#who knew the polkadot man could be so personal

[iputthefuninfunky]

this picture... lives in my mind rent free.

#polkadot man #polka dot man #polkadotman #abner krill #david dastmalchian #suicide squad #who knew the polkadot man could be so personal #the hair #the smile

[justasimplesinner]

please anything for my love polkadot man like show him the love he deserves. maybe the reader is the only person who's not his mother? idk I just need my boy to be happy

ugh god fuck this man this dude he made my crush on david dastmalchian resurface so fuckin hard it hit me with the force of a fucking speeding truck like what the fuck excuse you mister mommy issues who fucking allowed that its not legal

Abner Krill seeing Reader's face hcs:

the whole thing with his mother's face is weird - not just in a sense that it's fucking weird in general, but sometimes it comes naturally, and sometimes he has to imagine someone is his mom (which happens mostly when he has to hurt them). there's not much control he has over that. most of the time, everyone around him does have his mom's face, but when he's incredibly stressed, it's like his brain starts to work differently, focusing on other things, other thoughts, and without realising his mother's face disappears sometimes, but he's way too distracted and overwhelmed to ever realise that. he has to really focus in those moments, especially if he has to use his polka dots

but with that out of the way, he really doesn't know what you look like. he has no idea. and he fucking hates it. not only because he just hates that his brain does this shit to him, but because you're so different from his mom. so... nice and kind, and you pay attention to him, and you, dare he say, care. for him, about him, it doesn't matter. you show that you care. you show concern, you worry over him, you share his happiness, you talk to him and try to bring that happiness out, and he can't even properly look you in the eye because all he sees is his mom and he doesn't want to fucking associate you with her

it's a big barrier between you two. he desperately wants to see you for who you are, to see that smile he hears in your voice when you talk to him sometimes, watch your eyes water when you laugh hard by his side, see your fucking expression when you touch him, but he can't. you're such a beautiful person on the inside, and he's sure you are even more beautiful on the outside, but whenever he looks at you, he only sees that ugliness, that suffering his mother always brought with her

and then you told him you had an idea. said you wanted to help him. make him comfortable with you. let him be free of his mother and everything she's done to him for once. you just wanted that. you just wanted him to be happy. just because. because you liked seeing him happy, wanted to see him happy more often, wanted to make him happy - this whole concept is hard for him to grasp, the fact that you fucking care. it's not a thing he ever thought possible and he's plenty grateful for you as it is already, and yet you're still doing more for him

it wasn't the best idea. it wasn't guaranteed to work. but it was worth a try. Abner wasn't ready for the disappointment he expected. he hasn't hoped for anything this much for so long, but in the back of his mind, he knew he was just fucked up. he knew he couldn't be "cured", he couldn't be helped, and most importantly, he couldn't ever be good for you. and yet you were so intent on trying. and despite everything, he was too. because there was nothing in this world he wanted more than being able to see all of you, get rid of that barrier separating you and be able to truly be with you. in whatever way you'd have him

you made him sit down with you, close his eyes. you asked him to trust you, and honestly, he wouldn't have ever thought that to be possible, but he did. he really did. you took his hands - he jumped, you noted and started informing him of all your next moves - and put them to your face. he was touching you. you made him touch you. you willingly let him cup your face in his hands. and all of that made his already quickened heartbeat speed up

gently, oh so gently, you cupped his hands in your and started mapping out your face. you let him touch every part of it and described it as best as you could. every little dip, curve and crook. every scar, every dimple, every angle. you glided his hands all over your face and let him skim his fingers over every inch of it, from the tip of your head, through your hair, all the way down to your neck. he didn't want to acknowledge the blush that was covering him up to the tips of his ears, or the fact of how much he's wanted to touch you for so long. but he did acknowledge all that you've said to him. and he tried to get a clear picture. he tried with all his might. and since the first moment his fingers touched you, he knew you were beautiful

you let him take as long as he needed, ask as many questions as he wanted. for a few moments, he wasn't even focusing on what he was supposed to, he was just focusing on touching you, on having your face right in his hands, feeling you. if you knew (and he hoped not), you didn't say anything. but then he had to let go. and he couldn't let himself focus on how cold his hands felt after you let go of them, he had to pay attention to the task at hand. for a good few moments after parting from you, he kepts his eyes tightly shut, his hands slowly balling into fists, as he hoped, begged, prayed to whoever was listening that it'd work. you let him sit there for as long as he wanted, but at some point, he had to gather all his courage, and finally, he dared to open his eyes

he was frozen, those sad eyes seemingly even... sadder. or at least that's what you judged because of how they slightly glossed over. you thought it didn't work - it wasn't too surprising, the whole idea wasn't really anywhere near perfect, but you've had so much hope in you. you wanted to free him of his burden, you wanted to help him see the world for what it truly was, but it was a hard task. impossible, it seemed. you shouldn't've been this disappointed that it failed when it was destined to fail from the beginning, and yet you couldn't help that wave of sadness that overwhelmed you. he... he really deserved to be fucking happy for once. but you couldn't give him that, unfortunately

or so you thought before he suddenly cupped your face in his hands yet again, his thumbs caressing your cheeks frantically as he smiled. grinned, even. you have never seen a human being this euphoric before, because of you nonetheless. you've never heard him laugh this genuinely, as that glossiness from his eyes escaped to his cheeks and slipped down his face as his eyes roamed yours

his fingers trembled against your skin as words - more than he ever really spoke - flowed from his mouth. his broken whispers of 'i see you's and 'you're even more beautiful than i imagined's replaced the heavy silence that previously hung around the room, and now you had to deal with an overwhelmingly happy, emotionally-repressed, socially-awkward loser that practically vibrated in his spot at the sight of you

#polkadot man #polka dot man #abner krill #tss #the suicide squad #my writing #headcannons #fluff #kinda hurt/comfort ig #some angst sprinkled in there #cmon its abner #cant have abner without some angst #anonymous #this fucking guy i SWEAR-

[giuliafc]

When Magic Fails - chapter 2

Read on A03 || FFN || Wattpad (links to chapter 1)

Summary: The Miraculous Cure can fix the damage caused by a specific akuma. But what happens when said damage comes after the Miraculous Cure? When the damage isn't caused by an akuma? Follow Marinette through the worst day of her life. The day where her identity, or Chat's, won't matter any more. The day when she will discover what's really important. But at what price? Lovesquare story.

Warning: VERY intense! Read previous chapter here on Tumblr

Betas: KhanOfAllOrcs, Agrestebug, Etoile-Lead-Sama, Speckleflower, AmberLambda, Anonymousfriend27 and MiniNoire

Big thanks to: Momo|MarinetteAgresteBrand and Genxha

Cover art and chapter art credit: Rosehealer02 on Deviantart.

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by (c) Thomas Astruc; TS1 Bouygues, Disney Channel, Zagtoon, Toei Animation. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

oOo

Chapter 2 - Code Polkadot

It was a race against time. His ring beeped when she passed the Ministère de la Santé, and her own Miraculous beeped in front of the ambassade des Pays-Bas. People watched in horror as she jumped and zipped across the road. She could see their stares, could hear their whispers. They were probably wondering what Ladybug was doing, holding Chat Noir and running madly across the road, both covered in blood, dust and rubble. She glared at anybody that came within a glaring distance.

“WHERE’S THE HOSPITAL?” she shouted at someone who had just stopped on a bike next to her. A familiar face, but her vision was so blurred by tears and sweat that she couldn’t quite make out who the person was. She shrugged off the idea. Four different hands pointed in the same direction, immediately followed by another dozen. She attempted a grateful smile, but was certain, from the frightened reactions of the people on the road, that she had barely managed to put up a painful grimace.

She jumped across in the direction shown and immediately saw her reflection glaring at her from the windows of the building in front of her. She didn’t even stop to consider what she looked like. The words on the building's windows said Hôpital Necker, but they also mentioned "University". She looked around to find the blue "H" that clearly marked a public hospital and saw it just a few metres away, at the side of a small marble arched gate, which led into a courtyard.

She landed in front of it and burst inside; her eyes scanned the courtyard until she saw at her left a door manning the sign “Accueil”. As she walked inside and looked around, she saw lines of metallic black seats. Mothers and children moved to give her space, as well as the people queuing and standing in front of the reception check in. She heard whispers around the room, mothers consoling their children who were asking what happened to Chat Noir. Why were there so many kids? All the patients had children with them; that was weird.

“I need a doctor, quickly!” she said bluntly at the woman sitting at the check in desk. To her disappointment the receptionist was on the phone, so taken with looking at the screen in front of her that she hadn’t even glanced in her direction. Marinette’s gaze quickly ran to Chat Noir’s face. The side of his head was covered in blood, which had mixed together with the dirt and the pieces of mortar in his hair and had made a sort of paste that had glued to his and even to her own suit. Her heart raced faster in her chest. She needed to hurry.

“Have you got your child’s carnet de santé and carte mutuelle, and your carte vitale please?” came from behind the green desk the voice of said receptionist, who stretched her left hand out to her, her eyes still focused on the screen in front of her, her ear still glued to the phone receiver.

Marinette gulped. Child? She looked around again. There were plenty of colourful drawings and cartoon characters embossed on the walls of the reception desk and pictures of children with many different types of illnesses.

Oh yes. Hôpital Necker, the child hospital. That’s right. She had heard of it in the news so many times, looking for donations for their research.

“He’s not my child…” she said. If the situation hadn’t been so serious she was sure Chat would have found it funny.

The middle aged brunette in front of her took her eyes off her screen, put a thick pair of glasses on and gave her a practised look of pure boredom before her brown eyes widened. “Excuse me ma’am,” she said to the person she was talking to on the phone. “I have an emergency here. You will need to redial.” She hung up and dropped the phone receiver.

“La… Ladybug? Oh Jesus… Chat Noir? What… This is a child’s hospital Ladybug… we have adult patients, but they...they’re not our speciality...” She started stammering and paled considerably.

Marinette felt a gush of anger spreading all over her gut as she admitted it, hastily, “I’m fifteen… and I expect him to be around my age. I don’t care if it’s a hospital for children, for aliens or for wild animals. He could die if we don’t act fast. He needs help. NOW.”

People all around started whispering.

“Fifteen?”

“Oh my God.”

“They are kids.”

“Only kids.”

“Maman is Chat Noir really younger than my big brother?”

“Sure.” The woman at the desk picked up the phone and pushed a couple of buttons on it. “Dr. Richter? Yes, Sylvie here at reception. We have an emergency. Oh you know already? Good… code polkadot you say? What is it, I’ve never heard of it. Ah okay... Cool. Yes, they know. They’re 15! Yes. I hear you, yes. Crazy! I’ll tell her. Leave it to me.” She stood and ran out of the accueil’s room; Marinette could only follow. “They’re already waiting for you in front of the SUSI (2).”

Marinette paled. “But I thought this was…” she muttered, but the woman interrupted her.

“Ladybug, you’re in the wrong place. This is the reception for booked appointments and routine visits. The SUSI is over there.” She pointed to the left. “You’re probably going to be faster than the bed. It’s the other side of that rooftop.”

Marinette gave her a grateful look and a nod. “Thank you… Sylvie?”

“Good luck, Ladybug,” she said smiling warmly. “You saved my boyfriend when he was akumatised. This is the least I can do.”

Marinette nodded again and held Chat firmly, jumping on the rooftop as fast as her legs could take her. She immediately saw that three men dressed in blue were waiting at the back entrance of the next building, near what looked like a gurney and an ambulance. She jumped off right beside them.

“We’ve been waiting for you, Ladybug. Nadja Chamack rang the hospital to warn us of your arrival. Please allow me to take him,” one of the nurses said, as he tried to take Chat from her arms.

She initially resisted, but then heard Chat’s ring giving a louder beep, so she gave in. “Please, we need to hurry. One minute and our transformations will fall,” she pleaded. The man’s gaze became stern. He held Chat firmly and moved steadily towards the gurney next to him. He carefully put Chat on it and quickly pushed the gurney inside the building, trying to move it hastily to the corridor leading to a door labelled ‘PU - Urgences’ (1).

A loud beep came from her earrings, and in a flash of pink, Marinette’s transformation fell as she sped next to the nurses, not even trying to hide her face from the crowd that had gathered all around her. Her gaze stayed firmly focused on Chat and on the nurses who were putting what she thought could be an oxygen mask on his mouth and nose, taking advantage of a moment when the gurney stopped because of the crowd. She didn’t even pay any attention to Tikki, who had come out of the earrings and had looked at her worryingly before flying into her purse.

“Ew, what’s that?”

“A giant bug maman!”

“Does Ladybug keep bugs in her purse?”

“WILL YOU ALL PLEASE GO FASTER? HIS SUIT HELPS HIM, BUT THIS COULD BE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HIS LIFE OR HIS DEATH! HE’S ONLY GOT A FEW MORE SECONDS TO SPARE!” She could swear that she saw a few flashes and tried to cover her face as best she could. Suddenly she felt someone’s arms wrap around her as a jacket was thrown over her head.

“There’s nothing else to see people, let the gurney pass!” a male voice said. She knew that voice… where had she heard that voice before?

They went through the doors of the PU and walked hastily a little longer until the gurney stopped and moved ninety degrees. The jacket was removed from her head as she heard the zipping sound of curtains being pulled all around them. A quick glance to her surroundings made her realise that they were in a sort of cubicle, protected from the view by a set of blue paper curtains, and the doctors and nurses were surrounding Chat, plugging different cables and machines all around him.

“Where do I plug the oximeter?” one of the nurses asked. She looked very young and a bit pale. She held a sort of peg in her hands, plugged into a machine and tried to attach it to one of Chat’s cat ears. “Nope. Does he have human ears?” She moved his hair at the side of his head and Marinette heard her sighing in relief as she attached the peg to something.

“What happened to him, how did he get hurt, Miss Ladybug?” she heard a doctor ask and she suddenly looked up, realising that the man was talking to her.

“Oh… he fell off the Eiffel Tower…” she started to say. Then she heard the last beep of her partner’s ring and in a flash of green his transformation fell. As Plagg twirled out of the ring and fell with a loud sob on top of Chat’s head, Marinette couldn’t stop her gaze from following the black kwami and running straight to the blond boy laying on the bed.

The plastic mask covered almost all his face, but even with that on, there was not a chance in hell that Marinette wouldn’t recognise his blond mane, now combed neatly to the side of his head and clean from the dirt, but not from the blood that plastered the side of his face. Pale; he was as pale as a ghost. She only caught a glimpse of his face before someone’s arms wrapped around her and held her tight. But that glimpse was enough.

No.

NO!

NOO! It couldn’t be...

“Gamin? Talk to me! Are you okay?” she heard Plagg say. Then, she saw something red dashing around the room, grabbing Plagg, oblivious of his objections, and disappearing behind the curtain. “Tikki, you don’t understand! I need to tell Pigtails! He’s been poi—” the little God of destruction whimpered as he was dragged away. She wasn't sure, but she thought she had seen tears at the corner of Plagg’s electric green eyes. Even her own eyes filled with tears, her chest shaken by loud sobs.

“Mar-Ladybug, it’s okay. He will be safe,” someone said, hugging her tight, but it sounded far away, like a whisper from a different time. "Marinette can you hear me? It's me, Luka," he added in a lower tone of voice. But all Marinette could hear were the sudden angry beeps of the machines in front of her, having gone mad the second Chat's transformation fell. A horde of doctors and nurses rushed to the gurney, busying themselves with plugging in more cables and hooking up strange machines to Chat's body and face.

“Sorry, Mlle. Ladybug, can you please wait over there? We need space!” Marinette heard the voice of one of the doctors say, and she felt Luka’s arms wrapping tighter around her as he tried to move her backwards.

She resisted sternly. That face. She had just given one quick glance to that face. She had to see it again, to see that it wasn’t the face she thought. She wriggled out of Luka’s hold and jerked towards the gurney, peeking around the doctors at work and trying to give another quick look, earning quite a few glares from a couple of nurses.

The neatly combed blond mane framed the handsome face of the boy she would recognise among thousands. As pale as a ghost. His once peachy lips now dry and blue under the transparent plastic mask. His beautiful green eyes closed. Why of all people did it have to be him?

She screamed.

"It's okay, Mar-Ladybug! He will be alright!" Luka's voice said again, his arms firmly wrapped around her shoulders to stop her from lunging straight to the bedside.

"ADRIEEEEN!!!" Her heart-wrenching screams came loud and clear in between the sobs that rocked her chest and lungs.

"Marinette? What… Adrien? Oh girl you must be kidding me! Mar… La-Ladybug?" This was Alya's voice. She heard Luka shushing her, and Alya’s eyes widened, as she corrected herself. What was Alya doing here?

Suddenly, a pair of extra arms wrapped around her from her left side. Another pair from the right, in a vice grip that kept her from going to him, that kept pushing her backwards.

A female voice spoke, the masked emotions trickling in through the tremble in her voice. “You can't go over there! You'll only get in the way of the doctors working on him! Stay here!”

“ADRIE—” A hand cupped over her mouth, barely able to muffle the sounds of heartbreak seeping out of her.

"Shhhhh! Do you want everyone to know, Ma-Ladybug?" It was Kagami's voice. She nearly didn’t recognise it, as the usually confident and blunt tone of the Japanese girl was missing completely. She sounded shaken and emotionally drained. Marinette darted her gaze around to notice that Alya was standing at her right and Kagami at her left, and they were both holding her tight, supporting Luka who held her from behind.

They were all there with her. She wondered when they arrived and how they knew where they were. Nadja probably had told them where she was heading, and they were allowed through the door of the PU before detransforming, Marinette thought, but the sight of Adrien being picked up carefully by one of the nurses and transferred into a hospital bed stopped the last of her rational thoughts from coming through. New sobs shook her chest, as new tears rolled off her cheeks. She buried her face in Alya's chest not even attempting to stop sobbing desperately.

Because Chat was Adrien. And Adrien could die. And it was her fault…

------------------------------------

Notes:

(1) PU - Pavillon des Urgences (A&E/ER)

(2) SUSI - Service d'Urgences et de Soins Intensifs (A&E/ER, Emergency and Intensive Care department)

-------------------------------------

Author's Note:

Hi! *Keeps hiding*

I know, I know, this is probably the most catastrophic reveal ever. Please don't hate me!

I'll cut the fluff and get straight to the point. In the next instalment of "When Magic fails", “Secrets in the Open”:

— “We will need to put stitches on this cut at the side of his head.”

— “He has the right to choose how to live his own life!”

— “Chat Noir hasn’t just been injured. He’s been poisoned. And it’s not just an average poison. It’s extremely dangerous.”

I know, I'm cruel. If you want to kill m—, I mean, if you read this and you’re not part of our wonderful Discord server already, but you enjoy reading, writing and talking about Miraculous, please join our Discord server, Miraculous Fanworks (for people on FFN, discord dot gg slash mlfanworks). See you there soon, and see you soon here with the next chapters of this story. Won’t be too long. Promise!

#miraculous #miraculous ladybug #miraculous les aventures de ladybug et chat noir #fanfiction #fanfic #ladybug #ladybug x chat noir #ladynoir #chat noir #adrienette #adrien agreste #adrien and marinette #adrien x marinette #angst #romance #eventual happy ending #marinette #marinette dupain cheng #reveals #luka #luka couffaine #kagami tsurugi #alya cesaire #please comment either here or on ao3 ffn wattpad wherever #let me know what you think

[mwolf0epsilon]

Crazy idea that I figured right now. Thomas dosn't hear like someone that would get married, even with a person of his kind (g r u m p t y) so, Allison is a witch (cannon btw).. love potion? Sorry is pretty funny for me.

Summary: One of Allison's more peculiar interests turns out better than she expected, if only because of a slight mistake.

---

[[MORE]]

If questioned on the subject, Allison wouldn't exactly call herself a witch. She had an interest in witchcraft, sure, but she herself was not an expert nor a professional on the arts of ancient beldams and shamans.

She was, however, the owner of a vast and ever growing collection of tomes that were the aglommoration of such olden knowledge.

Of these powerful tomes came the biggest of her fixations: Potion brewing, more specifically the refinement of elixirs.

It was amazing what a few select ingredients could produce if you were to extract or prepare them in a certain way. From all natural remedies to combat the effects of illness, to powerful poisons and even blends that could condition the mind to do certain things.

It was an art that could be used to do as much good as it could do evil, and Allison knew a few select witches of the past had indeed done evil when others scorned them so. To the detriment of those that had been pure in their intentions, as were many of the victims of the Salem Witch Trials.

But Allison wasn't looking to do much with her knowledge besides sate her curiosity and test a few interesting blends. Most went into helping those around her anonymously...

A few drops in a cup of coffee and suddenly Jack's bad cough was gone. A whiff of her perfume, and Sammy was a lot calmer than he'd been a minute or so ago. Even a few delicious homemade cupcakes got everyone into a creative rut that kept Joey off their backs.

She was benevolent in her actions... But... There was one particular blend she wanted to try for more selfish reasons. A love potion of a sort, composed of natural aphrodisiacs and calming herbs.

One she hoped to try on the object of her affections, a man that had such an impeccable work ethic that she doubted he even knew she even existed (which was odd as most men often buzzed around her like bees to a flower, because of her attractive features). It frustrated her to no end that Thomas Connor was a difficult person to understand, or to get close to.

Her previous experiences with past boyfriends had always been quite linear, so the mysterious engineer being so hard to read was baffling. No man nor any woman should be a puzzle so hard to figure out, and her lack of progress on this matter only made her feel more attracted towards him.

So here she was, trying to find Mr. Connor's coffee mug, ready to slip him an all natural drug that would definitely turn his gaze towards her... You know, like some degenerate wench...

"Oh you've sunk low Al... You've sunk very low." She murmured to herself as she looked through the shared cupboard. There was a myriad of different mugs that were unique so as to distinguish them from someone else's property. A lot of people in the studio were against sharing their cups after all, thus this fun little measure that definitely wasn't making it hard for her right now.

She knew the mug with brightly colored polkadots was Norman's, as it was a silly play on his last name (one Mel had started as a means to poke fun at him). She also knew the white one with intricate depictions of songbirds and forget-me-nots was Sammy's (a gift to him from his sister apparently), and that the bright green one with stocky writing on it was Shawn's (Mr. Flynn was, after all, fond of yelling 'Top o' the Morning to ya' to everyone at the earliest hours of the morning).

But, for the life of her, she couldn't find a mug that she thought might fit Thomas's personality at all... They were all varying degrees of either pretty or silly and none really screamed his name. Not until she squinted and found one that was bland enough to be a no-nonsense GENT employee's pick.

A simple black mug with absolutely nothing extraordinary about it, sitting besides a white mug with paw prints on it (likely Wally's as he had a fondness for dogs).

Taking that bland old mug, she proceeded with her plan.

-

By 9 AM sharp, Allison was a bundle of nerves. She'd prepared Thomas's coffee separately before making everyone else their own mugs to avoid suspicion. Then she'd set out a plate of cupcakes (some vanilla, some chocolate) to make it seem like an innocent little gesture rather than the shameful and depraved act that it actually was, and greeted everyone on her way out of the break room.

Morale was great that morning, but so was her increasing guilt... She shouldn't be meddling with what others felt, especially not trying to bewitch her crush into liking her for a brief moment. Yet here she was, hoping to bump into a drugged up Thomas Connor and get him to praise her in some form.

Her need for validation was... Rotten. She hated it, she hated that she'd gone to these lengths just to feel like someone genuinely cared for her rather than her good looks.

So when she did find her crush at last, she didn't feel so good about the plan anymore.

"Allison could I maybe speak to you for a second?" The gruff voice of Thomas Connor wasn't particularly loud, at least not louder than many of the other employees in the music department, so she jumped slightly when he approached her quietly during her break from recording.

"I... Yes certainly." Her stomach felt like it was doing flips as she followed the taller man, considering her options here. She could lightly reject any advances he tried to make in his state of unknowing inebriation, admit she may have slipped something in his coffee, or even straight up lie and say there was weed in the cupcakes... But, instead of doing anything, she resigned herself to the fact the next words out of his mouth weren't going to be genuine.

"I wanted to thank you." Thomas began as they'd gotten out into a quieter hall with little to no movement. "For always trying to brighten things up a little here at the studio. Drew's been a right pain in the ass, and it really sets off a chain... But here you are, getting up bright and early to bake cupcakes and brew everyone a cup of coffee, being the most genuine and selfless person at this damn madhouse..."

The guilt was excruciating, and Allison felt herself blush slightly as her eyes began to sting. He likely thought it was humility on her part.

"Hey, no need for that. Just stating the facts Miss Pendle..." He smiled, really smiled, and it was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. Thomas Connor had this shy little smile that started at the corner of his mouth and just barely exposed his front teeth a bit. "I was wondering... If maybe I could pay you back. With uh... With lunch?"

"I..."

"I understand if you're busy, it's just... I'd just like to be able to repay your kindness in kind. Lunch for an impromptu breakfast seems fair... And it's well within our schedules I hope..." He added. She couldn't bring herself to decline even if she knew she should.

"It... It sounds good to me. Uh... Wednesday?" She shyly suggested.

"Wednesday." He nodded in agreement. "Best we both go back to work now, before Lawrence has a fit..."

"Yeah... Thank you Thomas." She smiled sadly, watching him as he nodded her way. Her smile vanished once she noticed him bring a mug up to his lips. A white mug with paw prints on it.

Once he took a sip from his coffee he went on his way, leaving Allison in a confused state. On one hand, her crush had genuinely just asked her out and that was amazing! On the other... Who's coffee mug was it that she had drugged then?

-

Henry groaned as he hung up his phone for the 20th time that day. Whoever the hell was calling his landline only to breathe heavily into the speaker as he questioned them, was really starting to aggravate him.

Damn kids and their stupid pranking antics... He had half a mind to call the cops!

#eps writes: #bendy and the ink machine #batim #allison pendle #thomas connor

[arlakos]

Why Miracle Queen doesn’t make sense. (SPOILERS just in case)

As most of you who have seen my blog know by now, I have found Season 3 to be somewhat of a mess. While having bit of a better writing and episodes overall compared to the rather boring season 2, it also had a lot of disappointing mistakes in terms of character writing and focus, and most episodes which could have been good often had a rather awkward or cringe moment that ruins the episode for me, such as the statue scene in Puppeteer 2. For fans who don't remember, let me remind you:

Now that I’ve mentally traumatized myself looking for this pic, let us continue:

On the topic of episodes, despite any cringey scenes that might be in the episodes, a lot of them are at the very least concise. Sure, the episodes usually have the same generic plot, non-hero moment, angry person, Akuma, hero fight, reset and repeat, but for the most part, they are ok... But even this season, there have been some episodes that have the most stupid plots that don't even make sense. From the horrifying Chameleon episode that had all class characters drop in IQ for the story to work, to the Feast Episode which restored the order of Guardians, but didn’t have them come to Paris to get the box back, there have been some rather stupid episodes...

...But none are more stupid than the Season Finale - Miracle Queen

For an episode that is not only confusing but bad, I could talk about the hundreds of mistakes that are present in episode, but other people can talk about that, or perhaps ill make another post regarding the episodes when I feel like breaking my fingers on my keyboard again, but right now I would like to focus on the 2 main plot holes that absolutely made no sense but ASS-TRUC, the man, the idiot, the infamous twitter legend, decided to do anyway.

So the first plot point I'm gonna talk about is.....

Chloe Bourgeois, aka Miracle Queen

For anyone who hates Chloe bourgeois, this episode would have probably left you jumping for joy, given the fact it pretty much gets her removed from the miraculous team.

For the rest of us, who I assume either like Chloe or find the episodes plot to make no sense, or both, this episode is quite contradictory to the entirety of the season, both because the seasons abnormal focus on Lila and her antics, and because of the fact that previous episodes had Chloe accept the fact that she couldn't become a hero.

In Miraculer, Chloe accepts the fact that she can’t become a hero again. Sure the episode has Chloe be upset at Ladybug, but in the end, she accepted that it was mean to be this way, and definitely shows no trace of wanting to join hawkmoth in any sort of capacity. 

Also, a small bit added in from my friend @twin-books​, who said this gem of a message:

“ Ah, in Miraculer what she displayed was confidence where she knew she would be Queen Bee again, she didn't doubt herself for a second. Chloe used to doubt herself, used to play the damsel, let others take care of her but this time she said, "No. I am Queen Bee and just because you won't give my comb doesn't make me anything less." Or at least, how I interpreted it.  By tearing the photo she was excepting that Ladybug didn't have faith as her as a hero, nor did she ever. That Ladybug ignored her in favor of someone she deemed worthy but Chloe knows she's worthy. She proved her worth and just because Ladybug can't see that doesn't mean she should believe it. It's also interesting how she completely takes it out on Ladybug but is fine with Chat because she knows where she stands with Chat and she may have never liked him but he displayed faith in her. He knew and that might just be what kept her going so she could gain her own confidence. “

So when Chloe is left angry in Miracle Queen because she wasn’t chosen and immediately joins Hawkmoth, it just doesn't make any sense because previous episodes contradict it.

NOW, to be fair, I would have been fine with Chloe joining Hawkmoth if there was a buildup to it. If they Had Hawkmoth come in between the episodes from Miraculer to Miracle Queen to try and persuade Chloe and/or have her doubt Ladybug, then the turn from hero to villain would make sense. Unfortunately, thanks to Ass-truc and his have-every-episode-be-a-single-story-episode-and-have-every-character-reset-fuck-you-continuity episode design, this doesn't happen and having Chloe go from a person who is selfish but at the very least is a hero to a full-on 2-d villain is jarring as shit. It would have made more sense for her to just take the miraculous and go rouge with it, but a full-on villain? C’mon.

Also, there's the fact that for the entire season the show has been pushing Lila to be this over the top manipulator and villain in the day to day lives of the heroes. If they really wanted to have someone be Miracle Queen, why not Lila. It would make sense considering a Miracle is something that happens that it seems so unreal, and given that Lila would probably like her lies to become real it would make sense for her to become Miracle Queen. 

Also where the hell was she all episode, she just disappeared out of existence for the entire episode. At least have her come and take the fox miraculous from Alya and have her be a secondary antagonist.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, now for the second plot hole...

The Miracle Box

It. Just. Doesn't. Make. Sense.

But to understand why, let me break it down.

- So due to Hawkmoth almost breaking through the barrier (and for whatever reason decided not to just jump away) Fu transfers ownership of the box to Marinette

-Because of the idiot logic of the show, there can only ever be on Guardian at a time, and because of the transfer, the previous Guardian loses their memories.

-The box also turns into an egg, for whatever reason.

Now, the only thing I dont mind about the whole scene is that the whole Guardian thing is magical in nature. Since Fu can do stuff like detect other Miraculi, it would make sense that the Guardian is more than just a title and has a magical aura around them that makes them a guardian. That being said, there are still a lot of trouble with this scene that rustle my jimmies to heck.

So lets go through the main problems with this plot hole.

-’There can only ever be one Guardian’

Bollocks. The flashback of the order clearly shows multiple individuals. And with the Sandboy episode showing Fu being haunted by a guardian with a female voice (yet also showing a male Guardian in Feast), it clearly shows that there are more than one Guardian in the order.

-’Upon transfer, the previous Guardian Loses their memories’

Again, this also doesn’t make sense. Even assuming that the Guardianship of box needs to have a magical transfer, making the previous Guardian lose their memories because of it makes no sense in the plot of the Miraculous Universe. Maybe it would make sense if the Guardian was but a single man (like in Fu’s case), but it doesn’t make as much sense when you remember the order it comes from.

See, the Order was located in Tibet, high away from the outside world, and the people who were there probably lived there all their life. So knowing these facts, why would it make sense for the previous owner to lose their memories? I can understand someone being a head guardian and then transferring the ownership when their time is up, but it doesn't make sense for them to just forget the order, they live there their entire lives, and would likely do so until their death. And the show implies that this is the actual way the ownership is transferred, and Marinette’s case wasn't a special case of an emergency transfer. It does make sense that the Guardians can remove memories of the order for people who have gone rogue or are expelled, but it doesn't make sense that the memory forgetting is entwined with the transfer of Guardianship.

-’The box turns into an egg, for whatever reason’

I'm not gonna explain it. Its a freaking box. A box that, while well designed, showed no capability of magic power at all for the entirety of the show. ITS A GODDAMN BOX AND IT MAKES NO SENSE FOR IT TO TURN INTO A POLKADOTTED EGG.

Though to be fair, in hindsight, a lot of this plot hole induced stupidity does have  a logical explanation for this:

Thomas Astruc and Zag

Or rather, Thomas Astruc and Zag quarrel.

See, when it comes to Ass-truc and his ideal show design, it would have been just simple about Marinette and why she is quote on quote  ‘awesome’. thats it. Pretty much every episode would be about Marinette being amazing, everyone loving her and kissing her feet, and nothing goes wrong for her in the same way as every Mary Sue ever written in a fanfic. The only difference being there was no main character to replace.

But Zag was having none of it. While Ass-truc wanted to just show off his OC, Zag wanted an actual show, and so made a lot of changes to it. Chat Noir, who in Astruc original comic idea was a one off character (and possibly a villain) got repurposed by Zag to be the second main character in the show. It also makes sense for every hero to have a mentor, which led to Zag creating Fu. Zag was also responsible for a bunch of other stuff to be added into the shows, such as additional heroes, Chloe becoming a good Guy, etc.

Of course, this made ASS-truc mad because that meant no 100% focus on the ‘goddess’ that is Marinette. So after bullying Zag off twitter via the use of his Stans (rip Zag twitter account- no posts since 2017) and forcing him off the Miraculous team after Season 1 (although this could also just be Zag focusing on other shows), Astruc had free reign to undo all that Zag had done. While Astruc did follow Zag's request due to owning half of the Miraculous license (being the guy that co-produced the show), he often twisted them so that they were skewed or couldn't last. The flashback of the order being destroyed? That was due to Fu being hungry and creating a monster in a plot induced stupidity. Chloe being a good guy? Yeah right, she sabotages a train just to save it and make herself look good, is an asshole regardless and then goes full-on villain. The other new heroes that help Ladybug? Gone, due to the same episode which prompted me to make this post.

Of course, this would impact the ratings of the show, forcing Zag to come back and fix Astruc’s mess in Season 4. Astruc knew that Zag returning would undo all the damage Astruc done to the show. So in a final bid attempt to keep this his way, he rewrote the finale, causing things in the show to actually become permanent and leaving Zag unable to fix anything. Thanks to Ass-truc, Fu is now gone forever, making Marinette the Guardian permanently, all the heroes aside from Ladybug and Chat Noir can’t be heroes anymore (leaving the focus entirely on Marinette), and Chloe now has become an irredeemable villain. All so that Astruc can brag on twitter about how Chloe ‘always was a villain’ and how ‘he was right all along’ despite being the one who wrote the character into existence.

And I’m not lying about this either or making it up. Even in the finale of the season 3 (particularly miracle queen) a lot of the time involves most of the characters standing around listening to dialogue and exposition rather than acting in ways they actually should (such as trying to save Fu or attacking Miracle Queen), no doubt due to the rewrites Astruc did before the finale was released, causing the animation to be very minimal or not making sense as there wasn't time to redo the animation. You can even see it in small amounts in episodes such as Glaciator and Troublemaker.

For me, this will probably go down as one of the worst episodes in the series, even worse than Stormy weather 2, because of its horrible writing, the plot holes it creates, and how much of the episode was designed to cater to Ass-trucs desires rather than designed to actually be a good finale to a season. That's not to say it didn't have good moments (such as dragon Bug and Snake Noir), but the overall episode was just so bad that the bad outweighed the good moments, at least for me. I wonder what Zag will do to fix season 4, but considering the suicide impact on the show Astruc made to make sure the show would remain ‘his way’, i don't have any doubts that it will be a hard challenge ahead of him. Good luck Zag, hope you can fix the mess Ass-truc made.

#Miraculous Ladybug #Season 3 #Miracle Queen #A fair bit of salt #Goddamit Astruc you nuked your own show #Virgin Astruc vs Chad Zag #Plot Induced Stupidity #Plot Holes #Heres to hoping for a better season 4 #Miraculous Ladybug salt

[so-wonderful-so-beautiful]

JuleThief Fanfic Ch. 4

Alrighty. So I know I've written Julia in the new A.C.M.E. Uniform, and have her wearing gloves. Even though in the show, it shows the uniform overlay of her without. Even in the trailer for season 2 she doesn't have them. But damn it! The other agents have them! And I just really love gloves. ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

Julia woke with a start. Her heart was racing, and she could feel sweat running down her face. She sat up quickly, and tried to take deep breaths. “That nightmare felt so real.” She muttered to herself.

The dream was still running around her mind. She dreamt about Carmen. The night Devineux was attacked. She saw shadows attacking Carmen. Silhouette's of people she didn’t know. They beat and attacked her. Julia was unable to help. Shouting with no voice. Trying to move but frozen in place. Devineux on the ground unconscious. It was awful.

Julia sighed and pulled the blankets back. Laying in bed all day wouldn’t do anyone any good. Maybe she could take Chief's advice and walk around and take a break. She wanted to get a cup of coffee at her favorite café, and maybe walk around one of the small museums.

With a nod, Julia slid out of bed, and went about collecting her uniform. It was very professional for how casual her day was going to be. But she felt important in it. She wanted to be ready for anything. Day off or not.

It didn’t take long for Julia to get ready for the day. A quick shower, light makeup, and her uniform back on. She grabbed her briefcase, and was ready to explore the city.

Julia strode out of the flat, and locked the door behind her. She would enjoy the day. If she wanted to make sure she was useful, she needed to take care of herself as well. Julia made her way to the elevator, and took it down to the lobby.

The young man at the front desk smiled at Julia as she walked through the lobby, and out onto the street. She smiled and gave a small wave back. He was always nice to her when she saw him.

The café was not a far walk, and the morning was still cool and pleasant. It would be a good walk. Julia began her small journey to breakfast.

After a few minutes of walking, she arrived. The smell of coffee, a promise in the air of what was yet to come. Julia pulled open the door, as a bell jingled to announce her arrival. With a deep breath, Julia took in the smells of fresh baked pastries and coffee. Her stomach rumbled as she walked towards the counter to make her order.

As she approached the counter, she felt the arm of a stranger slip around her left arm, and lace fingers with her gloved hand. Julia felt her heart begin to pound as she quickly turned to see who had attached themselves.

A woman with dark red hair pulled back up into a neat bun, a white blouse, and red skirt with black polkadots, and a medical wrap on her arm, had latched on.

“Ms. Sandiego.” Julia greeted, as the surprise began to wear away.

“Good morning Jules.” Carmen cheerily returned the greeting.

“Might I ask what it is that you are doing?” Julia inquired, not having moved from her place on the floor. Her heart had not slowed down from the initial encounter.

“Here to have breakfast with a beautiful woman.” Carmen smiled at her from behind a small set of frames. “I also wanted to check up on you and make sure you were okay.”

Julia offered a small smile. “Yes, I’m fine.” She stepped forward to make her order, as the barista waited for her.

“Deux petits cafés et un croissant, s'il vous plaît.” Julia ordered.

“Oui m'dame.” He smiled as he put in the order.

Julia pulled Carmen to the end of the counter to wait for her order.

“So, Jules.” Carmen began, but was cut off as she saw Julia frown at her.

“No. I get to speak first.” Julia whispered. “Why did I see Zack and Ivy yesterday?” She narrowed her eyes at Carmen.

Carmen blinked slowly at her. She was sharp, and observant. Carmen knew that Julia was smart, but she had to make sure that she didn’t underestimate her.

Julia opened her mouth to prod further, but a woman with their drinks approached and placed them down.

“Merci.” Julia nodded. She reached out and grabbed them. With Carmen grabbing the croissant. There was a counter with cream, sugar, and other things to add in their drinks. Julia prepared them the same as yesterday. She had remembered how Carmen liked it.

Julia gestured to a small table outside, away from listening ears. She stepped outside, and walked to the small table and sat down. Carmen followed behind, and sat down across from her. Julia grabbed the other coffee, and handed it to her.

“To answer your question, they technically weren’t following you. You just happened to be where they were. Zack is posing as a hospital porter to keep a close eye on Devineux. Just in case V.I.L.E. sends more people after him. But seeing as there are now A.C.M.E. agents all over the place, that’s no longer necessary.” Carmen stopped to take a sip of her coffee. “Ooh. You remembered how I like it. Anyway, Ivy was patrolling the area, keeping an eye out for suspicious activity. Zack let her know you were headed out, and so she decided to keep an eye on you.”

This information was hard to process. Carmen and her crew were keeping Devineux safe. That was comforting to hear for sure as Julia listened to her explanation. She took a sip of her coffee, and let that new info sit.

“Ivy told me you weren’t looking well, and told me what apartment she dropped you at. So, I wanted to check up on you.” Carmen finished.

“Thank you.” Julia offered a small smile.

“Think nothing of it.” Carmen brushed it aside, placing her hand on Julia's. “You’re with us now. Whether you like it or not. We look after each other.”

Julia took a sip from her coffee, to try and hide the blush that blossomed on her freckled cheeks. She made no effort to move her hand, but instead interlaced her gloved fingers with Carmen’s.

“It is nice to feel like someone is on my side for a change.” Julia sighed, placing her cup down, and pulled a piece of the croissant apart to nibble on it. She offered some to Carmen, who took a piece as well.

“Doesn’t A.C.M.E. support you?” Carmen asked, taking her piece of croissant and finishing it quickly.

“I suppose they do. But even before Inspector Devineux was captured and tortured, he usually swept my ideas under the rug. Chief never seemed to take me seriously when I brought you up either.” Julia sighed.

“You talked about me?” Carmen gave her a coy grin.

“Hush.” Julia chuckled lightly. “I tried to explain the moral ambiguity of your work, and how you were stealing from other thieves. Chief and A.C.M.E. originally wanted you because they believe you’re their best link to V.I.L.E.. Which I believe as well. But not the way they want to go about it.”

Carmen nodded, and took a sip of her coffee. “They aren’t wrong. But it doesn’t work that way. I’m not just going to walk in to A.C.M.E. headquarters and divulge everything.” Carmen rolled her eyes.

“Oh I believe that. But Devineux had a narrow mind.” Julia frowned. “He sees it this way. You steal something. No matter from who, therefor you are simply a thief that must be apprehended. He never once thought about V.I.L.E. when it came to tracking you down.”

Carmen nodded slowly. “He does seem to focus hard on one thing. But he is relentless.” She gripped Julia’s hand a little tighter. “How is he?”

“Still in a coma. I don’t know when he will wake.” Julia took a deep breath, and let it go as a sigh. “I was told to take some time to relax. I have been at the hospital every day since he was placed there. I am still his partner at A.C.M.E.. I feel like I could have done more to prevent what happened to him.” Julia felt guilt gnaw at her insides.

“He’ll be fine.” Zack piped up from behind them.

Julia leaped in surprise, the appearance of one of the siblings catching her off guard.

“Inspector Cheesewiz is a tough cookie.” Ivy chimed in, as she walked out of the café with two drinks and lots of pastries.

Zack pulled up a couple chairs for him and Ivy to join Carmen and Julia for breakfast. “Here Carm.” Zach offered a breakfast quiche. Carmen grabbed it and gave him a smile as a thank you.

Ivy sat in the chair next to her brother and divvied up the goods. “You can have some too Agent Argent.” Ivy offered with a smile.

“Thank you. Please, call me Julia.” Julia gave her a warm grin.

“You said that you tried to defend me to A.C.M.E.. Did that not work in your favor then?” Carmen inquired.

“After the kidnapping and attack on Inspector Devinuex, and you stomping on the pen, Chief believed you were responsible. After all, you did swipe his keycard. You didn’t make it easy on yourself. Chief still believes you are responsible. But the evidence at the crime scene suggested otherwise. But she saw an Agent down, and you were the last person she saw standing next to him. She was blinded by her want to defend her agents.”

“So, Chief is the woman from the floating pen.” Carmen stated.

Julia felt her eyes grow wide as she realized just how much information she willingly divulged.

Ivy and Zack nodded, as they heard this new information. They didn’t realize they were going to be diving into more details so early in the morning.

“Does she think we work for V.I.L.E.?” Ivy asked, leaning forward.

It took a moment for Julia to answer, she wasn’t sure she had a solid reply. “I am not sure to this point what she believes.”

They sat in silence for a moment. Each one eating their breakfast, and drinking their coffee.

The sound of a vibrating phone caught everyone’s attention. Julia pulled a cellphone from her pocket, and answered. “This is Julia Argent.” She answered.

Julia’s hand flew to her mouth, as she gasped. “Are you sure?” Her eyes were wide, as she listened to the voice on the other end. “I’ll be there at once. Thank you for the call.” Julia hung up quickly and looked around the table. “He’s awake.” She said a little breathlessly.

“That’s good!” Zack piped up.

“See, I knew he would pull through.” Ivy bumped Julia in the arm.

“Let Zack give you a ride.” Carmen offered, “We want you to get there as quickly as possible after all.”

“Eh, yeah! I will.” He frowned a little as he looked at the food he was leaving at the table. “I’ll be back for you.” He whispered to the pastries.

“Zack, the sooner you leave, the sooner you can come back.” Ivy frowned, as she shoved him to get out of the chair.

“Right. Of course. This way Julia.” He gestured towards where he had parked their car on the street. “Let’s get you to the hospital.”

#Carmen x Julia #Carmen Sandiego #Julia Argent #JuleThief #Carmen Sandiego Netflix #Carmen Sandiego FanFic

[bubbleblower]

Minor Details Ch 3/?

AN: Oh Man you guys. You guys! I'm so touched and flattered and freaking out right now. I've gotten like 33 new follow requests since posting this story and I just don't even know what to do with myself. Thank you all so much for the kind words. I really hope you continue to like the story

Ao3 Ch1 Ch2 Next

Adrien knew she was Ladybug. ADRIEN KNEW SHE WAS LADYBUG. Alya was being akumatized again but ADRIEN KNEW SHE WAS LADYBUG??!?!?! Marinette let herself be dragged down one hallway after another, too busy panicking to really pay attention to where they were going. Before too long they halted in front of a custodial closet, Marinette teetered a bit at the abrupt stop.

"This should do nicely, there's no-one around" Adrien said turning to meet the still panic stricken face of his friend. He smiled, so widely that it tipped up at the sides. "Marinette, snap out of it bugaboo, Alya needs you right now. You can transform in here" he said scooting her into the closet.

"What?!- But... Adri-.. I'm not.. How??" She spluttered as he closed the door. He paused, smiling softer now.

"Who else could she possibly be other than you?"

Marinette stood in the dark of the closet for a moment catching her breath. Tikki floated out of her purse, a serious expression on her face.

"I told you that was a bad idea, Marinette."

"I'm sorry Tikki, I'll figure out a way to fix this. But for now we need to transform and save Alya. Spots On!"

Ladybug dashed out into the commons, she had seen Alya transformed a couple of times now, both as Lady Wifi and as Rena Rage, but this form was new. Alya floated above the ground in a full suit of silver armor with red detailing, and was carrying a large shield in the shape of a Ladybug. Below her cowered most of the student body, eerily silent. In her other hand, held outstretched, Chloe dangled limply in her grasp. As Ladybug tiptoed closer to get a better look Chloe turned her face away from Alya, tears rolling down her cheeks, her mouth and hands were completely missing.

Marinette must have gasped in terror, because Alya turned to face her. Alya's face was paler than Marinette had ever seen it, and her hair and eyes were both bright red.

"Alya.." she said, taking a step back from the Akuma.

"Alya isn't here. I'm the Defender. You verbally attacked innocent citizens on the Ladyblog last night, be prepared to never communicate again."

Ladybug jumped and somersaulted out of the way as multiple jets of red light shot towards her from the center of the shield. Great, another ranged weapon Akuma who could fly. If Alya hit her, she wouldn't be able to summon her lucky charm, or cast the miraculous ladybugs to fix the damage the akuma caused. The Akuma seemed to sense Ladybug's distress firing round after round of energy at her, not giving her a moment to rest. Oh, how she hoped Chat showed up soon.

"Funny, I thought the phrase was 'Cat's got your tongue' not Ladybug." A familiar and incredibly welcome voice commented as Chat bounded into the room, extending his staff and knocking the Defender sideways.

"Chat!" Ladybug crowed, the relief evident in her voice. "The Akuma is in her shield. We've gotta work quickly on this one so she can't take away our ability to summon our powers. Lucky Charm!"

Chat nodded knocking the Defender sideways again before summoning his own

"Cataclysm!"

Marinette's summoned object fell back into her hands.

"A hand mirror?" She looked helplessly around the room. Chat's hand and the Akuma's shield both lit up in polkadots. Just then Alya got a hit in, sending Chat flying past Marinette, a jet of red light following him at a rapid pace. Jumping into action, Marinette held up the mirror in one hand, reflecting the beam back at the Defender, and with her other lassoed Chat with her yoyo slingshotting him back as well.

The Defender ducked down, raising her shield above her head to deflect the beam, putting her Akumatized object right into Chat's trajectory. Just as Marinette had known would happen, Chat slapped his hand down onto the shield, disintegrating it with his power, releasing the butterfly for Ladybug to purify.

"Pound it!" Ladybug grinned holding her fist out as the magical Ladybugs rushed around the room. Chat smiled back engaging in their ritual, and they both jumped out onto the roof of the school.

"That might have been the fastest we've ever stopped an Akuma My Lady. Well done."

"I couldn't have done it without you Mon minou" Chat's smile softened.

"You didn't have to defend me like that last night you know. I know what people say about me behind my back, and they aren't always wrong. It means a lot to know how you feel about me, but it's not worth getting Akumatized over." He sighed, slipping into a sitting position with one leg dangling off the roof. Marinette huffed dramatically, throwing herself carelessly down next to him.

"I meant every word, Chaton. They're wrong. You're the best hero I know of. And I can't stand to hear them say such horrible things about you. Especially since..." Marinette swallowed guiltily. "Especially since I'm actually the screw up."

"My lady?" Chat began, an edge to his voice that conveyed both confusion and a willingness to argue the point.

"Oh, Chat. I really messed up. Someone discovered my identity. I thought I had been careful last night hiding my room from view of the camera. But I must've missed something or let something slip, because he knew who I was today when I came to class." Chat tried very hard to look natural and concerned, but he wasn't quite sure he managed it.

"He? Who is this guy? Are you in danger? Would he tell the press or anything?" Chat managed to ask, proud that he didn't fumble over his words.

"Oh, no!" Ladybug said, shaking her head vehemently. "Not Adrien. He's the most thoughtful and trustworthy boy I know. He would never intentionally endanger me. In fact if he wasn't so busy with his modeling I would have offered him a miraculous long ago." Chat could not contain his grin, getting to hear Marinette defend both of his selves in a single day. She really was just the nicest person he'd ever met.

"Modelling, huh? You wouldn't be talking about Adrien Agreste would you?" For the second time that day, Marinette froze solid in shock and horror. "So this is your school then, huh?"

With a groan, Marinette buried her face in her hands. Chat laughed outright.

"Well, Bugaboo, I know I've wondered a few times if we knew eachother in real life, and it seems I may have been right." He winked at her as she peeked through her fingers. "Don't worry. If this guy is really as great as you say, then your secret is probably safe. In the meantime you should probably pay closer attention to these minor details you keep letting slip" He tugged gently on the end of one of her pigtails, just as their miraculouses started to beep. "Cat-ch you later My Lady" he said pole vaulting off across the roof top.

Marinette watched him go, readying her own escape from the roof.

#miraculous ladybug #ladybug and chat noir #adrien x ladybug #ml ladybug #tales of ladybug and cat noir #ladynoir #marichat #adrien x marinette #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #ladrien #adrinette #adrienette #love square #chat noir

[grailacademy]

Welcome To Grail Academy - Chapter Nineteen: Cry Baby

“Papa, are we done yet?” A little girl with blond hair done up in pigtails with a pair of sparkly green scrunchies inquired, her arms out at 90 degree angles from her sides, standing on a little pedestal. Surrounded by a wall of mirrors and coat hangers, an old woman in a checkered smock and a pin cushion on her wrist knelt beside the girl, wrapping a yellow measuring tape around the child’s waist. Under the measuring tape was a polkadot dress, green and white with lace trim around the edge. “Patience. This dinner has to be perfect if we’re going to gain the Viridian account. No complaining.” A man stood by the curtained door to the room, rubbing his chin in his olive suit. His hair was the same as the girl’s, pulled back in an elegant ponytail. The seamstress tacked a pin into the back of the dress and made a quick series of stitches. Then she bit the thread and tied a knot, and patted the girl on the shoulder. The girl did an excited twirl in front of the mirror before she jumped off the stand and ran out of the room past her father. “Esmerelda, be careful!” He yelled at her, but once he turned around, she was already in her mother’s arms. The woman’s greying hair blended in with the black and grey ears on top of her head. The two of them giggled, and the man folded his arms. “Rose just fixed your dress, I don’t want to see any more scuffs or holes in it. Am I clear?” The little girl looked down at her shiny black shoes solemnly, nodding.

“Yes, papa.”

“Oh, Ardan, relax.” The woman turned her daughter around and stood up. “She’ll be careful!”

“That’s what she said the first time she ripped it.” He grumbled.

Esmerelda never enjoyed when her parents talked about her in the third person, like she wasn’t in the room. But she kept quiet until her father walked away towards his office in the magnificent shining mansion that the three of them called their home. When she looked up from her shoes, she was facing a dark shadow of a creature. The muzzle of the beowolf reached forward, revealing its glowing red eyes. Esmerelda folded her coat neatly and placed it on the floor of the dock. Kismet wasn’t lying when he said the beacons were guarded. Brandishing her sleek claws, she rushed into a sprint towards the beast.

Nico swam for a boey he saw bopping on the horizon. The sun was beginning to set, turning the sky a shade of orange and pink that reflected on the water of the lake that he paddled across. As he got closer, he could see that the boey was tied to a small wooden pole stuck on the side of a marshy island. The edges of it surrounded by weeds and cattails, Nico’s arm was taken hold of and he was pulled on shore. The sand stuck to the back of his clothes when he sat up, but he was relieved to see Iris had helped him on land. “Thanks!”, he chirped. The girl was still extremely on edge, but she nodded with a smile. After five minutes, the two of them had roamed around the perimeter of the island, searching for a beacon and passing the time with conversation.

“So, you and Bernard, huh?” Nico was drawing doodles in the sand with his bow staff.

“Me and….who?” Iris raised a brow at his question, she was rummaging in a bushel of fern leaves, tapping the ground in hopes that she would hit something metal.

“Bernie! You guys are dating, right? Weren’t you two going to Prom together?”  

“....Bernard! Yes, he was taking me to Prom. I was really nervous to go alone, it was my first school dance.” She laughed nervously, “But we’re not….haha, we’re not a thing.”

“....Huh.” Nico smiled for a moment.

Iris’s cheeks turned pink, which was a regular occurance for her when she and Nico talked. She was easily flustered. As she stammered on about her relationship status, Nico gently tapped her shoulder. “Hey, uh….Iris?” He was trying to get her attention to turn to the three giant ursa he was staring at, a few yards away. “We got company.”

“I told you this would happen, Hollyanne!”

“It’s not my fault they didn’t want to buy! They weren’t interested, it couldn’t be helped.”

“It could be helped! The whole point of you coming to the dinner was to HELP!”

“I’m sorry!” The yelling of her parents was muffled on the other side of her bedroom door. Esmerelda didn’t like hearing them fight, she always ended up blaming herself for their altercations. Her worries temporarily subsided when her mother came into the bedroom and kissed her goodnight, but when the door closed and she was left alone with her thoughts, she was back to thinking about what she could have done wrong. Laying there in the canopy bed, she clutched her stuffed bunny rabbit close to her.

With a harsh jerk of her arm, Esmerelda dug her palms into the chin and nose of the beowolf as it lunged at her, mouth agape. Prying it’s jaws apart while it gnashed at her, she had a clear view of its sharp teeth, slimy tongue, and the back of its throat where the uvula waggled when it roared in her face. Looking down the metaphorical barrel of the gun reminded her not to space out during a fight, and she snapped into action as a few drops of spittle slicked onto her cheek. She grunted and flipped around, throwing herself under the belly of the monster. Sliding across the dock, her claws slashed deep along its stomach and it let out a pained howl. She sprung to her feet and inspected her handiwork. She had carved the beowolf from its stomach like a pig gutted for the roast, she was proud of herself. Its carcass slowly deteriorated, and Esmerelda walked back to her coat, which had dried off by now. Her victory was, however, short lived, as she saw Rowan scrambling out of the water onto the dock once she pulled the fur on. He gave her a sly smile and held his scroll up to the beacon. The technology recognized his ID before Esmerelda could stop him, and the flaps opened up to release a beam of red light into the dim sky.

“That’s cheating!” She yelled and pointed a clawed finger at him.

“No rules against letting someone else do the work for you.” Rowan smirked, and wiggled his fingers at her sarcastically. She wanted to stay and fight HIM for the searchlight, but she knew there were only so many left. Huffing, she turned and ran to search for another one.

A pained death rattle erupted from one of the creatures as Nico ripped the spikes of his bat out of its skull. Iris pressed both feet onto the belly of the other grimm, tugging with all her might to try and dislodge the giant battle axe from its neck. Her blade was stuck in there deep, it was like pulling teeth. From behind, the final Ursa bounded towards them and slammed its giant paw onto Nico’s chest, trapping him on the ground and roaring. The wind was completely knocked out of the boy, and he wheezed loudly as he tried to hold the grimm’s claws away from him. “Oof--not the face, not the face!” As he writhed around in the sand, Iris shouted from behind. “Hold on, Nico!” She pulled her weapon out of the monster’s carcass finally, and flipped the locking mechanism on its shell. All at once, a purple electric guitar with a metal side unfolded in her hands, and she plucked a string to make sure it was working. “Time to bring the noise.”

In a dramatic sweeping motion, Iris strummed all the chords on her guitar, the metal wires vibrating as she send out a wave of noise to disrupt the ursa’s senses. Even the pebbles and blades of grass shook with the force of her music. The monster whimpered and lifted its paw up to scratch at its ear, giving Nico a window to free himself. He jumped up and cracked the monster across the back with his bat when it turned in the direction of the song. The chords still echoed loudly when Iris rushed the other side and transformed her weapon into a long battle axe, slicing their prey on one of its front legs. It lowered itself halfway to the ground in an attempt to relieve the pressure on its wounds, almost bowing its head down as if it were accepting the execution. Nico looked over the ursa’s back and cheered for Iris, “Dude, that is so metal!” Iris became flushed again, and she smiled nervously. “Oh, uh. Thanks!” In unison, the two of them raised their weapons high over their heads and crushed the beast onto the ground, obliterating the cleaved corpse. After they caught their breath and recovered from the battle, Nico and Iris gave each other a small high-five. The moment their hands clapped together, the small pitter patter of rain drops hitting water sounded.

Esmerelda felt a drop of water splash on her head. As she trekked from one dock to another, she held her hand out to the sky to feel the cold wet land in her palm. The sound of rain bouncing against umbrella fabric was all she could think about.

Esmerelda and her father stood under two separate black umbrellas, Ardan reading the text on the block of stone in front of him again and again as the funeral guests dispersed. Esmerelda could only bare to look at the white lilies wrapped neatly in a bouquet on top of it. Somewhere in her mind, Esmerelda knew that if she read the words, it would mean she was really gone. Forever. “Papa….is mama happy, Wherever she is?” The little girl wrung her hands around the handle of the umbrella and looked up at her father, but he was already walking away, headed towards the black limousine parked on the pathway next to the tombstone. She felt like crying. She wanted to cry, so bad. But her eyes were dry. She tried to force the tears out, but it was as if they were frozen icicles. Turning away, she slowly followed her father into the car.

Nico waved goodbye to Iris, watching as she was lifted up into the airship once it reached the purple stream of light glowing from the beacon they had found. She waved back timidly and turned around to sit next to her partner, Rowan. The vehicle rose off the ground and chopped away. On his own, Nico strolled to the edge of the island on the dock, and narrowed his eyes. It could have been the light playing tricks on him, but it looked like there was some kind of tall structure mounted on the edge of a hilly landmass, on the other side of the lake. Looks like he would have to go for another swim.

Bernard was a bit lost, grasping at straws when he navigated the terrain of the island he had landed on. It seemed….larger than the others. Easier to lose yourself on. He knelt down and examined a set of animal tracks. Too big to be a rabbit or a dog, probably a beowolf roving for scraps. He only counted the one set of tracks, so he felt confident. He could handle one measly grimm, even in his sleep. He could hear gunshots ring out over the rain, too far away to be on the island. The other students were running into trouble of their own. Looking up into the lavender sky, he saw the handful of multicolored beacons shining their lights. The airship hovered over the lake, leisurely making its way to each checkpoint to pick up the hunters waiting at their rescue lights. He was running out of time. He started to jog through the underbrush, zipping past the half-evaporated body of an already-defeated beowolf, ducking under tree branches and hopping over roots sprouting out of the dirt.

Esmerelda was almost knocked to the ground when she lost her footing, something big and heavy colliding with her back. She opened her mouth to berade whoever it was about personal space, but she quickly closed it as she turned around to see Bernard standing there, just as disoriented as she was. The awkward silence between them hung in the air, they hadn’t talked much since their fight in the training hall. “....There aren’t many beacons left. We have to hurry”, Bernard said, apparently inviting Esmerelda to join him on the journey. It wasn’t long before they found a clearing on the island, by the open shoreline. Beau was pacing back and forth across the island, holding her scroll out in front of her and low to the ground like it was a metal detector. Vert gazed at her odd performance of determination, commenting “You know that’s not going to work, right?”

“It’s worth a shot!” She quipped back. Nico was wading in the water, hiking his knees up to get out of the lake faster. Bernard and Esmerelda entered the scene with confused looks on their faces. Were they the only ones who hadn’t found beacons yet? Esmerelda called out, “Maybe you should check in there”, and pointed towards the tall figure of the lighthouse, nestled on a hill that connected to the shore. The light was currently off, making their dark environment much more eery with their only way to see coming from the slowly setting sun. “....Ohhh….” Beau cooed, following Esmerelda’s finger to the monument. “Yeah, that makes way more sense.”

#rwby #rwby oc #grail #grail academy #welcome to grail academy #ebny #team ebny #nico #esmerelda #bernard #yorick #fanfic #oc fanfic #fanfiction #oc fanfiction #rwby fanfic #rwby fanfiction #rwby oc fanfic #rwby oc fanfiction #punk #gore #writing #death #tw #death tw #trigger warning #violence #violence tw #gore tw

[harmony283]

[DGM] Rain and Cigarette Smoke

Yet another prompt (kind of) suggested by @a1y-puff though this one I can already tell may become a much longer thing. Definitely a modern day!AU, but we'll see where it goes from there.

EDIT: Now on Ao3 because tumblr's formatting kept messing up. There is now also an extra scene at the end :>

[DGM]Rain and Cigarette Smoke

“Y'know brat this isn't exactly a habit I wanted you to pick up.” Cross muttered as he eyed a soaking wet Allen trying to slink back into the house at who-the-fuck-knows o'clock. All he knew was it was late, he had a box of empty cigarettes in his top drawer (shoved underneath the wad of old receipts that he never looked at), and now here was Allen standing there looking sheepish but also defiant.

Cross Marian knew he failed at a lot of things in life--parenting being one of them. He had a list of faults he kept track of in a small leather bound notebook hidden in his bathroom drawer along with the spare toothbrushes. Maybe Mana could forgive him for some of his transgressions, but this? “I'll give you points for trying to be sneaky about it. But go get changed. Then come back here. We need to talk.”

Allen opened his mouth, probably to complain loudly, but thought better of it. Maybe he was cold, he was certainly wet enough for it. How long had he been out? It had been raining for the last three hours, why hadn't he at least hid under a damn tree? Or an overhang? His shoes squeaked against the tiled flooring of their entryway in the way they only could if they were completely drenched. Damn. “Shoes off.” He snapped before Allen reached the carpeting, “Fuck, kid. You know better.”

On second thought he probably shouldn't have scolded him. At the very least even he knew he probably deserved to get those shoes thrown at his head for it. He would have done the same damn thing if he was Allen's age.

***

An odd fifteen or twenty minutes later Cross was sitting across from a much warmer looking Allen at the kitchen table. He'd thrown on a loose fluffy sweater and some navy blue sweat pants with bright pink polkadots on them that Chomesuke got him as a gift last year. Even his feet were covered with fluffy comfy looking socks that looked like they had pandas on them. Point was, he was much warmer than when he came in and he definitely looked more like the brat he knew.

Which was why they were fucking talking about this to begin with, because Allen didn't smoke, at least not until today. Cross would have noticed if he had. Though that wasn't all. “I know I only had two left.” Cross decided to start with after Allen started fidgeting across from him, “You took both. I assume you gave the other one to whoever you were with?”

Allen stared resolutely down at the table, but at least managed to nod his head. Well shit.

Cross sighed heavily, “Alright. I know you're nineteen now,” So at least he could legally buy cigarettes if necessary, “But who did you give it to?” Allen tended to hang out with an older crowd but he did have a few friends who hovered around a year or two younger than him. If he'd been coerced into bringing the extra cigarette for them to try--

“--No.” Cross cued back into the conversation. Allen was fidgeting even more but he was looking at him now, “It wasn't. A-Anyone younger than me.” Ah. Well, at least the kid knew him well enough to know that was his first concern, “And I know. I shouldn't have. Wasn't planning on it, but they didn't have their wallet and we were running late so I just--grabbed it.”

“And put the damn box back.”

“I was hoping you'd be too drunk to notice.” Even Allen cringed at how bad that probably sounded, “Maybe sleep in late, run to work a-and I'd have enough time to replace them. I know where you get them and--”

“You could just say you're picking them up for me.” Cross pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned. For once he was glad he hadn't drunk so much. The business meeting hadn't called for it, but regardless, “Do I need to be asking how often you've done this?” It couldn't have been long, after all the place he used still checked for IDs, and he’d been in there often enough with Allen that they all knew he was underage up until his birthday, which had only been, what, 2 months ago?

Immediately Allen was shaking his head, “I haven't--no. Just this once.” Well at least the kid was honest, even though he still hadn't answered him.

“Okay. I'll give you a benefit of a doubt.” He leaned forward, propping his chin on one hand and eyeing Allen here, “But who did you give it to?” Who in his group of friends smoked? Or rather who in his group of friends smoked and would have forgotten their own? Immediately he knew Lavi sometimes smoked because he'd had one too many awkward conversations with him while waiting for his old man. But he already knew from Bookman that Lavi was out of town, or had been for the last three days. That and for all that Lavi played the idiot, he didn't forget things.

It couldn't be Lenalee either. Not only did she not smoke, but Komui would probably cry if she started. Yes, she was Allen's ride the majority of the time but she never even seemed curious about it. Plus Komui would probably scream and cry and ban Allen from ever seeing Lenalee again if he'd asked for a ride this late.

So then--

Oh.

Allen was staring at the table again as Cross hummed long and low, “Tiedoll's brat?” He asked, “Which one?” Though the answer was obvious. It baffled him how Allen and Kanda had ever even become friends to begin with. In the beginning he knew they hadn't been. Their fights had resulted in several heated conversations, not to mention bloody noses on both their parts to the point Cross had been legitimately worried Allen was going to snap and he'd have to deal with the repercussions of hiding a dead body. Or. Okay, so the kid couldn't technically die like a normal person so he'd have to make up a convincing enough cover story along with having to explain a series of really shitty background events that Allen really shouldn't know a damn thing about--

Oh. Fuck it, he was getting off track. Point was somehow over the years that? Had turned into a grudging form of friendship and now apparently that included midnight car rides and sharing smokes. Cross snorted and Allen cringed, “I'd ask but lemme guess. Repayment?” Or something like it. Allen sagged and nodded his head, “You probably found out he probably had some stashed in his glove compartment, yeah?”

Oddly, Allen didn't answer him that time. Not even with a nod or a scowl. Cross squinted and looked at him closer.

Wait.

He'd been soaking wet when he got home. If they'd just smoked why hadn't they stayed in the car? Or if Kanda was really just dropping him off why didn't he drop him off somewhere dry? Unless he refused to pick him back up and made Allen walk home--

Something didn't add up.

“Oi, kid,” Immediately Allen straightened up, “Where did you two go?”

**FLASHBACK TIME**

It went the way typical 11 o'clock phone calls went, in retrospect. Kanda wasn't quite sure why he expected it to go any differently, just that the brat was as elusive as ever saying Please, I just need a drop off. Like it was the most natural thing to ask someone this late at night. He'd never say it, but just like every other time a late night call was made --he got worried.

He would have been just as worried if it was Lenalee calling, granted Komui wouldn't dare let her step foot outside past eleven unless he knew exactly where she was going and when she'd be back, and honestly Kanda highly doubted Allen wanted his guardian to know either of these things. So the fact that he was his first choice to ask? Kanda wouldn't say no. Even if, yes, okay he was a little bit mean to ask for compensation. The front might not Matter in a few hours depending on what kind of shit Allen was getting into, but still. He would never just give him a ride out of the goodness of his heart.

That and it proved Cross had been gone for the night if Allen could easily sneak in like that and steal the last--two?--cigarettes. “I didn't know you smoked.” Kanda muttered when Allen stealthily (and unnecessarily) opened the passenger side door. He was wearing his typical black hoodie with some obscure death metal band logo on it that Kanda probably heard at some point when he let Allen choose what songs to listen to, with a jean jacket over that and black ripped jeans. He half expected boots to finish off the look--but no. He wore the same old red converse shoes he always wore, which didn't do much good in this downpour. In fact Allen was already shaking, which reminded Kanda it was still fucking February--he was shocked it wasn't snowing.

But. Right. Allen was talking now, or rather blabbering on something about--"I don't but he had two and he'll notice if there's one left. Do you have a lighter?”

Kanda rolled his eyes and revved the engine, “I do but not here. Let's get there first. I'll smoke while I wait. Where are we going anyway?” He pulled away from the curb and slowly made his way out of Allen's neighborhood. Not that he got very far after all--he needed to know which way to turn.

“Left.” Allen answered almost immediately, pointing a little sluggishly with his left hand while the right cradled the two cigarettes like they were made of gold.

Kanda raised an eyebrow at that, “And then?”

“I'll give them as we get there.” Allen huffed and turned to look out the window. Well damn that wasn't sketchy at all in the slightest.

“Oi, you're not Google Maps. You're going to get one turn wrong then we'll be stuck.” Kanda refused to turn left, he highly doubted anyone would honk at him this late anyway. “Just tell me what this place is called. I probably know how to get there.”

“How is that any better than just trusting me?” Allen snapped, but didn't even bother to do much more than glare at his reflection in the window. Yeah. Not sketchy in the slightest.

“Then I can turn us around and drop you back off. If you can't tell me where we're going then maybe you shouldn't be going there.” Oh. Fucking. Goddammit. He sounded like Tiedoll.

Even Allen was staring at him. Like, actually staring at him, not just his reflection. Then, with very little fanfare, he swallowed and asked, “So you know the McKenzie Fairfield building?”

“The old condemned recreational center they shut down almost ten years ago because of that shooting--?” Oh. Kanda didn't like where this was going. “Why there? Fuck no. That place is--” He didn't want to say haunted but just three years ago they'd found a dead body in one of the offices on the third floor! Ruled an accident, but why would anyone break into a place like that only to poke around in a damn office? Not to mention the cause of death was never outright confirmed--

“If you say haunted then I'll say you're a pansy.” Allen snorted, “Besides. I'm just picking up something--by the outside pool. You can literally park your car in the back lot and see me walk there and back. I just need to jump over a few fences.” Most of the main building had long since been boarded up, or at least City officials had tried. It was deemed structurally unsafe so demolition was repeatedly shoved back, making the place an excellent area for either god awful pranks or for some rather unsavory people to meet up.

Fuck. Did Kanda really have a reason to be worried? “Shit. I should've brought Mugen.”

Allen rolled his eyes here, “The fact you still keep calling it that has me worried. We're not in some anime where calling your attacks and naming your weapons is a thing.” But they'd argued about it before so Allen knew Kanda didn't give a shit about his opinion. His sword would still be named Mugen and he would still wish he'd have it even if it probably wouldn't do any good. “Like I said. I'm just grabbing something. In and out.” Allen repeated, “You can sit in your car and smoke and watch me.”

“Then you'll light one up after to calm yourself down?” Kanda asked as he grudgingly turned left, “Tch, fine. This better be quick.”

***

Unfortunately it was. Left, two rights, a long trek down a tiny back road because the main exit had long been blocked off, a U-turn, 3 more lefts, then they were there in the back of the building, where the parking lot was only just now acquiring cracks in it. There weren't any other cars here that Kanda could see, but then again usually no one drove and parked here. Either they walked or got dropped off, which in hindsight was probably why Allen said what he did.

So really the fact Kanda was staying and parking in such an obvious spot could be seen as his own damned fault, but Allen was right. From here he could see the chained fence surrounding the pool from there, then the outer, taller, link fence surrounding the nearby track. Literally he really did just have to jump over them.

“See?” Allen motioned to the fences, “I told you. Now. You said you had a lighter?”

Oh. Right. Kanda nodded to the glove compartment, “Yeah. Open it and pass it to me?” He could tell any minute now that Allen would notice, so he watched as he opened said compartment and shuffled around to look for--

The hot pink lighter. And the mostly full pack of cigarettes.

Allen stared at the pack like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Like it really was so unusual for him to ask for a cigarette when he had a whole pack full. Okay, yes, actually that was kind of bad. Or overly devious. Or maybe just an excuse. “What?” Kanda finally asked when Allen dumbly turned his gaze to him, “I always have extra.”

“So I didn't need to grab Cross's.” Allen kept staring at him, “You didn't need compensation.” He could see the gears turning and waited, just to see what Allen would come up with. And after the longest five minutes of Kanda's life--he did. “So. Wait. You would have driven me anyway?”

Kanda shrugged one shoulder and held his hand out for the lighter, “Is it that weird?”

Allen tossed the lighter at him and muttered, “Well yeah. For you. It's not like you to be--” He faltered here for half a second, voice lowering as he almost whispered, “worried.” Like he couldn't believe that either.

Really. “I've been your late night ride for how long now?” Kanda asked, flicking the lighter just so he'd give his hands something to do, “Is it that surprising? Now go get whatever it is you came for. I'll light up when I see you come back.” Just in case. After all if Allen got stuck or cornered or needed help he wanted his hands free.

But Allen was still staring at him dumbly like he couldn't quite process the words, and it was only the sound of the rain suddenly down pouring that he realized right, he didn't come here to just sit in an abandoned parking lot.

This was either the start to a slasher film or some shitty romcom. Either way Allen was shoving his way out of the car as graceful as a two day old llama learning how to walk and getting fucking drenched.

It would have been hilarious watching him bolt across the parking lot and scramble over the first fence. Except he had no trouble with that, Kanda knew Allen was at least a little athletic given how often they'd been thrown together before, or how often Allen would rough house with either Lavi or Daisya or, hell, get his butt kicked by Lenalee--Or even himself, when Kanda decided to join in and stop being careful.

He was still nervous, though. The rain seemed to be getting harder, coming down in torrential sheets not just heavy droplets and while it wasn't warm enough for thunder he could feel static in the air. Something wasn't right here, as Allen leapt over the second fence. Hell, had he even said what he came here to grab? Was it something he forgot? Did he come here by himself before? Fuck, Kanda started tapping a finger against his thigh out of tempo with the rain just to keep himself focused.

Allen disappeared for half a second under a rusted unused awning meant to probably cover pool equipment and Kanda nearly shoved his way out of the car. But then Allen was back, scrambling over the first fence, then second, with nothing super noticeable or different on him. No ominous bulky bags or backpacks, no plastic baggies filled with mysterious substances--

Oh. Fuck it. Allen wasn't some drug addict! Yes maybe Cross knew some sketchy as fuck people at some point, but Tiedoll had always said he'd apparently shed that persona when he got Allen. Maybe Kanda was just paranoid, a fact driven home when he nearly jumped out of his skin when Allen scrambled to open the passenger side door with saturated fingertips. “Fuck.” He breathed just as Allen cheered--

“Got it!”

“Got what?” kanda belatedly realized he hadn't even lit up yet. Not that he would have been able to with how nervous he'd been. That and--"Fuck, you're getting the seat wet!”

Immediately Allen was scowling at him, “Like I knew it was supposed to rain this hard!” The rain thundered against the roof of the car almost in retaliation, “But anyway. I got it. We can go now.” His grey eyes flickered uneasily to the front before he grabbed at the lighter--and finally noticed Kanda hadn't lit up. “Oh. Uh. Here.” He flicked the lighter and they both watched the flame dance before Kanda held the cigarette out to be lit.

“I'm not rolling the window down in this.” He muttered as he sat back and took a puff, though that reminded him, “You said you'd light one up too. Still going to?” Or at least his hands seemed to be shaking enough for it, “One won't kill you. You'll smell like smoke anyway.”

Allen still seemed oddly speechless by that, or maybe he was letting himself relax after--after whatever the hell just happened. Maybe he was just cold and warming up? Kanda revved the engine and Allen nearly dropped the lighter. “Sorry!” He yelped, but at least he'd closed it.

“Try not to set yourself on fire.” Kanda snorted as Allen fumbled, “And if you really don't want to smoke? Don't I can hide it in my box.” Because for all he knew Allen probably threw out Cross's old box, especially if he'd been so worried about him discovering one gone.

It was only when he backed out of the nonexistent parking space and drove towards the actual road that he saw Allen pick up the cigarette still sitting where he'd left it. He was thinking that much was obvious and really, Kanda wanted to reiterate he hadn't been serious but before he could? Allen was turning towards him almost resolutely, “One won't hurt. I'll put it out before I get home.”

Well then. Before Allen could scrounge around and find the lighter that was most likely now hiding underneath one of the many crap piles in Kanda’s car, Kanda held out the lit end of his cigarette, “This is easier.” He pressed it against the end of Allen's cigarette the muttered, “Put it in your mouth and inhale.”

Allen didn't cough anywhere near as loudly or as hard as Kanda had when he first picked up his smoking habit, but then again he did grow up around the perpetually smoking Cross Marian, maybe he’d already gotten used to it?

**FLASHBACK END**

“So you're telling me you went to that old building in the middle of the night just to--grab something then drove all the way back?” Cross asked, staring at Allen incredulously. Granted it wasn't as bad as he'd been assuming--he knew Kanda had a vindictive streak, or at least he did when they were younger. It wouldn't have surprised him much if they'd gotten into an argument and Kanda made Allen walk back. Still didn't make it a great scenario by far, after all, “I don't need to tell you how stupid that was, now do I?”

Allen had the decency to look at least a little chastised though not by much, “We stopped by a 24-hour McDonalds.” Oh. Okay, “I was hungry.”

“Brat.” Cross leaned forward again, “Kid.” Wait, no that didn't sound right either, “Allen.” There we go. Immediately Allen stiffened up, “That building is condemned for a damn reason. If the police had seen you you'd be calling me to come pick your sorry ass up!” Not to mention Tiedoll would probably be calling him too, maybe not livid but definitely annoyed. That was never a pretty sight. “Now what was it that you needed to pick up so bad? It really couldn't wait until, I dunno, the middle of the day? Not during a torrential downpour?”

Allen still looked nervous, hesitant, constipated. Really, really constipated, actually, but honestly? That was the key to this entire damn story. Not that he'd let the kid off the hook if whatever it was was important enough, but maybe he could at least see his reasoning. Tiedoll had always said to listen first even if your opinion didn't change after the fact.

There would always be that one time that it did.

Finally, Allen spoke, softly, eyes downcast, “Remember that meeting you dragged me to? A--A few months ago?” Cross nodded his head. He didn't bring the kid to very many, mostly because he wasn't old enough yet to be useful but he had brought him to a few of the tamer events, “Well someone there. I think--” He took a shaky breath here like the words were fighting to come out,”--thought--had something of Mana's. Turns out I was right. I think.” He clasped his hands, one scarred beyond repair and one the normal pale skin of a regular teenage boy, in front of him, “I managed to find their contact information. With help.” He smiled here and Cross mentally wanted to smack a certain redhead that wasn't himself, “We agreed to...not necessarily meet up, but he said he'd leave the item in a safe place and gave me a date. It was today. Tonight. They sent me an email saying it would be there by midnight, or maybe a little after.” He shut his eyes here but he was smiling so, so brightly, “it was there. Exactly where the email said it'd be.”

Well then. “What exactly is it that he had?”

“Mana's notebook.”

Wait. What?

#d. gray man #modern day!au #cross marian #allen walker #kanda yuu #my fic #this will definitely be chaptered i'm pretty sure #yullen #if you squint #other pairings probably too #we'll see

[sunny-jac-blog]

This Is Where You Wanna Be (Carlwheeler)

it is almost 5 a.m. and i have not slept and instead i wrote this but it was WORTH IT!!! THIS WAS SO FUN TO WRITE!!! ft. Anne, Lettie, and Charity bein besties in a modern boarding school, Anne having Relationship Issues, and phillip and phineas loving their gals!!! this was requested from a great person on the TGS amino! hope yall like it!!

Word Count: 2.3k

_______________________________________________

Anne groaned as she stomped into the dorm room, barely casting a look at Lettie and Charity as she fell face first onto the hard, uncomfortable bed. The two other girls stopped their conversation, which was probably about how that Phineas Barnum from the boy's school across town had “eyes like a God” or something dumb like that. Anne didn't bother listening.

There were a few beats of silence, until Lettie slowly sat up from her lying position on Charity's bed. She crossed her arms and smirked, giggling softly as she stared at Anne. “Let me guess: It was that Carlyle boy, wasn't it?” She nudged Charity, who cooed.

Anne only groaned into her purple pillow. Of /course/ it was that Carlyle boy.

Since the two schools had had some dumb co-ed event held at one of the large local theaters, there had been a lot more intermingling with the boys and girls. The event was to push the students to broaden their horizons, some sort of college fair, where students could meet others and talk about their interests.

Anne was lucky enough to run into a cute guy named Phillip Carlyle, who reached for the same brochure that she did. What kind of cliche high school chick flick was she living? Especially since Phillip had been sneaking out to see her, despite her obvious attempts to get him to stop before he got in trouble. He never listened. And this time, he asked her out on a date.

She ran away.

As Anne sat up and hugged her pillow close to her chest, she let out a deep, dramatic sigh. She pulled her hair into a lopsided messy bun, looking at Lettie and Charity. “Why do boys have to be so complicated?” She asked with a frown.

She knew she could trust Lettie and Charity with her secrets. Charity, bless her, was an angel. She had a heart of gold and helped everyone she could, despite growing up in a rather snobbish family. She was trustworthy with relationship problems, as she had been dating her man candy, Phineas, since they were both thirteen years old. Now, at age nineteen, she was more than happy to help her roommate out of some boy trouble.

“Woah, woah- before you dump all of this on us, we need /backstory/, sweetie. What was he wearing? Was he nervous? What did he say?” Charity asked, straightening out her plaid skirt as she moved to sit on her knees. The school didn't have a very strict dress code, yet Charity always looked like she had walked out of any stereotypical movie.

“Uh-- Um, jeans, a maroon shirt, and… converse? Yeah. White converse. He was really fidgety and stuff, and he… He, uh… asked me to go see a movie with him. This weekend. Saturday.” Anne placed her hands on her lap, a soft blush rising to her cheeks.

Charity and Lettie both looked at each other, and let out the same high pitched squeal. “Aww, little miss forever lonely is going on a /date/! With a soccer player? He plays soccer, right? He looks like the kind of guy to play soccer,” Lettie chimed in, smiling wide. Lettie was much less proper than Charity. Though she was sometimes quiet and reserved, around her girls she took over the position of ringleader. She was a total badass in Anne's mind. She took no shit from anyone, and luckily lived in the room right across the hall from Charity and Anne.

“Hey, calm down! I-... I didn't say yes,” Anne admitted, rubbing her arm.

“You what?!” Charity yelled loudly, her eyes wide. “Anne, I-- How could you /not/ say yes?! He likes you so much and he's so sweet and Phineas says he's really kind for a rich kid, and--”

“I didn't say no, either…” Anne mumbled, rubbing her forehead. “He caught me by surprise and I- I ran away. I said, “Oh, what?” And I ran away.”

Lettie groaned, shaking her head. “My God, Anne, you screwed yourself over,” She huffed. “I mean, come on, even /I/ would say yes to that.”

“Are you saying Phillip looks like a girl?” Anne raised a brow.

“I mean, he does look kind of pretty sometimes,” Charity murmured, raising a brow and crossing his arms.

Anne only shook her head, gulping. “Okay- Yeah, okay. What should I do, then? He probably isn't here anymore, and he definitely won't come back after this…”

Charity thought for a moment, before grinning. “He's Phin's roommate! I can just have Phin tell him to come see you again!”

“Or, y'know, you could always sneak out yourself and go find your precious little Juliet,” Lettie shrugged. “Your call, Romeo.”

Anne bit her lip. Both options were tempting, she had to admit, but… She liked Lettie's plan more.

“Okay. Yeah. You two are going to help me sneak out, right after you help me with this freakin’ chemistry paper,” She muttered, grabbing her book bag off of the ground.

_______________________________________

The plan went into action the next night. Anne had worked extremely hard in all of her classes that day to ensure she wouldn't have any homework, and even had time to squeeze in a quick shower after her dance class, so she would be able to put all of her attention onto breaking out and finding Phillip.

After her afternoon classes were finished, she met with Charity and Lettie behind the school building. As she walked up, she couldn't help but see how badly Charity stuck out in their little group. Charity was wearing a blue summer dress with quarter sleeves and a pair of white ballet flats with blue polkadots. She glanced at Lettie, who was wearing something more… Lettie-ish. She was in a pair of blue skinny jeans, with a white t-shirt underneath. Her curly hair was pulled into a bun on top of her head, making sure her entire leather jacket was shown off to the world. To top it off, she completed the look with a pair of red converse.

When the two saw Anne, rather than have a look of giddy happiness, they shared an equal look of disgust. “Anne, sweetie, don't take this the wrong way, but are you really meeting up with your dream guy in… that?” Charity asked softly, glancing at Anne's purple, paint-stained t-shirt and black leggings, not to mention her no-makeup/bedhead.

“For once, I agree with Char. You look like a hobo, babe. Don't you have something sexier to put on?” Lettie raised a brow, but before Anne could say anything, Charity slapped her arm.

“Lettie! She is meeting up with a classy young man, not a hormone-driven twelve year old. She needs to look sophisticated!”

“Guys--”

“Charity, no, she should look hot and badass to impress him--”

“Uh, guys?”

“Oh, my God, not everyone is going to look like a badass butch when they meet the love of their life!”

“Come on, Anne could definitely pull off the badass butch look--”

“Guys!” Anne yelled, crossing her arms. “Can you quit it for a minute and actually /help/ me get ready, instead of arguing over what /my/ decision should be?” Charity and Lettie both sighed, but nodded. The three of them walked to their dorm, laughing away after the whole ordeal.

_______________________________________

It took the girls an hour and a half to finally get Anne ready. They started with hair and makeup. Lettie curled Anne's hair to perfection, leaving it looking both styled and natural, while Charity focused on giving Anne a natural, sweet makeup look. As most of the clothes she owned were sweatpants, hoodies, and t-shirts, Anne ended up borrowing clothes from the other two girls. She wore a pair of Charity's black skinny jeans with one of her white tank tops, and stole an oversized purple flannel from Lettie, who also gave her a few bracelets and a pair of earrings. She insisted on wearing her own black and white Adidas, and soon, she was ready to go out. She took her wallet, her ID, and her student pass, hugging each of the girls before walking out and down the hall.

Sneaking out was much easier than she anticipated, despite being caught. She simply told the principal that she was visiting her brother who had come to town. Which, it wasn't a complete lie- he /was/ in the city, but she had no intentions on seeing him this time.

_______________________________________

“Do you really think she's going to be able to do it?” Charity asked Lettie as they sat on the beds in the small dorm room.

Lettie shrugged, and smiled. “Come on, Char. Annie is a smart girl, she'll be fine.” She assured her, crossing her arms.

“I'm just a little worried, that's all… I've heard some people call Carlyle a bit of a scandal,” She said softly, frowning.

“Charity, do you really believe that?” Lettie raised a brow. “I mean, come on. They called me a bit of a scandal too,” She grinned.

“Speaking of scandal… How are you and that girl from your trig class?” Charity smirked, and Lettie instantly went red, smiling wide. It was nice to see Lettie so happy, and Charity knew that the new girl would take good care of her best friend.

_______________________________________

Anne reached the entrance of the boy's school after a thirty minute walk. She glanced around and quickly climbed the large gate, running toward the nearest building. Charity had said that Phineas and Phillip shared room 203 on the second floor, and from where she was sitting, Anne could see straight through the windows. She gulped as she saw the familiar face.

Phillip was sitting at a desk in their room, writing away. He was right in front of the window, and Anne could feel her heart flutter in her chest, though she would never admit it. She quickly ran to the side of the building, glancing around. She had taken gymnastics her entire life. She did arial yoga for fun. She and her brother would climb things all the time.

She wasn't surprised when she found herself scaling the building, stopping right next to Phillip's window. Really, it was too easy.

When she gently knocked on the glass, she heard a loud scream, and what appeared to be a loud crash. Her eyes went wide and she ducked her head, but slowly looked up when she heard the window open, a shocked phillip greeting her as he rubbed a red spot on his forehead. “Hiya, Carlyle… Mind if I come in?” She asked with a nervous grin.

Once inside, she was grateful that Phineas was nowhere to be seen. She looked around, tilting his head. One side of the room was extremely messy and untidy, while the other was neat, clean, and proper. She could tell from all of the literary quotes hanging on the walls that that side was Phillip's. She hesitated before climbing onto his bed, crossing her legs. “I, uh… I just came to apologize for yesterday,” She said as she glanced over at him.

For once, he was the one that looked bad during one of their meetings, but she still thought he looked gorgeous. He was shirtless and was wearing gray sweatpants, and looked like he hadn't slept at all. She noticed a few scars littering his chest and shoulders, but didn't mention it.

Phillip shook his head and ran his hand through his messy hair, gulping. “No, no- It's completely fine. Really. Don't worry about it.” He said with a rigid smile, crossing his arms as he leaned against the desk.

Anne bit her lip. She hesitated and glanced down, before rubbing her arm. “...I also snuck out of my school to come all the way here to tell you yes. I would love to go see a movie with you.”

At those words, Phillip's eyes widened. He gulped and smiled nervously, but after a moment he let out a soft chuckle, smiling wide as he tilted his head. “Really? You want to?” He asked softly.

“Of course I would. Just tell me when and where to meet ya, and I'll be there.” She smiled, sitting on the edge of the bed with her feet hanging off.

“Actually, let me pick you up. I have somewhere special in mind,” Phillip murmured, taking a few steps closer.

_______________________________________

Once again, Anne enlisted the help of Charity and Lettie to help her get ready for the date. She decided on something a little different, and Lettie did her hair and makeup this time, deciding to borrow a dress from Charity. The girls gushed over her, gave her a stereotypical first date parent speech, and sent her on her way. That night, Anne felt happier than she had in a long time.

That night, she and Phillip danced under the stars after the movie ended, her lavendar dress twirling around her as Phillip spun her around. Their night ended in a kiss, one of many more to come, but once she got back to the dorm, looking dopey and extremely happy, the night of gushing about Phillip had only begun.

Maybe coming to boarding school wasn't such a bad idea after all. After all, she had two amazingly great friends who helped her through all of her oblivious teen girl struggles, a new boy that was there for her whenever she needed him, and a great plan for her future. Anne finally felt like she belonged somewhere, both in a group hug with her two best friends, and in her loving boyfriend's arms.

#the greatest showman #anne wheeler #phillip carlyle #phillip x anne #anne x phillip #rewrite the stars #long reads #tgs #charity barnum #charity hallet #lettie lutz #pt barnum #p.t. barnum #phineas taylor barnum #phinity #pharity #carlwheeler #wheelyle #the greatest showman fanfic #fic #jacque.writes #my writing #modern au

[waywardd]

I’m sorry I scared you...

Hello! I’ve never written anything before so I hope it’s okay. I’m hoping to make a bunch of mini fics like this over the course of the month to practice my writing. I’m super open to comments and critiques! 

@ltleflrt this is dedicated to you for being awesome and my favourit writer

Dean was stealthy. He was quick and sly and the best at hide and seek. He was practically Han Solo.

The yard was bright in the late morning sun. Sunlight gleamed off the shiny metal slide and the water station was spraying mist onto some of his classmates, casting rainbows through the air. Cars from the nearby road combined with the shrieks and yells of little kids playing outside in a familiar backdrop of noise that Dean was used to. No matter where he lived or where he went to daycare or preschool, it was always the same.

Dean crouched behind the largest tree in the sand pit, giggling at his genius. Most of the kids liked to hide behind the dumpsters or in the garden that lined the school’s wall, but the seeker, this time it was his best friend Charlie, knew to always looked there first. The sand pit was the farthest from the school you could get within the chain link fence. Dean had to run as fast as he could to get all the way out here before Charlie stopped counting.

He panted between his giggles, placing his hands on the rough bark and peaking around the trunk.

Large blue eyes blinked back at him.

With a yelp, Dean stumbled backwards, startled at the sudden appearance of another person right in front of his nose. He landed on his but and winced in pain before looking back to the boy. Seems his reaction also startled the other kid, and he scrambled back before crawling to his feet.

“I’m sorry I scared you, I didn’t mean to.”

The boy was chewing on his thumb nail, eyes darting from the ground to Dean’s eyes and back.

“It’s fine.” Dean decided it wasn’t really a big deal and stood up, brushing the sand from his pants. He looked around at the other kids running around the enclosed field, the friends he was playing hide and seek with were nowhere to be found. Puffing out his chest, he added, “I wasn’t really scared anyway.”

“Oh, well that’s good.” the boy kicked the ground softly with his sneaker clad toes, hands clasped behind his back, and didn’t say anything else.

Dean got the feeling he didn’t really say much. He was new, and he sat at the table across from his in Mrs. Harvelle’s class so he hadn’t had the chance to say hello. All Dean really knew was that his cupcake-cup butterfly was one of the best he had seen this morning at craft time, covered with green glitter and blue polkadots. It had been pinned up in the place of honour on the red corkboard meant for the art of the day. It was his first day, and Jo had agreed she would give up her place today so the new kid would feel like he was welcomed to the class. “What’s your name?”

The boy took his thumb out of his mouth and replied, “Castiel.”

Dean had never heard a name like that before. Before he could respond, Charlie came running over, stopping in front of the two boys, her long red hair a frazzled mess in the hot summer heat. She looked very annoyed, a frown pulling her eyebrows together.

“You’re supposed to he hiding, Dean,” she huffed.

Dean laughed and pointed to Castiel. “I was, but I met a new friend and he gave away my hiding place.” There was no malice in his tone, just good-hearted honesty.

Charlie lightly punched him in the arm, their mutual greeting for eachother (Mrs. Harvelle did not like it so now they had to do it in secret), before turning her eyes to Castiel. A wide smile brightened her face. “Hey, you’re the new kid, right?”

Castiel nodded his head, looking small and a little frightened of Charlie’s enthusiastic question.

“Great! Did you want to play hide and seek with us?”

Castiel’s eyes widened as they darted between the redhead and Dean. Charlie looked to Dean for encouragement at the sight of Castiel’s unsure face.

“Yeah, Cas- , Casti- ,” Dean stumbled over his new classmates name before settling for a simple nickname, “Cas. You can hide with me if you want to!” He flashed Cas a grin that showed off his missing front tooth, hoping that his new friend would say yes.

“Okay.” The word was soft but both Charlie and Dean heard it, whooping and high-fiving each other before holding their hands out to Cas. With a small smile, he high-fived each of his classmates.

“Awesome.” Dean grabbed Cas’ hand, dirty fingers entwining, and tugged to get his attention. “C’mon, we can go play on the structure until the next round starts!” Charlie left to go find the remaining hiders.

__________________________

There was an awe from the crowd.

“Yeah, yeah,” a now fully grown, 28 year old Dean looked out at the audience, “it’s an adorable story, I know. Not as adorable as my new husband, mind you.” There was a chuckle that rippled through friends and family, echoed on Dean’s lips. He looked back over his shoulder at where Cas was sitting, a dopy, blissful smile pulling at his lips, only a small part of which was from the wine he had consumed. Charlie, Cas’ maid of honour, leaned over to whisper something in his ear, making Cas slide her a sly smile. Dean shook his head at them.

Turning back around, Dean made eye contact with Sam, who was most definitely holding back tears (Dean was so going to hold that over his head later), and then Bobby and Ellen. “There are so many people that have pushed me to keep going, to go get what I want instead of what I thought I was supposed to have, and me and Cas thank you.” A murmur swept through the crowd. “I wouldn’t have this devilishly handsome man,” he jerked his thumb over his shoulder, trying to hide the blush creeping up his cheeks, “without all of ya.” Okay, this was getting much more emotional than he had planned.

“So-” he paused, “thanks, and all that.”

Eloquent as ever.

“Boo.”

The word was spoken directly into his ear, and Dean would forever deny the cry that escaped his lips as he whipped his head around, coming face to face with some incredibly devious blue eyes. He stumbled, tripping over the cords of the microphone, only to land in Castiel’s sturdy arms.

The crowd was laughing, the joyous sound filling the beautifully decorated, rustic cabin that the dinner and party was being held at. Dean’s surprise was replaced by utmost joy, for what felt like the millionth time that day, as he pressed his face into his husbands neatly pressed tux to hide his smile and rosy cheeks.

“Asshole,” Dean beamed up at his husband, smacking him playfully on the chest and pulling him down into a kiss that was mostly teeth as they both grinned.

“I’m sorry I scared you,” Cas whispered, pressing a soft kiss to Dean’s temple, “I didn’t mean to.”

#my writing #destiel #kid!Dean #kid!cas #ficlet

[nightblogofficialbook]

Chapter Five

Also available to read at Tapas.io!

The rest of the day felt like it went by in a blur, and I found I wasn’t able to pay much attention to the things the twins were showing me. And the next few days were spent in the same manner. This place seemed to have everything you could ever want for in life; clothing centers, food, swimming, dancing, horseback riding, a giant library, even an arcade. The place felt like a giant gothic-victorian themed mall, complete with vampire attractions. It was all still so very surreal, like I’m still in an ongoing dream.

My announcement had been made, too, and now the whole castle knew who I was. Eyes of all types and colors followed me everywhere I went; people began to be wary of me, some even purposefully stepping out of my way or avoiding my path. The girls were trying to stay positive about it but I could tell they were worried. Whispers and murmurs of questions echoed in the halls, things that people wanted to say but didn’t have the courage to face me directly. If it honestly weren’t for Rose and Co., I don’t know how I would take the sudden ostracization.

And yet somehow, two weeks had already gone by without my realizing it.

Alice and Rose sat with me at the desk in the library, going over an expansive catalog of courses offered here, the Day and Night Academy, as I learned the organization was called. Or the DNA, which Claire found amusing for some reason. Courses were divided between the two sides of the castle: the Day Wing, which is where humans reside and attended courses relating to their needs and interests, and the Night Wing, where the vampires live and have their own types of classes and setups in addition to where the COV does all of their meetings and things. Both species were allowed to take classes from either wings, but it was set up in this manner to help keep the peace and safety between the two. After that meeting I was given a letter, delivered right to my door, instructing me to submit time slots for my chosen classes (if any), and that I would need to choose a time period between 4pm and 10pm for the mandatory Bride classes.

I sighed and leaned back. “I thought I wouldn’t have to worry about anything like this till the end of next summer,” I complained.

“Well, remember you don’t have to choose anything,” Rose reminded.

“Except the Bride class thing.”

“Well, yeah.”

I looked down at the weekly scheduling paper, the indentions from many eraser marks and faded graphite, and then at the list of both Rose’s and Alice’s suggestions while they continued to comb through their booklets for what they think I’d be interested in. A thought crossed my mind.

“Hey, I can pretty much sign up for these at any time, right?” I asked.

“You can,” Rose said, “but there’s a limit to some of the classes due to capacity and whatnot, so there’s a period every start of the season where everyone is encouraged to rework or re-evaluate their classes, teachers and students alike.”

“So it’s usually better to make sure you do that then, if you want to make sure you’re in,” Alice added.

I nodded in thought. A very soft chime sounded through the library, and the girls looked towards the grandfather clock with a start.

“Ah, we better get going,” Alice said. “Today’s the double set of Histories, they’re showing a movie this time.”

“I think I’ll stay here and think a little bit longer,” I said. “I don’t want to keep putting it off.” And I don’t want to give them reason to decide for me, I thought bitterly to myself.

They nodded and said their see-ya-laters, and then I was left in the quiet silence of the library.

I leaned back in the chair, thinking. Somewhere in the back of my mind was the desire to run away still, to try to go home. I knew it was impossible, but...maybe I should still try. Maybe I should at least have a plan. I looked at the papers again, and started placing time slot ideas. Maybe...if I give myself enough time, and really got to know this place...I might find a way out. Or maybe find a loophole in the whole Bride contract thing.

A sudden idea popped into my head, and I looked up and around. This library was huge, with hundreds of shelves and cases, at least three tiers of floors, with books from every age and era. Hardly anyone was in here now, just a bored older vampire lady in a polkadot button up, and a couple of humans quietly reading. The second and top floors had their own categories and were so old they were hand-bound with leather and written on parchment.

I got up and wandered my way up to them, feeling a little like I should have no business being here. I could feel the librarian at the front desk, the bored-looking vampire, quietly glance my way when the spiral stairs creaked; something tells me almost no one ever goes up here. After a few minutes of trying to make sense of how these books were ordered, I heard a soft woosh behind me and a slightly shrill voice that made me jump.

“Are you looking for something specific dearie?” the librarian vampire asked, her lavender eyes full of mild suspicion.

“Uh, no, sorry,” I replied nervously. “I was just curious.”

She pursed her lips and raised an eyebrow, and then gazed solemnly at the rows and columns of tomes around us. “Some of these books are thousands of years old, each one a priceless copy that would be incredibly difficult to replace. You’re still, of course, welcome to browse them, but please,” she gave me an icy stare. “handle them with utmost care.”

I swallowed and promised, and she leapt backwards over the railing back to the floor below. Despite the lack of forbidding me from looking, I felt the need to hurry along. So instead I proceeded to gather my things and return to my room.

The schedule still needed to be submitted, so I clicked on a writing desk lamp, sat down, and got to work.

A hour later the sun had set completely, and my weekly itinerary was finished. For the sake of having something with all my dorm-mates I deciding to keep a slot for dancing, so once a week I would have that and the Horse Care and Management class, a few times a week some normal school classes like a math and history(which actually sounded interesting since it was being taught by someone who experienced it), and also signed up for a kickboxing and cooking class every other week because they sounded fun and potentially useful. And then, twice a week as instructed, the final slots for the Bride training classes at 8:45pm. I looked over the list once more, checking to make sure the time slots I wrote down were the correct ones, and felt satisfied with the layout. Friday afternoons would be free, as would be the weekend, and Tuesdays except for the Bride class in the evening. The rest of the days had one or two classes scheduled with plenty of open time throughout the day.

I leaned back and stretched, thinking about the library now, and those old books. I wonder what secrets they hold, what kind of histories they might tell. Maybe they might have my way out of this bizarre mess.

And maybe...maybe no one has ever even tried to find a way to break the bond of Brides, because it was never the desire of either party to do so. Dmitri did say that this had never happened in recorded history. But...what if it had? What if the answer to my problem--Zain’s problem, everyone’s problem, lies in one of those old books?

That question continued to haunt me in the following days as I waited for the submission to be processed. For the time being I was encouraged to continue tagging along with the girls, save for my first training class as a Bride. Since it was an evening class AND in the Night Wing, I would have to travel to it myself.

Claire offered to go with me, as did everyone else too, but they all had done enough for me already, and I wanted to take this opportunity, too, to observe the how the Night Wing would operate.

The evening was cooling off into a quiet summer hum, the halls echoing eerily as I followed the map I had. There was a different kind of tension in the air, and the sensations of many eyes watching me, following me. I never saw anyone, though, only the portraits that lined the dimly lit hallways. It seemed like the further and further I went into the Night Wing the darker it got.

As I turned a corner I could hear the faint sounds of conversation in the distance. Hoping it was where I needed to go I followed it. Up ahead a door was open, a soft orange light casting outward from it, and with a sigh of relief I saw a sign that read “Bride Training Course.” The relief, however, was short lived, as after I walked inside I realized I had been ignoring that pulling sensation that had been steadily growing stronger.

Zain sat at a table inside, looking irritated as usual and somewhat out of place. There were only six other people here, three human and vampire pairs. They all looked relatively young, but not nearly as young as Zain and I did. At the front of the room stood a vampire that somehow looked like an old man in a twenty-something body. His eyes were glazed silver over a subtle tone of amber, his skin almost stoney grey yet firm, his hair old-fashioned and short. Wrinkles filled his face as he smiled towards me.

“Good evening young Miss,” he called, his voice warm with a little bit of crackle to it. If ever a person looked non-human, this guy was definitely suspicious. Everyone’s eyes turned my way soon as he addressed me, including Zain’s. “We’ve been eagerly awaiting your arrival, welcome! Please, take a seat.” He gestured towards Zain, and I realized we were expected to partner up. This was going to be a long class.

About time you arrived, I heard his grumpy voice say as I came over. I shot him a look of dismay but said nothing in retort, sitting down silently and nervously. The vampire instructor, Mr. Miles, was beginning to outline his key points to this lesson on the marker board at the front. My chest began to thud as a burning, squeezing sensation began to radiate out from it. I clenched and unclenched my fingers, feeling unsure and scared of some unknown issue.

Zain scoffed beside me. “Will you cut that out?” he hissed in a low voice, his expression under duress. “There is nothing to get worked up over.”

“As if I can help it,” I muttered back, feeling irritated now myself. What, does he expect me to just...have complete control over my feelings?

That would be helpful, I heard his voice again.

Control your own feelings, you jerk, and stay out of my head! I thought back at him angrily, earning a cold and threatening glare.

Behind us a couple of girls giggled, a vampire and human pair, as they whispered gleefully and eyed the two of us. Zain directed his gaze towards them and they quieted immediately, but with amusement still in their eyes.

“Alright!” Mr. Miles called cheerfully to attention. “Now, due to recent circumstances we’ve added new time slots for this course to account for our most recent Bride’s and Bride candidates. We’ll be starting with the beginning, so for those of you who are already experienced,” at this the female couple and another couple chuckled in amusement, “please consider this a refresher course. Now--!”

I tried my best to pay attention, not having the forethought to bring any note-taking utensils and feeling way too embarrassed to ask, since no one else felt the need to either.

"First and foremost for the Brides to understand is, though you may not feel different or appear different, once your vampire performs what we call 'The First Bite' you are no longer human. Your bodies will now react differently to some things you’ve been used to, such as certain medicines no longer working, and the bite of any vampire no longer runs the risk of marking you as theirs. Vampires, you will discover, if you have fed before, than any and all other blood will taste vile and might even in some capacities make you ill. This is part of the contract you have made-or will make- with your chosen Bride. You cannot gain sustenance anymore from other sources, and you must learn now to rely on your partner. They are your pillar of strength, in both the literal and figurative sense of the word. The health of your Bride is now the health of you, so you would do well to learn how to care for them."

Mr. Miles continued on explaining the changes both the vampires and the Bride can to expect to occur. The "no longer human" part had sent me reeling with shock, and it was hard to keep up with the sudden onslaught of information thrown out in the same manner as a health class lecture. What I did catch at least was that, over time, I was expected to find my sleeping habits changing to suit the Zain's, as well as my body increasing blood production to account for the regular losses that will occur. Also I get to live forever, even if "my vampire" dies as some point. I didn’t know exactly what it would all mean, or how I would experience it, but it was more terrifying than learning about puberty had been.

I didn’t hear a snide remark from Zain, even though in the back of my mind I was expecting it. My insides were in turmoil. I wasn’t ready for this, I wasn’t expecting...this. So much of my life had been taken away from me, so many choices now being replaced against my will. The instructors voice faded away as my attention focused out and a sinking, debilitating feeling began to weigh me down. It just...didn’t feel real.

Soon as class was dismissed I walked out listlessly and feeling weirdly numb. Everyone else walked even further into the Night Wing as my feet began to take me back to the Day Wing. I didn’t want to think. I didn’t want to think about anything right now.

“Hey,” I heard a voice call, making me jump in fright and spin around.

“Jeez, relax,” Zain said, perturbed. “I need to talk to you about something.”

My mind jumped to that utility closet.

“Not like that—! Look...” He made a calm gesture down a small hallway. I followed, and he took a small, slow breath.

“Look,” he said again, his voice surprisingly patient. “Neither of us want the situation we’re in. I get that. But what’s happened happened, there’s no going back on that.”

I waited, not really sure where he was going. He began to grow slightly...flustered?

“I’ve been patient--gave you enough time to get used to things, and it’s been almost a month now, you can’t really refuse…” He seemed to be struggling to find the right words, until finally he just sighed in defeat. “Look...I’m at my limit. I need your blood.”

“My—?!” A chill ran through my body as I tensed; I hadn’t yet processed that this was something I was going to be expected to do.

He looked just as uncomfortable as I did. “Look, if I had any choice it definitely wouldn’t be you.” Something stung as he said that. “At least I’m giving you a warning, I could just make you if I wanted to. But I need it. If I don’t—”

“Okay.”

He stopped in his tracks, completely surprised. “What?”

I took a breath, trying to calm my heart with resolution. “Okay. I understand. Just...tell me what I need to do.”

He looked skeptical, and then relieved. He approached me quickly, and my heart rate shot up same time as that electric pulling intensified. He grabbed my shoulders awkwardly.

“Just hold still,” he said, leaning into my neck. I saw his fangs as he drew in close and could feel his breath-

“Wait!” I squeaked, suddenly very scared.

“What now?” he grumbled irritably.

I swallowed, my head swimming and trying not to think about those fangs. “Does...does it have to be my neck?”

“I’m starving,” he responded. “You expect me to get what I need from just your tiny veins?”

The imagery of how much blood was going to be involved was already beginning to make me dizzy. I abandoned my argument and tried to take another calming breath. “Fine, just get it over with, please?” I said, squeezing my eyes shut.

“With pleasure,” I heard him mutter, and then felt him bite my neck.

It stung, less than the last time but it still hurt a lot. I hissed through my teeth as I felt his fangs pierce through my skin. My nerves all came alive with sensitivity; I could feel every pulse in my body, every direction my blood flowed, the throbbing pain from the new wound in my neck. It was as if time had slowed down, making these tiny seconds feel like minutes.

Then I felt those fangs withdraw, and for a fleeting, hopeful moment, I thought it was done, that it was over with. I was so wrong. I let my guard down at the worst possible moment, as, instead of leaving, I felt his mouth close around the wound and began sucking.

My gag reflex kicked in.

Jeez, stop that or you’ll make me sick.

“I can’t help it, I—”

Don’t like blood, I remember. Another wave of nausea as I felt that word in my head. Just...think of something else.

You think of something else, I retorted back.

Alright, fine.

And suddenly I was standing in an open, grassy field field with a tall apple tree in springtime floral. The sweet, familiar scent of flowers drifted in the breeze that gently grazed my face, rustling the grass in a pleasing wave of green. I gawked. What just happened? Did I pass out? Am I dreaming?

You WISH you could dream this, I heard his smug voice say.

“How are you doing this?” I asked, my voice echoing all around this new space.

I see you weren’t paying much attention to your class today, as you would know if you had.

I crossed my arms; I tried to retain as much as I could!

“And let me guess; you’re not going to tell me because you’re a massive jerk?”

Correct. And then a short pause. HEY. Watch yourself.

“YOU watch yourself,” I replied childishly.

You realize I could easily kill you right now, right?

“But you’re not going to, because then you’d die too.”

Fuck you.

“Fuck you! And let me out of here!”

The calming field grew stormy and the apple tree began to bleed. The nausea came flooding back.

Do you REALLY want to go back?

I tried to close my eyes but couldn’t. “No, wait, stop that, I’m sorry!” I started to feel dizzy, my breath was becoming faint. The tree and the grass began to wilt and die right before my eyes and suddenly I felt danger. Like something bad was waiting for us, watching us. It had always been watching, waiting for the chance to strike. Waiting for the chance to kill. I don’t want to die. The edges of this place was fading away to black, creeping slowly and then quickly. Something is wrong.

The dream world snapped away just before the darkness closed around me. I heard Zain shout something in a panic, and the last thing I saw was his scared red eyes and my blood on his lips.

Darkness surrounded me. A darkness full of pain and fear. Something was chasing me, had been chasing me, and now I was in a box, a cage. A room too large in a place too foreign. Everything was hot. Everything was cold. Everything was nothing and everything at once. I felt so alone, in such an empty place the air was thin and suffocating me. I don’t want to be alone. Don’t leave me alone, please, don’t leave me by myself…

“I’m not leaving,” a soft, warm voice whispered, and the nothing became a blanket. The hot cooled; the cold lessened. The space grew cozy. I felt a soothing hand. A comforting presence. I wanted to cry. I wanted my mom. I wanted someone--this voice. I wanted this voice to tell me I’m okay, that things will be okay. That someone cared.

“It’ll be okay,” the voice continued in the haze, almost as if in response. “I’m right here, don’t worry. You’ll be okay. Just rest a little more…”

“Who are you?” I whispered longingly into the darkness. The fog began to clear, and I fell back asleep.

I woke up feeling hot and feverish. My whole body ached, like I had just tried to run a marathon but passed out halfway. Which meant I wasn’t dead. Cool. With a groan I rolled to my side, feeling extremely thirsty.

And then sat up immediately with a start.

“Good, you’re awake,” Zain said almost casually, the glow of the moon reflecting around his silhouette while he stood leaning against the window frame to the balcony of my room.

“How did you get in here?” I blurted immediately, the sudden movement making me lightheaded for a moment.

He gave me a raised eyebrow. “Do you seriously think I can’t get into anywhere I want?”

I swallowed, remembering now that this was the leader of the castle, the Lord of vampires. No door would have any business being locked to him. And then the aching pain in my neck made itself known, and with it came the memory. I flinched as it throbbed, putting my hand to the spot but somewhat surprised to find no welt or indentions.

“What...happened?” I asked quietly, feeling confused.

He looked away irritably and sheepishly, the struggle of guilt on his face as he tried to find his words. “Look, I...might have gotten carried away, feeding from you, and lost control of myself. I didn’t mean to do that to you.”

I just listened, baffled by his behavior and wondering if he was actually going to…

“But you shouldn’t have been provoking me,” he finally growled, turning all the way away. There it is. I knew it was too good to be true.

“You said it yourself,” I spoke up quietly. “I don’t like this anymore than you do.”

An awkward, frustrated silence fell between us, but in its place I think we both understood we needed a truce. He sighed.

“I can’t put myself in that situation again,” he began, his voice taking on the same calm professionalism as he had in the meeting a few days ago. “I’m going to need to feed from you at least once a week, from now on.”

“Once a--?! But they said it was every other week!”

“At minimum,” he corrected, but also somewhat surprised. “Crucial detail there. Besides, our situation is different. I have a castle to run, an entire species to protect.” An almost somber tone filled his voice. “Everyone is going to look to me for strength and protection. They’re already concerned I didn’t take the Bride I was supposed to, a Bride they knew would give me the strength I need. I need to show them that nothing has changed in that regard.” He looked back at me, his eyes narrowed again in frustration...but behind that layer I saw it in his eyes. That fear I saw, the fear I felt, in the illusion world he created.

“I need your cooperation,” he growled, and then I heard it, too. The ever so slight tremble in his voice. Something was wrong.

I felt my throat tightened a little bit before making myself speak next. “Zain...what’s going on?”

He was caught completely off guard, whether it was from my using his name or the worry in my voice, or the fact that I knew something was up, I didn’t know. But his reaction confirmed my feelings; something beyond the worry of current events was happening.

“I…” he became slightly flustered, unable to find the right words, and then became frustrated and angry. “It’s none of your business,” he finally snapped after some stuttering, and then before I could say another word he was out the window and gone.

“This isn’t my fault you know,” I muttered, bitterly, as a he left behind a wave of blame.

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#original story #vampires #romance #fantasy #story #original characters #chapter five #emotional #no one will read this #no one will see this

[illysdiary-blog]

Illy found herself tuning out the many conversations around her as she usually did when riding the public transit to school. She had earbuds jammed into her ears intending to ward off people from speaking to her, even without music actually playing it was a tactic that never failed her. She sighed as the subway lurched unexpectedly, tossing her onto the lap of the stranger seated before her.

“Pardon me,” she stuttered out, shakily removing herself from the stranger’s lap. She cursed in her head at herself for letting that happen in the first place, she should have been holding on more tightly to the cool silver pole.

The stranger smiled at her with fake warmth, not saying a word. She could tell they were trying their best to not make a scene on the crowded subway, certainly not this early in the morning at least. Illy noted that the stranger, like everyone else she has seen, was made up of crazy colors and patterns and had other strange appendages.

To anyone else, seeing someone with neon green and electric blue striped skin would be abnormal and quite freakish, but for Illy it was just another day. To Illy this was completely normal, she had seen similar all her life, and the only way she knew this wasn’t normal to everyone else was by their reactions whenever she drew their portraits like this.

“Gross!”

“What the hell is that?”

“That isn’t me!”

“Freaky!”

Some of the standard responses she had gotten for them. It had really confused her when she first started getting these comments, she had felt proud at her ability to capture their strange likeness on paper, and they were telling her it was terrible. She would hold the portrait up to them and compare it side by side to their faces, and confirm that they in fact were greatly alike, earning angry scoffs from her subject.

It certainly disheartened her at first, but she tried to get past this, telling herself it was accurate to what she saw and that’s all that should matter to her. Though it certainly got her on a lot of people’s bad sides.

The subway lurched again, but this time Illy held on tighter, now more conscious of herself to make sure she didn’t repeat her blunder from before. The subway slowed, and she looked around for the nearest exit to her; this was her stop. Once she found it, she slowly made her way towards it, careful not to fall over or bump into anyone.

Unfortunately, others were not as attentive as her, and someone smacked straight into her, knocking her into the doorway. Luckily, the subway hadn’t fully stopped yet and the door was still closed, otherwise it could have been a much more painful landing for Illy. She pursed her lips and turned her head to look at her “attacker”.

“Goodness! I’m so sorry dear, let me help you up,” a rather plain looking person extended their hand to Illy, a sympathetic look plastered on their face. They looked extremely different from everyone else on the subway; having no stripes or polkadots, no neon colors or intense eyes, just beautiful umber skin and subtle golden eyes. Their hair, a rich brown color rather than pastel pinks or blues.

Illy stared at them for a good long moment before she accepted the person’s hand. She was in shock, this person looked normal! Or rather, abnormal, compared to everyone else! She couldn’t get over the fact that they had no bright colors, no crazy patterns, no extra appendages…

“You alright, dear?”

Illy was so taken aback she couldn’t find her voice, it was if it had left her behind when she had gotten knocked over.

“Are you alright?”

Illy managed a small nod, as she grabbed hold of their hand, allowing them to help lift her up and out of the subway car onto the platform.

“Look, I’m real sorry I knocked you down…”

Illy nodded again, still unable to produce any sound.

“Can I make it up to you somehow, take you out for coffee sometime, or?”

Illy nodded once more.

“Great! Um, here!” The person pulled out a navy blue sharpie from their back pocket, “do you mind?” They gestured with the sharpie towards Illy’s arm.

Illy shook her head and jutted out her left arm.

The person scribbled down ten digits that Illy supposed made up their phone number, “alright! There we go! Give me a call when you find your voice, dear,” they smiled playfully at Illy, winked, and faded away into the large crowd.

Illy stood, frozen in place for a few minutes, absolutely flabbergasted that they, like her, didn’t look anything like everyone else in the world. She had never, in her entire life, met anyone who was different like her. So many questions swirled through her mind all at once. But perhaps the most important one was did they see the world like she does too?

It was then she remembered the number scrawled onto her arm, and the invitation out for coffee, “yes! I can ask them when we meet up!” she exclaimed a bit louder than she would have liked, earning quite a few stares from the people around her.

She quickly covered her mouth and ran out of the station and to the nearest payphone. Forgetting entirely about school, she threw two quarters into the front of the payphone and dialed in the navy blue numbers from her arm.

The phone rang a few times and then clicked, “well that was fast,” the voice chuckled out.

Illy stood there a moment, feeling once again unable to speak.

“Still speechless, huh?”

Silence from Illy.

“Or perhaps you hung up on me?”

“N-No!” Illy croaked out, desperate to keep them on the line. She had to meet them again. She had to ask them if they were like her.

“Oh! There’s your voice,” Illy could hear their smile through the phone.

“Coffee?” Illy blurted out, rather embarrassingly.

“Right now?”

Illy’s stomach knotted up, she felt like a fool.

“Sure. You know the little coffee shop down the street a ways from the station?”

Illy nodded, then smacked her forehead, noting that the person couldn’t actually see her nod, “yes.”

“Great! Meet you there in fifteen.”

Illy heard another click and replaced the phone back onto its receiver. She stopped around excitedly, once again earning stares from the brightly colored people around her. Boy, was she really embarrassing herself today.

When she entered the coffee shop she felt her stomach drop as all eyes seemed to be on her. She quickly ran to an empty table and sat down, hiding her face behind her arms.

“Well hello there, fancy meeting you here,” Illy shot up in her seat to find the person she was waiting for had arrived.

“Hello,” her voice was no higher than a whisper, and she winced when she saw the person raise their brow at her. She cleared her throat and tried again, “hello!”

“Hello there,” they smiled at her with genuine warmth.

“My name’s Illy,” she thrust her hand out at the person.

They took it graciously and shook it, “Nina.”

“What a lovely name…” she mumbled, causing Nina to chuckle.

“Why thank you dear!” Nina took the seat across from Illy and placed her hands on the table, “so, what made you call me so quickly? I think that’s the fastest I’ve ever gotten a girl to call me after giving her my number,” they smile playfully.

“Oh… um, well, you see. You’re not like everyone else.”

“My! That’s quite the pickup line.”

“No no! That’s not what I meant. I just.”

Nina smiles and nods, but doesn’t say anything more, giving Illy a chance to explain herself.

“It’s just… you see… Okay, this is going to sound really strange, but just… hear me out, alright?”

Nina nods again, and Illy feels her face heat up, wondering if they were poking fun at how all she could do earlier was nod.

Illy eyes them for a moment before continuing, “it’s just, when you look around you, what do you see?”

Nina glanced around the coffee shop, “I see lots of people.”

“Yes, but what kind of people?”

“Late teens, early twenties, probably should be at school,” Nina smiles playfully.

“Yes, but,” Illy’s eyes go wide, “hey!! Shouldn’t you be at school? Or work? Or something?”

Nina just chuckles and shakes her head, “sorry, sorry.”

“May I continue?”

Nina nods.

Illy sighs, but continues on, “don’t they look strange? The people?”

“No, they look how they’ve always looked.”

Illy sinks in her seat, wondering if she made a mistake in asking Nina these questions. Of course they didn’t see people the way she had, even if they looked like Illy and not like everyone else.

“Something wrong?” Nina looked at Illy with concern in her eyes. Genuine concern. This comforted Illy a bit at least, to see that Nina was possibly taking this seriously.

“No, it’s just… you look different. Different than all of them. They look strange and weird, and you look… normal. Or maybe you look strange and weird, because seeing them as they are is my normal. Look, it’s really hard to explain, er, how about I just show you?”

Nina raised a brow curiously.

Illy smiled shakily, hoping she wasn’t scaring Nina off, but then again, if she was, Nina probably wouldn’t have sat with her so long. She pulled her worn out messenger bag into her lap and flipped it open, pulling a sketchbook and a tin of colored pencils out of it. She carefully opened the sketchbook to a blank page, “point out someone you want me to draw.”

Nina didn’t even hesitate, “him,” they motioned towards the man working at the counter of the shop.

Illy began to let her pencils glide over the sheet of paper. She kept her eyes on the man, rarely looking down at her sketch. She noted his pink and blue polkadotted skin, his bright yellow eyes, and sharp toothy smile. The man glanced over at Illy, and the two connected eyes for a moment. She felt her heart tighten, having been caught, but kept on drawing.

Nina watched Illy with curiosity and fascination, whispering a few “wow”s and “incredible”s as Illy’s sketch began to form into a solid portrait.

“There,” Illy stated, flicking the last few bits of color onto the page and sliding the sketchbook across the table for Nina to examine.

Nina graciously takes the sketchbook and lifts it up closer to them. She studies the portrait thoroughly, causing Illy to panic a bit.

“What do you… think?” If Illy’s stomach wasn’t knotted before, it most certainly was now. She felt sick, awaiting Nina’s response, predicting that they, like the others, would be disgusted with it. She squeezed onto her left hand tightly, hoping to relief some of the anxiety, but perhaps only making it worse.

“It’s-”

Illy winced, waiting for Nina to deliver the blow.

“Amazing!”

“What?” Illy let go of her left hand and also let her jaw drop.

“What?”

“What did you say?”

“It’s amazing?”

“Do you really think that?” Illy leaned in closer to Nina.

“Of course! It looks just like him!”

“It-what? It does?”

Nina furrowed their brow, confused by Illy’s reaction to her thoughts on the portrait, “should it not?”

“No no no! It definitely should! It’s just… no one’s ever said that before! They always get mad, or they say I’m playing around drawing people like that… but it’s what I see. He really looks like this!”

“He really does,” they nodded, switching their gaze back and forth from the man to the sketchbook, comparing the two.

Illy felt her heart race. Finally! Someone who’s like her! She’s not alone anymore!

“I mean, I could totally see him with sharp teeth and crazy eyes,” Nina chuckles.

“What?” In a split second Illy felt her mood flop. Oh god, of course they weren’t like her, of course! How could she be so stupid to hope that someone was like her, that she wasn’t alone…

Nina stared at Illy deadpan for a moment before busting out into a hearty laugh, “I’m kidding! I’m totally messing with you. He really does look like that to me!”

The man glared at the two, and raised a finger to his mouth, telling them to “shut the hell up.”

“Whoops, Mr.Polkadots is getting very angry with us,” they continued to laugh out.

“So wait… he really looks like that to you? No lie?”

“No lie,” Nina makes a motion, crossing their heart and hoping to die.

“Wow.”

“Wow?”

“Well, I’ve never met someone who could also see them like I can…”

“Really?” Nina sounded quite surprised, which caught Illy off guard.

“What? Have you met others before who could?”

Nina grew silent and stared off behind Illy, “no,” they answered, frowning intensely.

“But you made it sound…” Illy began to notice Nina tensing up. Sensing there was more to the story than they were willing to tell her, she decided to not press them further on it. She sat awkwardly for a moment, tapping her fingers on the table. She looked up at Nina and cleared her throat, “anyways, it’s… really nice to finally meet someone who understands. I-I never met anyone who could see them like I do.”

Nina just nodded, still staring off.

“And well, it’s just that. I don’t really understand why I’m like this. Why I see things this way and no one else can. And I’ve been ridiculed for it… and it’s just, like I said, nice to finally meet someone who understands. At least someone who understands what it’s like, because I don’t really expect you to understand why we both see things like this when no one else does. And just, it’s um,” Illy shifts in her seat, “nice.”

Nina’s eyes flick over to Illy and focus on her now, “yeah.”

Illy feels her heart speed up again, matching the pace of her fingers’ tapping, “I’m sorry, um… am I rambling too much? Or boring you… or perhaps I’ve offended you?”

Nina snaps out of the trance-like state they were in, “no! Not at all! I’m sorry dear.”

“It’s okay,” Illy looks down at the table. She slides a hand over to her sketchbook that still lay in front of Nina and gently pulls it back towards her. She looks at the drawing and grimaces before closing the sketchbook and placing it back into her bag.

“No really, I mean it. You’re honestly not, I was just,” they breathe in, “thinking.”

Illy looks up at Nina inquisitively.

“I was just thinking about how excited you were to finally find someone who might be able to give you some answers, and I just, I don’t have any answers. I’m just as lost as you are…”

Illy slides her hand back onto the table, reaching out for Nina’s hand, “well,” she places her hand softly on top of Nina’s, “then we can be lost together.”

[new-beginnings96]

Grieving somebody still living

Every loss hurts but recently I’ve come to realize nothing can break your heart more then grieving the loss of somebody still living. Poppop I cannot thank you enough for being the only man in my life who never let me down. You are my everything and I’m forever grateful for everything we got to share. My dad might have left me but you never did. We were best friends from the start I never left your side and our afternoon naps were a daily routine. You always snuck me an extra cookie and tucked me into bed every night. Winter was my favorite because you wouldn't let me go to bed without the polkadot blanket tucked underneath because you always thought the sheets would be too cold for me. Even when you knew I was old enough you sat by my bed waiting till I fell asleep. “Goodnight sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite” always followed by a kiss and you saying ahhh I love ya darling . You're the only person in my life who has never hurt me. Ive been though hell and back but you always had a special way about you that made things better.“ We’re all each others got” you constantly reminded me, even on my worst days. I couldn't help but smile when you did anything to make me laugh and just gave me one of your big hugs when you knew I didn't want to talk. I wish I could rewind time and go back to all those days we spent together and appreciate them a lot more. I miss having you tell me everything is gonna be okay. Watching you forget everything breaks my heart, especially knowing there is nothing I can do to make it better. My best friend was ripped out from under me and I’ll never understand why things had to be this way.. I need you. Seeing you now and remembering all those memories hurt so bad because there are so many things I wanted to do with you. I really don't think I'm strong enough for this, I was never good at being on my own I always had you by my side. You were my father figure when I didn't have one, I looked up to you as the strongest man I know. Although my dad left me you showed me how I was suppose to be treated and reminded me everyday that it wasn't my fault. You deserved the world because you gave it to everybody around you. You have a beautiful soul and I’m honored that I get to call you my pops. I can only hope one day I can be half of the person you are because I admire you in so many ways. I wasn't ready to go through this and knowing its only going to get worse hurts so bad. I’m only 20 and have so much living to do and so many things I want you to be apart of. One day I’ll get married and it breaks my heart that you won't be able to walk me down the isle, or the day I have kids they won't meet the person I looked up to my whole life. I know you're still here but my best friend isn't. Life is really hard with out our heart to hearts because we were all each others got and now I don't have you.