#my mom didn’t realize that and she was mad that she didn’t realize the doctors didn’t try using a different medication aksjdjdj

[cometkenji]

Doctor, Doctor, please listen!

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Chubby!Fem!reader Cw; Tension (I tried), cursing, the smallest physical description of reader in the last portion (just mentions their stomach going over their pants), reader has scars from previous cases, rivals to lovers?, lmk if i'm missing smth Summary: 3 times you called him doctor, 3 times he wonders why. Disclaimer: Reader is always written with a chubby/bigger person in mind but I don't really ever describe their bodies that much cause it's x READER and every body has a different body <3 WC: 3,596 I am literally so obsessed with criminal minds somebody save my soul OBLIVOUS IDIOTS WHO WANT EACH OTHER MY BELOVED. Title from mad hatter by Melanie Martinez don't even @ me for that

1.

“...she will be an important part of making your team function quicker. We fought hard to get her here. I ask that you all treat her with respect and not make me intervene.” 

Strauss finished her introductory spiel with a familiar “mom-glare” towards the team, walking away once she finished her speech. Unfortunately, her departure left you standing alone in front of the most intimidating man you’ve ever seen and four of his team members. You had been practically still until now. You hated the pressure of everyone’s eyes on you, causing a general freeze response to the stress of a new team. Fawn, you thought, the newest addition to the fight or flight categories and also the lovely thing forcing you to practically disassociate in front of your new boss and co-workers. 

“Welcome, Dr. L/N. We’ve heard good things. I’m Aaron Hotchner, I supervise the team.” He was leaning on the table before he stepped forward to shake your hand as he spoke. “This is Emily Prentiss, Jenifer Jareau, Derek Morgan, and Doctor Spencer Reid.” He pointed towards the corresponding people as he spoke of them. “Agent Rossi is away right now, and you’ll meet our T.I. later…she’s been excited.” If you hadn’t been good at your job, you’re sure you would have missed the way his lips turned up slightly at the edges when mentioning the woman. He didn’t seem so scary anymore, more like a father of the team. You’d been expecting a drill sergeant - your last team leader could have given a bull a run for it’s money with how much aggression that guy had. You welcomed the rush of excitement you felt at the discovery, mentally shaking off the stiffness you were carrying. 

“I’m happy to be here, sir. I’ve heard good things about the team, too. Your boss seems to think highly of your capabilities.” You addressed the room as you spoke. Public speaking was a skill you were still trying to master, so you practiced whenever you could. 

Your statement earned a chuckle from the table. Nobody bothered to explain the reason. You figured it was too much history to sum up on the spot. Your eyes wanted to linger on Reid. He seemed so young, and you wondered if he’d been told that his entire career - lord knows you had too. A fellow doctor. You assumed he was a bit of a stickler about the title, as even his boss kept it tacked onto his name when introducing him. You’d originally hoped to find some comfort in the man, on the surface he seemed a lot like you. He was probably too smart for his own good as well. Given the way he was staring at you, though, you felt the realization sink in that the man had no intention of welcoming you. 

“Why exactly do we need another profiler?” His voice held no malice as he spoke in the direction of his boss. There was more curiosity in his voice than anything, however you did pick up on the sense of superiority that sat just beneath the surface of his words. You guessed that’s how he behaved generally - as though he was superior. Still, your head tilted slightly to the side at the question. 

Damn. Tough crowd. 

You saw the intake of breath in Hotchner as he prepared to defend your place here but you spoke before he could start. “While I am a profiler, sir, first and foremost I am a psychiatrist - a doctor. As I’m sure you heard from Strauss, the board is unhappy with your recent efficiency rates and would also like to aid your team in dealing with mental health crises. I’ve spent my entire life studying the effects and conditions of the mentally diseased brain. I’ll be able to tell you the most efficient and effective way of interacting with these individuals, along with more accurately predicting their actions and methodology. I’m an agent, I took the same oath everyone here did but I was brought here for my expertise.” You were on a bit of a tangent, you knew that, but something about the smug feel of the man forced an emergence of competitiveness. He looked at you so indifferent, and you couldn’t help the tiny sparks of anger lighting beneath your skin. You kept a friendly disposition towards the man - you were a professional, after all, not a teenager - but you sensed a rivalry sprouting it’s roots.

The others at the table suppressed their smiles or looked down to hide it. Nobody had ever challenged Spencer like that. They could all feel he was a tad bit territorial. He was the guy people went to when they needed to know something. He was the Doctor of the group. They didn’t think he would take too kindly to another one encroaching his land. They saw the way he was tense, even more so after you responded. It was a riveting sight, though. The lot of them saw Spencer as a younger brother, and him meeting his match was something they were all so excited to see.

“Play nice, pretty boy.” Derek muttered to him, Spencer was slightly slouched in his chair now, not losing sight of you. Derek followed suit, turning his attention towards you. “We’re glad to have you, Doctor. We’ve spoken about an addition like you before, I’m glad to see the higher ups finally listened. I look forward to working with you - excuse me.” He left once his phone rang. 

The others took his exit as an excuse for their own, everyone giving you a warm welcome as they left. You reciprocated happily, telling everyone they could just call you by your first name, never having been one for titles. ‘There’s one difference.’ You thought, even your internal dialogue was bitter. Aside from him, there was a warmth here that you had been desperate to find in your last team. If you had to work passive aggressively with one uptight man in exchange for a team like this - you were going to take that deal. 

He refused to leave it seemed. He just sat looking inquisitively at the table, occasionally extending his stare to look at you before returning. How did you two end up alone in this room?

“Are you gonna have a problem with me, Doctor?” You shifted slightly on your feet. A notoriously nervous sign, one he definitely picked up on.

He stared again. It was his mind that kept him rooted in his seat. You were fucking alluring. He’d never met someone so like himself in his line of work. He was being a dick and he knew it but it seemed to be instinctual - some type of precaution, maybe. He didn’t know why you were being so respectful. Doctor. God, he didn’t know if the title had ever sounded so good being directed at him. His frustration only rose as he thought on the issue more. He wasn’t welcoming, it would be so easy to drop the formality, something he knew you knew would get on his nerves. But you didn’t. It didn’t seem like a question of dignity. You didn’t seem like the type to refuse a little pettiness - he sure wasn’t the type either. A thought stirred, an unsafe one he wanted to squash immediately but one he also couldn’t help but lean into. Did you want a power imbalance?

“No.” He stood abruptly, obviously still focused on the thoughts in his head. “Welcome to the team.” He addressed you one last time and then walked out of the room.

You followed shortly after, ready to make home on your couch and be done with being the newbie for the day. Your stress would follow you home, though, as the last thing you heard before you left the building was “Oh my god they’re perfect for each other.”

2.

The first few weeks were always the hardest. This was something you knew and were prepared for but it did nothing to calm your nerves. You’d been on countless missions having worked this job for a while now, but this was an entirely new dynamic to learn. You were an outsider for the first time in four years and it was scary. This case was shaping up to be a rough one, too. A man was having delusions telling him to kill. An extremely rare manifestation of his Schizophrenia, only elevated by the newly acquired aspect of him being an insomniac. 

Spencer hadn’t ceased being headstrong in cases either. Every time you wanted to help he made it his mission to overcompensate in order to snuff you out. On the contrary, he’d warmed up to you a little. It wasn’t major, he barely held any positive feelings toward you, but barely was better than not at all, so you coped. You two had managed a couple small talk conversations outside the battle of one-upping that you were currently losing. You absolutely hated it, but you liked him. You liked him a lot, actually. You don’t know when in the past few days that anger morphed into fondness but it had shifted hard. The casual dominance he exuded drew you in like a porchlight lures a moth. You doubted the opposite proved true for him, and that stung. You came to enjoy the banter, the competition, even if you were always playing the losing hand. It was the only way to get his undivided attention and the feeling of his eyes on you started to follow you home. 

You thought a lot about how you could get the relationship to pivot into something better. You didn’t want to be the girl he bickered with at work. You didn’t know what it was you wanted but you knew that your current fate sounded horrid. He was an ass, though, and he did not make it easy to admit those feelings. Every time he undermined you, you grew more attached and also more angry at yourself for doing so. It was because he’s so much like you, you thought. You knew from the way he interacted with his team that he wasn’t a cold guy, didn’t hold malice towards people for no reason. He needs time. He needs to know you, and God how badly you wanted to know him. 

You had sustained good relations with everyone the past few weeks you’ve been here. Meeting Garcia and Rossi had been a treat - both of them being delightful company. You’d heard them whispering about you and Spencer when they thought you weren’t around. The whole team seems to think that you’re basically fated to be together. It was unnerving how comforting that thought was to you. You hoped they were right. 

Spencer hoped they were right too. He’d heard the same whispers you had, chastising the team when he got the chance as if he didn’t think about you every moment he could. His eyes seemed to naturally land on you if you were around. He watched you walk around the bureau more and more lately, enjoying the gained confidence in your step as you cemented your place in the team. The sway of your hips or the swing of your arms. You mesmerized him no matter what you did. One time he got so caught up in his thoughts of you that Prentiss had to check he wasn’t having a silent panic attack. He clung to his sense of resentment, tried so hard to remind himself of the feelings he had when he first met you - you were beautiful, of course you were - but you were on claimed land and he was anything but eager for you to make home on it. That had faded fast, seeing how kind you were, scrambling to help and earn respect from everyone. The only reason he kept up the act of  “man who wants you gone” was so that he could keep talking to you. Spencer was a genius but he didn’t know how to handle someone like you. He’d been interested in girls before, hell he’d had girlfriends before but it had never felt like this in such little time. Such intense infatuation was crippling for someone who’s brain worked in patterns - this was new ground for him. 

“Everybody suit up. We have Foster’s location and we need to move quickly. He’s going after the source of his rage and we don’t have time to spare.” Hotch came down the stairs two at a time, spurring the team into action. 

“This man is highly dangerous but also highly deluded. The cases I’ve read similar to this say it’s best to speak gently. He’s sick but he can be reasoned with.” Spencer pulls from his memory as he sets his ‘FBI’ vest into place on his chest. 

“No, not this time. This man is too severe, his mind is too far gone. If these hallucinations of his are strong enough for him to touch them it’ll be extremely easy for him to rearrange or imagine your words differently. You need to be loud, direct, and assertive. Speak as little as possible. The quieter you are, the easier it will be for him to change what you’re saying in his head.” You also spoke while putting your vest on. You didn’t carry a weapon - a personal vow of yours, as you were more than classified to - so there were no holsters to fill. The contradictions between the two doctors of the team made everyone hesitate even though they lacked the time to do so.

Spencer looked at you, slightly out of breath from working so quickly. “You’re questioning my memory?” 

“I’m not questioning your memory, Doctor. I’m questioning your sources. There’s a higher risk level if we do what you’re suggesting. Let me do my job.” You made the final adjustments to your attire as you finished speaking. You returned his eye contact for just a beat too long, letting the others rush out of the building while you stood your ground, the two of you begrudgingly following after them a moment later.

You had been assigned a different car than him for the ride over. ‘Thank God’ was the only thing you could think when you saw him heading to the other SUV. After another confrontation - another public one, at that - you weren’t sure you could handle being pressed leg to leg with him in the backseat. Your words were a looping record in his head as he rode towards Foster. They were about to attempt a hostage negotiation with a man seeing people who weren’t there but all he could think about was that fucking word you refused to drop. 

I’m not questioning your memory, Doctor

You had to be doing this on purpose, he thought. He originally believed this had started because you knew stripping him of his beloved title would cause irritation. Now he suspected you knew how badly he wanted his name in your mouth and this was your way of torturing him. ‘It’s working.’ He thought. God was it working. He agreed with his team, you were perfect for him. You had knowledge to match his, kept him on his toes. One time the start of a ramble slipped through his “I don’t like you” façade and he felt his heart speed up at the genuine interest that roused in your eyes. You wanted to know him and he was an idiot for all the shit he was doing. 

He wasn’t surprised when your strategy worked and Ben Foster was taken into custody. You were the one to talk him down, and if you hadn’t already been accepted to the team, he knew then and there that they needed you. You were flawless. He knew you’d been doing this as long as he had and it showed. He pleaded with himself to stay focused, zeroed in on the weight of the gun in his hand to save face. His mind never left you, though, much like his eyes. This was the expertise you spoke of - no wonder they fought hard to get you here. 

“You were excellent in there.” It was just the two of you now. Even in the dull, flashing police lights, you were breathtaking. “Good job.” He said. Then he walked away because he was on the brink of kissing you and didn’t feel like breaking about 18 workplace rules while at the scene of a crime. You wouldn’t have been complaining if he did.

3.

Every time something like this happened it was difficult to remind yourself that not carrying a weapon was a choice you made willingly. You were currently sitting in the back of an open ambulance, about to be hoisted onto a stretcher and driven to the ER for stitches. You’ve been with the BAU for almost 3 months now and have miraculously managed to avoid injury in that time. This had been one of the easier cases. No chases or clues to follow, just a sick man who left a fairly obvious paper trail. You were the speaker on almost all cases. You were in charge of de-escalating a situation, making sure the bomb didn’t blow. You’ve never carried a weapon, always preferring to take the wounds of a job over using a gun to back up your words. You were a psychiatrist, you wanted to make people better, not vilify them. It worked, usually. People did tend to trust you more when you were unarmed. This time, though, it got you stabbed.

It wasn’t a bad injury, the blood had already stopped and was mildly dry by the time Spencer was joining you. Just one more scar to your collection. It was to the side of your quad, missing any artery by miles and just serving as a pain source at this point. A little numbing and some stitches and you’d be right as rain is what the doctor in the ambulance had said. 

“What happened?” He spoke softly to you. There wasn’t a rivalry between you two, not really. The banter hadn’t stopped, but it changed. It was playful and actually fun now. The both of you weren’t obsessed with outdoing the other anymore. Some casual boastfulness and a budding friendship is where you were at with him currently. 

“I got stabbed.”

“Jesus Christ, Y/N.”

He exhaled like he couldn’t comprehend the stupidity of your answer. You laughed at that. One enjoyable pastime you’d picked up in the past month was trying to bewilder him. The EMT said he needed to check the rest of your body for injury despite your protest of such a procedure. It was typical and you knew that, but you held onto the fear of your own body that middle school gave you. There was a man you liked here, and the thought of him seeing the bit of stomach that hung outside the waistline of your pants scared you more than you thought it would. You forced yourself to be rational in spite of this. It was Spencer, you wanted to be seen by him. 

“Holy shit.”

You chuckled at that. You forgot that maybe a warning was in order for the amount of scars that littered your stomach.

“Probably should have told you about those.” There were dozens. You amassed a countless amount of scars over the course of your job. Stab wounds, bullet grazes, burn marks. Unsubs, as much as you tried to empathize, were often violent at the end of the day and usually lashed out before they could be helped. 

He was staring - well, gazing more like. Not like someone stares at a car accident on the freeway but instead how someone stares at the moon - awe. He was in awe of you. Your strength, your courage, the fact that you went through all these individual events and still chose not to arm yourself. Some of these were in places that could have been fatal, and he thanked whatever entity may be listening that you persevered, begged them to continue that streak. He crashed hard into the desire to touch you, to run his hands over what little of your past he could see. He wondered if you would let him. If you’d fit into his palms the way he thought you would - if that was something you even wanted. The EMT was gone by now, having moved to the passenger seat for the ride to the hospital. 

“Could I - " He hesitated for a moment, this was definitely the wrong question to ask. “Can I touch you?”

Your eyes glazed over slightly. Jesus. You felt your lips part a little.

“You want to?” Genuine surprise. You didn’t think you looked particularly desirable in your current state. He wanted to touch your fucking scars. Who does he think he is?

“Please.” He was looking at you in a way you hadn’t seen before. His eyes were glazed over too. You held his eyes as you nodded. The heat was so stifling that you laughed just a little at the tension.

“Fucking hell, Spence.”

Blood shot to his ears when you said his name. It had been well worth the wait to hear you say it like that - breathy and confused and so fucking pretty that he wondered how he ever lived before you said it. 

“Will you tell me about them?” He was breathy too, but he wouldn’t have you here, not like this. He just needed to feel you. 

“I’ll tell you anything you want, Doc.”

His hands were warm. It wouldn’t be the last time you felt them.

#spencer reid #criminal minds #criminal minds fanfiction #criminal minds fanfic #x reader #x chubby reader #x fat reader #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid x y/n #spencer reid x you #spencer reid fluff #criminal minds x reader #fanfiction #suggestive #spencer reid x chubby reader #spencer reid x fat reader #spencer reid x plus size reader #plus size reader #comet: SR

[ludwigplayingthetrombone]

Finally finished the first part of gai’s 8 gates coma and how kakashi dealt with it rewrite people have been requesting. [tw blood, injury, coma, death discussions, grief]

Kurenai: Kakashi Kks: Ah. Kurenai and...baby, what’s up? Kurenai: You mind if I come in a moment? Kks: Uhhhhh I-

Kks: So what did you need to speak about? Did something happen? K: No, Nothing’s happened. You haven’t gotten to properly see and bond with her yet. Here Kks: You know I’m not fond of kids. K: That’s why I didn’t ask. Hold your arms out. Ok, now, don’t look absolutely petrified.

Kks: She’s ok, I guess [YELP] Oi! Don’t pinch me while I’m holding your baby! K: You wouldn’t drop her. Asuma would haunt you forever! Kks: Terrifying thought, Mirai.... How are you feeling? K: Exhausted. Do you really want to hear how horrifying having a baby is? Kks: No, please don’t tell me.

K: I came over to check on you as well. Any news? Kks: No. He’s still the same. K: Is that why it looks like this in here? Kks: ...Yeah. Doctor said he may never wake up. Since we’re eachother’s medical contacts, Tsunade told me I had to prepare to make hard decisions should it come to that.

Kks: With the council breathing down my neck over a job I don’t want, I had... A bit of an outburst. K: I don’t even blame you. That’s... That they expect you to carry on like normal. Still grieving. The person you love most is gone. But you’re still here. Don’t let them just dust you off and move on again. I’ll always have your back. Kks: You and Asuma always did. Even when I wasn’t grateful for it.

Kks: I can’t tell if they just don’t care or didn’t realize, Gai’s the one who held me together all these years. Only reason I’m still here at all is because of him. I don’t think tenzou, the elders, or the village are prepared for what’ll become of me if I lose him. So, I don’t care anymore. Let them be mad. I won’t give up on him. K: You should talk to him. Kks: huh K: Talk about anything! I’m sure the sound of your voice will help him find his way back. Especially if you sound sad, Kks: uuh

K: I can hear it now, “My eternal rival is sad? Not on my watch!“ Kks: Pretty accurate impression. K: There’s been lots of source material! Kks: Maaa, Your mom’s a huge dork K: Oi! [kakashi chuckles]

K: He’ll be so upset he missed her birth Kks: Oh, devastated. I can’t wait to see the look on Gai’s face, Mirai, when I tell him /I/ held you first! When he wakes up

Kks: Hey, Gai. Kurenai said i should talk to you.

Kks: Feels weird. Most of the people I’m used to talking to like this are all... Dead.

It’s so eerie how silent you’ve been for so long. you’re not even this quiet when you sleep. Your kids come everyday to see you. Naruto and sakura when they can. Lots of others. I’ve been telling them embarrassing  stories from when we were kids since you keep making them wait. Do you remember when I came over while you and Dai were making supper

Dai: Kakashi! Good to see you, my boy! Kks: Id Gai home? Dai: He’s helping with supper! Go on, inside, you’re always welcome! Kks: Ok Dai: Atta boy Kks: Hey, G- !? ummm? Gai: OH!! Rival!! Kks:  Is that a lid?! Gai: Correct!! It stops me from crying while cutting onions! A win for me!!

Kks: Against.... the onions? Gai: Yep! KKs:[snicker] Gai: Laugh all you want! Not everyone can comprehend innovation. Kks: Whatever. You forgot this at the training grounds. I know it’s yours there’s a turtle on it. Gai: See! You’re already tearing up! Kks: Am not Gai: Also, thankyou so much! Kks: Bye, I’m leaving. Gai: Could it be? You’re scared I can cut much faster than you! Kks: I am not scared. Gai: Good, I think we have another lid! Kks: YOU-!

Dai: Great to see growing boys with such a hunger! I’ll never have to prep onions again! Kks: I think about that everytime I chop onions now. You’ve altered my brain with all the ridiculous things you’ve done. Can’t even look at the toys you’ve gotten the dogs without getting emotional

Kks: Just knowing you’re here still, I can barely function. It’s pretty pathetic... Your hair’s getting long. Turning into your dad.

[gai’s heartbeat] Kks: Gai

[gais heartbeat continues]

[gai’s heartbeat continues] Kks: If anything should happen to me, you’ll rush over, right? Gai: Damn right, I will. Dont you worry about that.

[Gai’s heartbeat]

Kks: I miss you

#kakagai #gaikaka #Kakashi Hatake #Maito Gai #might guy #naruto #my art #//coma #//blood #//death mention #Kurenai Yuhi #mirai sarutobi #naruto spoilers #i guess

[noonajoe]

When His Child Wants Him (Dad!Akaashi Keiji x Mom!Reader)

Genre: Lots of fluff! Video-call, Soft Dad Akaashi Keiji

Word Count: 563

©noonajoe (Published on 15 March 2023 - 20:10 Bangkok Time) this story is not going to be sold, modified, or translated in any manner.

*calling Akaashi Keiji*

“Yes, hon, what’s wrong?” Keiji asked.

“Keiji, I'm sorry, did I interrupt your work?” Y/N asked

“It's okay, I’m almost at the break, so what’s emergency, hon?” Keiji asked

Y/N suddenly turn the call into a video call.

Y/N’s face showed up while she’s carrying their son, Kaito. Kaito has a bad fever for 2 days, mostly crying when his dad’s not around.

“Dadda…” he sniffles in his sleepy face and raspy voice.

“Oh baby, are you okay, bud?” Keiji asked worriedly.

“Sorry honey. He’s not stopped crying since you left the house. I already brought him to the doctor and he was fine, but the crying was never-ending until I realize he was calling your name”

“Uh-huhu daddaa!” his face is getting lighter when he saw Keiji’s face move.

“His fever still hasn’t gone?” Keiji asked.

“Yeah, he’s been crying for hours now, and now he didn’t want to eat anything. I’m sorry hon, but could you help me by keeping the video call with him until your break ends?” Y/N asked with a tired face.

“I can help, but are you okay? I can ask my boss to take a half-day,”

“No need, Keiji, this is the second time he’s whining about you. He needs to learn that his dad is working” Y/N put the tab in Kaito’s baby desk so he can see Keiji by himself.

“I guess that is something you must patiently teach a 1-year-old about ‘work’ honey.” he chuckled.

Y/N went to the kitchen with a tired face and didn’t mind what’s Keiji’s last words on the phone. She needs to prepare Kaito’s food.

“Uh! Uh! Dadda Abu-bubu” Kaito babbled around

“Are you happy now, Kaito?” Keiji asked from the screen.

“Dadda dadda mumma!” he's happy when he heard Keiji’s voice.

“Kaito, you shouldn’t be bad to your mom,” Keiji said.

“Ba-ba? Kaito Ba-ba?” he tried to copy Keiji’s words.

“Yes, Dadda will be home early today., but Kaito should be good with Mama until Dadda goes home” 

“Uh-huh Gu-gu” he clapped his hand.

“Okay, Kaito. Now dadda wants you to go mommy there and hug her. Huggie huggie. Remember?” Keiji shows his son hugging himself, indicating Kaito needs to hug his mom.

“Huggie?” Kaito tries to copy his dad’s pose from the screen.

“Yes, mama there” he showed Y/N’s photo. Kaito turns his head and sees his mom.

Kaito crawls to his mom and tried to reach his mom’s skirt. When you look at him, he’s sitting, opens his arms, and indicates he wants to hug her.

When she saw him with a puppy face, expressing “I’m sorry to make your day hard mama”. She just smiles, hugged him, and rubbed his back.

Keiji smiled when he saw that lovely scene on the screen

He took a screenshot of Y/N and Kaito hugging on his phone.

Suddenly, he felt an intense quiet around him.

When Keiji turns his head, all of his co-workers are looking at him

“Mr. Akaashi, you’re soooo sweet to your wife,” one of them tells him.

“Yeah, you even didn’t mad during this tight deadlines, your son has to take that from you when he grows up”

“Sorry guys I think I made a good disturb before our break” Keiji apologized, he didn’t realize that he was too focused on taking care of his family even over long distances.

#akaashi x reader #akaashi keiji x reader #akaashi keiji #akaashi #akaashi scenarios #keiji akaashi smut #keiji akaashi x reader #hq scenarios #haikyuu!! #haikyuu imagines #akaashi keiji x you #akaashi x y/n #akaashi keiji fluff #dad!akaashi keiji #baby fluff #haikyuu x reader #hq x reader

[thisbelongsto-nohbodys]

Teenage Lily: Hey Moms, does Mama Marcy ever get mad? I’ve seen her be annoyed but I’ve never seen her be mad.

Sasha: Oh Mar-Mar is a big ball of sunshine so it takes a lot to get her truly mad.

Anne: Trust us that you don’t want to see that…I still remember the last time………

Flashback

[Marcy is in the hospital giving birth to Maddison. Anne and Sasha are on either side giving her words of encouragement.]

Doctor: Okay Mrs. Boonchuy, just a few more pushes.

Anne: Ya hear that Marbles? You’re doing so great, just a bit mor——

Marcy turns to Anne, sweating, eyes wide which Anne swear she saw a spark of orange briefly: Y̶̳̆̐ŏ̵͍̓u̴̟̺͝ ̷̟̯̐̌ḋ̶̨i̵̬̱̇d̶̡̛͇̿ ̶̫̤̽ț̵̹̈́͘h̴̺͝ị̵̄s̸̮͑ ̶̝̟̓t̷̘̓o̷̩͂ ̴͇̍̊m̶̰̈́͋e̴̬͔͆̀!̷̹̚͠

Anne & Sasha: *cold sweating*

End Flashback

Anne: She broke my hand in three places but I didn’t realize it until later after my heart went back to normal.

Sasha: Yeah, I experienced war flashbacks worst then any ptsd I’ve had.

Lily:…………???

#Amphibia #Anne Boonchuy #sasha waybright #Marcy wu #Sashannarcy #lily boonchuy #lillianne boonchuy #anne boonchuy plantar

[nyaagolor]

I like the Nemona autism post! Think you’ll make a comic about her friends like Arven, Penny, and MC helping her with her insecurities?

I have a really hard time with comics that aren't silly so I wrote this instead. SV quartet is both very fun to write and also a nightmare because none of them have an ounce of tact as a side effect of being 16. Anyways THANK U!!

-

Violeta hadn’t realized Nemona was trailing off until the sudden silence snapped her back to attention. The others seemed to have noticed it too, because Arven had stopped mid-bread-buttering and Penny was doing a terrible job at pretending she wasn’t stealing glances at Nemona, her phone game abandoned. Nemona was already doing that thing that Violeta had come to expect from her, head slightly bowed and holding her braced arm to her chest like she was curling in on herself. She was the one to finally break the silence, and not to resume her rambling on the history of Johtoian boom teams. 

“Do you guys think I’m, like, annoying?” Nemona asked. She seemed genuinely bothered by this out of the blue revelation, fidgeting with her tie and furrowing her brows as she flicked her gaze to each of her friends in turn. Violeta was not proud of the way she paused. Arven frowned, his gaze laser focused on the sandwich in front of him. Penny made a little noise in the back of her throat, expression pinched as she struggled to find the right words. 

“Oh,” Nemona replied, the earlier enthusiasm gone from her voice like a deflated balloon. She shook her head and continued with a practiced monotony that sounded like she was reading off a script. “I’m uh… that was really inconsiderate of me. I’ll try to keep your interests in mind more when I talk. It’s rude to dominate conversations, and I… uh… sorry.” 

“Hey, uh,” Penny interrupted her, concern written all over her face. “You’re not annoying, just… a lot sometimes?” She grimaced as though finding the right words was physically painful. 

“Yeah!” Arven added. “I like hearing you talk about stuff. I don’t like, get it– I’m not smart like you– but it’s uh. Nice?”

“You’re not annoying,” Violeta finally said. “It’s just… you talk a lot about stuff most people don’t care about.”

Nemona looked completely crestfallen. “Yeah,” she said, back to fidgeting with her tie. “I um. I realized you all looked really bored and I didn’t really know when you started looking bored and I realized I was probably annoying you all but you were too afraid to say anything, my mom always says I’m kinda intimidating when I'm like this and that’s why no one wants to be my friend. And, uh, the doctor tells me that people don’t like it when someone talks too much because they look selfish and I’m not like that, I care about your interests too but it’s re–”

“Hey,” Arven cut her off, looking wildly uncomfortable. “That’s not, I don’t think… That’s not true.”

“Which part?” Nemona asked. Arven waved the butter knife around like he could pluck the words out of the air. 

“All that weird stuff you were talking about, the whole uh, no one wanting to be your friend thing. We’re your friends.” Penny nodded along. “I actually like it when you talk a lot, it means I don’t have to. It’s cool when you talk about stuff and I can just be on my phone or whatever. It makes things not awkward.”

“I’m not bored,” Violeta added. “And I don’t think Penny is either, her face just looks like that.”

Penny shot a look Violeta’s way, huffing. 

“Yeah!” Arven reaffirmed. “It’s nice when you talk about stuff you like while I’m making sandwiches, it’s kinda calming in a way.”

“I just like hearing my friend talk about something she likes,” Violeta said.

Nemona’s expression started to brighten. “Really? You’re not mad?”

Arven waved a hand. “Ramble away.”

“Sometimes you just gotta infodump,” Penny reaffirmed, getting a quizzical look from Violeta and Arven. Nemona sat back, smile back on her face as she bounced her leg and stared up at the sky. Nemona’s excited rambling came back as quickly as it had gone, gaining confidence with each word. 

“Ok, where was I…”

#new hc nemona's parents made her go to ABA #nemona #penny #arven #pokemon sv #oc: violeta #writing #ask #mod vex

[theoddcatlady]

The Sacrifice for Harmony Rose

I’ve never been hurt by the fact that my stepfather loved my sister more than me. For me, it’s just that- a fact.

I don’t remember my real dad at all, really. He passed away when I was around two or three years old. I remember meeting Dale for the first time, although even that’s getting pretty fuzzy. I remember the giant of a man kneeling down to my level, stone faced and solemn.

Then he reached forward and gave my hand a shake. “You like spaghetti?” He asked. I only nodded, too shy to speak. He just grunted and headed to the kitchen to start throwing dinner together. Dale can make a killer spaghetti. And I didn’t even like spaghetti until then.

I’m not saying he doesn’t love me. He definitely does, back then he did his best to connect with a shy kid that’d rather color than talk to people. He had also been married before, married and divorced with a son that was much older than I was. Max was already seventeen when I was only six. And it was at six years old that my mom and Dale had my sister, Harmony-Rose. Just Harmony for short, of course.

The moment that tiny baby was handed to Dale I knew he’d completely fallen in love. I was little, but I could tell he was doing his best to hold back tears. An effort that was wasted, as a tear trickled down his cheek as he sat down and rocked her back and forth.

Dale took a pay cut to be able to work from home for the first few years of Harmony’s life. Mom once said he got up for more midnight feedings and diaper changes than she did. Maybe back then I got a little jealous now and then, but I’d only need to look at Harmony’s sweet face to realize why he loved her so much. She was perfect. An easy going baby who laughed and cooed with everyone but daddy’s girl all the way, I couldn’t be mad at her. I love Harmony too.

She’s never stopped being an amazing little sister either. From a sweet baby to a well mannered toddler, all the way up till spring of this year, she has always been just the best. I did get closer to Max as the years went by, when I stopped being a little kid and became a teenager you could actually have a conversation with, but Harmony was just always there.

I’m not saying she stopped being the best. I’m just saying that’s when… well… she got sick.

I’d just turned eighteen, Harmony now a go getting twelve year old. She was a part of her school’s gymnastics team, had all the friends, but she always gave me a tackle hug when she came home. She told me about all the boys she thought were cute, and the ones that weren’t so much. I’d promise to stomp in the faces of any that made her cry, and Harmony would make a point of poking my bicep and raising an eyebrow. No words needed. I’m a wimp.

Mom and Dale just thought it was just a flu bug that wouldn’t go away. I did too. And Harmony, well, what else would she think it was? She always had bruises from gymnastics practice, the fact they weren’t going away didn’t occur to any of us that there was a further problem.

By the time we went to the doctor, the damage had already been done.

Leukemia. Fucking leukemia. How could Harmony have leukemia? It doesn’t run in our family and up until then she’d rarely even gotten a cold. Leukemia diagnoses happens to other families, other kids. Not Harmony. It couldn’t happen to Harmony.

My mom told me that when the doctor broke the news, Dale fell to his knees. Both her and the doctor thought he was about to pass out, his face was white with shock. Dale doted on Harmony, was always in her corner when she needed back up, and she was one of the few people he’d drop the stern outer shell for to show his soft heart. And now there was something he couldn’t fight for her, no matter how hard he tried.

Harmony tried to be positive at first. ‘I’m a tough kid’, she’d said, mock flexing and reassuring her dad that she’d beat this. She went into chemo treatments with a smile on her face, and as her hair fell out she’d had me help shave her head, cracking jokes about how she now looked like season one Eleven from Stranger Things.

I think even then she was putting on a brave face. The doctors hadn’t lied, her form of leukemia was particularly aggressive. Maybe if we’d caught it sooner, we’d be better off, but that just wasn’t how the cards played out.

Harmony was dying. We all knew she was dying. The spunky girl with the energy of a lighting strike faded away rapidly, turning into a pale child with sunken dull eyes and barely a smile. She was always tired, and as the months passed with no real improvement, her sense of humor waned and I’d often catch her lost in thought.

Two months ago she called me to her bedroom, asking if she could talk with me alone. Dale actually quit his job so he could be with her 24/7, caring for her every need. It was hard for us to get sibling time, just the two of us hanging out together.

Harmony was staring out her window as I slipped into her bedroom, clearly a lot on her mind. On her lap was a folded over piece of notebook paper. She didn’t say anything, just handed me the paper and calmly waited as I unfolded it and began to read it.

It hit me like a fucking truck when I realized what it was.

“… A will?” I asked quietly.

Harmony shuddered and nodded, dropping all pretenses of false bravado. “You can donate my books for me, right? Or give some to Max, I think Jayce would love them when he gets old enough.”

I wanted to say she wasn’t going to die. I wanted to tell her she could still beat this. But I think she knew better than the rest of us that we weren’t going to get lucky. I read through this little girl’s will carefully, having to reread every line as my vision was blurring with tears. “I can do that. Don’t think this is legally binding though,” I tried to joke.

Harmony smiled, just for a second. “Well, tough, lawyers aren’t cheap.” Taking another deep breath, her gaze returned out the window. “This isn’t fair,” She murmured.

I nodded, folding her will back up. “No, it isn’t,” I agreed.

Harmony sighed with relief, flopping forward and burying her face in her hands. “Why did I have to get sick? It’s bullshit, I didn’t do anything wrong! I’m healthier than all of you, or I was, I just… this is bullshit,” She said, talking so fast I could barely make it out.

I reached forward and patted her head. “It is complete bullshit. If I could swap places with you, I would.” I meant it too.

“Don’t even put that out there, you dumb fuck.”

I laughed, I couldn’t help it. “Don’t let Dale hear you say that. He’ll never recover knowing that his baby girl knows the word ‘fuck’,” I said.

She looked back up, shaking her head but she was smiling. She was… at peace. I could just see the burden lifted off her shoulders. “Thank you, Joel. Keep that will somewhere safe for me,” She said.

“I promise.”

I pulled her into a tight hug. I knew that this will meant the end was near and that Harmony was fully aware of that. The Grim Reaper was around the corner and she wanted to be ready for him.

When I left her bedroom, I saw that Dale’s office door was cracked open, but didn’t think much of it, and didn’t bother to check if he was in there. Dale was usually in bed by then anyway.

I don’t think he was. I think he heard every word that passed between me and Harmony that night. That his baby girl had made a will for all her belongings, from her treasured stuffed animals to her collection of colorful rocks she’d bought from various museums and zoos over the years. I had every intention of following that will as closely as possible when she did pass.

But that broke Dale. So that’s why he did what he did. That’s the difference between me and him, really. I’d be willing to give up anything, even my life, to save Harmony-Rose… but he was willing to set the world on fire and let it burn, all for her.

My bedroom window faces into the back yard, right into the forest that stretches around our property for miles. I was having trouble going to sleep that night, that day in particular had been especially bad for Harmony. It had been a week after I’d been given her handwritten will and it was clear she’d finally given up the fight. I was afraid if I went to sleep, I’d wake up and she’d be gone.

I was finally starting to doze off when I saw Dale in the backyard, cradling Harmony in his arms. He’d not been able to really carry her these last few years, but she’d shrunk so much she looked like a skeleton in his arms. For a second, I thought she might be dead, but I saw her shift in his arms. She was just asleep, too tired to even stir.

Dale’s face was completely blank and devoid of any emotion. He’d spent the last few days like that, almost completely oblivious to the world around him. He hugged her tight, looked into the woods, and started walking. I watched him until he vanished into the trees.

I fell asleep after that. I didn’t even know how to even remotely process what I’d just seen, and when I woke up the next morning I’d thought it was just a dream.

I went to Harmony’s room after I’d gotten dressed, expecting to walk in and see her still asleep.

Instead, I saw a glimpse of the girl she’d been all before this diagnosis. She was still bald, but the color had returned to her face and she was up and out of bed, looking just as puzzled as I felt. She looked up at me.

“Joel, I feel… I feel okay. And I feel hungry. Can you ask Dad for pancakes?”

For a girl who’d not had an appetite in months, this was mind blowing. She ended up having a whole stack of blueberry pancakes, all the while Dale looked on, pleased as could be. He took her to the doctor’s right after breakfast, and for once I tagged along since Mom had to go to work. I didn’t really like hospitals and no one ever made me go anyway, but this time I wanted to see if this was just a ‘good day’.

Instead, we were given the best news we could ever imagine. Suddenly, after months of radiation and chemotherapy doing jack shit, Harmony’s leukemia had finally gone into remission. A complete and total 180 from her last appointment. The only explanation the doctors could give?

‘It’s a miracle. It really is a miracle.’

And well, it kinda was. Just not one that came without cost.

It started right when we were heading home. Harmony and Dale were over the moon, already planning to order out for Hawaiian pizza while I openly judged them for wanting to ruin a perfectly good pizza with pineapple. We turned the corner and saw two police cars in front of our neighbor’s driveway.

Like I said before, we’re surrounded by woods, but there’s a few other families in the immediate area. It’s the kind of place where everyone has a driveway at least a quarter of a mile long, if you’ve lived in a place like that you know what I’m talking about. The family closest to us and the one with the police presence was the Fosters. They have a son that’s close to my age but he’s an asshole, so I tend to avoid him, but his parents are all right.

I saw Dale grip the steering wheel a little tighter but he didn’t attempt to even slow down to see what was going on. Harmony frowned. “Shouldn’t we go make sure Mr. and Mrs. Foster are okay?” She asked.

“After the cops leave, we don’t want to get in their way,” He said in a tone I wasn’t used to hearing- the kind of sound a person has in their voice when they lie. Harmony hadn’t missed it either, but she just changed the subject back to Hawaiian pizza and what to do for dessert afterwards.

Once we got back, I dropped my stuff off in my room and immediately beelined for the back door. I just barely stepped out the back door when I heard someone clear their throat. I looked behind me to see that Harmony was waiting for me, her arms crossed and giving me an ‘are you kidding me?’ look.

“What, did you really think you were gonna check out what happened to the Fosters on your own?”

I did attempt to come up with an excuse as to why Harmony should hold back on this one, but instead I just sighed and started walking, my little sister hot on my heels. I imagine she was suffering from a bit of cabin fever, it’s hard going out and doing shit when you’re on death’s door.

I might not have cared much for Daniel Foster, but since he was on the back porch having a smoke from his watermelon vape, I figured he was the best line for questioning.

Daniel gave us both a stink eye as we emerged from the woods, blowing a mouthful of sickly sweet smoke in our direction. Harmony plopped down on the swingset that was still in the Foster’s backyard despite the fact it hadn’t been used since Daniel was younger than she was. I walked up to the porch. “Saw the cop cars at the mouth of your driveway. We’re just here to check in if you’re okay,” I said.

After glaring for a second more, Daniel sighed and hopped off the porch, jamming his hands in his jeans pockets. “Something broke in last night, attacked the dogs, trashed the house. Dad’s out of town and you know how shit cellphone signal’s out here. We couldn’t connect to 911 so mom and I just barricaded ourselves in her room,” He said.

Harmony cocked her head to the side. “Something?” She asked.

Daniel gestured for us to follow him. “It definitely wasn’t a person. It was probably a bear, its claw marks are everywhere,” He said as we walked to the other side of the house.

My skin crawled as I saw the large score marks under the bedroom window that was still blocked by a wardrobe. Harmony reached forward and brushed her fingers against the decimated siding. “Wow,” She said in her shock.

“Did you see it? The bear, I mean,” I asked.

Daniel shook his head. “Nah. Didn’t want to. Had the gun ready just in case it got into the room, but it didn’t. It scratched up Bella and Griffin real good, they’re both at the vet now getting patched up.”

Bella and Griffin were a pair of large rottweilers, big babies really, they were the main upside to come visit the Fosters. “Will they be okay?” I asked.

“Should be.” Daniel took a deep breath and shuddered. “I- I think my mom was really scared. She kept saying it didn’t move like a bear, but all she got was a glimpse before we hid. Bears… bears make roaring sounds, right? Like a lion or a tiger?”

Harmony frowned and straightened up, glancing at me for the answer that she was pretty certain about herself. The description enough definitely puzzled me. “Honestly, bears tend to be pretty quiet. When they’re freaked out, they’re more likely to make huffing or grunting sounds, and they definitely don’t sound like wildcats,” I said.

“Fucking weirdo,” Daniel turned away, jamming his shaking hands into his pockets, probably hoping I couldn’t see them. “What do you do, just go out and watch bears on the weekend?”

“Hey, you asked, dumbass. Come on, Harmony,” I gestured for my little sister to follow along, not at all in the mood to deal with Daniel’s shittiness.

“Wait. So you know what bear prints look like too then?”

I paused. “Are there prints?” I asked.

Daniel walked over to the treeline and motioned us over. Hesitantly, I followed.

The print that was there was sure as hell not a bear’s print, and I think Daniel knew that too. The mud captured the print perfectly, long spindly fingers carving deep scratches into the mud with smaller palms. It was like a person had dragged their hand through the mud, but it wasn’t quite right.

I snapped a picture of it with my phone. “Yeah, I… I don’t think that’s a bear print,” I said, trying to keep my voice level. Something about it set the hair on my neck standing straight up.

“Then what is it?” Daniel asked.

I sent the picture to Dale with the message ‘found this near the Foster’s, what made this track’. “I have no freaking clue,” I admitted.

Harmony bent down next to it. “It’s so weird,” She muttered.

I didn’t expect my phone to immediately buzz, Dale was god awful at responding to texts at a decent time. I turned my phone back on to an even more shocking response.

‘Come home right now. I don’t want you back in the woods now.’

“Dale doesn’t know either, and he’s telling us to come home ASAP,” I gave Harmony’s shoulder a tap and that got her attention. “Let’s go, sis. See you, Daniel. Stay safe, man.”

He just grunted in response and jogged back into his house.

Once we got back, Dale explained his for his curt demand was that he was worried about that bear that came after the Fosters. Apparently he’d called Mrs. Foster the moment we got back and got the story from her. If it was so bold to break into a person’s house, god knows what it’d do to me wandering out alone out there… and I especially shouldn’t bring Harmony-Rose out there.

I did hear Harmony mutter something along the lines of ‘screw that’ as we got ready to go pick up the pizza for dinner. Not that I blamed her, since she was finally feeling better to go out and about. But that track still made me super curious. So the next day, I went to the other person who might know a thing about animal tracks- my older stepbrother, Max.

The visit was first pretty normal, just light chatter about the warm weather and how things have been going at Max’s work. I got to play with Jayce, who was ecstatic to see his ‘Uncle Joel’ and of course Max’s wife Lisa popped in to ask how I was doing and if I was seeing anyone (girls or boys, she always makes sure to specify), and then she had to bustle right back out because she had to run errands.

After we got all the small talk out of the way, Max set his coffee mug down and brought up the biggest news to date.

“So, Harmony. She’s better?” He asked.

I shrugged. “Cancer’s suddenly beating a hasty retreat. Doctors say be cautious but hopeful. Said it’s a real miracle,” I said.

“Hmm. That’s… interesting,” Max’s brow knitted in concern, “And she’s going back for more tests? Just to be sure? I mean, any false hope will actually kill Dad.”

“Yeah, she should be going back for more tests by the end of the week. But you should see her, it really is a complete 180 with how she’s acting,” I shook my head, “I barely believe it. But she had like six slices of pizza last night, and she’d eaten breakfast that morning, a stack of Dale’s pancakes. And she didn’t throw up.”

Max’s concerned expression didn’t vanish as he went for another sip, “Maybe, just keep an eye on her- oh fuck that!”

I barely dodged the surge of coffee spilling in my direction as Max literally threw the contents across the table. I was about to ask what the hell was wrong with him when I saw it.

A centipede, two of them actually, squirming and writhing in the pooling dark liquid. Max quietly gagged before heading to the sink. “Didn’t even see those little bastards crawl in there. Really hope I wasn’t drinking centipede coffee this whole time.” He turned on the tap and looked back at me. “You want something to drink? I promise, it won’t have a bug infestation.”

I opened my mouth to say a glass of water wouldn’t be so bad when I looked at the flow coming from the faucet and the words wouldn’t come out of my mouth.

It wasn’t like it was just red or rusty colored water. Water and blood have different consistencies, and the thick scarlet liquid now overflowing Max’s mug and dripping down his hand was sure as hell not water. Max looked confused at my likely shocked face and was probably about to ask what was up when we both smelled it. The smell that always shows up when you have a bloody nose, except a thousand times more potent and bittersweet, like it was rotting.

Max stared at his sink now filling up with blood, and I bolted for his bathroom to throw up. I’m not good around blood. I barely made it to the sink before I puked my breakfast and the chocolate shake I’d picked up at the corner store before I hit up Max’s place.

After coughing a bit, I made the mistake of trying to wash down the puke down the drain. Thankfully it only took one crimson drop from the faucet for me to turn it back off. I sunk to the floor, my world going topsy turvy as I did my best to keep breathing so I wouldn’t pass out. I barely succeeded. Max had to help me get out of the bathroom and put me up in his guest room while he went to figure out just what the hell was up with their plumbing. I was just about as useful as wet noodle so he let me be while Jayce showed me all his dinosaur toys to make me feel better. Obviously, any intention of showing him the strange tracks went out the window as I was struggling just to be a living person.

It wasn’t just Max’s house having ‘plumbing issues’. While I lived in the middle of the woods, he had settled down in a nice neighborhood that was just missing white picket fences to complete the perfect vibe. All up and down the street people were turning on the water to have blood come squirting out of their faucets. One poor person had gone in for a late shower and had an actual to god panic attack as they were coated in disgusting red fluid. The ambulance showed up and everything to make sure they were all right.

I felt like absolute garbage until I got home, driven there by Max. But when I walked through the door and saw Harmony dancing along to some song on the radio, I felt like a million bucks seeing her like this. Bright. Vibrant. Pain free. A complete and total turn around. I did tell her about the blood spewing out of our brother’s sink and she was naturally quite horrified by that turn of events, but we came to the conclusion it wasn’t actually blood. I mean, it couldn’t be blood. A lot of things would have to be dead to have every faucet bleeding on my brother’s street.

Harmony made leaps and strides in terms of recovery in the matter of a week. Every test came back with confirmation the disease that was going to cut her short life off was retreating at unnatural speeds. I encouraged her to start practicing her gymnastic moves, knowing if she kept bouncing back like this she’d want to rejoin her team. With Harmony getting better, the house seemed generally so much happier. My mom only cried with joy whenever she saw Harmony practically skipping around the house and Dale… man, Dale. Truly the happiest about this all was Dale.

Plans began taking form. Trips to Disney, a vacation out west to go visit all the national parks, the future that we’d originally thought might have been robbed from us was suddenly now in our grasp again. I was just as excited as my parents to be honest. I love Harmony, so much. I wanted to just focus on her now.

But as our house began to gain life, everyone else’s began to… fall apart. Rot from the corners and collapse.

Even if I was focused mostly on my little sister, I couldn’t help but notice that things were different. More bloody plumbing began popping up all over town, to the point where a notice was put out about not drinking any tap water until they find the source of this. Apparently some professional talking out their ass said it was more than likely some kind of infestation of mold, and all they needed to do was find the source and all would be okay again.

Thing is, they couldn’t find a source. I don’t know how much time was spent or how much money the town poured into to tear open water mains or go through every centimeter of the treatment plant, but it was turning up squat.

Dale was still not letting us out in the woods. If I so much as looked at the back door he was the first to ask me to ‘do the dishes’ or ‘run an errand into town’ for him. Not until they found the bear, which I still didn’t feel was right. Bears didn’t leave prints like that. Bears just… weren’t like that.

Then I got that call from Daniel.

I had given my number to Daniel freaking ages ago. My parents made me because they wanted us to be friends. Yeah, no, I’d rather not be friends with the jackass who insulted me literally every other sentence. Around three AM I heard my phone start to ring and I had to scramble to get it. I nearly missed the call and didn’t even check the caller ID before I answered it I was in such a rush. I couldn’t even ask who it was before Daniel scream-whispered into my ear,

“Something’s wrong with the dogs!”

I wiped the sleep from my eyes. “The fuck?” I managed to get out, my voice slurring with sleep.

“They… they were just so quiet…” I heard Daniel swear quietly and the sound of someone checking the lock on a door. “When they came back, they looked fine and were patched up, but they were just so fucking quiet. I didn’t give a shit, but I just got home from a night out, and- oh my god, there’s so much blood?” Daniel sniffled and I realized he was starting to cry.

“I can’t find my dad, my mom’s… she’s passed out, she got bit real bad. I got her wrapped up real good but there’s not much else I can do. The dogs, Christ, Joel… the dogs. They’re so fucked up. They tried to get me too but I’m hiding in my parent’s room. Called 911, I’m freaking the fuck out, I don’t know when they’re going to get here, and fuck knows if they’ll get to the right house. Please, man, you gotta help me. I don’t want…” Daniel’s voice cracked, my neighbor now starting to sob. “I don’t want my mom to die, man.”

Maybe I’m not friends with Daniel, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to leave him in a jam like that. I assumed rabies, because you know, that’s the closest thing to a rational explanation I could come to.

I woke Dale up and told him what Daniel told me. I didn’t want to go over there alone, and although Dale had been acting a bit off, I expected he’d help me at least get Mrs. Foster and Daniel out of the house.

He did follow me over. But he also grabbed his hunting knife, and he made sure his rifle was loaded before he swung it over his back.

Dale really didn’t hunt often, only going when his buddies asking him to tag along. I thought Dale was a lousy shot, since he never brought anything home he killed himself. I figured it was just an excuse to go out and drink beer.

We entered the Foster house and it was just as Daniel said- the living room covered in blood. I barely managed to swallow my vertigo as I followed Dale, the silence so much it felt like it was going to swallow me. It was only quiet for a few seconds though, then I heard the unsettling sound- the jingling of a dog’s tags.

One of the rottweilers ambled into the living room and even with how dark it was, my initial assumptions of the dogs being rabid was immediately put out of my mind. Rabies doesn’t give you large tumorous growths sprouting from under your bandages that oozed a reddish pus. The dog cocked its head to the side for just a moment before its lips curled back, a thin rusty colored film covering its teeth and tongue. It tensed up, ready to pounce… and Dale fired a shot right into its skull.

It dropped with not even a whimper, a perfect kill shot. The other rottweiler skidded in after its friend and I nearly vomited at the sight of even more tumors growing from its neck and back. This dog also had a tail. Yes, I know, rotties are known for those little stumpy tails, but I swear to god, this dog now had a tail sprouting from its backside, arched over its body like a scorpion’s tail. I didn’t get a better look until Dale downed that dog too. Despite having to swallow down the urge to puke again, I walked up to the second dog’s body. The name reflecting back from its tag read ‘Griffin’.

This wasn’t the Griffin I knew. The ‘tail’ hadn’t sprouted from its actual tail, it had come from in front of it. A closer look at Bella’s body and I saw that skin and fur had rotted away from some of her side, revealing putrid decaying flesh stretched over cracked ribs that had were turning black.

I ended up having to collapse on the couch to avoid passing out on the disgusting floor, leaving Dale alone to stride back into the bedrooms to find Daniel and his mom.

When the ambulances finally arrived, Mrs. Foster was dead. Mr. Foster’s body was found in the kitchen, practically ripped limb from limb. Daniel was catatonic, his eyes glazed over as he was wrapped in a shock blanket, and leaving Dale to explain that by the time he’d gotten in there Mrs. Foster had already passed, the bite must have severed her brachial artery. Her body was covered when it was wheeled out, but I caught a glimpse of her bitten arm, and how it was already growing bulbous tumors like that was on the dogs.

I also noticed that Dale’s hunting knife was now conspicuously missing.

When we got home, he pulled me aside and quietly told me one thing:

“Don’t tell your mother. Or your sister.”

I didn’t need to ask what he didn’t want me to tell. I kept my mouth shut. Maybe if I didn’t talk about it, it wasn’t real. The mutant rottweilers from hell, the fact that Mrs. Foster was now dead and how I had this gut feeling that something really bad had gone down in that room when Dale went in there.

There were more attacks. Reports of shadowy, long legged beasts roaming around our neck of the woods, that moved too quickly for anyone to get a good look, and pets would vanish only to turn up torn to pieces. Probably a better fate than what happened to the Foster’s rottweilers.

Only one person was directly attacked other than the Fosters. Mr. Green was taking his garbage out when he was pounced by what his wife described as ‘two thin beasts with overly long legs’. They literally ate his face off, god, it makes me sick to even say that. She managed to get them away and call 911, but with her signal going in and out it took them forever to get there. They took the somehow still living Mr. Green to the hospital, but he didn’t last. He developed a fever that went far beyond the livable temperatures, and even if he did live I imagined it would be kind of a shitty life, since his face was entirely gone.

I didn’t get to hear if there were any more tumors, since I had to listen in on this conversation between Mrs. Green and my mom. Poor widow was clearly traumatized by what she saw.

In town wasn’t much better though, as I’d find out when I went to go visit Max. The start of the most fucked up day.

“Lisa’s taking time off work. She doesn’t want Jayce at daycare.”

Max looked, well, a mess. The water still hadn’t been fixed, and it looked like he hadn’t had a decent shave or a bath in days, probably since this all started.

“He’s been such a fussy kid lately,” Max flopped back on his position on the couch with a loud sigh. “Same with all the other kids who go to that daycare.”

“Think it’s the bad water?” I asked, nodding to the absolute mountain of water bottles by the front door, barely contained in their garbage bags.

Max shrugged, running his hands through his hair. “I just… I don’t know. His eczema is acting up again too, but that might just be because of the heat. We’ve been using bottled water for almost everything, including baths. I feel like I need a long shower, but every time we turn on the pipes it’s just,” he shuddered, “Well, you know.”

I patted my brother’s back. “Maybe you can come over and stay at our house for a bit? I doubt Dale will mind.”

Max was quiet, shifting uncomfortably and staring at his clasped hands before he spoke up.

“Joel, did Dad- did Dale do anything weird, leading up to Harmony’s recovery? Was he acting quiet, or did… did he go out to the woods late at night?”

I remembered what happened the night before Harmony’s miracle. Up till then, I’d made myself believe it was really some kind of dream. I swallowed. “Why?” I responded, trying to keep my voice level.

It didn’t work. Max’s eyes narrowed and I could tell he knew I knew something. “When did he go out there, Joel?” He said, his voice quiet and icy cold.

“Why does it matter?” I asked, still trying to avoid answering the question.

Max chewed on his lip, a small speck of blood forming when he ripped off a piece of dried skin. “It matters, Joel. You’re not his blood, so I don’t blame him for not telling you, but… there’s something you do need to know about those woods. About the far back, past the lake, through the wet cave, there’s a patch of trees-”

Max was cut off by a loud crash from the kitchen. I just about jumped out of my skin and Max was up, bolting for the source of the sound.

“Lisa!? Lisa! What’s wrong?”

I got up and followed behind Max, nearly bumping into him as he stood frozen in the doorway.

Lisa was on all fours, groping wildly at the floor and murmuring something to herself that I couldn’t quite make out. My heart hammering in my chest, I pushed past Max and slowly walked into the kitchen. “Lisa? You all right?” I asked.

I nearly stepped on it, since it mostly blended into the white linoleum floor. But at the last second I saw the red stumps protruding from the back of the small white orbs. I nudged one with my foot and I actually pissed my pants a little when I saw the light brown irises of Lisa’s eyes staring back at me.

“My… my eyes…”

The hair on my neck stood right up as I looked towards Lisa, who’s head lifted up in my direction, likely hearing my panicked breathing.

“H-help me find my eyes?”

I stared into the black sockets of Lisa’s skull, her face pale as her hands continued to blindly grope along the kitchen floor. A maggot crawled out of her left eye, squirming onto her cheek before dropping onto the floor.

I screamed. I ran. I ran right into the front door and knocked myself out. Not exactly a thing to be proud of, but fuck it. I saw a woman searching for her fallen out eyes. When I came to, the ambulance was there, rushing Lisa to the hospital while another EMT was making sure I didn’t accidentally give myself a concussion in my panic to get away. I didn’t, but it didn’t matter. Max had already headed to the hospital with Jayce and I was left in their home alone, unable to get the image of Lisa’s eyeless face out of my mind.

I had Dale pick me up, but I was too scared to ask him about the wet cave and the patch of woods behind it.

There was one other person I could ask what went down that night though. I could ask my sister, Harmony-Rose.

I found her in her bedroom that night, sitting at the foot of her bed and staring into her mirror. In her hands was clutched the light pink handkerchief she’d used to cover her head once the chemo took her hair away.

I sat on the bed behind her, waiting for her to come out of whatever thought she was in. We sat in silence for a few minutes before she turned around.

“Joel? I think something’s wrong with me.”

My stomach turned. I was about to ask if she was feeling sick again when I looked at her… I mean, really looked at her.

Sure, she had been bouncing back, but she looked almost entirely back to normal now. The weight had been put back on in a matter of days, and her hair was already regrowing, reaching to cover her ears… but it wasn’t really her hair, either.

Harmony-Rose had our mother’s hair, dark brown, sleek and smooth. And I had heard about how when a chemo patient’s hair grows back, sometimes it looks a bit different. The texture’s changed, the color’s lightened or darkened.

The texture had changed, now it was much curlier, but the color was what got me. Parts were the same, but other locks had grown in a shocking shade of silver. I reached forward to give her hair a tussle and was surprised by how thick it had become. “Do you feel different?” I asked.

Harmony shook her head. “I feel… fine. Too fine. Recovery shouldn’t- it just doesn’t go like this. I shouldn’t be building back muscle so fast, I shouldn’t be,” She ran her hands through her new grown hair, “my hair should be taking its time, and it’s almost normal now, except for the… color…” She shuddered. “Joel, what’s happening to me?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. But I have a theory.”

I told her about what I saw the night before her recovery began. When I finished, Harmony had gone white as a sheet, but her eyes lit up with the return of some memories of that night.

“I thought I was asleep,” Harmony tugged at the strands of her hair, “And just had some really whacked out dreams.”

“What happened?” I urged her to say.

Harmony took a deep breath to clear her thoughts.

“I remember Dad carrying me out back. Like when I was little and I’d fall asleep on the couch during a movie. I knew I could feel I was outside, because it was windy, but I was too tired to really do anything except lay still. Dad carried me for a long time, I remember hearing the leaves crunching under his feet. Then we walked through someplace… maybe underground? His footsteps echoed off the walls. And then when we left that he set me down on my feet. Told me to walk alongside him. There was wet needles under my feet and the place smelled like bad breath and something sickly sweet. We were surrounded by pine trees. I didn’t really open my eyes, I was so tired, but when I did, I saw… things. Eyes looking out from between the branches. Big, yellow eyes. I couldn’t even make out what they belonged to, dad just hurried me along and told me I couldn’t stop.

“We came to this large… rock. I think. There was someone sitting on top, with very long legs and arms. Like twice the size they should’ve been. Dad helped me lie down in the dirt in front of the rock and told me to go back to sleep. I tried, but his voice kept me awake. I think he was talking to the person on the rock, told them he had the key, and was willing to make an exchange,” Harmony reached up, touching the locks of hair that were now colorless, “And something wet and slimy touched my head… I was too scared to reopen my eyes. And I heard… I heard someone else say that it would be done. Suddenly I was just so cold, I couldn’t stop shivering, and it feels like there’s hundreds of bugs crawling all over me…  the next thing I know I’m waking up in bed, and I’m hungry, and I don’t feel like a pile of garbage.

I glanced out back to the forest that had surrounded my home. The very thought that something was actually dangerous in there was, well, it felt stupid. I played back there almost every day as a kid and saw nothing more than squirrels and birds, maybe the occasional garter snake or deer. But nothing like what she described.

“I’m going to go see.”

I don’t know why I felt like it was so important for me to go check it out, but I had to be sure for myself.

I was barely out the back door when I heard a click and saw the beam of a flashlight. I turned to see Harmony right behind me, wearing a coat that finally fit her again instead of making her look like she was drowning in cloth. I originally opened my mouth to object to her coming along, but I shut it just as quickly and started walking.

The far back of the woods. Past the lake and the wet cave. Harmony and I walked in almost complete silence, only hearing the croaking of frogs and chirping crickets that hung heavily on the night air. I’d been back here so often I knew what Max was talking about. I’d only gone in the cave once, but since it was so gross I only poked my head in and never went back. When I walked through it this time, I felt Harmony’s hand in mine, I felt it shake.

When we exited into the forest behind the cave, we were officially in a place I had never been before. Even the trees looked different, the flashlight casting long shadows along the pebbles that looked like claws. While my steps got more uncertain on the stone path, Harmony’s pace picked up.

“I remember… this. I remember this.”

Harmony breathed in slowly, her gaze flicking back and forth. “Whatever you do, Joel, don’t look to the sides. They’ll eat you alive,” She said.

I knew better than to ask how the hell she knew that. “Why won’t they eat you?” I asked, the hair on my neck standing up. Back here not even the crickets were making a racket, the only sounds were my breathing and the occasional snap of a twig past the treeline, just enough to let me know that we weren’t alone.

“Because whatever my dad did to me, it made me a part of them.”

Harmony and I kept walking until we reached the clearing, where the heavy silence was finally broken by something else. Arguing.

It took me longer than normal to recognize Max’s voice, his words were colliding and slurring together so they were barely recognizable. Harmony’s grip on my hand turned so tight it nearly cut off circulation, and we both ducked behind a tree before peering around to see Max.

He was so drunk he was barely standing up straight, his cheeks bright red and his hair sticking up with sweat. At the very back of the small clearing was something I recognized as an obelisk, made of a black flecked gray stone and carved with letters I couldn’t recognize. And by the obelisk was Dale.

“So all those years… every fuckin’ year you told me that it was the most important fuckin’ responsibility,” Max swayed back and forth, barely catching himself from just falling to the ground, “You were just talking out of your ass? Because the moment you need something, you c-come back here and let them out?!”

Dale was quiet, his face expressionless. “… We were out of-”

“Don’t. Don’t fucking give me that shit, dad!” Max burst into messy sobs, tears rolling down his cheeks and snot dribbling from his nose. “Lisa’s dead! So many people are dead, because you took the key and let them out to save Harmony!”

“She’s your sister-”

“So what about other people’s sisters?!” Max pointed an accusatory finger at Dale, spittle flying from his mouth as he began to scream at his father. “What about other people’s wives?! Other people’s s-s-sooonns….” Max trailed off before he threw his head back and screamed into the sky.

Dale finally showed something other than apathy, blinking a few times in shock before he looked concerned. “What happened to Jayce?” He asked softly.

“I don’t fucking know, how about you ask your fucking monsters?!” Max pointed up and I finally noticed there was someone sitting on top of the obelisk.

It was just as Harmony recounted for me earlier, a man with limbs twice as long as they should’ve been, but his face… the gray skin was stretched so tightly over his skull, his lips parted in a painful looking smile as his yellow eyes stared down at the arguing pair.

Dale glanced up at that… that thing. “What happened to Jayce, then, Balem?”

Balem yawned, revealing rows upon rows of needle teeth in his mouth that stretched back down his throat and covered his pointed tongue that was dripping in a thick white saliva. When he spoke, his mouth moved a moment slower than the words leaving him, like he was lipsyncing along to his speech. “What happened to the rest of the children at that Greenhill daycare. The carpet cleaner was diluted with water- tap water. They were infested.” Balem’s manic grin returned.

Dale’s face went white as a sheet. He stammered for a few moments, trying to come up with a response. “I’m so sorry, Max, I didn’t mean for this-”

“And you still did it!” Max cackled, his eyes rolling into his head to only show their whites as he continued to laugh without sounding a least bit amused. When he finally stopped, his face twisted in such a way I could barely recognize him as my stepbrother anymore. “You fucking hypocrite. You traded everyone’s lives for Harmony, the same thing you told me not to do for anyone- not even mom.”

Dale stared at his shoes. I think he knew he was in the wrong here, but there was really no coming back from what he’d done. “… It’ll only be for a bit more, Max, a week or two more and Harmony will be completely healed,” He said.

“And what’ll happen during those two weeks!?” Max shook his head. “Unbelievable. So, what’s the deal? As long as she’s alive and recovering in town, these freaks get full run of the place? I can think of a good way to end that.”

My heart almost stopped at the implication. Dale looked ready to be sick. “No, no, you can’t! If you hurt her, then all of this would be for nothing!”

“It already was!” Max began winding his way through the clearing. “You’re responsible for everyone who’s getting hurt and killed! You did! You might as well have put a gun to their head! At least when I kill Harmony, it’ll be peaceful, and she’ll never know her life was paid for with her nephew’s blood-”

It happened so fast. Max took a step too close to Dale and Dale grabbed Max by the head, slamming his son into the obelisk so hard his skull cracking sounded like a gunshot.

Max slid to the ground, his smashed head leaving a streak of blood on the stone. A shrieking laugh echoed through the clearing and I looked up to see this ‘Balem’ clapping, rocking back and forth on his obelisk. I now saw there was a chain wrapped around his neck, with a padlock hanging open from one of the links.

“Too good! Too good, Dale!” Balem’s chattering his jaw, his teeth making a disturbing clattering sound. “The drama has been made perfect with the audience!” Balem’s gaze landed right where we were and he pointed one of his long fingers towards us.

Dale slowly turned, the blood of his son dripping down his hands from where he bashed Max’s head into the stone. Harmony shoved me down into the ground before she stepped out from behind the tree, muttering ‘stay still’ as she walked into plain view of Balem and Dale.

“Dad?” Harmony looked at Max’s body before back to their father. “You killed Max?”

Dale began to shake, the once imposing man turning into a shadow of his former self. He dropped to his knees, burying his face in his hands as he began to sob, sputtering out half apologies and weak explanations about this being the only choice.

“I couldn’t lose you, Harmony Rose. I’d sacrifice the world for you,” were the only words that were really clear, since the rest was slurred out by his sobbing and crying.

Harmony just shook her head before glancing up the obelisk. Silently she approached it, where Balem leaned down, actually managing to get down to her level. “Aren’t you going to thank me?” The monster said, cocking his head to the side, his ever grinning face looking downright smug.

Harmony took a deep breath. “As long as the lock’s open,” She pointed to the padlock, “you and… everything else can go wherever you want?”

Balem nodded. “And your blood cancer will continue to fade. Once it’s gone, you’ll live to a hundred and two, thanks to my interference,” He said.

For several long seconds, Harmony just stood there, still as a statue. Then she reached up and clicked the padlock shut.

Nothing monumental happened- Balem didn’t start melting into goo, and I didn’t hear the screams of several monsters being forced back into their forest prison. Balem didn’t even stop smiling, only reaching up to pat Harmony gently on the head. “You still stand a chance to beat it, since I healed it enough to where treatment might actually make a difference. You’re welcome, and you’re such a good girl, so I hope to see you again. I haven’t made a bargain with your family for years. It was great fun. Now go home, girl, and take your half brother with you. I think you’ll both want to miss the final act of this drama.”

Nodding, Harmony backed away from Balem before turning around and sprinting back to the treeline, yanking me back up to my feet. We bolted down the path, together. I took a single look back to see Dale, still on his knees, while swarms of long legged pure black creatures began to swarm him.

It’s been a month. Max’s body was found, but there was no mention of an obelisk, and Dale was just gone. Harmony’s recovery is starting to slide, but where it is now, it is far more likely she’ll beat it. She’s been quiet, running her fingers through the still silvery curls on her head. She hasn’t said it, but we both hope if her hair falls out this time, it’ll grow back the way it used to be. Mom’s been a wreck, losing Dale, Max, Lisa and Jayce has really fucked her up. But we’ll make it through this.

I found something though. Last night, after both Harmony and my mom went to bed, I heard someone knock at the door and opened it to find a small leather pouch on the porch. I dumped the contents into my hand and I felt sick.

It’s a key. A key made of the same material the obelisk was, just the right size for the padlock attached to the chain on Balem’s neck.

#my stories

[zorinanana]

Kiss Me in the Dark is another illustrated fanfiction I made a couple months ago. It takes place in the same continuity as Like a Glass Bottle, but it's a completely separate story that doesn't really connect to that one. I also wrote this before Chapter 7 Part 1 or the Sunset Savanna event came out so there's some parts that definitely diverge from canon. There are also spoilers for chapter 6, by the way.

Rating: M (Strong language, suggestive content, A LOT of mentions of suicide and self-harm)

Pairings: Leona/Idia, background Malleyuu

Content Warnings: This story pretty much revolves around suicidal ideation, depression, and self-harm. I am serious, you probably don't want to read it you have a hard time with that stuff.

Word Count: Long as Fuck (~55k words)

<- Previous (Chapters 8-10)

“This isn’t a fucking opportunity and you know it.” Leona snapped. He clenched his fists at his sides, tail lashing in irritation. He was ready to fight, if he had to. He’d win, too. He’d make sure he won. “I’m just too much of an embarrassment to keep around anymore, so you want to get rid of me!”

Falena stared at him. Gradually, his face softened, like he had just realized what a terrible mistake he’d made.

“I don’t want to get rid of you, Leona.” Falena said. His voice was gentle. Leona had only heard him talk like that when Cheka was afraid of something and needed comforting.

And once, a long time ago, when he fell out of an acacia tree.

Chapter 11 - Blood

“Leona? What happened?”

Six-year-old Leona ceased his wailing just long enough to look up, though he still whimpered out a few sobs here and there. Falena had come out to the acacia tree to kneel beside him, face paling at the sight of his bloody hand.

“I f-fell… My foot hurts, and my hand…” He managed to whimper.

Falena gently took his injured hand, dabbing some of the blood away with the hem of his shirt. “Ouch. That looks pretty bad. Did you try to grab one of the branches and get stabbed by a thorn?”

“I dunno. Maybe…”

“Come on, let’s go get some bandages.” His brother tried to help him to his feet, but as soon as Leona put weight on his ankle he yelped and stumbled against Falena’s legs.

“Uh-oh.” Said Falena. He looked even more scared than Leona felt, but soon his fearful expression shifted into a determined, almost regal seriousness.

“Don’t worry, I gotcha.” He said to Leona, lifting his little brother into his arms with only a little strain. He was already 16 and getting pretty strong, after all. Leona clung to him, his injured hand making a fist in the back of his shirt. Keeping pressure on it seemed to help the pain a little, but it was still awful. He didn’t want Falena to see him cry and make fun of him, so he buried his face in his shoulder and sniffled into the fabric.

“Hey, it’s okay, buddy.” Falena said soothingly. He reached up with one hand to stroke the back of Leona’s head. “You’re gonna be okay. It’s just a little scratch.”

Falena started the short walk back to the main palace, his balance a little off thanks to the extra weight. Leona looked over his shoulder back at the acacia tree, eyes still blurry with tears. Just a few minutes ago, he’d wanted so bad to climb to the very top. Just to prove he could. Now, it felt so silly and stupid.

“Y’know, I tried to climb one of those too, once.” Falena remarked.

“You did?”

“I got a kite stuck up there. I got it eventually, but I was all scraped up. It hurt like he… heck.”

“You can say ‘hell’.” Leona grumbled. “I’m not a little cub.”

Falena laughed, but it wasn’t a mocking laugh. It was a laugh of understanding, the laugh of a young boy who also wanted to be seen as a grown-up. “I know you aren’t, Leona. Mom will just get mad at me if she found out I was talking like that.”

“Yeah.” Even if they were princes, the last thing they ever wanted to do was make mom mad.

Leona drifted off on the short walk back, and when he woke up, his hand was cleaned and bandaged and his ankle was in a brace. The doctor told him he had sprained it, but it would be good as new with a couple weeks of rest.

She whispered the whole time so she wouldn’t disturb Falena, who had fallen asleep at his bedside, still wearing the same blood-stained shirt.

---

His brother sat behind the desk in his study, scanning over some official-looking documents, occasionally scribbling out a signature. He wasn’t the kid Leona remembered anymore. He was a real adult, a married man, a father, a king.

Falena fit perfectly into the role of an Important man with an Important job doing Important tasks. Years ago, Leona would’ve killed to be in his position. He almost had.

But he knew now that he had never really wanted that. He just wanted to be important to someone. He wanted the things he did to matter, even after he was gone.

Every living creature dies. Even the fae, after centuries of watching the world change around them. It would happen to everyone he loved. And he was afraid of that. He was afraid of disappearing, and never being able to see them again. He didn’t like admitting it. It felt like weakness.

But if Yuu or Idia or any of those other jackasses who had somehow become his friends died, they had already carved a scar into his heart that he would be proud to bear. Leona knew that he’d left one in theirs, too.

This whole world would disappear eventually, through war, climate change, and the heat death of the universe.

But maybe, just maybe, all the pain was worth it. Maybe it was okay for him to be alive, if it meant being here with them.

“Hey, Falena. I got somethin’ to tell ya.”

Falena looked up. He put his pen down.

“Leona. Did you have a good time with Rabiah? She’s a great girl, isn’t she?”

His brother’s curious smile made him sick. He really thought that Leona would have good things to say? That he’d, what, fall madly in love with this stranger and finally give in?

“Yeah, it was great. She’s cool. She told me that her dad’s an asshole and she doesn’t want to do this.” Leona crossed his arms and leaned against the archway. “And I agree with her. Go fuck yourself.”

He almost smiled at the way Falena’s face fell. Any minute now he would get angry and start puffing himself up to argue, like they had all the time when Leona was a teenager.

But then… he didn’t. He just stared into Leona’s eyes with nothing but genuine confusion and heartbreak in his expression. The longer Leona looked at it, the more uneasy he felt.

“Why do you keep doing this, Leona?” Falena asked. “I don’t understand.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?!” Leona snapped. “You’re the one who started it! Why would you ever think I’d want to marry some girl I barely know?!”

Falena stood, his chair squeaking harshly against the stone floor.

“Because you hate it here. It’s obvious.” His brother’s voice wavered, just a little. “But you never do anything about it. All you do is lie around and wait for things to happen to you, and the moment I try to give you an opportunity to change that, you reject it without even hearing me out.”

“This isn’t a fucking opportunity and you know it.” Leona snapped. He clenched his fists at his sides, tail lashing in irritation. He was ready to fight, if he had to. He’d win, too. He’d make sure he won. “I’m just too much of an embarrassment to keep around anymore, so you want to get rid of me!”

Falena stared at him. Gradually, his face softened, like he had just realized what a terrible mistake he’d made.

“I don’t want to get rid of you, Leona.” Falena said. His voice was gentle. Leona had only heard him talk like that when Cheka was afraid of something and needed comforting.

And once, a long time ago, when he fell out of an acacia tree.

“I really thought she’d be good for you.” Falena admitted. “I spoke with a lot of families about you. When I first met with Rabiah, I knew she’d be perfect. She reminded me so much of you. She’s funny. Smart. Independent. Like you.”

“Stop it.” Leona growled.

“And getting to know her better only made me more certain.”

“Shut up.”

“I thought she would make you happy.”

“You never thought to ask me what would make me happy?” Leona hissed. He didn’t like this. It was easier when he’d imagined this confrontation in his head. A fight between pure good and pure evil, like some play where the moral would be spoonfed to the audience.

But this wasn’t a play, it was his life. And he knew his brother well enough to know that he wouldn’t have done all this if he didn’t genuinely believe it was the best way to help.

“Do you know what would make you happy, Leona? Because I don’t think you do.”

Leona opened his mouth to answer, but he choked on empty air, unable to come up with any words.

“Yeah. I thought so.” Falena sighed. He looked… tired. More tired than Leona had ever seen him, even after years of watching him rule an entire country. He turned away from Leona to look out the window, ready to just end this conversation.

“I’m sorry. You’re right. I shouldn’t have just assumed that I knew what was best for you. But I wish… I wish you wouldn’t give up so easily.”

“…I’m not giving up. I’ve never given up.” Leona mumbled. He didn’t have the energy to be mad about this anymore. “If I had given up, I’d be dead by now.”

Falena’s head snapped in his direction.

“Leona, what the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“I do know what’ll make me happy.” He didn’t want to answer the question that Falena was really asking. He turned his face away from his brother, trying to hide the tears that were beginning to blur his vision.

“I want to write. I want to go to Yuu’s wedding next year. And I want Idia to believe me when I tell him he’s beautiful.”

He heard Falena’s footsteps as he crossed the room.

Leona wasn’t small enough to be carried anymore, but when Falena hugged him, he still clung to his older brother’s shirt and sobbed into his shoulder.

---

“Y’know, if you’d just told me that you had someone you were interested in, I would’ve called it off right away.” Falena said.

He’d been contemplating the chessboard between them for a good minute, despite the fact he was only about two moves away from losing. They’d already spent hours talking and crying and apologizing to each other, and now they were both tired and wanted to just wind down with something less emotionally taxing. Cheka had watched for a little while, but he’d gotten bored and run off to play with Imani until bedtime.

“How do you know there’s someone I’m interested in?” Leona asked.

“You said something about telling someone they’re pretty.”

“Beautiful. I said beautiful.”

“Right, that. Wow, you’ve really got it bad if you’re busting out the ‘b’ word.”

“Stop stalling and make a move, Falena.”

“Oh, fuck it.” Falena moved a piece at random, Leona saw his chance and took it.

“Checkmate.”

His older brother threw his hands up in exasperation. “I don’t know why I even try. You’re always going to beat me, anyway.”

“Because you’re my brother and you love me?” Leona guessed, smirking sardonically.

“Yeah, right. I know you like playing against people who are actually good at it.”

Leona recalled the many matches he’d had against Idia. He used to win every single one, but the other boy had improved so rapidly that by the end of 3rd year it was basically a 50/50 coin toss.

“Maybe. But I think part of it is just… hanging out with someone you care about.” Leona mused. He picked up the pieces and started rearranging them for a new game.

“Now you’re just trying to distract me so I won’t ask any more about this Idia guy.”

“Sure am.” Leona replied, ducking under the table to retrieve a captured bishop that had rolled off at some point.

“He’s the guy you gave that birthday present to, right? One of the ones you built your portal with.”

“He is.” Leona answered. He was a little surprised that Falena actually remembered those things. “Now stop asking me about it.”

“Come on, at least tell me what he looks like!”

Sighing, Leona pulled up one of the graduation photos of Idia that Ortho had sent. He held his phone out for Falena to see, but didn’t let him touch it. He didn’t want anyone scrolling through and finding the crossplay pictures again. “Here. Happy now?”

Falena leaned in over the table to get a closer look. “Is he cursed or something?” He asked, rudely. Leona rolled his eyes.

“Yes, he is. He’s dealt with some stuff. If you ever meet him, don’t you dare say anything about it.”

“I wouldn’t do that. Yeesh.” Falena frowned. “’If’ I meet him, huh? So you’re gonna bring him to visit sometime?”

“…Maybe.” Leona slowly put the phone away. “I’m actually not sure if he ever wants to talk to me again.”

“Oh, crap, what’d you do?”

“…It’s a long story.” Leona murmured. He dug his claws into the polished surface of the wooden table, just to have something to focus on besides his turbulent emotions. “Yuu’s been letting me know how he’s doing. He’s still pissed at me.”

Falena gave him a soft, brotherly smile. “Well, I hope you can make up with him. I really would like to meet him. We all would.”

“...Yeah.” Leona said, leaning back in his chair. “I hope so, too.”

---

Leona knew that Idia could hold a hell of a grudge when he got really mad. One time, Yuu had tripped and broken a figurine of his and he’d sulked about it for two weeks.

It was way too early to try and force a reconciliation, and Leona didn’t think he’d get one. But Idia deserved some reassurance that he was fine, and that he wanted to work this out. So in the end, after agonizing over it until late into the night, he sent a text.

---

Leona: hey you dont have to answer this

i just want you to know that im sorry

and i want to talk to you about it

so call me whenever youre ready

even if it’s months from now, i can wait

---

The “read” notification popped up next to it a moment later, but Idia didn’t send a reply. Well, that was about what he expected.

Leona let his body sink into the sheets, exhausted. What a fucking day. Rabiah’s family were leaving in the morning, her parents disappointed at the broken engagement, but Rabiah herself was positively ecstatic. She’d given him a knowing wink when she said goodnight, though, so he was pretty sure she was still going to run away.

And now he was here, back home, in this room he had hated so much, with his family he so resented. But somehow, it felt… different. He didn’t feel like screaming and clawing himself open anymore.

What had changed, exactly? Maybe… It was because he’d finally been honest. He’d finally admitted that he needed help. And someone had finally listened.

Leona still wasn’t going to get what he wanted, of course. He’d never have the power to influence this country, to try and make it a better place. But maybe… Idia’s suggestion would work. Maybe he could write.

He was already outlining some fucking scathing think-pieces about the royal family in his head.

Smiling to himself about the idea, he almost drifted off into a comfortable sleep.

Then Leona’s phone vibrated in his hand and his heart jumped into his throat.

No fucking way- But when he looked, it was. The caller ID read “radish sprout”.

He accepted the call in a heartbeat, despite how his hands were shaking.

“Oh thank fuck you called me.” He said, stupidly.

Idia laughed, then it sounded like he was muffling it behind his hand.

“Damn it. Don’t make me laugh, I’m still mad at you.” He said after a minute of barely audible chuckling.

Leona felt a smile stretch across his face. It was good to hear Idia in a good mood again. “If I make you laugh hard enough, will you stop being mad at me?”

“No, that’s not how it works. I’m afraid laughter isn’t the cure for this status effect.” It sounded like he was smiling too, though.

Neither of them spoke for a while. Leona tried to put together something in his head. Should he start with the apology? Did Idia even want to hear it? Should he explain what had happened to him since coming back to the palace?

He couldn’t come up with anything, but Idia, mercifully, spoke up first.

“I wish you’d told me.”

He wasn’t talking about the engagement. Leona’s eyes stung.

“You’re right. I should’ve.” He said. “I’m… I’m really scared, Idia.”

“I know.” Idia’s voice was so soothing, even over the phone. “It’s okay.”

“I’m scared of dying, and I’m scared of living.” Leona rolled over on his bed, but he kept a firm hold on his phone like a lifeline. “I’m scared of being alone. And I’m scared I’ll never be happy. I don’t have anywhere to go. All I can do is lie here and wait for something to happen, because nothing I do will change anything.”

“That’s not true, Leona. You’ve changed lots of stuff, just by being you.” Idia said. “You changed me. You changed Yuu, and Ruggie, and all the guys back at school who looked up to you. You’re a lot stronger than you think you are.”

Idia went silent for just a moment before continuing, “But even the most OP heroes need a party to support them. And... I’d like to be a member of that party.”

“Heh.” Leona chuckled. It felt like a tiny breath of warm air, settling in his chest and spreading out into the rest of his tired body. “Cute.”

“Come on, I’m trying to be sincere here…” Idia grumbled.

“I know. Thank you.” Leona said, his voice light. Feeling so open and vulnerable, he didn’t want to hold back anymore.

“I… I really want to see you.”

Leona heard Idia’s breath catch in his throat, and for a moment, he panicked. Had that been too much?

But then Idia sighed wistfully into the phone, and his stopped heart started beating again. “I want to see you, too. But I think I still need a little time.”

“Yeah. That’s fair.”

“I’m serious, I’m still pretty pissed.” Idia huffed, but he was definitely puffing it up a bit.

“Yeah, you should be, but I think I’m allowed to be a little mad, too. You still shouldn’t have answered my phone.” Leona chuckled.

“That is… a good point. But that isn’t the only thing, I have a lot of moving stuff I need to do…”

“I get it.” Leona said, with a smile that he hoped came through in his voice. He was a little disappointed, but he could deal. As long as the promise of a future was still there. “I should probably take care of some things, too.”

“Right. So I guess… I’ll call you?” Idia asked.

“Any time.” Leona answered. “I’m… I’ll be here. I’m not gonna run away again.”

“I know. I believe you.”

---

this motherfucker: You.

Leona: ah there it is

i was wonderin when youd show up

this motherfucker: Why was my fiancé crying over you today, Kingscholar.

Explain yourself.

Keep in mind that I have near total control over this vast sky of ours.

It would be a simple matter to find your location and wipe it off the face of the planet.

Leona: bet

this motherfucker: I’m not interested in playing a gambling game with you.

You would probably cheat, anyway.

I want answers.

Leona: i already apologized to yuu

u dont need to be their white knight all the damn time

or scaly black dragon knight I guess

i didn’t know they cried tho

my bad

this motherfucker: “My bad” hardly counts as an apology.

I want to make it very clear that if you disappear and worry them again, well.

There will be consequences.

Leona: oooooh scaaaaary

i know u wont do anything to me lmao

yuu and idia both told me u think im funny

this motherfucker: Yes, and it’s going to be very funny when I tear you to pieces and display your body parts on stakes in the town square.

Leona: now ur just overdoing it

smh

this motherfucker: You’re lucky my future spouse is so fond of you.

Leona: u r too u just dont want to admit it

but the jig’s up dumbass hahahahahhah

this motherfucker: I can see right through you, Kingscholar!

The truth is, YOU are the one who is fond of ME!

Just try to deny it, you can’t!

Leona: yes i can its easy:

im not fond of u

this motherfucker: A transparent lie, just like everything you say.

Admit it, Kingscholar.

We are very good friends.

The best, actually.

Like brothers.

Leona: i already have one overbearing brother who’s too horny for his spouse i don’t need another one

this motherfucker: ? But I have horns all the time.

Not just when I’m with Yuu.

Leona: …dont tell me u dont know what horny means

u cant be that naïve

has yuu never told u

this motherfucker: Of course I know what it means.

It’s a synonym for ligma.

Leona: wh

what

this motherfucker: Ligma balls.

}:)

That is a smiley face that Yuu made up for me, the “}” represents my horns.

Leona: u know what

this little bit of banter just cemented in my diseased brain how much i cant stand u.

so ye i genuinely hate ur ass now

i hope u choke

i wont even feel bad when yuu is sad about it they deserve better anyway

this motherfucker: They are sitting next to me right now and telling me what to type at you.

I don’t know why that angered you so much, but your reaction was very entertaining.

Are ligma balls some kind of food or something? Like a meatball?

wait

------------------------------

Chapter 12 - Believe

Leona waited, just like he promised. In the end, it had taken about a month before Idia texted him his new address. No other details, just a jumble of letters and numbers that represented everything he’d been missing. As excited as Leona was to see Idia face-to-face again, a different part of him was fucking terrified.

He typed back a date and time, and Idia sent him a thumbs up emoji. Very helpful.

Leona was pretty sure Idia wasn’t mad anymore, and that he was just being curt because he was equally nervous. But he couldn’t read his mind, so there was no way to be 100% certain. Maybe this was anxiety? He should probably ask his therapist about it next time.

But he didn’t have time to stew in it, now that he was on Idia’s doorstep, staring at the bell by the door like it was an enormous spider. A woman passed by him in the hall and did a double-take, apparently recognized him, and then rushed into her own apartment. She returned a moment later to peek out the door at him along with her roommate.

Ugh. His annoyance at their rude behavior briefly overwhelmed his fear and he slapped the bell before he could lose his nerve.

The space in between that chiming sound and the door opening had to be the longest 10 seconds of his life.

Leona clenched his eyes shut and took a deep breath as he heard it creak, then snapped them open.

And there was Idia, staring at him. Maybe it was just because they’d been apart for a while, but Leona’s heart immediately sped up at the sight of him. He must have just come home from work, his clothes were a little more “business casual” than his usual attire.

Leona was somewhat relieved that he looked just as freaked out as he felt.

“…Idia. Hey.” He said.

Idia regarded him coolly, arms crossed, his face unusually passive and emotionless. “Leona.”

Leona hadn’t felt this awkward since he was a teenager. He searched desperately for any hint of emotion in Idia’s face. But he couldn’t find it.

As Leona opened his mouth to say something, he heard an indignant “mew!”. Idia’s face twitched like he was trying to hold back a laugh.

“That wasn’t me.” Leona protested.

“I know, it was her.” Idia gestured at his feet, Leona looked down. A little tortoiseshell kitten was trying to make a break for it, barely held back by Idia’s extended leg.

“Maybe I should come inside?”

Idia looked at him for a moment, thinking hard. Making up his mind, he bent down to pick up the kitten and gestured for Leona to follow him in.

It was a pretty standard Sunset Savanna apartment. Stone floors to keep the place cool in summer, but the building itself was more modern and had everything a bachelor just starting out in his career could need. He’d left all the windows closed, for some reason, though.

It looked like Idia still had a lot left to do, but he’d at least bought a table and a couch. And a scratching post for the cat, of course. He was probably waiting for a few paychecks to come in before getting into furnishings. At least, Leona hoped that he was waiting for that, and wasn’t just planning to eat at his couch every day.

Idia must have read his mind, because he said, “Sorry it’s so empty. I’m getting some more furniture next month.”

“So you got a cat?”

Idia’s impassive mask finally broke. He held up the squirming animal, ecstatic.

“Her name’s Purrsephone. Ain’t she a cutie?”

“That’s spelled ‘p-u-r-r’-sephone, isn’t it.” Leona asked. He was unsurprised when Idia pouted at him before eventually nodding.

Purrsephone kept up her wiggling until Idia put her down, then she bolted off to claw at the scratching post with a ferocity that Leona couldn’t help but admire.

“I call her Purrsie for short.” Idia smiled fondly at her. “I’ve always wanted a cat, y’know. I couldn’t have one at the dorms or on the Island.”

“She seems kinda high-energy, doesn’t she?”

“Oh yeah, she’s nuts.” Idia passed him to walk into the kitchen, divided from his living room with just a low wall. “But once she gets tired out, she’s a huge snugglebug. It’s adorable.”

He opened the fridge, then frowned into it. “…Well, I was gonna offer you a drink, but all I have is Mountain Dew and tap water.” He said. Leona tried not to laugh.

“I’m good. How are you liking it here so far?” He asked, instead.

“It’s fucking hot.” Idia answered as he pulled a can of Mountain Dew out for himself. “I’m dying, Leona. I had to buy 3 rotating fans after the first night. I’m gonna have to come up with an insane cooling setup when I get a new PC.”

Leona chuckled and walked across the empty living room to one of his windows, pulling the glass up. There were wooden shutters with large gaps on the other side, but he left those alone so Purrsie wouldn’t notice and try to jump out. “You’ve got to keep the windows open. Buildings here are built to circulate air, you only close ‘em when it’s cold out.”

“Are you serious? So I bought those fans for nothing.”

“Nah, it still gets hot as balls. They’ll be handy in the dead of summer. What you should be more worried about is how your skin is gonna handle all this sun. Unless you wanna wear that hat every single day.”

“I already know.” Idia sighed. He rolled up his sleeve and stuck his arm out for Leona to see. The same one he’d offered that night under the stars. His skin was starting to freckle. “I’m gonna be covered in these for the rest of my life, I guess.”

“Cute.” Leona smiled, gently holding his arm up. He rubbed his thumb over the new spots of color on Idia’s wrist. It was so nice to touch him again.

Idia was studying him carefully, that impassive mask slipping onto his face again. As great as it was to be in the same room again, both of their minds were still racing, searching desperately for what to say.

Finally, Leona decided it was time to break the silence.

“…I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“For wanting to kill myself.”

Idia’s face fell and he sighed, exhausted. “I don’t want you to apologize for that, Leona. I just wish you’d told me.”

“Oh.” Leona was truly at a loss. It was really starting to hit him, now, how much things had changed between them. “I get it. I’m sorry for hiding it from you. And the engagement thing, too.”

“…I’m sorry, too.” Idia mumbled. “There were probably a thousand better routes I could’ve taken to handle that.”

“Maybe.” Leona said, shrugging.

“Then… Did you figure out what you wanted?” Idia asked, staring down at the stone floor sheepishly. So he was still worried, despite what they’d talked about.

“No. I have no fucking idea.” Leona answered. “I’m still scared out of my mind.”

Idia nodded reassuringly. “That’s fine. At least you’re telling the truth.”

Leona swallowed. His throat felt impossibly dry. “It’s… a little easier. I’ve been working on it. I’ve been seeing someone. And it’s helped, a little bit.”

“That’s good.”

“But it’s still fucking hard.”

“Yeah. I know.” Idia reached out to take his other hand. His warm fingers closed around Leona’s, and he broke.

Leona let out a sob that wracked his whole body and then the tears just wouldn’t stop. Idia lead him to the couch and sat down with him there, just listening as he cried.

After a few minutes, Idia carefully wrapped his arms around Leona’s shoulders and pulled him close, gently stroking his head the way he had that night in the hotel. His strength nearly gone, Leona slumped into the embrace, clinging to him for dear life.

“I wish I could fix it for you.” Idia whispered. “But I can’t. Only you can do that.”

“I know.” Leona sobbed.

“I want you to keep trying. I don’t want you to die.” Idia’s voice was thick with tears. Leona nodded into his shoulder.

“I don’t want to, either.” He said. And he meant it. As he let the tears flow, his breathing grew a little stronger, his heartbeat a little steadier. Bit by bit, just a little at a time, but he could still feel it.

“It’s gonna get easier.” Idia pulled back just enough that Leona could see his face, smiling gently despite the tears streaming down his face. “Soon it’ll be like going back to the starting area when you’re max level and beating all the mobs with a single hit.”

“Fuck, you’re so cute.” Leona felt himself starting to smile as well. Idia seemed surprised by that reaction, but instead of denying it like usual, he just grinned even wider.

“Thanks. You’re cute, too.”

“No, I’m-”

“Don’t say that you’re not.” Idia bumped their foreheads together, just rough enough to shake him up a bit. “I’m gonna believe you when you say nice things to me from now on, so you better believe me, too.”

“…Okay, fine.” Leona huffed. “I’m cute.”

“Good.”

“And you’re beautiful.”

“So are you. You’re beeeaaautiful.” Idia crooned, grinning wildly. “And handsome. And smart. And funny. S-tier at everything. SSR levels of amazing. Best boy and best girl.”

“Okay, I get your point. Cut that shit out.” Leona protested. The tears had nearly stopped, but now he could feel his face heating up. “I don’t even know what half of that is.”

He still knew what it meant. That Idia still loved him. Idia still adored him. And that was something he could always come back to, every time things got hard.

“I’m just giving you a taste of your own medicine!” Idia cackled. “I figure if all the cute shit you said to me at school was good for me, hearing the same stuff will be good for you.”

“Maybe.” Leona sighed.

His eyes started to flutter shut. God, he was so tired, and Idia’s hand felt so nice scratching his ears and stroking his hair.

“Stop it.” He said, gently smacking Idia’s hand aside. “I’m gonna fall asleep if you keep doing that, and I don’t want to, yet. I still haven’t kissed you.”

“Then just do it already, scaredy-cat.” Idia smirked, challenging him.

Leona closed the distance, locking his lips with Idia’s like he was dying of thirst, and he had just found an oasis.

Idia eagerly returned the kiss, clinging to his neck and moaning against his lips. He let Leona invade his mouth, twisting their tongues together, all heat and wetness and a slight hint of dangerously sharp teeth. He’d gotten better at this since that night in the lab. Leona wryly thought that he should thank Will for that if they ever met.

He felt a tug and suddenly he was on top of Idia on the couch. Leona took advantage of the new position to kiss him even deeper and harder, until they were both breathless and panting and tangled together.

“…Fuck.” Idia gasped, when Leona finally pulled away. He was a blushing mess, his hair all tousled and flickering with pink. Leona could feel his heart pounding a mile a minute. Or maybe it was his own. Probably both.

“You’re so pretty.” He purred, brushing some of Idia’s hair out of his sweaty face.

“Uuuuuuugh don’t just say that right after kissing me that hard.” Idia whined, covering his face with his hands. “Friggin’ otome game love interest…”

“I still don’t know what that means, but I’ll take it as a compliment.” Leona chuckled. He opted to kiss Idia’s knuckles instead of trying to force his hands off his face.

“Mreee!” Purrsie, fed up with whatever weird two-legger thing they were doing, leapt onto Leona’s back and then immediately made herself comfortable, curling up into a fuzzy little ball.

They both craned their necks to stare at her in disbelief.

“I guess I’m not allowed to move now.” Leona said.

“Yeah, sorry. I’ll get her food, that’ll get her attention.” Idia chuckled. He carefully slid himself out from under Leona and made for the kitchen. “I was about to make something for myself, too. You wanna stay for dinner?”

“Absolutely.” Leona answered.

He watched Idia carefully, studying every little movement he made, his heart on the verge of bursting with love.

---

“So what happened with your fiancée?” Idia asked, watching Leona wolf down his second helping of spaghetti. It was pretty good, Idia had added extra meat to the sauce just for him. Purrsie was still loudly munching her wet food in the kitchen.

“Not my fiancée anymore. She’s running away with her girlfriend to the Shaftlands.”

Idia’s eyebrows shot up. “Are you… sure you should be telling me that?”

“She said I could, in case you didn’t believe me. She’s pretty cool, actually, I’ll introduce you to her once things calm down.”

“Huh.” Idia stared into his own empty bowl, confused. “And your brother?”

“He’s… better.” Leona replied. Complicated feelings still swirled in his gut when he thought of Falena, but things were… different, now.

“…Are you sure this isn’t like my thing with my parents?” Idia asked, voice low and apologetic. Like he had bad news that he didn’t want to be the one to break. “Where he’s using the good memories to manipulate you.”

Leona shook his head. “No. He’s really trying, I can tell.” Falena had apologized to him so many times, and he was the first to ask about how he was feeling every day. He’d even dug up the welfare reform plans Leona had made and started pushing them for serious consideration.

Most importantly, he’d gone out of his way to make Leona feel… safe. Like he belonged, like he mattered. He didn’t dread going back to the palace like he used to, and that… meant a lot.

“Still not gonna stop me from writing some fucking brutal political columns about him, though.” Leona said.

“Oh, yeah! You’ve been writing?” Idia seemed so excited by that, wiggling closer on the couch. He probably wanted to hear all about it, like how Leona wanted to hear him talk about his nerd stuff.

“Just a few little things, right now. Yuu wanted me to write a speech for the wedding, so I’ve been workshopping that. My therapist suggested I start keeping a journal. And… I wrote a script.” Leona paused. “For a game.”

Idia’s face lit up. “The wedding game?”

“Yes, the wedding game.” Leona chuckled. “I didn’t know if you’d still want to use it, though.”

“Of course I do!” Idia bolted up, running to his bedroom to grab his laptop.

“I don’t have it with me.” Leona called down the hall. “I can’t show it to you right now.”

“Then bring it next time.” Idia walked back into the living room, tossing his empty spaghetti bowl carelessly on the kitchen counter. He came back to the couch and sat down, leaning against Leona’s side. “I want to read it.”

Next time. That’s right, this apartment really wasn’t that far. He could come see Idia any time. Idia could come see him. He could introduce him to Cheka. Ortho might fly in sometimes, and when Yuu came to visit, they could all hang out together. Just like they used to.

“Next time.” Leona began, bumping his forehead against Idia’s, “I want to stay over, in the same bed, and wake up next to you.”

Idia’s hair exploded into pink, but instead of hiding his face, he clung harder to Leona’s arm.

“You don’t have to wait until next time.”

---

murderkitten: leonaaaaaaa!!!

we made it!!!!!!

thanks for the advice! We didn’t have to go through a single border check!!!

Leona: thank my bf and his brother

they trawled the net for hours looking for the best routes

murderkitten: ok! tell them me and danika said thanks!

so I guess you guys are doing good?

Leona: ye

im def not letting him go this time

Falena’s gonna have to deal

if he tries to pull this shit again with my nephew tho ill have to come up with some regicide plans

murderkitten: well I hope he learned his lesson.

my dad certainly has :3

he’s been messaging me nonstop trying to get me to come home

I told him I MIGHT let him visit if he promises to never try to marry off my sisters

Everyone wins yaaaaaaaay

Leona: good for u

let me know ur address when ur settled

ill send u a housewarming gift

murderkitten: sure thing!

------------------------------

Chapter 12 - Moon

One Year Later

Leona tapped the microphone. From where he was standing, he could see a whole hall’s worth of people, from all different walks of life. Yuu and Malleus had way too many damn friends. And this was just the small, private ceremony, not the big official royal one that was held last week.

“Alright you weird little freaks, listen up.” He began, “Most of you know me, and for the ones who don’t and are probably horrified by my rude bullshit: I’m Leona Kingscholar, I’m one of Yuu’s best friends and one of Malleus’s worst enemies.”

Yuu was already giggling. He turned towards them, giving a mock bow. “They promised me I was allowed to have the honor of roasting the hell out of them today.”

“So I figured I’d start with this: this wedding so far has been fucking ridiculous, you both look like goth clowns running a horror circus and I wouldn’t be surprised if you spend your whole honeymoon fucking each other in gargoyle-themed onesies.” He smirked when Yuu burst into a fit of laughter, along with most of their mutual friends. Even Malleus was chuckling a little. The other guests, some of whom must have been important fae nobility, just looked like they were watching a car crash. (Or carriage crash, whatever the Briar Valley equivalent was.)

Leona waited for the laughter to die down before continuing. “Yuu never could stay out of anyone’s business, back when we were in school. Nobody could have an anxiety attack or a mental breakdown in peace without them forcing you onto a chaise lounge and giving you an impromptu therapy session.”

He paused, taking a moment to look beside him. Idia was there, listening with rapt attention, a beaming, sharp smile on his face. Leona smiled back.

“And y’know what? They saved a lotta people by doing that.” He continued. “Including me.”

Turning to face Yuu again, he sent a reassuring smile their way as they began to tear up. “So as fun as it is to dunk on you, Yuu… I’m glad you’re my friend. And I’m glad you’ve made a real family here, with a guy who obviously adores you. Congratulations.”

Leona lifted his glass of champagne, then passed the mic back to the MC as the guests erupted into applause. Yuu burst into tears, but they were smiling the whole time.

---

“Idiaaa! Leonaaaaa!!!” Yuu bawled into Leona’s sleeve, not even trying to hold back their snot and tears, despite their delicate lacy black outfit. “Why’d you have to make us such a nice present, you assholes?! And-And the speech! I told you to make it funny, you jerk, but then you had to be all cute and sentimental and sweet!”

“So I’m guessing you liked it.” Leona smirked. Yuu just cried harder and pulled them both into a crushing hug.

“I hate yooouuu!!!” They sobbed, with nothing but affection in their voice.

Malleus still glared at him from off to the side. “You’d better be glad this is happy crying, Kingscholar.”

“Hey, I wasn’t the only one who worked on that stuff! Why are you getting mad at me?”

“Don’t you dare try to throw Shroud under the bus.” Malleus’s eyes narrowed at him. “He ‘carried’ us through a very difficult battle the other day. I have nothing but respect for him.”

“It was just Orbonne, Malleus.” Having gotten that out of their system, Yuu released their guests and dabbed at their puffy eyes with an ornate handkerchief that matched their dress. “It’s easy once you know the fight mechanics.”

Malleus pouted. “I still don’t understand why the man with the rifle keeps killing me.”

“I’ll walk you through it next time, Malleus. And verraising you over and over doesn’t count as carrying.” Idia laughed, as light as the bubbles in his champagne. His face was already starting to flush. He didn’t seem to be totally drunk yet, but he leaned heavily against Leona anyway.

“Gonna have to wait a while for that, Idia. I plan on taking full advantage of his time off for our honeymoon.” Yuu let out what could only be described as a cackle, clinging to Malleus’s arm as he turned bright red out to the tips of his ears. Certainly a bizarre expression to see on the face of Briar Valley’s crown prince.

Leona made a gagging gesture, Yuu kicked out at him with one of their black high heels, which he easily dodged.

The ornate ballroom buzzed with activity, the floor completely crowded with celebrating guests. Dark greenery bursting with thorns and glowing flowers claimed much of the space, creating natural streamer-like perches for some of the shier fae to watch the festivities from above. They really hadn’t needed to do much decorating besides that, other than bringing in tables and chairs and a few flower displays that weren’t already naturally growing here.

The setting sun outside cast rays of warm light through the large windows, bathing the room in a nostalgic glow. Servants had already started lighting magic-fed lanterns, ensuring the party could continue late into the night. A live band was playing spooky classical music to fit the creepy mood. Apparently the Pop Music club from their old school were planning on playing a couple songs at Yuu’s request, Leona couldn’t wait to see the mayhem that would cause.

“I really meant it when I said congrats, Yuu.” Leona said, raising his glass. “Here’s to many years of freaky BDSM sex, or whatever it is you guys do.”

Yuu stuck their tongue out at him. “Like you’re one to talk. I saw your crossplay pics, buddy.”

“You can believe that was for sexy purposes if you want.” Leona shrugged. “I’m secure enough in my masculinity.”

“Can we please stop talking about this.” Malleus groaned, lowering his flushed face into his free hand.

“Aww, sorry, sweetie. Didn’t mean to embarrass you.” Yuu stood on their tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek. “We should probably go make the rounds, anyway. I haven’t even gotten a chance to talk to my two little braincell boys yet.”

“Don’t let us keep you. It’s your night!” Idia laughed and waved at them as they walked away, drawing way more attention than he meant to.

Once they were out of sight, Leona reached down to take Idia’s hand. Smiling serenely out at the crowd, he caught occasional glimpses of old friends; half-drunk Epel waltzing with Jamil, Ortho zipping around and taking aerial photos of the festivities, Jack scarfing down cake while Vil took a picture of him with cream on his face, Ruggie sticking his hands in random guests’ pockets-okay he’d probably have to deal with that later. He was willing to overlook it right now, though. Didn’t want to kill the mood.

“You look like a parent watching their kid go off to their first day of school. Or beating the final boss for the first time.” Idia giggled.

“Yeah, yeah, I get it, I’m a tsundere or whatever.” Leona shook his head. “Can you blame me? After all the shit we put them through, I’m just glad they’re happy.”

“It’s crazy to think about how far we’ve all come since then.” Idia murmured, tilting his head back to stare up at the glittering flowers overhead. “If I’d never met you guys, I’d still be stuck in the starting zone-er, the Island.”

“I don’t even wanna think about where I would be.” Leona said, frowning. Idia glanced up at him before pressing even closer against him, wrapping his other arm around Leona’s.

“We don’t have to. No point in thinking about even worse timelines when we’re in a nice one like this.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Leona chuckled.

It was a nice timeline. One where he felt safe at home, and had control over his life, and a boyfriend who loved him. It really had been getting easier, every day. As bad as it got sometimes, he didn’t feel nearly as scared anymore.

He knew now just how many people were willing to listen when he needed to be heard.

Idia perked up when he spotted Lilia stepping on the stage, still in the fancy attire he’d worn to walk Yuu down the aisle. He was followed closely by Kalim and Cater. “Oh! I think they’re gonna play soon!”

He tugged on Leona’s arm, dragging him towards the dance floor. “Come on, let’s dance!” He said, grinning wildly.

“Who are you and what have you done with Idia?” Leona asked, but he let his boyfriend lead him into the center of the crowd anyway.

“I got him drunk and now he feels like being a normie for the night. He wants to dance with his boyfriend at his best friend’s wedding.”

“If I dance with him, will I get him back?” Leona chuckled, turning Idia so that they were properly facing each other. He laced their fingers together, and Idia leaned against his chest, still giggling giddily.

“Heheh. Maybe tomorrow, when he’s sober.”

An ear-splitting screech rang out across the ballroom, making them both jump and everyone around them shriek in surprise. Confused, they looked up at the stage to see Lilia absolutely thrashing, screaming into the mic, dripping with sweat. Cater and Kalim were both blurs of energy, adding to the cacophony. Yuu had taken a seat up on Malleus’s shoulder to cheer them on, pumping their fists into the air.

“I don’t think I’m drunk anymore.” Idia said. Leona could barely hear him above the screaming.

---

“Uuuuugh. That was exhausting.” Idia groaned as they trudged into their room. He fell face-forward into a monstrously fancy canopy bed that fit perfectly in this creepyass castle. At least it was comfy, too.

“I thought you wanted to be a normie for the night.” Leona sat beside him, stroking his hair affectionately.

“Sometimes drunk Idia is dumb and doesn’t know what he wants.” Idia grumbled into the covers. “Sometimes he just needs a nap.”

“Sounds good to me.” Leona said, falling into bed next to him.

Idia turned his head to look him in the eyes, blinking sleepily.

“What?” Leona asked, when he didn’t say anything after a few seconds of staring.

“I love you.” Idia murmured.

“…I love you, too.” Leona replied. He leaned in to kiss him, softly, with all the affection in his heart.

“Ears.” Idia lifted his hand lazily, groping the air until Leona headbumped against his fingers with a chuckle. Idia smiled warmly at him and started scratching behind his ears, just the way he liked.

“You think Yuu and Malleus would get mad at us if we fucked in this bed?” Leona purred, curling his whole body around Idia’s. These fancy formal clothes were starting to get annoying.

“They knew what they were getting into when they put us in the same room.”

A few hours later, Leona found himself lounging on the outdoor couch on their room’s balcony, between Idia’s legs. He was carefully unwinding Leona’s braids for the night, combing his hair out with his fingers.

The full moon was still high and unusually bright in the sky. Yuu and Malleus were probably thrilled about it, it added to the spooky atmosphere. Leona guessed it was probably around 3 AM by now. He doubted they were the only people still awake.

“What kinda wedding do you wanna have, radish sprout?”

“Star Rogue themed.” Idia answered without even thinking.

“Absolutely not. We can have a Star Rogue cake topper and maybe the DJ can play some of the music. Take it or leave it.”

“Killjoy.” Idia said, but he was still smiling. “Why do you ask? Already thinking of proposing?”

“Not right now. Just, y’know, makin’ some plans.” Leona tilted his head back to look up into Idia’s eyes. This position reminded him of that night in the lab.

Idia bent over to kiss him on the forehead.

“Did you notice that you’ve been making plans more often?” He asked.

“Hm. I guess I have.” Leona hadn’t really thought about it.

“I’m glad.” Idia said. “Any other plans I should know about, though?”

“Hm… Finishing my manuscript. Seeing Cheka start middle school. Would be nice to visit Rabiah and Danika sometime. You?”

“I want to finish that couples cosplay and have Ortho take our photos.”

“Neeerd.” Leona laughed, affectionately.

Idia rolled his eyes. “Like you won’t end up having just as much fun as me.”

“How about way in the future. Like years and years, when we’re both old and boring.”

“Hm. Good question.” Idia mused. He put his chin in his hand, staring out into the peaceful Briar Valley night. “I guess… It’d be nice to own a house.”

“A house where we can keep your 100 cats.” Leona laughed.

“I only need two, thanks.” Idia replied, smirking at him.

“Hey. Are you counting me as a cat?”

“You’re the one who jumped to that…”

“Whatever happened to the cute, shy Idia who never would’ve said something so rude to me?” Leona pouted, reaching up to lightly pinch Idia’s cheek, just to get that dumb grin off his face.

“He got some therapy and fell in love with an SSR prince-type character.” Idia replied, shrugging.

“Hm. That’s nice. He seems a lot happier like this.”

Turning over on the couch, he wrapped his arms around Idia’s waist and snuggled close, his tail thumping contentedly against the furniture. Idia let out a little laugh of joy, reaching down to pet Leona’s head some more.

It just felt natural, now, to think about what was ahead. Before, he had never thought of “the future” as something he would ever experience. It had been some distant, ethereal thing, like the full moon hanging in the sky.

But it had always been there, well within his reach. He’d just needed someone to guide his hand.

Leona felt his eyes fluttering closed. But for once, he didn’t want to go to sleep. He wanted to spend every moment he could here, in Idia’s warm embrace, aware of every moment.

“I’m still gonna be here when you wake up.” Idia whispered, as if he’d read his mind.

“Good.” He mumbled against Idia’s stomach. “I like when you’re the first thing I see in the morning.”

------------------------------

And here are another couple character sketches from this one!

#twisted wonderland #twst #twst fanfic #leona kingscholar #idia shroud #twst leona #twst idia #idia #leona #leoide #tw suicide #tw depression #tw self-harm #kiss me in the dark

[mushed-kid]

saw a tiktok and wanted to this myself, so…

my mighty med/lab rats/elite force lgbt+ headcanons

(including all the roles i wanted to add, not just the mains)

Kaz:

- Bisexual, very open and casual about it, (Often refers to himself as gay because it comes naturally and the difference isn’t that important to him)

- Cis guy, but he also doesn’t care that much (as in he would wear a skirt or dress, he just doesn’t)

- Doesn’t come out, he just lets people figure it out (“If you don’t know I’m gay yet, that’s on you”)

- Not afraid of getting into yelling matches or fights with homophobes for himself or his friends

Oliver:

- Trans ftm (come on, you guys also watched Oliver Hatches The Eggs, right? They were trying to send us a message!)

- His mom had refused to believe him at first, but when he didn’t stop claiming he was a boy no matter how many specialists and doctors she brought him to, she just accepted it

- She went full ‘you’re a boy’ mode, and he wasn’t allowed to do anything she considered slightly girly at all, (he was just glad she didn’t hate him, but now he’s very afraid of seeming feminine because he thinks people won’t see him as a guy anymore)

- Sits the Elite Force down to come out, but he works himself up about it and is so filled with nerves that he starts crying (the others panic thinking something is seriously wrong)

- Kaz is the only one that knew from before because they’re best friends

- Bonds with Chase about being trans

- Gay with comphet (because of his mother making him believe that was his only choice)

- Because of that, he hasn’t come out as gay (because he doesn’t know he’s gay yet), and sometimes he comes off as slightly homophobic (also due to the fact that he has very fragile masculinity and thinks guys can’t be feminine)

- The others get mad at him, but he doesn’t mean anything bad, his mom just kinda sucked (and it’s hard to shake some of the things she’s told him)

- Very afraid of homophobic and transphobic people, which is why he takes so long to come out to his friends

Skylar:

- Bisexual with a preference for women or lesbian with comphet

- I like her and Oliver so I hc her as ‘Doesn’t really care because it’s not a thing on Caldera’

- Cis girl

Alan:

- Cishet

- Idk what more to say about him

Gus:

- Gender fluid

- Pan maybe? I imagine him swinging every way because he really doesn’t care about gender

Horace:

- Cishet

- Supportive, but very confused about everything (he always uses the wrong labels when talking about someone)

Jordan:

- Cis

- Aromantic (She thinks it’s gross)

Stephanie:

- Cishet (Though she does kind off have a weird thing for Gus so I’m not so sure)

- Will hang out with gay people just because they’re gay so she can seem like a good person

Tecton & Megahertz:

- They’re gay and dating (I think this ship is kinda funny so… it’s canon)

- They’re both cis

Captain Atomic:

- Cishet

- Slightly homophobic

- Also very misogynistic

Chase:

- Trans ftm (the constant joking about his height and how girly he is in lab rats? A Sign.)

- Came out when he was very young, he always knew

- Raised in a basement so you’d think he didn’t know about transphobia for a very long time, but he did, (Mr.Davenport talked to him about it and he researched it thoroughly)

- Bisexual

- Tries to avoid homophobic and transphobic people, and just ignores them, but it doesn’t always work. Sometimes he’ll just take it because he doesn’t want to fight, and it makes the other worry about him a lot

- Other times, Spike comes out and he goes crazy on them, and people leave him alone for a while after that

Bree:

- Lesbian with comp het (she thought she was straight because that’s all she knew, and then she thought she was bi because she liked girls, but then she realized she didn’t like guys)

- Cis girl

- Will verbally kill a homophobe

Adam:

- Everyone assumes he’s straight, because he never came out as anything else (he just doesn’t really care about coming out at all)

- He mentions something about a guy he likes/dated back in high school and everyone is super shocked

- “I thought you guys knew”, - “We thought you were straight!?” - “I never said that either” - “fair enough”

- Cis guy

- He’s not transphobic, and only makes those jokes about chase because he genuinely forgets chase wasn’t born a boy. (Chase thinks that makes him his biggest supporter even if the jokes sting)

- Will beat up anyone that says or does anything mean to his siblings about it

Leo:

- Straight

- He/They (idk if that counts as non binary?)

- Would start fights with homophobes and then realize he’s fucked and needs help

- Got bullied for being gay even if he isn’t, definitely came home after being picked on and trying to hide his injuries from tasha (who notices and calls the school right away)

- Will still start fights with homophobes, now knowing that he can take them

Marcus:

- He’s an android so technically not cis, but he’s a guy (he fucking hates it/its pronouns because he’s not just a machine)

- Aromantic & Asexual (he’s very indifferent to both relationships and sex)

- Doesn’t really do relationships, but if he did, it would be more like his partner in crime (real crime not pranks)

- If he did get an evil sidekick of sorts, he’d probably be gay

- Will claim to have any gender of sexuality if it’ll help him out of anything, no matter how small

- Will also accuse anyone of being homophobic if it helps him in any way (Douglas hates both of these)

- Outing someone is the one thing that he doesn’t do (Douglas is so proud of that one)

- Will start a fight with anyone at any time, and realizes beating someone up for being homophobic won’t get him in trouble sends him on a mission to find every bully at school

- He claims it’s just because he won’t get in trouble, but Douglas knows that deep down he cares (because he does get in trouble at school, just not at home)

Donald:

- I want to say cishet, but trans ftm is calling my name from afar

- Straight and borderline homophobic (he supports the people he knows and cares about, but in itself he thinks homosexuality is wrong)

- Will use his kids sexualities to look even better in media, with no regards for what they feel about it (They hate it)

- Outs people, but also tells his kids he’s proud of them no matter what and supports them, so they’re not very sure what he really thinks

- He’s just weird about it

- Will pretend he didn’t hear the homophobic or transphobic comment toward his kids if it means avoiding a conflict

Tasha:

- Cishet

- Very supportive of everyone

- Calls out homophobes and tries to inform everyone she knows about how important it is to be an ally

- Starts a group with some other moms to show support (the others think it’s a bit much, but she’s just being nice so they let her)

Douglas:

- Bisexual, but evil about it

- Strictly dated other bad guys/villains that he worked with, so most of his relationships sucked and ended badly (see; Krane and Giselle)

- Trans ftm

- Has a lot of kids, but honestly doesn’t know who any of their dads are

- I want Adam, Bree, and Chase to have the same dad, but I also kinda wanna say Adam has a different one, and that Bree and Chase are twins

- Daniel has another dad again, and Douglas realized he couldn’t raise the kid alone, so he had him adopted to keep him safe

- Will piss off a transphobe and run away from the fight

Perry:

- She/They

- Will rip a homophobe to pieces without breaking a sweat (she also knows a guy, so getting rid of any evidence is easy)

…..

and that’s everyone i could think of!

#turns out ​i had a lot of thoughts about oliver #well all of them #this took super fucking long to write #lab rats #mighty med #lab rats elite force #head canon #lgbt headcanons #mm kaz #mm oliver #skylar storm #alan diaz #mm gus #mm horace #horace diaz #mm jordan #mm stephanie #tecton #megahertz #captain atomic #chase davenport #bree davenport #adam davenport #leo dooley #donald davenport #tasha dooley #tasha davenport #douglas davenport #marcus davenport #terry perry

[lucysweatslove]

I have way too much on my plate and am in such a bad mood.

Last night my parents decided to have another argument over my dad’s new speakers. For context, he got his old set in the 90s. He started looking into a new setup a couple years ago. This was a huge source of strife in their definitely not super rocky marriage (sarcasm) where my dad would go to Best Buy just to listen to cool speakers and have to hide it from my mom. Note that both my parents are working professionals and have more than enough money for new speakers. They have a very nice retirement nest egg and are well off enough to literally pay for my med school without any issues. They paid off their home years ago.

My dad is also huge into music. For as long as I can remember, his music collection has been super prized and special. Once I took one of his CDs and almost lost it, and it was so distressing to him that he moved his entire collection away from the family’s. He would put loud surfer music on to relax when I was a kid and spent a lot of time watching music performances from the 60s and 70s. He got Sirius XM when I was in middle school and would routinely quiz me on the music, saying I should just be able to recognize a band from their style. When I was a young teen, he shared another album with me when I was sick, and that was like, the most special way he knew how to connect.

My point being, music isn’t a new hobby and my parents have more than enough money to get him a fancy hifi set. My mom just kept refusing because why aren’t the “top of the line” speakers from the 90s good enough?

Well my dad finally got his new speakers but decided to move them to his (home) office. So he did. And that set off another argument with threats of divorce.

And they brought my little sister into the middle of it using hugely manipulative language. Yeah my sis is now technically an adult, but she’s still their child and it’s grossly inappropriate to put your child in between the two of you. She’s a human, not a pawn.

So I woke up in a shit mood already, and I had a busy day of a doctor’s appointment, a therapy appointment, clinical medicine workshop, then a class where I have to give a stupid chalk talk which I’ve been so sick and so busy that I just. Haven’t had time to prepare at all.

And as I start getting dressed, I realize I have no idea if I’m expected to be in professional dress for the workshop because there is no indication online if we have guest panelists or speakers or sim patients. But the professional clothes are all overstimulating and itchy and I was like *this close* to mini meltdown status, so I emailed the course lead to ask… put on clothes that were just comfortable in the mean time… packed a bag with professional clothes to change into if needed..

I get an email back that doesn’t even answer the question, stating that professional attire is required for patients, sim patients, speakers, and panelists. Which I knew. I didn’t know if we had another of those today, because there isn’t any info about it online. I emailed back but haven’t heard back.

My doctor is now running 45 min late (I’ve been here for over an hour), I had to turn off the lights in the exam room because they were too bright, and I had to cancel/reschedule therapy because it was supposed to start at 11.

I’m not mad at anybody in particular other than my parents. I’m just annoyed and overstimulated and want to crawl into a dark pit and sob.

And of course in the car to the hospital, I was practicing telling the nurse I would like to decline being weighed. Because I know it would be triggering. But when she grabbed me, I couldn’t do it.

[mystery08my]

New Story!!!

----

Izuku is quirkless...

But he isn't? He's a.... Cat?

~'0'~

Izuku gets a quirk at the age of 12, which leads him to be cat-napped, kicked out and adopted?

Story below:

Life as a cat was simple. 

Cat’s are known for sleeping all day, while snuggled up to someone.

Something Isuzu learned was that life as a cat wasn’t exactly as easy as people made it seem.

Izuku got his quirk at the age of four, just like everyone else.

It was everything he could have imagined.

His mother woke him up early in the morning, reminding him that today would be the day he would get his quirk! (A cool quirk! Like Kacchan’s!)

Izuku was having such a great time, making theories about what his quirk would be, and preparing his notebook, to take as many notes as possible.

When they were in the car, Izuku continued rambling to his mom about the many theories he had about his quirk and how excited he was to be a step closer to being a hero!

Izuku was technically jumping when he was called, much to everyone’s humor.

…

“I’m sorry… Your son has a double jointed toe…” The doctor said soberly as though it was a sad event and someone has died.

“And…?” Izuku’s mom asked, clearly not understanding why the doctor seemed so sad. 

“Your son… He’s quirkless…”

At that word, Izuku zoned out, no longer able to understand what the doctor was saying. 

He was quirkless… 

He can’t be a hero… 

Izuku then rushed to his mother’s arms, hiding his face in the crook of his neck, avoiding the world around him. 

Izuku was so out of it, that he didn’t notice the slight smirk the doctor held, giving this information. 

Nor did he notice the way his mother glared at him, as he continued to block the world.

The next thing Izuku knew was that he was pushed into the back of the car. 

That startled Izuku out of his frase, as he stared at his mom in shock.

She wore the ugliest look he has ever seen her wear…

She looked disgusted, disappointed, mad, sad, furious…

She then slammed the door on his and rushed to her spot and drove without a single word. 

Izuku only stared in shock, trying to understand what just happened. 

After a second, he almost fell from his seat as he realized… His mom hasn’t buckled his seat belt… 

But… she always did! Maybe… Maybe she forgot…

Izuku sat back up and looked up at his mom, opening his mouth to let her know that she forgot his seatbelt, only to be met by a fierce glare… 

Izuku, shocked, decided to shut his mouth, and look down, trying to understand what had happened.

~’0’~

It has been years since that day, 8 to be exact, and Izuku has learned a lot from that day…

He learned that love was exceptional, and that it is something he must earn. He also learned that people like him don’t deserve it…

Izuku wished life could go back to how it was before… 

It is horrible now…

What Izuku once thought would be the best day of his life, turned out to be the Beijing of the many worst days of his life.

Inko hated him for not having a quirk. At the beginning it was nothing but simple insults (Izuku would be lying if he said that it didn’t hurt him), but then it went on to her ignoring him, yelling at him when he ate, or when he mumbled. After some time she started using her quirk on him…

And take his word for it… 

It HURT!

She would throw simple things at him such as books and vases, but after a while she learned that she could pull his skin- worse his nerves if she really focused. Through telekinesis, she would pull Izuku’s skin towards her, causing him to have many cuts. She would also muster up all her strength and push him harshly towards the wall. 

Again… it hurt.

Thankfully, though, she stopped doing it as forcefully a while ago. Instead, she stuck to ignoring his existence. 

She started taking on longer hours in the hospital, wanting to spend as much time away from home- from him- as she could. This continued to the point that it became a habit for Izuku to not see her for days, sometimes even weeks…

But in Izuku’s perspective, what was worse than his mom? School.

School used to be something Izuku enjoyed, and had fun in! However, when he was first diagnosed quirkless, that all changed. 

For one, the day after his diagnoses, he entered class, to see Kacchan scoff when they first made eye contact. Of course, to Izuku this was normal. Kacchan has always been like this.

But when the teacher called their attention, she asked Izuku to state his quirk. 

Izuku then hesitantly stood up and tried to explain that he wasn’t getting a quirk, but no words came out. After trying various times, Izuku looked around the room to see everyone staring at him in confusion.

“He’s quirkless…” Kacchan spat out, before glaring at Izuku and leaving the room.

That was the day Izuku labeled as his worst. 

It was that day, that everyone knew who he was- the freak he was- and the day there was no going back from society.

That was the day, all his peers snarled at him, and started hitting him.

That was the day his teacher’s turned their backs against him, refusing to acknowledge his presence.

…

That was the day his best friend turned his back against him… Like everyone else started to…

That was the day he learned just how cruel the world truly is-

“Hey, Deku!” 

Izuku snapped out of his trance, and looked up to see Kacchan and a bunch of ‘extras’ coming towards him with a smirk on their faces. 

“H-Hey, Kac-Kacchan…” Izuku managed to stutter. Izuku always hated his stuttering… It was something he gained throughout the years. Something, both him and everyone else hated.

“Why are you here so long after school? I thought you would have picked your lazy but from that seat years ago!” Kacchan said, glaring at Izuku.

Izuku looked around to see the whole class, excluding them and the teacher, gone. Oh. He must have been so out of it, he missed the bell…

“O-oh… I-I didn’t rea-realize the bell went o-off! S-Sorry!” Izuku said, standing up from his chair and backing up in caution.

 Izuku spared the teacher a glance, hoping his sensei would try to calm the situation. Sure enough, he doesn’t instead sparing the boy a look, and calmly leaving the room. Why was it always Izuku?

With a large BAM Izuku felt his ears wring and his wrist burn. He looked down and saw a new large burn on his wrist. It seemed as though Kaachan had pulled on his arm harshly, while sweating.

At the realization, Izuku’s eyes widened. Kacchan might have been mean, but he never hurt Izuku! 

Izuku looked up to see the shock on Kacchan’s face. It was pretty obvious that he didn’t mean to do that…

Sadly, though, the ‘extras’ didn’t seem to notice that as they laughed at Izuku’s reaction. 

One of them had a quirk which allowed them to extend and reshape any part of his body. He came up to Izuku and reshaped his arm to look like a huge pin. 

Izuku could only stare in horror as he quickly pushed the hand-turned-pin at Izuku. He braced himself, awaiting for the pain which he knew would soon fill his body. 

Is this how he will die? 

Poor and vulnerable in the hands of his enemy? 

Before he could become a hero?!

Izuku waited for the pain to come; however, it didn’t.

Izuku squinted his eyes open and looked up to the shocked faces of his bullies.

Wait!

…Looked up?

“What is the meaning of this Izuku?!” Kacchan yelled, making Izuku’s ears hurt. “You had a quirk this whole time! And you didn’t tell me?!” At this point some explosions were coming out of Kacchan’s hands.

Izuku’s ears perked up. 

A quirk? He… had a quirk?

That can’t be right… Izuku didn’t have a quirk… He was quirkless…

“Your quirk is just as useless as you!” One of the bullies laughed, causing everyone in the room- except Izuku and Kacchan to crack up. “All you do is turn into a cat!”

A cat? Was that his quirk!

“Now it will be easier to end you!” The body-changing kid said, before pointing the pin at Izuku once more.

Cat-Izuku quickly made a run for it, escaping at the nearest door and running out. Despite nearly dying, Izuku felt his mouth tilt up to a smile. 

A quirk. 

He had a quirk!

Now Inko and Kacchan can love him again!

~'0'~

Hope you enjoyed!

Feel free to join my discord (opened for everyone!): https://discord.gg/sxcFxmEA

#fanfic #mystery08my #mysterywrites #mha #my hero academia #ao3 izuku #bnha izuku #izuku mydoria #izuku midoriya #cute izuku #bakugou katsuki #bnha bakugou #mha bakugou #bnha #mha fanfiction #mha fanfiction recs #fanfiction

[themswritinwords]

Songs and Ships

Tagged by @athenswrites (many thanks!) and tagging @stesierra, @silvertalonwritblr, and @arigalefantasynovels (if you want, no pressure)

rules: write two to five songs that represent a ship between your ocs (it can be platonic or romantic or a secret third thing). then add a quote from said wip (if possible!) underneath it.

I know you shouldn't play favorites with your (brain)children, but I'm going with my all-time favs, Evan and Rowan, from The Rockbridge Experiment.

I Guess I'm In Love by Clinton Kane

I mean, the title says it all. He fell first, she fell harder, a little obliviously mutual pining (and everyone around them rolling their eyes) later, they're the embodiment of "this might as well happen." But make it romance.

Have Rowan's "oops! Feelings!" moment.

If she’d been anyone else, he might have just done it. Acted on impulse and kissed her right then, two-weeks-acquaintance be damned. But if there was a way to ruin everything, that would have been it. You didn’t just accept having a crush on your brand new coworker, let alone act on it. Is that why he was so hung up on her? He saw a pretty girl, but she was automatically off limits, so his brain threw a fit and refused to let the idea go without closure. That was then misinterpreted as attraction. Desire. Whatever this was. Was that really it? The thought gave him a peculiar, distasteful feeling in the pit of his stomach and he frowned to himself, turning another corner. He… didn’t want it to be just some fleeting attraction. And it wasn’t, was it? Yeah, sure, that came with it, but… Oh gods, he liked her. As in, ‘I want to kiss you because I really like you,’ not ‘I like you because I really want to kiss you.’ He stopped midstep, heart pounding with both joy and terror at the realization that this wasn’t a cut and dry case of having the hots for his coworker. “Well,” he said, putting his hands on his hips, “shit.” What did he do now?

Pas Peur by L.E.J.

Is it cheating if it's in a different language? Not if the character speaks said language. A song for the spicy Cajun girl who built a huge chunk of her identity on being Not Scared Of Anything, but is deeply terrified of the fact that she's crushing on someone for the first time in her life. (Bonus points because she literally didn't realize it for 3/4 of the manuscript. I'm not getting over that.)

Have the Terror of Realization.

She glanced surreptitiously to the side, scanning Rowan for any hint of how he was interpreting it. He had his hair down, running his fingers through the ends as he watched the alley ahead of them with a residual smile. Evan’s stomach did that weird twisting thing again, and a tiny jolt went through her as something shifted into place in her mind. Something totally foreign to her, a murky, terrifying unknown slowly fading into focus as her eyes traced the angles of his face.

Falling, by Florence + the Machine

What can I say? I'm a sucker for the scared-of-vulnerability and helpless-descent-into-madness vibes. This one applies to both of them. They're both terrified in different ways and for different reasons-- Rowan because he's usually the smooth talking player who dates around and is always chill, and now he's totally off his game with the facade stripped away. Evan because she's never actually cared for anyone like this, and she also doesn't know how to be the vulnerable, needy one.

Alas, there's not a ton of other quotes I could draw from because Major Spoilers, but have a snippet of a lil heart-to-heart that was particularly fun to write.

“You know,” she said after a moment, “a while back you told me that if the detective thing didn’t work out, I had a future as a therapist.” She looked up with a smirk. “I didn’t realize you were projecting.” “Side effect of your mom having a doctorate in psychology,” Rowan said with a smile. “The analysis, anyway. The awkwardly saying it out loud uncalled for is all me, unfortunately.” “Hey now, you don’t get to give a speech like that and then go calling yourself unfortunate.” With no witty comeback to be had, he just chuckled quietly. “Thank you,” Evan said, quickly and quietly. “I… I think I kind of needed that.” “I meant it,” Rowan said. “You really are incredible.” Their eyes met and lingered in a warm, fragile silence.  “I don’t know why this feels like the time to say it,” Evan said after a moment, “but for all the insanity and general screwed-up-ness of this whole situation… if nothing else, I’m glad it means I got to know you.” “The feeling’s mutual,” Rowan said quietly.

.

Maybe it's time to get back to focusing on rewrites and shortening this one. I forgot how much fun I had writing these kids.

#the rockbridge experiment #original writing #original character #rockbridge #tag games #writeblr #writing #writers of tumblr #urban fantasy

[therealdisneyfan2319]

Broken Glass | Wanda Maximoff

Synopsis: Earth-838 Wanda finds herself in the space between worlds after the events at the Illuminati headquarters and has one goal: get home to Billy and Tommy.

Warnings: Mention of blood, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness spoilers, a lil’ fluff, a lotta angst

Characters: Wanda Maximoff, Billy Maximoff, Tommy Maximoff

Word Count: 2k

Hey y’all.  So I’ve been doing a lot of writing lately and I’m very excited to present to you my first ever fic!  I’ve seen MoM twice so far (and I’ll see it again goddamnit) and I just wanted to write.  While Scarlet Witch Wanda is fucking hot, I had this lightbulb about writing for the multiverse Wanda.  This contains spoilers for Multiverse of Madness FYI.

The door was open, the spell had been lifted.  Wanda didn��t know where she was.

“My boys,” she said, thinking only of her sons who would be terrified to wake to find their mother gone.  She saw a hallway through the door ahead of her.  Was it a portal?  She didn’t know.  She barely knew anything.  Flashes.  That’s all she saw.  Magic.  Blood.  Pain.  Fear.  Death.  They swirled through her mind.  Wanda didn’t know what had happened, but she knew it wasn’t good.  She did know that her best chance at getting out was through that door, so off she flew.

Her knees nearly buckled when she landed.  Wanda felt like she had been hit by a bus and then some.  But her screaming feet nearly dropped her to her knees.  She had run over broken glass barefoot.  Her feet were covered in glass-embedded gashes that bled with every painful step she took.  She limped down the hallway.  Only thoughts of Billy and Tommy kept her from collapsing from utter exhaustion.

As Wanda made her way through the tunnels and into the atrium, she saw the chaos that had been left behind.  Everything was destroyed: the walls had been reduced to rubble, windows smashed, robot sentries laid torn apart and covered in their own oil.  But the bodies…those ripped the air from her lungs.  Captain Carter was halved.  Professor X was slumped in his chair, his neck bent awkwardly at an angle.  Black Bolt’s head looked deflated.  And Mr. Fantastic…Wanda only realized his fate when she felt the blue goo sticking to the soles of her bloody feet.  A wave of nausea swept over her and it took all of her concentration not to empty the contents of her stomach everywhere.  Swallowing the bile, she thought of the lives that had been torn apart.  Suddenly she felt herself hit the floor.  Her body had given out.  The possession had drained her of every ounce of energy.  The Scarlet Witch was an immensely powerful being: Wanda was lucky she hadn’t died during the ordeal.  She didn’t have much left in her, but she summoned up every ounce of strength she had left and flew towards her boys.

Home.  She was home at last.  The boys were still asleep on the couch right where she’d left them before she…but it wasn’t her, was it?  She hadn’t done those awful things, murdered those innocent people in cold blood, chased them down that tunnel.  It was the Scarlet Witch who was responsible for this brutality.  But as the blood poured down her face, the guilt poured just as freely.

“Don’t wake the boys,” she thought.  “I can’t let them see me like this.”

Wanda limped her way to the bathroom and shut the door, leaving a trail of blood behind her.  When she turned on the lights and saw her reflection she froze.  The water Doctor Strange used to slow her down had washed most of the blood and oil from her face, but her clothes were still stained.  As she stared in the mirror the flashbacks started: her body had been used as a vessel for unspeakable evil and she had been forced to watch from inside her own mind.

She knew this other Wanda.  She dreamt of her.  That Wanda  had known unbelievable sorrow not unlike her own.  They had both lost so much, but she had her boys: the Scarlet Witch did not.  Hers were a product of her grief whereas her own Tommy and Billy were of flesh and blood.  That grief tore the Scarlet Witch apart with each passing day.  Wanda dreamt of her night after night and bore witness to her descent into the madness of the Darkhold.  She felt for her but there was nothing she could do.  The Darkhold had become the North Star in the Scarlet Witch’s sky, guiding her towards corruption.

Wanda stripped off her soaked, blood-stained clothes and threw them in the trash.  She didn’t want anything to remind her of what she’d done.  But the blood pouring down from the gash between her eyes said otherwise.  She turned the shower on and grabbed a tissue from the box on the counter.  Wanda blotted at the blood as best she could but the wound wouldn’t stop bleeding.  She sighed, threw the tissue out, and stepped into the shower where she stood and let the water wash over her.  Blood, grime, and dirt washed down the drain.  So did her tears.  She sobbed.  The tears were a result of pain, anger, sorrow, and guilt.  She hadn’t murdered those people and terrorized that girl.  That was the Scarlet Witch.  But Wanda was the Scarlet Witch, and a Wanda was a Wanda in every universe.  So in the grand scheme of the multiverse, she, Wanda Maximoff, had torn all of those lives apart.

She turned off the water and sat on the edge of the tub.  She had forgotten about her feet.  She reached for the tweezers sitting on the counter, crossed one ankle over her knee, and began searching for pieces of glass.  Blood began to drip onto the white tile, speckling it crimson.

A small knock at the door startled Wanda.  It was Billy.

“Mom?  Are you okay?  There’s blood all over the floor.”  His soft voice was full of concern.  He was his mother’s son through and through.

Wanda sniffled.  “Billy?  I’m okay.  Mommy just broke a bowl and cut herself.  I’m just cleaning myself up.  Don’t worry about the floor, baby.  I’ll clean it up later.”

“Are you sure?” replied the timid voice.  “Tommy’s trying to wipe it up now.  We couldn’t find anything to clean the carpet with.”

Wanda smiled.  Her boys were too good for this world.  They were always looking out for her.  Being a single mom was hard enough, so they tried to make life as easy for her as they could.

“It’s okay, Billy.  You go get washed up and I’ll tuck you both in, okay?”

“Okay mom!” Billy raced away, his tiny footsteps echoing down the hall.  She heard their bathroom door slam shut and the subsequent pounding of fists as Tommy protested to his brother to let him in first since he would be faster.

Wanda rummaged through the bathroom cabinets in an effort to find something to clean herself up.  She poured hydrogen peroxide over her feet, grimacing at the pain.  The liquid bubbled against her pale skin.  She did the same to the cut on her forehead.  Band-aids wouldn’t work, so she slathered the goopy antibiotic ointment on her wounds, wrapped her feet with gauze, and carefully closed the wound on her head with butterfly strips left over from when Tommy cut his forehead open on the corner of the fireplace.  It wasn’t perfect, but it would do for now.  She looked around for her pajamas but remembered that she hadn’t grabbed any.  So Wanda wrapped herself in her towel and headed to her bedroom where she grabbed a pair of gray sweatpants and an oversized t-shirt.  She was about to leave when she remembered her feet, so she grabbed a pair of socks and carefully rolled them on over each gauze-wrapped foot.  It didn’t do much to mask the unbearable pain, but she walked as best she could to the boys’ room.  Choking back tears, Wanda grasped the doorknob with one hand and rested her other on the door in front of her.  She needed something to ground herself.  The cool metal brought her out of her head and back to reality.  She took a deep breath.  If she couldn’t hold it together for herself she had to hold it together for her boys.

Billy and Tommy were already in their beds when Wanda walked in.  Billy was working on a crossword puzzle from a puzzle book he bought with his allowance.  Tommy was reading his new Captain Carter comic book.  She smiled but her heart was heavy.  How lucky was she to have these moments with her boys while the Scarlet Witch was forced to watch, night after night, knowing that they’d never be her reality?  Tommy looked up from his comic.  Though the light was dim he could still see the cut on his mother’s forehead and the bruises that were beginning to discolor her face.

“Mom!  Are you okay?!  What happened to your face?!”  His eyes grew wide with concern.  Wanda smiled weakly and sat down on the edge of his bed.

“It’s okay, sweetheart.  I’m fine.  I just had a bit of an accident, that’s all.”  It wasn’t the truth, but it wasn’t a complete lie, either.

“Did someone hurt you, mom?” Tommy reached up and cradled Wanda’s face with his hands.  As much of a handful as the twins could be, Billy and Tommy loved Wanda to the ends of the earth and back.  The thought of someone hurting her?  No, not possible.  Not their mom.

“No, baby.  No, I just had an accident.  It’ll be okay.  I promise.”  She placed her hand over his.  Of course she didn’t know if that was true.  The Scarlet Witch had possessed her twice in one day…who knew if she’d be back for more?

She kissed Tommy’s forehead and tucked him in.  “You know,” she said.  “A family-”

“Is forever.  We know, mom!” interrupted Billy.  “We’re all going to be together forever no matter what.”  Wanda turned and laughed at him.

“Yes, that’s right.  We could never leave each other even if we tried.  No matter where we are.  If we’re in this world, or even someplace else, I’ll always be your mom, and you’ll always be my boys.”  It was her silent plea.  She hoped the Scarlet Witch was listening.  If she couldn’t have her boys in her universe, she should still know that they were always with her.  And Wanda hoped she would love them enough for the both of them.  She walked over, tucked Billy in, and kissed the top of his head.

“Mom?” he asked as Wanda turned to leave their room.

“Mmm?”

“Can you lay with me for a bit?”

Wanda chuckled.  They were growing up, there was no doubt about that.  But behind the coolness of being ten years old, behind the video games and flag football and the growing pains, they were still two boys who desperately loved and needed their mom.  She turned off the light and scooched her way into Billy’s bed.  As he snuggled in close she held him tightly to her chest.  His breathing slowed as he drifted off.  The light snoring coming from the other side of the room told her that Tommy, too, had drifted off.  The urge to sleep was all powerful: she was drained physically and emotionally.  As she began to fall under sleep’s intoxicating fumes, one son nestled against her body and another snuggled in his own bed with his favorite stuffed dinosaur, she began to cry.  The emotional weight of everything had finally caught up with her and it was crushing.  She squeezed Billy closer to her, sobbing quietly as she buried her face in his hair.  She cried from exhaustion.  She cried out of grief, grief for what her body had been forced to do, grief for the lives that were torn apart.  She cried for the deep, guttural love she had for her boys, the best thing that ever happened to her and her North Star in a world of darkness.  And she cried for a Wanda who would never again feel the closeness of her sons, a Wanda driven to madness and murder in the name of love.  As she surrendered her body to rest she hoped the Wanda she saw in her dreams would be at peace, knowing how loved their boys were in every dimension.

#wanda maximoff #wanda maximoff imagine #wanda maximoff fic #wanda maximoff angst #scarlet witch #scarlet witch imagine #scarlet witch fic #scarlet witch angst #elizabeth olsen #doctor strange #doctor strange in the multiverse of madness #multiverse of madness #doctor strange spoilers #doctor strange in the multiverse of madness spoilers #multiverse of madness spoilers #marvel imagine #mcu imagine #fanfiction #therealdisneyfan2319 #marvel #mcu

[akihabara-division03]

Politely greeting the receptionist at the counter of one clinic in Akihabara, the boy with reddish hair in a gakuran uniform informed them that he had arrived to meet Dr. Kiyozaki but was soon told that the hypnotherapist was having the client right now. 

Sighing at himself as he realized that he has forgotten to do the first and most reasonable thing like arranging the appointment with the birthday owner before arriving, he then asked something out

“If so, could I ask you to give this to Dr. Kiyozaki? You can tell her that these are some birthday gifts from Nara Division.”

The present box he handed to them contained three gifts from each member of his team. 

First one was a pink purse with the dinosaur shape, ready to get on any journey with its new owner! 

Second one was a set of nerikiri specially made for Christmas even if that season has yet to arrive… Maybe this was an early blessing from its maker!

And the last one was a smart thermal bottle that can both maintain the temperature of content inside and inform its current temperature state to the keeper. Since autumn is going to end and winter is soon coming, it must be nice to have some portable bottle that can keep a warm drink during the day.

—————————————

After getting back to the car, Yuuya fastened his seat belt as he was asked by his only companion in the driver’s seat.

“Leaving already, kid?” 

“…Someone might be mad if I skip class. Besides, I’ve already met Kiyozaki-san in person at the collab event.” 

“Hmm, don’t you look like you want to meet her earlier?”

“Weeell, to tell the truth; she does have a similar eye color to me, so I’ve been wondering at some point if she is somehow related to either dad or mom. However, thinking about it again —This may not be the case considering both of my parents don’t even have the same shades as me and my sister. My eyes are instead just a mix from both of them.”

The owner of a pair of eyes dyed with enigmatic shades of sunset soon shifted his gaze from the screen of his phone to the outside of the car’s window as the other party went silent. There he mumbled,

“...Coincidence can happen to anybody, isn’t it? It would be really funny if one did run into their long-lost relative just because they’re participating in the D.R.B.”

The boy then recalled that he felt like his dad might have something he didn’t want to tell him too. But then again, this had nothing to do with the present.

Furthermore, somehow he did have one more funny thought to test out...

“Say, Chishio-san.”

With an unchanged expression on his face, the boy looked straight at his third member’s right-hand man who did’t even meet his gaze right now.

“Do you have anything important that you have yet to tell me and your young master too?”

Anika paused from examining her new thermal bottle, bewildered. “He really called me ‘doctor’?”

“He did say he wanted to leave these presents for ‘Dr. Kiyozaki,’” Kataoka interpreted for the receptionist. “We did end up correcting him that you don’t have the same license as a psychiatrist.”

The receptionist snickered lightheartedly as he leaned against the door to Anika’s office. “You’re getting more and more popular among other divisions. Your sender looked disappointed that he couldn’t meet you face-to-face.”

Anika chuckled and pat the head of her new dinosaur purse. I do wish I could’ve seen the face of the one who delivered these so I could thank them myself.

“Thanks for dropping these off. Take some nekiri on your way out.”

Thanks for the gifts!

#hypnosis mic #hypnosis mic oc #hypmic #hypmic oc #hypnosis mic arb #hypmic arb #akihabara division #pixel syndicate #anika kiyozaki #anika birthday 2023 #birthday 2023 #callmepyrus #nara division

[nsk96]

Personal rant; please ignore this one it’s an unorganized mess and I’m only recording it here for future therapy because I don’t want to record it on my computer that I use for school

I’m tired of having emotional breakdowns that are caused by my mom, having to deal with mom’s lack of emotional intelligence (verbally blowing up at me just because something someone else did made her mad, or blowing up at me for the littlest things I forgot to do despite knowing I have memory issues (which she has done nothing to help with btw and also has discouraged me from seeing a professional about 3 times when I brought it up) and me having an emotional breakdown as a result. About 80% of my emotional breakdowns are caused by her) and unnecessary meaningless sarcastic criticism (which seems to have gotten worse this year (sept-oct). Example: doctor asked me if I gained weight in past couple months. I said no because I actually lost weight. In response to my no, mom blurted “really” sarcastically.

There was another instance at the same doctor visit pertaining to how often I get headaches. Then at a follow up at the same doctor she couldn’t stop picking on me for rubbing my finger nails even though I told her that the stickers are coming off anyway because I had this nail polish on for 3 weeks. I continued rubbing my nails (because it’s just hard for me stop fidgeting and it’s things like this that I seem to help with anxiety) and she said sarcastically “and you’re still rubbing them” as if what she said about the nail polish coming off was some sort of insightful advice. Like what part of “I had this on for 3 weeks have to do my nails soon” did she not understand?

Then last week and this week today I had to skip prayers (prayer ritual we have every Friday) because of school assignments. Today she was like, “you’re skipping prayers these days? (Sarcastically)” I replied I have assignments due today. She said, “other people get it done.” I reiterated for the third time today, “they’re due tonight”. This assignment is due by tonight, the information needed to complete it was literally given today, and it takes a long fucking time to complete because some of the source information is an EHR in the form of a PowerPoint that takes up the whole screen to simulate a “real-life” EHR. There’s no switching between apps nor minimizing the window. If I want to I put information into my assignment, I have to exit this PowerPoint, type the info to my worksheet, and then open the PowerPoint again to collect the next bit of information. Over and over again. Mom refuses to understand that some of these professors deliberately make shit harder than it has to be no matter how many times I explain this fact to her complete with examples. She still finds it necessary to compare me to other people and criticize me? Despite knowing I’m dealing with concentration and memory issues that is very likely ADHD (I meet all the criteria and have met them since 4 years old) and despite her knowing these “other people” are getting the answers to exams, quizzes, and assignments (my friends, who are not getting this stuff, have spent the whole day like I have). Maybe I should sleep around with the upperclassman like the “others” do to get this stuff so I don’t have to hear her say this bullshit. The funny thing is that the classes that came before us, shared everything amongst their whole class. My class? We got a couple of snitches so the people getting the answers have to go the extra mile to obtain them and are only sharing with their closest friends (so if you didn’t befriend them before P2 year you’re not getting anything from them).

When I brought up what she said at the appointment about my weight three weeks later, she finally said she shouldn’t have said that and she realized that after she said it. So…she couldn’t apologize in the car after the appointment? She knew what she said was wrong and hurtful but had to wait until I called her out on it 3 weeks later to finally apologize? I don’t even remember if she said sorry. Now it makes sense why I’m terrible at apologizing. I grew up with parents who didn’t apologize or take accountability when they did something wrong. Whenever something they said or did was emotionally hurtful, and I started crying and told them how hurt I was, they’d deny or deflect implying that I deserved it for doing xyz (stupid little things that got a disproportionately severe punishment or got me blown up at).

Not too long, mom blew up at me for something I forgot to do. But I wasn’t crying because of her yelling, I was crying because of what she said. She really hit below the belt for no reason. There was so reason to insult me like that, and then when I tried to talk to her about it she literally said I deserved it before I could explain how what she said hurt me. This was around 2020-ish.

It’s strange how now that I’m trying to dig deep and figure out why I am the way I am (because it’s affecting my relationships/friendships, school and job performance), the more I realize what’s been going on, the things I’ve accepted as normal that are not normal at all.

I “deserved” it…..must be why I always blamed myself first when romantic relationships failed. I blamed myself for boyfriends ignoring me, talking down to me, pestering me for nudes, ghosting me, etc. Same for friendships when friends decided to not reply or decided not to initiate conversations with me.

Update 10/25/23: so i was in a bad mood today and my mom asked me what's wrong. I replied nothing, just the usual stress. She kept trying to probe and I told her that I need to study and that I lost too much time already and I tried to get my stuff so that I can get to my room as soon as I can. She was like "you've been acting different the past few weeks and it's getting worse"...Wow, she's now noticing that my mental health is getting worse after we had this mental health conversation how many times? Maybe I should try to bottle it all up again since it's such an inconvenience to her. I didn't do or say anything offensive to her but yet she's acting like my mood is such an offensive thing to her? Just now she was like, "you're acting depressed like your father. Am I going to find you outside lying down on the ground like him too?" (context: my narc dad was throwing a tamper tantrum a while back and he went outside and lied down on the concrete). "Acting depressed"...did it ever occur to her that maybe I'm not "acting"? I've been feeling this way for years but now it's getting to the point that I can't hold it in nor pretend to be bubbly and preppy all the time. Just yesterday, we had a home inspector come and check the house for the insurance. He went to the bathroom to check the pipes and stuff. When he was gone my mom had an issue with what I threw in the trash...the plastic wrapper for my period pad. Not even the pad (which I wrap up in toilet paper and toss in the trash and looks like the other paper garbage in there). She was like "isn't that your pad in there? It looks like there's blood." The wrapper is purple and pink and it's rolled up and crinkled. I told her this and confirmed that my pad is not wrapped up in it. She was like "you need to be conscious about how it looks. No wonder the guy was so quick through the house." Okay, what? The bathroom was the second to last thing he saw. He was almost done before he would have seen it. I said while walking away, "Oh, a grown man can't handle the sight of a pad wrapper. Nice." I'm tired of living my life in ways to please other people. So I need to be ashamed of my own bodily function in my home now? Maybe I should skip the iron pills of the BC I'm taking to treat my endo. Maybe then I don't have to worry about my period being such and inconvenience to other people who come visit my own home. Or maybe this place was never my home. I just live here I guess.

Another thing, honestly, I usually showered everyday but for a year now, it's been getting difficult to keep up. It started with skipping showers and dinner to gain extra study time. Now it's just difficult to stop skipping and I've been going anywhere between 1-4 days without showering. Such an event happened this week. I went 4 days, (thankfully this time, days 3 & 4 were due to unforseen circumstances) and on day 4, my parents came home from a family gathering late in the night and my dad said he was gonna go in the shower. Context: I didn't want to be in the shower while being home alone in the evening because of our area. I told them that I wanted to go in the shower first and said that I can't skip another day. My mom in the other room jokingly said, "I don't know what's been going on with you." As if she doesn't know that I've skipped showers to study or do group assignments (because the group has to meet at a time that is "convenient" for everyone). But now it is hardly because of that and I found out that this is a symptom of depression.

She said, "you're acting like you're angry at the world or at someone." So being expressionless and cutting conversation short, and wanting to be alone today is "angry"? Why every time I express behavior that she thinks is unpleasant that she has to compare me to my dad? Then she said that I don't need to act this way just because I'm stressed out. She then ended with "I'm stressed too" as if she doesn't take it out on us once in a while. So just because she can supposedly handle her stress, that means that I can handle my stress in exactly the same way? At least the way I'm handling my stress is not directed at her even though she's one of the main contributing factors to why I'm feeling this way. I still have yet to look up therapists for my mental health and psychiatrists for my inattention/spacing out/memory issues but haven't had the time because of school. It took a mental breakdown weeks ago for her to finally take my mental health seriously enough that she actually tried to help by speaking to our insurance company about coverage and options. But here she is a few weeks later, dismissing my mental health again. I don't get it...but then again she doesn't get me. She never has and never will. Throughout my life, I often heard her say "I don't understand you" whenever I did something that got me in trouble with her (things that are not bad but an inconvenience. Usually forgetting to do something) or did something "weird". She never tried to understand. I guess this is what happens when your parents are born into a culture/time period where mental health and neurodivergence "doesn't exist". The part that kills me is that she has the sources to look it up and learn about it but does not even try to.

And if I bring up the hurtful things she said these past couple of months, she'll just say that I'm misinterpreting her words like my dad does, or she'll say to ignore it (I know because I brought it up to her in the past, as well as when I spoke about what a friend was going through with her own mother. Her advice was for my friend to ignore it). How am I supposed to ignore something hurtful to me when it is out of the blue and sometimes comes disguised as advice? Am I just not supposed to listen to anything she says? Just because she doesn't mean it a certain way, doesn't mean that it doesn't come across that way. And most of the time, I'm pretty sure she means it that way because she doesn't actually apologize when I do bring it up. She either denies or tell me not to be upset about it. But if I accidentally say something hurtful, which is rare, she will hunt me down for an apology and blow up at me until I do apologize.

The funny thing is, back when I was in middle school, her reasoning for how she spoke to us was that she had to filter herself at work all day and that she didn't want to have to filter when at home. It's strange that as I'm writing this, I'm now recalling this memory from about 15 years ago. And it's even funnier to me that she expects me to filter myself at home. So I can't express myself anywhere? It's okay for her to do it, but not okay for me to? Oh right, this is her home, I just live here. She never outright said that, not that I recall yet, but that's how it always felt, ever since as a little kid. Back then, I was always scared to come home and wanted to stay at school in after-school care.

A few days ago, we randomly had a conversation about what would happen when she ages. Of course she doesn't want to be put in a nursing home (I don't either), but I'm a realist and mentioned that there could be a point at which I'd have to (Ex. in Alzheimer's when they no longer recognize you and the family and become a violence risk) but don't want to, or that I'd have to hire a caretaker. She guilt-tripped me into agreeing to not put her in a home saying "but how will you know that they won't mistreat me or r**pe me?" So I agreed and said that there's medication to help with aggressiveness anyway (they really don't help all that much and as the dementia progresses, the medication won't work anymore and at that point the only option is to keep them sedated apparently).

The good news is that, people are living longer and that means there will be a bigger emphasis on elderly care and hopefully stricter regulations that prevent abuse. However, I'm still baffled at the fact that she said she wanted to live with me and my future family even though I specifically stated that she can't if she gets violent. Like...she's okay with endangering me or her own grandkids? I don't think she's considering the reality of what caretakers of the elderly experience, but how can she? She wasn't her parents' caretaker because her marriage took her to another country. She was a hired caretaker of an old lady once, but quit because the old lady was racist and was doing nasty things to spite her, and supposedly took a knife to the guest bedroom door (where the caretaker stays). We're not sure about the knife part but there are scratches on the door that look like it was put there by a knife. After seeing a glimpse of that, is my mom really okay with putting me through the same? I'm her daughter, of course she wouldn't hurt me...yeah until she no longer recognizes who I am. Being in healthcare, I get to hear the reality straight from people who work in these settings and those who actually have experience with being caretakers of there own parents. The depression, having to leave your family for extended periods of time to take care of the parent, or not having a social life, your whole life revolving around your aging parent. It goes the same way almost every time. Honestly, I feel horrible saying this...after everything she put me through mentally/emotionally, I want to be as far away from her as I can get. At least for a few years until I've had enough space to become the person I want to be. I feel so trapped, claustrophobic, here. I noticed that my recent slow transition to goth fashion has clearly made her feel uncomfortable. She tried to hide it but I can tell. I used Halloween month as an excuse to start wearing goth jewelry and even get this cute black dress with lace sleeves. I haven't even started with the makeup yet. Oh boy, wait till she finds out that I'm still wearing this stuff after Halloween. I once told her recently that I always wanted to wear goth fashion ever since I was a kid between elementary school and middle school, it's not a phase. She said, "it is a phase. I bet you wanted to wear that because it is what was everyone was wearing then" 💀 Bruh goths were shunned where I went to school because we lived in the hood. People made fun of the goth and emo/scene kids. But that didn't stop me from relating to the goth kids and wanting to join them. I was already into some of the same things they were into and I loved the style.

Anyways, I don't plan on having grandkids. I'll have to be the one to take care of her no matter what. Why do I need to look for a husband to build a family to take care of, when I already have a family member to take care of? This is my curse as the youngest child. I'm glad my brother is getting to live out his life the way he wants at least. He didn't deserve what she and my dad put him through. He experienced parentification and was forced to grow up too soon. He had to sometimes be the one to shield me from certain things as kids. I'm proud of him for breaking the cycle with his own kids. His wife's kids though I'm not entirely sure from what I've heard, but I know he's trying his best.

#personal #pharmacy school adventures

[appetite4savage]

Family Ties (Modern Sav)

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Request from anon: Sav’s wife fights with her parents over her marrying him.

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My parents have not respected Sav since the day they met him. They’ve always claimed he isn’t good enough for me because he’s a rockstar and not a doctor or lawyer. Not to mention, he’s twenty years older than me.

I knew when Sav proposed to me that we would have to do our own wedding and that my parents wouldn’t be involved. So, we got eloped in Hawaii and didn’t tell a soul except his bandmates and their wives.

When my mother found out we did this, she immediately jumped down my throat about it, calling me disrespectful and that she hopes our marriage ends terribly.

Well, this all happened six months ago and we haven’t spoken since. Sav has tried to get me to answer her calls because he values family so heavily but I just can’t do it. I can’t hear the same voice that has been belittling me since the day I was born.

We have since started the next tour with Def Leppard and the three bands that have joined them this time. The last thing on my mind has been her.

A knock on Sav’s dressing room startles me from my thoughts. I open the door, and the person standing in front of me is the person I least expected.

“Mom?”

I look over at her appearance. She’s dressed for perfection as always, not a hair out of place.

“Hi, honey.” She goes in for a hug but I block her.

“What are you doing here?” I narrow my eyes.

“Rick called me. He said you wanted me to come.”

“He would do no such thing. You’re not welcome here.” I scoff. I go to close the door in her face but her pointed heel stops the door.

“Stop with the dramatics. He really did call me. He thinks we need to make amends.”

Why would he betray me like this? My own husband?

Speak of the devil. He walks in with his tail immediately between his legs as he realizes what’s happening. I glare at him and he knows that I’m not very happy at the moment.

“So, I know I should have told you. But with my mother being sick and everything I felt like it was time for you two to make amends before it’s too late. She’s the only mother you have, Y/N.” He explains, putting a hand on my shoulder.

I can’t even be mad at him. I married the biggest hearted person on planet earth. A tinge of guilt runs through me. He’s right, and I know it.

I sigh, taking a seat on the couch and he joins me, my mother taking a seat on the chair in front of us. He puts his hand on my knee for support.

“Your father and I have talked about this a lot. We’re tired of fighting with you. We just want you to be happy, even if all of this wasn’t in our plan for you.” She gestures around the room.

“I promise you, she’s getting taken care of. There’s nothing to worry about.” Sav suggests.

“He’s right, Mom. He would never let me struggle. His bandmates have even become like family.” I smile at him.

“Alright, then. I’m sorry for everything.”

My mother… just apologized? For the first time in my life?

I get up, and she does too. I hug her and a tear slips from my eyes. I’ve waited so long for this day.

“I still think you both need a haircut, though.”

There it is. There’s the Mom I know.

#def leppard #rick savage #def leppard fan fiction #appetite4savage writes

[animefankotaro]

Trans Aladdin

Aladdin couldn't believe where he was now. Not long ago he and Abu were living on the streets. They were stealing food from shops and lived in an abandoned old building. That all changed when he saw Jamine. He didn't know she was the Princess at first. But he didn't care; he loved her either way. When he got Genie he wished to be a Prince so she would fall in love with him. He knew it was wrong as he lied to her. That wasn't the only thing he lied to her about. There was one other thing he was keeping a secret and he knew he had to tell her.

“What a day.” Jasmine said getting ready for bed. She has a night gown on and has washed off her make up. “I never knew shaking so many hands would be so tiring.”

“No one said being a princess would be easy.” Aladdin told her.

“I suppose that's true. Though it did involve a lot of reading as a kid. I was always jealous of all the normal kids getting to run around outside while I was stuck studying.”

There's some good to that. Some of those kids didn't have real homes. Some of them... didn't have parents.” Jasmine frowned. She realized that she did have it better than others despite a non-normal childhood.

“Do you remember your parents?” Jasmine asked.

“Yeah. My mom died when I was a kid. She did everything she could to help though. After she died I was on my own. It was hard at first but I adjusted. We all have to take care of ourselves eventually.”

“And your father?” Aladdin looked down not speaking for a moment.

“He left our family when I was little. All I have to remember him is a dagger.” Aladdin was silent again. Jasmine wrapped him up in a hug.

“I'm sorry.” It's okay. I've always had Abu. I also have a new family now.” Aladdin smiled at her. She really was beautiful. He could see why many princes tries to court her. “At least I'll have you with me.” “And I'll have you.” They gave each other a small kiss.

“You also know what it's like to lose a parent.” Aladdin said.

“My mother and I were pretty close. She used to tell me stories about how she met dad and that one day I would find a husband of my own. She would play with me in the yard and read to me.”

“How did she die?” Jasmine sighed.

“She got sick. There was nothing the doctor could do. Daddy and I were my her side when she went. She was holding my little hand and looking at me. She wanted the last thing she saw to be her most precious.” Jasmine cried a little.

“I'm sorry. I should not have brung that up.”

“You were going to find out sooner or later.” They were silent a moment before Aladdin spoke.

“Jamine.” He said rather nervously.

“Yes.”

“There's something I need to tell you. Something important.”

“Can it wait to tomorrow?” Jasmine yawned ready for bed. She stretched and got in bed.

“No. It can't. I need to tell you the truth.”

“The truth. You already told be the truth.” Jasmine looked rather confused.

“Not the prince thing. It's something else. It's the was I was born. I'm not like other guys” Jasmine looked more interested now. She looked at him with a curious eye. “I don't have the same body as most men.”

“What do you mean?”

“There's a reason I wear underwear to bed and don't allow you to see me naked. Under these clothes I'm like you.” “Jasmine looked more confused now.

“Like me. I don't understand.” Aladdin was quiet a moment before speaking again.

“My dad left before I told him so he never knew. He still doesn't know. When I told my mom I didn't know what would happen. Would she be mad or sad about it? Would she put me in a mental hospital or abandon me? But I couldn't live like it any longer. I couldn't be.... a girl any longer.” He looked at Jasmine who was looking at him. She didn't quite get it yet. “I was born a girl.”

“You were born a girl?” Aladdin nodded.

“Yes. I even had a different name and wore dresses. But it didn't feel right. Luckily my mom supported me and I became Aladdin.” Jasmine looked as if she had a millinon questions but she didn't look upset.

“So does that mean down there you don't have male parts?”

Yep.”

“How is your chest so flat?”

“I few years ago I had an operation done. It was probably stupid as it was a doctor in an alley rather than a real one but it was all I could afford. I had to steal a lot for that to afford it. But he took my breast off. If you look closely you can see some scars here.” Jasmine looked at Aladdin's chest and did see some scars on his breastplate.

“Did it hurt?” Jasmine asked concerned.

“Is Jafar evil?” Jasmine chuckled a little. “I know that mind change your thoughts about me but I...” “You're still Aladdin to me no matter what you look like under your clothes. Prince dress or rags.” She hugged him and he hugged back. “I have a question though. Why didn't you just wish to be a boy from the Genie?”

“Well I only had three and I wanted to make sure they would get us together. Besides, I hoped wishing to be a prince would do the trick. It didn't.”

“It doesn't matter. You're Aladdin inside which is all that counts.” They were about to kiss until the Genie got in the way in front of them.

“Th th th th that's all folks!” Genie said as Aladdin and Jasmine were wondering who he was talking too.

#aladdín #princess jasmine #aladdin genie #apu #disney #trans #trans man #ftm #transgender #headcanon #oneshot