#this poor girl is going through things | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

collectivecloseness · 1 year

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Omg some more Robin pls?! Maybe some angst or smth?

Enough Sweetness

Robin Buckley x reader

Steve tilted his head up to watch Robin, yet again laughing under his breath, at her humming to another cheesy love song blasting through the radio of family video. This time she was even dancing to it. Again!

He’d let her enjoy her happiness. She genuinely deserved it, and he was kinda living through her vicarious joy in her love life right now. But not when she was about to abdanon him during his shift, and leave him with a tonne of shit to sort. “Hey! Wanna pick up those tapes on the fooor, for the dozenth time?” Steve chirped at her, but he still shook his head as he smiled, when Robin span around to him, beaming widely herself.

Her teeth shone, dancing with the large bag of candyfloss she hadn’t realised she’d been hugging for the past twenty minutes now. “Y/n’s picking me up early. I’ll do it when she gets here!” She waved Steve off, although hopped over to his side, putting away the sugary treat and grinning up at him, so glad each other’s positive energy was bringing the other up more and more! She was still just bouncing on her feet as she stood next to him, asking him yet again if she should change into the other shirt she brought with her, needing his advice with what she should wear on her first date with you.

Yesterday had been massive. An amazing event in Robins usually perilous life. The first time her heart had beat that fast and it wasn’t because of a panic attack, in months. You had asked Robin out, on a date. You!!!

Robin had been desperately and deeply crushing on you for months, ever since you moved to town and became friends with her and Steve! Robin was so pleased you were actually gay, because she had no idea if you had actually been flirting with her when she had with you, holy shit! And thank god you’d been brave enough to make the first move and ask her out, because Robin knew she would’ve been too scared to speak up. Well, minus a trapped life or death situation. Like how she told Steve her... situation.

The entire end of yesterday’s shift, the phone call between the two that had lasted all night, and all of today’s shift, had literally just been Robin and Steve discussing your date tonight! Robin thought Steve was nearly as excited as her. She was so so so glad she could just talk with him about it! Over and over. Even when she was basically just repeating the same thing for the millionth time, Steve still got excited with her when she brought it up, even asking more questions about it that he’d thought up!

They mostly, however, talked about what you two would do, since Robin, half stupidly, said she wanted to be the one to think of the date idea, since you’d been bold enough to ask her in the first place. She panicked until Steve helped her with some ideas, and she finally had decided on a good date! Robin had it all planned out, every detail perfect. She’d even gotten you a present! Just some chocolates. One of the big selection boxes, a brand you specifically brought up liking.

Robin always remembered those things about you. Steve had teased her for an entire month, when on a shopping trip you two had tested loads of perfumes, and then Robin secretly bought the one you liked the most. She did literally douse herself in the stuff, but Steve teasing her about spraying it extra hard whenever you came in, didn’t help her red face when she was trying to get it on with the ladies! Rather, one particular lady. But... those chocolates were golden. Steve said that type of present was okay for a first date too.

Something Robin asked Steve about yet again. Her bag was by the candy section near the front of the store, since you’d be here soon enough and no customers would be at this time. She opened up her bag, showing off the selection box to Steve in person, and not just a peek through her zipped bag. “Are you sure it’s big enough? Or- or is it too big? Or-?”

“Robin it’s chocolate. I’m sure she’ll love it.” Steve chuckled. But Robin only rolled her eyes at him. “You’re a guy, you don’t get it.”

“Well I get dates, since I’ve actually been on some.” Steve teased, raising his elbow up to defend him from Robin’s shove he knew was coming, but both friends still had smirks on their faces. It’d been a part of the reason Robin was so excited anyway. She kept bringing up the last 24 hours how this would be her first proper date!

“Look, y/n will love them. I swear. You didn’t even need chocolate, she likes you.” Steve solemnly vowed, hand to his heart, and the other coming down on Robin’s shoulder. Who just started vibrating under him at the knowledge, like a puppy on a sugar rush. Steve had to physically take his hand back off, she was making it tingly. He still looked at her. Holy shit. Had she just been vibrating this entire time?

“Yeah, but it’ll definitely score points!” Robin chimed, knowingly.

“Well you know what would score points with me? Picking up those tapes I’ve asked you to clear. You said you wanted to split into sections today.”

“Luckily I don’t need to score points with you, I already know you love me.” Robin sung, Steve having his turn to roll his eyes at her now, as Robin moved back over to the wrong side of the room.

“Hey! At least take your bag to the break room. That way I won’t break my neck on that as well.” Steve teased, lifting it up for her to snatch out his hands.

“Okay!” Robin said, balancing her tray of chocolates in one hand and the strap of her bag in the other.

“Y/n will definitely know you’re a creepy stalker if she sees you just staring out the windows.” Steve teased, tidying the tapes on his side of the room, Robin not even caring about giving a comeback today, too cheerful, only a snort, as she turned her back.

But Robin’s luck did have to run out at some point. While she woke up with a great skin day, and she’d found the bottle of conditioner that always made her hair look extra soft, and her best looking clothes had dried in time for her to wear/pack in her work bag... Robin made a mistake.

Robin skipped over to the front desk, where the break room entrance would be. Only to trip over the pile of tapes on her path, and go flying into the dirty carpeted floor.

“Shit!” Steve swore, running over to where he’d seen Robin topple, only hissing as he saw her gift for you, crumpled between her hands and the floor, and the chocolates scattered across the entirety of it. It was broken. But Steve had to quickly move onto Robin, who was face first on the floor, taking her arm and lifting her up a little. “Robin? Hey. Are you okay?” He asked concerned.

Robin felt dazed for a moment, the heels of her hands slightly burning, and embarrassment flooding through her at eating shit like that. But then, as Steve helped her sit up, Robin took sight of all of her chocolates, smashed and thrown around the floor. It was ruined.

Everything was ruined!

Steve’s heart sank deep into his stomach when Robin immediately burst into tears. “Shit, Robin.” He rubbed her shoulder as he stood her up by himself, very little help from his friend, as he quickly determined she wasn’t properly hurt. She was just upset. Her face not red from bashing it, but from how her tears started to flow.

“Sssh ssh ssh ssh. Hey, Robin. It’s okay.” Steve promised, rubbing both her shoulders quickly to try and comfort her, feeling awful as she buried her hand into her face, after staring at more at her gift strewn about.

“Sssshh. I promise y/n won’t mind, eh?” Steve spoke with a smile. But it didn’t work. Robin shook her head vehemently, rubbing the back of her hand against her nose. “No. It’s all ruined!” She sobbed. Steve gave her a quick hug, murmuring a “No it’s not. It’s not ruined.” into her hair, before pulling back with his hands still planted firmly on her shoulders.

Robin only stood in his hold. “I’m so stupid. You told me to pick them up.”

Steve couldn’t have his best friend talking like this, especially not on what was supposed to be one of the best days of her life! “Nah. I’m too bossy, not surprising my words go in one ear half the time.” Steve shrugged, to which, to his glee, gets a small laugh from Robin.

“You’re not bossy.” She moans, sniffling that tiny smile away again.

“Thank you.” Steve still smiles, gratefully holding onto Robin when she pushes herself into his chest for a hug this time. Squeezing her tight in his arms as she hugged his back, his smile dimming a little as he sees the open box, crumpled on the floor. There wasn’t a single chocolate left in the red plastic of the packaging, nothing salvageable. But it wasn’t that big a deal. He just had to focus on Robin right now. Get her happy and date ready again like she was a minute ago.

But then as he pulled back, because he swore he heard her crying more, even though Robin still looked like she needed that hug, Steve’s eyes wandered down. And his face softened in empathy. “Hey... What happened?” He asked gently, looking down to get Robin’s attention on her pant leg, that was very ruffled and messed up, high on her calf.

Robin sniffed, keeping one hand on Steve’s bicep for leverage, as she pulled up her pant leg, and started to feel the small sting of pain now she was moving it about, now she’d noticed it. She had a scrape on her knee. Little dots of blood around a tiny cut, the skin all looking very flushed.

Steve hissed through his teeth, mostly to show Robin he saw it, as he rubbed his hand up her back. “Come on. Let’s go to the break room, get it fixed.”

Steve walked her there, turning on the lights before he propped Robin up on a stool, grabbing the first aid kit and gently dabbing at her scraped knee with an antiseptic wipe. As Robin used the tissues he’d brought, to clean up her snot. Although she was still crying. Steve carefully pressed a bandaid to her knee, before settling on his knees by her front, gently nudging her hand with the back of his finger. “Hey. What’s wrong?” Steve learnt to ask that more than ‘no need to cry’ after that had been ingrained in him as a child. He’d only gotten rid of it after his King Steve days, even then when he was trying to comfort people he cared about.

“It’s okay! You’re still gonna go on your date and have an amazing time. It doesn’t matter that much, really Robin.” He assured her, but he chewed on his lip as Robin didn’t respond, tears still following heavily, only shaking her head with a groan, disagreeing with him.

Steve sighed, deciding to sit down properly at her knees now, knowing that under the layer of glee Robin had for this date, she also was bursting with anxiety. “Why’d you think chocolate would be the end all?”

“It’s not about the chocolate. It’s because it was a gift for her.” Robin explained despondently, her breath hitching with cries as she scrubbed harshly at her cheeks. Who cares? Her make up was ruined now anyways!

“Okay, why do you think a gift would be that important?” Steve decides to ask instead, his own breath catching in his throat at the miserable look Robin gives him from where her head is bowed. Fringe a mess, mascara dabbed under her eyelids, skin flushed under her freckles, and eyes dejected.

“Oh jeez, you’re really nervous aren’t you?” Steve realised, rubbing his hand over the back of his head.

“It’s-“ Robin had to take a deep breath, the action immediately stuttering in her throat, and causing her to sob again. Wiping at the tears still leaking out of her eyes. “It’s not just that it’ll be my first actual date. Or that, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to date that many people. Because I can’t exactly go around saying that I...” She swallowed, tearing up further as her lip trembled. “Saying I like women.”

Steve shuffled closer, resting his hand on her good knee.

“That like, I might not get many opportunities to date. It’s not just that, I-“ Robin heaved a breath that sounded pained, spit flecking out as she breathed. “It’s that... I really, really like her Steve. Like, I don’t just like y/n, I...” This one, Robin found harder to finish. She didn’t wail more, or cover her face, She just needed help in saying it. He nodded in understanding. He already knew. Squeezing her knee, he moved until Robin could catch his eyes. “I really really really like her Steve. I like her so much. And I just... I don’t know what I’ll do if she doesn’t like me that way. If we go on a date, and she wasn’t really that serious, or she decides I’m not good enough-!”

“Hey! Nobody could think that.” Steve shook his head as he stopped her there. Eyes serious but empathetic up at her.

And Robin nodded, taking his hand that was on her knee into both her own. Holding them tight, as she tries to come down.

Steve can tell she really does believe him, so he shimmies a little closer, his feet jammed against hers as he adds. “I mean hey, didn’t she ask you out?”

Robin laughed. A shy and excited little “Yeah.” leaving her lips, like she still couldn’t quite believe it herself. It was really a good for her moment. And she squeezes her best friends hand in excitement as she recalled the happy memory, Steve squeezing back.

“What the hell happened in here?!?”

Robin and Steve’s heads both shot to the closed door of the break room, instantly recognising your voice. And realising you must’ve seen the scene of scattered tapes and ruined chocolates all over the floor, with no one in sight.

The two both froze, before turning back to look at each other. With only knowing looks, no words, passing by the duo, Steve easily recognised that Robin wanted him to go out first, and get you.

Which is what he did, Robin watching him stand and open the door, hearing him mumbling to you about her, as she sniffed, and desperately tried to wipe at her eyes. Oh my god. How much snot did she have in her? And why could she still not stop crying??!

When you entered the break room after Steve had somewhat explained the front, your heart broke as you saw your Robin. Sitting there on a stool, looking so small, as she looked up at you with a tear streaked face, pant leg lifted and a bandaid on her knee. “Hey! Hey sweet girl. What happened?” You asked, walking towards her.

Robin looked up at you sadly, eyes blurry from her tears, feeling like her shaky lip was about to form a pout. And all she wanted to do was reach her arms up for you.

But she didn’t need to. Because you swooped straight down to her level, enveloping her in a big hug. Robin cried more into your shoulder as you did so. Not loudly, but knowing she was letting drool and tears onto your jacket and still clinging to you anyway. Little hiccups leaving her as you pulled gently away, rubbing her leg up and down above her sore knee. “Hey sweetheart, you’re okay. What happened?”

Robin took some shaky breaths, still clinging onto your jacket as you held her arms, her voice a little shaky too. “Th- the chocolates.”

“Were they for me?” You asked, with a sweet and surprised smile.

Robin nodded. Wanting to bemoan ‘I ruined it’, but finding herself unable to with that smile you were giving her.

“Oh Robbie, that’s so sweet! Thank you honey.” You hugged around Robin’s neck, swaying her a little, with your cheek pressed to hers. And Robin couldn’t help but close her eyes, and take a breath, clinging onto your arms that were wrapped so lovingly around her neck, and just letting you sway her.

“It’s okay, thank you for the gift anyway sweetie, I saw it. That was so sweet. They looked nice.” You spoke warmly.

Robin nodded, sniffing as she clenched her hands back and forth over the arms of your jacket. She was about to say, that she just wanted everything to be perfect, to prove to you, but she was cut off by you talking first.

“I don’t think I need that much more sweetness though, do I honey?” You grinned wide, before leaning up and giving Robin a big kiss to her cheek.

It made her giggle, actually giggle. Even though it was sappy. But she knew that was the point. You were trying to make her laugh.

But as Robin’s giggles died down, you gave a tilt of your head with a small shrug, saying a causal “Also” before pulling out from your bag, the exact same box of chocolates.

“Holy shit.” Robin laughed in a breath, still sounding a little congested. You wiped her tears softly with the back of your hand. “Yeah. Seems like we have a lot more in common than we thought. And we haven’t even started the date yet!” You smiled, and Robin smiled shyly but excitedly back, hiding her freckled face that was red for a different reason now. “So I think you’re doing a pretty good job so far.” You winked, and your hands dropped from Robin’s shoulders to her lap. Where Robin could pick them up into her own, and hold them.

Robin sniffed, most of her tears having stopped now at least, and you freed one hand to rub at her hurt leg again. “C’mon. Let’s clean up that pretty face, after Steve took my shining knight moment of helping your poor leg.” You smiled, taking Robin’s hand to help stand her up, and keeping a hold of it, as well as still looking at her, while you walked her over to the basin in the room.

Robin stammered out, finally able to make a joke “I might’ve bled out first, before you got here.”

You grinned at your date. “Well, did Steve get to do this?” You asked, getting on your knees in front of Robin, and kissing her sore knee.

Robin sucked her lips in with her smile as you did so, holding her hand out for you this time, to help you up. Something she felt so grateful for, to feel you holding back. “No.” She sniffed. “Bastard.”

You threw your head back at her joke, eyes shining on hers as you laughed with her hand still in yours. And Robin beamed with pride banging in her chest.

She finally relaxed as she let you wash her face up. Blowing her nose a little disgustingly, but you didn’t seem to care. You stroked back her hair that was sticking to her cheeks with the water, before giving a smiling pout, knowing her tears and your wet cloth had kinda messed with her look. “Oh your pretty make up. I know I worked hard today on mine too.”

You made Robin shy, looking to the trash can before binning her tissue, pivoting a little on her feet with a burning smile. How long had you been doing and redoing your make up? Were you freaking out about what to wear like she was? Just for your date with her?

“Guess I’ll have to freshen up your make up for you, huh sweetheart?” You took Robin’s face in your hands, wiping your thumbs on the glowing parts of her cheeks where tears had rolled before. Robin nodded at your grin, loving that you were holding her face. And knowing you were hinting at touching it more, by doing her make up for her. “Yeah,” Robin started, finally feeling the flirty part of her beat the anxious one, as her hand stroked the back of your own affectionately. “I think I still feel all lightheaded from the fall, so...”

You wanted to kiss Robin right now. You’d tell her that, later, after your first kiss. You’d tell her all the times you wanted to kiss her beautiful face. But instead, you held yourself back by nodding. Gently squeezing her warm cheeks once more, before tilting her head closer to you and kissing her other cheek this time. “Okay then. And you’ve still got to tell me where you’re taking me on our date! I’ve been so excited since yesterday!”

Robin’s eyes widened. Finally clear enough to see you again, and so wonderstruck grateful at what she saw. God, she couldn’t wait to kiss you!

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belethlegwen · 1 year

Text

The Faerie Spell - Chp 7

Chapter One: Click Here

Previous Chapter: Click Here

Story Directory: Click Here

Words: 6061

Summary: Daphne decides to take back some of her own agency after the awkward-as-hell movie night, learning that she can get away with keeping her curse-bullshit bouts a secret under certain conditions. It makes her feel good enough that she starts to finally start breaking away from her friends a bit, making more decisions for herself and even deciding to treat herself a little!

But...

Content Warning: Violence, bodily harm, fear

Since the movie-night, like I mentioned, there had been three episodes. The first one didn’t even last until morning, which made things a bit awkward. Waking up to cold chills and wondering how long it had been, scrambling with whatever I could remember to grab out to the top of the desk. I made it, but it did make me move the bed from the second floor/loft of the ‘beach bungalow’ to the ground floor.

I fell into my real bed, barely blinked my damn eyes and the sun was up before I could fully form the question of what that stupid winged bastard was getting up to at my height in the middle of the night on a Friday. Sheri had helpfully informed me at the kitchen table that I looked like shit, but it being Saturday, I just took a morning shower and went right back to nap until lunch. It, admittedly, wasn’t a huge help to my energy or my mood.

The second one had happened on Tuesday, around 10:30 or so in the morning. I was mid-zoom call with my team lead and some of my other coworkers when the feeling came over me and I managed to zonk the laptop down with me in what I personally believe was my smoothest move yet. Only one of them had even noticed something happened, and that was more because the warm waves make me sweaty-- whether from anxiety or because they’re actually that warm, I haven’t actually bothered to check-- and a little nauseous. I had almost passed it off completely, but because I hadn’t been charging the laptop all morning the battery died just a bit past lunch and I had to take a sick day for the latter half.

I had been getting warned about taking those, but I had looked at the health coverage and poured over some of the language with a personal caseworker after my accident, and ‘illnesses and afflictions’ such as mine were covered.

…Well, supposed to be, but it was still a weekly game of email-tag with HR and management to get the sick days applied properly and compensated for according to the contract, etcetera etcetera, blahblahblah.

I had forgotten that day who was free and who wasn’t, and I didn’t want to give Sheridan an excuse to dodge out of work early or something, so I just… wandered. I got into the cupboard I had been testing, I checked my new elastic-ladder situation, and realized what was so good about sunbeams. As a heads up: Giant cheetos are more trouble than they’re worth, but there’s something about giant breakfast cereal if you can get to it that really really hits.

I was honestly about to start heading back to where my phone was sitting on the desk in my room, ready to alert them that it had happened before Sheridan may have shown up and found me, when the cold chills hit and I was standing normal-sized in the hall again. Being self-sufficient felt good. Really good, honestly, and being able to just spend time by myself and do things on my own helped me plan out some things I could do to make everything easier to just… stay self-sufficient.

Mostly it involved getting a lot of things for my room. I started taking little notes in a diary, started bringing a bag full of some essentials with me from room to room so that if it hit again I’d be able to-- hopefully-- grab it before I zonked. ALWAYS making sure my phone was going in a pocket of some kind instead of being laid somewhere was a tricky one, but I had been getting better at it! By the time the next bout hit, I had improved a bunch of little, like… quality of life things for myself in terms of mobility, keeping things kind of concentrated to certain areas, that sort of deal.

I got a little bit sour that nobody noticed them before I zonked or whatever. No one seemed to care about my stupid curse or how I was actually dealing with it outside of making dumb jokes, so nobody noticed that the bookshelf dollhouse set up had gotten a little pimped out, that I had made some extra additions for like, comfort. Closest we came was when Gem popped in for dinner with us one night and she noted that I had some scraps of fabric and stuff around, things like hacky sacks or a scrap of old memory-foam from a pillow I was replacing that I had wrapped some cloth around, wondering why I wasn’t ordering more doll furniture.

I told her this was just basic stuff to ‘tide me over’ until an order came in. She had been excited about that, even though I didn’t honestly believe it was that convincing of a lie. It still wasn’t probably going to be comfortable but it was better than a lot of the doll-intended trash I had already wound up with.

I had… almost forgotten about the Gem shit entirely by this point. There were moments when it would hit again, but honestly? In my newfound independence, it didn’t bother me nearly as much and I had no interest in wanting to talk to anyone about it. Why bring it up? I was actively making it not-a-problem and that felt so good, oh my god.

The latest bout, the one that ended this morning, happened at 10:30-ish again on Tuesday, and I was sincerely hoping that whatever this bastard was up to would last the same length of time as it did the last time, but by 4:30 I was left with no real choice but to warn everybody before Sheri came home and just found me. I had gotten through the entire workday with no one noticing that my background was uh… well, bigger, but I tended to keep to a pretty vague section of my desk while on the zoom calls and such anyway, so I suppose it wouldn’t have been extremely noticeable.

Once Sheridan made it back and settled in for the night, I messaged Cal and had them come over to hang out with me in my room and even convinced them to sleep over just to get Gem off my back. We didn’t talk about the incident, but Cal and I did have a conversation about how kind of pushy Gem was about babysitting me and taking me for sleepovers when this shit happened, even when it was blatantly impractical like it was that night: she had work the next morning! Was I just going to hang out on a table in her house for 8 hours? Was I supposed to break my way out of there if the curse un-zonked me mid-way through the day? God girl, just let me sleep in my own house.

“Listen,” Cal had said as they spread out on my bed, causing the pillow I was sitting on to almost toss me into the air as their head landed on it with some force next to me. “I can’t blame her too much, you’re pretty cute like this.”

“Ugh,” I had grunted, reaching for the strap of my bag and hauling back up beside me to avoid it getting crushed, sending off my sick-leave request on my phone. “That’s the last thing I wanna hear. I just wish people would give me a fuckin’ break when I’m like this.”

“It takes you like, four years to get to a bathroom at this size, girl,” they had drawled, yawning, their hand almost hitting me as it moved to flop on the other side of me. “Only so much of a break you can get.”

“You know I’ve like, dealt with that at least a little, right?” I had asked pointedly, turning to stare at the side of their face, but it was useless. As they scoffed and made some kind of comment that unless we put litter boxes in every room ‘it wouldn’t matter’, I decided to not let them in on the details of my creative engineering.

I also decided, once again, to not complain about how touchy Gem was when Cal’s finger started to bump into me idly and repeatedly while we talked. What right did I have to complain about Gem’s handsy-ness when I was constantly smacking at Cal’s stupid fingers?

One thing I was grateful to Cal for, though, was that when I told them I could handle myself and would message them if anything went wrong, they believed me enough to head out to work the next morning without trying to call in Mak or Gem. Even agreed to send a dummy-message in the afternoon that they were heading home so it looked like I’d only be home alone for maybe an hour before Sheri got back. Sheri had even made sure Hannibal wasn’t going to do his morning run, though it was pretty unnecessary. One of my quality-of-life upgrades I finally caved to was a couple of sets of earplugs.

I had run clean out of those USB-charger battery packs by the time me and Sheri had finished dinner, so she had suggested we just watch TV together while I gave my phone a break. It was honestly a nice night, like I had said; she was pretty good about listening to me when I said it’s easier for me to watch from the back of the couch, or at least the armrest, and aside from the quick warnings before being grabbed and moved everywhere she was alright to get along with.

The rest of the group chat… not so much. When I mentioned my phone was dying, Gem told me she was absolutely going to take the time off of work tomorrow and come get me so someone was ‘actually taking care of me’ while I was still zonked, Mak asked me why I didn’t just keep all of my old phones charged as back-ups because they don’t need SIM cards to use the WiFi and I was going to be home all the time anyway, Cal saying instead that they’d call in for their shift tomorrow afternoon if I was still zonked and come hang with me at my place, which just started an argument with Gem…

When I was grabbing my bag and everything just a bit before 5am and sleepily dragging my ass out of the bungalow, I can not begin to express how god-damn relieved I was. I plugged my phone in and sent off a message to the chat that I was big again, everything was fine, and then just collapsed for a few more hours of sleep. By 7, everyone had seen and was… well, they all said they were happy to hear, but I was getting more and more suspicious of Gem’s level of honesty.

So, I hope that’s a pretty clear explanation of why I decided, at around 9am, to drive myself into town to run some very minor, personal errands and just enjoy myself without letting anyone know.

Like, the house-keeping was done and getting done! I plugged in all of my chargers at home, phone was back to full charge by the time I was up, set up my laptop to charge… My sick-leave was still in place, though I had told the crew that I was thinking of letting them know that I was good to work again when I first was re-embiggened or whatever before dawn. I decided against it because after Sheridan had left for work it just kind of hit me that… I missed doing shit on my own.

It hit me that I hated the idea of trying to ask if one of them could schedule some time with me to get my haircut, or that the only one who ever really seemed down for a nice coffee-and-chat like I used to have was Gem because everyone else was busy or was worried I’d zonk or something.

I also, also… kind of wanted to try out some of the other magic shops around town. I had been doing research, but every time I brought it up around the gang, they all got really squirrelly about it; even Gem, who was always saying she knew someone or knew someone who knew someone who was in the magic underground scene or what-have-you. Like, we were all super ignorant about magic stuff, me and Cal almost especially because of our, uh…

Well lets just say that our respective upbringings required a lot of very intense unlearning in order for Cal to be able to be themself, and for me to just… get along with other people, especially people like Cal.

We don’t go home to visit family often, is what I’m saying. If my family knew I had been cursed by magic they would probably say it was because I was ‘giving into sinful urges’ or something. Then they’d ask if I had a boyfriend yet. You know how that shit gets.

I won’t lie, I had been putting off showing my face around like… known magic gigs since the Witch had flipped her lid at me, but I figured if I just went in and asked, and just didn’t tell them I was cursed or whatever maybe they wouldn’t like… try to read it or whatever the fuck that sour old bitch did that told her I was somehow in cahoots with a Faerie. My real issue was that no one else was going to do it for me though, so I figured just… nosing around for new charms wouldn’t kill me?

I mean, I was at no risk. I had gotten a minimum of almost four days between bouts at the shortest since this had all started, and it ended this morning. All I wanted was to feel normal, and I had already proven to myself in at least a dozen ways that I can handle myself way better than the others wanted to believe. So… I drove into town, parked the car at my workplace lot because I still had my pass and it was pretty close to everything I wanted to do, and then walked into a salon to get my hair finally dealt with.

I kept it long enough that I could just keep it in a bun, hopefully no one would notice immediately, but I figured, hey! If I can go a few days without anyone figuring it out, I could let Cal in on the secret. They could appreciate a good bit of friendly espionage like that, we always liked doing that kind of thing.

God, it was so nice to just… sit in a chair and chat with a hair stylist again. It was nice to just be out, with people I didn’t know, just acting like a person again! I went window shopping, I stopped into a little cafe I had never been in before and got myself this neat little herb-and-cheese danish thing and a really really fancy coffee from them-- literally just told them what my favourite flavours were, said I wanted something hot and fancy, and the barista looked like they could die they were so happy to build me something custom. They even wrote it down after I tried it and loved it in case I wanted to order it again!

I was just wandering around the downtown area, bopping along to tunes and taking a ton of pictures of things that I never realized I missed so much. I was waving to people, saying hi and smiling…

Did you ever notice that you used to be someone, and that you just… hadn’t been that person in a while? It was weird. It was so weird to become that person again so naturally, so easily, and see how badly I had missed it. Even before the stupid curse I just hadn’t been doing much of any kind of socializing outside of the crew because I was just so busy all the time with work, and I mean, after the bullshit with my ex it wasn’t like I was trying to hit the town and find a new mistake to make, so…

I had been bringing up Google maps so much to find out where anything I might wanna visit might be that my phone was already on half-charge, so it was going to be a pretty short trip out into the real world. I wasn’t too upset, honestly my anxiety was high enough in the car originally that I was thinking I’d just do the haircut and get back home ASAP, but once the sunlight and fresh air hit me… damn I really did love it.

My legs also felt they could walk me clear out of town and back if I wanted, too, which was a fun little benefit. Walking to the nearest charm shop and then back to the car would be easy, and I still had like half of my very-fancy-coffee drink with me to keep me company.

I was already making plans to come back tomorrow, my eyes looking at a gorgeous little outdoor seating area outside a restaurant, a little wrought-iron fence and some bushes, under the sidewalk trees. There were a few couples, some loners, and even a couple of moms with their below-school-aged kids with them enjoying an early lunch, and it just looked so wonderful. I stopped at the little wooden sign with today’s specials on it, trying to glance around the area to see if there was a waiter or someone I could ask about seeing a full menu, when I felt the sun break through the trees.

God, what a beautiful day. Why didn’t I do this more? Why did I just let myself be scared, let my friends try to run my life like I needed to be wrapped in bubble wrap all the time? What was so terrifying about being out here on such a gorgeous day?

The alarm on my phone started to go off, reminding me that if I had been at work, there was a zoom meeting due about one of my team’s projects happening in a half hour. It was loud and obnoxious, and I felt myself flush at the embarrassment of having some random video-game noise from the 90s start blasting out in the middle of such a nice public spot. I heard high-pitched, squealy giggles as I pulled it out of my pocket and hit the shut-off button, sighing.

Then I caught my reflection on the screen as it changed back to black.

I caught the look of myself, sweat beading on my head, and realized that the sun had never broken through the trees around me.

“That fucker--” I managed, somewhere between panic and rage, before the rush of air and massive bout of nausea sent me to my knees instantly on the extremely rough concrete. My coffee spilling on the ground as I slammed the paper cup against it.

I vomited. I couldn’t help it. I vomited and scrambled to my feet as fast as possible, ready to start screaming if anything came near-- the three times this had happened outdoors, the massive feeling of being so exposed so suddenly, with no walls and no ceiling, had hit like a ton of bricks and this was absolutely no different. At least there weren’t any pigeons around this time, I guess.

To my left was the wrought-iron fence and the side of one of the bushes that decorated it. The folding menu-sign with the specials chalked up on it was just slightly further, and was also likely to get too many eyes. I darted, running sloppily toward the fence and the bush instead, my hand diving into the pocket with my stones in it and hauling them out.

I could barely keep myself upright; between the nausea and the panic, I was barely breathing around my heart feeling like it was literally sitting at the back of my god damn tongue. I was swearing, that was the only way I could think to get air out of me between terrified gulps of air. Between my shaking hands, I was able to finally grab the stone that had the minor-invisibility charm and after stammering twice, activated it. That helped, a little. It would at least keep the birds from finding me if there were any bumming around the restaurant tables looking for scraps.

The charm was basically one of those that kept eyes from landing on you if someone wasn’t specifically looking for you, or you weren’t drawing specific attention to yourself. I never had to use it much between never leaving the house and always winding up in a pocket or a purse when I did and zonked, but that just made me happier knowing that it had a lot of charge.

My mind was racing as I slipped it back into my pocket and moved to the next stone. I had nothing with me, nothing but the stones which were always in my pockets out of habit, my phone, and my wallet which was useless at this size. My bag was at home, but even if I had it all of the chargers were out and plugged in, the only thing in it now was a chocolate bar, spare pajamas and earplugs. I was going to need to tell someone that I had left the house, that I was basically somewhere downtown, try and send the geolocation and just… hunker down and hope nothing ate me until they got here. It was going to have to be Cal. Their shift wasn’t until later in the afternoon, they might not have left yet… they might not be awake but they’d be my safest bet with the least amount of yelling, at least immediately.

Next charm I wanted to use was the protection stone, it helped with bumps and falls, and even helped-- at least a little-- with the crew grabbing me if they were a little more rough about swinging me around. It was like magic padding. I was going to need it if I was going to be trying to climb things out in the wild and hiding under stuff, waiting for Cal to come get me. Massive feet were stomping past on the sidewalk between the little fenced-off garden eating area and the actual wall of businesses that seemed like they were towering skyscrapers blocks away from this height, and I wanted to puke all over again at how heavy they felt even on the concrete. My stomach churned and I couldn’t bring myself to get the spell-word out while I was gagging over the thought that maybe I’d need to find someone, a stranger, to try and talk to to keep me safe until I could get rescued by one of the gang.

I had just gotten the shield spell activated, shoving it back into my pocket with the unactivated speaking-stone as I was determined to not talk to anyone, to not draw any attention to myself whatsoever while I was like this, waiting for my blood to heat up and un-curdle again, when suddenly everything around my chest went tight.

Bone-crushingly tight.

My eyes dropped down from the roofs of the buildings instantly to see fingers across my front as my feet were yanked into the air, kicking and flailing as my lower half was completely free-- dangling with a thumb pressing painfully into my back.

I screamed.

I screamed, and whatever was behind me let out a squealing screech of delight so loud I went temporarily deaf in both ears.

I was being flung around, up and down in wide arcs as the squealing noise continued, barely fading back in as my hearing came back and was blasted away again by another insane bout of noise. The grip tightened again and the fingers shifted up against my neck as I almost slipped in another wild shake. My vision was nothing but colors and stars, the stone keeping my bones from breaking but everything still hurt.

My only reaction was to throw my face forward and bite, and bite hard.

The reaction was instant. The fucker screamed so loud every bone in my body vibrated to the point I was worried my joints would just fall apart, and my eyes shook-- not that they were any good to me in the moment before that-- but my body hit the ground from what felt like falling off the roof of a house, and I had no time to actually care about how badly I might be hurt. Feet and hands pushed me off of the ground and I scrambled as fast I could manage, practically on all fours for the first half of it, running toward the safety of the bush.

My eyes glanced behind as my hearing started to come back through the most intense ringing I’d ever had, my whole head throbbing-- my whole body throbbing-- and saw the frankly massive child clutching it’s finger while it wailed, tears streaking down it’s face as its mother swept in like a moving building to see what had happened. I turned back to the bush and dove into the leaves and branches, the bluntly-cut ends of wood jabbing into my body as I tried desperately to scratch my way inside to almost no effect.

I tasted blood. I had no idea if it was mine, or if I had managed to actually hurt the kid.

How the fuck could this happen?! I had the stone activated, the kid shouldn’t have fucking seen me, shouldn’t have even noticed me after it was on. God, unless the kid had heard my phone going off and was already watching when it all happened… fuck.

There was a searing pain against my leg that I finally clued into as air was finally going back in and out of my lungs, my stupid battered body trying to wriggle around this bush to get completely out of the child’s view, but from the stupid babbling it was making I was terrified-- I knew it was going to try and come back and look for me. The searing pain was literally that-- searing. The protection stone was so hot I almost thought it might be burning me, it must not be meant to work that hard, that fast.

It was cooling, at least, but still-- now I was terrified of how much of it’s charge that stupid kid had used trying to fling me around like garbage. My chest was heaving, and all my brain kept telling me to do was run, and run as far as I could. A gap finally opened in the overly-manicured branches, a tight tunnel of sharp and poking twigs twisted around that looked like they came out the other side near the bottom of one of the street-side trash cans. I might be able to fit under that, if I could get there fast enough.

The thumping and rumbling of footsteps all around me-- someone was dragging their steel chair across the bricks just alongside the stupid topiary-divider I was trying to scramble my way through like a rat and it cut through the other ringing in my ears like something was jamming dentistry tools inside my skull-- was enough to make me want to vomit again. I was doing a good job at holding that back until I finally broke free of the bush and moved to make a dart for the cover of the trashcan, my sleeve snagged on one of the jagged-cut branches I had pushed past.

“Come on just let me go!” I screamed, turning to yank at it before a rush of air caused me to yell again, ducking and pressing myself back into the greenery while another insane amount of noise rocked my world so hard it knocked the wind out of me.

“Fuckin’ hell, you can’t aim for shit,” a booming voice laughed mockingly as another voice so deep I felt my ribcage vibrate swore back at him. I had almost been crushed by an empty glass bottle, and my thoughts that I was ‘soooooo lucky’ it hadn’t shattered evaporated into my panicked grunting and yelling as I tried to claw my way back into the bush, legs and feet suddenly stepping around the corner and a colossal hand practically slammed down on top of the bottle to grab it.

The leaves and whole bush shifted as the towering body crashed into it sideways, and I shut my eyes, forcing my body as much as I physically could back against the blunt and jabbing ends of the branches that were refusing me entry back into the cover and safety of the stupid plant. The two gigantic idiots were getting into a shoving-match and I was maybe seconds away from getting stepped on, my teeth gritting through the ringing, the pounding, the throbbing of every single part of my head and a significant amount of my body.

“Fuck off ya moron,” one of them shouted and as quickly as they had been there they were gone, their footsteps thudding further and further away as they kept bantering in their rumbling voices. My eyes opened again and I gasped for air.

I hate this. Why did I fucking do this? It wasn’t worth it.

The thought of that massive, unknown hand grabbing me instead of that bottle pushed me over the edge, and I hurled up what little was left in my guts into the bushes again. That fancy coffee probably wasn’t a huge help to my nerves right now, but I was still sad to feel like it had all gone to waste, especially with the thought that I was never going to be able to get one again.

Someone was getting up from a seat in the restaurant area-- god how huge was this place?! It felt like I had been running for miles, for fuck’s sake! As their chair scraped across the ground again I saw them gathering up their trash and turning in my direction, my body scrambling on some primal urge to get out of any potential line of sight. I had no trust now that the stupid invisibility stone was working, or had ever worked. My eyes closed again out of some childish fucking instinct to believe that if I couldn’t see them, they couldn’t see me, and I just had to tremble and try not pathetically cry as their steps got closer and closer and I heard the ridiculous amount of noise of them tossing their garbage away.

Their movements had stopped. Nothing was happening. I had to have been spotted, I must’ve been-- I could hardly hear anything over the sounds of my own breathing now turning into panicked whimpers as I could practically feel them crouching low, staring at me, reaching a hand toward my body to grab me and haul me into the air. I bit my lip so hard I was sure I was bleeding as I imagined that child again, thrashing me around and throwing me through the air.

Then, with a massive wave of relief, they were thumping and stomping away, their voice rumbling into me as they spoke something into their phone, a buzzing conversation coming through the earpiece somewhere high, high above me.

I untangled myself from the bush and lined up alongside it, crouching low. I was so dizzy… would the stone protect me from a concussion? I really should’ve gotten more details about the charms, but I was so nervous about being in there and-- fuck, there’s no time to think about this.

The store directly across from me-- was it the restaurant? Was it another store entirely? How far had I been thrown or flung or whatever had happened? How far had I run? It didn’t matter-- it had a slight outcropping of its brick face, where the main window was, and it left a little protected overhang above the street at least twice my height by the looks of it. There was some garbage that had been blown underneath and seemed pretty well protected from sight and everything else. I get there, I duck and cover and hide.

I was finally hauling my phone out of my pocket to send a geo-lock to Cal, when the massive bush behind me started to shake, the voice of the child and its mom having gotten closer. Was the kid still looking for me? Was the mom looking for whatever rat or bug just bit their kid? I bolted, it was the only move I could really make. They wouldn’t see me over there, they wouldn’t be able to catch me.

I was so preoccupied with them, that I was blasting my way across the gargantuanly-wide sidewalk before I realized that I didn’t account for traffic. A foot slammed down to my left about 20 feet away--to me--, not close enough to worry about but heavy enough to shake me and cause me to yell as I kept running, weaving uselessly… No one lifts their feet enough to miss me, everybody is always nearly scuffing their shoes. I’m constantly at risk of getting bodied by hovering cars and I never noticed before now.

I couldn’t bring my eyes to move anywhere but my goal, even though I knew I was basically running across a 12-lane highway or something stupid. They were all moving so fast, all I had to do was get across this stupid sidewalk, under that ledge, and I’d be fine. Nothing would be able to hit me there, nothing could fall on me… that was it, that’s where I had to go.

I felt a foot land so close behind me I almost stumbled, my hands falling forward to push myself off the pavement and try to fling me forwards, my phone bonking off of the pavement in its case and I didn’t even care as I just held it tighter and kept running. I was so fucking close.

There was a rush of air and, on its own, my head turned to see a foot slam down with such force I felt almost like I was sent hovering from the shock it sent through the pavement. The motion of what it was attached to was so much faster, the shape so different-- I never thought of what someone would even look like while they were running from down here, when they were damn-near 60 feet tall or something.

There was nothing I could do.

My own stride had me lined up directly in the path.

The top of their shoe, the rubber-cased toe, the laces… it smashed into me and knocked every ounce of breath I may have ever taken out of my lungs, and I was pressed into it so hard I thought I’d become a part of it.

Until, suddenly…

…I wasn’t.

My arms uselessly tried to grip it, beyond the last second, noticing too late what was happening as the shoe started to lower out from under me but I was still going, arcing through the air. The stone in my pocket really, honestly felt like it was burning this time, and as I sailed through some kind of railing, the ground dropped out from under me. Now, instead of being maybe 10-15 feet in the air, I was probably 40 or more over the concrete stairwell I had flown into, rapidly descending.

I’m sure I was screaming. I must’ve been, because some kind of noise in me stopped as my back slammed into stone and I felt the hot rock in my pocket shatter against me like it had exploded, the only thing keeping it from flying out like shrapnel being the lining and my jeans.

It was like a stupid movie, everything in slow motion as I was plastered against that wall, gravity slowly pulling my limp body forward. As my eyes landed hazily on the ground below, bare concrete surrounded by trash bags and garbage, my phone fell out of my hand.

The last thing I thought before everything went black was:

Will my body stay this small once I’m dead? Will they ever find it?

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Next Chapter: Click Here

#Daphne's Curse #The Faerie Spell #whump #Listen #LISTEN #I do legitimately feel terrible for what this poor girl is going through #It's been rough time after rough time and every time she thinks things are looking up... well #Worried I should be tagging this story as whump but hhhhhhh #Not sure how I feel on that but I'll do it anyway so:#Things are going to get better for her in the future #I know it to be true #But we're going about that a little differently than we have been so there'll maybe be a bit of a hiatus #It's also the Christmas rush and my job is insane (as many are this time of year)#g/t #giant/tiny #gt #giant tiny #g/t writing #g/t story #giant/tiny writing #giant/tiny story #g/t author #gtauthor #God if Daphne ever gets her hands on that faerie it's gonna be a bad time for the bastard #I promise you all that Daphne will be getting the comfort she deserves and has deserved and needed this entire time #It is coming #Love you all #thank you so much for reading #Sorry about the 100000 tags I don't even know if folks read these if they ain't on reblogs but #here we are

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