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wornoutmouse · 3 years

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Ayo... DOM! Deku with a choking and overstim kink. Like the baku AND DekuSquad both thinks that the reader leads the relationship and is top in bed cuz the difference in personalities and PDA. But the reader just goes along with it cuz she knows that it’s the exact opposite and she wanna get fucked fucked. So in the end the next school day they see the reader limping to school and Deku smiling cheeky. Bro Deku makes me😩 May you do a request to that? It’s ok if you won’t 😊

Question of the Day: What nicknames do y'all find not cringy during a steamy moment?

Cursing, squirting

It wasn’t your fault that people viewed you as the one in charge when it came to the sexual side of you and Izuku’s relationship. You were naturally more energetic and rivaled Bakugou in the terms of attitude and prowess, meanwhile, Deku was one of softer energy. Always smiling awkwardly and blushing at every little joke and jab. Very few people have seen Deku in his prime when he is focused on a goal and will do anything to get there. This attitude graciously carried over to his love life, something you were faithfully reminded of on one faithful day.

As usual, You, and the usual majority of class 1-A sat around each other during lunch. Deku being the nerd he was, sat leaning against you while writing something in his notebook, dusting it every so often when the wind blew flowers off the tree above you. An ethical argument between Mineta and Denki is what started the whole ordeal.

“What do you mean, Mineta?! Deku is totally the submissive one in his and Y/n’s relationship, no doubt about it!” Mineta shook his head adamantly. “I’m telling you, dude, it’s the super nice ones you have to worry about.” Denki gasped, offended, “I can’t believe you are saying this right now, have you no shame!”

Jirou rolled her eyes as she had no choice but to listen to the boy’s stupid conversation. “You do know Y/n is sitting right here right?” Based on the wide look on both of their eyes, they did not in fact realize that. Quickly looking at each other with narrowed features they dig in their pockets in order to retrieve their wallets. “20 bucks that say Y/n is topping Deku.” Mineta scoffed, “40 says you’re wrong.” they both shake on it before scooting closer to you. “So Y/n, which one of us is right.”

Looking between the two boys you open your mouth to answer the truth until you feel Deku shift his weight. He was looking at you, everyone was looking at you, all eager to hear who was right. A hand placed subtly on your back makes your smile widen, for a different reason than everyone else would guess. “Well, I can’t exactly say Denki is wrong, but I can’t say that he’s right.”

The blond whines in annoyance, “Oh come on what does that even mean!?!” While his attention is distracted, Mineta snatches the money from his hands, “That means you’re wrong now pay up.” Denki snaps out of his stupor in order to chase after his smaller classmate, “No the hell it doesn’t!” Now, with everyone’s attention being distracted to the slapstick comedy the two ensue, you realize that the hand you previously felt is gone. Deku is back to scribbling away in his notebook, giving you a false sense of relief.

“Man, Snipe is so aggressive when it comes to history!” Kirishima slouches in his chair knocking Bakugou’s hand as he eats out of a Yogurt cup. “Watch it shitty hair!” is the usual response, as the class congregates together. Asui calls you over to show you something but Deku steps in front of you before you fully stand. “Y/n since we have free time right now, I was hoping you could come and help me with something real quick.” He scratched the back of his head and looked over your head.

On the outside, it was just Deku being shy Deku, nothing suspicious about the ever-present blush he always sported was in full bloom. But from your point of view, it was obvious there was a different intent behind those eyes. “We’ll be back guys.” Deku mutters a hand settled comfortably on your waist as you walk out the door. From the corner of your eye, you could see Jirou watching the two of you leave with an eyebrow raised.

Deku guided you down the school halls, thumb rubbing shapes into your side. He said nothing as you walked, only waving and making small conversation with any familiar face you two passed by. After a long time, you two reach an unfamiliar classroom that Deku curiously peeks inside of. “So what are we doing?” “You’ll see.” Deku ushers the two of you inside before closing and locking the door shut. The mood seems to shift almost immediately.

Deku has a lazy smile on his face as he tugs on his school tie, “So what was that conversation you and Kaminari were having earlier?” Your arms tingle with goosebumps, “I don’t know what you’re referring to.” While Izuku talked, his uniform coat is placed neatly on a nearby desk table, the sleeve of his collared shirt was rolled up and out of the way. “Yeah, I figured you would say that, that’s why I wrote it down to help refresh your memory.”

Deku sits down on a desk, motioning you over to him with a twitch of his fingers. A small notebook you hadn’t noticed till now was pulled from his back pocket before being flipped through. When you stood in front of him, his hand resumed its place on your waist so he could pull you much closer. “According to my notes, Kaminari and Mineta were debating on who was in charge of our relationship.” The more he spoke, the more aware you became of his fingers tapping randomly on your back, each touch tickled your spine, “And in response, you encouraged Kaminari’s theory that you were the one in charge.” Deku snapped the notebook closed with one hand before placing it on the other side of your waist forcing you to face him. “Is that right?”

You are silent when Deku’s scarred hands undo your shirt buttons from the bottom up. “I just thought it was interesting that your answer was different from what my memory recalls.” Izuku sucks in a breath when he sees your black lace bra. The fabric covering your chest conveniently hid the faded hickeys he knew he left 3 weeks ago. “Take this off for me?” The soft tone took you off guard making you pause confused as Deku gently tugged off your shirt and tie. He stands up folding your clothes as you fiddle with your bra straps. “I’m done?” You turn around to hand him your bra but squeak out in surprise when his hand grips your neck.

He keeps his hand there as he backs you up, forcing you to sit on the desk he was previously on. “I’m curious….” Deku trails off in his speech, using the time to kiss you deeply, hand never leaving your neck. “Since you are always the one in charge, I figure that maybe I should finally put in the work and make you feel good?” Deku pulls the chair from underneath the desk and sits down, legs spread. “Well, what are you waiting for, come here?” Your stomach flips as you slide off the table, the stale cool air of the classroom makes your skin prickle with goosebumps as Deku faces you the opposite way in order for you to sit comfortably in his lap.

“Deku what if we get caught?” You nervously glance at the classroom door, the lack of a peeking window putting you somewhat at ease. You were the only one exposed and if someone were to come through that door, they would see your half-naked body in all its glory. A hovering hand grabs the ends of your faux locs to pull your head back so he could whisper in your ear. “I’m sure they’ll understand that I’m just trying to pay you back for all my laziness.”

You bite your lips coyly. He was annoyed, you could definitely hear it now from his sarcastic remarks. But that didn’t make you regret your earlier choice, not one bit, and Deku knew that. The real excitement came from seeing how long it would last.

The gentleness returned when he grabbed your chest, massaging and pulling at them for his own enjoyment before releasing them in order to slide down your stomach. As expected he pinches the skin hard between his fingers and then releases before you even have enough time to complain.

“Just relax okay?” Deku places each of your thighs atop of his, successfully spreading your legs apart. You suppressed laughter whenever his fingers grazed your skin just lightly enough that it tickled, there was no need to give him a reason to be more upset. “Wearing briefs again today?”

Your pussy is palmed without restriction as deft fingers rub at the soft cotton protecting it. “Now how am I supposed to get to you now huh?” You knew the unspoken answer, and Deku knew you hated it as he clenched his fingers into the fabric until it ripped, “Oops.” You shook your head pouting at the unfair treatment, “Why do you always have to do that, now I have to be extra careful of my skirt!”

Strike one was raising your voice.

The touch was quick but still ever so stinging. Deku slapped your pussy in response before using his other hand to hold your neck, firmly tipping it up to the ceiling. “If you would have stopped wearing underwear entirely we wouldn’t be having this conversation, you know I like easy access.” The lack of visible reaction meant nothing since you could almost feel the blood rushed to your face. Deku kisses your neck determined to add marks that you could never hide. Your dark skin peppered with purple bruises while Izuku simultaneously rolled your skirt up to your waist.

You were already wet, the small nibbles here and there were enough for your clit to twitch excitedly as Izuku’s fingers danced around it. “Please touch me!” A warm chuckle vibrated from his chest at your desperate plea, “Calm down and relax Princess. I’ll get you where you need to be.” Deku continues to ignore your clit. His fingers, ever precise, slide between your folds in order to collect your arousal. The feeling adds some pleasure but only enough to make you more desperate. “Look at you.”

Deku observed your hips buck every whenever he got close to your clit. The small nerve swelling with blood and begging to be touched, and who would he be to deny that. It was heaven on earth when he finally put pressure on it. “Mhm!” His fingers combined with your wetness as extra lubrication provided the most pleasurable feeling. You wanted to clamp your legs shut and trap him there, but his much thicker thighs kept you wide open and on display.

Deku was never one to do anything half-assed, so while his fingers flicked and pulled at your clit, his other hand got to work. However, your twitching made you clench down whenever his finger barely pushed inside, “You gotta calm down baby, how else am I going to make you cum?” Soft soothing words made you just enough for him to push his index finger inside. Your cunt was tight, warm, and irresistible. The steady pump of his fingers has you closing your eyes as you relax against him like jelly.

Deku knew your pussy like the back of his hand at this point, every ripple, nook, and cranny he knew how to touch in order to make your toes curl. He adds another finger to the mixture, then another, and a fourth one until you are gushing around his digits and onto the floor. You were a slutty mess and no intelligible words could leave your mouth but “please” and “thank you”.

And while exhibitionism was one thing he had no problem with, Deku respected the fact that you would probably not be too keen to it. “You’re being too loud puppy.” Deku retracts his hand in favor of shoving his fingers in your mouth. You could taste yourself as he pushed them in further, rubbing it along your tongue as drool rolled down his forearm.

The sound of his finger fucking your pussy was wet and sticky, It took a large effort on his part to hold you against him every time your back arched away. “I’m cumming!” Your stomach contorted beautifully against his estranged wrist. “There you go.” Izuku kissed on the shell of your ear as you adjusted past your orgasms. “Are you done?”

You turn your head to kiss him, “Yeah..” He nodded, patting your cheek, “That’s good.” Izuku helps you stand up, helping you when you wobbled ever so slightly. You look at him unsure of the constant smile adorning his face, “Now what?” Izuku slouched a little bit more, “Now you get on your knees of course!”

You only have a moment to ponder what he said before a hand on your shoulder is forcing you down to your knees. It was quick enough for you not to feel the pain of your knees slamming down, but not quick enough to see the smirk crossing your initially sweet lover.

He was already hard as a rock when you pulled him out, cockhead with a steady stream of pre coming out the tip. You admired it with a small kitten lick around the edge, pleased when it bobs from your ministrations. “You are taking too long now put it in your fucking mouth.” Your head is pressed down less than gracefully and you are forced to open your mouth less his dick be smeared against your face.

Your mouth spreads as best it could while Deku sheathed all the way down to the base. He pulls out once again as if testing the waters before letting you up for a quick breath. “For someone in charge, you aren’t very good at this.” Deku uses a patronizing finger to wipe stray saliva off your chin before gripping your chin. “Maybe this will help you learn.” Using one hand Deku uses his cock to tap your mouth expectantly. Your mouth opens on reflex and his cock is pushed back in. Deku sighs with satisfaction, “Fuck, your mouth has always been good for this.” The tempo isn’t as bruising as it was in the beginning but it was still harsh.

Tears collected in your eyes ruining the mascara Momo had put on your eyes. Your throat burned from the constant friction and lack of air. “You hear that? This was what you should have said when they had asked you who was in charge.” Deku looked at you, his curly green hair covering his eyes as shook from his arm movement. “Look at those pretty lips.” Deku flinched after you swiped your tongue on the underside of his cock.

His voice sped up in the momentum and pitched in tone, “Y-You tryna make me cum fast huh!?” You bobbed your head faster despite the tight grip on your scalp trying to pull you away, “F-Fuck Y/n stop it!” Izuku’s voice caved and his hips jerked against your chin as he emptied his balls. You wipe your face with a large grin, brown eyes daring green ones. Izuku laughed, “You wanted this huh?” You don’t respond, skin tingling in the thought of what would come next. Deku stared at you, hands gripping his knees as his dick continued to spurt cum. “Fine.”

Deku stands up before dropping to his knees in front of you. Your calves are grabbed and raised until they are placed on his left shoulder. He slides inside of you with little to no resistance and you both groan at the intrusion. “I try to be nice to you.” Your neck is grabbed again with much familiarity, “But you always test my patience.” Deku leans over you to make sure you are listening. His eyes were a light green as sunlight cast itself inside of the classroom. The sound of your hips meeting is sloppy but neither of you are bothered by it.

You moaned as his abdomen rubbed against your clit the faster he went. “Deku!” Your voice is ragged and you’re practically wheezing at this point from the tight grip he has on every inch of your body. “Shut up.” He releases your neck and spreads your legs apart resting each on its respective shoulder. With entranced eyes Izuku watches you suck him in, sneering at how unintentionally greedy you were. The sound of spit startles you as it hits Deku’s cock before being pushed inside you.

You spasm at a particularly hard thrust, you didn’t know what it hit but your spine lit to flames each time it was grazed. “D-Deku!” You reach a hand out near any piece of skin you could reach, switching from his hands to his stomach. It was too much, the feeling of pleasure made it damn near impossible to think. Deku didn’t want you to think. Every time you seemed to think, you always caused him trouble. “I told you to be quiet.” Your mouth is covered almost completely by his hand only giving you the grace of air between his index and middle finger. You cum and you cum hard, so hard that Deku slips out and almost slips into your opposite hole.

Your leg is dragged back and Deku enters you again, this time only focused on himself. You feel him piston in and out of your cunt grunting obscenities as he closed his eyes with bliss. “Come on, I want one more like that. I need you to break for me.” In the distance, you hear the hour bell ring and the sound of students leaving their classroom. You have no energy to warn Deku, not that it would have mattered. Based on the pleasured look on his face and the heightened sound of his whines, the idea of getting caught only made him feel better. “I’m gonna, o-h fuck I’m gonna fucking cum.”

You let out a scream when a thumb finds your clit and your weak hands could do nothing to keep him from forcing another orgasm from you. “Don’t fucking run from it, cum for me puppy, oh god!” He covers your mouth to stifle your noises and that’s when the sensation begins.

The sensation is strange, it starts in your lungs like air before trickling down to your loins. The feeling of holding it back is painful but you still do it for only a moment of sanity. When it releases, it gushes like a waterfall, and for a moment you wonder if you had peed. When Deku feels it, he too is unable to hold back and finally cums inside of you with a reserved grunt when he realizes the danger of discovery.

Wasting no time and feeling no fatigue, Deku moves fast to find his own pants and shirt taking barely any time to pull your skirt down before giving you 4 minutes tops to learn how to breathe again. “Stand up.” You huff as you prop yourself up on your elbow, “You could at least help a girl out after fucking me an inch of my life.” Deku shrugs, “Logically speaking you did this to yourself.” “Logically speaking I should shove my foot up your ass.”

On the way back to class, Deku took pleasure in watching you walk bowlegged. You of course didn’t share the sediment as you did your best to hold in any cum Deku graciously left behind. He opens the door for you and you walk in doing your best to walk right but the limp was clear and true. Bakugou looked bored, the rest had blushes on their faces as you struggled to sit down properly. Denki, of course, was heartbroken as he handed Mineta back his part of the bet. “I told you, dude, it’s always the silent ones.”

From the back of the class, Asui and Jirou shoot each other an impressed look as they eyes the dark lovebites traveling below your shirt collar.

#deku smut #deku x black reader #mha x black reader #mha smut #bnha x poc!reader #bnha smut

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keelywolfe · 3 years

Text

FIC: Drifters ch.9 (spicyhoney)

Summary: Enter the Other Brother. Blue, welcome home! You might be in for a surprise!

Tags: Spicyhoney, Violence, Rescued Child, Medical Experimentation, Babybones

Read it on AO3

Read it here!

~~*~~

Edge was not a Monster who cared very much for surprises. In his experience, they never led to anything good, not to birthday parties or unexpected gifts, but rather ambushes and dust. He preferred careful planning to the seat-of-the-pants schemes that his brother often came up with, every step made with strategy in mind.

He couldn’t say for certain if Blue was the same way, although he suspected he may be. His understanding of how the alternate worlds worked was more for the layman rather than the professional, but he wasn’t blind to the personality traits that he and Blue shared, the sort of twist in nature vs nurture that any sociologist would love to explore.

He had a fair idea of how he might react to finding this clown car of a domestic scene in his own living room and if he’d known that Stretch hadn’t even mentioned he and Red were here, much less the baby, he would have at least sent Blue a blasted text.

That might have at least braced him and given him a chance to come up with a better question than simply, “Is that a baby?”

His brother, ever the peacemaker, chose that precise to speak up, scoffingly, “sure can tell you two are brothers, ya share the same brain cell, your bro said the same damn thing. yeah, it’s a baby, good on you for noticin’.”

“blue!” Stretch scrambled upright and his bright grin was too wide, too wrong, tinged with poorly hidden guilt. “sorry, bro, i was gonna call and it slipped my mind. yeah, hey, everyone showed up on our doorstep yesterday. check out the snow princess, cute, huh?”

That much at least was the truth, but Blue didn’t seem to have heard a word of it. This wasn’t quite the reaction Edge had been braced for; he’d expected Blue to make a beeline for the baby, had been resigned to handing her over for plenty of excited cuddling and cooing.

This was something else entirely. The normal stars of his eye lights were overly bright, flashing between blue and yellow with seizure inducing intensity, set into a face that was like stone. He barely glanced at the rest of them past a brief, bizarrely sympathetic glance at Edge. The anger in his gaze was for his brother alone.

Stretch seemed equally confused, his oversized smile faltering, “bro?”

“How could you?” Blue said, his voice carrying despite its deadly softness.

“wha…me?” Stretch looked around the room as if perhaps another person had appeared, that it was to this stranger his brother spoke that way. He shrank back as Blue abruptly moved, slamming the door shut as he stalked over to the sofa, his small body radiating fury.

“How could you!?” Again, louder this time, not quite a shout but verging on one.

“coulda woulda shoulda? bro, what the hell—”

Blue ignored that, stamping his foot and sending out a spatter of rapidly melting snow from his boot to dampen the carpet. “Irresponsible!”

Stretch’s face was falling, going oddly blank, his false humor fading. Next to him, Red looked equally perturbed. “now hang on a sec, short stuff, ain’t no reason to go off on the honey bun.”

“Stay out of this!” Blue snapped and for a wonder, Red jerked back, his mouth snapping shut. His eye lights briefly guttered, leaving his sockets dark and black, returning only when Stretch spoke up next to him.

“yeah. stay out of this,” Stretch agreed, softer but no less sharp and from the look he shot Edge, he was included in that statement.

Edge said nothing and even the child was silent, a dab of runny banana sliding down her chin as she stared at the Swap brothers with wide sockets. Even if he’d wanted to intrude, this argument was between brothers and it was an unspoken rule through all the ‘verses that one did not interfere with brothers.

Despite the surface similarities, none of their relationships were exactly the same. Edge knew all too well that if he railed at Red over his laziness, his brother never took it to heart or soul. He let Edge rant, blowing off the steam that built within him throughout the day and his frustrated insults rolled off Red like water off the proverbial duck. The only fallout tended to be yet another sticky note added to the continuing line trailing away from a single, absurd sock.

Stretch was, well, lacking waterproofing. More like Edge in that way, truth be told, and if Edge could snipe at his brother all day long for his ridiculous puns and lazy ways, one genuine return jab from Red often left him deeply wounded, all the more painful for its unerring accuracy and rarity.

He wondered how he’d handle being under the weight of that much visible disappointment. Edge almost always agreed with Blue’s assessments of his brother’s behavior, but his delivery needed work and the unexpected impulse to protect Stretch from that disappointment took him off guard. He wanted to scoop Stretch up like he did the baby, hold him close, cradle him in his arms and protect him, and that was ridiculous, utterly; he was an adult, older than Edge, and yet the urge remained.

In the end, Edge could only look away, stirring the gloopy remains of the banana while the two brothers whispered furiously behind him.

“Of all the careless, irresponsible—” Blue took a deep breath, let it out, muttering out, “This is all right, this is fine. We can deal with this.” He scrubbed his gloved hands over his face and then squared his shoulders as he said, “You still should have called me.”

“probably,” Stretch agreed, and perhaps the unexpected storm had passed. He relaxed back into the sofa, the tension in the room easing. “didn’t want to interrupt your important training.” He flashed Edge a sharp glance and he tried to look as if that was the exact reasoning.

“Yes, well, that’s true,” Blue admitted. “And I appreciate you thinking of that, but next time…well, there probably won’t be a next time of this, I should hope.” Any lingering worry that Blue might object to them staying for a time vanished as Blue finally swung back to the baby, this time with a familiar, bright smile on his face as he gushed out, “Which is a shame because she is simply adorable!”

He rounded the coffee table with the haste Edge originally expected, grabby hands extended, and the moment Blue bent down to reach for her, the baby burst into sobbing howls, squirming away.

Automatically, Edge swung her up, settling her against his shoulder and patting her back gently as he soothed her with a bewildered, “There, there, it’s all right. What’s wrong?”

Blue looked as if he might burst into tears himself, stumbling back a step and his eye lights faded from stars to unhappy circles. “I didn’t mean to—"

They both turned to look at Red as he let out a harsh laugh. “what’s wrong? he scared the shit out of her coming in like that, that’s what’s wrong,” Red snorted contemptuously, “don’t you know nothin’ bout babies? you’re almost as bad as my bro.”

“Not really,” Blue admitted. Shame filled his expression as he shuffled his feet. He noticed he was still wearing his boots and sat on the floor to pull them off, carrying them over to the door and automatically straightening the other shoes before adding his. “Most of my experience with children has been seeing them from a distance.”

That gave Edge a start and he realized he’d been expecting Blue to have some sort of knowledge about childcare, though he wasn’t sure why. This world was softer and tended towards kindness, but that hardly meant it gave them any innate parenting skills.

“Well!” Blue straightened, propping his hands on his hips. “I’m sure that the Magnificent Sans can learn!”

“sure you can, bro,” Stretch said, cautiously, and that Edge could understand, being very familiar with Blue’s brand of determination.

“yeah, well, here’s your first lesson,” Red slouched back on the sofa, picking at his gold tooth with a sharpened fingertip. “babies don’t like it when ya shout.”

“yep, that’s a good place to start. you know what, i’m gonna get everyone some coffee,” Stretch announced and fled to the kitchen, the coward.

Blue paid that no mind, already came back over determinedly when he spied the bowl Edge had hastily shoved on the table. The child was watching him warily as Blue picked it up, taking hold of the little spoon. “Here, let me help!”

Before Edge could stop him, Blue tried to poke the filled spoon into her mouth. The child refused to part her teeth, leaving a smear of mushy banana across them, and Blue’s brief confidence sagged, “Oh. Um. Maybe she’s not hungry?”

“Maybe.” Edge took the bowl back and immediately she began bouncing eagerly in his lap, mouth opening wide as she made urgent little sounds.

“fuck, you two are morons,” Red snorted, because of course he would stay to bear witness. “she don’t know you. kid is small, she ain’t blind. she ain’t gonna take her banana goop from just any plain asshole, she likes an asshole she knows.”

“Yes, thank you for clarifying that for us all, brother,” Edge said sourly. Somewhat gentler, he said to Blue, “Sit with me. Let her see you, it may make her more comfortable.”

“yeah, hold out a hand and let her sniff ya, that’ll do it,” Red chuckled meanly as Stretch came back out with a tray of mugs. He set it down before smacking Red on the back of the skull.

“will you cool it on the running commentary? let them work it out.”

Red rubbed his head and scowled, but he accepted the coffee cup when Stretch handed him one. “just callin’ it how i see it.”

“yeah, well, if they give up on trying, that leaves you as mary poppins, smartass.”

“good point. my teeth are sealed.”

The child grudgingly allowed Edge to settle her back on the pillows with the unspoken promise of more food. She watched Blue warily the entire time she was eating, but he made no move towards her. He sat obediently still the entire time, his gloved hands clasped tightly together in his lap as if to stave off any impulse to scoop the baby up. If nothing else, her attention on Blue kept her from messily sharing any more of her banana.

When the bowl was scraped clean, Edge wiped the child’s chubby face clean with a damp cloth then settled her back into his lap. “You see, little one?” he told her softly, “Blue is a friend.”

“I am! I really am! Want to come here?” Blue slowly held out his hands without getting too close, waiting with impressive patience. The baby looked from him to Edge, and he tried to look encouraging.

Slowly, she held up her arms to Blue. He lifted her a little awkwardly, but managed to get her settled into the curve of his arm without intervention.

“There we go!” To Edge’s relief, Blue kept his enthusiasm at a minimum, though he practically vibrated with excitement. Almost immediately, the baby began to loudly babble and if he didn’t know better, Edge would say she was scolding Blue for his part in the earlier brotherly dispute.

Soon enough, her chattering dwindled to murmurs, her sockets growing heavy, then closing entirely as she slept. Edge let Blue keep holding her as he gratefully took up his own cup of coffee and never had caffeination been so delicious.

Blue only looked at her in awe, lightly touching each of her tiny, perfect fingers. “She’s beautiful,” he whispered, turning the full force of his starry eye lights onto his brother, “but honestly, Papy, you should have told me you two were expecting a child!”

Stretch choked, spilling coffee down the front of his shirt. “wait, what? that’s why you were so pissed off?”

“I would have thought you would be more cautious about that sort of thing, but I suppose it hardly matters now,” Blue said philosophically. “You still should have called me though when she arrived!”

“but we didn’t…!”

“Here we have a new baby, and I wasn’t even able to give her a baby shower!”

“She’s already had a bath,” Edge said, confused. This was going entirely too fast and he was not in top form, how could they possibly have been expecting her, there was nothing about the past two days that Edge had expected in the slightest.

Rescue came from an unexpected and wholly unwanted source.

“fuck’s sake, blueberry, she ain’t their kid!” Red snapped.

“Don’t swear,” Edge and Blue said, nearly in unison. Then Edge nearly choked on his own coffee as realization clicked with the force of an open-handed slap. Blue thought that the baby was his, not simply his responsibility but his own and Stretch’s. Suddenly his earlier sympathetic look made more sense, by Asgore’s horns, of all things he could believe…!

“She’s not?” Blue asked, confused. “But, then where did she come from?”

“where the fuck do you think, numbnuts?” Whatever the patience Red usually had for Blue seemed to have found its limit. He wiped his mouth on his sleeve, all but slamming his mug down on the coffee table, “she wasn’t flown in by the stork, kid was homegrown just like the rest of us and she’s got the fucking serial number to prove it!”

“Oh.” There was a wealth of meaning in that single, soft word, too many to properly interpret. Blue looked down at the baby sleeping in his arms, his fingertips hovering over her rib cage without touching, right over where her pajamas hid the healing scar. The same scar his brother and Red still had, faded and blurred, but still there. Then he wordlessly handed her to Edge, climbing to his feet and walked determinedly over to his brother.

Stretch only watched warily, allowing Blue to take away his half-empty coffee cup to shove it on table, ignoring the splash of coffee that slopped out and spread across the wood. He slid his small, strong arms around him, holding onto his brother tightly.

“I’m so sorry,” Blue said simply. The words were muffled, buried into Stretch’s coffee-stained hoodie. “I shouldn’t have been so upset with you and I certainly should have let you explain.”

“aw, bro, it’s okay—” Stretch hugged him back, resting his cheekbone on top of Blue’s skull.

“It’s not,” Blue said, the words tainted with the hint of a sob. “I assumed you were being irresponsible, and I shouldn’t have.”

“not like i don’t give you a reason for that.”

“There’s a difference between a messy room and, well, this.” They stayed there a moment longer, holding on tight, and when Blue drew away, he swiped a hasty sleeve over his damp sockets. “Now!” Blue clapped his hands together softly. “I think we should discuss living arrangements.”

“We can,” Edge said, quietly firm, “but I hardly think that will be necessary. We won’t be here for long.”

The sudden trio of protests was loud enough to wake the baby and Edge turned away, bouncing her in his arms as he tried to soothe her back to sleep. He’d known there would be objections, but he couldn’t allow them to sway him. This child was his responsibility, his choice, and his alone.

He had a duty to her and Edge was determined to see it done.

TBC

#spicyhoney #papcest #keelywolfe #underfell #underswap #underfell papyrus #underswap papyrus #drifters

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a-smile-hides · 4 years

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A WISH FOR FORGIVENESS - U.R. (2/?)

Pairing: Ubbe x mermaid! reader

Summary: Ubbe visists you again to give you a little present, when you sense someone lurking behind the trees.

Read the previous part HERE

___

There was a lot of tension in the air that morning, as all of the brothers sat around the table with their mother. All of them were trying to enjoy their meal in silence, but it felt like one wrong move would spark a fight.

Ubbe looked to his brother Hvitserk, who seemed to be the only one capable of enjoying the food on his plate. How Ubbe wished he could be more like him now. Or like Björn, who for once joined them and chewed uninterested on his food. The both of them seemed clueless about the death looks the two youngest sons shot each other. But neither Ubbe nor Aslaug were. The last one making careful moves as she slowly teared pieces from her bread, keeping a close eye on her favourite son.

It was impressive, how even before dawn the two of them could have an argument that awoke the entire city.

Hvitserk, who now apparently caught on to the silent war between Sigurd and Ivar, cleared his throat. “So Ubbe, it seems like you didn’t get a lot of sleep?” He spoke up, lifting his cup to his lips.

Ubbe, who at first felt grateful that Hvitserk tried to break the tension, now wished he had kept his mouth shut. Hvitserk’s comment did make everyone look up from their plates (or in the case of Ivar and Sigurd, from each other) to look at Ubbe. Aslaug nodded her head at Hvitserk, taking a cloth to clean the side of her mouth.

“It is true Ubbe… Your eyes show that you hardly slept.”

Ubbe smiled at his mother in hope to comfort her. “Just a bad dream. This one night isn’t going to affect my health.”

“Except when it doesn’t stay with one night, brother.” Hvitserk spoke up again, hiding his smirk behind his cup.

Ubbe’s head snapped up towards him, a scowl evident on his face.

“Are you having some little adventures, brother?” Ivar chuckled, looking amused by the whole scene that unfolded in front of him.

Ubbe grunted, not answering him.

“Ubbe what is this all about?” Aslaug sighed. It looked like she didn’t want to get involved in the whole ordeal, but the fight that happened between Ivar and Sigurd was enough for that morning. Ubbe breathed in deeply, trying to control the frustration building up inside of him.

“Do not worry,” he spoke softly, “everything is just fine. Now if you excuse me.”

Nobody was convinced by his words, but Ubbe quickly stood up and walked out of the room, leaving his plate, that he had hardly touched, behind.

___

The sun had barely set when Ubbe took his bag and swung it around his shoulder. He knew he was taking a risk by going so soon, but he couldn’t wait anymore. He needed your company. Closing his eyes, he tried to open the door without making a sound. He quietly thanked the Gods watching over him when he succeeded. Taking a quick look around, he felt himself loosen up when he saw that no one was around. As he sat a foot outside his room, he stopped when he thought of something. Now that he left so soon, the darkness of the night wouldn’t help him mask his identity. Turning around, his eyes fell on his old cloak. He hadn’t used it in years and was contemplating on giving it to Ivar, but for now he was happy he still owned it. Putting it around his shoulders, he tried to cover as much of his face by its hood. With that, he finally stepped outside his room.

His heart was beating against his chest when he heard footsteps near. Acting fast, he jumped into the nearest room, hoping that the person wouldn’t enter it. It felt silly really, how he kept his visits a secret. But he remembered the scared look on your face once your eyes met his. You weren’t scared because you were stuck under the tree. You were scared of him. For what reason… Ubbe still did not know. It was clear to him that you carried a big secret with you. Something happened in your past that removed your trust in others. But he didn’t know what… or who.

Ubbe opened the door slightly when he couldn’t hear anything anymore, carefully checking his surroundings. Nodding to himself, he knew he had to move fast.

As Ubbe left the great hall, he bent over a bit trying his best to hide his face from everyone who was still out on this time of day. His step was fast. He wanted to be with you as soon as possible.

Only when he neared the forest, his pace slowed down. Looking behind him a last time, he lowered his hood. But as he turned his head back to the forest, his heart sank. Sitting under a tree on the edge of the forest, was Ivar. The cunning bastard was grinning knowingly at Ubbe.

“Taking a stroll?” He asked slowly. “You can ask Hvitserk to come with you. He is right there.” The young man said, pointing behind him.

Ubbe’s eyes went from his brother to the forest. Between the trees he saw Hvitserk and Sigurd. Both were shooting arrows at a target they must have put up a bit farther. Hvitserk laughed and gave Sigurd a small push, no doubt celebrating the fact that he just made a better shot. It looked like Björn wasn’t amongst them… But still, it was impossible for Ubbe to pass them without getting noticed.

“You must be very desperate to get to her without us knowing, dear brother.” Ivar chuckled, looking at the distressed face of his bigger brother.

Ubbe narrowed his eyes at Ivar, breathing deeply out his nose. Ivar’s smile didn’t falter. He simply shrugged his shoulders, closed his eyes and rested his head on the tree behind him, leaving Ubbe alone with his thoughts.

Ubbe bit his lip in annoyance, thinking of a way out of this. And then, his eyes fell on the beach. If he followed the coastline, he could take another route to enter the forest. Then he only needed to find the river… that could bring him to you! Ubbe looked back at his youngest brother, who still sat motionless under the tree. Without removing his eyes from him, Ubbe ran towards the beach. Once he was confident that none of his brothers had seen him leave, he turned around, slowing down his pace.

“Have fun with your little whore!”

The words made Ubbe almost stop in his track. Instead of turning around, he quickened his pace again, trying to get as much space between himself and his brother. In fact, he was walking so fast that he didn’t notice another set of eyes on him… carefully watching where he was heading at.

___

“Look who decided to show up after all”

Ubbe’s eyebrows shot up. He pushed away a few branches and stepped into in the clearing. “I see that the lady doesn’t like waiting…”

You smirked back at him. “Name me one that likes to wait”

Ubbe nodded at you. You had a good point. A mischievous grin grew on his face as he looked down at the brown bag he had in his hand.

“So, I guess you don’t want your gift?”

Your eyes narrowed at him as you tried your best to hide your smile. You moved your tail, making your shoulders submerge from the water, trying to get a better look at the small bag he had in his hand. It looked a lot smaller than the one he usually brought along. You hoped he managed to steal some of that delicious bread but wondered how he was able to fit it inside that small thing. After Ubbe had found out how much you liked it, he always tried to save you some. He didn’t succeed every time. Apparently, he had a brother with a big appetite.

Ubbe’s grin didn’t leave his face as he approached the lake. Your eyes followed him the whole way, impatiently waiting for your surprise. As you saw him stop at his usual spot, you went under the water and quickly swam towards him. Once you submerged, Ubbe was already sitting down, his cloak thrown carelessly behind him. He was looking at something in his hands. You raised one of your hands to push your wet hair, that was partially sticking to your face, out of the way and grabbed onto the side of the lake. Groaning, you pushed yourself up, wanting to get a closer look at what he was fumbling with.

Ubbe’s eyes followed your every move, his hands still wrapped around a small object, making it impossible for you to see what he kept hidden from you. He stretched out his hand so whatever he was holding was now far out of your reach. Still, you could see it was something grey. “Honestly woman. Stay in the water.”

The scowl on your face made him regret his words. Without saying anything, you let yourself back in the water.

“I got you something… I don’t know if you are going to appreciate it. But know that I did it out of good will”

You pursed your lips together, wondering where this story was going to. Ubbe, seeing the doubtful look on your face, cleared his throat. He pressed his lips on each other and held out his hand. Without thinking about it, you placed your hand in his. Ubbe smiled at how you showed no hesitation around him anymore. It had taken some time, but now it looked like you finally felt at ease around him. That you really trusted him. Ubbe’s thumb softly stroke circles on the back of your hand, feeling the smooth skin. Eventually, he turned your hand around. His eyebrows frowned a bit when he saw something between your fingers. It looked like flesh. But it was very thin and a bit lighter than your skin tone. Placing the object down beside him, he poked it with his finger. He immediately withdrew his hand when he heard you hiss in pain.

“That’s my hand, you genius.”

The look of guilt on his face made you almost chuckle. Ubbe turned around again and grabbed your gift. Without saying anything he placed it in your hand.

It was then you realised what he got you. A hair accessory. It was a grey clip. Very small. Perfect for keeping a braid on its place as you swam through the ocean. As you inspected it closer, you saw how it looked like a dragon that slithered around a sword. As if the dragon was protecting it with his life. Your mouth parted open in shock and Ubbe cursed himself for thinking this would be a great idea.

Only a couple of days ago, you finally told him how you ended up on the side of the lake when he had found you. Apparently, you came here often to rest and enjoy the beautiful environment. In fact, you were drawing figures in the sand when a raven swooped in and landed next to you. To you it looked like the bird was studying you, almost as if it was wondering what you were doing. Once you had reached out for it, the bird quickly flew away, leaving you all alone again. But as it departed, the bird flew right beside your head and took your diadem. As you pleaded at the bird to just drop it, the raven simply landed not far from you, next to a giant rock. It sat there and picked with its beak in the diadem. You had yelled at it and even threw dirt at it, but the bird simply didn’t budge. It was as if the raven was mocking you.

It was then that you foolishly decided to climb out of the water and crawl your way towards your diadem. You hoped that you could scare away the bird so that he would fly away and leave your diadem. But the raven remained on the ground. As you neared the bird, your breathing got heavier and heavier, your arms were struggling to keep you upright, but still you dragged yourself forward. It was then, when you could almost grab your diadem, that the bird flew away… with your diadem in its claws.

Ubbe had let a small laugh pass his lips when you said that, but quickly muffled it when he saw the broken look on your face. Confused, he asked you why you even bothered to get out of the water. You had remained silent for a while and he had feared he had pushed too far. As a small sob passed your lips, you told him the diadem was the last thing that reminded you of your home.

When he left you that night, he foolishly thought he could find it. The bird must have dropped it somewhere. He had searched for the small object the whole night but could not find it. Days passed and every day and night he had searched for it. But that morning, after he had failed to find the diadem again, the thought of buying you something similar crossed his mind. It could be a lovely gift, something to show you that he did care. Something to lift up your spirit.

And now he had only made it worse. You had mentioned your diadem was from home. How can he think something bought in the market of Kattegat could replace that?

“This is… for me?” You whispered, your free hand pointing towards yourself as if you weren’t sure that Ubbe was giving this to the right girl.

“If I hurt you with this, then I must apologize. I-“

You laugh stopped his apology. With all your might, you moved your tail, trying to push yourself out of the water as far as you could. Ubbe’s eyes widened when you came up and threw your arms around his neck. But he acted fast, wrapping his around your waist. As he pressed you closer against his chest, he could feel his shirt getting wet, but he did not mind. Nor did he mind the feeling of the scales on your waist, which marked the beginning of your tail. No. Right now, the only thing that was on his mind was how close you were. How you apparently didn’t hate him.

As you pulled away slightly, you looked at him. Tears were evident in your eyes, even though you tried to push them away.

“I know why you bought this… I-… Thank you… You shouldn’t have.”

Ubbe couldn’t answer. He felt all kinds of emotions running through his body. He felt glad that you seemed to like it and was warmed by your hug.

A blush covered your cheeks as you saw him stare at you. Licking your lips, you slowly released your grip from around his shoulders, lowering yourself back into the water.

Looking down at the small clip in your hand, a soft smile spread over your face. Ubbe’s eyebrows frowned in confusion as you brought the clip to your mouth, softly blowing on it, parting your hair, you clipped it in place. You softly tapped on it, and Ubbe watched perplexed as the small object shone brightly for a few seconds.

“To protect it in in the water…” You blushed. “So… How does it look?”

Ubbe still confused by what you had just done, simply nodded his head. Rolling your eyes, you explained to him. “The stories men and women tell their kids when they go to sleep are partly true... We do have some control on the world around us”

“Where are you from?” He asked softly, even though it sounded more like a demand. The young man was confused and finally wanted to know the whole truth. You were definitely not human, but a creature of the sea. You came from somewhere far away and had somehow ended up here in Kattegat, where you would use the small river to get to this lake. It was clear to him from the start that you had some kind of powers, but you had never showed him which until now. A strange feeling overcame Ubbe every time he saw you and it left him wondering if it was because of your powers.

You looked down at the water, trying to avoid his piercing blue eyes. Ubbe wiggled impatiently in desperate need for an answer. Eventually you shook your head.

“I am not ready to share this all with you, Ragnarsson”.

Ubbe looked up to the sky, asking the Gods to help him. “I am here to help. It is clear to me that someone broke your trust long ago. But it should be obvious to you that you can trust me. I have come to you here many times and still no one”, he said sternly, pointing towards the woods in the direction of Kattegat, “knows about you. They all think I am a mad man chasing a thrall that doesn’t want me.”

“I have never asked you to revisit me, Ubbe. That you chose yourself.”

Ubbe flared his nose. His patience was slowly flowing away.

“Y/N…” he breathed out before he was interrupted by a twig snapping in the woods.

The two of you looked up, searching for a possible reason where that sound came. Shaking your head, you pushed yourself away from the side, lowering yourself in the water. Your eyes met Ubbe’s and with a shaky finger you pointed behind you, towards the old looking tree Ubbe had appeared behind the first time he met you.

“I sense a presence… there… behind that tree.” You whispered.

Ubbe looked in front of him, carefully standing up and walking towards the tree. The young man looked behind it but saw nobody. As he stretched his back, he turned towards you, shaking his head.

A fearful look was still on your face. “I am never wrong Ubbe. Someone was watching us.” You gulped, wondering if it was a good idea to ask what was on your mind. “Were you followed?”

Ubbe frowned. “Do you think I am that stupid? That I would let myself get noticed by others?” He said calmly, but the wild gestures he made with his hands betrayed the anger he felt.

You looked down, not knowing what to believe anymore. You knew what you had felt. You had felt a presence. You felt someone lurking behind the trees. Nobody should know you had arrived in Kattegat. You had been on the move for so long, it would have been nice to finally find a place to stay. Especially now that you have someone who you can call a friend.

“Good night, Ubbe.” You spoke softly, disappearing under the water before you could see the disappointed look on his face.

“Good night, Y/N” he whispered back. His eyes remained on the lake for a while, with a sad look on his face, he watched how the water slowly got still again. As if you were never there. As if it was just a dream. Ubbe closed his eyes tightly for a second. When he opened them again, his eyes wandered to the floor where they suddenly fell on a small grey circle. Ubbe didn’t need to look closer to know what was lying next to his feet. He immediately recognized the grey brands that formed a circle and the two dragon heads that looked each other in the eye. At the bottom of his feet lay and arm ring. Lost by the Viking, who just spied on him.

#vikings #vikings imagine #ubbe ragnarsson #ubbe lothbrok #ubbe the wolf #ubbe ragnarsson imagine #ubbe x reader #ubbe fanfiction #a wish for forgiveness

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dearsubconscious · 3 years

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If you haven’t already, I highly recommend reading my very first post on this page before continuing. This story has themes of emotionsl/psychological/narcissistic abuse. This is my true story. Readers be advised.

Sifting Through the Memories: Part One

Dear Subconscious,

6 years. It took you 6 years to tell me the truth. I don’t think you understand how impactful that actually is. Maybe you thought that you were helping me. Maybe you thought that the walls of ignorance that you had built were keeping me safe. I don’t think I will ever really know. However, those 6 years managed to do just as much damage to my life, if not more that the years prior, all because I didn’t understand.

Those 6 years were so confusing. I found the courage to leave her in fall of 2013, senior year of high school, but you waited until 2019 to explain what really happened during that 5-year-long relationship during my most vulnerable years. In the process of waiting all of that time, I had no real understanding of why I had these horrible habits or these self-destructive tendencies that ruined nearly all aspects of my life.

I knew and understood a lot about depression from middle school and high school; from class discussions on the topic; from the people I was close to at the time that suffered greatly from it; from the people that I helped through the dark via deep and open conversations late into the night over text; from the people I care about most struggling through it; perhaps most of all, from my own struggles with it.

I wasn’t really sure at the time why I was depressed, however. I tried to pin it on my apathy for school, which caused my bad grades. Deep down, I always knew that was actually a consequence of my depression, among other reasons, not a cause. I thought maybe it was because of my family situation at home that had been ever changing from around 4th grade on: parent divorces and marriages, arguments, moving houses and changing schools, new step siblings (I was an only child), destructive, alcoholic step parents. These things may have initiated some depression early on, and they may have been contributing factors over time, but I never really felt that any of these events were ultimately what led to my darkest moments in life. I always knew people my age going through worse things than I was, and they seemed to be keeping themselves together better than I was. So why was I having such a difficult time in life? Why couldn’t I keep up with everyone else? Why was my self esteem so low? My parents were always good at supporting me and giving me love and attention, so how could I feel so low? I just never actually knew until recently. Until it was beyond too late.

I was always taught to try to reach out and always be there to help those in need when they need it most and be a helping hand. It could save a life. And I know that I helped save some of my friends lives. I wasn’t looking for praise or to be a hero. I just wanted to make sure that everyone around me was okay. Maybe I was always hopeful that the favor would be returned should I ever need it. I still hold these values today, as I know that so many people just need to be heard to be saved.

Just like me.

Most of my friends knew that I didnt sleep well in high school. I didn’t know it at the time, but it turns out that was a symptom of my body and mind being in fight-or-flight mode at all times. I was too afraid to sleep for fear of making my girlfriend mad. This still affects my sleep habits to this day. More on that later. This, however, meant that all of my friends also knew that they could text me at just about any time, 24 hours a day, and I would most likely respond. For much of high school, it definitely seemed like I was talking to someone every night, helping them sort their thoughts out and generally letting them vent or open up about their emotions. These talks also, occasionally, had me talking people “back from the ledge” when things got really bad for several of my deeply depressed friends. I always remained anonymous about it for their sake, but I was always glad that I could be there to help in the middle of the night when they were at their darkest. I distinctly remember, in one week, for some reason, three of my friends from three different “walks of life,” unrelated from one another, had all gone through deeply traumatic events and I found myself texting and calling them late through the nights to keep them from making the ultimate decision. All of these years later and I am happy to say that nobody that I knew in high school has taken their own life to this day. It definitely feels a bit miraculous, since I know that my younger step siblings have each lost several friends to suicide during their high school years.

Being young an naive and constantly empathetic toward everyone around me meant that I also left myself very vulnerable and very easy to push around. I never saw it that way at the time, though. Again, naive. I left my empathetic ways open to be used. I didn’t think that anybody could use my kindness against me with malicious intent. Why would they? How could they? I was just being nice.

I suppose that should lead us back to 7th grade, where the real story began. In theater class, an elective I enjoyed in high school, I got to know people better that I hadn’t known before. I had started at a new school where I knew virtually nobody in 6th grade, and the experience of 6th grade didn’t leave much time to get to know anybody yet (though I did meet my best friend in 6th grade). The 7th grade schedule allowed us more time to meet and learn about people in our classes, and theater in particular was a class all about getting to know people so that you could perform characters well together.

This was where I really met her.

We had one other class together, French, but that class had a very strict teacher that allows no time for talking amongst ourselves, so seeing each other’s personalities in theater class meant much more. I remember she always wore the same sweater jacket everyday, just like me. She was small, shy and quiet and she tended to use the sleeves on her jacket to cover her hands. She would wrap her fingers over the ends of the sleeves, gripping tight as if it was protecting her, like some kind of shield. We had to present mini performances often in that class and I could tell that she was very nervous for one of her first ones. She was trying hard to recall her lines and was gripping hard and fidgeting with her sleeve trying to protect herself. I saw a lot of myself in her at the time and I had a lot of empathy for her in that moment. I tried to motion to her to let go of her sleeves so that she could appear more confident. She noticed my sitting in the back motioning, but I think I just looked crazy to her at the time. My use of empathy here should have been the first sign that I was approaching this relationship all wrong. I saw her as someone I could help because I could relate well to.

We started talking a bit in that class. Eventually I managed to convince her to chat with me on yahoo messenger after school so that we could talk more. Our phone plan at the time did not include texting or data, so I was stuck with using yahoo messenger at home on my desktop. We made this work though. I found out quickly that her mom had just gotten married without telling her to a man she didn’t like with two daughters that she did not get along well with. While I don’t entirely blame her for those feelings, even now, her deep apathy for this still probably should have been a red flag at the time, but I was too young and naive to see it at the time. Plus, I was going through something very similar at the time so we had a lot of connection through that. Our conversations were long and we learned a lot about each other. We would trade off asking each other simple questions, like what our favorite song was, or who our favorite family member was. I think this made us feel closer than we were, and at the time we didn’t feel so alone in a strange and lonely life.

She started venting to me about the, supposedly, traumatizing things that she had been going through with her moms marriage and the new people in her house. I should her a lot of sympathy during that time. This probably made her feel like she had someone that would listen to her deepest problems, but it was also the start of her use of my own empathy against me. She would start to use it to trap me in a conversation. Making me feel a little guilty if had to leave for dinner or homework. She didn’t really get angry, but I would always apologize a lot for leaving so she started to get annoyed with the frequency of my interruptions. At the time I thought absolutely nothing about this.

A short time later, I had decided that I definitely liked her because she would connect with and listen to me. I had gotten to know a few of her friends and I had even passed a note to one of her friends that I was thinking about asking her out. Her friend was immediately all over this and wanted me to do it soon. So, one day we were out in groups in theater class, and I remember eaves dropping in her group nearby where her friend was asking her if she likes me. She nodded yes and they discussed a bit. It was a bit of a blur from there, but one way or another I ended up asking her out by the end of that class and she agreed. I was giddy with excitement for weeks, of course. I felt like I couldn’t have asked for things to go better. Puppy love (a term I have come to loath as we called each other puppies for the entirety of the time that we dated. I realized later how she used it as a name to belittle me most of the time). That said, our actual relationship, behaviors and conversations did not change basically at all once we were dating.

Her family was a strict catholic family that taught her to be very uptight about relationships (or so she told me), so we didn’t even hold hands for months. It didn’t even seem like we were in a relationship at all. We were very young anyway, so nobody was really surprised. Summer quickly came around and I was off to see my family in Europe for a month. There was no way for me to communicate with her during that time. With the state of our relationship, that was actually okay. When I returned from that trip, I saw her within the following days and she seemed a bit distant. I asked if we were still together and she agreed, but she seemed a bit apathetic. Our conversations started again on yahoo messenger in the evenings and all seemed normal again.

School soon started again, 8th grade. We only had French class together and we just didn’t seem as connected. I could tell that she was putting some distance on me. I was developing new friends and I became caught up with them more often. Soon (around mid September), she told me that she thought that we should call it off. She felt that we were better off as friends. With the way things were and the fact that we never became very close, I agreed, but it still hurt a little. I had felt good about what we did have at the time, but I couldn’t blame her. I hadn’t helped to close the distance in the weeks before that.

I know, this seems inconsequential on my life up to this point and this clearly wasn’t 5 years, so what really happened. Well, it got a lot more complicated very quickly.

Up to this point, I don’t think that you were blocking much or trying to hide any pain. Not much of the damage had been done yet. You couldn’t have seen what was coming next, so how could I blame you. You didn’t do much to keep me from being very vulnerable around that time, though. You were probably sending up red flags that I didn’t understand because my conscious brain was blind and full of emotions that were blocking you out. I was a teenage boy after all.

To be continued.

Thank you for reading. I only write these when I am going through the low days, often after a PTSD trigger, when I have some sleepless time. It helps me collect myself. Updates to this will not be regular, but I hope that you can follow along. Most of all, I hope that sharing my story can help others that are in or have been in similar situations. This situation has had me feeling incredibly lonely for years. I don’t wish this pain on anyone and I hope that you can keep moving forward like I am. We are stronger together and most importantly: you. are. not. alone.

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kiki-wiccan · 4 years

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The trip to the beach with Tamryn had been like a dream, even more and she never wanted to wake up. Unfortunately like all good things their trip came to an end. Elidi couldn’t bare the thought of being away from Tamryn, at least not so soon after such a heavenly vacation. She’s elated when Tamryn agrees to come back home with her, wanting to be alone with the witch as much as Elidi wanted to be alone with the Alpha. The ride back to Tabula isn’t long, filled with laughter and declarations of love so long as the Alpha wasn’t annoyed with her antics.

Elidi eyed the luggage, glad this was the final time she had to haul them items anywhere. “As fun as that was I’m sort of happy to be home, mostly sad seeing I don’t get you all to myself anymore.” The ice chest is dropped by her feet as she fumbles for her keys, hues lifting up to the door knob, her brow quickly furrowing as she notices the door is not shut entirely. Certain she had locked the door, the items that resided on her shoulders and in her hands fell noisily to the pavement. Elidi turned to face Tamryn, looking about her yard, assured there was no immediate danger outside. Pushing the door open, she crosses the threshold, hues scanning the walls for any other presence aside from the couples. Finding nothing she’s all too relieved as Binx pads over, brushing against her ankles. The witch exhales a sigh as she crouches to pet the tubby cat, her head tipping as she looks up to Tamryn. “Stay.. right here just in case.” Attempting to be as quiet as possible, she turns the knob as she shuts the door, finally turning to observe the rooms.

While still searching for other auras, the first thing she notices is the books scattered about the floor, none of the books looked damaged bit they were clearly looking for something. The witch approached one of the novels, holding it in her grasp as she continued to survey the area. Elidi inhaled deeply from her nose, wrathful vehemence itching along her spine, creeping up her neck, intertwining to heat her visage. Digits are quick to move to her nape, digging into the skin there as she wills herself to calm. Aside from the bookshelf being ransacked, a few of her plants had been toppled over, ceramic from the pots in pieces on the wood floors. Her gaze stoic as she examines the greenery in front of her feet. Hues lift to stare down the hallway to her bedroom, the door open to her quarters.

Dropping the novel her pace is quick as she enters her room, suddenly alarmed. She kept the stronger spells in her room, where she finds a similar scene, more broken pots, tossed books. Briefly she’s confused, all the wards she’s set in place are still active, aside from an alter, though it held no purpose other than aesthetics. Even if this person were a skilled magika, one of them were bound to activate. Her mind travels back to the door, she hadn’t located any signs of forced entry, no broken windows, the door hadn’t been forced open even. Static emits off her shoulders as she stared blankly at the shelves, her hands now balled into fists at her sides.

Elidi turns walking from her chambers, glowering as her mind tosses theories here and there. The only other person who had a key was Kiki, she had yet to make Tamryns. Lightning illuminated frequently in the air around her, the further her thoughts trailed into that of betrayal, she had trusted her. The witch stays, looming in the darkened hallway, all but her illuminated energy and eyes that sought Tamryn’s in the dim lighting. “Kiki.”

As if on queue her phone chimes, Elidi set on ignoring it, but the insistent pings cause her to huff as she fetches the device, reading the short messages. Light emits from her palm, not wanting to short fuse her phone she growls as she sets the device on the kitchen island, unlocked for Tamryn to read Kiki’s apologetic messages. “Got damn it.” She paces the floor as her mind wanders, unaware of the storm brewing outside, finding it difficult to soothe her trepidation. “How – can she want me to listen to her right now….I-I mean sure she isn’t the malicious type but even this seems a little… unnecessary. It’s out of character, something happened,” A loud crack of thunder causes her to jump, the witch moving to take a seat on one of the stools in the kitchen, “need to calm down first…there are explanations for everything.”

While the trip seemed to only solidify the bond the two women had, Tamryn was more than happy to be back within the familiar sights and sounds of Tabula Rasa. As Elidi carried their luggage Tamryn huffed playfully and walked behind her somewhat to almost admire the fact she always did the heavy lifting though Tamryn offered many times that she would help. Upon hearing her love’s words of no longer having her to herself the she wolf growled almost in protest,

“Love, you get me all to yourself no matter where we are. Whenever you want me you simply have to text me and I will be on my way within moments.”

Distracted entirely by her lover, still thinking about all they had experienced together while on their little get away. The alpha was entirely devoted to the woman who stood there fumbling for her keys. Lost in the new found love Tamryn had not been alerted to the fact the door was left open, only when Elidi seemed to become alert did Tamryn break from her swooned mentality.

Locking eyes with Elidi she knew right away that something was off and she turned to look the opposite direction Elidi did as she drew out her claws as she looked ready to defend and protect, whichever came first. The moment her love opened the door ad stepped inside Tamryn was right there by her side almost like a guard dog, she was attentive to everything, her eyes scanned as well as she stood somewhat offset from her lover. Her gaze dropped the moment the cat moved within their line of sight, she growled but caught it in her throat once she noticed it was the cat and not some small threat. Upon seeing Elidi bend to pet the cat she stayed alert and defensive though when her love told her to stay she tilted her head giving her a challenging look,

“I will forget the fact you just told me to stay, because I know what you mean by it, however there is no way in hell I am letting you go in there alone. Together, remember.”

Her words were not stated as a question more so as a matter of fact and she left no room for negotiation or argument. Allowing Elidi to take the lead she simply stayed close enough to defend her if she were ambushed turning a corner. The alpha maintained guard over her lover as she looked over the books, her eyes focused in the opposite directions that Elidi looked at all times, alert with her hearing and sense of smell, she inhaled deep before look around once more with a low growl,

“I don’t hear any heartbeats nor can I smell anyone that wouldn’t have access to the house..the most recent scent is Kiki’s which is a given..”

The moment Elidi’s wrath seemed to surface Tamryn felt it and rather than draw attention to it she seemed to keep her silent focus on her lover, observing her response to the situation with a bit more interest now. She had been experiencing a lot of Elidi’s emotional range as of late yet what she was feeling now was almost intriguing to the she wolf for she had never felt Elidi having emotions like the ones she was displaying in that moment.

Seeing her love rush towards the bedroom Tamryn stayed in the main room and crossed her arms, smelling that no one was there she watched as Elidi seemed to come across another scene within her own room. The red head stepped closer to the hallway before she stopped slowly seeing Elidi exit the room and met her gaze she felt the betrayal Elidi had surfacing as well as the wrath. Tamryn’s eyes involuntarily shifted yellow in response to the feeling as she growled low hearing the cause of everything.

“Why does that not surprise me, can I just eat her and save us-”

The tone of Elidi’s phone caused her to stop short as she arched a brow seeing her eventually cave and read the messages being sent to her back to back. The she wolf stood a little closer now but waited fr Elidi to respond, her eyes more so focused on her lover and reading the rise in her anger. She took notice to the electricity surfacing from Elidi’s palm,

“Darling, don’t melt your phone.”

“She is clearly using you for your magic Eli, I knew the moment I caught her selling it on the streets, you really think it is beyond a human to do this kind of thing. Something will happen, to her, Nobody does this kind of thing to you and assumes they can just-”

The crack of thunder caused her to duck before looking towards the back door and seeing the storm surfacing outside. For a good moment she actually stood there and contemplated whether or not to fuel this storm rising within her lover just to see what would come of it. Though when she looked at Elidi jump at the sound of her own thunder Tamryn suddenly got a change of perception. As her lover sat on the bar stool Tamryn pulled it closer to her and hugged her arms around the witch in efforts to help calm her storm.

Tamryn rested her head upon Elidi’s and ran her fingers through her hair comfortingly before refocusing her own aggression towards the matter, trying to be calm enough for it to cancel out Elidi’s building wrath. Hugging her with as much comfort as she could, “Exactly, perhaps something did happen... and she has reason. Though do not feel like you have to respond to her now or even today Love. I do agree you need to calm down, although I am kind of liking the feelings I am getting from you. Rage looks pretty attractive on you... but as much as I like it I want to help you, so just breathe and focus on me until you can calm down enough to figure out if you even want to hear her out or not.”

It had been a few days since the fire happened and Kiki had stayed cooped up in her apartment, mainly her room. She kept her distance from Kasumi because she wasn’t ready to explain everything to him yet. Stan would regularly check up on her and was keeping tabs to make sure the wiccan was safe. She’d barely eaten or drank within those few days for she didn’t have the energy or will to do so. Texting her work, the benefits of being friends with the boss played in as she got some time off. Most of her day was spent curled up on her bed sobbing on and off. Attempting to sleep though she was haunted with nightmares and vivid flashbacks. Elidi hadn’t texted her in all that time and she wondered if the witch was ignoring her. The guilt over wrecking her dear friend and mentors home had been eating away at her. Finally gathering the energy and courage she texted Elidi in hopes she’d hear her out.

Setting her phone down she thought of how Elidi must have felt walking into her home being a complete mess. The more she thought the worse she felt. Finally without even waiting for a response she grabbed her car keys and headed to the witches house. Surprisingly not getting into an accident on her way there as her focus most definitely wasn’t on the road or her surroundings. It wasn’t until she pulled up and saw the darker tone of the sky that she realized something was going on. Getting out of her punch buggy she walks to the door which was already cracked open. “Elidi?” Slipping into the house she called out for her teacher. Furrowing her brows as she hears the sound of two voices coming from the kitchen. She slowly makes her way over and looks surprised to see both Tamryn and Elidi. However her attention focused solely on the witch as she stood there. Both of them didn’t look happy and Kiki knew why. “Elidi....I’ll clean up the mess and I can pay for anything I damaged but please hear me out....” her voice was hoarse from all the crying she’d done. Eyes puffy , bags under her eyes, her hair was a tangled mess, and she was still in her pajamas.

#kikiwiccan #trc:kiki #trch:elidi #trch:tamryn

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classic80sand90smovieloves2 · 5 years

Text

Meeting and being courted by Louis de Pointe du Lac

(Not my gifs)(Requested by anonymous) (I might make poly headcanons for him and Lestat: though I might have already done so I honestly don’t remember)

- You met Louis when Lestat was trying to please him and get him to stay with him. You were Claudia’s sister so when you came home to find a blonde vampire who was also a complete stranger sweeping your sister into his arms you were more than a little terrified and confused.

- He decided he could kill two birds with one stone; get Louis to stay because he was responsible for Claudia being turned and get him to fall for you. Long story short you were taken to his castle and turned before Claudia was.

- Once Claudia had wrapped her arms around Louis Lestat informed him that he had another surprise and he brought you out.

“She is all yours my friend.”

- You could hear a pin drop as you entered; Louis could only think about how beautiful you were and that because of him you would be forced to live the same hell he was living in at that very moment.

- You had expected him to be beautiful; after seeing Lestat you assumed all vampires were attractive but he was nothing like you imagined. He was angelic, godlike even and you could feel yourself already being drawn to him.

- Lestat was very pleased when he saw the looks you were giving each other but soon became distressed when Louis avoided you. He had gotten that ungrateful whiner a larger coffin that was now going to go to waste because he was too obsessed with being miserable.

- You had fallen for him the moment you saw him but after time you began to think Louis hated you. Lestat reassured you it wasn’t true but you found yourself not wanting to be in the house with them knowing the man you who you cared so deeply for didn’t even want to look at you.

- You packed your bags and kissed Claudia goodbye, disappearing as Louis and Lestat were gone. You were sure they would take good care of her and she seemed far more attached to them then she was with you.

- To say Lestat was furious when they arrived home would be the understatement of the century. Claudia really hadn’t put up much of a fight when he demanded she tell him where you went.

- You hadn’t gotten far when Lestat came and angrily dragged you back, muttering about the predicament he had on his hands. He sat you down once you were “home” and asked if you wanted him to turn someone for you so that you would stay; he had grown quite attached to you himself.

- The two of you were shocked when Louis shouted out a harsh “No!” from his spot in the corner of the room. You quickly turned to look at him, watching as he stalked over to you and pulled you along with him as he made his way to his room. Once he closed the door he pushed you against it and kissed you.

- You still to this day aren’t sure exactly what came over him but you think he had gotten jealous even thinking about you wanting another person. It’s the only explanation that really makes sense to you.

“I thought you hated me.”

“I tried.”

- You spent the night making up for lost time and spent the day in his coffin with Claudia sneaking in alongside you in the early evening.

- You were much like Claudia, sleeping for a few hours in your own coffin before carefully creeping into his where he would wrap you up tightly in his arms. You cherished the quiet moments you spent huddled up with him waiting for the sun to disappear below the horizon.

- He’s very protective of you. After what happened to his wife and child along with him knowing just how evil Lestat could be at times he most definitely does not like leaving you alone.

- He’s not extremely jealous or possessive but would rather you stay by his side and keep away from humans or other vampires you may come across.

- You’re going to be spoiled; anything you could ever dream of would be yours the instant you implied that you were even slightly interested in it.

- There’s constant affection coming from him. He hasn’t been in a proper relationship in centuries and definitely misses the feel of it. On that note ~ he has been alone with Lestat for that very long amount of time and that calls for a great buildup of sexual tension and repressed urges.

- He loves watching you with Claudia or whenever you’re doing anything domestic. It has an odd soothing effect on him that he just can’t explain.

- You rarely fight but whenever it would happen it would be a very rough and emotion filled scene. You would give him the silent treatment and avoid him which would rightfully make him fairly upset and extremely tense especially when he knows you’re spending more time with Lestat.

- Sometimes you would creep into Lestats room when the sun is up; finding it hard to spend so long in solitude. Ever since you were turned you hadn’t really spent a night alone and before you and Louis got together you would stay with Lestat.

- Claudia would be the reason you spoke to him again. She would angrily march up to you and drag you behind her tiny body until you were in the same room as him. He would stand up immediately and wrap his arms around you as he apologized, you couldn’t help yourself as you practically melted in his arms.

- None of your arguments are about anything truly serious so it isn’t hard to forgive him. And if you’re ever the one needing to apologize after a fight just stand between his legs and cup his face in your hands while you give him your sincere apology, he’ll forgive you instantly it’s like magic. He can never really stay mad at you.

- If you ever fight with Lestat Louis finds it kind of amusing to watch; the two of you bickering is quite the sight to see. But Lestat is a sadist and enjoys watching you and Louis argue for an entirely different reason.

- Him playing with your hair as you lay your head on his shoulder.

- His hand is always on your waist or holding your hand whenever you are out of the house. He wants to show everyone that he’s courting you and that you belong to him.

- He’s almost always the perfect gentleman. He always opens doors for you and lends you his hand when helping you into your carriage (I guess).

- There’s a very specific scene in my mind with him holding your hand as you walk down the steps of your carriage all the while he stares down a group of men who are ogling you. He’s just watching them closely before you call for his attention once more and he leads you to wherever you were going. (I hope this makes sense lol)

- There’s a lot of buildup before he kisses you ( just think of that scene with Armand in the movie when you probably thought they were about to kiss; love that scene).

- Really passionate kisses and spontaneous groping. He loves pinning you to things as well

- He’s a very honest person; he also can’t keep things from you for very long before he explodes from guilt. He’s an extremely guilty person in general; it’s just a fact.

- He’s incredibly strong and is always picking you up and spinning you around. He loves doing it when you’re dancing together usually as Claudia plays the piano.

- Him calling you darling, dear, my love, and sugar after a few centuries pass.

- Traveling with him and Claudia when the deed is done.

- He tries to keep you away from Lestat for the most part; Lestat is extremely jealous of this and kisses you in front of him just to be petty and spiteful. A threesome will ensue at some point we all know it.Your boyfriend is his boyfriend and you are to be his as well. There is just no way Lestat would have you be just Louis’s and not his too.

- His eyes seem to constantly be on you which is honestly flattering considering how perfect he is.

- Rubbing his shoulders as you sit behind him on a sofa. You usually do it to keep him calm/calm him down while Lestat annoys him or tries to argue.

- He would feel an urge to kill anyone who hurts you even if they just accidentally bump into you,same goes for anyone who disrespects you; it’s usually because Lestats like a little devil on his shoulder.

- Comforting him when he gets upset about his wife and child. You’re always able to brighten him up and make him less melancholy.

- He’ll be telling you how much of a monster he is and how you should really not stay with him as he pulls you closer and snuggles into you.

- He loves laying on any squishy part of you.

- There’s so many apologies for having you turned.

“Louis if I wasn’t turned I wouldn’t have met you and that would have been the true tragedy.”

- He’s such a stressed fucking individual like just hold him in your arms and calm him down before he snaps in half. Although he can honestly be such a drama queen.

“I love you.”

“Say it again?”

“I love you.”

“…One more time please.”

- Kissing your neck but not to be an asshole like Lestat would.

- Him making sure Lestat doesn’t overstep any boundaries or manipulate you.

- He reassures you that he will only and always love you after he feeds because we can all see how sensual they look when they suck someones blood.

“You are mine right my love.”

“Of course my dear.”

- Occasionally you wake up to roses scattered around your coffin. You’ll find him sitting on one of the many couches waiting for you to walk in with one of the softest smiles you’ve ever seen on his face.

- Anything you ask; anything at all, he will do for you.

- Holding hands as you watch the sunrise in movies.

- He always comforts you. It doesn’t matter if you’re only slightly upset or extremely depressed; he’s always going to be there for you.

- Tight Hugs.

- Braiding or just playing with his hair, he pretends he doesn’t like it but he loves the feel of your hands in his hair.

- Hearing stories from when he was young; especially if you get together now a days rather than way back then. (We all have our own different fantasies)

- Him laying out on the balcony rail as you stand beside him; occasionally leaning over him and planting a kiss on his lips. It never fails to make him smile.

- Small smirks whenever you kiss his cheek.

- So many ‘I love you’s’ you’re drowning in love. As well as compliments all the time.

- It’s quite clear that you’re not going to be able to leave anytime soon. His little undead heart couldn’t take the loss.

“I need you my love.”

- You would stay together; just you, him and Claudia living out the rest of your eternal lives like husband and wife.

#interview with the vampire #interview with the vampire headcanon #interview with the vampire headcanons #interview with the vampire imagine #louis imagine #louis headcanons #louis headcanon #louis x reader #90s #90s imagine #90s movie imagine #90s movie headcanons #90s movie headcanon #louis de pointe du lac #louis de pointe du lac headcanons #louis de pointe du lac headcanon #louis de pointe du lac imagine

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elizabethemerald · 5 years

Text

10 Years Later

To everyone who enjoyed my “Did the others know?” Question from the other day. Here is them finding out. It’s a lot less beating up the wizard and a lot more caring for the child who was hurt. I hope everyone likes it, or it makes you very sad. Please reblog just like you did with the other post! I want to make sure everyone who saw that sees this.

Ten years. It was the ten year anniversary of the end of the war. The week had been filled with celebrations, speeches and toasts. Now at the end of the week, the heroes of the wars gathered for their own smaller celebration.

This was the date they all considered the actual anniversary of the end of the war. Not when the last wizard died, but when Jim and Claire finally woke up from their comas to be told the good news.

Toby hadn't left their sides the entire week, sitting in the room they shared in his wheelchair. Aja had woken up a few days before the others. This was the day that they celebrated. The day of tears as the heroes were told about their victory, and what that victory had cost them. They celebrated with drinks and stories, laughs and more tears.

Jim sat on the long couch in between two of his lovers. His mane was growing longer and he seemed even taller. To his left was Claire and his right Toby.

Claire sat with several of her most powerful wards glowing in a circle around her. While she had finally stopped trying to hex Morgana into non being on sight, it was clear she still didn't trust her. Anytime Morgana looked her way the temperature in the room would drop or jump a few degrees.

Toby sat on Jim's other side. His prosthetic leg sat on the coffee table. With his mastery of gravity the prosthetic was mostly for appearances, and no one here cared.

On his other side was Darci. She held his hand tightly throughout the evening. Her belly already starting to show the baby bump.

Aja and Krel leaned against the wall. She was in her human form, he was in his Akiridion form. The pressures of their daily lives often kept them in their other forms so here where they could relax they opted for the form they were so often denied.

The various adults were sitting around the room as well. Barbara sitting with one arm around Morgana and the other around Zelda. Zadra would occasionally walk through the house and run her fingers through Barbara or Zelda's hair as she passed, though her focus was on security for the royals. Blinky, Aaarrrgghh, and Strickler sat around the dining room table.

"I'm telling you, Gunmar was the worst." Toby was saying. The discussion of which villain was the worst was one that was still hotly debated even ten years after the end of the wars. They all politely refrained from mention Morgana, at least while she was in the room, though Claire had made her opinion on that clear. "After everything he did, Gunmar gets the biggest douchebag award."

"You don't have to tell me the awful things he did." Jim said. It was accepted that other than Aaarrrgghh and Nomura that Jim had the most first hand experience with Gunmar's cruelty and thus be taken as an expert in the matter. "But we all knew he was evil. His name was Gunmar the Skullcrusher!"

Toby and Claire nodded. Jim had made this argument many times before.

"Merlin pretended he was a good guy, when really he only cared about his magic. He gets the biggest douchebag award." Jim paused and his eyes went a little distant, then his voice turned bitter. "Especially after what he did to me."

Several in the room reacted to the extreme bitterness in his voice. Barbara sat forward. Blinky looked hurt. Walter and Zelda made eye contact across the room. Jim seemed lost in his thoughts and didn't notice. Walter cleared his throat to draw his attention.

"Young Atlas, I thought you had come to terms with your current form." He said. Jim looked up surprised.

"Oh, being a half troll is great! I'm stronger, faster and a better fighter. Plus I'm closer than ever to my dad." Jim smiled broadly at Blinky. "Plus I can do this."

Jim flexed his arms, his custom tailored suit strained to hold his muscles form. Claire immediately blushed up to her ears. Toby swooned dramatically into Darci's arms. Even Aja had to take a deep breath. Jim smiled and quirked his eyebrows at his lovers. Walter struggled not to roll his eyes.

"Then what are you talking about Jim?" Barbara asked. She was still concerned and her son's show boating wasn't going to distract her. "What else did Merlin do to you?"

Jim looked at her and then the others, confusion etched on his face. "Remember he refused to let me go to your rescue, beat me unconscious then tied me to a chair?"

There was several long seconds of silence. Glances flew across the room rapidly as everyone tried to process that statement. The temperature in the room plummeted.

"He what?!" Claire shouted. The air crackled around her, her hair starting to float around her head.

"Did I never tell you?" Jim asked, his expression a mix between remorseful and incredulous.

"Do you think I would have been willing to travel across the entire country with someone who had done that if I'd known?" Claire asked.

Blinky immediately rose to his feet and moved to sit in front of Jim on the coffee table.

"Master Jim...son…" he hesitated and looked to Barbara for help. She joined him on the coffee table.

"Jim, tell us what happened." Barbara said softly. She put her hand on his knee.

"Oh if you don't know, then I'll tell you later. I don't want to spoil the party!" Jim tried to put on a brave face. However, his voice still choked up and he had tears at the edge of his eyes.

"Everyone here loves you Jim." Blinky said. "Please tell us what happened."

Claire and Toby pressed themselves against his shoulders to show their support. Jim took a deep shaky breath. And told them.

Jim told them about his fear that Gunmar would hurt his mom. Trying to coordinate the search with Toby and Claire. Wanting to leave the house to help them search. How Merlin had stopped him. The fight in the house. Jim described the desperation with which he fought to escape so he could rescue his mom.

By the time he described Merlin ripping the Amulet from his chest there wasn't a single dry eye. Jim telling them about waking up tied to a chair brought several sobs from his family. Merlin's describing Jim's choice dragged growls from a few of his guardians, including Aaarrrgghh and Morgana.

Then came his trip into the bathroom.

Everyone knew how they had found Jim. They knew the aftermath of what happened. But he hadn't told any of them his thoughts as he filled the tub, as he donned his armor for what he thought would be the last time, as he stepped into the black potion.

Jim was sobbing, tears pouring down his face as he spoke. Toby was holding him tight. Claire had dropped some of her wards so she could be just as close. Aja had walked over and was leaning against the back of the couch holding Jim from behind.

"I thought I might be dying!" Jim said. His voice broke their hearts. "Merlin didn't explain how the potion would work. I didn't know if I was going to come out on the other side. I didn't even know what was going to come out on the other side."

"When I woke up in that pond I thought I might be in the Void. I was barely able to stumble into the house."

"And then you had to travel across the entire country with the man who did that to you.” Barbara said softly.

“We had won, we had defeated Gunmar. I thought at the time that it was worth it.” Jim said, wiping tears from his eyes. “I tried not to think about what he had done, and when I did I thought it was my fault for not listening to him.”

“And the way he talked about you after.” Claire said, her eyes distant. “Not just before the Eternal Night, but after as well. On the road to New Jersey, anytime he was tutoring me in magic, he would talk about how he had “fixed” you. And he would talk about your life before like it didn’t matter, like your life didn’t shape you into the hero you are.”

“God if I was there I would have squashed him into goo.” Toby said, shaking in fury. He held out his and the collapsed handle of his hammer flew across the room.

“Careful Toby!” Darci said covering her belly.

“I am sure there are many things we would have done had we known.” Blinky said. “But the important thing is we know now. Jim is there anything we can do for you?”

“Other than constant reminders that we love you no matter what.” Barbara said.

“Honestly that’s what I need the most.” Jim stood up from the couch as he spoke. He easily lifted Claire and Toby as they clung to his shoulders. Aja had to nimbly step over the couch as she held onto his shoulders. Barbara and Blinky both stood with him and embraced him. Jim’s soft sobs echoed in the house as one by one every person there came up and joined the hug.

Later, the “kids” were out in the back yard “sparring.” Barbara thought to herself that she had to stop them thinking about them as children at some point. They were her children, and she loved them all. Of course the sparring was really just playing around. The older crowd stood together in the kitchen.

“That bastard is lucky he’s dead and buried. I have half a mind to dig him up and desecrate his corpse, for what he did.” Barbara had a death grip on the kitchen counter. “I did everything I could to protect Jim from the abuse I went through. And the person who we thought would be our savior hurt more than anyone else.”

Morgana held her close. “Merlin always was a bastard. He cut off my goddamn hand in my sleep.”

“He was constantly abusive towards Claire on our journey to New Jersey.” Blinky said.

“And he hated me for being a changeling.” Nomura said, grinding her teeth. “Among many other reasons.”

Barbara sighed deeply. “Well whatever’s he done he’s long gone. Now we have to be there for Jim and kids. Make sure none of them are still hurting from the war.”

Barbara continued to glower as the other adults made their assurances that they do what they could to assist. The party returned to its celebratory nature.

#jim lake jr #Barbara Lake #morgana trollhunters #claire nunez #toby domzalski #trollhunters #toawizards #3below #tales of arcadia #after the war #I think that's the tag I'll use for events that happen after the canon series is over #older TOA #darci scott #writing emerald #please #please reblog #I get so upset when my writing isn't shared as much as my shitposts

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rosesisupposes · 5 years

Note

Ordinary Night

“send me a made-up fic title and i’ll tell you what i would write to go with it”

Prompt Tag

word count: 3,875

pairings: Ex-Anxceit; Background Remile;

warnings: divorce/abandonment; lost child; mentions of depressive and manic episodes; distressed nonverbal episode;

reader tags: @residentanchor @royally-anxious @bewarethegrammarpolice @jemthebookworm @arandompasserby @sparkly-rainbow-salt @astral-eclipse @thelowlysatsuma @adorably-angsty

I came up with the Single Dad AU a while ago but it’s never emerged from Discord to become a full story, but I love it very, very much. So thank you, nonny, for the excuse

Read on Ao3

“Give it back!”

“No, Dad said it’s my turn to pick the movie!”

“You always pick the same one! I’m tired of Winnie the Pooh!”

“But I like it!”

“Can we at least watch the Tigger one?”

“No! Pooh Bear!”

Young voices whined back and forth in an argument that had been held at least once a week for the last three months in the Sanders household. Six-year-old Patton was climbing on top of the couch cushions, brandishing the remote as eight-year-old Roman tried to reclaim it. Their younger brother, four-year-old Logan, watched from the corner in silence.

Their dad entered the room and, with practiced ease, plucked Patton from his teetering perch on the couch.

“Hey, hey, buddy, careful, okay? You might fall from up there!”

“Daaddd, Ro is trying to take my night again!”

The single father balanced his middle son on his hip as he looked sternly down his eldest.

“Roman, what have we talked about with movie nights?”

The second-grader sighed heavily, crossing his arms. “He gets to pick whatever movie he wants,” he recited, blowing strawberry blonde hair out of his eyes. “Even if it’s boring.”

“Pooh Bear isn’t boring!” Patton objected loudly, making his father wince from the volume.

“Is too!”

“Is not!”

“Boys. We will skip movie night entirely if you can’t behave,” Dad warned. Both children immediately went silent, but stuck tongues out at each other when they thought Dad couldn’t see.

“I’m going on an adventure, so that at least not all of today is boring,” Roman announced, running to the toy box for his tiny foam sword. “Where’s my noble steed?”

“I wanna come!” Patton cried, wriggling out of his father’s hold. Taking the remote back, Dad let him go as a small smile crept up at the corners of his mouth. How quickly they went from feuding to playing.

“Let’s go slay a dragon!” Roman cried, stabbing the air.

“What if we fight a witch?” said Patton with huge eyes, grabbing his matching foam shield.

“A dragon-witch!” Roman announced happily. “Lolo, wanna come?”

The youngest looked at the floor through glasses he already needed. “…don’ wanna”

“Aw, Lolo, you sure?”

“…scary,” the toddler said.

“We’ll protect you,” Patton said, crouching to look in his brother’s eyes. “Roro is the best knight ever! And I have a shield!”

Logan shook his head. Patton sighed and carefully patted his hand. “Next time? But only if you wanna, okay?”

Satisfied at the small nod, Patton trotted upstairs. Roman cast around before crouching behind the couch. “Ah! My steed!” he said happily. He stood with a cat in his arms. The tom bore being carried with long-suffering patience, held around the middle by small arms that could only just make it all the way around.

“Ro, be careful with Thomas, okay?” Dad warned. “Pat’s taken his medicine, but don’t let him bury his face in fur again.”

“Yes, I’ll be careful,” Roman said with all the indignance a eight-year-old could muster. He jauntily strode up the stairs after his brother, arms full of cat and sword.

His father watched him go as he settled on the couch. Logan crawled up into his lap and settled there, sitting up straight but balanced on his dad’s knee.

“Hey there, L. No adventure today?”

Logan shook his head.

“Just don’t want to, or something wrong?”

The little boy was silent.

“How is touching today? Thumbs up?” his dad asked, hand creating the gesture he referred to. His son responded in kind. Moving slowly, Dad pulled Logan into his chest, resting a hand lightly in the boy’s dark brown hair.

“Do you have the words for the something wrong, or is it just bad?” he asked softly.

“…miss Papa,” Logan replied, turning his head fully into Dad’s chest.

His father kissed the top of his head and held him close. He knew of his son’s tears from the dampness on his shirt rather than any sounds or shaking. When he could finally speak evenly, he replied, “I miss him too, Lolo.”

“When does he come back?”

“Maybe never.”

“Why?”

“I wish I knew, kiddo. I’m sorry I can’t give you a good reason.”

Logan clutched at the fabric of Dad’s shirt, still not looking up.

His father kissed his head again and leaned back against the couch, looking up at the ceiling as he blinked away tears. He was so tired of crying, so tired of knowing neither he nor his sons might ever understand why their other father had left. But it had been months without any communication, since they came home from the park to an empty house and a missing suitcase.

Three young boys, one beloved cat, one father who’d just lost the love of his life and his partner parent all at once. That was the Sanders household now. A night of childish yells and tears from the boys and their father alike: this was an ordinary night.

So how was Dad doing? He was a nervous wreck, of course. If he’d been a bit on edge before, it was nothing compared to the absolute personification of anxiety Virgil had become now.

As he breathed deeply to calm himself, Virgil ran a hand lightly through Logan’s soft, wavy hair. “What do you say to some Magic School Bus before dinner, Lo? Would that be good?”

“Mmhmm,” the toddler said with a nod, sliding off his dad’s lap.

As Virgil stood, Logan reached for his hand and pulled him towards the stairs. Virgil let himself be led to the smallest bedroom, where Logan immediately went to his small but growing book collection. He pulled out a CD that Virgil then placed in the small speakers he’d bought, back when he and his ex had adopted Roman. The “Baby Boombox,” Ethan had called it, as he filled Ro’s room with all his favorite Broadway soundtracks and Disney ballads. Then had come Patton, with Raffi songs and lullabies because they were the only things that would send him to sleep smiling when Roman was still active during naptime. And now there was Logan, who was soothed by the smooth strains of classical musicals and who listened with rapt attention (if not complete understanding) to audiobooks of all kinds. Virgil popped in Logan’s choice, “Lost in Space” and set it to play. Logan scooted his tiny plush chair as close as he could to the speaker and sat, staring up in wonder as his favorite narrator read about Ms. Frizzle’s class and whirling planets. Without interrupting, Virgil slipped out of his youngest son’s room and made his way to the kitchen to start dinner.

The pasta was cooking and the sauce bubbling on the stove when Virgil’s phone buzzed against the counter. He glanced at the screen and smiled.

If the past year had taught him anything, it was just how important family could be. He and his brother use to have a rather rocky relationship, never spending much time together. Unfortunately, Ethan had been part of the reason for the rift - Remy had never liked his brother-in-law and was never any good at hiding it. Normally when he was proven right about anything, Remy held it over his younger brother’s head for the rest of their lives. But not this time. Not when they’d sparked into full-on screaming matches over the years as Virgil asserted that Remy was wrong about Ethan. He was a good partner and an amazing father. He’d even said it, hadn’t he? His biggest ambition in life was to be a good papa.

Guess that had been a lie, too.

But no amount of friction and distance could have kept Remy away the night Virgil had called in tears. “Nuncle” Remy had been a near-constant fixture in the Sanders house ever since, particularly in those first couple of months. It had been Remy who’d suggested Virgil get the boys to therapists early, right after the split. It had been Remy’s husband Emile who’d found them matches among his colleagues, ones who made the boys feel safe and heard. It had been those therapists who discovered the reason behind Roman’s mood swings, identifying his bipolar personality disorder early and helping Virgil to get him the appropriate treatment. It had been Emile who’d cautiously suggested he get Logan fully evaluated for autism, and found him compassionate parenting resources to help relate and communicate with Lo better. Virgil would be a wreck without his brother and brother-in-law – or, rather, he’d be more of a wreck.

Which is why, when Logan went missing, Remy was the instinctual first call.

He’d heard Roman and Patton bounce down the stairs into the den, making dramatic sound effects as they fought their dragon-witch. He hadn’t heard the door open, or the soft steps of Logan following his brothers downstairs. He hadn’t seen Thomathy the tomcat be loosed into the yard as Roman cried, “Ride into the sunset, noble steed!” He hadn’t seen Logan stand on his tiptoes to re-open the door and follow the cat outdoors.

He’d just called for the older two boys and gone upstairs to get Logan when he’d found the CD player off and the chair empty. And that’s when the panic had kicked in.

“Lolo?” he called upstairs.

“Buddy?” he asked the den.

“Logan?!” he almost screeched into the basement.

Roman and Patton were obediently sitting at the kitchen table, fidgeting, when Virgil re-entered, eyes ablaze. “Where’s your brother? Was he playing with you?”

“No, he was too scared,” Roman scoffed.

Patton, on the other hand, looked concerned. “I think maybe he followed us? He was trying to pet Tommy.”

“Where is Thomas?” their father asked, the edge in his voice rising. “You were playing with him, where did he go?”

Roman shrank in his seat as he realized this was more than just make-believe. “He… I wanted him to be free?” He pointed to the back door with a shaky hand.

Virgil stared at his eldest son, biting back harsh words of frustration. He was eight, he didn’t know better yet. But the panic was rising, thrumming through his veins and disrupting his ability to think straight.

He grabbed his phone and hit the speed dial to Remy.

“Rem? I need you here,” he said the minute his brother picked up. “Logan got out of the house chasing the cat.”

“Shit, okay, I’ll be there in 5,” Remy said, already hanging up before Virgil could point out that he lived a ten-minute drive away. He arrived in three. Normally his driving habits pissed Virgil the hell off, but at that moment, it was all he can do to not cry in relief as he grabbed a flashlight and his extensive first aid kit from under the sink and ran out the back door.

Remy was soon placing himself bodily in front of the door to prevent either older brother from charging after.

“I’m a bad prince, I’m the villain,” Roman choked out through his tears. “It’s all my fault.”

“I gotta keep him safe!” Patton said. He tried and failed to climb onto the counter, but grabbed what ‘supplies’ he could reach into his school bag, a collection of juiceboxes and goldfish and band-aids.

“Hey, hey, little dudes, c’mon,” Remy said, trying to sound as soothing as possible. “C’mere.”

They were just small enough and he was just big enough to gather them both into his arms at once, even as they wriggled and tried to escape.

“Dad’s gonna get Lo back, okay? They’ll both be back soon,” he said, carrying the boys to the couch. “And Tomma-llama-ding-dong too.” He placed them both on the couch. They were both red-eyed and drippy-noed, but no longer trying to make a break for it. He grabbed tissues and wiped their faces and noses, moving gently. He watched Roman particularly hard. He’d been present for downward spirals before, when the mania and hyperactivity fell, gradually or suddenly, into dark days where the boy could barely get out of bed.

Remy ran soft fingers through Roman’s light hair, remembering. The worst depressive episode had lasted a full week and a half, and Virgil had been despondent. It was right after that bastard Virgil’s ex had walked out on them, and of course Virgil had blamed himself, telling Remy that Ro’s depression was all his fault for not being a good enough father. He would have curled up around his boy and begged him to be okay, if Remy hadn’t sat on his chest reminded him that he had two other sons that needed him. Childish? Yes, quite literally, sitting on him was Remy’s favorite way of picking on his little brother when they had been children themselves. But it had worked, and Roman was getting treatment now, both medications and therapy, and both his uncles and his dad had learned strategies to help keep him from getting trapped in his up- and down-swings.

Now, Patton imitated Remy, patting a slightly-stick hand on Roman’s shoulder in a sweet attempt at grounding techniques. More than any of the boys, Patton took after Virgil, always trying to keep his brothers safe. He was fierce in his defense of them towards others, but gentle and soft when he saw them sad. Remy ruffled Patton’s honey-gold curls with his free hand and stood. He had Roman and Patton Sanders in his care, and they were sad and worried. It was time for some Disney movies.

The sun was falling below the horizon as Logan followed the family cat into the woods behind their house. He trotted as fast as his still-chubby toddler legs could carry him, following the brown-and-black striped tail of the big tabby. Galloping paws quickly carried the pet out of sight, but Logan kept plodding along in the same vague direction. Scarcely noticing the growing dark, he clutched his worn, stuffed octopus tightly in one hand as he walked further and further into the forest. When Papa had asked when he wanted to name it, he’d looked up and said “Octopus.” His tone had been one of “Well, duh,” and his voice had been so deadpan for a three-year-old that Virgil had fallen into intermittent fits of giggles for hours after. But he’d carried it continuously ever since, particularly as he listened to his books on the deep sea. He clutched it tight as he finally caught up to Thomas. The tabby had found a mossy patch under a tree, caught in the last patch of sunlight, and curled up contently. Logan sat next to him and patted his head, content that he’d finally done what he set out to do. But looking up, the toddler realized he could no longer see the edge of the forest and wasn’t sure which direction he’d come from. He was in the middle of the forest, alone, with no notion of how to get home. Logan didn’t cry, or yell, or flail. He just froze, everything locking down in the face of a situation he didn’t understand and couldn’t solve. He might have stood like that for minutes or hours, but Thomcat chose that moment to stand with a stretch and wind his way around his smallest family member, purring as he rubbed up against Logan’s short legs. The warmth drew him out of his paralysis, and he sat heavily on the mossy stump. The cat leapt into his lap, covering most of his tiny torso in warm fur as the beloved pet continued to purr. Clutching tufts of Thomas’ fur in one hand and Octopus in the other, Logan’s emotions thawed and he started to sniffle, then cry aloud. His hiccups and sobs reverberated off the unfamiliar trees that surrounded him.

Virgil crashed through the trees, flashlight and first aid kit in hand, trying his best to keep a level head. Logan was missing. His little boy, the tiniest, quietest member of their family, was alone, somewhere probably dying in the forest definitely kidnapped by child stealers lost in the unfriendly woods. He’d made that promise, over and over again through the long adoption process: he would keep his sons safe. He would protect them. He wouldn’t let anything dangerous happen to them. Ethan may not have meant it, but Virgil had, with every fiber of his being. He would keep his family safe, every single member.

He trusted Remy to be a good caretaker to Pat and Ro right now, but he worried for his eldest. He just dashed into ideas and plans without thinking, so much more than either of his brothers. And of course, Virgil knew why. A memory sprang to life like a film reel in his head without his bidding.

“Papa, look at me! I’m gonna be just like Peter Pan! I can fly!”

“Of course you can, Roro! If you wish hard enough!”

A summer day, lazy and bathed in golden light. It had been magical in a way - no wonder Roman had believed in super abilities. But that moment, Virgil had finally seen what was happening as he rounded the corner, an infant Logan strapped to his chest and Patton holding his hand.

“Fly- Roro! Kiddo, please get down from the roof!”

Ethan had just chuckled. “Shhh, V, he’ll probably be fine. He’s gotta learn somehow, right?”

Patton, all of three years old and still lisping, had shook a finger at his older brother.

“Wowo, get down fwom thewe!”

“You can’t stop me, ‘m a PRINCE!” the five-year-old had yelled back, approaching the edge of the shed roof.

Virgil had dropped Pat’s hand to run, shrieking more than speaking as he yelled, “Roman Sanders, do not jump off that roof! You’re going to get down safely!”

Ethan had barely budged, too busy laughing his ass off. It had ended up being Virgil alone who helped Roman get down, letting him be Dad the Downer while Papa stayed ‘the fun one’ in Roman’s eyes. Was it any wonder he’d blamed himself for Ro’s bipolar swings?

But he’d learned better since then. Being a ‘fun’ dad didn’t matter at all if he couldn’t keep them safe, first and foremost. He would find his little boy, and their cat, and he would bring them home. He checked his first aid kit as he walked and sighed with relief. He’d remembered to re-stock it recently. In addition to the bandages and ice packs and ointments and band-aids in everyone’s favorite characters, he’d packed everyone’s favorite treats. He had cat treats for Thomas, which he immediately took out and started wafting, and he had tiny containers of Crofter’s jelly, Logan’s only favorite food that he always wanted to eat, no matter his mood. Virgil listened to the forest hard for any noise besides the rustling wind. He had his flashlight turned on even before the sun fully set, to make sure Logan would see him coming. His heart still raced, frantically pointing out every passing second and minute that his son remained missing. Every moment he was out here was another moment he could be tripping over roots or eating poisonous berries or getting a rash or being abducted or hitting his head or…

Deep breaths, Virge, he reminded himself. In for four. Hold for seven. Out for eight. The calming reminders in his head spoke with Emile’s voice, gentle and soothing. He could only do his job as Dad if he kept his head and stayed alert. He listened hard again, noting small animals, leaves falling, choked sobs, branches cracking, distant cars, and -

Sobs! Where were they coming from?

He picked up his pace, needing to double back a couple times before he was heading in the direction of the noise. He swept his flashlight in front of him with one hand and shook the cat treats with the other as he called out.

“Logan? Is that you? Logan? Thomas?”

The sobs stopped abruptly, and the flashlight beam illuminated a tiny form unraveling itself from a fluffy one almost the same size. “Dada?”

Virgil sprinted the last few yards. He worried for a moment that Logan might need to avoid touch right now, but that fear was dispelled with the toddler threw himself into his father’s arms.

“Lolo, are you alright? I was so worried, kiddo! Did you hurt yourself? Were you scared? I’m here, I’ll get you home, okay?”

“Dada, ‘m sorry.”

“Why sorry, Loberry?”

“I was bad, an’ I got lost,” Logan said, gripping Virgil’s jacket and Octopus with equal tightness.

“Oh, my little Lo, no, you weren’t bad. We should have been with you, I should have been watching. I’m so sorry, honeybear. But you’re safe now, okay? We’re gonna go home.”

Virgil knelt, picking up Logan and balancing him on one hip, then picking up a long-suffering Thomas and draping the cat over his shoulder. He was a bit encumbered by his first aid kit, but nothing could bother him now that his little boy was safely in his arms.

Searching for Logan had felt like an eternity, but had been less than 20 minutes. When father and son and cat entered the back door, the Disney movie (Sleeping Beauty, Remy’s choice) hadn’t yet finished. The door closing woke up Roman and Patton from where they had dozed off, but they were immediately up and hugging Virgil’s legs.

Their father ruffled their heads as he gentled let Logan stand on his own, then pulled them all into a group hug.

“We’re gonna talk tomorrow, okay, kiddos? About Thomas safety and Lolo safety. But tonight we’ll just relax together, now that we’re all home. I love you all so much.”

“I love you, Dad”

“Love you too!”

“Me too, Dada.”

By the end of the night and the second movie (Atlantis, Logan’s request, and Patton had conceded that he didn’t want any movies with woods), the Sanders house had quieted. Virgil could feel his heartbeat return to normal for the first time in hours as he gazed fondly at his sons. All three had fallen asleep, sprawled across the couch and Virgil’s lap. Remy had helped them change before heading home with a last firm hug and reassurance that, “You done good, bro.” Logan’s head rested on Virgil’s thigh, the horn of his unicorn onesie flopping over as he slept. Patton was snuggled up as close as Logan had okayed, cat ears folded over on his one onesie. And Roman had pulled a pillow on the ground so that he could be next to all of them, a tiny lion defending his pride in the onesie that he was practically “too old for,” but that he’d still wear when Pat asked him to. Thomas the tomcat, exhausted by his forest adventure, was curled into a ball in a laundry basket.

So how was Dad doing?

He’d never be completely at ease, not with so much depending on him, not with so many obstacles to overcome. But for tonight, Virgil was content.

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goldenlukelit · 5 years

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Bridges// Calum Hood

You know that feeling when you’re lying in bed and it’s raining heavy outside and the wind is rattling your windows, but none of that matters because you feel so safe and secure in the worth of your bed. Calum was the human embodiment of that feeling for you, he was the warm duvet pressing tight to your body warming up your cold bones, he was the windows protecting your from the storm of the world. Until, one day he didn’t love you anymore, no real reason just everything he once found cute, and endearing about you he now hated. The way you scrunched your nose up just because he used to find that so cute it just irritated him now, the way you never knew where to eat he lost patience for it. You had spent weeks crying over the break up, searching twitter for any new photos of him, searching for a sign that he was as low as you. Your friend Courtney had her birthday party this week and you know Calum was going to be there, you’d spend the weeks leading up to the party desperately trying to think of the right things to say when you saw him again, but now here he stands all of 6 foot away from you. He’s wearing tight fitted smart casual black trousers and his green empathy hoodie you loved so much. He looked really good smiling brightly, skin glowing and it killed you to know that maybe he’s been doing okay and doesn’t miss you. You decided to slip outside the smell of weed filling your nostrils, you glance up and spot Calum leaning against a wall in a hushed conversation with Ashton. Ashton hands Calum a small package most likely to be LSD or Ecstasy they were always Calum’s go to. You weren’t a fan of his drug use and made it very clear it was the cause of most arguments the two of you had, broken promises about quitting or not being high when he obviously was, it was just lie after lie when drugs were involved. Ashton walks off leaving Calum stood alone, the wind blows sending shivers over your body and Calum pulls his hood up to protect his ears in a way that reminds you of an infant. You take a sip of your drink focusing on a game of beer pong happening in the corner “want to join in?” A familiar voice asks you, you glance up and see Calum stood next to you now , his deep brown eyes reflecting the fairy lights outsides, you always admired the way his eyes reflected whatever they were looking at, a bit like a chamomile they adapted to their environment. “I don’t like beer” you purse your lip a tiny bit annoyed he didn’t remember a basic fact about you. “I know, I just wasn’t sure how to start the conversation” he smiles lips pursed a hopefully look in his eyes. Silence falls between the two of you, Calum lights up a spliff in this time inhaling deeply, he doesn’t bothering offering you any knowing you’d refuse. “How you been Calum?” “Alright, tours kept me busy which is good. Everyone always has loads of parties and nights out when we’re home so even though we’ve been home it’s been busy...struggled to find time time to sit down, relax and have a think to be honest” “You haven’t thought about us?” You ask him your eyes slightly glassed over at the thought that Calum hasn’t thought about you once. “Of course I have, I thought I’d be so busy I’d have no time to but when I was on stage I’d think about especially when playing Valentine, I mean that song was written for you” Calum scoffs dropping his spliff and lighting another immediately. “What about you? You thought of me much?” Calum asks with morbid curiosity his voice timid all you can do is nod, “all the time”. You shuffle away from Calum a little bit the smoke that’s clouding him becoming a little too much for you. “Do you drink now?” Calum gestured to the plastic cup in your hand “no it’s lemonade” you smile at him “someone’s got to look after everyone else” “You don’t have to look after everyone else all the time, you know that?” “I know...but after my dad I can’t help but think that if I’m sober I can do more to help” “Your dad was an addict. No one here is” “You don’t know that, people are very good at hiding addictions” “Not me” Calum holds up the cigarette in his right hand “plain as day” he offers you a sad smile. You laugh lightly looking back down at the floor, “polar opposite we are” Calum grins up at the night sky. “You can say that again” you both laugh this time. Calum is sweet honey, sunshine and fresh strawberries all things sweet and nice, whereas you are more like a rough tide, a loud voice refusing to be silent,in a different time you would have balanced one another out but there was too much extraneous variables for it to work out this time. the two of you glanced one another out for a while, you glance up at the night sky trying to think of something to say. “I love how you type “ahaha” instead of “hahaha” it’s far more accurate.” Calum speaks up “what?” You respond confused “When you text. Ahaha sounds far more close to someone actually laughing, I miss your grandma texting” You laugh and Calum joins in remembering the way you’d joke about your old woman texting, it’s been a while since you heard Calum’s laugh and you think about the last time you heard it. You’d come home from Luke’s birthday party and had been up talking for hours, it was one of the rare weekends he got home in LA neither of you having to work, you’d almost forgotten what it sounded like till that moment. “I miss you Calum, I’m through lying and the other day a guy at a bar told me he liked my ring, the one you bought me and I realised that despite everything you’re the only person I want to be around.” You immediately regretted speaking “fuck I shouldn’t have said anything, we shouldn’t talk.” “I miss you too, but sometimes love isn’t enough” “Love isn’t enough, then what is Calum” her voice raises slightly.

“Damnit I don’t know, but that’s the thing with the one who don’t need to know what it is you just need to know. But I don’t know. You deserve someone who doesn’t know why they love you, butt they do it anyway not someone who spends most of his time searching for reasons to love you”. her gaze lowers to the floor tears welling in her eyes “I want you though” she whispers quietly but Calum still hears her, he scoffs before speaking “no you don’t. Trust me. One day you’l meet a boy and he’ll make you feel so whole that you’ll forget all about how empty you’re feeling right now. You don’t want me, you just want someone to love, you’re so used to having people rely on you, you don’t know how to function if you’re not looking after someone else. I don’t need you to look after me. Love yourself, spend time focusing on yourself rather than searching for empty bodies to force your love on” Calum speak soberly taking a drag of his cigarette as the brunette chews on his words. “I don’t know how you feel y/n I’m just offering you the only advice I know”. She takes another sip of her lemonade nodding slowly “thanks Calum”. Calum puts his arm around her pulling her closer, the warmth and comfort Calum brings envelopes her silencing her racing mind but it’s very quickly pulled away and she’s back in the rain again, the weight of the world without Calum pressed against her side. “It’s all a process of moving on and getting over it” Calum speaks so matter factly, she wants to scream at him, hit him, hurt him just because he doesn’t understand but she could never do that Calum she instead she nods smiling softly at him and heading inside, driving home crying the entire way home.

A/N: sorry about the ending I really struggled with knowing how to end it. Hope you like it, feedback is appreciated.

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dirgeofcerberus111 · 6 years

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White Diamond Momswap AU

So this post was heavily inspired by @aramiplusart‘s diamond switch post, as well as a lot of WD momswap going around recently, me and some of my friends got creative and made this. This is backstory outline for a Momswap AU where White Diamond was the one that rebelled.

Okay, hear me out.

White Diamond always stood apart from her fellow Diamonds in many ways, one of them being her incredibly long view of things. She often thought so far ahead in regards to the future that her motives and reasoning seemed alien to others.

She would sometimes “test” the other Diamonds, often without their knowledge. Arranging various trials to gauge their response and competency in handling situations without her guidance. Her goal in this was to slowly guide them into making the right choices on their own rather than relying on her, to help to establish and build confidence in themselves as leaders to better tackle any crises that might arise. Possibly, even teach them that they can also depend on each other. She was aware that Pink felt that Yellow and Blue did not care about her, but rather than intervene directly, tried to arrange situations that would bring them together.

However, in her attempts to guide and mentor them, she was actually causing a lot of damage to them. She had too high expectations and too little communication. Like in canon, the damage caused by a lack of communication is a running theme.

As time went on, White began to notice the cracks forming in their society. Their empire was spreading itself too thin and the heavy handedness of their authority was slowly fostering discontent among the lower classes. White had seen this all before, and knew it was only a matter of time before another rebellion ignited.

Throughout the history of the empire, there had been a mysterious Gem calling herself “Moonstone” that would routinely show up, stir up trouble on the outer edges of the empire, and then vanish without a trace. The Diamonds had never been able to capture or shatter her, so she has remained at large, a thorn in their side for untold ages.

Never one to clearly explain her expectations and plans, it was in fact White Diamond herself who would take up the alias of Moonstone. Her Moonstone persona was a useful tool in keeping the other Diamonds on their toes and ensuring that they do not grow complacent. Moonstone’s “rebellions” would end in failure, all the rogue elements on a colony that had gathered under one flag were eliminated, the conflicts kept under control, and rest of the population kept in line.

Rather than address them directly herself, it was White’s intention to draw attention to the cracks that were forming in society by forcing the issue to the surface, and helping the younger Diamonds recognize their faults and learn from it. Rather than simply tell them, it was her style to guide them along the correct path and help them realize lessons for themselves. She did not yet realize that it was the entire system that was at fault here, but did recognize that the Diamond’s personal faults were the source of much tension in the empire.

So, cut to the colonization of Earth, Pink Diamond is sitting up in her moon base bored when she gets excited when the first batch of Amethysts start to emerge, and Pearl accidentally encourages her to go down there as a Quartz to see them for herself. But when "Rose Quartz" and Pearl warp into the Kindergarten, nobody notices them. In fact, nobody is around at all. They look around, and hear off in the distance what sounds like a charismatic speech being given to an excited crowd. Rose and Pearl find that all of the Amethysts are crowded around enraptured by this strange new Gem. Pink has never seen or even heard of anything like her: tall, brilliantly white, with a gemstone set into her forehead. She's telling the gathered Quartz soldiers that they don't have to listen to the Diamonds! They can live the lives that they choose, they just need to gather their courage and take their freedom for themselves!

On one hand, the strange Gem’s words resonate with Pink, who has of course never been entirely comfortable with her station as a Diamond. On the other hand, this bitch is ruining her first colony! "Rose" steps up and tries to defend the honor of the Diamonds, arguing that the Diamonds aren’t all bad and pointing out how all Gems owe their existence to them. Its the usual Homeworld rhetoric, but its all half-hearted since she's not even sure she believes what she's saying, so naturally what she says lacks conviction.

The white Gem laughs off Rose's arguments, easily refuting and meticulously dismantling her every argument, much to her chagrin. When Rose suggests that she was very confident that Pink Diamond would be open to reason, Moonstone really begins to lay into the anti-Diamond rhetoric. She begins to go off about how inexperienced Pink is, how quick she was to throw a tantrum, how spoiled she truly was, how she had to beg and whine to the other Diamonds just to get her own colony. Many awful and disparaging things that White would later deeply regret saying in front of Pink.

Rose/Pink gets more and more embarrassed until she finally loses her temper and rushes in to attack. But Rose has no combat experience and in a blind rage, so the white Gem easily rebuffs her attack and leaves her defeated and humiliated.

Meanwhile Moon/White is wondering to herself why this random, pink-colored Quartz is taking all this so personally. Then she sees the Pearl who had come with them and recognizes her. Her eyes widen as she puts two and two together and realizes what she’s done. But she can’t say anything now, if she did her entire cover would be blown and this would all be for nothing. She could fix this all later.

So instead of poofing her, the white Gem asks Rose to deliver a message to her Diamond like a good little Quartz: Moonstone is on Earth.

When Pink finally gets back to her base, she's initially too embarrassed to tell Yellow and Blue what happened. Of course Pearl can’t say anything due to the Pearl Orders. But soon enough they figure out something's off and it doesn't take much for them to finally get Pink to tell them what happened. Once they hear the word “Moonstone”, they are immediately on the alert. Yellow and Blue promise to help Pink deal with Moonstone, because they both know that if she’s here, then conflict was imminent. And perhaps this time, with all three of them working together, maybe they'll finally be able to put an end to Moonstone.

However, to intricate matters, Moonstone began to fall in love with the Earth. As you do. At first, her rebellion was not at all for the sake of freeing Gems, but she managed to form genuine bonds with these ones. She starts to see the beauty of organic life, something she might have been able to do once in the past, eons ago, but it's a feeling that had long ago atrophied. Or so she thought. Also, like in canon, the nature of Garnet is something of a revelation for her. There has never been a fusion like that in all of Gem history, or if there has been, they had wisely kept themselves hidden from White Diamond's attention. The mask had become the face.

Which all means that White is now faced with a dilemma. She never originally intended to actually stop the colony. It was Pink's first after all. This was all supposed to be a surmountable challenge for her and to solidify her place in the Authority.

But White no longer wants the Earth to be destroyed, nor does she actually want to fight and possibly harm her fellow Diamonds.

So eventually she comes up with a plan. To save the Earth but spare Pink from humiliation, Moonstone has to deal such a devastating blow against Homeworld that the Diamonds can't possibly blame Pink for the colony's failure. White knows how stubborn they all are, so it would have to be something BIG. Something that would make Yellow and Blue see without a shadow of a doubt that none of them had a chance at winning this war and abandon the colony.

Something like say...the shattering of White Diamond?

And that's exactly what she does. She arranges the fake shattering of White Diamond, publically, in full view of Yellow, Blue, and Pink in the hopes that that will be a great enough show of force to scare them away from the planet and spare it from colonization.

Of course, White didn't plan on staying on Earth forever. After a thousand years or two of laying low, White Diamond would suddenly return after making a miraculous recovery, perhaps with the “shards” of Moonstone in hand and a convincing coverstory to complete the deception. Then everything would go back to normal.

But we all know how well that went.

Instead of having the intended effect, the surviving Diamonds planted the Cluster, corrupted nearly every Gem on the planet, save for what few that White was able to protect, and then flew off back to Homeworld to NOT healthy cope with their grief at the loss of their mentor and leader.

White had grieviously miscalculated. She had thought that the other three Diamonds were ready to function without her and they were NOT. Now the Diamonds are running around without their leader and are completely lost in their own ways. White’s guilt was her failure as a mentor and essentially as a parent.

Her actions have serious reprocussions for everyone. Yellow and Blue are now more overworked than ever trying to manage all of White’s former colonies on top of their own, and Pink has had her confidence severely undermined. Earth was supposed to be her time to shine and it ended in catastrophy. Because she never got a chance to grow as Rose Quartz, she was never given the chance to discover her healing powers. She feels like the others will never be trusted with a colony again and that Yellow and Blue blame her for White’s “death”. So she remains on the Zoo with her remaining Gems and Court, the Zoo basically being a doll house for Pink: her own little mini-Earth where she can play colony while Blue and Yellow do the real work.

However in truth, this is not the case at all. Because unlike in canon, Pink was wholeheartedly trying to put down Moonstone. Even if it ended in failure, she did in fact earn some respect from Yellow and Blue. In canon the whole reason why Pink kept "making excuses" for why her colony wasn't going well and was failing to crush the rebels was because she secretly wanted the rebellion to win.

They would give her more responsibility, if she just asked. All of them tried to stop Moonstone and failed, so they don’t blame her. But Blue thinks the whole Earth experience traumatized Pink and so assumes that she doesn’t want to run a colony anymore. Yellow of course is too busy to ask either way. And neither of them stop to wonder if leaving Pink by herself after all this might be unhealthy. Once again, lack of communication and assumptions rears it’s ugly head. Because if there's one thing Diamonds are bad at, it's sharing their feelings. So all three of them box themselves off to grieve in their own different ways

And from there on, things go pretty much the same way as they did in canon up until Steven is born: Moonstone, Garnet and White Pearl go around bubbling corrupted gems, find Amethyst in the Prime Kindergarten, and eventual settle down in Beach City, where 5,000 years after the war ended, Moonstone meets a very special human...

More details on Moonstone:

Her symbol is a moon instead of a star. As well as the emblem of the Crystal Gems. Her summoned weapon is a crescent-shaped shield, following the theory that all the Diamonds can summon shields of different kinds. Her physical weapon is a lunar-themed spear, made by Bismuth.

Moonstone’s gemstone has its pentagon facing downwards as opposed to Rose’s which points upward.

Right then hope you enjoyed!

Co-conspirators: @directorhachi, @casual-dark, @nobrandminda,

People who also made Momswaps and thought they’d be interested: @aramiplusart, @artifiziell, @thechekhov

#steven universe #my stuff #momswap #momswap au #sorry @'d people if this comes out of left field #white diamond

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skylanders-after-the-end · 6 years

Text

Save the Day

The Doom Raiders made themselves comfortable in the bare location on the island surrounded by trees. They all chose their own spots as far away from each other as possible. Golden Queen had some smaller creatures build a tent for her, which she of course turned to gold as soon as it was done. Everyone was busy and wallowed in their freedom, except for Snap Shot. He couldn’t stop thinking about his action during the fight. The way he shot his arrow through one of his oldest companions, the regret was tormenting him. And now he was one of them, the very same group of malicious creatures he swore himself to stop once and for all. The traitor saw Sprocket all tied up at the other side of the camp. Her look was devastating, and it pierced through his soul. Snap Shot quickly turned his head away, he couldn’t bear to see one of his allies like that.

“You okay, mate?” Wolfgang was using some wood to build himself a small shelter. He seemed far more relaxed and calm now that they were out in the open.

“What do you think?” Snap Shot practically spit the words at the wolf. He was the reason the reptile was with the Doom Raiders, and he started to question how he could betray his team for someone like him.

“Thanks, by the way, for saving my fur back there.” Wolfgang played the situation down and started to behave more like his old self.

“I saved your life back there!” Snap Shot shouted angrily and finally stood up instead of sitting against one of the many trees. “I’m not even sure why, you clearly don’t deserve it!”

Wolfgang’s response was a simple shrug followed by a bold statement. “I never asked you to save me.” The musician went on with his business and didn’t bother to give Snap Shot another look.

Snap Shot was furious. First his supposed friend betrays everyone who trusted him, and now his personality is shifting back to when he was one of their biggest enemies. The Trap Master was disgusted, not only by Wolfgang, but also by himself. He couldn’t believe that he could ever have feelings for his worst nemesis.

Back at the Academy, everyone was slowly processing the recent events and cooled down. Wallop was still unconscious and received constant medical supervision. Spyro gathered some of the most experienced Skylanders to discuss further plans and theories on the location of the Doom Raiders. Many of the exhausted heroes went to bed, while others couldn’t even stand still for a second. Smolderdash looked upon the disaster from the top of one of the many towers.

“Why did this have to happen?” The Fire Skylander thought to herself. “I could’ve done more, I could’ve prevented this.” The humanoid was drowning in self-doubt and felt completely useless as a Skylander. “And Sprocket is gone too. Did they really- no it can’t be!”

The Skylander used her abilities to slowly float down to the ground and ask some Skylanders if they have seen the engineer. Everyone was as clueless as Smolderdash herself, some told her that she wanted to go inside of the prison during the ambush, but she already knew that. The hot-blooded female became increasingly worried for her friend and decided to look around the Academy and nearby islands for her. After hours of searching, there was still no sign of her. The Fire Skylander was sad and frustrated. The only thing she could do was to announce Sprocket’s absence so that everyone would start looking for her. Before Smolderdash reached the central room of the Academy, where most Skylanders stayed, she saw that a tower was slowly being covered in ice. Soon the others looked up and spotted it as well.

“What is that?” A confused and irritated voice asked from the crowd.

Everyone was paralyzed by the sight of the continuously freezing bricks. “I’ll check it out!” Smolderdash exclaimed and quickly made her way to the tower.

The Skylander floated up the spiraling flight of stairs. Ice was covering each step and flowed down like water. Smolderdash became slightly scared and bursted through the door leading to the room of the tower.

“Chill?” Smolderdash saw the warrior sitting in front of the single window of the room.

Chill stared at nothing but the clouds in the sky. She realized that most of the window was frozen, but the Skylander was shocked after turning around to see her entire room coated in ice. “I’m so sorry!” Chill immediately jumped up and stopped the freezing process. She lifted her hands and tried to revert it, but it didn’t work. “I can’t control it.” The Water Skylander whispered to herself so that Smolderdash couldn’t hear her.

“It’s okay, Chill!” Smolderdash slowly approached the distressed Skylander and performed careful hand gestures. “Just calm down and everything will be fine.”

Chill looked at the Fire Skylander with a bewildered look. How was she supposed to calm down after hearing the voice of her long-lost queen, a person she promised to protect until the end of her days, calling her. Her breathing slowed down, and she tried to relax, but that vision she saw before the fight at the prison has been all she could think of ever since.

“I’m fine.” Chill sounded like anything but fine. “I just need some time for myself.” The Skylander grabbed the chair next to her and pulled it closer to sit on it. It seemed like she didn’t even notice that the chair was frozen just like everything else in her room.

“Okay then.” Smolderdash was weirded out by Chill’s behavior but didn’t want to upset her in any way. “I think I can fix this.” Smolderdash sounded unsure, but nevertheless she was willing to try. The Skylander raised her hands above her head and emitted hot air from the holes that were located on her palms. The ice in the room started to melt and drip to the floor. Chill watched in awe as the ice she created slowly disappeared. Soon the entire tower was warmed up again and there wasn’t a single frozen brick left.

“Thanks.” Chill was very grateful and felt sorry for the trouble she caused.

“No problem!” Smolderdash smiled and responded cheerfully. “It’s been pretty rough, so things like these can happen.”

Chill nodded and walked past the Skylander to leave the tower. She didn’t want to be near others while her powers weren’t under control.

Smolderdash was happy that she could help someone. The feeling of uselessness which plagued her for some time now was weakened, and she felt the confidence to tell everyone about Sprocket’s mysterious disappearance.

Back in the hidden forest, the Doom Raiders have settled down and started to discuss their own further plans.

“We should totally start terrorizing villages again!” Dreamcatcher exclaimed mischievously.

“What’s the point of that?” Chef Pepper Jack didn’t agree with the Air villain and suggested another idea. “We need improved weapons first! We can’t take on Skylands by ourselves!”

Dr. Krankcase just dropped one of his several hat bots to the ground. It was damaged, and he attempted to fix it, but without success. “You know, I could create weapons that have the ability to pulverize anything they hit, but the resources in this forest are too… natural.”

Wolfgang was sitting on the stump of a tree behind the group. He pulled the strings of his bone harp to create a small melody and wasn’t interested in any of his fellow Doom Raider’s plans. “Or we could just do whatever we want.”

The villains all glared at the wolf with a strange look, before going back to their plans. “Enough already!” Golden Queen slammed her staff on the grass underneath her, leaving a few of the straws covered in solid gold. “You’re all suggesting that we do the same things we did the last time?”

The Doom Raiders looked at each other blankly before nodding to confirm the queen’s assumption.

“Am I the only one with a proper brain in this group?” Krankcase raised his finger and was about to speak, but immediately shut his mouth after Golden Queen struck him with a furious gaze. “Everything we did lead us to failure! We can’t allow the Skylanders to ruin our plans this time!”

The queen’s allies were all quiet and embarrassed about their ideas. They knew that she was right and that they had to change something.

“What we need to do, is get the Skylanders out of our way!” The goldling was taller than any other member of the Doom Raiders, she used that to assert her leadership and power. “Chef Pepper Jack!”

The yelling of the queen had the chef jump up in surprise and face his leader with respect. “Yes, your majesty?”

“Command your minions to launch their attack at the Academy.” Golden Queen already knew the exact steps of her plan. “They shouldn’t be prepared for an assault this early.”

“Of course, your highness.” The living vegetable quickly headed to his shelter to contact some of his minions, who were waiting on a sign for attack.

“We’ll get rid of all of them.” Golden Queen turned her head around to check on Sprocket, who was still tied up and deeply frustrated by the situation. “One by one.”

At Skylanders Academy, Tidepool resided inside of Persephone’s house. The Sensei wanted to make sure that her weapons and marine companions were all in-tact, so she visited the fairy to get some power-ups. While Tidepool was waiting for the small helper to catch some magical butterflies, Wild Storm entered the room. Tidepool turned around just to turn away again after seeing the Air Skylander. They haven’t talked ever since their duel in the arena and Tidepool had no intentions to change that.

“Upgrading your weapons, huh?” Wild Storm stood next to his friend and started a casual conversation.

“Why do you ask?” Tidepool kept her eyes at the window across of her. “Do you suddenly want to spend time with me?”

Wild Storm sighed and sensed an upcoming argument. “Tidepool, please don’t take what I said so serious-”

“Why do you act like it never happened?” Tidepool interrupted the knight and asked him another question. “You said that as if we didn’t know each other for years. Do you expect me to be happy about the fact that you don’t want us to be as close anymore?”

Wild Storm didn’t say anything and tried to understand the Skylander’s point of view. “I know why you’re mad, and I don’t want us to drift apart.” He stopped before continuing. “But it’s for the best.”

Tidepool’s expression suddenly became extremely angry. “There it is again! First you tell me you want us to stay friends, and then you say it’s better if we weren’t!”

Wild Storm didn’t expect to anger his friend so much, but he wanted to explain his reasoning. “Tidepool, I-”

Before the Air Sensei could continue, a loud explosion could be heard nearby. The two Skylanders rushed outside to see a bunch of panicking Skylanders at the Academy.

“We’re under attack!” A Skylander yelled with fear while running to find a safe spot.

An airship was firing cannonballs at the island, and no one expected an attack to happen now. It was controlled by the minions which Chef Pepper Jack ordered to assault the Academy.

Spyro soon took notice of the disaster and quickly headed to the defense canons of the giant building. “They’re not working! Someone sabotaged them!” The dragon exclaimed while trying everything to get the weapons to work.

Smolderdash fearlessly dashed past some helpless Skylanders. The Fire Skylander floated towards the aircraft and launched a burning orb at one of the cannons. The attack disabled the weaponry and it couldn’t shoot anymore missiles. While Smolderdash took care of the left side of the ship, Wild Storm transformed into his beast form and pounced on top of the ship. He easily smacked the small enemies off board and crashed through the wooden deck. Inside of the ship, the beast used his immense strength to demolish the row of cannons.

Smolderdash and Wild Storm finally destroyed all the weapons and let the airship slowly sink down in the sky. While Smolderdash returned to the Academy to be greeted with relief and praise, Wild Storm stood at the edge of a path and watched the broken aircraft descend into the clouds. Tidepool was a few feet behind him and wasn’t sure what to say. That worry soon became unnecessary, after Wild Storm gave her one short look before running off.

Smolderdash was happy that she could help and smiled at every grateful face she saw. The fiery humanoid snapped out of that moment after overhearing Spyro talking about the sabotaged cannons and how they should call Sprocket to fix it. The Fire Skylander moved away from the crowd and positioned herself in the center of the Academy with a serious expression. Everyone turned silent and all eyes were on her.

“Fellow Skylanders!” Smolderdash spoke loudly to make sure that everyone could hear her. “I want to announce that I have noticed something which should concern all of us!”

The heroes in front of her started to mumble and wonder what she was talking about.

“Sprocket is missing!” Smolderdash finally revealed her worry. “And I believe that the Doom Raiders are behind her disappearance.”

Gasps could be heard, and the others shared Smolderdash’s concern. “We have to inform everyone about her absence and start looking for her. We can’t leave any of our allies behind, especially not someone as resourceful as Sprocket!” Everyone agreed with the Skylander and they were ready to spread the news and start to search. “Please, we have to work together to find Sprocket and stop the Doom Raiders once and for all!”

#skylanders #skylanders after the end #original story #fanfiction

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the-shield-of-infinity-writing · 7 years

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Whatever it takes... (Request)

Prompt: Would you be able to write a Loki x Reader based on the song whatever it takes by Lifehouse? -thegothicdancer

Pairing: Loki x Reader

Note: Sadness, Angst with a happy ending, I don’t own the song Whatever it takes by the Lifehouse, please note that the italic words are modified versions of the lyrics, or the actually lyrics, thank you.

Words: 1390

Requested by: @thegothicdancer

(Y/N) and Loki stood together in their room in silence. The fight they had not even an hour ago still hung heavily between the two as the spoke not a word to each other. Secrets had been made, promises had be broken, no reason to stay, yet here she stood trying her damnedest to fight for him. Loki’s heart clenched, he hadn’t known the secrets would hurt her in such a way, thought he was protecting her from the worry. He did the opposite and made her worry more, because he was always pulling away, always hiding behind himself, his facade. She had so many reasons to walk out that door, people telling her to leave him, telling him that nothing good could come from him, yet she ignored it all.

Everything was crashing down around Loki and it terrified him, staring at her beautiful face as broken flashed across her face, making permanent residence on her features. The moment that sob left her lips it hurt to breathe for Loki, watching as the one person he thought to be strong breaking apart before him. He felt like he was actually dying, everything hurt, but he couldn’t step forward and hold her. Fear had consumed him and he was afraid to touch her after everything he’s done, but it was her. She stepped forward, she was the one who made this relationship move forward when her arms wrapped around him. Suddenly he could breathe again as this warmth surrounded his entire body causing him to tremble from the force.

She buried her face onto his chest before gripping onto the leather material on his back, clinging to him as if he was the last lifeline and she was drowning. He could feel her trembling in his arms as his teeth gritted together behind his lips, hatred for himself bubbling in his stomach. She was pleading to him, babbling how much she loved him, how much she need him in her life, how he was everything to her. He ceased her into a kiss so he couldn’t let her speak anymore, unable to handle the words, the whimpers and sobs that wracked through her body. She immediately responded before she wrapped her arms around his neck pulling him closer, trying to feel as close to him as possible, trying to become one being instead of two.

“If we're going to move forward and make all of this, you and I, work. You have to let me inside your heart, body, and mind even when it hurts, because I love you. And don't you dare hide the broken parts of everything that I need to see, they are a part of you. Like it or not, Loki. That’s the way it's got to be.You have got to love yourself if you can ever love me truly and deeply.” She finally spoke after what felt like centuries of silence as Loki stared at her. “I told you that I am with you until the end of time. That I don’t care what you were, or what you are now so long as you put trust in me.” She said cupping his face as his eyes fluttered for a moment, burning with unshed tears of pain, agony, and abandonment.

“I shall do whatever it takes to make sure you don’t feel this way ever again.” He whispered before bring his hand up over her own. “You better.” She whispered back. He knew that she deserved so much more than him, deserved the world bending over backwards. She wasn’t much, just a simple girl who worked at a newspaper company to pay rent, and earn a living. She wasn’t superpowered, wasn’t trained in the art of defending, wasn’t anything but herself, (Y/N). Loki didn’t want her any other way, didn’t want anyone else, because she was everything he wanted and more. She was always understanding, always smiling and full of hope, always the life of the party in his life.

She was the only one who believed in him when he joined the side of good, when he tried to change for the better, for her. She was with him every step of the way, never gave up on him when he fell back into a state of destruction. She would hold him in the aftermath of the terror, cradle his head in her arms as she softly rocked back and forth waiting for the tremors of doubt pass through him. He didn’t understand why she stayed, didn’t understand why she wouldn’t leave him like everyone else had. “I stay here, because I want you to know that not everyone is going to leave you. I want you to know that someone loves you and wants to be with you no matter what happens.” She whispered to him as an answer. “I’m a monster.” He countered.

“You are so much more than what you think of yourself. You see everything in black and white. I want to show you the colors of the world if you’d open your heart to me.” She whispered as she ran her fingers through his hair. They somehow had ended up on the floor of her apartment, it was a mess from the argument that had caused them to throw things around, but never was it aimed at the other. No matter how upset they were, they could never lay a harsh hand upon the other and mark them, unless the markings were made from love. “Can… Can we maybe start all of this over?” Loki asked as she looked up to him. “What do you mean?” She asked frowning softly worried that he was going to ask her to leave, or something along those lines.

“Can we just forget tonight happened? I promise I won’t hide anything from you anymore.” He whispered when she looked into his eyes. “Loki, I’m not saying you can’t have secrets, but if they are affecting you this way, and you think it’s better if I don’t know. Don’t. Don’t think that, because that answer is wrong.” She felt the ache in her chest that had finally dulled grow like a burning baseball going up into her throat. It was hard to swallow, hard to swallow the fact that he tore himself apart, because he believed it was benefiting her. Yet it wasn’t. It wasn’t helping anyone, or anything in their relationship as Loki nods numbly. His eyes looked tired, but they also looked relieved that he didn’t have to hide from her anymore.

“I know that I’ve let you down… and I’m sorry my love. I’m so sorry.” He whispered feel the mask that he’s hid behind for so long cave and fall from his face. Tears poured down his face as a sob clawed his way from his throat when she immediately pulled him against her. His face was buried into her shoulder as the material of her shirt soaked away the sorrow, the pain, and the hurt that he let out. “I’m sorry.” He repeated. “I’m so sorry.” He bit his lip trying to stop the sobs, but it burned that much more inside his chest. “I’m here. I’m not leaving, I love you so much Loki.” She whispered as he held her tightly against him, afraid if he’d let go she would disappear forever. “I… I love you so much as well.” He whispered, for what felt like the first time.

(Y/N) brushing back his hair as he watched her in silence, wondering how she could handle being with him. “You’re thinking again.” She comments frowning as his face flusters not only from tears, but from embarrassment of breaking down in front of her. “Loki?” She asked as he swallowed looking up to her when she smiles. “Stop thinking that I don’t want to be with you, stop thinking that I don’t love you, and that I am here out of pity. For once in your life accept that someone wants you, someone needs you. Let me be here for you.” She said as a smile spread across his face before he leaned his forehead against hers before he let out a small chuckle seeing her smiling at him. “Whatever it takes my dear… Whatever it takes.” He said before he kissed her slow and passionately.

Author’s Note: I loved writing this so much! It was so fun and I hope you all enjoyed it! Thank you Thegothicdancer for the request! :D

#Request #Song fic #Whatever it takes by Lifehouse #loki fanfiction #loki #loki x reader #loki of asgard #loki laufeyson #x reader #reader insert #Arguing #Reader doesn't give up #The reader loves him #He loves the reader

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a-fools-jester · 7 years

Text

The Words We Say

Greg and Sherlock were arguing, the rain drizzling around them as they shouted, the tension of the case making them both tired and irritable. The blasted word spilled from Greg’s lips before he could think of the effect it could have on Sherlock. Sherlock, who immediately stiffened up, not moving, not blinking, not breathing for a prolonged second as the word hung heavily in the air between them.

Freak.

The first time that Sherlock was called that loathsome word, he was just in second grade. He was in the playground, but he never did actually play with the other children. Instead he’d sit in the corner of the playground, underneath the trees that covered him in its shadows like a blanket of protection. He would read books that were meant for the older children that his teacher, a kind woman named Mrs Petelli, gave to him. He would solve puzzles, or he’d sort the wood chips by size and height if he was truly bored.

He existed peacefully alone, a shadow scarcely noticed and heard, until another kid named Sebastian decided that the scrawny loner was an easy victim. “Hey, freak!” he’d shouted, and Sherlock’s entire grade listened and for some godforsaken reason the name stuck. The first time Sherlock had been called the name, it stung. The question of what he’d done to deserve the name brought tears to his 7 year old eyes, before he turned on his heel and ran as fast as his legs would take him.

He did the same thing now at 24 years of age, his coat billowing out behind him as he ran, unable to stay at the crime scene any longer. The pounding in his ears sounded like the crashing of waves against an empty beach. Ice crept up and down his spine, freezing his fingertips over. It wasn’t the weather though, he was certain that today was a mild day in spite of the rain.

Sociopath was a word that Sherlock overheard from a conversation between his mum and dad when he was 13. Loud voices as sharp as shattered glass that filtered through Sherlock’s door and assaulted his ears as he tried to finish his writing assignment. Mummy and dad were arguing about something, and it took Sherlock a few beats before he realized it was about him and Mycroft. “They’re sociopaths!” Father had shouted, “I cannot have this go on any longer! William’s an outcast, he hardly socializes, and our neighbors think were some type of oddball family now because of those two!”

Mummy yelled back of course, voice tight with tears that Sherlock knew were falling even if she was hidden behind a closed door. The argument continued on, until it ended in whispers that were no longer coherent to Sherlock’s racing mind. Mycroft found his way into Sherlock’s room, silent as he looked into Sherlock’s eyes, and no words needed to be said. There was a silent understanding as he simply placed his hand on Sherlock’s shoulder and handed his younger brother his mask of aloofness.

“It’s easier not to care, Sherlock,” he said suddenly a few nights after that, and Sherlock looked up already knowing what this was about. “Caring isn’t an advantage, I’ve learned. Ordinary minds often try to suppress the extraordinary, so they call us names to bring us down.”

“What do we do then? They think we’re…” he trailed off then, unable to say the word out loud, afraid that saying it would make this entire nightmare more real.

“What have people done throughout the ages when they’re called unsavory names?” Mycroft asked, a small smile pulling on his lips in spite of the look in his eyes that reflected the sharp edge of an icicle. “We take it and we own it.” And they did. They began acting distant and colder, because it becomes harder to target a heart once you’re no longer sure it exists. Sherlock forced himself to stop caring, shoving all emotions into a closed off wing of his mind and refusing to show any vulnerability.

Silk turned into leather.

The car came out of nowhere, it seemed. It wasn’t going very fast, Sherlock decided as he fell against the concrete, otherwise he’d be dead. Between 20-30 mph then, because at 40 mph there was a 90% chance of death, whereas for 20-30 there was only a 10-50% chance of death. He was fairly certain he was neither dead nor bleeding internally, although the fact that he hit his head on his way down may have been a mercy handed out by the powers that be to stupidify him into believing he was safe. His body felt… distant, as if he was a disembodied consciousness floating in the midst of a world that was spinning rapidly, colors and muffled sounds swimming past his mind as he fought to grab onto something that could steady him, anchor him to reality.

He could feel the pain burning beneath the surface of his skin, bubbling like a pot of water left on the stove. Someone was touching him, he belatedly realized, a wet hand pressing against his face. Maybe his face was what was wet and not the hand. Maybe it was raining. Or maybe nothing was wet and it was all in his messed up mind.

He couldn’t be sure anymore, and he fought to focus, trying hard but he was just so tired and his eyes were slipping shut, too heavy for him to keep open. Sherlock was vaguely aware of a pressure building in his head, and it felt like someone was wrapping a rubber band around his brain, tighter and tighter.

He couldn’t speak.

He couldn’t move.

He couldn’t think.

“Focus on me,” Mycroft had whispered, voice soft as Sherlock- 16 years old- shuddered, too cold and covered in sweat as he lay on the mattress that did nothing for his bones. “Don’t go to sleep.” The light off of the candle lent a soft glow to Mycroft’s eyes as he stared down at Sherlock worriedly, wiping the sweat off of Sherlock’s face with a flannel with an uncharacteristic gentleness. The silence stretched on forever as Sherlock fought to stay awake in spite of the exhaustion the fever was causing him.

“You worry so much it makes me worry. Am I dying, Mycroft?” he asked with a teasing smile that Mycroft didn’t return which slowly fell from his face. He shifted slightly, trying to ease the pain in his back. “Am I dying?”

The look he received was filled with what could only be labeled as a mix of frustrated helplessness, panic and shame. “I don’t know, brother mine. You better not.” Mycroft moved slightly, face turning away and Sherlock watched as the shadows danced on his face. It did nothing to hide the tears which shined clear as day in his periwinkle eyes. “Not yet. Not before me, at least.”

Someone cried, “shit, are you okay? Don’t you die on me, you bastard…” and Sherlock wanted to reply, perhaps snap at the person to shut up, yet his entire mouth tingled and he wasn’t sure if anything even tumbled out his traitorous lips. All he knew was that everything was too cold and too hot all at once, his vision turning gray at the edges.

“Come on, Sherlock, wake up!” A hand slapped against his face, panicked and desperate. “He’s not waking up!”

Death was not a concept that Sherlock was knowledgeable about, he’d known about death and its permanence since he was 5 years old. He learned it through Mycroft, of course, since he learned most things through Mycroft. Redbeard had died, and he stared up at Mycroft with wide eyes. “He’s not waking up,” he had said in confusion, speaking slowly as he tried to piece together the events to form an explanation. “Why isn’t he waking up?”

“Call 999! We need an ambulance, he’s fucking dying!” a man’s voice shouted, distraught. Sherlock heard the marching of feet, and then succumbed to the darkness which swallowed him whole.

“Everything dies, Sherlock. All lives end.”

Sherlock became lucid in fragments, becoming aware slowly as his mind tried to stitch together the little slivers of data he received from each individual sense into a whole picture. The heart monitor beating to his right, noise loud and sharp in the otherwise silent room. The smell of cleaners so strong that it felt as though the inside of his nose was being burned, a lemon-like aroma that filled Sherlock’s lungs with every inhale. The scratchy blanket that bundled around his legs, coupled with the feeling of a cool metal bed rail against his left arm, helped him come to the conclusion that he was in a hospital without him needing to open his eyes.

He opened his eyes slowly, the lights thankfully having been dimmed to be more agreeable with his headache. “You’re awake,” a rumbling voice like rain against a window said from the corner, and after a moment more of staring up at the ceiling, Sherlock turned to look at Greg. “I thought you were going to die…”

Sherlock stared at him for a few seconds, eyes dull as he took in the sight of the disheveled man with wrinkled clothes, before looking at the wall instead. “I didn’t want to die yet,” he replied simply, unsure about how to speak to the man he’d considered a friend and father figure for a long time, his chest aching as he remembered the words they’d exchanged. The vitriol that Greg had yelled, the anger in his eyes- or was it disgust?- that had suddenly made Sherlock feel as if he needed to be anywhere- anywhere- but there.

Greg shifted in the plastic chair, nodding as he offered a tight smile. “I’m glad.” The smile was so bitter and brittle it seemed as though the slightest breeze could blow on it and leave it a pile of dust and regret.

“I’m sorry,” Greg finally said, breaking the silence awkwardly, like a child clumsily shoving a block between two others and bringing the entire tower down. “I didn’t mean to… call you any of those things. I didn’t mean it.” His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard, and the dim lighting of the room did nothing to hide his glistening eyes. “I’m so sorry, Sherlock.” His voice wavered, on the edge of cracking, and Sherlock couldn’t help the tears that rushed to his own eyes.

Mirroring, he told himself. It was just a human instinct deeply wired into the subconscious to react to someone’s tears and pain with empathy. It meant nothing. Fighting to regulate his breathing, he nodded slowly, afraid that the wrong action would break open the dam and leave him to drown in an ocean of unshed tears that had collected through the years.

“When I saw you get hit by that car… I thought you were dead. Blood was all over your face, you weren’t responding to anything, and I just- I thought I lost you. I don’t want to lose you, Sherlock, and I hope you can forgive me for what happened.”

There’s a bridge being stretched out between them, and Sherlock knows that he could either ask the question that weighed heavily on his mind or he would miss the moment and wonder forever.“Do you really believe that?” he asked, voice hoarse. “That I’m a… freak?” He faltered at the word freak, feeling like he needed to drink an entire bottle of the horrible lemon-scented cleaner the hospital used to get rid of the dirty feeling that overwhelmed him at the use of the word.

Greg’s eyes bore into his, dark pools of sadness swirling behind them as he shook his head. “I don’t. I never did, I never would believe that you’re anything less than… extraordinary.” He moves closer in his chair, hand on reaching out and tentatively placing it on top of Sherlock’s which were idly tracing patterns against the blanket. “I don’t know why that I used that word, or why I snapped at you but I wasn’t angry with you, I was just- angry and I snapped. I’m sorry, I don’t have any excuses for my behavior but-”

“You apologize too much,” Sherlock cut in with a small smile playing on his lips, but the tears shining in his eyes contradicted them. “Apologies are tedious. A simple sorry would have sufficed”

Greg laughed in surprise at the statement, then his eyes flickered to Sherlock’s left leg that was in a cast, and his eyes softened, no it wouldn’t have.

Sherlock cleared his throat, staring at the tan and calloused hand on top of his for a few long seconds. “My father never apologized.” He shook his head quickly after speaking as if he was shaking an idea out, something akin to flustered panic written in his eyes. “Not that- not that he had any reason to! He never hit me, or anything. He was a good man, he just said some things sometimes.”

“He’s a good man,” Mum had said to Sherlock, who laid with his face buried into a pillow, his back against the headboard and his knees pressed tight against his chest. “He just has a bit of a temper these days, and he says the wrong things with good intentions at heart. You have to learn to ignore the things he says, love. In one ear and out the other.” She pressed a kiss to Sherlock’s mop of curls before she left Sherlock alone in the room that was far too big and far too cold for Sherlock. This isn’t home anymore, Mum, he had thought as the tears fell quickly, creating a pattern fit for a Rorscach test. “What do you see here?” a man in a white coat could ask, and Sherlock knew what his answer would be.

“I see a fallen angel without a home.”

“Sometimes good people do bad things,” Greg murmured, eyes scanning over Sherlock. “Sometimes the words we say carry more weight than we could believe. They get embedded into a person’s mind and after that, it can be a pain to get out. Even after years and years, the words we say could still be echoing in a person’s mind.”

Sherlock nodded, a tear falling from his eye as he bit down on his lip. “I’m not a sociopath,” he said, wondering if it was Greg he was saying it to, or the memory of his father that he could still hear yelling the word. “I’m- I’m not as strong as everyone thinks I am, Greg.”

He used the name deliberately, and he knew the older man knew that as well. The hand on top of his tightened for a second, before leaving it completely. “That’s alright,” Greg responded, standing and pulling Sherlock against his chest, mindful of the wires. “You’re plenty strong enough for me. And if you need me, I’ll help you carry all that weight you lug around inside you.” Sherlock buried his face into Greg’s soft cotton Henley, the dam broken as his skinny shoulders quaked.

“I don’t want to be alone,” Sherlock whispered between his tears as if it was a truth he was too afraid to say out loud, a thought which haunted him during long sleepless nights.

“You’re not alone anymore. I’m here.”

So! That took forever to write and the timing of it was pretty much all over the place. I hope it made sense. @princesspeach212 suggested it again, so she’s to thank for this little fic.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/11159409 if you’d like to comment/ leave a kudos. @love-in-mind-palace @savedbyholmes @kateis-cakeis @shag-me-senseless-watson @inevitably-johnlocked

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hellacluttered · 7 years

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Strays - Chapter 6 (Mag7 Boarding School AU)

Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5

“So, what’ve you got for us, Josh?” Sam asked as the group finished settling in around the largest table in the corner of the café, packed in shoulder to shoulder.

“Well,” Joshua said. “I started thinking about that the school might have some breakdown of their spending somewhere, right?”

“Yeah,” Goodnight said. “Good thinking. You find something?”

“Yeah,” Joshua said. “They had a graph of spending on different parts of the school- books and teaching resources, sports, salaries, all that stuff. All of it kind of made sense except that the sports budget seemed way bigger than it should be considering everyone knows how bad our teams are and all the equipment seems really old and everything. So I talked to Emma, since she knows computers and all that and she figured out a way to access a more detailed breakdown of the budget. She said their site is out of date and it was really easy to get to the PDF she found all the stuff in. I think she just guessed the URL or something. Anyway-” he paused, unlocking his phone and opening something before reading off it. “They spent $10,000 on new sports uniforms and equipment last year.”

“New uniforms?” Red repeated. “But all our uniforms are old. At least in track, they are.”

“Exactly,” Joshua said. “I looked into some of the other teams too. Football uniforms are old, volleyball too. And none of the equipment I’ve seen around seems new. Anyway, I didn’t have time to look into the rest of the breakdown real closely but that part seems pretty weird.”

“Yeah, it does,” Sam said. “Good work, Josh. I can keep looking through it if you want.”

“Sure,” Joshua said. “I got a few papers I gotta write, so that’d be great.”

“I can help too,” Manuel offered.

“Have at it,” Joshua said.

“Damn, so we’re really onto something?” Goodnight said. “Honestly I thought this might just end up being a dead end, but…”

“Doesn’t seem like it,” Sam said. “We’ll see what we can find in that budget stuff and if it’s substantial enough, maybe we can take it to the school board.”

“Sounds like a good plan to me,” Joshua said. “Let’s take this bastard down!”

That gained some cheers of approval from around the table, and they chatted about it a little while longer before finally settling down to focus on their work.

“It’s been awhile since I’ve seen Joshua care about something this much,” Goodnight muttered to Manuel as Joshua began to bob his head to the music now playing through his headphones.

“Really?” Manuel asked.

“Yeah,” Goodnight said. “It’s good to see. He’s less apathetic than he seems.”

“He just… needed something worthwhile to care about?” Manuel asked.

Goodnight nodded slowly. “Exactly.”

When Manuel entered his dorm room late that night after studying in the lounge at the end of the hall for several hours, Joshua’s angry voice immediately met his ears, but this time it wasn’t directed at him. “-not gonna go there anyway, so why does it matter what grades I get?” He paused and Manuel took a step back, feeling that he was intruding on something very personal. “You never listen to me, Dad! I don’t-” Joshua paused, obviously having been interrupted. “I don’t care!” he bellowed suddenly. “I don’t want to be a doctor! I don’t fucking care where I get into school.” Manuel was about to close the door and head back to the lounge to take a nap when Joshua shouted, “You know what, fuck it, you leave me the Hell alone!” and hung up the phone before hurling it to the ground; the back broke off on impact and skittered across the floor, but Joshua ignored it, pressing the heels of his hands against his eyes, his shoulders slumped.

Manuel hesitated, unsure if he should retreat and hope Joshua wouldn’t notice or if he should just come in and pretend he hadn’t heard anything. Eventually he opted for the latter, putting in his earbuds before he went to further his ruse that he was unaware of what was going on.

Joshua didn’t acknowledge his presence when he stepped inside and closed the door behind him, crossing the room to set his books and laptop on his desk before changing into his pajamas and grabbing his toothbrush and toothpaste.

When he returned from the bathroom, Joshua was still sitting slouched at his desk, looking utterly defeated.

“Where are you going?” Manuel asked as Joshua rose suddenly and slipped on a jacket, stepping into his sneakers as he walked toward the door.

“Not your business, Vasquez,” he said, his voice harsh, but tired.

“Well, it’s past 11:00, you’ll get in trouble if you’re caught-”

“I know what time it is,” he snapped, and then walked into the hall, slamming the door behind him. Manuel could hear his heavy footsteps for a few moments before they faded back to silence.

He lay there on his back for a few minutes, wondering if he should do anything about Joshua’s situation, and if so, what, also weighing the option of texting Sam and asking for his advice. But in the end, it became fairly obvious- his roommate, who was also to some degree his friend, had stormed out in a rage at a time of night that would earn him detention if he was caught; he was clearly in more of a mood to cause trouble than be reasoned with, and someone would have to stop him. That someone could not be someone from the school, as Joshua was apparently convinced he would not be kicked out for virtually anything he did, and would therefore likely not listen to any employees. Also, Manuel had to take into account that he was the one to have heard the argument, or at least part of it, and he didn’t want to betray Joshua’s privacy by relaying what he had heard to anyone else in their friend group.

And so the task of stopping Joshua fell to him.

He rose, pulling on a hoodie over the ratty T-shirt he always wore to bed, and laced on the sneakers he’d tucked under his bed. Reaching the door that led out of the dorm and onto the path outside stopped him for a moment. Unlike Joshua, he had no get-out-of-jail free card, and he would be in big trouble if he were caught. But then he remembered how reckless Joshua had seemed when he left and it wouldn’t surprise Manuel one bit if he was feeling self-destructive at the moment. He opened the door and stepped outside, the chill air sending goosebumps up his arms, even under the relatively thick material of his hoodie.

He started down the path, glancing around nervously for any faculty that his paranoia apparently expected to find crouched behind the bushes that lined the path. But the night was still and silent, revealing no clues to where Joshua could have gone. The only sounds were the hum of crickets and the rustle of rippling leaves as wind wove through the tree branches.

Forty-five minutes of weaving through the paths yielded no results, and when he finally reached the gates after searching most of the campus, he realized he might have to cast a wider net to find Joshua.

Getting caught after hours on campus was one thing, but getting caught leaving campus in the middle of the night was entirely another. The first probably meant detention and a maybe a letter to his parents. The second was much more serious, and he didn’t even know what the repercussions would be. So he hesitantly turned back, taking a circuitous route back to the dorm in hopes that he would find Joshua before he reached the building again.

He was a few buildings away from his own when he heard a quiet clink to his left and turned to see a single form slouched against the wall in the narrow alley between two buildings, a bottle on the ground next to him, the bright full moon casting his shadow long across the cement.

Manuel sighed, turning to walk down the alley, wincing when he saw that Joshua was sporting a black eye and a line of blood traced from his nose down to his upper lip. “What happened to you?” Manuel asked as he sat down across from Joshua.

Joshua looked up blearily. “Got in a fight.” “With who?”

“McCann’s group,” Joshua spat, raising his bottle again to take a swig.

Manuel gestured toward the bottle. “Where’d you get that?”

“Does it matter?” Joshua asked.

Manuel shrugged. “I guess not. What’s going on?”

Joshua didn’t answer immediately, his gaze affixed on the ground. “I had an argument with my dad,” he said finally.

“What about?” Manuel didn’t know if Joshua wanted to talk about it, or if it would do any good, but he figured it was worth a shot.

“We… It’s sort of a long story,” Joshua said.

“I don’t have anything I need to do,” Manuel replied.

“All right,” Joshua picked up the bottle again and held it out to Manuel, who shook his head, pushing Joshua’s hand back. Joshua shrugged and took another sip before letting out a long sigh and beginning to talk. “My dad wants me to be a doctor. He already decided where he wants me to go to school, he’s got my whole life planned out. Only thing is-” he chuckled bitterly. “-I don’t want to do it. Tonight he said I got my laziness from my mom and that- that’s crossing a line. That bastard shouldn’t even be speaking her name, he just used her.” He broke off, his brow deeply furrowed, his face contorted with anger.

“What happened?” Manuel asked, dearly hoping he wouldn’t anger Joshua further by asking.

“She was a prostitute,” Joshua said. “He got her pregnant, they got married. There were people after her and he said he was gonna protect her. Then she had me and after a few years he got tired of her, talked her into a divorce when she was dealing with depression and he wasn’t doing shit to help. He’d kept her under wraps, he treated her like a dog. Obviously he got custody of me ‘cause she had nowhere to go, she was going back to the streets while he had a good job and a nice house. Police found her beaten to death a couple months later, they thought it was her dealer from before but they never caught him.” Manuel knew he saw tears gleaming in Joshua’s eyes but he didn’t know what to say or do to comfort him. Joshua took another sip from his bottle, roughly wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. “Ever since then I lived with my dad dictating every fucking thing I did. He sent me here even though I hated it, he stopped me from doing pretty much anything I ever wanted to, I never got to be a kid because of him, I never-” his voice broke and he stopped, his shoulders drooping forward as he rested his face in his hands, his body curling in on itself. Manuel hesitated and then shifted across the alley to sit next to Joshua, resting a hand on his shoulder, unsure what to say.

“I’m sorry, güero,” he said finally, giving Joshua’s shoulder a light squeeze.

Joshua just nodded, not speaking for several long moments. “It’s why I hated you so much, you know,” he said, finally meeting Manuel’s eyes, his gaze surprisingly lucid for one who had drunk so much. “You had everything I wanted. I didn’t want all this fancy shit my dad gets me, I just wanted a real home, a family.” His voice grew so quiet, so broken, Manuel didn’t know what else to do except wrap an arm around Joshua’s shoulders, feeling his body shake as it was wracked with silent sobs. He felt helpless but strangely protective of the gruff but surprisingly vulnerable boy sitting next to him and when Joshua finally began to still and reached for the bottle again, Manuel pulled it out of his reach, setting it as far away as he could without moving. Joshua grunted in protest but made no move to reach for it again. A few moments later he began to push himself to his feet, but staggered, unsteady from the alcohol, and Manuel clambered upright, hurrying to wrap an arm around his shoulders so he wouldn’t fall over.

“I’m fine,” Joshua muttered, but Manuel didn’t let go, saying,

“No, you aren’t.” He only let go of Joshua briefly to pick up the bottle from the ground, not wanting to leave any evidence, and tossed it out in the first trash can they reached. Joshua’s footsteps were unsteady and he leaned more and more heavily on Manuel the farther they walked.

By the time they got back to the dorm, Joshua was nearly asleep on his feet, and he gracelessly collapsed face-first on his bed as soon as he reached it. He was unconscious immediately, but Manuel could not sleep for hours.

#mag7 #the magnificent seven #faraday #vasquez #mag7 scenario #strays #au

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sunflowerspectre · 4 years

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Growth | Dungeons and Dragons Commission

This is a 5k commission piece for an anon with their DND characters.

Title: Growth Fandom: Dungeons and Dragons (DND) Summary: As Neronvain and Desire's adventure continues, their friendship starts to bloom into something more - but if they're going to act on it is another question entirely. Character(s): Neronvain, Algatharas, Original Tiefling Character (Desire) Rating: Teen Requested Word Count: 5k Final Word Count:

This is a sequel to Stranded and Overtime

Read it on Archive of Our Own

Commission Me | Tip A Writer | Twitter

Growth | Word Count: 5177

Finding Chuth is more of an accident than a planned agenda; if any of this was actually planned, maybe it wouldn’t have taken them so off-guard and they could have been prepared instead of surviving by the seat of their pants.

While the dragon is something that they both know that they needed to take care of eventually, it was on the back burner of their plans. Something that would be taken care of if it became a problem again, but something that they didn’t actively go searching for. Neither of them were necessarily in any hurry to run into the green dragon again.

On the other hand, Neronvain knows that they never actively search for most of the trouble that they always end up in. He also knows that just like any other unpredicted trouble that they find themselves a part of, it is - somehow - always Desire’s fault. Even now, the tiefling looks at him almost sheepishly with flushed cheeks and a shrug as if to say whoops. His pointed look makes her flush deeper as he sighs with begrudging acceptance of their situation.

If they are going to fight this dragon, they may as well make sure that they kill him this time around. If anything, for a bit of peace of mind; at least in Neronvain’s case.

“Look at the bright side,” Desire insists as she dodges another tail that is swung her way, “If we kill him, then you don’t have to worry about him anymore!”

“Says the woman who has already tried to kill him twice and failed,” Neronvain retorts, silently cursing himself for being dragged into such a frivolous chat during battle.

Neronvain raises his hand for a spell, protecting her from a poison blast coming from behind her. She gives him a cheeky smile and a thankful thumbs up as he rolls his eyes. He dodges an attack, rolling out of the way with a bit of ungrace as he lands near Desire, stumbling as he tries to regain his balance.

Desire doesn’t hesitate immediately catching him, grinning at him wildly with a deep flush spreading across her cheeks. With a huff, Neronvain breaks out of her grasp, ignoring the heat on his face.

“Well last time, I didn’t have you working with me,” Desire makes a point, “Between the two of us, I think we can make a good barbecue out of that dragon.”

Neronvain spots it coming from behind her. His hands immediately got to her waist firmly and he spun her with him. The contact takes her off guard - her cheeks flushing with uncertainty until she realizes the tail that just misses her. Chuth swings his appendage around haphazardly as he searches for their hiding spot. Considering Desire’s loud mouth, it is a miracle that he hasn’t spotted them yet.

Neronvain’s hands don’t leave her waist. Desire coughs into her elbow, her face warming. His eyes, however, are firmly focused on their current enemy as Chuth continues his search for them; the dragon calls out with taunts to try to bait them out.

When he looks back at Desire, who is refusing to meet his eyes, his eyes widen as he removes his hand as if suddenly burned, shaking them slightly as he brushes his palms against his trousers.

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Neronvain states simply, pointedly ignoring her eyes. When Desire squints, she can see a deep flush beginning to spread against his cheeks. “I just don’t want you dead.”

Desire grins wildly, the blush still red on her cheeks, as she draws her weapon, “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“Please don’t.”

____________________________________

Neronvain is the one who deals the killing blow to Chuth. Desire helps him subdue the beast just long enough for him to finally take care of the dragon. It works, the dragon becoming limp in Desire’s grasp as Neronvain hops down off of the beast.

“Well - that didn’t go nearly as bad as I thought it would.”

Neronvain looks at Desire dryly, raising an eyebrow at her dubiously. Despite her being in decent condition, with minor damage from Chuth’s attacks, Neronvain’s lungs still burn from the dragon’s attacks and he feels like he is about one good hit away from passing out.

But he supposes that no matter how he feels at the moment, it doesn’t change the fact that he will live and Chuth will not. With that realization, the adrenaline dwindling down in his veins, Neronvain collapses to the ground - barely hearing Desire’s worried voice call his name before darkness overtakes him.

When Neronvain wakes, he’s still resting against Chuth’s body. The suddenness of waking up in such a condition, with his wounds already tended to, makes him furrow his brows as old memories start to surface of an empty island and an unlikely caretaker. A hand goes to his chest absently, scratching at where his heart is as an odd warm blooms there at the memories. He’s shaken out of the odd peace that passed over him by Desire’s voice.

“Hey sleepyhead,” her voice rings out loudly, “About time you woke up. You’re lucky that I know at least a couple of healing spells. Your breathing got pretty rough, I was beginning to think I might have to give you mouth to mouth.”

Neronvain’s attention snaps toward her immediately, eyes wide. Desire flushes deeply and mumbles sorry bad joke under her breath as she hesitantly comes closer to look over his wounds. He releases the breath that he didn’t even realize that he was holding; coughing in the process as his chest flares with mild pain.

“Couldn’t have least moved me so I wasn’t on the body,” Neronvain hisses as she dabs medicine into a cut on his brow; he pointedly ignores just how close she is and how he can feel her breath on his cheek. He continues, whining slightly at the discomfort of laying on scales, “Or move his body so I don’t have to lay on it?”

Desire leans back, just enough for Neronvain to see the ridiculous expression on her face as she snorts with laughter.

“How strong do you think I am to lift and move an entire dragon by myself!?”

_______________________________

Chuth’s death demands celebration; just as much as it demands a lot of coin. Despite his death being so wanted by many who had a bounty for his head, the dragon’s body itself provides a lot of resources to a lot of people who are willing to pay the price.

Desire doesn’t ask for a cut, but Neronvain still shoves half of each payment into her bag, leaving no room for argument. She at least insists on paying for their drinks and knowing how her stubbornness can rear its head, Neronvain does not protest (much) when she drags him into a bar for a celebration.

Neronvain tries to give her space, preferring to celebrate Chuth’s death in a more private manner as thoughts plague his mind. He settles in a darker area of the pub, drinking to his heart’s content. He tries to numb what Chuth’s death could lead to, what it means for him; he drinks to numb what the outcome of such an action could be, if he could face repercussions for it, if anyone would even be brave enough to try to go after him knowing that he killed Chuth, or if another dragon - one that is stronger - rise up in Chuth’s place, bringing a new set of problems.

He is already tipsy when he realizes that Chuth’s death will bring more good than bad, for the first time in his life, it feels like he did something good. It feels freeing - like he can finally live. Chuth will no longer hang over him, literally and metaphorically. He won’t have to worry about Chuth coming up at the most inconvenient of time, no more sleeping and waking up in cold sweats afraid and prepared that a dragon is breaking down his wall.

He is free.

And with freedom, comes drinks. Tipsy turns into drunk and drunk turns into staggering drunk.

The sudden sense of freedom urges him on to drink until he starts to feel it deep in his bones and the ale is in his blood. Everything that has ever held him back melt away with his impulse control. The more drunk he is, the more free he feels and he likes that feeling - freedom.

He glances down at his hands as they grip onto his ale, flexing his fingers experimentally as if he can move them for the first time. As if there are no more chains weighing him down and there really isn’t anything else holding him back. Nothing to stop him anymore. Nothing to bite him in the ass later. Chuth is gone. He is no longer a prince.

He could be whomever he wished to be. Whomever he wanted to be. No repercussions from the kingdom. No looking over his shoulder for the cult. He could, he realizes as his heart beats wildly against his chest, be himself. He hasn’t felt this way since he chose his name.

But this much freedom is so different. It is unfamiliar territory - this newfound sense of self-identity. He has never explored it really explored it before. He is always looking over his shoulder, always mincing words, always thinking about what could happen if he did something. He realizes, through a mildly drunken haze, that he doesn’t remember how to be himself.

But he knows someone that does. Someone that always is themselves, even if it doesn’t always end well. A certain someone that is the very reason that he was able to become free in the first place; the same person that saved his life, who has been teaching him how to relax before he even knew that it was possible for him. Someone who has always believed in him, never doubted his potential, never doubted who he was even when she was supposed to kill him.

Desire.

He stands up suddenly, the room spinning around him makes him realize that he did drink more than he expected to. But the burning need to find Desire spreads through his veins - he needs to find her, he needs to see her. He needs to be near her. His insides flip in on themselves as he tries to steady himself, eyes scanning around the pub for the tiefling.

It takes a moment, his eyes squinting before he spots a set of familiar horns. Overjoyed - and bordering completely wasted - to see his friend, he finishes the ale on his table before he stumbles his way toward her. Through distorted, tunnel vision, she seems to get further away and closer all at once; her edges blurred to the point where he can’t make out the color of her eyes anymore.

___________________________________________

Desire respects Neronvain’s need for some space, heading to the bar with the hopes of drinking enough that she will drown the compulsion that she feels to go toward him. Disappointment still lingers in her chest from him immediately going off on his own, leaving her in the dust during what is supposed to be their celebration; his celebration, she corrects. Why doesn’t he want to spend it with her?

When she gets enough drinks in, some part of her decides that maybe it would be a good night to celebrate with someone else - if Neronvain doesn’t want to celebrate with her, then she will find someone who will.

She settles on the man beside her, the one who even buys her her next drink. He’s attractive enough, she supposes, and has a decent smile. As she begins to talk with him, not pausing in her flirtatious comments or subtle touches to his arm, she finds out that he is a pretty decent fellow; nice enough to work with her, at least. His hand finds a way to her arm as he makes a comment on how strong she looks and she flushes deeply as she leans forward with a few comments of her own, but stops short.

The man’s hand is still on her arm, but his voice becomes a bit distant as she spots Neronvain, stumbling his way toward her. He stops short for a moment when their eyes meet, with his eyes squinting. His eyes turn to the man with her for a moment as he gets a bit closer, his brows furrowing.

A rock settles in her gut as her throat gets tight, a sense of shame and shyness building in her chest like a child that got caught with a cookie before dinner. It’s an odd feeling; something that she shouldn’t be feeling, not like this. Especially after Neronvain left her to celebrate by himself.

But Neronvain still gets closer, immediately latching onto her, forcing the man to let go of her. Desire tenses at the sudden closeness, a blush spreading on her cheeks at his boldness before she smells the liquor on his breath. Her nose twitches at the smell as she wonders just how much he managed to down. When he starts to slide off of her, she corrects herself and wonders how he is still even semi-conscious.

The stranger looks between them uneasily, an uncomfortable energy settling between them; an obviously drunk Neronvain doesn’t seem to notice as he starts mumbling comments about Desire’s horns that she honestly cannot comprend due to his voice being too slurred and soft.

Neronvain still leans onto her, his arms tossed around her casually as he looks over the stranger viciously, whispering harsh comments in Desire’s ear that makes her flush as he demands to know who the man is and what she is doing with him. She ignores the questions and looks toward the man apologetically.

“I’m sorry, I think I have to get going before he gets into trouble.”

“The pub has a place upstairs, I’m sure that they’ll take care of him if you want to continue -” the man insists, scratching at the back of his neck with a flirtatious smile, but the smile is wiped off his face as he realizes that Desire isn’t even paying attention.

Her entire focus is on Neronvain, adjusting his arms around her to a more comfortable position. She barely even says a goodbye and pays her tab before she is already heading upstairs, Neronvain clutching to her.

“Is he not coming with us,” Neronvain looks over their shoulders to the sulking man at the bar, but Desire gently guides his head to the steps that they’re going to have to try to walk up together.

“No, Neronvain, he is not coming with us,” Desire keeps her answer short and simple, a desperation rising in her chest for the conversation to be dropped completely, but Neronvain continues.

“Why not?”

Desire hesitates, the struggle of getting him up the stairs proving to be difficult. Instead of going up together the way she planned, she grabs him - he lets out a few slurred protests. In one fell swoop, she takes him in her arms and carries him bridal style as she makes her way up the stairs to one of the rented rooms.

“Because I have to take care of you,” Desire admits as she finds the room.

She kicks down the door, shrugging when it wasn’t even locked as she practically tosses Neronvain onto the bed; he protests that more venomously, proclaiming that if she keeps throwing him around like a toy, he will be sick. She rolls her eyes at his drunk-induced drama and shuts the door before taking a seat in one of the chairs.

She only rented one room - mostly due to all of the confusion and chaos going on leaving her a bit wired and hectic to make completely thought-out choices. But as she watches Neronvain sluggishly correct himself on the bed, she figures she made the right choice, knowing that she will have to stay with him for the night to look after him. Funnily enough, it doesn’t bother her.

She snorts when he gets tangled in the blankets, seeing him to this level of drunk is such a rare occurrence, but it is always a joy for her to watch when it happens; given that she isn’t that far gone herself. It always tickles her to see Neronvain off his hinges, letting down his guard and being so vicarious.

“Did Chuth’s death really make you drink so much,” Desire wonders.

Neronvain pauses, thinking over her question heavily before he finally answers, “I’ve never been this free before.”

Neronvain spreads out on the bed, still entangled in the blankets and reaches for her hopelessly. Desire quiets down at his proclamation, processing it slowly as her heart aches at that realization; as she realizes just how he must have felt. He grabs her arm and tries to pull her into the bed with him, his eyes looking at her with profound sadness.

“I wasn’t sure what else to do. So I found you.”

Desire isn’t sure what to say to that, her tongue darting out over her lips nervously as her heart skips a beat in her chest. She looks toward him, ready to at least try to give a reply, but his eyes are already half-asleep and drawn. Even the grip on her arm is loose and weak. She doesn’t think that she could have a conversation with him if she wanted to.

“Stay with me,” Neronvain pleads softly, yawning as he still tries to bring her closer.

Her heart aches, a large flush spreading on her cheeks, but she gives in to his pleading. Awkwardly and carefully, she climbs into the bed. She tries to keep a distance between them, but Neronvain immediately latches onto her - he doesn’t let her go for the entire night.

Come the next morning, Neronvain wakes up to tiefling arms wrapped around him and trapped between Desire’s body and the wall. Memories of the night before flood him, leaving him flushed and frustrated as he peels his body out of her grasp without waking her.

When Desire finally stirs, Neronvain claims that he doesn’t remember a thing; though he does tease Desire about waking up in her arms and accuses her of being a clingy drunk - she doesn’t have the heart to correct him.

___________________________________________

The castle looks different now. Neronvain can not tell if that is because he has been gone for so long, or if it is because the castle is fully repaired from his escape. Either way, he stops in his tracks to look at it with a mix of admiration - knowing that his brother is doing so well as prince that the kingdom is thriving - and fear.

He did not miss the dirty looks and whispers that followed him through the town as they made their way to the castle. If the people think so poorly of him - even now - he knows that the people within the castle must be thinking so much worse of him. He has been escaping punishment by a mix of pure luck and by the stubbornness of a certain tiefling. But that can only get him so far. Desire can only do so much, despite the fact that she’s already done more than he ever deserved.

He should have known that killing Chuth wouldn’t solve all of his problems.

“Alagatharis invited you for a reason,” Desire’s voice brings him back to the present. When he glances at her, he can see the same worry and fear glistening in her eyes. “He wouldn’t invite you if it wasn’t safe to at least try to come back.”

She flexes her arm and pats the muscle, “Besides you know that I wouldn’t let anything bad happen to you.”

Neronvain watches her with amusement twinkling in his eyes as she seems to immediately take back what she said, flushing deeply and fumbling over her words, insisting that she wouldn’t let anything bad happen to any of her friends. Despite knowing that is true - Desire would never let anything happen to her friends if she could stop it - something in him twists at how fast she took back her statement. Sobering up at the thought, Neronvain straightens his back.

“Come on,” his voice coming out crisp and stern, “We need to be getting a move on already.”

Stupid, stupid, stupid, Desire thinks to herself, hitting her palm against her head as she follows a good distance behind him.

Alagarthas greets them the moment that they enter the castle; the servants gladly part away from the group to make room for him. A few of the handmaidens eye Neronvain warily, but he does his best to ignore it.

Alagarthas immediately goes to his brother first, gushing over how well his brother looks and how happy he is to see him - all praises that Neronvain begrudgingly returns. But then his brother’s gaze turns to the tiefling behind his brother as she shifts on her feet uncomfortably, as if she is trying (and failing) to give the brothers privacy.

Neronvain is released from his brother’s grasp. Alagarthas heads toward Desire with a large grin, his arms outstretched for a hug. Desire returns the hug full-heartedly with a warm face and pink cheeks. Neronvain furrows his brows at the expression on her face, noticing the flush spreading across her nose, and the way that she squeezes Alagarthas before they part. Something in his chest bitterly curdles at the interaction and he can’t stop the brief flash of bitter jealousy that flashes in his eyes.

“I suppose I have you to thank for getting my brother to come back home,” Alagarthas nudges Desire suggestively with a hearty laugh, “I don’t think he would have come on his own.”

Desire flushes deeply, “Oh - I - I don’t know -”

Despite her best efforts in trying to deflect Alagarthas’ praise through nervous stuttering and flushed cheeks, it does not stop him from continuing his thanks and praise for all that she has done. Alagarthas glances toward Neronvain and notices the look of disgust on his brother’s face. Alagarthas briefly frowns, suspicions already building in his mind before he smiles coyly at his brother.

“Oh I am sure that my brother was thrilled to have such a lovely traveling companion,” Alagarthas says boldly, his eyes twinkling as he kisses the back of Desire’s hand.

Her reaction is immediate; a deep warm flush rapidly spreading across her face and down her neck toward her chest. Neronvain shifts with a huff, crossing his arms tightly against his chest, his eyes looking at anywhere but the pair. Alagarthas has the feeling that he has hit the jackpot, his eyes already twinkling with mischief.

_____________________________________

They stayed at the castle for a month; much longer than originally planned, but every time that they tried to leave, Alagarthas found a reason for them to stay - from celebrations to politics. Every time that Neronvain wasn’t sure why Desire was even staying with them, her reaction to Alagarthas’ flirting (some seemed very intentional, while others instances he seemed oblivious to Desire’s reaction to him ) made it clear.

He enjoyed seeing his brother; truly, he did. It felt like he was finally on the start of becoming someone again, someone that he may end up liking. But all of the casual flirting and touching between his brother and Desire have left a bitter taste in his mouth. He can not help but feel a bit of relief as they leave the castle.

Desire opens her mouth to speak, but Neronvain simply raises a hand to silence her.

“Do not say that it went well,” Neronvain warns steadily, his voice low.

Desire shrugs, grinning as she nudges him playfully, “Okay, I think it went amazing.”

Neronvain can feel the headache already coming on, his head throbbing as he knows that it will be a long trek to the nearest town.

“I also think -”

And she’s still going, Neronvain bemotes, as Desire continues, “-that you need to stop being such a stick in the mud and realize just how well it went. No one directly threatened to kill you, no one poisoned your food, and you were able to get some good press with your people again. Not to mention seeing your brother.”

Neronvain huffs at the mention of his brother, but Desire still babbles on - he almost wonders if she took a swig of the expensive ale in the castle before they left, but he does not think that he should be so lucky.

“There’s supposed to be a ball next year,” Desire suggests, “A political event. Would be a great chance to build up your reputation.”

Seeing Neronvain’s gaze turned away from her, she frowns and slows down to walk beside him more closely.

“I - I thought you liked your brother,” Desire asks, her brows furrowed.

Her face is too close for comfort as she leans into him, gently prodding him for answers. He almost steps away, if anything to see her lose her balance and get the hint, but he knows he couldn’t bring himself to do that to her, at least maliciously; as small of an act as it is. Her horns gently press against his face at her proximity as she looks up at him with worried eyes.

He sighs deeply. He knows that she will not press if he really tells her not to, but he does not want her believing that he genuinely dislikes his brother either.

“- I do like my brother,” Neronvain pauses, but reluctantly answers the unspoken question, a teasing tone in his voice, “Maybe I am just tired of a certain tiefling’s meddling.”

But Desire does not hear the teasing undertones in his statement. Her heart sinks as her expression drops, the light in her eyes dimming as a soft oh releases from her lips as she stops in her tracks. Neronvain takes two steps forward before he slowly steps back to her side. Too preoccupied in her thoughts, as she looks down with a deep frown on her lips, Neronvain gently and quickly flicks her nose.

He is already ahead of her when she looks up startled, a flush on her cheeks. She spots Neronvain ahead of her and quickly runs after him, shouting breathlessly as the weight lifts off her shoulders.

“Hey - wait a second, wait up!”

__________________________________

Neronvain leans against the cool rock wall of the cave, the fire in front of him lights up just enough for him to realize how trapped they are. He glances over toward Desire, who pokes at the fire with a frown on her face, her brows furrowed.

“You realize that the others will be getting us out soon,” Neronvain points out.

He can already hear the others’ voices on the other side of the cave-in, followed by the sounds of rocks sliding and shifting. Considering the clearing that they’re in, he is not too worried about anything tumbling onto them in the ruckus, but eyes the block in at the entrance carefully. But it’s already been a few hours and will likely be a few more before they’re free.

Desire lets out a frustrated groan, running her hands through her hair before she collapses against his side.

“I knowww,” Desire admits, whining slightly, “But I feel so stupid. This is all my fault.”

When Neronvain doesn’t correct her, she nudges him playfully, acting hurt over him not comforting her, “You’re supposed to say that this isn’t my fault.”

Neronvain’s eyes gleam against the light of the fire, “I thought I wasn’t supposed to lie to you.”

Desire snorts, immediately curling against him again, “Damn right, you don’t.”

Neronvain rolls his eyes playfully, shifting to get comfortable as she leans her entire body into him for warmth. Careful of her horns, he finds a way for him to at least get semi-comfortable. His arm, however, remains trapped between her and the wall. Hesitantly, that hand hovers around the curve of her hip. He swallows thickly and begins to settle with his palm flat on the ground. But casually, her eyes still on the fire, Desire instinctively reaches for that hand, holding it tightly against her hip.

Even in the low light, he can see the blush spreading just under her eyes and across her nose, a soft smile on her lips as she hums in content.

“You have to admit - it’s really not that bad,” Desire drawls out carefully, “I mean in another time and another place - with other people - I think some people would find it romantic.”

Neronvain feels his heart beat rise, but he keeps a calm composure as he looks at her with a cocked brow, “Other people? You would trade me for someone else?”

Desire snorts, her eyes twinkling, “Maybe someone less chatty, maybe a little more manly.”

Neronvain notices the way that she tightens her grip on his hand, squeezing it against her hip, and how she shifts, as if she is trying to get as close as she can to him, despite there not being an inch between them. His eyes dance in amusement.

“More manly,” his voice is dry, but Desire flush only grows deeper as he continues, “I highly doubt that you will be able to find someone more manly than I am.”

Desire almost makes a snarky comment - she can think of a dozen of them off the top of her head, from how everyone is more manly to him to how he’s more than enough man for her; the latter comment is the one that ends up slipping from her lips before she can stop it, her toes curling as her heart flutters.

The boldness of the comment takes him off guard, pausing as he feels his face warm. He can’t think of what to say in response so he settles for bringing her closer to him, a smile threatening to break on his face as he remembers how to breathe.

“Could you imagine what would have happened if we ended up on that island now,” Desire off-handely mentions with a reminiscent tone in her voice. “How different it would have been - especially now that we’re - friends.”

Friends. Neronvain sucks air through clenched teeth, his grip tightening against hers.

“I can think of many things that would have been different,” Neronvain comments, “I think that if we were stranded on island now, we would have created a very big scandal.”

Desire notices the suggestive tones in his voice and it makes her laugh a bit nervously as she carefully adjusts her head to look up at him with a wild grin. She nearly makes a joke at the blush deepened on his cheeks and spreading to his neck, but she knows that she is in no position to make fun of him for blushing. But she almost pauses at the way he looks down at her, something unreadable in his eyes.

“It would have been less captive and captor and more romantic, vacation getaway, huh?”

She’s almost startled at the deep rumbling that vibrates in Neronvain’s chest as he laughs.

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