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#switched my watch face to an analog one to see if it would help my timeblindness
astraltrickster · 1 year
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unsleepingtales · 6 months
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Burrow’s End Episode Six Reactions! (And AP!)
Allow me to preface this by saying that my computer broke this week, I am doing all my schoolwork and real job work on my cellphone right now, and the following is transcribed from the reactions I wrote down in a real physical notebook while watching the episode on my phone.
If you’re wondering how I wrote emojis in my notebook. The small drawings are very bad. Onwards!
BUT SHE’S DEAD 💀
Some sort of mutation going on w/the giant thing?
Diversity Win! The threatening First Stoat uses they/them pronouns!
Bennett :D
She does tai chi 😎
Oh the twins! (So fun bc one of the main groups in my current home game is Also called the Twins)
Is this a dept head meeting or smth?
That’s. Creepy.
Ok.
OOP-
Blow up his spot lmaooo
I’m living for Brennan’s reality check analogies
Human ish teeth?
Erika Ishii I love you ❤️
Aabria the character voice you are doing for Kiran is Hot.
I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE???
I need Bennett to not be a bad guy ok? I need it.
What are you saying man
Brennan’s just Dying
That was pure Erika oh my god
Oh she’s full of it alright!
(‘Keep going’) oh Izzy <3
Y’know what if I was on the team to renter a nuclear power plant that had a reactor failure and I saw thousands of militant stoats I think I would just leave. Let them have it.
On the what, Ava?
Yeah no especially if those stoats were using the fucking nuclear power?? I’d just leave.
At least she remembers their hallway is blue.
I’m curious if everyone switching so quickly from calling it Blue to Light is a DnD/Improv/Adaptation thing or a characters assimilating thing? Maybe both? Maybe it’s conscious maybe not?
I’m still thinking about how smooth Aabria’s “Weap-Technology” was when introducing the departments
He’s not asking you to run. He’s asking you to stay.
I’m glad Aabria keeps pushing back when they read negative or nefarious intentions into things that one the face of it truly are just typical to this kind of situation and society
The family vibes are So correct.
Horrible. I hated that.
The most it’s possible to be.
Yeah, okay.
KIDS.
Oh god. Oh no.
Good GOD Tula
The SIDE EYE on that Jesus
Muahahahaha
Oh NO.
That went on for so long
I am Unnerved.
Hell Yes babe
GET HIS ASS I GUESS???
They’re like teenagers now right?
Well That was intense!
The casualness in Aabria’s asking for the stealth check while taking a sip. She does not give a fuck and I love her for it.
Check it out!
Do we not get to find out what happened to Ava with the Garage?
Oh that’s So creepy
MMHMM
I love Ava’s refusal to learn
YES THIEVES’ CANT MY BELOVED THIEVES’ CANT <3
I think what she said was “please help.” Which is different.
SIOBHAN.
Oh that’s gonna be merch.
The crack of noon is so true
THE COPPER PUN NICE ONE AABRIA
Ohohohohoho. The Dictator. Lovely.
🎶don’t be suspicious, don’t be suspicious🎶
Oh my GOD
Brennan of all people saying finally some action on this goddamn show
Also Brennan’s reactions to Izzy’s reactions… so funny to watch the face journeys happening at the table rn.
Love that for them
OH
A population support state 😭
Oh god oh fuck
MAP???
Oh holy fucking shit
I can’t wait to rewatch this on my computer so I can actually see and appreciate the detail. Oh my god.
Ooh the puzzle of it all is intriguing
“I’m gonna kill him.”
Jabroni <3
OOF.
Oh my god <3
That was really cool Brennan.
Ooh just noticed the dome!
Hey Brennan? That was really cool.
Everyone’s got Thoughts.
Oh yeah jump into the nuclear juice. Great.
Ava.
YES
Awwww
PUZZLE
Oh no
I need to get the build details of this map
Oh. My god.
HE WAS THERE THE WHOLE TIME
Knight to C4 😭
That’s a fucking human skull.
Oh what does That mean
Huzzah.
(Most dejected/exhausted huzzah of all time)
God the comedy we do get in this season is so so gooOH
Not the wisdom saves 😭
Izzy.
Sometimes the dice fell a STORY.
Yeah okay
Oh god
Oh Jasper
Oh the stress is insane. Losing Jaysohn would break this family.
This can’t be the end of the episode?
Oh ok
OH FOR FUCKS SAKE
I love when DMs get to play DnD
DAD ARM
Nice catch!
OH I did not register that that’s the fucking radiation hazard symbol
Everyone at that table is so close to tears
AVA AND THORNNNN
Thorn himself <3
DOME.
Oh FUCK.
Preview for next week reactions:
What the FUCK.
WOLF??
I love JWC oh my god.
Adventuring Party Reactions!
Oh they’re jokingly pissed at her lmao
Woooo chipotle
Erika <3
I gUeSs I MiSsEd HiM
Aabria.
Erika takes METHOD NOTES
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who went ‘diversity win!’
Brennan Lee “Animal Facts” Mulligan strikes again
Felt so happy about seeing the human skull.
Jasper that’s such a fascinating theory oh my god
The intense NY came out
Okay but after this season… CAN we get set tours?
Yeah I am so curious about the in-world justification for the giant stone puzzle on top of the reactor.
OKAY thank you Jasper and Aabria I am Also a big reactor in games and sometimes I worry about being disruptive
I wanna go back and figure out what noise he’s talking about
Voice actor things! (Happy SAG Deal day!!)
I love actors so much. They are all FRIENDS.
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2jaeh · 3 years
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FREAKS THE PREQUEL : TAEYONG X TEN X READER 
genre: smut, humor
warnings: poly themes, alcohol, some drug use, threesome, oral M and F receiving, semi-public, fxm, mxm, just a lot of smut related tags tbh
word count : 11,8 K 
AUTHOR SIN
Everyone had heard of you but where did the story begin ?
This is the prequel to FREAKS (Jaehyun x reader) a story of why the entire campus were almost certain that you Taeyong and Ten were in a poly affair. 
A/N: before anyone asks I will be doing a part two of Freaks w Jaehyun, I needed to get this part out first! Also commissions are open on my fiverr and let me know in my inbox what you think of this series! 
0. Prequel 
1. Freaks pt 1 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You always wondered what it was like to fit in. Whether people rarely stared, that It didn’t matter what music you listened to or how you dressed as long as you followed the quota you were good. But four months into university made you quickly realise that it wasn’t easy making friends as people made it out to be. Being in the art department, you took notice of a few people that met your requirements but after an exchange or two the conversation fell flat and it would feel like you were back to square one.
You sat your sketchbook down on the wooden table situated at the back of the fine arts classroom and slumped into the chair waiting for class to begin. Your eyes watched every person that sauntered through those indigo doors. Hippies, wannabe tattoo artists, rich kids who took art just to prove they’re cultured, and the ones who weren’t worth remembering.
“Today we will explore life drawings so pull out the items I asked you to collect and partner up with the person seated next to you” your lecturer clapped his hands as the classroom filled with shuffling of seats and small greetings.
You turned to your left and noticed a black haired boy with a mullet cut passed out on the desk. You had seen him at a few parties but you’ve only exchanged less than a sentence with him.
Grabbing your pencil you poked his exposed arm until he groaned and stretched his arms out in front of him yawning, “Are we done already ?”
“We just started, and were partners” you faked a smile and shifted your desk closer to him.
“Oh shit sorry, you’re y/n right ?” He asked, his voice was soft and friendly. His cat-like eyes blinked cutely as he adjusted his loose shirt and turned his body to face you, “you were at Jungwoo’s party last week.”
“Oh yeah I was” you chuckled scratching the back of your head, “You…are Ten Lee, I remember your strip club design project. It was pretty awesome”
Ten’s eyes lit up at your words and you felt a sense of warmth emanating from him. It felt genuine unlike most people on this campus and you couldn’t believe it took you this long to even talk to him.
“I tend to see how far I can go before the faculty calls my parents in” he snickered and began pulling out his drawing equipment from his overly decorated tote bag. You mimicked his actions and in turn pulled out the items your lecturer had asked you to collect. Personal trinkets he said, three items that you think represented you.
You looked around at the nearby desks and noticed a lot of the same items placed on everyone's desk. Candles, AirPods, tea boxes, vinyls and anything else you would find on ‘art hoe Tumblr 101’. You annoyingly rolled your eyes as you looked down at your own equipment.
A rusty old key you had found in your room, the cigarette butt of the last one you smoked since you’d quit, and of course the grand finale, an anime figurine of a woman with boobs bigger than her head. Perfect.
“Hentai is…..your identifier ?” Ten stifled his laughter as he grabbed the figurine from your desk and closely examined her clothing, or lack thereof.
“I actually stole that from the store my ex worked at but yeah we can go with that, what is yours ?”
You watched Ten remove the items from his bag and your eyes widened at one item in particular, “dude is that a vibrator ?” You questioned and Ten grinned, holding up the palm sized gadget and switched it on briefly before turning it off and flinging it on his desk, “yeah I identify strongly with it” he shrugged.
“How exactly?” You quizzed him as the boy, still poker faced, played with the rings on his fingers.
“Vibrators pleasure people, and I do the same, there's no lore to it y/n”
“Good to know I guess” you pressed your lips together and you felt Ten tug on your arm until his lips were against your ear,
“You wanna skip and try it out in the bathroom ?”
———————————————————————————————————
You had no idea what the fuck was going on but within minutes you and Ten were walking down the hall to the nearest bathroom after he explained to the lecturer that the two of you had to hand in a business assignment a couple doors down. Ten pulled you into the girls bathroom and looked under each stall until he realised you two were the only ones in here.
“What the fuck is happening right now” you walked hand in hand with him into the last stall and leaned against the cold tiled wall.
“You about to get one of the best orgasms ever that's what” Ten bit down on his lip cheekily and found the slit of your floral skirt and pushed it to the side, revealing your black laced panties on full display for him.
As Ten’s fingers slowly began making its way to your core you smacked his hand, causing him to look up with wide eyes, “What ?”
“At least kiss me first, how am I supposed to get in the…mood?” Ten chuckled at your words and raised his hands amusingly, “Okay Okay I didn’t think this would be a whole ordeal”
You rolled your eyes and pulled Ten by his neck into a deep kiss that actually surprised the both of you. Each side was filled with lust as your tongue moved against his and fought for dominance. Ten pressed his body against you roughly, earning a moan from both of you once you felt your bodies connect in the most passionate way. Kissing him was different, It completely changed the way you looked and felt about him. He went from being the cute cat boy in your class to probably one of the sexiest people you had ever met. Ten roughly bit your lip and smirked into the kiss when he felt your nails dig into his shoulder. He quickly used the opportunity to slip his hands in-between your legs which you politely parted for him and ran a finger over your core.
“Oh shit” you breathed against his lips as he moved the material out of the way and slipped his finger inside with ease. His finger moved slowly in and out of you while his lips were still attached to yours not missing a second of that mouth-watering kiss. You had no idea when his finger was replaced with the vibrator but the sensation made you break away from the kiss and throw your head back in ecstasy, not knowing when was the last time you even felt like this. The combination of Ten’s wet kisses on your neck and the vibrator completely destroying you, it was happening. The orgasm of the fucking century was approaching. You would like to believe that you were only at your breaking point because you hadn’t hooked up with anyone in a while not because Ten was this good. But he was. He was fucking amazing and this was just a taste, just an introduction to him.
Ten increased the speed of the vibrator until your legs were shaking and clasped his hand over your mouth to prevent the whole department from hearing you coming undone.
“Fuck..” You sighed, holding onto his shoulders for support as you tried catching your breath, “yeah the whole pleasure analogy between you and the vibrator….I get it.”
“Glad to be of service” Ten stuck his tongue in his cheek and began neatening his outfit before hooking arms with you and walking out of the bathroom. You already had no intention of going back to class anytime soon so the two of you ended up wandering the halls of the pristine campus, hoping the day would pass away.
“Y/n” you heard a voice call from behind you, not your favourite voice in the world.
“Fuck” you sighed and turned around, watching the tall black haired man make his way over to you. You watched a cocky smile spread across his face as he came over, his tall frame standing over you and Ten.
“What do you want Jinyoung ?” you asked, raising your eyebrow at him and folded your arms.
The boy bit down on his lip and moved his hair out of his face, “I just came to say hi y/n do you have to be so rude ?” He scoffed and raised his eyebrow at Ten, “got a new boy toy ?”
“What Ten and I do is honestly none of your business” you responded coldly, Ten immediately putting two and two together and stifled a laughter before smiling up at Jinyoung,
“Oh you’re the ex boyfriend ? Is this the one who finishes in 10 seconds ?” Tens words caught you off guard causing you to let out a chuckle and Jinyoung to shift uncomfortably in his spot. He tried his best to stay composed but his red ears told a different story.
“That’s probably someone else, you know she’s been around the block” he licked his lips and folded his arms across his chest.
“Anyway do you want something ? We gotta go back to class” you rolled your eyes and rested your head on Tens shoulder.
“Come out with me tonight, you know I always get guestlist to varsity parties” Jinyoung said and Ten waved his hand in front of his face startling Jinyoung, “I have plans with her, so maybe next time” Ten pulled you down the hall before Jinyoung could get in another word. You couldn’t help but turn back and take in his dumbstruck frame as the two of you furthered away from him and headed back to class.
“We have plans ?” You asked as the two of you slipped back into your seats and Ten propped his legs up on the table and leaned back,
“Yeah there’s a party at that guy Wooyoung's place tonight and we’re going” Ten stretched his arms above his head, “wear something sexy so I’m not standing out.”
————————————————————————-
Of Course listening to Tens words and knowing the kind of closet you were working with it wasn’t that hard to not stand out. You opted for a cute little baby blue mini dress that was tight enough to show off your curves and a pair of holographic combat boots. Your favourite part was always getting to match your eye make up to your outfit. Drawing on an intricate design that accentuated your big round eyes almost made you doll-like.
You retrieved your phone and noticed you received a text from Ten, who had already updated an outfit pic on story. A very low buttoned down black shirt and black shiny pants that had a fucking garter around his leg ?
Yeah he was hot and the both of you knew it.
You grabbed the last of your things and made your way downstairs to Ten who was waiting at the dorm house entrance. Unconsciously biting on your lip you were welcomed by his slender figure posted up against the fence with a cigarette hanging from his mouth. He looked straight out of a movie.
“God finally….holy shit you look hot!” He whistled and pulled you into a tight hug before pulling you into a kiss and grabbed your waist. The kiss was indeed surprising even though earlier that day he was practically fucking your brains out.
His lips were soft and sweet, laced with a hint of the menthol cigarette from earlier. Ten finally pulled away and he gave your ass a cheeky squeeze before handing you his half burnt cigarette,
“Let’s have a wild fucking night then shall we ?”
Taking the cigarette from him you took a drag and blew the smoke up into the air forgetting about your sobriety and watched it disappear in the night sky, “let’s go.”
The night was cold but quite a few people were all over the residence roads, making their way to various parties or down to the bars where the rowdiness had already begun.
“Shit I really should’ve brought something to pre drink” Ten sighed and pulled out his phone.
“Who are you texting ?” You asked, trying to match his quick footsteps as yall began nearing the busy part of the street.
“Yuta, you know that tattoo guy ? He always has a bottle on him” Ten explained as you followed him into a narrow corner and saw a group of people gathered at the steps of the building.   You noticed a few people from your department hanging around but the most noticeable person was in fact Yuta Nakamoto. His long black hair, pierced ears and tatted up body was hard to miss. You got a tattoo from him once and it almost ended with him making out with you on his work desk.
But that was a story both of you agreed to forget.
“Ten and y/n, weird combination but I’m not really surprised, what’s up ?” Yuta grinned and handed Ten the bottle of vodka while pulling you into a quick hug.
“Yeah it’s called matching each other’s energy” Ten winked at you and took a shot of vodka straight out of the bottle before handing it to you. You eyed the clear bottle up and down knowing your kidneys were screaming at you right now but fuck you hated walking into a party without a slight buzz going. You took the bottle and took a shot before wincing at the bitter taste and the fiery sensation that was now running down your throat. “You ready ?” Ten grinned holding out his hand and you placed your hand in his, nodding a thank you to Yuta and his friends before entering the chaotic party.
There were people of all kinds inside. Some from your department, some from God knows where. All you could see were lingering eyes on you and Ten as you stepped inside. Some people made it obvious that they were staring, hoping that maybe you’d strike up a conversation with them. Others just peeked and gossiped amongst their friends as they stared at the outfits that you and Ten adorned.
“What else do you expect from people who sleep around with drug dealers” you and Ten overheard a girl say as the two of you made your way over the kitchen for drinks.
“Drug Dealers ? Geez that’s the first” Ten scoffed and sifted for a cider in the cooler.
“None of that bothers you does it ?” You smiled, intrigued as the cat-eyed boy barely noticed a few people checking him out from behind the counter.
Ten handed you a drink and leaned up against the counter taking a sip of the cold liquid before shrugging,
“Why should I let it bother me ? It’s not like their lives are interesting that I want to fit in with them, I mean their lives revolve around talking shit about me” Ten giggled and took another sip of his drink.
His confidence was extremely attractive and his words resonated with you. It made you wonder if maybe you thought too much about it at times even though you didn’t care to conform to society norms of an average varsity student. Hanging out with Ten for just one day already gave you more life, more energy than anyone prior in your university. Ten wasn’t hesitant to show you that he felt the same way either. To him it was fate that he had sat next to you earlier today because he finally found someone worth keeping his attention.
“There’s something about you y/n I just feel like we get each other” he scratched his head and looked over at you, “it’s so easy just hanging out with you without feeling so fucking drained.”
“I feel the exact same way, like don’t get me wrong I like hanging out with the likes of Yuta and that guy Hendery in our class, but it’s different with you”  You grabbed Tens hand and he squeezed your hand tightly,
“Here’s to tolerating only each other.”
You and Ten toasted and downed the last of the cider before heading to the dance floor filled with people who either despised you or wanted to be you.
As the two of you danced it felt like the room was moving in slow motion, the mixture of the smoke filled room to the loud music and alcohol in your system made you feel euphoric. As you danced the night away, you had no idea when you and Ten had separated on the dance floor but a sudden tug on your arm snapped you out of your daydream to face a harsh reality.
Jinyoung.
“Please leave me alone” you groaned as he wrapped his arms around your waist and placed his mouth against your ear,
“Baby I’m sorry when are we going to put all that shit behind us ?” He groaned, slipping his hands to your sides and squeezed gently.
“You cheated on me asshole did you forget ?” You shrugged out of his grip and pushed by the bodies of people trying to make your way to the backyard for fresh air.
The small garden was filled with people having intimate conversations and someone throwing up in a bush at the back. Normal house party shenanigans.
You rolled your eyes when you noticed Jinyoung had followed you out already trying to put his hands on you once again. “Would you stop ? Why don’t you run after the girl you had in your bed when we were together” you spat and headed for a bench.
“You know what, keep resisting, that’s why your ass is sitting here alone” Jinyoung retorted and pushed his way back into the party.
You groaned and sat on the empty seat far away from the party, finally able to hear yourself think and breath in fresh air. You were about to slip back into a calmer state when you felt someone drop in the seat next to you and as your thoughts expected it was Jinyoung, it ended up being a boy you had never seen before.
“Hi, sorry I didn’t mean to startle you” the boy said, his big round eyes sparkled under the night sky. His body was petite like Ten but he was broader in the shoulder department and had the most innocent face you’d ever seen.
“Oh it’s not a problem” you replied, still taking in his striking features. The boy brought a small metal flask to his lips and took a shot before offering the drink to you,
“It’s tequila” he smiled and you mouthed a thank you before shooting back a bit of the drink and handed it back to him.
“I’m y/n….I haven’t seen you around before” you quizzed as the boy set down his flask and ran his fingers through his blonde hair.
“I’m Taeyong, I’m actually new here” he replied and wet his lips with his tongue, “I’ll start in the art and design department on Monday.”
“I’m in that department, well welcome to hell” you grinned and held out your hand. Taeyong grinned and took your hand in his and gave you a firm handshake before scooting closer. As much as you convinced yourself he had the most adorable and innocent face you’d ever seen, there was a hint of mischief in his eyes.
“I just came here to get drunk and get laid but like everyone’s looking at me weird” Taeyong goofily laughed and you joined in, “can’t help you there, I’ve been in that position for a few months now” Taeyongs eyebrows raised at your words and jumped to his feet, holding out his hand for you to take,
“We both have nothing better to do so let’s get wasted.”
You and Taeyong set up a couple shots and downed everything in one go, not bothering about anyone around you or what they had to say. Taeyong was hilarious, his face was animated as he talked which made you laugh, something about him drew you in like a moth to a flame.
The two of you went from casual talk to dancing together and you didn’t mind the closeness, especially when he danced so fucking well against your body. You had no idea when it happened but Taeyong had spun you to face him while the two of you danced and your bodies were practically merged together as Taeyongs lips inched closer and closer until you felt him practically getting dragged away.
“Yo what the fuck man” Taeyong shouted as Jinyoung had a fist full of Taeyongs shirt and escorted him outside. A few people pushed past you to see the commotion before you processed what the hell had just happened.
Making your way through the curious crowd you watched as Taeyong and Jinyoung squared up in the middle of the garden for everyone to see.
“What the hell are you doing with my girl, man ?” Jinyoung shoved Taeyong who stumbled back, the alcohol not helping his balance in any way. You rushed toward them as Taeyong found his footing and pushed Jinyoung right back, he was definitely way stronger than he looked.
“Jinyoung I’m not your girl you moron” you snapped and tried to stand in front of Taeyong before things got any worse.
Jinyoung scoffed and took a step forward, challenging you but you stood your ground even though your head was spinning from the amount of alcohol in your system.
“You’re defending this nobody ? Y/n you’ve really hit rock bottom now haven’t you ?” Jinyoung said, loud enough for every person to hear. This was one of his traits that you hated most.
Gaslighting.
When Jinyoung knew he had lost you it resulted in insults, manipulation, making you feel like you needed him more than he needed you. But it never worked and it drove him insane.
“Hey it’s not her fault she decided to drop the dead weight in her life” Taeyong shrugged and took a step forward, “don’t worry I’ll make sure she gets satisfied in any way she wants.”
Before you could even respond Jinyoung swung at Taeyong, hitting him right in the jaw before two other men stepped in and held him back. You rushed over to check on Taeyong who instead of showing signs of anger or pain, was laughing.
Laughing with a bruise on the side of his jaw, unphased by what had just happened. Jinyoung muttered curses as the guys dragged him away from the garden and the crowds of people finally dispersed, unsatisfied with the lackluster of the fight.
“Are you okay ?” You sighed helping him up and took him to the side of the house where it was more secluded from the public. You shone your phone light to get a better look at his bruise and Taeyong winced at both the sudden light and the throb from the hit.
“I’m fine I’m fine, it’s really okay” he chuckled and leaned against the wall pulling you with until you were inches away from his face.
You had no idea why, especially considering you just saw him get hit in the face, you leaned in to kiss him. Whether it be the alcohol or the adrenaline from the fight you just found Taeyong to be so goddamn hot in this moment. Taeyong moaned into the kiss as he slipped his tongue into your mouth and massaged circles on your lower back. Your lips moved against his slowly and passionately, smirking into the kiss when he bit down on your lip cheekily.
“God there you are”
Your kiss quickly broke when you heard the high tone of Tens voice and he made his way over to you and Taeyong.
“What the hell happened, I heard that idiot Jinyoung was harassing you again and-“ Tens eyes turned to Taeyong against the wall and pointed to him with his index finger, “who the heck is this ?”
“Uh this is Taeyong, he helped me with the Jinyoung issue” you scratched your head and Taeyong half waved at Ten before clutching his jaw.
“Uhm okay” Ten pressed his lips together, “let’s go back to my dorm I’ve had enough of these Neanderthals...Taeyong you can come too.”
————————————————————————-
The three of you finally arrived at Ten’s dorm in silence. You and Taeyong shifted awkwardly in the middle of Ten’s bedroom, not knowing exactly what to do. Looking around you noticed Ten had an eye for interior design. His furniture was quite outlandish for a dorm room yet it was surprisingly homey.
“God please sit or do something you guys are making me uncomfortable” Ten groaned, kicking off his boots and discarding his shirt. Taeyong opted for the office chair near Ten’s desk and you took a seat at the very edge of Ten’s single sleeper while he lay on his back next to you on his phone.
“You guys like sushi ? I'm feeling for sushi” Ten hummed scrolling through a food ordering app completely oblivious to the awkwardness that still sat in the room.
“Sushis good” you nodded,
“Yeah I don't mind either” Taeyong added but winced when he felt the sharp, still very prominent pain in his jaw.
“Ten you got an ice pack or something ?” You sighed, jumping off the bed and rummaged through Ten’s mini fridge. “Yeah right at the back” Ten replied, still trying to place his order for the late night meal. You retrieved the ice pack and knelt down in front of Taeyong who smiled shyly as you placed the ice pack over his swollen jaw. Taeyong silently thanked you for your kindness and applied pressure to his jaw as you decided to take a seat beside his chair, to make him feel a little more comfortable in your friends bedroom.
“Okay” Ten threw his phone aside and sat up to look at the two of you with inquisitive eyes,” yall gonna tell me what happened here ?”
“Well I lost you on the dancefloor and Jinyoung found me” you began, Ten already rolling his eyes at the sound of Jinyoung’s name,
“I went outside and Taeyong approached me, he’s going to be starting at our department on Monday and he didn't know anybody, so I offered my friendship in a form of alcohol and having a good time” you smiled and Ten scoffed.
“Jinyoung saw you guys just drinking and decided to rearrange his face ?” Ten raised his eyebrow, he definitely knew there was more to it considering the two of you were sucking each other's faces off in a dark alley.
“Okay so we were quite close, and honestly does Jinyoung need any other reason ? He wanted to punch you this morning” you groaned.
“Yeah but I was literally fucking you in a bathroom stall with my vibrator y/n”
Taeyong’s eyes widened at Ten’s words and looked between the two of you frantically, “Wait you guys are together, I mean hooking up ? Why did you kiss me ?” he questioned while Ten just laughed it off and turned on his bluetooth speaker.
“Chill, we're not together you can have a little relationship if you want to” Ten smirked, stretching his arms above his head, “honestly if you wanna hook up now I like watching.”
“God shut up, and none of us want a relationship. We just got there to have fun and Jinyoung ruined everything” you groaned, leaning your head back against Taeyong’s leg as he finally returned to tend to his bruise.
“All this aside do you guys mind if I hang out with you ? you’re honestly the only fucking normal people on this campus” Taeyong pouted and you and Ten shared a quick glance before grinning from ear to ear.
“Okay he’s cute I get it” Ten sighed and held out his hand to Taeyong, “I'm Ten, y/n and I only started hanging out this morning, neither of us have close friends on campus and frankly everyone finds us annoying, welcome to the club.”
Taeyong smiled cutely and shook Ten’s hand, setting down his ice pack and got to his feet, “Well i'm Taeyong, I too don't give a shit what people have to say about me, I like doing whatever I want with whomever I want and I'm pretty sure after tonight people aren't gonna like me either, so I guess i'm in.”
Before you could even say your part to this little club initiation your phone began to blow up with message alerts and story updates from practically everyone on campus tagging you in a specific video.
“What the hell is going on ?” you frowned as you opened instagram and noticed that the account that everyone was tagging you in was a burner account with a few videos and two pictures. Ten and Taeyong stood on either side of you as you opened up the first video and noticed that it was taken in the hallway earlier that day with you and Ten linking arms. The second video was at the party, you and Ten dancing with each other and the video cutting to you and Taeyong dancing together. The last video on the account was a blurry video of you and Taeyong making out and Ten walking in, with the ending obviously being the three of you leaving together.
“Why is this account posting videos of us ?” Taeyong asked, noticing that he too was tagged by people who he didn't know at all. Ten pulled up the account on his own phone when the account refreshed and a new post appeared, this time it was text only.
“It's probably Jinyoung I’ll just call him and-”  You were cut off by Ten grabbing your phone and tossing it on his bed, “dude what the hell ?” you protested but Ten silenced you with his finger.
“This is garbage right ? like what do our lives and how we live it got anything to do with any of these assholes ?” Ten bit down on his lip and looked between you and Taeyong, “They are so obsessed with us, wondering if the three of us are fucking right now ? really ? well let's give it to them.”
“You want the three of us to fuck ?” Taeyong quirked his eyebrow, his large eyes still hazy from the party.
“I want them to believe we are!” Ten grabbed Taeyong by his shoulders and looked back at you, “any publicity is good publicity. We get to be ourselves and we get to piss people off for free.”
“Would be pretty funny to see all of this blow up in Jinyoung's face honestly” you agreed, and Ten’s face lit up before moving his attention back to Taeyong, “What do you say pretty boy ?” Taeyong scratched his head and shrugged, “All this pretending and I don't get any action here ? doesn't feel like a win at all” You tried to hold in your laughter as Ten groaned at the blonde boy’s words and held his face between his hands before pulling him into a kiss, you watched Taeyong’s tense shoulders finally drop as he leaned more into the kiss and wrapped his hands lightly around Ten’s waist.
Ten pulled away and swiped Taeyong’s lips with his thumb, smiling at the doe-eyed boy, “we will have to make it convincing right ?”
“Okay im in” Taeyong smiled brightly and the three of you held hands in the middle of the bedroom, sharing mischievous glances with each other, anticipating the fucking whirlwind of chaos that was about to hit the campus.
“Good, well I guess the only thing left to do is upload our first post of the official poly club” Ten smirked and pulled the both of you onto his bed. Ten sat in between you and Taeyong and turned on the video mode of instagram stories. First he showed his face then turned to you, pulling you into a soft sensual kiss before moving to Taeyong next to him and did the same. After breaking the kiss with Taeyong, Ten nudged you to move over to the other side of him, putting you right onto Taeyongs lap. Ten focused on the two of you as you lifted Taeyong’s chin with your index finger and bit down on his lip, slightly pulling, teasing him as he brought his hand up to wrap around your neck. Ten zoomed in as you and Taeyong shared a very scandalous kiss for everyone to see. Your tongues darting in each other's mouth while the music drowned out your subtle moans.
“Done!” Ten chirped and uploaded his story, making sure to tag the burner account in every single clip. There was no going back now and every moment of this escapade excited you. The comfort you felt around Ten and Taeyong was something that you’d been craving for a long time. As cheesy as it was to say, and especially since it was only Day One, they felt like your soulmates.
“Man I fucking love this campus” Taeyong threw his head back and groaned while you and Ten burst out laughing.
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Monday quickly approached and as soon as you and Ten stepped on campus all eyes were on you. It gave you an incredible sense of confidence and you had no idea why. Heads turned with every step, everyone was whispering as the two of you walked hand in hand through the hallway keeping your head up high and not giving a shit about anyone. Taeyong was waiting for you guys at the end of the hall, adorning a buttoned down printed shirt and ripped jeans that snatched his waist in the right way. Taeyong was leaning against the wall with a lollipop in his mouth and dark sunglasses while everyone who passed him did a double take.
“Hey babes” he smirked and placed a kiss on your cheek and Tens before joining your walk towards your first class for the day.
It was so surreal going from everyone ignoring your existence to every single person watching the three of you, anticipating what was going to happen next. You found your seats in the middle of the lecture, giving everyone the best possible view of course. The professor cleared his throat to get everyone's attention and Ten tried to stifle a laughter as the people who stated they didn't give a shit about you guys clearly paid a lot of attention now.
“Give them a show bestie” Ten whispered in your ear before gesturing to Taeyong who sat on the other side of you, slumped down in his seat with his legs spread apart deliciously. You nodded and slowly reached over to Taeyong, caressing his thigh and he bit down on his lip while keeping his eyes on the lecture slides in front of him. You noticed two guys shuffling behind you and one pulled out his phone, waiting to record the next escapade of the campus’s new favourite stars.
You danced your fingers up Taeyong’s thigh and inched closer to rest your hand on his crotch as his breathing hitched. Leaning forward you made your movements less suspicious to the professor and everyone around you except the camera that was now focusing on your actions. Taeyong sunk further in the chair awaiting for you to quit teasing him and touch him where he needed you most. You obliged to his needs and palmed him through his jeans and you heard the guy behind you curse under his breath as you began rubbing Taeyong’s member. It felt so fucking powerful to do whatever you wanted after being so cautious on this campus for so long. The ironic part was all that shit about you being notorious on campus was a fucking lie. No you weren't a saint but you were not sleeping around every other day since you hated about 90% of the people that attended the university. Now with that burner account claiming to know more about your sex life than you did, what was holding you back now from doing what you wanted ?
Taeyong undid the button on his jeans and pulled down his zip enough for you to slip your hands inside his pants with ease. A gasp from Ten made a shiver run down your spine, coming to your senses that you were giving Taeyong a handjob in the middle of a 10am lecture.
“Shit he's walking up” you chuckled and pulled your hand out of Taeyong’s pants and quickly pretended to be involved in your studies as the professor began walking around the room. Taeyong groaned loud enough for most of the front row to turn around and look at him in annoyance.
“Is something wrong Mr Lee ?” The professor raised his eyebrow as Taeyong quickly redid his pants and hid his prominent boner from his professor.
“One of the questions is a little….hard” Taeyong groaned while you and Ten covered your mouths trying to hide your laughter.
The professor shook his head and went on his way as you and Ten watched Taeyong struggle with his boner for the next thirty minutes of the class. Finally the lecture wrapped up and as soon as the three of you made your way to the hallway you felt Taeyong tug on your arm and began leading you into the girls bathroom, into the nearest stall. A few girls in the bathroom frowned at Ten sauntering into the bathroom straight after, setting down his bag on the counter and began fiddling with his hair.
“Uh this is the girls bathroom ?” a girl snapped, folding her arms and made eye contact with Ten through the mirror.
“So what ? I saw a vag before love, and just because i'm a guy doesn't mean I want yours” Ten shrugged and the girl cursed and stormed out of the bathroom. Meanwhile your mouth was practically merged with Taeyong’s as he pressed his still very hard member against your stomach and nibbled on your bottom lip.
“Was giving me blue balls for thirty minutes worth all of that ?” Taeyong growled as he grabbed your ass roughly, causing you to moan in his mouth. “I'm sorry baby let me make it up to you” you purred and dropped to your knees while Taeyong braced himself against the ceramic wall for what’s to come.
You undid Taeyongs jeans and pulled it down along with his boxers, allowing his member to spring free still hard as ever. You looked up at him, eyes big as you began stroking him slowly before spitting on his tip in order to lubricate him.
“Fucking hell” Taeyong yelled.
A girl on the outside jumped at his words and looked back at the stall then looked at Ten, who was just waiting on the two of you.
“Exam season huh ?” Ten pressed his lips together as the awkward girl quickly dried her hands and rushed out of the bathroom as soon as possible.
You began bobbing your head on Taeyongs member, fully taking him until he reached the back of your throat causing you to gag. Taeyong marveled at the way your plump lips wrapped around his tip, he couldn't help but grab your hair and slowly pull you off him just to take in the sight of your messed up lipstick. You gave him a cheeky smirk before locking your hands behind your back and giving him full control of his movements. Taeyong took full control, his dark eyes narrowed and he sucked his bottom lip between his teeth before thrusting inside of you at a rapid pace. You felt your throat burn at the way he fucked your mouth rapidly but it turned you on so much that you waited until he finally came inside your mouth and you swallowed every bit of him. Taeyong pulled you to your feet and kissed you passionately, his tongue tasting remnants of himself.
“Thanks baby” Taeyong cooed in your ear before exiting the stall, stuffing himself back into his pants while a few girls looked at him absolutely horrified. You followed him, neatening your hair and washing off your mouth and borrowed a lip balm from Ten.
“Had fun you two ?” Ten smirked, leaning against the sink as you and Taeyong made yourself a little more presentable before making your way out of the bathroom. Upon exiting the three of you  noticed the two guys who were filming in the lecture room quickly run after you.
“Don't we get the ending to what went down in the lecture room ?” the one boy snickered like an immature school child as his friend kept the camera on the three of you making your way out of the art department block,
“She swallowed, the end” Taeyong threw his arms around both you and Ten leaving both boys dumbstruck at his words.
You playfully nudged Taeyong who just shot you a cheeky smile as you made your way to a little bench under a willow tree. This was where you usually sat on your own, when you didn't have the energy to socialize with the rest of the art students. Now, it felt a little more complete with Ten and Taeyong accompanying you.
“So my lovelies there's this afterparty happening after the final football game of the season next month” Ten said twirling his ice coffee in his hand as he took in the afternoon sun.
“What do you have in mind ?” you crinkled your nose as you sifted through your unappetizing salad in a box.  
“Okay so you guys heard of Onlyfans right ?” Ten looked between you and Taeyong.
“That site that pays for nudes and shit ?” Taeyong quizzed and Ten nodded brightly and leaned in, “I was thinking let's capitalize a bit of this leading up to the party” Ten responded and pulled up an invitation on his phone,
“The afterparty is being held at Jinyoung’s frat house, him and his idiotic friends are making people pay in order to decorate their football recreational room or some stupid shit like that.”
You took a closer look at the invite and rolled your eyes at the ridiculous pricing, as if their parties were worth going to anyway. Jinyoung was incredibly full of himself and he knew a lot of people worshipped him on campus thanks to his parents being higher ups and the poster boy for the football team. Going for his pride, knocking him where it hurts would be fucking bliss.
“We open an onlyfans, nothing too scandalous but it's gonna get people interested enough to pay forward and we use that cash to host our own party on the same night, free entrance of course” Ten continued and already started setting up the OnlyFans account.
“We should make the party crazy as hell too so nobody would resist coming over” Taeyong added and began going through his contacts, “there's this guy called Seungyoun, he’s a fourth year and knows that DJ from that enigma club from downtown.”
“That's perfect, and we will get Yuta and his tattooist buddies to do temporary sets for us, also my friend Chaeyoung in fashion can help with decor” Ten squealed, already messaging whoever he can.
“My friend Hendery has...uh happy pills if you're interested” you mentioned, knowing that everyone knew Hendery on campus for selling shit, not strong stuff but able to keep you going for a good amount of time.
“Yes! Anything to create hype and watch those preppy idiots sit in an empty house come game night” Ten replied and showed off the OnlyFans page he attached to his instagram account.
“Okay, so what now ?” Taeyong’s large eyes looked between the two of you.
“Now” Ten threw his phone in his bag and got to his feet, “we go back to my dorm and take some naughty pics.”
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“I don't think my ass looks good in that” you whined as you got off Taeyong’s lap and took a look at Ten’s camera viewfinder. Taeyong grumbled, sitting in nothing but leather pants on Ten’s office chair, “your ass looks great trust me” he smirked and reached to pull you back onto his lap.
“Come on, just a few more then you can take pics of Taeyong and I” Ten pointed his ring light where Taeyong had a grip on your ass that adorned very pretty pink lingerie. After a few more angles and more compromising positions, Ten finally got what he needed and handed you the camera,
“Make us look cute” He winked and pulled Taeyong to his feet.
“What are we gonna-” Taeyong’s words were cut off by Ten shoving his hand down his pants, “okaaaay” Taeyong pressed his lips together as you began snapping pics of the two of them.
They were so beautiful to you. Every picture you snapped looked better than the last and they needed no direction at all, just enveloped each other with their ridiculous sexual energy, filling the room with their pheromones.
“Done, you guys look sexy as fuck” you purred earning a kiss from Taeyong who was obviously horny from the entire ordeal, but when the fuck was his dick not hard.
You felt yourself being tugged away and Taeyong whined when Ten handed the camera to him and pushed you down to lie on his bed. You felt a shiver run down your spine when Ten positioned himself between your legs and moved his body down until his face was level with your core.
“Taeyong, stand above y/n and shoot down from this angle” Ten instructed to which Taeyong obeyed and his shadow casted over you.
Ten leaned in and kissed you softly on your mound as the room echoed with the camera shutters and your deep breaths. You desperately wanted to run your fingers through his hair but you’d only ruin a perfect shot. It was agonizing but you had to stay still while Ten had his way with you.
Ten moved the piece of fabric to the side and peppered kisses all along your inner thigh and around your core. You were unable to see his face thanks to Taeyong hovering over you but you pictured that smug smile spread across his face as you restrained yourself. You sucked in another deep breath when you felt his tongue dart out and take a slow lick before placing his mouth on your mound and ate you out like an expert.
“Fucking hell” you sighed as you felt his tongue inside you, exploring every part imaginable. You could tell the scene was getting to Taeyong too, as he stood there one hand on the camera and the other hand on his hardened member, watching Ten eat you out.
“Did you get the shots ?” Ten suddenly said, pulling away from your core as you squirmed out of protest.
“Uh..yeah I did,” Taeyong muttered, still staring down at your legs spread wide apart and his member practically screaming through his restricted pants.
“I hope you're not planning to wrap this shit up right now Ten” you groaned, reaching your hand down to your core in order to finish what he had left off.
Ten snickered and slapped your hand away, “of course my lovelies, I never quit a job halfway.” Ten gestured for Taeyong to stand next to the bed while he inserted a finger in you, causing you to moan his name out loud. As you got accustomed to his finger you managed to sit up a little and watched as Ten rubbed Taeyong’s boner through his pants. God you had never been in a situation like this before. How the hell did you get so lucky, meeting two men willing to fuck you and each other.
Ten entered another finger inside you as Taeyong undid his pants and Ten’s mouth was pressed against Taeyong’s member while pumping his length. Taeyong’s eyes were on your figure as he moaned when Ten took him fully in and his fingers were now destroying your core.
“God im so close” Taeyong whined and Ten slowly took his length out of his mouth and looked up at him and then down at you,
“I think you should cum on y/n, she wants it” Ten licked his lips and looked at you with hooded eyes.
“Y-yeah Taeyong….just do it” you squirmed as Ten’s fingers slowed down, holding you back from your orgasm.
Taeyong uttered a few curses and Ten quickly returned to pumping his member until he was at his breaking point. Ten removed his hand from Taeyong and gave you his full attention, attaching both his mouth and three of his fingers inside of your core. Taeyong stood over you with dark eyes as you reached out to run your hand down his exposed thigh.
Taeyong grunted as he released, you felt the warm liquid all over your stomach and breasts while Ten was still recklessly fingering you until you had one of the craziest orgasms of your life. You couldn't process when Taeyong had pressed his lips to yours and Ten had left to get tissues for the mess the three of you made.
“That was some content our viewers missed out on” Taeyong sighed, still trying to catch his breath. You chuckled and went over to the bathroom to quickly shower off the mess and returned in Ten’s oversized shirt, taking a seat between the two of them in bed.
“Okay I uploaded a few previews and linked the onlyfans subscription link” Ten announced as he uploaded three of the explicit versions on the paid side of Onlyfans, “we will get a notification when someone has subscribed and our earnings are on this page.”
The three of you sat, mouths dropped open as you watched subscription after subscription start to fill the page. The comments were flooding in too, and someone even left a hefty tip in a matter of minutes. Ten switched to the earnings page and the account was already sitting at a triple digit.
“What the actual fuck” you gasped as more people began visiting the page and your followings on instagram began skyrocketing.
“This was way easier than I thought it was” Taeyong marveled, also noticing many people start dming him on instagram.
“Well Jinyoung and his goons wanted a party, well here’s the party of the fucking century” Ten smirked and hi5ed the both of you as absolute chaos ensued all over social media in real time.
Just like that in the next couple of days the three of you were watched by the entire campus. It was like Jinyoung wanted. To show the campus that you were notorious, and nobody should get involved with any of you. But that's where his plan was flawed.
Every single person on the campus besides his legion of preppy followers were obsessed with the three of you and craved more. Despite the onlyfans pictures containing no nudity, people still subscribed, they still tipped, they would do anything to see more.
It was in the middle of the afternoon and Ten had confirmed the account had garnered enough money for the party. It had been about three weeks since the very first post on the onlyfans account and now the account stood at a staggering 850 subscribers, each paying for the monthly subscribed content plus tipping generously from time to time. In the midst of all of this the three of you were also preparing for the party that was going to be held on the big day. Taeil, a friend of Taeyong's, allowed you to use his frat house for the event since it would look good for student rentals later on. Yuta and his friends prepared alcohol and a temporary tattoo station to appease drunk girls to get matching tattoos and frat boys to bet their friends to tattoo a dick on their faces. Chaeyoung, Ten’s friend from fashion completely transformed the house into an instagrammable masterpiece, channeling one of those fancy hollywood parties that nobody could ever get into. Seungyoun, the fourth year who was friends with a lot of musicians and DJs from downtown spread the word on campus radio, letting everyone know about Ten’s huge announcement that was about to happen Tuesday afternoon, 2:30PM.
“Alright you thirsty hoes, I see you all made it” Ten said into a karaoke microphone he found from God knows where. Ten got up on the table in the courtyard, standing in front of a huge crowd of students who quickly gathered ready for the grand announcement that was the talk of the town for the last week now.
“We would just like to say that we're so grateful for all your support on our….craft and in order to honor that, were going to host the best party of the fucking semester” Ten shouted while people cheered from the front all the way to the back of the crowd.
“If you look at the link under Ten’s instagram bio, it should take you to a little preview of what’s in store come saturday” Taeyong explained, leaning into the mic while the crowd murmured in confusion.
“Saturday after the big game ? Isn't Jinyoung having a party that night ?” someone in the crowd said followed by more confused chatter.
“That's right, I am having a party after the game” Jinyoung said, moving through the crowd accompanied by two of his frat members and sneered at the sight of the three of you,
“What ? Are you guys planning an orgy or something for your onlyfans ?”
“If you want to suck my dick all you gotta do is ask Jinyoung” Taeyong mused and a few people giggled while Jinyoung shifted uncomfortably and gritted his teeth.
“Listen, you freaks are not having a party on the same night as me” Jinyoung spat and took a step forward, “save yourself the embarrassment of nobody showing up and cancel it.”
You approached him slowly, chuckling darkly as he watched your fingers dance up his arm and up to his jaw, caressing his cheek, “Sweety are you threatened ? You're afraid everybody is gonna ditch your little frat party and come to mine ?”
Jinyoung tried keeping his cool while you stared up at him, playing with him like a little toy in front of everyone to see.
“Are you afraid if people come over i'm going to hook up with everyone who gives me attention ?” Jinyoung avoided your eyes when you recited the words he wrote about you on that burner account. You smirked up at him when you noticed how he still wasn't man enough to own up to his actions.
“Well, our party is FREE by the way” you continued, stepping away and now addressed the crowd in front of you, “So if you’d rather go over to Jinyoungs then go ahead, but if you wanna come play with us…”
You walked up to Taeyong and gave him a sloppy kiss as he grabbed your ass in front of the entire campus to see, “we will see you Saturday night.” The crowd cheered and Jinyoung growled, taking one more glare at you before storming off with his frat boys away from the cheering crowds.
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It was D day and everyone who helped with the party gathered in the kitchen, drink in hand and took a final glance back at the rager that was mere minutes away from opening up.
“I can't thank you all enough, actually I did, with all that onlyfans money” Ten stuck his tongue out and Seungyoun whistled while everyone clapped.
“No but seriously, thank you guys….revenge never felt sweeter” you smiled and Hendery put his arm around you as you leaned into him, “if nobody shows up well more for us!”
“Cheers, freaks¨" Taeyong yelled and Ten nudging him in his abdomen,
“Really ? I'm pretty sure Jinyoung’s little nickname for us isn't a compliment” Ten rolled his eyes playfully.
“Its a compliment to us, fuck it im a freak and proud of it” Yuta raised his glass, and a few others joined in.
“Fine Freaks club it is, cheers everyone!” Ten raised his glass and everyone clinked glasses before downing their respectful drinks.
It wasn't long before people began pouring in, it wasn't a large number but it was still something. Most people were from the music and arts departments, and you noticed a few girls from your business lecture drop by as well.
“You think the rest all went to Jinyoung ?” You bit down on your lip as you and Ten monitored the crowds of people while having a drink.
“Maybe ? doesn't matter though, our party is way cooler” Ten shrugged and threw back his drink, “but if you really want me to pull one last move hey just say the word.”
You looked over at the black haired boy and frowned while a cheeky smile spread across his face and he pulled out his phone. You watched him text a few paragraphs and slip his phone in his back pocket before returning to his drink.
About 20 minutes later Taeyong emerged from the crowd to join the two of you in the kitchen, a confused look spread across his face.
“What's wrong ?” you quizzed him.
“Some of those basketball guys are here, they brought over like fifty more people” Taeyong pointed to the entrance and you and Ten watched the guys who the campus worshipped next to the football team enter the party, followed by their fangirls and whoever else wished to be in their presence.
“What the heck did you do ?” your eyes widened as the small party now turned into a whole fucking campus rager.
“Oh I told Johnny Suh that I'd give him a lap dance in front of everyone if he came over with his friends” Ten smiled, waving at the tall brown haired boy with a goofy grin spread across his face.
“Johnny Suh ?! as in the captain of the varsity basketball team ?” you were still confused as to how and when Ten had started talking to one of the most popular guys on campus.
“Yes him, now if you would excuse me, I have a deal to seal” you and Taeyong watched Ten down his drink and make his way over to the lounge where Johnny stood excitedly.
Ten spoke to the DJ and the DJ had the crowd clear up the center of the room while everyone exchanged confused glances as to what the hell was about to go down. Ten placed a chair in the middle of the room and pushed Johnny’s large frame down until he was seated, legs apart and that goofy smile never leaving his face. His teammates whistled as Ten used a piece of cloth to cover Johnny’s eyes, and took off his belt in order to retrain his hands behind his back.
“I gotta give it to Ten, he sure knows how to put on a show” Taeyong wrapped his arm around your waist as the two of you watched Ten fuck around with the captain of the basketball team.
The room was filled with flashing lights, everyone recording the moment as Ten gave Johnny the lap dance he was promised. Johnny slumped in the chair allowing Ten to grind into his hips, and you're pretty sure if the music wasn't so goddamn loud the whole campus would've heard Johnny moan in Ten’s touch. Ten ended it off with a cheeky kiss and untied Johnny, whose face was absolutely red as all of his friends cheered them on, all of them attacking him with hi5s.
That definitely sealed the deal, because after a few uploads of the clip, almost everyone was at your party and Jinyoung’s was most likely empty right now. The party was so big that people were on the street, everybody having the time of their life.
“We did it” Ten threw his arms around you and Taeyong as you stood on the balcony, overlooking the party from above.
“Yeah, we really did” you chuckled and sighed deeply, “I wish I could look at Jinyoung’s face right now.”
“Oh you didn't see ?”
You and Ten turned to Taeyong as he pulled out his phone and scrolled through his gallery. You and Ten burst out laughing when a video of Jinyoung sitting in his empty estate with a few of his preppy friends looking absolutely miserable.
“Fuck thats brilliant” you leaned your head on Ten’s shoulder, completely satisfied with how the night turned out.
“Hey you guys wanna go back to my dorm ? I'm kinda over this” Ten yawned and placed a peck on your forehead.
“You wanna leave your own party ?” Taeyong scoffed, shoving his hands in his pocket.
“This” Ten gestured to the three of you, “This is my party, let's take it back to my room.”
You and Taeyong both obliged and without anyone knowing the three of you escaped the party and made your way over to Ten’s dorm room hand in hand. Upon entering Ten threw off his shirt and kicked off his boots and Taeyong did the same, the two boys grabbing alcohol from the mini fridge and set them up on Tens desk.
“Oh by the way I have something” your words had both the boys turn to face you and you held out your hand, holding three small blue pills,
“Hendery gave them to me, Its not that strong and the high will only last for an hour or two but fuck its good way to end the night off right ?”
“I'm in” Taeyong grabbed the pill and handed you a drink, the three of you washed the pill with beer and Ten switched on a playlist before joining you and Taeyong on his bed.
“I know we've only known each other for like 2-3 months now but I fucking love you guys” you sighed, running your hands through your hair and looked between the two boys.
“This group, us, was the best thing that ever happened to me” Taeyong replied, “you two whores mean the world to me.” “Very sentimental Taeyong” Ten chuckled before reaching out to caress your cheek, “I love you too babe, both of you, were soulmates, if like the devil decided to link people together or something.”
The three of you chuckled and the laughter quickly switched to Taeyong rubbing Ten’s thigh and looked over at you with dark eyes. You had no idea if it was the drug, or the alcohol but there was a desperation within you. Grabbing Taeyong’s face, you pulled him into a sloppy kiss, and quickly switched to Ten, giving him the same energy as Taeyong pushed your shirt over your head and sucked on your exposed skin.
Ten unclasped your bra and massaged your breast as Taeyong kissed the other, each boy stimulating you in the best way possible. Taeyong growled and tossed you onto your back, pulling your skirt off and began sharing a passionate kiss with Ten who was already down to his boxers.
Once Taeyong pulled away from Ten he moved on top of you, grabbing you by your throat and rubbed his hips against your core, the friction sending you into a frenzy. Your thoughts were so focused on Taeyong you had no idea when Ten had got on his knees beside you and began kneading your breasts and rubbing his length with his free hand.
“Who do you wanna fuck first ?” Taeyong growled in your ear that made you so wet you had no fucking clue who you wanted, you just needed someone inside of you at this moment.
“I think it's fair if I go first, I've waited long enough” Ten smirked and switched positions with Taeyong who jumped off the bed to get rid of his pants.
You watched Ten’s dark eyes take in your body, and his beautiful body looked so fucking alluring under the dim lighting of his bedroom. Ten rid you of your soaked panties and wasted no time in inserting two fingers in your wetness.
“Baby girl has been waiting for this for a while huh” Ten purred while Taeyong grabbed your jaw, pulling you into a kiss before making you sit up enough for his member to meet your lips. Just as you took Taeyong in your mouth Ten had already replaced his fingers with his member and began thrusting into you at a rapid pace.
“Oh fuck” you groaned as Taeyong guided your movements on his member with a fistful of your hair. All three of you were so in tune with each other, rough when needed to be and delicate straight after.
As Ten fucked you he leaned forward enough for Taeyong to bend down and meet his lips, the two of them sharing a dirty kiss while they fucked you senseless. Ten pulled away from Taeyong and rammed into you until you came all over his member. “Come on open wide” He mewled and pulled you up and shoved his length in your mouth until he came, making you swallow every bit of him.
“Get on top of me” Taeyong demanded and you did as he said, climbing on top of him and sitting on his length. Taeyong let out a groan, finally feeling you around his length and you felt Ten sit behind you, his hands cupping your breasts as you bounced on Taeyongs member.
“You think you can take both of us ?” Ten whispered in your ear and his request somehow made you wetter than you already were. You had only tried it once, but never in a situation like this. You quickly nodded and Ten caressed your body, leaving sweet kisses all over shoulder and neck before jumping off the bed to rummage in his closet.
Taeyong, not knowing or caring what was going on, carried on slamming himself inside of you, his nails digging into your ass as you rode him like a pro.
Ten returned with what you assumed to be a bottle of lube and bent you over slightly, making sure his touches were careful and delicate. Taeyong finally caught on and slowed his pace despite almost being at his orgasm, in order to make the process easier for you.
“If it's too much just let me know” Ten pecked your cheek and inserted a finger inside your ass, the new sensation was odd but extremely satisfying. Ten continued lubing you up while Taeyong stroked your thighs and made sure your body was relaxed in their care.
“I'm ready, just do it, I want to feel both of you already” you whined and both boys cursed at your words, each anticipating this new experience.
Ten inserted himself and gave you a moment to adjust to him and Taeyong, before slowly moving his hips, keeping his touches light.
“Oh God that feels so good” you moaned as Taeyong picked up his pace and the both of them began fucking you at the same time, something you always wished would happen eventually. Ten returned to his roughness and bent you a little more, allowing Taeyong to lean up and capture your lips, his tongue entangling with yours as the new position only got him back to chasing his raging orgasm.
“Fuck im gonna cum” Taeyong groaned, slightly mad that he couldnt hold onto this feeling any longer.
“You wanna cum inside her mouth ?” Ten asked in between his grunts as he felt himself also reaching his second orgasm.
“No I wanna cum in yours” Taeyong replied darkly, and Ten’s thrusts stopped abruptly to look down at Taeyong.
“Well...fuck okay” Ten finally said and pulled out of you, allowing Taeyong to move to the side of the bed while Ten flipped you on your back and inserted himself in your core. Taeyong stood on the bed for Ten to get better access to his length as you screamed Ten’s name who was quite literally destroying your core at this point.
Taeyong yanked on Ten’s hair causing him to slow his thrusts and you watched the delicious sight of Taeyong slipping his length into Ten’s mouth and Ten swallowing every bit of him. It was quite possibly the hottest thing you'd seen in your life. Ten wiped his mouth as Taeyong slowly pulled out of him with a groan he returned to slamming his hips into yours. “I'm so close Ten” you groaned as Ten crouched over you, allowing you to wrap your legs around his waist as he brought both of you to your climax and let out a huge sigh when he finally came undone with you following shortly after.
“How much money do you think we would've made on onlyfans for that ?” Ten breathed as he collapsed in the bed next to you and Taeyong crawled on your naked body, resting his head on your chest as the three of you tried to catch your breath.
“Probably enough to drop out” Taeyong hummed, his eyes drooping as he made himself a little more comfortable.
“Yeah but hey it's time to end the notorious onlyfans account now don't you think ?” your eyes shifted to Ten who nodded at your words and got up and grabbed his phone from his desk,
“Tae-Ten-Y/N onlyfans era has now come to an end, thank you everyone who tuned in” Ten said, falling back into bed and showing the account that was now deactivated.
“Kinda surprised you are willing to end the onlyfans era Ten, this doesn't have anything to do with Johnny Suh now does it ?” Taeyong raised his eyebrow and you also joined in, looking at the black haired boy with curious eyes.
“Maybe,” Ten sighed, rolling his eyes as you and Taeyong mimicked kissing sounds, “Ugh anyway, they have a game next week, I want you guys to come with.”
“Fine, i’ll ask Johnny how it felt to taste my c-”
“Shut up Taeyong.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ONE WEEK LATER
“I have no idea what the hell is going on but Johnny is so hot” Ten sighed as the three of you sat in the bleachers of a varsity basketball game.
“Athletes are not my type these days” you shrugged taking a bite of your corn dog, watching Taeyong play some game on his phone.
“Oh shit they're almost there” Ten pulled you to your feet as the crowd all stood up around you cheering on the varsity team as the time began running out. You watched Johnny run across the court and throw the ball to a boy with chestnut coloured hair, and upon receiving the ball, the boy threw the ball straight into the hoop at the last second, taking his team to victory.
“Fuck….who is he ?” you gulped, as his teammates carried him on their shoulders and his lips curled into a tight grin, showing off a beautiful set of dimples.   “That my dear friend” Ten patted your shoulder, “That's Jung Jaehyun.”
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randomshyperson · 3 years
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The Scarlet Witch Prophecy - Chapter 19 - The Seventh Yearh (Part Four)
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Summary: As the youngest daughter of Howard Stark, you have ordinary expectations for your years at Hogwarts. Little do you know what adventures await you when your destiny is intertwined with the legendary Scarlet Witch.
Warnings: +16. Adaptation of the Harry Potter Saga, Magical Thematic, Prophecies, Mentions of Violence, Torture and dark magic, Language (swearing and minor/major offenses), manipulation of will, Underage kissing, insinuation of smut with minors, Smut (overage), descriptions of death, aggression, obscurity, angst, fluffy, soulmates analogies. || Chapter Warnings: PTSD, mentions of violence, dark magic, mind games, emotional manipulation, brief sexual teasing/thematic with minors, angst, minors kissing.
Series Masterlist ||  Read on AO3 || All Works Masterlist
Chapter 19 - Part XIX - The Seventh Yearh (Part Four)
The tent is already set up, and you are sitting in the living room, adjusting the radio on the kitchen table.
"Are you sure it was working before?" You mutter discontentedly, beginning to feel frustrated with the device that refuses to recognize the signal.
Wanda, who is standing next to you with a magic book in her lap, doesn't take her eyes off the reading when she answers yes.
Agatha comes out from inside the room with several objects in hand, and dumps them on the table in front of you.
"Well girls, what I have to do in this country can only be done during the day, so let's study in the meantime." She announces as she arranges the jars she has brought. You raise your eyebrow, pushing the small radio away.
"Actually I wanted to ask a few questions and finish going through the memories, Agatha." You say but she laughs, denying with her head.
"That's exactly what I'm talking about." She says. "Are you trying to lose your mind completely? You can't use zinnia for too long. It destroys that fragile mind of yours. I'm sure that's part of the curriculum, so what are you doing at Hogwarts if not studying?" She sneers and then looks at Wanda. "Oh wait, I know what kept you busy."
You turn red, but before you can complain about the woman's lack of description, Wanda is speaking.
"In case you have forgotten, we learned about zinnia in fifth grade." She says. "And Hogwarts was not an example of any teaching in that period or the year after for Y/N."
Agatha rolls her eyes, shrugging to end the teasing. You feel too embarrassed to look at Wanda again.
"Well, I'll go and fix Kaecillius' damage to my school administration then." Says the teacher. "If Miss Stark intends to become a decent witch, she needs to learn magic. The same goes for you, Miss Maximoff."
"I know magic, Agatha." Wanda begrudgingly retorts, her gaze returning to the book.
"If I remember correctly, my tutoring was discontinued, so there is much you need to learn."
"You remember it well, yes. We had to break off relations because you attacked my girlfriend." Wanda returns the teasing, but Agatha only laughs lightly as she begins to do some mixing.
“Water under the bridge, now.” She mutters, and soon, she’s putting a cup in front of you, and pouring a clear liquid inside.
"No, thank you." You say, leaning your arms on the table. Wanda gives a short laugh from your side without taking her eyes off the book.
"It's not poison." Agatha says.
"I know, I've seen you do it." You say. "I just won't drink it because it would be the second intoxication in less than 24 hours."
Agatha laughs, pulling the glass back to herself. A proud smile on her lips because you were able to recognize that whatever she was doing, it wasn't ready yet.
She charms the mixture, purple magic touching the liquid, until the color changes to a brilliant gold.
She pushes the glass back, and you raise an eyebrow.
"Drink."
"No."
"Wanda, darling, drink this." She says pushing the glass toward the girl. The witch sighs, her eyes on the book.
"Don't drag me into it, Agatha. " She says. "It was you who told her not to accept drinks from strangers."
"You two are so annoying." The witch declares. You giggle, but accept the drink.
For the next hours, Agatha teaches you to recognize the smell, and then the taste, of different plants, so that if you do get poisoned, at least have time to try something.
It's dinnertime when she decides to wrap up with one last potion, and you're resting your head on the table, waiting for her to finish brewing the potion, the book she's enchanted floating in the air beside her.
"Here." She says pushing the bottle in front of you.
It is only when the potion touches your lips that you recognize the taste. The same elixir Agatha gave you in the dungeon.
Your body tenses, and you cough awkwardly, pushing the cup back to her while she watches you attentively.
“W-why would you…” You started feeling your chest hurt, your heart racing. Swallowing the emotion away, you look at her, but Agatha is already organizing everything.
"What did you do?" Wanda asks worriedly, noticing the way you have gotten jumpy. Agatha sighs.
"Trauma can be a powerful thing, Miss Stark." Murmurs the older witch. "An immense vulnerability to an opponent to take advantage of. You'll need to overcome that if you want to protect her."
You stand up, feeling embarrassed and overwhelmed, evading Wanda's touch on your shoulders. "I'm going to bed."
"I didn't mean to upset you, Miss Stark." Agatha says, but you are already leaving.
You hear Wanda slam the book down hard on the table before following you back into the bedroom.
As you sit on the bunk, trying to normalize your breathing, she kneels in front of you, her hands on your neck.
"What happened?" she asks worriedly, her fingers caressing your skin.
"It 's stupid."
"Tell me."
You sigh, looking down at your own lap. "It's the same potion she used on me, in the dungeons. To keep me awake."
"I'm going to kill her." Wanda says simply, but when she makes mention of getting up, you hold her in place.
"Hey, it's okay." You say quickly. "She's messing with us, again. But I don't think she really meant any harm. Besides, we have an agreement don't we?"
But Wanda had an anger in her gaze that you have never seen before, her jaw locked. You touched her cheek with your hand.
"Wanda?"
"I hate this, Y/N." She confesses between teeth, her eyes filling with angry tears. "I hate what she did to you. I hate that I can't change, take your pain away. Not being strong enough to protect you. Or smart enough to see that she was using me an-
"Wanda, stop it." You interrupt seriously, and as your hand moves down her neck, you feel the metal of the necklace. Sighing softly, you keep your attention on the green orbs in front of you. "I really want to take away all the guilt you feel before it eats you alive, but I don't know how. Tell me how to help you."
Wanda seems surprised at your words, and just looks at you. And then to your lips, and you feel her breath hitch, before she puts a little distance between your faces.
"I'll be fine." She assures you with a sad smile. "My priority is whether if you will be as well."
You smile at her. "I'm only okay when you're okay, Wanda."
It sounded romantic in your head, but maybe those weren't the words you should have chosen, because Wanda looked away immediately, almost embarrassed, and not for the right reasons. Swallowing dryly, she got up from the floor.
"I-I'm going to talk to Agatha." She declares. "About boundaries. This won't work if we don't have any." She walks away to the bedroom door, but before she leaves, she turns to you again. "I'm also going to heat up dinner. Join us if you want."
But you wouldn't. You weren't hungry, and you were feeling stupid for saying that just hours after you heard Wanda confess that she hated that your life depended on hers.
So you threw yourself on the bed, and tried to get some rest.
You ended up oversleeping. And you only woke up because Wanda was having a nightmare in the top bed.
Moving quickly out of the bunk, you stood, turning to check on her.
A frown even with closed eyes, wriggling slightly in bed. You sighed with concern, tracing the skin of her face to wake her without startling her.
When she had a small jolt, her eyes were red, but they returned to their normal color when she realized she was only dreaming, and threw her face back into the pillow.
"I'm sorry." She murmured in a hoarse voice, but you just supported your arms on the mattress, and your face in them.
"For what?"
"For waking you up." She retorts, turning to lie on her side, and face you.
"No problem." You say. "I guess in a way I'm returning favors."
Wanda smiles, but it is so short that you feel awkward. And then you extend your fingers to her neck.
"Why are you still wearing this?" You ask about the necklace, and she frowns slightly, turning back to stare at the ceiling.
"Agatha hurts you when she wears it." She says simply. " So I will wear it to avoid that."
You shake your head. "No way, take it off now."
Wanda moves further away, on the edge of the bunk. You sigh impatiently, and climb onto the mattress.
The metal makes a noise with the new weight, but you are busy trying to get the necklace off Wanda, who grumbles and tries to struggle against your hands as she tries to keep you from falling off the bed.
You end up on top of her, the necklace in your right hand, but your other hand dangerously close to her breasts.
"Don't wear it for long." You tell her half out of breath from the struggle and the closeness, Wanda is looking at you wide-eyed. "Let's switch whenever it starts to get too much, okay?"
"Y-yes."
"Wanda, you're blushing." You tease with a smile, watching her cheeks. She looks at your mouth, frowning.
"No I'm not."
"Is it because I'm on top of you, baby?" You continue, and she turns even redder. You were going to tease her further, but while you were talking, you had moved to put the necklace on.
And when the object hung around her neck, all the tension changed.
You looked into Wanda's longing gaze and could only remember that she chose to leave you. Without asking your opinion. Without caring about your feelings.
So you pulled away, with a neutral expression, laying down on the bed beside her.
There is a silence between you, Wanda is trying to control her heartbeat and you are trying to push so many doubts that pop into your head at once.
"I think if you're not going to be with me, we shouldn't do this kind of thing anymore." You state simply, and can hardly be bothered by the way Wanda stands tense beside you.
And there is a long pause, until she speaks. "Okay."
You want to scream at her lack of reaction. All you do is stand up, and leave the room.
From that distance, you cannot hear Wanda crying against the pillow.
//-//-//-//-//
It doesn't take long for you to realize that wearing the necklace is addictive.
The deal is not more than four hours for each, but every time the object is hanging around your neck, you are gripped by the urge to keep it with you.
There is a whisper in the back of your mind saying that Wanda could lose it, or break it, and it's hard to push those lines away when you need to give it back, but you manage. And you wonder if Wanda thinks the same things.
When you are wearing the necklace, you feel apathetic and angry. It's as if all the bad things that have happened to you reach the surface at once. You give short answers, and isolate yourself. Your mind sighs things that you think you should remember are lies.
Agatha is trying to make you a better witch. The same for Wanda.
She teaches you things you don't know, from books you've never seen.
But with weeks of running and camping, and the horcrux around your neck, you begin to grow impatient with the lack of answers.
So you are breaking a plate without realizing it.
"Fuck." You grumble in irritation as you feel the pain of the small cut on your hand. The noise has attracted the other two women, and it is Wanda who reaches for you first, but when she touches your forearm to pull your hand and see the cut, you move away as if you have been slapped. "Don't."
And you throw the dishcloth on the table, leaving the tent.
You are somewhere in northern Ireland, Agatha said it was at least.
And there are many trees obscuring your surroundings, but you walk among them without caring about getting lost. The necklace whispers that you should be alone, and you believe it.
The cut on your hand aches a bit, but you stop only when you reach the edge of a lake.
Maybe the icy water will calm your anger. Or maybe you will die of hypothermia and Wanda will live happily without you. The last thought made your stomach turn, but you kept taking off your clothes.
The necklace was cold against your skin, but no colder than water.
You dove in, and stayed under the water until you needed to breathe again.
The tears on your face were tears of frustration, but the lake wiped them away.
You wondered if they would leave without you.
If Wanda would run away and abandon you in Ireland.
She didn't want you to stay with her after all.
She didn't want you.
You sobbed.
And you went back under the water until you stopped crying.
But then someone jumped into the lake, the noise startled you.
You opened your eyes to find Wanda's terrified look under the water before you ascended together.
"Merlin, what is your problem?" She squinted in desperation, and you realized that she began to cry. "I thought you were-"
But she sobbed without being able to complete, and you shrank back against the cold water, hugging your body. "I just went for a swim."
"Don't ever do that again." She pleads between tears, throwing herself against you in a tight embrace, which you don't reciprocate.
The horcrux screams in the back of your head, like a loud whistle, and you are pushing Wanda by the waist. "I'm fine, we can go."
You walk out of the lake in a mechanical manner, ignoring the upset look Wanda has as you do so. And you put on your clothes in silence, until you are standing clumsily at the edge.
Before you return however, Wanda calls out to you.
"Take it off."
"I still have time." You mumble without looking at her, but Wanda is approaching and you clench your jaw.
"I wasn't asking." She says and you lock eyes with her in defiance, not moving. When she is close enough to pull out, you move forward and kiss her on the mouth.
She sighs affected, almost losing her balance. And when she motions to kiss you back, you pull away.
"Don't touch what isn't yours." You don't know if you're talking about the necklace, or your body, but either way Wanda's eyes fall to your lips, and she holds her breath.
"I wasn't." She whispers, and without losing her composure, her hands go up your arms until they reach your neck, and she is so close that you ignore the urge to keep the necklace, and let her do whatever she wants. Her fingers find the item. "The necklace belongs to any worthy slytherin. And you, darling, you have always been mine."
You sigh as the necklace comes off, and Wanda throws it on the floor the next moment.
This time, it is she who breaks the distance, bringing your mouths together in a passionate kiss.
Your head spins, and you surrender. Her hands go to where the necklace was, and her tongue invades your mouth without waiting for permission, taking you for herself, making you gasp.
Thrusting your body forward, with your hands on Wanda's waist, you press her against the tree behind her, never breaking the kiss and making her sigh at having your body so close.
You are kissing each other firmly, with longing. You breathe breathlessly against each other's lips, afraid that if any of you pull away you will be done for good.
Your hands start to move down before you can think about it, and when they reach Wanda's ass, you squeeze the flesh against your hands, and she moans against your lips, thrusting her hips forward, begging for more.
There's not the slightest possibility that your first time with Wanda would be in a forest, in the middle of the snow, but when she bites your lips and kisses you like this, it doesn't seem so impossible. It gets hard not to think about getting down on your knees, tasting her where you imagine she would like it.
"We shouldn't." She manages to whisper between kisses, in the mess you two have become, and all you do is move your lips down her jaw, and then her neck. And Wanda whimpers, digging her fingernail into your shoulder. "Please."
You don't know if she is asking for more, or to stop. The second option breaks your heart, but you follow it, breathing out of rhythm as you pull your lips from her skin, pulling away.
Wanda's lips are swollen from kissing hard, her pupils dilated, her chest heaving. And you want to kiss her again, but you just swallow dry and put more distance between you.
"W-we should go back." You mumble in a hoarse voice, looking down at the ground.
"There you are!" Agatha's voice makes you jump in fright, and so does Wanda. The tension turned to shame of you being found, with clearly visible appearances of what you two were doing. But the older witch doesn't mind, a teasing smile. "Busy?"
"I just came to check if she was okay." Wanda answers quickly, clumsily as she bends down to pick up the necklace she threw on the floor.
"I imagine so." Agatha mutters. "We need to go, we didn't come here for nothing."
The way back is silent,you don't have the courage to face Wanda, but she has put the necklace back on, and isn't looking because she must be hating herself, again.
And you bite the inside of your cheek, not knowing what to do.
Agatha is whistling, and you realize that you are not going back to the tent.
"Where are we going, Agatha?" You ask curiously, and she replies still looking forward.
"Your father really did have friends in all places, Miss Stark."
You frown, but it is Wanda who speaks. "Vague answers don't make you sound mysterious, Agatha. They just annoy me."
The older witch laughs at the comment, but you think you must be too affected by the make-out session, because Wanda's locked jaw makes you wish she would just kiss you again, non-stop this time.
Clearing your throat, you look away, and decide to follow the two other witches in silence.
“We are here to see a quite despicable sorcerer, who is going to make mean and unkind remarks, and you are going to be silent so that I can go on."
You exchange a look with Wanda, who has an expression of indignation on her face.
"I can' t promise that, Agatha. " She says. "Wouldn't it be better to leave us in the tent?"
"So you can be grabbing each other like two animals in heat?" She retorts and you choke in surprise, looking away to the ground immediately. "I don't really care, but I need Stark, because Tivan owed Howard a favor and only agreed to deal with her present. And well, I expected you wouldn't let her come alone with me."
Wanda completely ignores Agatha's teasing to reply "You're right, I don't trust you."
"Thanks, sugar." The witch retorts, causing the younger girl to roll her eyes impatiently. "Do me a favor and keep that necklace well hidden. Or give it back to me."
"No." She answers quickly. "I'll keep it."
"As you wish." Agatha says and you stand in silence as you walk through the small village.
It is really very quiet, and the few people on the street don't bother to look at you guys at all.
And then you are at the gate of a huge mansion, and Agatha is telling the gatekeeper that you have an appointment with the "collector."
"Why do you call him that?" You ask, and she gives a little laugh.
"You'll understand in a minute."
You walk down the front steps to the door.
And when you enter, you hold your breath.
It is no ordinary house, it is a long dark corridor, magically enchanted and giving you the feeling that it is endless, with the same doors for miles and miles forward.
A girl about your age is waiting, and she smiles politely at the three of you.
"Miss Harkness, you have finally managed to join us." She says. "My master is waiting for you and Miss Stark."
"Miss Maximoff will be joining us tonight as well dear. I hope Tivan doesn't mind." Says the witch following the other down the hall.
"Every friend of Howard Stark is welcome, my master said." The girl says simply, and you see Agatha sigh. She seems annoyed by the other's submission, but says nothing.
You stop in front of a double door, white in prominence with the darkness of the hallway.
The girl opens it, and you enter a huge room, with the ceiling so high that even if you squint your eyes, you can't see the end. And it reflects the stars.
A tall, strong man wearing a leather dragon coat is waiting inside, and he flashes a smile that does not reach his eyes. His hair is as white as the door.
"Agatha! It's so good to see you again, old friend." He says with open arms, but reaches up with outstretched hands, catching Agatha's quickly. "Did you have a peaceful trip?"
"Hardly, Tivan, I'm a fugitive now." She jokes causing you and Wanda to exchange worried glances, but the wizard doesn't seem to mind, laughing at the phrase. "And don't call me old, we're only a few decades apart!"
Tivan laughs again, letting go of the witch's hands. He turns his face to you, and looks at you with glowing eyes.
"By Merlin, you are Stark's daughter." He says. "You have the same eyes as Melissa, no?"
You look embarrassed under his gaze. It's evaluative, and Wanda seems to notice it too, because she covers you gently, and draws the man's attention to herself.
"Oh, and who are you, sweetheart?"
"This is Wanda Maximoff, Tivan." Agatha replies earnestly, and you are surprised at the scolding. "And no, they're not for sale."
You widen your eyes, understanding the reason behind his name. Wanda's hand slides into yours immediately, covered by the cape.
Tivan gives a short laugh, "That's a shame, Harkness. You know very well the value of a scarlet sorceress. Even more a pretty thing like that."
You take an aggressive step forward, but Agatha quickly stands in your way.
"Let's finalize everything soon, Tivan." She urges. "I can't stay in places for too long. I'm sure you can understand the feeling."
The man gives you and Wanda one last look before nodding to Agatha, turning to walk toward the bookshelves on the right side in the room.
There are several shelves, with many items, and just like the hallways, extend into what seems like infinity.
Tivan just goes to the first one, and pulls out a small chest from there, enchanting it to follow him in the air to you.
"Here it is, Agatha." He says. "Howard Stark's last translator."
You widen your eyes as the chest opens. Inside, there is a small metal device. Very different from any of your father's other machines, it looks much more rudimentary.
Agatha sighs softly, lifting her fingers to trace the object.
"And you assure me it works?" She asks, and the man chuckles softly.
"I have plenty of monsters in there if you want to test it."
You swallow dryly, but Agatha just smiles. "No need, you are many things, but a liar is none of them."
"I appreciate the confidence, Agatha." He says as he moves his fingers and magically closes the trunk. "But pay before you play."
The witch doesn't look offended, she just hurries to fiddle with her robes, and you widen your eyes when she takes out a necklace.
Kaecillius' gift, the eye of Agamotto.
"That's not yours to sell!" You blurt out angrily, but Agatha keeps the item out of your reach, while Tivan seems impressed by the whole scene.
"And neither is yours, Miss Stark." She retorts impatiently. "Be quiet while the adults talk."
"Are you serious? How did you even get it, it was in the house-"
"Quiet!" Agatha cuts in turning to you, her tone is angry, but her eyes are almost pleading. "That's enough of this. Don't disgrace the good manners your father taught you."
You are indignant, but Wanda's grip around your hands makes you believe it is better not to insist.
"Play along." Her voice sounds in your head the same second Agatha turns to Tivan again, and you swallow dryly, trusting her.
"Interesting." The man murmurs, impressed, but doesn't keep his gaze on you. His attention shifts immediately to the necklace Agatha hands him.
"As you can see, it's real." She says. "A fair price for another relic, or even more valuable, since you will find no use for the translator."
Tivan grimaces. "Don't push it too far, Agatha. The translator became quite valuable with Stark's death. No one was able to reproduce another one." He says as he looks back to the witch. "Actually, I think I should raise my price." He says curling his fingers in the necklace, thoughtful as you watch Agatha tense up before relaxing.
"Now I'm the one who's going to ask you not to push it so far, Tivan." She says. "Agamotto is also dead, and that's the only treasure of his you'll get. Don't try to change the value just because you don't know how it works."
Tivan looks offended, but only for a second, because his gaze softens and he laughs. "Right, right. Any chance you know what's inside?"
"I have no idea." She says, but a part of you thinks she is lying.
The man nods, and the trunk moves gracefully through the air into Agatha's hands. She takes the small device from inside, and stows it inside her cloak.
Tivan takes his eyes off the necklace in his hands to look directly at you.
"I have a question for you, Miss Stark, before you go." He says, and Wanda squeezes your hand from behind the cloak, but you just stand there, waiting for the man to speak. "Did your father ever mention New York to you or your brother?"
"Tivan..."
"I asked the girl, Agatha." He interrupts the witch seriously. You think she doesn't insist because you are in his house, and a wizard like that, should bring trouble if contradicted. "Well?"
"No, sir." You say uncomfortably. "I don't know any New York stories."
The man gives a disappointed smile. "I suspected, but I wanted to hear you say it." He declares straightening his posture, and the necklace flies through the air until it vanishes among the bookshelves as Tivan walks back to the center of the room. "I would invite you for tea, but I understand the rush. You should know that I am always up for new negotiations with you, Agatha. And the same goes for the Scarlet Witch and her protector."
Agatha bids a quick farewell, pushing you gently out of the room.
"Don't look back, or the hall will get longer. Just keep walking." She guides in a whisper, and you think it best to obey.
The exit does seem to take longer, but you manage to reach the door. The girl from before was already waiting for you all, her arms behind her back.
"Thank you for your visit, Miss Harkness." She says politely. "My master is pleased with the acquisition this evening."
"I'm sure he is, dear." Agatha says, and touches the girl's arm gently. "Take care of yourself, okay?"
The girl just smiles, nodding almost mechanically. Agatha hesitates, but walks away.
As soon as you are outside the property, Wanda is yelling.
"I can't believe you stole from me, Agatha!" She squawks angrily as you all walk back into the forest, and the older witch just grumbles displeased at the volume, speeding off. "I told you this wouldn't work if you kept lying!"
"Would you have given me the necklace in good grace?" She retorts impatiently, but doesn't even wait for Wanda to answer. "Of course you wouldn't. Because you don't know what it is, but you're smart enough to know that it's not something ordinary. And too stubborn to willingly hand it over, not to mention you don't trust me, Wanda. I did what was necessary for us to make some progress."
"No more lies, Agatha!" Wanda insists in a mixture of frustration and irritation. "Stop hiding things. You could have asked, explained what you were going to do!
"Witches don't do that, Wanda." She retorts impatiently. "I've been alive for how many centuries, child. Do you think you can survive by telling everyone what you were going to do? No. You go ahead and do whatcha you gotta do, that’s the truth. Secrets save lives.”
"That's such bullshit." The brunette retorts, but you are almost back in the tent area, and Agatha is stopping walking.
"Give me the locket." She says, and Wanda frowns. "Let's get this over with quickly."
"What are you talking about?"
"That's why I needed the translator." She clarifies. "I went to Stark Manor last year, looking for this in the wreckage, but the walkers found it first. And it circled the dark market for months until Tivan acquired it in his collection. It's just what I need to open the horcrux and destroy it."
You look surprised and impressed, but Wanda crosses her arms.
"And how do you intend to do that?"
"Six years ago, Pietro Maximoff took Godric Gryffindor's sword out of the selector hat at my request." She counters drawing surprised exclamations from you and Wanda. "I didn't let him remember that, and I spent the last few years fortifying the metal with every kind of magic I could find. The poison from the monsters you didn't face in the labyrinth in the fourth year because I was hunting them out, or the blood from the dragon you killed in the first task. Everything. The goblins wrote to me that the sword only absorbed what could make it stronger, and even without knowing the location of the horcruxes, I needed to be ready to destroy them."
"How did you lose the sword?" You ask then, trying to fit the whole story together. Agatha sighs.
"Pietro deserted Hogwarts." She says. "The sword immediately disappeared, it went back into the hat. And I had to go back for it."
"If you had the sword and the locket, why didn't you destroy it?" Wanda questions, and seems very annoyed at the information that Agatha also used Pietro.
"Because I don't know parseltongue." She replies. "But with this, I don’t need to and I can open it."
You exchange a look with Wanda.
"This conversation is not over, Agatha." She says as she moves her hands to remove the necklace.
Agatha turns toward the tent, raises her hand from where her magic is visible between her fingers, and it takes a moment for the sword to fly toward her, gracefully fitting between her fingers.
But she hands it to you.
"I have a feeling it needs to be held by a Gryffindor." She says and you frown.
"Do you have any argument to support that?" You ask as you pick up the sword.
"It's just a guess." She says as she takes the translator out of her pocket.
She gestures for Wanda to leave the locket on the ground, and she does so a few inches away from you so that you have room to wield the sword and destroy it.
"Well, let's get this over with." Agatha says with her attention on the object in her hands. "Help me understand the language of the snakes."
The small object trembles with Agatha's whisper, and when it ascends a golden light between the openings, she continues.
"Open it."
The sound coming out of the metal is unlike anything you have heard. But as soon as it becomes silent, the locket flips open.
And something leaps out, a dark shadow that knocks you to the ground, along with Wanda and Agatha, who are thrown at least two meters away.
Your whole body trembles with fear and alertness. You lean on your elbows to look.
It is the part of Mephisto's soul that is fighting, it is the darkness of magic that protects it.
Agatha didn't fall, she is fighting the part of the shadowy cloud that tries to cover her, the purple magic around her.
Wanda has fallen, but has the same position as you, staring frightened ahead. And your immediate urge is to reach for her, stumbling to get up.
"Destroy it now, Stark!" Agatha shouts, but you keep walking.
Except that the shadow shrouds your field of vision, and you stop confused.
Wanda is standing in front of you.
"What are you still doing here?" Her tone is icy, it chills your whole body the wrong way, and you frown in confusion.
"W-what? We're destroying the horcrux, Wanda, what-"
"I told you to leave." She interrupts as she approaches, her gaze cruel. She has never looked at you like that. "Didn't you hear what Agatha said? You are weak. You are not, and you were never good enough for me."
You stumble away, shocked by the words. But she doesn't stop, smiling arrogantly.
"How was it that the least smart Stark was chosen to protect me?" She teases. "Our classmates are right. I match with the champion of the Triwizard Tournament, that woman will indeed be able to protect someone like me. And if you're lucky, you might get someone who will accept your mediocrity."
You want to throw up. But this is wrong. Something in your brain is screaming, because Wanda would never say such things.
She reaches out to you, and her touch has no pressure. It's just a ghost. An illusion, playing with your senses.
"Pathetic." She whispers, the black orbs glowing. That's enough for you.
Your mind wanders immeditarily to last summer.
"You know how much I love you, don't you?" Wanda whispers in the dark, under the covers with you. The light of the lantern while you are reading Romeo and Juliet in her room is enough for you to see her face blurry.
You smile, closing the book, and pushing it away as you lie on your side to face her.
"I have a vague idea." You joke. "I think quite a bit since I've been sleeping here all week."
But Wanda looks worried; she copies your position, but keeps a serious face. You lift your fingers to trace the wrinkle in her forehead, squeezing lightly until she stops frowning and smiles.
"I just..." She starts almost embarrassed. "Promise you'll never forget?"
You smile, because the idea is absurd, but decide to follow the line. "I promise."
And when Wanda's eyes fill with tears, you worry too, but she quickly shakes her head. "I'm sorry, I'm just being silly."
You caress her cheek, wiping away the tears that have run down. " You know how much I love you?"
You repeat the question in a whisper, and Wanda's cheeks flush, but she smiles, straightening herself up better. "I have a vague idea, because you've been sleeping here all week."
You laugh softly, and she follows you. "It's more than that." You whisper as you stop, staring at her. "I love you more than anything."
Wanda nods softly, her eyes filling with tears again, but this time it's for a good reason. She feels the same way.
"More than the characters in the book loved each other?" She asks in a gasp, her hand squeezing your shirt softly. You smile.
"What I feel for you makes the love of Romeo and Juliet seem like a crush." You retort, making her laugh embarrassedly.
But her smile slowly dies, and she swallows dryly before speaking again. "I don't want us to end up like in the book, babe. Never."
You know she's talking about dying. But specifically about you dying for her. You know that Wanda would do that for you no matter what, but the idea of living without her is unreasonable.
"I wouldn't like that either." You confess, moving closer so that your noses are touching. "I'd like to live with you."
Wanda smiles shyly, embarrassed by the implications in your speech. But you let your fingers wander to her hair, tucking the strands behind her ear.
"I think we would be happy in a cottage." You say, and her gaze brightens beyond the redness on her face. "Or we could buy an apartment in the city where there's a park for you to walk around in."
"I would like that." She confesses smiling. "To have a home with you. Wherever that is."
You swallow dryly, feeling your chest warm with happiness. "Do you think we could handle taking care of animals? I don't ever remember feeding Iron."
Wanda laughs softly, nodding. "We could try a cat first, they're more independent."
"And then an owl."
"Soon a dog."
"Maybe two."
You take a chance. "Or who knows..." But you lose courage, but Wanda smiles.
"Children."
You nod softly, looking at the green orbs adoringly. And she looks at you the same way. "As many as you want."
Wanda's eyes looking at you lock on your mind for the next few seconds as the memory fades, and you find yourself back in the horror of dark magic all around you.
You stumble away from the illusion of the locket, wielding your sword, and ignoring the adrenaline whistle in your ears.
There is no time for another defense, you raise the sword, and the next minute, it strikes the metal, destroying it.
The ghosts scream, and are gone in the blink of an eye, and you gasp in shock, still standing with trembling hands.
When Wanda stands up, and makes mention of touching you, you stumble over your words. "W-we have to go. He'll feel it for sure, let's get out of here before they find us." And you are already walking out toward the tent, keeping your gaze on the ground.
For the next few minutes, you are on autopilot.
Helping Agatha with the tent in silence, the two other witches don't seem to know exactly how to talk about what has just happened.
And when you need to Apparate to a new place, you hold Agatha's forearm instead of Wanda's hand.
"Where are we?" The brunette asks as soon as the ground settles at her feet. Agatha sighs.
"Honestly, we're running out of options." She replies. "It's still the United Kingdom, but it's almost the limit. We're going to need ideas from here on."
You remain silent as you set the tent back up, and when everything is ready, your hands are still shaking.
"Try to rest, Stark." Agatha says beside you. "You did very well tonight."
You only mutter in understanding, hurrying off to your room.
Not even taking off your shoes, you throw yourself on the bed, burying your face in the pillow.
Maybe sleep will put the horcrux image out of your head, but you imagine that once you fall asleep, this will be the only thing you’ll dream about.
//-//-//-//-///-//-///-//-//
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kyotakumrau · 3 years
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2021.04.06 a talk event at Meguro Rock-May-Kan film screening at Namba Hatch with Kyo and Shinya  - PART 1   Report by とあ on twitter (topics are not reported in order things happened, I mostly followed the order they posted, 1st and 2nd session bits are mixed together)   my comments go in (*…) 
Shinya entered the stage in black hoodie, both hands in his pockets. He also had hands in the pockets when he left the stage. Came with a drink. 
Kyo came on stage with his arms crossed. He drank some water soon after sitting down, I thought he started to play with the flyer but he made an airplane from it.   Q “To Die. Please tell us the secret of your youth.”  Kyo and Shinya face each other and laugh.  Kyo: Is it okay to imagine what Die is doing? I said that I quit McDonalds, right? Die also said he hasn’t had McD in years.  Fujieda: He also said he doesn’t eat ramen.  Kyo: and he doesn’t eat spicy food.  Kyo: Now he’s just eating, like tofu? Tofu or soybeans.  Shinya: he researched and knows a lot. Even when going on a diet in the past he found a good plan.  During the rapid question time they also answered another one for Die “I bought Die’s model guitar. Please tell me how can I get better” when reading Kyo answered “tooth guitar”.  I think it was when reading about this guitar? Kyo started laughing then Fujieda started laughing and for a bit they both faced each other laughing. 
  “Coffee”  Kyo: I drink it black. Even at home. Using beans from Starbucks. I drink 1~3 cups a day.  Fujieda: Kaldi’s coffee is also great. They have many types.  Kyo: If you say that they have many different types you have to try them to compare.  You don’t say this even though you didn’t drink them, right?  Fujieda: I tried quite a lot. There’s different one for each season. Now they sell sakura blend etc.  Kyo: Ah, then it’s fine. If you drank it.  Shinya: some years back I bought Nespresso coffee maker but I’ve only used it for 2 weeks. It’s still in my house.  Kyo (suddenly looking at Shinya): gimme! (くれ!)  Shinya: o, okay.  Kyo (turning to Fujieda looking happy): he said okay!  Kyo: Then I will give you a coupon to get that right side curl fixed. it caught my eye that looking from here that just the right side of your hair has this weird curl.  Shinya: No, it’s not weird...  Kyo: But I will give you a voucher to get that fixed.   
 “What’s your routine before the show?”  Both of them don’t have one  Kyo: Does anyone have?  Fujieda: Toshiya is doing muscle training.  Kyo: Ah... and doesn’t Die move around a lot?  Shinya: He does. Until the start he’s very restless.  Kyo: Right? Even when we all gather one is always going back and forth.    “Your favourite takoyaki”  Shinya: I don’t care. Even though I’m from Osaka I don’t really eat takoyaki. It is said that every household in Kansai will have a takoyaki machine but we didn’t. In the 20 years I lived there I only had like 5 octopus balls.  Kyo: That time when you were wearing that long earring? You only had 5? So what type?  Shinya: the one that is crispy outside and soft inside   
“A difficult song”  Shinya: Rinkaku. Because I need to keep kicking. It’s faster than Zan. The drum is nice but it totally kills my leg.  Kyo: DIFFERENT SENSE as I said before. I imagined a dialogue as it’s a heavy song when I made it, but when I didn’t get any response, I ended up having to sing all of it by myself so it’s really tiring. I tried control my breathing when swimming but I can’t.  Kyo: So in the end it’s like swimming the whole thing without breathing.  I was told by Kaoru to try pointing the mic [at fans], but all I get is ‘eh right now?’ (gestures pointing with his right arm) I get ‘eh here?’ The people in front of me try to respond, but the people on the sides (again points with his right arm) go ’eh? Eh? Here? (agitated) so I gave up. I don’t mind if it’s the wrong pitch, just put your feelings into it. 
 Kyo: I started playing Monster Hunter. On Switch.  Takabayashi: I’m also playing.  Kyo: Then let’s play together! (big grin)  Takabayashi: Okay.  Shinya: I bought it on the day DS got released, but I couldn’t understand the objective of the game after playing for a day so I didn’t feel like playing anymore.  Kyo: So you just started playing from zero by yourself? No one helped you saying what to do?  Shinya: Yup.  Kyo: If you told me I’d have helped you.  Shinya: So in the end what happens? What is the goal?  Kyo: there’s none.  Shinya: What?  Kyo: You just continue getting your level up.  Shinya: And for how long do you continue to play?  Kyo: There are people who continue playing until the next game comes out.  Shinya: Woah... 
 "What weapons you're using in Monster Hunter" Kyo: I'm using a bow. It might seem it's because it's huge, but I can attack from a distance and avoid being found. Make a shot from a distance, if you're found out you can run away. Direct confrontation is scary.
 “During the Osaka period what studio did you use?”  Kyo: Was it in Umeda?  Shinya: Yup.  Fujieda: What was the name?  Kyo: I don’t remember. Do you?  Shinya: Yes. It was M4 www.m4-studio.com  Kyo: That’s some memory.  Shinya: I booked it. I confirmed the date with 4 of you and called them. We made Karma and Aoi Tsuki there. 
 “About Oboro teaser”  Kyo: Could you see me? I only watched it on my phone so couldn’t tell what was what. 
 “Rock-May-KanGIG"  Shinya: there were many problems... no one around me [to help]. When my ear monitor fell out I had to fix it myself. And I made this rookie mistake of not pressing record on camera...  Kyo: We don’t remember things like that.  Kyo: Do you remember what you ate a month ago? You don’t right? It’s the same. You might remember that the main dish was shrimp but you won’t remember sides.  “About SOGAI in May”  Kyo: something that will happen in a month...Do you think about what you will be eating in a month?  Fujieda: But I think many fans are looking forward to it.  Kyo: I guess, but that’s because they’re going to enjoy the food. From the side of people who will be cooking you only start preparing about a week before, no?  Fujieda: So you will start feeling motivated a week before...  Kyo: Nope.  Fujieda: Shinya, do you think this analogy works?  Shinya: After hearing it I think so.   
“What are some food combinations that you find just wrong?” (*from other twitter reports the question had example like pineapple in sweet sour pork etc)  Shinya: as long as there’s no foods I dislike anything is okay.  Kyo: I don’t have any food like that, but but I hate when people mix different sports brands. Wearing adidas with Nike shoes and so on. When I see someone like that I want to tell them ‘could you not?’ 
 “What expensive item have you bought recently?” 
 Shinya: I’ve already answered this earlier. A camera. The camera itself was 40k and lens was 20k yen.  Kyo: What do you use the camera for?  Shinya: For recording and so on.  Kyo: What kind of [recording]?  Shinya: For youtube or Haiiro.  Kyo: Isn’t iPhone good enough for that?  Kyo: When I’m taking a photo I just pass my iPhone and ask someone.  Fujieda: I was given a camera for taking photos, but after about 15 minutes I was told to use iPhone in the end.  Kyo: Do you know what was different?  Fujieda: I didn’t.  Kyo: (*going back to the main question) an expensive item... Nike and Garcons sneakers I guess. They were about 20k yen. (*Pegasus?)  I’m drinking coffee while looking at the sneakers. 
“Do you prefer indoor or outdoor festivals?”  Shinya: If it’s daytime then indoor. It would be too bright outdoor in daytime.  Kyo: I hate insects so indoor. Weren’t there so many insects when you had plants? Fujieda: Speaking of insects, don't they get into your mouth when you ride a bike? Kyo: You ride a bike with an open mouth? Silly kid. Fujieda: Instead of having open mouth, it's like there's suddenly an insect in your mouth, when it crashes into you. Kyo: Riding a bike with an open mouth is silly. Why, are you singing? Fujieda: Sometimes I do, actually. Kyo: If you're singing while riding that's okay, if you just have your mouth open while riding that's silly.  
 "About SOGAI in May"  Shinya: We're working on the setlist, it will be great.  Kyo: That's why I don't want you to ask me about a concert in a month. Don't ask me questions about concerts next year. I won't answer.   
 "What's a good place in Hirakata?"  Shinya: Hira pa (Hirakata Park) and TSUTAYA, right? TSUTAYA is where I was born.  Fujiefa: Eh? Really? I didn't know.  Kyo: if in Tokyo you say Hirapa no one will understand   Kyo: Do you know? (looks at Shinya) when you just come in and there's a place with dogs Shinya: Like real dogs?  Kyo: Yeah. There are about 20 dogs, but all are so tired. Lifeless as if they were abused. Of course they weren't abused, but it's a place where you can spend some time with dogs but they are so tired, so lifeless and tired that it's almost a shame they are kept there.  (*I think he's talking about Doubutsu Hug Hug Town) 
  "What hotel facilities do you find exciting?"  Shinya: ...for example?  Fujieda: ehm...  Kyo: This is not something exciting, but. You know in a shower? When you don't know if you're supposed to move the handle up or down? Maybe this way? And then when you move it the water suddenly comes out from above! (Shinya nods)  Fujieda: That's criminal! Was it hot?  Kyo: First water came out, but when I turned the handle the water suddenly poured from above, I got totally soaked. How do you use that?  Shinya: there are some places where water comes out in 3 places instead of 2.  Fujieda: Criminal!  Fujieda: Anything exciting?  Shinya: Like?  Fujieda: Like a big tv.  Shinya: I don't watch TV.  Dujieda: That's true, you don't. How about a very good pillow?  Shinya: I don't care.  Kyo: And the shower [head]! Just from one hole the water goes in a strange direction, there's nothing stuck there, just water, but just this one spot. What's that about?  (Shinya continued to nod while smiling)  
 "To Shinya. What time did you wake up today?"  Shinya: Around 1. At night.  Fujieda: What time did you go to bed?  Shinya: I think about 10pm.  Fujieda: You almost didn't sleep at all.  Kyo: Aren't you an old man now!  (*🤣🤣🤣🤣) 
 "What toothpaste and toothbrush are you using?"  Kyo: Any toothpaste is okay, but I prefer small toothbruses. Because I have very complex teeth. Like a maze. You get lost there. That's why I choose a tothbrush with a small head, has good reach.  Shinya: I'm using a toothpaste from overseas with an M, any brush is okay for me. But I use one with water coming out of it.  Fujieda: Is it electric?  Shinya: Yes.  Fujieda: Is it painful?  Shinya: Well sometimes it gets a bit bloody.  Kyo: You're really into it (laughing) to keep using it even if you're bleeding. 
  Kyo is watching The world unknown to Matsuko every week (depends on the episode but it's interesting), when finishing the 2nd sessiin event Shinya said 'go straight home and from 8:57 watch The world unknown to Matsuko'. It already started and it seems [dir] appeared there.  
 "Where do you want to tour besides Tokyo-Nagoya-Osaka?"  Shinya: Somewhere we still haven't been to... where was it?  Takabayashi: ehm... Shimane, Wakayama, Saga.  Shinya: There.  Kyo: Kyoto. Kyoto is good. Kyoto is the best. Even now I'd love to [have an event] in Kyoto instead. Kyoto is the best or, I want to become Kyoto.  
 "What animals do you like in the zoo?"  Kyo: ehm... sheep I guess. I want to look at them or hold them.  Shinya: Animals you don't see in everyday life like giraffes, elephants or lions. 
"What do you like in an amusement park?"  Kyo: I guess the haunted house? Yeah, haunted house. It's okay when people try to scare me. It's not scary. I'm laughing all the time.  Fujieda: So you can enjoy FujiQ no problem?  Kyo: I haven't been, but I think it's fine? I would be fine bringing a sheep with me I guess? Going in while stroking the fluffy sheep.  Shinya: Ferris Wheel.  Fujieda: How about the thrilling ones? Shinya: I don't like them. Fujieda: So Ferris Wheels for Shinya, understood.
 "About shooting Oboro PV"   Shinya: It was tough. Kyo: You say that? Say that to ME?? Shinya: Well, you were shooting naked. The green stuff got all over my clothes and cleaning that took ages. Kyo: Ah, I guess. But you could've gotten it dry cleaned, no? Shinya: It was a fabric that cannot be dry cleaned. I couldn't remove it in the end so I gave it to Fujieda. Kyo: You did? You got it? Fujieda: Yeah, I passed it to the person who designed the costume. Kyo: I see... Shinya: And the floor was very cold. Kyo: You say that?!?!?! Fujieda: Were you okay, Kyo? Kyo: Yeah... I'm a pro in the end. Fujieda: Oh (claps) Kyo: Are you mocking me? Looking down on me? Fujieda: No! Not at all! I clapped because I think that's great! Kyo: No, you're defnitely looking down on me. It's the same as the 'whats your salary like?' 'this much' 'oh'.
 tbc
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organic-guacamole · 3 years
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Episode 207 spoilers below
I say this a lot but this episode was insane and is now my favourite.
WE GOT EJ
gotta love how dedicated he is to his extracurricular activities. water polo, class treasurer, AV club president-
I'm not a portwell shipper, but they have an amazing friendship dynamic, like can I get a bestie like EJ please?
Ricky lowkey looks like he's been crying all night-
can someone check up on this boy? please? Mike where are you buddy, your son needs help.
"It doesn't mean anything"
"It means so much to me"
omg soulmate things😍😍😍
uhhh since when are Ricky and EJ so close??? they're literally talking and laughing together what? when?
I'm not complaining, it's just surprising.
please sebby, I would love deh so much I can't even explain it.
also didn't they say that Ms Jenn has never seen deh?
*gasp* what if she's just pretending that they don't have the rights to it so they don't have to talk about her not seeing such a CLASSIC
hmmmmm ~thats suspicious, that's weird~
(what is happening to me rn-)
look at Kourtney goooo
designing costumes, being in the musical and being an assistant manager? I wish I could multitask like that
an elephant.
the way I already know something's gonna happen with Howie.... like their relationship can't move that fast, if the writers don't have plans to mess with them a bit.
OK GO WITH ME FOR A SEC: PICTURE SEB AND CARLOS, WITH SWITCHED PERSONALITIES.
anyways
why is Carlos so funny? who gave him the right to make me laugh so hard over a one liner that doesn't even make sense.
oo he has abs *Debby Ryan face*
PLEASE NOT THE BUTT PADS
hi yes, are you still trying to tell me EJ isn't bi after this episode?
WHY IS CASWEN SO CLOSE TODAY? THAT LOOK, I SAW THAT LOOK WHAT IS HAPPENING 😭
GINI INTERACTIONS TOO? WHAT IS GOING ON SOMEONE PLEASE SEND HELP???
@sunshine-julie-molina might need help too after that *waits patiently for them to scream at me in dms*
what the heck.
North high is a literal castle???
Get a room redlyn, y'all have been there for like 5 seconds omg
ah yes. sebby the silent voice of reason
um who's this dude? I don't like how he's looking at Gina-
keep walking sir
calm your man tits, you're not that hot 🙄
EXCUSE ME
CAN I GET YOUR SNAP?
BOY YOU CAN CATCH THESE HANDS
EJ BABY
"hey babe"
alright I'm gonna say it
i don't like how in this society men will only leave a girl alone when they have their partner right next to them. so screw you random north high jock. respect women and then we can talk.
right so... moving along
why is the back of EJ's shirt just yellow. idk why but I wasn't expecting that.
when your favourite trope is fake dating and this happens: 🤡
ANTOINE MY BOYYYY!!!!
oh look Ms Jenn's here too
aww Seb's "friendship" thing caught on a bit
what the heck?? I knew we hated Zach BUT HOW DARE HE
my new favourite thing: Antoine using English words without knowing what they mean.
"Fugly"
You go sebby, bop to the top🥰
please they had the right idea, dance-offs are stupid.
...
oh ok guess we're doing this now.
kill the beast? more like, kill the Lily *wheEze*
(please send help, I'm so sleep deprived rn)
in 10 years....
"mommy, how was I made?"
"it all started when we danced in your dad's office..."
but actually
WHY DO I FEEL SO WEIRD WATCHING THIS-
and here I thought Mike and Ms Jenn's flirting was bad.
Lily + Ricky = Licky
this is the only reason why they'd be terrible together /j
right so lily doesn't care about the rose song, but she memorized the lyrics? something tells me she stays up at night watching it and writing out one liners to bring people down.
yes "Diane", his accent is amazing but back off, he's mine😃🔪
TOM HOLLAND ON STILTS-
BETWEEN THIS, THE SHAWN MENDES LINE, AND THE HARRY STYLES THING-
they can't leave poor ricky alone omg😭😭
jealous big red is something I never knew I needed to see.
don't worry EJ, I like the mob song. just not whatever remix thing this was /hj
wow I wonder who the north high beast is😐
hehe Antoine looks so short next to Carlos and idk why
SEB IS SO CUTE WHEN HES TRYING TO BE TOUGH AHHH
Ashlyn's high note>>>>>>>>
how is it that every time I think that Ashlyn has shown her full talent, she continues to amaze me every single time.
Also, Ashlyn sang wondering, which was an alteration to the script? why wasn't that mentioned?
EJS FACE AT THAT LINE OMG
we only keep you around for sports analogies omg EJ, keep up
ZACH TOOK THE MASK?!?!?!?!??!😱😱😱😱😱😱
I'm so shocked /s
Alexa, set my alarm sound as EJ caswell saying "good morning east high"
seblos when the elephant sound came from the beast 🏃🏽‍♂️🏃🏼‍♂️
Did Kourtney never ask what school the guy she's dating goes to? like how would she not know?
Nini's reputation era
wait I mean Nina
y'all realize that she's actually done with Ricky rn? like totally cutting him out.
literally changing the name she's had for so long because it's the name Ricky gave to her-
anyways I can't really blame her, but can she at least try to understand Ricky a bit?
they both have totally different plans for the future so they need to ✨communicate✨
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xoxopandapanda · 3 years
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InuKag Week 2021: Day 1
@inukag-week
Day 1: Battle Couple
It was a long and difficult day to say the least. The baby wouldn’t go down for anything, quickly becoming irate and angry at any attempt his parents made to help him settle down. Inuyasha’s shoulders and arms were of no comfort, and he didn’t want to nurse from Kagome. He cried and cried.
Soon his parents cried with him.
Inuyasha held it together for a while, taking the babe from Kagome when she started to choke up at his rejection of her breast. “Here,” his voice was soft, barely audible over the screaming child in Kagome’s arms. “Give him to me. You get some shut eye while we go out for a walk.”
Kagome had shaken her head at first but didn’t stop Inuyasha when he lifted the bundle out of her arms and tucked it into the crook of his neck. “I’m serious,” he told his wife sternly, “get some rest.”
Kagome felt the burn of tears down her face and saw through the waterworks Inuyasha’s shoulders fall slightly. But he turned on his heel and quickly left the hut they occupied, true to his word of taking the baby out for a walk. Kagome dropped her head into her hands, not bothering to even tidy or cover herself up before falling over to cry.
She felt like such a failure, of a mother and wife.
Kagome had gone nearly two days without a few hours rest, and exhaustion quickly crept on her. She was too tired and far too upset herself to remember that Inuyasha needed far less rest than her and could handle a fussy baby for a while. Once she was rested, she would probably blame baby brain for forgetting such a vital part of her husband’s characteristics, but that was for a rested Kagome to worry about.
Sleep came to her quickly, albeit restless sleep. She kept waking and searching for the other occupants of her home, before remembering they were out on a walk. She moved in and out of awareness, not having slept alone in what felt like eons, but realistically was only two years. Her bed felt cold and the room too quiet without her boys in it.
Sunlight finally peaked through the crevices of the walls. Inuyasha had promised her that he would fill in the gaps that the aging wood had created. But that was before the early labor and dramatic entrance of their first-born son just a few short months ago. Kagome half thought to remind him of the task, but then thought she couldn’t risk his attention been separated from her and the baby.
She wasn’t ready to be solely responsible yet.
Sure, reasonably she knew she could do it. It would probably just take him a few hours to gather the straw and mud to bulk up the walls, and with his speed and strength the longest part of it would be waiting for it to dry before adding more. He could help her out during those times, but the thought of even a moment where he wasn’t beside her with his full attention on their baby was too much to imagine.
Kagome started to choke up realizing she had left him to her own worst fear last night – solo parenting.
She rubbed her eyes, and the voice in the back of her head told her “Inuyasha is his father. He is just as capable of taking care of him for a few hours, if not more so.”
She threw that thought to the wind and continued to berate herself for leaving him alone with a very upset and very inconsolable baby for an entire night.
Kagome forced herself to sit up, stiff from having slept in the position she fell over in, rearranging her clothes. She winced at the soreness of her breasts and was sure to loosely cover herself.
“He should be hungry,” she said aloud to no one in particular. ‘Hopefully’ went unspoken.
As she dusted herself off and walked to the bucket of water in the corner to get a drink, Inuyasha’s head ducked in the room, eyes scanning for her.
When he saw her, he gave her a sheepish look. Kagome panicked for a moment – did he leave the baby with Sango and Miroku? What would they think of them as parents if they just dropped the kid off when he got fussy?
Her thoughts were interrupted when he stepped into the room, a whimpering lump on his chest alerting her to the baby’s presence.
Later she would realize her panicked thoughts were more of a manifestation of her own desire to ask her friends for help but wouldn’t out of an irrational fear of judgement. That was another thing she was going to have to work out.
“Sorry to wake you, but he’s suckling on me.”
Kagome blinked, her brain still foggy and slow. Oh. Inuyasha meant the baby was hungry.
She went to grab the baby from her husband, but then thought better of it. Wouldn’t be good to drop the kid in her exhaustion trying to get herself sorted to feed him.
She put down the ladle she was drinking from and sat back down on their futon, crumpled and unmade from the events of the night before. The smell of it made her speak. “We got to air this out today.”
“Once he’s fed, I’ll bring it out.” Inuyasha stepped up into the main room and crouched beside his wife, waiting for her to be ready for the baby – who was still whimpering, but had at least dried himself out of tears.
Kagome adjusted her clothes before holding her arms out for her son – her perfect, fussy, big, loud, demanding son. He quickly latched and took off suckling, eager to fill his stomach and rehydrate after the waterworks of the last few hours.
Kagome felt Inuyasha settled behind her, his arms coming around to hold up their son with her, so her arms didn’t have to hold up the weight. Sighing loudly, she leaned back into him, her head resting against his shoulder and his chin nuzzling into her opposite shoulder. Kagome closed her eyes and started to drift of.
Okay, maybe she did drift off.
Next thing she knew Inuyasha had switched their baby on her breasts and was rubbing his wet nose into her cheek. “Hey,” his voice in her ear was a nice change from the screaming of the night before, “I need you to lay down. I’ve got to burp the brat.”
Kagome nodded, slumping over on his arm, until he removed it and let her flop onto the futon. She could hear the shuffling of his feet walking and bouncing the baby up and down to help him release excess gas. The wet blech told her that more than likely the fire rat robe was going to need to be washed.
Groggily she called out, “He did drink pretty dang fast.”
“Yeah,” came the reply, “let’s just hope he kept enough down to keep him calm for a little bit.”
“Maybe he’ll go into a food coma, and we can rest to.”
Inuyasha snorted. “If there’s a god out there, then let’s pray it happens.”
Kagome knew she should help her husband. He was probably having to juggle a baby while getting out of his clothes and then having to clean both of them up. She knew she should just get up and even if it was to wipe off their son, at least do something. But she couldn’t even manage to open her eyes to watch what she was sure was quite the scene playing out in her house.
She could say she was surprised when she was lifted up and put onto some blankets, but she wouldn’t because she didn’t have it in her to even register what was going on. Managing just a little bit of strength, Kagome saw her son on his back next to her, his chest going up and down and a very light snore coming from his mouth that also caused his ears to twitch in rhythm. He was naked which Kagome knew was probably a bad idea but couldn’t even find it in her to care.
If he soiled the blankets, he soiled the blankets. They washed.
Besides, it wasn’t like she was exactly clean herself.
Rolling to her side, she gently tucked an arm under her head and the other coming down softly to rest on his chest. The movement of his breath quickly lulled his mother into a far more peaceful rest than before.
The sun had well slid its way across the sky by the time Kagome woke up. Inuyasha was sitting in the genkan, a shallow dish of water before him and the boy in his lap. The baby seemed very fascinated by the light dancing across the surface and was enchanted by the experience.
Kagome could tell that her husband was just as enchanted by watching their son experience the world for the first time.
“Some partner I am.” Her voice was rough and gravely from dehydration. Inuyasha’s ears moved before his head. He looked over his shoulder at her, bemusement in his eyes.
“Didn’t know I married a bear demon.”
Kagome rolled her eyes at his quip. Gods help her if her son developed his father’s sense of humor. “I’m sorry for leaving you to all the work. I’m not a very good wife, am I?”
Inuyasha’s eyes narrowed, whether in confusion or annoyance, she couldn’t tell. She was too far gone in her emotions to care. “What kind of mother am I, even? I just leave my boy alone and don’t comfort him?”
Inuyasha cut her off before she could continue down her path of self-deprecation. “No one could comfort him last night. Miroku told me that babies get that way sometimes, so we’ve just got to stick together and make sure he knows we’ll be there for him.”
Ah. He had gone to see Miroku and Sango last night. Kagome felt a sting of bitterness in her chest, worrying about judgement for no reason.
“But,” Inuyasha looked back at his son, stroking the top of his head and lifting his fine sliver baby hair, “we aren’t going to win the battle unless we rely on each other and have each other’s backs.”
Kagome nearly stopped him, wanting to know what battle before she realized Miroku had probably use an analogy to get through to his half-demon friend.
Inuyasha continued. “You had my back with Naraku, and when I got injured. I had your back when you had to fight off Hobo and the entrance examples. It’s no different now.”
Kagome opened her mouth to correct him like she had thousands of times before about Hojo’s name, but her heart had other plans. “You’re right,” she spoke softly, her eyes beginning to close again now that she was comforted. “We’ve got each other’s backs. Thanks for having mine last night.”
If she had kept her eyes open for a few more moments she would have seen the color light up across her husband’s face before he turned to look back down at their boy, who was now touching the water to refract light differently, although he didn’t understand the science of his actions.
If she had stayed awake for a second longer, she would have heard her husband say, “I’ll always have your back.”
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ahsokadrabbles · 3 years
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𝐚 𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 [obi-wan kenobi x skywalker!reader
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obi-wan and his padawan spend a day with the younglings. 
word count: 2k
warnings: teeth rotting fluff. enjoy! 
the soul purpose of this drabble is that it was soft for obi hours, but i think i’m going to turn this into a series so stay tuned! 
You had come to a crossroads in your training as a padawan. You were no longer a youngling, but still a student beneath your master, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You were one of the eldest padawans which you never minded, you liked putting on the role of big sister, but it was hard to still be a padawan when in your head you felt much more grown. If it hadn't been for you older brother Anakin being the star of the show when the two of you arrived at the temple many years ago, maybe you would've been a Jedi Knight by now. You loved your brother dearly, but you had always lived in his shadow. His grand title of "Chosen One" loomed above you like dark cloud while he wore it on his head like a crown. It wasn't until three years ago that he outgrew his Master and earned a padawan of his own. It soon became your time to be Master Kenobi's student. Now, every day you woke up with the sun and trained, just as you had watched your big brother do when you were young. It was rewarding, but it soon became old news. You had begun to feel like a grown woman trying to sleep in her childhood bed. You had the mind of a Knight, but your skills just weren't there yet. If you were your brother, you'd throw a fit about not being good enough, but you were patient and devoted to learning. Your Master admired this trait in you. You and your brother were like night and day to him. Anakin was the sun, firey and opinionated, while you were the moon, quiet and wise beyond your years.
You awoke to your friend and your brother's padawan, Ahsoka Tano, shaking you awake. The younger Togruta hung above you in bed, her striped montrals and padawan beads brushing against your groggy face. "I'm awake, I'm awake" You laughed, sitting up in bed. Ahsoka plopped down at the foot of your bed, watching you with cat-like curiousity. "Are you going to get out of bed?" She asked. You stretched your arms up over your head and glanced at the flickering analog clock that sat on your nightstand. The time was nearly obscured by all the things you had crowded on the table. Copies of Jedi texts, spare saber parts, jewelry, and pictures of you and your friends and family. "I have a few minuets to spare." You shrugged, falling back against your sea of pillows with a quiet thud. "You weren't up all night fantasizing about your Master again were you?" The younger teased, which earned her a swat on the leg from you. "Ahsoka!" You gasped, now blushing furiously. She was the first person to catch onto your little crush on your master, and now she teased you relentlessly for it. "You know I'd never tell, I'm just playing with you." A tender look swam in her blue eyes, she always meant any word she said. Ahsoka was the most loyal friend you could ever ask for. "I was actually up all night studying." You replied, finally forcing yourself out of bed. "I wanted to make sure I had all my information straight for the presentation for the younglings today." You caught a glimpse of yourself in the mirror as you walked past and wrinkled your nose. Your hair stuck up in ever single direction and your eyes remained puffy from sleep. Perhaps you had underestimated the amount of time you'd need to get ready this morning. "I'm sure you'll do just fine, you have me after all." Ahsoka sang, batting her eyes in your direction. "I just really need to prove myself. I'm getting old you know." You said as you retrieved a fresh pair of clothes from the closet. "You're only eighteen, Y/N." The togruta folded her legs beneath herself on the corner of your mattress. "Your starting to sound more and more like Master Kenobi every day. I think you're around him too much." You let out an airy chuckle as you changed out of your pajamas. "Yes, but Anakin was so much farther ahead of me when he was my age. I'm afraid Obi-Wan will start to lose faith in me." "Don't be silly, Y/N." Ahsoka sighed, now stood behind you. In the mirror before you two she could be seen, barely, considering she was a head shorter than you, with her hands placed tenderly on your shoulders. "Can I do your hair?" You watched the clock tick by as your friend separated out your strands of hair and twisted them into an intricate up-do. For someone with no hair, she was quite good at doing it. "Done with three minuets to spare. We better go find our masters."
The pair of you met your masters just in time as they appeared in the lift the moment you hit the button to summon it up. "There you are, Y/N." Master Kenobi said, Anakin stood smugly by his side. "You were almost late." Anakin added before Obi-Wan gave him a swift kick in the ankle. Your brother let out a hiss as you and his padawan enter into the now cramped lift. You were stood in front of your master, your back nearly press flush against his chest, and you could feel Ahsoka's knowing stare burning into the left side of your head. "Did you do something different with your hair?" Master Kenobi asked, his Couscanti drawl lingering in your chest and making your face burn red. "Ahsoka did it for me." You replied. The girl could be seen beaming from out of the corner of your eye as the doors of the lift slid open. Your quickly stepped out and filled your lungs with air, you could hardly breathe in there. "Would you relax?" Ahsoka laughed once the two of you got ahead of your masters. "Sorry," You stuttered, rubbing your hands up and down the length of your arms in attempt to rub away the goosebumps the mere sound of his voice had given you. "You are so head over heels." "Wrong way you two," You heard Anakin call out. You turned around on your heel to see that you had missed your turn toward the nursery. While you blushed with embarrassment Ahsoka dragged your frozen form down the right hallway. "He probably thinks I'm such a fool-" "Please for the love of Stars get out of your head." The togruta muttered as she set you down in front of the nursery door. "There you are," Master Kenobi said, poking his head out of the door. You let out a yelp, his appearance had caught you by surprise. "Are you feeling well, Y/N?" His blue eyes shifted towards Ahsoka with his brow furrowed in worry. "I just turned the wrong way coming here." You answered for yourself. "Silly girl," Obi-Wan sighed, ushering you and your friend into the dimly lit classroom. The children were sat in a circle, immersed in the blue glow of the hologram in the center of the room. A map of Coruscant and the planets that surrounded it flickered before their small and intrigued faces. "Master Kenobi!" One of the younglings babbled excitedly. Obi-Wan pressed his finger to his lips with a soft smile. "Listen carefully to Master Yoda, young one." "You're kind of a celebrity, aren't you?" Ahsoka teased, gently nudging Master Kenobi's shoulder. "Oh, he's always a big hit with the younglings." You quietly laughed. "Do you remember the other day at the library?" You asked your master. He smiled fondly at the memory and your heart fluttered at the way his eyes crinkled at the sides when he grinned "We were trying to find texts on the Coruscant system for today's lesson and some younglings also happened to be there learning how to use the data pads. Needless to say it ended in them all hanging onto Master Kenobi's cloak." Ahsoka and Anakin laughed while your master just shook his head and grinned. "Master Kenobi, would you like to introduce the padawans?" Master Yoda said, summoning Obi-Wan in front of the group of students. You admired him bathed in hologram stars and surrounded by planets. Just like you, they orbited around him. Without him there they'd be lost, he was their beacon, their guiding force.
You and Ahsoka's presentation on the Coruscant system was well received by the younglings. At the end of it you were bombarded with all sorts of questions and excited remarks. Now you were sat in a chair, not made for someone your size, watching the children intently color and label a map of the system they had just learned about. Your master soon pulled up a chair beside you, it looked even smaller beneath him. "Is something funny?" He playfully asked, watching as you snickered at the seat dwarfed under him. "Oh, nothing at all!" "Do you want a coloring page?" You teased, gesturing toward the stack in the middle of the table. "Not for me, but it seems Ahsoka and Anakin have already helped themselves." You looked across the room to see your brother and Ahsoka both hunched over a shared coloring page shading in all the various planets. "Does mine look alright, Master Kenobi?" One of the younglings, a small green Twi'Lek girl, asked. "It looks very nice! What do you think, Y/N?" Your master said. "That is lovely, Amida!" You gushed. "Everyone's looks so wonderful. I'm very proud of all of you."
Master Yoda had given you and Ahsoka free reign over his lesson so it was up to the two of you to plan all of the activities. Next was a game of what you had named Planet Tag. Each youngling was assigned a planet and if they were tagged by another student, they'd have to say a fact about that planet. There were two other extra planets left, so Ashoka and Anakin took it up to themselves to also play, but after a while they grew tired. "Want to switch out?" Anakin panted, slyly nudging Obi-Wan's shoulder. "Why don't Ahsoka and Y/N play?" He suggested, stroking his beard. "I'm beat, Master Kenobi." The togruta huffed. "Come on! It will be fun!" You said, tugging him towards the center of the room by his wrist. "I don't know, Padawan-" "Did you not listen to my presentation?" You gasped. "Do you not know your planets, Master Kenobi?" He sighed and stood up from his too small chair. "Well, now I must since you've challenged me." He said before teasingly narrowing his eyes at you. The two of you joined the children in their game and Obi-Wan kept getting tagged. He was tagged so many times that he started to run out of facts to say. "You've already said that one, Master Kenobi!" The younglings giggled. "Well then I guess the game is done." You announced, looking out at the small crowd of worn out children in front of you.
You ended the class by reading a story. All the younglings gathered in front of you on the carpet, all surrounding your Master who was sat in the center of them. It didn't take long until the younglings grew sleepy, some fell asleep with their heads in Obi-Wan's lap, other's leaned up against him while they snored softly. In the very back row even Anakin and Ahsoka could be seen nodding off, leaned up against each other's backs for support. "I think that's enough of that." You said, watching as Obi-Wan smiled fondly down at the youngling asleep in his lap. "Very good job, Y/N." Master Kenobi quietly congratulated as he stroked the head of the sleeping wookie in his lap. "Thank you, Master." You replied. After a long moment of quiet, Obi-Wan spoke again. "I remember when you and your brother were younglings." He said with a fond laugh. "You've grown up a lot since then. I'm very proud of you, Y/N." Yet again your master had you blushing, you were thankful that the lights of the classroom had since dimmed. "Get some rest, young one." "I can't fall asleep in here." You laughed with a shake of your head. Obi-Wan stealthily stood up and tip toed his way over the sleeping children curled up on the floor until he finally made his way to you and sat down on the floor again beside you. "Sleep," He repeated, patting his shoulder. You hesitantly rested your head against him, letting the warm smell of his skin and his robes lull you to sleep.
let me know if you’d like to be added to my obi taglist! also feel free to send in requests my ask box is open and in need of some lovin’. thanks for reading! <3
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The King and the Bard
Analogical week Day 2: Song / Stars Word Count: 1518 CW: Poison, drugs, mentions of death
Virgil drew the bow over the violin strings, beginning to play a tune. He was the only one in the throne room at the moment, simply tuning the instrument and fooling around on it. He switched almost mid stroke from something rousing and lively to something calming and sweet. He cleared his throat before singing, his voice loud and clear as it rumbled through the lyrics. He closed his eyes and let the music move through him.
King Logan stood in the doorway, just listening to his bard as he did the standard maintenance on his instruments. He stayed there for a while, watching him carefully check each instrument before playing a tune on it. The next instrument was the violin. Logan watched him take his time with that one, saw him change the tune midway through the first one as he checked on his last instrument: his voice.
Logan’s eyes slipped closed as he listened to the voice that came from the court bard, someone he’d fallen for as the years went on. He didn’t know if the man loved him back or even thought of him as more than a sovereign but Logan loved him with his whole heart and couldn’t imagine life without Virgil in his.
Virgil’s voice faded off, the final notes hanging in the air as if they too were reluctant to end, as the violin kept playing for a few more seconds. Logan decided now was an appropriate time to enter and did, hearing the violin almost screech to a halt as Virgil noticed him. “Your Majesty!” He jumped to his feet from where he’d been sitting on the floor, sweeping into a bow more elegant than Logan normally saw from the nobles of his court. “My deepest apologies, I hadn’t heard you enter.”
Logan waved a hand. “It’s fine, dear bard, and please, just calling me Logan will suffice when we are alone. The choice to not announce my presence was mine. Please, continue.” He seated himself on his throne, settling back into it. Virgil drew his bow across the violin once more, producing a soothing note that he held for a moment before descending into an almost mad rush of notes, as if he were proving his skill.
Courtiers came and left, nobles prancing through the room as if they owned it. Still, Virgil played on, sounding just above the voices but not so loudly as to be distracting. Logan was grateful for the frenzied tune to latch onto, a tune that perfectly captured his mood as he sat and entertained the court. He was desperate to do something productive but all he could do was wait until it was time to receive the complaints from the people.
Finally, that time came. Virgil’s frantic playing turned softer as he put the violin away and produced a harp, playing a tune that was dignified and stately but had a touch of whimsy to it and, unless Logan was looking too deeply into it, a hint of sadness. Virgil didn’t sing along like he clearly wanted to, choosing instead to hum to the tune as he played, harmonizing with the harp.
Logan received the people’s requests and had a scribe write them down along with Logan’s initial idea as to how to solve it. Many times, it was a dispute over land and property or profits, simple things with easy fixes. Occasionally, there came a time where Logan would question what to do but he’d pause and listen to Virgil’s music and calm himself down enough to think.
A few days went by where it was business as usual, Logan entertaining the court before moving on to taking the citizens’ requests or complaints and spending the rest of the day fixing them or improving the kingdom in some way, all to the background sound of Virgil’s wonderful playing. However, a day came where there was a different bard setting up his instruments when Logan entered.
Instead of lingering in the doorway, King Logan strode forward. “Who are you and where is the usual bard?”
This man turned, a broad grin on his face and a hand propped on his red-garbed hip. In fact, he seemed to be garbed in red from neck to ankle as his black boots were the only speck of another color that could be found on him. “He was taken ill last night. I was called in to play in his place.”
Logan shook his head, distressed more than he cared to admit to this stranger. “Where does he live?”
The red bard gave him directions and Logan hurried there, longing to see Virgil’s signature black outfit. He knocked on the wooden door and, when no answer was given, pushed to see if it was latched. It wasn’t. He stepped inside and surveyed the small room. It was sparsely furnished, nothing as lavish as the rooms Logan roamed on the daily, and clean. In the corner, a raised bed housed a familiarly black clad figure.
Logan moved to Virgil’s side, kneeling by the bed with no regard for his expensive clothing. “Virgil?” He called, hesitant to touch him lest the illness be infectious.
Virgil groaned, rolling onto his side. “Who’s ‘ere?”
Logan smiled, reaching out to put a hand atop his blanketed shoulder. “It’s me, Logan.”
Virgil’s eyes opened slightly, just enough to see his face. “Your Majesty?”
Logan smiled, relief in his voice. “I thought I told you to stop calling me ‘Your Majesty’, Virgil.”
Virgil shrugged with one shoulder. “You shouldn’t be here.”
Logan shook his head as he stood, pushing his sleeves to his elbows. “Well, I’m here now. How can I help you?”
Virgil groaned again, cradling his stomach and curling into himself. “You can leave. You might catch whatever I have.”
Logan looked around the room, feeling at a loss as to what to do. Finally, a thought came to him. “Fine, I’ll leave but I’ll be back soon.”
Virgil didn’t hear him go, slipping into an uncomfortable sleep instead.
When he woke, his bed was softer than before and hand was wrapped around his. He drifted awake, his eyes taking in the canopy that hid the bed from the rest of the room with a section tied back for the hand-holder. He glanced at them and found it to be none other than the king of the realm, Logan Kelsey.
He startled and tried to pull back but the sleeping king had a tighter grip than anticipated. Virgil only succeeded in waking the man whose head rested on the mattress instead of escaping him. Logan lifted his head and stared straight into Virgil’s eyes.
The bard loved the man in front of him, loved the way he dealt with both the common people and the pompous nobles, loved the way he clearly enjoyed the songs Virgil played for him, loved that he was able to play whatever he wanted and the king would be enraptured. He loved this man with his whole soul but never felt worthy of him, thinking his beloved needed to marry someone of nobility or higher.
Logan’s eyes gazed softly into Virgil’s, trying to discern his thoughts. He wanted to ask a million questions but the only one that came out was, “How are you feeling?”
Virgil rolled joints that must have been stiff. “A lot better. I don’t know what you did and have no way of paying you back, but thank you.”
Logan smiled, “It is I who must thank you. It seems one of the cooks was planning to poison my dinner tonight and you inadvertently sampled that dish. You saved my life,” his other hand came up and his palm cupped Virgil’s cheek, “I just wish it wasn’t at the cost of your suffering.”
Virgil’s own hand came up and covered Logan’s, his eyes dipping down to Logan’s lips by accident. “I would suffer something ten times worse if it meant that you were safe from harm, Your Majesty.” This time, the title came out as a whispered term of affection for the king Virgil would gladly lay down his life to protect.
Logan smiled, leaning in but stopping just short of actually kissing him. Virgil closed the distance between them. When they pulled apart, Logan rested his forehead on the other’s. “Will you marry me?”
“I’d do so in a heartbeat if it were allowed.”
Logan pulled back. “‘If it were allowed’? Who said it wasn’t?”
Virgil shrugged, not meeting his eyes but keeping his hold of Logan’s hand on his cheek. “I simply assumed you’d be required to marry a noble or a royal of another kingdom. Not a simple commoner, not a bard, like me.”
Logan smiled, leaning in to kiss his cheek. “My dear, my darling bard, no such rule or law exists. I am free to marry whom I choose.” He leant forward again. “And you are my choice if you agree to be.”
Virgil’s own face was graced with a smile as he leant in. Before he kissed him again he whispered, “I agree wholeheartedly, Your Majesty.”
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timeclonemike · 3 years
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Axiom Verge 2: Here We Go Again
So Axiom Verge 2 came out not long ago, but I don’t have a Switch and I don’t trust the Epic Games Store. Rather than wait and possibly get spoiled, I bit the bullet and watched a Let’s Play.
Consequently I can now build on this post. Cutting for length and spoilers right about here.
The Filter: The biggest revelation that AV2 provides is a refinement of the multiverse theory, plus defining some terms from the original game. Trace’s note next to his wheelchair mentions going upstream to the Filter or beyond for answers. As it happens, “upstream” refers literally to the Worldstream, and different universes are connected to each other in a serial fashion. The terminology used to describe the connections is upstream and downstream, with upstream leading towards the Source Worlds that are the progenitors of all other universes. Likewise, the Filter refers to worlds in the worldstream that function as firewalls and safety mechanisms to keep disruptive influences from downstream worlds from traveling too far up, since disrupting one world can damage all of the worlds downstream from that world.
We even get to see the Worldstream or some analog to it when Indra (the protagonist of Axiom Verge 2) travels to the Filter world upstream of Kiengir (which is either upstream of or parallel to Earth) and the background of the rooms is a MASSIVE fractal pattern originating from / coalescing into a singularity off in the distance.
There are also some notes from Trace to Dr. Hammond, his research partner in the cutscene for the first game who took Trace’s revolutionary theory and turned into a way to make Faster Than Light communication and computing technology. Dr. Hammond also finds herself in a unique position to test one of the possibilities implicit in Trace’s theory, namely if the existence of an afterlife is somehow accounted for in the multiverse. One of the notes in the first game says that different instances of a person across the multiverse can survive events that their counterparts do not, but that the survivors have no idea that they even have a counterpart who died.
What happens in the second game is more about what happens to the ones that didn’t make it, because Dr. Hammond is communicating with Indra through the prototype superluminal communicators (called ansibles) scattered here and there, but Indra can also find Hammond’s body and a suicide note in some of Kiengir’s ruins. Dr. Hammond refers to where she is as a sort of “detention center” that she needs Indra’s help to escape from, and this help involves hacking the control computer in the Filter world. An earlier message at an ansible mentions data throttling, which seems to refer to the memory limitations of the ansible prototypes themselves; they can only send so much data over their operational lifetimes.
Except there’s Trace’s original paper and the axioms he starts with, where reality is described as algorithms running a universal / multiversal simulation, and cognition is a sub-algorithm within the parent algorithm. Put it all together and the game all but states that there is an afterlife, but it operates on the same rules as life - it’s an adjacent or related universe to our own and minds / spirits / souls / cognitive algorithms can migrate between those universes under certain conditions even if the material body they used to pilot is no longer functional. At least, that’s what normally happens, but for some reason the transmigration of souls was limited or stopped or throttled. It’s semi-implied but never explicitly stated that there’s a trans-universal system in place to keep the Worldstream stable, and the Lamassu computer network that controls Kiengir is part of that network, and the fact that realities are starting to glitch and break down further implies that this system is damaged or overwhelmed.
Trace’s Motivations: Trace never shows up in the game, and only gets mentioned here and there in a few notes. The game takes place in the 2050s and Trace’s lab accident was in 2005, with Dr. Hammond starting Hammond Corp and making money hand over fist in 2007 by selling the world zero-latency computing technology. Hammond’s suicide note explains that Trace was already exploring the Breach before she started her company, but she hasn’t heard from him in decades and the entire antarctic expedition was just so she could try to find him again. She mentions a few things in passing that come up in the first game, like a device called a Scry that can locate anything in the multiverse, and the term PatternMind which Trace was but Hammond was not.
By itself, this would seem to imply that we don’t know anymore about what Trace saw or experienced that turned him from a pacifist to somebody willing to commit genocide. But there’s another factor in play, one that has nothing to do with Trace at all at first glance.
At a certain point in the game, Indra gets stuck in her alternate drone form until she finds the right upgrade to become human (well, humanoid) again. She can still communicate with people, such as the survivors from Hammond Corp’s expedition and one of the Kazakh members of a Russian expedition that came through the portal and decided to settle a world upstream of Kiengir. However, coming back to revisit those areas and talk to those survivors later may result in them not being in the same spot anymore. Instead, there’s a sort of flying enemy that looks like a miniature version of the first boss of Axiom Verge. People who examined the game’s code found that there is actually an “infection” mechanic involved based on time elapsed since Indra comes in contact with the survivors.
That the survivors turn  into the types of monsters we see in Axiom Verge 1 is significant on its own, but it takes on more importance when we consider the endgame cutscenes. The Kazakhs have settled and colonized an upstream world, while a few of them are staying in an adjacent world where time passes differently; this is explicitly so that they can observe and track the changing of society over long spans of time and direct its evolution. After beating the final boss, Indra decides to team up with Drushka, the leader of the Kazakhs and a name mentioned in one of the notes found in Axiom Verge 1, in order to further her own goals.
Here’s the thing: What we see of the world that Drushka is standing watch in, called The Emergence, looks so similar to what we’ve seen of Sudra as to be almost identical. Given how time is explicitly stated to pass at different rates in different parts of the Breach compared to the worlds in the Worldstream, it isn’t out of the question that the Kazakhs were the ancestors of the Sudrans. The only problem with this theory is that long before anyone from earth showed up in Kiengir, the Lamassu had upstream technology brought in to allow the locals to defend themselves, as part of its broader directive to safeguard the Worldstream from disruption. Some of this technology included Rebirth Chambers - Indra even accesses the Filter through one - which was later destroyed to prevent too much cultural contamination. That technology had to come from somewhere, so either the Kazakhs inhabited a world adjacent to Sudra or downstream from it so there were similarities in art and culture and architecture, or the Rebirth Chambers and other advanced technology were themselves brought to Sudra from upstream worlds and simply shut down rather than completely destroyed after the Sudrans nearly wiped themselves out.
In either case, the important part is how Indra is subtly implied to be some sort of nanotech Typhoid Mary. She might be the actual source of the Pathogen that wipes out Sudra, not Athetos. In hindsight there is a hint to this effect in the first game because after Trace starts getting sick and hallucinating, there is a Rusalki called Ophelia that saves him. He doesn’t have any symptoms for the rest of the game, implying he is cured. If it was something unique to Trace that made him immune, he wouldn’t have gotten sick in the first place and neither would Athetos. Same with him getting better, if Trace could do it so could the original. So it had to be something unique to Ophelia that she couldn’t - or wouldn’t - do for anyone else.
And during Axiom Verge 2′s credits, we see a detailed close up look of Indra’s nanotech-enhanced body. The face and head look a LOT like Ophelia. Not conclusive by itself, but too similar to be completely shrugged off as coincidence.
And that has got me thinking.
I ended my first post pondering what Trace could have found in the Breach or while traveling the multiverse that caused a pacifist scientist to turn to genocide to achieve his ends. It’s possible that nothing could, because he didn’t. Maybe Athetos didn’t release the pathogen on Sudra, the Rusalki did; it’s shown in the notes that they resented the way that the Sudrans crippled them and reduced them basically to talking heads, but still had some influence over what was going on either through manipulating the priests or through exchange of data that the Sudrans were unaware of or incapable of understanding.
Athetos refers to the Rusalki as masters of war just before the final battle of Axiom Verge 1. He might have shown up at Sudra thousands of years prior to the events of the game as Trace, gotten healed, traveled up to the Filter to try to learn more, and then come back after the flow of time had changed to find a civilization on the verge of collapse from a virulent contagion that turned people into monsters. Trace may be a pacifist, but he will still use the Axiom Disrupter and all of its bells and whistles to protect himself in game. It’s entirely possible that the original realized that the Rusalki were trying to escape Sudra and would cause devastation throughout the Worldstream, and he applied his knowledge to create weapons and tools to turn himself into a one man army once he realized he couldn’t cure the pathogen. (Or maybe he did try to come up with a cure, and the Rusalki’s retaliation / interference was what made him realize what was actually going on.)
He doesn’t say any of this before his boss fight because he realizes that Trace and the Rusalki have the advantage now. Trace can keep coming back using the Rebirth Chambers, so Athetos has to come up with contingency plan. The secret ending shows Trace in a Dream Algorithm set up by one of the Rusalki, but Athetos shows up and shoots him, telling him it’s time to wake up. During his boss fight, Athetos shows the ability to manipulate the environment to a certain degree, spawning in new enemies and replacing power cells for the Breach Attractor when Trace destroys them. It’s not clear if this is a result of Sudran tech of being a PatternMind, but whatever the reason, it’s possible that Athetos was doing all of it to buy time.
Time for what?
To hack Trace’s Nanogates so that the Rusalki couldn’t control him anymore.
Trace keels over not long after the final battle, but Athetos showing up with a gun implies that Athetos was able to at least get a Trojan Horse into the nanogates that would wake Trace up when the remote overrides were disabled. Then Trace could wake up, find all his equipment again, and take the fight to the Rusalki before they could cause too much damage to the Worldstream, possibly including Earth.
The only truly glaring flaw in this theory is that it doesn’t account for why Indra would side with a bunch of genocidal robots, one way or another; she refers to the storage bay in Axiom Verge 1 as where “our bodies” are kept, and these are massive war machines, while her humanoid nanotech form is about human sized. The Lamassu refers to some fairly devastating war machines from upstream worlds and the Rusalki might just be those machines; she was heading to the world they were stored in because it might have the technology to restore one of her Apocalypse Arm upgrades - the child Damu that controls her drone body - to a flesh and blood body that can live a normal life.
There is a big gap between trying to help this kid she found and teaming up with sentient weapons platforms to devastate the multiverse. At least as big as the gap between Trace being a pacifist and Athetos committing genocide.
Like so many sequels, Axiom Verge 2 has raised even more questions than it answered.
19 notes · View notes
queer-lemons · 3 years
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Hi, it's we, that one random person that started bothering you yesterday or the day before, back with another update 😅
(I'm that one who just realized they're a system. Also, Corvid. Hope this helps you distinguish?)
Anyways, so things have changed and we're figuring it out and I'm starting to be able to identify switches and when someone else was fronting. Of course, an hour after said fronting happened, realizing that doesn't help much but it's fun to know.
Um, question so I'm not totally wasting your time.... What does it feel like to not be co fronting or co conscious? Especially with OSDD, if we have all the memories, would I know if I'm not in the front at all?
Yes!!!!! Of course I remember you!! I'm so happy you're doing well and growing together as a system!! Even if it takes you a bit to realize you've fronted, that's progress!! Also you are NOT wasting my time-- I love getting asks and hopefully helping people out, or just hearing what you have to say!!! (I like my computer friends)
Yeah, co-fronting is weird, and it can be hard to figure out what's going on. Ok... so have you ever watched Inside Out? (If you haven't, I definitely recommend it.)
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It's not a perfect analogy, but hear me out: those five weird... things... are the aspects of a little girl's personality, and that room they're in is her head. They're at the "control board" looking out of a big window in front of them-- her eyes. I know, weird. It's also not a perfect match-- OSDD isn't different personalities or moods, it's different people. But imagine those folks are your alters.
So I like to imagine it like this. You've got multiple people up there, and sometimes they're both peeking through the windows on your face-- or maybe one of them is just hanging out up front, or whatever.
It can feel like you're seeing things through two different lenses-- maybe at the same time, or rapidly switching between them. For instance, your protector might be evaluating the situation while another alter is taking part in the conversation. Sometimes an alter will co-front if they need to do a task the current alter can't do. Whenever we write, I-- the host-- take over, and listen to what they're saying, while writing for them.
OSDD can be additionally confusing because, like you said, we have pretty much all the memories. For me, the way I can tell who's fronting, is how I feel about those memories. My protector feels angry about those memories. My scientific alter is near emotionless or logical about them. And me and/or the little feel those emotions keenly, because they hurt us.
As for being able to tell if you're fronting, that can be scary. With OSDD (and DID) there's a lot of identity crises. (Sorry to be depressing, but let's be honest here) This shit is weird, even to us. It becomes normal, but now and again we still get confused. Sometimes you realize you can't hear anyone else, or you're not sure which alter you are. When this happens, there's a few things I like to do:
1. Examine your feelings. Sounds stupid, but it's true. How do you react to your memories, your experiences? How are you feeling?
2. See if you can hear other alters in the headspace. It's a bit trippy, so it's fine if you get confused, but you might be able to hear other people's perspectives in the background. Maybe you'll even be able to identify some of those alters.
3. Remember-- you don't have to be the host, or even a prominent alter, to be important. Sometimes we have fragmented alters who break off and don't front or talk much. Once you've split, it becomes your brain's defense system, so the smallest thing could trigger a new split. Welcome to the world, new alter! You're going to be okay.
4. I say this a lot, but trust the system. Our brains are designed to take care of us. You won't always know who's fronting, or who you are. And that's scary. But there are people--inside and outside of you-- who care. And no matter who you are, what alter you are, or how you feel, you're supposed to be here.
I hope that helps!! Feel free to send more questions or literally just tell me how you're doing!! Sending hugs to Corvid and everyone <3
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newcaptainofsquad9 · 3 years
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I Can’t Handle You Being Back~Chou Tzuyu x black! fem! reader {4}
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Parts: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Pairing: Tzuyu x reader
Summary: You’re still acting careful around Tzuyu as the both of you start to practice more and grow closer as you both had did five years ago. Your rekindling friendship starts to bloom to something more as you guy's duo performance at JYPEs showcase crawled closer, your feelings start to grow into something more until someone gets in the way.
Word Count: 2, 917
Writer's Note: Chapter 4!  I hope yall enjoy and keep the comments coming, I'm glad you're loving the fic. If you have any requests send them my way and if you sent some in I'll get to them soon.
Another music show performance of I Can’t Stop Me drained me for the entire day. We arrived back to the dorms and I collapsed in my bed immediately and groaned while Jeongyeon flopped on right beside me. 
“So, how’d I do this time?” I asked with a muffle caused by the pillow. 
Jeongyeon nudged her shoulder against me. 
“You did amazing as always,” she said. “Now are you really going to stay in bed? It’s not even eight yet.” 
“No, no! Y/N the day has just begun!” Sana shouted, jumping onto the other side of the bed, squishing me in between her and Jeongyeon. “We’ve got so much planned!”
I’m able to turn onto my back to meet Sana’s face clouded in over excitement. 
“Like what?” I said. 
The moment the words leave my mouth, Dahyun and Nayeon strolled into the room with huge grins on their faces. 
“We’re all playing games!” Nayeon announced. “Mina’s getting her switch step up now!”
“You got to join us Y/N!” Sana said as she wrapped me in her arms. 
“Fine!” I said as I struggled a bit in her grip. “Just let me get up already.” 
Jeongyeon’s already on her feet, pushing a giggly Sana playfully while she helps me to my feet. 
“So,” I said as the five of us trek down stairs. “What are we playing?”
“Well, I kind of stalked your Instagram again and found your Twitch account,” Sana said, rather innocently with her hands behind her back. “I found that you love Dragon ball fighterZ so I begged Mina to buy it!”
“We both found it Sana,” Nayeon groaned.
They both bicker a bit; Jeongyeon and I met eyes with faces matching in confusion. 
“You could have just asked instead of stalked,” I said. 
“I know,” Sana said. “I just didn’t know how to ask. I know you’ve been with us for almost a month now, but it’s pretty crazy to have you here after five years.” 
Sana’s eyes cut to the floor. Her excited demeanor now replaced with something more reserved and sheepish. I take her hand with a grin before shaking her gently. 
“And I’m not going anywhere anytime soon OK?” I declared. 
Sana nodded and pulled me into a bear hug before she skipped over to the carpet of the living room where Chaeyoung and Mina sat putting the Switch together. 
Tzuyu, Jihyo and Momo sat on the couch facing Mina, Chaeyoung and the television. My eyes landed on Tzuyu, nothing but a smile spreads across her face. It’s not huge or anything, yet I still don’t know how to act around her. She defended me a few nights ago, not only in front of Onces but the entire world: it set the entire internet a blaze. Of course the loyal Onces stayed true and cheered Tzuyu and I on in helpful ways. (There are some that are already shipping us and dubbing us “Rush Hour line” due to whatever reasons, even though Tzuyu’s not from China and---they got the spirit but it’s still tone deaf and a bit racist on both of our parts.) 
Then of course the netizens had their take on it, but I don’t pay attention to them that much anymore. 
“You could sit here if you want, Y/N,” Jihyo said as she gestured to the spot between her and Tzuyu. 
Tzuyu nodded, solidifying my decision as I take the seat. 
Nayeon sat beside Momo and purposely covered the gap of space between her and Jihyo while eyeing Jeongyeon. 
“Oh, Jeongyeon no more room,” Nayeon said. “Guess you’ll have to sit in my lap.”
Jeongyeon shook her head, yet the redness of her cheeks remained. She slapped Nayeon’s arm. 
“Quit playing,” she whined, then whispered something to Nayeon, who moved her arms immediately and smirked. 
I look between Jihyo and Tzuyu, trying to ask what’s the deal between those two. Jihyo caught on as she leaned in towards me with a giggle. 
“They’ve somewhat had a thing since pre debut,” she explained. “They love each other to death, but it’s really complicated at times.” 
“Oh, makes a lot of sense,” I whispered. 
The living room filled with the opening music to Dragon Ball FighterZ blasting around us. 
“All right!” Chaeyoung announced as she hopped up. “Who’s ready for the greatest tournament the world will never witness?”
“Why would it be never Chae?” Tzuyu asked with a snicker. 
“Because we aren’t playing it for Time to Twice or V live or anything,” Chaeyoung said. “Unless you guys want to.”
A collective unit of no’s came from everyone. 
“Week got a week off before that stupid KBS JYP special we have to rehearse for,” Nayeon groaned. “I need time off from the cameras and time to get drunk.” 
She rose to her feet, and disappeared in the kitchen.
“Grab me and beer too!” Jeongyeon called. 
“Are you guys even playing?” I asked. 
“Nope,” Nayeon and Jeongyeon said in unison as they each cracked open their beers respectfully.
“What about the rest of you?” I said. “I know Sana happened to spur this on during the last minute.”
“Oh I’m defiantly playing,” Chaeyoung said as she wrapped her arms around Mina. “Mina is too, right babe?”
Mina giggled and nodded.
“I’ve been playing since the game dropped, but I only played it with my brother back in Japan so I haven’t tried it out on Switch yet,” Mina explained. “Playing on camera won’t be a bad idea for future uploads for Once.” 
“I’m playing too!” Sana said with a grin. “What about you Dubu?”
Dahyun shook her head. 
“Nope, I think I’ll kick back, and cheer you on as much as I can,” Dahyun said as Sana wrapped her arms around her. 
“I’ll sit this out too,” Jihyo said. “It’ll be interesting to see how long Nayeon and Jeongyeon stay sober this time.”
Nayeon gives Jihyo the finger; Jihyo  pushed her playfully and I turn to Tzuyu, who’s eyes were on me then averted to the TV. 
“You playing too?” I asked, while trying not to seem like I caught her wondering eyes. 
Tzuyu shrugged. 
“Why not?” she said. “As long as I can play against Chae first.”
Chaeyoung let out a roar. 
“You’re on Tzu!”
***
A few hours crawled past: Dragon Ball FighterZ night escalated with Mina and I going up against each other with a tied set. It’s 3 to 3, this game would settle. Sana, Jihyo and Tzuyu huddled up behind me while Dahyun, Chaeyoung and Momo rallied behind Mina; Jeongyeon and Nayeon were slumped on the couch, cheering us both on when they could. 
“C’mon babe, you got this!” Chaeyoung shouted. 
I bit down on my lip as Mina zoned out my final character, Goku with her own, Vegeta. This was not only a stressful, but the final fight was reflective of Goku and Vegeta’s rivalry that ran deep in the anime. My heart pounded in my ears as the time of the round continued to slip by as I waited for any mistake. Mina didn’t yield as she fired the energy blasts my way. I blocked every one, even through Chaeyoung’s insistent cheering. My hands started to twitch and I took a deep breath. 
“You got it Y/N! Just focus!” 
My body jolted at who shouted just as loud as Chaeyoung: Tzuyu. 
I moved, jumped over Mina’s blasts and then she vanished. Vegeta appeared behind Goku, aiming to make the finishing blow. My finger almost slipped from the analog stick, but I blocked and reflected the hits Mina tried. There’s the opening I needed! I struck. Getting Vegeta up in a simple combo and ending it with a level 1 special move to ensure victory. 
“Nooooooo!” Chaeyoung groaned.
“Damn,” Mina said. “Great stuff Y/N. Good games.”
We shook hands, then giggled it off with a tight hug. 
“Great job Y/N!” Jihyo cheered as both she and Sana took me a bear hug. 
I melted into them, even allowing Sana to kiss my cheek before she pulled back with a chuckle. Jihyo kept her arms around me however, and whispered a quick ‘I’m so proud of you’ before slinging off to deal with Jeongyeon and Nayeon. They’re already asleep: Jeongyeon’s head laid on Nayeon’s chest as they snored softly. 
“Can someone help me get these two to bed?” Jihyo asked. 
Mina, Sana and Chaeyoung helped upon request as a confused Nayeon grumbled over who won. 
“Congrats Y/N!” Nayeon shouted with a smile. 
I mumbled a thank you and watched everyone file out the living room. All except Tzuyu, who took my hand--and I froze. My heart pounded yet again, proof that I’m still alive and Tzuyu hasn’t crushed me. Dahyun caught my gaze, then threw a wink my way as she left the room arm in arm with Momo. I’m not even going to ask what they’ve got going on. It’s complicated and I’ll figure out with time. 
“I knew you could win,” Tzuyu said. “I doubted it a lot since Mina’s so good.” 
I shivered as she walked around to face me; she looked nervous too. 
“You sure you believed in me till the end?” I asked.
Tzuyu nodded sharply. 
“You have this face where your entire body goes still and you just become sharper,” she explained. “You look pretty--ah! Pretty lame when it happens.”
Tzuyu’s face grew red; I scratched my arm in embarrassment. Maybe this is real after all. Still same Tzuyu being sly when giving a compliment. 
“Yeah, and it was totally lame cheering me on right?” I countered. 
Tzuyu shrugged and turned away. 
“I-I should let you go rest,” I said. “Pretty long day, right?”
Her head whipped back to me, the red color in her face left.
“I-I wasn’t going to yet,” she said. “Um, is it OK if we talk? I-It’s about our KBS performances in a few weeks.” 
“Oh, yeah. Of course,” I said. 
Tzuyu let go of my hand and gestured to the couch. We sat, giving us enough space between but not as much as we gave a dew weeks prior. This is the first moment we’re alone, no other members or managers among us. Just Y/N and Tzuyu. I can’t help but think back to five years ago: how exhausted we were in the JYP dance rooms at 5 a.m. as sweat clung to us. We didn’t care though; the smiles continued even through the hardships until--
“Y/N,” Tzuyu said. “Are you all right?”
I met her confused gaze and I couldn’t help but think back to the days of Sixteen, my elimination and eventually her own elimination. The tears that she shed, begging me to stay on Korea and breaking her heart by saying no.
I shook my head at her question.
“What about you? Tzuyu?” I asked. “You were right about before, I have no idea how much I hurt you while leaving.”
“Y/N--”
“I’m so sorry Tzuyu,” I said cutting her off. 
Tzuyu destroyed the space between us and hugged me flush to her, shocking me in the process. 
“I’m sorry too,” she whispered. “I frightened you, didn’t I? You’re back now, that’s all I ever wanted was my best friend back.”
Her voice shook. A hint of tears threatened to spill but I pulled back to cup her face. Our eyes met again, even through the emotion that clouded and covered her face, she still looked beautiful. She leaned in, making my heart pump faster and faster. 
“Your heart is so loud,” Tzuyu said with a giggle.
I inhaled as she pressed a firm kiss to my forehead. 
“I-It’s just excited to know we’re on good terms, right?” I said. 
“Yes,” Tzuyu groaned. “What else do I have to do to prove it to you?”
Her question made me blush a bit at how close she once was. Tzuyu must have picked up on it as her face grew red. 
“You don’t have to do anything else,” I let out quickly as I grabbed her hand. “Well, you could help me brainstorm what we could do for our KBS performance.”
Tzuyu nodded, her face brightened up. 
“Yeah! Well, Momo unnie is doing a solo so that leaves the nine of us. I think Chaeyoung, Dahyun and Sana are doing a set. We could pair up together if that’s OK,” she suggested.
I nodded as Tzuyu rubbed her thumb over the back of my hand. 
“Yeah, we should pick a song. What about something from Rihanna,” I said. 
Tzuyu chuckled as a wistful look overtook her face. 
“Oh gosh, do you remember our performance on Sixteen? What song was it?” she asked. 
“Oh my God, I remember!” I said. “We were too young to be dancing to S&M anyway!”
Tzuyu fell into a fit of laughter that I thought I wouldn’t have been able to see ever again. It’s like she said, we’re best friends again and I can’t help but feel like I can’t function from all the excitement bubbling up inside. 
“Would you want to do that song again?” she asked. 
“Not really--”
I was cut off by a yawn that forced itself abruptly.   
“We’ve got plenty of time,” Tzuyu said as she stood. “You need to rest.”  
“So do you,” I said as she took my hand and led us up stairs. 
The door to Jeongyeon, Momo and I’s room was shut, so I had to be a bit careful of stepping in to not awaken them. 
“Well, thank you for believing in me,” I whispered. “And becoming my best friend again.” 
Tzuyu only nodded and brought me into her arms again. I hugged back, burying my head against her chest. She had hints of perfume from earlier, along with the warmth that she always carried whenever I needed her. Now she’s back and I didn’t need to worry anymore; I could breathe around her.  I relaxed in her arms so much so that I didn’t want to let go; Tzuyu didn’t either as she gently rubbed my back. 
“You sure you’re all right?” Tzuyu whispered, the sensation of her words warming my chest. 
She pulled back to examine me, her arms not yet leaving my back. 
“Y-Yeah, I just miss your hugs is all.”   
Tzuyu smiled, kissed my forehead and squeezed me tightly again before letting me go. 
“Goodnight, Y/N.”
“Goodnight,” I said, leaning the frame of the door until she disappeared in her own room. 
I did the same, albeit, carefully in case Jeongyeon and Momo were asleep. My hunch was right: Jeongyeon was snoring softly on her bed and Momo laying on her own while scrolling through her phone.
“So, did you kiss her goodnight?” Momo teased. 
My breath caught in my throat even at the mere thought. 
“N-No, “ I stammered. “We hugged. W-We’re friends.”
Momo shrugged. 
“So were Mina and Chae and now look at them.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I muttered as I got in my own bed. my mind still on how warm Tzuyu felt. 
We just got back to being friends again, but I couldn’t help but think about how it would be if I did kiss her. No, she’s my band-mate. I can’t think like that, not anymore. 
***
Morning arrived quickly, even through the nonexistent dreams I still thought of Tzuyu and Momo’s words. Maybe I should talk to Jihyo about how Mina and Chaeyoung happened, even with Nayeon and Jeongyeon’s situation there had to be some agreement between the other members.
I waited until one groggy and hungover Jeongyeon rolled out of bed to help with breakfast, and for Momo to slunk behind her groaning about food. I shot a text to Jihyo for her to meet me here to talk privately. A knock soon came, forcing me to sit up and take a deep breath. 
“You can come in!”
Jihyo entered with a toothy grin and a sigh. 
“Sorry, I had to make sure Momo didn’t take all the food again,” she said as she sat beside me on the bed. “What’s up? Are you holding up OK?”
I nodded sharply; Jihyo noticed the nervousness and slid close to put an arm around me. 
“Breathe Y/N,” Jihyo reassured. “We didn’t overwhelm you yesterday, did we?” 
“No, of course not. It was really fun!”
“Yeah?” Jihyo said as she squeezed me gently. “What about the other members?”
“Ah, about that!” I said. “It’s about a member uh, Tzuyu.”
Jihyo nodded. The smile dropping from her face. 
“She hasn’t been giving you hard time, has she?”
“N-No, actually the opposite,” I said. “She’s been really cool. So cool in fact that I-I- our friendship picked up right where it left off five years ago. Jihyo I think I might like Tzuyu. Like her in a romantic way.”
Jihyo nodded throughout every word, but stopped once I finished. 
“Yeah, I had a feeling,” Jihyo said. “She always had eyes for you only, you should have seen her whenever you sung or performed five years ago. Saying she was mesmerized would be too simple.”
My face grew hot. 
Really? I saw pieces of it last night, but to this level?
“Nothing’s simple with any of us, is there?” Jihyo asked. “That’s why I’m going to let you do what you think is right as long as it doesn’t hurt either of you emotional, physically or harm your public image. However, I do have to let you know one thing before you let Tzuyu know anything.”
“W-What’s that Jihyo?” I asked. 
“I like you too.”         
57 notes · View notes
p-artsypants · 3 years
Text
I’ll Handle This (14)
In Which Lila Meets an Eldritch Abomination
Ao3 | FF.net
Lila never came back to class. No one saw her after school, and all messages of “what the heck was that?” to her were ignored. So Plagg was slightly confused when it came to the contract not working. He did worry that she was just gathering her sources for another attack. What was she planning? A lawsuit? It wouldn’t be unlike her. 
“What’s going on?” Marinette asked, as they walked to the bakery. “I thought you fulfilled the last condition?” 
“The powers of destruction come with a small sense of omniscience. I can’t predict the future or even consciously see what’s going on, but I can usually tell when something bad is going to happen, and what it’s going to be.” 
“So what’s up?” 
“Not sure. My powers are drastically weakened while I’m in Adrien’s body. The Miraculous can probably tell something is wrong. My guess is that Lila is plotting revenge.” 
Adrien looked up from Marinette’s purse. “Should we be worried?” 
“You don’t worry about a thing. Guaranteed that she’s out for my blood. I’ll be able to handle whatever she throws at me.” 
“Even if it’s a lawsuit?” Marinette asked. 
“Well...Gabriel can hire a good lawyer. Besides, her mom doesn’t trust her. Why would she enable Lila’s lawsuit?” 
“Maybe not a lawsuit then. But I think she’s going to reach out for help now.” 
“No. I don’t think so. Lila is very much a ‘if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself’ type. I’m sure she’s coming up with something.” 
At this point, they reached the bakery, and Plagg bid them farewell. 
“Are you sure I can stay?” Asked Adrien, sounding far too optimistic. 
“Please. If you were with me, I’d just have to listen to you wax poetic about how much you love Marinette, and how much you miss her, and how badly you want to kiss her.” 
“Shut up.” 
“Am I wrong?” 
Adrien hid his face in her neck, embarrassed. 
“I know him well. I’ll catch you later, Pigtails.” He gave a salute and headed back to the mansion. 
Many things crossed Plagg’s mind, most of which were cheese related. He thought about what he was going to have for dinner. He thought about how Gabriel and Emilie were doing, and if that was being resolved as well as he was hoping. 
But he didn’t expect someone to grab his wrist and yank him into an alleyway. 
His arm was yanked behind his back, and a sharp blade pressed to his throat. 
“Shut up and don’t move.” A female voice commanded. 
Plagg mulled over the sound for a second before asking, “Lila?” 
“I said don’t move!” She shrieked. Her hold on him was tight, but she was trembling. “I’m going to kill you! It’s the only way...” 
“Only way what?” He asked calmly. 
“To pay you back for what you did! You took everything from me! My mom, my job, the class...I have nothing now!” 
“I think you’re being a little dramatic.” 
“I am not!” She howled. The gravel in her voice really accentuated the insanity in her tone. She had clearly snapped. “My kingdom has toppled, and I have to start all over again! Everything was so perfect! I even had you wrapped around my finger...and then you had to go and show your true colors! You’ll pay for this!” 
Plagg very easily twisted out of her hold and away from the knife, but didn’t try to disarm her. She had a pocket knife, with a blade that could still do some damage, despite it being rather small. 
“Okay, that’s enough of this. You’re still in school. Most of your peers don’t even have jobs. Kids have rocky relationships with their parents all the time. All that stuff you ‘lost’? You can get it back, and probably better than ever if you’re genuine and honest.” 
She sneered at him. “That’s all well and good for some people, but I don’t want relationships. I want pure, unwavering dedication. And I had it! Our classmates were willing to do everything for me! But you and Marinette—!” 
“Marinette had nothing to do with this.” 
“I know she did! You didn’t just go from being a pushover to whatever this is for no reason! She put you up to this! She’s turned you on me!” 
Plagg tilted his head up so he could look down at her over his nose. “Is that what you think? That someone as sweet as Marinette is capable of convincing me to play friendly with you to purposely piss you off?” 
Lila’s face fell. “You mean...that was all an act?” 
“Every bit. I hate your guts Lila. I’m glad your so-called kingdom has come crashing down. You didn’t deserve it anyway.” 
She screamed at him and waved the knife in his face. “Give me one good reason not to slice your face right now! That would ruin your life, wouldn’t it? Wouldn’t have daddy’s approval with a big ugly scar on your face, would you?” 
Plagg watched the knife passively. “You wouldn’t hurt me. You’re a coward. You wouldn’t get your hands dirty.” 
“Try me!” She shouted, the blade poking his cheek. 
He hummed. “I have to ask myself, ‘what would the real Adrien have done?’ And the answer is probably to grovel and cry...but honestly, I don’t care much for that option.” 
Confusion took over her face. “What do you mean, the real Adrien? You are Adrien.” 
He closed his eyes, and reached up to take off his sunglasses. “Lila, Lila, Lila...Adrien hasn’t inhabited this body in a long, long time.” He opened his eyes, and they resembled Chat Noir’s. Not just with slit pupils, but with acid green sclera too. 
“What...?” She stared at him. 
The paint on the wall next to him started to peel. “I saw what you were doing, and I allowed it, because I don’t care about petty mortal squabbles.” The pavement under their feet cracked, and the cracks grew out and away from him. “But you continued to involve me in your plans, and I don’t like to be manipulated.” 
Totally full of fear and hyped up on adrenaline, Lila punched the knife into Plagg’s shoulder. 
He didn’t even flinch. He just took the blade out and ran a hand over the wound, sealing it. Then he held the knife up in front of her face, letting her watch as the metal melted in his hand. 
She backed away from him, hitting the wall behind her, paint still peeling. “What are you? What the hell are you?! Some kind of demon?!” 
His eyes flashed with a glowing green, and more cracks danced up the side of the building. From deep within the darkness, tiny black tendrils of shadow emerged and made their presence known. From each corner of the alley, from the window sills, from the rooftops, black cats peered around and yowled lowly. The calls filled the space with awful, droning songs. 
“Demon? No.” He chuckled. “Bitch, I’m a god.” 
At this, Lila started crying. She looked frantically from side to side, looking for a way out. A way to escape from this nightmare. “What are you going to do to me?!” She wailed. 
“I haven’t decided yet. Depends on if I want you alive or not. I’m leaning on the not right now.” 
“Oh god!” She dropped on her knees in front of him. “Please forgive me! Please! I’m so sorry!” 
“You’re sorry now, now when it’s too late. And only for your own sake. Selfish witch.” 
“Please don’t kill me! I’ll make it up to you! I’ll...I’ll do whatever you want! You know I can be very convincing! I’ll serve you and do whatever you want! Get you whatever you need!” 
He laughed. “With what? Do you know who you’re talking to? I’m Adrien Agreste, one of the most famous people in Paris, if not all of France. And you have no credit anywhere. That’s why you pulled a knife on me, remember?” 
She was on her hands and knees. “Please? Please just give me some time!” 
“One week.” He smirked. 
She looked at him with hope. 
“One week, to run and hide, and then I’m coming after you. If you leave Paris, you’ll probably be safe. But if I ever see you again. You’re dead.” 
She looked like a ghost, she had gone so white. She just stared with the biggest eyes as the shadows started to disappear.
“Get along now, dear. You’ve got some packing to do.” He stepped aside, and gestured to the alley’s opening for her. 
Lila staggered to her feet and took off running, and he could hear her sobbing all the while. 
The ring finally, blessedly beeped. One minute to get home before they switched back. 
Oh god, only one minute! 
He too ran out of the alleyway, much less frantic. 
About an hour later, Adrien awoke on a hard floor. Last he remembered, he was with Marinette, watching a movie while laying in her chest. He must have fallen asleep, but why was he on the floor? 
He blinked awake, seeing the lobby of the mansion. He was lying on the cold marble floor. 
And Plagg was sitting in front of him, in his Kwami body, and eating some Camembert. 
“Wakey wakey Sleeping Beauty!” He sang. 
“Plagg!” Adrien shot up. “You’re you! And I’m—“ he held out his hands and looked at his fingers. “I’m me! Look! I have fingers! And toes!” As he stretched, he pulled the muscle in his shoulder and curled in. “Ow! What the heck is wrong with my shoulder?” 
“Oh sorry, Lila stabbed you.” 
“She what?! Oh my god do I need to go to the hospital?!” 
“Eh, probably not. I’m not a healer like Tikki, but I can cauterize the wound at least. So you won’t get infected or bleed to death. Maybe see a doctor if it keeps hurting in a month.” 
“Wow, great. Thanks,” he couldn’t help but laugh. “What did you do? Why did she stab you—me?” 
“I don’t know. Mad about outing herself I guess. I scared her into thinking your body is possessed by an eldritch god. Which was true about an hour ago. And sorry, by the way, the transfer is always so much harder on you than me.” 
“No apologies necessary, buddy! You’re a lifesaver!” He grabbed the little creature and pressed a dozen kisses to his bulbous head. 
“Ew! Gross! Stop! Stop!” Plagg giggled. Then he shouted, “Alright! ENOUGH!” and tore away from Adrien. “Geez, smother me, why don’t ya?” 
“Sorry, I just…you really fixed everything.” 
“For the most part.” Plagg added. “Relationships take cultivation to reap the benefits from.”
“What, now you’re onto farm analogies?”
“FARM WISDOM!” Plagg sang. “But yes, essentially. You and Marinette have a great beginning. Just keep communicating, and encourage her to be honest and open with you. You and your father need some serious help. I’m glad he confessed about the whole Hawkmoth thing, but you both need to get some serious therapy. Once he comes back with your mom, I hope things will be better.”
“I know they will be. Mom was really good about making sure we communicated. And dad was a happier person when she was around.”
Plagg nodded, knowingly. “But you should still put in effort, as you have been doing. It won’t work if you just assume things are going to be better because your mom is back.”
“Oh, I see.” 
“And finally, Lila. I’m pretty sure she’s out of the picture now. However, there will be more Lila’s in the future. You’re a celebrity, and there will always be people that will try to take advantage of you. You can be nice, but don’t put up with it.”
“Should I annoy them with my extensive knowledge of Skyrim?”
“Save that as a last resort.” 
“Will you help me?” 
Plagg screwed up his face as he went back to his wheel of cheese. “My help comes in two forms; vague analogies and full body possession.” 
“Guess I’ll have to get better at understanding analogies, huh?”
The kwami smiled, then added. “But you don’t have to come just to me for help. You have a pretty extensive support network now. You can talk to Nino, Marinette, your parents…you’re not on your own anymore, kid.” 
Adrien sat up a little straighter at that. “Wow…you’re right! I have so many people I can confide in now! This is great!” 
“And just maybe…you should check in on Marinette? Once we transferred back, I woke up in her room and left without a word. She’s probably worried.” 
“Noted! Plagg, claws out!” 
“I just got out of your stinky body~!” He shouted as he was absorbed into the ring. 
Adrien started running. He knew his end goal was the bakery, but for now, he was just excited to be in his own skin again. He could eat whatever he wanted! He didn’t need to stay cramped in a bag all day! He could shower! 
And HE COULD KISS MARINETTE! 
Why the hell was he wasting time!? 
He turned about and rushed to the bakery, making a dizzying amount of leaps and turns. Then he collided with her balcony, his landings being a little rusty. 
“Plagg?” Marinette asked, as she opened the door. “What’s going on? Why did Adrien leave so suddenly? Hey—you’ve got your normal suit on!” 
In a pounce, he was on her, lifting her out of the window by the waist and up into his arms. “Oh My Lady…” He whispered. 
“Adrien?”
He smashed his lips to hers, tired of waiting. Tired of holding back his affections. Tired of not physically being with her. He kissed her face, her cheeks, her chin, any swath of skin he could find. It wasn’t good kissing, by any means, but it was her, them, together. 
“Adrien!” She giggled. “Calm down!”
“No!” Kiss. “I’m too—“ Kiss. “—Excited to—“ Kiss. “—Stop!” 
She let him kiss her silly, until he was huffing and puffing. 
“Are you good?”
“For a few minutes, I think.” 
“Then can you put me down?” She chuckled. He was still holding her by the waist, and she was dangling through the skylight. 
“Oh! I’m sorry, my love.” He let her down into her room, onto her bed, and then released his transformation. 
“Blegh!” Plagg gagged. “I purposefully avoided kissing her while I was in your body, and you STILL made me experience it! Betrayal!” 
“Oh calm down, Plagg. I’m sure it won’t be the last time.” 
Plagg groaned anyway and zipped off to find Tikki. 
“Would you like to come in?”
“Please!” He slid in through the window and tackled her down into the mattress, cuddling up to her chest. “It was nice laying on you when I was two inches tall, but this is way better.” He squeezed her waist and kissed her collarbone. 
“So what happened? You and I were watching a movie, and then you just got up and left without a word!”
“That was Plagg! Last I knew, I was on your chest still. Apparently, he scared Lila right out of Paris and then made a mad dash for home. He made it to the lobby before he collapsed.” 
“He scared her out of Paris?” 
“That’s what he said.” 
She raked her fingers through his hair, her nails scratching along his scalp. He immediately melted into her and started purring. “Ohhh yes, my lady. I could get used to this.” 
“It was nice having you with me all the time, but I still missed you. It wasn’t the same talking to Plagg’s body. I love you, after all. All of you.”
“I love you too, My Lady.” 
She stopped petting him for a minute. “You’re not going to keep wearing terrible outfits, are you?”
“God no.” 
The next day, Adrien was brought to school by car. He wore a white shirt, black t-shirt, jeans, and his orange sneakers…and no sunglasses. Upon exiting the car, he spotted his friends talking. 
“NINOOOOOOOO!!!” He shouted as he sprinted. 
Nino only had seconds to brace himself before Adrien launched himself into his arms, wrapping his legs around his waist. “I missed you!”
“Dude you’re back!?”
“In the flesh!” He got down. “Thank you, by the way, for everything you did.” 
“It was nothing! Anything for my dawg,” and he added with a whisper, “and little dude.” 
Plagg peered out and gave him a wink. 
Marinette spoke up. “Why don’t I get a morning greeting like that?”
He kissed her sweetly. “Next time I see you, I’ll leap on you like a majestic monkey.” 
Alya squealed. “Is it official then?! I knew I saw you guys making goo-goo eyes at each other! But every time I mentioned it, Marinette said it was nothing!” 
“Yes Alya, we’re officially dating now.” Marinette wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned against his chest. In return, he rubbed her shoulders and leaned his head against hers. Now that she had gotten a taste of being close to him, she never wanted it to stop. Even if it was obnoxious to everyone around her, she was home. 
“Hey, has Lila been talking to anybody since yesterday?” Alya winced. “I mean, that whole thing was totally bonkers. I just wanted to get some answers.” 
“Yeah, no. She’s super gone. She stabbed me, so she left Paris.” 
The collective paling of faces made him realize he left out some details. 
“SHE WHAT!?” 
“I got better.”
--
This is officially the end! Thank you for reading!!
35 notes · View notes
pallasperilous · 3 years
Text
Occursus
Castiel/Dean Winchester Gen/Teen, 4341 words 15x20 coda  AO3 version “The natural environment of the human soul is a human body,” Cas says. “Humans have yet to meet a foreign substrate that they don’t immediately attempt to colonize. My form in Hell was not an exception.” 
Then he shuts his mouth very deliberately and gestures back to Dean like his mic is going live in three, two. “Or the bit where my soul gave you some kind of STD?” Dean finishes. “It was a poor analogy. I apologize.” “So what’s a better one?” Castiel drums his fingers for a second. “It’s more like…the way a parasitic jewel wasp injects a cockroach with venom, and transforms it into a willing host for wasp larvae.” “Holy shit are you ever bad at this,” Dean says, with that signature brand of fond horror he special-orders just for Castiel, Angel of the Gourd.
It’s half past midnight by the time Dean gets another run at Cas.
Granted, what the fuck does half past midnight even mean here, where time is as free as tap water? Why does anybody even bother? For all it matters, Dean could set his watch to eleventy minutes past twenty o’ nope and still never miss last call.
Then again, somebody felt it necessary to invent the idea of Tuesday in the first place, and Dean’s not gonna volunteer himself for the task of replacing it with something better. What’s important is that he’s survived (or rather, he hasn’t survived) a battery of poignant moments and tearful reunions. He and Sam hugged out burdens registering in the triple digits. They even had a little fight, pretty much for the fun of it, while Ellen fucking Harvelle watched them over the bar with her eyes shining. She still charged them, though.
Right at the beginning of the party Dean and Castiel had their eyes-across-the-room thing, followed by the same magnetic, exhausted embrace they’ve shared on just about every plane of reality now. Dean supposes he could ask Cas for a nickel tour of the Empty just so they could hit for the cycle, but he’d really rather not. Sam let them eke out a few gruff, tear-choked monosyllables before diving in, sweeping Cas up in a bear hug and laughing like a fucking kid. Dean doesn’t push it, because it’s been longer for Sam, after all. Or something.
 And now it’s quiet, just the jukebox and the clink of glasses back in the kitchen, a few folks murmuring in booths. It might be dark outside, it might not; it’s waiting on Dean’s opinion before it commits to anything. And so is Cas, who is standing in the warm glow of the jukebox, hands in his pockets.
 Dean walks up, leans against it, bottle still dangling from one hand.
“C’mon, sunshine. I’ll show you yours, you show me mine.”
Cas looks up and into Dean’s eyes with the wary, elegant patience of a deer. “What is it that you would be showing me, Dean?”
Dean gives him a long, languid blink and bites his lip, and Castiel lags for half a second before rolling his own eyes. “I see death hasn’t refined your sense of humor.”
“Nope. Guess the billionth time aint the charm.”
Cas remains stonefaced, which means a corresponding you dumbass blush starts crawling up the sides of Dean’s neck. The jukebox switches records like it’s making a suggestion.
“I’m gonna sit down outside,” Dean says. “C’mon and sit down with me. There’s a patio somewhere, right? Ellen was always talking about adding one out back. No way she hasn’t bossed somebody into buildin’ it.”
“There’s a patio,” Cas says, taking his hands out of his pockets.
 Heaven’s patio is pretty nice; twenty square feet, some scattered picnic tables, fences covered in ivy and string lights. It still smells like fresh pine boards. There’s even a fire pit, which seems kinda bougie for the Roadhouse, but hell with it, it’s warm and pretty, and since when did pretentious people get to lay claim to “a hole with a fire in it”? There’s no moon overhead, and so the Milky Way is giving them the full monty — the runnelled spine of it, the ribcage packed with galaxies.
“Are they all alive?” Dean asks. The warmth from inside leaks out of his collar, wisps away.
“Who?”
Dean points up. “The stars. They always make a big deal about how most of the stars you can see from Earth have been dead for millions of years by the time we get the light from ‘em. That still true here? Or is everything on auto-renewal?”
“That’s a very complicated question,” Cas says, not looking up, only at Dean. He does that a lot, Dean knows, but it turns out to mean something different than what Dean had always assumed, which was ironically pretty similar to what it actually meant, but was reassuringly unactionable and therefore unfuckupable.
“I’m a very complicated guy,” Dean says.
Castiel smiles at that. “I don’t actually know the answer,” he admits. “And it would take an extremely long time to investigate. There are some other things I’d rather do first.”
“What, you can’t just call the kid for directory assistance?”
Castiel lets a good-humored sigh. “Like many young people these days, Jack prefers to avoid the phone.”
This is a solid riff, and Dean respects it. He picks the table closest to the fire and takes a bench and Cas sits next to him, instead of opposite. Dean thought he managed to break him of this habit a few years ago, but here all things are made whole again.
“So what,” Cas says, without a single molecule of playfulness or seduction, “is it that you want us to show each other?”
“Yeah, I was…it was a dumb joke. But I mean it, just not in a ‘playing doctor’ way.”
Castiel frowns, tightens his lips; the firelight throws a fluttering shadow across his face.
“I mean…Christ.” Dean takes a medicinal slug of his dwindling beer. “I don’t really look like this anymore either, right?” And he gestures at his usual shitshow personal presentation, which death has also noticeably failed to refine.
Castiel frowns, smoothes his hand across the surface of the table. “This is a corporeal world, Dean. It operates on a different set of rules, but your body here is no more of an illusion than it was on earth.”
“Seriously?” Dean ponders a second, squints through the dim light at his fingernails, at the high-resolution grime contained therein. “Jesus, that sounds like a lot of work. At least compared to Holodeck Heaven.”
“It is. But we didn’t build this place to be a...a…doorprize. It’s a real world,” Castiel enthuses, looming forward. “It’s the one that should have been created for all of you in the first place.” He pauses, glances down. “For all of us.”
Dean shrugs. “Okay, so no holograms. I’ll keep all that in mind next time Charlie tries to convince me to go skydiving.”
Castiel snorts, but not in pure aggravation, so Dean feels like he’s finally got a point on the board. “What I’m sayin’ is…physical or not, this place has different rules, right? So could I look at you without my eyeballs exploding? The…you know, the angel parts of you. Not just your vessel,” and Dean fwippies his hand at Cas to indicate that true beauty is contained within and Dean is completely indifferent to the fact this dork-ass alien managed to bodysnatch a guy who’s never dipped below an 8.5.
“It isn’t a vessel anymore. We can create our own bodies, now.”
“Peachy,” Dean clips, because that shit is a little late coming off the line.
Castiel sighs. “You could see me in that form without coming to harm. But you should know that I don’t consider it any more a reflection who I am than this form. Not anymore.”
Dean rolls the bottle towards him, nudges a knuckle. “You’re a real boy now, huh?”
“Yes, I suppose so,” Castiel says, and smiles a smile so small that Dean would need a microscope to figure out if it’s pleased or pained.
So Dean thwacks the bottle down on the totally-real table and claps his totally-real hands. “Well then let’s go. Hit me with that angel weirdness. If we’re gonna do this, I gotta taste all thirty-one flavors.”
Castiel smiles a little more convincingly, but it still doesn’t reach his eyes. “There are really only the two,” he says, and holds his palms out to the warmth of the fire.
“Great, then we’ll be done in time to catch Letterman. Then if you’re good maybe you can help me shimmy out of this thing.”
Cas cocks his head. “Out of which thing?”
“This super real heavenly meat-suit, dude. It’s not fair if only one of us gets naked. Peep show has to go both ways. I see your angel-face, you see my soul.”
Cas looks stricken, like Dean is asking to suck on his toes next to a playground. “I mean, unless that’d fuck you up,” Dean adds.
“No,” Castiel replies, a little absently. “It wouldn’t fuck me up. But it…wouldn’t really accomplish anything, either.”
“What, no soul kink? That’s bullshit and you know it. You love this crap.”
Castiel replies, “Your soul is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” with the easy confidence of a regular latte order. With the same uncanny, 2 Blessed 2 B Stressed face he had when Dean plowed Ruby’s knife hilt-deep into Jimmy Novak’s sternum, that he had when the Empty collapsed him  like a carcass in an acid bath.
That face shuts Dean right the fuck up, because it sends him skipping backwards into that fucking basement, where his phone is buzzing and the gritty concrete chill of the floor is seeping through his jeans into the useless meat of his legs and leeching into the hot, wet channels of his piece of shit heart.
Turns out you can work up a good little panic attack in heaven, which seems like a significant oversight.
From a million miles away he feels Cas’s warm, dry palm slide over the back of his hand –– there’s a ring there now that Dean lost down a motel sink drain ages ago, is nobody spotting continuity errors here?—then Cas’s hand tightens on his and it feels like a Xanax kicking in. (The good kind, direct from the hot nurse with the little paper cup, not the kind you get in a from a shady burnout at a truckstop, that’s been ground up with baking soda or benadryl and carefully remolded, as if you could possibly give that much of a shit when you’re freaking out bad enough to buy Xanax at a truckstop.)
Point being, he calms the fuck down.
Cas has good hands. They can do a lot of impressive shit, and they look nice doing it. They don’t look like –– they’ve never looked like –– they belong to somebody whose main job is destroying people, places, or things. They’re hands that how to play the cello, or make tables from reclaimed wood, or give soapy, encompassing handjobs in the shower on cold evenings.
“It’s been years, though,” Dean rasps, not looking up yet. “I was a kid when you got me out of Hell, Cas. I’ve done a lot of shit since then. Maybe souls get stretch marks.”
Castiel’s hand tightens on his, clamps it down on the table. “I’ve always been able to see it.”
“Okay,” Dean mumbles, but Cas keeps on going –
“The only time I couldn’t see any part of your soul was when I was without grace, and I promise you that was one of the greatest deprivations imaginable.”
Dean snorts, looks away, but his hand is still on lockdown. “Worse than going hungry, huh?”
“Much.”
“Hey, what about Sam? Or, hell, fucking Donatello. They both were both walking around minus their creamy filling, and you didn’t say boo.”
Cas shrugs. “I can’t see their souls under ordinary circumstances.”
“So what, mine’s just extra loud, or day-glo, or what?”
“It’s both of those things, but that isn’t why,” Cas answers, and the boy is downright wry.
Dean tugs his hand out, raps his knuckles against the wood. “Okay, so stop bein’ coy and tell me before I get a complex. And if you say it’s because of love or some shit, I’m bailing to Rowena’s.”
“You infected me,” Cas says.
“Uh,” says Dean.
The fire pops and a log shifts; Cas glances over at the kerfuffle, absently lifts his fingers to his chin like he’s looking for an old scar. “In Hell, when I retrieved you…I had to grip your raw soul. I was meant to wear a gauntlet, so I wouldn’t be burned.”
Dean snickers. “You’re telling me you were supposed to be wearing a soul condom. What happened, you get too excited and forget to suit up? It’s okay, I know I’m a lot to take in.”
Castiel purses his lips. “No, I was properly armored. But my arm was torn off in combat shortly before I reached you.”
“Ouch.”
“Ouch,” Cas agrees. “I didn’t have time to retrieve the arm or its protection from the pit, so I had to grow a new one very quickly.”
Dean really should’ve switched to whiskey before starting this. “What, you didn’t pack a spare?” He wheezes.
“Ordinarily, yes, I would have had the resources, but I was equipped very lightly for that mission. It was a raid, not a siege. You understand the difference.”
“Sure, yeah, you left your emergency arms in the trunk. So you just popped out a new one. No big.”
“It was a big. Your soul was close enough that it forced me to grow a human arm, instead of a much quicker and more powerful extensor.”
“Okay, uh,” Dean pinches at the bridge of his nose, “there’s a lot to unpack there.”
“What part of it confuses you?”
“I dunno, the bit where apparently angels are I guess heavenly octopuses,”
“The plural in the Greek is octopodes,” Cas interjects, not without pleasure.
Dean glowers. “Or the part where you can apparently swap in different drill bits,” Dean continues,
“Mm,” Cas notes, careful not to open his mouth,
“Or that I, like, accidentally bullied you into growing a person arm,” and Dean pauses for breath here, which Cas evidently takes as permission to dive in with more Planet Earth commentary.
“The natural environment of the human soul is a human body,” he says. “Humans have yet to meet a foreign substrate that they don’t immediately attempt to colonize. My form in Hell was not an exception.” Then he shuts his mouth very deliberately and gestures back to Dean like his mic is going live in three, two.
“Or the bit where my soul gave you some kind of STD?” Dean finishes.
“It was a poor analogy. I apologize.”
“So what’s a better one?”
Castiel drums his fingers for a second, listens to the fire pop in its little cage. “It’s more like…the way a parasitic jewel wasp injects a cockroach with venom, and transforms it into a willing host for wasp larvae.”
“Holy shit are you ever bad at this,” Dean says, with that signature brand of fond horror he special-orders just for Castiel, Angel of the Gourd.
“What I’m trying to avoid saying,” Castiel sighs, “is that you rubbed off on me.”
Dean nods. “Yeah. That’s fair. I wouldn’t be dumb enough to say that around me, either.”  He lays a couple little pats on Cas’s hand. “Lookit you, though, seeing around that corner. I’m proud of you, man. That would’ve totally flipped your breaker back in the day.”
“Just one of the many ways you have reshaped me, Dean,” Cas says, with warm sarcasm.
“Alright, so you rawdogged me, I whammied you. Chocolate, peanut butter, peanut butter, chocolate.”
Cas’s forehead wrinkles in skepticism. “I still prefer the cockroach. But some part of your soul injected itself into one of my more exposed frequencies. Under different circumstances, I would’ve stopped and excised the affected area before it spread, but. I was being pursued, and the mission had taken much longer than any of us anticipated.”
“Us? Thought it was just you down there.”
Cas looks vaguely offended, straightens and folds his arms like he just remembered he’s giving a deposition. “No, of course not. Michael assigned sixty-six angels in eleven groups of six, each escorted to the field by a seraph. We struck simultaneously at six different areas in perdition. From there we dispersed to individual targets –– to cause as much chaos as possible in order to help obscure the object of our mission, and to increase the odds that one of us would actually find you.”
“And you were the lucky winner.” Dean pushes down a touch of sick shame at the thought of it — he’d been coiled up like a snake around somebody else’s torment, anesthetized by it. It was one of the random rags of infernal time where his own pain decreased in proportion to how much he dealt out, and that was the closest thing Hell had to a Friday night.
“I was,” Castiel nods. “I took some liberties with my assignment,” he adds, squinting. “I flattered myself that I shared a special affinity with The Righteous Man.”
“That guy always sounded like kind of a cunt to me,” Dean notes. “You know, not withstanding the fact that I’m him.”
Castiel shrugs. “I found you, and I did what was necessary to save you, and my siblings did what was necessary to save me.” A little falter enters his voice. “Only twelve of us returned from that mission.” Cas looks up, out, away. A dove coos somewhere nearby of the Roadhouse; did it have a run-in with the windshield of an eighteen wheeler one day and show up here, Dean wonders, or does heaven make its own birds from scratch? That’s gotta be a softball compared to whether Betelgeuse is still open for business.
Castiel waits until the bird shuts up, then says, “Of those twelve surviving angels, I personally murdered nine, in everything that followed.”
After a moment Dean says “Yeah,” with practiced neutrality. He’s got some similar tallies, written in Sharpie on the back of his eyelids.
Cas sighs and his attention comes back down to the table. “By the time I received the authority to restore your soul to your body, the infection had spread almost past the point of containment. That’s why I resisted taking a vessel at first. I worried that occupying a human form would speed up the process.”
“Hey now. I thought you showed up naked because you thought I’d be one of those special people,” Dean quips, “Who can handle angel stuff without going all kibbles ’n bits.”
“That was only a partial truth.”
Dean tips the beer bottle in salute. “You’re a real special flavor of asshole, Cas.”
“So I’ve been told. I was right, though. When I took Jimmy as a vessel, I contracted — condensed — myself very severely. The infection had a much shorter distance to travel to reach all of my extremities, and a human form was the most hospitable environment possible.”
“You got a raging case of the Deans.”
Cas’s head kicks back in a laugh that kinda surprises them both. “Yes,” he says, grinning. “I did. I was very displeased, and very concerned I’d be found out and judged unfit for duty. And I very much was. Unfit, that is. Though I was not found out.”
“C’mon, never? You went rogue on the company.”
“Uriel suspected. Naomi certainly detected it later, as did Metatron. But in the moment, no. The Host’s attention was focused on the Apocalypse ahead, not on debriefing a mission that was considered a success. After the Cage was closed, I had too much influence to come under that level of scrutiny.”
“Hmh.” Dean realizes he’s been systematically picking down the label on the beer bottle, so he sets it on the ground before he gets sticky little shreds everywhere. “So I gotta ask. My little souvenir, the handprint. That’s where you grabbed me, with your lil…Mister Potato Head human arm?”
“It is.”
“If I’m the one who infected you, how come I’m the one who got burned?”
“My hand didn’t burn you.”
“Well, it ain’t fingerpaint.”
“Your own soul burned it, as it flowed out of your flesh and into mine. It burned until the moment when I finally released you from my grip. My hand healed itself; your arm did not.” Castiel gives a thin scoff. “I hadn’t planned to leave you interred.”
“Oh, no? Well that’s nice to hear, you know, a decade after the fact. I still have nightmares about that shit.”
Castiel winces. “It’s no excuse, but I was in a great deal of…the equivalent of pain. It took an immense effort to break off the inflow of your soul, and when I did manage it, I was thrown quite a ways by the recoil. By the time I recovered enough to return, you were already looting a gas station,” He finishes, dryly.
“Yeah, well, Dad didn’t think much of leisure as a virtue. Also I was thirsty, because I’d just crawled out of my own grave.”
“And I was distracted, because I’d just fought my way out of the inferno while being digested by a demented human soul.”
“You wanna call it even?”
Cas lifts his brows. “If you don’t mind.”
 There is a long, dark breath, during which their little smiles fade. 
 “So, all that,” Dean says, because he’s a fucking coward.
“All that,” says Cas, because he isn’t.
 Dean clears his throat. “That means you can see my soul-stuff 24/7, huh?”
Castiel slides one leg up onto the bench, shifts to sit astride it, like he’s maybe about to deliver an after-school PSA on the Real Deal About Drugs. “I can always see myself, and extensions of my self. And since your soul made itself into an integral part of me…I can see you.”
“I take it that’s not exactly in the manual.”
“No. I didn’t entirely understand it at first — for a long time, I convinced myself it was because you were designed to be a celestial vessel, and that I had been destined to save you from Hell.”
That thin, acidic feelings starts to rise up in Dean’s chest again. “Do you…” A dry swallow reflex grabs his throat. “Hm. Fuck.”
“What?” Cas asks, scooting forward. An angel. Scooting. What a world. “You can ask me anything, Dean. I hope we’re both past being offended.”
“Have you ever thought that. This whole deal. Our…thing.” Dean lets out a breath. “The way you feel about me. The way I feel about you.”
“Do I worry that its only basis is our shared material?”
Dean licks his lips, works a jaw muscle, forces out a nod. 
Cas frowns, sets one elbow up against the table, then lets his head tip to the side. “Why do you love Sam?”
Dean rolls his eyes. “Yeah, I get it, he’s my brother. We got shared material, too. But we’re not talking genetics.”
“Genes were the initial basis of your love for Sam. But you share half as much material with Adam. Do you love him fifty percent as much as you do Sam?”
“One, love doesn’t work that way and you know it, and two, fucking of course not. I barely know the guy, and what I’ve seen didn’t exactly blow me away.” Not that the poor dumb kid ever really had a chance. “Sam’s Sam, he’s earned it a million times over just by bein’ him.”
“Then you understand.”
“But Cas, man…I…” Dean laughs, which is an abbreviated form of screaming, “I treated you like shit.”
Cas nods. “You did.”
“Okay, the rules say you’re not supposed to agree with me.”
“But the balance remains in your favor. Dean, are you genuinely afraid that you — care for me…”  and Dean can hear the FCC live-bleep in that one, like does his total cowardice have a special color Cas can see with his soul-o-vision? “Only out of some compulsion?”
“No,” Dean says, to the great surprise of his frontal cortex, which was busy kicking the shit out of itself. “No,” he says again, just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke, that that answer actually came out of him and entered the living air between them.
Then the wave is rolling towards him and he enters that slim moment of body-physics where you either take a lungful and commit to diving under the break, or you kick out against the undertow, arch your back to meet the blow, and let yourself be flown all the way up to the waiting shore––
“No,” Dean says, “I love you.” And he chokes up a little, first at the release of saying it, then at how much of exactly jack-shit it changes anything so what was he even scared of, and then at the look on Cas’s face: how he’s frozen. Like that dog from that video, the one that loved tennis balls so goddamn much that his owner bought him a thousand fucking tennis balls and dumps them out all at once and the dog absolutely stalls the fuck out, just seconds on end of underspecced dog-brain hang time before he finally snaps back to reality and loses his absolute shit scrabbling all over the porch.
Castiel comes back online with a little choking noise of his own, and a kind of awkward scrabble for Dean’s hand.
“I have for a long time,” Dean continues, because apparently he’s continuing, “I’ve loved you for fucking ages, Cas. In people years, anyway, I’m sure that mean’s fuckall to somebody who’s a zillion––”
“I don’t,” Cas says thickly, “really give a damn about the age difference, Dean,” and cracks into a chuckle.
“So how come you never knew it?” Dean asks, feeling freedom turn into a hunger or something like vertigo. “If you can see my soul, how could you not know?”
Cas shrugs, a bit helplessly.
“Seriously,” Dean laughs, “how did I manage to hide that shit so well? Sammy found every nudie mag I ever shoplifted.”
Cas shakes his head. “You’ve never actually been able to hide anything from me.”
Dean scoffs. “C’mon, man. I snowed you plenty, or else we woulda had this conversation dirtside a long time ago.”
“Whatever I missed, Dean…it wasn’t because you succeeded at hiding it,” Castiel says, softly. He takes a slow, shaky breath, and meets Dean’s eyes with a smile. He lifts a hand to Dean’s face, bone and flesh on flesh and bone. “I just loved you enough to look away.”
 It’s a long time before they go back inside. By any measure. {AO3}
108 notes · View notes
hurricanery · 3 years
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If You Went Away - pt. 6
A/N: Here’s part 6 of If You Went Away! Thank you for the encouraging messages <3 This fic might only have one or two more parts, but I have other exciting things planned!
Other parts here: part 1 // part 2 // part 3 // part 4 // part 5
-------
(present day)
“You look….cheerful?” Maggie gives Amelia a once over as the brunette walks into the attendings lounge.
Amelia squints back at her as she reaches for her purse and starts changing out of her scrubs. “I don’t know if cheerful is the right word, Maggie.”
“Okay….happier than usual as of late?”
Amelia smirks as she pulls her jacket on, then sits down to zip up her boots. She hadn’t realized her current emotional state was such a topic of conversation, or even observation.
“Scout’s got his last check up with Nico today. Right now, actually. So I’m out of here early.” She relaxes back into the seat.
“Oh? And where’s Link?” Maggie questions, sitting at the table across from Amelia.
“He’s in surgery. So it’s just me,” Amelia explains. “But, we’re just….excited he doesn’t have to have his arm wrapped up in that sling anymore. Especially for this weekend.”
“What’s this weekend?” Maggie’s eyebrows pull together in confusion and she watches as Amelia huffs out an exasperated sigh.
“Link’s parents' wedding….” Amelia mutters under her breath. If her outlook seemed cheerful when she walked into the room, it was definitely dwindling now.
“Oh my god, I totally forgot about that! I thought that already happened?”
“I wish,” Amelia breathes. “They started planning this years ago. But then, ya know, the whole pandemic….and some other stuff got in the way….but that’s all over now and they’re finally ready, I guess. And so….yeah, that’s happening this weekend….” She trails off, zoning out as she thinks about the event ahead.
There’s brief silence as Maggie watches her sister’s anxiety overcome her previously lighthearted disposition.
“How’s Link feeling about all of this?”
“Ha,” Amelia laughs sarcastically. “Not great. He still feels pretty….betrayed? By his parents? Maybe that’s the feeling?”
“Hm.” Maggie hums, digesting the information and slowly coming to terms with another realization about the situation.
“His parents put him through a lot,” Amelia explains, becoming more animated as she continues. “But I just keep trying to tell him not to take it so harshly....You know? I mean….they found their way back to each other after all this time. Why is that so bad?”
“Hmmmm,” Maggie hums again, drawing the sound out a bit more. She smirks, scanning Amelia’s face like she’s onto something.
“I mean, it’s kind of inspiring, right?”
Maggie pauses for a moment, deciding her next words. “Let me get this straight….you find it inspiring?”
Amelia shrugs, still not catching onto Maggie’s perception of her words.
“You find it inspiring….that two people can make their way back to each other after….certain difficulties?” Maggie smirks.
And Amelia frowns, the comprehension of Maggie’s attempt at an analogy settles in.
Maggie watches as Amelia’s face goes blank with realization. But then the brunette is standing up suddenly, pushing away from the table.
“Maggie no!” She throws her bag over her shoulder, getting ready to leave. “That’s not….no. That’s not what I’m saying. You’re putting words in my mouth.”
“Hey,” Maggie smiles as she folds her arms across her chest, watching Amelia as she hurries towards the door. “You’re the one that said it. I’m just putting two and two together.”
Amelia turns around once more before reaching the door, but Maggie’s smug look causes her to roll her eyes. She pushes through the door, letting it slam shut harshly.
_______
The following day Amelia runs around the house anxiously, trying to make sure everyone is ready for the wedding.
“Scout!” She yells from the kitchen as Scout sits with his eyes glued to the TV. “Come on, time to get ready!”
After some convincing, Scout finally follows his mother up the stairs and into his bedroom.
“You can go back and watch your show once you get dressed, okay?” Amelia walks to the closet, pulling out a tiny suit jacket and matching pants. She smiles to herself as she pulls the garments from the hanger, running her hands over the fabric before laying them across Scout’s bed.
“Why do I have to wear that?” Scout whines.
“Because weddings are like fancy parties,” Amelia smiles as she crouches down to help Scout into his wedding attire.
Scout frowns, adjusting to the uncomfortable suit jacket that his arms have just been guided into.
“Why are Grandma and Grandpa having a wedding? Are they already husband and wife?”
“Well….” Amelia bites her lip. Mentally sighing at just how smart Scout can be sometimes.
“You can do a wedding as many times as you want?” He questions, squinting up at Amelia.
“Uh, yeah….” She slightly frowns at the accuracy of his question. It was an easier explanation than the reality. “Yeah, you can.”
“You and daddy aren’t married.” Scout says matter-of-factly.
“Um, no,” Amelia mutters as she begins helping Scout into his dress shoes. Her pulse quickens at the direction this conversation is taking.
“Why not?”
Amelia sighs, out loud this time. She hears the shower turn off in the next room and knows that Link is probably finishing up getting ready, while she remains completely unready.
“We just aren’t….” She offers shortly, standing up once she’s satisfied with how Scout’s outfit comes together. “Not everybody gets married.”
Scout looks up at her curiously. “But you said you can have as many weddings as you want. I think you and daddy should have a lotta weddings!”
Amelia can’t help but to laugh at this.
“Okay, buddy,” She grins down at him. “Let’s see how you like this wedding, first.”
“Can I go finish my show now?”
Amelia nods, and Scout takes off down the stairs while Amelia heads to get ready herself.
_______
45 minutes later and Amelia has her dress and heels on. She’s done her hair in soft waves and she’s just finishing up the final touches of her makeup when Link enters the bedroom, walking past the adjoining bathroom, Amelia hears him softly gasp.
She pauses her lipstick application, glancing at Link through the bathroom mirror. She raises her eyebrows at him.
“You look….” Link stutters, scratching at the back of his neck anxiously. “The dress…..the blue is a really nice color on you. You look really nice.” He shrugs, dropping his hands to the side.
Amelia suppresses a blush. It was a dress she’d worn to Alex and Jo’s wedding years ago. She was relieved at the chance to re-wear it, since nobody she knew would be at this wedding, or know she was recycling it for the occasion. She was just happy to not have to purchase another dress.
“Thank you,” She smiles slightly, resuming her task in the mirror. “So do you.” Her eyes dart back to him briefly. “I’m almost ready.”
“No rush.”
“Well, I don’t want to be late. So….there’s kind of a rush.” She laughs under her breath. “You’re just not excited about this at all, are you?”
Link sighs as he sits on the edge of the bed, still in Amelia’s line of sight through the mirror. He shakes his head. “No….but, starting now, I’m going to be positive about this.”
“Hey,” she mutters, starting to put away her makeup products. “I’m nervous, too.”
“Hm?” Link looks up at her as she re-enters the bedroom.
“I’m nervous to be around your family….I don’t know,” she mutters anxiously, reaching for her coat and purse. “They have no idea we were even….apart….” she cuts herself off from going in that direction. “They just don’t know me very well.”
Link nods. Knowing there is so much more to it. So much more that Amelia didn’t say.
“Let’s just make the best of it tonight,” He offers.
And Amelia nods in agreement.
_______
After a short ceremony in which Amelia and Link struggle to keep Scout settled in his seat and non-disruptive, they are completely relieved to have moved on to the reception part of the night.
They smile their way through introductions and explanations. And Amelia grits her teeth at the repetitive questions from distant family members.
‘How long have you guys been together?’
‘So nice of you to finally bring Scout around!’
‘What are your plans for the future?’
Amelia holds back her discomfort. And holds a tight smile. The only thing anchoring her being the equal dismay on Link’s part. The impatient tightness in his voice as he answers the same questions over and over weirdly brings her comfort. Just to know that she’s not the only one feeling totally out of place here.
The question that sets her off the most though, comes from Link’s uncle. But, when Link is asked whether or not he’s ‘being courted by the Mariners for another contract this upcoming season,’ Link reaches over and squeezes Amelia’s shoulders assuringly.
She sighs in relief at the vagueness of his answer.
“We like to take things one step at a time.”
And Amelia turns away from Link’s uncle, gazing up at Link, surprised by the feeling that swells in her chest.
_______
As the night continues, the energy becomes much less stressful. Although Link was very much not looking forward to this event, the energy of the room is having an effect on him. His relatives are dancing and talking and celebrating. It’s an overall joyful atmosphere. And Link is relieved. Relieved to be not so burdened by his initial distaste at the idea of this wedding in the first place.
Link smiles as he glances across the room. He watches as Amelia pulls Scout onto the dance floor, reaching forward for his little arms. She bends slightly as she twirls him around, Scout in a fit of giggles.
Link watches the two of them for a few more minutes, until the fast-paced song switches over to a slower one. There’s a round of cheers from family members and friends as the atmosphere changes and couples begin arranging themselves for a slow dance.
The next thing he knows, Link is crossing the dance floor himself.
“May I cut in?” He asks as he approaches, looking pointedly at Scout, his tone playful.
Scout glances between his parents as Amelia drops his hands. He looks around the room at the couples swaying slowly, then he’s nodding excitedly as he turns back to his parents.
“I can take him over to where some of the other kids are playing,” one of Link’s family friends chimes in suddenly and Link smiles, nodding a thank you as Scout runs off to be with the other kids.
Then they are alone. Just the two of them surrounded by other couples.
“Dance with me?” Link reaches a hand out to Amelia.
And she hesitates only briefly before taking it. Her pulse quickens out of nowhere and she tries to suppress the feeling that grows, the feeling that’s reminding her of every high school dance ever. Because she isn’t in high school. And this isn’t some high school crush. This is Link. The father of her child. And this is his parent’s wedding.
His hand clasps around hers, pulling her forward, and his other arm settles around her waist. Amelia’s free arm automatically rests over his, her hand coming down to rest against his shoulder.
There’s still a slight distance between them, the uncertainty of their positioning quite evident. Until Link pulls her even closer, so that she’s putting more of her weight against his chest. Amelia suppresses a gasp, looking briefly between his eyes. Before the eye contact becomes too much and she glances past him, over his shoulder instead.
“So,” Link murmurs, allowing her eyes to drift away from him. “Tonight wasn’t so bad.”
“Mhm,” she hums in agreement, her eyes settling on Link’s parents behind them. “Your parents are cute.”
Link shifts them around, so he can have a better view of his parents in the center of the dance floor.
“It took them a while to get to the cute stage, in my opinion,” Link looks back down at Amelia. He still towers over her, even when she’s wearing heels and it makes Link smile. Amelia laughs at his words, rolling her eyes.
“You’re always going to hold it against them, huh?”
Link shakes his head, like he’s deciding something. “No….no I won’t. I can be happy for them.”
Amelia nods up at him, and holds eye contact. She adjusts herself, letting her arm slide up further, resting around the back of his neck.
“This was fun. Scout had fun.”
“He did,” Link murmurs, letting his hand begin circling a repetitive pattern across her lower back.
Link notices the song change. Back to an upbeat tune, not so much fit for a slow dance. But it seems to take Amelia a moment to catch on. Because before she’s noticed the beat change, her head drops momentarily to rest against Link’s chest. They’re still swaying back and forth slowly, as if the song hasn’t changed.
But then the DJ makes an announcement, something about requests for other songs. And Amelia shakes from her reverie. Stepping out of Link’s embrace, she takes in the atmosphere of the increasingly crowded dance floor.
“We should probably find Scout,” she mutters, eyes scanning the room.
Link follows after her as she begins crossing the room. They approach the kid’s table to see Scout sitting with his head resting down in front of him. He’s surrounded by other kids but he’s fighting off sleep with his head resting against his arms on the table.
“Think we should call it a night?” Link mutters, and Amelia nods, gently stepping forward to wake Scout up.
_______
Link hears light snoring as he drives them home. He glances in the rearview mirror, to the backseat, and smiles to himself at the sight of both Amelia and Scout sound asleep. She’d insisted on sitting back there with him for the drive home. Link shakes his head now, realizing it was probably because there was more room back there for her to drift off, too.
The car pulls into the driveway and Link turns the engine off, stepping out and around to Scout’s side of the car. He opens the door gently, not wanting to wake him up. He lifts Scout as carefully as possible, and that’s when Amelia stirs. She sits up suddenly, eyes darting around in confusion.
“Hey,” Link whispers. “I’m going to carry him up. You should head to bed, too.”
Amelia nods, realizing her surroundings. She climbs out of the car, following after Link and Scout inside.
_______
Amelia takes a makeup wipe to her eyes as she rests tiredly against the bathroom counter. She blinks sleepily despite herself, but would never go to bed without taking her makeup off first.
Link huffs as he enters the bedroom, glancing at Amelia through the open bathroom door before sitting on the edge of the bed to slip his shoes off. “He is not as light as he used to be,” he laughs, referring to carrying Scout to bed.
“Mhm,” Amelia hums, “He’s growing up so fast.”
Link disappears from Amelia’s line of sight, entering the closet to hang his suit jacket and slip on some sweatpants. He collapses into bed shortly after while Amelia finishes getting ready for bed.
She’s still wearing her dress as she heads to the closet and Link’s voice causes her to pause for a second. “You should wear that dress more,” He mumbles sleepily.
And Amelia rolls her eyes, holding back a smirk, as she enters the closet to change.
She appears a moment later, dressed for bed. Her equally exhausted state leads her to collapse onto her side of the bed in similar fashion to Link.
“I’m serious,” Link mutters. Amelia turns her head to the side, noticing how his eyes remain closed. She’s relieved that he can’t see her sheepish expression.
“I want to start over, Amelia.” His eyes open now, searching for hers. And Amelia swallows her nerves. “I want to take you on a date.”
She laughs. Because this is not what she was expecting.
“What?” She mumbles through her uncertain laugh.
“And I want you to wear that dress.” He sounds like he’s fighting off sleep again and Amelia finds herself hesitant to agree to him while they’re both so exhausted. Hesitant because she doesn’t know how much he means it.
“You don’t have to answer me right now,” Link continues, muttering into his pillow a bit as he settles onto his side, eyes closing again. “But promise me you’ll think about it?”
Amelia breathes a sigh, biting her lip as she glances at Link’s resting face.
“Okay,” she whispers. And then lets her own eyes shut, too.
//
38 notes · View notes
gumnut-logic · 3 years
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Daily Dose of Thunderbirds
I absolutely adore this moment where John pulls up the EMP and zaps the Zero XL (Eos will probably never let him forget it - hence why he wasn’t immediately in the cockpit in the scene afterwards - he was checking on Eos). ::wonders if it might be lying around somewhere as a gif that could be gazed at extensively :D ::
But this moment, Virgil and John together like we’ve never seen before (though I have to say that John obviously knows Two well...what don’t we get to see????) Both professional, smart and powerful. It is just great to see them together.
Also headcanon - the EMP was installed after the episode ‘Chaos’ where it was obviously a gap in their toolkit. Brains would have been very annoyed and patched that gap asap.
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Aaaah, what am I doing? I’ve written this all in a fic. Have a excerpt of Thunderbird XL (it’s unfinished, but still has a few interesting bits in it).
-o-o-o-
Two was so familiar it hurt.
One was his daydream, but Two was his reassurance.
Virgil didn’t say anything as he helped him through the corridors. A mop of black hair was his only sight as he looked down at the big man under his arm.
The shoulders supporting him were far broader than he remembered. It slowly began to sink in exactly how much he didn’t know. The uniform was familiar. The green baldric and kit. The tools were new and Jeff frowned at them as if to accuse them of betraying his faith in his knowledge. Why Virgil felt he had to carry a screwdriver around with him everywhere, he had no doubt his son could tell him if he asked.
But he didn’t.
They arrived at the room he expected and it was with some relief that it was what he expected.
It wasn’t until Virgil velcroed him to the bed that he saw the dent in the ceiling. “How did that happen?” It was out before he could think twice.
Virgil looked up from the tray of supplies that were not designed for an antigravity environment and frowned at the bulkhead above them.
“Oh, the exo-suit.”
“What was the exo-suit doing in here?”
Virgil pulled out a palm scanner and began a methodical examination. “Got myself trapped in it. Tried to get myself out. Didn’t go well.”
Jeff stared at the side of his son’s head, but didn’t ask the obvious question as Virgil stared at the hologram of a very battered old body above the bed.
Virgil’s hitched breath was the only sound in the room.
“I-I need to give you some supplements. A painkiller would probably be a good idea.”
“No, son. I can last a little longer. Need a clear head.”
Brown eyes caught his for just a moment before looking away. “There isn’t much else I can do until we get you to a hospital.” Virgil turned away, once again fiddling with equipment, unwrapping a hypodermic needle and fussing with a small bottle of liquid. “This is a basic dose of necessary vitamins and minerals.”
Virgil’s eyes were on anything but his father and the hologram above him.
Jeff reached over to one of the many patches on his suit and unwrapped the seal on his arm. “You’ll need to secure it again.”
His son blinked but said nothing, administering the dose to his father and rebinding his suit with tape. “We need to get you a new uniform.”
“It is enough for the moment, Virgil. We need to get back up top and get out of here.”
He saw the hesitation flicker across that longed-for face. “You’re lying down on one of the medbeds in the cockpit. You’re going to let the medscan finish so when we reach home, we have enough data to know what we have to do.”
Jeff eyed him. The changes were subtle. The confidence level was much stronger, more assured, despite the situation.
“Virgil, we need you up here.”
John’s voice would forever be music to his ears.
“FAB.” A swallow, and Jeff could see his son visibly gather himself. “C’mon, Dad. We have a rescue to complete.”
Detaching him from the bed, Virgil again wrapped his arm around his father and helped him through the great green ship.
Both Gordon and John were in the cockpit. The medbed had already been deployed and was ready waiting.
It very quickly became clear that he had no say in whether he was going to lie on it or not.
Virgil’s directions stood for no argument and to be honest, Jeff didn’t really want to put up a fight, but there was so much to see! After so long alone with only rock and the same broken ship to stare at, everything was so rich in colour.
And his sons. His beloved sons.
He watched their every move, part of him still unable to believe that they were really there.
Virgil fussed, obviously fighting his own demons. Gordon chattered incessantly, but Jeff was so happy to hear and see him, he had no protest.
And John, his saviour…Jeff had never been one for the musical arts, that was always Lucy’s department, but to hear his boy’s voice free of static and interruption…
Reality threatened to fracture.
So, he obeyed his worrying sons and lay down on the medbed. Gravity, wasn’t a factor at the moment, but when they reached Earth it was going to be a definite problem.
Reached Earth?
He swallowed a lump in his throat as Virgil was finally urged to the pilot’s seat and the great ‘bird around them came to life.
He had to see this, so he sat up on the bed and watched.
John contacted the Zero XL. The name of the ship that had brought his boys here felt wrong, as if he had been aboard the Titanic and was now being saved by the Titanic II, but the moment the ship answered…
Brains.
The joy in the man’s stuttering voice had Jeff’s heart stuttering along with it. Not only had his boys come all this way, but Brains as well?
The Brains he knew wasn’t a physically active man. His specialities were academic. He had never been comfortable in space or even aboard the Thunderbirds he had designed, yet here he was, out here where literally only one man had gone before.
Jeff’s heart swelled almost to breaking.
John cut off the connection and that voice was gone. Only to be replaced by those of his sons as they coordinated the return trip.
Scott was clearly in command, but Virgil had his own responses and John was sharp and sure. Gordon sat back quietly, his stream of excited words apparently spent, but his posture was active, as if he was ready to move at a moment’s notice. He turned, looked at Jeff and smiled, his eyes glittering in the overhead lighting.
It became apparent very quickly that his boys’ skillsets had advanced considerably while he was gone.
Which really? Was to be expected, but time and memory were two different things.
The red of Thunderbird Three coasted effortlessly between spinning and colliding rocks, One and Two following best they could.
“Who taught Alan to fly like that?”
Gordon snorted. “He’s pretty much a natural.”
“Dad, you need to lie down flat and let the medscan finish.” Virgil threw it over his shoulder and Jeff got the impression that if the man didn’t have to fly his ‘bird, he would still be fussing.
“You sound like your Grandma.”
His mom.
Mom.
Virgil’s tone lightened and his voice was grinning. “Yeah. Who is always right.”
Hmmm. Perhaps some things hadn’t changed.
-o-o-o-
He did lie down eventually, if only to stop his second eldest from fretting. Gordon turned around at one point and whispered that if he didn’t do what Virgil said, things could get scary. Apparently, he was speaking from experience.
So, the medscan was completed and the nagging stopped.
But then they arrived at the Zero XL and Brains refused to respond. It appeared that his Titanic analogy may be far too possible.
Was fate really going to do this to him? Dangle rescue and then snatch it away?
And leave his boys stranded with him?
Then International Rescue responded.
Situation called, examined, orders issued, resolution found and executed.
A moment of panic to a moment of shocked stillness. The Zero XL floated silent in space, the emptiness eating it with its lack of light.
For all its nomenclature, the ship looked nothing like its predecessor.
Was that Thunderbird Five on its bow?
“Thunderbird Two, I need options. How do we get onboard?” His eldest’s son’s voice was a balm against the emptiness. “The docking ports are still closed.”
“I’m working on it, Thunderbird One.” John’s voice was ever so calm. The communications expert flicked a switch on the dash. “Eos, do you read?”
“I’m here, John. Though I would appreciate you never doing that again.”
His son sighed. “You were safe, Eos. We’ve gone over this before.”
The female voice was strident. “That is all very well for you to say, you weren’t the one being shot at.”
Jeff frowned. Who else was aboard the Zero XL? The voice was unfamiliar and sounded very young.
“We have a time limit, Eos. Do you still have access to the Zero XL’s systems?”
“Some. You did do damage with that little trick.”
“We need to dock, Eos.”
“Do you have the password?”
“Eos!”
“You did say I should work on my humour.”
Despite the playful tone, it appeared that Eos knew what she was doing as the Xero XL at least partially came to life, sections opening. He watched as Alan slid Three into a port at the rear. One settled into something similar, and then Two slipped under the ship’s belly and docked with a soft thud.
Virgil spoke briefly with Alan and his ‘bird was secured.
The moment Virgil was out of his pilot’s seat, he was beside Jeff, unstrapping him.
“Gordon, meet with Scott and secure the ship.”
“FAB.” The aquanaut’s eyes sparkled at Jeff again as Gordon briefly touched his shoulder before turning sharply and leaving through the rear door.
John was still sitting in his chair, speaking to the woman who continued to be both efficient and difficult.
“Who is she?” He said the words quietly, but Virgil heard him, his head coming up with a small smile.
“She’s Eos. John can fill you in.”
“Okay.” There was obviously a story there. “So, what’s with the EMP weaponry?” He arched an eyebrow.
Virgil’s smile vanished to be replaced with a frown and he looked down. “Brains designed it after the incident with the GDF’s rescue robots.” He cleared his throat. “A lot has happened.”
Quiet. “I’m sure it has.”
His son’s frown was targeted at the bed’s readout before Virgil reached over and lifted Jeff gently off the mattress and set him floating vertical again. “How does that feel?”
Jeff smiled just a little. “It does the job.”
Regardless, Virgil slipped his arm around his waist again and led him out of Thunderbird Two.
The difference between the interior of Two and the Zero XL was vast. He went from reassuringly familiar to alien in moments.
He missed the green immediately.
“Who built it?”
“Mostly Brains.”
“Mostly?”
Virgil didn’t answer and Alan joined them, again reaching out to hug Jeff, chattering just as happily, if not more than Gordon earlier. Virgil didn’t join in, but neither did he let go.
And then they were at the bridge of the ship. Virgil let him go and Brains was smiling up at him. It was so good to see him.
“It’s good to see you, Jeff.”
His own name forced his heart into his stomach. The man was an older version of his business partner, but his expression, his complete lack of stutter…it had been eight years, but Jeff Tracy had worked so many hours alongside this man, he knew him.
And it wasn’t him.
There was only one person it could be and for a split second, part of him wailed at the injustice that Gaat had followed his sons out here to corrupt these moments as he had corrupted everything else ever since he had met the man.
“It’s good to see you, too.” And he offered his hand.
As Gaat reached to shake, Jeff could see fear in his eyes. Perhaps that was what kept the bastard going all these years. A need to prove that he wasn’t afraid, that he wouldn’t run again when faced with the one man who had managed to prevent him from succeeding all those years ago.
The grip of his limp hand closed the deal.
Jeff spun the man around, wrenched his arm up his back and shoved him face first into the bulkhead.
-o-o-o-
Thunderbird X & Thunderbird XL
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