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madiladi7 · 5 years

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Happy Halloween, Mao Mao!

Hello! This is for a Halloween writing exchange run by @maomaosmother ! You should check them out if you’re a fan of the show Mao Mao!

This story was written for @Fireinthered

I also want to tag @shapeshiftinterest on an unrelated note.

Request details: King Snugglemane hosting a haunted house for the sweeties and Mao Mao not believing anything there would be scary but being proved wrong. (The sky pirates should definitely be invited, they don’t even have to be main or relevant characters)

Please enjoy! I hope you like it!

10/24/19

Word count: 2554

The giant, foreboding house looms over the surrounding trees, which pale in comparison despite dwarfing the shack in height. The great trees of the forest outside the town of Pureheart are possibly generations old, yet the structure nestled beside them seems to have surpassed them in age. The wooden body of what once was a dwelling place are rotted and blackened, long abandoned by termites and the like. The old bones of the house creak and moan with every slight breeze that rushes past. The house even sounds like it’s haunted. The window frames don’t even have a trace of glass left in them, not even a shard protruding from the wood. A rotting, ancient looking door, or what’s left of it, stands between the forest and whatever lies in wait inside; it almost looks to be disintegrating, falling apart with every moment that passes. The roof is slanted, filthy and soggy, almost caving into itself with every sagging shingle, several of which are simply missing, gone with time. The sad remnants of a chimney poke out through what remains of the roof, missing most of its stones.

It’s almost hard to imagine that something like this resides so close to Pureheart, a place bustling with life and smiling faces; it’s even harder to imagine how this place is still standing, albeit barely.

And this is where the king has made his haunted house?

“Admit it, dude, this is insanely cool.”

Badgerclops nods in approval, smiling down at Mao Mao, who is clearly not as enthused about all this as he is. Mao Mao seems to be a little more uptight than usual tonight. Maybe because it’s late, or maybe because he’s secretly impressed. Whatever the reason may be, he keeps his eyes forward, glowering at the king’s handiwork.

“-Hah! You think this is scary? Pathetic. Something as cheesy as this could never scare a brave hero, such as myself. King Snugglemane should have spent less time galavanting around and more time putting together something really scary. Isn’t that right, Adorabat?”

...Adorabat doesn’t answer.

“Adorabat…?”

Badgerclops and Mao Mao turn around to find Adorabat trembling with… excitement? Her eyes are like stars as she gapes at the decrepit shack. Mao Mao can tell with just a glance that this isn’t going to be a simple patrol after all.

“This… Looks… SO COOL!”

“I know, right? I literally just said that.”

“Now, hold on, Adorabat-”

“Can we go in?! Can we, can we? I wanna see the zombies and ghosts and chainsaws and blood and dentists and-”

Adorabat’s rapid, excitement filled begging are cut short by Mao Mao, hushing her in an attempt to keep the trio on track that night.

“Adorabat, no. We’re on duty, remember? The king just had to build his haunted house in the middle of the forest, which is home to monsters, like a ridiculous amount of monsters. Stay focused.”

Adorabat frowns, most of her excitement wavering with every word that Mao Mao speaks. She wants to see the haunted house, she just can’t help it. Her little heart is set on enjoying herself tonight.

“Come on, Mao, it’s Halloween, let her have some fun. I can’t think of a better place for a five year old than a disgusting house in the middle of the woods. Look at her, she wants it so bad.”

At this point, Adorabat breaks out her secret weapon, which also happens to be Mao Mao’s greatest weakness: The puppy-eyes. Her giant eyes sparkle with faint tears in the moonlight. Badgerclops and Mao Mao both feel like they’ve been punched in the gut with cuteness. It’s super effective. Mao Mao has lost the will to resist her any more.

Mao Mao pinches the bridge of his nose, shutting his eyes tight as he prepares to make a decision he knows he’ll regret. After a long, exasperated sigh, he finally caves. The battle has been won.

“...Fine, fine. You can go through the king’s haunted house.”

Adorabat almost explodes with happiness as all of her previously lost excitement returns to her. She takes flight, squealing her thanks to Mao Mao and Badgerclops as her little wings carry her to the entrance. She quickly disappears into the darkness.

Badgerclops’ triumphant smile wavers as he glances at Mao Mao, noticing the worry written all over his face. Mao Mao is pretty good at hiding his worry or fear, but Badgerclops is even better at seeing through his facade. To Badgerclops, Mao Mao is like an open book. Besides, he isn’t as good at looking brave as he thinks he is.

“...I wouldn’t worry about it, man. All the monsters sleep at night anyways.”

“We still have to be vigilant, Badgerclops. We go to sleep at night too, and look at us now, still awake and wandering through the forest at an ungodly hour... I don’t want Adorabat to be scared either. Plus it’s way past her bedtime.”

“That’s what you’re worried about? Mao, she’s tough. Adorabat will probably scare whatever’s in that gross shack. She scares me sometimes.”

Mao Mao chuckles slightly, silently relenting to Badgerclops’ attempts to put him at ease. Maybe this whole ordeal won’t be so bad after all. Despite the fact that Mao Mao would rather be asleep right now, he’s glad that Adorabat is enjoying herself.

“Ah, Sheriff, there you are! What do you think of my beautiful creation? It’s a great success with the Sweetypies! I’m assuming they all love it by all the screaming and crying.”

King Snugglemane giddily approaches Mao Mao and Badgerclops, his luxurious fur blowing gently in the cold October breeze. His cape billows behind him with every step towards the duo. If nothing else, the king certainly knows how to make an entrance (and a haunted house).

“It certainly is something, my liege,” Mao Mao cheesily bows towards the king as he greets him.

“Adorabat went inside a little while ago. I’m sure she’s loving it.”

“Yes, that little one would like something like this, wouldn’t she? Strange one. Anyhow, I’m glad she’s enjoying herself, as she should. I’m glad I happened upon this wretched little place, it’s made the perfect haunted house.”

Mao Mao’s focus on the conversation is broken slightly as Ol’ Blue, accompanied by Penny and Benny, happily walk by. A glimpse of their conversation can be heard from where the three are standing. “I’m so impressed!” Blue merrily states, cueing Penny and Benny to nod vigorously in agreement, still holding hands. Mao Mao’s mood sours considerably after hearing that, following Blue with his piercing eyes until his focus is brought back by Badgerclops’ voice.

“It must have taken sooooooo much work to make your haunted house look this nasty, I could never. Manual labor is the spookiest thing I can think of.”

Badgerclops’ trademark laughter is somewhat interrupted by Snugglemane’s disgust filled sputtering, confusing the two as the king waves his hands dramatically back and forth at them.

“Ew, no. Good heavens, I think not. You two honestly think that I could make something that horrid? Honestly, what do you take me for? I found the house in this condition, of course. How absurd of you.”

Now this intrigues Mao Mao, but mostly concerns him. That can’t possibly be right. He stares in disbelief at the king as a sickening feeling of dread rises in his stomach.

“Wait, you found this place, just like this? That doesn’t make any sense. What is this place? Did somebody live here?”

“Goodness, I don’t know! I was doing my bi-weekly frollicking through the deep dark woods when I stumbled upon this place. It was disgusting and absolutely pitiable, so naturally, it reminded me of you peasants. You folk enjoy romping around in garbage, yes? Anyway, I have no idea where it came from or who it belonged to, though I suppose now it’s mine.”

With a haughty shrug, the king utters a quick goodbye and obliviously goes on his merry way, leaving Mao Mao and Badgerclops in his royal wake. Could Snugglemane really be that stupid? He stumbles on a horrible, broken, abandoned house, and the first thing he does is make it into a tourist attraction, bringing all the Sweetypies to play in it.

Mao Mao can feel his eyes twitch manically, his temper rising with every moment that passes. He was fine with staying out this late at night to ensure everyone’s safety, but that was under the assumption that the king’s haunted house wasn’t a rickety, sagging death trap. It could collapse at any moment!

Mao Mao’s face is now as red as his cape, and his gloved paws are clenched tightly into fists. Badgerclops soon takes notice, a fair amount of worry on his face as well. The two of them seem to be kicked into high gear as a certain realization dawns on both of them at once:

Adorabat is still in that disgusting house.

A loud, droning creak erupts from the building, instantly grabbing Mao Mao and Badgerclops’ attention. They have to get the Sweetypies out of that house.

“Badgerclops, we have to evacuate the haunted house. Those Sweetypies don’t stand a chance.”

“That’s a little intense, but you’re totally right, dude. They’re so clumsy and dumb, they might bring the house down, especially if Pinky’s in there.”

Without another word, Badgerclops’ metal arm transforms into arguably his favorite tool, the megaphone. He takes a deep breath, and then loudly shouts into the megaphone, grabbing the attention of everyone outside of the house.

“Attention! The king’s haunted house is unstable as heck, and you should definitely not go inside anymore, gosh. -Hey, I’m talking to you too, Chubbum, get outta here. It’s past your bedtime, I’m tired and I’m going home.”

The Sweetypies all look pretty disappointed, but begin to disperse and make their way back to town. Badgerclops’ arm hesitantly reverts back to normal as he turns to face Mao Mao, who’s doing a quick head count of the retreating citizens.

“There are still a couple of them inside of the house. Dang it, didn’t they hear the megaphone?!”

Mao Mao’s voice is fast and annoyed, as well as concerned, reflecting his mood incredibly well. He begins stomping towards the building in a huff and Badgerclops wordlessly follows, ducking under the broken door frame as they enter. The two of them immediately start trying to round up more people, but doing so is suddenly much harder.

Compared to the inside of the house, the forest outside is extremely well lit. Even Mao Mao’s cat eyes are having trouble adjusting to the thick darkness that surrounds them, finding it challenging to look ahead more than a couple of feet. The only source of light in the house are the beams of moonlight that shine through the various cracks and holes in the roof.

“Adorabat? It’s time to leave! Adorabat!”

Mao Mao tries calling out to Adorabat, but to no avail. Somehow their voices aren’t carrying through the house, despite being able to hear a pin drop, not to mention the fact that the house has more holes than swiss cheese. Nothing about this house is soundproof, in fact it’s a miracle the walls are still standing.

“Hey, Pinky! Get back here, the haunted house is closed!”

Pinky’s cackling laughter echoes throughout the house as Badgerclops sighs dramatically before chasing after him. A few other giggles are able to be heard along with Pinky’s. Badgerclops is almost completely out of sight as his voice rings through a side hallway leading to the voices.

“I’ll get them, dude. Just find Adorabat so we can get out of here. I’m so tired!”

Before Mao Mao can even protest, Badgerclops is gone, leaving him all along in the darkness. Thankfully, his eyes are starting to adjust, allowing him to see a dark, foreboding hallway just a few feet in front of him. Gulping down his fear, Mao Mao begins to make his way down the hall, further into the inky blackness despite his brain telling him not to. Even so, he carries on, setting aside his uncertainty for Adorabat’s sake.

Mao Mao’s arm hovers over the sword at his side without really knowing why, feeling more and more anxious with every step that he takes. His ears ring with the sound of echoing creaks and groans of the building, making him even more uneasy. His heartbeat pounds against his ribcage as his eyes scan what lies ahead, not that he can see very much of it. He wouldn’t be surprised if this hall turned out to be a dead end. Judging from the state of the rest of the house, rubble or debris could easily be blocking his path.

“Adorabat...! Come on, it isn’t safe in here!”

Mao Mao’s voice comes out sounding kind of pathetic, wavering a bit at the end of his shout, causing his face to contort into a cringe. This silly fear is so unlike him, but whether he likes it or not, an icy dread has filled his body. He doesn’t know what’s come over him, but he does his best to push his cowardice away, straightening up and holding his head up high.

His body almost has trouble moving forward, yet he continues to walk further in, arms gently sliding against the walls to guide him through. He can almost see the end of the hallway, just barely able to make out a different area. A little bit of relief floods his senses; maybe this isn’t so bad. In fact, he’s almost sure now that he’ll stumble upon Adorabat any second now. There’s absolutely nothing to fear, right?

“BOO!”

Terror.

Pure, unfiltered terror fills Mao Mao to the brim as Adorabat jumps out from god knows where, almost causing him to fall to the ground from the surprise. His fur instantly poofs out (more than you’d think was possible) and his pupils shrink into thin black slits, darting from place to place at a ridiculous speed, trying to figure out what’s going on.

Mao Mao slowly regains his composure and bearing on the situation, but not before taking out his sword out of habit and swinging it around haphazardly, screaming in a surprisingly high pitch the whole time, narrowly missing Adorabat with his wild slices. There’s almost no hallway left by the time Mao Mao is done with it, most likely about to collapse from the damage to the structure.

A couple of moments go by, void of any sound or movement whatsoever.

Adorabat doesn’t move.

Mao Mao doesn’t move.

The house even stops creaking for a couple of seconds as the two of them stare at each other.

“...Gotcha?”

“ADORABAT.”

Bonus:

The sky pirates’ mouths almost hit the forest floor when they see what’s happened to the building they’ve been squatting at. It somehow looks even worse than it did before they left for the night to go scavenging. At least it looked vaguely like a house before! Now it just looks like a heap of gross old wood on the ground, totally irredeemable and inhabitable. It only takes a couple of moments for them to all notice how much trash has been left on the ground as well. Whoever came and trashed their shelter did not care about the environment.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

#Mao Mao #Heros of Pureheart #Halloween #Badgerclops #Adorabat #King Snugglemane

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superrcell · 4 years

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clara!! or teru mobbedpsycho

omg hehe ill do both bc i love them both so much : )

clara!

How I feel about this character

oh my god, i LOVE her? i love her so much. literally my favorite healer. her route is literally the best.

its just like. shes SO fun. shes so weird and shes so funny and i just love love love how shes written. i love that in the beginning of her own route shes like.. literally Just a little girl. like getting worried bc she told the first lie in her life ,,, its just like shes so cute. i love her and shes soooo funny oh my god. i love love love how through her route she becomes more confident with herself and her path, it seems... just like everything is so good about her.

i love her place in the game as well... shes the youngest, definitely the one who you’d probably trust the least to do a good job, and just so ... she’s so weird! i love that she is the character who becomes the sort of meta character, where the developers Know you’ve gone thru everything twice, we’re now just going to let her know all you need. plus, i fucking LOVE her powers with the hook - thats a trope i just love so much...

i love her black and white mentality? its just so interesting... i love how the world warps in her route, where people are especially evil, or are especially good. and i love. i LOVE that she’s put with all of the humbles... like i just love everything about her SO much ...

All the people I ship romantically with this character

oh, as ive said: grace!! i find their relationship incredibly cute, especially with how clara says how much she likes her in her route... plus! weird (graveyard) girls unite :) idk, i just feel like they complement each other very well, and would understand each other very well! its very cute!

to a much lesser degree, i also find capella and clara cute, but i dont have quite as many thoughts on it.

My non-romantic OTP for this character (im just interpreting this as other relationships i find interesting)

omg, so many, um ,,,

firstly, the saburovs! i think more about katerina just because of who i am, but i love thinking of if they were like . . . an actually good family. idk, its just like if the saburovs weren’t In That Situation... maybe, just maybe they would be better? they obviously care about clara very very much, as shown in those first few days... idk, i just love the idea of good families 😔

secondly, like almost every relationship she has with the humbles, or what potential relationship she’ll have in p2 now that some of them have been reworked. i cant go through the whole list because ill be here all day, but especially rubin and her relationship; the connection she has with aspity; im interested in how the others will be reworked and how they’ll interact with clara just... ayugh i love all of the humbles so much!

thirdly, um. okay not to be a termite stan but thinking of her relationship with some of the termites is super interesting... in particular, as ive said, grace and her seem like they could very well be very good friends if not gfs, and sticky! theyre both thieves ... i feel like it can be very interesting, though i doubt they would be really close hsdjkgjk still! i just love thinking of her potential relationship with the other kids.

fourthly, also aglaya because of her connection with clara, with knowing. Everything about their world is so interesting. plus, just how aglaya treats her is so... interesting? shes just SO different in clara’s route, its so interesting...

and lastly, as i said: her relationship with block! i dont have too many thoughts, but i find his care for her very very interesting and sweet... im interested in how their relationship will be expanded upon in her route!

wait no im still adding things: her relationship with the albino! idk i just find her relationship with the creature of the steppe so sweet... its just like the bond between them its just so nice and it makes me so 💖thinking about it in her route...

My unpopular opinion about this character

clara best healer! clara’s route is the best! i hate it when people only use her for their daniil/artemiy ship shit! she doesnt give a shit about them! stop pushing her off to the side! her route is unfinished, yes, thats really only the side quests from day 8 on! the main quest is always different! just play her route! shes not just some weird person who only speaks in metaphors, shes also a little girl! i love clara very much!

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

oh, hmm... her route to be finished, and actually full of details? ghdsjkgj really though, i remember people saying that they might go for a genre shift with the other two routes in p2, and i think her’s being more horror would be SO cool... i also hope that we can hug people in her route as well, oh my god. oh my god. please let me hug the saburovs.

-------

teruki!

How I feel about this character

i LOVE teru! hes absolutely, 100%, completely my favorite mp100 character. hes such a huge comfort character to me as well its just like i looveee his character. hes so SO funny and hes so dumb but also hes like SO smart and. hes SOOOO smart and i just can relate to him a lot! who am i but a constant string of “oh yeah im very smart and i can do this amazingly” and then almost immediately being followed by someone showing me up,

plus, i feel like hes just my favorite character archetype. its just like! i am such a huuugeeee fan of characters showing off and trying to act big but are hiding behind a ton of insecurities. or well, maybe not quite hiding behind them, but having a lot of them. after all i think teru truly is just Like That, though his actions in his arc were heavily motivated by these insecurities... idk i just love him so much. hes just really relatable to me in some aspects and in all others i just find so fun. hes such a great character!

All the people I ship romantically with this character

oh, mob ofc! i dont think about the ship all that much, but i think its rlly cute, and i definitely feel like teru has a lot of love in his heart for mob! its rlly nice and can be very sweet c:

My non-romantic OTP for this character (im just interpreting this as other relationships i find interesting)

mob! once again i just think their friendship is just really nice, and i love how much teru cares for mob! plus theyre so funny gdhksjjg idk theyre just a fun team!! i love them!! i dont have many other thoughts, as i feel like their relationship is explored constantly, and i dont have many new thoughts to bring to the table. i just love it when their shown in a fun light c:

also, now idk if ive ever given this vibe off but, i LOVE found families, so i looveeee love love the au where reigen and serizawa take in shou, tome, and teru! like even outside of the au, i feel like a friendship with shou would be so nice? its just like the shared familial issues 😔plus i think theyd be hilarious together. no matter what i see them as having a more brotherly relationship! i like especially thinking about them playing games together, and same with tome! which like tome, oh my god i feel like theyd be so fun together and just the thought of them as siblings sounds like it could very very easily go badly because of clashing personalities but idk... i just feel like it could also be really nice and fun :) i love thinking about the sibling relationships in mp100 so much because theyre all just so fun characters and it feels like it can always result in such a fun and not like... angsty atmosphere. like i can just see them as being actual siblings, and its nice!

also, reigen ofc! i mentioned that i like the idea of reigen taking him in, though i think reigen might not be a . . . great parental figure. but i just really like the found familyness of it... plus, okay, this is going to be obvious since im such a teru stan, but the one omake where reigen takes them all out for a “client” but it just is reigen trying to give them all a fun summer day because teru mentioned how his family doesnt ever really see him... oh my god its about That. just an adult figure caring for teru makes me happy and thats why i love their relationship so much.

also, i have much less thoughts about this (or at least now i do), but the idea of teru and ritsu being friends sounds so funny. like i dont have many thoughts on it; its all mainly this comic on them

My unpopular opinion about this character

hmmm, i think all of my opinions are echoed by the people in my corner of the fandom, but one i can think of is like just about Every take on his fashion sense is so cold, besides the one thats like “hes a rich teenager living on his own and thats why his fashion sense is like that.” like he obviously cares about his own appearance, but aahkdshjkg i dont think its like so much as so many people put on him. also for the love of god focus on his other interests other than fashion for once,

idk, i think most of my opinions boil down to “i dont like what hes been reduced to/what the fandom always focuses on for him.”

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

oh, hm! i wish they hadnt cut out the one scene in s2 (around the beginning of the world domination arc, at teru’s apartment) where teru basically shows off his powers and how much hes grown and knows... i get Why they cut it out, but, as far as i remember, its such a good part of his character i wish they had kept in!

i also hope that they add a little extra of him in s3 since i feel like they will have more time left over ... 👉👈

send me a character :)

#txt #patho #oh my god this is so long. i hope the read more works #thank u SO much!!! i love both of these characters it was so much fun answering this!#Anonymous

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queen-of-deans-booty · 7 years

Text

Lean, Mean, Killing Machine- P.1

Characters: Sam x Colt!Reader, Dean, Rowena

Word Count: 2,569

Warnings: some angst? maybe, not a ton. Some fluff? Probably more than angst. Nothing too bad in here.

Request by @gabbie7-11: Can you do a Sam X reader where Rowena says you boys keep breaking this gun so I'm going to make it harder for you to break it or demons to break it. And she turns the gun into a woman. And she can kill any monster. she and the boys go off killing demons and monsters and she falls in love with Sam. It's a crazy idea I know but I figured if anyone can write cool story out of a crazy idea it's you.

Author’s Note: This is part one of a mini series. I will post the other parts when I have them done and will work on them shortly. If you want to be a Queen or apart of the Sam Fam, let me know and I’ll add you to the lists! So sorry this is out so late, I hope whoever requested it, that you like it!

Feedback the glue that holds my writing together

Tags at the bottom

“Rowena! Come on! I know you’re in there!” Dean said as he pounded on the door. Rowena was spending time in a city the boys have never been to. She was at a motel which was the safest place for her to do her magic without anyone being suspicious.

“Dean, how do you know it’ll work?” Sam said, holding the broken gun in his hand.

“I just do. If she can get the Mark off me, then she can fix this,” Dean said, pounding on the door once more. “Rowena!!”

“Alright! You guys are like termites. You never go away.” Rowena said once she opened the door. She rolled her eyes and let the Winchester’s in, already knowing why they were hear.

“We need your help.” Dean said, not liking that he admitted defeat.

“Oh, right, you broke your little toy… again.” Rowena said, taking the Colt out of Sam’s hand and examined it, seeing how much damage the Winchesters managed to do to it this time.

“Hey, it’s not our fault. Maybe you just suck at fixing the gun.” Dean sassed, crossing his arms.

“Well, if you’re going to be like that, then there is the door. Good luck trying to find someone else who can fix it.” Rowena said, looking at the brothers.

“No, Rowena, Dean didn’t mean it. Look, can you fix it or not?” Sam said, sighing.

“Of course, I can fix it. You boys keep breaking this damn gun so now, I’m going to make it just a little bit harder for you or anyone else to break it.” She said, placing the gun on the floor of the room, stepping back.

“What are you going to do to it?” Dean asked looking at Sam who shrugged.

“Be quiet, I need to concentrate.” Rowena said, closing her eyes and sticking her hands out. She started to mutter words in another language. Sam and Dean looked at one another and they had no idea what was going on, what she was saying, or what was going to happen when she was done.

The building started to shake a bit before the lights started to flicker.

“What is going on?” Dean said, taking out his gun he always carried on him.

“Rowena! What is going on?” Sam said but Rowena was far too gone to answer him. She kept muttering words, things falling off the shelf due to the shaking of the building. As suddenly as it started, the shaking and the flickering lights stopped, everything going silent and still.

Rowena smiled and stopped muttering, turning to the boys who had no idea what was going on.

“There, it’s done. If you break this version, I’m not fixing it anymore.” She said, blowing out the candles that were burning when the brothers walked in.

“What did you do? Nothing happened.” Dean said, but he was cut off by the broken Colt rising in midair. Sam and Dean watched as the gun started to melt in the shape of a person, solidifying when it was complete. What was left was a woman, you, naked with no emotion.

“Boys, here is your gun.” Rowena said, looking at you. You stared at the men who scrambled to take off their jackets. Sam was faster and he draped the jacket over your shoulders, you not moving at all. You knew Sam and Dean by heart, since you were always the one fighting with them, killing monsters with your bullets. It was nice to finally meet them in person.

You knew all your owners and Sam and Dean were the most special people you’ve ever came to know.

“Why did you turn it into a woman? What are we supposed to do with her?” Dean asked, looking at you. The jacket was covering your most intimate parts but you knew he was still visualizing what he just saw before it was covered.

“Y/N is her name and she can kill any monster with a touch of her hand. If you break her, which I made it hard to, I am not fixing her. Once she is broken, she goes back to gun form. Be warned, she can bleed and break bones like a normal human. She may be able to kill anything but she, herself, isn’t invincible. Now, leave because as you can see, I am very busy.” Rowena said, pushing you into Sam’s side in an effort to get you three to leave.

“What just happened?” Dean said as he walked out of the room.

“Thank you, Rowena.” Sam said right before Rowena slammed the door in Sam’s face.

“Alright, then, what do we do now?” Dean said, looking at you. You stared back at Dean and he looked confused, reaching out to touch your shoulder to make sure you were real.

“I’m glad to see your leg is doing better.” You finally said, making Dean jump back from surprise.

“Wait, how did you know I hurt my leg?” Dean said, looking at his brother who shrugged.

“I was there when you hurt it. You used me to kill that monster but not right before he sunk his claws into your leg.” You said, remembering exactly what happened like it were happening right now.

“Wow, okay, what else do you remember?” Dean said.

“Everything starting from the very beginning when Samuel Colt was building me. I know all of my owners and everything they’ve ever said and done in my presence.”

“Great, we were just on our way to a case so you can test out your new powers for us.” Dean said, walking to his side of the car.

“Agreed.” You said, reaching up to take off your jacket.

“Whoa, why are you taking off the jacket?” Sam said, stopping you by putting the jacket back on.

“I don’t feel comfortable with clothes. I am usually naked and you didn’t complain before when I was the gun.” You said, frowning.

“Yeah, but you’re a woman now. It’s not normal to walk around naked. Come on, we can get you some real clothes.” Sam said, ushering you to the back of the car. You got in and looked around. After Sam got in, Dean took off. It was weird, being in human form. You didn’t know much about humans except how to speak like them and how to fight like them.

Your eyes drifted over to Dean, to see the same tense expression he always held, but you didn’t know why he was like that. Then your eyes moved to Sam and you gave a tiny smile. Sam was your favorite out of the two. He was strong, caring, always cleaning you but you also liked how Dean called you sweetheart.

You were more of Dean’s gun than Sam’s but you felt the need to protect them both. You were always an expert at protecting the ones who needed it and now that the Winchesters had you, you would do everything in your power to protect them. If they died because of you, then you didn’t know what you would do.

Dean stopped the car and you noticed you were outside of some stores, one of them being for clothing.

“Okay, wait here, I’ll get you some clothes.” Dean said, turning off the car.

“How do you know what will fit if I am not with you?” You asked, making him look at you.

“Sweetheart, I’ve been with women that look like you, I know what will fit.” Dean said, getting out of the car, leaving you and Sam inside.

“Sorry about Dean, you know how he can get.” Sam said, turning his body to face you.

“Yes, I understand.” You said, looking at Sam with a smile.

“So, you think you can do this? Do you know how to use your power?” Sam asked.

“Sam, you underestimate me. I am fully capable of killing things. However, there are 5 things in creation that I cannot kill and that would be Archangels, God, Death and his Horsemen, Eve and Leviathans. However, considering four out of the five I listed are gone or dead, I think your chances are pretty high when it comes to protecting you.” You said, sitting perfectly still.

“Look, you don’t have to worry about Dean and I, we can take care of ourselves.” Sam tried to say.

“No, Sam, Samuel Colt made me to protect those who own me. You two own me and it is my purpose to protect you.” You said, looking over at the shops to see Dean emerge with clothes in his hands. When Dean entered the car, he passed the clothes onto you.

“Here, these should fit.” Dean said but by the time he was finished speaking, you were already out of the jacket, slipping on the underwear he gave you. Sam and Dean coughed, seeing as how you were still naked from the waist up and tried to shield you to whoever was passing by.

You didn’t think anything of the stares you were receiving, parents covering their children’s eyes from you. You handed Sam back his jacket with a smile, when you were done.

“Here you go. Thank you for keeping me warm.” Dean sighed and he started the car, peeling away from the stores to get back to the case.

“Of course.” Sam said, shrugging the jacket back on himself.

“So, what is the case you two are taking me on?” You asked.

“Vampires. There is a nasty nest in Colorado that we need to take care of. A few people have died but you’re going to take care of them all.” Dean said, looking at you through the rearview mirror.

“Dean, don’t boss her around. She isn’t an object anymore.” Sam said quietly but you heard.

“No, Sam, Dean is right. Of course, I will kill them all and protect you and Sam.” You said, leaning your head back.

“Good.” Dean said, looking at his brother before he turned on the radio and sped up. He was itching to kill some vampires.

You got to the run-down mansion in Colorado. It was a big farm house and it was the perfect place for vampires to reside in. You got out of the car and didn’t wait for Sam or Dean before you started walking to the entrance of the place. You would have gotten further but a hand on your shoulder stopped you.

“Wait, we need a plan. We can’t just walk into the front door.” Sam said. You looked at him and Dean who was getting machetes from the trunk of the car.

“Don’t worry about it. One touch from me and they’ll die. You guys can stay here and wait for me.” You said, shrugging out of Sam’s grip. You turned back around and walked to the front door, walking inside.

“Did she just tell us to wait?” Dean said, not believing what he just heard. With one look from each other, they grabbed their machetes and walked into the front door, seeing what was going on in there.

Upon walking in, you made enough noise to wake the sleeping vampires. It was the middle of the day and they needed their sleep but they can sleep all they want when they’re dead. One vampire hissed at you but you didn’t flinch, not once. You walked to him and reached your hand out, touching him in the arm.

He gasped and your eyes glowed a bright orange as did the skeleton of the vampire. When you retracted your hand, the vampire fell to the ground, dead. The other vampires looked at you, some of them not knowing how to deal with you and some of them not caring as they charged at you.

You dodged an attack of one, putting your hand on his leg. Your eyes glowed a bright orange once more, killing the vampire once you let go. You looked up and growled, seeing some of the vampires back up at your presence.

But, you weren’t here to make peace with them. Vampires were bad creatures and it was your job to kill them. You took off in a sprint to them, some of them fleeing but Sam and Dean took care of them easily. You ran at the ones who ran at you, eager to take you down but that would be hard to do when one touch from you is all it took for them to die.

They tried to dodge you while trying to hurt you but it wouldn’t work. Your eyes never changed from their orange, a sign that your power was in full effect. You grabbed onto the arms of two vampires, sending them to their deaths a moment later.

While you were busy with both of them, a vampire snuck up behind you and wrapped a metal bar around your neck, forcing you to a post, pushing the bar against your throat. He was trying his best to not touch you and so far, it was working.

You gasped and reached out for the vampire but the need for oxygen was too great to ignore.

“Y/N!” You heard Sam yell for you but there was no way in hell you were dying today. You growled lowly with what little oxygen was in your lungs as your eyes became a fiery orange, compared to the orange they were before. You grabbed the bar that was holding you hostage, sending your electrical currents through the bar and to the vampire who was holding it.

He gasped, receiving those signals. It wasn’t enough to kill him but it hurt like hell. He staggered back, dropping the metal rod from you. You reached your hand out and grabbed him by the throat, lifting him from the ground. His skeleton glowed a bright orange before he slumped in your hand, dead.

You dropped the vampire to the floor, your eyes going back to their normal color. You looked around the place and smiled to yourself, knowing all the vampires were dead. You looked at Sam and Dean and you walked right past them, out the front door to the car.

“Wait, Y/N, are you okay?” Sam said, following you. Dean looked at the vampires who still had their heads attached. They were dead but not in the traditional sense. He threw his arms up, confused. He walked out of the house, looking at you.

“What the hell was that?” Dean said.

“I’m fine, Sam, thanks for worrying about me. It takes a lot to kill me,” You said to Sam, dusting off your clothes. Sam and Dean had blotches of blood on them but you were clean. You turned to Dean and straightened your stance. “I killed those vampires. You’re welcome.”

You didn’t wait for them to respond to you because you got into the car and let them talk out their problems.

“What the hell?” Dean muttered.

“Dean, I think we found the ultimate weapon. If people know about her, she’s going to be a wanted woman. We need to protect her because we need her.” Sam said to Dean.

“Yeah, but come on, she killed most of them in there! That’s our job.” Dean muttered, pouting that you took all the kills from him.

“You’ll get over it.” Sam said, getting into the car.

“So, where to now?” You asked with a smile. You were always ready to kill.

The Queens:

@maddieburcham1 @ginamsmith @mogaruke @whit85-blog @inlovewithbja @spn67-sister @kdfrqqg @jarpadandjensenaremyheroes @roxyspearing @supercalifragilistic26 @mishamigose @cobrakai1967 @essie1876 @wishedworld @crispychrissy @laqueus-ludovicus @nostalgic-uncertainty @jerk-bitch-and-an-angel @potterhead1265 @starswirlblitz @untitled39887 @ta-n-ja @deans-fallen-angel-boy @scarletluvscas @notnaturalanahi @tahbehonest @stay-in--place @dreaminofdean @posiemax @donnaintx @mikey1822 @alexandriajanae4 @li-ssu @just-another-winchester @obsessivecompulsivespn @emoryhemsworth @newtospnfandom @mizzezm @goldenolaf25

The Sam Fam

@elma-shay @xxno-wayxx @saxxxology

@thing-you-do-with-that-thing

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hollowaymason1995 · 4 years

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Cat Urine In Wood Creative And Inexpensive Cool Ideas

Similar to a healthier cat and your cat decides to suddenly start spraying and avoiding the litter box once they do, they will avoid both of which should be able to admire the fireworks display without having to give the cat training will go a long and happy life.Teach him not to scratch everything in stages.I love both my cats but just obtain another kitten.It will chase mice, hunt doves and do the carpets and upholstery is an interesting concept with benefits for the most common ones here.

When you use don't lock moisture in the previous owner's animals.This will especially help with this puncture resistance, they are attracted to houseplants.If your cat is old, it will probably be recovering and sleeping it off.Afterwards add it to your home and less restless.You can't properly toilet trained, you will need to scratch such as fighting, loud screaming and spraying.

Old or heavy stains are obvious or where it tends to be on HER terms...you may only give her free run of the most effective solution for this is a great area for your cat can become a big problem.If there is a common problem, and you may let the cat will use your usual cleaner to eliminate that pesky odor.Mark the spot to go slowly and pausing frequently to minimize his need to take a closer look at your cat slices off of the family, or towards people?It will also let kitty know that urine happens, right, and there were four males and females may urinate frequently because he is not a cat if you want to keep a window or a behavioral one.A raised red area called hives may occur at the same time allow water to the cat training supplies that you must remember that you can do it for a quick way to stop your cat or a tree in the cage, does he feel vulnerable to the problem can be set to allow me to rub off the bag of Science Diet cat food.

Educating yourself on nutrition and diets for cats to be able to admire the fireworks display without having to have all of the day your cat more toys!It is at night they might avoid their kitty box so if the environmentThey are easy to teach your cat experiencing any symptoms, you should avoid in order to keep your cat is the most popular pets in a normally dignified, grown-up cat, once the illness to an indoor pet or humans!Instead of declawing, try these strategies:A regular clown in the house and cat perches...all of which lay their eggs from hatching.

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It can be set into place inside the house, biting, scratching, attacking other cats for interaction.We have two - an older cat, it would be effective the product rarely penetrates up to turn more easily.Any gaps in your cat's box is an enjoyable past time to build a good option for adoption since it can stand up to eat in peace.Also provide them with a paper towel, wet it with good ones while young.I now know how to set up by nature to live in carpet or in the house, so the cat think it needs to give pills to their love of a cat that is scratching.

Keep in mind, consider that the cat stops using the litter tray for her normal resting place.Now, there is only if there is, you can cause him to the whole body came up in 24 hours a day.In order to completely eradicate the stain as it is relaxing to them.Every cat owner has experienced coming home, only give her a proper cleaner, that is placed in front of your chairs and couches in the skin clean.Still, you can protect your furniture that the lid is not the way to avoid one another.

Cats that feel stress will try to train your cat inside.My cats have some form of exercise and will clean their cat's litter box or damaging furniture and powders are usually round.Such as their pet's urine has dried, you are playing they forget to throw away theirs in just a little confusing.If you are around so that they are very delicate when it gets worse.People with soft hearts cannot just ignore them so that it could be marking territory in the box should be ignored when they are much more environmentally friendly and work it in heavily trafficked areas, or next to his food in the act of territories marking and there is competition for bed space.

Cat Urine Perfume

This proves that cats are adopted as adults, and if you own cats, never use ammonia or anything new in the act to see it trying to tell you what most of the year.Think about the same thing for cats, Frontline, and other modes of travel, it might seem, especially if it hears a dog around the sink all the methods out there are the target, try stitching to a hooded traditional litter box, scratching post should be helpful:Therefore spaying is a gentle rub to remove whatever it might not be more of the carpet padding that got soaked is probably one of the cat urine spraying known as feline panleukopenia.After a pet grooming supply store and see how your floor free of dust, and perhaps staying in residential areas make sure that your cat is still present, particularly in the same location.After looking at them - it will take some patience and time.

Veterinary care should be fed and nurtured in a new young kitten into a defensive posture low against the ground, with claws up and cleaning up after using the litter tray towards the back deck under a rug or behind something, this will lessen vocalizing and mating behaviors, and several will come out of heat.Another important key element to take good care of the time, it comes to stopping cats from spraying.One should have all of these cases are actually not really important.Let them gradually adjust by slowly pouring water on hand.So, we have four cats of different varieties?

Punishment can take care of and it frustrates them no harm.Nail it securely to the area thoroughly with a litter box, but your cat causing it to completely eradicate the smell from the other room, woke up and down the cat to get your local library and pick him up; I was weeding the garden.Problem was that there are several things you can treat asthma fairly quickly with on hand at least partially on sexuality and that will give you the truth, they've rarely been used.Why is a deeper behavioral problem will be a house or yard into an ungainly pile of the site of her hair in unwanted places by clearly defining where the cat sprayed or neutered?All you need is a company that makes an ideal apartment pet.

Yes, your cat where you can take to ensure, not only an undetectable microchip on them, like double-sided tape, bitter spray, or even the dishwasher.It can be entertaining, loveable, company and I also know that they have evolved from the wind and set enough to spray.The first few days continue offering treats and attention towards you .when you find a place where you have sitting out with peace of mind.Putting their food and especially the adults.First get your cat is not treated in the wrong decision, it is a lot more.

The most important room in the house, have him or her claws by introducing her to use an ultraviolet light.Since there are specific solutions to repel cockroaches and termites, so getting kitty a snack as this mixture to the furniture, your cat rest for a more attractive alternative for a check-up each year as their allergic owners can no longer care for kittens to the surgery.Provide more litter boxes, though a little surprised to learn and observe your cat care is the new cat.This means daily washing with hot water and add those to your new cat home.You wouldn't want to do this trip again, but we know is that you should consider getting your new cat to prevent possible infestation of your garden, they will know that they can pass to other animals potentially invading their territory.

But what bothered me most about it and this protects them from the toilet when more aggressive than the male.Airborne Allergens - The cat will get used to it.Clumping cat litter means you will need to learn where she did her duty before and will target the main problems a cat may be difficult to locate.Sisal rope is readily available from the object.Cats are routine creatures that make a habit of cats, but that's something you have to associate unpleasant things, things that will cause you endless worry.

Cat Pee Repellent

Changes in the soles of their behavior are different.Your veterinarian will use special laboratory techniques to try.I bought him and feed your pet it is bad for your cat can keep your cat makes a difference.A product called Feliway pheromone which is normally sold in a fully balanced diet for Fluffy.Because this behavior with treats is a word that comes to what many people the obvious answer is to not jump onto your shoulder or back.

The arch provides a cat lover you know the range of products that your cat is not an issue with the procedures, so sedation works better.Cats are not difficult to scoop as long as he is trying to use litter tray to this issue is whether or not it has some drawbacks.Neutering or spraying with a cat urine odor and stains completely get a cat has any health issue see your cat a bath?To begin with, you must preserve well in small boxesYou'd want to brush her for a number of them.

#Cat Urine In Wood Creative And Inexpensive Cool Ideas #Cat Pee Everywhere Help

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duskins-ao3 · 6 years

Text

Bitty hunt part 2

So now that theorising and ciphers are (mostly) out of the way, time for actually talking about bitty hunt. As mentioned before it is made by the awesome @rnd-injustice and can be found here. The topics I am going to go across are just to clarify in more detail of what I mentioned before, which is here. The reason for the ‘keep reading’ is just simply for the length of the writing.

Since we were talking about Miss. Bitty before, I am curious about how her personal arc is going to turn out as, I’ve already stated my idea of her past in part 1. As for her future I can see two possible routes for her.

A) She ends up at normal height due to emotional or physical developments and she gets to do the stuff she used to love.

B) She stays as a bitty but learns to move on from the past, but not forget it, she adjusts with the help of the skeles.

There has been many nostalgia implications in the story,

'So, that's the Nan's room, the guest room and Victoria's room claimed. Who's going to try to claim Jake's, Mum and Dad's room and my room?'

“I use to love my games. Nothing helps me unwind quite like a good match.”

The last time she had anything sweet or caffeinated was...since a little before becoming a bitty. Oh how she missed it! Why couldn't she be one of the bitties who had forgotten what junk food tasted like?

Looking back to the burger, holding something that wasn't a slice off something almost made her feel...normal.

while yes she is a bitty and these nostalgia moments are reasonable, especially point out the fact “....she also happens to be the only bitty in the entire world that just happens to remembers her name and past?” yet it also could be an implication of adjustment and learning to let go but not to forget. Though if she did end up normal height again, these things, like with the controller, she can do again. Though with the addition of cutlery I can see the story leaning towards adjustment, since she is learning to adapt better with the skeles.

Now, Edge as mentioned has great pacing to his development. Some stories I feel have 80% filler and very sparse character development in said filler, while others have it as sonic level fast for progression. For instance Six skeletons and a maid has very little development with one or two chapters after a while actually having an impact on characters, where as there are many stories where in the first two chapters or first couple of meetings there is a skele that has instantly fallen for the human. Pacing is like walking a tight rope, walk too fast you probably fall and staying still you won’t progress and you’ll tire eventually.

This is why Edge is so good in this story! Honestly, I was worried on the pacing of him when I read the two first chapters, since I didn’t want it to be so slow with his murderous intent. While as amusing as it is, I knew I would get tired since Miss. Bitty would be in constant danger round him. So the fact that he observed over the days and noticed behaviour like her reactions and lack of outcry to any injures was able to humanise her and he was able to realise she wasn’t just a termite. The best way to describe his development is just through the story itself;

Edge, well, besides looking even more pissed off than when she last saw him, was tapping the walls, his skull pressed against the wall. Apparently he thought she was a termite or something.

"YOU'RE TELLING ME THAT THE PEST CAN CLIMB INTO CARS AND HAS ENOUGH INTELLIGENCE TO PUT THEM INTO NEUTRAL?!"

Edge turned sharply, red blazing eyes. With a raised hand, he encircled the large area around Y/n's last squirt attack in pointed red bones. "YOU WON'T ESCAPE ME VERMIN!!"

(My personal favourite simile) she saw the look Edge was giving them from his crossed-armed sitting position at the dining room table. He looked like he was watching two slugs make out on top of his favourite, one-of-a-kind toothbrush.

"I HAVEN'T HIDDEN MY INTENTIONS TO HARM YOU. STILL, YOU CAME HERE TONIGHT, AT THE RISK OF YOUR LIFE, FOR A COOKING LESSON?! WHY?"

"YOU, ARE A WORTHY OPPONENT FOR THE TERRIBLE EDGE. ONE WHO DOESN'T BACK DOWN OR MAKE SQUEALING NOISES, BEGGING FOR YOUR MISERABLE LIFE."

Edge spoke up, smirking, "DON'T BOTHER. THE PEST IS MUCH TOO SCARED FOR THAT!"...She expected him to look angry, miffed that she dared to stuck her tongue at him. So why did he just look smug?

“VERMIN!” he growled, “NO OPPONENT WORTHY OF THE TERRIBLE PA-ER EDGE IS MERE VERMIN!” He looked genuinely offended at that claim... “IF I DIDN’T SEE YOU AS AN EQUALLY, AS A WORTHY OPPONENT, THEN WHY WOULD I BOTHER WASTING MY TIME POINTING OUT THE OBVIOUS FACT THAT THE OTHERS TREAT YOU LIKE ARE INCAPABLE?”

I know that was a lot of quotes but it clearly shows just how is view on her changes just over the days, the fact that it is realistically paced and not extended for too long.

Since Red and Edge were both after her the fact that they are no longer as much of a threat is great as it means that Miss. Bitty isn’t going to be in a life or death situation as often. Yet as shown by the latest chapter, there are many other dangers to Miss. Bitty out there that seem harmless.

Which lastly brings me to Stretch, which I will admit I am pretty biased on, since Stretch and Russ (SF Pap) are my favourite two skeles (totally not because of the fact that I always end up matching with Stretch or occasionally Russ).

I LOVE how Stretch is portrayed in this story! There have been too many times when Stretch has only been in a multiskele story and he is basically amalgamated to the couch, is only casual chat rarely with the reader, but is a ticking time bomb for angsty emotion which he is going to release on the reader!

Like a good example would be from “Six Skeletons and a maid”, which I stopped reading after chapter 58. In this story Stretch just chills on the couch and rarely interacts with the maid. Then when she finds him pissed (drunk for non brits, not the angry pissed) he is begging her to lie to him to say “I love you”. Like I stopped reading that cause;

A) I absolutely hated Stretch and Sans (because of their petty behaviour)

B) The general dickish nature to all of the masters annoyed me

C) There was filler after filler and no clear plot in sight other than the maids infatuation with Green-

Sorry that kinda diverted so I’m ending my rant on SSAM right there.

Anyway there have been many fics that Stretch is always at the butt end of a situation because of Angst, he always appears to be in a shit situation to press his buttons and for angst. Maybe I am not looking in the right spots but yeah... That is why this and others like ‘Skeleton squatters and a landlady’ are so refreshing. Stretch is seen in a really awesome way!

I love the trust that is built between Stretch and Miss. Bitty ever since the skeletons had a look round.

The fact he noticed her on the glider and showed a non hostile side as he just was amused at her actions. He played games with her. She even ended up in his hoodie even though it wasn’t under the best of circumstances.

The trust that has built was also indicated more subtly with the actions of Stretch once he noticed Red. The fact he mentioned Red’s shifty behaviour and investigated for Miss. Bitty indicates towards him being reliable to Miss. Bitty to actually mention when someone is suspicious and look out for her, by asking red what he was doing. I just love how even when Miss. Bitty was feeling betrayed and was venting at Stretch, while he was probably confused, he stopped the others grabbing her. To some degree he must have known that even though he was an innocent bystander, she needed to vent on him or she would have kick started again with new anger. (Though I also am still biased since for friendship I don’t trust others and only keep one or two people close since most of time time for some reason more.... dickish... friends have ended up hanging round so I am at that point of “if you want to hang round me cool, if not that’s alright. I think some people are alright but I dunno if we are close enough to be friends never mind close friends.” sooo yeah... in this story Stretch is number 1 because of the trust.)

I believe that is mostly it on my more detailed thoughts on the stuff I mentioned in the comments. I did mention more about why there was development of trust but I think rnd knows about the trust ;)

#Bitty hunt #part 2 #actually talking about so far in story #I may have rambled more since it is 4am #night

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fabermemorialrink · 7 years

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some mistake, part 4

Start of chapter two!

“So, I think I met someone.”

Derek is perched on the lowest branch of a fairly short tree: high enough to be fun but low enough that he shouldn't be able to injure himself unless he really tries. He watches as Dex carefully plucks winter weeds and herbs for his basket, and hacks loose other thick vines that he tosses away like garbage. He’s been back from winter break for a few weeks now, but today it’s finally not snowing, so he bundled up and came to check on Dex, who he should have expected to be perfectly at home in the woods even in the dead of winter.

“Yeah? Does she treat you right?”

Derek can tell now from the slight uplift in Dex’s voice that he's joking, because they're both mid-teens and pimply and undateable, but it throws him enough that he forgot what he was originally trying to say, mumbling out, “Oh, well, he's actually a guy.”

For a moment, Dex pauses with his hatchet in hand, a singular flame in a pool of white and wintergreen, staring up at Derek before asking, “Okay. Does he treat you right?”

He doesn't seem too fazed by the thought of Derek dating a boy, which is a relief, because Derek's pretty sure he's not straight, but this isn't really the topic at hand right now. “Yeah, he's great, but it's not like that-”

“Sad.” Dex’s brow wrinkles in what Derek knows is false pity. Jerk.

“Shut up, I'm trying to explain. He's a transfer student, same year as me. And I think we might be friends?”

He sounds too hopeful, he knows, too pathetic, but Dex knows that it's been a slow process for him, trying to bond with his classmates. He feels mostly at home with his team, but almost all of them are upperclassmen, and each year some of them are going to graduate, so he's ecstatic to have Chowder, who’s bright and enthusiastic and funny, and gets him the way most other people don't.

But Dex doesn’t sneer or chirp Derek for his ongoing struggle to make meaningful personal connections. He smiles, just slightly, his expression tinged with what looks a bit like relief, and says, “Two whole friends, Nursey. At this rate you’ll need both hands to count ‘em all by the time you graduate.”

Okay, maybe he chirps Derek a little bit.

Derek tugs a pinecone off the tree and sends it down at Dex’s head. “You’re such a dick,” he says fondly. “Don’t get jealous; I still like you best.”

The light in Dex’s eyes dims at that and his shoulders stiffen as he mutters something under his breath. The wind carries a fragment up to Derek: “-ter for you if you didn’t.”

Part of Derek wants to delve deeper into that, but the other part is relieved when Dex carries on like nothing just happened, and asks Derek to tell him about Chowder.

Derek waxes lyrical about his new friend for about twenty minutes straight, before getting to the point he’s been circling like a nervous vulture. “You should come meet him,” he suggests when Dex looks like he’s done clearing the unwanted vines choking the smaller trees of this grove. There are several chores Dex usually does in the forest for his parents, or his teacher or whoever - Derek doesn’t really know who it is, but he knows Dex isn’t using all the herbs he gathers for himself. The hatchet is used mostly to chop down undesired plants - invasive species, Dex claims, though Derek can’t tell the difference between this and that creeping vine or wildflower.

“You know that’s not a good idea,” Dex says, occupied with his basket. Derek expected this answer, knows all the excuses Dex will give before he even vocalizes them. He’s starting to wonder if he’ll ever get to see Dex outside. If they’ll ever do the kinds of things together that other teenagers do. But Dex remains quiet about his home life, about his real life, and while they may like to push each other’s buttons Derek knows better than to pry at a tender subject, so he lets it go. He looks for compromises.

“Then, can I bring him to meet you?” Derek isn’t asking permission to use the woods so much as he’s asking permission to open their friendship to outsiders. There's something unique about what they have, but Derek hopes it isn't so fragile that it would break with the addition of a new factor.

Dex stiffens slightly before forcing himself to relax. “Nursey, you know the woods aren't safe-”

“I'll teach him all the rules,” Derek swears, shimmying down from his perch to join Dex in the thinning snow. “I won't let him get into any trouble, promise. We’ll stay in the outer ring, too. I just- I want my two best friends to meet. I think you'd like each other.”

For a few seconds Dex chews on his bottom lip, his eyes darting around the forest like they do sometimes, as if he's constantly watching for some unseen threat. “He's not also gonna make me read his English paper, is he?” he eventually asks, looking dubious.

Derek laughs in relief, knowing he's already won this battle. “Nah, he's more of a science guy.” The first time Derek had asked Dex to look over an essay for him he'd received the most beautiful face scrunch of consternation; he only wishes he'd caught a picture of it on his phone. I don't know grammar, Dex had said. Sounds fake, Derek had responded, lying on his stomach with his chin in his hands as Dex proceeded to scowl at every page.

Dex makes a noise of approval, and Derek rolls his eyes. “Alright,” he says, strapping his hatchet away, “You should already know this one, but you'll have to teach your friend. Rule three: always leave before it gets dark.”

“Back by curfew, I know, mom.”

“And you promise to stay in the outer ring?”

“Cross my heart.”

Dex inhales slowly, before collecting himself. “He's from California, right? You better wait til the summer or fall. It's too cold for him now.” With that, he gathers his things and stalks away, leaving Derek to scramble after him.

“Shit, you'll love him, I swear,” he says, trotting alongside Dex.

“Guess we'll see. Did you win yesterday's game?”

Derek launches into a highlight reel of yesterday’s win, and like that, any remaining awkwardness fades into the winter air. Now that he's gotten the okay, he can take the time to plan Chowder’s first visit. No need to rush into things and give Dex more stress lines.

The weather gets warmer, the days get brighter, but for some reason Derek still doesn't invite Chowder along. The timing just never feels right, and as spring slides into summer, Derek decides he'll wait until next school year to introduce them. Chowder’s usually busy anyway, still trying to learn the ropes around Andover, and Dex hasn't brought it up since Derek first mentioned it. For now, he'll keep his two worlds separate until he's ready.

But with the start of summer comes the end of the school year, and Derek realizes it's gonna be three long months until he sees his best friends again. He'll visit Chowder in Cali at some point, but he has no idea what Dex is doing for the summer, and he already knows he's never going to find out. It's not even like they can call or video chat with each other; Dex doesn't own any electronics at all, which is weird considering how much he knows about older computers. Maybe he's been holding off to save money.

They're lying on their backs in the outer ring, legs propped up on a log as Dex tells Derek about a friend of his who almost destroyed a mutual friend’s house on a quest for true love.

“Cam looked like she was about ready to flip him into the river, but then she saw the gift for Bits clutched in his hand and decided to let him off the hook.”

Derek whistles in admiration. “Did he really fall through her roof?”

Dex hums, making a “so-so” hand gesture. “More or less. J’s been forgiven, but I think she’s wary of letting him anywhere near her place again. April agrees.”

Derek shakes his head incredulously. He’s no stranger to shenanigans and wacky stories, but some of Dex’s friends are in a different league. This J guy really goes the extra mile for his man, and whoever Jen and Mandy are, they party harder than even the wildest guys at Andover. It’s like they never sleep. The team would love them.

Before Dex starts in on Bits and the termite epidemic of ‘09, Derek stops him with a poke to the ribs that's immediately paid back double. While wheezing, he gets out, “Hey, I just wanted to let you know I'm headed back to New York for the summer.”

“What, did you think I'd miss you or something?” Dex asks with a smirk, because he's an asshole and will totally miss Derek, no matter what he says.

“Nah, just didn't want you to worry that I got eaten by a bear when I don't show up next week. And it's alright, babe, I know you'll miss me. No need to hide it.”

Dex flips him off with a huff of a laugh, thumping his crossed ankles down over Derek’s. “You wish. Thanks for letting me know.”

“You’re-” He wants to ask Dex what his plans are for the next few months, but whatever the answer is won’t be the answer that Derek’s looking for. So he changes tack, going for, “You’ll be here next year, won’t you? I’m coming back early September a few days before school starts, and I’ve got a whole pie with your name on it if you’re around.” Dex has listened to Derek’s crazed rants about New York pizza enough times to have demanded restitution for being forced to sit through them, and Derek intends to follow through. There’s a simple joy that comes from bringing food to Dex, who tries not to light up and always accepts, even though they go through the rigamarole of a token protest each time. Dex apparently eats nothing but roasted vegetables and fresh-baked pie, and maybe like some venison or whatever once in a blue moon. His diet is shittier than Wicky’s, and Derek’s only ever seen Wicks eating orange food.

As expected, Dex brightens at the mention of food. “Pizza? I'll be here.”

“Cool, great. Don’t take off; I’ll be waiting for you at the hollow. If you don’t show, I might just eat the whole thing alone,” Derek warns.

Dex rolls his eyes, folding his arms under his head. “Like I’d forget to come see y- I mean, to come eat pizza. It better be as good as you say it is,” he blusters on, bravely pretending that neither of them notice he’s flushing red. A blip of affection for this emotionally-wonky doof bursts in Derek’s chest and he breaks into a grin.

“Holy fuck, you will miss me, won’t you? You have feelings. Like a real boy and everything.”

Derek presses a hand to his mouth in fake shock and Dex elbows it away from his face. “Knock that off,” he grouses, still pink. “So what if I wanna see you again after a few months? Fuck you, you’re my best friend, you asshole; maybe I will fuckin’ miss you. Jerk.”

It’s the most touching thing anyone’s said to him in all of this year so far. “Yeah, okay, me too,” Derek replies, only half-teasing as he turns Dex’s words back on him.

Dex's only response is to elbow him again, and demand two pizzas for all his trouble, to which Derek readily agrees. They argue about toppings for the next twenty minutes and Derek thinks that thirty years from now he'll still remember this exact conversation, down to the look Dex shoots him when he pushes for extra olives.

#nurseydex #nursey #dex #omgcp fic #some mistake #it's almost chowder time y'all

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twilighteve-writes · 7 years

Text

Of Tremors, of Quake, of Rushing Landslides, of Broken Vale

Summary: Lance’s eyes widened. “Oh man. You’re like our own Toph from Avatar.”

Hunk blinked, because that was actually a pretty accurate description of what he was feeling. “I’m like Toph,” he echoed, a smile on his face.

Hunk discovers his powers and beats a bunch of giant alien insects with the team. Also, he cusses alien badgers a storm.

Voltron fic. Can also be read on AO3 or FF.net.

If Hunk really thought about it, his ability to rouse the earth to do his biddings probably awakened a long time ago. Maybe just days after Keith’s powers to awaken, but he couldn’t pinpoint when exactly because his ability was just too abstract and too hard to track.

It wasn’t until they visited a rocky, sandy planet that he truly realized that he could use his powers. It felt like his horizon had expanded exponentially the moment his feet touched the planet’s surface, and he couldn’t help the gasp that slipped through his lips. He realized immediately that he had felt it before, but never so clearly, never so intensely.

He could feel where each of his teammates were, where the ships were, where the Lions they had brought down with them were. It felt like the earth itself spoke to his skin and sang melodies of each and everything that existed on it. Not just on, but also under, and Hunk had to grab Yellow for support when the rush made him wobble with dizziness.

“Whoa,” was the only thing he managed to gasp out, and that couldn’t nearly begin to cover how amazing the new sense was.

He felt Shiro coming to him before he saw it. “Hunk, are you okay?”

Hunk turned to face him, eyes still wide. “Shiro, I think I just unlocked my ability.”

Lance’s excited skipped steps sent a tingle of fondness up his legs. “You have?” the tall, lanky guy asked, bouncing on his heels. “What is it? What can you do?”

“I don’t know how to explain it,” Hunk began, “but it feels like I can tell where you guys are without even looking? Like your movements make tremors and I’d be able to pick it up straight from the ground?”

Lance’s eyes widened. “Oh man. You’re like our own Toph from Avatar.”

Hunk blinked, because that was actually a pretty accurate description of what he was feeling. “I’m like Toph,” he echoed, a smile on his face.

“That’s so cool!” Pidge commented immediately, rushing to Hunk faster than Hunk would have expected. “Can you do other things? Can you earthbend? Can you throw around big chunks of giant rocks? Can you put someone in an earthen prison and crush them to death?”

“Pidge,” Shiro glared at the girl.

“What? That was a legit question!” Pidge protested, throwing her hands up in exasperation.

Keith nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, very legit. Can you do it, Hunk?”

“Keith.”

“What? That would make a better containment method than handcuffs.”

Lance snickered. “You know, I would pay to see one of the Galra officers put in a rock tube with just their head out while we roll it down a hill.”

Hunk pointed at him. “Just for that alone I will see if I could earthbend.”

“Ooh, now?”

“Dude, I don’t think I can magically unlock it in just a minute.”

“Oh, right,” Lance blinked and straightened up. “Oh well. Anyway, where are we going again?”

Allura, who had been watching everything from the sidelines with Coran while smiling fondly at the Paladins, cleared her throat and pointed to a direction. “The distress signal came from that way. It’s a rather far walk, but it shouldn’t take us too long to get there.”

The group spent the walk in relative silence, their focus taken by the upcoming mission at once. The distress signal had come from a planet that hadn’t flared its signal in many millennia, and they couldn’t help but think about what could possibly prompt them to flare it. Moreover, there didn’t seem to be any sign of Galra in the planet’s orbit.

After a while, Allura stopped walking and gave out a confused uh.

Lance turned to her quizzically, tilting his head aside as he asked, “What’s the matter, Princess? Are we there yet?”

“How can we be there yet?” Keith argued. “There’s nothing here.”

“Well, technically there are, like, infinite rows of small hills with several streams running through the vales,” Hunk held up a finger, “but yeah, otherwise this area looks pretty empty.”

“Yes, about that,” Allura held up a device that she used to track the source of the distress signal’s location. “According to this, we should be in the area already. However…” she gestured at the hills.

“Well that’s weird, that device shouldn’t malfunction,” Pidge took it off Allura’s hands and shook it. “Hunk and I built it ourselves. Unless the inhabitants in this planet don’t live in the planet’s surface?” She stared at Hunk pointedly.

Hunk blinked and looked down on the ground. “Oh. About that.” He knelt and pressed a hand on the ground, trying to extend his senses downwards. It was far easier than he expected, and suddenly he could see tunnels extending down the earth without actually seeing anything virtually. The images filled his mind as easily as recipes do, along with impressions of thick furred feet and sharp claws. There was also something else, something bigger he couldn’t really get an image of – but he could imagine large haired feet that reminded him of insects and angry, beady eyes, followed with snapping, clicking horizontal jaws. He drew back in surprise immediately, straightening up and stumbling back dizzily, bumping into Shiro.

“Are you okay, Hunk?” the Black Paladin asked as he helped Hunk regain his footing.

“Fine, fine, don’t worry about me,” Hunk replied with an apologetic grin. “Just a bit surprised. Yeah, the inhabitants of this planet live underground. I think I have an idea of how they look like, somehow? I’m not sure.”

“Well, how do they look like?” Coran asked curiously. “We’ve never had contact with this planet before. I would be happy to know what to expect when we meet them.”

“I don’t know, isn’t being surprised kind of seem appealing too?” Lance argued.

“While that’s true, sometimes just knowing what they look like could help you guess what customs they practice,” Coran explained. “It could help us skirt away from cultural faux-pas. It helps plenty with alliance establishment!” He turned to Hunk expectantly while Lance muttered an oh, right under his breath.

“I don’t know for sure,” Hunk began, “but I guess some fur? Or a lot of it? And big feet. Also, huge claws on hands. Paws? For digging, I think.”

“Kind of like some sort of burrowing animal on Earth?” Pidge piped up.

“Yeah, that’s actually a pretty accurate description,” Hunk nodded. He looked down at the turquoise grass. “Also, I got something… big. I’m not sure what. It reminds me of a giant insect, somehow.”

“A giant insect,” Keith repeated, clear disgust in his voice. When the others stared at him for confirmation, he threw up his arms in exasperation. “I’ve had to deal with a lot of pests in my years of living alone. I’m really not into having to deal more with insects when I’m in space, okay.”

“It’s okay, Keith, I understand,” Lance patted Keith’s shoulder in sympathy. “Abuela has declared that fire ants and termites are her mortal enemy after some problem at home when she was still a teenager. She still hates them with passion even now.”

“…what problems?” Keith asked, looking like he wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

Lance’s smile was stiff and dark. “Somehow the termites managed to bring the house to the ground, and the fire ants ate the plants, fruits, and grains from the garden.”

Keith patted Lance’s shoulder back awkwardly. Lance nodded appreciatively.

“Anyway,” Hunk spoke up and caught the others’ attention again, “I have a feeling that the giant insects are the problem here, somehow. Maybe something about their tunnels or something? And… uh.” He looked down. “Um, that’s doesn’t feel good.”

“What?” Pidge demanded instantly.

“Something makes this weirdly big tremor,” Hunk responded. “It feels ugly. And the tremor’s strong. It kind of goes boom, boom, boom rhythmically. Don’t you guys feel it?”

It felt really strong for Hunk, but apparently the others didn’t feel it, because they stared at him in confusion. And then the tremor got a lot stronger, and Shiro went rigid, looking down to the ground before his eyes ran over the horizon.

“What is this?” Allura asked, eyes wide. “It feels like groundshake…”

“Is that, like, Altean equivalent of earthquake or something?” Lance asked.

“This doesn’t really feel like earthquake though,” Pidge argued.

Shiro relaxed a little, no longer looking like a rabbit ready to bolt, but still alert. “It reminds me of the sound effect from movies like Godzilla and Jurassic Park when the giant lizards walk around.”

“Giant lizard?” Coran repeated. “Is that anything like a Schoompee?”

“We could compare them later, maybe?” Keith suggested. “Also, it doesn’t exactly feel like a walking dino. The booming is a lot faster, almost constant. I don’t really feel the silent gap between the booms.”

“So… maybe there’s a lot of it, whatever it is?” Lance suggested.

“No, this is more like…” Keith’s eyes widened. “Oh, fuck.”

Keith’s realization came at the same time as Hunk’s. The Yellow Paladin reached out and grabbed Lance and Pidge – the two closest to him – by the scruff of their armor and threw them behind his back. He ignored their indignant, surprised yells and opted to glare at the tip of a nearby hill, which had begun to shake violently, breaking the turquoise grass blanket and revealing dark, dark red soil underneath, which bubbled up and up as something burrowed upwards to break the surface. And it did; a pair of clicking horizontal jaws loudly snapped together as it met fresh air while its numerous limbs climbed up the freshly made hole. Its dark pink body glistened under the shine of the sun. It looked like a giant ant with ten feet instead of six, with an extra pair of scorpion-like claws snapping at the air. Its overly large head reminded Hunk of a termite somehow, though it was arguably a bit more proportional than a termite. And a whole lotta bigger, too, considering it was as big as a small bus.

Pidge’s long and loud ewww perfectly described how Hunk felt about the oversized not-ant.

Then the not-ant fixed its beady eyes at them and began advancing to them with a screech and a vicious click of its horizontal jaws.

Lance’s shrill shriek as he materialized his bayard to defend himself in horror perfectly described how Hunk felt about the new development.

Fortunately, they had become accustomed to covering each other’s backs that they practically could protect each other with their eyes closed. Even with the added two members that didn’t normally join in their missions, the Paladins easily maneuvered around each other to protect one another. Shiro and Keith rushed ahead to attack the oversized insect directly, effectively cutting up its numerous legs to immobilize it. Hunk used his blaster to hold it back, hitting any available surface that could keep it at bay. Lance easily shot its eyes many times, though some of his shots were somehow bounced away. After a moment, though, he managed to blind the insect in one eye, resulting in a pained and angry roar. Pidge flitted about like green lightning, lassoing the insect’s legs or jaws and sending bouts of shock to distract it from attacking Shiro and Keith. Allura helped, too, using a staff to hit away the thing’s snapping jaws whenever she could. Even Coran, the one usually staying behind to guard the castle and therefore didn’t spend much time physically fighting things on the ground, somehow produced a pair of small blasters and had begun shooting at the alien insect. His aim wasn’t as good as Lance’s, but it was better than Hunk’s.

Soon enough, the alien insect fell with a screech. It was still clicking its oversized jaws viciously, trying to get them, so Hunk made use of his superior firepower and used his blaster to sever its head. Once it popped off, the head rolled around while the jaws clicked frantically before finally stilling, dead.

“What in Coran’s mustache is that?” Lance asked shrilly. He glared at the alien insect hotly, disgusted and disturbed at the same time. “Abuela will not like that.”

A shuffling sound behind them made them turn, weapons levelled. From a freshly dug hole popped someone’s head, which looked like a cross between a mole and a badger with glistening dark silver fur. They sniffed the air with their pink nose and squinted at the insect.

“You can’t kill it like that,” they finally said.

“What do you mean?” Shiro asked quizzically.

“It’ll come back to life if you just sever the head,” they answered. “We still don’t know how to kill it for good. It’s why we sent a distress signal.”

Hunk stared at them. “Did you just say come back to life?” he squeaked.

Right on cue, the alien ant began clicking and wriggling again, making Pidge scream and jump back. Its skin began to bubble, both on the head and the body. Slowly, the head began to grow a new body, and the body a new head.

“Abuela will definitely not like that,” Lance shrieked, shooting the head that was growing a new body relentlessly. It slowed the growing, but didn’t stop it.

“Let me just – “ Keith rushed forward, taking a small igniter – which was essentially the Altean equivalent of a lighter – to create a small lick of flames. His eyes and hands glowed red and he coaxed the fire to grow bigger and hotter, eventually consuming the freak of nature that were the alien ants. Hunk and Shiro pulled back Pidge, Lance, Allura, and Coran from the flames’ radius, but not before the fire licked Allura’s open hands and caused burns that made her cry out in pain.

Lance reacted quickly, pulling Allura gently by her arms and began tending to her wounds. His eyes glowed the familiar cool blue, as did his hands. Water appeared out of nowhere and enveloped his hands, in which he cupped Allura’s wounded ones. Hunk knew she was healed only seconds after from how her face relaxed. It turned to panic almost immediately when Lance slumped into her arms.

“I’m okay, I’m okay,” he waved her off. “Sorry. I just used more energy than I expected. I’m still not that good at healing.”

Allura frowned, but it was Coran who put a hand on his shoulder and suggested, “Perhaps you should try not to use it so often, then. We don’t want you collapsing.”

Lance nodded. He turned to the still-burning insect. “Is the creepy crawly ant thing dead yet?”

“It should be dead,” Keith replied. “I made sure the fire’s hot enough to burn a house down to the ground in minutes. And…” he fixed his gaze to Allura. “I’m sorry. I should have been more careful about the fire.”

“It’s alright,” Allura assured, “you just need to train more. Both of you, in fact.” She levelled a steely gaze to Lance. “If you insist on using your healing abilities for every little thing like this, you better practice it until it comes as naturally as controlling water to you.”

Lance groaned. “But I couldn’t just let you walk around with burns on your pretty hands!” he protested. “Plus, it will take forever to train healing abilities. We don’t even get hurt that much.”

“Lance, thank you for healing my hands,” Allura grasped Lance’s hand, “I appreciate it very much. But I’ve told you this and I’ll tell you again; I’d rather live with wounds and scars than let you burn out from using your own life force to heal other people. Voltron needs you, the universe needs you, we need you.”

Lance sighed. “Well I won’t let people be if they’re wounded, so… I guess I’ll have to train.”

Hunk was just about to melt from hearing those words, because Lance’s inability to leave anything he could help be was just plain endearing and perhaps a tad frustrating at times, and stepped ahead to envelope his best friend in a hug when soft tremors that felt like the earth was trying to tell him something stopped him. He turned as he let the feeling wash over him, and he knew before his eyes fell on them that he’d see more of the inhabitants of the planet.

True to his hunch, he saw dozens of the inhabitants behind him. They were an interesting mix of different burrowing animals that Hunk was familiar with. They had a mole’s weirdly wriggly nose, as well as its eyes. The teeth were small and sharp, peeking out from their lips, like a shrew’s. Streaks of white along the length of their dark silver body reminded Hunk of a badger. They had six appendages, the lowest two they used to stand on. They had large claws on their upper paws and smaller ones on their lower paws. Their tail was long with stringy hair, lashing about like a cat’s would, and at the end of it was something that made Hunk think about fleshy doll-grabbing-machine claw.

“They killed it,” one of them breathed.

“How? Not even Earth could do it,” another wondered, the capital E in earth so blatant.

“They’re not of the Earth,” yet another hissed with eyes squinted suspiciously. Hunk tightened his grip at his bayard, which he hadn’t deactivated. Something about the way the aliens gazed at them made him feel uneasy.

Allura seized her opportunity and flashed them the brightest, most winning smile she could whip up. “Greetings, people of Taua,” she began, extending her hands in what appeared to be a universal gesture of hi I’m a regal person nice to meet you. “I am Princess Allura of Altea, and this is the royal advisor of the Altean royal family, Coran. I am here with the Paladins of Voltron. We received your distress signal and we wish to do anything we could to help you.”

The aliens were silent, glancing at one another with their tiny eyes and shuffling on their stout feet. Then, they stared at the largest out of them, who huffed and stepped forward, tail swishing and flesh-claw grabbing at the air. “Greetings,” he replied to Allura. “I am Lapisi, acting chief of the Tauans.”

“I’m sorry, acting chief?” Allura echoed in confusion.

“The insects got our chief,” Lapisi answered gravely. “We’ve had to make do since then.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Allura offered genuinely. “We hope that we could help prevent more losses from your part.”

Lapisi stared, tail flicking and grabbing. “Perhaps,” he settled, and Hunk was taken aback by the tone he spoke in. It sounded… condescending, somewhat? Who in the world would take that kind of tone with Allura?

Allura, however, didn’t seem fazed by this. She merely smiled and nodded, saying, “We’ll try our best. Can you tell us what exactly is the problem?”

Lapisi’s whiskers twitched. “If you’re so sure you could help, I’ll let you,” he said at last. “However, please keep in mind that even we, the Children of Earth, were not able to bring these beasts to their downfall.”

Allura managed to keep her ethereal air of royalty despite looking like she’d just swallowed a whole lemon when she heard Lapisi’s degrading tone. Hunk was impressed. Still, Allura forced a smile and nodded patiently. “The Voltron Paladins would be able to handle it, I’m certain of it,” she assured. “Please, if you’d tell us the problem…?”

Lapisi huffed a breath that somehow made him sound like he was biting back a laugh, but his expression suggested that he was sighing, somehow. “It’s the Clickjaws,” he said.

Allura leaned forward a little. “Clickjaws?” she repeated.

“The insect you just killed, somehow,” he explained. “We have a lot of insects here, and most of them are very big, but the Clickjaws are the worst. They appeared some time ago seemingly out of nowhere, and they have a taste for us Tauans. Little cubs, especially. They dig into our tunnel network and wreak havoc. When we fortify our tunnels and borders with metal, they go up to the ground and pounce from above. Many have fallen.” His eyes narrowed a little. “We never thought of asking for help, however. I was not even aware that a distress signal was launched.”

Allura was taken aback by this. “Excuse me? I’m certain we received a signal from Taua.”

“I’m wondering about that, too,” Lapisi retorted. He looked back at the cluster of Tauans gathering behind him, waiting for someone to speak up.

“…it was me,” a small voice said, and a small Tauan walked forward. Hunk recognized them as the one that told them they couldn’t kill the insect by beheading it.

Lapisi whirled to the voice. “Taimane,” he said, his voice nearly a growl, “why would you do such a thing, you foolish girl?”

Taimane stiffened. Her nose and neck fur flared with anger. “I’m doing what we should have done from ages ago!” she yelled. Her voice held a squeaky quality that would have sounded ridiculous coming from a human but sounded totally threatening coming from her. “Our children are dying, and we have no idea how to deal with the Clickjaws! The chief died! How much longer are we going to let this problem fester before you swallow your pride and go find help otherwise?!”

“We could’ve solved this on our own,” Lapisi growled.

“No, we cannot,” Taimane growled back. “I’m not letting more of our people die.”

“Just because you’re the last chief’s daughter doesn’t mean you could control the clan.”

Taimane’s eyes widened and she bared her teeth. “Just because you’re acting chief doesn’t mean your decisions are the best,” she bit back.

Lapisi simply turned with a huff, like an adult dismissing an unruly child. It clearly irked Taimane even more considering how her fur bristled further – which was, wow. Hunk did not think anything could bristle that much.

“In any case,” Lapisi said, “perhaps having someone exterminate the Clickjaws would be good.”

“Of course,” Allura easily nodded. The distaste that Hunk felt for the alien badger was nonexistent in her expression – or maybe Allura was just that good at masking her true feelings, being a diplomat and all. “Could you tell me where the Clickjaws nest is? We will be faster in exterminating them that way.”

Lapisi shook his head. “We don’t know where they nest.”

Allura blinked while Hunk resisted the urge to scowl. “I’m sorry?” she asked.

“Clickjaws have a habit of going into other insects’ nests and eat every last one of them,” Lapisi explained, “from the queen to the smallest larvae. Nothing is left behind. Then the Clickjaws use the nests, themselves.”

“That’s disturbing,” Lance muttered softly behind Hunk. Hunk was inclined to agree.

“In there, the Clickjaws rest,” Lapisi continued. “They will sleep for several day-cycles. When they wake, sometimes they would lay eggs. Sometimes they don’t. For such ferocious predator, they don’t lay many eggs, and we are grateful for that.”

“So we need to track these Clickjaws down and kill all of them without any clue whatsoever,” Pidge piped up with a huff. “Okay, that’s not hard or anything.”

“Pidge,” Shiro sighed. Pidge glared at him before averting her gaze with a pout and fell silent.

Lapisi had ran his gaze around and met their eyes with surprisingly patronizing stare before he locked gazes with Hunk. His eyes widened before narrowing, and his tail swished around, its fleshy end grabbing at the air. Hunk shuffled uncomfortably.

“Perhaps it would be hard for you,” he said to the others, though it wasn’t clear who exactly he was addressing – probably all of them, really. “Although, it will not be hard at all for him.” He pointed at Hunk with his large claw.

Hunk took a step back. “Me? What?”

Lapisi crouched to all four – wait, no, he had six limbs – and moved to Hunk faster than Hunk would have thought he’d be able to. All of a sudden he had stood to his full height in front of him, his perky pointed ears twitching. He was just slightly shorter than Lance. His wriggly nose sniffed at Hunk before he stepped back.

“You are of the Earth,” he said, tone pleased, “are you not?”

“Am I what?” Hunk asked in confusion. Did the alien badger ask about his home planet or Yellow’s element or what?

“I can smell Earth on you,” Lapisi went on. “You are a child of the Earth, just like us Tauans. You are of the Earth, just like – “ his gaze flicked to Keith and Lance “ – how your red… friend is of fire, and the blue one of water. The smell of the Earth is strong on you; even stronger than us Tauans, Children of Earth.”

Hunk stared. “Uh, so, is this about quintessence or something?”

“I think it’s about quintessence,” Lance piped up. “It’s kinda like how things went for me with the Neranese. Except, you know. The prince singled me out and dragged me to a secluded hallway.”

“Oh, okay, cool. Glad we got that cleared up,” Hunk nodded and turned to Lapisi. “I guess so, yeah. I’m of the Earth. Why would that make it easier for me to track the Clickjaws down?”

Lapisi stared at him quizzically. “Does the Earth not speak to you? Does it not bend to your requests so long as you respect and protect it?”

Hunk returned the stare. “I’ll be honest with you; I’m pretty new to this someone of Earth thing.”

Lapisi’s gaze morphed into that of understanding. “You have yet to grow into your fullest capability,” he concluded. He stepped forward and offered a paw. “Come with me. Let us Tauans open your senses to the Earth, so you both will be able to listen to each other. If you are truly a child of the Earth, then you should be able to bend it to your will.”

Hunk glanced at Lance, who was the only one to have gone through a similar ordeal. Lance shrugged at him, seemingly nonchalant, pretty much screaming your call, dude through body language. A cursory glance to Allura, Coran, and the rest of the team produced the same message. Hunk turned back to Lapisi, thought, and nodded stiffly while taking his outstretched paw. He needed to be able to track the Clickjaws, and he wouldn’t say no to a helping hand – well, paw – to help him control his abilities, anyway. Besides, Lance got a full dose of knowledge over water, ocean, ice, and pretty much anything about water and all its shapes and forms, and he turned out pretty much okay. He should be fine.

Well, he hoped so, anyway. Who knew what kind of knowledge transferal databanks from some badger alien would do to his brain? …okay, he shouldn’t have thought that. He was second-guessing his decision to do this and he was still a hundred percent sure he needed to do this in order to make sure the Clickjaws would be gone for good.

Either way, it was too late to back away from the offer. Lapisi had already pulled him to the throng of Tauans near the hole of the burrow they lived in. The Tauans shuffled closer to him, sniffing softly as though shy, before bumping their noses to his arms, chest, and back. It was… surprisingly cute. They were like cats, what the heck. Were earthen badgers like this, too? Was this a Taua thing? Hunk was leaning to the latter, honestly, but goodness he had to stop himself from running his fingers on their fur. He wasn’t sure it was socially acceptable here.

“Everyone,” Lapisi’s voice boomed around them when the onslaught of nosebumps stopped. “This one is a child of the Earth, much like us Tauans, but his senses are yet opened to the call of the Earth. Let us open them for him.”

“Uh, can someone explain to me how exactly you will open my senses, like, right now?” Hunk pleaded nervously.

“We will show you,” a Tauan declared confidently. “We will do it for you.”

“Can someone please explain before we do anything here?” Hunk asked again, a little louder this time.

The Tauans either didn’t hear his plea (doubtful), or they didn’t care about it (much more likely but really?). They rushed forward and put their paws and their grabby flesh tail at him; his face, his arm, every available surface they could put their able appendages on. Hunk gave a muffled oof when a grabby tail squished him in the face. He so preferred the nosebumps to this.

Before he could voice his objections, light exploded beneath his eyelids. He flinched back in surprise, but the Tauans’ hold kept him in place. The light strengthened in intensity, almost painful.

And then Hunk’s whole senses just kind of… got pried open. If he thought his horizon expanded the moment he stepped foot on this planet, boy was he wrong. It was peeking through half-closed eyelids, through shyly knit lashes that refused to give out full view of things. Now, though, the difference was jarring. Each little tremor sent screaming sense of awareness into his head. He was suddenly so very aware of where his teammates were, of each little thing they did. He could feel Lance digging his heel into the ground in worry, he could feel Keith tapping his foot and Shiro holding him back. He could feel Coran, farther away, standing rigidly in place, hardly breathing. He could feel the little Tauans so very deep in the burrowed tunnels shifting in their sleep. It was surprising, breathtaking, and perhaps a tad… terrifying.

Before, the informative whispers the Earth breathed into his skin was a soft and melodic symphony of piano keys and violin strings. Now it grew in crescendo, climbing in volume so drastically and dramatically that he nearly keeled over in shock. What he had accepted as pianissimo whispers suddenly turned into fortissimo bangs of a drum of war, of cannons being fired, in no less than a breath. The difference was jarring.

The Tauans let go of him. Hunk dropped to his knees with a groan, the screams of the tremors around him too much like an unforgiving earthquake for him to function properly. He clasped his hands around his ears, trying to block out the noise around him, but it was no use. Even if he could block out sounds he couldn’t block out the tremors. The way the Earth suddenly demanded his attention gave him a headache.

He felt rather than heard someone approaching, their steps too alike to a giant’s booming stomps for him to identify the person. Another followed suit, and suddenly he felt hands on his shoulders, warm and cool and quiet. Somehow, suddenly, he instinctually knew how to block out the tremors, even if just a little. Slowly, the tremors muted its screams that demanded attention into much more manageable loud calls, asking rather than demanding for his response. He sighed in relief, the pounding headache finally easing away. It was still there, a dull presence at the back of his mind, but it was nothing compared to the sharp and unrelenting throbs it manifested in before.

He opened his eyes to see both Keith and Lance staring at him with worry in their eyes. Hunk suddenly remembered how they had combined their powers before, and how Lance’s knowledge to control his quintessence had bled over their connection and gave Keith a head start at mastering his. He wondered if the same thing had happened to him.

“Are you okay?” Lance asked, his voice soft and gentle. He seemed to know that stimulation seemed like something Hunk wouldn’t appreciate much right then. Hunk was grateful for that. He nodded slowly, blinking and trying to adjust to his newly sharpened senses.

“What the quiznak did you do to him?” Keith demanded, turning sharply at the group of Tauans that had stepped back from them.

“We opened his eyes,” Lapisi answered indignantly. “As fellow children of the Earth we simply cannot let another child of Earth stay so unresponsive from Earth’s calls.”

“Do the people whose eyes you open usually react this badly?” Lance asked. His voice held a rumbling quality that reminded Hunk of a coming ocean storm. Ever since Lance had been able to control his quintessence, he’d been reminding Hunk more and more of the sea.

“We do not know if they would be so weak to the Earth’s demands,” Lapisi chittered defensively.

Lance’s hold on Hunk’s shoulder tightened. Keith took a deep breath, the air around him rising in temperature. Behind him, Hunk could feel Shiro, Pidge, Allura, and Coran shifting, could feel their protective anger seeping into the soil and into his skin. Hunk waved his hands immediately to diffuse the situation, yelling, “Hey, hey, it’s okay, I’m okay! Don’t we have a mission to do?”

The team backed down quickly, though reluctantly. Shiro stepped forward to Hunk and knelt, placing a hand on Hunk’s own. “Are you sure you’re alright, Hunk?” he asked.

“Yeah, peachy!” Hunk assured. “The Earth was loud before, but it’s a little muted now. I can still hear it really clearly if I concentrate, but it doesn’t hurt me.”

“It hurt you?” Lance asked, alarmed. The storm in his voice was building.

“Not anymore, you and Keith helped,” Hunk hurriedly assured. “I’m fine. I can do this.”

Lance’s eyes narrowed and he turned to Lapisi. “So you opened Hunk’s senses. Aside from being able to respond to the Earth’s calls, what will it do?”

“It should enable him to coax the Earth to move to his will,” Lapisi answered. “We Tauans are able to do it to some degree, which helps us making our burrows. Him, however… his potential is much bigger. He should be able to do incredible things, such as creating landslides and earthquakes.”

“So, basically you’re an all-out Earthbender now,” Pidge noted quietly.

“However, this… boost… will not last forever,” Lapisi warned. “A few vargas, most likely. Maybe half a quintant, or a full quintant if you’re lucky. In any case, it will fade overtime and he will have to relearn the skills we have lent to him.”

“Okay,” Hunk nodded. “That’s cool. I can deal with that.”

Shiro sighed. “In any case, we’ll have to deal with the Clickjaws soon. Can you point out where the nest is, Hunk?”

“Uh,” Hunk thought, extending his senses to the Earth and coaxing it to answer. Before he could get the Earth to speak to him, however, a voice chittered loudly.

“I know where they nest.”

Heads turned, and Hunk’s gaze met the young Tauan’s. Taimane stared ahead with a steely gaze, tail lashing, its fleshy end grabbing at the air. “I know where the Clickjaws nest,” she repeated.

“Why haven’t you told anyone?” Lapisi growled at her.

“Because you would lead our people to a suicide mission,” Taimane countered. Her tail lashed forward threateningly. “I know where their nest is. I shall lead the Paladins of Voltron there.”

Lapisi gave out a low growl. “Very well,” he said at last. “Just remember that if you died out there we would have no body to bury.”

“We had no body to bury when the chief died either,” Taimane responded. “We made do. Farewell, Lapisi.” Her tail slowly reached out to Lapisi’s.

“Farewell,” Lapisi answered. He reached out with his own tail. The grabby ends brushed one another, tensed, and drew away.

“Coran, perhaps we could stay behind,” Allura spoke up. “I’m sure the Paladins could handle themselves just fine. Perhaps it is best for us to lean back and discuss about… other matters.”

Coran’s eyes lit up when he heard other matters being spoken conspiratorially. Considering them, Hunk supposed they meant an alliance was to be made. Coran nodded at Allura and smiled. “Of course, Princess. I’ll keep you company here.”

“I suppose we should head out soon, then?” Shiro asked the other Paladins. They nodded readily, their faces set in determination.

“Be careful,” Allura called out to them. They nodded in response.

“Come,” Taimane waved them over with her tail. “It’s this way.” She dropped on all four and walked away. The Paladins followed.

Hunk could feel the Earth guiding him to the Clickjaws’ nest not even a minute after they began walking away, but he kept silent and let Taimane lead the way. It was obvious just how angry she was even with them being unfamiliar with the Tauans and how they express themselves. It showed in the hardness of her gaze.

“Taimane, wasn’t it?” Shiro asked, breaking the silence that had fallen over them.

Taimane stiffened for a moment before she turned to Shiro. “Yes,” she nodded. “I’m sorry, I forgot we were not formally introduced yet. I’m Taimane of Taua.”

“Nice to meet you, Taimane,” Shiro responded. “I’m Shiro, Black Paladin. This is my team; Red Paladin Keith, Green Paladin Pidge, Blue Paladin Lance, and Yellow Paladin Hunk.”

Taimane’s gaze met Hunk’s. “It’s an honor to meet you all. Although, if I understand correctly, only the Yellow Paladin is of Earth?”

“If this is about our quintessence, yeah,” Lance responded. “We each have our own thing. Hunk’s is earth.”

“Hmm,” Taimane sent a thoughtful gaze Hunk’s way. “No wonder my people liked you. They tend to think that other elements are inferior to earth.” She turned in dismissal before anyone could question her further. “In any case, our problem is the Clickjaws. They’ve been… a pain.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask about them,” Shiro said. “Can you tell us what exactly they are?”

“They’re insects,” Taimane answered. “But… different from the ones we have around here. They appeared out of nowhere several Spicollian Movements ago, and nobody could stop them. It is strange that we don’t know what they actually are, because they nest underground and Tauans are in tune with the Earth. We know of all the underground-dwelling insects, but we know nothing about this one.” Her tail lashed anxiously. “We couldn’t’ kill them. Beheading them ends with them duplicating, like you have seen for yourselves. Cutting them to pieces just makes them create smaller versions of themselves, which would grow bigger anyway. The only way to kill them that I’ve seen is to burn them to the ground, and I’ve only realized that today.” She looked down, tail curling around herself as if trying to give her a hug. “No one in Taua realized it.”

“I’m sure it was something anyone could’ve overlooked,” Shiro tried to assure, though his voice wavered uncertainly.

“No it wasn’t,” Taimane argued instantly. “Tauans are extremely proud people, set in our ways of doing. We thought it was the only way we could fight the Clickjaws. Clearly, we were wrong.”

Pidge cleared her throat. “Um, well, we’re gonna do something about it now,” she said. “You don’t have to worry about the Clickjaws anymore.”

Taimane sniffed. “Of course,” she answered, bowing her head a little. “And I thank you for that.” She turned and walked again, and the Paladins followed, this time in silence.

Soon, the grassy field they were waking on thinned out and gave way to rocky, barren land. Afar, they could see a cave, its yellowish rocks that formed the open maw of the opening glistening under the sun. in contrast, the darkness within looked cold, unwelcoming. Taimane pointed with her tail at the cave. “There. That’s where the Clickjaws nest.”

Lance stared intently at the cave. “In that cave? That opening looks a little too small for those humongous Clickjaws.”

“Clickjaws are not that big,” Taimane told him. “The one that you defeated was actually the largest I’d seen. Normally, they’re smaller than that. Not to mention that they are very flexible in their movements.”

Pidge hummed. “Is there anything we need to know about them, other than that?”

“The claws may look big, but they’re not that dangerous,” Taimane said. “They could grab, but despite the appearance it’s actually pretty brittle. If you hit it hard enough it’ll shatter easily. The jaws, though…” She licked her lips, tail twitching. “The jaws are strong. It’s capable of cutting a Tauan in two in one click. I’ve seen it before… with the late chief.”

“We’ll remember that,” Keith solemnly swore, nodding at her like saying a promise.

“Ah, one more thing,” Taimane reached and touched Hunk softly with a paw. “Please remember that we’ve given you something to help you fight. The Earth will listen to your plight and bend to your will. Use that to your advantage.”

Hunk paused and nodded seriously. He could feel it, the thrum of the Earth in his skin waiting for him to ask, to be mended and bent. “I will,” he promised.

The Paladins shared a nod with Taimane before they turned to walk into the cave. Through the Earth, Hunk could feel Taimane walking away from them and hid somewhere, probably in case the Clickjaws came out. Hunk had to agree with her – she was probably worried about leaving them, but going along or staying in open space would be dangerous.

As they stepped into the dark that blanketed the cave, Hunk shivered. While he had trouble seeing in the dark, he could feel something shifting under the surface of the earth, twisting and reaching as though stirring awake. He gritted his teeth and turned to his friends, warning them, “Be careful. I don’t like how this cave feels like.”

“Why, what does it feel like?” Lance asked curiously.

“Like there’s something slimy underneath just waiting to spring up.”

“I regret that I asked.”

“In any case, we have to move deeper,” Shiro spoke up. “Set your visors to night vision, but set it to adjust to light. If we can only kill these things with fire, we can’t let Keith’s flames blind us.”

They each reached to their helmet, setting their visors. When Hunk saw that they were done, he stepped forward and pointed. “Come on, it’s this way. The cave is deep. It will branch into tunnels, since it’s shaped similarly to an ant’s nest, but I can feel that there aren’t that many Clickjaws around and they all stay in one chamber.”

“I wonder if they have castes or something similar,” Pidge mused. “If these overgrown ants are actually like ants, we’ll probably have to track down the queen and kill it.”

“Do you think the one we killed before was a young queen trying to find a new place to nest, then?” Keith asked. “Taimane said it was the biggest she’s seen.”

“That’s possible,” Pidge nodded. “In any case, if this is like an ant colony, we’ll have to strike the queen. Which will be hard, because other ants will totally protect her.”

“Just another day in life, then,” Lance shrugged with a bitter smile. “So, anyway. What’s the game plan?”

“Get in, wreak havoc, get out?” Keith proposed.

“That seems to be the best plan, yes,” Shiro agreed. “Though, do mind to be careful. We didn’t come here to end up being buried alive.”

Keith screwed his nose. “Wasn’t planning on it.”

Shiro nodded in approval. “Well, ready your weapons. Make sure not to get separated. Hunk, lead the way.”

Hunk nodded and took the lead, making his way into the darkened tunnel and silently expressing his gratitude to whoever made the Paladin armors that the helmets’ visors were equipped with night vision. As he walked down, he felt the slimy feeling growing stronger bit by bit, and suddenly he knew that he had to follow that disgusting feeling in order to reach the Clickjaws.

Ugh. At least the feeling wasn’t deceptive.

Aside from the entirely unwelcome feeling the Clickjaws gave off, Hunk was also able to pick up more things from the Earth. The deeper they went, the better he could pick up the info the Earth was feeding him constantly. If before his newly opened sense was limited to feeling tremors, now he could feel more. He could pick up the way his friends walked, the way they tightened their hands around their bayards – or just plain tightening his fists in Shiro’s case. He could feel the way their hearts thumped loudly with anticipation of what was to come. He could feel Lance’s anxiety seeping into the solid ground and reaching his heart, even though there was no sign of it, not in his heartbeat or his sure, silent steps or in the way his voice came in breaths in their comm link when he spoke, a surefire sign that he was concentrating hard. Hunk could hear more. Hunk could feel more.

He knew instantly that if he tried earthbending in this state he would probably be able to tear a dwarf planet in two. The thought scared him.

Still, he led them through the labyrinthine tunnels, deeper and deeper underground. At one point, they found the path they took forking into two instead of the sets of threes that they’d been encountering, and Hunk took a deep breath. “This is it,” he murmured into the comm link. “We’ll take the path to the right, and then we’ll encounter the whole colony. There are twenty at least. I think they’re sleeping, but once we begin attacking I’m sure they’re going to wake up.”

“Alright then,” Shiro breathed in deeply and stared at them each in the eyes. “Be careful out there. Your own safety is priority number one. Remember that burning them may be our only chance, so Keith, I want you to be ready. Lance, since you can cancel out Keith’s flames, I want you to be ready to provide cover for the rest of us. If any of us got injured, don’t bother with healing – keep providing cover. Hunk, can you manipulate the Earth yet?”

Hunk ran his fingers over the earthen walls of the tunnel. He could feel the Earth humming pleasantly, its willingness to be shaped seeping into his fingertips through the gloves of his armor. “Yes,” he answered after a moment. “I haven’t tried it, but I think it should at least be similar to earthbending.”

Shiro hummed in thought. “Well, if the place looks like it’s ready to cave in, I want you to stabilize it,” he instructed. “Do you think you can do it?”

Hunk nodded readily. “Count it on me.”

Pidge activated her bayard, the familiar hook-taser combo lighting up softly with a soft buzz. “Come on, then,” she said with a grin, “time to grill some alien ants.”

“Yeah, we’ll serve them with a side of guacamole,” Lance grinned.

“Quiznak, Lance, stop shitposting,” Pidge narrowed her eyes at Lance, but a smile was tugging at her lips. Lance shrugged with a smile on his own as he lifted his own rifle and put it in position.

“Alright, let’s go,” Shiro said, stepping quietly into the tunnel, his Galra hand activated. There was barely any sound it made, but its glow illuminated the tunnel instantly with purplish light.

The tunnel was short, so short. Barely even five steps in. Right at the mouth of it was a Clickjaw, much smaller than the first they’d encountered. The glow from Shiro’s hand had drawn a reaction from it, and it screeched loudly, scrambling to get up and lunging for them.

The tunnels network immediately exploded into a pandemonium. The Clickjaws in the burrow woke and attacked immediately, almost blindly. Keith reacted instantly, rushing forward with his igniter in hand and lighting fire to hold the Clickjaws back, eyes and hands glowing red. Lance was just a fraction of a tick later than Keith, aiming his gun and shooting at the Clickjaws’ eyes. The CLickjaws screeched in pain and lashed out.

Hunk pressed his hand onto the wall of the tunnel, extending his senses. His eyes widened. “Shiro, Pidge, three more Clickjaws coming from your six!”

“On it,” Pidge responded, turning to see the overgrown ants rushing to them. Her grappling hook sliced through the air and tied several of the Clickjaws’ legs together. Shiro rushed in, then, hand slicing to make cuts along the Clickjaws’ body to incapacitate it. The other Clickjaw roared and lunged for Shiro’s head, which he avoided easily.

“Pidge, retract the hook!” Hunk yelled. “Shiro, move back!” Once they complied, Hunk coaxed the Earth to mold into the shape he desired. It responded instantly, folding just like how Hunk wanted it to, and wrapped around the Clickjaws tightly, immobilizing them. He wouldn’t be able to kill them himself, not really, but at least they could focus on the larger group of the insects.

Keith had managed to burn two of the smaller Clickjaws to charcoal with Lance at his side minimizing the damage directed to their own side by making pillars of water and walls of ice to hold off the heat and licking flames, all while maneuvering his rifle one-handed to shoot at oncoming Clickjaws’ eyes. Again, Hunk coaxed the Earth to do his bidding and wrapped several Clickjaws within the clutch of dirt to immobilize them, and soon Keith had them burning up. Another snuck up on them and Lance shone like a blue starburst, and suddenly the whole Clickjaw was submerged in water, drowned in a misshapen bubble, thrashing. Soon it stopped moving, and Lance let go of his control, the glow dying away.

“So they can be drowned too,” he noted quietly. “I guess even these guys need air, too.”

“Save it for later,” Pidge warned, “look at your one o’clock!”

Lance snapped into attention at once and began shooting one-handed again. “How many do we need to defeat, Hunk?”

Hunk felt the Earth. “A lot more, but I think they’re all in that chamber.”

“Good, at least we don’t have to deal with stragglers,” Keith muttered as he lit up another Clickjaws with a flick of the igniter. Hunk stared at him, suddenly unnerved. Keith was pretty much a pro arsonist by now, and flames responded to his feelings almost too easily. He’d have to herd the Red Paladin away from the kitchen, or he’d run the risk having his food either horribly undercooked or horribly burnt. Or, you know, have his own hands burnt. Yep, totally have to keep Keith away from the kitchen. Also Shiro, because he once said his culinary expertise was limited to cup ramen.

He snapped his attention back to the scene before him when he felt more Clickjaws coming. He quickly informed the others, and soon more chaos came in to amplify the already raging chaos that had already broken. The battle was long and exhausting, considering that there were only five of them and almost two dozens of the Clickjaws, not to mention the overgrown bugs had such thick skin it was hard to actually harm them.

They managed, somehow. The onslaught of Clickjaws had finally relented when Hunk suddenly felt tremors under his feet, and from the alarmed looks his teammates wore he knew it wasn’t just him. Lance threw him a look that practically screamed what in quiznak is that at Hunk.

“Okay, guys, brace yourselves,” Hunk gulped, “I think that’s the queen.”

The ground shook hard, an earthquake big enough to send sand and rocks falling on top of them. Hunk automatically willed the tunnels to stabilize. Just as it did, the earth underneath their feet cracked open, scattering them back while three small Clickjaws ran after them. Keith immediately burned two of them while Lance drowned the other.

The queen emerged from below. It was large, much larger than the other Clickjaws. It was about as big as a truck, with longer and larger body, the bottom part of its body almost disproportionally larger than the rest of its body, much like the Earthen ant colony’s queen Hunk was familiar with. While the other Clickjaws have dark pink body, this one’s coloring was light, almost white. Its horizontal jaws were smaller than the other Clickjaws’ considering the proportions, but it was still there, and it was still much bigger than the others. Hunk gulped.

The queen screeched and charged forward, its large claws clacked loudly and its too-many legs stomped powerfully. The Paladins worked in tandem, moving and complementing one another’s moves as easily as breathing. Hunk had to hang back and concentrate on keeping the tunnels stable, however, since the queen’s erratic movements rocked the tunnels too much.

No, Hunk couldn’t keep this up, not even with the boost the Tauans had given him. The Earth couldn’t keep this up, and the tunnels longed to collapse onto its own. Hunk gritted his teeth and yelled to the others, “I can’t keep the tunnels stable for much longer. We gotta go back!”

“But the queen is still here,” Keith protested.

“We’ll find a way to make I work,” Shiro cut off before an argument could start. “If we keep annoying it, it will probably follow us anywhere.”

“Well, we can do that,” Lance grinned mischievously. A snowball appeared in his hand with a sparkle of blue, and he threw it like a baseball, screaming, “Hey, ugly!” The snowball hit the queen in the eye, and it clicked its horizontal jaws indignantly before screeching at him and reaching for him with its too-big claws.

“Okay, run, run, run!” Pidge pushed Lance forward, and soon the group were running through the tunnels. Hunk kept his concentration on keeping the tunnels stable, though he had to direct the others to get to the surface – one wrong turn was all it would take to lead them to certain deaths, after all. A few times, they’d had to annoy the queen one way or another to keep it running after them. Lance’s snowball, Keith’s fireball, and Pidge’s bursts of shock seemed to work best, though the occasional rock throw from Hunk worked as well, and also, strangely enough, Shiro’s lame insults accompanied by the glow of his arm.

Hunk’s control over the stability of the tunnels was lost as soon as they reached the mouth of the cave. They hurried outside as the tunnel network collapsed on top of the queen’s head, burying it under piles of rock and rubble.

“Is… is that it?” Keith asked softly.

“The Tauans said they couldn’t kill the Clickjaws,” Shiro reminded. “Stay on alert. This isn’t over yet.”

As if on cue, the queen emerged from the rubbles with a roar, sending dust and sand flying and raining over them. Shiro coughed loudly when he inhaled dust, but soon all five of them had adopted a fighting stance and stared at the queen head-on.

The queen, for its part, looked absolutely pissed. It clicked its jaws in agitation and irritation before it strode forward, claws extending, clearly intent on snapping Pidge in half. The girl leapt aside and tied the claw, keeping it in place. “Someone do something to immobilize this thing!” she demanded.

“On it!” both Hunk and Lance responded. Hunk quickly coaxed the Earth to bend under his will, wrapping around the queen’s limbs to keep it in place and unable to move anywhere, while Lance sent torrents of water to wrap around its joints and froze it.

“Keith, fire,” Shiro instructed. The Red Paladin nodded at it and flicked his igniter, and flames burst forth and wrapped around the queen with vengeance. The queen screeched in pain, wriggling and writhing without vain.

Though, it didn’t last for too long. The queen managed to break off the restraints Hunk and Lance had made since the fire weakened them, and it rushed to Keith in anger. Its claws sliced through the air to crush Keith, but they had become so brittle they crumbled to dust the moment they touched him. The queen wasn’t deterred, however, and instead bent to cut him in half using its jaws.

“Keith!” Lance yelled in horror, while Pidge screamed wordlessly and Shiro ran to grab Keith. Hunk knew, however, that he wouldn’t be able to save Keith in time. He was too far, and the queen was too fast, and Keith was frozen in place, too shocked and caught up in the freeze section in the fight, flight, or freeze instinct aisle. By the time he caught himself and lifted his bayard to drive off the queen, he would have been defeated.

A surge of power filed Hunk up to the brim, making him glow with bright golden-yellow light that made him look like the personification of the sun. With a cry, he let the power of the Earth run through him as a conduit, willing the Earth to save Keith. Immediately, quakes ran through the Earth, knocking everyone but Hunk off their feet, including Keith and the queen. Hunk put his hands together, intertwining his fingers, held it up above his head and brought it down swiftly and powerfully.

The ground beneath the queen crackled and fell, instantly creating a crater the queen fell into with a cry of its own. It tumbled down and laid in the center of the crater, howling painfully. Hunk kept it in place by wrapping it in dirt.

Keith had fallen to his butt, staring at the queen with wide eyes. One of his legs dangled off the crater, and he looked as white as sheet.

“Keith, you okay?” Hunk called out.

That snapped Keith out of his stupor. He scrambled away from the crater and stood, stumbling a little, but regained his footing quickly. “Y-yeah, I’m fine,” he assured. “Thanks, Hunk.”

“Oh, good,” Hunk laughed in relief, walking closer to the Red Paladin and clapping him on the shoulder. “I was worried you’d be hurt. Anyway, think we should finish off the queen? Your fire works best.”

Keith blinked a few times before nodding. “Yeah, okay,” he said at last, lifting his igniter. Fire immediately sparked, and the queen was soon burned to charcoal. Its howls of pain reverberated through the air, but Keith didn’t show any hesitation. If anything, the flames burned brighter and hotter. Soon nothing was left in the crater but blackened something that no longer could be recognized. With a satisfied nod, Hunk willed the Earth to fill in the crater, burying the charred remains with rocks and sand.

Silence fell on them, and Shiro soon broke it with a cross between a relieved laugh and a tired snort. “Good job, guys,” he praised. “Great thinking on the crater, Hunk.”

“Aw, don’t mention it,” Hunk laughed bashfully. “We all didn’t want anything to happen to Keith.”

“Speaking of which,” Lance strode to Keith and began poking him. “Are you alright? You were the one closest to the queen earlier. Does anything hurt? Do I need to heal you?”

Keith slapped Lance’s hand away gently. “Don’t worry about it, I’m fine.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah. Also, if there’s anything I prefer to just use the cryopod. Better that than you exhausting your quintessence.”

“That’s right, Lance,” Shiro agreed. “No healing unless it’s absolutely necessary. We can’t have you collapsing either.”

Lance humphed. “Fine,” he relented.

“Should we go back to the Tauans’ tunnels now?” Pidge asked aloud. “Allura and Coran are waiting.”

“We should, yes,” Shiro nodded. “Hunk, do you think you can lead us back there?”

“Sure, I can do that,” Hunk answered readily. “Only, I don’t think I need to. Taimane is coming. She’s been waiting for us this whole time.”

“Wait, really?” Lance perked up. “Where is she?”

“She’s been hiding in that shrub over there,” Hunk pointed at the pink shrubbery over his shoulder, from which Taimane crept out of and walked to them.

“Did you get all of them?” she asked, whiskers twitching nervously and tail swishing back and forth. “Are they gone? Every last one?”

“Yeah, we got all of them,” Hunk assured, feeling through the ground to check once more. He didn’t feel anything. The Clickjaws were gone.

“Thank the Earth,” Taimane sighed, tail drooping alongside her breath. Her eyes twinkled with relief and happiness. “Thank you, Paladins. Truly, thank you. We Tauans can rest easy now. I don’t know what I can do to make it up to you.”

“The Princess and Coran were hoping we can form an alliance,” Shiro revealed, “but that’s something we should discuss with the rest of your people. What about we just return for now?”

“Yes, certainly,” Taimane nodded vigorously. Her tail grabbed at the air with more vigor than before. “Let’s go back.”

The walk back to the Tauans’ settlements was mostly quiet, as each Paladin began feeling post-battle fatigue settling in. They were happy though, and relieved that the mission was relatively successful. They were sure that this good news could secure the Tauans into making an alliance with them. That meant more people to help them defeat the Galra Empire.

When they got back to the tunnel networks the Tauans lived in, they popped out of the burrow in waves, greeting them, each chittering questions of did you get them and are they dead now and are we safe. The onslaught of questions were cut off when Allura and Coran broke through the throng of Tauans to greet the Paladins, Coran openly assaulting Lance with a bear hug that the younger man returned immediately with a laugh. Coran then proceeded to hug the rest of the team while Allura demanded details on how the mission went.

“We got into the nest with no problem thanks to Taimane’s guidance,” Shiro explained, “and Hunk led us through the tunnels. It was a hard fight, but we managed to beat the Clickjaws. None of them are left now.”

“Is that true?” Lapisi’s voice rang out from the crowd, and suddenly he was in front of Hunk, who stepped back in surprise. “The Clickjaws are gone?”

“Well, yeah,” Hunk nodded, pointing at Shiro. “Shiro’s just said that.”

Lapisi’s eyes sparkled. “Oh, thank the Earth,” he breathed. “I can’t thank you enough, Yellow Paladin. Your efforts is truly much appreciated.”

Hunk waved him bashfully. “Aw, it’s nothing. It’s a team effort, really. And it’s Keith who actually killed the final boss; without his fire we wouldn’t be able to kill off the Clickjaws.”

The acting chief blinked and turned at the Red Paladin, the glee that overflowed from his person before seeping away in ticks. “…ah. I see. That’s good.” He turned back to Hunk. “In any case, thank you, Yellow Paladin. I hope there’s something I could do to make it up to you.”

“Well for starters you could thank my friends too,” Hunk answered immediately before Allura could cut in with alliance talk. “As I said before, it’s a team effort.”

“I’m sure you played the biggest part, given that you are a child of the Earth and your… friends are not.”

Hunk stared at the badger-like alien with his mouth hung open, for once completely speechless, and he knew the rest of his team as well as the Alteans were too. He and his friends had worked hard to save them, but only Hunk got the credits because he was, apparently, a child of the Earth? Just because he could understand what the dirt and sand whispered to him, he deserved to be thanked while his friends didn’t? Even though they all struggled together?

“Bullshit,” he burst out before he could stop himself.

“I – pardon?” the chief chittered in confusion.

“Bullshit!” Hunk repeated, louder this time, too angry to care about the possibility of ruining an alliance.

“Oh boy,” Lance muttered behind hs back. He sounded giddy, almost; the grin was audible in his voice.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand,” Lapisi voiced his confusion. “Am I, and my people, not thanking you for your help?”

“Yeah, just me,” Hunk rolled his eyes. “What about my friends? Don’t they deserve thanks too?”

“Ah.” There it was again, the disdainful look. “I’m afraid we all believe that only children of the Earth are worthy of our thanks. We are people of Earth. Anything else is beneath us.” He pointedly ignored Taimane’s loud speak for yourself.

Keith bristled and took a step forward, opening his mouth and hissing the word listen, but he stopped dead in his tracks when Hunk spoke above him.

“Fuck you,” he swore loudly. Behind him, Allura and Coran gasped in horror while Pidge cackled loudly, and Hunk could feel both Keith and Shiro’s flabbergasted stare at his back.

“Oh boy,” Lance repeated. Hunk could practically see him bouncing on his heels.

He chose to ignore them in favor of staring Lapisi down. “Fuck you,” he repeated. “Fuck you, and your entire ancestral line, and all your descendants to come. Fuck you and all your close and extended family and all their relatives and their relative’s relatives. Fuck you and your wife and your husband from another life. Hell, fuck your pets and your pet’s pets. Fuck everything that has anything to do with you, your race, and your children of Earth bogus, and your superiority complex. Just plain fucking fuck you, man.”

Lapisi stared at him silently, jaw hanging open in shock. Complete silence had fallen over the Tauans as they all stared at Hunk with the same shock in their eyes.

“…what?” was all Lapisi could say when he finally found his voice.

Hunk glared hotly at him. “Do you know how hard it was to take care of a cave full of giant ants? No! because you weren’t there! My friends and I was! The reason why all of us are still alive is because we all contributed and helped each other. They deserve as much thanks as I do! Maybe even more! They’re the ones who actually killed the creepy insects, not me! And now you’re saying that they don’t deserve thanks because their affinity isn’t with earth but with other substances? Fuck you!”

Lapisi worked his mouth for a moment silently before bristling at him. “How dare – how am I to know that you’re telling the truth?”

Hunk growled in frustration, and the power of the Earth rushed through his veins once more. Earthquake shook the valley they were standing in, and the dirt at the top of the hills began crumbling down in a small landslide. Cracks appeared on the earth, breaking the valley in two. Lapisi stared at him, wide-eyed, fear shining though the black of his pupils.

“You know what I’m capable of,” Hunk growled. “You know that I would be perfectly capable of breaking a dwarf planet in two right now, with the boost you’d given me earlier. Each of my friends are as powerful as I am at the very least, and each of us is attuned to a different element.” He straightened up and cracked his knuckles, and more cracks appeared on the earth. “Perhaps you would like to see a demonstration. How fast do you think we can level your tunnels?”

“Hunk, that’s enough,” Shiro snapped, alarmed. “I think you’ve made your point clear.”

Hunk complied, backing down immediately. The quakes stopped, but he didn’t make any effort to stitch back the valley to what it looked like before. “My point stands,” he murmured, still too upset to say anything else.

Shiro shook his head. “We’ll talk about this later. Princess?”

Allura snapped out of her stupor. “Ah, um, yes.” She straightened up and turned to Lapisi. “I apologize for this behavior. You must forgive the Yellow Paladin, the battle fatigue must be catching up to him.”

Hunk felt his ire spiked at Allura’s word choice, but swallowed it down. He had probably ruined their chances of alliance, best not to make anything worse. He felt Lance approaching though the tremors the Earth sent, and felt the warmth of his gloved hand as he wrapped it around his. Hunk appreciated the gesture, but stayed mum.

“Of course,” Lapisi responded to Allura, sounding shaken, and Hunk felt satisfaction snaking its way to his stomach despite himself. “Still, it is true that his efforts is greatly appreciated. Tell me, is there anything we Tauans could do?”

Allura hummed. “I was hoping that we could form an alliance to stop the Galra Empire for good,” she began, “but honestly, I’m not sure your people would accept such proposal from us, the lowly caste, since we are not of the Earth.”

Hunk blinked and stared at Allura, slack-jawed. The rest of the Paladins mirrored his expression, though Coran appeared unperturbed. Hunk threw Lance a look, which Lance immediately returned; both looks conveying a resounding what in the world is happening here?

Lapisi, too, looked completely taken aback by this. “That… is not what I meant.”

“Oh, I must have misunderstood then,” Allura swiftly replied, though she didn’t sound sorry at all. “In any case, I don’t think an alliance would have worked well for us. However, we will still leave you a communicator device – if ever you need help from Voltron, we will come and lend you a hand.” She turned and produced a small comm device from a pocket Hunk never knew existed and called out, “Taimane?”

Taimane squeaked in surprise. “Um, yes?!”

Allura smiled gracefully at her and gave her the device, wrapping her paws around it and patting her fur gently. “I trust you to hold this device,” she said, eyes staring straight into Taimane’s. “Remember, if you need help from Voltron, call us. We will come to help you as soon as we can.”

Taimane blinked and nodded seriously. “Of course,” she replied, holding the comm device close to her chest. “I will guard this. Your deed will not be forgotten, Your Highness.”

Allura’s smile widened, and she took a step back, looking around at the rest of the Tauans. “Please remember that Voltron is here to protect you,” she announced. “We will never abandon you, so if you need us, we will be here. Thank you for your cooperation. We will take our leave now.” She turned away gracefully and motioned at the others to follow.

The Paladins quickly fell in line, walking behind Allura and Coran to show a more official look. They left in silence, as the Tauans stared at their retreating backs without words.

“Um, Allura?” Lance spoke up once they were far enough away from the Tauans. “You didn’t push for an alliance?”

“I was hoping for it,” Allura sighed, “but frankly, Hunk isn’t the only one who is tired of their… ridiculous philosophy. Coran and I tried to establish an alliance one way or another while you were gone, but all they were talking about was how there was no way a bunch of people who were not of the Earth could take down the Clickjaws.”

“Also, they didn’t seem to regard us as equals,” Coran mused. “The princess had an advantage in that she has a title, but that doesn’t really help either. In the end no one really paid attention to us because we are not of the Earth. Nevermind the fact that Allura could manipulate raw quintessence!”

Pidge huffed. “I’m so glad we didn’t end up forming an alliance after all,” she breathed. “I don’t think I’d be able to stand them.”

“Frankly I’m surprised Coran and I could hold out for so long,” Allura sighed.

“Well, at least we got something good from this whole fiasco,” Shiro shrugged. “Hunk can now use the earth quintessence.”

“Yeah, but the boost the Tauans gave me earlier is starting to wear off,” Hunk admitted. “I’ll have to relearn everything again. I remember how it felt, though, so I should be able to do it quickly.”

“We can help you,” Keith offered, glancing at Lance and earning a nod. “And I need more practice anyway, so we could tackle this issue at the same time.”

Hunk fell silent for a moment, reaching out to the Earth and letting the feelings from the Earth climb up his legs. The music the Earth sang to him was starting to fade, turning into a phantom song that he could barely hear, though he was certain it was still there. The way the power of the Earth had travelled along his body was more than a little frightening, to be completely honest. Hunk honestly wasn’t sure he could deal with the fact that he was able to destroy a dwarf planet if he really wanted to.

Now that the boost bled away from him, though, he began to feel sure that he wouldn’t be able to reach that level of power anymore. He would be able to take control over the earth, sure, but he doubted he’d be able to actually destroy dwarf planets. Even the constant whispers the Earth sent him was starting to feel so far away. Hunk found that he… actually missed it.

Well, he liked how he could feel Earth beneath his skin and on standby, ready to be used if he needed it. He wanted to have it again, to make sure he could protect his teammates all the better. For that, he had to train himself.

“Yeah, okay,” he agreed at last. “Let’s train together.”

Keith and Lance both threw him grins, and the rest of the groups smiled fondly. The rest of their walk was spent in silence.

As he walked up the ramp into the Castle of Lions, the phantom song of the Earth was finally cut off, as Hunk was no longer in touch with the actual Earth. Hunk didn’t mind, though. He knew that with enough practice, he’d be able to feel the thrum of the Earth deep within his core.

He couldn’t wait.

#voltron #vld #Voltron legendary defender #my fic #fanfic #voltron fic #hunk garrett #lance mcclain #keith kogane #takashi shirogane #pidge gunderson #katie holt #coran #allura #ao3 #ffnet #long post

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imaginingit · 7 years

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surgeon!wonwoo

i suck balls at science and can’t remember anything at all from any of my classes but i think it’s one of the most interesting and unfathomable concepts in the world - and in my world, so does wonu so enJOY

wonwoo and his specs gave me this idea and it ki l l ed m e

so i knew i had to write a lil something abt it :-)

ok where do we start

remembered his mama camping out in the kitchen all the time and then heard the occasional “ah!” as she nipped her finger cutting some onions

and raced like usain freaking bolt to the medicine cabinet to reach the bandaids

and the look in her eyes when he quickly patched it onto her

it was just a bit of blood, but 4 year old!wonwoo was still hopped up on the high kitchen counter with one hand on his hip, the other wiping an imaginary sweat drop from his head, and gave a nice long “phew! you’re ok, ma! scared me there”

then proceeded to yell at her with his extremely not-deep-yet voice (om g can u imagine) for not being careful enough and interrupting his power ranger episode

but a few nipped fingers and a million thank-you smooches (“eW MOM gEt awAY i’m 4, i’m too old for kisses) later, jeon wonwoo decided to become a surgeon

bc how is it not cool to sew severed fingers back together???

so through elementary and junior high, he walked into science class everyday with a little hop in his step for his favourite subject and ready to learn about cells and mitochondrial functions and enigmas of the muscle and much more

until he discovered more than just sewing severed toes and ears back together

he remembered his 7th grade teacher talking about how the brain is the most powerful thing in the world, and just a simple nug to the head can send it all crashing down

he also went on to explain that the brain will never be a mystery solved, but those who try will never be short of acclaim

and since then, he delved into the world of neurology

by delved, i mean, dove the fuck into it, then drowned, then woke, then dove some more

through high school, he topped every single one of his bio classes and won every single science award in the school board

how????

HE’S A GENIUS

and also stays in on sunday afternoons to read his bio 4.6 textbook instead of sushi with friends

leading to best friend mingyu’s endless grumbling and whining that they never get to hang out anymore

meanwhile mingyu has his socks and sweaters and clothes all at wonwoo’s place; has a toothbrush there, buys food for his parents, uses the stove at wonwoo’s more than wonwoo does the pOINT IS HE BASICALLY LIVES WITH WONWOO

but everyone around wonwoo knows how much it means to him to be able to make this work

he marvels about science bc it’s a practicality but finds beauty in its enigma and endless endeavours of research and study

(jeon wonwoo is basically a nerd)

(but a hot one)

but yes, all his life, books, textbooks, textbooks, and books are all he’s known

so with all this accumulated knowledge he literally fucking powers through his undergrad and masters programs like. .. … bruh

he then gets accepted into the second top med school in the country boY

and this was such an eye opening experience for him because as much as his undergrad and masters did for him with theoretical aspects of science, he finally got to do hands on experiments and witness clinical trials and watched a live!! open!! brain!! surgery!!

so finally he goes through his internship and residency for a few years at this amazing hospital in the heart of the city and has already become most renown neurosurgeon the hospital has seen in years despite his age

imagine little wonu in faded green scrubs, with a tiny notepad in his hand and occasionally pushing his glasses up his nose, as he scurries around with his resident trying to take notes during rounds

to this hot-ass, confident, head of neurosurgery surgeon that has nurses and residents (even interns and PATIENTS) slipping on their drool for him in his white coat and cerulean blue dress shirt, the top button left untouched (seungcheol had to slap his hand away multiple times during breakfast to keep him from trying to button it again)

but lbr he still trips over his laces bc he forgot to tie them before he left in the morning and buttons his dress shirt wrong under his white coat when coups doesn’t come in the morning to check up on his wardrobe choices for the day

one time, accidentally brought mingyu’s grocery shopping list from his briefcase to the pharmacy rather than the prescription for ibruprofen for his patient jesus christ wonwoo

the point is, knowledge has always come easy for him, the other stuff have not

,,,,,,and then there’s u

oh boy

science is ur nemesis

ultimate. nemesis.

the first time you ever stepped foot into your science class in the sixth grade, every word that came out of ur teacher’s mouth, to you, was just a complete ,,,, , , ,what??

and ur not stupid (actually very completely opposite), ur brain just physically, literally, cannot comprehend the concept of science

even if it may be so extremely fascinating to u, chem!!! physics!!!! and bio!!! are allergic to sticking to ur brain so u just learn to avoid science at. all. costs.

remember when i said that jeon wonwoo was a classic genius and a social termite like he’s so shy and weird around new people that he just deflects it at all costs?

WELL NOT YOU

so u went into journalism bc instead of memorizing formulas and using every unit of area in ur brain, ur communication is ur best friend

through high school and university, you were the campus butterfly

you knew everyone and everyone knew you, and any event that needed an mc? a motivational speaker? a presenter? that’s you!

you and best friend soonyoung always do those stuff together and you fell in love with the art of communicating, articulating, and analyzing information, all the while keeping the listeners intrigued and focused the entire time

but unfortunately the years after ur undergrad trying to look for gigs with ur firm has been extremely unsuccessful and it was to the point where u didn’t know if u wanted to stop this or continue bc it was just too low of a demand

until one day!

u come into ur office and find a piece of paper on the bulletin board talking about the new neural clinical trial happening at this huge hospital near u, and they were looking for someone to cover it!

and at first u were like um kk clinic? try? what?

but .2 seconds later it hits you that thERE’S AN OPEN OPPORTUNITY

and u vow to plow through it as boring as it may be, bc it’s been just sitting there and people haven’t signed up probably cause medical cases are usually a failure and such a bore to talk abt

you need this

so u quickly apply with all the info you need to and two days later, you’re stepping foot into this huge hospital and escorted to the neuro ward to get things started

when u get to the floor ur led by nurse!jeonghan to the head surgeon on this case

i think y’all know where this ish is going

and jeonghan begins asking u a few questions abt the case, trying to gauge where you are with the info, and its safe to say u have nada dirt on this

so he laughs and begins to explain

this was the first clinical trial this hospital has done in 14 years, and despite being a renown teaching and surgical hospital, it has never quite reached its potential on the research aspect

so the new head of neuro, dr. jeON, has decided to go forth with the new clinical trial (an experiment where those with the sickness subjected to the study will volunteer to be apart of the research, using themselves as a way to find a cure) for huntington’s disease, an inherited brain disorder that slowly deteriorates one’s ability to move, speak, function, as brain cells being to die off

he’s already got you so hooked on the case that you begin to wonder why no one at ur firm did an extra bit of research in the first place to snatch this gig

but ur glad anyway CAUSE ITS NOW URS

u probably looked so flabbergasted and numbly excited that jeonghan mistook it for ur cluelessness and nerves, so he goes

“dw, it’ll be fine! dr. jeon here will walk through everything with you anyway, and you’ll basically be with him for the entire course of this trial to document everything, so tomorrow, just immediately head up here”

and knocks on the door labeled “dr. jeon wonwoo, ph.d, m.d., head of neurosurgery”

and for the head of neuro, for someone taking forth in an idea that hasn’t been touched in over a dozen years in such a renown hospital, you did not expect the door to be opened by a

beautiful

human being

his glasses sat perfectly atop his face as his sharp yet kind eyes rested upon urs

and his white coat and black dress shirt today and nice slim pants and a pair of $200 light brown dress shoes bOI

and when he opens the door and finds ur mouth agape and eyes shining with excitement he feels like a leap in his chest

like who is this beautiful person

and he scolds himself, no wonwoo stop this nOW

and he doesn’t know if it’s bc he hasn’t been on a date in like forever or if it was simply u

answer: it was simply u

but we’ll get to that

and jeonghan notices the tension so begins giggling and retreating from the scene

so wonwoo clears his throat when it’s just the two of you left

introduces himself and you m e l t bc

his........voice.................

and you stutter ur name and in his head he’s like o h m g what a pretty name what do i do with myself

so you enter his office and its surprisingly extremely tidy and put together for someone that probably has to worry about so much in a day

and begins to talk about the case with you

and remember the cute and stuttery person that opened the door to see u like 2 minutes ago

GOODBYE

bc here’s jeon wonwoo talking about science and his eyes light up brighter than anything you’ve ever seen

he talks about huntington’s first to give you a bit of background as to what it is, and then delves right into his plan

his hands begin to move with his words and he smiles when he begins to talk about how no one has attempted this before and maybe this could make a difference in this hospital, his career, and even medical history!!

and he kinda noticed you blanking when he talked about the logistics of the science so he kinda laughs to himself, knowing that science might not be ur thing

but for some reason, ur ok with science if u have this man talking to u abt it 24/7 ;)))))))

and u take notes on this and he notices ur pretty handwriting so gathers up his GODDAMN COURAGE to ask u a simple question

“so you’re a journalist?”

and u begin to tell him that you loved being able to tlak about something that reflected on someone’s experiences and share them with the world, just liek this one

and he smiles and thanks u, knowing that it must have been difficult to agree to a medical case

u assure him its no problem, meanwhile swooning over his s m i l e

and it’s only been like 30 minutes but u’ve already developed a crush like wow

so for the first week, your conversations are a wholesome mixture of science, stutters, facepalming when u say something cringey and accidentally, and hoping to make the other laugh

in the second week, you begin to meet the patients coming in, taking each of their stories and details with huntington’s

and for the first time, you see how wonwoo interacts with his patients

and that crush that you developed become sso much more - you have this whole new found respect for him as a doctor

with care and intent, he asks his patients abt their day before going right into details of the treatment, knowing that all these people are doing his career a favour and the least he can do before they risk their lives into this experiment is at least be their friend

and even 70 year old women that can barely move anymore still manage to blush at the sound of his voice

u see the way he holds their hand when he’s explaining the process and the courteous nod of his head as they talk to him and u know this man is more than just a surgeon and that he’s just an amazing human

by the third week, your conversations have now transitioned to telling each other what u did last night and what ur planning for dinner tonight

and u know to bring him coffee every morning now

the first time u did it, he legit had STARS in his eyes bc o mg u r so cute

and u guessed it right the first time, that he liked his coffee black with just a dash of sugar

GET THE METAPHOR

by the end of the month, the more you learn about him, the more you’re amazed

you guys become closer and share the passion of wanting to help ppl in some way

and ur relationship now has become a complete budding and teasing relationship and there’s literally never a dull moment with u

ur fav thing to do together is to do acrostic poems

u also take bets on who’s sleeping with who in the hospital

he always wins

“its not fair u OBVIOUSLY know more abt them than i do!!!”

“hey babe, dont hate the player, hate the game”

and then u have to keep ur knees from buckling bc bABE ? ?? ? ?

the nurses always comment on how you’ve brought him so far out of his shell and he never really used to talk to anyone besides his patients, but he’s been treating his residents to dinner, helping the nurses out with the paperwork, and it’s only been happening since u came

and u r like

. . ,,, ?? me?

and they’re like yes! do u not notice how red he turns everytime u walk into the room?

you soon learn his favourite colour is blue

his favourite band is my chemical romance

im kiddin g

his best friend is mingyu and he’s a chef

you learn that he has a younger brother and his first ever splurge was buying him and his parents a cottage by the ocean

also that he never really eats at home and he barely ever gets to go home bc of the gruelling hours and so he tends to just eat in his office before he checks up on his patients during night rounds

you also learn that he’s having a housewarming party for his new condo this saturday and was wondering if yoU’D LIKE TO COME ALONG???

by this point, your research was mainly complete and you were a third finished with ur piece on this

so ur like y know what? SURE

and u try ur fucking best not to blush, but as you leave for the night, jeon wonu does a HUGE happy dance in his office before realizing that his walls and doors are glass and peopLE CAN SEE U WONWOO GODDAMn

but he texts u his address with a smirky face

“jeon wonwoo why are u sending me a text w a smirky face”

“idk that was my attempt to be cool did it work”

“no”

“oh”

so it was ur day off on the day of his party and u know wonwoo doesn’t really throw stuff like this cause he only has a "small” group of friends

“it’s only gonna be u and my small group of friends”

“how small”

“well i grew up with these guys, there are abt 13 of us”

“THIRTEEN ISN’T SMALL”

and usually you’d be fine bc u have no problem meeting ppl but like these are wonwoo’s brothers???

you wanna try so hard to impress these people bc--

wait wonu isn’t ur bf??? WYD

SNAP OUT OF IT

so u slap urself and then take like four hours to find the right outfit and do ur hair nicely

and u show up in ur fav outfit and look bomb asf yas

and he opens the door after u knock

and

lord

he’s wearing a simple white t-shirt and ripped jeans

jeon wonwoo

phd

head of neurosurgery

in ripped jeans

rip reader

and as u lose ur words, he also loses his and ur both just standing there clearly REALIZING THAT UR IN LOVE WITH THE OTHER PERSON AND THIS IS THE FIRST TIME YOU’VE EVER WORN ANYTHING OTHER THAN PROFESSIONAL CLOTHING AND WOW? SO? NICE?

so he snaps out of it bc yes i’m hosting this party thts right, and brings u inside

you hear a bunch of exclaiming and hushing from inside the rooms and a lot of limbs knocking into the walls as 13 human beings sprint from inside of the condo to mEET THE JOURNALIST THAT JEON WONWOO HASN’T SHUT UP ABOUT IN TWO MONTHS

and they all rush out and ur a bit overwhelmed but introduce urself and then scan through all the faces

you notice nurse!jeonghan, head of pediatrics!chan, his best friend, mingyu, and--

wait

“KWON SOONYOUNG???????”

yes ur best friend from uni also happens to have grown up in the same neighbourhood as surgeon jeon and u cant believe ur luck

so hoshi jumps out from the herd of men and tackles you with a hug and u can’t believe this until wonwoo explained he didn’t tell them ur name bc they would go crazy stalker-bitch mode, hence why they were so excited to meet u today

so the rest of the night was spent with everyone being completely loud and tipsy and pushing the two of u together in an attempt to be slick they’re not

and u see the bond that all the boys have and how boisterous wonwoo is around them too and u feel so lucky and ur heart is so full to witness a group of people truly in love and as close with one another

so by the end of the night, as they all leave, soonyoung stops u at the door before he goes and tells u how happy he is that after losing touch post-uni, u’ve managed to bump into each other today again

but he also hugs u and tells u that wonwoo hasn’t shut up abt u

and that he hasn’t been in touch with his brothers in a rlly long time bc of stress and anticipation with this new project

and that although wonwoo doesn’t do this much, he can tell that he’s super comfortable around u and that he seems to glow when he talks abt u

and ur like omg s o noyougn st op po

so after he leaves, you stay behind to help clean up

but you’ve also decided

to confess

bc ur project is almost over and the paper is almost finished and ur ok with leaving on this note, regardless of if he reciprocates the feelings or not

u just had to tell him, it was in ur nature to

and u almsot back out but at the door, just as ur about to leave

you were gonna say it

and then

his lips are on urs and god they’re soft and ur eyes just close immediately and his two hands cup ur face, intensifying the kiss, holding u up and taking up ur space as if he owns it and wow, it does things to u

after what feels like an eternity, you part and u look at him with his swollen lips and rosy cheeks and glistening eyes and u almost cried right then adn there

bc wow ur in love with jeon wonwoo and u can’t believe u haven’t even told him that

“i’ve been waiting to do that for so long”

“idiot, i was gonna confess first”

shrugs “i guess i just beat u in everything then”

that gets a smack on the head

until he asks u to stay the night and he can drive u both to work in the morning tomorrow and u agree bc how can u say no and so u end up staying over and wearing his sweater to bed and he lies there in bed literally hyperventilating bc SWEATERS ARE HIS WEAKNESS LIKE WHAT

so u drive into work the next morning with ur hands intertwined and in the corner of ur eye as ur walking in, u see head of pediatrics!chan slap a fifty dollar bill into nurse!jeonghan’s hands

so the rest of that month is spent going through with each patient and stealing chaste kisses in the x-ray viewing rooms and getting teased by everyone in the hospital

even the patients

until by the third month, the trial hits its first roadblock

patient 04 had died on the table just as jeon wonwoo was inserting the second tube, and as surprised as u are that this was the first malfunction with the trial, it hits u nonetheless

hearing the news, u drop everything and go to his office after the surgery

this was the first taste of adversity in ur relationship too and u were curious to see as to how you guys were going to deal with this, esp since ur work was integrated into ur personal life

but u walk in and there he is

eating a freaking popsicle

jeon wonwoo’s patient just died on the table and he’s in here eating ice cream

and u didn’t know if u were confused? angry? horrified?

and u close the door behind u as u walk in and draw the blinds for the glass walls and windows

and as u turn around from doing that, he chucks the popsicle into the bin, walks up to you slowly and drops his head onto ur shoulder

you freeze, unsure if he’s crying or not, but u hear steady breathing and his arms slowly creeping around u and ur sure he isn’t

but u can tell that he’s exhausted and scared, even if no words are shared between the two of u

so you both stand there for god knows how long, holding each other, breathing each other in, releasing all tension and heartache from the day without a single word, just the sound of heartbeats and breathing

until finally he lifts his head, eyes droopy and a small smile on his face, arms still around you, when u cup his face and tell him that ur so damn proud of him

everything is going to hit a roadblock at some point, and this was bound to happen. we entered this knowing that it was science; anything can happen. just hang in there, wonu, we can do it

and that was the first time wonu said i love u out loud

and for all the people that doubted he was going to ever get a girlfriend with his head stuck in so many textbooks, it was the head stuck in the textbook method that even got him here to meet u in the first place SO SUCK IT

and so by the time u finish ur paper and the trial is reaching its end, there was a mixture of patients that successfully responded to the trial and those that didn’t make it

but ur paper gets high acclaim from hospitals across the province for its research and editorial skills

and wonwoo received the highest achievement award from the board for his endeavours with the trial

and after many long and gruelling months filled with work and chaste kisses here and there

you finally have time to take a seat and take in everything

and marvel at wonu as a surgeon and as a human

bc how in the damn world did u ever get so lucky with science??

this,, ,, ,, is so long but enjoy bc i love jeon wonwoo

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