#yes she’ll buy me a cane! But I can only use it on days I have her permission to! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

itsclydebitches · 3 years

Note

V8’s loss is so baffling to me. V3’s loss was disheartening because the heroes did all that they could, but the atmosphere spoke that this wasn’t going to end well. V8 had “Everything is going great!” then Salem and Cinder won…just because!

Pairing these two asks up!

Okay, so we all understand on a plot level why the group lost: Cinder arrived unexpectedly, Neo "kills" Yang, Penny takes a critical hit, the lost Staff obliterates the walkways, etc. There are a ton of reasons why the execution of that plot is stupid imo–How did the group just forget about two of their longest running enemies? How did Neo's single sword hit break Yang's aura and knock her across the walkway and put her into a semi-unconscious state so she couldn't save herself? Why is Jaune, the healer, so easily swayed into killing Penny?–but if we're willing to just go with it, fine. Makes sense. The final two episodes do, in some ways, reflect the tone of Volume 3. Both started on incredibly hopeful notes, only to end in failure. "It's the Vytal festival! We've always fought and come out on top, we can do this! ... omg wait, Pyrrha is dead, Beacon is gone, and Yang has lost an arm." From "We have a plan now! We're implementing it! We always manage to save people in the end! ... omg wait, Team RWBY is dead, Jaune is dead, Penny is dead, two Relics are gone, and our civilians are getting picked off by desert grimm." If we're willing to be very generous in regards to that execution... I buy it. The group nearly succeeded in keeping everyone safe, but the villains screwed things up. We've seen it happen before.

What doesn't work for me–where I think the real problem lies–is in why the heroes were fighting this fight in the first place. I don't mean that in the grand scheme of things (like, why fight Salem) but in the literal, immediate battle that they wound up losing. This isn't a Volume 3 situation where the villains attacked the heroes, they defended themselves, they lost. This situation came about because the heroes were trying to transport an entire Kingdom's worth of people across a deadly walkway. So why were they doing that?

...and that's where we run into the snags.

See, none of the motivations across Volume 8 add up. Yeah, we've discussed Ironwood to death, but it's the same with everyone else too. Ruby initially told Yang that she wanted to use Amity not just to warn other people about Salem, but to call for help. She reiterates this during the staircase talk: I'm childish and I wasted everyone's time because I thought people would come and then they didn't (which, frankly, is not what Ruby should be criticizing about her own leadership, but I digress). So my question is, what was Ruby planning to do with that help? Let's say the other Kingdoms broke all internal logic and did manage to get there to help Atlas. What in the world does "help" mean in this instance? What was her plan once they got there? Ruby acts as if she's just very, very broadly planning to fight Salem with this desired assistance, but then she doesn't fight her. Not just in terms of staying inside when Salem's army attacks, but also in terms of remembering that she has access to a Relic that can create anything... but then using that to run, not try and face Salem down.

Ruby's entire stance isn't just that Ironwood is evil for leaving others behind, but that he's wrong to run at all. She emphasizes that Atlas is just Salem's first target, implying that it's foolish to Kingdom hop when she'll just turn around and attack them somewhere else instead. There were a number of compelling reasons for why they should have left when Ironwood suggested it. We can continue to debate the ethics of that until the end of time. But for the purposes of this conversation, the important takeaway is that by the time Ruby decides to leave, there are even more compelling reasons not to go. By this point they have learned that Salem isn't interested in Mantle at all, only the Relics/Maiden housed in Atlas. By this point they have destroyed her whale, cutting her off from a huge portion of her army. By this point they have turned two of her subordinates against her, as well as obliterating her for a time. By this point they know that Oscar still has some amount of energy left in the cane, giving them another weapon to use against her. By this point everyone has been evacuated to the crater, meaning the heat is no longer a threat. By this point the Hound is dead. By this point they're about a half hour away from capturing Ironwood and saving Penny.

To top it all off, yeah, they don't juDst move everyone from the Kingdom of Atlas, they d is anywhere nearby... the threat is gone. It makes absolutely no sense to me why, at this point in time, after everything else they've succeeded in, after Ruby was waiting on an army of her own, after she reminded everyone that nowhere is safe, they would just up and move an entire Kingdom's worth of people. What's the point of this goal? Based on what we see–based on what the characters know–everyone in Mantle would be safer at home with some hacking assistance to get the heat back on. The people of Atlas would be safer provided the group takes those magical Relics, their Maiden, their Silver Eyes and skedaddles. Why the group decided to move the entire Kingdom when they could have just gone to Vacuo themselves, taking everything Salem wants with them, makes no sense to me. It could have very easily made sense if they'd evacuated at the beginning of Volume 8, or if we established something like Salem's intention to murder everyone if the heroes run... but we didn't get anything like that. So we just have the heroes putting civilians through increasingly dangerous situations (deadly walkway, Cinder's attack, dangerous desert, overpopulation in a hostile city) for seemingly no reason. All while bringing the Staff with them so it can get captured too. The group's decisions of who/what should be where all come across as backwards to me.

To top it all off, yeah, they don't jut move everyone from the Kingdom of Atlas to Vacuo, they sacrifice the Kingdom in order to move them. I've said before that I stand by Robyn's observation that the people are more important than the place, but as established, the point is that this sacrifice never needed to happen. We desperately needed the show to establish not just why the group feels like evacuation is still the best option after so much has changed, but why that reasoning is powerful enough to justify the entire Kingdom's destruction. Because–finally getting around to your point, Anon #2–it's not just about losing a place you're used to living in. It's about the loss of everything Atlas provided for the world: the Dust, the tech, and yes, even the army. It's easy to reduce Atlas to that racist Kindgom wooo glad it's gone... but canonically we have so many characters with positive connections to it. The disability angle is just one, particularly disheartening example. I have no doubt that the show will ignore the logical consequence of the Kingdom's destruction... just like it ignored Yang receiving the arm as a gift, just like Maria's eyes were turned into a joke, just like Penny had to be given a flesh body in order to understand how nice hugs are. Yes, the people and their knowledge live on (if Pietro survived), but they no longer have the resources to provide that work. If helping the rest of the world even makes their top ten priority list when trying to survive homelessness.

The point isn't that the group can't go through with that act, the point is to justify the act for us through their perspectives and have them grapple with what a huge, world-changing decision it is. The fact that no one, but especially Weiss, so much as blinked at this decision, especially when the decision comes across as in many respects unnecessary, is crazy to me. I'd be so much more on board with this choice (even with the "Why are we still evacuating?" question) if the group had a solid plan in place to finish before Atlas touched down on Mantle, they were shown ensuring everyone actually had a portal to use, they demonstrated basic intelligence in remembering the two villains they fought in the last 48 hours (Penny fought Cinder, all of JNOR fought Neo), and were allowed to fight with their canonical strength and skill. Then it really would be a case of the group doing everything right... but still losing, simply because the villains were better. AKA, a Volume 3. As it stands, their reasons for doing this are shaky, thus they don't justify this incredible sacrifice, the group comes across as incompetent for much of the battle, and their total disinterest in what this will do to the rest of Remnant doesn't come across as particularly heroic. That kind of sacrifice needs to be attached to a "We had no other choice" situation. Problem is, they bypassed that moment at the end of Volume 7. By the end of 8, they absolutely had other choices.

Disability has no meaning in RWBY anymore. I think it did–back in Volume 4, Volume 6 when Maria was first introduced–but now the story has reduced disability to something "extra," something to fix, or something to outright ignore. Yeah, we can think about the long-term consequences for disability across Remnant, but at the end of the day, the story entirely forgot about the blind and paraplegic characters trapped on a broken tower. These problems, sadly, run a whole lot deeper than RWBY potentially not capitalizing on the impact of destroying 1/5th of the world.

#rwde #rwby #mymetas

52 notes · View notes

ring-a-ding-dumbass · 3 years

Text

Companions as Hallmark Christmas Movie Love Interests

Happy Holidays!! I’ve been watching a LOT of bad Christmas Movies, so here are the companions as Hallmark movie love interests! (I’ve left out Codsworth, Dogmeat, Strong, and DLC companions.) [disclaimer: I know most jobs listed in these do not work in the way that I will imply, but that’s pretty standard for these kinds of films, so I’m rolling with it. Also, most of these are based off of SOME movie I’ve seen this Christmas, so obviously it’s not going to be super original. They’re Hallmark movies; they’re not supposed to be ‘good.’]

Note: I’d love to expand these into a fic, but I really don’t have the free time right now. If anyone is interested in taking one of these ideas and running with it, please do!! Just tag me when you’re done so I can read it!!

Cait- Cait owns a bar and she has a strict “No Christmas” policy. No Christmas music. No singing Christmas carols. No decorations. She hates the holidays because she thinks that all of the happiness and love that they inspire is a bunch of BS. She say’s it’s all fake for the sake of Christmas cards and holiday specials. One day, you’re the last patrion in her bar, and Cait slips on some ice while she’s locking up. You take her to the hospital and she has *gasp* AMNESIA. You let Cait stay with you because you can’t find any friends or family of hers, and the hospital can’t keep her. To your surprise, this Cait actually seems to like Christmas. She treats everything like she’s learning about it for the very first time. She’s not all soft and lovey-dovey, sure, but she doesn’t mind the peppermint bark and ice skating and snowball fights and eggnog. As she begins to get her memory back, she gets colder, and she opens up to you that the reason she hates Christmas is because Christmas never meant anything to her as a child. Her parents were mean to her 24/7, and that didn’t stop around the holidays, which is why Cait was always so certain that Christmas cheer was a hoax. Cait regains her full memories, but because of your re-introduction to the holiday, she doesn’t mind it as much anymore. She’s no santa claus, but she does stock up on peppermint vodka and candy canes for the bar, and wears a mistletoe headband during December, which you always manage to take advantage of.

Curie- Curie is the owner of a flower shop in North Pole, Alaska. Every year, more people move out of town, and Curie has to try to sell more items during Christmas, which is her most profitable season. You’re a character actor who works as an elf for a mall santa agency, and this year, you’re sent to the Fairbanks/North Pole region. One day, you go to see the sights in North Pole and meet Curie while she’s working in her shop. She’s running around like a chicken with her head cut off. You ask if she’s busy, and she mentions that she just lost her only employee to the local Build-a-Bear. She charms you, and you apply on the spot. After she hires you, you realize that there’s a well dressed real estate executive that comes in at least once a week to hit on Curie. She explains that he’s been offering to help her business in exchange for a date, but she won’t do it. As you and Curie ready up for the Holidays, you realize that you’re really compatible. You have fights with the fake snow used for window displays, you help organize flowers in the walk in freezer together and bring hot chocolate in when it gets too cold, and you start sneaking kisses to one another when you have to retrieve an order from the back. One day, the business man comes in and tells you that he’s buying the land that your shop is built on unless you can afford to pay an astronomical hike in rent. Curie begins to worry that she’ll have to sell her shop, but you promise her that it won’t happen. Together, you come up with the idea to sell Christmas packages online, so families who live far away from each other can send a little piece of christmas to other family members for the holidays. The idea takes off. Not only are you able to sustain the hike in rent, but you’re able to pay for your own land to move the shop, so Curie will never have to worry about rent again. You never go back to the mall santa place, and you run your shop with Curie for years, making a comfortable living in a cozy town.

Danse- Oh, Paladin Danse-- He’s the son of the president, and one of the best generals in the country, and he’s getting married. You are the baker for his wedding. One day, when you’re trying to haul a prototype cake to the other end of the capitol building to put on display to show Danse and his future spouse, you turn a corner and run into Danse, covering the both of you in cake. You don’t recognize him, and he doesn’t introduce himself, but offers to help you in any way he can to rebuild the cake. He insists on helping, so you let him, which sparks a friendship between you. Once the cake is ready, you bring it back upstairs, to find Danse and his spouse ready to look at the cake. Danse and you start speaking when you run into each other in the halls, and one day, he asks you on a walk around the grounds, where he confesses to you that he doesn’t personally feel attracted to his spouse, but it must be done for the good of the country. Just before his wedding, you confess your feelings and Danse runs off. The wedding comes to a halt and nobody knows why until Danse shows up to tell his future spouse that he can’t go through with this because he is in love with someone else. He approaches you as you’re cleaning up the confectionary table and tells you that he has to be true to himself, and that means being true to you.

Deacon- You’re a server working at a diner in a moderately large town. Deacon comes in one day and introduces himself as the new hire. You train him, and he’s kind of terrible, but he makes you laugh. You slip him your number after a week or so of light flirting and banter, but he turns you down. You leave to let Deacon close, but realize that you left your phone at the diner in an embarrassed hurry. You head back to the restaurant and find Deacon snooping through the boss’s files! After you catch him, he confesses that he’s an undercover spy, sent to keep an eye on your boss, who is suspected of using the diner to launder money. Now that you know, Deacon brings you on as his partner, and swears you to secrecy. You two go on a cute stakeout, have researching sessions together, and slowly fall in love over the course of December. At the end of the month, you come in for a shift to see your boss being arrested, and Deacon isn’t there. It isn’t until Christmas eve that you get a knock on your door. Deacon is there with takeout. He explains that his boss decided to go in without asking him, and they forced him back to the office, barring any outside contact until he could provide a full report. He confesses that he has fallen in love with you, but has also lost his job because of it, because he confessed to breaking cover. You reunite with a warm kiss and warm takeout, and, now that you’re both jobless, you start a P.I. agency together.

Hancock- Oh. Oh. Oh. BAD BOY CELEBRITY gets in trouble with his publicist over general bad-boy-scandalous behavior. YOU are a choir director for a low income rec center in a small town and you are putting on a Christmas Pageant. You don’t have the funds, but eventually the publicist finds out about your little operation, and she is ALL over it. She brings Hancock in to work with the kids and she brings an entire media team with him. He’s arrogant at first, and doesn’t even remember your name for the first few days, but you notice a change in him as you begin to work together. As skeptical as you are, Hancock really connects with the kids, and really seems to care about the Christmas Pageant. While you’re there, the kids start teasing you two, and implying that you have crushes on each other. In the end, The publicist scores him a comeback story and interview on a national morning talk show, but it would mean missing the pageant. While it seems like he’s chosen to go to the talk show, he changes his mind and arrives just before the pageant with flowers to apologize. After you accept his apology, the kids push you two under some construction paper and white puffball mistletoe.

MacCready- RJ is a single father who is still getting over the death of his wife. He has yet to move on in part due to his son’s illness. You are an heiress to a rather large fortune, but you’re told that you have a year to get a job and learn about good old fashioned hard work before you’re allowed to have access to the fortune. You start out with no discernible skills, so you become a babysitter for RJ. He goes to work in the evening as a security guard and you take care of Duncan at home. Duncan confesses to you that things haven’t been the same since his mother died. One night, you decide to ask Duncan what he wants for Christmas, and he tells you that he told the Santa Claus at the mall that he wants his dad to be okay. One night, RJ comes home and confesses that with the holidays coming up, he doesn’t know if he can afford to keep paying you to watch him every night, to which you reply that you’d gladly work for half salary. One night, you two stay up until Duncan has to get up for school, just talking about your lives. MacCready starts inviting you on outings with him and Duncan. One day, after RJ loses his job and can no longer to afford medicine for Duncan, you confess to him that you’ve been rich the entire time, and that you can pay for it yourself. MacCready accuses you of lying to him this entire time about who you are, and he asks if he can ever trust you again. You tell him that omitting to your fortune was a lie, but your feelings for him never were. You two make up, move into a house together, and Duncan thanks you for granting him his wish.

Nick Valentine- Did someone say GHOST ROMANCE? Yes, I did. You inherit a small farmhouse from an old relative that you haven’t seen in years. You go to get a good look at to see if it’s even salvageable, and you find that not only is it relatively well kept, but things move when you’re not looking. You spend the night and are woken up in the middle of the night by someone rummaging around in the attic. You find Nick, and you threaten to call the police. He’s polite, and promises it’s not what it looks like, but tells you not to call the police. When you do, they show up to find nothing in your house. Once they leave, you turn back, and Nick is in your house again. He explains that he’s a ghost, and for some reason, he can only be seen by the deed holder of the house, which is why your relative hasn’t been to the house in years. Nick explains that he died in this house a few decades ago, but he doesn’t know how it happened. Determined to figure it out in hopes that it can help him pass on, he was looking in the attic to see if it might have any proof of how he died and if foul play was involved. Over the course of your investigations, you two become good friends, and as much as you want it to be more, you tell yourself that it could never happen. Together, you slowly piece together that Nick was murdered just before proposing to the daughter of someone who used to own the house. As you and Nick celebrate this information, you realize that Nick hasn’t passed on. Nick explains that ghosts can’t pass on until they feel they have nothing to leave behind. He explains that he has grown attached to you, and doesn’t want to leave you behind. You move into the Farmhouse with Nick where you two live until your spirits can both pass on together.

Piper- Piper is a journalist who has been tasked with writing a weekly features column about Christmas, but she has found herself disillusioned with the holidays. She thought she’d be getting a Christmas bonus that she could use to buy Nat something special, but there was never a bonus, and money is really really tight. You’re quite literally the child of Santa Claus who has been sent out into the world to be with the people and really learn what the true meaning of Christmas is before you start your apprenticeship with your father to be the next in line. You meet Piper at charity event where you’re gathering toys to send to low income communities. After Piper interviews you, you start asking her questions, and upon seeing that the cold world has turned such a warm heart into a Christmas cynic, you decide to give her the Christmas of a lifetime. I’m talking ice skating, light shows, snow on christmas, and Nat getting a few extra presents. On Christmas eve, you’re called back to the North Pole. Your dad wants you to start your apprenticeship with him on Christmas by seeing how it’s done. You tell him that you can’t, because you have your own duties this Christmas, and he’s proud of you for that. You tell Piper about your dad, and she doesn’t believe you at first, but after bringing her and Nat to the North Pole to see it all happen, she apologizes for not believing you. You kiss, and agree to split time between the North Pole and Piper’s hometown, because you would never make her give up what she loves.

Preston- You grew up in a small town, but moved to the city to get a job at an ad agency. Around the holidays, your agency notes that they’re looking for something more down-to-earth and rustic for their new ‘winter campaign,’ so they send you to your hometown for Christmas. They’re expecting a campaign plan by new years, but while you’re trying to do your job, you find Preston, selling Christmas trees at the local Christmas tree farm and greenhouse. He teaches you to slow down, and to appreciate a christmas built on family, camaraderie, and love. You use your ad/social media experience to save his dying christmas tree farm. At the end of the year, you decide to quit your job and stay with Preston, who brings you on as a partner in the business and in life.

X6-88- X6 is a loan company executive who has been sent to audit the inn that you have been taking care of since your spouse passed away years ago. He’s quite serious and no-nonsense, which clashes with the capacity for compassion that you clearly possess. He thinks such traits are inefficient and pointless. Despite that, you include him in all of the Christmas dinners and events that you have planned, even if he’s not enthused about them. Through the Christmastime events that you plan for the inn throughout the Christmas season, X6 realizes that you’re not just all heart and no head. You have great ideas, and you’re inclusive of him even when he’s pessimistic. He uses his own knowledge of your loan plan to outsmart his own company and save your inn for the time being. He decides to leave his job in the city to live with you at the inn so he can handle the business and finances.

149 notes · View notes

louiseleblancdiggory · 4 years

Text

Merry Halloween

31 Days of Spooktober

Day 5/31

Prompt: “it's december. we can't celebrate halloween in december” “yes, we can” one where rowan can't spent halloween with aelin so aelin decides they're going to celebrate in december

Aelin was exhausted.

She really thought that finishing college and finally working on her own in the gallery would be the best thing ever, but in reality it was just brutal. She had an assistant only twice a week, meaning that the other days she was all by herself working on several different pieces of art that required all her attention. She was hoping that Borte would accept working full week next year, and that Kaltain and Elide would actually join her in the gallery when both graduated in the next spring.

For now, however, Aelin was tired, feet dragging as she came home.

An empty home.

That was another problem she hadn’t thought about before graduating months ago. Her art and history degree had only taken four years, as it was the norm, but her boyfriend, pursuing law, would have to go to Law School for another three years. It was fine, they agreed. It was a lot of busy work but they surely could make it work.

That is, until Rowan moved to Boston and Aelin remained in Chicago.

The long distance relationship fucking sucked, but it was that or breaking up with Rowan, something she didn’t see herself doing in a million of years. And so, for the past seven months, they had been living off phone calls, FaceTime and very rare weekends in which Aelin managed to fly to Boston. It wasn’t by any means ideal, but it was somewhat working.

And yet, as she walked home, looking at all the couples buying Christmas decorations, dinning together and just living their lives with one another, Aelin couldn’t help but feel a deep pang of jealousy. Her two favorite holidays were Halloween and Christmas, and she wouldn’t be able to spend neither with Rowan.

During October, he was too busy with the first quarter tests, and now he was studying like crazy for his midterms. There was no way he could go to Chicago, and Aelin didn’t have the funds or the time to go to Boston. She had to keep the gallery open, especially during Christmas season.

She hadn’t seen her boyfriend in more than three months and it fucking sucked.

She fucking missed him.

Aelin finally arrived in her townhouse, courtesy of her granduncle’s will, and almost cried of relief. She just wanted to take a bath, order something to eat and call Rowan. It was Friday, so hopefully he would be done with his studies for the day and would be able to spend hours on the phone with her.

Thinking better, she could both shower and order with him already on the phone, so as she opened the front door, Aelin also started looking for her phone inside her purse. The thing was way too big and way too full, meaning that Aelin was bound to spend minutes looking for that goddamn phone.

“I need to be more organized.” Aelin grunted, stepping in. She started taking off her scarf as she still tried to look down at the purse. “A-ha!”

Aelin raised the phone triumphantly in front of her, and it took her only a few seconds to realize what was behind the phone.

“What. The. Fuck.” Aelin breathed, gripping the phone harder as she let her coat and purse fall to the ground, feet taking her deeper into the hall. She also felt her jaw dropping, mind so confused she didn’t know what to do first. She didn’t know if this was some of Aedion’s pranks or if she should be actually concerned and call the cops.

All around the townhouse, small Christmas decorations made the place look like it was the fucking North Pole. Even Fleetfoot, sitting by the fire that Aelin was a hundred percent sure she had not lit, was dressed in her small Santa hat, bitting a bone in the shape of a candy cane that Aelin was also sure she hadn’t given the dog.

The confusion only thickened when she realized that every decoration, every small stocking and red lanterns, were exactly where she would have put them. The townhouse was relatively big, and Aelin just knew that if this was one of Aedion’s pranks, he wouldn’t have done it so perfectly.

Aelin’s mind was racing, heart beating fast as she was torn between confusion and the need to grab Fleetfoot and run.

“I’d hope you’d be smiling more in this occasion.” A male voice came from behind her, and Aelin immediately whipped her head to the man now standing near Fleetfoot, hands on his pockets and a grin on his lips. His grey-silver hair was a little longer than the last time they saw each other in person, but the tanned skin, pine green eyes and handsome face were still the same.

Aelin dropped her phone, frozen in place for a single second before a joyful laugh ripped through her. The man’s grin widened, and he walked a few steps forward as Aelin ran to him. She threw herself in his arms, her own arms sneaking around his neck as she pulled him closer to her. Rowan hugged her back with a bone-crushing force, face burying on the crook of her neck, breathing her in.

“What are you doing here?!” Aelin asked, her cheeks hurting from smiling. She pulled her face back, staring right into his green eyes, face also lit with so much happiness that it made Aelin’s heart expand.

Rowan tried shrugging. “I missed Fleetfoot.”

Aelin laughed, hugging his neck tighter as she raised herself on her tiptoes. “I missed you so fucking much.”

Rowan lowered his head, hands going from her hips up to her face, cupping her cheeks as he pressed his mouth against hers. Aelin sighed in content, body immediately melting against Rowan’s as his hot lips moved on top of hers. It had been months since she had kissed her boyfriend, and the feeling of his boy against hers, his lips against hers was the best present she could ask for.

“I missed you so fucking much too, Ace.” Rowan murmured, bitting her bottom lip and then sweeping his tongue lightly against it. Aelin opened her mouth, feeling Rowan’s tongue enter it and touch hers. Her mind that had been racing seconds ago because of confusion was now racing for a different reason, whole body heating as Rowan deepened the kiss, mouth and tongue moving harder and more intensely against hers. Aelin dragged her hands down his neck all the way to the middle of his back, gripping his shirt as she took a small step forward, grounding her hips against Rowan’s.

Rowan’s hands were in her hair, fingers tangling with the strawberry blonde waves. He pulled some strands softly, earning a small and quiet moan from Aelin. When he heard it, Aelin felt a small huff of laughter against her mouth and she was ready to drag Rowan to her room and make up for the lost time.

However, it looked like Fleetfoot had a different idea, because the puppy got up barking, circling Rowan and Aelin’s feet. Aelin drew back, breathless, and looked down. She chuckled at the small, fluffy ball at their feet, and bent down to grab her.

When Aelin got up again, body still pressed against Rowan’s but now with Fleetfoot taking up some space, she chuckled once more. “Looks like someone wants attention.”

Rowan narrowed his eyes. “Traitor. I bring you a present and you cock-block me.” Fleetfoot simply barked, throwing her paws at Rowan’s chest. He rolled his eyes, but smiled as he picked up Fleetfoot from Aelin. “Good to know both of you missed me.”

Aelin chuckled, shaking her head. “Her most of all.”

Rowan took his eyes from Fleetfoot for a second to wink at Aelin before focusing on the dog again. She was still a puppy, meaning that both of Rowan’s hands basically engulfed her. However, she didn’t really seem to care. Fleetfoot absolutely adored Rowan, and he would pretend he didn’t adore her as much. Seeing the two together, Rowan holding the puppy as if it was a toy, made Aelin feel her whole body relax further, a serene smile on her face.

“You’re staring.” Rowan murmured, eyes not leaving the dog.

Aelin shrugged, hugging him tighter. “I wish you could live with us.”

Rowan looked at her, an eyebrow raised and a hint of humor on his face. “Oh?”

They had been dating for over three years now, and it was no doubt that neither of them thought that the relationship would end. Aelin lived with Lysandra during college and Rowan had lived with Lorcan, otherwise they would have probably shared an apartment already.

Aelin rolled her eyes. “Stop trying to get me to boost your ego.”

Rowan grinned, holding Fleetfoot with one hand as the other one pulled Aelin by her waist. “You want to live with me, Aelin Galathynius?”

She narrowed her eyes. “I just said I do.”

“That’s adorable. No, really, I’m fucking flattered.”

“Ha. Ha. Ha.” Aelin said ironically.

“It’s like you’ve planned our whole lives already.”

“Please, be quiet.”

“I’d move in, probably propose during Christmas.”

“You are insufferable.”

“I’d put a baby on you by next Christmas.”

Aelin snorted, shaking her head. “Have you been thinking about putting a baby inside of me, Ro?”

Rowan nodded dutifully. “Definitely have been thinking about the process a lot for the past months. We could be training for it right now if this small version of the Devil wasn’t so needy.”

Aelin laughed, petting Fleetfoot. “Don’t be mean, we three know you kiss the floor she walks on.” Rowan snorted, causing Aelin to smile more. “And if you are wondering, I’ve been thinking about the process too, I promise.”

Rowan grinned, opening his mouth to say something. In a matter of seconds, however, the grin became a frown and he sighed. “I can’t ask it with this thing here. She’s one year old, it’s awkward.”

Aelin clamped her lips together, smirking as she winked at Rowan. “The answer is yes, if you were about to ask what I think you were. Unfortunately you’ll have to wait until this one goes to sleep to be sure. She’ll follow you all evening.”

Rowan huffed half heartedly, walking up to the sofa and sitting down, Fleetfoot resting against his chest.

Aelin snorted, looking at him as she kept standing. The soft smile returned to her lips and, this time, when Rowan raised his eyebrows, his smile matched hers. “What?”

“I love you.” She said simply, walking up to him. She stood in between his legs, one of his hands gripping the back of her thigh as he looked up at her. “And I actually wish you could live with us here. Halloween was fucking shit to spend alone, and you probably will leave by Sunday meaning that I’ll be here alone for Christmas because there is no way I’d make you come back here a week after leaving, and I need to keep the gallery open.”

“Ace…” Rowan brushed his thumb against her skin.

“Long distance relationship fucking sucks.” She mumbled.

Rowan sighed. “Come here.” Aelin sat on the sofa, legs over his lap as he put his arm around her shoulders. Aelin rested her head, looking up at him. He bent down, kissing her softly. “I love you too. And I wish we could have done our Halloween marathon together with copious amounts of candy while we wore those ridiculous pumpkin pajamas, but—“

Aelin immediately sat up, eyes wide and mouth pulled into a smile. “Let’s do it.”

“You didn’t let me finish. And what?”

“Let’s do it. There is a store by the end of the street and all the Halloween decorations are in the attic. I have the movies and the pajamas are probably with the stuff you left in Chicago when you went to Boston.”

Rowan’s brows furrowed. “Ace, it’s December. We can’t celebrate Halloween in December.”

“Yes, we can.” Aelin announced, grinning at him. Rowan shook his head, letting out a huff before nodding.

“Very well.”

Aelin squealed, throwing her arms around Rowan’s neck. He laughed, hugging her back by the waist. Even Fleetfoot raised her head, barking excitedly.

“Ok, so I’ll look for the pajamas in that mess of boxes and you’ll take Fleetfoot to the store.” Aelin said, getting up. Rowan nodded, holding Fleetfoot like a sack of potatoes. Aelin eyed him, shaking her head. “Thinking of you as a father is terrifying.”

Rowan grinned, walking to the door to grab Fleetfoot’s leash. “We’ll be fucking amazing parents, what are you talking about?”

Aelin snorted, walking up to him and placing tow quick kisses to his jaw. “I’ll also take a quick shower. Bring anything we used to buy during college.”

Rowan nodded, opening the door. “Fucking shit, I never forget how fucking cold this town is, and yet I’m always surprised.”

As he left, Aelin ran upstairs, opening boxes upon boxes until she found the pajamas.

She grinned, they were fucking ridiculous.

Aelin had gotten them in a Halloween fair during freshman year of college. At that time, she wasn’t dating Rowan yet, but they had… something. It was strange overall, but allowed them to spend an ungodly amount of time together. When Aelin won one of those hoops games, she chose the stupidest thing she could find. It turns out it was a couples’ matching pajamas— the thing was one piece for each, bright orange with a series of small pumpkins all over it. The hood was green and with a brown thing on top.

It was horrendous and Aelin had to physically force Rowan into them before it became a joke for them.

She then ran to the bathroom, taking a quick shower in the hopes of being ready by the time Rowan came back with Fleetfoot. Although rushed, by the time Aelin went downstairs, Rowan had already arrived back. He even had the time to go to the attic to grab the Halloween decoration boxes.

He looked her up and down when she cam down the stairs, a smile overtaking his lips. “You look ridiculous.”

Aelin grinned, throwing him his ridiculous piece of clothing. “And naked underneath. Now go change.”

Rowan looked her up and down once more, something different in his pine green eyes. When Fleetfoot barked again, he simply sighed, going to the bathroom. “I hate your dog.”

“Our dog.” Aelin singsonged.

For the rest of the night, they put up the Halloween decorations with the Christmas ones, making the townhouse look strangely funny. They sat down to watch the classic movies they always did, eating a whole bowl of candy together. Rowan wasn’t the biggest fan of sweets, but he always opened an exception for Aelin during Halloween.

It was around three in the morning when they finished the fourth movie. Fleetfoot was snoring soundly at their feet, Aelin’s whole body pressed against Rowan’s as he hugged her.

“Want to know something terrifying?” Rowan whispered against her ear, teeth brushing the lobe.

Aelin smiled, still staring at the screen showing the fifth movie beginning. “Huh?”

“We’ll have to clean all this up tomorrow. And take down the Halloween decorations because I won’t celebrate Christmas in a house full of Halloween shit.”

It took Aelin a minute to understand what he meant. She turned her face to him, hope blossoming inside her chest so fast she was almost dizzy. Her nose hit his, and her turquoise and gold eyes were staring straight into his pine green ones. “Celebrate Christmas here? As in you’ll be here a week from now?”

Rowan’s grin was huge and joyful. “Yeah. And New Year’s Eve too.”

“Ro?”

He cupped her face, thumb smoothing over the crease between her eyebrows that had formed because of the confusion. “And the rest of next year. And hopefully all years after that because I wasn’t joking about proposing to you on Christmas, so I hope you weren’t joking about me living here either.”

Aelin let out an incredulous laugh, mouth breaking into a smile as her eye watered. “If this is a joke, it’s not funny.”

“You’re looking at the new Law student in the University of Chicago.” Rowan said, laughing quietly with her. “It’ll be hard to get rid of me now, Ace.”

Aelin laughed out loud, not even remembering that Fleetfoot was sleeping near as she threw herself in Rowan’s lap, legs straddling his hips. She grabbed his face with both hands, pressing her lips against his and kissing him passionately as both of them laughed. Aelin felt as if she was in the biggest high of her life, her whole body consumed by happiness and warmth, head light and yet filled with Rowan.

“Oh my Gods.” Aelin whispered against his mouth, another laugh coming out of his, “Oh my fucking Gods.”

Rowan simply cupped her face back, fingers playing with her hair. “I know. I love you too.”

A/N: Halloween, Christmas and Rowaelin. My three favorite things. Thank you so much for this ask, you have no idea how i squealed when I read it! About the kinktober1: I will only post either tomorrow or Wednesday. I’m so sorry, but I bombed one of my tests and tomorrow there’s like a second chance, like a make up, and I needed to study so I didn’t have time to finish. It will be Rowaelin since I’m more comfortable with them. Because of the wait, I think it’s ok I give a small spoiler about which couple tomorrow’s scene will be: Jily.

Tags:

@in-love-with-caramel-macchiato @jlinez @courtofjurdan @aelinfeyreeleven945tbln @ladywitchling @lexflame @sleeping-and-books @annejulianneh111 @perseusannabeth @linshryver @mu-si-ca-l @camilamartinezdunne @dank-queen7 @minaidss @starborn-faerie-queen @booksofthemoon @loveofbooksandwine @jesstargaryenqueen @bluejaberry @multifandommessblog @yesdreamblog @superspiritfestival @ireallyshouldsleeprn @abookishfreak @faerie-queen-fireheart @maastrash @morganofthewildfire @queen-of-glass @julemmaes @heirofthenightcourt

149 notes · View notes

trulivin · 4 years

Text

Golden Eyes

A/N: SURPRISE! I finished it last night. Thank you so much for this request! I really enjoyed writing this piece. I did make the reader kinda Shu I would say because she’s called serpent at the Menagerie but feel free to change it to suit your appearance! Also, I hope I kept to the character. I felt like Kaz wouldn’t act like this really in his mind, and I don’t know somehow I ended up flopping back and forth between their POVs. BUT hopefully it worked out.

This also has potential for a part 2 so let me know if you would like that. Anyways, send feedback and keep requesting! I could honestly write about Kaz all day LMFAO! Enjoy! (Word Count: It’s really long whoops)

Kaz Brekker X Reader, Six of Crows

Warnings: Some abuse, cursing.

*Oh look I made another aesthetic lol*

Kaz Brekker didn’t know why he did it. Three years after getting Inej out of the Menagerie, he found himself having the same conversation with Tante Haleen. “You are not taking another one of my girls, Brekker,” the lady snarled. “I have the money,” he shrugged, his face impassive. “I don’t care. You took one of my clients’ favorites three years ago,” Tante hissed at him. “You haven’t even let me tell you what I’m going to offer,” Kaz said. The peacock let out an odd noise, rolling her eyes at the teenage boy. Why does he even want this girl? She thought to herself.

Truth be told, Kaz really didn’t know why he wanted this girl either. He just happened to be walking by the Menagerie a few nights ago and heard a lot of screaming. Tante Haleen had made a public display over beating this poor girl into tears in front of what seemed like everyone in Ketterdam. Usually, the woman would give her punishments in the confines of her office, but this time it was different. The girl’s screams still echoed in his mind.

It was a particularly still and soundless night as Kaz walked back from a successful deal he had just made. He was personally enjoying the quiet walk and the stars with the only sound of his cane tapping on the ground every step he took. However, his peace was soon disturbed when a high pitched scream rang out. Kaz immediately stopped, looking around for the source of the noise and realized he was very close to the Menagerie.

“You ran another one of my clients off, girl!” Tante Haleen’s voice rang out. Kaz heard a faint sound of a belt snap and a girl crying. “I-I didn’t mean to,” a voice cried. “Didn’t mean to? Pff! You’ve always been a defiant whore. Trying to run me out of my own position! Girls like you need to be taught a lesson,” she sneered. “I swear, I’m not!” the young girl pleaded.

There was a faint crowd gathered around the main entrance to the building. Kaz approached silently, sticking to the shadows. There, in the middle of the ground was a partially-clothed girl, no younger than him, cowering under the peacock who was clutched a strap of leather in her hands.

“Who would want your job anyway?” the girl half muttered to herself resulting in Tante yanking the girl up but her hair. If that young girl wasn’t in the middle of being beat up, Kaz would have been impressed with the girl’s snark.

Kaz noticed the girl’s tear-stained face full of fear. A shiver ran up his spine as he watched the old woman continue to scold her, and for a fleeting moment, the girl cast a panicked look around the crowd and met his eyes. Beautiful golden eyes met his and he stood there stoically, studying her face until Tante brought down another hit. The girl screamed again, tearing her gaze away, and Kaz forced himself to walk away.

Her eyes burned into his memory as he finally made it to the Slat. Kaz talked with Per Haskell for a few minutes before heading to his room. He sensed Inej following him and when they reached the top, she asked, “So it went well?” Kaz nodded as he shuffled papers around his desk. Inej said something else, but he barely acknowledged it. He was too busy trying to figure out how to help the girl.

Inej watched as Kaz was rummaging through papers and eyed him in confusion as she noticed he was pulling money together for some reason. She could tell he was distracted by something, and quite frankly had never seen him act like this.

“Why all the money?” Inej asked, snapping her fingers in front of his face. Kaz jumped ever so slightly, meeting her dark eyes. Inej caught his quick scare and was even more baffled that Kaz Brekker was so skittish. He was almost never like this.

The girl’s golden eyes flashed through his mind for a moment before he cleared his throat. “I need to buy something,” Kaz muttered, turning back to the papers. “What do you need to buy?” she asked skeptically. “It’s none of your business. If you have a problem with it then get out,” he snapped. Inej was caught off guard with his moodswing, but shot him an annoyed glance and slipped out of the room. She wasn’t in the mood to deal with Kaz’s attitude anymore.

Kaz jumped again when he heard his door slam. He had no clue why he was acting like this, it wasn’t him. Someone else’s pain was their problem, not his, but the girl’s watery eyes still burned in his mind like the sun on an extremely hot day.

“Thirty-thousand kruge,” he said after Tante hadn’t responded. “Did the old man give you your allowance early?” the woman sneered at him.

“No.”

She looked a bit taken back at his bored demeanor, and then narrowed her eyes at the boy. She despised him for taking away the Suli girl three years ago and she was wary in letting another one go to Kaz Brekker or Per Haskell. Tante never really knew who was actually in charge.

“Well, are you going to take it?” he asked, impatiently.

She mulled over it for a moment and sighed angrily. She could never pass up money. All of my girls are replaceable I suppose. “Yes,” she said irritated. “So she’ll be working for that old man of yours?” she asked as she signed the contract. Kaz scribbled his signature down and snatched the paper up before she could really read everything on it.

“Actually no,” he said with a wry smile. “She belongs to me. And technically, I’ve paid off her contract.”

The woman’s eyes almost popped out of her head. “I-You--little rat!” She snarled at him. “You can’t have her!”

“Yes I can. Now go get her. I have other things to do today,” Kaz said coolly. He was ready to get out of this place. It reeked of filthy men and other spices that made his head spin a bit.

Tante Haleen glared at the boy but said nothing before slipping out of her office. She returned a moment later with the golden-eyed girl behind her. “Well, it’s your lucky day, serpent,” the peacock snapped at her, “You get to go with Mr. Brekker here.” The girl’s eyes snapped to Kaz’s just like the other night and he could’ve sworn his heart jumped as the blazing color pierced his. He studied her face for a moment, noticing the dark bruise under her left eye and her swollen cheek. Under the damage, he also saw a very beautiful girl who looked as though she had been put through years of abuse under the hands of Tante Haleen.

Unfortunately, he also noticed how, behind her bright eyes, there was absolute terror coursing through her. “It’s been a pleasure,” he smirked a bit turning back to Tante Haleen. “Are you ready?” Kaz turned back to the girl. She nodded, wide-eyed and somewhat confused. Kaz slid past them and out the office door.

Y/N’s head spun as she followed the teenage boy out of the Menagerie. What did he want? Why did he buy my contract? What the hell is going on? How is he walking so fast with a freaking cane? All sorts of questions flew through her mind and her swollen face was throbbing giving her a slight headache.

As they made it to the doors, Tante Haleen’s voice called after her, “You better watch your back girl! I’ll get my serpent back and you’ll die in chains here!” Y/N’s head whipped around in fear, looking at the evil woman. “That won’t happen. You’re safe now,” the boy’s raspy voice said from behind her. Y/N turned back to him and practically ran out the door he had opened for her.

Once they were on the streets and far from the Menagerie, the boy finally slowed his pace. Y/N swallowed nervously and asked, “So who are you exactly?” “Kaz Brekker,” he replied without so much as casting a glance in her direction. He kept on winding through the crowd making sure Y/N was still with him every so often.

Surprisingly enough, Y/N had heard of a Kaz Brekker. The notorious ‘bastard of the Barrel’ or Dirtyhands. She just never thought she would ever meet him. Clients would always complain about being crossed by Brekker. They’d say, “I’ll rip those gloves off his hands and feed him his own fingers if I ever get a hold of that damn boy!” It was strange seeing the gloves fit over his hands. Y/N couldn’t seem to stop staring at them, wondering why on earth he wore them in the first place.

“And you?” he added a few moments later, snapping her out of her thoughts.

“Oh, um I’m Y/N,” she said.

Kaz inwardly smiled to himself for the first time in a long time. He thought it was a very pretty name to match her pretty eyes. What the hell is wrong with you?

He managed to maintain his expressionless face and turned to look at the girl, “Well Y/N you are officially free under one condition.” Her eyes narrowed at him as she began to grow more comfortable in his presence.

“What?” Y/N asked.

“You’ll become a member of the Dregs.”

“And if I don’t?”

“You lose the protection from us, and you very much could end back up there,” Kaz said. He didn’t necessarily want to say he owned the girl. She was free to do whatever she pleased, but if she were to go off on her own she would most likely be back where she started. Not to mention, Kaz would be out thirty-thousand kruge. The girl had a fire behind her eyes and he thought she could potentially be quite useful. He just wasn’t sure what her limits were yet, but he also didn’t want to lose an investment. She’s not just an investment, a voice in his head scolded. Shut up. You know I’m right. Ugh.

Y/N thought for a moment. She knew about the Dregs and all the other gangs in Ketterdam, but she again never thought she would ever be tangled up in them. However, anything was better than the Menagerie, and she was decent in a fight so she could handle whatever the Dregs threw her way. “Anywhere is better than there,” she eventually agreed. Kaz nodded in approval as they continued on.

Finally, the pair arrived back at the Slat. “Just let me do the talking,” Kaz said to her before opening the door. The main floor was crowded with a variety of looking people playing cards and gambling. Heads turned as the door was open and everyone caught sight of Kaz with a girl in silks trailing behind him.

One guy smirked at Kaz making Y/N cringe. “Wow boss I’m surprised they let you take this one out of the building!” the guy called. Kaz shot him a hard glare and snapped, “She’s not here for work. A new investment so shut up. She’s one of us now.”

Investment? That didn’t sound any better, Y/N scoffed silently. Thankfully, though, no one in the room looked familiar. None of these people had been clients.

The guy, Y/N noticed, seemed to cower under Kaz’s gaze. He seems to have very high authority in here, she noted. Just as quickly as they entered, she was following him up rickety steps. Kaz led her into an office on the second floor, and Y/N was faced by an old man.

“Y/N this is Per Haskell. Per Haskell, Y/N,” Kaz introduced and the old man grinned. “My new member?” he smiled. “Mine,” Kaz interjected, “Sir.” “Ah yes yes, you used your own money,” Per Haskell dismissed him, slightly annoyed. “It is still my gang you know,” he said. “Of course, sir,” Kaz replied.

Y/N stood quietly watching the two exchange words as if she weren’t standing right there. She could see right through Kaz and his act towards the old man. He may have sounded respectful towards Per Haskell, but Y/N had the sneaking suspicion that he could care less about the man’s opinions.

“So, sweetie,” Per Haskell interrupted her thoughts. Y/N jumped in the slightest at the name. You’re not at the Menagerie anymore, and he was never one of your clients, she told herself. Kaz studied her and saw her back stiffen as soon as Per Haskell had opened his mouth. She was nervous. “What can you do? Weapons wise of course. And how do you hold up in a fight?” the man asked. Y/N seemed to be taken off guard a bit, but regained her composure, feeling more confident in herself again.

“Well, um, before I was taken, my father taught me how to defend myself. And I’m pretty good at target practice,” Y/N mumbled, heat rising to her cheeks realizing this whole gang thing wouldn’t be like target practice. The man obviously knew it too and chuckled a bit before turning to Kaz. “You sure picked a good one this time, boy,” he said sarcastically. Y/N’s cheeks flushed even more red. And they flushed even darker as Kaz’s gaze rested on her for a moment. Y/N couldn’t help but be upset at herself for sounding so stupid in front of Kaz Brekker. Why do you care what he thinks of you? She questioned, averting her eyes away from him.

“I think she’ll work out just fine, sir,” Kaz responded in an even tone. Y/N couldn’t figure out what he was thinking. His face remained unreadable with every word he said. “We’ll see,” Per Haskell said, the air in his tone signaling this conversation was over. Kaz simply nodded and turned to walk out of the office. He locked eyes with Y/N before pushing open the door. She followed quietly behind him still unsure of what really was happening here.

They made their way up more steps when a voice stopped them in their tracks. “Y/N?” a familiar voice rang out behind her. Y/N turned around to see an oh-so-familiar Suli girl. “Inej?” Y/N half gasped. A grin broke out on the girl’s face as she bounded up the steps, pulling Y/N in a hug. Kaz raised a brow.

“You didn’t tell me you were bringing Y/N here, Kaz,” she glared at the boy. Y/N was shocked she had the nerve to do that, but Kaz remained oddly quiet.

The thought that Inej had known her never crossed his mind.

“Well you know now,” Kaz said coolly. Y/N could see slight impatience in his look now. “Obviously,” Inej rolled her eyes and added, “Leave us be. I’ll show her around and she can stay with me.” Kaz narrowed his eyes at her, but didn’t say anything as he stepped aside letting the two go.

In reality, something told him he didn’t want Y/N out of his sight. There was a lot of testosterone in the building and Y/N’s pretty features would surely stand out. But her reaction to Per Haskell’s words told Kaz she was more worried than she was letting on. He’d seen that look in Inej plenty of times to know it had been just as rough for Y/N as well. Tante Haleen had told him Y/N had been with her for five years, and according to the peacock, she was also a handful. He couldn’t imagine what Y/N had been put through because of her defiance, but he knew he didn’t want anyone getting any ideas.

Up on the floor above, Inej had gotten Y/N settled in her room. “I never realized Kaz bought your contract too,” Y/N said quietly. Inej laughed and rolled her eyes a bit, “He didn’t buy it. Per Haskell did. Kaz just put the idea in his head so he could get the money. I still have to pay mine off. That’s why I work for him.”

“Oh,” Y/N said, remembering what Kaz had said to Tante Haleen. He had put his own money up for her. Why?

As if Inej sensed her question, she said, “I don’t know why or how he got the money. But obviously you must’ve caught his attention. I’m telling you like I always have, it’s those golden eyes of yours.” Y/N let out a light laugh, but brushed her comment off. “It’s good he did though. We need more fighters like you. Don’t get all shy on them, I know how you get,” she added. Y/N rolled her eyes a bit, “I don’t like strangers.”

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean you still can’t kick ass. I’ve seen you do it before.”

“And you’ve seen my ass get kicked right after,” Y/N said sourly. She had tried more than once to get out of being with some of the clients, earning her plenty of bruises. But, it was always worth it when Y/N had managed to leave some bruises behind as well. “Listen,” Inej said seriously, “You’re safe now. Kaz, in his own twisty way, will protect you. He may seem like a heartless, emotionless, dark person, but deep down he cares. Of course in his own weird way.” The two girls shared a laugh and Y/N couldn’t help but think she was right. There was nothing to be afraid of anymore.

A month seemed to pass in a blur and somehow Y/N had found herself restless. She slowly earned respect amongst the Dregs, but now everyone seemed to coddle her. Even Kaz would hardly ever let her out of his sight. He hardly spoke to her and she found herself pouring her heart out to him. She told him about her family and what happened when she was taken, along with everything that happened to her in the Menagerie. All Kaz did was listen and nod.

Y/N was annoyed she could never figure him out, and told herself she was going to stop telling him her entire life story, but somehow wound up back in his attic. Some days they would sit in silence as she sat by the window, and some days they would have little conversations. He answered most of her questions she had for him, but he always gave a round-about answer when she brought up the gloves. Sometimes he would just ignore her so Y/N would just drop it.

The only thing Kaz really wouldn’t let her do was go on jobs. She was antsy and felt more at ease than she had in a long time so she could easily go shake someone up for some money. “Can I go with Jesper?” Y/N would ask. “No he, Inej, and Specht can handle it,” Kaz would reply. He was never rude to her when she asked. He would just find some excuse for her not to go.

In reality, Kaz didn’t want her to go because he could still see the slight changes in her body whenever someone, particularly a man, would brush by her too close. One time Jesper had slung his arm around her in a friendly manner, and Kaz saw all the color drain from her face. Her golden eyes even seemed to lose their brightness. He didn’t want to put her through what some of the jobs required and risk her getting hurt, although he wouldn’t admit it. So, he didn’t make her do anything, and left her extremely bored and annoyed.

And unfortunately, some of the Dregs seemed to notice this as well.

Instead of questioning Kaz, they all assumed it was because she couldn’t do anything. Some would say, “It’s alright gold-eyes, I’ll be back. Don’t worry I don’t need protection!” or “I think someone needs to go with her to make sure she doesn’t fall over and hurt herself.”

Finally, one day, Y/N was sick of the teasing. Specht, Rotty, and Jesper were teasing her about how her eyes made her look soft because they were such a pretty color. She rolled the golden orbs. “You know, you all assume I’m no good, but none of you actually have had the decency to let me hold a pistol or a knife,” she snapped. Jesper looked a little surprised by her outburst, but Specht and Rotty grinned mischievously. “Ok then, pretty-eyes. Why don’t we do a little target practice then,” Rotty snickered. Per Haskell managed to spread the word around of their first introduction and it seemed to stick. Y/N glared at him but nodded. The boys sprung up and in about ten minutes the main floor was set up with a variety of targets.

A crowd seemed to gather and Inej was by her side instantly. She had also yelled at plenty of them saying, “Y/N is perfectly capable of taking care of herself.” But Y/N didn’t want her help. And she also knew Inej’s words wouldn’t make them shut up.

“So this is how you hold a knife,” Specht said slowly as if he was talking to a toddler. “Har har,” she glared. Y/N yanked the set of knives he had from his hands and went to stand in front of the target. She heard snickers across the room and some people placing bets.

Y/N huffed before clearing her head. Feel the blade in your hand. It’s supposed to be a part of you so when you throw it, it will go in the direction you want it to. Her father’s voice rang out in her head. She closed her eyes for a moment, allowing silence to fill her ears.

Kaz had come down to see what was going on and saw the room had turned into a shooting range. He was about to break up the semi-circle, but stopped once he saw Y/N in the center of it. Her eyes were closed and he watched along with everyone else. Kaz was curious to see what she really could do.

In an instant, Kaz saw her eyes open, and watched as the three knives she held fly through the air and land in the dead center of three different targets. Her eyes immediately found his, and the liquid-gold was burning bright. He sucked in a breath as her eyes burned in his. Kaz couldn’t help himself. Her eyes were his favorite.

Y/N felt his presence as soon as she rid herself of the knives. Her eyes found his watching her with a glint of approval. His mouth even quirked up in the slightest. A grin broke across her face at the thought that Kaz would be proud of her. Somehow they had gotten close over the past month and he had a special place in her heart causing her to always seek his approval. And though he would never admit it, but Kaz always found himself wanting the golden-eyed girl around him and only him.

Everyone around the room seemed shocked at what had happened. Big Bolliger, however, interrupted the silence, “That was luck!” Eventually, others chimed in in agreement. Y/N saw that little quirk of Kaz’s mouth slip back into his hard look. “Then go stand in front of the target and have her throw again,” Kaz spoke from behind everyone. They whirled around, immediately falling quiet. “Well?” Kaz gestured for Big Bolliger to step up in front of the target. He gulped, but no one questioned Kaz. Rotty gathered the knives and handed them back to Y/N silently. “If she hits him then we know it’s luck. If she doesn't, well then I think you all will have gotten your answer if she can do anything or not,” Kaz said.

No one said a word. Y/N should have been nervous, but she wasn’t. This was the first time she had been truly happy in the month she had spent here. She knew she could do it, and this would shut everyone up for good. Y/N took a deep breath and closed her eyes again, honing in on her father’s words.

Kaz watched her eyes flicker open again and just like last time she placed the knives exactly where she wanted them: above Big Bolliger’s head, to the left of his ear, and to the right.

Y/N smirked, satisfied with herself, but also got a bit carried away. Jesper was standing near her so she grabbed one of his pistols and shot right in between Big Bolliger’s legs before handing Jesper back his prized possession. Everyone seemed to be standing there gaping. Inej was smirking, and Kaz had a twinkle in his eye. She was even more proud of herself.

“And she can shoot too,” he said. The crowd was still shocked as everyone stared at her. “Alright clean it up,” Kaz snapped, waving his arm. The Dregs jumped into action setting everything right. “It’s not like you haven’t seen anyone shoot before,” he muttered to himself, before signaling Y/N to follow.

Once they were upstairs, Kaz admitted, “I will say I’m impressed. But like you said when we first met. Target practice.” Y/N glared at him, her sour mood returning. “I could’ve taken his eye out you know,” she said bitterly. Kaz didn’t seem to care about her tone with him.

“I don’t doubt that either,” he replied. “But it is different out there when you’re in the moment--”

“How can you of all people think I don’t know that?” Y/N snarled, cutting him off and finally letting her anger bubble over. “I told you everything!” she hissed.

“I told you how those men enjoyed a twelve-year-old girl! How I fought so many times and had knives pulled on me and took constant beatings from that wretched woman! How I was put in chains after I tried running away! I know what everyone thinks of me!” she shouted.

“I know they all think I’m this weak, doe-eyed school girl who can’t throw a punch! They whisper behind my back, throw snide comments around, make bets! And I take it! I take it like every hit I took in that damn whore house.”

Kaz heard her voice crack with her last sentence. He had underestimated her abilities and never really thought how tough she really was. He was always too busy silently fuming over how mistreated she had been growing up.

“I know what they are thinking,” Y/N repeated herself. “And I don’t want you to think the same thing,” she mumbled quietly. Y/N’s eyes went wide as she realized what she just said out loud. “I--I just--,” she started but Kaz raised a hand. She shut her mouth and let him speak. “Do you know why I picked you?” he asked. She shot him a confused look. “I saw you that night Tante Haleen had thrown you on the ground in front of everyone.”

Y/N’s breath hitched. She remembered seeing those dark eyes in the shadows of the crowd. A shiver ran up her spine thinking about that night.

“I will say I have underestimated your abilities, but I don’t think like those other idiots downstairs,” Kaz sighed, letting his mask slip a bit. “I,” he paused for a moment. The two voices in his head were back: Why are you acting like this? Because she’s a pretty girl. Just another girl. She’s more than pretty if you think about it. Doesn’t matter. You’ve gotten to know her and you know she’s like you in a way. No. Admit it. Shut up.

Swallowing a bit of his pride, Kaz spoke softly, “I don’t want to see you get hurt like that again. You don’t deserve it.” It was true. Even if she didn’t talk much for the first few weeks she was with him, he found she was quite pleasant to be around. Y/N was kind to whoever she met no matter what they said about her, and she carried herself with a sort of confidence she probably didn’t know she had. And those damn eyes of hers too.

Y/N’s face softened at his words. “Oh,” was all she could manage to slip out. Quickly, though to avoid extreme awkwardness, Y/N gave him a mischievous grin. “So you do care?” she commented. Kaz let out a breath and rolled his eyes, thankful she didn’t want to endure the moment after him opening up to her. “The Kaz Brekker has a heart,” she chuckled as he glanced down back at his work.

“Yes, but most of it was buried with my brother,” he said shortly. The room was silent and Kaz looked at Y/N. Her grin was gone and she gave him a sympathetic look. He never usually wanted sympathy for Jordie, but somehow Y/N’s kind features brought him a sense of comfort. “I’ll tell you some other time,” Kaz said simply.

She approached his desk slowly until she was right in front of him. Taking a deep breath, Y/N glanced down to his gloved hand resting on the top. She hesitated and took it in her hand. Kaz sucked in a sharp breath before letting it out. Her hand was warm and felt smooth even through his gloves. A part of him wanted to feel it without the leather barrier. He noticed the scars that danced across her knuckles and all the way up her arm.

Kaz’s gaze trailed across her skin and up to the bright eyes that were watching his every move. He suddenly felt very conscious of his hair and tie. “I’ll be okay,” Y/N said softly. He took her appearance in once more and nodded. “Go see if Jesper will let you tag along on his job,” Kaz added. Y/N gave him a small smile before releasing his hand. A part of him ached for her touch again, and his hand felt oddly cold after she let go.

Y/N silently made her way to the door. “I had a sister,” she said, turning to look at him again before disappearing back downstairs, her golden eyes burning through Kaz’s heart.

___________________________________________________________

Yay! To the nonny who requested, I hope this is what you were looking for! I have yet to make one with Kaz and the reader kissing because he’s very difficult to write for and I hate straying away from how the character actually is. But also I can do a part two with Jesper’s job and the aftermath plus her interaction with Kaz afterwards. Just let me know!

#six of crows imagines #kaz brekker x reader #kaz brekker imagine #kaz brekker #kaz brekker fic #imagines #multifandom #fandom imagine #multifandom imagines #fandom imagines #inej ghafa #jesper fahey #nina zenik #grisha #grishaverse

570 notes · View notes

blankdblank · 3 years

Text

Brother Dearest Pt 61

“What the hell happened to him? He been faking that damn limp this whole time?” One of the Agents at SSR muttered to Chief Thompson who had just come from the lab Sousa’s team had shoved the irritated returned Chief from the shared lab between their floors. Already his own team was off sleuthing in Harlem for backup on the tip that Venom and Eddie had given them. With a huff through the passing group of Agents Sousa moved towards the elevator doors. And didn’t even make it halfway before Thompson stated with a smirk, “Few days near your sweetheart and you’re all upright, perfect example of bed rest to make a man out of a cripple again.”

Sousa simply pressed the button to call the elevator and tapped his cane against his fake shin that gave off an eye dropping metallic echo the men around him looked to. “New leg. Said in some time might be able to run on it. Just breaking it in.” The doors opened and before he could lower the cane the men watched with mouths opening to his unassisted step inside the lit up room. And when he turned he said, “Need it too, back up lab since you’ve been hogging ours has stairs.”

One of the guys asked, “Where the hell did you get a metal leg?”

While another asked, “How could you afford it?” As two more wondered on where the back up lab was that he’d never heard of before.

Sousa replied, “It was a gift.”

Thompson asked, “Let me guess, Peggy’s crime buddy ex squeeze Stark?”

“Baroness Bunny Pear Howlett.”

Thompson asked to their open mouthed stare, “Guess she’s trying to buy her way to the pearly gates before she kicks it. How’d you meet her?”

“I have a drive to get to the lab or I’d stick around chasing fiction and sit on my hands with you and your team.” He pressed the button and the doors closed cutting off the scoffs from the men who circled to talk more about the source of the new leg.

“Still say it’s a plot for points towards heaven. Heard she gained another ten pounds last week.”

Smirks spread and another in the group said to the stunned stare of one of the women on the floor passing notes to one of the Agent that came from another in a different department and floor. “I was her husband I’d have dumped her somewhere out of sight and mind instead of parading a whale around for clout in the papers.”

Down in the lobby Sousa strolled along all the way out to the lot where he climbed into his car and muttered, “Alright, let’s go follow a lead from an alien and his pregnant sister.” He shifted gears to the hum of the engine and pulled out of the lot to start the drive to the Hamptons where Stark’s mansion was located. Stretches of city were swapped for long patches of green with sprawling mansions that he sighed wondering how many years it would take him to save to afford one of these houses if he cared. And how many of these people actually owned these houses outright or had unimaginable mortgages on these marble accented wonders.

He couldn’t imagine a life in the city after his having grown up in a small town, but his sister did need him around. Sure it was just for weekly check ins and a monthly babysitting stop to let her and her husband have the night off. Always where he would be asked about his own future upon their return, now more than ever that his engagement had ended and he was back in town where he was just a floor away from the woman he hadn’t named to his sister that had caught on to his helpless pining. He had missed his sister and now that he had come back the townhouse he had been renting from his friend who had with the first offer stated one day he would be up to selling the place if he had gotten attached. It wasn’t much compared to the farmhouse he had grown up in but by chance if he could build up the nerve to take his chance and ask Peggy out just maybe she might like it for a family home of their own.

Stark’s drive however came into view and he sighed taking the turn and muttered, “Fingers crossed he’s in a helpful mood today.”

Off to the side of the front door he parked and spotted a curtain from above shift in notice of the company and out he climbed to make the walk to the door where he paused to fidget his hand on his cane before giving the front door a knock. Not two minutes later Jarvis was at the door that opened between them with a flinch of a smile, “Chief Sousa, how might I help you?”

“Mr Jarvis, I was wondering if I could talk to Howard actually.”

“Um,” he said to the faint sound of a one sided argument from a female and things being thrown and he stated, “Mr Stark is currently entertaining, however you are welcome to wait in the parlor.” Sousa nodded and stepped through the door that was shut behind them for the stroll through the echo filled mansion to the lushly decorated parlor where Jarvis asked, “Tea?”

“Sure,” Sousa answered and took a seat on the small couch closest to him.

For a few minutes he shook his head and bit back his ache to laugh at the insults fired at Stark until the faint sound of the kettle brought Jarvis back with a tea cart. Upon it with skillful ease he brought together a trio of cups while the tea steeped and asked, “If I may, are you here on official business, Chief Sousa?”

“Unofficially, yes,” that had Jarvis glance up at him, “Guys downstairs are hogging the lab and I was wondering if Stark might loan me use of his.”

That had Jarvis grin, “Oh, how exciting, new gadget?” A door slammed and he set down the napkin in his hand with a grin at him and said, “Pardon me a moment.”

Sousa nodded and watched him stroll out of the room adjusting his vest and tie to gather the belongings left by the door where around the still shouting woman he grinned in draping her wrap around her shoulders and offered her the handbag that had been left with it and stated, “Have a lovely day, Miss DeCoco.” Her thanks was soon followed by another shout to Stark who was now at the base of the stairs to watch her storm to the sports car she sped off in. Once the door was shut again Jarvis was heard to state, “Mr Stark,”

“Ya, I know, I’ll never learn my lesson. Time to go punish myself with a bubble bath.”

“Mr Stark,” Stark turned his head with brows raised and Jarvis continued, “Chief Sousa is here.”

“Oh, perhaps I should get dressed if I’m going to be arrested.”

“He stated he is here to borrow your lab actually.”

“Oh,” he said in a stunned tone and down the steps trotted in his untucked shirt and badly wrinkled pajama pants that lay over the top of his slippers. “Interesting.” To the door he went and strolled in with a grin and said, “Don’t get up, Daniel, how are you?” offering his hand to the man he approached who’d paused in his reach for his cane and shook the hand offered to him.

“Better than you it sounds like. Lovers quarrel?”

Stark shook his head with a grin at the release of hands stating, “Difference of opinions. I’ll send some scarves and a new purse and she’ll be more than happy to apologize.”

Sousa smirked, “So that’s what that was, denial, a lot quieter in my house growing up.”

Stark asked, “So what goodies did you bring to my doorstep? Jarvis says you asked to borrow my lab.”

After a reach into his jacket inner pocket he unfolded the sheet kept there while Jarvis poured the tea, “Part of my case I came back from LA to follow has some vanishing tech from a guy that came from Barbados. Well, I got a tip where to find him and the invisible ship he’s apparently been using to get around.”

“Vanishing tech, lot of people would love to get their hands on that.”

Sousa nodded, “Especially why we have to take him in and find out who else knows how to make it. However I got a tip on a compound to use to interfere with the tech. Pretty common ingredients, just couldn’t get it from her since she’s pregnant and all. Unsafe for the baby.”

Stark’s eyes flinched wider a moment and swept over the Chief asking, “Pregnant? Who gave you the compound?”

Sousa, “Oh, right, forgot to mention, Baroness Bunny Howlett.”

Stark’s face split into an amused grin, “How’d you get her roped into this case of yours?”

“Oh, her brother’s investigation mixed with mine and he caught some tips for me. Peggy knows them fairly well apparently, said they can be trusted and I mean it can’t hurt to try with what I’m up against.”

Stark accepted the sheet and chuckled saying, “Oh I gotta read this. Knew she was holding back on me.”

“Peggy?” Sousa asked accepting his cup of tea.

Stark nodded in response to his and replied, “Bunny. Babies, by the way.”

Sousa, “Must be twins by the size, no offense to her, and they all keep saying girls, as if they know for certain.”

Stark chuckled stating, “Triplets, actually,” parting the Chief’s lips. “She’s got a pretty good instinct on that from what I heard from the Brocks, can always tell a pregnancy before a blood test can by what they say.” Over the page his eyes shifted to the complex equations and diagrams of chemicals needed and reactions followed by one on how to fold the mixture into balloons. “This is way more complex than I would guess a second year student capable. Seems she’s been studying up on her own time. You must have shared a great deal on the tech with her for her to think up a way to counter it.”

“Venom did, apparently.”

Stark chuckled, “Come on Daniel, his name is Eddie. You can’t tell me you think Venom is real, some human eating monster brought on by a bite from a radioactive lizard. Bet it’d be amusing for them to hear you call him that.”

Sousa forced out a chuckle in curiosity if Stark had been let in on the secret, as obviously Peggy knew and only made him wonder why she hadn’t let him in on the fact that those comics were based on more fact than fiction. “Well apparently she’s been helping him to find a way to counter the tech from some diagrams in his own case which could be pretty deadly if they actually make it.” He took a sip and watched Stark read it again.

Jarvis asked after his own sip when he’d sat down, “How is she faring, Mrs Bunny? The papers, have not been particularly kind.”

Sousa caught his gaze answering, “She mentioned she was tired, she’s acting as Judge for some mock trials in school. Seemed to be a bit amused by some of the stories. Said they have a story planned when winter ends and she can’t hide the belly anymore.”

Jarvis said, “Perhaps we might drop in to make certain she is faring well.”

Stark said in a look up from the pages to say, “I’ve tried talking to the Times. Even been trying to stir up some bigger stories, but they are bent on chronicling Bunny’s health with every trash tip they claim to get. Today’s paper has a whole rehash of that frog dissection report and how that would equal a human’s autopsy if they had those results. Just trash, if anything that amount of metal in the body would leech moisture not allow a person to grow twice their usual size.” He lifted his cup and said to Jarvis’ glance his way, “She’s adorable pregnant, you know what I meant, she had to be what, 80 pounds wet, bound to be a reckoning when she puts that story out.”

A few sips later to the share of more plans Stark paused mid sentence at notice of the dark metal limb opposite the socked leg in view and said, “You um, that’s a new leg isn’t it?”

Sousa looked at him and said, “Oh, yes, the Baroness made it for me.”

Jarvis, “It was my impression she preferred not to be named by that title by friends.”

Stark, “She made you a leg? Out of what?”

“Metal, don’t know why gave it to me the second time I’d seen her. Fits shockingly comfortable. Said my old leg had lead in the securing brace that was leeching into my body and this one would be safer for me and help me to run again eventually when I’m used to it.”

Stark asked in a stunned tone, “Really?” Then glanced at his leg again and said, “Well, if you don’t mind I can watch you strut your stuff on the new leg down to our lab.”

“Nowhere near to strutting yet.” He said then joined the others on their feet to make the walk to the lab which gave Stark plenty of chance to steal glances at his eased stride after such little time with it. “So you have everything on the list, right?” His eyes having shifted away from Jarvis in his entrance of the code needed to unlock the lab.

Stark said, “Oh yes,” following Jarvis inside the room that lit up to the flick of a few switches that Sousa looked around while Stark gathered up a few things along the way to a bare station. Including a small device used to test metal contents, “fairly common ingredients by the look of it. Wouldn’t imagine they could do much of anything, but if Bunny says it should work then best to give it a try. No telling what she can pull out of her bag of tricks.”

He settled that helping of ingredients down Jarvis once he’d removed his jacket and folded up his sleeves got to arranging and finding the proper containers listed in your notes to prep and mix all of it in. Then paused at the final note, “Balloons?”

Sousa said, “She said that you have to keep it in latex, anything else it would eat through.”

Stark muttered to himself, “None of these are corrosive when mixed…” then looped around with more ingredients while Jarvis turned in a puzzled circle.

Jarvis, “We have latex gloves, no balloons.”

Stark said, “We have balloons,” pulling a package of grey balloons from a drawer in a desk along the way he added to the spread across the station and made a loop around Sousa to use the metal contents device on his leg. A single sweep of it and his confusion grew to the puzzling readings that there were no known metals in the known universe in it. “What metal did Bunny say she used?”

Sousa turned to see the device in his hand and answered, “She didn’t.”

Stark showed him the device, “Must have made a new one then, because this says there aren’t any metals in it.” After a pause they turned back to the task at hand and the Chief watched the duo work through the intricate directions that seemed to alter the known reactions of the ingredients. All entirely to puzzle the pair all the more on how you of all people had found them out and how this could react to the tech the Chief was up against.

Partway through the lift of a heated beaker underneath the fume hood as per instructions to be mixed into a cooled mixture in a silver bowl Sousa said, “I know you’re dying to ask more about the leg. Go on.”

Stark asked, “She just gave you a leg?”

Sousa said, “Said it’d help me keep up with Peggy. Seems like she just wants to help. Mentioned her relatives escaped a death camp,” that had Jarvis’ eyes on him, “And they’d seen a couple they were ordered to clear I guess and she was a Medic.” Jarvis looked away, “I mean she’s got that Medic rank maybe she wants to be a Doctor or work with the wounded.”

Jarvis asked, “You said Death Camps, her relatives escaped one?”

“Ya, Auschwitz, her aunt and cousin. Met them in France after they stormed Normandy Beach on D-Day. Haven’t met them yet, but if they’re anything like her and her brother should be a trip.”

Jarvis, “I believe Mrs Bunny has the best intentions for her education. And by your leg alone could change the lives of countless former soldiers at the very least.”

The final mixture came with a balloon to be folded over the fingers to pinch two knuckles worth of the creamy mixture that would upon the pinch of the balloon turned right side up to ease a tea spoon of the other mixture that almost had the men gag for the rancid grapefruit odor it gave off before each balloon was tied off and added to a bag for the Chief. “I’ll be damned,” Stark muttered to the sizzle of his having used the same spoon to scrape off the final creamy mixture than within moments ate the spoon he dropped into the mixture entirely. “She wasn’t kidding.”

Sousa peering over his shoulder muttered, “I don’t think she does that.”

Stark smirked, “Oh she has jokes, probably just missed some. She’s a master of subtlety is my guess with her humor.”

“One thing I cannot imagine her to be anything less than subtle. Title demands it no doubt.”

Stark smirked replying, “She married the title, grew up to barely a dime to her name. Could care less about that title so long as she got James out of the deal.”

Jarvis, “It is so pleasing to know she is so deep in love for all the hassle the press has given her since her retirement from the war.”

Sousa asked, “Where’d they even meet anyways, him being a Baron and all?” His eyes scanned between the duo and he asked to their shared disbelieving glance at each other, “What? What am I missing?”

Jarvis, “They met in the war.”

Stark, “Everyone knows this, it was in all the papers. Eddie had custody of her and he got drafted to the Canadian Forces. The hospital on the base Eddie got drafted to Bunny was a Nurse there then it got attacked.” This parted Sousa’s lips, “Eddie hacked off her hair and gave her a uniform, pack and gun and kept her with him while they were sent on their missions. Military counted her as a POW till a couple years later she ran into Victor and James’ platoon they mingled with. Not long after she got shot in the shoulder and was given a field promotion to Medic, E-4? I think. Then the world knew she was alive and safe out of Nazi hands. Somewhere in there they got sent on separate missions then met up at Normandy. That last year they stuck it out then got shipped straight to King George to be medaled and then out to Canada for her to get her GED and they met Truman somewhere in there and then she went on her University tour and settled on Barnard.”

“She got shot in the shoulder?”

Jarvis, “And the neck,” Only widening the Chief’s eyes more, “And there was mention of a facial grazing.”

Sousa, “She got shot three times above the ribs?!”

Stark, “Hard to imagine how badly she could have been hurt without that magnetic powered weapon she made that kept her men safe and was able to take out panzers and planes. Heard they got put on some harrowing details for their reputations.”

Sousa said, “I’m sorry, I can’t get past the she got shot in the face and neck part. I saw her, from several angles.”

Jarvis, “She was remarkably fortunate in her healing scar free from her injuries.”

Stark patted Sousa on the shoulder, “It’s alright Daniel, give it a few more visits and read up on her a bit, head down to The Blue Bonnet in lower Manhattan they’re playing a rerun of their wedding reel and the news clips they have on her in some sort of romantic retaliation for those headlines these days. Even some comics of theirs, helps to build up some socialization with the living mystery she is, well, the whole lot of them are.”

Sousa nodded and took hold of the bag, “Well, um, thank you for this. I have to get back and try to see if I can reach Eddie to plan a drop in tonight on my perp. Be a real thrill to catch my guy before Thompson catches his Weasel Bomber.”

Jarvis, “How have they not caught him yet?”

Sousa shrugged, “He’s got the whole floor except for Peggy on the case and all he’s won is a whole library of books and evidence that actually is from the case Eddie is searching on so they’ve been chasing an imaginary tail. Just ridiculous.”

Jarvis, “Could you not simply inform this Thompson that he is working on irrelevant evidence from an unrelated matter?”

Sousa smirked and said, “No, if the moron can’t figure his foot for a clue he shouldn’t have been given that promotion. But he’s too good at kissing ass than I could ever be to have been chosen against.”

Stark smirked back, “You got that promotion too old man.” Beginning to lead him off back to the front door.

Sousa rolled his eyes and replied, “They were desperate and I was the only one with enough time under my belt.”

Jarvis, “Sometimes necessity can be quite a virtue to have on your side. You have done more than earn the rank and now you have your own team here.”

“Who hate being stuck on my team. Rather be with the fun boys on Thompson’s floor.”

Jarvis, “Well then perhaps one might be traded for Peggy one day and you might have a worthy asset to your team.”

Sousa chuckled and answered, “Baroness has her way it would be best I wasn’t her superior.”

Stark smiled openly at him and clapped a hand on his back, “Well done, I’m hoping you mean in a matter of work positions, bout time we had another member on the team to know how happy you would make each other. And it’s nice to see Peggy gaining some strong women to back her outside of work. Hard to find someone on equal footing for her I would imagine. Plus Bunny has quite the mischievous streak in her. Hell of a pair.”

Sousa asked, “Have you guys seen that Lizard guy they’re putting up a billboard of over on the East Side?”

Jarvis, “Can’t say I have.”

Stark said, “I heard some big wigs have a big order from DC to post some new ‘official PR’ for one of their new show ponies.”

Sousa, “Why do they need a new show pony?”

Stark, “WW2 is over, Cold War is brewing though. Need someone’s face to slap on those posters now that Cap’s been bought out of their use.”

Sousa’s lips parted and Jarvis explained, “Mrs Bunny owns her brother’s image in and out of the uniform. Which the shield we hear is no longer in the Government vaults.”

Sousa, “Someone stole it?!”

Stark smirked and said, “Or someone took it home where it’d be looked after.”

Sousa muttered, “Home, you mean to his sister? What would she have need for that relic? Sledding with the kids?”

Stark chuckled and Jarvis stated in an amused tone, “That would be an amusing and handy use of the old hubcap.”

Stark more for himself than Sousa stated, “Well she certainly didn’t melt it down for that leg of yours. Vibranium would have been picked up by my scanner. No doubt if she’s got it nobody will see where she’s tucked it away. Just by chance he dropped it anyways, one of the last things he touched.”

They paused at the front door and Sousa said, “Victor said she has his pictures up in the library to honor their mother. To not pretend like he never existed. I can’t imagine, said he abandoned her for the war when she was a kid. Why would she have his picture up?”

Stark replied in a hinted solemn but steady tone, “Because she’s ‘not in the business of destroying little girl’s heroes’. What she told me. Why she shares about Bucky to his sisters and mom, he was all she had and he called her a monster. If you ask me, I think she saw him over there. Mentioned once how pitiful his shows were for the troops. If anyone could keep his memory from being trapped in that forever she would. Steve hated that damn show the minute he did it for the boys over there and not people back home who cheered and clapped.”

Sousa, “People who were out there dying, you mean.”

Stark answered, “Then he ran off on his own to news Bucky got taken prisoner. Had his boots on the ground after that till he took a nose dive in that plane.”

Jarvis, “I don’t imagine it would make much difference to put his photos away. He would still be there, all those years together, would still be there. Everything he said, and did, or lack thereof. Sometimes the silence and unanswered questions can be devastating enough.”

Sousa, “I just can’t seem to get a good read on her. I normally have a good radar for people. But her and her family, I don’t know about them.” The bag in his hand was lifted a little bit and he stated, “Thanks again. Let you know how it goes with the balloons.”

Stark said to his back, “Above all, have fun with it. My good balloons are involved.” The Chief chuckled on his way to his car to make the drive back.

Up against the wall you rested your hand in a moment’s pause once you’d hung up the phone after the call from the Blair House, where President Truman and his family were currently living to let the White House receive much needed repairs. He hadn’t asked again on progress of your pregnancy, yet shared he could have another word with the papers to ease up if they continued on like this when he was set for his next event. This call however came with news that out of respect for you they had found another mascot for their propaganda campaign for this new war on the hope front. Steve was at one time all you had and in that prior purchase of the comics Truman had enforced that ownership of everything Cap to sever that government owned tag from Steve’s ear to spare you pain of his face plastered everywhere once again. The big reveal would be at an event smack in the summer break when you would be in Canada and he said that once it did come out something might be done if you wished to show support publicly. But that would not be required.

Princess Elizabeth had responded to your latest letter in the trade off correspondence and even in her gleeful description of her enjoyment of the book you had gifted the couple for their vows the trunk hidden back in Canada kept popping back into your mind. It had been well over a year now since Truman had it sent to you personally that you had moved with you back there and buried like James and Vic had buried their own treasure hoards you had helped them to unearth and go through.

You had asked Peggy about a secret love child but somehow now thoughts of how his children would have grown up next to yours kept showing their faces like tiny prairie dogs you couldn’t shake while your date grew closer. But that tether had come to an end when the two hadn’t been physical, though not entirely fruitless as you learned by means of another Beserker on earth’s skilled studies that a sperm sample had been collected once from Steve and had been kept on ice in a facility. That upon the discovery to a more advanced facility had fallen prey to a freak accident and was leveled and the sample hidden away for when you might want use of it. Along with notes of the several failed tries of fertilization into volunteers by a group of scientists. By their inspection the sample was still viable and now under their care could last much longer and when the others would arrive there would be ample up to acting as surrogate for you.

But that would all be brushed away from your mind for now once again at the kick of your own girls who would send you back to the sketches you had been working up for the Manor finishing touches when you got back. Papers already had been bought before your trip back to Brooklyn and left there to install upon your return. Colored pencils helped to choose paint shades alongside paint swatches the guys had gathered and the duo helped to design some more furniture to go with what would be divided up to fill each of your wings by means of some books they flipped through. Every one of them secured answer that you were calming upon plans of the move. None more so than a mural of sketches on easels now set aside would be painted and hung when the basic paint smells didn’t make your stomach want to turn after the birth. The plans had been solidified nearly and on the page alone the Brocks who had come over the night prior had fallen in love with the changes to your new family home.

State vs Raslo, Tillinghast, Luckstrim

District Attorney Willie Abraham stood in front of the female student playing the 23 year old Christina Flanagan while she recounted her memory of the Defendant Jesse Rasslo on his way about the building in the process of stealing the information of ownership on each of the liquidated assets. “And you are certain it was Mr Rasslo? And not any chance it could have been anyone else?”

“I could point that hideous burnt orange and fuchsia leaf patterned fiasco of a vest he always wears out of a crowd. And if you mean his face I got a good look when he got into the elevator. It’s directly across from the store room I found a hole punch in to replace mine someone had run off with the week prior. Hard to get that ugly mug out of your mind after you see it with all of his tries at playing Casanova anytime he catches wind of a skirt nearby.”

The male student smirked and asked, “And when was the next time you saw Mr Rasslo?”

“Later on at the party. Came in far more gussied up than usual and made it a point to be social. Like he had to talk to everyone in the room. But then that’s when Miss Tillinghast began to try and put on a sort of one woman musical show and I excused myself to the other end of the room where I saw Mr Rasslo talking to Mr Virgil, who then left the room.”

“Did he seem angry?”

“No, determined, like he’d won something. Every time he won something he would get this one look on his face.” From the crowd now Jarvis, Stark and Peggy were added to the mix. All seemingly impressed of these cases they had caught up on with wonder on what two were next. “The same one Mr Gordon got a few minutes later when Mr Rasslo side stepped his way through the crowd to talk to him too. The brothers left and then it was like a switch flipped and Mr Rasslo joined Miss Tillinghast in her one woman show to keep all eyes on them. Only I couldn’t go hide in the toilet anymore as the lines for those grew and then by the time I’d found another for the catering staff in their office we heard the alarm sound and we all started to file out to wait for the cops to arrive to see what was wrong.”

Impressively a large board with the blueprints of a building to stand as example for the company was used by her and the DA in her show of where everyone was by use of markers and taped up sketches of ‘photographs’ taken from that evening by the team that was usually hired. This was what the Defense teams tried to attack and when they had failed in their tries to do so she flashed you a relieved smile in her being excused from the bench to exit the courtroom again now that her part was done.

And next came the pretend 37 year old, who a student with a blanket shoved into his shirt complete with an all crème suit and hat he carried once removed to play up his part of the back story on the gun expert down to a butchered Southern accent. More large pictures were used to discredit the possible bit of testimony that could exonerate the Defendants on trial if anyone believed the malformation of guns as he stated they were formed. The proper analysis of the evidence of trajectory came next along with copies of sketches of the crime scene supplied to yourself, the General, the Jury and the Prosecution to show that things were thrown both on top of one of the casings while a book found underneath Virgil had another bullet lodged inside of it showing that the so called robbery ploy was used to hide the evidence of the true scuffle. Sketches of blood stains on the carpet came next in larger size to show their hypothesis of who died first and how like footprints and arrows that led to the next clues. All of these things were noted by the impressed author of the case who saw that without the chunk of his case he so badly wanted to have gone other ways than this.

“The State rests, Your Honor.” Mr Abraham stated in the conclusion of the testimony of their fourth witness and your eyes shifted to the Defense for wonder on how their witnesses would go the next time you were together and the case with the sound of the gavel was paused to resume at the next date given for a couple days off and you excused yourself for a mini break. The buzz of the crowd waxed and waned in the switch of the teams and comments shared by the Judges, Professors and student Press here for the trial. Of course only to dim again upon your return to show things were headed back on track.

Firske & Hahn vs Glubb Insurance

Four witnesses filled up the remainder of the time. Louis Levard was first. Age 41 who was the GP Doctor Injured parties were sent to by Ins company. With a smile Mr Bressler questioned him after hearing what the injuries were and then promptly frowned beside his partner in Defense Mr Winters to watch Mr Urton stand with human anatomy chart in hand he taped up with help of Officer Browen on the supplied easel to dig into each of the flaws of the statement he had given. The author for this case shifted uncomfortably in his seat to each mistake named and made note of them to be marked later in his report and stole glances your way as others did for the cool expression on your face and occasional tick of your brow to each note you made yourself. Fully by the end of Mr Winters retaliatory questions the crowds could see just why his license was being challenged.

Wallace Walstead of the seasoned age of 51 was next. The Eye Doctor who felt the same fire from the oven he had been seated upon since the moment of being sworn in also with a challenged license. The student’s clear study into the anatomy of the eye led to a shaky but useful dissection of another anatomy chart that proved Miss Hahn’s injuries to her eye were far greater than put on by the Insurance Doctor.

Samuel Strenberg Age 39 came next for the most amusing one yet. Paid for several cases for their testimonies as it was revealed by use of copies of the bank notices added to the case to go with fake court dates and snippets from each trial where they played the satisfied patient. The audience watched with amused smiles while you shifted back in your seat with ample notes being taken to keep from smiling openly to the nearly awed expression on the author’s face to how this one throwaway witness he had written was being used by Mr Urton for the injured parties.

And lastly, smug as hell Bob Kleeman all of 47, Ins Rep on policy for coverage nearly had to be drug off the stand y the end of his testimony within which he defends his stance that since they didn’t go to approved Doctors first to be referred to ER’s afterwards they are responsible for all charges. Even against all the evidence, diagrams and otherwise, he held firm and heated up the room to a degree that had everyone pleased to call it a day by the time the gavel fell.

Into the halls people pooled with excited chatter on how the end of this phase of the case had gone with hopes that the witnesses for the Defense on the murder case would go the next day the court would be called. Stark however found your side and smiled stating, “Very well done on choosing these cases.”

“Oh I didn’t choose them. Just led them a bit out of the gutter.” Your eyes shifted to some of the awed Science students and you said, “I think you might be paraded around a bit today.”

His head shook, “Easy return for the show you gave us. Enjoy your classes. Gladly play show pony in return for today.”

Peggy with a smirk wished you a comfy next class, a sentiment that Jarvis shared in his own amused send off and shift to follow Stark as if to keep him from being eaten by the crowds that pooled around him to grant you a clearer walk with your family to the next class you had.

Pt 62

All –

@sherala007, @mariannetora, @jesgisborne, @knitastically, @catthefearless, @theincaprincess, ggbbhehe4455, @lilith15000, @alishlieb,

Not nsfw(smut) - @otakumultimuse-hiddlewhore

X Marvel-Cast - @himoverflowers, @theincaprincess, @changlingkhat

Brother Dearest - @thorinanddwalinsdwarrowdam, @swoopswishsward

#Daniel Sousa #Jarvis #Howard Stark #Borrowing Stark's Lab #Hashing up the past #Questions #Mysteries #New Mascot to Come #Failed Baby Cap Experiments #Mock Trials #Peggy Carter

6 notes · View notes

pennywaltzy · 4 years

Photo

(Banner by @strangelock221b)

…And All The Men And Women Merely Players - Mycroft Holmes is not-so-subtly trying to make sure there’s a reconciliation between his youngest sibling Sherlock and his ex-wife, Molly Hooper, by forcing them to work together on a theatre project. But it isn’t all smooth sailing when his and Sherlock’s sister comes back from the States with a boyfriend who is the devil incarnate…and all hell is about to break loose.

READ CHAPTER 1 | READ CHAPTER 9 | BUY ME A COFFEE?

He was quite surprised to see his brother-in-law at the theatre with Mycroft. Gregory was a former cop with Scotland Yard, who had retired just three years ago after an injury on the job that required him to use a cane. Sherlock had gotten him a walking stick for his birthday that year that he liked to use when he did his morning and evening walks, and he was leaning on it now. “Trouble?” he asked when he got closer, letting Molly take Russell so Mary and John could coo at him. Both John and Mary had been asked to come back today to give opinions, but he’d already decided Mary would be perfect in the Ricoletti role and John would do well as the detective who investigated the case. Those were two of the meatier roles, as Emilia Ricoletti was supposed to haunt various men even after her death early in the play, so unless someone was better than them, he doubted he’d cast anyone else in the roles.

Mycroft nodded. “Eurus has found out about this production. She’s not interested, of course, since she despises us both, but...he wants a role.”

“No,” Sherlock said. “No bloody way am I letting that bastard get within a mile of a role in this play.”

“Gregory will be here to ensure that,” Mycroft said with a nod. “I also thought we could stay and keep an eye on Russell for you, at least for today. You know once Mummy finds out you have him early she’ll take him off your hands during the audition process.”

“I know, but...I might not get to see him as much if Janine’s thoughts to her weekend go the way she hopes,” Sherlock said.

“An engagement to the bloke she’s seeing?” Gregory said. Sherlock nodded. “Well, good. It will do the tyke good to have two good role models in his life as his da.”

“And you know the truth?” Sherlock asked Gregory quietly.

“Figured it out a while ago, but yeah,” Gregory said. “But you won’t hear me say anything other than what you and Janine decided upon.”

“Good,” Sherlock said, breathing a sigh of relief. Then he turned back to his brother. “Has Eurus given any indication of how long she plans on sticking around?”

“There seems to be the potential of a role in a film for her here, at Pinewood Studios, but other than that, no word,” Mycroft said. “Like you, that puts me ill at ease.”

Sherlock nodded, turning to look at Russell. Janine had been given a false name by the birth father, so he had no idea if it was someone in the circle of England’s more prestigious theatre crowd or an ex-pat who had come to add a West End play to their resume, but if there were two people he wanted to be kept far away from his godson, it was his sister and James Moriarty. They were never up to any good. While both were talented enough actors, they weren’t top tier and often resorted to...other means...to get their roles.

And Moriarty would get a role in this production over his dead body.

Gregory went over to join Molly and the others to spend time with Russell, leaving the Holmes brothers alone for a moment. “The reconciliation seems to be going well if she is that comfortable around Russell,” Mycroft murmured.

“She knows the truth, now. I think there will be a reconciliation, but...only time will tell. I don’t want to rush forward and plan a second wedding just yet.” He rubbed his thumb along his wedding band. “Janine knows she knows the truth, but she didn’t realize the rest of my friends and family were quite that astute. I think we’ll need to talk again soon about things. Russell is young enough that within a few months, we can count on her possible fiance being called Daddy and a new nickname for me.”

“But the fiction for her family?”

“I’ll keep up the pretense as long as she wants me too, even if she tells others the truth as well,” he said. “I...care for her and Russell as though they really are my family.”

Mycroft nodded. “That’s a good thing, you know, because you need the stabilizing roots family gives. I’ve worried while you’ve been alone.”

Sherlock’s gaze turned to Molly then, who was smiling brightly at something Gregory said. As soon as she caught his eye, she turned Russell to face him and they both waved, causing a wide grin to erupt on his face as he waved back. “If I ever find the bastard who donated his sperm to Russell, I think I’ll do whatever I can to make him pay and stay away from them forever.”

“It was consensual?” Mycroft asked.

Sherlock nodded. “Yes. But he wasn’t truthful, and so--” He was cut off by a shrill whistle behind him, and he turned to see James Moriarty walking up to them. It was all he could do not to roll his eyes. “James.”

“Sherlock,” the man said, adjusting his aviator sunglasses. “Heard you had a new play, thought I’d turn out to see if there was a spot in it. I also heard your ex was the one who wrote it.” There was a wolfish gleam in his eye that made him feel sick to his stomach, but it seemed fortune was on his side, as Molly came over and kissed him softly before passing Russell to him.

“Wanted his Da,” she said with a smile.

“And he’s got him,” Sherlock said, relaxing when Molly stayed close, even as Moriarty gave her the once-over. “I suppose we should all go in. I’ll spend some time with him and then he can go with his uncles for the day.”

“I think we can plan a trip to somewhere enjoyable and then let Mummy know he’s in town,” Mycroft said with a soft smile, roundly ignoring Moriarty. He headed to the theatre doors, leaving the unwanted man with Sherlock, Molly, and Russell. Moriarty eyed the child with a mixture of distaste and curiosity.

“Looks a lot like I did when I was a boy,” Moriarty murmured before reaching over to pinch Russell’s cheek. Russell turned his head, burying his face into the crook of Sherlock’s neck, and Sherlock turned so Moriarty had to drop his arm before he reached Russell. His head was clanging alarm bells at the notion the Moriarty could be the sperm donor. He hoped it wasn’t true, that the similarity was just a fluke, but as Moriarty spat out a huff and walked around them to the theatre doors, Molly looked up at him worriedly.

This could all get much more complicated than Sherlock had ever dreamed of...

#sherlock #sherlolly #mollock #fanfic #fanfiction #sherlock holmes #mycrot holmes #greg lestrade #molly hooper #jim moriarty #multipart: and all the men and women merely players

2 notes · View notes

zamoimagines · 5 years

Text

THIS MEANS WAR

Word Count: 1,547

Pairings: Venable x reader, Cordelia x reader

Chapters: 1, 2

Tags: n/a

Summary: You’re sent to Outpost 3 on behalf of the coven with Coco to protect Mallory. A spell is put over you so that you forget anything you ever knew of being a witch, including all of your memories of your girlfriend, Cordelia. Without the Supreme and being confined to the Outpost after a nuclear missile launch, you feel empty for what seems to be no reason at all. That’s until a new woman, Miss Wilhelmina Venable takes an interest in you.

A/N: Here’s chapter two!!! Hope you guys enjoy!

“Keep it moving!” the figure dressed in a dark cloak shouted. You, Coco, Mallory, the hairdresser, and his grandmother were all wearing yellow hazmat suits. You all moved in a single file line toward the entrance of the grim building that stood before you.

Things had moved so fast. First, the sirens. Then the TVs going out. You all only had ten minutes to make it onto Coco’s family plane before the nuclear bomb hit. The minute you’d all gotten in the air, the clouds turned orange. Everything down below began to decay immediately. All of your friends and family were gone. Everything was gone.

Luckily for you, you worked for a rich woman that had a place reserved for her, even during an apocalypse. You all landed in the middle of this wasteland and found the suits under one of the passenger seats. Now, you were all following a group of complete strangers that seemed to know what to do. Or at least you all hoped that was the case.

You followed the group into an elevator that would lead you to the inside of the sanctuary. It looked old, maybe even a little rusted. You were a little nervous getting in, but what choice did you have? The others quickly scurried in as the two cloaked figures stepped in after them. With the pull of a lever, you all began to move beneath the surface.

When the elevator hit ground level, you all poured out and reluctantly followed the long corridor into a new room. It was rather small. You were surprised you all fit in there. All of a sudden, a pair of hands gripped your shoulders. You were pushed into the middle of the room underneath what looked like a showerhead. The whole room went completely silent. You held your breath and closed your eyes.

A loud spritzing sound emerged from overhead. A big fog covered you and fogged up the mask to your suit. Once the mist turned off, you were pulled back to the side. One by one, the others were showered in the mist and led into the next room.

All of you stripped yourselves of your yellow suits once the door was closed. Coco whined a little before storming up to the cloaked people. One was a shorter woman, the other a taller one. Her hands balled up into fists as she approached them.

“What the hell is all of this? You better tell me where we are right now! You can’t force us to stay here!”

“What choice do you have?” An unfamiliar voice called out. It was a woman’s. Similar to the one you’d heard in your dream, except it sounded darker… more evil and mysterious. A thudding sound echoed throughout the room. It got closer and closer to where Coco was standing. You stepped behind the group a little bit as if to hide. Your eyes glanced up at the wall where a shadow appeared against the firelight. The stranger stood in the hallway in front of all of you.

Dark was an understatement. The woman wore a floor-length Victorian dress, leaning on an old cane for support. Even though she needed the support she still stood tall with a menacing look on her face. Her reddish hair was pulled back in a tight french roll and her eye makeup and lipstick seemed a little too dark for her complexion, making her look a little washed out. You noticed the villainous gleam in her eyes. She sent shivers down your spine.

“Who the hell are you?” Coco piped up. She was braver than the lot of you, but you could still tell she was nervous.

The woman chuckled menacingly before slowly strutting toward your former boss. Her cane hit the floor with a loud clack as she stood before you all.

“Wilhelmina Venable. I’m in charge of Outpost 3, which means I make the rules in this facility. I would treat me with a little more respect if you expect to live.”

“Horse shit! I’m Coco St. Pierre Vanderbilt, my father sent me to a sanctuary! Not a dump with a grumpy old lady in charge!”

Everyone stayed silent. Wilhelmina’s smile faded as her free hand wrapped around Coco’s neck. The blonde struggled for air as her hand squeezed tightly.

“I know who you are. This is your sanctuary if you choose to obey. If you don’t follow the rules, your chances of surviving are slim.” She leaned in closer, tightening her grip so that her nails cut into Coco’s neck. “I suggest using a better tone with me. Next time you speak to your superior like this, you’ll be fed to the mutated monsters that lie outside. Understood?”

All Coco could do was nod. Venable let go of her before stepping back slightly. Coco fell to the ground, trying to catch her breath. You felt your heart racing in your chest. This wasn’t a sanctuary. This was hell.

“Now, Miss Vanderbilt, you’ve had four reservations for your family. Seeing that they didn’t make it, you need to decide who will take their places.”

Coco glanced up at the group. You felt terrified. You’d only knew Coco for a few days, if she didn’t choose you, you would be dead for sure. You held your breath as you awaited her response.

“I… I can’t make that decision,” Coco muttered.

“Hmph. What a shame.” Venable rolled her eyes before giving a gesture to the two workers that had brought you in. The smaller woman went to Venable’s side.

“I’ll decide then. Stand in a line.”

You all hesitated a little. None of you really trusted a complete stranger to make such an intense decision.

Venable raised a brow. “Now.”

The others scrambled into a short line. You made your way over to the end, standing next to Mallory. Venable started at the other end, examining the hairdresser.

“Your name?” she began.

“Gallant. A-And this is my grandmother, Evie.” He stuttered as he pointed to the older woman standing next to him.

Venable looked the both of them up and down. “You both come from money, yes?”

The two of them nodded and remained silent. Wilhelmina sighed before turning to her minion.

“These two pass. Please take the gallants to their room, Miss Mead.”

The woman, apparently named Mead, took them by the arms and forcefully led them out of the room.

That left you and Mallory. You hung your head to avoid eye contact. You could feel your body trembling in fear of what was to come. You heard Venable’s footsteps coming closer to you. All of sudden, you felt a finger lift your chin up. Her dark, piercing eyes gazed deep into your own. Though, there was something different with the way she looked at you. When she spoke to the others she didn’t seem to care. Looking at you, her eyes seemed to soften.

“Who are you, my darling? Don’t be shy,” she said in a gentle tone. You froze up. You couldn’t speak whatsoever.

“Her name is Y/N. She works for me.” Coco spoke for you.

“Hm… Y/N. How beautiful.” Venable gazed at every inch of you. You didn’t dare to look down so you wouldn’t piss her off. She made eye contact with you once again.

“Take the other one to the working unit. She’ll be put as a worker,” she said, not moving from where she stood. “And take Coco to her room.”

The taller guard took Mallory by the shoulder as Coco followed them out. Venable began to circle around you, your body completely stiff.

“What a pretty thing you are. We can’t have you working as a grey, now can we?”

“I… I’m not sure what a grey is.”

Venable stopped in her tracks when she heard you speak. A wide grin spread across her lips.

“Ah… So you do speak.” She slowly sauntered back to stand in front of you. “A grey is a servant, my dear. You’ll be placed as a purple. A luxury resident, if you will.”

“Thank you, Miss Venable,” you said in a soft tone.

“And you’re polite? You’re off to a good start, darling.” She hooked arms with you and pulled you close to the side of her body. Feeling the warmth of her body nearly made you blush. You weren’t sure why, but she reminded you of someone… You couldn’t put your finger on it. For some odd reason, this woman made you feel safer than the rest of the people here.

“Abide by my rules, and I will protect you. Does that seem like a fair trade, Miss Y/N?”

You kept silent for a moment. You were a little confused as to why this woman seemed to be so infatuated with you, but you were definitely grateful. You leaned into her touch slightly before nodding in agreement.

“Yes, Miss Venable. That seems very fair,” you replied.

“Good girl. Why don’t I show you around? And let’s get you changed into something more appropriate, shall we?” She led you out of the dark room and into a different corridor. A gorgeous stranger had saved your ass during the nuclear apocalypse and you couldn’t be more grateful for her.

REQUEST HERE!

Buy me a coffee!

#ahs #ahs fic #apocalypse #ahs apocalypse #venable x reader #Cordelia x reader #this means war #fic

138 notes · View notes

sara-scribbles · 5 years

Text

Fae (Part 5)

Pairing: Ulquiorra/Orihime (UlquiHime) Theme: Protect or Blood Word Count: 1,753

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7

@ulquihimeweek

Peace can only last so long. Ulquiorra should have realized this sooner as all the warnings were there. Barragan had been watching him closely ever since he had returned. Though Ulquiorra did not spend much time with the others in the village, the old man held onto his suspicions. Especially when his stay at his grandmother’s old house grew longer. Another set of eyes, sharper and keener than the old man’s, watches Ulquiorra as he comes in and out of town.

He halfheartedly cleared the junk in the house. The sooner he finished, the sooner he would have to leave Orihime. Ulquiorra still did not know what to tell her. His desire to leave her behind was non-existent. Yet how could he leave his other life behind? Perhaps he is being selfish in wanting both.

They do not discuss much about the fae. She mentions small things here and there, but never goes into detail. He often wonders if she does not trust him. But the way she smiles at him and touches him tells him otherwise. She trusts him with her whole heart. Something is stopping her from divulging the full truth. He does not push her to tell more than she is willing. He will wait for her to be ready. He will always wait.

It’s the end of the month and the house is mostly cleared of boxes. Unused furniture has already been sold off. The realtor has given him an estimate price for the house. Yet, he hesitates to put it up for sale. For now he tells the realtor to give him a few more days. He wants to talk to her before he does anything else.

Ulquiorra goes to their usual meeting space. The forest is no longer a maze to him. Even when the sun sets, his feet bring him back to where he needs to be. Orihime tells him it’s because the forest knows him. The forest trusts him. He doesn’t know what to say to that, so he keeps quiet. She may be fae, but Ulquiorra still has a hard time accepting the supernatural.

He watches as she twirls blades of grass between her fingers. Hands stuffed in his pockets, his mouth feels dry. “Orihime.” She looks up. “I need to talk to you about something.”

Crossing her legs together, she nods. “Okay. What’s wrong?”

“I have to go back.” He watches her face for any signs. She just blinks. “I have a job offer in a different part of the world. And since I’ve almost finished with my grandmother’s things, I will need to go back.”

“You said you were staying,” she says quietly. She drops her head down, and her hair becomes a curtain between them. “You said…”

He sighs. “I know. And I’m sorry for lying. But I want you to come with me.” He spent all night thinking about it. If she could come with him, then they would never have to be apart.

She doesn’t look up. “I can’t.”

He frowns, his brows drawing together. “Why?”

“I….I can’t. My friends wouldn’t understand.” She finally looks up at him. Eyes shining with unshed tears, his heart twists painfully. “Eventually you’ll die. What am I supposed to do then?”

“What do you mean?” He knows that there are many things he doesn’t know about the fae. It seems there is even more than he thought.

She bites her lower lip before explaining. “We do not age the same as humans. After a certain time we stop changing. Our kind can live for thousands of years without ever looking any different.”

The truth hits him hard. She’ll remain as she is even when he is old and gray. When he dies, she’ll have no one. He starts to pace back and forth. His mind is racing and his thoughts swirl together. He doesn’t want to leave her, but he cannot imagine leaving his own life behind. She watches him silently.

Finally she speaks, “Even if you were willing to come with me, my people may not accept you. We’ve been taught to be wary of humans. Especially ones that want to use us.”

He stops in his tracks. “Do your people know about” he gestures between them “us meeting all the time?”

“Yes. They’re not very happy about it, but they have to respect my decisions.” Her mouth presses into a thin line. “My position as a healer allows me some leeway.”

She never mentioned being a healer. But perhaps he should have known. Her vast knowledge of plants makes more sense. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he closes his eyes. A deep sigh comes from him before he takes her hand and helps her to her feet.

“I’m sorry. I should have discussed this sooner.” He runs his thumb over her knuckles. “We’ll figure this out.”

She brushes his hair from his face. “Okay.” Her eyes glint with something he can’t describe. Her smile is soft and filled with warmth “I love you.”

“How touching.” They both turn to the clearing entrance. Ulquiorra can see Barragan behind the tall stranger. The old man is leaning on his cane watching them with his milky blue eyes. The unknown man is dressed in an impeccable white suit. His pink hair is styled carefully. Ulquiorra stands in front of her. “Who are you?”

He watches as the man approaches them. “My name is Szayel. I’ve been researching about these creatures.” He steps over the mushroom circle. “You see, I’ve always had a fascination with the otherworldly. In my line I’ve work I’ve seen all forms of strange creatures. I wish to study them fully.”

They’re slowly pushed back. Ulquiorra keeps an eye on the man, but also notes that Barragan has yet to get any closer. “You can’t have her.” He has an idea on how someone like him would “study” supernatural beings.

Szayel chuckles. “You see the thing about fae are that they’re quite tricky. They’re able to elude even my best men. That and they play dangerous games. So to hear that someone was able to gain the trust of such a creature piqued my interest.” He stops a few feet away from them. “I’ll offer you a deal, Ulquiorra.”

His eyes narrow. “I have no interest in you.”

“You say it now, but hear me out.” His eyes slide to Orihime. “Give her to me, and I’ll make you richer than you can imagine. You’ll never have to worry about anything.”

“I don’t need money,” he scoffs. His job offers a good wage already. He’s also never been the materialistic type. He only buys what he needs, never anything more.

He sighs and shakes his head. “You disappoint me, Ulquiorra. I thought such an intelligent would make a smart choice. No matter I’ll get what I want either way.”

There’s a click and Ulquiorra only has a second to realize that Barragan now holds a shotgun. The sound of it going off is deafening. He looks down but there’s no blood. Orihime pained cry makes the blood in his veins turn into ice. Turning around he sees red. Blood pools from her stomach and through her fingers. She clutches her wound as her legs give out. He manages to catch her. She leans heavily against him; her complexion becomes waxy. The blood stains his shirt and seeps into the grass, but he doesn’t care. Ripping a clean part of his shirt, he tries to staunch the flow.

“Come a little shot shouldn’t kill you,” Szayel muses. He’s watching them without concern.

Orihime grits through her teeth, “Iron…!”

“That’s right. I coated those bullets in iron,” Barragan states as he steps closer. “This is for your own good, boy.”

Ulquiorra only glares at the old man for a moment before returning his attention back to her. Szayel is frowning as he turns to the old man. “I want her alive. Being dead will be useless to my research.”

Barragan levels the shotgun. “I don’t care about your research.”

However Szayel pushes the muzzle of the shotgun away. “We had a deal old man,” he hisses.

“I’ve changed my mind. Getting rid of the fae is better than any money,” Barragan growls.

Neither men take notice of the sudden change in atmosphere as they argue. Storm clouds suddenly move in, and the sun is completely blocked out. A cold wind whips through the trees causing the branches to sway violently. It’s only when thunder rumbles loudly do they take note of their surroundings.

Adjusting his glasses, Szayel glances around. “How interesting. The sudden change in weather….could it be the work of fae or something else?”

“Ulquiorra!” The old man looks around frantically. Both had disappeared while the two men argued. However Barragan spots a trail of blood leading deeper into the forest. The men run after them.

Holding Orihime close to him, Ulquiorra runs through the forest blindly. The forest is no longer a warm and welcoming place. Branches seem to whip at them as if trying to stop him. The wind howls ominously as he pushes through the thicket. Her blood soaked through the fabric he had used, and she had become unconscious.

He doesn’t know where to go, but he wants to get her somewhere safe. Stumbling through the dark forest, he crosses a rushing river. Fat raindrops start falling, and soon it comes down in sheets. Lighting flashes and thunder claps.

Pushing past thorny bushes Ulquiorra comes to another clearing. Trees surround him every which way. The only thing there is a mushroom circle.

Ulquiorra recalls his grandmother’s warnings as clear as day. Glancing down at the woman in his arms, he makes a decision. Clenching his teeth, he steps into it.

Nothing happens.

“Come on. Come on.” He curses under his breath. He paces the circle but still nothing happens.

“Ulquiorra!” Barragan pushes through the bushes. “Just let her go. She’s not one of us.”

The dark haired man snarls, “Don’t come any closer!” His grip on Orihime tightens. The rain has soaked through them both. His hair is plastered to his face. He does not care; he needs to save her.

The old man shakes his head. “Foolish boy. You have brought this upon yourself.” Barragan aims the shotgun at him.

Lightning flashes again. Thunder muffles out the sound of a gunshot being fired. Rain pours down on the old man. Barragan lowers his weapon. His good eyes stares at the mushroom circle.

It’s empty.

#ulquihime #ulquihime week #ulquihimeweek2019 #UHweek2019 #ulquiorra x orihime #ulquiorra cifer #orihime inoue #bleach imagines #scenario

8 notes · View notes

fandima-moved-read-pinned · 4 years

Note

Would it be awesome to see you do all 100 asks? Yes. Will you do them? We shall see.

Wanna bet

1: when you have cereal, do you have more milk than cereal or more cereal than milk? - More cereal than milk!

2: do you like the feeling of cold air on your cheeks on a wintery day?- No, actually. I hate the cold ^^' And if there's cold air on my cheeks then it's on my nose and that's no good

3: what random objects do you use to bookmark your books? - Usually a post it note! Not very random, but it's normally what I have on hand.

4: how do you take your coffee/tea? - Depends on my mood! Sometimes I'll take my coffee black, other times ill add a fricc ton of creamer, whipped cream, and sugar. Also sometimes I mix coffee with hot chocolate and it's amazing.

5: are you self-conscious of your smile? - Very.

6: do you keep plants? - Always. I still have the carnations from Valentines Day (which surprisingly haven't died yet)

7: do you name your plants? - Nope.

8: what artistic medium do you use to express your feelings? - just a mechanical pencil or a graphite pencil. They usually end up being sketches. But if I like how it looks I'll go over them in pen.

9: do you like singing/humming to yourself? - Yes and no? I'd do it more often but I don't want anyone to hear me. Especially my mom.

10: do you sleep on your back, side, or stomach? - Side, always facing the wall.

11: what’s an inner joke you have with your friends? - The only one I can think of off the top of my head is *slap slap slap* *jumps out window*. No I will not explain.

12: what’s your favorite planet? - Pluto! Or Make Make. Make Make used to be my favorite because me and my brother would pronounce it wrong on purpose. But Pluto is ver pretty.

13: what’s something that made you smile today? - seeing my brother's reaction to his birthday present from me! I made a little felt monkey with bushy eyebrows (I needle felted it)

14: if you were to live with your best friend in an old flat in a big city, what would it look like? - Probably very messy. But also it would constantly smell like food!

15: go google a weird space fact and tell us what it is! - Mars is shrinking. It is Smol.

16: what’s your favorite pasta dish? - Fettuccine Alfredo with Shrimp! It's what I usually ordered at Olive Garden until I found out that it was expensive and was probably stressing out my parents.

17: what color do you really want to dye your hair? - Don't laugh okay but pink! I want to dye the bottom half of my hair bright freaking pink. Like hot pink.

18: tell us about something dumb/funny you did that has since gone down in history between you and your friends and is always brought up. - That time I slapped a guy twice for picking me up. That guy was my best friend. He picked me up from behind and I sorta whipped around and slapped him. The first time he didn't put me down, he just laughed. So I slapped him again. He got the hint.

19: do you keep a journal? what do you write/draw/ in it?- I don't. I tried a while back, but I figured it would be easier just to talk to people about my issues instead of writing them down.

20: what’s your favorite eye color? - Green. Or dark brown.

21: talk about your favorite bag, the one that’s been to hell and back with you and that you love to pieces. - Not sure what this means, sorry. I've got this pencil pouch that has a tree print on it that I've used for a few years now even though it has a hole it it. Does that count?

22: are you a morning person? - No. I wake up at 5:30 am on weekdays and usually don't get out of bed until I have ten minutes to get ready and leave.

23: what’s your favorite thing to do on lazy days where you have 0 obligations? - Stay in my room and draw! Although I don't have lazy days. Every time my mom comes upstairs I immediately start cleaning because if I don't she'll yell at me for being lazy.

24: is there someone out there you would trust with every single one of your secrets? - Yes. Take a look at who sent this ask. Also my other two online friends! One of them I spam with worms on a string and the other I just know I can trust and I don't know why.

25: what’s the weirdest place you’ve ever broken into? - the only place I've broken into is my own house. I had to climb the backyard fence to go through the back door because me and my brother forgot our keys.

26: what are the shoes you’ve had for forever and wear with every single outfit? - My plain black tennis shoes. I need to get new ones because these ones are old and barely fit but every time I mention it, it's like I never said a word.

27: what’s your favorite bubblegum flavor? - Candy Cane!

28: sunrise or sunset? - Sunset! I get to see the sun setting behind the Rocky Mountains and it's really pretty.

29: what’s something really cute that one of your friends does and is totally endearing? - exist

30: think of it: have you ever been truly scared? - Yes. I'd rather not talk about it.

31: what is your opinion of socks? do you like wearing weird socks? do you sleep with socks? do you confine yourself to white sock hell? really, just talk about socks. - socks can burn in hell for all I care. I hate socks. I only wear them if I have to (like while wearing shoes)

32: tell us a story of something that happened to you after 3AM when you were with friends. - I remember being at a sleepover a few days before I moved (this was in South Korea) and I woke up at 3:34 am (yes I remember the time don't ask why) because one of my friends was playing Megalovania on the keyboard. Then she turned around and asked who the hell took her pretzels. They were under her pillow.

33: what’s your fave pastry? - c w a s o a n t (with jelly inside!)

34: tell us about the stuffed animal you kept as a kid. what is it called? what does it look like? do you still keep it? - I still have this stuffed animal now (I have all of my stuffed animals. I haven't brought myself to get rid of them). It's a little pink blanket with a bunny head named Squeek. Not Squeak. I didn't know how to spell that.

35: do you like stationary and pretty pens and so on? do you use them often? - No. I don't have any.

36: which band’s sound would fit your mood right now? - https://youtu.be/7TqLXIBG-6g not a band but still

37: do you like keeping your room messy or clean? - Messy! It may sound strange, but I can't find anything when it's clean. It also feels empty unless I've got stuff all over the floor.

38: tell us about your pet peeves! - When I tell remind someone of the rules and they say "okay" and continue breaking them. Like we aren't supposed to put pans in the dishwasher because it ruins the pans. Yet my brother always puts them in there. I remind him and take it out, and he says "okay" and puts it back. I also hate it when I ask someone to stop doing something (usually when it's making me nervous or upset) and they ask "WhY?" in a really annoying tone and keep doing it. I ALSO hate it when I'm in charge and yet no one listens to me.

I also don't like it when no one says thank you. It makes it seem like they don't appreciate me.

39: what color do you wear the most? - Grey. I want to wear colorful clothes but the last time we went clothes shopping and I asked for pastel colors, I walked out of the store with grey, light grey, brown, and dark blue clothes.

40: think of a piece of jewelry you own: what’s it’s story? does it have any meaning to you? - I have a locket that I made for my seventh birthday. It has little charms in it (a rose, my first initial, a heart key, and a birthday cake) and it's gold. I love it and I don't know why.

41: what’s the last book you remember really, really loving? - There's a book series that I don't remember the name of but it's about a girl who is forcibly turned into a siren by three other sirens. She has to eat human hearts to live. It's kinda gorey, kinda romantic, lots of action. I love it.

42: do you have a favorite coffee shop? describe it! - Unfortunately no, I usually get coffee at a gas station ^^'

43: who was the last person you gazed at the stars with? - My dog Freyja! Whenever I take out trash, she comes with, and when the sky is clear I like to point out the starts with her before we go back inside. She's very sweet. But I can't stargaze for more than a minute.

44: when was the last time you remember feeling completely serene and at peace with everything? - Last year I went on a trip to Florida to stay with my grandparents for a week. I remember waking up one morning with a beautiful view of the ocean and the sound of waves crashing onto the shore. My grandparents have an apartment of sorts that faces the Atlantic and you can literally go down the stairs and go swim in the ocean if you want to, it's like a two minute walk, not even. I love the ocean and the sound of waves and seagulls is always calming to me. But my house is very loud and there's no peace here.

45: do you trust your instincts a lot? - Yes. When I have a bad feeling about something, I address it. It's not always true, but I don't want to risk anything.

46: tell us the worst pun you can think of. - Sorry, I don't know many puns. I guess I'm just not a pun-ny person.

47: what food do you think should be banned from the universe? - fucking macaroni with bread crumsb that shit is nasty af

48: what was your biggest fear as a kid? is it the same today? - Storms, especially tornados. Now my biggest fear is death. Whether I'm the one dying or its someone I care about.

49: do you like buying CDs and records? what was the last one you bought? - Not really, I don't have money to buy anything ^^' Even when I do have money, I spend it on art stuff. That reminds me that I need to fix my radio.

50: what’s an odd thing you collect? - Fabric. I have so much and I don't even use it. But when I see a nice fabric, I get it (if I have money).

51: think of a person. what song do you associate with them? - 'Old Timer Rock and Roll' (probably not the name of it) always reminds me of my dad. One day we were driving in his Jeep, just us two, and I mentioned that I wasn't a fan of the music on the radio. We ended up compromising and that song was the first one on the radio station that we switched to.

52: what are your favorite memes of the year so far? - I am unfortunately not up to date with the memes. Although the ones where it's like "you've mc-ed your last Donald" or "you've ratted your last tatouille" always make me exhale aggressively.

53: have you ever watched the rocky horror picture show? heathers? beetlejuice? pulp fiction? what do you think of them? - None of the above! I've been wanting to watch Heather's though. I just never get around to doing it.

54: who’s the last person you saw with a true look of sadness on their face? - My brother. Not the same one from before.

55: what’s the most dramatic thing you’ve ever done to prove a point? - nothing, sorry. I'm not very dramatic.

56: what are some things you find endearing in people? - when they pour their heart out about a certain subject that they love. I know a lot of people tend to bottle up their opinions but when someone trusts me aniugh to tell me all about it, it's just sorta nice.

57: go listen to bohemian rhapsody. how did it make you feel? did you dramatically reenact the lyrics? - I just sorta spaced out for the first have then did a little dance for the rest of it. I love the line "I see a little silhouetto of a man" and it's more upbeat and the music just makes me dance a little

58: who’s the wine mom and who’s the vodka aunt in your group of friends? why? - bold of you to assume I have a group of friends

59: what’s your favorite myth? - There's this one I heard as a kid that involves a faceless girl on the side of a highway who tries to steal faces.

60: do you like poetry? what are some of your faves? - I can't think of any off the top of my head, but poetry is nice!

61: what’s the stupidest gift you’ve ever given? the stupidest one you’ve ever received? - I don't really remember. I try to only give gifts that are meaningful.

62: do you drink juice in the morning? which kind? - nope! I usually drink milk!

63: are you fussy about your books and music? do you keep them meticulously organized or kinda leave them be? - I usually leave my music to its own devices, but all the books are organized by series and genre.

64: what color is the sky where you are right now? - Blue! Just any other afternoon sky.

65: is there anyone you haven’t seen in a long time who you’d love to hang out with? - My older brother. We don't get to talk much.

66: what would your ideal flower crown look like? - Colorful, with a few white flowers!

67: how do gloomy days where the sky is dark and the world is misty make you feel? - Those are usually the days that I don't feel anything.

68: what’s winter like where you live? - The weather is all over the place. A little snow, then the next day, it's like 60°F. Not even joking. It snowed Friday and Saturday was warm.

69: what are your favorite board games? - Monopoly and Battleship!

70: have you ever used a ouija board? - No, but I really want to. But my dad won't let me.

71: what’s your favorite kind of tea? - I don't really drink tea, sorry!

72: are you a person who needs to note everything down or else you’ll forget it? - Nope. I'll forget it anyway. I usually set alarms for certain things but then I don't do it.

73: what are some of your worst habits? - Biting the inside of my cheek and scratching/pinching my arm when I'm nervous.

74: describe a good friend of yours without using their name or gendered pronouns. - kind, a good listener, talented, and understanding

75: tell us about your pets! - We have four dogs. There's Emrys (the dog I've posted pictures of before), Cirilla (a husky German Shepard mix, very sweet), Cayde-6 (a Rottweiler mix I think, super energetic, loud, and steals food off the counter even when someone is watching), and Freyja (a German Shepard mix, puppy, also very sweet! She knows the phrase 'give hugs' and she always comes with me to take out the trash for whatever reason). I also have a Guinea Pig (who I want to get a friend for because she's lonely, but my parents keep saying no) names Neo.

76: is there anything you should be doing right now but aren’t? - Working on my Someconsious series, cleaning, and probably checking in with some friends.

77: pink or yellow lemonade? - Pink

78: are you in the minion hateclub or Fan club? - Hate club. I don't like them. They're just annoying and bright and their language is stupid to me.

79: what’s one of the cutest things someone has ever done for you? - One of my exes surprised me with a cars and roses out of nowhere. It wasn't Valentines Day, it wasn't my birthday, he just went out of his way to do something nice for me when I was having a rough week.

80: what color are your bedroom walls? did you choose that color? if so, why? - They're a sort of off white. I want to paint them light lavender or pale blue but my parents have only painted the living room and refuse to paint anywhere else for whatever reason. I know we can afford paint, I know we have time. They just stopped caring.

81: describe one of your friend’s eyes using the most abstract imagery you can think of. - Not sure what it means by abstract, but I'll try. Her eyes are similar to the bottom of a small river. The brown in the middle with green rings on the edges remind me of a river I used to go fishing in back in Oklahoma.

82: are/were you good in school? - I'm okay. I have all A's and B's, but I have easy subjects that aren't very hard.

83: what’s some of your favorite album art? - I don't really listen to albums, my music taste is mostly individual songs. Even then I don't really pay attention to the art.

84: are you planning on getting tattoos? which ones? - I want to get a quote of sort on my ankle. Something in another language so I can tell them it means something mysterious and deep when in reality it's the description of a toaster oven that hasn't been cleaned since 1995.

85: do you read comics? what are your faves? - I read a few webcomics if that counts! I like Castle Swimmer a lot! Gay fish bapeys are best fish bapeys.

86: do you like concept albums? which ones? - I don't know what those are, sorry

87: what are some movies you think everyone should watch at least once in their lives? - The Princess Bride and the Last Unicorn. But I'm biased because they're both a part of my childhood.

88: are there any artistic movements you particularly enjoy? - not in particular!

89: are you close to your parents? - I'm only close with my dad. My stepmom can go fuck herself. She just told us that's she'll be making a schedule for the next two weeks because there won't be school. One of the weeks was spring break anyway! We aren't missing much!

90: talk about your one of you favorite cities. - I like Palm Beach in Florida! It's fairly quiet, right next to the ocean, and filled with retired people who are all really nice.

91: where do you plan on traveling this year? - Nowhere, we don't travel much. I really want to go to Florida again though.

92: are you a person who drowns their pasta in cheese or a person who barely sprinkles a pinch? - I don't add cheese at all! It sort of ruins the texture for me. Especially the grated sprinkle cheese stuff l. I hate now it feels.

93: what’s the hairstyle you wear the most? - I just keep my hair down. I don't like it in any other way.

94: who was the last person you know to have a birthday? - My brother. His birthday is today!

95: what are your plans for this weekend? - cry a lot cry some more lose feelings for a few hours draw watch YouTube art videos then try not to yell at my mom like I did last week

96: do you install your computer updates really quickly or do you procrastinate on them a lot? - I just get it over with so I can do whatever needs to be done. Or I schedule it for when I'm not going to be using it.

97: myer briggs type, zodiac sign, and hogwarts house? - INFP-T/Mediator, Scorpio, and Hufflepuff

98: when’s the last time you went hiking? did you enjoy it?- A few weeks ago. And no, I did not enjoy it considering I was supposed to be working on an important project that day.

99: list some songs that resonate to your soul whenever you hear them. - Where We Started, If You're Going Through Hell, and We Like to Numb (a mix of We Like to Party and Numb)

100: if you were presented with two buttons, one that allows you to go 5 years into the past, the other 5 years into the future, which one would you press? why? - Future. In five years I plan on being in college and I want to see what I should be prepared for and if my interests have changed.

This took me at least an hour and a half. Thank you though! I

#Long Post #Aven Answers #tw cursing

1 note · View note

squirrelestanon · 5 years

Text

I want more Part 1

(Me and @huffle-puff-ego agreed To write something in the same scenario, but with different endings. You can find their Version already, but because of my horrible schedule, I only can post the first now.)

Warnings: English isn't my first language

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

It was that time of the of the year again. The time when Dark was out all day like all day. Wilford wakes up in the bed and fall asleep alone, but next day wake up in his boyfriend's arms.

Dark asked him, to not follow him, or ask him about where he goes out for his own sake and because he asked him to not to do. His boyfriend accepted it, if the next day is only about them. They agreed, so Wilford wasn't surprised when he wake up and the bed was empty next to him. It did make him sad, to not waking up in his lover's arms, his lips not giving his pink head light kisses. And when he finally wakes up a warm smile not inviting him to the new day and soft whispered words greeting him happily. But he couldn't have this feeling for a very long time now...

He and Dark had a fight about Eric, if they should adopt him, or not. Since they adopted Yan, Wilford really wanted another child (even if they all are the same age), but Dark knew that with the time Dereck can learn to better and taking his own son away from him would not help him at all. But Wilford desperately needed someone who is there to call him 'Papa' and be with him after Yan's barely at home, since Bing finally asked her out. The fight ended when Dark said the worst thing he ever could.

"You know what? I wish you wouldn't get your soul back, so I don't have to deal with your annoying and idiot, bubblegum face!" he shouted from the top of his lungs.

Since that day Dark hasn't talked to him because of the guilt, even if Wilford forgave him after the first week. He missed Dark, he missed his boyfriend, his hugs, his kisses, God even his smile. He missed seeing his smile and when nobody could make him smile, not even Yandere could make him at least crack a little bit other than a fake one and that was obvious. Everybody know that something serous happened this time. Wilford tried to tell him that he forgave him and he wants to be with him again, because he misses him so much. But Dark couldn't forgive himself that easily, so he kept the distance with the love of his life.

And now Wilford woke up alone and knew it will be like this tomorrow as and maybe for forever... Well, they didn't officially break up and it was only just month, but..

Wilford sighed, rolling over in the bed, burying his face into the pillow, what magically still had Dark's smell. He wanted to stay in bed all day, but he had important things to do. Without Dark, today as always about him and Yan. They went to the mall shopping at the morning and then the afternoon time is spa time. He couldn't do that to her. This day she could be with Bing in the house without Dark's angry eyes killing the android, even when they are just randomly hugging in the halls. But still, Wilford needed the time with his daughter at least for one day. So hardly, but he get out of the bed and walked to the closet, to get something on. Not so much time later he finally went down to eat breakfast, to start the day. Down in the kitchen he met with coffee drinking Host, newspaper reading Edward and a cooking Yan. Wilford just wanted to walk up to her, when Bing suddenly ran past him to get behind his girlfriend and lift her up. She yelped, but laughed at the same time.

"Bing, put me down! The breakfast will burn down." she said, kicking the air to get out of his arms, back down to the ground.

"Nah-ah, Starshine. I'm not going to see you till night time, so I need to hug you, while I can." he said, then mouthed a 'Thank you' to Green, who came into the room as well and immediately went to the stove, to save the food and everyone from the smoke. While Bing using the time put down Yan, spinning her around, so she'll face him and he lifted her up again. She sighed, giving up the fighting and wrapped her legs around his waist and kissed his lips.

"Even if he smiled, nobody noticed Wilford's tears what were not just because of seeing his daughter so happy, but because the scene made him remember the time when Dark and him were..." The Host narrated, but stopped when Dr. Iplier almost slapped the back of his head, but he dodged it in time.

"Papa?" Yan asked worried and walked to him quickly, hugging him tightly.

"I'm okay Candy Cane. I'm just..."

"I know Papa, we all feel sorry and miss the old Dad, but it'll be okay. I'm sure soon he'll forgive himself and come back to you. I promise To you." she whispered "But now," she leaned back to look into his eyes. "just care about the today and the sauna and the nice dinner at our favourite restaurant!"

"Wilford actually hates that restaurant, because he hates the seafood and the waitresses always flirting with every customer. But it means so much to him, because that was the first place where Dark asked him out for a real date and not lying it was for business. Suddenly, Dr. Iplier felt a sharp pain in his hand when he tried to hit The Host again." Edward yelled in pain, quickly trying to get a painkiller from one of the drawers.

"Host, please..." the pinkman said, stepping back from the arms of worry and receieved a sigh of annoyance and a quiet growl what was supposed to be his narration. And it was actually it, knowing from Edward's sigh of relief.

"We'll talk about this later." he said, pointing at the blind man, before walking away and he couldn't see, or hear The Host's smirk and quiet talking, only realizing it when his phone started ringing with someone special on the other side "H-hi, Henrik..."

"Wilford sighed, feeling worse and worse at sight of more and more love around him, while he couldn't feel it for a long time now. The Host decided to go away, before Google Green threatens him with destroying his library. The Host narated, before leaving the room."

Green silently growled then smiled again. "Breakfast is ready!" he cheered and made the table for the other three left in the kitchen.

"Thank you, Green!" they said, with a smile, sitting down and began to eat, slightly happier compared to the previous things.

"We should go to thetheater somedy Princess Peach. I've heard that they're playing Shakespeare comedy." Bing said between two bites.

"Okay, but then we have to go to buy a new dress for me." she turned to Wilford, with a smiley, but pleading face.

"Sweety, we do what you want to do. Today is always about you and me, but mostly you." he answered with a soft smile.

"Then, its settled. Its gonna be a good day!" she cheered

"Its another question that who will pay for that dress." Wilford said with a chuckle.

"Papa!" she shouted, punching his arm playfully.

They all started laughing, not knowing what is actually happening to their beloved Dark.

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

"Let me out! Let me out of this Hell hole! "

"You will not leave this place until you give me what I need."

"You're insane! You want something what doesn't exist!"

"Oh yes,... you do..."

#darkstache #darkiplier #wilford warfstache #yandereplier #bingiplier #bing x yan #wkm #mad manor #my fic #markiplier egos #slight dr. schneepiplier #i want more

55 notes · View notes

belgian-quaffle · 5 years

Text

possibilitea for more

Draco and Astoria fall in love over time and tea

Read it on hpft | ao3 | ff.net

Victorian Chai

This was not how Draco expected to spend his birthday.

"Oops," The brush (more like shove) against his shoulder from the couple as they pass around him on either side shouldn't be a surprise, this is not his first time out in public since the end of the war, and yet, somehow, today, it is.

Equally surprising is the hot drink that ends up spilled across his white shirt. "So sorry," The woman says, struggling to hide both her unapologetic tone and holier-than-thou smirk.

"Don't worry about it," Draco fights back the sigh; it wouldn't do any good.

This much he's learned.

His lack of reaction clearly disappoints them, but their laughter resonates all the same as the couple continues out the door of the cafe. Draco blinks a few times, to clear his thoughts, and steps forward to the counter. "A breakfast tea, please?"

"Wow," He looks up abruptly, suddenly nervous about a second encounter in so many minutes. Instead, he's met with an amused face. "Covered in coffee and you don't even care?"

"It's not the first time," With the rest of the cafe now empty and only this girl's friendly face in front of him, this time he doesn't hold back the sigh.

"Yeah," She looks him up and down appraisingly. "I'd guess not."

A full year after the end of the war, Draco is used to the glances. It doesn't make them any easier. "My tea?" He says plainly.

She flicks her wand over her shoulder. "The water's boiling," She grins simply at him. "Aren't you going to clean your shirt?"

He hesitates, before answering with a scowl. "Left my wand at home,"

Her wand flicks over toward him immediately and shit, telling her that was such a bad decision, he knew...wait, his shirt is dry? He looks down. The stain is gone? Draco looks up and sees the girl failing to hide a smile. "Thanks," He nods.

"You're welcome," She returns, finally starting to fix his tea.

"I mean it," He presses. "Most people wouldn't do that for me right now."

The girl slides his to-go cup across the counter to him, grinning at him. "Most people are not in the same boat as us, Draco,"

His hand pauses on the cup. "Us?"

"Don't you recognize me?" Her grin grows as she takes in the look on his face. He can't place her at all. "They were right! Brunettes do do it better!" She flips her dark hair around, laughing.

It's the hair flip that gives her away; he'd seen that all too often...just not on her. "You're Daphne's sister, aren't you?"

She smiles. "Astoria,"

"Pleasure," Draco nods, pulling his tea over and taking a sip. "This...this is not a breakfast tea,"

She shakes her head. "Victorian chai. You looked like you needed it,"

Draco ducks his head so she can't see the smile on his way out. Far and away the best interaction he's had in public in years.

Earl Grey

"You moved out of your parents' house?" She gasps.

"Well I couldn't stay there forever!" Draco argues.

"I thought it was like, a law, that Malfoys had to stay in that house!"

"Hello pot, it's kettle!" He deadpans, for he knows she's staying with one of her sister's friends right now.

"That's just temporary," She brushes him off. "For my summer job," She waves her arms, and he's abruptly reminded that in just over a week, she'll have to return to Hogwarts and he'll be losing his best friend.

His only friend, really.

"I needed-a change." He needed floors that weren't stained with blood, rooms that didn't echo with shouts of former classmates and teachers. Parents that didn't stop sentences abruptly to avoid voicing an opinion that shouldn't be said but they definitely still had.

You know, former Death Eater things.

"You just wanted to be close to me," She crows.

"Only for your tea," Draco cradles his mug close.

"I feel used,"

"You shouldn't make such good tea then,"

She stares at him. "It's earl grey. A baby could do it,"

He sips his tea coolly. "Remember that when I write you at school, asking you how you get it to taste so good,"

Chocolate Candy Cane Tea

"Draco!" The sudden weight thrown against his back is a complete surprise, but there's really only one person it could be, so when Draco turns as soon as the weight drops off his back, he's already grinning down at the short brunette standing with him.

"You're back!" She's here, Astoria's back and Draco's pulling her in for a hug before he even knows what he's doing.

She's laughing when he lets her go, so much that she doesn't even notice the slight blush in his cheeks, for his own reaction to her arrival had caught him so off guard. "I've missed you too!"

Yes! That's it. He's just-he's missed his friend, is all. "How was end of term?"

Astoria scrunches up her face, looking over her shoulder slightly before turning back to him. Draco's eyes follow her gaze to a group of girls he vaguely remembers being a few years below him at Hogwarts before returning to Astoria. "Ah," He says, nothing more needing to be said.

"They're not all bad," She tacks on guiltily. "But unfortunately, the good ones couldn't be here today.

"Well," Draco offers, looking over her shoulder. The girls are pointing at them now. This can only get worse, in his experience. "I'm doing some Christmas shopping. I could use some help looking for something for my mother if you're looking for a better offer to-"

She's linking their arms before he can finish. "Lead the way,"

Astoria gives him the scoop about those girls as they push through the crowd of students in front of Quality Quidditch Supplies (because that would never be an acceptable gift for Narcissa Malfoy, even Draco knows that) and Draco can't help but wonder why she hasn't mentioned any of this in her letters last semester, which had all seemed so light and happy.

It seemed Hogwarts was taking a little longer to settle down than the picture she'd originally painted for him.

"So," Her light nudge pulls him out of his thoughts and he realizes they've made it through the crowd. "What does your mother like?"

He blinks down at her. "Expensive jewelry to prove she's better than everyone and pureblood elitism,"

She laughs; it's loud and musical, drawing the attention of a few people around them and Draco can't help the small smile that grows over his face as he watches her. "Well one of those you can't buy and one of those you can't afford...you can't afford expensive jewelry right now, right?"

"On my zero galleon salary as a volunteer studying potions and alchemy manuscripts at St. Mungo's?"

"Pro tip: try that "poor little rich boy" act on someone who hasn't ever been to your manor before,"

Draco can't help but laugh and Astoria grins triumphantly. "You get my point," He says.

She grins. "Yes, I suppose I do. Then what else does she like?"

Draco frowns. "I dunno. Clothes?"

Astoria shakes her head. "No,"

"How do you know?" Draco argues.

"I just do!" She reaches up with her free hand to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear and it's then that Draco realizes their arms are still linked. They have been, this entire time. It's been...nice...being this close. He hadn't realized that sweet vanilla smell was her.

Except now he's hyper aware of the fact they're so close. Suddenly, his arm feels heavy and awkward. Why is he so stiff? He is not old enough for body parts to be freezing like this-or is he too old?

"Let's just...pop into a few shops and see if we find anything," Astoria suggests, already leading them into the closest store full of knick-knacks.

"Hello dearies," A sweet old lady greets them the instant they walk in the door. "Anything I can help you with?"

"Ye-" Draco starts, only to be cut off by Astoria.

"Just browsing, thanks."

The owner smiles. "Can I offer you two some tea while you browse?"

Draco's eyes widen. "N-"

"That would be lovely!" Astoria beams and the owner gives them both a smile before hurrying off to the back.

Draco tries to convey she's going to poison us with his eyes as they browse, but he's not sure it passes over to Astoria, since she's happy to continue picking up small objects and sniffing spices.

"Here you are, dears!" Astoria accepts hers with thanks and Draco takes his skeptically, still shouting, "murder," loudly in his head. Maybe she's magically developed Legilimency skills this term.

Apparently not.

"Oh Merlin!" She exclaims. "This is amazing! You have to try it,"

"I don't need to," He says stubbornly. "I have the best tea maker right next to me,"

She shakes her head. "It tastes like Christmas in a cup!"

He scowls, resigning himself to dying and ruining his parents' Christmas. "Oh. Wow,"

"Chocolate candy cane tea," The shop owner smiles. "It's my best seller in December,"

"Does your mum drink tea?" Astoria's got that look in her eye and Draco nods, knowing exactly where she's going.

"This would be perfect."

He returns to the shop a day later, to pick up another bag of it to give to Astoria for Christmas. She's completely surprised and her hazel eyes light up as she throws her arms around him in thanks and he finds himself returning the hug almost immediately with no reservations this time.

It's such a vastly different response than the tight lipped smile and nod he'd received from his mother.

White Papaya Tea

Astoria's cleaning a table in the cafe, where she's taken a job again after graduating back in May while she figures out what to do next, when Draco grabs her waist to twirl her around excitedly. "You'll never..." He trails off, when he sees her face. "What's wrong? You look a bit flushed today,"

"Nothing," She shakes her head. "What's-" Her cheeks are still pink. "You look happy! What's happened?"

He examines her skeptically, but lets it slide. "I-I found something today,"

"You did?" Her eyes light up and she drops the rag on the table. "Can you-are you going to tell me?" She's already going behind the counter to make tea and Draco settles down at a table. She's back in a few moments, with two mugs, and places one in front of him while sitting down across from him.

Draco takes a sip of the tea-it's creamy and slightly sweet. "What is this?"

"White papaya," Astoria says impatiently. "Draco! What did you find?"

He can't help but laugh at her eagerness. Her entire face is lit up and he can't help but smile along with her. Just her presence always lifts him up. "It's big, Stor, it's-" He explains a little about the manuscript he's been working through recently and how it could help retrieve lost memories, before he continues. "And it would make such a difference right now on people who've lost their memories from the Imperius or Cruciatus,"

"Draco," She breathes. "This-this is huge!"

It is huge. It's been the only thing they've talked about all day at work. It's what's going to put him on the map, maybe finally give people something to whisper about him without a hint of disdain in their voices.

And he'd immediately rushed here to tell her about it the moment he'd been able.

The realization washes over him abruptly and he tenses, even as she's still smiling her perfect smile at him.

"We have to celebrate!" She exclaims.

"Sorry," He hears himself say, rather coldly. "I'm busy now,"

Astoria looks, understandably confused at his sudden change in tone, but she nods all the same. "Later then,"

"Maybe," Draco nods, but now that he knows how he feels, he can't. He has to protect her from the names and words. "Goodbye, Astoria,"

He turns quickly so as not to see the look on her face, but he doesn't manage to move fast enough to avoid seeing it fall.

Victorian Chai

It's a few weeks later that Draco is waiting outside the cafe, two to-go cups of tea in a carrier in his hand, taking deep breaths to steady his nerves. A few Astoria-less weeks later that have been absolutely miserable.

It turns out that avoiding her after realizing his feelings for her had done nothing to make them go away. What a surprise.

He pulls out his pocketwatch to check the time, nodding when everything looks right. Suddenly, the door opens in front of him and he jumps up, but it makes no difference; when Astoria sees him, she stops abruptly. "What are you-" She stops. "Why haven't you been around in a while?"

"I was being stupid," Draco says firmly. "But I'm done doing that now," If he was going to be better now, he was going to do it with everything, Astoria included. She stares at him, lips pursed, and unable to take the silence, he says, "Did you change your hair?"

She nods. "Daphne tells me that getting bangs is never really about getting bangs and there's really some great, underlying trauma, but I think I like them. They feel..."

"New," Draco supplies, because he knows the exact feeling, of needing something tangible to feel like things are different. A visible representation to signify the fresh start.

"Yeah," She nods. "Is one of those for me?"

"Yes!" He passes it over to her. "A Victorian chai." She smiles; it's clear she remembers the same as he does. "Though it's nowhere near as good as yours."

"I see," She says, sounding like she wants to be teasing, but her words cut a little too much. "You're just back because you want me for my tea,"

"It's not just for your tea," Draco admits. "Though it's taken me far too long to admit that it's for you too,"

There's a splash against his foot and Astoria's breath catches in her throat as she looks up at him. She doesn't appear to notice she's dropped her cup, but Draco doesn't care this time that there's coffee spilled all over him as he steps closer to her.

Her lips part just in time for him to kiss them softly. "You made me drop my tea," She accuses, when they break apart.

"I told you it wasn't very good!"

"Hmm, if only we knew someone who could do it better," Astoria grins, leaning in to kiss him again.

"If only," Draco agrees, thinking they may not be getting that tea for a while.

A/N:This was originally written for The Great Collab of 2018-2019 over at HPFT. This was for topic 1: new beginnings with a challenge theme of slow burn.

additionally, many thanks to starbuck for reading over this and giving lovely comments and advice! also, shoutout to my aunt and uncle's spice and tea store, which is where i specifically looked for types of tea to use in this, thanks fam

#harry potter fanfiction #harry potter fanfic #harry potter post war #drastoria #draco malfoy fanfiction #draco malfoy x astoria greengrass #drastoria fanfic #drastoria fanfiction #hp fanfic #hpfanfictalk

6 notes · View notes

scaplivingtogether · 5 years

Text

~A Evillious Christmas Carol~ Act 3

By: TomboyJessie13

Act 3

The clock's bell on his nightstand started to ring, it is 11 at night. Along with the ringing were the sounds of weeping, Marlon had been crying in his sleep, he stirred in his bed as he wiped his eyes. He had been traveling in the past with the Ghost of Christmas Past and now he's left in a vulnerable state of guilt and sorrow.

"I'm such a fool..." He started, staring at the ceiling before covering his face with his hand. "How could I be so foolish?" Talking to himself in a somber tone, he then opened up the curtain to his bed. "I need some water." He lit his candle and proceeded to leave the room. Once he opened the bedroom door, he noticed that there's a light going on in the dining room. Did someone break into his home? Marlon quickly walked down the stairs to see who's there. "Hello? Who's there?" He called out, but no reply. Carefully he grabbed his cane under the portrait of Cheru, he's about to put up a fight with the intruder, he blew out his candle before setting it down, as he did'n't want to cause a fire.

"HAAAAAH!" He jumped in front of the dining room entrance ready to take on whoever's in the kitchen...but he stopped. His eyes grew wide in surprise as he dropped his cane, in front of was a dining table covered in platters of food, all different dishes and desserts more delicious than the last, not only that but the whole dining room is decorated in green colored decorations. Marlon felt drool running down his mouth from the site, he should've excepted Ayn's invitation to the Christmas feast a long time ago.

"Looks good huh?" Marlon jumped in surprise when he heard a masculine voice in the room, he looked over to find sitting at the head of the table in a fingers locked position was someone with a blond bob haircut and blue eyes. They seem to be wearing a green robe with white fur lining on it and secured with a brown belt, a wreath of holly decorated with red mistletoe berries and icicles, making it look like a crown, they seem to also be wearing a white feminine shirt with puffy sleeves and form fitting cuffs, a white frilly skirt that goes down to the middle of their ankles, red leggings, and black Mary Jane shoes with thick high heals. "I take it you never had food like this in your entire life or you had it before you you became stingy."

"Wait...you're a man?" Marlon asked in a baffled tone, changing the subject, this caused the stranger to look dissatisfied.

"Yes...and?" The stranger answered, looking annoyed.

"N-nothing..are you another spirit?" Marlon asked, attempting to avoid angering a person. They stood up and grabbed a cornucopia.

"But of course." He snaps his fingers which causes the cornucopia to light up like a torch. "I am the Ghost of Christmas Present, I am what they call the embodiment of Christmas."

"I can tell, you look like St. Nicholas if he were royalty and wore green."

"But I'm not St. Nicholas, aren't I?" The Spirit said as he walked over. "I'm surprised that you don't even know me considering I have 800 brothers, not to mention that we come every year." He then turned to the food on the table. "As for the large feast you see before you, this is what I like to call: "the food of generosity", it all came from the heart of those who think of others before themselves." He then turned back to the miser, pointing. "Something that you gave up a long time ago." That comment hit Marlon hard, after what he saw in his past, he felt vulnerable but is more willing now. Marlon placed his hand in his chest and slightly bowed.

"My apologies, Spirit." Marlon said remorsefully. "After what the previous Spirit showed me, I'll allow you to show me what I need to see."

"Really? So she finally knocked some sense into you?" He lifted his left arm to him. "Very well, just touch my robe and we'll be on our way." Marlon was slightly hesitant at first, but at this point he just doesn't care, he took hold of the Spirit's sleeve and as quick as a flash they ended up in the middle of a street in the city he lives. Marlon quickly covers his arms trying to warm them up as the air is to cold.

"BAH! BLOODY HELL IT'S TOO COLD!" Marlon yelled out in frustration.

"You didn't have a problem being with the previous Spirit." The current Spirit joked.

"W-we were i-i-inside buildings m-m-most of the t-t-time, plus she's a w-w-walking candle." Marlon shivered.

"Hm, you have a point, here you go." The Spirit snapped his fingers, allowing a robe to wrap around the Miser. "I brought your bathrobe from your place, I hope that's ok." Marlon quickly puts his robe on.

"Thank you, that's all I needed."

"Anyways, lets get a move on." They walked down the cold city street, around them people are making preparations for Christmas despite the poor weather, from cleaning the rooftops to talking merrily. The shops around them are also lined with colorful and delicious platters of food, the smell of figs and spices fill the air, and everybody is rushing about buying things for the season and the shopkeepers are too busy making merry to worry about getting the right prices. Then the church bells ring and the flocks of people go off to church. "This is what I like about this holiday, people having fun and treating each other with respect." The Spirit said as he began sprinkling a strange incense on the food from his cornucopia shaped torch.

"What's that?" Marlon asked.

"A special incense from my torch, a sprinkle of this stuff will give the food a magical effect of making any disagreement vanish." He answered. "It's best given to a poor dinner...speaking of that, there's one place I want to show you." They walk a little more down town until they reached the outskirts of the city, in front of them was a small rundown two story house with light inside. "Ah, here we are." The Spirit said as he stopped in front of a door.

"Who's run down shack is this?" Marlon said, annoyed, the Spirit then used his left hand and pushed the old Miser through the door without opening it, they just when through it like it was never there.

"This "shack" that you speak of is the home of your overworked and underpaid employee; Keel Cratchit." He told Marlon as he was sprinkling some incense around the place as well. As he does so, Marlon looks around the house interior, as expected it looked rundown, but at the same time it was surprisingly stable. A woman, with pinkish-red hair and wearing a simple pink dress with blue ribbons on it and brown slip-ons took out the bread from the oven and set it by a small window to cool down, meanwhile a young brunette boy wearing a dirty white shirt and blue overalls was placing ornaments around the Christmas tree, the tree itself was scrawny and missing tons of branches.

"I'm home, Mother!" Just then the front door opened behind Marlon, and in comes a young teenage girl with brown hair tied in small pigtails and matching eyes, and is wearing a old dress that matches her mother's hair, she also seems to be carrying a dead goose in her hands.

"Welcome home, Yukina." The woman said as she walks over to hug her daughter, just then they heard footsteps, Yukina quickly hides behind a rocking chair. Soon in comes Marlon's employee Keel, he was carrying another brunette girl with brown eyes, this time with longer pigtails and wearing a pale dress with a brown jacket, she seems to be holding a stick that resembles a crutch. Out of all the cheeriness in the room, Keel for some reason was looking sad, Marlon tilt his head at his expression.

"BOO!" Yukina jumps out, surprising Keel and the little girl.

"Oh Yukina you scared me." Keel said, forming a smile, the girl in his arms giggled.

"I brought home a goose!"

"Terrific child, we'll have a great dinner tonight." He said as he places the girl down, she was limping with a cane in hand. Seeing that, Marlon felt like something was wrong. "You go play with your siblings, Tiny Aile." Keel said, he and his wife went to another room, Marlon followed them and listened in to what they had to say. He notices how Keel was on the verge of crying. "Tiny Aile seems to be doing well, Mikina, though I don't know how long it would last."

"Don't say such things, Keel." Mikina urged. "I'm as worried as you are, but we have to keep our chins up and pray that she'll make a full recovery, and hopefully save enough money to cure her illness."

"You're right, she will make a recovery...someday." Marlon continues to watch Keel's family closely, it seems that for the first time he's actually learning much more about his own employee and how he and his family live every minute. Soon it was supper, the goose is small but they're quite happy to get something to eat during their prayers. Tiny Aile lifted up her glass and proclaimed proudly:

"God bless us everyone!" As she said that, the others followed suit.

"Spirit?" Marlon asks.

"Yeah?" He response, having just returned from blessing the house with incense.

"I've been absorbing Aile for quite a while...what's wrong with that poor child? Is she going to survive?"

"...I'm afraid not." He said in a somber tone. "They're giving their hopes up...for you see, if things like this continue...the only thing I see in their future is an empty chair where Tiny Aile once sat." Marlon's eyes widen in horror, it was not the answer he hoped for.

"...So that means...Aile's going to..."

"I'm afraid so." Marlon stood in there, frozen by this horrific fate placed on this child, and it will be his own fault.

"And...god bless...Mr. Marlon." Marlon suddenly jumped upon hearing his name spoken by his own employee.

"Seriously?" Mikina asked, sounding quite annoyed. "How could be so grateful to a Miser that pushes you around? You do this every year."

"I know, but even people like him should be given some respect and forgiveness, he was generous enough to let me have a day off." Keel responded, "You ought to not think lowly on them, especially on Christmas."

"Hmmm, I suppose." She said quietly, she then raised her drink and said: "God bless him." And after that conversation, they returned to their activities, being merrier than ever. Even Tiny Aile began to sing a song. While this was going on, the Spirit tugged on Marlon's arm, motioning him that it's time to leave, and he follows. Walking back into the city, Marlon's mind became full, he has learned so much more about his employee, given a new perspective on him, Marlon needs to start treating him more kindly. But what worries him the most was his youngest daughter and her discovered illness that, was she really going to die because of him? Meanwhile the Spirit was twirling around in his dress over the beautiful scenery.

"What the hell are you doing?" Marlon exclaimed over the site before him.

"Enjoying myself, what do you think? I'm the embodiment of Christmas after all." He responds, he stops twirling. "Why? you still worrying about Tiny Aile?"

"Well of course!...Eh!" Marlon blushed upon realizing what he just said, he clears his throat. "D-don't think I care or anything, I just don't want to see my employee coming to work depressed...it slows down business."

"Yeah that's not what I saw back at their place." The Spirit teased. "You we're very concerned." Marlon looked away.

"Whatever."

"Anyways, despite the horrible times, these families including Keel's still manage to make the best of it, for example..." He snaps his fingers, suddenly they're in the middle of nowhere, covered in grass and trees.

"What the-!?" Marlon exclaimed. "Where are we?"

"The Moor, that's where those miners live." The Spirit points over to the fields, there were a couple of miners who were sitting by the campfire and singing with their wives and children. "And here." He snaps his fingers again, and now their inside a building.

"Is this a lighthouse?" Marlon asks.

"Yes, next to the most unsettling waves on this county, despite of all that however, these gentlemen here are having a grand ol' time." He points at the two men who were eating and drinking their fill next to a small holly hanging on the wall. "And here." He snaps his fingers once more, now they're on a boat. "See those sea men over there?" Marlon turns to see a few more men celebrating as well, humming a tune to "We wish you a Merry Christmas". Marlon was quite surprised upon seeing those men having fun despite being in a dangerous sea. "And finally here." He snaps his fingers once more, there were inside someone's house with people in it, laughing and singing.

"This place...these people...why do they look familiar?" Marlon asked.

"Bah Humbug!"

"WHAT!?" Marlon heard someone say his catchphrase alongside a sea of laughter, he turned around and saw someone he knew, someone he had once despised but now feels regret. "Ayn!?" He sees his Nephew making fun of his saying while people egged him on, he was known to be contagious around people but in a good way. A beautiful woman came to him, it was his wife.

"You outta be ashamed of yourself, making light of that miser of an uncle of yours." She scolded.

"It's fine love, I don't even get to keep any of the money anyways because nothing good comes from it." Ayn said smiling. "I feel pretty bad for Uncle Marlon though, he's missing out of the good times, that's why I keep pestering him every year hoping he would come one day." They all laugh again at this notion. Marlon became flustered from the thought, his nephew cares for him too much after all those times he pushed him away. Just then he hears a pretty tune from a harp, it was his niece, he remembers this song fondly, for the first time...it made him smile, but not because of greed, but because of nostalgia, the enjoyment he felt a long time ago has made him smile. The Spirit grins at this development, he knew that Marlon's cold shell is starting to break.

"Game time!" One of the family members proclaim, everyone was getting ready for it. Marlon sees them making preparations, he then turns to the Spirit.

"If it's not too much trouble...but do you mind if I play these games a little?" He asks while blushing, the Spirit perked up from hearing that.

"Not at all, but do keep in mind that you these are just memories so they may not be real, not to mention we got 15 minutes." The Spirit said, looking at the grandfather clock.

"Worth it." He says, giving him a thumbs up. Despite what the Spirit had said to him, he was just having a great time with the relatives he never talks to, telling stories, playing games, and singing songs, his Christmas spirit has finally returned to him. "HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!" Marlon started to laugh again, this time to these festivities. Soon the bell Rings, it was time for him to go. Although he wants to stay more, he knew it couldn't last. Outside, both Marlon and the Spirit had their elbows linked and are twirling around in an happy matter. "I haven't felt this good in years!"

"See? I told you the holidays ain't always bad." The Spirit said in a elated tone...but it didn't last long, for the lights in the city started to darken, and while that was going on, the Spirit began to slow down. Confused, Marlon looked and noticed that he's starting to develop white hair.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm sorry...I forgot to mention that my time is up by midnight...which means I will waste away...and won't comeback till next year." He explained, sounding somewhat somber.

"I see...huh?" Marlon spot something odd about him.

"What?"

"...What's going on under your dress?" He asks while pointing at his dress. The Spirit looks down.

"Oh right...I forgot to mention about them." He then proceeded to lift up his dress, revealing two little blond children, one with short hair resembling Marlon's and one with short twintails, both of them were starving, feral, sickly, dirty, and disgusting. Marlon was surprised about their sudden appearance as he stepped back from almost being scratched by the boy before being pulled back by the spirit, how has the Spirit not warn him about this?

"...A-are they your's?" Marlon asked sheepishly.

"No...these are man's." The Spirit said in a frail voice, he patted their heads. "This boy is Ignorance...This girl is Want...Beware of both of them...but most of all, beware the boy...For on his forehead I see that written which is "Doom."...Unless the writing is erased...If you deny him...slander those who tell others about him...admit that he exists, but do nothing about it...then doom will engulf you all..."

"...I-is they're any refuge for these children!?" Marlon asks in a scared tone, "A-any charities!?" the Spirit only looked at him with a stoic expression.

"...Are there no prisons?...are there no workhouses?" He asks, sounding more serious, that question alone was thought provoking. As Marlon was lost in his own thoughts about what the Spirit asks, the bell tolls. Marlon looked up at the bell tower at the center of the city, it was Midnight. He looked back to talk to the Spirit once more, but he and the children were gone...He was left all alone in the middle of the city.

"Spirit!?...Where are you!?" Marlon began to frantically ask while walking around the middle of the empty and dark city...completely unaware of a dark figure behind him.

End of Act 3

#evillious chronicles #fanfiction #a christmas carol #christmas #crossover

6 notes · View notes

killian-whump · 6 years

Text

OUAT 2x11: Rewatch Blog

Alright, everybody. Buckle yourselves in, because this is gonna be one WILD ride of a Rewatch Blog right here. Today’s episode is “The Outsider” - also known as “The Episode Where Killian Jones Is Attacked with a Bookshelf, Beaned with an Oar, Knocked into the Hold of His Own Ship, Beaten with a Cane, Almost Straight-Up Murdered, Slapped and Demeaned, Having Just About the Worst Day Humanly Possible... Then Gets Hit By a Car”.

There’s going to be a lot of flailing. There’s going to be a lot of GIFs.

And you’ll probably never see another Rewatch Blog from me, because I will be blogging and reblogging content from this episode for the rest of my life, because the sheer quantity of whump in this one episode is mind-boggling.

At any rate, let’s get on with the show!

You know, it’s a good thing Mr. Gold shelled out the money for a nice luxury car, because that trunk space seems to really come in handy for him.

Smee bondage and whump, if anyone’s into that ;)

Oh no, is this the episode with the Mogwai that isn’t actually a Mogwai, but I always think it’s a Mogwai because that’s the name that sticks in my head? I’m terrible at knowing which episode is which unless it’s cataloging Killian whump, then I know all. Anyway, this title card is kinda unimpressive.

Aww... It’s a funeral :( Sweet words from Snow, but I keep wondering who the poor sap is that’s actually buried in that coffin... and did they dig him/her up later and give them a proper burial under their own name? Or just figure, “Eh, that’ll do” and just forget about it?

I love how Pongo doesn’t actually seem sad, too. Easily ignored on first viewing, but on second viewing, he totally looks like, “Dudes... Why are we here?”

Mmm... I love it when Colin’s being aggressive and wicked <3

“I only have enough of this potion for one object.” And I don’t suppose you could, like, make more of it or anything XD This show is so silly sometimes.

Oh, it IS the Mogwai-that-isn’t-a-Mogwai episode. Know how I know? Here’s how I know: That’s the episode Belle makes this epic face in:

I feel you, Belle. I feel you.

Yaoguai. Yaoguai. NOT a Mogwai. Give me 20 minutes, it’ll be a Mogwai again.

“No man has been able to kill it.” Oh, I’ve heard THAT before.

La la la la la, Happy Day, Happy Morning, Happy Library.

OH SHIT, THERE’S A HOT PIRATE IN THE LIBRARY.

Aaaaaaaaaand there’s some improper usage of library resources. Incidentally, this is one of my favorite Hook bestings, because not everyone can say they were bested by a librarian with a cart of books.

Action Hook! Leaping and running...right into that door. Not his best moment. Oh, I know. Let’s hit the door. That should help. (Spoiler: It doesn’t.)

Umm... Convenient cell phone issues, ahoy! That’s always annoyed me.

“I trust you’ve seen one before.” Kinda snarky for someone setting out on a quest with the guy, I mean, at least try to make friends?

Nevermind, that dude’s an asshole. Although to be fair, she was rude first.

“It’s taken me weeks to track the Mogwai Yaoguai here.” “Yeah, I found it in a day.” Seriously, Belle? Seriously?! Tact.

‘I just can’t understand why people are being so mean to me...’

See, I don’t understand the convenient cell phone outage, when Gold’s just going to rush right over and find her and get the whole story from her anyway. Like, what purpose did that odd snafu cause? She could’ve just as easily gotten the message across on the phone or simply said, “Rumple! Help!” and explained more when he got there, and we wouldn’t have to suspend belief that her cell phone just mysteriously stopped getting reception right when she needed it.

Every time I watch this episode, they always leave out the best part.

“I managed to wrangle up a Pop Tart.” Emma, you culinary genius.

“No one is here.” “Yet.” FORESHADOWING!!!!

“This is really not your concern.” HE JUST STRAIGHT UP TRIED TO KILL HER, RUMPLE. I think that makes it her concern. “He attacked me. It most definitely is my concern.” See?! Even Belle agrees with me.

“She died. That’s all that matters.” Ummmmmmmmmm...

Surprisingly good plan, actually. And it makes sense how Smee would know all of this (although how he knew about the shawl is a mystery). I would’ve liked to have seen Smee and Hook reunite, though :(

Wow, Gold... Kinda being a major jerk right now. “How exactly are you gonna help me?!” I mean, it’s a valid question, but seriously. TACT, people.

“Promise me that you going after Hook is just about getting the shawl back.” AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA, no. Kudos to him for not lying here, though.

“Wait, you’re a-” “Yeah, I know.” Heehee! :D

Oh no, the Monkey’s Fist that launched a million headcanons...

To be real, I don’t really buy into the headcanons, since a Monkey’s Fist is a ridiculously common knot and one used as a counterweight on sailing vessels, but I’m always a fan of painful headcanons, so I like it, anyway.

That said, I don’t even know why it was necessary. I mean, he’s a pirate. Seems like a no-brainer that he might’ve come to this realm with, you know, a ship. It just seems like a convoluted way to have Belle be able to use her book smarts to solve a mystery that shouldn’t be a mystery at all.

Awww... Smee is cute as a rat :D

LOL, I love the way Belle walks with the gun, swinging it like it’s a handbag or something. Haha. Gun safety classes. Pronto.

See, now THAT was clever sleuthing, hearing the ship, seeing the birds landing on something that isn’t there... and especially tossing the sand.

Action Belle! Rescuing Archie! Woowoo!

...straight into dish drying. Seriously, the segues on this show...

Umm... Listening in on extensions isn’t really cool.

“How did he get in here?” He pushed the door right open. We watched him do it, like, 5 seconds ago. You didn’t lock the door, obviously. DON’T YOU KNOW YOU LIVE IN A TOWN WITH EVIL VILLAINS RUNNING AMOK? Although, to be fair, those villains aren’t the kind who let door locks stop them, so why bother... but then don’t act surprised when dogs push your front door open!

...Also, giving your kid a dog without asking the people you live with if that’s okay is also not cool. Just saying, haha.

You know, I’d question the likelihood of Hook hiding the key to a locked box literally right next to the box in question, but this is a man who also hid the Shears of Motherfucking Destiny in a tool box in the shed, so...

“That doesn’t belong to you.” Like that’s gonna work, haha.

I knew she shouldn’t have set the gun down.

“You are.” “Me?” Yes, you and your fantastic cleavage.

To his credit, he didn’t just blow her head off right here, when he easily could’ve.

Aaaaaand now it’s time for ridiculously sexual conversating.

Aw, random Millian feels T_T “Because she made it.” T_T

“Died. Like it was some kind of accident. Is that what he told you?” That really was a pretty massive whitewashing Rumple did right there.

“His heart is true... and yours? Yours is rotten.” Okay, Jan.

Heeeeeeeeeeey, that’s not Colin!

No matter what the occasion or the peril, it’s always a good time for puns.

HOOK WHUMP HOOK WHUMP HOOK WHUMP YAAAAAY

“You may want to turn away, Belle. This isn’t gonna be pretty.” I beg to differ. This scene is beautiful, actually. All kinds of blood and pain and wavering voices and begging for death and slapping and humiliation... Yum.

I did warn you guys there would be flailing.

WHY WOULD YOU CUT AWAY FROM THAT SCENE. THIS IS WHY THE MOGWAI ANGERS ME. DON’T CUT AWAY FROM HOOK WHUMP FOR SILLY MOGWAIS OR WHATEVER THEY ARE *flail*

Also, he should’ve been naked. I mean, it makes sense. And... naked.

“Do it! Do it! Kill me! He has to show you how powerful he is. Rip my heart out. Kill me like you did Milah, and then I’ll finally be reunited with her.”

THAT HURTS ME, GUYS. IT HURTS ME T_T My baby...

Rumple’s response makes me laugh every time, though.

‘I MEAN, COME ON, NOW I LITERALLY HAVE TO.’

Oh gods, guys, that slap is my favorite Hook slap ever. It’s just so patronizing and insulting and... AHH, I’M ALIVE.

...and that tiny smirk at the very end. Homeboy’s not done with yoooou :D

Domestic issues over house hunting in aisle three.

It’s really sad when little boys want to build armories to protect themselves from their Other Mom :( Seriously, show. That’s a low blow :(

Well, here we are... Late night drive... Five minutes left in the show... Not like anything much is gonna happen here...

Oh, a random flashback... Evil Queen capturing Belle... Nice, nice.

Only three minutes left now, awww, Gold can leave town <3

Two minutes left now, it’s not like they have time to- OH MY GOD

OH MY GOD SOMEONE SHOT BELLE

OH MY GOD HE LOOKS HOT BLOODY AND FIRING A GUN

“Oh, fear not, she’ll live. She’ll just have no idea who you are.” “What you’ve done cannot be undone!!!” “Well, now you finally know how it feels!” I love that exchange. Really and truly <3

Only one minute to go, there’s no way there could be any more unexpected twists or turns or - OH MY GOD IT’S A CAR

OH MY GOD LOOK AT RUMPLE MOVE

OH MY GOD HOOK GOT HIT BY THE CAR

OH MY GOD LOOK AT THAT FUCKER FLY!

OH MY GOD I THINK HE’S DEAD D:

(Spoiler Alert: He’s not dead.)

OH MY GOD THAT’S THE END

OH MY GOD PEW PEW PEW PEW

#OH MY GOD #2x11 #ouat rewatch #ouat liveblog #watching fairytales #oc #kw reviews

30 notes · View notes

emospritelet · 6 years

Text

Back in Business - Chapter 2/3

Part 2 of my RCIJ gift for @winterswanderlust

Rating: whole fic E, this chapter T

Word count: whole fic 20,067, this chapter 7,763

[Chapter 1]

AO3 link

The storm had passed by the time the next morning dawned, but the skies were still grey and dull, and the air had grown colder. Snow was coming, according to the too-cheerful weatherman on the local news, and Belle shuddered as she ate toast and peanut butter. She felt good, though. There was a spring in her step and a flutter of excitement in her belly at the thought of getting one step closer to opening her very own library. Assuming the Mayor would agree, of course, but now that she had Mr Gold’s permission to use the building, she hoped that would be forthcoming.

Ms Gale looked surprised when Belle told her the news, but smiled warmly.

“I can’t believe he agreed,” she said. “You’re not the first to try, but you’re certainly the first to succeed. Did you like - agree to give him your first born, or something?”

“Nothing that drastic,” said Belle, with a grin. “He definitely wasn’t keen on the idea, but I managed to talk him around. Maybe I played on his sense of community spirit.”

“If he has one, that’s the first I’ve heard of it,” said Ms Gale dryly. “Still, I guess the ‘why’ isn’t important. I’ll get this before Mayor Mills today. If we’re lucky, she could make an initial decision without waiting for the Council meeting. It’s not a huge expense, after all.”

“I - did want to get some funds to buy more books, though,” said Belle, and Ms Gale nodded.

“Yeah, that part might have to wait until the Council meeting, but at least if you get her agreement you can start getting the place ready, right?”

Belle beamed at her, feeling confident.

“Right.”

Belle had to wait most of the day to hear the Mayor’s decision, and the waiting was torture. She helped her father in the shop to take her mind off things, setting up the racks of aluminium shelving he had bought, making up bunches of bright flowers for sale, and watering and feeding the plants that he was growing. It was after four when Ms Gale called to tell her that her proposal had been approved and that she would hold the position of librarian, starting the following Monday. After thanking her politely, putting down the phone and letting out the squeal of excitement she had been desperately holding in, Belle bounced on her toes, glancing around and snatching up her bag before bolting out to head over to Mr Gold’s shop to give him the news.

She entered the pawn shop at a rush, the little bell tinkling above her as she stepped inside. Mr Gold was standing behind the counter, hands poised on the tips of his fingers, as though he had been waiting for her. His suit jacket was off, and she noticed that gold sleeve garters had pushed up the sleeves of his blue silk shirt. A gold chain hung from one of the buttons of his waistcoat and looped down before disappearing into the pocket, and she suspected that it was attached to a watch. Because of course it would be. For a brief moment she entertained the fantasy that he was a time-traveller, a man from the nineteen-hundreds, trapped in the present day and trying to preserve of much of his old existence as he could. The thought made her want to giggle. He had a tiny smile on his face, his eyes crinkling at the corners.

“Miss French,” he said pleasantly. “From the absurdly cheerful look on your face I take it the Mayor has agreed to your proposal?”

“Yes!” said Belle, a little breathlessly. “At least - she’s agreed to pay my salary. I haven’t had a decision on whether she’ll give me any funds to restock yet.”

“In that case, it seems congratulations are in order.” He reached to the side, opening up a drawer and holding out a key with a round tag. “Here. I believe this belongs to you.”

She stepped forward, holding out her hand, and he placed the key in her palm. She turned the tab over with her thumb. Library was written on it in a thin, slanting script. A wide grin spread across her face, and she met his eyes.

“Thank you,” she said sincerely.

“The pleasure was all mine."

He was watching her intently, and she could feel herself blushing. She wondered whether he found her as attractive as she found him. Perhaps he had thought about her when he lay in bed the previous night, wondering how it would feel to kiss her, to touch her. To pull her by the hand into that back room and lay her down on the bench, and—

“Was there something else, Miss French?”

His voice made her jump, pulling her out of her brief daydream, and her blush deepened.

“Oh! Oh, yes…” She reached into her bag for the shawl he had lent her, holding it out to him. “Thank you for this.”

“Ah. And I have your coat.”

He turned and pushed the curtain aside, emerging moments later with her coat in his hand, now dry. Belle took it from him with a nod, and he folded his hands over the cane, flicking back his hair.

“Will you be exploring your new dominion, then?” he asked.

“I’ll be cleaning it,” she said, a little ruefully. “Lot of dust on everything.”

“I could always get one of my teams in to do that, you know.”

“You have - teams?” she said neutrally.

“I have people I employ to take care of the more unpleasant aspects of my businesses, yes.”

His voice was soft, almost a caress, but the way he phrased the sentence made him sound as though he ran an organised crime network, and for the first time Belle understood why the rest of the townsfolk seemed leery of him. There was an air of menace about him, steel beneath the silk. She wasn’t afraid, and she didn’t feel that he meant her any ill will, but she could still sense it. A darkness swirling within the seething intensity that he seemed to keep a tight grip on. Passion and rage, buried deep and almost forgotten until he let it burst forth. She wondered how spectacular it was when he lost his temper, and decided that she probably didn’t want to find out.

“That - that won’t be necessary, thank you,” she said. “I’d quite like to go through everything. It’ll feel more like my place then, you know?”

“As you wish.”

“It can wait until tomorrow,” she added. “I’ll look over the apartment as well, see what needs doing.”

“Let me know if there’s anything that requires the services of a tradesman,” he said. “I keep the place as well-maintained as I can, but I daresay they may be some small repairs to be made that I’ve overlooked. I can get someone out to fix them straight away.”

“Another one of your ‘team’?” she asked, amused.

Mr Gold showed his teeth.

“Precisely.”

“Can I paint the walls?” she asked suddenly, and he inclined his head.

“Of course.”

“Great.” She clutched the key in her hand. “Well, in that case, I guess I’ll get out of your hair. Thank you.”

“You’re very welcome,” he said. “I look forward to seeing what you do with the place.”

Belle grinned, but shifted from foot to foot, feeling a little awkward.

“You want to ask me a question,” he said, and she nodded.

“You - you didn’t want to open it, did you?” she said.

Mr Gold eyed her steadily.

“No.”

“Ms Gale at the Town Hall told me that you turned down like six offers, or something.”

“Seventeen in total,” he said, “although I suspect most of them were before her time.”

“So…” Belle floundered a little. “So - I guess I’m wondering why you decided to say yes to me.”

He hesitated for a moment, and shrugged.

“Because you reminded me that the world turns and time moves on, and that perhaps it was time to move with it,” he said. “That perhaps it doesn’t help to hold onto the past.”

“Right.” She didn’t understand what he meant, but she supposed it didn’t matter. “Well - I guess I’ll see you around.”

He smiled, a brief twist of his mouth.

“Good day, Miss French.”

She started early the next morning. Her father had gone to the shop, and she spent a little time collecting together a plastic bucket, all the cleaning materials she thought she’d need and a thick roll of garbage bags. The weather had grown colder, flecks of snow just starting to fall, and she shivered as she locked the house, hurrying into town as quickly as she could.

When she reached the library she dug into her pocket for the key that Mr Gold had given her and unlocked the doors. They opened with a faint squeak, and she pushed them wide, feeling a surge of pride as she entered the library: her library. She set down her bucket of cleaning materials and flicked on the lights, a broad smile spreading across her face as she watched the light gleam faintly on the dust-strewn wooden floor and cast shadows amongst the stacks of books. Her eyes turned towards the circulation desk, and she blinked. On top of the desk sat a large bunch of sunflowers, yellow bursts of colour bright against the dark wood, the blooms wrapped in purple paper and tied with gold ribbon. Belle stepped forward, reaching for the bundle of flowers, fingers stroking the velvet petals. She looked in vain for a card, but had a suspicion where the sunflowers had come from. There was only one other person who had a key to the library, after all. And who knew about her favourite flowers.

She didn’t have a vase, and so she had to make do with a beer glass from the caretaker’s apartment, filled with water. The apartment was small, but looked as though it could be comfortable once it was thoroughly cleaned and the furniture replaced with something new. Not that she was thinking of leaving her father’s place that day, but it made sense to plan ahead. She wanted her independence, after all, and she suspected that rental prices in Storybrooke were somewhat lower than in Melbourne, where she had had no choice but to stay with her father. It had made dating almost impossible. Not that she was thinking about that either, of course. Not much, anyway.

She wrapped the glass with the purple paper, tying it securely with the gold ribbon, and placed the bunch of sunflowers back on the desk, smiling at their cheerful colours. Time to clean the place up.

By the end of the day she was exhausted, aching from head to toe and covered in grime, but the library and apartment were free from dust and empty of anything that was outdated, broken or too dirty to clean. Belle had seen more spiders than she was comfortable with, but they had scuttled out of her way through cracks in the floorboards and under the skirting, and as far as she was concerned they could stay there. Closing the last empty drawer of the circulation desk, she ran a tired hand over her face, grimacing as it came away smeared with dark grey. She badly needed to shower. She skirted the desk, taking a pile of books that she had already marked for removal and stacking them in a cardboard box. Turning, she caught a glimpse of the bunch of sunflowers out of the corner of her eye. She should thank Mr Gold for sending them. Just as soon as she was clean and looking less like a dust-covered goblin, anyway.

“The place is looking brighter by your presence already.”

His voice, unexpected in the silence, made her jump with a squeak of surprise, and she turned around, heart thumping, to see him standing just inside the door, leaning on his cane.

“Don’t you knock?” she said, aggrieved, and Mr Gold looked around himself, as though her question confused him.

“This is a public space now, is it not?”

“I - yes, of course,” said Belle, feeling awkward. “Sorry, I just - you startled me.”

She was well aware that she was dirty, covered in dust and cobwebs and sticky with sweat, and he was immaculate in his suit. His shirt was deep pink today, and it suited him, the colour warming his skin. He took a step forward.

“I just thought I’d see how you were getting along,” he said. “I see you’ve removed most of the things from the apartment. I can have someone collect and dispose of them.”

“Oh, would you?” She felt herself almost sag in relief. “Thank you! I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it all.”

“No matter.” He tilted his head to the side. “Are you thinking of living there? I could procure some furniture for you, if so.”

“Yeah, now I’ve looked at the place, I think I’d like to,” she said. “I love my dad, don’t get me wrong, but I really need my own place.”

“One’s privacy is something to be treasured,” he agreed.

“What about you?” she asked. “Do you live alone?”

“With only my own thoughts for company,” he confirmed, with the ghost of a smile. “Not always the most pleasant of roommates.”

“I get that,” she said quietly. “Maybe you should get a cat, or something.”

Mr Gold grinned at that, and took a step towards the stacks, running his eyes over them.

“You’ve removed some of the books, I see.”

“Only the ones that were too damaged, or reference books too out of date,” she said. “I want this to be a useful resource, after all, and it can’t be if people are reading the wrong information.”

“Very true,” he said. “I’d hate to have to chastise you over inaccurate reference texts, after all.”

Her brain took the not unwelcome mental image of what form such chastisement could take, filing it away for later use, and she raised her chin before she could start blushing.

“I’m guessing you’d be all over my history section, am I right?” she asked dryly.

“Well, it’s important to learn from the past,” he said. “I - may have a few books to donate, if you’ll have them.”

“Already learned everything you need from them?” she teased, and he met her eyes.

“I don’t make the same mistake twice,” he said quietly, and she felt her heart thump again, a heavy throb in her chest. She smiled, and took a step towards him.

“Do you want a library card, Mr Gold?”

He ran a long finger across the spines of the books on the shelf in front of him, and glanced around at her.

“Perhaps,” he said. “Have you decided on how you’ll fill the spaces left?”

“Almost,” she admitted. “I made a list of genres and titles off the top of my head, but I’m sure there are more I could think of. I guess it all depends on whether the Mayor will give me a budget for new stock and a computer system to keep the records on.”

“And if she doesn’t?”

Belle shrugged.

“Then I’ll be thinking up fundraising ideas.”

“Such as?”

“I don’t know,” she said, a little awkwardly. “Maybe a bake sale or something.”

Mr Gold looked as though he was amused, but trying not to show it.

“Can you bake?”

“Kind of...” she said uncomfortably, and his grin widened.

“Sounds delicious.”

Belle sent him a very level look, and he bit his lip, glancing away before turning back.

“May I see the list?”

“Oh.” She ran a hand through her hair, grimacing as she felt how much dust was in there. “It’s on my laptop.”

“Would you email it to me?” he asked.

"You have email?" she said sceptically, and he showed his teeth.

"Is that so surprising?"

"Actually, yeah."

"I have email," he said, looking deeply amused. "A telephone, a computer. Even, dare I say it, a television."

"A thoroughly modern man."

"I didn't say I watched the thing."

She bit her lip, trying not to laugh.

"Why do you want to see the list?"

“I’m interested in the changes you plan on making here," he said, with a lazy wave of his hand.

Belle put her hands on her hips, raising an eyebrow.

“I hope you don’t plan on censoring any of my choices.”

He grinned again, eyes glinting wickedly.

“Now, why on earth would I do that?” he asked softly.

“I don’t know…” She folded her arms. “Sometimes people can be - too close-minded in their outlook, I guess.”

“Well, that’s certainly true,” he agreed. “Though it’s not a description I’ve ever had applied to me. I’m personally hoping that you choose to expand the minds of the town. In every area.”

He was still grinning, and she got the feeling he was being suggestive. It wasn’t helping her burgeoning crush on the man in the slightest.

“Increasing one’s knowledge is an important thing,” he added. “Not just history, or art, or science. Books are a way to explore the world without leaving home, don’t you think?”

“Yes!” she said eagerly. “Yes, that’s it exactly!”

Mr Gold walked slowly amongst the stacks, running his eyes over their contents, his fingertip slipping over the curved spines in a series of soft thumps.

“I remember spending hours in the library back home as a child,” he mused. “Sometimes it was the only place you could keep warm in the depths of winter. I read a great deal. Things I probably shouldn’t have, at times. Tales of far-off lands and bloody battles. Forbidden desires. Love. Lust. Sacrifice.”

“I think maybe we read the same books,” she remarked, and he glanced over at her, his eyes gleaming.

“Perhaps we did.”

“So what’s your favourite thing to read, Mr Gold?” she asked, and a smile flickered to life, sparks lighting up his eyes before dying.

“Happy endings,” he said quietly, and she smiled, wishing that he didn’t look so sad.

“Me too.”

“The list, then,” he said, his voice suddenly brisk, and reached into his pocket, drawing out a card and holding it out to her between the first two fingers of his hand. “You’ll find my email address there. And my number, should you need it.”

“Thank you.” Belle slipped it into her pocket, and hesitated. “And - and thank you for the flowers.”

His eyes flicked towards the desk.

“I thought they’d brighten the place up.”

“Well, they certainly do that,” she said. “I don’t know where you managed to find sunflowers in November. Not at my dad’s shop, that’s for sure.”

“You said they were your favourite,” he said, as though that explained things.

“Yeah.” She glanced behind her, where the flowers sat: bright, warm yellow petals and deep brown centres. “Well, they’re beautiful.”

“Yes.” His hands shifted on his cane. “A ray of sunshine, to chase away winter’s chill.”

Belle smiled.

“I think you have the soul of a poet when it comes to books and flowers, Mr Gold,” she teased.

He smirked.

“Must be why I’m such an utter bastard in every other area of my life.”

Belle giggled, and his grin widened.

“Good day to you, Miss French,” he said. “I look forward to seeing what you intend to grace the shelves of the library with.”

He inclined his head, turning away and heading for the door with a click of his cane against the wooden floor.

“Then you should come to the grand opening,” she called, and he turned slowly back, shoes squeaking faintly on the floor.

“I’m sorry?”

“I’m planning a big opening party,” she explained. “Interactive activities, dramatic readings, children’s games. There’ll be food. Maybe even some wine and cheese.”

“A social occasion?” he asked, in a very neutral tone. “Sandwiches and small talk?”

“You make it sound terrifying,” she said dryly.

“I very rarely socialise, Miss French.”

“Well, let this be one of the occasions, then.”

That tiny smile returned, lifting the corners of his mouth.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “But it’s kind of you to ask.”

“Well, I’m still going to send you an invitation,” she said archly, bouncing on her toes. “And if you don’t come, just imagine what the rest of the town will be saying about you behind your back.”

The smile became a grin.

“Oh, I don’t have to imagine that,” he said. “But perhaps I’ll consider attending. After I see the list of books.”

“It’s a date,” said Belle, and clapped a hand to her mouth, her eyes widening. “I mean - a deal! It’s a deal!”

His teeth were very white, his eyes glinting with amusement, and she could feel herself blushing again.

“The deal is struck.”

Belle spent the next day finishing the last few bits of cleaning and overseeing the clearing out of the old furniture and books. The men that Mr Gold sent were all short, stocky, and unfailingly polite, and she had little to do except hold open doors and tell them what was to be taken. The library looked different in the light of day, clean and with none of the clutter of its twenty years of closure. She had emailed Mr Gold the list of books she wanted to purchase, and he had replied to say that he had ordered some furniture for the apartment, and that if she wished to rent it, she would need to sign a tenancy agreement. She emailed him back to agree, thumb flickering over the screen of her phone as she walked to the diner. It was after six, and already dark, but Ruby had sent her a text inviting her to Granny’s for a couple of drinks with the plan of moving on to a bar, and after two days of hard physical work she was ready to let her hair down a little.

The rain was falling, a thin drizzle soaking her face as she crossed the street, and she ducked into the diner with relief, smiling as she spotted Ruby waving to her from one of the booths. Ruby was beaming, lips painted bright red to match the streaks in her hair, a tight red shirt above leather pants. Seated beside her was Ms Gale, in a blue and brown plaid shirt above dark jeans and heeled boots, one hand resting casually on Ruby’s thigh. A bag of chips sat open on the table in front of them, their glasses empty, and Belle slid into the seat opposite.

“Oh good, you came!” said Ruby. “Belle French, meet Dorothy Gale, my girlfriend.”

“We’ve met,” said Dorothy, raising her glass. “The woman who finally convinced Gold to re-open the library. What are you drinking?

“Oh - gin and tonic,” said Belle. “Thanks, I’ll get you one later.”

“Sounds good.” Dorothy patted Ruby’s leg. “Same again?”

“God, yes!” Ruby turned to kiss her, smiling as she did it, and handed over her empty glass. “Tell Granny not to be so mean with the rum this time!”

“You tell her,” said Dorothy dryly, and Ruby giggled as she walked off to the bar.

Belle shrugged off her coat, the heat of the diner seeping into her.

“Dorothy was really helpful,” she said. “I don’t think I’d have known how the hell to get the library open again if she hadn’t given me some pointers.”

“Yeah, she’s awesome,” said Ruby, looking over at the bar with a grin on her face. “You ever look at someone and think ‘Oh. So, it’s gonna be you, huh?’ before you even really talk?”

Belle bit back a smile.

“Maybe.”

“Yeah, that’s how it was for us,” said Ruby, with a sigh. “Valentine’s Day at The Rabbit Hole, both of us dateless and depressed… I threw a drink over her by accident because I wasn’t looking where I was going, and when our eyes met… well.” She sat back with a satisfied smirk. “Guess it was fate.”

“How long have you been together?” asked Belle.

“Getting on for eighteen months,” said Ruby happily. “We’re saving up to get our own place. Not that there’s much free real estate around here, but we can still try.”

“Yeah, I can’t wait to move out of my dad’s place,” said Belle wryly. “I love him, don’t get me wrong, but I miss having my own space. Since I moved back after being away at university, I realised how bloody stifling it is, and - yeah, I - I really need to move out.”

“Any thoughts on where?”

“There’s an apartment above the library, actually,” said Belle. “I’ve already talked to Mr Gold about renting it.”

Ruby grinned at her, leaning on the table on her elbows, eyebrows twitching suggestively.

“So, you managed to talk your way around Gold about the library, huh?” she said. “He make you sign away your soul, or was it something way dirtier?”

Belle gave her a level look, which made Ruby’s grin widen.

“He’s really not that bad, you know,” said Belle. “He was really interested in the library, and the books I was planning on buying. I mean - okay, he doesn’t strike me as the world’s most sociable person, but he seems fair, at least.”

“Hmm.” Ruby reached into the open bag of chips in front of her, watching Belle. “Give me your first impressions of him. I’m interested.”

“First impressions?” Belle tried not to blush as she remembered that one of her first impressions had been how much the sound of his voice and the glint in his eyes turned her on. “Uh - well, I guess he seemed polite? Good manners, very well dressed, like he spends a lot of time picking outfits so everything’s just so. Fastidious, I guess. Like everything he wears is perfect and his shop is spotless and he has these long fingers that he handles things really carefully with—”

Ruby was staring at her, but she couldn’t seem to stop talking.

“—and everything he does is so deliberate,” she went on, “like the movements he makes and the way he gestures, and he looks at you and it’s like he can see into your soul, or something.”

“Oh my God,” said Ruby, leaning forward, eyes wide. “You like him!”

“I didn’t say that!” protested Belle, blushing fiercely.

“Didn’t say what?” Dorothy set a glass in front of her, and she snatched it up hurriedly, stirring ice cubes with a straw.

“Belle wants to bang Mr Gold until he can’t walk even with that cane of his,” said Ruby offhandedly, and Dorothy giggled.

“Seriously?” she said, and pulled a face as she slid onto the seat next to Ruby. “Well, I’m probably not the best judge when it comes to guys, but you gotta admit the man can wear a suit.”

“Agreed,” said Ruby, passing over the bag of chips.

Dorothy took some, pushing them into her mouth and crunching on them.

“Probably into some kinky shit, though,” she said, licking salt from her fingers and reaching for her glass. “Looks like he has a sex dungeon and gets off on spanking.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” said Ruby, and they both snickered.

“Ooo-kay, so I’ll be getting so drunk I don’t remember any of this conversation, then,” said Belle lightly, poking at the ice in her gin and tonic, and the others chuckled.

“Sorry for teasing,” said Ruby, reaching out to squeeze her hand. “It’s just - well, as long as I’ve known him, Gold’s always been alone. Bitter, closed off, unsociable - that seems to be his thing. The idea of him actually attracting someone—”

“—a young, sweet - may we say it - hot someone—” added Dorothy.

“Yeah, it’s just a little weird to think about, that’s all,” said Ruby, wrinkling her nose. “Maybe you’ll understand why when you get to know him.”

Belle took a slurp of her gin.

“You know him well, then?” she said, and Ruby shrugged.

“I guess so. As well as anyone in this town, that is. He’s in the diner a lot.”

“Uh-huh.” Belle took another drink. “So, what’s his first name?”

Ruby opened and closed her mouth, and Belle gave her a knowing smile.

“Does he have family?“ she went on. “How did he end up moving over here from Scotland? What’s his favourite food to cook?”

“You know all that?” asked Ruby, round-eyed, and Belle shook her head.

“That was gonna be my next line of conversation,” she admitted. “Okay, he already told me he doesn’t have family, but everyone has someone, right?”

“Maybe, maybe not,” said Ruby. “Maybe he doesn’t talk to them anymore. He’s always on his own, I can tell you that. He comes into the diner most mornings for coffee. And he collects the rent, of course. Polite, like you say, but not exactly friendly.”

“Seems to be friendly enough with Belle,” said Dorothy, with a grin. “Agreeing to reopen the library, when he told everyone else to go fuck themselves…”

“Yeah, how did you get him to do that?” asked Ruby curiously, and Belle shrugged.

“I’m not sure,” she admitted. “He didn’t seem keen when I first mentioned it, but I talked about the things I wanted to do, the benefit it would bring to the town, and eventually he just seemed to come around.”

“Remind me to give you a call next time we’re struggling to make rent,” remarked Dorothy.

Belle giggled, and took another drink, setting down her glass and looking between the two of them.

“I’ve been meaning to ask, since he didn’t want to talk about it,” she said. “What was the reason the place was closed down?”

Ruby and Dorothy looked at one another, each pulling bemused faces.

“Before my time, I guess,” said Dorothy.

“Mine too,” said Ruby. “I mean, I could ask Granny…”

“He said it was twenty years ago,” added Belle, and the two women shrugged in unison.

“Granny wasn’t even here then,” said Ruby. “She moved out here with me after my parents died. Pretty sure that was less than twenty years ago. I was pretty young.”

“Huh.” Belle took a sip of her drink. “Guess I’ll have to find out some other way.”

“You could check the Storybrooke Mirror,” suggested Dorothy, reaching for the chips again. “I worked there for six months or so before I got the Town Hall job. There’s old stuff on microfiche that no one’s looked at in years. Could be something there.”

“Right.” Belle pursed her lips, thinking it over. ”Maybe I’ll take a look.”

Ruby took a slurp of her drink, setting down the glass.

“So, what’s the apartment like?” she asked.

“It’s a one-bed, but I think it could be cosy with a little effort,” said Belle. “Mr Gold says he’ll get some furniture for the place.”

“Well, if you need some help with assembly or carrying shit, I can help out,” offered Ruby.

“Thanks,” said Belle, and reached for her drink again. “It’s gonna be so cool having my own place. Can’t wait to make it mine. Bookshelves, some cushions, maybe a few pictures...”

“Get some things from Gold’s shop,” suggested Dorothy. “It’ll make him feel more at home when you eventually get his pants off.”

Ruby giggled, and Belle blushed before joining in.

“Thanks for the encouragement,” she said dryly, and Ruby raised her glass.

“We fully support you in your plan to seduce the menacing, shady-as-hell, yet sharply-dressed pawnbroker twice your age,” she announced, and Dorothy clinked the glass with her own.

“Go get that skinny ass,” she added, and Belle groaned, covering her face with her hands.

“Look, I can’t even think about that right now,” she said. “I have a library opening to plan. Which means I need to use what little cash I have to buy cupcakes and wine and cheese and kids’ party food between now and the end of the month.”

“You’re opening then?” asked Ruby, with interest.

“If the Mayor agrees to fund the new stock of books, yes,” said Belle. “If not, I’m gonna be planning a fundraiser.”

“You should hear next Thursday at the meeting,” said Dorothy. “We’ll keep everything crossed for you, won’t we Rubes?”

“Damn straight,” said Ruby, with a nod. “And just in case you don’t get lucky, I have a few - interesting - ideas for the fundraiser.”

She grinned wickedly, waggling her eyebrows, and Belle groaned.

“Yeah, your expression doesn’t fill me with confidence,” she said.

“Please don’t tell me you’re gonna suggest a kissing booth again,” said Dorothy wearily, and Ruby’s eyes went wide with innocence.

“The thought never crossed my mind.”

Belle had to go back to Mr Gold’s shop to sign the rental contract and pay over the rent and a deposit, which she had borrowed from her father against her first month’s wages. Mr Gold watched her as she read over the contract, and produced a black and gold pen from inside his suit jacket so that she could sign her name. He wrote an entry in a heavy ledger to mark the payment of the deposit and first month’s rent. She watched his hand move across the page, and he glanced up as he set down the pen, giving her a tiny smile, his eyes dark with something like promise. It felt as though she had signed the most important contract of her life, as though she were somehow making a deal for her soul with the Devil himself. Whether she was saving it or giving it away was, as yet, unclear, but the glitter in his eyes made her heart pound. Mr Gold closed the ledger with a heavy thump, fingers shifting along its sides until it was perfectly aligned with the edge of the counter.

“The furniture I ordered should arrive tomorrow,” he said. “I’ll have some of my men take it up for you and assemble it.”

“Thank you,” she said, a little breathlessly, and his smile widened a little.

“And your own things?” he asked. “Will you need assistance with those?”

She shook her head.

“I don’t have much,” she said. “Ruby’s gonna help me move in.”

“Very well.”

He reached to the side, to a carved wooden cupboard, and opened it up, reaching inside and turning back to face her. A key dangled from a round fob held between finger and thumb.

“I replaced the locks on the apartment door,” he said. “Here.”

She reached out to take it, tucking the fob into her palm and feeling the warmth of him on the smooth plastic.

“Thank you,” she said. “I - uh - I should go.”

“Of course.”

He leaned on the counter, still smiling at her, and she could feel her abdomen pull and tighten. She turned away, clutching the key hard in her palm, feeling breathless as she made her way to the exit. His eyes were on her back as she left, and when the door closed behind her it was as though she had been swimming up from the dark depths of a warm lake, and could suddenly breathe again.

It was two days later that the furniture for her apartment arrived, and the same short, burly men that had gotten rid of the old items carried it up for her, whistling a tune as they did so. She had told her father she was moving out, and he had grunted at her, slumped in front of the TV with a glass of rum in his hand, as was his usual state in the evenings. It was the way he had dealt with things even before her mother had died, and if she was completely honest with herself, she wasn’t sorry to be going. She had packed her things: clothing, books, and the few pieces of personal furniture she wanted to take, and the next day Ruby bounced up on the doorstep with a beaming smile, red-streaked hair fluttering in the winter breeze.

“Thought I’d give you a hand,” she said, gesturing to the driveway, where a red car was parked. “Wow, are all those books? Don’t you already have a library-full?”

She was grinning, and Belle gave her a level look, handing over the first of the boxes.

“Private collection and not for public use,” she said sternly, and Ruby giggled.

“You have the strict librarian thing down already,” she said. “Maybe think about getting some glasses so you can look over them when people are talking too loud.”

It didn’t take too long to fill the car with boxes, two suitcases of clothes and an old coat stand, and Belle decided to come back for the rest later that day. Getting the boxes of books up to the apartment left them out of breath, but maneuvering the coat stand through the door of the library was more awkward.

“I’m not sure we’ll get it up the staircase,” said Ruby, huffing a little under the strain. “How do you feel about hanging all your coats down here?”

“We just need to turn it,” said Belle impatiently, swinging her end around to the left with more force than she had aimed for.

There was a crunching noise, and she groaned, already fearing what she’d find. Glancing over her shoulder revealed one leg of the coat stand, stuck in the drywall. Belle swore under her breath, tugging the thing free with a shower of plaster and leaving a large hole.

“Oops,” said Ruby ominously.

“Yeah.” Belle bit her lip, setting the coat stand down. “It’s not too much damage, right? I could fill this in, repaint…”

“It’s a hole three inches across,” remarked Ruby. “I think it’s gonna take more than a little filler and a lick of paint.”

“You wouldn’t have thought it would have gone that deep,” grumbled Belle. “Isn’t this supposed to be a wall?”

Ruby stepped forward, bending to gaze at the hole.

“That’s hollow,” she said curiously.

“What?”

“Behind the drywall. There’s a space back there. Here.”

She dug in her pocket for her phone, bringing up the flashlight app and shining it on the gap.

“There’s something back there,” she said excitedly.

“Let me see.”

Belle crouched down to peer through the gap. The light from Ruby’s phone gleamed on something; reddish-brown wood with what looked like brass fittings.

“I - I don’t know if it’s a door, or something,” she said vaguely. “I can’t see.”

“Let me look a second.”

Belle leaned back, and Ruby glanced around the room before shoving her entire fist into the hole, opening it up.

“Ruby!”

“Oh, come on, you wanted to know just as much as I did!”

“I’m probably gonna have to pay for that!”

“Yeah, maybe Gold’ll give you a tongue-lashing,” said Ruby dismissively. “Don’t tell me you wouldn’t enjoy it.”

“Oh my God…”

“Just have a look, would you?” said Ruby impatiently, brushing streaks of plaster from her hand.

Belle sighed, but held up the phone. The hole made by Ruby’s fist was large enough to see through. A wooden door, set with brass fittings and a series of large cogs.

“It - it looks like a door,” said Belle. “Works with some kind of mechanism, like cogs and pulleys, or something.”

“Let me see.” Ruby took her place, peering through the hole. “Huh. Kind of steampunk. Hey, do you think it’s an elevator?”

“If it is, it doesn’t go up to my apartment,” said Belle, and Ruby shook her head.

“Not going up,” she said. “Going down.”

“A basement?” Belle pulled a face. “Mr Gold didn’t mention one, and I didn’t see a door to it, or anything.”

“So ask him.”

“What, before or after I tell him I busted a hole in his wall?”

“Come on, what harm can it do?”

“Fine,” sighed Belle. “At least let’s get the rest of my stuff. That way if he murders me you guys can build a shrine in my honour in the classics section.”

Ruby chuckled, and picked up a suitcase.

“Hey, is there gonna be an erotica section?” she asked, with interest.

“Planning on one,” said Belle. “Depends if I can get funding for the new books.”

“There’s always my kissing booth idea…”

“Yeah,” said Belle, in a very dry tone. “I’m - probably not gonna be doing that.”

“Suit yourself,” said Ruby airily. “Just saying that there’s someone in town you wanna kiss, and rumour has it he has a rather large - checking account.”

Belle sighed, rolling her eyes and stomping off in the direction of the stairs, and Ruby’s cackle followed her up.

She knew that she had to own up to Mr Gold about the damage, and she figured sooner was better than later. The man had a habit of turning up when he wasn’t expected, and she didn’t want the hole in the wall to be a surprise. She waited until Ruby had gone to work her shift at the diner before heading to his shop, and Mr Gold looked up from the counter, his rent ledger open in front of him.

“Miss French,” he said, with a tiny smile. “Are you all settled in?”

“Pretty much,” she said. “I have to unpack, but - yeah. I’m an independent woman. How about that?”

“Well, I hope you’ll be very happy there,” he said, turning his attention back to his ledger. “Let me know if there’s anything else you need."

“Thanks.”

There was a moment of silence, and she stepped a little closer, watching the light gleam on his hair.

“So - there’s an elevator in the library,” she said.

Mr Gold stilled, pen hovering above the ledger.

“What?”

“An elevator,” she said. “At least, I think that’s what it looks like. I’m sorry to say I had a bit of an accident. Knocked a hole in the drywall. I’ll pay for the damage, I swear.”

Mr Gold set down his pen, not looking at her. He turned away, shoulders stiff, and pushed at the curtain separating the back room from the shop. Brow crinkling, Belle followed him.

“So, am I right?” she asked. “There’s an elevator there? Where does it go? How come it’s walled off.”

He was standing stock still, his back to her, and she bounced on her toes as she waited for him to answer.

“Apologies, Miss French,” he said quietly. “I just remembered something very urgent that I have to do. I’m afraid I’m closing up early today.”

“I - what?” She was perplexed. “But - the elevator? I’m right, aren’t I? How come it’s not working? I don’t understand.”

“That’s not something I care to discuss,” he said sharply. “Now, if you don’t mind?”

“Mr Gold, I—”

“Please!” he snapped. “Miss French, I’d like you to leave!”

She took a step back, snapping her mouth shut, feeling hurt and awkward.

“Right,” she said softly. “Right. Okay. I’ll - I guess I’ll see you.”

She backed away, letting the curtain fall across and hide him from her sight. The shop was silent but for the low ticking of clocks, a reminder of the passing of time, of the years that had passed since the elevator was walled up and hidden from view. She wondered what secrets had been buried with it, and recalled Dorothy’s suggestion that she visit the local paper. Perhaps there would be answers there.

The newspaper did indeed have old microfiche available to view, just as Dorothy had said, but the young man who showed her to the small, windowless room to look through them merely shrugged when Belle asked why the library had come to be closed. She sat down with microfiche from 1998, flicking through stories of town festivals, cookouts and Little League games, and as the articles moved from September into October, reports of storm damage to the Town Hall. The storm had been a large one, it seemed, but she couldn’t find anything to say that the library had suffered any damage. She flicked to the next page, and flicked on again before going back, something familiar tickling at her mind.

Belle frowned, looking over the picture in front of her, its sign reading Pawnbroker and Antiquities Dealer. Mr Gold’s shop looked much as it did now, albeit with a lighter hue of paint on the clapboard frontage, the blinds drawn and a sign in the window saying Out of Business. Her mouth flattened at that; what had happened to cause him to close the shop? Perhaps it wasn’t the most profitable area of his business, but even so… She concentrated on the text below the picture. Local property developer and antiquities dealer, Mr Gold, closed his business without warning yesterday, following the reports of a tragic accident at the Storybrooke Public Library. Your Storybrooke Mirror reporter tried to reach the businessman for comment, but was told by his softly-spoken yet intimidating assistant that he was unavailable until further notice. Anyone wishing to redeem pawned items should submit their claims in writing to the shop and their queries will be addressed.

Curious, Belle turned the page backwards, trying to find an earlier edition, and her mouth fell open as she saw a picture of the library on what would have been the front page of the newspaper. Children’s Outing Ends in Tragedy it proclaimed. Belle leaned closer, eyes running over the words in front of her. A group of children left Storybrooke Library in tears yesterday as one of their own suffered a tragic accident. Baeden Gold, aged 3…

Belle straightened up, breath catching. Baeden Gold.

She shook her head, bending closer to read the rest of the article. The elevator had been out of use, down in the deep basement awaiting repairs, and the doors had been closed. Unfortunately, the elevator was not electric, and the doors could be opened by anyone who knew how to work the mechanism. It wasn’t known who had opened them - the Sheriff was said to be investigating - but the result was an open elevator shaft down which a small boy had tumbled to his death. Belle bit her lip. So. The reason for the library’s closure, and Mr Gold’s refusal to open it since. She wondered what had made him finally agree to her proposal.

She sat back in her chair, chewing her lip, her mind troubled. It had happened twenty years ago, and yet no one spoke of it, least of all Mr Gold. She wondered if he had wanted it that way, if he had walled off his pain with plaster and paint and tried to forget it had ever happened. As if he ever could.

#rumbelle christmas in july #fic: back in business #rumbelle fic #death mention #rcij 2018

18 notes · View notes