#it was like upstairs in an office building and I have no idea how we ended up there

[winterandwords]

📝 Emotion, atmosphere and environment: A writing exercise for show-don't-tell

Before we go any further, I want to make it clear that I'm not aggressively against telling. Sometimes telling works for a whole bunch of valid reasons. If you know me at all, you'll be aware of where I stand on the issue of narrow, prescriptive writing rules (if you don't know me, hi, I despise narrow, prescriptive writing rules)

But "How do I show instead of telling?" is still a thing a lot of newer writers have difficulty with and that's what I'd like to dig into. So here's a writing exercise you could try to help build depth and atmosphere around the emotion your character is feeling...

🧠 First of all, pick an emotional experience.

For illustrative purposes, I'm going with LOSS. Then express that emotional experience in ways that can be perceived physically. The following are just suggestions, not an exhaustive list.

🎨 How could the emotion be expressed as a colour?

Grey, maybe. Slate grey. Or a muted petrol blue, perhaps.

🔊 How could the emotion be expressed as a sound?

Deep silence interrupted only by the sound of a ticking clock.

👋 How could the emotion be expressed as a physical action?

Your hand reaching to grasp for comfort out of habit and hope, fingers curling around something remembered, then dropping back to the coldness of the other side of the bed, empty.

🌄 How could the emotion be expressed as a weather condition or natural phenomenon?

The storm passed an hour ago, leaving only an occasional flurry of sleet that melts on contact with the window, sliding down the glass like tears. Outside, a tree that shed its leaves in autumn bows in tired silhouette against the halo of a single streetlight.

🏡 How could the emotion be expressed as a room?

Your nightstand holds the bottle of water you filled before trudging upstairs at midnight, your phone still plugged in even though the battery was full three hours ago, and the glasses you'll put on again as soon as you wake up after sleep eventually manages to swallow you. The nightstand on the other side of the bed holds a small tear-off calendar showing November eighteenth even though it's now January second and a book lying open and face-down with the spine sinking into itself. In the corner of the room, there's a chair with clothes carelessly draped over it a month and a half ago that you still can't bring yourself to put in the laundry. It's four o'clock in the morning and you'd give anything to hear breathing that wasn't your own.

You could try it for different emotions and different situations, in isolation and then connected to something you're in the process of writing.

How could anger, for example, be expressed differently in an office environment compared to a wilderness landscape? How could joy be shown in summer versus winter? How could fear be embodied in high fantasy compared to cyberpunk?

If relating environments to emotions doesn't click for you straight away, could you focus on single-sense experiences for a while? What colour is regret? What does anticipation taste like?

If you have synesthesia (hello, fellow synesthetes!) this could be a wild ride, but hopefully it'll also be fun and useful for anyone having difficulty connecting to the idea of show-don't-tell.

Happy writing! 💜

#writeblr #writing advice #writing tips #show don't tell #writers on tumblr #writeblr community #the shit in my head

[greynatomy]

Hi, Captain

Maya Bishop x Fem!Reader

First Maya Bishop Fic!

I got this idea from a tiktok I saw yesterday, and immediately thought of writing this.

Let me know what you think!

-grey

———

Maya and Andy arrived at an apartment building in the city. They were driving around in the aid car and were the closest to the location, so they were assigned to the case. They walked in to the lobby, walking up to the front desk.

“Hi, we got a non-emergency call at this location. Do you know who called?” Andy asked, looking around for anyone who could’ve needed help.

“That would be me.” You said, rolling your wheelchair closer to the two.

“Hey. I’m Captain Bishop and that’s Lieutenant Herrera. What seems to be the problem.”

“Oh, wow. They sent the big bosses. Uh, well sorry for calling, I just didn’t know what to do, but I just got back from a trip and the elevator is out of order and as you can see, stairs isn’t an option for me alone.”

“What floor are you on ma’am?”

“Just call me Y/N, no need to be formal, and it’s a long way up. I’m on the twenty-eighth floor.”

“Then you can just call me Maya.” She turns to look at Andy. “How do you wanna do this?”

“One of us can carry her and the other carries the chair?”

“Would you be comfortable with one of us carrying you?”

“As long as I get to my floor then I’d be fine with it.”

Now here you are, on the tenth floor, Maya carrying you on your back, Andy following behind with your chair.

“How are you doing Captain? Still going strong?”

“We trained for this, so I’m doing alright for now.”

“What about you back there?” You ask Andy, holding your arm tighter around Maya’s neck to look at Andy.

“I’m doing fine. Your chair is surprisingly very light.”

Eighteen floors later, Maya sets you down in your chair where you roll yourself to your door, the two firefighters following closely behind.

“Welcome to my humble abode. Would you like something to drink? Water, or a sports drink for some electrolytes? I’ll just give you guys both.”

“This is a very cozy place you for here.”

“It is. I’ve only just recently moved in a couple months ago.” Wheeling over to where they stand, looking out the windows, you hand them their drinks. “I can’t thank you both enough.”

“It’s no problem at all. But how are you gonna get back down?” Andy downs all her water.

“Don’t worry, they’ll have it done by tomorrow night. I have nowhere else to go before then.”

“We have to go, but it was great meeting you.”

“It was great meeting you too, Captain.”

———

Rolling your chair to the front of Station 19, you ring the doorbell. Seconds later, the door opens to a male firefighter.

“Hi, how can I help you?”

“Good morning. I was just wondering if Lieutenant Herrera and Captain Bishop are here?”

“Can I know what you need them for?”

“They helped me out yesterday with getting up to my apartment, so I thought I’d thank them properly with some homemade goodies.” You at, pointing to your lap that had one big box and two smaller boxes.

“They’re currently out in a call, but should be back soon. Why don’t you come in and wait inside.”

He holds the door open so you can roll yourself inside.

“Oh! This box here on the bottom is actually for all the firefighters. I didn’t wanna bring some goodies and leave everyone else out. Could you grab the Mr…”

He grabs the bottom box when you lift the other two off.

“Uh, Montgomery. But just call me Travis.”

“Okay, Travis. You can call me Y/N.”

“I’ll just bring this upstairs and be right back.”

———

Maya and the rest of the team file out of the fire truck, taking their heavy gear off, each doing their own thing. As she walks towards her office, she sees someone familiar.

“Y/N! What a surprise. What are you doing here?”

“Hi, Captain—”

“—Maya, please.” She interrupts you.

“Well, Maya, I just wanted to stop by to thank you and Andy properly. I’ve just—”

“Hey! Who’s this?” You’re interrupted once again, this time by the whole team walking in.

“Y/N! Hi.”

“Hi, Andy. I was just telling Maya I wanted to thank you both for yesterday and made some baked goodies.” You said, handing them a box each. “There’s a bigger box of them for the rest of the team that Travis brought upstairs.”

“Baked goodies?” Vic asked very excitedly, running up the stairs, other on her tow. “You’re the best!” She yelled out, followed by other ‘thank you’s’ from the team.

“Thank you Y/N.” Andy followed the others.

You and Maya were now left alone downstairs.

“Would you join me in my office? I’d like to ask you something.”

“Lead the way.”

Holding the door open, she lets you enter first, closing it behind her.

“I don’t know if this is unprofessional since I am currently on the job, but I wanted to know if you’d like to go on a date with me sometime? Hopefully tonight?” After not hearing an answer right away, Maya grew nervous. “Or, not. It- it’s okay, probably a stupid idea…”

As she’s nervously rambling, she doesn’t notice you staring amusingly at her with a smile. Deciding to put her out of her misery, you interrupt her.

“Maya!” She looks at you with wide eyes. “I would love to go on a date with you.”

“Great!” She clears her throat. “Uh, cool, cool, cool. That’s awesome. I’ll text you.” She opens her office door going out, then opening the front firehouse door, you following after her. “I will text you.”

“You would need my number for that.” You smirked.

“Right! Right. Uh, here.” She hands you her phone, hands a little shaky. “Could you put your number in. Thanks.”

Handing her phone back to her. “I’ll see you later Captain.” You said with a teasing smile, exiting the station to your car.

“See you later indeed.”

#maya bishop #maya bishop x reader #maya bishop imagines #maya bishop imagine #maya bishop one shot #station 19 x reader #station 19 #station 19 imagine #station 19 imagines #station 19 one shot #andy herrera #any herrera x reader

[jungle-angel]

I need 8 with Rhett PLEASE like reader and Rhett take their 7 year old Son truck or treating and Reader is dressed up too or just something like that please

OH MY GOD YES!!!! Honey you have no idea how badly I've been wanting to do a trick-or-treat prompt!! (lol).

Tatum and Tanner Abbott raced ahead of the both of you with Amy and Hannah not far behind, screaming and excited beyond words at finally being able to go trick-or-treating on Halloween night.

"HEY GHOULS!!!! DON'T RUN ACROSS THE STREET!!!!!" Rhett shouted after them before they could run into a crosswalk.

"It's ok there's no cars coming and it's a red light," you told him.

"I-darlin don't even get me started," Rhett warned. "I saw those two little varmits run head first into a mound of cow shit and I'm not gonna spend Halloween scraping them off the road with a spatula."

You laughed a little bit, unable to help yourself even as Kaya, the newest edition to your family, wriggled a little in your arms. Your four month old giggled like crazy, her lopsided smile the same as her father's.

The kids eagerly climbed the stairs to the Wabang Police Precinct where Joy and a few other officers were handing out candy from the buckets. "TRICK OR TREAT!!!" they called out happily.

"Jeez we've got the whole Abbott crew tonight," Joy chuckled.

"Yeah I know, that's what scares me Joy," Rhett told her.

"And look at you and (y/n)," Joy half laughed. "Indiana Jones and Marian Ravenwood. Now I've seen everything."

You laughed as Rhett rolled his eyes and Kaya made a noise. The ghouls managed to get their pick of the bucket before heading off to the next place. The apartment complex was probably the most fun with residence dropping candy into the bags from upstairs balconies and windows and the kids making a game of it.

"You ever remember doing this as a kid?" you asked him.

"Oh hell yeah," Rhett said with a big grin. "Dad used to take me, Wes, Rip, Kayce and Beth all the time and this was the kinda shit we'd see at the apartment buildings."

You watched the sight before you, smiling at how much fun the kids were having before they came running back with their newly claimed hoard.

"I got a popcorn ball!" Amy exclaimed happily.

"I got three cookies!" Hannah chirped.

"I got a fudge bar!" Tanner yelled.

"I got a rock!" Tatum proclaimed.

Rhett couldn't stop laughing. Tatum's Luke Skywalker costume had been one of the best, but he still found it funny that the kid had been grateful for receiving a rock in his trick-or-treat bag.

Off you went again with the kids ahead of you, amazed at how heavy their bags and buckets had become, full of chocolate bars, peanut butter cups, cookies, gum, jawbreakers, jolly ranchers, almond joys, kit-kats, sour patch kids, twix bars, m+ms and a whole hoard of different candies that you and Rhett were sure to have a good time raiding the next day.

Finally it was home for the ghouls, you, Rhett and the kids all pulling up the driveway to the house and getting ready for the Halloween party that Royal and Cecelia threw every year. The kids had all gathered in the living room, well away from the grown-ups, dumping out their bags and buckets on the carpet and trading them amongst themselves while the grown-ups kept to themselves in the other room.

"Happy Halloween darlin," Rhett said, leaning in to kiss you.

"Happy Halloween Grumpy," you laughed, eagerly returning your husband's kiss.

#rhett abbott #rhett abbott x reader #amy abbott #outer range

[sculkapologist]

I have plenty of other projects I should be working on BUT then Mochi started building a shop to fill in the huge wall of dirt between the greenhouse and the boardwalk by the water, and I became CONSUMED with the need to join in and decorate a bunch of tiny houses.... SO!! TOWNHOUSE TIME!! You can also see buildings that Boo (the lime green)and Mochi (the grey and prismarine shop) have been working on in that first image… there's still a bunch along the boardwalk that's under construction, too. I built three townhouses and decorated the upstairs of mochi's shop, many more images under the cut!!

The blue townhouse was the first one I made, with the exterior inspired pretty directly from mechitect's townhouse design tutorial.

it's pretty simple! It's when I started to discover alcoves are interesting with these tiny buildings, since you're sort of dependent on what the house next to you is doing. Oh, also, that painting is one of my custom maps.

The pink townhouse was a little more ambitious - this one has a little kitchen, an aquarium idea I got from klay_designs_mc on instagram and TWO tiny bedrooms (one for the grownups and one for the kids), which may seem very straightforward but actually i took a great deal of psychic damage arranging them to fit in this little 8x8 space

we have some kind of resource pack on our realm that makes every mob drop mob heads occasionally, and I just really like sticking them on shelves as like... some kind of toys or figurines or plushies.

Anyway, while I was excitedly showing my progress to my friends, Mochi asked if I'd be willing to decorate the upstairs of his flower shop -- the building next to my blue townhouse. He wanted it to be a living space above the shop, and mentioned that the large windows might be nice for a kitchen, and other than that left me to my own devices.

TREMENDOUSLY PROUD OF THIS ONE TBH...!!! bed design was inspired by a bluenerd tutorial, and the little hearts are as always inspired by my fav builder CroissantCat, though honestly my entire minecraft portfolio should just have "inspired by bluenerd and/or croissantcat" on the first page. (the lamps are those mob heads again btw -- you can do this with the existing skeleton heads, but if you HAVE glow squid heads like... WHY NOT USE THEM)

anyway at this point I had obviously completely lost my mind, so my third townhouse has an upstairs, a basement, a home office, AND a bathroom. (it wasn't going to have a bathroom originally, but Boo saw the downstairs and gasped in excitement b/c he thought it was a bathroom, sO LIKE.... OBVIOUSLY AFTER THAT I HAD TO ADD A BATHROOM)

watched a WHOLE BUNCH of blendigi Modern Interior Design tutorials for ideas here, including some armour stand crimes to make THAT INCREDIBLE OFFICE CHAIR???? but im still very pleased with my decision to use the one Long Painting as a TV screen lmao

there were actually a whole bunch of planning scribbles for this... it started out with just a little layout of 3 possible designs for townhouse facades, and then turned into MANY floorplan attempts as I tried to figure out how to fit everything I wanted into these smaller spaces:

Anyway, I think that's everything!! Thanks for joining me on this tour of my townhouses lmao, hopefully this has sated my craving for interior design for a bit!!

#minecraft #block game liveblogging #minecraft screenshots #minecraft build #mineblr #minecraft aesthetic #bsl shaders #this was SO fun tbh #SOMETIEMS U JUST NEED TO BUILD.. A LITTLE HOUSE....

[sirfrogsworth]

Looking Forward

If I trust my brother... and he did my dad's will properly... and set up my trust correctly... then I should be able to stay in the house for roughly 2 years.

If I trust my brother.

Then I can either sell the house and use that money for a small apartment or try to find a roommate situation to help me stay in the house a little longer. The nice thing about paying the mortgage is I can get most of that money back if I ever do sell the house. It's almost like a savings account with all my stuff inside.

Let's just hope the property value doesn't plummet for some reason. Though it has been around the same amount for many years.

I like living in my house. It's what I've known for 30 years. But being alone in the house is going to be a hard adjustment. After two years (or sooner) I may want to move near Katrina or Delling so I am closer to a support system. I wish we could all live next door to each other. Or live on a farm/ranch situation. And instead of chickens it is just a bunch of free range corgis.

I tried convincing Katrina to build a pool house, but she has a small backyard and no pool. HOWEVER... Apparently Florida has a lot of "mother-in-law suites." I had no idea that had a name, but I could be Katrina's mother-in-law. I have the skill set to guilt trip, make passive-aggressive comments, and judge how she raises her future kids. (And any other outdated stereotypes I've learned from 80s comedians.)

But I also like the idea of having a roommate. I could accommodate a single person or a small family. And I'd love to have an animal of some kind around. We have a huge fenced-in area left over from Otis.

I think I could offer someone a pretty sweet living situation. I have a full basement apartment that I reside in and so the entire upstairs is available for people to live in. I could charge cheaper rent than a cheap apartment in exchange for helping with chores that I struggle to do.

There is plenty of furniture and appliances ready to use. Full laundry room. I've got a really nice home theater in the living room so they can watch movies in style. I also have a few hundred TV series and several thousand movies on Plex. They get a full kitchen and bathroom to themselves. Plenty of garage space and a long driveway to park vehicles. They can have up to 5 rooms to do whatever in. They could do 3 bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a small den area. My mom liked the den because she could watch her Judge Judy shows while my dad watched JAG in the living room.

If they don't have a family, they could convert 2 of the bedrooms into office space or craft rooms or S&M dungeons. They can decorate any way they'd like. But they have to keep the sex swing clean so I can use it. Not for sex--I just enjoy centripetal forces. And they'll have great privacy as I will be in the downstairs apartment. They'd only see me if I exit the house or if they invite me to dinner or movie night.

All they would have to pay is whatever I can't cover. I'd estimate in the $600-$800 range once the trust fund runs out. Plus the chores like cleaning and yard duty. That's a good deal, right?

The only downside is the house is in a deteriorating neighborhood. Businesses are closing and people are moving away. Our street is pretty isolated so there isn't much danger or crime. But we are adjacent to a dangerous neighborhood and the schools aren't great. That said, while there isn't much around here, in St. Louis you are always ~25 minutes from anything you need. The highway is literally down the street so driving to anywhere is fairly hassle free.

Also, I'd be happy to lend out the car for transport to a job. I'll only need it to get groceries every few weeks. They'd have to get added to my insurance and help with gas and maintenance.

Soooo... yeah, I think I have a lot to offer with my house.

They do have to be okay with my big subwoofer rattling things. The sound doesn't really travel through the floor, but the vibrations can. I can tone it down if they are sleeping though.

Oh! We also have a huge workshop on the property too. It could be used for working on cars or woodworking or an art space. It has electricity, lighting, heating and is perfect for anything that requires getting dirty. If that makes sense.

One idea I have been considering is seeking out an unhoused queer individual who was kicked out or is struggling to afford a decent place. If their parents don't want them, maybe I could provide a safe place. Things are so scary for LGBTQ+ folks right now. Especially in Missouri. St. Louis is a pretty blue city, but Missouri is a blood red state. If I could do something small for someone like that, I would be happy to help. Could be mutually beneficial.

So those are all of my thoughts and ideas as of now.

Again, if I trust my brother, I should have a decent amount of time to figure things out.

If things go sideways, I might be screwed.

So far he seems to be doing all the things he should be doing to get me sorted.

I'm going to choose to trust him.

With my life.

Oof.

[mymoodwriting]

18.3k, drugs, medication, pills, abuse, physical abuse, verbal abuse, harassment, bullying, kidnapping, restraints, supernatural, demons, experimentation, human experimentation, nightmares, torture, yandere

“Welcome to the Deobi Group Home for Troubled Youths.”

     You walked up the steps to what looked like an abandoned building, feeling incredibly uncertain about everything. At least you weren’t alone, Doctor Bryce opened the front door for you and led you inside. He called out to others, and one by one a bunch of boys gathered at the entrance. Many unfamiliar faces were staring at you, and you were getting very nervous.

“Uh…”

“Where’s Sangyeon?” Dr. Bryce questioned. “Is he in the bathtub again, I swear. Sangyeon!”

    The doctor went up the stairs, calling out to this Sangyeon, ultimately leaving you alone with all these strangers. You kept your head down, not wanting to make eye contact, but they were all staring.

“What are you here for?”

“Yeah, what kinda trouble did you cause?”

“You don’t look like you belong here.”

    You had no idea how to answer any of them. You could tell they weren’t exactly happy about your presence, but you knew just about as much as they did. After a moment Dr. Bryce returned, a boy soaked from head to toe right behind him, Sangyeon you presumed. He stayed on the stairs as the doctor came down to your side.

“Alright, boys, this is y/n, the newest member of this house. I want you all to treat her with kindness and go easy on her as she learns her way around.” A boy raised his hand. “Yes, Sunwoo?”

“Why is she here?”

“She needs a place to stay as-”

“I mean what did she do? This is a place for troublemakers. She doesn’t look like one.”

Dr. Bryce cleared his throat. “Y/n here was found wandering the streets this morning. She has no recollection of her life besides her name.”

“So a runaway.”

“Why not send her to a foster house?” Another questioned. “Or an orphanage? Why here?”

“Juyeon. You don’t just ask something like that. You’re making her feel unwelcomed.”

“If she’s just a runaway with supposed amnesia she’d be better off in either of those other places. You know that, so why bring her here?”

“There’s no means of identification for y/n here. She also doesn’t match any missing persons report in the area or neighboring districts. Since she’s not in any system, we can’t easily place her in an orphanage or foster house, and she needs a place to stay going forward.”

“So the town can’t be bothered with paperwork so they threw her here.” Sangyeon said. “Cause they could care less about us.”

“We’ll be working on finding y/n’s home, it’s just easier to keep her here for now. Besides, I thought a new face would be a nice change of pace for all of you.”

“Sure.”

    Without another word Sangyeon made his way upstairs. The others took that as their cue to leave, all going their separate ways. Although the doctor did stop one of them.

“Haknyeon, could you please show y/n around while I take care of her file.”

“Whatever.”

“Go on now.”

    You were still very nervous but you rushed over to follow Haknyeon, cautiously looking around. The building seemed rundown on the outside, and the inside wasn’t exactly pristine. Although from what you could see, it was maintained well enough to live in and call a home. 

“We rotate chores around the house, just cause you’re new doesn’t mean you’ll be excused.”

“Alright…”

“You can join Jacob, Kevin, and Eric, since they’re the only group of three. They’re on kitchen duty today, so you’ll help them later.”

“Okay.”

    You were shown to the living room area, which seemed to remain mostly untouched. As well as the kitchen and dining room. There was a recreational area, and you could hear some noises coming from within but Haknyeon didn’t bother introducing you to anyone else. There was also a library and other miscellaneous rooms, as well as an office you were not allowed into.

“Doc may be the person to oversee this house, but he’s also the resident psychologist. We all have sessions with him, since the whole point of this place is to rehabilitate us so we can return to society and blah blah blah. I’m sure he’ll talk to you about all that at some point. Anyway, his office is locked at all times, and when you have a session don’t be late or you’ll get grounded. You don’t wanna know what that entails, trust me, it’s the worst.”

    From there Haknyeon took you upstairs. All the bedrooms were up there, and each person was assigned a room. Although Dr. Bryce had his own place outside the main house, but still on the property. There was a communal shower they used, but there were two private bathrooms as well, with bathtubs and shower heads that’d you probably prefer. He let you know that there were a lot more rooms than people in the house, so many were empty, but the ones that were occupied had a name and number on them. To his surprise your room had already been picked out as you found a door with your name and the number 46 on it.

“What are the numbers for? They’re not really consistent with each other…”

“No idea. I’m assuming something with our files.”

    Haknyeon opened the door for you, gesturing for you to step in. The room was a decent size, although very plain. There was an empty desk, a twin size bed with a pillow, and a closet, which was of course empty. You looked down at yourself, coming to realize you had nothing but the clothes on your back. As far as you understood you were going to be living here for the foreseeable future.

“Uh… what about… clothes and stuff?”

“Not my problem. Take it up with Doc whenever you see him.” Haknyeon pulled out a lollipop from his pocket. “That’s the end of the tour. Dinner preparations start in a little while, so you should head to the kitchen in a bit.”

“Ah, thank you.”

“Hm.”

    Haknyeon popped the lollipop into his mouth and left the room. You could hear his footsteps fading away, and then you were completely alone. You looked around at the room again, going over to the window. At first you looked up at the cloudy sky, having a feeling of dread and gloom pass over you. It sent shivers down your spine and you turned your attention to below. You could see part of the yard, and noticed two boys down there. They were doing yard work, and weren’t aware of your gaze. Despite the cold demeanor they had all presented earlier, the two below seemed to get along well. You could only hope you’d break the ice with them sooner rather than later.

    As Haknyeon had told you, cooking for dinner would start soon, and you were supposed to help. You made your way downstairs, trying to remember where the kitchen was. When you arrived you could hear the sounds of pots and pans, slowly making your way inside. Three boys were already getting started, but they all stopped to look at you.

“Uh… hi… I was told I’d be helping you with dinner…”

“Right, since we’re three, we get the new one.”

“At least every group has four now.” One of the boys walked up to you. “I’m Jacob. So, what can you do?”

“I… I don’t know… I don’t remember if I’ve ever cooked before…”

“Still sticking to that story?” Another commented. “Let’s see how long it lasts.”

“Right.” Jacob sighed. “Can you follow directions?”

“Yeah.”

“Cool, get some things from the fridge for me.”

    Jacob ordered you around the kitchen as you got things, and helped with some minor preparations. You also wound up washing any dishes that were no longer being used. The other two did give you orders as well, Kevin and Eric, but Jacob seemed to be the one in charge here. Soon enough the kitchen was filled with a wonderful aroma, and you really wanted to taste, but the second you got close Kevin was scolding you, so you quickly backed off. You couldn’t remember when the last time you ate was, but you were certainly hungry now.

    Eric had you help him set the table, preparing plates and glasses for thirteen people. The table could certainly hold more people, but that was all that was necessary. As you were finishing up some of the others started to enter the dining room, taking their seats. Some asked Eric what was prepared, but none seemed to pay you any mind. When Eric returned to the kitchen you quickly followed, nearly bumping into Jacob as he was bringing out a plate. He quickly yelled at you to be careful, and you profusely apologized, bowing down multiple times. You asked what else you could do to help but none answered you. 

    They took care of bringing the food out, and you were left alone in the kitchen. You were hungry, but you could hear the chatter coming from the dining room, and were too nervous to enter. For the most part they had been ignoring you, but you feared they wouldn’t this time. You honestly might have stayed in the kitchen all night if you didn’t hear Dr. Bryce ask about you. Immediately you rushed into the dining room, and then all eyes were on you. An awkward smile decorated your face as you composed yourself, apologizing for being late.

“It’s alright, just have a seat.”

    Dr. Bryce sat at the end of the table, the others all sat next to one another, six on one side, and five on the other with an empty seat for you at the end of the row. The boy you’d be sitting next to was unfamiliar to you, and you kinda wished he wasn’t but you didn’t have a choice. The longer you stood, the more awkward everything would become. So you sat down, pouring yourself a glass of water and just quietly watching. You only ate what you could reach, too scared to ask anyone to pass you anything, but you had your fill. All the others talked among themselves, and Dr. Bryce also asked them about what they had accomplished. They mostly reported on their chores, not entirely eager to share personal details. Eventually Dr. Bryce noticed your silence, deciding to bring you into the conversation.

“What about you, y/n?”

“Huh?”

“Did Haknyeon give you a good tour?”

“Uh…” You glanced over at Haknyeon who kinda gave you a warning glare. “Yeah, he was really kind. He even showed me to my room… I… I haven’t thanked you yet, for taking me in and everything.”

“There’s no need for that.”

“Still, thank you.”

    After dinner Dr. Bryce was the first to excuse himself, then the others who weren’t on kitchen duty left too. Jacob told you to get the cart from the kitchen and to pick up all the dishes and wash them. The other three merely took the pots of food, putting what was left in the fridge, and also leaving them for you to wash. You didn’t complain about anything though, you hadn’t helped much in the cooking phase for dinner, the least you could do was clean. You found some rubber gloves and got to work. There was certainly a lot, but you were determined to get it done.

“Dish duty is never fun.”

    You were surprised when Dr. Bryce found you in the kitchen, nearly dropping a plate. You quickly apologized and bowed.

“Easy, you have nothing to apologize for.”

“Right…”

“So they told you to clean everything.”

“I don’t know how to cook… so I was useless earlier…”

“That doesn’t make this fair. I’m gonna have to scold them later.”

“No, no, it’s alright! I don’t mind.”

“Maybe you don’t but I do. There is a strict curfew time, and you won’t be done by then if you’re doing this all alone. Besides, you still need to shower and change clothes.”

“Uh… about that…”

“Yes. I’m aware you don’t have anything. I’ll have the boys lend you some clean laundry for tonight. After breakfast tomorrow I’ll take you out to get some clothes and other things.”

“Alright. Thank you…”

    When you finished with the dishes Dr. Bryce accompanied you upstairs. You found one of the boys walking around with only a towel around their waist, clearly fresh out of the shower. You screamed and quickly averted your eyes, fumbling over an apology.

“Changmin, do you think you can lend y/n some clothes for tonight?” Dr. Bryce asked. “She doesn’t have anything of her own.”

Changmin glanced at you. “Ask Sangyeon.”

“Changmin.”

    The boy rolled his eyes and went into his room. A moment later he returned with some joggers and a shirt, holding it out. You cautiously took it from him, thanking him with a light bow. 

“Don’t ruin it.”

“I won’t…”

“Thank you, Changmin.” Dr. Bryce said. “You’re very kind.”

“Sure. You need a towel too?”

    Without hesitating Changmin took off his towel and held it out to you. Again you screamed and shut your eyes, hiding your face behind the clothes you had just been given. Changmin just started laughing, and you heard his footsteps walking away. You didn’t open your eyes until you heard a door close, slowly peeking to see if he was gone.

“He did have boxers underneath.” Dr. Bryce assured. “Come on, I’ll show you where you can shower.”

    You were shown to one of the bathrooms, Dr. Bryce getting you a fresh towel from the small closet just outside. He showed you how to get some hot water and then left you to wash up, letting you know lights out was in twenty minutes. You thanked him, locking the door behind him and hoping into the shower. The warm water was nice, and you felt good to wash up the dirt from the day. You dried yourself off, making your way back to your room. As you were getting ready to lay down you heard a knock at your door. You quickly went over to find Dr. Bryce.

“Here, this is for you.”

    He offered you a glass of water, and a small plastic container with a blue pill in it. You stared down, confused, noticing a cart behind him with more glasses and pills. The other boys came over, some shirtless with shorts, some with only boxers on, others with shirts big enough to cover the necessities, all taking a pill and finishing their glass of water without questions.

“Uh…”

“They’re to help you sleep.” One mentioned before taking his pill. “Doc says good sleep leads to good behavior or something.”

“Ah…”

“I’m not saying you’re trouble.” Dr. Bryce explained. “But I would like you to get some good sleep, especially with this being your first night here.”

“Right, thank you.”

    You took the pill and downed the glass of water. Dr. Bryce offered you a smile and wished you a good night. You thanked him again before closing your door and getting into bed. As you laid there a lot of questions came to mind, but you began to feel sleepy. You had no idea what tomorrow would bring, but at least you had food in your belly, and a roof over your head. For someone in your predicament, that was good. You were grateful, telling yourself to do your best before you drifted off to sleep.

🖤

    You had no idea what time it was when you woke up, but a loud alarm certainly got you up. It went on for a quick minute before turning off, letting you release the tension you had been holding. You took a moment to compose yourself before getting up. You peeked your head out of the room, seeing some of the others walking around with towels over their shoulders, and tooth brushes. There was a little line at both bathrooms, but you were alright for the moment, you had nothing else to do in there anyway. So instead you made your way down, looking around for Dr. Bryce, but he seemed to find you out in the hall.

“Good morning, y/n.”

“Oh, morning.”

“Did you sleep well?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“That’s good to hear. Breakfast should be ready soon, so we’ll head out after.”

“Alright.”

    Another group was in the kitchen this morning, having woken up earlier to get started. You were the first at the table, sitting down in the same spot as before and quietly waiting for others. You thought you’d be ignored again, but you weren’t so lucky this time.

“Is that Changmin’s shirt?” Sunwoo questioned. “Why do you have it?”

“Uh…”

“Did you sleep with him?” Another asked.

“No! No, I-”

“Here I thought I’d be the first one to tap that.” 

“As if.” A second scoffed. “Look in the mirror, Chanhee. I doubt even you’d sleep with yourself.”

“Don’t presume to know me, Younghoon.”

“What does that mean? Are you pro clone fucking?”

“I bet you are.”

“Fuck you!”

“It’s fuck me. You look more like a bottom.”

“You-”

“What’s with the commotion this early?” Sangyeon asked as he entered the dining room. “Can’t y’all shut the fuck up for once.”

“Younghoon was just telling us how pro clone fucking he was.” Chanhee stated. “Although I’m not sure how that works with two bottoms…”

“Oh, shut the fuck up.” Younghoon spat. “We were just talking about how the new girl slept with Changmin and is now wearing his clothes.”

    Sangyeon glanced over at you for a moment, looking you over. His gaze made you shy, and you tried to make yourself small. He merely rolled his eyes and sat down.

“It’s better than her wearing the same shit.”

    Soon enough the others arrived, as did Doc. Just like dinner, you ate what was in reach, quietly enjoying your meal with some orange juice. It was a lot more relaxed in the morning as everyone was still waking up, but there were things to talk about. Dr. Bryce went over the chores to be completed, as well as double checking to make sure the boys knew who was in charge of what. He also mentioned that he’d be taking you out to get you clothes and other necessities, as well as saying grocery shopping needed to be done.

“From those on kitchen duty today, I need two of you to come along. Any volunteers?” It was quiet. “Haknyeon, and Hyunjae, you two can come. Look over what we have and make a list of what we need. Also check in with the others about their preferences.”

“Why me?” Hyunjae whined. “I don’t want to go.”

“Would you rather be grounded?”

“Nope! I’ll get started on that list.”

    Hyunjae quickly bolted out of the room, getting a chuckle out of some. Once breakfast was finished you started helping clean up, but Dr. Bryce reminded you that it wasn’t your duty this morning, and that you’d be going out with him. You followed him out to the garage, seeing there were two cars on the property. Since you were with him you got shotgun, driving up to the gate and waiting on the other two. They didn’t complain, but at least there was music to fill the silence on the ride into town.

“Alright. Hyunjae, Haknyeon, let me look over that list.” 

    While they figured that out you took in your surroundings. Nothing looked familiar to you, but you had a strange feeling that you were supposed to be there. It just confused you, given that when you were at the police station yesterday it was established you weren’t from this town or anywhere close. Maybe it was wrong, but that didn’t change the fact no one around here knew you either. You kept that to yourself, waiting up on Dr. Bryce. He handed the boys some money, and told them to meet back at the car in two hours, and not to cause trouble. When they went off it left the two of you.

“Let’s go.”

    You went to a thrift store, Dr. Bryce letting you pick out anything you liked. He also told you to take your time, as perhaps something as simple as clothing can help you recover some memories. You tried some things on, seeing how you felt about them and how you looked. In the end you settled on a few things, enough to decently fill your closet. Of course besides clothes you needed intimates, going to another store for those. There was a nice lady there to help you, which you were very grateful for. After that the last stop was a convenience store so you could get some basic toiletries you’d need and other things.

“Is that everything?”

“Yes. Thank you very much.”

    You mainly shopped alone, Dr. Bryce leaving you to find things you liked, but you did overhear him talking with locals and the shop owners. They all seemed to know him, asking how he was managing so many trouble makers. A few asked what was the story with you, and once he mentioned the amnesia things many seemed to know who you were. Apparently word had spread about you appearing in the town with no memories of your past. You made no comment about it either, just doing what you came to do. When you got back to the car, you found you were the first ones back. You put your bags into the trunk, and soon enough the other two arrived with grocery bags. They loaded them up and then you were on the way back to the house.

    You offered to help with the groceries, but Dr. Bryce told you to take your things and get settled in your room. It did feel nice to make the room a bit more your own. Once you were done with that you made your way down, looking for Dr. Bryce to ask what to do. You didn’t find him, but instead found Kevin. He told you that today you were on cleaning duty. So he showed you where the cleaning supplies were, and what you could focus on. This time around you did get to see the rec room. There was a big TV, and a game console connected to it. At the moment Changmin and Chanhee were playing games. They didn’t seem to hear you come in, so you just kept on with cleaning. 

    There was also a shelf with board games, a pool table that doubled as air hockey, foosball, a handful of bean bag chairs, and there were three computers as well. That’s when you realized none of the boys had a phone, making you wonder if you ever had one, and if maybe it was lost somewhere. At one point Changmin had noticed you in the room, reminding you to give him back his clothes after you washed them. You told him you would, and again thanked him for letting you borrow them. He made no comment about that and continued with his game. It was only day two, and you were very much a stranger to them, even yourself. So their cold demeanor made sense to you, all you could do was hope to change it.

    As the days went on you learned more about the house, getting snippets from the boys from time to time. You learned that Sangyeon had been there the longest, and Eric had been the newest member until you showed up. You also got some information about the group home. Once upon a time the building had been a proper orphanage, but was abandoned when a new one was built closer to town. Dr. Bryce had bought the land a few years back, remodeling it a decent amount to turn it into the group home it was today. He didn’t get much funding from the town, considering who he intended to house here. Which did explain why the place didn’t look so nice, but Dr. Bryce was still working on it, getting help from his residents now too. Even with all that you still had questions, and that got the better of you one day.

“So, why are you here?”

    You didn’t really mean to ask that out loud. This was a place for troublemakers, so surely they had all done something pretty bad to be sent here. You expected Sunwoo to yell at you or something, but you caught a glimpse of his uneasiness instead. Before you got a change to apologize he was in your face with questions of his own.

“What about you? How long are you gonna say you have amnesia? What did you do that made you run away from home and pretend you don’t know anything?”

“I… I’m not lying…”

“You expect me to believe that?”

“Of course not. Whether you believe me or not doesn’t change the fact that I don’t know anything about myself besides my name, and that terrifies me. As far as I’m concerned, I have nowhere to go back to… but I feel like I’m supposed to be here…”

Sunwoo laughed. “Alright, whatever helps you sleep at night princess.”

    The only difficult thing was getting used to all the chores. The three groups rotated between kitchen duty, cooking and cleaning, house duty, sweeping, mopping, laundry and maintaining the facilities, and outdoor maintenance, watering the garden and taking care of the yard. Of course everyone was responsible for their own rooms, and no one went into the doctor’s office unless they were scheduled for a session. You were nearing a week and had yet to sit down and talk with Dr. Bryce, one on one, so that did make you a bit nervous, but you weren’t gonna bring it up. He would ask during meals about how you were doing and settling in. For the most part it was fine, although the boys only talked with you out of necessity. You didn’t mention that of course.

    The routine of everything was a good comfort, but you felt very lonely despite all the ruckus in the house. Being the only girl around was difficult, but at least they weren’t just a bunch of horny teenage boys harassing you twenty four seven. One day maybe you’d make a better effort, but you certainly weren’t there yet. At least you never felt tired despite all the work. You did have days off, but you always got a good night’s sleep thanks to Doc. You didn’t think there would ever be a problem there until the one time you woke up in the middle of the night. You hadn’t had a nightmare, but you certainly felt very disoriented. It was probably bound to happen at some point, so you didn’t worry about it.

    You got out of bed, quietly making your way downstairs to get yourself a glass of water. It was kinda weird to be around the house when it was so dark and quiet, but you had nothing to fear. Then again if one of the other boys was awake you were certain they’d try to scare you, so you put yourself on alert. You washed your glass and placed it on the drying rack, making your way back upstairs when you stopped. You swear you heard something, so you looked around, calling out to whoever was there, but you got no response. You told yourself you were just imagining things, and then you heard it again, loud and clear this time. A roar. You told yourself you didn’t hear anything, but a third time was hard to ignore.

    You rushed upstairs and went into the room of the first boy you could find. You were freaking out, and you needed to know whether you were imagining things. Although when you came into the room you found it empty. The sheets were all ruffled up, so someone had definitely been sleeping there earlier. You figured they had gotten up so you went to the next room, but it was also empty. So you went on to the next, and the next, but the result was the same. You soon realized that you were all alone in the house. Maybe they were playing some elaborate prank, but that didn’t change the fact you were scared, and you had heard that roar again. You knew Dr. Bryce lived outside the main house, so you all had a better sense of calling this place, but you desperately wished that wasn’t the case.

    You couldn’t bring yourself to go outside, so instead you rushed back to your room and hid under the covers. This was all probably just a bad dream, and when the morning alarm went off, everything would be back to normal. You were trembling, and would occasionally hear that roar, but somehow you must have fallen asleep. Just as you wished, in the blink of an eye the morning alarm was blaring and you shot up. You rushed out the door, seeing the other boys going about their morning routines, and you were so relieved to see them all. You had a dumb smile on your face, but no one seemed to notice cause they were all happy themselves. You didn’t know why until you were at the table.

“Alright. You all get your usual allowance, and you know to be back before six pm, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, we know.” Juyeon assured. “You think we’d fuck this up?”

“What… what’s going on?” You nervously asked. 

“Every other Sunday I give the boys some pocket money and let them go into town by themselves.” Dr. Bryce explained. “The same applies to you as well. You can keep the money for yourself, and save up, or spend it as you please. It’s none of my business.”

“Oh… that’s nice of you…”

    After breakfast all the boys rushed upstairs to get their things, leaving the table a mess. You were gonna start cleaning again but Dr. Bryce told you on these Sundays he did the cooking and cleaning, so you didn’t need to worry about anything. It was a day off for everyone in the house. The idea of going into town to explore sounded nice, but you knew you’d be all alone, so it was better you stayed and not got lost. Besides, you’d have the house to yourself, which meant you’d be free to do whatever you wanted. You saw that all the boys were gathered by the front door, getting their envelopes and counting the money they had. You were given one too, and thanked Dr. Bryce for it.

“Sangyeon, being the eldest here, you know the rules best. Keep them out of trouble, and be back before six, no excuses.”

“I got it Doc.”

“Then you’re free to go. Enjoy your day.”

    The boys cheered and were quickly out the door. In a flash it was just you and Dr. Bryce, but he made no comment on the fact you were still there. You appreciated that, it was your day off after all, and you could spend it however you like. You intended to head up to your room when the front door opened again.

“Do you wanna come with?”

    Younghoon had poked his head back into the house, not even looking at you, but waiting for an answer. By his tone of voice you knew he was just asking cause he probably had to, but the question was genuine. You glanced over at Dr. Bryce and he nodded his head. You were still nervous, but going out with them could be very beneficial.

“Sure.”

“Then let’s go slowpoke.”

    You let your smile shine, but quickly toned it down and followed Younghoon outside, catching up with the rest of the crowd. The town was a ways away from the house, and you obviously weren’t going to drive there. You thought maybe there would be a long walk, but instead you saw the boys with bicycles, there were seven in total.

“Can you ride a bike?” Kevin asked. 

“Uh… I don’t know.”

“Just ride with someone.” Juyeon said. “We’re burning daylight.”

    Younghoon grabbed your arm, bringing you over to Eric. He had you step onto the pegs on the back wheel, telling you to hold onto Eric’s shoulders, and not to move around so much. This didn’t strike up any memories, but some anxiety instead. You told yourself to calm down, not wanting to ruin this. Once everyone was situated Eric told you to hold on, and then you were on the move. It was scary at first, but once you got used to the motion you could relax, enjoying the wind in your face and the feeling of being with the boys. You might have been a pity invite, but you were still happy to be here. 

    When you got into town, you parked the bikes on a bike rack, chaining them up and locking them down with combination locks. There were plenty of hours ahead, but of course they would take the lead. You happily followed them around, sticking close for fear of getting lost. At one point there was a bit of a split off, but you stayed with Younghoon. You didn’t say anything, and they didn’t really engage in conversation with you, but you did notice that on occasion they would glance your way, making sure you were still around. They’d surely be in big trouble if they lost you, but you appreciated the little bits of acknowledgement they gave you.

    As you walked around you got to experience the town with a new perspective. You weren’t just some lost kid, but someone out to have fun and wanting to see what the town had to offer. You went into candy shops, getting yourself some treats, joining the boys for burgers and shakes at a diner, maybe causing too much of a ruckus that you were kicked out after paying the bill. It was fun, and you were enjoying yourself, laughing along with them as part of the group. You got to see what they were like outside the house too, getting a better idea as to who they were, seeing that they all got along even if they spit venom and glared daggers at each other. They were certainly a group of misfits.

    After lunch you gathered at a park, having some drinks and snacks, simply enjoying the nice weather. There was a bit of chatter but for the most part it was peaceful, that is until you were approached by some unwanted company. A group of boys gathered around, and by the faces your boys were making, you could tell there was some familiarity, and it wasn’t a good thing. Your boys got up, picking up all their things, and intending to leave without a word. Clearly these other guys had killed the mood, but they weren’t just going to let you all leave so easily. They got in your way, smirks on their faces.

“If it isn’t the forsaken bunch.” One commented. “Haven’t we told you to stay out of our park?”

    None of your boys answered. It seemed they didn’t want to engage with them. You all tried to go around, but every step was mimicked by the others.

“Where you going though? Not like you have a mommy and daddy waiting for you.” There were snickers from their crowd. “They kicked you out ages ago.”

“Sucks to know your own parents don’t want you.” Another said.

“What y’all do again? Runaway from home after a good spanking? Attempt to rob a bank?” The boy speaking glanced at you. “Tried to fuck some bitch out of your league?”

    You didn’t realize that last comment seemed to get a rise out of them, and before they could say or do anything you were already on it.

“Oh fuck off.” You stated, stepping up to them. “You’re just jealous.”

“So the bitch speaks!” He chuckled. “What’s there to be jealous of, sweetheart?”

“That they have the freedom you can only have wet dreams about.”

“I’m sorry, what? Freedom? Mommy and daddy abandoned them and left them to be the government’s problem. How is that freedom?”

“They can take care of themselves, and survive on their own. Meanwhile you still gotta cry to mommy to wash your favorite shirt and make you a grilled cheese cause you can’t do anything yourself. Or whine to daddy that your brand new bike got busted cause of your stupidity.”

“At least I still have a mommy and daddy to cry to, little girl.”

“Yeah, and the crushing weight of their expectations. Be a good boy, do your homework and study hard, go to Uni, and find a nice girl. Get married and have five kids and raise them to be good boys and girls just like you. Any misstep in that plan and well, you might get kicked out of the house and disowned. Doesn’t that scare you? That mommy and daddy don’t love you, but love what they want you to be.”

“The fuck-”

“I answer to no one! I can be whatever the fuck I want to be and I don’t need anyone’s fucken approval!”

“Yeah you’re just gonna turn into some hooker sucking dick for twenty bucks a pop.” Another boy spat at you. “These guys are your first customers, aren’t they?”

“Awe, someone still hasn’t popped their cherry, have they?” You looked them all up and down. “You’re all just a bunch of immature tiny dick virgins. Which is really sad considering you’re pretty much done with puberty, and done growing. I guess mommy and daddy aren’t gonna get that nice daughter in-law or grandkids.”

“Shut up you whore!”

“Yeah, that’s all your insults can come down to, slut-shaming me. Really unoriginal.”

“That’s it, come here bitch! I’ll show you what a real man can do!”

“But all I see are five little boys before me?” You giggled. “Momma would hate to see you hurt.”

    You were more than ready to fight, even though as far as you knew, you’ve never thrown a punch in your life. Although before anything could happen Sangyeon easily swept you off your feet and threw you over his shoulder. The others quickly surrounded him, keeping him and you from the others.

“That’s enough.” Sangyeon stated. “We aren’t here to cause trouble.”

“You better keep your bitch under control!”

“She isn’t my bitch, but I could surely turn you into one. Don’t forget you’re outnumbered here, and if you cause trouble with us, guess where you’re gonna end up? I assure you we have plenty of open rooms for you.”

“Just get the fuck out of here, and take that psycho with you!”

    Sangyeon took a few steps back before turning around. The others followed moments after. You had been quiet at first, honestly quiet surprised by Sangyeon’s speed and strength. Now that you had your bearings, you managed to lift your upper body up and look back at the boys. You stuck your tongue out at them, giving them the finger too.

“Bitch! Just run off with your little boys!”

“They’re more man than you’ll ever be! You tiny dick-”

“Shut up.” Sangyeon hissed at you.

    Your boys were biting their lips to contain their laughter, having been watching you scream back at the delinquents until Sangyeon told you to be quiet. You still held out the finger until those assholes were out of sight. From there you let your body drop, your back hurting from holding yourself up like that. You figured Sangyeon would put you down once they were gone, but he did no such thing until you were back at your bikes. You dusted yourself off once you were back on the ground, doing a bit of stretches too.

“Are you alright?” Sangyeon asked.

“Yeah. Fine. What about-”

“You can’t be going around and starting fights. In case you forgot we’re still labeled as troubled youths and have things from our past to make up for. I get that doesn’t apply to you here, but you’re with us now. Any shit you start reflexes onto us.”

“They were being assholes! You guys aren’t beneath them just cause your parents abandoned you or whatever! It’s not right for-”

“What did I just say?”

You sighed. “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to start trouble, I just-”

“Ah.”

“But-”

“AH.”

“Sorry… it won’t happen again…” You lowered your head “… that is if you want me to come back out with you next time…”

“You know…” Sangyeon put a hand on your shoulder. “You’re alright, y/n.”

“What?”

“Your actions are appreciated, but we gotta be better than them.”

“Didn’t know you had such a mouth on you.” Chanhee commented. “Caught me by surprise.”

“Same,”Changmin added. “I thought we lost y/n for a second and found someone new.” 

“We’re not telling Doc anything about this.” Sangyeon spoke. “Understood?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“We know.”

    It was nearing six, so you all had to head back. This time Sangyeon had you ride with him. The air was cooler by then, and the sun was on its way down. It was a beautiful view, just like before, but the atmosphere had changed. You weren’t just quietly tagging along anymore, feeling more like these guys were your friends. On the ride back home some would glance your way, laughing as they remembered your fierce stance, repeating your words with genuine smiles on their face. For the first time since you met them all, you felt like you belonged.

“Alright, everybody shut the fuck up and calm down.” Sangyeon reminded. “We’ll all end up grounded if Doc finds out.”

“What happens if we get grounded?” You asked. 

“You don’t want to know.”

    As you entered the house Sangyeon called out to inform Dr. Bryce that you had all returned in one piece. Then the sweet smell of food, and you all rushed over to the dining room. Dinner was nearly set, and you were all quite hungry after such an exciting day out. You spoke about your day, and what you did. Even if you hadn’t really participated much during the outing, Dr. Bryce could tell things had gone well as you were visibly more comfortable around them. You were all smiles and giggles, asking to pass plates and offering food to others. Although all the good energy didn’t change the fact you still had a curfew and it was about time you all got ready for bed. You asked Dr. Bryce if he wanted any help cleaning up but he told you to see your day off to the end.

    You took a shower, still a giddy mess from the day, you all were, but it was time for you all to wind down. You took your medication, sneaking knowing glances around Dr. Bryce, before heading off to bed. You laid down with a smile on your face, seriously trying to calm yourself down. You hoped for sweet dreams where you could see what happened today to the end, but you were already content as is. Tomorrow was a new day, and everything was going to be different. Even though you were so full of excitement the medicine was starting to kick and you slowly drifted off to sleep. You couldn’t wait until morning.

🖤

    You could feel a smile on your face as you started to regain consciousness. The memories of the day before at the forefront of your mind. You slowly opened your eyes, your vision a blur, but something was different. The usual dull ceiling wasn’t present, but instead you started to make out the lights above you, and the slight shake the whole world had. You were starting to regain your senses, feeling that you weren’t on your bed anymore, but something more sturdy. Lazily you moved your head to the side, seeing that you weren’t alone. There was someone laying on what you believed to be a gurney, and they were unconscious. Despite the disorientation you tried to focus, wanting to make out the figure before you. It took a bit of effort, but you could eventually make out some facial features. Although the first thing that stood out to you were the black veins on their neck that spread up to the side of their face.

“Ju… Juyeon…”

“What the fuck!”

    You had no idea there were others where you were. At most you could make out three. Once you spoke there was quickly a hand covering your mouth, and another over your eyes.

“How the fuck is she awake?!”

“How the hell should I know!?”

“What do we do? This… this has never happened before, has it?”

“If it had I’m pretty sure we’d have protocol for it!”

“The fuck do we do!!!”

“I don’t know! Don’t ask me!”

“We have to do something!”

“Does anyone have a sedative or something?”

“Why would we have that?”

“We need to put her under again!”

“Then choke her out!”

“If she’s marked up the doctor is going to be pissed! We could wind up dead!”

“Then what’s your brilliant plan?”

“Just make her pass out.”

“How?!”

“Just… just hold her still…”

    You had no idea what was going on. You barely managed the words you said, and your vision certainly wasn’t working either. You were also half conscious here. The voices weren’t entirely clear either, only making out every few words. You tried to focus your mind, but then a third hand pinched your nose. It didn’t register what was going on until you found yourself unable to breath. You felt panic, but you had no strength. You were trapped inside your own body, screaming for air, screaming for help, but no one could hear you. Even though you were already in darkness, you felt yourself slowly sinking deeper into oblivion.

🖤

    Your eyes shot open when you heard the morning alarm go off. You bolted up in bed, breathing heavily. Although your clarity was soon clouded, and you grabbed your head. There was something bothering you, and it was on the tip of your tongue. You feared you’d lose it, so focused on it that you didn’t hear a knock at your door. Or realize that someone had entered your room.

“Y/n, you gotta get up.”

    The voice startled you, but when your eyes met Juyeon it all came rushing in. You jumped out of bed and ran over to hug him tight. He was caught off guard by your actions, standing still before slowly wrapping his arms around you.

“Are… are you okay?”

    You pulled away and grabbed Juyeon’s face, looking him over in a panic, but there were no black veins. You even tugged his collar down a bit to check his chest. He only allowed that for a bit before he pulled your hand off his shirt.

“You’re okay…” You mumbled. “… it was just a dream…”

“Yeah. I’m okay, y/n. Are you?”

“Huh? Yeah, yeah. Sorry, I just thought… it’s nothing…”

“Okay. Just get dressed, and eat a lot. Your group is doing yard work today.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

“See you at breakfast.”

    You were still thinking over your dream. You had confirmed yourself that Juyeon was alright, but something still felt off. You couldn’t quite put your finger on it, and it was taking up all your attention. Despite last night’s dinner, you seemed to be back to your quiet and reserved self which wasn’t going to go unnoticed anymore.

“Y/n, are you okay?”

“Huh?”

    You snapped out of your head to find everyone staring at you. It was so easy to forget you weren’t a fly on the wall anymore.

“Sorry… did you say something?”

“Did you sleep alright?” Dr. Bryce asked. “You don’t seem to be here.”

“Just got a lot on my mind.”

“I see. Well, it is about time you and I talked. Please come to my office after breakfast.”

“Alright. I look forward to our… chat…”

    The atmosphere perked up a bit, but it was still early in the morning so exhaustion prevailed. After eating you freshened up a bit before going over to the office. You knocked and waited for Dr. Bryce to open the door and invite you in. This was the first time you got to see his office, taking it all in. He had a desk, and plenty of books filing the shelves. There were also a handful of places to sit down, allowing for you to be comfortable wherever you liked.

“Have a seat.”

    You simply sat down on the couch in the center of the room, trying not to seem so nervous. Dr. Bryce grabbed a pen and clipboard, sitting across from you. He started off by asking you how you were settling in, it was barely over a week for you. Everything had been going well, and you were really starting to get along with your housemates too. Although you had yet to regain any of your memories. It was difficult, but you admitted to the doctor that you had this feeling that you were supposed to be here.

“I see. That feeling could be very important here.”

“So what do I do?”

“I wanted you to be comfortable first before I brought this up. I am a licensed hypnotherapist, and was wondering if you’d want to try hypnosis. See if we could dig deeper into your subconscious for answers.”

“Does that work?”

“In all honesty, it doesn’t work for everyone, but there is no danger in trying. I will be guiding you, and the second you want to stop I can pull you out.”

“Hm…”

“This is just a suggestion, you don’t have to do this.”

“But I haven’t made any progress at all… I’d like to try.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

    You didn’t have much you could do about your situation, and if hypnosis had the possibility of helping you, then you had to try. Dr. Bryce had you lay down, wanting you to be comfortable. He guided you through some breathing exercises so you could relax, and then he let you know he would begin. All you had to do was listen to his voice. So that’s what you did, envisioning what he asked of you. The same place you created was the house, and in your means of going deeper, you had to step outside, going through the front door.

    Suddenly you were somewhere far away, surrounded by white. Everything was so bright, and it kinda looked like you were inside a cloud. You described your surroundings to the doctor, having many questions that he couldn’t answer. You thought you were alone until you started to hear voices, and more prominently, laughter. Dr. Bryce suggested you follow the voices, seeing where or to who they led you, so you did. You took one step after the other, although the laughter got louder, and then you were falling. The bright white faded away and you were falling into an endless void. You screamed for help, completely terrified and trapped. The doctor got you to focus on them and counted down to bring you back to reality.

    When your eyes opened you jumped, falling off the couch. You were visibly shaking, taking in deep breaths. Dr. Bryce came over to your side and helped you sit back up. You had no idea what any of that meant, but you didn’t want to do it again. The doctor wrapped you up in a blanket and told you to stay put. They were going to get you some tea to help you calm your nerves. Before going they assured you that you were safe, and that none of that was real. You nodded your head, continuing with your deep breaths in an effort to calm yourself down. You heard the doctor step out, feeling like an eternity would pass before their return, and because of that you weren’t aware of the sneaky one peeking into the room.

    Everyone had sessions with Dr. Bryce, even going under on occasion, but none of them had ever screamed before. So when you did, those in the house were immediately concerned. Haknyeon was the closest to the office at the time, peeking around the corner just as Dr. Bryce stepped out of the office. To his surprise the door had been left ajar, and Haknyeon couldn’t help himself. He carefully made his way over, gently pushing the door open a bit more to peek inside. His eyes landed on you, seeing you wrapped up in a blanket and trembling, sniffling and wiping away tears as well. He had questions, and he wanted to go in to ask and maybe try to comfort you, but if he was caught the consequences would be severe.

    He quickly hurried off before Dr. Bryce returned, going back to his corner and watching. Once the door was closed, and locked, he snuck over again, carefully trying to listen in. He was sure the others would do the same, although their own sessions were never that interesting. Nothing serious was discussed anymore, it was just Dr. Bryce trying to help you calm down. Although he did tell you that you’d be excused from your chores for the day, and should head to your room to rest. You didn’t argue with that, and when Haknyeon heard footsteps he scurried off. From his corner he watched you head upstairs, not trembling like before, but still unsteady. Soon enough he was going around the house, informing the others about what had happened, and reminding them not to let Dr. Bryce find out that they knew anything. Doctor patient confidentiality was very important. Although as they all showered together all bets were off.

“I thought I hallucinated that scream.” Younghoon said. “Never thought I’d hear that here.”

“I was already worried when I saw Doc outside.” Kevin added. “I had no idea that’s what happened. I mean, we all tend to get a pass on chores when we have a session.”

“Did she go back to sleep?” Sunwoo asked.

“I don’t know if she could manage it.” Haknyeon admitted. “Hypnosis is kinda like going to sleep.”

“What about tonight then?” Eric questioned. “She’s not gonna want to take those sleeping pills.”

“She has to.” Sangyeon stated. “Doc has never given us a pass on that shit. It would be kinda bullshit if she got a pass.”

“But she’s scared.” Hyunjae reminded. “You don’t scream like that if you’re having fun.”

“We’re not in charge of her, or her treatment. Doc knows what’s best, and that’s what he’s going to do.”

    Sangyeon was the first out of the shower. Although when it came time for their medication he found some of the others gathered outside your room. He made his way over and shoved some aside to peek in.

“Why two?”

“I understand today was difficult, but you need to rest. The stress of not sleeping isn’t good for your health.”

“…”

“Y/n, please.”

“What if I end up there…”

“You won’t. This medication will make sure you don’t dream. You’ll be alright.”

    You nodded your head and took the pills, chugging down the water. Dr. Bryce gave you a smile and helped you get tucked in. When he looked back to see the boys gathered they all quickly scattered, acting like nothing had happened. The doctor made no comment and just made sure all the others took their medication. You were certainly scared to close your eyes, but you couldn’t stop the exhaustion that was creeping up. No matter how hard you felt like your heart was pounding, you still wound up falling asleep.

🖤

    The morning alarm wasn’t something you could get used to. It was supposed to wake you up, but you could at least grow accustomed to the sound and not get so freaked out in the morning. The boys were up and about like always, shuffling around, although Hyunjae was soon to notice you weren’t around. He went over to your room and knocked, a few others also realizing they hadn’t seen you yet. Hyunjae knocked again before letting himself in. He cautiously entered, not wanting to find you indecently exposed, but soon enough he saw you were still in bed, tossing and turning around.

“Y/n!”

    He rushed to your bed side, seeing that you were burning up with a fever and sweating profusely. You were clearly still sleeping, and caught in a nightmare by your movements and whimpers. He tried to wake you, attracting attention from others.

“What’s wrong?!”

“Go get Doc!” Hyunjae yelled. “I think she has a fever.”

    Hyunjae’s yelling was heard by others, moments later Jacob came in with a rag and bowl of water, starting to dab at your head.

“Y/n, can you hear us? You gotta wake up.”

    Jacob tried to gently shake you, resulting in you screaming and startling them all. From there though you seemed to calm down, slowly opening your eyes, your breath heavy and uneven. You blinked a few times as you tried to clear up your vision, seeing a lot of blurry people in your room.

“Uh… what…”

“Sh, sh, it’s okay.” Hyunjae cooed. “You’re okay.”

“Hm…” 

“No, no, hey, hey, stay awake. Doc needs to look you over.”

“What are you all doing in here?” Dr. Bryce questioned. “Give her some space. Jacob, can you open the window a bit.”

“Yeah.”

     You were vaguely aware as Dr. Bryce examined you, checking to confirm you had a fever, and other ailments.

“Hyunjae, help me get her up for a moment.” The two had you sit up, and the motion kind of made you dizzy. “Y/n, I need you to take some medicine for me, alright? Then you can go back to sleep.”

    You nodded your head, barely awake as is. You had help getting the medicine in your mouth, and someone tipped a glass of water against your lips. You spilled a bit but that was alright. They laid you back down and tucked you in.

“Hyunjae, can you stay with her? If she doesn’t get better in the next hour please let me know.”

“Will do.”

“Who’s on kitchen duty today?”

“My team.” Younghoon said.

“Can you guys prepare something soft and warm for her to eat. She’ll need food in her stomach and not just medicine.”

“Yeah, no problem.”

“Alright, now everybody out. I don’t need all of us getting sick.”

    Hyunjae stayed with you as he was asked, gently cleaning you up with the rag. You did seem to be getting better, which was a relief. A while later some soup was brought over. He did feel a bit bad because he had to wake you, but it was important you ate. You weren’t so out of this time around, able to get up with some minor help. Although you couldn’t really hold the spoon so Hyunjae fed you.

“Thanks for… looking out of me… and sorry…”

“You have nothing to apologize for, if anything I got out of chores today.” Hyunjae chuckled. “Besides, we’re all worried. Any of us would have stayed with you.”

“See, I made you worry…”

“This is probably our fault anyway. We took you out into town with us but we didn’t pay so much attention to what you were doing.”

“It’s okay. I’d do it all again given the outcome. It was really fun to hang out with you all.”

“I really should apologize, all of us should, for being so cold to you when you first arrived.”

“I don’t blame you. I was new, and different from you in practically every way. Besides, you guys already had your dynamics and stuff. It wouldn’t be easy to accept someone new anyway.”

“Still.”

“I’m not gonna hold anything against you.”

“Thanks.” Hyunjae took a moment. “How’s your amnesia?”

“I haven’t remembered anything. It’s been a while now but I got nothing… it scares me, but at least I’ve made some friends so I have more than before.”

    After you ate Dr. Bryce came in to check on you, glad to see you were better. He had Hyunjae step away, saying he needed to eat as well. Chanhee took over his watch, staying with you as you went back to sleep. You spent the day in bed, just waking up to eat and take medicine. When curfew came around the others came to see you, and you assured them that you were feeling much better. You took your usual medicine, plus the sleeping pill, resting calmly throughout the night. In the morning you woke to the alarm.

    Your body didn’t feel as rigged as yesterday, so you figured you could get out of bed. It was a bit of a struggle, but Kevin ended up coming into your room and offering to help you out. You went about your morning routine, and insisted on going down to the dining table for breakfast. Kevin and Sangyeon helped you down the steps and to the table. Although when Dr. Bryce saw you, he seemed surprised you were out of bed. You assured him you felt much better. He could see that, but said you should still rest, so you were excused from your chores. You said you could still help but he countered you shouldn’t over exert yourself. It was better you made a full recovery first. You reluctantly agree.

    After breakfast you joined a few in the rec room. You didn’t really feel up for games, but you’d enjoy the company. Some hours later you did start feeling tired, letting them know you were going to go to bed. They insisted on taking you, but you assured them you felt well enough to go yourself. It was a bit of a struggle on the stairs, but it was better than the morning. You thought you’d be alone, but as you walked to your room you could hear noises. They were coming from one of the bathrooms. You went over and knocked, but got no response. The door was locked, and you continued to knock and ask who was in there. You were thinking of letting it go when you suddenly heard a bunch of water spill onto the floor.

    Now you were scared, frantically knocking and trying to get the door opened. Somehow you managed to get it open, seeing the bathtub completely filled and Sangyeon in it, completely under water. Although what caught your attention was the blood, and you quickly rushed over to pull him out. Somehow you managed the strength to get him out of the tub. You felt some type of injury on his head, seeing blood. You screamed for help, trying to get Sangyeon to wake up. He groaned, coughing up a bit of water and slowly coming to. It took a second for him to realize you were holding him. You were relieved to see he was alive, although he was very confused about what was going on. Before he could ask you suddenly passed out. 

    He quickly caught you before you hit the ground. He tried to wake you, but you were unresponsive. Suddenly he began to hear footsteps and shouting approaching. Sangyeon looked around, noticing blood in the water. He quickly reached over to drain the tub, knowing this whole thing was already going to get him in trouble. Soon enough others came upon the scene, asking what happened. Sangyeon said you had found him and helped him out before passing out. They got some towels to help dry you off, getting you back to your room. Despite everyone being okay, they had to tell Dr. Bryce about this just to make sure you were alright.

“Hm…”

    When you woke up you found yourself in your room, although you didn’t remember making it. Then you realized you were wet and wrapped up in towels. You weren’t alone either, your movements alerting the others you were awake.

“What… what happened…”

“I told you not to over exert yourself.” Dr. Bryce reminded. “Seems you did.”

“Oh sorry…”

“You’re alright, which is what matters.”

“What… what about Sangyeon?”

“He’s fine as well.”

“Where is he?”

“Grounded. Just get some rest.”

“Okay.”

    Dr. Bryce left, but some of the others that had been around stayed. You did ask them what had happened to Sangyeon, being told his punishment was kitchen duty all by himself. He’d have to cook and clean lunch all alone, and also still follow the curfew rule. On top of all that he would be sleeping in the doctor’s spare room that night. You thought it was unfair, but the others told you Sangyeon had a tendency to submerge himself in the tub. Usually the doctor wouldn’t do anything, just schedule a session, but his actions this time put you in danger, so he had to be grounded for that. Even though you should have been resting, you wanted to make sure that Sangyeon was okay. So when you had the chance you snuck downstairs and made your way to the kitchen. He seemed busy and focused, but not entirely oblivious.

“You should be in bed.”

“I… I just…”

“You’re also not allowed to help me.”

“Yeah, but-”

“Go before you get in trouble. Just cause you’re sick doesn’t mean you’ll get a pass on being grounded. He’s gotta stick to his own rules.”

“You shouldn’t be grounded over what happened though.”

“You got hurt cause of me.”

“I didn’t get hurt. I’m fine.”

“Spontaneously passing out isn’t fine.”

“I’m fine now.”

“Then go.”

“I just had to make sure you were okay first.” You stepped closer to Sangyeon, watching him work. “When I first came here, you had been submerging yourself in the tub… why do you do that?”

“I just get bored.”

“There’s plenty to do in this house, chores or not. Besides, you were bleeding this time.”

    Without thinking you reached over to his head, not able to find the injury from before. He took your hand and moved it away, taking a breath.

“I have weird dreams every now and then. I don’t remember much of them, but there’s this feeling… like they’re real… and even if I don’t remember what they’re about, it feels like I keep having the same dream…”

“And you’re trying to remember?”

“Memories fade over time, but dreams are practically gone in an instant. I’m trying to go beyond sleep, see if I can remember and retain that information.”

“By drowning yourself?”

“I don’t exactly want Doc prying into my subconscious about this during a session.”

“Still, it’s dangerous.”

“I’m careful.”

“You got hurt.”

“I hit my head on the faucet, but I’m okay thanks to you.”

“There has to be other ways for you to do that. I’ve had weird dreams too, but I’m not doing dangerous things to try and remember.”

“You’ve had weird dreams? What were they about?”

“I don’t know… the details are still fuzzy… but I was somewhere, and I noticed Juyeon on a gurney next to me… he had black veins on his neck…”

“What else happened?”

“I don’t really remember. I said something and these other people knocked me out, then I woke up in bed.”

“I see… you should really go before you get caught. Lunch will be ready soon.”

“But-”

“I’m alright, y/n, I promise. Now go.”

“Okay… sorry I got you in trouble.”

“It’s not your fault.”

    You snuck your way back out of the kitchen, leaving Sangyeon with his thoughts. Now he had a lot on his mind, but he needed to finish the task at hand. He set the table, quietly eating in the kitchen alone as part of his punishment. By the time he finished cleaning up with lunch he had to get started on dinner, trying to go with something simple and filling so there wouldn’t be too many dishes to clean. In the end he managed well with plenty of time before curfew. As part of his punishment he was supposed to shower alone, but he needed to talk to Eric. So he snuck his way into the communal shower, startling the boy he was looking for.

“The fuck are you doing here!”

“Easy. I have a question. Do you still remember that dream you had about seeing Sunwoo with black veins on his face?”

“What? Yeah, vaguely, shit was weird. Why?”

“Hm…”

“Why?”

“Y/n had a similar dream, seeing Juyeon with black veins.”

“What the hell did I do?” Juyeon questioned. “Oh wait, that explains why she suddenly hugged me and looked me over that one time…”

“Have you ever had a similar dream?” Sangyeon asked Eric. “Or something else weird.”

“I always have weird dreams, but nothing I can really remember.”

“It’s weird they had similar dreams.” Younghoon commented. “Why even have such a dream?”

“I don’t know, just wanted to check. Don’t tell y/n or Doc about this. I gotta go.”

“Yeah, yeah, see you tomorrow.”

“Night.”

🖤

“Y/n, you have a session with me this morning.”

“Oh… okay… where’s Sangyeon though?”

“He’ll return after lunch.”

“Okay.”

    It was certainly weird to be down one person. Although now you understood why getting grounded sucked. After breakfast you went to Dr. Bryce’s office. He asked how you were feeling, and you said you were doing much better, probably better than before you got sick. He was happy to hear. Soon the conversation shifted over to your sleep, asking if you had been resting well, and if any weird dreams had been plaguing you. For the most part you didn’t dream of anything, and if you did, there was only a feeling of confusion that lingered. Of course all that eventually led to one thing.

“Do you think you’d like to try hypnosis again?”

“I… uh…”

“We’d definitely take a different approach this time, but it is still your choice.”

“I… I think we can try it again…”

    You followed the process like before, listening to his voice and creating your safe space. Instead of going out the front door and into the unknown, he thought maybe to focus on your dreams instead. They could be meaningless things to be interpreted, or perhaps memories of your past. So you went upstairs to your bedroom. There was nothing but darkness when you opened the door. You were hesitant to go in, but the doctor assured you that he was with you and would get you out when you wanted to. You closed your eyes and stepped into the darkness, feeling it embrace you.

    When you opened your eyes you found a light starting down at you, but not just any random light. You looked over and saw Juyeon on the gurney, unconscious with black veins decorating his face. You called out to him, but he didn’t move. The doctor had you describe this to him. You admitted you didn’t like it and wanted out, but he asked you why you would dream of such a thing. You were panicking, saying you didn’t know, he wasn’t a monster or anything, but you wanted out. Instead he asked you to think of a reason.

“I don’t know… I’m scared… please… I don’t want to lose anyone… please get me out….”

“You’re scared of losing him?”

“I don’t have anything… just them… if something happened… I’d be alone… doctor I’ve had enough, please get me out…”

“That’s good progress. We should continue.”

“No, no, no, I’m done.”

“What other dreams have you had?”

    You closed your eyes for a moment in the dream, trying to wake yourself up, but you couldn’t do that. Instead you found yourself somewhere else. You were tied down to a table, nothing but darkness around, you were completely alone. For a moment you thought this was less horrifying until you felt a burning pain in your arm. You screamed in agony, feeling that pain slowly spreading. Somehow you managed to glance down at your arms, seeing black veins practically popping out of your skin.

“Get me out! Please!”

    The boys never wanted to be nosy, but it was quite hard to deny your screams. Soon enough they were gathered up outside the office, and from what they could tell things weren’t getting better. They didn’t bother trying to knock, instead working together to kick the door in. Of course hearing you scream was bad enough, but seeing you in pain and trying to wake yourself up made it worse.

“What are you boys doing! Get out!”

“Wake her up!” Haknyeon yelled. “Now!”

“You should not be interfering with a session like this.”

“More like torture!”

    Jacob had gone over to you, trying to comfort you despite your state. You could barely make out his voice, asking him for help.

“You need to leave.”

“Wake her up!” Juyeon grabbed the doctor. “Now!”

“Alright! Alright, y/n, I’m going to count you down from three and you’re going to wake up. 3, 2, 1.”

    You shot up and immediately hugged Jacob, crying into his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around you, rubbing your back and gently rocking you, telling you everything was okay now. You were still shaking, but you didn’t let him go.

“Let’s get you some fresh air.”

     Without making you lose your hold, Jacob managed to pick you up in his arms, having you wrap your legs around his waist, holding you up by your thighs. He took you out into the garden, going over to the gazebo. He sat you down but you refused to let him go, so he maneuvered around so he could sit down and had you in his lap. Your shaking wasn’t as bad anymore, so he was glad for that.

“Thank… thank you…”

“Are you okay?”

“I don’t know…”

    Those who were around came over, Kevin setting some drinks down on the table. It took a while longer before you could bring yourself to let go of Jacob. Hyunjae offered you a drink, which you took, but your hand was still shaking. Jacob took the glass from you and helped you.

“Thank you… and I’m really sorry… you shouldn’t have caused trouble because of me.”

“We didn’t like hearing you scream.” Eric said. “We weren’t just going to leave you there.”

“Doc has had his stern moments.” Juyeon admitted. “But I never thought he’d do something like that.”

“He was just trying to help…” You mumbled. “I was just scared…”

“You were in pain.” Kevin corrected. “Surely there are other ways to help you recover your memories without hurting you.”

“Still…”

“We’ll be fine.”

    Dr. Bryce didn’t go over what had happened, but he did punish the offending parties. They each took on a certain chore for the day, and were forbidden from going out next Sunday. They were fine with their punishment, but you still felt guilty over it. After that things had settled down, but you were certainly prone to more weird dreams. You’d be blinded by white lights, feeling the prick of a needle, machines beeping away, then you started to hear that roar again.

    You woke in a cold sweat that morning, deciding to take a quick shower to help clear your mind. All the boys knew what happened with you and Dr. Bryce last time, so there was certainly ongoing tension with everyone. No disrespect, but things were awkward at times. It made you feel guilty, but you did hope you’d all eventually move on. Soon enough it became clear that wouldn’t be the case.

“Y/n, I’d like to see you for a session today.”

“Uh…”

“No.” Younghoon stated. “Not happening.”

“I wasn’t asking-”

“You’re not talking with her again.” Sunwoo added.

“I’d like to hear this from y/n, if you all don’t mind.”

You swallowed nervously. “I… I’m not in much of a mood to talk.”

“Alright. Another time then.”

    You were glad this didn’t lead to anyone getting grounded this time. At least you knew they had your back about this. When your Sunday outing came around, all but those who were grounded were allowed to go. They told you not to worry about them and enjoy yourself. The others certainly did, and made sure to pick up your mood. They also reminded you that their actions weren’t something you should feel responsible for. You knew they were right, but you had certainly shaken things up a lot.

“You haven’t remembered anything?” Changmin asked. “Like at all?”

“No. I think it’s cause nothing around here is really familiar, so it hasn’t triggered any memories for me. This is also my third time being in town.”

“Yeah, you’re just locked up in the house like the rest of us.”

“Let’s go to the police station.” Sangyeon suggested. “We can ask about an update on you. See if there’s been a missing person’s report or something.”

“What if there is…”

“Huh?”

“What if there is an update? And I’m missing…”

“Then you can go back to your family.”

    You had already been struggling to smile that day, considering not everyone was there, but now your smile dropped.

“Hey, hey, what’s wrong?” Sunwoo asked.

“Nothing… nothing…”

“We can all tell you’re lying.”

“I’m fine.”

“You haven’t been.” Younghoon sighed. “You think we’re trying to kick you out of the house or something?”

“…”

“Oh, no, that’s not at all what we’re suggesting here.”

“Y/n, you’re not like us.” Sangyeon reminded. “You don’t belong in that house with us. Especially considering what has happened lately. You’re not exactly safe, and there hasn’t been much progress with your memories.”

“I… I know…”

“We all love having you around, but it’s not fair to keep you around when your family is out there looking for you. Besides, maybe there is no news, but we should check either way.”

“You’re right…”

“Come on then. A quick stop and then ice cream regardless of the answer.”

    You went with them to the police station, certainly turning heads as soon as you walked through the door. Sangyeon went up to the counter and grabbed your hand, pulling you to his side. He asked the officer about you, if there was any new information, but the officer only glanced at you and asked who you were. Sangyeon explained you had arrived a few weeks ago, having amnesia. That clicked, but didn’t give them the answers they wanted.

“She’s not our problem.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Sangyeon questioned. “Haven’t you been looking into her case?”

“No. That doctor came in a while after she was picked up, talking to the chief, and saying he would take care of her and deal with everything. I’m assuming he reported her case to another district.”

“The fuck…”

    You were confused, but also upset. No one was actually trying to help you find out who you were. This whole time you’ve been living under the idea that the police were looking into your case, but that was just a lie. Sangyeon stormed out of the station, the others quickly following. He didn’t stop, getting back to the bikes and taking one. The rest scrambled to follow, and you rode with Changmin. Sangyeon got way ahead of the group, and by the time you got back to the house he was already inside and you heard screaming.

“What the hell have you been doing this whole time!”

“Y/n’s case is a very unique situation. It’s not easy-”

“If you’ve been lying about y/n this whole time, what else are you lying about?”

“Sangyeon, this behavior is way out of line.”

“Answer me!”

“You’ve all been acting up as of late, which is not productive at all. Since when have you cared about the situations of others? The focus here is to improve ones self. Perhaps I should remove y/n from the house for a while.”

“Touch her, and you’re dead.”

    When Dr. Bryce suggested moving you out of the house, those closest to you quickly pulled you behind them. You were worried some sort of fight was gonna break out but the doctor let it go. Things had really been getting tense these last few days, and it couldn’t not weigh down on you. The doctor left the house for the time being, and Sangyeon had all the others gather in the rec room. The day was still young, and it was best to explain what happened. You didn’t feel much like talking so Sangyeon explained what happened at the police station. That you hadn’t been reported as missing at all, so no one would even know to look here for you.

“That sounds pretty messed up.” Eric said. “Is the town that shitty?”

“You’ve seen the type of citizens it has.” Sunwoo added. “Not that surprising.”

“Something’s off.” Chanhee commented. “There’s always been something off about this whole place, and things have only gotten worse since y/n came here. I’m not saying any of this is your fault.”

“But it feels that way… you guys got along just fine before me, and now you’re picking fights with the person who looks after you because of me…”

“Did you already forget that last session you had with him?” Kevin questioned. “That was not okay.”

“I’ve been trying to…”

“Uh, right, sorry.”

“What exactly are we doing here?” Hyunjae asked. “Like we got sent here for xyz reasons, but what’s the point? What have we learned or whatever. What are we supposed to do?”

“I don’t know man.” Jacob groaned. “These last few days have just been frustrating.”

“How about we all just sleep on it and figure things out tomorrow.” Sangyeon suggested. “Probably for the best right now.”

    Everyone agreed, although there was still dinner to be had. Dr. Bryce had actually ordered take out for all of you, and after eating you all cleaned up. Things seemed alright until it came time to go to sleep. No one was exactly eager to take their medication, but you decided to do so. You felt like you had caused nothing but problems here, and you weren’t going to make any more. The others followed after you and everyone went to bed. You hoped things would go well tonight, but that was far from the truth.

🖤

    You inhaled sharply, immediately closing your eyes from the light. You immediately knew you weren’t in your room. Even if this was still confusing and terrifying, the repetitiveness was making it easy to bear. You looked around the room, seeing that you were alone. You weren’t in any pain, which was good, but that would change soon enough, which meant you needed to get out of your restraints as soon as possible. You hadn’t had any luck before, but you focused your energy this time. This was your dream, so you had the power to change things as you wanted. To your own surprise you actually manage to free one of your arms, quickly undoing the other restraints and running into the dark.

    You wound up finding a wall, quickly following it until you found something that wasn’t solid. It seemed to be some sort of panel and you pushed against it, some low light flooding your vision. The second you were out in the hall you froze, hearing that terrifying roar. It was so much louder than ever before. You went in the opposite direction of the sound, hoping to find something in order to help you out. Instead you came to a big room, a bunch of what seemed to be medical equipment around. You also weren’t alone anymore and quickly hid behind something, taking everything in. You were looking for an exit when your eyes landed on Eric. 

    He was strapped down to a gurney, being wheeled off somewhere. You caught a glimpse of black veins along his neck as well, starting to get worried. You wished you could do something, but if you got caught surely you’d wind up just like him. You suddenly thought to look yourself over, not finding any black veins on you, which was a relief. So you kept moving, stopping when you saw another one of your friends. From your viewpoint it seemed that Haknyeon was normal, that is until you noticed this person dressed in a white hazard suit holding a needle with some black liquid. You watched as the contents of the needle were emptied out into Haknyeon’s neck. At first nothing happened and then he started screaming and thrashing.

    You wanted nothing more than to wake up. As you were about to move again an alarm started blaring, which meant they were surely looking for you now. Those in the room quickly rushed out. When you felt you were alone you got up, wanting to get to Haknyeon, only to realize Chanhee was passed out on a gurney a few feet away from you. Getting to him seemed like a better idea than a feral Haknyeon. You rushed over to Chanhee and started undoing his restraints, trying to wake him but he was unresponsive. He had black veins as well, and then you noticed the tag on his ear. You looked it over, seeing that the number matched the one on his door, 98. You reached up to your ear, finding a similar one as well with the number 46 on it.

“The hell…”

    You weren’t paying attention and suddenly someone came up from behind you and grabbed you. They threw you onto the floor, intending to pin you down, but Chanhee suddenly came to life and jumped them. As you sat up you caught a glimpse of Chanhee, seeing his eyes were black, and his fingertips were black with matching claws, choking out the person who attacked you. He looked terrifying, and you jumped a bit when his gaze met yours. Before you could stand and run off what you presume were guards entered and started shooting at Chanhee. You couldn’t help but scream, not wanting to see how this all played out. So you got up and ran, going wherever your legs would take you.

    The alarms kept blaring, but for the time being you seemed to be in the clear. You had come into a much bigger, that seemed to have some weird containment pods. You figured there had to be another way to get out of this place, and as you carefully made your way around you began to hear growling. You froze, thinking there was some sort of guard dog, but soon enough you found the source. You carefully made your way over, seeing Sangyeon in one of the containment pods. He was like Chanhee, black eyes, matching veins traveling up his neck. Even without proper eyes you could tell his gaze followed you. He seemed to recognize you.

“Sangyeon… what is all this… what’s going on?”

    Sangyeon continued growling, and when you took a step away it got louder. He didn’t want you to leave. You started looking around, seeing if there was some way of getting him out. As far as you knew there was nothing, and suddenly he roared. It was that roar you had been hearing all along. Your eyes went wide as you realized it was him, stumbling back a few steps. You would have run off if you weren’t grabbed, a needle jabbed into your neck. You could vaguely make out Sangyeon roaring again, bashing his fists against the glass. When you were released you collapsed to the floor, feeling the darkness swallow you up.

🖤

    When the alarm went off you bolted out of your room and to Chanhee’s. He was barely stepping out as you got to him, tackling him to the ground. You frantically looked him over, glad he didn’t actually wear a shirt to bed as you could see he didn’t have any bullet wounds on him.

“Woah, woah, y/n, what are you doing?”

“You’re okay…”

“Yeah, yeah, are you?”

“What’s going on here?”

    Of course your actions hadn’t gone unnoticed, a few others gathering around, and Sangyeon asking what was going on. When you heard his voice you got up and went to him, looking into his eyes. He seemed normal, as did Haknyeon, and Eric.

“Hey, hey,” Sangyeon took your hand and pulled your gaze to him. “What’s up with you?”

“I don’t… we can’t talk here.”

    You dragged Sangyeon over to the communal shower, the others all following. You turned on some of the shower heads, not caring that you were getting soaked.

“Y/n, are you alright?” Sunwoo asked. “You’re kinda freaking us out.”

“I had another nightmare last night… Chanhee got shot and… I don’t know what’s going on with me…”

    You broke down a bit then and there, getting down to your knees, and hugging them to your chest. Everything had felt so real, yet you were in the house, and everyone was safe and sound. Something was very wrong and you felt that maybe you were losing your mind. You had no idea who you were, and maybe these dreams were just some manifestation of your unraveling mind losing control.

“Take it easy, y/n.” Juyeon knelt down next to you. “Tell us what happened.”

    You explained your dream, how it had been recurring, but this time you escaped, sort of. You saw more of what was around, and as far as you understood they had all been there too, but you only saw a few of them. You really thought you were crazy, until Eric admitted to having a similar dream. He had one long ago, but as of late, he’s dreamt of a place that sounded like what you had described. He wasn’t the only one, a few others sharing similar experiences. None had ever really spoken about this before, and the fact they were overlapping, even with you who had only been there for a little over a month. Everyone agreed that something was off.

“What are you doing in here?”

    You were all rather surprised to see Dr. Bryce, but he wasn’t happy. He grabbed you and dragged you out, saying you weren’t supposed to be in there with them. The boys quickly followed, Changmin grabbing your arm and pulling you away from the doctor.

“She can do whatever she wants!”

“Isn’t the point here for us to get along?” Kevin questioned. “Showering is a great bonding experience.”

“You are all having individual sessions to discuss whatever has been going on with you lately.”

“No.”

“You’ll be grounded.”

“You gonna ground all of us then?”

    As the doctor looked around he could see they’d all be standing against his words. Instead he posed the solution of a group session. They’d all sit down and talk together. The boys shared some glances and ultimately agreed. Once everyone was dressed, getting something quick for breakfast, you all went to the office. There was plenty of space for everyone. You sat down on the couch, Jacob and Haknyeon taking a seat on either side of you. For you it was a bit nerve wracking to be back in here, but you weren’t alone, and they all had your back. The doctor set down some tea, telling you all to help yourselves, as this was probably gonna go on for a while.

    No one grabbed any, but you did, hoping the tea could help calm your nerves. Sangyeon was the first to speak up, questioning Dr. Bryce on what he had been doing for you, and all of them for that matter. You weren’t really listening, not necessarily because you didn’t want to, but because it was difficult. The voices had quickly turned to shouting, but then it all became muffled noises. You glanced at your tea cup, seeing it blur and melt in your hand. You dropped it, causing it to shatter to pieces on the floor. Everyone suddenly got quiet, eyes on you. Somehow you glanced up, but all you saw were blurs. You probably would have collapsed to the floor if the two with you didn’t grab you and lay you back on the couch.

“Y/n seems to be tired.” Dr. Bryce stated. “Perhaps you should all get some rest.”

    You were already slipping away, vaguely aware of a commotion happening around you. Although a sweet aroma was tickling your nose. It brought a little smile to your face before your world faded to black.

🖤

    You took a soft breath as you regained consciousness. You found yourself in an all too familiar room, but this time you weren’t alone.

“I don’t quite understand how it is that you keep waking up.” Dr. Bryce explained. “None of the others ever have, but as of late it’s been recorded that they have had moments of consciousness. I had to add a second dosage for you, but it seems to have lost its effect as well.”

“Who… who are you?”

“A doctor.”

“No… a doctor helps people…”

“I am helping. My methods just may be a bit unorthodox.”

“Who the hell are you!?” You pulled on your restraints. “What are you doing to them!”

“All these boys have issues, and their lack of control has deemed them a danger to polite society. Tell me though, you’ve gotten to know them, do you see them as dangerous?”

“No! They’re good people! They may seem rough on the outside but they have a kind heart!”

“Precisely.”

“Wa… what?”

“You see, when I first came here to this town, I wanted to continue my research. I needed a place to start anew, and found a good plot of land to purchase. Of course setting everything up would take quite a while, but it would also give me time to gather my… volunteers.”

“None of them volunteered for this!”

“They did. Instead of being sent off to juvie, or prison, they chose to come to a group home to rehabilitate themselves.”

“But they didn’t sign up for this!”

“You’ve seen the results yourself my dear.”

“What I’ve seen is that you’re turning them into monsters!”

“No, no, no, you misunderstand. We take all the bad things that label them as troublemakers, and suppress that. By lowering the amount of negative energy they have, they become better people.”

“Then what the fuck is all this underground lab shit! You’re injecting them with some foreign substance and turning them into monsters!”

“It’s a complicated procedure. We can’t eliminate the bad, as it would take an integral part of their identity from them, but suppressing it can only last so long. It’s important that they release these negative energies in a safe environment.”

“This isn’t safe! You’re lying to them! You’re-”

“Although this doesn’t seem to work on you.” The doctor grabbed a needle from the table, and you could see the dark liquid inside. “Which is quite strange. In fact, the first time I administered it, you basically sweated it out of your system.”

“What… what is that?”

“Would you believe me if I told you it was demons blood?”

“How the fuck… why!”

“Well, by infusing the boys with demons blood, there is a physical manifestation of their negative energy. Then one can use runes and talismans to suppress the demonic power, thus making them good little boys.”

“You’re turning them into monsters against their will.”

“They are tamed.”

“Then what is all this! Why keep subjecting them to this every… you do this to them every night… this isn’t just some extreme rehabilitation method, is it… what the hell is your research!”

“Clever. I mean, the answer is quite obvious isn’t it. They would need to have a certain amount of demonic energy suppressed to be the ideal citizen, but the power they now possess. One can control demons after all.”

“You’re weaponizing them?”

“The other night you witnessed number 98 being shot down, and yet they were perfectly fine in the morning. Power like this, one could create an army.”

“You’re insane! These boys trusted you! I trusted you!”

“And you’ve been quite a nuisance. When I picked you up I was aware you didn’t fit my profile, but no one would really be looking for a runaway. It’d be perfect to branch out, and test other hypotheses, but you’ve been very uncooperative. I’ve run countless tests but I can’t find anything out of the ordinary with you. It’s strange, but perhaps I can still get some results.”

    As the doctor approached with the needle you tried to break your restraints, but they were much stronger than before. The needle went into your arm, and soon enough you were feeling a familiar burning sensation. You screamed and desperately yanked on your restraints. While you were caught up in the pain you didn’t realize the doctor gave you another dose. Not until the burning felt like it was melting your skin. You glanced down at your arm to see the black veins climbing up, appearing to release some vapor into the air.

“You really are trying to burn this out of your body… you’re definitely not human. I’ve given you a much higher dosage then I’ve ever given the others before, and you’re still conscious.”

    Another dose was added and you were practically seeing white. Although you managed to focus on the pain, breaking free of your restraints. The doctor quickly ran out of the room, and sounded the alarm, but you didn’t care for it. When guards entered and began firing at you it didn’t hurt much, the pain of the demons blood coursing through your veins hurt more. That certainly startled them, and you managed to make your way out of the room. You were in the same hall as before, and at least you had an idea as to where to go to find the others. Despite the pain you pushed on knowing there was no waking up this time around.

    You followed the same path as before, coming to another familiar room. Because the alarm was blaring it was empty, except for those who couldn’t flee. You came across Changmin, tied down and unconscious. Black veins decorated his arms. It pained you all the more to see it now, knowing what it was. Still, you could worry about that later. As you undid his restraints you tried to wake him, but he didn’t respond. It wasn’t until you made skin to skin contact that things changed. The black veins suddenly began to grow and Changmin came to life. His actions startled you and you collapsed to the floor. Low growls emanated from him, but he only watched you until guards entered the room.

    His attention was quickly on them and he attacked. You took a second to gather yourself and get up, looking around to see if any other boy was around. By now it seemed that something had woken them up. You could see they were aggressively pulling on their restraints, some able to break out, but not all of them. You helped those you could, immediately stepping away and letting them run rampant, knowing they’d be alright for the most part. Of course you didn’t find everyone there, going off to find those containment units from before as well. You ended up finding Kevin in one, this time more desperate to find some way to get him out.

    Although just like before you couldn’t seem to find some sort of door. You were getting desperate, seeing that Kevin wasn’t the only one locked up. You were ignoring the alarm and screaming that could be heard off into the distance. You really wish you could wake up this time, but you were no longer dreaming, and no longer at someone’s mercy. In your frustrations you punched the glass, of course nothing happened and you slowly sunk down to the ground. You felt completely helpless. From the start that’s how it’s been. You had no idea who you were, or where you came from. There was no sense of control in your life, and now you felt like you’d never get it back. Everything that was wrong had been building up, and you were bound to reach your tipping point.

    So you screamed. You screamed beyond what you thought was possible, and all the glass in the room shattered. You didn’t realize until you saw someone run past you, barely able to make anything out anymore. That scream had taken a lot out of you but you managed to stand, and then you heard it, a roar. You don’t really know what it was this time, but you collapsed to the floor. You landed on some glass, but you noticed something more. You could see your reflection in the glass, and it was far clearer than before. Just like the others you had black veins running along your arms and up your neck to your face. But unlike the others your eyes weren’t black, but solid white. It was the last thing you could notice before everything just disappeared.

🖤

    You felt a bit cold, hearing the wind rustling the leaves. Slowly you opened your eyes, sitting up and taking in the world around you. As you regained your senses you realized you were at the front steps of the house, and you weren’t alone. All the other boys were around, also regaining consciousness. Questions were soon being passed around but no one had solid answers, that is except for you. It wasn’t easy to articulate anything, but given the blood stains you all had on your clothes, and the fragment of memories, it wasn’t so hard to believe.

“We need to leave…”

    There was so much more to discuss and figure out, but Sangyeon stated that you all needed to leave. It wasn’t safe there, and it seemed it never was. No one argued, going back into the house, even if a sense of fear lingered. The idea was to quickly clean up and pack up some of the things you called your own. Even though the boys all seemed to be alright, you felt some lingering pain. At one point you rolled up your sleeves and saw the black veins. You were the only one that still had them. You wouldn’t have said anything if Younghoon didn’t catch you.

“Are you okay?”

“Fine… I’m fine…”

“Doesn’t it hurt?”

“A bit…”

“We need to fix this.”

“I don’t think you can.”

“There has to be something… Doc’s office.”

    Without saying anything else Younghoon dragged you over to the doctors office, kicking the door in. He went over to his desk, looking around for something. You just wanted to leave, but he soon found what he was looking for, the patient files. Your own curiosity got the best of you and you went over to the desk as well, grabbing one of the files. Seeing the doctor’s notes made your stomach turn. He was never looking out for any of you, just noting behavior on certain days in regards to the experiments, and what else needed to be done for the sake of stability. The other boys soon found you, looking over bits of their own files before everyone came to the same conclusion.

“We need to destroy this place…”

    It wasn’t that difficult to accomplish, given you all knew where anything and everything dangerous was. All the stoves were turned on, dangerous chemicals and gas spilled everywhere. You were going to set everything ablaze. Everyone had already taken notice of your arms, but didn’t say anything, now wasn’t the time for it. Sangyeon made sure everyone gathered at the front, and as he was about to strike a match you heard your name called.

“Y/n!”

    You turned back to see three individuals approaching the house. You didn’t know who they were, but given that they called your name, it seemed they knew you. This didn’t go over well with the boys, some quickly stepping in front of you to shield you from the strangers. You then noticed some had black fingertips and claws.

“Guys, please calm down.”

    You rushed to the front to talk some sense into them, not wanting anyone to get hurt. You thought maybe you could keep things peaceful, and then you heard laughter. That was familiar to you, and as you looked back you could see it was coming from the strangers who had just arrived. It sent chills down your spine.

“You had one simple job. How did you fuck it up?”

“Wa… what?”

“All you had to do was come to this town and do some recon to find out the source of this demonic energy and report back.” One stated. “I suppose you didn’t completely mess up if you did find the source, and we can deal with it swiftly.”

    You were still processing all those words when the three summoned swords from thin air. Without thinking you ran up to stand in front of the boys, holding your hands out to shield them.

“Don’t hurt them! They’re innocent!”

“What is wrong with you? Move!”

“They’re not monsters! They haven’t done anything wrong!”

“Their appearance begs to differ.”

“Huh?”

    You looked back, seeing that some boys had black veins crawling up their skin, a few with black eyes, and others already growling.

“Whatever was suppressing the demonic energy seems to be gone now. They’re a danger to every living being on the planet, which means they need to be dealt with immediately.”

“They don’t know what’s going! None of us do!”

“That doesn’t matter, now move.”

“No!”

“You-”

    The one speaking suddenly stopped, staring at you intently. You didn’t know why until you realized your sleeves had rolled up a bit, exposing the black veins on your arm. You immediately tried to hide them, only to realize they had grown up the back of your hand.

“You’ve been compromised… no wonder you’ve completely failed. You’ve always been weak, and even a small recon mission was too much for you.”

“I… I don’t know what’s going on… I don’t know what’s happening… please-”

“It doesn’t matter. You can’t return to Heaven. There’s no way to cleanse demonic power once it’s mixed with your essence.”

“What… what are you talking about?”

“Kill them. All of them.”

“Don’t touch them!”

    When the trio moved to strike you screamed, stepping forward only to collapse as a wave of energy exploded from your body. Everyone around you felt the hit, stumbling a bit. You on the other hand began feeling the burning sensation from before. While in that haze you noticed something white from the corner of your eye, slowly looking over to see you had wings. For a moment you were in awe, but then you saw how the feathers were falling out. You began freaking out, not aware how your actions only seemed to aggravate the boys further until they lunged at the group of strangers.

“Don’t!”

    You tried to call out and reach them, but you suddenly felt disoriented. The world was spinning and you fell to the ground. Everything was fading for you, and you desperately tried to stay focused. All the pain and confusion wound up overwhelming you, and you could only sink into the void, worrying about the boys and if you’d ever see them again.

🖤

    You weren’t cold this time around, and you felt very subtle movement. You soon realized you were moving, that someone was carrying you. Once you opened your eyes you could see that Sangyeon had you on his back, holding your legs while your arms lazily wrapped around him. You moved to hold him tighter, alerting him you were awake.

“Y/n, are you okay?”

“What happened…”

    You slowly looked around, seeing all the other boys, and that they were back to normal. You also didn’t have your wings anymore. Although you realized Haknyeon and Sunwoo were twirling around some white feathers.

“Are those… mine…”

“They’re really pretty.” Sunwoo commented.

    You rested your head against Sangyeon, taking a moment to think. You don’t know what happened back at the house, and you were too afraid to ask. At least everyone was okay, and you could live with that.

“I remember something…”

“What do you remember?” Sangyeon asked.

“Things are still a bit fuzzy, but I remember…” You took a breath. “I was sent to the town to find… this anomaly… but something happened to me and I lost my memories… I still ended up finding you though… so I guess I did what I was supposed to… but…”

    At that moment you saw bits of black peeking out from your sleeves. It didn’t sting anymore, but they seemed to be permanent.

“What happened to me… what happened to all of you…”

“We don’t know.”

“Where are we going?”

“Don’t know, but we gotta stick together.”

“And the house?”

“Gone.” Sangyeon stated. “The fire will spread over time, eventually getting noticed. We’ll be long gone by then.”

“So it’s just us now…”

“We’ll be okay.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I’m not, but as long as we stay together, we’ll be alright.”

“Hm…”

“Thanks by the way.”

“Me? For what?”

“Not entirely sure what happened back there, but thanks to you we’re free.”

“I don’t think that warrants any thanks. I don’t even know who… or what I am…”

“We’ll figure that out, together. So don’t worry about it, we’re all the same more or less.”

    You snuggled up a bit against Sangyeon. He probably could have put you down by now, but you had a feeling that he had no intention of doing so. Instead you were left to think. You had many questions, all of them did too, but answers weren’t going to come easy. In fact you may never get them, but maybe you could live with that. In the short time you could remember being alive, you seemed to have found a little family of your own. No matter where you went, no matter what happened next, you had each other, and that was all you could ask for.

#the boyz #sangyeon #jacob #younghoon #hyunjae #juyeon #kevin #new #q #haknyeon #sunwoo #eric #lee sangyeon #bae jacob #kim younghoon #lee jaehyun #lee juyeon #moon kevin #choi chanhee #ji changmin #ju haknyeon #kim sunwoo #son youngjae #the boyz au #tbz #tbz au #the boyz scenarios #the boyz imagines #the boyz yandere

[kiankiwi]

Don't Freak Out Okay?:

Summary: Jerry and Elvis play hide and seek while Elvis is little and Jerry is babysitting him and Elvis hides so well that he calls you in a panic thinking he lost Elvis!

*

Jerry was watching a little Elvis while you were at one of your meetings on one of Elvis's rare days off and they were playing hide and seek currently. Usually Elvis picked the worst spots or revealed himself because of his habit of giggling but for reason this time, Jerry had looked everywhere he could possibly think of, his regular hiding spots and new ones. He really hoped Elvis didn't leave Graceland but there's no telling at this point. Next step was to call you but he really didn't want to get in trouble with you. I mean how hard was it to keep track of a little? I mean, when the little is Elvis it's pretty freaking hard because Elvis big or little is pretty wild and carefree and does what he wants.

Jerry ends up in the kitchen pacing trying get up the nerve to call you and update you without worrying you to no end.

He has to put on a fake happy voice and pretend that he's not absolutely shitting bricks thinking he lost his boss who currently thinks at the age of a two to three year old.

"Hello?" You had expected it to be Elvis on the other end screaming that he absolutely misses you and you need to come ASAP but it's just Jerry. "Hey Y/N." Your smile drops when you don't hear Elvis's baby voice on the other end like you expected. "Oh hey Jer, what's up?" He has to play this cool, no need to worry you yet. "Um, just out of curiosity, how long does it normally take Elvis to come up out of headspace?" That is not what you expected at all.

"Uugh, usually an hour or so, why is he coming up?" You hated when E came up without you because you never wanted him to feel scared ever.

"No, no, uh, uh," Jerry couldn't think of a lie to cover up that he had lost your husband and he didn't even want to try to make up a bigger lie because he knew he could barely get anything past you.

"Jerry." You stated. "What is going on?" Jerry hissed air in through his teeth. "Okay, um, don't freak out okay. But I may have lost Elvis. And I was asking how long it took for him to come up just to make sure he'd never just up and leave y'know."

You don't quite believe your ears. You were on your way to the elevator to come home but you have to stop in the middle of the buildings hallway to process what the fuck he just said.

"Wai- hold on, you what? You lost him? He's six feet tall and not to mention how do you lose Elvis Presley?" Jerry closes his eyes, rolling his head on the ball of his neck, leaning his head back to face the ceiling.

"Okay, okay, okay. I get it, I just-" You put your finger up, interrupting him. You had an idea, you didn't need to panic just yet. "No, wait, did you two play hide and seek?" Jerry sighs, look at his shoes. "Yes! We did which is why I called you. I can't find him anywhere." You groaned, blindly searching your bag for your car keys, stepping into the elevator. You wanted to get home as soon as possible to your baby. "I looked everywhere, Y/N and usually he's a shitty hider." "Jerry, it's a mansion. You can't have looked everywhere. E knows he's not supposed to go outside when he's little unless he's with someone. He's probably still hiding. Where have you checked? And before you say everywhere again, where is everywhere?!"

Jerry exasperatedly slaps his leg looking around, still panicking. "I looked under the stairs, checked every room, the sauna, the stables, everywhere upstairs, the office, the pool room, the jungle room, the pink room, it's not like Elvis can stuff himself under a table or under a couch. I can't find him, Y/N. And I'm so sorry but I don't know what the hell to do." Jerry pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to calm himself a bit. You start running to your car in the parking garage. "Alright, alright, keep looking. I'm in the car."

You speed home and get home in record time. You run into the foyer to find Jerry sitting on the white couch with his head in his hands. "Y/N I'm so sorry." You sigh, starting to get worried and a little pissed. Where is your baby?! "Okay let's just look. He can't have gotten far." You start yelling throughout Graceland.

"Elvis, baby? Time to come out now okay?! You won, this was a really good hiding spot but this is the end of the game okay? Come out baby, please okay?" You tune your ears hoping to hear rustling with Jerry on your heels. You don't hear anything on the ground floor so you climb the main staircase, still yelling out for him. "Baby, can you come give mama a hug, please? Elvis!" You called out and tried not to sound too panicked.

"When I looked all around, it didn't look like he moved any furniture or anything to hide that way." You nod but stayed silent. You were looking in the bathroom even though it seems like a silly place to hide but you knew Elvis could have jokingly hid in the bathtub when you finally heard something. "El, baby? Where are you honey?" You call oiut again, frozen in your tracks, listening hard.

You hear sniffling and crying coming from your and Elvis's massive shared closet. Of course! You bust into the closet to find Elvis sitting in the middle of the floor with his knees up to his chest, rocking a bit and crying. "Mama, Jerry forgot about me?" You immediately drop in front of him and cup his face in your hands, pecking his forehead and moving his hair out of his face. "Oh no baby, this was just the best hiding spot, we couldn't find you. He even had to have mama's help to find you." You hug Elvis tightly, placing your cheek on top of his head as he cried into your chest. "You scared mama baby. I thought you ran off and got hurt."

Elvis sniffled, pulling away to look into your face. "No mama, we were just playing but then I was in here forever and ever and I thought.. I thought Jerry forgot about Elvie... I didn't mean to scare you, I'm sorry!" Elvis shrieked. He was just playing but he was so scared he was going to get in trouble, he hadn't meant to be a bad boy! He hadn't even put himself in a spot where could get hurt; Jerry just couldn't find him.

"It's alright baby, it's okay now, I got you. Mama always comes to get you, okay?" He nods, taking a deep breath. "Mama, can we go get cookies? And butch too please?" You nod, standing and helping Elvis to his feet. "Sure baby. Sounds yummy."

You're taking Elvis down the stairs when you see Jerry coming back into the mansion from the front door. "I looked everywhere outside... oh hey, buddy, where did you go bud? I was worried about you!" Elvis stops on the stairs and leans into you, putting his head on your shoulder, shy. "You forgot to check the closets, he was in our rooms closet." Jerry groans, pinching the bridge of his nose with one hand and putting the other hand on his hip.

"God, I'm so sorry Y/N. I feel so fucking stupid." Elvis's eyes widen, pointing at Jerry. "Bad word Jer." He nods, digging his hand in the pocket of his jeans. "You're right buddy, here, for my bad word." He handed Elvis a shiny quarter.

"It's okay Jer. This yittle boy is just not only the king of rock and roll, he's the king of hide and seek too huh?" You ask, smiling at Elvis and pinching his cheek. Elvis blushes at the compliment. Jerry laughs. "You got that right." Elvis tugs at your sleeve to get your attention. "Cookies and butch mama remember?" You nod. "That's right, we're having cookies Jerry, you want some?" He nods. "I'd love some, actually."

***

There we go! I actually love this one! And now I'm gonna work on my babysitting overnight fic with aus! <3 hope you like it!

@ellie-24 @mooodyblue @arianatheangel-girl

#littleelvispresley #littlespaceelvis #little!e #hideandseekgonewrong #elvisfanfic #elvispresleyfanfic #kiwiswriting

[wolfblood-of-anubis]

Is it just me or does anyone else feel like the layout of anubis hour doesn't really make sense? I don't know hwo to explain but please compare the outside to the inside and you'll see what I mean

no you’re right. the house seems so BIG on the outside, and meanwhile it’s only got four bedrooms upstairs (2 girls rooms, Trudy’s room, and Victor’s room/office) and two bedrooms downstairs. as well as a foyer/entrance hall with a coat room to the right, an a attic and a cellar. a living room thats also a dinning room, a kitchen, and the laundry room. its so strangely small on the inside. and i’ve collected a few pictures from around the house as well as the dollhouse.

also doing this made me question the geography of the tunnels and how they get to both the library and the school somewhat so enjoy my theories:

with Alfie’s map in S3 we have an idea of what the school looks like but there’s one building in red that’s never labeled and according to the tunnels, at some point you get to the library shortcut so the library shouldn’t be too far away. I’ve deduced this red building is the Frobisher Library.

now for the hard part to support my theory.

my initial idea was this: it puts Anubis House right where the cellar is and the Reflector Tunnel next to the Library. but then something accord to me.

When Nina is taken in the senet game, she can be heard from Sweet’s office and they can even send her food from there. So the Mask Chamber and thus the Senet Tunnel should be directly above the school building. so this map wouldn’t work.

and i tried to find a way for all three to fit together, for the cellar to land on Anubis House, for the Reflector Tunnel to land on or near the Library, and for the Senet Tunnel to land on the School. the only way to do it was to flip the tunnel map vertically. and then we got this:

now it finally does make sense. only, the fact that i had to flip it means that it may not be accurate. still, i hope you like reading my ramblings and theories

#this has nothing to do with the actual house im so sorry i went off topic #i hope you still find it fun #also guys think about the fact that alfie had to run through ALL of this whilst being chased by victor and rufus #what an icon #house of anubis #sibuna #hoa #asks #anon asks #alfie lewis

[kaunis-sielu]

Sick: 4

Helen banishes Steve into his room.

“We should check on the others.” You say, you need something else to focus on so you don’t panic spiral over Steve. “Nat lives with Clint and Pepper lives with Tony.”

“Go. You’ve been maskless in here and you’re not showing any symptoms. Shower and go.” Helen says and you nod. You don’t look at Steve, if you do you’ll break.

You move out of the med bay and into the showers where you take a quick shower, cry a little and then head out to check on the rest of your friends.

You knock on Nat’s door, when she doesn’t answer you let yourself in.

“Natalia?!”

“She’s not here Nox. They had a call for help an hour ago.” FRIDAY informs you.

“Who went?”

“Carol, Kamala, Natasha and Wanda.”

“Where is Pepper?”

“Stark office.”

“Tell her I’m on my way.”

“Of course.” You hurry to the elevator and make your way upstairs, it’s not long before you’re up on the level of Pepper’s office. She greets you at the door.

“Tony?” She asks, her face pale and anxious.

“He’s okay, his temperature is down but he’s still unconscious and not because of me. I came to check on you. How are you feeling?”

“Fine but Happy isn’t here, I was about to send Peter over to check on him.”

“Not a bad idea. Tell Peter to keep his mask on, it has filtration right?”

“It does.”

“Tell him it stays on.”

“I will.” She promises her phone in her hands, “you’ll keep me updated on Tony?”

“Of course. Let me know about Happy.”

“Why don’t you stay? It’ll only be a couple of minutes. They live in the same building now. With May gone Tony made sure that Peter had somewhere safe and Happy volunteered to keep an eye on him.”

“That’s so sweet.”

“I know, Happy will never admit it but he’s got a real soft spot for that kid.” Pepper says as she calls Peter, when he answers her worried gaze meets yours.

“Peter? Are you alright?” She says then pulls the phone away from her ear with wide eyes. She puts the phone on speaker and you’re greeted with hacking coughs.

“Ms. Pepper? I don’t,” he coughs a few more times, “I don’t feel so good.”

“Peter where are you?” You ask your worried gaze meets Pepper’s.

“Nox?”

“Yea Spider. Where are you?”

“Home.”

“I’m on my way.” You don’t wait. You sprint downstairs and to the garage.

“FIRDAY, get me directions to Peter.” You say tugging your helmet on. Tony had made the display screen like his, with the ability to show you the fastest route, warn you about any hazards and communicate with the team.”

“Directions uploaded.” She says as you tear out of the garage and up a ramp that leads to the road.

“Order me a car to follow me.” You don’t know how else to get Peter back to the tower but you’ll be able to get to him faster on your bike. “Also tell Helen where I’m going.”

“Okay Nox.” FRIDAY says as you tear through the streets. At one point you’re up on the sidewalk because of abandoned cars. What the fuck is going on? It literally looks like the apocalypse.

At one point a woman yells, “Avenger!” And you screech to a stop. You’re four blocks away from where Peter is but you can’t just ignore a civilian.

“How can I help?” You ask the woman not removing your helmet.

“What is going on! All these people are sick! The hospitals are overrun and we haven’t even heard from any of you!” She yells and you realize that she just wants someone to yell at.

“We’re doing our best to figure it out.”

“Where’s Ironman!”

“Working. He’s working.”

“So he’s not infected?” She asks and you suddenly get a bad feeling.

“FRIDAY,” you whisper.

“Running facial recognition.” She says as the woman snaps,

“What?“

“We should have more information Friday.” You lie, “I have to go.”

“No.” She reaches for your arm but you knock it away and gun it away from her.

“FRIDAY who was she?” You ask as you watch the woman stalk down the street and out of your review mirror.

“I don’t know.”

“What?”

“I’m still looking but what I’m coming up with doesn’t make sense.”

“Tell me.” You instruct as you pull up to Peter and Happy’s building.

“It was the face of a woman who is not where that woman was.”

“Explain.” You say as you punch in the code for Peter’s building, it had shown up on the screen of your helmet when you’d looked at the keypad.

“That face belongs to a woman named Everly Winston. But when I track Ms. Winston she’s exactly where she should be. At work.”

“What does she do for a living?”

“Paralegal.”

“No siblings? Like a twin?” You ask punching the button for the elevator. Happy lives on the 40th floor and Peter is on the 37th so you won’t be walking up the stairs.

“No, I am 100% certain that is the face of Everly Winston but that it was not Everly Winston.” She informs you as the elevator slides open and you get in punching the button for Peter’s floor.

“What the hell?”

“Indeed.” FRIDAY agrees as you take the elevator up. You hurry to Peter’s door and pound on it. You hear him coughing and pull out your lock picking kit, something you’ve always carried due to constantly locking yourself out of your apartment. After a couple seconds you’re into his apartment and Peter is on the floor coughing, his whole body shaking with the effort.

“Nox? Get out. You’ll,” he has to stop talking to cough, “you’ll get sick.”

“No I won’t. Go to sleep Pete.” You tell him softly cupping his face and he doesn’t fight it just sinks into sleep. You heft him onto your back and head back out of the apartment.

“FRIDAY, tell Helen and Pepper I have Peter and will be checking on Happy as soon as I get Peter into the car.”

“I’m sending some bots to help with Happy.” He is quite a bit bigger than you so this is a good idea.

“Do it.” You agree as the doors slide open to the elevator. To your horror there’s an older woman already on the elevator. You get on, Peter over your shoulders and she doesn’t even bat an eye.

You get him downstairs as the car is rolling up, you open the passenger side and shove him in before buckling him and shutting the door.

“FRIDAY where are my bots?”

“Incoming. You have a message from Steve.”

“Don’t-“

“Hey Doll, I’m fine. I’m feeling fine.” His rich voice fills your helmet before you can stop it, “I just wanted to check on you. FRIDAY updated me on your weird encounter. I think the woman was wearing one of those masks that Nat used when we took down Pierce. There’s a glitch in the video just before you push her hand away, by her chin, that means she might be Hydra and might have changed her face. Be careful. I love you.” You let out a soft breath that you hadn’t realized you were holding.

“FRIDAY, keep your head on a swivel.” You tell her,

“On it.” You know she’s scanning your area for any danger now. You move back into the apartment building and after locking Peter’s door you head for Happy. He’s in bed, barely conscious so with a gentle touch you put him to sleep too. The bots take him out gently and you lock the door behind you. He goes into the back seat of the SUV and you lead it through the streets on your bike.

“FRIDAY, connect me with the lab.” You say, as you get closer to the tower.

“You’re connected.”

“I have Peter and Happy. We’re on our way back.”

“Good. What’s it like out there?”

“Apocalyptic. Cars are abandoned, hardly anyone is out, it’s weird.”

“So others are sick?”

“It seems so. At least according to that shady woman.”

“Shit.” Helen says and you hum in agreement. Shit is absolutely right.

“We should be there in less than five minutes. I have the SUV following me, but it looks like it’s just plowing through any vehicles in the way.” You tell her watching the SUV crash another car out of the way in one of your rear view mirrors. “Oh, yea that’s what it’s doing.” Helen laughs and you know it’s not that funny but it’s nice to hear a little bit of joy.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t laugh but that was so funny.” She says and a smile pulls at your lips. “How long until you’re here?”

“We’re three blocks out.”

“We’ll be ready for you.” You don’t know where you’re even going to put these two. Maybe you can move some of the more stable guys into a quarantine room? But that’s the problem, are any of them actually stable?

Tag list:

@foxyjwls007 @andahugaroundtheneck @also-fangirlinsweden @pagina16ps @princesssterek @valsworldofcreativity @dumblani @inkedaztec @loving-life-my-way @animegirlgeeky @shinycupcakebaker @eralen @sophham @gh0stgurl @killcomet @wonderlandfandomkingdom @abschaffer2 @capsiclesdoll @patzammit @sass-masterkittenmama @jaqui-has-a-conspiracy-theory

#steve rogers x reader #steve rogers imagine #imagine avengers #avengers imagine #captain america x reader #imagine captain america #sick story #helen cho #natasha romanoff #Clint barton #Peter Parker #happy hogan #pepper Potts #Tony stark

[spinchip]

NEVER THE DARK chapter 1

Read on AO3

Prologue

Warnings: Grief, relationship issues, alcohol use/allusion to alcoholism

ODD HOW YOU ENTERED MY HOUSE QUIETLY//QUIETLY LEFT AGAIN

“Y’know,” Kai says over the comms, “That actually went pretty well.”

“Hey, maybe we’re on the upswing!” Jay comments as he weaves past Cole’s bike to park his vehicle in his hanger bay.

Lloyd pops the cockpit of his mech open with a hiss, tossing his helmet- mandatory now, after Jay's accident about a year back- over his shoulder to rest in the seat, “You say that like we’re always losing.”

Pixal crosses her arms from where she’s resting on the control panel for their underground bunker, “Your success rate is below fifty percent.” She points out, but her tone is warm and playful even if it's brutally honest. She hip-checks herself off the console to stand, “But even I would have been shocked if you’d lost to Fugi-dove.”

“He’s like a morale booster.” Nya comments, hooking her leg around the kickstand of her bike to set it up properly.

“Hey Pix, to what do we owe the pleasure?” Cole asks, redoing his bun to sweep a few stray hairs out of his face.

Pixal nods her head towards the door, “Let's talk upstairs. New mission, straight from the commissioners office.” She doesn’t hesitate towards the door, silver hair glinting in the overhead light as she punches the elevator door button. She didn’t come down here often, only if she needed to intercept them after a mission before anyone took off to the city without checking in upstairs. Despite being the most technologically advanced being in Ninjago, she preferred to catch them all in person rather than send a text now a days. Only when it came to her friends, though. As their go-between for the city, she communicated almost entirely through chains of ridiculously long emails, texts, or conference calls with any government officials.

They pile into the elevator without further complaint, “Another mission so soon? It’s a bit against our contract.” Nya points out.

“The museum's compromised, possible magic item emergency, which negates our two missions a week standard. We’re trying to get ahead of the curve on this one.” She tells them as they reach the main floor.

Walking briskly through the living room she cuts sideways into the library, where Wu is standing with a cup of tea and looking over piles of papers spread out across the tabletop. Police reports are stacked on top of blueprints and layouts of intricate looking buildings, and as the ninja approach they realize they’re looking at the guts of some of Ninjago's biggest museums. Notes are scrawled in the corner in the commissioners' tell-tale chicken scratch, red lines drawn over busted out windows or picked locks. Shuffling a few papers, Pixal waits for them all to gather around the table before she begins to debrief them.

“Over the past two weeks, four different museums have been robbed- the Metalonia Museum of Natural History and Jamanakai Serpentine History Conservation Center being the most well known of the bunch. Nothing was taken from any of the previous hits, which leads the commissioner to believe the culprits are searching for something specific.” Pixal brushes away a stack of disappointing witness reports to reveal a pen-marked map of Ninjago that connects the museums in a spiral pattern closing in on Ninjago City, “They’re skipping over small museums and only really hitting the well known ones, and if we chart their movements, Ninjago Museum of History is next on their hit list- and if the timeline tracks, they’ll be hitting it tonight. The city has asked us to dispatch to the museum for the next few days to monitor their inventory since they have several magical artifacts of mass destruction, both on display and packed away.”

“Any idea what they’re after?” Nya asks, studying the areas of the museums the thief had been most interested in.

Pixal shakes her head, “Their area of search is too broad to narrow it down- either they’re ingeniously trying to throw us off, or they're not even sure what they’re looking for either.” She grabs a manila folder and flips it open to reveal several glossy photos, each from a security camera zoomed in and green with night vision. Each one depicts an incredibly small portion of a person- a leg here, and arm there, one lucky one caught the back of her head and slender shoulders, “We don’t think she’s working alone, but this woman is the only one who actually goes inside. She always knows where the security cameras are but considering how she’s on her own, whatever they’re after has to be light enough for one person to walk out with. That’s all we can deduce at this point.”

“She has enough Intel to avoid all the cameras, but not where her target's location is?” Kai hums.

“Anyone with enough money and decent hacking skills can get their hands on security feeds,” Jay points out, “But museums like these don’t always have the complete inventory list digitized.”

Pixal nods, “Ninjago Museum of History's entire exhibit list is all on paper. Unless you were inside the building itself, you wouldn’t know what they had.”

“Right, and if they’re looking for something strong and violent, then it’s in our best interest to stop them before they can get their hands on it.” Lloyd nods, “Here’s the plan-”

“Lloyd,” Pixal interrupts smoothly, “Before you go on, you can't count on Samurai X for this one. Father asked me to guard the Borg tower vaults just in case the thief heads there first- considering the things that place is harboring, It's not out of the question for them to think about it. Between patrols I can run air controls from Borg tower, but I promised I'd stay there.”

Lloyd nods, “Of course, you’re right, that’s not a problem Pixal.” He turns to the rest of the team, “We’ll do teams of 3 to guard the museum overnight and alternate halfway through so no team is too tired.”

Cole frowns, “Pix has to stay at Borg tower, though. She can’t keep watch at the museum.”

“I know,” Lloyd looks at him, a bit puzzled, “It’ll be Nya, Jay, and Kai on team A and then you, me, and-” He stops, “A team of three and a team of two, right. We’ll be team B.”

Politely, they all ignore the slip up. Internally, they all cringe. Despite the years, Zane's absence is a wound that hasn’t healed, still tender. The team hasn’t felt right without him, but they loved each other too much to break again- and despite the hole cut into their hearts, they keep going. Jay looks away from the table, standing up and pacing over to a shelf of books and crossing his arms across his chest. Probably still the most sensitive to mentions of Zane, Jay withdraws after the misstep. Pixal's face goes unreadable and blank, but she maintains her professionalism and clasps her hands in front of her primly.

Wu breaks the silence, “I’ll go with Pixal and run the comms when she has to patrol,” He offers, setting his cup down. He digs out a piece of paper, something neat and typed from Ninjago Museum of History's current curator- a man who was only supposed to be a transitory curator after Krux while the City searched for a new employee but was ultimately stuck with the job, “We’ll have full access to the security cameras while you’re there, I’ll be able to warn you of any suspicious activity.”

Jay narrows his eyes a bit, “The museum curator…”

“He’s been cleared of suspicion already,” Pix cuts in, sweeping her hand through the short hair at the base of her neck, “The Commissioner already ruled him and the rest of the staff out.”

“That sounds good, Uncle Wu. Thanks.” Sighing, Lloyd motions to the map of the museums, “Got any of this digital, Pix?”

She nods, “Already forwarded to your Borg Data Pads.”

“That’s why you're my favorite,” He says fondly, ignoring Kai's indignant hey!, “Alright everyone, look over the map and familiarize yourself with the layout. Kai, Nya, Jay- head to the museum before nightfall. Cole and I will come relieve you around midnight, but the rest of the day is yours. All good?”

“All good.” They confirm, and slowly the team disperses.

Lloyd stays in the library, pulling up one of the padded chairs to comb over the information piece by piece. Pixal and Wu join him, and Nya comes back with a tray of water, tea, and reheated leftovers half an hour later. She serves the food and sits down, taking a stack of ancient looking books and starting research on what she knew was in the museum, looking for possible targets.

“How did the mission with Fugi-dove go?” Wu asks, breaking the silence.

Lloyd blows his bangs out of his face, welcoming the break from reading and sitting back. He adjusts the hair clip keeping his fringe tamed, “He and his wing-men were robbing an electronics store, but it was as poorly planned as it always is. I still don’t understand how he managed to get his own underlings…” He hums, “If he had never teamed up with the mechanic two years back, he’d probably still be solo. I guess the cyborg thing makes people more compelled to believe you know what youre talking about.”

Nya pulls a face and can't help adding on, “He’s a nasty piece of work, that’s for sure. The mechanic botched that job up big time.”

Pixal pats her hand placatingly without looking up from her work, “He’ll take you up one day on your offer. It won’t last forever, and you can fix it then.”

“You handled it with no casualties? Property damage?” Wu asks, unphased by the turn of the conversation. It happened every time they ran into him.

Lloyd rubs the back of his neck, ”Well…”

“Lloyd.”

“We did the best we could,” He shrugs, “There was a gap in our coverage and one of his wing-men slipped through, knocked over a set of tv displays and smashed out the window. Kai gave chase and caught him about two blocks down. No one was hurt.”

Wu nods, “In the future-” He starts.

“I believe we handled the situation well, and I’m proud of the team's efforts.” Lloyd says smoothly, interrupting him in a way that almost made it seem like he wasn’t interrupting him at all.

A moment passes, “Good work, Master Lloyd.” Wu says instead of his previous attempt at guidance, nodding into his tea.

Across the monastery, Jay was in the middle of his countless playthroughs of Prime Empire. The game was so dense and ever changing that you could play through it hundreds of times over and never do the same thing twice- It was an impressive feat, and Jay and the team had gone through hell to be able to play it. Unigami- the AI constructing the game- lights up the bottom corner of the screen with a smiley face emoticon as a greeting before moving on through the graphics seamlessly.

“Hi, Unigami.” Jay says under his breath, always pleased when the kid stopped in to say hello.

“Playin Prime?” Cole asks, rounding the edge of the couch and sitting down with him.

“Yeah, Dyer texted me yesterday to tell me a major update just dropped. I’m checking it out.” Jay opens his inventory to show off the new skin he’d picked out, an elvis-themed jumpsuit with a guitar strapped to his back. “Apparently Unigami got really into classic rock over the weekend. He’s added a bunch of new outfits and music, and a whole story path based on rock and roll.”

“Quirky kid.” Cole remarks, kicking his feet up and crossing his arms over his chest to watch Jay play.

“Didn't we all fixate on some hyper specific niche interest when we were a kid?” Jay maneuvers his character over rooftops, dodging the Red Visors, “I was obsessed with airplanes.”

“I collected records,” Cole concedes, reaching over to the side table and grabbing his Borg Data Pad. He deliberates for a moment before pulling up his art app, unclipping his stylus to doodle. They lapse into comfortable silence.

Kai comes into the room a short while later, stipped down to his tank top and ninja pants and face flushed with exertion. He’s sweaty but it doesn't phase him as he sinks into the loveseat, “What are you two up to?” He asks, mussing up his mo-hawk lazily.

“Relaxing before the mission tonight,” Cole responds, he and Jay holding up their controller and pen respectively to show Kai their hobbies, “You out training?”

“Yup.” He responds, popping the ‘p.’ He leans forward and hooks the lip of his beer on the edge of the table, striking down on the bottle and sending the cap flying. He catches it mid air, smirking at the other two as he takes a sip, puffing up in pride at his reflexes.

Cole frowns at the bottle, but doesn’t say anything. Kai was in a good mood, no reason to start a fight now. They had a mission tonight anyway, “So what do you two think about all this?”

Kai swirls the bottle, “The museum break ins?” He clarifies.

Jay snorts and doesn’t look away from the screen, “It’s cliche. Can’t these people at least be original? Stealing a magic item from the museum, wow! Never seen that done before.”

Cole opened the data files on their mission while Jay snarked, frowning at the info. “I dunno, Nya’s been cataloging all the artifacts they’ve got there and a few of them are nothing to sneeze at- The Soul Archers bow, the scroll of forbidden spinjitzu just to name a few. These could mean serious trouble if they fall into the wrong hands.”

"We'll be there to stop them," Kai points out, "The whole reason they've called us in for this is because they know we can handle it."

Pausing the game, Jay lets the control drop heavily into his lap, "Can we? We struggled fighting Fugi-dove today. Fugi-dove." He stresses.

"We'll do fine." Kai says firmly, knocking back the rest of his beer and wiping at his mouth.

It's the beginning of an argument, Cole knows, but he risks broaching the subject anyway. "He's got a point," He says carefully, "We haven't been on our A game recently."

"We haven't been on our 'A game' in three years." Jay says, the mood in the room tanking. Cole winces and Kais expression turns stormy. "Ever since Zane died, we've been losing more and more."

"I don't want to hear this argument again," Kai growls, "We can't just give up now that he's not here."

"We can't give up? So you packing all your things and moving out of our room was what? A commitment to the relationship?"

"That's not fair!" Kai snaps, "we- us- it's different without him here. It's not right."

"None of this is right!"

Kai exhales hard, "Protect those who cannot protect themselves." He recites, "That's what he believed. I'm not giving up on that."

"No matter how much you cling to his ideals, it won't bring him back." Jay retorts.

"But it means a part of him never died." Kai insists, shaking his head, "None of this should have happened. The least we can do as the people who loved him most is live by his ideals and preserve his mission."

He should have expected this conversation. Lloyds slip up earlier had picked at the scab of Zane's death, and Kai and Jay couldn’t leave well enough alone. The conversation had been too fast paced for Cole to interject until now. He pushes down his roiling emotions to speak softly, "Kai's right, Jay. We can't just abandon our duties because he passed. I know it hurts-"

"You always side with him." Jay cuts him off sourly, getting to his feet, "I'm going to bed." He announces, storming out of the room.

"Jay!" Cole calls, but the man doesn't break stride. He doesn’t go after him- he should. He should. He stays on the couch.

Rubbing a hand over his face, Cole sighs deeply. Kai stares hard at the rim of his beer bottle in his hand, "He doesn't get it." He says finally.

Cole looks at him for a long moment, "He's struggling." He says, "And he's right too. The team is unbalanced, Kai, i'm-"

"So, what? You think we should just go hunt down the next Elemental Master of Ice and ask him to join the team?" Kai rises to his feet, "We already tried to fill his spot with Skylor and we all saw how well that went. No one can replace him. I lost him, Cole. I can't lose anyone else."

"No one is trying to replace him," Cole reaches out to take his palm, "And I'm not going anywhere, Kai. Neither are the others." He reassures him, squeezing his hand.

Kai pulls his fingers out of Cole's grip with a flash of misery, "I... I'm gonna go get something to eat." He says, and follows Jay out of the room.

Just like that, he’s all alone.

He sinks down into the cushions as much as he can and draws a little longer to distract himself from the garbage fire of that fight. It wasn’t the first time they’d argued, Cole’s sure it won't be the last. A swell of loneliness makes his throat feel tight- Zane used to be there to help everyone cool off after any argument. Now he’s gone and the others… Cole’s not sure what they are now. They never officially broke up, but things aren’t the same. 

He’s staring blankly at his tablet screen when a cool hand brushes the hair off his forehead. He glances up to see Pixal looking down at him, “Interesting drawing.” she comments, “I like it.” She adds suddenly, as if afraid her initial comment might have sounded wrong.

He glances at the page. He’d been drawing out Fritz Donnegan from memory, but once he’d realized he didn't remember what he looked like he had changed into drawing Fritz Donnegans secret undercover persona, who was wearing a fake mustache and groucho marx glasses to look different enough that no one would know who he truly was- he should pitch the idea to the Star Farer comic. He grins, “Some of my best work.” He jokes.

Pixels lips quirk but she doesn’t respond, saying instead, “Wu and I are heading back to Borg tower. You’ll be alright here with just you and Lloyd?”

Cole nods, “I’m just going to sleep, but I’ll keep my ringer on just in case. Be safe.” he says sincerely and she nods, fixing the loose strands framing his face again before heading out the door.

She always made a point to say goodbye now, just in case she didn’t get a chance to later.

His chest tightens, and he puts the Borg Pad away, heading to the kitchen and ignoring the grief prickling his spine. It was later than he thought it was, he hadn’t meant to get so caught up drawing. He eats a late dinner on his own and heads to his room before making a detour to knock on Nya’s door.

A brief sound of shuffling before the door opens, “Oh, hey. I thought you were Kai coming to get me,” She laughs, her hair askew as if she’d gotten dressed in a rush.

“Nah, just came to say bye. Tell the other two not to get into any trouble for me, will you?”

She snorts, “Like they’ll listen to that- but yeah, I will.” She combs her fingers through her hair, “We’ll try not to have too much fun without you.”

He hesitates, “They got into an argument earlier, Kai and Jay. You’ll probably have to mediate a little.” Her mouth thins into an unhappy line so Cole adds, “Sorry, you know I can barely get a word in edgewise. It’s the same old fight.”

“It’s not your fault,” She sighs, “I just wish they would both… I don’t know. I don’t know. Thanks for the heads up.” She opens the door wider, “I’m gonna go keep them from killing each other, and I guess catch a thief while I'm at it.”

He shakes his hair out of his face, backing up so she can step out of her room and close the door behind her, “Don’t do anything stupid.”

“Never.” She says instantly, and that’s goodbye. She throws a peace sign up over her shoulder and she walks down the hall, disappearing around the corner.

Cole showers and falls asleep uneventfully.

He wakes up thirty minutes before his alarm is set to go off by Lloyd's hand on his shoulder, “No one is hurt,” He prefaces in the honey yellow glow of Coles night light, “But the museum was broken into.”

He’s abruptly awake, snapping to attention and sitting up. He’s dressed in his gi just in case, sleeping on top of his blankets on the off chance he’d need to leave in a hurry. “What happened?” He doesn’t quite demand, scrubbing a hand across his face as he lifts himself to his feet.

Lloyd motions for Cole to follow him out of his room and into the elevator to the garage. There’s no real urgency to their trip so Lloyd doesn’t try to hurry him along as they both climb into his green racer, “Jay called. They split up to patrol the museum more thoroughly and Kai caught sight of the thief around an hour to midnight. He radioed the others and gave chase, but she slipped out a window.”

Cole hums in acknowledgement, re-tying his bun to tuck away the stray hairs again as they arrive at the museum. Nya is outside waiting for them, leaning against the front doors and scanning the parking lot periodically. She waves and Cole waves back before hopping out of Lloyd's vehicle. Once they get close enough, she pushes herself off the doors and turns to unlock them, “Pixal's math was right, the thief came exactly when they thought she would.”

The door swings open and Lloyd locks it behind them, “She’s punctual, how polite.”

Nya laughs a little under her breath as they wind along the halls, coming up on Jay and Kai standing around a pile of broken glass. Kai is glaring at the busted window while Jay talks into his Borg brand earpiece, “Cole and Lloyd just got here,” He informs the bluetooth. He's crouched over the glass, carefully sifting through the shards looking for clues, picking up pieces to examine, “Call if anything notable was caught on the cameras? Thanks Pix, you’re the best!”

“I thought you said she slipped out of the window- this looks like she busted through it.” Cole comments, nudging a particularly large chunk of glass with his foot. 

Kai stands with his hands on his hips and grunts unhappily.

“Someones cranky he got one-upped by a rookie.” Jay teases, earlier animosity gone.

“I am not cra- she was fast!” Kai defends, his crossed arms hunching “I lost sight of her for like, two seconds and she was gone!”

“So we’re dealing with someone with no experience, huh?” Lloyd asks.

“Jay thinks so.” Nya offers.

“It just feels too sloppy!” He defends, standing and brushing his hands off on his pants, “I mean, these break-ins seem just… pointless and uncoordinated. And there’s no style!”

“I actually agree,” turning away from the window, Kai frowns and scratches at his chin, “She seemed totally freaked out to see anyone and panicked when I approached her, kinda like she had been reading from a book and wasn’t prepared when things went off-script.”

Nya’s hip pack plays a short up-beat chiptune and she pulls out her Borg brand communicator, tapping the screen as the others crowd around for the phone call. Pixal’s face appears, “Glad to see you all looking well.” She greets, “I have good news and bad news.”

“Good news first,” Nya prompts.

Eyes glancing across the screen as she types, Pixal’s face disappears to reveal a grainy picture of a woman. She’s got a round face and short hair, her eyes wide and lips a pursed line as she appears to be mid-run. She’s wearing all black with something strapped across her chest, a possible weapon in her hand too blurry to see clearly on the shitty museum cameras. They needed a better security system.

“This is our thief. We managed to get a good picture of her face while she was running from Kai, and it’s clear enough to run through the police database for facial recognition.” The picture vanishes and Pixal reappears, “The bad news is there were no matches. Whoever this woman is, she has no criminal record.”

“That would line up with our theory that she’s a rookie.” Lloyd nods, “She didn’t get a good look around the place, I don’t think she’s going to give up so easily. We’ll patrol for the week just to be on the safer side.”

Pixal nods, “That sounds agreeable. Inform me when you arrive tomorrow night and Wu and I will resume our look out here.”

“We will. Cole and I will finish off tonight, talk to you later.”

A chorus of Bye Pixals later and Nya hangs up. She blows out a breath, “Sorry to wake you two up early.”

Lloyd waves her off, “I would have been more upset if you’d waited.”

“I wouldn’t have been,” Cole laments, “My bed was so warm…”

Jay sighs dreamily, “Oh man I can’t wait for bed. Can we wrap things up here?”

Lloyd rolls his eyes but there's no real bite to it, “If there’s nothing more to report, you’re free to go, Sleeping beauty.”

“Beauty is a bit generous.” Nya teases.

“Jealousy is a bad look on you,” Jay serves it right back, pretending to throw his hair over his shoulder like a catty movie mean girl. He holds his fist out for Cole and Lloyd to each bump, “Have fun, call if you need us.”

They wave goodbye, and proceed to have the most boring night of their life. The museum goes undisturbed until morning when the staff files in and the doors officially open, and by that point Lloyd and Cole have already gone home. As Cole crawls into bed, he reallys hopes they won’t have to keep watch all week.

He’ll curse himself for that later. Be careful what you wish for.

#ninjago #ninjago never the dark #kai ninjago #jay walker #nya ninjago #cole ninjago #lloyd garmadon #pixal borg #wu ninjago #ninjago au #spinchip fic #alcoholism #just the tip of the iceberg

[shirohige-pirates]

Birds of a Feather

CisFem Reader x Marco

CW: Violence, blood, language, adult themes and scenes.

Summary: Life has not been kind to you. After a string of bad relationships, you're a little jaded and a little depressed in all honestly. The worst day of your life seems to be the turning point, but the roller coaster ride that follows could either throw you soaring free, or have you caged forever?

Chapter 4: Azul

You walked out of the front doors of the office building and saw Zoro standing nearby with a coffee and a small bag. You smiled and gave him a little wave as he walked over. The sun was long since set, and you had another couple hours of work ahead of you at least.

“Here you go.” He says in his usual curt tone, handing over the coffee and the bag. You take both, tilting your head a little. “Muffin.” He explains.

“Ah. Thank you, and give my thanks to Sanji too.”

Zoro smiles a little in response. “You want me to stick around and give you a lift home?”

“Hm? No, no I’m good.”

“I saw Bonclay leave just as I was getting here. Is Buggy driving you home?”

You shake your head. “We chased Buggy off over an hour ago.” You admit, opening the bag and feeling yourself warm up at the idea of a fresh baked muffin. “I’m going to sleep in the office.”

“What?”

“Oh, I’ll be fine.” You say dismissively. “And safe.” You nod toward the lobby. “Night security knows I’m in for the night, and I’m going to lock myself in Bon-bon’s office. It’s not the first time I’ve slept in the office, Marimo, it won’t be the last.”

Zoro clicks his tongue, seems to ponder something for a moment and then puts his hands up in defeat. “Call if something goes wrong.”

“Aww, how sweet.” You only coo a little, smiling brightly. “I will, thanks.”

Parting ways with Zoro you went back into the building, giving the security guard behind the desk a wave as you headed back upstairs. You took a drink of the coffee as you rode the elevator up to your floor, walking through the empty cubes easily. Working late fairly often meant you were comfortable with the emptiness of the office like this.

It was easier, honestly, to get work done with most of the staff gone.

Your job was fairly straightforward to explain, but the actual doing could be tedious. Ivankov’s business was the business of charity. Money came out, it was maximized – your job – and then it went out. Maximizing money meant researching deals all around the world, and dealing with vendors from all over. Once you set things up, Bonclay would take over and do the actual negotiating and logistics.

You kept the numbers straight, and did the research to make sure things were used as efficiently as possible. A few times that had you skirting the letter of the law, but being good at that part was precisely why the job was yours in the first place.

You and Ivan had spent many nights stretching money and resources through lanes that weren’t strictly legal. They weren’t completely illegal either, at least not that would hold up in a court of law. Since neither of you were pirates, you had the right to proper court proceedings and as much work as you did to maximize resources, you did as much to cover your ass legally.

Because of your role you knew all the company’s secrets, and knowing those secrets was also why you were happy to work long nights like this. Ivankov’s Empire fed and housed and helped millions of people every year. The organization filled a lot of cracks the World Government didn’t seem keen on filling.

You were ninety percent certain he had ties to the Revolutionary army, but that was need to know, and you did not need to know. Didn’t want to know, for what it was worth. Changing the world wasn’t on your radar. You wanted to help people, live your life, and if your luck ever decided to cut you a break you’d love to find someone to live that life with.

Someone you could tell your dangerous secret to.

Working until nearly midnight, you caved to your heavy eyelids and went to sleep in Bon-bon’s office. Old enough to not be thrilled about it, but young enough to survive it, you almost slept better in his office than you did in your own home. Emptiness in your house felt cold, but an empty office felt peaceful.

Your sleep was a little fitful, dreams sneaking into your mind as you tried to rest. Not enough to wake you, but enough to make you shift a little. When your phone alarm went off at six you felt rested well enough, washed your face and brushed your teeth before tidying yourself up as much as you could. It made you miss your shower a little bit, but you’d hold together well enough to make it to lunch, and make it over to the vet hospital.

You smiled a little, looking at yourself in the mirror, wondering if Dr. Marco would comment on your clothes or not, having seen you the day before at the coffee shop. He seemed like the kind of guy who would allow you to save face in front of others, but tease you relentlessly behind closed doors.

Then again, maybe not. You’d had a few rough days, and he was painfully aware of that fact.

As much as you wanted to keep the dinner date for the evening as platonic as possible, you had to admit you needed to clean up before hand. If you were going to be at the hospital just after lunch that left plenty of time to get home and back. The doctor would understand.

“Ah, (Y/N)-girl.” Ivankov greeted you, setting a bag on your desk and cup beside it. Ivan was in girl mode today, and so you smiled up at her.

“How’s my favorite boss doing today?” You question, opening up the offered breakfast and already looking forward to the hot coffee.

She gives you a wide smile. “I am good. I hear you have a date tonight?”

“Buggy or Bon-bon?” You question, pulling a bagel breakfast sandwich out and taking a bite.

“You, just now.” Ivan answers, laughing. “Bon-chan only told me you would be leaving early.”

“I walked into that then, but for the price of a hot breakfast, I can accept it.” You admit, taking another bite and a gulp of coffee. “I got the South Blue packet done. Paradise is all that’s left for what you gave me, but if I don’t finish it tonight it’ll be ready before Bon-bon needs it.”

“I would say you work too hard, but the hard work is appreciated.” She gives you a wink. “Be sure to have fun tonight. At the very least,” she adds a little hastily. “Don’t let that pride get in your way.”

You snort. “You and Sanji both. You make it sound like I’ve let the world slip through my fingers or something.”

Ivan rolls her eyes. “Your pride is one of your best qualities, (Y/N). But it is also a thing that holds you back. You’ve said so yourself, on some occasions.”

You hum a little noncommittally and take a big bite as Ivankov pats your shoulder before leaving you to your breakfast. The office filled up slowly as you finished your breakfast and continued with your work. Bonclay and Buggy both came in with spare coffees for you, and you let Buggy keep the extra one he brought. Your usually flashy coworker had bags under his eyes and looked like he was on the verge of falling to pieces.

Literally, for poor Buggy, given the devil fruit a friend had caused him to accidentally eat in his younger days. You often wondered if he was stressed so much before or after he ate the fruit. Though, paramecia type fruits weren’t known for altering their user’s personality like Zoan types were.

For better or worse, Buggy was likely always like that.

You check in with him and Bon-Bon before you head out. After you let them know the progress on the Paradise file, you pulled your coat on and stepped outside. It wasn’t a long walk to the Animal Hospital from the office, and despite the crispness in the air, it was nice outside. If there was a little less wind, it would be perfect weather for walking home in, but there was just enough chill in the air that your nose and ears would be frozen by the time you got home.

Something tickled at the back of your neck as you walked, and you resisted the urge to look behind you. Instead you used the reflections in store front windows, and windshields when you could. You couldn’t see anyone walking behind you, at least not close enough to be a concern, and shrugged the sensation off. Sometimes your pride turned into paranoia, ruffling your senses unnecessarily.

Stepping into the Animal Hospital, you saw Dr. Marco talking to the receptionist. He looked over at the door as you came in and gave you a bright smile.

“Come to see the grateful patient, yoi?” He asks, straightening up.

“Yes, and you said something about paperwork?” You reply, looking over at the receptionist and giving her a little wave.

The receptionist reached down out of your sight and came up with a manilla folder. “Everything’s in here.” She states cheefully, handing it off to Marco.

“Perfect,” Marco said praisingly, causing something to nip at the back of your mind. He looked through the folder quickly before closing it and stepping out from behind the reception desk. “This way, and we’ll get you down to recovery so you can see her.”

You catch up with him before he begins to lead you. “How bad was it?”

“Considering how bad it could’ve been, it wasn’t too bad, yoi.” He says assuringly. “A few stitches for the cut that earned you that little bite, and a simple splint and cast for a femur fracture on her hind leg. Some bruising, but there were no compound fractures, organ damage or internal bleeding.”

You flinch, but sigh in relief. “That’s good news.” Your voice comes out in a bit of a growl and Marco’s eyebrows raise a little.

“Violence probably isn’t the answer,” you admit with a sigh. “But if I see those kids again I’ve half a mind to throttle the lot of them.”

“Well, just don’t beat them into broken bones and I’ll defend you in court.” He replies evenly and you’re not sure how honest he’s being, or if he’s just trying to tease you a little.

Coming into the room you see the pit bull perk up at the sight of you. The two guys who helped you ease her onto the gurney a couple of days ago turn to see you.

“Oh, it’s the puker.” The red head says. He has a wide smile on his face and it’s obvious he means it teasingly, but the other guy smacks his arm.

“Shachi! Miss (Y/N) did a great job bringing Azul in, don’t call her the puker.”

Shachi smacks the other guy back. “You didn’t have to clean up the entrance, Peng.” He grumbles back.

You almost snort. “Sorry about that. Is that her name now, Azul?” You question.

The two exchange glances. “Whoever claims her can rename her, but that’s the name that’s stuck so far.” Shachi offers with a sheepish look.

“Oh, I’m not going to claim her.” You admit, coming over and kneeling down, giving her some scritches. She seems truly happy to see you, but maybe not up for getting up. Her tail is thumping against the floor with impressive force. “Sadly, I’m not much of a dog person.”

There’s a moment of silence, and then you hear a new voice speak up. “Then why risk so much to help her?”

You look up to see a tall man with scrubs and a lab coat nearly glaring down at you. He had several piercings and an impressive number of visible tattoos for a guy who was mostly covered by clothes. Despite the tone of his question, he almost looked angry.

Azul managed to lick your cheek while you were trying to think of a response, and you made a surprised noise. “Ah, cheeky little git, aren’t you?” You muse, giving her more focused attention. “I suppose I did it because I wanted to.” You admit finally, not looking up at the stern doctor.

You pet Azul for a little longer before standing up. “I was planning on paying her expenses too, if that’s okay?”

“For a dog you’re not going to claim?” Law questions, and there’s an edge in his voice.

“Law.” Marco says and the younger doctor just frowns harder.

“It’s alright.” You say putting your hands out. “I just know I’d be a bad owner is all. This way I can help in the best way I have available.”

There’s a grunt from the younger doctor, but he doesn’t say anything else before he leaves the room.

“Well, he’s downright loquacious.” You mutter and here Shachi and his friend snort as they try not to laugh.

“I apologize for my colleague.” Marco starts, but you just shake your head.

“S’all good. It’s an odd situation all around.” You admit cheerfully.

Marco smiles a little and holds up the folder. “We can use a spare exam room and get this paperwork sorted out.”

“Sure, sure. Ah, it was nice meeting you.” You offer, turning toward the other two and giving them a smile and a wave.

Shachi and Penguin return your wave and smiles as you and Marco leave the back of the hospital.

Marco walks you through the paperwork, having you sign where it was needed, and explaining the finer points. You beat him to the punch a couple of times, and he raises a brow.

“You read fast, yoi.”

You chuckle. “My job is untangling legalese in order to maximize the donations we get.” You explain briefly, eyes still flicking over the form. “This paperwork isn’t nearly dense enough to slow me down.” You assure him, looking up with a smile.

“You’re certain about covering the cost?” He asks, and you nod.

“That’ll make it easier on whoever claims her, right? And it’ll help your hospital too, you won’t risk eating the costs.”

“That’s not wrong,” he admits as you organize the pages and square them up before putting them back into the folder. He accepts the packet as you hold it out to him. “I imagine we’re stopping at your place before we go out for dinner.”

“I – er – I was planning on walking.” You clear your throat. “It’s not bad out, and I am very early. It’s hardly after lunch.” You had to give him credit, it was the smoothest way he could’ve pointed out that you were in the same clothes. How he was effectively inviting himself over was so natural it was like you’d been friends for years, not just two people who blundered into one another a couple days ago.

He glances down at you. “I’m surprised you’re passing up a chance to ride in my car, yoi.”

“… I was resisting the urge to ask,” you admit, nearly grumbling the words as you can feel the heat rising up into your face. “But if you’re magnanimous enough to offer…” You let the thought hang a little, looking up at him as his smile went from easy to mischievous.

“Let’s get this filed, and settle that account, and I’ll take you home.”

#Birds of a Feather #Marco x reader #x reader #reader insert #marco the phoenix #marco the pinepple #modern au

[separatist-apologist]

Firstly, I’m sorry you keep having to clarify the very simple fact that it’s bad etiquette to ask creators that are writing incredible content FOR FREE to post stuff constantly. Secondly, which ACOTAR guy do you think would be the best vibes at IKEA, and which would be the worst? Asking the important questions, nothing but hard hitting journalism here.

Worst to best person to bring to Ikea- as always no one is allowed to get mad/put in the tags I'm wrong. I have never once been wrong because my opinion is objective fact unlike the REST OF YOU.

10. Beron Vanserra- Won't stop in ANY displays. Doesn't even want to BROWSE. Skips the meatballs for the downstairs shopping area. No basket. Won't let you get a fake plant or even TEALIGHTS. Came for one specific thing and thats the ONLY thing. Screams at you if assembly is required.

9. Azriel- Feels like Ikea would stress him out. Always crowded, he does not strike me as a crowd-loving person. Begs not to go, but has to because his strength is require to lift all six boxes for the new bookcase. Does this without complaint. Does not want to eat meatballs, wants to go home.

8. Tamlin- Also hates crowds. Has a truck, so is always being asked to come. Is really good at building things by himself, though, so its worth bringing him. Silently assembles furniture pieces and while does not indulge in the cafeteria, agrees to a frozen bag of meatballs.

7. Eris Vanserra- Just. Not a good attitude at 10am. Way too dressed up for an IKEA. Why is he in dress pants? WHY DID HE BRING A TWO DOOR? WHY IS HE IN DRESS SHOES ERIS OH MY GOD WHAT DID YOU THINK WE WERE DOING TODAY? Have to make a second trip to collect bookcase, but he does pay for lunch.

6. Jurian- Why do all these men hate being around other people? Jurian is like a nervous cat you have to pspspspsp into the parking lot. Does not understand why everything is so spread out. Buys one of the generic pieces of artwork because it's a portrait of his city (SAME JURIAN). Stunned to learn he actually spent $400 when he came in for one $30 chair. Oops.

5. Helion- L O U D L Y judging display books while being told it's not an endorsement. Can somehow speak swedish now???? Telling you what all these words mean with a roll of his eyes. Does NOT order meatballs but the chicken (WHY HELION), and does not like any of the home office displays. Knocks on the bookcases with a "I thought so-these are HARDLY sturdy" okay we get it. Your collection is massive.

4. Rhysand- can't take this man anywhere. Just thinks there are BETTER places for furniture where your home wont look like everyone elses. Does not understand the point is that its affordable. Does like laying on the beds, though, and playing pretend in the 500sq ft displays. Surprised the meatballs are good but SWEARS he knows a better place (UNLIKELY RHYS)

3. Tarquin- Likes crowds, TOO enthusiastic. Stopping in EVERY display to look at prices, to admire the lights, to sit on every couch. Exhausted before you ever reach the kitchen section.

2. Lucien Vanserra- Man with a plan. Energized by all the people, strikes up several flirty conversations in the bedroom section. Purposefully did not eat, walks slow through the upstairs so when its time for meatballs, he has ROOM for all 12. Agrees fake plants are a good idea to make home look cozy without all the effort, though also purchases a real tree based on "look at how fucking cool this is".

Cassian- Ultimate Ikea shopping partner. Man is STRONG. Has a big ass truck. and most importantly, Cassian likes to have FUN slash EAT. This is a DATE. "Would you live here?" "why/why not?" trying out the couches and judging the ugly sinks. Eats his weight in meatballs. Carries all four boxes for the bookshelf on his shoulder, everyone is staring. Builds it cheerfully, helps arrange said books.

#actoar ranking #i dont know why i added beron vanserra but not kallias or thesan #but im not taking him off because i like it being even

[cerriddwenluna]

Congratz @special-bc-ur-part-of-it!

I really tried to write you a drabble, but this fic just demanded more, and more, and more, up to the point where I even asked the fabulous and talented @datshitrandom to create some fanart because we ALL deserve Klaine Puppy Piles, damn it!

I hope you like it, Iz! ♡♡♡

You can read it under the cut, or on Ao3 and S&C.

“Hi, can I help you?”

Kurt looked up from the brochures that were neatly displayed in a stand next to the front desk. “Oh, yes. I’m here for Puppy Paradise?” 

The man behind the desk beamed. “Oh, that’s great! Are you looking to adopt?”

“Unfortunately not. I’d like to, someday. I just don’t have the space for a pet just yet. College life, you know?”

“Yeah, I do know. That’s why I started volunteering here. There’s never a shortage of adorable animals to play with. My name’s Blaine, by the way. Blaine Anderson.”

Kurt shook the hand that Blaine held out to him. “Kurt Hummel. Nice to meet you, Blaine.”

“You, too. If you’ll just fill this out for me, then I’ll take you to the playroom and you can meet your new best friends.”

Kurt took the form he was handed and quickly filled it in, eager to get started. He and Rachel had discussed getting a pet, but she was allergic to cats, and neither of them was home often enough to properly take care of a dog. They tried fish, but after the first five betta fish went belly up, they gave up on that idea as well. Luckily, the local animal shelter regularly had special days where you could come and play with the animals. 

Kurt had seen the flyer hanging up on the notice board in the lobby of their building as he came home from class, and, seeing that they had one scheduled that day, he had rushed upstairs to throw on some old clothes that he did not mind getting dirty and made his way to the shelter. 

As Blaine waved Kurt ahead of him, he was glad for the foresight. He thought he’d seen Blaine give him a once over in the front office, and he put an extra sway in his hips, glad he chose a particularly flattering pair of yoga pants that did wonders for his ass. 

The first thing Kurt noticed as he walked through the door was the noise. The room was filled with all kinds of puppies running around and yapping excitedly, and Kurt crouched down to give head scratches to the bravest of them, a tiny little chocolate labrador who had come running up to him and Blaine and tried to jump up their legs. 

“Hi there, little guy. Who’s a good boy? Yes, you are!” he cooed to the puppy, doing his best to dodge the overenthusiastic licks hello the puppy tried to give him. 

“His name’s Charlie,” Blaine said as he crouched down next to Kurt and scratched the dog behind his floppy brown ears. 

“How did he end up here?” 

“We always get a few pregnant females a year, but this year we had three at the same time. It was the usual story, people get a dog, fail to get them spayed, and then end up not wanting the responsibility of taking care of them when they get pregnant. So they bring them to us. It’s not great, but we’d rather take in a hundred pregnant dogs than for them to end up dumped in some dark alley, or worse.”

“God, that’s awful.”

“It is, but we do what we can,” Blaine said with a shrug. “C’mon, we’ve got a couple of beanbags in the corner that’ll be a lot more comfortable than crouching all the time.”

*

Thirty minutes later, Kurt was extra glad he had changed out of his normal clothes. After he and Blaine had sat down on the beanbags, the other puppies came running and tried to climb all over them. Bit by bit, Kurt had slid down until he was sitting on the floor with his legs stretched out in front of him and his back resting against the beanbag. Blaine was lying next to him, spread out on the floor, and they both had dogs climbing all over them, licking their faces and begging for scratches. 

“So, how long have you been doing this?” Kurt asked Blaine, gently freeing one of the puppies from inside the hooded sweatshirt he had taken off a bit earlier. 

Blaine slowly turned his head to look at Kurt, doing his best not to dislodge the puppy that had decided Blaine’s unruly curls were the perfect place to lie down. “About a year now, I suppose. I started out as a volunteer dog walker, taking the more active ones for runs on the weekends. One of the receptionists recently went on maternity leave, so I applied to be her temporary replacement.

“These play dates were actually her idea, so I’m glad I can help keep them going until she returns. Even if nobody ends up adopting one of them, at least they’re getting plenty of attention.”

“That’s really admirable, Blaine.”

Blaine quickly ducked his head, but not fast enough for Kurt to miss seeing his blush. 

“What about you? What keeps you too busy for one of these adorable balls of fluff?”

“I’m double majoring in Fashion Design and Management at Parsons, and I work at Vogue.com. Just don’t judge me by this very basic outfit,” Kurt laughed as he gestured down.

“I think you look great, Kurt.”

Kurt could feel the blush heating his cheeks. “Thanks.”

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, one of the puppies chose that moment to try and play tug of war with Blaine’s shoelaces, and the moment was broken. 

Blaine grabbed a squeaky ball and successfully distracted the dogs by throwing it across the room, making them run after it frantically. 

After playing with them for a while and wearing them out, Blaine and Kurt ended up lying starfished on the floor, covered in tired puppies. Charlie, the chocolate Lab had curled up on Kurt’s chest, and he had two of his friends lying on his arm and legs, respectively. Blaine had laid down with his head next to Kurt’s hip, and the puppy on Kurt’s leg decided to take advantage of that by lying down with his body on Kurt’s leg and his head atop Blaine’s. 

“I didn’t know how much I needed this until I got here,” Kurt admits quietly, feeling as if speaking too loudly would break the spell that had fallen over the room. 

“I get that. I was the same, to be honest. I was stressing so much, trying to keep up with my classes and making rent, that I was burning out before I even hit twenty. But these animals, they don’t care about what you’re dealing with. They only want one of two things from you, attention or food. Give them a bit of both, and they will be your friend forever.

“Since I started working here, I’ve been feeling so much more relaxed. Whenever I have a bad day, I only need to cuddle a puppy or kitten, or go for a run with some of the older dogs, and nothing will seem quite as bad after.”

Kurt reached down to gently pet the puppy lying on his leg. “I’m glad you have that. I think I might have to make this a regular thing as well.”

“We would be happy to have you, Kurt.”

Kurt ran his hand down the dog's curly head. “Thanks, that means a lot.”

“Um, Kurt?”

“Yeah?” he said absently. 

“That’s not the dog…”

Kurt’s head flew up, and he was shocked to see his hand buried in Blaine’s curls, instead of the dog’s curly fur like he had thought. “I - what? Oh, shit. I’m so sorry, Blaine. I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Hey, it’s okay. Don’t worry about it.” Blaine reached up as best as he could without dislodging the dogs napping on him and gently patted Kurt’s arm. “Really, I only said something because I didn’t want you to be unaware. It felt kinda nice, actually. It’s been a while since I had a cute boy play with my hair…” 

“Oh…I - you think I’m cute?”

“I think you’re gorgeous, Kurt. And if you’re not opposed, I would love to take you out on a date sometime.”

Kurt blushed fiercely, but made no effort to hide it this time. He looked Blaine right in the eye as he told him, “I’d love to.”

*♡*♡*♡* The End *♡*♡*♡*

Thanks to @quizasvivamos for the beta! ♡

Title: Puppy Paradise

Author: Cerriddwen

Artist: @datshitrandom

Rating: T

Summary: Kurt has never felt better. The Puppy Paradise play dates at his local animal shelter do wonders for his stress levels, and the eye candy certainly doesn’t hurt either…

Word Count: 1375

Chapters: 1

Status: Complete

Part of a Series: No

Life Stage: Young Adult/College

Other Ships: N/A

Warnings: Some minor and very much not graphic references to people who don't take good care of their animals.

Genre(s): Fluff, Romance

Trope(s): Alternate Universe: Different First Meeting, PUPPIES!

#PUPPIES! #my fic ♡ #Puppy Paradise #art by datshitrandom #gwen writes #glee #klaine #klaine fanfiction

[crackheadintheclouds]

•SOMEONE ADDED YOU TO MURDER PLAN•

#UNKNOWN1:

We should lure her in the alley. 

And then boom

Stab her. 

#UNKNOWN2: 

No what if someone spots us in a camera or something?

And if she screams everything is over 

#UNKNOWN3:

Yeah

It's probably not a good idea

#UNKNOWN4:

Okay then how about we kill her in her sleep?

 

#UNKNOWN3:

Idk if that will work

#UNKNOWN2:

But for that we need to get her address you dumbass

And getting into her room at night is probably not going to be easy

#UNKNOWN4:

Ohh i totally forgot about that

Okay how about we push her from the terrance..... 

#UNKNOWN2: 

Arlan! Ffs that's not going to work either!

Someone will spot us going upstairs! 

Plus the door is always locked! We will need permission to take keys from the office 

And everyone will already suspect us by then you Dumbass! 

#UNKNOWN3:

And remember if she survives the fall we all will be dead 

 [UNKNOWN4 saved to contact as ARLAN]

#​​​​UNKNOWN2:

GG Zaid 

[UNKNOWN3 saved as ​​​​to contact as ZAID]

ZAID:

:D

#UNKNOWN1:

Hah! You suck at this!

No wonder you failed the science test Arr! 

#UNKNOWN5: 

Wait hold the fk up

Arrr you said you aced the test and promised to tutor me! 

ARLAN: 

Skype you scumbag! You promised to keep it a secret mann! 

[UNKNOWN1 saved to contact as SKYPE]

SKYPE:

I'm sorry but i couldn't control it ... 🤭

ARLAN:

STFU I'm pissed

Sry Angus but i really needed that money 

[UNKNOWN5 saved as to contact as ANGUS]

ANGUS:

Dude I was literally going to fail again! 

Agahhahajaj

Thanks to Sky ! 

SKYPE:

Your welcome <33

#UNKNOWN2:

And you guys say you love murder movies

none of you MFs can suggest a good idea in the past two hours! 

YOU:

Not to mention but even your suggestions sucked

#UNKNOWN2:

Finally someone who speaks English! 

Right on time Drex , I have to admit I was on my last brain cell dealing with these guys🤦‍♂️

YOU:

me?|

m|

No problemo my man

I'm here for your salvation

#UNKNOWN2:

Tf? 

What the hell is wrong with you 

YOU:

everything I guess?|

everything I|

Wdym

Nothing is wrong with me buddy 🤨

SKYPE:

Drex used a fucking emoji! Drex used a fucking emoji! 

ANGUS:

:00000

*Le gasp*

SKYPE:

Time for fucking evolution! 🎉🎊

ARLAN:

Dammnnn Drex is changing, I can finally rest in peace :') 

ANGUS:

I'm proud of you man 🤠

YOU:

Thanks ma 👬 buddies

#UNKNOWN2:

STFU you three 

Drex Wtf is wrong with you? 

Are you feeling alright

YOU:

Nothings wrong with me 🙄

 you better check your eyesight👀

ANGUS: 

You shut the fk up Jin 😃

We're having a moment. 

[UNKNOWN2 saved to contact as JIN​​​​​​]

[Jin is typing......]

ZAID:

Um guys.... 

ARLAN:

Don't disturb Zaid. 

Let us speak

SKYPE:

I can't believe we finally did it. 

We changed that cold asshole

ANGUS:

Man I'm tearing up

ARLAN:

All our efforts

SKYPE:

did not go in sane

ANGUS:

It's vain not insane Skype

SKYPE:

Stfu I know what I'm talking about

ARLAN:

Jin's been typing tooo long 

I suggest you brace yourself Drex

ANGUS: 

might as well be ready to die 💀 coz he seems pissed

YOU:

.............. 

JIN:

Nothing's wrong with you? Bitch, you know, everything's wrong with you. I already have my eyesight checked before I said that, you dumbass. You're fucking lucky I never complained when I saw that shity demonic face of yours. Makes me wanna jump off a building and die. You should try get a fucking life, it's free. Why don't you come up with something creative to say you sack of pearly packaged horse shit- Or are you too scared? I wouldn't be surprised that such a shithead like yourself is really just a pussy cat. 

YOU:

O_O

ARLAN:

I-I-

ANGUS:

😶😶

ZAID:

Guys we have a problem... 

SKYPE :

Not now Zaid,  we fucking witnessed a murder... 

ANGUS:

Let's have a two minutes silence for Drex's funeral⚰️

ARLAN:

RIP 

He lived a good life 

[You are sending a file......... ]

YOU:

[file]

Here have a snicker Jin

You're not yourself when you're hungry

And also no need for a freaking funeral I'm still alive and kicking Jin

JIN:

Wha-what the holy fuck? 

ARLAN:

*spits water*

SKYPE:

*spits coffee*

ANGUS:

*spilts coca cola*

ZAID:

Lmao-

That was a good one

ANGUS:

bruh  but SERIOUSLY what happened to him? Is he drunk or something? 

ARLAN:

PROBABLY HIGH

SKYPE:

WHATEVER THAT WAS IT WAS FUCKING COOOL! I CCAN LITERALYL SNESE THE GREAT SASSY LORD JIN STUTTERING FROM THE SCREEN!

YOU:

TYTY 🤠🤩

JIN: 

Stfu I'm just baffled by your stupidity Drex 

These 3 brats really spoiled you to the brim

YOU:

Oh please I'm glad they did 😌💅

JIN:

*signs*

And what were you saying again Zaid? 

ZAID:

Oh yeah I was saying.... 

We made a mistake guys, that person isn't Drex, it's someone else because he's been cursing in my pm like there's no tomorrow. 

[Angus is typing...... ]

[Jin is typing......... ]

[Arlan is typing..... ]

TO READ FURTHER :

#male yandere #yandere x reader #yandere x you #yandere x y/n #crime #yandere reverse harem #text fic #chat fic #humor #comedy #hilarious #wrong number #thriller #my writing #light novel #interactive fiction #romancenovel #writers #reader insert #quotev #tsundere boy #sussy #yandere #mysterious #cozy mystery #goofy boys #group chat #anime memes #anime #original story

[phoenixmaiden-gaming]

The Wolf Among Us part 1

I started this new game after having it on my game list for a while; it was finally time. I knew nothing about it except that it had references to fairytales, so I was going in blind. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting. It was a story based on your choices so you had to choose wisely and quickly. Depending on my responses to different people, the future may be changed. This is the first time I played a game like this.

I played as an investigator Bigby Wolf, basically the big bad wolf from the fairytale, watching over the rest of the fairytale characters after being forced to leave the Fairytale world. Why? I have no idea yet. But they have to hide who they really are from the normal people and Bigby is there to enforce it and now has to investigate a murder of one of their kind.

Episode 1: Chapter 1 - Disturbance

I started Chapter 1 and it explained that the series adapted to the choices I made. The beginning said the story takes place in New York City in a community called Fabletown, a place where Fables live after being exiled from their Homeland hundreds of years ago. They use Glamours, a magic spell, to hide themselves from the mundane world to keep themselves safe. And Sheriff Bigby Wolf protects them from each other.

Bigby is the one who I play as and he went into an apartment building and was met by a frog. Bigby told him he had to go get a glamour or risk having to go to The Farm, but the Frog said that the witches that do it cost too much, the quality wasn't good, and failed too fast. I was given the choice of how to respond, either in a mean way and take him away for failing to comply or give him another chance. I decided to give him another chance. He then told me that their was a fight going on upstairs which was why had had called Bigby over, so I headed up.

I went upstairs and found a man yelling and beating up a woman. When Bigby tried to stop it, the man started attacking and I had to fight him off. It got really violent until I hit him in the head with the back of an axe and knocked him out.

TI didn't recognize the woman that was there and she didn't give me her name, and this was apparently her apartment, and the man that was there was the Woodsman from the Fables. He told her to leave but she said she just needed the money he owed her. I asked her why he was attacking her and she said that he came here and started asking if she knew who he was and when she didn't he started hitting her. As we were talking, the Woodsman started to wake up and started to recite the story of Red Riding Hood and how he killed the wolf and he attacked Bigby again and we fought and ended up falling out the window and onto Frog's car. Oops.

We continued to fight and the Woodsman tried to get Bigsby to change into the Wolf and it almost worked, but he managed to use the axe and impale his head. Ouch. Yet he was still alive and the woman and Bigsby didn't look worried and he said that he was a Fable so he will be fine.

Now that there was a down moment, I could now question the woman. She still didn't give me her name but I did learn that she was a prostitute and that it was possible that we had known each other before since as Fables, they might have met at some point.

The woman said she had to go and didn't want to make any big deal out of it, especially since the Woodsman had disappeared. He wasn't dead then. Since the woman didn't get her money from him, one of the options was to give her money and I chose that option and Bigby gave her what he had.

Bigby insisted she take the money, so he did, but did ask her if she would stop by his office so he could ask her more questions. She was hesitant but agreed to just come by his apartment. She knew where it was. She then said that he wasn't as bad as everyone said he was and left. And that was it for Chapter 1 of Episode 1. Not much has happened just yet, but I have a bad feeling there is something up with the Huntsman.

Episode 1: Chapter 2 - The Woodlands

The new chapter started and Bigby was at the Woodland Luxury Apartments where he lived. As he walked up to the entryway, he spotted someone in the trees and it was Beauty. She was sneaking out and wouldn't say what she was doing out here so late.

She then asked me not to tell Beast that he saw her, and I picked the option that it was none of his business and was going to stay out of it.

I headed inside the apartment and ran into Beast, in human form, and he asked if I had seen his wife. It gave me some options and I chose to say I didn't see her, keeping my promise to Beauty and he left and I headed to the elevator.

I made it up to Bigby’s Apartment and he was really tired only there was a new problem. There was a pig in his chair. Bigy knew who he was though, it was one of the three pigs from the story whose name was Colin. He had escaped from The Farm since it wasn't all sunchine and daisies like they advertise and basically blackmailed Bigby for ruining his house so he could stay. He even got Bigby to give him a cigarette.

He even tried to guilt Bigby into giving him his water since it would make him seem more friendly as everyone was scared of him. Bigby had eaten a lot of people back in the day and then Colin asked about who he had beaten up since he saw his hands. I chose to say he was doing his job and sometimes he had to get physical. His job wasn't easy and he had to keep the Fables from killing each other.

Colin continued to nag at him, but Bigby said that he had to be big and bad to keep everyone in line. But he wasn’t always mean, there was one person he wasn’t mean to tonight, but he didn’t get her name. Colin just said that people needed friends as it got lonely since Fables live a long time and he’s seen the way Bigby looks at Snow. Bigby said to give it a rest, he hadn’t slept in two days and wanted to get some rest. Colin just asked for his water and I reluctantly agreed as long as he stayed quiet for him to get some rest, which Colin agreed.

Bigby was able to get a few moments of quiet before there was knocking at the door. It was Snow White, just Snow here, and she wanted him to follow her. Something had spooked her and she didn’t want to talk about it here since the walls were thin. So they took the elevator down to the entrance and Snow pointed out something on the steps covered in the security guards jacket.

Under the jacket was the head of a woman, and not any woman, the one from earlier in the day. Bigby said he knew her and that she was a working girl and relayed that the Woodsman had attacked her earlier and threatened to kill them both.

Snow said she had found the woman’s head and didn’t touch it. She wasn’t sure if one of them, a Fable had done this but Bigby wasn’t sure, there hadn’t been a murder in Fabletown in a long time. Snow didn’t want to cause a panic, so she wanted to keep it quiet for now, then asked Bigby to take a look around for any clues before people start coming through here.

I took a look at the head and found a ring tied to a piece of cloth that had some sort of symbol on it. Next, I looked at the head and noticed it was a clean cut with something very sharp or something with magic…the Woodsman had an axe. Moving on, it looked like the girl's head had been placed here on purpose for them to find, specifically Bigby. She was going to come and see him.

I then took a look around and found some drops of blood on the sidewalk. Further down to the right, I found a piece of fabric that looked like jeans. Then at the end of the alley, I took a look at the fence and there was blood on it as well and it looks like someone jumped the fence and cut themselves which is where the trail of blood came from.

Snow asked if he knew who did it, but he wasn’t sure. She then said they had to tell the acting mayor, Crane since King Cole was gone. I was given the choice of waiting or go ahead and just chose to get it over with. Snow was glad for the support and commented that he won’t be happy about it but it had to be done. She just hoped that he was rational about it. Bigby just didn’t want him interfering with his job. We also had to find out who this girl was and who did it.

I've liked the game so far, it's different. I've never played a game where my choices dictate what happens to the story. And there was also a murder that I had to solve. I hope none of my choices were wrong for future events. We'll see how this plays out.

Until next time. Happy Gaming!

#phoenix be gaming #gaming #gameplay #video games #games #gamer #gamer girl #gamer fun #game #entertainment #gamer life #playthrough #The Wolf Among Us #PC games #Steam Games #nothing is queue everything is permitted

[sourwolf-sterek32]

Broken Trust

Summary: Y/N Walsh meets Daryl Dixon while working as an undercover Police Officer. But, when Daryl finds out the truth about you, you’re forced to move back to King County.

While on duty, a bullet puts you and Rick Grimes in hospital and when you wake up, the whole world has changed.

Pairing: Daryl Dixon x Fem!Reader

Word Count: 3.1k

Warnings: Language, violence

Previous chapter

Chapter 26-

That night, you slept on the couch, Michonne on the other couch while Andrea slept on the bed. Nobody spoke all night and you could have sworn Michonne hated you, until she approached you during the party.

Everyone was gathered outside, enjoying the nice weather and drinking cold drinks that the Governor had put in the freezer for the special occasion. Although, you had no idea what the special occasion was, but the people seemed to be having a good time with barbeques cooking and soft music playing.

"Hey, can I talk to you?" Michonne's voice suddenly asked.

You glanced over your shoulder to find her walking towards you, "of course, what's up?"

She nodded over shoulder indicating for you to follow her. The two of you walked down the street away from the mass gathering of people and once you were out of earshot Michonne stopped walking and turned towards you.

"You're a cop?" She asked, although it sounded more like a statement than a question. you just nodded, unsure of where this conversation was going to go. "Cops are smart. whats your gut telling you about this place?" 

"Honestly, my gut is telling me that it's too good to be true. There has to be a catch to all of this and that Governor guy... I don't know, there's just something off about him. You think that too, don't you?"

Michonne nodded before something caught her attention in the building behind you and you frowned when you realised it was the Governor walking past the window upstairs. It was hard to see through the curtains, but there was definitely someone with him inside, someone small. Who the hell was in there with him? Everyone else was at the party.

"You can see the kid in there too right?" You asked quietly as you stared at the two figures through the window.

"Yeah... do you think that he's..." Michonne trailed off, but you knew what she was trying to say.

That the Governor was keeping some kid locked up in his bedroom. You knew something was off about the guy, but you didn't think it would be something like this.

"Maybe. We wait for him to join the party, then we go up there and see what's going on." You suggested and Michonne immediately nodded in agreement. "Until then, blend in. Try and act happy like the others."

-

It took nearly an hour before the Governor was distracted with the party and began to make a speech at how far they had come and how grateful he was for the community. Which was when you and Michonne slipped away.

Silently the two of you snuck into the house and it didn't take long before you reached his bedroom as you pulled your handgun from your holster and walked inside. Your police training kicked in as you swept the room, doing a full internal patrol before you nodded to Michonne that the place was clear.

You holstered your gun and began to look around the room, trying to find any sign of a child being inside before something caught Michonne's attention. She walked over to some glass cabinet and pulled out a white katana. You watched as she instantly slung it over her shoulder like second nature and you knew that it was her weapon. It suited her.

"Hey." Michonne whispered, snapping your attention away from the katana on her back as she pointed towards a photo frame on the coffee table.

You walked over to her and glanced down at the photo and you sighed with relief. It was a family portrait of the Governor and his wife and daughter.

He had a daughter.

He wasn't some pedophile who kept kids locked up in his room, like many people you had arrested back in the day. He had his own daughter, that's who you and Michonne had seen earlier.

"Well, now I actually feel bad for assuming the worst. The dude has a kid. Shit, maybe this place isn't as bad as what we thought?" You asked out loud, but before Michonne had a chance to say anything the sound of something banging filled the air. "What the hell is that?" 

Your hand immediately reached for your gun as you looked in the direction it came from, spotting a wooden door which you assumed lead towards a bathroom, but now you weren't too sure.

You walked over to the door, pulling your gun back out and holding it by your side before you reached for the doorhandle, but it wouldn't budge. Who the hell locks their bathroom?

You were about to try kick the door open before you heard voices outside that were getting closer. Your head quickly snapped back towards Michonne who stared at you with wide eyes before nodding over her shoulder and the two of you ran into the kitchen.

She managed to get behind a wall to the left, but you couldn't reach it before the door to the room opened. You quickly dropped down behind the island bench in the kitchen as you sat there with you back to the bench and your hand gripping tightly around your gun.

"Trust me, I love a party. But, we are using a lot of resources. For instance the generators." A familiar voice stated and you were pretty sure the voice belonged to that Milton guy who you had seen around the place.

"I thought you love a party." The Governor responded as you closed your eyes hoping they wouldn't come into the kitchen.

"Come on, Milty. Lighten up, for Christ's sake. Let your hair down, man. Have some fun for once." Merle's voice spoke up and you silently cursed.

Of course, Merle was here. He always hung around the wrong crowds back in the day, seemed like the end of the world didn't change much.

"So, this Y/N chick. Can we trust her? I'm starting to trust Andrea, but not Michonne and I'm not sure about the cop chick." The Governor suddenly said catching your attention real quick.

"She was dating my brother back in the day, Y/N is cool. You won't have to worry 'bout her." Merle reassured before their footsteps started to get closer. "Milton, grab those beers from the fridge." 

Shit, he was coming into the kitchen.

"Psst." Michonne whispered.

You quickly looked over at her to find her poking her head around the corner as she held up her hand silently telling you not to move. She stared at the three men who were further in the room and not a second later she quickly waved you over to her and you blindly trusted her and crawled across the kitchen floor.

You only just met the other woman, but right now she was the only person you trusted inside this community. Andrea and Merle seemed to be attached to the Governor's hip, but Michonne could tell something was wrong.

"Back door." She whispered.

You nodded and followed her out some door before you ended up on a fire escape and climbed out.

You jumped the remaining couple of metres from the fire escape ladder and landed on the ground as you looked around the area and frowned. You had never seen this section of the community before. You glanced around taking in the abandon area. It was quiet out here, too quiet. Why wasn't anyone on this side of town?

"You ever been around here?" You asked quietly, holstering your gun.

Michonne shook her head as the two of you slowly walked around the area before you heard some walkers and found them locked inside a wire cage. They had walkers locked in a cage.

"Yep, that's totally normal." You muttered to yourself.

Michonne pulled out her katana and before you had a chance to process what she was doing, she broke the lock on the cage and opened the door.

You quickly pulled your baton from the side of your belt and flicked it out while backing away slowly beside Michonne. You held your baton up and she held her sword up as she glanced over at you with a questioning.

"You're crazy, but in a good way." 

You could have sworn you saw the woman smile before the two of you took out the walkers. Michonne with her sword slicing their heads while you smashed their brains in with your baton.

"You're not too bad yourself." Michonne responded, glancing over at you as the two of you stood amongst all the dead corpses on the ground. "I'm leaving. Andrea wants to stay, I can't make her leave. But, I'm leaving. You could come with me if you want?"

You thought about it for a while, but you couldn't just leave. There was something fishy going on her. Your inner cop was telling you to figure it out and you could never leave a case unsolved. Plus, if something really was up with this Governor guy, you couldn't just leave Merle and Andrea with him.

-

Michonne left a few hours before dark. Andrea wasn't happy about it and they had a full on yelling contest by the front gate before Michonne walked off and Merle closed the gate behind her. Andrea soon disappeared after that, no doubt with the Governor somewhere leaving you and Merle standing by the gate.

"How much do you know about this Governor, do you trust him?" You asked quietly, glancing around to make sure nobody else was nearby before you looked back to Merle who seemed shocked with the question.

"He saved my life. Yeah, I trust him. Why? You don't?"

"Something just doesn't feel right." You answered honestly causing Merle to chuckle.

"You're thinkin' too much into it. C'mon, the party is really about to start when the sun goes down. Got a whole fighting ring set up, you'll like it."

You just nodded, knowing there was no point trying to get Merle to see your point of view. The last thing you needed was him telling the Governor that you were suspicious of something.

You waited until nightfall, while everyone was setting up around the fighting ring, which wasn't really a fighting ring at all. It was a ring made up of walkers on chains and two fighting inside. It was ridiculous and they had music playing way to loudly. It was like they wanted the walkers outside to bust through the walls and get in the community.

You watched for a few minutes while Merle fought with another man inside the ring before you slipped away from the group and made your way back to the Governor's room. You and Michonne never ended up finding out what that banging noise was and you really wanted to know why the Governor would lock his bathroom.

He was hiding something, that was clear as day, but you just couldn't figure out what.

It didn't take long before you were back inside his room and as you suspected the bathroom was still locked. For a moment, you thought about trying to pick the lock, but that would just take too much time and you couldn't risk someone walking in on you.

Without further thought you kicked the door in, it took a few tries, but on the third the door swung open and you walked in, but immediately stopped.

It wasn't a bathroom. It was another room and there were fish tanks along the left wall with walker heads inside, the walkers still alive;

What the actual fuck?!

You knew this guy was strange, but this was just crazy. Who does that? Who keeps walkers heads in a locked room in your house?

Suddenly the banging started again. You quickly turned around and realised that it was coming from a small latched door on the other side of the room.

Great, more locked doors.

You walked across the room and knelt down beside the small door. Hesitantly, you turned the latch and opened it, but the second you realised what was inside your jaw dropped. There was a little kid, There was a little kid inside.

"Oh my God." You gasped as the kid started to walk towards you.

There was a bag over her head and her arms were tied behind her back. Who the fuck would do this to a child?

"It's okay. I'm a Police Officer, I'm here to help you."

The little girl walked out the small room as you knelt down in front of her and gently grabbed her shoulders.

"It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you." You reassured, gently reached for the bag over her head and pulled it off.

The second the bag was off, you jumped to your feet and took a few steps back because the kid was a fucking walkers.

The Governor had been keeping his walker daughter locked up in a small room beside another room that had walker heads in fish tanks. You had to get the hell out of this place.

"I'm sorry this happened to you." You whispered, pulling out your baton and slamming it into the side of the little girls head, killing the walker instantly.

"NO!" An all familiar voice shouted.

You quickly spun around to find the Governor standing in the door way with his gun aimed at you as he stared at his daughter on the ground.

Oh, shit.

Not a second later, the Governor charged at you. You quickly tried to pull out your gun, but you didn't get the chance before he grabbed you and pinned you up against the wall and slammed the butt of his gun against the side of your face. Then everything turned black. 

-

You awoke with a gasp, cold water splashing against your face causing your eyes to snap open to find the Governor standing in front of you with a steel bucket in his hands.

Your head hurt something awful and you could feel dry blood plastered to the side of your face from where he had hit you with gun, but other than that you were okay. For now.

You glanced around the room, quickly realising that you were tied up. Your hands were tied above your head to some metal pipe along the roof, your feet barely touching the ground.

The room you were in was only small, surrounded by tin walls and cement floor with a singular light bulb dangling from the middle of the room. There was nothing in the room that you could see other than the wooden table and chair in front of you.

"You killed my daughter."

"Your daughter was already dead, you sick fuck." You responded and as soon as the words left your mouth, you immediately regretted it. Not a second later, the Governor's fist collided with your face.

You didn't get a chance to recover before he punched you again, somehow hitting the same spot and you could instantly taste copper in your mouth. You spat the blood onto the ground by his feet, ignoring the sting coming from what you assumed was a now split lip.

"This is only the beginning, Deputy. You're about to learn about pain and I'm not going to stop until you're begging for me to kill you, and then I will keep going." The Governor threatened while he picked up an object from the table behind him and it only took you a few seconds before you realised what it was.

Knuckle dusters.

This was going to be fun.

"Just hurry up and get it over with." You responded, trying to make your voice sound as bored as possible.

It seemed to work because the next thing you knew the Governor slipped on the knuckle dusters and slammed it against the side of your face.

Sudden pain bursting from the point of contact before he punched you again, and again.

"Does Merle know about this?" You winced, lifting your head.

"No, I've sent him after Michonne. He's not here and he's not going to save you. Nobody is going to save you." He answered and your blood turned cold.

He sent Merle after Michonne? What was he going to do to her?

You didn't get much time to dwell over it before the punching started up again, this time to your rib cage. You couldn't stop yourself from screaming as he landed a solid punch to your ribs followed by a very distinct cracking sound, sharp pain soaring through your ribs.

You bit your lip, stopping yourself from screaming any further. That's what he wanted. He wanted to hear your screams, he wanted to see you suffering and you weren't going to give that to him. You weren't going to give him that satisfaction.

So, you closed your eyes and bit your lips until you drew blood and pictured your brother in your head. His annoying yet oddly calming voice telling you to not give, no matter what.

-

Before-

"I can't do it!" You shouted in frustration from where you had fallen onto the bitumen road for the hundredth time, your skateboard lying on the ground a few metres away as you brushed your hands over your scraped knees.

"Get up." Your big brother instructed, walking over to you.

He held his hand out, but you refused to take it.

You were done with this stupid skateboard. You weren't even sure why you had wanted to learn to ride to begin with. It was pointless and impossible. If you wanted to scrape your knees up, you'd stick racing Shane and Rick on your bicycle.

"I thought you wanted to learn how to ride a skateboard and falling is part of learning." Rick's voice called out.

You glanced over your shoulder to find him walking down the driveway of his house across the road, his own skateboard tucked under his arm and you rolled your eyes.

Great, now there were two stupid teenagers annoying you.

"Rick's right and the Y/N I know, she never gives up." Shane added, lowering his hand and walking over to your skateboard, picking it up and placing it on the ground beside you. "You just have to keep trying, you remember how many times Rick fell on his ass when he first started learning. Did he ever give up?"

"No." You muttered, staring at your pink camouflage painted skateboard beside you.

"That's because we don't give up. You never give up, especially since you wanted to be known as the first girl in third grade to ride a skateboard. Now, ready to give it another try?" Shane asked, holding his hand back out towards you and you nodded, taking his hand as he helped you to his feet.

"Shane, help her get her balance. Then all you have to do is copy me." Rick instructed, placing his own skateboard onto the ground beside you.

He stepped on top of it and you copied him, stepping onto yours while Shane held your shoulders, keeping you steady.

"Just do what Rick does." Shane said.

You nodded watching your brothers best friend as he lowered one of his feet to the ground and began to push off as he rode down the street slowly.

You watched Rick for a few seconds before you took a deep breath and copied his movements and before you even knew it, you were riding along side him while Shane cheered from the side of the road behind you.

"See what happens when you don't give up?" Rick asked, glancing over at you and you nodded, unable to stop the giant smile spreading across your face before glancing over your shoulder to find your brother jumping in joy behind you. 

-

MASTERLIST    |    TIP JAR

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