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yuulina-vre · 3 years

Text

Gifting you a new life

Awkward

Pairing: Steve x Bucky, Reader insert

Warnings: none

word count: 3642 words

Part: twelve

Summary: Y/N’s now staying at Bucky’s.

Masterlist

* * *

Y/N sits in the back of the ambulance as it rolls to the emergency ramp. Wanda talks to her about a lot of things to distract her without saying that she wants to distract her. And it works. She feels calmer than before, though she would rather have Steve by her side. The car stops and shortly after the backdoor gets opened, Sam appearing. “So, beautiful. Getting rolled in like a princess or walking like one?” Wanda snorts a laugh and Y/N shakes her head with slight amusement. She’s surprised that she can smile right now. The pain’s still pretty bad when she moves her hand or fingers. “Walking.”

“Alright, girl. Come on then.” I called ahead. Dr. Banner will see you in a few minutes. We just have to get the necessary paperwork done.” She only nods and lets Sam guide her to the waiting room and sits down on a free chair. While Wanda checks her in, he gets the paperwork and fills it out for her. Each time the doors to the Er get opened she looks up to see if Steve’s coming, though there’s no luck until now. After five minutes a man with curly hair and glasses walks up to her and Sam. “Miss Y/L/N?”

“Yes?”

“My name’s Dr. Bruce Banner. I’m your doctor for today. Would you follow me, please?” She nods but glances at Sam. “Has Steve- Can you-”

“Don’t worry. I’ll call him and let him know where you are.” She nods again and follows her doctor through the hall until she gets guided into a room. “Have a seat, please.” He gestures at the stretcher on the wall and rolls a chair over. Then he prepares a tray with all sorts of things before he sits down in front of her. “Can you tell me what happened?”

“I- I got a package with a bowl of acid in it and it l-leaked over my hands.”

“How much of it got on them.”

“N-not much, I think. I dropped it quickly.”

“Did you wash your hand under water afterward?”

“Yes.”

“Alright.” The man nods, getting a pair of gloves on and hold his hands out. “I’m going to unwrap your hands now to look at them, to see how bad it is. Afterward, I’m cleaning them off and do what’s necessary. We’ll see if you have to stay. It depends on how bad the burns are. Do you live alone?” He starts unwrapping her hands and Y/N is so distracted that she doesn’t even notice it at first. “No, my best friend Steve lives with me.”

“That’s good. You’ll probably need some help for a few weeks.” Dr. Banner finishes unwrapping her hands and looks them over, turning them to see the other side as well. In a matter of twenty minutes her hands are wrapped again, she has a description for some cream she should use and more bandages with the instruction to switch them every few hours for the next few days. He even measures her blood pressure. He states that it’s way too high and that Y/N looks still too tense so he offers her some painkillers and give’s her something to help calm her for a while. Then he admits her to a single bedroom. She doesn’t need to wait long. Just a few minutes after Dr. Banner leaves her Steve shows up. He looks a little frantic but relaxes as soon as he sees her propped up on the bad. “Hey.”

“Hi.” She yawns sleepily, stretching her hands out for him. She feels drowsy and tired, thanks because of the meds and the adrenaline that leaves her body now. Steve walks over to her, embracing her in his arms and kissing her head. “Ready to get out?”

“Home?” She closes her eyes sleepily, leaning her head against his shoulder. “Almost, yeah. We’re going to Bucky’s.” She only hums before she feels herself drift a little.

Steve carries her all the way to his car. She hears him talking about moving to Bucky because Brock doesn’t know where he lives but she only catches half of it. Shortly after Steve starts driving off, she falls asleep, forehead pressed firmly onto the cool glass of the window. Her dreams are vivid, brutal but sweet, too. One moment Bock almost kills her while choking her and then she’s suddenly standing in her living room, still gasping for air but wrapped up in Steve’s arms with Bucky beside him, contently watching a movie. Only to be thrown back to Brock again.

The next thing she notices is that Steve lifts her again. She feels sluggish and tired, only able to wrap her arms around his neck and snuggling deeper into him. “’eve? Home?”

“Yeah, doll. We’re at Bucky’s, remember?” She hums and closes her eyes again. “Hey. I prepared the guest room on the right for her. It’s directly opposite yours and mine is next to yours.” Y/N opens her eyes again only to be met with a half worried and half-smiling Bucky. He looks at her with concern in his eyes while he guides Steve through the halls with a hand on his lower back. She smiles a small smile back and lets Steve carry her all the way upstairs and into a room. Her eyes have closed again but they fly open as she hears Bucky scolding someone. “Maggie! Get down. Y/N is supposed to lie there.” Y/N looks around and spots Bucky standing at a bed, glaring at a white cat that ignores him completely. Her green eyes are trained on Y/N, though. “That’s Maggie?” Bucky looks up, surprise on his face. “Yeah. The little rat. Always where she’s not supposed to be.” Bucky sighs and picks the cat up. The fluff ball protests with a loud meow and some struggling but Bucky’s grip is tight. Steve sets Y/N down with a small laugh. Instead of getting settled, scooting back to sit comfortably, she stretches her bandaged hands out for the cat. “Give me.” Bucky raises his eyebrows, wearing the same amused smile that Steve has on his face. “You sure, with those hands?”

“Yeah, give me, please.” She pouts a little so both boys laugh. The brunette lets the cat jump from his arms onto the bed and she walks proudly over to Y/N, not even glancing back at him. Maggie starts sniffing carefully on Y/N’s pants and on the bandaged hand she stretches out. Y/N squeals lightly as she butts her head against the wrist before climbing up on her lap. “Oh, I think they’re best buddies now, Steve. We’re no longer needed.” Bucky sighs dramatically making Steve laugh and Y/N giggle a little. Steve looks fondly at her and Y/N raises her eyes to meet his. “What?”

“Nothing. It’s nice to see you laugh.” She smiles lightly at him. “Sap.”

“Okay, okay. I’ll be downstairs.” He raises his hand with another laugh but before he can follow Bucky outside Y/N stops him. “Steve?”

“Yeah?” He turns around and looks expectant at her as if Y/N would demand he stay and help her fall asleep. “Make sure you don’t let him go.”

“W-what?” Y/N sees him blush in a deep red and smiles at him. “You know what I mean.” Steve’s small smile shows that he knows exactly what she means. He nods shortly and leaves the room, letting the door just a slit opened. She smiles still at the door but then looks at her lap as the white feline climbs on her and starts rumbling in her chest. With all her care and energy that she has left, she shuffles back until her back hist the headboard, then she strokes with her hand carefully through the white fur. She doesn’t apply much pressure; afraid it will hurt her hand or the cat but she feels the fact immediately. She gets calmer the longer she has the can on her lap. The door opens after a silent knock and the brunette quickly peeks back inside the room. “Y/N, I saved your pizza and put it in my oven. If you’re hungry you can come down, yeah? Should be ready in ten.”

“Thank you, but I’m not that hungry anymore.”

“Alright. I still save you some if that big blonde goof didn’t eat everything by the time I get down.”

“I wouldn’t put it past him.” Y/N chuckles at him but is quickly distracted as Magnolia supports herself on her shoulders and butts her head against her chin. She misses Bucky’s smile and the snapping of his camera.

* * *

That night, Y/N turns in bed several times. She’s tired, but each time she closes her eyes, she has pictures of Brock in her mind, of the things he did and the things he could do. Maggie lies next to her on the bed, fast asleep, tightly cuddled against her shoulder. She had purred for a while, obviously trying to calm Y/N down, until she fell asleep herself. Y/N sighs and carefully slips out of bed. Her hands burn and throb badly and she remembers that she could take another dose of painkillers. As silently as she can she leaves the room only to looks up and down the hall. Her eyes lock on the door across hers, trying to remember which room belongs to who. She thinks Bucky said something about Steve being right across her so she steps up to the door that’s slightly ajar. For a moment she debates if she should wake him and ask if he would watch a movie with her. That usually helps her fall asleep pretty fast and if not, she always tires herself out while painting. Though, that won’t be a possibility for a while. At least as long as she’s not willing to learn drawing with her nose or feet which she really isn’t interested in.

She stares a little longer at the wood until her tiredness wins and she opens the door silently with one foot. “Steve?” The room is dark and no noises are heard except for soft breathing and the occasional snore. “Steve?” She whispers a little louder, tip-toeing over to the bed, and is surprised to not only find Steve there but Bucky, too. She had stayed in her bed, napped a little. She hasn’t heard them get up the stairs nor them slipping together into Steve’s room. Well, Y/N isn’t blind though, and has seen how well they get along, so instead of being concerned that they already started sharing a bed, she decides to be proud of Steve. He usually is a little awkward and old-fashioned about this kind of thing, so it’s an immensely big step for him as well. She blushes a little, feeling like she’s intruding and seeing something she shouldn’t see. They’re dressed, thankfully, which means this isn’t more awkward than it could have been. She’s just about to leave as she hears Steve groan. “Y/N?” His voice is slurred, obviously tired and sleepy. “Sorry. I’ll go again.”

“Nah, was’sup?” She watches as he sits up a bit, letting Bucky’s normal arm slip from his chest. The brunette huffs in his sleep and turns a little. Y/N can see that he’s not wearing his prosthetic. Thankfully. If it hurt on the day what must it feel like at night and sleeping on it? “Y/N?” Her eyes snap back to Steve and she shuffles on her feet. “I can’t sleep.” Steve raises his eyebrows at her, not really looking surprised. “Wanted to ask if you’re watching a movie with me, but… you have a guest, so I just-” She points back at the door ready to leave, but Steve stands up, walks around the bed, and crosses the one foot over to her to wrap her in a hug, pressing her to his chest. “I’m sorry, Y/N. I know it’s a lot right now.”

“Not as worse with him as it was before.” She chuckles dryly. She knows she’s right, though. Burns aren’t the worst that Brock can do, and she knows it pretty well. They stay like this for a moment, reluctant on what to do. She buries her face in his chest and sighs deeply. Another hand startles them. The hand grabs Y/N’s arms and she’s about to scream, but then she notices that Bucky had gotten out of bed. He pulls her with him on the bed, lies back down, and pulls her into him with a yawn. “Ehh…” Y/N looks startled and confused at Bucky, whose eyes are closed already. Then her eyes switch to Steve who just stands there and looks surprised. “Punk, you’re staying there?” Y/N looks a little uncomfortable to Steve, haven’t thought Bucky would do something like that. He knows her even less than he knows Steve! But then again, she doesn’t know him that well either and still invited him over and plays matchmaker for both of them. Steve only raises his eyebrows before he snorts. “Jerk.” He crawls back in bed and warps Y/N in his own arms, pulling her close to him like they do, when one of them is in a bad mood. She snuggles a little closer into his embrace and closes her eyes. Sleep comes sooner than she has expected it to come and it’s calm.

* * *

Monday morning is a slow-going one. Bucky stays home with Y/N, Having off anyway. Steve has gone to work like usual, promising to tell Tony that she won’t be at work for the rest of the week and telling her, that he will be home around lunch, skipping his last class, since they are still working on their art projects and it’s not like the kids won’t be happy about it. As long as they finish their projects until Friday it doesn’t bother him as well. He should be home any minute now.

Y/N sits on the couch, flipping through a book with her fingertips as best as she can, while Bucky plays with Maggie on the carpet. He was supposed to do housework but Y/N isn’t the one to tell him that. Then the doorbell rings. “Could you?” Bucky sits on the floor while Maggie crawls all over him, so Y/N nods and stands up. The doorbell rings violently. Instantly, she knows who it is, even before she opens the door. Tony is pressing the button violently, while another man stands behind him, looking pretty embarrassed. Y/N stares for seconds before she catches herself. “What are you doing here?”

“What does Rogers mean, you can’t come to work because that asshole burnt your hands?” Y/N looks down at her wrapped hands before she really notices the other man behind Tony. “Dr. Banner?”

“Hi.” Dr. Banner waves shyly at her and Tony only raises his eyebrows. “Why do you know each other?”

“He’s the doctor that looked at my hands.” Y/N looks still confused at the doctor, but Tony turns around to him. “Why haven’t you told me? I worried for nothing!”

“You wouldn’t let me finish.” Tony rolls his eyes and turns back to Y/N. “So, are we gonna have a chat at the door or will you let me in? And where’s your Robo-friend? I want to look at that arm.”

“Tony!”

“Where’s who?” Just then does Bucky comes around the corner and steps up next to Y/N, looking at the new guests With Maggie on his arm. “Oh. I know that one. Isn’t he your boss?” Bucky raises his eyebrows and looks at Tony, who only crosses his arms. “Yeah, he is. Also, a friend.” She glances back at him before she looks at Bucky. “And a little worried about me. Hey Bucky, can I talk to you for a sec?” Y/N doesn’t wait for an answer and starts dragging the man to the kitchen, careful of her hands that start throbbing again. She doesn’t tell Tony or Bruce to come in, knowing Tony does it anyway. “What’s wrong?” Bucky stops walking in the kitchen and Y/N turns to him, glancing nervously at the door and back to Bucky. “Well, you know. Tony isn’t always the nicest. I mean… eh... He doesn’t mean to be bad, but sometimes insults just… slip.” She cringes a little at her sorry excuses of explanation. “Aha.” Bucky frowns at her, looking like he doesn’t understand her concern and Y/N clears her throat. “So, he knows you have-”

“Y/N, I don’t care if he insults my arm. I’m used to it by now.” Y/N sighs and looks at his arm. Bucky really shouldn’t be used to it. He’s such a nice person and knowing that he gets lots of comments about his missing limb makes Y/N sad. “Okay. There’s something else, though.”

“What is it?”

“Okay, so, you know Tony works at the school and is the headmaster, right?” She waits for Bucky to nod before she continues. “Well, he’s not only the headmaster and a teacher but an engineer. He built some things for the army before he dropped that and invented stuff like mobiles, tablets, things for clean energy… for people.”

“I don’t understand what that has to do with me.” Y/N looks at him, a bit lost, debating how to tell him that Tony wants to see his arm. She still doesn’t know if it’s a difficult topic for him to get touched by strangers. “He wants to look at your arm.” She blurts it out and curses herself afterward. “Oh.” Bucky suddenly looks pretty unsure. He looks down at his hand with a frown before he looks back at Y/N. “You don’t need to let him. You can just tell him you don’t want to, but he knows what he does. Sometimes, though, he’s a bit harsh with words and feelings.”

“No, I- I think it’s okay.” Bucky shrugs and Y/N can see that he tries to play it cool but really isn’t. “Maybe he might help with your shoulder. He could figure out why it so uncomfortable.” Bucky only nods. “Yeah…” For a moment she worries that she did something wrong but then Bucky sighs and gestures her to start walking. “Let’s meet him.” Tony has already made himself comfortable while Dr. Banner throws an apologizing look at them. Y/N smiles kindly at him, settling down beside Tony. Bucky gestures for the Doctor to have a seat. They chat for a while about the school, the renovations Tony’s doing on his house, again, and about a lot of normal stuff. Bruce, how she learned to call him now, wraps her hands again and says that it looks better than the day before, but she still has to apply the salve and wrap it up for a few more days. Magnolia seems to find the new guests as a disturbance but settles on Y/N’s lap and lets her stroke her fur in pleasure. She still throws glares at the two brunettes, though. At some point, Y/N looks up at Bucky and finds him staring at her with a pout. “What?”

“It’s not fair, you know?”

“What do you mean?” She watches him confused. His eyes wander to Maggie and Y/N’s hand and back up. “She already loves you more than me. That’s not fair. I’m feeding her.” Y/N instantly barks out a laugh. “Are you jealous?”

“Yes.” Y/N laughs even louder now and just throws a pitying look at him. “I’m sorry. Can’t help it, though.”

“Maybe I can help with that.” Y/N looks up to see Steve entering the Livingroom, crooked smile and work bag slung over his shoulder. He walks up to Bucky, who turns around and puts his hands on the other man’s shoulder, lightly massaging him with a soft smile. “Look at that, Rogers finally found himself a girlfriend.”

“Tony!” Y/N scolds him the same moment Bruce does. At least he has the decency to look ashamed and shatters that the next second. “A boyfriend, sorry.” Y/N rolls her eyes and catches Steve blushing furiously while Bucky just looks equal confused, embarrassed, and… happy? Steve rubs his neck, casts a small look at Tony, and vanishes quickly. Y/N glances at Bucky. “I’m sorry, I told you he’s not good with feelings and all.” Bucky just shrugs.

„So, Robo-cop. Show me this arm.”

“Tony! Sensitive topic, remember?” Y/N glares at him but Tony doesn’t care. He only mutters a silent please and stands up to walk closer to bucky. The brunette looks a little uncomfortable at the engineer. “Buck, you don’t have to.”

“Pah, nonsense. I’m just wanting to look at it. Any trouble with it so far?” He steps closer to Bucky inspecting his arm first without touching, then he crouches down and holds out his hand. Despite what most people believe, Tony knows damn well that not everybody likes to get toughed, especially when it’s about the prosthetic so he offers Bucky the chance to choose when and if he likes to get touched. Bucky hesitates for a second but then puts his hand in Tony’s. “It hurts my shoulder. Doesn’t fit right and it’s pretty heavy. Sometimes the responses are delayed and instead of grabbing something I knock it over.”

“Hm. I see.” Tony runs his fingers over the prosthetic from the fingers up to the elbow. “Can I?” he motions for Bucky’s t-shirt and bucky nods. Y/N watches in amazement how Tony runs his hand along the arm, shoving the sleeve up as well, and then… suddenly barks out a laugh. “hammer tech!” He stands up, still laughing, and it's down beside Y/N again. She has to admit that she can’t suppress her own smirk. “What’s so funny?” Poor Bucky looks utterly confused and Steve matches his look as he joins him on his couch. “hammer tech is bad. I can build you a better one.”

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#Steve rogers #Bucky Barnes #Steve x Bucky #Bucky x Steve #Reader #reader insert #Yuulina writes

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calypsoff · 3 years

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Eight. Part 4

Watching Robyn walk back out of the bathroom, I stared at her walking to the bathroom and now coming back out of it, I can’t help but stare. I am tired but I don’t want to sleep, I worry about her safety, I don’t want people coming in here and harassing her or anything like that, this is why I am pushing for Robyn to go to a hotel to be safe so when I wake up I can be there for her, well try but she isn’t going and I am not going to push her to go, she wants to stay here with me and I don’t mind that “does Rich just stay out there all that time? Doesn’t he get tired?” Robyn sat down slowly, she took her coat off now, took her a while. This does mean she isn’t moving “he is a good guy, he is like my carer I would say. He would do anything for me, he is a family friend now. And he will stay out there, he won’t do anything unless he thinks I am in danger. I need it in this life, you don’t know who is good and who is not. You know” nodding my head “man” I said to myself “I really do love you” it came out so natural to me now, it’s just there. Robyn and I just giggled, we giggled like school kids. I feel a little shy now “you can’t stop saying it now, well I am going to do you and just not say it now” shaking my head, looking up at her “you are playing now, it’s ok I get it. I am an asshole, I think if I just see you as Robyn I will be good but yeah, I want to take it slow with you” Robyn grinned “huh, does that include the bedroom too. Remind me to not get you angry if you are playing like that” I cringed “I wouldn’t do that again, I just I want to protect you from that world. That life, it’s hard for you. I know, I remember you told me you always wanted to be protected because you felt your dad never did that for you as a child. A male figure, I remember all that shit. But I got a lot to learn and stuff but for you to be here, it’s like above you” Robyn shook her head “nothing is ever above me Chris, we are equal. Once you accept we are then we are good Chris. And I am willing to wait, as long as we can be truthful with each other yeah?” hearing commotion outside, there is a lot of raised voices.

Robyn and I just stared at each other “I can’t protect you; you’re going to have to protect me” I said to Robyn as a joke “oh that helps, I think Rich is telling someone off” the door burst open “Chris! Chris tell him I can be here!” TJ ran into the room; Rich also ran behind him “Chris!” he ran around my bed “Rihanna!? What the fuck, Chris” Rich gripped TJ “he’s my friend” I said to Rich “he ain’t my friend, this nigga is out!” Rich is dragging TJ out “Rich, I know of him. Both of them, let them stay” Robyn spoke up, I am glad she did “I don’t like this little rat” I chuckled at Rich calling him a rat “if he starts talking shit then I will be back” he pushed him to the floor “man, I will fight you!” TJ spat, Barry is so silent just staring, a little smirk on his face “it’s forehead gang united, it’s Fenty. Long-time pop star” Barry walked over to Robyn, she got up from the seat “Barry Bradford” watching them both hug “what are you doing here anyways? Did Chris do the make a wish foundation thing and you came” Robyn hit his arm moving back “don’t be so silly” TJ is still in shock “wow! You smell so fucking good, man. You are beautiful, I don’t care about small titties I would do you, between you and Bey it’s you! I am loyal, I go so hard” I would beat his ass, but I can’t “you have always been this way, weird” TJ jumped up and down “man, this is fucking Rihanna!” I don’t want her to hug him, but she is, not impressed though because he is thinking about her titties.

Robyn sat back down on the chair “I am glad you came, I always wanted to ask why you never told me about Chris being around. You said he went but he didn’t, he was around just being bad? Like I am not an angel to him, but it was only right I knew” Robyn is angry, she is angry at Barry. I like this anger, it’s a little kinky “I knew that would come up, Chris and I fell out. We weren’t speaking so I didn’t know where he was anyways, even if I told you what it was your people was there, they was telling me I had to move and I couldn’t touch or speak to you. What did you want me to say? When you said where is freckles? And then you turned around and said where is Chris? Some bald guy said hurry up to me and he was listening, I couldn’t say oh by the way Chris is drug dealing and being dumb, so I said he wasn’t here. You and I both know your big ass entourage was pushing to go, they didn’t even want to be there. They barely let me hug you that time, it was hard, and I am sorry. But what counts you’re here now, I am shocked to see you here, but you came for him. And I think that means a lot to my friend, you have really shown him what he is missing” Barry knows everything, I mean I have told him “I understand, I am just a little angry at how everything went down” I can tell she is “y’all dating” turning to TJ, that stupid little smirk on his face “is your chain fake” Robyn retorted, I snorted laughing. Barry screamed out “hey! What the hell, man. That is rude, I just seen Chris staring at you, he got heart eyes. I was being nice” Robyn is rude for that.

TJ be airing me out, like we aren’t even dating we are just taking things slowly but he sat here saying we are dating, he needs to relax with all that “can I say that I met you or is this a secret meet up?” TJ asked, I am glad he asked “I want you to shut up about it, you ain’t tell nobody about this. I don’t want nobody harassing her like that” TJ’ smile grew “oh wow, calm down. Protecting what is yours now huh?” I swear I hate him “nigga fuck you” I mumbled “just need to protect her” I can feel Robyn’ eyes on me and I hate it, it’s making me shy as hell “mhmmm protect her huh, cute” Barry chuckled “leave him alone, he is sweet” Robyn makes it worse “so you really came here for him? That is love right there, I think he should move, we told him to go out of town and we will visit him. Like nigga, you ain’t going to survive another attack, I am telling you now. You need to think of you” TJ always been saying for me to move but this is my home “I agree” looking over at Robyn “you moving me in?” I said as Robyn giggled “I don’t have a home unless you are coming Barbados, I am here, there everywhere but anyways, I think you should sleep. I will come tomorrow, text me when it’s quiet. I will get a hotel” oh she is going “you can stay at my place? Honestly” looking up at her “is it safe there?” nodding my head “it’s rather nice, it’s quiet. I live next to some white couple, it’s on the third floor, you have to walk up the steps a little bit, but you can stay there. It’s clean, there may be a few things laying around but it’s not bad, my key is there” pointing behind me “open it and give me your phone I will enter my location. My mom had cleaned I think, she said she did but yeah, stay. Also don’t worry nobody will come there at all, only I have the key” she doesn’t need to pay out for a hotel now “oh wow, oh wait. You and Riri got star tattoos oh my god, it comes together. You both! You see this Barry; this whole star business” TJ is nosey as hell “are you sure about this?” Robyn asked “yeah I am, honestly. It should be somewhat clean” I hope “she might see the wall of her pictures bro” TJ sniggered; he is a trip.

I am thinking to myself, what the fuck am I doing. Why am I even doing this, like he offered me his apartment and I couldn’t help but say yes, a small side of me is wanting to be nosey on how he lives, and I get to see his little place and where he stays, I guess I am just being nosey, but Rich is not amused, he isn’t happy but it’s not a bad neighbourhood at all. He isn’t wrong about that at all, he said that the neighbourhood is fine, but I know Chris wouldn’t put me in danger “so where do I sleep?” Rich said as he unlocked the front door “On the couch, I don’t know. You can go if you like? I will just stay here, I am not going anywhere anyways” he stepped to the side “after you” looking up at Rich smiling as I stepped into Chris’ apartment, it’s the cutest thing ever. The little open planned kitchen area and living, I mean he said his mom cleaned but I don’t think she did, he has clothes on the living room flooring “I can’t leave you just here, so I will take the couch” I chuckled, he is too loyal to me. Oh wow, I am in Chris’ home and to me I feel at home, and for him to just simply let me come here without a care, he has nothing to hide I guess “what are you doing?” Rich is going into the bedroom “checking” rolling my eyes, Chris’ apartment has been left as it was the last time he was here, and a window hasn’t been open here and the curtains haven’t been open. It’s not that bad as I assumed it would have been anyways.

Rich finished his little tour “the bathroom is clean, but you know we are sharing that?” pulling a face “just timed ok” crossing my arms across my chest as I slowly walked into his bedroom, his bed is not made. I don’t know why I am smiling when I really should cuss him out when I could have walked into a hotel room and just have a ready made bed, what can I say I am crazy. Reaching down on the bed and picking his jacket off the bed, bringing the jacket up to my nose. It smells just like him, looking around his room and my eyes laid onto the newspaper clipping, slowly walking up to the framed newspaper clipping, I was at that game, I was there at that game and I watched him play basketball, there was scouts there too. He has it framed, he is really good at it “the next best thing to come out of VA” I read out, bringing my eyes down and seeing his various awards, he loves sports. I hope he still does but he was doing every sport he could, and he won. He just had to be stupid, he has everything going for him and for him to have his awards out like this, it shows me he cares, and it does affect him on what happened. He is such a goof ball in school, a goof ball I liked a lot actually, but he made me smile every time. I guess I better clean the room up, the bed totally needs doing before I rest my head on that.

I will never forget how to make a bed, I have finally finished it “Rihanna” Rich said from outside the door “yeah, you can come in. I am practically changing his bed sheets” the door opened slowly “I wasn’t being nosey, I promise you but I just saw this notebook and a picture of you fell out of it so I just checked why, he got skills” walking over to Rich, he held out the notebook out to me “I got the page open” taking it from him, I gasped “oh my god” I said in a whisper, he drew. He drew me ever so perfect “oh my god” I said to myself, I feel emotional seeing this. I didn’t expect it from him at all, I am just in shock. Turning the page, he has some random drawings, but they are so detailed, but to think he spent his time drawing me “he really does love me” I said a loud “if he is wasting his time doing that then yes he does” side eyeing Rich “I am literally going to hug this, I am keeping it. Thank you” walking off with it, I am saying thank you like he did it, but he found it and showed me, he actually drew me, only a man in love would do this.

#Chrianna #Chrianna FF #Chrianna Fanfiction #Fanfic #Fanfiction

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divine-motion · 4 years

Photo

don’t fucking interact if you ship t/cest and minor/adult ships

more shitty phone photos of sketchbook sketches for my tmnt fan incarnation/tmnt 2012 rewrite bc i have no shame and i’m having fun with it! pictures should have captions since i spent time writing them out, but tumblr might mess it up, so in case captions doesn’t work: 1. left to right: leo, donatello up, raphael down, michelangelo 2. Casey Jones up top, April O’Neil to the right, donatello in the middle and karai at the bottom 3. casey and don again, raphael to the left, mikey at the bottom just bc i liked how their their expressions turned out and didn’t want a bunch of negative space so don and case appear again 4. size chart featuring turtles. left to right: leo, don, mikey, raph 5. sketchy Slash design. big boy.

general thoughts character stuff below the Keep Reading. A Lot of rambling below so beware!!

April: 15 years old, trans and bi. local fifteen year old telepath finds out that not everyone is able to feel what other people are feeling, something she’s been able to do since she was six after she played in that one weirdly glowy puddle (early Kraang mutagen attempt that only managed to mutate April in the sense that it gave her telepathy, was originally intended to make humans become part of the Kraang hivemind). she’s largely unfazed by the existence of mutants and aliens, taking it in stride, and finds out about the Kraang - and meets the turtles - while snooping around TCRI business (aspiring journalist that she is) and accidentally witnessing the mutation of Snakeweed. her telepathy, which later as she grows in power alongside the turtles extends to telekinesis and basically possession, is very useful whenever she gets into a scrap since she can predict what moves her opponent will make, thus letting her dodge their blows effectively. personality wise she is a very determined and driven young girl, incredibly curious (and cannot mind her own business, she wants to know all the drama while not having to be part of it... which makes her very fortunate to be a telepath. listen she’s 15 she’s allowed to misuse her powers a little bit. as a treat.), playful, and cheerful, and she’s an extroverted autistic. in her spare time between her studies, she likes to play bass, sing, read, and write. that, and investigating whatever shady business is going on in town, and she makes it very clear to the turtles that even if they weren’t going to deal with the Kraang, she’d continue to try to stop them herself. she would like to not live under the threat of her or her loved ones getting mutated, thank you very much! and, you know, it’s kind of exciting. kind of.

i know it’s bc i have brain issues when it comes to parent figures but i am very much leaning towards Splinter not being... a good dad. i don’t think 2012 Splinter is a good dad anyways but i’d probably amp it up, make him a mix of 2012 and idw probably. i’m still mulling it over but like, remember in the season 1 finale when leo is watching his show and thinks the captain guy making a totally unnecessary sacrifice is a heroic move, and then Splinter tells leo (his fifteen year old child) that leo should know what or who to sacrifice, more or less telling him to sacrifice his brothers’ lives, potentially?? i know there was a lot at stake but hello??? i remember watching it and being like me: ah i see, this is showing that splinter is wrong and there is no need for any sacrifices as seen in the show when the captain Goes Down With His Ship for no reason other than just sacrificing himself, and leo will see that- leo: *tries to sacrifice himself twice in the finale, both times being kind of unnecessary/seemed like if he had just hurried or done something slightly different there would be no need to stay behind, and he gets out fine with no consequences, seemingly no injuries, and does Not learn anything, his brothers don’t even get sad when they think he died or get mad at him for pulling such a dumb move) me: surprised_pikachu.jpeg

like that moment haunts me. has any other splinter told their sons to sacrifice himself or his brothers? has any other splinter put that on them??? idw doesn’t count if he has bc he’s more explicitly supposed to be bad so???

sometimes writers think they’ve made an uncle iroh but they really, really, really haven’t. also his backstory is the same as in the show

anyways. Donatello: 15 years old, bog turtle, nonbinary (he/they, doesn’t mind being called brother but doesn’t like to be called “boy” or “girl” or whatever), bi. he isn’t in love with April. no creepy incel shit here. donnie is instead more like a mix between his Rise and 2003 self. he has trouble expressing himself and is pretty introverted, but he is very altruistic, kind, and compassionate. a lot of his inventions are made to help people and he was driven to learn about science and engineering because he wants to find a way to reverse splinter’s mutation, to give splinter his life and humanity back. he feels like he needs to know if splinter would just abandon them if he wasn’t a huge rat man, needs to know if there’s any part of splinter that blames them for being constant reminders of his mutation. other than that, he also likes to make inventions because he’s a dreamer and wants to experiment to see how much of the unknown he can push beyond. also, the best liar out of the turtles. also fairly good at compromising and prefers to solve conflicts without violence he can get a little... “obnoxious 15 year old genius” at times. even when he’s helpful it can come off as a bit “poor dear isn’t as smart as me”, and while he usually gets along well with Raph, he doesn’t handle Raph’s temper well at all (calls him “Wrathael/Wrath” and thinks he’s being super clever) and gets really dismissive of Raph’s “outbursts”.

Michelangelo: 13 years old, diamondback terrapin, unsure about the gender and sexuality thing but he doesn’t think he’s exactly cis and definitely not straight. a bouncy ball of sunshine and surprising emotional maturity and emotional intelligence! more so than his emotionally constipated brothers, at least. it’s on his thirteenth birthday (it was leo’s idea for them to pick dates that would let them have their own birthdays instead of sharing the “Mutation Day”, Mutation Day being another special “holiday”) that the Plot would be set in motion, as he’s finally allowed to go to the surface same as his brothers, and on this first night out they meet April and the Kraang and other mutants. he is a goof still, but he’s capable in his own right and gets frustrated when people treat him like a baby or an idiot because he’s not. he doesn’t always treat everything with the seriousness it should but like. he’s thirteen, he’s having fun. even so, he’s very insistent of taking responsibility whenever he does do something wrong and gets mad if someone tries to take the blame for something he’s done. definitely the most compassionate and empathetic out of the turtles, he’s quick to make friends and is very persuasive due to his earnest nature and good heart. much like donnie, he prefers to solve conflict without violence but does enjoy knocking skulls a lot more than donnie. unlike donnie, though, he is almost overly forgiving and not petty at all. he’s well aware that his kindness and forgiveness may be taken advantage of, but he still likes to approach people with an open hand, even if he knows that it may end up getting bitten. oh, and his hobbies include drawing, cooking, singing, and dancing. he likes to express himself!

Raphael: 14 years old, mississippi map turtle, trans, bi. all his fury is compressed within his tiny body, that’s why he’s so angry all the time! no, he’s not angry all the time, but he does have a short fuse. he absolutely hates his anger issues which leads to a lot of self-loathing, and a lot of frustration as his family members either don’t take his anger seriously or don’t have the tools to help him with it. he’s the physically strongest out of the bunch and the least agile. he loves animals and plants a lot and keeps a lot of flowers in his room, hoping that he can one day become a gardener. as his idw self, he wants to watch things grow, but no matter what he does he seems to be best at destroying things. he’s also the one most self-conscious about how the human world perceives them, as he greatly fears rejection, and is the first one to see something positive with people getting mutated - namely, that maybe this way mutants will be more well known and finally accepted by society, so he’ll no longer be trapped in the sewer until the end of his days. so yeah, he’s a huge optimist, in truth. also he’s great at knitting - great at creating and taking care of things in general - and there’s no leo and raph rivalry this time around. he can get mad at leo but not really more than he gets with his other brothers.

Casey: 15 years old, nonbinary (they/them), bi. teen vigilante who gets inspired to fight mutants and the big time criminals (no beating up pickpockets or shoplifters or whatever, just the ones that are really hurting people) and gets roped into the turtle fam after meeting raph and becoming unexpected friends (everyone was expecting it, once Casey realized that mutants are people and not weird monsters. well, not all the time, anyways). they struggle a bit in school not because of a lack of trying but a lack of time, as their parents work full time jobs and someone has to take care of casey’s little sister. their parents are very loving, but they only have so much time, so casey takes it upon themselves to take care of their little sister when their parents are busy and/or burned out from work. that, and they run into the classic dilemma of vigilante work clashing with school work. as always, they have a short fuse, they’re pretty cocky, they like beating ass, and they like hockey a whole lot. hockey, vigilante work, school, and taking care of their little sister... yeah, they have a lot on their plate. oh, and making their little inventions like the taser glove and their puck bombs, something that they bond with donnie over.

Leonardo: 17 years old, Central American wood turtle, trans, gay. he doesn’t fall in love with his sister oh my god. ahem. so, leo is raised from the start to be a Leader and has to mature very quickly, learning to be an adult way earlier than he should’ve, and as such he is very stoic and quiet, and doesn’t seem to have any hobbies, instead just doing chores and training almost constantly, and when he’s not doing that he’s reading or sleeping in his free time. he’s incredibly protective of his younger brothers and his other allies/friends, even if he acts distant and detached most of the time, and removes himself from situations where they’re having fun to not be the stick in the mud. he loves his brothers and admires them greatly, believing they could be So Much if the surface world would just accept them, and as a result he tries to be The Soldier so his brothers won’t have to. alas, they still get caught up in the Kraang and Shredder business, which frustrates him internally. he is the best fighter out of the turtles on account of having more years to train (and convincing Splinter to wait a few more years before they got Real training bc Come On Dude They’re Kids) but it’s the Only thing he’s good at, along with stealth and his sharp eyes. he absolutely sucks at talking when it isn’t about a mission or something he can script easily in his head. in his mind, he’s supposed to be more of a weapon than a person, an idea that isn’t exactly encouraged by Splinter... but not exactly discouraged either. his arc would be very paralleled with Karai’s, as they would both learn to hate their dads... also, absolutely down for murder, and a lawful neutral at best, putting his family and friends’ safety above all other things and following a strict personal code. doesn’t care too much for society’s laws, though.

Karai: 16 years old, demigirl, lesbian. same backstory as in the show, she’s born as Miwa but gets taken by Oroku Saki and raised as his daughter. however, she doesn’t exactly want revenge against Hamato Yoshi because she believes that he killed her mother. she never knew her mother, so it’s much more difficult to hate someone for taking her mother away, even if it does mean that she never got to know her mother. especially since her father rarely spoke of what her mother was like, and much more about how much he hates Yoshi. instead, her need for revenge is more for the possibly idyllic life she was robbed of, since she believes that maybe, just maybe, her father Saki would’ve been a kind father that would’ve let her have a normal childhood and not be molded into a warrior from the start if her mother still lived. and hey, maybe Tang Shen would be a nice mom too. being trained in the art of deception, Karai has a tendency to talk a lot and say very little, or at least very little that is true. she is rarely ever sincere and acts as if she’s taking nothing seriously, which is part of her defense mechanism to never let anyone close or see her true self. she mocks pretty much everyone, ally and enemy alike, but especially likes to make fun of her father’s henchmen and is always the first to point out their failures. while she does value honor to some extent, she is a bit “flimsy” when it comes to loyalty, especially after the truth about her father is revealed. when that is revealed, she at first just feels very numb, learning that not only has she been nothing but a tool and a weapon for the Shredder from the very start, but also that the idyllic fantasy where her mother still lived, perhaps her life wouldn’t be so different after all. she looks at leonardo and sees a reflection of herself, that her “real” father chose to train his sons the same way the Shredder trained her. she feels stupid for feeling like she’s been robbed of even a fantasy, but it still enrages her. of course, this also inspires her to stay with the Foot Clan... just to get the kill on Shredder.

... yeah. that got long. ahem. i’m very passionate about this unfortunately!! anyways i might draw/write more for it because no one can stop me and i’m having fun

#tmnt #leonardo #donatello #raphael #michelangelo #april o'neil #casey jones #karai #tmnt 2012 #tmnt au

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zach-the-fox · 4 years

Text

Poketeam Go Episode 1: Awaken

“Oh my head…” says a boyish voice, coming from a riolu as he holds his head with his paw while lying against the ground. A blue bandana rests snug around his neck. His eyes flutter open as he turns his head from side-to-side. “H-huh?” Slowly, he begins to sit up, keeping his paw attached to his head. “W-what happened…?” The little blue creature looks around his surroundings with his brown eyes, taking notice of a big lake with a small waterfall and several trees dotted around. “W-where am I?” The riolu stands to his feet and begins walking a couple of paces toward the lake. “What is this place? How did I even get here?” The riolu then walks up to the edge where the water meets the grass. “Maybe some cool water will refresh my mind…” He takes his paws and scoops the water into them, which he freezes. His eyelids pull back wide as he stares down at his graspers. “W-what the?! What is-” He parts his paws away to look into the lake, seeing his reflection before jumping back with a scream. “W-what?! I’m a riolu?! How did that happen?!” His voice spurs another nearby, hearing a sigh coming from the tree beside him. “Huh…? What was that?” The riolu walks over to the source of the sigh and discovers a spoink lying under the tree, curled halfway into a ball. The spoink’s head is covered with a blackened hat while glasses sit on its nose, shielding its eyes. “H-hello?” He approaches the spoink with ease, kneeling down and lightly rocking the creature’s body. “H-hey, are you okay there?” The spoink lets out a groan with a slight nudge, but its eyes remain closed, prompting the riolu to rock the pokemon again. “Are you okay?! Wake up! Please!”

With enough force, the spoink opens their eyes and notices the riolu in view. “H-huh?” Sitting up, the spoink’s eyes remained fixed on the riolu. “A riolu?” The spoink’s voice is high and womanlike, revealing the gender. “What’s going on around here…? Wait, where am I?”

“Hey, I’m just as clueless as you,” says the riolu.

The spoink’s eyelids peel back as far as they can. “Oh my Arceus! Y-you’re talking?! R-riolus are not supposed to talk! A-am I dreaming?” She slaps herself hard in the face, letting out an “ouch” before rubbing the pain-affected area on her cheek. “Nope, definitely not dreaming…”

“You okay?” asks the riolu. “That looked like it stung… Do you want me to help with that?”

The spoink’s eyes widen again. “Y-you’re really talking! That is super freaky, yet interesting!”

“Well, you’re the most interesting spoink I’ve ever met.”

“What?” snaps the pokemon, standing to her feet. “What did you call me?” The riolu holds his paws up to her. “I’m not a spoink! I’m a girl!”

The riolu lowers his paws, puzzled. “Um, I can tell you’re a girl… But you’re also a grumpig.”

The spoink extends her arm and points to him. “Listen here, I told you I’m not a-” She pauses, then turns her paw around to examine it. “Huh…?” She brings up the other to examine it. “What the?!” She then looks down to see her legs, which have been replaced by a spring. “Oh no! Please don’t tell me…!” Noticing the lake beside her, the spoink leans over to look at her reflection, showing her pig-like face with the glasses to shield her brown eyes to contrast with the grey fur. She gasps and screams with shock, squishing her head with her hooves as she looks away. “T-this can’t be happening… I’ve turned into… into a pokemon!”

“Isn’t this the weirdest thing to ever happen to us?” the riolu spurts.

The spoink turns and faces the blue pokemon. “What do you mean? Were you a human, too?” The riolu nods. “Can you recall what happened as to how you turned into a pokemon?”

“I…” The riolu ponders for a bit, trying to think back to the events previous to his transformation. “I honestly can’t remember… I don’t recall ever seeing anything extraordinary. I only remember going to bed, and that was it.”

She turns her head down to the ground. “Well, this is quite a predicament…” The grey pokemon looks back to the riolu. “So, what do we do, now?”

The riolu shrugs. “Beats me… I’m just as delirious as you are, Spoink.”

“Stop calling me Spoink, please… I don’t like it when I’m called that.”

“What should I call you, then?”

“Emmy,” the spoink tells him. “My name is Emmy.”

“All right,” says the riolu. “Nice to meet you, Emmy. I’m Zach. What do you think we should do?”

“Hm… I have an idea… We should find other pokemon and see if they would know a way to change back. I’m pretty sure there’s a town nearby, right?”

“Not a bad idea,” Zach answers. “Shall we?” The two pokemon venture away from the area and into the dense trees ahead of the lake. As they venture off into the forest, they start to talk about their lives previous of their transformation, discussing what they have done based off tiny bits of their memories they can recall. While they walk along, they pass bright red mushrooms with white polka dots all around the top. That’s when the spoink begins to notice the riolu stopping and grudging at his head. She walks up alongside him. “You okay? You have some sort of headache or something?”

Zach remains silent for a few seconds. Images flash in his head, piecing together as some sort of creature in his mind. “I… I…”

“What? What is it?”

“I’m remembering something…” Emmy asks what it is. “My head… I can’t make it out… It must be some sort of pokemon…”

“A pokemon?” asks Emmy. “What did it look like? Can you make it out?”

“I… I can’t remember… It just flashed in my head for a few seconds…”

“Huh, that’s weird… Maybe we should talk about it as soon as we head into town.”

“Well, look what we have here.” Both the pokemon freeze and turn to the source of the additional female voice; a sableye with a maroon bow, accompanied by a gastly wearing the same apparel beside her. “If it isn’t a riolu and a spoink?”

“Yeah!” shouts the gastly, male in tone. “Two little pokemon all by themselves! Perfect for us!”

“I don’t suppose you two would help us find the nearest town, right?” Zach queries.

“Ooh!” The sableye turns to the gastly. “Hear that, Gas? These two are looking for some guidance because they’re lost. How hilarious.” The two dark pokemon laugh at them.

“Hey, listen,” Emmy begins. “We don’t want any trouble. We just want to-”

“Oh sure,” interrupts the sableye. “I get ya. Gas, show them how we greet other pokemon.”

“With pleasure, Gem!” The gastly emits a dark glow in front of him. Zach and Emmy duck out of the way as the dark pulse fires at them, yet misses. The riolu and spoink dart away from the dark pokemon as instinct, distancing themselves from them. However, the sableye and gastly tail them, keeping up in speed as Zach and Emmy dodge trees and continue down the forest. Balls of darkness also strike the two pokemon as they flee from their attackers. The dark pokemon’s attacks only hit beside them, or at trees where they once were until one shadow ball explodes in front of Zach, causing him to fly a few feet in the air, then crash behind a large rock formation, obscuring the sableye and gastly from view.

Emmy stops and looks back, noticing the riolu on the ground. “Zach!” She bounces over to him and aides him as he struggles to sit up. The top of his forehead houses a cut while everywhere else is covered in smudges. “Are you okay?!”

Zach grudges at his stomach. “Ow… That hurt…”

Emmy moves his arm, revealing a slash across his abdomen, leaking with blood. “Oh dear… You don’t look so good…”

“Need help now, do we?!” shouts the sableye, standing on top of the rocks over them with the gastly by her side. “Let us do that for you!” The two dark pokemon charge for their next shot when a bolt of lightning strikes them both and causes them to fall onto the ground, dazed. The riolu and spoink stare with widened eyes and blank mouth expressions.

“Uh, what just happened?” Zach utters. “And where did that lightning bolt come from?”

“Over here!” The two pokemon turn to the right and see a pikachu come up to them. The yellow electric rat pokemon has black, messy hair with the same color for the shirt worn and blue shorts. The flat end of the tail shows the pikachu’s gender to be male. “Are you two all right?”

“W-who are you?” Emmy asks. “You’re not going to hurt us, are you?”

“Course not,” the pikachu tells her in a thick accent. “I came to save you both from those troublemakers. My name’s Nicolas, but my friends call me Nic.” Zach and Emmy introduce themselves. “What are you two doing out here, might I ask?”

“That’s what we want to know,” Emmy tells him. “We were trying to find a town when these bullies attacked us.”

“Trying to get to a town, huh? Sure, let me take you guys to my home town, Leafy Creeks.” Nic walks over to the banged-up riolu. “You look badly injured. Do you need some assistance?”

“Y-yeah,” Zach says. The pikachu gets to his side, puts the riolu’s arm around the back of his neck, and lifts him to his feet. Zach grunts with every step they take while Emmy follows. “Oh jeez… It hurts!”

“Those two did quite some damage to you,” remarks Emmy.

“Don’t worry,” Nic assures. “Once we get to town, there will be some nice, cute audino nurses who will patch you up real good.” The three pokemon venture through the woods at a slow pace. @emmy-the-absolute-goof

#pokemon #riolu #spoink #pikachu

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sanders-specs · 5 years

Text

Camp Swan Chapter 12

Summary: Virgil hates camping. He especially hates summer camp. There’s too many happy counselors. Campers pretend to like him, but then turn around and shove him into the lake when the adults aren’t looking. His roommates hate him, and he comes to find out that his parents just wanted him out of the way so they could go on their own vacation. He doesn’t want to admit that the food isn’t that bad, or that the activities are actually pretty fun. Or that his roommates aren’t actually the worst. And some of the counselors aren’t that bad… But summer camp is still the worst.

A/N: Well. It's been a bit hasn't it? I'm sorry for not updating for a while. My mental health took a bit of a decline and writing became really hard. I'm trying to get back into it, and work on some stuff, so I've been going back to my WIPs. Hopefully as summer goes on I'll be able to update more. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this new chapter!

Warnings: anxiety, panic, mentions of bruises and scratches, crying

Read on Ao3

Chapter 1 | Previous

Tag list: @princeyssash @alwaysmy-lilith @protecterofalltheaus @irish-newzealand-idian-dutch @dan-yuna @kittenvirgil @prettygirl0223 @helloisthisusernametaken @tripleaaaqueer @lilbeanblr @ilovemygaydad @kai-dot-jpg @chemically-imbalanced-romance @pattongirl @littleoptimistme @ccecode @demonickittykat @samidaboss3 @fallsehood

After sitting through the nurse checking him over and bandaging his scratch, Virgil had to endure a walk all the way back to his cabin with an unusually silent Thomas. Virgil kept his head ducked and his arms crossed, too aware of the fact that 1) people were staring at him and 2) Thomas was clearly mad at him. Or, well, he was mad at someone, but considering that Virgil had caused him nothing but trouble since day one he was willing to bet that it was him.

They reach Cabin 13 and Thomas opened the door, holding it open for Virgil. As soon as he walked in he could feel the tense atmosphere. Roman, Logan, and Patton were sitting in the living area, all of them having changed out of their swim suits and soaked t-shirts. Logan and Patton were sitting on opposite ends of the couch, and Roman in one of the armchairs, his arms crossed and a scowl on his face.

The thing that caught Virgil’s attention, though, was Joan pacing in front of them, their face far from happy. They looked up when Thomas and Virgil walked in.

“Virgil are you okay?” Joan asks immediately. Virgil notices that his roommates’ heads all snap up at the same time, turning towards him.

“Um,” Virgil shrunk away from the attention. “Yeah.”

Joan let out a sigh and the motioned to Virgil’s room. “Go get changed.”

Virgil quickly did as he’s told. He didn’t like the look on Joan’s or Thomas’s face. This was clearly more serious than the rock climbing incident. At least then there had been mats to soften his fall. This time…Virgil didn’t even want to think how far Frank and his friends would’ve taken it if whoever had saved him hadn’t been there.

After changing into dry clothes and draping his headphones around his neck—more for comfort than anything else—Virgil joined everyone in the living area. He sat in the armchair across from Roman, trying to gouge if the other boy was seriously hurt or not. He could see some scratches on Roman’s arms, maybe a bruise forming here and there, but otherwise he looked fine.

“Alright,” Joan said, looking down at the four of them. “I want to know what happened and I want to know now.” There was no room in their voice for argument.

For a moment, none of them said anything. Virgil was sure it was because none of them quite knew where to start.

Roman cleared his throat, bringing the attention to him. “Virgil and I were racing in the lake,” he said, his voice as soft and small as Virgil had ever heard it. “So, we were further out than everyone else. We were goofing around, splashing each other, when I felt something pinch me. I thought it was Virgil messing with me at first,” he shot Virgil an apologetic look then, something that made Virgil look down at his hands. “but then Virgil started freaking out because he felt it too. It was someone messing with us, but the water was so murky I couldn’t quite see who it was. I was so busy trying to figure it out that Virgil got pulled under.”

“And you two didn’t see anything?” Thomas asked Logan and Patton.

“We were sitting on the dock,” Patton said. “We noticed when Roman started flailing around and when Virgil disappeared, but we were too far away to notice anything else.”

“That was when we retrieved you, Thomas,” Logan said.

“Virgil,” Joan said, looking over at him. “What’s you’re part?”

Virgil hesitated. If this is what happened when he ratted out Frank once, what would he do if Virgil ratted him out twice?

“Virgil?” Thomas asked, his voice gentle. “I know this must have been scary for you, but we need to know what happened.”

“Don’t worry,” Joan said, making their voice gentle as well. “You’re not in any trouble.”

Virgil gulped and squeezed his eyes shut. He felt real, honest fear bubble up in his chest. What would Frank do to him next if he talked right now?

“Verge?” Patton’s voice cut through the fear slightly, and Virgil looked up at him. He gave Virgil a small, supportive smile. “It’s okay.”

Pulling his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms around them, Virgil pressed his head against his knees. He knew that none of them were going to be mad at him, but Roman had already been hurt because of him. What if Frank went after Logan next? Or Patton?

Virgil shook his head, forgetting everyone else in the room. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t risk it. He’d never forgive himself if he did.

“Virgil, are you going to come eat?” Patton asked, looking at the other boy. He was curled up on his side on his bed, his back turned to the rest of them.

Patton was met with silence, making his shoulders slump as he looked at Roman and Logan helplessly. Virgil hadn’t spoken to them since earlier that afternoon. No matter how many times any of them had asked what happened, Virgil had remained silent. He even went as far as to cover his mouth with his hand, as if that would keep all the words in. In the end, Joan had let Virgil go, and the younger boy had immediately gone into their room without a single word to them.

“You have had a rather exhausting day. Perhaps a meal would make you feel better,” Logan said, peering over at Virgil hopefully. Again, nothing.

Roman was sitting on Logan’s bunk, staring at the ground. He hadn’t said much either since their talk with Thomas and Joan, but at least he wasn’t ignoring them.

Patton figured that he needed to do something—he refused to allow Virgil to go back to retreating into himself—so he walked over to Virgil’s bunk and sat down on the edge of the bed. He put a gentle hand on Virgil’s shoulder. “Come on Verge,” Patton said gently, “hiding out in here won’t make things any better. It’ll only show them that they won.”

Virgil turned over slightly at that to look at him. Patton smiled and squeezed his shoulder. “What? Do you think we can’t put two and two together?”

“It would only make sense for Frank to be the one who did this to you,” Logan said. “He is, after all, the only person motivated enough to try a stunt like this towards you.”

Virgil sighed and rolled back over.

“And I know that our friends will want to know that you’re okay,” Patton said. “You don’t even have to talk if you don’t want to. We’ll be with you the entire time too!”

Virgil just curled into a tighter ball. A second later, his shoulders started to shake, and Patton could hear sniffling.

His heart broke, then, because this kid had been through so much just since coming to this camp, and it wasn’t his fault. Maybe he’d been a little unpleasant in the beginning, but Patton was starting to understand that maybe it had nothing to do with them and everything to do with Virgil just trying to protect himself.

Patton scooted closer to him, wrapping an arm around the front of his shoulders and resting his head on Virgil’s arm. Virgil clung to his arm as he cried and Patton squeezed his eyes shut, trying to fight off his own tears.

“You’re okay,” Patton whispered, lifting his head slightly. “You’re not alone anymore.”

Virgil just sobbed and Patton comforted him as best he could. After a few minutes, Virgil pushed himself into a sitting position, Patton leaning back with him.

“I-I-I’m sorry,” Virgil muttered, his head bowed slightly, like he still didn’t want to look at any of them.

Patton tilted Virgil’s head up and smiled when the other boy looked him in the eyes. “You have nothing to be sorry for, kiddo,” he said, brushing away some runaway tears. Virgil looked slightly shocked, as if that were the first time anyone had ever done or said that to him. Patton pushed back a sudden very strong urge to protect and take care of Virgil in that moment. If there was anything he’d learned about Virgil at this point, it was that overdoing it was never the way to go.

He couldn’t, however, resist the urge to hug him.

Very slowly and hesitantly, Virgil returned the hug, relaxing in Patton’s arms. When they pulled away Virgil was still sniffling a little, but he wasn’t crying anymore. “I’m sorry,” he said again, looking from Patton to Logan and Roman. “I saw him but…” he shook his head.

“But what?” Patton asked gently.

Virgil looked down. “What will he do to me if I tell them that it was him? That’s what got me into this mess in the first place. And he dragged Roman into this too. I don’t want anything to happen to anyone else.”

Patton squeezed his shoulder. “Nothing will happen if you tell Joan what you saw. They’re the head of the camp, if you don’t feel safe, they’re the person to tell.”

Virgil picked up his pillow and hugged it to himself. “You saw what they did to me the last time I told.”

Patton winced at the memory of the bruises all over Virgil’s chest. “Well…”

“As much as I hate to say it, Virgil is correct in the sense that there is no guarantee Frank and his…gang will not try something else,” Logan said thoughtfully. “After all, the only thing Joan will have to go off of is Virgil’s word. No one else saw anything.”

Patton frowned. “Then…what do we do?”

“We go on about our camp activities,” Logan said. “We stick together as much as possible, and if or when Frank tries to do anything else, we make sure to either stop him or make sure to have evidence.” He readjusted his glasses and crossed his arms. “Not that I want anything else to happen, but it will be out best chance to ensure he stops once we have something to prove he’s been trying to harm Virgil.”

Virgil sighed and fell back on the bed. “I hate this.”

“It’s not fun for any of us kiddo,” Patton said. He grabbed Virgil’s wrist and pulled him up. “Come on, let’s get you cleaned up.”

Thankfully, Virgil allowed Patton to pull him to the bathroom.

“Roman, are you alright?” Logan asked once Patton and Virgil were gone. The usual loud and dramatic boy was silent and had been for a while.

“I…don’t know,” Roman said with a sigh, finally looking up at him. “I’m still freaked out I guess.”

Logan nodded. “That is understandable.”

“Do you really think…I mean…do you think Frank would try to seriously hurt Virgil? Or any of us?”

There was real worry in Roman’s voice, along with something like fear. Because of it, Logan took a long moment to think over his words, what he knew.

“I think,” he said slowly, “that Frank doesn’t think very well before he acts out his plans. I do not think he would ever mean to seriously harm someone, not beyond a bloody nose or perhaps a broken bone. However, I cannot rule out the possibility that one of his plans would go wrong, which is why we have to be on our guard around him and the rest of his friends.”

Roman nodded, looking non too please about Logan’s conclusion. “Just after today…”

“I believe that today was only to scare Virgil, and you. Had any of us been with you, I’m sure we would have gotten the same treatment.” Logan offered a comforting hand on Roman’s shoulder. “As Patton said, hiding out will only show that they have won. And you do not seem like the type to give up so easily.”

Roman peered up at him with a small smile. “I never thought I’d hear you agree with Patton.”

“it is a day of many surprises.”

Roman laughed and stood, clasping Logan’s bicep. “Thanks, Lo.”

Logan blinked at the nickname, but he smiled, nonetheless. “I’m glad I could be of help.”

“You guys ready to eat?” Patton asked, he and Virgil coming back into the room. Virgil was looking significantly less teary and more like his usual brooding self.

“Am I ever, I need some food after the afternoon we had,” Roman said, walking past Patton. “Come on Virgil, you have got to try the jell-o ice cream, it’s to die for.”

“Alright boys, rise and shine!” Thomas’s way too cheery voice called, just before he flipped on the lights and seared Virgil’s retinas.

The four of them groaned, covering their faces with their blankets.

“Aw come on none of that. We’ve got a long day ahead of us! It’s hiking day!”

“Thomas, I don’t know how to convey to you that what you just said does not sound like any fun,” Virgil muttered, squinting through the too bright light.

Thomas smirked. “Well, there might be a few surprises. Like, oh, I don’t know, ziplining.”

That got the attention of Virgil’s roommates. “Ziplining?” Roman sat up so quickly his head hit the ceiling with a loud thump. “Owwww.”

“No thanks,” Virgil muttered, too tired to even laugh at Roman.

“Oh, come on kiddo,” Patton said, climbing down from his bunk. “Ziplining is one of the most fun things we do at camp!”

“The last time I was strapped to a harness I ended up falling,” Virgil reminded him.

“Oh. Right.”

“Don’t worry Virgil,” Thomas said. “There won’t be anyone messing with the equipment this time. Especially since only two cabins get to go, and those cabins are ours and Alyssa’s and Cassie’s.”

Virgil peeked up at him. “Seriously?”

Thomas gave him a knowing look. “I wasn’t going to risk my campers on something like this,” He said seriously. “Had to fight with Bran about it, but we got it worked out. But first, Virgil, you need to clean and change the bandages on that scratch. I got some ointment from the infirmary for you.” He tossed it onto Virgil’s bed. “Today’s about having fun and getting away from the rest of camp for a little while. Have a bit of a normal day after yesterday.”

Sighing, Virgil resigned himself to a morning of a lot of walking. The fact that Frank or his friends wouldn’t be there was comforting.

“Virgilll come on!” Patton called, tugging on Virgil’s arm.

“Okay, okay, I’m getting up.”

“Virgil! How are you feeling?” Rose asked when the boys met up with the girls at the beginning of the walking trail.

“Fine,” Virgil said honestly. A shower had woken him up well enough, and he had to admit that he was relieved to not have to look over his shoulder at every turn.

“What, you’re not worried about your big brother?” Roman asked, pretending to be hurt.

“Eh,” Rose said with a shrug, making Roman roll his eyes and shove her lightly.

The girls and Travis had all gone back to their cabins by the time Virgil and his roommates got to the cafeteria the night before. They’d learned from one of Alyssa’s roommates that they had been called back to their cabin to talk to Joan about what had happened at the lake that day.

Cassie bumped into his shoulder with hers as the rest of the group started down the trail, at the behest of their counselors and the leader of the activity. “You sure you’re okay?”

“I mean…no,” Virgil said with a sigh. “But I kinda have to be, don’t I?”

“Not necessarily,” Cassie said. “But at least you get most of the day with just friends, right?”

Virgil nodded. “Right.”

“Cas! I need the camera!” Alyssa called.

“Coming!” Cassie grabbed Virgil’s wrist and pulled him towards the trial.

Though Virgil did not like the whole hiking-up-a-small-mountain part of their day, he had to admit that Camp Swan was actually really pretty. They could hear streams almost at all times and even saw a few as the climbed uphill. Their guide—along with Logan who looked more excited that Virgil had ever seen him—told them all about the plants and animals in the region that camp was in. They saw their fair share of birds, rabbits, squirrels, and even a fox.

He kept to the back of the group, feeling more comfortable to be able to keep an eye on everyone and so he wasn’t getting in anyone’s way. Cassie and Alyssa were taking pictures of it all, Logan was taking in everything the guide said, Roman was trying to freak his sister out by pretending a spider had fallen on her, and Patton seemed to just be enjoying the scenery, the same as Virgil was.

“Hey Verge, thirsty?” Thomas asked, handing Virgil a bottle of water.

“Oh, thanks,” Virgil said, startled for a moment. He’d forgotten that their counselor had been in the back of the group as well, making sure that none of them got lost from the group. He took the bottle and took a long gulp from it, not realizing how thirsty he’d been until that moment.

“So,” Thomas said after a few moments. “How are you really doing after yesterday?”

“Well, my chest hurts,” Virgil said with a shrug. “Really, though, I’m okay.”

Thomas nodded, though he didn’t look like he believed him. “Just…remember you can talk to me about this stuff okay? I’m your counselor, it’s my job to look after you.”

“Right,” Virgil said, looking away.

Suddenly, Patton was there, taking Virgil’s hand and pulling him away from Thomas. What was up with everyone pulling him around places lately?

“There’s a nest of baby birds in this tree over here you’ve got to come see it!” Patton exclaimed, squeezing Virgil’s hand.

It was then that he realized Patton was probably saving him from having to answer any more of Thomas’s questions.

When they finally got to the ziplining, they were so high up that Virgil was afraid to look down. He stayed by Patton, finding himself trusting the other boy more than anyone else at that moment, especially as they climbed up the ladder to the platform where they were getting their gear.

“It’s okay,” Patton muttered to him. “They do a check on it every morning to make sure everything is secure.”

Virgil nodded, but that did little to comfort him as he looked out over the bridge that would lead them to where they would be strapped to a harness and pushed down a wire with little protection aside from a helmet.

“Alright everyone, follow me. Don’t crowd the bridge at once,” the leader said, taking them onto the bridge. It was big enough that two people could walk side by side, but no more than that. Virgil ended up next to Roman, of all people.

“This is going to be great, Virgil!” Roman said, his eyes alight with excitement. “Wait until you get on there, oh it’s so freeing!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Virgil muttered. Truth be told, he wasn’t listening to the other boy all that much. He was too busy trying not to look down and imagining what would happen if the rope tying them to the tree snapped…

Suddenly, a strong arm was around his shoulders. He hadn’t realized that he’d started shaking and had stopped cold where he was until the scent of Roman’s faded cologne invaded his senses. “Just keep walking, come on,” he said gently.

Virgil didn’t have much of a choice, since Roman was pretty much pushing him. Still, though, he got Virgil to the other side of the bridge, where Patton smiled at him and immediately looped his arm through Virgil’s.

“That’s the hardest part,” Patton promised.

“If you say so.”

Roman gave him an encouraging smile and turned to the instructor, who was going over safety. Virgil did his best to listen, to remember everything that was being said.

Before he knew it, they were lining up to go down. Virgil leaned around to watch how the counselors strapped everyone in, then watched as that camper went down down down and out of sight, presumably to a waiting counselor at the bottom.

As it got closer to his turn, Virgil felt his breath catch.

“Hey,” Patton said gently. “It’s okay. It’s pretty scary the first time, but once you get on there it’s pretty fun.”

Logan leaned in then. “You can always opt out. It’s not too late, someone will walk you back if you like.”

Virgil thought about it for a few moments. He could leave. He could say he didn’t want to do this. There were a few campers who stayed behind, who were too fearful of the height or the zipline. But…Virgil felt like he had to. What would Roman say if he chickened out? Or if this got back to Frank?

“I can do it,” Virgil said, though he didn’t sound convincing even to himself.

Patton squeezed his hand. “I can go first, so that way I’m at the bottom when you get there. And Lo will be right behind you.”

Virgil nodded.

I can do this. I can do this. I can do this.

Roman went first. He let out a whoop of excitement as he went down, clearly having the time of his life.

Patton was next. He squeezed Virgil’s hand one last time before he let the counselor strap him in. He gave Virgil an encouraging smile before he was gone too.

“You can close your eyes if you get scared,” Logan muttered to him as they waited for the all clear that Patton had gotten down safely. “I had to my first time doing this.”

“You did?” Virgil asked, looking back at Logan startled. He didn’t seem like the kind of person who would get scared about one of these things. Sure, he wasn’t as daring as Roman, but still.

Logan nodded. “It was not fun at first. However, halfway down I opened my eyes and looked around and found myself enjoying it.”

“Okay…” Virgil gulped as the counselor motioned him forward. “Okay. Thanks Logan.”

Before he felt he was ready, Virgil was strapped to the harness. He made the counselor triple check that he was fine, then looked to Logan for a second opinion. Thankfully, neither seemed to mind.

“First time?” the counselor asked. When Virgil nodded, they smiled. “Let me check one more time then.” Once they had, they patted Virgil on the back. “All you have to do is walk off. Gravity will take care of the rest. Ready.”

“Not real—" Virgil didn’t have time to finish his sentence before the counselor pushed him off the ledge and he was flying.

Surprised, Virgil let out a yelp and shut his eyes, holding on tightly to his harness. He felt the wind on his face and heard it whoosh past him as he went down. The air was knocked out of him and for a moment he forgot how to breathe.

Then his body settled into the sensation, and after another moment or two, he opened his eyes.

Green rushed past him as he flew past trees. He couldn’t see anything but forest all around him. He couldn’t see the bottom yet. It was like he was the only person in existence. And it was…nice. Then a clearing came up and he could see camp far below him. He could see kids at the lake and running around cabins.

Then that was hidden behind trees again. Virgil let out a small giggle as his stomach filled with excitement—or maybe it was fear? Or both?—and he let himself relax. Just for a moment. He forgot about the harness digging into his bruises, he forgot about his fear, he forgot about Frank. For a moment, he just forgot about everything except for the forest around him and the wind rushing past him.

Until he saw the ground quickly approaching, and Thomas and Patton waving at him. He reached up to pull the break to slow his decent. He was breathing hard, adrenaline pumping through him as he stopped and gently touched his feet to the ground. Thomas got to work taking the harness off of him, and once he was free, he stumbled into Patton.

“Well kiddo, how was it?” Patton asked with a laugh, clearly already knowing the answer from Virgil’s own smile.

“Better than I thought it would be,” Virgil said honestly, still laughing. He looked around for a moment, trying to get his bearings. He saw Roman, who was giving him a knowing smile, as if he’d known all along that Virgil would love this. He only gave the other boy an eye roll.

Alyssa and Cassie were there too, bouncing excitedly. They caught Virgil’s eye and grinned at him.

Then Logan was there, finished with his turn.

Virgil went over to Thomas as he as unstrapping Logan. “Can we go again?”

#sanders sides #virgil sanders #roman sanders #patton sanders #logan sanders #thomas sanders #fanfiction #my fic #camp swan #tw anxiety #tw bruises #tw crying

43 notes · View notes

obsessed-love · 5 years

Text

Avengers: Endgame

My thoughts during the movie

Plus some extra notes

oh hi Clint

Your daughter is adorable!

the next Hawkeye!

wait

oh noooooooo

nooooooo

That's so saaaad

Please don't go Ronin. Just go find the Avengers. Please! I love you

Oh shit Tony you look like a skeleton

Honey please eat

Wait its been 22 days? oof

Nebula and Tony interacting is adorable

oh no Tony don't you dare die

oh shit CAPTAIN MAAARRRVEEELLLL

YAAAASSSSSS

oh shit Tony is even madder than he was at the end of Civil War holy shit

he’s so skinny holy shit

oh shit Tony don't do that

Steve you don goofed

SHit TONY-

oh wow okay

Thor finally aimed for the head I guess

Wait 5 years?! HOly shit

oh look Steve is finally going to group theraphy

Natasha’s hair is gorgeous

I love her necklace

oh shit he’s gone Ronin

nooooooo

oh Carol your new haircut is amazing!

It looks so gooooodddd!!!!

oh shit that rat is the one that ultimately saved the world

the rat brought Scott back

good job

oh they’re gonna mess with time travel?

like back to the future?

HOLY SHIT TONY HAS A DAUGHTER

SHE’S SO CUTE HOLY SHIT

she’s so small!

tony is an amazing parent

look at her!

she’s adorable

“I love you 3000″

that's so cute!

Scott is me if I ever meet any of these actors

wait...

is that Bruce?

NOOOOOOOOO

he looks so bad!

MY BABIIIEESSS

NOOOOOO

WHYYYYYY

TURN IT BACK TURN IT BACK

he sounds so dumb!

whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

ok so this sucks

The band is almost complete

just Thor and Hawkeye

Thor first I guess

OH YASSSSS VALKYRIE YOU GO GIRL

oh wait what? why is there so many cans of beer-

OH MY GOD

OH NOOOOOO

WHY DOES HE LOOK LIKE THAT?!

MY BABYYYYY

HES SO DEPRESSED HOLY SHIT NOOOOO

HIS ABS

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

oh shit is that Japanese?

oh this looks like a scene from an anime

yes Clint it does work

probably

oh shit

ok ok

it works

so sad he could not see his daughter though

OK LETS GO

This suspiciously sounds like the plot from back to the future

ok so group 1 goes to New York in 2012 to get the Space Stone, Time Stone, and the Mind Stone

Group 2 goes to 2014 to get the Soul Stone and the Power Stone

and Group 3 goes to 2013 to get the Aether Reality Stone

ok that's good

good plan

man that old outfit looks horrible on cap

shit hulk is so aggressive and its...

really fucking funny

professor hulk is bad at being hulk

YES THAT IS A FINE PIECE OF AMERICA’S ASS

hail hydra?

shit dude that's deep

y’all are busted

wait so Natasha and Clint are going to get the Soul Stone?

oh noooooo

one of them is gonna die-

oh look cut to Thor now

Thor its ok bab calm down

Rocket you’re on your own buddy

awww Frigga

yes Frigga and Thor interacting! Im all for this

YES HIS HAMMER IS BACK! FUCKING FINALLY HOLY SHIT

oh cut to Professor Hulk

be careful with that woman bruce

shes weird

oh nevermind

so let me get this straight, this whole time travel thing is like in Dragon ball?

yes?

yep.

ok so that's bad

they didn’t get the Space Stone

Loki just grabbed it and went bye bitch on all of them

oof

Steve... fighting… Steve?

oh shit that's awesome

hah Steve is annoyed at Steve

OH SHIT YES

gg no re

that ass thou

that’s a fine piece of American ass

OMG THERE HE GOES

MY LITTLE IDIOT

COME AND GET YOUR LOVEEEEEEEE

OH YEAH

oop and there he goes to the floor

wait is nebula dead?

oh no

wait what?

ok so lemme get this straight, nobody thought of upgrading Nebula, so now tHANOS CAN USE PAST NEBULA TO SEE OUR NEBULA’S MEMORIES?

NOW HE KNOWS

THIS IS DUMB

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Cut to Tony and Steve in the 1970′s

man they both look gorgeous

oh shit. is that Howard?

get away

fuck this guy

oh wait

he’s being nice to Tony

FUCK I LOVE THIS

oh my god PEGGY!

is that JArvis?

THATS JARVIS

HOLY SHIT

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Cut to Clint and Natasha

oh nooooooo

one of them is gonna have to die

OH SHIT NO CLINT

NAT STOP

N0000000000000000

IN THE SAME POSSITION AS GAMORA TOO

THATS GAY

*starts crying a bit*

MY BABYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

she’s dead

I cant

I CANT

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

well... at least they got the stones?

lets go bbs

yes

Yes

YES!

wait shouldn't Tony do it?

oh wait no he would die

you go Bruce!

COME ON DO IT BEFORE YOU DIE

OH SHIT NO THANOS

THEY’RE ALL BACK!!!! ANSWER THE PHONE CLINT!

WAIT NO

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

RUN RHODEY!

oh wait...

RUN CLINT

WHERE THE HELL IS CAPTAIN MARVEL?!?!

you go Gamora do the right thing!

yes Nebula kill yourself!

wait no don't actually kill yourself just the other you

wait no-

ugh

you know what

just-

good job.

STOP TALKING AND GO GET THANOS

THOR YOU LOOK AMAZING BB

WAIT WHERE DID STORMBREAKER COME FROM?!

oop there goes Tony

WAIT SHIT DONT KILL THOR

HOLY FUCKING SHIT

YOU GO STEVE

YOU’RE WORTHY!!!!!!!

THIS SCENE IS FUCKING EPIC

OH WAIT NO HIS SHIELD

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO

SHIT

STOOP

THATS SO UNFAIR

wait-

what was that?

*crying starts again*

YAAAAAAAAAASSSSSS THY’RE ALL BACK HOLY SHIT

SHURIIIIIIIIIIIIII

PETEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER

HOLY SHIT

GO BEAT HIS ASS

“AVENGERS!”

“ASSEMBLE.”

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS

THATS FUCKING AMAZING

WIFE AND HUSBAND FIGHTING TOGETHER IS AMAZING

OH MY IRON DAD AND SPIDER SON MOMENT

HOLY SHIT

THIS IS AMAZING

LOOK AT VALKYRIE ON HER PEGAGUS!

RUN BLACK PANTHER

HOLY SHIT QUEEN

WANDA GO KILL HIS ASS

YAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSS

MY TWO BABIES ARE FINALLY GETTING BACK TOGETHER

GO GET HER QUILL

oh wait...

nevermind

OH THERE SHE ISSSSSSSSSSSS

YOU GO CAROL GO GET HIM

BEAT HIS AAAAASSSSSSS

QUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN

OH SHIT THATS FUCKING AMAZING YOU GO GIRLS

I AM SO FOR THIS TEAM UP

GO GIRRRRLLLLSSSSSSS

PETER AND CAROL INTERACTING IS ALL I’VE EVER WANTED

I’VE BEEN WAITING SO LONG FOR THIS SHIT

SHIT

GET IT TONY

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

oh wait

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSS

“I am Irom Man”

WE WON

HOW DOES IT FEEL YOU NUT SACK OF A FACE?

HAHAAAAAAAAAAAAA

OH WAIT

WAIT NO

Tony?

wait...

stop

StApH

*starts ugly crying*

MY FAV BABY NOOOOOOOOOOO

HE’S DEAD

“Mr. Stark we won”

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

mY hEaRt

“its okay you can rest now”

“we’ll be okay”

WELL NOT LIKE I NEEDED MY HEART Y’KNOW

*continues on ugly crying*

they put his old arc reactor on a bunch of roses and just let it float on the river?

what a send off

im crying cause it hurts

this is so sad

this reminds me of the scene where Tony throws the arc reactor to the sea

fUcK

shit not like I needed my heart

everyone is here?

oh yeah

WAIT IS THAT HARLEY????

*cries even harder*

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

well at least…

everyone got a happy ending...

man tony stop talking you’re making me cry harder

“I love you 3000″

THOSE WHERE HIS LAST WORDS TO HER WHEN HE LEFT TO GO SAVE THE UNIVERSE AND NOW IN THIS RECORDING

MY HEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRTTTTTT

wait Steve is the one that is going to return the Stones?

cool

just please come back

son of a bitch

wait who’s that?!

IS THAT PRE-SERUM STEVE?

nevermind

shit he looks so old

HE GOT MARRIED TO PEGGY HOLY SHIT

THEY GOT TO HAVE THAT DANCE

AWWWWWWWWWWW

*continues on crying*

wait...

what is that?

HOLY SHIT

YES

YESSSSSSSS

Sam is now Captain America and I could literally not be happier

cut to Thor

wait Thor is not going to e King anymore

VALKYRIE IS???

yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaS

YOU GO QUEEEEEEEEEEEEN

wait he’s going to go live with the guardians?

cool

no matter how many jokes you throw at me I’m still not gonna stop crying

shit is that Ned?

HOLY SHIT

MY LITTLE BABIES RE-UNITED

I LOVE THEM SO MUCH

THIS IS SO CUTE

cut to Morgan and Happy

she’s so cute

AWWWWW

just like her dad!

she wants a burger.

oh and here come the end credits

and I’m still crying….

Notes!

I loved the ending. It was Satisfying and wrapped up phase 3 really nicely. I literally don't see how someone is going to be mad about it. I LOVED IT. It was amazing. Everyone got a happy ending.

But my Fav Baby died

and my other baby also died

and one of my babies got old

one of my main babies one was depressed but only used for a pathetic excuse of comic relief

the other main baby got ugly and green....

I’m so sad

I am kind of intrigued about what will happen next in the MCU

I know Far from home is the ending of Phase 3 and I really want to see what will happen in Phase 4 now that Disney has ownership of Fox

Honestly all I want to see is Morgan Stark either becoming the next Iron Man/Woman or her own superhero called 3000

that’d be adorable

I’m so sad

I still cant believe Tony died

I cant believe they did Thor like that

I cant believe its 2023 in their universe like what?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

goodbye phase 3! lets hope phase 4 (and the rest to come) is as good (or even better) than this one!

Lets see where the story goes.

32 notes · View notes

glitchtrapfan · 5 years

Text

Please Don’t Go

It was winter time in the town of Inkwell the time of year that almost everyone loves to celebrate with snowballs fights,singing Christmas carols and spending time with family.

The only people who did not like winter was flowers not because they hated it but because the cold during wintertime could killed them if not careful.

The one who suffered the most from this was Cagney carnation because his friend Hilda berg likes to set up party’s during the winter but it’s held outside mainly because all the residents come to this party so they can’t fit all the people into the buildings so the outside was much more suitable for the party.

Cagney was in his home with his boyfriend Nathan just chilling out drinking some hot cocoa and makeing sure their flowers were okay.

“So Cagney my mom has invited me to come to her place to have some family time.”

“That sounds nice I’m sure we can have a nice time there and also I can get to know your mom better.” Cagney says as he was kind of excited to go to a place where it was much more comfortable and is much more hotter then this tree he lives in.

“I said I was invited to the party not you.”

“What but I’m your boyfriend your mom should let me come especially since you told her about where I lived.”

“I’m sorry but it’s important family business and your not part of the family.”

“But I’m still your boyfriend she should let me be with you during winter.”

“Well I better get going it’s going to get worst out their and don’t want to miss my ride.” Nathen said get his suitcase ready and was about to leave when his arm was grab by Cagney.

“So your just leaving me and the other little flowers to die here is that why your leaving so you won’t get blame for us dying out here you stupid jackass!”

Cagney was very upset that Nathan was just going to leave like nothing was wrong about him leaving when Cagney could possibly die from the harsh snowstorm that was coming.

Nathan gave Cagney a cold stare before grabbing Cagneys hand and pushing it off his arm.

“Cagney I love you but it’s my mom and would not want to let my mother down you understand right.” Nathan said still giving Cagney that cold stare.

“I understand.” Cagney said not wanting to angry Nathan anymore.

“Good now behave while I’m gone okay.” Nathan says as he leaves.

Cagney gets on his knees and starts getting angry his blood boils and teeth grinding against each other.

The other little flowers go to Cagney and hug him to help him calm down which it dose.

“I’m going to get someone to help us I can’t do this alone especially in this kind of condition.” Cagney says as he leaves to go and get help from Hilda as she might know how to help him and the other little flowers.

The phantom express was free to do whatever they wanted to do since it was almost Christmas and there are giving a break from there jobs so they decided to help people makeing them want to go on the train for nice hot air temperature and hot coco while also during tricks to entertain the passengers.

Blind Specter was having a great time hanging out with the passengers and makeing jokes to make the passengers laugh while also annoying T bone.

Specter was in his side of train drawing some art which he has not perfected yet when the blaze brothers came in the room.

“Hey Specter what you drawing.” The first brother said

Probably drawing some flowers for his boyfriend.” The second brother says as they both make kissing noises.

“He’s not my boyfriend at least not yet.”

“Then confuse the fact you wait to tell him is painful.”

“He’s got a boyfriend and I don’t think he wants to breakup with him.”

“Then at least tell him how you feel so he can understand how you feel about Nathan.”

“Nathan is much better then me and makes more since for Cagney to be dating.”

“Then let’s invite them here so you can talk to them right now.”

“They both want time together and I would just ruined it”

“Well I think Nathan is a much worst fit for your boyfriend.” The first brother peeking out the door window that leads to the passengers area.

“Why you say that brother is it because he smells like a dead rat.”

“No it’s because he’s in the train right now without his boyfriend.”

“What?” Specter looks out the door window to see Nathan talking to T bone without Cagney.

Specter opened the door and walks over to him to get some answers.

“Where’s Cagney?” Specter ask concern about where Cagney is.

“He’s back at home because he was not allowed to come to my house because of my mom.”

“And you did not stay with him.” Specter was kind of angry that Nathan would leave his boyfriend alone by himself during the winter.

“I did not want my mother to be mad you understand right.”

“I’m going to bring him here then if your not going to let him have some fun.”

“And what makes you think your going to do that.” Nathan said given Specter a death stare.

“Because I’m not someone who leaves people out of fun stuff especially a good friend of mine.” Specter says as he leaves to go find Cagney.

Specter look around for Cagney for about a couple minutes before he saw something orange in the show is was Cagneys petal.

Specter immediately grew concerned about his best friend as he thought something might have happened to Cagney so he began looking around more frequent and telling himself that he’s fine.

Cagney was laying on a tree back on it as he look up with his eyes closed he knew he was going to die.

One of petals fell off,his skin was getting peeled off and and his breathing was getting worst by the minute.

Cagney thought it might be better this way I mean who would care for him Hilda would but she could easily get over it she was brave after all and had a girlfriend who cared for her.

Cagney had Nathan who alone cared about himself and no one else and was to busy to care about Cagney and his flowers.

He has only been friends with Specter for a month so he would not care as much.

Everyone else would just see his death as sad before going on with their lives.

Cagney felt tired and before becoming unconscious he heard someone yell Cagney.

Cagney was woken up by the sound of the engine of a train being echo troughout the train.

Cagney felt like his head hurt before realizing what happened before and felt like crying because he almost took his own life.

T bone was right next to him waiting for him to get up to ask some questions.

“So what happened to you.”

“I was trying to ask Hilda to help me with the younger flowers when I Tripped on a log and hit my head in the snow makeing me much colder then before.”

“Well at least that explains why you you almost died good thing Specter was their other wise you would be died.”

Cagney saw that specter was their sleeping on his desk drooling from his mouth.

“I said before I pass out that no one would care about me and that my death would be better for the world.”

“Did you always have depression.”

“I did when I was getting use to my powers because I thought I was a monster.”

“Well do you really think that way.”

“No I don’t I just was so upset at Nathan for leaving that I thought there was no point in living.”

“Well I’m makeing sure we bring you home and I talk to Hilda and she said that psy carrot would take care of the kids while your taking care of your sadness’s.”

“Thank you T bone.” Cagney says as T bone was about to leave.

“You know he cares about you a lot.” T bone says to Cagney.

“Specter talks to me everyday about how he got to hang out with his best friend and what he might do tomorrow with him.”

“He also did not leave this room at all his been here for 12 hours waiting for you to get up.”

“He cares about me that much.”

“He’s a real goof ball sometimes but a real nice guy.” T bone say as he leaves to room.

Cagney thought about how someone like him can care about someone he meant and became friends with a mouth ago but after realizing it Specter did not have a friend until Cagney came a long so Specter might look up to Cagney as a idol.

Cagney laid his head down on the pillow and before failing asleep he thought about how he might repaid Specter for saving him from death.

Cagney realize right then and there that he has Finally found someone who cares about him deeply and he was happy about that.

Sorry if the ending was rush I was writing this story at 10:00 PM

#ghostblossom #blind specter #cagney carnation #nathan nightshade #t bone #blaze brothers #Almost death #Kind of sad #story

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takerfoxx · 5 years

Text

RD Walpurgis Nights 7: Part 4

Ophelia sucked in sharply through her teeth. “Okay, um. Well, that’s really good advice and all, but I’m guessing things didn’t turn out well.”

“No,” Homulilly said, shaking her head. “It was a disaster.”

…

Three days ago…

“I’m so glad you decided to come,” Gretchen said happily as she and Homulilly walked hand-in-hand through the FIB’s schoolhouse. “You’ll love it, I promise!”

Homulilly smiled reassuringly, but she was gnawing the insides of her cheeks.

It was early evening, and they had just gotten out from dinner. Normally this would be when the two of them would return to their dorm to work on homework, relax, read, watch holovids, or just goof off, but Gretchen still had a few more meetings to attend with the planning committee for the festival, and Homulilly would be damned if she spent another night alone, much less leave Gretchen alone around Mitty without supervision.

Surprisingly, the committee had no issue with letting Homulilly tag along. She had expected Mitty at least to raise some kind of protest, but she apparently had been fine with it.

Maybe she had other things to worry about. Maybe she liked the competition. Or maybe…

Homulilly’s smile began to get a little strained.

…maybe she didn’t see Homulilly as competition at all. And why would she? She was gorgeous, while all Homulilly could manage was…cute. Maybe this was intentional. Maybe she wanted to steal Homulilly’s girl right in front of her.

Well, Homulilly for one was not going to taking that lying down. She was wearing a silky black dress that came down to just before her knees, and black stockings that extended just above them, leaving a few centimeters of skin in between. Every knot and tangle had been combed out of her hair and it now practically shined, every petal on her spider-lily was perfectly curled, and she had had one of the caretakers help her a few touches of makeup.

Gretchen, it should be noted, had just been confused when she saw how much Homulilly had made herself up, and was just wearing a frilly pink blouse, a white hooded jacket, and shorts. Still, she had been very complimentary regardless.

The planning committee had their meetings in the big auditorium where the FIB put on plays, rallies, and other school events. Homulilly imagined several professional looking people sitting politely in the first few rows, facing the stage, where the president was standing at the podium giving a presentation, probably one with holographic flowcharts or something.

As they neared the auditorium, Homulilly reflexively headed for the big double-door, but Gretchen passed right past them to head for the smaller side-door instead, the one near the stage that let staff get in and out without disrupting whatever was going on.

Homulilly got another surprise when they entered the room. Given that class sizes depended on girls dying and randomly ending up in Freehaven, it was only about twice the size of one of the classrooms. Still, it was one of the larger rooms in the FIB, and Homulilly had expected to see the members of the planning committee filling the seats, dutifully listening as the president addressed them from the stage.

Instead, the stage was empty, almost all the chairs were folded up and stacked along the walls, and only four girls were hanging out near the back. There was a plastic table set up with a variety of snacks and a keg of punch set up, and a few chairs were set up in a disorganized ring. Only one of the girls was actually sitting normally, while another had her chair backwards and was leaning over its back while the third was lounging her legs across three chairs while the fourth was at the table helping herself to the snacks.

Mitty was nowhere to be seen.

Homulilly hesitated. Her earlier conviction that she was headed to war and confidence to win suddenly started to dry up, and she felt very overdressed. The committee was a third of the size she was expecting, and like Gretchen, everyone else wore comfortable clothes and was chatting casually.

As Homulilly hung back, Gretchen bolted ahead toward the group. “Hey, guys!” she said cheerfully. “This is my girlfriend, Homulilly. She was getting bored without me and wanted to tag along!” She pointed to the girl sitting normally, who was Middle-Eastern, short of stature, and had her long, bright yellow hair tied back. “This is Yasmin Asfour, our president.”

“Hi,” Yasmin said with a shy wave.

Gretchen then turned to the girl reclining across three chairs, who was Caucasian, slightly overweight, and had short blue hair that looked like it curled naturally.

“That’s Patricia Sanders, the vice-president!”

“Hi,” said Patricia said.

“That’s Jada Avidan, the secretary,” Gretchen said, indicating the girl helping herself to snacks. An olive-skinned Jewish girl with wavy pink hair, Jada merely gave a quick half-salute over her shoulder and went back to what she was doing.

“And that’s Madeline, the treasurer,” Gretchen said as she pointed out the girl with the backwards chair. A black girl with bright red hair, she was a witch with arms and legs shaped like Corinthian columns. At her introduction, she just nodded and went back to talking to Vivian.

“Um, hello,” Homulilly said. “I, uh, hope I’m not intruding.” Then she remembered that she was supposed to look cool and confident and gave herself a mental kick.

“Where’s Mitty?” Gretchen asked as she grabbed a pair of chairs for her and Homulilly and sat down, her legs spreading in all directions.

Hopefully sick, Homulilly thought as she took her seat next to Gretchen. Or in jail. Or expelled. Or-

“Here,” said the familiar voice, dashing Homulilly’s hopes. It came from the far end of the room. There, a brown couch was facing the wall, with Mitty’s bright orange hair hanging out over one armrest and her bare feet dangling over the other. “Howdy.”

Then her feet disappeared, her knees appeared over the top of the cushions, and she kipped up, leaping fully off the couch to land on her feet on the floor. She was just wearing a pair of sweatpants and midriff exposing tee-shirt that bore the logo of some band that Homulilly had never heard of. Her hair was tied back in a messy ponytail and she wore no makeup.

“Okey-doke,” Mitty said as she picked up a folded chair and approached the small group. “Jalaga should be back in a bit, and we can get started. Hey, Homulilly. Glad you could make it.” Then she saw what Homulilly was wearing and her eyes went wide.

“Damn,” she said. She tossed the chair at the chair, giving it a weird twist of her wrist as she did. It somehow unfolded as it spun through the air and landed perfectly on all four legs, facing the rest of the group, letting her sit down. “Where’s the party? Can I come?”

Homulilly had no idea how to respond to that.

Right about then she heard the big double-doors opening behind them, followed by the sound of heavy footsteps. “Hey, Jalaga!” Jada called. “Right on time!”

That was when Madeline suddenly looked worried. She leaned over and said to Gretchen in a low voice, “Uh-oh. Hey, Gretchen? You warned your girlfriend about Jalaga, right?”

Gretchen’s eyes went wide.

Warn? Warn her about what? Homulilly instinctively turned in her chair to see what the problem was.

“Lilly-chan, wait,” Gretchen said grabbing her by the arm. “Maybe you shouldn’t-”

“Hey, everyone!” said a deep, booming voice, one that was definitely not human. “I got the rest of the flags, so we should be ready to-”

Homulilly finished turning fully in her seat. Then her face lost what little color it had and with a loud shriek she fell backward to the floor, nearly taking Gretchen with her.

Jalaga was a vaskergoros, all fur-covered muscle, sharp tusks, and four massive arms. Not a tall one, as such things were judged, but even at her three-and-a-half meters, she had to stoop to keep her head from scraping the ceiling.

That in itself would have been a surprise, but not a shock. Vaskergoros were not common in Freehaven, but Homulilly had seen enough of them to at least get sort of used to their size and fearsome appearances. However, this particular vaskergoros differed greatly from the ones she had seen in one significant regard: namely, she was a witch. A witch whose entire chest, shoulders, arms, and head were completely skeletal, and her living skull of a head levitated over the thick bones of her shoulders in a ball of green flame.

At Homulilly’s reaction, Jalaga froze in place and stared down at her. “Oh,” she said, her voice emanating as much from her fleshless chest as it did her mouth. “I…didn’t know we had someone new. Sorry for scaring you.”

Trembling like hairless rat freezing to death, Homulilly could do nothing but remain right where she was and gape up at the demonic visage staring down at her.

A very long silence passed, and then Jalaga said, “Oh. Hey! You got the same kind of arms I do! Neat.”

More silence. Someone coughed.

Jalaga glanced around and tried again. “So…do your elbow joints grind together whenever you try to reach around and scratch your back? Because mine do, and it is just the worst.”

Still no answer.

Jalaga slowly breathed out, no mean feat for someone who should not even be capable of the act. “So, is she going to be okay?” she asked the others as she pointed down at the cowering Homulilly. “Because this is getting really uncomfortable.”

…

Now…

“Ouch,” Ophelia said with a wince. “Ouch.

“Yeah,” Homulilly said with a sniff. Just reliving the memory was making her turn pink. “It was Dr. Antercateract all over again.”

“Dr…Oh, right. Oktavia’s tentacled friend. Um, would I be correct in assuming that this was one of those nights where literally everything that could go wrong did go wrong?”

Homulilly sighed. “Yeah,” she said. “Absolutely.”

…

Then…

Once everyone was finally all circled up, Yasmin cleared her throat, drawing everyone’s attention. “All right, all right, meet and greet’s over. Now, we need to-”

Homulilly, who had been itching for this moment, abruptly raised her hand.

“-and, ah, yes?”

Almost immediately Homulilly felt the urge to apologize for the interruption and say it was nothing, anything to get all the eyes now focused on her to turn anywhere else. Even the look that Gretchen was shooting her was more confused than supportive.

However, it was too late to back down now. “Hi. Um, sorry, I know I’m not really part of the committee, but…I did have some ideas I wanted to, you know, throw out there.”

Homulilly knew that the others probably wouldn’t be expecting her to contribute, but she wanted to at least justify her being there. Plus, given her recent gaff, she hoped that by offering up something they would be more quick to accept her.

However, it wasn’t interest in what she had to say that they were displaying, nor was it hostility for daring to speak up. Rather, they all just looked completely bewildered. Even Jalaga managed to convey an expression of total bemusement on her fleshless features.

Well, she had gone this far, and it was too late to pull out. Clearing her throat and hoping that her nervousness wasn’t showing in her voice, Homulilly pressed on. “I, uh, looked up the stuff you guys did the last few years, and noticed that there was, like, a dance theme going on, and, and how you’d do a dance from a different part of…” For a brief moment, Homulilly completely forgot the name of the planet they had lived on when they had all been alive, and nearly blanked out. “Er, th-the world of the living. So…I was thinking that you could…continue that, and this year you could…”

Madeline then cleared her throat, bringing Homulilly to a sudden stop. “Um, Homulilly? The festival is right around the corner. We’re pretty far past the brainstorming stage. In fact, most of our part’s already set up. We were just going to finish what we’ve got left and make sure everyone’s ready.” There was a pause, and then she added, “And this year’s theme is the Samba.”

“Oh,” Homulilly said as she slowly sank back into her chair. “Sorry.”

Gretchen gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

Yet another beat passed, and then Mitty said, “Still…it’s good that you wanted to help out. So…maybe you could join the committee next year, yeah?”

Homulilly didn’t trust herself to respond. Mitty…was trying to comfort her, to make her feel better. Mitty felt sorry for her! Gretchen felt sorry for her! They all felt sorry for her, at least the ones that weren’t annoyed by the interruption! Homulilly had shown up hoping to impress and show Mitty up, but instead she had embarrassed herself so badly that Mitty was taking pity on her!

And the worst of it is that it was all Homulilly’s fault. Of course they wouldn’t need any more ideas; of course they would be almost done! Why hadn’t she known that? It was obvious! But she had been so caught up in the idea of going to war with Mitty that she had completely failed to think logically and instead had jumped at every dumb idea that had crossed her mind.

Yasmin had started talking again, picking up where she had left off, no doubt in part to steer attention away from Homulilly’s latest screw-up. Homulilly planted her hands on her knees in hopes that it would keep them from shaking, but she couldn’t stop her fingers from curling, crinkling the fabric of her skirt. She had started the evening primed and ready to go to war, but now it was herself that she wanted to smack.

…

Now…

“Wow,” Ophelia said. “Okay then.”

Homulilly was already red in the face due to what had recently gone down, but reliving the previous night’s humiliations darkening the color into purple. “I was an idiot,” she mumbled. “I was such an idiot.”

Ophelia pulled out another candy bar (how many of those did she keep on her?), slowly unwrapped it, took a contemplative bite, chewed for a bit, swallowed, and said, “If I tried to make you feel better, would it make it worse?”

“Yes.”

“Duly noted. So…what happened next?”

…

Then…

The actual meeting part had been mercifully brief, and within minutes everyone headed outside to get to work. Homulilly sulkily followed, mentally kicking herself every step of the way for every single decision she had made in the last twenty-four hours.

Sure enough, everything was practically done. The dance circle was an octagonal wooden stage surrounded by a white lattice wall, with a big opening on one side. All that was really left was to put up the last few decorations.

Once outside, everyone quickly dispersed to their tasks. Nobody said anything to Homulilly, so she sat down on a bench to watch as the last bits of light-hanging and sign-painting was taken care of.

The first thing she noticed was that Mitty and Gretchen weren’t working anywhere near each other, which was a relief. Or maybe it wasn’t. Homulilly had half-expected for Mitty to take advantage of Homulilly’s public humiliation to swoop in for the kill, but instead the two were barely interacting. Maybe she felt so sorry for her rival that she had decided to back off for the time being, out of pity.

Or, as Homulilly bitterly reflected was most likely the case, she didn’t consider Homulilly to be any kind of rival and saw no need to capitalize.

At the moment, Mitty was hanging out near the FIB’s wall, talking to Madeline. Homulilly watched as the two chatted and laughed, playfully exchanging barbs. Homulilly frowned. Come to think of it, Mitty was acting much the same around Madeline as she had with Gretchen. What was going on? Was she trying to seduce everyone on the planning committee?

Then, right there in front of everyone, Mitty reached down and grabbed a big handful of Madeline’s butt.

Homulilly’s jaw dropped at the boldness. Well, sure, she was used to Ophelia and Oktavia’s open appreciation of any cute girl that walked by, but they at least kept their hands and comments between the two of them. This was a whole new level of brazen!

“Sexual harassment!” Madeline called out, laughing. “Sexual harassment!”

“Hey, Mitty!” Patricia called over from where she was working. “Wait until after we’re done before you start molesting people!”

Confused, Homulilly just shook her head. Okay, maybe she was worried over nothing. Maybe that was just how Mitty was with everyone.

Still laughing, Mitty grabbed up the banner she was to put up and a bucket of tools and turned toward the wall. Homulilly expected her to leap or run her way to the top like everyone else, but instead she lifted her right leg, planted her foot against the side of the wall, lifted her left leg, and then proceeded to casually walk all the way to the top, her body perpendicular to the ground.

Despite the dark cloud that was hanging over her, Homulilly couldn’t help but leap to her feet and blurt out, “She can walk on walls?”

Though there was a fair distance between her and the apparent human spider, it was close enough for Mitty to hear, and she turned her head to smirk down at the stunned girl. “Hell yeah, I can walk on walls! Used to need to summon up my uniform boots to do it, but since that ain’t happening anymore, now I can do it whenever!”

“You know, I never got that,” Jada remarked from where she was working over at the stage itself. “We can still summon up our old weapons, right? So how come we can’t get our uniforms back?”

“Who the hell knows?” Mitty said with a shrug. “But hey, given the choice, I’d go with ol’ Sexy here.” She shifted the banner under her armpit, moved the bucket over to her left hand, and held out her right. There was a flash, and then a long green staff with a triangular yellow crystal at both ends was in her hand. She spun it around one-handed like a baton and then jammed it against the side of the building. The crystal seemed to melt and mold itself against the wall and the whole pole stuck.

Hanging the bucket on the pole, Mitty knelt down on the wall to get to work.

Homulilly thought back to her visits to the Ladoga house, where Ophelia, Charlotte, Oktavia, and Candeloro had their old weapons hanging over the fireplace, as they had managed to hold onto them when making their escape from Dead Drop City. She wished that she and Gretchen had had the presence of mind to do the same, but they hadn’t even seen theirs. Presumably they were still there, within that terrible clock tower. Just another thing Puella Magi had over witches.

“Lilly-chan!”

Homulilly turned to see Gretchen waving over to her. The pink-haired witch was hanging flags on the wooden latticework wall that surrounded the courtyard. She was making good time too, as she had her nest of wire-legs stretched all the way across the wall, each one plucking up flags to tie them into place in an impressive display of multitasking. It made her look like an incredibly cute pagan god of legend.

“Come on! You can work with me!”

Normally Homulilly would have jumped at the chance, but now all she could do was wonder why Gretchen even needed the help, as she was handily doing the work of at least six people with little effort.

It’s because she feels sorry for me. I mean, look at me, sitting by myself and looking pathetic.

Still, at least it was something to do, and maybe by being helpful Homulilly could make up for her earlier slipups. Sighing, she got up and walked over to where Gretchen was working.

Gretchen reached down with several of her legs and twisted them around to form a pair of step-ups. “C’mon,” she said. “I’ll give you a boost!”

Homulilly glanced over to where Mitty was still crouched on the side of the building, half-singing and half-humming a pretty raunchy hip-hop song. “No, it’s okay. I got it,” she said.

Gretchen blinked. “Are you sure? Because I-”

Homulilly took a few steps back, calculated her path, and bolted toward one of the columns. Then, just like she had done a hundred times to reach the rooftop pathways of Freehaven, she leapt up.

At first everything went as planned, and Homulilly was able clear most of the column’s length with a single bound. However, as she did so, she realized her mistake: sure, the walls she was used to scaling were far higher, but they also included a series of handholds and footholds, whereas the column had nothing for her to hold onto.

As Homulilly felt her ascent start to slow and her descent starting to take hold, she desperately braced her feet against the side of the column and pushed up. It wasn’t much, but it gave her enough momentum to seize onto the top of the beam with both hands. Then, before anyone could notice her near-mishap, she hauled herself up.

Straddling the beam with her legs, she shot Gretchen what she hoped was a confident smile. “See?” she said. “Nothing to it.”

Then she saw that Gretchen had several of her legs reared up around her like a startled octopus, no doubt at the ready to catch Homulilly if she fell. “Oh,” she said, looking genuinely surprised. Then she grinned and lowered her legs. “Cool! All right, let me show you what we need to do.”

Homulilly’s smile faltered. Wait, did she really think that Homulilly wasn’t going to make it?

Then she heard a small chuckle. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw that Mitty was shaking her head as she snickered. There was no doubt about it; she had seen how close Homulilly had come to falling.

Wincing, Homulilly turned away and instead focused on helping Gretchen with the flags.

The two worked in silence for a bit, which for them was unusual. Homulilly honestly found it hard to concentrate on what she was supposed to be doing, as her mind kept racing to come up with something to break the silence, anything they could talk about that wouldn’t betray the nerves she was feeling.

Then Gretchen said, “Um, Lilly-chan? Can I ask you something?”

The last time Gretchen had ventured that kind of question in that tone, it had led to their first kiss. But given recent events, Homulilly wasn’t exactly optimistic that the subject matter was going to be anything nearly as positive. Forcing what she hoped was a warm smile, Homulilly said, “Sure!”

True enough, Gretchen’s question was not one that Homulilly really wanted to answer. “Um, are you…okay? Because you’ve been acting very weird lately.”

Though she wasn’t much for swearing, all the time spent with Cheese the parrot had given Homulilly a large and filthy vocabulary to work with should ever the need arise. And though she said none of the words out loud, mentally she ran through most of them in seconds.

Fighting to keep her panic from her face but knowing that she was failing miserably, Homulilly stammered out, “Uh…wh-what do you mean?”

Gretchen was many things, but an idiot was not one of them. She just gave Homulilly the look, obviously not fooled in the slightest.

Damn. Damn, damn, damn. What was Homulilly supposed to do? She couldn’t come out with the truth, which in itself just felt so completely wrong, as Gretchen was the one person she could always be honest with. But she couldn’t just tell the truth and say that she was worried that Gretchen might leave her one day.

Think, Homulilly. Think! There had to be something she could say, had to be something she could say to allay Gretchen’s concerns.

And then, in a flash of inspiration, she had it.

“I’m sorry,” she said, and fortunately did not have to fake it. “I know, it’s just…you know, after the museum trip, everything’s just been feeling like it’s upside-down, and…” She sighed, and said again, “I’m sorry.”

The annoyance in Gretchen’s eyes softened, to be replaced with sympathy. “Oh, Lilly-chan.” Then she suddenly lunged forward to seize Homulilly in a tight embrace.

Homulilly, who had not been expecting that reaction, almost went stiff with surprise, but thankfully her reflexes took over and she immediately returned the gesture, wrapping her arms around Gretchen in return.

Her face close to Homulilly’s ear, Gretchen whispered, “Lilly-chan, I know things are scary right now, but you don’t have to worry! You heard what they said: so long as we stick together, we’ll be all right.”

That was just what Homulilly needed to hear. She sighed, letting the tension in her shoulders recede a little. Maybe she had been a little silly. Maybe she had let Annabelle Lee’s words get to her. But everything was going to be fine, right?

Then Gretchen said, “That’s why you don’t need to act cool for me, okay? Just be yourself. That’s all I want.”

Normally Homulilly would have been just fine with that, but something about the way Gretchen said that sounded sour to her ears. “Don’t need to act cool”? So…Gretchen didn’t think she was cool?

Well, granted, Homulilly herself didn’t think that she was cool, but now she was starting to realize just how cool everyone in her life was. Ophelia was really cool, Oktavia was also really cool, and Charlotte was pretty cool herself, with their brash personalities, funny quirks, and the confidence with which they did everything. Even Candeloro, who was the least aggressive and most feminine of the group, was also cool in her own way. And Gretchen, who was small, cute, and really pink, seemed to have no difficulty endearing herself to the cool people and making friends with them.

In fact, now that Homulilly thought about it, back when they had first met all of their friends, Ophelia had first approached her because Cheese had scared her and Ophelia had wanted to cheer her up, and it had taken a lot of coaxing to just get Homulilly to talk to her. Whereas Gretchen had been the one to approach Oktavia and strike up a conversation.

And then there was Mitty.

Everywhere she went, Gretchen just kept fitting in with cool people, while Homulilly just seemed to be tagging along for the ride. It had even been Gretchen that had rescued herself from the torturous situation she had found herself in and saved Homulilly from the clock tower.

Gretchen said that she loved her with all of her heart, and Homulilly believed her. But with all the talk she had been hearing lately about soul resonance, how much of that was because they had joined together as a Walpurgisnacht, and how much would have happened anyway? Did they even like each other in the old life? Were they even friends?

Homulilly had an image flash through her head, that of what their old Puella Magi team might have been like, where the past-selves of Gretchen, Ophelia, Oktavia, Candeloro, and…maybe Charlotte (they had never really worked out why she didn’t share the same reflexive recognition as the others) risked their lives to protect the city and looked really cool doing it. And in the back was Homulilly, always holding the others back, always coming up short, always screwing up and making things worse.

Always letting everyone down.

And that was her now. The others kept her around, sure. And she had no doubt that they liked her. But how much of that was out of pity? For all she knew, in their former life she had been the black sheep of the group, the one that the rest just kept around for the sake of having as much firepower as possible.

All of this passed through Homulilly’s mind in just a few seconds, but she couldn’t let Gretchen know. So she just forced everything she was feeling and thinking from her face and voice and said, “Okay. I’m sorry. Thank you.”

They parted then, though Gretchen kept her hand on Homulilly’s shoulder.

“Just hold on,” she said. “We’ll be fine.”

Homulilly nodded and turned in her seat…

…only to just then remember that she was seating on a wooden beam fifteen feet in the air.

She felt her balance leave almost immediately. She tried to correct herself, but somehow her stupid skirt had gotten twisted under her and that just threw her off all the more. She then tried to grab onto the beam for support, but somehow her hand fell onto the bucket of flags that was sitting right behind her.

The bucket fell, and Homulilly slipped right along with it.

She let out a loud yelp as she went horizontal, headed for what promised to be a very painful impact on the wooden stage below.

And then she stopped.

A moment later she heard the bucket clatter against the ground.

Blinking in surprise, Homulilly looked around to try to get some sense of what had happened. She was still horizontal, hanging perpendicular to the wooden beam, one leg still thrown across it. But in defiance of gravity itself, she was floating in midair.

Then she felt the wire-thin bindings around her waist and arms.

Gretchen had lashed out with four of her legs, snatching her before she could fall and keeping her in place. Looking concerned, she slowly maneuvered Homulilly back into place. “All you all right?” she said.

Though her illusionary heartbeat was still pounding in her ears, Homulilly managed a nod. Whew, that had been a close one.

And then she heard Yasmin say from down below, “Um, you guys okay up there?”

Homulilly turned, slowly and carefully, to look. Everyone had stopped what they were doing and were all staring at the pair.

Gretchen waved to them. “We’re fine!” she said. “Just a little slip. Don’t worry!”

Homulilly’s eyes swept over the group, seeing the looks of pity and disappointment.

Then she looked up. Mitty was now standing on the roof of the FIB building, far above them, her head bowed with one hand pressing against her forehead. She slowly shook her head, in clear disbelief that the klutz had done it again.

…

Now…

“Well?” Homulilly said.

“Well what?” said Ophelia.

“Aren’t you going to say anything?”

Ophelia leaned back to recline across the wall on her elbows. She pushed her hat back and said, “Got plenty to say, but I think I’m gonna wait until you’re done before I say it.”

Homulilly sighed.

“Well?” Ophelia said, rolling her wrist to urge her on. “Keep it going.”

…

Then…

At the start of the night, Homulilly had been confidently striding forward with her shoulders straight, her head held high, and ready to prove herself to be just as cool as Mitty.

Now she no longer cared about any of that. She slumped into her seat next to Gretchen, head down, eyes moodily studying how the tiny marshmallows bobbed around in the steamy brown swamp of her hot chocolate.

At long last the night had come to an end, and everyone had decided to go hang out at the FIB’s all-hours coffee shop. Homulilly had frankly would have preferred to not to, but she was in such a bad mood by then that she couldn’t even muster up enough energy to say otherwise, so she had just said nothing and slouched after everyone.

Since Jalaga was still with them and couldn’t exactly come inside, they were all sitting in the outside area in a circle around a firepit, nursing their drinks and pastries and chatting away. It seemed that the others had decided to just ignore Gretchen’s moody and kind of embarrassing girlfriend and just act like she wasn’t there.

Some things never changed.

Though she wasn’t participating in the slightest with the conversation, bits were drifting past her consciousness. Apparently they were talking the museum trip.

“It was just such a trip, you know?” Mitty was saying, referring to their excursion to the museum the day before. Unlike Homulilly, she was wholly at ease, relaxing with one leg up over the armrest and the other stretched out onto the edge of the firepit. And why wouldn’t she be? She wasn’t the one that had made a fool of herself in front of everyone. “I mean, it’s one thing to read about all that stuff, see the pictures, watch the videos…er, holos, but it’s another to like jump into someone’s freaking memories.”

“Yeah, I remember going through the same thing last year,” Jada said as she shook her head. “Only worse. I hadn’t even heard of the Void Walkers before then.”

“Seems kind of scummy, if you ask me,” said Madeline. “I mean, to drop that on us right before the festival. Kinda kills the mood, right?”

“Maybe they’re hoping it’ll cheer us up,” Jada said.

“It didn’t for me.”

“Okay, but you know what I don’t get?” Mitty said. “See, the part I was really looking forward was meeting Astrid. Because she’s supposed to be one of the only witches to turn back into, uh, into a Puella Magi, right? And if we were going to see her memories…”

“You thought you would get to see how it happened,” Patricia said.

“Yeah, pretty much. Except no, that’s when they decided to show us her girlfriend’s memories of that moment. And when I looked it up to find out why, it turns out that it’s because there wasn’t any memories to show. Like, they actually scanned her brain and found this great big blank spot.” Mitty shrugged. “So…who the hell knows what happened?”

“We don’t have brains anymore, dumbass,” Jada said.

Mitty flicked a straw at her. “Well, maybe you don’t. ‘Sides, you know what I meant.”

“It was the Ideal Witches,” Jalaga said in a low voice. The flaming vaskergoros witch was sitting on the ground with her legs crossed and her arms folded in her lap. She was already kind of eye-catching like that, but that pronouncement brought all attention to her.

A strange change had suddenly come over the group. Despite the warmness of the night, Homulilly felt a strange shiver run down her back. Something about the way Jalaga drew her full attention. “I’m sorry, the what now?” she said.

Mitty shot her a look. “Seriously, you’ve never heard of the Ideal Witches?”

“Um, I haven’t either,” Gretchen said as she hesitantly raised her hand. “What are they?”

“Not everyone reads as much as you, Mitty,” Yasmin said.

Jalaga shrugged. “Still. Given that you’re all on the planning committee for the Cultural Exchange Festival, I’d expect you all to know a little more about cultures outside of Freehaven.”

“Earth cultures, and other species’ cultures, not afterlife cultures,” Yasmin retorted.

“Even so.”

A silence fell over the group. Though they were sitting in a well-like plaza in a thriving metropolis, Homulilly suddenly felt like they were really out by themselves in the wilderness, gathered together around a crackling fire, the only thing holding the darkness at bay. Certainly Jalaga’s demonic visage added to the effect.

Then Gretchen tried again. “So…what are they?”

Jalaga didn’t answer right away. She just stared into the firepit, seemingly lost in thought. and when she did speak, she didn’t even seem to be speaking to them at all. “The Ideal Witches. Seven beings of unfathomable power. Some say that they were once a Walpurgisnacht made up of thousands of souls, but somehow only split into seven pieces. Others say that they each were a Walpurgisnacht that somehow remained whole upon death, keeping all the souls that they had absorbed. But they’re out there, out in the wild, untamed territories, luring the lost and unwary into their realms, entrapping them and feeding off their souls forever.

“It is said that each one presides over a separate aspect of our lives here, and our fates are steered by their wills. There is Mephisto, the human witch of Dreams. Nefflin, the andalite witch of Love. Zuffren, the vekoo witch of Desires. Kuh’sur’ri, the ai’jurrik’kai witch of Hate. Vendrel, the Nesk witch of Despair. Folc, the vaskergoros witch of Deception. And Irn, the kotoss interdrent witch of Determination. They are said to test those that they find interesting, to see if they’re worthy of receiving their blessing. And those who pass are granted their heart’s desire, while those who fail are added to their collection of souls.”

“So…like a reverse Incubator then?” Madeline said.

“Not a bad way of looking at it. Though with Incubators you got your wish and lost your soul. With the Ideal Witches it’s either/or.”

Patricia’s face screwed up in confusion. “And people believe in all this?”

“We go to school with a girl who can take her head off and dunk it like a basketball,” Mitty retorted. “Also, we’re dead and still sipping hot chocolate with a flaming alien. And I can walk on walls. How is any of that less weird?”

“Technically from my viewpoint, you all are the aliens,” Jalaga said good-naturedly.

“Yeah, I guess you have a point,” Patricia sighed. “Hell, if they are real, I kinda hope they’d visit me and give me some idea of what to do after graduating.”

“That brings up a good point,” Madeline said. “What do you guys want to do? Because I keep changing my mind.”

“…I’m honestly not sure anymore,” Mitty said. “I mean, I was going to go into professional dancing, but apparently you got to be something spectacular to compete out there, given what everyone can do, and I guess it doesn’t have the same mileage that it used to. So maybe I’ll just keep doing it as a hobby.”

“I know what you mean,” Gretchen said. “Our friend Ophelia-chan is an amazing dancer, but she still works at the power plant.”

Mitty stiffened. “Wait, wait, wait, hold up. Ophelia? Like, the bald girl who always wears red? That Ophelia?”

“You know her?”

“Know her? Of course I know her, every dancer in the city knows her! She’s great! She trains at the studio where my dance class is, and even subbed in on a couple classes!” Mitty shook her head. “And you’re friends with her?”

Now Homulilly interest was piqued enough to look up. After all, she had suddenly found something that she had that Mitty could be envious of. “Um, yeah. We go hang out at her place all the time.”

Sure enough, Mitty looked downright stunned. “Wow. Wow. So you get to go behind the scenes and everything. Hey, is it true that she has a private studio in her basement, just for her?”

“Er, no?” Gretchen shrugged. “Not that we’ve seen.”

“If she did, why would she be training at your studio?” Homulilly added.

Mitty pursed her lips, and Homulilly realized that she had sounded a little flippant.

However, Mitty didn’t press the issue. “I guess you have a point,” she said with a shrug. “But you have seen her dance battle?”

Gretchen nodded. “A couple times. That one time they took us to Sardi’s Land of Miracles-”

Mitty’s jaw dropped. “Ophelia was the one to take you to Sardi’s?”

“Well, her and the rest of our friends, anyway,” Gretchen said with a shrug. “Anyway, they had this big tent with a…a dance battle thing going on, and Ophelia took on this vaskergoros called, uh…”

“Busker?!” Now Mitty’s eyes were practically popping from their sockets. You saw an Ophelia vs. Busker dance-off at Sardi’s Land of Miracles?! Why the hell didn’t you ever tell me?!”

“…you, uh, never asked.”

“But you know Busker, right?” Mitty said, turning to Jalaga. “She’s like this famous top-boxer, does a lot of crazy stuff with water magic?”

Jalaga somehow managed to convey a look of befuddlement despite not even having much in the way of a face. “Er, no?”

“Seriously? How could you not have heard of Busker?!”

Two flaming, skeletal shoulders lifted in a shrug. “Not every vaskergoros knows each other. Besides, I don’t follow top-boxing.”

Mitty sighed in disappointment. “Aw, Jesus Christ. Okay, who won?”

“Busker, I think,” Gretchen said. “They were tied up until then.”

“So it was the third one.”

Jada stared at her blankly. “How many of these things were there?”

“Five so far. Ophelia’s in the lead, so there’s probably going to be another before too long.” Mitty sighed. “I hope I can find out where the next one’s happening in time to clear my schedule. I have to see one before they call it quits.”

“You think you’ll be up to challenging them one day?” Madeline asked.

Mitty snorted. “I wish. I mean, I’m good, but I’m not that good. Well, yet.”

“Well, I mean, it’s not like you have to rush,” Vivian said. “You have pretty much forever to practice.”

Gretchen made a face. “I guess…”

“And there’s no lack of choices,” Mitty added. “I mean, you don’t have to stay in Freehaven. You could go to Cloudbreak, or Marsters, or Steel City, or the Music Box, or like a gazillion other places.”

“How is it that you already know so much about…everything?” Yasmin asked.

Mitty stared at her in bewilderment. “Everything?”

Yasmin shrugged. “You already knew everything about Reibey and Oblivion, you know all about these Ideal Witches. I’m starting to think we don’t even need to study, we just need to get you talking to find out everything we need to know.”

“How can I not?” Mitty said. “Seriously, we live in a magical afterlife with a bunch of cool aliens! How can you not want to find out everything about it?”

“She’s got a point,” Madeline said between sips of hot chocolate.

“I understand,” Gretchen said. “Our friend Charlotte’s the same way. I think she knows more than the teachers.”

“See?” Mitty said, gesturing toward Gretchen. “There you go. Seriously, it’s kinda weird that you don’t…” Then she cut herself off. “Hold up. Charlotte? The librarian with the pink hair and the tail?”

Homulilly sighed and slumped down deeper.

“You know her too?” Gretchen asked.

Mitty nodded. “I was going to say the same thing! I mean, the library’s the best place to find out anything, and she’s the one that’s been helping me! But I’ve never seen you guys there. How do you know her?”

“Oh!” Gretchen beamed. “Well, she and Ophelia live together, so…”

“Uh…what?” Mitty’s jaw dropped open. “I thought Ophelia was dating that mermaid with the blue hair.”

Patricia perked up. “We have a mermaid?”

“Uh, yeah, haven’t you ever been to the Magi’s Gifts Emporium?” Jada told her. “She teaches music there.”

“You know her too?”

“I’m actually kind of surprised that you don’t! But yeah, my roommate gets guitar lessons from her.”

“She is!” Gretchen said. “Dating Ophelia, I mean. But Charlotte lives with them too!”

Mitty’s brow raised in appreciation. “Really? Huh. Wow, I know Ophelia had game, but…”

“Not like that!” Gretchen said with a slight blush. “There’s four of them: Ophelia, Charlotte, Oktavia, and Candeloro. They’re a Walpurgisnacht, so they stuck together. Ophelia is with Oktavia, and Charlotte is with Candeloro.”

“Ophelia’s part of a Walpurgisnacht?” Mitty said as she rubbed her chin. “Huh, I had no idea.” Then she frowned. “Wait, who’s Candeloro?”

“Uh…you ever been to the Honey Hive?” Gretchen asked.

“The coffee shop? Over on Avenida Sevilla?”

Gretchen nodded. “Yes. She’s one of the managers there. Um, the one with golden hair and ribbons for arms?”

“Oh.” The side of Mitty’s mouth lifted in a sly grin. “Oooooh, her. Yeah, I know her.”

Homulilly sighed. Of their little group, Candeloro undeniably was blessed with the most impressive figure, so it wasn’t uncommon for her to get quite a bit of attention from passersby.

But did they all have to be so overt about it?

Gretchen nodded. “Well, that’s her. She actually does most of their baking. Her strawberry honeycakes won prizes and everything! She’s actually taking a trip to Orya’s Furnace right now for the Sweet Tooth Symp…sympuh…symphony…”

“Symposium,” Homulilly said.

“Right! That word!”

“What’s that?” Jada asked.

Mitty stared at her. “Uh…seriously? It’s a jott city that’s-”

“Not that!” Jada said with a roll of her eyes. “Of course I know about that! What’s the Sweet Tooth Symposium?”

Homulilly cut in before anyone else could. This, at least, she knew more about than everyone else. “It’s a convention. For people who make sweet stuff, like cakes, candy, chocolates, that sort of thing.”

“Gotcha,” Mitty said with a thoughtful look. “And you said she does the baking for the Honey Hive. Y’know, I’ve been over there once or twice. The cupcakes are to die for.” Which is kind of funny, seeing how I did!” She grinned, as if expecting laughter, but the others just stared at her in an uncomfortable manner. Yasmin especially looked a little annoyed. Sensing that her morbid joke hadn’t gone over well, Mitty cleared her throat and hastily moved on. “Anyway, you’re telling me that there’s this house where Freehaven’s best dancer, musician, researcher, and baker live together, and you two just…hang out with them whenever?”

There was a pause, and then Gretchen said, “Well, I never really thought about it like that.”

“We’re actually pretty sure that we all knew each other before,” Homulilly chimed in. Finally, there was something impressive that she had that Mitty didn’t! “Um, you know, when we were…alive.”

“Huh?” Mitty said, tilting her head. “I thought you were both separate Walpurgies.”

“Oh, we are!” Gretchen said. “They’re all one, and we’re another. But when we met…you know how you said that your girlfriend felt like she recognized you, even if she didn’t really know who you were?”

Mitty arched an eyebrow. “Yeah…?”

“It was the same.” She clasped her hands over her heart and smiled at the memory. “We both felt like we knew them, and they felt like they knew us. So…we figure that we were all friends, but they turned into witches together, and we turned into witches later.”

Mitty shook her head. “Wow. Two Walpurgies showing up in the same town, only a…little time apart. Your town must be a crater by now.”

Gretchen’s smile withered. “I…never really thought of it like that.”

“But if that’s true, then you two must’ve been the ones to bring them down,” Mitty pointed out. “Like I did with Bobby…er, Alyssa!”

“Um…okay!” Patricia said quickly before Homulilly’s glare could get any more fierce. “So, what you two want to be after we graduate?”

“What?” Gretchen scratched her head. “Oh, um, actually…we’re not sure yet.”

“Well, that’s fine,” Jalaga said. She reached over and stirred the embers of the firepit with one finger. “You have plenty of time.”

“That’s for goddamned sure,” Patricia said darkly. Homulilly pursed her lips but said nothing.

“Well, what do you two like to do then?” Mitty said.

“Huh?” Gretchen said.

Mitty shrugged and gestured with one hand. “You guys gotta have hobbies, right? Stuff you do in your free time. So what do you like to do?”

“Oh!” She and Homulilly exchanged a glance. “Um, well, when we’re not studying or whatever, we like talking, visiting our friends, going for walks, watching holos…”

“Yeah, but anything artsy?” Mitty pressed. “Do you paint, write, draw, garden, do pottery, weave baskets, anything like that?”

“Not everyone has go into the liberal arts, Mitty,” Jada said with a disapproving look.

“Well, yeah, but there has to be something! Come on, don’t you ever get the urge to just go out and create something?”

“I guess we’re not really the artsy types,” Gretchen said in a small voice.

“Huh,” Mitty said. “That’s weird.” She shook her head, and then smiled. “Well, that just means we gotta change that! It’s not right for you guys to be hanging out with all those geniuses and not have something to-”

“No,” Homulilly said in a soft but commanding tone.

“Huh? Why not?”

“No,” Homulilly said again. “Leave us alone.”

While all this had been going on, the others had been having small whispered conversations of their own. All of those stopped in a second, and everyone looked up to stare at Homulilly and Mitty. For her part, Mitty’s eyes had narrowed to slits.

“Hey,” she said. “Do we have a problem? Because I’m starting to feel like we have a problem.”

“Okay, no!” Jada cut in before Homulilly could respond. “Look, whatever problem you guys have, deal with it on your own time, okay?”

“I don’t have a problem,” Mitty said. “She’s the one who-”

“I said, deal with it later, okay? Because I am way too tired and stressed out to put up with this now. Got it?”

A moment passed, and then Mitty said, “Yeah, okay. Sure. Fine with me.”

“Good.” Then Jada turned to Homulilly and Gretchen. “And you? Are we all cool here?”

“Sure,” Homulilly said in a neutral tone. “We’re…cool.”

“Great. Now, chill out, already.”

Mitty slouched back and folded her arms. Homulilly did the same. The two glared at one another.

Then Gretchen abruptly stood up. “I think we’d better go home,” she said to the group. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

“Yeah, me too,” Mitty said as she stood up as well. “Mood’s killed dead. So…bye.”

There was a small chorus of awkward murmured goodbyes from the others. Mitty went off in one direction, Gretchen and Homulilly in the other. For their part, Gretchen was completely silent the whole walk, while Homulilly just slouched with her head bowed and mouth set in a straight line.

When they reached their dorm Gretchen waited until they were both inside and the door was firmly shut before addressing the problem. “Homulilly,” she said. “What was that all about?”

Homulilly turned away.

“What’s wrong? Why did you snap at her like that?”

Homulilly slowly took a deep breath and let it out. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she muttered.

“But-”

“Drop it,” she said, and then stomped into the bathroom.

She locked the door and looked at the mirror. Oh God, her face was a mess. Her blush was all smudged, her mascara was starting to run, and her eyes were all watery. She had been so proud of how she had looked at the start of the night, but now it was horrid.

Which was just the perfect metaphor for everything about her, Homulilly bitterly reflected. She could do everything she could to make her look pretty, cool, and confident like just about everyone else, but as soon as something went wrong it all collapsed. It was just a frail façade, a fake mask.

Meanwhile, Mitty could show up with no makeup, baggy clothes, and her hair undone, and still come off as way better than she ever could! Same with the rest of them! Ophelia was practically a celebrity, Oktavia had actual albums and everyone knew who she was, Charlotte was about to become a published author, and Candeloro was off winning awards and getting invited to big events in other cities! Even Gretchen was out there joining committees and making friends. And Homulilly?

Well, she was ruining things for everyone just by being there.

Homulilly wet a washcloth and furiously wiped away the mess on her face. When she was done, she looked again at her reflection.

She didn’t know why she did. It wasn’t like there was anyone special looking back.

Homulilly threw the washcloth at the mirror. It hit and slipped down to the sink with a wet splat, leaving a bit blotch over her face’s image.

Then she slowly sat down onto the toilet and turned the shower on full blast so Gretchen wouldn’t hear her crying.

#Walpurgis Nights

7 notes · View notes

nebulous-frog · 6 years

Text

Parent Ph(F)an

Summary: It’s way too hot and Dan is way too tired and his daughter is way too interested in something that could chop her fingers off, so he uses it to play a game instead.

Word count: 2194

Rating: G

Warnings: None whatsoever

Genre: Extreme Fluff, Humor, Parent!Phan

Author’s Note: Thank you @imnotinclinedtomaturity for betaing! I love you <3

This was written for @phandomficfests‘s Summer Sounds flash fest.

Link to AO3 Fics Masterlist

After five minutes of frantic searching, Phil groaned in despair.

They were out of coffee.

Most of the time, they could make it through two weeks between their grocery deliveries, but apparently this was not one of those times. Phil supposed it was largely due to the fact that Emma hadn’t really been sleeping in the last week, which meant neither he nor Dan had gotten much sleep, either. Unfortunately, the crabby sleeplessness was augmented by the fact that Britain was currently experiencing a horrific heatwave and their flat had no aircon. It had been a rough week.

Phil trudged back into the lounge to tell Dan about the coffee situation, but stopped, in awe of the sight before him. He didn’t think he’d ever get used to seeing such a touching domestic scene.

Dan was gently swaying with their 9-month-old adopted daughter on one hip and one hand supporting her bottle of milk. Leaning against the doorframe, Phil took it all in slowly and happily. Dan’s eyes were surrounded by dark circles and his hair was an absolute rat’s nest, but he still looked at Emma with such adoration in his eyes that Phil found it hard to breathe. Dan had the cutest gentle smile on his face as he gazed into Emma’s eyes and hummed a made-up song.

After a minute or so of Phil watching from the doorway, Dan looked up and saw Phil. The delicate smile grew into a relaxed grin that had Phil’s heart thumping even harder with affection.

“Hi,” Dan giggled.

Emma giggled and gurgled in response to the noise from Dan. Dan turned his head to look back down at Emma with a loving look, then copied her gurgle.

“Aboo da wa? Abba da woo da?” Dan shook his head gently with a bright smile on his face, still staring at Emma.

“You’re so cute,” said Phil. He walked over to Dan and Emma, leaning across Emma’s small body to press a chaste kiss to Dan’s lips.

“Yeah, well, you’re pretty sexy,” Dan teased.

Phil gasped indignantly and covered Emma’s ears. “Dan! Tiny baby ears!” He giggled a smidge too much for Dan to believe the reprimand, though.

“Alright, Grandma.” Dan rolled his eyes. “It’s true though,” Dan said with a wink and a smirk. “You are incredibly-“

Phil slapped a hand over Dan’s mouth before he could finish. “Baby ears!” he insisted sternly, pretending to be offended on Emma’s behalf.

Dan giggled and kissed the palm of Phil’s hand, before reaching up with the hand not supporting Emma to pull it away. He held Phil’s hand, letting their palms dangle between them. “Did you put the coffee on?”

Phil sighed dramatically, sounding exhausted. “No, we ran out. I just came in here to tell you that I would go get more.”

“Ugh, okay,” Dan huffed. “Could you pick up Starbucks on the way back? I don’t want to have to wait for you to come back and then make the coffee and everything. I’m kind of dying.“ Dan turned his face back towards Emma and spoke in a slight baby-talk voice, “ Isn’t that right, Emma? Isn’t that right? And it’s your fault, yes it is!” He booped her nose, which made her giggle.

Phil chuckled. “Of course I’ll get Starbucks. I’ll be back soon.” Phil bent over a bit to look more directly into Emma’s eyes and smiled at her. “Be good for Daddy, okay?” He kissed her forehead and straightened up as she let out the perfect baby-talk screech of joy.

“I love you,” Dan said. He pulled Phil forward and kissed him again, before gently pushing him away. “Now go get me some coffee before I lose my mind.”

Phil laughed and reached his hand out to brush a stray sweaty curl back from Dan’s face. “I’ll be right back.” He left the room and Dan heard the front door close behind him a minute later.

Dan looked down at Emma again. She was holding her own bottle, but wasn’t really drinking from it anymore, so he took it and set it down on the coffee table.

“What shall we do, then, Emma?” Dan took her off his hip, holding her by her underarms, then lifted her above his head and swung her back down to his chest to the sweet melody of hysterical giggles.

Dan grinned. This was his favorite part of being a dad: making his precious little girl laugh. Her big blue eyes and dark puff of hair, combined with the endearing chunky baby fat, made every giggle that much more endearing, and it always gave Dan a rush to realize that she laughed because of him. The joy that idea brought him was unreal.

He set Emma on the ground to move some toys out of the way so they could play on the floor, and she immediately took off towards the tall rotating fan in the corner that Dan had turned on to try to cool off the room. Dan let her slowly waddle in that direction for a moment as he cleared the area, but swept her up before she could grab the fan and get her petite fingers stuck. He brought her back over to the play area he set up and managed to distract her for about a minute before she clambered up and made a break for the fan again.

“No, Emma, we don’t touch that. That’ll hurt your fingers, and we don’t want that,” Dan said as he picked her up again. He leaned in close to her face and smiled, shaking his head and affecting his Ultimate Baby Voice. “We don’t want that, no, we don’t want that!”

Emma giggled and grabbed Dan’s nose, arms and legs flailing somewhat wildly.

Dan laughed. “You are too cute, little miss Emma.”

He brought her back to their play area and handed her a miniature ball, and she was distracted yet again.

It didn’t last long, however, and Dan soon found himself picking her up, setting her down, and chasing after her again repeatedly. By the sixth or seventh time, he was even more exhausted and hot than before and slowly growing more and more irritated. He hadn’t gotten enough sleep in so long, the lack of caffeine was starting to really get to him, and he was so done with Emma’s inability to listen to his instructions. Dan knew it wasn’t her fault that she wasn’t old enough to understand yet, but he felt so helpless when she continued trying to do things that would hurt her.

“Emma, no! Stay over here!” he cried desperately, practically begging his daughter for a moment of peace. She snuck past his arms and he dove after her again. Emma made it to the fan and reached up to touch it, but Dan made it to her just in time. From behind the baby, he bent over, accidentally putting his face directly in front of the rotating fan and managed to pick her up before she could hurt herself. “We are not playing with the fan, Emma. No.”

Something occurred to him this time, though, as his voice echoed back to him when he spoke near the fan. Dan remembered how he and his brother always used to like talking into the fans and hearing how weird their voices sounded because of it. Maybe he could try that with Emma. Of course, he would have to hold her back from the fan so she wouldn’t grab it, but he could totally do that.

Idea now set, Dan turned away from the fan, still holding a squirmy Emma, and grabbed a nearby chair. He moved the chair in front of the fan and sat down with Emma in his lap, arms wrapped securely around her torso.

At least this’ll cool me off a bit for now, even if she’s not entertained, Dan thought with a sigh.

The moving air only sort of helped to push away the heat, however. Mostly, it just pushed warm air directly into Dan’s face.

Dan sighed in irritation at how the fan just changed how the heat reached him rather than actually cooling him off. Hopefully, Emma would be entertained enough to make Dan’s plan worthwhile.

“Okay, Emma, since you’re so intent on this fan, I’m going to show you something.” Dan leaned forward as the fan swung around to face him and Emma, then spoke into it. “Hello, Emma! Doesn’t this sound silly?”

The fan made Dan’s voice slightly tinny, echoing back to him and Emma with undertones in a higher pitch.

Emma giggled softly, but mostly sat entranced by the slight distortion of her dad’s voice.

Dan leaned back a few centimeters as the fan rotated away, then leaned forward again to say “Ahhhhhhhhhh” into it when it spun back around.

Emma giggled again, then reached forward in Dan’s lap to grab the fan.

“No, no, stay back,” Dan gently warned. He wrapped his arms more firmly around her middle and trapped her hands under his forearms, giving her just enough room to wiggle to give her the illusion of freedom while still keeping her from hurting herself on the fan.

Dan leaned and yelled into the fan a few more times before Emma finally began to catch on. Almost.

“Ahhhhhh,” Dan said again. He had lost track of how many times he’d done this now. He leaned back slightly, as usual, to wait for the fan to swing back.

“Ahhhhhh,” said Emma.

Laughing, Dan shook his head. “You’re so close, Emma! The fan turned away, so it won’t make the noises anymore. You have to wait for a time like this,” Dan explained fondly, leaning forward and yelling into the fan again when it was positioned correctly.

As the fan turned away, Emma yelled like Dan but missed the echo again.

“Well, you’ll get there. You’re just so adorable trying, though.” Dan pressed a kiss to the top of her head and continued the game, Emma still failing to yell at the right time.

While they goofed around, Phil returned from the store, but Dan didn’t notice Phil come in. Phil dropped the instant coffee off in the kitchen and made his way to the lounge, where he could hear voices and giggles.

What he saw was truly the sweetest thing he’d ever witnessed.

Dan had a huge grin on his face, as did Emma, and Dan looked like a total dork as he leaned towards the fan and yelled while Emma giggled and missed every time.

Phil immediately took out his phone to film this amazing incident, setting everything he was carrying down onto the floor for a moment. After he caught about a minute of Dan and Emma’s silly game on video, he picked up the goods again and made his presence known.

“You two are too perfect for this world, you know?” he said softly, not wanting to disturb the moment.

Dan’s head snapped around at Phil’s voice, mouth already open around a wide smile to reply, but froze with his mouth hung open when he saw what Phil was carrying.

Phil had brought home not only Starbucks coffee, but also a chocolate bar and a bouquet of red roses for Dan’s hopelessly romantic side.

“I brought a surprise for my extremely adorable and wonderful husband,” Phil said with a grin.

“Oh my god, Phil! That was so cheesy,“ Dan groaned through his grin. His cheeks had turned a soft pink and Dan was sure his heart-eyes were on at Maximum Affection.

“You love it,” Phil replied with an awkward wink.

Dan stood up with Emma, resting her on his hip, and gave Phil a quick peck on the lips. “Of course I do.”

“I love you,” Phil whispered with a smile. He leaned in again, kissing Dan more firmly. He rested their foreheads together and smiled.

“I see Emma is enjoying the fan,” Phil said with a soft chuckle. “I may or may not have filmed some of it because it was too cute not to,” he confessed with a grin.

Dan laughed and pulled back from Phil, shaking his head and looking down at Emma again. She seized his chin and giggled.

“Someday, Emma, you’re going to be horrifically embarrassed by the two of us and all these videos your papa can’t stop taking of you.” Dan booped her gently on the nose.

“Hey! You’ve been taking videos, too! You can’t blame the digital scrapbook entirely on me,” Phil whined. He lightly punched Dan’s free arm, then remembered an interesting fact that made his eyes light up. “And, if I remember correctly, you were the one that started it with that video of when we first met her!” he teased Dan.

“Okay, okay, fine,” Dan conceded, shaking his head in fond exasperation. “Maybe both of your dads are embarrassingly in love with you, Emma.” He leaned down and kissed Emma’s forehead, laughing as she grabbed his nose.

Phil let out a loud laugh, then helped Dan pry her little fingers off his nose.

“I think it’s safe to say that she’s embarrassingly in love with us, too.”

#phan #phanfic #phanfiction #phandom fic fest #parent!phan #phan fluff #fluff #established relationship

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