#;; from the updates... it seems we can get a sort of answer out of everything

[cherry-colored-petals]

Update: I sent one (1) more ask because I swear to the Gods I am not well HAOSHISJS

I AM NOT OKAY IM LOSING IT— THE UPDATE OF DAY 7 IS SO.

OUGH.

IT ITCHES MY BRAIN SM THAT I WANT TO PUNT THE ALCHEMIST HELP

[cosmicmunsonwrites]

Can you do rafe x reader and she find out she’s pregnant and gets kicked out so she has to tell rafe

you hurt me pretty good too

pairing(s): fwb!rafe cameron x fwb!fem!reader

warnings: pregnancy, toxic parents, reader is kicked out, talks of abortion, pet names

summary: after finding out you’re pregnant, you parents kick you to the curb, forcing you to tell the father.

authors note: thank you so much for the request! i’ve been so slow with updating because of my writers block but i’m going to finish up all of these requests as soon as i can.

part zero | part one | part two

not edited

do not copy my works. i do not condone rewrites, translations, or edited versions. all my content is my content that i wrote.

not my gif

“dad, please,” you cried. “i tried. i was careful! i don’t know what more you want from me. we used protection and i was on birth control.”

he didn’t seem to accept that answer. “then maybe you shouldn’t be having sex at all. if you’re not responsible enough to prevent getting pregnant, how can i trust that you’ll take care of a kid?”

“i promise i will. i have a steady job, i pay for all of my own stuff, i do everything on my own. i promise this won’t be a problem for you,” you tried to reason.

“if you won’t get an abortion, you can’t stay here,” he said firmly. “and thats that.”

your lip trembled as you turned to your mother. “mom?”

“i’m sorry, honey. your fathers right.”

you choked out a sob before rushing into your room and packing up all of your valuable belongings into a duffle bag you found in your closet. you grabbed all of your stashed money and anything else you needed. you didn’t even bother packing too many clothes, you’d later buy new ones.

without any exchanged words, you walked out to your car and threw the bag into the back, pressing the start button and driving off.

you furiously wiped the tears from your eyes as you sped down the bridge over to figure 8. you hated this. you hated what you were about to do. but it was your only option now.

and when you arrived, you were still in tears and even more nervous than confessing to your parents.

your walked up to the front door and knocked. “coming,” you heard his voice yell. then it swung open.

the first thing he noticed was your teary eyes. “hey, what’s wrong?” he was never this soft with you. but you were more than grateful right now. “come in. we can go up to my room.”

you stepped around him, trying your best not to cry even harder when his hand splayed across your lower back as he led you up to the room as if you hadn’t navigated your way there on your own a million times.

he gestured to the bed, silently telling you to take a seat as he kneeled in front of you, a hand on each of your thighs. “what’s wrong, sweetheart? something happen.”

you broke down now. “you’re gonna hate me.”

“i don’t think i could ever hate you,” he mumbled softly, eyes searching yours for some sort of answer.

you took a deep breath to gather yourself. “my—my parents kicked me out.”

his brows furrowed in towards each other. “what? why?”

you couldn’t look at him anymore. your eyes averted to the ground. “i’m pregnant.”

you heard the breath he sucked in, letting it out seconds later as his thumb moved across your skin comfortingly.

when he didn’t say anything, you cried even harder and stood up. “i’m sorry, rafe.”

he stood up with you and grabbed your hands. “no, no it’s okay, sweetheart. it’s okay,” he said before wrapping his arms around you. “it’s gonna be fine. we’re gonna figure it out together, yeah? i can talk to my dad about you staying with me for a little until we sort it out.”

his hand gently ran through your hair as he kissed your temple. “no matter what, angel, i promise to take care of the both of you.”

[lizardaggro]

on the flip side (twst bully!au) pt 3

here we are, the long-awaited (it was literally like 1 day) part 3!! i wanted to declare on one of the actual chapters since those get seen by the most people that I DID NOT MAKE THIS AU, credit i believe goes to @azulsluver. i swear i don't hate you guys, leaving everything on a cliffhanger, but the good news is i have a lot of time on my hands due to chronic illness so i can update super often. also i gave up on the purple theme on posts bc tumblr hates me and always leaves the end of the word count black.

part 1 part 2

genre: gn reader, angst trigger warnings: bullying, mild yandere (will be escalating throughout the series, but no non-con) word count: 1246

You couldn’t really afford to space out and think about it though, not when he was right in front of you. Riddle tapped his foot impatiently, clearly irate at your lack of response. “Well?” He asked. “Do you not even have anything to say in your defense?”

Oh dear. However were you supposed to get rid of him when he was so intent on getting some sort of answer out of you? You had no idea what he wanted! He was more difficult to threaten, too, since you’d made up your mind that you didn’t want to be like your tormentors and completely ruin others’ lives. No, your end goal was just to make them leave you alone. After everything you’d been through, you really didn’t want to see them again.

It might seem strange to some people, that you weren’t dead set on destroying any semblance of normalcy they once had. You had all the ammunition you needed, of course. The Overblot victims would be the easiest to topple, considering what they’d done in and leading up to that state. But you didn’t think you were a particularly vengeful person; at least, you didn’t want to be. Crowley had always said that you must’ve been sent here to get his precious students to work together, so clearly you weren’t like them.

“I never asked for this, Riddle. Any of this. So if you think somewhere in your fucked-up mentality that you’re doing me some sort of favor, you’re dead wrong,” you intoned. Indeed, even though you just wanted them gone, you missed the days when you were all friends. Back when you thought everyone had your back no matter what. Oh, if only you knew what they’d do for you. It wouldn’t be hard at all to push some of the more unstable students over the edge. Those who felt they didn’t have anyone else. Much like a certain dragon fae who never did seem to get invited to things.

Riddle looked like he was about to say something, but before he could, he was drenched by a great torrential rain. Where did that come from? Didn’t the forecast say it was supposed to be clear skies and sunny for the rest of the week? Your question was soon answered, as you had two more visitors.

“Silver? Sebek? What brings you here?” You inquired, not at all amused. When those two showed up at the same time, it could only mean one thing, and it wasn’t good. Riddle looked like he had caught on as well, since he stepped in front of you, as if that would do any good.

“LORD MALLEUS REQUESTS YOUR PRESENCE!!” Sebek boomed. You’d made progress on his volume in the past, so you were sure he did it just to annoy you. Silver just stared. He always stared, you felt like. Sometimes you swore you could feel his eyes on you even when he was nowhere to be found.

“Oh, gee, I wonder what that’s about,” you snarked. “Poor little princey-poo doesn’t want his embarrassing little secrets getting out? Well you can tell him to fuck off.” You must’ve been feeling especially brave, since normally you knew that defying Malleus Draconia was as good as a death sentence. He wasn’t even that bad, compared to some of the others. He just… locked you in his room and made you listen to him talk, with no room to get a word in edgewise. He’d go on and on about one thing or another for HOURS, with no regard for your schedule or your bodily needs. Clearly fae had a different sense of time than most.

It was the loss of control over your own life that you hated; that, and that if he really still considered you a friend, he never bothered to do anything about your bullies. You knew he was more than capable; you’d witnessed his strength firsthand on multiple occasions. You didn’t know what his endgame was, and frankly you were too scared to find out. He could trap you there forever and you wouldn’t be able to do a single thing about it.

Sebek was not amused. He raised an arm, likely to strike you, but Silver placed a hand on it, effectively stopping him. “Don’t. You wouldn’t want Lord Malleus to see a bruise on them,” he reasoned. You didn’t get it. Since when would he care? Sebek roughly shoved Riddle out of the way, despite all his objections, and nonchalantly slung you over his shoulder.

“What the hell?!” You screeched, pounding your fists on his back. “Put me down! I’m not going!” You weren’t sure why you were objecting so vehemently; this time wasn’t any different than the others. But something about the dark gray clouds pouring rain on what should’ve been a lovely day just told you that this was not going to be good.

But alas, your plight was ignored. The three of you made your way to Diasomnia in silence. No one bothered to stop and stare in the halls, as you being carried off by people was somewhat of a normal occurrence. You could swear Savannahclaw and Diasomnia even had some sort of twisted capture-the-flag game going, for whatever reason.

When you entered the gothic-style castle, you were greeted by none other than Lilia. Much like Malleus, he’d never bothered you too terribly, only engaging in less-than-welcome pranks. You knew he was far older than he let on, so you supposed he didn’t see the point in such childish endeavors. There was, however, one thing you feared about the man: his cooking, which he tried to shove down your throat at every opportunity. How Silver grew up healthy you’d never know.

And so, of course, you were greeted by a plate of… well, goop, to put it nicely. “Here, have a seat, dear, I made lasagna,” Lilia offered with what you assumed was supposed to be a warm smile. To you in that moment, with the fumes starting to reach your nose, it looked like a shit-eating grin.

“I’ll pass, thanks. That is to say, I’d rather die than eat that shit, because it looks and smells like it’ll send me straight to hell,” you deadpanned. Sebek let out an unholy screech and started ranting about how dare you refuse Lord Lilia, even though you knew he wouldn’t want to eat it either. You did your best to tune him out. Silver looked relieved, surprisingly enough. You supposed he was able to empathize since he grew up eating the stuff.

Luckily for you, Lilia just sighed and walked off, taking his culinary abomination with him. The three of you who remained shared a look. “How are you still alive after all these years?” You asked Silver. He shrugged. If even he didn’t know, you’d just call it a miracle.

“SILVER, QUIT FRATERNIZING WITH THE ENEMY! LORD MALLEUS IS WAITING!” Sebek practically screamed in your ear. You really wished he would stop doing that. But you had more important things to worry about, like your impending death by dragon fae. Once you arrived at Malleus’s room, Sebek set you down and pushed you inside. You heard the lock click behind you. You gulped, feeling the pressure of being alone in a room with a presumably angry and very powerful mage. You looked up to see a pair of emerald eyes staring you down. Oh boy, this was not going to be fun.

taglist: @twistedcece @slxt4h1m @teawhere @pleasehugmeaether @reivelmin @aoiyx

[andhumanslovedstories]

hey here's another question that I've been thinking about for about a week with no particular breakthrough. I'm so much on the healthcare side that all my advice is on that side. Dude, I read academic articles for this and didn't come up with anything particularly useful. That's why I'm answering this publicly, so other people hopefully add something useful. (Also I know you said you're not looking for opioids. I'm gonna talk about opioids anyway they certainly affect perceptions of chronic pain. In your case, try making clear early on that you don't want opioids.)

I'll say some things that I've noticed from my work to maybe provide some insight into healthcare's side of the exchange. I'm not saying this is the way things should be, I'm giving advice based on how I see things are. I wish I could say this wasn't the case, but when there's a pain medication standoff, the two ways I've seen it work out best for a patient are:

A third party advocates for the patient. (like family, nurse, social worker, different specialist, patient advocate, etc)

Change in caregiver.

I don't like those as the top answers, but that's what I've seen and it's consistent with a lot of the accounts I encountered. There is also a third way that the pain medication standoff can quickly end in a patient's favor:

3. New evidence (new symptom, imaging, vital signs, lab test, etc) forces a reexamination of how we're thinking about the patient.

This is also the "oh shit they seem worse" method, but it can also be "we have gained new information that re-contextualizes the information we already knew." This is like hey the xray came back, your whole bone is dust, or hey your blood pressure is now significantly higher, or hey oops your appendix exploded.

In all three cases, something new happens to change the dynamic. This works for healthcare providers operating in good faith because someone comes in fresh and/or the new dynamic causes the healthcare team to do a new assessment and cost/benefit analysis with this updated information. This works for healthcare providers operating in bad faith because they are either removed from the situation or put in a position where giving pain medication is less onerous than not giving pain medication. I genuinely, genuinely believe far more healthcare employees are operating in good faith rather than bad faith, although the end results can look the same from the patient side. This means I think that far more people are swayed by additional information that makes pain management have more benefit and less cost.

I don't know how actionable any of this is from the patient side unfortunately. I don't love being like "my advice? wait till shift change, see if you can shake it up." Bring someone to the emergency department with you if you have someone available, preferably someone prepared to make a fuss on your behalf. If you don't have a third person, see if you can get one. Hospitals can have patient advocate as a job. If they aren't available, is there someone on your healthcare team that seems most sympathetic? Try asking them if they have any advice. They might be able to give you some, they might advocate for you. Be careful about badmouthing staff to other staff and avoid compliments to one member of the team that relies on insulting another member. You don't know the relationships at play, and it's sort of like how you shouldn't trash talk your old job when interviewing for a new job. You may be completely right in everything you're saying, but being like "my boss was a crazy asshole who refused to recognize my work," doesn't come off as objective. It can undercut your credibility and introduce hostility into the conversation where it is not productive.

I'd also be prepared to talk about what you already tried to relieve the pain. Again, with you I'd mention upfront that you don't want opioids because they don't work for you. Then say what you have already tried at home before you came in (tylenol, ibpurofen, heating, ice, exercises, stretching, shower, other meds, etc) and the effect of both the pain (can't sleep, makes you nauseated, had to call off sick from work, aren't able to be a caregiver to someone, etc) and your already attempted interventions (no significant pain control, symptoms got worse, called PCP, they said emergency was the next step, etc). If your condition is chronic, compare it on the pain scale and the functionality scale to your baseline. (i.e. "I'm always at least a 3 out of ten on the pain scale, but it doesn't usually leave me bedbound." "Normally Symptom improves after Intervention At Home, but that didn't work this time.") Something that can make providers hesitant is if opioids, benzos, or other powerful drugs are the first and only thing a patient says will help and they're unwilling to try anything else, so sometimes demonstrating flexibility with your pain plan can signal "I'm not here for oxy to sell, I'm here because I want my symptoms to stop (and, if relevant, figure out what is causing them)."

Also if you can and feel safe doing so, consider providing feedback to the hospital. Nothing changes without something documented.

[lychgate]

Echo brain comic?? My beloved?

this one's pretty new and id like to in the least get some segments drawn up if i can

i went balls deep in depth about my personal ideas of Echo's structure and how it works, it has much more writing rn then art lemme get some snippets:

tech and echo begin digging around in his wiring as echo's health has lately began to decline rapidly. Blood transfusions are becoming daily, exhaustion occurs much quicker, and newest to the issues are these seemingly random seizures. They've attempted many outside options at remedying the problem but it was becoming urgently clear that the only way to get answers would be to open up his system and understand exactly how his body operates from the inside out. Echo is mostly on edge because he fears finding the answer that is he's just doomed to die soon, and that his body was in no way sustainable outside of that fridge. He fears the idea of dying so much that he has manic considerations of being put back in some sort of stasis chamber. Death, which he never feared prior to the citadel, but now he's come to be you know uhhh quite traumatized from it. But he also hates the idea of that fridge!! caught between two terrible options, wowie here ill add some more breakdown of that in a read more if anyone is interested in paragraphs of bullshit:

as for a brief descriptor on the shit on his head and body, from this paragraph:

Tech: these rivets across your skull are not simple ports one can just plug into. They're a very unique structure, containing an extremely delicate, but long system of thin metallic fibers wiring throughout your brain. These 'rivets' then act as anchors to those metal fibers, which then respond to very specific electric signals that we can access at the nodes on the surface here. If the signals sent are not exact. Well. Echo: yeah I get it I get it.

and some write up on how Tech begins to diagnose the problem:

Eventually Tech will find his way into deeper functions of the brain, finding shortcuts that were already developed by the Techno Union scientists for the sake of their own equipment likely. Categorized sections for monitoring all sorts of chemicals and levels within Echo's body, most of which were left on an automatic function to regulate.

Tech begins to understand that the key issue is that this program, and these automatic functions, were fitted for exactly the stasis chamber Echo had been put in, and if they want to begin fixing Echos phsyical body, he would have to start going in and coding line for line, functions that pertain to the body on a sustainability outside that fridge. Some functions were completely turned off, being that Echo was getting fed certain synthesized chemicals thru the machine, his brain had to be telling itself NOT to produce said things naturally.

But it's all very finicky work that requires continuous maintenance and updates, not much unlike a patch update to any other computer program, except this is Echo's life. It's an impossible amount of code to do in any short time frame, and so Tech will begin splicing lines of code from similar organic droids with systems of similar complexity.

They handle these sessions once per week, giving time for Echo's body to catch up and adjust. At first he begins feeling some nausea, his heart rate starts rising, but he insists something feels good about it and urges Tech to keep going. Echo begins to feel warmth back in his body, his mood increases, after about a month hair begins to grow again, muscle mass fills in what once was skeletal limbs, nail beds regain a lively shine. Besides a few errors in updates like over producing a chemical or small bouts of insomnia, everything seems On Course.

and then:

So now we get into the meat of the drama, which is a lot of Echo mania and identity issues:

By this point Tech has outfitted much easier screw on parts so they can go in and out of this program faster (the set up previously was hours of work) so pulling that up he theorizes that he will have to do more then just reverse programs that the Techno Union set up. Tech now believes he'll have to create NEW systems, as the old program appears to be getting corrupted from all of Tech's editing. The seizures are, at this point to their best guess, coming from this. That parts of his brain are literally crashing, and soon he's going to start having more serious issues like bro is gonna just have a massive stroke at some point. Tech points that out all regular voice and Echo is just 'great im back in the mental swamp' Now that Echo's learned that he has corrupted files eating away at his brain, and that the chance of having a massive stroke is like inevitable, he's back to feeling like anxious shit. It doesn't help that this will take Tech a lot of time to figure out. Truthfully he's putting as much effort as he can into it, but this is when Echo begins to get Really mentally unwell. He's both worrying and also trying NOT to worry out of fear that it's going to complicate the program even more. Echo begins to have identity issues, coming to rely more on the mechanics then the organics that make him. He doesn't feel like a human with robot parts anymore, he feels like a robot with human parts.

and it keeps going like there's parts where echo is begging Tech to up programs on dopamine generation and Tech has to turn him down cause that would just be creating an addiction problem, situations where Echo starts trying to mess with his own brain, situations where he tries to kill Tech, its a lot of rambling but im not a writer, like i can't write for shit and I'd like to try and draw it instead

[lazypanartist]

HELLO i fucking LOVE ur stobotnik and their kid series!!! its what initially got me to watching the movies and into the sonic franchise as a whole!!! can i request a stobotnik and their kid whos sort of like maria.... like they genuinely love the world and humanity despite (ahem) everything Ivo says. Maybe add in a sprinkle of shadow who sees reader and is taken aback by how similar they are to maria, and now stone + ivo has to deal with their kid having a new guard dog/brother HDSHSDH love ur writing, hope u have a good day!!

AHHH I'M SO GLAD I COULD HELP YOU GET INTO THE SERIES!! Super touched 💙💙💙

*Frantically googling Shadow's personality + Maria Robotnik*

*Having a Crisis™ because WOW OKAY*

Anyways! I've been working on this since the request rolled in, and am 100% invested. Willing to take related requests ^-^

Stobotnik + Sweetheart! Child, + Guard Dog Bestie! Shadow

Note: this is long. Like, LONG long

Your fathers have always loved you, if a tad.. oddly.

Papa Ivo doesn't understand your interest with the rest of humanity.

"What if one of those disgusting cretins gets my baby sick? What if someone actually wanted to hurt you?"

"No, it's far safer for you if you stay by his or Papa Stone's side. Or in the lab. The lab is VERY safe, you know. Well idiot proofed"

Not that he's calling his baby an idiot, of course -

Baba Aban, however, seems to understand you.

Of course he respects Papa's wishes, keeps you close when you do go out, but he tries to sate your interest in humanity best he can.

Always open to questions, and will try to answer everything as age-appropriately as possible.

"What does Papa do all day?"

"He builds things for the government."

"Why?"

"Because it pays well enough to raise you and keeps him busy."

"Why doesn't Papa like other people?"

He.. doesn't have an answer for that one. Not really.

"Just because" sounds too shallow, and "Because people can be horrible" is almost worse.

"To keep you safe."

It's not a lie, but it's not the truth, and the way you huff lets him know you're onto him.

Lets Ivo know before you two are finished with errands, in case you bombard the older man with questions next

They both try and keep you entertained in their own ways

Papa Ivo tries to keep you interested in his machines, how they can be used to better your life

Baba Aban takes you out for errands and helps teach you in the kitchen

Life is as balanced as it can be, considering your solitude growing up

Both dads help you set up a little greenhouse in the traveling lab

"For self sufficiency!" - Papa Ivo

"To give them a new hobby." - Baba Aban

"To keep me busy." - Baby You™

You know what's up

SO since we don't yet know how Shadow calmed tf down in the movie, bare with me here.

After the events of Movie 2 and then the unearthing of Project Shadow, you and your dads are living in the Crabmeat base deep in the Pacific

You and Baba Aban still surface occasionally for groceries and supplies, while Papa Ivo throws himself into his work to distract himself from his latest defeat.

During one surface visit, looking around the Seattle streets while on the back of Baba Aban's motorcycle, you see a strangely familiar figure on a similar vehicle.

You tug on your das's sleeve before gearuring toward the hedgehog

"Baba.. that's not Sonic, is it?"

He looks, does a double take

"Uh.. no."

He's stopping near the same lot the two of you are, and Baba instructs you to message Papa

"Found another alien hedgehog, will update"

He seems wary when the two of you approach, glancing between you as Aban steps closer, an arm in front of your chest to keep you back behind him

"Who are you?"

The hedgehog glares, and you slink just a bit closer to see him

"I am the ultimate life form."

"Decided by who?"

"That's none of your concern."

The two are almost circling one another now, Baba keeping you behind him, even if just barely

"It's my concern if you're here to.. to destroy humanity, or whatever."

You eye him from behind your dad, but he just huffs a laugh

"Destroy? I was created to preserve your human lives."

Your eyes widen again, catching his own before he glanced back towards your Baba

"Is that a problem?"

You tug at Aban's sleeve again, and he slows his movement, letting you peek out more from behind him

"No.. I don't suppose it is."

You finally slip out from behind him, smiling, and Shadow is hit, mentally, with the image of Maria, smile - the same energy as your own

A certain kind of sad loneliness, with an undertone of care

He doesn't know why he thinks of it that way

All he knows is that it feels like home again

The two of you see each other a few times after that, while out on errands with Baba

Papa wants to meet him - of course - but doesn't want another Knuckles situation

(He's very glad that the echidna didn't try and go after you for revenge - after the emerald was taken away, he wasn't sure he could have saved you)

So he lets you - and Stone - approach him on the surface

Not that you know explicitly that you're helping.

Neither of your dad's know about Maria - at least not explicitly - and Shadow still hasn't voiced why he's so attached to you

He finds himself following you whenever he sees you on earth

Of course you're with Baba every time, kept at arms length from Shadow, but he keeps coming back

Papa allows it because he hasn't made any threats

Baba allows it because he seems genuinely friendly

And doesn't seem to recognize him

Finally - FINALLY - Papa asks Baba to help bring him to the base

Respectfully, if possible. He wants to keep the peace, even if it's just for your sake

You get to be the lucky one to invite Shadow to the base

You smile when you ask if he'd like to come, and all he can see is Maria inviting him to see a new breakthrough from her grandfather

He says yes

Immediately

Your smile gets wider

"This is the first time I've invited a friend home!"

His poor, walled-off heart cracks just a little, and he gives Stone a Look™

Baba just glanced away before offering him a ride in a (rented) car

The two of you sit in the back, just talking to each other, while Stone contemplated how he got to driving one of the aliens.

To his home.

With his child in the backseat next to said alien.

As long as you're happy, and Ivo's happy, then he's sure he'll be fine

Shadow is still vague with answers around his past - every time you try and engage him about family, friends, childhood, home - he thinks of Maria

He still tries to answer you - he grew up in space, with his best friend and her grandfather.

She was.. sick. Very sick. And she died.

Conveniently leaving GUN out of the convo.

He sees the sadness you have for him - the same Maria held when she told him to go - and decides that he'll make space for himself in your life

If you let him.

ONLY if you let him.

The three of you make it back to crabmeat safely, and both of your dads hover, but let you interact how you want

Shadow sees a lot of Gerald in your Papa, but won't say anything.

He can't

Not yet, at least

He ends up staying the night, nested on your floor next to your own little fort, facing the door even in his sleep

Ivo tolerates it, if barely

He brought the hedgehog here to study, not to befriend his baby

"What if he has.. space rabies?!"

Stone just rolls his eyes as he shuts your door most the way, alarm systems all in place for the night

"This is the first time they've had a friend over, Ivo. We'll know if something goes wrong - just let them have this."

"This" turned into "a live-in best friend" rather quickly, to both parents' surprise (and your absolute delight)

Eventually, he caves.

He starts answering questions truthfully, the pain still rather fresh in his mind

He tells you about Maria, about GUN, about his purpose and pain

And you're there to comfort him

He's not graphic, and you don't push, and he appreciates it more than he'll voice, even to you

He figures that as long as you're willing to be there and listen, he'll be there to keep you safe company

Both dads are.. annoyed

Ivo thinks this new hedgehog is overbearing - always at your shoulder, keeping you company when he's supposed to be, never seeming to let you out of his sight

Stone thinks he's up to something, the way he lingers between streets when you're out, watching from the shadows (ha)

In reality, he's just trying to keep you safe

Your dads seem to figure that out when one of Ivo's ridiculous predictions comes true - you wander just a bit too far from Baba to look at some UV lights for your plants on Crabmeat, and someone grabs your arm as they walk past, jostling you enough that you yelp

Shadow is there in half a second, sending the aggressor to the floor before tugging on your hand, coaxing you down so he can look at the bruise forming on your bicep

Baba Aban is there a second later, lowering himself and helping Shadow turn your arm before helping you back up

"We should leave."

The three of you are silent until halfway back to the base, when Baba tilts the rearview to look at Shadow while he's druving

"Shadow.."

"What?"

He always glares when he talks to anyone besides you. Typically toward the floor or their chests, but right now he's looking your Baba in the eyes through the mirror, watching your father's gaze soften

*Thank you."

And thank YOU anonymous requester for all of this!

The requests for Sonic Movieverse, and this particular headcanon set, are wide open! Please send me reqs! I'm fixating like a mofo right now!!

[quizicalgin]

Since I was recently tagged on making CC in milkshape, I figured I'd copy and paste what I know from my other blog, rather than just forwarding the page here for ease of viewing. It’s the FAQ page for creating CC under the read more.

What do you use to make mods?

S3PE is used to export snippets of the code to edit to make tuning mods. If you wanna make some yourself, HERE is the tutorial to learn how.

What do you use to make objects/clothing/hair?

This one has a few answers depending on what you mean specifically.

TSRW mainly for cloning and editing objects. It also lets me export the files in simpack and package formats.

If you want the version of TSRW BEFORE the sims 4 versions, you can get that HERE. This is important to note because some other programs used for CC creation aren’t fully compatible with the newer version of the TSRW’s WSO files.

If it’s an object that needs a fourth channel added, but it isn’t supported, Texture tweaker by Ignes Jones is what gives the object that channel to work with.

For meshing I use milkshape, and I’m currently working on learning how to use blender instead, since it’s freeware and has a lot more that can be done with it. However, it seems like the plugins from TSRW no longer work with blender, but there are plugins to have blender import geoms HERE that are best used with blender version 2.8-2.9.

There are some additional plugins for Milkshape that makes working in it much easier. There is an align normals plugin set by Demon 432 HERE, and the Unimesh plugins by Wes Howe found HERE. Lastly, to make UV editing easier in Milkshape there’s the CatofEvilGenius UV plugin HERE. They also have a UV flipper too.

For editing textures I personally use Photoshop and here’s how to add DDS usage to it with a link already there in it to download the necessary files. If you use Gimp instead, you can get the DDS files for it HERE. Installation should be similar to PS’s, just look for the file formats.

HERE is a link to the faces and scalps for when I need to model hair or jewelry, since doing it right on the head is much easier. Teens and elders aren’t in here because they aren’t that much different from the adult head.

Is that everything you use?

No there’s also:

Delphy’s Dashboard – Used to make sure my package files aren’t corrupt and won’t make sims implode. It’s also good for checking if anything you already have may be corrupted (a lot of it out there sadly is through no fault of the creator. It just happens during creation sometimes)

S3OC – Another program that lets you clone files, save unlike TSRW it can clone interaction objects, like toothbrushes, game controllers, bowls, plates, and other things that only appear for certain situations. The downside is everything mostly appears in strings with few images, but most of the names make sense for the items. Just sort by name and get to scrollin.

Compressorizer – This compresses simpack and package files in order to help keep the game running smooth. Due to some of its functions, remember to back up your CC and games before using the program.

MeshToolKit – This one is indispensable for creating custom content if you’re adjusting meshes just a bit, or using it to give completely new weight assignments (what makes it move and work like a sim body part) and morphs (the thin to thick range, pregnancies included). Thornowl also made an updated version that can be downloaded HERE.

Normal/Bump map plugins – They’re necessary for any CC you make, as most art programs don’t natively have the ability to make them. Now there are a couple different sets you can download and use depending on your art program of choice.

You can get the ones for GIMP HERE, with the link to the downloads on that page.

The ones for Photoshop can be gotten HERE, and this is a mediafire link because I personally had difficulty using NVIDIA’s newer exporter

And I THINK that’s everything, if I think of or get asked anything else I’ll edit this as needed.

[campbyler]

the ppl that complain abt updates are actually so bewildering to me bc im literally 2k words into my fic and it has taken SO LONG 😞 not to mention the fact that no matter how long i wait for your updates, i truly never get bored because i js come on your tumblr everyday to see what you guys have been posting on here and it 100% makes up for the long awaited updates (not that you have anything to make up for anyway) you guys are truly SO incredible for what you do bc i could NEVER 😭 i literally talked to my friend abt ur fic and how the waits are usually long (wasn’t complaining abt it) and she was like “oh my god i could never wait that long for a fic” and i immediately came to your defense and was like “yeah but it’s okay bc the long ass chapters always make up for it and the fact that they post on tumblr almost daily”

prefacing my accidental ramble by saying that if we ever seem disproportionately annoyed at something someone said then it’s definitely because it is not disproportionate to Us!! little comments and things like that add up over time, so it’s rarely about just that one thing someone says and absolutely more of an overarching pattern that gets tiring really fast. and not to dredge everything back up again bc it’s rare that we get someone being super weird and rude outright about longer or delayed update times but we get soooo so many asks or comments etc like the one thea answered earlier which just include little remarks that come off as just passive aggressive and just kind of kill the vibe of getting a really nice message?? very much like “oh i miss when we only had to wait a couple weeks for updates but your fic is so good!” or “this was so good but don’t know how im going to wait months for the next chapter :(“ and just stuff like that which gets pretty frustrating over time, especially when they’re coming from people who blew through a 30k update in like 45 minutes lol. we see so much of this over on twt especially, maybe because we’re not as active there and people are not saying it To Us so they think we don’t see it but there’s also a lot of likeeeeee “i want to start acswy but im Traumatized by authors abandoning their fics so im just waiting until they’re done” or “i want to catch up but the update intervals are so long😭” and that sort of thing which is also just kind of frustrating to see come up over and over again, esp bc sometimes people have actually said that to us? like in our inbox??? for some entirely unknown reason??? like why are you telling us on this blog that you don’t want to read our fic until it’s done. good luck getting through 500k in one sitting then idk what to tell you 🤷🏽‍♀️

anyways all that to say thank you so much for your message of support it’s very much appreciated! sometimes the demands (even if they’re said as a joke) and little side comments that are slipped into really nice messages can def make us feel like our readers see as us people who are putting out a product and not people who are just trying to share a passion project with our little corner of the internet, but we also know that most of you are not like that and especially the people who regularly interact w this blog and send in asks and comments are so lovely! thank you for coming to our defense 🫡

[aaaaafro]

Seductress 3 - ITZY Chaeryeong x M!Reader (+18?)

tw: titjob? blueballing, yes till reader dies, we aint stopping.

author's notes: I'm back yall! JK, okay so this'll be my only update for Tumblr at this time, I'll be jumping back to my wattpad work because I've been too lazy writing, after updating the Tumblr work, I'll jump back here, perhaps with a new work or another update for an ongoing series ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ ͡⁠°⁠ ͜⁠ʖ⁠ ͡⁠°⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

pt. 2 here

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"WAIT!" You and Yuna echoed each other.

In a haste you two put your clothes back on before running after the said person who witnessed the unsightly situation.

Exiting ITZY's RV you've noticed that the outside is too empty and the person who saw you and Yuna has completely vanished.

"God fucking damn it!" You collapsed realizing what's about to happen.

Yuna stood there guilty as hell as she just tried her best to calm you down.

"W-we can sort this out oppa."

"No! We can't! This fucking job!" You feel terrible lashing out at Yuna but you can't blame yourself.

"Oppa..." Yuna's hesitant voice calls.

You then reached your wits end, standing up with your head down ignoring everything. The few staff that was left finishing the clean up was saying hi yo you but you just shut off completely.

Then a figure suddenly blocks your path. Your eyes travel upwards only to see.

Having been too spent to even give a proper greeting you just mumbled "M-my bad." before stepping aside and continuing your walk of shame.

"O-oppa!" She called hesitantly.

"Yes Chae?"

"Uh..."

"Can I help you with something?" You grew impatient with a hint of regret but your mind isn't in the right place at the moment.

"Y-yes..." She continues to hesitate.

"Is it something to be done tonight? Because, I'm not really–..."

"Can we go to your house?" Chaeryeong suddenly proposed.

You're too baffled at the suddenness of the situation "W-wait... Why?"

"I'm n-nervous for my s-shoot." She reasoned but you're not having any of it.

"Oh really? But you've done it many times now." You tried probing.

"Y-yeah b-but still..." She acted all cute and your anger dissipates in a matter of seconds.

"W-why my h-house?"

"Y-you have a small studio set up right?" Chaeryeong replied.

"R-right..."

"So? W-what are we waiting for?" She suddenly takes you by the arm and rushes to your car.

There's a lot happening in your mind that somehow isn't making sense. Firstly, there's still the person that witnessed Yuna grinding herself on top of you. Second, the fact that Yuna and Ryujin seem to be onto something from the get go of the whole situation, and lastly Chaeryeong's weird impulse of getting some practice shots for the photoshoot.

"Oh, you have a nice place for yourself." Chaeryeong compliments as you two enter your unit.

"Ye-yeah." You replied instinctively.

"Uh Chaery..." You mumbled.

"Shall we start?" She suddenly states before taking off her coat.

"H-hold on...." You tried halting her movements but she instead just gave you a look of confusion.

A smirk forms on her face before she continues to undress. Yep... Undress, just when you thought she'd stop after her coat was off. She suddenly removes her shirt.

As all other proper men would've done, you stood there frozen for a second before realizing that Chaeryeong is revealing more skin than you're prepared for. You quickly turn away the moment you saw a good portion of her bare toned torso.

"Chaeryeong! WHAT THE HECK?"

"Why?! I'm changing to my outfit." She replies managing to have the most innocent tone possible.

"Couldn't you do that somewhere else?"

"Wow, now you're uncomfortable? You sure weren't when Yuna was grinding herself on top of you." She suddenly answered with such a disdain tone.

Your heart drops hearing her confession. You then pieced all of it together.

"Hey?! Are we gonna do this or do you need me to grind on you too?" Chaeryeong sounded really impatient as she stood on your small makeshift studio.

You reluctantly followed, before you were greeted by Chaeryeong's gaze locked onto you, following every single step you took to your set up.

"C-chaery..."

"Yes, oppa?" She asked cutely while thinking of possible poses.

"About what you saw... With me and Yuna–."

"Stop! Can't you focus on what's in front of you?"

"B-but..." You were about to comment before Chaeryeong deadly gaze once more lands on you.

"Shall we start?"

With her eyes digging a hole straight through your defenses and her expression loudly saying that she's not taking 'no' as an answer. You reluctantly nodded.

"what pose should I start with?" she asked.

"L-let's break... b-break the ice first. You're free to just feel yourself and..." You unconsciously spoke with a professional mindset that you failed to realize how different the situation is.

"Feel myself?"

"Y-yeah."

"Right..." She then starts to run her fingers on her lips making sure she doesn't break her stare into your camera lens like she knows you're looking on the other end.

She's oozing confidence...

She's something else...

She's doing it on purpose...

She's holding her pose for you...

She's seducing you...

Not even a minute in, your hand starts to shake, cold sweats run down your face and your chest tightens.

"H-how about a b-break?" You state having to reach your limit

"Already?"

"I-... C-can I at least get some water?" You excused

"Get me some too. I want to feel wet." You paused midway through your walk to exit your studio.

"I mean my throat oppa."

"R-right." you then quickly bolted out of your studio and went straight to your kitchen.

"Fuck." You muttered to yourself while taking a sip of water.

"We will, don't worry."

You spat out the water you just took in as soon as you heard the voice behind you.

"C-chaery."

"Yes?" She answered cutely before carefully brushing her finger on your hand making you let go of the glass and taking it.

"W-wha..." Your words fails to form properly as she slowly runs her tongue across the rim of the glass even the inside of it making sure to taste whatever hint of DNA you've left behind.

"Yes oppa? I can't hear you properly..." She said in such a sultry tone before taking a small sip of your water.

"You girls, wh-wha..." Once more your thought process fails to work seeing the young lady's lip coil as she bites it keeping a straight gaze towards you.

Mere seconds later you feel a pull from the universe as your face gravitates towards hers. Chaeryeong's lips grew redder as you've gotten so close to the point your foreheads collide in such a gentle way to welcome each other.

"Chaery." You whispered.

"Yes, oppa?"

"T-this isn't... r-right." You weakly say but it is enough to let her hear it.

"Is it?" She whispers before brushing the back of her hand on your cheek.

All of a sudden a hint of cherry hits your taste buds, lost, bewildered and confused all at the same moment you realized that Chaeryeong's lips are now connected to yours.

Your eyes widens when she suddenly slips something on and her hand that was on your cheek travels further to your nape. You didn't want to engage but there's something about it that you just wanted to give into.

It may be the feeling that this was all premeditated from the beginning, the way this whole thing started from Ryujin and it escalated to Yuna before landing yourself in the hands of Chaeryeong.

Fuck her lips are so delicious.

The way her tongue skillfully dances with yours, her slim fingers brushing against the skin of yours, her soft huffs in between the gaps of your make out session.

You can feel your spit spilling out as the kiss grows more intense than it already is. Chaeryeong then adjusts her position sitting atop the counter top capturing you in between her legs.

"Ha~!" Chaery then breaks off your contact before locking eyes with you.

A subtle eyebrow raises from her piques your interest before her hand from your nape travels down your torso right on the seam of your shirt. She then started to lift your shirt as your hands came into the mind of their own and started to feel her soft thighs.

"How were those two?" She then asked.

"T-those two?" You innocent retort and that produces a scoff from the younger lady.

"You're asking as if you don't know who I'm talking about."

You shrugged before feeling her short tap on your chest. Her cutest giggle hits your eardrums as she leans in for a quick peck.

"Honestly... I didn't do it with Yuna and Ryujin." You confessed in the kiss this causes Chaeryeong to dislatch her lips from yours.

"You minx!" She bursts.

"It's true!"

"W-we just dry humped and got interrupted."

You can clearly see her laughter being held back. She lookes away before scoffing and despite having held back most of her laugh a slight giggle still escapes her lips.

"You really got blueballed twice with the most brattiest members of ITZY."

"W-well, if it weren't for you and Yuna, I would've done it with Ryujin." You boastfully state and Chaeryeong just shakes her head in disbelief.

"Oh, so it's our fault you didn't get to taste Ryujin-unnie?"

"K-kinda."

"Wouldn't you want to go all the way with her?" She asks.

Perhaps your new found confidence was short lived as you've slowly considered the possibility of sleeping with one of them.

"Oh big boy, don't ponder too much. Just look in front of you." Chaeryeong cheers you up even lifting your head high to align your eyes with hers.

Her hands then traveled to your arm and ultimately led yours up to her torso. You can feel her heat radiating from her body feeling your touch against her clothed skin.

Your fingers sprawled out grasping the healthiest of orbs in your hand. Chaery lets out an airy almost whimper-like moan.

"Mhmmm."

"A-are you sure about this?" You stupidly questioned.

She then again produced a scoff before removing your hands from her torso. You mentally smacked yourself as you stepped back and gave her some space.

Then the unthinkable happened (as if it hasn't for almost 3 chapters now) Chaeryeong pulled down her dark shirt, freeing her arms from the constricting black clothes and finally revealing her luscious orbs that have their buds covered by pasties, which almost disappointed you but fuck that its closest to the real thing.

Chaeryeong noticed your slight disappointment and decided to do something about it. Slipping her fingers through the small seam of the pasties before peeling them off completely, greeting you with the pinkish of nubs that are protruding enough to be called turned on.

"You're salivating."

Can she blame you though? You did your best to wipe whatever shameful liquid that's dripping from your mouth before the lady in front of you chuckles at your cuteness.

You smiled at the sight of Chaery laughing but wasn't able to fully admire her visuals as you were greeted with a mouthful of hunger and desire. Chaeryeong lapping whatever remnants of your spit was left.

"Fucking delicious." She mumbles in between the pauses.

Can't deny that, as she slips her tongue almost wanting it to reach your throat. The two of you reconnected your lips before your hands acted on their own and quickly got a vice grip on her perky tits.

Mashing the supple feel and occasionally pinching the nubs of her aroused breast didn't fail to up Chaery's libido even more as her legs captured your pelvis and pulls you into her.

She broke the kiss off before resting her forehead against yours.

Her lust-filled eyes locked against yours before she whispered; "Mhmm, you like playing with them baby?"

You didn't answer, instead, you tightened the grip of her perky tits with the slightest intent of having your fingers engraved on her breast.

"S-shit!"

Without a hint of being hurt or displeasure, you came to the conclusion that this isn't gonna be your average fucking.

"Eat me." She again whispered.

Your eyes widened, never have you ever imagined yourself devouring, fuck it even seeing a member of ITZY naked and right at that moment, one of them is asking you to do lustful things to her. You'd be the biggest idiot if you didn't comply.

With your goal set in sight, seeing that it's just the two of you. You start working your way from her lips, down her sharp jaw, planting soft kisses and subtle bites that continue to make Chaeryeong squirm in anticipation.

The moment your lips brushed against her pinkish hard nub an airy sigh leaves Chaeryeong's lips, her hand grabs a handful of your hair,

Sucking, licking, biting or whichever way your mouth can work on each nubs of the squirming lady in your arms to have her moan out another profanity or just the sultry sighs was all you could do, as your pants grew painfully tighter.

"You're choking baby." Chaeryeong manages to whisper.

She's clearly not talking about your busy mouth lapping up her busty orbs, she makes her point but unbuckling your pants and freeing you from the constricting confinement.

Wasting no time, she immediately fished out your member and started stroking the rock hard length that's raging against her touch.

You can feel Chaery's excitement as her grip and strokes grew more and more aggressive.

It became too much for you and as much as you hate it you detached yourself from her precious goodies before saying "F-fuck Chaery."

"I know! We'll get there!" She playfully replies before slithering down the counter top and on to her knees.

"But first, this big guy needs a lil bit of attention." Chaery added before planting a kiss on the tip of your length which almost made your knees buckle.

A long wet lick suddenly came across the base of your member that made you brace yourself on the counter top, with a sultry sigh Chaeryeong then took your whole member in not caring about her vocals for their practices she did her best to make you collapse on your feet.

While you're receiving the gawk gawk 3000 you look back at the earliest encounters with the other member, reminiscing Chaery's question. If it weren't for the interruptions would you have gone all the way with the other two. How about the other two? The unnies... You honestly can't get your head around the thought but you exactly knew what's going aroudn your head. Other... head... Chaeryeong's lips as she continues to suck the living hell out of your cock pairing them with the massage on your balls just took it a step further.

"Fuck! Chaery I might..."

She released the tip of your member with an audible pop before answering; "Cum? That's the plan big boy."

She then placed her hands on the back of your leg and for whatever fucking reason, as soon as she pressed a nerve you buckled down lowering yourself for her.

You already know what's about to go down and yet it still makes you twitch as soon as your rigid length fits between her mounds.

"Holy fuck." You commented which made Chaery smile.

"Hot aren't they?" She replies with a devilish smile.

Pressing her soft orbs together encapsulates your member perfectly, her spit still covering your length and she starts to pump.

"S-shit."

You can see the tip of your length hitting Chaeryeong's chin which begs the question but it was already answered before it was asked. As she quickly leaned downwards and took your member into her mouth but careful enough to still have you captured between her mounds.

This sight is so sinful, sacred and so fucking hot, making it impossible to look away, like it's blasphemy to remove your attention for even a fraction of a second.

Not even a minute in you feel yourself reaching your limit but who can blame you?

"C-chaery." You pathetically called.

But the little fox is too busy with her meal as she just ignores you and continues to do her thing.

As soon as your balls tighten, something unimaginable happens. Chaery lets go of your member, giving you a devilish smile as if to mock you, stating that she's proud of sin she had committed.

"I think that'll be enough for the night." Chaery removes herself from the space between you and the counter top.

"What the fuck?!"

"Oh, that? Perhaps next time baby." She cheekily replies before giving you a wink.

"W-wha?" Too stunned to speak, with your pants down you stood there glancing back and forth at your raging member and the lady who's fixing her outfit.

"You should get yourself fixed before my service picks me up." She added with such a nonchalant tone that only adds insult to injury.

Three... you've been blueballed three times in a single day. You're too dumbfounded at how these girls are just playing you at the palm of their hand. Drawing the line between coincidence and a well thought-out plan, you stood there motionless piecing together the times you've been stopped midway through committing the lustful act.

"Stop!" You burst immediately as Chaery was about to leave the vicinity.

"Wha-." She was about to ask but you quickly closed the distance between the two of you and pinned her against the wall.

"H-hey! P-playtime's o-over." The girl nervously chuckles.

"No." Was your straight answer.

The girl trembles but it doesn't seem like it was out of discomfort. She stood there fidgeting while rubbing her thighs together as if something was off.

Your hand on the wall slowly travelled towards her hips, tracing her well sculpted body. Chaery couldn't even keep her composure as she squirms from your touch.

"Didn't you ask me earlier if I would've gone all the way with them if I wasn't blueballed by you and Yuna?"

"Mhmmm." She moaned as your fingers traced her flat tummy down her heat radiating core.

"Should I answer that now?" She nodded subtly with her eyes pleading.

You were about to kiss her, when all of a sudden.

"Ryeongiee! We're going!"

"WAIT!" You and Chaery echoed each other.

[echoghost1]

Are You My Father? Chapter 3!

Chapter Title: Nervous as an Heir

Summary: The Fenton family now knows for sure who the real father is for Danny and Jazz.

Chapter Word Count: 1,646

You can read on AO3 or down below the cut

It was a good thing that this all started on a Saturday. Tucker spent so long making sure Danny, not only knew who Bruce Wayne was, but also felt really dumb for not knowing already.

Not that Tucker was being particularly mean about it, but there was a lot Danny already knew, he just hadn't made the connection yet.

For example, he knew of Wayne Tech. Tucker often brought it up whenever they invented something cool or made some advances in the scientific community. 

He also knew of Wayne Industries because it helped build the Justice League’s space station. He had been very invested in that when it was being built and watched the launch when it was ready for space.

The thing he didn’t realize was that this was the same Wayne.

It was really obvious in retrospect. 

He felt so dumb.

Sam, on the other hand, filled Danny in on everything she knew and could find about Bruce himself.

Like how he seemed to be a hot gossip celebrity along with this successful business guy. The kind that had a new girlfriend every weekend and was always at every big party.

Despite looking sort of similar to Danny, he didn’t think they had anything in common at all.

He just really hoped he wasn’t some kind of secret supervillain or something. 

Then again, Bruce seemed to take in orphans sometimes so at least he wouldn’t be completely clueless about how to talk to talk to teenagers. Also probably wasn’t evil if he was nice enough to do that.

In the end, the trio was up all night and into the morning. It was nice that it wasn’t because of ghosts.

The downside of this paternal revelation happening over the weekend, was that they had to wait until Monday to talk to anyone at the clinic and then wait several “business days” while they “processed the request”.

Needless to say, his mom was one minor inconvenience away from completely losing her mind during the wait. Jazz was constantly talking her down from driving to the clinic and processing the DNA herself. 

It was the following weekend and he was hanging out at Tucker’s playing video games when he got the call with an update.

“We got the answer.” His mom said instead of a greeting.

“Oh?” was all Danny could think to say.

“You can still stay the night at Tucker’s, but tomorrow we're going to Gotham.”

“Okay,” Danny said, unsure how he was supposed to feel.

Part of him was still hoping the mix-up hadn't actually affected him at all. He had been hoping that nothing had changed.

He had hoped those random rich kids who looked more like his dad than he did were just wrong.

They weren’t. 

He wasn’t genetically a Fenton after all.

He was a Wayne.

He had no idea if that was a good or a bad thing.

===============================================

The next morning Danny’s family was packed up into the Fenton RV and started their estimated 12-hour journey to Gotham.

His dad had offered to drive the rich kids back home, but they said they already had plane tickets.

Danny wasn’t sure what part of the offer they disliked more, having to cram into the car with them or just driving there in general.

Danny hadn’t expected them to have stayed as long as they had. Turns out they had a nice time getting to know their bio-dad.

Jack had even come up with nicknames for most of them before they left.

The oldest, Robert, didn’t seem to be a big fan of being called Bobby, but once all the other kids got their nicknames he stopped fighting it. That, or maybe it was because Jack refused to call him anything else.

The second oldest, Jacqueline, quickly became Jackie. She, unlike her half-brother, seemed to like her nickname a lot.

Veronica was able to avoid being called Vicky by quickly suggesting Nickie instead after Robert got stuck with Bobby.

Her twin Haydon was able to avoid getting a nickname, or at least Danny never heard one for her. Then again, Brody didn’t get one either.

The youngest, Theo ended up being called Teddy. Getting that nickname was the first time Danny saw the kid smile. 

Danny got himself a little more comfortable in his spot in the RV and wondered if Bruce was going to be as stiff and reserved as the rich kids were.

He really hoped not, but the only rich adults he knew were Vlad and Sam’s parents. They weren’t exactly easy-going or super friendly.

Then again, assuming all rich people are the same would be stereotyping and he’d be friends with Sam long enough to know that was a bad idea.

In the end, Danny wasn’t sure what to expect, and all the not knowing just made him more anxious about what could happen.

===============================================

Due to speedy driving, the Fenton family arrived in Gotham hours ahead of schedule.

“Hey Mom,” Jazz said as they passed the welcome to Gotham sign, “do you have the number for the hotel we’re staying at? We should call to let them know we’re early.”

“We don’t have a hotel,” their mom replied simply.

“I am not sleeping in this RV the whole time we're here.”

“Oh don’t be silly. Just because we don’t have a hotel doesn't mean we have nowhere to stay.”

“Then where are we staying?” Danny asked.

“Why at our new buddy Bruce’s place of course!” Jack said with a grin.

“Bruce Wayne invited us to stay with him?” Jazz asked.

“Technically, the butler did,” Maddie added.

“He has a butler?” Danny asked.

“Are you really that surprised about the butler?” Jazz asked. “He’s super rich. Of course, he has a butler.

“Vlad doesn't have one.” 

“I think we know why that is,” Jazz said not quiet enough for her parents not to hear her.

“You do?” Jack asked obliviously.

Thankfully their mom had an explanation, “He doesn't like it when people touch his things. Don’t you remember how territorial he got in the lab in college?”

Their dad remembered that and then a bunch of other stuff from the good old days, which is when Danny stopped paying attention. He knew more than enough about Vlad already, he didn’t want any more of the rose-tinted glasses version.

He looked out the window and found it interesting that Gotham seemed so much more like a city than Amity Park did.

All the buildings here seemed taller and closer together. There were statues and stone carvings all over everything. If all the eyes of the crowded streets weren’t enough, the walls could stare at you too.

The city also seemed to come in layers. There were tons of bridges over other streets and not just over rivers like back home. He didn’t see many city buses but he did notice a lot of train tracks above him with commuter trains. He wondered if they’d have time to take the train somewhere while they were here, he hadn’t been on one before. The only trains that came to Amity Park were freight trains.

Well, and the circus that one time. He didn’t like to think about that.

Instead, he shifted his gaze upwards only to see that the way the clouds gathered overhead made it look like it was all just concrete and metal all the way up to the sky.

He sighed in disappointment realizing there was no way he was even going to see the moon, let alone the stars. He hoped it wouldn’t be overcast like this the whole time they were here.

“Psst, Danny.”

“Yeah,” He said as he turned towards his sister.

“I was doing some research on Mr. Wayne,” she started once she had his attention.

“Did you find any red flags?” he half-joked.

“Of course not,” she dismissed quickly.

“Really?” 

“Well there’s a few things I’ve noted, but I have to make my own observations first to be sure.”

“Should I be worried?”

“No, it’s fine.”

He didn’t believe her for a second. He wasn’t going to say that though.

“So what did you find?” he said instead.

“I think Mr. Wayne has more in common with Sam than he does Vlad.”

That wasn’t something he expected to hear. He had a strong feeling it wasn’t what she meant, he couldn’t help but picture Bruce Wayne and Sam completely goth-ed up and hanging out in that poetry place she likes, drinking expensive coffee.

“Yeah, you see Vlad has what’s called new money, which is basically getting rich yourself. While Wayne and Sam have old money, which is basically being born rich because your parents or grandparents were rich.”

“That’s a good thing right?”

“I’m not sure if it’s good or bad, per se. Just that he has different life experiences than we do.”

“Jazz, I don’t think anyone has had a similar life experience to us.”

She looked towards their parents in the front seat, “Good point.”

There were a few moments of silence before Danny asked something Jazz that had been nagging at him for a while.

He tapped her knee to get her attention.

“Do you think he’ll like us?”

“Why wouldn’t he like us?”

“I don’t know. We’re just some random midwestern kids and he’s this fancy East Coast rich guy. We probably don’t have anything in common. He’s gonna think we’re lame or something.”

“Danny, I think you might be overthinking this.”

“You sure?”

“If anything, this will be kind of awkward for everyone and something we'll laugh about a few years from now.”

“So you don't think it's going to be a big deal or anything?”

“It's going to be fine. Try to enjoy the experience.”

“I’ll try,” Danny said with a sigh as he turned to look out the window again, “but I’m not making any promises.”

[ohtobeleah]

Im crying, screaming, throwing up. Leah, you’re putting your whole ass pussy into these updates. I can’t wait for the next update.

Bro. The way I literally spent six hours writing this yesterday. Six! I couldn’t stop. I just had to get it out. Anyway, as always—here’s the Terms Of Endearment Masterlist

***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~

Dot was a smart little girl. She knows when things aren't right. She knows when Bob pulls up in a driveway that isn't Jakes that something is wrong. With her little heart already broken enough from her traumatic pick up from daycare, but when she sees a woman standing out on the front veranda that isn't you, her bottom lip quivers. Where were you?

“Where's Mamma?” Dot asked as she came to from her nap in her booster seat, Bob felt his heart break inside his chest because how do you tell a two year old that their mother is in the hospital? 

“Mama’s gonna be back soon Dotty.” God Bob couldn't handle all this, he had no idea how you did it for so long without crying out for help. “Thanks for taking her on such short notice.” Bob is far too rattled for Chelsea Fitch to be comfortable with. “Jakes probably harassing the emergency department staff as we speak trying to get answers and Rooster was already there so–” 

“She's more than welcome for as long as needed.” Chelsea makes her way down the drive to where Bob is fishing Dot out of her booster seat. “She looks so upset–” Chelsea sighs. “Hi darling girl, it's okay baby come here.” With one swift motion, Bob was picking up the little girl everyone had gathered around to protect and handing her over to Reubans wife. Dot immediately snuggled into her shoulder, she's so tired and emotionally exhausted. There's only so much a two year old can take before they begin to shut down. “You know much about how she's doing?” 

“Nope, Jake fainted in the parking lot when he was on the phone with Rooster.” Bob relayed all that he knew as he unclipped the booster seats from the back of Penny's car to leave at the Finch household. “I didn't get a chance to ask much when I picked up the phone, just told Rooster we’d get there as soon as possible.”

“And by we you mean Amilia–” Bob just smiled, he caught the tone Chelsea used as she held Dot on her hip. Standing in the driveway as Chase clung to her leg. Bob Floyd loved the fact he wasn't the only one with a sibling he wasn't overly attached to. 

“Yes ma’am–” 

“Don't ma’am me Bob, I work for a living.” Bob couldn't keep his head from spinning on top of his shoulders if he tried. He couldn't keep up with the sharp wit and dry humour of the Australians he was suddenly in close vicinity to. 

“Sorry, sorry–force of habit.” Bob knew he should probably head over to Jakes and get some essentials sorted. It hadn't necessarily been a task bestowed upon him verbally, but Bob knew that he should, to do what he could within his means. “I'm gonna head off, I'll swing by Jakes and get some of Dot's things, stop by, then head over to the hospital.” 

“Can you tell my sister that for someone who's been in the states for less than three days on a soul searching quest or whatever bullshit she's on, she sure has a knack for finding trouble.” Chelsea chuckled as Bob just pressed his lips together in a thin line and nodded silently. “Come on bub’s let's get you two inside.” 

“Thanks again Chels–” Bob thanked Chelsea just one more time before he was heading off, leaving Odette Dolan in the Fitch’s capable hands while everything else seemed to fall through the cracks. 

***~***~***~***~***~***~***

“You feeling alright?” Amilia asked as she drove Jake in silence to the hospital. There wasn’t any music playing through the speakers this time. Just pure silence filled the cab of her sister’s Sante Fe. 

“I’m sorry you got caught up in all this.” Jake swerved the question Amilia had asked as he turned to take in Amilias profile. Fuck she was real pretty. “It was incredibly unfair of me to ask you to get involved.” 

“Your niece is a real cutie.” Amilia, still focusing on the road ahead, smiled as she flicked on her indicator, turning into the Miramar Base Hospital. “I don’t think I would’ve been able to live with myself if I didn’t do something.” 

“Yeah—“ Jake sighed, letting his head fall back against the headrest. “It definitely feels like that.” 

“If you don’t mind me asking, how long have your sister and her ex been separated?” Jake just looked at Amilia, who for a split second turned her head to look back at Jake. “I don’t mean to pry.” Jake took notice to the way Amilias voice sounded softer in her regret to ask. “And by all means man you don’t have to tell me shit—just tell me to shut up and my lips are sealed.” Jake couldn’t handle the way Amilia turned her head back to the road ahead, she was so genuinely concerned about what was going on to people she’d never met before. “I shouldn’t have asked, I’m sorry—it’s too personal.” 

“No, no you're good.” Jake cleared his throat, thinking about how to explain your circumstances. “Emotionally I’d say ever since the first time he laid his hands on her.” Jake remarked, balling his fist at the thought as he clenched his jaw. “But uh, she ran out on him a few months back, turned up on my doorstep beaten half to death with enough alcohol in her system that I would have believed her if she said she identified as a distillery.” Jake chuckled, it hurt to make peace with the fact this had been your life, your rock bottom. “I promised her if she stayed here then she’d be safe, that I wouldn’t let anyone hurt her yet here we are—“ Jake finally turned his head back to where Amilia sat in the driver's seat, looking for a park. “I don't know how to keep her safe.” 

Amilia didn’t respond straight away, the air was too heavy around her, she could feel the weight of Jake's world on her shoulders. No one deserved to feel that kind of guilt. It wasn’t his fault, what that Jaidyn guy had done wasn’t a reflection on Jake. He was only one person, how much could he honestly do? 

“The next dude that tries to kiss my fucking foreheads gonna cop a head-butt instead so we both end up hurt and confused.” Jake couldn’t help but to laugh softly as he looked at Amilia, this crazy, random woman he’d met that same morning felt like an extension of himself. Amilia had kissed him in the parking lot of his niece's day care not half an hour ago. Why had he not ended up copping a headbutt. He surely had a headache, but that was from smacking his head on the ground when he lost all control. 

“Can’t say that doesn’t sound like a good strategy—“ There’s a few moments of silence as Amilia gives up circling the full car park and just decides it’s probably best to drop Jake off at the emergency department. She hits the curb slightly and Jake cringes at the thought of the gutter rash her rims were gonna end up with. “Jesus—“ 

“Sorry.” It’s not hard to notice the embarrassment laced in Amilias tone as she puts the car in park. “I’m still getting used to the whole left side steering and right side roadway.” 

“How long have you been in the states for?” Jake asks, he’s reluctant to get out of the car because he knows the second he does he’s gonna lose his mind. Amilia Fisher seemed to keep Jake level headed. He needed that in all this, a guiding light. A lighthouse.

“Considering I’ve lost track of what day it is from the jet lag and copious amounts of caffeine I’ve been pumping I’d guest about three days, give or take a few hours.” 

“Three days and you're slashing people’s tyres!?” Jake genuinely laughs for the first time all day. He feels the butterflies in his stomach take flight when Amilia matches his energy and laughs with him, nodding. 

“I didn’t know what else to do!?” As the laughter drifted off into nothing, Amilia let herself settle into the back of her car seat. “You should probably get out now.” 

“I don’t think I can go in there.” Jake held back tears, he wasn’t ready to accept he’d let you down. “Can’t see her like that.” He wasn’t ready to face you. “I fucked up, I can’t—“ 

“Hey, listen.” Amilia cooed as Jake tried his best to hold himself together, he was falling apart at the seams. “Just breathe.” A gentle hand with manicured nails that make Jake's skin rise with goosebumps reaches out to cup his cheek. “She really needs you, but it’s okay to feel like you don’t have your shit together.” 

“You got anywhere to be?” Jake asked, it was his way of asking Amilia to stay. She just shook her head, she knew what he meant. 

“Been the longest fucking day ever and I could really use a beer, but I got absolutely nowhere else to be.” 

***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~

Bradley hated hospitals. He’d never been one to associate hospitals with good memories. It’s where he’d gone with his mum when he’d found out he’d died in a training accident and It was where he said goodbye to his mum one last time before she left to be with her best friend again. 

Now, as he sat in the waiting room tapping his foot on the ground impatiently waiting for someone, anyone to give him an update on how you were—he couldn’t help his mind from wondering. What if you were about to join the ever growing list of people Bradley Bradshaw had lost in his life? 

“Bradshaw!” Jake bellowed out as he came barreling through the front doors of the emergency department, Amilia in toe. “Where is she?” Rooster stood to meet Jake in an embrace that put all others to shame. Brother in arms. Jake wraps his arms around Bradley as Bradley took him in tight. Both silently silencing their painful sobs in each other's embrace. “Where is she?” 

“In surgery I think?” Rooster explained. “They wouldn’t tell me much because I still haven’t handed back the paperwork they asked me to fill out on her behalf.” It’s when Jake steps back that Bradley sees Amilia standing there. She’s a little on the short side, and by a little he means a lot. Respectfully Jake and Bradley tower over her. It wouldn’t be hard to lose her in a crowd. Amilia Fisher was definitely someone you’d tie a helium balloon to just to keep an eye on her. 

“Who’s this?” Bradley asks, he thinks he knows. She looks a little familiar. Jake just steps aside, allowing Amilia to outstretch her hand to shake Bradley’s. “God You look like someone I know—“

“Uh, Chelsea Fitch is my sister, you both apparently work with my brother in law.” It all clicks in Rooster's mind when he hears the mention of Payback's wife. “Amilia, Amilia Fisher.” 

“You’re the one who took the video this morning?” Bradley smirks, he can see the look on Jake’s face clear as day. The guys hooked. 

“That’s me.” Amilia confirms, Jakes just crossing his arms across his chest as Rooster sends him an all knowing look. He’d fallen in love at first sight with you, what was so hard to believe about the same happened to Jake Seresin. 

“She slashed Jaidyn’s tires too, made sure he couldn’t leave before Bob and I got there.” Jake mentioned and Bradley just raised his eyebrows in shock. 

“No shit?” 

“Bob took Odette to Paybacks place, he called me while I was on my way over—said he wouldn’t be too far away? Cyclone called off training for the rest of the week and sent everyone home.” Jake mumbled as he yawned, stretching his back out as he did so. 

“Yeah he said something about not being able to have people flying multi million dollar fighter jets around while there’s an internal investigation going on.” Bradley sighed. He was exhausted. “Where’s Jaidyn now?” 

“On his way to the station, I called the cops—they took him off in cuffs at the daycare.” Amilia explained as she looked around. “This a Military Hospital or General Public?” Bradley just looked at Jake who shrugged his shoulders back at him. Both men decided they needed to take a seat. Sitting side by side as Bradley handed Jake the half filled in paperwork. 

“How bad is it?” Jake asked under his breath. Bradley just pressed his lips together, he knew Jake had taken notice of the blood that stained Bradley’s hands and uniform. He knew what the answer was already. He just needed to hear Rooster say it. 

“Medic said her jaw was broken before we even got here, he must have really laid into her because I could hardly recognise her.” It absolutely killed Bradley to relay this information, he could see from the expression on Jake’s face alone that it killed him to know. But they needed to share each other’s heartbreak to get through this. “She’s tough though, never stopped fighting back—“ 

“We let her down.” Jake stated as a matter of fact. He was pissed at Jaidyn for everything he’d done to you but more importantly he was pissed at himself for allowing him to get close enough to her you. 

“I know.” Braldey swallowed the lump in his throat as Jake filled in everything he knew about you from a lifetime of friendship. It didn’t seem like enough though as he sat there, looking around to see if anyone was coming to update them. “I know we did.” 

Amilia opted to shout the two naval aviators who looked far too out of place a packet of chips from the vending machine. She knew well enough that they weren’t hungry, but they needed something in their system. Handing over the packet of chips, one each as she looked down at Bradley and Jake, gesturing for them to take the bags of air. 

“My favourite is cheese and onion but I can’t speak for Lays, wouldn’t know what’s good or bad here so I thought I’d play it safe with the original.” 

Jake just took Amilia in for all she was worth, Bradley could practically see the heart eyes he was sending over as he grazed Amilias outstretched hand and took the packet of chips. 

“Thanks—“ Jake cooed as Amilia came to sit beside him. Bradley hummed to himself when she opened her own packet, offering Jake a few from her packet in the hopes he’d share his with her in return. 

He did. 

Bradley couldn't help but to smile, Jake deserved to fall in love. He deserved someone who was as willing, kind, and above all as annoying as he was. Amilia Fisher gave off that vibe.

He just wished you were here to witness it too. 

***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***

Admiral Beau Simpson had never felt more like a failure than he did in the moments he sat behind his desk recording on a blank disc the seven minute assault that had left you dangerously close to death. He had never seen such a violent act against a woman. But what else he saw amongst the beating was bravery—

“I need someone to contact the local authorities, this guy is an animal.” Cyclone explained as he tried to peel his eyes away from the monitor, but he couldn’t. He knew he owed it to you to sit there and watch what he’d let happen by not stepping in sooner. “Why are you still here?” 

“Sorry sir.” One of the administrators that Cyclone had called into his office babbled out as he ran to make sure that the request of the admiral would be conducted. Almost as soon as he had left, Pete Mitchell was stepping into his office, wearing a confused expression. 

Like this day couldn’t get any fucking worse for Beau Simpson. 

“Why have you suspended all training until further notice and sent my team home?” Maverick asked, leaning over Cyclone's desk. “What’s going on—“

“You need to get down to the Base Hospital, Lieutenant Bradshaw is there with Y/n.” Cyclone could barely stomach enough courage to say what he needed to say. He made himself sick. “Allocations were made, they were dismissed when they should have been properly adhered to.” He sighed in disapproval of his own actions. Leaning back in his chair as he looked at the man who was in all aspects a better man than he was in the moment. “Felix was taken to hospital about two hours ago and I’ve opened an internal investigation into the situation. Your team is grounded until further notice, Captain.” Pete frowned as he took in what Admiral Simpson had just told him. He had been wondering where Rooster was, where Hangman had gone off to and why Bob was suddenly missing in action. 

He paused for a moment, wondering if what his initial thought was truly what had been the case. 

“Her ex got to her did he?” Maverick pressed his lips together as Cyclone begrudgingly nodded in conformation. “I told you when I found out he first got reposted that something would happen if you didn’t keep an eagle eye on that son of a bitch, didn’t I?” 

It was true. When Jaidyn had first showed up in North Island, Jake had asked if Mav could possibly pull some strings. He tried to warn Admiral Simpson what would happen, but his predictions fell on deaf ears. Maverick couldn’t tell at the time if Cyclone just didn’t want to know, was too self centred to get involved or if he just didn’t care enough about his personnel to do anything about it. 

“The only reason he took up this posting, Sir, was to get at her—I told you that and what did you do?”

Cyclone just closed his eyes—He knew what he had done. Nothing. If anyone had failed you it was Beau Simpson. “You told me to fall back in line, told me that if Felix had a problem she could come to you, but when she did what did you do?” Maverick hissed—he swore with the pressure building on his teeth as he clenched them tight he was about to break at least four. “You sent her away.” 

“I was just following protocol—“ 

“When has following protocol ever worked in the case of domestic violence, Sir.” Maverick left it at that as he made his way over to the door. Speaking over his shoulder before Pete Mitchell went to explain to the remaining members of his Dagger crew what was going on. “It’s people like you who make the system so flawed it does more damage than good.” 

***~***~***~***~***~***~***~

The sun had well and truly gone down by the time Bradley and Jake saw a doctor heading anywhere towards their immediate vicinity. Amilia had fallen asleep beside where Jake sat, her head felt natural on his shoulder and he, in every sense of the word, hadn’t had the heart to move her. 

Bob had shown up an hour ago. He’d packed up a bunch of Odette stuff and dropped it off at Paybacks place before he made his way over. He’d filled him in on what he knew and told him as soon as he knew more he’d call. 

“Wonder how long it’s gonna take for someone to put us out of our misery.” Rooster mumbled, his eyelids were heavy and his feet felt numb from sitting in the hospital waiting room chair for what felt like an eternity. 

“Probably won’t be for a while still, god only knows we deserve to sit and stew in our own self pity.” Jake replied, he was just as tired as Rooster. Amilia snorted as she stirred on Jake’s shoulder. 

“You two sound fucking pathetic.” Amile Fisher had the energy of a feral princess. She was wholesome and you could definitely take her home to meet your mother if you wanted to. But she drank tequila and bourbon of any sort straight. She;d square up with a grown man without hesitation and have no problem putting someone in their place. Amilia was all about balance, and right now? Jake Seresin was all kinds of out of balance. 

“Thought you were asleep?” Jake turned his head to where Amila still had her head resting on Jake’s shoulder. 

“The sound of your insecurities woke me up.” She mumbled, looking up at Jake through tired and hooded eyes. “You aren’t responsible for this, neither is Rooster, so cut the self loathing crap out.” 

“Yes ma’am—“ Bob's ears pricked up at the sound of Jake sounding off like an aviator falling in line. He had a feeling what was coming next if Amilia was anything like her sister Chelsea. 

“Ew, don’t call me ma’am, I work for a living.” Yep, he called it. Jake felt his heart skip a beat as he leaned in to kiss Amilias forehead gently, wondering if she’d follow through with her promise to headbutt the next guy who did so—she didn’t, Jake was simply met with a warm hum. 

“Y/n Y/l/n?” There was a doctor calling your name as Braldey stood up in a frantic attempt to immediately find out more. 

“That’s us!” He said a little too loud. The doctor just made his way over to where Rooster stood. “We’re here for Fe—how is she?” The doctor standing before Bradley just looked at him blankly. He had nothing good to say.

“I’m gonna be honest with you, it was pretty touch and go for a little while but we managed to get her stable enough to hopefully see some real progress come through in the next couple of weeks.” 

“What’s the prognosis?” Jake asked, Amilia had since set up right, Jake wasn’t going to admit he missed her touch. So he pretended that he didn’t mind.

“We’ve had to wire her jaw shut but she should still be able to talk, she’ll be able to move her lips, just won’t be able to eat or drink so we’ll get her set up on a liquid drip the second she’s up.” The doctor explained and Jake wanted to vomit. 

“She suffered a pretty serious spleen rupture, most likely caused by the blunt force trauma sustained around the area so we did have to remove it entirely—she’ll have to take a course of antibiotics every few months to ward of certain bacteria, living without that particular organ puts her at higher risk for life-threatening infections but you can live without it.” Doctor Sullivan explained as the waiting room reminded silent “She’ll receive a booster vaccine for pneumococcus, and for meningococcus and haemophilus influenzae type B in two weeks.” 

“Holy shit—“ Amilia couldn’t believe what she was hearing, this was serious. 

“Can we see her?” Bradley asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

“She’s being brought down from surgery now, we’ll get her set up in a room and we’ll send someone to grab you when she’s ready to be seen, however, usual visiting hours are between seven and seven, Although, judging by the seriousness of Miss Y/l/n’s injuries it’s safe for me to assume we’re dealing with some sort of abuse here?”  

“Sherlock Holmes everybody.” Jake scoffed. “Listen, all due respect, but she won’t be alone for a second while she’s here.” Jake wasn’t asking the doctor to grant them a special pass, he was telling him. Doctor Sullivan simply nodded. He knew there was no reason to fight Jake on this one. They were gonna do what they wanted to do and no one was going to get in the way of that. 

“I’ll have my chief sign off on an extenuating circumstances case order and liaise with whatever investigation is currently being conducted.” Doctor Sullivan nodded. “I’ll send someone to get you all shortly.” 

“Thanks Doc, really appreciate it.” Bradley thanked Doctor Sullivan as he shook his hand, sitting down to patiently wait for the moment he could see you again. His heart had never hurt this much before. He wanted to cry but he was sure that he had nothing left in the tank. “I’m gonna kill him.” 

“Get in line.” Jake added. He was seething, his anger threatening to consume every fibre of his being. “Fuckers gonna be breathing through a tube, if I had known what he did, I would have killed him.”

“Rhett’s coming.” Bob piped up from his own seat, Rooster didn’t know who he was talking about. “He can stay with Felix while you guys sort Jaidyn out and take care of Odette.” 

“Who’s Rhett?” Rooster asked with a confused look smeared across his face. Jake answered for Bob knowing he wasn’t all that keen on airing his shit out. 

“Bob's brother.” 

***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***

“Get your fucking hands off me!” Jaidyn spat as he was shoved into one of the holding cells at the North Island police station. “Are you fucking kidding me!” 

“Sir, calm down—you’re being detained for an incident that occurred this morning.” 

“You mean the innocent where I had the shit best out of me!?” Jaidyn shouted at the police officer who stood behind the other side of the bars. “I was beaten—“ 

“It was a provoked attack, we have video evidence to back the charges.” The officer explained before he turned on his heels, leaving Jaidyn to sit and stew in his own thoughts about how the fuck he was going to get the hell out of this. 

“Who took the video?” Jaidyn shouted down the hall at the police officer who had nearly rounded the corner.

“I’m not at liberty to discuss the identity of the woman who handed in that evidence.” Was all Jaidyn got in response before the officer had disappeared. Jaidyn knew exactly who he was talking about. 

“That fucking bitch.” Jaidyn remarked. It was the woman who stabbed his fucking tiers. He knew it. Amilia didn’t know it, but she had a target on her back as big as you did. As big as Jake and as big as Bradley. “That stupid fucking bitch—“ 

***~***~***~***~***~***~***~

Rhett Abbott hated flying. Which was incredibly ironic considering what his brother did for a living. He sat in the middle aisle of a plane he swore looked like it came straight out of the eighties and kicked himself for dropping everything he had going for himself because of one phone call. 

Rhett didn't even ride. He was so distracted by Bob's calls that he couldn't focus. He knew if he got on the back of that bull he’d come off in a split second. Unable to hold onto whatever shot at victory he had. Rhett used to look up at night and wonder about his place in the stars, but all he seemed to do these days was look down–and worry about his place on the dirt. He was going nowhere and he knew it. 

As he turned his phone on aeroplane mode and readjusted himself, Rhett wondered if San Diago would be an escape he needed. Perhaps Bob wasn't just reaching out for help, maybe he was inadvertently extending a hand to Rhett, to pull him from the vortex that was Wabang Wyoming.

***~***~***~***~***~***~***~

When one of the nurses on shift had come to get Bradley and Jake, it was Amilia who thought it would be a good idea for her and Bob to let them have a moment alone with you. 

“Hey Bob, I'm kinda tired, Do you wanna come grab a coffee with me?” She asked softly, Bradley knew exactly what she was doing, so did Bob, it went straight over Jakes head though–but he didn't care all that much if Amilia wanted to be here or not, all he cared about as soon as the nurse had come and told them they could finally see you was that he got to do just that. 

“Sure.” Bob nodded, he collected his things, pocketing his phone but only after checking in to see if rhett had messaged him. Still nothing. 

“We’ll uh, catch up with you guys later.” Amilia pressed her lips together before she and Bob took off in the direction of the entrance. Leaving Bradley and Jake to face the harsh reality of jaidyn’s handy work themselves. It was probably for the best this way. 

“Oh my god.” Bradley had seen what you looked like in the janitors closet, so his reaction was nowhere near as confronting as Jakes. “He did that to her?” Jake asked, it was a stupid question he already knew the answer to as he walked closer to your bedside. “Y/n–” Seeing you like this, so fragile and broken in a god damn hospital made Jake realise the only person he let down more than you was your daughter.

“She's gonna be out for a few hours still.” The nurse spoke up from her spot by the door. “Make yourselves as comfortable as you can though.” Soon enough it was just Jake and Bradley staring at you as you lay sleeping, high off your face on copious amounts of painkillers in a hospital bed. Battered and bruised. Beaten nearly to death.

“I can't imagine what would have been going through her mind when she was in there.” Jake spoke quietly as he stroked the pad of his thumb across your swollen cheek. “Probably thought that no one was coming.” It was a dig at himself. 

“Cyclone said that there's footage.” Bradley spoke as he sat down in the chair beside your bed, watching the rise and fall of your chest. “He didn't think to check for a camera like he had in her hanger, this could be what puts him behind bars.” 

“He’d wanna hope so–” Jake hissed. “Because if I ever see that fucker again ill put him in the ground.” 

“Dot cant see her mum like this Jake.” Bradley couldn't take his eyes of you as he spoke. He was too afraid that if he did you'd stop breathing. “Look at her, she's a mess–it'll do more damage than good, to the both of them.” 

“We’ll do shifts, she needs us to be as reliable as rain in Seattle.” Jake knew where this conversation was going, so he bit the bullet before Rooster even needed to plead his case. “I know how you feel, and I know my place in all this mess.” He explained, pushing your hair behind your ear. “You decide what you wanna do and I'll follow your lead.” 

“I'm not Odette's dad, Jake.” 

“You’re the closest thing she's got to one, so you decide, if you wanna be here i'll look after Dot, if you wanna look after Dot i'll be here, but she needs someone here with her all the time.” 

“I feel like I can't breathe.” Bradley held a hand to his chest as his eyes welled with tears, Jake moved around to the side of the bed Rooster sat beside and placed a firm hand on his shoulder from behind. “She's the love of my life man, they both are.” 

“I meant what I said when I said she deserves the world Bradshaw, and if I know anyone deserving of her, I'm looking at him.” Jake recited what he’d told Bradley in the very beginning. “So we’ll both sit here, formulate a schedule, and figure out where we go from here so when Y/n wakes up, she knows that Dots all taken care of.” 

“Its gonna break her fucking heart that she won’t be able to see her.'' Bradley knew how you would react. You'd done so much to protect her and now you wouldnt even hold your daughter. “She's gonna flip.” 

“I'd rather have her flip out on us and be safe and in the care of doctors and nurses who want to help then have her traumatise her own daughter, because right now she looks like Frankenstein's bride.” 

“Don't let her hear you say that.” Bradley chuckled to himself as Jake tapped his best friend's shoulder, knowing that they were both over exhausted and struggling to stay awake. 

“I'll just tell her you said it.” Jake teased before making his way over to the other vacant chair in the corner of the room. “While she's indisposed we should start moving her shit into your house so when she's discharged you can take her and Dot home where they belong.”

“You think she’d be alright with that?” Bradley asked as he kissed the palm of your hand, holding it between his hands as he brought it up to his cheek. “And since when have you been so okay with her moving in?” Jake didn't answer straight away as he unbuttoned his flight suit, tied the arms around his waist and sat with an exaggerated sigh. 

“Since you chose her above everything else.”

***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~

Tags: @a-serene-place-to-be @lilyevanswhore @thescarletknight2014 @blindedbythelightt @averyhotchner @emma8895eb @blairfox04 @caitsymichelle13 @oxxolovemelikeyoudooxxo @teacupsandtopgun @aemondssiut @feltonswifesworld87 @akalei349 @notjustsomeblonde @americaarse @avaleineandafryingpan @phoenix1388 @xoxabs88xox @je-suis-prest-rachel @pono-pura-vida @rosiahills22 @starset21 @anarchyrising @caidi-paris @starkleila @criticalroleobssedperson @enchantingdreamergothprune @flrboyd @emma8895eb

[cal-daisies-and-briars]

☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️

Damn okay! 165 for ☠️:

---

“How did people react?”

“While he could still talk, he told us,” Karen explains. “‘Epipen. Truck. Glove box.’ I remember him struggling to say that.”

“Tommy grabbed his keys and ran out to the truck,” Buck says. “He got the epipen while Eddie called 9-1-1.”

“Yep, I called 9-1-1,” Eddie says. “I was pretty buzzed, so I didn’t think I should do any medical intervention. Tommy and Buck had had less to drink.”

“Chimney and I helped Captain Gerrard to lay down flat on the floor,” Hen says. “Then Tommy came back inside and administered the epipen. It was only when we noticed it wasn’t having any effect that we checked the expiry date.”

“He just kept getting worse,” Buck explains. “Chim went to start CPR, but he was drunk. I offered to take over.”

“Even though there were three paramedics in the room?” Ransone asks.

“All drunk,” Buck says. “Plus, I’ve done CPR hundreds of times. I know what I’m doing. I did everything I could.” 

But he was dead before Athena arrived. 

▪️▪️▪️

“It still seems like just an accident to me,” Ransone tells her. “What do you think, Sergeant Grant? You know these people.”

Athena isn’t sure. She still feels uncomfortable about the whole thing. It seems like a big coincidence for swapped pitchers and an old-enough epipen to not work at all to overlap in such a fatal way. Her years on the job have certainly exposed her to the often banal tragedy of minor negligences. She knows it’s possible. But the other thing she knows? Coincidences are rare.

“What was the expiry date on the epipen?” She asks. 

“2019,” Ransone answers. 

“Five years,” Athena sighs. “Doesn’t that seem odd? Gerrard was a first responder. He ought to have seen enough of these sorts of deaths to know better.”

Ransone nods. “There is that.”

Before they can discuss further, Ransone’s phone rings. He takes the call and listens as someone on the other end provides an update. When he ends the call, he looks at Athena gravely. 

“What’s wrong, Lou?” She asks. 

“Gerrard’s truck was searched. There were two epipens in the glove compartment. Including one that was brand new.”

Athena feels cold. Tommy made the caesars. Tommy grabbed the epipen. This death just became officially suspicious.

ii.

The next morning, Athena gets the call that the coroner’s report has confirmed their understanding of events. The contents of Captain Gerrard’s stomach indeed contained clamato juice. He had not drunk the vegan option. Though everyone, including the actual vegan who drank from the same pitcher, believed that he had. So either Tommy made a mistake when making them, or Tommy intentionally switched them. And either Tommy accidentally grabbed the expired epipen rather than the functional one and failed to notice the functional one present, or it was on purpose. 

“That’s crazy,” Bobby says when Athena explains it all to him. “Tommy wouldn’t do that.”

“Do you know that for sure?” Athena asks. 

“Well, listen, I know he had a history with Gerrard and some of the guys at the 118 before I arrived,” Bobby says. “A history that doesn’t always reflect well on him. But I never had any reason to suspect anything violent! He’s not… I mean, he’s dating Buck!” 

“I know,” Athena sighs. “That might be the worst part of all this.”

Bobby’s shoulders sink. “I didn’t suspect anything about Jonah either. So… What do I know?”

Athena feels terrible. She hadn’t even thought of Jonah Greenway. She hopes they’re all wrong about this. Bobby doesn’t need to learn that anyone else under his command is a murderer. 

▪️▪️▪️

“There’s more evidence,” Ransone says when Athena arrives at the station. 

“More?” Athena frowns. 

He brings her over to a computer screen and shows her an opened Adobe Acrobat PDF. 

“This,” he says. 

Athena reads the title page of the document. 

10 Murder Mystery Party Plots to Entertain and Thrill! 

“What’s this?” She asks.

“The guide Kinnard used to plan his party,” Ransone says. “We got a warrant to search the condo.”

This is moving fast, then. 

“Okay,” Athena says. “Why is that significant?”

Ransone scrolls down to the table of contents. 

“He based his party on plot number six,” Ransone says. “One Last Strip Tease.” 

Right. In which Eddie was the slain exotic dancer, Chip N. Dale. 

“Read number seven,” Ransone prompts.

Athena reads aloud. “Comments from the Peanut Gallery?” 

Ransone clicks it, bringing up the proposed plot and how to execute it. Athena reads. It tells the story of a character allergic to peanuts who is fed sabotaged baked goods. Jesus. Is he stupid? The idea is all spelled out in front of them. Tommy must have read this, when he was planning the party. 

“I think that’s enough,” Athena says quietly. 

“I agree,” Ransone says. “I’ve already made some calls.” 

▪️▪️▪️

Ransone brings everyone back in, one by one, for more interviews. He doesn’t tell them why. 

Each person, individually, looks concerned to be asked back. They all thought it was an accident. They all thought it was a mistake. No one thought there’d be an investigation. Athena feels bad about that. The blindsided looks on her friends’ faces as they walk past her. She knows they’re confused. She knows they’re probably scared. They don’t need to be, though. 

Only Tommy should be scared today. 

Athena doesn’t participate in the questioning. Obviously. She’s not a detective and she has a conflict of interest. She does, however, watch through the two-way mirror. She needs to hear everything that’s said. She can’t miss any of this. 

With the exception of Tommy, Ransone starts by asking everyone the same question. 

“So, did you know Captain Gerrard had an allergy to shellfish?”

The answers are varied. 

“No,” Karen says. “I didn’t know anything personal about him, really. This was only the second time we’d even formally met.”

Matt and Mark didn’t know. Obviously. They’d never met the guy before either.

“No,” Eddie says. “Had no idea. We didn’t talk about personal stuff.”

“No,” Buck sighs. “Which is kind of insane, since I did a lot of the cooking. You think he’d mention it to me? Closest thing I think was him telling me he hated the idea of shrimp scampi.”

“Mmm, yes,” Hen says. “That’s familiar. But I’m not sure why I knew.”

“Oh, yeah,” Chim says. “I knew. Anyone who used to work with him back before he got transferred knew. B-Shift left a mess of coconut shrimp and he lost it.”

 Ransone latches onto this answer just as Athena suspects he will. 

“So Tommy probably knew about it too, then?” He asks. “He worked with you back then, right? That’s how you know him?”

Chim’s expression falls as he realizes what is really being asked. As he realizes the trap he’s been guided into. 

“Uh, yeah,” he says quietly. “Yeah, he probably knew. I mean, if he remembers. I don’t know how good his memory is.”

After that, the conversation with Chimney takes an interesting turn. 

“Wait… You guys don’t really think Tommy did this, do you?” He asks. “I mean, it was an accident.”

[pearl-kite]

Hi I know this is out of nowhere and sorry if you answered it before. Also totally ok if you don’t want to answer

But your blog got me super interested in the redacted asmr thing

I did some research and you seem to know a lot about so do you know if there’s any like, chronological order I should watch them?

Love your blog!

Absolutely no worries! I like getting stuff to respond to, it's the opposite of a bother <3

So Redacted Audio, formerly Redacted ASMR, is a channel on youtube with a, quite frankly, massive amount of audio, and since it's been running for over 4 years now it can be a LOT to sort through. Fortunately, he's done a really good job curating and organizing playlists for the different speaker-characters.

Everything is within the same universe, and many of the characters have interacted with each other. The context is that the location is a fictional city named Dahlia set somewhere in California, which is a "cornerstone" city for magical society. The best way to get a solid rundown on magic and the setting is to listen through the Freelancer Season 1 playlist.

This one is already arranged in chronological order* and also has the benefit of giving a sampler of sorts for a wider variety of speakers. One thing to be aware of ahead of time: While this was actively being published, Erik hadn't decided who the listener-character (nicknamed Freelancer) would be romancing, so it starts off with a lot of potential toward all of them except Caelum. As it went, there were polls in the discord server that he used to run, and popular consensus eventually narrowed it down to Gavin. The first time I listened was after all of that, and I was more fond of Damien, but I'm personally pleased with Gavin now, and this playlist has been one of my favorites to just revisit if I'm bored.

*Well, mostly. There was a point where the channel got a strike for some of the audios being too spicy and he removed and/or edited some of them to try to avoid being demonetized. The first Gavin audio is one of the ones that got edited, and #3 on the playlist accidentally got relocated. It's been a long time, but I think it was originally after what's now #6, the second Caelum audio.

Aside from that one as a good introduction to the channel as a whole, there are some "main" characters that have had the most attention.

One is a group of wolf shifters: David, the current head of the pack (Chronological for his listener. A lot of people aren't super fond of the earliest ones for him, #3-5, because the character evolved a bit and they aren't really representative any longer) Asher, his second Milo, another pack member, which is absolutely underselling him, he's one of my favorites

There are a couple of vampires: Vincent, the OG for the channel Sam, a common favorite who's listener is a member of David's pack

While most of the playlists are specific to character, there are a few thematic ones as well, all of which are chronological within themselves. Now, chronology with respect to each other can start to get a bit confusing, because of how long it's taken for some of them to play out.

If you want to get a feel for the characters before worrying too much about timeline, I'd listen through most playlists as they're arranged with one main caveat:

When you hit the audios titled Inversion, give those a pause until you've listened to more speakers. Inversion was a huge crossover he did that has 10+ speakers involved.

A personal favorite has been Vega. I'm actually super not fond of the first audio he's in, which is also in the Freelance list, so I skip that one when I relisten. The first one in this list is that one with the Freelancer, but the second and onward has a demon listener nicknamed Warden. We just got an update on his story today/last night and I've been a little unwell about it 🙃

I am realizing I could go on and on and on and I kind of have, so I'm going to stop there. Hopefully that's enough to dip your toes in. I'll gladly help out with any follow-up questions, too :3

[aquanova99]

Haunted (Cato x Reader)

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Part 10

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A/N: Sorry it’s taking so long for these to update. Life seems to be winning lately. I hope the length these are make up for it. This is nearing 13k sorry!

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Cato’s POV

You see Y/n flinch at the distance between you when she turned. You continued talking, pretending your own skin wasn’t on edge. Not in the dangerous sense, but still…nervous. You had sat up in shock you had slept at all, shocked that y/n had learned to dissect everything you said, shocked you had given in and just admitted how messed up you really are. And overall, you worried she was going to be making herself feel worse. You had leaned forward to try and explain she should just worry about herself, when she turned to face you, stammering about wanting to help.

“You help a lot more than you realize.”   Its all you can say. Why were you still comforting her? You needed her to stay away. She was somehow digging herself deep into your mind, threatening to never leave. And you were beginning to find it harder and harder to listen to any previous reason to keep your own distance. It was going to make the end of her adjustment period impossible. You had barely began treading water, and if you didn’t stop you knew you would drown without her. And worse, you didn’t care. The two of you stared at each other, and no matter how much your mind screamed at you to pull back you instead found your body slowly getting closer. The quiet voice urging you to get closer was beginning to get louder, so the rest of you screamed at Y/n to get away. But her eyes only flitted down and back up to your eyes before mirroring your own hesitant movements. Neither of you backing away.

At least, not until the sound of hurried footsteps approaching had you both pull back. The effect was immediate. It was as if you both had gotten too close, splashed with hot oil. Your legs pushed you back before returning to their original position, pulled up in front of you, your arms crossed on top of them. Y/n moved to the foot of the bed, cross legged and resting her head on a closed hand. She seemed completely unphased by…well whatever just happened. You could only hope you looked that relaxed on the outside. You could only focus on the thumping and pounding ringing in your ears. The thick coal infused air seemed to be heavier today, you could only take short quick breaths, only adding to the anxiety you were struggling to get rid of. Well, you were sick. You decide that that’s the reason you seem to be so out of sorts about everything.

Cashmere throws the door open, “How are you feeling Cato?”

You shrug, “Fine.”

“I don’t know if I’d trust that but his fever did go down a little bit.”

“Thank you, Y/n.”

You stared at her in disbelief. She smiled at Cashmere, and shrugged when she looked back at you, grinning smugly.

Cashmere chuckled, “Well Cato, you are welcome to keep resting but we are going to need Y/n. We are going to discuss the next course of action to keep Y/n out of the sponsor’s hands.”

Y/ns face dropped but Cashmere continued, “They’ve decided we need to get it out of the way.”

“Right.” Y/n answered

You start to get up, ignoring thee body aches and lightheadedness you got from standing up so quick. “I’m good.”

“You should re—”

“I’m going.” You interrupted Y/n. Outside of curiosity, a small part of you wanted to be there in case she withdrew again. Y/n nodded and took a deep breath before standing.

“Well. Lets get it out of the way then.”

Cashmere offered a sympathetic smile and let her walk out first. You followed behind the both of them. Slowly behind them. Every step threatening to empty out what little you had in your stomach. You blamed yourself. You barely slept, and before coming here you only ate enough to keep you going. And when you would try to rest, you would make sure the windows were open. Inclement weather or not. You were bound to get sick eventually. Well…maybe this would force your body to actually slow down. It had worked once before.

“You look like crap.” Brutus commented as you sat down next to y/n, you only managed to glare at him. Why was it so cold all of a sudden? You tried to breathe in through your nose to settle down your stomach. You tried to unclench your jaw, your whole body was tense and you had to relax. Y/ns siblings stood around nervously.

“Does anyone need water or something?” Mallory asked, everyone shook their head or declined. Y/n gestured for him to come close and whispered something in his ear.  He nodded and walked away, the younger one trailing behind him.

“You’re sure you feel okay?” She whispered while every settles in. You just nodded, afraid she would call you out again.

“Alright sweetheart should we get everything out of way?” Haymitch started

“Might as well.” She grumbled, “But I assume that the solution isn’t all that great, right?”

“Oh, you picked that up?” Haymitch chuckled, and elicited a small smile from her. The two had effectively learned how to communicate without saying much. You wondered what solution they had come up with that required every one of them present. Then again, you wanted to be present and you didn’t have much of a reason to be there either. Haymitch took a drink of what you assume is whiskey, and pursed his lips. He was not happy to be delivering the news. “Bottom line is, if you want the capitol off your back you have to find someone you can tolerate enough to be in a relationship with.”

You weren’t sure you heard that right until Y/n spoke up. “What?”

You weren’t sure why you were so shocked. The capitol enjoyed a good story sure, and it was a quick enough way to get people off her back. Apparently, while killing kids wasn’t off the table, breaking up a partnership was where the capitol citizens drew the line. Even then, she would have to be with a…that’s when it hit you. They wanted her to find a victor.

“Look, we can go in circles forever. But until you actually look older they will keep you around.” Brutus scoffed, “You won’t have to do anything, and depending on who it is they could get out of their own commitments.”

He said the last word with a wave of his hand and soon after Cashmere spoke up to try and ease Y/n into their plan, “Finnick would be a decent choice, he has someone he cares about so you wouldn’t have to worry about him trying anything, I would say maybe even Johanna but she gains nothing from helping out. So unfortunately, your choices are limited to our districts.”

“No.”

“Y/n…” Haymitch warned, but she continued regardless

“My answer is no. You just said Finnick has someone. What about her?”

“Y/n if you pick someone from here, Snow is more likely to target their families. That and the Capitol wouldn’t take your relationship as seriously.” Enobaria offered

“So, instead of putting someone I know in danger. I put a stranger in it instead?” Mallory crept back in, she grabbed the blanket he offered and tossed it in your direction. Accident or not, you took it. Really, you knew she likely thought of this in advance. You wish you could understand why. You focused back on the discussion, everyone but Brutus trying to calm her down. You wonder what you would do in her situation. Then again, you knew what you would do. You did it. You became the person to avoid. You wondered if Y/n would fight her way out, or if she even could. You felt yourself tense up.

“It could help—”

“It could also be worse for them. If I choose someone like Finnick what’s to stop them from hurting the one person he cares about. This solves nothing. And even if it did I wouldn’t do it.”

“Y/n…” Haymitch warned

“No. I’ll deal with the sponsors.” She pushed the table and stormed out. The slam of her door in the distance felt like someone had punched you in the gut. The immediate resignation. The acceptance of her fate. You realized you were furious. At the idea everyone seemed to agree on, at Y/n for not trying to figure out another solution, at the fact that there didn’t seem to be another solution, at the Capitol for allowing this in the first place, at yourself for ever believing it was anything other than a way to keep the districts in line. Your head was spinning. Stupid sickness.

“Tsk, that went well.” Haymitch laughed as he gulped the rest of his drink.

“I didn’t hear you suggest anything else.” Brutus huffed

“And what did you expect? For her to willingly go into another situation where someone has to pretend to be in love with her? Because that worked so well last time?”

“Its her problem now. She knows what her options are.” Brutus rolled his eyes

“Brutus, this is a lot to take in. We still have awhile to convince her.” Cashmere said softly, he shrugged and headed out the door. “Cato, you should go rest. You look terrible.”

Yeah well, you feel terrible. You just nodded and headed back. You could feel Enobaria and Cashmere wanted to run something else by Haymitch. As you left the large dining area you saw Y/ns siblings hanging around, no doubt eavesdropping. You wonder how they felt in all this. How hopeless it all seemed. Instead of making your way back to where you had been residing, you stopped in of her room. Unsure of whether you should knock or not. You decided to try and knock but remained frozen. Eventually the door flew open. Y/n still clearly enraged, softened for only a second.

“You should be resting.” She began closing the door again but your body seemed to finally move forward, stopping her from isolating. She sighed, “What is it, Cato?”

“They’ll think of something else.”

She scoffed, “I’m sure they’ve been thinking for a while. I know it’s the only realistic solution. I’m upset, not stupid. But I still won’t do it.”

“Why not?” Your voice came out harsher than intended, it seemed to give her pause, you took a deep breath and slightly raised your eyebrows, barely nodding your head towards her direction. She sighed, and rolled her eyes but released the door and let you in. She was more careful when she closed her door again. You realized you didn’t know where to sit when you weren’t standing guard.

“Just sit down, its fine.” She gestured to the end of the bed, you felt ridiculous. You’d been helping keep watch for a few days. This shouldn’t be any different. You were making sure she was okay. That’s it. You notice you both somewhat mirror each other, both holding your crossed legs up close to your chest.

“You’re really giving up?”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Why would Johanna gain nothing from helping?”

You avoid her eyes, you both knew she knew what the answer was. You both also knew you had to watch you both said. “She refused to repay or visit anyone from the Capitol. I’m not even sure if she had any sponsors. She just…doesn’t have any family left. So. I guess if she helps…”

“She’d be risking the last thing she has left. And if I choose someone like Finnick, then whoever he’s protecting by visiting the capitol risks the lack of protection from the Capitol. So, why would I do anything but suck it up like everyone else has done.”

You realized she was right, the last time she tried to played against the Capitol got her ally killed. Something you knew she would likely never get over. She was also right about the other victors. There was no one who was completely alone. The ones that were, were older or like Johanna, not interested in being something for Capitol entertainment. The only one who had nothing to lose was… me. Fuck. The thought refused to disappear. The pros and cons becoming more and more indistinguishable. You try and convince y/n to think of something else instead.

“You cant do that. It isn’t something you just deal with. Cashmere, Gloss, Finnick, its killed parts of them. You cant.”

She half smiled, while looking out her window, as if she was imagining something else. “I wished I’d never been the girl on fire.”

“You would have gotten sponsors anyway.” She chuckled, you realized your words weren’t entirely baseless. The tribute parade definitely made an impression, but what cemented the attention of the capitol was her training score and Peeta. Her face turns into a slight frown and you know she likely comes to the same conclusion.

“I would say I should have let Prim get reaped, or let Katniss volunteer. But I don’t think there’s any world where I would have done that.”

“Why did you do that?”

“I don’t know, guilt?  We were closer before…”

“Before the mining accident?” You didn’t even realize you remembered her interview that seemed so long ago

“Yeah. Our dads were in a pretty bad mining accident. Mine made it, hers didn’t. Our families used to take turn watching us. Or they would take us out into the woods to gather some kind of roots and veggies. After the accident though, well they went through a lot. Ironically we both started hunting around the same time just not together. My dad, he couldn’t work after that and then he…just stopped trying. My family needed food, and I didn’t have a weapon like she did. So, I had to learn quick. Her dad had shown her the bow and Arrow, my dad had shown me how to snare once. Lot of trial and error.”

“He must have been relieved.”

She smiled as she recalled your previous conversation about your own family, “No.”

“Really?”

“Really. I think he was embarrassed but he expressed by yelling. A lot. Not catching enough, getting the wrong thing, asking too many questions because I wanted to keep going out there, not being as good as Katniss with a weapon.”

“Your mom just stood by?”

“Yeah. Trying to keep the peace, or whatever she tells herself so she doesn’t feel so guilty.”

“So how did you decide what weapon worked best?”

“Well, I never tried a knife before the training center but I carved some weaker spears to use for fishing and some slightly bigger animals. But any big catch was because of the snares. I’m okay, but they hurt my hands. That’s why knife training saved my life out there.”

“Easier to control?” She nodded

“Yeah, my hands shake a bit for some reason. And they get stiff pretty fast. So, like I said I had practice, but barely.” Not barely you thought as she lifted her hand in front of her face, sure enough it seemed to have a slight tremor in it. You wonder if it was something they could fix in the capitol, or a result of nerves she had developed from having so much responsibility for such a long time.

“How’d you get an 11?”

“Haymitch never said anything?” You shook your head, she shrugged in response, “the gamemakers weren’t looking at me. Even thought I thought I was doing pretty good. They were looking at a pig that had been brought in for lunch, complaining about how they were supposed to cut it up. So… I…threw my knife…at them.”

Her voice was barely above a whisper. You didn’t even know how they allowed her to step foot in the arena. “You…”

“Well, I threw it at the pig, and to be fair it was a perfect throw. And then I apologized for interrupting their meal…” She glanced up at you, you hadn’t been able to say anything else. You could only register your emotions as shock. “Don’t look at me like that. I know. I don’t know how I wasn’t immediately punished. And partly why I keep saying I shouldn’t have won.”

You want to scream at her for being so careless.  The idea you had still the forefront of your mind. “You have to figure something out. I’m serious. They’ll destroy you the second you step foot in the Capitol.”

She hesitates and you know she thinks it’s pointless, but she still agrees. “Okay.”

You nod once, and you suddenly remember how sick you felt. Your entire body aches. And your head is pounding. You should go to your room. But your body doesn’t move. Cant move. You realize you pushed too hard. This happened once, you had continued to participate in all of the academy exercise. When your day off had finally came you hadn’t been able to move the entire day. At one point someone checked to see if you were breathing. You felt Y/ns eyes on you.

“Cato?”

You couldn’t speak. You were beginning to panic, the feeling of not being able to move filled your body with panic that probably only made everything worse. Your breathing was getting quick and shallow, as if even that was becoming difficult. For whatever reason you had an overwhelming feeling of fear. This wasn’t new, but you could usually sense when it was about to happen. The fact that you didn’t see this coming adds to your anxiety. You’re pretty sure she scrambles to her feet to get directly in front of you. She touches your forehead and then your cheeks with the back of her hand. She pries one of your hands from the other and then slowly lays you down. You hear the door click and you’re unsure of when she comes back but when she does Enobaria follows.

“I’ll go call Brutus,” She starts. You want to protest but you don’t think anything comes out. The conversation with Y/n left you worried. Your own ideas adding to the stress.

“No just let him rest. This room is giant I’ll sleep on the couch thing over there.”

“Y/n… he may not wake up in the right state of mind.” Ouch. She was right, but it didn’t hurt any less. No, thats it. She was right. She should get Brutus.

“I’ll be fine. I’m caught up on lost sleep. If I need to rest I’ll let you know. Just help me lift his head a little so I can get more of the fever medicine in him. I already told my brothers to bring my mom so she can double check to make sure I didn’t miss anything.”

You hear Enobaria grumble and they slightly shift you while Y/n gives you a heavy syrup you’d normally decline. Enobaria wipes your face and mumbles something to her before heading out.

Y/n sits next to you, “I cant believe you. Next time I tell you to stay and get rest jus—just do it. Sleep. You need to rest.”

You close your eyes on command. Exhaustion washing over you. You sleep without any of the dreams that usually plague you. When you wake the room is dark. Your body still feels heavy but you feel much calmer and its clear your fever broke. You try to stretch your stiff muscles, massage any knots you feel in your neck. The light flips on, and you blink to adjust to the immediate difference.

“Oh sorry, I thought you’d be asleep a little while longer.”

“I didn’t mean to kick you out of your own room.”

“What are you talking about, you started stirring like five minutes ago so I went to grab some water, here.” She sat at the foot of the bed, and put the cup in your hand.

“…Thank you.” You wondered when you would stop being genuinely surprised that someone could anticipate what you needed. “I must have been out awhile.”

Y/n nods, “Pretty much all day. But you needed it. Don’t scare me like that again.”

“That scared you?” Of all the things… that was it? Me being sick was what scared her?

“Yeah, you cant push yourself that hard. You’re not in 2 anymore. Besides you looked just as freaked out. My mom said you just need a good rest, and to take it easy for a few days. You should have seen the look on her and Mrs. Everdeen’s face when I brought them in my room. I’m going to get a lecture for sure.”

Your cheeks got hot. “That’s ridiculous.”

“I know. That’s what I said when she tried to ask what you were doing in here.” Even though you just said the same thing, it bothers you when Y/n agrees.

“I hope I didn’t make things difficult.” You see her lips twist as she thinks about something, “What?”

“Nothing. You didn’t do anything. Promise.” She smiled as grabbed the cup back from you. “You’re welcome to keep sleeping if you want.”

“Where’s everyone else?”

“I think Cashmere is talking to Haymitch. Plotting. And Enobaria is in the living room.” You debate sharing the idea you had with Y/n, and decide to wait until you speak to Cashmere and Enobaria. Y/n seems to know something is on your mind, “Did you sleep okay?”

“Great actually. I don’t remember the last time I didn’t feel just as tired waking up.”

“Well, let’s hope it doesn’t take you getting sick to get that kind of sleep again.”

“Thank you. By the way. I didn’t mean to freak you out.”

She smirked and shrugged, “Don’t worry about it.”

You realized you had made no intention of leaving her room, you felt your face get hot. You tried to clear your throat, “I guess I should get out of your hair. I’ll go talk to Enobaria, see if I missed anything.”

“Sure.” You scramble to get out and apologize for bothering her. She laughs and repeats that you shouldn’t worry, you only wish you understood why you did worry so much. You barely step foot within eyesight before Enobaria puts down the book she was reading and points to the spot next to her.

“What the hell were you doing in there?” Enobaria whispers angrily

“Relax. I just went in there to make sure she was alright. After talking for a while, I just got sick. I don’t know what happened.”

“Relax? Tell me exactly what led up to that. Now.”

“I don’t know, we had mostly finished our conversation and I just felt really tired. And it was weird because I felt that weird feeling like right before I usually lose it but it freaked me out. And before I knew it I couldn’t move.”

She sighed, “Cato. You were frozen. Like actually frozen. Your whole body was stiff. I've never seen you like that. It was probably a mix of exhaustion and stress but...”

“Sorry.” You mumbled

“You should have seen Y/n. She immediately sent her brothers to fetch her mom and she all but dragged me in there to see if that had ever happened before.”

“Was she mad?”

“Just worried. Her family wasn’t able to come for hours, I think they were helping someone else, so she just stayed with you. She must have been tired too—”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing, Cato.”

“What?”

“Nothing. She just fell asleep while she was waiting.” You mouth drops. You wonder what could have happened if you woke up in a bad state. It had happened before, where you forget where you are and unsheathe your knife. What if you had seen her as a threat? “Cato. Stop. You were completely out, you didn’t do anything.”

“But I could have.”

Enobaria just shakes her head. And argues you for a little longer. She soon returns to her book and you finally retire to your own room. You can tell there’s more to it but decide its probably better you don’t know. You decide to look for Cashmere and Haymitch in his place. Its dark but thankfully the streets are lit up enough to make out where to go. You knock but let yourself in when you don’t hear anything. Haymitch and Cashmere are sitting in the kitchen, you wonder where Brutus is hiding for a moment before deciding it s better if he isn’t around.

“Oh Cato! Just the person we wanted to see.” Cashmere smiled a little too brilliantly

“What happened while I was out?”

“Not much we just started talking a few hours ago. You’re feeling better?”

“…Yes?”

“Sit down, kid.” Haymitch cut the pleasantries, which you appreciated. Better to get the bad news sooner rather than later.

“What is it?”

“Look. We need to figure out how to get Y/n to agree with some kind of plan—"

“She needs a story.” You interrupt him, “And I should be the one to do it with her.”

They both freeze. For a second you doubt whether your idea had any merit. Cashmere starts again, “Well, we were hoping you could at least help us convince her to play along but I suppose that could work.”

“It’s the only thing that could work. She’s right. No one will risk their families by associating like that with her. Finnick especially, he wouldn’t do that to Annie. She needs someone with no attachments. And it’s a story they’ll buy.”

“Hold up kid. Last I checked you have a family.” Haymitch pitched

“I have no attachments.” You say firmly.

“He has a solid point Haymitch. If she wants the capitol to leave her alone, they need to root for her to find someone. And who better than Cato? We could even say that’s he made so many improvements since he started talking to her. It would be perfect. They’ll go crazy. And it’s not as if they don’t get along. A little acting for the cameras and when they go home they can completely ignore each other if they feel like it.”

“It doesn’t work like that. What happens if the Capitol presses them on kids, what then?”

“We can say Y/n cant have any, it would be so tragic.” Cashmere waves away the possible issue and you suddenly realize what this would entail. You would have to kiss her in public, possibly get married. You would completely be taking away her free will, and she’d be forced to do that for the rest of her life. Immediately Haymitch senses your hesitation.

“You’re sure about this?”

“I wont do anything unless she’s on board. We talk to her first.”

Haymitch pressed his lips together and nodded. “Tch, alright then. We will discuss this tomorrow.”

Cashmere claps and kisses Haymitch on the cheek. “Yes! We’ll leave you be Haymitch. I’m sure this will all work out.”

“Yeah, yeah. Just sleep on this, alright kid?”

You nod as Cashmere begins ushering you out. “Cato, you may have just solved all of our problems. And after today I know you guys will at least get along.”

“Today?”

“Yeah, you guys are so cute, I almost suggested your name myself. Especially after you fell asleep on her lap.” She squeals as if this is all good news

“I—What???”

“You don’t know? I guess you were starting to kind of freeze up again, a nightmare or something and she sat next to you. And I don’t know what she did but she calmed you down. When her mom finally came in, your head was on one of her legs, she propped her head up with her arm on the other one and fell asleep.” She sighed as if this was something out of a movie, she continued as you reached the steps of Y/ns house. “Her other hand was rested on your shoulder, you would have thought you had planned this out with her already.”

Haymitch told you to sleep on your decision. The only thing you were managing to think about tonight was how big of an idiot you were, that and the fact that if Y/n agreed you would need to kiss her. You thought about how close you’d gotten earlier that day, how you both jumped as if you were breaking some kind of unspoken rule. Did you almost kiss her then? Would you have kissed her if she had gotten any closer?

Needless to say, it was a sleepless night. Enobaria and Cashmere told you they would take shifts if Y/n needed them tonight. That’s fine. You weren’t sure you could even face her anyway. You woke up relatively early. From what you could tell the sun had barely begin to rise. You walk downstairs to get yourself some food when you hear indistinguishable mumbling coming from the front. You quickly sneak into one of the adjacent room, peeking your head around to see Y/n talking to someone who had some physical similarities to herself and her ‘cousin.’ He was taller, and whatever they were talking about it was urgent, and it was irritating her. You think you see Katniss somewhere behind him. Y/n pats the guy’s arm before closing the door. You wonder if he  means anything to her, and if that’s why she’s hesitant on the plans Cashmere had offered yesterday. Your body tenses and you realize this infuriates you for some reason. You realize you had a similar reaction with Y/n and Peeta, and then again with the people clamoring for her attention at the capitol. This however, was stronger. The thought of her having someone waiting for her at home never crossed your mind, of course she wouldn’t want to put on anymore acts for the Capitol.

You decide to make your presence known and head to the kitchen where Y/n has already stated taking ingredients out.

“Good morning. Did you sleep okay?” She smiles as you enter the room, continuing to dig through the fridge and cabinets.

“Fine, thanks.” You try to relax but even you could hear the irritation in your voice, not that Y/n had ever shied away from that before.

“Doesn’t sound like it was fine, do you want to talk about it?” Her concern immediately softens you. You had agreed to play a part, to put on an act, she owed you nothing and you had no right to be angry towards right now.

“I guess I slept too much beforehand. What about you?”

“I guess I slept a little better. I want to try and just sleep without a bodyguard and see how it goes.” She finishes rummaging around and steps in front of you, placing her hand on your forehead. You flinch back at the sudden touch. “Sorry, just checking to see if you were still warm. You feel better. Do you want to help me make breakfast for everyone?”

“Sure.” Her smile brightens and she begins dividing things up for the two of you to do. She lets you cut up some potatoes while she begins measuring and then stirring some flour mixture. You both work silently unless she asks you to do something else. She makes some kind of roll to put in the oven and you wait for the potatoes to cook. It isn’t until she begins serving the plates that you decide to speak up. “So, you had a visitor pretty early.”

She immediately bristles, “Yeah. Its Sunday. Sunday is Katniss’s and Gales day to go hunting together.”

“They wanted you to come?”

“He thinks I’ll get over it if I force myself to hunt some more. I guess Katniss has been filling him in on how—I don’t know, freaked out I get even picking up her bow or a spear…”

Your suddenly filled with a deep shame you hadn’t known you could experience. You suddenly realize all of the jobs she assigned you were the ones that involved anything sharp, you wondered if even this was intentional. You had trained with weapons your whole life. If anything, it brought you comfort to have one handy. You hadn’t considered she would be so ready to try and avoid those things as long as humanly possible.

“Who do you see?”

“No one anymore. That’s what I’m trying to avoid. I go in the woods with Katniss for a couple hours at most. When her and Madge would practice I would see people dropping. When we would pick berries I could swear I saw Cora’s or Peetas hand. Or I see them laying in the distance. I didn’t try to pick up anything else, I don’t want to see them.”

“You still see them though. Right?”

“Yeah. But that’s different. I love the woods, I cant let them take that from me.” You nod. You would fight to keep something so personal away from the capitol too. You just didn’t have anything to fight for. They had taken everything before you knew what was happening. Y/n asks you to deliver the plates to Cashmere and Enobaria, while she drops food off at Haymitch’s place. You find them together whispering and before they say anything you say you’re just dropping off their food. You leave quickly to avoid any interrogation you seem to be constantly getting as of late. You breathe a sigh of relief when they stay in their room. You collect all of the bowls you used and start washing them as you wait for Y/n to return.

“You don’t have to do that.” She says as she comes back in.

“I know.”

“Did you eat?”

“No. I was waiting.” For you, you think in your head.

“Well, then take a break. We can do those after. Come eat with me.” You nod and take a plate she hands to you. The food has cooled down quite a bit but its still delicious. You realize you quite enjoy cooking, you wonder if you would have ever learned how to do anything like this at home. Or if you hadn’t been tossed to the academy anyway. You wondered what other things you could try. “What are you thinking about?”

“Just the food. I liked making it.”

“I’m glad.”

“What about your brothers?”

“Oh, they went to see my mom after last night. Probably to tell them about the plan that will keep me away from the Capitol. I gave them some money to pick things up for her and my dad today.”

“Yeah about that…” You feel your throat go dry at the thought of bringing up the new plan you made without her.

“What is it?” You debate waiting for Haymitch or Cashmere to tell her about your idea, but somehow it doesn’t seem fair. Still your lips are sealed shut. How do you even bring up that conversation, “Do you want to take a walk with me?”

You nod and follow her out of the house. She takes you deep into the meadow. You can see the woods she must have frequented so often before the games. You wonder if you would have ventured out, maybe to challenge yourself but even from here it looked daunting. The fence wasn’t charged, but seemed to warn about whatever was back there. You walk for a couple miles, as far as the meadow will take you. As far from anyone within earshot. If the people weren’t working to the point of exhaustion you wouldn’t be surprised to see more people enjoying the meadow, maybe even for a picnic. You’d only seen a few people and even then they stayed near the edge of town.

“It’s beautiful here.”

“Yeah, a lot of the flowers here can be used in medicine. You just have to know what to pick.” She pauses for a second before bringing up the prior subject, “do you want time to sort out whatever you’re thinking about or just get it out of the way?”

“I’m more worried about your response.”

Her eyes narrow, probably assuming whatever you say already wont be good news, “Will it help if I promise not to storm off like yesterday?”

“I talked to Cashmere and Haymitch. They—we think I would be the best match for the whole public relationship thing.”

“Cato…no. I am not putting your life at risk. Or your family’s.”

“I haven’t talked to my family for over a year. They cant use them, it wouldn’t affect me either way.”

“You know that’s not true. The guilt would get to you. Maybe not right away, but eventually. And it would get me too. If Snow decided to punish them, that’s more people I would have had a hand in killing. And you’d resent me.” She says the last part quietly, as if that was the worst possible outcome of this whole thing.

“They have too many eyes on them anyway. Like Cashmere said yesterday, it would help me out. I don’t—I don’t want to meet any one of them. We could stay here…in 12. We would only have to see each other during the games.”

Her gaze softens as she ponders what you said. As if your hesitation in the thought of being sold to the capitol is all it took to convince her. Maybe it had. She did seem to have the innate nature to help whenever and whoever she could. She looks out towards the woods for a long time before facing you and trying to smile through her obvious anxiety. “Well, I would hope we’re at least friends enough to see you more than that.”

You feel a weight lift off of your shoulders, “You’re sure? At the end of the day, it’s a suggestion. I wouldn’t make you—”

“I know.” You cant help stare, as if she’ll freak or back out if she thinks about it for even a second longer, “I’m sure. Come on, lets head back.”

You walk back the same way you came in, but this time you felt like you couldn’t stand any silence filling the gaps, “Do you have any questions…for me?”

“Who came up with it?”

If you could turn back time you would have forced your mouth shut, “I did.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” That’s it? That’s all she needed? “What’s your favorite color?”

“W-what?”

“What’s your favorite color? If we’re going to be in a ‘relationship,’ we should know the basics about each other. We’re going to have to do this for presumably the rest of our lives.” You’re not sure why the implication of the relationship being nothing more than an obligation hurts even this whole thing was your idea. Worse even, you couldn’t think of anything. You didn’t have time to think of this before, it was not a necessity. Even now, you took whatever was in the victor’s village back at 2.

“I guess I don’t have one.”

“We’ll have to find one then.”

“What’s yours?”

“Yellow. Like the sunflowers.” You nod at her response. It seemed fitting actually since she seemed to brighten whatever room she was in. She continues asking, “Do you have any you hate?”

“Red.” You answered automatically

“Me too.” She agreed. You found that to be somewhat ironic as the ‘girl on fire.’ And red suited her, made her slightly darker skin glow. But you knew what she meant. What shade of red made could make your skin crawl. Her next question elicited a similar response, “Who do you see?”

You knew she was bringing up your conversation from hours ago, but it didn’t make it easier “A girl from district six. She had just turned 12 a few months before the reaping. She used similar techniques to the other morphlings. Her name was Dhara. I see the others too, but she’s the one who reminds me what I did.” She tries to apologize but you continue, unable to hold back everything you would continue to bottle up again after this conversation. Besides, you were almost back at the house. “I hesitated for maybe half a second because she was just crying for help. I’d only found her because she was starving, she tried to sneak something from the cornucopia. It was the first kill that I thought about. I hated that. So… I went hunting for everyone left, then finished with the allies. She’s partly why my games finished so quick. I didn’t…I don’t know…didn’t realize it would bother me so much, until I saw the recap footage.”

Realization seems to dawn on Y/n, she stops to face you, “That’s why you helped me that night?”

“I guess.” You wonder if she realizes she helped you out first and if she did, you wonder if she knows exactly how much her gesture had grounded you. “You helped me too.”

“Not like you did.” She says matter of factly. The two of you finally enter her home, she smiles at you and gives your hand a squeeze before flitting away to the kitchen. You follow, fully knowing and expecting the rest of the victor’s interrogation.

“So, I take it you’re all clued in Y/n?” Enobaria asked

“Yep. I assume I was the last one to know?”

“Not exactly…” Haymitch grumbles, you notice Brutus and Cashmere are missing. You both brae yourselves when you hear the sudden screaming. They must have been waiting for you two to be close to the house to tell him. You hear something smashing and more yelling. Y/n flinches and grabs your arm, a similar reaction to when you had stepped in front of her back at the capitol. This time she releases immediately, the others are too distracted by the noise and you take the time to squeeze her hand. She sends a grateful glance your way. If you could just sleep right for one night you would think you were improving. You have instinctively backed away from anyone who touched you within the last year, and you didn’t seem to feel overwhelming dread anymore, at least not the past couple months. Then again, almost everyone has been to scared to come within a five mile radius.

Cashmere finally came down smiling, “Well that went well.”

A door slammed as Brutus stomped down the stairs. He came in front of both of you, a towering presence. “You two better be damn sure about this.”

Y/n is frozen. She was already against this. Brutus was not going to help anything. “It was my idea. We’re sure.” You speak up.

“Brutus. Take a walk.” Enobaria says, his eyes still contain an unexplainable amount of rage but he storms off and slams the other door to make a point. “He’s right, you two. You both are going to have to train a lot. Your answers have to match, you have to know almost everything about each other or know what the other has said in past interviews, and you have to be believable. If you can’t, this is going to end badly for all of us.”

“You’re going to be busy. Because this starts on the Victory tour.” Haymitch agrees. “We need to get word to Cinna. And Effie was called, she’s got clips from last year.”

“Does she know?”

“No, she thinks you want to be camera ready so lets let her keep thinking that, alright sweetheart?”

Y/n nods, “So when do we start?”

“Today, kind of.” Cashmere starts, “We have some worksheets, you both need to fill them out. I would suggest not lying so you don’t mess it up. Otherwise, you’ll have more to memorize. I suggest you both get comfortable working together because eventually you’ll both have be very affectionate for this whole thing to work.”

You both look down at the floor. You both, of course, know this but the thought of it makes you nervous. You’re both excused afterward to begin learning every possible mundane thing about the other. The only problem was that you in fact, had difficulty forming or remembering any opinions about yourself. You had, apparently, spent the last year just miserably existing. You had continued training as if you were still awaiting the opportunity to even begin the games. You wadded the paper up and threw it across your room. The only thing you could fill out was the family portion and that section only infuriated you. So instead, you go downstairs and turn on the television and stare at the screen while completely ignoring whatever was on it.

“Didn’t think you’d be so interested in ‘The History of Panem.’” Y/ns voice suddenly snaps you back to reality, you look back and forth between her and the tv. Wondering how long you’ve been spaced out.

“I guess. So interesting I wasn’t even aware it was on.” She chuckled and sat next to you.

“So, I’m guessing you couldn’t finish the stuff on your sheet.”

“I literally have no idea what to put on there.”

“Do you want help?”

“Maybe. Like Cashmere said, I don’t want to forget things by lying.”

“So, don’t lie. We can figure out how to find some truth to some of these. They’re pretty simple. Like for food. Why is that one harder for you?”

“I don’t know how to make anything. I just had whatever food they gave us at the academy. Once a month they would make fancy capitol food. Other than that, the food was only enough to sustain us. Hold us over. If we didn’t do well they would withhold it.”

You could tell this information bothered her, still she was getting better at quickly regaining her composure. “So, is there any food from the capitol you couldn’t get enough of when you got there? I couldn’t get enough of the pasta, especially that one with the white sauce. I always ate it with some kind of meat.”

The solution was so simple, you felt like an idiot for not figuring it out yourself. You couldn’t believe you had given up so quickly. You also realized the first time you had longed for more food than whatever filled you was when Y/n’s brothers had thrown together a stew for you. “Actually, I liked whatever your brothers threw together.”

“The beef stew?”

“Yeah it was filling, and it wasn’t like the Capitols where it was too rich. It just made you feel…warm.”

She smiles, “Well. I’m honored you enjoy my recipe. Okay what’s next.” You go on for hours, and still, you only want to echo most of her answers. At most you get that you like it when it rains, and that green is the most tolerable, you hate when your hair is too long, and unless it’s for the capitol you are pretty much always in some athletic or close to athletic type clothing. Old habits die hard, I guess. You both agree that while dancing is fine, you’d both prefer to not do it at all, and after you simply talk. Talk about how no matter where you’re from something about capitol food is well, to die for, the fashion on the other hand is questionable at best.

“Well, I think we figured it all out. Should make it easier to remember since we finished it together.” She stretched her arms but stayed sitting next to you, you felt like you had been studying for some kind of exam for days yourself. You felt tired. And you still had several more pages to work on. The next section was supposed to be about your family… “You must still be feeling a little off. Why don’t you get take a break?”

“I’d rather get through this.”

“Okay. You know about mine. But I guess you cant say I’ve been hunting so we can say I’ve been helping provide for my family by doing whatever odd jobs I could find. Which I guess isn’t totally a lie.”

“Yeah yours is easy, that and your brothers and…cousins are all extremely close.”

“I guess there’s no downplaying that part…” You shook your head knowing that she wondered how long her family would be held over her head as some kind of leverage. Your loyalties couldn’t be traced back to them. The training you go through all but ensures it. Still explaining exactly why you feel the lack of connection now, brings up prior feelings you would rather remain buried. You have to tell yourself to suck it up, this was your idea, you would have to talk about it eventually so might as well get it over with. “Cato?”

“Sorry.”

“You’re sure you want to go through with this?”

“Yes.”

“Then we don’t have to talk about it.”

Your head drops. You don’t know why you feel shame at the literal excuse you were searching for. “You know I technically have a sister?”

The shock was evident in her face, she must have known there was no point in trying to cover it up, “You do?” When you nodded, you could see her choose her next question very carefully…

“Is she—”

“No. I guess my father enrolled her too. But she was older, maybe six or seven? From what I was told, I was showing so much promise I was basically guaranteed to win. So, my mother more or less encouraged her to fail and come home.”

“She…she just got to quit?”

“Yeah. I guess they made a safe bet, since they ended up being right.” Your hand reactively jerked back when you felt something graze one but instead of pulling away, Y/n’s hand gripped tighter, forcing you to either focus on your hand in hers or to stop looking away and face what was sure to be some kind of pitiful face. You weren’t sure what was worse. When you finally decide to look up, there’s no pity but seemingly, genuine concern.

“I am so sorry. I cant even imagine how I would feel. What you went through…and then they just—I don’t know. It must be hard.” The way she phrased that. Not ‘it must have been hard.’ No, she said it must be hard. And obviously you weren’t as disconnected as you thought. Your throat felt tight. Y/n never seemed to want to congratulate you, you wondered if it was something with the outer districts. The ones who saw the reaping the same as basically signing a death certificate.

“They visited me once.” You start, tightening the hold on her hand, as if it letting go would stop you from talking about it. “I assume it was the day they dropped off…my sister. I think I was ten? My mom couldn’t even look at me. Just told me I was doing a good job and to keep going. I think going in so young made me forget them to a point. I didn’t even recognize her when she came in. I had already accepted that the hunger games was an honor. She was a stranger.” You didn’t need to tell her how much you tried to call them when you were younger or how often you would go to sleep crying asking where your mom was. At one point you rationalized that the life you lived was normal, an honor, just like they wanted you to believe. So young, so stupid.

As you try and figure out how you’re feeling now that you’ve dug years’ worth of memories you’d tried to bury deep within your subconscious, you start realizing how much of your time is spent on trying to ignore everything you’ve done in your life. From the training to the games. You were a waste of a victor, basically waiting to die. Until recently, you had nothing to look forward to. No goals. Just continue living as though your name hadn’t already been reaped. You didn’t know anything else. You’re pretty sure Enobaria made a fuss about not taking kids too young because of it.  Not that she would tell you. You got all of your news by either eavesdropping or pretending you weren’t listening at all. People talk quite a bit when they think you’re not all the way there anymore. You’re not the only one pitying yourself. Y/n’s moved closer and before you can react her head is rested on your shoulder.

“Well. You aren’t going to be alone anymore. I promise I’ll make this as painless as possible. Regardless of everything, if we go through this plan or not. You’ll have an…ally for the rest of your life.”

You scoffed, “You too. We’re in this together now.”

“Together…” She echoed softly as her voice trailed off. Any thing else was stifled by a yawn. “I think its time for a break.”

You forget how weak she still was. She had barely begun to recover from the games before getting thrown through another loop. “You should get some rest.”

She half scoffed, half chuckled as she stood up. You went back through all of the interview questions, forcing yourself not to follow. You had dumped things on her you weren’t aware were weighing heavily on your conscious. Best not to overwhelm her. Cashmere jumps over the couch suddenly, and startles you.

“So how is the homework going?”

“It’s going.”

“I don’t know how you do interviews when the most I get out of you is three words at a time.”

“I save them all up for those days.”

“Ah. So, what happened with you and y/n? She looked really upset.”

“What?”

“Seemed like there was something on her mind. And it looks like she’s baking for the whole district again.” You walk into the kitchen before Cashmere continues. You see Enobaria standing next to her, an icy glare in your direction confirming you had said too much. What were you thinking? She could still barely sleep through the night, and here you were adding more to her plate.

“Oh finally. I was about to go play some music. You can help Y/n with the baking right?”

“I don’t recall asking for help En—”

“Nonsense. You’re working too hard as it is. Why else would Cato come in here?” You stare back at Cashmere who is suddenly very invested in the television. Unnecessary to lie to you to get you in here, you were close to coming in here regardless, so why were they pushing you guys together? Weren’t we spending enough time getting to know each other? Maybe this was more conditioning for the upcoming months.

“I’ve already mixed everything up. I’m just going to make some food for my brothers. They’ll be home soon.” Y/n assured the both of you

“Can I help with that?”

“Sure.” She smiles at you, Enobaria immediately leaves. You both work soundlessly unless Y/n directs you on what to do. You repeat the process with the flat bread she puts in the oven. You mostly clean while she finishes packing the soft fluffy disks into a container. “Would you like to see the hob?”

“The hob?”

“Its…a market of sorts.” She makes a face that makes it clear she can’t say anything more.

“Yeah.” You, like always, were surprised at seeing so many people seem so close to death here. The seam was the worst of according to y/n, she made stops at her “cousins” house and another house near it. Another family friend supposedly. You noticed she gave them both some money as well. Both of the women tearing up and hugging her before she headed to the districts black market. You were too busy looking at all of the different stalls and taking to remember all of the names of the people she greeted. You could only nod in their direction, surprised at the lack of hostility this time around.

“Hi, Ms. Sae. Did Katniss get you anything good today?” The older lady went back and forth in conversation for a while before y/n decided to introduce you. “This Cato, he’s helping my new mentors.”

“Well, she’ll need all the help she can get.” You smiled at the older woman, she was more welcoming than most. But you soon understood why she didn’t discriminate. The peacekeepers were comfortable here. Too comfortable. No one checks on 12, but if they did they could all get in a lot of trouble. Then again, so could the people operating the stands. But unlike the peacekeepers, the people here had no other choice, it was either this or slowly waste away. No one seemed bothered by the Peacekeepers that did decide to frequent the area and you wondered exactly how much they pretended not to know.

“I see we’re getting blessed by our victors presence today.” A red headed peacekeeper laughs as he comes up behind Y/n and kisses her on the cheek. She seems startled at first but immediately laughs and pushes him away. You try not to think about breaking his jaw.

“Good to see you again Darius. I suggest you behave I’m not the only victor here today. Cato, Darius. Darius, Cato.”

“Hard not to miss him, doesn’t exactly have the look from the people who hang around here.” Darius smiled and offered his hand. You nodded in his direction and shook it. What else could you do? You needed the people here to support what you and Y/n were planning to do. Hell, they would probably all see your act for what it is. The community here seemed close. Close enough to cover for you both or to at least support what the capitol will inevitably force down everyone’s throats. Maybe for Y/n, but you better at least make an effort to make friends.

“Hope I’m not making things difficult for anyone around here.” You offer

“Not any harder than what we already deal with. Right, Sae?” The old woman rolls her eyes and hands him a bowl of stew

“Y/n and I made some bread to go with that.”

“Oh? I like him already, Y/n. You should bring him around more often.” Darius laughed

“I know, who knew people from district 2 could be such softies?” She made a face at him and everyone laughed, “Here, I’m sure you’ll give them out best.”

The older woman winks and takes the bread off her hands. You both make some more small talk for a little before she hits as many stalls as she can to buy things she likely didn’t need back at the victors village. You tried to be polite, but you were distracted. You thought about how relaxed everyone seemed to be with Y/n. No one treated her with a sense of apprehension due to her games, as if they couldn’t have changed her. She wasn’t a monster, not like you. You wondered if they had any idea that the games had stolen pieces of her, pieces that would take years to rebuild, if they ever came back at all. You wondered if they knew how she couldn’t even step in the woods anymore.

Y/n grabbed your wrist and turned it upwards, “Here, for you.”

Pressed into your hand was a small bracelet. It was a simple wooden beaded thing, there were three different colored round beads in the center. “Thank you.”

“We decided on green right?” You realize she had put thought into what she picked up, the beads all a varying shade of deep greens. “You don’t have to wear it by the way, but I thought it might help whenever you start feeling nervous.”

When I start  tapping she means. Maybe it meant nothing, maybe she was already trying to set the foundation for your upcoming performance. As you ran your fingers across each sphere, you realized her reasoning didn’t matter. You had never received an actual gift like this, you held your hand back out.

 “I’m wearing it. Help me put it on?” You saw her hands begin shaking as she tightened the strings around your wrist. “When was the last time you ate?”

“I got distracted and made the bread instead.” She admits

“Well, then it sounds like we can stop by Sae’s again then.” She rolls her eyes but doesn’t protest. You both make more conversation with the people around the stand before heading back. As you make the long way back through the seam and to the victors village, you get stopped by someone. He was tall, had some similarities to Y/n. Same as so many of the people that lived here. He seems angry. You realize you remember him.

“I said we didn’t want your help.”

“You said you didn’t want help, Hazelle has no problem with it. Besides. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“So, you didn’t give her money for all that bread?”

“No, actually.” He rolls his eyes and crosses his arms, she mimics his movements pretty dramatically, you force yourself not to laugh and possibly anger this person further, “Relax, Gale. I made them. I made too much so I dropped some off for our families.”

“Thanks. But I can help my own family.”

“Great, so this can just be a gift.”

He seems to finally acknowledge your presence, “This one of your mentors?”

“Yes. This is—”

“I know. We all watch the games.” You said nothing, you couldn’t really blame him. No one really liked the games except for 1 and 2. Even 4 only trained so they could survive. “Maybe you could talk her into coming with us next Sunday.”

“To the woods?” You ask

“It will help.”

“You don’t know that.” Y/n responded

“Its up to her. The woods aren’t the problem. And if she goes back too soon it could make things worse.”

“I already told you I’d think about it.” Y/n interrupts, “Thank you, honestly for trying to help. And I really will think about it. Lets just drop it for now, alright?”

“Alright. We’ll try again next Sunday. Why don’t you bring your mentor along?”

You’re not entirely sure what to make of his last comment. Did he think you were scared? Or that you’d back out? Maybe he was trying to taunt you to convince her to go out there. Really, it wasn’t up to you. And you really couldn’t know how you’d react, you’d felt better. Aside from the last couple of nights, anyway.

“Sorry about him. He means well but he’s annoying.” Y/n offered once you continued walking

“Is he a friend?” You didn’t want to ask for anything more specific, the look in his eye implied something you realized you didn’t want to hear.

“Yeah I guess. He gets weird with me and Katniss. I think he assumes one of us would end with him since we are the only people I know that go into the woods. I thought he liked Katniss and they make more sense anyway since they hunt together, and since the games he’s been better. But before, I think he tried to figure out if I was interested in him once. I just changed the subject.”

“Why?” And why were you hurting yourself with these questions, idiot? You ask yourself

“I never planned on making that far to be honest.” She shrugged, she grew somber as you continued walking, “I need to tell you something.”

“Okay.”

“Remember when you asked me why I volunteered? I said I felt guilty…well that wasn’t entirely true. I started getting these terrible dreams about my brothers and the games.” Her voice got dangerously low, “I don’t even know if he can actually do anything about it but I asked the Mayor to take their names out in turn for me volunteering.”

She had covered her mouth to whisper the last part to you, that was crazy. Doable…you didn’t think so. “If anything, don’t you think it would have given them a bigger reason for their names to be drawn?”

“Now maybe, but like I said before I never thought I’d make it that far. If I had just been a number or gotten hit by Cloves knife in the bloodbath…I think they’d be safe. But then I couldn’t just give up either, so now I’ve screwed over everyone. Arioch should have won. It was all for nothing”

“It wasn—”

“It was. My family is in more danger than ever, Katniss’s family is too…and I’ve dragged you into this too, and the other victors. I shouldn’t have won.” Y/n’s eyes become watery. It was hard to refute her points, because you knew no matter what you said there was some truth to what she said. She had drawn too much attention to herself. If she had won by simply out surviving everyone that may be one thing, but she had become a capitol favorite from the chariot ride. Still, every victors family became targets, often getting “randomly” picked. And the victors had all chosen to help. But she could dispute that by saying that she shouldn’t have pulled the stunt with Rue and Marvel. Her whole personality revolved around helping others, it was like she couldn’t help it. Its why she was against working with you. And the capitol would continue eating it up. In a few years, after the quell and a few more games…she had a high chance of being left alone. But she would have to avoid the Capitol. What if your plan made that impossible? Were you making things worse for her?

You were trying to catch up but she had basically run the rest of the way back to her house. You didn’t want to force her to be uncomfortable. At this point, you knew you would check on her as soon as you could, if not as soon as you walked in. Her brothers found you first.

“What happened?” Mallory asked

“I don’t know. We talked to Gale about going back to the woods and then—”

“She didn’t go right?” Amal asked worried

“No. She started talking about why she volunteered…” They both looked at each other and back at you.

“She’s feeling guilty again.” The older one stated, not asked. A conversation he had had before. You must have looked confused because he continued, “We know. Before you got here the only thing we could get out of her was ‘sorry.’ We knew about the volunteering but something happened… after the games didn’t they?”

You just nodded. It wasn’t your place to say. And frankly, you had a feeling they knew after the whole meeting. And you doubted they wanted to know the details of the maybes. They, unlike most of the families form your districts, had suffered watching their sister come close to death and become a shell of who she used to be. They would likely be willing to sacrifice their own lives to stop Y/n from accepting anything more from the capitol. And that’s when it hits you, exactly how much she is willing to give up for her family. They knew whatever show Y/n put on was for them, and they couldn’t stop her if she only told them what they needed to know. Maybe she had told them and said there was nothing they could do. As the two brothers continued to talk after letting you back in, you realized how much you longed for that what seemed to come so easily for them. You felt cheated. Then again, you had been feeling that way a lot since winning.  

You’re about to go knock on her door when Mallory calls out for you, “Hey, Cato. Just give her a minute. She’s going to scream at you that she’s fine.”

“She’s nicer when she figures out why she was so upset. She doesn’t mind talking about it when she understands what bothered her.” Amal finishes.

“Seriously, She likes to calm down alone first.”

“Okay.” You sit down awkwardly in the living area. The boys are good at making small talk, and you enjoy their company. After a while, Y/n does reappear. She sits next to Amal, ruffling his hair. She offers a slight smile and tries to ask everyone about their day. Amal and Mallory play along but its clear she wasn’t fully present, her mind likely still wondering the best way to appease the capitol to avoid hurting her family.

The door opens and Haymitch stumbles in. Enobaria and Cashmere follow shortly after, “So, how’d the homework go, sweetheart?”

“Its going. Would you like to sober up enough to make dinner?” Y/n and Haymitch have some silent conversation and leave the rest of you alone.

“I wish she’d stop doing that.” Mallory grumbled

“Do they do that a lot?” Cashmere asks

Mallory shrugs, “When our parents would try and get her to talk or eat, they would sometimes invite him over. He never stayed for long because he was ‘busy,’ but they would do whatever that was and she would find a way to sneak out.”

“We saw her head to his house most times. We just wish she would tell us what’s bothering her.” Amal finished, “Its not like wed tell mom.”

“I’m sure they just have a different understanding about things, she wants to keep you guys as far away from the games as possible.” Enobaria assured them.

“What homework was he talking about?” Mallory pried, Cashmere opened her mouth but you rushed to answer first

“She’s studying different ways to answer interview questions. Trying to seem as boring as possible for the Capitol. We’re hoping with the quell, she will be able to fly under the radar.”

“So, she doesn’t have to be friendly with the people in the capitol?”

“What do they want with her anyway?” Amal asked. Mallory’s lips formed a tight line. He looked at you, probably for the chance he was wrong, and for a lie to cover him so he wouldn’t have to explain it to the youngest.

“They would want her to move down there, work in television and stuff like that. She would rather stay here, but she doesn’t want the capitol to be angry and use anyone as leverage.” Cashmere and Enobaria stared for a second before turning back and reassuring them of what I said. If Y/n wanted them in the dark, then that’s where they would stay. Haymitch came back out shortly after, claiming that after awhile y/n said he was just getting in the way.

The brothers immediately stood up and went to go help. The second they were out of earshot, Cashmere whispered harshly, “They should know.”

“Y/n said to say nothing. The more they think its real, the more believable it will be to everyone. So ,everyone just relax.” Haymitch waved her concerns away. So, they did talk in there.

“She’s still on board.” You realize

“Barely, she’s worried about the lot of you. You’re only here for so long. And frankly I cant say I disagree. Specifically, for you Cashmere. The rest of us have no one. Well, we don’t know about Brutus so she’s freaked out about him too. You’re the one with the most to lose. She’s at least accepted what everyone else told her.” Haymitch raised his brows and smirked as he took a sip from a cup he must have filled in the kitchen. You wonder if he had gotten used to the burning sensation or if that was the pain he chose to inflict on himself.

Cashmere said nothing. In fact, no one said anything until Y/n and her brothers brought everyone a plate. Some noodle plate that tasted better than anything you’d had at the capitol. Had it not been for Amal asking more questions about what everyone enjoyed doing, the dinner would have been silent. Cashmere and Enobaria tried their best to keep the conversation light, it was clear they had grown fond of hi. He was young, hadn’t had to sign up for the games yet. You could tell they were becoming protective, maybe longing for a sibling or child of their own to be that innocent. To maintain it.

When he asked Enobaria if she had been practicing, y/n seemed to finally perk up. “Oh, that reminds me!” She ran to grab the bag she had taken to the hob, “I got you guys something."

She begins handing all of the victors something small. “What is this, y/n?” Enobaria asked, already trying to not get choked up.

“Well, this is wooden version of a flute I think, I thought you may like trying something kind of new so you don’t get bored. A hair pin and bookmark for Cashmere, I swear you read a new book every day so maybe you wont need them. Haymitch. Don’t get excited I’m not supporting your drinking problem, but I got you sheath and sharpener for your knife.”

“Thanks, kid.” Haymitch smiled.

“Thank you, Y/n. You didn’t have to do this.”

“I know. I just thought you might like the stuff, plus it helps the people at the hob anyway. This is for Brutus but I doubt he wants to see me.” She hands Haymitch something you assume is for some kind of small wood carving project. You realized the others hadn’t received a gift like this either, none of you had to react to this. Amal and Mallory snickered at their bewilderment. “If you guys will excuse me, I’m pretty tired. I’ll see you all tomorrow?”

“Okay, I’ll take the first shift.” Enobaria started

“No, that’s okay. I want to try and sleep alone tonight. You guys have a good night.”  She gave her brothers a side hug and disappears.

“Do you think shes ready?” Mallory asks Enobaria

“No. But, its up to her. If she does feel better its best to try and work it out now, before the victory tour begins.” Enobaria stated

Meanwhile Cashmere got curious, “What did she get you Cato?”

This shouldn’t have bothered you but it did. Her tone. Too knowing. Like there was no way Y/n could forget to give you something. You just held up your wrist. Cashmere grinned and nodded. Enobaria glared at her, and ordered you away.

“We are going over interview tapes tomorrow, Cato. You should get some sleep. We’re all going to be doing a lot of watching.” You nod and hide away in your room.

You toss and turn for hours. Eventually staring at the ceiling fidgeting with bracelet you were given. You keep trying to untangle all of the emotions you were going through. Confused, mostly. But you had been jealous today you couldn’t ignore that. You had an overwhelming to protect her, to help. And you may as well admit you enjoyed her presence, craved it, more often than not. No. Nope. You couldn’t think like this. Not now. You threw off your sheets and before you could begin pacing you headed down to the kitchen. Try and find something to eat or drink just to have something to do.

You hear steps as you begin filling a cup with water. On instinct, you freeze. Gripping the cup as if you would have to throw it at any second. You force you entire body still, trying to rationalize that you had no threats around you.

“Can’t sleep?”

You exhale as you recognize Y/ns voice, “No. You?”

“Not at all. I was hoping if I turned on the tv I might fall asleep that way but I heard noises and had to check.” Of course, she did. You don’t understand why this surprised you. As if she wasn’t always looking for something to be wrong. As if you could be the only one with these problems.

“Can I join you?”

“You realize you don’t have to ask me right?”

“Its still your house. Besides I don’t want you to blame me for not being able to sleep.” For some reason what you said sounds weird in your head, but she rolls her eyes and sits in the same place she sat this morning.  You follow and sit next to her. She tosses one of the throw blankets in your direction.

“Should we watch some more of the exciting and thrilling history of Panem?” She asks sarcastically

“It sounds like the best way to fall asleep.” She tucks her feet under her and turns on the screen. You start with your head resting on your fist, you think its lucky that this isn’t one of the weirder seating choices, like you’d see in the capitol. At least this one had an armrest. Your nerves don’t settle, what you were worried about your weren’t sure, but you had overwhelming feeling of…dread, worry? You didn’t even know what to call it, but you could swear something was going to wrong, you were going to do something wrong. Y/n gently pulled your hand away from the bracelet you had begun picking at. You’re not sure if it was her intention, but you hand intertwines with hers. Neither of you say anything about it, just stare silently at the screen.

When your eyes open, you see light shining through the windows. You squint as your eyes adjust, but as you turn your head you realize it was laying on top of something. No. Someone. Y/ns head was laying against your shoulder, you’d been Lying your head on hers. Your body turns to ice. The two of you had fallen asleep. Together. Well, not together, but in the same space. A very close space. You curse yourself for putting the both of you in this situation, what if you had done something to her? What if you had another ni--? You pause, you realize there were no nightmares. You’d slept the whole night, and you had no nightmares…

As you realize you hadn’t moved since you opened your eyes, you have to force yourself to accept two simple truths.

For the first time since the games, you had gotten a full nights rest. No nightmares.

You had to admit Cashmere was right. You cared for Y/n. Which meant this plan of yours had just gotten much, much harder.

Fuck.

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤⋆

Taglist: @chloe-skywalker @ietss @tomihoeka @chiimiki @akinatrix @inky-sun @themedsaintworkin @tiktoks-aphrodite @fredweasleysgirl16 @callsign-haze @thestrals-and-firewiskey @dreamsarenicer

[marzmeltdown]

Where the Wild Things Are

⌦ Pairing: Woozi x Fem!Reader ⌦ Genre(s): smut,, enemies to lovers ⌦ Warning(s): pet names(woozi: sir ,, reader: dollface,, princess,, cowgirl,, ),, arguing,, brat taming?? kinda??,, spanking,, fingering,, spit eating,, oral (f receiving),, unprotected sex (pls practice safe sex),, creampie,, aftercare (idk if i should put this as a warning but just in case) ⌦ Word count: 2.53k ⌦ Summary: You and your gang of rough and tough cowboys/girls are never in one spot for too long. Despite never letting the weather deter your group from drifting from one town to the next, one particularly big thunderstorm left your group in a local motel. Unfortunately for you though, you end up sharing a room with Jihoon and getting a wink of sleep didn't seem to be in the cards for you two. ⌦ A/N: I'm thinking about making this some kind of series??? But instead of focusing on Woozi, it's a fic for every member in this like cowboy setting. Idk,, lemme know what you think. Idk about you, but cowboy svt is doin somethin for me. All the descriptors of a motel during cowboy times all come from the westerns my grandpa watched when I was a kid so I can't say for sure if this is gonna be historically accurate. If there's anything you feel I should improve on in the future, don't hesitate to let me know! You can find progress updates on my stories and everything else I write in my pinned post every Wednesday.:)

⌦ marz’s tag list ⌦ marz’s req form

"Jihoon, I'm not sleeping on the floor!" You snapped, looking at your roommate for the night as he stood on the other side of the room, arms crossed, while putting all his weight onto the dresser behind him. He rolled his eyes, taking his hat off and placing it on the nearby dresser he was currently leaning up against.

"Well, neither am I, Dollface, so it looks like we're in some sort of predicament." He said, crossing his arms once more as his deadpan face fixated on your very clearly angry expression.

The nickname irritated you even more; he always used it for you and you alone. It didn't help that you were one of the only girls in their little gaggle of drifters; in a way, it felt demeaning. If you weren't angry enough knowing that you had to share a bed with the one person who always found a way to get under your skin, you were damn near fuming when the nickname left his mouth.

"Stop calling me that!" You snapped, stomping over to the bed and angrily yanking the neatly laid pillows from their spot on the bed to line them down the middle to create some sort of barrier between you two. It wasn't a foolproof solution, but it was a solution nonetheless.

Jihoon stood in place, his eyes following your every move as he chewed on the inside of his mouth.

"It suits you," he simply replied, shrugging to reinforce his nonchalant answer. You rolled your eyes, turning your back toward him so you could finish building the wall of pillows.

"Fuck off, Jihoon. I don't want to hear your excuses as to why you feel the need to call me dollface when we all know it's because you don't respect me enough to call me by my name." You didn't give him the satisfaction of looking back at him when you spoke.

Jihoon's response caught you off guard; in a matter of seconds, he was behind you, one hand around your waist and the other around your neck, effectively pinning you against his chest.

"You know, I've had about enough of your attitude," he growled into your ear. You couldn't help but gasp at the swiftness of Jihoon's actions. This was very out of character for him; Jihoon typically kept to himself, only really joking around with Seungcheol and Soonyoung.

"What're you going to do about it? Spank me?" You asked after you took a few seconds to regain your composure. The wavering in your voice hinted at the small bit of pleasure you were gaining from this stance alone.

"I just might," he said. You could hear the smirk on his face as he spoke, and he pulled away after what felt like forever. But he was just getting started. He sat down on the edge of the bed, pulling you to lie across his lap.

Jihoon always worked swiftly and to the point; you didn't expect him to work like that in the bedroom, though, not that you were complaining. The way he threw you around like a doll was already working wonders for you; the harsh pulling of your dress and tearing of your stockings caused your thighs to press themselves together.

He noticed this subtle attempt to hide your arousal; he only smirked again and raised his hand to strike your ass. You jerked forward, letting out a noise that could only be described as surprised and slightly aroused.

"Fuck!" You whined, letting your head hang low and your hands grip Jihoon's thigh, preparing yourself for another spanking. Jihoon spanked each cheek five times, each spanking getting harder, which in turn pulled louder and louder whines from your throat.

Once Jihoon felt satisfied, he leaned back to admire the red marks his hand had painted onto your skin. He let his hand rest itself against your stinging ass, soothing the skin as his thumb gently rubbed circles into the flesh.

"Still feeling cocky?" He asked, his eyes fixated on the red marks that seemed to slowly disappear with time.

"And what if I am?" You asked, lifting your head just enough for Jihoon to hear you. He hummed in response, moving his hand from your ass to your heat, using his middle and ring fingers to tease your hole through your panties.

"Then I guess we're not finished here, are we?" He said this, feeling your panties become wetter and wetter with each pass of his fingers. You bit your lips as he teased you through the fabric of your panties, letting out a small whimper when he finally circled his fingers around the bundle of nerves that would have your head spinning if he kept circling around the flesh.

His movements were slow—painfully slow—causing you to push your hips back in attempts to get more friction against your clit. He smirked as he felt the wet spot on your panties get bigger each time he circled his fingers around your clit. Soft mewls were already leaving your lips by the time he pushed your panties to the side to further tease your cunt.

"J-Jihoon.." You whimpered, letting out a gasp when the finger used to circle your entrance finally pushed itself in. His pumps against your pussy slowly sped up just enough to leave you wanting more. He hadded one, then two more fingers, stretching you out as you squirmed on his lap.

"You're so wet, dollface," he hummed, ignoring the whine of irritation that left your lips, though it was quickly turned into a whine of pleasure as his fingers sped up.

"Lie down," Jihoon said, pulling his fingers out. You scrambled onto the bed, pulling your skirt off and unbuttoning your shirt, allowing them to fall into a pile next to your boots.

You watched as Jihoon stood, sucking your slick from his fingers while he grabbed his hat from the dresser. He placed the hat back on his head before undoing his belt, pulling it from the belt loops to let it fall onto the floor next to your clothes once he stood at the edge of the bed once more.

You bit your lip as Jihoon crawled his way between your thighs, his lips hovering over yours. You propped yourself on your elbows to meet him halfway. He gripped your face, forcing your mouth open with his thumb. His next action caught you by surprise—not that you didn't like it, but because you didn't expect to like it.

You felt him spit into your mouth, leaning in to leave bite marks against your neck and chest just as fast as the spit left his mouth and landed in yours. His bites trail down to your breasts, engulfing one of your nipples in his mouth while his hand pulls and prys at the other.

You whined as he alternated between nipples, maintaining eye contact as he kissed his way back up to your mouth. This time, rather than spitting into your mouth, he instead captured your lips in a heated kiss. He reached up to take the hat from his head, placing it on yours.

You moaned softly into the kiss, helping him adjust the hat to your head while you two fought for dominance via tongue. Jihoon won that battle, leaving no part of your mouth unexplored. By the time he pulled away, you were out of breath and damn near dripping.

"Don't let that hat fall off, princess, if you want to finish tonight." He said it sternly against your lips; you nodded in response, and your eyes lidded with pleasure.

"Yes, sir," you replied, meeting his lustful gaze as you spoke.

You weren't sure why he had you so needy already; he had barely touched you, and your arousal was already staining your panties and running down your thighs. He moved back down to the edge of the bed, taking one of the pillows from your pillow barrier to place under the small of your back.

"Hey! You ruined my wall!" You whined, only to be shut up when Jihoon pulled your panties off and latched his mouth to your clit. You let out a small moan, shuddering when you felt the length of his tongue lick from your hole and back to your clit in one swipe.

He ate pussy like a starved man, letting his tongue slip into your entrance a few times and softly moaning from the taste. The vibrations from his moan sent a wave of pleasure throughout your body as his fingers found their way into your entrance, his tongue finding its way back to that bundle of nerves that seemed to have a neon sign on it with how many times he'd found it with ease.

You moaned as he pumped his fingers in and out of your hole, his free hand pressing down on your abdomen to prevent you from squirming away. He hummed as his mouth gently tugged at your clit, his eyes scanning your face as you moaned and whined with pleasure.

Your head flew back as Jihoon's fingers curled up against that special spot inside you, bringing you closer and closer to the edge with each push Jihoon was giving you. He smirked in response to you holding his hat in place as your head hung back, and the hand that was holding you up flew down to tug at the man's hair. Jihoon felt his cock twitch in his pants as your walls clenched around his fingers, signaling you were close to a release.

"F-Fuck! Jihoon, I'm close!" You whined as the coil in your stomach began to tighten with each thrust of his fingers against your sweet spot. He nodded in response, moving his mouth closer to your entrance, the pumping of his fingers moving faster, his other hand rubbing circles into your clit and his tongue sucking at your innerfolds.

It took a few more pumps of his fingers for you to let out a wanton moan, your thighs beginning to shake as the coil in your stomach finally snapped and you released all over his mouth and fingers. He let out another soft, satisfied moan as you came all over him.

He pulled away after a moment, using both hands to sooth your shaking thighs as he looked up at you.

"Are you with me, dollface?" He asked, and it took you a moment to come back down from your high, only looking down at him once you came back to Earth.

His hair was disheveled from your harsh tugging, his lips were swollen and glistening with your release, and his eyes told you that you weren't done yet.

"Yes.. I'm okay," you panted softly. He left a small kiss on the inner side of each thigh, wiping his mouth with his hand as he stood at the edge of the bed. He pulled his shirt off, letting it fall to the floor, while he kicked his boots off alongside his pants and underwear.

Your mouth watered at the sight of Jihoon standing naked in front of you. The sight of a toned man pumping his cock in front of you was doing something for you. Finally, Jihoon lied next to you on the bed, pulling you onto his lap.

"Let's see how well you can ride, cowgirl," he teased, helping you slide onto his cock. He let out what sounded like a whine when you finally bottomed out, holding your hips as he waited for you to adjust.

His cock was bigger than any other cock you'd ever taken. It stretched you painfully, but it was a pleasurable kind of pain. You shuddered as each inch of his cock rubbed against your walls with each rock of your hips. It took you a moment to pick up a steady speed, bouncing your hips against his cock.

"Y-You're so big.." You whimpered, letting your hands rest against his chest. Jihoon seemed to have other plans, though; it seems that your pace wasn't satisfying enough or he just wanted to see how well you could hold on while simultaneously keeping his hat on your head. Jihoon planted his feet into the bed, thrusting up into you with a harsh force.

You moaned at his harsh thrust, barely having enough time to move your hands from his chest to his shoulders before Jihoon started pistoning his hips up into you. The force of his thrusts jostled your body around his lap; each moan coming from your mouth was interrupted as Jihoon's thrust never faulted.

Your moans were loud; you were sure the patrons in the other rooms could hear you. Your hand rested itself on Jihoon's hat once more as your head fell back. Jihoon moved his hands from your hips to the small of your back, pulling you down to lie on his chest as his hips abused the inside of your thighs.

The two of you felt the cords in your stomach begin to twist and turn, and Jihoon's thrusts began to stutter as he got closer and closer to the edge. Your moans and cries in his ear definitely didn't help with anything. "Jihoon.." You cried; you didn't even have to finish the sentence for him to understand what you were trying to say.

"Me too, princess," he panted, his hands smacking and gripping at your ass cheeks. He thrust his hips into yours a few more times, each thrust hitting your sweet spot. The moan you let out when the cord finally snapped was so loud, you were worried something fragile would break. Your walls clenched around Jihoon, pulling him closer to the end as he began to let out soft moans.

"Fuck, yes, cum on my cock, dollface," he moaned softly, the cord in his stomach snapping shortly after the words left his mouth. His thrusts halted long enough for him to release, slowly thrusting his cum into you. You buried your face into his neck, whimpering when he began to pull out.

"You okay?" He asked, rubbing your back reassuringly. He didn't pull out the rest of the way until you answered, worried he would hurt you if he pulled out too soon.

"Yeah, you can pull out now," you said. Your voice was hoarse from the screams Jihoon had been pulling out of you all night. Jihoon finally pulled out, his cum following shortly behind and staining the bed beneath you too. "Can you lay here with me for awhile?" You asked, ignoring the fact that both of you were in desperate need of being cleaned up.

"Let me clean you up first," he said. You whined in protest once he stood up, wetting a washrag with the pitcher setting on the dresser to clean you off. He helped you get dressed after cleaning himself off and getting dressed himself.

You snuggled into him as soon as he lay down, ignoring the chuckle that came from his mouth as he wrapped his arm around your waist.

"I thought you didn't want to share the bed?" He asked, watching as you tiredly tore apart your pillow wall to get closer to him.

"Shut up."

[atonalginger]

Through Plasma and Flames, Update # 9

I missed Wednesday because I got distracted. *shrugs* But that means I get to drop the latest chapter on an appropriate holiday, I think at least...lol.

Chapter 9: The Enemy You Know

Dawn delivers an impromptu history lesson and learns more about the 'boogeymen' they now face.

You can read the chapter on ao3 by clicking HERE!

and as always you can start from the beginning by clicking here!

and for a short preview:

“Wait so they knew it was going to happen and didn’t try to stop it?” Destiny grew louder, Booker and Emmett both quietly urging her to relax.   “Atomic annihilation was on the collective brains of everyone across the globe for years leading up to the big bang,” Dawn said, “it was in the music played on the radio, the stories on the big screens and TV shows alike, in the art produced. Hell even the food we bought, Sugar Bombs? Nuka Cola? People knew it was somewhere on the horizon and seemed to collectively accept and ignore the threat. It was something people couldn’t do anything about.”   “But you aren’t talking about people, you’re talking about leaders,” Destiny rubbed her face, trying to make sense of it all, “people who could have stopped it. People who did have that power.”   “Enclave was more than government leadership,” Dawn shook her head, “when I was invited I was told it spanned quote ‘the greatest minds our country had seen’. Politicians, military leadership, scientists and engineers, wealthy corporate leaders, and others like them. Many in the Enclave would have desired the War to continue and escalate.”   “Why?” Destiny asked with tears forming in the corners of her eyes, “why would they want the world to end? For people to suffer and die? For everything to be like it is now? What good comes from any of that?”   Destiny’s emotional state tore at Dawn. She hadn’t realized the impromptu history lesson would cause so much distress. Had she known she would have approached it differently. All she was left with was answering with even worse truths, “there’s profit in war.”   “What good is money if everything is gone?” Destiny asked through her teeth as she glared at the floor.   “An excellent question,” Dawn watched as Booker knelt next to Destiny to comfort her, “they likely didn’t think that far ahead. The sorts of assholes that join shadowy cabals like the Enclave are the sorts of people so short sighted they can’t see the end of their own nose. Likely they thought they had it all figured out with the President slipping off to the oil rig out in the Pacific and the Congressional Bunker in Winterspring and where ever else they built their underground playhouses but likely as soon as the first bomb dropped all plans went out the window.”   “They told you about their hideouts?” Booker asked.   Dawn couldn’t help but smile as she answered, “No, but I was trained to be observant and on top of that some reporter at the Boston Bugle ran a story, managed to get the front page, about evidence of the Enclave. Proof the President had abandoned the capital in favor of an oil rig, evidence of the bunker in Winterspring, and more. Evidence that lined up perfectly with things I’d seen and heard. Was just picking up steam in national coverage too…when the bombs dropped.”