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demonicheadcanons · 4 years

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What the Demon Brothers Are Like When Sick

AN: MC is gender-neutral as always. Some of these skirt the line between being platonic and romantic - I wasn’t sure if I wanted to keep things platonic so that more people could enjoy this, or if I should write as if you’re already in a relationship with the brothers, so its a bit of a mess. I hope you enjoy ^^

Lucifer

If you’re not close, you won’t see him. He’s going to hole himself up in his room for a day to get better as quickly as possible. Also he feels like getting ill can be seen as a weakness, so he’d prefer for people not to see him whilst he’s in that state.

He gets sick often enough - he works hard for long hours and doesn’t get much sleep. However he’s also good at just, pretending he isn’t? His focus may be a little off, and he might be quiet or more lenient towards the other brothers because he doesn’t have the energy to scold them for hours on end, but these will be the only signs something isn’t right.

If you are close, he’ll still be wary about letting you know. Again, he doesn’t want to be seen as weak; it’d hurt his pride.

On top of this, he also worries that it might be contagious, and humans are much weaker than demons - if he’s struggling with something, it would absolutely outright kill a human. If its a disease that a human can get, his door is locked and you’re not getting near him no matter what.

Note: he is the only brother other than Satan that even considers this, and so if any of the brothers are sick in a way that could be contagious for humans, it’s him setting boundaries so that you won’t get sick.

When he does trust you enough, he’ll insist on laying with his head in your lap. He’ll tell you that having you run your fingers through his hair helps relieve the headache - it’s partially the truth, at least.

Enjoys being taken care of for once, instead of having to take care of others, but the chances of him admitting it are low. He’s self-sufficient and he doesn’t need anyone to look after him. But it’s still nice, and he’ll completely melt and stop putting up any defence if you kiss him, even if its on the cheek or forehead. He doesn’t feel like he has to fight things that make him happy right now.

Hold a glass of water or a cup of tea up for him and he’ll look straight at you as he sips at it, examining your expression and making sure you’re alright. If you seem to be stressed or upset, he’ll make you leave or cuddle up to him.

Won’t let you do any work for him - he’s a perfectionist and doesn’t trust anyone except Diavolo and maybe Barbatos to work to the same standards as him (*cough* and maybe Satan, if he’s really inspired). However, when he’s recovering and can work again, he’ll ask for your company; you can sit beside him, sit in his lap, even just lay in his bed whilst he works at his desk. Whatever you prefer. All that matters is that he has you nearby.

Will take you out to dinner or shopping as a thank you for helping him.

Mammon

If you’re not close (which, to be honest, would only happen if you don’t like him, because he likes anyone who’s nice to him) then you’ll see him complaining in the group chat and that’s... pretty much it. Sticks to his room until he’s better if he doesn’t feel like you’d take care of him.

If you are close, you can bet he’ll blow up your phone with calls and messages to come look after him for a bit, or to bring him this and that - water, painkillers, blankets, pillows, wipes so he feels less gross. Anything at all that can make him feel better, and that will make you have to stop by his room.

Mostly he just wants someone around because he feels lonely often anyway, but it gets unbearable when he’s ill. Before you were around, he’d push himself to keep going about his day so that he wouldn’t have to be alone.

Run a hand through his hair and help gently wipe his face and he’ll melt. He’s bright red and insistent that he doesn’t need some stupid human’s help, but he’ll shut up quickly if you continue to pat his head or hold his hand.

“Fine. Since you’re so desperate to be around The Great Mammon, I guess I’ll let you stay.” Yeah no, his grip is so tight on your hand that you’re not getting away anyway.

Recovers surprisingly quickly, and doesn’t get sick that often. However, he will insist that he’s better before he actually is, because he gets bored laying about doing nothing - he’s a busy guy, he has money to make and so on. You’ll have to force him to stay in bed for a bit longer even when he’s absolutely sure he’s better, because he really isn’t.

This will stop happening if you give him a lot of attention when he’s sick - he’s a sucker for affection. Cuddle up to him and he’ll stay in bed for as long as you think he should to get better. Honestly it isn’t even fully necessary - he hates seeing you upset or worried, so if you plead for him to take better care of himself he might actually consider trying.

Delirious rambling is common for him. He’ll be half asleep and look up at you and just tell you anything that comes to mind. This is as open as he gets about his feelings, and he might complain to you or tell you about this thing he saw when he was out that kind of reminded him of you, or about that one time when Lucifer did something embarrassing when they were still angels. Despite being too loose-lipped to keep short-term secrets, he’s not a gossip and so this is the only time he’ll tell you about any of the other brother’s personal matters. Please don’t tattle on him - he really was just out of it and didn’t mean to do anything bad.

He cries easily normally, and it gets worse when he’s sick - if you’re watching shows with him whilst he recovers, he’s going to be blubbering over anything even slightly sad or happy. Make sure you have a box of tissues and some treats that won’t make him feel too sick to cheer him up.

He’s going to ask for help with catching up on school work when he’s better, but he’ll repay you in any way you ask him so long as it doesn’t involve much grimm being spent. Maths tutoring is a big one - he hates doing work, but he’s really good at maths canonically. Essentially, if you’ll do his other subjects for him, he’ll do your maths homework for you. You’ll probably end up doing more work, but you get to spend even more time for him if that makes up for anything?

Additional note: Mammon is the only brother who Lucifer will give you time off school to take care of. This is because he knows Mammon won’t want to be alone and will probably stress out so much that he’ll end up worse off. It means he has a way of monitoring Mammon without having to be around him, and he doesn’t have to worry. This won’t be the reason he gives you - he’ll act like its a problem that you’re missing classes and will imply that he’s only just barely allowing it, but will give you permission at the end of the day because “well, it will keep him out of my hair at least.”

Leviathan

Like Mammon, if you’re not close you just won’t hear from him. He can get quite irritable when he’s sick, and holes himself up in his room so he doesn’t have to deal with anyone. Honestly no one will know he’s sick unless he misses school and Lucifer orders someone to check up on him, because nothing much changes except that he messages the group chat less.

He acts a bit like Belphie when he’s sick, and sleeps through most of it cuddled up to his Ruri-Chan body pillow, with TSL on in the background as a grounding comfort.

He doesn’t get sick often. His immune system isn’t the best, because he never goes out. At the same time, because he tends to avoid people anyway, the likelihood of him catching anything is low.

If you are close, not much will be different - you’ll have to seek him out to notice he’s sick, or he’ll tell you in the context of asking you to set a show to record or go to a store for a special promotion involving something he’s interested in. He doesn’t really look for any comfort, but the closer you two are, the more upset he’ll be because now he knows what its like to be close to someone and it makes him miss it.

Won’t initiate anything, but he’s less flustered about physical affection because he’s just so tired. He still blushes when you so much as hug him, but he won’t protest or put himself down, he just holds on as tight as he can manage and nuzzles as close to you as possible. He likes sitting like that for as long as you’re comfortable.

He’s disturbingly quiet compared to when he’s healthy. He can tolerate headaches because he’s used to them from staring at screens constantly, but the second he has a fever or feels nauseous he’s silent. You can try to prompt him but he’ll get out a small amount of info and then just, pout and frown off into the distance because he doesn’t feel good and he hates it. He prefers for you to talk to him at these times, in a calm and level enough voice - especially if you talk about something that you’re very passionate about.

Levi is bad at taking care of himself at the best of times, but when he’s sick he’s surprisingly obedient. If you ask him to drink some water or try and eat something, he will. He needs the reminders but once they’re there he’ll follow them pretty well. Without them he’s going to spend the entire time in his bathtub bed. If he’s really, really sick, he’s going to take out all the pillows and fill it with water and he’ll sleep off the sickness in his demon form with his head underwater. He’ll only do this if left alone, though.

If you sit or lay beside him when he’s laying down, he’ll alternate between holding your hands and playing with them. He’s too tired to be nervous and it really calms him down. If you remind him when he’s better he’s going to turn bright red and stammer out something about how “of course you wouldn’t want a gross otaku like me to hold your hand.” However, the memories, as fuzzy as they may be, make him happy and if you two are napping together even when he’s not sick any more, he’ll still play with your hands once he believes you’re asleep.

Once he’s better, he’ll catch up on schoolwork quickly be himself - he wants to get it out of the way as soon as possible so that he can catch up on all the shows and games he missed. You won’t see him for a day or two as he catches up on everything unless you ask to spend time with him, and he gets really flustered and happy because you already spent a lot of time together and you still want to be around him?

Overall, he’s pretty self-sufficient compared to most of the other brothers, because he’s used to spending time by himself and being sick doesn’t completely uproot his life. Alongside Lucifer, he’s also the most likely to get you a gift to thank you for sticking by him. If you were looking for anything, he’ll have ordered it before starting to catch up on his school work.

Note: He’s silent almost the entire time he’s sick, but at least once a day for as long as it lasts he’ll open his eyes and stare up at you and groggily mumble about if you could please feed Henry, the fish flakes are over on his desk, thanks. Also, you’ll hear him all you by your actual name the most when he’s sick because he forgets to call you a normie.

Satan

If you’re not close, like with the others you really just won’t hear from him. He’s going to be following whatever advice he found in books to get better as quickly as possible, or he’ll buy a potion if there’s one that will help. If nothing is helping, he’s going to be confined to his room because he’s in a constant bad mood and doesn’t have a good handle on his anger.

Even if you are close, he’ll ask to be left alone whilst he’s recovering because he knows he might snap and say or do something that he’ll regret. The only time he’ll willingly let you be around him is if he knows he isn’t contagious, and if he’s too weak to do anything. Its a rarity like no other, because it involves so much trust in both you and himself. If you force yourself into his room and insist on taking care of him anyway, he’s not going to say a word because he’ll be too focused on keeping himself under control.

He essentially becomes like a cat that is constantly fighting the urge to claw at your hands. Be slow and gentle around him, and keep your voice low. If you can get close enough to pat his head or let him curl up with his head in your lap, then you’re safe. However, if you’re loud or knock over his books he will quite literally growl at you, teeth-bared, and you’re going to want to get out of the room as soon as possible.

Once you manage to get close to him, keep a hand on his head and read quietly to him and he’ll pass out pretty quickly. He prefers for you to read fairy tales at times like this over anything else.

If you’re like this and another brother is loud outside of the room or bursts into the room he’s going to be furious. He’ll grip your wrist - possibly tight enough that it’ll leave a faint bruise - to keep you in place and glare at them until they back off, or just glare at the door until the noise stops. You’re pretty much trapped with him unless you can somehow figure out how to get up without waking him up, and if he wakes up and you’re gone you’re going to be hard-pressed trying to get him to let you get close again.

He’s going to be embarrassed once he recovers, and it really is best just to not bring any of it up again. After the first time he gets sick, he will seek you out if you were able to get close and you took good care of him - he’ll text you to bring water and painkillers to his room because he’s sick, and after that he’ll ask you to read to him again. He seems more normal each time, but make no mistake - if anyone else tries to be around him they won’t get away unscathed.

Satan really goes from one of the most reasonable brothers to acting very much like a demon, or like some kind of animal fighting to appear human.

When he’s better, he’ll thank you for helping him. If you don’t seem to be scared of him even after seeing him in that state, he’ll stick a little closer to you in future. He doesn’t try to repay you in any specific way, but he will help you out in little ways over time. If you don’t help him whilst he’s sick, he’s going to be understanding, but if you decided to help him and then ended up afraid of him he’ll be frustrated because he warned you and you ignored it.

Asmodeus

Unless you really seem to not like him, he’s going to act similar whether you two are close or not; he’s complaining in the groupchat about being sick and about how awful his screen feels right now and so on. This will continue until you either take it upon yourself to go take care of him, or Lucifer sets up a rota where everyone has to go spend some time with him so Asmo will stop blowing up his phone.

Asmo doesn’t seem to change much when he’s sick, but he’ll have moments where he lays quietly and stares up at the ceiling because he’s overthinking something or he feels alone and hates it. He needs to be distracted constantly - paint his nails, or help him wash and moisturise his face, or tell him whatever silly stuff his brothers have been up to lately and he’ll brighten up a bit.

If he’s sweaty or feels like he looks even slightly less beautiful than normal, he’ll try to hide his face beneath a pillow at times because if you’re going to think about him, he’d rather not have you remember what he looks like right now, even if he’s still the most attractive person in the three realms. Enough compliments will draw him out but he may make a few inappropriate remarks in response.

Overall he acts similar to how he normally is, with a little more complaining and a slight cut down on his more suggestive comments. He’ll want to be pampered and taken care of and will make his wants known, but once you’re there with him he’s able to stay calm about the entire thing unless it goes on for too long and he feels like it’s going to take time and effort to get himself looking as good as he usually does again.

If you’re very close, and he’s realising that he has genuine feelings, then he’s going to have brief periods where he’s vert soft with you - he’ll ask you to lay down beside him and he’ll hold your face in his hands and whisper to you, being honest about how he feels and telling you what he likes about you, and asking you questions about yourself and about how you feel about him. He gets a little teary-eyed at these times because he’s really happy that you’re there with him even when he’s not in top shape.

The absolutely worst with food when he’s sick. He’s picky and he’ll turn his nose up at almost everything. If it has a smell it’s making him nauseous, but if it doesn’t have any taste at all he’s going to refuse to eat it because if he wanted his food to be bland he’d go ask Solomon to cook for him. Asmo is most at risk of making himself more sick by only eating sweeter foods because they’re all he can tolerate.

He’s a healthy person generally - he takes good care of himself, it’s a huge priority of his. He doesn’t get sick often but he takes longer to recover than most of the other brothers, and it really frustrates him.

Overall, just stay close to him and help him take care of himself in whatever way you can and he’ll be alright. This is probably the safest time to be around him, because he’s not in the mood to try anything when one of the participating parties is sick, whether it be you or him. When he gets better, though, he’s going to be very suggestive for a while because he insists he’s running on a deficit and needs attention.

He won’t necessarily reward you or thank you directly for helping him - I mean, you got to spend all that extra time around him, and that was a treat in and of itself even if he was sick the entire time - but he’ll invite you over for face masks and will paint your nails and offer to give you a nice massage. Essentially, whatever you’re down to do, he’s also down for once he’s better and is able to have a nice bath and fully wash away all traces of the illness.

Beelzebub

If you’re not close, you’ll know he’s sick because there’s suddenly a lot more food around than there was before with him not around to eat it, and Belphie is complaining about how his stomach hurts because Beel is sick. Beel, himself, will stick to only complaining to Belphie in their room, or he’ll ask Lucifer to find a way to help him feel better. Whilst doctors will be called for all brothers if their condition seems serious, its incredibly likely that one will be called for Beel immediately no matter what.

If you are close, you’re going to be stuck by his side the entire time he’s unwell unless you really have something to do and Belphie agrees to spend the time with Beel instead. He really doesn’t want to be alone, and he’ll cling to anyone who comes near him. If you’re uncomfortable with physical affection you’d be best avoiding him whilst he’s sick.

Otherwise, Beel will wrap you up in his arms and cuddle with you, holding you as close as he can. He’s going to be wary of not hurting you, and he’s essentially a furnace when he’s not well so he’ll release his grip slightly if you seem to be overheating (Belphie sets up a fan so it stops being as much of a problem, thankfully). If he’s really sick and can’t focus, you’ll have to remind him if he’s holding you too tight or you’re starting to overheat because he won’t stop himself from holding you as close as physically possible and essentially wrapping himself around you like a koala bear.

Beel isn’t one for words irregardless of how he’s feeling, but you can hear him making a quiet whining noise in his throat every now and then if you listen carefully - when he’s really distressed, the sound is near constant and sounds like flies buzzing. Being sick is one of the worst things ever to him, and he can never get used to it because it’s such an uncommon state for him. He’s a healthy guy generally, as he’s sporty and active and takes good care of himself. He’s usually fairly immune to most illnesses.

Nothing really makes him feel that much better except for you to stay close by. He appreciates small gestures - gentle kisses on his cheeks or hands, words of comfort, and humming to him will calm him down enough that he might be able to sleep it off.

One good day of rest and he’ll be back on his feet, better than ever and ready to eat everything in the kitchen. If you cook for him or with him? He’s in love. Even if you don’t, he’s still going to insist that he has at least one arm around you at all times, and if you’re comfortable with it he’ll probably take to carrying you around with him half the time when he’s recovering - its his own way of saying thank you and that he appreciates what you do for him.

He won’t do anything special otherwise to thank you. However, because he and Belphie both tend to get sick at the same time, if you tend to both of them he’ll definitely try to repay you in some way. Usually this just involves giving you some kind of snack when he’s filling up again. If he knows there’s something you really like to eat, he’ll sneak out when you’re sleeping and get some for the two of you, as well as something for Belphie.

Belphegor

If you’re not close you’ll still know he’s sick because he’ll be trying to help Beel feel better first before he focuses on himself, and he’ll be grumbling the whole time. He’s angry and he’s not going to put up with anything, and the second Beel’s asleep he’s not leaving their room, or he’s locking himself up in the attic and sleeping until he’s better. No one except Beel and Lucifer dares to go near him when he’s like this - even then, Lucifer only checks up on him if he really needs something, or to make sure Belphie is okay because he’s the youngest brother and Luci very occasionally babies him.

If you are close, much like Beel you’re going to have to avoid him if you don’t want to spend the next few days cuddled up with him. He tends to be sick for longer, and if you’re not careful he’ll try to get you to spend the entire time in the attic, wrapped up in his arms.

He’s the only one who will end up in his demon form for the majority of the time he’s ill even if you’re around, for a variety of reasons; he doesn’t have the energy to maintain his more human-like form, he’s too frustrated and doesn’t care enough, etc. Also he finds it comforting to wrap his tail around you in some way if you’re okay with it so you won’t leave when he’s napping.

Belphie won’t admit to it, but the worst thing you can do when he’s sick is leave and not be back before he wakes up. Similarly to Satan, it upsets him to the point where he’ll get angry and refuse to let you back into the room, but he can be convinced fairly easily or bribed with the offer of letting him sleep with his head in your lap, with you running your hands through his hair.

As mentioned before for Beel, the two often get sick at the same time. Belphegor will be less clingy if you’re also taking care of Beel, and ten times more grateful. He won’t let you go for anything, but the second you mention that you need to check up on Beel too he’s already released his grip and he’s grumbling about how you better come back as soon as possible.

When he gets better, he doesn’t really see a need to thank you or anything - not because he’s ungrateful, but because you two are close and he’d take care of you if you were sick too. He sees it as a normal and expected thing. If he was snappy with you, he’ll apologise indirectly, but otherwise he doesn’t say anything about it. If you did end up taking care of both him and Beel he’ll pat you on the head and probably offer to let you rest with your head in his lap for once.

AN: Thanks for reading! If its highly requested I’ll do this for the Undateables too. In the meantime, I plan to write about how the brothers take care of MC when they’re sick.

#om headcanons #obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me leviathan #obey me satan #obey me asmodeus #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphegor #my writing #i hope the read more appears okay so that people can tell there's more than just luci's ;u;

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blueyesandleatherjacket · 4 years

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The Fallen, 9/17

Volume: 1.

Number of parts: 9/17.

Pairings: Nine x Rose.

A/N: Tagging @thebookster on her demand.

“We've all fallen, but at the same time we're not broken. There is the hint that we are going to get up again.” - Amy Lee.

CHAPTER 9:

The Doctor woke up a few hours later. He was feeling groggy and nauseous. He tried to get up but his limbs weren’t responsive. He slumped back on the floor. Waited a couple minutes. Or hours. Tried to sit up. His mind was clouded, he couldn’t think straight. Whatever they had drugged him with this time, it was a strong one and it wasn’t wearing off easily. He groaned and rolled on his side so he wouldn’t choke on his vomit if he was sick. His head bumped against the foot of the busted bed. Pain exploded; black dots filled his sight. He stayed still. That was for the best. Stay still and wait until he felt better. He had expected Jeremy to attack again on the next day. He didn’t see him, nor any of his pets. Nash didn’t even come. Jeremy was certainly keeping her away. Isolating the patient when he was gonna need help was a strategy to have him getting desperate. Deprived from food, water and from a person checking on him while he was recovering from torture and a strong dose of drugs was dangerous but it could be worse. The Wolf didn’t show up. The drugs had weakened the Time Entity. Worse than when they had weakened his human host. But the worst was yet to come. Indeed, his biggest problem wasn’t to see no one. It was quite a relief actually. He could be in peace in that tiny cell that stunk like Hell. No, his biggest problem was the drugs. Lately, they had taken him out of his cell regularly. Scared of what he could do, they were drugging him to make him as innocent and soft as a kitty. His body had developed an addiction to those substances and now he was gonna get detoxified the hard way. For days, he was as sick as a dog. He was vomiting and trembling and sweating. Whenever he was getting a bit of sleep, he was dreaming of Jeremy getting what he wanted; of him torturing Rose to get him; dreaming of all the bad adventures when he was traveling through time and space. He was dehydrated and in a rough shape. However, he never begged for water and food. Not even meds. He handled it all by himself. When someone finally opened the door days later, he was lying on his side on the cold dirty ground. He was barely awake. He didn’t move at all – couldn’t really – when he was kicked in the ribs. Not even a sound. There was a laugh that would have given the chills to anyone able to react and he was chained up again. No drugs. What did they have in store for him this time? Whatever it was, it certainly wasn’t gonna please him. Someone pulled him up. He was so weak that he couldn’t stand on his own. He collapsed on the person beside him, closed his eyes. The walls of the room he was in were pale lilac. He smiled. It reminded him of the flashy pink of Rose’s walls in Jackie’s tiny flat. The woman would never know how many nights he really spent in that room with Rose, how many nights he had spent, sat in the dark, watching Rose sleeping. Humans needed a ridiculous amount of sleep. It was annoying. He was always so bored when she was sleeping. He could have gone on an adventure alone but it was better with two. He couldn’t stand solitude anymore. Having Rose by his side was all he desired. “You look rough, Doctor.” This time, he was the one lying in a miserable condition with a glassy look and block up ears and she was the one sitting on the edge of his bed with a mocking smile. She was getting her revenge for all the times he had mocked her for her weak condition. “Time Lords don’t get sick.” “You’re gonna tel me you’re burning up because of your superior biology?” “My body adjusts its temperature.” “You just forgot that you’re human now.” The Doctor blinked. It was true. Even with a part of the Time Vortex in his mind, he remained an ordinary human who was vulnerable to every germ. Rose had a strong immune system. She wasn’t falling sick that much. But she was always in a rough shape whenever her period hit. Something he would never understand. “You have to wake up, Doctor.” Her voice was an echo. Yet, she was just beside him. Her hands were touching his naked body respectfully. Caring gestures: a hand on his forehead to check for fever, a hand holding his. She cleaned his face with a cold wet rag. Everything he would have done for her. “You wouldn’t miss the birth of this new star! Come on, Doctor. It won’t happen for another trillion years.” “What do you know about stars, little human?” he croaked. “More than you if you sleep for another full day.” “I do not sleep. I meditate.” “It’s time to wake up now.” He opened his eyes reluctantly. The walls were grey and the bed was more comfortable than usual. He scanned the surroundings. There was no one around. The place was unfamiliar. It wasn’t Rose’s room, not even his. There wasn’t the usual hum of the TARDIS. He wasn’t in his ship. He slowly sat up. His body was still but it didn’t hurt. Not anymore. Strangely, he felt quite good. Exhausted as if he had gone through Hell and back, but good. He laced around the room. The only way out was locked. The other door was the door of a bathroom. A very tiny bathroom. He was wearing a white cotton outfit. “You have gone through a terrible week. I understand that you might be confused.” He turned around. There was a woman in the room. He hadn’t even heard the door. He was disappointed to find out it wasn’t Rose. The woman was older. She was relieved to see him awake. He was supposed to recognise her. His mind was making attempts to send him signals. He rubbed his face, tapped his forehead with his thumb but nothing came. Nothing until she put a hand on his shoulder. Her aura hit him. She was not a human being. She was a shapeshifter, and one of the most dangerous. “I don’t know what you’ve done to Jeremy but he has left after your last meeting and hasn’t come back yet.” Jeremy. The flash of a man looking just like him. But in his eyes… nothing but the darkness. A dark void. The devil in person. Or almost. He was there to hunt the Time Lords and steal their secrets, their technology, their longevity. Other species had just been a funny exercise but now was the time to beat the final boss. If you could find the secrets of the universe’s keepers, you would be unstoppable. But the Wolf had preferred ruining his brain than giving in. “Where’s Rose? What has he done to her?” He moved away from her touch. He was uneasy around her. His mind was trying to retrieve his missing memories. Rose was there. She had been taking care of him. She had been talking to him. Or had they made him believe she was there? Had they brought her here and taken her away from him? “She’s not here,” answered the woman. “She has never been here. Your friend… you’re keeping her safe. You refuse to tell Jeremy where she is.” The Doctor remained silent. His brain was overwhelmed with thoughts. It was too much. The woman gently led him to the bed and forced him to sit down before he felt bad. The last few weeks had been hard on him. He should go slow. She didn’t want him to dive back. He was still recovering. “They initiated your detoxification. They were planning on giving you drugs again when you’d be the most vulnerable. But you ruined their plans and I stepped in. Brought you up here, helped you through. You’ve been hallucinating.” “I do not hallucinate.” “With the fever you had, you definitely were.” “Why am I here?” “You won’t be here for much longer.” The Doctor raised an eyebrow. Her tone was determined. She was gonna get him out of here. Today. He just needed to trust and follow her. Jeremy was away and she had distributed laced coffees to his pets. The path was free from obstacles but they had little time. She took him all the way down to the basement, to the deepest core of this asylum. His mind was flashing memories he had tried to forget. The yellow room, the purple room, the red room. All rooms of torture. That was why he hesitated to enter the green room. It was pretty naked compared to the others. Just a table with a computer and headsets to monitor a brain’s activity. He had come here before. Once or twice. This was all a blur. “We will make them believe that we did a monitoring session.” She was already working on launching the computer and headsets. She wanted a telepathic conversation with him but couldn’t do it freely. This room was the only way to do it without suspicion. The wolf inside him trusted this woman, this Nash, so the Doctor stepped in, placed the headset on his head and let Nash connect him to the system. There was a whole recording room behind the green room. Nash was fake-recording. She had gone through this process before. Not here, but it had happened. The Doctor let her in his mind and she was surprised by the nakedness and austerity of the place. She had expected it to be livelier, more colourful, but it was just a dark room with locked doors. There were two men. They were identical. A perfect copy of each other. One of the them was the Doctor, the other was Maxence. One was asleep in a corner, the other was standing straight, his arms folded on his chest, next to a silver Wolf. From the look in his eyes, he was the human host and not the Time Lord. Another surprise. ‘The Doctor has been off for a long time,’ he explained. ‘It has been me all along.’ ‘You were convincing. No one noticed anything.’ ‘We share the same memories. I know everything about him and he knows everything about me.’ ‘You all played your cards wonderfully but we don’t have much time. We need to talk.’ Her gaze was on the Wolf. It was the one in charge there. None of them blinked when Maxence collapsed to the ground. The Wolf had temporarily neutralised him to have a proper conversation with Nash. She was right. Maxence had done a fantastic job at taking the Doctor’s place. The two of them were the two sides of the same coin. That was why Maxence had been chosen to be the incarnation of this Doctor who survived the Time War. He was a strong man who had survived the worst in human terms, who had handled the burden of the Doctor like no other would have been able to. It was time to reward him for all the sacrifices he had made for the sake of the universe…

To be continued...

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#doctor who #ninth doctor #rose tyler #doctor x rose #dwfic #the fallen

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enchantingkittengaditor · 4 years

Text

Living In Our Minds | Had Me At Hello ~ Padamé

Life. You don’t know what it’s truly like until your in the back of an ambulance with the worst headache of your life and vomiting, with your epileptic sister who herself is on fluid. But we weren’t there anymore, we were sitting the ER of a hospital waiting for our parents so the doctors could run tests on Leia and give her the medication that she needed to hopefully get better while they ran tests on me.

“We’re here. Where are our kids?” Mum screamed at the nurse at the desk.

“Oh god, why is our mother here without dad or Luke?” I asked my sister who still wasn’t quite her usual herself.

“We need to run some tests and give her some medication, but we need your permission as a legal guardian. Any allergies or pre-existing conditions?” The doctor asked her hurriedly, as she approached us.

“She has epilepsy and she’s allergic to watermelon. I think that’s it,” Mum responded.

“She’s got absence and clonic seizures. She’s allergic to all types of melon, lactose and boysenberries. And coffee,” I told the doctor filling in the blanks of mum’s memories.

“Alright so I’ll keep this away from her and I’ll get a nurse to take some blood,” The doctor joked about his coffee. “And I’ll get her test results. They should be back by now.”

“I’m going to call your father,” mum said to us.

After a few hours sitting at the hospital in a room with my sister at this point fine but waiting for the results of the tests the doctors ran. Luke had asked if they could run some sort of DNA test to see if his bio parents were on the hospital records when mum and dad had left the room.

“So, why do you want to know your bio parents are?” Leia asked sitting on her phone.

“Would you?” Luke responded.

“I don’t know. Maybe. If it meant mum wasn’t my mother then maybe. But I don’t know.”

“Hey Luke we have your results,” the nurse said.

“Ok? And?”

“We can’t give out information but we contacted someone from social services who can give you your file. But we can tell you, you don’t have the same genetic predisposition to brain injuries as your sisters.”

“Well, that’s good news.”

“IS IT?” I yelled at him.

“We also have both of your test results, so where are your parents?”

“I’m pretty sure they’re making out in some cupboard. Try the first one on your left,” everyone looked at Leia as she said all this, “What? I’ve lived with them my whole life and they’re always at it. I’m scarred for life. Honestly, I should move in with one of you two instead.”

“I’ll go get them,” The nurse said.

When they got back the nurse looked very much scarred.

“So Padamé, you had a brain aneurysm as your aware and surgery went well so there’s nothing you should be worried about you just need to stay in for a couple of weeks for observation. Then you should be ready to get back to your dragons,” the doctor joked to her, “Then Leia.”

“That can’t be good,” she stated.

“It’s not the best but you should be fine. We caught your cancer early. It’s in your brain but with chemo, it should be fine. It shouldn’t affect your epilepsy or your schoolwork. You just have to be careful around people because your immune system won’t be the best. Meaning Ms. Carter, you have to make sure that all your employees that Leia could come into contact with have their immunizations, even if your company is meant for natural healing. Same with any employees you may have at home and any teachers or friends of hers.”

“So does this mean I can’t participate in sporting events?” She asked the doctor.

“Unfortunately yes. You have to do some exercise but not sport as a whole.”

“You can however still watch your boyfriend’s football matches if you sit on the sidelines and away from crowds,” the nurse said responded.

“BOYFRIEND?” our parents screamed/questioned.

“I don’t have a boyfriend,” she simply stated.

“Maybe not but there’s a boy asking to see you outside claiming to be a friend,” the nurse teased her, “Anyway, I will probably be one of the nurses helping on your chemo. Until then is the boy allowed to come in?”

“Yes, please.” She smiled at the nurse.

“Hey, Leia. How are you?” the boy asked as I looked at her in shock.

“Just peachy, Pads,” she responded.

“We’re going to leave you three for a while,” Mum said to us.

“I thought I was your ‘Pads’, Leia?” I asked her in shock.

“You were until I started at school here, not NYC or LA or Prague or Moscow or San Fran or anywhere that we lived before for them.”

“You lived in Moscow?”

“For 2 months when I was five, mum and dad were filming something. Russia would not recommend it.”

“It was definitely better than the outback or Las Vegas, which you didn’t have to live through. The clothes. The hair. The sounds,” I said shivering at the thought of my formative years.

“Luke the person from social services is here,” the nurse stated.

“Do you want me to leave for a moment?” Paddy asked.

“Can you? I’m sorry I’ve wanted to share this moment with my sisters for years.”

“It’s cool. I’ll go to the cafe, want anything?”

“If we’re allowed coke then yes,” I said to this new boy.

“And M&Ms!” Leia piped up as he left.

“Two things. One he likes you…” I started.

“Two, you like him,” Luke finished.

“First, no. Second, no. Third, don’t you want to find out who your bio parents are?” She responded to our taunting.

“Oh yeah, that,” he said having forgotten about that.

“Idiota,” I said looking at Leia on the bed next to me.

“I know what that means!” Luke yelled at us, “I may have failed Spanish but I know what that word means.”

“Sure you do,” Leia said, “Maybe we should let the nice lady from social services come in.”

“Yup,” he said getting up from his chair. “Hi, I’m so sorry ‘bout that. You have some information about my bio family.”

“Yes, I do. But the bad news is they said on the paperwork they don’t want to be contacted, so I can’t give you any of their contact information,” She said walking into the room, smiling at us. “I can give you a few details if you want.”

“Absolutely, I want to know whatever I can about them,” Luke said to her.

“Luke are you sure you want to do this. They gave you up, I know they might not have wanted to but they didn’t want to be contacted either,” Leia piped up from her bed.

“Yes, I’m sure,” Luke said looking her in the eyes.

“Well, I can tell you they have 3 other children all of which they kept, they live in the London area and they’re good people, Luke. It also says here they originally wanted to call you Tom,” she said looking at the file.

“That’s the one thing I did know. It’s why I chose my stage name,” he said smiling at the thought of sharing a connection with his bio family.

“Wait you said they have three other kids. How old are they?” I asked wondering for him.

“21 and… 15,” she stated looking at the file.

“So three years younger than Luke and my age,” Leia said what we were both thinking, “Are they still in a relationship with each other?”

“Yes,” she said.

“Why’d they give him up for adoption?” I asked, “Where they teens or something else?”

“They weren’t teens in fact they were in their late 20s when you were born, as for why I couldn’t tell you. That’s not a question we used to ask back then.”

“Could you ask if they want to have contact now, that was in the 90s. I just really want to know my parents,” Luke told the lady.

“At least you already know you’re not related to the mess that is mum,” Leia said angrily at him.

“That is true, you two have to live your whole life know that,” he responded.

“I can see but chances are they won’t change their mind it’s been too long they might not want to have anything to do with you. But there is a small chance that they will. Trust me I get it I was adopted myself,” she said, “I’ll call them now and see but just know if they don’t agree there’s nothing I can do about it.”

“Thank you for trying,” Luke told her as she walked out of the room to make the phone call.

“I’m back and I brought snacks for each of you,” Paddy said coming through the door as the lady left then handing us each of our snacks.

“You want to sit next to me Pads?” Leia said scooting over on her bed.

“No es tu novio, en realidad?” I said to her smirking.

“Shut it Padamé,” she responded glaring at me.

“I’ve got news for you, Luke. They might want to meet you if you truly want but they have to talk to their other kids and I’m allowed to give you the file when you come into the offices with your parents,” the lady from social services said coming back into the room, “I’ll make you an appointment for Friday at 4 pm. Have fun with your sisters.”

“You guys want to play a game of Uno?” Paddy asked pulling the pack of cards from his bag.

“Sure?” Luke and Padamé said together.

We spent the rest of the day in that room with visits from Sophie, Masie, Jason and Kit as well as mum and dad, and a few of Luke’s friends from Spider-Man. It was nice playing card games and talking and joking. It felt like old times, back before all of the fame and spotlights were thurst on us. Though after a day with the two teens I can definitely tell they’re in some sort of love with each other even if they don’t realize it yet between the long looks at each other when they thought the other couldn’t see them and the banter and the mock fighting. It was like first teenage love. It was so sweet watching them interact with one another. And I’m not the only one who thinks this, I asked everyone once Paddy had gone home and Leia had fallen asleep, and they all agreed with me. But that wasn’t the most memorable thing about the night that belongs to Sophie and my mother:

“Shots anyone?” Sophie asked at around midnight as we played poker.

“I’ll have one,” mum said as we all turned to look at her, “What am I not allowed alcohol?”

“Go ahead, Mrs. Carter,” Sophie said pouring her a shot proudly.

Truly an incredible interaction among one of the best from my mother and my friends ever. Simple.

#emilia clarke #tom holland #hugh jackman #gwyenth paltrow #family #friends #epilepsy #tw: epileptic content #epilepsy awareness #brain aneurysm #adopted #holland #holland family #london #fame #fame!au #fame au #kinda an original

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puffdragongirl · 5 years

Text

Burned: Chapter 2

Please be advised that there are graphic descriptions of injuries in this chapter. Proceed with caution!

Not sure if I’ll manage to finish the entry for track 3 before the master post, but here is another very late submission for the soundtrack challenge!

The quiet of the pharmacy is broken by the slam of the door against the wall, and a desperate cry for help.

“Please, we need some help over here!”

Shirayuki and Ryuu rush towards the entry, where a pair of soldiers support the weight of an injured companion. The man is dressed in the distinctive, if blood-spattered garb of a messenger, but apparently his non-combatant status had not mattered to whoever had shot the man full of arrows. As they guide the soldiers towards one of the examining tables, Shirayuki can feel the heat rolling off the man in waves. A quick glance at the fletching of the arrows shows one with the distinctive gold striping made infamous in the pharmacy courtesy of one too many poisoned patients.

Her gaze shifts to Ryuu, whose mouth is already set in a grim line. The arrows lodged in the man’s right arm and torso were worrisome enough on their own, but his chances of survival were slim to none if they didn’t immediately treat him for the poison now running through his veins.

“I’ll get the kera leaf,” Ryuu murmurs as they settle the injured messenger belly-down on a cot. He turns to the hovering soldiers, and gestures for an apprentice to come escort them to the waiting area. “We will do all we can for your friend, but please give us some room.”

Despite the grim circumstances, Shirayuki can’t help the swelling of pride she feels as she watches Ryuu interact with the concerned soldiers. Ever since his conversation with Obi on the snowy ramparts during the winter flu outbreak their first year in Lyrias, Ryuu had pushed himself to be more independent, stepping out of his comfort zone to speak with patients and their families. His hard work paid off, and he is now known as a reliable, if quiet, pharmacist.

“My name is Shirayuki, Sir,” she says to the injured messenger, voice gentle as she lays a hand on his uninjured arm, “You’re safe here in our pharmacy in Wistal, and we will do our best to care for you.” He turns his head on the pillow to look at her, eyes glazed with pain and fever, but looking cognizant. “Could you tell me your name, Sir?”

“Hayata,” he groans, grimacing as the movement of his breath jars the arrows, “I was just carrying a message, on the main path and all.” Tears pool in his eyes until they spill quietly down his cheeks, “I don’t want to die, Miss.”

“Shh…” she soothes, rubbing his shoulder gently, “We’ll take good care of you, Hayata.” As she reassures the man, one of the senior apprentices approaches with a steaming cup, and the familiar scent of the ready-made blends of pain-killing herbs they keep on hand fills the air. She accepts the cup with a quiet thanks, then holds it up to allow the soldier to inspect it. “I have some herbs here that might make you a little sleepy but will ease some of the pain from these injuries. Do you think you can drink some of this for me?”

The man nods gingerly, so she assists him in sipping the brew. Just as she is setting the emptied cup to the side, she hears a sharp curse, followed closely by a clatter from the storage room down the hall. Concerned, she leaves Hayata in the care of an apprentice as he relaxes under the influence of the herbs to investigate the situation. Ryuu had…acquired an extensive repertoire of swear words following an “outing” with Obi, Suzu, and Kirito after his 16th birthday (”A man needs to know swear words, Miss,” Obi had insisted when she protested, “It’s practically a law”), but he rarely used them, especially not while he was on the job. When she arrives, she finds Ryuu hunched over a bench, furiously sorting through a storage drawer. She approaches, opening her mouth to ask what is wrong, but gasps when she catches sight of the drawer.

Dozens of small, black beetles swarm over the stock of kera leaf. She scrambles to the table, joining Ryuu’s mad dash to rescue the precious few leaves left undamaged by the voracious insects. Minutes later, they stare with a silent, shared horror at the remaining stock. There is enough left to help the wounded messenger, and maybe a few more patients if they calculate the dosage precisely each time; but it isn’t nearly enough, especially if the war draws close as quickly as Obi predicts.

“It’s barely above freezing outside,” Ryuu voices her unspoken fears. They have to get more, and they have to get it quickly. The leaves never survive the first frost, and they can’t afford to wait until the new growth in the spring.

-----

Hayata is a lucky messenger. After dosing him with a carefully calculated quantity of kera leaves, Ryuu and Shirayuki were pleased to find the arrows had done as little damage as a half-dozen arrows could possibly do. The rest of his care was relatively straight forward, so once his wounds were packed and stitched, they surrendered him to the care of their senior apprentices.

Now, the first task at hand is to scour the storage room for signs of where the beetle infestation had come from. A handful of the neighboring drawers also contain beetles, and they eventually trace the problem to one of the bundles processed by a newer apprentice a few days ago. A senior apprentice had noted a clump of beetles was attached to a hunk of willow bark a soldier had peeled from the tree. They had marked the bark as unacceptable for storage in the log book, but had apparently failed to dispose of it properly, as a second entry later in the book recorded the same specimen as being stored in the drawer at the epicenter of the infestation. Thankfully, none of the other critical supplies are tainted, but the loss of the kera is devastating enough.

As they clear the room of the infestation and update the log book with the losses, they discuss potential strategies for compensating for the lost supplies. They circle around the inevitable decision as they drop beetle after beetle into a jar of alcohol. By the time the last beetle has been eliminated from the room, they agree only one path forward exists.

Once they reach the doorway separating the pharmacy from the rest of the palace, Ryuu hesitates, hand hovering just short of the handle. He catches her gaze, eyes dark with worry. “….Obi won’t like this.”

Shirayuki presses her lips together, guilt twisting in her gut. She knows he is right, she knows, but…. She shudders involuntarily, an image of the sickening pallor of Obi’s skin as he sweated through the worst of the fever rising unbidden from her memories. She recalls the fear she had felt even with his assurance that he had built enough immunity to be fine even without the kera antidote Ryuu was furiously working to prepare. She couldn’t go through that again, couldn’t almost lose him again.

“We have no choice. He’ll understand.”

-----

“It’s going to frost tonight, and we can’t afford to wait six months for a new crop of plants to grow in.” Ryuu concludes his succinct summary of the situation, holding up the rest of their meager supply of kera, “We will lose dozens, if not hundreds of soldiers if this is all we have to work with until spring.”

“…Sir Obi will not be pleased,” Shikito protests, every line of his body betraying his extreme reluctance to submit to their request, “He specifically asked me to limit trips outside the palace walls.”

“To limit, not forbid,” Shirayuki presses, suppressing another surge of guilt at her logical dissection of Obi’s instructions, “He spoke with me as well, but he only said to not go outside the walls alone.” She holds out the map they had used on their trip with Obi, gesturing at the precise annotation of the location of the kera patch less than two hour’s ride from Wistal, “We know exactly where to go, and we won’t be alone.”

The guard takes the map from her hands, brow furrowing as he inspects potential routes to the kera patch. She remembers the path – it had been one of the last stops they made and was almost a direct shot from the castle, with most of the route consisting of heavily trafficked roads. Given that many of the herbs they had found on the trip required travel through considerably more questionable areas, it was as safe a path as existed during a war.

“Lady Shirayuki…” Shikito makes another attempt to dissuade her, “I understand the gravity of the situation, but couldn’t we possibly delay the trip until…”

“Please, Shikito!” desperate, she reaches for his wrists, “We understand the risk, but it’s now or never, and we simply can’t afford to wait.” She squares her shoulders and meets his gaze, doing her best to convey her determination, “Please take us there.”

-----

In the end, they convince him to escort them. Because of the need to beat the frost that will surely coat the surrounding area overnight, Shikito decides travelling light and fast on horseback in a small party will be less conspicuous than traveling in a carriage with a full armed guard. The ride to the patch of kera plants is uneventful, and they breathe a collective sigh of relief when they find the plants still intact, bristling with more than enough leaves to replace the stock consumed by the beetles. Between the three of them, they make fast work of picking and bundling the needed quantity, plus whatever extra they can squeeze into the saddlebags on each of the horses.

Shikito checks the perimeter of the clearing as the pharmacists carefully secure the last of their bounty. He may have spent most of his career as a palace guard, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t seen his fair share of battles in the past. It had been quiet on the way in, no sign of a tail from the main road and no hoof marks on the path ahead. But although he did not see anything wrong, he trusts his instincts enough to know something is not right.

He turns to the pharmacists, “Lady Shirayuki, Master Ryuu, I think we had better…”

The whistle of something cutting through the air attract his attention, and he ducks just in time to see a gold-striped arrow sink deep into the bark of a nearby tree. He curses under his breath, damning himself for exposing them to danger, and spins to face the direction of the threat.

“Run!” he barks, placing himself between the threat and his charges, “Quickly, get back to the-” His words are cut off with a gasp as a dagger flies from nowhere to bury itself hilt-deep in his chest, sending him staggering back against a tree. His vision greys as he slides to the ground, feeling the wet heat of blood seeping into his uniform. Desperate voices call out to him, but as the words are indistinct, as if heard through water. He grits his teeth, forcing out another plea for them to flee, “Run!”

As the last of his consciousness fades, he sees several figures melt from the forest, approaching his charges menacingly.

“Well, well, well… look at what we have here.”

#obiyukisoundtrack #track 2 #day 2 #tw for graphic depiction of injuries #tw for minor character injury #tw for mentions of war #obiyuki #or maybe like obiyuki lite this chapter #since they don't directly interact #Also I'm sorry #Northern War AU #ans #puff writes

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ladyvialana · 6 years

Text

Fic: Friday Night Revelations - Ch. 4

Final Fantasy XV fic. band!AU, pre-relationship Prompto/Noctis

Chapter Summary: Gladio’s returned home. Noctis has mixed feelings about this.

Chapter Notes: Noctis POV, Noctis & Gladio friendship, mild angst

Also on Ao3

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Noctis was napping under the tree outside the campus library when Prompto found him and woke him with a rough nudge to his shoulder and a loud “Dude!” as he plopped down beside him in the shade.

Noctis grumbled and tried to turn away from his best friend. It was too late in the afternoon and he was too tired from his morning classes to deal with whatever had Prompto so excited. They were almost finished with the first semester and exams were looming. Noctis’ didn’t want to deal with his anxiety just yet; hence the warm afternoon time out in the library quad.

Prompto wasn’t having it though, pulling on Noctis’ shoulder and dragging him back into the land of the awake and overly-caffeinated without remorse. He kept poking at Noctis with his pointy fingers (he seriously needed to cut his nails) until Noctis gave in and opened his eyes.

“What?” Noctis didn’t try to hold back the annoyed growl behind his words.

Unfortunately, Prompto had known him long enough and well enough now that he was immune to Noctis’ waking glare. He just pouted, sitting cross-legged and looking like a little kid who’d been told there was no ice-cream left. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Tell you what?”

“I had to hear from Iris that her brother’s going to be back in town.” Prompto waved his phone in Noctis’ face to emphasise his disappointment about the lack of effective communication from his best friend.

“What?!”

Noctis came fully awake at the news, sitting up so suddenly that it startled Prompto into nearly falling over. Rather than helping him sit up again, Noctis grabbed his phone from where he dropped it—ignoring Prompto’s indignant “Hey!”—and scrolled through the message app to read his latest conversation with Iris.

And there it was: proof in text and Iris’ signature cute emoji.

Gladio was coming home.

“I have to go.”

Noctis threw Prompto’s phone at him as he got up. He took the time that Prompto fumbled to catch it to put some distance between them.

“Whoa! What? Hey! Noct! Wait up!”

Noctis heard Prompto calling out behind him as he ran away from his favourite spot by the library, but he just couldn’t deal with anything right then, not even his best friend’s concern. It wasn’t fair—he knew he was being unreasonable. But he’d make it up to Prompto later.

Right then, he had to get away from everything before he could even begin to deal with Gladio’s return.

Noctis stood outside the front of their favourite frozen yogurt place, wasting time and battery life on his phone while he waited for Prompto. It had been two weeks since he ran away from his best friend outside the library and, despite all of Prompto’s subsequent pleading and guilt-tripping, Noctis still refused to talk about why.

Though, the guilt trips were working well enough for him to agree to actually getting up and showering for a froyo date. The overly excited hug when he agreed was enough for Noctis to realise he’d been awful to his best friend these last weeks. He still hadn’t acted on his promise to make it up to Prompto for his actions. Maybe today would be enough of a start.

He was early. Prompto’s shift had only finished half-an-hour ago and he always wanted to go home and shower after work. But Noctis had woken up earlier than normal for a Saturday, despite the hours he and Prompto spent playing video games the night before, and decided to head out before he needed to and took his time enjoying the walk.

Prompto had slept over again, not even waking Noctis when he got up at a very unreasonable hour to go home and get ready for work. He really should just keep a spare pair of work clothes at Noctis’ apartment. He left enough stuff there already to warrant space in Noctis’ wardrobe and dresser drawers (not to mention his hair products in the bathroom).

He could even just move in. It wasn’t like Noctis didn’t have the space, especially with his father spending most of his time in the inner-city penthouse closer to Crystal Records now that Noctis was an adult and finished high school.

Maybe Noctis would bring it up after they finished exams. No point stressing about moving when they had so much else on their plate. Even their music had to be put on pause for a few weeks while they focused on uni. A Saturday afternoon froyo date was about the best they could manage for a break these days (video games didn’t count, okay, that was basically stress relief—a necessity in these trying times).

“Noct!”

Noctis looked up from his phone to see Prompto waving as he hurried down the street.

“Hey.” Noctis tucked his phone away in his pocket. He frowned as Prompto got close enough for Noctis to see his outfit. “What’s with the clothes?”

Prompto came to a halt a few steps away. He blushed and tugged at his shirt nervously. “Oh just …. you know.”

Noctis didn’t know. Sure, Prompto always looked nice when he was going somewhere other than home or Noctis’ apartment—hair styled, clean-shaven, contacts on, wristbands in place. But he’d clearly made an effort this time, not just picking out the first clean jeans and t-shirt that came to hand. He was wearing his concert boots and his favourite vest, both signifiers that he wanted to make an impression.

Noctis, in contrast, had just pulled a wrinkled t-shirt from the top of the pile in the clean laundry basket and grabbed the jeans he’d had on yesterday from the floor of his bedroom. He hadn’t even bothered brushing his hair.

But the clothes weren’t only thing different though. Noctis sniffed at the air near Prompto’s face. “Are you wearing cologne too?”

Prompto laughed and took a step back, an uneasy smile on his face. He tried to avoid eye-contact. “What? A guy can’t take some pride in his appearance?”

“Last night you were wearing old basketball shorts and a faded shirt with so many holes it might as well have been mesh. Try again.”

“Aw, you remembered my outfit. That’s sweet.” Prompto’s attempt at humourous deflection failed miserably as Noctis just stared. His smile vanished and he clasped his hands together tightly to stop himself from fidgeting. “Okay, so, there might be something.”

“Really? Never would have guessed.”

Prompto almost glared at Noctis for the sarcasm but stopped himself. “Yeah, well, just promise you won’t be too mad.”

“Mad?” Noctis felt like the ground beneath him started shifting. “Prom, what did you do?”

“Noctis! Prompto!”

Noctis froze as he heard a familiar voice call out from behind him. Prompto looked over Noctis’ shoulder and started waving. Noctis refused to turn around—his body was so tense he wasn’t even sure he’d be able to without falling over.

“Iris!” Prompto moved to greet the new arrival, arms outstretched for a hug. “I missed you.”

Iris giggled, her delighted laugh the same as whenever Noctis was being ridiculous. “We were just talking yesterday.”

“Yeah, on the phone. It’s been ages since we’ve met up in person.”

“I knew you guys would miss seeing me every day after you graduated.”

It was the hidden melancholy in her voice that forced Noctis to turn around and face the girl he’d known since he was two. It really had been too long since he’d seen her. He did miss passing her in the halls with a wink and a wave. He missed spending the occasional lunch break with her and her friends—even if they were just first years and he and Prompto were third years and supposed to be too cool to even acknowledge them.

Iris, as was her cheerful good-natured way, didn’t even blink at Noctis’ previous rude behaviour. Instead, she smiled at him as he finally turned around to greet her with a sheepish wave.

“Hey Iris.”

“Noctis, you look like you’ve just rolled out of bed.” Iris giggled again, her hand coming up to cover her mouth as he did so. She was wearing the leather wristband Prompto bought her for her birthday, and her dark hair was pulled back from her temples with the moogle hairclips Noctis had given her. The dress she was wearing was one of her favourites.

She was clearly excited to see them again. Noctis felt like even more of an ass for ignoring her.

“Pretty sure that’s just how he looks.”

Noctis almost didn’t recognise Gladio as he came up behind Iris and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. She leaned into the touch, angling her body towards her older brother who seemed just as receptive to her unspoken attention.

It had been over four years since Noctis had seen Gladiolus Amicitia and every moment of those years showed on Gladio’s face and frame. He was taller and far more broad-shouldered than even Noctis’ imagination could conjure. His dark hair was growing out from the military cut Noctis had seen in photos and over video, slicked back but with short tufts curling around his ears in a way Noctis knew he hated. His face was too tanned and was lined with unfamiliar wrinkles and a second scar on his forehead that made him look even older and more severe than he used to.

His gravelly voice was deeper too, or maybe Noctis had forgotten the sound of it. It was startling enough that Noctis couldn’t even stutter out a comeback for his teasing opening greeting.

Thank the Astrals for Prompto, who took one look at the pale mess Noctis had become and intervened with a cheerful smile and an outstretched hand.

“Hi! I’m Prompto. We’ve never met in person but Iris and Noct talk about you enough that it feels like I’ve known you for years.”

Gladio shifted his intense gaze away from Noctis, allowing him to breathe, and actually smirked at Prompto’s introduction. A familiar glint of humour filled his dark eyes as he said, “You should hear what they say about you, blondie. They certainly weren’t kidding about that chocobo-butt hairstyle.”

Prompto cried out, an exaggerated wail that had both Iris and Gladio laughing. “It does not look like a chocobo butt! The absolute betrayal! Noct!” Prompto swept his arm out, swatting Noctis’ shoulder. “You’re buying my froyo today in recompense!”

Now that he’d had time to gather himself and adjust to the situation, Noctis was able to play along with their usual banter. “What? Just me? Iris said it too.”

“Yeah, but there’s no way Iris is paying for anything with her big brother around to spoil her.”

Iris stuck her tongue out at Noctis and snuggled further into Gladio’s space, holding his arm in the sort of death grip that suggested she wasn’t certain if he was going to disappear again.

Noctis understood the fear. So he let her have her minor victory.

Besides, he did need to make it up to Prompto for the past two weeks.

He sighed dramatically. “The usual?”

Prompto grinned, blindingly bright. “Yes please.” He turned to Iris. “Let’s grab a booth while these two pay.”

“Sure.” Iris let go of Gladio and skipped alongside Prompto into the store to grab the best seat in the restaurant.

Noctis glanced quickly at Gladio before following them in and heading to the counter to order and pay.

The blue-and-white themed shop was busy at this time of day, a long line already formed before they arrived. It was a popular place among high school students, so it wasn’t quite as busy as weekday afternoons could get. But, on the weekend, there were more families with small kids tucked into the wide navy booths and couples on dates sitting on the high cobalt stools under the fluorescent lights.

Prompto and Iris had snagged one of the booths by the window, the two of them sitting opposite each other in the sunlight laughing and chatting. They probably had a lot of gossip to catch up on despite the fact that Noctis knew Prompto kept in pretty constant contact with Iris—much better than he did. Though, to be fair, Iris probably knew better than anyone that talking to Prompto was as good as talking to Noctis too unless she asked Prompto to keep something secret—like the real purpose to this outing.

Gladio shifted on his feet where he stood in line, his presence beside Noctis eerily both familiar and not.

Noctis didn’t know what to say—if he should even say anything. He’d spent almost two years ignoring Gladio so intentionally that it felt too strange to just start up with small talk.

Not that he wanted to. Now that he was over his initial surprise, he realised he was still angry with Gladio. But he didn’t want to ruin today. Iris looked so happy and Prompto was so excited to meet Gladio. Noctis didn’t dare speak lest he start yelling and spilling out everything he’d been wanting to say to Gladio since he left.

“So, I hear you’re starting a band.”

Gladio, though, had never been one to care about Noctis’ social awkwardness or overly emotional state of being. It was comforting to know that blunt forthright nature of his hadn’t changed much, even if it was still infuriating.

Noctis debated not replying, but he could just imagine the disappointment on Prompto’s face and the fake smile Iris would fail to hide her distress behind. So he pushed his resentment to the side for now, hoping to get through the day without making anyone cry.

“Did my dad put out a memo or something?” Noctis still couldn’t bring himself to look at Gladio head on as he spoke in a deliberately unaffected tone, pretending instead to be engrossed with the illuminated menu behind the cashier’s head.

“Ignis told me.”

“Right.” Another person he had to worry about not disappointing.

The line moved slowly forward, bringing Noctis a few steps closer to a reprieve from Gladio’s scrutiny. At least with Iris and Prompto nearby he’d be somewhat distracted.

Gladio waited until another person had been served before he gave into his impatience and grabbed Noctis’ shoulder.

“Look,” his voice came out in a harsh low whisper, “I don’t get this temper tantrum you’ve had over the last few years and, lucky for you, I’ve been too busy to care much about whatever stupid reason you had to cut me out of your life. But, now that I’m back, I’m not going to put up with this shit.”

Noctis grabbed his wrist and tried to pull his hand away but Gladio’s grip was so much stronger than he remembered. He gave up on forcibly removing it and just squeezed his wrist firmly instead, meeting his gaze for the first time since they started talking. “We’re not doing this today,” he said, voice just as low and dangerous as Gladio’s. “Not in public. Not with your sister and my best friend sitting there like nothing’s wrong. Not while I’m in the middle of exams and stressed and sleep-deprived. Not while you’re barely acclimatised to being back and acting like you’re fine when you’re not.”

That got a reaction.

Gladio’s grip loosened and Noctis was able to pry his fingers away from his aching shoulder. He didn’t let go of Gladio’s wrist though.

Now that he was almost too close and actually looking properly, he could see the strain Gladio was trying to hide—the dark circles under his eyes, the taut lines at the corner of his mouth, the frown lines marring the straight red line of the still-healing scar on his forehead.

Gladio wasn’t okay. Another thing for Noctis to feel guilty about.

Noctis looked away, unable to face Gladio’s surprised gaze any longer, and let go of his wrist. “You’re not the only one Ignis talks to.”

Gladio straightened up and turned away. Both of them were now staring intently at the menu without registering anything on it.

The person in line ahead of them reached the counter to place their order.

“Her favourite’s still the same,” Noctis blurted out, startling them both. He hunched his shoulders, feeling his face heat up due to embarassment. “But she’d probably like some extra sprinkles.”

Gladio looked over at him and huffed, lips curling up into an almost fond smile. “You’re a terrible influence on her.”

Noctis glanced over and managed to match his awkward smile. “The worst.”

Things weren’t okay; they were still going to have to talk. Noctis was still angry, even if he was being unreasonable; and Gladio could never resist a confrontation, especially if he wanted something. But, for now, they could manage a sort of peace and a smile for each other. They could order their desserts and sit down with their favourite people to enjoy the afternoon. And they could hope that, given time and effort, their relationship could be mended.

For now, that was enough.

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#fanfic #ffxv #ffxv fanfiction #noctis lucis caelum #gladiolus amicitia #prompto argentum #iris amicitia #au #band!au #light angst #vialana's fic #friday night revelations

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missnicolealways · 7 years

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Cataclysm ~ Chp 1-3

Chapter 1 Year 2470

Shaeden woke up with her face in the book she was reading. She loved to read. Reading anything from old fantasy novels to botany books; and at a phenomenal rate. She could get through seven to nine books in one week. Some of it is research for her position in Raven Rock while others were simply for pleasure. She had always been different from everyone else in everything she did.

Shaeden was one of the predecessors, a rare person in their society. There were only three predecessors in all of the bunker. There was the one they called the Elder, Shaeden’s mentor, and a younger boy named Colt.

As babies are born they get an initial shot of Radcon. Every once in a while, the Radcon not only boosts the immune system to deflect radiation but also gives the host an extra ability to learn at an increased rate. There has never been more than three people alive with the extra ability at any given time. The council had decided a long time ago to separate the predecessors out from normal education and allow a freer range of development. The Elder was always the one to share the stories of before the cataclysm and it was Shaeden’s job to remember all the details about the Crust. When the time comes for people to rebirth onto the Crust the vast knowledge of the past from predecessors is what will help them regain a solid foundation.

Shaeden found herself alone in the library, which was one of the biggest spots in the bunker. The library held all sorts of old books and art. It was open to the public at all times since the council wanted everyone to have access to educational materials from the past. Most knowledge shared within Raven Rock was digital. Messages from the council as well as newly written articles could always be easily found but with a bit more maneuvering there was a vast amount of digital information to access.

Her tablet beeped twice and then the recording played as it does every day, “Good afternoon Shaeden, it is your time for reflection. Thank you.”

Most of the population used smart contact lens instead of a tablet, but Shaeden liked the ability to have it in her hands instead of in her head. She got up and began heading to the reflection room. This was really an hour block of time where you are exposed to strong UV lights to keep the population’s vitamin D up. After research, they also found that the time spent meditating helped develop the hardwiring of your brain to allow for a smoother, easier flow of thoughts.

Shaeden turned out of the library and headed for the elevators. Reflection is on the first-floor closet to the Crust. Also on the first floor was agriculture, where all of the plants were grown as well as a fish hatchery and chickens. Everyone played a role here at Raven Rock and no matter your bloodline you could aim to be in just about any position you wanted. Of course, there was a balance system but you can constantly update your list of desired positions as they became available.

The Administration consisted of two platforms of power. First there was the Descendants of the President; it was believed that without their guidance we would not be alive today. The other half of the Administration were common everyday people. The spot to hold a position on the Council rotated among those who chose to put their name in the Elected Box. The drawings were held every six months as to maintain a constant flow of new ideas. They would pick names one by one until that box was empty, at which point they would move on to the second box. There were only two boxes, one they drew from and one placed in the library, where you could enter your name. The Council consisted of seven people with a minimum age of 23.

Shaeden’s thoughts were like a spider web where she would weave different thoughts together until the web was complete. This made her and excellent problem solver. As she entered the reflection room she walked over to her number, which was digitally displayed on her tablet and also on the ground under where the UV light hung. The room looked like sun spots in neatly lined rows. It held over four hundred spots which were in constant hourly rotation with five minutes in-between. Once you got used to where your spot was it became easier to achieve the five-minute goal.

Shaeden sat directly center of her sun spot and crossed her legs. She liked to begin in a meditation stance and then would rotate to lying down on her front and then back. The last five minutes she always spent stretching with her eyes closed reaching up to the light as if it were the sun. Shaeden stood tall with average body weight, and long red hair that ran down her back. Her face was pretty and always gave off a kind expression. Her eyes are what drew people in though; they were stark aqua blue. Many people didn’t talk to her, but those who did knew how her smile lit up her whole face.

Shaeden’s reflection time was right before supper. The Café, with its long wooden tables, would fill up quickly as soon as food was served. At times, the roar of four thousand voices could be deafening when all she wanted to do was eat in peace. Food was line style where you would pick up your premade plate and head to whatever seat you would like. She made her way to her friends. Her current problem to solve for the Council was how to make some new clothing designs. Ideally the outfit would require sleeves and pants that can be easily removed for reflection. Maybe if I can talk to agriculture, possibly up the hemp plants just for a while. Of course, they would need to take the space from some other crop. Her thoughts rambled on.

“Shae!” Shaeden looked up at the call of her nickname. With a smile, her thoughts receded as she approached her friends. “Shae, did you hear that Thorn got promoted into the sentinel?!” Iris exclaimed.

Iris was the chattiest in the group, she always knew the gossip. Iris was beautiful with deep brunette hair that fell into curls and eyes that were light grey. The others in the small group were Camilla and Autumn. Twins as fate would find it. Twins were the only exception to the one baby rule. They looked almost identical but Shaeden could always tell the difference. They went through different phases where they wanted to look nothing like the other but always came back to wanting to be the cute twins. Their skin was smooth and dark like cocoa and they had elegant facial structure. Currently they both had their hair cut short; they had heard gossip from Iris that you absorbed more vitamin D this way.

“No, I didn’t hear about Thorn. That is wonderful for him!” Shaeden replied. She and Thorn had grown up together. They were best friends all through childhood. I wonder why he didn’t come and tell me himself. Then again, we haven’t talked in quite a while, Shaeden thought.

Iris watched her, waiting for some kind of expression to expose how Shaeden felt about the whole thing. After a minute of realizing she couldn’t break Shae’s bubble Iris began to chatter off again. “Yeah, anyways, he is looking more and more attractive each year.” Poking more at Shaeden. Still no reaction. “But you know who else is in guard that I would love to have some one on one time with? Hawke!” Iris giggled with the twins. Iris went on chatting and they all tried to stay interested but it seemed like she could go on for hours.

“The yearly dance is coming up for the Den”, Iris stated.

The Den was a slang term for Raven Rock. Seemed to roll off the tongue easier. “I have already started scraping up materials to make my dress breathtaking.” Iris works in the sewing section of the clothing center. So, it seemed like she always had the best dress. Camila and Autumn then chimed in about their ideas for their dress. Shaeden tuned them out mostly since she never tried to be the most fashionable or one to stand out. Being a predecessor did that for her.

The Midnight Ball was the name for the special event that took place once a year. It was a chance for people to dress up and mingle together. The council implemented the idea shortly after coming to Raven Rock. The ball was a way to not only encourage happiness in a bleak situation but it also allowed people to meet others that may not share their schedule. They also used this as a way to form families, and pushed the fact that it was each individuals’ responsibility to have a child. Once a vow was taken, they would move you to the family living quarters. You would be fully encouraged to have a child. Once someone says their vows then they are partners for life.

After dinner Shaeden set out to go see her father and grandmother. All three of them lived in separate single living quarters. Each living quarter consisted of a small center area that could comfortably fit four people; a small bedroom with a bed and dresser off to the side, and a bathroom. Families got an extra bedroom and slightly larger living quarters.

Shaeden and her father always met at her grandmother’s and visited for about thirty minutes each day. Most families tried to stay connected and all of them generally assembled in the living space of the oldest relative. Shaeden could see her father up ahead waiting for her in a small corner, same as always. A smile found its way onto Shaeden’s face. she loved to spend time with her father and grandmother. Once her mom passed away, family time was something they found time for every day.

“Hey Buttercup!” Steele said.

“Hey Dad!” Shaeden responded. Steele was tall and toned. He had short chestnut hair that was speckled with grey, and light blue eyes.

“I spent my day studying worms. How about you?”

“The council still has me working on a better design for everyday clothing. Something breathable and light but strong.” Shaeden replied with a sigh. “I thought about talking with agriculture to see what plant options we might have, but hemp seems to be the most viable option right now.”

“Well, we have a pretty strong group of silk worms. I almost have them modified to create the thickest, toughest silk yet. Maybe that’s something you could use?” Steele proclaimed as he and Shaeden walked down the hall toward the elderly living area. Most people worked until death, usually ending in a position as teacher or trainer. However, some people lose the physical ability to continue working.

“Worms - now that could be a great small source of materials.” Shaeden said smiling up at her dad.

“Exactly! We can breed them at a quick rate until we have a steady source. They produce copious amounts within a twenty-four-hour period.” Steel readily volunteered information to help as they strode up to Luna’s door.

“I will draw up some thoughts tomorrow.” Shaeden said as she knocked on the door.

“Good evening Sugar!” Luna exclaimed as she hugged Shaeden.

“Hey grandma.” Shaeden responded with a smile

“So good to see you Steele.” Luna said holding a big smile on her face the whole time. “This is my favorite time of day!” Luna was thin and short. She had white hair and golden eyes. Luna was Rosalean’s mom; Shaeden’s late mother. Steele had easily been adopted by Luna about 30 years ago, when Rosalean and he had gotten married.

Their conversation included new knowledge from the day and each other’s thoughts on the most recent news. Luna always had some sort of cookie or little cake that she had probably held on to from dinner. Raven Rock did not have a strict food policy and no one ever went hungry. Each living quarters had a cabinet for snacks or quick morning breakfast bars. If someone did not show up for work or dinner one of the ‘cheer’ nurses would come and visit with a hot meal. If you were found sick they would then sign you up for daily meals to be delivered as well as medicine depending on the severity of the sickness. If you were found too sick to be alone, you would then be taken to the sanitarium where further evaluations would take place.

As their conversations drew to a close, hugs were exchanged before Steele and Shaeden headed off to separate cabins. Living quarters were arranged by marital status and age. Only a couple of things could make you have to change living quarters. At eighteen you got assigned a room; having a family got you moved to the family section, and getting old or sick beyond work got you moved to the assisted living. Shaeden finally made it to her door, went inside and dressed for bed. Around seven pm the lights changed from a bright white, to soft yellow. Eventually, around nine pm the same lights turned a soft blue which faded to black as the bed registered the change in body heat. The light settings could also be modified on your tablet. As she was sprawling out in her bed she looked around at the standard room. The walls were a soft green color and her dresser was made of canvas drawers in a metal frame. The lights dimmed to blue and Shaeden turned onto her side as she fell into a deep sleep.

Chapter 2

“Good morning, Thorn. The time is now seven am.” The lights slowly brightened to a soft blue. Thorn turned over and gently stretched his muscles awake. He sat up with his legs over the bed. He slowly rolled his head in a circle to stretch his neck. Thorn was tall with sandy blonde hair and soft caramel colored eyes. He had broad shoulders and muscle that showed he worked out. It was normal for Thorn to be stopped by many ‘damsels in distress’. Thorn was a part of the sentinel. The sentinel was the top group of the guard. The guard was the eyes and ears of Raven Rock. The guard ensured peace inside the walls whereas the sentinel focused on the outside of the walls and on special missions. Thorn was currently assigned to a new unit that was being trained an array of new skills. Those who did not make it through training became eliminated and would go back to regular guard duty.

As Thorn stood up he watched the tiles on the ground. As his feet touched the floor the tiles lit up to a light green. Thorn smiled, watching his steps never got old. The tiles in Raven Rock were kinetic energy tiles. The tiles absorbed the energy from each step taken by all of the populous. That was just one of the ways energy was sustained in Raven Rock. The beds also had heat absorbers to turn natural body heat into electricity. Over decades the scientists and some of the sentinel came up with a way to deploy the solar panels that had been built with the bunker. Raven Rock was also equipped with geothermal technology, so energy came directly from the Earth’s core. The bunker was also located on an underwater aquafer from which they drew some hydraulic power; but mainly it was their clean water supply.

Thorn walked over to his tablet and swiped it up onto the wall in the living area. Okay, daily schedule. Reflection this morning after breakfast then down to the sentinel headquarters. Thorn thought as he switched over to the news; Nothing different, he noticed as he scrolled through the feed. He turned and went into the bathroom to prepare for the day. Lastly, he put in his bionic contact lenses and his schedule settled into the top left corner of his vision. The lenses were customizable; slide shows of your family, the day’s food menu, your individual schedule, and articles were just a few things you could view while walking.

After dressing and grabbing a quick breakfast bar, Thorn was out the door and on his way to reflection. The Den was made up of eight floors. The top floor belonged to food and agriculture as well as reflection time. The second floor was where all meals were prepared and where the dining hall was, as well as a large auditorium where the rare play may be held or speakers come and try to educate others in their field, also called ‘recruiting meetings’ by the teens at Raven Rock.

The third floor held ‘centers’, which is where individuals would go work to contribute in their own way to Raven Rock’s survival. Clothing, small kitchens for food experiments, and computer monitoring were just a few centers held in the Den. The descendants and council also met on this level in one of the larger sections with multiple rooms. Many people had to no idea what was down those hallways.

On the fourth floor, there were classrooms for the children and the library. Study sessions also took place on this floor, so there were multiple empty research rooms in rows, for free use, anytime. The fifth and sixth floor contained the living quarters as well as a great room, equipped with cards, board games, and puzzles, among other things, for groups of friends to play. Both floors also had a gym with an array of equipment. Challenging exercises like rock climbing or balancing on a tight rope were Thorn’s favorite; although they had trampolines and basketball as well.

On the seventh floor were the labs and the sanitarium. In the labs, various scientists, normally in the top of their field, came together to fix energy problems, water issues, agricultural dilemmas, and experiment on new medicines. Most of the sentinel remained on the third floor but there was also a significant presence of them around the labs.

The eighth floor was reserved for the water chemist and evacuation. It was the strongest section of the bunker, in case of earthquakes or some other natural disaster. The water chemists ensure that clean water is always filtered through Raven Rock for human use. Water recycled from showers and sinks drained into a vat that would then clean the water for reuse on plants, among other things.

As Thorn entered reflection and headed toward his circle. He caught Iris out of the corner of his eye. She was waving at him with the biggest smile she could present. She seemed to be making it a point to talk to him more. He mainly kept to himself except for a couple guy friends. He managed to make it to his spot without being stopped and he pushed up his sleeves and pant legs to expose more skin to the sun. Thorn sat leaning back on his arms with his legs out in front of him as he closed his eyes to meditate.

“Thorn,” Iris said as she nudged him back to reality. It didn’t happen often but on occasion Thorn got trapped in his pondering. He opened his eyes in a casual way as if he meant to sit a bit longer than others.

“Iris,” he responded coolly. Her face turned into a smile.

“Just making sure you weren’t getting lost,” She said flirtatiously. “I heard you got a promotion, I would like to personally say, congratulations!”

“Thank you,” Thorn said as he stood up. “I’m not really sure of all the details yet but I’ll be glad to learn new things”

“Yeah, I always try to learn new things when I make clothing. Learning how to cut fabric, or if green really can go with blue.” Iris stood there looking up to the ceiling as if she was thinking, maybe, a bit too hard. The next group of people were entering for their reflection time. An automatic device sprayed the mat, down under the light, to eliminate any germs from being transferred.

“Well, I have to get to my next station, so I’ll see ya later.” Thorn stated to Iris and then headed out the door toward the elevators. Once inside he hit the number seven.

“Please place your eye before the senor to verify your identity.” Thorn looked into the blue light as it scanned his eyeball up and down.

“Access granted. Welcome back Thorn.” The automated computer system, Ava, ran most of the electronic interactions. Thorn stepped out on to level seven. The seventh floor was made of many hallways with doors, but the walls were a pleasant yellow and well decorated.

“Ava, please give me directions to my assignment,” Thorn said aloud. Ava could respond to requests on tablets or contacts. His top left schedule quickly changed to a map with a light red line indicating which corner should be taken next. Thorn arrived to sentinel lab 2311 and opened the door. He was greeted with smiles and hellos and he reacted accordingly.

“Alright guys, let’s get down to business now that the tardy person has finally showed up.” Ivy stated with a smile. Ivy was the instructor of the group. She was beautiful with long straight black hair and a sleek body type. Everyone took their seats and quietly awaited todays lesson. “Today we will be experimenting with fire. We will observe many plants burning and test to see if the smoke gives us any clues as to what type of plant it is. Also, we have come up with some new designs to ignite fire in almost any situation.”

Thorn was interested. He always enjoyed learning new things and it didn’t hurt that Ivy was the one teaching him. With the thought of learning new things, he was steadily reminded of Shaeden. She had taught him just about everything growing up and tutored him regularly so he could stay in the top of his class. Her father, Steele, had taught Thorn that it was okay to seek knowledge as a man, even though his own late father would constantly remind him of the opposite. Staring into the fire as plant after plant was burned he still couldn’t keep his thoughts far from Shaeden. She never did congratulate me, but I guess it only fair since I was the one to end communication, Thorn thought. Thinking of Shaeden only made him want to go see her more but he also took his position very seriously and having both did not seem like a viable option.

“Alright! This is the part I have looked forward to all day. Alden, could I please insist you be my volunteer for this next demonstration,” Ivy said.

“Absolutely,” Alden quickly responded. Ivy took out a large glass tank and filled it with water from the hose that came to the lab.

Ivy pulled out what looked like a small pack of paper. “These are matches. You may have heard of them from your history classes but they are the most efficient and reliable form of fire ever since the nineteen hundreds.” She opened the fold, “This is a standard pack. It comes with twenty-two individual matches.” She pulled out a box from the drawer of her desk and began passing the matches out for everyone to look at. “Okay. So, take the pack and break off a match. These matches are waterproof and today we will see if we can even light them underwater.” Ivy went on with the demonstration. Also, allowing everyone to light their own match. The match did light under the water. But for a shorter amount of time. She explained how matches were not made with the same material back then and how no one could light a fire in the rain. Rain… like a big shower. I can’t even imagine, Thorn thought as he tried to picture the earth and rain falling down on it.

Class came to a close and Ivy was sure to get all of the matches back. Thorn was the last one left cleaning up when Cedar walked through the door. “Ivy, listen to me, please,” Cedar said before noticing Thorn was still there. Cedar was one of the top agricultural scientists in the Den. As soon as he saw Thorn he uttered, “I’m so sorry, I did not see you there.” Cedar was lanky with brunette hair that looked like it may need to be cut by someone soon or it would be covering his eyes. He was a very kind-hearted man.

“No problem, just finishing cleaning up,” Thorn stated as he stood up and headed toward the door. “Have a good evening” he said with a small wave. As soon as he was out the door Cedar began to plea with Ivy, but Thorn had no interest in hearing other people’s problems.

Thorn headed to the dining hall for his dinner. Lunch had been brought to them in class but for dinner he would not be so lucky. The council insisted everyone eat as many meals as possible together so the community would form a strong bond. With this relationship in place with neighbors, the crime rates remained low. There are always troublemakers, but the more you know the person next to you the less you want to harm or take anything from them.

Thorn headed through the line and grabbed his plate. He saw his friend Flint sitting and talking with a group of the guard. “There is the man of the week,” Flint said. “How is class? No one is being a bully yet are they? Or are you the bully?” Thorn and the guys laughed. They all knew Thorn could not talk about classified information.

Flint was a doctor’s assistant in the sanitarium where they treated deeper problems than just the flu. He was tall with dark hair and dark eyes. Some of the guys went on to talk about the troublemakers they found that day. Most of the time they were under the age of 18. After dinner and a couple laughs Thorn said his goodbyes and headed out. He was on his way to the library to do some assigned research, when he saw Shaeden up ahead. Her face was buried in a book, which made Thorn grin. Well, there is no avoiding her this time, Thorn thought. He was not one to jump and dodge a situation should it occur.

Shaeden looked up and caught Thorn in her sight. Her breath got caught in her throat. Thorn smiled, “Hey Shaeden, how are you?”

“I am good.” Their walking came to a stop when they met in the middle of the hallway. “How are you? I heard about your promotion, congratulations!” Shaeden responded earnestly with a smile.

“Thank you. I’m just excited to be doing something different. Learning new things.” Thorn answered.

“Learning was always your favorite,” Shaeden grinned.

“Hey, listen, I’ve been thinking about the past a lot recently…”, Thorn stopped short as the alarms started to go off, which was a sign for the people to evacuate to the eighth floor. There was no one around them, not many people frequented the library and classes were out. It was just the reverberating sound of the alarm ringing off the walls. Thorn instinctively grabbed Shaeden’s hand and started to run. The earth was growling. It was an earthquake. And from the sound of it one of the largest ones since Shaeden and Thorn had been alive. As they ran down the hall chunks of rock fell from the ceiling. Some pieces so big it was almost like the bunker was trying to fall apart.

Thorn kept dodging rocks and leading them toward the stairs. Shaeden began to slow as the situation started to overwhelm her thoughts. She stopped and let go of Thorn’s hand for just a second. Thorn’s reflexes were incredible but not quick enough. He grabbed her hand and tried to pull her to his chest. The large rock was faster than Thorn’s pull and landed on Shaeden’s leg. She screamed in pain as the rock pinned her leg to the floor.

“I won’t leave you Shae, it’s going to be ok.” Thorn started to push at the rock until he was finally able to flip it off of Shaeden’s leg. Her leg looked bloody and the bruise was already starting to show. Thorn grabbed her up into his arms and continued to the stairs. Thorn’s mind was racing for a plan B, the stairs were still several halls down.

Shaeden looked up at Thorn, “in lab D4 there is a sound proof room for study purposes. It’s also a really strong, well-padded room.” Thorn nodded and ran toward the lab. The alarms were causing a thumping pain in Shaeden’s head as she tried everything to distract herself from it. She began to hum.

Thorn could see the pain writhed on Shaeden’s face. This was a sensory overload for her and he knew it. They reached the lab and as quick as Thorn opened the door, they were in and the door was sealed back behind them. The alarms sounded like faded waves in comparison. Thorn took this opportunity to look at Shaeden’s leg. It was most likely broken.

“We are going to be fine, let’s just wait it out in here and as soon as I get notice I will take you to see a doctor.” Shaeden had no energy to do anything but nod in response to Thorn’s words.

Chapter 3

Part of the council sat at the computer main frame as they focused on bringing power back to all of Raven Rock, and recovering any injured. They knew there would need to be clean up which was another thing the guards did for the complex.

“We need to find Shaeden. Colt and the Elder are accounted for but Shaeden is not to be found. Since she insists, on not wearing contacts, meaning we cannot key in her location.” Jay, one of the current powers from the Eden Descendant line, was well aware of how important Shaeden was for Raven Rock. To lose a predecessor is to lose a whole line of memories. Not to mention a waste of incredible abilities. The Eden family all stood tall with a fit figure. Black hair and deep green eyes that would give away their bloodline any day.

“We will find her Jay, she was on her way from the library so she probably found a safe place on that level.” Alaric responded with a cool tone. Alaric was a member of the council, but he also worked with the descendants personally.

They left the message lines open so the population could contact the mainframe and check in as safe. As power was manually turned back on, floor by floor, more and more green dots showed up next to a large list of names on the far wall. The list had the names of everyone in Raven Rock.

“Ok, sending power to the fourth floor now,” said Chip. Chip was one of the best computer technicians in the Den. “I think I may have something over here!” Jay rushed over. It was Thorn and he was carrying Shaeden. She looked injured and in need of attention.

“Send in an emergency response team now.” Jay grabbed the microphone. “Broadcast me to the fourth floor,” he said with a quick glimpse to Chip. With a few buttons pushed he was on the fourth-floor speakers. “Thorn, help is on the way!”

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I will post a chapter or two a week until it is all released on my website. let me know what you think of my work.

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