Tumgik
#one teacher came over to see mine after i shared that i got 16 points. he said ‘goodness gracious!’ in response
Text
Tumblr media
highlight from today’s staff development meeting
1 note · View note
ssa-daddyhotchner · 3 years
Text
Undercover - Chapter 1
Story Warnings: Smut, rape, mention of suicide, murder, domestic abuse, sexual assault, mention of abortion, addiction, torture, kidnapping.
Just a mention that these are serious topics and are not promoting anything and those topics are specifically for character development....
Chapter Selection
______________________________
I walk into the building and feel a rush of cool air. Dammit I wish I brought a sweater. When I walk into the office I get called by a man wearing a black suit with a red tie, 
"Agent y/l?" I turned my head and walk over to the man that called my name; my Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner. "Yes?" 
"Can I see you in my office." He asked in a clam stern voice. I walked up to his door and walked inside.
He gestured for me to take a seat. "I see that you have a degree in criminology and criminal psychology."
"Yes sir." I started to rub my thump over my fingers. "Why the BAU", I couldn't read the emotions on his face. He was like stone. "I've always been interested in criminals and their behavior the why was the question I constantly asked myself when I'd see or read a story of a crime." 
He doesn't say anything he just looks. His brows furrowed with his eyes focused on my body language.
"Okay", Hotch stands up and holds out his hand. I follow his movements and shook his hand. He walks out from behind his desk and walks to the railing outside. "I'd like to introduce you to Agent y/n y/l."
A crowd of 6 people came around from all over the bullpen. Hotch pointed to all the people; "This is Derek Morgan, Jennifer Jareau, Emily Prentiss, Spencer Reid, David Rossi, and Penelope Garcia,"
We all made conversation about how it was at the BAU and the types of cases they had gotten in the past. They were quick to disperse having paperwork to do. Hotch showed me to my desk and Garcia helped me get familiar with the system. 
"Hey you need some help." Morgan approached me. "I'm already in the system and I have nothing to work on." He looks a me. 
"I can show you around the building if you want; I'm already done my paperwork and I don't get off till 5 so." I shrug I've got nothing better to do. 
JJ walked into the bullpen with a file at hand, "We've got a case." Everyone files to the round table taking a seat. Emily looks around taking notice at y/n and Morgan's absence, "Where's y/n and Morgan." 
"He took her on a tour of the building, he was done his work." Reid says. 
Me and Morgan were walking back into the bullpen when we notice everyone at the round table.
Hotch gave Morgan a disappointing look and showed me no emotion. "Don't be late. Garica." He wanted her to start. 
Garcia starts ,"16 yr old Julia Martin went missing in Georgetown, Delaware Tuesday night at 10:32pm. She goes to Sussex Central High School, she is a sophomore and keeps to herself, she has a few close friends. She doesn't go out very often." 
Now it's common knowledge that with cases like these it's time sensitive. "Wheels up in 30", We all head out to get our go bags, getting into the SUVs and heading to the jet.
We start to go over the case again. Hotch starts, "Prentiss, Morgan and I will go to the police station to set up, Reid and JJ go talk to the family. 
Y/N you're with Rossi I want you guys to go to the school and talk to her teachers and friends."
The plane lands and we all get into the cars.
Rossi gets into the driver's seat. "So how do you like it so far." He continues to look at the road. 
"It's great I've always wanted to be in the BAU since I was a kid." I look at Rossi, "Is Hotch always so serious?" He glances at me, "Most of the time but he'll warm up to you."
The rest of the car ride is filled with small conversation. 
We get to the school and walk and start talking to her teachers. I asked "What was Julia like in class? Did she talk to anybody that she usually didn't and how were her grades?"
"She didn't really talk to anyone other than a few of her friends. I would try and help her to talk but she would end up doing the work independently even with a group and she would do all the work and as for her grades they were great. She was an A, B student for the most part."
The rest of the teachers said the same thing as the first. 
"Okay so if nothing was going on at school and there were no suspicious people hanging around then they must have grabbed her at home."
 I told Rossi as we walked back to the car. Someone caught our attention. There was a boy leaning against our car. 
"Can we help you", Rossi asked. "I might know what happened to Julia, she was talking to this guy online... she might have mentioned that she was gonna meet up with him." 
"Can you come by the station later we're gonna need to talk to you", I said and he agreed. 
We drive back to the police station and the rest of the team is there. "So apparently Julia was talking to someone online and her friend thinks that's who might have taken her." Rossi says. 
"And she's never met this guy. He doesn't even go to the same school according to her friend" I continue, "The friend's name is Kevin Philips and he's coming by tomorrow."
"Okay everyone we have a long day tomorrow let's get some rest." Hotch tells the team.
We go outside to the cars and drive over to the hotel. "There were only four rooms left so we're gonna need to share.
 JJ and Emily I'm assuming you two are gonna share, Morgan and I will share so that leaves Hotch and y/n." Hotch stares at Rossi
"So you just get a room to yourself?" "Exactly." He walked off going to his room. 
Of course.. "Are you ok with that, you can just share a room with JJ and I." 
"No really it's fine." It wasn't fine. It was my first case and I sharing a room with my boss. Not just my boss but someone I found attractive. 
Hotch grabs the key and we walk to the room. He walks in, drops his stuff on the chair and I just look at him then the bed. "What is it?"
"Um there's only one bed."
He looks at the bed and then the floor. "If it bothers you I can sleep on the floor I dont mind." 
"No, it's ok, it's a large bed." He then turns around, grabs a towel and hops into the shower. I heat up our leftovers from lunch; I know he hasn’t eaten since this afternoon. 
I put on some music and I start to change into a black crop top and grey sweatpants when he walks out of the bathroom. 
I don't notice him at first but I can feel his eyes traveling up my body. I turned around and he's looking at me and I was staring at him. 
He was buff, not ripped, but perfectly toned. You could clearly tell he had abs and a V line that went straight to..... I hadn't put on my clothes yet I was only in a black lace bra and some matching underwear.
He kept staring and I was too lost in thought to do anything about it. "I'm sorry", and he turned around and walked back into the bathroom out of embarrassment. "It's ok Hotch really." 
"You sure." "Yes I'm sure." He walked back out with just the towel when I finished changing. While I was eating at one of the desks. 
There was a mirror in front of me and I could see him perfectly. While I was chewing I could hear a faint voice. "y/n...y/n" I snapped to look up at his eyes through the mirror. 
"Uhh you were staring." I didn't answer but I didn't have too. The brush rose to my cheeks and he could tell.
"You made my food?", "Yeah i knew you hadn't eaten so I figured."
Once I finished I turned off most of the lights as Hotch was still awake; I crawled under the covers and drifted off to sleep.
Aaron POV
I finished up eating the food she made me. I noticed the music she had on was still playing, the song was Brian Crain - Earth. 
She was already sleeping...she looked so beautiful and peaceful. I turned off the music and crawled into bed. She didn't move and I went to sleep. 
I woke up at 2am and her arms wrapped around my torso. Her head was laying on my chest; I slowly got up and went to the bathroom. I looked into the mirror and saw the sweat through my shirt so I took it off.
I went back into bed and right as I put one foot in she grabs my hand and pulls me toward her.
I'm now laying next to her with my arm wrapped around her back with my hand on her waist. She pulls me closer to her, puts her head back on my chest, and put a hand at the base of my neck. 
"Where'd you go", she whispered into my ear. I got chills that ran up and down my spine.
"I had to go for a second but I'm back now", my voice was soft and low almost a whisper as I didn't wanna wake her even more. It was nice, I did like her. 
She nestles her head in the crook of my neck. I felt her breath on my body. We both just drift in each other's arms.
She's just so beautiful... everything about her. The dips and curves of her body to the sound of her voice.
I notice something though, the scars running down her back. Like someone had dragged a knife down it.
-----------------------------------
I woke up first again this time; it was 6am. I didn't wanna wake y/n so I just stayed in bed laying down looking at her. 
This time she wasn't holding me, she was almost on top of me; I could feel her heart beat at a steady pace. Her legs were on mine, her face nestled into my chest and her arms around my body. 
I put my hands on her holding her close. After about 10min she started to open her eyes. "Hey", I said with a soft tone. Surprisingly she looked at me and didn't visibly freak out but her heart rate was picking up, she closed her eyes and tightened her grip. 
"How'd you sleep", I asked her and she looked down at my chest. "It was good", She said lazily. Y/N let out a loud sigh and got up into the bathroom. 
The heat that was next to me started to fade away as her side of the bed got cold. I heard the shower turn on when I went to get some food. 
When I came back she was out of the shower and dressed. "I got you some coffee." She took it from my hand and waited for me to get ready for work.
Y/N POV
Oh my god, I was sleeping on my boss....all night. I enjoyed it- he didn't get up when he saw me. Did he enjoy it too?
I get out of the shower and Hotch is gone. I started to get changed; I put on a white dress shirt and a black slacks with black heels. I hear someone knock at the door. 
It was Hotch holding some coffee and two muffins. "I got you some coffee." He said holding it out.
I start eating my food and he started asking me questions. "So what made you wanna join the FBI?", that was one question I didn't really wanna answer right now. 
"It was my sister for the most part but also the fact that basically my whole family was involved in the government."
"Why your sister?", He looked at me studying seeing how I was reacting. When he asked that question my heart sank into my stomach. "She-", I was trying not to cry; I took a big gulp. 
"She was murdered when I was teenager, I was the one who found the body...It was a long time ago but it still hurts", tears started to fill my eyes and my face was getting red. I looked up for a moment trying to blink the tears away. 
There was a flash of regret in his eyes, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for you to get upset." 
"No it's okay you didn't know." I was trying to hold it together clearly it wasn't working when he walked over to me, he put his arms around my waist and back and hugged me. 
I was caught off guard by the sign of affection but I put my arms around him and hugged him tight. 
"it's okay, I'm sorry." A few tears managed to escape from my eyes; they rolled down my face they were absorbed by his shirt. He cupped my face and wanted me to look at him. 
He didn't say anything, he used his thumb to wipe the tears that were still falling from my face and hugged me again.
I started to calm down in his arms listening to his breathing. I felt protected, secure, and warm. Being in his embrace was like a shield; nothing else mattered. 
Time skip
While waiting for Kevin to get here we all are gathered around talking. I walked over to Reid; he has his nose buried in a book, "Hey." He looked up at me. "Hey", "How's it going." I was getting a little nervous running my thumb along my other fingers. 
He seemed to notice when his face softened a bit. "Good"
"Look I'm sorry in advance I'm not really good with conversation." I said as he stood up from the chair. "It's okay neither am I, I always worry if I'm saying too much or saying the wrong thing." 
Knowing there was someone else on the team that was also awkward it was comforting. "Well since we'll be working together a lot how about when we finish this we go get a cup of coffee." 
His shoulders eased and his eyes lit up. "Yeah I'd like that." I can tell the corners of his mouth were turning up and his cheeks were slightly pink. 
Reid sat back down when I walked away he looked slightly disappointed but resumed reading. I was about to talk to Morgan but Kevin walked into the station. 
JJ walked up to him, "Kevin?" He nodded. "Follow me", JJ brought him to a back office and sat him down. "Before Julia left did she say anything to you."
Kevin started, "I might be her best friend but she didn't tell me much only that she'd been talking to him for a few months and that he wanted to meet up with her. She said his name was Danny. He went to another high school but she didn't say which one, he was 17, and lived near Middletown or New Castle; I don't remember which. If it were up to her she wouldn't have told me at all, I was bugging her about it and she finally let it out." 
Morgan called Garcia, "Hey baby girl, Do you think you can trace her phone?", then Garcia started talking "Honey if you don't think I can do that then your in for a surprise on what I can do." Morgan laughed. He's obviously the flirty one. 
"Her phone is off best I can do is get the last known location....and that is in...New Castle Glasgow Park, its roughly an hour and 30 away." "Alright thanks babygirl"
"I'll call you back if it goes online." She ended the phone call and told the team.
Reid looked at Hotch, Morgan and I. "Either that's where they took her or she really didn't wanna get caught", I stated. 
"Y/N and I will drive up there." Hotch glances at me and nodded his head towards the door. 
The drive with Hotch was nice. We talked and I learned he had a brother in New York that works as a chef. His dad was a lawyer and his mom was a nurse. He likes dogs, Bon Jovi, and the beatles. 
I told him more about my sister, how my mom was a Marine and my dad was a detective. I told him I liked the beatles, cold weather, and Elvis. 
When we got to the park we noticed there was no one there, it was silent and secluded. "Walk with me", I tugged his hand gesturing to follow me. "Were on a case", "I know were just looking around." 
His eyes looked down at my hand on his, I let go and my cheeks blushed, he took notice; the corners of his mouth turning upwards. There was no one else on the trail.
Trees surrounding the majority of the area. "What did you do.. ya know before this." As we were walking he averted his gaze from the ground to me. "Before the FBI?" I turned slightly. "Yeah", "I was a prosecutor." 
I slowed my steps, "Why'd you stop, you were still putting the criminals away. Why'd you lose interest." He smiled a bit when he looked to the side to see me already looking at him. 
"I don't know, I guess it was because I was tried of it. When those cases came to me they had already committed the crime. I guess I thought I wasn't doing enough. I wanted to get them before those cases reached my desk." 
We were approaching some of the wooded pathways that broke of in two directions.
That's when we stopped, I walked in front of him and kept my eyes of the ground before looking up. 
"Well sir congrats you were successful. I mean think of how many lives you've saved based on that one decision you made." His eyes softened and his face eased his shoulders dropped, he was relaxed. 
"What's that", he points to the ground in front of one of the gates by the woods. I bend down and grabbed it, "It's a phone. Still has power, no password." 
Hotch calls Garcia, "Hello sir what can I do you for." "Can you run a number for me...302-555-4276." After a few seconds and the sound of typing she speaks. 
"The number is registered to a.. Julia Martin. Sir, that's her phone" Hotch ends the call. 
"The phone was in front of the woods if you were taking someone to a public park to meet with them the woods would be an easy exit", He states. 
Hotch gestures me to continue walking into the woods I look at him then the woods. "No you're going first", I put my hands up and he stares down and chuckles. "You scared?", I shrug and grin, "Maybe."
"Think about it in the movies where do the people go missing" I pause before continuing, "the woods and I'm not gonna be one of those people." 
While he's stiffing a laugh I follow behind him. It's starting to get dark so we pick up the pace. We go on for 2 miles before I stop him, "Right there", I point to a broken house at a clearing.
I remove my gun, he takes the back while I stay in the front with my gun raised. 
I hear Hotchs footsteps through the house, I walk in the front door; seeing nothing but broken chairs, torn wallpaper, and rotting wood. He signals me to go upstairs. 
The floor creaking below me feeling like it's going to fall any second. I get to the top and check the rooms. There's a chair in the middle of the room, blood on the walls and clothes covering the floor but they are worn and discolored. They've been for awhile. 
As I go back downstairs I fall through into the basement, "Fuck!". "Y/N what happened, are you okay." "I'm fine", I say strained. I slammed my back on the concrete knocking the wind out of me. 
I hear something moving in the room with me. "Hotch there's something down here." I call out to him yelling in a whisper. 
160 notes · View notes
vintage-brass-tc · 3 years
Text
4/15-16/2021
((THIS IS SO LATE — I blame the incoming exams))
Okay, wow! These two days were PACKED with moments!! I’ll try to give an overall summary of the ones I’m thinking most about. Super hard to pick which ones to write here!! 😳😳
Apologies in advance for the super long post once again! I just get carried away with these things.
||||||||||||||||||||||||
I was assigned to play something for W one morning before school. I was pretty nervous about it, so I decided to arrive thirty minutes before my time slot to give me time to practice.
After I stopped and got my stuff together to go inside, I noticed that a stunning vehicle was moving up to the left of me. It slowly rolled through the rows of other vehicles until it found an open parking space. The car then began to adjust so it could park trunk-first into the open spot.
I looked inside the wonderful car as it was almost done moving backwards, and I could not believe what I saw. Another pair of eyes were already looking at me....and they were W’s.
He seemed to share the same bewildered expression as my own. We stared at each other for two seconds until I forced my head away from his direction. I allowed myself to think.
Just then, I processed how I had arrived the same time W did. I wasn’t sure why, how, or what caused this coincidence, but I was sure that I was going nuts over it. Haha. Maybe the universe was scheming.
I called out to W as he traveled towards the door, asking him when it was okay for me to come in. He replied with a sweet tone and an even sweeter smile. “You can come in whenever you want!!”
I thanked him, got my stuff together, and sped to the (now open) door, all while remaining a good distance away from him.
~~
Flash forward to playing the music for W. It was definitely something, let me tell you that much.
He walked in and shut the door behind him before turning his head around. “Hey R!!” He quickly shot me a wild look. “Are you ready?”
I scoffed at his jubilant attitude— which he mocked for a bit— and then got started after answering some minor questions he asked about the piece.
Having W standing behind me as I played was terrifying. 😂 I could see him clearly through the reflection of my instrument, and it was VERY hard to focus because of this.
He was moving along with the piece and taking it in the whole time. It was like he flowed with the piece, essentially. Whenever I would make a mistake, he would freeze and kind of snap back into reality.
On the subject of messing up, he stopped me quite a bit during random segments of the song to give out extra tips he had. Every time he would do this, he would step up and lean forward to the right of me. My head would be at just about the level of his chest.
This close proximity revealed to me that W’s breath smells sweet, and slightly of mint. <3 Especially when he‘d sing to me.
He sang a lot of my parts when giving feedback, and these examples, perfect or not, demonstrated what he wanted. As much as I really do adore his singing voice, 90% of the time he couldn’t hit ANY of the correct notes.
He said I was making fun of his singing voice because I was laughing so much. Really though, I was only laughing at how close we were, his volume, his expression, his dramatic dynamic range, his notes that were WAY off . . . okay. Maybe I was making fun of him just a little bit.
When we were finished, he stopped abruptly at the door and praised me right before leaving the room. “Great job, R!”
I smiled and quickly said I didn’t mean to make fun of his singing. He stopped slightly and replied, “MMmm suure, it’s fine!” before popping out to continue doing his work.
I love it when he says my name in a positive light. It’s really special to me.
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Instead of helping A as I would usually do earlier in the day, I got to assist W this time. As you have probably guessed, there are quite a few things that happened. Kind of hard to choose what to put here. 😳
I sat down on a chair next to the kids W was teaching to play along with them as an example sound. W seemed to really love having his gaze linger on mine when he signaled the other tubas to play alongside me.
At one point, he repeatedly shot long, focused glances at me when everyone was playing as a group. I met his look with a challenging one, and he seemed hesitant, as if he wanted to say something.
There were slight moments he looked away to cue others in, but most of the time his eyes were on me. I considered setting my instrument down in case he didn’t want me to play, but I pushed the idea to the side.
When we finished the rep, he told me to help someone with one of their stands, as it was falling down. I suppose I knew then why he looked at me, but I couldn’t help but wonder.
Why would he stare so long to ask me something so simple?
Two other memorable things that popped up during this period took place when W began telling his instrument jokes. He told a tuba joke that had a silly punchline making fun of the little notes tubas would stereotypically play.
I laughed pretty loudly at this despite hearing it from him two to three times before, and he gazed at me with a grin. “R’s laughing because she knows it’s true.” “Ye(hehe)ah,” I chuckled a little more and returned his look with additional nods.
Soon afterwards, he began to ramble. He mentioned that the tubas should get used to seeing while notes because this was basically their “whole life”. This ridiculous but true statement made me smile and shake my head to myself.
W THEN MOCKED ME A SECOND TIME. “R’s like—” he mimicked a person laughing, which gradually turned into crying. (His acting was actually on point though, both vocally and expressively.) I began to cackle excessively because of the imitation.
When the end of class arose and the bell rang, I stayed behind to help make sure the students packed up and left on time. Of course, in exchange, this cost me my own time, which, in hindsight, I should have thought more about in the moment.
I left the room to check if the kids in another area needed help for any reason, then came back to retrieve my stuff so I could leave.
Just in time, when I was walking back towards the entrance of the main band room, W was making his way to walk out. Our gazes locked and he stopped in place.
His left arm outstretched to hold one of the doors while his right was curved to pick up the door-stopper. His body was tilted and his legs were slightly bent to reach the bottom of the door.
I slightly lifted my eyelids at him as a greeting, and he looked back at me with curiosity. When I walked closer to him, slowing down about five or so feet away, he lifted his left eyebrow and smirked at me, seemingly amused.
I felt my brows begin to furrow at his teasing look. “Forget something?” He asked me. “Yeah, my stuff…(it’s in there) . . .” I smiled at him as I inched a little closer. “Oh.”
His face lost the smug expression and instead returned to its usual wonder-filled state. It took a few seconds of looking at me before he realized he was blocking the entrance. I mean, I could have used the other door, buuutttt I forgot about that. Whoops.
He scrambled to get up and hold the door open for me. I giggled at his frantic actions and smiled before thanking him sheepishly. After that happened, I walked to get my stuff, then put it on an empty chair in the room.
While I was packing my mouthpiece and stuff into my bag, W had walked back in at some point. He decided to take the spot on the table in front of me.
I turned to him, “Did the bell already ring?” “Yep,” He answered. “Ahh,” I breathed, facing my belongings once again, “I’m going to be late!”
W paused and looked up from the laptop in his hands, to my direction. “Do you need a pass?” He asked kindly, making me smile. “No thank you, I should be fine.”
“Is your teacher strict about tardies?” He continued the small talk inquisitively. “Oh, no, they’re not, don’t worry.” “Okay,” he muttered, sort of relieved(??). “At least, not with me,” I added.
He acknowledged my statement and I stood there for a good few extra seconds while contemplating.
I took my bag, swung it over my shoulder, and moved over to W. He looked extra confused looking up and spotting me again, haha. He was only sitting still, probably unsure of what to do.
“Uh—” “I decided I’m just going to get a pass (tardiness excuse slip) anyway, just in case.” He nodded approvingly at me. “Good choice.”
After setting his laptop down beforehand, he moved with me to a back table and grabbed a yellow sticky note. He then put it on a music stand. I walked him through my teacher’s name, but that’s it. He did everything else on his own..
I thought that it was cool he knew how to spell my name and stuff. I also got to see his messy handwriting, which is always lovely as well.
After he finished, I took hold of the note and thanked him for his help before going off to class, smiling the whole way there.
~~
Lastly, W WOULD NOT stop letting the tubas play throughout the majority of the period. He showered us with compliments since we were sounding really good, and it was just amazing.
I always loved the way W looked at me when I was doing something right. It’s so validating. I love him a lot. ❤️
||||||||||||||||||||
Whew! That was fun. Not sure why this took a week, but ah well, hope you all enjoyed it nonetheless!
If I start posting about this week right after I publish this one— which I probably will— don’t worry about it. Just rambling as always. ^^
10 notes · View notes
Text
Rehearsal (Peter Parker x Reader)
Summary: Peter and you have to rehearse a scene for your theatre class, which just so happens to have a kiss in it. (Gender neutral reader!)
Prompts: 1. “Why would you do this?” 22. “This is the part where you kiss me.”
Warnings: good old fashioned fluff
Note: Lol this one kinda got away from me. I used a random number generator to choose the prompts and only expected this to be like 800 words max but I ended up with over 2k so. but I really like what I ended up with so I hope y’all do too <3 mostly from Peter’s POV btw. oh and I tried to keep it gender neutral but it’s natural for me to write with a female reader so let me know if I accidentally left a few she’s/her’s in there.
Word Count: 2.1k
Masterlist
Peter Parker is a nerd. He’s good at science and math, which is why he’s attending Midtown School of Science and Technology. Despite the STEM focus the school has, there’s still a requirement for at least one art-related class in order to graduate. When Peter chose an entry level Theatre class, he hoped it would focus more on the study of famous plays than actually having to stand on a stage and act. Peter was very, very wrong. For the first assignment of the semester, students had to pair up and perform a short, dramatic piece. He had been paired with Y/N Y/L/N, who he had a minor crush on. Ok, major crush. After he and MJ broke up last year, he honestly didn’t think he’d find anyone else for a while. But then Y/N transferred to Midtown, and he was whipped right from the start. 
“Look man, you gotta use this opportunity to make a move!” Peter and Ned were walking down the hallway between classes, Ned trying to convince Peter again that this was a great chance to finally tell Y/N how he feels. “Just look up some cute scene for the two of you to perform! It’ll be like when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie fell in love on set!”
“I’m pretty sure they broke up, Ned.”
“Whatever. The point stands.”
The pair approached their lockers, where you were waiting. You had a few papers in your hand, which held your attention until you noticed Peter in front of you.
“H-hey. What’s up?” Peter tried his best to contain his stutter, but couldn’t help it. Y/N just had that effect on him.
“Hey Pete, I, um, I found some potential scripts for us to use for our assignment. I thought you could look over them before we rehearse at mine on Friday? I like them all, so whichever you wanna go with is fine...although I did put a star next to my favorite piece.” You handed half of the papers you were holding to Peter, keeping copies of each script for yourself. Peter noticed that the copies you kept had already been highlighted and annotated, while his were straight from the printer. Except for the small star at the top of the first script in his stack. Before Peter could respond, the warning bell began to ring, signaling only a minute to get to your next class. “Just text me whichever one you want, and we can walk to my place after school tomorrow to rehearse.” You said this as you began to walk away, giving Peter and Ned a small wave before you turned around to race to your final class of the day. 
~~~
Instead of paying attention to his teacher’s lecture during Chemistry, Peter spent the 50 minute period reading through the scripts you had chosen. Peter already knew he wanted to perform the script you liked, but he was nervous. Your favorite scene happened to be the only one which called for a kiss, but he didn’t know if he had the guts to go for it. He could easily choose either of the other scenes and call it a day, but...well, was this your way of making a move? Had you intentionally chosen the script with a kiss to find out if Peter liked you? Did you like him? Or did you just choose that one because you genuinely thought it was the best option?
The bell rang, interrupting Peter’s thoughts and signaling the end of the school day. Hopefully a few hours of swinging through the streets of New York would be enough to distract Peter from thinking about you all night. For once, Peter was actually hoping New York criminals would keep him busy.
~~~
When Peter slipped through the window of his bedroom, his thoughts were unsurprisingly still revolving around you. Despite a somewhat busy night - two muggings, an almost-car crash, and one lost little girl now safely back with her mother - He still hadn’t been able to come to a decision. Half an hour ago you had texted Peter asking if he had chosen a script yet, and he still hadn’t responded. 
“Just go with the script they want, Pete. Even if Y/N doesn’t like you, at least you’ll get to kiss them.” He thought as he removed his skin-tight supersuit and changed into some sweats and a t-shirt. He grabbed his phone from the pocket of his backpack, and, after another minute or so of arguing with himself, finally began to type.
8:31 pm
Y/N:
hey pete, have you decided which script you wanna do yet?
9:06 pm
Peter:
Uh, yeah. I think the one you liked is the best.
9:08 pm
Y/N:
yesss, i was hoping you’d choose that one. i have great taste ;)
9:08 pm
Peter:
Haha, yeah, you do. We’ll rehearse tomorrow after school right?
9:10 pm
Y/N:
yup! i’ll meet you by your locker again :) see ya tomorrow pete
Peter decided to let the conversation end there. Honestly, he had no idea what to think. What does “I have great taste ;)” mean? Is that a reference to the kiss? Does this mean they like him? Or is it just a joke? Peter sent a screenshot of the conversation to Ned for help, but Ned being Ned wasn’t helpful at all. 
9:15 pm
Ned:
Just. Make. A. Move. 
9:16 pm
Ned:
Betty thinks you should make a move too.
Despite his confusion and nerves over tomorrow’s rehearsal, Peter managed to fall asleep at a reasonable time. Hopefully tomorrow he’d get the answers he was looking for.
~~~
Peter waited by his locker after the final bell rang. As the hallways began to clear, he noticed you making your way over to him.
“Sorry, I hope you weren’t waiting too long. My English class is basically all the way across the school.” You looked nervous. Is that good? Or bad? Have you been thinking about the kiss too?
“Y-you’re fine. I’ve only been here for like a minute.” That was a lie. Peter’s Chemistry class was just across the hall from his locker, but you didn’t need to know that. After he finished talking, you seemed to lose all sense of nerves.
“I guess it wasn’t me causing the nerves then…” Peter thought, his mood dropping a little.
“Oh good. Let’s get going then, my apartment is only a couple blocks from here.” And so you began the short walk to your place. You made some small talk on the way there, talking about your other classes instead of the one class you did share. 
“You have Mrs. Jenson third period right? I have her during fifth. Maybe we can study together for her tests...I know the school year just started, but I can already tell she’ll make her tests unnecessarily evil.” You said as the both of you entered your building. 
“That’s a good idea, I know someone who took her class last year and they said she always had essay questions. Not to mention 5 choices for multiple choice questions instead of the usual four.” Peter responded. As he spoke, they headed towards the elevator, and Y/N pressed the button, causing the doors to immediately open. After hitting the number 4 on the wall, the doors slowly began to close. Despite the unfortunate news he was sharing with Y/N, his voice had a hopeful tone to it; They want to hang out with him again. Sure, it’s just loose plans to study for a test sometime in the future, but hey, he’ll take it.
“Damn. History has never been my subject, so I’ll definitely need the extra study time. I can never remember all the important dates.” Your phone buzzed after that, causing you to glance down at it. As you responded to whoever had texted you, Peter was left to his thoughts when the elevator began to move. It wasn’t until the elevator doors opened and you stepped out that the conversation resumed. “That was my mom, guess she’s gonna be at work for a few more hours. We can order a pizza if you want, I’m not sure how long we’ll be rehearsing today.”
“Pizza, uhm,” Peter’s voice cracked, “Pizza sounds good.” Peter cursed to himself, but if you had noticed his voice cracking, you had the decency to ignore it. You pulled your keys from your backpack, and unlocked the second apartment on the floor. 
“Cool, I’ll order something online. Pepperoni ok for you?” You asked as you walked into the apartment, holding the door open for Peter. Peter only nodded, not really trusting his voice for the moment. He took a second to look around the place as you closed the door behind him. When you came into his eyesight again, you were looking at your phone, presumably ordering the pizza. “Since my mom isn’t here we can rehearse in the living room, it’s just this way.” Peter followed you as you led him across the apartment, then sat on the couch. He tried to give you space as you continued punching in the pizza order. While you were busy, Peter opened his own backpack and pulled out the script you had agreed upon. Last night he had highlighted his lines, although luckily for this assignment the teacher had mentioned that memorization was optional. After all, the school year had just begun and it was a beginner’s class.
“Ok, pizza will be here in like half an hour. Now we can get to work!” You quickly pulled out your own script from your backpack, and turned to face Peter. “Do you wanna just read through it a few times, then once we’re used to it we could start working out the blocking?” You suggested.
“Y-yeah, sure, that works for me.” Peter was relieved at this option; read throughs meant he didn’t have to worry about the kiss yet. “Your character starts, right?”
And so the two of you began reading through the script. It was short, only a few pages, and featured someone on the day of their wedding, and the man who was trying to convince them to leave their fiance. At first, the reading was a little awkward, as neither of you had any experience in acting, but by the third or fourth time you had gone through the script together, both of you were feeling much more comfortable. Instead of sitting away from each other on opposite ends of the couch, you were close, the way your characters would be. The blocking had even begun to take shape naturally, so you and Peter stood for the fifth reading, walking around the room, trying your best to embody the characters as they argued. This time, as you approached the end of the script however, Peter’s nerves returned.
“Why would you do this? Just barging in here on my wedding day?” You said, trying to act as frustrated and confused as you felt your character would be. 
“You and I both kn-know you don’t love him! You’ll never be happy with him!” Peter tried to keep his nerves in check, but he knew what was coming.
“And how do you know I’d be happier with you?” Following the stage directions indicated on your script, you stepped closer to Peter. Instead of continuing with the scene, Peter just stared at you, no longer looking at his script. “Uh, Pete?” He still didn’t respond. You were confused, until you looked back at the script. You weren’t sure how you had forgotten, after all, this is why you chose the scene in the first place. “Peter, this is the part where you kiss me” You said quietly. You had taken his choosing of this scene to mean he liked you too, but you weren’t sure. His eyes widened a little at your words though, which made your confidence drop. “O-or not, um, we could do a stage kiss, or you could just kiss my cheek, or we could just cut it complet-” Peter cut off your rambling by putting his hands on your cheek and bringing his lips to meet yours. You were shocked, but easily melted into the kiss. He was gentle as he kissed you, his nerves disappearing the second you kissed him back. After a while, you both separated from the kiss. Neither of you spoke for a minute, just staring at each other.
“U-um.. that was ok, right?” Peter whispered, as you were still pretty close to him. You only smiled, and gave him another short kiss as a response. Before you guys could do anything else, there was a knock at the door.
“Pizza!” Someone said loudly through the wood. Before you could make a move, Peter had grabbed his wallet and was already walking towards the front door.
“I’ll pay...after all, what kind of gentleman would I be if I let you pay on our first date?”
85 notes · View notes
kurokoros · 4 years
Text
Smut in Fandom Spaces: Taboos and Why People Write Them
Okay, two people said they wanted my thoughts on why taboo subjects are becoming more popular in fandom smut circles (and in the porn industry as a whole) and that’s good enough for me!
Warning: this post is going to discuss topics NSFW such as porn, rape/assault, dubious consent, incest, and pedophilia. Everything will be under a read-more, but I still want people to be aware of that if they decide to continue reading.
I’m going to preface this post by saying this post isn’t to insult anyone who does write about taboo topics. Personally, I don’t like it. I won’t read fics that romanticize certain topics. And while I’m not a morality purist by any means, I do think that incest and dramatic age-gaps shouldn’t have such a large presence in fandom spaces. That being said, I do understand why those fics have become popular to write, at least to a certain extent, and I, myself, have also upped the ante when it comes to writing smut fics.
I get it.
The presence of taboos in smut fics and the porn industry as a whole, are a direct result of porn becoming more readily available to people. I wouldn’t even call porn an open secret anymore, because there’s nothing secret about it in this year 2020. I’ve watched porn. Most of my friend’s have watched porn. My younger sibling has probably also watched porn at some point. It’s easily accessible, and so long as your mom and employer don’t know about it, no one really cares who does or doesn’t watch it.
I’ve been reading smut for the better part of a decade, maybe longer, but definitely younger than I should have been while reading it. At that time, AO3 was still getting off the ground, tumblr was still pretty quiet when it came to fandom spaces, and FanFiction.net was still the primary place a lot of people were reading fics. FF.net was, and still is, a smut purist website. I was there for the fandom explicit content purges. I saw all of the fics that were removed because they had even the smallest hint of smut.
At the time, writing even super vanilla smut on FF.net felt like you were doing something scandalous. I don’t think I ever read something more hardcore than “Character A ties up Character B” on FF.net, but that isn’t to say the smut wasn’t incredibly explicit. Harder kinks just weren’t necessary when you were already flirting with trouble just by writing basic smut. Most fandoms had maybe one or two big name fans (BNFs) who wrote smut, or were at least well known for writing smut, even if other members of the fandom did as well. These BNFs could write more softcore smut and still be hailed as “smut queens” simply because they were the only ones writing smut with any kind of frequency.
In my experience, this continued until about circa 2013-2014 when tumblr and A03 started to become bigger writing platforms than FF.net was at the time.
So, writers make their move to Tumblr and AO3 where explicit fics were and still are allowed to openly circulate in fandom spaces. For the first time, people are able to share their smut with no restraints. What used to be one or two BNF smut writers becomes a dozen. Everyone is writing smut because now it’s normal and there’s no real sense of shame in doing so. You get smut requests in your inbox. Your smut fics get more hits and kudos than your SFW fics. People just really like to read and write smut.
In fact, writing and reading smut becomes so normal that suddenly people aren’t getting the same feeling of taboo or shame when they post a fic or read about Character A tying down Character B anymore. You need something a little more extreme than that.
I can’t say for certain if the rise in non-con/dub-con smut came before BDSM leaning fics became popular, or after, but I know that seeing non-con/rape fantasy fics was definitely a huge shock when I first saw them in fandom spaces. It was the most scandalous thing ever to 16-17 year old me who was probably still too young to be reading smut fics to begin with. And you know what? Those fics were always pretty popular, especially on AO3. I didn’t get it. I definitely made anti posts about it back in the day. And now that I’m twenty-three and seen some shit in fandoms, I kind of get it.
Yes, I have read non-con/dub-con fics. Yes, I do still think rape isn’t something that should ever be romanticized. That being said, I do kind of understand the appeal. Not enough to ever write a non-con fic or rec one to people, but I do get it to some degree. A lot of non-con smut reads more like dom/sub smut with a powerplay aspect, but written by people who don’t give a shit about writing aftercare.
(Note: this is not me saying non-con smut falls under the category of BDSM smut, I’ve just noticed that there are some similarities I’ve noticed in the way they’re written.)
So, non-con becomes a popular smut sub-genre. It’s controversial. It gets people notes. People start to feel that little burst of shame again whenever they click post on that rape fantasy fic or consider clicking on that dub-con fic they keep seeing in the tags.
You know what else was popular around this time? That’s right: rape fetish porn.
Okay, so non-con smut gets popular and over-saturates the smut pool. People don’t feel quite so dirty for reading non-con anymore. The fics don’t necessarily lose their appeal, but it’s not as shocking to see them anymore. You see a non-con fic, sigh, and move on with your life because that’s just how fandoms are now.
Non-con just isn’t as taboo as it was before, so fandoms have to move onto the next thing. Again, I don’t know if adult/child smut was more popular before or after incest smut, but I think it was adult/child. I haven’t read any of it. I don’t want to. I think large age-gaps are gross and they’re a huge squick of mine. My parents were nine years apart in age, I’m allowed to say that.
So adult/child smut starts getting popular. Again, this plays into power dynamics. People could just write dom/sub fics instead, but I guess those just aren’t shocking enough for people, or BDSM is still seen as weird (even though people are literally writing about teachers fucking their students, but whatever), so instead we get age-gaps and unhealthy power-dynamics instead. Loli characters in anime are a huge part of this. Student/teacher, dad/babysitter, etc are popular categories on pornhub.
Oh, but what about when age-gaps stop being shocking to people? Boom. Incest. Incest is the new popular taboo subject in smut, porn, and general media. Most of the big ships in Game of Thrones have some level of incest (I blame GOT and that fandom for incest becoming popular in fandom spaces, but that’s just me). Jon/sa are cousins raised as siblings. Jon/arys are aunt/nephew. It was present in Star Wars when people were so sure that Rey and Kylo Ren were cousins, but people were shipping them anyway. “Incest” porn is probably the most popular category on pornhub right now.
By now you guys know where this is going.
People don’t read/write smut fics about non-con, age-gaps, and incest because they’re actually into those taboo things, they just want the shame and “dirty” feelings that come with them. Fandom spaces went from leaving everyone so repressed that some heavy petting was enough for people to get off on, and now there’s so much smut available that now people have to resort to some of the most inexcusable things in order to get that same rush.
I’ve noticed in a lot of fandom spaces recently that you’ll have large groups of smut writers that are all friends, and they seem to try to out kink one another with their fics, pushing boundaries until suddenly people are writing rape, or borderline pedophilia, or incest fics that get super popular.
And you know what, I’ve been guilty of this myself. I haven’t written any of the things I’ve talked about here, but I’ve definitely written kinkier fics with the sole purpose of having them be a little shocking. Fandoms are a very slippery slope when it comes to what’s acceptable. And it is so easy to want to push those boundaries because you know you’ll get a reaction if you do.
I’m not quite sure how to end this rant/analysis, but this is my experience with fandom and what I’ve seen over the last decade of participating in fandoms. Over time, you become desensitized to some of the “nastier” aspects of shipping and smut, and I think it’s kind of fascinating to look at the way things snowball. Things like non-con and incest are less about actually romanticizing the horrible things that happen to actual people, and more about feeling that shame people used to get while reading smut on their family computer back in the day. That’s my takeaway on all of this.
If you got this far, thank you for bearing with my thoughts!
17 notes · View notes
bolbianddolanhouse · 3 years
Text
BNHA self insert AU [Book 3]
New? Read here! Then here!
Chapter 15: Why Do We Live? Just To Suffer?!
Beizu and I didn’t waste any time trying to escape for the weekend! It was our weekend! We agreed to go to our parent’s homes and hang out from there. I get home and nobody was there as expected. Saturdays are hang out days for the kids and short work days for mom and dad. I slam myself onto my bed, as I missed sleeping on my very comfy mattress. The dorm beds SUCK! I get coffee from the kitchen after a while and floated around.
“Hey Muffins, update me on the household since the last time I was here” I called out to the resting robo on the couch.
“It’s been 115 days since you’ve last been home, there’s been 4 fires and 7 gatherings at the house.” the robo listed “20 pictures has been added to the family virtual library. Mom didn’t celebrate her birthday. There’s been 2 lockdowns at the house, Tensei went to debate nationals in March, Hanaka got suspended from school that same week. Lili has video called every night for the past 2 months. And that’s up to date.”
“Only 4 fires? Huh” I took a sip of my coffee “Thank you for the update, whats the ETA for anybody?”
“Hanaka and Dad are due to come back from the doctors at 1pm”
“Doctors?” I whispered to myself “She never gets sick, hope she’s okay.”
It may not be obvious, but Hanaka used to latch onto me when she was a baby. She’d cry when I don’t acknowledge her before I leave the house and set my sweater sleeves on fire if I don’t hold her right away. She’s very much the little, bratty sister type but I still worry. She depends a lot on family support because of her fire quirk, it makes it very hard to live a normal life. Wonder if that’s the cause? I wait around and see them come through the door but it feels so off. Hanaka goes straight to her room in silence, ignoring the fact that I’m in sight.
“Hello Iwata, how was your trip home?” Dad said once Hanaka was in her room.
“It was fine but what’s up with her?” 
Dad sighed “She had an episode where she couldn’t control her fire. Nobody got hurt but it happened at school and the school made it a big deal out of it, calling her a delinquent.”
“So what’s the diagnosis?” I asked, processing what dad told me.
“Anxiety trigger, the mix of her quirk and puberty hormones are making her unstable” Dad sets down his keys to wipe his glasses “I really don’t know what to do. And I’m scared its going to be like when your mom gets unstable.”
“Wait, mom gets unstable?” that was news to me. I know of mom losing her temper when she was younger but getting unstable?!
Dad nodded and put his glasses back on “It happens when she overworks and stresses out. Once I triggered the breaking point and I got hit by her psych-blast. If your uncle Jin didn’t set up the robo to sedate her at the right moment, she could’ve died.”
I looked toward the top of the stairs “Well you’ve dealt with mom’s and mine anxiety things, how is this any different?”
“You and your mom have the same quirk and therapy has helped you two” dad started “Your sister doesn’t have the same quirk to body part association. How do you contain a fire that water doesn’t douse nor can be snuffed out? I want to help, I know how much she wants to live a normal life.”
“Leave it to me then” I said confidently “Lili isn’t here to do a girl talk, but I’m here to do a big brother support conversation! Maybe I’ll break through to her, who knows?”
“If you feel like it will help” Dad smiled “then go and talk to her. I’ll be down here making lunch.”
I make my way to the girls room. Before I could even knock, I heard her deep and heavy sobs. It was unsettling as I’ve never heard her sob like this. I knock on the door.
“Can I come in?”
“No”
“Why?”
“I don’t wanna talk about things!”
“I don’t wanna talk” I shake my bag of snacks “I just wanna share cheetos with my little sister.”
“...what kind of cheetos?”
“Hot con límon.”
“...okay you may enter.”
I open the door to see Hanaka in a blanket burrito, mouth and nose peeking out. Trying not to laugh at the sight, I sit next to her bed on the floor and open the bag of cheetos. I float them between us so she could get some without reaching too far. We just sat there in silence for a while until she spoke up.
“Iwa, do you think I’m a bad person?”
I look over to see her face peeking out “No.”
“Do you think anybody would love me? Romantically?”
Oh its that kind of conversation “I believe there’s somebody for everybody.”
“It’s just that, I confessed to somebody and they said so many mean things” her lips started to quiver “Like I’m weird looking, my quirks are weird, that my fire quirk makes it so it burns to hold my hand and who would want to love me if they can’t hold my hand.”
“Well that’s rude! They should’ve just said no and be on their way!” I never wanted to punch a child so much in my life.
“What was worse was that all his friends were there to laugh at me and it attracted more kids to poke fun at me” Hanaka got teary eyed “And I just couldn’t take it, I got all shakey and just combusted into flames. The flames were strong enough to set the play yard on fire. Nobody got hurt but it was still scary.”
“Nobody helped you afterwards?”
“Tensei, Petti and Kyanka covered me until a teacher came” she wiped her tears with the blanket “But I caused so much trouble and it really upset the people in the office. They called me a bad kid and that it wouldn’t surprise them if I became a villain.”
Oh hell no, that school is on my hit list for saying something like that to a child! “Fuck that school! You know what Hanaka, you’re not a bad kid, okay? And you are capable of love and people love you back, do you think Tensei and your friends would do that if they didn’t love you?”
Hanaka sniffed “No...”
“Would you do the same for them if their quirk got out of hand?”
“Yeah! Of course I would!” she responded passionately “I’m their best friend, and friends don’t let friends do things alone!”
“See?! You’re not a bad kid, you love your friends and family” I encouraged her “You can worry about romantic love later, the one will come around soon enough. Right now just focus on school work and being a good friend.”
Hanaka loosened the grip she had on the blanket so it unfurled around her “I guess that does make me feel a bit better” she brought her knees up to her chest “But now I don’t even know if I’m going back to that school. Mommy got really upset like you did at the school office that she’s fighting with the school officials.”
“Wow, good on mom to stand up for you!” I gave props “I’d do the same. But lets not worry about that and trust in mom to make the right move. So, lets change the subject! What’s new?”
Hanaka blew her nose and disposed of her now highly flammable tissue “Uhhh, I made a new friend. Which so happens to be the daughter of one of mom and dad’s hero classmates.”
“Oh that’s tea, who?!” I was intrigued by that second part.
“Her dad is ‘Can’t Stop Twinkling’ the Sparkling Hero” she explained “She was the new girl at school this year and she’s just like me and the girls!”
Her usual giddy self came back, warming my heart “And what’s that?”
“We hate our hero dads, love shopping and wanna be goth” she grabbed her phone to show me her lock screen “See? That’s us right before that juice stand behind us caught on fire.”
“Did you-”
“I don’t think I was responsible for that fire” she clarified “We booked it just in case anyone wanted to pin it on me. BUT look at us!”
I squint at the lock screen picture “There’s glare on your friend’s face.”
“That’s her quirk, don’t be rude!” she scolded me “She’s so luminescent that it hurts to look at her sometimes, and in pictures she’s always glared out. But we put her next to Petti in pictures to offset the light and take a decent one.”
“I’m glad you made a new friend! Has she been to the house?”
“Yup, she’s not yet used to the spicy food we eat though” Hanaka stifled a giggle “Her dad says that she was born and raised in France. He brought her over here because the schools in Japan are better and the hero work is abundant.”
“Can’t wait to meet them”
“Lets see during graduation season” she started then her phone pinged “Oop that’s the group chat, they’re sending their concern memes.”
Before I could take a peek at her phone, Tensei busts in. Which was weird because he ALWAYS knocks.
“Rosa! Okay, okay, okay” he said quickly before calming down a little “I did...a thing...wait- Iwa? When did you get home?”
“I got here late morning but whats the haps lil bro?” I asked “You look like you landed in a trash heap.”
“I can neither confirm nor deny that happened” he said closing the door behind him and locking it “But back to the thing I did. PLEASE don’t tell mom and dad! Because I’m still very fresh from the thing I did and I’m still processing it.”
“Okay just spill it” Hanaka was getting annoyed “You keep saying thing like you don’t know other words! What thing did you do on your sleep over with the boys?”
“This” he lifted his shirt up to his chest, revealing a belly button piercing.
I was shocked, so shocked that I dropped the bag of cheetos that I was floating. Tensei is this good boy image with a punk-like personality. To see this rebellious side to him made me proud in a way. He looks the most like our dad but with a darker skin tone, so I guess this is his baby step into his true self. Hanaka was so shocked that the waste basket contents caught on fire.
“What the- where in Japan did you go to get pierced?” Hanaka asked genuinely “Those jewelry places don’t let you get one without adult permission if you’re under 16.”
“Don’t get mad, but one of my band members has a cousin that’s a tattoo artist and does piercings at the place they work at” Tensei started to get red faced “Sooo I showed him that I could fix his little barbel piercings for free when the boys and I walked into his shop for fun... And he gave me this as payment.”
“Tensei! You got this i l l e g a l l y?!” I harshly whispered “Why did you agree to it?”
“Yeah! It’s not like you to do those things” Hanaka scowled in concern “What’s gotten into you lately? Ever since you came back from Nationals, you’ve been acting different.”
Tensei pulled down his shirt and sighed “I’m sick of being praised of being as good and law abiding like dad. I’m nothing like him inside! I’m not some capri-wearing rectangle!” he huffed “I’m way cooler, smarter and talented then people give me credit for. I don’t need the signature quirk to make my way in this world! And I wanna change my image so people take me seriously...no more orderly Tensei, I wanna be anarchist Oro!”
Hanaka narrowed her eyes, like she was shooting needles into her twin’s soul “Is this because you lost and can’t accept the L?”
Tensei turned red and scrunched his nose “No! I’ve already grieved over that and took and L” he crossed his arms “Nationals was just a tiny part of the whole reason.”
“What?” I was lost in this timeline of events.
Hanaka leaned over to me and whispered “Tensei cost his team majorly on all his debates. So bad that the team barred him from going to more debates this season and has to prove himself all over again to get back in the top 3 teams at school.”
“Oof that’s some sad boi shit” I winced at the recap “It’s okay to still not be over that L, you don’t have to spiral like this.”
“Well it’s too late, I got the damn piercing already and planned the next one” Tensei took a deep breath “I’ve been wanting this for a while, to just rebrand and have respect as my own identity. Not some clone of my father or just be the ‘other’ Iida twin. But until I take the next few steps, please don’t tell our parents about this. I want to tell them myself when the time comes.”
“Okay sure” Hanaka and I agreed.
Tensei turned to open the door “Thanks guys, it means a lot to me that you support me.”
Man, things are getting crazy here! My sweet parents have to deal with this shit on their own and they deserve a vacation or the Nobel peace prize for being the most supportive during life disasters. Seriously! I didn’t see mom until the evening, she looked a little run down but I really wanted to talk to her.
“Hey mom” I announced myself as I entered the living room.
“Iwata! I’ve missed you so much” Mom said as she used her quirk to pull me in for a tight hug “You’re getting so big, I can hardly wrap my arms around you!”
“Missed you too” I hugged her back “I just really miss being home.”
“I bet, heard you did phenomenal at the last practice test” she smiled and caressed my face with her hand “Just like your mama back in the day. I’m so proud of you for using the good old distraction card! That’s what I was well known for, wildcard and distractions.”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about” I sat up straight “I don’t know how things are going to get for the Labyrinth practice test. You took the practice and the evaluated one, what’s the winning combo?”
“What? hahaha” Mom laughed for a moment “There really isn’t a ‘winning combo’, just being well versed in fighting techniques. That’s where your uncle Jin didn’t get to the mid-point, he’s a genius and has good speed BUT he lacks impulsive/on the fly thinking. Everything has to be calculated to the T for him and if too many things has gone wrong in his thought out strategy, those seconds he takes thinking of a new plan can be the death of him.” She sighed into another chuckle “And your aunty Mimi! Boy, she’s an amazing weapons user and she NEVER misses. But in the exam, she didn’t make it past the 3rd stage because the stand off was with someone that erases quirks. She depended too much on her quirk for her gun wielding and she got out because of it.”
“So you did the opposite?”
“I used my critical thinking to get me though all the stages. The place were I used my quirks the most were at the end to win the fight with the mock villain” she leaned back and looked up at the ceiling “The rigorous training I did for basically a year got me to the point of not depending on my quirks until the very last resort. Remember Iwata, just because we can do anything without lifting a finger doesn’t mean we should ignore how able bodied we are. So I suggest do some more strength and endurance OH and you might need to do some breathing training too! Never know if you need to hold your breath for a certain amount of time.”
“That’s a lot to train on, kinda makes me feel like I didn’t do enough” I got self-conscience “I wanna do good in this one! Not because I want to make you proud, but for myself. Maybe passing this will spark something in me that’ll give me an idea about my destiny.”
“Oh sweet child of mine” Mom looked over to me lovingly “This test won’t give you any ideas on anything, trust me. Both times I had to go into intensive care to make sure I didn’t rupture my vial organs, thats how hard I went in. Just give it your all and just ride the wave that comes next.”
“Did you think you’d pass?”
Mom snickered “Nope! The second time was easier by a little bit but I just keep telling myself ‘whatever happens, happens’. I didn’t think passing would lead me to the agent position I’m at today! Same how I didn’t think that giving the class a cookie would lead to finding the love of my life. So don’t let the ‘what ifs’ rule your self-worth, life has a way of surprising you at the very last second.”
That made me feel better about things. I’m glad I decided to go home this weekend, because I know what to do now. 
-The next day, At Beizu’s house-
“...you still have this?” I said to Beizu as I was rummaging through his closet.
“Wha- oh that thing! Yea” he responded “You were my only friend in elementary school, so that graduation picture meant a lot to me.”
“Really? That’s why it’s framed” I looked closely at the picture of us holding hands “We look busted with all those missing teeth!”
“Don’t act like you didn’t cry every time you lost one” Beizu retorted back “Besides, it holds something more special to me...it was when I realized I loved you.”
I counted the years in my head “...damn, almost 6 years ago! Why so long?”
“I didn’t know if these were romantic feelings or not. And you did your own thing in middle school with band” he sighed and sat on the bed “I felt a little left behind and I tried really hard to stay in your interest. I wanted you to tell me I was yours, I didn’t care if that meant friend or lover” he turned red “It sounds silly now, but I was happy if you just said good morning or spent lunch with me.”
“Bei, you were always in my interest” I floated over to him “Nobody understood me like you did. You were never anything less than my best friend and it took some eye opening to see that we were basically lovers anyways.” I put my arm around his shoulders “Are you happy that we’ll basically wake up next to each other for the rest of our lives?”
“Are you kidding me?! It’s my dream come true!”
“Great! Just making sure” I kissed him bashfully “because I was getting ahead of myself and looking into apartments in Taito. We’ll be able to move in once I get possession of my inheritance money.”
“I don’t care if I have to wait until I’m on my death bed” he tackled me onto the bed “As long as I’m with you, anywhere is home.”
How everything was coming together nicely for us after UA. In between training and schoolwork, we looked at apartments online. Everyone was envious of us having things set afterwards, but to be honest, we only have an idea of things! We don’t know where exactly we’re going to work nor where to settle. It’s a bit bold to think our parents will give us work when we graduate. But I’m following my mom’s advice and just ‘riding the wave’ of what comes next.
-Fast forward, Mid October-
Beizu, Gee and I take advantage of the half-day of school by filling it with training in the disaster practice gym.
“Huh? The door is unlocked?” Gee said as she checked the door, key in hand “Did we come on the wrong day?”
“No, we have today reserved for us” Beizu pointed to the bulletin board next to the doors “See, we’re in the right.”
We walked on in and checked for anybody that straggled from the last session. But we found three people having banter on a rock.
“Remember the days of disaster training with sensei?!” said a familiar female voice.
“Ugh! Shut up or his ghost is gonna show up and bark at us to do wall sits” said another familiar male voice.
“Rich coming from someone that shat their pants the first time they shot a gun” shaded a Russian accent.
“Mom? Aunty and Uncle?” I spoke up as we got closer “What are you doing here? Aren’t you guys supposed to be agents today?”
“We came to interrogate the administrators here and since we finished early” Aunty Mimi explained “Your mom wanted to take a trip down memory lane. Back to the days of our youth.”
“Speak for yourself! I’m still nimble to go on a tussle like I did in high school” mom flexed her arms “They called me the sparring queen during my time here. I never lost a spar and I still maintain that streak.”
Uncle Jin rolled his eyes “Just because you still train like you’re gonna go to war! Bet you’ll get folded like an omelet if you did a one on one right now.”
“Alright bet!” Mom huffed at the challenge and pointed at me “Iwata, would you be a dear and spar mommy?”
“Oh shit your mom just challenged you” Gee gasped “What are you gonna do?”
“Fuckin fight I guess!” I said with my hands in the air “Let me stretch first though.”
Mom hopped and clapped “Yay! I’ll meet you in the circle in a bit sweetie.”
“Are- are they always like that?” Gee whispered to Beizu and I when the other three were out of earshot “I didn’t know your mom, aunt and uncle were so chummy with each other, like they’re teenagers.”
Beizu groaned into a sigh “All the time! You’re used to our aunt being on sensei mode when we do weapons class, but put them in the same room and they’re one bad decision away from throwing hands.”
“Don’t get us wrong! We love seeing them having fun” I say as I do my stretches “But when we get roped in, we don’t have the means to escape! And I can’t pass this up” I stretch my sides “I’ve NEVER sparred with my mom! She’s only quirk trained me but never the punchy stuff. I really want to see if I’m on par because we have the same quirk.”
We finally walked up to the sparring circle where the agent trio were still reminiscing.
“Ready to throw down nephew?” uncle Jin hyped me up “You’re in for the fight of your life!”
“Don’t scare him!” Mom scolded before dramatically pulling off her agent office uniform to reveal her two piece training clothes “I’d be shitting my pants if I had to fight my mom too. Your hype isn’t helping Jin.”
“Woah, your mom has an amazing physique!” gasped Gee, giving my mom the look over “And with the tattoos?! I can’t even tell if she gave birth to you. Man I hope to be that hot when I’m older.”
“I like your friend there Iwata, she knows what’s good” Mom said as she walked to the middle of the circle “Come now, step into the circle and show mommy what power my little baby boy can harness.”
I blushed hard as I walked up to her “Mom don’t coddle me in front of my team! So embarrassing!”
“Oop sorry baby!” she quickly covered her mouth “Force of habit!”
“Okay rules are first one to pin the other for the ten count is the winner. No weapons and no boundaries” Jin officiated “give the arm brace and assume the position.”
“What’s the arm brace? I only know about the bowing before starting” I whispered to my mom.
“Oh here, hold out your arm” she demonstrated then griped my tricep “now grip mine... there! This is how we show respect before an agent spar.”
I looked at our arms, then into her eyes. Those were the eyes of a woman that has 5 strategies ready to go to win. Those eyes has seen it all and isn’t afraid to do it all again. Wonder if she sees the anxiety in mine? I didn’t have the time to ponder these thoughts, the spar started and she didn’t let up. Immediately I felt the sting of a slap on my face, followed by the whoosh of her movement. What scared me a bit was that the whole time is was silent. Not a single grunt and her breathing was controlled, like she was conserving her energy. She dodged all of my attacks but didn’t land a single attack on me.
“Tired?” asked Mom as I stood to catch my breath.
“I can still fight” I wiped my forehead “hit me mom!”
The smirk that spread on her face was so wicked, I regretted my life because I just played into her trap.
“As you wish mijo!” Mom bellowed as she levitated herself up, followed by pistons jutting out of her body “Nothing personal Iwata” she pointed her palm at me, piston charging with energy “Mama isn’t ready to lose.”
And like the dumb ass I am, I charged right at her with my palm piston. And at the very last second...she grabbed me by the wrist with her other hand to seismic toss me onto the ground. I felt the weight of her foot on my back and knew that I was done for. My arm was locked and I was too tired to get back up, I saw uncle Jin’s feet near me.
“...8, 9, 10!” uncle Jin finished counting down “Winner is our undefeated Queen of Spars, Agent 19!”
“See? Told you I still got it!” She picked me up like when I was child “You okay? Did I hurt you?”
“No I’m okay” I responded to ease her worried tone “But I played right into your trap! You tired me out on purpose and edged me on to strike so I could lock my dominate arm. So simple but effective!”
Mom giggled “You’re so smart! I have a wicked high stamina and my quirk is amplified the more tired I am. So either way, my enemy isn’t leaving unscathed.”
“Wow! You’re absolutely incredible Mrs Iida!” fawned Gee “What else should we study before the test?”
“Just endurance and critical thinking” Mom responded “it’s that simple really. Wish the answer was more thought provoking or full of wisdom.” She looked at her watch “Well it was fun kids but we have to head back to our office to do all that boring office agent stuff.”
“Okay, bye mom! Bye Uncle and Aunty!” I chimed as I waved.
We watched them leave via portal and we continued with our training. I take the critical thinking part more seriously knowing that my mom applied it our spar. But I really don’t know if I’m going about it right! She makes it seem so easy and I wish I was at her level of super genius, big brain strategy.
-Day of Labyrinth practice exam-
“Bei, I’m shitting myself” I say as I finish suiting up “I’m so nervous that I just might anxiety shit myself.”
“That’s not a thing Iwa and you know it” Beizu responded as he finished lacing up his boots “Everything is going to go well! Watch, we’ll all pass and without intensive care afterwards.”
“I hope you’re right” I smiled at him “kiss me good luck?”
Beizu hopped and put his arms around my neck “Okay, one kiss. Then we go in the waiting chamber.”
Sooooo, things were not going well. Gee croaked at level 3 and Beizu didn’t even make it into the doors of the 5th level! He spent too much of his energy in level 4 that he passed out on the moving platform on the way to the next level. Now it’s up to me and I tried really hard not to tire myself out. I see where Gee failed in level 3, there was fast moving projectiles and she isn’t the fastest. Everything was going alright until the 5th level, my quirk stopped working and I panicked. There was nothing in the room and the exit door was locked. I had to think fast, what would I do if my siblings locked me in a room?
“Oh? Feeling trapped?” taunted someone that came into view “You can’t leave until you defeat me! But what is a quirkless agent going to do?!”
“I don’t need quirks” I reach for my gun and cock it “You really wanna fuck with me? I’m a child, WITH A FUCKING GUN! HOW FUCKED UP IS THAT?!”
The person was visibly nervous “Psh! I’ve seen plenty of gun fights!” they started to fumble their words “Come on, shoot me!”
“Naw, don’t feel like shooting you” I aim at the light fixtures on the ceiling “Eat broken light bulb BITCH!”
The lights went out and the sound of broken glass hitting the ground was oddly satisfying. I check to see I could use my quirks again and surely, I started floating. Once the door beeped to signal the level cleared, I made my dash to the next level before the final level. Next level wasn’t too hard, at least not for me, I knew how to swim and hold my breath for longer than 2 minutes. That would’ve sucked for anyone that didn’t know how to swim, gotta hand it to my mom for teaching all of us how to swim when we were kids. I get to the rescue part of the final level and it was fine until the ‘villain’ showed themselves.
“Not so fast agent! You’re forgetting someone important” said the villain as they walked into view.
“Nice try villain, all 8 hostages are safe and accounted for in rescuers care” I said smugly as I raised my gun at them “Lets make this quick.”
“I think you’ll want to put your gun down” the villain revealed someone tied up in a cage “You wouldn’t want to hurt my favorite prisoner.”
“Iwata, don’t shoot...please” said the hostage weakly.
I looked at the hostage closer and it’s...mom? That didn’t seem right to me. This person sounded like her and looks like her from the face. In fact, the whole room changed too! I was under some sort of illusion quirk and I didn’t want to risk shooting something that might cost me points. So I lowered my gun and started to scheme.
“Aww you don’t want to hurt mommy?” taunted the villain “To think that the hot shot agent, grown weak and aged terribly! Do something momma’s boy! Don’t you want to be a big shot agent like mommy? Or are you just as weak as she is?!”
I get an idea “Oye mama, tengo hambre!”
“What-” whispered the villain in panic.
“Que vas a cocinar hoy? Un pozole o taquitos?” I kept going, knowing that I threw the ultimate curve ball in this plan.
“I don’t understand you sweetie” responded fake mom “I’m so weak from my fight, that I lost.”
“That’s okay mommy” I smiled calmly “Will you sing me my favorite song? You’re never too tired to sing!”
“ENOUGH!” cried out the villain “make one wrong move, and I’ll kill her!” she took out a dagger.
“Okay then, fine” I stood completely still with my hands on my hips, ready to do plan B “I won’t move then.”
The villain was super confused on my erratic actions. But it was working because they started to pull back the illusion in the room. Once I saw the door, I knew that victory was in reach.
“We can stand here all day” said the villain bringing the dagger closer to fake mom’s throat “But think about your poor mother’s health! Do you really want her death on your conscience?”
“...any second now” I warned before I gave a content smile “You underestimate me villain! I’m not my mother, I am me! And I have a secret bio-weapon that I’ve just released into the room.”
“A bio-weapon?” the villain looked around frantically “I don’t- oh my- WHAT’S THAT HORRID STENCH?!”
I look at fake mom slowly fade and I knew that I was in the clear. The villain fell to their knees and vomited.
“Eat taser WHORE!” I said right before tasering them and put them in cuffs “do more research on our family next time and maybe this would’ve been a challenge!”
“LABYRINTH PRACTICE TEST CONCLUDED, AGENT 88 HAS CLEARED AND PASSED.”
The doors opened and I walked through to see my teammates, sensei and the test proctors waiting for me at the end of the hall.
“That was amazing!” cried out Gee “We saw everything on the proctor’s panels. How did you know that wasn’t your mom?”
“The person in the cage looked like my mom from the face but my mom is more petite,” I took my visor off “The one in the cage looked taller and didn’t have the big butt and thighs like my mom has.”
“Yo that spanish speaking was the biggest wildcard!” Beizu complimented “You knew that the villain had to break at that vital detail that they didn’t know. And that last line, chef’s kiss.”
“Aw shucks guys, I’m latino and can’t help but to be dramatic about it” I start blushing and acted coy “Kinda wish the illusion was more convincing though.”
“What was that ‘bio-weapon’ you released that made the villain basically pass out?” asked sensei “You don’t have the quirk that can do that.”
“Oh I farted” I confessed shamelessly “I’ve been holding that one in since I started the test...I also suggest decontaminating that room, my farts spread quickly and linger.”
Everyone but Beizu got visibly disgusted. Doesn’t matter because I passed and I can’t wait to tell my parents that I farted my way to victory. Nothing can stop me right now, I’m all the way up.
-Chapter 15, end-
<Previous-Next>
0 notes
lynelovespopculture · 4 years
Text
The Wedding Night-Sequel to the Wedding I worked like a dog to get this up before Part 3.
Tumblr media
The Wedding Night
 Holding hands, the lovers laughed as they ran across the lawn and up the stairs. They kissed passionately by the door.
“I can’t believe we finally did it! Did we just get married?” Diana asked with a golden smile.
Edward laughed. “Oh, believe it, Mrs. Spellman. You’re stuck with me now. Let’s see, I believe the mortal tradition goes like this-“
Diana laughed deeply as Edward scooped her up in his arms and crossed the threshold after he magically opened the door. It wasn’t until they were inside and he put Diana down that Edward noticed that there was a fire in the front sitting room.
“Hilda? Zelda? ”
But it wasn’t either of his sisters. Edward moved more into the room. Edward would know those nails and that hare topped walking stick anywhere.
“I know that man” Diana whispered to her husband. “He was at the wedding. When he wasn’t glaring at us, he was staring at Zelda. Do you know him?”
“Only half of my life,” Edward mumbled. “Go upstairs, Diana. I’ll be up soon.” Edward kissed his wife’s cheek to reassure her.
Diana left and Edward went to greet his guest. “Hello, Faustus.  I was happy to see you at my wedding. I wasn’t sure you be able to make it.” Edward poured 2 brandys and handed Faustus a glass.
“I had to come,” Faustus replied. “I had to see for myself if you had the sheer nerve to betray your own people.”
Edward sat down, threw his head back and sighed. So much for the polite and friendly approach. “I didn’t betray anyone. I just got married.”
“To a moral!” The other man leaned forward heavily on his cane. “Just because you’re high priest doesn’t mean you cannot do whatever you want. There are rules!”
 “And I have followed the rules! Diana and I pushed back our wedding a year before  Enoch gave permission.”
“Enoch is one of your biggest fans. Of course, he gave you permission. The man is also an idiot.”
“You dare call the anti-pope an idiot?”  Demanded Edward.
Faustus considered this. “When it comes to you? Yes. What will you ask for next? The world?”
“Enough!” Edward got up and downed his drink in 1 shot. “What do you have against mortals anyway? What did they ever do to you?”
Faustus chuckled. “I know I haven’t been your teacher in a very long time but here’s a quick history lesson. When witches are exposed to mortals, witches die. Think about Salem or even the 13.”
“I can’t have this fight with you again!” Edward threw up his hands. “Besides, this is not the time for anger.  You see, I heard about Constance’s miscarriage-“
“No!” Faustus jumped up. “You don’t get to pretend to care about anyone’s happiness but your own. Not with me. We know that miscarriages occur when marriages displease the dark lord. How can  my marriage please the dark lord when it doesn’t  even please me?”
Edward rolled his eyes. “Oh, sweet hell, not again.”
“You marry a mortal and almost no one bats an eye, yet you forced me to marry Constance.”
“I did not.” Edward objected. “I   gave you a choice.”
“Some choice! “Faustus spat. “You knew I worked on my thesis for decades, but you suddenly decided not to publish it until I married Constance, who just moved to Greendale, within a  month! As you may recall, I almost stormed out of your office, refusing to whore myself for my work. Before I could reach the door, you told me of Zelda’s recent elopement with an English warlock and you even showed me a framed picture of the happy couple. You knew I would’ve married any witch you put in front of me after that and you could understand my shock when after my honeymoon, I walked into the school only to come face to face with Zelda’s new husband,  mopping the floor! I asked around and I came to decide that either Zelda had married the academy’s new janitor, or you lied to me. It was confirmed  when I sneaked into your office, found the exact picture you showed me, but it was only Zelda and Hilda, who  both came home about 2 weeks later.”
“That’s all  history now.” Edward dismissed. “What’s your point?”
“You’re married to the mortal you’re smitten with. I can barely stand being in the same room as my wife and both your sisters are unmarried and wasting their lives delivering other people’s children when they should be having babies of their own.”
“Hey, my sisters are allowed to marry whoever and whenever they want.”
“Anyone but me that is. Why Edward, why?”
“You really want to know? I’ll tell you. It’s because  I don’t trust you, Faustus. I can’t really put my finger on as to why,  but there’s something dark and dangerous inside you. Plus, I still remember when I was still a student and you took home and I will never forget how your father treated, what was it? Your 7th stepmother.”
“I am nothing like my father!” Faustus objected violently. “I never met a man I hated more until I met you!”
Edward shook his head. “You didn’t always hate me. We used to be friends.”
“True.” Faustus agreed. “I thought we were friends the first time I asked for Zelda’s hand in marriage and you rebuked me. I only slightly disliked when you were first made high priest and I begged you to marry Zelda and again you refused me. I  only really started to hate you when you married me off and then you started to play matchmaker between Zelda and every single warlock in the coven.”
Edward advanced.  “Well, hate this. I don’t think Zelda will be single for much longer. You see, my sister has been away from the house more and more lately. I think she’s finally found the man for her.” Faustus laughed. “What’s so funny?” Edward demanded.
“I’m that man,” Faustus informed him.
“You and Zelda are having an  affair?”
“Only in my dreams. But we have been talking more. Unlike the rest of you Spellmans, Zelda actually respects witch law and is having trouble accepting your marriage and didn’t want to trouble her darling brother.”
“You’re lying. I know my sister; she would have gone to Hilda.”
“Wrong. Hilda is getting so chummy with your moral that poor Zelda feels that she’s losing her sister.”
“So, she turned to you?” Edward shook his head, walked out of the room and started up the stairs.
Faustus followed. “What are you going to do? Yell at Zelda for speaking to an old friend?”
“No. I’m going up to my wife. I suggest you go home to yours and accept that you will never have my sister.”
Faustus’s hand tightened around his cane. “Go to heaven, Edward! After this marriage, where else would you go?” Faustus turned and left.
“Faustus! Faustus!”
Faustus Blackwood opened his eyes as he felt someone shaking his knee. His neck felt a little sore as he lifted his  head up from the soft leather of the limo’s backseat.
“What is it, Peter?” He asked of the monk who woke him.
“Sorry to wake you, but we can’t decide what to do.” Peter explained.   “You see, the road has been washed out by the storm.”
“Storm?” Faustus looked out the window and sure enough, he saw big,  fat drops of rain coming down so hard that Faustus couldn’t even see the road. “How long have I  been asleep?”
“About 2 hours, Brother Faustus, and it’s been raining for 1. It’s been getting worse ever since.”
“We’ve been thinking about turning around and stopping at a hotel in the town we just passed.”
“We can’t!” Faustus objected. “We’ll miss our plane to Rome.”
“The driver is on the phone to the airport right now and if the plane is grounded, we may have no choice.” Said another monk.
Then there It was a strange noise.
“I’m sorry.” Peter said while rubbing his stomach. “I didn’t eat dinner.”
“Most of us didn’t. I’m hungry too.” Faustus confessed.
They were interrupted by the driver, who informed them that indeed that the flight to Rome would be grounded until the storm passed.
“Cheer up.” Peter said when he looked at Faustus’s face. “Did you really want to spend your wedding night on an airplane?”
“Good point.” Faustus smiled as he sat and looked at his new bride.  Zelda was asleep, resting her head against her window. Faustus couldn’t help but let his eyes roamed all over her. Her perfect legs were crossed. She was still snuggled up in 1 of  Judas’s baby blanket that Faustus tucked her in himself.
Satan, she’s beautiful,  Faustus thought. And she’s finally mine, truly mine. My Zelda,  my wife. At long last!
The limo took a sharp turn and a sleeping Zelda landed with her head on her husband’s shoulder. He put an arm around her and played with her hair.
 “Damn it!”  Roy, the night manager of the Dreamland Hotel slammed down the phone and looked up to see most of his teenage staff putting on their jackets. “Where  do y’all think you’re going?”
“Home,  boss.” Said a boy whose name escaped Roy. “Shift’s over.”
Roy shook his head. “I don’t think so. That call was about a party of 16. They’ll be here in about 20 minutes.  They want dinner and rooms for the night.”
“Dinner?!” The boy objected “It’s almost midnight!”
“Relax. There 24-hour take-out place around the corner. We’ll just put the noodles on plates.”
“Why should we stay?” asked a girl.
“Because they’re willing to pay 3 times the normal amount for any inconvenience.”
 The teens cheered while Roy smiled. He never said he would be sharing the money, dumb kids.
When the hotel’s lighted sign came into view, Faustus decided to wake up his wife. “Zelda? Sweetheart?” He gently shook her and then he placed a kiss on her lips, only then did Zelda awake.
She was groggy. “Are we already at the airport?”
Faustus smiled. “No, dearest. A storm came and had to change to our plans since no one has a  weather spell on them.”
“We’re here.” Announced Peter,  who got out of the car.
Zelda leaned forward to look out the limo’s window. “And where is here?”
“Just a hotel, dearest. A place for food, sleep and” Faustus whispered in her ear. “Other wedding night type things.”
“Splendid.” Zelda reached for her purse.
Faustus smiled. “Which? The food, sleep, or sex?”
“All” Zelda smiled.
 Roy was at the front desk when the limo pulled up. The party of  16 ranged from some very old men, adults, some teens, and even an infant. Roy noticed that they were all dressed in black, even the baby! Like a cult! 16 freaks.
 Correction, Roy thought as soon as he saw her, 15 freaks and 1 smoking hot redhead!
Some of them were going into the rec hall for their requested meal  but most were heading to the restrooms. Roy snapped his fingers and placed a bellhop at the desk. He tried to cut off the redhead before she went to the restroom. He was too late, so he waited outside the bathroom for the redhead to come out. Finally, after what seemed like a million flushes and like 8 people coming out, some gave him weird looks, he saw the redhead. She had taken off her cloak, hat, and gloves and carried it all in her arms. Roy quickly looked down at her hand, no ring,  good.
“Hey there!”
The redhead barely looked at him. “Hello.”
She turned away but Roy fell in step beside her. “You know, if I could rearrange the alphabet, I put you and me together.”
“I think you mean you and I. Me is a word, not a letter.”
The redhead was walking a bit faster, but Roy got in front of the woman, his hand on the wall, blocking her way.  “What are you? A teacher or something?”.
“Yes.” She said simply and then ducked under his arm.
Roy didn’t or wouldn’t take the hint and was beside her again.
“So, what’s your name, pretty lady?”
However, pretty lady was more   interested in the the woman coming toward them and stopped her.  “Louise, do you know if we smoke on this floor?”
“I don’t think so, Sister Zelda.”
“Great.” She muttered.
“Zelda, huh? Well, you can call me Link baby, you can be my princess anytime.”  He caught her hand and bought it up to his lips.
“You’re still here?” It was Zelda’s only comment.
“Why are you so rude?” Roy advanced and Zelda’s back was against the wall.
“I’m not rude.” Zelda was as calm as ever. “I’m tired, and even more than that, I’m hungry. I only had an apple to eat today.”
“Why didn’t you say so, beautiful? You see, I’m the manager here and I can open the kitchen just for you and you can pick anything you want from the menu and we’ll have a nice, quiet meal in my office. It’s a much better offer than the cold noodles I’m feeding the freaks.”
Zelda stared at him. “Freaks? You dare call my people  freaks?” She shoved him away, harder than Roy thought possible.
“Hey!” Roy caught her arm as Zelda walked away or tried to.
“Excuse me.” Came a new, male voice. “Is there a problem here?”
Roy looked up to see a tall man, in a  suit. To Roy, he looked like a vampire. “What’s wrong, Count Dracula, out of hair gel? You need to  mind your own business!”
The man took a  step forward. “My wife is my business!”
“She’s not married, dude! I checked her hand!”
Zelda chuckled, shook herself free and shuffled her things to her other hand to hold up the hand with a  wedding ring on it. “Wrong hand, idiot.”
“Step away from my wife, mortal.”
“Mortal?  Who talks like that? Who are you, guys?”
Zelda rolled her eyes. “Faustus, my dear, you need to learn how to act with the outside world. I’m a little groggy to use magic right now but now I have no choice.”
Roy looked from one to the other. “Mortal? Magic? What the hell-“
“Never mind!” Zelda held a palm and Roy was in a trace. “Now, Link was it? You already behave like a child so why not play like a child? Go outside and play in the puddles.” Zelda ordered.
Faustus smiled. “You know it might rain all night?”
“All the better” His wife took his arm. “More puddles for him to find.”
 By the time, Zelda sat down to supper  in the rec hall, some of the party  had already finished and left. Cold Chinese was hardly a favorite, but she truly was starving so she ate everything on her plate. As she nursed her wine, Zelda watched   more and more people leave and Zelda longed to withdraw herself but knew as Lady Blackwood, she had to play hostess to the monks who barely spoke a word to her.
After a respectable hour, Zelda rose. “Gentlemen, by  your kind permission, I wish to withdraw.”
Zelda got the permission when the men rose and bowed to her.
“I’ll be up  as soon as I can,” Faustus whispered before he kissed her, and she nodded.
They rented out a whole floor and as the honeymoon suite was already taken so Faustus and Zelda was placed in another suite at the end of the hall. Zelda opened the door and heard Louise, a teacher at the academy scolding some schoolgirls.
“You three were brought along  to attend to Lady Blackwood, not to play with some mortal   boy’s minds.”
“What’s going on here?” Demanded  Zelda, her hand on her hip.
The girls leaped up. “Lady Blackwood.”
“These girls were found playing with some mortal  boys from the hotel staff  when they were supposed to be preparing your room,” Louise told her.
“I’d my fill of mortals for 1 night. It has been a very long day for all of us. Why don’t you girls go to find your rooms and go to bed? The girls fled.
“You’ll just let those girls off the hook.” Louise frowned.
“The room seems fine and I don’t feel like being a teacher right now.” Zelda took off her jewelry. “All I want is a warm bath before Faustus comes up.”
“Should I run it for you?”
“What for?” Zelda smiled as both witches heard the water running.
“Showoff! I’ll just find your nightgown and leave it on the bed.
“Thank you.” Zelda grabbed a cigarette from her purse and the ashtray and headed into the bathroom. She turned off the tap and stripped. It felt so good to lower her body into the water and took a puff. 20 minutes later, Zelda toweled off and was putting on her nightgown when she heard a  baby cry. She went into the next room to find another schoolgirl having trouble calming Judas. Zelda settled the girl and then took both bassinette and baby back to her own room. She changed him fed him and rock him to sleep while she sat by the fire.
“There, my little one, all you wanted was food and sleep. Just like the rest of  us.”
 2 hours! It took 2 hours for Faustus to escape that damn rec hall! It’s amazing how a little free-flowing wine could turn silent monks into huge asses! They could do whatever they wanted but he had a bride and a baby waiting for him.   Faustus doubled checked that everyone was where they should be before he dismissed the boys. He walked into his room and stopped at the breathtaking scene. His baby boy, asleep and happy and in the arms of the woman who should have borne him, the only woman Faustus Blackwood had ever and would ever love. The light of the fire bounced off Zelda’s wedding ring.
Are you seeing this, Edward? Faustus wondered to himself. He had seen and heard a lot of Edward Spellman’s ghost lately. Even today, at the wedding, he knew it was Sabrina,  because her father was already there, off to the side, glaring at even him before Zelda came down the aisle.  It was just too ironic that it was the same glare that Faustus had used when Edward had married him to Constance. What he never told Edward, what Faustus never told anyone that he had only been able to complete that farce wedding to Constance by mentally transforming the bride’s ebony skin to ivory and her black hair to red. Faustus had said his marriage vows to Zelda that day, not Constance. The fantasy was over, however, as soon as Zelda opened her mouth and spoke with Constance’s voice. That day, Faustus lost something truly precious. He tried to get it back by sleeping with half the coven, but he only ever came close when he saw Zelda, be it at mass or around Greendale. He never felt whole again until that night he kissed Zelda by the fire. He was reborn at that moment. After making love, he vowed never to lose Zelda again. It was right after that night that Edward started to pop up everywhere.  Faustus didn’t understand why until after Constance died that it became clear; not even Edward Spellman, hell’s own golden boy, the man who had broken all the rules and gotten away with it, could cheat  Faustus of his fate and that fate was Zelda. True, this wedding day had not gone according to plan, but he couldn’t blame Edward for it. No, that blame went to Edward’s blond brat. It that girl had, for once,  minded her own business and not gave Enoch Edward’s manifesto which had appeared out of nowhere after 16 years, Faustus wouldn’t have had to kill that Edward fanatic and could have actually enjoyed his wedding day instead of dodging Spellmans left and right and wedding the love of his life in the everyday setting of his office but none of that mattered now. The only Spellman who truly mattered was now a Blackwood and was asleep in the chair before him. Faustus knelt before them, trying to commit this perfect memory of his sleeping wife and son to his mind forever. When Judas began to fuss, Faustus stood and tried to ease him from Zelda’s lap without waking her. He was unsuccessful.
“Oh!” Zelda woke with a start.
“Hi. It’s okay, I got him.” He smiled and kissed her.
“Okay.” She kissed him back.
He put his already back to sleep son in his bassinet and carried it over to the bed. “Dearest, why didn’t you relax in bed? You would have been  more comfortable.”
Zelda got up and followed him. “Faustus, I realized that nothing about our wedding day was traditional, but I’ll be damned if I went to bed alone on my wedding night.”
He went to her. “In that case, Lady Blackwood, you’re overdressed.” He pushed back her robe and kissed her neck as the robe fell the floor. He did love her neck. Zelda teased him more than once about being a vampire because he was always kissing or sucking on her neck. So much so that if he spotted Zelda wearing a heavy necklace or a high collar, he knew she was hiding a hickey. They undressed each other and made love as passionately as they were still having a secret affair. Faustus didn’t remember falling asleep, but the baby’s cries woke him. He got up, settled the infant and then turned and stared at  Zelda, naked in bed, her red hair fanned out on her pillow and best of all, his ring on her finger. Why is the love of my life Edward’s sister? Faustus wondered for the millionth time. Why must she be a Spellman? Faustus wasn’t a fool. To destroy Edward’s family, once he returned to Greendale, Faustus knew that he had to remove Zelda, the true Zelda, from the situation, at least for a little while and that was a huge risk and his greatest fear. He pushed the thought away and as he got back in bed, Faustus noticed his wedding ring and smiled. He had convinced Constance that he just wasn’t a ring person, but the truth was that his 1st marriage was no true union. Now, he would proudly wear Zelda’s ring for the rest of his life. It was only now, this moment in time, in a dark hotel room, with rain falling on the roof, with his son 3 feet away and his wife in his arms, that Faustus Blackwood was truly happy.
29 notes · View notes
urcountrygirl · 3 years
Text
Silent Thoughts- My own story
(this is my favorite story I have written ever because most of it is showing my true feelings on people and vice versa. Most of the people in this story are real, wherever they are in their life now. )
If I'm right, If you live to be 80 years old, You end up living 29,220 days.  So one day you can't remember shouldn't matter. Especially if it's a day that you can't remember. I mean, I can't remember some things once it is a few weeks, months and even days or hours past. So a day you can't remember shouldn't matter, but it's different if it's a day that's lost. It's like a hole in your body and as much as you try and pretend that it's not there, you can't help but poke it. To probe it. Because even though it's empty, you can still feel something. l try to focus on the life I’m living. I am trying to get momentum to do tasks like chores, homework, and my art. Most days I can't do it but most days I actually can do it. In my heart I know I'm lost in a different way. I sit here and think. It was only 2 days ago I played on XBOX 360 for a full day. After about 2 hours, I had gotten to the top level. Once I had gotten to the top level, I felt a momentary exhilaration than a sadness because it was done. I could go back and redo it. To try again and I could find new variations, things that I had missed the 1st time. But in the end, It would still be over. I would Still reach the point where it was over. That was my life now, replaying the simple game or being in a fight I have already won. I know I deserve better. I am constantly apologizing to myself as I stumble through school, as I barely hear what the teachers are attempting to teach us. But I think more. Life is harder when you have somebody or something to miss. The next day comes. Monday morning at 3:00 in the morning and my alarm goes off playing a song I actually enjoy. This makes it easier for me to get up and start my workouts. As I am eating pancakes and a Starbucks Mocha after my workout, I feel like something is missing or I should be doing something. Because of this, I think even more. Part of what makes my personality actually work is my ability to be here day in and day out for people that I love and trust. My friends rely on me and I rely on them. The simple balance on which so many lives are built. My acquaintance that is wanting to be a friend of mine tells me her life story, then some. But as of now all I got out of her story and the then some part is that she is pregnant and the baby's father is in jail even though she is 16 years old. She also tells me she trusts me more than the father. But then I flashback to all of 5he little fights I have had with my father. Stupid fights like over fish sticks or music. He tells me that my music is a dead-end calling and I should stop even though he encouraged my brother to pursue music. I flashback in reality. I am still standing there listening to this girl go one about her life so I am sipping down my second Bang energy drink after I already had two Monsters. I am back home drinking the Starbucks Frappuccino and trying to finish an essay. I am failing my French class and in tears when my parents confront me about it. I am finally alone in my room and I am playing the same tune over and over again trying to figure out what it exactly means to me and what words to put in it. My ex-girlfriend is apologizing to me about her cheating on me. I decide to go and meet up with my closest and only friend at the park. We are swing on the swing set and I have the small flashback of me in the exact swing at 6 years old going higher and higher until I was convinced at that moment I could fly. I slip money into my friend’s purse so she can pay her half of lunch. I am dressed as a ladybug at 2 years old for Halloween,  and my mom burnt her hand on the stove that same night making mac and cheese. I am failing my driver’s test and to the point, I am practically balling my eyes out when the lady tells me. I finally pass the test a week later and the first thing I do when I get my license, I go to the beach. Watch the sunrise and the birds attacking the fish as they dive into the water. I am in my own world. I am blocking out other people that are there. I do this a lot because I keep in my mind that I am lonely and every person is the possibility. I met this guy (you) a month or so ago. You like me and I like you. I asked you why you like me. You said because of me, because of my kindness. My engagement in the world.  Engagement in the possibilities of different ways of living life. We met up at a bookstore. You stared at me. "I have an idea." "Okay?" I responded skeptically. "Let's pretend that this is the first time we have ever met. Let's pretend you came to get the book. I happened to want the same book so I accidentally ran into you. We struck up a conversation. I like you and you like me." You paused and smiled at me. "Now we are going to get coffee. I don't know anything about you. I don't know anything about your ex." You had paused again to think about what you just said and did a try-hard smile like 'sorry about mentioning him'. You took a sip of your frappuccino. And for some reason, this all feels right. You continued, "We are meeting for the first time. Okay?" "Okay but why? " You ignored my question. "No past, no future, just present. Okay? It's that easy. Forget about the world. Forget about all of the pain us teenagers are going through right now." "Okay. I guess." We went to the store. Then after we got $200 worth of food, mainly fruit, we went to your house. You had me cook because I am Italian. We filled the air with music, we moved in tandem. We moved in unison. This is our first date. First time alone together without any adults breathing down our necks. And I can't help but think this is the way it should always be. The easygoing sharing of space. Your parents are in California. I am there. Chopping garlic and vegetables and I am totally unaware of my posture, the craziness of my hair. Unaware of how much you are staring at me. With a lot of love, and outside of our kitchen size bubble, the nighttime sings and dances. I look up through the sky window and I see the stars shining bright like a LED light. And I also see your reflection mapped up out on top of it. Everything is where I think it should be and my heart believes it is all right. That this can always be true. My heart wants this all to be true. Even if something darker tugs it away. Friday comes faster than it should have and I am distracted again. Everybody is having their conversations. Earlier in the day I actually for once, paying attention. But my mind says that it is enough for one day. My friends don’t mind if I am quite once and a while. As long as they feel I'm present. Physically I am there but mentally I am not. They think I am listening and I used to feel like this was enough.  To pretend like everything was perfect. Like the world has no evil. I go to the hospital to see the maternity ward. All of the little babies. So innocent. Of purity. Seeing how they know no evil. How they don't know rejection or heartbreak. They don't have any pain. They are like puppies, so adorable, but have so much to learn. So much to figure out and discover. That to me? Is what life is all about. Finding things out and living with risks. To be honest risks that nobody else will take because they are trying to live the perfect life. And yet there is no such thing as perfection. Nothing and nobody is perfect. It's just how the world is.
1 note · View note
Text
My first blog post
So, this is my first blog post. I don’t know where to start. Maybe ill start with why I made this blog? Maybe I’ll start with my initial diagnosis? I’m not sure. I think I might just start writing and see what comes out. 
I’m going to start with my background story, then I’ll get into parenting. It may take a couple posts to get out, but I’ll go through all my struggles before becoming a parent, then I’ll go through while parenting.
Let’s go back to 2012, March of 2012 I was in year 10 of my schooling. I had grown up with some difficulties making friends, keeping friends and socialising. all throughout primary school I was a bit of a trouble maker, wouldn’t do as I was told, refused to move from places I shouldn’t be and just caused some problems with my teachers and my mother. My mum always knew there was just something different with me but could never pin point what it was, until I was in year 10 and she researched Asperger's. For those unaware of what Asperger’s is, it is a developmental disorder related to autism and characterised by awkwardness in social interaction, pedantry in speech, and preoccupation with very narrow interests.
My Mum decided to take me to a clinical psychologist where we both did a questionnaire based on my behaviour. The findings of this questionnaire reported back that I had Asperger’s and had severe depression. This hit me really hard because at the time it was 2 weeks before I turned 16. It was a massive shock to me that I’d gone 16 years with not knowing why I was so disliked, why I behaved the way I did. I started reading up on Asperger’s in women and the symptoms of it. Not even 2 symptoms in and I related so much. My next step was to go off and do an IQ test. Verbal communication, reasoning and recognising feelings/emotions was and still is a bit of a weak point of mine. Problem solving, numbers, and general mathematics I was superior in. The results of this IQ test concluded that I struggled with English and needed further help in my schooling to be able to pass.
After finding out that I had Asperger’s, depression and anxiety, my mum told the family and their reaction wasn’t the greatest when all you need is support and help. My Aunty passed it off as an excuse for my behaviour. That was until a few months later when I had a massive breakdown and refused to go to school. Refused to leave bed and all I wanted to do was lay in bed all day. My Aunty came round to try and help my mum get me out of my funk. Upon her arrival she gave me a photo of my Uncle, who passed away the year prior, and I. She said “I found this and thought that you should have this. He loved you. Know he is always with you and looking down and is incredibly proud of you.” From that day forward I’ve had that photo with me where ever I go. My Uncle is my guardian angel. He’s kept me grounded on Earth and has stopped me from killing myself. The photo is the first thing I see in the morning and the last thing I see at night.
The rest of my schooling was a bit of a struggle. I was in the crucial years of my schooling. I needed to do well to be able to go to University and studying a passion of mine. Year 11 was a struggle, I was failing a class so dropped the subject and picked another up. But that still wasn’t the worst part. EXAMS, no one likes exams at the best of times but when it came to English exams, oh boy, that was the worst. We got given 3 hours to do 3 writing pieces. I was confident going in and knew what I needed to do, BUT, as soon as that timer started and I had to put pencil to paper, that was it my mind went black. I would sit in that exam room looking at a blank piece of paper. I would try everything I could to try and write something worthy of getting marked. I ended up doing but got the lowest pass score I could’ve. I passed year 11 but not by much. Year 12 was tipping point though. I started the year doing 5 subjects but after falling one subject and not wanting to pick up another I dropped the 5th subject and continued the year with 4. After Term 1 it was brought to the attention of my year level coordinators that I wasn’t doing too well. I was failing a further 2 subjects, one of them being English, what a surprise NOT. I had a discussion with my coordinators to see if I could do year 12 over 2 years but they refused to help me pass year 12. The excuse they used was it will ruin their rep. That was it, that was when I decided I’ll ruin their rep anyway by dropping out of school. Half way through year 12 and I decided to leave because I was failing and I wasn’t going to get the help I needed to pass.
After leaving high school I decided to try my hand doing a diploma at TAFE. That didn’t work out as well as I hoped it would. 1 month into my course and it got to a time where I had to write an essay. Let’s just say that was the moment I realised I couldn’t do this course. After leaving TAFE I jumped from job to job. Moved around in terms of housing. Went from living with friends, to living with my grandfather, to living with my friends again to living with my grandfather again. I still wasn’t happy though and wasn’t sure on where I was going or what I was going to do. That was until Boxing Day 2014. My dad had flown over for a funeral and I went and seen him. He offered for me to pack up all my things and come live with him in Western Australia. I went home, told mum what I was going to do and that was it. I packed up all my stuff at my grandfathers, went back to mums for the night. Told all the family what I was doing and left the next day.
In my next blog post I will talk about my time in Western Australia and my struggles there. I will then go on until we get to 2018!
I am just starting out in writing and I do know that this may not be written very well, but as I had written in this blog I’m not very good at English. I try my best in trying to follow a story on smoothly. If you see some grammatical errors, I’m sorry. English stumps me. Not wrong when they say English is the hardest language to learn.
Anyway, please share if you think it’s worthy of a share. I will get to what it’s been like as a parent and suffering with Asperger’s and depression in a future post!
1 note · View note
demon-animatronic · 4 years
Text
Perfectly Perfect: Chapter  1 (Self-Insert fic)
Title: Perfectly Perfect
Rating: Teen for swearing(That didn’t take long but it’s not a lot)
Relationship: Steelbeak x Self Insert Lexi
Genre: Family/Friendship and eventually Angst and Hurt/Comfort
Chapter Summary: Steelbeak is here and we chat about teachers that sucked when we were kids.
Other: Nothing that I can think of.
Author’s Note:
Just a quick chapter. I’m trying to think of filler related things before the angst and pain starts in a couple of chapters. Which I’m going to try and make be chapter 10 when it happens.
I will forever headcanon that OG Steelbeak is New Steelbeak’s dad. But instead of working with FOWL, he was some Crime/Mob boss and it’s how he lost his beak. Which is ironic that both lost their beaks for one reason or another. 
Prologue - Last Chapter - Next Chapter 
It was an average Spring day in April 2019 when Black Heron sent Steelbeak to the library to grab a few things. Apparently there was some books there that FOWL needed. So she decided to send her errand boy to go get them for her.
Steelbeak stepped inside and groaned to himself. He was never really into reading when he was younger. Well, except for Darkwing Duck comics. He read those all the time. Much to his teacher’s dislike.
He looked at the list he was given and began looking for them.
As he walked by a table, he thought he saw that Dewey kid at a different table only in red this time. But he didn’t get the chance to think about it for very long when a noise distracted him.
Looking down, he saw someone had smacked themselves in the face with a notebook. Chuckling, he walked over so he was leaning on the chair next to them.
“Bad day, babe?” Steelbeak asked.
“You can say that.” I replied with my pointed ear pinned down and not looking up from my notebook.
“What are you doing?” Steelbeak decided to ask.
“I forgot how much homework sucked.” I put the notebook down and my ear lifted up again.
“You look a little old for homework.” Steelbeak stated the obvious.
“Let’s just say I went to college, quit after a year or so to help raise my nephews, and finally started going back recently.”  I said.
“Ooooh!” Steelbeak started. “I got ya.” 
“I also forgot how teachers can be dicks for no reason.” I added.
“Oh don’t get me started. I hated just about every teacher that I had as a kid. Then again, it probably didn’t help how often I fought with my teachers and the other kids.” He gave a small quiet chuckle. “I lost track on how many schools I was kicked out of for fighting.”
“Wow.” I stated.
“I know!” Steelbeak said and kneeled down a little. “Wanna hear a story about one of my worst teachers that I had?”
“Sure.” I nodded.
“So I was maybe 9 or 10 years old, right? I did awful in things like Math and Science and had this woman as my teacher for both one year. I think those two classes were back-to-back even.” Steelbeak started. “For some reason she refused to give me help in those classes. And was constantly calling me out in front of the whole class. Hell, the other kids started calling me names like ‘stupid’ and she did nothing about it since she called me it herself too and even started it.”
“Please say she got fired.” I said.
“Nope. Never got fired for it. I got kicked out for fighting her one too many times though.“ Steelbeak continued. “Another thing that happened was that some kid was crying for getting a B and this same teacher told her to be happy she wasn’t like me and getting Ds and Fs! It wasn’t the only time she mentioned my grades out loud.”
“I probably would’ve fought her too for being a mega bitch.” I replied.
“Really?”
“Nah.” I smiled. “I didn’t get into fights like that. But it definitely would’ve pissed me off if I had a teacher go THAT far. Now I’m glad my kids are home schooled now.”  
“Did you have teachers get on your nerves like that?” Steelbeak asked.
“Yeah I did. I remember in 4th and 5th grades, I had this teacher bitch at me nearly every day. When I found out she was my home room teacher for 5th grade, I dreaded that school year before it started. Only upside is that my class had two desks side-by-side for our books.” I replied.
“What did she bitch at you for?” Steelbeak asked, sitting down beside me.
“I went to a private school and had to wear skirts along with pants. She kept yelling at me about my skirts being too short despite classmates and kids both younger and older having even shorter skirts than me. Plus, I was constantly growing during those two years and had gotten new skirts in 4th grade. Let’s just say those things are expensive as Hell. Even back then.”
“Did any other teachers give you trouble about it?”
“Nope.” I shook my head. “That’s why I never did anything about it. She was the only one to give me problems so I chose not to get new skirts to make her happy. If other teachers and the principal said something, maybe I would’ve done something different.”
“Good for you. Honestly, I probably would’ve picked fights with her every day like my own teachers.” Steelbeak shrugged. “That said, I don’t even remember many from high school. In fact, I actually dropped out completely when I was 16 years old and left home.”
“How did your parents feel?” I asked.
“My folks didn’t like it. But then again, my dad’s an asshole and I never did anything right in his eyes. My mom, eh….she wasn’t much better.”
“That really sucks.” I replied, not knowing how to take in that info.
“Don’t worry about it. It was years ago. I haven’t seen my parents in a long time but I did turn into my dad a little bit.” He tapped his beak. “Never told me what happened to his original beak before he got a prosthetic but I doubt he did the same thing that I did to mine. Personally, I‘m pretty sure he was some crime boss. You‘re lucky you got two families.”
“How do you know?” I questioned, humorously. 
“Well, you’re a Dognose. So obviously you have a Dognose family. And I’ve seen you with McDuck’s family all the time. Are you like some bonus family member or something?” Steelbeak asked.
“Yeah. I guess you can say I’m an honorary family member since I grew up with his niece and nephews. He took to calling me his niece one day and he‘s been my Uncle Scrooge ever since.” I said.
“See? You got two families. You make stuff like that look easy. I mean, I did have friends growing up that liked things like Darkwing Duck. But it didn‘t last in high school.” Steelbeak rubbed his face.
“Trust me, I always had social anxiety growing up and was lucky to meet Donald and Della. I’m pretty sure Donald and I only became best friends because we both have speech impediments. So we knew how the other was feeling with our shared insecurity and bonded from that. Della was a bonus best friend that happened to be a girl too.”
“So would you have been able to make friends or gain a second family without them?” Steelbeak asked.
“Fuck no.” I replied.
“Well,” Steelbeak laughed then someone shushed him so he quieted his voice a little. “I guess that made me feel a little bit better.”
“Surely you have friends now right?” I asked.
“Yeah!…Kind of… Depends on what you consider coworkers to be. Especially if they call you stupid and constantly muzzle you. I‘m NOT stupid, by the way!” Steelbeak replied, folding his arms.
“Didn’t say that you are.” I frowned. “Doesn’t sound like friends to me. I mean, playfully calling you dumb is one thing, being full on serious is another. Especially if they muzzle you.”
“Have you ever been called it before? And are you still bothered about your speech problem?” Steelbeak asked.
“Not as much now as I was when I was younger. If you meant stupid, I don’t think I’ve been called it straight to my face. But I know my teachers thought it all the time. Especially my math teachers.” I held up the notebook I hit myself with earlier and showed it saying MATH on it.
“I agree, Math is the worst.” Steelbeak chuckled. “Now I understand why you smacked yourself earlier. But come on, I doubt you did worse than me.”
“I beg to differ. You weren’t the one with an undiagnosed learning disorder so everyone thought you were legit stupid when it came to all things Math. Well, I’m pretty sure I have a learning disorder. Those tests didn’t exist as a kid so who knows. But the one I think I have makes so much sense.” I said.
“Oh really? What is it?” Steelbeak asked.
“It’s called Dyscalculia.” I replied. “It basically involves having a hard time with concepts like time, mainly analog clocks, and measurement. And not being able to remember concepts, rules, and formulas.”
“Do you think things would be different if you knew about it as a kid?”
“Probably not.” I shrugged. “It wouldn’t of changed how I still did awful in math and better in History and reading.”
“Same here.” Steelbeak said. “I wasn’t into reading much as a kid but it was definitely the easiest subject for me. History wasn’t so bad either. What type of books did you read?”
“Mainly things involving supernatural or paranormal. What about you?”
“Like I said, I didn’t read books much.” Steelbeak said.
“You mentioned Darkwing Duck, right? Did you read the comics?” I asked.
“Oh yeah! I read those all the time! Did you read them?” He asked.
“Not really. I’ve been rewatching the show with my buddy, LP.” I said.
“…You mean Launchpad?” I nodded. “Huh. Didn’t know he was into Darkwing too.”  
“You know him?” I asked.
“Sort of. We met… in passing one day and I heard the kid over there talk to him. Only he was wearing blue.” He pointed to Huey.
“That was probably Dewey. Huey wears red a lot and is over there. Dewey wears blue. Louie, the third triplet, is usually wearing green.” I said and he stared at me. “What? I did help raise my honorary nephews… so of course I can tell which is which.”
“Fair enough.” Steelbeak replied with a shrug. “So what made you start school again? Was it because your kids are older now?”
“No. The boy’s mom is home now and found out I quit college over 10 years ago to help raise her kids. She basically forced me to go back.” I replied.
“And yet you’re still babysitting one of them.” Steelbeak said.
“The kids asked to come since they made their own book club. I don‘t mind watching them as I do my homework.” I shrugged.
“Where’s the rest of the kids at?” Steelbeak asked.
“Either home at the mansion or hopefully with another adult.” I said.
“Oh okay. Well, I better go look for the books that I’m here for before I forget.” Steelbeak said, standing up and taking the list out again.
After looking at the list, he frowned and looked around.
“Need help…?” I asked, noticing the look.
“Uh no. I can find them on my own. Thanks though, babe.” Steelbeak winked then walked away.
5 notes · View notes
saiilorstars · 4 years
Text
The Beginning of Everything
Fandom: Doctor Who
Pairing: Female OC x 10th Doctor
(OC Renata’s Face claim: Marjorie de Sousa) (Gabby’s face claim: Victoria Moroles)
// Story Masterlist // 
~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~
DISCLAIMER: This chapter’s plotline is from Doctor Who’s comic stories. Most of the dialogue is directly written from the comic. The plot is NOT mine.
Ch. 16: Between the Lies There is Truth
Chapter Summary: The Doctor takes Renata to a quaint town so they can  have a talk about Renata’s past. Meanwhile, Donna and Gabby make their own trip to see an old friend.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Unlike Renata who preferred to go out and eat when she spilled a centuries-old secret, the Doctor chose to talk with Donna in the console room. He doubted Renata would be coming back anytime soon. Gabby was probably off in her own room too. It was just going to be him and Donna for the rest of the 'night'.
And starting to talk wasn't that hard, least not the part of how he and Martha ended up in 1913; the Family who was chasing him; the Chameleon arch; hiding amongst humans for 3 months. But then he got to the part where he'd met Renata. That's where it got harder.
Donna could tell it was too. He'd shifted away from her, his sentences became more like fragments with a few stutters here and there. "When did talking about Renata make you this nervous?" she ultimately asked just before he got to the part where he, as John Smith, was going in search of Renata in the nearby town with Matron Joan.
"I don't know!" he defensively said. "This wasn't me!"
"It kinda was," Donna made a face that pretty much told him he was being dramatic. "You sought her out, went looking for her in the town...all cos you wanted to see her."
"That's not true!"
"Yeah? Then what happened afterwards? Did you find her?"
"You know what, I think this story is done!"
"Oh no, spaceman!" Donna latched onto his arm before he would take off on her. "You started the story, now you finish it!" And by the hook she had on his arm, there was no getting out of it.
With a sigh, the Doctor answered in a very quiet tone, "Yes, I did. And she wasn't happy about it! Nearly shut the door in my face!"
Donna let go of his arm but only to laugh.
"It wasn't funny! She practically threw me out so I had to go looking for her in the town where there were no doors!" The Doctor then went on to explain how he'd been responsible for knocking poor Renata out in the town.
Donna may have laughed again and told him that definitely sounded like him. The dynamic between the two Time Lords may in fact be like that. The Doctor was very discouraged to continue, but Donna promised him she'd take him serious and listen from now on. So, he went on.
He told her about the journal John Smith had created, full with his actual memories. He told her about the dance he'd invited Renata to (and how she'd been practically forced to go along with it thanks to Matron Joan), the Family chasing after them, and finally the decision John had to make to save them all. Of course the ending was what got Donna.
She was completely serious then. "Doctor, you mean to tell me you fell in love with Renata?" her eyes were wide and blinking fast.
The Doctor, for his part, was fervently shaking his head. "I-I didn't - John Smith did! He fell in love with her, not me!"
Donna's eyes narrowed on the stammering Time Lord. "Then why are you so defensive about it?"
"I-I'm not!"
Donna raised one eyebrow at him.
"...am I?" the Doctor took a moment to think about things. He looked away from Donna but even when he tried to think about 1913, his mind refused. Each time he thought about it, he remembered everything he did. From the moment he met Renata to the last moment they shared.
But thankfully he had Donna to point out things for him. And she did.
"Doctor, you sought her out-"
"-he did, not me-"
"-you sketched her-"
"-lots of people do that-"
"-you asked her out on a date-"
"-well, I-"
"-and then you kissed her right before you saved the world," Donna finished with a very big smile, though there was a trace of amusement on it. "The 'go big or go home' thing took a whole other level with you. Kind of romantic, in your own alien way."
"Donna," the way the Doctor said her name was more like a plead than anything else. "I didn't...I did more harm than good, okay? And John Smith just going out there and falling in love with her was the worst mistake he ever did."
Donna folded her arms with purpose. "Doctor," she moved up to him with a hard look in her eyes, "Look me in the eyes and tell me that again. Tell me that you mean it."
The Doctor wanted to look away but he just couldn't. And it was frustrating! "I don't know! "You know what? It doesn't even matter! This isn't why I told you the story - it was to show you how I already screwed up, okay? That's what I always do - I screw up."
Donna's face softened once she realized the real point of the story. "You're guilty. You don't ask Renata questions that you want to because you're guilty about what happened in 1913. Whether it's about the deaths or her heart - hearts - you feel guilty."
The Doctor's shoulders slumped as his head hung. "With what face - what audacity - would I go and pry about her past? I can't, Donna. I just can't."
Donna rested a comforting hand on his arm. He wasn't alone in these crazy thoughts and she wanted him to know that. "I get that, I really do, but I also think you are entitled to some answers if she is living in your TARDIS."
"I stole her," he said with a sour smile. "I literally kidnapped her."
"But she still stayed, out of her own accord. She lives here because she wants to, Doctor."
The Doctor had wanted to believe that for a long time too, but there was always an inkling of doubt gnawing in the corner of his mind. Renata was so different from him, the polar opposite actually. Maybe one day she'd grow tired of the way their trips went or even himself and she'd...leave.
"Why don't you let the night pass and then tomorrow you and Renata can go out somewhere, just the two of you," Donna suggested after a few minutes of silence. "Gabby and I can take it easy here while you're out." Just as the Doctor shook his head, Donna added, "You know you want some answers, don't play stupid. Do what I'm suggesting and you'll get some answers."
"What if I push her too much?" there was a clear fear in the Doctor's eyes that made Donna sympathize with him. "And then she wants to leave?"
"She won't do that."
"Why not?"
"Because Renata is fair. If you deserve answers, then she'll give them to you." Donna seemed very sure of what she was saying. It almost let the Doctor to believe it too.
Truth was, he was still scared.
~0~
Renata hadn't slept that well. She'd tossed and turned in her bed, hoping that the world would take pity on her and let her sleep just for a few hours. This was one of the days she actually needed sleep and of course it happened on the day she'd royally screwed up. Just when she'd finally clambered onto some sleepy trance...someone knocked on her door.
That's all the sleep I'm getting, she concluded with a tired yawn. She got up from bed and sleepily walked to the door.
Of course the Doctor stood on the other side. Of course.
"Yeah?" she yawned and brought a hand up to her mouth in an attempt to cover it up.
The Doctor could tell she was incredibly tired. He'd waited as patiently as possible for a few hours of sleep to pass by before gathering courage to come up Renata's door. It didn't look like the waiting had been for anything since it was obvious she hadn't slept at all.
"Uh, I...morning?" As he said that, his expression showed even he was confused. Why would he say that? That's not what he wanted to say at all.
Renata pulled a hand over her hair. "Morning."
"We, um - well, I'd like to...have a word with you," the Doctor finally got it in one go, but now he had to anxiously waiting for Renata's reaction.
She looked nervous but not surprised. "Umm...let me just...let me get changed, okay? I'll meet you in the console room in a bit."
"Sounds good," he nodded. She quickly looked away from him and closed the door. Yeah, she definitely was avoiding him.
Inside her bedroom, Renata was beginning to panic all over again.
She went all over the room looking for something to wear, but the truth was she was making time to think of a good reason to tell the Doctor why she knew the name he had never spoken to her. After about fifteen minutes, Renata finally found the will to get dressed and leave her room. She came out in a button-up, three-quarter sleeve green blouse tucked under a long cream-colored skirt. She pressed down her long hair then took a deep breath before she started for the console room.
Of course the Doctor was nervously waiting for her there. Soon as he saw her coming in, he straightened his body but he might have shifted a few times as she came up to him.
"Where's Donna and Gabriella?" she asked first since, on her way to the room, she hadn't heard a noise. It was almost as if it was just them two again.
"They, uh...Donna asked to be dropped off at home for now," the Doctor rubbed the back of his neck. The request had come at a perfect moment since he wanted to talk with Renata and could do without the questions Gabby kept throwing his way. The girl was curious about Renata's behavior and she wanted answers.
"And Gabriella?" Renata feared for the young girl's attitude towards travelling now. After how she treated Gabby, Renata thought sje might want to leave now before things got worse.
"She's off with Donna. She's never been to England, actually," the Doctor offered Renata a small smile.
"I need to apologize to her," Renata sighed. "I am a terrible teacher."
"She was fine, honestly. You don't need to worry about her."
Renata nodded, but she didn't look very convinced. "So...where are we going, then?"
"Umm, I thought somewhere nice and calm might be good. I know you prefer that."
Renata's eyebrows raised together. "What did you have in mind?"
The Doctor just smiled. He preferred to show her.
~0~
He does listen, Renata concluded when the Doctor led her out of the TARDIS into a quaint town in France. It was far from the nearby city - which so happened to be Paris - but close for Renata to see the Eiffel Tower in the distance. As soon as she'd stepped out of the TARDIS, Renata was greeted with a peacefulness that she hadn't had in quite a while.
Not to mention the air smelled sweet. Somewhere, there was a bakery she was sure.
"1923 Sceux," the Doctor walked beside her along the short sidewalk. "Nice town, perfect for visitors just wanting to...talk." The smile on his face was soft and well-intentioned but it was still nerve-wracking for Renata. "And best of all, it is always nice and quiet here."
Renata raised her eyebrows in content. "I'm impressed. You do listen to me sometimes."
"I always listen. Sometimes you just happen to say things I disagree with."
"You mean like checking the environment before you leave the TARDIS?"
"Ah yes, that would be a big one. There's a sense of excitement when you go into the unknown."
"Not really," Renata shook her head, though there was a light smile on her face when she looked away. "Sometimes you can get into real trouble, which I'm sure you've already done before."
"Maybe so."
The Doctor led her towards a small shop on the edge of the street. Renata instantly knew this was the place responsible for the sweet smell in the air. Renata chose to sit in one of the tables outside the shop. She actually really loved the scenery and wanted to soak it up as much as she could.
"Do you like crepes?" the Doctor asked after taking a seat across the table. "They have really good crepes here."
"I've never had one," Renata made a face at the dessert.
The Doctor's mouth fell open in shock. "What!? You've never had a crepe before? How!?"
"Because it's a dessert and far too sweet for my liking," she raised one hand to wave. "I remember Joan liking them but they always had too many things in it."
"Oh, you have no idea what you're missing out on, Renata. You should have one."
"I'm curious, do either one of us have money to pay for what we want to eat here?"
There was a smug look on the Doctor's face when he reached into one of the inside pockets of his coat. He showed her (or rather waved) a couple bills in his hands. "I knew you would ask," he then said because he never carried money otherwise.
"Ah, so you really do know me," Renata looked away in embarrassment.
"Well, bits and pieces of what you tell me. But...I know there's more. You're 756, how could there not be, right?" Renata's face expressed a guilt the Doctor picked up on fast. "Oh I didn't mean you're obligated or anything, I just...I mean…"
"It's alright, Doctor," Renata cut into his panic moment. She knew he meant well - he always did. "You have questions and...I owe you some answers." It's just she didn't exactly want to give them. "Go ahead, ask away." Truth was...she was scared. She'd kept this lie going longer than she thought she'd be capable of and now telling him scared her even more. He would be angry with her, so angry. It would be a natural reaction but it was a reaction that, lately, had been keeping her up at night when she desperately wanted to sleep.
"I'm not going to pry into your past lives but...there are some things that just don't make sense," the Doctor admitted. "Specifically things around you and me. Like...how do you know so much about me?"
"Everyone knew who you were back on Gallifrey," Renata started with the technicalities of honesty. "You...did a lot of things that earned you a reputation."
"Yeah, but...certain...things about myself are things that only someone who actually knew me would know."
"Like?"
"Let's start with the fact you seemed to know, straightaway, that my inventions don't usually work. How would you know that?"
"I…" Renata knew she didn't have the right answer to that she didn't want to give away her real identity.
The Doctor waited a decent amount of time before he started coming up with his own ideas...that he shared out loud. "I mean, there's also the facts that you didn't want me around back in 1913 and it wasn't due to what I did to Gallifrey," - and just as Renata opened her mouth to retort, the Doctor added - "You told me that. You didn't even care what I did. That means you had something else against me." And the fact he still didn't know what it was, irked him. She had no reason to despise him like that if it wasn't for what he did in the war. He tried, often times, to convince himself that it really was the reason why she hated him in the beginning. But in the end, he knew that was a lie. There was something else about him that made her despise him and he wanted to know why. "And then there's the name…" his eyes seemed to bore into Renata's, making the Time Lady lose air suddenly. "A name that you shouldn't know. A name that only I, in this present world now, would ever know. Zuriah. How do you know that name?"
Renata swallowed hard. This was it. The pivotal moment that would change everything between them if she dared to answer with the truth. It was her chance to come clean; a chance to finally rid herself of the guilt she carried.
But it was also the moment she had feared for so long. Her stomach churned at the thought of his reaction, his fury. He would surely think she'd been playing him, making fun of him. All the things he told her so far about himself, some of them included things of Zuriah…
Tell him Renata.
Tell him right now!
Renata opened her mouth, bit it was incredibly dry.
Tell him and get it over with!
Do it!
Do i-
"I'm…" Renata swallowed hard, feeling something sharp at the end of her mouth. "I...knew her."
~0~
"How did you get us in here so easily?" Gabby quietly asked Donna despite being alone in an office...of UNIT. Without much struggle, Donna had gotten them into the UNIT headquarters. The place was high-tech and secure, which only led Gabby to be even more confused how they pretty much just walked in like nothing.
"Oh, we recently had a run-in with UNIT," Donna leaned against the desk behind her. "You know the ATMOS car incident?"
Gabby's eyes widened as she remembered the catastrophic event. "Yeah. Those were done by the aliens, huh?"
"Oh yeah," Donna folded her arms. "Big time. Well, the reason the Doctor and Renata even knew about it was because an old friend called them."
"An old friend? You mean, someone they know works in UNIT?" Gabby asked just a second before the office door opened.
Dr. Martha Jones walked in with a smile indicating her surprise to see Donna back. "I thought they were kidding when they said Donna Noble was requesting to see me…"
Donna smiled back at the woman. "I never kid."
"It's nice to see you again," Martha chuckled and hugged the woman. "What's it been for you? I hope not years. I'd be terribly offended."
"Nah, just 2 months."
"Good." Martha pulled away and turned her head in Gabby's direction. The young girl had been studying Martha since she'd walked in. "And this is…?"
"New companion - Renata's companion, actually," Donna gestured to Gabby who started to silently wave.
"Renata's companion?" Martha caught the words fast. Her eyes were wide, clearly stunned, but a smile slowly started making its way across Martha's face. She almost laughed even. "Really?"
"Yeah," Donna nodded then looked at Gabby. "Well, c'mon, talk! You can definitely talk!"
Gabby was well aware she was being weird again, but something about meeting a previous companion of the Doctor's and Renata's made her incredibly nervous. Donna told her they were visiting an old friend but...this woman seemed way put together. She was a doctor at UNIT. It was a bit intimidating. It meant that Renata and the Doctor made friends with important people.
"I'm Martha Jones," Martha took initiative and held out a hand to shake Gabby's.
"G-Gabby Gonzalez," the girl shook hands with Martha, but it was done in a trembling manner. "S-sorry. I-I'm sort of new and…"
"It's all still a wonder, huh?" Martha laughed, totally understanding it. She figured she must have worn Gabby's stunned face for at least the first two adventures she had with the Doctor. "Totally natural. But I'm really glad to know that Renata took on a companion. I never thought she would! You must be one hell of a girl to make her do that."
Gabby blushed. "I-I didn't think so, but..."
"You are," Martha told her again. She then moved around her desk to take a seat. "And I never thought you'd come visit me. Are Renata and the Doctor alright?" she asked in a tone that made Gabby wonder if something bad happened even before she arrived to the TARDIS. She looked at Donna and saw that the ginger had also gone a bit grim.
"They're moving on from Jenny," Donna assured Martha, "But now they're sort of having problems between them."
"Oh Donna, you have no idea how long that's been going on," Martha sighed. She presumed that Donna still didn't know about their past, so Martha would keep out the fact that Renata and the Doctor had been having problems before any of them were even born. "I assume neither of them know that you're here?"
"Yeah," nodded Donna. "I told the Doctor I was just visiting home while he and Renata went off somewhere else. Gabby hadn't seen England so the Doctor never asked."
"They're off together, then?" Martha raised an eyebrow, a hint of a smile trying to spread across her face.
"Not in that sense," Donna gradually took a seat across and prompted Gabby to do the same. "Although now I'm starting to sense that type of vibe from them. I mean, I had before too but I didn't know whether to believe it or not."
"Alright, so to what do I owe this visit?"
"Honestly, we want to know more about Renata but...that Time Lady doesn't really talk, does she?"
Now Martha scrunched her face. "Yeah, not really. Took me a whole year to crack her shell but even then it was a struggle. Still is."
"We're not being nosy, we just want to know why Renata is the way she is," Donna said then glanced at Gabby. The girl would never say it so straight-forwards but she was thinking the same thing as Donna.
"It doesn't make sense," Gabby ultimately added. "There were some...things that happened to us on my first trip and...when I tried talking to Renata about them, specifically the things concerning her, she snapped. It was like I trespassed into a different world...one where I didn't belong."
Martha figured Gabby must have prodded (accidentally) into Renata's love life and elicited the wrath of the terrified, love-stricken Renata. God knew that was a side of Renata no one should have to deal with. "I'm sure Renata feels terrible about that," Martha said first. "And if she hasn't apologized then I'm sure she will in a matter of time."
"It's okay," Gabby sighed. "I don't want to anger Renata by saying the wrong words. She's my teacher but...I'd like to see her as a friend too."
"And we're in luck," Donna mused with a smirk on her face as she gestured to Martha, "Because Dr. Jones here is Renata's only friend up to date; she's the only one Renata actually confides in. Don't know how you got her to do that."
Martha playfully rolled her eyes. "It's not a big deal."
"Yeah, because you already have what we want."
"Listen, Renata is a...complicated woman. She's sort of like the Doctor: she has so many secrets because she's so old."
"She's 756," Donna remembered from her breakfast with Renata.
"She's 756!?" Gabby repeated in shock. "But she doesn't look like she'd be!" Anyone would say that Renata looked like a woman in her early thirties. Everything about her screamed elegance and classiness.
"The Doctor's 902," Martha said just to see Gabby's stunned reaction again. It was rather fun being on the other side of the conversation, especially since Gabby was much younger than her and Donna. "They're the type of aliens that don't show signs of age...except in the eyes. If you look closely into their eyes, you can see just how ancient they are."
"I...I never thought to do that," Gabby scrunched her face. "What kind of aliens are they? I've asked Renata but all she says is that she's a Time Lady. What's that even mean?"
"They're from a planet called Gallifrey, but they don't really like to talk about it," Martha explained, figuring she could help Renata by making Gabby avoid that topic altogether. "Their planet is gone. That subject is truly raw for them so...don't bring that up unless they do."
"Got it," Gabby dutifully said as if she were taking notes. And maybe she was...in her mind.
"They never really talk," Donna sighed. "I mean, I just got the Doctor to tell me about 1913 with Renata. You were there, huh, Martha? When that happened?" Martha solemnly nodded. "The Doctor's still very guilty about that, you know. It's why he allows Renata to keep her entire life bottled away from him."
"Well, Donna, she's not obligated to tell the Doctor anything about herself," Martha felt the need to point out.
"No," agreed Donna. "But there are some things that she should say. And I think she should probably start with why she hated the Doctor from the gecko. It was 1913 and Renata slammed the door in his face when he hadn't done anything to her." And the more Donna watched Martha uncomfortably shift in her chair, the more she suspected Martha knew a lot more about that incident than the poor Doctor did.
~ 0 ~
The Doctor was stunned; beyond stunned actually. Renata had just admitted to knowing the one person he had loved the most in his lives. "You...you knew Zuriah?"
Renata absolutely hated herself right now, despised herself. How could she have told him that type of lie!? When had her mind come up with that incredibly stupid answer!? She had the chance to come clean and she blew it.
Like always, she blew it.
"Y-yes…" she brought a hand to her warm forehead.
"What - and you never said!? Even when I told you her name!?" there was that hint of anger Renata feared. She could only imagine his reaction if she'd told him the straight truth.
"I-I panicked," she said. That wasn't a total lie. "You...you know how Zuriah was...what you and her...what you...were…"
"She told you," the Doctor stated, getting his confirmation from her lowered gaze. "She told you about us? How...I am very confused here. Zuriah never told anyone about us. She was embarrassed of us-"
"-no," Renata cut in sharply. She may be a liar and a terrible person but she would not allow him to ever think that about her. "She wasn't embarrassed of you. She was just aware that the relationship was a dangerous one. But she was never embarrassed of you."
The Doctor still didn't seem very convinced. "I just...I don't understand...how did you two…"
"We worked for foundations," Renata said, thinking it was the easiest (and logical) reason to give. If she was going to go with the lie then she might as well make it work. "She led her own foundation. Our paths ultimately crossed."
"And how did you two get so close enough that she would tell you about us?"
"We just clicked. I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I didn't think it would be important."
"It is," the Doctor nearly snapped. "Do you realize I have never met anyone else who knew about Zuriah? After things ended between us, it was like she disappeared. She made herself disappear."
"She regenerated," Renata bit her lip. If anything, this lie would at least allow her to divulge information that wouldn't give her up but would give some clarifications on things like these. "She regenerated a bit before she graduated. You can imagine that, after the way you two ended, she wouldn't want you to see her anymore."
"So her regeneration came as a blessing then," the Doctor shook his head with a sour smile on his face. "Right. Because I was always a nuisance."
"Don't say that," she scolded, but it just irritated him even more.
"I was! I loved Zuriah so much that I was willing to leave everything behind just for her. I asked her to run away with me, to get out of Gallifrey where it wouldn't matter if we were together...and you know what she said, right?" the sourness that covered the Doctor's face was so uncharacteristic of him, it pained Renata.
The blonde Time Lady gave a small nod of her head. Her face was guilt-ridden, but the Doctor didn't notice due to his own feelings. "She said no…" she whispered her answer.
"Yeah," the Doctor nodded. "Because, I guess, in the end...we were too different. She was a proper, high-class woman and I was just too...me."
"You were high class too," Renata pointed out.
"But I didn't act like one."
"Doctor-"
"-and I guess no matter how hard I tried making Zuriah live her best life, she just wasn't all the way convinced. And you know that. She had to have told you…"
Renata chewed on her lower lip until she felt the oozy blood on her tongue. "Doctor, just stop! If there is anything you need to be sure of is that Zuriah loved you so much! She was a scared, naive girl that should have said 'yes' but...her circumstances..." Renata couldn't say more, she just couldn't. If she started going into full details on why she had to say no to his proposition all those centuries ago, she would definitely break down. "Doctor, you have to believe me when I tell you that Zuriah loved you so much. You were always the love of her life."
~ 0 ~
"You know why Renata hated the Doctor so much, don't you?" Donna asked Martha. The UNIT employee nodded her head.
"I am so confused," Gabby admitted quietly. "I-I just got on board and suddenly there's so many secrets and backstories I-I don't know what to think or say."
"Gabby," Martha gave the young girl a kind smile, "I'm not going to lie, having Renata as your teacher is going to be a bit...complicated. She's a reclusive woman but it's not because she doesn't like you. She's just been a cautious woman all her lives that...it's become a part of her personality."
"Lives?" Gabby picked up on first. "And what do you mean she's been cautious?"
"Yeah, I'd like that explanation too actually," Donna pointed.
"It's those secrets," Martha told them both. "Renata's had them all her lives. She's learned to be cautious at a young age and she's just gotten used to it now."
"What kind of secrets could she have?" Gabby asked.
"She's 756," Martha reminded. "Her secrets may not be as dangerous as the Doctor's - because he's traveled so much - but Renata's secrets are very powerful too. They could hurt some...people...very badly."
"What - so she just carries them around like a burden?" Gabby frowned. "But that's...that's insane! She can't tell anyone!?"
Martha shook her head. "I'm afraid she chooses not to."
"But you know?"
Martha then nodded. "But I'm not the person that would alleviate those burdens."
"It's the Doctor," Donna deduced quickly. "I knew there was something going on between those two."
"Donna," Martha tilted her head, but the ginger shook her head.
"No! This just confirms one thing you know?"
Martha dreaded what Donna might come up with.
"Renata has feelings for the Doctor, doesn't she?"
Gabby's eyes were wide as could be. Was Donna really right!? She looked to Martha to see any indication of the answer…
~ 0 ~
"I never understood why Zuriah said no to me." There was a type of distance on the Doctor's face as he spoke. He was remembering the pure anger on Zuriah's face when she turned down his offer to run away. There were lots of tears in her eyes and her screams could have echoed in the building. "I mean, on some level I knew that I was, inherently, asking her to leave her family for me but...I thought she would say yes, because she loved me and...we wanted to be together above all."
Renata blinked fast to get rid of tears in her eyes. She remembered it too. The images had stayed so clear despite the centuries that passed by. She would never forget that night - it'd been the worst moment of her lives. "Family is important, Doctor. It was to her. But you know what? She loved you the most, she did it for you."
"For me?" the Doctor scoffed so harsh that Renata flinched in her seat. "She said 'no' to me...for me?"
There was one secret that she just couldn't bring herself to say, the very one that was the core reason she declined his proposition, but that one was just too painful. "I know it's terrible but trust me. Besides, there were more things in the play. If she had said yes, she would've broken an innocent man's hearts."
"But she broke mine instead," the Doctor said quietly. "She chose everything above me. But I can't fault her, can I? Because that would make me selfish. But sometimes...sometimes I think…" he sighed, "How would things have turned out if she had come with me? I would have...showed her the world. Anything she wanted, I would have given it to her. I would've told her each and every day how much I loved her. And who knows, maybe she would still be alive right now."
Renata's face softened. She couldn't help it now; her tears rolled down her cheeks. It was too late now to say the truth. She'd dug her own hole and now she would die in it. Still, her feelings pushed her to do one more thing.
She got up from her chair and moved to the Doctor's. She didn't pull up another seat but instead wrapped her arms around him for a tight hug. It was a surprise for the Doctor but he accepted it nonetheless. She always had such nice, soft, warm hugs. He'd be mad to turn one down.
~ 0 ~
"I cannot confirm nor deny that," Martha cleared her throat and pushed her desk chair forwards.
"Oh please," scoffed Donna. "You're Renata's best friend. She had to have told you that."
"Donna, it's not my secret to tell-"
"-yeah, but I know it now," Donna said with a straight-forwards face. "It makes sense. And I suppose it would make sense that doesn't want to outright tell the Doctor things about her life if it included her marriage and whatnot."
"Okay, hold on," Gabby spoke up and for the first time since they'd arrived at UNIT, she spoke not out of nervousness. "We're no one to pry into that possible love story. We only came here to figure out why Renata acted so reclusive and we got that, Donna. She just has a lot of secrets and, even though I wish we could help her...we can't force her. Least now we know to be a bit more understanding."
Martha slowly smiled at the girl. "You're going to do wonders for my Ren." Gabby took the compliment with a beam. "Would you ladies like to grab a cup of coffee before you head back?"
Gabby exchanged a glance with Donna then both nodded.
"Lead the way, Dr. Jones!"
~ 0 ~
When the Doctor and Renata finally returned for Donna and Gabby, the two women were back in Donna's home as if they'd never went in search of Martha.
"Oh, it smells kind of nice," Donna sniffed the air in the console room. "Like chocolatey…"
Renata raised a white box in her hands. "French crepe. I thought maybe you and Gabriella might like one. I tried one myself and I had to admit it was rather nice."
"Told you," the Doctor flashed her a smug smile from across the console. She rolled her eyes and looked at Donna again.
"So you two are fine, then?" the ginger asked the two aliens while slowly taking the box from Renata.
"Yeah," the Doctor was the one to answer. He gave Renata a smile that she returned. "Did us some good to be alone and talk."
Renata only wished she could have done more...but she was a full-blown coward. And one day, she was sure, it would come back to bite her. Still, it did seem to do some good talking. Least the Doctor didn't look at her with suspicion anymore. Of course now he felt free to mention Zuriah more often so that would be fun later on.
"Enjoy the crepe," the Doctor told Donna and Gabby. "They're the finest, if I say so myself."
"You probably do," Donna playfully rolled her eyes. "C'mon Gabby, let's have us a sweet snack!" She headed for the hallways, but just as Gabby was about to follow, Renata called her aside.
Needless to say Gabby was more than nervous as Renata brought her into the first door the hallway would give. "Look, I'm so sorry!" the girl blurted as soon as Renata closed the door behind her. "I shouldn't have asked so many questions about yourself! I'm really sorry! But please don't bring me back to Earth!"
"Oh Gabriella, I would never," Renata sighed. She was so responsible for screwing Gabby up so badly. "I'm the one who needs to apologize. I should have never yelled at you like that, much less threatened you like that. You should know that...that I have a very hard time getting along with people. I-I'm not that good at socializing. I don't get human social queues very well due to a lack of travelling."
"Oh," Gabby blinked. She'd learned from Martha that Renata did indeed have difficulty making friends, but she wasn't expecting Renata to confess that herself. The way Martha put it, Gabby shouldn't be expecting anything from Renata in terms of conversations.
"And you should know one more thing," Renata drew in a deep breath before confessing, "Everything I said back in the gallery - all the information I told you about the art work - wasn't coming from me. I sort of...read the Doctor's mind to know the information."
"Come again?" Gabby tilted her head. "You can read minds?"
"Not 'read minds' per say, but...we can sort of telepathically communicate and see into each other's minds. The Doctor, of course, knows all about that gallery since he was the one who visited it all the time, not me. He was the one who knew about the artwork and he...he let me see into his mind in order to make you believe that I knew the artwork." Renata sighed and awkwardly folded her arms over her chest. She was even shifting on her feet which truly surprised Gabby, because up until now she hadn't seen Renata be nervous. "The truth is, Gabriella, I can't be a teacher to you because I don't know anything. I haven't traveled much - in fact I only started a couple months ago. The Doctor should be your teacher. You should be his companion. I'm not apt for that job. I'm sorry." She couldn't face Gabby out of sheer embarrassment. Admitting you were useless wasn't something easy to do, but Renata felt she should at least do one good thing today and if it wasn't towards the Doctor then Gabby should be next.
"That's not true," Gabby's response drew Renata's gaze again. The girl didn't look very disappointed, or upset, by Renata's words. "You're wonderful. And, yeah you might not know everything but...no one does."
"The Doctor does," Renata smiled. "He'd be a great teacher."
"Okay," shrugged Gabby. "Then he could be our teacher, but I want to be your companion."
"Why?" there was an honest confusion in Renata's tone, and expression, that motivated Gabby to explain it thoroughly so that Renata wouldn't have a doubt in her mind.
"Because you're classy, you're proper and, you're an alien that still acts like...well, a human. I mean, you remind me of my Mom. You give stability and in a place like this-" Gabby gestured to the TARDIS, "-where everyday is danger and unpredictability, I really need someone to bring home back to me. And I don't mean home as my actual home on Earth but... you teaching me that my home can be anywhere. Because home isn't just where you live, it's where you feel nice and warm and...happy. And you give that to the Doctor and Donna. Plus, you see things differently than the Doctor. You're more...elegant, and you act in a way that makes me want to follow. I don't want to be you, but I'd like to be a better version of myself and I'd like my teacher to be you."
Gabby actually brought tears to Renata's eyes. "Oh Gabby," Renata pulled her into a tight hug, the action startling since Martha had warned Gabby that Renata also wasn't the touchy-type. "Thank you so much."
"Uh, no, thank you," Gabby patted Renata's back. These aliens were so strange. When they pulled apart, Gabby only had one more thing to say. "So, about what the alien said about your song…what did it mean it would end sooner?"
"I'm not sure-"
"-I think you do. Are we ever going to tell the Doctor about it?"
"No," Renata said without even a moment of thought. "I don't want him to know."
"But it sounds really important and...well, isn't that sort of a prediction about your...death? 'Your song will end sooner'. That's got to mean that you'll die earlier?"
"Gabby, it doesn't matter," Renata tried to be casual about it. "Because guess what? Even if I do die, my people are the type that when you die you just change faces and it's a done deal. I would just get a new body and move on. So we need to move on too." She offered a big smile as she headed for the door. "Now go and have that crepe with Donna. It's truly delicious. Couldn't get rid of the Doctor's smug face after I told him that. Go on."
Gabby nodded and walked out, but she wasn't able to let go of that topic like Renata wanted her to. Without even realizing, Renata had given Gabby one powerful reason not to let go. Renata had called her 'Gabby' instead of her full name. Renata vowed that she would never use nicknames in place of a person's name. She had to be nervous. She had to be scared. And why shouldn't Renata be scared?
Death was coming for her and earlier than previously thought.
6 notes · View notes
jj-lynn21 · 4 years
Text
Thank you for following...
Thank you for following, reading, liking, commenting ect. Currently I am working on a Roman Godfrey AU x reader called Castle in the desert. Most of my stories are continuation like subtitles like AU Bill skarsgard, Roman Godfrey, Mark from Assignation nation, and Mickey from Villains. There are a few with multiple actors like Tom Holland, Cody fern and other Skarsgards that start with The Charity & the Island. lots of fluff, smut and a bloody good time...18+ for content
Story teller — List of stories updated April 16, 2020
List of stories updated April 16, 2020
Thanks for following. Thanks for reading, thanks for creating. Thanks for sharing.
Warnings 18+ lots of smut, angst, fluff. X-reader, mostly AU Bill Skarsgard & his characters but a few stories include other Skarsgard brothers, Deadpool, Tom Holland and other actors. Feel free to send requests/ideas & reblog. I will try to keep this updated.
Rock star Axel
You Will Remember Things That We Never Said: In this Alternate Universe fiction Axel meets Stephani while he is singing in the local band Zeitgeist. Its set up when he is in college. ch 1 ch 2    ch 3    ch 4  ch 5    ch 6​   ch 7 ch 8
starring Bill Skarsgard: My own stories with original character(s) he could play
The Stay starring Bill Skarsgard as Chris Ryan creepy slight horror genre. All I will say is this character is right in the wheel house of what Bill could play.      ch 1 ch 2 ch 3 ch4
THE CLUB starring Bill Skarsgard as William Casik - Alice is a prim and proper elementary school teacher. Her Husband William owns a company that does business around the world. But he has a secret. When Alice find out about his alter ego, The Sir, her life will never be the same. ch 1 ch 2  ch 4  ch5 ch 6 ch 7  ch 8 ch 9 ch 10
Bill Skarsgard (AU) & X-reader/Princess
The Charity- various fandoms & x-reader This a AU mystery piece that includes most Avengers actors and skarsgards plus a few others I love. Some chapters are  very smutty. used suggestions from readers.  ch 1, ch 2, ch3, ch 4, ch 5, ch 6, ch7, ch 8
The Island: various fandoms, Its a continuation of The Charity. ch1 ch 2 ch3 ch4 ch5
The Dress: Just because I like writing the continuing story of Bill & Princess. This is her first time at an awards show. Also includes Alex Skarsgard, Scarlett Johansson and a few others. ch1 ch2 ch3 ch4 ch5
Bill& X Reader: Jealousy,  You are dating Bill Skarsgard & get invited to a ex’s party.
Early home coming:  Bill & X-reader warnings: angst, slight smut, fluffy. Bill comes home early after an annoying work issue forces him to leave a project. You attempt to help him get over it all before he has to go promote another project.
Bill and Princess/x-reader: long distance Valentine? Bill has to leave the night before Valentine Day for a meeting the next morning.
Bill & Ex-Reader: EVERYONE IS WATCHING sometimes the bedroom isn’t as private as you think.
The Bake off: Bill and x-reader/Princess are quarantined together. A month into their time together they come up with the Bake-off idea. Lots of smut, some baking lol. Ch 1   ch 2
Villains fan fiction
Borrowed time: Mickey & X-Reader . This is a continuation of Villains in a AU. Something like this should happen. ch 1 ch2 ch3 ch 4
Prequel Villains: Mickey and Jules Celebrate Christmas
Mickey’s Valentine’s Day surprises This is only 2 chapters. AU Mickey, Sweetie Pie and Jules several months after the event that brought them back together after the movie Villains. If you want to know how they got to this point read Borrowed time: Mickey & X-Reader. But you don’ t have to. Ch1 Ch2
Mark: Assassination Nation
Assassination Nation Mark and X-reader AU Mark survived his town going nuts and is now in college where he meets you.  ch 1 ch 2 ch 3 ch 4 ch 5 ch 6 ch7 ch8
Assassination Nation Mark and X-reader: Merry Christmas ch 1 ch 2
Mark and x-reader: You’re mine, Valentine. The first in my Valentine’s  themed stories. This is more of the reader and Mark at college several months after what happened in the last story. ( Assassination Nation: Mark and X-reader) Mark is pretty much just horny & wants sex but he will put together some Valentine’s day surprises to get it.
Mark & X-Reader:Party At Greenwald’s A virus is sweeping the county. The University closes. You might make it home but Mark insists you stay with him in Salem. Memories haunt him from this place.ch 1 CH 2   ch 3  ch 4 ch 5 ch 6 ch 7
Castlerock fanfic
Joy and The Angel This is a Castlerock fanfiction
A Castlerock New Year’s Eve party: The Kid & X-Reader This plays off some talk of who the Kid really is in the Steven King Universe. ch 1 ch 2 ch 3
Hemlock Grove Fan Fiction: Roman Godfrey
CLUB VEE This is the first thing I posted on Tumbler. It is a vampire-type romance that I connected to Roman and Princess starting with their Valentine’ s Day plans. So its an origin story for Club Vee. Ch 1Ch 2 Ch3 Ch 4 Ch 5  Ch 6 Ch 7 Ch 8 Ch 9 Ch 10 Ch 11 Ch 12 Ch 13 Ch 14 Ch 15 Ch 16 Ch 17 Ch 18 Ch 19 Ch 20 Ch 21
It is all in the eyes :Roman & X Reader , A crazy Hemlock Grove alt reality fanfic part 1  part 2 part 3 part 4 part 5
Roman & his Princess Valentine’s Day This story continues the relationship from It is all in the eyes :Roman & X Reader. It will also include characters from VEE. But you really don’t have to read either to follow this story if you don’t want to. ch1 ch2 ch3 ch 4 ch5
A story of friendship: Roman Godfrey & X-reader AU Hemlock Grove. I was in a Roman mood so this is what came out  ch 1, ch 2, ch 3, ch 4 ch 5
Roman & his Princess: blood wolf moon eclipse Princess is having a hard time with her hunger. Is Olivia the only one that can really help her?
Roman & his Princess: Life is Just a Fantasy A little role play night out with these characters where Roman is the Dominant more than usual and Princess plays  the submissive role. ch1 ch 2 ch3 ch4
Roman & Princess: Let’s up the game Roman wants to make a sex tape. ch1 ch2 ch3
Roman & Princess: The agreement Princess plays with her dominant personality. Roman decides maybe he could handle the threesome she wants if he looks at it as a business agreement. ch 1  ch 2 ch 3 ch4
Stuck in the Madness with You A virus has found its way to Hemlock Grove driving people to self quarantine. How will this effect Roman and those he cares about? ch 1 ch 2 ch 3
The Dinner Party Roman invites Peter and Letha to a dinner party so Letha can get out a little more since they have all quarantined her to Peter’s trailer.
Deadpool Presents:
Deadpool Presents: Once upon a Zeitgeist this is in and AU after all the stuff in Deadpool 2. ch 1 ch 2 ch 3 ch 4
Deadpool Presents: Axel’s Valentine’s Day special story Axel plans a special Valentine’s romantic over night excursion. With two kids it is difficult to have longer intimate time with his wife.  To read more about how this couple met refer to Deadpool Presents: Once upon a Zeitgeist Axel suggests Deadpool watch the kids which is the last thing his wife really wants ch1 ch2 ch3  ch4  ch5
Fairytales rewritten to include favorite actors/characters
Snow in Hollywood This is a reimagining of Snow White starring all Skarsgards Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5
Red and the Full Moon This is a reimagining of Little Red Riding Hood incorporating the lyric to the 60s song Little Red Riding Hood. Featuring Bill Skarsgard and Alex Skarsgard.
King Bill and his Queen Genevieve: A fairytale begins original smutty fairytale  where Bill of Skarsgard plans to take a diplomat’s daughter for his own. When he discovers Lady Genevieve is a virgin he still wants to fulfill their destiny in the middle of the forest clearing.
Being part of the film industry in a small way
A  Little Extra for the Extra This is extremely loosely based on my time working as an extra in a Tom Holland and Bill Skarsgard movie. It was great fun. Tom was cool to the extras if you were at the right place at the right time. I only got to see Bill from afar but maybe that was a good thing LOL. In place of Bill & Tom you can easily put in your favorite actor or actress in your mind.
Moroccan Sands: This is Bill Skarsgard and Tom Holland with x-reader. It takes place on a movie set for the most part. Ch1, ch 2 ch3 ch4 ch5 ch 6 ch7 ch8
Santa’s fav ELF Bill & X-Reader You are an extra in one of Bill’s movies and you you get a long very well. ch1 ch2 ch 3 ch 4
The Calling in this extras dream job you will be working with Bill Skarsgard, Tom Holland, Sebastian Stan, Robert Pattinson and a few other surprise actors on a movie that moves through decades 50s, 60s, 70s,80s. Sure your scenes don’t seem to fit together but they rarely do when filming and you just enjoy that you get to do this sort of work. Even though this is same caste as Devil All the Time it has nothing to do with that movie. enjoy this only 1% truth about being an extra. I love it but as of now it never got this good. ch 1, ch 2, ch 3, ch 4, ch 5
Take a seat x-reader & Bill mostly. You are a seat filler at the 2021 Oscars. Its such a unique experience. But since you break some of the rules will you ever get to do it again? And is the out come with it anyway? I think, probably.  ch 1,  ch 2 ch 3 ch 4
2 notes · View notes
brockupdate · 4 years
Text
Moving in Jesus
many times I'm asked  about the "Jesus Movement". People are curious on what happened and why it happened, and why so many extraordinary things took place. As I have talked with some who were in the middle of the happening, we have explored a few things and have come up with some answers. First Ray Brooks, who is now ninety, and was a leading Charismatic Catholic evangelist who has served the Kingdom for over fifty years said this to me, " We didn't know it was extraordinary, we just were doing what we through Jesus wanted us to do". I agree, If people were sick we prayed for them right where we were. If they were hungry we gave them food or bought them a meal. If they needed housing we would take them home with us, or to one of the "halfway houses" that were set up for that purpose. It was pretty simple and the question was easy, What would Jesus do. It's a bit cliche at this point but then it was the main question on our hearts, and we wanted to find the answer and apply it the best way we could. I think to me it wasn't the how and why but the heart to follow Jesus the best way we could. My best friend in High School, John Toner was very pragmatic about things, we would research the Word and find things that Jesus said to do, and he would say," well that's what the Bible says to do, and if we believe in him we just need to do it". No worries, just obey what it says. John was {and is} a genius, UCLA Graduate, and a PHD who was in the top of his class. We were unlikely partners, but thank God he was around. I would get an idea and share it with him and he would search  the scripture to see if it  could be backed up. If it was in the Word, we would  go for it. I remember one night we were on Hollywood Boulevard sharing with people on the street. The Hare Krishna were on the street too, they were singing their chants and playing their drums and tambourines. They would pass out cards with the words of the chants, so people could join in. John and I had a gospel track that we would use and it was bigger and nicer than theirs, so we would tell people we would trade them, and most would. When the leader of the Krishna group saw what we were doing he came over and challenged me, telling us to get off their corner or else. I responded to him and asked him would his god want him to act this way. He became agitated and began raising his voice and threatening  us. People began to notice and turned away from the groups chanting and were looking to see if a fight was going to breakout. Now we had a crowd  watching, I started the conversation telling him that he was serving a false god and he needed to make a change.John piped up and said let's put it to the test!We had been discussing Elijah on the drive down and how he had exposed the false prophets by putting it to the test, and now we were standing with about fifty people watching this confrontation. I admit,  there was a lot of adrenaline flowing, along with some Spirit, but I didn't want to lose the opportunity to see God show up. So I said, "find a blind man". You guys can  pray for him first and if your god answers and heals him we will follow your god, but if not then we will pray to our God and when he heals him you must follow our God. The crowd  thought that was a great idea, as did John, but in my mind I was thinking what in the heck are you doing! All I could see was me in one of their robes that they wore and having one of their bad haircuts singing on the corner next week. Everyone looked around to find a blind man, and none {to my relief} was found.  This had now escalated into quite a seen. Then what seemed to be the supervisor of the group showed up and told them all to quickly get in their van and leave, and they did. This left us with a group looking and listening to what was going on. We took the  moment and share the gospel with them focusing on that  our God was able to heal and set people free. Over half the crowd prayed and asked Jesus into their hearts. Heres the thing,  just because we were willing to try and stand on the Word, God showed up, and just with the challenge that our God was the true God the presence of God showed up and people were brought to life. I can't tell you that we had this amazing filling of the Spirit that allowed us to speak out , I'm not sure if we really knew what was going to happen but we knew that we severed the true and living God and He would show up one way or the other.  We had no choice but to try. It turned out good, people got saved, we didn't have to join the cult and we kept our hair.If God be God then serve him, " As for me and my house we will choose to serve Him. No form, no patterns just hearts that wanted to see God glorified and His purposes fulfilled. That was just one night of many, I could share with you many stories that took place on the streets. It wasn't the "Jesus Movement" it was moving in Jesus. A commitment to seeing His will done. We were committed to the lost,  we would drive down to Hollywood five to six nights a week. We lived north of Ventura { about sixty miles each way} where we would pick up hitchhikers each night and shelter, feed and present the gospel. Our hearts were to do what Jesus had said," Go into all the world and preach the gospel". The motivation was to fulfill the great commission the best we could. Mark 16:15-20 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”19After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. 20Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.This pretty much has  become my life message, Verse 20 shouting at me loud and clear. That He would confirm His word {not mine} but His, with signs that accompany. Over the last fifty years God has been faithful to this word. We have seen amazing things happen as we have applied the word. Blind eyes open, hearing restored, people coming out of wheel chairs, eleven cases {verified} of cancer disappearing. Parts of the body that  were surgically removed, put back. Thousands coming  to the Lord and thousands receiving the fulfillment of the Holy Spirit. Along with deliverance and lives restored we know our God is alive and moving. One purpose, to see people come to know the freedom of our God.In exploring the times we were in, another hero of faith, Don Thomason who was my Sunday school teacher and youth leader back in our early Baptist days, he was also the pastor that married us. He shared with me not too long ago. He said he felt because we were all focused on one thing, that we were pretty much in "one accord" that we commanded that blessing the scripture speaks about. What was the focus? It was we all felt the Lord was coming soon! Where it was true the time for the Lords return was closer that it had been before, it wasn't what we were expecting. But the desire to see the heart of the Lord fulfilled that not one would be loss, we were acting on that motivation. I think we would say today,"break our hearts with that which breaks yours". In this time we are in, maybe it would be a good time to find a way to represent Jesus to our communities not with systems or programs that we have learned to repeat, but demonstrating His heart in practical ways to those in need. I think it's what Jesus would do, and that is the question we need to ask ourselves as we move through this time. Jesus, give us eyes to see,  give us ears to hear, and give us hearts of understanding, so we might fulfill your purposes. Oh Lord hear ,or Lord take action,  for we are the people who are known by your name.  
1 note · View note
Could you do a Naruto fanfiction recommendation? I loved your Sakura one but I was curious if you would do one in general for the series?
1.) serendipity by stirringwinds. On ao3. Rated T. Summary: Sasuke had never known Senju Hashirama in person, of course. But he had grown up hearing stories about the First Hokage at his mother’s knee—about the legend who had defeated the most powerful member of their own clan. Enough stories to recognise what he was seeing—and to know he was witnessing his teammate perform the impossible. Or, in the fight against Gaara during Suna’s attempted invasion of Konoha, the Ichibi’s attempt to kill Sakura awakens an unexpected power. It changes the destiny of Team Seven forever.
Yes, this is about Mokuton!Sakura but this is in Sasuke’s pov and, oh boy, is it so interesting in his point of view. There’s not only world building but nods to real life history that makes in the (casual) history nerd in me get really excited. So far we’ve only seen Uchiha clan politics that Sasuke remembers from when his family arrived but if this is ever continued the current politics is one of the main things  I look forward too.
2.) These Moments We Take for Granted by Applepie. On ao3. Rated T. Summary: Kakashi dies to Pain’s attack and wakes up in another world. It’s a world where Kakashi hadn’t failed Obito’s final wish and sacrificed himself for Rin’s sake instead. It’s a Konoha too similar, yet so different that Kakashi can’t bear to impose. So he doesn’t – not as ‘Kakashi’, at least.
I’m dying for the next chapter of this. The cliff hanger is partially why the other reason is the story is just that good. 
3.) Yes, my weird depressed half-tree uncle by Aesoleucian. On ao3. Rated G. Summary: Sarada is such a lonely kid, and Sakura has such a dissociative disorder. Where are Sakura's parents? Where is the support? Being a single mom is hard and therefore I crafted this AU where Obito survives the war and retires to help restore his clan which he helped murder. 
A good way to get me to love any fic: let characters who go through traumatic situations actually show they’re not okay afterwards. 
4.) your skeleton will carry by theformerone. On ao3. Rated E. Summary: He doesn't want to have children for the clan that murdered his father, or for the village that let it happen.
Neji and Sasuke discover that they are more alike than they think.
I’m so glad the author tagged this Anti Sandaime. That tag is the reason why I found this beautiful fic. 
5.) Just the Usual Habits by Applepie. On ao3. Rated G. Summary: Sakumo has no idea where all of these habits of Kakashi's are coming from. In which five-year-old Kakashi forgets the existence of his left eye, loses his ability to lie believably, and is a little too knowledgeable about the Birds and Bees. Still, no matter what oddities went on in Kakashi's head, one thing is certain – the boy will always love his father, through thick and thin.
6.) Get Shisui by DoodlesOfTheMind. On ao3. Rated T. Summary: Get Shisui. It was a common refrain throughout the Uchiha compound, though its meaning had shifted a number of times over the years.
Both beautiful and heartbreaking. 
7.) a beating heart of stone by FantasyDeath. On ao3. Rated Not Rated. Summary: During Iruka's first year teaching — on his own, because apparently there is a severe lack of teachers — he loses his curriculum, gets into a low-key fight with Shimura Danzo and accidentally creates an army. To be fair, none of this was planned.
8.) In Sound Judgement by NegativeAperture. On ao3. Rated T. Summary: The main question, she thinks, isn’t her chance at survival or whether she’ll stick to the plot. No, it’s whether she should change the inherently flawed system that has caused every single problem ever. Arguably, she’s in the best position to fix it. People are certainly more willing to listen to you when you threaten them with the giant fox demon in your gut. But what would the cost be? Her morals? Her humanity?
The road to hell is paved with good intentions after all. (In which a human rights lawyer is reincarnated into a world without morality, without logic, and most of all, without laws. Helping the world was easier when people weren’t ninjas.)
Even if self inserts or ocs are not your thing I still strongly suggest you read this.
9.) Mirage by xantissa. On ao3. Rated G. Summary: Can be read as stand alone. Itachi's ANBU exam through Kakashi's eyes. Kakashi knew something wasn't right with the whole thing, he just couldn't put his finger on what exactly.
10.) Catch Me (If You Can) by BasicallyAnIdiot. On ao3. Rated G. Summary: Five times the ANBU tried to catch Uzumaki Naruto (and that one time someone else did).
Why you should read this: “Knowing Naruto-kun,” Itachi interrupted from his locker as he checked his arm bracers, “If he had more than a hour, the traps were at least 2 layers deep.” He closed the locker door firmly, mask in hand, “But he can be caught.”
“Lies and hearsay.” Neko’s muffled offer came from the women’s shower area. 
“Impossible. Never happened.”
A delicate brow arched, and Itachi continued. “There is one person in the village who can successfully catch Uzumaki Naruto whenever he feels inclined to.”
Inu sat up like a shot, unheeding the bag of ice dropping to his lap with a thud. 
“Who? Is it the Commander? Hokage-sama?”
Shisui snorted, and transitioned smoothly to a new pose, “He means the only chunin in the history of chunin to turn down a full position in ANBU corps, complete with no probation and instant pay raise.”
Inu was silent for a moment. Then he declared, “I will find this chunin and make him my teacher.”
11.) Fish Stew by Masu_Trout. On ao3. Rated T. Summary: There was a bowl of stew in Kisame's lap, a cup of tea on the ground next to him, and a small blank-eyed teenager staring at him from over the rim of his own teacup.
Kisame's new partner is one of the strangest people he's ever met, and that's coming from a man with gills on his face.
12.) What A Big Heart You Have by LullabyKnell. On ao3. Rated T. Summary: In which a little red fox saves the big white wolf.
Bless this fic. 
In which Hatake Sakumo lives.
13): Autonomy by beetlebee. On ao3. Rated T. Summary: "But this Not-Sensei soulmate guy could be anybody," Naruto whines.
Sasuke narrows his eyes. "No. He tried to act like Kakashi, use his techniques. He must be familiar with him already..."
"They could be childhood friends!" Sakura gasps.
"Sensei has friends?" Naruto asks, squinting at Obito.
"Or he's a stalker." Sasuke grips the kunai he still hasn't put away.
"I'm not a stalker," Obito lies, pushing away the kunai edging towards him.
----
(A soulmate bodyswap AU)
I would kill to read a sequel of this where we see Kakashi’s in Obito’s body.
14.) Written with Heart by Brookelocks. On ao3. Rated G. Summary: "Sometimes just sharing your opinion or a conversation about something someone else enjoys, even if you have to grit your teeth through it, can be the little push of support that makes them keep pursuing their passion."
or Kakashi has a strange way of showing his support, Jiraiya doesn't mind.
15.) The Good Life by orphan_account. On ao3. Rated T. Summary: There had to be protocol for this. They were shinobi in a hidden village; there was protocol for everything. Sadly, the authors of the Konoha Mission Administration Office Employee Handbook had committed the potentially fatal oversight of not dedicating a single paragraph to the now more than hypothetical situation of your current Hokage starting a mostly one-sided screaming match with your former Hokage in front of your very desk.
16.) these chains on me won't let me be pg13. On ao3. Rated T. Summary: The first time you ever feel like a shinobi, you are ugly and messy and scared out of your mind and not even wearing your hitai-ate. — implied sakura/ino
Out of all the Sakura centric fics I’ve read - trust me I have read a lot - this is till one of my favorites.
17.) got a boy in the war by Lisse. On ao3. Rated G. Summary: Naruto's parents don't so much fall in love as accidentally trip over it.
18.) sabotage by stirringwinds. On ao3. Rated T. Summary: “Itachi,” His mentor and commanding officer says grimly, his single visible eye angry, the line of his jaw tense under the black of his mask. “You forget that I was the Yondaime’s student. I may not be as politically influential as those old codgers sitting on the council, but there is plenty I can do to try and stop this shitshow.”
The horrible, cold feeling in the pit of his stomach hasn't vanished. But, staring at the firm, unflinching expression on his captain’s face, he feels the tiniest flicker of…hope.
Or: In another universe, Itachi breaks down and ends up spilling the beans to Hatake Kakashi.
Honestly, damn it why couldn’t this have happened? 
20.) Nothing like the storm by Aesoleucian. On ao3. Rated Not Rated. Summary: There's a girl in Kushina's class at the academy, with perfect hair and perfect poise. She's nothing like loud, angry Kushina, but she's not exactly shy either.
21.) Shine Bright, Shine Far, (Oh Sun of Mine) by Applepie. On ao3. Rated G. Summary: This Konoha is not the one Himawari knows; everything is wrong, and everyone is gone. A strange man who's not Papa is claiming to be the Hokage.
22.) i have a girlfriend!? by chadsuke. On ao3. Rated G. Summary: ino wants training from the best genin kunoichi - naturally, that means tracking down tenten.
23.) Eyestealer by nirejseki, robininthelabyrinth (nirejseki). On ao3. Rated Summary: Hashirama really doesn't approve of the thoughtful way his father looks at his younger brother's bright red eyes. He's sure it doesn't mean anything good for anyone.
He's right.
I just binge read this today (I haven’t even bookmarked it yet) and now I’m left wanting for more darker than canon Hashirama.
24.) Unison by Laylah. On ao3. Rated M. Summary: Kakashi knows damn well that it isn't a healthy coping mechanism.
Do read the warnings at the top of the author’s notes. 
25.) Got Nothing to Prove (but I'ma show you how I do) by GuardianMars. On ao3. Rated T. Summary: Civilians and orphans are always used as cannon fodder. Sakura’s not sure where she first came by this phrase. Whether she heard it or read it, she can’t quite remember, but it stuck in her head and it stays in the back of her mind whenever Team 7 takes a mission.
When Sakura and Tenten get placed on a temporary team looking into a series of kidnappings of local village girls, Sakura is naturally worried. She doesn't want to be cannon fodder. When the mission goes to pot, Sakura and Tenten find themselves far away from home and with only each other to rely on. As it turns out being cannon fodder is the least of their worries.
26.) Once Again by pupeez4eva. On ao3. Rated T. Summary: If you asked anyone what they thought of Sasuke Uchiha, they'd say that he was cheerful, overly-hyper, and loved glitter and sweaters WAY too much.
(Mabel Pines is reborn as Sasuke Uchiha. Unsurprisingly, this changes things a lot).
27.) Blame it on the Moon by Tozette. On ao3 (you can only see this if you have logged-in ). Rated G. Summary: Itachi likes cats. In hindsight, that's probably his first mistake.
* * *
Really? Thought Itachi dubiously. He did it anyway. "For love and justice," he deadpanned flatly.
28.) Adoption by Defenestration; or, A Family Can Be A Fox Demon, Its Jinchuuriki, and Three Dozen Highly-Trained Assassins elumish. On ao3. Rated T. Summary: He will not be the ANBU who let the jinchuuriki plummet to his death out a fourth story window. Let that be another ANBU’s legacy.
44 notes · View notes
Text
The Fae | Red
Tumblr media
POV: Estelle
Just for the record, I am not as bad and I am NOT a BITCH like my friends might have told you. I just am myself and I know what I want it and when I want it and wh I want it from. Sure you could say that comes from being a part of a Royal family but you could also say that’s just who I am.
It’s not that I have a problem with people from earth, in fact, my cousin’s best friend was brought up on earth. It’s just I know that those girls have some bad mojo and also I may or may not have a little problem with them because they don’t belong here. Bloom at least was sent to earth for her protection by her sister, why were they there? We all know Roxy was the last earth fairy so what are they doing there? And I know the people who will have the answer: Mel, Emily and Daphne. They’re always whispering about them so why are they doing that?
So I decided to stay after one of my Advanced History Of Magix lectures to find something, anything out.
“Hey, Professor Daphne can I speak to you and the others for a moment?” I asked after knocking on her office door with my books in hand.
“Sure what did you want to talk about, Estelle?” Emily answered from her desk.
“I was wondering if you knew anything about Emma’s new roommate, I mean I know that Simone is Mel’s younger sister and that your family and culture has a tradition of only bringing up the eldest daughter as a fairy and sending any others to earth, but what about Tegan?”
“That’s a lot harder to explain and we don’t know how to explain it to her let alone one of her friends, for now just know she does have a right to be here she is a fairy and until such a time as we know how to explain it to her you’re just going to have to leave it there. I’m sorry Estelle,” Daphne explained.
“Fine. but can you answer this one question: Is she who she claims to be?”
“Yes and no. she believes she is who she claims to be and to an extent she’s right. She was brought up all over the world, she did begin high school in Boston age 13, she does have a sister, she does only know what she claims. But at the same time, she’s not from earth, she isn’t all that she thinks she is but she doesn’t know that and no one can OK we’re assessing the situation with Grizelda and Faragonda. OK?” Daphne responded while Emily looked as though she was about to throw up on her desk and Mel started to go pale.
“OK.”
You see the reason I’m doing all of this is because my world came shattering down the moment I laid eyes on that girl. Because in that moment I knew one thing and one thing only she killed my cousin. I could feel the same energy radiating off of her and now I have to live with the girl and that will never happen. If Faragonda thinks she can get away with this she has another thing coming. How DARE she think that she can just forget Stella and get away with letting her killer come into MY territory without getting a single piece of my mind she is wrong. Those girls don’t belong here and I am going to PROVE it. Now all I need is a plan.
Where do I start? The Annual Welcome Party with the boys from Red Fountain. Maybe I can get them involved or screw up their dresses. That’s it their dresses, it’s easy to mislead their little fashion moron brains. And I am their only hope. It’s perfect now what to wear to go shopping?
All of that happened a week ago and can I just say my mind hasn’t completely changed but I can say that they’re each not as bad as I thought. But I can and will still hold Tegan accountable for her actions to my family and she will rue the day she messed with the Royal Family Of Solaria and MY favourite relative.
Shopping one of my favourite things to do. Retail therapy is what I need right now, especially shopping for a party dress though the fact that Grizelda has to approve it ruins my first thirty choices. But in the end, I choose a beautiful lilac lace dress that went great with all of my shoes. And those two idiots were not going along with my plan they actually had decent style which makes this whole situation worse. But now I just have to snag my date, Tom my long-time off-again on-again boyfriend, well techniquely fiancee because our my uncle decided that arranging a marriage for his niece is better than doing that to his own daughter. But it’s OK because I love him and I think he loves me too. I just want to get him back.
“Do you guys think that I can get Thomas to go with me?” I asked as we were getting Tegan and Simone to try on some dresses and outfits for the ball.
“We have to have dates dude.” Emma blatantly stated, checking her phone while Tegan braided her hair, all of us waiting for Maya and Simone to choose their outfits.
“ I know but do you think I should ask him or are we going as a group? I just want to know. You know how badly things ended last time I don’t want them to end up the same way this time.”
“Ask you never know what he might say and if that doesn’t work you can come stag with me and Tegan. And I may have only known you for a day but I really wanna kill someone at this point in my life so, just whisper the words and I’m your girl,” Simone stated as she walked out from behind the curtain in the dressing room with a bundle of clothes, “Also I can’t fit into any of these so unless you have some magic spell to change their sizes we have to go somewhere else for me, and maybe Tegan.”
“I have what I wore to my cousin’s wedding that I’m wearing so I’m all good,” Tegan said tieing off Emma’s hair.
“What no get a dress or at least tell us what it is!” I yell back at her trying to make the best of the situation I am in with her.
“Firstly, It’s a black and red romper-y thing with a blue blazar. Second, my body is not the same shape as any of yours and therefore cannot, I can’t stress this enough, fit into those dresses, they’re made for people with a size 2 body and maybe a b cup at largest and I am a size 12-14 with bigger boobs than that and Simone is a size 16-18 with bigger boobs so I agree with her and it makes me uncomfortable to be put in a situation in the supposed ‘Utopia’ world where I can’t find something is a giant store made for someone with my figure or that will even cover my body in any way. So I will be wearing something from a world that knows it’s sizes are fucked up and I am comfortable in and already now I look at least average in. So I will repeat my message: not going to happen,” She states without looking up from the book she must have used a spell to conjure.
“OK I’m sorry and I might just take Simone up on that offer. Anyway, who do the rest of you have as dates? Last I checked none of you had anyone to go with,” I stated looking at the ground and thinking about my mistake.
“My girlfriend,” Emma said smugly still looking at her phone.
“And me and Maya are being set up by Harry,” Maketa said looking a little concerned about the situation she got herself into.
“So Emma’s going to be gushing over her girlfriend and you two are going to be murdered, maybe I should go with those two at least then there’s someone to tell your story at your funerals. Actually, I’m going to ask Tom.”
“Good for you, can we get food now. You guys may not feel the effects of low blood sugar here but we still do so I need food, preferably something sweet or something with a coke,” Tegan said looking at her watch for the time, “And maybe we can go somewhere that I can buy a watch that works here and Sim cards.”
“McDonald’s and Target,” Simone said gaining curious looks from all of us except Tegan who looked more disgusted than curios.
“I was thinking more of Greggs or Nandos but I don’t think they have either here Moni.”
“No sadly despite my best efforts there isn’t a Nandos here but we do have Pizza and I have a few cokes in my bag from the diner,” Maya said understanding whatever language they seemed to be talking.
“How about Pizza and we can tell you more about the dance because you guys are still new to this whole dimension and probably need to know more before classes start tomorrow, like what your Winx is. It’s the first day of practicles.”
“Brilliant plan Marketa.”
“So, what do you want to know about being a fairy?” Maya asks as she grabs a slice of her pizza.
“Whatever you can tell us. We just want to know whatever you guys know so that we’re prepared for the future, we’re already falling way behind and we have to attend school in Boston still until our parents can come up with a believable excuse for the whole school Populus to believe in Simone’s case and the teachers to believe in mine.”
“If she’s falling behind I never even started, she’s a freaking genius, sure a genius with almost every depressive and anxiety disorder under the sun but a genius and I haven’t handed in a single piece of homework yet so I’m screwed unless you tell us something useful,” Simone, rambled looking as though she may faint at any moment, kind of like her sister had when I asked about Tegan.
“OK. Let’s start from the beginning…” Maya started, prompting all of us to share our knowledge of the history of Magix and everything else they may need to know. I may or may not have wanted to screw this up but I want to destroy that girl on my own with no help from the teachers. She is my prey and I will go in for the kill just you wait and see.
After about an hour of explaining and more shopping, we headed back to Alfea so that we could all get ready for the ball and I could arrange my date. I just hope Tom won’t be you know Tom. Because being Tom usually means being an ass, as Simone had taught me earlier today.
This ball was going to be amazing.
5 notes · View notes
urdbell18 · 5 years
Text
A Seed Hidden in the Heart Chapter 16: The One With a Little Hope
AN:I'M BACK!!!!!!!!!!!! And with a brand new chapter for you guys. Was it worth the wait? I don't know but here it is! Enjoy!
Since the summons arrived Zelda entered into a state that was a combination of depression and catatonic. She walked around like a zombie, a shell of her former self that could perform her basic humanly functions. Though not lacking in her duties as a teacher her students noticed that Zelda wasn’t herself and Rosalind and Theo asked if there was anything they could do to help but not even Mary knew how to help Zelda beyond just being there. Mary wouldn’t begin to say she understood what Zelda was feeling, yes she loved Vida like her own but the connection that Zelda and Vida had was something deeper. That connection was why whenever Vida was around Zelda painted on a smile to allude that nothing was wrong, acted like everything was normal when every night after tucking Vida into bed Zelda cried. All Mary could do was hold her and wish that there was something that she could do. It came to her one afternoon on a Saturday in April.
That day had been particularly bad. Zelda wouldn’t stop crying, she couldn’t even muster enough energy to get out of bed. Mary shuffled Vida out, saying Zelda was just a little sick and she was okay. Vida looked at her like she didn’t believe her, and to be honest Mary didn’t even believe herself, but she agreed and headed downstairs. In the kitchen Mary and Hilda shared a quick look and a slight nod. Hilda will take care of Zelda, Mary will handle Vida. Armed with a list of errands Mary and Vida left. After stopping at the pharmacy and the home improvement store for some fertilizer the last thing on Hilda’s list was to fix a clasp on a watch of hers that broke. Mary loathed to go into the shopping district on a weekend but wanting to give Hilda as much time as possible she decided to suck it up and go.
The bell on the jewelry store tinkled when Mary entered shaking off her umbrella as it started to rain lightly. Vida who was decked out in her raincoat with matching boots and hat shook her head when Mary took her hat off, causing red ringlets and little droplets of water to fly everywhere. Mary smiled and fussed over Vida’s hair to make it somewhat neat. A salesperson came over and asked how they could help them. When Mary explained that she needed a watched to be fixed the salesperson led her over to one of the glass cases to have a closer look. At first Vida was next to her, holding onto the side of her leather trench coat but becoming bored at having looked at everything in the case started to wonder. Mary was two seconds away from calling Vida back but stopped. Other than her, Vida, and a few other employees there were only two other customers and Vida was smart enough to not go with anyone or out of the store so Mary turned back to the sales person but kept an ear out for the slight ‘squelch’ that Vida’s boots made on the shops carpet. After several minutes of looking through watches they eventually found something that could match the original fixture the sales clerk went into the back to talk to the person who did the actual hardware work Mary turned to find Vida.
Vida was standing in front of a glass case filled with little charms and pendants for necklaces and bracelets. The charms were all arranged by shape, grouped together by metal type, gold and silver mostly, and gemstone options. Mary quickly recognized the birthstone gems as the pieces were arranged in neat double rows of six. Vida was, of course, fascinated with the little bear pendants. The pendants were about half the size of Mary’s finger tip but the detail was impressive. The 3D bears had little eyes and noses and a tail on its sitting bottom plus soft carving marks to resemble fur. On one foot was a small round gemstone that fit perfectly with the pad of the bears paw.
“What do you have here baby bear?”
“Look at the little bears Mamma they’re so cute.”
“That they are.” The longer Mary stared at the bears wheel started to turn in her head as an idea started to form. The sales clerk that was helping them with the watch came back pulling Mary away from the bear pendants. The watch was fixable and Mary filled the work order so Hilda could pick it up later.
“Is there anything else I can help you with Ma’am?” Mary thought about it for a minute. The bear pendants came back to mind.
“There is one thing.” Mary took the clerk over to the bear pendants and he pulled out the little shelving they rested on out so she could have a closer look. The bears were, as Mary predicted, part of the stores birthstone collection so each bear had a different gemstone. A gold bear with a 36 inch chain was almost $200, a little steep but for Zelda it was worth it.
“What do you think baby bear?” Mary picked up Vida so she could see the bears more clearly. “Should we get one for you Mom?”
“Yes!” Vida then told the sales clerk when her birthday was, May 16th, and he pulled out a pre boxed bear with an emerald gemstone.
“Would you like to get it engraved? It’s $10 and we can do it today in about an hour.” Tempted Mary agred, she and Vida could get lunch and come back to get the necklace. Mary told the clerk what she wanted. When she came back for it the necklace was wrapped up nicely in a little box with a blue ribbon.
After some debate Mary decided not to wait until Mother’s Day to give the necklace to Zelda. That next day she recruited Vida to make their special breakfast, french toast light on the powdered sugar and syrup with some egg whites, a small cup of fruit, a lightly buttered biscuit, and a mug of coffee. Balancing the tray Mary and Vida brought it back upstairs to surprise Zelda. Mary hung back with the try as Vida, after setting down the mug of coffee that she was entrusted with on the nightstand, climbed up onto Zelda’s bed to wake her. It didn’t take much, Zelda hasn’t been sleeping well either and it only took a little prodding to wake her.
“Surprise!” Zelda looked at Vida then at Mary as she placed the breakfast tray.
“What is this?”
“Me and Momma made you our special breakfast. To make you feel better.” Zelda gasped a little in shock, she didn’t know that Vida picked up on her mood, but hid it well.
“Thank you baby.” The bed dipped as Mary joined them on the bed and they shared breakfast. When the tray was empty Mary handed Vida the small box that held the necklace.
“We got you this Mommy.” Zelda took the box, not sure what it could be or why she was receiving this gift. After untying the ribbon the dark blue box opened with a soft crack. Zelda’s eyes widened and she gave a faint gasp. “Do you like it Mommy?” The tiny gold bear looked so much bigger cradled in the soft lining of the box, tiny emerald catching the light. The new addition to the bear, the thing that had Zelda almost in tears, was a tiny engraving on the bears other paw that said ‘V.S.’
“I love it.” Vida smiled and snuggled into her mother’s side. Zelda handed the box to Mary so she could place the necklace on her. Sweeping Zelda’s hair over her shoulder Mary fastened the necklace around Zelda’s slender neck. Though not big the bear stood out against Zelda’s pale skin, the pendant resting lightly on her chest. When the necklace was securely in place Zelda turned back to face Mary and brought her close to share a kiss. Mary returned it, making it just a little deeper and longer.
____________________
After that Zelda was in a better mood. She wasn’t 100%, Mary believed that wouldn’t happen until this whole mess was over, but she stopped crying and could muster real small smiles. She also realized that she couldn’t ignore the inevitable anymore. She needed to hire an attorney. Over the next week or so Zelda contacted several law firms that looked to be in her price range and could help her. None of them, even after a respected waiting time, responded back. Zelda started to panic, she knew that Faustus would have an attorney that would destroy her in a single breath. If she wanted even a snowballs chance in hell to keep her daughter she needed her own representation but with no responses she was starting to go back into her depressed state. Just as it seemed that hope was lost Zelda received a very interesting email on Saturday afternoon.
Dear Ms. Spellman,
I heard from the grapevine that you are looking for an attorney for an upcoming custody case. My name is Daniel Webster, I don’t have a law firm nor work for one but I do have a license to practice law with a decade worth of trial experience. An old friend of mine from one of the law firms that you contacted pointed me in your direction and gave me your email, I hope you don’t mind. I would like to take your case pro bono. To prove that I am not a scammer we can meet in a neutral location on your terms and I have attached some links to a few of the cases that I worked on. Write me back when you can.
Signed, Daniel Webster
Deciding to take a leap of faith Zelda wrote back to Mr. Webster that she would meet him at Hilda’s book shop just after breakfast. Vida was with Mary, Zelda dropped them off at the park with a promise that if they got tired or if the weather turned bad to come to the store. Dr. Cee allowed her to use his back office for the meeting, it was quiet and it plus the tea that Hilda gave her helped her remain calm. At five past ten Hilda let in a middle age man with short white hair and beard and dressed in a nice but not flashy navy blue suit.
“Ms. Spellman.” Mr. Webster held out his hand and they shook hands for a brief moment. Hilda asked Mr. Webster if he would like anything but he said no. With that Hilda closed the door behind her and she and Mr. Webster were alone. Mr. Webster opened his briefcase and took out a legal pad and pen. “So let’s begin. According to court documents a Faustus Blackwood is suing you for full custody of your daughter.”
“Yes.”
“Is he the child’s biological father?”
“Unfortunately.”
“And when did your relationship end?”
“About a month after I found out I was pregnant.” After she gave her answer Mr. Weber straightened up.
“You have had no contact with Mr. Blackwood before now?”
“None whatsoever.”
“Good. We can use that. Do you have the girls birth certificate?” Zelda pulled out a folder from her purse that contained all of the important papers regarding Vida. Each family member had their own folder in a locked drawer in the credenza next to the kitchen. Zelda handed Mr. Weber Vida’s birth certificate. Mr. Webster scanned over the document and his eyes widened. Zelda didn’t know if this was a good thing or a bad.
“Ms. Spellman we have nothing to worry about.” Zelda’s heart stopped in her chest but it was a good stop. A huge wave a relief blew over her and she felt like she could breathe again without this crushing weight against her. She didn’t know why she had so much confidence in Mr. Webster but she did and if he said she didn’t have to worry than she won’t. She really hoped he was right.
With their meeting concluded Zelda went out to the main area. Mary and Vida weren’t there, they still must be at the park. Zelda, after debate decided to walk the short distance to the park. The weather was nice, sunny with just a bit of cloud and a nice breeze that was refreshing but not knee shaking. When she arrived at the park Vida was hanging from the monkey bars with Mary close to her ready to spring into action if Vida needed her. Zelda was impressed as Vida made the last four bars to the landing on the jungle gym set. Though too far away to hear Mary said something that made Vida flush with pride and she ran off to the higher part of the jungle gym. When Zelda reached Mary she took the other woman’s hand, lacing their fingers together.
“Meeting went well?” Zelda nodded and rested her head against Mary’s shoulder. Given hope Zelda could relax enough to enjoy physical contact with Mary. Mary let go of Zelda’s hand to drape her arm over Zelda’s shoulder. They stayed that way until Vida called out to them, she was standing at the opening of a slide. Zelda moved to the end so that when Vida reached it she scooped her up. Vida giggled as Zelda pressed her close and kissed her cheek.
“Ready to go?” Vida nodded and they, after Zelda took Mary’s hand again, walked back to the car to go home.
9 notes · View notes