#it was the comments about rose barely being out of her teens and being sad over his old marriage 🤨 like ok rusty idc

[velvetjune]

i like that rose specifically wants to be friends with both alan and alice in the first game. like yay! parasocial relationship also extends to the wife!

#it could’ve gone the Cynthia route where rose kinda resented alice #but yay! big win for parasocial relationships! she also fantasizes about alice to some degree! #I have some Issues with the writing in Alan Wake 1 including the women (namely alice and partially rose) #but this is a detail I really enjoy and I do honestly want her and alice to meet #a while back I saw a theory. idk if it was on here or Reddit. about alice being potentially being the person sending messages to rose #i don’t exactly believe that since it could just be a future Alan loop. but the concept compels me. #alan wake 2 #rose marigold #alice wake #I love her she’s so weird and insensitive (saying this positively). her biggest flaw is writing self insert rpf of stephen king #and honestly that’s funny as hell so can that really be called a flaw ☝️ #also does anyone remember rusty and roses relationship #I remember HATING rusty lmaooo ahfjdjajfjdkajd #it was the comments about rose barely being out of her teens and being sad over his old marriage 🤨 like ok rusty idc #sorry to any rusty fans

[joannaliceevans-fanficblog]

Evermore: Part. 2

A/N: Hello! I just wanted to thank everyone who has read and commented on the last chapter! That truly means a lot to me.

Warnings: There aren't many warnings, but to have tissues ready. It's been hard to write without crying every sentence.

Before I shut up, I just wanted to thank my lovely besties here. @hollybee8917 ! She made this wonderful mood board and edited this chapter! So thank you, babes!

Your alarm clock buzzed, and you moaned. You barely gotten any sleep and you didn’t want to get up. But you had to, because today wasn’t just an ordinary day. Today was a big day. Before you could even get up, the door opened and the sounds of tippy taps were heard. You smiled, and the sound of sniffing and then the 80 lbs. Alaskan Malamute/German Shepherd pup jumped onto the bed.

“Alright Sarg!” You said as he gave you wet kisses. You then pushed Sarg off, and he jumped off. It was a chilly, winter morning, so you grabbed your sweater and the moment you placed it on, you smiled. The scent of Bergamot and Vanilla filled your nose.

“In a few more hours, honey.” You said to yourself and wondered what he was up to.

And on cue, your phone rang and you quickly grabbed it and slid the green button.

Hi angel.

You smiled to yourself, “Hello Mr. Levinson, did you sleep well? And I thought you weren’t supposed to call me sir?”

You heard Ari laugh and you let out a giggle. He replied, “I did, surprisingly. And I know, I know. Andy forbade me from calling you. But I can’t go a day without hearing your voice. Even if it’s just for a brief moment.”

And that is true. Ever since you were 16, Ari would have called you. You weren’t dating then, but him being your best friend since you were teens, nothing could sway him from talking to you.

You scratched your head, “Is everything okay, Ari?”

“In all honesty? No. I couldn’t sleep last night.”

“Aww baby, is everything alright?”

“No, because you’re not here.”

A sad sight slipped from your lips, “How do I make everything okay?”

Ari laughed, “Oh angel, it will be in a few hours when you become Mrs. Levinson.”

The sound of that made your heart jump for joy. That is true. You heard Andy in the background, and you laughed.

Well, Mrs. Soon-to-be Levinson, I’ve got to go. But I’ll see you in a few hours. I love you.

You smiled, “Love you too, Mr. Levinson.”

You hung up, and Sarg jumped onto the bed, giving you a bark.

“Alright! I’m going, I’m going!” You said, getting up and heading out.

 **

A few hours later…

You stood in front of the mirror, making sure that everything was in place. Your hair was perfect, makeup was just the way you wanted it. A knock was heard and you turned around to see your college best friend Holly. In her hands was your bouquet of white, dark magenta pink, and baby pink Roses.

“You got something new and borrowed. But something is missing.” Holly said, as she placed your bouquet down and a small box appeared. You had curious eyes as your friend strolled towards you. The box opened, and you gasped.

A diamond pendant.

“I told Ari no expensive gifts!” You say, running your fingertips against the necklace.

“He knew you would have said that,” Holly said and handed you a small card. You placed the box down and opened the card.

I had a feeling that you would say something about the gift. I know we decided not to give expensive gifts, but you deserve it. Hell, you deserve everything in this world. I love you, Mrs. Levinson.

-Ari

You smiled and sighed.

“Let’s put on.” You say. You took the necklace and placed it around your neck.

**

The limo pulled up in front of St. Cecilia Catholic Church. The car came to a complete stop, and you took a deep breath and sighed. Then the door opened, and your best friend Holly came out, then your parents. You handed Holly your bouquet and got yourself out. It’s only been 30 minutes, and your feet are already hurting from the heels that you are wearing. You hated them, but Holly and your mother insisted you wear them. Thank the lord you brought your flats, and you would be changing into them after the ceremony. 

You fidgeted nervously as you stood in front of the double doors. With your dad next to you and your arm linked to his, he looked down at you, “Ready, Squirt?”

You giggled, knowing that was your nickname since you were a kid.

“I am daddy. And dad?” You asked.

“What is it?” He asked. 

You placed your hand on top of his and smiled, “Thank you for everything.” 

Your dad smiled and patted your hand. And with that, the doors opened, and everyone stood up. Your hands started to shake as the music started playing Yiruma’s Moments and you started to walk down the aisle. You shook a little until you looked towards the altar and your beloved Ari was looking back at you. The way he smiled at you made your heart soar. He was looking mighty fine. He wore his Army uniform, with his saber by his side. His thick beard and the way his long fluffy hair brought a smile to your face once more. (You had only a few months with him before he was deployed back to South Carolina for training new recruits) 

When you reached the front, your dad released your hand and placed it into Ari’s. You then stepped forward and faced Ari.

“Hi Angel,” Ari whispered. 

You wiped your tears and smiled, “Hi, Ari Bear.”

**

Wandering around the venue with a glass of wine in your hands, you spoke with guests. As you did, you looked over to the other side of the hall to see your now husband heading towards you. You handed your glass to Holly and by the time you did, Ari was in front you with his hand out. You placed yours into his and he took you to the middle of the dance floor. Ari gave the DJ a nod and a familiar tune came on. You looked up at Ari and he smiled. Your heart skipped a beat, “Is this-“

“Me and You?” 

Ari said, “Yes it is.”

Tears slipped down your cheeks and you placed your head against his chest.

“Everyday I live

Try my best to give

All I have to you

Thank the stars above

That we share this love

Me and You”

“You looked so beautiful walking down the aisle.” Ari whispered into your ear. 

“You knew that I liked your thick beard.” You said, as you still both swayed to the music.

Those are the exact words he has always said to you when he would write you letters, or send you flowers. But hearing him singing them to you made it even more special. You thank the stars that he came into your life. You then looked towards him and reached up to kiss him, “I love you.”

Ari kissed you once more, “I love you more.” 

**

You strolled with Sam by your side as you went towards Ari. Everything around you seemed like a blur, and nothing existed. Your heart was beating and breaking all at the same time by the time you got to his casket. You let go of Sam’s arm and stood for a moment, looking. But the second you placed your hand on top of the flag, everything went south with your emotions. Your tears, your feelings, your love for Ari, it all hit you. You placed your head down onto the coffin and balled your fists tightly. 

“Ari, I’m here now.” You whisper. 

You felt a hand behind you, and you knew that it was Andy.  

“Y/N, they have to retrieve him now,” Andy told you. 

You placed a kiss on top of the flag, and you stepped back, even if it was hurting. You held on to Andy, tears still coming down, and you watched on as your husband was being placed into the Hearst. The moment the door closed, Andy led you back to the car so you could go to the funeral home.

Good evening. I'm Jason Austel from NBC Boston. We start this evening with some upsetting news. A local hero, US Army Captain Ari Levinson from Concord, died today. He was deployed overseas and was in the Humvee when a bomb exploded in the car in front of them. He is survived by his wife and his 5-month-old daughter.

#andy barber #andy barber x female reader #andy barber x you #ari levinson fanfiction #ari levinson x female reader #chris evans x female reader #ari levinson x you #ari levinson angst

[gale-gentlepenguin]

ML Fic: Soulmate Survey Part 33

Sorry this got delayed for longer than expected. I had a lot of things hit me like a truck (and distractions). Hopefully you all enjoy this. Please comment your thoughts on the chapter. And if you really liked it, Reblog it. Thats the best way to get others to see it.

(Master Post)

_______________________________________________________________________

Nathalie cautiously walked into the school, careful to not stand out. She needed to be quick and quiet, she didn’t know how many akuma were lurking in the building. Hawkmoth has akumatized a good chunk of the student body at this school, so expecting at least a dozen within such a short time frame wouldn’t be out of the question. She was relieved that the akuma alert hasn't gone off, which means no one has caught on yet.

The assistant moved down the hall, stopping once she noticed two akuma heading down the hall. One she recognized as the akuma dark owl, and the other as Lady wifi. Both akuma wearing masks that covered their faces. It was clearly the handiwork of Masquerade. She quickly moved into the nearest room to hide.

“That was close.” Nathalie whispered.

“What was?” a voice from behind her called out. Causing the on edge assistant to jump.

She looked to see it was not an akuma, but an adult with a perplexed expression.

“Nothing, what room is this?”

“This is the nurse’s office, I’m Nurse Angela. How can I help you?”

Nathalie took a sigh of relief. Seems that the nurse hasn’t noticed the akumatized individuals in the hall. Which means that no one has figured out there are akuma active.

“I am fine, I simply stepped into the wrong room.” Nathalie eased herself. “Could you tell me which way Ms. Bustier’s classroom is?”

“Oh its down the hall, make a left and it’s the last classroom on the...”

“Nurse! My ice pack melted!”

The nurse took a calming sigh.

“One moment ma’am. I have a student in here.”

Angela quickly moved to fetch more ice for her patient to help her out.

“Chloé?” Nathalie spoke aloud, recognizing the voice.

Nathalie moved into the room and took notice of the mayor’s daughter watch the nurse impatiently as she waited for a fresh icepack.

“Wait, your Gabriel Agreste’s assistant. Natasha.”

“Nathalie.” The assistant corrected, clearly annoyed.

“Why are you here? Does Adrien have some photoshoot or something?”

“Or something.  Now why are you in here?”

The question struck a nerve with the blonde, causing her annoyance to turn into anger.

“Better question, how could you allow Adrien to date that loser!?”

Nathalie blinked.

“Excuse me?”

“She is going to bring down the Gabriel brand. That nobody has no right to be dating Adrien. Does his father know about this?”

Nathalie felt a twinge of annoyance. But kept it in. She remembered the akuma that were out in the hallway. She would hate to have them run in here just from the commotion.

“I think you should keep it down. This is not an issue that concerns you.”

“Doesn’t concern me?! I am Adrien’s childhood friend. You bet your poor dye job it concerns me!”

“I must insist you be quiet.” Nathalie repeats. “This is not the time or the place for such meaningless complaints.”

“Like I am going to listen to Gabriel Agreste’s rebound chick.”

That caused Nathalie to snap.

“Listen here you spoiled brat! There are akuma running the halls and I am trying to find Adrien to get him out of here before things get worse. If you don’t shut your mouth in the next two seconds. I will throw you out there and let them tear you apart!”

Chloé felt her eyes go wide at the out of nowhere outburst. It took her a second to process what just happened. Did she really get told off by this nobody?

“You can’t just…”

Nathalie suddenly fell to the floor. She barely used her hands to catch herself.

“S***, not now.” She mumbled over gasping breathes. Her body was failing on her again. She did not need this of all times. She felt her consciousness fade.

The nurse turned around once she heard the sudden thud.

“Oh dear.”

She rushed to the collapsed woman’s side and helped her up.

“Chloé. Help me get her onto the bed.”

“You want me to…”

“This is not the time for questions! Help me get her on the bed now!” Angela commanded.

Chloé’s protests were snuffed out by the nurse and she moved to help get the woman on the bed.

The nurse quickly checked her for a pulse. Thankfully she had one.

“Okay, she has a pulse. She is breathing, but her body just collapsed. A fainting spell?”

Angela started checking the assistant to make sure there was nothing else wrong.

Chloé watched as the nurse examined Nathalie. Her previous anger fading as she sees the woman that just snapped at her just drop.

“Okay… seems that it is over exhaustion. It’s not uncommon in people who work long hours with demanding jobs. But I have never seen a case like this. I can’t put my finger on it, but there might be another medical issue involved in this. When she wakes up, she should get checked into a hospital for a deeper dive into whatever she has.” Angela explained.

“So… she will be alright?”

“Well she is exhausted. She will need to rest for a bit.”

“Well at least she didn’t die. I can still be mad at her for yelling at me because there is an akuma and junk here.”

“Well you shouldn’t hold a… did you just say there is an akuma?”

“That’s what she was yelling at me about before. Weren’t you listening?”

Angela felt herself go pale.

“Oh that is not good at all. We need to alert the authorities.”

Chloé picked up her phone and started texting.

“Don’t you think you should use that to call the cops.”

“Im texting my dad. He will have the cops here faster.”

Angela remembered that the annoying spoiled blonde in front of her was the mayor’s daughter and for the first time, was happy that the girl was here.

_______________________________________________________________________

For what is a teen, but a pile of hormones and insecurities.

Masquerade delighted as she watched her classmates stare at her. They all were trying so hard to be strong, but she could feel their emotions, they were afraid. She knew that taking the most emotionally secure one in the group would rattle them..

She noticed the teens rushing to their pockets to get their phones.

Masquerade touched the cellphone charm on her bracelet and all of the phones started showing they had no signal.

“Nice try, but no calling for help.” Masquerade commented.

Even the chill Nino couldn’t maintain a steady calm in front of her with that little display. She now removed any chance of calling for help or setting off that akuma alert system. Did she have access to other powers? What kind of monster did Hawkmoth turn her into?

“I’ll save you for last Nino. I want you to watch closely.” She flipped her hair, taunting the cap wearing teen.

The masked theme akuma smiled as she moved her hand, as if deciding on who would turn next.

“Now we know who will be last, but who will be next?” Masquerade asked, watching as her bracelet was glowing. The class was a gold mine of akumas. It was not a matter of how, it was a matter of which one.

“You don’t have to do this Lila.” A soft higher pitched voice pleaded.

The class turned their attention the short haired blond with a fondness for pink.

“Rose…” Juleka spoke up in worry.

Masquerade focused her attention on Rose.

“Oh? And why is that?”

“We know you are hurting. We know that you lied to us and did some nasty things… but that doesn’t have to define you!”

Masquerade found herself a bit surprised at the statement.

“If you are willing to stop all of this, we can help you. We can work through all of the things you’ve done. If we can throw a party for Chloé, we can certainly give you another chance.”

Rose stuck out her hand, a soft smile on her face.

Masquerade took a moment to process before speaking.

“Wow… I had no idea you felt this way.”

Rose walked forward.

“See Lila, we can all get along if…”

“You’re so incredibly depressing.”

Rose stopped.

Masquerade’s mouth contorted to a twisted glee. Her charm bracelet glowing brightly as she held her hand up to Rose.

“You always force a smile even when things are downright miserable. You’re terrified of being sad, so you paint this image of a fantasy land filled with stuffed animals and storybook characters. You realize all of the awful things around you yet you simply push it back, push it away as if it can’t harm you if you don’t acknowledge it. You can’t even acknowledge the emotional problems and insecurities of the people you care about because you know you can’t help them even if you did address them, so you give them some encouraging saccharine speech about pushing through, because that’s all you can really do. I have never seen anyone so deep in denial. One day you will wake up and realize that all of that delusional thinking will have pushed everyone away from you as you sit in plushy made prison of your own design.”

Rose felt her lip quiver.

“N-No. That isn’t true. I can …” Rose stumbled over her words.

But before she could say anymore, a mask flung onto her face and Rose shifted into Princess Fragrance, the green skinned perfume super villainess.

“Rose! No!” Juleka cried out.

Masquerade grinned as a perfume bottle charm now adorned her bracelet.

Juleka tried to get the mask off of Rose, but the newly made akuma pushed her aside and jumped to her master’s side.

“Oh, poor Juleka. Don’t worry. I’ll have you join her.”

Masquerade pointed her hand at Juleka.

“Oh wow, social anxiety and a fear of being forgotten. How original. Is that why you dye your hair purple and wear those gaudy clothes? You want to stand out so that you don’t get dismissed like the wallflower you are? Your bad luck with photos really puts a damper on your dreams of modeling. But that’s probably for the best, considering you are constantly overwhelmed. You don’t have the guts to do anything you want, so you just do your best to keep quiet and pray people will still notice and care about you.”

Juleka felt her anger shift to sorrow as she tried to speak up, but sure enough. Masquerade sends another mask out and it makes contact with Juleka.

The purple haired teen shifts into the image replicating akuma, Reflekta. Who after changing moved next to Princess Fragrance. A compact mirror charm appears on Masquerade’s bracelet.

The class couldn’t help but feel the despair in the room. The large drummer tried to keep his small girlfriend behind him as a means to protect her, but unfortunately, Masquerade noticed.

“Oh Ivan, sweet misunderstood Ivan.” Masquerade taunted. “You really think I don’t see what you are trying to do.”

Ivan kept his eyes focused.

“You aren’t turning me into one of your monsters. You already turned my bandmates into them, you aren’t turning me!”

The akuma laughed.

“Monster? I don’t need to turn you into an akuma to do that. The rest of the world already sees you as one.”

Ivan felt a pang in his heart.

“No… no they don’t.”

“Even your own girlfriend is scared of you. You’re a big brute that is loud and bumbling. Ever since your growth spurt, you could see everyone look at you differently, like you were some kind of large freak. But what’s worse is that you’re afraid that everyone else is right. That you a large rage filled monster, undeserving of love.”

“Don’t listen to her. She is lying to you.” Myléne pleaded as she tried to pull her boyfriend out of the quicksand trap of emotion that the akuma was setting up.

“I am not a monster.” Ivan spoke, more to himself than to masquerade.

The akuma capitalized on that moment of weakness and a mask made its way to Ivan, transforming him into his stone giant akuma form, Stoneheart.

Myléne looked in horror of her akumatized boyfriend and took a few steps back. Her fear of remembering this form taking hold.

“Oh, that works too.”

Masquerade flings a mask at Myléne, transforming her into her more monstrous akuma form, Horrificator.

“I was planning on playing on her fears about how she is afraid to face the real world and her insecurities about losing Ivan, but that worked better.”

The two new akuma mindlessly made their way to Masquerade’s side. A piece of paper and a button charm appeared on Masquerade’s bracelet.

The joy the akuma attained from watching her classmates squirm was unnerving. And it was only going to continue.

_______________________________________________________________________

“So, you are certain you left it there Kagami?” a woman with a cane asked sternly.

“Yes mother, I remember I left my text book in the locker room during fencing practice. I was studying between breaks.” Kagami answered. She felt a bit ashamed she had misplaced her book. But was relieved her mother was fine with giving her a ride there to get it. Even if it meant she was late to her lessons.

“This is not an excuse to see anyone, is it?” Her mother questioned.

“No mother, I will be in and out quickly.”

“Very well. I need to make a quick stop at the bank. So be sure to be outside waiting when I come back.”

“Yes mother.”

Kagami got out of the car and the car drove off.

“Well, I could stop by to say hello to my friends if I am quick with getting my book.” Kagami smiled a bit as she was about to make her way into Collège Françoise Dupont.

But before she did, she heard the sound of a bike approaching, she turned to see the cyclist stop short of her.

“Made it.” He said with relief as he took off his helmet to reveal familiar blue dyed hair.

“Luka?”

The cyclist looked and noticed his new fencer friend.

“Kagami? What brings you here? I thought you didn’t go to this school.”

“I don’t, I come here for fencing practice, I left a textbook here and was planning on retrieving it. You don’t go to this school either. So what brings you here?”

“My little sis grabbed the wrong lunch bag, then texted something about an akuma being in the school. I wasn't able to reach her after that. I plan on getting her out and letting the heroes handle the akuma.”

Kagami blinked.

“There is an akuma?”

“Apparently.”

The fencer smiled.

“Alright, let’s get in and try to evacuate everyone. Then I can grab my book.”

Luka looked at the determined girl and smiled. He didn’t even say he would help her. But he knew he would.

“So, what’s the plan?”

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Adrien stared down the Volpina duplicate. He was not going to let it pass him and get to Marinette. He realizes that if he had been the one to run off, he would have been able to transform quick. If this didn’t work out, Ladybug might have to take on Lila solo, and that was something he was worried about. If Ladybug is on her own and she gets overwhelmed, who would be able to protect Paris? He needed to figure a way to give this Faux Fox the slip and fast.

“It would have been better if I snagged both of you, but master will be more than happy with your capture.” The sentimonster smiled as it moved to grab him.

The blond jumped back, but the difference in speed was far too great for him to overcome. And he was quickly pinned against a wall. The sentimonster shifted forms, looking similar to the owl akuma that Adrien was familiar with.

“What the…”

“I am not bound to one form. I can shift my form and access to any akuma’s power set that my master has under her control.”

Adrien realized he was far outmatched. If it came to it, he would need to transform. He wished there was some way out of this mess.

But as if the heavens above heard him, a yo-yo wrapped around the waist of the buff owl.

“What the ...”

The sudden pull from the yo-yo made the sentimonster lose it’s grip on Adrien and get flung to the other wall, dazing it.

“Looks like I made it just in time.” A spotted heroine stated with confidence.

“Ladybug!” Adrien called out in relief.

Ladybug rushed to his side.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m a lot better now.”

Ladybug helped the teen up from the ground.

“Lets’ get you somewhere safe first, handsome boy.”

The blond felt his cheeks turn red at the comment.

The sentimonster managed to get back up, it shifted forms, to a smaller form. One that made ladybug experience a chill go down her spine as she saw the roller blades and familiar helmet.

“Timebreaker… We need to hurry!”

Ladybug started rushing with the teen. With the speed of the akuma, she knew Adrien wouldn’t be fast enough to avoid it on his own. So, she quickly picked him up in her arms as they fled.

“Timebreaker? But isn’t that what Alix turned into when she was akumatized.” Adrien inquired as Ladybug ran down the hallway.

“It means that things are getting a lot more dangerous.” Ladybug answered.  She knew that timebreaker appearing could only mean that Lila has made her way to the classroom, and this was going to be one of the toughest akuma battles yet. She needed to get Adrien to safety and then make her way to the classroom, hopefully save her classmates before they were all turned into her masked servants.

She made a quick movement into the bathroom. Standing at the door, prepared to fight the akuma if it noticed their quick duck into the washroom.

Ladybug listened closely as she heard the sound of skates roll up to the door. Her eyes went wide as she realized the it figured it out.

“You really think you can hide from me!”

The Timebreaker imposter kicked in the door ready to attack, only to see no one was in the room.

“Like I said….”

“You!” Kicked the first stall door open.

“CANT!” The second stall was kicked open.

“HIDE!”  The last one was open, and all of them were empty.

The sentimonster growled in frustration.

“Seems I was mistaken.” The sentimonster grumbles, skating off to find the two.

As the door closes, Ladybug and Adrien sigh in relief. They had taken to hiding over the small statured sentimonster’s line of sight. Ladybug;s yo-yo making for a secure web to hold them up.

Ladybug undid the secure snare and lowered them both to the floor.

“Thanks for the save Ladybug.” The blond smiled. His face a bit red being so close to Ladybug.

‘Easy there Adrien! Remember who you are dating now!’ He mentally told himself.

“N-no problem.” Ladybug smiled sweetly. “Now, you stay hidden and I will take care of this crazy shapeshifter.

“Wait Ladybug!”

Ladybug paused.

“Yes? Is there something…”

“My girlfriend is out there. Well I mean… dating since we didn’t officially say girlfriend and… Look She is out there and that akuma thing is also after her.”

Ladybug’s eyes went wide at that statement.

He called me his girlfriend! Inner marinette screamed. Inside her head, but Ladybug kept her face from showing it. Though a small smile was growing despite herself.

“So the akuma is targeting someone else? Why wasn’t she with you?”

“She went to get help, I was trying to hold off the akuma so she could escape. The akuma was more focused on me thankfully, and you showed up just in time.”

“Oh? And who is the Lucky girl?” Ladybug questioned, a bit bubbly but doing her best to hide it.

“Her name is Marinette, she is around your height and she has these cute …”

“No need for more description, I know her. Well, she is a cute one. Aren’t you lucky?” Ladybug teased a bit.

“I really am.” He smiled sweetly. He remembers that Ladybug did pick Marinette to be a temporary hero, so she should know who she is. Though he isn’t supposed to know that.

Ladybug put a hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure your ‘girlfriend’ is safe. I’ll also be sure to tell her you were worried as well. She will be happy to hear that.”

Adrien felt himself in a bit of a bizarre situation, was ladybug helping him by being a wingwoman for him? He couldn’t help but find it a mix of ironic and funny.

Ladybug rushed out of the bathroom, realizing that chat noir was rubbing off on her a bit, teasing Adrien like that.

“He called me his girlfriend.” She smiled as she thought this to herself. Though she knew the task at hand was important and would dwell on this happiness much later.

Adrien watched as she ran off, feeling a bit flustered.

“Really needed to let her know you were off the market now.” A voice from his pocket teased.

“I panicked.” Adrien felt his face flush.

“Seemed Ladybug was happy for you. That’s good.” The cat kwami popped out of his pocket. Hiding the fact, he knew a lot more than he let on.

“We do have more important things to worry about. We have an akuma and sentimonster to stop. “

Adrien punched his fist out.

“Plagg. Claws out!”

_____________________________________________________________________________

Masquerade laughed, loving how she was turning everything back on her classmates.

When something smacked into her head.

“Ugh!” She grunted as she grabbed the metal object that flung into her.

“What the hell?!” Masquerade’s eyes focused to see it was Max’s ai companion, Markov that head-butted her.

“Your actions have far exceeded what is acceptable.” The robot responded.

“Markov get away from her. She will akumatize you!” Max called out in worry.

“Akumatize the toaster? How could I akumatize…” Masquerade muttered until she noticed her bracelet glowing.

“Oh, you have got to be f***ing kidding me. You akumatized a sentient rice cooker but not Marinette?! The f*** hawkmoth!?”

“I will have you know that I am an advanced artificial intelligence.”

“And you despise that.” Masquerade points out.

“Quite the contrary, I find my intellect exhilarating.”

“But you already calculated it, the two logical conclusions. That you will either become obsolete and be tossed out for a newer model, or you will advance and grow until you outlive Max.”

Markov paused. He could not come up with a response. The robot felt stumped byt the statement.

“Too easy.”

“Markov!’ Max cried out as a mask landed over his visual face plate. Shifting him into his angry red coated akuma form, Robostus.

Max moved to get to his robot. But Kim held him back.

“It’s too late man.”

Max growled at the akuma.

“Damn it Lila, why are you doing this? You must know that Ladybug and Chat noir will arrive ready to stop you. The chances of you beating them are 0%.”

Masquerade lifted her hand as her bracelet began glowing again.

“Oh. smarty pants Max, the one with all the formulas and the data. You have to be the smartest one in the room or else you have nothing.”

“I know what you are trying to do. It won’t work.”

“Out of everyone here, you have the biggest inferiority complex. Your need to be the best at what your ‘good’ at. Robotics, video games, data analysis, and of course, calculations. You need to show to everyone how smart and skilled you are, because the moment you don’t, they realize there is no personality underneath.”

Max tried to focus on not letting the words get to him, but Masquerade knew exactly what to say to cut him down.

“Go on Max, tell them how to ‘Beat’ my power. Or do you not know?”

Max felt his lip quiver, he couldn’t stay strong. He didn’t know how to beat it. He could feel the horror of not knowing slip into his mind. She had nailed his insecurities like an expert marksman.

“I thought so.”

A mask flew and smacked onto Max’s face. He dropped to the floor only to get up in a black and green spandex suit, His akumatized form, The Gamer.

A game controller charm appeared on her bracelet.

A sudden squeak caught her attention.

Masquerade turned her head to see an orange haired girl trying to sneak away.

“Sabrina, I had forgotten you were here. Just like everyone else usually does.”

Masquerade was about to really lay into her, but a book out of nowhere smacked her in the face.

It was the athletic dare maker himself, Kim.

“I am done sitting around and letting you turn everyone into masked zombies.” Kim exclaimed.

Nino felt himself zone back in as Kim called it out. Now was not the time to lose his head. He needed to focus. Masquerade didn’t mention Adrien, so maybe his best bro was still out there. Maybe they can get to the heroes and have them fix this. But first, he needed to escape.

“Kim’s right. We won’t let you turn anyone else anymore. Sabrina get help!” Nino exclaimed.

“Like she is going to… HEY!”

A waste basket covered the villainess as she stumbled back, with the basket stuck to her head. While she had been too busy gloating, she had failed to notice the tomato haired artist sneak behind her and the mindless akuma line up. He had slammed it on as hard as he could to ensure it was difficult to remove.

“Let’s Go!” Nino announced as the rest of the class rushed to the door. Time breaker being the only one actively ordered prepared to stop them.

“Don’t let her touch you.” Sabrina spoke as they tried to figure.

Kim grabbed a chair and used it like a make shift battering ram in order to keep Timebreaker at a distance, but the akuma reacted quickly by pulling the chair away and kicking the teen in the gut with her roller blade. Sending him flying back into the other teens.

“Ugh! That really was gross!” Masquerade retched as she pulled the waste bucket off her head.

“Well, I hope you enjoyed your little escape attempt. Because you won’t get another chance.”

Masquerade pointed at Kim.

“Since you started this little thing. I will change you next.”

Kim looked at the Akuma with a smile.

“Good luck with that. You don’t have anything that could make me feel gloomy.”

Masquerade’s bracelet started glowing again. She was clearly ready to speak, but stopped herself.

“… Wait.. THAT’s your biggest insecurity?”

“I don’t have an insecurity.”

“You are afraid everyone will realize you’re not smart.”

“What? No, I am not. I am plenty smart. I watch the Alternate Truth all the time.”

“Everyone already knows you’re an idiot.”

Kim looked at the akuma with shock.

“That’s not true! People do think I’m smart. Chloé has called me ‘Genius’ multiple times.”

Masquerade didn’t know how to respond to this.

“I… do you not know what sarcasm is?”

“Of course, I do.” Kim lied.

“Just … just wear the mask you moron.”

Masquerade sends a mask to attach to Kim.

The swimmer did his best to resist but felt himself succumb to the mask and become the dark winged akuma, Dark Cupid. He joined the rest of the akuma in the lineup, and a bow and arrow charm appeared on Masquerade’s charm bracelet.

“I actually feel dumber because of those last few minutes. Okay next one.”

Masquerade points at the Artist.

“Let’s bring the mood back with you Nathaniel, what is your biggest insecurity?”

“Listen Lila, there is still a chance to stop what you’re doing.”

“You’re afraid of opening yourself up to others. That’s the reason you didn’t want to join Soulmate searcher despite Marc’s insistence. You were afraid of putting out all that information on yourself and seeing that you and Marc aren’t meant for each other. You can only express yourself with art. And you know that it’s only a matter of time before he realizes your issues and leaves.”

Nathaniel wanted to dispute the statement, but felt his words die in his mouth.

“Such a pity Nathaniel, I’ll make sure to go after him once we are done here.”

“No! Don’t you…”

Nathaniel tried to say more, but a mask latching onto his face interrupted him.

The artist transformed into his heroic yet villainess akuma form, Evillustrator. Just like the others, the recent akuma joined the line.

A tablet pen charm appeared on Masquerade’s bracelet.

“And next up is Sabrina. I was interrupted earlier. But don’t worry. I have everything I need to get you.”

Sabrina tried to put on a brave face and covering her ears.

“Oh, you think It won’t work if you cant hear me.”

Masquerade’s bracelet glows.

“You don’t get it Sabrina, I am not just saying mean words, I am reading your greatest insecurities. And I am projecting them out.”

Sabrina could hear Masquerade’s words, as if they were in her mind. She couldn’t escape them. Her hands dropped.

“Very good. You learned how futile it is. It’s rare that you have someone’s attention like this. You always never stood out much, but you never minded that, your biggest insecurity is that no one will want to spend time with you. That’s why even with Chloé being mean and nasty, you like the fact that someone is willing to talk to you. You would accept humiliation and embarrassment over being alone. It’s truly pathetic.”

Sabrina felt tear stream down her face.

“Sabrina don’t let her get to you…”

“Im sorry. I don’t want to be alone.”

The mask flew onto Sabrina’s face. But something happened. She wasn’t changing right away.

“What’s this?” Masquerade commented.

“It seems you have more than one akumatizable form? Alya had something similar, but I was ‘missing something’ to access the other one so I didn’t bother with that. But this is different.”

Masquerade felt a malicious glee take hold.

“Why not give you both.”

Nino watched as the masked Sabrina shifted into a costume that looked familiar to him. The power stealing Miracular.

But suddenly, she vanished from his sight. Only to then appear with the other akuma.

“Invisibility and power stealing. Sabrina you maybe my favorite servant yet.” Masquerade exclaimed. Two charms appeared on Masquerade’s bracelet, vanishing cream and a tonfa.

Nino took a look at the line up of akuma.

“Dude… this is so not cool.”

Masquerade started to walk towards the DJ with a confident stride, stopping short, looking down at him. An aura of malice emanating from her presence.

“Don’t worry Nino. You’ll be joining them.”

_______________________________________________________________________

(End of Chapter)

So all the pieces are coming together. Will Nathalie be okay in a school filled with akuma? Will Ladybug and Chat noir be able to fight the army of akumatized classmates that Masquerade has been building? Will Kagami be able to get her text book. Will Kim learn that everyone loves him because he is a himbo? Find out by staying tuned. 

Thanks for reading and be sure to comment if you want to see the next part. I am an author and live off validation.

#ml #miraculous ladybug #ml fic #soulmate survey #ml au #soulmate searcher #miraculous fanficiton #ladrien #adrinette #miraculous #masquerade #masquerade akuma #adrien agreste #nathalie sancoeur #chloé bourgeois #ladybug #chat noir #max kante #kim le chien #sabrina raincomprix #nathaniel kurtzberg #rose lavillant #juleka couffaine #julrose #Ivan bruel #mylene haprele #angst #fluff #drama #ml fics

[scapegrace74-blog]

New Ways of Turning into Stone, Chapter 4

A/N  Some strong reactions to the last chapter, which I admit caught me by surprise.   Writing is a funny craft, where you spend a lot of time and effort trying to show your reader exactly the picture you have in your mind, but then also have to surrender to each reader’s interpretation of what you wrote.  That said, some interpretations miss the mark entirely, and for that reason this chapter is entitled “False Assumptions”.   Trigger warning for childhood disease.

Jamie’s weekly appointments continued through the grey slumber of late April and into the wakening month of May.  Thursday became Claire’s favourite day of the week, for reasons she didn’t care to scrutinize too closely.

With regularity came a certain brand of predictability.  Their appointments took one of two forms, she realized.  Some days Jamie was full of life, witty and exasperating by turns.  He would spin long yarns about some trivial aspect of his life, fascinating tales that turned out to be nothing more than surface reflections, revealing little of the murky depths beneath.  He was also adept at using his considerable verbal charm to draw her into divulging more about herself than she ought.  Those visits left her equally frustrated and challenged.

The rest of the time her patient arrived with a weary slump, the thousand watt bulb of his personality dimmed to an occasional flicker.  Given his offhand comment about whisky and women, she tried not to ponder if he was hungover or suffering from the effects of an all-night hook-up.  From a diagnostic point of view these days of low ebb were beneficial because Jamie was far more likely to offer some nugget of inner revelation, truth sneaking out through the cracks of his weakened defences.

“I was away on business, in Hong Kong, when my Da passed,” he said on one such afternoon, the skin below his eyes drawn tight and the copper in his hair somehow muted.

“Did it happen suddenly?” 

“No’ really.  Jen had been at me fer months tae come hame, sayin’ that Da was workin’ himself tae death.”   Jamie looked out the window, eyes reflecting the overcast skies beyond.  “I ignored her.  Too wrapped up in my own grand self tae pay any heed.  Twas Ian, my brother-in-law, who called tae say Da had dropped in the pasture.  Massive coronary.  I caught the first flight back, but he was gone before I landed.”

She watched Jamie’s face closely as he spoke, but beyond the understandable emotion of reliving the sudden loss of a parent, he remained inscrutable.  The urge to draw him out overcame the deference she paid to Jamie’s well-defined boundaries.

“Do you think you’re to blame for his death?” she asked, half-expecting to be met with silence or a nimble deflection.

Jamie shook his head ruefully.

“Nah.  I dinna think I’m tae blame.  I ken it.  I was the only surviving son, ye see?  In the Highlands, tradition is everything, an’ a Fraser man had worked those lands fer generations.  I was only meant tae complete my studies abroad, an’ then return tae Lallybroch and take o’er from Da.  Instead, I left my sister an’ Ian tae watch o’er the farm while I played the business tycoon.”

“Is Lallybroch still in your family?” she wondered aloud, the name rolling about in her mouth like marbles.  

“Jenny and Ian couldna keep it.  I wasna well enough tae object, an’ they sold tae a developer.  It’s some kind of corporate wellness retreat now,” he finished with a distasteful grimace.

For every disclosure Jamie made, two more questions arose in its wake, like hacking away at a many-headed Hydra.  She wished she could delve further, but the chime from her computer announced the end of the session.

“Will I see you next week, Jamie?” she asked as he reluctantly rose to leave.

“Aye,” said with a sad smile.  “I’ll be here.”

***

The following Tuesday, Claire took the afternoon off work to perform an errand she’d long been avoiding.

Her departure from the Royal Hospital for Children had been so precipitous, she hadn’t filed the necessary paperwork to close her employment file.  The Human Resources department had been pestering her to complete the process for months.  The threat of holding up the transfer of her accreditation finally forced her hand.

To her great relief, the personnel offices were nowhere near the actual wards.  They lay at the end of a long white hallway broken by large windows looking into a series of meeting and activity rooms.  Her plan was to get in, sign the damn forms, and leave without running into any former colleagues or patients.   

The sun slanting into one of these sparsely furnished rooms glanced off the top of a bent head, causing it to glow like a freshly minted penny.  She stopped and stared, trying to reconcile the image of James Fraser seated in a too-small plastic chair, surrounded by a group of hospital-gowned children.

He must have caught sight of her while she stood gaping.  Running to the door before she could find the motor function to turn around, he called out joyfully from behind a blue hospital mask.

“Doctor Beauchamp!  Fancy meeting ye here.”

She mumbled something incoherent, damning herself for the blush she felt enveloping her cheeks.   Behind Jamie, a row of dewy eyes watched on.   She recognized the paper-thin skin and missing hair of chemotherapy patients, and a salty knot rose in her throat.

“Can ye spare a few minutes? Ye’re jes the pair of steady hands we need.”

She longed to decline, to disappear, to come up with a plausible excuse why she couldn’t enter that room.  Her heart thumped angrily in her chest, warning of its fragile state.

Seeing her conflict, Jamie extended a welcoming hand.

“Come, Sassenach.  The lassies would love tae meet ye.”

The space smelled of sterile laundry and sawdust.  With a habit borne of years of practice, Claire disinfected her hands in the small utility sink and donned a spare mask from the nearby dispenser, all while wondering what the hell she was doing.

The children were seated on colourful chairs arranged around a low table, its surface covered in pieces of pre-cut lumber, colourful pots of paint, a glue gun and all manner of cheap decorations such as you would find at a craft store.  The little girls ranged in age from pre-school to young teen, but they all looked at Jamie as though he’d hung the moon as he addressed them.

“Ladies, I’d like ye tae meet Doctor Beauchamp.  She’s a braw doctor but I bet she kens next tae nothing about woodwork.  Ye’ll have tae show her how it’s done.”

A chorus of nervous giggles was the only response.  Claire knew from experience that being a medical professional wasn’t going to endear her to children who spent much of their lives being essentially tortured in the name of science, hoping for some kind of miracle.

“Hello, everyone,” she waved meekly.  “You can call me Miss Claire, if you like.  Now, whatever are you doing with all this wood?”

It turned out that Jamie was supervising the construction of a half-dozen birdhouses.  He had pre-cut the lumber for easy assembly, but was assisting each girl to create a custom masterpiece that would hang outside her hospital window.  With the patience and steady manner of a primary school teacher, Jamie led the group through each step.  

A waifish girl of perhaps six sat directly to Claire’s left, her bare scalp covered by a brightly coloured bandana, offset by a huge pair of peacock-blue eyes that glimmered above her mask.  Eyes that were the mirror of the ones that visited her office every Thursday.  Something heavy settled inside her ribs.

“What’s your name, sweetie?” she asked in a low voice as she pushed an open pot of sky blue paint away from the table’s edge.  Small hands busied themselves pulling apart a package of cotton balls that looked suspiciously like the ones kept in the hospital’s supply cabinet.

“Margaret Murray, Doctor, errr, Miss Claire,” came the timid reply.  

Not Fraser, then.  But that didn’t necessarily mean anything.  She snuck a glance across the table at Jamie, who was just then teasing the youngest girl by tickling her cheeks with a fake feather.  Despite her heavy thoughts, she couldn’t help but smile.  That smile faltered when she noticed that the inside of Jamie’s elbows bore a matching set of fresh bandages.   A series of puzzle pieces tumbled into place.

Perhaps sensing the weight of her scrutiny, Jamie looked their way, whistling in admiration when he saw Maggie’s near-complete birdhouse.

“Tis a fine hame ye’ve built fer yer wee birds, Maggie.  What is all yon white fluff for?”

“Tis clouds, Uncle Jamie,” Maggie replied with the certainty of childhood.  “I dinna want the birdies tae miss the sky, even when they arenna flyin’.”

Claire watched the words hit him as surely as though they had been bullets.  A frozen gasp, a shudder that travelled the length of his body and the crest of tears that he tried valiantly to blink away.

“Aye, ye’re right, a nighean.  Any bird would be fair honoured tae sleep in yer skyhouse,” he managed to reply, voice bouldery with contained emotion.

When each birdhouse was complete and left along the window ledge to dry, Jamie set his small crew of helpers the task of clearing up the mess.   Claire stood next to him as he loaded his tools back into a small carrying case.

“Thanks for inviting me to join you, Jamie.  It was... well, it was unexpectedly wonderful,” she admitted.

“Ye’re most welcome, Doctor Beauchamp.  We couldna have managed wi’out yer steady hand manning the glue gun,” he teased.

“You’re not my patient here, Jamie.  You don’t need to use my title,” she said, a bit vexed by his formality.

“Aye, but it doesna feel right tae call ye by yer given name either.  An’ Miss Claire is jes weird.”

She had to acknowledge that he had a point.

“What was it you called me earlier?  Sassa-something?”

“Sassenach.  My Da woulda skelped my hide if he heard me call a lady by that name,” he said ruefully.

“Why, does it mean something terribly offensive?”  She was almost afraid to know, having enjoyed the delusion that Jamie felt as fondly towards her as she did towards him.

“Nah, tis jes an old-fashioned word for an English person in Scotland.  Seemed tae suit ye, is all.”  He shrugged, seemingly embarrassed by the explanation.

“Well then, Sassenach it is.  When I’m not on the clock, that is.”

Jamie’s eyes danced above his mask the way they did when he smiled, and she imagined hers replied in much the same way.  A long moment passed when nothing was said, neither of them looking away.

“You’re her platelet donor,” she said at last.  “Maggie’s, I mean.”

“Aye.  Every week while she’s in hospital for chemotherapy.  Tis the least I can do.”

It was an explanation that fit all the facts, but one that she never would have guessed.  Jamie had always worn long sleeves to his appointments, but she was certain the weeks when he was haggard and worn out coincided with the times he was donating the litres of blood necessary to distill into the platelet concentrate that would then be injected into Maggie’s body, helping her combat the poisonous effects of her chemotherapy.

“Whisky, women and song?” she prodded, relieved and yet frustrated that his offhand comment had kept her from seeing the truth.  “Why didn’t you just tell me, Jamie?”

“I didna want yer pity, Sassenach.  Fer once in my life, tis no’ about me, ye ken?  I didna want ye lookin’ at me like I was some kind of hero.”

She held back her reaction that his was a textbook definition of heroism, and instead asked the next obvious question.

“Are you a compatible bone marrow donor as well?”

Jamie shook his head slowly.  Although he was a close match, he explained, it wasn’t close enough.   Maggie’s older brother, Wee Jamie, was a perfect match but the law prohibited him from becoming a donor until he was at least sixteen, in seven long years.

“We’re jes tryin’ tae buy her enough time,” he said sadly before stepping out of the room, explaining he’d be back momentarily.

Claire stood in a daze, running through everything she’d assumed about Jamie in light of these newest facts.  A light tug on her hand drew her back into the moment.  Maggie was looking up at her with wide, trusting eyes.

“Are ye the Sassenach lady Uncle Jamie and my Mam argue about?”

“I suppose I might be,” she replied, curious what had been said between the siblings that Maggie had overheard.

“Are ye a heart doctor?” Maggie continued.

“Well, no.  Not exactly.  I’m the kind of doctor who helps people who are sad, and I try to find a way for them to be happy again.”  It sounded so easy when explaining it to a six year old.

“Sometimes Mam and Da talk about Uncle Jamie when they dinna ken I’m listenin’.  I’m verra good at sneakin’,” Maggie confided, and Claire couldn’t help but smile.  What a precious child.    “I’m sure you are,” she replied warmly, a hand coming to rest gently on the tiny cloth-covered head.

“Mam says Uncle Jamie is more stubborn than a mule and that he canna see past his own big heid,” Maggie continued.  Claire couldn’t say that she disagreed with that assessment.

“But Da says Uncle Jamie’s heart has been broken too many times, and thas’ why he’s given up on living.  Can ye fix his heart, Miss Claire, so that it isna broken any more?”

She couldn’t have stopped her tears if she tried.   She knelt on the floor and gathered Maggie’s thin, fragile body in her arms.

“Oh, Maggie.  I’m certainly going to try.”

#my writing #outlander

[slutsofren]

Danger Days Chapter 9: Give ‘em Hell Kid

summary: after taking care of the stragglers, you make way to find Ellie amidst of all the chaos that follows her and you come face to face with a blast from the past

word count: 2,754 im gonna make up for all these short chapters i swear!!

content warnings: blood mention (i mean c'mon y'all know exactly what this fic is), animal death, somebody gets murdered a bit violently

notes: just wanna say a little thank you for all the recent influx of subs/bookmarks/comments/kudos/follows on here and on ao3, y'all warm my heart. also, the next few chapters will deviate from the tlou timeline to make way for some angst :^))))

read on ao3 here / masterlist

Your lungs were burning with each breath. Huffs escaped you. Aches filtered through your body. Running, chasing, fighting. Ellie was in deep shit and you prayed she was alright. Following after her path, you tracked your girl.

It didn’t take much to figure out which way Ellie went, between the very obvious messy shoe prints of the men chasing after her and the hoof-marks. It made finding her all that much easier. You trekked through the slosh of the muddied snow until you came across a striking stain of red. Your steps faltered and you took the sight in, the sight of blood in between all the white and brown that overlooked a small cliff. Stopping dead in your tracks, your breath hitched as you peered over.

A gasp in horror escaped you when you saw the lifeless body of dear Callus. Quickly jumping, you dropped from the ledge he was under and landed on your knees with a harsh ‘oomph’. The pain tingled up to your spine.

Scrambling up to check on Callus, looking for any sign Ellie was hurt only to find none. You brushed the dark hair on the horse, “I’m sorry Callus.” Mentally sending an apology to Cherry too. She was going to be sad when she hears but if anything, she’d take the apology in exacting revenge on his murderers.

Kneeling on the cold ground, you sent a silent wish to the stars, wishing that Callus will be taken care off wherever he is, noting how he was such a good horse, how he will be greatly missed but was certainly loved. He may have been just a horse, but even then, horses were smart and sentient. He knew.

Just as you finished your well-wishes, the horror quickly engulfed your mind. The worry grew for just a moment as you continued on the path, leaving the dear horse behind until you stumbled upon dead body after dead body, all leading in a patch down to a lake then to a little cabin, long since forgotten shops, and up the stairs to some sort of lakeside hotel, anger finally settling in your bones.

You found yourself following a trail of blood, gore, and footsteps, pride warming in your chest. That’s my girl, you silently praised. You drew a knife and a gun, as you approached what looked to be some lakeside market, too many hidey holes to walk through here confidently. Nevertheless, you marched on.

The path led you to an abandoned lodge overlooking the lake but no sign of Ellie, just more dead bodies of those bastards.

It would have been a beautiful sight long ago, in the time before. Now it was an empty and hollow shell of its former self, littered with gore.

Even shuffling as quickly as you could through the main hall of the resort yielded nothing to finding your dear young companion, not as the sun was really setting low. Had that much time passed, you thought worriedly.

You kicked an overturned table and groaned loudly, not giving a shit if somebody heard you. Letting yourself be mad for just a moment before taking a deep breath and exhaling. At this point, you weren’t sure if you’d want to move stealthy, try and make as much noise as possible just to take some of the heat off your girl.

Frustrated still, you left the resort and circled outside to locate another set of footsteps, likely of them chasing after her. It looked almost as if there was a small fucking army chasing her but still, you didn’t spot anybody. Much to your chagrin.

Taking off once more, you cursed as the visibility lowered. The snow was progressively picking up all around you causing some of the footsteps to slowly disappear.

It was swirling around in a thick blanket in the air, covering the footsteps you had been following. It felt like you were running against the clock and you took off running, focused on the remaining trail until you heard it.

Loud and metallic. A bell. Faint but there. A city center with a tolling bell possibly?

You didn't think twice about changing your direction and moving faster through the storm.

Motivated even more so, you continued on this path, following the chime until you came into view of a cheap haphazardly thrown together defense wall. Ducking behind a nearby structure, you looked on, assessing it as best you could with the little visibility you had.

Faintly, you could make out concrete walls with some barbaric barbed wire thrown lazily against it, many many weaknesses here and there. Most importantly, you noticed there was nobody manning the walls.

You ran and ducked every so often, listening for voices but finding none. Instead, you followed the bloodied trail Ellie left behind her. It was almost like a taunt to the others in this community, or maybe even a gumdrop-like trail for you, screaming ‘come find me’. Whatever it was, only a mark of design by the tough kid wanting nothing but to simply stay alive.

Pocketing your weapons, you took a few steps back then ran.

It was almost too easy to just jump the fence but you did, after hesitating ever so slightly. Your breaths were now heavy huffs, your lungs were cursing you to stop but you refused to, not when Ellie was in danger.

Then, arming yourself with your knives you tried to make your way through the town as stealthy as possible. Only taking out whoever was in your path but aiming not to make a spectacle before you could locate Ellie within this town.

Every time you took down one of those gruesome bastards, you didn’t dare to stop and search them. Your only goal was to find Ellie. You could hear the men talking about her and how she got away, sparking pride within you once more as you took off, following the chaos she left in her wake. Noting how some of the bodies were still warm, their leaked blood still sticky.

Turning the corner of a mechanics garage, a loud thunderous snap echoed through the area. 

Startled, you pulled back into a crouch and watched as a large fire erupted in the distance. That spark of hope igniting as bright as the fire, signaling Ellie fighting back like hell. 

“Shit,” you sighed trying to catch your breath. You rose to your feet and took off faster now, headed towards the explosion.

Off through the thick sheet of snow, you could faintly make out a large sign above a dinner, displaying the name Todd’s across it. You could hear somebody yelling from inside and aimed for it, the fire barely catching your attention.

Time was running against you, as it always did. The fire grew hotter, the building more dangerous. These were the least of your worries.

You were beyond frustrated as you circled the building, aside from the very obvious and intentional door being lit on fire that was growing at a rapid pace, there were no other entrances you could see aside from a dozen unbroken windows. 

It took a couple tries to find an entrance that was viable, feeling like you were running out of time as the male voice from inside grew louder, as you could hear bullets fly just as the man was yelling. Thankfully you did find a cracked window.

Judging by the amount of noise already happening inside and assessing the risk, you figured breaking it wouldn’t alert anybody so you did just that and crawled through, doing your best not to scrape your knees.

Gaining your footing, you looked around and saw you were in some sort of kitchen for the diner. There were large stainless steel surfaces, looking moderately clean. That’s not what got your attention, but the screaming match happening in the dining area.

It took you a minute but you got close to the ground, snapping to the corner as to not give away your position, not as you saw a large man with a beard towering over a small figure- Ellie.

Your brows furrowed in anger as you ran, planning on tackling this man but he was knocked over to the side as Ellie wacked at him endlessly with a machete, hacking him to death. Overkill.

One, two, three. Each swing she grew more and more violent,

Yelling for her to stop, she continued her attack, until you grabbed her against her back, holding her close to stop her. She tried to fight against you, almost throwing you to the ground. “I got you, sweetheart, I got you.” Petting her hair, trying to calm her down, she recognized your voice and she slumped in your arms.

You were exhausted, the adrenaline slowly leaving your blood gave way to the roaring pain in your lungs and muscles. Surely you’d be sore for the coming days. Even so, the pain would have been nothing next to losing either Joel or Ellie.

The two of you stayed like that, holed up in a grimey embrace for a few moments. You repeatedly ran your fingers through her tangled up brown hair as she hiccupped the last of her sobs into your coat. The only sounds permeating the moment were of Ellie and the fire.

Fuck. The fire.

Just as you realized the predicament the two of you were in, the blackened smoke scratched and irritated your eyes, throat, and lungs. It was suffocating you and doing worse to Ellie,

If it weren’t for the raging blaze that was spreading, you would have left much sooner. “Sweetheart, I think it’s time to go.”

Ellie didn’t respond and you were about to repeat yourself until you heard heavy footfalls behind you. Moving the distraught and distracted teen slightly, you drew one of your guns and aimed, about to shoot but were stopped when you took notice of just who was standing there, palms up in defense.

Joel.

Joel was alive, right there.

Ellie recognized him before you could even register what was happening. She jumped out of your arms into his, babbling about David and crying once more. He calmed her, mumbling “Oh, baby girl… It’s okay, it’s okay.”

You watched from the floor as he tried to wipe the blood from her tear stained cheeks, barely keeping your own shit together.

“C’mon,” he said, not looking at you, “let’s get outta here.”

You rose from your haunches, swaying just a little at the inner emotional whirlwind you were facing mixed on top of the physical toll you were feeling. You watched as Joel put his arm around Ellie, walking her out the way he came in. Both of them were limping slightly. Following the two of them, you kicked the dead man just once as Joel led you both out of the burning building to your horse, Whiskey.

He turned around to say something but cut himself off, taking in the sight of you. “Shit, Are you okay?”

You followed his gaze to where your clothes were coated in a disastrous mixture of blood, dirt, and stars know what else. “It’s not mine.”

He looked like he wanted to look you over but he focused on Ellie instead, giving her a helping hand onto the horse. Joel gestured for you to get on behind her but you shook him off, “No. I’ll meet you back at the house.”

“If you don’t get on the goddamned-,” he began to argue but you shut him down.

“I’m not going to fuckin’ argue with you right now.” You checked over your horse, noticing how Joel didn’t bring anything then approached Ellie, “Hey, sweetheart. Think you can handle leading Whiskey and Joel back to the house?”

She wiped away her tears and nodded, “I think so.”

“Good. I’ll see you there soon.”

Joel opened his mouth to counter you but you stood up to him, on your toes. You had grabbed his jacket and pulled him close, getting in his face. “You take our girl back to the fuckin’ house and you make sure neither you nor her go off the rails or so help me, I will finish what that rebar started and end you. Got it?”

You were tired, you were angry, you were relieved. But most of all, you were pissed the fuck off. Not necessarily at him but at, well, at everything. Being this troupe’s sole caretaker for the past few weeks was taking its toll.

Just as you got into his face, he got into yours. At only a hair's breadth away he threatened you all the same, “You do not get to be angry with me, you do not get to push me around, got it?”

His brown eyes bore into yours, you could see he was more exhausted than anything but you were not going to let him be the judge of what happens next. “Fuck you, Joel Miller. We saved your life, hell, I saved your life. You owe me. Now you’re going to get on that fucking horse with Ellie and you are going to the safe house and we are leaving this goddamned shithole. Together. In one piece.”

“Please, Joel, let’s get out of here,” Ellie’s weak voice interrupted. 

The near-dyin’ old bastard opened his mouth to counter you again but decided against it. Most likely for Ellie’s sake.

Joel leans close to you and whispers a threat in your ear, “If you’re not back by nightfall, we’ll leave without you.”

“I don’t doubt it,” you snap.

He takes a half step back, his tired brown eyes meeting yours. For a flash you think he wants to apologize but he doesn’t, his pride wouldn’t let him anyways. This was the game the two of you have played all these months. This push-and-pull bullshit. It was tiresome in situations like these, the dire need of survival, but during those blissful moments of reprieve, it brought you joy.

Joel’s heavy footfalls penetrated the tense air even as he saddled up in front of Ellie. He calls your name and in his roundabout way, bargains with you. “Come back alive.”

Before you could even answer or reply, he’s off with a huff. Ellie strapped closely behind him.

Watching them go, you ducked and retraced your steps in the heavy and blinding snow. The storm hadn’t let up and likely wouldn’t any time soon. It worked well into your favor for now.

The journey back wasn’t as arduous or as dramatic as the way forward but you made it back to the safe house without incident. The whole time your mind juggled between the mixed emotions of Joel. Gratitude he was alive, joy that he was walking and talking, anger that he was walking and talking and not resting.

There was just a lot happening all at once. It’s why you wanted to be alone for the time being. Too many emotions swirled in you, too many thoughts, too much of everything. The bitter cold nipping at your fingertips helped, kept you grounded.

At least until you heard the low grumbling of Joel coaxing Ellie back to the land of the living, much as you both did the same to him these past few weeks. His voice trailed up the basement and didn’t stop as your steps echoed through the stairwell. 

When you stopped at the final landing did you look up. He was holding her close as she cried, she still hadn’t stopped. His hands, bruised and bloodied from stars know what, coaxed themselves through her messy hair. The sight of them both covered in other people’s blood hurt you in ways that no wound could ever compare to.

He was whispering nothings to her, praises for her fighting, echoing words of ‘shh, it’s okay’, repeatedly in a low soft voice. You came close to the two of them sitting on the lone mattress, “Hey, sweetheart, I’m back.”

Joel looked up at you again, looking over you. Taking in the sight of you now. He gave you a tense nod as Ellie reached around for your hand and squeezed it. Once she let you go you brushed her hair from her face and slowly stood.

“I’m going to pack up everything and we’re going to leave here, put this shit behind us.”

The two of them said nothing but Joel caught your eye and silently, you both came to an agreement. Whatever bullshit you two had, when it came to Ellie, she came first.

Isn’t that what family is for?

#pedro pascal #joel miller #the last of us #joel miller x reader #joel (the last of us) #joel the last of us #joel miller / reader #joel tlou x reader insert #joel tlou x reader #joel tlou #joel miller x you #joel tlou x you #pedro pascal joel miller #pedro pascal x y/n #pedro pascal x reader #pedro pascal as joel in the last of us #pedro pascal fanfiction #pedro pascal characters #posted on ao3 #asher's writing #danger days fic

[flooffybits]

Fly High

Memories can never be altered, but they can be retained and shared no matter how long.

Back || Next

After a long shower and getting dressed, you head to the living room, notebook, phone, and pocket watch all sitting on the table as you carefully wrap your burnt hand, also covering the one on your arm after applying a bit of medicine on them.

While you did that, you tried to think and make sense of everything that's happened thus far. The dreams were becoming a little more sensible with what the girls told you, it was only a matter of believing everything they said and will say later on.

You're just not sure how much you can take.

You're broken out of your thoughts by the ringing of your phone. Finishing up the bandages, you grab the device and answer, though a bit hesitant. "Hey… I was just about to call." There's a bit of silence, almost as though she were thinking of what to properly say. "Dami is going to walk with you. She's waiting for you in the lobby."

The information makes you pause, glancing around the room, and your eyes land on the windows and mirror. "I… see. I was just getting ready." Why Yubin needed to walk with you was beyond you. As far as you knew, she disliked you just as much as Yoohyeon did. 

But with what Yoohyeon said last night, maybe there was just too much you were missing and there were a lot more things they weren't ready to tell you the way you weren't ready to hear them.

The man that was chasing after you was still a mystery. What the girls wanted, why you had to rescue Yoohyeon in the first place, everything still lacked answers.

“Y/n.” Minji’s gentle voice cuts you out of your train of thoughts. “I don’t know if you’re ready to know everything or not, but in the event that it all becomes overwhelming, we’ll stop. We can give you time - to think, to breathe, whatever it is you need.” She assures you with so much confidence and conviction that you believe her right away. "Okay." You mumble quietly, staring at your hand, the pocket watch resting on the palm of it. "I'll see you soon."

"See you."

When the line cuts, you put the watch in your pocket and then sling your bag over your shoulder before heading out, locking the door as you left and then headed down to meet up with Yubin, not wanting to keep her waiting long.

It's easy to spot her with the few people coming in and out of the building and she smiles lightly in greeting, but her eyes flit over to your arm and hand. "You're hurt." Even with how little she's spoken, the worry was there, along with the way her forehead creased together. "It's alright, not as painful as it looks." You say softly before gesturing to the entrance. "Let's go?"

Nodding, you both depart from the apartment complex and head for the direction of Minji's house where most of the girls were probably already present.

"Yoohyeon went ahead this morning. She said that there were some things she wanted to finish before talking with you." The short haired woman explained and you hum in reply. Yubin glances at you while walking and adjusts her jacket around herself. "You have something on your mind - aside from everything that's going on." She comments and you almost smile at her observation before shrugging your shoulders.

"I'm just confused is all. I always thought Yoohyeon hated me since I accidentally bumped into her." You answer and Yubin chuckles before shaking her head. "Yoohyeon doesn't hate you. Quite the contrary, she loves you a whole lot more than I can even imagine." She says when you enter the park.

You raise a brow at the younger girl, but she continues to speak without looking back at you. "She sees you so much like an older sister, ever since we all met at the house. You were the first she's gotten comfortable with and there was barely a time you were apart that it made me a bit jealous before Yoohyeon and I started dating."

"I… can imagine that happening." With how she described your and Yoohyeon’s supposed relationship, it did make sense that Yubin would have been jealous of you.

Her smile is reminiscent when she turns back to you. "To be honest, I was never able to properly thank you when you helped us get together. I was so blinded with the idea that you and Yoohyeon were more than just friends. Aside from that, I was scared that my feelings would have ruined my friendship with not only Yoohyeon, but you, too. But you knocked some sense into me after finding out." She said with a little laugh and the story intrigues you.

"That sounds like quite the story." You comment and she nods instantly. "Do you want to make a little detour while I tell you?" There's a spark of happiness in her eyes that you find it impossible to decline, so Yubin leads you to a different path, somewhere that was more filled with trees and closer to the lake.

"We weren't the closest." She begins. "I was much more quiet before, especially around you and Yoohyeon. Handong unnie was the person I always talked to, but I never told her about my crush, either." She explained. "When it came to it, Siyeon unnie and Gahyeon said I was acting weird, and I admit that it was childish of me." She laughed, making you smile as you listen, the events popping in your head as though her memory was being transmitted to you.

"We were all supposed to go out and just look for a village or anything farther than our safe zone. But they decided that we weren't allowed to come until we fixed whatever argument we had going on." She says with an embarrassed laugh. 

The little pout on the quiet teen's lips was hard to miss as she sat beside Handong while she watched you and Yoohyeon running around the large garden, both covered in a bit of dirt that Bora would surely scold you for.

Your laughter mixed together and the girls were all enjoying the time they had together.

"Y/n! Yoohyeon!"

The loud voice caused the two of you to stop as you tripped and crashed against the younger girl when you came to an abrupt pause, both landing to the ground and further ruining your clothes as the older girl pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed in exasperation.

"I told you not to get your clothes dirty! You just got changed!" The second eldest scolded as the two of you sat down with matching pouts on your faces. "But unnie! You were taking too long and we got bored." You retorted, Yoohyeon nodding in agreement while she clung to your arm. "We were having fun and we can clean up after!" She added, making Bora groan while rubbing her temples. "You need to get changed so we can go. Put your clothes in the wash and hurry up."

Your face lights up at the remark and you quickly grabbed Yoohyeon’s hand to lead her back inside the house.

"Oh, give them a break. You know that they're only having fun." Minji patted her friend's arm as they watched your figures disappearing into the house. "Now, we have to wait even longer though." Yubin grumbled quietly and Siyeon rose a brow at her sulky expression before she had nudged her younger sister's arm.

The youngest looked up from her book and blinked before she realized what her sister was gesturing to and then jumped up. "Actually, I think you and Y/n unnie should stay home today, unnie."

Everyone's head snapped to the two sisters while Siyeon nodded her head quickly. "Why all of a sudden?" Handong inquired, voicing out everyone's question. "Dami and Y/n have been really weird lately. I just think they should talk and fix whatever issue they have between them before they can come with all of us."

"I don't have a problem with Y/n unnie." Yubin immediately defended, making Siyeon's statement seem even more sensible when the rest of the girls realized that there had been some sort of tension between you.

"Did you two get into a fight or something?" Minji asked worriedly, and the younger girl frantically shook her head. “Of course not! I could never fight with unnie.” She huffed, arms crossed over her chest. “I mean, they do have a point. You always sulk whenever Y/n is around.” Handong pointed out and the girl felt her face flush. “Do not!”

“Oh, come on, Dami. If you do have a problem with Y/n, just talk to her. I’m sure, whatever it is, she’ll help fix it with you.” Bora waved her hand dismissively while the said girl could only sigh when she realized that no one would be listening to her nor would she be getting out of this.

In the end, after informing the two of you when you returned, Yubin felt just a tad bit guilty when she saw your and Yoohyeon’s excitement be replaced by confusion and then sadness with having to be apart from the whole group.

“Yoohyeon, let’s go!” The poor girl could only pout as Gahyeon took the tallest’s hand and started to lead her out of the gates of the mansion while she looked back at you as you offered the younger girl a small smile and waved your hand. “Just come back home safe! I’ll be waiting!”

Yubin ended up watching you as you sat by the window, legs swinging underneath you with Pie snuggling on your lap as you waited for everyone to come home from their trip. Since you had given her to Yoohyeon as a gift a few years back, it made sense how she was also more clingy with you than just her owner.

"Do you think they'll be out long?" Your sudden question catches her by surprise, but the younger girl keeps her calm expression on as she glances at the clock, seeing that it has been over two hours since the rest of the girls have left. "I'm not sure. They did say they wanted to find a safe village or at least something else in the forest." Yubin replied as she turned her eyes back to her book. 

You pout when you finally leave the window, opting to just lay on the floor with Pie walking around your body, only to settle with her head on your shoulder, breathing out as you scratched between her ears.

Another silence hangs over the air and Yubin had trouble focusing on her book as her eyes kept shifting to you. The silence is only once again broken by you, asking a question that leaves the younger girl stunned.

"Dami-ah, did I do something to anger you?"

This time, she completely ignores the book on her lap and she looks at you, a frown on her face as she shifted so her body was facing you. "Of course not. I could never be angry with you, unnie." She reasons and you turn your head a bit to look at her. "But you don't like talking to me anymore. Siyeon unnie even pointed out that you look at me funny."

Hearing that caused the younger girl to groan before shaking her head. As much as she would like to tell you her actual reasoning, she just couldn't seem to reveal how she was crushing on someone who could possibly already be in a relationship.

But with your abilities being a bit unstable, still, you were able to catch snippets of her thoughts.

'... jealous of… Yoohyeo… like… you.'

Your eyes widened a bit as you sat up, causing Pie to bark slightly before she ran off somewhere in the house, probably looking for Cherry to play as you looked at the younger girl.

"I- uh…" Flustered, you shake your head before looking around awkwardly. "Dami… if there's something you want to tell me…" Her brows furrow a bit in confusion, but when she sees the look on your face, it doesn’t take her long to figure what you had done and her face flushed red.

“W-Wait! It isn’t- unnie, I promise I’m not… I don’t-”

But you were already standing and walking over to join her on the couch. “Dami, relax, just take a deep breath and breathe.” You were afraid she’d go into a panic so you did your best to calm her down. “I… don’t know how to talk about all of this.” You gesture around. “But, I know we can figure something out.”

“But you and Yoohyeon?” You blink confusedly at the younger girl and shake your head. “Look, Yoohyeon is like a little sister to me, but I can’t do that to her. While I do appreciate your feelings, I can only see you as a sister, too. But Yoohyeon really likes you and-”

“Wait, what?” Yubin’s eyes went wide, a mortified look on her face as she forcefully shook her head. “I-I don’t like you!” She managed to stop your rambling and you look at her as she begins to feel her anxiety shoot up. “No, wait, that’s not what I meant.” Her book had been discarded on the couch as she ran her fingers through her hair. “I do like you, but not as if I like you!”

You kept your mouth shut as the younger girl had a short mental breakdown and you began to realize that what you had heard wasn’t exactly the entirety of what she wanted to say.

So, with a sigh of relief, you smile and place a hand over hers. “Dami, I think I get it.”

You don’t realize how far you’ve walked until Yubin stopped walking and looked around, letting a bird land on her finger. “Right after that, you helped me finally tell Yoohyeon how I felt no matter how skeptical I was about her liking me back.”

Yubin gently pets its head before letting the bird go, watching as it soars to the sky whilst you pause in your stop and blink rapidly, rubbing your forehead as the images seemed to grow vividly in your mind as though they were your own and Yubin smiled when she realized.

“You saw it?” You look over at her confusedly, but nod your head slowly. “What was…” She hums while looking at the shining water. “That was exactly what happened. Maybe it was your abilities acting up, and you saw my memories.” She says and you’re puzzled. “My abilities?”

She nods, but says nothing more while leading you further down the path. “We’ll tell you everything at the house. I’m sure Jiu unnie won’t appreciate it if I tell you everything instead.” You frown slightly before asking. “Does Minji make the rules for everyone?”

But she shakes her head with a smile on her face. “No, unnie just gives advice on what we should do since she’s the eldest. It was natural for her to take on the role as the leader. But I think it’s better if she told you this, herself.” She states and you can’t quite pinpoint the meaning behind her smile.

A little after, you arrive at the house, only this time, you were at the back and Gahyeon was already there with an amused look on her face. “You sure took your time, unnie.” She commented before turning to you. “Everyone else is here, Dong unnie is just grabbing some stuff, but she’ll be here in a while.” She explained while opening the door.

“Where have you been and why did you come in through the back?” Bora asked confusedly while Yubin passed the kitchen to find her girlfriend. “We took a detour. Dami was just telling me some stuff.” You say while watching as she joined her girlfriend, picking Pie up when the latter seemed to have trouble getting her.

Bora raised a brow and Gahyeon handed you a glass of water. “Like what?” She inquired while taking a seat and you stare at the glass. “Just… how her and Yoohyeon got together. It was an interesting story.” You smile and Siyeon crinkled her nose at the memory. “God, that was frustrating to see. But who knew Dami would ever be jealous?” She teased, earning a light smack on the arm by her girlfriend.

“Leave her alone. You and Gahyeon got what was coming to you when you wouldn’t stop pestering her.” Bora reminded as the two sisters pouted. “We were trying to help.” They reasoned before you giggle and take a sip of your water.

Heading to the living room, you look around in search of the owner of the house, only for Handong to come down from the second floor. “Jiu unnie is preparing everything, so don’t worry.” You’re surprised by her sudden arrival but know enough not to question how she arrived.

“You’re hurt.” Looking up, you see Yoohyeon staring at the bandages on your hand and arm before nodding your head. “One of the, uh, things last night wouldn’t let go so I got a bit burned.” You explain and Siyeon frowns apologetically when Yoohyeon moves to grab a first aid kit.

Bora was already at your side and had her hand out, silently asking to see your injuries before you place your hand over hers. She carefully undoes the loose bandages before inspecting the burns. “I can see that, at least, your medical skills are improving.” She says with a smile before taking the kit from Yoohyeon and then opening it.

The taller woman doesn’t move as she watches, worry clear in her eyes when she sees the burns. “Do you need anything else?” She asks and Bora shakes her head. “No, it’s alright. They aren’t that serious.” She states before moving to your forearm and then fixing the bandages as well.

Yoohyeon purses her lips but takes a step back before feeling a hand slip into her own. Looking beside her, Yubin gives her an encouraging smile before leading her to sit as everyone waits for Minji to finish up.

A few minutes pass with you just observing as the girls talk amongst themselves. What happened with Yubin ran through your head, wondering about the ability you apparently had. But you don’t delve too deep when the eldest of the group finally let herself come down, arms filled with candles and some other items that you can’t exactly make out.

Gahyeon moves to help her and they all take one candle, each. Blinking, you watch them all forming a circle before Siyeon flicked her wrist and each candle lit up. After doing so, they set it on the floor after Handong set the carpet aside and Yoohyeon pushed the coffee table away from the center to give them space.

“Wai- what are you doing?” You ask nervously, recognizing the circle from the mansion. “It’s necessary to show you everything you need to know.” Yoohyeon says softly when she gestures for the two dogs to go upstairs.

Yubin places an open book and dreamcatcher at the center of the circle before stepping back out. Handong takes the little container before sprinkling some sort of powder around the circle.

“This is looking more and more like a ritual.” You muttered while taking a step back, but Bora gently gripped your shoulder to keep you from moving. “Stay still and be calm.” She instructs and you look back as Minji looks at you while biting her lip.

Bora gives her a nod before the older woman walks over to take your hand as the rest finish up. “I know this is all weird, but I need you to keep trusting me.” She tells you in a gentle tone and you anxiously stare at her. “... I do.”

She cracks a small smile, squeezing your hand before nodding her head. “Okay.” When she turns back, she brings you closer to the circle, only to stop outside the candles. She stares at it for a second before reluctantly releasing your hand. “Step inside, and everything will go from there.”

You look at the book, the pages starting to turn on their own as though being blown by an unknown wind, and the dreamcatcher’s feathers do the same. The more you stare at it, the more you’re compelled to come closer.

When you’re finally inside, you don’t even realize it as the centerpiece and strings of the dreamcatcher begin to glow only for you.

At the same time, something in your pocket begins to grow heavy, and when you reach inside, you grab onto the pocket watch before bringing it out, surprising the girls as they all see it for the first time.

The design on the watch begins glowing as well, much like the first time, and when you turn it around, the hands begin to move. You don’t hear the sound of any of the girls speaking outside the circle, almost as though you were under water.

Everything spins, making you dizzy that it forces your eyes to close and for you to hold your head. Outside, Minji and Yoohyeon nearly move from their place, but a quick look from the others has them halting as they all continue to watch until everything eventually fades away.

Opening your eyes, you find yourself back in the mansion. But this time, you weren’t alone. All of the girls were still there, but their clothes have changed into the ones you saw them wearing in your dreams.

Minji wore the same suit, her hair tied, leaving some out to frame her face. Bora wore a white long sleeve blouse under a checkered blazer with a black bow tie and then a black skirt, her hair let down in waves. Siyeon had on a purple off shoulder and black leggings. Handong wore a seemingly knitted black and white dress, the black being fishnets and Yoohyeon had a laced black dress that reached just above her ankles while Yubin wore a black and red suit with the black being the majority of its color. Lastly, you see Gahyeon wearing a beige colored top with zippers across the chest and a denim skirt designed with various belts across it.

“I guess this isn't exactly the most appropriate time to say welcome home.” Handong tells you and you looked around the large garden, seeing all the greenery and various statues that littered the lawn. “Home?” You echo while looking at the whole house, this being the first time you’ve seen it in the light.

Minji steps forward and lets out a breath. “We all lived here ever since we were children.” She informs you while tucking her hair behind her ear. “We were all dropped off here at such a young age when our parents found out we were different.” She looks at you to find the troubled look once again on your face, knowing that you can’t recall any memory about a family member.

“I was here the longest. I think I was four at the time and then Jiu came a few months after.” Bora muttered when she looked at the large mansion, each girl having a somber look on their faces as you tried to understand why you would all be left at such a place.

“No one looked after us, we were just… left here to fend for ourselves.” Yubin shrugged her shoulders and you could feel the sadness creeping up your chest. “But why? How are we so different?” You question and Yoohyeon purses her lips. “We’re gifted, but everyone else said we were cursed.” She explains and Siyeon sighed while rubbing Gahyeon’s arm. “Some of us... didn’t have a choice. Mine and Gahyeon’s abilities were too risky especially when we had no idea of controlling it. I set things on fire and she freezes whatever she comes in contact with.” There’s a frown on Gahyeon’s usually smiling face and you can’t even imagine being casted out at such a young age.

“People were afraid of us, so they only did what they could do; get rid of the source of their fears." You blink when figures appear before you, each girl looking transparent, young.

You recognize them from the pictures inside the mansion and it doesn't take long to figure out who these children were.

Walking closer, you observe as each one gazes back, outside the gates and then back to the large building. There's reluctance and fear on each of their faces and you feel your heart ache when you see two girls struggling to enter the vicinity.

One of them was most probably older, looking to be around six while the other was no older than three years old. Both girls were crying, but the older one was doing her best to assure the younger girl that they would be okay.

"I never wanted to tell Gahyeon the truth about our parents being afraid of us. She was too young to understand anything, just afraid of the things she could do." Siyeon spoke from next to you, her eyes distant as she stared at the fading figure of her younger self.

Looking back, you see another figure all alone. It was easy for you to tell that this was you. Your younger self looked so… terrified, clothes torn and dirty, almost as though someone had dragged you along the forest floor just to bring you where you were.

You stare at each other for a long while before a hand pulls you back. "We never knew what you were running from." Minji tells you as she watches your past self move to shut the gate and then hurry into the house. "You just ran, asking for help, and passed out. By the time you woke up, we couldn't get you to talk, the only time I realized why you came was when you let me hear your thoughts."

"My thoughts?" You echo, even more confused as she let out a sigh. "Just like us, you have an ability of your own, Y/n." She tells you and Handong nodded her head. "Telepathy. You can hear other people's thoughts and share your own to whoever you allow to hear them." She explains carefully, slowly, for you to properly take in. "Aside from that, you're capable of delving into people's memories, too, though that took you a little while longer to figure out." Bora added with a smile.

You look back at the house and the others nod their head before leading you inside. "Come on."

If you were capable of doing all of this, then why couldn't you recall any of this nor were you able to do anything they had told you? You couldn't telepathically communicate with anyone, but on the other hand, you were able to see Yubin's memory of how you had supposedly helped her and Yoohyeon get together.

Yoohyeon opened the door and allowed everyone inside, you coming in last as you slowly took a step in.

With everything finally lit up, you were able to get a good look inside, marveling at the various paintings and decorations that lined the walls. Everything looked much more beautiful when you could see it and it even felt oddly… nostalgic.

Arriving at the room you quickly recognized from Yubin's memory, the younger girl smiled at you when you looked over at her, nodding before she gestured around. You take in every detail of the rooms, reaching out to gently touch some of the ornaments that were hanging around and the pictures and paintings that lined the walls. 

You were able to identify the girls' faces when they were younger and you find it very odd yet comforting to see your own younger self smiling with them. Pictures of what looked like birthdays or just random everyday occurrences were set everywhere and you can't help smiling as you see one of all of you in, what appeared to be, the garden and having a picnic.

There are voices again when you stare at it, the familiar giggles and shouting as you gently pick up the photo whilst the others watch you from behind.

Gahyeon squeezes Minji's hand when she sees the eldest staring longingly whilst you tried to recall everything they were able to retain.

"I… don't remember any of these. But I can hear…" When you look back, they smile at you and Minji sucks in a deep breath. "Maybe that's your memory kicking in, or ours and your abilities are just subconsciously working." She offers and you nod slowly while setting the photo back in its place.

"Come on, there's a room I think you should see the most." Handong ushers you up the stairs and you obediently follow after her, the others not too far behind.

If she were taking you to the same place you had woken from a few nights ago, then you could only assume which room she was talking about.

"The place is big, but eventually we all settled with the bedrooms on the second floor." Yoohyeon informs you without looking your way. "Mine and Jiu unnie are over here." Siyeon points to the doors on the left side of the left corridor. "And then Sua unnie and Yoohyeon are across ours." She added while pointing to each door.

"Gahyeon's and Dongie's are over here." Bora gestured to the right before pointing to the one's across the two rooms. "And over here are-" 

"Mine and Dami’s?" You finish for her, eyes already set on the door farthest to the right. "Well, it looks like you remembered that from the other night." Handong chuckled before leading you to your previous room, opening the door and letting you step inside.

As soon as you set foot inside the room, it looked nothing like when you first woke there.

The whole place was bright and full of color. Trinkets were placed on the shelves and desk, a few notebooks and doodles sitting on top of it. There were various other things, almost a collection, and Bora grinned before she stepped over to you.

"Mind if I borrowed that watch of yours?"

You look at her and reach for the said item, carefully turning it over before carefully handing it over, almost as though you were reluctant to part from it. "Oh, relax. I'm just going to fix it." The older woman chuckled before she laid the watch on the palm of her hand, letting you watch as the hands suddenly began working and the glass started to slowly mend itself back together.

Your eyes widened in awe as the watch was finally restored to its former glory before the brunette handed it back to you with a giggle. "I know how much you like your gifts." She tells you and you stare at the watch, the thinner hand ticking away and you thank her without even thinking.

"This is mine?" You ask for clarification, unsure if this was another trick, but Yoohyeon nods her head. "It was something we gave you as a birthday present." But Yubin gave her a small nudge before shaking her head and taking over. "Yoohyeon got that for you."

A light blush appeared on her girlfriend's cheeks as she turned her head away while the others laughed at her antics. "You always talked about how pocket watches amaze you, so during one of our outings, she went and found one for you with the help of a few friends."

"We have other friends who don't live here?" You ask confusedly but Siyeon laughs before she points to the silver haired female. "By friends, she means the animals Yoohyeon talks to."

"Animals?" You're even more confused and Yoohyeon rolls her eyes while crossing her arms. "I can communicate and summon animals. It's not that hard to understand." She muttered and your mouth formed a small o while Gahyeon rolled her eyes. "Don't mind her, she's just still a little sensitive."

"Okay, but wait. Everyone has an ability right? Reflections, dimensions, telekinesis, animals, fire, ice-"

"Ice and water." Gahyeon corrects with a cheeky grin and you pause before shaking your head. "Yeah, that." You then look to the eldest. "What's yours?" You ask curiously and the woman smiles as Handong covers her mouth to hide her chuckle.

"It's something like mental manipulation. I can make others feel what I want them to." She says simply and you stare at her for a while before your shoulders slowly lower. "So that time in the bathroom, when I was having a panic attack?"

She nods her head, though with a grimace this time as the others looked worried at the mention of the incident. "As much as I didn't want to use my abilities on you, that was the only thing I thought of to help you calm down. I was afraid you would hurt yourself, so I sort of panicked myself." She explains.

"Don't blame unnie for that one. Anyone in your shoes would have been terrified with the things you've seen and experienced." Yubin cut in and the rest nodded in agreement. "It is kind of amazing how you didn't freak out on the spot when you saw both Dami and Handong." Bora commented.

"Either you didn't want to embarrass yourself or, deep down, there was still some form of familiarity." Yoohyeon stated casually, but looking at her eyes, there was a hidden hope in them as she watched you and you aren't sure how to properly react.

Luckily, something catches your attention when you notice the picture right beside the tall woman. Cautiously, you step closer and she moves aside, both a bit taken aback and surprised by your sudden action. But when she sees what you're looking at, a soft 'oh' passes from her lips.

The sound of a music box rings in your ears before the giggling comes back and soon enough, feathers fill your vision just like the last time. They rain down on you, filling the entire room and you're merely engulfed in warmth.

"Got you!" The sound of Minji's voice rang in your ears before the laughter ensued.

"Yah! That was my face!" Siyeon laughed loudly, followed by the sound of the pillow ripping.

"Unnie, help!" Yoohyeon squealed and you soon saw everything unveil before you.

All eight of you were in this very room, throwing and hitting each other with pillows until they burst and the feathers scattered everywhere.

When you blink, you're in front of the picture again. Eight smiling faces, hands joined together, each radiating their own happiness and it makes you feel so much; it was as though there had been a void in your chest all this time and you didn't know until this very moment.

"That's... me?" Gahyeon nods solemnly as they all look at the picture. "We weren't lying when we told you about our past. We lived and grew in this house, looking out for each other and learning everything that we know."

"But why can't I remember then? Why can't I do anything you've told me or why don't I know a single thing about you before you introduced yourselves to me?"

Yoohyeon grimaces at your question and Minji inhales deeply when their expressions begin to drop.

Whilst the silver haired woman struggled with how to speak, the eldest stepped in for her. "The man you saw in the forest - the one who was chasing you - he was trying to get to all of us."

One of the pictures, you were able to spot your face again along with the seven women in the room with you. Picking it up, you let your thumb run along the side of the cool surface of the glass before a hand landed on your arm.

Looking over, you were mildly surprised to see Yoohyeon’s pensive expression and the girls each had encouraging smiles on their own faces. “Would you mind if we talked… in private? There’s some things I’d like to clear up.” Blinking, you saw as Yubin gave you a smile and Minji nodded her head to you, almost to assure you that it wouldn’t be a problem, before you found yourself nodding to the younger girl.

One by one, the girls exited the room, leaving the two of you alone and Yoohyeon bit her lip nervously as she took a few steps back to gather her thoughts. “I don’t… hate you.” She started and you stare as she fumbles with her fingers.

“Everyone’s been telling me how you think I do and I could see it whenever I refused to talk or interact with you.” She sighs while taking a seat near the desk, picking up one of the few trinkets and running her fingers over it. “I never hated you. I could never, especially when you were the first person to ever look after me.” She mumbled before meeting your curious eyes.

A lump formed in her throat, but she did her best to keep her voice steady. “I did something stupid when we were younger, and it got me in trouble.” She tells you, grimacing as she recalled the events. “I didn’t realize that I was playing around with something stronger than we could handle, especially not at that age and with how we barely had proper control of our abilities.” 

“You all tried to rescue me, but we lacked knowledge. There was too much we didn’t know and our time was limited.” She clenched her hand around the figurine she had picked up. “You went in after me, but…”

Seeing how she was struggling to get her words out, you slowly approached the younger girl, carefully touching her shoulder, comforting her the best you can. When she looks at you, tears have already formed in her eyes. “You didn’t make it.” She choked out as she let the figurine fall back on the desk and fully faced you. “You pushed me out of there before the portal closed and w-we…”

Seeing just how badly she was affected by this, your body moved on instinct as you wrapped your arms around her shoulder, her head resting on your chest as you shushed her when she began to sob. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” She cried against your chest and you held her closer while running your fingers through her hair. “It’s okay. It wasn’t your fault, you didn’t mean it.”

You took your time comforting Yoohyeon as she finally managed to tell just why she had been acting so hostile towards you. You were able to understand where she was coming from right off the bat and you forgave her in a heartbeat.

By the time she finally calmed down, you slowly pulled away as she wiped her face and you offered her a small smile. “Hey, don’t beat yourself up over it. If there was anything I could have done to help you, I'm sure I would have done it no matter what the consequences." Yoohyeon nodded at that with a small huff of air. "I know. You were always stubborn like that."

Glad that she was feeling a bit better now that she's gotten the weight off her chest, you offer a smile before she finally stood up. "I have a lot to make up for, to Jiu unnie especially. But I hope we can finally get you out of here."

"Minji?"

As though her name was a means of summoning her, the dark haired woman came back into the room with a small smile on her face, assessing the two of you before she fully stepped in. "I'm making the assumption that you're good?" She asks softly and Yoohyeon quickly wipes her face before nodding her head. "You're going to have a longer talk." She muttered before heading to the door.

Looking back, Yoohyeon's eyes met your own as you watched her leave and you could tell that there was something she wanted to say, but something was holding her back.

Was it the guilt? Or was it her own fears? For now, you wouldn't know as you watch her silently leave the room.

There's a silence that hangs over the air between you and your friend and she shuffles a bit before walking closer to the bed. You watch when she takes a seat and slips a hand under the pillows, only to pull out a letter and another photo.

"This is all crazy, isn't it?" She suddenly asks you and you crack a small grin while shrugging your shoulders. “Nightmares turning out to be reality and finding out my past life contained witchcraft and other supernatural things, I would have checked myself into an asylum.” You joke to ease the tension, and it helps that she cracks a smile and laughs at the attempt.

But Yoohyeon’s words linger in the back of your head before you rub your arms and look at the older girl. “Yoohyeon said after losing me, she had to make it up to you more than anyone.” You murmur, watching as the woman��s shoulders fell. “... What does she mean by that? And why is it that you have to deliver the rest to me?”

Minji pursed her lips together, inhaling deeply before she looked at the photo in her hands again. “I’m not sure if you’re going to believe me this time around.” She chuckles, but it isn’t one of amusement or entertainment. It sounded sadder, like something was anchoring down her emotions before she handed the photo over to you.

Curiously, you accepted it and looked down to see the contents of the photo. You expected another group picture that could possibly jump start your memories, but instead you were shown a picture of just you and the older girl, smiling happily to the camera with her arms wrapped around you, her back against a tall tree somewhere in the garden as you marveled at the little things that Bora most probably had floating around the two of you.

At the back, there was a date written, January 13th and a little heart right next to it.

Looking back, you see the wistful smile on Minji’s face as she holds the note in her hands. “While I do take responsibility over everyone because I’m the eldest, I’ve always been more particular when it came to you.” She says softly that it makes a knot appear in your throat. “You were always such a curious thing. Wondering about the world around you while being a mystery in itself.” She muses as her eyes slowly scan over the contents of the letter, her fingers running over her letter - each word, and remembering the butterflies in her stomach when she was writing it for you.

“I want to be by your side.”

You stare at the picture, the look Minji had as her younger self looked at you made you understand just what she was getting at. And you could understand just why she was so hesitant about telling you.

The woman’s brown eyes shifted to you, seeing how you concentrated on the picture in your hands and her heart both ached and longed to have the same security she had long ago before you were all thrown into this never ending nightmare.

“I didn’t realize it at first because I assumed it was just my protectiveness over all of you, but when the whole thing with Siyeon and Sua saying that you and Yoohyeon were together, it didn’t sit well with me.” She sees as the corner of your lips quirk up and she leans forward, her elbows against her knees when she sees the light flash in your eyes, a smile of her own creeping up her face.

“What are we doing here, unnie?” You ask while looking around the hidden area of the garden and Minji giggles while tugging your hand. “I wanted to show you something.” She says vaguely, confusing you further before she stopped under the tree and pointed upwards.

A gasp escaped your lips when you saw the various cutout butterflies floating around, almost looking as though they were real ones flying around you. One landed on the tip of your nose and Minji cooed as you smiled brightly before gently taking it off you.

“This is so cool! Did you ask Sua unnie to do this?” You asked while looking around in search of the other girl, but Minji just giggled before she took your hand and gave it a squeeze. “Maybe, but there’s something really important I want to ask, and please be honest with me.” She pleads and you blink before nodding cluelessly to her request.

The brunette stared at you for a good second before she nodded her head. “Okay… so, I know that you and Yoohyeon are really close and the girls like to mess with you. But I just want to know, are you really dating her?” Her question caught you by surprise and a bright blush coated your cheeks before you frantically shook your head.

“Of course not! Yoohyeon is like the little sister I never had, I wouldn’t see her as anything else.” You tell her. “Plus, I just helped her and Dami talk about their little crushes, so I don’t think Dami would appreciate it if I did steal Yoohyeon away.” You laughed and Minji felt her shoulders grow less tense and her smile became a bit more relaxed.

“Was that… all?” You ask hesitantly and the older girl watched as you fidgeted in front of her. Always becoming so shy in front of her, she giggles before pecking your forehead. “Well, there was another thing, but I just wanted to clear that one up, first.”

She mentally awws at the way your red cheeks puff up before pulling you into a hug, her light and melodious laughter filling the air, the familiar comforting smell of lavender filling your nose as you bury your face to the crook of her neck and wrap your arms around her waist.

“I just want to keep you close to me, even just for a while.” She whispers and you feel your heart rate double at her words and the way she holds you. “I’m always going to be close to you though.” You respond and she smiles even more while stroking your hair. “I know. But I want to be with you more than anyone else. It worried me when the girls were saying that you liked Yoohyeon because I felt like I was too late to tell you how I felt about you.”

Surprised, you lifted your head, distancing yourself a bit from the older girl as she stared anxiously at your wide eyes. “Unnie, I-” She gives you another dazzling smile and you can only choke out a few words but they were enough to ease her worries and her heart.

“But I like you.”

Minji waits until you’re back from the memory and you blink rapidly before looking up at her. “I-I was… you were…” Seeing as you couldn’t properly formulate any proper sentences, she decided to do so for you.

“We were together, up to when you disappeared.” She nodded in confirmation. “While I wanted to save Yoohyeon just as bad, knowing the risks led to an argument until I eventually caved in because I knew how important she was to you. And if the roles were ever reversed and it was you in there, I think I would have done the same.” She explains while crossing her arms and letting out a breath. “That’s why Yoohyeon feels more guilt towards me than the rest of the girls. You’ve always been my curious little cub and losing you… it’s taken a toll on all of us.”

There’s a ding somewhere in the house and Minji smiles before rising to her feet as a knock comes from the door. “It’s time to head back. We’ve been here too long.” She tells you as Handong opened the door, smiling at you as Minji walked over, slipping the piece of paper she had into your hands.

“You always took care of it. I believe I can still trust that you do.” She smiles before stepping back and then gesturing you out of the room.

#girl group #girl group scenarios #girl group imagines #dreamcatcher #dreamcatcher scenarios #dreamcatcher imagines #dreamcatcher jiu #jiu dreamcatcher #dreamcatcher sua #sua dreamcatcher #siyeon dreamcatcher #dreamcatcher siyeon #handong dreamcatcher #dreamcatcher handong #yoohyeon dreamcatcher #dreamcatcher yoohyeon #dami dreamcatcher #dreamcatcher dami #gahyeon dreamcatcher #dreamcatcher gahyeon #kim jiu #kim minji #jiu scenarios #jiu imagines #nightmare series #kim sua #kim bora #lee siyeon #kim yoohyeon #lee yubin

[ddagent]

idk what sahd means but jb having only daughters modern au

yes I prompted all 3 of them no I have no regrets

Aaaah thank you so much for prompting! SAHD = stay at home dad. I did intend to write that version but felt it was too much like my Modern Lion Pride. So I decided to do this idea with twist. I hope you enjoy it!

“Do we really have to do this, Uncle?”

“I’m afraid so,” Tyrion said, adjusting Joanna’s collar before lamenting at the state of Catelyn; all grass stains and bloody knees. “Dearest niece, why don’t you go upstairs and get changed? Maybe into a nice—” 

It was at that point that Jaime intervened. He was already annoyed with his brother interrupting their carefully cultivated Sunday plans (chocolate crepes, two-aside in the garden, before a seafood barbecue) for this ridiculous video interview. But with the upcoming reboot of Harrenhal High, Tyrion had thought that a little extra press about Jaime and Brienne’s family would give them and the show a boost. 

Not that he or Brienne thought they needed more attention. They had received more than their fair share since he and the girls had joined Brienne on the red carpet for her latest feature. “Tyrion, Cat is fine.” He turned to his eldest. “You look great.” 

“The crew is here now, anyway.” 

Brienne’s hand slipped inside his left and squeezed; Jaime instantly biting back the comment that Tyrion was far too much like their father than he realised. Unlike Tyrion, Jaime was a good brother, which was why he, his wife of twenty years, and their three girls were lined up outside their Tarth home to meet with Melara Hetherspoon and her crew. She was petite and pretty, with curly dark hair and a smile that was as bloodthirsty as most entertainment reporters Jaime had met over the years. 

Instantly, the camera was rolling. “Jaime, good to see you.” She pressed her lips to his cheek in a kiss; pink lipstick staining his skin long after she’d moved away. “I don’t know whether you remember, but I had a three-episode guest arc on Harrenhal High.” 

“I do!” He said politely. His enthusiasm and blatant fib brought Elinor into stifled laughter; her eldest sister elbowing her in the ribs out of decorum. “You obviously know Brienne, as well.” 

No kiss this time. Not for his co-star, best friend, and wife. “Of course, Brienne, so lovely to see you again.” 

“And you.” 

“Shall we? I am dying to see where you’ve been keeping yourself all these years!” 

Together, the medley of Lannisters and press trundled into the large seafront property that Jaime and Brienne had bought shortly after Catelyn’s birth. The lounge area was fitted with panoramic windows that opened out onto the ocean; a stack of board games for their Sunday afternoon laid atop the coffee table. Melara’s camera crew got everything: from the rarely seen photographs of their small wedding to picture after picture of their girls.

A pot of tea and a plate of lemon curd biscuits were already laid out. The five of them sat in shot; ten-year-old Joanna burying herself into Jaime’s side while the other two girls sat with their mother. 

“Please, help yourself,” Jaime said, waiting until Melara had poured herself a cup of tea before helping himself to a biscuit. Elinor grabbed one, too; crumbs spraying down the front of her button-down. Behind the camera, Tyrion groaned. “They’re Brienne’s father’s secret recipe. Delicious but crumbly.”

But Melara wasn’t here for biscuits. “So. Jaime Lannister. Star of Harrenhal High. You were well-known for being a heartthrob back then. I can see somethings have not changed.” 

Jaime did not miss the amused looks exchanged between Elinor and Catelyn. He did, however, miss whatever look his wife was throwing him, although no doubt he would be informed of it later; teased mercilessly over his hunk status. “I was on the cover of a few teen magazines.”

“The front of Rose Magazine for eleven straight editions! I, uh, I still have eight of them.” Melara fiddled with her collar. “You played Jay Hill, the resident bad boy of Harrenhal High who was always flirting with Jeyne Rivers, the school’s most virtuous student.” 

Beside him, Catelyn snorted. “Gods, what a cliché.” 

“I mean, seriously!” Elinor scoffed, joining in her sister’s critique. “Who did you play, Mum? The top athlete who suffers from a trope-heavy literacy problem?” 

Brienne had, in fact, played Alys Storm: head of the girl’s football team and owner of an unrequited crush on drama geek Petyr Waters. Brienne’s own crush on Waters’ actor, Renly Baratheon, had been well-documented on set, and the writers had quickly moved on to pairing Jay and Alys in school shenanigans. They had played best friends on the show and in real life for four years. Alys had been Jay’s best woman when he had married Jeyne in a college special. 

“Talking about the show, do you ever see Catelyn Tully at all?” 

“Aunt Cat?” Joanna piped up, answering Melara’s question. “We see her on Dash once a week, and we visit her and Uncle Ned before Sevenmas.” 

Jaime grinned. “Cat was a great friend to Brienne and me. We actually named our eldest after her. She’s amazing; both Brienne and I are sad she won’t be joining us for the reboot.” 

“The reboot of Harrenhal High; such exciting news! Your return to television after being away for so, so long. Your last project was The Kingsguard, I believe.” 

Jaime stiffened. Joanna felt him freeze beside her and wrapped two arms around his middle; her blonde hair brushing his shoulder. Elinor squeezed his hand, although it was the other one that was damaged. A horrible accident, the press had called it. A terrible tragedy. In a split second, he had gone from the paparazzi getting shots of him with dates to them sneaking into his physical therapy sessions. All because of some cunts who didn’t care for being talked down to by the talent. 

“I don’t–I don’t really want to talk about The Kingsguard.” 

“But it was your last television project. Your last major project; the few screen credits you’ve racked up in the last twenty years have been from bit parts in dramatic movies or voiceover work. I mean, you were Jaime Lannister. And then you just disappeared.”

Catelyn shifted forward; both hands clutching her bare knees. “He still is Jaime Lannister.”

“Oh, Sweetling, I know, but you have to understand he was on top of the world! Any movie, any show, any girl. Then he just ups and disappears. Hells, no one even knew about you three until two moons ago!” 

Rather than grow upset, his daughters – lions, each and every one of them – went for the kill. 

“And that really upsets you, doesn’t it?”

“I mean, as a journalist—”

“—if you can call yourself a journalist; reporter may have been more accurate—”

“—the whole profession missed that Jaime Lannister not only was married but had not one—”

“—not two—”

“—but three of us!” finished Joanna, raising three fingers to the camera. “You must be really annoyed with yourself.” 

Before the lions could circle their prey any further, Brienne took charge of the interview. “We are really excited to be taking part in this reboot. We love the show, and we both felt, now that the girls are older, we could step back into the limelight. It can be so difficult with intrusive press. But not with you.” Brienne bared her teeth. “We welcomed you into our home to show you our family.”

Buoyed by the support of his wife and daughters, Jaime rose to his feet. “Come on, Melara. Why don’t we show you the rest of the house?” 

Tyrion, no doubt already on the phone with Melara’s producers, gave Jaime a supportive nod as they showed the camera crew round their home. They told stories of family dinners and baking exploits. Joanna showed Melara her dollhouse (well, doll castle) and all the Age of Dragon-era dresses she had sewn herself. Elinor went through the stack of books on her shelves and even allowed Melara to try out her hammock – and did not laugh when she fell out of it. Cat’s room was wallpapered with Tarth FC posters and a framed strip from the first team to allow women players. 

When it aired a week later, the segment about The Kingsguard was cut. There were, however, lots of shots of Jaime and Brienne and their girls looking like the picture-perfect family they really were. 

#remuslovestonks #braime #jaime x brienne #ship: braime #mine: paragraph prompts

[lastbluetardis]

Chemical Reaction (19/22)

Summary: Though their chemistry class is now over, the chemistry between James and Rose is just getting started. Together, they navigate the highs of new love and the lows of coping with past trauma to forge deep and unbreakable bonds of love and commitment. Part 2 in the Catalysis series. Tagging @doctorroseprompts

This chapter: ~7400 words, teen

If you like my stories, consider leaving me a tip? I know these are trying times, but if you are able, I would really appreciate it xoxo. And as always, comments and reblogs are very much appreciated as well.

AO3 | FF | TSP

Ch1 | Ch2 | Ch3 | Ch4 | Ch5 | Ch6 | Ch7 | Ch8 | Ch9 | Ch10 | Ch11 | Ch12 | Ch13 | Ch14 | Ch15 | Ch16 | Ch17 | Ch18 | Ch19 | Ch20 | Ch21 | epilogue

James couldn’t believe his eyes. He blinked hard, thinking his exhaustion had caught up with him. No, the blonde woman on his porch had to be the night-shift nurse who lived across the street—she often liked to indulge in late-night baking on her nights off, and there were times she would come to James for an ingredient she was missing, or to give him a small sampling of her confectionery creations.

(He had the sudden, jarring, embarrassing realization that she may have been flirting with him the whole time… Is that why she hasn’t come around in months?)

“Rose,” he said again when blinking stupidly for at least ten seconds didn’t transform Rose into anyone else.

“Hi,” she said quietly. She looked exhausted; there were prominent shadows beneath her eyes and her shoulders drooped like a heavy weight sat upon them.

Her gaze flicked over his shoulder, and her face fell. “Oh. Sorry. Didn’t realize you had company. I’ll just…” She thumbed behind herself to the dark road. How did she get here? “Sorry.”

Before he could protest, Jack clapped James on the shoulder and announced, “No, no. I was getting ready to head out. Come on, get in out of the cold.”

Jack pressed a smacking kiss to James’s cheek, then muttered, “Talk to her,” into his ear. He then stepped forward and gave Rose a loose hug and kiss on the cheek before he walked to his vehicle that was parked on the side of the street.

They turned to watch Jack start his car and drive off into the night. James looked at Rose, then at the squarish plastic Tupperware container she held. She was absently flicking her thumb nail across the tab on the lid.

“What’ve you got there?” he asked, nodding to the container.

Rose chewed on her bottom lip and pushed her hair behind her ear. “Well. We’ve been playing a game all month, haven’t we? Time to celebrate.”

She popped the lid off the container and handed it to him. In it were half a dozen large, muffin-sized chocolate cupcakes, frosted in vanilla icing and decorated with pink and yellow star sprinkles. The words “Happy Birthday” were written in small, neat, glossy red letters across each cupcake. His stomach sank.

“It… it’s your birthday?” he croaked. Of course—of fucking course—today had been her birthday.

Rose nodded. “I… I didn’t want to let my entire birthday pass without spending some time with my favorite person.”

James nodded, swallowing the lump in his throat. “Hope you had fun.”

Rose raised an incredulous eyebrow, and the penny dropped.

“Me?” he squeaked, the knot in his chest loosening.

“Yes you, you numpty. Just because I’m angry with you doesn’t mean I stopped loving you. Do you not love me anymore because we fought?”

James’s knees weakened at the ‘l’ word. He took a step towards her, the arm not holding the cupcakes extended. Her face softened and she stepped into his proffered embrace. Her body was warm and solid against him. Heat prickled behind his eyes as he wrapped his arms as tightly around her as he could without upending the Tupperware container.

“I’m sorry, Rose. I’m so sorry. I…”

“Can we not do this on the front porch?” she asked, voice muffled. “S’cold.”

James was loath to let go of her, but he had to agree the night was getting frigid, especially for him, with his bare feet and thin pajama bottoms and t-shirt. With a sigh, he gave her a final squeeze and dropped his arms from around her waist, then stepped back to usher her into his home.

She toed off her shoes by the front door, and he could already predict her questions when she angled her head towards the hallway. “Did you paint something?”

James scratched the back of his neck. “Er. Yeah. Started repainting my bedroom.”

A small, sad smile tugged at the side of Rose’s mouth. “Needed something to keep your mind busy?”

“Something like that,” he admitted.

A more genuine smile crossed her face as she gestured to the Tupperware container he was holding. “Y’know, stress baking would've been cheaper.”

James blinked, then gaped down at the cupcakes he was holding. The font of the words was perfect cursive, the spread of the icing uniform and even. He blurted, “You made these?”

“Thanks for that vote of confidence,” she drawled. “Yes, I made them. Well. Elsa helped. She came over to my flat this afternoon. Bit of a girl’s night. Had pizza and wine, then made cupcakes. She’s actually really good at decorating; she’s got this whole set of frosting tips to make fancy designs. She did the lettering.”

“They look lovely. Very professional,” he said. He jutted his head to his kitchen, motioning for her to follow. She did, her quiet, shuffling footsteps falling into rhythm with his.

Rather than go into the kitchen, Rose peeled off to the living room, where Merry and Pippin were lounging on the sofa together, half-asleep. James watched her squat down in front of the cats and give them a bit of love before she returned to him.

“Should Jack have driven himself home?”

James glanced at Rose and saw her pointing to the kitchen table, where the mostly-empty bottle of wine sat. It had a few mouthfuls left.

“It was only half-full when we started,” James answered, picking up the bottle and hurriedly drinking the last of the wine. “This was from last weekend, when you and I… Anyway, he had one glass. I drank most of it. He should be fine.”

“Tell him to let us know when he gets home safely,” Rose said.

James snapped off a lazy salute then sent Jack a text, passing along Rose’s request. He set the Tupperware container of cupcakes on the counter before grabbing two clean bowls from the dishwasher he hadn’t bothered to empty.

“Oh, I really shouldn’t,” Rose said with a grimace. “I already had one after they came out of the oven. Plus pizza. M’gonna puff up like a balloon.”

She pinched her waist, and James frowned. “What are you talking about? You’re beautiful.”

Her cheeks flamed pink and she dropped her hand limply to her side. 

“I had a huge, greasy burger and chips for dinner. D’you think I’m gonna puff up like a balloon?” he asked, tilting his head to the side.

“Well, no. But you’re…” She let her sentence dangle as she waved her hand vaguely up and down his body. 

“And you’re…” He mirrored her gesture. “Rose, I find you absolutely beautiful, and you losing or gaining weight won’t change my opinion. Not that my opinion should matter. If you don’t want a cupcake, or if you’re not hungry, that’s fine. And again, not that you need my approval.”

Rose sighed and twisted her hands in front of herself before she turned away from him and rooted in his freezer for ice cream he always made sure to have on hand.

“I had a minor eating disorder as a teen,” Rose said quietly, pulling out the ice cream and shutting the freezer. “Nothing too serious. I was obsessed with my weight, and was really careful with what I ate. I counted and logged calories. I grew out of it when I realized watching what I ate made me feel even worse about myself. Of course I still tried to eat healthy and to eat reasonably-sized portions, but I stopped being so strict with it. I obviously started putting on some weight, nothing too drastic, but Jimmy would often tease me and tell me to lay off the chips or whatever, because rock stars don’t date chubby girls.”

James’s ears were ringing with rage and heartbreak, and he was furious with himself for everything he had accused Rose of last night regarding Jimmy.

“Rose, I…”

“As I said, I’m fine now and I don’t really care about my weight or body image as much,” Rose interrupted, setting the ice cream on the counter in front of him. “But sometimes those thoughts pop up without me realizing it. Like they did just now.”

Unsure of how to respond, James instead took a cupcake out of the Tupperware container, unwrapped the paper from the bottom, and set it into the bowl. “Did I… did I say something wrong?”

“No. Quite the opposite, actually. You told me your opinion, but didn’t shove it in my face or try to force me to believe you. And like I said, I don’t often realize when I’m having these thoughts.”

He nodded and forced his lips into some semblance of a smile that he hoped looked supportive. He then returned his gaze to the bowl and the ice cream she’d retrieved.

“D’you want to share this with me?” he asked, gesturing to the bowl with a spoon.

Rose nodded. He scooped several large dollops of vanilla ice cream into the bowl then he went to his junk drawer. It overflowed with a random assortment of objects: scissors, several different types of batteries, notepads, pens, pencils, a ruler, a screwdriver, tape, glue, Band-Aids, rubber bands, paper clips, binder clips, thumbtacks, toothpicks, a ball of twine, a condom, a tampon, and so many other things James didn't remember throwing into the drawer.

He dug through the mishmash of objects until he found a small, half-empty box of birthday candles and a matchbook. He took out four candles and brought them and the matches over to where Rose stood at the counter.

“I would try to shove twenty-two of them into the cupcake, but firstly I don’t have twenty-two candles, and secondly, I’m pretty sure I would end up pulverizing the poor cupcake into a pile of crumbs. So use your imagination; two and two equates to twenty-two.”

He shoved two of the candles side by side into the left side of the cupcake, right before the H and B in “Happy Birthday”. The other two, he stuck into the right side of the cupcake, behind both Ys. Striking the match, he ignored the shaking in his hands as he lit the candles. He then promptly blew out the match and dropped it into the water-filled wine glass in the sink to let it stop smoking. However, Rose must have seen the tremor in his hands, because she reached over and threaded their fingers together.

“I don’t like fire,” he admitted. “For obvious reasons.”

“You didn’t have to light the candles then,” Rose said gently.

“Pfff. It’s your birthday. Can’t have a birthday without blowing out some candles. How else will you get a free wish?”

Rose cracked a small smile and squeezed his fingers. She leaned forward as though she were about to blow out her candles. James cried, “Wait!”

She pulled back with a start.

“It’s your twenty-second birthday. I would think you would remember how this goes by now,” he drawled. He then sucked in a deep breath and began to sing. “Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday dear Ro-ooose. Happy Birthday to youuuuu.”

She was grinning by the end of it, especially when he intentionally sang off-key for the sole purpose of making her smile. He’d made her cry too much in the last twenty-four hours; a smile from her was a welcome sight.

“Right. Those candles are all charged up with birthday magic. Now you can make a wish and blow,” he said, bowing and gesturing to her cupcake.

Rolling her eyes at him, Rose closed her eyes and paused for about five seconds, before she blew out a short breath, extinguishing the candles with ease. He applauded her effort, then yanked the candles out of the cupcake and extended two of them to her. They licked off the cake crumbs and icing—cream cheese, he noted with delight—then dropped them into the trash.

“Let’s eat this before all the ice cream melts,” James said, gesturing to the table. “Want anything to drink? More wine?”

“Just water.”

He grabbed two glasses from the dishwasher and filled them with water from the pitcher in the fridge before plopping down at the table beside Rose. He noticed his phone had a new text notification; Jack had replied, letting him know he was home. James relayed the news to Rose, then gestured for her to take the first bite of her birthday cupcake.

For several long minutes, they sat silently together, trading off bites of cupcake and ice cream until the bowl was empty. 

“That was very good,” he praised, swiping his finger through the melted mess of ice cream and chocolate crumbs on the bottom of the bowl and licking the digit clean.

“Thanks. Elsa loves to bake but doesn't get the chance to do it as often as she likes because she lives in the dorms on campus.” Rose ran her fingertip along the rim of her glass. “When I invited her over to my flat, she said stress baking was a requirement. She didn’t know it was my birthday until we started decorating the cupcakes.”

“Do you have an aversion to people knowing it’s your birthday?”

She snorted. “No. But it just… it didn’t feel right to celebrate. Not when we’d…” She trailed off with a shrug. “All month I’d been looking forward to finally telling you it was my birthday. It didn’t feel right to tell anyone about my birthday if I couldn’t tell you.”

“I really buggered your birthday,” he sighed, chest tightening.

“Nah.” She pursed her lips. “Okay, well, yeah. But it wasn’t just you. I didn’t help. I wasn’t in the mood to celebrate my birthday today, so I kept it to myself. Anyways. Elsa knocked a bit of sense into me this afternoon. Helped put some things into better perspective.”

“I’m glad you have a friend like that to share things with,” he said.

Rose hummed in agreement. “She also called me out for being an idiot.”

James snorted. “Jack did much the same for me.” He paused, fidgeting uncomfortably for a few seconds before he blurted, “I am so sorry, Rose. I’m so sorry for snooping through your mail and reading that letter, and I’m so sorry for jumping to a conclusion that was absolutely ridiculous, and I’m sorry for accusing you of not trusting me. I’m sorry I twisted the situation and your words and actions to put the blame all on you. I’m sorry I let my own insecurities warp my perceptions of you and our relationship, and I’m so, so sorry for ever insinuating that you would want to go back to Jimmy.”

Rose was dead silent. When James chanced a peek over at her, he was horrified to see tears welling in her eyes. She blinked and they fell down her cheeks.

Sniffling, she wiped at them and whispered, “That really hurt. I thought I had told you enough about Jimmy to show you he wasn’t a nice person to be in a relationship with. And I thought…” 

“You did,” James interrupted fervently. “You did Rose. You were absolutely correct in saying I had selective memory. You told me more about him than I realized. I was too caught up in my own head last night to remember everything you’d said. I’m so sorry about that.”

Rose waved him off. “Forget Jimmy for a minute. Even if he wasn’t a wanker… It hurt that you would think I would be tempted into a new relationship with someone else when we’ve been so happy together. At least, I’ve been happy.”

“I’ve been happy, too,” James said. He covered her hand with his. “I swear, Rose. I’ve been so happy with you.”

He wished he had better answers for her. He wished he could explain what had triggered him last night, explain how his brain had disregarded nearly seven months of a friendship and four months of a relationship stronger than he’d ever had before. Why had he thought Rose would be tempted by an ex-boyfriend who had treated her so horribly? Why did he have the anxiety that Rose would see through his facade and realize he wasn’t as exciting as she’d thought? Why was he so fearful she would leave?

Because everyone leaves.

The realization crashed over him with the force of a tidal wave, pushing his head beneath the water until he could barely breathe. He was drowning, fighting a losing battle against the current, about to be swept away into the sea when he was thrown a lifeline.

Rose squeezed his fingers hard, grounding him, pulling him back to the moment. His chest was tight and tears blurred his vision.

Everyone leaves.

His mother, who had thought it more prudent to attend to their dogs rather than get herself to safety with her husband and son.

His father, who had rescued him from their burning house only to leave him on the street to go back inside. James hadn’t been enough to keep his dad by his side, and so he had lost two parents that night.

His aunt, who had never wanted kids, had never expected to have kids. She pulled long hours and travelled incessantly, chasing big news stories while James pretended he was fine with being alone, while silently wishing his dad had never saved him from their house. He knew without a doubt that, if his aunt could do it all over again, if she knew then what she knew now, she never would have agreed to be his godmother when he was born. He loved his aunt, and knew his aunt loved him, but he wasn’t so naïve as to be ignorant of the fact that he had upheaved his aunt’s life, and not entirely for the better.

The friends he had left behind in the UK and never heard from again after he and his aunt moved to America. People he had known since childhood who hadn’t bothered putting in the effort to stay in touch, despite claiming they would.

His previous partners, many of whom finding ways to end their brief relationship after realizing he didn’t want to have sex with them. Time after time, he had to listen to them say it was fine that they weren’t being physically intimate—with an unspoken yet dangling between them—only to listen to them make up excuses for why they were ending the relationship. Granted, he had broken off a relationship himself a few times, but over half the time, his partner had been the one to end it.

Over and over, people came and people went, and at the heart of it, James was hardly more than a spectre, unable to be seen or heard as his heart was left broken. And yet when Rose had joined him, had taken his hand and made promises and vows that nobody ever had before, he had jumped at the first opportunity to assume she would leave him, too.

Chair legs scraped across the floor a moment before a warm, familiar arm wrapped around his waist. He turned into Rose and rested his cheek on her shoulder, breathing in her scent, the subtle tones of amber and citrus, of warmth and love and home.

Something deep in his chest cracked open, releasing the floodgates. For the past nine and a half years, he had been drifting, trying to make sense of how he could feel so alone when he was surrounded by people, able to make new friends and acquaintances at the drop of a hat. Yet there was always that disconnect, making him feel more like an outsider looking in. Like everyone else was aware of the punchline of a joke while he was left clueless.

Until Rose. With Rose it had been natural. Effortless. It was though his world had shifted into perfect focus, and at the heart of it was her. She had reminded him of what it felt like to belong, to feel perfectly at home with another person. And though he was desperate not to lose her and what they had together, part of him was holding his breath, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Yet in doing so, he had let his anxiety take control and had hurt Rose badly enough that he had nearly caused her to do exactly what he had been terrified of.

James’s shoulders shook as he wept quietly into Rose’s neck, dampening the collar of her shirt. She didn’t seem to mind. Instead, she held him closer, rubbing her hand up and down the length of his spine as he sobbed and gasped for breath.

“I’m sorry,” he rasped. “I’m so sorry for everything, Rose.”

Haltingly, through the juddering tears that cracked his voice, he explained his revelation to her. He hoped he didn’t sound like he was making excuses for himself, but he genuinely wanted her to understand the conclusion his big, stupid brain had come to.

“I let my fears take over,” he said, voice raw from crying and talking. “I didn’t realize what they were. And I didn’t realize how loud they’d gotten.”

“I understand,” Rose said quietly. “Believe me. I understand. Is there anything I can do to help you quiet them?”

James rubbed his hand beneath his clogged, stuffy nose and grimaced when it came away wet. He pulled away from Rose and stood, moving to the sink to wash his hands, then to grab a handful of tissues. He blotted his eyes then blew his nose before he sank into his seat beside her again.

“I don’t know,” he confessed. “I know this is a me problem, not a you problem. You’ve been wonderful, Rose. You and me… our relationship… it has all been wonderful. I don’t know why I was so quick to let ten minutes of screaming insecurities make me forget about half a year of loving you.”

Rose chewed on the inside of her cheek, contemplating. “If ever there’s a time those voices are getting too loud, I’d like you to tell me. Though I know sometimes they can go unnoticed. But if you realize you’re getting stuck in your head, let me know and I’ll try to help you out of it.”

James flashed her a grateful smile. “Same for you. If there’s ever a time I can help you with whatever’s on your mind…”

Rose sighed. “I need to get better about that. I’ve realized I have a bad habit of telling myself I will deal with something later, but later never actually comes.” She sucked in a big breath and blew it out again. “I’m sorry you saw that letter from Jimmy. Yeah, you were a bit of a twat for reading it and reacting like you did. But I’m sorry you were blindsided like that, and that I ignored how it made you feel. And I’m sorry for making you feel like I don’t trust you. I’m sorry I made you self-conscious for everything you’ve shared with me and that you feel like I don’t share enough with you.” She let out a sad little laugh that twisted his heart. “This is going to sound lame, but I honestly didn’t realize I wasn’t being as open with you as I thought I was. It feels like you know me better than anyone ever has, so I didn’t think to change anything. But now that I know how you feel, I want to work to be better at that.”

James shook his head and covered her hand. “No, Rose. I got caught up in my own head and in my frustration. You’ve shared more with me than I wanted to admit last night.” Jack’s words clanged around in his head. “I shouldn’t have expected the exact same level of sharing from you as I am comfortable with giving.”

“That’s not fair. I am comfortable with you…”

James cringed. “No, I didn’t mean it like that. I’m not accusing you of anything, Rose. Merely stating a fact. I’m not trying to make you feel guilty or upset, I swear. I want you to be comfortable talking with me, and forcing you to talk about things you aren’t comfortable with is counterproductive.”

“Thing is, I was always going to tell you everything about Jimmy,” Rose sighed. “When he first texted me, it sent me into a blind panic and I sorta… shut down. I wanted to take the time I needed to get into a better place before sharing it with you. But I guess I didn’t realize how long it was since he first texted me.”

James stayed silent, letting her get her thoughts together. He twined their fingers together, happy to be able to sit and touch her like this, when for many long, heartbreaking hours in the wee hours of that morning, he had been sure that he would never be able to do so again. Her hand fit perfectly in his, and he knew that he would do whatever it took to make their relationship whole again, to make sure he could hold her hand for the rest of their lives.

When Rose began speaking, he gave her his full attention and tried to keep his emotions in check. He listened to her explain how Jimmy had texted her out of the blue, having gotten her number from a “mutual friend”.

“M’still not sure who gave it to him,” Rose said with a sigh. “He never told me and none of my friends claim to have done it.”

James listened to her describe the early conversations she’d had with Jimmy, from telling him that she needed time, to working through her anxiety with the help of Elsa and a counselor, to coming to the decision to let Jimmy say his piece.

“He was very important to me at one time. He was the love of my life. He was my everything. He will always be important and special because I genuinely loved him, and like it or not, my experiences with him shaped me into the person I am today. I don’t love him anymore, and frankly don’t miss him or want what we used to have, but if this would help him and me move on, I really wanted to let him say what he needed to say.

“He apologized to me, and it wasn’t even a terrible apology. Though he did make it sound like we both were at fault, but you know what, it was better than I was expecting, so I sorta took it as a win. I figured we were done, but then he wanted to know if he could repay me for all the debts he’d left me with. I can’t remember if I told you before, but he stopped paying his part of the rent at the end of our relationship. I got so behind on those payments because I had other bills to focus on that by the time I moved out, I was six months behind.

“I refused Jimmy’s offer. Told him everything was paid off and he didn’t owe me anything.” Rose sniffled and smiled ruefully, her eyes shining with unshed tears. “You know my money insecurities. I couldn’t stand the thought that he might use this as a way to control me again. So I shut him down.”

“Good for you,” James murmured, his first words in a while. “You don’t have to go on. It’s okay.”

But Rose shook her head. “I want you to know all of this. I want to come to you when—as Elsa puts it—shit ties up my brain. And my brain has been in knots for over a month. I want to be better with being okay about my thoughts sometimes getting tangled; I realized if I waited until my brain was calm to tell you everything, I would never tell you anything. I don’t want secrets between us, and I’m frustrated with myself that I unwittingly kept secrets from you. I can’t promise I will tell you immediately when something is on my mind, but I will make more of an effort to be more open with you. I wish I’d told you all of this sooner, but I can’t go back and change how I handled this, so let me tell you all of this now.”

James nodded and brought their clasped hands to his lips for a soft kiss.

“After I told Jimmy I didn’t want his money, I thought we were done. I didn’t hear from him for a few days, but then I got a text from him, a selfie with some of our old friends. A harmless group photo. Then he started sharing news from home. Or he would send me playlists. Stupid, innocent stuff we used to. He has really good taste in music and I’m always happy to have new songs or artists to listen to.

“We started chatting a little more regularly. Not daily, but a few times a week. A few messages at a time. He shared updates about his life, told me about going to drug and alcohol meetings, financial counseling, and so on. I told him about America and school. I didn’t tell him about you, though. It’s stupid, and I should have because I don’t think Jimmy realizes I’m not single, but you’re mine.” The word sent a thrill up James’s spine, and he couldn’t help but kiss her knuckles again. “You’re mine and I didn’t want to share you with him. I didn’t want anything of Jimmy to touch you. And I wasn’t trying to lead him on or anything. Or keep him a secret from you. But all of a sudden it’s been five weeks since he first texted.

“Then he sent me that letter. It came two days ago. I cried when I got it. I never gave him my address, so I panicked that he had somehow stalked me and found me, that he would be waiting at the university for me. And I was just… so defeated. I thought maybe he’d changed. Grown up or something. Stupidly, I thought maybe we could eventually be friends. But the only thing he wanted was for me to get back together with him.”

Rose’s tears dripped down her cheeks and her breathing hitched. James wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in for a hug. She willingly leaned into him and sniffled quietly for a long moment.

“Did you really think that was a love letter?” Rose croaked.

“Pardon?”

“What Jimmy wrote to me. Did you think it read like a love letter?”

James sucked on the inside of his lower lip. He tried to remember the content of the letter, but his memories were all tainted with the pain of their argument.

“I don’t remember enough of it,” he confessed. “I’m sorry.”

Rose lifted her bum off of her chair, reaching into her back pocket to pull out a piece of paper that had been folded into eighths.

“Here,” she said, giving it to him.

Tentatively, he took it. Rose pulled herself out of his embrace and grabbed a tissue from the crumpled pile he had brought over. 

As he reread the letter, his stomach twisted into knots when he picked out several words and phrases.

I’ve found a piece of myself…

I’m not complete…

I hate the person I am without you… 

…happiest of my life… 

…nothing more I’ve wanted…

…(our life?)… 

You make me feel like I can do anything… 

I love how I feel when I’m with you… 

I was scared about how much I needed you… 

…something I always knew would be there for me… 

I know I can make it work this time… 

…enjoy your time there, while you can… 

…we can work harder together to make us work… 

I will do whatever it takes to make this work… 

Over and over, James read the letter, his mind picking up more of the tone and the sheer selfishness in it. Everything Jimmy said was about him, about how he needed Rose, without giving a thought about whether Rose wanted or needed him. He plainly admitted to taking her for granted, and still, after all this time, he acted as though he and Rose were equally at fault for how their relationship had ended.

How must it have sounded to Rose, for him to go off on her about the letter?

“Oh, Rose,” James breathed, “I’m so sorry. God, I was a twat, wasn’t I?”

She let out a watery giggle. “Yeah, a bit.”

“Can I ask…? How did Jimmy find your address? I mean. Do you even know how he found it?”

Rose’s eyes welled with tears again, even as she scoffed. “My mum.”

“Your… mum?” That had not been what James had expected. “But… why?”

Rose shook her head. “Apparently Jimmy went ‘round the estate. Found my mum and told her we’d been chatting. Said he wanted to send me money to help cover the bills I’d paid. He said exactly the right thing—when I moved back home, my mum kept telling me over and over that Jimmy should cough up the money to cover his half of the flat and the expenses that had built up. 

“A couple weeks ago, my mum asked me if I’d been chatting with Jimmy. When I said yes, I guess she assumed I knew Jimmy wanted to repay me but I was being unreasonable.” Rose’s face crumpled. “I know my mum didn’t know how badly Jimmy had treated me, and that's my fault for not telling her. But what if he’d been a murderous stalker? What if he’d physically or sexually abused me? What if he used that information and showed up alone at my flat one night and broke in and…?”

She coughed out a wracking sob and buried her face in her hands. James nearly began crying at the sight of her distress. “How dare my mum give out my address like that? I never thought she’d do something like that. My mum called to wish me a happy birthday and I told her a little bit about why you and I were fighting, and she told me she was the one who gave Jimmy my address. I got so angry with her, and she was gettin’ angry with me. I’ve spent the day crying ‘cos I was fighting with my two favorite people.”

James tossed the letter onto the table and wrapped his arms around Rose, holding her tightly to his chest. He had never been angrier with another person than he was right now with Jackie Tyler. Well. Jackie Tyler and Jimmy bloody Stone. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Rose. I’m sorry.”

“Joke’s on Mum, though; Jimmy didn’t send a single quid with that letter.” Rose sniffled and scrubbed her hands across her eyes. “I hate this. I wish I’d blocked Jimmy from the start, I wish I’d told you when he texted, I wish I’d told my mum not to talk to Jimmy. I wish I’d handled everything differently, and I wish I hadn’t gotten so upset with you last night. I’m sorry, James. I’m sorry for it all.”

James tightened his hold around her, burying his face into her neck while she wept into his. “You have every right to handle situations however you think is best. I should have had more faith and trust in you and in our relationship. I was unreasonable. But I forgive you, love. Of course I forgive you. I love you. I love you more than you can imagine, and I’m so sorry I doubted it last night.”

Rose began crying harder into his shoulder. Her breaths came out in harsh gasps as she managed to reply, “I love you too. I’m sorry for putting the doubt in your head… when you asked if I was breaking up with you and I said I didn’t know. God, I didn’t mean that. I didn’t mean it at all. I got scared too, same as you, and my brain sort of shut down because it couldn’t stop thinking of everything Jimmy had said or done in the past, and twisting it to look like what you were saying and doing. That’s something I need to work on because that’s insulting for me to imply that you’re anything like him, but I didn’t know what to do, so I pushed you out, and I’m so sorry.”

James merely held her tighter, his heart breaking at her agony, yet filling with more love for her than he’d ever felt before.

“You’re the strongest woman I know, Rose,” he murmured into her hair. “The strongest. You’ve overcome so much, and you’re working to make yourself the best version of yourself that you can be, and that’s so admirable. I am here to listen to anything you want to tell me, but I am okay with not knowing everything. I trust your judgement, and I know you’ll tell me what you want me to know.”

He continued speaking quietly, a combination of reassurances, affirmations, and words of love. She shed more tears than he’d ever seen her shed, and he shed just as many. He was exhausted and overwhelmed, and he wanted nothing more than to sleep for a very long time tangled with Rose.

When her tears finally dried, he pressed a lingering kiss to the side of her head before sitting back in his chair. He grabbed a tissue for himself and passed one to her; they noisily blew their noses and wiped their eyes.

“Well. Wasn’t that cathartic?” he said cheerfully, holding his hand out for her tissue to throw in the rubbish bin.

She chuckled. Though her eyes were red and puffy and her cheeks were splotchy, he didn’t think there was a more beautiful person in the world than her.

He washed his hands after throwing away their used tissues, then he grabbed a few more, just in case. His nose was still a bit runny, and he was sure Rose’s had to be too. He plopped into his chair with a groan.

“First fight,” he mused. “Can tick that one off the list, I suppose.”

“Was it everything you expected it to be?” she drawled, rolling her eyes.

“Admittedly it was a lot more painful than I thought,” he said. “But now we can go back to how we were, right?”

Rose paused. In the silence, his heart sank into his stomach.

“I don’t know if we should,” she said carefully, and his lungs were suddenly out of air. Her eyes widened. “No, not like you’re thinking. It’s just… everything we fought about, everything we talked about, it changed us. It changed our relationship. Not in a bad way, but it’s different now. We’re more aware of some things that we weren’t before. I don’t want to go backwards with you. I want us to go forward. Together.”

James nodded, shoulders slumping in relief. He slid his hand across the table, slipping it beneath Rose’s so her palm rested against the back of his hand. He splayed his fingers, letting hers fall between the gaps. She curled her fingers around his hand.

“You’re right,” he said, caressing his thumb along the side of her pinkie. “Absolutely, you’re right. Guess this means the honeymoon period is over?”

“Probably.” She flashed him a cheeky grin. “Hopefully we’re not over the horny hump though.”

“You’re never gonna let me forget that I said that, are you?” he whined, grimacing.

“Nope,” she said, popping the ‘p’ as he often did. “It was such a dorky thing to call it.”

He pouted. “You never complained about my dorkiness before.”

“I love your dorkiness. Doesn’t mean I won’t tease you about it though.” Her smile slipped until her face turned solemn. “I’m really glad we talked this out, James.”

He squeezed her fingers. “Me too.”

“Any time Jimmy and I had an argument, we never did this. We’d shout at each other, curse at each other, and then ignore each other and not speak for a day or so. Then we’d have angry make up sex and pretend everything was fine in the morning. I don’t want to ever do that again. I want to communicate with you and to compromise with you, then grow with you.

“Staying in love is a choice, and it takes work. It shouldn’t be hard, but it’s not easy either. We need to choose to stay in love, decide that our relationship is worth making an effort for. I want to wake up every day and choose you, to choose us, and I want to put in the work because I wanna enjoy the payoff. Because being in love with you, James… it’s the best I’ve ever felt. You make me feel like I can do anything, like pass a stupid chemistry class or tell my stupid ex-boyfriend to fuck off. I love the way you make me feel. I love feeling like I’m home whenever I’m with you. And though this home we’re building with each other might have a leaky roof every now and then, I wanna fix it with you.”

James’s eyes were burning again. How was anything even left in his tear ducts? “Oh, Rose. You make me feel the same way. And I feel so inadequate because you just waxed romantic poetry at me, but my brain has stopped working. But please know I love you with every cell in my body, and I want to keep loving you with every cell, all the way down to each little organelle contained within, every day for the rest of our long and beautiful life together.”

Rose grinned at him and leaned over to press a light kiss to his lips. They tingled at the contact, and he wanted to pull her close to kiss her again.

“You’re such a science geek,” she said.

“Well. I’ve already shown you I’m rather fabulous with many types of chemistry and anatomy,” he drawled, flashing her an over-the-top wink as he clicked his tongue lewdly.

She burst into a fit of laughter that he echoed, feeling at peace for the first time in twenty-four hours. The exhaustion of all those hours suddenly overwhelmed him. His laughter morphed into a yawn, which spread to Rose.

“I’m knackered,” he announced unnecessarily. “Will you come to bed with me? My bedroom’s a disaster, but the guest bed is made.”

Rose nodded and stood up from the kitchen table. She took their bowl to the sink and rinsed it out before leaving it there for them to clean properly in the morning. She then flicked off the light on top of the stove before she followed him through the rest of the house, locking up and turning lights off as they went.

“Can I see what you’ve done to your room?” Rose asked.

“Sure,” he said, continuing down the hall rather than peeling off into the guest room. When he got to his closed door, he warned, “It’s a mess.”

They were hit with the stench of paint fumes as soon as he opened the bedroom door. He flicked on the light, and the room was bathed in the yellow glow of his lamps.

“Love the color,” Rose said.

“Yeah?” he asked, pleased with himself that, even in his miserable, depressive state of trying to not think about Rose, he had managed to pick a color she would like.

“Mhm.”

“I have to put on the second coat. I’ll probably do that tomorrow—I’m not really feeling like going to my classes, so I’ll probably ditch ‘em again.”

“You rebel,” she teased. “If you want some help, I don’t have anything important going on tomorrow. And I don’t work this weekend. We can take a few days to finish up the painting and reorganize your furniture.”

James smiled. “I’d like that.”

“It’s a date.” She wrapped her arm around his waist and tucked her face against his shoulder. “Besides, it’ll go faster with two.”

Leaning down, James brushed a kiss to her crown then rested his cheek in her hair. “Faster with two. Better with two.” He gave her waist a tight squeeze as he kissed her again. “Better with you.”

#ficandchips #doctorroseprompts #dwfic #doctor who #ten x rose #ten x rose au #james x rose #university au #romance #hurt/comfort #angst #my fic #chemical reaction #catalysis series #chemical potential sequel

[cake-warlock]

This is ramble-y but it’s 3am so who cares!

(I’m about to talk about my Sparrow specifically and my personal fable headcanons not like...Sparrow in general or totally canon character interpretations - this has been your warning)

Been thinking about Fable AUs because that’s what my brain just defaults to now I guess. I’ve talked a bit about Reaver processing his grief about Sparrow’s death and how poorly he takes it, but then I got to thinking for Sparrow would handle Reaver’s death. I mean, he’d have to be murdered obviously because he isn’t gonna die of natural causes. I think one major factor is how Sparrow was raised. Sparrow was always...hmm. Perhaps not totally well adjusted. She was raised for many years in extreme poverty by her sister, who of course did her best but she was just a kid herself. Then when her sister was violently murdered in front of her she was barely given proper time to grieve.

I’ve never interpreted Theresa as evil as much as she’s just cut herself off from empathizing with most people on purpose. Because of her position as a seer, she focuses more on the big picture than the individual. She works for the greater good even if it may potentially hurt individuals because she believes that’s what’s most important. It’s like she’s just constantly pulling the lever on the trolley problem and trying not to look at the person who’s about to get nailed by the train. When she takes in Sparrow, she sees the child as a means to an end — an end that would

ultimately save humanity. And I think sure she probably inevitably grew to care for Sparrow, but mostly she would want to distance herself as much as possible because how could one who was (theoretically) an immortal keeper of balance have connections to people without constantly being in pain. Constantly watching people die.

So she raised Sparrow from the get go with the express purpose of killing Lucien. Theresa taught her to fight, to survive. Theresa didn’t exactly teach her how to process emotions or interact with people because that wasn’t what was gonna kill Lucien. I think it would create this weird duality in Sparrow of this 18 (28 post spire) year old who was both emotionally way more mature for her age and much less. Like she watched her sister die. She’s been taught to kill since she was a kid (hell doesn’t she BEHEAD the bandit leader from the first quest??? I mean since Thag’s head is a trophy—and she seems completely nonchalant about committing her first murder) At the same time she doesn’t get to go play with the other children at the camp as a child, she was too busy training. She never had the opportunity to do typical dumb teen stuff like dating or dealing with weird adolescent emotions. She was raised as a child soldier essentially where her entire life was centered around avenging her dead sister.

Then after killing Lucien she had nothing. No family, no friends, not even her fucking dog. Theresa peaces out with the tower and all three heroes just up and left. And on top of that Hannah (who Sparrow was closest too of all), her last words to Sparrow were about how it was Sparrow’s presence was the reason her father died. Like fuck! Even if Hannah didn’t mean for her words to blame Sparrow, that’s how Sparrow heard it. The ONLY person who didn’t outright abandon her was Reaver and that’s just because he made a casual off-handed comment that he’d be back to Bloodstone eventually. And boy, Sparrow took that unintentional olive branch and ran with it. And lucky for her when Reaver got back she was just fascinating enough to keep his attention and eventually after a long time, tentative friendship and lust ended up as a weird relationship between two fucked up people that felt like the world had abandoned them.

And then if he fucking DIED?? Sparrow would lose it! But not the way Reaver did with her death, all bitterness and drowning his sorrows in sex and drink and hedonism, telling himself that ever allowing him to live again was a foolish mistake. Oh no. Sparrow was raised to avenge the ones she loved starting with Rose, and dammit she’d do the same thing for Reaver. Whoever was responsible would have an unstoppable, cold, calculating murder-machine after them. A brutally efficient assassin who had been tortured for ten years in the Spire all for the promise of a better world thanks to her sacrifice only for the one single person she truly loved to be taken away again. I feel like outwardly she would become a very stoic, unfeeling, closed off person who would to most people appear so cold and scary, but would become so impassioned with righteous fury if Reaver was ever even mentioned in her presence.

Probably sleeps with his coat every night and mourns when it stops smelling like him. Kept a lock of his hair tied with a silk bow in a locket around her neck and vial of his blood on her bedside table just to have something that was him with her. Is it a healthy coping method? Nope. But she sure would do it.

God I love drama. I love sad AUs. They make the happy ones even sweeter.

#fable #uh oh here I come to swoon over another dramatic AU #i saw a tweet the other day that way like -people who listen to their sad playlists when theyre happy are a different breed of unstable- #like yup that’s meeeeee

[marshunter06]

“The Lakes”- Taylor Swift (Duncney)

A/N: Mad love to @fictional-affliction and her Popstar verse that everyone should go check out! (There’s 3 parts and a Trentney edition!!!) Literally don’t know what I was thinking when Courtney would be the best popstar ever, like how did I not write it ever??? Also a bonus of sorts to my own fic

The clear blue water with a gentle breeze in the air, surrounded by nature and all its glory. A safe haven away from the flashing lights, a much needed break from cancel culture with millions of mindless followers lurking in the shadows. The quiet of the early morning along with birds chirping about as they fly freely around the trees, a sense of peace washing over all who are lucky enough to gaze at the scenery. An A list celebrity sits with her wordsmith as they drown out the loud distractions for a moment of solace. The actress turned pop star faced world wide critism for following a different path, under the public eyes of scrutiny, the pressure was immense to be picture perfect. She survived international infamy from her days as a washed up reality teen sensation from a show she should have never signed up for. Her eyes find her lover, no, she would never regret meeting her muse.

Breaking News! Judge Courtney is ending after only being on air for three years! The lawyer turned television sensation is looking to make yet another career change, this time into the music industry. Rumor has it there’s been drama on the set, ever since Courtney reunited with her bad boy first love, her relationship with the producers have been rocky. His criminal past and their toxic relationship back when they were teens were dug up by some fans on Twitter, leading to the hashtag #CancelCourtneysCourt to trend. Now with her intention to move over to music, fans are even more upset. Not even her Grammy winner bff, Trent, can save her from this mess. Rumors of a budding romance between the longtime friends were buzzing, before Courtney dumped him for her old beau. Trentney fans took to Instagram to make their wrath known as they spam comments over all her posts calling her “a heartless user who only cares about herself”. Her page was soon made private with all her posts taken down after losing over a hundred thousand followers. She hasn’t been seen in the public eye for the past two weeks, though some eagle eyed fans claim to have spotted her over in England, she was always pictured alone and in disguise.

Her home would always be with her muse, but being by The Lakes seemed to be even more fitting. She could imagine a life here with him as they settled down away from people whose opinions no longer mattered. The critics and fake fans who marked her as a has been as they dug her grave was miles away, she’s never felt more at ease. Sitting on the grass just overlooking the water with ducks swimming about, her lover’s arms wrapped around her as she leaned further into his embrace. This was exactly where she belonged, she knew he felt the same.

After a month of silence, Courtney releases her first single, she’s at the top of Billboard’s top 100 songs. Her faithful followers stand by as they praise the song for its brilliant lyrics and catchy beat, unfortunately not everyone was so kind. Rolling Stones called the single “a desperate attempt at staying relevant”. Still this did not deter the rising musician to announce the drop of her first album. Despite being canceled, it’s still anticipated to be one of the best albums of the year given the few glimpses of song writing the media has seen of her work over the years with Trent. She co-wrote his Grammy nominated single from last year, though it was snubbed by the academy, still a great accomplishment and it broke the record for longest amount of weeks spent on the Top 100 list!

The sweet scent of flowers drift by, carried by the small gust of wind. Though summer was ending, the red roses were still in bloom. They would welt as the season shifts to autumn, but for now they stood tall for the world to enjoy their beauty. She wonders briefly how long a person could stay unmoving in this spot to be fully integrated into the wild, with branches of trees wrapping around them forming a cocoon. She would truly belong here if it were possible to be absorbed into the loving arms of nature, still sitting against her lover was just as satisfying.

I want auroras and sad prose

I want to watch wisteria grow right over my bare feet

'Cause I haven't moved in years

And I want you right here

A red rose grew up out of ice frozen ground

With no one around to tweet it

While I bathe in cliffside pools

With my calamitous love and insurmountable grief

Hours pass with the two inspired by the view and each other scribbling down words in a notebook. She’s always been his muse with a best selling novel and a sequel written with her in mind, while he’s been a source of inspiration for her newly released album. Fans could see the deep love from their relationship just by listening to her lyrics over the soft melodies. There were a mix of songs, upbeat and slow, but the theme was all the same— she was in love and no one could take this away from them.

#duncney #sfs #inspo credit to fictional-affliction #srsly your popstar meets rockstar verse is everything #go check it out folks! you won’t be disappointed!

[trailerparkflower]

Borderline personality disorder + Steve Harrington?...

So I was thinking about how Steve acts in relationships, researched dependency from the partner and then found a lot of info about BPD, wich made me think what many of the disorder symptoms are very fitting to Steve and explains some things in his behaviour. Lets starts, guys!

Promiscuity.

All his teen life Steve been slutting around probably too scared for serious relationships (because its better that way, no one will leave him if he leaves them first), all charming and needy and touch-starved, calming down his desire for attention and affection. 

Unstable relationships/idealization of the partner, lack of boundares.

Then he settled in the realationships with Nancy (who are brave and smart and oh, so stable), which turned out pretty much unhealthy from both of the sides, and Steve became so depended on his her to the point of breaking up his bounds with everyone else( including his probably childhood best friend Tommy) except her and planning all his life to revolve around Nancy.

Fear of abandoment, frantic efforts to avoid being alone.

He fears what Nancy will abandon him so much what he becomes even more clingy and needy, while she gains even more control in relationships and becomes a “top dog” (from Joe words). In ST1 we also see how insecure and  jealous Steve was to Jonathan, his dramatic reaction on John and Nacny hug, jumping in conclusions without any evidences. He even breaks Jonathan camera in the begining just out of his “insecurity” (again, based on Joe interview), fear what Nancy and Jonathan have better understanding of each other. In other words, he afraid what Nacny will leave him for someone else and he will stay alone again. Steve Harrington canonically has big abandoment issues, probably cased by neglecting parents.

Needing attention+validation

Idk if I even should comment it. We all know what King Steve persona was build for getting attention, admiration and validation from others, know how much time Steve spends on his looks and hair, how pleased he is when Tommy and Carol have all eyes on him. When he doesnt get compliments from Nancy, he pouts and praises himself on his own because he needs that.... “see, a ninja”; “make sure you wont forget this pretty face”, ect. You ask me, Steve has the biggest praise kink in all Hawkins.

Inability to regulate emotion, difficultes with anger controlling. Impulsivity.

Steve is one yelling bitch. He is a soft boy, but when he gets really upset and angry, he becomes mean and yelly and acts without thinking. He tears apart his own essay because Nancy couldnt help him with it, he pouts, storms of the rooms, screams at people. 

Getting upset easily + habit of blocking out intense painful emotions.

If you ask Steve how he doing, he probably will smile and say “peachy!”. Not because everything is really peachy, but because Steve prefers to ignore his own problems and things what makes him sad and pretend what everything is perfectly alright. He asks Nancy go to the movie and “pretend everything is normal for a few hours.”, says what his parents totally gave him hell for drinking beer but “who cares, screw them” and changes the theme. Tommy screams “run away, Stevie boy, like you always do!”, wich suggest us what Steve has a tendentions to avoid confrontations and stressful situations. He once again says Nancy go to the party and pretend to be normal teens in ST2 when she voices her concerns, and we see what ignoring problems and pretending is Steves constant coping mechanism for stress fear and sadness.

Distorted self-image.

Steves sense of self also seems to be instable and based on how people around him see him, like with Tommy he was a school bad boy, with Nancy he became a good guy, with Dustin he became a total soft dork as we see in ST3 trailer. He is unsure about his own goals, he doesnt knows who he is and who he wants to be, like wich job he prefers and what he likes to do in his life generally. Tending to base his own self on his relationships with other people, he gets complitely lost in the end of ST2 when Nancy is no longer with him.

Self-harm, self-desctuctive behaviour. Self damaging acts as drinking, drugs, vandalism.

Steve smokes, drinks, gets into the fights he cant win. Stands near Tommy when he writes about Nancy the slut and Jonathan the creep, runs away from cops. I would even say what his fight with Jonathan was quite maschostic, because Steve rilled him up and then barely protected himself and almost didnt resisted when Jonathan pushed him to the ground and started to punch non stop. Tbh for me it seemed like if Steve was so upset what he wanted some physical pain to blur his emotional one.

Dissociation, "zoning out"

Sometimes if you pay enough attention, you see Steve standing/sitting here with blank empty face. Usually it happens in stressful events, when he has some free time by himself. He also gets slow time to time, like hes habing hard time to concentrate. Cant be sure, but its does seems like zoning out. Im think there was even some parody video where people noticed what Steve sometimes gets blank faced and slow in the middle of the talk.

Paranoidal ideas, anixety, nervousness

Oh, this one is easy. You honestly wont find another ST character who is so full of anixety. He is fidgety, he hugs himself in a self-defense manner, he makes himself look smaller than he is, he constantly has the deer in the highlights look on his face, he cant think and act straight when he meets the Upside Down monster first time, so Jonathan even has to grab his hand and yank him to run. We also see how Steve is afraid of the goverment in the ST2, I would say its paranoidal behaviour-its seems like he does think what they are constantly being watched. Says what they will destroy their lives and families and changes the theme what Nancy wants to discuss.

In ST1 he is also ridiculously scared what his parents, dad especially, will find out what he drunk some beer, he gets so scared of this idea what he even calls Nancy and asks not to mention that to the cops, says what his parents will “Murder him”. 

In ST2 he is also pretty freaked out by Billy, in basketball scene when he is pushed down and Billy holds his hand you can see what Steve is trembling and looks like he is going to cry. Im not joking guys, just rewatch the scene....Poor guy just cant have a rest!

Presistent feelings of emptiness & guilt

“I'm sorry? What the hell am I sorry for?”

No matter is he guilty or not, if Steve having a conflict with someone, most of the times he will feel guilty and be sorry, as we see in the show. He wants to apologize to Jonathan for telling him means things, saying, “I just wanna be good, make things right”, buys him new camera (and giving it to Nancy, not presenting it to Jonathan himself.), cleans local theatre, he says sorry to Nancy, calls himself a jerk, a shitty boyfriend (wich is kinda downgrading himself), wanting to bring her roses and say how sorry he is again. Dustin also easily kind of guilt trips (”you promised to protect us”)  him to protect the party in the tonnels, while Steve clearly was against the whole thing, and feeling really unwell after getting his ass beaten by Billy.

Learning disability/scool problems. BPD can make it difficult for them to control the focus of their attention, to concentrate.

Steve plays it cool and pretends unbothered, but he actually tries hard to learn stuff. Even in ST1 we see in his room, what his table is covered by various homework papers. Its been shown what Steve having a hard time with study, what he is eager to be useful but not the smartest guy around, from his really chaotic essay and getting C-, to the Nazis comment. Its seems like he has some learning disability and doesnt even knows about it himself.

 Its also a known hinted fact what Steve doesnt have a good relationships with his parents, especially with strict father, he even calls him a “grade A asshole”. By their absence in the series, when we saw all the main character families, Steve remains all alone in big house, wich makes us think about how neglecting they are. The thing is, “people with BPD  have been found to be significantly more likely to having been abused by parents.”

During development, Joe Keery and the Duffers spoke about “what kind of family life [Steve] comes from and maybe this girl Nancy is quiet and listens in a way that other people haven't listened to him at this point.”-wich is pretty fitting to the portrayal of “neglecting, denying the validity of childnren thoughts and feelings parents”-that type of the bad parenting what BPD people mostly experenced.

“Parents were also reported to have failed to provide needed protection and to have neglected their child's physical care”, what gaves us the possible reason of Steves constant anixety and running away from the problems issues.

So, while we dont know can it be canon or not, I would say what there is high possibilities what Steve has BPD.

#steve harrington #BPD #character meta #stranger things #long post #harringrove

[writings-of-hazel]

Forgotten Gospel (Sam Winchester x OC) Part One:

Summary:

When Diane was three her parents where murdered by a group of demons, John Winchester saved her life. Now an orphan Diane had no one to look after her, her relatives all mysteriously died as well. John was her surrogate father as was Bobby. She joined John and his two boys on their quest to find and kill what murdered their mother. Growing up Diane and Sam became lovers throughout their teen years, that was until Sam left for college.

Notes:~Hey so this is the LONGEST chapter I have ever written and I don't think every chapter is going to be as long as this one but I'll try. I'm also super out of practice and don't have time to edit so these might be messy but I still hope you enjoy. Leave a kudos or a comment if you like what I have so far and if you would like to see more!!

“Sam..” Diane muttered through trembling lips. The cold night air bit at her bare arms, causing goosebumps to run up her spine. The black impala was parked on the side of the road and everyone was outside, in a rather hasty dispute. A livid John Winchester stood behind Diane, his face red with anger and eyes wide and shaking. Beside him stood his eldest son, Dean, with an unreadable expression. The Winchester family was not well known for their mild temperament, and tonight was a prime example. This was the aftermath.

“Stanford..you’re going to Stanford?” Diane asked.

After a moment of complete and utter silence, Sam looked at her with a soft scowl, his face still red with sweat from the absolute shitshow that happened just before.

“Yes,” He finally spoke. His tone had changed, softened, and his eyes adverted away from her and onto the ground. “I start in two months.”

He raised his face and Diane caught his gaze. It was really happening. Diane thought. Sam was leaving them. She knew he was serious.

Her dark eyebrows began to furrow, and everything felt like it was in slow motion, or like she was moving through quicksand.

“What, so you’re just going to..you’re just-..you’re just going to leave like that?” She stuttered, shaking her head, choking back the lump in her throat. “What are we to you? What am I to you? This is your family Sammy, you can’t just-“

“I know!” He snapped, his eyebrows furrowing. He let out a small scoff, throwing his hands up in the air.

“You know I don’t want this Diane, this isn’t what I wanna be, I’m tired of being under his thumb. I’m tired of all the fighting and all the death and all the everything. I-..Diane I can’t live like this anymore and this is my ticket to get out.” His stiff body relaxed the slightest bit as he spoke, his hard, solemn eyes softening near the end.

It was Diane’s turn to be silent, the look on his face told her that he knew that she knew he was right.

The anger fueled behind her eyes flickered out, and her head slowly slumped down, looking at the mud on her shoes. She could no longer fight the hot tears burning behind her eyes, and slowly small streaks rolled down her face.

When she gathered the strength to look him in the eyes she was met with a sorrowful gaze. Sam’s face had contorted and his eyes where glossed over.

“I know, Sam,” all power left her voice, it was almost a whisper. “But look what- look who your leaving behind, your dad? Your brother? Me?” Her voice broke at the end, her hand rose and quickly swiped away the new coming tears.

“I’m sorry Diane.” Sam said with genuine tone. With a sigh, he took a few strides closer to her, till they where less than a foot apart.

Diane looked up along Sam’s giant frame, his gentle face towering above hers. He gave her a knowing look, the corner of his lip twitching the way it always did when he was nervous.

His large hand cupped the side of her trembling cheek, using the pad of his thumb to gingerly swipe away a few stray tears from her face.

Diane’s head was swimming in a whirlpool of thoughts, she wanted to cry, she wanted to scream, she wanted to beg. Beg for all of this to go back the way it was a few hours later.

Things got quiet, only the purr of the impala from behind them.

Sam studied the features of her face and Diane could tell that he was thinking something through. His eyes averted away for just a moment, before flickering back to her with a hopeful vigor.

“Come with me,” He finally spoke, “We can go to California together, say goodbye to all this, all the pain, all the monsters, everything.” The corner of his lips pulled into a hopeful smile, his other hand cupping the back of her head. “We could be happy Diane, really, genuinely, happy. I know you want the same thing I do. Come with me”

Before Diane could answer, the engine of the impala roared to life.

“Dean get in the car- I’m done with this.” John muttered to his son, wrenching open the drivers side car door “Diane we’re leaving. Now.” He barked out. Diane broke her gaze from Sam’s and glanced behind her. John got into the driver seat and slammed the door with a thud.

When she turned back to Sam, his expression changed not only was there anger, but something akin to heart ache. Sam’s hands where now stuffed in his pockets and his body was rigid again, there wasn’t much time left before John was bound to take off.

“I’m going to California tonight-“ he sighed, giving a defeated shrug. “Are you coming with me or not?”

Diane knew she didn’t have much time to decide, but how could she possibly process any of this? It was paralyzing. Her eyes fell to the ground, wracking her cluttered brain for thoughts.

“Sam..” she sighed after what felt like forever. She took a step closer to Sam, wrapping her hands around his large forearm and looking him in the eye. “I can’t.” She croaked, tears welling in her dark eyes, and streaming down her cheeks. “I’m sorry Sam..I just..I can’t.”

Sam’s face fell the moment the words left her lips, his eyes falling to the ground. He sniffed back the tears threatening to escape, but it was in vain. A few wet streaks ran along his face.

When he lifted his face up to meet Diane’s, she felt as if her heart where about to shatter on spot.

The look of utter disappointment and heartbreak in his eyes was more painful than any bullet wound she had ever received.

“This is who I am, there’s no normal for me, not anymore.” Diane choked through her tears. There was a loud honk from the impala behind her, causing her to jump. Her signal to hurry up.

Sam looked over her features one last time, his face contorted with sadness.

“Then goodbye, Diane” he said with a hardened voice, reluctantly pulling himself away from her.

“Sam...don’t-“ The car honked again.

“Diane! Get in the car now, I’m not asking you again!” Johns voice howled out the window.

“I’m sorry Diane, I have to get out of here.” He said with an empty chuckle, taking step after step back, farther away from her. His eyes looked hollow, broken. Like an abused animal. He gave her one last look, before turning his back to her, continuing his stride.

“Sam.” She muttered, her voice broken. Sam didn’t turn around.

“Come on- he’s gone” said a gruff voice behind her, making her jump and turn around. She came face to face with Dean, hot tears running down her face. Immediately Dean wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his warm embrace.

Suddenly, she couldn’t hold it anymore. Wrenching sobs began to tear through her body, her face buried itself into his chest. Dean ran his fingers through the back of her hair, rubbing her back with his other hand.

“Hey it’s okay, c’mon, let’s get you in the car.” He cooed, collecting her form in his arms and guiding her to the backseat, he shrugged his thick leather jacket off of his shoulders and threw it around her. The aroma of whisky and tobacco filling her nostrils as she breathed it in. The moment her door shut John pulled out into the road, driving in the opposite direction of Sam.

All was dead quiet, and no one would dare speak a word. The radio was turned low and there was only the purr of the impala between the three.

Diane felt like she was in a state of shock, only half an hour ago Sam was in the car, sitting beside her. How could he do something like this? When she felt the tears brimming her eyes she shoved the thought out of her mind. She wasn’t going to cry, not right now, not in front of them.

Her eyes peaked over to the rear view mirror, she caught a glimpse of Deans face, not his usual stoic expression that he always pulls when things go to shit but the face he makes when he’s thinking something through. His face was hard and twisted, and his eyes wide as saucers. He wasn’t in much more shock and she was. His round, green eyes flickered up to the mirror catching her glance and holding it for a minute. Giving her a look she couldn’t quite read.

She tore away her eyes from his and looked out the window at the night sky.

Damnit Sam. She thought to herself, why did he have to do this shit. She shook her head with disbelief. The last images of his face racing through her head. The whole thing lasted less than ten minutes, but it had felt like hours.

When they finally arrived at the motel, John went livid, howling, punching and destroying everything he could get his eyes on. Dean ended up having to sleep on the bathroom floor. Diane got the couch.

But she was getting no sleep that night.

*three years and two months later*

The dark impala flew down the highway. Dean was behind the wheel, driving with one hand, a whole hot pocket in the other.

“Dean..I mean are you sure this is a good idea?” Diane asked with a raised eyebrow “I mean, last time I checked, Sam wanted nothing to do with this kind of business”

“Yeauuh..” Dean said with a mouth full of hot pocket, “but we need him more than ever right now, especially if we’re gonna find dad.”

Diane rolled her eyes gave him a quizzical look.

Dean furrowed his eyebrows at her expression “What?” He asked, crumbs shooting out of his mouth.

“First of all you’re disgusting..” she began “and second of all, what makes you think Sam is going to help us out. He told us himself, he’s done.”

Dean’s face fell a moment and the car went quiet “Yeah, well, that was a long time ago, who knows what could happen.”

“I still don’t think he’s gonna join us.” Diane sighed.

“Well, if it’s concerning dad, I think he’ll come around quicker than you think.” Dean glanced over at her, her features where tight and stiff, her eyes gazing miles away. She picked at the side of her lip softly, shaking her leg with nervousness.

Dean sighed, he knew how hard this had been for Diane. Her and Sammy had been childhood lovebirds since kindergarten. Sam leaving was especially hard for her. Setting his beloved hot pocket on his lap, he pressed his warm hand against her leg, giving it a reassuring squeeze. When her eyes rose up to meet his, he gave her a quiet nod.

“It’s gonna be okay, trust me, I’m nervous too. Three and a half years have gone by and not so much as a call. But I got you, okay? You got me?” He spoke, giving her an encouraging glance.

“I got you Dean.” She muttered with a sigh, falling back into the leather interior.

“Put on some Zeppelin,” she mumbled after a minute or two of silence “I need Zeppelin.”

Dean belted out a laugh, a dumb grin growing on his face. “That’s my girl.” He chuckled reaching under his seat for his box of cassettes. He handed over the box to Diane. “Pick anyone you want- ooh- ahh shit! dammit!” Dean exclaimed, swerving on the road.

He swept up the hot pocket off of his leg, the hot filling had seeped out and onto his pant leg, burning the shit out of him.

“Idiot.” Diane muttered with a laugh.

“Jackass.” Dean threw back with a smile.

-

When they got to Stanford campus, it was quite the sight.

“Damn, so this is what the college life looks like.” Dean muttered into the cool night air, his hands resting on his hips.

“Yeah, yeah, I guess so. Where is the dorm located?” Diane asked, pulling her jacket tighter around her. The large stone buildings towered over her like gothic cathedrals. Something felt, off.

“Yeah uhh, it’s right over here.” He mumbled and began walking. Diane followed behind him, her arms crossed over her chest.

“What if he’s different, Dean?” She asked, her heart beginning to race in her chest with every footstep.

“Of course he’s gonna be different, but Sammy is Sammy, he’s family.” Dean reassured her, but mostly reassuring himself.

When they met the steel doorway to the dorm Dean pulled out his lock picking tools and began to work. Diane glanced up at the window above them, Sam’s window. She wondered for a moment, how many times he had looked from out that window to watch the night sky like he always did. Did he even do that anymore? She didn’t know. She could feel him, his presence already, like a familiar vibration buzzing down her back. She was broken from her thought by the sound of the front door unlocking.

“I’m in, come on.” Dean whispered, stepping quietly into the dorm house. Silently the two crawled up the stairs, till they made it to the fourth floor.

“He is apartment 216.” Dean said in a gruff whisper.

She followed behind him quietly, down the long and narrow halls leading to his room.

“Bingo.” Dean sighed, finding the entrance. He picked the lock quick and quietly opened the door. Diane took a step in, but found her foot trapped at an angle, causing her to stumble into Deans back, kicking some shoes across the hall.

“Shh!” Dean hushed harshly, turning around to give her a look.

“Shut up just keep going.” She whispered back taking another step into the dorm.

Though all the lights where out and it was near pitch black, Diane could make out the general space of the dorm, it was more like an apartment than anything. It was a decent size with high ceilings. They made their way into the kitchen when a ruffling sound came from the other room, followed by silence. Dean held up his hand and froze, Diane paused behind him.

He could hear soft footsteps coming from outside the kitchen drawing nearer, and nearer.

Sam. She thought, that has to be Sam.

As if they had the same thought, when the footsteps reached the kitchen entrance Dean abruptly stepped out into view.

A large figure grabbed Dean by the back of his collar, yanking him back with great strength, Dean turned around pushing the tall figures hands away, Dean and the figure began to fight. Dean threw in a few blows, as did the figure. Dean eventually got the upper hand and managed to pin the man to the ground.

“Woah...easy there tiger.” He grunted, his hand still wrapped around his throat

“Dean?” That voice, the first time she’s heard that voice in years. Diane went rigid, her eyes as wide as saucers. “You scared the crap outta me!” He exclaimed angrily.

A smile was glued onto Deans face, “That’s just cause you’re outta practice.” He grunted with a laugh. Quickly Sam knocked Dean onto his back, pinning him down.

“Or not-“ Dean groaned, tapping out “Get off me.” He grunted.

Sam sprung off of him, lowering his hand and lifting Dean onto his feet. “What are you doing here Dean?” Sam asked with a confused look.

“Well I was here to grab a beer.” Dean said with a grin, swiping some dust off of Sam’s shoulder.

“No, why are you here?” Sam said in a more serious tone.

“Okay, we need to talk, just for a little bit-“ Dean was interrupted by the light switching on, catching their attention.

Diane’s fingers lingered in the light-switch. Her eyes immediately fell on Sam, he had changed a little from the last time she saw him so long ago. His hair was shorter, he was thinner. His face looked more adult than it did before.

Sam’s gaze locked with hers, he examined the features of her face slowly, taking in the view of her. His eyes went wide, he blinked hard a few times and rubbed his eyes.

“Diana?” He utttered, his eyes not moving from hers. His chest heaved a few times as he tried to collect himself. Hearing his voice was the sweetest and most bitter thing she had experienced. Her eyes took in his form in its entirety, soaking in the image of the long lost Sam.

“Hey.” She replied softly, crossing her arms over her chest, hugging her torso. He didn’t take a step forward and neither did she.

“Hey.” He replied slowly, his mouth slightly open.

Diane felt the heat on her neck like hell fire, she was sure her face was red beyond recognition. But judging by Sam’s expression, she wasn’t alone.

Sam looked for a minute between her and Dean, at loss for words.

“Sam?” Said a new voice from behind her.

Diane swung her head around, her hand behind her jacket, clutching the handle of her pistol. She was met with a woman’s face, she was wearing nothing but a shirt and some underwear, but she was beautiful no doubt. Her skin looked soft and clean, untamed curls framing her face. The woman gave her a concerned look, cocking one eyebrow, before glancing over to the other Winchester brother.

“Sam, who are these people?” She asked, looking between the two strangers.

“Jess,” Sam spoke, giving her a half genuine crooked smile. Jess began to walk towards him, Diane moved out of the way. Jess, that was her name. She watched as Jess, with the grace of an angel, glided over to Sam, tucking herself under his large arm.

Jesus fucking Christ, way to stab someone in the heart and twist the blade.

Diane’s gaze immediately diverted from the two. Sam had found someone new, she guessed he meant it when he said he wanted a new life. That didn’t stop the sharp sting radiating through her body. She walked across the kitchen towards the older Winchester, keeping her eyes on the walls.

Sam noticed this, and felt a small pang himself. He knew what her hurt looked like, and he saw it all over her face, despite how hard she was trying to conceal it.

“Dean, Diane, this is my girlfriend Jessica. Jess, this is Dean, and this is Diane. We used to work together.” Sam said, gesturing to the two.

“You’re brother Dean?” Jess asked, pointing to the Winchester brother.

Sam nodded.

Diane clenched her jaw, she was right, this was a terrible idea.

“Wow-“ Dean said with a smirk, taking a step towards her, Diane rolled her eyes, knowing exactly where this was going.

“I love the smurfs” he said with a shit eating grin, pointing to her cleavage “and i just gotta say, wow, you are so outta my brothers league

“Just- let me put something on.” Jess replied uncomfortably.

“Nahh nah, wouldn’t dream of it-OW” Dean was cut off by a sharp smack to the back of the head by Diana. Dean swung his head to her, giving her the meanest glare.

Diane rolled her eyes, looking back at Jess, and then to Sam, who had his gaze glued on her. “Sorry about him- he thinks more with his dick than with his brain.” Diane chuckled, holding out a hand to her.

A small smile tugged at the corner of Jess’s lips as she shook it.

“Oh I can guess.” she chuckled.

Dean, who was now beyond pissed off was no longer in a playful mood. “Well Diane and I have some family business to discuss with your boyfriend but uhh I’ll see ya later.” He said with a wink, shoving his elbow into Diana’s side.

“Ow-fuck you.” She whispered to Dean harshly, rubbing her side. Dean flashed her a wicked grin, saying that they where even. Jess stood there quietly, glancing over to Sam.

Real smooth Dean. Diane thought.

Diane felt it again, like a stabbing pain. The way he looked at her was something she hadn’t seen in years. There was an awkward silence that followed, eventually Sam spoke up.

“No-“ he said giving Dean the bitchiest face he could muster. “Whatever you can say in front of me, you can say in front of her.” He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, pulling her close.

Dean shot a glance at Diane, and then at Sam.

“Dad’s on a hunting trip.” Dean said with a cryptic glace.

“Yeah,” Sam replied with a shrug, “He goes on a lot of hunting trips. I’m sure he’s fine”

The smile on Deans face fell and his expression grew serious.

“Dad’s on a hunting trip, and he hasn’t been home in a few days”

With that Sam’s whole demeanor changed.

“Jess, will you excuse us?” Sam said, his body stiffening.

-

“Dean you can’t just barge in in the middle of the night and expect me to just pack up and go with you” Sam retorted as the three hunters quickly shuffled down the staircase.

“You’re not listening Sammy, Dad’s missing.” Dean replied carelessly, glancing behind him. Diana made it down the stairs first and stood at the door, her arms crossed over her chest.

“You remember that werewolf in Dayton? The Mississippi devil gates, Dad was gone for weeks. He’s always missing and he’s always fine.” Sam paused at the end of the stairs.

Diane rolled her eyes, “Yeah but never like this, not without some kind of...something, anything.” she tagged in, taking a step towards the two.

Sam gave her a look and puffed his chest.

“Diana’s right, something’s not right and I don’t like that, So are you in or not?” Dean asked impatiently Diana fought back the small smile from reaching her lips.

Sam paused a minute, his lips pursed tightly, “I’m not.” he replied.

A smug smile spread over Diane’s face, her eyes meeting the older Winchester’s “What did I say Dean?” Diane jabbed, throwing her hands up in the air.

“Don’t.” Dean warned, giving her a stern look.

Sam ground his teeth behind his lips, shaking his head. “I said I was done with hunting Dean, I started a new life to get away from that.”

“Oh come on, it wasn’t easy but it wasn’t that bad.” Dean retorted, adjusting the duffle on his back.

“Dean when I told dad I was afraid of the dark he gave me a .45” Sam said with a look of bewilderment

“What else was he supposed to do?” Dean replied, obviously not getting his point.

“I was nine years old, Dean. He’s supposed to say “Don’t be afraid of the dark.” Sam scoffed, crossing his arms.

“Don’t be afraid if the dark? Of course you should be afraid of the dark you know what’s out there.” Dean cautioned with wide eyes.

“You boys are wasting time.“ Diane finally huffed. One thing she had not missed was the arguing, “You guys still argue like a married couple it makes me wanna vomit let’s gooo.” She stammered as she sprung through the metal door, letting it slam behind her. She began to walk across the building towards the black impala, the boys following behind her.

“You think mom would of wanted this for us,” Sam began.

Oh no.

“You think she would of wanted the weapon training, making silver bullets?”

Shut up.

“Dad put a gun in my hands the moment I was able to carry one”

Shut the fuck up Sam.

“Man, Dean, we where raised like warriors “

“So?” Dean replied, not looking behind him. “What? You’re just gonna live some normal, apple pie, white picket fence life?” When he finally reached the car, Dean turned to face his brother.

“No, not normal.” Sam paused, looking at Diane again, “Safe.”

That word hit Diane, ‘Safe’. In a way, she understood what he meant, that’s why he left in the first place.

“That’s why you left in the first place?” Dean said her thought out loud.

Sam’s eyes flickered to the floor and then up to Dean “Dad was the one who said if I left I should stay gone..So I did.”

Dean let out a haste sigh, putting his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket. “Listen, Dad’s in trouble and he needs help, he’s not dead I can feel it .” He spoke through clenched teeth, determination in his voice. Sam went silent for a bit, his mind in deep thought.

When there was no response Dean continued “Listen it’s just Diane and I out here, and we can’t do this by ourselves.”

“and we don’t want to, Sam.” Diane added, leaning against the impala.

Sam’s expression softened a bit, the furrows in his brows unraveling. Diane gave Sam a hopeful look, and Sam let out a huff.

“What was Dad hunting?” He finally relented, his shoulder shrugging in defeat.

Diane gave Sam a small smile, tossing Dean the keys “Good question, we don’t know.” She replied.

Dean went to the trunk and popped it open, revealing a collection of guns, knives and other kinds of tools.

“What do you mean?” Sam inquired, eyebrow raised.

“Well Diane and I where out in out on a gig in Milwaukee, there was a cannibal den. Phew they where some nasty sons of bitches” He sighed, shuffling through the trunk with loud clanks and clicks.

“Wait wait,” Sam began, a look of disbelief flickering across his face “Dad let you two go on a hunt alone?”

Diane furrowed her eyebrows the same time Dean did, taking the same offense.

“Im twenty six dude,” he retorted

“You’ve been gone for a long time Sam. Things are different.” Diane sighed. Sam gave her another long look.

“Bingo found it, down in Iowa was where I last heard from him, and look at this.” Dean swiftly interrupted the silence, pulling out a tape recorder.

“Let’s give it a listen.” Sam murmured, leaning down to heard the recording on the tape. Dean pressed play and static began to echo in the air. Diane furrowed her eyebrows, straining her ears to listen, the boys large frames easily nudged her behind them.

“I can never go home “ Rang clear as day from the static in the recorder.

“I can never go home?” Sam repeated, determination crossing his eyes.

“We gotta check it out Sam.” Diane spoke up, pushing Dean out of her way, which earned her a sharp elbow in the arm.

Sam put his hands on his hips, looking at the ground. He had his thinking face on. “Okay,” he began, letting out another sigh, “I’ll go.. But I gotta be back by this Monday.”

“Why?” Dean inquired, raising an eyebrow.

“I got an interview.” Sam said through pursed lips.

“A job interview? Skip it.” Dean said casually.

Sam sighed and shook his head. “It’s a interview for a law firm, it’s basically my whole career on a plate Dean-“

“Yeah, yeah. Okay whatever we’ll get you home by Monday.” Dean shrugged, but his face looked annoyed.

Sam gave his brother a look.“I’m gonna go upstairs and pack.” After giving each of them a glance he lazily turned around and carried his large frame back towards his dorm.

-

Dean was downstairs making calls and setting up and Diane, bored, made her way back up the stairs towards Sam’s dorm. She gently rapped her knuckles against the door and waited.

The door opened to Jess’s face.

“Oh, hey.” She said with a smile. Despite the small stabs of pain her face left in her chest Diane couldn’t help but smile. Jess seemed nice, she seemed sweet. She imagined her long fingers diving into Sam’s chocolate hair, her round lips feeling his soft and tender kiss, all the late night love confessions they had shared together.

“Hello?” Jess asked again, cocking one eyebrow.

“Oh. Sorry, I’m running on no sleep.” Diane replied, ripped from her self wallowing thoughts.

“Well, come in” Jess sighed pleasantly “Make yourself comfortable.”

“Thanks Jessica.” Diane replied, stepping inside.

“Please, call me Jess. Here I’ll pour you some coffee before I head to class” She chuckled leading Diane to the kitchen.

The two sat in silence for a minute, Diane mindlessly gazing into the dark liquid in her mug.

“Sam won’t tell me where he’s going,” Jess finally said, glancing over to Diane, “You two know each other.”

Diane took a small swing of her coffee, enjoying the familiar bitter taste. “Yeah, Winchester boys are like that..they never really let you know what’s going on. I think it’s a self righteous think they got, or idiocy, a bit of both." She paused for a minute "Oh Sam and I, yeah, we..we grew up together.” Diane stumbled, taking another sip from her mug.

Jess nodded quietly, taking a drink from her coffee. her eyes glanced up at the clock. “Shit I gotta go to class,” she sighed, setting down the cup “Sam?” she asked down the hall , walking towards the room. Diane could hear him murmur a reply. After a while she heard the front door open and shut.

Her demeanor fell immediately. Her eyes lowering to her scarred hands, the hands of a hunter. Taking another last sip she poured the rest down the drain and set the cup down, and made her way to where she heard Sam’s voice.

Diane made her way across the dorm to the doorway of Sam and Jessica’s room. She stopped at the entrance, her eyes locking on Sam’s form in front of her.

Sam was bent over, his cocoa dark locks hanging in front of his face while shuffling clothes into his duffle bag. A tender feeling arose from her stomach, tugging at the corners of her lips. Raising her hand she gently rapped her knuckles against the doorway.

Sam’s head shot in her direction, his rounded hazel eyes catching her dark brown orbs, recognition turned on his face and his mouth curved into a small smile.

“Hey Diane,” he greeted, standing straight, his fingers slowly fumbling around with the shirt in his hands.

“Hey,” Diane replied stepping into the room and leaning against the dresser, crossing her arms over her chest “How ya doin’?” She asked.

The muscle in Sam’s jaw twitched slightly, his eyes flickering down to the duffle bag and then back to her. “Honestly,” he huffed, shaking his head, raking his long fingers through his hair “Not good.”

Diana let out a sigh, her eyes flickering to the ground “I know, Sam,” She pushed herself off the dresser and Sam’s eyes followed her as she stepped to the edge of the bed. Diane took a deep breath.

“I know you never wanted any of this Sam, the guns, the ghosts, the monsters” she muttered “That’s why you ran away right?” Her tone was softly spoken, though her heart was racing against her chest. Memories washed over her brain like tidal waves, the last image of his face years before, watching his back as he left.

Sam read her somber expression, his face softened in sympathy.

“Diane, about...about last time, I-“ Sam began to say.

“Don’t Sam,” Diane cut in, shaking her head, her eyes met his and she felt like melting, she saw the guilt and it made her stomach churn. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath “I understand, and..” She paused, her tongue catching in her mouth.

Sam waited, curiosity flickering across his features.

Diane read his expression to go on, sucking in a deep breath through her lips she sighed out “And I’m proud of you Sam..really I am.” The words hurt as they left Diana’s mouth, but they still rung true. “This is what you’ve always wanted, something safe, and you deserve it Sam.”

The corners of Sam’s lips pulled into a gentle smile, though his sorrowful eyes remained the same. “Thank you,” Sam murmured, his eyebrows furrowing “So do you.”

Diane shook her head, her eyes flickering to the wall beside her “Yeah, well, I made that choice.” The muscles in her jaw clenched.

Sam sighed, turning his back to her and continued packing his duffle bag “You know I’m not back, right?” He finally said after a moment of silence, pausing his movements “I’m just gonna help find dad and then I’m out, for good this time.”

Diane held back the scoff in her throat, “I know that Sam, I’m not quite sure Dean knows that, but I do.”

Sam nodded slowly, turning his face to her.

“But you don’t have to be gone Sam.” Diane finally added, “Dean misses you, I miss you and John misses you-“

“I don’t wanna talk about it.” Sam cut in, his voice hard.

Diane sighed, placing her hands on her hips “Okay, whatever you say. I’ll be in the car.” She stepped away from the bed and towards the door, mentally defeated and exhausted. She stopped a minute and turned around, a solemn smile on her face. “Jess is a good girl Sam.” She uttered and Sam turned to face her. Diane looked deep into those hazel eyes she had both missed and loved, tears threatening to well in her eyes. “I’m happy she makes you happy.”

Sam’s eyes watered over through no tears where spilled, his lips curved into a pursed smile.

Diane returned the smile and turned her back to him.

When she finally made it back to the impala, Dean was sitting on the hood, beer in his hand. His bright green eyes flickered towards Diane and he gave her a toothy grin.

“How was the talk?” Dean asked.

“It was a talk.” Diane muttered in a defeated tone, walking across the impala and in front of Dean.

“Did you tell him?” Dean inquired, raising an eyebrow.

“No,” Diane sighed, “Not yet. We need his help.”

Dean rolled his eyes “I get it,” he pushed himself off the hood and took a step towards Diane, reaching his arm out. His hand caught her arm and gently pulled her towards him. Diane wrapped her arms around Dean’s torso, burying her face in his chest. His body was warm, smelling of whisky and peppermint, she inhaled the comforting aroma. Taking a deep breath Diane craned her neck back to look into Dean’s soulful eyes. Dean smiled, leaning his head down and softly connecting his lips with hers. Diane smiled softly against his lips, running her hands up his chest to grab his face. After a moment the two pulled apart.

“You shouldn’t feel bad Diane, I mean, Sammy moved on..why shouldn’t you?” Dean sighed, “We’ve been on for months now, you shouldn’t feel ashamed”

“Feel ashamed that I’m seeing my ex-boyfriends brother? Nah, I do feel like a sloppy second though.” Diane chuckled, leaning against the car.

Dean chuckled, leaning next to her and sliding an arm across her shoulders. “You’re far from being a sloppy second, I can tell you that right now.” Dean said with a genuine smile, pressing a chaste kiss against her lips.

Sam stepped away from the window, closing the curtain. His heart felt like an anvil in his chest, crushing him towards the ground. He wanted to be mad, to be furious, but where could he stand to feel so. He had someone of his own now too, he was the one who left. He couldn’t blame her or his brother for any of that. His face turned brooding and pensive as he turned to the duffle bag. He could just say no, turn back, tell them to leave him back to the life he had built.

That wouldn’t be right either. Sighing Sam swung the duffle bag onto his shoulder and made his way to the impala.

There was work to be done.

-

The ride through the night was quiet, Diane slept across the back seats, using one of Dean’s flannels as a makeshift pillow. In the morning she awoke to a loud tapping on the window.

“Rise and shine sleeping beauty” Dean’s voice rang from outside. Diane opened her eyes with a tired grunt, looking out the bright window to the older Winchester.

“Fuck you, good morning.” Diane muttered sleepily as she popped open the door.

“Good morning to you too, grumpy,” Dean said with mock hurt, he leaned in to connect his lips to hers but was stopped by her hand. Glancing over to Sam who was pretending not to listen, shuffling through a box of old cassette tapes.

“Oh..yeah.” Dean muttered, annoyance flickering in his eyes. He set down a chocolate bar and some beef jerky in her lap “Breakfast.” He sighed. Diane gave him an apologetic look and Dean nodded, heaving a sigh.

“Dean what the heck is all this?” Sam interrupted looking through their box of fake badges and ID’s, along with several fake credit cards. “You and Dad still running those credit card scams?”

“You bet your ass we are.” Diane groaned, sitting up and ripping open the wrapping to her ‘breakfast’

(Stay tuned for part two)

#supernatural #dean winchester #dean winchester x reader #sam winchester #sam winchester x reader #spn #supernatural au #spnfandom #spnfam #spnfamily

[randombtsprincessa]

Asylum || Epilogue

Author: Randombtsprincessa

Characters: Kim Namjoon x Reader

Chapter:  01  02  03  04  05  06  07  08  09

A/N: I am bidding a tearful goodbye to this story. It has been helpful in so many degrees and I hope you got out of it as much as I tried to put into it.

7 YEARS LATER

“I don’t know what’s more horrible, Yoongi Hyung dancing, or Taehyung trying to rap.” Hoseok whined, the heavy base of his beer bottle hitting the table with a thud.

He was immediately met with throes of protests.

“I’m not that bad, jerk.” Yoongi said, unbothered as usual, not even pulling the bottle completely away from his lips.

“I’m fairly decent,” Taehyung cried, at which Yoongi glanced at me, a wink thrown out of the corner of his eye, way too fast for anyone else to catch.

“Sure, Tae, why don’t you give us a small demonstration?” he called.

The younger boy immediately cowed, mumbling something about ‘not being prepared’ but bravely picked up an empty bottle, turning it over to form a mike and then started spitting out words.

There was a small silence before Jimin started to clap, cheering for his best friend and Yoongi, Hoseok and I politely clapped.

“Well then, where’s Namjoon?” Yoongi turned to look at you.

“He’s with Jin actually. You know how they are. Some kids in the pediatric ward, showed interest and off they both went. He’ll be here soon enough.” I rolled my eyes fondly and Yoongi chuckled.

“Well, as long as it makes kids happy.” He sighed, his fingers drumming on the table as if he was playing the piano too.

“How are you?” Jimin continued.

“I’m fine. Better as a matter of fact, I’m really glad we all managed to get together again. It’s been ages since I saw you.” I commented.

I grinned when I remembered the last time I’d seen them all together. The dining hall of the Sanctuary, where I’d bid them a tearful goodbye, making them promise to get better as soon as they could so we could see each other out of our white uniforms and promising to keep visiting as much as I could.

Life had picked up at a staggering pace once I was out and visits had to be cut short till slowly they all got out.

Now seven years later, here we were.

I’d built upon my late degrees, gotten in a whirlwind education before settling down firmly. Now I worked as a Public Relations department head in the entertainment company that Yoongi and Namjoon had set up together when they were both out. It was a nice, comfortable job and it helped me deal with the anxiety. You know what they say, practice made perfect.

Jin and I had stayed friends, long while he rose up on the medical hierarchy, now owning a medical centre of his own. We made it a point to catch up once in a while, if not both of us were busy.

Hoseok had gone further with his dance, taking up the position of a back up dancer before opening his dance studio, teaching kids and teens. Jimin had soon, claiming that it wasn’t too stressful and at least this way he still got to keep a connection with his dancer spirit.

Taehyung had finally made it home. His step dad was long gone, his mother working hard to provide for whatever was left of their family. It wasn’t until her son returned that they both got back on their feet. Maybe money didn’t bring happiness after all.

Yoongi and Namjoon were a lot more complicated. Yoongi had returned to the music scene amid a lot of media coverage. His entertainment had dropped him but he started one from the scratch, building it up brick by brick to where it was now. Big Hit Entertainment snagged award after award, its reach stretching out to almost all the corners of the world. All because Yoongi kept his head and motto of getting as much artistic freedom as he could.

It had been a year later when he visited me, asking me to take up my position in managing his world wide image and while I’d been on the rocks about the publicity of it, he’d always been a good convincer.

Soon enough, Namjoon had joined the fold, leaving his parent’s house, amid many loud arguments, threats and emotional blackmail.

It had taken him a while to completely get out of his parent’s shadow before Yoongi had made good on his promise, swooping down and carrying him to work for him.

Namjoon had proven his skill magnificently and by the time his own songs made it to the charts, his parents had given up.

Call it arrogance but I was proud of them all, dusting them off to rise back up like phoenixes.

I glanced at my phone to check the time before standing.

“Guys, I’ll see you all in a while. I have to go do something.” I said and the conversation lulled, everyone’s eyes turning to me in sympathy.

“Yeah sure, Y/N, we’ll be here.” Hoseok said gently and I smiled, nodding before grabbing the keys to my car and purse.

The slow breeze gently ruffled the edges of my coat, whistling in my hair as I stared down at the protruding smooth marble hunk in the ground.

The heels of my boots were digging into the softer dirt, constantly disturbed from hoards of visitors. Of course, he was so very popular.

I sighed, glancing down at the prettily wrapped bouquet of white roses, intermingled with reds, one of his favorite colors.

Time had strengthened my resolve to visit him. I could imagine him now, sitting with a pout, whining that I took so long. I smiled, a soft sad smile, knowing that all my imagination couldn’t make up for what I had had in reality.

Leaning over, I placed the bouquet in the vase, his parents had attached to the headstone, running a caressing hand over the ingrained words.

 Jeon Jungkook

1997 – 2018

Loving Son and Amazing Friend

You are the color painted on my heart that will never fade.

 Beautiful words, may be his mother picked them out, I thought. They couldn’t be more right. I stood up, dusting off the knees of my jeans as I drew back, breathing in the cold air of the cemetery. It was way too late to be visiting, so it was almost completely empty.

“I miss you, Kook. Still, always, forever…I wish you could be here. I’m…happier now. I think you helped me with that as well. I hope you’re happy where you are too.” I said quietly, my hand swiping at the small tear drop that had dripped over the edge of my eye.

The glint of gold caught my eye and I looked down at the ring circling my ring finger on the left hand, twisting it.

“I have someone now. I know I should’ve come before, to let you know. I just didn’t have it in me, I guess. I wanted to go through with it, imaging you were there. I know it’s cruel but I’m here now. I’ll be coming back a lot more. You’ll be seeing a whole lot more of me and him too...I’ll try bringing him as soon as I can. He works a lot, and so hard. Just like you.”

I smiled again and looked at the circle of his picture, front teeth poking through.

A large hand slid softly against mine, capturing my palm and entwining our fingers.

“Yoongi told me where you were so I had to come.” He said in his deep baritone and I nodded in response, my husband’s warmth driving away the cold of the atmosphere.

“I’m glad you did. I think he would’ve liked to meet you.” I said softly, feeling his eyes turn to look at the headstone as well, examining it with his keen gaze.

“I would’ve liked to meet him too.”

I turned to look at him, pulling his palm up to kiss the lightly calloused skin, right above where my ring glittered on his finger. “Thank you for coming for me.”

“Always,” he smiled back, drawing closer to wrap an arm around me, pulling me to rest my head on his shoulder as we stared down at the grave of my best friend.

I closed my eyes going back to the day when he’d proposed.

All limbs and clumsy as usual as he stumbled into the office, making me laugh as Yoongi shook his head.

“Yah, man, you can’t act like a goof today.” I heard Yoongi mutter as he went to pat down the front of his suit.

“What’s today?” I asked curiously, feeling his eyes widen and look to the older man for help.

“Nothing, nothing, I’ll be in my office.” Yoongi swept out and left me alone with him as he drew closer to smile nervously at me.

“Hi,” I smiled, leaning forward to press a soft kiss to his plump lips which he returned a split second later.

I pulled back, frowning. “Is something wrong?”

“Nope,” he mumbled, turning away from me before sighing and rubbing the back of his neck.

“Actually, I wanted to ask you something.”

I waited, watching as he took a deep breath and then slowly sank down to one knee.

There was silence as I gasped, taking a quick step back, to watch him look up at me with a glint in his eyes, shining behind his glasses.

“Y/N, you have stayed with me throughout my thick and thin. You have grounded me, and encouraged me to reach for the skies. You have made me happy in times when I thought I would never be. I know we haven’t dated very long, but I have known you for long enough to know you’re it, baby. I love you so much, I have never wanted something so much, before my music. So would you, after that terrible speech, please marry me?” he dug into his jacket pocket and pulled out a silver ring, the solitaire on it bright with the promise of hope.

“Oh my god, you idiot,” I whispered.

It was true we hadn’t been dating long. It had started with a drunken confession, one of the many catch up parties I held at my place. Long after everyone had passed out in my living room or guest room, I and he had shared stories and his yearning for me had spilled out, as he liked to call out.

Now, after nearly two years of marriage, I liked to say it was him growing a pair.

Then, however, looking at my future husband looking up at me like I put stars in his galaxy, what else could I say but…

“Yes, of course, I’ll marry you.”

The sentence was barely out before he was getting to his feet, mouth clashing against mine.

“You think he would’ve approved?” I heard my husband say.

With my eyes still closed, I felt him start to lead me away, turning my body so we could head to the car.

“Yes, I think so.” I smiled looking up at him as he nodded to himself.

“Hey, he would’ve loved you.” I said, more firmly and he looked at me, a thoughtful look on his face before nodding again, this time more assertive and understanding.

The sleek black of the car waited for us at the edge of the lawn and as he reached out to open the door of the car, I squeezed his hand.

“Thank you, Namjoon.” I said softly.

He stopped before turned to cup my face, giving me a gentle kiss on my forehead.

“Thank you, Y/N.” he said.

I smiled.

The future looked good enough for now…and it was enough.

#namjoon angst #namjoon fanfic #namjoon smut #namjoon fluff #namjoon #bts smut #bts angst #bts fluff #bts fanfic #bts #namjoon x reader #asylum

[leeholtwrites]

Red Queen: Chapter 15

So, last time I found a worthy target for some anger in an otherwise “meh” YA book. I mean, this book is really, really cliche on a level that even I can barely forgive, and I recognized that tropes are important to defining genre, but I hadn’t found anything yet that made me angry. Then Dickbag happened.

If you have a better nickname for him, please comment below.

Horse is startled awake by her servant, Walsh. I’m not sure I remember mentioning her before, but she has a servant who is a Red. And startled is an understatement. Horse almost downright Tazers the poor woman in shock.

Horse gets out of bed, trying to apologize to the woman because she’s not completely the worst, and Walsh just mouths “Rise, Red as the dawn” to her (because of course she does) before shoving a teacup of water into Horse’s hand.

“And at the bottom of the cup, a piece of paper bleeds ink. The ink swirls as I read the message, the water leeching it away, erasing any trace, until there’s nothing but cloudy, gray liquid and a blank curl of paper. No evidence of my first act of rebellion.”

Apparently the paper said “Midnight,” but that isn’t my gripe. She knows there are cameras in the room. Isn’t it going to be suspicious that she just stares into her teacup before setting it aside? Also, the thing with prisoners, especially if you have people serving her that might sympathize with her, usually trays and food are searched. So either the writer wants us to know that the king isn’t having her service checked for anything from the political dissidents running around that he knows about just in case they might contact her, or the writer is just not smart enough to think about that. 

If you couldn’t tell by now, there are a lot of similar YA set ups involving political intrigue, but the writers don’t really think things through or do their research enough to make it convincing. In this situation, someone would need to dispose of the ink-paper trick in the room filled with cameras. So unless that ink is drinkable, and someone (Horse) drinks it, what is Walsh going to do with it? 

Maybe I’m overthinking this. Whatever. It just feels stupid.

There is a new schedule on Horse’s nightstand. Horse now has training just as Cal said she would. She’s impressed that he worked so fast. As Lucas walks her to training (I’m assuming because the time line is awful at the moment) he warns her to be careful because the trainers are brutal. Then we find out he entered the army at nine.

Okay, what is with YA and child soldiers. Is that just another shortcut for Current Administration Bad? HUNGER GAMES did it to make a point, but here its just another thing for the writer - fuck it - Aveyard to be all “War is bad, m’kay?”

“But Lucas shrugs like it’s nothing. ‘The front is the best place for training. Even the princes were trained at the front, for a time.’

“‘But you’re here now,’ I say.... ‘You’re not a soldier anymore.’

For the first time, Lucas’s dry smile disappears completely. ‘It wears on you.’... ‘Men aren’t meant to be at war for long.’

‘And what about Reds?’ I hear myself ask.... ‘Can they stand war better than Silvers?’“

I’m just going to lay down right here and try not to start shredding this book. First, you train people before you send them to battle so they know what they’re doing. Second, how old are the princes? When did they go? They’re not even the age of a modern US enlistee (18). Like, what the fuck? Also, why would you stick the goddamn crown princes on the front line? Are you trying to destroy the  royal lineage?

I have been reduced to rhetorical questions. 

And then Lucas answers:

“... looking a little uncomfortable. ‘That’s the way the world works. Reds serve, Reds work, Reds fight. It’s what they’re good at. It’s what they’re meant to do.’”

Nice on the casual classism. 

“Not everyone is special.”

I wish this book understood that more, what with 3 guys lusting after our lovely protag.

Horse gets mad at him, but mostly just brushes him off. Lucas notices her feelings and warns her that he if he doesn’t have the luxury of asking questions, than neither does she, even going so far as to use her new name.

Lucas will not ask questions. Despite his black eyes, his Silver blood, his Samos family, he will not pull at the thread that could unravel my existence.

This confuses me. Her italics thought bubble at the beginning feels more like a criticism than Horse’s realization that Lucas won’t do anything that will hurt her, even going so far as to try to help her understand how silvers Silvers think and how controlling their upper echelons are. I mean, its pretty clumsily done, but I get what Aveyard was going for. The italics double don’t work because this book is in first person. We’re in Horse’s head. We don’t need thought bubbles. The whole thing is a thought bubble!

Second, “Silver blood” or “silver blood?” I feel like it should be the second. Just saying.

Lucas also continues to sympathetic, making all the woman hate even more pronounced.

Le sigh.

At training, Horse is handed what sounds like a Lycra jumpsuit before entering what sounds like my university gym. Multi-storied, lots of equipment, dozens of baby-faced young adults in better shape than I am. Of course, all those college students are more mature than most of the people in this book, and mind their own damn business.

Unlike Polarity Princess.

The moment Horse walks in, PP drops what she’s doing to mock her. She is of course joined by her mean girl club in the process. We’re spared because Horse ignores her and immediately goes to find Maven. They talk a little, mostly about what their life will entail after they leave and the ball before they leave - which leads to dancing and how Silver girls are the worst.

Maven then asks how her visit with her family went. She tells him it was difficult because she found out one of her brothers was executed before they were all released. Mavey places his hand on hers, apologizes, and says he that he’s sure he didn’t deserve it because the guy Silvers aren’t shit heads.

Then for a moment Horse thinks he might be able to read minds, which leads to this little detail:

Few silvers Silvers inherit abilities from their mothers, and no one had more than one ability.

The low key misogyny is killing me.

And if Maven turns out to be the evil prince, he’s totally going to have his moms abilities. Watch. Or at least that’s what I would do.

Hey, I never said I wrote capital L literature. 

We get some more description about powers. Shades can bend light around themselves for invisibility. Windweaver says exactly what you think it does, and that is probably the least lame power name so far, while also not belonging at all. Then you have eyes, which have limited precognition. You know, they can see the next 5 seconds or something. If I remember right (and my Teen Titan’s knowledge is rusty) Rose Wilson has that ability. I’m still confused what a silk is. They still sounds like a D&D Rogue. Or a hunska from Red Sister. (Go read that instead. It’s written by a dude and has 100% less misogyny and a 99% female cast.)

A soft voice orders them into a line, followed by an old man with Cal and a telekinetic boy. I refuse to call them “telkies.” It sounds like something I would put on a baby’s butt for diaper rash. The old man is her trainer, and apparently used to oversee executions. Turns out this was because he’s a null - he nullifies powers, or turns them off as the book puts it. 

He can reduce a Silver to what they hate most: a Red. He can turn their abilities off. He can make them normal.

All that wealth and privilege, but removing their powers can make them normal. If only it were that simple. It’s almost like this book doesn’t understand power structures at all.

They begin to run laps. Horse is happy it’s something she recognizes until it isn’t when a piece of wall swings out and slams her in the stomach. She’s startled, but manages to keep up. And before you think this is some cool tech, the telekinetic controls the pieces.

Their powers return, and a gun barrel without the actual gun part rises from the floor.

Only the telky’s power makes it move, not some greater, strange technology. The abilities are all they have.

I thought they were defined by having power and Reds having tech. Why is this a new revelation to you? Unless this is book treating the reader like an idiot again.

Horse is called forward for target practice first, and again we hear about how special she is because she can create electricity despite bio-electricity being a thing. She misses the first target but hits the second. PP is a bitch who won’t clap. The instructor moves onto the next instead of patting her on the back. I can’t tell if this is supposed to be a bad thing.

The work out calls wore her out, but she’s still happy for it. Happier for the quietness of Julian’s class, even though the moving time means she’s closer to her midnight meet up. When she arrives, he has book labeled with years. Turns out they’re death records for the war. She knows her executed brother probably isn’t in them, and makes the lamp flick on an off in her distress. Julian asks her why, and she says its the new schedule. He says she did fine today, she gets cranky about him asking to be there, and he uses her power on her to calm her down.

Horse is upset he does this, and he explains he’s the last Singer. They can control people as long as they hear them. (Found the Bards.) Julian launches into how his sister married the king for love, not by Queenstrial, and how they could talk their way to the throne, but didn’t because they’re nice.

I don’t honesty hate this, but there are so many toxic women in this book that we see on a regular basis that it makes me sad that the one that sounds non-toxic is dead.

Horse relates to Julian, mentioning Shade and how he was executed. Julian tells her that they “removed” his sister too and will do it to anyone that gets in the way. He warns her that over-throwing them would take too much planning and luck, and to not get over her head. She knows that she’s already in deep, but doesn’t tell him this.

I actually kind of liked this scene because Horse behaves like a person. Even Julian just comes across as sad and lonely. I just wish that Julian was a woman so Horse could have a relationship with the same sex that wasn’t pure hate. We don’t see her family enough to matter. I think that’s one of the things that bugs me about this book the most. Most of the women are bad, and most of the men are good. Why? Just... why?

Next time, Horse has her midnight meeting.

#reader ramble #book review #chapter by chapter #red queen #victoria aveyard #mare barrow #reds and silvers #ya #fantasy #super powers #mareena titanos #her we go again #i'm going to finish it

[nerdydork]

Give some headcanons about DeweyxAva

Headcanons for Avey:-Dewey and Ava met at Scrooge McDuck’s Money Bin, as he had a business meetingwith a fellow company on renewing a deal. Ava’s father was filling in for hisboss, who always strangely unable to make meetings with other companies.-Ava didn’t like Dewey at the beginning. Actually, she never had the intentionto dislike him. It was very low and shallow due to the fact he was polaropposite from her and kept on pushing her out of her comfortzone, which shefelt uncomfortable with. -Ava and Dewey got along was when the two of them were trapped alone in a lifeor death situation, which Ava so useless and given up and confessed that she wasgoing to die with someone who she didn’t like. At this point Dewey was annoyedbut as he was just as useless as she was, the two actually talked out why Avadislike him and such. This actually began their friendship. -The two hold each other pinkies. It may sound strange, but it relates to whentheir friendship began. When they thought their lifes were to an end, Dewey grabbedher pinky finger, as it was the only thing he could help and ‘calm’ her down.After that, whenever Ava has an anxiety attack or feeling frighten, she tendsto grab a hold of Dewey’s pinky..or when she notice when Dewey isn’t himself,she takes a hold of his pinky. It a simple reminder that they are there for oneanother.-These two both teaches one another something. Dewey taught Ava how to livelife to the fullest, enjoy every second of it, have fun, and fighting for what’sright. While Ava taught Dewey the beauty of the world when you slow down for asecond, stop and smell the roses from time to time, and art. These are just a fewexamples. -They both pull one another out of their comfortzones. Mostly Dewey is doingthat to Ava though. -With Dewey’s reckless decision making, Ava actually pulls him back when hegets into extreme danger. Basically think of it as the voice in your head thattells you ‘hey, you’re gonna hurt yourself if you do it this way, rethink that plan.’That smart little voice that has the common sense. -Ava is the calm peaceful one between the two.-Some pet nicknames Dewey gave Ava are ‘Peeper’ (first it was an insultnickname once Dewey found out Ava’s middle name was Peep. As time passed, Avagot use to the nickname and Dewey is the only one allow to call Ava ‘Peeper’)and ‘Droplet’ one of his friends tease Dewey by saying ‘Looks like Dewdrop hasa Droplet’ and Dewey like that nickname that he began calling Ava ‘Droplet.’- Some pet nicknames she gave Dewey are ‘Dewdrop (reason was when they were youngerDewey wasn’t fond of the nickname Dewdrop and Ava used it to bug him but astime went on, he got use to it and prefer Ava to call him that.) she also latercalls him ‘Amour’ (love in French due to her French background and her speakingFrench).-A lot of their teen years Ava and Dewey did camp together a lot. Ava was theone who drove to the campsites due to not trusting Dewey behind the wheel ofthe car…yet she trust him when driving an airplane.-Ava formed a crush the more time she spent with him. She realize it when shealways goes for him when she has anxiety attacks as he calms her down. She wasreally accepting of her crush (since swans are commonly known to mate for life)and her crush feeling became love (once hitting 16-17), but she stood by theside lines. She wasn’t one to confess first..-Dewey never realize his fondness for Ava until MUCH later when Ava was goingto leave for Italy for college.  Deweywas overly angry that his friend is leaving for so long and it was worse thathe was the last to know. Elena was the one to point out why he’s over reactingwas because he fancy Ava. Which opened up his eyes.

-Dewey didn’t confess and actually stay mad at Ava until shewas about to leave. He chased the girl down before getting on the airplane toadmit his feelings for the swan and apologizing for his childish behaviourabout him being upset and angry over the fact she was leaving to get better studies.It was a bittersweet moment since the two realize that Ava will be in Italy fora good 3-4 years. So they were force to do a long distance relationship until shereturn.- Before Ava left to Italy, Ava promised not to change for Dewey, however shebroke that promise as the next time Dewey saw her, her long Rapunzel hair shehad was chopped off and her hair went down to her shoulders. Dewey comment onit, which Ava got nervous and explain her reasoning why and that she’s stillthe same otherwise, which only made Dewey chuckle saying ‘I didn’t say it was abad thing~’-When Ava was in college, Dewey would actually stole the Sunchaser and fly toItaly just see Ava, which would be when Ava and him go on official dates. -Usual dates for these two are usually walks around with Ava taking photographs.Sometimes, Dewey would go in front of the camera to strike a pose telling Ava ‘getmy good side~’ which the girl would lightly laugh and take the photo.  The two would walk anywhere enjoying theirtime together, and actually discover new places.

-Later in life when they’re adults, Ava ends up being a photographerfor a famous nature magazine which works out very well for Dewey with him constantlyflying everywhere. She tends to take photos for what the article she working onalong with adventure Dewey is on. Both living life to the fullest!

-The two originally didn’t want to have kids or get married.A promise ring that meant they would be together was good enough for them besideswith their jobs and traveling all the time where would a kid fit in?- Before getting married the two of them well- they had an oops child. When Avafound out she was pregnant, she instantly panicked, not for the fear of havinga child but how the heck will everything come together with their life, howwill schooling happen, friends, stable life, and job…so many things to thinkabout it. It was insane! When Ava told Dewey, he was shock at the fact that Avawas pregnant. He was happy but gave the response ‘I thought we didn’t want tohave kids.’ With an awkward laugh. Throughout the pregnancy and waiting for theegg to hatch the two of them were extremely nervous. Dewey was force to be thecalm one, the reason of voice. The two agreed to only having this one childsince nothing could go wrong. It was so exciting when the egg hatch but…their new baby was hatch premature,the duckling was a blue colour, trouble breathing, and nearly on the verge ofdeath along with her feet being in awkward position, webbed footing closed upcould mean death as well.  This caused somuch fear and sadness, for so long their baby girl was in the hospital due toher condition. Ava and Dewey constantly visited the hospital or even stay there.-During the time their first born being the hospital, Ava had a huge depressionfeeling like a failure as a mother. Ava barely done anything, eat, sleep, drink..nothing.Though Dewey and Ava agreed on not having another child, Dewey knew Ava neededa child if their baby didn’t make it through. Dewey suggested maybe should tryhaving another child and well, Ava got pregnant again. Ava was a nervous wreakbut not as bad this time, trying to keep positive that everything will workout. Once the egg hatch they had a healthy baby boy, they were beyond beliefhappy. A perfect baby boy. Soon after, their daughter was healthy and was ableto go home. The couple stay within Duckberg until their ducklings were closerto the age of 3-4 to go back and travel again.

-Dewey and Ava didn’t got married until well after they hadtheir two kids. Once Hunter (second child) was hatched and Madeline (firstborn) was out of their hospital, Dewey decided to propose before getting thering.-Their wedding was big and huge but it was very tender surprisingly. Deweyactually surprised Ava by saying his vows/speech all in French. -Dewey learn French due to Ava speaking it often and slips into by accident..heacted clueless to surprise Ava one day that he was fully awareof what she or her family was saying.

#ducktales #ducktales 2017 #Ducktales reboot #ducktales oc #Huey Dewey and Louie #Dewey Duck #ducktales dewey #disney dewey #Ava Featherstone #Dewey x Ava #ducktales dewey x oc #dewey x oc #headcanons

[rainbowpaladins]

Untitled ABO fic pt10

Lance woke with a jolt, his daughter's piercing cries more effective then any alarm clock. For a brief moment, his sleep addled brain failed to recognize his surroundings. He was supposed to be in a room with purple highlights and the bare minimum furniture. So why was he in a room with blue highlights and a comfy bed?

And then it clicked.

Lotor. The lies. Running into Keith. Escaping and returning to the team. 

And Shiro. Shiro who wanted to try to have a relationship with him.

Shiro who was also lying stock still with his arms full of a distressed infant. The Black Paladin shot a distressed look of his own at Lance, unsure what to do. "I think she needs to be changed."

Lance did a check of his own, before coming to the same conclusion. He rolled out of bed, limbs unhappy with the demand they function before he'd gotten enough sleep. He wasn't sure if there were any supplies to be found in any of the places he'd hid them, but it didn't hurt to look. Maybe he'd get lucky, for once.

He did a once around, as Shiro sat up and came to sit on the edge of the bed. Lance was just about to throw in the towel, when the universe decided to give him a break after all. Victoriously, he held up a the space equivalent of two diapers and a small container of wipes.

"Looks like I missed some, after all." He grinned, placing the items on the bed. "Give me a sec to grab a towel and then I'll get her changed."

"How did you get baby supplies onto the ship without us noticing?" Shiro sounded like he was seriously rethinking Lance's sneakiness.

The Cuban teen was almost sad to give away his secrets. He shrugged as he came back with the towel. "Sometimes I bought them and just stuffed them in my pockets."

Shiro squinted at the little packet of wipes, judging them to be about the right size to fit in someone's pockets without drawing attention.

"Other times," Lance went on explaining as he laid out the blanket and then reached out to take Izzy. "I pretended to buy a game or something but had supplies in the box instead."

Shiro watched the ritual, taking note on what he was doing to learn what all went into changing an infant as much as he was using the impromptu lesson to buy himself time to think. "We thought you were buying a lot of games."

Lance finished the clean up, redressing Izzy as he did so. He handed their daughter back to her other parent. Instead of addressing the trust issues between them (just yet), he asked, “How long was I asleep? I could definitely go for some of Hunk’s food just about now.”

Behind him, Shiro glanced at a plate of food that had appeared while he was asleep. “A few hours. Hunk brought you some of those finger foods you like, since he didn’t know when you’d be up.”

Lance dropped the trash down the disposal, eyeing the food like he’d just won the lottery. By the time his hands were clean, he was more than ready to dig in. “I need to talk to Allura when I’m done,” he said, after he’d stuffed a few more filling choices down his throat. “Izzy’s going to need everything.” Lance took the plate with him as he took a seat next to Shiro. “A single diaper won’t last long, and I’d like to get us both some new clothes.”

Shiro eyed the clothes he was wearing. Lance didn’t know how much he paid attention to the former Blue Paladin’s clothing, so it was a toss up if he’d notice they weren’t one’s Lance had owned before he left. When he spoke, his tone was gentle. “Do you want to talk about what happened?”

Lance leaned into Shiro’s shoulder, drawing strength from the presence of family. “I’ll talk, I promise.” He picked at the remaining pieces of food on the plate. “But I’d really rather only do it once.”

There was a long silence. When Lance peaked up at him, Shiro’s gaze was distant. He suddenly felt guilty for making it sound like it was worse than it was. Here he was, complaining about his ordeal to someone who had been held prisoner and forced to terrible things for the sick pleasure of others. “None of that, whatever you’re thinking.” He leaned back so he could place a hand oh Shiro's shoulder. "It wasn't that bad."

The prompt worked, but not in the way he thought it would. "What?" Shiro's attention snapped back into focus, eyes boring into Lance's as he frowned at him. "No. 'None of that' back at you." Shiro poked him in the forehead, perhaps a little too hard as it actually rocked Lance back a bit.

"This isn't a competition." In apology, that same hand came to rest on the side of Lance's face. "Don't think you have to down play what happened because you think someone else has it worse." Shiro shifted so they were facing each other, rather than sitting side by side, making certain Lance was paying attention. "Lance, whatever happened, whether it took place over an hour or a year or longer, if something bad happened to you, it matters. I, and the others, want to help you. Please tell me you understand that."

Lance blinked, vision blurred and stinging. He wasn't going to cry (not yet). He nodded, taking a shaky breath as he did so. When he felt more steady, he poked Shiro back, albeit with much less force. "That goes for you, too, oh, brave and fearless leader."

Shiro gave a noncommittal 'hm,' adjusting his hold on Izzy as she squirmed about. It wasn't a 'yes', but Lance was going to call it a victory, since it wasn't a 'no' either.

Needing to do something before he made a bigger fool of himself, Lance stood up, showing off his empty plate. "Well, I should get this back to the kitchen. See if Allura is awake."

Shiro rose to his feet as well, careful with the bundle in his arms. She was getting fussier with the high level of emotions, and starting to move around more. "I'll come with you."

Lance paused, searching his face. Did Shiro still think he needed to be baby sat? He supposed he did kind of deserve some level of caution, it was just going to take some getting used to.

As if reading his thoughts, Shiro shook his head. "It’s easier if I go with you, then if we wait for Allura to call everyone.” He raised an eyebrow at him as he walked passed on the way to the door. “One less person to track down.”

Lance still felt he was getting off far too easily, but he was going to take his good fortune where he could. The trip to the kitchen was silent. Since it was in that nebulous time period between meals, no one was in. Lance was almost sorry he’d put the plate down, as it left his hands feeling empty. In the two months he’d been on the run, with the exception of a few instances here and there, Lance rarely wasn’t carrying Izzy, so it felt odd to have his arms empty.

A glance up at Shiro and Izzy and he knew he couldn’t ask for her back. The older man had that stupidly adorable look on his face again as he entertained the infant with the patience of a saint. Izzy was fascinated with Shiro’s metal fingers, attempting to put them in her mouth. He was thankfully keeping them out of her mouth, but she had her determined face on, so it was anyone’s guess how that would go. 

Instead, Lance crossed his arms and tucked his hands under his armpits in a sort of pseudo self-hug. He should have brought his jacket, even if it looked hideous with this outfit. At least then, he’d be able to put his hands in his pockets and keep up the nonchalant illusion.

They found Allura (back in her dress with her hair down) on the bridge, along with Coran. It sounded like they discussing how best to deal with the new, temporary passengers, before they broke off at the sound of the doors opening.

“Shiro. Lance!” Under her pleased-to-see-them expression, Allura looked like she hadn’t slept in over a day. Lance felt a wave of guilt as he realized far too belatedly that by selfishly asking Shiro to remain by his side last night, he’d deprived Allura of some of her own support system. There was no accusation, however, when she turned to him. If nothing else, there was only more of that relief she’d had when she’d first laid eyes on him in the Blue Lion. “How are you feeling.”

“Nothing like a little beauty sleep couldn’t help with.” Lance mustered up the energy to give one of his more winning smiles, beating down the urge to shift awkwardly. “I was wondering if I could put in a request for a pit stop.” He swallowed, fingers curling into a fist. “I had to leave my bag with all of my supplies behind on that station.”

Allura blinked, processing the information. Lance had never been more grateful for her intelligence and her discretion, then he was when she put that together and didn’t comment on it. “Of course. We can also pick up some more supplies for ourselves as well, as we are a little low due to our unexpected guests.”

Shiro reached out with his free hand, placing it on Lance’s shoulder. Two pairs of sharp eyes followed the movement, before those same sharp eyes glanced over to Izzy, who was peering over at them with the same curiosity she gave everyone she met for the first time. Lance watched their eyes flicker between her eyes and Shiro’s, and knew they had to have put it together, although there wasn’t a shred of judgement in their expressions. They seemed to be waiting for an explanation before drawing any conclusions.

“Before we head to the mall, I think we should talk.” Shiro’s hand tightened, although Lance wasn’t sure if it was for his own sake or Lance’s. “As a team. What happened this past year shouldn’t have happened and I think it’s important we figure out why it happened and how best to keep it happening again.”

Allura and Coran nodded in agreement. Lance thought they were all being way too kind by not calling out how royally he’d messed up.

“I’ll go call the others.” Coran spun on his heel in his extravagant manner, as went to go make the P.A.. “We might have to retrieve Number 5, though! I know saw her going for her lab earlier...”

Lance watched him go, unable to quite shake his sense of foreboding. He was not looking forward to this meeting, nor to how his other pack mates responded to the mess he had created. He could only hope that when the dust settled he and his new little family weren’t totally alienated from the pack.

-tbc

#voltron #lance #shiro #langst #shance #abo dynamics #abo verse #untitled abo fic #this was supposed to be a single part #but once again #lol #OMG #asdfghjkjhgfds #thank you for all of your support everyone #i know i said it before #but holy crow #welcome to all my new followers #and a huge shout out to all to everyone who's still here #♥ #ps: did i say team reunion this chapter? #apparently not! #i'm not certain what happened #but they just decided it wasn't going to be this chapter #i'm so sorry