an incredible amount of magic that now lay inert, multiple bedrooms, and rooms Rallis couldn't even identify the use for. Sen's claw scuffed room was at the end of the hall. There was a staircase that led to what Rallis assumed was the roof but something was barring it shut from up top. Every way she turned held more secrets and she was growing more excited by the second. "This place is so cool!" she told Sissel. "Do only you and Sen live here?" "Yomiel and Eve do too. They are two other cats, friends of mine. We three stay by Sen's side and assist them in their work, which has unfortunately been at a standstill for many lives now." "What do they do?" "Search and rescue," the cat explained. "Like what I did with you. This place used to be the home of a human summoner that would help spirits and creatures in need, no matter what world they came from. Sen was one of those in need, and as thanks for being rescued they stayed here to help the summoner and became best friends. The human passed on eventually and Sen didn't take it well, and now they refuse to leave this place and continue their work. Now we three, Yomiel, Eve, and I, do most of the work while Sen grumpily sleeps the days away." Rallis felt bad for the poor old cat beast. "Anything I could do to make them feel better?" Sissel smiled. "That may or may not be one of the reasons I brought you here." "Aww, you didn't just want to help me out of the good in your heart?" The cat hissed in such a way it sounded like he was laughing. "I never said our rescue services were free!" Sissel led Rallis back downstairs and into a broken down room, far away from Sen's room. He whispered even still. "I would like you to help get my patron back on their feet. Give them some kind of motivation, or some spark of hope. Sen hasn't seen a reason to continue existing without their friend leading the way, and they're starting to fade out of existence because of it." "There's always a reason to keep going!" Rallis said adamantly. "How can I help?" Sissel motioned to the broken down room they were in. "I was hoping you could bring this place back to its former glory. I saw you work, you could easily rebuild this place. If Sen saw this place back to its old self, maybe they'll return to their old self too." "I can do that!" Rallis cheered. "I'm good at gardening and building! I'll do it! But I need things to build with, and help too." "We can assist you with that," Sissel purred. He slithered behind a post and vanished for a moment before returning from underneath a shattered chair with two other cats, one hellishly red and the other an unnatural purple. "Meet Yomiel and Eve," he introduced. Rallis squealed. "You're all so cute and pretty!" She held out her hand to give them a pet. Eve meowed and rubbed her face down Rallis' arm while Yomiel hissed defiantly. "Call me cute and pretty again, I dare you," the hellcat hissed. "Would you prefer handsome and cool?" Rallis cooed and held her hand out. Yomiel gave her a grumpy side eye and rubbed against her hand once. "Yes I would!" He strode over to Sissel's side and sat down with his tail around his friend. "What are we doing then? Better be good or else I'm going back to sleep." "We're going to help our new friend here fix up the place!" Sissel decreed. "Oh that sounds like fun!" Eve meowed. "How can we help?" "I think we should start with the garden first," Rallis said. "Let's dig up all the nasty weeds and make this place a bit less of a jungle." The three cats meowed in agreement and the four got to work.

The three cats were excellent at ripping up some of the smaller weeds of the garden. Rallis used her much bigger claws to rip out the sturdier shrubs. The upturned dirt poofed into the air with every weed pulled, and Rallis and Sissel couldn’t help but have a bit of a dirt war as they worked. They kept their laughter hushed so as not to alert Sen. Up above the garden, perched in the vine nests that formed the roof, curious quarking and chirping commentated the scene below. Odd green wyverns with rainbow feathered wings were watching every movement of Rallis and the cats with wide eyes. Rallis smiled and called them over to help. The green wyverns were more than happy to have something fun to do and stripped some of the overgrown ivy off the walls, clearing up some of the windows from the second floor for probably the first time in a century.

Other flying beasts saw the wyverns line their nests with the soft ivy and wanted some for their own nest. Rallis called the newcomers down to the garden and the creatures excitedly took away the pulled up weeds for themselves. Soon the entire garden was cleaned of any trace of weeds, a blank canvas ready for paint. Yomiel and Eve meowed proudly and Sissel vanished to find a plant to celebrate with as the first thing to grow in the new garden: catnip. Rallis helped him plant it and the three felines took a much needed break by it. She took a moment to smile at the work done so far. It was already a remarkable difference. The ground was actually traversable now and ready to become something beautiful, the walls shone pristine and white for the first time in ages, and the whole house felt more open and inviting. Once the rooms were cleared out and cleaned up, Rallis could definitely see how this place could be a rescue and rehoming base.

Rallis looked around for the next room to tackle. In cleaning the garden up, a large stony entrance appeared in the ground in the center. Sissel informed her that there was a forge and workshop down there, though it hadn’t been used since the summoner’s time. The dragon decided to take a look. The stony entrance descended into the cliff the house stood upon and branched into two paths once the light from above disappeared. To the left was the forge, a metal dragon’s head with its mouth open wide drooling over a large basin. Though there was nothing in the basin, it was obvious lava or heated metal poured out of the dragon’s mouth to heat up whatever one was working on. There were even bins in the basin that seemed to have once held molten glass, liquid gold, and other crafting materials. On the wall held by hooks were tools to work with, all surprisingly still in good condition. Unfortunately, the forge wasn’t active and it seemed only a fire-breather would be able to get it working again, something Rallis was not. She left it alone and went down the other path. Light broke the darkness as she continued to walk and she gasped once sunlight fully illuminated where she was standing.

The second path opened into a large stony cavern, reminiscent of her home back in Taverley Dungeon, though this one was much bigger. The sunlight illuminating the cave didn’t come from above like she was expecting, but rather from a huge hole in the side that broke the side of the cliff. Rallis leaned out the sunny entrance in awe. She was standing high above the world, the only thing above her the house held up by the peak of the cliff. Below her was a view straight out of a painting. The dense forest below thinned and disappeared in the near distance, framing a pure crystalline lake that shimmered like diamonds. Terrestrial creatures lounged by the lake edge, sleeping in the warm sun or dipping their tails into the lake to cool off. Aquatic creatures swam under the pristine surface, sometimes coming up to grab a snack or nibble on a sleepy tail thinking it was food. Screeches filled the air as beasts of all shape and color flew overhead, vanishing into the mist that bordered the pocket dimension. It was a sight to behold.

“This place is amazing,” Rallis whispered. “How could anyone be unhappy here? It’s a paradise! I wouldn’t mind living here, that’s for sure.” She was determined even more now to show Sen this place was worth living for.

Other than the pretty view, there was nothing Rallis could do down here. She made her way back up topside and asked the cats what to do next.

“Fix the kitchen!” Yomiel hollered. “Maybe that'll make Sen actually want to cook for us. I'm tired of the usual garbage.”

“Ooo that's a good idea,” Eve agreed. “Make sure you make a space to keep milk! I love milk.”

“Alrighty! Let's get to work then!” Rallis exclaimed. The four ran off to the kitchen, a decent sized room connected to the open garden on the first floor. The entire kitchen was buried beneath layers of grime and dust. The floor was brown and crunchy with dead leaves and dirt. The racks held cobwebs as heavy as the rusty pots and pans. The cabinets were bereft of food and held only bugs, which Yomiel promptly chased after and killed. The wood kitchen table and benches were starting to rot from mistreatment and age. This place was a disgusting nightmare.

“Geez, it looks like no one has set foot in here since the God Wars!” Rallis said. “Don't any of you use this place at all?”

Sissel and Eve shook their heads. “It's not like we can cook,” Sissel said. “And Sen doesn't eat. They're a spirit. They live off magic and will, not food. We find our food elsewhere, usually from the farms of your world.”

Yomiel crashed through a cabinet and bit down on a roach, killing it before eating it whole. Rallis gave a disgusted face. “Or if you're Yomiel, you just do that,” Eve said disgustedly.

Rallis sneezed at the dust cloud that had floated up with all of Yomiel’s bug chasing. “Let's get started then. We should dust and wash everything so we can see what needs to be fixed or replaced. Once everything is all cleaned and fixed, I can make you guys a great big meal! How does that sound?”

The three cats meowed excitedly and got to work. Rallis swept out the dirt and leaves and investigated the state of the wood table and benches. They were damaged but salvageable. She would just need to find some extra wood to carve a few new legs and some polish to seal them against the elements. Yomiel continued to chase out the bugs and rip off any cobwebs he could find. Sissel dusted the cookware off and dropped them into the thankfully functioning sink for him and Eve to wash. Yomiel wanted nothing to do with water and instead helped Rallis find some wood to work with to help fix the furnishings. Where these cats were always vanishing to and how they were returning with things much larger and heavier than themselves Rallis had no clue, but she decided the ways of cat magic were not for her to understand.

In no time at all, Rallis had ripped off the rotting table leg and made a new one to replace it. She took a break from the hard work to admire the now sparkling clean kitchen. There was some sawdust on the floor now, but otherwise the stone tile glistened underfoot. Sissel had a wet rag in his mouth, having just finished scrubbing the last hard to reach corner of the floor. The cookware was all cleaned and drying now, the ones too rusted to use anymore put in a pile to be melted down and made anew. Yomiel slithered out of a drawer, the tip of his tail dusty from cleaning out the edges. All in all, the kitchen looked brand new, save for the benches that needed some new wood for the legs. The three cats hopped over to Rallis to join her on a break.

Eve smiled as she looked at their work. “Oh, I haven’t seen this place look this beautiful in so long. I’d cry if I could.”

The sun was setting now, a calming blaze of colors. Yomiel curled up in a fading sun spot with a purr. “It’s nice to have a place to lie down that’s not completely foul.”

“This truly is wonderful,” Sissel said. “I knew I was right in following my hunch to bring you here.” He headbutted Rallis’ arm in thanks. “Hopefully this will give Sen some hope. Perhaps they will even work with us on the rest of the house. That would surely make Allahan happy.”

“Who is Allahan?” Rallis asked.

“A name that is never to be spoken in this house ever again!” a new voice snarled.

The four jolted to attention. Standing in the entrance to the kitchen was a furious Sen, spines flared and stance ready to attack. “What did you do to this place?!” they hissed.

“We were just--!” Rallis started, but Sissel hushed her with a wave of his tail.

“This was my idea, Sen,” the black cat told them calmly. “I roped Yomiel, Eve, and Rallis into this. Do not be mad at them.”

“I’ll be mad at whoever I damn well please! You do all of this and bring up his name?! What are you trying to pull?”

“Sen, you are dying,” Sissel said very seriously. “You sleep in your room all day and do nothing to keep this place as the beacon of hope it once was. It has rotted for centuries and so have you. Look at your fur! It isn’t even orange anymore! Your spines are nearly see-through! You’re one mistake from fading back into the spirit world and becoming familiar fodder! You are just like this place, abandoned and breaking. But look!” Sissel motioned around the kitchen and garden with his tail. “This place can be mended and so can you! Please, we just want to make you and this place great again. I’m tired of seeing you suffer. Allahan would be too.”

Sen roared. “DO NOT SPEAK HIS NAME IN THIS PLACE!”

The three cats cowered behind Rallis and the dragon bolted up from the floor with a snarl in return. “Don’t shout at your friends like that! They’re trying to help you! Your friend wandered into an entirely different world from his own, searched for a complete stranger they had to put their trust in that would help, and spent all this time making a plan to help you feel better! And you yell at him? You’re a terrible friend!”

“I don’t want to hear anything from you, you unwanted pest! You don’t know anything about what’s going on here!”

“I know enough to know that you don’t deserve your friends!” Rallis sassed back. “And I bet this Allahan left because he realized you weren’t a good friend too!”

The three cats cowering by Rallis’ feet gasped in fear. Sen froze, their eyes wide with newfound fury. Their claws slid out, their spines stood bristling, their fangs shone in a maddening snarl, and the beast leapt onto Rallis with a roar. The dragon yelped as she was tackled to the ground. The three cats ran off and hid in a cabinet, watching in fear. Sen tried their best to bite Rallis, but Rallis knew what to do. She grabbed the large cat beast’s mouth and held it shut, eliciting an angry growl from Sen. Sen scratched at the hand holding their mouth shut, leaving a mark down Rallis’ arm. Rallis hissed through her teeth, pulled her feet up, and launched Sen off her. The beast howled in surprise as they tumbled out of the kitchen and into the garden. They were weak and hadn’t had to fight in a long time. It was quite obvious they were rusty.

The three cats ran out from their hiding place. “Stop it, Sen!” Sissel shouted. “There’s no reason to fight! Just talk it out!”

Sen just roared in response and flashed their claws. They launched themself at Rallis and missed spectacularly. Rallis spun around and grabbed the large cat by the fur and yanked them toward the hole in the center of the garden. Sen yelped as the dragon tossed them into the cavern below.

“I’ll try to talk some sense into them, don’t worry,” Rallis called out to the cats as she ducked into the hole. “Stay out there where you won’t get hurt!”

Sen ungracefully flopped down the steps and landed at the stony bottom with a huff. They were too weak to rise from the nasty fall. Rallis leapt down and crouched over the tired defeated beast. “Done having a tantrum yet?” Rallis said.

Sen growled back. Were this back in the day, this damn dragon would be dead and mounted over the fireplace. But as it was, just that little display in the kitchen wore them out like they had just fought off an entire army single-handedly. They could barely stand up from the floor. “I want to bite through your stupid ears and give you a piercing to remember.”

“You don’t look like you could if you wanted to. Getting angry makes you tired. I know that firsthand. I used to get angry at Denulth all the time and then I’d be really tired in the morning, which made me angry, which made me more tired, which made me… well you get it. Uncle Cake said when I’m angry like that, I should talk my feelings out. Why don’t you try it with me right now?”

Sen snorted. “I’m not spilling my life story to a stranger.”

“That might be the best person to spill it to,” Rallis tried. “People you don’t know have different… oh what’s the word… Per-something. The word that means a new way of seeing something. I can never remember it.” Sen still didn’t seem convinced and turned their head away grumpily. “Hey,” Rallis tried again. “I’m not gonna hurt you with what you tell me or anything. I just want to help. I like helping people! Also, I don’t really think we’re strangers anymore considering I just spent all day fixing your house.”

Sen looked up at the face looking back down at them. That damn dragon had a doofy smile and kind eyes. She really did look like she wanted to help, and for no other reason than to be kind to others. It really reminded them of--.

They shook their head. Don’t think about him. Not now. Sen relented. “Fine! I’ll talk! Stop looking at me like a stupid sappy kitten.”

Rallis smiled and held a hand out for Sen to take. The cat grumbled as they took it and peeled themself off the floor. Rallis happily trotted over to the hole in the cavern wall so they could at least have a pretty view of the sun setting on the lake while they talked. Rallis sat down and patted the floor for Sen to sit beside her. They begrudgingly took their seat. For a moment, neither of them said anything, the two of them just watching the sun set over the lake, listening to the birds and the beasts sing as they flew by. It was so peaceful, Sen couldn’t help but calm down a bit.

Rallis nudged the cat beast with her tail and looked expectantly. Sen grumbled. Where would they even begin? So much pissed them off lately that it was hard to pinpoint one thing to talk about. Rallis sensed they needed some help so she prompted them.

“You were pretty mad about me and the cats cleaning up and fixing the place. Why?”

“Because there’s no point,” Sen grumbled.

“No point to fixing it up a bit? But you live here. And the cats. And the wyverns in the nests up above and all sorts of creatures. Don’t you want to live somewhere nice?”

“I don’t care. Nice, messy, clean, ruined. It doesn’t matter. If this place broke to bits tomorrow, nothing would change.”

Rallis squinted at Sen. “I think… you’re lying! I think you care a lot about this place! You wouldn’t get all mad if you didn’t care like you said. So instead of trying to lie to me and say you don’t care, why don’t you tell me why you do?”

Sen growled. They didn’t want to. This felt uncomfortable and weird. And yet something compelled them to speak. “What do you know about this place? I imagine Sissel talked while you were with him.”

“Not much. He said this place used to be a base for search and rescue. He said you were rescued by the person who made this place so you helped him until he died, and then the place started to break down.”

Sen muttered something under their breath about Sissel being a lousy chatterbox but continued talking. “Yes, this place was created and owned by someone before me. A summoner from another world that was a master of breaking through the fabric of space and time to traverse the universe. He could call portals that would lead to the far reaches of the galaxy. He could even enter realms mortals normally couldn’t and lived to tell the tale. He wanted to use his power to help as many creatures as he could from all over the worlds. He found this little world and claimed it as his own and created this place as a base to help anything in need. They could leave once they were better, or stay and live their lives here or in another world that accepted them. He dedicated his life to his work and I have nothing but respect for him.”

Sen paused for a moment then cleared their throat. Why had they gushed like that?! How embarrassing. “Anyway, this summoner rescued me in his travels. Saved me from a much bigger hungrier spirit trying to eat me. I’m from the spirit realm, see, so I’m not meant to exist here for long. But I wanted to after he saved me. I wanted to serve and help him. I would even stoop so low as to become his familiar. He accepted my request to help him and instead of binding me to his person or some degradable object like most summoners do, he bound me to an idea, the idea of saving those in need. So long as I was willing to help his cause, I would remain in this world, and I gladly served him. For years we went on rescue missions, saving beasts from death, helping some raise children here in safety, sometimes even taking in an entire species to help transport them to a better world. We were a three creature army, him, Sissel, and I.”

“Your cat friend was there too?” Rallis asked.

Sen nodded. “Sissel was his actual familiar. He’s from the same world as Al- ...the summoner. Sissel too lives like I do, immortal so long as he remains bound to an idea. Along the way we also found Yomiel and Eve and invited them in the same way.” Sen sighed sadly as they continued. “Not many years after, the summoner died. He was growing weak with age and went out on a rescue by himself. I felt something was wrong and ran after him, but I was too late. He was killed saving a creature in need, just as he had always done, only this time he was attacked by a pack of humans that wanted the creatures extinct. They killed him for helping ‘the enemy.’ I can’t stand those miserable closed-minded creatures.” They ended their tale with a growl.

“I’m sorry,” Rallis said. “He sounded very nice and like a truly good person. It’s nice to know that somewhere there are people willing to help creatures like you and me. It sounds like you also like him very much. Why would you want what he left behind to fall to ruin? Wouldn’t you want to keep this home looking nice and clean, ready and able to continue helping creatures from around the worlds?”

“It doesn’t matter!” Sen snapped. They placed their head in their hand for a moment to gather themself. “He died that day doing what was right. Even though he was a good person, a saint to the worlds, he died. The creatures we spent countless years saving have died. Their children we helped care for and raise have died. Any creature that has passed through here will also one day die. What is the point of continuing this pointless endeavor knowing that every creature will one day die, no matter how much we work to help them, no matter how good or kind they are?”

Rallis’ ears drooped. What a terrible depressing thought, the realization you will outlive all those around you no matter how much you help them. Rallis shook the thought out of her head. She wasn’t ready to think too hard about that either. But she would think about it enough to help Sen.

“It does matter. What that man did mattered. What you did mattered. Just because those you help eventually pass on doesn’t mean what you did didn’t matter. You made their lives better. You made their childrens’ lives possible. You gave them a second chance to be the best they could be. Isn’t that enough, knowing that without your help these creatures would have been miserable and died slowly and painfully and maybe not even exist anymore? Isn’t it enough to know you helped them live the life they were meant to?”

Sen went quiet. A large part of them wanted to say no, it isn’t enough. The end result was always the same. They all died. Allahan died… No matter what they did. No matter the healing spell Sen used, no matter the potion or bandage, no matter the herb or magic or cureall, their best friend had still died in their arms. Because he was mortal. Because no matter what help you give or receive, one day you will die. But another smaller hopeful part of Sen was shouting that it did matter. The time they spent saving lives mattered. And it mattered now more than ever. So why were they getting so mopey and letting their home go to ruin?!

“I… don’t know,” Sen admitted. “I don’t know if it’s enough. Once he… Allahan… died, I didn't want to exist anymore. I didn't want to be where he wasn't. I didn't want to help anything anymore. It didn't matter if he wasn't here. A lot of me still feels that way.” They sighed. “I was mad at you and the cats started to fix the house because… because I wanted this place to rot. I wanted the ideals that bound me here to rot with it. I thought maybe if I did that, if I let go of everything that meant something to me here, I could fade away and see him again. But now I realize I'll never see him again and I have only brought myself closer to returning to a realm I hate with no way to return, and I fear it's too late for me to come back. I'll likely fade away in a few months.”

Rallis’ face melted into a look of sorrow. She said she would try to help but this was a lot to unpack and she was more used to being the one venting and not being vented to. Is this what Grimro went through when Rallis shoved her issues onto the unsuspecting vampyre? Rallis thought about what she said next carefully, trying her best to think what Grimro would say to make this better.

“I’m sorry,” Rallis finally broke the silence. “I wish I had all the answers for you but I don’t. But I want to help as best as I can! You’ve gone through a lot but I think you can come back from this. And your kitty cat friends think so too! Even though one of your friends is gone, you’ve got other friends that care for you that are still here. And I’ll be your friend too! Let us all help you! Take it one day at a time, and find something that makes you even a little happy every day. If you can do that, things will get better, I know it! We won’t let you disappear on us and we’ll show you there’s a reason to keep going!”

Sen gave the dragon an odd look. “You are one weird beast. I barely know you and yet I find myself opening up to you and you actually listen and try to help. Hmph, this whole day has been quite unusual.” They paused for a moment and took the view in, the setting sun on the lake, the creatures below heading home for the night that would soon fall, the tranquility of a haven that existed nowhere else. “I… I don’t want to leave this place. But I feel like I don’t belong here anymore. Without my friend, I just feel lost, like I have no purpose. I don’t know what to do.”

“You do belong here and you do have a purpose,” Rallis assured. “If you didn’t, your friend wouldn’t have saved you and stayed by your side for so long. Why don’t you start finding your new place by helping the four of us fix up the place tomorrow? We only got two rooms done and there are a lot to go. An extra pair of paws would help a lot.”

“Hmm… Alright, fine, I’ll help you all out tomorrow. Maybe fixing up this place will feel at least a little productive. You can stay here if you like. There are many bedrooms upstairs, but I’m sure you can imagine they aren’t exactly well kept or clean.”

“Thank you! And that’s fine with me,” Rallis said. “I’m used to sleeping outside or in caves anyway. A bed of any kind is always nice!” She gave Sen a big smile. “I’m glad I could help you at least a little bit. Tomorrow will be even better!” She gave the cat a hug, careful of their spines, and quickly dashed back upstairs to tell the cat trio what had happened.

Sen fluffed out their fur. Getting hugged after so long felt weird. But they didn’t hate it. They watched night take over the sky for a moment longer and thought to themself. ‘What a pest your familiar brought home, Allahan. Bubbly and sticking her nose into others’ business. She reminds me a lot of you when you were younger. ...I really miss you… And I’m sorry I haven’t been taking care of this place… or myself. Maybe tomorrow things will change.’

That was enough thinking and moping for one day. Sen joined Rallis and the cats upstairs and showed Rallis to her room before crashing for the night themself.

Over the next few days Rallis, Sissel, Yomiel, Eve, and Sen spent their time cleaning up the entire house, from the bottom pits of the forge in the cliff to the tallest peak of the library and observatory. Every new room uncovered wowed Rallis and Sen couldn’t help but snicker at how amazed the dragon was at everything, like an excitable child at the fair. Working and actually doing something other than sleeping all day felt good. Cleaning wasn’t as epic or noble as saving species but it gave Sen more of a purpose than they had had in a long while. Rallis didn’t get around to fixing most of the damaged furniture, apparently the feline trio were stealing the supplies from a lumber worker and Rallis reprimanded them, but cleaning the whole base was a solid first step.

The five hard workers rest up in the kitchen after a long day of work, Sen actually making use of the now usable kitchen for the first time in who knew how many years. They made fish for everyone. The cats jumped onto the table, excited to have an actual meal for once. They had been extremely grateful of Rallis’ help talking and listening to Sen and they worked even harder once Sen decided to get involved. They were sure to sleep well after dinner tonight. The three cats and Rallis were so hungry they didn't speak, their mouths too full of delicious food to talk, until Sissel noticed something and almost spat out his meal in shock.

“Oh my goodness!” Sissel exclaimed. “Sen have you looked in a mirror lately? Your fur! I swear it's more orange now!”

Sen hadn't noticed. They looked at the fur on their hands and sure enough it was no longer the dull faded brown Rallis had seen when they met for the first time. It was turning a pale orange.

“Your spines look more solid as well,” Eve said. “They're blacker and less see-through.”

Sen craned their head to take a look at some of the spines on their shoulder and Eve was right as well. “Huh,” was all they said.

“You're starting to look like a larupia now!” Rallis said. “I love larupias!”

“As do I. Why do you think I chose to look like one in this realm? Just don't expect me to sprout a tail or walk on four legs.”

“I think you look good even without a tail,” Rallis smiled. “Are you gonna look even better later?”

Sen looked down at the table. “I… I guess I will. If I keep working anyway. As long as I continue pursuing the idea I'm bound to, I will recover. I never thought I would. It feels… good.”

Rallis smiled wide. “That's good! I'm glad you're getting better! I told you you could! Now you gotta work to be the best you can be! We could go back to Gielinor and adventure together, finding all sorts of creatures in need and taking care of them! We could be the best duo ever!”

Rallis’ excitement was contagious and Sen couldn't help but smile a small smile. “I don't think I'm ready for that. Let's take it slow. I don't think I'm strong enough to leave this world and explore others. It will take time to become what I once was, if I even can at all.”

“You can and you will!” Rallis exclaimed. “And I'll keep helping you. If you can't leave to help creatures, then I'll just have to bring them here so you can help them! Oh I hope you're ready to meet all kinds of new friends to help!”

The three cats at the table looked excited at the idea. “Take it easy, dragon,” Sen huffed. “Curb your enthusiasm. This place isn't fully functional yet. Don't bring home all of Gielinor at once.”

“Aww all right. I'll help fix this place up too, I promise. I used to build stuff for people’s homes in Falador and Varrock all the time. If I find supplies, I'll bring them back and help out here! This place will be back to work in no time!”

The five chattered excitedly about the idea until dinner was done. Night fell soon after. The cats had fallen asleep, the world had grown dark and quiet, and Rallis took one final fond look at the work they all accomplished before quietly opening the heavy front doors to leave.

“You're going back to Gielinor then?” a voice asked from the darkness, stopping the dragon in her tracks. It was Sen.

“Yeah,” Rallis nodded. “I should get back to adventuring now, not that this wasn't an adventure too. I need to continue seeing the world and trying to find information I'm after. I'm hoping enough time has passed now that I won't get arrested by the Ardougne knights.”

Sen gave a thoughtful grunt, then silence. “...You could… stay here. If you want. Sissel really likes you. And Eve. Even Yomiel does too and he hates everyone. You're… part of the family now.”

Rallis looked at the imposing entrance to the home once more, the vine covered dragon ornaments beckoning her to return. Rallis never thought she would ever have an actual house to live in. She figured she would spend the rest of her days in caves, then once she became an adventurer she figured outside or the odd inn or friend’s place would be where she stayed. But a whole house, no, a whole castle to call her own? She couldn't have expected that at all.

“I can't stay here all the time. I need to get back out there and learn things. And there's still people to help! If I wasn't an adventurer, I wouldn't have met you after all! But coming back here when I need a break or a place to stay would be really nice. And I want to see all of you again too. So I will accept your offer and stay! Just not all the time.”

Sen walked closer and held out their hand. “Then goodbye and safe travels. And when you return, it will be a welcome home.”

Rallis took their hand but instead of shaking it, she hugged the cat beast. Sen huffed and let it happen. Rallis smiled at Sen once she broke the hug. “If this is home, that means we're family now! And we're gonna be the best family ever!”

Sen blinked slowly. ‘Family… What a thought. I guess I don't hate the idea.’ They shook out their fur and went back to business. “Here. I have these for you.” They held out a stack of stone squares with runes engraved along the edges. “Break one of these at any portal frame you find and you can return here. I remember there being a good few portals in Gielinor so no matter where your travels take you, you should be able to get home. And I can always make more if you need them.”

“Thank you. I promise I'll come back. I should get going now, before it gets too late. Make sure you take care of yourself and keep pursuing your own purpose! And remember, take life one day at a time!”

“Yeah, yeah, I will,” Sen dismissed. They waved Rallis off. “Now get lost, dragon. Go explore.”

Rallis smiled and waved goodbye. She dashed down the mountain, into the forest, and through the clearing where the bronze portal frame lay, activated and ready to take her back to Gielinor. She took one last look around and jumped through the purple glow. The grass beneath her feet turned to stone as she returned to Yanille. She was in the middle of the stone portal frame, inactive and silent in the black of night. Rallis looked around warily for the knights that were here a week or so ago, but not a soul was out and about. She breathed a sigh of relief and bolted out of town. She was ready to continue her adventure, and she couldn't wait to tell her new family all about her findings once she returned home.

#osrs #runescape #my writes #oc tag #lets start 2021 off right and finish a fic

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tardytothepardy · 3 years

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Fruits Basket - Vol 17

I am,,, confused. Thoroughly. Did I read this too fast? Am I misunderstanding? This book felt like a series of "What? Huh? What? Huh? What? Whuhh?? Huhhhhh?????" and I am kinda bewildered.

So let's talk about it,,, somehow.

It starts with Shigure and Hatori talking about Akito's meltdown at New Year's, and how apparently Shigure tried to comfort Akito, but Akito was having none of it. The topic of Kureno came up, and how he just seems off, disconnected, in a sense, and also how Akito seems to have chosen Kureno above all the other Juunishi.

Panning over to Kureno, in the previous book Momiji gave him the CD of the play, "Sorta Cinderella". He seemed pretty affected by the things that Uotani said, but they also reminded him of moments with Akito, when he was younger. He calls Shigure later, asking for Tohru, which Shigure finds odd. What business would the two of them have? But it turns out that later, Tohru does run into Kureno, on her way to the store. She was squatting next to a bunch of birds, and when he showed up, they flew away. This is important at all, because that isn't what usually happens to the animals that the Juunishi share a spirit with (agh how to phrase things), in fact it's the opposite. Tohru asks Kureno about this, and then he solidifies any questions by hugging her and,,,, nothing happens. Somehow, he isn't affected by the curse. It has no hold on him, he won't turn into a bird (I suppose a rooster, specifically, which is kinda sad bc I was looking forward to that, in a little way. It'd be funny, if nothing else) if he gets really weak or sick, or if he hugs someone of the opposite sex.

Tohru asks him how this happened, and when, but Kureno doesn't really know. It happened randomly one day, a while back, but he has no idea was triggered it. It's just that, one day, he was vibin, doing his thing, and it just happened. No one else in the family knows, he's just been pretending that he's still a Juunishi. Kureno also said that he can't be with Uotani, that the CD was a wasted attempt, because he's promised to be with and take care of another person, that person being Akito. Kureno makes it clear, though, that he still does care for Uotani, but he just can't be with her. This whole time, it's been switching between the current interaction between Kureno and Tohru, and flashing back to when Kureno first realized that the curse broke for him, and Akito was just fucking losing his mind, screaming and shit. He begged for Kureno to stay, regardless of the curse (btw, at this point, Kureno's a teenager, and Akito's still a little kid, so it was a little while ago), and Kureno said that he would promise to stay with Akito, stay by his side, pretend that he's still a Juunishi, etc.

And then, at the end of the chapter, something is revealed: apparently Akito's a girl. To be honest, I'm not really sure what to do with this information. As far as I can remember, it doesn't really have much to do with anything. Why has he (she? fuck. I have no idea.) been presenting as a boy this whole time? Because his mom forced him, since he was born. Why did she do that? I don't know, it didn't say in this book. Hopefully it fucking clarifies later on, because I'm just getting vibes from that one Insidious movie, with that ghost/demon person. Wasn't that their deal? Something like that. Reversed, but something like that. Idk, I was too busy being scared shitless to think about the intricacies of the plot.

Anyway, so Akito's apparently a girl, but has been raised as a boy. Four of the Juunishi know this: Shigure, Hatori, Ayame, and Kureno, because they were all kids when Akito was born. Apparently, when Akito's mom (her name is Ren) was pregnant with Akito, they all came to her and were crying and shit, acting super weird. Like, they all just knew that Akito would be the God.

As a fun side note, Ren and Akito fucking hate each other. Just,, so much. Is there a person in the Sohma family that doesn't have familial issues, because it just seems like there are a lot of people who do. I think maybe Kagura doesn't? I haven't seen anything saying she has issues. Nothing much has been said about Shigure's, Hatori's, or Kureno's families, so maybe they're okay? I dunno, but one of the things that specifically shows up between Ren and Akito, is that Ren does not believe in the "bond" that Akito and the rest of the Juunishi have, saying that it's a fake love, that, if given the choice, the Juunishi would not behave or treat Akito the way they do, which is kinda true. From what I read about when Yuki first met Akito, there were a lot of conflicting feelings, ranging from "I hate you but also I never want to be away from you" to "This is hell on earth just being near this person but also to be away from this person is agony", and like, whoa. That's a lot. I doubt it's like that at all anymore, but there has been some mentions that Akito does have some higher hold on the Juunishi than other people do.

All this said and done, I still want to know more. I am heavily curious. I'd like to know more about Akito's whole situation. I'm glad he's not just a one-dimensional "bad guy", but dang, some of this stuff, it just feels like it's coming out of left field. (Is that a baseball thing? That sounds like a baseball thing. Idioms are weird.)

By the time that Kureno leaves, Tohru's a wreck. She's crying, and confused, and just,,, yikes. (I kinda was too, but just the confused part.) And so who comes to the rescue than Hanajima, and also Hanajima, but the small one. (I realized recently that most of these people are referred to by their first names, except for like, Uotani and Hanajima, which makes sense. A massive swath of these characters would all be "Sohma". It'd be confusing as fuck. But still. Idk) Hanajima felt Tohru's sheer confusion and despair, and Megumi tagged along because why not, y'know?

Hanajima decided that Tohru would stay with her for the night, so that she and Tohru and Uotani could all talk stuff out about what Tohru was upset about. Unfortunately for Shigure, Yuki and possibly Kyo? I don't think he was home at the time but maybe??, that meant that Tohru wasn't making dinner. So Yuki potentially gave Shigure and himself food poisoning, but hey, it's better than takeout, right? (Seriously, Tohru's back must be tired from cooking, cleaning, doing the laundry, and dealing with everyone's emotional baggage, she's doing so much. And she still has her own personal shit that she does, like,,, how hasn't she lost her shit yet??)

Tohru says that Kureno was kind, in that he was looking out for other people's feelings and wellfare before his own, and Hanajima says that she (Tohru) does the same thing (which is what Uotani first saw in Kureno, and why she thought that he was like Tohru), but Hanajima worries that the more that Tohru does that, the more that she carries the worries and troubles of other people, it could end up hurting her. (We love a caring friend that cares) In the end, Uotani tells Tohru that it's okay, that she cares more about the relationships she has now than whatever she might have had with Kureno, which was nice.

Moving onwards, the school is making preparations for graduation! I don't think Tohru and Co. are graduating quite yet (maybe they are idk), but there are these paper flowers that they're making, and for some reason, shenanigans ensue. Like, a group of girls just nabbing a bunch of flowers that Kyo made?? Why? That's really weird of you to do. Stop that. (They were tracked down and forced to make up for all the flowers they stole, because for some reason they wouldn't give back the flowers they stole.) It's kinda weird, I forgot that Kyo is also kinda popular with girls, because usually we only hear from the girls that fawn over Yuki. But yeah, that's a thing for Kyo, as well. Weird, either way.

Now we are at the last chunk of the book, hooray! This isn't as long as the previous one 😬. So, Shigure and Akito got something weird going on. I'm not really sure what to think of it, honestly. Apparently Shigure slept with Ren, and Akito kicked him out of the main house as a punishment, which Shigure did not fight back at all. (wow that was not a large section at all i totally didn't just lose steam and stop right there at all nope not me i don't do that not at all)

I'll admit that part of me is still kinda,, squeamish? I guess? about people in the Sohma household being in relationships, it's just that they all have "Sohma", that is probably messing me up. Idk. It's definitely not a healthy relationship. All kinds of weird tensions and miscommunication abound. It's not a good time.

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elencelebrindal · 4 years

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Honest Opinion - Scorpio Milo (Hades)

Buckle up, this is going to be a roller coaster of emotions. Also yes, the Italian dub kept his Italian classic name, Scorpio, though his voice actor changed (his main and best one, Enrico Carabelli, unfortunately passed away).

Overall score (character, not looks): 20/10 Can you tell I love him? Good.

Hades Chapter: Sanctuary

Overall score: 20/10

If you’re thinking “hey, this is not a honest opinion if you play favorites like this”, think again. In this series Milo was one of the absolute best characters I’ve ever seen. His personal growth and characterization since the classic series was absolutely spot on, and he never got involved into any shenanigans. But let’s start from the beginning.

Kanon’s redemption. One of the best scenes I’ve ever seen in this entire franchise, especially regarding the behavior of its characters. The only thing I was pissed off at was the fact that people not familiar with the manga (I’m talking about Kanon saving Athena from Poseidon) might not get what the hell was really going on with Kanon being so ready to protect Athena. And that’s it. Milo was so good in this part. I loved how, instead of following Athena’s request from the get go, he wanted to make sure Kanon wasn’t dangerous. I loved how his personality showed through, as he attacked him to get him out of the Sanctuary dead or alive. It’s not like he was disobeying Athena; he knew Kanon wanted to kill her and almost succeeded, so it makes sense he was angry as all hell at him.

And all his dialogues... with the Italian dub making every line somewhat solemn, this scene was amazing. Milo’s internal monologue about Kanon not responding to his attacks was absolutely beautiful, and you could tell the exact moment he stopped seeing Kanon as an enemy and started testing his resolution. I think the whole ordeal showed us how clever and smart Milo actually is, how faithful to his goddess he can be, and how high he holds the standards of a Gold Saint. It got to the point I didn’t even know if Milo wanted to really kill him or if he was bluffing. I loved that.

Him telling Kanon something along the lines of “I don’t see any traitors here, only a battle companion” was the last bit of dialogue I needed from him to decide he is the best of all the twelve Gold Saints objectively. This is the Italian quote:

Non vedo alcun traditore qui, ma solo un compagno di battaglia. Si chiama Kanon di Gemini, un coraggioso Cavaliere d'oro

He not only let Kanon live, but he forgave him and recognized him as one of his fellows. That is so genuinely kind and understanding, I can’t even comprehend this level of acceptance. He saw the good in Kanon’s heart, and decided “hey, maybe we could get along”. That might be the best thing I’ve ever witnessed a character on Saint Seiya do (aside from Shun).

And now, onto the fight against the resurrected Saints. Can I bring to your attention, right off the bat, how painful had to be for him? I didn’t bring this up with Mu and Aiolia because none of them had any particular ties with those three (if anything, Aiolia should have been deadly mad at Shura and Saga), but Milo? I’m not bringing any kind of shipping and/or fanon stuff into this, but Milo and Camus are canonically (thanks to the classic anime, so from then onward) very close friends. Would you even dare telling me that Milo, upon seeing his friend (who was previously killed by Hyoga and by his own decision to let Hyoga go) sided with Hades, took it lightly and without a care in the world. I know that entire fight showed us a - mostly - indifferent and angry Milo, but seriously. If your best friend died, and you suddenly see him fighting against you, would you be that indifferent?

Yeah, I thought so. But I loved that they showed Milo as angry. Even if there hasn’t been a care in the world for any kind of other realistic reactions, I thoroughly enjoyed (and by enjoyed I mean I was looking at the screen with the most heartbroken expression I could muster) it. Also, let’s not forget he was mad about Shaka’s death as well. And he was clever - and a tad bit suicidal to be honest - enough to suggest using the Athena Exclamation to retaliate the resurrected Saints’ attempt at fighting back using it again. Reasonable? Absolutely not (which is kind of a good thing, because have you ever been reasonable while hurt?). Effective? Hell yeah.

And this brings us to the very next scene, when Athena gave up her life. I’m not going to lie, I was a little upset at Milo here. And at the other Gold Saints. I think I forgot to talk about this in their entries... They literally saw Athena willingly hand the gold dagger to Saga and willingly accept her death, but still wanted to kill their “enemies”. But as much as I’m upset, I’m also understanding of that reaction; they were so hurt, Milo maybe even more than them, that I get why their reaction was to obliterate who led to Athena’s death. God, that scene of Milo crying while strangling Camus destroyed me. More so because I kept thinking “is he crying just because Athena died or is he crying also because he had to kill Camus?”. I don’t think my over-emotional stressed-over-exams brain took it well.

Damn, i just loved how Milo’s personality played a huge role in this thing.

But are we done? Nope. There’s still the fight against Rhadamanthys. There’s still the amount of determination he put into that futile attempt at defeating him. Milo put his life on the line to protect the Bronze Saints and give them enough time to reach the Underworld, knowing he wasn’t going to survive with his cosmo completely drained. It’s the same thing I said for Mu and Aiolia, but with him... I don’t know, with the amount of emotional pain he has to have gone through, that seemingly selfless decision didn��t look like that selfless. My mind took the darkest turn it could have ever taken and told me “what if he doesn’t care if he dies, at this point, since he has really nothing to lose anymore?” and I just... you know the windows xp error sound? That’s the sound my brain made.

Anyways, he went straight to Hell, so everything’s just an assumption.

Hades Chapter: Inferno

Overall score: 20/10

Same thing for him: he gave up his life in order to save Athena and the world, so that full score is fully deserved. It’s a 20 because my opinion is honest but also biased by my love for him. I gave everyone else full points, leave me alone if I want to cheat my own system every once in a while.

Also, can we appreciate how happy he looked? How proud he was of what he accomplished as a Saint? This man was about to sacrifice his life, yet he still smiled. This can also be said of the other Gold Saints, it’s an incredible detail. Milo already had a special place in my heart, but this series made me love him even more.

#saint seiya #i cavalieri dello zodiaco #los caballeros del zodiaco #os cavaleiros do zodiaco #knights of the zodiac #hades chapter #scorpio milo #gold saints #my opinion #honest opinion

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roc-thoughtblog · 3 years

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Sense and Sensibility Readthrough Part 9

Chapter 12, Pages 49-54

Previously, Sir Middleton has started the Party Timez and Marianne is flirting it up with mysterious Mr. Charming. Meanwhile, Elinor has a sweet moment with Colonel Brandon where he alludes to a past love-related something, because they are both two lonely people watching a party.

I enjoyed this chapter, because Margaret finally opened her mouth and only gold came out. :D You little scamp, you have vindicated my small obsession with seeing you relevant in any form!

Readthrough below.

Chapter 12

AS ELINOR and Marianne were were walking together the next morning the latter communicated a piece of news to her sister which in spite of all that she knew before of Marianne's imprudence and want of thought, surprised her

Oh? OH? Marianne going to have many thoughts, head full of prudence?

by its extravagant testimony to both.

NOPE! Also, Austenism on first sentence of chapter, nice opening. I most creatively coined that for personal use and now I finally get to use it! Setup into unceremonious, and yet very extra, subversion that turns potential positives upside down. Anyway, Willoughby has given Marianne a horse, which she has accepted with zero thought into the Dashwoods' ability to keep it.

Elinor, has, of course, thought of all the things the family is lacking with regards to horse-keeping, including most prominently, a complete lack of a stable in which to house it. Was boutta ask, good Elinor answered my enquiry most quickly.

I have a friend who is a self-professed horse-girl, and many mutual friends who attest to not desiring to ride with her on account of it being quite dangerous. This isn't directly related to anything, Marianne just invited Elinor to ride her horse and I was suddenly struck by a memory of warring opinions on the risks of horseriding. Horse-girl's testimony to its relative safety was not aided by her own anecdote of having fallen off a horse onto her back once, and not being able to feel her neck for a while, or something similar to that effect (don't worry, she is fine). I imagine Elinor would be horrified.

Marianne brushes off all of Elinor's concerns in... most short-sighted fashion. No Marianne, do not keep a horse in any old shed. This reminds me of when my aunt kept her kittens in the bathroom. Bad. Awful. Don't consider keeping animals if you can't be bothered to house them properly. :(

Of course, Marianne draws the line when Elinor claims she doesn't know Willoughby well enough to receive a horse from the man;

"You are mistaken, Elinor," said she warmly, "in supposing I know very little of Willoughby. I have not known him long indeed, but I am much better acquainted with him, than I am with any other creature in the world, except yourself and mamma. [...] I should hold myself guilty of greater impropriety in accepting a horse from my brother, than from Willoughby. Of John I know very little, though we have lived together for years; but of Willoughby my judgement has long been formed."

Marianne has a great talent for speaking warmly. :'D

Ouch girl you have been hit hard. The infatuation, it speaks through you with a megaphone.

It's really fascinating how big an effect love and infatuation seems to have on apparent closeness. Like at some point it really does cross over the line to being genuinely close, but I feel like I observe a lot of the time, before that point, that people tend to... trick themselves into thinking they are close? Infatuation has a remarkable ability to warp the sense of emotional proximity between people, maybe even just through the firing of emotions on all cylinders.

One memorable conversation I will always return to was when a friend of mine referred to their boyfriend of a few months as their "best friend" in the most casual, natural way. A few months didn't seem like a long enough time, and when I asked them, they did suddenly realise they weren't quite there yet... I find it very interesting how love can so easily dominate social lives.

Anyway, Marianne has jumped to Big Conclusion about how well she knows Willoughby. It's a good thing he's probably a nice guy really, but this is also likely one of the ways predatory relationships can take root so uh, look after your friends I guess. Sometimes when this kinda emotion takes hold they need a second opinion to keep them grounded.

Elinor thought it wisest to touch that point no more. She knew her sister's temper. Opposition on so tender a subject would only attach her the more to her own opinion.

Yeah, Elinor has the right idea. Backfire effect is real, and it's not something you want to mess with when you really need to convince somebody of something. You definitely need to go around with a different approach... which Elinor does, nice! By appealing to Marianne's concern of potentially greatly burdening her mother, who would of course consent enthusiastically to a horse, but also be the most inconvenienced by its maintenance.

Marianne relents most sadly. :(

She tells Willoughby next she sees him that she can't take the horse, because of reasons. Willoughby is disappointed, but tells her that the horse is still hers, once the time arrives that she can keep- he named the horse Queen Mab? Horses. Always with funky names. Is that a historical figure? FAIRY FROM ROMEO AND JULIET! Please Mr. Willoughby! You are every bit the drama queen as Marianne. You are not so star crossed!

O-oh. Elinor overhears everything, and also realises now that they are in fact a couple? By the way Willoughby pronounces Marianne's first name, and the fact that he uses it at all. Oh, that she is now absolutely certain of it, and in no way surprised. Yeah that makes sense.

GASP! MARGARET SPEAKS!

Alright this whole sequence is gold, I dunno how to relate it here but it's a quick and fun read. Reading being generally fun, but quick doesn't usually come naturally to me. Also means I don't take notes.

Margaret thinks the two lovebirds will be married soon and Elinor is hilariously shutting her down for crying wolf about pictures that turned out to be of great-uncles. But this time Margaret has witnessed Willoughby beg for, and acquire, a lock of Marianne's hair, for romantically sentimental reasons I personally do not understand but have witnessed enough to accept without question. Because, y'know, children don't count as witnesses to secret emotional dalliances you don't the adults to see. And the account is specific and detailed enough that it doesn't seem like something a kid would just make up.

And then we go on a hilarious tangent about how Margaret accidentally spilled all the beans on Elinor's love life to Mrs. Jennings for not knowing any better how to respond to questions. :'D The poor girl asks Elinor for permission to say, so now Mrs. Jennings knows somebody exists. And then Marianne drags herself into it to defend Elinor's feelings, but Margaret innocently reminds her that all the speculation was her’s to begin with.

"Margaret," said Marianne with great warmth,

GREAT WARMTH! This is greatest warmth of Marianne yet, I have never seen her so upset, I'm rolling. Poor Margaret is a little out of her depth with all the adults bugging her for gossip, and the more the sisters try to contain her the more slips out. You can't expect so much from a kid. :'D

Thankfully Lady Middleton saves all the Dashwood sisters by abruptly and deliberately changing the topic to the weather, followed by sensitive Colonel Brandon. Nice save, guys! Willoughby, good man, invites Marianne to start playing piano too. Elinor is saved, but still thoroughly shook haha. Poor girl is not of a heart that can deal with this assault.

Chapter concludes with a quick two paragraphs which I guess will set up the next chapter; they organise a party to go party at an estate belonging to Colonel Brandon's brother-in-law, because, Sir Middleton has partied in that place all too much and yet never enough. Party. Sir Middleton: Party man, does whatever a party can. What exactly do landed lords actually do again?

All this arranged with open carriages and sailing, and I assume cold provisions to imply a picnic; "rather a bold undertaking, considering the time of year, and that it had rained every day for the last fortnight -" HA. Well, despite his extensive partying experience, we are given to understand that Sir M. is still a slow learner. Oh well.

... I just realised I found Margaret to be so entertaining I didn't realise the story had like... used her as a connecting factor to completely transition the theme, setting and topic of the chapter halfway through. I feel like this is important to note, as for the most part chapters in this story seem to stick to exploring one specific topic or person. This particular chapter was somewhat all-over-the-place topic-wise (Marillouby confirmed, Elinor's beau’s existence revealed) and the only unifying factor was Margaret shenanigans, which I love, but she isn't relevant to the central plot in the same way the two other pieces are. On top of that, the chapter ends on an otherwise random note that they're going to another party at a place related to Brandon; this isn't something that necessarily needed to cap off this chapter as far as I can tell.

I guess what I'm wondering is, this slightly frankenstinian chapter; is it the result of combining two smaller segments too short to be chapters in their own right, or is it more like... a deliberately transitional chapter? That the chapter lacks a unifyingly plot relevant topic to explore, because it's only concern is for setting up pieces for coming chapters at the new estate party? I guess I'll find out soon.

#1700 words but no tangent in particular #so it must all be the work of the Great and Powerful Margaret Dashwood!#She's great! :D #Jane Austen #Sense and Sensibility #readthrough #novels

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applesandbannas747 · 4 years

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Fence: Striking Distance Review

Thanks to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and NetGalley for the ARC!

Title: Fence: Striking Distance

Author: Sarah Rees Brennan

Published by: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Expected Publication Date: September 29, 2020

Pages: 368

My Rating: ★★★★

Disclaimer: I’ve done my best to keep this review as spoiler-free as possible, so no specific plot points or examples are talked about, however, some fans may find my reactions and vague references to be spoiler-y. Review is under the cut :)

Like many other reviewers have commented, Fence: Striking Distance reads like a fanfiction. Funny and full of heart, you look at it and say ‘maybe the real plot was the friends we made along the way.’ And I think that’s great! Striking Distance is Sarah Rees Brennan’s tie-in to the comic written by C.S. Pacat and illustrated by Johanna The Mad, which means that its focus is on relationships and backstory rather than plot progression. Striking Distance takes place after the events of the fourth volume of the comic, Fence: Rivals, after Kings Row’s first fencing match, when it’s clear some team bonding is necessary if they hope to make it to the state championship. And let it be known that bonding does happen, if not in the way Coach Williams envisioned.

If you, like me, love Fence and jump at every chance to spend some more time with our Kings Row boys, then Striking Distance is just what you need! No big plot points or romantic tensions get resolved—and why would they? We still have so much left to cover both in future volumes of Fence and future tie-in novels, but the look deeper into the lives and pasts of the characters was exactly what I wanted from this book.

Sarah Rees Brennan has a way of making me laugh out loud like nothing else can and Fence: Striking Distance truly held up to all the hilarity and shenanigans I was hoping for from the minute I found out she was writing it. I was laughing the whole way through reading and that’s something I love from a book. But, paired with her wit, Brennan offers a deeper look into the past of our favorite insouciant playboy that is both enlightening and upsetting, with the added bonus of slotting right into place with the hints we’ve glimpsed of Aiden’s home life thus far in the comics. One of my favorite aspects of this book was all the context for the characters we get from it, such as family dynamics, out-of-school activities, and a little more information on some of the cast’s childhoods.

Perhaps the most surprising magic trick of characterization Brennan pulled off for me was with Dante Rossi. In the brief scenes we got with him, Dante quickly became a favorite, where before I didn’t have a huge interest in him. Now I am fully convinced that Brennan’s next tie-in novel needs to be about Dante and his struggle living surrounded by annoying fencers.

Let me reiterate that I thoroughly enjoyed Fence: Striking Distance and, by my book, that earns it a 4/5 stars. I plan on rereading it—I’m crossing my fingers for an audiobook so I can listen to it, too. I had a great time with it. But, as much fun as it was, Fence: Striking Distance did not feel like Fence to me. It felt and read like really fun and compelling fanfiction. So let’s get into what I took issue with.

While Brennan deepened some characters, such as Harvard and Aiden, I felt that she flattened others down to a base idea of who they were, providing me with caricatures of characters I loved that were hilariously entertaining but didn’t ring true. An easy example of this is how Eugene—our lovable jock with a heart of gold—goes from being a jokester in the comic to being a joke in the novel. Seiji and Nicholas didn’t translate at all for me from Pacat and Johanna The Mad’s portrayal of them to Brennan’s take on them. I’ll be curious to see if the fourth volume of the comic can bridge the gap between the characters I know from the first twelve issues of the comic and the characters I feel like I was introduced to in Striking Distance.

There are a couple more nit-picky details that I only mention because Fence is so close to my heart, I couldn’t help but notice them. It was plainly obvious to me that Sarah Rees Brennan is not American, so the dialogue and thoughts of these American teenagers often read as strange and unnatural to me. There are also a couple of continuity errors along the way that caught my eye. They weren’t big enough to bother most people, but they did bother me—what can I say, I’m obsessive.

Overall, I highly recommend giving Fence: Striking Distance a read. It’s funny, packed with relationship drama sure to please Aiden and Harvard fans, and has some fun insights into characters. However, you should keep in mind that it’s a tie-in novel and therefore the book ends basically where it began with little to no plot or relationship progress. Sarah Rees Brennan’s writing is always a delight and Striking Distance was no exception. If you’re a fan of Fence or Brennan’s In Other Lands I think you’ll definitely enjoy Fence: Striking Distance!

#fence comic #Fence: Striking Distance #fence comic novel #book review #arc review #Fence: Striking Distance review

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okaybutlikeimagine · 5 years

Note

The shovel talk prompt is so cute. I was wondering if you could do one where the kids or Joyce gives billy a shovel talk since Steve’s dad defiantly wouldn’t do it.

(heyo dears, the post we’re talking about is right here!)

I fuckin love this and you KNOW they both would but in very very different ways.

Bc with Joyce, it’s still very motherly and a lot more gentle than Hop, but also Extremely Serious.

Bc i like to think Joyce has known Steve since he was a very little kid. Like… her kids have always gone to school together and she went to school w/ Steve’s parents. and she doesn’t really like steve’s parents like… at ALL. and she kind of thought Steve was mean (bc he was, guys. Love our babe, he’s a gem, but 1st season he was a jerkwad w/ little to no self awareness and that’s why i love his growth bc he was a teenage boy who grew from his mistakes and i love that for him♥) but he’s softened up in the past year and he babysits all of the kids and it just means a lot to her. She knows she can trust Will in the hands of Steve and that will forever and always mean the world.

And of COURSE she knows she can trust Billy too, but she’s known Steve longer and she’s watched him grow up and she’s seen the way he’s grown and she’s just… so proud of him. She’s so incredibly proud of him. He’s such a good kid and he has a good heart and Billy is also a very good kid with a very good heart (and she will defend that stance till the day she dies) but he can be a bit… rough. She knows it. He’d probably admit to it too. He’s just a little rough and tough and Steve is a very soft boy and Joyce worries.

So she definitely sits Billy down and talks to him about it. She puts a motherly hand on his knee like she always does when she has serious talks with him. She’s very gentle about bringing Steve up.

And then she squeezes his knee a little tighter than normal and says: “Now don’t do anything to harm Steve, alright? Because you’ll have a lot of upset people on your hands, and one of them will be me.”

She’s stern. Billy just kind of… laughs nervously.

But the KIDS… ohgod guys, the kids.

The kids would devote their lives to protecting Steve if they needed to. I’m thinking that Knight guard at the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade who loyally guards the grail w/ his life. I’m thinking of them forming a transformer like thing, all of them becoming a different part of the body so they can ward off evils and wrongdoers. I’m thinking something along the lines of London Tipton’s father’s body guards who form a literal blockade around him so you never see his face. Like, imagine these lil children banding together to form a little square around Steve, blocking him from the rest of the world so that no one can touch him or even look at him w/o going through them first. (There’s a scene where London dances w/ her dad except the body guard dudes don’t really move so she’s just holding his hands and all of the body guard dudes are moving side to side as they dance and it’s Hilarious and i just want to put that image into your heads but w/ the kids around Steve and Billy pouting bc whythefuck isn’t he allowed to see him goddamn boyfriend???)(anyway, i digress)(and might be making some references you don’t understand goodness i’m so sorry)

okaY so the kids are all at Mike’s house playing DnD or being dorks or whatever it is 14 yr olds do in a group alone. Or at least, that’s what Billy thinks. He’s really not sure what’s going on, he doesn’t pretend to understand their little shenanigans, he listened to Will rant about DnD character types for about 2 hours last week and his brain still feels a little fried by it so he just…….. He lets it be. All he needs to know is when to drop them off, when to pick them up, and when to tune them out just enough to where he doesn’t feel like a total jackass. Really, only w/ Will though bc Will is his favorite and he’d never wanna upset Will.

Anyway, he’s at Mike’s house, knocking on the door, here to pick Will and El up, when Mike opens the door and ushers him inside immediately.

“Hi Billy come in! We uhhh… we need you to help us… decide something.” Mike says lamely. Billy’s so unconvinced it’s insane.

“Decide something? Seriously? Since when have you nerds ever wanted my opinion on anything?”

“Well uh… this is a weird situation and we need your help.” Dustin says in what he probably thinks is sweet but to Billy is actually just very irritating, but he turns his attention to Dustin anyway.

Billy rolls his eyes and crosses his arms. “Whatever, what do you need?”

“Uhhhhhhh…. Now Mike!”

And suddenly, Billy’s world is black and very fabric-y. He’s been blindfolded. It’s very dumb and Mike probably would have struggled if he wasn’t Billy’s exact height so Billy starts wriggling and struggling and reaching for the blindfold when he feels someone grab his hand.

“It’s alright, Billy. We’re just going downstairs.” Will’s calm, soft voice says as he pulls him in some direction. Billy follows with a lot less struggle. He doesn’t wanna hurt Will.

And in a few minutes, Billy’s being pushed into a chair. He’s pretty sure he hears voices quietly bicker over tying him up but the consensus seems to be a “no” on that one bc soon he’s gaining sight again.

His vision clears from it’s blinded blur to see a kid w/ a mop of curly hair in front of his face.

“Hello Billy.” He says like he’s intimidating or something.

“Hi Billy!” El says extremely cheerfully. Dustin turns his head to shush her.

“El! Sh! We’re supposed to be intimidating!”

“Ohhhhh…. Intimidating?”

Max chimes in. “Like, scary.”

“Oh!” El says in understanding, making her best angry face and thinking way too hard and, very suddenly, exploding a lightbulb. She shrieks.

“Sorry…”

“It’s alright El.” Will says kindly, walking towards a closet. “Mike’s mom keeps extra lightbulbs in the closet.”

“Will!” Mike hisses “We’re busy right now!”

Will hits Mike with a silencing look. “I think you guys can handle this.”

Mike pouts. “Why are none of you helping us?” He looks to the corner where Max and Lucas are sitting, Lucas on the arm of a lounge chair and Max on the seat.

“We’re… supervising.” Lucas says over a sip of his soda.

“Yeah, we’re just making sure this dumbass doesn’t get murdered for being stupid.” Max says, gesturing to Dustin who makes a very loud noise of indignation. Max shrugs.

And Billy?? Is tired as all hell. Kinda just wants to leave. Really, he could leave and these little twerps probably wouldn’t even notice. They didn’t tie him down or anything, he’s just sitting in a chair watching these children fumble like idiots trying to be intimidating.

But…. he indulges them. He thinks it’s kind of entertaining. Sure, he could be doing a lot more w/ his day, but seeing these kids be dumb is still vaguely enjoyable. Plus, he likes El and Will and Max and he thinks sitting here for their sake might be worth it maybe.

So he sits and he watches and he listens to Mike and Dustin bicker about how to “interrogate a witness”

“We’re not interrogating him, we’re intimidating him!”

“Well you gotta use the same tactics, right?”

To the point where Max heaves a bit sigh and shoves them aside so she’s standing in front of Billy, sitting in her hip w/ her arms crossed.

“Alright Billy, look. We know you’re dating Steve. And we’re fine with you dating Steve.” She gives a hard look to Mike and Dustin, who look about to chime in w/ opinions of their own, but wither under Max’s gaze. “All we’re saying is we need to set some ground rules here.” Max says as she turns back to Billy. “Number one-”

“Don’t hurt Steve!” Dustin all but screams, causing Max to sigh with a roll of her eyes.

“Alright, yes. Rule number one: Don’t hurt Steve. He’s like… family at this point. He’s super cool and nice to all of us and we care about him so don’t hurt him.”

“Or else I’ll hurt you!” Dustin pipes up again LOUDLY.

“Or Dustin will talk your ear off and probably accidentally spit on you while he does it.” Max says to a chorus of snickers and one very loud “Hey!” from the subject of her teasing.

“Rule number two: don’t be too…. Gross around us.” Max makes a face. “Like, if we have to witness you two kissing more than once a week, that’s excessive.”

At that is where Billy scoffs. “Are you serious?”

“Yes. at least for those of us who don’t live with you. And Number three: I don’t wanna hear ANYTHING about you guys… sleeping together.”

Everyone audibly gags at the thought. Billy is full on laughing now.

“Wow, such a kid you can’t even say the word fu-”

“NONE OF IT. Not even in passing or anything bc you guys accidentally talk too loud. I don’t want to be subjected to any of that.” Max is adamant about it, sealing it with a punch to his shoulder. Billy just puts his hands up in defeat.

“Yeah, fine, whatever. Like I wanna talk about my sex life with a bunch of twerps.”

Billy is thoroughly entertained by the faces of the kids, all looking absolutely mortified, Will’s face blushing like crazy, El’s head tilted bc she doesn’t understand.

Billy gives Max a look.

“Can I go now?”

Max shrugs, eyebrows furrowed bc she’s mad she had to hear the word sex come out of her brother’s mouth. He’s so grossly brazen all the time.

“Yeah, whatever. Just be nice to Steve.”

Billy pats his own knees and gets up, gesturing to El and Will to follow him.

“Let’s go, punks.” He says, the two of them following, Will’s face still red and El’s eyes a little less confused bc she doesn’t really care anymore. They say goodbye to their friends before following Billy out the door.

The three of them leave behind 2 very loud and complaining boys (Mike and Dustin), but it sounds like Max puts them in their place. Billy chuckles as he slips into his car.

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angstmongertina · 4 years

Text

Lessons Learned (Obey Me)

More reactions to all of the shit that goes down in Lesson 14-15, this time featuring @seckritlab‘s MC, Shiara, because am I really playing a game if I don’t have a multiple MC universe? We love Shiara and Aimee really needed a friend like her, even if their first impressions of each other went much the way of “Loathing” from Wicked.

Implied Lucifer/MC pre-relationship shenanigans.

“Shiara.” With Beel and Luke finally gone off in search of food, she flopped onto the nearest bed, pressing her face into the pillow so thoroughly that she could barely make out the sound of her own moan. “Shiara, I fucked up so bad.”

“You know, it’s not your fault.”

“How is it not? If I hadn’t brought it up with Lucifer, then maybe he wouldn’t have exploded and maybe they could have talked things out. Or if we hadn’t explored in the first place…”

“Then Belphie would still be locked up.”

“But now he’s under arrest for treason!” She rolled over, slapping the pillow against her face for emphasis, though Shiara, perched on the bed beside her, hardly seemed affected, tapping a beat out with her finger.

“If anything, that’s Lucifer’s fault.”

“What?”

“No, seriously. Think about it. If he had just told the truth in the first place, or maybe even stopped kissing his boyfriend’s ass for a hot second to think for himself, this whole thing wouldn’t have happened in the first place. It’s not our fault there were secrets surrounding this entire mess. It was like this before we ever got here. We only did the best we could with what we knew. And then he has the gall to blow up at us?”

The tapping intensified, accompanied by faint rhythmic shifting that several months as roommates had taught her meant Shiara had been possessed by some ear worm or another again. A particularly… exciting one, if the fiery look in her eyes was any indication. Ordinarily, it wasn’t much of a problem but given that gleefully vindictive expression…

“Do I want to know?”

She received a cheery smile. “He had it coming. He had it coming. He only had himself to blaaaaame.”

Aimee groaned again, rolling over yet again in a half-hearted attempt to suffocate herself, or at least cut off her oxygen flow enough to knock herself unconscious for a few hours. It was not to be, however, as Shiara leaned over her, pulling her back around to peer at her face.

“For someone so goddamn reasonable most of the time, you’re actually really upset by this. What the fuck happened in there?”

She contemplated denying it, but Shiara with the hint of a scandal was obnoxiously tenacious, and she knew better than to try and hide anything; it would only draw out the suffering as Shiara eventually pried the whole story from her.

Instead, she pressed a hand into her face, torn between shame and a strange sense of amusement at the sheer absurdity of her own predicament. “I… um… may have told Lucifer I was interested in him.”

Aimee could practically hear the record scratch as Shiara’s internal music ground to an abrupt halt. “You did what?”

“Told him that I was interested in him. He asked and I was worried about all of you guys disappearing and it slipped out!”

“And then he said?”

She rolled over yet again with a faint moan. “That it was convenient.”

“Convenient?” Even with her face smashed against the pillow once more, she could hear the incredulity in her friend’s voice. “Convenient?! That motherfucker! I’ll fucking show him convenient.”

“Shiara.” She waited until the grumbling subsided. “It doesn’t even matter anyway.”

“Of course it does! But… first, we need to figure out what to do about this whole mess with Belphie.” A very long, very drawn out sigh. “I suppose we’ll have to return to the House of Lamentation and explain ourselves.”

“You’re right. We need to go back. I need to apologize, whatever the consequences.” She narrowed her eyes, squinting at Shiara. “But wait. Since when have you been such a voice of reason? I thought you hated Lucifer.”

The wide grin she received in response only served to send a shiver of fear down her spine. “Oh, I do. But you clearly don’t and if I can help you get fucked by a demon, then I absolutely will.”

“Shiara!”

She leapt out of bed, laughing in spite of herself as Shiara cackled and darted out of the room.

#obey me #obey me fic #Tina writes stuff.#Tina plays Obey Me.#Aimee

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takingcourage · 5 years

Text

Allied

Pairing: Liam x MC

Word Count: 2,350

Summary: During their stay at the Walker Ranch, Liam and Eliza take some time to discuss the situation they left in Cordonia.

Note: TRH may be a mess, but after Chapter 5, I’m softer for this pair than ever. Since we all know that Liam would never force his child into an arranged marriage, I’m hoping for a conversation to confirm it in canon soon. In the meantime, I decided to write my own version.

This also fulfills a request that I received for kiss prompt #14 (standing behind someone, hugging them around the arms or the waist, and kissing the top edge of the shoulder).

Nights in the palace were never dark. Security lights dotted the perimeter -- a necessary addition made during the latest bout of renovations. Further on, the capital city always exuded a faint glow -- a film that often cloaked much of the natural light above.

By comparison, the Walker Ranch felt like an entirely different world. Sun having set, the stars and crescent moon were the only bodies to lend light to the blackened sky beyond their bedroom window.

Eliza stared through the glass a final time as she untied her shoes, careful to secure the curtains before she removed any other articles of clothing. She didn't think that anyone had followed them to Texas, but experience was showing that she could never be too careful.

For the past several hours, she’d been consciously avoiding her phone, almost certain that Madeleine would call at any moment to inform her of some scandalous headline that captured the inherent recklessness of the time they’d spent at Thrilltown. It hadn’t escaped her notice that several of the attractions she’d been on had included warnings for expectant mothers.

“Those won’t apply for months, even if I am pregnant,” she grumbled, tugging down the zipper on her pants.

But the past two weeks had proven without a shadow of doubt that the press could make any claim about her that they wanted, no matter how unfounded it might be. That was part of why she was so pleased that they hadn’t seen any sign of the paparazzi in Texas. So far, there had been no telltale flashes of light or pounding on doors. Everything had been dark and peaceful.

Almost everything.

While the thought crossed her mind, she heard the scurry of canine feet in the outer hallway, followed by the slam of a door. She’d known that putting Maxwell on corgi duty would lead to shenanigans sooner or later.

Smiling, she draped her discarded clothes across the trunk at the end of the bed and sauntered into the next room. As her eyes adjusted to the set of lights above the mirror, she became aware of the rush of water from the other side of the shower curtain. Eager to join her husband, she scanned the bathroom counter for the assorted bottles she'd taken from the suitcase mere hours before, only to find the space empty.

Liam had already carried them into the shower already. Of course he had.

A quick glance back in the direction of the shower confirmed that he'd hung towels for both of them as well.

With a deep sigh of satisfaction, she slipped behind the layers of vinyl and cotton and into the steamy alcove.

Liam had his back to her, his face hardly an inch away from the impressive trail of water that jetted down from the shower head. His back was reddened from the stream, the visual impression of his heat raising hairs throughout the length of her spine. Until this moment, she hadn't even realized the room was cold. Feet skimming across the sheen of water in the basin, she followed the magnetic impulse that pulled her to his warmth.

Her long arms stretched across his torso, hands locking around his taut chest as her nose fell into the valley between his shoulders. "Mmmm." Her humming breath chased away some of the droplets on his skin.

"I'm glad you could join me." His voice reverberated within the compact tiled walls. One broad hand swept back to wander over the swell of her hip, and she tightened her hold on him, squeezing gently as he continued tracing paths along her skin.

"You know I wouldn't miss this time for anything." The words were somewhat clumsy, the movement of her jaw checked by how tightly her cheek was pressed to his flesh.

“Nor would I.”

Eliza released him and reached for her razor, brushing her lips over his shoulder before shifting back on her heel.

Liam shook the excess water from his hair and angled to give her access to the water. As he did, Eliza took the opportunity to study his side profile, the image proving nearly distracting enough to call her attention away from shaving.

With a jolt of common sense, she remembered where they were: a private shower that likely had a very limited amount of hot water. This wasn’t the palace with its luxurious soaking rooms and extensive heating system.

"I've enjoyed this trip immensely, but I'm actually looking forward to going home and having our normal shower back,” she commented, suppressing her impulses.

"And our normal bed?" He inquired, brow rising as he squeezed a measure of shampoo into his hands.

Eliza reached beside him to drag her razor through the water. "It feels like ages since we’ve been at the palace, but I do have some very fond memories in the royal bedchamber.”

“I can promise many more on our return.”

She flashed a flirty smile as he leaned back to rinse his hair. Once finished, Liam stepped behind the flow of water so that she could take full advantage of the stream. Feeling the weight of his stare, she slowed her efforts to glance up at him.

“I really am looking forward to having you home again,” he told her, arms crossed as he cast an appreciative eye over her body.

A pleasant tingle broke out over Eliza’s skin. Her husband had a remarkable way of making her feel as though she was the only person in his world, especially when the two of them were alone.

As she dragged the blades over her long legs, she caught herself taking these simple moments of intimacy for granted. Fighting to stay beside him had made such instances all the sweeter, but she recalled with a twinge of bitterness that their child was unlikely to be so fortunate.

Agitated by the thought, she yanked the razor along the ridge of her knee. She sucked a sharp breath at the sting produced by the movement. When she looked down, a steady red line was already dripping from her thigh to the water.

Liam stretched out a hand in concern, cupping her shoulder with his own supple fingers. "Are you all right?"

"It's just a nick," she reasoned, holding the injured flesh under the water. "It used to happen all the time when I was a teenager."

Instead of releasing her, he took hold of her other shoulder. "Relieved as I am to know that this is a minor injury, that isn’t quite what I meant." His thumbs rolled over her skin, pushing gently into the lean muscles beneath. "I've watched you shave dozens of times, and you've never slipped like that before. What is it that’s on your mind tonight?"

Eliza set the razor aside and met his steady gaze, feeling almost guilty at the flash of concern she read there. "That I want more for our child than a marriage made for political gain." As she spoke, her back seized with a spasm of cold. Even with his grip on both her arms, the air in from the other side of the curtain was chilling. "And I’m worried that you’re going along with the idea of marrying our child off before they’re even born."

She wanted to take the words back as soon as they'd been spoken. It had been no secret to her that even if it didn't come first in every aspect of their lives, Cordonia was always something that needed their consideration. Their country factored into everything -- from the foods they ate to the plans they made for their future children. Implicating her husband when she’d known the terms beforehand seemed incredibly foolish.

But some part of her couldn’t help it.

Liam pulled her close, turning so that she was in the full path of the water. Heat enveloped her from all sides and put a momentary end to the tension that had plagued her moments before. Eliza dropped her face to his chest, nuzzling close to show she wasn't upset -- at least not with him.

He seemed to take her meaning, fingers soothing her hair as they’d done countless times before. Over the course of the next several breaths, their bodies fell into gentle rhythm, his lungs filling each time she exhaled.

Thoroughly warmed, she tapped his arm and he stepped back, giving her space to move again. As her hand traveled back to the razor, he broke the silence.

"Eliza, I will never force our children into anything. Political marriages in Cordonia have always been fully consensual, especially those that are arranged during childhood.” He found his canister of shaving cream and dispensed a generous portion of foam into one hand.

For several moments, she considered his words, thoughts jumbling while she worked to lather her legs a second time. "Even if that’s true, I hate putting all of those expectations on a child.”

"There will be expectations no matter what we choose,” he reminded her gently, pausing to shave his upper lip. “Though I'm still hoping that we can come to some solution other than marriage. One of the reasons I've allowed the talk of such alliances to go so far is in the hope that it will offer the chance for an alternate arrangement. I couldn’t shut them down completely and still expect them to negotiate.”

“I can see the sense in that, but I’m not convinced they’re willing to consider other options.” She watched him navigate the lines of his face with practiced ease and tried to keep her mind from seeking out the worst possibilities. “But what happens if we accept only for our child to refuse the marriage later on? Would things in Cordonia be any better off than they are now?”

Liam held his face under the water, scrubbing at his jaw to remove the traces his razor had left behind. “I don’t pretend that it would be easy, but my hope is that the country would see increased stability in the intervening years -- that even without a marriage, good will could be fostered between our countries. If it was not,” he sighed, wiping the water from his eyes, “then we would deal with the consequences as best we could.”

“You’re making me feel like there are still options.” A dry laugh accompanied her words, though she tried to bite it back. “That could be dangerous.”

“We always have options. I may be a king with a duty to my country, but I am also a man with a duty to my family. Providing for the happiness and contentment of our child -- or children, whatever the case may be --” his face softened at the aside, “is one of my chief concerns. And they will always know that. Our family will always come first."

Eliza rinsed the blades of her razor for the last time and placed the implement on the shelf, allowing her full attention to fall on her husband. Looking at him now, he noted a smudge of white on his earlobe. Instinctively, she wiped it clean with her thumb.

Liam caught her fingers as she drew them away, lifting the back of her hand to his lips. “No matter the circumstances, I will do everything in my ability to ensure that our children have this, Eliza.”

As much as she had expected such a resolution, hearing it from his lips was like a balm to her weary spirits. “I will too,” she murmured, allowing him to gather her into his chest a second time. “I’m sorry for doubting.”

“I’m grateful that your doubts have given us the chance to confirm that we’re both still seeing eye-to-eye. In my experience, this kind of unity is a rare gift, especially within royal courts. And we wouldn’t have it if we never questioned each other or shared doubts as we had them.”

Eliza pulled back slightly to glimpse his face. Her eyelids fluttered at the mist from the stream’s periphery, but she was able to make out the purposeful set of his jaw. “We’re a team,” she uttered with conviction, heart floating at the renewed understanding between them.

“We are.”

Any response Eliza might have given was cut off by the icy flow that collided with her skin, stealing all heat from her body in the time it took to run from her shoulders to her heels.

Liam leapt into action, shielding her from the worst of it as he grabbed at the temperature knob haphazardly. No matter how he twisted it, the water still ran cold. “Why...?” he wondered aloud.

Teeth chattering, she laughed as the initial shock of their situation wore away. “I think something’s stolen the hot water. Or someone,” she considered, remembering how dirty both dogs had gotten when they’d been out to see the horses earlier in the afternoon. “Knowing Maxwell, he’s probably decided it’s the perfect time to bring his puppy spa to life.”

For a half second, Liam stared blankly, as if trying to process the connection between concepts that his mind had never linked before. Finally accepting her rationale, he tossed her the bottle of conditioner. “Then I propose we finish showering as quickly as possible. After that, if my queen is willing, I know of a method that’s almost-certain to warm us back up.”

Grinding her teeth against the cold, she managed what she hoped was an acquiescent grin.

While they hurried to get clean, Eliza’s mind returned to her husband’s earlier assurances. Whatever spin the media put on their story, whatever the royal council or the people of Cordonia thought -- it all paled in comparison to the decisions they’d made together. As far as she was concerned, the most important alliance was one that they’d already formed.

#playchoices #playchoices fanfiction #the royal romance #trr liam #liam x mc #the royal heir #trh liam

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nellie-elizabeth · 5 years

Text

Doctor Who: Resolution (2019 New Years Special)

Yeah okay, that was a lot of fun!

Cons:

I'm not upset on principle that we didn't get a Christmas Special. That's totally fine. But I will admit, there's a lot less you can do with New Year's Day. It just doesn't have as many iconic elements. Ultimately, the time of the year didn't really influence the plot in any major way. There was some dialogue peppered in throughout, but it didn't really match the fun Christmas spirit that some of the past specials have managed to capture. It's a small point, but one I thought I'd mention.

I love seeing the Daleks return, I really do, but I do have to admit that I chuckled when the classic Dalek design finally appeared. The Dalek had been legitimately threatening as a squid thing, but I wasn't feeling properly scared of it in the big dramatic scene where it first appears in its traditional form. They really amped up the music and clearly wanted to make that a big moment, and I thought it fell a tiny bit flat.

Pros:

So much! This was a fun episode that kept me gripped from beginning to end.

First of all, I love that this team of friends has clearly become a well oiled machine. We hear talk of many of their adventures that happen off-camera, and it allows their friendship to escalate in a natural way. The Doctor takes them around to many different New Year's Eve celebrations so they can pick their favorites, which is just an adorable thing to do. It reminded me of one of my favorite things about Doctor Who as a whole. The Doctor has incredible power at her fingertips, but generally chooses to use it to help people where she can, and to bring joy to people and have fun, just because. It's so different from most over-powered people we see in fiction, who have some grand plan at the end of all their shenanigans, whether that plan be benevolent or evil.

I really liked the adorable archaeology couple. We didn't need to spend a lot of time with them to understand how much they cared for one another, and I thought it was really well done. The final shot of the episode shows the two of them holding hands, united through adversity and through mutual crushes and New Years Eve kisses, as the TARDIS zooms off with the Doctor and her best friends. It was a wonderful way to add a dash of romance into the story. (Other than the romance between the Doctor and Yaz, I mean. Anybody else feeling that?)

The real humanity of this episode came from Ryan's story with his dad. Once again, Graham and Ryan are the best at making me feel the feelings. Aaron, Ryan's absentee father, shows up to try and make amends. Ryan is really resistant to this, for good reason. Aaron and Graham then have a good talk, and at the end of the episode, Ryan saves Aaron's life and the two share a hug. Just typing it out like that doesn't convey the emotional resonance of this story. I think my favorite moment was when Graham got a box of Grace's stuff out for Aaron to look through. It was Aaron's stuff, that his mother had kept for him. Graham could have condemned Aaron and piled on yet another lecture, but instead he just talks about Grace, and asks Aaron why he didn't come to her funeral. Not for Grace, not for Ryan, but for himself. It was a beautiful moment of catharsis and you can really sense the healing begin.

Jodie Whittaker hasn't had a lot of really meaty emotional material in her first series, if you think about it. The stakes have only been personal for her insofar as she wants to protect her new friends, and keep people safe in general. I don't mind this, although I have noted it in earlier reviews, waiting for that moment when I would feel like this person was the same Doctor I've followed through so many adventures in the past. Through all of my own slight doubts, though, Whittaker has given a masterful performance. And here, finally, we see her come face to face with the oldest and baddest foe the Doctor will ever have. I loved all of the work Whittaker was doing here, particularly when her companions try to join her and she says that facing the Dalek is personal, and something she needs to do alone. We also get the ultimate bad-ass moment when the Dalek scans her, realizes she's the Doctor, and immediately freaks out and tries to exterminate her on the spot. The Doctor is a lover, not a fighter, but it is of course awesome when she gets to be kind of a bad-ass too.

Another overarching theme of Doctor Who is that people are always better when they work together. The Doctor will always want to keep her friends safe, sure, but she doesn't do things by herself just because. She asks for help when she needs it. I loved the nod to UNIT in this episode. The Doctor tries to contact them for assistance, but she gets roadblocked. Apparently the UK has had a falling out with her international partners. Hmmm... sounds like a not-so-subtle Brexit commentary. If the Doctor is all about coming together and uniting to do the right thing, then it's no wonder that something like Brexit would prove to be an irritating obstacle for her and her mission.

While Yaz got the short end of the storytelling stick once again, I like the material that's filling in the gaps in her screen-time. While Graham and Ryan have their family drama going on in several of this series' episodes, Yaz's place seems to have fallen in right beside the Doctor. She's always supporting her, always the first person the Doctor turns to when discussing a plan or while having a mild freak-out. I love how their relationship is developing, as the Doctor seems to answer to Yaz in a really fun way, and Yaz's loyalty is extremely apparent.

I mentioned that the moment when the Dalek was revealed was a little cheesy. But I did like so much of what was done here with this classic Doctor Who villain. We see that this particular Dalek was split into three pieces and buried on separate corners of the Earth by the ancient Britons who fought it. But now it's back. Apparently this Dalek was an early scout, coming to Earth centuries before. It has the power, in its squid form sans machinery, to latch on to people and take them as hosts. This is a fairly standard sci-fi idea for an alien of this design, but the fact that it's a Dalek makes it all the more creepy. We've seen what these Daleks are capable of achieving, so one getting loose in Sheffield feels like a legitimate threat. I was also genuinely scared for the life of the girl who was being possessed, and then later for Aaron's life, although luckily they were both able to fight back enough to be safe.

And that's that! Looks like our next series won't be out until 2020, so it will be some time before we get more of Whittaker's Doctor. I thoroughly enjoyed this series. I hope that by laying a solid groundwork, future series with this Doctor and these companions can get a little bit more adventurous. I can't wait!

9/10

#review #doctor who #doctor who review #doctor who new years special #dw

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dammitadolfnomorecake · 5 years

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COTW 9 - Full... otherwise it would be toooo long

Levi's rut, or simmering rut was kind of nice. His alpha holding him close all day, letting Eren nap in his lap while they were at Hanji's. The pair of them trading affectionate kisses each time either of them felt like it, while Viren and Anna both looked at them in disgust. Hearing he and their pups were alright had sent him sky high, his body flooded with warmth and happiness that only grew each time he looked to Levi. His mate's rut was still affecting him when they finally headed up to bed for the night. His alpha pushing him down to the bed, before spending what felt like hours eating him out. Waves of pleasures blended together, his hands buried in Levi's hair as he barely contained his moans and mews. Bringing him to orgasm, Levi's lapped every drop of cum from his stomach, Eren giggling at Levi's animalistic behaviour. His giggles earning him a playful away from his mate, though Levi's own soft laughter made it impossible for him to take anything seriously. Crawling up the bed, he flipped his mate off, thinking that was the end of it. Levi growling as he climbed up behind, his mate peppering kisses against his skin as one hand came to tickle his side. Giggles turned to full blown laughter as he begged or mercy. He was still giggling as Levi mounted him from behind, both of them shushing each other, lest they face the wrath of an angry Hanji. The sex was soft and gentle, despite the tapering rut, Eren falling asleep with Levi still inside of him. Napping off and on, they reconfirmed their feelings of happiness, whispered words of love falling between soft pants and rustling sheets. When morning came, Levi cleaned him down thoroughly with his tongue, which was hot as fuck. His mate's rut may have been killed off by the heavy dose of suppressants, but what he had been through made him feel like the luckiest omega in the world. * Left to sleep by Levi, Eren woke to four small hands on his face. On his left, Anna was staring right into his eyes, as Viren pushed at him, repeating "Mummy!". Still happy from the previous night, Eren wrapped his arms around both kids, kissing Anna's forehead, then pressing kisses to Viren's cheeks as he tried to push him off, smacking him squarely in the eye by accident. Ignoring the pain, and the watering, he kept a smile on his face "Uncle Eren!" "Good morning, you two. Did mummy send you to wake me?" Anna gave an exaggerated nod "You've been asleep forever Uncle Eren! Uncle Mike and Uncle Erwin are here! And Uncle Levi's hurt" That got his attention, goodbye happiness, hello panic "What do you mean he's hurt?" "He's got bruises on his neck, like you do Uncle Eren... mummy won't tell me anything" Bruises... Hickeys... oh, thank fuck "Uncle Levi's ok. So am I. Have you been playing with Viren?" Looking to his son, Viren nodded "Yep. But he doesn't want to play barbies. And he won't let me do his face all pretty" "That's because my little man is already pretty. Why don't you take him back downstairs? I need to have a shower" "But Uncle Eren, you've been asleep all day!! Mummy said I had to wait! I want to play" "And we will, I just need to take a shower because I'm all sweaty! And my breath... I think something died in my mouth" Exhaling loudly, the kids caught a waft of his breath. Anna pinching her nose "You're smelly!" "I told you. Now go take Viren back to Uncle Levi. And be careful on the stairs" "I will! Come on Viren!" Anna was so good with Viren. She did each and every stair one by one with him, telling him off he tried to take too big a step. Leading him away, his son waved at him in clear confusion. Probably wondering why they had to come all the way up, to now go back down. Showered and dressed in sweats and a shirt from his stash in the spare room wardrobe, Eren had tried to look a little less fucked. Levi had practically marked every single spot along his neck, like a collar of ownership. Walking into the kitchen, Levi rose to great him. Leaving Hanji, Mike and Erwin at the dining table, with the kids already back watching cartoons "Hey, beautiful" Kissing Levi, Eren wrapped his arms around him "Hey, you. How'd you sleep?" "Not as good as you, you looked too peaceful to disturb" "I don't mind. I know you like to be up early" "Take a seat, I'll make you some lunch" Stealing another kiss, Eren then padded softly over to the dining table, sinking down with 3 pairs of eyes on him "What?" Erwin said nothing, but he was smiling way too much. As was Hanji "You three are creeping me out" Mike laughed "Sorry, Eren. I hear congratulations are in order" Mike already knew anyway... "Yep. Twins..." Erwin looked to his husband, then to Hanji "You didn't tell me it was twins" "Because we know you can't keep your mouth closed" Eren snorted as Levi shot Erwin down. He might not have got to tell everyone his news his own way, but Erwin being clueless was nice "Two healthy pups... and a happy omega" Mike smiled warmly, ignoring Erwin's furrowed brow "That's great news. How have you been feeling? How's your depression been?" "Not great. I've been having nightmares and panic attacks. And my head's been all over the place. Just ask Levi and Hanji. Then there's morning sickness which can kindly piss off. You know. The usual fun things pregnancy brings. But today's been pretty good. Even if Viren hit me in the eye for too many kisses" "It has nothing to do with the fact you and Levi have more hickies than skin around your necks" "Well, there was that too" Hanji groaned "I told you two to behave. You're still recovering and I know the ultrasound was really positive, but there's still a chance of miscarriage" "You don't have to have sex to be intimate" Placing down a steaming mug of tea, and plate of toast, Levi dropped a kiss on his head as he sat next to him "Mhmm..." "Oh no, don't even try that mister. You two totally boned" Eren choked on air, Hanji wearing her best disapproving mum look. Wrapping his arm around him, Levi leaned around him "Leave him alone" "Where's the fun in that?" Hanji blew a kiss in Levi's direction, Levi growling in response. Shaking his head at both of them, Eren sighed at their shenanigans. His mood starting to waver over mentions of miscarriages "Will you two let me eat my breakfast in peace? Erwin, please tell me you're here to drag Levi back to work?" "He's on extended shift as of next week" That was good. Levi needed that "Don't worry, I can talk to my boss" "Levi. No. You're going back to work... Hanji, am I allowed to start dancing again?" "As long as you take it easy, and make sure you're keeping your fluids up, you can start again next month" "You do realise that only gives me two weeks before the wind up" "Would rather not dance at all?" Eren glared at Hanji "That's what I thought" Beside him, Levi released his hold. Eren confused as the sudden lack of contact. Did Levi not want him dancing? It was only for two weeks, and then he'd be 6 months come February when it started up again, and probably too pregnant to dance... or at least pole dance... he could ballroom dance in a tux while pregnant either. That was just weird "When's your wind up?" Straining to smile, Eren looked to Mike "December 11. It starts at 4pm, which is all the kids dance classes first. It's a giant Christmas party. Then I think the ballroom dancing is about 7, and 9ish for Pole Dancing" "Pole Dancing?" Mike somehow managed to make it sound like he'd never thought Eren could possibly have Pole danced in his life... which he knew the alpha knew all about. After all, he'd fucked his ankle up because of dancing on it "Weeeeeell. I was working as a stripper when I met Levi and Hanji... it's a great work out, and it's super fun" Crossing his arms, Levi growled at Mike "Get your mind off my mate" "No ones thinking of Eren like that. I was just asking. Do you have to buy tickets?" "Yep. But I've got one for Anna, Viren, Hanji and Levi. His was supposed to be surprise..." He'd asked Sasha to pick him up another ticket... he may have thought he'd be single by the time the wind up came around, and that Levi would have no interest in attending... But Levi didn't need to know that. He'd lied to Sasha anyway, saying he couldn't get babysitter for Viren, so he was covered if Levi asked her "You got me a ticket?" Fuck. Levi sounded surprised, adding the guilt he was feeling about leaving it so late "Yes... Wait, don't tell me you two want tickets too?" Mike looked to Erwin, Erwin looking slightly miffed. He didn't know why. Erwin was the one who couldn't keep it in his pants. He wasn't exactly sure what had happened with Eld... and he was hearing all this from Levi, who didn't give two shits "No, it's alright. I'm sure Levi or Hanji will be filming" "Nope. No filming or photos for the pole dancing. It's a mixed class with alphas, betas and omegas, so no one is allowed to take photos in case someone gets upset" "Levi would probably kill anyone taking photos of you" His alpha huffed, his scent conflicting to his words "I wouldn't kill them" "No, you'd just give them an extremely hands on talking too" "Ok. That's enough. No one is hurting anyone. This is exactly why there's no filming" Mike tried to lighten the mood, but fell flat "I suppose you dance for Levi anyway" "Actually, I don't... but I've got my routine planned. So it's too late to change that. If he's a good boy, he might get a preview" Though Levi would probably chuck the shits over him dancing in front of everyone. He knew he hated it... but dancing felt so good, and his mate had been ok with him dancing again, once he got over the initial surprise "I think you'd better give him that preview" Hanji giggled nervously. Levi's scent was starting to turn a tad too angry "You two just want to watch. I'm onto you" Placing his hand on Levi's his alpha tensed "Levi. Do you not want me dancing?" "No. No it's fine" It didn't sound very fine... "I can do the Ballroom only" "I said it's fine" Nervous, he pushed his chair away from the table. Levi didn't want him dancing... his anxieties made his breath hitch "Eren" "No..." "Eren, talk to me" Reaching towards him, Eren stepped back. Well aware that Hanji, Mike and Erwin were watching the exchange between him and Levi "I said I didn't mind" "Really? Because that's not how it sounds" "Well what do you want me to say then?" "The truth. If you don't want me dancing, just say it like that" Rising in her own spot, Hanji tried to calm him "Eren, I'm sure it's just lingering concern and possessiveness from Levi's minirut..." Probably. But that didn't make it hurt any less, or his racing mind slow "I don't want to talk about it. I'm going to check on the kids" "You haven't eaten" "I'm not hungry" "Eren, you need to eat" "I'm not hungry. Sorry, Hanji..." Walking away from the table, Eren chewed his bottom lip. It was just dancing. It wasn't like he was stripping, and he wasn't giving lap dances. He'd stupidly thought Levi would support him, not get shitty over it. Sitting down on the sofa between the kids Viren climbed into his lap without prompting "Uncle Eren, are you ok?" Nodding at Anna, he moved Viren onto one thigh, so Anna could climb up on his other side. Be happy and smile for the kids... the kids didn't know his past or what he'd done. They loved him for who he was to them, in the here and now "Yep. I sure am Anna Bee-nena" "It's banana, Uncle Eren" "It sure is. You're so smart" Settling herself down, Eren hugged both kids. At least the kids liked him. There they went... No. There he went. Having one good night and thinking things were better with Levi "What are we watching?" "'toons. Can we go play outside?" "It's a bit cold for that" "But you said!" "I know I did. I didn't realise how cold it was" "It's not that cold" Pouting at him, Anna was adorable and not taking no "Viren's younger than you sweetheart, he's not quite as strong as you yet" "He's so small" "That's because he's still growing" "I want him to be bigger. Then we could play more" "One say he's going to be taller than you" "But Uncle Levi is really, really short" Eren struggled not to laugh. Levi would be pissed to hear that "He's still taller than you. Viren, what do you want to do?" "Play!" "See, Uncle Eren. He wants to play" Tickling Viren's tummy, his son giggled. He loved the sweet sound so much. He couldn't say no to his wide grey eyes and happy face "Fiiiiiine. Go ask your mummy. You're going to need a jacket, and I need to put Viren in some warmer clothes" Anna gave him a wet kiss, scrambling out his lap to go running into the kitchen as she yelled for her mum, while Eren lifted Viren. Bopping him lightly on the nose, his son threw his arms up "Play! Mummy. Play!" "Yeah, baby boy. You need a jacket though" Firmly ignoring the direction of the dining area, Eren carried Viren upstairs, dressing his son in a thick warm jacket, and proper pants. He just had to play with the kids... that would make him feel better. At least he couldn't do that wrong. "Eren" Waiting for him at the base of the stairs, Levi lifted Viren off his hip as his traitor of a son reached for Levi "Levi. I don't want to talk about it" "I was a dick. I know dancing is important to you" "And?" "And, I'm sorry. I know you love dancing, and I shouldn't have gotten mad over it" "Hah! I knew you were mad" "Ok. Yes. I don't like the idea of dancing in front of everyone else. But it's your body" "Even if I'm dancing in front of everyone, you're my alpha. You, Lee. Not them" Levi looked to his feet like a scolded child. His alpha wasn't great at always owning up to his jealousy. The words of love they'd whispered now seemed like lies "But they're all going to want you" "Want me? What am I? A hunk of meat? It doesn't matter to me what they feel or want. I'm pregnant with your pups" "It matters to me. You're gorgeous and out of my league. You could have the choice of any alpha you wanted" Eren scoffed "If you seriously think that, then what did last night mean? Does that mean I just settled for you? And that my feelings mean nothing?" "I'm not saying that" "Then have some trust in me" "I do trust you..." "But?" "But I don't want to share you" "I'm not a possession. I'm your omega. You keep saying I'm your partner. And dancing makes me feel better about myself. For fork's sake. I started dancing again to look good when I'm with you... and you know what, if you're jealous, than that's your problem. If you're that worried, then don't bother coming" "Eren" "No. You can't say you trust me, and not want me to dance. That's like saying I think you're cheating on me every you leave the house" "I'm not cheating on you! I'm worried for you!" Cheating wasn't the quite phrase to use... not when they'd dissolved into an argument not even two weeks ago over it "I'm not having this fight. I'm going to play with the kids, at least I can do that right" "God. Why are you being like this? I was trying to apologise" "Apology accepted. But I don't want to talk to you about it right now. Last night meant a lot to me... and now you're making me feel ashamed for liking the things I like" And stupid. Really stupid, for liking to dance "That wasn't my intention" "Then maybe you should have thought about this more. You're my mate. My alpha. I'm not dancing to attract another mate. This is why I never should have told you I was dancing again" Levi sighed "Eren. I want to support you, but if things were different and I was dancing, would you be jealous?" Yes... Levi was his mate, but if it made him happy, he'd find a way to deal with it "Yes. But I'd support you because that's what a good mate does when it involves something they love. Give me Viren, Anna's probably waiting as it is" "Anna's got the others under her thumb. Erwin's pushing her on the swing while Hanji and Mike had been instructed to watch" "She's a force of her own" "That she is..." Taking Viren back, Eren "nommed" at his cheek. Pushing down his emotions for his son "Let's play! Do you want to go on the swings? How does that sound?" "Swings! Mum. Daddy?" "Daddy's coming outside too. Do you want daddy to push you?" Viren nodded enthusiastically. Throwing himself on the ground, Viren wailed. Anna was on the swing he wanted to use, and his son wasn't having it, even if he was too small for a normal seat. Leaving him wailing, Eren sat on the veranda, next to Hanji, to watch and wait it out. He was on the grass with nothing that could hurt him around him. Levi was stupidly attempting to soothe their screaming toddler. He hated seeing him cry, but mid tantrum... well, it was better to let himself cry himself out "Did you talk to Levi?" "Really, Hanji?" "He was pretty upset with himself" "He should be" "Eren, he loves you" "He might love me, but he didn't need to make me like shit" "He didn't mean to" "That doesn't change anything" "I think you're overreacting" "He's the one overreacting. I'm just dancing. That all there is to it" "Dancing and showing off that fantastic body of yours, while pregnant. It's like catnip for alphas. He loves you" "I know he does. But he needs to back off. He can't keep getting jealous like this. And he can't keep shoving his love on me. He went for weeks without tell me he loved me, and now I feel smothered. Last night was really good, but now I feel stupid. I love him, and I know he's anxious over trying work things out. It's... Hanji, he gets upset over something as simple as leaving me home alone for work..." "Eren, he's been going out of his mind worrying about you and the pups. He even went into a rut over it. He was still in a rut this morning, and I had to give him another dose of suppressants because he didn't want to hurt you, or exhaust you. He kept the kids busy all morning so you could rest. You know he's got his own issues" "He didn't tell me that" "Because he insisted you sleep all day, then you promptly had a fight with him" "I didn't want to have a fight with him" "Look. I told him if it bothers him, he doesn't have to come" "You weren't going to invite him in the first place, were you?" "No. I thought I'd he wanted to break up with me, and break our bond" Hanji should know all about that. She knew how upset he'd been, and how sure he'd been that it was over between them "You two are so fucking frustrating" "Now you sound like Levi. He's always calling me a stubborn shit" "You are. And so is he. I'm not letting either of you leave until you sort this out" "You can't do that. Levi needs time to cool down" "Yes I can, and watch me. Levi! Eren says he's sorry!" He wasn't sorry. Maybe a tiny part of him was, but a bigger part was in a state of shock, while him omega felt like their mate would yell at them the first chance he had. He hissed the woman's name furiously "Hanji!" Levi abandoned trying to pull Viren off the ground "If he's sorry, what do I do about Viren?!" Stupid Hanji. He was still working things out in his head. He didn't want to open his mouth. He didn't want to further Levi's disappointment in him. Looking to Hanji, she nodded at him to say something "Let him cry it out!" "What?!" "He said to "let him cry it out!"!" "But he's crying!" "Over the swing! Seriously, he'll stop if you stop giving him attention" Levi didn't seem to sure, but as he walked away from Viren, Viren continued to cry. Standing at the base of the steps, Levi kept his eyes on their screaming son "Are you sure I'm supposed to leave him be?" "He's crying over a swing, Levi. He'll be fine. Anyway. Eren is going to dance and you're going to watch. Ok? Good" His alpha frowned, Eren shrinking back as his gaze turned to him "You talked to Hanji about this? But not me" Holding up his hands, he shook his head "I didn't talk to Hanji. She shoved her opinions on me" "That sounds about right. I didn't mean to make you feel bad, especially after last night. It's not easy to stop worrying about you" "You don't need to worry so much. We literally got the best news yesterday. And you're going back to work. And, I've been dancing off and on for years. It's what make me happy" Cautiously, he lowered his hands. Levi wasn't yelling... and he didn't appear to be preparing to "I know it is. I'm happy your dancing makes you happy. You won't be... What are you wearing?" So that was the issue? Levi didn't want him looking like a slut on the stage "I'm covered, and I've worn less on stage before. Besides there are going to be kids in the audience" "So more than underwear?" If it was a costume issue, they could have talked about what he was going to wear... he'd let his alpha help dress him if it helped with Levi's anxieties and worries "Yes, Levi. More than just my underwear. It'll be a little skimpy, but everything will be covered" "I guess it's ok then... But how covered is covered?" "More covered than last night" "There wasn't much covered last night" "Exactly. Look, I have a few ideas, but my junk will be covered" "And your stomach?" "It depends how much I'm showing. I don't want to wear anything too loose" "See. Eren knows what he's doing. Now, Viren's birthday party is coming up. Did you want to have a combined baby shower?" "Levi. Make her stop. There's only so much I can take" "Hanji, leave him alone" "But cake?" * Hanji was keen on a having the baby shower at the same time as Viren's birthday party. Levi could understand why Eren was so against it. It was their son's birthday party, and he didn't want to take away from it. Eren ended up losing his temper at her, which he secretly enjoyed as it meant his omega was no longer mad at him. He wanted Eren to dance, yet somehow his mind hadn't put two and two together when it came to what his omega would wear. Driving home that night, Viren's birthday party was all he could think about. That and his tantrum.. and his own tantrum of sorts. Eren was dripping with pregnancy pheromones, his body slowly changing as he grew all that sweeter. Luckily Viren was asleep by the time they got to their apartment, giving him a little more space to thing. Eren putting Viren in his bed, while Levi sank down on the sofa. His phone in his hand as he tried to think what a good present for a three year old would be. Eren kept saying he was a good father, but today he'd felt over his head. Coming to join him on the sofa, Eren patted the space between them as he summoned Titan up to join them "Are you still mad about me dancing?" Eren's voice was small, but in the silent apartment, he may as well have been yelling "No. Not with you. I really didn't mean to make you feel bad" "Why didn't you tell me about still being in a rut?" Shitty Hanji and her shitty mouth "Because I wanted you to rest" "Is that all?" Leaning back, he looked to Eren "What else could there be?" "I thought that maybe you regretted last night? Because my body is changing again" "What? No. No. Last night was amazing. I don't regret it. I didn't hurt you, did I?" "No. You were very gentle, and having all your attention was nice" "Good. You looked so tired when you fell asleep that I was worried" "I'm fine... I didn't mean to make a scene in front of Erwin and Mike" "I shouldn't have pushed... but it hurt to feel like you didn't trust me" "I do trust you. It's everything else that's been happening. You first wanting to leave. You thinking I didn't love you. You losing the pup and then finding the other two are growing strong. I may have been slightly out of my depth" "You're not the only one. I mean. Things were so nice last night, then I ruined it by starting a fight. Then I started feeling stupid over thinking everything could be ok from just one night" "You're not stupid" "I felt pretty stupid today" "That was my fault. And you're not the only one. I don't know how you deal with Viren's tantrums" "I realised the more attention I gave him, the longer they went on for. The first few had me in tears, but I talked to Hanji and Marco" "I felt stupid not knowing what to do. I don't even know what to buy my son for his birthday" He'd bought him a new red blanket last year, and a stuffed teddy that the boy had begged for when they were out "I've already bought presents. They're in my room" "But I should know what to buy him..." "How could you? You're always so busy at work, and every time you two have gone shopping, you always splurge on what he wants. The trick is to wait to buy it" "I want to get him something nice" "Then get him something for when he's older, and... actually... he wants a bike. A tricycle would work, for when he's at Hanji's and at the park" "Doesn't he have one?" "He has a plastic one. If you can get a red one, I think you'll be the best dad ever" "How do you know he wants a bike?" "Anna's getting one for Christmas. He was there for the discussion and the choosing" "You know him so well" "I do spend most of my time with him. Make sure you get him a red helmet too. Everything has to be red" "It really does. What about his birthday cake?" "He wants a super hero cake, and he wants a cake made out of chicken nuggets" "Nuggets?" "Yep. Don't worry, he's going to get a whole tray of nuggets, as well as a cake" Levi would never understand the love of chicken nuggets "Are Mina and Anka coming?" "As far as I know. It's not going to be a massive party, but it will be at Hanji's. She's got the space" "I still feel like I should get him something more" "Levi, you've given him the best present he could ever have and that's you" Lifting Titan into his lap, Eren nuzzled the tom's face "I wish I knew when Titan's birthday was" "You want to celebrate his birthday?" "Why not? He's our other son" "He's a cat" "He's more than a cat. And Santi Paws got him a few nice things this year, didn't he?" "Do I want to ask?" "Probably not. I think I'm going to take a bath. What about you?" "I have a trike to find" "Yep. And don't you dare force us to go biking either. If I learned to ride one, I have no memory of it" "I'm pretty sure there are photos of you learning to ride a bike" Or there would be, if he knew where Eren had stashed their collection of photos "Are there? I don't remember" "Like I said, I'm pretty sure" Giving Titan another kiss, Eren placed him down between them "Don't stay up too late. You need to get back into a routine before work" "Anyone would think you're happy to have me gone" "No. This has all been nice, but I miss normalcy. I need normal" "You better get all the normal you can in. We've got twins coming" "I know. We're going to need to convert my room. Viren would probably want it, but with twins they need the space. Our little apartment is getting full" "We could move" Watching Eren, his mate paled, his facial expression akin to something of terror "I was joking. We'll figure something out. Go have a bath" "I.. yeah..." Eren backtracked to make sure the door was locked before heading into the bathroom. His omega clearly didn't want to leave... yet there was only so much space in their apartment, and no space for bikes and trikes. When did Viren get so big he could ride a trike? And soon it would be a bike. Their son had so much energy, there was no stopping him when he wanted to run. When he first realised he could run, the little boy had provided endless entertainment as he ran around the apartment naked after "escaping" from his bath, squealing and clapping as he ran from Eren with the towel. Half the time he was sure Eren let him run around because he knew how funny Levi found it. Shit. His life had been passing him by and he really hadn't realised until his wake up call with Eren. They should have been wed long ago. Instead of looking up a red trike for Viren, Levi started ring shopping. Eren deserved a fat wedding ring on his finger, as much as Viren deserved a red trike. No. His omega deserved it even more. When Eren didn't reemerge from the bathroom, and Levi had settled on a ring, the alpha discarded his phone on the sofa. Heading into the bathroom, he found his omega sleeping in the bath. This time he was actually sleeping, his snoring soft as one hand rested on his belly. Smiling softly, Levi reached into the tub and pulled the plug out, before snatching up Eren's towel from the rack. Whining as the water level dropped, his mate nuzzled into the side of the bath "Eren, it's time to get up" Not getting a reply, Levi waited until most of the water was gone from the tub before sitting Eren up "What?" "You fell asleep in the bath. Here, hold onto me" Looping his arms around over Levi's shoulders, Eren let himself be lifted from the tub and into the towel, before Levi lifted him completely into his hold. Nuzzling at his neck, Eren let out a soft sigh "Thanks" "You're welcome" Drying his still sleepy mate down, Levi fetched him a pair of sweats, barely getting them onto Eren before Eren was pulling him down and into their bed "I need to clean the bathroom up" "Leave it" "I can't just leave it" "If the bath is drained, it's ok. I want cuddles" "Can I at least get changed first?" "Mmm. I suppose so" Changing simply involved stripping down to his underwear. He wanted to shower, but clingy Eren was adorable. Sliding under the covers to join his mate, Eren moved to rest his head against his chest, as his hand found Levi's and intertwined their fingers "Love you, Lee. Thanks for taking care of me" "I love you too" "Good. 'cause I'm sorry for fighting with you" Sleep slurred Eren's words, his omega drifting off as Levi placed his free hand on Eren's hip, and before he could come up with his own apology. Despite the bedside lamp being on, the living room light being on, and the bathroom light being on, sleep snuck up on him. Falling asleep with Eren firmly in his hold. Waking the next morning, Levi immediately growled at the loss of Eren in their bed. Climbing from it, his back cracked as his muscles protested having spent so long in one position. Growing old sucked. Flicking the bedside lamp off, he wandered out their bedroom. Viren was sitting on the sofa, while Eren was in the kitchen. Making a beeline for his mate, he wrapped his arms around him, nuzzling and kissing Eren's shoulder. Turning, Eren kissed the side of his head "Hey. I thought you needed the sleep given that you let me sleep in yesterday" "You could have woken me" "It's fine. A touch of morning sickness, then Viren decided to join me... unfortunately you're going to need a new phone" Levi's stomach dropped "A new phone?" "He dropped it in the toilet while I was puking. I washed it, and it's in rice now, but I have no idea if that will save it" He'd found the perfect ring for his mate... but stupidly he hadn't saved any details. They were on his phone... he hadn't needed to save anything... because they were on his phone... "Levi?" "Huh?" "You ok? You smell angry. I think he was trying to get me help, because I told him not to get daddy" "It's a little inconvenient, but we'll see what the rice does" "Hopefully it works. I'll buy you a new one if it doesn't" "No. I've got the money for a phone" "It was my fault. I didn't know your phone was out here" "Eren, it was bound to happen again. This isn't the first phone he's killed. But what about you? Morning sickness?" "Yeah. It was my own fault. Last pregnancy was eggs, but these two don't seem to like the smell of coffee or chocolate. I wanted to make pancakes" "Is that why we're having eggs for breakfast?" "Yeah. I hope you don't mind" "It's fine. I can take over" "No. You go take a shower. They should be done by the time you get out" "Are you sure?" "I've got it under control" "Ok... I was hoping we could talk today" "I'm not going anywhere today" "Good. Because I was thinking..." There was a cluttering from the living room, both of them turning to see Viren had dropped his spoon on his way to bring his dishes to Eren "You were thinking?" His moment of bravery to ask about the wedding passed "I was just thinking we should organise your next ultrasound appointment and to see Krista" "They're on my to do list. I need to message my dance partner too, and let her know I can start dancing again next month" "Her?" "Sasha. I told you about her. She's married to Connie, and eats like there's no tomorrow" "I don't remember" "It's ok. It's just dance stuff" "Do you think you could teach me?" "I don't know. I mean, I like my toes" "Rude" Taking the bowl from Viren, Levi placed it in the sink "I guess I'll take that shower then" "Yep. And can you drop Viren back off onto the sofa? The last thing we need is burnt fingers" "On it. Up we go buddy!" Viren wasn't happy as Levi placed him down on the sofa, the boy felt warm "Eren, does he have a fever?" "He was a little warm. I've got some children's panadol in the fridge for him" "I'll get it" "Ok. It's in the fridge door. We'll probably need a bucket too, just in case" "Yep" Sick and angry, or angry because he was sick, Viren didn't want to take the panadol from him. The kid wailing like Levi was actually hurting him. Coming to the rescue, Eren had a sippy cup of juice "Here, give me the plunger" Passing it over, his mate depressed the contents into the small container built into the lid of the cup. Popping the lid on properly, Eren handed it over to him "Sometimes he's good and he'll take it, but sometimes you just have marvel at the wonders of modern parenting" "Does this mean I should buy one for you? I know how much you hate medication" "Ha. Ha. No. It means you should get that bucket, then go shower" "Are you sure?" "Yes. This isn't his first fever. Once the panadol kicks in, he'll start feeling better and want cuddles" "Alright..." Again. He was amazed by how smoothly Eren handled things. He knew his mate was a great mother, but he felt stupid for not thinking of the sippy cup. 20 minutes and a shave later, Levi came out the bathroom feeling human. Eren had Viren in his lap at the dining table, his eggs and tea already waiting for him. Kissing both tops of their heads, he paused "How is he?" "He wants all the cuddles. He'll probably go down for a nap soon" His son didn't look happy at all. He was chewing on some toast, but glaring at it as he did. Taking his seat, Levi broached the topic on his mind "I was thinking I want to talk about the wedding" Eren dropped his fork in shock, hastily recovering it "The wedding?" "Yeah. I mean. I want it to be perfect" "You've been thinking about it?" "Yeah... I have no idea how to do any of the stuff that needs to be done, but I want to work it out" Readjusting his hold on Viren, Eren's voice was even to the point of dismissal "It's simple. I don't want to get married" What?! Hold up?! What!? That made no sense "You don't want to get married?" "At least not for a while yet. You can't marry a fat bride" "You're pregnant" "Exactly. And if Hanji has her way, she'll have me in a dress" "You don't want to wear a dress?" He expected Eren would want to wear some big fairytale dress "I'm a guy. I want to wear a suit, which wouldn't look all that good on me when I'm swollen with your pups" "So you want to wait? Until after the pups are born?" "And then we need to wait until their old enough for us to leave them with Hanji. Unless you don't want a honeymoon" "Hold up. I thought you wanted to get married?" "I've got to put the kids first..." So. What? Why? He didn't get it "It's fine, Levi. You don't need to force yourself. I know you hate attention, and the last thing you'd want is a big white wedding filled with lilies and silver trim. Besides, I don't know who'd we'd even invite" Shocked, Levi stammered out "But I want to marry you" "It's going to have to wait. Now we know these two are ok, we need to start planning for them" Eren. Who'd been so focused on getting married... didn't want to?! What? He'd basically begged for a wedding in Paradis. He'd wanted to be legally his. Not that he wasn't already in almost each and every way he could be "But..." "Levi. It's ok. Eat your breakfast" No. It was most certainly not ok. He'd summoned up his courage while showering, shaved and trimmed his hair to make sure he looked good for Eren, and now Eren was saying no?! "I thought you wanted to get married. You said you wanted to get married" "I do. I really, really do. But there's way too much to plan. There's Hanji's IVF, which I'll be out all day for on Monday. There's Viren's birthday. My dance wind up. Your birthday. Christmas. New Year's. Anna's Birthday. My Birthday. The birth of the pups. The sleepless nights. The breast feeding and nappies. Rearranging my old room for the twins. And everything else in between" "When you put it like that, it feels like it's never going to happen" "That's why I don't get my hopes up anymore. Life is busy, you can't change that. I'm done with breakfast. My stomach isn't loving this. I'm going to sit Viren down on the sofa and he'll probably want cuddles. Go ahead and finish up" That was it?! No. That wasn't it. If he swallowed his pride and went to Hanji, they could figure something out. Eren deserved the big white wedding, and he wanted it sooner rather than later... He'd found the right ring. It wasn't supposed to be like this! No. He wasn't going to accept this...

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justaramblingromantic · 6 years

Text

nii-chan has an ow

Characters/Pairing: Kobayashi Rindou, Tsukasa Eishi, Tsukasa Hi’en (OC), Tsukasa Chouko (OC)/EiRin

Type: Canon-divergent AU, Post-series, Peerless-verse, Freestyle

Word Count: 2996

A/N: Tsukasa!Family shenanigans. Four year old Hi’en is sick, and two year old Chouko has no idea what to feel about it.

“Nii-chan, play…?”

Rindou lifted her head from where she was half reclining on her son’s bed, her gaze landing on the tiny form of her daughter. Curled up beside her, snoozing fitfully in an exhausted heap was Hi’en. The younger redhead was finally out like a light after coughing and raggedly struggling to breathe through a clogged nose for the last few hours. There had been a flu outbreak at the preschool, and her poor baby had caught the particularly persistent virus from his peers.

His little sister had thankfully not been affected, but they had brought her home from the preschool yesterday all the same, as a precaution. Rindou had taken leave from work to take care of her children, though her greatest challenge so far was in keeping the siblings apart. Young as she was, Chouko could not understand why her nii-chan was not playing with her…and she kept wanting to go into nii-chan’s room and climb onto nii-chan’s bed and cuddle with nii-chan and mama but for obvious reasons she had been barred.

That did not stop her from trying to sneak in all the same. The tiny white haired toddler was hovering at the doorway, and she sidled in to cross the threshold. Her mama’s eyes narrowed, and she started to straighten, though her hand was still slowly stroking Hi’en’s hair, soothing her boy as he napped restlessly.

“Baby, don’t come in-”

But her child had obviously inherited her parents’ stubbornness. She had been trying all morning to get into the room and she wasn’t about to stop now. Before Chouko could flat out sprint towards her goal in one last victorious burst, her papa came swooping in from behind to the rescue. He picked up his daughter and neatly stopped her valiant break-in attempts.

“Chou, you can’t go in,” he told the unhappily squirming little bundle in his arms. “Your nii-chan needs rest; he’s not well. He’ll play with you when he gets better.”

Chouko stilled at her papa’s explanation. She stared at him wide eyed. Eishi gazed thoughtfully at her stunned, deer-in-the-headlights expression.

“…Ow?” she asked softly, almost mumbling to herself, and both parents looked quizzically at each other, and then back at her, not sure what she was trying to say. But they also quickly recognized that wobbly expression on her face, her big lavender eyes slowly filling with tears. “Nii-chan has ow?”

She was whimpering, lower lip trembling, finally figuring out that something was wrong with her older brother.

Rindou quickly realized what was upsetting the little one so much. She sat up fully, careful not to displace Hi’en at the same time.

“Oh baby, no. Nii-chan’s gonna be okay! It’s just a little ow. Nii-chan just needs to sleep and rest for a bit and he will be fine!”

Unfortunately, the tears could not be stopped. The little two year old was crying softly as she strained towards her brother and mother in Eishi’s arms, pitiful little sounds of ‘ows’ escaping from her as she tried futilely to reach them.

Eishi was at a loss. He cradled his youngest to his chest and petted her back, but she was inconsolable. Her tiny howls of heartrending distress woke her brother, who stirred uneasily and instinctively turned his head towards the sound. His eyes opened in a drowsy, bleary squint, and he mumbled hoarsely. “…Chou, don’t cry...”

Hi’en’s voice had an immediate effect on his heartbroken sister. The smallest Tsukasa paused mid-wail, little cherubic face red from her tragic exertions and streaked wet.

“…N-Nii-chan…?”

The boy raised his hand briefly before letting it flop on the duvet again. He was so tired.

“Don’t cry,” he repeated, voice still faint, clearly more asleep than awake. The medicine that his mother had made him take was supposed to knock him out so that he would recover faster. “…Play later, ‘kay?”

Now that she had seen and heard her brother’s assurance, the little girl’s anxiety slowly calmed. She sniffled. Her chest hurt still because nii-chan was still having ow, but nii-chan said ‘play later’…so maybe nii-chan’s ow will go away?

“’Kay, nii-chan…” she murmured meekly, subsiding some more.

Hi’en did not reply; the sick, fatigued boy had nodded off again, curling into his mother’s warmth. Chouko got teary once again but she did not cry anymore, trying her hardest to be brave. Her papa made a quiet, sympathetic sound in the back of his throat and pulled her into his embrace in consolation, long, adroit fingers reaching up to wipe away the wetness that stained her cheeks.

“…Papa, down,” Chouko muttered after being coddled and comforted for a while. When Eishi took too long to respond, she repeated her request, all but starting to squirm and wiggle in his arms. “Down, down, down, down.”

Eishi exchanged another look with Rindou, and she shrugged. At last, he conceded to his slippery child’s demand and set her back down on the floor. He was prepared to stop her from dashing right for her nii-chan, but much to her parents’ surprise, she turned and toddled out of the room instead, as quickly as her short little legs could carry her. Before Eishi and Rindou’s bemusement could grow too much, the child came waddling back short moments later, dragging with her a very familiar plushie. It was a fluffy white rabbit, almost as big as her tiny self. Chouko came to a stop before her male parent and performed a ritual that the entire family knew very well by now.

“Ow, go ‘way. Ow ow, go ‘way, ow ow go ‘way,” she petted the bunny’s head as she chanted determinedly, before she finally presented the soft toy to her papa, tugging at his pant leg, expression earnest and hopeful. “Nii-chan, give?”

“…You want to give Bunney to your nii-chan?” he asked, just to make sure. It was her precious, most favorite possession, and one which she always demanded to have with her during naps and bedtimes.

She nodded eagerly. “Give, Chouko give!”

Eishi’s gaze was soft as he took her beloved bedtime companion from her. He petted the top of her head. “I understand. Stay here.”

Chouko obediently hovered by the doorway and watched solemnly as Eishi entered the room and towards his wife and son. Rindou’s eyes were fond and warm too, as she accepted the offering from him and made a big show out of tucking her daughter’s beloved toy beside Hi’en. The doll would watch over nii-chan in her place.

“I’ll take Chou to work with me today, so you can take care of En,” Eishi spoke quietly to his mate.

Rindou lifted her brow. “Are you sure?”

He nodded. “We’re only doing stock inventory today – I’ll keep her safely entertained. We should be home before dinner.”

“M’kay, then.”

He leaned down and brushed a kiss over her cheek, his hand briefly drifting over his son’s tousled red hair at the same time. “Text if you need anything,” he murmured before pulling away.

“Will do~”

“Papa, we go?”

Chouko stared at her father with huge, curious eyes as he carried her from the nursery to the living room.

The little toddler had just been changed from her indoor clothes to her going out clothes, plus another two extra layers over her leggings and long sleeved shirt to keep her snug and warm. It was in the middle of winter and the last thing they needed was for her to catch a cold, too. Her hair had also been neatly combed and a pretty butterfly bow clipped neatly at the back of her head, keeping her fluffy white locks from getting in her face.

Eishi continued into the kitchen and set her down on the island counter, and she thumped the back of her heels idly against the vertical surface as she swung her stockinged legs, a pastel lavender creation with cute little black kittens crawling all over it.

Chouko watched her papa as he moved purposefully around the kitchen, pulling out her milk formula from the cupboard and setting aside a portion for lunch later. He also took out an apple from the fridge, washed it thoroughly and proceeded to cut it up quickly for her snack. He handed one slice to her and packed the rest away into a small Tupperware.

Chouko took the offering and chomped at the crunchy fruit with gusto.

“Yes. You’re coming with papa today, okay?”

“Nii-chan?” she asked between bites, concerned. She was still a bit forlorn, and her papa reached over and rubbed the top of her head comfortingly.

“Mommy will look after nii-chan,” he told her softly. “Nii-chan will be fine. Don’t worry.”

The bag was quickly filled with the other essentials; her sippy cup, extra diapers, wet wipes, baby powder, some toys, plus a few more odds and ends. She was already eating solid foods, starting to wean off of milk these days, and they were also just starting to potty train her, but she wasn’t fully there yet. Eishi reached over to lift Chouko into his arms, transferring her from the tabletop to the ground. He helped her into her winter wear, a puffy white monstrosity that turned her into a living marshmallow, before shrugging into his own coat. Then he slung the bag over his shoulder, picked Chouko up again, and they stopped briefly by Hi’en’s bedroom on their way out.

“Say goodbye to mommy and nii-chan,” he coaxed her.

“Mommy, bai bai,” the toddler obediently recited. Her voice was quiet as she thoughtfully waved to her mother and brother, the latter still asleep. “Nii-chan, bai bai.”

Rindou looked up from the bed, where she had a laptop perched on her lap, in the middle of replying to some fanmail while keeping her sleeping son company. Thanks to the medication and the rest, he was already starting to breathe better, and his coloring was slowly returning to normal. She smiled and waved, wiggling her fingers at her littlest baby.

“Bye bye, kawaii~! Have lotsa fun for mama and nii-chan, ‘kay?”

The baby nodded, and Eishi locked eyes with his wife.

“Then, we’re going now.”

Grinning, Rindou waggled her fingers at him too, her babies’ daddy.

“Itterasshai, drive safe~”

Bringing Chouko along with him turned out to be the right decision to make. The moment Eishi strapped his daughter into the child’s car seat and started to drive, her mood improved. It had always been that way ever since when she had only been a little baby. Car rides soothed her, and there were times when she was crying nonstop as a very young infant and they were at their wits’ end until they accidentally discovered that she would quiet down and nod off quickly whenever they put her in a moving vehicle. At the beginning, there were even some evenings where the whole family would just climb into the car and drive aimlessly around the neighborhood in circles until the kids fell asleep.

As such, Eishi wasn’t too surprised when Chouko was soon thoroughly distracted and back to her happy, curious self again, babbling to her papa beside her in a language that only she could understand and gazing out the window with wonder as they meandered through the streets of downtown Tokyo. It was nearing Christmas, and some of the main roads along the major shopping districts were decorated by enchanting and colorful fairy lights strung just about everywhere, much to the laughing delight of his little butterfly child.

By the time they arrived at the restaurant and parked, Chouko was all bright eyed and in a good mood. She had always been a happy–go-lucky baby, so her father was glad to see that she was cheerful again.

“Papa, where go?” the white haired toddler asked her male parent as he released her from the child seat and lifted her out of the car. She automatically hooked an arm around his neck to steady herself, and he propped her against his hip, sitting her bottom on his forearm so that she would not end up sliding down. He was already shouldering the bag with all the things for her, and he nudged the car door close before locking the vehicle.

“We’re going to the restaurant today,” he told her patiently, as they started to walk down the street and towards the building at the end. She gazed at him curiously, at least until a stiff, icy head wind kicked up, blowing hard enough that she made a startled sound and hid her stinging face in her father’s neck, shivering at the chill. The snow had not arrived in Tokyo yet this year and it was never a certainty if it ever would, but it was still really cold and wet around this time in December. Eishi reached up and flipped Chouko’s hood up over her head, his large, lean hand curling over the back of her skull, keeping the hood in place to protect his child from the elements. This one wasn’t as averse to winter as her mother was, but she did not enjoy being uncomfortably cold, either.

He walked them quickly to the restaurant, and it was only after they had ducked into the cozy warmth of the establishment that he finally let Chouko down. His little marshmallow daughter still had her hood up and she tottered in an unsteady circle trying to figure out where she was. Eishi’s lips twitched as he watched her orientate herself.

“Come, Chou.” He stretched out a hand towards her and she took it trustingly. He walked slowly with her deeper into the restaurant. They were closed today to deal with housekeeping matters, which was why it was possible to bring Chouko along. Otherwise, the intense heat of the kitchen and the incredibly fast paced environment during crunch time was hardly the safest and most conducive place for a very young child to be in, and her father tended to get so immersed when he was working to come up with the exquisite culinary creations that he was so well known for that he would have been hard-pressed to keep track of his offspring at the same time.

The doors to the kitchen swung open, and out ambled his assistant who had obviously just heard them enter the building. The younger man did a quick double take when he saw Eishi’s little companion. The hint of fluffy white hair and the bright lavender eyes were dead giveaways as to the little cotton puff’s parentage.

“Oh, hey Boss. I didn’t know that it was Bring-Your-Child-To-Work-Day today,” he drawled, rocking up closer to study his head chef’s youngest child. He squatted down before the tiny little thing, who was staring back at him with open curiosity. The fact that her papa was beside her probably contributed to her lack of fear before a complete stranger.

“Hello, hello,” he greeted in a sing songy kansai-ben. “So yer my Boss’s precious ‘lil princess, huh? What’s yer name, hime-chan?”

The child tilted her head, and her hood fell off at the movement, revealing a really adorable little squirt hidden underneath. She also lifted her head to look at her papa, a bit uncertain.

“Tell him your name,” her father encouraged her gently, nothing at all like the utter demon that he was in the kitchen, continuously demanding perfection out of his staff, selfishly squeezing out every drop of their talent for the sake of accentuating his cooking.

“…Chouko is Chouko…” she blurted out, shyly. Cute. It was hard to believe that his uptight ice king of a boss could physically produce such a precocious offspring.

“Hi there, Chouko-hime. I’m yer pop’s head lackey, Izumi-kun. D’ya think I’m handsome?” He lazily struck a pose, complete with peace sign.

Eishi wanted to sigh in consternation at Izumi’s antics. Why were good assistants so hard to find?

His previous sous chef had tendered his resignation a few months ago to migrate to another country to start up a restaurant as had always been his dream, and Eishi had let him go with his blessings. The problem thereafter was finding a replacement that was on par or at least not too far off in skillset, but much to his dismay, that sort of talent had been as hard to find as trying to locate a needle in a haystack, especially when taking his demanding expectations into consideration.

A few weeks ago, Kenjiru Izumi sauntered into Chateau seeking a job interview. The man had been utterly ridiculous too, citing his only prior job experience as a takoyaki chef and that he had quit his position because he wanted a change of pace and that he had lost respect for his ex-boss because ‘his balls were even smaller than the ones I’m used to flipping.’

Eishi had been very much ready to write the punk off as a joke entry…only that it quickly turned out that he was not…and so here they were now. Not a day went by without Eishi questioning himself if he had made a mistake signing the mouthy and opinionated guy on as his sous chef, but truth to be told, as outrageously eccentric as Izumi was at times, his ability in the kitchen was top-notched and even more refined than his predecessor…which left Eishi trying to figure out exactly what sort of takoyaki restaurant it was that the other man had honed his skills in.

Chouko continued to stare at this strange golden haired man with the squinty eyes and the wide fox smile, visibly bewildered.

“Please don’t harass my two year old daughter,” Eishi muttered with exasperation. “If you make her cry, you’ll be responsible for getting her to stop as well, Izumi.”

The younger man huffed with amusement. “Hime-chan, you won’t cry, right? We’re gonna be good friends. I’ll carve you a carrot butterfly if you say ‘Izumi-kun is very handsome.’”

“…And don’t teach my two year old daughter to say nonsense, thank you very much.”

#Food Wars: Shokugeki no Souma #Shokugeki no Soma #Tsukasa Eishi #Kobayashi Rindou #eirin #EiRin: Peerless AU #my fics #freestyle

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