#people in this class also keep jumping up to move chairs for me

[sam-the-pancake]

We've reached a new layer of not respecting mobility aid users/not seeing us as people.

Today in my class I was using my wheelchair and going towards someone to ask a question. They jumped up and grabbed someone else's cane from "in my way" and began to move it. I said no it's ok, and they said something like don't worry I'll put it back. I said no again and they returned it to where it was. I asked my question and went back to my spot. The person who's cane it was was sitting right there. They could have moved it if they thought it was in my way or if I asked them to.

A minute later I heard the cane fall over. It hadn't fallen before that but of course the abled person who moved it didn't know how to balance it properly.

Don't touch people's aids. Both myself and the other disabled person were able to handle the situation if necessary, but it didn't need to be handled because there wasn't a problem.

#host #pancakes talk #people in this class also keep jumping up to move chairs for me #even though theyre the lightest wheely chairs and i can move them just fine on my own #but they dont move when im coming and theyre sitting in the middle of the aisle #cripple punk #cripplepunk #disability #disabled #ambulatory wheelchair user #cane user #dont touch mobility aids

[just-prime]

Ahsoka is so slow I could cry. She was trained by Anakin and presumably Obi-wan and several other Jedi, and Rosario can hardly do an actual lightsaber twirl, let alone make me believe she could survive Ventress, Maul, Grievous, or Vader, survive order 66, or run in a way that looks fast. Bo-Katan moves faster, Shin moves faster, Sabine moves faster, Ezra moves faster, even Ewan's lazy twirls while walking around and not actively engaged in battle in the prequels were roughly as fast as Rosario's in an actual duel.

It's also canon that in this era, in a less prequels flashy version of standard Jedi abilities, a Jedi can leap SEVERAL feet. Luke in ROTJ- even GROGU can jump higher, while Rosario's feet are consistently glued to the ground. Her choreography and speed are so inconsistent with this established era and people keep writing it off and praising it as her fighting like a samurai now, even though it makes NO sense for her to, given who trained her. She isn't A New Hope Obi-wan, nor sad cave dwelling Obi-wan who hasn't stretched or lifted a weapon in a decade, and a 44 year old Jedi is still supposed to be in their prime.

I truly wonder if part of it is that they can't keep her lekku on properly if she does a flip, and they are shorter because they were meant to be more practical, but I'm really not seeing a character agile enough to need stunt modified lekku.

If they couldn't bring this to life in live action convincingly, it should have remained animated and each passing week demonstrates this more and more.

I'm sorry to anon into your inbox like this, but your post about the last episode has been so refreshing, and I've felt like I've been watching a completely different show than other people and don't know how they considered any of the actors ready. (Rosario has said she was training during filming). Thank you for your brutally honest take, you're spot on on all counts.

Couple of things.

A) I agree with everything you just said. Always feel free to come and rant into my asks.

B) I HAVE BEEN ANTI TINY LEKKU SINCE MANDO S2. It's laughable that we've seen cosplayers with more Rebels accurate headpieces. And of course everyone defends it with the 'it wouldn't be fair to the stunt person to have them try and do flips in that' and it's like NEWSFLASH Ahsoka isn't doing flips anyway!!! And sure, they probably stuck Rosario in a 5 week sword training class, but she's clearly not had to do any serious combat training given how clunky her fights are. And again, this was also a problem back in Mando s2, only she was in the middle of a foggy woods, so it was easier to hide the fact that she is incompetent when it comes to fight choreography.

C) "If they couldn't bring this to life in live action convincingly, it should have remained animated" Exactly. This is why every passing day I am increasingly pissed that this show killed and ate the animated Rebels sequel series that was in fucking development. Everything about this show, from Ahsoka, to Hera (hell, even TBoBF cameos like Cad Banes) prove that Disney is not willing to shell out for a decent makeup and/or CG designer. No shade to the artists that are currently working on it, they are doing their jobs to the best of their abilities. What I mean is they didn't have anyone on set that was in a high enough positions to say 'Hey, have any of you heard of contouring?' Like, just looking at the alien makeup of the OT...which somehow holds up better than state of the art Disney budget makeup. It's just fucking embarrassing at this point. There is no reason everyone should look as flat as they do, but it's no surprise that they do when mary elizabeth winstead is celebrating that her makeup only took an hour. Sure, it's understandable that you don't want to be sitting in the makeup chair every morning of hours on end, but in the end you are an actor who signed up to play an alien...Suck it up buttercup.

D) I totally understand how hard it is to be not liking this show right now. The amount of people who've told me that "well, clearly it's just not made for you" after I point out a simple fact that a character is out of character is painful. Looking at twitter after each episode as everyone seems to think Filoni is creating the second coming is painful. Because it really does feel like we're watching a different show than them.

Okay, I think I covered everything. Thank you again for your kind words and your wonderful rant!!!

#rambles #dave filoni critical #ahsoka critical #ahsoka series #ahsoka spoilers #star wars #prime responds #anti filoni

[writing-in-the-impala]

Ridikkulis - (Remus Lupin x Reader) One Shot

Request: Hiii i Just read your Last Post for Secret smokes and Had an Idea. How about a oneshot of Professor Lupine x Student reader. Its time to learn the ridikkulus spell and its Readers Turn. When the boggart comes Out tho... Is a werewolf. Reader ist too scared to defend themselves and Lupine is too stunned to Help for a Moment. (Tw: blood Optional:) in that Split Second, the boggart werewolf attacks reader and it becomes a lil bloodY. Anything after that Scene IS Up to you <;3

TW: Blood, description of scars

Pairing: Professor! Remus Lupin x Student Reader

Word Count: 2458

A/N: Hello, I received this a while ago and finally got around to posting it, I’ve never written based on requests so I hope this is what you wanted. I’m sorry if I didn’t get it right. ❤️‍🔥 Also if you want to submit a request go ahead! It may take me while to get around to it but definitely it’s fun to do something based on other people’s ideas.

The thunder rumbled outside as you approached the defence against the dark arts classroom. The castle had a darker feeling to it this year with dementors circling the grounds but Professors Lupins lessons bought some positivity into your days. He was one of the few teachers at school that seemed to know what he was doing and his charisma made you feel warm and safe. Everyone loved his lessons. You didn't really know him well, but you wishes you did. You would often sit in class and think about what he must be really like outside of school, you imagined a friendly yet charismatic man with a hint of mischief.

As you entered his class the room looked almost dark from the clouds outside, Professor Lupin wasn't there when you arrived. Everyone sat down as usual, took out their books, quills and parchment, and were talking when he finally entered the room. Lupin smiled vaguely and placed his tatty old briefcase on the teacher's desk. He was as handsome as ever as he slowly took his jacket off and cleared his throat.

"Good afternoon," he said in a loud voice making the whole class go silent. "Would you please put all your books back in your bags. Today's will be a practical lesson. You will only need your wands."

Everyone smiled excitedly, Lupin was new but he already set a good impression as the teacher who let you use real magic. He made the lessons jump off the page. So everyone shut their books and stood right up as Lupin waved his hand causing all the tables and chairs to fly to the side of the room. "Now then, Oliver please will you give me a hand with that wardrobe over there." He gestured for Oliver Wood who nodded and helped Lupin push a large wooden wardrobe into the center of the room. As Professor Lupin went to stand next to it, the wardrobe gave a sudden wobble, banging off the wall."Nothing to worry about," said Professor Lupin calmly, as a few people jumped backwards in alarm. "There's a Boggart in there." Most people seemed to feel that this was something to worry about but everyone trusted Lupin to keep them safe. "Boggarts like dark, enclosed spaces," said Professor Lupin. "Wardrobes, the gap beneath beds, the cupboards under sinks - I once met one that had lodged itself in a grandfather clock. This one moved in yesterday afternoon, and I asked the Headmaster if the staff would leave it to give you some real practice. So, the first question we must ask ourselves is, what is a Boggart?" Lupin look around the room but no one put their hands up, you knew the answer but you didn't want to bring attention to yourself. Lupins eyes scanned the room and landed on you, he gave you a warm smile and you shook your head but his smile just grew larger as he said your name.

"It's a shape-shifter sir." You began with a quiet voice looming around the class as everyone turned to face you. "It can take the shape of whatever it thinks will frighten us most."

"Couldn't have put it better my-self," he said with a large smile on his face and a quick wink towards you. "So the Boggart sitting in the darkness within has not yet assumed a form. He does not yet know what will frighten the person on the other side of the door. Nobody knows what a Boggart looks like when he is alone, but when I let him out, he will immediately become whatever each of us most fears.This means, that we have a huge advantage over the Boggart before we begin. Have you spotted it, Miss L/N?"

Why did he have to pick on you every time. "Er - because there are so many of us, it won't know what shape it should be?" You guessed.

"Precisely, it's always best to have company when you're dealing with a Boggart. He becomes confused. Which should he become, a headless corpse or a flesh-eating slug? I once saw a Boggart make that very mistake - tried to frighten two people at once and turned himself into half a slug. Not remotely frightening." He got a few laughs from the class, loud ones from the group of girls who liked him most. "The charm that repels a Boggart is simple, yet it requires force of mind. You see, the thing that really finishes a Boggart is laughter. What you need to do is force it to assume a shape that you find amus-ing.

“We will practise the charm without wands first. After me, please ... riddikulus!”

'Riddikulus!' said the class together.

 “Good,” said Pro­fes­sor Lupin. 'Very good. But that was the easy part, I'm afraid. You see, the word alone is not enough. And this is where you come in, Jack.' He said picking on the most shy and scared boy in the class.

“Right, Jack,” said Pro­fes­sor Lupin putting his hand on the boys shoulder as he bought him to the front of the class. “First things first: what would you say is the thing that fright­ens you most in the world”

Jack’s lips moved, but no noise came out. “Didn't catch that, Jack, sor­ry,” said Pro­fes­sor Lupin cheer­ful­ly and gently. Jack explained it would be a spider and Lupin told him how a boy in a different class who was scared of spiders put roller blades on the legs so it was sliding around.

“If Jack is suc­cess­ful, the Bog­gart is like­ly to turn his at­ten­tion to each of us in turn,” said Professor Lupin. “I would like all of you to take a mo­ment now to think of the thing that scares you most, and imag­ine how you might force it to look com­ical …’

The room went qui­et. You­ thought … What scared you most in the world? You thought about many things but the thing that won was a Werewolf. But how do you make that funny? You thought about turning it into a puppy, a little dog, not a big one, a big one if it bites you can still hurt you so it had to be something like a chihuahua.

“Ev­ery­one ready?” said Pro­fes­sor Lupin enthusiastically as he hit play on the record player.

“Jack, we’re go­ing to back away,’ said Pro­fes­sor Lupin. ‘Let you have a clear field, all right? I’ll call the next per­son for­ward … ev­ery­one back, now, so Jack can get a clear shot –“

Your whole class re­treat­ed, back­ing against the wall, leav­ing Jack alone be­side the wardrobe. He looked pale and fright­ened, but he had pushed up the sleeves of his robes and was hold­ing his wand ready.

“On the count of three, Jack,” said Pro­fes­sor Lupin, who was point­ing his own wand at the han­dle of the wardrobe. ‘One – two – three – now!’

A jet of sparks shot from the end of Pro­fes­sor Lupin’s wand and hit the door­knob. The wardrobe burst open and a ton of spiders crawled out followed by a huge one, sending shivers even down your spine. Jack backed away, his wand up, mouthing word­less­ly. “R-​r-​rid­diku­lus!” squeaked Jack. There was a noise like a whip-​crack. And the spiders were rolling around on roller blades.

There was a roar of laugh­ter; the Bog­gart paused, con­fused, and Pro­fes­sor Lupin shout­ed. “James! Your turn!” James walked forwards as commanded and the boggart shifted again, he did the spell and everyone laughed again. You were finding it quite enjoyable everyone was laughing and having fun every person in the line looked worried but you all managed to laugh. You almost forgot that you’ll have to face your fear too. Before you knew it, it was your turn, you walked up after a girl named Jasmine Floyd and you shot Lupin a glance as you were filled with anxiety and dread. He smiled at you and shot you a wink before looking at the Boggart that was in the air transforming, the room was filled with a light mood but you felt nothing but fear. A giant furry werewolf with blood all over its fur and giant teeth towered over you, blocking out any light from above. You suddenly felt so small as fear filled you body, you repeated Lupins words in your head, you pictured it as a small barking chihuahua at your feet, you repeated the spell in your mind, then you looked at Lupin before raising your wand… his face was filled with fear, any sense of laughter was gone, he was frozen starring up at the wolf as you were. You realised that maybe you won’t be able to defeat it, that’s when you tried to say the spell but you felt yourself being pushed down to the floor. As you hit the floor a sharp pain shot through your arm, the wolf was above you, that’s when Lupin threw himself in front of you. “Rid­diku­lus!” He shouted as a white orb appeared over you. “Everyone, class is over, please leave.” He shouted as he kneeled over you. You looked around at all the students who were looking at you, their faces not too unalike Lupins when he was looking at the wolf, Lupin was looking at you, saying words. His hands had blood all over them as he moved them wrapping his blazer around you. “I’m so sorry,” was the only thing you could make. He looked so nice above you, you thought and that’s when you felt yourself being lifted. “Stay with me.” You heard him repeat as you walked through the corridor. “In your room?” You asked, curious of if he’s flirting with you. He laughed but his face was filled with dread. “I’m glad you still have a sense of humour Miss L/N.” He said and after that you felt your head feel very light and fuzzy before everything went black.

You felt a bit woozy as you woke up, you were sweating, you opened your eyes and you realised you’re in the hospital wing, it was dark. Your eyes scanned the room as you slowly looked around to see Professor Lupin sleeping next to you on a chair with a book in his lap. You didn’t say anything as you moved around trying to understand what happened and that’s when he came to. “Y/N? Oh thank Merlin. Poppy! Poppy Y/N awake.” He said a bit too loudly for the middle of the night.

“I told you she’ll be fine, Remus, you never listen.” Madam Pomfrey said as she came over to your bed. “You’ve still got a fever darling, you’ll have to sleep here tonight, how are you feeling?”

“I have a sharp pain in my left side.” You said trying to sit up, Professor Lupin had almost puppy dog eyes as he looked down at you, he seemed worried you weren’t sure why. “What happened?” You asked as Madam Pomfrey walked away to get some pain relief potion.

“It’s my fault I’m awfully sorry, the Boggaart it got close enough to hurt you. It was a..it was a werewolf.” You never heard this tone of voice on Lupin he sounded hurt and defeated, almost like the life was drained out of him by a demantour. “Horrible creatures, it happened so quickly, it got to you before I managed to stop it, I’m so awfully sorry. Madam Pomfrey said the cut shouldn’t scar you’ll be okay. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“It is, I should’ve stopped it, horrible creatures. All they do is hurt people, I froze for a moment, I am your teacher I shouldn’t have allowed it.” He said angry at himself.

“You know they’re innocent people.” You said gently.

“Who?”

“The wolves, I don’t appreciate you calling them horrible creatures, they’re just sick, like I am right now.” You said and Lupins expression became hard to read.

“But it hurt you, and you fear it, how come you’re so forgiving.”

“Well a boggart hurt me not a real wolf. Besides I think you can be scared but understand it. You or I could be bit by one, and our lives would change forever that’s what I’m scared of, I’m scared of what would happen to me, unlike a dog attack a wolf attack makes people look down on you, call them stuff like a kind man like you even said. Don’t you find that terrifying professor?” You asked and he had a small warm smile.

“You’re very smart for your age. I found it terrifying to have a students blood on my hands first week on the job.” He said and you laughed but it hurt to laugh. He held your hand as you were hit by the pain. “I’m awfully sorry, that’s the last time I make the mistake of a practical lesson.”

“Professor as a student who bled all over your floor I beg you not to stop these lessons, it’s the only fun we have at Hogwarts. Maybe some safety shields would help.” You said and he squeezed your hand and have you a warm smile.

“Duly noted.” He said and shot you a wink as Madam Pomfrey came back with a potion.

“Please sit up for me love, this will help stop the pain and prevent any scars.” She said as you sat up slowly, Lupin helping adjust the pillow below you.

“Shame, I like the battle scar, I defeated a werewolf and lived to tell the story.” Lupin cleaned his throat. “I think I defeated it.” He said making you laugh.

“Yeah but I’m the one with the battle scar.” You winked at him and he laughed in truth this time, with one hand on your shoulder to comfort you as you drank the disgusting potion as if he knew exactly how bad it will taste.

“Professor, I believe this young girl will be okay now that she’s woken up you do not have to spend all night here.” Pomfrey said as she took the empty vial from you.

“Thank you Poppy, but I prefer to stay just in case, this is all my fault after all.” He said looking over you warmly, you appreciated his company. As Pomfrey walked away you turned to him and asked him what he was reading, he told you the name of the book and you asked if he could read it out loud. He agreed and just like that you drifted to sleep, Remus J Lupins voice washing you into sweet slumber as your head rested on his shoulder. Remus felt comfort being by your side, he was relived you were okay and truly amazed by the lack of hate you had for the creature that nearly killed you. The creature you were sleeping so peacefully on.

MASTER LIST | Remus Lupin x Reader series

Requests are open however they will be slow as I'm busy writing Secret Smokes!

#submission #remus lupin x reader #professor lupin x reader #teacher! remus lupin #remus lupin #one shot #request #remus lupin x y/n #remus lupin x you #remus lupin imagine

[cupids-flyer]

Architecturestudent!Armin

Vira note: pls spare me. This my first work on here ♡︎ ill get better as i keep writing🧚🏾‍♀️

Armin falling for you the pretty and smart architecture princess | fluff |

you knew walking into a architecture class in all pink with you’re dark brown complexion would cause a lot of staring but you didn’t care. as you put your bamboo earrings in, your playlist changed the song to The Key by Tems but you paused it till you got into your car and drove to school.

architecturestudent!armin who sat in the back struggling to keep his eyes open in class couldn’t help but notice you the girl in all pink walking into architecture class.

“Princess! I think you’re in the wrong class!” someone yells out to you. “This room 208. Architecture. Is it not?” You say looking at the teacher for confirmation. “Yes you are correct. Y/n right? The only open seat we have is in the back.” “Thanks.” you say smiling walking to your seat.

architecturestudent!armin who is entranced at the way your hips sway as you walk to the only open seat beside him in the back and take out your books

“Hi!” you say smiling “i’m y/n and you’re..” “I’m Armin but call me Min everyone does.” He says responding frantically “thats cutee, well Min i hope we become good friends this semester!” You say cheesin

architecturestudent!armin who was in shock at how forward you were. from you saying “stop being a stranger, move your chair closer” to Give me your number.” which had him shocked “if i didn’t ask i had a feeling i would’ve never got it!” you say chuckling

architecturestudent!armin who couldn’t get you out of his head the way you always where attentive in class, always knew the topics, and always writing notes and sharing them with him. he knew you were a dime and he couldn’t let you slide from up under him. he couldn’t let you go.

architecturestudent!armin who loves drawing so he draws you little doodles in the middle of class. but one day he scribbles fast on the paper and taps your hand urging you to read it. you glance and the paper and do a double take as your eyes get wide. he’s asking to take you out soon. you look over to smile at him while writing a fast “yes” he was so happy he could’ve jumped out of his chair

architecturestudent!armin who calls you because he didn’t understand some of the lesson and as he looks at the picture you sent of your notes. while his face is in the camera you see that he wrinkles his forehead and sticks his tongue out when he focuses. you think it’s a adorable habit but he has no idea at all.

architecturestudent!armin who takes you to a little cafe just to talk and get closer to eachother. you learn that he was the shy type when he was younger and still slightly is but learned how to stand up for himself with his friends help. you also learn that he loves minecraft and use to have one of those creeper jackets and a diamond sword.

“It’s not that funny.” He says with a straight face as you laugh your ass off “I-“ You say trying to catch your breath “im trynna to imagine you with the jacket on zipped up with the diamond sword IN HAND!” you say busting out in laughter. he can’t help but notice how pretty you look to him when your laughing.

architecturestudent!armin who loves seeing and making you laugh. some people may call your laugh obnoxious, loud, ugly, weird. but he found it weirdly adorable.

architecturestudent!armin who calls you almost everyday just to hear your voice. he keeps a note on his phone of all your favorite things and facts about you so he never forgets.

architecturestudent!armin has the patience of a saint. like when you and him where challenged with making and building a modern miniature house structure with 2 tiers and the blueprint just didn’t work together it kept falling and while you got frustrated armin calmed you down.

“BRUH this just isn’t working. Why is the structure not structuring!” you say slamming your hand’s against the desk “y/n its okay.” he says rubbing your leg and his hand on your back “maybe we need more stability on the pillars.” he says getting more stabilizers and the building began to stand up. “armin! you were right! “ you say hugging him. you didn’t know it but armin was feeling more accomplished and comfortable than he ever did before.

architecturestudent!armin who’s parents got him a luxury apartment to stay in invites you over to his apartment to see a project he had been assigned.

“Welcome to my place y/n!” he says while ushering you in with his hand on the small of your back before closing the door. “Min…” you say looking at his beautiful apartment. “this place is amazing” you say with your jaw dropping “it’s nothing really!” he says anxiously with his hand up and scratching his neck “my parents didn’t want me to stay in a dorm. so they got me this place.” he says walking around “you want something to drink?” he says leaning in the fridge and putting out 2 of your fav drinks. “definitely!” you say sitting at the island “so what’s with this project?” you say taking a sip “it’s nothing really i’m just making a victorian style-“ you couldn’t barely comprehend the words coming out of his mouth and you kept looking at his lips. slowly but surely armin started to notice and he felt the same whenever you answered.

architecturestudent!armin who’s so soft for you so when you start dozing off during the project he lets you stay over and sleep in his house saying “it’s to late for you to be driving.” all you can get out is a “mhm” while your heavy lidded eyes couldn’t take the weight and finally closed. what you didn’t know was armin kissed your forehead while you were sleeping wishin you good dreams.

architecturestudent!armin who wakes up earlier than you and makes you a breakfast for a queen.

“Min?” you call out into the house from the room you were in. you smell the aroma of french toast and pancakes. like a spell you let your feet take you to the smell. as you walk into the kitchen you see armin over the stove putting his all into making breakfast. “morning y/n.” he says with a smile looking over his shoulder “minn you shouldn’t have!” you say walking over and hugging him from behind hands around his waist. all he can think is anything for my angel.

architecturestudent!armin who’s been planning how to ask you to be his girlfriend for a while now. asking your favorite flowers getting you a necklace with your name and renting out a restaurant.

“Okay. Open your eyes in…

3

2

1

the gasp that left your mouth was indescribable. there armin stood infront of you with the necklace on display and flowers in hand. the restaurant was empty aside from the musicians playing romantic music. “i want you to feel loved and respected always so…. will you go out with me.” he asks nervously “you made this seem like a proposal min!” you say taking the items out of his hands and setting them on a nearby table then going back to give him a bear hug. “but yes i will go out with you Armin Arlet!”

#aot x black reader #armin headcanons #armin x black reader #armin aot #armin x you #armin fluff #anime x black!reader #black reader #tooth rotting fluff #viras work ❥✰ #armin x y/n #armin arlet x reader

[klbwriting]

Our Strange Duet

Chapter 3: Not Alone

Fandom: Red Hood

Pairing: Jason Todd x f!reader

Warnings: angst

Summary: audition time

Taglist: @deans-spinster-witch @amberpanda99

You're not alone. No one is alone - Into The Woods

The day of auditions Jason sought out YN after lit class, wanting to make sure she wasn't nervous. They hadn't been avoiding each other but it was a little awkward now, YN thinking she revealed too much and Jason wishing he could reveal more to her. He was working on it, opening himself up, but he was still terrified of putting himself out there again, especially with her. He knew that her mother getting accepted to that cancer program had been once in a lifetime, a last ditch effort to save her life, and that YN had to go with her but he still felt hurt, like she had let him down by leaving him. So many people abandoned him in his life and she was one of them now, and every time he wanted to throw himself off the ledge for her he froze at the edge, wondering if she would disappear again. He had asked Dick about it and of course Dick wanted him to take the leap, have faith in her, keep himself open, basically don't turn into Bruce. His therapist had a similar view but he also said that Jason had to make the decision himself because it wouldn't be fair to either of them for him to try and force himself into anything he wasn't ready for, it would only end in worse heartbreak. So here he was, following her out of the classroom, grabbing her arm in the hall, making her jump and yelp.

"Sorry!" he said, letting her go. She took a breath to calm down and nodded, giving him a smile. "I just wanted to see how you were? Auditions are later, are you nervous?" She nodded again.

"Ya, honestly I've never done a musical before, Gotham Academy looked down their snooty noses at them, plus I'm not exactly a very operatic singer. I think I'll probably end up being stage crew," she said. Jason frowned, not sure what he was hearing.

"I think you'll be amazing," he said. "And if you don't get a part they are idiots." She blushed a little and smiled at him, reaching out to take his hand like it was second nature, but stopped the moment her fingers brushed his, pulling back. He wasn't hers anymore, she couldn't just grab his hand whenever she wanted. She had left him, hurt him, and she couldn't expect him to just fall back in step with her because she wanted it. She dropped her hand by her side, but then he reached out and gently took her hand, squeezing it.

"Jason..." she said, not wanting him to force himself to do this.

"YN," he said in her same tone. She narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips and he felt the overwhelming urge to kiss her. He loved her slightly annoyed face, he loved all of her faces, but that love had that twinge of fear and hurt so he kept himself from moving closer to her. "I don't want you to think that you can't be honest with me, that you can't depend on me still. No matter what happened before I'm still your friend, still here for you and if you need to hold my hand for any reason you can." She nodded.

"Thank you," she said. "I have another class, see you before auditions?" He nodded and let her go, swearing that she walked away with his heart in her hands again.

As promised YN waited inside the auditorium, ten minutes early, for Jason to arrive. She was standing there singing to herself, making sure she enunciated her words, loosening her mouth up to prepare. She watched the door so much that a nearby theater member noticed.

"Got someone coming to see you?" she asked. YN looked over, blushing a little. "I'm Halle."

"I'm YN, and am I that obvious?" she asked. Halle laughed a little. Then Jason walked in and YN's eyes snapped to his and she smiled again. He looked annoyed, but when he saw her smiled back at her.

"O, I see now," Halle said. YN didn't move as Jason put his things down in the rows of chairs. She seemed frozen to the spot, doubts flowing through her head. That smile of his, the one he seemed to save for her, broke her heart now. What if she messed up? What if he ran this time? What if everything fell apart again and he was hurt? She was back in December when she had told him she was leaving, the way his face turned to hurt, she had become his father, his mother, Bruce, another on a list of people who left him. She hated being on that list. "Go get him," Halle muttered. YN snapped back to the present and nodded, willing herself to walk over to him. Nothing was holding her back from him this time, she could stay as long as he wanted her too. This time if he wanted rid of her he would have to leave her. She walked over to him, leaning on the back of the chair in front of him.

"You nervous?" she asked this time. He shook his head, but she saw his fists clenching and unclenching, and his eyes were a little green. "What happened?" she asked. That green only came around when he was feeling angry.

"Nothing," he said, trying to push down his emotions. On the way over he had read an article about Bruce Wayne's newest rescue puppy, Tim Drake. His rich parents had been killed and now he was an orphan and Bruce gallantly swept in to adopt him, the very picture of altruism. What a fucking joke. He was trying to keep himself from running, he needed theater, needed to be someone else right now, not run and hide somewhere. By the time his song was done he would be able to think clearly, just like always. He looked YN, seeing the worry on her face. "After auditions I'll talk to you ok? Right now I just...need to not be Jason." She nodded, this time reaching out and squeezing his hand. She held it for just a moment, supporting him.

Auditions started and men were first, Jason watching the upperclassmen preform before the freshmen. He focused on his song, getting into the phantom's headspace. He had watched anything he could find for this show over the last week, the movie, youtube videos of the live musical, the original black and white movie, anything to really dissect the phantom. He'd even read the book, only getting halfway through before auditions, but he would finish it. He was ready, he was getting this part and he would once again play a madman behind a mask. He did that almost every night now, should be easy.

"Jason Todd," the director said. He climbed on stage, hooking up his phone to the speakers for music. He swallowed hard before slipping on his new skin, body hunching a little, making himself look intimidating, but he looked down, hiding the half of his face with the scar on it, like he was ashamed of that part of his face. He became Erik, in love with someone who he could never have, someone who loved someone else more, he was a beast, he wasn't worthy of love.

"Nighttime sharpens, heightens each sensation, Darkness stirs and wakes imagination, Silently the senses abandon their defenses..." he began singing, and before he knew it the song was ending. This was surprising, no one else had been allowed to do the full song. He had expected them to use the little buzzer they had to stop him, but they hadn't. He had finished the song, going to his phone and disconnecting it. "Thank you." He walked off stage to two people in the crowd standing and clapping, YN and Dick, who must have snuck in one the auditions had already started. They looked so proud of him and he couldn't lie, he was proud of himself. Bruce was wrong, he wasn't replaceable to everyone. He waved to Dick who looked like he might burst, before going and sitting next to YN. Another freshmen finished and they said there would be a five minute break before the lady's auditions started. Jason stood, YN following him back to see Dick who hugged his brother.

"If you aren't the phantom I'm putting you in another school, this place doesn't deserve you," he said. Jason blushed, still not used to his brother being this way. Dick had changed also since he had moved in, he wasn't as cold as he had been when he first met Jason. He probably felt similar to how Jason felt now, seeing Tim Drake take his place, but the difference was that Bruce had eventually forced them together, making sure they became brothers, such good brothers that Dick had dug up his body to bring him back. Jason still wasn't sure why Dick did it, and he never told him, but he loved him for it. He let Dick hug him before turning to YN.

"What did you think?" he asked. Her eyes sparkled when she looked at him and he melted just a little.

"You were magic Jason, honestly," she said. "I can't wait to see you actually being Erik on stage." He broke down and hugged her after that. She clung to him and he felt the wall he build around himself chipping away, whole columns coming down at the feeling of her holding him again. She pulled back when they called for the lady's and headed up front. She stood next to Halle and they wished each other lucky.

It was the same format, upperclassmen first, and Jason could see YN started to get nervous as every other performer did a song from the show. It was the during the third rendition of Think of Me that he snuck up to the front, passing a note into YN's hand before sneaking back to sit in the exact middle of the theater. She looked at the note and opened it.

At least you stand out, you're amazing, sing to me, I know you'll kill it

She turned and found him. He smiled at her and waved. She waved back, reading the note a couple more times before her name was called. She went on stage, rolling out the portable piano that was kept backstage for band rehearsals. She sat down and introduced herself and her song.

"I'll be singing Driver's License, not the original but the Lewis Capaldi cover," she explained. The director nodded slowly, a small smile coming to her face. YN took a breath, not sure what that smile meant but she began, playing flawlessly as she slipped into character. She was heartbroken, she didn't need much to slip back into that state of mind, but she was still holding on that she might be with him again, which was also on her mind. She would pour herself into this, make them believe that even if she couldn't hit the high notes, she was still worth having in the show just for her acting abilities. She caught Jason's eye as they kept letting her sing, not buzzing her out right away either. As the song continued she found Jason in the auditorium, baring herself to him again, knowing he could bring out her best.

Red lights, stop signs I still see your face in the white cars, front yards Can't drive past the places we used to go Cause I still fucking love you

She finished the song and stood, moving the piano back. She bowed her head to them.

"Thank you," she said, going to join the others. Jason slunk back over to her, once again amazing her with how such a big guy could be so quiet when he moved. He sat next to her and smiled.

"You were amazing," he said. "They let you finish." She nodded, but she knew, she wasn't going to be the star, but maybe she could do something else, she was pretty sure that the director was listening to her piano skills more than her singing. After the others were finished they were dismissed, they would get an email with the cast list by Sunday.

Outside they stood, watching as the other theater members went back to their dorms or apartments. Dick said bye and told Jason to be home soon, they had something to do. YN knew that was code for 'taking out big bad criminals with our super secret identities' so she didn't ask follow up questions.

"You know, if you're out and about and you need help you can come to my place again," she said. Jason nodded, smiling at her. "And I look forward to seeing your name at the top of the cast list."

"Talk to you later?" he asked. She nodded, reaching out to him again, this time moving into his arms easily, hugging him close. He settled into her again, another piece of armor being dislodged. "Can we meet up this weekend? I want to talk to you again, just us this time." She nodded.

"Anytime your free I'll be free."

#jason todd #jasontodd #jason todd x reader #jason todd x you #jason todd x y/n #redhood #red hood #red hood x reader #red hood x you #red hood x y/n #strangeduet

[myveryownfanfiction]

Sharpuary day 6: kneazle

18+ MINORS AND THOSE WITHOUT AGE IN BIO DNI

tags: @illiana-mystery, @iobsessoverfictionalmen

warnings: swearing

Aesop paused before walking into his chambers. I turned my head at the sound of the door but was soon brought back to the small kneazle that was running around the box I had put it in.

"What's in the box?" Aesop asked as he came further into the room, dropping his coat on a chair. He stood next to me and peered in.

"A kneazle. One of my students somehow got it into the castle. I think it's a full one but I'm waiting for Howin to come and confirm." I said, picking up some of the food I had also confiscated from the student. "Once she confirms, we're going to decide what best to do with it."

"Please tell me you don't plan on keeping it." Aesop said as he sat down on the bed next to me. I shrugged.

"Depends really." I said. "You know as well as I that kneazles don't like to be kept unless they actually the person or people that will be keeping it." Aesop looked at my hand which bore a small scratch.

"And I take it this one doesn't like you much?" he asked. I smiled at him.

"Oh this?" I said, holding my hand out. "This was gotten when I tried to take it out of the damn box. Apparently, the box is awful good fun for this little one. The kneazle likes me just fine, judging by how quickly it jumped into my arms and away from the student."

"And you were also waiting for me because if you keep this thing, it'll have to accept me as well." Aesop said, leaning over slightly to bump me with his shoulder. I nodded and he rolled his eyes playfully at me. "Alright. When do we take the little demon out?"

"Howin will do it." I said. "I'm not keen on getting scratched again. And I really don't think you want to either." Aesop nodded and shifted so he could put his arm behind my back. I leaned back on it and he smiled at me. "Would you want to keep it? I should have asked before I jumped into the whole we both need to be accepted thing."

"I don't see why not." He said. "My only concern is who will take care of it when we're in class. Our schedules match up almost perfectly. Not to mention over the summer, when we both go off to our respective homes." Aesop looked over at me, a glint of something in his eye.

"Is this your way of asking me to move in with you?" I laughed. Aesop shrugged, a small smirk appearing on his lips.

"Maybe." He drawled. I smiled at him.

"If we decide we're going to keep this little fur ball, then yes. I'll move in with you. If we don't keep it...well, I'll still move in with you." I said. Aesop muttered a quiet but enthusiastic yes before leaning in to kiss me. There was a soft cough from the doorway and we pulled away to see Howin standing there.

"Well, if the celebration is over..." She said as she walked over to us. "Let's see what we can find out about this kneazle."

#aesop sharp #aesop sharp x reader #aesop sharp fanfic #aesop sharp fanfiction #aesop sharp imagine #professor sharp #professor sharp x reader #professor sharp fanfic #professor sharp fanficiton #professor sharp imagine #hogwarts legacy #hogwarts legacy fanfic #hogwarts legacy fanfiction #hogwarts legacy imagine #sharpuary #sharpuary 2024

[texankat]

A Strange Fascination (AUM🩸)

A/N: This does take place in the AUM universe, kind of just a prologue one shot of sorts! Really proud of this one to be fair

warnings: none?

word count: 800-900 (I didn’t really care to check for this one)

You were just walking to one of your classes, not being a bother to anyone or anything at all. You bumped into Enid while walking though you hadn't noticed it was her so- as you usually did… you immediately apologized. “Oh my gosh I’m so sorry- I-I-I didn’t mean to!-“ Enid just giggled softly as she shook her head at you “No need to apologize… Oh- Y/N!” You perked up as she said your name, tilting your head to the side in surprise. “You know me…?-" 

“Yeah I do! I heard some of the teachers talking a new student, and I haven’t seen you around at all so I’m just assuming that you’re the new kid.” Enid chuckled, you felt a sudden sense of relief washing over your body, Enid was the first- relatively friendly face you’ve seen since walking into the building. Enid was a really nice and helpful person from what you could tell, you both talked the whole time you were looking for your dorm room.

You both- finally, found your dorm as you swung the door open, looking over the spacious room. “Wow this is a lot more open and nicer than I expected…” you mumbled softly, setting down your duffle bag you had brought, looking all over the room. “Man I get believe you scored yourself this room all to yourself!- I had a big room all to myself for like… 2 weeks and then my roommate moved in-“ Enid rambled in for a bit about her Roomate as you unpacked and decorated your dorm room, they sounded like a pain in the ass who only really cared about being right- rather than the safety of others they might’ve put at risk… “And then I saved them from that Hyde thing i was talking about! Also the school almost caught on fire-“ “What?!-“ You looked up from were you had been putting the string lights, over hanging your bed. “sounds like you two have been through a lot…” “Yeah, but she’s just the coolest about it, doesn’t even act like it happened.” You gave a light nod as you turned back to continue put the string lights up, finally finishing up. “Done.” You softly told yourself, as you got off of the chair you were using a step up. “Looks good! Wish I could decorate my room even more but-“ “your roommate wouldn’t let you?” You practically finished Enid’s sentence as she gave a positive nod “Exactly!-“ she let out a disappointed sigh before looking over to you, meeting your eyes as you turned around. “Come on let’s go get dinner- it’s almost dark” You knew time had passed but you didn’t know that much time passed- “oh my gosh!- I’m so sorry for keeping you so late…!” “No no it’s okay! You felt more like a roomate than my real one….” She chuckled softly as you walked over to her, taking- quite nervous steps towards her. “Come on let’s go already!” You paused for a moment before nodding your head slightly and following her out of the room as you closed the door behind you- turning to look at Enid but instead….?

You were met with an unknown girl, her cold demeanor and unreadable face and eyes facing toward you- you jump back a bit, before calming yourself down. Enid had glanced back from walking towards the dining hall to see Wednesday standing by in front of you and rushing over. “Wednesday!- we’ve talked about jumping up on people like that…!” Enid scolded. “That we did, but you didn’t specify when or if I really needed to stop, besides- I won’t waste a good opportunity.” She simply replied, as her eyes flicked back to look at you. You seemed closed off to her from first glance, but she could tell you were a bit anxious. Both of you kept eye contact for a few moments, both of you seemed to be having a staring contest if you had no idea of the context of the situation. But finally Wednesday turned away and walked off, probably to return to her own room- leaving you watching her walking off… a faint reddish tint staining your cheeks.

“What was that?-“ Enid walked over to your side as you both watch Wednesday walk off, seeming puzzled herself. Enid turned her head to look at you after Wednesday disappeared out a few, seeing the redness of your cheeks- her eyes widening almost immediately. “No. Way…..” you turn to look at her with a confused expression before noticing the heat spewing from your body- “What…?-“ “Are you seriously blushing from just that small interaction with her?!-“ Enid squealed grabbing your shoulders and shaking you about. “No way!- Did you see the way she looked at me?! I doubt she wants to even talk to me!” You retorted trying to redirect her attention away from you and your light blushing. “Wednesday is never THAT nice to new people!” 

“That was her being nice?-“ You softly muttered, it didn’t really feel that way- but maybe it was because of her natural coldness…? “Uh YEAH- crazy right? Anyways, I see that you got all flustered from that- Soooooo! I’m gonna help you out!” Enid gave you an extremely toothy grin as you chuckled softly at her excitement, you never expected her to get so pumped over something that felt so small to you. And with that? You both walked down the corridor to the dining hall, Enid giving you tips on how to not possibly get murdered by Wednesday the whole way…

#f reader #wednesday adams x reader #vampire reader #wednsday addams #prologue

[17boyzz]

happy guy - lee seokmin

seventeen as romantic tropes - lee seokmin as opposites attract

non idol au, high school au, seokmin x gn!reader

•

keep your eyes away from others, keep tour feet moving, no one will bother you if you keep quiet. be confident, look where you’re going-

and now you’re on the floor.

“oh my goodness i’m so sorry!” panicked a voice from above you. you just shook your head, as a don’t worry about it kind of thing, gathering your things to stand back up again.

“let me help you, please” the person who you ran into spoke again, kneeling down to pick up the scattered papers and other things that fell out of your bag.

“no, it’s okay, really. don’t worry about it” you mumbled, hoping he would just leave you alone.

“well, i mean, you know me, i have to help you so…”

who does this guy think he is? a celebrity? how on earth would you know him? especially since it’s your first day here?

“i know you…?” you questioned, finally looking up at him. if your face wasn’t already flushed from embarrassment, it definitely was now. he tilted his head at you a little, as to question you back.

“you’re new here, aren’t you?” he grinned widely. unsure, you slowly nodded your head a yes, still pretty confused.

“i’m the student counsel president, lee seokmin. are you are?” he asked, holding out his hand.

“y/n…” you hesitantly took his hand in yours, shaking it loosely.

“i can give you a tour around here, if you’re not already scheduled for one from our new student greeters!” he cheered, picking up the rest of your things to hand to you.

“no… i dont have one scheduled but it’s fine. i don’t need a tour, i can survive” you shoved your things back into your bag, hoping to get away from seokmin before you blurt something out about his pretty face.

“are you sure? i can give you one after lunch!”

“you don’t know if we even have the same lunch…”

“keep this a secret but, i’m student counsel president, i can go to both lunches” he whispered and winked, making something in your chest feel floaty.

“thats nice of you but i’m going to go find my first class so bye” you muttered with a quick wave before walking off to find the first class on your schedule, you don’t even remember it.

“i’ll check in with you at the end of the day!” you could hear him shout from behind you, making you determined to walk a little faster out of his sight.

•

“hi again, y/n!” his voice made you jump.

“god, you scared me” you groaned, not even turning to face him.

“sorry, i didn’t mean to… but how was your first day?” he stood by your side as you waited for your mother to pick you up.

“it was okay… it’s school so theres not much to enjoy” you shrugged.

“not much to enjoy? what classes are you taking? school can be fun! you should join a club or sports or-“

“no”

“but why not? it’ll be fun-“

“no”

“but-“

“i said no” you glared at the cheerful little guy just trying to help you out. he had shut up, head drooping a little bit.

“so… you really don’t like school, huh?” he asked once more, a little less passion and sweetness in his voice. you shook your head.

“no. school is a mean place with mean people. just cause you’re nice now doesn’t mean you won’t go behind my back and say nasty things about me” you crossed your arms, head leaning back against the brick wall.

“but it also doesn’t mean i will, either. theres some good in the world and at this school, y/n. have a little faith. i’ll see you tomorrow” he spoke, turning and walking away.

lee seokmin was quite the character, huh?

•

you were already two days out from a test and you had to learn all the material of the unit that you missed in that short amount of him. thats how you ended up at the library with 6 different advanced chemistry books laid out in front of you.

“someone’s gotten to work, haven’t they?” you heard a voice thats getting too familiar to you sneak up.

“wouldn’t you like to know…” you muttered, slightly hoping he couldn’t hear you. either way, he didn’t respond and just sat in the chair next to you.

“what are you doing?” you asked, confused as to why he had sat down next to you.

“studying? i have that advanced chem test in two days too” he pulled out his notebook and pencil case, everything looking exactly the way you’d expected it to.

“you gonna keep staring or go back to reading?” he teased with a small grin on his lips, not even looking up at you.

“i wasn’t staring”

“you totally were. it’s okay to admit it, babe”

“it’s my second day here, what is your problem?” you groaned, turning back to all the textbooks in front of you.

“i’m sorry”

“i’m sure you are…” you muttered quietly, putting headphones in and pressing play on your music. what’s this guy’s deal? how is he always so cheerful at such a place? your only job to attend, pass, and dip as soon as possible but mr class president over here willing stays after school and does… whatever a class president does.

•

“leaving so soon?” he perked up once he saw you shut the first book.

“yeah. i want to go home and take a god damn nap” you grumbled, getting up to return the books to their places.

“let me help you with that” he quickly got up, taking half your stack. you glared at him before speaking,

“you’re annoying. did you know that?” you began to walk off, seokmin following not far behind.

“maybe you’re just grumpy. maybe it’s a good thing you’re going home to take a nap, you know? we could all use a little extra sleep-“

“that was supposed to make you shut up” you groaned, cutting off whatever he wad saying.

“do you not like it when i talk?” he asks, a little bit of hurt in his voice.

“not really. i get that i’m like new and all, but you don’t need to hover around me and shit, just leave me alone” you take the books from seokmin, putting them away. you pushed past where he stood, only a little sad that you hated him already.

•

“so, how long has this person been at our school?” mingyu asked, holding back his words to make fun of seokmin.

“one week now… almost two”

“poor seokkie!” jeonghan pouts with fake sympathy.

“seok, you gotta stop falling for people so fast. like, not even two weeks? no wonder they’re a little freaked out by you…” joshua chimes in, causing seokmin to groan and slam his head onto the table.

“honestly, their personality reminds me a lot of minghao’s so far. just treat them the way you treat minghao” junhui shrugged, messing with the straw in his drink.

“thats different! i’ve known minghao for awhile so i don’t have to act like i’m stepping on glass around him anymore!”

“anymore?? what do you mean anymore?!”

“hush hao” junhui patted him on the back to calm him down a little. seokmin sadly groans once more at the thought of you and the words you said to him just a couple of days ago.

“poor little guy… maybe they’ll come around one day, you just gotta give them a little bit of space and time since they obviously didn’t feel the same click you did” mingyu pulled seokmin into a hug while the other boys agreed with mingyu’s words.

“what’s wrong with that guy?” seungkwan asked, joining the table with his lunch and a drink.

“seokmin’s got a crush on the new student, and he’s been freaking them out” jeonghan explained, and seungkwan burst out laughing before regaining his respectful composure.

“it’s y/n, right? i have them in my chem class after this. they sit behind me now so i could uh… talk to them for you about something… depends on what the something is though”

“they don’t like talking” seokmin snapped.

“maybe they don’t like talking to you, ever thought about that?” seungkwan snapped back.

“you are a horrible person, seungkwan” mingyu defends.

“i try” he shoots mingyu a sarcastic smile before taking a sip of his drink.

“but really, i can try and figure out some of their interests for you so you can do that thing where you pretend to like it so they fall in love with you or something…”

“you’re sick… do it”

“sure”

•

“hey, you’re y/n, new student right?” the guy in front of you turns around in his desk, now facing towards you.

“where’d you hear that from?”

“does lee seokmin ring a bell?” he smirked a little, watching you roll your eyes at the name.

“i’m sad it does. did he tell you? did he just go around telling everyone?”

“nope, i’m seungkwan, who is friends with him. he only really told our friend group which isn’t much so…” seungkwan trailed off, waiting for your response.

“that guy’s got friends?” you leaned back in your chair, skeptically raising your eyebrow at this boy who was seokmin’s friend.

“yeah? don’t like him?” seungkwan couldn’t help but get a little defensive of the way you talked about seokmin. how did seokmin fall for you again?

“not that, he’s just prettier when he shuts up and isn’t spewing school relating things into my ear” you picked up your pencil, twirling it between your fingers.

“really? what else would you rather hear him talk about, then? i mean, school’s really his life but he’s got other hobbies… i think”

“maybe something, i don’t know, normal? every time i hear him, he’s always on about something school related, and not even something fun! it’s always about something like with the classrooms or the lockers or the hallway, maybe with the offices or something, it’s just, i don’t know! he just…”

“just what?”

“i don’t know, he seems so fake…”

“fake?!” seungkwan nearly shouted.

“yeah, you don’t see that? i’ve never seen that boy frown or experience any negative emotion once. okay, maybe once, but he always finds a way to like fix things or tries to make everybody happy, he himself is so happy it makes me mad. maybe i would like him better if i saw him outside of a school setting or something…” you crossed your arms now, looking back for seungkwan’s reaction, as he’d just been sitting there and listening to you ramble on about seokmin for the entire time.

“yeah… i guess i can see that. i’ll talk to him for you”

“oh, oh no. don’t do that. please don’t” you leaned forward as he reached for his phone, fingers moving swiftly across the keyboard to type out a message to seokmin.

“don’t worry, he won’t be mad. i’ll tell you a secret soon” he winked before putting his phone away and turning to face the front of the classroom, where the teacher was about to get started.

•

“y/n!”

“oh, you…” you turned to the happy boy who quickly approached you. despite just two words panging him in the heart a little, he kept it together to ask you the question he’s been wanting to since seungkwan texted him.

“i have a question for you, actually” he leaned on the wall next to you.

“i’m sure you do. what is it?” you sighed, waiting for him to passionately talk about what he can do to fix the school bathroom’s cleanliness.

“do you want to get coffee with me tomorrow morning?”

“what?” your head snapped his direction, not expecting that kind of question from him.

“tomorrow’s saturday, and i know a good little coffee shop. i feel like it would he good for us to hang out outside of school” he smiled sheepishly, anxiously waiting for your response. you definitely should’ve been expecting this, shame on you for not.

“oh, i mean… what time? i have plans tomorrow afternoon but i could probably do coffee in the morning…”

“does 9:30 work?”

“sure”

“cool… um… do you think you could give me your phone number and address? so i can pick you up tomorrow?” he brings his phone in your direction, hands shaking a little bit. you say nothing but type in the wanted information, handing it back to him.

“okay, great! i’ll see you tomorrow!!” he cheers loudly, waving like crazy before skipping off. you couldn’t hear or see him, but you were definitely sure he was dancing down the hallway. todays interactions made you think a little… is there a chance he might like you? and could you finally allow yourself to start liking him back?

#comet writes svt #seventeen #seventeen imagines #seventeen scenarios #seventeen fics #seventeen fluff #seventeen dk #seventeen dokyeom #seventeen seokmin #seventeen lee seokmin #lee seokmin #dk #dokyeom #kpop imagines #kpop scenarios #kpop fluff

[crestfallencrest]

Bravus Vesperia Magica (Ch. 4)

(Basically a Magical Person AU origin story!) Read here on Ao3 [x] (Notes at the end) Read Chapter 1 here! [x] Read Previous Chapter here! [x] Word Count: 20,964 Hiya! I'm back from vacation! And I got a BIG chapter (this was not on purpose i am so sorry). Introducing a bunch of names in this chapter so some notes on a few of them! Niren, Hisca and Chastel - obviously from the First Strike movie. I don't think it's REQUIRED for you to watch the movie but hey, it might help a bit <3 And is good movie! Liam, on the other hand, is an entirely made up character. Also I borrowed some of the Symphonia cast and one from the Abyss cast. (Also this chapter jumps between Yuri and Karol POV)

Chapter 4: A Coward's Test

“What’s the matter with you?” 

Yuri’s hard gaze tears itself away from the window of his classroom, breaking from his thoughts as he turns his head towards the source of the voice. Amber eyes stared back at him, as one of his classmates stood over him, arms crossed over her chest and eyes narrowed suspiciously through her red bangs that rested just above her eyes. 

Yuri takes a moment to examine her closely. “Ah, Chastel.” “Guess again.” The girl’s hands drop to her hips as her nose twists in irritation. 

Yuri keeps his lazy expression though a small grin begins to stretch across his face. “Nah, I don’t think I will.” He drawled. “Maybe if you and your sister wore your hair in different ways, I wouldn’t get so confused.”

“It’s not my fault that you’re too blind to notice the differences!” 

“Sure, sure, whatever you say, Twin Number 2.”

The twins, Hisca and Chastel: Yuri had somehow had the displeasure of being stuck in their class since middle school. For a while, the two of them tended to hang out with him and Flynn, with Chastel, the younger twin, constantly fretting over the blonde while Hisca, the older twin, constantly nagged Yuri’s ear off. Yuri had to admit though: It was pretty impressive meeting someone who nagged more than Flynn.

“You’re so infuriating.” Hisca growled out but began to pull out a chair next to his desk anyway, despite her irritation. “What’s going on with you? You’ve been angry all morning. Did you get into a fight again?” 

Yuri rolls his eyes, once again propping his face onto his right hand and moving to stare at the window. “No.”

“Well, the bandages beg to differ.” He feels Hisca reach out to tap at his bandaged cheeks and he flinches back with a tiny hiss. She quietly withdraws her hand. “Sorry, but this wouldn’t happen if you weren’t fighting all of the time!” 

Yuri clicks his tongue but doesn’t respond. 

“Don’t click your tongue at me!” 

“Well, I don’t know why you’re asking me such stupid questions.” Yuri drops his hand onto his desk again in frustration. “You seem pretty good at guessing what happened so why are you bugging me about it?”

“Because I’m trying to get the full story, you jerk!” Hisca slammed her hand on the desk. “Liam and his goons are talking about how you came out of nowhere and beat them up for no reason yesterday and people are talking about you now. I thought it was nothing but a lie but seeing the bandages…”

Psch, of course they were. It didn’t help that Yuri was already building one hell of a reputation with his fighting. But of course those guys were trying to make themselves seem like the good guys. He was certain that Flynn had a hard enough time dealing with that. In truth, the fight was no one’s business. Flynn couldn’t necessarily correct the rumors because then he would just look like he was taking someone’s side. 

…The fact that Yuri was just given three days of detention during lunch instead of straight up being suspended was already stabbing holes into Flynn’s credibility as the student council president. Correcting the rumors would simply be a death sentence. 

“So, what do you think?” Yuri raises an eyebrow at the twin. “Think I jumped them?”

Hisca considers it for a moment, finger to her chin. “...No, I don’t think so. Not unless they were doing something they shouldn’t be doing.” 

Yuri just lets out a hum to show that he was listening. 

“So… they managed to get a few hits on you then?” 

“No. I got jumped by a crazy maniac with a knife on my way home yesterday.” 

Hisca lets out an amused snort only to stop when she notices the hard and serious look on his face. 

“Oh my god, you’re serious?” 

“Wish I wasn’t.” Yuri’s irritation slowly fades as he slumps down into his chair. “Before you start freaking out, I’m fine.”

Hisca stays quiet for a moment, eyes scanning his cheeks and then moving down to his hand. If she was unsatisfied with what she saw, she didn’t say anything. Instead, she props her elbows onto Yuri’s desk as she leans closer. “I knew that Liam’s story was fishy when he started taking credit for your injuries. The guy has never thrown a punch properly in his life. So what happened? And don’t lie this time.” 

Yuri considers it for a moment. Despite Hisca’s nagging, she never seemed to come off as an untrustworthy person. If anything, she was just way too annoying, loud and loved to hover and criticize him at every given moment. Which made him realize pretty quickly that he was likely not going to be able to leave this classroom until he gave her what she wanted. 

“Ugggh, fine.” Yuri throws his head back in annoyance. “Here’s the short version: The jackasses were feeling up on Estelle, the new girl, and they were kicking around a dog too–”

“Oh, the one you were taking care of?” 

Yuri stopped and stared at her like she had just grown two heads, earning the tiniest of shrugs in response.

“Chastel told me…” 

“And how the hell did she know?!” Yuri exclaims, completely baffled. Was this Flynn’s fault? Oh, he would bet money on it.

“I don’t know.” Hisca shrugs again, waving her hand at Yuri, signaling him to continue. “Keep talking.”

“You both suck.” Yuri’s eyes narrow as he continues the story. “So they were kicking around Repede and feeling up on Estelle so I decided to take care of it. So, sure. You could technically say I jumped them. But they started it.”

Hisca nods, understandingly. “So, that’s why you’ve been so huffy all day?”  

A small growl leaves Yuri’s lips before he can even stop it. “No. I’m pissed off that I was called to the principal’s office and was told that instead of being suspended for starting a fight, I would only get three days of detention. Which means that Flynn likely had a hand in this somewhere.” 

Hisca immediately slaps her hand against her forehead in disbelief. “You’re mad because Flynn got you out of trouble?!” She exclaims and… yeah, when she says it like that, it sounds stupid.

But it wasn’t. Not really. He was a known troublemaker and he was also known as Flynn’s childhood friend. Everyone in the school seemed to know this and if you didn’t, then it wouldn’t be long until you did. Flynn, to his credit, did everything he could to treat Yuri as equally as the other students. Hell, if anything, Flynn was a lot tougher on Yuri than others. But despite it all, rumors still flooded the halls of the school. People, mostly those with malicious intent towards Yuri or Flynn or both, would whisper constantly about how the only reason Yuri hadn’t been expelled yet was because of Flynn.

And on some days, Yuri felt as if they were right. Today was one of those days. 

“I want you to repeat that sentence to yourself, but slower. Sound it out if you have to.” Yuri’s words come out sarcastically as he folds his arms behind his head, leans back into his seat and kicks his feet up onto the desk. “He shouldn’t be getting me out of trouble.” 

“But those guys started it! You were just protecting another student!” 

“Yeah, and even if the principal understands that, you really think the other students will?” Yuri closes his eyes with a tired sigh. “Especially with the stories that Liam has been spreading?” 

Hisca half-heartedly swats at Yuri’s feet to shoo them off of the desk. “So go and set the story straight.” 

“Find me someone who will listen and maybe.” A chuckle leaves Yuri’s lips as he peeks an eye open at her. “Until then, I want Flynn to stay out of my business.” 

“Ugh, you’re just so impossible. You and Flynn.” 

The silence settles between them and Yuri chalks the conversation up to a close. He pulls his feet back to the ground and moves to stand, grabbing his bag along the way. “Okay, speaking of detention, I should probably head that way. See ya around.” 

As he moves past the girl, he does feel her reach out and tug back on his sleeve, grabbing his attention. When he looks back to her, eyebrow raised questioningly, she’s looking down into her lap cheeks a slight tint of red from embarrassment. 

“Hey, for what it’s worth, I’ll listen. Chastel will as well. And I know a few handful of others who will as well. So don’t act like it’s you against the whole school, okay?” 

The sentiment was nice and he really did appreciate it. Truly, he did. But he and she both knew that he was not the type to run to others with his problems. Not when they had other things to worry about. Regardless, he gives her a tiny nod as he gently pulls out of her grasp and heads towards the door. 

“...Yeah. Okay.” 

---

He had been making his way towards the room for detention, ignoring the way that eyes would stare him down as he passed while choosing not to pay any attention to how people pointed out his bandaged cheeks. They whispered, they pointed, they judged and Yuri chose to turn a blind eye to all of it. He was, admittedly, surprised that the guys from yesterday were popular enough to cause so much gossip. He barely even recognized them, after all. Well, it showed what he knew regarding the social ladder of the school. Regardless, he would, again, choose to just forget about it. At least, he would attempt to until he heard her voice call out from around the corner.

“I demand that you correct these silly rumors at ONCE!” 

Oh no. She wouldn’t.

Yuri’s uncaring attitude about the situation suddenly took a turn as he hurried to the corner and poked his head out, and sure enough, his fears became a reality. There he spotted Estelle, having Liam and two of his goons from yesterday ‘cornered’ (They were simply just leaning against the wall while Estelle stood before them with her hands on her hips) as she glared at them with the ferocity of a small and angry puppy. 

‘No offense, Repede.’ Yuri commented to himself, thinking back to the small pup that he had left back at his apartment on the way to school with Flynn today. 

As Yuri peered around the corner at them, he tried not to take too much pride in how much the three boys were all bandaged up and he was sure he saw the gap in Liam’s teeth from where he had lost the tooth. 

As Estelle stood tall against Liam, the boy snickers to himself as he sported that same sleazy look from yesterday. “You really want to come back for more, princess?” His voice is light and teasing, and just so slimy and disgusting. “I figured you would have had more brains than to show yourself to us again.”

Yuri takes a quick glance around and, of course, there didn’t seem to be anybody else nearby. Why would he ever be that lucky?

“You know, your boyfriend isn’t here to bail you out this time.” 

“Yeah, for real.” The two lackeys (because what more could they possibly be?) glance at each other with large grins. “You know, you shouldn’t hang around someone so violent, miss. We’re so much nicer.” 

Oh, Yuri was about to show them violence. He glances at Estelle and while he can’t see her face, he notices that her hand is shaking in anger. He notices a twitch of her hand and he briefly wonders if she were about to slap one of them. That… would not end well for her at all. Was he going to have to step in again?

“Yeah, you should definitely play nice with us. Lowell will likely be kicked out of school before the end of the year and after that, things will be very different around here, I promise–”

As Yuri steps out from around the corner, a hand suddenly grabs hard onto his shoulder and yanks him back with such ferocity that he finds himself getting thrown onto his ass on the floor. Looking up from his spot on the floor, all he sees is a glimpse of brown hair and a girl’s uniform as whoever it was turns the corner with quick and angry stomps. 

All Yuri can hear is the loud clap that he can only assume was someone’s fist connecting with someone’s face, followed by the sound of someone falling to the floor with a loud and pained groan. He jumps to his feet in an instant and peers back around the corner as he takes in the scene. 

The new arrival was a young girl who was a few inches shorter than Estelle with short and messy brown hair. She stood confidently above Liam, who was now on the floor holding his cheek while his two lackeys flocked to him to help him to his feet. Estelle quickly took a step back, hands flying over her mouth as she looked between the girl and the three guys. Judging by their angry expressions, Yuri was becoming more certain that a fight was about to break out. 

“Will you three just shut the hell up?!” She growls out and when she takes another step forward, Yuri nearly laughs with lackey #2 flinches back. “I have heard NOTHING but the dumb shit that you’ve been talking about all freaking day and I’m SICK of it!” 

“And who the hell are you supposed to be?”

“Wait, aren’t you that Mordio girl? You’re just an underclassmen! You can’t treat an upperclassman like that!!”

Mordio took another step forward and this time, Lackey #1 stepped back. “I said SHUT UP! You’re literally so annoying! I can’t even go to the library without hearing about how you three got your butts kicked! For someone who tries to act all tough, you would think that you would get embarrassed about sharing a story about how you got your sorry tails handed to you. Who brags about losing a fight?!”

Okay, this Mordio girl had a very good point. 

Liam pushes himself off of his little buddy followers and makes a step towards Mordio, shooting her a dangerous glare and for a split moment, Yuri is back on guard, ready to step in. “I’m already getting really sick of your mouth, Little Girl. This conversation had nothing to do with you so stop butt–” 

“I’m getting sick of you! ”Mordio put an end to his little macho speech by delivering a kick to somewhere that made Yuri flinch back in a bit of sympathy pain. When Liam once again drops to his knees, both hands shooting to cover his crotch in pain, Mordio quickly snatches Estelle by the arm and begins to hurry away with the taller girl in tow. Estelle has a moment of panic as she looks back to the assaulted leader and his friends. “Uh– Wait–” 

Mordio either doesn’t hear Estelle or chooses to ignore her protests as she hurries past the hallway that Yuri was currently standing in. Yuri was unsure the two noticed him at all as they quickly made their way down the stairs to the floor below. The two boys that remained quickly left Liam on the floor and moved to pursue and that's when Yuri decided to step in. As he stepped around the corner, he shot his hands out and grabbed the two guys by their shoulders and spun them around away from the staircase. 

“Hey there.” He greets with a grin as he slides his arms over both of their shoulders. “Fancy meeting you guys here. Were you on your way to detention too?” 

He takes a little bit too much pleasure in watching how both boys freeze and pale upon getting caught by Yuri. And when Yuri tells them to help their friend up and get him to the nurses office, they thankfully have the brain to do so without complaint. 

At some point, Yuri makes sure to send a quick text over to Estelle when he can. Whoever Mordio was, he was pretty sure she didn’t intend on harming Estelle, since she went out of her way to get her out of the situation. But it still didn’t hurt to check in. 

---

Karol really hated when his friends started going off about ghost stories at the lunch table. 

It wasn’t like he was scared or anything! And even if he was scared, who could really blame him?! He’s heard so many stories of teenagers that were a good five years older than him running out of the Quoi Woods, screaming in terror. He’s heard adults talk about how they avoid the forest in the park like the plague. He’s heard stories of eerie red lights, evil monsters lurking in the shadows, people disappearing, curses… he’s heard them all! How could anyone blame him for being wary?

And yet, here they were, speaking about the Quoi Woods for the third day in a row. He wasn’t entirely sure why Anise, a girl only one year older than Karol with black hair pulled up into pigtails, was so hyper focused on the forest lately. She babbled on and on about the rumors of the forest with an evil grin on her face as she scanned the table for reactions. Nan sat beside Karol, digging at her food with her fork as she listens carefully to Anise’s words and Karol is momentarily baffled because Did Nan actually like stories like this? !

“...and then I heard that a teenager over at Zaphias High saw a giant monster-like creature in the forest!” Anise clutches to her little stuffed toy (which was creepy enough without all of the ghost tales) with a wide grin. 

A low hum of boredom is from across the table and Karol and Nan both glance over to a boy with white and messy hair pick at his lunch in disgust. One glance at the lunch box told Karol everything he needed to know. Genis, one of his classmates (and a genius at that), was known for being a wonderful cook, to the point where he ended up making his own lunches. Unfortunately, it did not stop his older sister, a professor who taught over at the same high school Anise mentioned, from trying to make his lunches for him. Karol didn’t want to know how she had managed to sneak the food into his lunchbox like she did. 

“My sister heard about that story and said it was only a bear or something.” Genis eventually gives up and moves to close his lunch box.

“Yeah, but I also heard that the police are starting to look into it!” 

Karol frowns, pursing his lips. “Maybe… they’re just tired of all the rumors so they’re going to confirm that there’s nothing there.”

“Yeah, or maybe there’s a rabid wolf or something and they’re going to go put it down.” Genis rolls his eyes. “I highly doubt it’s a monster, Anise.” 

Anise shoots both boys a glare as she slams her doll onto the table. “If it were just a rabid wolf, people wouldn’t be making it such a big deal.” She pouts before looking at Nan with a smile. “Nan believes me, don’t you, Nan?”

Nan takes a moment, trying to consider it as she glances at Karol. “Maybe there is a monster.” She finally decides, putting a finger to her chin. “All the more reason to stay out of the forest, right?” 

“I wasn’t planning on going into the forest in the first place. You’d have to be an idiot to go into the forest, especially at night.” Genis shrugs lightly, earning a frown from Karol.

“Didn’t your best friend go into the forest at night?”

Genis stares dead at him. “I rest my case. But he didn’t see anything.” 

Karol nods lightly. “I… don’t think there’s a monster in the woods or anything. I think people are just seeing things or seeing bears or something.”

There’s a long silence that stretches over the table and Karol figures that that must be the end of the conversation, so he picks up his fork and decides to go back to eating his lunch. There was a moment of relief as the conversation seemed to die down but that relief lasted only a moment before he noticed that Anise was staring at him with narrowed eyes and an evil grin. 

“Why don’t you go prove it then?” 

The clatter of a fork dropping on the table is barely heard over the bustle of the crowded lunchroom though it wasn’t Karol’s fork that fell from his hands. Looking over, he sees Nan very quickly snatch the utensil back into her hands as she narrows her eyes at Anise, quietly. Karol, however, turns pale as he looks back to Anise.

“How would I prove that?!”

“You’ve gone camping before, right?” Anise pulls her doll back into her hands and grins proudly. 

“N-No, I haven’t!” Karol clutches his fork in hand fist as he looks helplessly between Genis and Nan. “What would camping in the woods prove?!”

Anise hums playfully as she holds up one finger as she counts her reason, adding a finger to every reason she lists. “It’ll prove that there’s no monster in the woods, like you claim, it’ll prove that you actually can go out and do something interesting for once and it’ll prove that you’re not just a scaredy cat!”

Okay, the last two were just mean…

“I’m not a scaredy cat!” Karol argues, leaning back in his seat as Anise leaned in closer. “I just think there are better ways to spend my time!” 

“What, like hanging out with your babysitter? ” 

“That’s… he’s not–”

“Don’t you dare try and say he’s not your babysitter!”

“He’s not!” Karol’s eyes narrow, tone coming out more sharper than he meant to but he leans forward regardless. “He’s my friend! He’s not just some babysitter!”

Anise cackles at that. “He’s literally getting paid to hang out with you. Why else would a guy in high school hang out with some weird kid in middle school?” 

“Genis’ best friend is sixteen!” Karol argues, unsure of what the difference is.

“Yeah but Genis isn’t as clingy as you are. You can’t do anything by yourself. I bet your babysitter thinks that as well.”

Genis frowns, looking between Karol and Anise before letting his eyes settle on Nan, who seems to be clutching her fork tightly as she stares over at Karol, waiting for his response. Karol’s mouth opens to reply but his voice dies in his throat as his shoulders suddenly slump.

He knew Anise was wrong. He knew that Yuri didn’t think that way. Despite his foul mouth and passive attitude, Yuri was a good person. That was clear as day to anyone who spent more than two days around him. He wasn’t just watching over Karol for the paycheck, he knew this. He stepped in because he saw a young kid staying home alone due to overworking parents and wanted to do something about it.

That’s where his doubts came in. 

He knew Yuri wasn’t in it for the money. But was it really because they were friends? Or did Yuri just see a kid left all alone and decide to take on the responsibility of taking care of him, despite his personal feelings on the matter? He remembered how tired Yuri had been lately too. He tried so hard to hide it last night but Karol noticed how Yuri was a shade paler than normal and how his legs shook when he wandered into the house. 

He shouldn’t have even been there. But because Karol had sent out that text complaining about Flynn’s cooking, he threw everything out the window, went and grabbed some pizza with his own hard earned money and made it way over to his house. Karol wished he had never sent that text. Yuri had been so exhausted, it was plain as day. So exhausted that he had apparently passed out on the couch not long after he, himself, had been put to bed. 

He had stirred awake upon hearing a quiet curse as something thumped against the wall. Karol had jumped out of bed and hurried towards the door, cracking it open just wide enough to see Flynn stumble back from the corner of the hallway, favoring his left foot as he did so. In his arms, held so closely, was the sleeping form of his caretaker, dead asleep even as Flynn stubbed his toe against the corner of the room.  Flynn bit his lip tightly as he fought through the pain of an injured toe when he looked up and spotted the brown eyes staring at him from the doorway. The pain is barely there still but he still offered Karol a tiny smile as he began to maneuver his way through the hall, towards the guest room where Yuri tended to stay. Karol, without much thought, moved to follow. He peeked into the room just in time to see Flynn gently place the sleeping man onto the bed, moving to pull the blankets over him. Yuri, normally a pretty light sleeper, didn’t move an inch. As Flynn drew the curtains closed and moved to step out of the room, switching off the light as he did so, he looked back at Karol and held a finger to his lips.  As they both backed out of the room, Flynn shut the door gently behind him and then placed a hand on Karol's back, quietly leading him away from the door. “Now what are you doing up?” He whispered, curiously. “I heard you kick my wall…” Karol admitted, eyes darting over to the entryway of the hall, particularly at the corner that nearly took Flynn out. “I wanted to make sure no one was hurt. You’re not hurt, are you?”  “I’ve definitely had worse bruises, no worries. You should get back to sleep though. It’s getting late…”  Karol nodded quietly but then found his gaze drifting towards Yuri’s door. Worry began to settle in his stomach again. “Is… Yuri okay?” After hearing a tiny questioning sound from Flynn, he clarifies. “You know… despite everything with the guy with the knife. He seemed distracted tonight, didn’t he?” He takes notice of how Flynn’s face slowly falls from his caring gaze to something more withdrawn and sad as his eyes trail over to Yuri’s door as well. “Yuri is just… tired.” He stated, quietly. “He’ll be alright though.” “Tired from what?”  “Well…” Flynn turned back to Karol, lips pursed in thought. “He’s just got a lot on his plate, I suppose. Though he’d sooner die than admit it.” Yeah, that sounded like Yuri, alright.  “Is there anything I can do to help?” The question hung in the air as he stared hopefully up at Flynn.  Flynn is, of course, a bit surprised by Karol’s willingness to help but he just as quickly gives Karol a tiny smile that Karol knows all too well. Don’t worry yourself over this. “I think your flowers helped Yuri more than you think.” Flynn explains carefully, moving to guide Karol back to his room. “Lilies are special to Yuri, so it was a thoughtful gesture that I’m sure he won’t forget.” Karol can’t help but feel slight defeat as he’s led back to his room. “It seemed like they just made him more tired than happy.”  “It’s… complicated. But I promise you, he does love them.” Flynn watches as Karol climbs back into bed and offers him a comforting smile. “So don’t worry yourself over Yuri. I’m hoping that I can convince him to share part of the load he’s carrying with me so he won’t work himself to death.” Karol wasn’t too sure of that. From what Yuri said when talking about Flynn, Flynn was just as much of a workaholic as Yuri was. So the idea of Yuri willingly letting Flynn help him out when he had just as much work to worry about was close to zero. But instead of speaking his concerns to Flynn and insisting that he could also help, he just quietly nods instead, letting the topic drop.  “If you need anything, come let me know, alright? I’ll be in the living room.”  Karol nodded again, face blank as he moved to lay down. He hears Flynn leave the door open, just a crack, leaving Karol alone to deal with complicated feelings of guilt and uselessness. 

Karol swallows hard as he clenches his fists tightly. “I can take care of myself! I don’t need Yuri!” He argues, feeling a flash of anger rush through him. “And… And I’ll prove it!”

From the way Anise’s grin grew, Karol knew she had technically won the argument but he couldn’t care less about what she thought. He had to prove that he could take care of himself just fine. That Yuri didn’t need to stress himself to death just to take care of him. He would prove it. 

Genis gives Karol a quick look of disbelief while Nan stares at Karol with her mouth open and eyes wide with shock. “Karol–”

“You’re gonna prove it?” Anise is clearly over the moon with this information. “Gonna prove that you’re not a coward? You know, people aren’t into cowards, Karol.” 

Karol sees the way her eyes dart over to Nan and the anger intensifies, along with a warmth that spreads over his cheeks. “I’m not a coward! I can take care of myself so– So…. So I’ll camp out in the Quoi Woods this weekend! By myself! And then you’ll see that I can handle myself, that I’m not some scaredy cat afraid of ghost stories and that there are no monsters in the woods, either!” 

As Genis mutters a quiet “I dunno if this is a good idea…”, everyone’s words die in their mouths as Nan suddenly stands up, slamming her hands onto the table. Her face is red with anger as she clenches her hands into fists as she looks between Anise and Karol. Karol had a sinking suspicion that he was about to get yelled at for something.

But as Nan stood there, mouth opening like she was about to start yelling, her eyes trail over to Karol’s and she stares dead into his face for a few seconds. Karol can’t help but shrink back slightly because he knew that look all too well. He had done something wrong. Eventually, though, she moves away from her seat. 

“You’re so stupid, Karol.” She says simply before storming out of the cafeteria.

“Wha– Nan!” Karol moves to climb to his feet while Anise lets out a giggle. 

“Maybe Nan thinks that you’re not brave enough for it.” Anise thinks aloud before moving to close her lunch box and her doll, moving to stand up. “When you go camping, be sure to take a picture~! Or else no one will believe you~!” 

And with that, she stepped away from the table, skipping happily out the door, leaving Genis and Karol behind. They both look to each other in silence before Genis moves to get up as well. “Hey, remember earlier when I said that you had to be stupid to spend the night in the woods?” 

“...Yeah?”

“My opinion has not changed.” He states simply as he moves to leave as well, leaving Karol behind to contemplate his sudden life choices. 

---

[Yuri: hey u alright? just witnessed a onesided beat down between liam and some angry gremlin child and then i saw u gettin kidnapped u good?] 

Estelle had not texted him back since his message earlier that day. Which was all well and good since they confiscated his phone for the duration of detention. But even after it was given back to him, he still hadn’t received a response. Still, he wasn’t one to worry too much about it. Estelle was nice and sweet but she came off as a bit of a space case so maybe she had just forgotten to respond. No big deal. 

He started getting a little curious though when Estelle had come back to class, all smiles as she wandered back over to her desk without a word. The normally attentive girl was lost in thought all throughout the class and Yuri could not stop his curious nature from taking over as he pulled out his phone to try and send a quick text to Estelle, wanting to follow up on what she seemed so giddy about. 

He just as quickly shoves his phone into his pocket when a chalkboard eraser is thrown in his direction from the front of the room by their history professor. This earns a few chuckles from the classroom, though the professor's behavior was nothing new for her. Thankfully, it's new enough to Estelle that it’s just enough to snap her back to attention as she looks back at Yuri with wide eyes. 

“Were you aiming at my hands or were you aiming for my head?” Yuri leans down to pick the eraser up as the professor wanders over, pushing her white bangs from her face as she takes it from his hand. 

“For your hands.” She answers, a tiny smirk on her face before replacing it with a stern expression. “No phones in my class. I’ll take it away next time.”

“Your aim is getting better.” Yuri simply comments before holding up his hands in defeat. “No phone, got it.” 

Thankfully, Professor Sage was one of the few teachers he could somewhat tolerate but she was also one of the strictest. Yuri was not too interested in giving her a hard time so he never tried to fight her authority or snark at her… too much. Seeming to accept his response for now, she takes her eraser and returns to the front of the room and resumes her lessons. 

Yuri took one glance towards Estelle and Flynn, both sitting within the vicinity of each other and was not at all surprised to still see them staring over at him. Estelle, seemingly surprised that the professor’s way of regaining attention is via the use of throwable objects, quickly turns back in her seat and straightens up. Flynn’s gaze lingers a bit longer, eyebrows narrowed and mouth closed tight. 

If Yuri still wasn’t so mad at Flynn, he would have laughed at his face, eyes widening in annoyance and mouth puffing out with a huff, when Yuri responded by sticking his tongue out at the boy.

---

Estelle’s reply never came, though that would be because she was up and out of her seat seconds after class ended as she made her way over to Yuri’s desk in record time. She nearly ran into another student on her way, causing Yuri to have to hide his amused grin behind his hand as she quickly apologized and continued her pace to Yuri’s desk.

“Yuri! Hello!” She greets, pressing her hands together in front of her as she offers a quick little bow. “How are you feeling?” 

Turning in his chair to face her, Yuri leans back into his chair with a casual grin. “Feeling a lot better, thanks!” 

Truthfully, his hand still burned a lot. Holding a pencil was also a pretty tough task at the moment. He had some use in his right hand but with his left hand being more dominant, his word speed had slowed down considerably and his handwriting had gotten a bit sloppy. Most of the teachers didn’t seem to care too much, and if they did, they didn’t mention it. The only one to make any type of comment was Ragou, who made a muttered comment about his handwriting being illegible. Yuri didn’t care enough to make it into a big deal. If it wasn’t his handwriting, he was sure that Ragou would have found something wrong regardless.

“I’m glad it’s doing better! I’m sure it’s sore but so long as you keep it clean and change your bandaging regularly, it should heal up in no time.” Estelle smiles brightly and Yuri can’t help but notice how contagious her energy was. “So… um… Yuri, if you’re not busy at the moment, do you think you could stop by my locker real quick? I have something I’d like to give you.”

The way Estelle glances back towards the door of the classroom tells Yuri that it’s not just a simple gift that she intends on giving. (When he follows her gaze, he does notice that Flynn and both of the twins are staring hard at them and they were not being subtle about it. When Yuri meets Flynn’s eyes, Yuri huffs and looks away.) “I have to leave pretty soon to go pick up Karol and then stop by my apartment to repatch back up before heading to work but I should have a few minutes to spare.”

“Oh, right! Of course!” Estelle nods quickly and reaches over to grab his right hand, pulling him out of his chair. “Come this way then, please!” 

“Yeah, yeah, take it easy. I’m not gonna run away.” 

As Estelle pulls him out of the room, they both nearly slam into someone attempting to enter the classroom. A young girl with short and light brown hair that was adorned with a small braid in the front and whose purple eyes were stern and unamused in a way that filled Yuri with annoyance and dread, staggers back as she drops her books onto the floor from Estelle’s impact. Estelle squeaks and quickly scrambles down onto her knees and begins to scoop up the books. 

“Oh my gosh, I am so sorry–” 

The girl quickly drops down as well, hands reaching out to gather her now-scattered papers. “No, it’s quite alright…” She mutters as she quickly stacks them all together. 

A familiar presence approaches Yuri from the side and he’s once again left wondering when he had started sensing Flynn by presence alone. “Sodia, are you alright?” He asks, gently moving around Yuri and Estelle to help the girl, the school’s very own vice president, back up to her feet. 

“Flynn.” She greets him with a tiny smile and accepts the hand up. “Yes, I’m alright, I–” She pauses when her eyes meet Yuri’s and the smile is gone instantly. 

“ You. ” Her tone is, as always, so full of disdain as her lips curl up in disgust. “Why don’t you watch where you’re going, Lowell?” 

Here we go…

Shoving his hands into his pockets, Yuri shoots a very annoyed glance towards Flynn as if silently asking the man to call his easily aggroed dog off. Instead, all he sees is the tiniest and pleading glance that asks Yuri to ‘please play nice’ as if he were the one who started swinging right out the gate. Yuri honestly couldn’t give a rat’s ass about Sodia and what she did with her time but the fact that she would constantly belittle Yuri at every turn and look down on him as if he were the scum of the Earth was annoying at best. Even when he tried to act civil, it was to no avail, so he stopped trying. 

Estelle was already in the process of babbling out another apology, trying to point out that she was the reason Sodia had fallen but of course, her eyes were still trained on Yuri suspiciously. 

“I like to think that I have a pretty good eye on my surroundings.” Yuri just shrugs as he moves to slip by the angry woman as he scratches at his left side. When he receives a look of doubt from Flynn, blue eyes lingering on his hand and cheeks, Yuri can’t help but roll his eyes. “On most days, that is.” 

He doesn’t wait for a reply before he’s snatching up Estelle’s hand and tugs her back again. “C’mon Estelle, let’s go before someone’s guard dog starts barking at me.” 

There’s a moment where Flynn’s eyes dart down to Yuri’s hand grabbing Estelle’s but his attention is snatched back to the matter at hand when Sodia bristles up. “Dog?!” She exclaims, stepping forward as if she were going to take matters into her own hands.

“Yuri, you can’t say that to her–” Flynn also tries to argue but Yuri has already turned away and is leading the pink haired girl away from the problem.

“Sorry, super busy!” He calls back, casually reaching a hand to scratch at the left side of his waist, feeling a weird itch appear on his skin. “Later!” 

“I-I am very sorry!” Estelle calls back as well, letting herself get dragged away. 

Thankfully the two do not make a move to follow. Good. He was not in the mood to deal with Sodia today and his frustrations with Flynn were still as strong as they were this morning.

As he and Estelle walk through the halls, Yuri does eventually release her hand as he shoves his hands into his pockets. He slows his pace enough to walk beside her as she stares up at him with a hint of concern on her face. 

“I’m sorry for getting you into trouble again.” 

Yuri shrugs and smirks. “Nah, don’t worry about it. Sodia is like the president of the “Yuri Hate Club” so she would have found some reason to get mad at me. You just gave her an excuse, is all.”

“She… hates you? How come?” 

“Same reason why a bunch of randos hate me. I’m a troublemaker and an embarrassment to the school or something. Blah, blah.” As he explains, Estelle’s face drops and her eyes widen as if someone had just spit at her. “Specifically for Sodia though, she thinks all of those things AND she thinks I’m just a horrid influence on Flynn.” 

Estelle’s mouth falls open. “But why would she think that?! I’ve only known you for a short couple of days but I can see, clear as day, that you are genuinely a nice person with the best intentions and–”

Yuri’s scoff cuts her off. “Best intentions doesn’t always excuse the actions. But I do what needs to be done. But she does have a point. I am a pretty bad influence on Flynn.”

“Why would you say that?!”

“Because it’s true?” Yuri notices that the girl was beginning to get upset, judging by the frown turning into a disappointed ‘mom’ glare, so he reaches over and rests a hand on her shoulder as he begins to explain himself. “Estelle, I got into a fight yesterday. I should have gotten suspended for it. We all should have. But we didn’t. Flynn likely had a hand in it and that’s why my ‘sentence’ was decreased to just detention. Flynn shouldn’t be doing stuff like that. I chose to fight so I had to accept the consequences for it. So long as the other guys got punished too, I didn’t really care. But because my sentence was decreased, theirs was too and they didn’t learn. You saw that earlier today, didn’t you?”

“You saw…?” For a moment, Estelle’s face turns a slight tinge of pink. 

“Yep. Saw the whole thing. I was ready to jump in again but then that girl jumped in instead and went berserk on their asses.” Yuri snickers a bit. “She literally pushed me to the ground so she could step in. It was scary. But, Estelle, you shouldn’t go picking fights like that. Those guys are merciless.”

“It’s just… they were spreading such awful rumors about you and it was because of me and–” Estelle’s lip quivers and Yuri has a moment of sheer panic because he really did not want to make Estelle cry but then she’s shoving herself into his space, that same look of sheer determination appearing on her features. “No, Yuri! It wasn’t Flynn’s fault!”

“Huh?” Yuri pauses midstep, eyes widening slightly as Estelle steps around him and glares up at him, fists clenched in front of her chest. “What do you mean? I know the teachers weren’t lenient for the sake of leniency. Someone had to have had a hand in–” 

Oh. Oh.  

The culprit was standing in front of him. 

Oh, fuck , he probably had to apologize to Flynn, didn’t he?

Fuck.

“Estelle.” He lets out a deep breath and quickly has to run a hand down his face to steady himself. “You… You’re the reason? How did you even–” A sigh escapes him as he turns to stare Estelle in the eyes. “You realize that by getting my punishment reduced, you got everyone’s punishment reduced. You realize that those guys aren’t gonna stop harassing you and others now. You realize that, right?” 

To her credit, Estelle does look slightly ashamed of herself but only a little. Her resolve, however, seemed to be much MUCH stronger than her shame, however. “Yes, I realized that. Which is why I stepped up today and tried to talk with them. I decided to handle my problem on my own and get them to stop without having to bother you with it.”

“And how did that work out for you?”

“...Bad. It worked out bad.” Estelle’s shoulders suddenly slump as she turns and continues to slowly lead the way to her locker. 

“Yeah, it worked out very bad. It was almost a repeat of the whole scenario and then we all would have gotten punished. You included, for starting the whole altercation.” Yuri explains as he quickly moves to walk alongside her. “I’m not going to tell you what to do but my suggestion? Leave it alone. I’m a big boy. I can handle it.”

“Mm… Maybe it’s for the best. After all, I keep involving people who shouldn’t be involved.” 

“Exactly.” Yuri smirks a bit. “I think those guys learned their lesson though, because of your friend. Who was she anyway? I thought I heard the name Mordio…” 

The frown on Estelle’s face changes and Yuri immediately catches the way that her hands join together as she fiddles her thumbs. Her frown changes into the tiniest of smiles as her eyes dart over to Yuri and then back down to her feet. “Oh… Yes! Well… that’s not– I mean, it is her name– It’s… her last name.” She giggles quietly to herself. “Her name is Rita Mordio.” 

“Rita Mordio, huh?” Yuri smirks a bit, letting the name run through his brain for a moment. It rang a bell, that’s for sure. “Wait, isn’t she like… a year under us? People say she’s like a super-genius, right?” 

“Do they?” Estelle blinks, confused. Of course, Estelle was still a new student after all. She’s probably not intune with all of the rumors yet. But she does give off a tiny little smile after a moment. “She seemed very smart so I definitely believe it.” 

“So that was your first time meeting?” 

“Yes, it was. She was so nice, stepping in to save someone without really knowing who they were… She reminded me of you, in a way.” Estelle’s smile is telling as she folds her hands behind her back. “It’s nice to know there are such kind people in the world like you two.”

Estelle was conveniently forgetting the way that Rita had slugged Liam and then promptly connected her foot with the man’s dick while he was down. He would let her have her fantasy. “I’ll have to thank her next time I see her.” Maybe. There was a good chance that she wanted to punch his lights out too. 

“Oh, I’ll be happy to introduce you later!” Estelle chirps, her low mood now suddenly bright and sunny as she smiles happily towards Yuri. “We plan on meeting up again in the library tomorrow. We’re both book lovers, so I asked if I could join her again and she said yes!” As they approach the lockers, Estelle practically hops over, excitement clear on her face. “Maybe we can start a little book club with the three of us! Maybe Flynn too!”

Yuri was not a big book person and he figured that just by looking at him, this would be obvious. Plus, he didn’t really have the time to be joining a bookclub, which was good because he wasn’t sure if he could say no to the hopeful look in Estelle’s eyes otherwise. “I might have to pass. I already have enough on my plate to begin with. You know… part time jobs, saving the world… that kinda thing.” He snickers quietly. 

“Oh. Right.” And then the two of them are laughing to themselves as Estelle moves to open her locker. “Sorry, I got excited. But speaking of ‘saving the world’....” 

She reaches in and brings out a pretty decent sized gift bag and quickly hands it over to Yuri. The bag is plain, just a simple purple coloring with white tissue paper meant for gift bags shoved inside. Yuri tilts his head, taking the bag carefully into his hand. 

“What’s this for?” 

“It’s a welcome gift!” Estellise smiles widely, folding her hands in front of her skirt as Yuri peeks into the bag. “Welcome to Brave Vesperia! I think this will come in handy for when we have to go out and actually get to work.” 

Upon peeking into the bag, Yuri can see a black piece of clothing inside and he takes a moment to look up and down the hall. Crowds of people were huddled through the hallways and thankfully, everyone seemed more involved in their own conversations so their words would go mostly unheard. Knowing this was a gift regarding Brave Vesperia, however, he decided to hold off on opening it for now. “I’ll check it out when I drop by my apartment today before grabbing Karol. I’m guessing it’s an add-on to my costume?” 

Estelle nods eagerly. “I figured it would be best if we tried to hide our identities!” She explains, cheeks turning a bit red as she continues. “I… read in a book that superheroes have to hide their faces or else, things can get complicated. So… So I got something for you that you can put on after you transform. I got a mask for myself, as well!” 

A mask, huh? Yuri couldn’t stop the grin from appearing on his face. “So you went out and read comic books and stuff after finding out we could transform? Think it’ll work?” 

“I… believe so! Yes! I…” Estelle trails off. “Do you think I should have gotten something for Repede? His form changes so drastically, I thought that maybe he wouldn’t need it but… Oh, no, what if he feels left out?!” 

A poorly suppressed chuckle leaves Yuri’s lips. “I don’t think Repede will appreciate a doggy outfit. You’re fine.” He reaches out and pets the girl on the head, trying to comfort her. “I appreciate it, Estelle. I’ll try it on later. I’ll even send pics and you can tell me if it suits me.” 

The way Estelle’s eyes light up is almost breathtaking as she beams at him, clearly pleased with this development. “Oh, please do! I’ll even send you pictures of my mask!” She claps her hands together, gleefully.

“I’m looking forward to it.” Yuri grins. 

As he holds onto the gift bag in his hand, the two talk happily with one another as they move to leave the school together. Yuri is heavily aware of the looks they receive as they leave, side by side, and he can’t help but worry about ruining Estelle’s reputation as well (Not that she had much of one just yet, with her being new) but the way Estelle would smile through it all was… comforting at least. 

As the two go their separate ways after leaving the building, Yuri checks his phone, making sure that there wasn’t a text from Karol yet, letting him know that he was ready to be picked up. Instead, he saw a text from Flynn from just a little bit ago. With guilt settling in his chest, he quietly checks the text with a sigh. 

[Flynn: Yuri, have I done something to upset you?]

He couldn’t help but feel like a brat in that moment but… he really HAD thought that Flynn was behind him only getting a slap on the wrist. He supposed that he could have just confronted the man and asked but with everything going on, he was not really feeling the energy to have yet another confrontation with Flynn. Not only that, but he was having a lot of conflicting feelings about… well… everything from last night and he wasn’t quite recovered from showing even the slightest bit of vulnerability last night. 

But still… he at least owed the man an apology. 

[Yuri: no u haven’t done anything wrong. was just going thru something today. Sorry]

He sends the text quickly as he takes his bag and hurries back to his apartment. On his way there, he received a text from Karol, stating that he was ready to be picked up so he only had limited time to change into his work uniform and check out the new present from Estelle. 

As he slipped into his apartment, he gives a quick greeting to Repede who barks in reply before he’s already unfastening the buttons of the rather large school shirt and quickly slipping out of it. He remembered trying to skip out of school that day due to him lacking another uniform top, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to afford a new one at the moment, when Flynn practically shoved his extra shirt at him this morning, opting to just wear his same shirt from yesterday. The two of them used to be the same size, so Yuri didn’t see much of a problem with it but then when he actually put on the shirt, he suddenly remembered just how much muscle mass Flynn had gotten recently. 

Yuri was once again thinking of Flynn’s newly acquired muscle mass and found himself facing those conflicting feelings again. Considering how his face heated up, he decided not to entertain those thoughts for very long. 

Instead, he tossed the shirt and pants aside before pulling on his work uniform, a long sleeved burgundy button up with black slacks and a black apron tied around his waist. He redid the clip in his hair and made sure raven strands were pulled from his face before pulling his black shoes back on. 

As he finishes getting ready, he does take a quick moment to pour the contents of Estelle’s gift bag onto his bed. Pushing the white tissue paper aside, he’s greeted with black hooded poncho with white accents bordering the edge of the cloth and a small black face mask to match and Yuri couldn’t help but to laugh. Estelle definitely had a color theme in mind when she thought of him, huh? 

This would definitely help, he thinks to himself, as he runs a finger over the soft cloth of the poncho. He would have to be careful with the hood, of course, but he figured that the mask would at least hide his face if the hood were to fall. Of course, if he operated during the night, that’s an entirely different story. 

He does take a quick moment to try the poncho on, mask and all, and thankfully it seems to be a perfect fit. Estelle was kind of good at this, huh? He smiles to himself and takes a quick selfie before sending it her way, right as another text from Flynn appeared. 

[Flynn: You stuck your tongue out at me earlier. Most people would assume they’ve made you mad when you stick your tongue out at them.]

Fair point. After he’s taken the poncho and the mask off and safely stores it in his dresser for now, he takes another selfie for Flynn, making sure to stick his tongue out in this one as well. But this time, he made sure to have at least some kind of smile in the picture. A silent gesture of we’re good. I promise.

Flynn’s reply is instant. 

[Flynn: I see that you’re just being you. Is that your work uniform?]

[Yuri: yep the boss said i have to be somewhat presentable so he shoved me into a suit]

There’s a long pause between Yuri’s reply and Flynn’s next reply. Which is quickly followed by a couple more less collected and obviously flustered texts that nearly had Yuri on the floor, laughing.

[Flynn: You look good.]

[Flynn: Not to say you don’t always look good. You’re very good at wearing clothes.]

[Flynn: That sounded wrong. I meant that you have a good fashion sense.]

Yuri had to take a few minutes to calm down from his laughing fit and even Repede had to walk over to make sure he was good as he struggled to catch his breath. “Flynn, holy shit.” He breathes out, giggles escaping his lips. He didn’t think his uniform would have caused Flynn to spiral into a flustered mess. He knew that he should have left it alone and let Flynn die of embarrassment in peace but he’s never been one to pass up an opportunity like this.

[Yuri: are u saying I don’t look good when im not wearing clothes?]

[Flynn: You’re the worst.]

[Yuri: i guess this means no shirtless pics for flynn :( ]

[Flynn: Some people would just say “Thank you for the compliment” and move on.]

[Yuri: yeah but im not Some People now am i?]

[Flynn: This is true. You’re definitely one of a kind.]

As Yuri reaches down to give Repede a quick pat, who pushes his snout gently against Yuri’s palm, he feels a small smile stretch across his face at Flynn’s words. He wasn’t sure if Flynn meant it as an insult or a compliment but knowing Flynn, it was likely both. Still, it made him feel a bit warm inside of his chest. As he gathers his things, ready to head out with Repede on his heels, he shoots off a quick reply to Flynn before turning his phone on silent. 

[Yuri: youre one of a kind too. talk to u later.]

---

The Sagittarius was more of an unofficial tavern than an actual restaurant, according to Yuri’s fellow coworkers. It had the vibe of one, anyway. The place was rather old, sporting a more rustic style. The wooden walls were rough to the touch and the floors creak when someone walked across them and Yuri couldn’t help but think that the place could use a bit of a makeover. But despite the old and organic look that it had, it was still a rather cozy place. The tables were kept clean and organized and the windows were usually crystal clear and the bar that sat in the front of the store was sturdy and had plenty of room for people who would usually forgo the food in favor of getting a drink instead. 

Selling drinks was normally Raven and Judith’s area of expertise since Yuri wasn’t quite old enough to sell alcohol yet. Legally, that is. So instead, he would focus more on either cooking food for the restaurant portion of the establishment, or waiting and bussing tables. It really just depended on where Raven needed him on that day. It just so happened that today, he was needed as a waiter.

Despite only being at this job for just a couple of weeks, Yuri got the hang of it pretty easily. Of course, it helped that the place was pretty lenient on how one should act. When he was hired on by Raven, the man made it very clear that a lot of the people who came by were regulars and that it paid more to treat them like an old friend rather than a stranger that he should be overly kind to. That was a huge relief for Yuri, who hated the idea of having to be overly accommodating to a bunch of strangers. He was a waiter and a cook, after all. Not a servant. 

Three hours into his first shift, Raven commented that Yuri was built for a job like this. As much as Yuri hated to admit it, he silently agreed. He wasn’t a people’s person. It wasn’t like he was anti-social or anything. He could be plenty social if he were around the right people. But he was often told that he had a sharp tongue and a rough attitude and that had a tendency of throwing people off. 

However, it only served to make him more popular at the Sagittarius. Between the friendly but sharp banter between him and his manager (How Raven managed to score that position, Yuri would never know), the way he and Judith (Another waitress who had been hired about a year ago) hit it off immediately, and the way he jumped to help the rest of the staff when he could (though he would jokingly complain, of course), Yuri became pretty well liked by the staff, as hard as it was to believe. 

Not only that, but he already had regulars that would come in on his shifts just to chat. Some were friendly, like the young couple with their five year old. Some who would come in to mooch off of the free wi-fi for work or school (Yuri always made sure to give anyone studying a free slice of cheesecake as a desert, courtesy of Raven after a lot of convincing). And then some who, Judith pointed out, may or may not have gained quite an attraction to the new cook/waiter. Mostly girls who would come by after school, who would talk to each other in excited hushed whispers every time Yuri walked away. He never noticed until Judith pointed them out. 

Of course, there were some that were more obvious about their crushes. Like, for example, the little blonde haired girl, who was maybe around Karol’s age, that was currently clinging to his arm and staring up at him dreamily as he guided her to her seat.

“Here you go, Patty. Window seat, just like you prefer.” He gestures lightly before using his free arm to carefully peel the girl off of him.

Patty smiles widely as she hops into the chair, grabbing the menu eagerly. “Thank you, Yuri, my beloved!” She sighs happily, blinking her blue eyes up at him. 

“Yeah, yeah.” Yuri rolls his eyes as he pulls out his notepad. “Water to drink?” 

“Yes please! And the Seafood Bowl!” 

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll see what I can do.” Yuri quickly scribbles it down. “Your family lives by the beach, right? I don’t see how you can work with fish all day long and not get sick of seafood.”

Patty grins widely as her hand slaps her chest, puffing it out proudly. “Ye can’t keep an ocean gal away from what she loves most!”

“So it would seem.” Yuri snorts quietly as he shoves the notepad into the pocket of his apron. “It’ll be a few minutes for the seafood bowl. The water will be out in a sec.” 

“I’ll be waiting!” 

Patty was one of the regulars of the establishment. When she first appeared, he wondered what a child her age was doing wandering into the restaurant all by herself. But apparently, she had been coming to the place since she was small. Er… well… small er. According to Raven, her father would frequent the bar every night after a fishing trip and he would always bring along Patty with him. While he celebrated the catch of the day over a drink, Patty would always be sitting at a nearby table, celebrating with a nice dessert. When Yuri asked what happened to her old man, he simply replied that he wasn’t able to come by anymore and that Patty was just continuing to do what she had always known. 

Yuri got the impression that Raven was respecting Patty’s real life privacy by not discussing what happened with her father. He had some ideas of what was going on but he agreed. It wasn’t any of his business. Besides, Patty seemed like she was getting along just fine. He had only been here a short amount of time but he had never seen Patty without a smile on her face. 

As he got Patty’s water and delivered it over and then put in the order for the cook in the back, he went back to clearing out his tables and getting them ready for the next customer. On his way, his eyes do catch Karol sitting at the end of the bar, scribbling away at his homework for the night with Judith taking any free time she had to assist him with whatever it was he was working on. 

Some days he felt bad about dragging Karol to the restaurant with him. It definitely wasn’t ideal for a ‘normal babysitter’ but Karol usually seemed excited to come to work with him. The young boy seemed to warm up with Raven, Judith and the rest of the staff and even befriended some of the customers as well. At this point, the young boy seemed like an unofficial employee of the Sagittarius, though whenever Raven would try and get Karol to work, Yuri would immediately step in to let him know that if Karol does any work, it’s coming out of Raven’s tip jar. That’s usually enough to shut the old man up. 

“You survivin’ over there, Captain?” Yuri calls out as he passes by the bar, earning both Judith’s and Karol’s attention as he does so. 

Karol tapped his pencil on the counter, anxiously. “Uh… yeah… we’re almost done, I think.” He mutters, eyes glancing down to the floor. 

Judith smiles warmly at Karol before moving to stand up straight as she leans against the bar to look at Yuri. “I decided to take a quick little break to help Karol out, since I know you were busy.” She explains, voice calm as ever. “The poor guy seemed pretty stressed…”

Yuri didn’t need Judith’s superhuman empathy skills to be able to tell that. Ever since Karol had been picked up that day, Yuri could tell that there was something on his mind though he would insist that everything was fine. Had he really been freaking out over some homework? 

One glance at Judith made Yuri realize that there was probably something more to it than that. The way she stared at Yuri, an eyebrow slightly raised, told him that she definitely suspected something and that he probably should too. 

“Stressed, huh?” Yuri moves to rest a hand on his waist. “You got a big test coming up?”

“Oh– uh… yeah, I guess so.” 

“You guess so?” Yuri and Judith both raise an eyebrow at that before Yuri continues to press. “That doesn’t inspire me with confidence, boss.” 

This seems to be enough to snap Karol back into attention as he suddenly straightens in his seat before looking both Judith and Yuri in the eye. “I-I mean, a pop quiz could come at any time! So I just have to be prepared, right?”

Judith lets out a small hum. “Mm… yes, you’re right, I suppose.” She takes another glance towards Yuri, silently calling out Karol’s bluff. 

He was worried, admittedly, but he didn’t want to force Karol to talk if he didn’t want to. So, with a tiny nudge to Judy’s side with his elbow, he decided to step back for now, making a mental note to see about bringing it up later. “If you say so. Just let us know if you need anything, okay?”

Karol’s mouth opens and shuts a few times, causing Yuri to pause before he begins to leave to continue working. He gives Karol a moment. Two. Three. Finally, he just sighs and nods. “Okay, Yuri…” 

Damn. It seemed like Yuri almost had him. But he kept to his silent word. He would let Karol come to him rather than force him to speak. So instead, he went back to work, moving to finish cleaning his tables. Judith, thankfully, offered some assistance and helped take some of the dishes off of his hands, placing them gently into the sink in the back before returning to the front of the bar. Yuri wasn’t surprised when she kept glancing over towards Karol’s direction. 

Judith was more than observant. She had a talent of being able to size up a person with literally just one glance. She seemed to be an amazing judge of character and Yuri was almost jealous of her for it. She could usually tell whether or not a customer was going to be a problem, and nine times out of ten, she was usually right. Not only that, but she proved herself to be plenty capable of taking care of herself and others. Once, a guy had gotten drunk and got a bit too handsy with one of the waitresses. Before Yuri could step in and handle it, the guy was grabbed and literally thrown out the door by Judith with such ease that Yuri wondered if she had actual self-defense training. He would believe it, for sure.

She also had a tendency of digging for information. She would ask about Yuri’s school life or life in general and while he didn’t tell her much at all (after all, what could he say that wasn’t the generic answer you would hear from a school boy), she managed to put together context clues to get a pretty decent understanding of Yuri’s personal life. Meanwhile, he knew literally nothing of hers. (Plus, Karol had let Flynn’s name slip once and apparently Yuri had gotten a weird expression on his face when his name was said, according to Judith. So now he will never know peace from the woman.)

Neither would Karol, it seemed, because even after Yuri finished bussing his tables and delivered Patty’s food to her, she was still eyeing the poor boy up and down. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to notice but Yuri was stepping in regardless.

“Hey, leave him be.” He says under his breath as he moves to put some dollar bills into his tip jar for later. When she blinks and looks back at him with a tiny hum, he continues. “He’ll talk when he’s ready. Let’s not force it.” 

“Oh, I’m just worried, is all.”

“And curious.” Yuri gives her a suspicious look before smirking. “You’re way too into other people’s drama. Nosy.” 

Judith feigns an innocent look, making sure to blink her eyes in Yuri’s direction. “Oh, no, I’m not nosy. I just like to hear about people’s troubles so I can help.”

“That is the definition of nosy, in case you weren’t aware.” 

Judith doesn’t confirm nor deny it but instead, she looks back towards Karol, who was back to anxiously tapping his pencil on the counter. “Do you think it has to do with that little friend of his? What was her name? Nan?”

“Yeah, Nan.” Yuri shrugs, following her gaze. “And I dunno. Maybe. They argue a lot so maybe it was another fight.” 

Judith sighs sadly, folding her arms behind her back. “Love is just so complicated at his age…” 

“He’s literally twelve.” Yuri shakes his head. “He’s got all the time in the world to figure it out. Nan does too.” 

“I know, I know but it doesn’t stop it from hurting in the moment, you know?” 

“Yeah, I guess.”

There’s silence before a devious grin stretches across her face. “I guess you would know more than anyone, wouldn’t you, Yuri?”

“Aaaaand the conversation is done.” With a clap of his hands, Yuri begins to step away. “Good job everybody. Same time next week.” 

Before he could completely step away, however, a strong hand slaps down onto his shoulder and pulls him back over as Yuri is suddenly greeted with a bush of brown hair pulled into a loose ponytail and the faint smell of alcohol. 

“Aw, c’mon, yer gonna stop th’ conversation before I get the join in?!” Raven greets with a wide smile as he pats Yuri on the back before his arm is shoved away by the latter. “What’s this I’m hearin’ about love? Oh! Does our lil’ Yuri have a sweetheart now?”

Yuri wrinkles his nose. “Have you been drinking on the job again , old man?” 

“Naw, I was just tastin’ one of our new products.” Raven waves him off before hopping onto a stool so he could lean against the bar. “It’s fiiine. It was literally just a sip. You won’t even notice it missing!” 

“He says that every time.” Judith hums. “I guess I’ll see when I do inventory tonight.”

“And I won’t disappoint ya, Judith Darlin’!” With a snap of his fingers, Raven grins over to Judith before looking back over to Yuri. “So, who’s the one who stole our lil’ Yuri’s heart?”

Judith smiles, staring Yuri directly in the eye. “Oh, I can tell you all about him–” 

“Judy, I’ll literally fist fight you.” 

“--But we were talking about Karol.” She finishes, her smile not once wavering. “He’s feeling anxious about something and we’re thinking it has to do with a special friend of his.” 

Raven puts a hand to his chin, nodding in understanding. “Ah… Young love. I remember those days…” 

“I’m surprised. That was centuries ago.” Yuri deadpans, moving to grab a wet rag to wipe down the bar. 

“You don’t hafta be so mean to this old man, y’know? My heart’s sensitive.” 

“You make it so easy though.” 

Raven gives Yuri a tiny pout before moving to lean his head against his hand. “Maybe I should talk t’ him. See if he’ll open up to good ol’ Raven!” 

“Leave it alone, Old man.” Yuri shoots the man a quick warning glare. “He’ll talk when he wants to. Let’s stop crowding him, okay?” He directs the glare between Judith and Raven, a final warning before he moves to clean off another table. 

“I suppose Yuri has a point.” Judith says after a moment. “He’s more familiar with Yuri anyway. If he’s going to talk to anyone, it would be him.”

“Yeah, yeah, I guess so…” Raven nods in agreement before scratching at his head. “By the way, you two still good to watch th’ restaurant for me on Friday? That work business I mentioned last week finally got confirmed so, definitely gonna need the night off for it.” 

Yuri gives a quick little nod. “You scheduled me for it, so I’m available.” 

Judith also nods, smile never fading. “Someone has to keep the place running.” 

“I knew I was right in trustin’ ya with my heart and soul, Judith, dear!” Raven leans in with a grin, only for Judith to reach out with two fingers, pushing his forehead back.

“How about just trusting me with the restaurant, mmhm? I might just accidentally shatter that heart and soul of yours. I am terribly clumsy.” 

“H-ha… yeah…Sure, that works too…” 

---

Usually by the time Yuri got off of work, Karol was exhausted and ready to crash as soon as they got home but tonight, he was especially anxious as they quietly headed home, which was thankfully not far from Karol’s house so the walk wasn’t too bad. As they closed for the night and Yuri and Karol headed out, they paused by the small makeshift dog house that Karol and Raven had happily made out of cardboard when they saw that Yuri’s new pup had followed him to the restaurant. Repede, as grumpy as he looked, seemed pleased with his little temporary house at the time. 

But he seemed even more pleased to be heading back home with Yuri and Karol in tow. 

Yuri, on the other hand, was exhausted. In the last hour of his shift, he had gotten slammed with a multitude of tables. Not that he was complaining, of course. More tables meant more tips. But it still left him rather fatigued, especially with everything that’s happened within the last two days. But even though he was pretty exhausted as they walked through the street, his attention was on Karol in an instant when the boy finally spoke up for the first time in the past two hours.

“Hey… Yuri?” He speaks slowly, uncertainty clear in his tone as he shoves his hands into the pockets on his pants. “Are… you working on Friday?” 

Yuri rubs at his eyes, trying to force some more energy into his body before he nods. “Yep. Working all weekend actually. Is that okay? I can see if Flynn can watch you if you don’t wanna hang out at the restaurant all weekend.” 

“No, it’s okay! Really!” Karol’s eyes widen as he whips his head to look over to Yuri. “I like the restaurant. I don’t mind but…” He trails off again as he slows to a stop. 

Yuri stops as well and he takes a moment to glance around the empty and darkened street, a bit uneasily. He steps just a bit closer to Karol before leaning down to make direct eye contact with the boy, frowning in concern. “What’s wrong?” 

Karol stays silent, eyes downcast and face dropping to stare back at the ground. 

Yuri frowns. “...Karol, if something is bothering you, you can tell me.” He says quietly, voice calm and serious. “I don’t judge people for that. You can talk to me. And if you feel like you can’t, I can give you Flynn’s number and you can talk to him. Or you can talk to Judith, or Raven. I don’t know what’s bugging you but you don’t have to deal with it alone–”

Yuri’s words must have sparked something within Karol because the next thing Yuri knows is he’s suddenly looking back up at Yuri with a certain determination on his face. “No! Nothing’s wrong! It’s just… just… a sleepover!” 

Excuse me?

Yuri knows he said he wouldn’t judge but… well… that didn’t make any sense at all. “A… sleepover?” 

Karol nods his head quickly. “My friend, Genis, is having a sleepover on Friday and he invited me.” 

“...And you were freaking out because…?” 

Karol pauses, swallowing hard. He glances towards Repede when the small pup trots over to his  side and sits down. Taking the hint, he leans down to pet the small dog in an effort to comfort himself. Meanwhile, Yuri can’t help but stare at Karol closely. He was still so nervous and Yuri was having a pretty hard time trying to figure out why a simple sleepover had Karol freaking out as bad as he was. What exactly was he hiding? That couldn’t be all there was to it, right? 

…Unless…? 

“Is Nan going to be there?” 

Nan’s name alone was enough to cause Karol to tense up. Yuri, for a moment, felt as if he had hit the nail directly on the head but something still didn’t feel right. He rubs anxiously at the Bohdi Blastia on his left wrist as he waits for Karol to answer. After a moment of hesitation, the young boy quietly nods. 

“...Yes.” Karol’s voice was quiet, almost akin to a squeak as brown eyes quickly peeked up to Yuri’s as if trying to gauge his reaction. 

Something didn’t feel right. Something didn’t feel right.

“So, it’s going to be… You, Genis, Nan…” Yuri trails off, tilting his head a bit to gesture for Karol to fill in the blanks on who else would be there.

Karol takes a deep breath. “Me… Genis, Nan… Anise and her creepy doll.” Another uneasy pause. “Maybe another kid or two. He didn’t specify.” 

“Uh-huh…” Yuri lets the hum of agreement trail off, making it quite clear to the boy that he was feeling a bit suspicious about the whole thing. “Karol, no offense buddy, but the way you’re fidgeting is making me think that there’s something more going on here.” 

Yuri tries to keep eye contact with Karol but the young boy seems more interested in running his hands through Repede’s fur, who nudges him lightly with his nose, as if also trying to urge Karol into speaking the truth. He sees now that Judith was right to be worried as Karol’s behavior was suddenly worrying Yuri as well. But he couldn’t even begin to imagine what could possibly be worrying Karol so badly. Yuri didn’t do something wrong, did he? He didn’t think he did but…

Finally, though, Karol speaks up and it startles Yuri out of his thoughts and leads him to focus on the young pre-teen in front of him. “It’s just…” Karol starts out slowly, eyes scanning over Repede and then across the street and then to his shoes before finally looking towards Yuri. “... I’ve… never been invited to a sleepover before…? I’m not sure how to react… I guess.” 

Oh. Oh.  

The suspicion immediately vanished as a small tinge of sympathy settled in Yuri’s chest. Karol, unfortunately, never had many people in the friends’ department. A lot of his time was spent taking care of the house on his own before Yuri started to watch over him. He had heard Karol talk about some of his friends off-handedly but even then, the friends he mentioned didn’t seem very close with Karol, not that Yuri would say that to the boy out loud. 

He knew that Karol had a certain attachment to his friend, Nan, though he wasn’t too certain on how she felt about him. Whenever Yuri would bring her up, Karol would get extremely flustered and attempt to change the subject so he could only use his imagination to guess what kind of girl she was. Considering how Karol would mention the two of them fighting at times, he couldn’t help but believe she was a bit of a headstrong kid. 

While Yuri still had some concerns regarding this sleepover, he couldn’t help but feel a tinge of joy rise up within him as he suddenly reaches over and ruffles the young boy’s hair. Karol sputters in surprise, quickly batting Yuri’s hands away as he looks at him with questioning, wide eyes. 

“Well… if I can offer a suggestion, you can react happily.” Yuri grins at him before flicking the boy’s forehead. “You don’t need to be nervous. I’m sure it’ll be fun. I’m happy for you.” 

“Wh– You’re letting me go?” Karol’s eyes widen even more in disbelief, hands falling from his hair. “Seriously?” 

“I’ll need you to give me a good phone number to contact and the address and all that, but… yeah. I guess I am.” Yuri tries to shove away the feeling of anxiety he was still feeling. Karol had a chance to actually get closer to people his own age. He wasn’t going to ruin that simply because of his own anxieties. “Should I not?” 

“N…No! No, that’s–” Karol takes a deep breath and quickly nods. “Y-Yeah… So… Friday. I’ll go… Friday.” 

“Yeah…” Yuri reaches out to ruffle his hair again. “I’ll try and do my best to survive without ya, Captain Karol. Will I still need to pick you up?” 

“No… I can go home with Genis that day…”

“Gotcha…” Yuri gives him another smile before moving to stand back up. “We can talk about it more later, if you wanna. Right now though, I’m exhausted so let’s hurry back, kay?” 

“Y-Yeah… Sure thing.”

---

He was a liar. He was a dirty, filthy liar. He looked Yuri directly in the face and lied with his whole chest and badly too! Karol was shocked, frankly, that Yuri let him get away with such a horrible lie. The whole thing was a mess, to be honest, and Karol just kept digging himself deeper into a hole. 

The worst part is that he almost came clean. He wanted to come clean! He didn’t want to go and spend his Friday night camping out in the creepy forest bordering Quoi Park. He could literally spend his time doing literally anything else. But then, Yuri had to go and open his big stupid mouth and remind him why he was doing this to begin with!

“You can talk to me. And if you feel like you can’t, I can give you Flynn’s number and you can talk to him. Or you can talk to Judith, or Raven. I don’t know what’s bugging you but you don’t have to deal with it alone–”

He didn’t have to deal with it alone?! Yuri had the nerve to say that after trying to deal with everything on his own! Those words alone were enough to shoot a surge of determination through Karol’s body, determined to show Yuri that he could be trusted to help carry the burden, even if it’s just a little bit. Determined to show Yuri that, yes, he didn’t have to deal with it alone but Yuri didn’t have to either! He had to show Yuri that he wasn’t just some little kid that needed coddling. 

So he lied about the sleepover. He lied about going to Genis’ house and about Nan and Anise being there. He lied about it all and even took a cheap shot at Yuri, lying that he was nervous because it was the first time he had ever been invited to someone’s house. And Yuri had fallen for it. Or at the very least, he let it slide but regardless, he felt like a horrible person afterwards. 

He felt like an awful person when he asked Genis for his phone number and address the next day, asking him to pretend that he was staying over if Yuri had decided to call on Friday (to which the boy eventually relented and nervously agreed to, yet making sure to stress that it was still a horrible idea). 

He felt like an awful person when Anise came over to his desk that Thursday, and then again on Friday, making sure that he still intended on keeping his promise to go camping in the woods that night. When he once again agreed and even decidedly went over his plan for the night with her, she seemed overjoyed and even impressed by his resolve. He hated it. 

As for Nan, she had barely interacted with him in the past two days since their last conversation in the lunchroom. She definitely seemed mad about something and he wondered briefly if it was because of his decision to go camping, though the one time he tried to ask her why she was so angry with him, she simply slammed her book on the desk. 

“I shouldn’t have to tell you why I’m mad, Karol!” She snapped, narrowing her eyes dangerously at him. “You’re just so… so…”

He frowned, shrinking back a bit at her rage. “... so what?”

“.... you’re just so spineless!” She spat out, crossing her arms. 

He definitely didn’t get what she was mad about. He was going to go camp in the middle of the woods at night all by himself. Wasn’t that the opposite of spineless? Of course, when he tried to mention that, it only seemed to make Nan even angrier. 

“You’re clueless , Karol!” And with that, she ran off with a huff before Karol could try and ask her to explain what he was missing. 

Now he was anxious, depressed and confused. 

Part of him wondered if he could just go into the woods and just take a few selfies in the forest and call it good but that might make him feel even worse for chickening out. Anise would call him out on it immediately, Yuri would never feel like he could rely on him and Nan would have a genuine reason to call him spineless. 

And thus, he found himself pushing through his school day when Friday arrived, constantly in battle with his own brain until the final bell rang that day and it felt as if that bell was the sound that marked his execution.

Maybe he was being a bit overdramatic. He hoped he was anyway. 

But as the school day came to an end, he hurried home as he decided that he should just go for it. Go for it before he could change his mind again and chicken out. He felt strange without Yuri leading him home for once. It wasn’t like he didn’t know the way. After all, he would walk home alone when he was merely ten years old! But he had gotten used to Yuri coming by to pick him up and it was a bit nerve wracking not seeing him appear on the corner of the street to meet up with him, like usual. 

Part of him was expecting Yuri to show up anyway, even though Karol told him that he didn’t have to. And another part of him was disappointed, while the other part was relieved. After all, he didn’t exactly come up with a plan for if Yuri caught him walking home by himself instead of walking home with Genis, as was told. Thankfully, that was his only concern about getting caught on the way to his house. If Yuri were to try calling Genis, thankfully the boy had promised to cover for him, despite how much he didn’t want to. He made a note to himself that he definitely owed Genis for this. 

As Karol arrives at his house, he quickly replaces the books in his bag with a bundled sleeping bag, a flashlight and other necessities for his camping trip. He did make sure to take a pocket knife that his father had left behind as well, making sure to have some kind of defensive weapon on him if he needed it. (He desperately told himself he wasn’t actually going to need it.) 

As these items were shoved into his bag, he gave pause when he noticed the familiar looking stone that he had found earlier that week when he had been digging around in the garden. The amber-colored stone, when pulled from the bag, sparkled almost unnaturally when the light hit it just right. He had almost forgotten that he had found it. 

Holding the stone in his hand seemed to bring him a bit of comfort as he ran his thumb over the smoothness of the stone. He still couldn’t quite remember why the stone seemed so familiar but if it was good for anything, it was good at lowering his anxiety. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to take it with him as a good luck charm.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt inclined to take the stone with him. Maybe it was some type of intuition or something. 

Well hey, if anything, he could throw it at the bear if the bear were to show up. With that thought in his mind, he shoves the amber-colored stone back into his bag. Slipping a hoodie on and pulling it over his head, he makes sure he has all essentials needed for his trip and with one final deep breath, he places his hand on the doorknob leading outside of his house. 

After a moment’s hesitation, he throws the door open and heads out.

---

Yuri was almost glad that nothing of note seemed to happen up until the end of the school week. There were no fights, his teachers didn’t give him a hard time, the rumors regarding him seemed to slow to a stop and there was no sign of Zagi or any kind of world ending threat. It was almost as if life had gone back to normal, even if it was just for a short amount of time. 

His hand still gave him a little bit of issue but after having Estelle look at it briefly during their lunch period on Friday, she noted that the wound looked as if it were recovering quite nicely so that was a relief, at least. During their short meetups, Yuri did bring up the Quoi Woods and the possibility of something lurking within though Estelle seemed rather confused when she had heard of it. 

“A supposed monster in the Quoi Woods?” She asked with a whisper as she sipped at her cup of juice she had brought along for lunch. “I don’t believe I’ve heard about that.” 

Yuri took a bit of his sandwich as he leaned back in his chair. “I’m gonna guess that’s a good thing then? If you haven’t heard about it, then there probably isn’t anything to worry about, maybe?”

“No, I wouldn’t say that…” Estelle frowns, looking thoughtful. “I just haven’t really looked into the area yet. I can do some research though!”

“Sure, just don’t get caught up in chasing a false lead.” He snorted softly before propping his head on his hand, looking at her curiously. “So, what about Brave Vesperia? Any more leads on them, yet? Any other dreams?” 

Yuri notices how she pauses, putting her cup down thoughtfully. He can see her pondering to herself for a moment. “I’m unsure… My dreams were… Well, I saw someone… but…” 

Yuri doesn’t respond and instead waits for her to gather her thoughts together. He couldn’t imagine having prophetic dreams. Hell, he never really had dreams before aside from the one about his blastia. If he had any other dreams, he certainly didn’t remember them. So he figured that trying to gather one’s thoughts after a dream like that must be tough. So he remained patient. Unfortunately, Estelle simply shakes her head. 

“It was just too blurry. The voice– She sounded familiar! Very familiar!” She notes and Yuri sees a tiny smile appear on her face. “But I couldn’t quite place it and I couldn’t make out her words.” 

“Well… is she tall? Short? Was there a vibe? Color?” 

“...Hmm…” Estelle’s finger moves to her lips, eyes closing as she tries to force herself to remember. “...Short. Red. She wore red. But… you know, that doesn’t mean anything, sadly. She could be wearing anything right now.” 

“Yeah… I guess you have a point.” Yuri nods quietly, moving to sit back in his seat. 

He doesn’t get to relax for much longer, unfortunately, as Hisca and Chastel end up calling him away to help with moving some of the desks of the classroom (despite his protests). They didn’t have much time for any more conversation after that.

Something else he noticed over the next two days was that Flynn had shown up at school looking rather exhausted, with dark circles under his eyes. Still, the boy kept his shining personality as best as he could as he didn’t let the exhaustion slow him down. Still, Yuri wasn’t about to let this stand for long.

“What’s the matter with you?” Yuri had asked that Friday afternoon, after school. 

Since he didn’t need to pick Karol up, he had a little more time to spare before he had to go get ready for work. So, he decided to spend it by slipping into the student council room and thanked whatever God he had to, that Sodia and others weren’t there. Flynn sat alone in the room, looking through some papers regarding some of the plans for the school. When Yuri entered the room, he quickly looked up and gave a small smile as he removed his glasses from his face. 

“Oh, Good afternoon Yuri!” Flynn beams happily, moving to stand up to properly greet him. “You don’t have to hurry home today?” 

Yuri wanders over to stand by Flynn, waving him back down as a silent gesture to let him know he didn’t have to stand up and greet him. He grabbed a nearby chair and slid it over next to Flynn’s and plopped down next to him. “Karol’s got a sleepover today so I have some time to spare.” 

“And you decided to spend it here?” Flynn asks as his smile only grows wider.

“Well, yeah. Is that a problem?” Yuri raises a suspicious eyebrow, earning a tiny chuckle from Flynn.

“No, no, of course not. It’s just that I’m almost done here myself. The workload was light today so… maybe I can walk you home.” 

“You’ve really been hanging on the whole ‘walking me home’ thing.” Yuri reaches over and snatches a pen off of Flynn’s desk, though the blonde haired man quickly catches him by the wrist, fingers once again brushing against the bracelet on his hand. “I think you’ve been watching too many cliche romance movies.”

“I-I have not!” Flynn’s grip remains on Yuri’s wrist as he moves to let their hands rest on the desk between them. Yuri didn’t feel the need to pull away just yet. “I just… miss walking home with you. And I figured it would be a good chance to say hi to Hanks as well.” 

“Well, you were the one who decided to move into the dorms. It’s a bit out of the way to walk me home now.” Yuri reminded him. 

“Well… considering that Niren offered to pay for it and it would move me closer to the school, I didn’t see any reason not to.” Flynn frowns. “You can still move in too, Yuri… Niren told you that the offer was still on the table.” 

“Nah, he’s your legal guardian. Not mine.” 

Niren Fedrock. He was a man who worked very closely with Flynn’s father back when he was alive and on the force. He and Flynn were around nine years old when they met the man for the first time. He was invited over for dinner one day. After that, he could come by to visit and Yuri and Flynn warmed up to and admired the man quite quickly. 

His presence became more frequent after Flynn’s father was killed in the line of duty. He likely felt as if he had to take care of Finath’s wife and child for him. This was confirmed when Niren took official custody of Flynn after his mother passed. Since Yuri was technically under Hanks’ legal custody (and just decided to let the boy have free reign to his own apartment room), Niren couldn’t just take the boy in like he did Flynn. But he still offered some casual guidance here and there. 

Yuri liked Niren, he really did. But he wasn’t about to mooch off of a random man’s kindness like that. He was perfectly capable of taking care of himself. He would make a mental note to go visit the old guy one of these days though. 

“Well, it’s not just me that he’s looking out for, you know. And he knows that Hanks wouldn’t be able to afford it as easily–”

Yuri lets out an exaggerated sigh. “Flynn, can you really see me getting along with some random roommate that they assign me with?” 

“You get along with plenty of people!” Flynn quickly argues, squeezing his wrist. “You don’t know that it’ll be someone you won’t like.” 

“I only get along with like… ten percent of the school’s population.” Yuri reminds him. “It just wouldn’t work. And it’d be weird anyway. I’m comfortable staying in my own apartment.” 

“Then… maybe Niren can help you pay for the apartment–”

“Pass. I’m a big boy. I can handle it.” 

Flynn drops the conversation after that, realizing that he was fighting a losing battle at that point. Instead, he directs his gaze down to their joined hands and runs a thumb over the golden bracelet hanging off of Yuri’s wrist. 

“Where did you get this bracelet from, Yuri?” 

Yuri kind of wished they could go back to fighting over the dorm rooms now. “Oh, I found it at a shop on the way home.” He answers simply but when he moves to pull his hand away, he realizes that Flynn has a firm grip on his wrist. He couldn’t pull away without actually snatching his hand back and… well, that could be seen as suspicious.

“... Everything okay?” Yuri’s question was slow and uncertain as he eyed Flynn cautiously. 

The way that Flynn seemed to be studying the bracelet, eyes narrowed in thought, made Yuri’s heart race. It was just a bracelet, right? At least it should look like that to someone outside of the whole world saving business. So why was Flynn staring at it like he was suspicious of it? After a few minutes of silence, Yuri clears his throat and tries to tug his hand away again. 

“Flynn?” He tries to grab his attention again and it almost comes out as a worried whine. 

“Sorry–” Flynn snaps out of it and loosens his grip though he doesn’t let go completely. “I… was just trying to see if that was real gold or not.” 

Yuri felt like he was about to have a blood sugar crash. He lets out a quiet sigh of relief before chuckling to himself. “Oh, is that all? Well, what do you think? It was like five bucks. Was it a steal?” 

“Don’t know. Couldn’t tell.” Flynn laughs quietly, moving to rub at his eyes. “Maybe I’ll look at it again later when I can see more clearly.” 

“Yeah, speaking of, you look like you haven’t been getting any sleep lately.” Yuri happily takes the chance to guide the conversation away from his blastia. “Everything okay over at the dorms?” 

Flynn rubs at his eyes again and snorts. “Yes, everything is fine. I was just up for most of the night with Sodia.”

“Surprising no one–” Yuri freezes. Blinks. He looks back to Flynn, eyes wide and confused. “Wait, with Sodia?”

“Yes?” 

“...Doing what exactly?” 

There’s a brief moment of silence as Yuri and Flynn are both staring at each other before it finally clicks with Flynn what Yuri was implying and he simply just clicks his tongue. “Yuri, come on now… We weren’t doing anything. We were studying.” Another pause passes and suddenly Flynn is smiling a bit. “I didn’t know you were the jealous type.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on! I was not jealous.” Was he? Yuri wasn’t the type to get jealous… at least, so he thought. “I was just shocked that she possibly had the balls to make a move on you.”

“Well, she didn’t. And I don’t exactly want her to.” Flynn shakes his head with an amused grin on his face. 

“Aw, damn. Don’t let her hear you say that. She might die on the spot.” 

“I think you’re looking too into it. I don’t believe Sodia has a crush on me.” Yuri made a mental note to ask Niren about getting Flynn’s eyes checked again. “... And even if she did, it doesn’t matter. My eye is on someone else at the moment.” 

Way to be obvious about it. 

Yuri’s teasing grin falls as he tries to tug his hand away again but Flynn’s grip tightens again, not wanting to let him escape so easily. “I think you should give her a chance. Isn’t that what people say in situations like these? Everyone deserves a chance.”

“I think that saying is meant more for life in general, not relationships.” Flynn points out, his thumb brushing against Yuri’s palm. “And if that saying were about relationships, then that would mean I would get a chance too, right?” 

“Ah… Right, I guess so.” Yuri pouts. “I guess it’s a dumb saying.” 

“Yuri…” He receives another irritated sigh from his childhood friend and he feels himself being pulled closer. “I wish you would stop avoiding the topic of… of us–”

The sound of a door opening interrupts him, followed by a painfully familiar voice. “Excuse me, Flynn, about tonight–” 

Yuri isn’t sure if he was disappointed that Sodia just barged into the student council room or if he was glad that she interrupted the conversation that was about to happen that he wasn’t quite sure he was ready for yet. For a moment, she looks shocked and surprised to see Yuri there, hand flying to her mouth as if to stop the words from slipping from her mouth but it’s soon replaced by that usual glare that tells him just how unwelcome he was in this room of theirs. Taking the hint, Yuri’s hand yanks from Flynn’s grasp as he jumps to his feet and shoves his hands into his pockets. 

“Welp, I guess that’s my cue to leave.” Yuri snorts, trying to force his voice to stay steady and trying to ignore the ache slowly seeping through his chest. He also tries to ignore the glare from Sodia as she moves past him, making her way towards Flynn.

Flynn, looking rather frustrated at the interruption, nods in greeting to Sodia before looking back to Yuri, eyes softening. “You can wait outside, if you’d like… I’m almost done here and then I can walk you home.” 

“You’re still trying for that?” Yuri quickly waves him off. “I–”

“Actually, Flynn, I needed to have an important word with you.” Sodia interjects, standing up straight with her usual serious expression. 

Flynn’s gaze leaves Yuri and he almost laughs at the pout that the man tried to hide as he stares up at Sodia. “Um… about what, Sodia?” 

The girl stays silent and Yuri tilts his head to try and get a look at her expression but gains nothing from it. Her face remains stern, eyes trained directly on Flynn’s and mouth shut tight. There is a moment where her eyes dart to Yuri and Flynn’s eyes show recognition as they follow her gaze, as if there were some silent communication between them. 

“... You know, you’re allowed to say that it’s a private matter.” Yuri tells them both, rolling his eyes. “Instead of just side-eyeing me like that. Just be like “I don’t want to discuss it in front of him.” ” 

Sodia glares. “Would you even listen?”

Yuri ponders for a moment and grins. “Absolutely not.” 

He almost laughs at the way Sodia bristles where she stands before she whips her head around towards Flynn, almost pleading. “Flynn–”

“Yes, yes…” Flynn sighs, trying to mask his disappointment as he looks back to Yuri. “I guess this might take some time… I can walk you home another day, perhaps?” 

“You are SUPER persistent.” Yuri complains with a groan as he heads for the door. “I’ll think about it.” 

As he moves to leave, Flynn quickly stands up and hurries after him, moving to grab the door from him. As he holds the door open for Yuri, the blonde gives him a tiny, bashful smile as he speaks with a whisper. “...And will you think about…?” 

He trails off, gesturing between the two of them with his hand and Yuri finds himself looking past Flynn and instead letting his gaze fall on Sodia. She’s staring at the two of them, eyes narrowed with disapproval and it just served as a reminder of how much of a bad idea it was for them to cross that line that they had been on for the past few years. Still, he couldn’t ignore how much his chest warmed at the idea, no matter how much of a mistake it would be. 

After a moment’s pause, Yuri just sighed. “...Look. I’d rather not talk about this here, okay?” He gestures behind him towards Sodia, a silent message between them of I don’t want to talk about this in front of her . Thankfully, Flynn seems to understand this but he has that dumb kicked puppy look of rejection and Yuri began to speak before he could stop himself.

“...How about this?” Yuri’s words came out as a defeated sigh. “What if… you came to pick me up after work tonight? I’ll be getting off at around 10 so… maybe we could talk then…?” 

Yuri watched as a range of emotions filled Flynn’s face. First was surprise as his blue eyes widened, and then hope as his smile washed over his face… but then the disappointment kicked in, followed with a bit of regret and Yuri instantly knew that it likely wasn’t happening. 

“Busy?” Yuri guesses, shoving his hand into his pocket.

“...Unfortunately.” Flynn frowns. “I’m not sure if I’ll be done in time…”

“What are you doing anyway?” Yuri frowns. “If it’s studying, you can just like… pause, right? You’ll have all weekend…” 

Before Flynn could even think to answer, Sodia cuts in. “Flynn.” She says, reminding him that she’s still there and Yuri couldn’t help but feel a bitter taste appear in his mouth. 

“Geez, wait your damn turn…” He grumbles before moving to head out the door. “Fine, whatever. Just text me and lemme know if you’re able to pick me up. I don’t care.” 

“I–I will!” Flynn stammers, nodding quickly. “...Let you know, that is. I’ll text you as soon as I know. I’m sorry, Yuri.”

“No skin off my nose.” And with that, Yuri didn’t bother to wait for a response before he turned and hurried down the hall. 

A part of him did consider going back to listen in on the conversation between Flynn and Sodia as Flynn turned and headed back into the student council room. But at the same time, he did not care in the slightest over what he and Sodia had to talk about. 

It was true that he thought Sodia would be a better match for the man than he ever could be, even if Flynn thought otherwise. 

That didn’t mean he wanted to stick around and see Sodia try her hardest to make the moves on the poor student council president. 

Plus, just being around her gave him the worst kind of stomachache. 

---

For a Friday night, Yuri’s shift at work was long and slow with time moving by with an almost painful drag. He did what he could to keep himself busy on the floor but a lot of their customers were more interested in buying a drink and talking with Judith rather than dining in with Yuri as their waiter. Not to say that Yuri hadn’t had any tables that night: He had a few, one of them being Patty, of course, but it was becoming clear that he would be lacking in tips tonight. 

Still, some money was better than no money. He only wished that he had more to do in the restaurant so he could distract his brain from wandering off. He had plenty of things going through his head. He had sent Karol a text earlier that night to let him know if he needed anything, though he did try not to seem so overbearing about it. But he did wonder if the boy was having fun. Considering he hadn’t heard back yet, he could only assume so. The thought put him at ease, at least a little bit, and Yuri had gotten this Genis’ number in case something happened. So one way or another, someone would contact him if something happened. 

However, this was not the only reason why he kept anxiously peeking at his phone at every chance he got. Part of him knew that he shouldn’t hold his breath about Flynn being able to pick him up. Sometimes Flynn got so caught up in his work (or whatever the hell he was doing) that he forgot to eat sometimes. So Yuri knew better than to expect Flynn to actually remember to pick him up. Plus, if he did show up, that meant that Yuri would have to follow up on his word and he would finally have to face what Flynn has been reaching for all this time.

And he still wasn’t sure about his answer. But, they were both about to be adults, right? He was capable of having an actual conversation about everything… right? And it would feel nice to try and be honest about something right now, all things considered. 

“You seem distracted.” Judith points out as she finishes pouring a patron another drink, managing to keep eye contact with Yuri instead of on the drink she was pouring. Of course, it was like second nature to her. “You keep checking your phone like a mother hen. Should I start thinking of confiscating it?” 

It was a tease, of course. He knew she had no intention of taking the phone away but Yuri grimaced nonetheless. “I’m not that distracted.” A lie, and a weak one at that. “Just thinking about how boring it is on my end.”

“Mm, I suppose the dining room is slow, for a Friday night…” Her eyes scan the dining room as she moves to grab another drink to mix up. “I do agree, though. It is pretty quiet here without Karol.” 

“I mean, yeah. He’s way more talkative than both of us.” Yuri snorts quietly. “I’m sure it’s quieter than usual because the Old Man isn’t here either.” 

“Mm, you do have a point. Seems like everyone’s got something going on nowadays.” 

“You sound jealous.” 

“Aren’t you?” Judith raises an eyebrow, only earning a shrug in return. “Maybe we should go out into the city one of these days.” 

“I don’t exactly have much free time anymore.” Yuri explains as he moves to lean against the counter. 

Judith finishes mixing up a drink and pours it into a cup before sliding it to another patron, who happily takes it, slapping some cash on the counter. She takes it, counting through it carefully before moving to put it into the cash register before she moves over to the edge of the bar to continue the conversation with Yuri. 

“I suppose being a senior in High School with a part time job is already hard enough.” She guesses with a smile. “But surely you’re not pushing yourself, right?” 

That sounded more like a threat than concern. God, if only Judith knew. “I’m fine. I’m already dealing with Flynn fretting over me. I don’t need you to start too.” 

“You know…” Judith starts, moving to clasp her hands together before resting her chin on them. Her voice holds a feigned innocence to it and it’s enough to tell Yuri that he’s in for it now. “You always talk about how hard Flynn works… Have you ever considered that it’s bad if the guy who supposedly works himself to death is worried about how hard you’re working yourself?” 

Yep, here it comes. Yuri narrows his eyes for a moment before moving to step away. “No, he just worries about anyone that isn’t himself.” 

“Oh, that also sounds like someone I know.” The woman giggles to herself before her expression falls into something a bit more soft. “Just keep it in mind, alright? Flynn isn’t the only one concerned.”

“You know, Judy, if you’re worried about me, just say so.” Yuri forces a smirk. “You don’t have to hide behind Flynn–” 

“Who said I was hiding? Unlike you, I’m very intune with my feelings. But it’s not just me either.” 

Before Yuri could ask for clarification on who she was talking about, the bell to the door of the restaurant suddenly chimed, indicating customers. Judith and Yuri both looked up towards the door and upon seeing an older woman with a child wander in, Yuri took it as his cue to drop the conversation for now and get back to work. 

“My saviors~” He teasingly grins to Judith (who simply snorts with a shake of her head) before hurrying over to the pair, sporting a rather friendly smile as he does so. “Hey, guys, welcome. Have a seat, I’ll get you some menu–”

He pauses when he gets closer to the two. The young kid, sporting a blue t-shirt and shorts with messy white hair, he didn’t recognize but the older woman standing with him, short white hair and wearing a button up coat with boots with a stern expression on her face, was one who was pretty familiar to him. He had heard that his history professor had a little brother, so seeing Professor Sage's little brother right next to her? He could see the resemblance. 

“Well hey there, Professor Sage.” Yuri drawls, with a lazy grin as he moves to grab two menus. “I haven’t seen you here before. Is this the famous little brother I hear people talking about?” 

Upon looking at the kid, he notices that he’s probably around Karol’s age and he couldn’t help but wonder if the two knew each other. The kid, however, did not seem very happy to be there as he stood between the two of them, rigid and stiff with fists clenched at his side. He was also staring hard at the ground, avoiding any and all eye contact with Yuri and the professor.

Professor Sage gives him a tiny nod of greeting, quickly giving his greeting a smile of acknowledgement. “Yuri, it’s nice to see you. I have to admit, I was surprised when I heard you were working here. But it seems like you’re settling well enough.” She does reach out and puts a firm hand on the kid’s shoulder, and he flinches heavily under her touch and Yuri can’t help but raise an eyebrow. 

“You heard I started working here? Who’d you hear that from?” He hadn’t exactly made it public knowledge yet. Not that he was planning a big reveal or anything. It just wasn’t anyone’s business. Not even Flynn knew where he worked until today. 

Yuri took a step back, intending to lead the two to a table while they talked but the professor and her pale as a ghost little brother remained rooted where they stood. “Oh, thank you, Yuri but we aren’t actually planning on eating in.” Yuri watches as she smiles down at her little brother and– oh, that’s the smile she uses when someone in class is in big trouble.

You have my condolences, little guy. 

“...Um. Okay?” Yuri slowly puts down the menus as he looks between the two of them. “Then… how can I help you? Do you guys need the bathroom…? It’s in the back.”

He notices how she squeezes the kid’s shoulder. “Genis? Why don’t you let Yuri know why we’re here?”

“Genis?” Yuri’s lips fall open a bit, and instantly, he’s looking past the professor and Genis towards the front door, looking for that familiar tuft of brown hair. Karol was, unfortunately, nowhere in sight. “Genis… You’re Karol’s friend, right? Where’s Karol?” 

Genis’ fists clench tighter as his elder sister nudges him forward, a movement that was gentle but also firm. Her smile is gone now as she glances up to Yuri and he’s suddenly filled with dread. 

“Karol… is… camping out in the Quoi Woods for the night. Our friend Anise dared him to and– And I told him that he was stupid for it but he didn’t listen and–” Genis finally forced himself to look up to Yuri, eyes wide in shame. 

Yuri couldn’t even process it. His mind seemingly shut off as he stared dumbly at the professor and Genis. 

Karol was camping. Camping in the Quoi Woods. Camping in the Quoi Woods where there was a supposed sighting of a monster. Or a bear. Or something. Karol was there. By himself. Karol snuck off without telling him. Karol could be in danger. Karol was–!

Yuri didn’t even realize he was moving until he was behind the bar, hand shooting for the computer so he could quickly clock out, throwing his apron off in the process. Judith must have picked up on how pale he looked because she quickly reached out and grabbed his shoulder. 

“Yuri, what’s wrong?” She frowns, concern clear on her face as he suddenly rips himself from her grasp. “Yuri?” 

“Karol snuck off so I’m going to go grab him before he–” Gets himself killed. “--gets lost or hurt.” The words hurt his throat as he moves past Judith. “Sorry, it’s an emergency, Can you–”

Judith holds her cellphone up immediately. “I’ll text someone to come and finish your shift.” She frowns, her casual attitude from before turned serious. “Text me when you find him. Please.” 

“Yeah.” Yuri breathes out, trying to keep calm as he hurries out the door. As he passes the professor and Genis, he hesitates and he has half a mind to scold Genis because what was he thinking, letting Karol run off like that?! But the Professor seemingly reads his mind and quickly pushes him towards the door.

“Go on. I am perfectly capable of scolding Genis. Please expect a written apology as well when you return back to class on Monday.” Something about her words indicated that the written apology was the least of the kid’s problems right now. 

He decided to leave it to her. 

As he ran out the door, he let out a whistle towards the makeshift dog house right outside of the restaurant, calling for his furry partner. Repede had barely stuck his head out before Yuri was running by, bending down and scooping the dog up as he took off in a sprint towards the park. As he sprints down the street, trying to remember what path to take to get to the park from there, he hears his ring tone ring out and his phone is out in an instant. 

Seeing Estelle’s name on the caller ID fills him with dread. When he answers, he’s already breathing hard from the running, earning a quiet whine of protest from his pup companion. “Estelle–!”

“Oh– Yuri! Good evening!” Estelle greets, sounding a bit surprised over the phone by Yuri’s heavy breaths. “I’m sorry for bothering you, is this a bad time? I was calling to let you know that I was able to find something about the Quoi Wood–”

“Estelle–” Yuri interrupts her, having to slow down just slightly as he skids around the corner of the street. He pauses to gain an idea of where he was before deciding to continue north. “ Please tell me that the rumors about a monster are just rumors!” 

Estelle hesitates, likely confused as to why Yuri was behaving in such a way. “Um… Well… It seems like there’s a possibility that there’s something strange there. I found reports of a strange phenomenon and I think there could be–”

Another stab of dread shoots through him as Yuri yells out before she can finish her sentence. “DAMMIT!” He spits out as he stumbles to a stop and doubles over for a moment. This earns a tiny squeak of surprise from Estelle as she quickly speaks up again.

“Yuri, what’s wrong?!”

He has to take a moment to control his breathing as he quickly begins his running pace again, pulling the phone back up to his ear. “Estelle, Karol snuck off and is camping in those woods right now . I don’t know why but I need to get there right now.”  

Estelle falls silent as Yuri spots a street sign, showing the park wasn’t too far from his location. He sighs in relief, thankfully that he was heading the right direction. The moon was shining bright in the sky, which thankfully illuminated his path but everything looked so different at night that it was easy for him to lose his way if he wasn’t careful. 

“Yuri–” Estelle speaks up again, voice coming through the speaker with that same determined firmness she usually showed when she made her mind up about something. “Do you have your cloak and mask?” 

“Wh-What? No, Estelle, I don’t have time–” 

“Will Hanks let me into your apartment if I ask?” 

“What?” Yuri glances around the area and spots another sign nearby. To the west. He makes the turn and keeps his pace. “I mean– Maybe. Is there time for that though?” 

“I’ll go and get your cloak and mask and I’ll meet you in the woods.” Estelle explains carefully and Yuri picks up a hint of nervousness in her tone. “I’ll come as fast as I can but in the meantime, you have to find Karol before something else does!” 

Yuri, despite the fear settling in his gut, can’t help but give a tiny smile at that. “...Right. Right, yeah, I will. Don’t worry. Thanks, Estelle.” 

“Please do not thank me. Just promise me one thing, Yuri. Be careful and don’t let anyone see your face, if you can help it.” Her voice is stern and serious and he wonders if there’s something more to her words than that. Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to dig into it right now.

“I don’t plan on stopping to have a conversation with anyone so no problem.” Yuri breathes out. “Check the top dresser for the cloak and the mask. Thanks again, Estelle. I’ll see you soon.”

“Be careful, Yuri!”  

With a tap of a button on his phone, the call ends and Yuri shoves the phone back into his pocket before clenching his left fist. “Okay, Repede, think you can sniff Karol out when we get to the park?” 

Repede perks up at him, giving him a single wag of the tail before giving a bark of agreement. This earns a grin from Yuri as he glances down at the Bodhi Blastia on his left wrist. He notices a warm glow begin to emit from the core within, followed by a surge of power.

“Awesome. Let’s go find the Captain.” He grins and with a flex of his left arm, a familiar and warm flash of light shoots from the core and envelopes his body.  

===

Ages in the Chapter by the way: Raven: 35 Rita: 15 Judith: 20 Patty: 11 I decided to make Judith a bit older than Yuri in this AU. She just has that older big sis vibe to be honest. Also, in case you haven't noticed, I REALLY love the Big Brother Yuri / Little Brother Karol dynamic so much, they made me so emotional in game bro. I also wish I could promise that the next chapter will be shorter but I legitimately have no idea LOL

#tales of vesperia #tales of series #yuri lowell #fluri #ristelle #bravus vesperia magica #ch 4 #magical person au

[yourpalghost]

Sorry im chatty this morning but

Yall sometimes

Sometimes its SO hard to accept that I’m sick.

Like, I know a lot of it is shame and what not. Most of it is. Some of the problem is imposter syndrome and stuff of the likes. Downplaying my own issues, thinking im doing it for attention, etc.

Like. Im not important enough to be sick. I SHOULD be able to do XYZ. Oh its not THAT bad, people have it worse. Does that REALLY hurt or are you just faking? Afterall, thats also just normal.

So like, I have chronic fatigue so i’m always tired and since my baseline moved, i don’t notice how tired i am until its even worse and sometimes the worse isnt an extra sleepy feeling, its my body feeling heavy, brain fog, and often times being more prone to crying (i call this the sleepy weepies).

I have a connective tissue problems which lead to constant pain so my baseline moved so I don’t notice the pain until it gets worse but sometimes the “getting worse” is just feeling like im gonna vomit for no clear reason, feeling dizzy, or sweating all of a sudden(also brain fog but I usually attribute that to the fatigue). (Not to even mention the literal excruciating periods I have that literally leave me shaking and in so much extra pain Im regularly on the verge of blacking out AND STILL GO ABOUT LIFE. Thats its own additional bullshit)

And these two things are going on together at all times

Those questionnaires that are like “where is your base level of pain”? I cant answer them because the pains so constant my brains blocked it out so its at a zero. Its like how your brain blocks out your nose or the sound of your heart beat in your ears. How it sometimes blocks out the feeling of certain things against your skin and just registers it as pressure.

My finger is fucking shattered right now(its healing up well) but like aside from the initial SURPRISE of getting it fucking crushed, it “doesnt hurt”. Because i regularly experience worse pain than BREAKING A FUCKING BONE. The pain is at zero but i feel sick. If someone else who wasn’t an experiencer of chronic pain jumped in my body, they would be on the ground in agony. And like I know im IN pain because painkillers when I do use them jusy dull itfrom distracting to noticeable unless im fortunate enough to have been granted the big boy pain meds that make you silly. That shit? Works. When it wears off, my whole body aches and hurts and it sucks.

AND WHILE ALL OF THIS IS TRUE, I STILL FEEL LIKE IM NOT SICK ENOUGH TO BE CONSIDERED SICK.

I hurt all the time and im so fucking tired all the time but I just keep going because “its not that bad” and while I need various aids (knee braces, wrist braces, honestly a chair or scooter, migraine glasses, and more) I just dont use them or cant justify getting them.

God the way that a mobility aid would improve my quality of life is astounding and I recognize thats enough of a reason to then say “then I need it”, brain also wont let me! Because idk man? I just gotta “push through”.

I started this forlorn and now im mad. Mad at me and my situation and everything really. Im so fucking tired and in lots of pain and I just wish it didnt suck so hard. I just wish i wouldn’t push myself. Yall I have to have other people tell me “you dont want to go to the store, you want to go for a walk” so I dont push myself to be productive on my days off. I had to convince myself to stay home from classes today instead of pushing myself through it to then have to recover wednesday and not vane enough time to recover and then push myself through thursday and then have to push myself all the way back through again to start the damn cycle over next week.

Im working on accepting that im sick and its hard and we all have days where we relapse into “no im not im just xyz” but gdi. Im sick im sick im sick. I am disabled, my shits debilitating, its chronic im sick IM SICK I AM SICK

#ghost chatter #air vent rattling #vent #sick #chronic illness #chronic pain

[thatblackravenclaw]

No I Don't

Blog Details + My Library

author note: I write more fics in class than I do actual class work at this point 💀 I hope this doesn't flop because I wrote this before putting in a word document.

Draco Malfoy x black!fem!slytherin!reader

au: lovers in denial

word count: 3k

warning(s): cursing, weed usage, smut, mommy kink, fingering, kind of d/s dynamic, oral (male receiving), i hate using british slang

.

.

.

Finally some peace and quiet. The fire is lit, book in hand, blanket on lap, and no one in the common room, because Cedric is hosting a party. I take out the bookmark and lay it on the coffee table and lean against the arm of the couch.

“Hey, l/n.”

I was so close. I pick up my bookmark and moved my legs from taking up the other spaces on the couch.

“Hello, Draco. Why are you here?”

“I live here.”

“No. I mean yes, but no. Hufflepuff party? Ring any bells?”

“Yeah, but Pansy is there. I need a break.”

“Fair enough, but out of all the places in this castle, why the common room? You see this place every day. Go explore.

“Oh, but I love your company so much, so here I am.”

“Keep it in your trousers. I’m going back to my book.”

“Can you read it to me?”

I roll my eyes and pat my lap for him to lay down. He looks giddy as he makes his way around the couch and adjust himself to have his head on my lap and his legs hang over the other arm. The fire stays steady as I read chapter after chapter. Draco’s eyes are closed, but I can tell that he’s still awake, hanging on to every word by his eye movements whenever something silly or drastic happened.

There’s a bunch of noises outside the door as I’m about to start the last chapter. I looked around to find the grandfather clock and see that it is 3:57 am. Draco’s eyes flutter open and look into mine. He sits up and I pick up the bookmark again, knowing that is how far I will be getting in the book tonight.

“Draco!” I’m going to beg Goyle to stop giving that girl tequila.

I take this as my chance to make an escape. I stand up and make my way to the girls’ dorm, but before I can even take a step, I feel Draco’s hand on my forearm. I look down at him and his artic eyes are begging me to not leave. I feel a pang in my heart, but I already have to share a room with her, so I give him a sympathetic look before taking my leave.

.          .          .

“I think that he’s finally warming up to me.” Pansy plops on her bed while talking to Daphne.

“I think that you’re becoming more delusional.” Daphne responds. I almost snort at the comment.

“You’re just jealous.”

“You’re just delusional. Everyone knows that y/n and Draco are dating.”

I slam my dresser drawer and face Daphne.

“Now you are delusional. I was getting ready to shower and I get attacked unprovoked.” Daphne rolls her eyes.

“You’re both delusional. Pansy, Draco’s in love with y/n. Y/n, you’re in love with Draco. I’m going to hang out with Cedric. Bye.”

I don’t even get to rebuttal before the door is shut in our face.

“If you go anywhere near Draco-“

“Pansy, I will knock your ass out. Sit down. Don’t nobody want Draco but you.” I take the rest of my stuff and also shut the door in her face.

Out of all the people in this school, Draco? God, I hope she isn’t spreading this around. I can barely stand him, let alone be in love with him. How did I get in the common room. Fuck, bro. I do not feel like walking back up. I look around and find Draco and Blaise still sitting on the couch.

“Do you guys ever sleep,” I ask. They both jump as they hear my voice.

“Lighten up, y/n. It’s a Sunday.” Blaise says while handing me the bong. I set my stuff down on the chair before taking it out of his hand.

“So,” I start after I exhale, “How did you get Pansy to leave you alone?”

“Told her I was going to bed and would talk to her tomorrow.” He takes a hit and passes it back to Blaise.

“What an empty promise.” I chuckle.

My legs stretch out in front of e and I relax into the cushion.

“Wish I could get rid of her that easily.”

After 30 minutes the fire started to look 2D  so whenever Blaise tried to hand it to me, I shook my head, unable to feel my limbs.

“If all of Blaise’s exes had to fist fight, who do you think win?”

“Why are you like this?” He asks me, clearly exasperated.

“Probably Aaliyah.” I bust out laughing at Blaise’s offended reaction to Draco’s answer.

“No way. It would be Selene.” Blaise responds.

I finally gain control of my limbs as they keep arguing as to which ex would win. I stand and stretch my arms over my head, letting out a mix of a groan and a moan as my muscles unstiffen. I open my eyes and notice Draco and Blaise staring at me.

“Uh, hi?” I give them a weird look before turning around and picking up my bathroom tote. I’ll just take a shower when I sober up. I don’t exactly trust myself to consecutively stand right now. I look back in their direction and see them occupied with hushed tones. It sounds a bit like arguing, but I don’t care enough to listen.

“Alright gentlemen, as fun as this has been, I must return to my dorm and pray to Merlin that the future Mrs. Draco Malfoy is asleep.”

“Sounds like you wish it was you.” Blaise says.

“Haven’t you heard? According to Daphne, I already am. Apparently we’re deeply in love.”

“So she sees it too?” Blaise also stands while looking at me.

“For the love of- We are just friends.” Draco is standing now too as he speaks.

“I’m going to bed.” I don’t even wait for their response as I make my way to my dorm.

To my relief, when I walk in the room, Pansy is sound asleep. I slip off my pajama bottoms before getting into bed.

“Why don’t you just date Blaise instead?”

When is it my turn to be happy?

“Why Blaise?”

“You guys have a lot in common.”

“Like what? That we’re black and get smoke?”

“See! You do have stuff in common!”

“If that was the case then you’re his type too. Unless you’re rejecting your black side this week.”

“But-“

“Good night Pansy.”

.          .          .         

I wonder when Cedric and Cho are going to break up? Not that I’m praying on their downfall or anything. It’s just known that Hogwarts couples don’t last long. Dean and Ginny dated for like 6 months, Ron and Lavender dated for 5, and I think Fred and Angelina only went on 1 date.

“Y/n? Hello? You with us?” I look at Pansy and blink at her.

“What do you want?” I say after I come back to Earth.

“Shh! Draco’s coming.” She starts to pat down her hair and clear her throat. I make a disgusted face before looking down at my food. All of a sudden, the thought of chicken disgusted me, so I started eating the mashed potatoes.

“Draco has an announcement.” Blaise proclaims.

“No I don’t.” He says while sitting down across from me, but next to Pansy.

“A Miss Tracy Davis has asked out our young Draco.” Blaise says as he sits next to me.

My throat tightens and my appetite completely vanishes. I try not to show any reaction to the news.

“And he said no,” I unconsciously relax, “and told her that ‘a gentleman asks the girl out’ and then asked her out.” And I feel sick again. I drop my fork and throw on a fake smile.

“Oo, who knew that Draco was such a sweet talker.” He rolls his eyes before he started putting food on his plate.

The nasty feeling doesn’t subside as conversations continue around me. Pansy looks how I feel. I can clearly see the tears well up in her eyes. A twinge of empathy is felt as I observe her state of being.

.          .          .

As I lay in my bed, I try to sort out everything. I don’t like Draco. I’m not in love with him. He’s Draco. He’s spoiled and self-centered and pompous. Our families have pushed for a union, but we always refuse. We’re just friends. So what, whenever anything good happens to me, my first instinct is to tell him or that I volunteer to suffer through his family’s dinner parties every holiday. And so what whenever he rejects a girl I get a tiny bit happy. Why am I letting this get to me? Blaise and Daphne just got into my head and are making me over-analyze everything. I most likely only feel this way because the said something.

“Alohomora.” I hear from the other side of the door. Shit. I should’ve known that wouldn’t keep Pansy long I sit up in my bed and am met with Daphne stumbling through the door. I lay back down with a sigh of relief.

“Who was last night’s victim.” I ask after she drops her shit on her bed.

“Dean from Gryffindor.” A knowing smile lifts her cheeks.

“Nice choice. I thought he was dating Ginny again?”

“She got back with that one bloke from Ravenclaw. I just happened to have been there to comfort him.”

“You’re sick, you know that?” I say with a bit of a dry laugh as I stand up and go get my coat off of our cupboard.

“I’ll have you know; Dean came on to me. Not the other way around and he was in control the whole time. Thank you very much.”

“Yeah, alright. I’m going out to smoke. Wanna join?”

“Nah, me and Dean just got through about 15 minutes ago, so I’m gonna go to sleep.”

“GROSS! TOO MUCH INFORMATION!” I simultaneously close my ears and our door. Maybe Draco wants to smoke. Hopefully he’s not busy.

The walk to his dorm isn’t far. I’m standing outside before I know it. My hand raises to knock, but I hear muffles on the other side. I lean so that my ear touches the door. My hands are also on the door to keep me steady. The muffles become low moans. A wet substance is heard between every moan. I shouldn’t be doing this. Curiosity killed the cat.

“Fuck, right there baby.” It’s Draco. I clench my thighs at the sounds.

I almost knock until I realize that he’s probably in there with Tracy. My stomach turns and I back away, making my way to the common room. A fucking pervert is what I am. Why did I eavesdrop. He’s my best friend and even if he wasn’t, that’s still fucking weird.

“Fuck, I’m so sorry,” I say after I bump into, I look up, Tracy.

“You’re perfectly alright. I’m just looking around for Draco.” I stare at her, unblinking. Who did I hear in his room then?

“I think I know where he is. I’ll send him down to the common room for you.”

“Really? Thank you.” I return her smile and go back toward his room.

Could it have been someone else? No way. He’s an asshole, but he’d never two-time someone. There’s only one logical answer. He was masturbating. My pussy throbs at the thought. No. This is all in my head. The door is back in my sigh, and I feel my heart rate pick up. I stand in front of it, but this time there’s no muffles. My ear once again meets the door and listens. For a few seconds there’s no noise, but then I hear a whimpering. I let out a quick exhale. My thighs rub together to relieve that missing friction.

“Mommy, please let me cum.” His begging almost makes me open the door to help him cum.

“Y/n, please.” I jump away from the door and just stare at it.

I’m hearing things. That’s it. I bring my ear back and hear a quiet shout of my name and then heavy breathing. I stand in shock. Daphne was right. Blaise was right, but how? He has given no indication that he’s in love with me. I shake off my thoughts and get myself together. My hand raises and knocks on the door. There’s shuffling before he opens the door. His face is flushed, hit shirt is on but it’s not buttoned, and his signature slicked back hair is now a moppy mess.

“Y/n? What are you doing here?” There’s a detectable nervousness in his voice.

“Tracy is looking for you, but I can tell her that you’re busy.”

He clears his throat as he buttons up his shirt.

“I’m not busy. Just wasn’t expecting you. Do you want to come in?” I want you to cum inside. Girl, what is wrong with you? Behave.

“Sure,” I shrug. He makes way and I awkwardly shuffle in.

“So I’m guessing it’s going good with Tracy, huh?” I look in the mirror and assess my hair to help calm my nerves.

“It’s not.” My dreads swing across my shoulder as I turn to look at him.

“What do you mean?”

“Blaise and Tracy are dating. He lied to get a reaction out of you or something.”

You’ve got to be kidding me. You have got to be fucking kidding me. I sit next to him on the bed and notice a dent in the bed where he usually lays. I wonder how long he was masturbating.

“Mm, they still on that, huh?”

“Yeah. I was kind of curious myself, to be honest.” I nod my head and lay where he had before. I then take a deep breath.

“Oh, mommy! Please y/n let me cum! I need it, please!” His face becomes mortified as I mock his sounds from earlier.

“I can’t believe you listened.”

“I can’t believe you didn’t cast a silencing charm. So, how long have you been in love with me?” Red completely takes over his face. I sit back up and nudge him with my shoulder.

“I’m not in love with you.”

“Oh, totally. What if I just,” I take his chin and turn his face completely toward me. My hand slides down to his throat. Our eyes meet, “this.” My eyes go down to his lips and then back to his eyes. His avoid mine as he pushes my hand away from around his neck.

“That doesn’t prove anything.”

“Does this prove anything?”

I take his hand in mine while I spread my legs. With my free hand, I reach under my skirt and move my underwear to the side. I look deep into his eyes as I move his hand up my thigh and to my now uncovered core. His breath hitches as his fingers caress through my folds and to my clit. I choke on a moan but maintain eye contact. He gathers my slick and circles around my clit. I take a chance and lean in, connecting our lips. He’s hesitant, but after a beat, he starts to chase after my life. The room fills of slightly heavy breathing and my cum as his fingers are now slowly thrusting in and out of my heat.

“Fuck, don’t do me in.” I moan as I reluctantly pull my lips from his. His fingers leave me and I almost cry.

My fingers play around with his zipper. The throbbing from my clit urges me to actually pull his zipper down. I look up at him and notice that his eyes are full blown with lust and his lips are a glossy shade of red from the event that just took place.

Once the zipper is down, he helps me shimmy off his trousers. My eyes widen at the hardness that now faces me. He didn’t put his pants back on before he answered the door. The tip is an angry red and pre-cum flows down his shaft.

“Want mommy to take care of you?” He nods his head and I respond with a tsk.

“Need you to use those big boy words.” I slide off of the bed from beside him and slip in between his legs.

“Please, mommy.” He whimpers. I feel more slick leak out of me.

I reach down and play with my clit while caressing his thigh. My clit begins to throb again. My fingers slid down and gather the cum that has accumulated and use it as lube. I nimbly spread my cum across his tip and down his shaft. It glistens in the dimly lit room. I lick from the bottom to the tip. His moans fill the room, and his hips buck up to my face. I smooth my hand down his thigh to calm him down as I slowly take him in my mouth. My lips wrap around the tip and my tongue explores around. The tang of our cum hits my tastebuds and my moan vibrates down his cock. I inch him further and further until my nose hits the base. His hand reaches down and intertwines with my free hand. He holds back his moans, and I don’t like that. I close my throat around him and let the vibrations of my moans consume him. A drawn out “fuck” leaves his lips. I smile to the best of my ability and bob my head, stopping halfway down his shaft and let my hand jerk off the rest .

“Please, y/n.”

I let go of him with a ‘pop’ and innocently look up at him.

“What do you need, baby?”

He looks down as I continue jerking him off, but he isn’t looking at my hand. I look down and realize that a few of my buttons have undone and you can see a glimpse of my cleavage. I look back up at him with a soft smile. I discreetly scooch closer, so his view is aligned with my breasts and his cock.

“You want mommy’s tits?” He nods his head before his cum squirts out. It hits my sternum and flows down my cleavage. I tap his tip on the top of my tits and let droplets of cum decorate my chest.

Draco Masterlist

#draco malfoy x slytherin!reader #draco malfoy x y/n #draco malfoy x reader #draco malfoy one shot #draco x you #draco malfoy smut #draco x black!fem!reader #draco x female reader #slytherin!reader #slytherin reader #black reader #harry potter smut

[gersprincess]

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ naruse shisuto

warnings: none

summary: naruse surprises you one morning before class

word count: 0.6k

you knew naruse shisuto.

well, you didn’t just know him, you had the great pleasure of being friends with him.

he was certainly a handful.

but, lucky you, you were also friends with chuusaku kometani, which made everything else better.

the only time it really got bad was when chuusaku was gone, since naruse decided to become way more annoying on those days.

honestly, you were scared for what he did when both of you were gone.

however, despite his out-of-control narcissistic behavior, you still somehow seemed to fall for the blue-haired boy.

granted, he would never know, since you didn’t plan on ever telling him.

he didn’t need another ego boost, and someone saying that they liked him to his face may cause him to get over-confident.

if he liked you, he would say it to your face, as you had seen him do with numerous people before.

maybe he didn’t confess his undying, absolute love to them, but he was still pretty confident that everyone wanted to at least be friends with him.

you knew that you should probably tell him that no one really knows he exists, but you didn’t really feel like doing that.

as you were thinking about naruse, you saw someone slide their chair from their desk and sit in it.

you quickly realized it to be naruse, since he had pretty noticeable blue hair and no one loosened their tie and blew on their hair before they sat but him.

“morning, naruse,” you greeted without looking up from your phone.

he looked at you and grinned, pushing up his glasses before he stood up, walked over to your desk, and slammed a folded piece of paper on the smooth wood surface.

you jumped and turned off your phone, setting it on your desk, before looking at the blue-haired man in front of you.

“what the hell?” you questioned him, but he just nodded towards the piece of paper, sending you what you thought the be a wink.

you rolled your eyes but picked up the paper, unfolding it and seeing a ticket to a movie, but you were too confused to check which one it was.

“and this is?” you asked naruse, looking up at him with a blank expression, and he pouted, moving his hand to run through his hair, keeping it there while he spoke through slanted eyes.

“why, a movie ticket, of course.”

you deadpanned

“yeah i got that far, sherlock. what’s it got to do with me?”

naruse frowned, seeming more keen on trying to get people to notice him than actually frowning at you, and responded.

“we’re going to go to the movies together.”

oh.

oh.

“what?” you mumbled, seeing as that was all you could say at the moment.

“surprised? i know, my charm does that to people.” naruse grinned.

you scoffed, shoving the movie ticket into your school bag. 

“fine. i’ll meet you there.” you answered shortly, and naruse smirked.

“i’ll pick you up thirty minutes early.” 

you rolled your eyes.

“whatever. you’re just wasting fuel.” you responded.

“any fuel i use for you could never be wasted.” 

“yeah, yeah. just get in your seat, jane austen.” you quipped, sitting down as the bell rang.

naruse ran a hand through his hair, winking at you once before pushing up his glasses and heading to his seat.

needless to say, you looked forward to the movie, even if you had already watched it last week.

a/n: i feel like naruse would be the kind to go see minions in theaters, but that may just be me

#x reader #naruse shisuto #shisuto #naruse #naruse shisuto x reader #komi san wa komyushou desu #komi can't communicate #movie #fluff #writers on tumblr #naruse x reader #imagine

[khalixascorner]

Be My Baby Mama Ch2

Summary: Peter and SIM Tony accidentally end up pregnant when they spend a heat together. They decide to keep the pup but how are a superhero and a supervillain supposed to do this whole parenting thing? And what's everyone else going to say when they find out?

“Umm, Mr. Stark, can I ask you something kind of personal?” Peter asked, not sure if he was going insane or if it was actually possible. Stark raised an eyebrow but gestured for him to go on. “Are you on birth control?” Stark just looked at him like he had grown a second head, then paled for a moment before his expression totally locked down behind a blank mask.

Read on AO3 Chap 1 Chap 2

Tags: Peter Parker/Tony Stark, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha Peter Parker, Omega Tony Stark, Mafia AU, Mob Boss Tony Stark, Villain Tony Stark, Mafia Typical Violence, no smut guys, It's all fluff, A little angst, Mpreg, Mating, SIM Tony Stark, sorta, Superior Iron Man Vol 1. (2015), Age Difference, Aged-Up Peter Parker, baby Stark, Crack Treated Seriously, Just a crack taken seriously fic where Peter and Tony get pregnant, have a pup, and fall in love, Tony is very bossy and Peter says Yes Omega all the time

The joy didn’t dim as Tony allowed him to place a mating bite, and he received one of his own in return. Luckily, it seemed to either reduce the effects of Tony’s new scent or grant him partial immunity because while he could still smell his mate strongly, it didn’t completely melt his brain. Tony also introduced him to JARVIS, which blew Peter’s mind.

The joy didn’t so much as flicker when Tony pulled some strings to move him to online courses immediately and relocate him discreetly to the tower so he could be present for the pregnancy and doctor’s appointments. Sure he had liked classes and his classmates, but he wanted to be a part of this and he was going to enjoy getting to know his complex mate.

It did take a hit when he approached the Avengers though. “You want to say that again?” Fury asked, the others staring at him in stunned silence. He had requested an emergency meeting, and sure, maybe leading with please take Iron Man off the wanted list wasn’t the best approach but still.

“Can we please take Iron Man off the active wanted list for the next 9 months? Actually, let's make that a year. There’s gotta be recovery time involved and stuff right?” Peter asked, his brain already starting to ramble.

“Recovery time for what?” Fury demanded.

“Oh sorry, I didn’t explain that very well,” Peter replied with an embarrassed chuckle. “Iron man is an omega and he's pregnant, so I’d really appreciate it if we could not bother them until after the pup is born and they’ve recovered.”

“And you know this how?” Widow asked.

“It’s my pup,” Peter replied, his heart still soaring that he could say that. He was going to be a father.

The room broke into noise as suddenly people were talking over each other and jumping up from their chairs.

“You bred Iron Man?” Rogers asked from next to him. “What were you thinking?”

“Sit down, all of you!” Fury’s voice barked out before Peter could reply. “Although I do want to know how this happened.”

“Well you see, sir, when an alpha and an omega have sex during a heat, pups are conceived in the mama’s belly?” Peter couldn’t help but snark even as he sat down.

“Funny, I thought that story normally goes when an alpha and omega love each other very much,” Nat interjected.

“I’m not normal, so why would this be normal?” Peter retorted.

“Enough joking, Parker,” Fury said. “How long have you been in a relationship with Stark?”

“I’m not, or at least I wasn’t until today,” Peter said with a blush. “He went into heat after getting kidnapped and I was just making sure he got home safely. I was going to leave but he asked me to help him through it and heats like that are hard on older omegas.”

“So you said, hey, let’s just stay and help an enemy omega through his heat without using protection?” Fury asked with a scoff.

“We used protection! It just failed,” Peter defended. He was a responsible alpha after all and he’d never try to entrap an omega. “But it worked out, and we’re both happy despite it being unexpected.”

“So you really intend to have a pup with that freak?” Barton asked, and Peter’s hackles went up.

“If you call my mate a freak again, I will put you through a wall,” Peter said, his voice calm but his eyes hard. He knew it was a bit of a stretch to think they’d be jumping for joy, but calling Tony a freak was a bit much.

“You do know he’s not even human anymore, right? And he’s a psychopath,” Clint said, adding fuel to the rage starting to burn in Peter.

“If we want to talk about abnormality, I’m fairly certain my spider DNA trumps the effects of extremis any day,” Peter said coldly. “So yes, I really plan to have my pup with Tony, and if you try to harm him while he is pregnant or if you go after my pup, I will have to stop you.”

“Parker, you can’t be serious,” Fury said, exasperated.

“Peter, he is a villain,” Steve said, trying to be calm. “He has done a lot of bad things, and who knows what he will use the pup for.”

A low growl began rumbling in Peter’s chest.

“I’m not going to let that happen, not that Tony would do that,” Peter said. His heart was breaking even as his blood boiled at their words. “Iron man has never harmed children or innocents.”

“That we know of,” Steve acknowledged. “But there could be other circumstances too. Are you really going to risk people’s lives over this?”

In that moment, Peter was consumed by the pain of their betrayal. The Avengers were supposed to be the good guys, but here was Captain America telling him to abort his unborn pup out of fear of… Tony? Of the pup’s future?

“I’m done here,” Peter said, standing abruptly, his chest tight with the urge to scream or just destroy things. “If you come near my mate or my pup, I will rip you to pieces and hang the parts from the Manhattan skyline. Spiderman will help with world ending events but otherwise, he’s done with the Avengers too.”

“So what, one heat with an omega and all of a sudden you’re willing to just flip sides?” Clint retorted. Peter didn’t even register moving when he suddenly had Clint shoved against a wall, holding him by a fistful of material. Peter growled, then flung Clint across the table into Steve’s lap.

“I’m done here. Stay out of my way before I file harassment charges.”

With that, Peter stalked off, never more disappointed in his childhood heroes. He didn’t expect them to be as ecstatic as he was, but he had expected them to see reason and be willing to at least consider helping him out. Their pup was innocent.

*****************************

Peter had initially intended to head back to the tower, but then realized he was too wound up to head back now. So he took off, swinging wherever his webs took him while thinking back over the whole interaction. He still didn’t understand how they could betray him like that. Was he not part of the team? He’d been working with them for two years and some change, and yet they’d turned on him without hesitation.

He felt like an idiot for ever thinking they’d actually cared about him. It stung, especially after everything he’d lost. As Peter tried to process the overwhelming emotions, he intervened in a few small-time crimes. And if he reacted a little more forcefully than normal, well, they were criminals and deserved it anyway.

As the anger slowly drained, hurt took over, and then a bit of worry.

What was Tony going to say?

Peter had been so confident that it would go differently and now he’d just endangered the omega more. They knew he was pregnant, when he had gotten pregnant and thus the due date, and they knew who the alpha was. On top of that, he’d acted like an empty knothead, making threats and blustering about when Tony was mentioned. The omega was known for his strength and independence, so Peter doubted he would take kindly to the alpha posturing.

********************

Eventually, it got late and Peter’s arms got tired, so he swung back to the tower. He let himself in and threw himself face down onto the bed he now shared with Tony. It wasn’t long before he heard a soft click of the door opening and closing again.

“J said you were back. Went that well, huh?” Tony asked as he sat on the bed next to Peter.

Peter almost didn’t move, but this was Tony and if he wanted things to work, he had to communicate.

“I knew they probably wouldn’t congratulate us and offer to throw a baby shower or anything, but I didn’t expect what I got either,” Peter mumbled from his spot. “I thought they cared at least a little, thought that Spiderman was a part of the Avenger family.”

“I’m sorry, kid.” Tony ran his hand gently through Peter’s hair before letting it drift down his back. “Want to talk about it?”

“I just- I thought I mattered, but their only reaction was outrage and disgust,” Peter said. “They, they called us- things- and implied that we should get rid of the baby because we’re not human enough I guess.”

“They what?” Tony asked dangerously. “What did you say?”

“After Barton called you a- a freak, I told him I’d put him through a wall if he did it again, then threatened them if they came near you,” Peter said, flushing. “I’m sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing?” Tony asked. His tone was odd, and Peter glanced up to see the omega staring at him.

“I know you don’t need me to defend you and I was just acting like one of those alphas that tries to hold their position over people,” Peter said, looking down.

“Did you mean it?” the omega asked.

“Mean what?”

“Your threats.”

“Every word,” Peter said firmly. He would happily do anything to protect his mate and child.

Peter jumped as Tony’s hand slid into his hair and opened his neck as the omega scented him. Then Tony began to purr and bit their mating mark again.

“Such a good alpha,” Tony said as he placed gentle kisses up Peter’s neck.

“You really don’t mind?” Peter asked hesitantly.

“In all of my life, no one has tried to offer me protection,” Tony said and Peter’s heart clenched. “When you’re in the position I am, you have to be strong. But I like knowing that you’ll kill for me. And you would, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes,” Peter whispered, stilling beneath Tony’s hands.

“Good alpha,” Tony said. “Only when I say so though. We have other options beyond killing for people that deserve it.”

“Yes, alpha,” Peter said, slumping as Tony finally let him go.

“You can tell Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy with me if you want,” Tony says after a moment. “I guarantee they’ll offer to throw us a baby shower.”

“It’s ok,” Peter said with a huff. “I wouldn’t want to intrude. They’re your family, right?”

“If you’re going to be my mate, that would make them your family too,” Tony pointed out.

Peter hesitated, because that sounded nice and was something he desperately wanted but he also didn’t want to make things more difficult for his mate. And while his relationship with the Avengers wasn’t the same as Tony’s with his three closest people, he couldn’t help but feel he wouldn’t be welcomed.

“Do you not want to be family?” Tony asked when Peter didn’t reply.

“I don’t want to mess your family up,” Peter finally got out, his throat tight as old traumas decided to rear their head. “I can’t offer you another one, and I’m the intruder here.”

Tony grabbed Peter’s hair again, though much tighter this time, and wrenched him around to look Tony in the eye.

“I want you to listen closely, because I’m only going to say this once,” Tony said, his voice cool and his eyes full of authority. “You are here because I decided I was keeping you. You are the father to my pup and as long as you do right by them, you will have a place here with me. Anyone that has an issue with that can take it up with me. Do I make myself clear?”

Tears slipped down Peter’s face even as he made an aborted attempt to nod. Tony’s firm grip in his hair stopped him, and instead, he croaked out a yes. Tony held his gaze a minute longer, eyes searching Peter’s for something, though Peter couldn’t have said what. Then he released Peter’s hair, only to pull him into a hug.

“I’m sorry they let you down,” Tony said, placing gentle kisses on Peter’s head. The last barrier in Peter broke then, and he clung tightly to Tony as the tears poured from him, sobs slipping free even as he tried to keep them quiet.

“No, I’m sorry,” Peter said through the tears. “I didn’t realize and now you’re probably in more danger and it was stupid of me to even think I had a place among them.”

“Not stupid, just trusting, and that’s ok,” Tony said gently. “And don’t be too worried, I’m Iron Man. Even if I didn’t have Spiderman on my side, I could totally take them.”

“I won’t let them hurt you,” Peter vowed darkly. “I’ll rip them limb from limb.”

“Easy, my spider,” Tony said even as he dropped more kisses on Peter’s head. “We don’t want to have famous bodies to hide if we can help it.”

While Peter knew Tony was joking in this instance, he knew that the omega could make it happen. Iron Man was also known as the merchant of death and while he mostly focused on weapons trading, he was well known as a ruthless rival who would take down anyone in his way. And yet no one had been able to pin anything on him.

“Yes, Omega,” Peter replied dutifully. “I’ll try to behave.”

Tony just laughed and Peter felt himself relaxing into his mate. It didn’t fully take away the hurt of earlier, but it definitely soothed it.

#khalixa writes #mads made me do it #but what if we– khalixa tag😳 #ff starker #tony stark #peter parker #omegaverse #mafia au #mob boss tony #omega tony stark #alpha peter #mind the tags

[cosmosoracle]

Which memories are they? Can you tell us or is it a secret?

She recalls the moments when she was in front of the witch, willing to save her teammate's life, but scared of the sacrifice she was about to make. The timeless woman grinner at her distress, and offered her the chance to save something out of what she might have lost, without revealing her preference. Lia's fear immediately bit at the core of her being, at her most important memories, at her most important people. "I want to protect the memories who make me who I am," she stated in a hushed breath. The raven haired witch seemed to be disappointed. That was not what she was interested in at all, she replied, before standing from her chair and leaning forward. Lia trembled when she reached towards her, but didn't move. She stared at the fine cloth of the divine scarf slipping off from her, uncovering her neck and the glowing marks of the power word she owned, wide eyed. That familiar warmth left her her shoulders and she felt exposed. It was like... a piece of her had been brought away.

Thinking about it now, she still feels that sense of hopelessness freezing the blood in her veins. She closes her eyes and shakes her head, as if to send away the thought, and then takes off the simple replacement she found between her hands. She holds it tight as her gaze gets lost into the blue hue, thinking over again at what may equal its importance...

First thing popping in her mind is the necklace that still runs around her neck. A simple enchantment made it magical, granting nondetection against weak enemies or unattentive creatures. Another gift, which a mostly unknown person gave her when he realized her fear of being watched. He said it was what he used very long ago when he felt unsafe, but he needed it no more today. The second thing is her Missive Stone, which allows her to cast her Sending once per day with the owner of its twin, no matter how far they are - which happens to be the same one who gave her the pendant. And as she keeps focusing on her two belongings, a flash of realization shakes her even more...

Rasmia didn't flinch when her own son offered her the memories of his beloved in exchange for freedom from the pain. She would certainly go as far as it takes to bring the entirety of her relationship with Echo away. One scene runs after the other, of her bond growing stronger and stronger after every difficulty at first, and every class and lunch break after, when he became her wizardry teacher. But then the circle closes itself, and she also remembers the first reasons why she got so close to Echo in the first place.

He saved Igris from permanent possession by a demon they fought in the cursed basement of Besmara's church in Deadbridge. He's still searching him for her through his Scrying spell. Igris.

Her childhood friend, the first person she ever really saved, the very reason why she's roaming the land above the surface in the first place. Her protector, who mitigated her recklessness when she jumped right in the arms of hidden dangers. The one who always stood tall before her when threats were ahead.

Only two tears fall down her cheeks, wetting them beyond the black ones, but she allows no more to follow them. His abandoning the mission and the team is still an open wound to her, as it was his distrust towards the mission they got from the Gods. Having saved him is a fundamental part of her being, which brought her to care for others more and more as she grew up, but also gave her the final push to follow her call and dreams. His disappearance made her become stronger, more responsible, for her and others. She died for it, but was also brought back to tell the tale. She got even closer to the ones of her team, also because she was very well aware of the vacant spot the Ifrit left, despite all the disagreeing.

And if this all wasn't enough... he's part of the memories she already tried to protect from Rasmia once. The pact specifically requires to give up on something as important as the result of the pact for the one that gains the benefit - it doesn't matter if the witch gains something that will be useless for her or not. If the scarf was worth the life of a friend, then she may ask for her to lower her defenses towards the same things Lia kept her away from before.

So... which one would be worse now? Echo, the closest person she ever knew to a lover, that she met just few months earlier? Igris, the beloved friend who turned her back on her but taught her so much as they grew up together?

Will she even get to decide it herself, or will the witch find a way to carve her even deeper for her own interest?

#ic #answered #black tears crossed the world #anonymous #headcanon #echo #igris #rasmia #hoyt #zinnya #azemondeus #deadbridge #AAAA #also just so things are clear #while Igris is also here on Tumblr the character that was in the campaign was its very early version #I doubt the two can be identified as the same character anymore so #so if you have questions about this be aware we're talking about an independent campaign #ashava #campaign diary

[patrineptn]

Far From Home

Summary: Kagome is never too far from trouble, it seems. After moving to America to start over, she ends up in Hawkins just as strange things start to happen. Fandom: Inuyasha x Stranger Things (Ch 4) Crossover

Also available on FF.Net and AO3

Chapter 04

Kagome’s house wasn’t prepared to receive so many visitors. The couch was too small and there were barely enough chairs to fit everyone. In the end, Kagome decided to stay standing and had enough freedom of movement to pace around.

The others waited, some more patiently than others. Lucas worried over Max. Dustin looked ready to jump from his seat. Eddie, Steve, Nancy and Robin followed Kagome with their eyes. 

"I was fifteen when a demon attacked me for the first time. I was looking for my cat when a youkai - that's what we call some types of demons in Japan - Mistress Centipede, ripped open my side to take out a magic jewel I didn't know I carried." She lifted her top until the remaining scar showed up. "It was the Shikon no Tama, the Jewel of Four Souls, that vanished from the world five hundred years ago." Dustin bent forward, his mouth open to question something, but Steve stopped him. "From that moment on, nothing was the same. I was dragged down a well into a portal that took me to the past, to a time when demons roamed free and people were born with powers to fight them. I'm the reincarnation of the former guardian of the Jewel, who was fatally wounded when protecting it. I was born a priestess but was never trained to be one. At first, all I could do was keep the Jewel pure by touching it. Then, youkai found out about the return of the Shikon no Tama and came after it.

"The Shikon no Tama could increase any demon's power by infinite folds and it was believed to grant a wish. I've met a hanyou, half-human half-dog demon, that wanted to become a full youkai. The sister of the previous guardian helped me to subdue him. Then a crow demon tried to steal the Jewel. In an attempt to stop it from getting away, I shoot an arrow that broke Shikon no Tama into hundreds of pieces.

"This half-demon was called Inuyasha. We joined in a quest to get back all the shards. He wanted his wish, I wanted to fix my mistake. In our journey, we met a fox demon, Shippo, whose dad died because he had a Shikon shard; then a Buddhist Monk called Miroku whose family had been cursed by Naraku, the same demon that cause the death of the former Jewel's protector. Finally, the last members of our ragtag group were a demon slayer, Sango, that had her entire village slaughtered by Naraku, and her loyal companion Kirara, a two-tailed cat demon.

"My life was split in two. When I jumped down the well, I was a warrior priestess in training, searching for the shards and fighting against Naraku to stop his reign of chaos. Here, I was a student that missed most classes due to mysterious illnesses. I would come home every once in a while to take tests, but studying isn't a priority when you are fighting for your life. My grades sank, I failed that year and barely got into high school in the next.

"In the past, I had to learn how to shoot a bow, how to hide, how not to be a hindrance. They were my second family, brothers in arms, as you say in the west. I loved them so much." Tears cascaded down her cheeks. "Once all the shards were located, we found Naraku. We had gotten powerful enough to defeat him, but he had one last trick. He trapped me inside the Jewel and tried to deceive me into wishing to be free, but Inuyasha found me and I knew I had to make the right wish. I wished for the Jewel to disappear from existence. A blinding light surrounded us and the next thing I knew I was in my room. 

"My mother told me Inuyasha brought me unconscious and that the quest was over." She took a break. No one said a word. "For three years, I waited. I went to the well house every day, hoping to feel a slight hint of magic, hoping to go back to where I thought I belonged." Kagome closed her fists and gritted her teeth. "I… All I have left are my memories.” Her face softened. “And my powers.”

The glow started on Kagome’s hands and spread through her body. The lilac shine was fascinating and terrifying. At the same time, it could soothe someone's soul and burn them to death if they were corrupted enough. Kagome walked and stopped in front of Max. Lucas tensed but the ginger girl held him back. Kagome placed a finger on Max's forehead.

"A demon once tried to control me. He used my fears and insecurities to trap me inside my mind. I could break out once I accepted they were part of me and that there's nothing wrong with feeling that way." Max lowered her gaze. Kagome stepped back.

The people in the room stared mutely at Kagome. Dustin had his mouth open, with the corner of his lips turned up. Nancy, Steve and Robin just winked a few times. Lucas squeezed Max's shoulders. Eddie bit his nails, his face reflecting a hundred questions running through his mind, but he said nothing at the moment.

"So…" said Robin, "what can you do, exactly?"

Kagome put a hand on her chin and looked up. It has been a while since she really had to use her powers other than the eventual meditation and some aura expansion. “I can infuse my powers into an arrow, but I’m not sure how effective it can be against these things from the upside-down world.” ‘And I hope I won't have to test it,' she mentally added. "Oh, and don't fall for illusions, magic barriers or mind control. One of the perks of the holy powers, you know? Mind-related stunts usually don't work on me."

"Maybe that's why Vecna was so interested in you," said Max. "Perhaps he tried to enter your mind like he did with me and failed. Now he's wondering what makes you different."

"We can use it to our advantage," said Kagome. "How long between the symptoms and the attacks with Chrissy and Fred?"

"They died less than a day after seeing the clock." Max shivered. "I don't have much time."

"What about Viktor Creel? He survived the curse," said Nancy. "I have a plan. Robin and I will talk to Creel in the morning and find out how he made it alive."

"Only the two of you?" Asked Steve. "I'm going too."

While Robin, Nancy and Steve discussed, Eddie pulled Kagome aside. Concern splashed over his face, with his eyebrows in a constant frown.

"How are you? Everyone's worried about Max, but you've been there with Vecna too."

"I've survived much worse." Kagome patted his arm. "Thanks for asking."

"You didn't tell us everything."

"It's complicated," she said. "I never expected anyone to believe it, so I never prepared myself to tell the whole story. Not even my mother knows all the gore details. She would freak out if she did."

"You can tell me. I'll believe every word, no matter how absurd." Kagome looked at him, questioning. "You are a gold mine of ideas for my campaigns. I am already planning the next Hellfire Club adventure. A cursed stone being chased by friends and foes alike. How good are your drawing skills? You will need to tell me all the details about the folks you've met. Kagome Higurashi, I deem you my muse."

Kagome released a heartfelt laugh. For the first time since her adventures ended, she felt normal. She was around people of her age who had experiences somewhat similar to hers. That alone gave her the strength to do her best to help this group she just met.

It was morning again when the group moved to the Wheeler’s basement. Some of them were able to take a short nap, while others stayed in vigil. Neither Dustin, Lucas nor Eddie stepped outside during the night in case Jason happened to drive over. Before leaving, Kagome grabbed the bow she had carved and some arrows. When asked about it, she said it never hurts to be prepared.

Once Nancy and Robin left to meet the Hospice’s Director where Viktor Creel was being held and try having a talk with him, Max handed Steve, Dustin and Lucas a letter, with three more to be given to Eleven, Mike and Will. She insisted for them to open it only if Vecna’s curse got her, much to their groans and reassurance that everything was going to be fine. Kagome and Eddie were left out of the moment, not wanting to interfere with their friendship.

“I wasn’t expecting Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington to be like this,” said Eddie.

“Like what?” 

“Like a nice person. He had quite a reputation before graduating. The typical high school jerk. Henderson idolizes him and I always second-guessed his heroism. Now I’m second-guessing myself for judging him without actually knowing him.”

“He is a nice guy. His aura shines whenever he’s around the kids. It feels warm and comfy, almost fatherly. And I don’t think he’s any jerkier than any good-looking guy of his age.”

“Good-looking? So you’re falling for Harrington too?”

“Not at all. I’m into guys with long hair.” She winked and stood, following Max, who headed out with the others on her tail. 

Kagome checked the surroundings before signaling Eddie to come out too. Max wanted to visit some places in case it was her last day alive. They cramped Steve’s car, with Eddie keeping his head down. They reached the trailer park and Max went inside.

From the distance, Eddie saw his uncle by their front door.

“Don’t even think about it,” warned Steve.

“Come on, Steve. Uncle Wayne must be dead worried. He's the only family I have.”

“And he might be the only Munson left if Jason catches you. He could be hiding anywhere just waiting for you to show up. If you want to get beaten up so bad, you can do it after we leave.”

Kagome was already halfway when they stopped discussing. She rushed to the older man’s location, feeling the intense malice coming from inside the house. It overwhelmed her senses that she had to stop and take a short break before approaching him. She was still getting used to the upside-down world’s energy signature.

“Mr Munson? Wayne Munson?”

“If this is about Eddie, I’ve told everything to the police. I’m not talking to reporters anymore.”

“Don’t worry, Eddie is clean. The Sheriff knows he was with me that night. He can’t leave the city for now, but otherwise, it’s fine.” Wayne Munson finally looked at Kagome. “Do you see that car over there? Eddie wanted to come, but some guys still think it was him who killed Chrissy so it’s better if he stays under the radar.”

“Who are you? My nephew never mentioned fancying a girl.”

Kagome plastered a thin smile. Her cheeks burned under the stare he gave her. “We have some classes together. I’m Kagome, Kagome Higurashi.”

“Listen, Kagome,” he toned down his voice, “I know Eddie came home that night. Please, let me talk. And I don’t know why you lied, but I have a feeling that Eddie won’t be safe if he comes back now. Can I trust you to keep my nephew safe?”

“You can count on that!

#inuyasha #inuyasha crossover #inuyasha fanfic #inuyasha fanfiction #stranger things #stranger things crossover #kagome higurashi #eddie munson #dustin henderson #nancy wheeler #robin buckley #steve harrington #fanfiction #fanfic #crossover fanfic #crossover pairing

[apexart-journal]

Keegan Xavi in NYC, Day #?? I’ve got 9 days left

I got back from DC last night. Got off the bus on 8th, asked someone which was was 7th Ave So I wouldn’t walk in the wrong direction. Walked to Herald Square, jumped on a yellow line, was home in like 10 minutes. Maybe 15. Walked in the door. I was home. And it felt more like home since I got here because for the first time last night I got comfortable enough to act like I was at home. Which meant the floor exploded with my instant piles as I unpacked: shoes off and in the pile, paper souvenirs for possible collage projects over here, dirty laundry there, coat goes here - not in the closet, but over the arm of a chair. When I am comfortable I am messy lol  But I finally got comfortable enough to relax a little and just like I do at home, I sat in silence and just THOUGHT about things. The problem was back home, I no longer liked the things I was thinking about it and was desperate for NEW thoughts, ideas, higher vibrations of intellect and emotion. A lot of those things I HAD to think about, cuz that’s just life... but my thoughts were getting fucking stale to me and I am so grateful for this head change. 

D.C.:

- it’s so like downtown Mpls with its trees, bushes, flowers, etc, and antiquated bank-looking buildings everywhere... but also kinda desolate the way downtown mpls is on the weekend. no one actually lives in the area I was in. Everyone was a visitor/tourist like me and I heard maybe 5 or 6 different languages while there. That part reminds me of LA and what I miss about there. The Architect Hotel was super cute, efficient and to the point, just a bed in a clean room with nice moldings and trim. teh first night was overcast, but still good for walking. went to the chinese american museum, then got lost getting to Dupont circle, but found it, went to a bookstore, bought a salad, went back to the hotel.

the next day i was MISERABLE because it poured all day. I mean, I was out there pounding pavement, but was not a happy camper at all. but i’m a soldier, I figured it out. The MLK Jr. Memorial Library was super peaceful and had exhibits on the 4th and 5th floor and an outdoor terrace area that had a bit of an awning so you could sit there even while it rained. I didn’t sit there tho, just passed thru. The exhibits were actually heart-breaking . The one that talked about the Civil Rights Movement and King’s assassination was just sad because ... how much has really changed? We seem to be going backwards, actually. When I teach I always want to make connections so young people can understand why learning about the past is important for the future, and I am doing my best to learn what to say anymore.

Blah. Let’s keep it moving.

The other exhibit was also depressing - signs form around the world from people who did not have homes. My father was homeless for years before he died. He was a genius man in so many ways, but never assimilated into American culture. I don’t know how he would’ve done in his birth country either. He may have been a strange man in any time or place. But yeah...

I really loved the movie “Everything, Everywhere, All At Once”. That was good. 

Then the next morning, I was just DOWN when I woke up. It wasn’t pouring the way it had on Saturday, but still drizzly and that’s how my mood felt. grey and drizzly lol I did not want to go to yoga class AT ALLLLL..... but I actually got there super early cuz it was boring just sitting in that tiny hotel room brooding on how grey I felt. And it was like an ADVANCED YOGA CLASS... I’ve been doing my lil 5-Tibetan routine for years, but it’s super chill... but this class.. well, I am sore today and it felt good.. just what I needed. And the rest of the day just got better.

So Casey Smith came and picked me up and our time together was so uplifting for me. I adore honest, funny, and intelligent people. Our lunch was at the perfect outdoor taco spot with the cutest dog that ever existed (ever) at the table over from us. Talking to another apexart fellow was so helpful because no one else would understand the uniqueness and intensity of this particular program. He gave me a brief tour of the neighborhood including the white house, that church where TFG held the bible upside down, BLM Plaza, then an art school where he used to teach at. It was like go go go, but we got a lot in before I got dropped off at my bus. I hope Casey and I get to hang out again someday. Sofija too... I’d love to see her again.

So this morning I got up and took my time getting ready (like hours and lots of coffee time) before I ventured out for household basics. This part also felt like being at “home”. Trashbags, tp, etc. I also picked some Murphy’s Oil Soap because that’s what I’d do to these floors if they were mine. Outside, union Square is poppin!! I went to Trader Joe’s, then to CVS for the stuff Trader Joe’s doesn’t have, then through the farmer’s market before sitting on the steps for a little while. So sunny and beautiful today. That little breather in DC was kinda like a dream-within-a-dream thing. It gave me space to process outside of NY before I go back home. Very helpful.

#Keegan Xavi #Inbound from Minneapolis