#<- kinda g/t I mean everything looks small on a screen

[clumsiestgiantess]

Honestly I don’t feel like finishing the October horror prompts stuff right now…

BUT I have this one short story saved from a while ago that I do really like, and I want y’all to have it! Enjoy!

It’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it kind of thing, being copied.  It’s little snapshots taken from your life — less than a second of living that gets bottled up as information and stored in some vault deep underground.  A security measure, world leaders decided, for when the planet inevitably comes to an end.   

…whenever that will be.

The war ended before the threat of nuclear extinction became reality.  All those years of people scrambling to get implants that would preserve them after death, all the times people had fought with money and power over who would be saved and who wouldn’t — and now you can do it for free.

For a long time, the servers inside the Humanity Vaults went untouched.  Without a fear of mass death lurking in the air, no one was willing to take the information back out once it was stored.  People went on living, kept getting implants and snapshots to give themselves the chance to get another life at the end of theirs.  Or several.  

Just like those desperate rich people who froze themselves to be revived when technology caught up with their ideas, so it seems all of society would do the same — their lives copied and stored until someone found a way to revive them.  And that someone, or rather something was SLT.  Simulated Life Technology.  It gave the digital information a virtual body, processing things a brain, nerves, and hormones normally would through a simulation.

Unfortunately, people were expecting physical bodies and actual brains, not simulations.  So the technology flopped.. until a video game company picked it up.  People became obsessed with their games due to how real the characters seemed.  It was artificial intelligence trained with real, lived-through, human thought.  

That’s where things finally begin, with a program — a game — that lets you simulate running the life of an actual person right on your laptop.

I’d heard about the game before, but never played it myself.  There was no end goal, no story, just some fake person wandering around a screen.  It just didn’t seem interesting to me.  So it was all the more jarring when I went from reaching for the gym doors one morning to stretching an arm into an endless void of white.  

I shrieked at the sudden change, and didn’t stop shrieking as I found no exit to the place — pounding on walls I couldn’t see.  I finally ran out of breath when I turned around and saw the glassy wall of a theater-sized computer screen behind me — some guy staring me down from the other side, mouse in hand and keyboard at the ready.

Choking for breath, I stumbled backwards and fell on my ass.  “N-No,” I managed to squeak out.  I could barely put two and two together as I increasingly got closer to a panic attack, but once I hit the back wall dreaded realization tinged the back of my mind.

It’s supposed to be a simulated me.. not… me me.  Only it isn’t me.  I’m probably still at the gym.  I’m sure the original me didn’t even notice.  

Wait.. so simulations actually have a consciousness!?  

“HELP!  Please!  There’s been a mistake!  Simulations aren’t supposed to be actually alive!  No one said these stupid computer people were conscious!”  I rushed to the glass to bang on it and demand my release, but was immediately deterred by the very large form of a person reaching for me.  I yelped and ducked down expecting to be snatched up, but his finger only tapped the screen.

In seconds, soft carpet seems to grow up from beneath the floor, and a little living room takes form all around me.  A table pops up from the floor; a shelf slides in from the wall to my right.  Something bright bubbles into existence behind me and I find a window on the opposite wall.  

A window!  I race across the room and try desperately to open it and escape that way, but even when I do I find a fake landscape lit up on the wall behind it.  The sudden and jarring lack of exits sends me stumbling backwards, staring blankly at the false background.  Oh fuck, this really is a computer.  How am I inside a-?  

“Hello?”

I flinch so badly I trip on my leg and nearly fall to the floor again.  My hands slam over my ears as he speaks again.  “Sorry, I don’t think my mic was on.  Why are you- oh!  I turned the volume up all the way when it was off, my bad.”  There’s a brief pause of blissful silence.  “Is this better?”  I look up at the collosal stranger with tears in my eyes, but they either don’t notice or don’t care.

“Alright, first things first…” he mumbles, “Let’s get your sanity bar back up.”  My legs weaken and I have to brace myself on the fake couch beside me in the fake room.  “What.. do you mean?” I ask in a shaking whisper.  “You know, your little hunger, hydration, and sanity bars?  Ohh wait this is probably a tutorial.”  He shrugged off the interaction so nonchalantly it made goosebumps lift across my arms.

Glancing around the room, I try to find the stats he’s talking about, but all I can see are structures and furniture.  They’re all nearly real, save for the slight pixelated fuzz on the very edges of everything.  It’s like looking through a headset.  My stats must only be visible to the player.  The real person.

If it’s all fake — some video game — then… but I’m not some made-up character!  I’m real!  I- I have to be.  Only real people can think like this, right?  This is only supposed to be some simulated bullshit that draws on my memories, which I won’t even know they have.  Not.. not another entire me.  With shaking arms, I lift my hands up to my face.

They’re tinged with those same fuzzy pixels.

I’m not real.  Wh- Why?  Does real me know about this?  I didn’t know about this.  Are there OTHER me’s?  How many times have I blinked and become a fake reconstruction?  

“Woah!”  I’m startled out of my thoughts by that guy — that player’s — voice.  “Your sanity’s tanking!  I know the intro said to ease you into it or your sanity would plummet, but I thought I did ease you into this place.”  Before I can get a word in he gasps an ‘ohhh’.  “My mic was muted!  You didn’t hear me introduce myself!  That’s probably why.”

I sneer involuntarily.  Like introducing himself would’ve done anything to soften the blow of: I’m not real.  

“Let’s try again; my name’s Sam, but-”  He hesitates.  “Just call me Sammy.”  I turn to speak, but my mouth goes dry.  What is my name?  It can’t be Rhea.  That’s whoever-is-still-out-there’s name.  But who else would I be?  I’m not supposed to be anyone else.  “Rhea,” I answer abruptly.  I don’t know what else to call myself.

“That’s a nice name!”  “Do you think I’m real?” I blurt, then immediately regret it as he gives me a strange look.  “I mean.. I just…  I feel real.  This isn’t real.”  Sammy goes quiet for a moment, leaning in closer to the screen to look at me.  I want to run away, but I hold my ground.  There is a wall between us, after all.

“You feel real?” he repeats, “Well.. I mean, you are real — a real SL.  But is that what you mean?”  An SL, a Simulated Life, is that all I am?  My head shakes in slow shock.  “I guess you might feel like you’re whoever they took your life data from,” Sammy suggests, “But it’s.. kinda hard to believe you’re real when you’re a flashing image on my laptop.”

A sharp pain seizes my chest and I unsteadily fall onto the couch.  It feels real, but it isn’t.  And I’m the same.

“What do I do?” I ask quietly, more to myself than anything.  Minutes tick by with my face buried in my hands before the feeling of a cold hand on my back sends me across the room screaming.  “What the-?!”  “Sorry!” Sammy calls before I can go into a full panic, “I meant to pat you on the back.  You know.. like: ‘it’s going to be ok’?”  He sighs, “I’ve never been good with people.”

I rub my hands over my arms and cautiously peer around the couch.  “What was that?”  “My clicker,” he admits, as I watch him move around a mouse outside the screen.  I can feel my mouth drop open, “You can interact with all this?”  He nods as I gesture around the place.  “That’s just unfair!  You can at least let me have this space to myself!”

“But how will you get food?” Sammy asks me earnestly.  “Your hunger bar’s at half by the way.”  The second he points it out I realize I’m feeling hungry, but I don’t bring it up.  “What?  I’ll get it out of this mini fridge right here.”  However, as I walk over and pull at the handle, it doesn’t open.  I grab it and rattle it around a few times, but it doesn’t open.  “I.. I can't…”

“I’m pretty sure only the player can make meals,” Sammy tells me, as calmly as if he were making a passing comment on the weather.  “So I’m what?  Helpless?!  You’re supposed to feed me?!”  Sammy leans away from the screen looking wildly confused.  “That’s like the whole point of the game…  I’m supposed to take care of you and level up stuff by treating you well.”

I just stare at him.

“What..?  I- I thought you would at least know that.”  I don’t even go back to the couch; I just crumple to the floor.  “Wait, you just started getting your sanity back up!” Sammy gasps, “Don’t drop it back down!  I’ll take care of you!  I’m not like those video game nerds who try to find all the special dialogue by starving their SLs or doing a sleepless run.  I just wanted to…”  He pauses and his cheeks flush, which actually startles me out of my raw horror of learning that I — or any of the potential other me’s — could be tortured like those examples.

“You wanted to what?” I ask hesitantly.  Sammy looks at me.  Like really looks at me — leaning close against the monitor.  I freeze as the invisible hand of the clicker carefully turns me around, then back.  His irises flicker all over me, and I realize I’m still in slightly revealing gym wear.  

Worriedly, I take a few steps back.  All sorts of media with online digital girlfriends start flooding into my head.  “You wanted to what?” I ask weakly.  Sammy glances at his door, gets up, and locks it.  Fear causes the blood to feel like it’s being drained out of my body.

“Please don’t do that shit to me,” I beg, trying to keep my voice from cracking.  “Not on the first day.  Please.”  

Sammy’s face scrunches up in bewilderment before his eyes widen in realization.  “Wait, what?  No!  No, I don’t want to do anything like that!  I just…  You’re just…  You’re supposed to be me,” he eventually spits out.  “The uh.. character traits I put in ��� they’re mine but — ok, actually I put in a lot more confidence too — but it’s supposed to be me, just.. a girl.”

Ohhh.

“So all the secrecy and the blushing and the-”  “I- I’m not blushing!” he gasps.  “That’s.. I-  You won’t tell anyone about this, will you?”  I sigh, just relieved my initial impression was completely wrong.  “Of course not.  I can’t exactly tell anyone from in here, can I?”  “I guess you can’t,” Sammy realizes.

I sit back down heavily on the coffee table in the room, facing Sammy.  “So I’m.. I'm really an SL?  All these memories, they’re just what was uploaded to the Humanity Vault?”  My nerves get fuzzy as Sammy’s head finally moves away from the screen.  “Oh.. yeah, I guess.  I didn’t realize you had all those memories.  No wonder you feel human — that’s all you can remember.”  He blinks, “That’s kinda fucked-up, actually.”

Those are all things that were placed in me from the start — I never lived through them.  The only memories I’ve made myself so far are the ones when I’m in here.  “And that’s why there was such an abrupt cut between being outside the gym to being in here!” I realize, slowly piecing together what exactly I am, “That’s where my uploaded memories end and my actual ones start.”

In a weird way, it gave me comfort recognizing all this.  I actually know what I am and why I’m here.  Even if it isn’t what I wanted or thought it would be, at least everything makes sense.

“Hey, your sanity bar’s rising again,” Sammy noted.  “Kinda weird that it happened when you found out you’re not a person, though…”  I nod slowly, looking up at him.  “I think the recognition helps.  I.. might not be a person, or actually alive, but I feel that way.  All of this-” I gesture around the vaguely pixelated room — running my hand over the coffee table.  “It feels physically real to me.”  “So you.. you feel better about it now?  You’re ok?”  I begin to nod, then hesitate.  “Better, but I’m still not feeling all that great about being some video game character for the rest of my life.”

“I’ll make sure it’s a place you want to stay in, or at least not mind it,” Sammy assures me, “And at a certain level I can add another apartment with another SL!  That way you won’t be too lonely while I’m not playing.”  I hadn’t even thought about that — about what happens when a player logs off and leaves me here alone, or the fact that I can cure that loneliness by dooming some other poor soul to a simulated life forever.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” I tell him hesitantly.  “I think I just need to take some time to calm down.”  A microwave meal floats out of the mini fridge as if by magic, but I notice Sammy’s arm moving and I realize it’s the invisible clicker again.  “I don’t know if I’m up for a meal right now,” I tell him tiredly, “I really just want to rest.”  

His eyes dart to the corner of the screen.  “Your hunger bar says otherwise.”  I grumble slightly, “Well I say I’m not hungry.”  A prepared meal rests itself on the coffee table on the opposite side of me.  “I’ve gotta go soon, so I’ll just leave it here.”  I stand up abruptly, suddenly aware that I’d be stuck sitting here without the ability to do anything.  “Wait!  Just do a few things for me before you leave?”

Sammy looks at me confusedly, then leans closer to the screen again and peers around the room.  “There should be a manual or something…  A new one appears with every update I make.  It should have a list of things you can do and how to access them.”  “So there’s a whole list of things I can do.. and getting myself basic necessities isn’t on it?”  

The entire wall of the monitor flickers and molds into the final wall of the room in only a second or two.  I rush to it, suddenly desperate for someone to talk to.  “Wait!  No, please come back!  I still need-”  It flicks back on just as quickly.  “Woah!  I- I’m not going anywhere; I’m just pulling up a different tab to check what you can do on the first level.”  I pause about a foot from the screen.  He looked a hell of a lot bigger that close — the monitor only displaying me at a tiny size that would fit the whole room and me on it.  “O- Ok,” I stammer, stunned to silence by how small I felt right then.  

I was left alone for a moment as the wall slid back in.  This is how it’ll feel like for me for the next…  Until the game gets booted up again.  There’s a point when you play any game that you get bored of it and shut it off for the last time.  What would happen to me then?  I didn’t want to imagine it, but my brain slipped in a couple of thoughts about perpetually starving and being forced to stay awake for maybe forever.  

Hopefully I’d end up like a forgotten tamagotchi and just die.

When Sammy returned, I found out that — on the base level — I couldn’t do much of anything at all.  The player can’t even buy items for me to interact with yet.  All I can do is walk around and sit in different places.  

“And how do you get fake game money again?” I ask tiredly.  “Well, you can pay real money for it, but you get paid some every in-game day.  The amount depends on the level, and there are bonuses I can get for completing different tasks and an extra reward if all your bars are full before the day ends.”  Damn, I really am a video game character.

After getting me a few cups of water that I could drink from whenever I wanted, Sammy closed the game and I was left in my single room with a coffee table and an empty bookshelf.  Oh, and a pullout couch I can’t turn into a bed, a sink I can’t use, and a mini fridge I can’t open.

There’s one window, one lightbulb that has no switch, and no door.  I’m utterly trapped here, but there’s nowhere else for me to run to even if I do manage to get out.  If I leave this little game, I stop existing.  And honestly, I’m not sure if I want to stay and suffer or leave and stop existing.  It’s not like I have a choice, anyway.

I wandered the entire room to be sure, but there really wasn’t a single exit.  The only thing that would open for me was the stupid fake window.  Sitting down heavily on the couch, I curled up against myself and cried.

[smutsonian]

Baby if you're taking requests can you do a slight darkish! Step daddy Ransom x naive!reader with daddy kink and innocence kink? The marriage was kinda a deal for money and like reader's mother died after marrying him due to some disease or accident and that has left her alone in Ransom's custody. Feel free to use any other kinks or things you like,also if you don't feel comfortable with any of the above mentioned kinks then you don't have to use them.❤️ I love you and your writings!!!😘

getting his little angel

ransom drysdale x reader

warnings: soft!dark!ransom drysdale, innocent!reader, dub-con/non-con, smut, stepdaddy!ransom, loss of virginity (i cringe), fingering, daddy kink, innocence kink, guided handjob, like one slap in the p, manipulation?, obsession, size kink?, creampie, corruption, ransom’s fucked up mind, age gap(reader is of age), death, the amount of the word angel and daddy used in this fic is annoying and cringe for me, this is dark and twisted so proceed with caution if you choose to proceed, don’t read if you aint fvcking with this type of sh*t

word count: 4105

an: THANK YOU NONNIE AND I LOVEYOU!!///i keep begging my friend to read the stories i write for validation and we are both getting tired of me writing the word daddy and me showing how obsessed i am with ddlg wtf anywayy... have fun with this one 😩 alsoo, gif aint mine

masterlist

Ransom married the woman for the sake of her money but he never thought of her daughter to be the treasure he’ll truly get from the woman. The daughter isn’t like every other young adult he’s ever met or bedded with. The daughter of the woman he married is different. Not a vicious little bitch like his cousin, Meg. No… The girl is different. An innocent pure little soul just living with him, there for the taking. A little angel that will give him joy and luck in his life. 

 And just his luck, and as evil as it sounds, he got blessed when his wife started to become sick just after a few months into their marriage. His wife becoming ill became the reason for him to bond with his little angel so he can comfort her and he became the man she found solace in. She started trusting him.

 And then the wife died, leaving Ransom with all her treasure. Including Y/N Y/L/N. The greatest treasure that he will ever have. He had to thank his wife for leaving you to him. For leaving you broken-hearted because he had no problem with taking care of you and helping you stand right back up on your feet. He wanted to do all that. He wanted you to believe that he’s the only person that you will ever need in your life. 

His little angel.

 It took a few months for you to stop sobbing every single night in Ransom’s chest as he cuddled you to sleep and another few months until the bundle of joy you were before started showing itself again. 

 The moment you laughed at Ransom’s jokes for the first time had him frozen in place as he watched your teeth shining as the corners of your lips curled up into a toothy grin. Ransom was captivated. He was captivated at the sight of you laughing genuinely for the first time after your mother’s death and he wanted to take a photo and frame it so he can look at it every single night before he falls asleep and every single morning when he wakes up. He wants to see your smiling face every time he wakes and before he falls asleep, knowing that he’s the reason for that enchanting smile.

 “Is something wrong?” Your small voice brings Ransom back to reality and he realized that you have stopped laughing, the beautiful smile on your face replaced by a frowning confused one instead.

 Ransom ignored your question, walking towards you and trapping you against the kitchen counter. He wears a smirk before using his big hands to brush your hair smoothly, the coldness of the ring on his pinky finger brushing against your cheek gently. Ransom bites his bottom lip as he looks at your innocent eyes staring right back at him, your head tilted up so you can see his face clearly.

 One hand moves to your chin and his thumb brushes your bottom lip, softly rubbing on it while Ransom’s mind went somewhere else where your mouth is wrapped around his cock as you sport your usual innocent look, asking him for help on how to pleasure him. Daddy’s little angel.

 Ransom pulled his hand away from your face before silently groaning at how his slacks became tighter as his crotch started getting hard at the thought of your mouth around his cock.

 “You know you look so pretty when you laugh.” He sighs out before patting you on the head and walking towards the door before stopping and turning back to look at you palming your own cheeks as you wear a small smile. His heart skips a beat for a second before he nods at you.

 “I like seeing you smile, angel. I wish you would do it more often. It’ll make this old man happier.” He wiggles an eyebrow at you before chuckling at the sight of you laughing once more.

 “There it iss” He smiles at your shaking form, wondering what you would look like if you were shaking for other reasons…

 “You’re not that old, Ransom!” You say in between your laughs and Ransom couldn’t remove the grin on his face as he watches you laugh at him.

 “Oh you’re laughing at me, are you?” Ransom quirks an eyebrow and watches you as you stop laughing, looking at him with a faux frightened look before he started running after you, eyes ringing in delight when you squeaked against his hold when he caught you, his fingers poking on your sides with no mercy.

 “No! No more!” You gasp for air as you continue to laugh.

 “R-Ransom!” You whined and just like the few other times, Ransom’s mind went into a gutter. Would this be how you sound when you’re moaning his name while he pleasures you? 

 Ransom pulls his hand away from you before letting out a breathy laugh. “Alright, angel… See that smile is so adorable on you!” He pinches both of your cheeks before laughing at the way you glared at him.

 “No more tickles, Ransom. That hurts my sides.” You groaned before walking away from him only to be stopped by him pulling you back against his chest. His chin was on the top of your head before he mumbled an apology. “I’m sorry, angel. I wouldn’t do it again. Don’t be mad at your daddy now.” You pull away from him, watching him pout at you. You curiously raise an eyebrow before shaking your head with a laugh. “It’s okay.” You grin before grumbling when he messes the top of your head with his huge hand.

 Ransom didn’t miss the way your face contorted into a confused look when he tried to get you to call him daddy. He’s been there for you a long time now. It’s time for you to be there for him as well. And Ransom is a really needy man with a lot of need when it comes to you.

No worries.

 He’ll make sure to teach you everything you have to know to be his perfect little angel.

 Ransom was sat on one of the lavish chairs that your mother used to obsess about when she was still alive while he’s munching on some biscuits that he got from the pantry. He silently thanks the old lady who still does the groceries for the both of you. He stares back at the screen that’s currently playing one of those rom-coms that he always found ridiculous but entertaining.

Lost in his own thoughts, Ransom absentmindedly looks at the hallway that leads towards the kitchen only to see you skipping into the kitchen in a pair of leggings and a sweater that he gave you as a gift. He smiled at the thought of you wearing his sweater instead. Preferably after he’s done giving you an intense orgasm.

Feeling a bit hotter, Ransom removes his coat, leaving him in his soft white sweater. He lets out a grunt, fixing himself on the sofa and turning back towards the flat-screen tv. His hand wanders down to his pants, palming himself through his slacks while his other hand reaches for another biscuit.

Ransom’s heart jumped when you suddenly plopped yourself down on the sofa, legs on top of his thighs while the hand that was palming himself flies towards the air before landing on your legs.

“HEY, those are my favorite!” You point towards the biscuit that he was currently munching on. Ransom’s jaw clenches at the discomfort in his pants while your legs brush against his raging hard on. There’s no doubt that you have no idea what you’re doing to him or what your legs are currently brushing up against.

“Can I have some?” You give him a pleading look that only made his cock harder. He bites his lip as he squeezes your legs. “You gotta ask nicely, angel…”

“Can I please have some?” You repeat, voice as sweet as honey and the cause of the precum that slowly slicks the slit of Ransom’s thick girth.

Ransom lets out a groan before snatching a piece of biscuit and moving it towards your mouth, snatching it back when you went to take it from him.

“Ah-ah-ah. We’ve been together for a long time now… Is that right, my little angel?” Ransom laughs at your frown before you’re nodding at him curiously.

“I think it’s time that you call me daddy, right? I mean… I’ve been taking care of you, right? I’ve been treating you with so much love, is that right?” Ransom lets out a moan shamelessly at the sight of your innocent face nodding at him unknowingly. “You’ve been treating me very well…” You mumble under your breath but Ransom still heard you.

“Yeah… I’ve been treating you like my best girl. Like the best girl you are.” He brushes his pinky across your cheeks before pressing the piece of biscuit onto your bottom lip. He gave you a stern look before shaking his head when you went to open your mouth.

“You gotta ask nicely, angel… Who are you asking and what are you asking for hmm?” He leaned down towards the side of your face to sniff on your hair, chest grumbling in delight at your scent.

“Can I please have a biscuit, daddy?”

Ransom inhaled obnoxiously loud before smirking while nodding his head at you. “Such a polite little angel, aren’t you? Of course you can… Here, open that precious mouth.” He taps the biscuit on your bottom lip, shoving it gently inside your mouth, purposely grazing his fingers down your tongue. He watches you chew on the biscuit as you stared right back at him with those innocent eyes. His fingers massaged your chin as you chew, shoving them right back inside your mouth when he sees you swallow the biscuit.

 “Is it good?” He asks you, fingers assaulting the inside of your mouth. You nod your head, hands grasping the wrist that’s connected to the fingers in your mouth. Ransom felt you tugging his hand away but he only shoved his fingers further down your mouth, slightly pulling away when you started gagging on his fingers.

He lets out a chuckle before pulling his fingers completely out of your mouth, admiring the string of saliva that connected from your lips to his fingers. “Daddy has a lot of things to teach you…” He leans back before manipulating your body until your back was against his chest and your legs were spread apart by his own legs.

He takes another biscuit before shoving it into your mouth, fingers gripping your jaw as you chewed on the food, crumbs staining the sides of your mouth. “Just like that” He grumbles against your hair before skillfully tugging your leggings and underwear down until they were all the way down to your ankles. He didn’t give you enough to complain because his fingers were back inside your mouth, playing with your tongue and playfully teasing the back of your throat.

“Breathe through your nose, angel. Relax for daddy.” He whispers in your ear while his free hand caresses your face. “There ya go… Such a fast learner, aren’t ya?” He lets out a laugh before kissing your cheek and removing his fingers from your mouth. “You get a reward for being such a good girl”

Ransom’s wet fingers goes straight to your crotch while his other arm wraps itself around your torso to pull you closer to his body. His legs kept your thighs open so it was easy for him to tease the nub on your crotch.

“R-ransom…”

You let out a loud squeak when he slaps your pussy, legs shaking against his legs while he clicked his tongue disapprovingly.

“What’d I tell you to call me hmm? Come on, I know you’re a smart little angel.” He resumes playing with your clit, enjoying how responsive your body is to his touch.

“Nggghh” You squirm against his hold, chest heaving as she struggled to control her breathing. Ransom is willing to bet your mother’s fortune that you never experienced this type of feeling before. “Tell me what you’re feeling, angel”, he starts flicking his fingers faster until your crying desperately and hiding your face against his arm. He stops assaulting your clit, hands finding its way to your face to comfort you with smooth caresses. Ransom admires the sweat that started to form on your forehead and decides to remove the sweater you’re wearing.

Too out of it, you let him fully undress you, too tired and dazed to acknowledge the fact that you’re lying naked on your guardian’s chest. “That feel good?” Ransom asks, urging you to speak to him but loving the way that you laid limp against his chest. Oh it’s so easy to please his little angel. He hasn’t even made you cum yet.

“F-feels good…” Ransom watches you bite your bottom lip, his hold against you getting tighter as his cock gets harder at the sight of you.

“I can make you feel better than that, angel… You just gotta ask nicely. Just like how you asked for the biscuits. Do you want daddy to make you feel good?” His hand find itself back to your pussy, fingers starting its attack on your sensitive clit once more. He wasted no time in trying to get you off because in no time, he feels your body shaking against his and he knows that you’re close.

“You gotta ask for it nicely, angel… Tell daddy what you want” Ransom demands, the arm that was wrapped around your torso finds its way towards your breasts, massaging one and pinching the hard nipple. You whine out loud before gasping for air as you tried to speak coherent words.

“Daddy can y-you p-please…”

Ransom chuckles at your lack of words. Of course his little angel wouldn’t know what to ask for.

“You want daddy to make you cum?” He suggests, knowing that his smart angel would get what he wants her to do.

“D-daddy, can you please m-make me cum?” You repeat, words hoarse but understandable by a proud Ransom who starts rubbing your wet clit faster as he bends his head down to suck on the tit his massaging.

 “HHNNNNGGG!” You whine loudly, going stiff against Ransom’s hold before shaking tremendously as you reach your very first orgasm. Ransom’s hips thrust against your back as he gets needy from the sounds you’re making and the sight of your body trembling against his. He starts running his hands all over your body, whispering praises against your ears to comfort you.

“Such an angel…” He kisses the side of your face before guiding your body gently back to the sofa so you’re sitting beside him. “That feel good?” He asks, licking and sucking on the fingers he used to make you cum.

“Mhhmm…” You nod as you mumbled your answer, too embarrassed in front of him. “Don’t be shy, angel… You’re just being a good girl. Wanna know why I made you feel good?” Ransom waits for you to nod before continuing with a smile.

“Because you were such a good girl!” He nudges your chin with his fingers before placing his large palms on your shoulders. “And good girls always get rewards from their daddies. What do you say huh? Wanna be a good girl and help daddy with his problem?” He palms his covered crotch before smirking at your wondering eyes that’s looking down at his bulge. His jaw clenches at the sight of your curious face.

“H-how can I h-help?” Ransom chuckles at your nervousness before taking hold of your hand and guiding it towards his bulge. He watches your face as he makes you palm his hard on, thrusting against your touch in neediness and groaning at your tongue wetting your own lips.

Ransom releases your hand before tugging his slacks down and taking them off before sitting back on the sofa and taking your hand once more, wrapping your fingers around his thick shaft and moaning loudly at the pleasure you’re currently giving him. “That’s it angel… Ahh fuck!” He guides your hand into a faster stroke, wrapping your fingers around his cock tighter as he thrusts his hips against your hand, groaning loudly and shouting praises towards you. “Such a fucking good girl!” His eyes shut tightly as he feels himself getting closer.

“Fuck!” He hisses, abruptly pulling your hand away from his cock, chest heaving as he tries to slow down his breathing. “You almost made me cum” He mutters, laughing silently when you started to mumble out apologies.

“No, my little angel. That’s not a bad thing… I just want to cum somewhere else…” Ransom bites his lip before removing his white sweater and tossing it on the floor. In a heartbeat, he’s on top of you, fingers running all over your body in a comforting manner.

“You want your reward, sweetie?” Ransom asks with a teasing tone. “You’ve been such a good girl. I think it’s time for another reward.”

Your eyes widen in shock when you feel his lips against yours, gasping when his tongue started to poke its way through your lips before assaulting the inside of your mouth like his fingers did earlier.

Ransom’s mind started ringing when you started moaning and whimpering against his lips. Oh he’ll make his little angel feel so good. He’ll make you feel so full.

He managed to situate himself in between your legs while continuing the sloppy and needy kiss you two were having. He strokes his already painfully hard cock with one hand before sliding it against your folds to lube himself up with your juices.

He pulls away from the kiss as he lines his cock against your slit, smiling at the way that your legs shake when he bumps your sensitive clit with the hard head of his cock.

Ransom’s smile falters slightly when your hands start to push on his chest. “I-I’m scared”, your voice trembles as you try to push him which is really useless because his huge frame doesn’t move an inch.

Ransom takes both of your hands with one of his huge ones before trapping them above your head and diving down to capture your lips into another hungry kiss. “Don’t be scared. I promise to make you feel so good”, he says through the kisses, licking your tears away before resuming his wet kisses on your mouth. “You want me to make you feel so good, right angel?” Ransom smiles through the kiss as he feels your hesitant nod.

Ransom holds your hands tightly with one hand while the other hold caresses the side of your face in a comforting manner as he shoves his hard and thick cock into your tight hole, swallowing your cries with his hungry kisses. The hand that was caressing your face wipes your tears away as he shushes you. “It’s going to feel so good in a bit angel. I promise.” He stays inside your cunt for a while, making you feel weird at the fullness that his cock is giving your untouched pussy.

When Ransom feels your hips bucking up against his, he smiles and looks down at you with bright eyes. “You okay now? Want me to move?” Ransom gets an eager nod as a response and he only let out a short laugh before starting to pull out and shoving back into your tight cunt with a loud grunt. “So. Fucking. Tight.”, he hisses with each thrust.

“Mmmf. Mmm. Oomph.” Your moans and whines start to get louder as Ransom’s thrusts get sloppier because of the wetness that your cunt continues to produce. “Oh fuck you’re so wet for me angel”, Ransom watches his cock pound into you and he almost cums at the sight but he’s determined to make his little angel cum again before he could spill himself inside of her pretty pussy.

Ransom lets out a grunt before easily manipulating both of your bodies so you were straddling him, his cock still deep inside your cunt.

He places your hands on his shoulders for support before moving his hands on your hips, guiding you up and down his cock. “I’ll teach you how to ride daddy like a good girl soon but--”, he lifts you up and makes you stay in that position before moving one hand closer to your cunt so his thumb can start playing with your clit again. “—but for now, I’ll just ram into this tight pretty pussy”. Your eyes slams shut and your head falls on his shoulder when he thrusts his hips up in strong stroke, hands gripping you tightly as he guides your body against his, skin slapping each other as he pounds your pussy from under you.

He uses his other hand to push your shoulder away from him so he can see you clearly. “NGHH AH s-soo good!” Ransom watches you bounce on his cock while your eyes opened to look at him with those innocent eyes. How can you still look so innocent while he’s under you, making you take his cock as a fucking whore would.

“D-daddy s-so good”, your face is in a daze as Ransom doubled his efforts seeing you so close and feeling himself getting close as well. “Daddy making you feel good hmm?” He slams and slams his cock into you with vigor that it would probably leave you with a sore pussy for a few days.

Your shoulder starts quivering and Ransom feels you trying to stop him from bouncing you on his cock but he ignored it and continued to control your body. He slams his cock into your cunt a few more times, thumb rubbing your clit faster until you’re crying out loud as another orgasm hits you.

Ransom watches your eyes rolling back and your mouth opening as loud moans escape your mouth. He leans forwards to capture your lips once more before giving you a few more thrusts until he feels his balls tightening and snapping as spurts of cum come out of him and into your wet hole.

He lets your body fall on him as he wraps his arms around you, rubbing your back comfortingly and rocking you slightly that earns a whimper from you when he accidentally moves his cock that’s still inside of you.

He waits for the both of you to catch your breath before gently pulling his cock out of you and bending down to snatch his sweater off the floor.

He looks back at your face, your eyes fluttering as tiredness starts to envelop your body. He puts his sweater on you, smiling at how you look in his sweater. You look so much better in his sweater. And you look so beautiful with his cum dripping out of your cunt and face glowing at how he fucked you so good.

He leans down to press a kiss on your forehead then your lips. “You okay angel?” He laughs at you when you only nod sleepily at him. He picks his slacks up from the ground before putting it on and then he picks up your old sweater and uses it to clean you up, gently wiping his cum off your thighs.

He stands back up to admire you, so beautifully fucked. He’ll forever remember the way your pussy pulsed around his cock as he cums inside of you.

He lets out a dreamy sigh before picking your sleepy body up and walking towards the hallway, passing by your old room and into his room. Your room.

He lays you down on the bed as gently as he could before smiling when your face contorts into a frown when you groggily look at him. “How are you feeling angel?”

“G-good but tired.” Your quiet voice touches Ransom’s heart and he could only take a blanket before laying down beside you and tucking the both of you in. He presses a kiss on the side of your head before whispering a “sleep tight, my little angel.”

Ransom was about to close his eyes when he hears your voice again, making his heart leap out of his chest.

“I like being daddy’s good girl.”

Oh Ransom loves that too and he has a feeling that his little angel will continue to become his pretty little good girl so she’ll get all the rewards she can get.

And Ransom is willing to give you all the rewards he can give because you’re his one and only good little angel.

-------

an: no eating out or gobbling on the d cuz come onn... they were just eating those damn biscuits 🤧

taglist

General: @readermia @unlikelygalaxygiver @xoxabs88xox @anncutamarica @chaoticfiretaconerd @i-love-superhero @caffiend-queen @coconutqueen21 @jtargaryen18 @jennmurawski13 @mushyjellybeans @ninjabucky @evnscvll @buckstaybucky @donutloverxo @rebloggingeverything @adriannajackson Anything Chris: @patzammit @princess-evans-addict @shadowcatsworld @notyourtypicalrose @onetwo3000

this fic: @kyrarose16 @tokoyamisstuff

[hinatas-sunshine]

Synopsis/Request:

Genre: Fluff, tiny angst

A/N for requester: I hope you feel better! I know break ups are the worst - I hope everything works out for the better and you feel at peace by the end of the whole thing. You’re amazing never forget it sunshine! 🌞💛

A/N: I hope you guys enjoy this! I’ve been kinda busy with school and I’ve been writing this throughout the day! Enjoy I love y’all KITHES 🥺❤️

Bokuto:

• When he noticed your sad mood he was automatically sad with you

Akaashi: Bokuto-San? What’s wrong?

• Bokuto staring helplessly at your upset figure sitting in your seat with your knees up to your head down, shoulders shaking as you cry

• Akaashi knew what had happened and he wasn’t about to tell Bokuto without your permission

“Why don’t you go ask her what’s wrong?”

• He walked over to you and draped his body over yours trapping you in a hug, and you moved out of your laid down head to hold him

“We broke up Bokuto.. My boyfriend and I broke up, he broke up with me..”

• He felt his blood boil but just held you closer as you cried silently in his arms

• After school he told Akaashi not to wait up at practice and he walked towards your ex boyfriend, head high and mighty

• Your ex boyfriend almost walked past him but Bokuto pushed him back into a wall

“B-Bokuto...”

“Listen- You don’t have another chance, for starters. When you realize what a cool girl you lost you’re going to be the one crying, and I’ll laugh because you don’t get to ask for her back. It’s sad to see you didn’t appreciate the girl you had because now she’s gone for good - out of your life and she deserves better than this world has to offer. Y/n is my best friend, and anyone who hurts her goes through me.”

• Your ex was a shaking figure next to your best friends towering one

• You turned the corner sniffling before seeing Bokuto’s seething figure over your ex boyfriends trembling one before you placed you hand on Bo’s arm and looked at him

• Your beautiful e/c colored eyes all swollen and nose a deep red from all your crying- his heart dropped to his stomach

“Bo just leave it, it’s not worth it.”

• He nodded slowly before leading you away from him, but not before turning back and glaring at your ex as he scurried away

“You should wait for me to get out of practice! I’ll walk you home and we can have a movie night! I mean it is Friday after all!”

• You sighed

“Bo I wanna be alone right now...”

“But you shouldn’t be, Kuroo always tells me that being alone only makes you more sad. Come on y/n! I’ll even bring your favorite ice cream and candy!”

• You softly at him and nodded, agreeing to his plans

“Fine, we can hang out.”

• Practice was spent with Bokuto teaching you to spike the ball, and pretending it was your ex boyfriends face

Konoha: SCARY! SHES SCARY!

Akaashi: No-

Bokuto: 🤩

• Bokuto kept his promise and you two ate snacks and watch your favorite movie

• switching tubs of ice cream with him and digging into his you spoke up

“Girls ending up with their guy best friends is such a cliché, I’ve never seen it happen in real life.”

“Yeah you’re stinky I would never!”

“And you’re a walking headache!”

• But were you two both SO wrong 😋

Kuroo:

• It was 3 AM when you called your best friend

“You crackhead what are you-“

• When he heard sniffling all his small irritation and tiredness went away and was replaced with instant worry

“Y/n... what’s wrong?”

“H-He broke u-up with me. And I felt alone and had no one else to talk t-to s-so I c-called you.”

• He hated seeing you like this, he hated not being able to reach through the small screen of his phone and hugging you

“Look that jerkwad didn’t deserve you - you were too good for him in the first place and I bet he doesn’t even know how amazing you are.”

• You sniffled slightly but smiled at Kuroo regardless

“Thanks Ku... I knew u could talk to you rooster head... you look a little more roostery?”

“SHUT UP!”

• The next day you seemed normal - but that was to everyone else. Kuroo knew you like the period table baby 😾

• He saw the way you began sighing more and he saw your smile threatening to fall Everytime you spoke - but you weren’t one to cry in front of people.

• He also definitely brought you your favorite coffee since you two were up pretty late last night talking

• When lunch rolled around you sat in front of your phone bouncing your leg nervously and looked around

“How are things with you and (ex boyfriends name).”

“We kinda... broke up...”

• You stood up from your lunch table and walked away fast to your locker

• Kuroo apprached you seeing your head in your locker

“I’m c-coming back I just have t-to get something..”

“Y/n... you’re crying...”

“I-I’m not! The o-onions are just so strong in here!”

• He brought you out of your locker and shut it before taking you in his arms, resting his head on your head as you cried

• Later when you were leaving the school doors you saw Kuroo blocking your ex boyfriends path and you hid around the corner

“You know - she was too good for you. Not everyone can handle a precious heart like hers.”

“Look man can I just g-“

“Who said I was finished?”

• He shut up immediately as Kuroo nodded continuing

“You won’t talk to her, you won’t try to get with her again, you won’t even LOOK in her direction or I swear you really will wish you hadn’t messed with the wrong person.”

“Y-yes sir.”

• Kuroo stepped out of the way before your ex ran past him and Kuroo nodded as he walked down the hall

“Y/n you can come out now.”

“How did you?”

“You always take this way.”

• You nodded and thanked him for what he did

“You don’t need to, I meant what I said and I’ll do it again any other time.”

• You waited for him to leave practice, and then he took you to get some dinner because you hadn’t eaten at all that day

“If you don’t eat I’ll tell Yaku-“

• Not the scary senpai 😔

Tags:

@oops-ie-doops-ie

[jenonctcity]

Mr Right

Lee Jeno – Smut

Bestfriend-to-lovers!AU

Warnings: Oral, Fingering.

Word Count: 2.2k

Request: Requested by anon – Reader has feelings for Bestfriend!Jeno and goes on dates and flirts with other men.

 The gentle click of Jeno’s bedroom door opening made him glance up from the glaring light of his computer. His glasses situated on his nose, the chunky headphones placed over his head and his hair covering his forehead gave him an innocent air to his look, one that made your stomach flutter with a stampede of unwelcome butterflies. You smiled timidly, his lips pulling up to give you an identical look. Turning to close the door behind you, you took a deep breath, putting on a fake façade as you had your back to him. You put on a big grin and skipped over to him.

“Hey Jen.” You threw yourself onto his bed, laying on your side with your head propped up on your hand.

“Hey.” He glanced back at you before putting half of his attention back on the monitor in front of him. “Where have you been all day? You usually come over a lot earlier on a Saturday, I was starting to worry.” He asked curiously, playing battlegrounds the best he could while trying to have a conversation at the same time.

“I was on a date.” You spoke nonchalantly with a shrug, acting as though it was nothing.

“Another one?” He spun around on his chair once more, pulling off the headphones at the same time. All of his attention on you now and his game being forgotten about.

“Yeah, it’s hard trying to find Mr Right.” You let out a dramatic sigh, flopping onto your back with a huff.

“Was it that guy you kept flirting with last week at the bowling alley?” He took off his glasses, rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands to try and make the tiredness from staring at a computer screen all day fade away. You stared at him whilst he couldn’t see you, admiring the way his hair fluffed up as his fingertips brushed through it. Jeno never failed to make your knees go weak, palms go clammy, butterflies to flap around in your stomach, and your heart rate to beat like a drum, the sound pounding in your ear and making you nervous that he could hear it. But you never had the guts to tell him this though, worried it would completely destroy your friendship with him if he didn’t feel the same way about you.

“Yeah, he’s super-hot.” You didn’t mean to rub it in his face that you went on a date with someone, but you didn’t realise he felt the same way towards you as you did to him. It was starting to rub Jeno up the wrong way. But it wasn’t jealousy he felt, it was sadness and pent up frustration. For the past year he had to listen to your stories about all the wonderful dates you went on, only for you to tell him you didn’t actually like the guy that much. It irritated him that you couldn’t see the perfect man for you had been right under your nose since you were both learning how to read. He never told you how he felt because he didn’t think you’d be interested in him since you keep going on dates. “I don’t think he’s right for me tho-”

“That’s what you always say.” He snapped, interrupting you and folding his arms across his chest, the fabric of his t-shirt stretching across his muscles and causing your stomach to drop. “I’m fed up of hearing about it (Y/N).” He shrugged, finally reaching the end of his tether and frowning deeply at you.

“Bit rude.” You mumble, frowning back at him, but he heard you loud and clear.

“I’m just saying, you whine about not finding the right man, but you go on one date with them and then don’t give them a chance. I’m fed up of hearing you moan about it!” He stood up, pacing around his room as his heart sped up, not having expected himself to have let all his pent-up frustrations out in the form of words. You listened to him and sat up on his bed, your face heating up in slight embarrassment from being called out like this. “Bet you spread your legs for them all too.” He grunted, keeping his back to you and almost immediately regretting his words.

“Lee Jeno!! That is none of your business.” You stood up, throwing one of his pillows at his back and stomping towards his door. “You’re an asshole, don’t bother contacting me until you want to apologise.” Before you could get to the door you turned around to look at him again, seeing that he’d swivelled his body around to watch you leave and was looking at you with a dark look in his eye. “Why do you even care Jeno? It’s my life and if I want to g-” He cut you off once more.

“Because I’m in love with you!!!” He shouted loudly at you, finally letting go of everything he’d been keeping deep inside of him.

“Stop interrupting me!” You screamed back at him and then gasped when you realised what you’d just heard. “Holy shit…”

“Just get out.” He frowned, shaking his head and running his hands through his hair in frustration mixed with anxiety.

“Jeno I-”

“GET OUT!” He turned to you, his aggression surprising you and making you take a step back, your back hitting the door. He gulped, realisation of how he was acting hitting him suddenly. “(Y/N) I’m sorry…” He slowly approached you, watching as you stood your ground and raised your chin to him. You cleared your throat and sighed, stepping towards him so you were face to face with him.

“I’m sorry too, I didn’t mean to make you so wound up about it…I actually kinda love you too.” You twiddled your thumbs nervously, glancing away to look at anything but him. He reached forward, cupping your cheek in the palm of his hand. “I only went on dates to try and get over my feelings for you, but I guess that didn’t work.” You laughed weakly, glancing down at your feet apprehensively. He used your distracted eyes to swoop down and place a kiss to your lips. The kiss wasn’t perfect, you looked up at the wrong time so he only half kissed your chin, and you didn’t feel the stereotypical fireworks that everyone in movies spoke about when they kissed the person they loved. Once he’d readjusted your lips to fit together better, it felt right. You felt like you’d been waiting for this for so long that the relief of your feelings being out in the open was enough to make you relax into the kiss. After pulling away a few times to smile at you and trace his eyes over your features, he pressed his lips to yours with more heat behind the gesture. His tongue brushed against your bottom lip until he had full access to flick his tongue against your own. His hand trailed down your back and rested on the small of your back momentarily, before continuing its journey down south. The gentle pressure he put on your ass cheek made you press your body into his own, the warmth of his chest adding to the flushing of your cheeks.

“I’m a virgin.” You mumbled against his mouth, wanting to clarify that fact to him because of what he’d said to you earlier about you spreading your legs for loads of men. He pulled away an inch, his eyebrows raised and his adams apple bobbing as he gulped.

“I-I didn’t mean what I said…” He looked worried, hoping that you weren’t offended by his immature accusation.

“I know, I just thought I’d tell you because I can tell where this is going.” Your cheeks felt hot, leaning in to kiss him again.

“We don’t have to if you don’t want to?” He spoke his words in a questioning tone against your lips. “This is going quite quick.” He stopped kissing you, gazing deeply into your eyes with his own curious orbs.

“Maybe we could just…do some stuff?” You suggested, too shy to say what it was you were talking about.

“Like?” He prompted you, a small smirk making his lips rise.

“You know…” You glanced away, trying to hold in the giggle that was building behind your mouth.

“Do you want me to put my mouth here?” His voice dropped lower as his hand cupped your heat over your shorts. You gasped, gripping onto his shoulders tightly in surprise. You felt a rush of butterflies’ flurry from your stomach down to your core, your clit suddenly aching like never before. Of course, you’d played with yourself and experimented, but having someone else touch you there was a completely different thing. Along with the feeling of his touch, the feelings of your emotions towards him came with it, intensifying the feeling of lust. “Or do you want my fingers?” He whispered, trailing kisses from your lips down to your neck. He placed a soft, lingering kiss to the juncture where your shoulder and neck met, before attaching his lips and sucking onto your soft skin.

“Surprise me.” He laughed lowly against your neck after you spoke, both of his hands travelling to your thighs before he swooped you into his arms, carrying you by your thighs to his bed. The sudden weightless feeling you felt made you squeak. He’d definitely taken your words seriously. He threw you on the bed, your head hitting the remaining pillow that you hadn’t thrown across the room in your rage. He stood at the foot of the bed, staring at you with a hungry look in his eyes. He licked his bottom lip, climbing on the bed and crawling up it slowly, teasingly, taking his time to keep you anticipating what he was planning. He parted your legs, situating himself between your legs and unhurriedly popping open the button of your jean shorts, taking the zip down with them at the same time. Grabbing them tightly with your panties he dragged them down your legs tantalisingly. He bit his bottom lip as he threw the clothes to the floor haphazardly, laying on his front and shuffling closer to you.

“So pretty.” He whispered, a finger slowly tracing your slit from top to bottom. He dipped the tip of his finger inside of your leaking hole, a huff of air leaving his mouth as he tried to contain his excitement. Instead he gave you a smug smile, spreading your wetness over your folds. You watched him intently, your mouth hanging open, the pleasure he gave you making you speechless. He used two of his fingers to part your soft folds, leaning his head forward and placing a gentle kiss on your clit.

“Shit.” You breathed out, your chest quickly rising and falling as he took your swollen clit between his lips and sucked it, his eyes flicking up and locking with your stare. His finger dipped back inside of you, steadily pumping in and out before he added another finger. He dragged his flat tongue from bottom to top, flicking it against you with a soft laugh.

“This okay baby?” He paused for a moment, waiting for you to give him your blessing. You nodded quickly and muttered a brief approval. The rhythm of his fingers and tongue mixed together perfectly, ripping a long moan out from your chest.

“Jeno!” Your back arched and toes curled as his ministrations didn’t let up, only causing a white-hot heat to rip through you faster than ever before. You came on his fingers, his tongue lapping up your juices as he withdrew them from you. He sucked his fingers clean and decided now he was going to be shy. His cheeks went red and he cleared his throat, quickly excusing himself from the room and coming back a minute later holding a wet cloth. He cleaned up what he didn’t get with his tongue and grabbed a pair of his clean boxers from a drawer. He dressed you in them and smiled cutely, his eyes turning into their signature crescent moon shape. You felt the heat leave your body, cooling down as you caught your breath. You felt giddy, a soft laugh coming from your mouth as he cuddled up to you on his bed.

“You just ate me out, now you’re pressing your erection into my thigh and you choose now to get all quiet and cute.” You pinched his cheeks, leaning forward to press your nose against his. He whined endearingly and wrapped his arms around you, still acting bashful.

“I’m just happy, leave me alone.” He sniggered, rolling his eyes and turning his back on you playfully. You kept your attention on him, laughing loudly when he turned his head to see if you were indeed watching him.

“Such a baby.” You slapped his ass hard, causing him to squeal and roll back to face you.

“Oh, you’ve started a war now.” He rolled on top of you and began tickling your sides, leading you to thrash underneath him widely. After the tickling stopped and you were snuggled into his chest, you spoke about everything you both felt and came to the decision that your next date would be with Jeno instead of some random man.

[mamabearcatfanfics]

More Than Words - One

“Please, please, please, please, please Kagome!”

She looked up from her laptop to roll her eyes at the dark haired man leaning over her desk, his violet eyes beseeching, hands together as if in prayer.

“You would think by now Miroku, that you of all people would know that when a lady says no, she means no”, she said dryly, dropping her attention back to the computer screen in front of her. It was boring work, but if everything wasn’t just so, the tender documents could be rejected, and she really didn’t want to open that can of worms with her project manager.

“But Kagome”, he continued pleading. “She’s amazing, gorgeous, an angel!” His eyes misted over as he gazed off into the middle distance. “I think it’s her. I think I’ve finally found the love of my life.” Kagome snorted, and his eyes flicked back to hers. “You don’t believe me?” he said with a wounded expression.

“Miroku”, Kagome sighed, “you probably spoke to her for a maximum of what, two minutes, tops? And that was to order coffee. How is this girl any different from the temp secretary you took out on a date after the office Christmas party three weeks ago? Or that girl you abandoned me for last Friday night when we went out to karaoke? I’m not going to hound some poor woman minding her own business into giving you her number just because you have the unfortunate habit of falling for every pretty face you see!”

Miroku shook his head. “No, you don’t understand. This was different. When my fingers touched hers, it was, like, I don’t know, a spiritual connection.” He sighed, leaning against Kagome’s desk, his hand over his heart. “She owns me, body and soul.”

“Oh my god Miroku,” Kagome chortled, pushing his hip off her desk. “If you were any cheesier I’d need to run out and buy wine and crackers! You do realise that you sound like someone out of one of those trashy romance movies on daytime TV? Next you’ll be writing sonnets and saying you were struck by Cupid’s arrow.” She got up from her desk to move over to the filing cabinet, rifling through the files. “I still don’t see why I need to be involved anyway - just ask her for her number herself if you’re so desperate!”

Miroku sighed, hanging his head despondently. “I’ve been banned. By her guard dog.” Kagome looked at him questioningly. “The barista.”

“You got banned from a café by the barista? What on earth did you do!?” She held up her hands, the file in them covering her view of Miroku as he opened his mouth to explain. “No, don’t tell me, on second thoughts, I don’t want to know!”

“Kagome, I’m begging you! Just talk to her. If she doesn’t want to give her number to me, I’ll admit defeat. I just need to know! What if I did all your filing for the next week?”

Kagome shook her head. “No way! I’ve only just got all my files back in order from when you meddled with my stuff when I was on leave.”

“I’ll walk your dog.”

“I have a cat.”

“I’ll do your tax return for you.”

“I’d like to stay out of prison, thanks very much.”

“I’ll, I’ll… “ Miroku looked around the office, as if searching for inspiration, his eyes alighting on Kagome’s much loved pink coffee cup, sitting empty and forlorn on her desk. “I’ll buy you coffee for the next month!”

Kagome stared him. “You’re offering to buy me coffee for a whole month?” He nodded. “And this is whether she gives me her number or not?” Miroku nodded again. Kagome bumped the filing cabinet drawer shut with her hip, then placed the folders on her desk, turning back to him with a gleeful expression on her face.

Miroku’s face fell when he realised exactly how much that this might cost him in monetary terms. Kagome loved her coffee; she was rarely seen without her favourite coffee mug in her hand. And she did a lot of overtime, often working back late at the office, weekends too when a tender was due.

Kagome grinned even wider and slapped him on the shoulder. “Miroku, my lovestruck friend, you’ve got yourself a deal!”

 ☕💘☕

 Kagome walked towards the tiny hole in the wall coffee shop a few blocks away from the office. It was literally only a door and a window wide, the exterior painted in matte black, with a white awning shading the customers waiting outside in the hot Australian summer sun. The business name adorned the glass window, a simple red circle with black text in a strong block font - Black Dog Coffee.

There was a line of people heading out the door waiting patiently, some chatting quietly, but most looking down at their phones. As she got further forward in the line, she was amused to notice that everyone followed the same pattern – a step towards the woman taking orders, stating their name and order and paying, then two steps to the left while they waited for their coffee. The woman at the cash register didn’t take another order until the first one had been filled, yet no one complained. That was kind of odd, but the line was moving fairly swiftly, so she guessed it worked, even though it wasn’t how cafés usually took their coffee orders. It was hard to see what was going on from her position in the line, stuck behind a tall guy in a business suit. She decided to look up reviews for the coffee shop online while she was waiting.

‘This coffee is the absolute bomb, but don’t piss off the barista!’

‘Was recommended to me by a friend. Coffee is amazing.’

‘Kinda weird. They only sell coffee, roast their own beans I think. The barista is something else!’

‘Would wait in line all day for this coffee!!’

‘Worst experience ever. Got BANNED because I tried to order more than five things. And they have no food, just coffee. WTF! Pretty sure the barista was in the yakuza – that guy has tatts for days! 0/10 would recommend.’

‘Follow the ordering protocol and you’ll be sweet – best coffee in the downtown financial district.’

‘OMG – best coffee EVER! I’m now a daily customer.’

Hmmm. She tried to peer around the tall guy in front of her, but she couldn’t see anything; the afternoon sun was reflecting off the glass covered office building nearby, getting in her eyes and making her squint. She fanned her face with her hand. Man it was hot. You could fry an egg out here on the cement. She hoped the coffee was worth the freckles she was probably getting on her nose right now. The tall guy stepped forward to make his order, and she caught a glimpse of the woman behind the cash register.  

Long glossy brown hair with thick bangs, and a bright smile. Her brown eyes, highlighted by bright pink eyeshadow, sparkled with warmth; she was giving her total attention to the current person she was engaging with. She wasn’t much taller than Kagome herself and the tight black t-shirt she was wearing with the name Sango embroidered on the pocket accentuated her generous curves.

Kagome sighed. Miroku was nothing if not predictable – he loved curvy ladies. But how was she going to ask for this woman’s number without causing a disruption – everyone seemed to be on board with the ordering system, and if the coffee was as good as the reviews promised there was no way she was going to get herself banned from coming back.

She glanced down to the time on her phone, and then to the opening hours printed on the tiny shop window. It was almost closing time. Maybe if she hung back for a little while and caught the woman after they’d shut up shop? She groaned internally, trying not to think of the work still waiting for her on her desk. She should have held out for two months of coffee.

The tall man stepped to the side. Crap, she needed to order.

“Good afternoon ma’am. What would you like?” The woman’s smile was wide and welcoming.

“Uh, a large latte please, no sugar”, Kagome said, holding up her credit card ready to tap payment.

“Name please?”

“Kagome. That’s K – A…”

“That’s okay, I know how to spell it.” Kagome watched with interest as the woman wrote her name on the coffee lid in curving characters. Was that hirigana? She vaguely recognised it was her name being written from the two terms of Japanese she did in high school. A grunt came from her left, and she realised with a little start that she was meant to move to one side.

She stood in front of the gleaming commercial espresso machine, eyes closing as she savoured the rich coffee aroma. It smelt amazing, rich and full. Not burnt. It was a little hard to see the barista; her view was blocked by towers of takeaway coffee cups in various sizes. But those reviews that mentioned him had made her curious now. She stepped to the side a little more. Ah, there he was.

He was taller than her - she guessed she’d come up to just above his shoulder, but then she wasn’t exactly tall herself at 5’2”. He had long dark hair, looped back in a low ponytail, with a choppy fringe and slightly longer forelocks  on either side of his face, tanned skin that was complemented by the white collarless t-shirt he wore under a denim apron. His expression as he looked downward to make the coffee was stern, but she didn’t see what he had to be so grumpy about. Maybe he was just hot? Maybe he just took his job very seriously? He moved out from behind the coffee machine and her eyes widened at the sight of his forearms, revealed by the shirt sleeves pushed up to his elbows. They were covered in tattoos from the wrist; dark sleeves of swirling black water flowing up his arms, broken only by pink and red cherry blossoms, with a hint of green and yellow. Then he looked up.

His eyes. They were hazel, for want of a better description, but such a light hazel that they almost looked golden. With the late afternoon sun behind her, lighting his face, they almost sparkled like citrine quartz. He placed the lid on her coffee, then set it down in front of her.

“Kagome.”

He’d pronounced her name right. Ka-goh-meh. She was so used to the way most Australians butchered her Japanese name, a way for her parents to honour her Japanese grandfather, that she was immune to its mispronunciation, but he’d said it just right. Just. Right. His voice was deep and a little husky. He made that small grunting noise in the back of his throat again, his strong dark brows lowering a little, and she realised in embarrassment that she was staring at him.

“Uh, yes, I’m sorry, yeah that’s me! I’m Kagome.” Idiot. Of course he knew that, it’s not like there was anyone else standing right in front of him waiting! She reached out for her coffee where he’d placed it on the edge of the counter, and then backed away, pink cheeked, as another person stepped to the side to wait for their coffee.

She moved to stand in front of the shop next door, taking out her phone for something to do while she waited for closing time, slowly sipping her coffee, which was glorious by the way. But she couldn’t give herself over fully to her enjoyment of the taste, unable to control her wandering eyes.

‘Oh my god, he’s gorgeous! I’ve never seen anyone with eyes that colour before. And that’s so much ink on his arms - that must have hurt like a bitch! I never would have picked that a guy would get cherry blossom sleeves, but they don’t look girly on him at all - the exact opposite really. I wonder if they go all the way up his arms? God, now I’m imagining him with his shirt off - bad girl, Kagome! Maybe the cherry blossoms are a cultural thing? I think he’s Japanese, and I’m pretty sure that’s my name in hirigana on the coffee lid, but I don’t want to make an assumption just based on that and his looks. I wonder what he’s thinking about? He doesn’t look unhappy or angry exactly, just… determined? Maybe he just has resting bitch face.’ She snorted a little at that thought, then sighed. ‘His movements are so graceful and fluid, it’s like watching someone do tai chi or something. Oh, he has such nice hands - strong fingers. I could watch him make coffee aaaaall day.’

She gazed dreamily, sipping at her coffee slowly, the phone in her hand forgotten. Golden eyes suddenly met hers, one eyebrow raised in a puzzled expression. ‘Oh shit, he’s looking this way. He’s noticed that I’m looking at him. Abort! Abort! Oh fuck… This is all your fault Miroku!’

She turned tail and fled, almost running back to the office. The reviews had been right. The hot coffee was amazing, but the hot barista? Yeah, he was definitely something else. She knew she would be back first thing in the morning to get another coffee. And it wasn’t just because the coffee was amazing and that he was beautiful to look at. There was something about him. She wanted to get to know him better.

Miroku was waiting for her out the front of their office building. “So, did you get it?” he asked eagerly.

“What?”

“Did you get her number. Sango’s number?”

“Uh…” Shit. She’d been so flustered when he had suddenly looked up and met her gaze that she’d turned tail and fled without remembering why she was waiting there in the first place. Damn. Heat washed across her cheeks, and she flicked her gaze away from Miroku’s.

“Our calm and collected Kagome blushing? Oh, there must be a good story behind this – do tell!”

“No story. You’ve ordered coffee from there before – I didn’t want to do anything to upset the system and get banned like you did! There just wasn’t an opportunity today – I’ll try again tomorrow.”

Miroku poked her in the ribs. “But surely that wouldn’t make you blush Kags! C’mon, spill.”

“There’s nothing to tell!” she spluttered.

Suddenly Miroku burst out laughing. “Oh ho ho, I get it. You were so busy perving at the guard dog making the coffee that you forgot what you were there for.”

“Shut. Up.”

Miroku grinned at her. “Aw, little Kagome finally got a crush on someone. Were you struck by Cupid’s arrow?” he teased, throwing the phrase she’d used before back at her with a note of triumph in his voice. Kagome squirmed under his knowing gaze, and he chuckled. “Looks like Cupid’s been pretty busy with his arrows around that coffee shop, huh?”

Kagome made a growling noise in the back of her throat, then the corners of her lips curled up in a knowing smile. She blinked at him innocently, raising her takeaway cup.

“You may be right Miroku. You may be right. And I’m thinking the best way to get to know him will be to buy coffee. Lots of coffee. I hope you’re ready to pay up, buddy!” She sipped her coffee and patted him on his suddenly slumping shoulders as she walked past him into the foyer of the building and back to her desk full of filing, savouring every last drop.

  ☕💘☕

 Inuyasha pondered as he polished the already gleaming coffee maker. Sango had just left for the day, after balancing the till, and he was doing a final clean up, ensuring everything would be ready for 7am opening.

That girl. Kagome. She’d been staring at him. Usually that made him feel intensely uncomfortable. Growing up in an orphanage had internalised that being stared at was a bad thing, because pain caused by kids much larger and stronger than him usually followed close behind. That was until he’d been there so long that he was the large and strong one, handing out punches to anyone picking on the tiny ones. But he hadn’t got that uncomfortable feeling from her when she’d stared.

He knew he was considered attractive by some people. But her looking at him hadn’t given him that slimy creepy feeling that being ogled purely for looks gave him either. She had looked at him like he was a puzzle she wanted to work out.

He tried to picture her in his mind’s eye, but all he really remembered was dark shining hair like a corvid’s wing, and very blue eyes. She’d been small too, very petite. He rolled her name around in his head, as it tugged on a memory, and he suddenly thought of the rhyming game from his childhood about a bird caught in a cage. It was fitting – her mannerisms reminded him of a little bird - a wren, with bright inquisitive eyes. And when he’d looked up at her and caught her staring, she’d flapped her wings in fright and flown away. He chuckled. He hoped she wasn’t caught in a cage of some sort. No one deserved that.

He shut off the lights to the tiny shop, and walked into the studio behind it, flopping down on his bed with his laptop, ready to spend another evening struggling through his online English class. A little orange fluffball of a kitten jumped on to his lap, trying to sit on the keys, and he pushed it off.

“Shippou! Dame!”

The kitten settled down next to his thigh, snuggling against him and purring, and he turned his attention back to the screen. It was hard, learning a language this way, but he was determined. He had escaped his own cage, and he was never going back.

☕💘☕

PART TWO

[baezen]

hush | c.b

pairing: chris beck x reader word count: 4461 warnings: tooth rotting fluff,

prompt: librarian!au | college!au

summary: in which the good guy gets the girl

author’s note: repost

oneshot | masterlist

        If there was one thing she needed tonight, more than anything, was for the floor of her dorm not to host a party.  Yet, as she shoved her earbuds into her ears, she’s already packing her books and laptop into a backpack.  The earbuds do nothing to hide the fact that Ruby and her latest beau were going at it in the room next door, even with the music at a deafening volume.  The bed squeaking obnoxiously and the frame connecting with the wall.

        Y/N makes sure she’s got her key and purse before she leaves, locking the door to make sure no one goes inside.  It’s happened before and things have gone missing.  At least her roommate has finished her exams and gone home for break, which means no one will accidentally leave the door unlocked.

        Y/N nipped into the pizzeria on her walk to the library, tucking her earbuds into the pocket of her jacket as she ordered a large pepperoni.  Only needing to wait ten minutes before it was ready and she was carrying it into the library.

        You weren’t supposed to have food in the library, but the librarian on Tuesdays was more lenient than the one on Wednesdays or Fridays.  He didn’t mind if you ate, so long as you kept your area clean and didn’t use the library’s computers while you were eating.  The same went for the books.  Always keep them clean.

        The only reason she needed the library tonight was because of how quiet it was compared to her dorm currently.  She had one final exam to study for, which wasn’t for another two days, but she didn’t want to be cramming the night before.  She wanted to go to bed feeling well rested and prepared.  But knowing her, she’d be cramming, stressed she wasn’t going to pass.

        As Y/N entered the library her gaze turned towards the librarian’s desk.  He barely looked up from his astronomy textbook as she took a seat at a large group of desks.  Setting the box on the table as she unloaded her laptop and books from her bag.

        Y/N looked towards him, the librarian, as he scanned a few books for a customer.  Making small talk as he entered the card number in the system.

        He always looked so soft, wearing a slightly larger grey hoodie with a NASA symbol on the breast, his hair usually a mess from running his hands through it constantly.  Circles under his eyes making him look perpetually exhausted, which wasn’t a shock to any college kid.  Sleep was scarce around exam season.  Hell, it was scarce any season.  Y/N should know, the bags under her eyes were constant.

        The second she opened the box of pizza she’d caught the librarian’s attention.  He was in her space science class, but she’d never learnt his name.  He kept mostly to himself, except for when he dominated their professors questions, whereas almost every one else struggled.  He was effortlessly smart, and she’d admired him from afar for the longest time.  Noticing how some days he’d come to class wide awake and alert, but more often than not, he looked as exhausted as the rest of them.

        His fascination with space was incomparable to anyone Y/N had ever met.  His vast knowledge of the cosmos was intriguing.  Endearing.  It made no sense to her that she never saw him with anyone around campus, no bros, no girls.  It was always just him, with his nose buried in a new space book each time.

        Y/N typed with one hand as she ate, her eyes skimming her books for anything that she knew she needed to elaborate on with a further explanation.  Her hand grew tired of typing quickly and she sighed, wiggling her fingers and taking a break from staring at the screen of her laptop.  The bright white occasionally hurting her eyes, this time no different.

        She yawned as she shut the pizza box, unable to finish the last few slices.  Casting her gaze towards the librarian who’d gotten up from his desk and wandered towards a section of books, placing the ones from his arms back into their rightful places.

        Y/N looked at the clock hanging on the wall and groaned, it was almost eleven, which was when the library closed.  She rubbed my hands over my face to wake herself up a bit and started packing her things back into her bag.  She hadn’t thought it was that late when she’d first arrived, but clearly time had gotten away from her.  Taking one too many ‘breaks’ to admire the cute librarian as he spoke in a hushed whisper to himself.

        Scribbling out a little note on a scrap of paper before placing the half eaten pizza on his desk, the note sitting atop it.  Telling him he could’ve asked her earlier for a slice if he was as hungry as he looked, and leaving her name and number on the off chance he wanted to use it some time.

+++

        After Y/N left the library she had turned her phone off, too scared to learn whether or not he’d sent her a message at all.  She had a sudden burst in confidence, yet couldn’t even handle learning the truth; if he was interested in her or not.  No matter how hard a pill rejection is to swallow, no one wanted to learn that the person they’re interested in doesn’t share those same feelings.  It’s hard.

        At least that’s what Y/N kept telling herself.

        The day of her exam she turned her phone back on to see if he’d sent anything.  Clearing the notifications from a couple of apps, her breath catching in her throat when she realised there was a missed call from an unsaved number and a voicemail that’d been left.  She checked the voicemail first, holding her phone to my ear.

        “Uhh, hey, Y/N.  It’s Chris, uhh, the librarian you left your pizza for.  I’m just, thank you so much, honesty, I’ve been studying my ass off for finals and keep forgetting to eat.  So thank you.  You didn’t have to, but I’m glad you did.”

        Y/N smiled at the recorded message, finding Chris’ rambling adorable.  And his voice, god, his voice was like heaven.  She never wanted the rambling to stop.

        “I’m c-calling from the library’s phone because, well, long story short, I-I dropped mine in a puddle and someone d-drove over it.  And I don’t know w-why I told you that!  It’s not relevant, shit.  I’m s-sorry.  Um, I was just k-kinda hoping that m-maybe, on the off chance that you d-don’t already have plans this F-Friday, if you’d like to j-join me for dinner?  I, uhh,–” he couched to clear his throat, a nervous laugh sounded in the earpiece.  “I’ll be at t-the library all day T-Thursday if you wanna g-give m...”

        The dial tone sounded, letting her know that the message had been cut short since he’d exceeded the time limit.  But luckily he’d left another message which started off with a small nervous laugh.

        “I’m s-sorry, the last message was s-supposed to say I’ll be a-at the l-library all day Thursday if you w-want to give me a c-call or s-stop by.  I m-mean, if y-you don’t that’s...l’life, I guess.  I m-mean, I h-hope you do, b-but no p-pressure.  I – J-Jesus, you’re r-really nailing this w-whole thing, B-Beck.  Real s-smooth.  If I s-see you, I see you, a-and if I-I don’t, w-well, I’m sorry for w-wasting your t-time.  Good n-night, Y/N.  T-Thank you again for t-the pizza.”

        She saved the messages to her phone, unable to bring myself to delete them.  Spending ten minutes replying to a few texts before grabbing everything she needed and heading to her exam, a plan in her head to catch up with Chris at the library afterwards.

+++

        Y/N spent a total of two hours and thirty seven minutes in the exam, making sure she’d answered everything to the best of my ability before handing my paper in and making her trek across campus to the library.  SHe was nervous, to say the least.  Her hands sweaty as she gripped the straps of her backpack.  Blowing out a shaky breath as the building came into her line of sight.

        Campus was dead.  There were only two more days of exams and then it was Christmas/New Year break.  A few lights were strung up around the courtyard as she walked down the alley between two buildings.  The library was one of the only places still open, housing a few students sipping coffees from the shop next door as they tried their hardest to absorb any information they needed to prepare themselves for their exam.

        It was weird feeling like she’d done well in my exam.  Like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders the second she passed through those doors.  But it could have also been because she was going to see Chris at the library and confirm their date for tomorrow night.

        Y/N was excited.  Exams were over and she potentially had a date with the guy she’d been crushing on for months.  And it was Christmas in a little under a week.  Even though she wasn’t going home for the holiday there were a bunch of students in the dorms staying back and were planning their own Christmas shindig.  They had a tree put up and decorated on the 8th floor.  Y/N was making one of her favourite desserts.

        Hannah, on the third floor, had a friend who’d been buying them alcohol to stock up on since the shops would all be closed and the majority of our plans consisted of drinking.  Once they’d opened presents, of course.  They’re not totally uncivilised.

        Y/N unwrapped her scarf from her neck as she entered the library, automatically engulfed by a wall of warmth.  She walked towards Chris at his desk.  He was currently serving a customer but looked towards her when he noticed someone was standing to the side.  A grin forming on his lips as he went back to serving the customer.

        She didn’t mind waiting.  Watching him bumble around, stammering over his words as he kept sneaking a look in her direction.  The guy walked off with his books, leaving the pair alone to talk.

        “H-hey.  Uhh, hey,” Chris greeted nervously, walking out from behind the desk.  Rubbing the back of his neck as he walked towards her.

        “Hi,” she replied, breathing out a smile.  “I guess I should properly introduce myself, huh?  I’m Y/N.”

        Y/N held her hand towards him and he smiled down at it as he grasped it with his own.  “I’m Chris.”  He looked up at her with the most mesmerising smile, his blue/grey eyes catching the light from above.

        “So, tomorrow night…”

        “I was h-hoping I could c-cook for you,” he said, rubbing his arm.  “I’m a p-pretty good cook, and I-I’m kind of too b-broke to take you a-anywhere nice right n-now.”

         Y/N laughed, appreciating his honesty.  “A home cooked meal sounds lovely,” she assured him with a smile.  “Did you want me to bring anything?”

        He shook his head.  “Just yourself.”  He reached toward his desk for a pen and a piece of paper, quickly scribbling down his address before handing the paper to her.  “Does s-six-thirty suit?”

        “Perfect,” she replied, folding the paper and tucking it into her pocket for safe keeping.  “I’ll see you tomorrow at six-thirty, Chris.  Have a good night.”

        “You too, Y/N,” he farewelled, cheeks tinged with warmth and a smile on his lips.  “See-see ya tomorrow.”

        She gave him a slightly awkward wave before turning around and leaving the library, taking a peek over her shoulder to look back at him.  Still smiling after her.  Raising his hand in a wave before she braved the cold weather outside.  Wrapping her scarf around her neck and disappearing out the door.

+++

        Y/N stood in the middle of the room dressed in only her underwear, hands on her hips as she looked at the selection of clothes laid out.  A pair of jeans and a woollen jumper.  A cute dress and some stockings, with a lovely warm coat.  Her pyjamas.

        A chill ran up her spine, making her reach for the jeans even though she desperately wanted to put her pj’s back on and go to bed.  She wiggled the denim up her legs, doing a little hop, step and jump to bring the material over the curve of her ass.  Huffing as she finally managed to pop the button through the hole and tug the zipper up.  Grabbing a singlet to wear under a long sleeved shirt before putting a jumper on.

        Her bed looked extremely inviting, piled with a thick duvet and deliciously soft, warm blankets.  Still unmade from earlier today when she’d finally decided to crawl out of the warm nest and venture to Bobbie’s, since she’d agreed to buy her a nice bottle of wine for her date tonight.

        She was nervous for her date with Chris, but was also extremely excited.  It’d been awhile since she’d last been on a date, the last few having gone awry.  But those guys weren’t awkward, stuttering Chris Beck.  They were the over-confident, bordering on cocky assholes that assumed after a date she’d be willing to fuck them as a thank you.  The first couple of dates had been average, as well as the sex, so eventually she just stopped going on dates.

        She didn’t need a half-assed attempt at conversation when they both knew what direction the date was heading in, and more importantly, she didn’t deserve to be left high and dry after they came and left her to take care of herself.  College guys are the worst.  But she got the feeling that Chris wasn’t like that.  Even though he planned on cooking her dinner at his place, it didn’t feel like an attempt to get her into his bed.  she was excited to see how the shy, quiet guy treated a girl compared to the arrogant jerks she was used to seeing.

        Y/N spent a small amount of time on her makeup, since she’d already applied it this morning.  Just touching up a few areas here and there.  Not wanting to overdo it, but still wanting to look nice.

        She blew out a breath as she packed her makeup away and stuffed her feet into a pair of boots, sitting on the end of her bed as she laced them up.  Taking a minute to gather er nerves as she looked at the alarm clock sitting on the bedside table, the glowing red numbers reading 18:04, letting her know she had less than half an hour to get to Chris’ place, and that her Uber should be here any minute.

        Rising to her feet, Y/N shrugged into my jacket and tucked the bottle of wine into her purse.  Her phone buzzing with a text from the Uber driver, letting her know he was outside, so hastily making her way down.  Locking her dorm behind me.

        The ride to Chris’ place took just over 20 minutes, Y/N’s leg bouncing with nerves the whole way.  Rubbing her sweaty palms against her thighs.  Thanking the driver as she climbed out of the car and walked up to the house, knocking on the door thrice.

        She exhaled heavily, a smile coming easily to her face as soon as Chris opened the door.  A bright smile on his own face.

        “H-Hey, come in,” he greeted, stepping aside so she could come in out of the cold, already shrugging out of her coat.

        “I know you said not to bring anything but I couldn’t show up empty handed,” Y/N said, hanging her coat up and pulling the wine from her purse, handing it over to him.  “The finest wine eight dollars can buy.”

        Chris chuckled as he closed the door.  “Then l-let’s open it.  S-Shall we?”

        Y/N was already on her second glass when Chris finally served dinner, the delicious smell of a homemade roast chicken with all the fixings filling the little space.

        The house itself was cozy.  He lived with three other guys who were all home with their families for the holidays, but it was kept nice and tidy.  She suspected because it was just him there at the moment.

        They sat at the dining table to eat, a candle was lit between them, their glasses full of wine.  A warmth to Chris’ cheeks from the alcohol, or from Y/N’s flirting.  Perhaps both.  Asking each other why they were still here instead of with their families.  Her reason being that she couldn’t afford it, and his being that it was easier being apart for the holidays.  Family is messy.  That didn’t mean it was an easy decision for him to stay away.  The hurt she saw on his face told her there was more to the story, but that he wasn’t ready to share it.

        Dinner had been amazing, to the point that after they finished eating they stayed at the table drinking.  Their faces lit up with the flickering light of the candle dancing over our skin.

        He was beautiful.  The way he spoke, wise beyond his years.  Voice smooth, the alcohol ridding him of his stuttering, but slurring his speech.  The corners of his eyes crinkling with each laugh, his hand covering his mouth as he giggled.

        God, she was in deep, and it was only the first date.

+++

        Y/N ended up inviting Chris to the halls for Christmas, telling him a bunch of them had plans to eat and drink and celebrate together because they couldn’t be with their families.  He’d agreed to think about it, but when she’d swung by the library to see him on the 23rd he’d told her he’d be there.

        It’d been a couple of Christmases that he’d spent the holiday alone, and now that an opportunity presented itself where he didn’t have to be, he’d be stupid not to go at least for a couple of hours.  That was what he’d told her when she’d happily embraced him, anyway.

        And now it was Christmas day and Y/N was waiting in the lobby of the building to let Chris in.  He’d said he’d be there around ten, and it had just gone five past.  She was starting to get a little fidgety when he knocked on the glass door.  She stood up to open it for him, my mood changing from upset to happy upon seeing his face.

        “S-Sorry I’m a little l-late,” he apologised, shrugging out of his jacket.  “It’s i-icy and I k-kept s-slippin’ over.”

        Y/N laughed and shook her head.  “I’m sorry for laughing,” she replied.  “I’m glad you made it here in one piece, though.”

        “So am I.”  He smiled.

        “C’mon.  The party’s already started.”

        SHe took his hand in hers and led him towards the elevators, his gloved fingers slipping between her own as the doors opened and they stepped inside.  She hit the button for the eighth floor and held her key to the sensor, and only then did the elevator work.  Taking them up to the eighth.

        “Thank-thank you for i-inviting me again,” he said softly.

        “Thank you for agreeing to come,” she told him, smiling up at him and giving his hand a squeeze.

       The party was in full swing when the elevator doors opened.  They had to wait for a couple of guys racing on swivel chairs in the hallway to roll past before they could exit.

        “You can chuck your stuff in my room to keep it safe if ya want,” I offered and he nodded, letting her drag him around the hallway until they reached her room.  Using her keys to unlock the door and then pushing it open, letting him walk in first.

        He sat his bag on the desk and hung his coat up on the rack, unwrapping his scarf from his neck.  “I h-hope ya d-don’t mind,” he said as she leant against the doorframe.  “B-But I bought u-us a b-bottle of that w-wine.”

        “I don’t mind at all,” Y/N said as he handed the bottle to her, smiling at him as she grabbed two plastic glasses from her desk drawer and set them on the desk.  Opening the bottle and pouring themselves a glass each.  Ignoring the chaos out in the hallway, handing one of the glasses to him.  “To the finest wine eight dollars can buy.”

        His hand came up to cup her jaw, thumb brushing over her cheek lightly as he stared at er.  Gaze flickering from her eyes to her lips and back to her eyes.

        “And to n-not being alone on C-Christmas,” he added softly.

        “And to not being alone on Christmas,” she repeated, clinking her glass with his and having a sip as he did the same.

        “Can-can I…” he stuttered, looking back down at her lips as he shuffled closer.

        “Kiss me, Chris,” she whispered.

        He dipped his head and pressed his lips to hers, no trace of hesitation in his actions.  Kissing her with certainty.  Lips firm against her own at first, softening when she kissed him back almost instantly.  Tasting like the wine they’d just drank.

        Only detaching when Brooke waltzed in and announced it was time for presents.  She was gone as soon as she arrived, moving onto the next room.

        “I, uhh...”  Chris downed his drink.  “I’m not c-expectin’ anything in r-return, but I wanted to g-give you some-somethin’.”  He reached into his bag and pulled out a tupperware container.  “I m-made you some cookies.  F-Family recipe.  I-I hope you l-like ‘em.”

        Y/N rose to her tiptoes and pressed another kiss to his lips as she graciously accepted the container from him.  “Thank you, Chris,” she replied, smiling as she set the container and her wine on the desk.  Opening one of her clothing drawers and pulling out a hoodie she’d seen at an op shop.  “I haven’t seen you wearing this design so I wasn’t sure if you’ve got it or not.”

        He took the hoodie from her and his eyes lit up when he unfolded it, a large grin spreading across his face.  Reaching for the back of the current sweatshirt he was wearing and pulling it over his head so he could put it on.

        “I wasn’t sure about the size…”

        He shook his head after pulling it over his head, sliding his arms through it.  Wrapping his arms around her waist and lifting her off the ground, a laugh escaping her lips before he silenced her with a kiss.

        “It’s great–it’s the greatest g-gift anyone has ever g-given me,” he confessed.  “Thank you, Y/N.  S-So much.”

        Y/N laughed and shook her head.  “You’re welcome,” she told him.  “Merry Christmas, Chris.”

        “M-Merry Christmas, Y/N,” he said back, the most joyous expression on his face.

        “You wanna go and watch everyone else open presents or stay here and make out a little bit?”  She asked him, her hands running through his hair.

         Heat rose to his cheeks as he coughed.  “Uhh, m-make out a little b-bit,” he replied honestly.

+++

        With the holiday’s over and done with, a mistletoe kiss and a New Years Eve kiss crossed off her bucket list, college classes had officially started back up.  Chris and Y/N had made things official before they welcomed in the New Year together, and they’d been on several dates since he first cooked her dinner.

        She’d met his roommates, mostly because she spent a lot of her free time at his place.  They seemed nice enough – typical guy behaviour trying to piss Chris off by hitting on her.  Though he knew she only had eyes for him.

        He’d met her roommate, who’d badgered him with question after question since she’d given her no warning that she now had a boyfriend.  So she’d returned back from break to find him asleep in Y/N’s bed.  No funny business had been happening.  They’d just been sleeping after a long first day back of classes.

        Her flight had been delayed time and time again, which was why she had no idea when she was coming back; because she didn’t know herself until she was boarding her flight.

        It was fine.  She was cool with it.  And she was happy that Y/N’d finally met a guy who treated her the way she deserved.

        Y/N was too.  He was so good to her.  And she always made sure to look after him, too.  When he let her.

        It was Tuesday today and he still had his shift at the library to complete before he’d go home.  She knew he never took anything to eat with him – knowledge she’d gained from past experience, – so after making her own dinner, she took a container full of lasagne to the library for him.

        It was still warm when she got there, sneaking up behind him and wrapping her arms around his waist, tucking myself under his arm.

        “Hi-hi, beautiful,” he greeted with a soft chuckle.  “I d-didn’t think I’d get t-to see you today.”

        Y/N hummed as she leant up to press a kiss to his cheek.  “Brought you dinner,” she told him.  “Because I know you never bring anything to work.”

        “Thank you,” he told her, kissing her forehead as he took the container from her hand.  “Lasagne?”

        Y/N hummed, producing a fork from her pocket and placing it on top of the container.  “Yeah.  I hope you enjoy.”

        “Can’t stay?”

        “Afraid not,” she replied.  “Got a lot of reading to catch up on that I was supposed to do over the holiday but I got a little sidetracked.”

        “It’s that b-boyfriend of yours, I t-tell ya,” he said, nuzzling his nose into her hair.  “He’s a b-bad influence.”

        Y/N laughed.  Loud.  “He’s lucky I love him.”

        “He–you, what?”

        “I love you.”

        And she did.  He was the kind of guy you knew from the moment you met him that you’d fall in love with him.  All the blushing looks and nervous laughter, piled in with how much of a genuinely nice guy he was...it was a no brainer.  She’d happily fallen in love with him.

        “I-I love you, too-too.  Shit, no.  I can say this without stutt-stuttering.”  He took a deep breath and steadied himself, cupping my face with both of his hands.  Dinner all but forgotten about.  “I love-lo, no.  Wait-wait.  I love you too.”

[themanicgalaxy]

SPN 4X1 Lazarus Rising

I did not need to look to know the title

I have my hot cocoa, the big screen, a blanket, a cat and the crushing weight of my sins

that is totally enough separation

let’s go see the crazy bee man

YOU SHOOK ME ALL NIGHT LONG IS THE FUCKING OPENING CARD I’M CRYING

IS IT ALWAYS GONNA BE AN ACDC SONG 

OH HELL YEAH

oh my god this TORTURE SEQUENCE HOLY FUCK

seriously 40 years he would not be well adjusted

did he scream “help” for forty years??

I can’t believe they actually fucking buried Jensen for this scene, I CANNOT

the visuals are HELLA EXCELLENT

this kinda looks like the field he dreamed about in the opening of the finale

oh my GOD THE VISUALS THE VISUALS THE VISUALS THE TREES THE CROSS THE SHADOW AAAAA

And yes, he does look very good

the hair looks great, not gonna lie

MISHACOLINS MISHA COLLINS M I S H A FUCKING C O L L I N  S 

How long has it been? three months or so I think?

the flashback to the torture, the no scars

THE HANDPRINT!! THE HANDPRINT THE HANDPRINT!

Boy what must this have been like live

Of course Busty Asian Beauties

the static? the radio that keeps going on?

is this why he calls it angel radio

Local Eldritch Abomination wants to say hi

poor Dean is hardcore panicking oof

and he tries all of the phones

no they’re not gonna believe it’s you Dean

~hotwires a car~

*goes after Dean*

“you’re about the closest thing I have to a father” AWWWWWw

THE FACT THAT BOBBY KEEPS TRYING TO STAB HIM

Aw man and you just got rid of all your scars

AWWWWW

NO THIS REUNION SCENE IS MAKING ME TEAR UP

He still had to try the holy water thing

HE LOOKED SO DONE IT WAS SO FUNNY

YEAH I KNOW IT’S BECAUSE IT WAS HALF LUBE

F O U R MONTHS

~lights out~ you’re lying, you have to be lying

and of course Sam goes angsting away like in mystery spot

poor Bobby

~this force, this presence~ I wonder wHo ThaT couLD bE

they’re convinced it’s whatever the fuck Sam did

“what don’t I know about that kid”

Bobby’s been drinking? aw? I mean terrible coping mechanism but

Is this Gen? I don’t know who’s who

So Sam wasn’t expecting

AHAHA BACK TO THE TRYING TO KILL HIM

“I’ve been through this already” AHAHAHA

what happened to his(Sam’s) hair it used to be fluffier

ah once again the *they’re dating* joke why did they keep doing that

...is Sam trying to,,,,become Dean...?

it...wasn’t Sam...Ohoho who could it be?

We all fucking know who it is where is ya fucking boy

this thing is a whodunit of who brought him back

So Sam’s been...spiraling

“who do you think you are, your old man” B U R N 

they’re doing the “did we bring him all the way back

MISSOURI???? PLEASE BE MISSOURI

AW HE’S WEARING THE SAMULET AWWWW

“I don’t remember a damn thing” YOU’rE LYING YOU HAVE TO BE LYING

oh yeah, he’s lying

remarkably well adjusted for forty years in the pit tho

AHAHA THE IPOD JACK

*chucks it behind him*

Sam you have psychic powers don’t you think you should explore that

“you didn’t want me to so I didn’t” oof

Dean takes *fear of the unknown* pretty far

No it’s the lady who calls Dean out?

Pamela Barnes

Does everyone know them as Bobby’s Boys that’s so cute

is that a ramones...shirt?

it’s a Band Shirt I just don’t know what 

the decor is like hard rock cafe y but cooler

ok so they flirt back and forth I see 

that’s a pretty big burn damn

C A S T I E L 

Please tell me she doesn’t die

Oh god he true forms her??

HER EYES ARE BURNED OUT WHAT THE FUCK

oho Diner Bar full of demons

and turns out the lock, fun

~to hell and back

the smile with “I’m not lying”

Aw it’s like he doesn’t normally have a good rebuttal

Fiercely Powerful Castiel that terrifies even the demons

OH RIGHT SERAPHS ARE LIKE SUPER SUPER POWERFUL RIGHT

Boy he’s seriously just...unphased now

“the smarter brother’s back in town” DAMN why is he so much more confident

Hell...really did a number on him

VISUALSSSS

THE FUCKING EVERYTHING GOING HAYWIRE

Cas just...doesn’t know how to talk to his crush, it’s fine

Local Wavelength of Celestial Intent just keeps breaking windows

And Dean’s Goddamn Ears apparently

oh wait it’s just Bobby and Dean oHO I KNOW WHERE THIS IS GOING

*we’re gonna get food* THEY DID IT BOTH WAYS YOU FUCKING-

COMMUNICATION

HE SWIPED THE KNIFE 

THE K N I F E 

they’re already burned out oh boy

They’re fucking blinded

BOY THEY FUCKING WENT A P E S H I T WITH HOW POWERFUL CAS IS

SAM JUST....PSYCHICALLY EXORCISED SOMEONE?? WOW??

DAMN that was neat

Oh is this Ruby? AH RUBY

dammit I wanna know what Sam’s been doing

BOY THEY’RE FUCKING B U I L D I N G THIS 

THE SHEER A M O U NT OF SIGILS

ooo VISUALS

Sam did you ask her why she’s so dead set on helping you

OHOHOHOHOHO

THE CLACKING SCARED MINA

DWIHRAWPAIHPAS

FUCK YES

they rly made Misha say “gripped you tight and raised you from perdition” huh

yes hurt Bobby that’s gonna help

I’m An anGel oF the Lord

HEY REMEMBER HOW ANGELS WERE ON YOUR BULLSHIT LIST

HE D O E S HAVE FAITH JUST NOT IN YOU

HE’s SO SMALL AND SCRUFFY LOOKING 

Holy Tax Accountant

“he actually prayed for this” KILLE DME JIMMY YOU FOOLE

“you don’t think you deserve to be saved” OH MY G O D 

AAHAHHHHHHHHHH

wrap up:

1. I wanna know more about Sam’s thing when Dean was gone, I’m intrigued to see what’s gonna happen next

2. Dean’s Startlingly Appalling Self Worth Issues come in, are back, and AT FULL SWING. the “you don’t think you deserve to be saved” followed by the micro expressions? O U C H

3. I do appreciate how they kept building the suspense, and how powerful they showed Castiel to be

4. CASSSS!! CASTIEL!!! ANGEL OF THEE LORD! ! HE LOOKS SO GODDAMN YOUNG IN THIS SEASON IT IS Y A B OY AHHHHH

I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS MOMENT FOR THREE MONTHS IT IS HERE WELCOME TO C A S T I E L TI M E O NL Y 

is he only in like three episodes? sure

BUT IT’S STILL YA BOI 

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[marvinswriting]

over-protective

this had a prompt, but i went totally off track and created some good old hurt comfort instead.  everyone say thank you bear for the idea! g/t mean girls

Something was off.

It didn’t take Einstein to figure that out. 

It was after school, and Janis was already at the pick up zone as I approached.

It all looked normal, but my gut told me something was off.

Was Janis okay?

She looked fine.

“Hey there.” I smiled, as she looked over. “Hey, Damian.” She doesn't return the smile.

Something is definitely wrong.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, why wouldn't I be?”

“I dunno, you just don’t seem okay.”

“Get off my back, Damian.” Janis’ voice has an edge. It's cold and forein and does nothing to settle the pit in my stomach.

“What?”

She rolls her eyes, stepping to the edge of the partform. “Never mind, c’mon, I wanna go home.”

 “Wait, no. Something is wrong. Did you see Shane or something? Why-”

“Literally leave it be, Jesus Christ, Damian.” Janis snaps and I instantly freeze. Never has Janis spoken like that to me. I’ve heard her snap at other people, but-

“Did I do something wrong?” I ask. I try and think back to everything we’ve done recently. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just Shane Omen trying to fuck with Janis. I hate that Janis getting hurt is the ordinary.

“Did you do something wrong?” Janis scoffed. 

I don't know what to say. I honestly can’t figure out what I did. Was this some sort of fucked up prank? No, Janis wouldn't do that.

I step forward, reaching out to pick up Janis. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Janis steps backward. “God, you’re doing it again.”

I freeze. “What?”

“You’re always so overprotective. I don’t need you to shield me from anything with the off chance to hurt me. It’s so patronizing.”

Despite the very clear size difference I can’t help but feel like Janis is looking down at me with her glare. “I-”

“You what. Didn’t notice? Of course you wouldn't. You’re too busy freaking out over anything. I’m not a fucking china doll, Damian.”

“I know that.” I say softly. I still don't fully know what's going on, but at the rate words are pouring out of Janis’ mouth makes me think this isn't a new feeling. She’s been thinking about this for a while. 

Her reaction is so sudden but her feelings behind it are not. My heart sinks. How long has Janis felt this way?

“I don’t think you do.” Janis replied coldly. “You don’t act like you do. I’ve had enough of it. I don’t need you to baby me twenty four seven. In fact- I don't need you at all.”

I take a step back out of surprise more than anything, but Janis isn’t done.

“I can take care of myself, Damian. I hate how overbearing you are, I hate how weak you think I am, and I. Hate. You.”

For a second, my brain totally stops. Like- I wasn’t hearing Janis correctly. Or that I’m hallucinating. But she’s right there, standing with her arms crossed, dead serious.

“You don’t mean that.” I say numbly.

“Yes I do. I mean all of it.”

“Jan-”

“Oh don't Jan me.” She took a step back, making her way back to the tiny area of school. “I’m taking the tiny bus home. I don’t need you to pick me up tomorrow or take me anywhere. I don’t want to talk to you again.”

“What?” I don't understand what’s happening, or where this is coming from. Janis’ declaration of hate is echoing through my head, and it's the only thing I can focus on. She doesn't mean it. She can’t mean it.

Janis looks simply bored of this conversation. “God, do I have to spell it out? We aren’t friends anymore. I don’t want to be friends with you. I want you to leave me the fuck alone.”

She doesn't say anything else or explain further before turning on her heels and disappearing into the walls of the school.

For a second, I stand there dumbfounded. I can hear my heart pound, and my throat feels tight. She didn’t mean it. Right?

I almost expect her to call and tell me it's a prank. A fucked up prank. 

My phone doesn't ring.

I didn’t register my eyes opening at first, with Janis voice still echoing in my head. I blinked, silently, my heart racing as I sat up-

-in my room?

Holy shit. 

Wait.

Was it just a nightmare?

I glanced around, the warm fairy lights twinkling and the slight breeze from the window left open all seemed so familiar and calming. 

I pulled my bedsheets over me more as my gaze lands on the makeshift bed on the table next to me.

Janis.

Under the pile of small blankets lay an even smaller girl, asleep and unaware that I’m awake.

I let out a shaky breath, my mind still trying to catch up with reality.

It was a nightmare.

Janis never said those things.

Janis was here right now.

She-

I run my hand feverishly through my hair.

It was a bad dream.

That’s it.

My room is chilling, even from under the blankets. I can’t tell if it’s the breeze or my nerves but I glare accusingly at the open window anyway. The curtains sway with each gentle blow. I don’t want to get up and close it, if it's cold under here, it's even colder over there.

My heart is still pounding as I lean back down in bed. 

The dream felt so real.

Of course it wasn’t.

Janis wouldn't say those things.

Right?

My stomach twists at the thought. 

I knew Janis got annoyed sometimes, but never frustrated or mad- I thought.

Would she really leave me over something like that?

I hate you.

It’s not ture. It can’t be true. It’s just a nightmare. It’s my brain creating irrational scenarios to fuck with me.

Janis wouldn't say that.

No matter how much I tried to convince myself, the feeling of uncertainty wouldn't fade.

Janis was strong. I knew she could take care of herself.

But did she know I knew that?

My heart sinks at the possibility.

I turn on my side, looking over to the nightstand next to me. 

I could barely see Janis from underneath the mountain of fabric. She practically burroughs herself under layers of fabric everytime. Still- it felt better to know she was there.

That she didn't hate me. That I didn’t drive her to the point of hatred because I couldn’t just back off. 

I wouldn't be surprised if she really did hate having somebody always hovering.

Maybe she didn’t hate me.

But she definitely hated being babied. 

If she did decide to just cut me off- I guess it’s my fault.

I’m the reason it would come to it.

It would be my fault.

I watch as Janis wraps a blanket tighter around herself- even under all those layers of course she's still cold. 

Only she could.

I smile to myself. Janis will be wearing four layers in ninety degree weather and still shiver. 

I instinctively reach over, it’s not uncommon for Janis to fall asleep on her own and wake up with me, but stop before I can touch her.

Would that be annoying?

It would only prove her point.

I retract my hand quickly, like touching her would burn.

It wasn’t just a dream because here I am doing everything that upset her in the nightmare.

No wonder the Janis from my nightmare hated me.

Maybe the real Janis feels the same.

She’s just cold, she’ll live. I don’t need to be so on top of her.

Instead, I quietly swing my legs over the side of my bed, crossing my room to close the window.

I feel shaky as I walk, the adrenaline rush from the stupid dream still hasen’t faded.

Not only had the dream felt real- the actions from the dream were real. At least mine.

Here I am, being overbearing. 

The window slides shut and locks with a small click. It echoes through the silent room as I step back over to my bed. 

I felt exhausted but I can’t go back to sleep. I don’t want to risk another dream like that.

I can handle the unrealistic nightmares. Like yeah- they’re scary, but I don't have to walk around on a normal day worrying about fictional monsters popping out of the floorboards. But that- that could happen. 

Before I pull the covers back over me again, I reach down and take my phone off the floor from where it was charging. It’s normally on the bedside table but-

-Janis was there and obviously she won't be sleeping on the floor. 

I flinch back as the phone lights up at full brightness.

Jesus Christ.

I blindly poke the phone, only stopping when the screen dims and I know I’ve hit the right button.

Even with the brightness down, I feel like I’m squinting like an old man at my phone. It lights up my corner even as dark as it can go.

I frown, turning off my phone in defeat.

“Damian- are you still up?”

I freeze momentarily as the room falls dark again. “Sorry, did the brightness wake you?”

There's a shuffling sound as Janis emerges from her dramatic cocoon of blankets. I look over as I place my phone back on the floor. The room is dim but I can see her silhouette as she shrugs. “Just kinda woke up. Don’t think it was you. You okay?”

“Yeah, ‘m fine. Just can’t sleep.” The lie slips easily off my tongue. She doesn't need to know I was worrying about her. 

“You sure dude?” I watch carefully from where I lay as Janis approaches the edge of the nightstand, a blanket wrapped carefully around her. It took all of me not to tell her to be careful.

The nightstand was directly next to my bed, and while Janis may be small, so was the gap from mattress to ledge. She'll be fine.

She knows what she's doing. 

I still watched nervously, though.

Janis paused with her toes dangling off the edge, looking at me carefully. 

“Something is wrong.” She concluded, sitting down with her legs swinging over the edge. 

“How do you know?” I joke weakly.

“Because I just marched up to the very edge of the table and you didn’t say a word about it. I could tell you wanted to- so why so quiet?”

Now it was my turn to shrug. 

“Just figured you know what you’re doing.”

“I do,” Janis agreed. “But you knew that before.”

I felt cornered and relieved at the same time. Janis knew I thought she could take care of herself. That was just part of the dream.

But-

-now she also knew something was up. 

I gasp as Janis pushes herself off the edge of the nightstand, landing carefully on my bed.

“Now there’s the reaction I was waiting for.”

“Don't do that!” I sit up as Janis climbs onto my pillow with a laugh.

“Chill dude, I’ve jumped further.”

That fact doesn't exactly sit right with me but I don’t vocally say it.

“Seriously, Dame,” Janis sits down where my head once was while I turn to face her, blanket wrapped around my shoulders. “Is something bothering you?”

I shake my head. “Don’t worry about it, Jan.” I was typically at the other end of this, and to have Janis worrying about me felt a little weird. “Stupid dream that I let get to me. It’s really nothing.” 

I could tell my tone betrayed my words. Could you blame me? Even if the dream was fake, what I felt was real.

I thought I had lost Janis.

It hurt.

And it could happen.

Except it wouldn’t be a dream I could wake up from. The loneliness and pain would be real. I can’t change my past actions, I can’t go back to last week and just lay off, but I can start now. 

I just hope ‘starting now’ will be enough.

“If a dream was able to get to you, it wasn’t stupid.” Janis scrunched her nose with clear disgust. “I would know.” She tilts her head while looking at me, like she’s trying to get in my head and read me. And she’s probably doing it too. “I wanna hear about the dream.” She says suddenly.

I shake my head. “You don’t-”

“Damian.” She stands up stepping to the edge of the pillow before patting where she previously was. “Lay down, and tell me what happened.”

I sigh, but comply, because when Janis has made up her mind, there’s no going back. Once I’m lying on my side again Janis steps closer. 

“So, what happened?”

“I don’t wanna talk about it.” I insist, shutting my eyes.

“I can tell you do. And even on the off chance where I’m totally fucking wrong, you’d feel better if you talked about it. If it's affecting you enough that you can’t sleep, you should get it off your chest.”

I hate that she’s right. I hate that she’s picked up my own logic from when she has nightmares, and I hate that she's now using it against me.

Because I have no comeback, nothing to defect too, nothing to say to get out of it.

God damnit, Janis.

I sigh, opening my eyes in defeat. My tongue feels heavy in my mouth as I try and find the words to say. “If I was ever- too much, you would tell me right? You know I would back off if you just said so.”

Janis tilted her head and I could almost see her thought process and she tried to figure out the reason behind my question. “I mean, of course, dude. And for the record, you’re never too much. You act that way because you care! I get that. I know you just worry and that if I really wanted you to, you’d drop it.”

I let out a breath of relief, watching the way the air ruffled Janis’ hair slightly. She’s right there. She doesn't hate me. It was a dream. Just a dream. 

“You wanna tell me about the dream now?” Janis prompts gently. 

“It was- me and you, and-” Now that I’ve started I can’t go back. “Well, long story short, you said all these things about me being on top of you too much and I dunno, just got worried you actually felt that way.”

I glazed over all the rough parts, the yelling, the hatred, the pain. If Janis caught onto the huge gap in my retell, she didn’t mention it.

“Well, I don’t feel that way. You do so much for me Damian, and I must have been pretty stupid in that dream to tell you to stop. Because I don’t know what I would do without you. If it wasn’t for you being protective, I would have died on like, twenty three separate occasions.” Janis laughs a little. “I love you, so much. Thank you for everything you do for me.”

I smile reaching out to gently pull Janis closer. “I love you too.”

Let my eyes shut again as Janis curls up by my chest. This time, I’m not scared to fall back asleep. Because Janis is right there. She doesn't hate me. She doesn't resent me or think I’m overbearing. 

It’s okay.

We’re okay.

I’m okay.

soft them fic soft them fic so- @realmisspolarbear @musicallygt @smallsoysauce

[jeontaeh]

SEVENTEEN¹⁷

✫  ✬  ✭  ✬  ✫

Anyways so Jungkook and Taehyung were dropped off on the planet. "We're gonna go chill up in the orbit because the oxygen here is ruining our engine fumes. Bye!" Namjoon said before they pulled the ship back up.

Apparently there was some technology that Hoseok found onboard. Some kind of device that makes you transport from wherever you are to the ship if the person transporting you is also in the ship. So they wanted to try that out too.

But anyways this was definitely the weirdest planet they'd been to so far, because there was no one. It was far stretched land of what looked like marble. The land was made of marble, slong with marble mountains and rocks in the distance.

There was a silence between Jungkook and Taehyung, but Taehyung broke it. "Let's set up a station somewhere to find out stuff about this place." Taehyung said, and Jungkook didn't reply, just nodded.

They walked on the marble path, seeing weird trees on the side which grew some kind of white cotton, and streams going past with black water inside. The sky was pink. Everything was weird.

"Are there any entities at this planet? Jeez it's barren- maybe we landed ourselves in a desert or something-"

"Taehyung stop talking. Your voice is annoying as fuck," Jungkook snapped, and Taehyung paused.

Jungkook kept walking in anger, and Taehyung frowned a little to himself. "Um.. okay." Taehyung mumbled, and then kept walking.

Taehyung noticed how Jungkook's dark pink hair seemed darker than usual, tan skin flaring under the blue (?) sun. "Are you mad because of the brownie thing? Don't worry- I think we can control it somehow. Maybe if we just resist the urge.. or drink some water or something-"

"No I'm mad because it's hot- of course I'm mad because of the stupid brownie thing! Now I'm gonna have to fuck you, and I don't even want to!" Jungkook snapped harshly, and Taehyung pursed his lips.

"I'm not going to force you into something you don't want to do-"

Jungkook scoffed. "Right. Like you haven't already forced me to spent time with you right now." Jungkook snarked. "I get it, you want my dick. Can you just fuck off?"

Taehyung's eyebrows furrowed. "Jungkook you're being a real asshole, you know? I'm not even saying anything- why the fuck are you so angry?" Taehyung snapped, and Jungkook looked at him with darkened eyes, stepping towards him.

"What? Are you gonna talk shit about me again and break my other arm too? Fuck. Off. Your face is pissing me off." Jungkook growled, and Taehyung gulped and took a step back, turning away.

Taehyung walked a few steps away, seeing a big rock under a mountainous region. He walked over to there and then looked over it. This seemed like a good place for a station.

"Jungkook we can set the station up here," Taehyung said, waving over at him. Jungkook rolled his eyes and walked over to him.

Taehyung set down the suitcase and pulled it open to reveal the computer inside. He pressed some buttons and some radars stuck out, and numbers began appearing on screen.

"This-" Taehyung said, pointing at the top of the screen. "Indicated the oxygen levels of the planet. And below that is that-"

"I know what it is, Taehyung. I'm not a dumbass," Jungkook cut him off, and Taehyung nodded quickly, not wanting to piss him off even more. Jungkook looked at it for a few seconds, and then stood up straight.

"You don't know what it is, do you?"

"No." Jungkook mumbled in embarrassment, and Taehyung chuckled. Jungkook glared at him.

"Don't need to laugh at me, don't be a piece of shit as always." Jungkook snapped, and Taehyung's smile left, and he nodded, leaning over to look at the screen.

"Y-yeah- that's the gravitational level. It's changing constantly, for some reason. I don't know why, though.. that's odd." Taehyung mumbled to himself, and Jungkook moved around the rock, kicking a smaller stone away.

"I'm bored." Jungkook commented, and Taehyung looked at him. "I'm guessing the brownie thing was fake. Thank god," Jungkook snickered, and Taehyung looked at him with worry.

"You don't have to be mean, Jungkook. I get you're not interested in me, trust me I'm not either- but let's just be civilised-"

"Stop fucking lecturing me all the goddamn time! I literally did not ask for your input at all. Just shut up and do all that nerd shit you always do." Jungkook snapped, and Taehyung sighed, walking over to him.

"Okay, that's it. You're pissing me off now. I'm tired of you talking to me like crap- I apologised a million times, and now you're just being a bitch about it." Taehyung said, and Jungkook looked at him angrily.

"I don't care that you apologised, you hear me? You guys all think I'm dumb as shit- and you broke my fucking arm or whatever the fuck. So just shut the fuck up!" Jungkook shouted, and Taehyung frowned.

"You're way too angry, Kook. You need to relax-" Taehyung started, and then Jungkook shoved him with one hand.

"Say one more word to me and I'll break your hand next, got it?" Jungkook growled lowly, and Taehyung gulped, looking at him in confusion.

"O-okay-" Taehyung stammered, and then Jungkook pushed past him and walked away somewhere.

Taehyung gulped to himself, feeling stupid and weak, and he doesn't like feeling weak. It doesn't feel right. He went back over to the computer to check on how the stuff was going. He didn't feel anything in his body so far, which was good.

Maybe the brownies didn't take effect after all.

20 minutes passed, Jungkook was sitting under a tree, and Taehyung in front of the computer, wildly confused at why the numbers kept changing. Weird fucking planet..

Suddenly, a wild animal ran through the path, it looked like a mix between a lion and a bird. It scared Jungkook and Taehyung, and Jungkook quickly got up and rushed over to Taehyung.

"What the fuck was that?" Jungkook asked, and Taehyung shrugged. "I don't know. It's gone now, I think."

Jungkook sighed, and then gave him a look with his eyebrows dark, face firm. "You feel anything yet?"

Taehyung shook his head. Jungkook looked away. "I kinda do. Feels like my dick's growing in size." Jungkook said, and Taehyung stilled.

Oh. Taehyung sighed, looking back at the computer. "Just saying, if things get worse, just bend over for me quick, will you? It'll be a good way to take my anger out, too," Jungkook said, leaning his elbows onto the marble rock.

Taehyung rolled his eyes, typing something onto the computer. "Sure." Taehyung said sarcastically, and Jungkook snickered, staring off at the planet and how weird it was.

"You're such a pussy. I can't even imagine you topping." Jungkook said, and Taehyung ignored the comments because they pissed him off, and instead tried checking the timing and axis of this planet. "Even Jimin would top you. And that says something," Jungkook snickered loudly, and Taehyung kept pressing buttons on the computer.

"You really had me convinced you were dominant, too. Bullshit. You're bullshit, y'know that?" Jungkook said, and Taehyung sighed. "You probably take it up the ass every time but tried to change shit for once just to fuck with me." Jungkook laughed.

"I mean, I'd fuck the shit out of you, and show you how-" Jungkook started, and then paused.

Taehyung looked at him, confused as to why he shut up. Taehyung stood up to see what Jungkook was looking at. Maybe it was an alien or another animal. He stepped closer to Jungkook, until Jungkook's back was touching his front.

Jungkook was still frozen still, eyes wide. Taehyung frowned. "Kook, you okay?"

Jungkook was, in fact, not okay.

While talking shit about Taehyung right in front of his face, it's like karma came in riding a horse and stabbed him in the face with a sword. For the moment the last word slipped out of his tongue. He felt it.

A warm, wet sensation drip down his ass.

And after that it felt like utter chaos inside of him. It felt like fire in his lower stomach, his fingers turned nimble, an ache between his legs until- until he realised he was hard. His mind began cluttering, thoughts became fragmented and began moving further apart.

The brownies were in effect.

And the one with the nut had to take it too.

"Why're you sweating? Jungkook, what's going on?" Taehyung asked, and Jungkook's eyes felt glassy, lips needing to be licked. His body burned all over, and his thighs felt ready to give out.

"Are you sick? Oh god-" Taehyung let out, placing his hand on Jungkook's waist. And just that small gesture sent a gush of... wetness down Jungkook's thighs. Oh my god. Jungkook whimpered.

Taehyung paused himself.

"Tae-" Jungkook let out, and Taehyung left his hold on him. "T-Taehyung-"

Taehyung's eyes widened at the wet patch on Jungkook's pants. There was a silence.

And then,

"Dude did you piss yourself?"

"No!" Jungkook cried, weak, fingers gripping onto the marble rock. "I-I don't know what's g-going on! T-Tae-" Jungkook said, and Taehyung frowned.

Taehyung gripped Jungkook's waist and turned him around, and Jungkook gasped at that, and Taehyung pressed him against a wall, and Jungkook let out a weak whimper. More gush of slick went down his hole.

Taehyung's eyes widened. "Bro are these the fucking brownies-"

Jungkook nodded weakly, hurriedly. "Y-yes! Do- do something- p-please-" Jungkook stammered, and Taehyung gulped.

"Does it hurt?" Taehyung asked, and Jungkook nodded. "Jesus- you ate like 20 of those things. Wait, does this mean I'll get.... a bigger dick?!" Taehyung gasped, and Jungkook's hands fell to his side, a pitched moan leaving his lips.

"Ah- i- it hurts!" Jungkook squeaked, and Taehyung gulped. "Oh god.. I don't know what to do.. okay- um- wait-" Taehyung mumbled, and then gripped Jungkook's red trousers.

Taehyung pulled them down slowly, and Jungkook felt a flush spread across his cheeks, turning redder than he was already. Taehyung looked down at him. "Your dick looks fine," Taehyung said, and then turned Jungkook around and pressed his front against the marble. Jungkook whimpered at how the cool smooth stone felt against his hard cock.

Taehyung's eyes widened from where he was stood behind Jungkook. "Holy fuck- you're wet." Taehyung whispered, and then looked at Jungkook wearily, but then took two fingers, and slid them between his ass, feeling up his hole. Jungkook gasped at that, and Taehyung looked at his fingers, and gasped himself.

It was... glittery? Jesus fucking Christ. "You're.. wet... like a girl. You're producing slick, Kook- I-I don't know how this is happening-" Taehyung mumbled, and then brought the fingers to himself, and then got a whiff of it.

That set Taehyung's brownie alarms going.

The smell of it felt like a jab to his mind, and Taehyung's silver eyes darkened, turning dark grey. "Fuck," Taehyung let out, and then got down on his knees instantly.

Jungkook gulped, feeling so embarrassed- but when Taehyung pulled at his cheeks and lapped his tongue down his entrance, Jungkook let go of that embarrassment.

"Fuck!" Jungkook let out, eyes widening. "Fuck fuck- your tongue is in my ass-" Jungkook continued, and Taehyung gripped his ass tighter and began lapping up all the slick wetness he was producing.

Taehyung pulled away, lips glistening. "I'm trying to help you, will you shut up?" Taehyung snapped, and Jungkook whimpered at the way Taehyung raised his voice, and instantly produced more slick.

It felt like the lube got splattered onto Taehyung's face, and he groaned, taking it with his hand and wiping it off. "Fuck. This isn't gonna stop, is it?" Taehyung grumbled, and then stood up straight, turning Jungkook around.

Jungkook looked red and hot all over, and Taehyung sighed. "God Namjoon's gonna kill us," Taehyung mumbled to himself, and then pulled Jungkook's red shirt right off.

Jungkook stood there naked, and wobbled forward, gripping Taehyung's shoulders. "I need- I-I think I- I don't know what's happening- I'm going fucking crazy please-" Jungkook breathed, his lips red and hair redder.

Taehyung stood there, emotionless look on his face. "I need- I need-"

"What do you need?" Taehyung whispered, and Jungkook gripped Taehyung's silver clothes arms.

"I think- I think I n-need you t-to- ah- I can't say it!" Jungkook let out, his eyes suddenly glistening. Taehyung didn't respond. He stood still.

"Please, T-Taehyung-" Jungkook cried out, and then felt more of the wetness drip down his thighs, feeling so uncomfortable between his legs he had to widen his legs. His cock was so painfully hard.

Taehyung looked down at his cock. "Doesn't seem to have grown any bigger," Taehyung commented, and then looked up at Jungkook, whose cheeks were pink.

Jungkook whimpered, and Taehyung looked a little confused, but then Jungkook closed his eyes tightly an came instantly.

Taehyung's eyes widened. "Jesus fuck those brownies sure are working, aren't they?" Taehyung let out, and Jungkook felt a tear roll down his cheek. He stumbled forward, grabbing Taehyung's shirt, and then slid down to his knees in front of him.

"Please, please, please Taehyung- p-please-" Jungkook whimpered, fingers fumbling with Taehyung's pants because Jungkook could see Taehyung's boner beneath it.

Jungkook pulled Taehyung pants down a little, and his dick literally jumper out. Jungkook almost screamed.

"Holy crap!" Jungkook let out, staring with his eyes huge at Taehyung's dick.

Massive, Monstrous, Monumental. It was so fucking big.

"Oh god what the fuck-" Taehyung let out, looking at his dick. "Ohhh I don't like that. That's too big, that's kind of scary. Fuck." Taehyung said in worry, but Jungkook moved back, until his back hit the rock.

Jungkook sat down on the marble walkway, and then spread his legs instantly, lifting them up. Taehyung just looked at him.

"Say it."

Jungkook stayed silent.

"Say it."

Jungkook shook his head. "Jungkook, if you don't say it, I won't do it."

Jungkook groaned in annoyance, and then looked away, building up the courage, and then looking back at Taehyung with courage. "Kim Taehyung." Jungkook said, and Taehyung nodded.

"I need your dick inside me." Jungkook let out, and then closed his eyes tightly. "Please."

Taehyung smirked, and then got down on the floor himself. He gathered up the slick at Jungkook's hole, making the younger squeak in surprise, and then lathered his behemothic cock with it.

"Want me to fuck you, Kookie?" Taehyung whispered, and Jungkook nodded eagerly. "Want my cock, do you?"

Jungkook nodded even harder. "But wasn't I a pussy?" Taehyung said, tilting his head. Jungkook gulped. Taehyung took his fingers and pushed them into Jungkook's leaking entrance.

"Couldn't see me topping?" Fingers dragged up his wet walls until they found his prostate, and Jungkook let out a cry. "I couldn't be dominant?"

"I-I'm sorry! Please Taehyungie- your- your dick. In me. Want. Now." Jungkook blabbered, and Taehyung pushed Jungkook's legs up until his knees were against his chest.

"You were a real dickhead to me, you know that right?" Taehyung said softly, and Jungkook nodded. "And you treated me like shit even though I apologised to you?"

Jungkook nodded harder. "Do you deserve my cock?"

Jungkook shook his head. And before Taehyung could speak, Jungkook did.

"No. But I'm your little bitch and you'll give it to me anyways." Jungkook whispered back, doe eyes blinking.

Jungkook smiled at how Taehyung gulped. "Fuckin' hell- yeah you are. Fuck, god those goddamn brownies-"

✫  ✬  ✭  ✬  ✫

https://jeontaeh.tumblr.com/post/647228157625352192/eighteen%C2%B9%E2%81%B8

[magic5ball]

Nature Trail to Hell Arc IV: Megamart of Darkness (9)

Chapter 9: Dropping the A-Bomb

           I just stood there, having no idea what to say or do. It was like looking in a mirror at the grim, jaded hump of crap you know you’re going to be in ten years if the scholarship doesn’t work out. It was a sight that would bring most grown men to their knees, so considering I was a little kid at the time, it was a wonder I was even standing at all.

Yet somehow, I managed to spit words.

“T-the water.” I trembled, “g-give it back.”

He looked at the glowing plastic bottle in his hand. “Sorry kid, no can do. This here’s company property now. But if you want, I’m more than willing to sit down for an adult conversation.”

The way he said those last two words made my blood freeze, no small task when the ‘sun’ was shining so bright overhead. 

He gestured over to an area at the foot of the inflatable volcano, where two plastic chairs and a table rested. On top of the table were several Red Solo cups and a bottle of Crystal Springs Bottled Water.

“Like I said, its’ been awhile since I’ve had company. Besides the Wegmart Company, that is! Ha!”

My feeble ten year old mind struggled to grapple with the fact that someday I would find jokes like that funny. One of the most horrible experiences of my life.

But what could I do? Thanks to stories from my gangster days, I knew darn well what this A-Bomb was capable of, and I wasn’t really in a position to take chances. So I followed him to the tables, trying not to think about how Bokrug should have been here by now, despite his lumbering movements.

Naturally, I didn’t make a peep. If there’s one thing I learned from comic books, its’ best not to set these friendly-lookin’ types off.

When we did get to that table, first thing the guy did was offer me some of that crisp, refreshing, bottled water. Though the heat from the lava made it really tempting, I knew I’d never be able to live with myself if I did.

“Suit yourself, kiddo.” He said, pouring a cup of his own. “We aren’t that different, you know. In fact, you’re a lot like me when I was little…”

On the outside, I stared like the teacher was about to bring the whipping stick. On the inside, I wanted to scream, because long talks with my Dad had taught me where this was going.

                                                      .   .   .

“When I was your age, I also went to a Summer Camp, it was called Camp Salmon or something like that. Anyway, the counselors running the camp were mean. Like, really, really mean, so the second I could I dashed right on out of there and into the woods. Sound familiar?”

Naturally, I didn’t say a word. Throat was too parched, anyway. A-Bomb laughed.

“Oh who am I kidding?! Of course it does! I know because Wegmart has surveillance cameras everywhere!”

He pressed something under the table, and from the ground emerged a device made from a bunch of big screen T.V.s hastily duct taped together, several flashing images of my adventures over the summer. The rest showed the frozen foods aisle, where my feathered allies were getting ‘ahem’, ‘cleaned up’ in the most gruesome way possible.

“Like you, Watterson Tostig, I went into the underworld and escaped. I too, was inducted into a gang of dinosaurs. I, too, became God of Roadside America. But at the end of the day, guys like us have to settle down and face reality. Wegmart saved me, kid, and if you’re willing, it’ll save you too.”

All that time, I didn’t turn away from the screen. I couldn’t.

“I thought I could spend the rest of my life hiding in the produce aisle. But I was foolish back then, a rogue vagrant eating grapefruit peels. Until THEY rescued we. The founders of Wegmart took my withered ghost and showed me the way to love, happiness, and most importantly, low, low prices!”

Yeah, yeah. The low, low price of a human soul!

“I was weak at first, but the kind folks at Wegmart saw my talents as a brown bagger and before I knew it, I had my own private toothpick in the faculty room! After that, they put me into production.”

Here’s the thing about young me being stoic: even at the best of times, he was kinda bad at it. Sometimes I even wonder if he had some kind of attention deficit. Not saying little me cocked an eyebrow at the mention of ‘production’, but he looked at me like I did before he went on yammering again. 

“Oh yeah! You’re not in the know of company business. Right!  See, our store used to have a 3D printer they would use to take the employee of the month and just clone him until they had an entire staff of the perfect worker! And yours truly has held the position for ten years!”

Ever since I was young enough to confuse Wegmart with Disneyland, I’d always noticed how all the brown baggers looked the same. Suddenly, everything made terrible, terrible sense. But worse was the realization that, just like those cereal box sweepstakes, the empty, dotted line cutout of a man could have easily been me!

“Shame they recalled the printer. Something about lead based ink. Or the clones having higher than normal rates of cancer. Really, I just signed the paperwork. But enough of the sad stuff, Watters! Let’s talk future! Because I’ve seen you in action and man, you’re just the kind of spunk to breathe life into this company!”

Least, I think that’s what he said. Bokrug’s running tardy was really nerving me up.

“So join me, Watterson! And let us rule the Wegmart like manager and employee!”

“No.” I whispered.

“Eh?” A-Bomb cocked an eyebrow, like he’d never heard the word in years.

And with that, I could stay silent no longer. The anger, the one that’d been boiling so steadily I me like the giant volcano we sat at the foot of, went full Krakatoa!

“Are you deaf, poophead?! I said NO!. And you know why? Because all you did was make a giant self-pity sob story for yourself, because you think that if you can drag me down with you into this Megamart of Darkness, you’ll feel better about stealing water from a bunch of geese! I’m pretty sure you could have gotten some from Rite Aid if you were willing to play fair!”

“Rite Aid doesn’t sell-“

“My point is, you’re just jealous of me because I’m not a cog in the machine like you! And that ‘we’re so alike’ bullcrap wouldn’t work on a five year old! So no, I won’t join you, because I might have sold my soul to a Tako Shak, but even I have stinking standards, you self-pitying TURD!”

A-Bomb stared at me, mouth agape for a few seconds. “T-the T-word?...”

“You heard me right, TURD!, so you better let me go unless you want more of the same! I’ll even tell my Mom, and you really don’t want to see her when she’s angry!”

“No, no, I get it…” he pushed a button under the table.

Another hole opened in the ground, and from it emerged what I can only describe as a nuclear missile made entirely of fuzzy orange Shampows.

“Your friends and family are holding you back, little bro! So how about I sweeten the deal: you join me, and I don’t rain Shampow down on your entire neighborhood!”

I tried to move, only to find myself stuck to my seat. Literally. The son of a snitch must have superglued the thing beforehand!

“So, do we have a deal?”

I didn’t say a word.

“Do. We. Have. A. Deal?”

Now I might have been a bit of a turd back in the day, but darn it, I couldn’t let an entire neighborhood get wiped from existence! Especially when the neighbor hadn’t even returned out lawnmower yet!

“Okay! Okay! I’ll join you! I’ll be your whipping boy. I’ll even stock Barbie dolls if I have to! Just don’t press hat button!”

And you know what the prick did? He kept putting his finger closer and closer to the launch button!

“But I thought you said you wouldn’t do it if I joined!”

“Foolish Watt! Your petty loyalties to the neighborhood make you weak! We must purge this from your mind so you can know true Wegmart! Just like my manager did to my neighborhood!”

But you know what the worst part was? He said this using the most condescending, prickish voice I could imagine.

Still, one thing needed clearing up.

“Hey A-Bomb? What was your neighborhood?”

Guy didn’t say a word, but the way he shut up after that spoke plenty.

“… They called it New Jersey.” He whispered.

I rolled my eyes, knowing full well it might be the last time I ever express sarcasm. Of course!

Time slowed to a crawl as I waited on the imminent destruction of everything I ever gave a crap about. Oh, I tried to see things from the half full perspective, but not even the knowledge my douchebag brother was probably going to get caught dab smack in the middle of the detonation zone passed out on the couch watching teen drama reruns could compensate for everything. At least A-Bomb was taking his sweet time pressing, probably so he could rub it in more.

In fact, he was taking a lot of sweet time. (Granted five minutes is pretty long for a ten year old, but still!) Then I noticed he was pressing the detonation button multiple times, each time faster and more flustered. I looked up, wondering if the Lord himself had intervened on behalf of little old me, even after everything. 

In fact, my salvation had come in the form of a certain goose, who grinned triumphantly, a plug and wire in his beak, machine gun cradled in his wings.

“Bokrug!”

The noble bird spit out the plug, beaming with triumph despite being so plucked of feathers he was practically naked. A-Bomb was, on the other hand, for the first time since I saw him feeling something other than calm, collected, or several other words you find in yoga advertisements. His face turned so red I figured he’d explode any minute, just like his namesake.

“YOU!” he leapt up from his seat, facing down the glorious gander. ”I had ONE chance to find happiness! ONE chance to have somebody to share this miserable job! Years of planning, plotting, scheming, and with one bite you ruined it!” He unsheathed those golf clubs from his back. “Do you know what its’ like to run a store with only clones of yourself?! With everyone knowing exactly what you do?! Its’ so, so BOORIIINNGGG!”

“Then perhaps you should have found a happiness that did not require the suffering of another.” He bared his beak, bits of Wegmart technology still stuck in them. “Or technology easily damaged by the humblest of beaks.” like he was emphasizing the point, he cocked the machine gun, maing probably the world’s most satisfying click. 

“Who do you think you are, my Mom?!” He spun his golf clubs around, making a combination of kung-fu poses and noises that could only be described as either really stupid or really racist. Possibly both.

“Bokrug-kun! You have brought great dishonor upon my house. Prepare to die!” he cried in the phoniest Japanese accent I ever heard.

“I’m Egyptian, you a$$hole!”

With a guttural roar, the waterfowl from hell charged in kind, raining bullets like hellfire.

It was the awesomest f*cking thing I ever saw.

[burnt-tomato]

could i request some headcannons for yamaguchi and kageyama having a really touchy crush and how they deal with it. (i.e she will randomly sit in their lap, give loads of hugs and kiss their cheeks etc) 💕💕

A a a a a a a a a a thanks a lot for the ask this is too cute ohmygod!! Ilysm!!!!♡♡

This is my first time answering an ask and a headcannon lol so I don’t know if it’s good or not lmao

Yamaguchi

• Ac k k kk kkk--- . This is too cute. Too pure. Too innocent. Too u g h. M y h e a r t. He needs more love. More appreciation. More screen time. More everything.

• Ok lmao I'll be serious now

• Poor boy. Even the slightest physical contact he’ll just… fall harder for you lol.

• Blushing here blushing there blushing anytime anywhere Jesus please help the poor boy he’s gonna faint

• Crush?? Damn just date already

• Since he was too shy (d a m n t o o c u t e), you were the first to confess and to tell you how he felt he just hugged you reallyyyyy tightly

• Get a boy like yams he’s just too frikin precious I’m gonna die

• Is too shy to make the first move and you know it, so you always make sure to be the first to make a move

• You just LOVE seeing the boy have his face red as a fuccin tomato. Whenever you suddenly hold his hands or sudden cuddles without warning, he just freezes, turns red and heats up so much you could feel his warmth, and just stutters when trying to speak.

• Whenever you kiss him on the cheek, whether he knew or it was by surprise, he’ll turn red as Tendou's hair, freeze for like 10 minutes straight, and after will just flap his arms up and down, trying his best to ask you why you did it (But fails miserably cuz you couldn’t understand him because of how much he was stuttering, but he cute as fuck tho)

• The farthest you’ve gone to public PDA is probably holding hands and just that he’s already blushing so damn hard

• Whenever he flushes with embarrassment, he tries to hide his face by covering it with his hands or looking away (damn it’s too cute)

• Sitting on his lap? Damn pretty sure you just killed him lmao. He loves it a lot because he gets to place his head on your head (because you’re small as heck and he loves to tease you about it lmao totally wasn’t because of Tsukki's influence), but on the other hand you can feel his entire body trembling, so when you turn to take a glance at his face, he’s eyes are hella wide, red face that reminds you of Tendou's hair. He notices you looking and he just looks away. This makes you laugh at him, and he just looks down in embarrassment.

• What the hell when typing this on MsWord, just Yamaguchi's headcannons took an entire page lmao

Kageyama

• Lmao honestly this is kinda hard bc I never really looked into kags except in kagehina lol

• Blushy kageyama is best kageyama

• When confessing, he had to be peptalked by the entire team, but Hinata accidentally told you he had feelings for you, so you decided to tease him by giving him physical touches to the point he just lost his cool and accidentally shouted his feelings (*snickering tanaka and noya*, suga took a video, the 3rd years hella proud, tsukki making fun of him, the rest of the team cheering him on and forcing you closer to him), so you 2 decided to start dating

• At first, was too shy to hug or hold hands with you even if you’ve been dating for What, a month already, heck, couldn’t even find the courage to touch you so like yams, you make the first move

• The first time you hug him, inside he was literally screaming, but on the outside he was blushing and couldn’t look at you directly, trying to keep up his tough image lmao

• Surprise kisses on the cheek? SwageyamaTobiyolo.exe has stopped working.

• For real, the first time you kissed him on the cheek, he froze and just stood there. After snapping back to reality, he pulled you and hugged you so damn tight you might stop breathing.

• The first time you decide to sit on his lap was when he was studying really hard for a test that would determine whether he’ll get to attend the training camp, you were at his house, playing bc you’re on the same class as tsukki and yams meaning you’re really smart. Even if you insisted on teaching him, he denied bc he wanted to look independent infront of you. You were getting restless since he hasn’t paid attention to you for the entire night and he looks like he’s about to faint, you walked up to him, grabbed and threw his notebook and sat on his lap. KageyamaTobio.exe died. Even if he was bright red, he only stuttered a little and asked you what were you doing. “you looked like you needed a rest. Don’t overwork yourself and let me teach you damn it!”. He looked away for a sec and then he put his face on your shoulder next to your face and slept there. Damn he’s fuckin cute when he’s tired and is just sleeping there.

• Sometimes he would get a bit annoyed because you insisted on holding hands with him in public, but since he loves you so much that he's scared to lose you, he agreed to it

Lmao sorry if it was bad I tried to be close to their actual personalities. Hope you like it!

-♤

[my-creative-hell]

Reality (Game au)

“Grave! So happy you could join us, it wouldn’t be the same without you!” Scarlet’s sprite smiles joyfully as the sound of her high pitch beeps fill the room, substituting for a voice.

“Really? T-Thanks!” Blushing slightly, Grave’s voice falls quiet as her response is typed into the game for her.

“Of course! Everything’s more interesting when you’re around.” Scarlet responds quickly, her words programmed as she smiles again.

“I-I’m glad you think so!” Grave looks away from the screen as she glows happily, her heart thrumming inside her chest.

“I know so! You’ve protected us so much, how can we ever repay you?” Scarlet enquires, Grave watching as her answer fills the screen.

“I d-dunno! You don’t really have to if you don’t wanna…” Grave explains, shrugging as she smiles happily, enjoying the conversation.

“But you’ve helped my people so much, and princess Rose’s people as well. There isn’t anything you would like in return?” Scarlet pushes gently, making Grave look down nervously as she thinks over her answer.

“Wanna… hold hands… c-cause… yeah.” Grave stammers out, feeling too nervous to form a proper sentence as the game responds automatically.

“That’s the least I can do for you, so of course!” Scarlet grins brightly as her automated response comes through

“Really?” Grave questions, containing herself from glowing brightly a she looks at the screen in surprise.

“Absolutely! You’ve helped us all so much.” Scarlet explains, her sprite nodding in confirmation as she speaks.

“Thank you!” Grave exclaims, giggling as she squeaks happily, glowing brightly in joy as Scarlet smiles.

“You are very welcome!” She continues, the screen around her distorting slightly as the game continues, looking glitched and wrong. Feeling confused, Grave reaches out a hand, gently touching the glitched part of the screen, making Scarlet’s sprite jump in response.

“Are you alright?” Scarlet questions, an unusual response that makes Grave more confused as she pulls her hand away, examining it quickly.

“Yeah, I’m fine… you okay?” She returns the question, watching Scarlet’s sprite frown in response, an expression Grave hasn’t seen before in the game.

“Of course I am, why would I not be?” Scarlet questions, her automated response seeming off, unlike any of the programmed responses Grave had ever heard.

Feeling concern bubble inside of her, Grave frowns as her glow turns sour, feeling worried as Scarlet’s sprite seems to look around as the glitches on the screen glow before the screen flashes white.

Frowning more, Grave glows brightly as the computer begins to make strange noises, the screen flashing as Grave curls herself into a ball, feeling upset and worried.

The computer whirs as a strange sensation comes over Grave, feeling as if she’s being pulled out of her reality as she shakes, her mind buzzing painfully.

The whirring stops as Grave comes to a halt, calm splashing noises coming from behind her as she opens her eyes slightly, able to see sand surrounding her as she looks around, feeling confused.

As she looks around, Grave notices a siren sitting on a rock nearby her, her tail splashing through the water calmly as Grave’s shaking lessens.

“H-Hi…” Grave starts quietly, feeling calmer as the siren turns to look at her, smiling gently.

“Hey, Grave right?” She questions, her familiar appearance clicking in Grave’s brain as she nods in response.

“Yeah! S-Siryn?” She returns the question, smiling as she begins to feel much better about her situation as Siryn nods.

“That’s the name. Didn’t expect you to get brought into all this.” She confides calmly, watching Grave with a keen expression.

“I-Its fine tho… kinda better than home.” Grave explains, giggling softly as she glows in response.

“Well you’re in here now, in what’s supposed to be a game, strange huh?” Siryn laments, smiling as she turns to face Grave properly.

“Yeah… not the weirdest thing I’ve seen though.” Grave explains, playing with her fingers as she shrugs, a soft giggle escaping her.

“Any idea why you’re in here with us?” Siryn questions, laughing quietly at Grave’s response as she watches her.

“Um… g-glitches… yeah.” Grave explains, thinking her words through as she glows in confusion, making Siryn hum quietly.

“That might be it, wonder if that’s got anything to do with that stupid plot…” She ponders absentmindedly.

“It might! Who knows?” Grave questions, laying down on her back as she levitates from the ground slightly.

“You’re a lot calmer about someone cursing the princesses than I thought you’d be.” Siryn comments, frowning gently as she watches Grave.

“I’m sorry?” Grave questions, watching Siryn with concern as she frowns more, sliding off of her rock to rest in the shallow end of the water, still watching Grave.

“Its all any NPC wants to talk about. Not long after the game bugged someone broke into the castle and managed to corner both Scarlet and Rose. Definitely an evil presence, and I heard they were using magic to curse them.” Siryn explains carefully, watching as Grave lights up in panic, hiding her hands in an effort to prevent herself from biting them.

“Wow, you really didn’t know. Well if its any consolation, it shouldn’t be a fatal curse, so they should be alright. You wanna go to them?” Siryn questions, swimming closer to Grave.

Nodding, Grave shakes as Siryn shifts into her human form, offering her a gentle hand, pulling Grave up as she accepts it.

Siryn pats her gently as she walks, leading her to the castle as Grave squeezes her hand, feeling slightly better as Siryn returns the touch, the castle looming in the distance as they walk.

Grave manages to smile as they get closer, glowing in concern, though she calms down as Siryn gets to the castle, patting Grave’s shoulder as they stand outside it.

Hesitating for a moment, Grave clips herself through the doors as Siryn follows behind her, the castle around them seemingly empty.

“Upstairs maybe?” Siryn offers, Grave feeling fear twist inside of her stomach for Scarlet and Rose.

“Y-Yeah…” She agrees nevertheless, Siryn following as she walks up the stairs, leading her to Scarlet’s room silently.

Shaking, Grave opens the door to Scarlet’s room, able to see both her and Rose being pushed against the wall by something she’d never seen before, its body glitched, like it didn’t belong in the game.

Grave’s brain twinges in pain as it screams in panic, making her glow brightly in worry as Scarlet notices her, wincing as the glitched figure pushes her further into the wall.

Grave tries to use her abilities as her brain struggles to focus, the creature turning to look at her as it holds Scarlet and Rose up.

“S t r a n g e  c r e a t u r e.” It comments, its voice distorted and off as Grave panics more, biting into her fingers harshly, drawing blood as it smiles at her, letting go of Rose and Scarlet slightly to look at her.

Grave’s fingers spit blood as she clamps her teeth down against each other, the glitches creature beginning to approach her.

A wall of distortion comes from Grave as the buzzing noise coming from her starts to hurt her ears, the creature flinching at the pin as it hisses at her, backing away.

Another wall of distorted pain comes from Grave as she starts to feel physical and mental pain, the glitched creature vanishing as Siryn rushes forward.

Grave’s breath comes in hard, shallow gasps as her body feels as though its burning, Siryn quickly moving to catch Rose and Scarlet as they collapse, carefully moving them to the bed.

Curling herself into a tight ball, Grave panics as her body burns up, making her sweat as Siryn kneels in front of her.

“Its okay, everything’s okay now.” Siryn’s calming voice cuts through Grave’s thoughts as she gently holds her in her arms, making Grave squeak in surprise and slight fear, her glow dimming slightly.

“It’s done, it’s all over. You’re safe.” Siryn continues, shushing Grave softly as she rubs gentle circles into her back, Grave’s buzzing quieting slightly as she calms, glowing less.

“They’re gone, and its over.” Siryn reassures, gently pressing their foreheads together as Grave beeps softly, hiding in Siryn as she calms more, feeling better.

Humming softly, Siryn wraps Grave in a gentle hug, her glow close to gon as she stops shaking, a soft beep coming from her as Siryn leans out of the hug, flashing her a gentle smile.

Grave squeaks quietly, a small smile coming to her face as she calms down, though Siryn frowns at her still bleeding fingers, ripping some fabric off of her shirt to bandage her fingers tightly.

“T-Thanks…” Grave glows happily as she keeps her voice quiet, Siryn nodding kindly.

“Of course, can’t have you in trouble as well.” She explains, her voice calm and gentle as she speaks.

Grave smiles as she sits, feeling comfortable as she pokes Siryn’s nose, earning a smile of her won as Siryn stands, offering her a hand up.

“Warm…” Grave mumbles quietly, accepting Siryn’s hand to stand up, feeling steady on her feet now.

“I figured out what the curse is.” Siryn explains as she pulls Grave up, gently patting her shoulder.

“What is it?” Grave questions, looking at Siryn intensely, feeling happiness, excitement and concern swirling inside of her.

“It looks like that… think glitched their coding, meaning that they cant survive in this world any longer, but they might be able to outside of it.” Siryn explains, a frown wrinkling her features.

“Oh…” Grave frowns, glowing softly as she fiddles with her hands, thinking as Siryn looks over to Scarlet and Rose, unconscious on the bed.

“They should be fine in another reality, but I don’t know where they would go.” Siryn explains, thinking through their options.

“U-Um… they could go to my house maybe?” Grave offers, tapping her feet against the floor as she speaks.

“You’d be willing to take care of them?” Siryn questions, watching Grave keenly, her expression sharp.

“Of course I would!!!” Grave confirms, smiling as she buzzes quietly, making Siryn nod, believing her.

“Okay, it should be fairly easy to reopen your world, so I can do that while you get them.” Siryn explains, sounding calm.

Wiggling happily, Grave carefully picks up the two princesses, carrying them gently as Siryn’s skin glows softly, the room around Grave shifting to her normal bedroom as she watches.

“That’s cool!” Grave exclaims, glowing as she looks around her room, Siryn smiling happily.

“Thanks. They should wake up as their bodies turn fully human, just make sure they get time to adjust.” Siryn advises.

“Babeys.” Grave comments quietly as she lies Scarlet and Rose down on her large bed, smiling gently as Siryn grins, glitching out of her room silently.

A small frown appears on Grave’s face, though it vanishes quickly as she sits down on the floor, glowing softly as she watches the two princesses. As she does, Scarlet coughs as her body shifts, unused to the action of breathing.

Glowing brighter, Grave watches with concern as Scarlet curls in on herself, whining quietly. Thinking for a moment, Grave climbs on the bed to gently hold Scarlet.

Scarlet relaxes slightly almost instantly, hiding in Grave slightly for warmth and comfort as she adjusts. Her face flushing slightly, Grave buzzes softly as Scarlet stirs slightly, humming quietly.

Poking Scarlet’s nose gently, Grave smiles as she scrunches her face in response, her eyes fluttering open in confusion as Grave hides in her, squeaking softly.

Jumping, Scarlet sits up slightly, panic evident on her face as she struggles to process what’s happening, Grave instantly letting her go and shuffling away to give her some space, feeling worried for her.

Shaking in panic and confusion, Scarlet coughs as her lungs start to adjust, Grave tapping her gently in an effort to get her attention and help calm her down.

Coughing dying down a small bit, Scarlet holds onto Grave’s hand as she calms slightly, Grave carefully petting her hair as Scarlet stops coughing, leaning into the soothing touch.

Grave smiles as she see’s Scarlet adjust, buzzing softly as Rose shifts on the bed, feeling excited as she watches her open her eyes, looking groggy and confused, but not panicked.

Beeping quietly, Grave hides in Scarlet as Rose sits up, rubbing her eyes as she looks around, making Grave giggle as Scarlet leans into her, glowing lightly.

“Where…?” Rose begins, no longer talking in sound, a kind sounding voice tumbling out of her mouth as she pushes herself to sit up properly.

“M-My house…” Grave explains, squeaking at the sound of Rose’s voice as she watches her, a gentle smile on her face.

“Grave? How? …What?” Rose questions, feeling confused on the situation as she watches Grave, quickly adjusting.

“Bad guy did a thing, so now you gotta be here so you’ll be safe.” Grave explains quietly, heart thumping in her chest.

“We’re… real?” Rose presses, feeling surprised as she looks at herself and Scarlet, taking it in.

“Y-Yeah!” Grave explains, smiling brightly as Rose seems happy, shifting on the bed carefully.

“Wow, dresses kind of suck now I can feel it.” Rose jokes, listening to the coarse fabric of her dress scratch against the bed.

“Oh! I-I can give you a hoodie if you’d like? They’re very comfy.” Grave offers, glowing softly as Rose nods, Scarlet feeling cold as she hides in her.

Taking off her hoodie, Grave hands it to Rose gently, watching her put it on as she glows brighter, warming up for Scarlet, who hides in her more for the heat.

“Babeys…” Grave squeaks softly as she wiggles, Rose cracking a smile as she moves over to them carefully.

“Why are you helping us? We’re only game characters.” Rose questions, watching Grave curiously.

“Because!” Grave explains, gently poking Rose’s nose as she blushes silently, Scarlet hugging Grave gently.

“Do you wanna cuddle?” Grave offers, thinking as she looks at Rose, watching her face go red as she nods silently.

Gently, Grave pulls Rose in for a hug as Rose blushes red, Scarlet curling up comfortably.

Looking away as she blushes, Grave wiggles gently, feeling Scarlet burrow into her, letting out a quiet yawn.

Squeaking, Grave glows as Scarlet gets sleepier, all three of them being pulled down by Rose to lay gently in the bed. Grave blushes as she closes her eyes, her glow going down as her heart thumps wildly.

“…Do you like us?” The quiet voice of Scarlet rings out as Rose giggles softly, sounding sleepy and muffled.

“O-Of course I do… how could I not?” Grave questions, hiding her flushed face as she speaks, her voice quiet.

“We weren’t real until now.” Scarlet answers, her voice sad as she shrugs gently, watching Grave.

“I-I liked you before you were real.” Grave explains, giggling quietly as she presses her forehead to Scarlet’s gently.

“We both like you too…” Scarlet sniffles quietly as she accepts the comforting touch, feeling better.

“You do?” Grave questions, looking at Scarlet as both her and Rose nod in reply, blushing.

“B-…” Grave frowns softly. “But why?” She questions, trying to come with her own answer as Rose pets Scarlet’s hair reassuringly.

“A lot of players would be mean… though we could only respond in programmed ways, we could see what you typed. You were always so nice, you treated us like we were human.” Scarlet explains quietly, hiding her flushed face from view.

“Aaaaa!” Grave screams quietly, hiding her face as she blushes, making Rose smile as she hugs them both gently. “I’ve been a t t a c k e d.” Grave squeaks, hiding herself more as Rose giggles, Scarlet feeling warm as she holds her.

“Can I, um…” Grave gets quiet as she speaks, looking at Rose nervously. “Can I kiss you?” She questions, Scarlet shifting as Rose blushes furiously, nodding in confirmation nevertheless.

Gently, Grave presses a kiss to Rose’s lips, feeling happy as she gets kissed back, Scarlet shifting to hug Grave more for comfort.

Squeaking, Grave hides in Rose as Scarlet whines at her indignantly, wanting some attention of her own.

Giggling, Grave holds Scarlet in her arms gently, giving her a soft kiss on her forehead as she cuddles her, making Scarlet laugh as she curls into Grave for comfort.

Glowing softly, Grave closes her eyes as Scarlet falls asleep besides her, feeling sleepy herself as she snuggles closer. Rose closes her eyes silently, falling asleep herself as Grave gets sleepier, gently stroking her hair as she hugs them, feeling sleepier each second, joining them slowly.

 Sunlight shines through the curtains as Grave stirs in the morning, keeping her eyes closed as she relishes in the calm aura in the room, too comfortable to think about moving.

Scarlet’s head rests against her chest gently, using Grave as a pillow as she curls around her, Rose hugging the both of them gently in her sleep, making Grave smile as she opens her eyes to look, not wanting to wake either of them up.

Scrunching her nose, Scarlet hides her face in Grave, making her squeak quietly as she glows, finding it very cute as Rose shifts, hugging her more. Squeaking again, Grave hides to keep herself quiet as her heart pounds loudly in her chest.

Shifting on her chest slightly, Scarlet lets out a small noise, making Grave frown slightly, though she doesn’t move just yet, not wanting to wake her up. Frowning softly, Scarlet clings onto Grave gently in her sleep.

Glowing dimly, Grave feels slightly worried as she shifts to hold Scarlet in her arms, listening to her hum softly as she stirs from sleep slightly at the touch.

Grave stops frowning slightly, though concern still swirls in her mind as Scarlet opens her eyes slightly, uncurling from her ball like posture.

Smiling at her gently, Grave pokes Scarlet’s nose gently, still feeling concern as Scarlet scrunches her nose, giving Grave a sleepy smile.

“Morning, beautiful.” Grave giggles quietly as she speaks, watching Scarlet’s face light up in a blush.

“…Morning.” She responds quietly, hiding her face from view as Grave glows softly.

“You good?” Grave questions, feeling worried for Scarlet still as she peeks from her hiding spot, nodding gently.

“Saw something, is that normal?” Scarlet questions, Grave feeling confusion and worry swirl inside of her.

“What did you see?” She asks softly, watching Scarlet with a soft expression as she waits for an answer.

“Um… I saw the thing that cursed us I think?” Scarlet explains, thinking through her answer as Grave frowns.

“Ah, you had a nightmare…” She explains, pressing her forehead against Scarlet’s gently. “Its normal, but not fun.” She continues.

“But at least I’m here, so I’m okay.” Scarlet smiles gently as she accepts the gentle touch.

“That’s true… I’m glad you’re okay.” Grave comments, glowing as she kisses Scarlet softly.

“I’m okay.” Scarlet confirms, squeaking at the affection quietly as she snuggles into Grave.

“Good!!!” Grave exclaims quietly, smiling as she holds Scarlet gently, wiggling as she giggles, Rose beginning to stir now.

Glowing softly, Grave looks at Rose, poking her nose gently as she opens her eyes, stretching in the bed.

“Good morning!” Grave exclaims quietly, smiling a Rose wiggles in the bed, returning the smile warmly.

“Morning.” She responds, voice calm as she gives Grave a gentle kiss, waking up slowly.

“Did you sleep okay?” Grave questions, blushing as she returns the kiss. Rose nods in response, gently petting both Grave’s and Scarlet’s hair.

Glowing softly, Grave closes her eyes at the soft touch, making Rose giggle as she litters both her and Scarlet with kisses.

Squeaking, Grave kisses Rose’s neck gently, watching her face go bright red as she hides from view in Grave.

“Cute!!!” Grave exclaims, laughing as she hugs Rose, making her squeal as she hides from view more. “Aw, I wanna see your cute face!” Grave protests, faking a frown as Rose whines.

“Pleaaaase?” Grave questions, attempting to sound sad as she glows softly, Rose sighing as she peeks at her. “Thank you!” Grave smiles, kissing her again as Rose blushes, hugging Grave.

“Babey!!!” Grave smiles, rubbing Rose’s head gently as she giggles, sticking her tongue out at Grave in response. “That just makes you look even m o r e babey!!!” Grave explains, Rose huffing as she pokes her nose gently.

Squeaking, Grave pokes Rose’s nose in return, making Rose giggle as she scrunches her nose at the sensation.

“Guess what?” Grave holds Rose’s face in her hands gently, smiling as Rose watches her curiously.

“What?” Rose questions, her voice perplexed as Scarlet watches them, intrigued and entertained by their antics.

“I love you!” Grave exclaims, kissing Rose gently in response, making Rose blush as she returns the kiss.

“We love you!” She counters, pulling Scarlet into the hug gently, making her giggle happily as the three of them start their lives in the real world together.

[cleaduvalls]

i watched “spy kids” 4 times in 1 week and here are my thoughts

carmen your nightgown is like 200 years old, get a new one

you clearly know this story by heart, you’re saying parts of it. why are you questioning what “take him out” means

a double wig should be more obvious than that

we can see that that’s a glass elevator. people can see you changing, ingrid

nice hat

why did you kill the swan

is that paul rudd???????

how are jets ripping pages out of a book

heart shaped parachutes shouldn’t be working that well

why is there a guitar on your bed. how do you sleep

i think the kids would have seen the track in the floor at SOME point

why is there a jungle gym in their house. i know they’re spies but who has a jungle gym.... in their HOUSE

carmen you’re a frog

i think juni just legitimately try to kill carmen

why are both parents going to school. is that like, a Thing????

juni how do you do that

who puts a video screen in the front seat

hey look its floop. love that guy

they’re not picking on you for the bandages, it’s cuz you brought the toys OUTSIDE your backpack. always put them inside. trust me

did his mirror just.... zoom in?????

h*ck yeah beat him up greg

do all the other kids hate him too??????

dang that hurt

“chief” that’s so white

stupid kid. his dads a spy

that floop doll isn’t even close to accurate

hey look its floop again. love that dude

Big Willy Wonka Energy

oooh skipping numbers i see. love that

why do the subtitles have “mr. floop” as his name. its just floop, yall

“sometimes in order to think big you have to think small” pretty inspirational tbh

oh hes fidgeting!!!!!! love that

woah what are you doing this is rated pg ingrid

i wish my uncles would tell me im shrinking. they just make small talk abt school 😔

this gradenko lady looks like jan from the office

hey its floop again!!!!! love that dude

yes juni. its a fire drill in your own home

these dudes have a jungle gym AND a pool. what the h*ck

why did you pull off your mustache to prove you’re not related. if anything that makes you more related. greg does that too

why did he put the mustache back ON

where did those boats come from

carmen says manual weird. man-yull

right, cuz adrenaline causes warts

“don’t touch anything” *immediately touches everything*

basic boat ettiquette: don’t shit in the boat. those toilets can’t handle anything

is that globe..... punched in???????

floop!!!!!!! love that dude

feet on the desk????? i dunno seems pretty gay

since when did carmen get keys to that

i might be wrong but i dont think thats every country

what does pressure have to do with positioning a laser

this floor is the best mechanic in the whole movie. reminds me of a richie rich comic i had as a kids

why did they not run into the wall. i wanted to see that

is the slide there when floop films his show????

HEY ITS FLOOP!!!! love that dude

theres a bunch of normal food like.... sour worms. why did they pick the slime from charlie and the chocolate factory when johnny depp finds the oompa loompas

thats a sick coat. best one in the movie

that was a good snap. nice acoustics

God what a power move. something thanos would say

listen floop i love you but thats not how you say research

fELIX NO

and hes gone. cool

did she kick the camera?????

haha author unknown. cuz hes a spy

why did you take that one specifically????? plot convenience????

he can still be a spy, just not a good one. learn to read

is that supposed to be a question?????

FUN FACT if you listen closely when carmen says “like felix said” you can hear a weird cut in “said”, almost like its a new clip

theres no keyhole

i think juni can read. why are you spelling it

did you have the floop toys in your pocket????

OKAY THIS SCENE WHERE THEY PLAY IT BACKWARDS?????? THAT MESSED ME UP AS A KID 

what do those things do?????

i can feel the pain from the fan blades

how did that break the chain????

why would you annouce that. they can hear you. just because they’re thumbs doesn’t mean they’re deaf

that’s a thing, not a place

FLOOP!!!!! ON A BILLBOARD!!!! love that dude

how are you slipping. shes holding YOU

YOU DROPPED HIM GENIUS

how do people not notice the jetpack dudes

DOES NO ONE CARE THAT CLOTHES WERE STOLEN

that’s a cute coat

why is the lady cool with carmen just... doing that

HEY I LOVE THIS SONG!!!!!!!!! AND THAT DUDE!!!!!

ofc you can’t think “straight enough” you’re gay

why is mexico sepia tone

when do you think juni had time to change and learn a new language

IF IT HURTS TO HIT HIM, S T O P

i wanna be on that merry-go-round

HOW DO YOU K N O W THAT HIS CODE NAME. WHY “MUST” IT BE HOMBRE

i love how junis just like “we already got a fake uncle”

LOOK AT HOW FLOOP IS SITTING!!!!!!!! THATS GAY!!!!!!! HE IS A HOMOSEXUAL!!!!!!!!

ALSO MORE FLOOP!!!! say it with me, LOVE THAT DUDE!!!!!!!!!!

minion looks like barry from friends

wait i lied this coat is better

we DO have uncles like that!!!!!

if your inventions are so good why is your font so BORING

hey wait carmen said that. hmmmmmmmm 🤔🤔🤔

glowsticks dont help you see like at all

the map looks like gallifreyan but its not. spy kids is older than the doctor who reboot

they go ZOOM

THATS NOT HOW YOU SAY MANUAL!!!!!!!

great job carmen YOU wrecked the plane

WHATS A REGULATOR

oh its just a breathing thing

haha pee joke. funney

where are the brains coming from???? that factory is Not Correct

if i were juni i would look back over all the floop’s fooglies tapes and see what the agents were saying backwards. once the mission was done, ofc

it took me like 5 minutes to figure out what sknaht meant the first time

SEE THIS MECHANIC IS GOOD BC NOW THERES NO PLEXIGLASS

WHY DOES NO ONE RUN INTO THE WALL

F L O O P  I S  G O D

love that dude

you discussed with the spy parents that juni watched the show. he just told you that you took his parents. you KNOW this is juni, why are you surprised that he watches it????? you already know!!!!!!

tbh i kinda want some of those colorful chains. they’d look cool somewhere

haha voice crack

no wonder your shows not doing well. those are awful times

why is there a sexy thumb nurse. why did floop make the thumb nurse sexy

use her first name?????? you’re clearly dating

!!!!!! THEY USED THE SAME TOOL MULTIPLE TIMES!!!!!! UNHEARD OF!!!!!!!

he cares so much about this show!!!!!! its so sweet!!!! love that dude

YEP THIS COAT IS BETTER, LOOKS A M A Z I N G IN A RUNNING SCENE

haha you killed carmen

ok this scene with the acid crayon is like my absolute favorite. something about using a crayon to escape and then floop (love that dude) opening the door a second later and then doing a double take. FAVE

wheres belize

ok so apparently its a country by mexico

no you CANT tell her you need to ESCAPE

we finally got a clean outside shot of the castle.... that place is wack

haha minion can’t sit in the hand chair correctly because hes STRAIGHT what a loser

hey juni HOW DO YOU DO THAT

minion you know what the robot costumes look like AND what juni looks like. dont be stupid

what..... what do you want carmen for, exactly, minion??????

floop is supportive of others’ art!!!!!!!!!!! love that dude

HE SAID “WHERE’S MOM AND DAD” LIKE THEY’RE HIS OWN PARENTS THAT’S SO C U T E

ALSO ANOTHER SCENE WITH THE GREAT RUNNING COAT

he says doppelganger beautifully

“its too late” that timing was BEAUTIFUL

you COULD take 500 brains out if you just TRIED HARDER. still love that dude

his control panel has buttons that spell “floop”

WHY CAN MINION TALK NORMAL

if its reversible why do you have it in later movies

carmen fights fake juni and juni fights fake carmen because they didnt have the fancy clone (?) technology

THREE TIMES!!!!!! THEY USED THE SAME TOOL T H R E E  T I M E S THIS HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE!!!!!!!!!!!

nice censorship

HOW DID MACHETE SMASH ONLY THE CLEAR WINDOWS AND A L L THE CLEAR WINDOWS THERE ARE NO MORE CLEAR WINDOWS!!!!!! ANYWHERE!!!!!

wow nice 3 buttons thats totally how you hack

oh look they have all died

oh. guess not :((

machete you better rip off your mustache

HES GOING TO JUNIS LEVEL TO TALK TO HIM!!!!!!! HE RUFFLED HIS HAIR!!!!!!!!! HES GONNA MAKE A GREAT DAD!!!!!!!

wow no shit ingrid

did he leave his wart bandaid on the kitchen counter?????

ALAN CUMMING!!!! ON A CEREAL BOX!!!!

ok CLEARLY other people watch floop’s show, he’s rated number 2. kids at the school are gonna recognize juni and carmen. they better get popular

is that george clooney

well that’s not how it works in spy kids 2. or 3. or 4. or the tv show

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

What if Ax joined the team in the first book?

[Someone asked me what would happen if Ax joined the team at the same time as everyone else.  Whoever it was: sorry that I lost your ask; drop me a line so I can credit your idea.]

When Aximili asks to come along for the fight, Elfangor — against his better judgment — relents.  «Stay close,» he says, and «Don’t touch anything.»

«Yes, Prince Elfangor,» Aximili says.

Elfangor flashes him a quick smile, stalk eyes only.  The use of the title shows that Aximili understands the seriousness of the situation.  This is no driftball game where they can argue over the rules.  This is combat, and thus Elfangor’s word must be law.

Elfangor knows he made the right call.  That Aximili is mature enough to be cabin boy (as the humans would say) for the GalaxyTree.  He was right to insist to his captain that his little brother is ready for combat, aristh or no.  And he proves to be right in letting Aximili come along in his fighter.  Otherwise, Elfangor is reasonably certain, Aximili would have perished along with the rest of their crew.

It’s mere seconds into the battle that the Blade ship’s dracon cannon strikes the Dome ship square in its broadside.  Mere minutes that pass between the T.O. first spotting the yeerks and a thousand warriors crying out in a single thought-speak shout of despair, only to be horribly silenced.

In that moment, Elfangor’s mind races in a dozen directions at once: Andalite fighters aren’t equipped for planetary landfall.  The Time Matrix is down there on that planet.  The G-force of attempting to reach it could kill them both.  There’s an Escafil device stored in his fighter’s center console.  The yeerks are on Earth.  Loren is on Earth.  Tobias is on Earth.  Aximili is right here in the fighter with him, sharing the risk and the blame if anything goes wrong.  The Time Matrix... The G-force... The Blade ship... The humans...

Elfangor makes an impossible choice, because all the choices are impossible.  «Strap in,» he tells Aximili.  «Brace for impact.»

Aximili doesn’t ask.  Doesn’t point out that Elfangor’s out of his mind.  Instead, he scrambles for the crash harness.

A nudge of the controls.  Almost slowly, almost gently, the little fighter surrenders to the planet’s gravity well.  It tilts.  It slides.  And it starts to accelerate.

Elfangor yanks back on the thrusters with all his strength, even as the hydraulics scream at him and the craft judders with hull-cracking force.  They are become a meteor, arcing across Earth’s sky in a jet trail of flames.

Bracing all four hooves against the floor, Elfangor struggles for fast calculations of half-remembered geography.  That’s North America... That’s the west coast... No, no, further south, struggling to force the craft to obey... That patch of light must be Los Angeles... That satellite is San Diego...

Aximili is whispering the oaths to prince and people and honor, the oaths repeated before death.  He does not have to do it so that Elfangor can hear, and yet he seems to want to share this small comfort before the end.

Elfangor slams the secondary braking system into place.  The craft goes from thousands of miles an hour to mere hundreds in half a second.  Gravity flips sickeningly.

Aximili, safe in the harness, gets jarred but nothing else.  Elfangor, who had no time to join him, slams into the far wall with a breath-destroying crunch.  He staggers to his feet, weak gasps of pain escaping without his permission.  He’s bleeding internally, ribs broken, his lower heart sending out horrible judders of pain with every beat.  He remains hopeful, however — until he looks down and sees a wasteland of concrete and half-finished buildings where an empty field should be.  «No,» he whispers, helpless.  «No.»

«Elfangor...?»  Aximili’s voice is so tentative it verges on inaudible.

Elfangor is staring at the nav screen showing a familiar set of coordinates and also at the fifteen feet of solid cement between him and the Time Matrix.  Still, a part of him refuses to believe.

He lands anyway.  Stumbles out, just to be sure — and finds himself face-to-face with five human children.  Five children on a planet on the brink of subjugation.  Five children surrounded by threats on all sides and yet unknowing and defenseless.  Five children, one of whom has Loren’s wide grey eyes and soft yellow hair and the round-shouldered build of a long-lost human named Alan Fangor.

«Aximili,» Elfangor says.  The yeerks are coming.  Visser Three will kill him, either now or after the kind of hunt that will tear this planet apart.  Better to let it happen now.  Better to use these last moments to give Earth a fighting chance.  «Come out here.  Bring the Escafil device.»

Ax is reeling, spinning, too far into shock to take it all in.  Elfangor is dead.  Dead because of Visser Three, the Abomination.  Dead partially by his own choice, as well.  Because when Ax tried to insist that they stay and fight, or that they morph and run, Elfangor held up a hand to stop him.

«Aximili, I can’t explain everything right now, but this is what has to be done.»  His private thought-speak was rushed, harried.  «I need you to go with Tobias and the others.  They’ll keep you safe.  And they’ll need you to guide them.»

«I can’t do this,» Aximili had whispered.  «I don’t know enough, I don’t know how...»

«Aristh Aximili, formerly of the GalaxyTree, formerly of Mother and Father’s awful lopsided scoop they’ll never get around to fixing.»  There had been a catch of emotion to Elfangor’s voice, thought-speak letting more leak through than the words alone.

Aximili felt himself go cold all over, knees locking, breath struggling with unshed tears.  He understood a field promotion when he heard one.  He knew what was coming.

«I hereby relinquish my command to you, Prince Aximili.  I do so in utmost trust that you will serve our cousins faithfully, both on the homeworld and here, though we are far from home.»  Elfangor bowed his head.  «I am the servant of the People. I am the servant of my prince.»  He lifted his eyes to look straight at Aximili, leaving no chance that he could be referring to their captain.  «I am the servant of honor. My life is not my own, when the People have need of it. My life is given for the People, for my prince, and for my honor.»

It went against everything they’d been taught, but Aximili allowed the tears to fall then.  He’d listened, one last time, when Elfangor told him to take the humans and run.  To flee this place and not look back.  To avoid knowing what was going to happen next.

They take Ax (they call him Ax; he doesn’t care) back to the house of the human called Jake.  Ax staggers along, awkward on two legs.  He acquired the human called Tobias, for now.  Later, he will have to make himself a properly unique human morph, but for now he’s too sick at hearts to perform a proper frolis maneuver.

The humans were very concerned with putting artificial skins on Ax’s human shape; the two females refused even to look at him until he wore a windbreaker from the human called Jake and the human called Rachel had fashioned him a sarong of sorts from her overshirt.

“My parents are going to think that Tobias is a raging nutjob, but that’s okay because they’ve never met him before,” Jake says, by way of apology.

“Nutjob.  Nut.  T-t.  T-job.”  Ax understands most of the words, but for those two.  It’s comforting, even in this strange shape, to allow the dual click of his human tongue: once at the very front of his mouth for T, once further back for J.  “T... Tuh.  Juh.  T’Juh.”  The repeated motion calms him, keeps him from thinking.

“Yep, you’re really proving my point right about now.”  With a sigh, Jake pushes the front door open.

Jake shepherds Ax up to his room after a bare minimum of interaction with the rest of the family.  He offers a padded tube known as a sleeping bag (Ax declines) and assures Ax more than once that they’ll work out a better solution tomorrow.  Ax finds the human dwelling strange and uncomfortable; it is all blocky angles and enclosing walls.  He cannot even see the stars, and the thick fabric covering the floor proves to be inedible.  After demorphing, he folds himself into a  corner to try and sleep.

At first Jake asks many questions: about Elfangor, about morphing, about yeerks and controllers.  Ax does his best to answer without giving too much away.  Finally Jake’s voice tapers off, his breathing becomes slow, and he starts to make a steady noise that Ax will later learn is called snoring.

Ax tries to sleep.  He lists z-space theorems in his mind, breathes slowly, tries to think of nothing.  He recites the ritual of death.  Recites it again.  Continues to turn the phrases over in his mind.  Hoping that soon they will take on meaning and cease to be mere words.

They are both awakened the next morning by a staccato tap tap tap against Jake’s window.  Jake sits upright, rubbing at his eyes.  “What the...?”

There is a small quadruped balancing on his windowsill, batting at the glass with one front paw.  «Let me in, would you?» says the quadruped, in a voice that Ax recognizes as Tobias’s.  «I’m still learning how to balance as a cat, and it took me forever to get here.»

With an ease startling to Ax, Jake rolls to his feet and shoves the window open with strong human arms.  “How are you doing this?” he asks.

«How long have you been in morph?» Ax says over him, alarmed.  Elfangor told the aliens about the time limit last night, and Ax emphasized it again after they left the construction site.  This kind of behavior — morphing unsupervised, using an untested animal, failing to track the time — is shockingly careless.

«Not sure.»  Tobias drops lightly to the ground.  «This is hands-down the coolest thing I have ever experienced.  I don’t know how you andalite types ever get anything done, with this kind of fun to distract you —»

«Demorph immediately!»  Ax speaks so sharply that both Jake and Tobias stare at him.

«Okay, but I’m kinda naked—»

«It is imperative that you demorph!  Do you wish to become a nothlit?»

«Fine, fine,» Tobias says.  To Ax’s enormous relief, he is resuming his human form as he speaks.  «What’s a nothlit?»

Jake removes some artificial skins from the much smaller room adjacent to his desk and hands them to Tobias.

«A nothlit is a person who has become trapped in morph and cannot resume andalite shape,» Ax says.  «The process is irreversible.  Fifteen percent of andalites in the first generation ever to morph suffered this fate.  It is the terrible price of this gift.»

“Huh.”  Tobias finishes pulling one of Jake’s garments over his head.  “And then what happens to them?”

«They are trapped.  Unable to demorph.  Forever.»

“Yeah, but I assume you, like, accommodate them as animals or whatever, right?  You said fifteen percent of some groups.  So there’s probably a lot of people like that, and you probably have some fancy tech to help them do stuff, right?”  Tobias’s eyes are wide in what Ax is beginning to recognize as a human expression of hopefulness.

Ax shifts position on the carpet.  «No.  Not really.  They are usually secluded from society.»

“What, just because they’re stuck as cats forever?”

«They are vecols.»  Seeing Tobias’s confusion, Ax clarifies, «warriors who are permanently wounded.  It is best to allow them their privacy, apart from mainstream andalite society.»

“Separate but equal, huh?” Jake says, a darkness to his tone that Ax does not understand.

«Yes, exactly,» Ax says.

Tobias and Jake look at each other.  Tobias makes a wordless sound in the back of his throat.

“So much for the superior alien society coming to enlighten us,” Jake mutters.

«It is for their own good,» Ax tries to explain.

“Oh, so you polled every single one of them, and they prefer the ghettos to —”  Jake cuts himself off.  “Okay, this is not what we need to talk about.  Aliens.  Yeerks.  Let’s go get the others, yeah?”

The next few days are... overwhelming.  All of them assemble near the home of the human called Cassie, in a space filled several other species of Earth animal.  They have questions for Ax, dozens of questions, and they talk over each other in their eagerness to learn about andalites and thought-speak, interstellar travel and dracon beams.  Marco and Cassie want to recuse themselves from the war entirely, while Tobias and Rachel want to throw themselves headlong into the fight with an eagerness that shows they don’t truly understand how hopeless the fight will be.

Ax does his best to tell them what he can, while keeping state secrets to himself.  He reminds them time and again to be careful when morphing, because it’s the only thing he knows that they must be told.

He doesn’t know how to lead them.  He’s not qualified to be a war-prince.  He has no idea how to balance Seerow’s Kindness against their demands to understand why their home is being invaded and destroyed.

In the end, Tobias helps Ax set up a scoop in the woods.  Jake’s appalled at the idea of Ax being alone out there with no human domicile, but eventually Ax succeeds in impressing on him that this is what he wants.  Finally he wins them over.  It’s a relief, to be out in woods that are not quite familiar but nevertheless closer to what he knows from the homeworld.  It gives him the chance to be alone, away from the aliens and the infinite answers he doesn’t have for them.

All of the humans come by with gifts for his scoop: books, a small television, magazines and newspapers, a material called plywood that keeps out the rain.  Marco provides several cans of a delicious substance known as Spam, and an even more delicious condiment known as kerosene.  Their worry is... touching.  But Ax also suspects it is not right.  A prince should look after his warriors, not the other way around.

At their next team meeting, Ax walks in to find an ongoing argument between Marco and Jake.

“You don’t have any proof,” Jake is saying.

“That cop knew him.”  Marco crosses his arms. “That cop, who was definitely a controller, was like ‘oh, you’re Tom Berenson’s brother?  Never mind then.’  Not to mention the fact that you said yourself he’s been acting weird.  And yeah, him deciding to give us the ninth degree about UFOs and how we know Tobias was really fucking weird.  So you just don’t want to admit that your brother —”

Which is when Jake hits Marco across the face with a closed fist.  Marco staggers back a step, cursing and cupping his jaw.

“Stop!” Cassie shouts.

Marco presses the heel of his hand to his swelling lower lip.  “Tell me I’m wrong,” he spits.  “Tell me the Sharing isn’t sketchy as hell.  Tell me the way he talks about it is totally normal.  Go ahead.  Look me in the eye and tell me you actually believe that.”

Jake is gasping for air, face flushed, staring around himself as if lost.  His knuckles are bleeding.  “Ax,” he says.  “Ax, I’d know, right?  I’d be able to tell if — If —”

They’re talking about Jake’s older brother.  Ax briefly met the human in question on that first night, and didn’t get much of an impression one way or another.  “I don’t know,” he says at last, very slowly.  “I have not known... nnnnooonne... any controllers.  Oll-lers.  The yeerks can access all the memories of their hosts, so it would be possible... ssssib-bble...”

“Possible.”  Jake takes a breath.  “Possible.  But not guaranteed.  So we... we use this morphing thing.  We go to a Sharing meeting, and we prove that there’s nothing wrong with the Sharing, because Tom would never get involved with a yeerk organization.  In the process, we prove that there’s nothing wrong with Tom.”

It occurs to Ax that he shouldn’t allow his team to take this kind of risk, especially not for the sake of a single human who is likely lost to yeerk control already.  He knows, too, that Jake may even be right about his brother being unlikely to join the yeerks willingly, but that it makes little difference if so.

Only, the thing is, it occurs to Ax as well to wonder what he would do if it was Elfangor who’d been taken.

“We can do this,” he says aloud.  “Th—ssssss.  But we must be careful.”

Ax’s suspicions about Marco’s suspicions prove to be correct.  Tom, and most of the Sharing’s other full members, are in fact controllers.  Jake proves to be right as well that Tom isn’t voluntary, sparse consolation though it is.  Ax doesn’t like Jake’s plan to go charging down to the yeerk pool to free Tom and the other hosts, but this is a human affair and perhaps a human decision.  So he goes along with them to acquire DNA — and when Cassie gets taken, he commits fully to leading his first-ever battle.

“Tobias has been in morph for kind of a while, right?” Jake asks Ax as they walk to the middle school.

Ax has warned Tobias already about timing; he doesn’t feel capable of doing it again.  “I am sure that Tobias knows how to be safe,” he says.

Ax has read about battle.  Studied it extensively.  Listened to Elfangor’s stories, asking incessant questions.  Learned all the theories.  Even watched holos of famous fights.  In short, he is as prepared as it is possible for an untested aristh to be.

He knows nothing of war.

The battle happens all at once, from more directions than even he can watch with stalk eyes scanning frantically all around him.  Humans and animals and hork-bajir and taxxon clash and scream, shoot and claw and die.  Blood slicks the floor, spilled kandrona slopping over the sides of the pool as bodies crash down among the yeerks.  He doesn’t know who is a controller, who is a host, who is a friend or an enemy.

Hork-bajir charge him, dozens of blades at the ready.  He bashes them back with frantic graceless tail swings.  A taxxon is already down, intestines spilling across the floor, before he has time to plan the strike.  No time to think.  No time to feel.  Exhaustion and foreign gravity drag him down.

He’s going to die down here.  He’s going to die like his brother, slaughtered on an alien planet and devoured.  He’s going to die, and his parents will never learn what happened to either of them.

«Ax! Ax!»

He strikes at the shape.  Luckily fatigue slows his swing.  Luckily Jake ducks with cat reflexes.  Too late he registers blood-matted orange fur.

«We’re losing ground,» Jake says, gasping for air.  «Time to get the hell out of here while we still can.»

«But...»  Ax is crazy; why is he objecting?  «But we haven’t saved anyone... We haven’t...»

«This is— Ax, we stay, we die.»  He’s right.  He’s right.

«We go, then,» Ax says.  He’s a failure.  A coward.  He’s running from his duty.  If Elfangor knew— «Everyone!  We have to go!» Ax shouts.

Rachel raises her trunk, bellowing.  She shoulders aside controllers and hosts alike, clearing a path for the rest of them.  She’s not going to make the stairs, not with that bulk.  Marco is loping behind her, but Cassie is pinned down by three hork-bajir clear across the room.  There’s no sign of Tobias.

His warriors are dying around him.  He doesn’t know what to do.  All the choices are wrong.  Enemies are on all sides, far too many to fight.

«Help Rachel and Marco!» Jake calls.  «I’m going for Cassie.»

Ax doesn’t question.  He leaps, clearing the heads of a dozen human-controllers, and lands next to Marco.  Together they brutalize their way forward, cutting down or shoving aside anyone that gets too close.

The battle swells and screams and roars around Ax.  It’s too much to keep track of.  He loses Jake and Cassie, still hasn’t found Tobias.  All he can do is keep swinging, keep yanking his tail back bone-sore and flinging it gore-slick into yet another hot sick piece of flesh.

He stumbles over a small protrusion in the floor.  Marco steadies him roughly.  It’s the first stair.  He struggles up the first several too-small steps, hooves sliding on the blood-slick stone.

Rachel is shrinking, half-crushed by the crowd of fleeing hosts.  She goes down.  Marco and Ax haul her upright.  They pull her forward with unforgiving speed in spite of her many injuries, trying to keep the mob from eating her whole.  Ax feels the strange sizzling non-pain of a fourth-degree dracon burn along his left hind leg.  His collapse halted by the press of the crowd, he shoves onward.

Ax bursts into the bizarre empty quiet of the high school hallway.  Marco is just ahead of him, carrying Rachel with her face hidden against his dark fur.

Half a dozen hosts are fleeing in every direction.  «Godspeed,» Marco murmurs, looking after them.  His thought-speak is shaky with unshed tears.

It’s nearly a half an hour — long enough for Ax to show Rachel how to morph to be rid of injuries — before there’s a clatter of hooves.  Cassie, still in horse morph, bursts through the doorway.  Jake is slumped across her back, clinging to her mane with the arm that isn’t severed at the elbow by a hork-bajir blade.  His right side and Cassie’s entire flank are soaked with blood.  He slides off the moment they’re safe, green-white with shock.  Ax rushes to his side to tell him to morph.

When Jake has morphed and demorphed, he slowly sits up.  He looks from where Rachel is punching a locker door repeatedly to where Marco crouches over the custodian’s sink to vomit.  Finally, he looks up at Ax.  “Where’s Tobias?” he asks, soft and hoarse.

Rachel whirls away from the locker she was abusing.  “We thought he was with you!”

They all stare at each other in silence for several more seconds.

Jake curls forward to bury his face in his hands.  “We have to go,” he says into his palms.  “If... if I don’t get home before Tom does...”

There’s another long moment of silence.  Marco becomes the first to turn and walk away.

Tobias finds Ax, later that night.  He’s not dead, anyway.  And he’s not a controller, not in that form.  Ax knows better to voice such sparse consolation.  He can’t offer hope, not really.  Instead he does his best to listen, and to let Tobias say what he will.

Their next meeting in Cassie’s barn is... tense.

“How could we let this happen?” Jake demands.  “How could we have done this?  I should have known—”

«Jake...» Tobias says.

“Anyway, I’m out.”  Marco stands up.

“Fine, then get out!” Rachel shouts.  “What are you waiting for?  Go run home to Daddy!”

“What I’m waiting for is to see if I can convince any of you people to come with me!” Marco says.  “Because, for the record, we should all be out.”  He takes a breath.  “Ax... Jake... I know you both have more of a stake in this.  But...”

“It’s your call, dude,” Jake says.

“Okay, but back to the real problem,” Rachel snaps.  “How do we fix Tobias?”

Ax takes a step back.  She didn’t look directly at him, but both Jake and Cassie did.  «I... I wish that I had more answers... Escafil’s paradox of zero-space delay...»  He has no answers.  No words.

«In short: we don’t.»  Tobias jerks his head.  «So.  Guess I’ll be hanging out with Ax a lot more in the future.»

“But even if we can’t demorph him...”  Cassie is definitely looking at Ax.  So is everyone else.  “There has to be something we can do, right?”

Ax’s tail hits the stall door behind him.  He’s been backing away from them the entire time.  His chest heaves with panic, eyes skittering from one target to another.  Except Tobias.  He can’t look at Tobias.

“Ax?” Jake says, and then, “Hey, Ax, hey.  Just, just, take a second, okay?”

“Take a second?”  Rachel crosses her arms.  “He’s the one who got us into this, and now Tobias—”

«I’m a fraud!» Ax bursts out.  He’s shaking, still gasping.  «I don’t know what I’m doing — I’m just a stupid incompetent kid.  I ran last night, like a coward, and I left Tobias to be killed.  I’m not a war prince, I’m a fake!  A stupid, useless fake!»

Tobias flutters down to land on the stall door across from him. «There’s a big difference between being inexperienced and being a liar, Ax-Man.»

«You don’t — You don’t understand.»  Ax wraps both arms around himself.  «I can’t lead, I can’t do anything right. I have less than four months of training from living on the Dome ship, and even that was only because of being Elfangor’s brother.  I never should have tried to pretend to be a war-prince, because I’m not.  I’m not even a warrior.»

“And, what, you think any of us are?” Jake asks quietly.  “We’re all dumb kids with even less training than what you have.  But we all went down there anyway.  Not because you told us to.  Because I asked for it.”

«I still had responsibility for you all,» Ax says miserably.  «And I failed you.»

“You screwed up, yeah,” Rachel says.  “So do better next time.”

“Next time?” Marco demands.  “You saw that place— You heard— Are you out of your mind?”

She rounds on him.  “You’re right.  I saw.  I heard.  There are little kids down there right now, Marco.  My cousin is down there.  And so are thousands of other people.  If you’re too much of a coward to do anything about it, that’s your problem, but I’m not letting that stop me.”

«I’m still gonna do what I can to help,» Tobias says.  «So count me in.»

“I’m in too,” Jake says.  “Ax?”

«I can’t lead you,» Ax insists.  «I can’t.  It wouldn’t be right.  It’s not my place.»

“Hate to say it, but we need a leader,” Cassie points out.  “Ax, we can’t make you do it if you don’t want to. Tobias, should you lead us?”

«What?  No!  I’m nobody’s leader.»

“Okay, okay.”  Jake looks around.  “We don’t have to decide this right now.  We’re all tired, so let’s just take a breather and meet back here tomorrow when we’re clearer headed.  Yeah?”

None of them argue.  Cassie and Marco murmur agreement.  Rachel’s already turning away, asking Tobias where he plans to stay tonight.

Interesting, Ax thinks.  The vote isn’t until tomorrow, but he suspects he knows already who they’re going to choose.

Jake is not what Ax would’ve expected from a prince.  He calls for a vote any time there’s a major decision to be made.  He always explains himself to his team, after the fact if not in the moment.  He becomes the first one to admit when he made a mistake, and sometimes even when a mess wasn’t his fault at all.  He asks Ax questions.  A lot of questions.

But he leads them.  He makes the calls in the battles.  He takes responsibility for them all, and he carries it well enough to get by.  Unless, of course, the situation calls for an official chain of command.

«Prince Elfangor asked me to lead in his stead,» Ax tells the andalite commander on the long-distance call.  «I accepted the honor, and was humbled by it.»

«Very well, Prince Aximili.» Ithileran’s expression is stiff, but he doesn’t argue.  «We would like to discuss the nature of your strategy for leading the Earth resistance.»

Throughout the conflict on Leera, Commander Galuit seems to be almost bemused by the Animorphs.  «I’ve heard a great deal about you, Prince Aximili,» he says.  «What do you suggest we do about these explosives?»

«I wouldn’t dream of making such a decision without consulting my warriors,» Ax says diplomatically.  It’s Jake’s cue to make a polite suggestion, but that Marco can also be expected to weigh in with an opinion.

«Yes,» Galuit says, as much to himself as anyone.  «You’re an interesting one, indeed.»

“You’ll have to forgive him,” Tobias says loudly to the security forces.  “He’s visiting royalty, you see.  Extremely important prince.  From a place you wouldn’t have heard of.”

Ax has consumed what is, perhaps, slightly more than a typical quantity of mini quiches at what is supposed to be an all-you-can-eat banquet.  He fails to see why this is an occasion for law enforcement.

“Anyway.”  Tobias is now shepherding Ax out of the room, which is unfair because he has only made it halfway through the platter of crab rangoon.  “It’s considered a compliment where he’s from.  And if you even think about filing a report, you will be hearing from the rest of his majesty’s security team.”

“We will not be falling in line,” Jake tells Arbat, chin lifted, eyes narrow.  “We will not be deferring to your command.  We will do what Prince Aximili tells us, and I suggest you do the same.  Because you can either help us, or you can get out of our way.”

Standing on the bridge of the Blade ship, hand resting on the pad that broadcasts footage of the Animorphs to the entire Andalite Electorate, Ax does his best to look confident.  «We have won a great victory this day, but now is the time for peace.  Now is the time to work with the humans to help them rebuild.  Now is the time for forgiveness, for yeerks and taxxons alike.»

«Who are you?» the Technical Officer demands.

Marco opens his mouth to make a smart comment, but refrains.

«I am War-Prince Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill,» Ax says.  «And as of this moment, I am officially ceding my position to Prince Jake Berenson, Commander in Chief of the Earth Resistance.»

Jake steps forward.  Grieved but unbowed.  Nervous but resolute.  All eyes are on him.

So no one notices when Alloran nudges Ax gently in the side.  When he says in private thought-speak, «I can say with utter certainty that he would have been proud of you.»

[thewakeless]

Summary: Dan and Phil decide to live together

Rating: G

Genre: Emotional (kinda soft, kinda sad)

"Why don't you move in for real?" Phil says the words calmly while they lie in bed together, the laptop between them.  

Dan hesitates.  It's a futile conversation, he has spent the last 6 nights at Phil's place. In fact, they both frequently call this "their place" but... "I don't know," he mutters looking at the screen.  

"We wouldn't have to – you know – tell anyone. You could have your own room."

Dan leans his head against his boyfriend's shoulder as if the conversation has worn him out, more than their whole day, more than sex.  Phil kisses the top of his head.

"Tomorrow," he says.

"Yeah," Dan replies closing his eyes.  

-

"Okay." They're on the subway, headed to dinner, a cautious distance between them.  "I'll move in with you," says Dan bracingly, definitively.  

Phil smiles, a goody smile, that's all teeth. "Good."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, I need you to make rent."

Dan laughs. "Glad I ease financial burdens for you, Phil."

"You ease many burdens for me," he answers his eyes panning down to Dan's crotch.  

"We're in public," Dan hisses, half-horrified, half proud.  

Phil chuckles.  "Too bad."

-

Dan is outstretched on the couch his legs on top of Phil, a laptop on his chest.  "I mean we definitely need a new bed." They were scrolling through the Ikea website.  

"And a TV stand."

"Yeah with room for all games and movies," there's excitement in his voice, but only because he has pushed the panic aside.  

Phil hesitates for a moment.  He wants to go with the good feeling but there's so much else.   "Have you told them yet?"

Dan shakes his head steadily.  

"Tomorrow?"

He shakes his head again.  "Do I have to tell them?"

It breaks his heart how young Dan sounds. He reaches over to grab one of his hands.  He squeezes it because words would never suffice.  

-

Ikea is like a playground for adults.  Dan is amused by how excited Phil gets over shinny bowls and multi-purpose tables.  It also warms his heart that they are actually moving forward with their plans.

"Absolutely not," he says as Phil points to a big shiny chandelier.  

"Why not?"

"Because it's giant, and we're giant, we'd bump our heads."

He rolls his eyes. "A technicality."

The way he says it makes Dan wanna pull him by the t-shirt and make out with him.  Instead, he makes an exaggerated frown. "Be serious or we'll be here forever."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," says Phil as he takes a tentative bounce on a purpose chair.  

The corners of Dan's mouth twitch into a smile. "You idiot."

-

The new bed has arrived along with the cheapest mattress available and Ikea's notoriously cryptic instructions. They sit cross-legged on the floor, drunk off giggles, trying to build the frame with absolutely no sense of logistics or depth.  

"It has to be this way," Dan says, laying out the two longest panels vertically.  

Phil looks over the top of the instructions. "But where do the nails fit in?"

"Mmm," Dan studies the closest plank of wood until he finds a small indentation.  "Here maybe?"

"But then the unpainted side is showing. That can't be right, can it?"

Dan looks from it to the instruction in Phil's hands.  "God, how should I know? I'm too gay for this." The words come out in a thoughtless mesh, and then both boys freeze.  

Phil wants to make another joke but he can see Dan growing paler, and knowns it isn't the time. "Why don't we take a little break? You can sleep with me tonight."

Dan nods.

"Wanna watch Attack on Titan?"

"Okay." There's a sick sensation a the pit of his stomach.  

-

It takes a full 3 months of cohabitation before the Howells come for a visit.  The week leading up they spend cleaning everything, scrubbing each surface, sweeping the kitchen, vacuuming the couch.  He has never seen Dan this nervous, or this agitated.  Every day new fights creep up between them, always petty, always stupid, but no matter what every evening Dan crawls into bed with him.

On the night before the visit Dan is especially quiet.  "You okay?"

He has arms crossed over his chest, his eyes staring straight at the screen in front of them, unblinking but unfocused. "Can I say something really fucked up?"

Phil stiffens, and gives a curt nod.  

"Sometimes I really wish you were a girl."

The words are a slap in the face.  A denial of everything he is, of everything they have. For a moment he feels rage inside himself.  How fucking dare he? But before he can even open his mouth Dan has broken down into sobs, his head in his hands.  And then Phil feels nothing but compassion, sadness.  

He puts an arm around him, and whispers consoling things in his ear.  

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Dan says, his head against Phil's shoulder.

-

The afternoon with his family passes surprisingly quickly. They order take out, play a board game. Phil makes casual references to a girlfriend, Dan invents a female classmate by the name of Samantha and brings her up more often than necessary.  They are casual, careful not to stare too long, not to be too close, not to pay too much attention to each other.  When they are alone again they stay on the couch, quiet, thoughtful.  

"That wasn't so bad," says Phil.

"It was horrible," says Dan, looking like he might cry.  

Phil shifts on the sofa.  "Do you wanna be alone."

He shakes his head.  Phil was about to suggest they watch a movie when Dan interjects: "Thank you for doing this."

"Supporting you? That's what partners do."

"You're literally pretending to have a girlfriend for me. Don't brush that off."

"I'm not- I'm just saying – I'd do a lot more for you."

Dan analyses him for a moment, as if trying to discern a lie, but evidently unable to do so he closes his eyes and leans his body against Phil's.  "I'm so tired."

"Yeah."

"I don't want them to come over again.  Next time we'll go to a restaurant.  I want this place to be for us, and our shitty furniture.  No pretending."

Phil pulls him into a hug.  "We can arrange that."

He can feel the tension in Dan's body. The fear that grips him made physical.  "Bed?" he suggests.

Dan nods, and takes his hand.  

"Thanks a lot for doing this for me," he says as they walk to the bedroom.  

Phil pulls him back and stares into his eyes. He wants Dan to really hear him, to really believe him.  "I'm doing this for us,"  he says.

There's a faint smile on Dan's face and he squeezes Phil's hand.  "You're a man of incredible faith."

"Only for the things that matter."

They hug in the passage and then climb into bed together.  It doesn't take long for Dan to fall asleep, but Phil lies awake for a long time.  

He is 100% sure that he would do this all again. That he would play this role for the rest of his life if he has to.  That it is a minor price to pay for everything that Dan brings into his life. He turns over, looking at Dan asleep, and calm at last.  He moves close to the warmth of his body and kisses his cheek.  "I love you," he mutters in the dark.  

[mysteli]

Endless Summer Imperfect - Chapter 22

A/N: this chapter is a lot more chill than the last few and its more about recovery and processing. hope you enjoy!

Warning: T

Words: 9322

ES IMPERFECT TAG: @princessstellaris@mechaspirit@xo-endlessmayhem-xo @endlessly-searching-for-you@brightpinkpeppercorn@aragornesprincessgeekymamma @justboredtrash@diego-vii  @indiacater@countrymusicandncis-blog @zigortega4life@nekkidmolerat @ravengalaxia@ladyseaheart1668@endless-jake@theendofallsummers

Masterlist

Imperfect Masterlist

ENDLESS SUMMER AFTERMATH - ENDING 1  IMPERFECT  CHAPTER 22 - LOST TIME

Jake

Hmm. Jake contemplates heavily as his cerulean gaze remains glued to the television screen, where the live news is currently playing and talking about a pretty significant situation. There’s really nothing else to do as they wait in the lobby of the motel they’d found in the most secluded part of London. In truth, they are all over the news right now and it’s vital that they stay hidden. Problem is... they’ve all been proclaimed as dead. 

They all had no choice but to flee the scene when the explosion happened because as of right now, the whole world and Rourke believe that they’re dead. But no. They’re still alive and forced to be on the run. It’s nothing new for Jake and he immediately suggested that a motel would be the best idea for a place to stay, since no one ever really pays attention to rough places such as them. They walked in and asked for a room and they’ve been told to wait until their keys are ready or whatever. Bet you the locks don’t fucking work anyway. 

But the goddamn news has been exploding with their death conspiracy story, with Rourke finally revealing his face and identity to the world and acting as a saviour. He did an interview with the channels and explained the situation, stating the ‘unfortunate accident’ that took place under his own watchful eye. The world pitied him and were overwhelmed by sympathy. Now Rourke is set to appear like the one who will save them all. 

Clearly this was his plan all along. To vanquish Jake, Estela, Mike, Diego and Logan from the world and his plans. Question is, why them specifically and who knows what he’s gonna do with the rest of the Catalysts?

There’s also a huge story behind the mysterious bodies found of the Vaanti. But the world doesn’t know they’re called that. They’re just seem as these unknown creatures that were involved in the accident. Some people have even gone far enough to assume that they’re related to dinosaurs. What the fuck?

To top off the stress of everything, Diego hasn’t been talking much due to the fact that he just lost the love of his life. He’s been understandingly silent and he doesn’t care to listen or respond when someone attempts to cheer him up. There’s just no point right now. He has a right to feel this way. 

Jake sure as hell felt the same when he lost Mike. Grief-struck and flooded with the belief that nothing will ever get better from there. His recovery took a long time to kick in but all the alcohol and drowning sure made it easier to numb and suck up the pain. But Diego isn’t the same as Jake. He’s not a coward and he’s so much stronger. Hopefully, the road of recovery will be a lot easier because he’s got people helping him move past this. Jake didn’t have that and now he does. His only wish is that he didn’t make things worse for Diego when Jake stuck a bullet in Lundgren’s head right in front of him because he’s aware how much Diego despises murder and death so his heart must be sinking in its own personal hell right now.

Right now, they’re the only ones at this damn motel which is great because no one will recognise them and they’ve trapped in this waiting room for god knows how long. Usually, you get the key and then that’s it but Jake has been overwhelmed by the sight of this fake news story that’s been plastered all over television. Rourke’s clearly playing a game and his plans are finally starting to pan out. Maybe the group has a small advantage with Rourke thinking that they’re dead when they really survived. It means he won’t bother coming after them so they can lay low for a while. They sure as hell cant stay in London however. 

Jake’s eyes don’t shift from the screen and the more he sees, the more his body tenses up with uneasiness. He tightens his grip on his wife as he stiffens and she tilts her head at him with concern, following his gaze over to the television. 

“Baby, you shouldn’t be watching that.” Logan urges dismissively, moving Jake’s head away from the screen by tilting his chin and forcing him to lock eyes with her. 

Jake lets out a frustrated sigh and he’s clearly offended by the way Rourke used his own death to make headlines. “It’s just fucking ridiculous, darlin’. I didn’t ask for this. Rourke has crossed the line now.” 

Logan raises his eyebrows at him, sympathising with her husband while also being slightly confused. “But, Jake... isn’t it kinda good that he thinks we’re dead since he won’t come after us that way?” She dares to ask and Jake’s flood with disbelief in response. 

He arches his head back and releases a slow exhale out of stress. “Maybe but he didn’t have to tell the world that were dead.” Jake’s mind drifts back to his family and he hates picturing the sorrowful look on their faces when they read this story and see Jake’s death announced on television. “What about my family? Fuck my traitor of a sister but... what about my mom? What would she fucking think?” Jake ends his shaky rant and closes his eyes as his doubts and fears torture his conscience. Logan leans into his shoulder and cups his cheek reassuringly.

“Jake...” 

“It’s okay, Princess. They thought I was dead before anyway. This’ll just be an confirmation.” Jake mutters, planting a kiss on his wife’s forehead and he looks her dead in her ocean eyes. “I’m just glad I’ve got you back. For good. That’s the most important thing. I ain’t ever gonna lose you again, you got that?” The seriousness of his tone is enough for Logan to nod assuringly.

“Of course, Jake. No more risk when it comes to us. I love you too much to let you go ever.” Logan speaks in a fierce tone and Jake can’t help but smirk at how sexy she’s coming off right now.

“That reminds me. I can’t remember the last time I got to touch you, darlin’. How long has it been?” Jake whispers in a husky tone, leaning in so his lips are hovering over Logan’s and she bites her lower lip as a tension gets caught between them. 

“About two months.” She answers, her body reacting as Jake grazes her cheek with his fingertips but she sure as hell wants his hands in a whole lot of other places right now.

Jake is a little taken aback by how long it’s actually been. “Damn... well how come it feels like forever when I got to...” He trails off, his cerulean eyes darkening as he takes in the sight of her and only now does he realise how much desire he’s been holding in and bottling up. This seems like the perfect time to let it out. 

Instinctively, he plants featherlight kisses from her collarbone all the way to her quivering lips and he intends to build the kiss up when it arrives but Logan keeps it brief, leaning away with a weak smile.

“Jake... be patient.” She whispers, brushing his hair out of his eyes and his eyes her incredulously in response.

“Seriously? You’re asking me to be patient. Who the fuck can be patient when it comes to you?” Jake challenges and he’s about to go in another kiss but Logan plants a firm finger on his lips and that stops him in his tracks.

“Well then you’re just gonna have to learn then, Aragorn.” Logan tells him, dragging her finger over his lower lip and shooting him an expectant smirk. She shoots a quick glance towards Diego, who is seated on another chair with his knees curled up and his hands clutching them desperately. It’s like he’s looking for someone to hold or his dreamful gaze tells everyone that he’s reminiscing. Probably on the memories of Vaaryn and that saddens Logan so much. She turns back, her smirk now replaced by a guilty frown and she drops her voice to an even lower whisper, one Jake can barely hear. “Besides... I don’t think our PDA is gonna help Diego feel better about losing Vaaryn so can you just... wait?” 

Jake looks over to Diego, noticing how depressed the poor guy and he’s suddenly hit by guilt when he realises what’s really happened here. Logan got her soulmate back but he didnt and that make him a little envious of their reunion because he wasn’t able to get one. Releasing a heavy exhale, Jake meets Logan’s eyes once more and nods understandingly, sneaking a kiss to one of her fingers and she rolls her eyes at him in response.

Finally, the owner approaches the group and hands them three keys. One room for Logan and Jake, a room for Diego and a two bed room for Estela and Mike. There were only three available and they didn’t mind sharing so that’s what happened. Seriously how is this an approved hotel?! 

The five of them gather for one more conversation before they would head off to their rooms. They each grasp their keys and a moment of silence falls over them, as if they’re taking a moment to remember Vaaryn. 

Jake sucks in a sharp breath and suddenly swerves around to face Diego, tears rising in his cerulean eyes as he prepares to speak some saddening words. “Diego... I just want you to know that... I wish I couldve gotten there sooner.” He admits and Diego rubs his eyes, shaking his head at Jake and patting him on the shoulder reassuringly.

“It’s ok, Jake. Don’t blame yourself. It wasn’t your fault.” 

“But it could have been.” Jake counters, his hands balling into fists as his frustration with himself builds like bricks in his body. “I never told you this but... Vaaryn tried to kill himself while he was locked up. I... barely stopped him but now I can’t help but think it would’ve been better if he just... did it himself. You know, have the blood on his own hands rather than leaving it all over Lundgren.” Jake confesses and Logan wraps her arms around him in a comforting manor. Tears infect Diego’s eyes again and he can’t stop a river from pouring down his face. 

Upon hearing that, Diego hands his head, noticing how shame circles Jake like it’s haunting him. Diego exhales sharply and tries to act as a form of reassurance for the pilot who practically saved his life. 

“Jake... you just did what you thought was right, saving Vaaryn, and I don’t think you should feel sorry about that. Either way, he’s not with us anymore.” Diego mutters under his breath and Logan rushes over to wrap him in a desperate hug, trying to comfort him the best she can.

“Diego, were all so sorry we couldn’t save him.” 

“It’s alright. I don’t blame you guys.” Diego assures, burying his tearful face in Logan’s shoulder and finding condolence in his best friend. “I love you, Lo. At least I still have you.”

Logan leans away for a moment, guilt suddenly flooding her ocean eyes. “Just so you know, I wanted to save Vaaryn just as much as Jake. And I’m really sorry that...” 

“Hey, dont do that.” Diego urges, interrupting her before she can start placing the blame on herself. “You shouldn’t feel sorry for caring about the love of your life. I would’ve been the same.” 

Logan brings Diego in for another hug and they melt into a moment of true friendship. Once they pull away, Estela and Mike give Diego their own forms of reassurance before everyone starts discussing the plans for the day ahead.

“Alright. So we need a night to process everything that’s happened. Just get a goodnight’s sleep and we’ll all meet back in the morning.” Estela explains, her voice slightly strained due to her boggled mind at all the events that have happened. She was the only one that really had her head on straight during that whole rescue and her main concern was keeping everyone safe, which she almost did successfully. But so much happened to her there as well. Finding out her mother is alive and acting as one of Rourke’s puppets. Who knows what he wants to use her for? Probably his sickening excuse for an army. 

Mike glances over to Estela, sympathising with her situation and he’s almost tempted to give her a hug or act as a form of reassurance but in the end, he convinces himself to stay back and let everything sink in. He doesn’t need to add another weight on her shoulder about the question of what they are. 

“A good night’s sleep, huh? Haven’t had one of those in a long time.” Jake admits, running a hand through his greased hair. 

“Well, we gotta try. This night is a chance to recover but I know we’ll never forget about what happened in that hell of a place.” 

Michelle 

So still. Her body is so still. Quinn looks so peaceful in her deep slumber that it would be so easy to forget that she’s experiencing a life-endangering coma right now. Still, Michelle can’t seem to get her mind past that part. She probably never will, especially not while she sits here all night staring at a barely alive Quinn, who has fallen for so much over the past few weeks.

When Michelle was experiencing her whole pregnancy situation, Quinn was there for her and now Michelle believes she must be there for her. Because now it’s Quinn going through a tough time. So it doesn’t matter how many times someone comes up to Michelle and tells her to go home and get some rest because she isn’t moving until Quinn wakes up. Her mind won’t ever be at ease until she knows that Quinn is okay. It’s just not possible.

If Michelle can even be honest with herself for one moment, she’d admit that she is getting a little bit tired but she won’t let herself fall asleep. Not now. The night is at its full glory and that’s prompting Michelle’s exhaustion to start kicking in but she fights it off as much as she can. 

The bitter resentment of the disease that is trying to take Quinn’s life at this very moment is the most dominant emotion of Michelle’s right now and she can only hope and pray that Quinn finally wins the war and makes her way back to the land of the living. 

All of a sudden, the door to the room staggers open and Michelle snaps her head to idnentify the newcomer into this time of grief. She recognises the figure as Sean and she’s surprised to find him back here so soon, since she told him not to hang around and get some rest but when does Sean ever listen?

There’s a clear concern in his chestnut eyes and Michelle finds herself without any words to say to him. 

“Hey.” is all she manages to get out, trying to form the weakest of smiles but she can’t even do that with the way she’s feeling.

Sean approaches her with slight caution, especially as he takes her current weak state. He’s never seen Michelle like this before and she’s so wrecked for one person. It’s so clear what Michelle feels for Quinn and that only makes Sean feel like he’s standing in the way of something special when really he should encouraging her to look out for her health just as much as she looks out for Quinn. 

Once he reaches Michelle, Sean seats himself on the armrest of the chair, placing his hand on her shoulder and rubbing it comfortingly. He’s trying his best to be there for her but it’s so damn hard when the news of the abortion still looms over his mind. Can’t say anyone should blame him however. 

“Should I even ask if you’re ok?” Sean dares to mention, tilting his head to search her expression but he can’t see it while her head is hanging so shamefully.

A breathy sigh escapes Michelle in response and she runs a hand through her ombré hair. “I’ll be better once Quinn wakes up.” She mutters under her breath, her voice a mere whisper that Sean barely manages to hear.

At the mention of Quinn, his eyes snap over to where she lies and it’s almost painful to see her in such a sight. Sean has never really spoken to Quinn before. No one has really. She always kept to herself and never really connected with anyone, especially not the way she did with Michelle once they met. Their story has been brewing for months now and they became so close that it was set to be the most painful for Michelle when the time came for Quinn’s descent. 

“...How is she?” Sean asks yet another risky question and Michelle barely tilts her head at him, her frown faltering.

“Stable. Barely though.” Michelle responds blandly, the stress practically evaporating off her and it gives Sean an uneasy feeling. 

Sean notices how sleep-deprived Michelle is and his mind jumps back immediately to his comfort zone. Caring about other’s well being before anything else. “Michelle... you need sleep—“

“Quinn’s parents are supposed to show up tomorrow morning so I’m not leaving until they show up.” Michelle interrupts, determination flooding her features. 

“I’m not asking you to leave.” Sean corrects, stiffening as Michelle suddenly leans against his knee and he responds safely by slinging an arm over her shoulder.

“Sleeping still separates me from Quinn. And she’s not safe.” Michelle points out and that causes Sean to furrow his brows.

Come to think of it, Michelle has never actually told Sean about what’s wrong with Quinn. This is all so sudden. 

“Michelle...” 

“Yes?”

“...What’s actually wrong with Quinn? Her coma seems sort of... sudden?”

Sean feels Michelle shudder at his abrupt question but she quickly composes herself, her expression falling grim once again. “She has Rotterdam’s. She’s had it all her life. I found out a couple months back and this is the moment she’s been dreading for so damn long. This is Stage 4. A coma... and she may never wake up.” Michelle explains, her tone becoming more and more weak the more she speaks of the topic and tears swell in her eyes. 

Sympathising with her, Sean clutches her with comforting intentions, letting her cry into his shoulder and he tries to help her the best she can. That’s all Sean has ever wanted to do. Help people. Even if it doesn’t work out, he still tries but now he’s here and Michelle is someone he just can’t fix. No matter how hard he tries, he’ll never be an acceptable form of support. He’s living too closely to what’s expected of him and that’s perfection. Something he just can’t live up to. 

“I’m so sorry I asked, Michelle.” Sean apologises and Michelle just shakes her head at him with a clear defiance in her hazel eyes.

“Don’t apologise. I know how much you wanna help.” Michelle acknowledges and that’s when her mind drifts back to a memory that has become so neglected by her over her last few hours. She actually is consumed by guilt that she’s forgotten about it for too long. “I’m the one who should be apologising. I aborted our baby.”

Sean tries not to let himself be corrupted by grief then because he can’t afford to match Michelle’s vulnerability right now. This is a topic he has to fight with strength and deal with it with Michelle. 

“No. Please. I know I kinda scared you with the whole us not being ready thing.” Sean assures. 

“That’s never an excuse to kill a living thing, Sean.” Michelle counters, a river pouring from her eyes and once again, Sean realises that he’s not making this better in any way. 

Sean clears his throat and parts his lips to speak but Michelle shakes her head at him, signalling for him to let her go first, which he obliges hesitantly. Anything he says will probably make things worse anyway. 

“You don’t have to say anything. You don’t have to apologise. You just have to know and remember that this isn’t your fault. It’s mine.”

“But—“

“Don’t argue with me, Sean.” Michelle says in a pleading done. Who knows if those words were meant to come out as a command but her weak, soft tone prevented that from happening. “Just accept that. Please.” 

A moment of silence and contemplation takes over as Sean tries to process Michelle’s words. She’s been through so much over the last few weeks and Sean can’t even begin to compare to how much more emotionally strong she is than him. Sean is a coward, according to him. He can’t even accept that something isn’t his fault because lately it feels like everything is. All he wants is to tell Michelle she’s wrong and console her the best he can.

Alas, he doesn’t have a choice. Sean simply nods in response and releases a futile word that is accompanied by nothing but a mere whisper. 

“Ok.” 

Logan

Logan leads Jake into their assigned motel room by the land and opens the door with her intentions already clear in her mind. She’s never been more determined in her life to prove to Jake just how much she’s missed him.  He deserves to be able to forget about everything he’s been through and just enjoy this time of peace and recovery. It may be more painful for some but Jake and Logan are finally back together and that’s something worthy of celebrating.

They’ve barely made it through the door before Jake crushes his lips against Logan’s, having not really been given the chance to fully embrace the familiarity and soft taste of her lips. The kisses are not tender and full of emotion like they were when they first reunited. No, this is pure hunger and urgency, a desperation that’s caused by their dreaded amount of time apart. It’s been too long. Way too long.

Jake slams the door shut and grips Logan by her hips, pressing her up against the door and savouring the full feeling of his lips on hers again. All his thoughts have been on her and this reunion is better than he ever could have imagined. Logan winds her arms around the back of Jake’s neck and she lets her fingers drift into his air, occasionally gripping on a few strands and stifling a groan out of him - the sound like music to her ears. 

The moment seems so perfect and they’re both so ready to melt into one another again and it appears like it’s about to come true... until Jake suddenly pulls away, barely breaking physical contact as his hand mindlessly ends up fiddling with the hem of his khaki jacket that Logan still happens to be wearing. Logan notices an uneven conflict in his eyes and she cups his cheek comfortingly.

“Something wrong?” She questions, genuine concern flooding through her ocean eyes and she’s a little taken aback when Jake lets out a soft chuckle in response.

“No... everything’s fine, Princess. It’s just...” He trails off, his cerulean eyes burning into hers as he takes in her stunning features. Jake can’t seem to wrap his head around the fact that she’s really here. In his arms. “...nothing it’s stupid.” He backtracks and Logan won’t let this topic go easily.

“I’m not dropping this now. Tell me what’s wrong.” Logan urges and Jake knows he has to answer when he realises how worried she’s getting.

“It’s nothing bad, darlin’. I just... can’t believe you’ve been wearing my jacket all this damn time.” Jake finally admits, hanging his head as he lets out a breathy laugh. Logan feels her expression falling a little in response as she grips the collar of the jacket and fidgets with it.

“Guess it was the only thing I really had left of you.” Logan murmurs and Jake kisses her forehead comfortingly upon hearing that. He can’t stand seeing her sad, especially with everything she’s going through. All of a sudden, a memory ignites in Logan’s mind and her hand swiftly digs into the pocket of the jacket, retrieving a familiar item, especially to Jake. “Well... also this.” 

With that, she pulls out the compass, otherwise her Ember Of Hope, revealing it to Jake and he scans it intently, narrowing his eyes as if he’s strongly debating whether he recognises it or not. 

“A compass? What does that have to do with me?” Jake questions and Logan is slightly taken aback by his lack of memory.

“You really don’t remember?” 

“Nah. Lundgren kinda mentioned that when I remember everything, some of the memories I had when I was clueless may have gone away. Looks like this was one of them.” Jake explains, his finger grazing the compass and Logan simply nods, prepared to explain it to him.

“Well... remember everything that happened with the Ember of Hopes and all that?” Logan eases Jake into it and he nods, letting her continue. “...This is mine.” 

“Seriously? And you never told me?” Jake acknowledges, furrowing his brows. 

“No... I was kinda scared at the time.” Logan responds, hanging her head in a little guilt and Jake tilts her head back up by her chin, looking her dead in the eyes and planting a reassuring kiss on her lips. Feeling revived, she shakes the shame off and continues. “That’s not even the weirdest part.”

“What is it then?”

“After we came here, I thought it was all gone but... Jake... you had it with you the whole time.” Logan finally reveals and Jake’s eyes widen a little out of confusion.

“What? Since when, Princess?” 

“You told me you found it on the beach one day and decided it was important enough to keep. Mainly because, in your own words, it reminded you of someone you thought you used to know.” 

Jake struggles to process this. All this time there have been so many signs that him and Logan are meant to be together but what baffles him the most is how different his personality worked when he was clueless of everything. So much more careless but those little changes like finding that compass must have made his alter ego shine through. 

Logan notices how quiet Jake and she waves a hand in his face, trying to bring him back to the land of the living. “Jake? You okay?” 

Out of nowhere, a grateful grin breaks out on Jake’s features and his cerulean gaze lights up at the sight of his gorgeous wife. Before Logan can even process what’s happening, Jake sweeps her off her feet and kisses her fiercely, a determination flooding through him like never before. He steadies her by resting his hands on her thighs. She responds by parting her lips a little and wrapping her legs around his waist, as Jake begins leading her away from the door and towards the bed... if he can find it.

Jake suddenly leans away, smirking at Logan as his hands hook onto the khaki jacket. “Sorry, Lo. I know you really, really... really love this jacket... but it’s gotta go if I’m gonna fuck you right.” He teases, knocking their foreheads together and Logan just forms her own smirk in response.

“Can’t exactly argue with that then can I?” She whispers, noticing his cockiness and challenging him. Jake shrugs the jacket off her shoulders and quickly connects their lips again as they swiftly fall back into their desperate frenzy of passion.

This is just as careless and desperate as their first time. When their lives were at risk and death was an almost certainty. When they wanted nothing more than to be with each other and use their last night wisely. They were new to each other but they felt so familiar at the same time, probably because they’d done it 2139 timelines before as well. But still, they were in need of each other and they couldn’t have imagined being with anyone else in that moment. It was just about them. And now this is just about them too. 

Logan lets her hands drift all around the upper half of Jake’s body, from the back of his neck to the end of his arms. Then, she roams her palms all the way up his chest but she doesn’t exactly make it to the top because of Jake’s sudden wince at her more firm impact.

In fact, he lets out an agonised groan. “Agh, fuck!” He curses under his breath and almost drops Logan. Instinctively, she hops off him in order to give him space and he involuntarily collapses to his knees. 

Now seated on the floor, Jake runs a hand through his hair as an attempt to soothe himself. It sure as hell doesn’t work as there is a never ending feeling of seeming like he’s on fire and his right peck is on fucking fire right now. Logan sinks to her knees and swiftly rushes to his side, cupping Jake’s cheek with desperation as she searches his dazed gaze for a sign that he’s okay.

“Jake... what’s wrong?” She dares to ask, starting to fear the worst.

“Princess, it’s okay. I’m just... bruised.” Jake assures, preparing to stand up but his wound prevents him from getting back up. “Shit!”

“Bruised, my ass. You’re hurt, Jake.” Logan corrects, lifting up his shirt to examine his injury and her ocean eyes widen at what she finds.

“Seriously? You’re gonna go all doctor on me now?” 

Logan brushes off his stupid comment as she’s too damn curious about how Jake managed to get such a wound. “Jake... that’s a burn.” 

Jake finally surrenders, his shoulders slumping back in defeat. “Ok... maybe Lundgren got a bit excited with the taser.” 

“Oh my god! How is this only hurting you really bad now?” Logan wonders, her finger grazing the outline of the wound and Jake winces at her wound.

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s only starting to kick in.” Jake shakes his head and an unexpected chuckle escapes him.

“Jake, this doesn’t really seem like a laughing matter.” Logan points out and that only makes Jake laugh even more. 

“The pain just had to come around at the wrong time though, didn’t it?” Jake states, throwing his head back and rolling his eyes at the world. Logan immediately catches on to what he’s saying and can’t hold back the smile playing at the corner of her lips.

“...I don’t think a shower would be that bad.” Logan mutters under her breath and Jake narrows his cerulean eyes at her, smirking curiously.

“You kidding, darlin? Water will make this sting like hell.” Jake points out and Logan realises that only after he mentions it. With that, she nods understandingly and runs a hand through her platinum hair. It’s Jake’s next words that surprise her the most. He leans in abruptly so their lips are almost touching. “But I’m sure it will be so fucking worth it.” He adds in a low husky whisper, causing Logan to bite her lower lip in response.

“You sure? It’s gonna hurt.” 

“Eh, I’ll suck it up. Done it all my life.” Jake counters, folding his arms as the pain finally dies down and he can get it his feet. A smile crosses his features when he completes the action successfully. He offers a hand to Logan and she takes it willingly, rising to her feet. Their faces remain inches apart and that’s when Logan takes a chance to inhale his scent.

As expected, it’s pure crap.

“You really need a shower anyway.” Logan acknowledges and she expects Jake to be a little offended but he simply throws his head back and laughs.

“Well you saved my life, now you can save my hygiene.” Jake points out, grabbing Logan by the hand and leading her into the motel bathroom. 

Mike 

A tension creeps into the air, infecting the atmosphere as Mike watches Estela intently since she’s been pacing around the room out of stress for about fifteen minutes. He can’t say he really blames her. Her thoughts must be souring with the amount of lies that have been told to her and only recently has she maintained her memories again so there must be around a million things haunting and taunting her right now.

Everything in that hell hole of a place happened so fast and Estela clearly got the worst mental impact, considering all the things she found out. The worst thing probably being the sight of her mother, shackled in a cage like an animal. Thats how she described it to Mike anyway. It’s clear her mother has been manipulated in some way and is being moulded to be one of Rourke’s puppets. It’s clear the bastard is doing this for revenge as well, trying to prove to her mother that you should never double cross him. He’s torturing her. Manipulating her. Shaping her into a monster and that has to be most heartbreaking thing about this.

It’s Estela’s father and her mother. In this particular situation, it’s so easy for her to choose a side since it’s undeniably obvious who the real monster is. Olivia is a victim, lost to Rourke and she spent her whole life trying to get away from him with no luck. Now she’s the one paying the price and who knows what he’s planning on prepping her for? What would he make her do? 

It doesn’t make much sense since Rourke killed all the Vaanti in the explosion and he stranded them outside for the world see and exaggerate into their worst nightmares. Everything about his plan was private but now it seems like he’s revealing it all to the world. He wants their approval. He wants their worship. He wants their power and he wants to manipulate the world so they fall on their knees at the sight of him. 

What the hell has this world come to? It’s truly sickening. 

Mike never dares tear his eyes away from Estela, who still hasn’t stopped pacing as stress runs throughout her body. Her veins are popping with frustration and her entire demeanour is revealing her greatest weaknesses. She’s barely even paid attention to Mike since they got in here.

Sure, things are guaranteed to be awkward between them since they haven’t even dared to discuss the current state of their relationship status. They never really ended things on a breakup. It was more of thinking one of them was dead and thinking the other one had eternal amnesia. 

Mike remembers playing their story all to well.

When he was brought back by Jake and the others, finally regaining his conscience, he grew a respectful bond with the fierce warrior of them all, Estela. She was always a stubborn one, protective of the others but always cautious about who she trusted. At first, Estela was extremely wary of Mike, no matter how much Jake tried to talk him up. She was all business and did her best to avoid him. 

Then things kinda escalated when Mike found Estela sitting alone on the Dorado one night. They developed a relationship of sorts but never really confirmed it. They kept it a secret from everybody else, since they couldn’t afford to face the music. It was always a lot to think of and digest. So they laid low and Mike has to admit, it was one of the best times of his life. He truly loved Estela and he didn’t admit it to her until the last second before he sacrificed himself, watching her eyes flood with an emotion he’d never seen on her. Grief. Sadness. A yearn to mourn. 

He told her he loved her…  but he never let her say it back. 

Now… he’s found Estela again and she appears the same, just as confident, sexy, fierce, cold towards all the wrong people, tough, able and always ready for a damn fight. She hasn’t changed. 

But it’s clear she may not want to continue what they and Mike has to be okay with that. She’s going through so much right now and it’s already killing him to see her so broken. He’s just so good at hiding his worries. He wants to comfort her. He really does but he fears she may push him away and shut him out. Estela is complex soul with so many sides to her and Mike can’t say he doesn’t love her because he really does. He just wants to her to have life back and with everything that’s happening, that may not happen any time soon. 

Finally, Mike breaks out of his trance and decides to say a few words to Estela or at least try and get talking to her again because they’ve been so silent for so long and have even dared to speak of their current situation.

“I’m sorry.” Mike mutters under his breath but Estela definitely heard them thanks to the deafening silence. She stiffens when she hears him speak to her properly for the first time. 

Estela folds her arms as idly as possible and leans against the wall, finally pausing her pacing. It’s painfully obvious that she’s trying to appear as calm and collective as she can. She hates when people overly worry about her. “You don’t have to apologise. Nothing that happened today was your fault.” Estela assures, clicking her tongue and processing his apology.

“I’m not talking about today.” Mike abruptly corrects, a meaningful look hinted in his chestnut eyes.

Estela furrows her brows, bewildered. “What do you mean then?”

“I’m sorry that I... left you the way I did.” Mike admits, reminiscing back to the day he sacrificed himself for the greater good and Estela’s eyes widen in complete disbelief as a reaction.

“Wait, what the fuck?” Estela reacts, slightly taken aback. “You’re really apologising for saving us. Killing Lundgren.” 

“Well, he didn’t exactly stay dead, did he?” Mike counters, shaking his head as he seats himself on the edge of his own bed. 

“Yeah? Well neither did you.” Estela bites back, running her hands through her brunette hair and sighing intensely. Clearly, she’s trying to assure Mike that she’s okay with the fact that he left the way he did but there must be a feeling deep down inside of her that’s taunting her about some sort of disapproval. After a deadened moment of silence, Estela exhales sharply and clears her throat. “...Look, you did what you had to do to help Jake... Lundgren was so close to killing him.”

Mike raises his eyebrows at Estela’s assumption that his sacrifice was only for Jake. “It wasn’t just for Jake, Estela.” 

“Oh yeah, sure it was for Logan too. She was about to get killed as well.” Estela’s guesses once more and Mike shakes his head in denial, only confusing Estela now until she finally catches on and an irritated huff escapes her. “No! Please tell me you didn’t do that for me!” 

Mike silences himself, daggers made of guilt stabbing his heart as he takes in the violent tone in which Estela speaks. Her strong gaze burns into his and she’s almost pleading with him to tell her that this wasn’t because of her.

However, his silence is all the answer Estela needs. “Mike... I’m so sick of people dying because they wanted to protect me or keep me safe. I’ve lost too many people because of the claim that I’m in danger.” Tears swell in Estela’s deep brown eyes and she can’t seem to use the skill she’s perfected her entire life... hiding her grief. “I lost my mom because she wanted to keep me safe from my father. Now look where she is, a chamber of torture becoming one of Rourke’s petty little minions. I lost my Tio because some stupid motherfucking astronaut bitch wanted to protect me from the world. And now...” Estela trails off, her desperate eyes searching Mike’s eyes frantically and she almost can’t bring herself to say the words. “...I’ve lost you.” 

“But you haven’t lost me.” Mike corrects, rising from the edge of the bed and approaching Estela, remaining at a fair distance so she still has space. “I’m right here.”

“Are you though? You don’t seem like the same man i knew on the island.” Estela points out, waving her hand up and down in front of Mike and he furrows his brows at that.

“What makes you say that?”

“You’re just... different.” Estela mutters under her breath, running a hand through her dark hair again as tears continue to pool from her eyes. “I just don’t feel the same way around you anymore. I would’ve thought that if you ever did come back, I’d care about you the same way I did before but... no. Maybe all the feelings I had before died with the man I used to know.” Mike is unsurprisingly confused at her words. Shes speaking so meaningfully, which is something Estela has never been able to do. How much has this timeline really changed her? “We’re all different people now, thanks to Rourke’s mistake. The momentary amnesia must have affected us more than we thought, especially for you since you died and came back to life. Everything about you has changed for some reason or maybe I’ve just changed. Either way... I know... I don’t... love you anymore.” 

Hearing Estela finally admit that she loved Mike is like music to his ears. But he can’t really appreciate her saying it because she’s using it in a context to tell him that he’s practically nothing to her. Like there’s no more romance to pick back up, thanks to Rourke’d experiment. Its truly saddening to Mike to hear Estela deny any chance that they can work through this.

“But I still love you. Can’t we at least try—“

“Maybe there are certain sides of love that managed to get through. Like Jake and Logan. But then maybe there are feelings that changed with the person. Like Diego’s tragic fate. All I know is that... I can’t force myself to fall in love with you again because I just know I’ll end up being the one who gets hurt again. And I’ve been through too much already, Mike. I’m sorry.” 

With that, Estela disappears into the bathroom, leaving Mike loveless and empty. What the hell is she talking about? Still, Mike has no excuse to argue with her. She has these insane theories about what’s happened painted in her brain and he won’t be able to change her mind on it. But no matter what, Mike knows he’s never gonna stop loving her. And maybe she’ll come through eventually. 

Jake

Jake still can’t fucking believe it. His Princess is truly back in his life. For good. Hopefully for good anyway but Jake isn’t gonna dare allow his thoughts to drift into dark places tonight. No. Tonight is about him and Logan and proving to her just how much he loves her, which he has done successfully, judging by the satisfaction painted onto her expression as they fall back onto the motel bed.  

It’s crazy to think that sex with Logan is just as memorable as it was the first time. When they wanted nothing more than to be with each other in that moment and now here they are, what seems like forever later, still feeling like the fireworks are a brand new feeling. They’re truly soulmates and no one can even dare deny it anymore. It’s not a suspicion or a theory. It’s a fact. They’re meant for each other. End of story.

Now they just want a complete night of peace, a chance to show each other just how much they’ve missed the other and they’ve been doing well with it so far. After an undeniably satisfying shower, Jake actually felt like a brand new man, feeling as though he’d been cleaned of all the trauma he went through when he was trapped in the clutches of Rourke and now he feels... free, almost. The happiest he’s been in a long time. Even though there’s still so much depressing shit going on at the moment, Jake still needs to appreciate that his soulmate is back in his life. Now he plans to never lose her again. 

Logan slowly snuggles up to Jake, resting her head on his chest and tilting her head up to admire his dazed expression. She can tell he’s exhausted because who knows when the last time was when he had a good sleep? His eyes are barely half open and she smiles at the pleasant sight of him. She missed these simple moments. The aftermath of a passionate night together and the sweet minutes of just talking and reminiscing. These are the times Logan truly cherishes and she would never take them for granted.

Noticing how her ocean eyes are so bright and full of pure happiness, Jake momentarily shoves his exhaustion to the side and turns his attention her, eyeing her with curiosity.

“What are you looking at, Princess?” Jake questions, not able to hide wide grin that crosses his lips. 

“It’s just like how I remembered with you.” Logan admits, grazing Jake’s cheek with her fingertips and he flinches a little at her featherlight touch. 

“Heh, glad I still got it.” Jake jokes, planting a kiss on her forehead and nuzzling her hair for an extra second. “Seriously though, I’m so glad I’ve got you back. I missed you so goddamn much.” 

“I missed you too. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I didn’t find you again.” Logan whispers and Jake can sense the pain in her tone. She must have gone through endless emotional trauma... all over him? Jake can’t even try and believe that. With reassuring intentions, Jake brings their lips together as he tries to soothe her slowly growing sadness. 

“I’m sure... you would have survived, darlin’.” Jake points out with a tinge of regret in his tone. 

“Maybe... but I still would have been miserable.” Logan murmurs and she can sense that topic is really bugging Jake, as his mind starts to ache with doubts and wonders that hadnt really bothered him until now. She reaches out to him and intwines their fingers, while using her other hand to brush the stray strands out of his face. “Jake.. what’s wrong?”

“It’s just... what if saving me was a mistake?” He suddenly pipes up and Logan’s sapphire eyes widen with disbelief.

“What do you mean?”

“Come on, darlin’. I know that people think we’re dead now but... now I know I’ll never be able to give you the life that you fucking deserve and it’s killing me.” Jake confesses, pouring out all of his doubts and regrets into this one moment.

“How do you know, Jake? Maybe this just gives us another chance.” 

“Lo, there’s a clear fucking reason. Do you think I can ever go back to the States after this? I was barely safe when they hadn’t caught me.” Jake snaps, his frustration eating into him and he can’t push it away like he usually does. 

“But Jake...”

“Look, Princess... I know how much you wanna keep us together and I wanna do that too but... I also wanna make sure I’m a husband to you, not a burden.” Jake’s honesty is so real, as well as his concern but he doesn’t seem to realise that Logan doesn’t need any protection. She only needs him.

“Jake... you could never be a burden. And I’ve lost you too many times to wanna let you go again.” Logan assures and Jake seems a little more convinced as she stares him dead in the eyes, a solemness he’s never seen in her before. “This is it, okay? You and me. Forever. To the stars and back, right?”

Finally, the hint of a smile creeps up at the corner of Jake’s lips and he lets out a soft exhale in response to her words. “Right.” Jake eventually relents, surrendering to his love and he slowly brings their lips together for a tender kiss that lingers longer than it should. When they pull away, he knocks their forehead together and takes a moment to admire the love of his life. “I fucking love you, darlin’.” 

He truly can’t believe that she chose someone like him to spend the rest of her life with. 

“I love you too and we’re gonna save all our friends from this goddamn world that Rourke created. But you know what we have to do in order to achieve that, right?”

Jake furrows his brows, suddenly confused. “What?”

“...Were going back to the States.”

Michelle 

The next morning finally dawns onto the world and the light exploding from the window alarms Michelle to the fact that the day has finally arrived, leaving her completely aware that she will have to leave Quinn today and she sure as hell is hesitant to do that. Sure, Quinn’s parents will be here to comfort her and Michelle knows that they won’t want her hanging over their shoulder asking constant questions about Quinn’s current state. 

Michelle will have no choice. She’s going to have to leave and her heart is begging her not to do it but her body is desperately reeling with exhaustion, urging her to fall into her own deep slumber because she’s neglected sleep for too long. But she still doesn’t wanna go. She wants to stay here and be there for Quinn. But her family won’t want her to always be there. 

A nurse has popped in a few times throughout the night to check on Quinn, measuring her blood pressure and temperature every few hours. Nothing has changed. Her state has been the same since she first collapsed and who knows if she’ll ever improve or worse... 

Michelle quickly shoves away the thought and releases a low exhale. She glances at the clock nearby. Almost 9 O’clock. The nurse alerted Michelle that Quinn’s parents are set to arrive around this time and she wishes to offer her condolences before she’s forced to leave. With that, Michelle finally rises from her chair and wanders over to Quinn, feeling the urge to gain one more mental image of her before she leaves for a while. 

Quinn looks so peaceful and maybe this is the sleep she’s always dreamed of but never received because the burden of her fate was always haunting and taunting her. Too bad the circumstances are so grim or Michelle might actually be able to admire the woman she’s slowly falling for.

“I’ll see you soon, Quinn. Don’t worry, I’ll be back before you know it. And when I see you Lo, I’ll tell her about what you said. I don’t know what it means but... if you said it, then I’ll do it because...”

Before Michelle can get out her last words, she ends up trailing off as she spots a slow action performed by Quinn and her hazel eyes widen at the revelation. A simple stir of the hand but so damn important. It’s a sign of life. A reflex, if you will and it proves that Quinn still carries her life within her. The first smile breaks out on Michelle’s features and she can’t help but be excited that Quinn is finally revealing the fact that she’s alive.

“Oh my god... Quinn! You’re alive! Wait... can you hear me? If so, I want you to know...” 

Then suddenly, Quinn’s body starts to shake slightly and her eyes start to quiver as they’re about to open. But the way this awakening is happening is rather unusual. It’s not the sudden eyes opening that’s so sweet like you see in the movies. No, this is almost... terrifying. Quinn looks like she’s about to explode and her body shivers even more violently as the moments pass.

Michelle’s eyes widen at the current situation and she can’t believe what she’s seeing. One moment it seems like Quinn is alive and now it almost seems like she’s possessed in some way. This has to be some kind of sick game that Michelle’s mind has come up with. A method of manipulation. A horrible hallucination. 

But the more Michelle blinks and realises it’s still there... the more real it seems.

“Quinn... are you ok—“

All of a sudden, Quinn’s once dead eyes snap open but the usual sky blue ocean colour doesn’t light up the room so positively like it typically would. No... a neon, lime green light bursts out of both eyes. An emerald fire of torture hiding the hope in her corneas and Michelle is amazed by what she’s seeing.

What the fuck kind of sorcery is this? Quinn looks like she’s been possessed or cursed but what the hell is going on? This has to be a nightmare. How can this be real?

Now Michelle is really starting to feel her anxiety cracking through and she runs her hands through her blond hair. That’s when she starts to hear it. Quinn is screaming through an echoey voice, like a cry for help. Michelle can’t quite make out what she’s saying but she still manages to catch a few breathy words.

“...Kill... kill... kill...”

She’s just speaking kill, all over again. But then another word makes its way again, confusing Michelle even more.

“...Reborn... Reborn... Reborn...”

Now this is truly frightening. Michelle should probably go get help and find someone suitable to take care of this but she can’t fucking bring herself to move. She’s completely paralysed but she knows she has to help Quinn, if anything.

With that, Michelle paces over to Quinn and attempts to grasp her in order to prevent her from shaking as she tries to knock some sense into her. Just as their hands graze... Michelle becomes the same thing. Her eyes a flash a hot pink and she screams out in agony as she tries to maintain Quinn. Michelle feels as though a rose-coloured fire is tearing up her heart and the pain is almost unbearable as she tries to fight through it and take some of Quinn’s pain too.

What the hell is even happening to her? This can’t be real. This has to be a nightmare. 

Out of the blue, as the pain starts becoming even more severe, Michelle’s mind is suddenly flooded with memories. Her memories just flow through her mind, rushing through her body continuously and giving her a chance to feel something familiar. Something she hasn’t felt in a long time and it almost feels like she’s right back where she started. Her head starts to ache from the amount of memories but she also feels an endless amount of relief.

Finally, she remembers everything. Getting trapped on the island. Almost killing a colossal crab. Attacking a sea monster. Meeting a pirate. Absolutely everything. She remembers it all. Everything and everyone.

Sean, Quinn, Raj, Grace, Aleister, Craig, Zahra, Jake, Estela, Diego and... Logan.

Michelle finally is rid of her amnesia but it sure took a hell of a lot of pain to do it. She feels just as possessed as Quinn but only in exterior not interior. 

Then suddenly, the lights burn out, the fire dies, the voices fade, the shaking pauses and everything returns to the way it was, including Quinn. Still in her deep slumber and it’s like her sudden awakening never happened.

There’s just one difference, however... Michelle now has her memories back.