#my lines are always either too sketchy or wobbly

[oneforthemunny]

take it to the end of the line |older!dilf!eddie munson x reader| part 11

prompt: a guilt trip, a lapse of judgement, a blow up. or you and eddie's first fight.

contains: age gap relationship. eddie is 42 and reader is 26. angst. make up will be in part 2 of this but angst for now :(

"Why would you do this?"

Eddie's eyes were hard, cold, stern, an unfamiliar look to you. Normally he looked at you with nothing short of adoration. Even when he was frustrated with you, his muddy eyes always held a flicker of light. Not now.

He was furious. You couldn't blame him. You would be mad too given the circumstances.

"Ed, please, I just-"

"You put my daughter in danger." Eddie's voice was cold and cutting, brows furrowing so deep, eyes sharp and boring right through you, slicing you down the middle and leaving you shivering and exposed.

"I didn't-"

"You did." Eddie hisses, jaw flexing. The vein on his neck stood prominent, protruding against his reddened neck and chest. There was no room for argument with his tone, it was final.

"Eddie, please, just-just..." Your lip wobbled. Taking a cleansing breath to keep that familiar burn from rising in your chest, you looked at him, pleading and pitiful. "I swear I didn't... I just wanted Brielle to-to like me." You admitted with a shuddering breath.

Eddie didn't falter, face staying ever stoic and hard. "Like you?" He asked, unbothered by your cringe at his tone. "You wanted Brielle to like you, so you deliberately went against something I said no to, and took her two hours away and put her in danger?"

Your stomach twisted and dropped in uncomfortable guilt. When he put it like that, it sounded so bad.

It wasn't that bad, really.

Well, maybe it was.

Brielle and Madeline had came to you three days ago, begging you to take them to a concert in Indianapolis. Some Indie band playing at a hole in the wall bar, and they needed an adult to take them. Eddie had said no, of course, a bar and a band and his underage daughter was not mixing. It was Eddie's weekend so Gina couldn't save Brielle either.

"Please, it would be cool of you." Brielle pleaded alongside your own little sister. "You know my dad will listen to you. He totally won't care that we went. He doesn't even have to know."

"Yeah, c'mon, you fuckin' owe us." Madeline added, giving you a less than impressed pointed look, one only a little sister could produce. "You're banging' Brie's dad. You put a strain on our friendship. This is us bonding, you have to help us."

You rolled your eyes because you knew she was just being dramatic, a little shit like she'd always been. Yet you worried that her statement held some truth, disguised under sarcastic, dramatic tones and eye rolls, you were with Eddie and it had shifted their relationship. You held some regret about that, some anxieties that appeared every time Brielle would cut her eyes at you.

You held so much anxiety about it, that you opted to take them. Declaring it a girl's day- a bonding night at your apartment to Eddie. You felt nauseous with guilt at how excited he had been, eyes lighting up and dimples deep in a grin when Brielle bobbed her head in excitement.

Then, Friday came around, and you were taking the girls to Indianapolis to some sketchy club you would never go to alone, watching as the bouncer at the door didn't even check IDs. It was noisy, smoky, and they served to everyone. You had drawn the line at them drinking, knowing Eddie and your own parents would have you six foot under if they found out. If. You clung to that if, praying things would go your way.

It never did.

Your cell phone buzzed, Eddie's name flashing across the screen, your face dropping slightly. You decided to decline, texting him something about 'it's a girls night! brie says no boys allowed lol!'.

You were smug in your cleverness over your boyfriend. He'd be none the wiser, then it rang again. You let it ring. Again. You let it go to voicemail, tummy twisting in knots.

From: Eddie

'I'm at your apartment now. Where r u?'

Your heart plummeted, hands shaking when you scrambled for the phone. You scanned the audience, finding the two girls easily near the front, dragging them out frantically.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, Dad's gonna kill me, oh my god." Brielle whined, looking down at her own phone to see a string of calls from her father and mother.

Your hands shook, unlocking the door to let the girls in, before standing outside the car to call Eddie.

He was angry, furious, fuming at you. Voice dripping in venom and anger through the line. He yelled at you. Eddie never yelled at you.

"Eddie, I-I was with them!" You tried, throwing your hands out in exasperation. You were scrambling for reason here, to sway him, a scrap of some understanding or a glimmer of his usual affection.

Eddie's brows shot up in challenge. "I wasn't going to let anything happen to them, ok? That's why I went with them!"

"That was fuckin' careless."

"No," You shot back. "If I was careless, I would've just made the lie, and let them go by themselves. Let them buy alcohol when we got there, or-"

Eddie's hand slammed down on the coffee table in front of the two of you, the wood shaking and smack echoing into the room. You jumped, wide eyed with a small gasp looking up at him.

Eddie stood, pinching the bridge of his nose, breathing in slow, letting it out in shaky, harsh puffs. "You need to leave." Eddie gritted.

Your heart plummeted. "W-What?"

"You need to leave." Eddie hissed, eyes flashing at you with so much anger it made your heart drop. "Leave. Now. I don't want to see you right fucking now. I'm gonna say some shit I regret."

Your lip wobbled, stammering around broken breaths and words. "Eddie, please, I-I really didn't-"

"Brielle is not your child, ok?" Eddie roared. "That was not your call to make whether it was ok or not. That is my child, and you are my girlfriend. I said no, and you fuckin' disrespected me. You hurt me. Me." He shoved a finger into his chest, eyes wild and electric when they scorched down at you.

You were frozen in spot, stammering and sputtering for words, chilled from his icy, mean tone. "I already went through this shit with Gina, and I'm not going through that again." Eddie snapped. "I thought you'd actually care about me-"

"-Don't say that." Your voice cracked, head shaking furiously. "I do care about you, Eddie. I'm sorry. I just, I wanted Brielle to-"

"I don't give a shit if you wanted Brielle to like you or not." Eddie growled. "You shouldn't be trying to get Brielle to like you at the expense of disrespecting me. Putting my baby in danger. I mean, fuck, what if Gina found out?" Eddie roared, throwing his hand out.

"Do you realize what she'd do to me? She'd take my ass to court and say I let my girlfriend take my underage daughter to a bar and-and she'd get Brielle taken away from me." Eddie's face crumbled, brows furrowing and lips pressing together to keep himself from wavering.

Your heart shattered, breaking and sinking deep into the pit of your tummy. You hadn't thought of that, truthfully.

"I-I'm so, so sorry." You shuddered out in a quiet whisper, tears streaming down you cheeks, dripping under your chin and down to your lap.

Eddie looked at you, eyes glassy and red rimmed of his own. He looked so upset, so hurt. You felt sick.

"You need to leave." Eddie said firmly, jaw locking and shoulders rolling to straighten his posture. "I can't... I need some time to cool off."

Some time. It was a haunting ring in your ears that left you dizzy, overwhelmed with fear and dread and guilt.

You nodded, swallowing to hold back your own tears. Shaky hands reached for your purse, walking to the door on numb legs. Eddie still held the door open for you, still walked you to the porch. The gesture made you sob, a strangled cry ripping from your throat.

"Eddie, I-I really am so sorry. Really." You sniffled, turning to him before you got into your car.

Eddie nodded, curtly but didn't speak. Didn't tell you to drive safe or that he loved you. Didn't tap on the window and point for you to roll it down, before leaning in to smooch you sloppy and sweet, your head pressed back into the head rest.

Not this time.

Eddie simply crossed his arms over his chest, not aggressive but protective, shielding himself from you. You crumbled, a shaky, pathetic sob breaking through you while you slammed the door.

You couldn't see, vision clouded with tears, but you couldn't sit there and watch Eddie look at you, so sad and hurt, knowing you were to blame. You and your stupid actions. You parked on the next street over, sobbing angrily, fists slamming and punching the wheel while you screamed, hurt and angry. Anguished cries and screams that ripped through your body, racking your frame with hard sobs until you were hiccuping.

You'd hurt Eddie.

He'd compared you to Gina... Gina. You felt physically ill at the revelation, shaking your head before starting on the main road. Your heart felt heavy, stomach a pit of knots and nerves. You knew you'd fucked up. You knew it was over, and the worse part is you had no one to blame but yourself. No, this time it wasn't him, wasn't another girl, wasn't communication issues, or Gina, or distance, or even the age. There was no excuses you could use this time, no face to save, because this was all on you.

This was all your fault.

#oneforthemunny #munnytalks #funsonmunson #older!dilf!eddie munson #older!dilf!eddie #older!eddie munson #older!eddie munson x reader #older!eddie #dilf!eddie munson x reader #dilf!eddie munson #eddie munson x fem!reader fluff #eddie munson x fem!reader smut #eddie munson x fem!reader angst #eddie munson x reader angst #eddie munson angst #eddie munson x female reader #eddie munson x fem!reader #eddie x fem!reader #eddie x reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson x reader #dad!eddie munson

[bittywitches]

A random Dialogue I came up with in my head while trying to fall asleep the night before. // G.D

Been having trouble writing lately and ended up just daydreaming (night dreaming?) abt Grayson one night, so I thought I’d try and just get it out and write something. Enjoy :)

You’re sitting in your bedroom, laying on your back with your laptop sitting on your stomach. You’re cuddled up with your jumbo-oversized teddy bear, your head resting on it’s furry stomach and your elbows lazily resting against it’s fat squishy legs. A google doc is opened on your screen, and you’re trying to half-assedly write a response for your final project on why Duke Orsino actually was gay in Twelfth Night, along with many of the other supporting characters, despite what most old white bardolators may tell you. 

You feel a vibration near your leg, and you tilt your head to the side to see someone calling your phone. You pick it up, and your eyes widen when you see that it's a facetime call from Grayson Dolan. This was, of course, a shock, considering you and Grayson weren’t even that close friends, you only occasionally texted each other anymore, barely ever called, and literally NEVER facetimed. You guys had barely spoken to each other since quarantine had started, so it was definitely a surprise. 

Your eyes flicker to your laptop screen, seeing that it’s around 9pm. Not too late that it’s sketchy or anything, but still pretty late for it to be strange.

You place your laptop down beside you and situp, leaning back against your headboard, quickly tying your hair up into a quick messy bun to make yourself look somewhat presentable. You slide the green phone icon across your screen.

Grayson’s face appears on your phone. He’s wearing a cute oversized fuzzy hoodie. His short hair is a bit frizzy, and it still takes you by surprise because you’re so used to seeing his long flowy locks.

“Heyy,” Grayson says, smiling at you. From behind his screen, Grayson sets himself down onto the living room couch, laying back on the arm.

“Hey.” You respond.

“What’re you up to?”

“Uhh, not much. Just working on final assignments and whatnot.”

“Oh, yea, school’s almost over for you, right?”

“Yep, just a few more weeks.”

“Bet you’re excited to finally get time off.”

You chuckle. “Yeah, tired of being stressed all the time.”

“Makes sense.”

An awkward silence fills both your rooms.

“Soo…” Grayson lays his head on the side of his couch.

“What’s up? Why’d you call?” You ask him.

“Oh, no reason. Just bored and felt like talking to someone.”

“Ethan not home?”

“Nah, he went out skateboarding with some friends.”

“This late?”

“It’s not that late. Just went to the park nearby.”

“Sounds fun. You know, I’ve always wanted to learn how to skateboard.”

“Yea?”

“Mhm. Maybe E can teach me sometime.”

“Hey, I know how to skateboard too. And I’d definitely be a much better teacher.”

You laugh. “Alright, next time we meet up you can teach me how to skateboard.”

“It’s a date.”

You both give a lighthearted chuckle, but then things turn quiet again.

“Erm, hold on.” You place your phone down on your bed. 

“Where’re you goin’?”

“Gonna put my phone on a pillow so I don’t have to keep holding it,” You say, grabbing your nearest one and doing your best to balance your phone on top of it.

“Is that a giant teddy bear?” From the angle of your phone, Grayson can see your big stuffed animal sitting behind you. 

“Haha, yea.” You lean back down on it briefly to give him a better idea of the size. “He’s my cuddle buddy.”

“That’s cute.”

“Our relationship has gotten a lot stronger since quarantine started.” You peck the bear on the nose. Grayson laughs.

“I’m happy for you guys.” You giggle, sitting back up. 

“Why thank you.” You turn your attention back to your laptop quickly, and Grayson follows your line of vision.

“So what subject is this final for?”

“English.” You sigh. “Which sucks, because I’m shit at it.”

“I’m sure that’s not true.”

“Oh but it is. I always do incredibly bad, I’m literally the worst.”

“Well you’re definitely not the worst, because I exist.”

“Well yeah but it’s not your fault that you can’t read.”

“Hey, I can read!”

“Sorry, It’s not your fault that you’re ass at reading. It is however my fault that I can’t write for shit.” 

He laughs. “Fine, sure.”

You giggle. “Sorry. Just a bit stressed.”

“No big deal.”

Silence again. Usually now would be the time you’d make some excuse and cut the call. But for some reason unknown to you, you didn’t want to do that. You want to fill it.

“Oh, I watched your guys’ last video.” You raise an eyebrow at him. “Tell me you guys weren’t just trying to look like douchebags with your literal 100 grand.”

“Aughhh,” He groans, rubbing his face with the hand not holding his phone. “I swear we really weren’t.”

“Uhuh.”

“I realize that it may not look like that,”

“Oh really?”

“Considering we actually had wads of cash,”

“Mhmmm.”

“But we weren't, I swear. We just thought it’d be funny for a stupid little video.” 

“Okay then.”

“Hey!”

“Not judging.” 

“Since when do you watch our videos anyways?”

You gave him a side-look. “What do you mean? You think I don’t?”

He shrugs. “Dunno. Just assumed…”

“You’re my friend. ‘Course I do.”

He smiles.

“Plus they are pretty fun. Like to have them on in the background when I work sometimes..”

“No way, really?”

“Yeah, why not?”

“I mean, all the ones since quarantine we’ve had to be pretty creative with. Since we’re stuck at home and all.”

“You guys don’t give yourselves enough credit. I love what you come up with. It’s cool to just listen to you both ramble about stuff.”

“...Are you saying you also listen to the podcast?”

Your eyes shoot back to him. He was actually joking, but seeing your guilty expression lead to the smug sort of look on his face.

“You guys have very satisfying voices, okay?”

“Uhuh.”

“Shut the fuck up!” You laugh, and he does as well.

“Either way, thanks. It means a lot that you do. I never really know if people we’re friends with like our stuff, so it’s good to know that at least someone does.”

You smile, and he returns it. 

You suddenly hear a ding coming from his side.

“Oh shit almost forgot about my toast-” You see Grayson’s phone wobble as he gets up to head for the kitchen.

“Avocado?”

“You know it.” “Dang, I don’t think I’ve had avocado toast since…” You pause. “Huh. I guess since I accidentally ran into you at that one restaurant and we happened to get food together.”

“What-” He rights the phone so it’s facing him again. “That was ages ago!”

“Yea, I know.”

“That’s unacceptable.”

“You may think so.”

“Alright, so after I teach you how to skateboard, I’m gonna have to take you out for food.”

You laugh. “Is that a set in stone thing?”

“Oh definitely.”

He sets his food down on a table, and you watch as he tries to balance his phone up against something. He sits down, then takes a bit before looking back up at you.

“So when’s this due?”

“Uhh, tomorrow night.”

“You almost done?”

“Er..” You look at your half written page. “...sort of.”

“So no,” he chuckles, and you do too. 

“I’ll finish it, don’t worry.”

“Didn’t say I was.”

“Well that’s ru-”

“Because I know you’ll finish it,” He interrupts you, and you roll your eyes. “You always do.”

You sigh, setting your elbow down on your knee and resting your face on your hand. You watch him silently for a bit, and he takes a few more bites before realizing your eyes on him. 

“What?” He says, food still in his mouth.

“Nothin’,”

“Yea?”

“Yea, just… kinda just miss you.” You finally blurt out.

He stops chewing suddenly, and looks at his phone with a very intent look. He expects you to say more, but you don’t, looking back at your laptop screen.

He swallows, then sets his toast down. “Kinda just miss you too.”

You smile, trying to hide it by squishing the palm of your hand into your face, not taking your eyes off of the illuminated laptop.

“Why don’t we hang out anymore?”

“Because we’re legally not allowed to.” You finally look back at your phone, grabbing it from it’s pillow stand and then flopping down onto your bear’s belly.

He rolls his eyes. “No, smartass. Before that.”

You shrug. “Dunno. We never really did to begin with.”

“Sure we did, there was the restaurant, and…” He trails off, looking far away at some corner of the room.

“I mean we hung out with other friends. And we talked sometimes.” You shrug again. “Not really much else though.”

He runs a hand through his short hair. “Why not?”

You laugh. “Bro, I don’t know! You never asked!”

“Well I fuckin wanted to!” He rubs his face with both his hands as he chuckles. 

“Really?” Your laughter dies down now, a softer tone taking on your voice.

“Duh, of course.” He tilts his head as his soft eyes look at you. “You’re really fucking cool, and I really wanted to get to know you better, but it felt weird to just randomly come out of no where and be like ‘hey, wanna hang out?’ like that shit usually comes naturally, yknow?”

“Well, we don’t really hang out in the same circles, so I don’t know how it would.”

“Yeah, but I thought maybe…” He sighs. “I don’t know. I didn’t even know if you wanted to be friends or anything, so..”

“Well that’s frustrating.” You slump your shoulders down, relaxing more into your bed. “I really wanted to be friends. Just didn’t wanna seem fucking… annoying or anything.”

“Oh my god why are we like this.”

“I don’t fucking know!!” You both burst out laughing, and you momentarily drop your phone to rub the tears out of your eyes.

“Okay, it’s settled then.” You hear his voice and pick your phone up off your stomach to face it towards your face again, now sitting up. 

“What is?”

“After quarantine and everything is over I’m definitely taking you out for food and skateboarding.”

You grin. “Okay. Sounds amazing.”

“Great.” There’s quiet again, but it’s not awkward anymore, both of your gleeful grins speak volumes over it.

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

You giggle. “Okay, I should go. Should probably actually try and get this thing done.”

“Right. I’ll… call you tomorrow?”

You bite your tongue. “Yeah.”

“Okay, bye.”

“Bye.”

You cut the call, and let your arms fall down to your sides as you fall back on your bed and grin up at the ceiling. You squeeze your eyes shut, just breathing in and out to calm yourself down from the little rush. Though the buzz of your phone once again catches your attention. 

You get up and look at it, seeing it’s a text from Grayson. 

Grayson D.: Just realized you probably don’t have a skateboard…

You bit your lip, and flopped down onto your belly now, your legs up in the air as you text him back.

Y/N: You’d be right 😅

Your eyes eagerly watch the three dots bouncing on the screen.

Grayson D.: Would you wanna borrow one of mine?

Y/N: I’m totally good with getting my own, but idk where

Grayson D.: Well there’s this shop near my house…

Assignment long forgotten, you and Grayson end up talking well into the night.

#grayson dolan #grayson dolan fanfic #grayson dolan blurb #grayson dolan concept #grayson dolan imagine #grayson dolan x reader #dolan twins blurb #dolan twins fanfic #dolan twins concept #dolan twins imagine #ethan dolan #grayson dolan fanfiction #dolan twins

[xlady-saya]

someday there won’t be scowls [fic]

Relationships: aaron and neil, andrew/neil, aaron/katelyn

Summary: Neil finds that even with his mind's best efforts to hang onto the wounds of the past, his opinion of Aaron just isn't what it used to be. He can thank Andrew and Katelyn for a lot of it, but his own observations certainly help.

When he sees Aaron like this, the mix of worry and adoration on his face as he thinks of Katelyn, Neil can't help but feel too exposed himself.

It's a start.

Tags: neil and aaron bonding this time y’all, the usual fluff, references to canon violence

Read on ao3!

Contrary to popular belief, Aaron had not been drunk when he lost his phone.

No, no. He's just an idiot.

A couch cushion hits the coffee table as Neil rounds the corner, nearly knocking over a stray glass of water Nicky had furiously gulped down before disappearing to some party.

Neil watches it wobble. It's a needed pause, because he's not quite sure what to do.

He's not necessarily shocked to find Aaron here in their dorm. Now that he and Andrew aren't at each other's throats, the other twin is often around, either playing videogames or studying. It's the small concessions; the twins don't always talk, but the calm presence has done wonders for them. Especially in those first few months, the exposure did just as much as the therapy sessions.

It had been worth it. Even with having to feel Aaron eyeing Neil warily for months...Neil wouldn't take it back. It's because of those tense afternoons that they can all go on Katelyn's outings without a fight breaking out.

Besides that...Aaron does his best not to say anything too cutting, and it's good for Andrew. The slow acceptance, the effort, on both their parts.

At the thought, Neil smiles to himself. Andrew would never admit it, but having to war between his need to protect Neil while still looking out for his brother had been stressful with Aaron constantly antagonizing him.

These days, Andrew has been more relaxed, lighter. While Neil knows it's not all because of Aaron, their growing relationship is a huge part of it. Neil would never get in the way of that, so the sight of Aaron isn't unwelcome. Still, it's rare for him to be here without Andrew.

That's the bridge Neil has yet to cross, and doesn't really believe he has to. He and Aaron don't have to be friends for them to have Andrew's best interest at heart.

Aaron seems to agree.

He tends to avoid Neil when he can, or all the time really. Neil can't help but smirk at that; he’s certainly made it difficult for him, being friends with Katelyn and all.

It's not intentional, but it's too late to stop.

Vaguely, Neil remembers Matt planning a romantic night with Dan, and well...it explains why Aaron is here. He believes Nicky used the term 'sexiled,' which at the time was hilarious to Neil. When told by Kevin to 'shut up,' he simply employed the tactic later that night.

Served him right.

Another pillow flies to the floor, and Neil tracks it like a cat. He debates his next move.

Deep down, he already knows Aaron will do shit to help clean this up, and his frown deepens.

Normally, he'd turn himself back around into the bedroom, curl up with Andrew's hoodie and listen in on whatever exy podcast Kevin is listening to, but...

He probably can't leave Aaron like this, partly from curiosity, and partly because he's supposed to care.

He does care, he just sometimes wishes he didn't.

Neil dodges a flying plushie (a gift from Allison) swiftly, leaning against the door frame as he observes Aaron's frantic search for...whatever he's looking for. The twin looks two seconds from pulling his hair out when he finally spots Neil, and for all their progress, this part never seems to change.

Aaron's posture goes rigid the same time Neil stops breathing, their staredown freezing them both in place. It's habit after many, many fights. Neil waits for Aaron to say something insulting, to insinuate something about him and Andrew, and Neil's already mentally preparing for the retort. He knows the same is probably true for Aaron, except in his case he's prepared for lies and manipulation to fly out of Neil's mouth.

Or a fist to the face.

They expect the worst from each other, still. It's hard to break the cycle, especially with their history, and Neil stands stone-faced as Aaron squints at him.

Neil is stubborn, and he's not one to give up, another reason Aaron can't stand him. It just makes Neil embrace the trait more.

Knowing this, Aaron breaks first, sighing heavily at their own ridiculousness. They're supposed to be better, they shouldn't need Andrew to buffer, but Neil still wishes he was here.

Aaron grabs another pillow, seemingly just to have something to do with his hands, and scoffs.

Ah, so that's how this is gonna go.

"Make yourself useful and call my phone," Aaron orders, because he can't not have some of the old loathing in their conversation. Neil is fine with that; a nice Aaron would be creepy.

He's not ready to deal with it.

"I dunno where my phone is," Neil says with a shrug Aaron can't see, and it's the truth. Why Aaron expects anything more from him is his own fault.

Neil hides a laugh in his palm; it sounds like something Andrew would say, accompanied by the crunch of teeth on a lollipop.

"Typical," Aaron mutters, digging through the couch once again. He fusses with his hair, fingers itching from the stress. It's similar to when Andrew needs a cigarette, but Neil knows Aaron's poison.

Yet, there's no beer in sight, and Aaron doesn't seem to be moving to get one. It's odd enough to have Neil committed.

"What's the big deal?" He finally asks in the silence, walking forward to lean against the armrest and effectively blocking Aaron's search efforts. The blond's eye twitches from the harshness of the glare.

Good thing Neil is immune.

But again Aaron surprises him; the scowl doesn't last, the rare mask of defeat washing over Aaron's face. It's like the glare doesn't have a chance, can't possibly stay locked in when Aaron's thoughts are so opposite to the feeling of contempt. Before he even speaks her name, Neil has a feeling it's about her.

"Katelyn went out to a party," Aaron says, clearing his throat. Neil almost wants to laugh; Aaron is so terrible at keeping the affection from his tone. It's the opposite of Andrew, who can't keep it from his actions. "I wanna be available if she needs me, or just to know she's okay."

Some of the tension leaves Neil's shoulders. He understands in a few ways; while he and Andrew aren't the most frequent texters, they do let each other know their locations, and lately...

Well, lately Neil has noticed Andrew uses text to convey some of the things he can't in person. There's no grand confessions or love notes by any means. Andrew is still Andrew; there's just a new layer of vulnerability between the lines, inflections which Andrew's monotone would not allow. Neil's heart flutters, uncaged.

But in another sense, he's argued with Katelyn about this before.

They'd been having lunch one day without the twins, and Katelyn tearily confessed to asking Aaron not to drink some nights.

And well, that's what Neil deserved for seeing Katelyn as someone predictable, easy to read. He'd been sucker punched by that confession, but Katelyn's guilt drove her to ramble. She always framed it with an excuse of some kind she said; the vixens wanted to try a new club in a sketchy part of town, she was feeling paranoid because of exams, she'd had a fight with her parents, etc.

And Aaron, so devoted, never backed down from one of the promises. Neil had been impressed, watching Aaron dutifully drink sodas at Eden's instead of taking his shots from the endless trays.

Katelyn's worries about Aaron's addiction problems spurred the situation at hand, and Neil nearly made Katelyn sob from how against it he'd been. Not necessarily because it wasn't a concern, but due to the lack of trust.

No matter how Neil feels about Aaron, he knows Katelyn is his beacon. He'll do anything for her.

So, the least Katelyn can do, as someone with no gritty past or things to hide, is be honest with her boyfriend. Neil told her as such, not holding back. It wouldn't be an easy conversation, but one day she'd need to have it.

Aaron had yet to break her trust or lose control again, so Katelyn's betrayal of that sent Neil on a verbal onslaught.

Of course, Katelyn didn't take it personally. Something about Neil telling it like it is...

"It's why I tell you anything at all," she sniffled that day, her smile shaky.

Neil's never been known for being gentle, but perhaps he should've tried it. That, or Katelyn's still just working up to confronting this problem.

Tonight, she fell back on a bad habit. Hopefully, she comes back with something to show for it.

Aaron collapses into one of the beanbags on the floor, fed up with his search for the moment. The lines of tension and internal strife are all over his face, Neil nearly tells him to stop being so open about it.

But well, Neil blames himself for a lot too. It's easy to do, to imagine the worst case scenario, to already see something as his fault even when it hasn't happened yet.

He gets it. For once, he's annoyed he can't call Aaron's phone, but his could be anywhere. He winces to himself; he hopes Andrew doesn't find out.

"She's okay," Neil says, sinking slowly into the beanbag across from Aaron. From the way the twin raises his head, he's just as shocked as Neil is at the concession. Neil has always been spectacularly bad at the accepted forms of comfort. Maybe because a lot of the time they're a waste. But, he tries.

His foxes taught him hope, and he can't take the lessons for granted.

Besides, he's sure Katelyn is fine. And not his apparent definition of fine. More than fine, probably tipsy and gossiping about that one guy from chem class.

That's as far as his comforting skills go. Aaron waits for him to say something more, but Neil tucks his knees up to his chest, guarding himself.

Aaron frowns, but his eyes drift to the floor, rationalizing through it. The medical student in him kicks in, the one who is all statistics without room for paranoia, and he relaxes with a nod.

"Yeah," Aaron whispers into the awkward silence. "I hope she's having fun."

Jeez.

Okay, maybe Neil should've kept the conversation going. Katelyn and Andrew are safe topics, because they both have a lot of good things to say about them. It takes them off more dangerous paths, like the one they're currently on, sitting in silence and waiting for the other to snap.

'You don't have to be here,' the Andrew in his head critiques, unhelpfully. Mostly because it's the truth, he could abandon Aaron here and save himself from the weighted quiet, marred with tension and mistrust.

However, it frustrates Neil to no end, how he and Aaron seem incapable of having a conversation. Aaron is family, Andrew's family, blood which hasn't been poisoned by heavy hands and abuse. Neil should probably be able to carry a conversation with him.

He's sure Aaron's not thrilled about it, but the truth is, Neil plans to be around a long time. Andrew can say he doesn’t care as much as he wants, but ultimately, Neil knows he does.

Aaron regards him with a stony expression, perhaps feeling the same itch in his veins, the need to show he's improved as Andrew's brother.

Aaron clears his throat. "So, where's Andrew?"

Neil rolls his eyes. What the fuck was that?

But at least he's no longer in charge of making the first move.

"Eden's," Neil mumbles, pulling at the strings of his hoodie.

He doesn't expect Aaron's head to snap up, suddenly more awake as he straightens in his seat. There's a look on his face, Neil can't quite pin it down. Staring too long at Aaron freaks him out sometimes.

It's not often Aaron looks even a hair similar to Andrew in Neil's eyes, but the intensity shining there is hard to miss.

If he had to guess, he'd say it's suspicion.

"Eden's? Alone?" Aaron asks, and Neil doesn't know what to think. Aaron wasn't planning on drinking anyways, so who cares?

Under the scrutiny, Neil fidgets.

"Mhm," Neil hums, which only seems to draw Aaron's brows tighter together. "He said he had something to take care of."

At the wording, Neil bites back a smile. What sounds like secret-keeping to most people is more of a gift to Neil, something to wait for, something worth it.

"I need to talk to Roland," Andrew says, tangled up in the sheets with Neil. It had been a good day, Andrew pressed close and not crawling out of his skin to have space. It'll wear off eventually Neil knows, and soon Andrew will be forced to separate them slowly, pushing Neil to his side of the bed.

Still facing each other, still close.

Neil plays with the chain around Andrew's neck, tracing the metal cigarette at the end of it.

He feels the small font, can almost make out the words by touch alone...

"Neil," Andrew says again, firmer, and Neil's eyes shoot up. The fact Andrew's eyes are still so bright in the dark sends a shiver down Neil's spine.

Neil smiles sheepishly, but catches the lines of tension in Andrew's frame. He almost looks angry, but Neil's not sure who it's directed at. The storm locked in his expression swirls in a mixture of tension and consideration, trying to pick out any sign of discomfort in Neil.

Immediately, Neil's eyes narrow, heart cold. "What did he do?"

And well, he likes Roland, but if he's done anything to upset Andrew then...

Neil won't stop until he does something about it, and he tastes copper on his tongue before he can help himself.

But, the sight of a genuine threat in Neil's eyes actually softens Andrew's posture. Weird, how Andrew always finds the murder beneath Neil's calm facade to be a comfort. Andrew scoffs, fingers finally itching for a cigarette. Nerves. "Nothing. I just need to settle something."

And like that, Neil can see Andrew's not talking about a confrontation, and it settles Neil's own anxiety.

He's intrigued, but he knows Andrew well enough to understand it's not an invitation to pry. It's confirmed when Andrew turns back to him, a vow creasing his expression before the words leave his mouth. "Later."

'I'll tell you later.'

Neil sighs, content beyond measure. Yeah, okay.

And the words feel like a key, pressed hot into Neil's palm.

Aaron's voice brings him back to the present.

"Aren't you worried?" The twin says, incredulous. His eyebrows are in his hairline, like he can't fathom how big of an idiot Neil is. Something hot and ugly begins to simmer in Neil's blood. Andrew trusts Neil to believe in him, to let him know there's something itching at him and he needs time to get all the words together.

"Why?" He bites out; he doesn't like this, doesn't like the intrusion, the assumption he can sense coming. Neil knew enough that night with Andrew to guess that whatever Andrew needed from Roland was a vulnerable subject. And if he's being truthful, Andrew has been a bit off kilter all week. The anger he'd seen in Andrew's body had been at himself.

It means the blond is mulling something over, which he only ever does with the important things, because if he gets it wrong...

He doesn't want to get it wrong, not when it involves Neil.

It had probably taken a lot for Andrew to even admit to Neil he needed to go.

Neil doesn't take kindly to Aaron's old biases rearing their ugly heads. He thought Aaron stopped seeing Andrew as an uncaring asshole months ago. Guess he was wrong.

Aaron locks his knees together, searching for words which make him sound less awful. The search comes up short. "Well...he used to...hook up there, you know?"

Neil's knuckles crack from how hard he tightens them.

He can't kill Aaron. He knows that. Yes.

"I know--" He pauses to keep the sneer down. It's for nothing, since the viciousness leaks into his tone. Aaron's face falls in an instant, ashamed. Good. "I do trust Andrew you know? Don't you?"

Aaron opens his mouth quickly at the jab, but well, Neil's temper hasn't gotten any better. In true bitterness, he goes for what Aaron cares about, because he's never hesitated before. "Are you worried about Katelyn hooking up with someone at whatever bar she's at?"

Going for Katelyn is a cheap trick, but effective. It's always gotten a reaction in the past, normally violent and loud. He expects Aaron to jump out of his seat, to lunge for him. It's how he deserves to feel, an insinuation that his person, the one he'd do anything for, would go behind his back.

What he doesn't expect is for Aaron to freeze, for his jaw to fall open in quiet shock. The lack of answer is deafening. Neil's eyes widen, ever perceptive to the ugliness in people. It's so stupid, how he can't read so much about others, can't tread lightly with their sadness or embarrassment. It makes for awkward encounters, tactless comments. He has no idea how to read a mood, a room. Hell, he had no idea Andrew felt anything for him before Roland exposed the truth, and it had been going on for months.

But here, seeing the shame and insecurity in Aaron's features, it's so obvious it's laughable.

The silence envelops them again, heavy with a confession Aaron did not mean to give him.

Neil breathes in sharply, and some of his anger drains out of him. "Oh."

At that, Aaron's expression tightens, tone like a slap. "Shut up! I know it's ridiculous."

But not surprising. Aaron has only recently started to have good things in his life, not unlike Andrew. His possessiveness and wary attitude aren't exactly things he hides well. According to Andrew, Aaron's bouts of jealousy are pitiful.

Neil narrows his eyes right back.

"No," Neil says, before backtracking. "Well, yes, but it's mostly insulting."

It's a blow that lands; Aaron flinches from it. He has to know why.

Neil stands his ground; Katelyn's loyalty rivals Neil's own. He even got Andrew to acknowledge it, back when he was poking fun at how similar Bee thought he and Katelyn were. It's not fair for Aaron to be doubting her, when she's given him so much without hesitation. There was nothing but support from her during the trial, during the tumultuous months of therapy between him and Andrew.

Katelyn tries to bridge so many of the harsh gaps in Aaron's life, and trusts Aaron to do the same with her.

Neil may not be good with people, but he thinks he's spent enough time with Katelyn to know she'd never be unfaithful.

He almost can't fathom the extent of Aaron's hopelessness if he really believes she would be. If Katelyn knew...

Aaron sighs, burying his face in his hands. "No that's--It's not that I really think she would okay? It's just..." Aaron chews on his bottom lip, trying not to mess up the words. He can't be as careful, as deliberate, when it comes to these things. The fact he's even telling Neil this at all...Neil doesn't get it. He and Aaron aren't close, he doesn't even think he'd call him a friend. That's how much Katelyn means to him though, he can't have even Neil misunderstand those feelings. "I get scared sometimes and my brain thinks stupid shit, I know it's...I'm trying to be rational."

Rational.

It feels a lot like a crutch, like something Aaron is trying to convince himself of.

It feels a lot like 'I hate you' or 'there is no this.'

There's nothing rational about any of it.

Aaron will feel how he feels, the most important thing is how he expresses it. From how Katelyn smiles and swoons whenever Aaron looks at her, Neil knows he's done a good job of making sure Katelyn knows nothing about his deep doubts. Just like how Aaron knows nothing of hers when it comes to his drinking.

For her, the jealousy is just that, cute and harmless. It's not hiding dark doubts.

Neil leans back, contemplating. Comfort isn't his goal, at least he doesn't think so. Even still, the words tumble out. Kinda like a cheer move, but way less peppy and enjoyable. "Katelyn isn't the type to be with you unless she really likes you. While I don't get your appeal, and you're a grade A asshole, I never hear her stop telling me how happy you make her. Stop being pathetic."

He sounds like Andrew again he realizes.

'Stop letting it bother you or deal with it.'

From how Aaron glares, he probably thinks the same. Neil smirks.

"It's not so easy you know," Aaron grits out, fuming, and Neil worries he might leave the beanbag deformed from how hard he's twisting his hands in it. "I love her. Imagining it ending is hard, thinking of not having her around is unbearable. After everything...I just always think of the worst case scenario. Surely you have to get it."

Aaron doesn't manage to keep the sneer off his face for the last bit, and like that, Neil knows he doesn’t mean general paranoia. Aaron may acknowledge how important Neil is to Andrew now, but somedays it's easier to remember than others. Right then, when Neil is being particularly insufferable, it's a great feat.

Neil's never heard him actually acknowledge Neil and Andrew's bond before though, and Neil's not prepared for the assumption.

Or the derailment of his own thoughts.

Love.

It's not...it's not a word they use. Love is complicated, something that's been clouded for him due to heavy hands and harsh rules. His mother loved him, but to this day he finds himself wondering if it's the kind anyone should want.

His father hated him. Lola loved to hurt him. Neil never got the chance to explore the feeling until his Foxes, and he could probably say he loves them. He'd die for them, wouldn't hesitate to. But unlike his mother's own brand of sacrificial love, Neil would never think of hurting his friends. He likes spending time with them, getting to know them. There's warmth in his new family where his mother only knew frigidness.

Still, that's not the love Aaron is speaking about, and Neil tries not to grimace at the montage of cliché romantic comedies which fly through his head. He's not sure why he watches them, but it's hard to say no to Allison when she has him trapped in a chair for his monthly haircut.

The kind of love in those movies is not real to him.

Of course, Neil's not so stupid he hasn't wondered about this. After his feelings for Andrew became too hard to ignore, free of the weight of Neil's impending doom, Neil had to start thinking about how exactly to define them...

And yet, he still comes up short every time.

He's not quite sure what love is. He knows what it's supposed to be; devotion, protectiveness, comfort, affection.

Based on those qualifications, he and Andrew fit the bill, though people would probably debate the last one.

That's fine, fuck them.

Neil sees love reflected in Matt's eyes whenever he looks at Dan, the gooey kind, all open and adoring. He even sees it reflected in Kevin when he talks about Thea, except in his case it's expressed in pride.

Those things, Neil understands better. The actions, the tone. Those are the best ways to express anything. The words feel cheapened, lackluster.

He's not sure he will ever say them.

Aaron stares at him, expectantly, almost accusatory, as if he'll punch Neil for denying it. Funny, since Aaron would've loved nothing more than for Neil and Andrew to end things a few months ago. Now, Aaron simply doesn't want his brother manipulated.

As if Andrew would ever let anyone do that to him.

But in that realization, Neil finds his answer. He may never say it, but if someone were to ever ask, 'so, do you love Andrew?'

Neil would never even think of saying no.

And maybe that's all there is to it.

"Yeah, I do," Neil whispers, nodding and pushing the realization to the back of his head for now. He and Andrew haven't talked about it, Neil always assumed they'd never say it, he doesn't exactly need to. But...maybe...maybe it would be nice. Maybe one day Andrew would find it nice.

Aaron's shoulders sag in a mixture of relief and shame over his own feelings, no doubt seeing Katelyn's smile in his mind. Neil wonders what Aaron's go to image is, if it's Katelyn cheering him on at a game, or a much more private, intimate moment.

Neil sees Andrew's calm facade, lips around a cigarette, with a whole universe locked in his eyes. His expression is usually the same, squinting, like he's torn between 'stop staring' or 'never stop.'

Neil shivers.

Yes, if he didn't have Andrew...he's not sure what he would do. Andrew always told him he wasn't Neil's answer, but at this point they're so entangled Neil can't imagine a future without him.

Would he survive and make a good life for himself without Andrew? Most likely, but he really doesn't want to.

For Aaron it's the same, and Neil hates having to admit he's wrong. Looking at Aaron now, a war on his face and fingers itching for his phone, Neil gets it. Aaron has come just as far as the rest of them. He's much more alive now, in no small part thanks to Katelyn. Neil thinks he gets the pessimism, because he sees it in Andrew so often. Hell, his own paranoia has him in the same state somedays.

Aaron's feelings are the same as Andrew's, he said it himself. The assumption everything can fall apart at a moment’s notice is always looming in his mind, and he's never not expecting a catastrophe. The difference for the twins is now, despite that mindset, they fight against the urge to give up.

It's admirable, it's devotion, things he'd never thought he'd say about Aaron.

But here he is; it sucks to eat his words, even in his head. Finding out new things about Aaron is not something Neil planned to do when he walked out here, but he's not disappointed.

It's a start.

"I may not like you," Neil begins, as if to smother the unplanned warmth in his chest. He grimaces instead.

Aaron's head snaps up sharply, like lightning. "Like-fucking-wise--"

"But Katelyn does," Neil stresses, and enjoys watching Aaron's glare relax. It's impossible for him to be upset when she's mentioned, not even when he's angry with her, not really. "If you don't trust that by now you're a lost cause."

It's miles away from touching, from soothing, but it must work for Aaron well enough. It's Neil's own way of saying Aaron doesn't have to expect the worst with Katelyn, because he already has proof she'll weather through anything with him.

In the back of his mind Neil remembers grabbing Andrew's jacket sleeve before he could walk out the door one day, one very bad day. He remembers the words which left his own mouth: ‘don't give up on me.’

Eventually, Aaron settles back into the beanbag slowly, releasing it from his death grip. He tries to scoff, but he sounds too tired for it to be effective. "You're sure comforting for someone who doesn't like me."

And like that, it feels lighter in the room, because Aaron being annoying is normal.

Smartass.

Neil almost smirks; he's one to talk, Andrew would say.

"I don't like you, but I don't want to see you hurt." Neil shrugs. It's the truth; he has to keep Aaron from sinking to rock bottom, so Andrew doesn't worry. Neil knows Aaron still might not believe it, but Andrew will do most anything for him, and by extension..."I'll still watch your back."

Aaron quirks a brow, because he's an asshole like that. "That doesn't sound like dislike."

Neil's not quite ready to think about whether or not the statement is true, in the long run it doesn't matter. The outcome is the same.

"You're family," Neil states, and it holds all the explanation needed.

He's never hesitated to protect his family with his life, with all their awful baggage and selfishness. They stick together.

Aaron's eyes widen as he leans back into the chair, letting the words sink in. Neil tries not to show his own reluctance on his face, but he has to admit this is another way Aaron has gotten better.

He used to not acknowledge the upperclassman's existence outside of practice, but the fight has pretty much left him.

Essentially, even he has to admit he won't be rid of any of them any time soon.

"Yeah," Aaron breathes, breaking the awkward pause. He twiddles his fingers, fidgeting in a way which makes him seem so much younger, so much more vulnerable. His face settles on a glare eventually; he's not ready to look at Neil any other way. "Thanks for...watching out for Katelyn too."

It sounds like Aaron has a mouth full of nails when he says it, but it doesn't lessen the impact.

Okay, yeah. Maybe he's more progressed than Neil thought.

This is the man who wanted to beat him for even approaching Katelyn the first time.

Neil wants to open his mouth and refute it; he didn't do anything Katelyn hadn't already thought of in the past. When he gives her ideas, she sees them through. She's shown time and time again she can make even someone as hardheaded as Aaron bend, she's never needed any help from Neil and honestly, he's never given it unless he was pushed.

Before he can open his mouth, Aaron pins him to his chair with a steely gaze, voice quiet. "And...for Andrew too."

Neil feels his jaw click from how hard he tenses; Aaron is daring him now, daring him to argue. Bastard. He knows Neil's weakness.

And Neil hears the unspoken statement, sees it in Aaron's eyes, so loud and consuming: 'Even from me.'

Even from you.

Of course, Neil thinks. He'd kill for Andrew.

There's no way for him to deny it; Aaron has seen glimpses of it in Neil's eyes, the urge to throttle, to destroy anything in Andrew's way.

Out of respect for that fact, Neil keeps his mouth shut about Katelyn.

Fine.

It's so stupid, that Aaron has to corner Neil in order for him to accept even a piss poor attempt at kindness. It makes Neil grin, sharp and rueful.

It's the closest thing to an apology Neil is going to get from Aaron, his way of saying he was wrong to expect the worst from Andrew, to treat him like some unfeeling monster. Neil will take it for now, but if Aaron shows how little he believes in Andrew like that again...

Neil can't be held responsible for what happens.

Aaron throws up his hands, as if reading Neil's mind. "But no offense, I can't imagine you two having the 'we're exclusive' conversation."

Neil snorts, full on smirking now. "In Andrew's words 'you take up too much of my time for me to think about anyone else,' and that was that."

It was in fact not.

In reality the real conversation was much rawer, strung painfully along three days of trembling touches and long looks. The heaviness in Neil's chest had been unfamiliar, hollow and weighted all at once. He wondered, briefly, if it was what people felt like when they cried.

He hadn't cried in so long he wasn't sure. Sobs ripped through his chest with no outlet, no tears, no snot.

Like thunder, his heart pounding in his ears and pain beneath his skin.

Shockingly, it had been Andrew to put an end to the tension, to crowd him harshly against a wall and force them to talk about things Andrew hated talking about.

"I'm not supposed to be this for anyone, I wasn't supposed to live..."

"But you did. You are."

It's not a memory Neil plans on reliving here with Aaron; he won't be able to control his expression, his breathing.

He digs his fingers into the beanbag this time, and as hard as he tries, he can't get rid of his smile completely.

The night ended with Andrew holding him for the first time while they slept, and oh did they sleep. Almost twelve hours, the emotions taking a toll.

So yeah...

It's him and Andrew, until the end.

He knows Aaron must see through the lie too, at least a little, but he doesn't comment.

"What a bastard," he says instead, giving Neil a way out. It's not like he wants to hear Neil gush about Andrew either.

Not that he would.

Probably.

"You have that in common," Neil replies.

Aaron shrugs, not put off in the slightest. They didn't get to where they are now by being nice people. "Well either way I'm...that’s good or whatever. You know if he cheated on you I'd have to kick his ass."

Neil barks a laugh, so loud and out of character he claps a hand over his mouth to stop it. The idea of Aaron getting so much as a hit in is hilarious.

He can't even imagine it.

Then, Neil really processes his words. He's not sure what look is on his face, but it's disbelieving enough to ruffle Aaron into raising his voice.

"What?" Aaron shouts, and seeing him flush is so unusual without Katelyn around Neil almost can't comprehend it. "I don't care for you either or get what he sees in you, but I didn't go through all the trouble of breaking our deal and going to therapy to let him throw away something that's actually good for him."

Neil lets the annoyance roll off his shoulders; he could just as easily hurt Andrew, but people never assume it's him. Not like he would, but he wishes people would stop placing the blame prematurely. Aside from that...

Aaron admitted Neil is good for Andrew. Aloud. To Neil.

The smirk which grows on Neil's face is absolutely shit eating. "Sounds to me like you like me."

And, either from exhaustion or the inability to fight it any longer, Aaron lets out a heavy sigh. "Maybe one day, Josten."

"Like-fucking-wise," Neil parrots, and for once, the silence is almost comfortable. An itch under Neil's skin tells him it might be the first of more to come.

But, everything ends.

Neil's phone dings on the kitchen counter, and Aaron's head flies to it before he sees it's not his own. Neil, on the other hand--"Oh! There it is!"

He knew he left it somewhere.

Aaron's scowl is something Neil dutifully ignores as he hops up to swipe his phone. It's got twenty percent. That's an improvement, if you ask him. "I swear to fuck, Josten--"

Neil waves him off, swiping his lockscreen (it's a blurred picture of Andrew, because he refused to let Neil take one). He frowns when he sees Andrew's name in his new messages. It's not that they don't text, but it's still new for them to do it without reason.

It's early in the night, for Andrew anyways, and for a moment Neil worries something happened.

A: heading back

Relief floods his chest, mixed with what Andrew would no doubt find an annoying dose of curiosity. Neil can feel Aaron's eyes on him, like he's a zoo animal. He's used to it; the Foxes are improving, but his relationship with Andrew is a mystery in their eyes.

They're not exactly subtle.

N: that was fast. how was Roland?

He doesn't mean to sound suspicious, and it's not for the reasons Aaron might think. He's not sure why Andrew needed to go to Eden's, but if it ended in some kind of fight...

There's a pause, which he notes with some tension in his stomach. Andrew texts fast usually.

A: ok. didn't get to spend much time there so we didn't talk

Neil's brow furrows, but Andrew knows him well, and his explanation comes quickly after.

A: katelyn was there, I'm bringing her back

A: idiot rolled her ankle

Neil's eyebrows shoot up to his hairline. And Andrew says he's the interesting one. Neil can't help but be amused at the thought of Andrew being trapped in a car with the bubbly girl. Katelyn isn't exactly scared of Andrew anymore, but they don't talk directly. It really is a night of developments. Neil bites his lip to keep his grin at bay, feeling Aaron's eyes on him.

Oh, Neil is going to enjoy this.

He's not worried about Katelyn, just a bit surprised Andrew would bother with her. But, like with most things Andrew does, Neil accepts the facts and doesn't dwell on much else. If Andrew wants to explain he will.

It's not like Andrew will hurt Katelyn unless she deserves it.

N: okay. I'll let aaron know

He tacks on the purple devil emoji, the one Andrew showed him in a rare moment of instruction, and hopes his intent is received.

A: I should've never taught you what those mean

N: you're amused I can tell

A: maybe

Neil smiles then, a little less evil. The warmth which comes with Andrew pools in his gut and he shivers, unable to help it. The ghost of Andrew's fingers graze his cheek; if he were here he'd push Neil's face for smiling that way.

He never thought a 'maybe' could mean so much, but nowadays it's as good as a 'you're right' to Neil's ears.

Neil thinks that's the end of it when another message comes in.

A: Neil

He pauses, waits. Nothing. It feels like the clench of Andrew's jaw, the consideration before he speaks. Never impulsive, because he doesn't believe in regret.

N: yes?

The little speech bubble pops up to show Andrew is typing, and it starts and stops over and over. The tapping of fingers on a whiskey glass, Neil throwing off the rhythm of Andrew's routine.

It's something Andrew welcomes now, most of the time.

A: you'd probably like the stupid song they played in the club

An incomplete answer.

Neil's smile is uncontrollable at that point, it splits his face in a better way than hot coils, lifting the scarred skin and giving him wrinkles. Andrew isn't always able to say what he's thinking, what he feels, and this is one of those times. They're frequent, proof of progression which is always a tug of war. A few steps forward, some back. But every time it happens now, Andrew offers him a concession, licking wounds which aren't there just because.

Just in case.

But Neil's never hurt, Andrew wouldn't hurt him. The effort means more to him than he can possibly say, because he never asked Andrew for it, doesn't need it. Andrew is giving it, trying anyways.

Even when he doesn't get to the end of the road, Neil can see the destination.

He might not get to hear whatever Andrew really tried to say, not anytime soon, but he knows the truth in what Andrew did say: 'I'm thinking of you.'

Neil releases a shuddering breath.

N: I want to listen later

N: with you

N: drive safe

He won't.

A: maybe

'Okay.'

Neil pockets his phone as it hits below ten percent, and when he hears Aaron cough awkwardly, he remembers the rest of his objective.

Keeping his face blank is a talent he can only thank his boyfriend for.

"Andrew's with Katelyn," he says, as innocently as possible, moving to brew some hot chocolate for when the blond returns. He gets as far as pouring the powder when Aaron looks up, eyeing him as if he's trying to parse through his Spanish homework (without Neil's help).

"Oh, okay," he says, unsure. Neil raises his head as he stirs, watching Aaron blink once, twice.

He clinks his spoon against the rim of the pan, and hears a scream.

"WHAT."

--

Neil counts the night as a win on account of Aaron jamming his hip against the dorm railing in his haste to haul ass down to the parking lot.

The roar of the Maserati's engine is music to Neil's ears. He and Andrew spend time apart often, but he simply prefers to have him home.

He ignores the look he gets from Andrew as his eyes flit between Neil and Aaron, a silent question. Neil tries not to groan; he knows he'll have to admit it eventually, but his new Aaron revelations aren't things he wants to return to so soon.

When Aaron nods at Andrew, the hint of a smile present and Katelyn against his shoulder, Neil is the only one who knows it for the apology it is. Andrew didn't let him down, of course he wouldn't.

As Aaron turns towards the dorms with Katelyn, fussing and kissing her cheek, Neil doesn't miss the brief glance he sends his way. 'Sorry for doubting.'

And it's not enough for Neil, but it's a start.

With Aaron gone, Neil takes a bold step in Andrew's direction. The magnetic pull is too much, and he raises his brow at the twitch in Andrew's face. People who believe Neil can't flirt have never seen him get under Andrew's skin; it's shockingly easy for him.

Andrew, ever one for reciprocation, takes his own step forward. Neil sees the amused glint shine through the dark, barely there but so apparent to him.

Despite that, Neil doesn't close the gap. He sees the lines of tension wrapped over Andrew's shoulders, not put there by him. They've been there since he got out of the car with Katelyn; something had put him on edge, making him extra cautious, over thinking.

But Neil is there to smooth those points of tension.

Maybe Andrew and Katelyn did get to talking, it sure would be fitting after the night Neil had.

He walks over slowly, letting Andrew set the boundaries if he needs to. He doesn't budge.

"Can I help?" Neil whispers, and expects Andrew to roll his eyes.

'Don't be dramatic,' or 'I don't need help’ seems impending.

Instead, Andrew sighs, tugging at the chain around his neck.

"You tend to," he says, like it's an annoyance. "You do."

Neil grins, wrapping one hand in Andrew's jacket sleeve. He can tell Andrew is still trying to say something, but he's not ready. Neil doesn't need him to be. Though, with the urgency Andrew took with him to Eden's, Neil figures he'll find out soon.

In the meantime, Neil bats Andrew's hand away to pull out his necklace. The little cigarette had made him crack up when he saw it; he didn't think Andrew would actually take to wearing it, but then he'd seen ‘pipe dream’ engraved on it…

Neil hardly sees him remove it.

"You need one too," Andrew mumbles. "I'm tired of being the only one looking like an idiot."

"Get me one then," Neil shoots back, not bothering to point out how Andrew doesn't give a shit what people think of him. It's a joke, but sometimes flustering Neil is more important to Andrew than keeping his pride intact.

"I'm looking still," he says, yanking the chain away from Neil's fingers and stuffing it below his shirt. The movement is irritated, his body language is not.

And oh, that smile on Neil's face must be back, because Andrew snaps at him not a moment later. "Stop it."

"You first," Neil retorts, stupidly, definitely not his best work. But he can't focus with Andrew reaching out for him, pulling at his forearms until Neil's wrists are settling gently on his shoulders. The few inches he has on Andrew never fails to make him laugh, but Andrew's stare is so intense at the moment, the sounds dies on Neil's lips.

The lips Andrew keeps looking at.

Neil leans in, and as his lips graze Andrew's, he smirks. "Did you enjoy your girl talk?"

The blond tenses up in an instant, like hell has frozen over. The stare he levels at Neil is about as unamused as it gets. "You have never heard of a mood in your life."

Andrew makes a show of shoving Neil away while he laughs, but Neil latches on, because he's a shit like that and Andrew loves it. "No, I just know getting you back into the mood is easy," he whispers in Andrew's ear, his thumb sliding down his neck. He delights in the shiver he gets in return.

"Your arrogance is putting you on thin ice," Andrew grits out.

"Do something about it."

When Andrew kisses him, his hands hold Neil's face, and it's his favorite. Neil is pretty sure Andrew knows it, but he'd never point it out, for fear Andrew would stop in retaliation.

Neil is taller, but somehow he ends up surging up to the tips of his toes, the kiss electrifying for something so chaste, a kiss Andrew doesn't even deepen. They're in public, he won't do it, but it leaves Neil yearning anyways.

"It wasn't revolting," Andrew admits when he pulls away, his thumbs rubbing firmly into Neil's face scars.

For a moment, Neil's mind is so hazy he doesn't get it, and he blinks until Andrew catches on.

"The cheer--Katelyn."

Oh. Neil lets his eyes widen; it's not that he sees Andrew as an unfeeling monster, he would never. But...Katelyn is not his type of person. It almost makes Neil laugh, imagining Katelyn with her neverending stream of talking points, attempting to fill the silence of Andrew's Maserati.

Again, it's a start.

Maybe he can trade his conversation with Aaron for Andrew's with Katelyn.

"I'm proud of you," Neil says with a grin, and doesn't elaborate that he means he's proud Andrew is fixing things with Aaron in more ways than therapy. One gap at a time, he makes the necessary choices to sew up the majority of the wound. He'll always be Andrew, holding his brother and Katelyn at a distance, not compromising his own self and beliefs.

It'll never fit together quite right, far from perfect, but they're making their own way.

"For what?" Andrew scowls at him, moving his hands from under Neil's eyes to tug at his mouth. Neil fights him, but the grin can't hold up against the roughness.

Neil lets it go with a wink, which only makes Andrew frown more as Neil turns around. Katelyn moves slow, and he can see Aaron making her even slower by worrying too much. They're barely at the door. Neil sighs, shaking his head. "Ready to go up?"

They may not have privacy, but they'll have more than this...

"No," Andrew says, grabbing the sleeve of Neil's hoodie.

Neil reaches up to tap at Andrew's pulse, patient but not willing to be completely passive in this case. He's missed Andrew all day; he hopes his touch is enough to communicate to Andrew how he doesn't have to try so hard right then.

Neil doesn't need him to keep trying to force out words he's not ready to say; Andrew already had a lot taken out of him after tonight.

Neil too, honestly.

Andrew grunts, turning back to the car. It's the only answer Neil needs, and he gratefully hops into the passenger seat. Neil will follow Andrew wherever he decides to take him, for however long Andrew needs to clear his head.

It's nice, to run without running away.

Andrew's hand grazes his before clutching the gear shift, and they veer out of the parking lot with zero caution.

This is it, he thinks. Andrew's reckless driving after midnight, and a hand in his, with lots of time left to say what needs to be said.

This is it. Four truths: sunrise, Abram, death, us.

Briefly, as he remembers Aaron's confessions, he wonders, hopes even, that the twin feels the same about his life. No, he knows Aaron feels the same way about Katelyn.

That's not even a question.

Neil smiles as he rolls down the window, ignoring Andrew's comment about how he's like a dog, and jots down another line on the list of things to admire about Aaron.

Begrudgingly, of course.

#all for the game #neil josten #andreil #aaron minyard #andrew minyard #katelyn minyard #bc they're married in my heart already

[quicksilversquared]

Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey Stuff

Hawkmoth was defeated years ago, and the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculous were recovered without a problem. The superheroes still have some occasional foes, but no akuma. Which leaves one burning question, especially after the Rabbit Miraculous gets damaged: what about Timetagger??

Enter superhero shenanigans in order to set the timeline right.

links in the reblog

Ladybug, Chat Noir, and Bunnyx stood in a circle, staring at the broken Miraculous between them. They were silent, minds blank in disbelief.

The Rabbit Miraculous was broken, and they had no idea how to fix it.

It hadn't happened during an akuma fight- those days were long over, with Gabriel Agreste (and Nathalie Sancoeur) defeated and locked up in jail and the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculous recovered, restored and kept safely stored under the Guardian's protection- but rather during a fight with a completely different sorcerer, the latest in a long line of different magic users who had their eyes on the Miraculous and wanted to steal the power for their own. That meant that there was no Miraculous Cure, and no clear way to fix the Rabbit. The Rabbit, their last-resort emergency fighter. A powerful fighter and ally. A Miraculous, an ancient relic that had been around and survived for millennia...

In short: it was really, really bad.

"Any ideas?" Bunnyx asked after a minute, turning her Miraculous over in her hand. It- well, it didn't look good. It didn't look normal. "I mean, we know how this would have gotten fixed if there was still a Hawkmoth around. Or a Butterfly, at least. But that's not the case anymore, because we didn't screw up beating Hawkmoth."

"I am so sorry," Chat Noir told her with a wince. "I really didn't think that the sorcerer would vanish like that. And I probably shouldn't have charged at him with Cataclysm anyway, I know better than that."

"I know, I know, and that still doesn't fix the Miraculous." She glanced over at Ladybug. "Any ideas, Spots?"

"Maybe," Ladybug said slowly, her brow furrowing as she contemplated- well, it looked like she was deeply contemplating the branch of a tree, or perhaps the leaves or a caterpillar on it, but she was probably actually contemplating the problem at hand and the branch just happened to be more or less in front of her. "There's something about this whole thing that's just- it's weird. I mean, even though we succeeded at getting Hawkmoth's Miraculous and I know for a fact that Nooroo and his Miraculous are still in the box, we haven't forgotten about Timetagger. Like, if the timeline changed- wouldn't we forget, don't you think?"

There was a pause as they thought about that.

"That is weird," Chat Noir said slowly. "Do you- do you think that it still happens somehow? Like, the Butterfly gets out somehow and goes bad and somehow it ends up helping us?"

Bunnyx frowned. "That's a lot of somehows . And I don't know. With a changed timeline, our memories should have changed, too. So somehow, Timetagger has to happen."

"That was what I was thinking, too," Ladybug said, crossing her arms in thought and frowning. "So what if- what if we akumatize Chris? But- hm. There was still a butterfly purified, so we have to use the power like Hawkmoth did so that the Cure actually works. And Timetagger acted like a regular akuma- a really strong regular akuma, not like someone playing a part- except... well, he hesitated at the end. He could have pounced and grabbed our Miraculous instead of waiting for us to come to him, but he waited a really long time instead. Like he wasn't planning on getting them at all. So we have to figure out why that happened like it did."

Bunnyx gasped, snapping her fingers and pointing at Ladybug. "I have an idea! So, you know how I went back in time and learned a whole bunch of stuff from a sorcerer once, when we were trying to recover some of the information that's been lost over the years?"

"Yeah, you came back and wouldn't stop oohing and ahhing over modern food and flush toilets and all that jazz, just to be annoying and rub it in that you got to go," Chat Noir said with a sigh. "What about it?"

"Shush, Miraculous-destroyer." Bunnyx turned her attention to Ladybug, excitement in her voice. "One of the things that I learned was hypnotism. If we akumatized Chris, I could hypnotize him to get him to believe whatever we wanted him to- he would think he had been akumatized by a new, smarter Hawkmoth. And then we would freak out Old Hawkmoth and make him all paranoid-"

"I think I remember Timetagger saying something about that," Ladybug said slowly, frowning in thought. "And we could put in a failsafe pause before he actually takes the Miraculous, even though we know how the fight went. We would have to ask his permission before akumatizing him and hypnotizing him, because the ethics of that would be seriously sketchy otherwise, but I bet that he would be willing. He's always been a fan of the superheroes, after all."

Bunnyx snorted. "Yeah, that's a pretty safe bet. After all, we still remember the attack, so clearly in the past future, he agreed to having his head messed with."

Chat Noir groaned. "You know, sometime I think that you're enjoying all this weird time stuff a little too much."

"What, can't keep up, pussy-cat?"

Ladybug could only sigh.

  Perhaps surprisingly, they were not trying to exactly replicate the (presumed) circumstances of the Timetagger fight. Even with all of her magical knowledge, both historical and contemporary, Bunnyx wasn't terribly keen on the idea of getting sent back several thousand years and having to wait out the return to present time, even if she was going to be in a magical coma most of that time. A shorter wait would have been better, and she still could sneak into the Louvre and magically plant herself in the same artifact, no problem. Ladybug had raised an eyebrow at that- it seemed like messing with the timeline wasn't a fabulous idea, even if it was a relatively small tweak (if it was a tweak at all, that was)- but agreed to let Bunnyx try it anyway. After all, Bunnyx was the expert on time travel, not her, and if Bunnyx thought it would work then, well, then Bunnyx could try it.

"So I think we're ready," Bunnyx told them as they gathered inside the Louvre, steering Chris in front of them. Alya, who had been tapped to play the part of the Butterfly for the process, had already gone ahead, down to one of the offices where she could talk to Nooroo and figure out her powers. "I've gotten my permission, I've read over all my notes for hypnosis, Alya just texted to say that she's gotten all of the information that she needs to akumatize Chris, I've recorded a video so that I won't forget everything about my life and what I was doing before all this because I remember my older self not remembering exact details of the fight-"

Ladybug frowned. "Do you think that's likely? After all, you said that you were going to put yourself in magical suspension right away. In theory, it should feel like less than 24 hours for you." She paused, then frowned. "...wait, do you have to travel to Egypt, too? Or did Timetagger's powers move people from time and space?"

Bunnyx shrugged. "I don't know. I talked to Fluff before all this happened, and she thought that the forgetting some of what happened during the fight was mostly due to the time-travel nature of it and my dual selves being in the same place at the same time. That, and it happened- what? Ten years ago? So she doesn't think that I'll forget everything else about my life. I just wanted to be safe."

Ladybug nodded. That made sense. As much sense as time travel ever made, that was.

"So I guess we'll get started, then," Bunnyx said, clapping Chris's shoulder. "All ready?"

Chris nodded, eyes narrowed in determination. "Ready."

"Good! Now you two, shoo," Bunnyx ordered, waving away Ladybug and Chat Noir. "I don't want you distracting me." She grinned. "See you in a couple thousand years."

Ladybug and Chat Noir shooed, but they didn't go far. After all, if anything went seriously wrong with the hypnosis or akumatization, they needed to be ready to step up and intervene. They circled around behind Bunnyx, watching as she got set up. Chris watched, surprisingly not nervous as she worked around him.

"Am I the only one who has some concerns about this whole hypnosis thing?" Chat Noir asked Ladybug quietly as they got settled, watching Bunnyx on the video feeds that they had set up around the Louvre. The entire area had been closed for the day upon the superheroes' request, which meant that there were no civilians around to accidentally get in the way or distract them on other feeds. "Like, I know she learned it, but mix that magic with the magic from the akumatization and that just doesn't seem like a very good combination."

"I did wonder if it might make more sense to do the hypnosis after akumatizing Chris, but Bunnyx seemed convinced that it would be better to do it this way, and that the Butterfly's magic wouldn't overpower the Rabbit's." Ladybug frowned in concentration as she watched their main feed. "I mean, so far..."

They waited.

"Bunnyx isn't looking quite as confident as I thought she would," Chat Noir commented with a frown, several minutes in. On screen, Bunnyx was frowning as she watched the swirling magic around Chris. "I wonder if something isn't working out right."

Ladybug sucked in a sharp breath. "Chat Noir- her Miraculous is broken. I wonder- I bet that means that her hypnosis doesn't have as much power behind it as she thought it would. She's not going to have nearly as much control as she planned over what he does."

Chat Noir leaned forward, frowning as he watched. "Maybe we should have tried it without the hypnotism, with Chris just acting like a supervillain. We could have had him practice his acting here first, before going back in time. Either that, or tried it, had it not be convincing to us, and at least known that we went for the less dangerous option first."

Ladybug groaned. "Maybe we could have. It's just that Timetagger already happened, and we know it worked, and we're used to akuma villains, and- okay, I'm tired, otherwise I would have tried to think of some way of doing it without the hypnotism. I think I forgot that Hawkmoth could akumatize people without their emotions being too high for them to resist. We still could have had the evilized butterfly."

Chat Noir pulled her into his arms as she slumped in exhaustion. "Yeah, we probably should have taken a day or two off before making any plans. And I know it's because we don't know when Vladimir will try to strike again and we need all of the Miraculous up and working, but we were all so tired when we came up with this plan."

Ladybug curled up against his side. "Can we go down for a nap after this? I'm so tired and Monday I have a meeting to go to with an investor and I actually need to be awake for that."

"That sounds like a plan. I'll even throw in some kitty cuddles and purring. That always helps you sleep better."

On camera, Bunnyx had finished her hypnosis. She looked less than certain about it now, and that was not a typical look on her. Normally, Bunnyx was confident and sure.

Clearly the hypnosis wasn't going nearly as smoothly as planned. That probably explained why that akuma had been so tough, because he wasn't nearly as under control as Bunnyx wanted.

"Should we stop them?" Chat Noir asked, frowning. "Maybe see if a second round of hypnotism would help pull things more under her control?"

"If it would, I think Bunnyx would do that," Ladybug decided after a moment's pause. "She's the expert on hypnosis, after all, and she knows that if she doesn't do this right, she'll be going straight back to Ancient Egypt. We should stay out of her way."

She hoped that she was making the right call. Bunnyx might be confident, but she wasn't reckless- not as her superhero self, at least. If she thought that the hypnosis had too loose of a hold on Chris, she wouldn't continue.

That was what Ladybug hoped, at least. And she had to trust her teammates.

"Here comes the akuma from Alya, right on schedule," Chat Noir reported. "...she had a different name picked out, right?"

"Yeah, something that wouldn't give us away right away." Ladybug shifted forward, watching as the familiar dark cloud enveloped Chris. She hadn't seen it in so long, and it really hadn't been missed. "And there's Timetagger. Bunnyx is headed for the stairs and he's following- either she's acting or she's really properly concerned, I can't tell which."

"Can Alya pull the akuma back if Timetagger goes completely off script?"

"I think so, yeah. At least when he's in the present time, I don't know about the past." Ladybug's eyes narrowed as she watched Bunnyx running, looking for any clues as to what was going on. Maybe they should pull back and reset, but Bunnyx would have gone for their anchor and snapped Timetagger out of it if she thought things were out of control.

In a flurry of color and noise, Bunnyx and Timetagger vanished out the front door.

Ladybug straightened, holding out a hand to pull Chat Noir up. "Okay, let's go quickly check on Alya and then move into position. Hopefully things just looked worse on camera."

  It seemed as though Timetagger had well and truly forgotten that he wasn't actually one of Hawkmoth's akumas. Bunnyx had definitely been engaged in a fierce, no-holds-barred fight, and Ladybug and Chat Noir were left hovering at the fringes of the battle, trying to decide if the situation was out of control enough for them to step in. Bunnyx hadn't signaled to them, though, so they kept out of it.

And then Timetagger hit Bunnyx back through a portal.

"Ooh, that was Ancient Egypt," Ladybug said with a wince. "Just what she wanted to avoid. But the circle is complete now- and there goes Timetagger, back to our old fight. That date looks right, so I guess the hypnotism wasn't a complete fail. Just...not quite what Bunnyx wanted."

"And now we just have to wait," Chat Noir said, plopping down on the ground for a moment before immediately popping back up. "...probably should not be relaxing in hero form in the most exposed area of Paris."

Ladybug laughed. "No, probably not."

The wait was tense, but not long. A Rabbit portal appeared and Timetagger was knocked through, reappearing for only seconds before hopping through his own portal, paying no attention to the lingering superheroes. Only minutes later, Bunnyx appeared, a drag to her step and admissions of failure on her lips.

Fortunately for her, Ladybug perfectly remembered the Timetagger battle, and she remembered exactly what they had to do to tie up this whole shebang in a nice, neat bow. Timetagger was defeated with a little help from the future, Bunnyx escorted a rather disoriented Chris back to the present, and finally, finally, they got the hypnotism completely removed.

Chris looked a little worse for the wear after that, honestly, but it was hard to know if it was the hypnotism itself, the time travel, or some combination thereof. Alya took one look at him, announced that she would be bringing him straight back home, and returned the Butterfly Miraculous before taking off so that Chris could lay down for a bit to recover from the rather potent snarl of magic.

The rest of the superheroes let out a relieved sigh and headed back inside, going back into the Louvre and into Alix's father's office to detransform and relax a bit before going home.

"I honestly thought that I had screwed up the hypnosis enough to change everything," Alix said with a groan, flopping over an armchair sideways as soon as she released her transformation. She dug in her pocket, then tossed a carrot to Fluff. "Absolutely awful. That was so stressful. I mean, mini-us thought that we were super-awesome and so that was cool, and it was fun messing with Hawkmoth and teasing Kitten Noir when he asked about now-you, but then I was fighting on my own and Kitten Noir almost destroyed my Miraculous again."

"I said I was sorry!"

"I'm just glad that Mini-Bug is so creative. Like, if I got a pad of paper to save the day? I would have yelled at the universe, because how is that supposed to be helpful? Give me a giant gun or something. A sword. A grenade-"

Marinette laughed, even as she leaned tiredly against Adrien's side as they sat side-by-side on the bench in the room. "You have weapons on the mind. I like the less straightforward approach."

"Okay, after the day that I've had- the several thousand years that I've had- can you blame me for maybe not having the patience for your convoluted Lucky Charm plans?" Alix groaned even louder, sprawling out further. "Aliens and dinosaurs and people calling me a witch and chasing me with pitchforks before I could jump again and- ugh. I need a nap, and I still have to figure out how to figure out how to complete the circle."

Adrien and Marinette exchanged a puzzled look. "There's more?"

Alix groaned more at them. "Are you kidding me? The heirloom watch- I still have to figure out how that got to my ancestor!" She pulled out her second watch, with the crack still running across the case. "It has to get fixed somehow so that it can be used as a Miraculous, it needs to go back in time, I need to come up with a story- it's a lot. It's ridiculous, actually. I went in and asked my younger self for the ancestral watch like I knew it was going to work, but only because I had seen it done before."

Fluff blinked at her. "But isn't it obvious?"

"What- no, it's not obvious!" Alix sat up straight and stared at her kwami, who was chomping on a carrot while floating upside down. "How?"

"My Miraculous has been broken, and fixed, and broken, and fixed." Fluff spun in a circle, then swallowed the rest of the carrot whole. "It traveled through many yesterdays and tomorrows to become whole again, and the path was never linear."

"...what."

Tikki let out a sigh, glancing at her fellow kwami in exasperation. "We repaired the Miraculous, after it broke during Timebreaker. And it was a double dose of curing magic with two Lucky Charms, which restored the potential for it to be connected with a kwami. At the time, though, the Rabbit Miraculous was also in Master Fu's box and closer to Fluff, so that connection overrode the other, which is why you didn't get a kwami popping out as soon as you opened the watch after that."

Alix looked positively baffled. "How is it that your kwami is so straightforward with telling you what to do, but then you get completely baffling Lucky Charms, and then I get a kwami who is never straightforward and, uh..."

"Powers that are also baffling?" Adrien offered with a laugh. "Because the whole time travel thing is completely mind-boggling, don't even try to lie. Of course Fluff is going to speak in riddles."

"Yeah, well, okay-" Alix started, and then sighed. "Yeah, okay. It's a good mind game, at least, trying to puzzle stuff out. So..." She paused, then frowned in thought. "So that's how it got magically fixed, then. But it would take a watchmaker to fix this- oh! Obviously! My ancestor! I did some digging after Timetagger- well, Timetagger the first time around- and discovered that my ancestor who 'made' the watch was a very talented watchmaker! They must have repaired it after I brought it to them, and then it got passed down through the youngest member of the family."

Fluff looked pleased.

"And I could still do some hypnosis with it, and put myself into a crazy-long suspension, so clearly being broken didn't get rid of all of the magic in it," Alix continued, newly reenergized. "So that's how I planted the message in it."

"I'm still lost on where the Miraculous is, or was, or how many copies of it there are," Adrien complained. "You lost me."

"You get lost on time travel, but not physics? Marinette, your fiancé is strange."

Marinette laughed. "Yes, but I love him anyway."

"I'm still not hearing an answer to my question," Adrien prompted. A small grin had slid onto his face. "Should I assume that you don't actually know the answer and you're just putting it down to weird time stuff?"

Just as he had intended, Alix puffed up with a scowl. "No, I understand it! It makes perfect sense. After I got sent back, there were two copies of the Miraculous going forward- the original, and the broken one I was using. Then I'll bring the broken one back to my ancestor, too, and that'll make three existing at the same time, since I would still be in suspension in Egypt. Two weren't functional, though, until Timebreaker happened, and then we had one fully broken with Bunnyx in the Louvre, one with the potential to hold the Miraculous power with mini-me, and then the original, still in the box."

"O...kay?"

"And then we had Timetagger, and that three went down to one, because the broken one and the repaired one came back with me, leaving only the original, which you eventually gave to me. It got broken, all this nonsense happened, now we have two. I'll bring the broken one back to my ancestor, and then we'll be back to one." Alix smirked at Adrien. "Any questions?"

"How did you figure that out so fast?" Adrien demanded, frowning. "I mean, I follow- I think I do, at least- but gah. So much of this all is happening because it already happened, but how did we- you- whatever come up with the idea in the first place? Surely someone had to. I mean, otherwise that suggests that it was always destined to happen, which brings into question the whole free will and are things predestined, and-"

Alix just sniggered. "Oh my god, you're exhausting. Don't worry your little kitty brain about it, Cat-boy. It happened, it had to happen, it's going to happen, it will happen. I don't care what your studies say about time being linear. Just accept it."

"But-"

"You don't have to fully understand it for it to happen, Adrien. You should know that by now. How else do you explain your superpowers? There's no scientific explanation for that." Alix grinned at him, clearly knowing full well that he only had trouble wrapping his head fully around her time travel and the concept of concurrent parallel timelines. "It's wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff, and it's useful. Don't question it."

#Miraculous Ladybug #My writing #alix kubdel #finish the alphabet challenge

[redhairdontcare732]

That Laugh: Fangs Fogarty x Jones! OC

Author's note: Short little blurb I couldn't get out of my head this weekend! Thanks to everyone who noted or liked the Riot Night from Hell two shots! It meant so much to me, and I was blown away by the response!

Fangs’ POV:

It was official, I was out of my goddamn mind.

Currently, I was watching the gorgeous dark haired beauty that I was fortunate enough to have been able to call my girlfriend for the last few months stand against the lockers at Riverdale High and laugh. My hands clenched unintentionally into fists as I saw her head fall back as she giggled her sweetest giggle, wavy jet-black locks cascading over her slender shoulders as she did so. Ordinarily, the sight of Jean Jones laughing would bring me nothing but joy, and normally I would feel a sense of pride like none other as I watched my mamita’s strong features break into that face-splitting grin that made me fall for her in the first place. But this time was different.

Namely, because I wasn’t the one making her laugh.

No, I was standing a few feet away with Sweet Pea and watching some Northside asshole lean in way too close to my girl, both with large smiles etched on their faces as Jean laughed. I felt my face heat up with a jealous flush as I listened carefully. Dating, and knowing, Jean for as I had, I knew every single one of her laughs. There was the little unintentional giggle that she had when a comment caught her off guard, her usual low chuckle that was usually directed at either Archie or Jughead, the adorable little snort thing she did when she was skeptical or sarcastic, the sweet giggle that indicated her slight embarrassment (usually when I flirted too openly in front of the gang); all were perfectly suited to her strong yet laid-back personality, and I treasured them all. However, there was one laugh that was by and large my favorite. It was the laugh that caused her grin to widen so far that her face looked as if it could break in half from the force and her entire body to shake slightly with it’s intensity. It was a loud, boisterous laugh of pure joy, and it was the only one where Jean actually let loose. Normally, she would either cover her grin with her hand or give a closed mouth smile when laughing; Jean’s front teeth were slightly crooked, and she was incredibly self conscious about them. No matter how many times I expressed how little those mattered, or how they didn’t actually look like she thought, she still covered them out of either habit or embarrassment. But when she laughed that special, forceful laugh she often forgot about her insecurity. It was one of the reasons why it was my absolute favorite. It was the laugh that, until now, I thought I was the only one who could coax from the Jones girl’s tough facade. Evidently not, because I was standing five feet away, fuming and watching as some mangy bulldog said something to make my girlfriend laugh that beautiful laugh.

Sweet Pea eyed the pair, eyebrow cocked in curiosity as he placed some books inside his locker. He then looked me up and down before rolling his eyes and sighing.

“Man just go up and talk to her, she’s your fucking girlfriend”, he said with a hint of exasperation. I shook my head, eyes never leaving the pair in question.  

“Nah, wouldn’t want to interrupt whatever’s so god-damn funny”, I spat bitterly. Sweet Pea scoffed.

“This coming from the guy who ended up dating Jean only after a jealous fist fight with Chuck Clayton”, he replied sarcastically while slamming his locker shut. I tore my eyes away from Jean long enough to glare at my tall best friend.

“Hey, you and I both know Clayton deserved everything he got”, I retorted. “Besides, that’s not why Jean and I got together”. Pea chuckled. 

“Yeah because all that time you spent pining after her from afar was clearly working”, he snorted. I punched his arm, eyeing my best friend with anger. He threw his hands up in surrender before heading down the hall and out of sight. 

Sweets just didn’t understand. Everyone knew that Sweet Pea and I were a package deal; we were rarely apart, and I knew that we were seen as a dynamic duo as far as young serpents go. And as a duo there were certain roles that we naturally fell into: Sweet Pea was the tall, brooding asshole and I was the funny, outgoing foil to his personality. True, we both had our fair share of anger issues and sketchy moments (we were in a fucking gang for God’s sake), but everyone pretty much knew that Sweet Pea was the angrier of the two of us. That left me to be the funny one. The goofy one that lightened the mood and kept Pea in line when he needed it. I took my role in stride, and I prided myself on being able to make pretty much anyone laugh. It was like my identity at this point. None of that had really mattered as much to me before Jean though; it was the moment I first made that sexy, adorable girl laugh her most honest laugh that I truly fell for her. I took extreme pride in the fact that I was the only one that I thought could break down her walls enough to get her to laugh like that, and to hear her so casually use it around some Northside fuck was heartbreaking and infuriating at the same time. If I didn’t have that, what did I have to offer her? She could be with some rich kid with far less baggage and issues than me.

As I thought more about Jean my anger started to fade and turn into a huge pile of self-loathing. Of course she would leave me for some other guy; I mean like Sweet’s said, I only really got her because she felt sorry for me after I beat up Clayton for her. She probably laughed like that around everyone, I was being delusional when I thought it was only for me. I bit the inside of my cheek thoughtfully, and turned away from her and that guy. I started to walk away, intending to skip the rest of the day in favor of riding my bike until things made more sense, but I was stopped by a familiar set of fingers lacing through mine. I stopped dead in my tracks, looking down slightly to see my girlfriend’s concerned face.

“Fangs? I thought you were going to meet me by my locker after 3rd like always”, she asked gently, confusion evident. I sighed, looking down at my feet as I desperately tried to come up with an excuse. Jean’s soft hand left mine, gentle pads of her fingers reaching upwards to my cheek instead, tenderly pulling my jaw upwards for my eyes to meet hers. Her crystal blue eyes were open wide, appraising my every move with worry evident in the pale, nearly grey irises. I internally groaned.

“Baby, what’s wrong?”, she asked after a while, clearly reading more into my silence than I had intended. I scoffed, taking a page from Sweet Pea’s playbook and deciding to mask the pain I was feeling with an attitude.

“Nothing, I just didn’t want to disturb you over there since you and whats-his-face over their seemed to be hitting it off so well”, I ground out, stepping back and slipping out of her hold, body tense with unspoken frustration. Her eyebrows furrowed together in confusion.

“What are you talking about?”, she asked, confusion and concern still dominating her beautiful features. I huffed.

“You know what? Forget it. You were clearly having a freaking riot over there with him, so why don’t you just go ahead and get back to it”, I growled out. My feelings of insecurity and sadness had returned to anger, and I was actually getting pretty pissed. Jean took a step back, looking like she had no idea what I was talking about. I half expected her to slap me, scream at me, lecture me, or some combination of all 3, but to my extreme shock she did something I’d never seen coming.

She laughed.

And not just any laugh, my laugh. The laugh that still made my face flush lightly whenever I heard it and caused my legs to go a little wobbly. Her full on, ear splitting, belly laugh. Now it was my turn to look confused. Jean laughed harder than I’d ever seen before, stepping closer to me and throwing her arms around my shoulders. Her soft lips placed a light kiss to my cheek, and my hands naturally fell to the small of her back as she did so. I leaned back in order to see her face more clearly, puzzled expression clear. She gave one final giggle before smiling fondly at me.

“Are you seriously jealous of that random freshman?”, she chuckled lightly and I felt my face flush in embarrassment. “Babe, he was just asking me how to get to the library because it’s his first day. I was just trying to be nice!".

“Okay but what was so god-damned funny?”, I asked, trying to mask my own self-consciousness. “You were laughing like....”

“Like what?”, she asked, eyebrow cocked. I sighed and looked away for a moment before looking down at our feet once more.

“You're going to think it's stupid…”, I muttered, face flushing redder than a tomato. Jean's eyes turned sympathetic and she rubbed the small hairs on the back of my neck soothingly, causing chills to run down my spine. Man, even when I was this distracted she still had the craziest effect on me with just the simplest touch.

“Fangs, come on tell me. I won't think it's stupid”, she said gently.

“Well, it was just...I thought I was the only guy that could make you laugh like that…”, I muttered. Jean's eyes seemed to lighten a shade, and she placed one of her soft hands against my face. Her unimaginably delicate fingers stroked my tense jaw, and I found myself unintentionally leaned into her caring touch out of habit. Her smooth caress nearly made my mind go blank with contentment, and I had to shake myself back to reality before mentally bracing myself for her reaction.

“Baby you are the only guy who really makes me laugh like that”, she replied softly, fingers still dancing lightly across my jawline tenderly. I rolled my eyes.

“I'm serious Fangs. Do you know why I was laughing at that freshman?”, she asked sincerely. I shrugged, the confusion and hurt still prominent on my face.

“I was laughing because his attempts at flirting with me were so bad”, she continued, a coy smile breaking out from her beautiful features. “He was so awkward, and his jokes were so lame. I was laughing at the thought of getting to tell you about it after; I thought you'd think it was just as funny”.

“Really?”, I clarified suspiciously. Jean giggled lightly.

“Really. I honestly couldn't wait to tell you all about it once we met up, but then I saw you heading the other direction and I got concerned”, she reasoned. My eyes searched her face for any signs of deception. Her eyes were like two crystal clear blue pools, staring intently into my own full brown eyes with a look of such complete sincerity that I finally let out a breath that I didn't realize I was even holding. I groaned lowly before bringing her into a closer embrace; her head fell into my chest naturally, and my face found it's favorite spot in the crook of her neck. I felt all the tension and anxiety that I'd felt all morning dissipate, and my body finally relaxed as I held her close. I sighed in total relief.

“I'm sorry mamita”, I quietly murmured into her skin. I relished in the way I felt chills run through her body at my gentle admission, loving that I seemingly had a similar effect on her as she had on me. Although, I was still wholly convinced that there was no way that I affected her nearly as badly as she affected me. I mean, just her gentlest touch was still enough to turn me from a normal, relatively self-assured guy into a babbling idiot even after all the time we’d spent together. I honestly didn’t believe that the feeling of her soft body against mine would ever truly lose that spark that I’d felt ever since we first touched.  

Jean sighed in contentment, hands gripping my body tightly as if she were still trying to convey her sincerity to me through her touch. I suddenly felt guilty that I’d even accused her of something so stupid and was thankful that my cherry-red face was hidden by her mass of inky-black locks. Recently she’d began wearing her gorgeous hair down more often, and I was internally grateful that today was one of those days.

“No Fangs, I’m sorry”, she practically whispered into my chest, the words dulled slightly. “I should have realized how that must have seemed to you looking from the outside”.

I shook my head against her soft skin, preparing to comment on how I’d completely overreacted and the fact that she did nothing wrong, but Jean caught me off guard when she suddenly removed her head from my chest. Her grey-blue eyes that I loved so much were turned upwards at me, a sparkle of determination and a look that I couldn’t quite place evident in their hypnotic orbs.

“I just wasn’t even thinking that you would assume that I could ever be interested in anyone other than you. I guess I thought you knew how I felt about you”, she admitted shyly. Her voice was low, but there was no hint of a waver, no uncertainty to be found in her words. My throat suddenly felt dry and my palms began to sweat.

“And how’s that?”, I rasped, unable to raise my voice to more than a whisper. Jean leaned into my face slowly, perfect pink lips reaching mine tantalizingly. Her mouth came so close to mine, brushing my own lips teasingly as she spoke but never giving me the connection I so craved.

“You make me feel things that I’ve never felt before”, she murmured against my mouth. “Ever since we’ve met I haven’t given any thought to any other guy, even when we weren’t together. It’s been you from day one Fangs, and I can’t even really put the effect you have on me into words. But if I had to give it a shot, I guess I would just tell you that...”.

My heart beat rang in my ears as every nerve ending in my entire body stood at attention, waiting for her to finish her thought.

“....I love you Fangs Fogarty. I have for a while, and I'm not sure if you feel the sa--”, Jean started, before I cut her off by bringing my hands to the back of her neck, pulling her mouth against mine roughly. My mind was practically imploding with the new information, and I couldn't help but stop her before she could say anything else or take anything back. Sweeter words had never graced my ears before than the sound of Jean Marie Jones telling me she loved me for the first time. The soft admission echoed in my head like the song of a victory lap, and I knew that I would be replaying this conversation to myself over and over again for a long time. I had known for a while that I was in love with Jean, but I never dreamed that she felt the same let alone that she would be the one to say it first.

Jean immediately reciprocated my advance, hands flying to rest on my broad chest and back, slender fingers and palms dancing gracefully across the leather covered flesh and causing goosebumps to run rampant under her gentle caress. My rough hands found their home in her tangled locks, running my fingers through her hair lovingly as I tried to convey all I was feeling through my touch. My tongue poked out to trace her plump lips, begging for the entrance that she readily granted. I poured all the emotions that had run through my mind all day-- hell since the day I fell for her-- into this one kiss, needing her to feel the love and relief I felt.

We remained like this for an immeasurable amount of time before Jean pulled away, head coming to rest across my chest once more her breathing ragged. I smiled in pride, placing tender kisses to her hairline as I attempted to regulate my own breath. I stood against the perfect creature that I was lucky enough to call my girlfriend, my heartbeat slowly returning to normal as I snuggled into her embrace.

“I love you too mamita. I love you so damn much”, I murmured fondly against her thicket of hair, smelling the comforting scent of her shampoo as I did so. I couldn't see her face from this position, but based on the sudden heat of my chest her face had flushed much like mine had been doing all morning. Deciding to look for myself, I pulled back marginally in order to get a better view of my favorite sight in the world. Her hypnotic eyes were as clear as I'd ever seen, and her smooth cheeks were broken out in with the most adorable pink tint. Her mouth was curled into a smile of pure contentment, and I took extreme pride in the fact that I was the reason for Jean's obvious happiness. I decided that this was my new favorite expression, and I internally vowed to make her look like this everyday for as long as she'd let me.

My trance was only broken by the beautiful girl's blush disappearing, and I watched as a sort of amusement that I’d learned by now meant she was up to no good overtook her features. Probably seeing the way my brows raised in silent question, Jean chuckled lightly before answering my unspoken confusion.

“So, you were really jealous of that freshman?”, she asked, eyebrows raising slightly and smile planted firmly across her face. Face flushing for what felt like the thousandth time today, I rolled my eyes in an attempt at nonchalance.

“How the hell was I supposed to know he was a freshman? Kid was almost as tall as Pea!”, I exclaimed. Now it was her turn to roll her eyes and she rolled her eyes before placing a quick peck on my lips.

“Again, how you could ever think there was someone I was into other than you is beyond me. I feel like I’m the clingiest girlfriend in the world sometimes”, she replied, seeming exasperated. I chuckled lowly.

“Mamita I have never, ever thought of you as clingy. Hell, if anything I want to be around you even more than I already am. So, by all means, be as clingy as your beautiful heart desires”, I joked, only partially kidding, as I planted a sweet kiss to her jawline. It was true, I’d always thought I must be the clingy one in our relationship considering I basically always wanted Jean near me, and if for some reason she wasn’t she was definitely in the back of my mind. It was nice to know that she felt similarly. Now it was Jean’s turn to blush once more, and my grin only widened as she did so. Seeing the way I caused a reaction in her never failed to bring me joy, and right now was no exception. Her blush faded as that mischievous twinkle returned to her eyes.

“Whatcha thinking Mamita?”, I questioned curiously. Jean bit her lower lip in anticipation as she briefly turned her head down the hall before facing me once more.

“Well, since I never really got to officially turn that guy down because I was too busy chasing after you, I was thinking it may be fun to go to the library and have you, ahem, stake your claim as it were”, she breathed more shyly than I'd ever heard. She bit her lip once more as she looked up at me through her dark fan of lashes, looking more devious and gorgeous than any one woman should have the right to. I blinked, not totally understanding what she was getting at. She’d sent my mind into a haze, and I had to physically shake my head in an attempt to clear the thoughts.

“I'm sorry babe, I don’t follow”, I answered, confused and completely turned on. Jean’s smile widened as her teeth finally released her now slightly swollen lower lip as they moved to my ear.

“I mean, I’m totally on board if you feel like you need to go show that freshman just how taken I am. Put your hand in my back pocket, kiss my neck, stick your tongue down my throat, ya know whatever you need to feel like he understands that I'm not interested in his pickup attempts”, she purred, breaths tickling the shell of my ear and driving me insane. “I'm nothing if not accommodating babe”.

I grinned down at her, feeling like my entire body was on fire as I stared deeply into her blue eyes, still twinkling with desire. I growled lightly, burying my face into the softest spot in the world: the crook of Jean's neck, just between her collarbone and the curve under her earlobe. Eagerly, I began laying soft kisses to the area before becoming more aggressive when I felt her shiver and lean into my touch. I'd found out during one of our more intimate sessions that it was one of the spots that drove my girl absolutely nuts. Naturally, I used this information to my advantage pretty much every day, and today was no exception. I swear I would never get over the way she seemed to turn completely limbless and lean into me for support once I'd started, nor the way her supple lips parted and let loose the sexiest moans I'd ever heard.

“Mmm, I agree completely mamita”, I rumbled lowly into her ear, teeth nipping at the soft skin there. Jean responded by moaning lightly, breathing out the sweetest sigh I'd ever heard. “Or, we could skip the rest of today and you could show me just how taken you are”.

Jean's eye darkened with lust. She smiled her truest wide smile, teeth and all, before tugging me down the hall and out of the school. I grinned as I let her lead me by our intertwined fingers and a sense of complete elation overcame me. To hell with being the only one to make her laugh, I wanted to be the only one that made her feel like this: wildly happy and mischievously sexy. She'd convinced me that I was somehow the only guy to evoke this side of her, and I was going to take my new role with pride. Guess it was time to start practicing.

#riverdale #riverdale imagines #riverdaleimagine #fangs fogarty #fangs fogarty imagine #fangs x oc #sweet pea #southsideserpents #archie comics #fanfiction #fanfic #jealousy #fangs jealous #jean jones #oc #serpent imagine

[dwtspd]

DWTS S27 Week ONE!!! Nights 1+2 review

Man, when I saw Tom I suddenly felt like it had been AGES since I watched this show, then I realised, I didn’t even watch the athlete season. My friends told me it’s not worth it so I will probably never watch it.

Idk how the two-night thing is gonna work out so this is a combined post.

Night 1

Mary Lou Retton and Sasha Farber - Cha cha okay, was that video package kinda short? Also maybe it’s cos I’m not American but I’m soooo over all the “yay USA” themed dances. Anyhows, Mary Lou is a former US gymnast who won gold in 1984, the first US woman to do so. No mention of her current embroilment in the USAgym-gate. Okay, she can definitely remember steps. She needs to work on timing and also getting those latin shapes. 6-7-6 T19 huh that’s kinda harsh?? Might have been 1-2 pts higher if she went later I think.

Milo Manheim and Witney Carson - Cha cha Sorry Milo, but Zombies aiiiin’t that great. In case anyone doesn’t know, Zombies is a cheesy af DCOM musical. I really like his energy though. “Tell me about yourself.” “I’m still in school.” I love that. It’s quite refreshing cos we don’t get young male contestants as often as the girls. Whoa, he has those hips! I don’t think his limbs were as messy as the judges made it sound. His legs looked a little awkward during the cha-cha walks. That aside, this dance was so fun to watch! 7-6-7 T20 “That’s good, that’s good!” Witney tells him. Again, I think he could get a tad higher scores if he went later.

Evanna Lynch and Keo Motsepe - Foxtrot OMG Keo’s reaction was priceless. Evanna probably needs no introduction, but anyway, Luna Lovegood. She wanted to go to dance college, but was rejected so DWTS was the next best thing. I think the song did them in, but I found some of her movements too sharp for a foxtrot. She has nice frame and did something weird with her hand once. Definitely has potential. 7-5-6 T18 oooooh Len that was harsh. Tom, the correct term is he who shall not be named.

Speaking of, I like the new green glitter score background.

Danelle Umstead and Artem Chigvintsev - Foxtrot Danelle is a blind alpine skier but gosh she has good footwork and lots of grace. Her shoulders came up a bit and I think she had to adjust her footing going into the spin. When I saw the opening, I was like “Artem is making her walk down the steps to him??!!” At least they went down together. I think her and Artem will be a very nice, friendly, genuine partnership. 6-6-6 T18

Side note: I really didn’t need to hear “Rise Up” again.

Bobby Bones and Sharna Burgess - Jive Bobby is...a lot of things. I’ll say entertainer. His main schtick right now is his country radio show. Guy has boundless energy, I’ll give him that. Jive suits him. He had to point his feet, and the footwork was real rough. If he was judged for enthusiasm though, he’d get a perfect score. 7-6-7 T20 yeah that’s too high. I think the judges got a little high off his energy. I think he should be sitting at a 16-17.

Juan Pablo Di Pace and Cheryl Burke - Salsa Juan Pablo is an actor most recently from Fuller House and Mamma Mia. Uh huh, here’s the sexy hot couple of the season right here. It took really long to get into actual salsa though. Some of the moves looked unpolished and uncertain, but he had a sense of timing and can move. his. hips. 7-7-8 T22 haha we all knew Bruno would like it.

Ayyyy hey Rashad! Apparently he’s going into hosting, showing us the DWTS BTS web series. Go support that guy, he’s an all-round all-star.

Nikki Glaser and Gleb Savchenko - Salsa Nikki is a comedian and entertainer. She told Gleb he looks like he should be emerging from a pool, which I’m pretty sure he has done before for some modelling thing. Apparently she got injured over the weekend. Could have affected the performance. She seemed fine in rehearsal but looked really ginger and reserved while dancing. Her limbs looked awkward. Arms were kept really close to her body and her legs...I don’t know any other way to describe it except “baby giraffe”. 6-5-6 T17

Alexis Ren and Alan Bersten - Jive Alexis is an instagram influencer and model. She’s doing the show for her late mother who enjoyed it. Okay I’ll say it here, she is the one to beat technique-wise. My only complain is she could be more bouncy. Everything else was spot on IMO. I think her possible downfall would be her sketchy voting base. Lots of insta followers doesn’t necessarily mean they will vote. We’ve seen that with past social media stars. 7-7-7 T21 I think she should be equal with Juan Pablo honestly.

John Schneider and Emma Slater I’ve never heard of his Dukes of Hazard show but his name sounds familiar. He’s done so many things, I’ve probably seen him somewhere. Well he certainly has the right attitude. His dancing was...here and there. Some times I was like ‘oh, that’s not bad’ and then i’d be like ‘okay that needs improvement’. I think he’s good enough and charming enough to appeal to the DWTS demo though. 7-5-6 T18

Tinashe and Brandon Armstrong - Jive Tinashe is a singer...who I’ve never heard of. But I live under a rock. Brandon is newly promoted and awwww he’s so adorable. He gave her lots of content which she handled fairly well. She was very clean but I feel like it was toooo clean. Like you know how if you strip water of too many minerals it’ll just burn your tongue. I feel like sometimes I was watching a stick figure dance. Could have used more bounce. CAI’s comment didn’t make sense. 8-7-8 T23

Nancy McKeon and Val Chmerkovskiy - Quickstep Nancy was an actor from a show called The Facts of Life which probably pre-dates me. She has the facial expressions!!! Quickstep on week 1 is no joke but she kept up for most of it. Yup she was wobbly at times, because she was lacking the contact in hold with Val, but that seems to be a Thing TM with all his partners so it’s more Val’s fault. For a while I was like “omg is Val choreographing a solid routine with moves in hold??” and then they broke hold. I’m surprised Len didn’t call that out. Nancy was reall animated in that section though. 6-6-6 T18

Joe Amabile/”Grocery Store Joe” and Jenna Johnson - Quickstep Joe is from the Bachelor franchise and got his nickname because he owns a grocery store. He wants to become Dancing Joe now. He’s kinda cute, sorta charming in a slightly-awkward-little-self-depreciative way. Very likeable guy. I think with his personality and the bachelor backing, he’ll stick around for a while. Yeah that definitely wasn’t the best dance. He was flat footed, made mistakes, getting QS definitely didn’t help either. Can see he is trying to stay positive. 5-4-5 T14

Demarcus Ware and Lindsey Arnold Soon to be NFL hall of fame inductee. Has won the Super Bowl. You know, I hate American football as a sport, but these NFL guys always come in and work hard and it pays off. Demarcus can move and seems to have hella groove, with personality to boot. He’ll have to clean up some lines, but I can see him growing a lot on this show. Such a delight! 8-7-8 T23

Night 2

Ohhhhhh I love that opening number!! I can see why it’s not a premiere opener but wowwwww.

Okay so apparently the bottom half after judges score and votes from night 1 will have to dance again. Everyone else would have rehearsed a second dance for nothing...I guess. I feel like maybe they should have let everyone dance their second dance, but only score those in jeopardy.

Rashad out there with a message for Demarcus. I was kinda waiting for that the first night.

Safe - Demarcus, Tinashe, and...JOE!!!!!! That was the chillest reaction to a (not so) surprise safe.

Jeopardy - Nancy

DWTS Jr pros dance and make me feel old. Jake Monreal!!! And okay, JT Church has some ballroom moves. There’s one brunette guy (not Sage) who has nice hair. And the blond boy looks a little familiar but I can’t put my finger on it.

Safe - Juan Pablo, Bobby

Jeopardy - Nikki, John, Alexis

Alexis and Bobby’s placements are telling about the voters.

Okay. I watched the two episodes back to back. People I forgot about by the time I started night 2: Mary Lou, John, Danelle, Nancy. Also I knew Tinashe, Evanna and Juan Pablo were there but I kinda forgot how their dances looked.

Lmao Milo and Tom. “Why are you so scared about what I’m gonna ask you?”

Amy Purdy with a message for Danelle. She looks so different than I remember.

Safe - Milo, Evanna

Jeopardy - Danelle, Mary Lou

Okay so summary Top 7: Demarcus, Milo, Juan Pablo, Bobby, Evanna, Tinashe, Joe Bottom 6: Alexis, Danelle, John, Nikki, Nancy, Mary Lou

So they are bringing back the Judge’s choice encore from when they had result shows. This week: Demarcus.

They introduced the Junior stars. I’m having a hard time remembering who is who but: - JT’s “OH MY GOSH” when his pro-skateboarding partner did a trick - Mackenzie Ziegler is not a “pop star” she’s as good as a pro dancer. WHO’S BRIGHT IDEA WAS IT TO MAKE HER A CONTESTANT???!?!?

Can they intro the Jr pros too? All the cast of Juniors including the adult pros do a dance number and all I get from it is that red latin shoes are not in style.

Okay so we don’t have time for 6 dances or something so John is safe and won’t have to dance for his life any more.

Couples will dance the same style as night 1, but the choreo and song will be different.

Mary Lou and Sasha - cha cha okay I dunno what their rehearsal strategy was, but this dance felt very basic and less rehearsed than their first. She was more precise and controlled, but seemed to have less energy in it. 7-7-7 T21

Danelle and Artem - foxtrot the rehearsal vids seem to imply the couples were only given Monday night to come up with their second numbers. If so it must have disadvantaged Danelle. She was more timid and reserved. 6-6-6 T18

Nikki and Gleb - salsa She looked more confident this time. Legs less giraffe-y. Her arms were still awkward. 6-6-6 T18

Alexis and Alan - jive Ooooohhh this was good. Her technique was good again, but I think the mood of this dance suited her far better. I think she had a lot more energy and personality in this performance. 7-8-8 T23 Len says it is the best dance of the night and I agree as does Bruno.

Nancy and Val - quickstep Oh dang, the shorter dress exposed Nancy’s shortcomings. Her lines were wonky and she still looked a little unstable sometimes in hold, which was easier to see in this costume. It also made her look like Tweety Bird tumbled dry, They stayed in hold this time though. 7-7-7 T21 that seems generous.

Okay so Mackenzie Ziegler sings. She has a decent voice. Gotta set herself apart from her sister I guess.

Online voting for night 2 was open for...10 minutes? And I wager only US east coasters could vote.

Results time! (finally.)

Safe - Danelle, Alexis (yay!), Mary Lou

Nikki vs Nancy...Eliminated: Nikki. no surprise.

My favourites are Milo and Alexis. Also rooting for Danelle on a slightly lower tier. Surprisingly, Evanna isn’t really on the forefront of my mind.

Also, whether or not the couple danced on the second night might affect their memorability. Like, Bobby make an impact night 1, but after night 2 I kinda forgot about him. The only person who didn’t perform night 2 who I remember is Milo. Everyone else I was like “oh wait, who’s here again?”

#DWTS #dwts27 #dancing with the stars #evanna lynch #milo manheim #keo motsepe #witney carson #demarcus ware #lindsay arnold #danelle umstead #artem chigvintsev #nikki glaser #gleb savchenko #nancy mckeon #val chmerkovskiy #alexis ren #alan bersten #mary lou retton #sasha farber #joe amabile #Jenna Johnson #bobby bones #john schneider #sharna burgess #emma slater

[theladyjojogrant]

The Missy Chronicles and why it’s one of the best Doctor Who books ever made.

Is it as hilarious as it sounds? Even more so. 

I just read The Missy Chronicles and I still can’t believe how perfect it is. Each story brings something unique to Missy’s character and adds some interesting things to Doctor Who canon that you really, no I mean really, don’t want to miss. 

(Below is a short synopsis of each story and some memorable quotes/things that happened. If you don’t want spoilers, come back and read this once you’ve read the book!) 

1. Dismemberment by James Goss

Basically, the Master always goes to this sketchy gentlemen’s club after he regenerates to just chill and be around other morally questionable people. But this time there’s a problem. The Master (as Missy, though she hasn’t decided on her name at this point) goes to the club like usual after her regeneration, but gets kicked out because she’s a woman. The rest of the story is her carrying out very extravagant plots for revenge on each of the members of the club, including, but not limited to: making it rain blood; tying a man to train tracks, marrying him, and then letting him get run over; and last but not least, freeing an African American slave and letting her poison the food at the club’s big annual celebration, telling them they can be cured if they eat some paper, and then telling them after they eat the paper that she was lying. 

Favourite quotes:

About Missy: “Her eyes possessed that cold burn you got from holding ice.” 

Missy: “So sorry I’m late. Just been running over a maths teacher with a milk float. You know how it is.” (GUYS I’M NOT CRAZY MY THEORY WAS RIGHT AND IT’S NOW CONFIRMED, MISSY KILLED DANNY!!!!!) 

Generally, this story was funny and very typically Missy. Also the African American slave Missy saved is the one who eventually comes up with the name Missy, and the only person from the club that Missy didn’t kill was a certain man named Dr. Skarosa...

2. Lords and Masters by Cavan Scott 

The time lords recruit Missy to go on a mission for them, so they hijack the Eye of Harmony in her TARDIS and send a time lady to hold a gun to her head. Basically she has to figure out what’s causing some strange time disturbances, and it turns out this doctor genetically engineered a creature that could travel in space and time and kept it in stasis so that he could gain the power from its energy or something like that. Missy was supposed to kill the creature, but instead she manipulated the time lady to kill the doctor, kept the creature, and miniaturized then killed the time lady and sent her back to the General on Gallifrey. 

Favourite quotes:

“Missy had places to go and people to subjugate.” 

“Missy gave her the look she usually reserved for simpletons and UNIT personnel.” 

Not too much went on story-wise, but it was interesting to see how Missy dealt with being pushed around by the time lords. She also gets her first “companion” in this story: Yayani, the time lady who’s supposed to kill her if she doesn’t obey the time lords’ instructions. 

3. Teddy Sparkles Must Die! by Paul Magrs

Yes, it is just about as strange as it sounds. Missy becomes the governess of three children in early/mid-20th century England. The children are suspicious of her and go through her things, only to find a sparkly teddy bear who’s really an alien who can distort time and complicated stuff to grant wishes. The teddy bear lets them go to crazy places like the moon and Missy gets the kids out of trouble. In return for her rescuing them, she wants the kids to wish to grow up to be powerful people in the world, and the kids do it because they don’t really get it. So they grow up and become powerful people, forgetting about Missy. Then Missy comes back when they’re older and demands they give her the world. Teddy Sparkles (the alien bear) thwarts Missy’s plan by rewriting time and sending the kids back to their childhood, though he also accidentally incorporates crazy creatures that Missy told the kids stories about into the world. Teddy Sparkles uses up the rest of his energy/life to set everything right again, even inventing a fictional story about a governess with a carpet bag and an umbrella who takes children on fantastic adventures so that Missy will become famous, which is something she hates because she gets crowded by people gawking at her. Missy leaves, and in the end one of the children grows up to be a grandmother, and Teddy Sparkles shows up as a Christmas present for one of her grandchildren. 

I didn’t write down any really memorable quotes from this one, but the whole Mary Poppins connection was great, and I found it interesting that Missy actually “lost” in this one; it wasn’t from her point of view at all, either. 

4. The Liar, the Glitch, and the War Zone by Peter Anghelides

This one is pretty complicated to explain because it’s very timey-wimey, but basically Missy runs her TARDIS into some Gryphons (after escaping from the Daleks at the end of The Witch’s Familiar) and then crash lands in 21st century Venice. Through a series of things happening (time rifts and stuff are involved), Missy’s dematerialisation circuit ends up in 14th century Venice and she goes back in time with a random girl (Antonia) and also tries to destroy 21st century Venice in order to get her TARDIS working again and escape the Gryphons. After the TARDIS starts working again Missy time rams her TARDIS and everything undoes itself, so 21st century Venice goes back to normal. Missy tries to leave Antonia in 14th century Venice with her dead friend who fell through a time rift, but Antonia mysteriously ends back up in the TARDIS. More on that in a sec because...

GUYS. THE THIRTEENTH DOCTOR IS IN THIS STORY. NO JOKE. Missy discovers her dematerialisaiton circuit went back in time when she sees an ad for it being on display in a museum. She tries to ask where it came from, but all the employees keep telling her to talk to the curator. So finally she sets up an appointment, and that’s where I immediately became suspicious. The curator’s office is very thoroughly described, and while the combination of old and new stuff (including a plague doctor’s mask) could be telling of the Doctor (I mean, Day of the Doctor and the Curator, hello???), it also could just be a typical curator. But what set me off was that the curator is never physically described at all. There are other clues (before an obvious reveal at the end of the story.) Through the whole story people keep calling Missy “signora” and she insists that she wants to be called “signorina” instead. The curator calls Missy “signorina” without any indication from Missy. And as the curator is helping Missy find out where the dematerialisation circuit came from, she says “I do enjoy this kind of research myself. It’s a real trip into the past.” Missy also runs into a plague doctor back in the 14th century when she’s getting her circuit back. Then at the end it’s made really clear. Antonia shows up in Missy’s TARDIS (after Missy tried to abandon her) saying “If it wasn’t for her, no one would have seen me again.” She then gives Missy a note: “...two short paragraphs of neat handwriting chastised Missy for her lack of caution, and told her that she would need to try much harder.” Missy goes back to the curator’s office and finds it empty except for the plague doctor’s mask. All the curator’s secretary can tell her is (and it’s the last line of the story): “The doctor doesn’t work here any more.” (*SCREAMS*) 

Also, Missy decides to call one of the Gryphons “Hermione” and then says that she’s a Slytherin girl herself because she goes for the bad boys. She also says that she sees some Severus Snape in herself. 

5. Girl Power! by Jacqueline Rayner 

I don’t know how Jacqueline Rayner can write perfect Doctor Who stories. Every. Single. Time. 

This story is not told in traditional narrative fashion, but initially through messages that Nardole and the Twelfth Doctor send back and forth to each other. Nardole is guarding Missy in the vault and is worried when she seems to be putting together some sort of plot. The Doctor tells him to go along with it, and soon enough Missy is contacting important and influential women all throughout history to create MADAM, Missy’s Army for the Demotion of All Men. (I’m still dying over that XD). She creates a group on “Spacebook” and chats with these women, including Henry VIII’s wives, Joan of Arc, Lady Jane Grey, Elizabeth I, Agatha Christie, and Jane Austen. Basically Missy just wants them all to kill all the men on the planet. But the Doctor joins the chat pretending to be Circe and gets all the women to leave the chat. He and Missy end up talking because Missy of course knows it’s him, and the Doctor thinks she came up an elaborate plot so that she could escape the Vault. Missy sort of accidentally confesses, however, that she was trying to have the oppressed (women) fight their oppressors (men), like the Doctor would do. 

Favourite quotes: 

Literally the entire story. The synopsis is vague because the meat of the story is Missy writing all these feminist things about how to respond to stupid man questions and how to do things that women can’t do at certain points in time (like vote, own property, etc.) and sending them to the members of MADAM. At the beginning of the story Nardole relates to the Doctor things that Missy has asked for, and the Doctor approves or disapproves them. These things include: hairspray, history books about important women (which was where she got the MADAM idea), marshmallows, a campfire (to roast the marshmallows; however, the Doctor doesn’t approve that one because “If she’s still got that can of hairspray, we could all be in big trouble.”), a tiger, and sherbert lemons. 

Missy: “It has come to my notice that being a woman isn’t just about the addition of some wobbly bits and a sudden inability to grow a goatee.” 

Missy on her Spacebook profile under the section ‘other names:’ “Professor Thascales, Colonel Masters, Reverend Magister, Sir Gilles Estram, Mister Saxon. Look, if I called myself ‘Reggie’ or ‘Dave’ the Doctor never even had the decency to suspect it was me. I used to go to a lot of trouble dressing myself up for him so is it so wrong to want some attention?” 

Missy on her Spacebook profile under the section ‘life events:’ “Born, Died, Died, Died, Died, Died, Died, Died, Died, Died, Died, Died, Died Died, Died, Took over some bloke’s body, Died, Died, Died, Became a human, Stopped being a human, Died, Died, Became a woman, Ruled!”

Missy: “I’m 100% done with human women. Hate the lot of them. Hope they all use lead-based makeup and die.” 

I literally did not stop laughing throughout this entire story. And I really mean that. My abs hurt. 

6. Alit in Underland by Richard Dinnick

Takes place during World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls. Missy and Simm!Master travel around Floor 507 with Alit, the girl who gave Cyber-Bill the mirror in The Doctor Falls. The Masters (with Alit in tow) take out some Cybermen who come after them and find an elevator to leave the floor. 

Not much plot-wise, as you can see, and it’s a fairly short story. But bantering between the Masters is fantastic, and one of the best parts is Missy and Simm talking about how much they love cartoons. Missy tells him that she and the Doctor watched Frozen together and Simm can’t believe it and keeps judging her for it, when finally Missy tells him to “Let it go.” 

The other interesting and really cool aspect to this story is Missy’s character. She comforts Alit, tells her a story when she’s frightened, and even holds her hand. She also deliberately saves people, but keeps that a secret from Simm. I really like how the final two stories incorporate Missy’s slight moral shift. And the last little bit of the story, and of the book itself, is awesome: 

Simm!Master: “Tell me. Travelling with the Doctor. What is that all about?”

“I was imprisoned. It was the only way out.” 

“So you did have a plan before you ran into me. Get rid of him; betray him?” He licked his lips. “Kill him?” 

“Get rid...?” Missy looked at the Master, and her face became a stony façade. “That has a certain ring to it.” 

...

“Note to self: Get rid of...betray...kill.” Missy nodded. “Yes. I suppose that’s the only way.” 

The Missy Chronicles, everyone. If you have the chance to read it, please do.

#the missy chronicles #beebs book reviews #book reviews #missy #the master #doctor who #dw #dw books #doctor who novels #doctor who books #simm!master #twelfth doctor #thirteenth doctor #nardole #dw series 10

[thoseofgreatambition]

guardian to be

genre: supernatural, fantasy, thriller

pairings: none

wordcount: 3.5K

warnings: swearing, mentions of violence and spirits, vomit

a/n: remember that short story i’ve been talking about all semester, this is it! it’s based off of an idea for a novel i had a few years ago, and I”m so proud of the finished product! i’ve tagged my permanent tag babes, so i hope y’all like it! if you’d like to be added to the permanent tag, please let me know!

November 11, 2017 

 “Aren’t you supposed to be good at this?” Lee scowled at the woman opposite from him, as she frantically formed a line of salt around the room. “Didn’t I hire you so I didn’t end up holed up in some murder cabin being chased by demons?” 

 Ada’s hands shook so hard she couldn’t keep the salt into a line. Her hands felt numb, and for the first time in two centuries she was remembering what true fear felt like. Sure, she couldn’t die, but that didn’t mean those spirits wouldn’t kill her companion. “They’re not demons, they’re spirits. They’re hurting and confused, that’s why they came after us.” 

 She shot a look over her shoulder to see Lee standing in the middle of the room looking more and more agitated as things went on. His lower lip wobbled as his brow furrowed, and Ada watched as his eyes began to shine. Her maternal side took over, as it was prone to do. 

 “I’m sorry, Lee.” 

 Just like that, the floodgates opened. The 19 year old broke into sobs, his fists clenched so hard it hurt as he desperately tried to wipe away each tear as it came. His shoulders shook as he fought the urge to wail. Lee had always prided himself as being put together and mature, after all, being raised by a single mother would do that, but this was too much, even for him. 

 He wasn’t even done with his first year of college yet. Life wasn’t supposed to be like this. He should have been worrying about what his grade in Algebra II was, not whether or not some demons or spirits or whatever the hell you wanted to call them were going to kill him.

 This wasn’t fair! This wasn’t even his fault.

 It was his father’s fault, and why should he be blamed for what a serial killer did before he was even born?

 One Month Prior: October 11, 2017

 Lee stood in front of a rather shabby looking house, with a skeptical look on his face. He’d confided to a friend that he’d felt like he’d been followed lately, and that he could have sworn he’d seen things crawling outside of his windows at night. That friend had spoken to one of their friends, who had spoken to a friend of a friend’s friend who eventually got back to Lee with an address and a name of someone who could protect him. 

 The college freshman had scrawled it on the back of a dining hall receipt and now he wondered if this was all some sort of prank. The name Adelaide Lewis didn’t exactly seem like it would strike fear into anyone’s heart. 

 Regardless, he’d spent 40 minutes trying to find the damn place, and his morbid sense of curiosity wouldn’t let him leave without at least finding out what this was all about. 

 The pastel blue door flew open after the second knock, revealing a woman who hardly looked older than he did. A glance inside showed what seemed to be one of the ugliest home interiors Lee had ever seen. The furniture was a mix of stuffy Victorian china cabinets, beaded curtains from the 60’s, and what appeared to be shag carpeting with several Disney movie posters framed on the walls. 

 The girl seemed unassuming at best. She wasn’t the type of person that stood out when you passed them. Her features were kind but plain, with wide brown eyes and dark hair in braided pigtails. For a moment Lee wondered if she was either insane for decorating a house like this, or was living with whoever he was supposed to see. “I’m here to see an Adelaide Lewis?” 

 “Oh please, call me Ada. Come on in. Are you Lee?” 

 Reluctantly he shed his coat, and hung it on a rather antique looking coat rack. “I am, yes.”

 Lee considered himself to be good at reading people, and while he got no strange vibes from Ada, it was hard to feel comfortable. His shoes sunk into the shag carpeting, and while the floor looked clean, he was reluctant to take them off. Still, Lee did as his mother taught him to do and removed the trainers, only feeling mildly abashed by his Legend of Zelda socks. “Is this your parent’s home?” The false note of Texas politeness seemed far too obvious and inwardly he cringed. 

 Either Ada was too polite to comment or she didn’t notice. Either way, she shook her head. “No, it’s mine. I’ve lived here for about… ah, sixty years? Seventy maybe…” she looked back at him and laugh, “It’s so easy to lose track of time after a while, isn’t it? Would you like something to drink? I’ve got coffee, tea, water, sweet tea… I went to H.E.B the other day, I have some of that powdered lemonade stuff that everyone seems so fond of. “ 

 It was almost as if Lee’s brain had stopped working for a moment. “Se-seventy years? You’ve lived here for seventy years?” 

 “Yes.” 

 “You’re my age.” 

 Ada laughed once more, a melodic sound that filled up the room they were in. “Oh, is that why you’re confused? I should have explained. I’m not a human. Well, I used to be one, but I’m not anymore. I died you see, a long time ago in the 1800’s. I’m really 200 years old. I turned into a guardian angel, and now I work for hire protecting humans from immediate danger.” 

 Again, Lee froze. He only jerked into motion when a theretofore unknown cuckoo clock made itself known to him by shooting out a wooden bird next to his left ear. “Shit!” at her disapproving cluck of her tongue, he looked abashed. “Sorry. I just—A guardian angel?” 

 “Yes.” 

 “I thought you weren’t… I thought those weren’t real.” 

 Ada shrugged, “Everyone does. But you got recommended me by a friend right? Do you trust them?” 

 “More of an acquaintance really.” Or an acquaintance of an acquaintance… of an acquaintance. Lee was silent for a moment, wondering about her question. He didn’t really know, though he supposed he trusted his friend who put him in contact with the one who recommended Ada to him. “I suppose so, though.”

 “So what’s the harm? I’ll take whatever you can pay me.” 

 “You don’t even know what my problem is.” 

 “You’re a kid. You came to some sketchy house and listened to some ‘crazy lady’ tell her story just because something was really bothering you.” She gestured to his shoes that had holes near the plastic soles and the weathered hem of his jeans. “You obviously don’t have a lot of money to blow on this sort of thing, I’m not going to rob you of the next semester’s rent check. So what would you like to drink, and what’s the problem?” 

 There was a long period of silence as Lee’s brain worked in overdrive, trying to understand what in the world was going on. His tan hand fiddled with his sleeve cuff, and his brown eyebrows knit themselves together as he thought. It was like he’d stepped into some sort of strange, fantasy or sci-fi novel. Sure—he enjoyed reading those things, but to actually be in a situation like that was quite unnerving. 

 Suddenly he found himself wondering if he was having some sort of fever dream or had gone insane without noticing. Especially when what she was saying sounded good enough that he was willing to go along with it. 

 “I’d like some sweet tea, please.” Lee situated himself in an overstuffed armchair, and looked at Ada with a worried expression, wondering how to explain about his problem. “Something is following me. Or some things. There are these creatures following me around. I keep seeing the shadows out of the corner of my eyes.I hear people talking to me when I’m all alone—There were people outside of my window last night, and I live on the fifth floor!” his voice cracked as his anxiety rose and Lee massaged his throat. “I don’t know what to do.” 

 Ada handed him a glass of sweet tea and sat down across from him, taking a sip of her own glass. “Tell me about you.”

 He was silent, wondering what that had to do with anything. Eventually though due to Ada’s silent probing he finally got around to speaking. “I’m a sophomore in college. I’m nineteen, I’ll be twenty in June… I’m studying English History.” His voice trailed off, “Honestly I’m not sure what you want from me.” 

 She pointed a long finger towards a window covered with a lacy curtain, and spoke very calmly, “Is that one of the things following you?”

 Lee spun around and saw a dark silhouette outside of the window. It looked like a human, a woman, perhaps? He could almost make out her face, and her pained expression. For a short moment Lee felt sorry for her until she let out an ungodly wail of anger and began to beat on the window. 

 He jerked up from his seat, not sure what to do in his panic, and accidentally knocked over his glass of sweet tea onto the red shag carpeting. Ada was quicker to spring into action, she opened a small chest of drawers next to her chair, pulled out a white bladed knife and very calmly walked over to the window. The rest happened so quickly that Lee didn’t know what to say happened. Ada yanked open the window, grabbed the attacker by what seemed to be ethereal strands of hair and shoved the dagger into her back. Immediately the wailing stopped and the being, whatever it was seemed to disintegrate into nothing. 

 Ada looked towards him and Lee noted that there was no blood on the knife. She quirked her head and took in the sight of him, “You’ve got spirits following you. And it appears that something in you has made them rather angry.” 

 October 18, 2017

 Lee was retching in the corner, and Ada sighed just a bit as she watched him. The poor thing. This was not how someone should find out about this sort of family history. It did explain a lot about why those spirits were following him though. 

 They were standing in a rather dark corner of the Texas Lutheran University library, with quite a few old newspaper articles pulled up onto the computer. Ada stared at the screen, and felt a chill roll down her spine at the image before her.

 A man who looked just like Lee, stood in a courtroom in an orange jumpsuit. The caption ‘Serial killer sentenced to death’ was in italics underneath and described a rather horrible series of crimes. A confirmed victim count of ten, with quite a few more suspected from the man. A woman sat in the front row behind him, visibly pregnant and crying. As Ada read the article she let out a sigh. This did explain a lot. 

 As he dry heaved into a waste basket, Lee desperately tried to catch his breath. This couldn’t be happening. This was not what his mother told him. She said that his father was an old boyfriend who moved away to Germany after college. Lee hadn’t tried to pester her for more information. Why should he? He was happy with his life as it was. His mother had given him more love than he bet two parents could have given him. 

 “That article’s wrong!” 

 “Lee, it identifies your mother by name.” she scrolled through to another article, titled “Arthur ‘Artie’ Scott executed via electric chair”. “The date of his execution was almost exactly 19 years ago, Lee. It’s why they’re going after you. They’re upset and they didn’t get any closure.” 

 “But why are they going after me now!?” Lee’s voice roared out throughout the quiet space, and bounced around the walls. “I didn’t do anything!” 

 That was a fair question, but it only took a little while to find the answer. “Your father was 19 when he was executed, Lee.” 

 “Don’t call him my father!” 

 Ada ignored his outburst and continued, “They think you’re him. You’re his age, you look alike…” with a long sigh she stared at the angry young man in front of her. His world had been turned completely upside down—thankfully all of her time spent on earth had given her enough patience to handle a bit of misplaced anger. “Now we know where to start though. This won’t be too bad, I think.” 

 “Oh you don’t think it’ll be ‘that bad’? We just found out my—“ he sputtered, as he tried and failed to make the word ‘dad’ leave his mouth. “He’s a serial killer. How is that ‘not bad’ Ada? In what world does that mean ‘not bad’!?” 

 “We just have to wait for a little while longer, let some more time pass so they realize you aren’t him. We’ll find someplace safe, and hide out.” 

When Lee seemed to falter, as if she was saying something that couldn’t be achieved, Ada frowned, “What is it?” 

 “I can’t leave.” 

 “Why?” 

 “Midterms.” 

November 11, 2017 

 Now here they were. 

 Trapped, with no way out. 

 “I can’t believe I let you take me here!” Lee’s voice cracked with rage. Perhaps this was misplaced anger, but dammit, if he was about to die then he didn’t think it should matter. “This was supposed to be a safe place! We should have stayed near everyone else!” 

 “That wouldn’t have worked, Lee. We’d have put everyone else in danger and they’d have found us even sooner.” She looked at him with a frown, and watched as he shook and trembled while trying to hold back his emotions. “Lee I’m sorry. I need you to stay calm.” 

 “I thought you could protect me! What the hell kind of guardian angel can’t protect someone?” 

Ada flinched as Lee’s words hit fairly close to home, “Lee.” 

 “No really! A guardian angel for hire? What in the hell was I thinking? You’re just some crazy chick aren’t you?” 

 “No!” Ada raised her voice for the first time that Lee knew her, breaking the calm and motherly demeanor he’d come to know. “I was a guardian angel! I was!” 

 The silence that fell between them was heavy, as Lee processed her words. “Was?” when she blanched and set down the salt, Lee continued to stare at her, “You were a guardian angel? Past tense? As in, you’re not a guardian angel anymore?” 

 “I lost my wings.” 

 He shook his head a bit in confusion, “What does that mean?” 

 “You become a guardian angel by dying protecting someone else. I died protecting my son and became his… but when he passed away naturally, a long time later I was assigned to new people.” She hesitated, and only continued to speak when Lee looked at her imploringly. “I wasn’t good with them. I did what I did with my son and encouraged them to follow their dreams and what they wanted to do, but—“ 

 “But what?” 

 “That didn’t work out well. They kept making bad choices. They got hurt. They wound up dying. Eventually I got in trouble and was sent down like this, on probation. I’ve got to save one hundred people to become a guardian angel again. You’re my hundredth.”

 It took a little while, but Lee felt his surprise turn to anger once more, as he shouted at Ada, “Why didn’t you tell me that?!” 

 “I knew it would scare you off. I can handle this though! I’ve handled trackings like this before—it’s textbook!” 

 “You screwed up so bad that you got fired as a guardian angel! You really think you’re good enough to keep me safe?” Lee gestured to the cabin walls, where they could hear the echoes of the damned outside. “This is your fault! This is your fault! I’m going to die because of you!” 

 Ada flinched just a bit, wondering how exactly to recover from this. There was only one real way to recover from this. “You’re not going to die.” 

 It was impossible to kill an angel, even one on probation, but not for those who were also ethereal beings. 

 “Oh really, I’m not going to die? How are you going to save me Ada? You going to do the same sort of job that you did with all your other clients?” 

 She took a deep breath, he was young and angry. Rightfully so. It wasn’t right to lash out back at him. “I’m going to distract them while you grab the car and get out of here. Take my knife, and my bag it’s got lots of things in there to protect you. Holy water, loads of salt to ward off spirits. Go and hide somewhere safe, and wait it out for as long as you can. They’re already decreasing in numbers as they realize you aren’t your dad. I give it another week.” 

She grabbed a shotgun off of the wall and loaded several odd looking bullets in them. For a moment, Lee was distracted enough to forget his anger. “How are you going to distract them?” Lee had never been a hunter, nor had he ever really seen a gun up close, but those didn’t appear to be normal bullets. “What are you putting in there?” 

 The real answer was blessed silver buckshot, something that would cover a large range and inflict lots of damage. However, it wouldn’t kill them. At least not all of them. “They’re special bullets that can kill the spirits.” 

 “You’ve got enough in there for them?” 

 She did not, but one of the few things Ada had learned on this earth during her short time as a mother was that at times, it was best to lie for the comfort of others. 

 “Of course. Hide out, I’ll come and find you, and if I can’t find you in a week then go back to normal. It’ll be over by then alright?” 

 Something felt wrong to Lee. He couldn’t put his finger on it but something about all of this felt off. It was enough to completely wash away his anger. “You’ll be alright then? You’ll come and find me?” Even if he’d been angry at Ada, it was hard to go through a month of this with someone and not become their friend. “You won’t get hurt?” 

 Without hesitation, Ada smiled and lied to his face. “Of course I’ll be alright. Don’t worry.”

 There wasn’t enough buckshot, and she was sending him off with everything else in her arsenal. 

 It was impossible to explain to Lee why she’d failed so many times, an impossible thing to explain to anyone who hadn’t been a mother. But Ada had followed everyone before she’d gone on probation from birth to death, and they’d all become her children in her eyes. Perhaps this made her a bad mother, but as the world around them quickly changed she’d had trouble keeping up with what was safe for them and what was dangerous.

 All she’d ever done was try to guide them to make the right decisions, and she’d seemed to fail at that. 

 Things had gone better since she’d gone on probation, but right now Lee was a scared kid, someone who needed comfort and to be protected. Just like her son had been two centuries ago.

 “Now go on Lee to the garage and get in the car. Open the door, the salt line that’s down will still keep them out until you drive over it. When you hear me shoot, drive out and get as far away as you can, okay? Just keep driving.” 

 “Ada…” 

 “Go, now.” Her voice sounded a great deal like Lee’s mother when she’d decided on something and Lee no longer had a choice in the matter. He stared at her for a moment before nodding and walking to the garage. 

 Ada waited until she heard the car start up and the garage door open. She felt cold. Her hands were trembling. However, she’d died before, and while this time there was no promise of an afterlife, Ada allowed an overwhelming sense of peace to wash over her. She had failed plenty of times in her many years. This time though, she would succeed. 

 With that thought in mind, Ada swung open the door to the cabin, kicked a hole in the line of salt and fired a shot straight into the chest of one of the spirits in front of her. 

 Before the mob descended she could see Lee drive off into the distance. 

 Yes, she’d done her job this time.

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[spotcovered-blog]

Supernatural Beasts- Prologue

Originally posted on the Descendants Amino, (Get it and follow me at Carlos Oscar De Vil)

Warnings: There will be mentions of blood, but because of Descendants Amino guidelines I can’t go as cruel as I wish. These are personal headcannons and/or cannon mentions from the books. If you aren’t okay with anything in these stories, please don’t read them.

Once upon a time, there was a land of fairytales and magical creatures and hope but this land was filled with villains who were rotten to the core. These villains would stop at nothing to ruin the happiness of those goody-two-shoe Princesses and their perfect-smile Princes. For a long while, these cruel beasts were free to roam and be as wicked as they pleased. That is until a shapeshifter had decided enough was enough. This shapeshifter shifted his body into the largest creature he could, a kingly golden dragon, and snatched up the villains one by one with his gigantic talons before depositing them off on a cursed Island. The villains were transfered quickly and before they could use their own powers to escape the most powerful magic wielder in the land had sealed them on that Isle with a dome. This dome would stand for years to come, keeping all magic and Internet signal off that cursed land. The people of the magical land rejoiced and decided this shapeshifter should manage their terrain and it was then the shapeshifter had been made King. He had declared his new kingdom the United States of Auradon and forbid the act of evil; his name was Adam Beast, but this was only the beginning of our story.

                                        ~~~(The Isle of the Lost)~~~ 12 Years Later The Isle of the Lost was a disgusting decrepit land filled with the beasts that were rumored to hide under the bed. Each home and building was either built half-heartedly with wobbly sheet metal or rotting wood, but they managed here. They were predators; survivors- they could make it in this terrible place. Some even preferred it to the posh way the royals lived. Some disagreed. 

Cruella De Vil was human, yet she had managed to be just as cruel as the monsters she was now surrounded by. Cruella used to rule an entire fashion empire, now she was living in the torn down remains of her home; Hell Hall. Her sanity was long gone, and her mad frustrations were taken out on her small son. "Carlos!“ The woman screeched like a banshee, her voice echoing throughout every hall of the old mansion. It took only moments for a boy with white and black hair to scramble out of a room that could only be assumed to be his. 

“Yes mother?” He asked meekly, voice high and chocolatey brown eyes trained firmly on the floor. Carlos appeared to be only six, but in reality he was eight years old. He had always been small. A lot of the Isle’s residents joking that it was because he had been neglected when he was a baby. 

“Go out into town,” Cruella commanded, not even sending a glance his way and waving a gloved hand carelessly towards the general direction of the front door. “Get more food for the pantries.” Her fingers moved to scratched the head of her stuffed dalmatian toy, and she cooed at the dog asking it who was a good boy. 

Carlos left quickly and quietly. He was used to his mother demanding things of him as it was all she ever did, but he hated going into town. He was easy to pick on and the bar was on the way to the Bazaar, and the Gaston twins were always at the bar with their drunken father. He walked down the stone pathways, avoiding the larger cracks that could easily consume one of his feet. 

When the bar came into view Carlos shrunk in on himself and pulled his fur-lined hood over his head to hide his bright hair. He wished his curls were black with white roots instead of the other way around, it would’ve made his life so much easier. Made him harder to find in a crowd. 

He found it best not to dwell on what could’ve been though, so rather than lose himself in thought he shoved his pale freckled hands into the pockets of his dalmatian patterned leather jacket and quickened his pace hoping that for once he wouldn’t be spotted. 

It didn’t take long for his hopes to be shattered. 

Carlos had almost made it past the bar and relief had already been filtering in his brain before a hand grabbed his hood and yanked, tugging it off of his head and slightly choking him as he too was pulled back by the force. “Well, well, well,” The familiar voice of Gaston Junior drawled mockingly. “The runt was trying to hide from us today.“ 

“Is that so?” Carlos had to tense against the instinctive flinch that came with the sound of Gaston the Third’s voice as it joined the conversation. “That’s very rude of you.” It was then Carlos had the courage to glance up at the black haired twins. 

Gaston the Third was smiling down at Carlos almost like he was an old friend while Gaston Junior was clenching his fist at his side, preparing to throw the first punch. 

Carlos’ mind was screamed at him to move, to twist out of the loose grip Gaston Junior on his hood and run like he had never ran before. But he didn’t. He never moved, he always just stayed and waited for the impending beating. He was used to the punches and the rude comments, he was used to being put down because that was just his life. 

Gaston Junior’s face broke into a smile when Carlos did nothing, and without hesitation he pulled his arm back and slammed his fist into Carlos’ stomach reveling in the grunt of pain Carlos couldn’t hold back. He pulled his arm back again, and again, and again until Carlos decided that enough was enough. 

The youngest De Vil could already feel where bruises would form and as both Gastons had their arms pulled back to throw another punch Carlos twisted. Immediately his hood slipped out of the loose grip Gaston Junior had on it and Carlos took the shock on the twins’ faces as an indication now was the time to run. 

For once he did. Carlos ducked under Gaston the Third’s arm and ran, he bolted past a few unsuspecting villains and took a couple shortcuts through sketchy alleyways before he reached his desired destination; the Bazaar. 

He slowed his speed and walked into the busy markets, secretly tucking stolen food items into the many hidden pockets on his jacket. He hoped that Cruella wouldn’t deem the molding breads and bruised fruits too rotten for her taste and send him back out to town, he wouldn’t have time to finish his long list of chores if he did. That’s when his mother would get truly angry at him. 

The entire time Carlos weaved between moving bodies he kept his head down, making eye contact with certain people would lead to more bruises and gashes than was worth it. Carlos found it best to be better safe than sorry. 

It was only mid-day on the Isle, but the weather remained throughout all hours of the day stormy and gray. Most days Carlos was surprised it didn’t rain, when it did he was sent out to the market anyway despite the fact his mother knew he was afraid of thunder. When he would jump at the loud claps of thunder, his mother would remark about how useless he was and send him outside into the rain.

  He was broken from his thoughts when a shoulder rammed into his sending him falling back onto the stone floor. A rough hiss echoed above him and Carlos looked up with startled eyes. 

A blue haired princess stared down at him with glowing red eyes and Carlos subtly recoiled, but upon seeing the scared younger boy the princess sent him a smile that could pass as sympathetic. “Watch where you’re going,” the remark had some bite to it, but there was no malice as she held out a fair skinned hand to help him up. 

Carlos carefully placed his own gloved hand in hers, uncovered fingers curling around her palm for purchase as she tugged him to unsteady feet. “Sorry.” Carlos murmured, looking away. 

“It’s fine, my name’s Evie.” She introduced, and Carlos was surprised at how kind she was acting. She had to want something from him. He hadn’t seen her at Dragon Hall so he assumed she wouldn’t demand he do her homework but for all he knew she could go to Serpent Prep. 

“Carlos.” He responded suspiciously, he didn’t dare trust her. Trust was torn apart and stomped on on the Isle, there was no trust unless you were in a crew or gang and even then it could be iffy. 

She sent him a smile that revealed shrinking fangs and the glow in her eyes faded away to show beautiful amber orbs, he knew she was a vampire but seeing the fangs was something entirely different. Her smile dropped when she saw a bruise forming on his neck, but instead of asking about it aloud and appearing like she cared she grabbed Carlos’ wrist and pulled him along after her. 

“Hey! What are you doing?” Carlos squeaked in shock, he had been ready to part ways but instead Evie now had a death grip on his wrist and was taking him off into unknown territory.

Evie didn’t respond which only seemed to make Carlos more nervous, but he wouldn’t pry himself from the vampire’s grip. His own strength would be too revealing, and at his age he was already starting to struggle containing the change but mother told him if anyone found out it would be his own pelt she’d be wearing next. 

So rather than fighting Carlos just allowed her to lead him to her preferred destination while he took in the passing surroundings. Some would spare them a glance but otherwise ignore them while others would send Carlos a feral smile showing they firmly believed the De Vil would be Evie’s next meal. Carlos shuddered and averted his gaze.

A few more minutes of tugging and soft protests Evie lead him up a guarded fire escape covered in wire fences; no one was getting in unless she wanted them too. Carlos was lost in the mechanics of the rising door, figuring it out within seconds and spotting errors that could send her whole hideout crumbling. He didn’t have time to tell her before she was dragging him up the stairs. 

The stairs lead to a huge loft, covered in paintings and stolen items and loose fabric. There was a worn down couch and matching ripped pillows and three customized beds. One was covered in purple blankets of all shades with dark green pillows to complete the poisonous look, painted skillfully with spray above it across half the wall was a girl who looked eerily familiar but Carlos didn’t get out enough to truly give the face a name. Next to that bed was one just like it in structure but with dark blue blankets strewn about in a fashionable manor with red accents that matched the pillows hand-stitched on carefully, a portrait of Evie taking up the half of the wall above the head board. Across the room there was a lone bed with the portrait of a guy with long hair instead, his bed was surrounded by shiny stolen goods and his blankets were colored with different shades of yellow and orange and the pillows were colored a dusty purple. 

Carlos observed his surroundings in awe, this had to be the most put-together place on the Isle. It wasn’t a rotting disaster, rather a homey environment that was filled with a protective energy that made Carlos a little nervous. He was so lost in what felt like a new world that he didn’t notice when the two others from the paintings appeared in a doorway he hadn’t seen. 

“Who is that?” The purple-haired girl hissed, glaring daggers at Carlos as her eyes flared a threatening acid green that illuminated the soft features of her face. Evie sent the terrifying girl a preppy smile, “This is Carlos.” She introduced the young De Vil, using the grip she had on his wrist to make him wave his hand. 

“Carlos,” The purple-haired child drawled, as if trying the sound of the name on her tongue. She hummed curiously  stepping down the few stairs and approaching the two with a powerful stride, the long-haired boy right on her heels with a threatening scowl of his own set on his face. “And who, may I ask, are your parents?” It wasn’t a real question, oh no, it was a demand.

Carlos shrunk back, getting as far from the purple-haired mistress as possible, “Cruella.” He answered softly, his eyes keeping contact with her’s despite how much he wanted to look away. He knew deep down she would strike if his eyes trailed down to the floor. 

“Mal,” Evie warned, finally revealing the purple-haired girl’s name, but Mal wasn’t listening. Instead she scoffed and her pupils grew reptilian, turning to slits. “Cruella has no offspring,” Mal growled, and Carlos felt confusion in his mind. Had his mother kept him a secret? That couldn’t be possible, the Gaston twins knew who his mother was. 

Mal must’ve seen his bewilderment, because her eyes returned to their more human shape and flickered back to their normal dull jade. “Cruella has been hiding a son.” A wicked smile crossed her features and she turned back to the long-haired boy. “Mother will love this." 

"Mother?” Carlos muttered questioningly before he could stop himself. He was naturally curious, and his mind was already scrolling through possible parental matches for Mal until he settled on one that he knew was the answer and his already light complexion paled considerably. “Maleficent is your mother?" 

This time it appeared it was Mal, Evie and what’s-his-name’s who were confused. They looked at him for a moment, trying to figure something out within their own minds while Carlos wondered what it was he said that upset them. 

"Did you not know that?” The long-haired boy asked and Carlos immediately shook his head in response. He’d seen all of them around town once or twice, it’s how he had known all of the possessions on the other boy’s bed had been stolen, but he had never learned the names of anyone. He went to the market and returned home to do chores, at the moment he was even castle-schooled. "How did you not know that?“ Once again it wasn’t a question but a demand. 

"Mother doesn’t want me outside, too many people. To big a chance I’ll run away.” He responded quietly, subtly tucking himself behind Evie. They wouldn’t strike one of their own…would they? 

Mal scowled and Evie took a step in front of him, Carlos refused to believe it was because she saw he was scared. This was the Isle and he wasn’t part of her gang, she wouldn’t care. 

For a long moment Mal scanned him up and down, sizing him up and trying to find good qualities in him. Carlos didn’t understand why but he didn’t dare object. “What can you do?” She asked finally, this time it was a question. He didn’t have to respond. 

He kept his mouth shut for a long while, but as the minutes ticked by the three waited for an answer. “I’m..I’m good with tech.” He informed them, finally breaking eye contact with Mal now that he knew she wouldn’t pounce with Evie in front of him. “Your door, it needs a tune up. It’s breaking down and you need more parts to complete the system.” He said referring the the lifting gate that lead to the fire escape entrance. 

The long-haired boy crossed him arms, and Carlos noticed fearfully how the muscles in his biceps flexed. Evie sent him a glare, which of course in the end didn’t fix anything. 

“How old are you?” The question was expected, he looked a few years younger than he should. Carlos had honestly been waiting for the inquiry. 

“Eight.” The answer was as easy at it got on the Isle. Mal’s expression turned to one of focus as she muttered that he was two years younger than the rest of them. Carlos cataloged the information subconsciously. 

Mal nodded in acceptance before she asked a question that had his stomach churning and his heart racing. “So what are you?” He wasn’t allowed to say, it was one of the real reasons Cruella had him at home constantly. She would only care her servant was gone if he ran away, but if anyone found out about her late night events… she’d kill him.

“Nothing,” The answer was too quick, too panicked. He could see none of them believed him for even a second. 

Mal eye’s flashed that terrifying poisonous harlequin green again and this time Evie’s own amber orbs turned a rich scarlet. Mal turned to the long-haired boy and finally gave Carlos a name to label the features with; “Jay." 

Jay stalked forward and when Carlos tried to pull back Evie’s grip on his wrist tightened painfully, keeping him in place. The De Vil looked up with dark fearful eyes as Jay’s coffee colored irised morphed into the color of fire, his pupils shrinking to slits and as he opened his mouth a thin forked tongue slipped out. 

Fear bubbled up in Carlos’ chest and the iron grip his mother had on his mind felt like nothing compared to the danger Carlos’ instincts screamed at him was approaching. Mal’s glare was deadly, Evie’s sneer though beautiful was threatening and Jay’s- lord Jay’s-  stare made him feel as if his body had burst into flames. Without thinking Carlos’ own irises filled with liquid light, turning to a bright stark, luminescent white. His canines grew sharper, showing off a set of fatal fangs as his lips pulled back in a low, chest-rumbling snarl that resonated in the room. 

In an instant the other’s features returned to human, leaving Carlos the only one showing his supernatural heritage. 

Mal couldn’t help the harsh laugh that left her throat, "Cruella has a mutt.” She pointed out the irony, gaining cruel smirks from the others at well. They were all unaware of the panic settling deep in Carlos’ bones. He had been so good at keeping it hidden, he had even hidden the sudden change in his eye color from the Gastons earlier that day. What had he done now? 

Evie turned to look at Carlos and her smile faded instantly when she saw Carlos’ breath coming in quick pants, fangs glinting in the stormy white light streaming in the cracked windows. She tilted her head in barley contained concern, “Carlos?” her soft voice had gotten the attention of her friends but Carlos was too deep into the rabbit hole of his mind to hear any of them now. 

What was he supposed to tell his mother? Was he supposed to hide it until Mal told her mother about him and Maleficent showed up at Hell Hall to inform Cruella she knew all about her hidden runt? The uncertainty only sent him spiraling further down into his growing anxieties, that is until his body jerked back and forth and his blurred vision cleared to show Evie shaking him. Her lips painted red as blood were moving slowly but he couldn’t read them, all he saw was unintelligible vowels until muffled noise broke through the barrier his ears had seemed to put up all on their own. 

“Carlos?” It was so quiet, it sounded like he was underwater. “Focus on my voice and tell me what’s wrong?” Carlos honestly couldn’t tell if she was trying to use compulsion or not, but she had just about as much practice with her powers as he did with his own so either way nothing worked. “Carlos!” Her scream had shattered him from his stupor and he gasped as his mind was yanked back into the present. 

He trembled as Mal and Jay’s voices joined the onslaught of noise on his ears, asking what the hell was wrong with him. “What am I going to tell mother?” It was more him speaking his thoughts aloud then an answer, but either way they knew what had him stumbling out of control. 

“Nothing, no one is gonna tell anyone anything.” Mal said sternly, sending a withering look to both Evie and Jay as they nodded. She turned back to Carlos and placed a hand in his fluffy white hair making him jump, “Welcome to the crew.” He eyes were flecked with bits of that powerful green, but Carlos saw that this time it wasn’t threatening but instead protective. Now he was part of the crew, and he knew he had nothing to worry about.

#supernatural beasts #carlos #carlos de vil #descendants #mal #evie queen #evie #evie descendants #jay #jay descendants #mal descendants #isle of the lost

[lets-develop-stuff]

The Hole

Moments ago, there were screaming lights, pens scratching on rough paper, photographers sauntering, and the snapping of latex gloves that doubled as a sickening air-freshener. The white dust was dancing around the room but now it’s dead. The room is motionless except for my hands, which can’t even stay still long enough to hold my glass of water. The silence is broken when she walks in. Her keys rattling in the lock for a second sounds so familiar but I don’t get up to let her in, nothing else will be the same anymore. “Hi, honey,” she chirps as she drops her keys on the side table, “how was your day?” She doesn’t wait for an answer before I hear the click of her heals on our newly tiled kitchen floor. God, she begged for that renovation, said they were easier to clean and what not, and with the baby she didn’t want any dirty accidents. I stay seated and say nothing. She can’t even sense my worry. . I’m going to have to do a lot of talking pretty soon and there just isn’t anyway to lead up to it. 

Click, click, click. I hear her head towards the stairs, the banister creeks just a little in a way I’ve never noticed before. “I picked up some chicken for dinner, I was thinking we could get rid of those peas, you know?” 

Click, click, click. “Hey did you manage to call Cheryl back? You can make up any excuse; I just know that if I talk to her we’ll all end up going. I mean, we have a six- month-old for Christ’s sake, what does she think we can bring him to a five-star restaurant and expect him to stay quiet?” She chuckles. 

Click, click, click. “Uh, honey, where’s Ethan? Did you wake him up early again? You know that means he’s off his sleeping schedule.” She makes her way down the stairs and stops in the doorway. 

“He’s not here anymore, Cathryn.” 

“What do you mean, Cal? Where is he?” 

“Cal, you’re going to bring me to tears, where is he?”

“Cal?” 

“Where did they take him?” she whispered. 

“What?” I reply, slightly taken aback. 

“Oh god, Cal! I should have checked! I thought I heard something last night, remember? Call the damn police!” 

“Honey, there’s nothing they can do. It’s just us now.” I’ve already signed all the dotted lines. They took my statement, and told me they’d contact Cathryn at a later time. He told me not to worry, that accidents happen and it looked like a pretty open-close case. 

“You can’t make this a personal job, ya know? It’d drive you crazy. Speaking of personal, with cases like these we don’t offer any statements or anything, okay?” 

I nodded.  

“We try to protect your privacy and all, the only people we speak to are you and your wife, sir, so I strongly suggest you keep this hush hush or one of you’s gonna break down.” He made it sound simple and it was almost comforting. Almost. 

“Fuckin’ right it’s just us! Come on, Cal, we’re leaving NOW.” 

She doesn’t understand, I think, it just gets harder. I reach out for her hand but she swings aside and I catch her arm instead. She looks back at me. Her eyes still glossy, her cheeks flushed and little beads of sweat are dancing in her hairline. She feels weak in my hand, as if I squeezed any harder she just might break. I pause for a moment. I need to tell her she’s wrong. I need to tell her he’s gone. Our baby, Ethan, can’t be found. I need to tell her there was no sound last night, not even the breath from our bundle of joy, but I can’t. “I’m getting you a coat, Cathryn, I’ll meet you outside.” 

The next morning I lay in bed awake, like I had all night. I felt like a performer, stripped of his passion. I’m still breathing, but it’s all a show, I’m not really alive. Not on the inside. There are always complaints about their efficiency but I’m sure the police have called Cathryn by now. I shut my eyes for a second. Brace yourself, I think. The door slammed shut: she’s back. 

“Still nothing,” she unraveled her scarf and tossed it on the bed, “I searched the street, there’s no tire tracks on our driveway either.” 

She slumped down beside me. I blinked twice. Jesus, they are slow. “Get some rest, Cathryn.” 

“I can’t just rest when he’s not here, Cal!” 

“Well your exhausted self won’t find shit. I’ll look for a while,” I turned to see her already asleep. I don’t go looking of course, I know exactly where he is. I should really leave the house anyway but I’m too tired. I thought waiting would give me time to find the words but now I’m even weaker than before, I still can’t tell her. I haul myself out of bed and wobble all the way down the stairs. I made it to the living room. I clicked on the morning news. I felt my eyelids get heavy and I stopped listening. It was hours before my gaze left that screen but I can’t for the life of me remember anything that was said. 

That night I got Cathryn’s coat and we searched the closest park, the next: a further one, after that every night was the same. I would get Cathryn’s coat and drive around the city until she asked me to pull over. We’d carry flashlights down alleys and spend the next day with black bags under our eyes. When it was my shift to look I’d wait to hear the deep inhale of Cathryn’s sleep driven breathing. Then I’d open the door she never did and sit in the rocking chair next to Ethan’s russet crib. Back and forth, I’d rock, back and forth. It was days before I did anything else in there, but I needed more. Being in there just wasn’t quite satisfying anymore, so I went into his crib and unfolded his soft blue blanket right into my nose. The very second those indulgent fibres hit my skin sweet baby smell rushed into my lungs and filled my entire body. I breathed deeper and deeper until I hit the climax of bliss. I exhale every last bit of breath I have to make room for the only thing I have to feel but the blanket unravels in my hand and I hear the innocent tinkle of ordnance hit the floor. Bliss flees my body faster than it rushed in. I kneel down and pinch a diamond between my finger and thumb; it’s sharp edges indenting my skin. This was half of a pair of simple delicate earrings that I bought my wife when we found out she was expecting. They were the pair she wore just a few weeks ago when her parents took us out for dinner to celebrate her birthday. They were the pair she wore when she kissed baby Ethan goodnight that evening. They were the pair she forgot to think about that night when one went missing. It was that earring that soothed Ethan to sleep as he clenched it in his tiny fist, and it was that earring that ended up blocking his airway until they removed it from his esophagus. This is the earring I’ve been worried Cathryn would go looking for, only to realize the truth. I held my breath to stop the vomit from making its way out. I trooped to the front door, yanked on my jacket, slipped the breathtaking diamond into my pocket and walked down our quiet street, until I hit the noise of the city. 

“Cathryn, Sweetie, wake up,” my hand brushes a mass of her frail hair from her face to the pillow, “I need to talk to you, Cathryn.” 

“What, Cal?”  

“I think I found something, let me get your coat.” 

It was during my shift one morning that I asked a pimply teenage boy wearing an oversized customer service shirt outside a gas station if he’d seen any suspicious activity in the area. I gave him a quick description of Ethan. My speech came out clear and fluidly. I’d delivered it to almost everyone in the area and my confidence usually warranted dedicated attention. But this kid, he just looked at me and pulled out a cigarette. 

“I’m on my break, man.” 

“This isn’t exactly a transaction, kid. My son is missing.” Just a glance and the flick of his lighter. 

“How old are you?” I asked.
He inhaled.
“Don’t you know how bad smoking is for you? Why even start habits like that?” 

He ignored me. Some people live in denial. Everyone chooses what they want to believe in. 

“There was a guy, a little while back. Looked kind of... I dunno, sketchy,” he mumbled. After hours of following a loose description, Cathryn and I stopped to regroup. 

“How do you even know he’s not just being an irritating little teenager getting a kick out of us for following his bullshit lead, Cal? This is ridiculous, we’ve been looking for hours.” 

“You’re giving up?” 

“Shouldn’t we? It’s been almost a year, Cal. We wouldn’t even recognize him if we did find him.” 

“You can give up, Cathryn, not me,” I spat, “he’s out there. I know you can feel it, and giving up is not the parent I ever wanted to be.” I turned my back and waited for Cathryn to follow but I heard her start the car instead. She’s going home. At some point she’d lost her will to find our son. One day she was wildly convinced we would find him and the next she was angry, or hurt, or tired, or whatever. Now she was idling in the car, waiting for me to jump in beside her as if she already knew I would, like I was playing some sick game and she already knew my next move. Even the wind was cold against my face, making it hard to walk forward and leaving my skin red as if just smacked. For a moment I thought of doing just that, whirling around to climb into the passenger seat, turning my back against the biting wind. I tightened my jacket closer to my neck and pushed my hands deep into my pockets. I felt a sharp edge, the curve of a cut diamond. My chest stiffened. My fingers dropped the earring back into its place, but my eyes caught a glimpse of shine as it fell to my feet. I shoved my hand deeper into my pocket, and my pinky finger slid right through the bottom seam. There’s a hole in my pocket. I looked back at Cathryn, still idling with the window drawn looking exhausted.

 “Cathryn, I’m just not ready to stop looking.” 

She exhaled, and her fists tightened on the wheel. She turned and looked at me like a mother about to tell her child that no matter how many times he asks, he’s not getting that toy. Instead her gaze shifted to my feet. Shit, the earring. I stepped on it in hopes that she couldn’t remember, but of course she would. Brace yourself. She winced and one by one she released her fingers from her grip on the wheel. 

“You’re right, Cal. We’re here for each other and it’s just us now.”
“We have a better chance of finding him together. But I need a new coat.”

[fearlessrelic]

❈ ∫#DontHoldTheSalt ∫ ❈

[[I had been through a lot of weird and unexplainable things in my life that bordered along the realm of crazy. Things that most people wouldn’t believe or would politely smile at while labeling me crazy even though it was nothing but the cold hard truth — yet, here I was, sitting in the backseat with two hunters, who weren’t just your regular top-of-the-line deer hunting fanatics that collected their prize and mounted them on the wall. At this point, that option might have been safer, but of course nothing ever was normal for me, not even in the same area code as normal hunting. They were two hunters who had hunted the supernatural — there was no punch line. It had been a few months since fates had aligned and by that I meant that I had finally decided to stop acting as a curse to the people in my life and give them their best shot, and I knew that could happen only in one way and that was without me in the picture. Of course, things never went as planned and family wouldn’t be family if they never tracked you down and stuck to you like glue so it was more of a compromised situation of back and forth; trying to live a somewhat normal life in Mystic Falls and trying to help save people (it was the least I could do after everything that had happened because of me… the people who had died for me, because of me.) Apart of the reason was also because I knew that my family had meddled in this line of work, hunting vampires and if I could carry any piece of them with me, I would.

Even if it meant playing dress up and I realized that this line of work had more costume changes than I would have expected. We had come here the day before, dressed up as FBI agents, to get a proper look at this house after I had seen the article in the newspaper when I had gone out for a coffee and bagel run for the three of us yesterday morning, handing it to Sam as soon as I had gotten back to the motel room with a “Hey, Sam, so get this….” and a cheeky grin on my part. The headline reading: “Man and woman found dead in house” which was wasn’t exactly eye-catching (the immunization had grown strong) but it was the details of the story that we found sketchy (And the fact that the man and woman were found dead in bed…. by his wife. Scandalous.) and that this wasn’t the first time this had happened, that was the red flag. With a little research, we had found that this had been a reoccurring trail – with “mysterious” deaths happening in that house and spanning the past forty seven years starting in 79’, when a woman found both her husband and his mistress in a whirlwind affair — with them in bed together. In panic, he killed his wife so he could be with the other woman. The string of stories all followed a similar narrative: A young recently married couple moves in, everything is happy for the first couple of months… until it isn’t. Suddenly the wife starts accusing the husband of infidelity and sooner or later the husband ends up realizing that hell really hath no fury like a woman scorned. That fury ending up in both his death and the woman. Sounded like our kinda’ work, in fact, I had been pretty proud of myself when I found the case just outside of where we were at the moment in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was the little victories and I was still getting the whole hang of this “hunting” thing (clearly not fast enough, according to Dean, but I hadn’t died yet … so that was a plus.) We had already been placing a bet on it being some ghostly activity after the EMF meter went haywire and how his grieving wife told us that she had felt the temperature drop moments before she found her husband and the other woman in bed. Only the other woman that had been in bed with him had been the one to kill him (and then herself) before the wife saw something “leaving the woman’s body”. The original victim had been punishing anyone who dared crossing over the lines of infidelity. This had just driven the point home — with a vengeful home run. We had learned that the original woman, Tabitha Fields, had been cremated (of course, why make things easy?) Still, this situation was definitely up there in terms of weird. But it could be worse, so there was that. Which was also why I was sitting in the back seat right now, outside of the house, getting ready to make a (hopefully quiet) home invasion. There was something clearly tying Tabitha to this house (other than the horrid memory of her cheating, murderous husband) and we had to find whatever it was and burn its remains. All while sneaking into someone’s house. No biggie.

I never wanted to be an inconvenience to the brothers or just be someone they had to look out for to make sure that I didn’t wind up being ghost chow, so I had made sure they knew that I was serious about this hunting thing. Even took them to the lake house to show them my parents hunting weapons that were hidden behind the hollow wall and introduced them to Alaric who had played a huge hand in creating what Damon liked to call a “Buffy” version of me. I wasn’t exactly Buffy material but I could take on a vampire and still live to tell the tale so that was something in my books. Apparently not in Dean’s.

"Really? You used a friggin’ pencil to kill a vampire, ‘Lena? Did you want to die?“

I sighed. "A stake. I used a stake."

He was looking at me as if he were speaking to a child who couldn’t grasp a concept that he knew well. "Stake, pencil, might as well be the same damn thing. It is. Do you understand how dangerous it is to get that close to a vampire? You’d be vamp-chowder in three seconds flat."

Sam had been a bit on the softer side, polite suggestion in his voice after a glare at Dean, "Next time we take out a nest, we’ll show you how to behead them. No stakes required."

After that, Dean had taken it upon himself to be my self-proclaimed teacher in "the art of killing all evil sons of bitches.” His methods were…. I mean, he wasn’t Alaric, and by that I meant that his patience was null and maybe it was just me, but the correlation to finishing a lesson and him drinking right afterwards was really high. But then again – that was Dean. He didn’t like it when I interjected with a “but that was how Alaric taught me” but worse was when I used Damon’s name. That was when I saw that hinge to his jaw tighten and him going very still. I wasn’t sure exactly why but I think it had something to do with the fact that I was holding a vampire’s opinions and skill over his. It wasn’t all bad — I had learned a lot from him and Sam and even though there was a surplus amount of lore that had my head spinning with all the information, I think I’d be able to pass a monster knowledge test if it came down to it. I had also seen enough (and been in) enough of the action to know what it came down to. Sadly, I had made this boast to Dean after he saw the article and he turned it around into a test. “Let’s see if the past few training lessons did you any good."

"But I’ve never dealt with a vengeful spirit before."

"You will now, so buckle up, kiddo. They are a bitch to deal with. ” And then there was that grin – he either wanted to see me fail so he could tell me I needed more practice or he actually thought that I could do it without getting anyone killed.

"Don’t worry, we’ll all be there together.“ This is why I was grateful to have Sam around — always with the reassurance.

Dean clearly had a different idea. "Hey Elena, what do use if the spirit comes too close?"

"Anything made of copper.” Forcing a completely serious mask that erased completely as I saw his face contort with an expression that read: “You have to be kidding me” so I decided to stop humoring him and say matter of factly, “Anything made of iron. But if I have enough distance then….” patting my pocket to where I had my gun, “… the rock salt will do."

My smile was smug, getting out of car and I heard Sam chuckle, one that was quickly cut by Dean, clearly gruff, "Good, at least you got that down” but I saw that little smile. I did. “Now if—"

Dean didn’t get too far in his explanation, a shrill scream piercing through the air and suddenly we were all running towards the direction of the house to where we heard it, the boys wasting no time in breaking the door with a kick. I had my gun out, safety off, alert and scanning the area for any sign of ghostly presence, Dean already way ahead and going up the stairs to search for the wife, Jane. I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I mean, I knew we weren’t dealing with Casper the Friendly Ghost but I also hoped that I wasn’t going to end up with nightmares. That was when I saw it…. her. Sam fired without hesitation and she dispersed into thin air but I knew it wouldn’t last.

"That was… something."

There was a small chuckle from Sam. "Yeah, tell me about it. It won’t hold her down for long."

That was when Dean came down with a very trembling Jane, who looked like she had seen a ghost. I mean, she had.

"Look, we don’t have time to explain but you’re being haunted by a ghost who is pissed that her husband was getting action elsewhere so just try not to freak out and stay with us.” Ah Dean, always the comforter.

I smiled reassuringly at the girl, hoping I didn’t come off as anxious as I felt and that was when I saw [her] behind Jane, hand drawing up and with a quick “Get down, now!” I shot at the ghost.

“Salt! Get the sa—” Sam cut off as he suddenly got flung back against the wall.

Damn it.

I dashed into the kitchen, scrambling to find the salt in the cupboards, finally finding two boxes behind way too many seasonings and running back to find Dean toppled over on top of Sam. Heart racing, adrenaline haywire, I fired again, Jane yelping in fear as the spirit had gotten a bit too close for comfort before dispersing into air.

" 'Lena, get her in a circle now! “

I grabbed the trembling woman’s hand, voice soft but urgent "I’m going to need you to stay right in this circle, okay? If you stay here, she won’t be able to hurt you.” After a wobbly lip she barely managed to get out a yes but she did and I had already begun shaking out the salt around her until I felt something hit my legs with such painful force, sending me flinging across a table, along with the salt.

Shit. I heard them calling my name.

"I’m okay.“ I assured them. Nothing was broken.

Casper really did not want to be friendly today. I heard some shots being fired off one after the other, pushing myself back up to see Dean and Sam circling around Jane in protection.

"What the hell do you think that she is tied to?” Dean asked, gun at the ready.

"Well - it has to be something… something to with the reason of death. The affair.“ Sam’s eyes were everywhere, scanning the entire room.

I grabbed the box of salt that was strewn on the floor, hoping it was enough to finish the circle I was making.

"That’s a freaking oval, Elena! Seriously?” Leave it Dean to not be able to stop nitpicking something about what I was doing in the middle of a battle match.

“How on earth does this look like an oval to you? It’s clearly a circle.” “Elena, do we need to go over our shape—"

"Uh, guys, can you argue over shapes later. Sorta in the middle of something right now.” Sam coming in with the white flag, looking at the ring of salt. “That’s fine."

I made a face at Dean, hearing a grunt and inaudible string of words in response and that was when the lights around us started to flicker…

"It sucks that your husband cheated on you and killed but you do you have to be such a bitch?”–

I turned to give Dean the “really” look.

…flicker until all the lamps around us exploded, causing us to crouch and shield ourselves from the glass fragments. It was in the midst of this that I caught eye of the bracelet that Jane was wearing. A delicate cuff with a heart charm dangling from it. It looked so familiar…. so… and then a light went off, this time, without any sharp pieces and in my head.

"That’s a nice bracelet. Where did you get it from?“

She looked confused. "What?"

And there Tabitha was again, looking as menacing as ever and charging towards us.

"Your bracelet. Where did you get it?"

She looked at me like I was crazy. "When Brad and I were unboxing out stuff, we found it in the attic and I thought it was pre—”

I cut her off. “I think it’s what’s tying her to this place. Quick!” There was clear panic in my voice now.

The girl quickly complied with fumbling fingers, Dean threw me a lighter as Sam aimed at Tabitha a moment too late as she changed course to fly over their heads and send whatever centerpieces that were in the foyer flying towards him and Dean before pining them against the wall. Igniting the flame, I burned the bracelet and hoped to the powers that be that my hunch was correct and not just a hunch. Otherwise, we were screwed. The moment the bracelet started to burn into nothing, there was a piercing scream from the ghost of Tabitha who also erupted into flames before turning into dust, with her removal, bringing Sam and Dean to the floor.

"You did it!“ a breathy Dean exclaimed and I heard a hint of proudness in his words, and it made me feel good.

"How’d you figure out that it was the bracelet?” Sam pushed himself up before giving Dean a hand.

We were all dusting ourselves off now, and I was still completely reeling from this clear adrenaline rush.

“I saw Tabitha wearing it from the pictures on the news articles online and I just took a guess. Her husband was the one who had probably given it to her for a special occasion. So it would’ve acted like a symbol of what they had…. or so I hoped."

"Clearly it was a good shot to take.” Sam smiled down at me and I couldn’t help but smile back.

We made sure Jane was alright, calming her down a little and going over the aftermath basics so she didn’t go into shock and within fifteen minutes we were out of there, heading towards the car as Dean spoke.

"You know, if only Tabitha decided to join in with her husband and the other chick, none of this woulda’ happened and everyone could be happy. Three is a party that ain’t dead.“

Sam raised his brow as if to go "Really, dude?” and I verbalized it with a clear look of distaste and a “You’re so gross and such a pig."

I heard Dean laugh under his breath as I wrinkled my nose at the thought, getting into the car and slumping back against the seat, it finally sinking in that I had taken out that spirit in the spur of the moment and I hadn’t gotten completely scared or forgotten what to do. I finished a case and my smile was all too wide, all too ready to throw in a "I told you so” in Dean’s direction.

“Hey, Dean, so did I pass the test?"

Brown eyes met his through the rearview mirror, and for some reason, I felt myself go warm but he said nothing to me as he turned onto a different road that would lead us to the highway. He didn’t have to say anything either — I saw the way his mouth curved up with my question, twitching into a smile that was smug and entirely knowing as he stared ahead at the road.

In that, I had my answer.

Settling back more comfortably into the seat because I knew it would be awhile until we stopped, mirroring his smug smile and closing my eyes.

Today had been about more than just me finally taking on a case than just the research portion of it all. It had been to prove a point — not only to him, but myself. I was here to stay.]] ❈ ∫#DontHoldTheSalt ∫ ❈

#∫ World inside of her head ;; ∫ (ꜰᴇᴀʀʟᴇꜱꜱ ᴅʀᴀʙʙʟᴇꜱ) #FearlessDrabbles #✦ ╼ Saviour ( ᵒᶠ ᵗʰᵉ ᵇʳᵒᵏᵉⁿ ᵃⁿᵈ ᵈᵃᵐⁿᵉᵈ)