#(I am sure there are more things but I have been at this for three days)

[viktortittiforov]

FYI, this is very similar to what you have to undergo in the czech republic in order to access medical and legal transition, and until this year(!) trans people living in CZ were also legally required to get medically castrated ("sterilized") in order to change their gender marker. the country kept that condition even after the european court of human rights ruled that it is a human rights violation, and only scrapped it this year after a czech trans man went to the czech constitutional court with it (i am not naming him because afaik his name is unknown to the public, i think he wanted it that way but am not sure).

as a czech nonbinary person currently trying to access medical transition and to change my legal name to a gender neutral one free of charge, i can confirm it's fucking hell. the humiliating, irrelevant, unscientific, pathologizing side of it is already well-described above, but i wanted to talk more also about the more practical difficulties. those obviously differ between CZ and UK and my experience is within CZ, but i think it may help you get an idea of what a person having to go through such a process really has to undergo, because even though i've known i'm nonbinary for 10 years and have been out as trans and nonbinary + well-informed about the state of czech trans healthcare + a part of the czechoslovak* trans community for about 6 of those years, it was not until i actually experienced this process for myself that i fully understood what an Ordeal it is. and i have (or have had) very close friends who i have seen going through it in real time.

buckle up. this will be long.

(and sorry to OP if i'm hijacking your post. i'm sharing the CZ context in order to also further illustrate the UK one, because i believe they are similar, not to derail the convo in favour of CZ. my intent is for people to better understand what trans people in certain countries have to deal with + for people to know that having access to free trans healthcare is really not all sparkles and rainbows (even as it is still a privilege that many trans people all over the world don't have).

we don't have GICs in CZ. so, in order to even get hormones, you have to:

go to a sexologist. sexologists are the main gatekeepers of medical transition in CZ and yes, it is very bizarre and based on some really old notions of what branch of medicine transness falls under. i also really do mean the word gatekeepers, not just because you have to go to them but because they really do gatekeep something severe. the majority of them are very cis- and hetero-normative (and also sexist), enforce normative gender expectations, see transness as a pathology (though what kind of pathology varies from sexologist to sexologist, some lean more towards sexual deviance, others towards mental illnese, etc), are suspicious of trans people not wanting (certain or any) medical interventions, and do not recognize nonbinary people as being "real"/valid/whatever word you want to use. there are literally 3 (three) sexologists in the country who are widely known in the czechoslovak trans community as being mostly OK (=not the things just listed or at least not as much as all the other sexologists). when i was starting my journey towards HRT (at least a year and a half ago now i think, probably closer to two years), i first contacted the 2 (out of those 3) which are closer to me; none of the "OK ones" are based in the city i live, and i live in the 2nd largest city in CZ. neither of them was accepting new "patients"* for the foreseeable future. luckily the third one was accepting new people, but he is basically on the other side of the country from me, so about 4–5 hours away by train or bus (=an 8hr roundtrip). this is annoying, exhausting, and expensive, as i've had to go see him at least 3 times by now and i still have not gotten a fucking testosterone prescription from him.

it's not easy to get the average sexologist to take you seriously. the three "OK ones" are significantly less gatekeepy and distrustful, but you usually have to do some convincing there, too. that includes dressing the "right" way, giving the "right" answers, having the "right" expectations of transition, etc. you learn what's "right" from the wider trans community and what's "right" is very, very, very normative. for most czech sexologists, you really for real have to prove not only that you're "trans enough"*, but also that once you transition, your current "pathological trans self" will become "normal" enough, gender conforming enough that you will cease being a treat or a disruption to the prevailing social gender order. it's literally designed to be a normalizing process. i have an MA in sociology with a focus on gender studies and for one of my uni essays i conducted a critical discourse analysis of the most prominent czech book about transness penned by czech sexologists, so i think i'm qualified to say this. the whole thing is very foucauldian but let's not get too philosophical here (i will happily tell you more if you ask me though).

if you're lucky and the sexologist believes you may indeed be trans (because of course they have to believe you and of course they're the ones who decide what the truth is), they will (eventually; usually you need several sessions for them to "be sure" or whatever) give you a referral to 3–4 other specialists: a psychiatrist, a clinical psychologist, an endocrinologist and an internal medicine physician. from each of these, you have to get a report for your sexologist.

from the clinical psychologist, they need a report confirming that you are indeed trans (they give you the official diagnosis) and that you don't have any other conditions which you might be confusing for transness, e.g. schizophrenia, psychosis, etc. you don't need me to tell you how fucked this is for e.g. schizophrenic trans people. it's not always a certain no-go for them, but they will have an even more difficult time accessing medical transition.

from the psychiatrist, they need a report confirming you are lucid and don't have any conditions which are potential contraindications to HRT and/or surgery. this can be the conditions already listed above, but also conditions like intense and unmanaged depression and/or anxiety, which might worsen at the start of you taking hormones. i know this because i have depression and anxiety and my sexologist wants to be sure i am stable enough to go on HRT before he gives me the goddamn prescription. this seems like it makes sense on the surface, but it also... completely disregards the fact that a) anxiety, depression and similar conditions will often be improved by HRT in the long run because yknow, less bad gender feels, and b) depression medication also tends to first make your symptoms worse before it makes them better, and no one makes such a fuss about it.

from the endocrinologist, you need a report confirming that you don't have any hormonal conditions which might be contraindicative to HRT, i.e. which make it so that long-term (often lifelong) HRT would be risky/dangerous for you. it's not like there has to be zero risk or danger and many conditions are (i think) just potential, not absolute contraindications, but yeah. this is about the only examination/report that i think is justified and good and makes sense, but it still kind of sucks because at least in CZ, there is not nearly enough endocrinologists to effectively cover demand/need, much less endocrinologists with a good understanding of trans healthcare, and for some reason many are notoriously judgmental cunts eager to insult and belittle people, apparently. more on this later.

finally, from the internist, you need a report confirming basically the same thing as the endocrinology examination, but for conditions pertaining to internal organs and the effect HRT may have on them. this also makes sense and it is also not always needed if there's no reason to suspect (e.g. from your family's medical history) that you have any such conditions. however, it's shitty because for many people trying to access transition this is the first time they get referred to an internist, and a medical condition might suddenly be discovered which complicates their access to HRT. it's obviously good that the condition is now known, but it's shitty when it's so unexpected. my ex-gf (a trans woman), for example, found out she has a condition that makes it more likely she will get blood clots, which sucks because HRT increases your chance of getting blood clots (if i remember correctly). she is now on HRT, but had to wait a lot longer because several subsequent tests needed to be done, and she initially thought this last examination would just be a formality. (this problem with unexpectedness also applies to the results of the endocrinology exam, of course. but this is a wider problem of doctors being unwilling to sign off on preventive examinations...)

if you already go to one or some of these regularly, the sexologist will give you a paper requesting these medical reports instead of a referral. this is lucky, because usually all of these specialists are as difficult to access as the sexologists, or even more so, and if you already visit one you will be spared some waiting time. but it's unlucky if the person you go to is very uninformed about trans stuff and also uncooperative (i am experiencing this with my psychiatrist).

if you have any other chronic health conditions, you will need to also check whether those aren't contraindications. for example, i have some chronic eye issues so i have to get a report from my ophthalmologist, which is going to be fucking difficult because i bet they have no idea how eye conditions interact with HRT and they will most likely be unwilling to research it (even though that's literally their job). it is necessary, i get it, but it fucking sucks that i have to be the one "negotiating" with them about getting this report, said negotiating being tragically close to begging sometimes. czech doctors, and i think doctors in general, sadly often have little respect for their "patients" and believe they always know better, which makes it difficult to get them to do what you need them to do (as i'm sure many are aware).

most of these other specialists, at least in CZ, are similar to the sexologists or even worse, i.e. not only will you usually have to wait months for an appointment (if they even agree to offering you one and don't just tell you to try elsewhere), but they are uninformed about trans healthcare and uninformed about how to respectfully treat trans people, or even straight up transphobic, sexist, queerphobic, etc. perhaps because of this they are often uncooperative and unwilling (more than usual). there are exceptions and when you are nonbinary, you either have to seek those out or lie (=say you're binary trans), but obviously you can only lie to some of the specialists or it'll turn up in the reports and your sexologist is gonna read it and grill you about why you lied (if you go to an enby friendly sexologist and they know you are nonbinary, ofc. if they don't know either, then you can lie to everyone, but that can be stressful obviously). also even the specialists who aren't actively hostile will most likely misgender you if you don't pass, and sometimes even if you do; i've heard of endocrinologists who refuse to respect pronouns until the person has been sterilized and had their gender marker officially changed. apparently until it's legally sanctioned, it's not real, or i don't know.

in case of the sexologist and endocrinologist you will need to keep seeing them long-term so they can keep an eye on your health and well... on you generally, ig. the visits will be less frequent and shorter the longer you take hormones, i am led to believe, but yeah. and this is also good, i think (despite the aspect of being monitored to some extent), but it means your choice of sexologist and endocrinologst has to be strategic and you can't just say you will just go to that notoriously shitty guy near where you live because it's convenient and he can offer you an appointment relatively soon, unless you want to go through the ordeal of finding a new endocrinologist again immediately after your first appointment with that shitty guy.

all of this sucks, the doctors give you reports and requests and referrals but they don't know what the other doctors want, they are not satisfied with the reports (the extensiveness of them or the content itself), they say they can't help you. it's exhausting. apparently they can't just write or call each other to figure it out. you need to do all of that yourself.

that's the ordeal you have to go through just to get HRT. if you want surgery, in CZ you usually have to literally go sit in front of a panel of "experts" so they can grill you on your transition so far, what surgeries you want or don't want and why, what your expectations are, etc. yes, again. and these "experts" change somewhat for each hearing, and they usually know jack shit about transness or trans healthcare. from what i've heard they're very conservative. there's ways to get around this totally meaningless interrogation and afaik most people get the panel's approval and are only in that room for a short while, it's apparently very surface level unless you give them a reason to doubt your transness. but people have to wait months for their hearing. it's a further test of patience.

this is the route you have to go if you want to transition free of charge. i think it's great that CZ has universal healthcare, but universal healthcare comes with a lot of gatekeeping and hangups and problems, bcs the country wants to make sure you are only getting a given treatment if you really need it; and of course, the doctors are the judges of that. also, at least so far, free transition that falls under universal healthcare is predicated on transness being defined in the ICD (international classification of diseases) as a medical problem. it has to be pathologized and medicalized in order for it to be free. it doesn't have to be that way, but right now, it is that way, and it sucks. pathologization plays a huge role in making transness non-threatening to the social order.

oh, and if you're rich and able + willing to pay for transition? in CZ, you can get fucked. afaik, private, self-funded transition isn't really available or perhaps even legal. i might be wrong, and i do personally know one transmasc person who paid for their own top surgery and had it done at a private clinic, but they still faced a TON of unwillingness because the clinic was really worried about being sued. if you have the money (or were able to get it via donations), you will most likely need to go abroad, and if you're planning on returning to CZ after, you will almost certainly have difficulty getting legal recognition (shall you seek it).

whether legal recognition is desirable or necessary is a whole different discussion, of course. i don't want to get into it in this already ridiculously long post, but i wanted to at least acknowledge that legal recognition is by no means neutral and/or unproblematic.

if you managed to read all the way to the end, i salute you. you must be tired. go eat an apple or something.

*czechoslovakia stopped existing over 30 years ago but CZ and SK people still largely intermingle and many slovak people migrate to CZ. i am specifying this because annoyingly enough, many people on this US-centric site still do not know czechoslovakia is no longer a thing, so in case my addition gets some attention, i want this to be clear. please do not talk in the tags about how this is your first time hearing about this. i most likely will not see it since i am not OP but i have seen it happen a lot in posts about CZ and/or SK and it's really not funny or quirky that you didn't know. it's quite insulting, actually. if you want to share the fact that this is new info to you, share it instead with your friends who also may not know, so that they learn. thanks. (yes i'm bitter)

*the term patient implies a hierarchy & is pathologizing = is far from neutral; putting it in quotes to disrupt its seeming neutrality.

*trans enough = see transnormativity; link leads to an open-access academic article introducing this concept but you can definitely find simpler explanations online if you're not familiar with it.

What in the academic fuck is a GIC assesment

A GIC assessment (Gender Identity Clinic) assessment is the psychiatric interrogation you have to go through in Britain if you want permission to medically transition (and some aspects of legal transition too). Also called a Gender Dysphoria Assessment.

It involves answering a bunch of medically irrelevant, repetitive, deeply humiliating, repetitive questions like how you masturbate, what you wear when you masturbate, your sexual history, your childhood history, what toys you played with as a child, your employment, the clothes you like to wear, your relationship with your partners and family, etc. The classic is "Do you imagine yourself as a woman when you masturbate?" It also involves various psychiatric tests to check whether you're psychotic, which are deeply stigmatising. You will likely have to suffer this interrogation more than once if you want certain medical and legal doors to open. If you do not answer these questions "correctly" you may be refused transition.

If you want to get it for free, you'll need to wait several years, possibly decades depending on where you live, to be admitted to a Gender Identity Clinic.

If you want to go private, it will cost you about £500 a go, maybe more. (It's not technically a GIC Assessment unless it takes place at an NHS GIC; otherwise it's just sparkling humiliation.)

At the end of your interrogation you will - if you answered correctly - be diagnosed with "gender dysphoria." There is no way for them to check whether the answers you gave were truthful or whether you just told them what they want to hear. In Britain, about a third of trans people surveyed said they lied or withheld information during these assessments. There was no way for the 2015 American Psychiatric Association Working Group on gender dysphoria - the cis people who created the diagnosis* - to know that the interview data they based it on wasn't also full of people telling doctors what they wanted to hear! The unreliability of that data, some researchers have said, calls into serious question the use and sense of the diagnosis! * Fun fact: Ray Blanchard and Kenneth Zucker were both on that working group!

The NHS spends somewhere between 20 and 90 million pounds a year (depending on how you count it) on doing this.

Contrast that process to, say, the treatment pathway for menopause, where a cis woman who wants hormone replacement therapy can just get it from her family doctor 🙃

If you'd like to know more about this, I spoke about it here in more detail with citations

And wrote about it here

[isuggestforcefem]

started dating a cute twink, who ive known for about three years prior to this. he currently uses he him so thats what im going for for now... i'm a trans woman, having had socially transitioned since 2020 and being on estrogen since april. anyway i didnt have feelings for him until this summer, when i started, like, sensing something. i wasn't sure what it was, but now i'm completely certain that it's the feelings he has for me, his totally being an egg that hasn't cracked yet, some latent undiscovered potential of spirit, or a mixture of the three. we've been getting closer and closer to each other over time, moving into a massive grey area that I decided to turn into a completely certain, yes-we-are-a-thing. I'm bisexual leaning heavily toward women, you see, but i thought i'd make an allowance this time. today we went on a fantastic date, and i gave him what i suspect was his first kiss. the energy is still electric now that he's gone.

not what this is about, though. you see, as i've got closer to this person i've gradually understood that there's something extremely transgender going on with him- at least, as far as i can intuit. Over a year ago, I brought up the days when i was just questioning to another transgender friend, and he just sorta piped up, said "i've thought about it," and completely refused to elaborate. i still remembered that and i thought that our first date would be a nice time to discuss it- that flustered him real good, but he did mention that he perchance probably maybe might be transfem, but he's got school, so...

of course, the thing about girls like her is it's *never* the right time.

but whatever. i laid off, but intermittently i did what i do best and joked about him being transgender, and you know what? he never denied it, or confirmed it. he just stayed in that space between acceptance and denial, blushed and laughing. we're a relationship of comfort, you know? it's *comfortable* being around each other. it's *comfortable* not choosing trans or cis, just letting time pass. but god, i don't know, i want more for her! he's a sweet, adorable person now, but i know there's something inside him that's just so much more than this. i want it to get out. i want her to get out.

but the more i think about it the murkier it gets. he's so into me- do i hold the power here? is it better to wait for him to walk into womanhood, or should i be more active in encouraging him? i know i'm right, but what if i'm not, am i going to cause him dysphoria down the line? am i afraid of being a predator here because of internalized transmisogyny? am i overthinking this, should i just let it happen? for the record, he *does* seem to totally enjoy being a femboy- granted, that could go either way.

i've penned you an entire novel here, i recognize that and if you don't want to read this through or advise me that's just fine. if you'd like, you can leave this message out for your follower base or just save it in your inbox forever. but- i would LOVE your advice, ms forcefem. i do believe you're the one person to ask who would understand my position the best. thank you!

You should gently push her, help her down that path, make sure she feels safe to explore it! Girls like that will invent all sort of excuses to stay in denial, and you have to show her what she could have, the joy!

[javierpena-inatacvest]

Chapter 6- Undeniable

Summary: when your car breaks down, you’re forced to ask Frankie for help. You’re not sure what you hate more- that you have to ask him for help, or that there’s a part of you that maybe can tolerate him

Word count: 6.2k

Pairing: Frankie Morales x f!reader (reader has a name/nickname, no use of y/n)

Warnings: Angst, tension (in a good way??!!), yearning (AHHH), teenage Frankie (and current day Frankie, for that matter) are down so bad, Santi and Benny play Dr. Phil

A/N: okay I said there would be smut this chapter, but I am a liar, and I am sorry 🤥 I flip flopped some scenes around and it ended up making more sense for some ✨things✨ to happen next chapter instead 🤷🏼‍♀️ I seriously love these two more and more every chapter, and this may have been my favorite one to write so far!! Thank you SO much for all the kind things you’ve had to say about this story- it really means more to me than you know 🥺💛 (sorry for any errors, I didn't have time to edit this chapter as well as I should have!)

All The Things We Never Said Masterlist

Previous Chapter Next Chapter

Frankie, Age 18, Summer of 2007

“Jesus Christ, Morales, you got bricks for feet, or what?”

The Garcia’s newly installed basketball hoop had been a welcome addition to the neighborhood rotation of afterschool hangouts. Santi knows just as well as Frankie and Benny that it’s really nothing but a ploy to keep the boys occupied and out their parent’s hair, but the three have gladly accepted the olive branch Santi’s parents have extended to them, regardless of motive.

Now that the heat of late May has begun to sear off the pavement of Everett Street and the dwindling motivation of senior year is in full force, basketball has quickly taken over as the new after school activity.

Benny and Santi love it because it gives them a chance to get out the competitive angst they’ve had locked away since football season has come to a close.

Frankie loves it because it gives him something to keep him occupied until you come home from soccer practice.

Even then, he still finds himself anxiously counting down the minutes until your car pulls into the driveway, stepping out of the driver’s seat to give him that same goofy wave of approval that frees him from his friends’ constant bickering about where the three point line lays on the cement.

Ever since he told you he was leaving, there’s a part of him that debates forgoing basketball all together, just so he can make it to your house that much quicker when you get home. Now more than ever, he’s hyper aware of every second he has left with you, the internal countdown constantly nagging in the back of his mind before it’s four hundred miles that separate the two of you, not four houses.

Because now, not only does he have 74 days left to figure out how to say goodbye to his best friend, he has 74 days left to figure out how to tell her that he’s head over heels in love with her.

That’s what’s on Frankie’s mind as the pass Santi’s thrown at him rolls right past his shoes and down the driveway.

No shit, he’s got bricks for feet.

“Helloooooo? Earth to Frankie? You gonna get the fuckin’ ball, or what?” Santi shouts, wildly waving his arms, trying to snap his friend out of whatever weird daydream he’s stuck in.

“Oh, y-yeah. Yeah, sorry.” Frankie stammers, half jogging for the bouncing ball, tossing it back to Benny, also barely paying attention enough to keep the rubber from smacking him upside the head.

“Fuck, dude, you tryin’ to kill me, or somethin’? A heads up would be nice next time!” Benny scoffs, trying to downplay the fact he’s nearly just shit his pants from the ball that came out of nowhere and almost took him out.

“S-sorry. My bad.” Frankie grimaces, sheepishly running his hand through his thick, messy curls before rubbing the back of his neck.

Santi and Benny exchange confused glances with each other before turning their attention back to their clearly pre-occupied friend.

“Hey, you good, man?” Santi asks, scrunching his brow at Frankie’s tortured scowl.

“Yeah dude, you’ve been like, super out of it the past couple of days. Everything okay?” Benny adds. He tries to discreetly nudge Santi, givinging him a look that’s meant to ask if there’s something he’s missing. The best Santi can give him back is an ambivalent shrug, just as lost as his friend as to why Frankie’s mentally residing on another planet.

“Yeah. I’m- I’m fine.”

Sure, Santi and Benny aren’t as emotionally mature as their friend, but they also aren’t stupid. It’s obvious there’s something he’s keeping from them, and they’re far too relentless to let it go until they find out.

“Dude… C’mon.” Santi prods, taking a step towards Frankie to poke him on the shoulder.

“Yeah, spill the fuckin’ beans, Frank. What the hell’s goin’ on?” Benny chimes in, following Santi’s lead with another forceful poke.

“It’s nothing! Jesus, will you drop it?”

Santi smirks at how agitated Frankie’s become, spending enough years with his friend to know there’s one thing, and one thing only that’s got him this worked up.

“Is this about Kenz?”

Frankie’s eyes dart rapidly between his friends, the sky and his feet, too afraid to settle in one place as he’s consumed by his own silence, crossing his arms over his chest as he braces himself to defend against the onslaught he’s about to be faced with.

He could lie, say no, keep arguing with Santi and Benny until he’s blue in the face, but he knows it’s no use. Deep down, he has a feeling they already know what he’s going to say. He also has a feeling he’ll never go a day for the rest of his life where they won’t give him ten pounds of shit for it, but Frankie’s desperate. If he doesn’t figure out what to do, there’s a good chance he just may explode.

“You have to swear you won’t say anything about this to anyone.” Frankie sternly sighs, eyeing down his friends with a deathly glare, “Swear you won’t.”

“We swear, man.”

“Yeah, we swear.”

Benny and Santi nod in agreement, too shocked at his agreement to tell them anything rather than asking them to fuck off and leave him alone. They wait in patient silence as Frankie takes a long, shaky deep breath in.

“I um- fuck. Fuck.” He stammers, terrified to hear himself admit what he’s had locked away in his brain for years out loud for the first time, “I’m uh- I think I’m in love with MacKezie. I think I’m in love with her and I don’t know what to do.”

Frankie’s mortified by the silence from his friends in the seconds that follow. He’s even more mortified by their howling laughter that comes after that.

“That’s it? Oh, thank God!” Santi cackles, him and Benny clutching their chests to try and keep themselves standing, “Dude, I thought you were gonna say something fucking crazy. You looked like you were gonna fucking throw up.”

“W-what? Santi, did you not just hear what I fucking said? I literally just told you-”

“That you’re in love with MacKenzie? News flash, Morales, we’ve known you’ve been in love with her since like, the eighth grade. Holy shit, I can’t believe you finally fucking admitted it!”

Frankie’s face grows hotter by the second, his cheeks ablaze with bright reds and pinks, not sure if he’s more embarrassed by what he’s admitted, or the fact that he’s worked himself up for weeks to finally tell his friends something they’ve already known for years and Frankie was too blind to realize it.

“Well, okay- I just- what am I- what am I gonna do?” Frankie stutters, throwing his hands up to the sky, very aware that the admittance of his love for you is only a small part to his greater problem.

“Whatta you mean, what are you gonna do?” Benny questions, he and Santi still giggling over how frantic and flustered Frankie still was.

“It’s not fuckin’ rocket science, Frank.” Santi smirks, giving him a playful nudge, “Just tell her that you love her.”

“Are you out of your fucking mind, Santi?! I can’t just tell her I love her, that’s- fuck, that’s crazy!” Frankie’s all but shouting at his friend for what feels like the most outrageous idea he’s ever heard, crazily pacing up and down the driveway, as if he’s asking his friends for advice on where to hide the body he’s just killed.

“And that would be crazy because….?” Santi teases, anxiously awaiting whatever ridiculous answer Frankie has to finish off the rest of his sentence.

“Because?!” Frankie asks, storming so fast up and down the driveway, he’s about to make fresh cracks in the concrete, “Because, b-because- fuck, Santi, what if I tell her that I love her and she doesn’t feel the same way? What if I ruin our friendship forever and then I get my fuckin’ heart broken and lose my best friend? Jesus Christ, that’s why.”

“You wanna tell him or should I?” Benny proposes, shrugging at Santi.

In a silent agreement, Santi gives Benny a nod, taking a step towards Frankie to grab him by the shoulders, forcing him to stand still enough to capture his full attention.

“Frankie, lemme ask you this.” Santi pauses, bringing Frankie’s gaze from his feet up to his friend, thinking for once in his life, he may actually be willing to give him some serious advice.

“Yeah?”

“Are you blind, or are you stupid? ‘Cause I think you may be both.”

“What the fuck, dude?!” Frankie scoffs over Santi and Benny’s snickering, outstretching his arms to push Santi off of him.

“Damn, maybe he is.” Benny grimaces overdramatically, playing into Santi’s theatrics.

“Fuck off, Benny!” Frankie frowns, starting to regret asking his friends for help.

“Jesus Christ, I can’t believe I really have to spell this out for you.” Santi sighs, squeezing his temples between his thumb and index finger.

“What!?” Frankie presses, nearly fed up with his antics.

“Shit, you’re right Benny, he may be dumber than we thought.” Santi snorts before quickly turning his attention back to Frankie, “Frankie… You do realize MacKenzie’s in love with you too, right?”

Frankie feels his heart stop. He’s partly convinced it’s flatlined indefinitely. The only thing that’s keeping him alive is even the tiniest chance that what Santi has to say is actually true.

That maybe, just maybe, you love him, too.

“Santi, c’mon. Be- be fucking serious. There’s no way.”

Frankie won’t let himself believe anything yet, no matter how badly he wants to. Knowing Santi, he wouldn’t be shocked if he’s trying to pull him in to some sick sort of joke, but the looks on his, and Benny’s faces is all the earth shattering reassurance Frankie needs to know that Santi’s telling the truth.

“He’s being serious, I swear.” Benny chimes in, trying to aid in convincing Frankie.

“Think about it, Frank. The two of you spend every fucking second together. You’re basically already dating without actually dating. And not even just because of the fact you like, pretty much go on dates to the movies or ice cream, or whatever. Didn’t you say she cried for like, an hour when you told her you were leaving?”

“I- I mean, y- yeah, I guess.”

“Or the fact that she’s never dated anyone else and has had you locked in as her prom date since last year.” Benny adds.

“Don't even get me started on the fact you two cuddle every time we watch a movie together, because God forbid you’re not touching each other for an hour and a half.”

“I- I- I- don’t know. I mean, sure, yeah, but just because she does that doesn’t mean she’s in love with me!”

Frankie can feel his insides churn, like someone’s put them in a blender and cranked it on high. He’s not sure what’s more terrifying- that you do all those things but you’re not in love with him, or that you do all of them because you are.

He quickly comes to determine the second is much scarier than the first. Mostly because there’s a part of him that believes maybe you’re just as in love with him as he is with you.

“Fuck, I think I’m gonna throw up.”

Frankie’s knees wobble as he sinks to the ground, bottom hitting the pavement with a thud.

“Well shit, don’t do it on the driveway, my mom’s gonna kill me. If you gotta yak, at least do it on the grass.”

Santi and Benny settle in on either side of Frankie, the trio of boys squatting at the edge of the driveway. Frankie buries his head in his hands, scrunching his face so hard into his sweaty palms that maybe, some sort of reasonable idea will pop into his brain if he squeezes hard enough.

“You guys really think she likes me? Like, actually?” Frankie asks, peeking his head up to look back and forth between Santi and Benny.

“Uh, yeah.” The pair agree in unison, each giving their friend a pat on the back, trying to keep their all-knowing laughter at bay to soothe Frankie through his distress.

“Fuck. Holy shit. So- So what do I do? Just- Do I just tell her?”

“I mean, I’m no love guru, but you like, may wanna be a little more subtle than that.” Benny snickers, giving Frankie a little nudge, “I mean, do you wanna tell her?”

“Yeah. Fuck. Fuck, I wanna tell her so bad.” It spills out of Frankie’s mouth without any hesitation. The more he thinks about it, the more sure he is.

“Like, you’re already going with her to prom and stuff. You could do it then?” Santi suggests with a slight shrug of his shoulders.

“Damn, alright, Mr. Romance over here with the advice.”

“Shut up, Benny. You got any better advice? At least I’ve fuckin’ had a girlfriend before, you dingus, have you? Didn’t think so.”

Frankie’s completely blocked out their bickering, lost in his own train of thought, where all he can picture is you- Your smile, the little strand of hair that you tuck behind your ear when it falls in your face, the way your nose crinkles when you laugh, the little curl in your lips you get when you smirk at him when he tells a stupid joke.

How badly he wishes his lips could meet yours to feel that smirk pressed against his face.

“Do… Do you- Do you think I should kiss her?”

“Jesus Christ, Frankie, what are we, twelve?” Yeah, man, fuckin’ kiss her.” Santi snorts, Benny joining in with muffled laughter in his throat at the innocence of his question, “God, with how nervous you sounded, I thought you were gonna ask if you should like, have sex with her, or somethin’.”

It’s then his brain truly short circuits, his heart about to fall out of his ass and lump in his throat the size of a softball.

He has enough balls to admit he’s thought plenty of times about kissing you.

But right now, he certainly doesn’t have enough balls to confess to his friends, (or even to himself, for that matter) he’s spent just as much time thinking about doing a lot more than just kissing you.

He’s spent even more time thinking about just how badly he wants to.

One step at a time, Morales.

You, Present

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me…”

Turning over your ignition to the sound of empty rattles once wasn’t anything to worry about.

Turning it over twice to the sound of silence you could chalk up to bad luck.

But after six different attempts to start your car to no avail, you were fairly certain your issue wasn’t based solely on user error.

“Fuck…” You huff to yourself, yanking out your keys and slamming the driver’s side door behind you as you storm back into the house, now in a race against the clock to get your car not only started, but driveable enough to get you to work on time.

It’s the stupid things like this you haven’t mentally prepared yourself for when it comes to your father’s impending death- Not having a built in mechanic at your disposal to help solve your car issues when something goes awry. It seems selfish to take from the few precious moments you have left with him to pester your dad about your car troubles, but you know for a fact, your dying father has a better chance of diagnosing your issue from his bed than you do hands deep in the engine.

“Hey, Dad.” You grimace, gently rousing him from his half-awake state in front of the TV, “Dad, can I ask you something, or are you too busy dying?”

Your joke is enough to crack a sleepy smile in the corner of his lips, grunting as he turns his head over to see you hunched over the edge of his bed.

“Depends. Is it worth my time, or should I go back to decaying?” He fights with everything in him to let out the softest laugh, a sputtering cough following as his chest rises and falls, trying his best to not let his final days prevent him from being the helpful dad you’d always known.

“My car won’t start. Do you have any idea of what it could be?”

“You gonna wheel me out to the driveway to have me figure it out?”

You both know it’s ridiculous, what you’re asking him to do. You’re not sure what compelled you to think that he’d be able to help solve your problem, but your yearning for the normalcy that’s been absent in your life for so long seems to outweigh any logic.

“I think we could probably crank the bed high enough for you to look under the hood.” You shrug with a sad type of sarcasm, anxiously fiddling with your fingers to try and brainstorm a solution to your time-sensitive issue.

“You know there’s someone four houses down who is very capable of solving your problem who isn’t dying.”

For as hard as your dad fought for his half huffed laugher, he fights even harder for the smug smirk pinching the corner of his cheeks.

“Dad…” You let out a deep breath, trying to not let your eyes roll to the back of your skull from even pondering the idea of admitting to Frankie Morales that you need his help.

“Mackenzie Grace?” He questions back, pretending to be blissfully unaware of your reason for dramatic pause.

“Dad, you can’t be serious.”

“I am, actually. Dead serious. And right now, I’m at a point in my life where that statement can’t be any closer to the truth.”

Unfortunately, that’s an argument you can’t fight.

You sigh again, chewing at your lip to see if your brain can muster any other plausible solution before you admit defeat, but you know it’s no use. Your dad is kind enough to accept your silence as a white flag, sparing you the embarrassment of admitting he’s right. What he’s not kind enough to do, is to let you off without making sure he gets the last word.

“You can’t stay mad at him forever, honey.”

“I can, actually.”

Right now, your dad better thank his lucky stars he’s dying, because any other circumstance, and you would have already been halfway out the door before you put yourself through this conversation again.

“MacKenzie,” He pauses, the frail and wrinkled ends of his fingertips reaching out just enough to rest on the hand you have wrapped around the bar of his bed guard rails, “if I give you some dying words of wisdom, do you promise to listen, actually listen to what I have to say?”

You know he’s about to tell you something you have no intention of wanting to hear. You want so badly to lie, to say “yes”, just to appease him without really meaning it. But the guilty conscious eating you alive in the pit of your stomach won’t let you get off that easily.

“Yeah, I promise.”

It’s soft enough for only you and him, just quiet enough to keep the world out of your shared secret.

“Holding a grudge won’t make you any happier. It won’t change what happened, either. I’d be willing to bet he’s still holding one against you, too. There’s two sides to every story, MacKenzie Grace, and you can’t keep blaming him like you didn’t have a part in what happened, too. He’s already accepted he’s in the wrong for what he did. God bless the fact you ended up just as stubborn as your old man, but at some point, you have to get off your high horse and do the same.”

It’s unsettling, the feeling that washes over you- it makes every inch of your body twinge and wince in a strange sort of self-inflicted pain you can’t shake, the indescribable discomfort that makes you want to crawl out of your skin and evaporate into thin air. The tormented sensation stirring in your gut makes you want to scream and cry and run away, all at the same time.

Because it’s not the truth of your dad’s words alone that make you feel this way- you’ve come face to face with this truth more times than you’d like to count.

It’s the fact that for the first time, you’ve come face to face with the truth, and there’s a part of you that can accept it.

You stand there for another moment at the edge of his bed, eyes peeled to the ground, trying to find the words you’re too scared to admit. Maybe your silence is a loud enough confession.

“I’ll see you when I get back from work, okay?” You lean down and kiss his head, giving your dad’s hand a final, gentle squeeze before you’re halfway out the door, car keys in hand.

“I thought your car wasn’t working?”

Your dad has never been one for “I told you so’s” . The stifled smile and playful glisten in his tired eyes will do just fine.

“Bye, Dad.”

Your dad’s words echo in your brain as you begin your journey down the driveway, terrified by the tiniest amount of weight it’s lifted off your shoulders.

“Holding a grudge won’t make you any happier. It won’t change what happened, either.”

Maybe he’s got a point. But that’s easy to say when you’re only dealing with the idea of Frankie you’ve built up in your head, not when you’re about to come face to face with him in real time.

There’s a part of you that debates just walking to work. Hell, the hour walk it would take you to get to work would probably be easier than the thirty second walk you’re about to take four houses down.

You’ll be lucky if you don’t gnaw off your entire thumbnail by the time you make it to the Morales’s doorstep, trying to clench your fists as tight as possible with every step you take towards their house to attempt to keep your nerves (and nails) intact.

You’re not sure you’ve ever walked this slow to his house. There was once a time that you couldn’t sprint there fast enough, legs leaping over cracks in the sidewalk to meet Frankie at his front door. Now, it feels like you might as well be crawling with the time you’re trying to waste before you ring his doorbell.

You practically tip toe up the steps to the porch, like it’s some sort of crime to be at his house and you’re terrified of being caught. Your finger hovers over the doorbell, outstretched and ready to press, too frozen in fear to move the extra inch it will take to press the rounded button.

“Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.” You curse under your breath, furrowing your brow at your inability to face his front door. You ball your free hand up to a fist, slamming your knuckles against your forehead with a sigh so heavy, you’d probably give that wolf from The Three Little Pigs a run for his money, “‘C’mon, MacKenzie, just ring the damn doorbell.”

Your heart stops as the tip of your index finger finally pushes hard enough to force the high pitched chime, forcing yourself to keep your feet planted on the doormat below you instead of booking it half way across town.

“One sec!”

The bellow of his voice from behind the door is enough to jumpstart the stand still of your heartbeat, so much so that in an instant, it’s gone from flatlining to nearly beating out of your chest.

At this point, even if you wanted to run, you’re not sure your body would let you.

As the knob turns and draws back towards the house, Frankie’s broad body fills the doorframe. He looks almost as frozen as you, so stunned by your presence, his tongue darts between his lips as a placeholder for the words he lacks.

“H-hey?” He asks it so cautiously, eyebrows scrunching in confusion while he looks you up and down, too scared to say anything else until he figures out why you’ve shown up at his front door.

“My um- My car won’t- I have to go to work and I can’t get my car to start.”

You don’t dare phrase it as anything other than a statement of fact. You’ll die before the words “Frankie, will you help me?” escape from your lips.

“O-oh. Shit.” He cocks his head, the pinch of his face immediately easing along with the rest of his body, standing up a little straighter as he leans against the doorframe.

“Sorry, i-if you’re busy or whatever, don’t feel like you-”

“No- No, I mean, yeah, no, I don’t- shit-” He stutters, pausing as he shakes his head with a little laugh at the ground, trying to compose himself before he trips over his words again, “Yes, I um- Yeah, I can help.”

“O-okay. Thank- Thanks.” You try to fight the tug you feel in your lips creeping towards the corner of your cheeks that mirrors the grin Frankie’s trying so desperately to hide on his face.

The two of you stand there for a moment, feet wriggling in the tips of your shoes and fingers twiddling in your pockets, using every ounce of strength you have to ignore the heat flushing through your cheeks that makes you want to hate him just a little bit less.

It’s hard to suppress when Frankie’s trying to keep up his facade with the world’s worst poker face as he’s beaming ear to ear.

“Let me just uh- Lemme grab some stuff and I’ll meet you over there?” He asks, tiptoeing around what seems too good to be true.

“Y-yeah. Yeah, sounds good.”

You give each other a little nod before he disappears behind his door. You tilt your head to the sky, eyes closed as the deepest sigh of relief you can take escapes your body. It feels like the first gasp you take when you peak above the surface after holding your breath underwater, remembering what it feels like to finally breathe again.

It takes everything in you to pretend you don’t feel the strange pang in your chest as you watch Frankie walk to your house after you’ve made it back to your driveway, his gray shirt clinging to his biceps as he carries over his bucket of tools and brown curls spilling out from under the worn, Standard Oil hat he’s obviously still refused to throw away.

You lean against the hood of your car, arms crossed over your chest, trying your best to seem ambivalent about the whole ordeal.

If you were nominated for an Oscar in the “Pretending to be aloof in front of Frankie Morales while he fixes your car” category, you most surely wouldn’t be winning.

“Hey, again.” He grins as he sets his tools down, mirroring your stance to cross his arms over his chest.

“Hey, again.” You parrot.

“So, uh… Your car?” Frankie asks, nodding over to the vehicle you’re leaning on.

“Yeah, uh- yeah, I don’t know what’s going on. I tried starting it like, five different times and it doesn’t do anything. I’ve never had this happen to me before and of course it’s when I’m trying to leave for work.” You shrug, trying to play into the fact you at least tried to do something before coming to find him.

“Huh. Alright, well, lemme see what I can do, okay?” He nods again, leaving your fingers to play with your sleeves to keep yourself occupied, instead of staring at him, mesmerized by the way you can still hear the gears turning in his brain as he processes. “Can I uh- is it okay if I have the keys?”

You fumble through your pockets, digging out your keys to place them in the palm of Frankie’s outstretched hand, the linger of your touch on his skin just long enough to make you subtly jerk your arm back in embarrassment.

You step back to let Frankie slide past you, watching him try to squeeze himself into the driver’s seat to start your car, half his body still hanging out the open door.

“Are you- are you not teaching anymore?”

“Wh- huh?” His question catches you off guard, the scowl of confusion painted across your face making him quickly elaborate before drawing his attention back to your car.

“You just uh- sorry, you said you were going to work. It’s 5 P.M. on a Thursday in June, so, ya know, figured you probably weren’t going to school.”

He gives the key one more turn before sliding out of the car, carefully passing your keys back off to you before making his way to open the hood. You cautiously follow behind him, arms still crossed against your chest as he props the front of the car up to reveal the engine.

“Oh. Uh- no, yeah. No, I’m uh- I’m still teaching. Normally I do summer school to make some extra money, but because of my dad and everything and not being home, it just, ya know, I just couldn’t. I still wanted something to do to make money and keep me busy, so um, Katie’s Dad still owns The Parrot’s Nest on 14th, so I asked him if I could just do some part time waitressing and bartending and stuff. It’s nice ‘cause he’s been really flexible with everything going on.”

Your eyes dart to the ground as Frankie shifts his view from the inside of the car back to you. The air fills with a heavy pause, like neither of you are really sure how to react to the fact you’re managing a semi-civil conversation that’s more than just one word responses.

Frankie lets out a quiet huff, trying to hide the soft smile curling in the corner of his scruff covered cheeks before turning back to the car, silently tinkering for a few moments before mustering up the courage to speak again.

“That’s nice of him. Didn’t even know that place was still around.” There’s a little grunt as he leans deeper into the car, reaching around to search for some sort of part he wants to check, “I’m uh- I’m glad you’re still teaching, though. That’s um, that’s good.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

Your hands have shifted from folded across your chest to in your pockets, a subconscious move you’ve made as a brick from the wall you’ve built between yourself and Frankie Morales seems to crumble without you realizing.

You let him work for a few more moments before he’s diagnosed your issue, carefully closing the hood and wiping the engine grime on the towel from the tool bucket he’s brought with him.

“So uh- good news is, you just need a new battery. Easy fix. Bad news is, your battery’s dead, and your car’s not gonna start without a new one.” Frankie shrugs, hoping he’s not pushing his luck with the little laugh he gives himself at his joke.

“Fuck. Okay, uh- shit, okay.” You mutter, not necessarily upset with Frankie for delivering the news of his discovery, but angry at the fact you need to buy a new car battery and have no way to get to work. “Um, sorry, give me a second, I’m gonna call Jim and let him know that I can’t make it in today.”

“I- I can drive you.”

You’re sure Frankie’s just as surprised as you when the offer comes out of his mouth, freezing your thumb over your boss’s contact you’re about to dial. Frankie clearly interprets the look on your face as one of skepticism about his idea, quickly trying to backpedal before he preemptively digs his own grave.

“No, I mean, um- if you want. I can- I can drop you off. So you, uh- that way you don’t have to miss work.”

“No, Frankie, it’s fine, you- you already helped figure out what’s wrong with my car, it’s not a big deal, don’t wo-”

“I want to.”

You don’t mean for your sigh to be as audible as it is. It only seems fair, considering there was no world in which you ever considered having to contemplate not only asking Frankie for help, but also spending a fifteen minute car ride together so he can drop you off at work. You chew at your bottom lip as you contemplate the lesser of two evils- be stuck in Frankie’s metal death trap of a car, forced within a 3 foot proximity of him for the entire ride, or miss out on the most hours you’ve been scheduled in the past two weeks for money you really do need.

Swallowing your pride is the toughest pill you’ve had to swallow in quite a long time.

“Fine.”

It’s not even your answer you think shocks him the most. It’s how little he had to argue with you to agree.

You want to roll your eyes at the little smirk of satisfaction he gives himself, knowing you’ve gone 0-2 on your hardened stance of despising Frankie’s guts since talking with your dad. It only stings more that you’re sure Frankie is getting endless amounts of satisfaction that you’ve given into him so quickly.

But fuck, if you didn’t miss that stupid, goofy grin of his when he knows he’s beaten you at your own game.

“Only if your car isn’t gonna kill us first before we get there.” You groan, eyeing down Frankie’s beater truck he’s been driving since he got his license. It was in questionable shape over a decade ago, you’re not sure what kind of deal Frankie made with the devil to keep the hunk of junk up and running.

“She’s fine. Haven’t managed to kill you in her yet, have I?” Frankie rebuttals, grabbing his tools as you follow behind him towards his car.

“Well, there’s a first time for everything.” You sigh, shaking your head in annoyance that Frankie’s still driving this damn thing on principle alone, “How the fuck is this thing even still running?”

“‘Cause you don’t give her enough credit. Got me here from North Carolina just fine.” Frankie scoffs, the two of you settling into your perspective seats inside his truck.

His comment makes you frown at your lap as you buckle your seatbelt, not because of the sass he’s inflicted, but because it reminds you that he’s moved himself states away just to further the distance between you two.

“S-sorry, it was meant to be a joke.” Frankie mutters, looking over at you as he drives and noticing the way you��ve gone quiet, eyes peeled to the ground.

“No, I know.” You reply back, anxiously digging under your nails with your stare still locked on your feet. “How’s um- how’s North Carolina?”

“Oh. Um, It’s uh- It’s fine, I guess.”

It’s then you notice Frankie’s realized the reason for your silence, uncomfortably fidgeting in his seat and grip tightening around the steering wheel as he processes your disappointment.

It’s hard to decipher what he means by “fine.” Fine, like he’s more than fine and doesn't want to rub it in your face how well he’s doing? Fine, like actually a normal amount of fine and he just has nothing of interest to report? Fine, like he’s not fine at all, but doesn’t have the balls to admit it to you?

With the way he can’t bring himself to look at you, it has to be the first or third option. You’re not sure which one is worse.

You’re also not sure why you feel so compelled to find out.

“You still uh- doing um, mechanic stuff for the Army?” You ask, glancing over just enough to watch Frankie’s fingers drum against the steering wheel.

“Yeah. Helicopter maintenance, mostly.”

It’s still not enough to give you the definitive answer you’re looking for. You’re too stubborn for your own good to just quit while you’re ahead. Because of all the questions you could have asked him, the one you ask him next is like voluntarily putting a gun to your head and asking him to shoot.

“Are you, uh- you um, seeing anyone? Samantha, or whatever her name was?”

It’s the first time he locks eyes with you since you’ve gotten in the car. Frankie looks you up and down, tongue running across the top of his teeth under his lips and raising his brows just enough to let you know you’ve got his attention.

Every second of silence that lingers before his answer only leads you to believe he’s trying to let you down slowly before he has to pull the trigger. You brace yourself for the bullet.

“No. I uh, shit- I- Sarah and I broke up a while ago. After um, after Santi’s wedding, actually. No, I um, I’m not seeing anyone. Haven’t really been since then, I guess.”

Your body stays tense, still bracing yourself for the inevitable blow, but it never comes. Not only has Frankie taken his finger off the trigger, he’s put away the gun all together. You’re so stunned you’ve made it out of the question alive, you aren’t quite sure how to react.

“O-oh. I uh- I didn’t know.”

“Are- are you? S-seeing anyone?” He stutters, the words heavy in his throat as he gulps.

“No. After how things ended with Liam, I just- I haven’t either.”

It’s uncomfortable, the silence that fills the car and seeps between you. Not quite awkward, not quite upset, not quite relieved, either. It’s heavy, like a backpack full of bricks you’ve had strapped to your shoulders that you refuse to put down- you’d rather keep burdening yourself with the weight than just take it off, too used to the ache it spreads to every inch of your body.

Maybe, the silence is so uncomfortable because you’re starting to realize how stupid it is to let these types of things keep weighing you down.

Holding a grudge won’t make you any happier. It won’t change what happened, either.

You’ve been so lost in your own head, you’d barely even realized the car had come to a stop, the soft orange and pink glow of The Parrot’s Nest sign illuminating the inside of Frankie’s truck with muted neon snapping you back to reality.

Your hand wraps around the door handle, ready to break free into the parking lot before Frankie’s voice stops you.

“What time are you done?”

You look back over your shoulder, taken aback.

“Why?”

“So I can pick you up.”

It’s so matter of fact, like he had never contemplated any other option from the moment he’d offer to drive you, his soft, brown eyes sinking as you shake your head at him.

“Frankie, it’s fine. I can have someone else drive me ho-”

“Please?”

Your head wants to say no. It wants to push open the door with a half hearted “thanks for the ride” and pretend like the past 15 minutes had simply never existed, wiping the strange pang in your chest and swirling in your stomach from its memory.

Apparently, your heart’s decided it has other plans.

“I’m done at ten.”

“Then I promise to be back here at ten.”

Frankie Morales is a man who’s broken many things.

Your heart, your trust, your friendship.

But out of all the things Frankie has broken, he’s never broken a promise.

And that’s how you know at ten o’clock sharp, you’ll find his beat up Chevy in the parking lot of The Parrot’s Nest, waiting for you.

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[satxnsupreme666]

Risk this heart of mine: Agatha Harkness x fem!reader x Rio Vidal

Masterlist

Requested by: @midnight-lestrange

Summary:  You are Agatha´s girlfriend, and you have been with her for over 10 years, you are also the one who freed Agatha from Wanda´s spell after almost three years, Agatha decided to stay in Westview to work on regaining her magic, but what happens when a teenager breaks into your house looking for Agatha, asking her to take him to the witches´ road, Agatha fearing for your safety and caring about you, is not sure if she wants to go and take you as well to the witches´ road, but as always you managed to convince her to do what you wanted.

You have been feeling sick for the past few weeks, making Agatha feel worried sick about you for not knowing what is going on with you, what you didn´t know, was that you were pregnant with Agatha´s child, and none of you knew about this, until Rio arrives and is the first one to notice this about you.

Rio who has been visiting you for the past years only leaving flowers to you never staying to talk visits Agatha again, and instead of talking thing out, they fight as always, but this time Rio decided to come fight with Agatha because she thought the blue-eyed witch had let you go, after knowing you were still with her and realizing you were pregnant, Rio, who cannot tell you nor Agatha the reason as to why you have been feeling sick over the past weeks, decides to go with you to the witches´ road, to try and keep you safe from whatever the road would make them face.

What happens when the truth is revealed to Agatha? How is Agatha going to react knowing that her girlfriend is pregnant and on the witches´ road?

Warnings: Angst, unknown pregnancy, angst, I think that´s it.

Word count: 29k+

Author’s notes: Hello, so, this was requested a while ago by the amazing mind of the creative @midnight-lestrange, I have always loved her requests because she has such an amazing imagination and writing her requests is always a joy, thank you for requesting, by the way I always have loved your amazing ideas! Sorry that this took me too long to finish, you know I had some bad days, things happened, then I got a temporary job just to keep my mind busy, and now I finally was able to finish writing this, also, I am sorry that my stories keep getting longer, I will try to write a little bit less next time, also I decided to add a small prompt someone sent regarding Agatha putting some of her own cologne on reader´s neck because I thought it would be a nice addition to this story as well.

In this story Rio is in love with reader and Agath knows it, since Rio is the only one who is aware of you being pregnant, she worries a lot for you.

Another thing I want to say about this story is, that in this one, the road will be real and not something Billy created.

I hope all of you enjoy this!

Taglist: @italianaidiota @midnight-lestrange @eliscannotdance

Agatha had been taking a shower when you heard the noises coming from the other room, and confused, you went to see what was going on, opening slowly the door of the room and turning the lights on, you saw a surprised teen with half of his body in the room trying to get unstuck.

“Do you need help?” You had asked him with a chuckle and the boy in front of you just stayed there completely frozen not knowing what to do or say.

You couldn’t help but laugh and seeing that the boy in front of you was not going to move or do something else, you walked slowly towards him, and stretched your hand out for him to take, he looked at your hand and then at your face, unsure of what to do but you gave him a soft smile and he slowly started to stretch his hand out to take yours.

You helped him to get him inside the room and he started to look around the place nervously, after some seconds of you analyzing him and seeing that he didn’t seem to be more than 16 years old or even less he uncovered his face and he gave you an awkward smile.

“I am sorry, I thought someone else lived here” His voice was timid as if he was ashamed and you got curious for whom he had been looking for.

“Who did you think lived here?” You asked him gently and pointed at a chair so he could sit there, he sat in the char and you sat as well in front of him in the single bed to look at him properly.

“I was told Agatha Harkness lived here” He said without taking his eyes off the floor, and you raised your eyebrow.

What did this boy want from Agatha, your girlfriend? You didn’t want to scare him off so you started to think properly how to ask the next questions.

“Agatha Harkness? One of the most powerful witches? Why are you looking for her?” You asked him in a soft voice trying to get as much information as you could before making sure how you had to act.

“I know it may seem as something dumb, and many people say it doesn’t even exist to where I need her to take me to, but I really was waiting for her to be here, someone told me she was under some kind of spell and I came here to break that spell, I really need her help” Interesting, you thought, and if you were right, he seemed to be talking about the witches’ road, the teen didn’t seem to be a threat and he sounded sincere, you would have sensed if he had been threat, but this boy didn’t seem to actual want to harm you or her.

“So, you needed a personal object from hers to break the spell, right?” You asked him and he lifted his head hastily to look at you with his mouth open in surprise.

“I know the spell, it is sweet that you want to break her spell, but you’re about six months late” The dark-haired boy frowned and you laughed.

“You are lucky I was the one who caught you, Agatha would have tied you first and then ask the questions” He opened his eyes widely and you laughed again.

“You are funny, maybe I can convince Agatha to keep you, she is taking a shower, do you want to go to the kitchen? I can offer you tea, coffee” You stopped talking to think a little bit more of what you could offer him.

“We also have water if you prefer” You remembered the way hours ago he had walked with you to the kitchen and shyly took the cup of tea you were offering to him, he seemed to be curious and to you it seemed he also had a lot of questions so you decided to encourage him to ask you whatever was on his mind.

“I know you have a lot of question so, now it’s your opportunity to make them” You smiled at him to show him you were sincere, he took a sip of the tea and then put it back on the plate.

He cleared his throat and prepared himself mentally to ask every question he had.

“How do you know Agatha Harkness? How is she not under Wanda Maximoff’s spell? Why are you here on her house?” He asked everything so fast you had to make sure not to forget his questions.

“I have known her for many years now, I released her from the spell she was under and I live here with her” You squinted your eyes and laughed slightly, you heard the steps coming to the kitchen and smiled, Agatha had already finished her shower.

“Honey, where are you?” Agatha asked out loud and entered the kitchen, she already had the purple pajamas you had given to her on, and had a hand in her hair, brushing it to the side, her still slightly wet hair, she was too focused on trying to get her hair in place that she didn’t notice the teen sitting on the other side of the table, his expression completely priceless.

Agatha came to you and pressed her hand in your waist, hugging you she left a soft kiss on your forehead.

“I thought you were already in bed doll” She commented while she pulled you closer to her, you happily rested your head on her chest while she caressed your waist lovingly.

The teen had his mouth open, out of all the things he could have thought and waited, this was not what he was waiting for.

“We have a guest” You said to her and lifted your face to look at her, she froze for a second and then after making sure her hair was completely in place she hastily turned to look where you were looking.

She saw the awkward teen sitting on the chair, sipping his tea for too long, and she squinted her eyes, the teen nervously started to shake a little, and then Agatha looked at you again with a smile on her face.

“Do you want some tea? I can prepare it for you” You said and started to stand up, but Agatha gently placed her hand on your shoulder to stop you from standing completely.

“It’s fine doll, you can finish your tea I will make mine alright?” You nodded and Agatha leant to kiss your lips, she started to deepen the kiss and playfully you pushed her away, not wanting for the kid to witness the scene, Agatha winked at you and walked towards the stove to pour herself some tea.

“So, who is this teenager, who seems to have arrived at…” She quickly turned her face to look at the clock on the wall, it read 10:45 and then looked at the teen to shook her head, disapprovingly.

“At 10:45, shouldn’t you be in bed by now?” Agatha asked raising her eyebrow and still shaking her head, trying to make the teen feel guilty for appearing at this hour.

“I am sorry, I thought you were, I mean, I thought no one else was here, I thought no one could caught me if I entered through the window…“ The teen started to stutter and you closed your eyes, you knew Agatha would get angry at his last sentence.

He kept talking saying he didn´t want to intrude and that he really wasn´t thinking properly, but the way Agatha stopped doing what she was doing with the cup, and placed it slowly on the counter, showing that Agatha was analyzing what he was saying, your girlfriend slowly turned herself around and walked idly until she was next to the talking teenager, you saw the way he slowly backed his body up, or at least he tried since he was still sitting, he was about to say something else, when out of nowhere Agatha kicked the teen out of the chair you quickly stood up to see if he had hurt himself but he seemed fine, so you decided to sit back and let Agatha handle the situation, and smile a little.

“Oh my god, what was that for?” The teen asked out loud grabbing his shoulder and Agatha rolled her eyes, she moved the chair out of the way, and kneeled down to grab the teen by his shirt.

“You broke into my house! And you are expecting to be received with open arms and gentleness?” The teen frowned and stuttered because he didn´t know what to do or say.

Agatha was still tense, because even if she knew you also had powers and you were able to protect yourself if something happened, she still feared that someone could actually hurt you and she would not be able to do something, someone entered to your house and she was not even able to sense it like before! So, of course she felt scared and angry for not having her powers and being able to protect you.

“I- I already said I´m sorry, and I was not going to hurt you, I didn´t even know there was someone else living here! I wanted to release you from the spell you supposedly were under!” Agatha furrowed her eyebrows again and looked at him straight into his eyes, trying to see if he was lying but she did not find any type of deception in his voice, he sounded sincere but decided to have an eye on him, she pursed her lips and released him from her grip.

“How did you know I was here? And how did you know I was under a spell, but most important, why were you looking for me?” Agatha sounded serious, and you decided not to interrupt her, you wanted for her to handle this the way she knew, so you only stayed the in the chair, sipping your tea and listening to the two of them talk.

“I did my research, a man told me about you, about the Wanda Maximoff incident, he told me that it was told you were under a spell, I swear I don´t know how he knew about it, and I was looking for you because I want to go to the witches´ road” You stopped drinking your tea at the mention of the witches´ road, it was just a myth right?

“The road doesn’t exist” Agatha said to him, and finally, stood up to get her cup of tea, after she prepared her tea, she went to sit next to you, she pulled the chair next to yours and placed it closer to you, you gave her a smile, when Agatha saw you were smiling at her she felt herself relaxing a little.

“You and I need to talk doll” She said gently almost whispering and you nodded, she may had been smiling but you still could see the worry in her eyes, she took the sit next to yours and you leaned into her body, resting your heat against her shoulder.

“You can sit down again, you know?” You said with a smile, loud enough for the teenager to hear who was still on the floor, some noises were heard and the teen slowly rose from the floor to sit back on the chair.

“What’s your name?” Agatha asked again after a couple of minutes of silence but what surprised her was that she was not able to hear what he had said and a symbol appeared over his mouth.

Agatha turned to look at you, realizing you were to looking at your almost empty cup and noticing you hadn´t seen the symbol appearing on the teenager´s mouth, you hadn´t seen what happened, but there was no doubt that the boy had a sigil on him.

“Interesting” Your girlfriend commented while eyeing the boy in front of you, she had so many questions but decided not to ask anything.

“We can keep talking in the morning, we have a spare room-“ You were going to offer him to stay in the other room but Agatha interrupted you and talked directly to the teen.

“You are sleeping on the floor” Chuckling slightly you looked back at Agatha who was drinking from her tea slowly and nonchalantly, rolling your eyes playfully at her you went to look back at the dark-haired boy who had his eyes wide open and you shook your head, you mouthed to him a quiet “Don´t worry” and he visibly relaxed.

The three of you just stayed there not saying anything else and waited until all of you finished your respective cups of tea, after that, you made sure to take the teenager back to the  bedroom where he had first entered through the window, Agatha kept saying he had to sleep on the floor and use his own jacket to cover himself but you only laughed at Agatha’s comments, you told her not to worry and kissed her after you told her she could go back to your shared bedroom to get ready for bed and to wait there for you, she nodded and pressed her hands on your waist to give you a quick hug before walking towards your bedroom, you entered to the room in which the boy would be staying the night and you found him standing in the middle of the room looking awkwardly at the ceiling.

“I told you, you were lucky I was the one who found you when you were trying to break in” He tried to laugh but the sound that came from him was more of a whine.

“You can sleep in that bed, and use the same covers, this room has never been used and everything is clean so you don’t have to worry, alright?” He nodded slowly and you looked back at him, he seemed familiar but you were not sure why.

“So, you’re a witch too, right?” The boy asked you suddenly and you nodded, he seemed to think deeply and you just shrugged your shoulders, you needed to go back to Agatha to talk to her about what had happened and what you would do.

“I’ll let you rest, please, don’t try something dumb, Agatha will notice and I’m afraid I will not interfere, alright?” He nodded quickly and you left the room, laughing a little.

Opening the door of your bedroom you saw Agatha standing in the middle of the room, she had her hand on her face and seemed to be deep in thought, not wanting to interrupt her thoughts you decided to go and sit on your bed, after a couple of minutes of watching her making faces and brushing her hair, she finally looked at you and smiled at you.

“So, are we going to take him to the witches’ road?” You were really curious, there were many stories that said the road was real but there were also a lot of stories that said the road was a lie, Agatha had never actually told you anything related to the witches’ road and you had never asked, so you were really curious about it.

Agatha visibly tensed, the way she suddenly straightened herself and pursed her lips showed you she was not sure, you just kept looking at her with a curious expression and Agatha suddenly knelt in front of you, putting her hands on your knees and brushing them gently.

“The road is a death wish” Her baby blue eyes stared right into your eyes, her expression completely serious, it was strange to see her this serious.

“So, it’s real?” You placed your hand on one of her hands that was brushing your knee and started to caress the back of her hand, Agatha nodded and tried to smile.

“It is, but just a few have been able to get to the end, many witches died on the road” If it was true, then it was true that at the end the ones that finished it got what they wanted right?

“You can get your powers back” She realized where this conversation was going and decided to stop you right there.

“No, the road is dangerous, too cruel, too harsh, it is never known what awaits in the road, we are not going, I-“ She stopped for a moment taking a  deep breath before speaking again.

“I don’t want anything to happen to you, just look at what happened tonight! I didn’t sense someone had broken in, what if it had been someone worse! Someone who could’ve wanted to hurt me? I wouldn’t even have been able to protect you” Agatha felt useless, without her magic she was not able to make sure you were safe, her worst fear was losing you, and she hated the fact that being powerless meant not being able to keep you safe, you saw the way she was so tense and you didn´t want to make her feel more worried, so you decided to leave the talk for tomorrow, right now you just wanted to lay down with Agatha and let her hold you, you still would have the chance to talk about the road with her, so you decided not to mention again the road for tonight.

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“What was that?” The teen asked you suddenly when you heard a loud crash on the first floor of the house, you quickly got up from the chair, out of the bedroom and headed downstairs to look where the sound had come from.

And what you saw surprised you, there was another woman pressing Agatha against the wall, you were about to use your powers to push away the woman who was covered completely in black, but something about her seemed familiar, and as you sensed no threat you decided not to use your magic and try to talk things out.

You had started to walk slowly towards them and the laugh that came from the taller woman made you remember who she was.

Agatha hadn’t tell you completely what had happened exactly between Rio and her, and you never tried to push her into telling you everything, but the first time you had met her had been years ago and it had been in a very similar situation as this one, they had been fighting until you arrived to stop them from hurting the other.

You panicked when you saw the knife in Agatha’s throat but you tried to keep calm, trying to think of how to approach them, in order not to make things worse.

“Hey, I don’t know what’s going on, but can you please put the knife down?” You asked out lout while walking slowly towards the two of them with your hands in the air in order to show the woman in black that you meant no threat, you tried to keep your voice steady, but it was hard seeing a trickle of blood in Agatha’s chest.

The two women hastily turned their heads to look at you, Agatha felt a wave of fear taking over her whole body, afraid that her former lover could do something to you to get back at her, so the next thing she did was done out of pure impulse.

Agatha grabbed the other woman by her neck with her left hand and with the right one she grabbed the hand that was holding the knife to put it as far as she could, up in the air, the brown-eyed woman grabbed Agatha’s neck, which left the two of them in the same position, grabbing the other’s neck and with two hands up in the air.

“Can we please take a moment to breathe and stop wanting to hurt each other?” You asked them slowly and made sure you were only a few centimeters away from them.

Agatha and the brown-eyed woman looked at you and then, slowly, they looked at each other, straight in their eyes.

They stayed like that four a couple of minutes, Agatha chuckling from time to time with disdain and sometimes rolling her eyes, the other woman laughed softly and tended to squint her eyes a little, it was as if they were having a conversation inside their minds, as if they were communicating telepathically and you tilted your head to the side, watching them carefully, after some more minutes of what it seemed that they were discussing things in their minds, they finally nodded at the same time, carefully loosening the grasp they had on the other.

Agatha started to brush some strands of hair to the side to make sure they were not on her face and licked her lips a little after turning herself to face you, the brown-eyed woman cleared her throat and started to move her head to the side a few times until it cracked a little, she sighed in relief and turned herself around to face you as well.

“Can I trust you not to try to hurt each other?” You asked them with a soft tone in your voice while raising an eyebrow.

The two of them started to look around the place, looking at the wall, the ceiling, Agatha flipped her hair a little, and brought her hand to her face to scratch her jaw slightly, while the brown-eyed woman flipped her knife in her hand a few times, and the two of them answered at the same time.

“Yeah, whatever” Agatha replied before pursing her lips not wanting to look at you.

“Sure” The brown-eyed woman replied while she took her knife back into a small pocket that she had on her waist, then she lifted her hands up in the air to show you she was not holding anything else in her hands.

“Thank you, now, can you tell me what’s going on and why everything here is completely destroyed?”  You asked them and walked towards the living room in which everything was all over the place.

Everything was upside down, you could only shook your head in disappointment, sighing you walked towards the small broken pot that had dirt and a small yellow flower with almost no petals, taking it carefully in your hands with some dirt you made sure to bring the flower to its original state, after some seconds of pressing your hand over the dying flower it finally came back with its bright color.

“Next time you want to fight, make sure to do it outside, please” Carefully you took the broken pot and in only some seconds using your powers the pot was good as new and you placed the small flower inside of it putting in back near the window.

“Sorry” The two women said at the same time causing to look at each other and they proceeded to roll their eyes.

“I thought you had already sorted things out last time this happened” Rio couldn’t stand the way your voice sounded so disappointed and Agatha felt a little bit ashamed, she hadn’t been waiting for something like this to happen, and of course she had not been waiting for her former lover to appear.

You kneeled on the floor to take a small flower that was completely crushed by pieces of glass and you couldn’t help but feel suddenly so sad, you were not sure why, but suddenly the wave of sadness took over you, the flower on the floor completely dead and crushed by the heavier material on it, it made you want to cry, you tried to take the flowers in your hands and due to now doing it carefully a sharp piece cut your skin making you hiss in pain, you stood up so abruptly that when you turned around to face the two women again, you felt suddenly dizzy, and unconsciously tried to hold onto something.

Agatha and Rio quickly noticed the way your body had suddenly reacted and without thinking too much, the two of them walked quickly closer to you, to make sure you were not going to fall.

Rio quickly took your right hand which had been the one who had the cut made by the sharp glass and with her other hand she made sure to grab you by your lower back, in a way to help you become steady.

Rio quickly started to examine your wound, taking closer your wounded and bleeding hand to her eyes, making sure you didn’t have any more pieces of glass inside.

Agatha was quick to place both of her hands in your waist and her grip became stronger to help you balance yourself, she did not even mind that also Rio had gotten closer to you to make sure you were fine, the blue-eyed witch was not going to comment anything about it, but it was sweet that Rio had gotten just as worried as she got, she did not understand why the sudden paleness and the dizziness as well as the sickness you had been feeling for the past weeks, she would have loved to help you to make sure what was going on with you, but without her powers, she was not even able to help you with that.

After a couple seconds when Rio made sure you did not have anything else in your hand such as another small piece of glass she carefully caressed the back of your hand, her soft touch made your heart skip a beat, you remembered getting to have such long talks when she first had come looking for Agatha, thinking the blue-eyed was on her own, but just as it happened the night before that the teen had thought the same, she was surprised to be face to face with you, the way Rio had always been so careful around you, making sure not to annoy you nor to make you uncomfortable, if you were near Agatha and Rio it was sure they would at least try not to fight or hurt each other, Rio´s sad eyes always made your heart ache, you had wanted to help the two of them to talk as well, you were not sure what had happened centuries ago, since Agatha always avoid the topic, never wanting to get into details, the only thing you knew was that many, many centuries ago, the two of them had shared their lives, they had loved each other, and you were sure, the love for each other was still there, the way they tended to look at each other when they thought the other was not looking, you were not dumb, and the first time Rio had been around you, you noticed so many different things about the two of them that they didn´t realized you observed them, Rio always had that sad look in her eyes, it hurt you to see her that way, even if she was a cosmic being, Death herself, you couldn´t fathom what was the cause of her sadness, but one thing you were sure, was that Agatha was the cause of that sadness Rio was carrying with her.

Agatha had mastered the craft of hiding her feelings, what she truly was feeling when it came to cases like this, she didn´t like to be seem as vulnerable by other people, it was different with you, with you she left her strong façade behind, she showed you the real her, her real feelings, she didn´t care if you saw her sad, scared or even angry, with you everything felt good, she felt safe showing her emotions, she trusted in you the same way you trusted in her, but when it came to Rio and what had happened, she always avoided the subject, quickly changing the conversation to something else, and you didn´t want to push things, you didn´t want her to feel pressure, so you never insisted more, but you could see the grief her eyes reflected whenever her and Rio´s past was touched, only knowing the more superficial things about them, but never getting to know the actual deepness and full story they shared, so, even if you had wanted them to talk and sort things out, and help them to get to talk, you knew it was not going to be possible, if neither of them actually talked about what had happened whey they fought, there was no way they were going to let you know.

During the past years you had been with Agatha, you were sure there was always something, or more like, someone watching you from afar, always in the depths of the shadows and darkness that came with it, you were not going to say it out loud to Rio, that you knew she visited you from time to time, at first, you had thought she only came to see Agatha, and you were fine with that, even when you knew they shared a history, you didn´t feel any type of threat, and you always felt safe when she was around, but Rio never stayed, she always maintained her distance, only watching from afar, and when she realized you had noticed her, she always left, never saying anything, not even a goodbye.

When you first felt a presence years ago, weeks after you had met her for the first time, Agatha and her fighting just as you had found them now, weeks after that incident you noticed the intense presence of something near you, and when you finally spotted where the presence was, it had been in your back garden, it had been late at night, around 8:00 pm, it had been raining for the whole day and Agatha was on your shared bedroom reading a book, but the feeling that something was there made you want to look all around the house to know what was that feeling you had, just when you were about to turn the lights on of the kitchen, the feeling that you were being watched grew stronger and unconsciously you turned your head to look at the window that pointed at the backyard, deciding to walk closer to the window, you squinted your eyes, and the silhouette of a woman started to become more visible, the crown on the head was so familiar that you couldn’t help but smile at the silhouette, slowly you brought your hand close to your chest, and waved at the barely visible woman who´s silhouette blended with the darkness of the night.

Waving your hand to greet her, you thought she was going to come inside, but she only waved at you as well, and that was when you finally saw her face, she had part of her face covered with a black piece of cloth, leaving her eyes to be only visible, her big brown eyes staring at you, you were about to move your hand to invite her inside, but before you could have done that, she disappeared, leaving you there in the middle of the night feeling curious, deciding to sleep, you went to Agatha, who had asked you why you were smiling but you only shrugged.

The next morning when you woke up, something told you to go back to the backyard where the woman covered in black had been standing, so, going back to your garden, you saw a single red rose fully grown exactly on the same spot where Rio had been the night before, it was the most beautiful red rose you had seen, the red color so vibrant, that it made your heart skip a beat, feeling your face getting warm, you decided to take such good care of the flower, you were not sure why Rio had left it there, but over the past years she had been visiting you constantly, never staying for too long, and never talking to you, always leaving a trail of flowers behind her, and you had made sure that every flower she had given to you was taken care of.

You felt something warm in your hand that made you come back to the present, looking back at your hand that was being held by Rio, you saw that the wound was not there anymore, the aching feeling had disappeared and the thick liquid of scarlet color has stopped from coming out of your palm, Rio then caressed again your hand and gave it a soft squeeze.

“Thank you” You whispered to her, Agatha and Rio were so close to you that they heard your soft voice, Rio nodded and you turned your head a little to look at her face, her brown eyes  staring right into yours, making you feel as if she was staring straight into your soul, she smiled to you and nodded slowly, looking briefly at your lips, only for a second, you had not noticed if you had been looking or more like, analyzing her expression, it had been so quickly that it made you think she had looked at your lips by mistake.

But how wrong you were, Rio enjoyed feeling you so close to her, getting to feel your warm body was enough for her, even if she wanted more, for her this was enough.

You remembered the mess that was around you, and also Agatha being as well so close to you made you remember what had happened first, turning your head a little to the side to look at Agatha you saw the way she was smiling at you, her baby blue eyes still held the same worry she had been feeling for you for the past weeks, but her loving stare was there, taking her left hand to your face she brushed a strand of hair that was on your face and gently put it behind your ear.

“Thank you” You said again, this time to your girlfriend, she always knew how to make you feel better, always knowing what to do or what to say, the way she always knew how to reassure you were going to be alright made you feel loved and warm on the inside.

Rio knew exactly what was going on, why you felt dizzy, she had noticed a change in you, the way another life was growing inside of you, but she knew she couldn´t say anything, it was not something she had to let you know, it was not something she had to let you or Agatha knew, the two of you had to realize it on your own, she was not allowed to announce things like that, and the way her heart ache for that and so many more things, she wasn´t even sure if she would be able to let you know even if she was allowed.

Agatha had of course seen the way Rio had been so gentle with you, making sure not to hurt you more, and even healing the wound on your hand, Agatha felt guilty, because of their fight, everything in your  house, or at least in the living room was broken, shattered and even all over the place, and because of their actions, you had gotten hurt, it had not been a really bad wound, but Agatha hated to see you hurt, it didn´t matter if it was small, she still worried awfully, and the way Rio had made sure the wound was completely healed, made Agatha felt grateful, it had been the same thing she would have done if she had her powers, making sure you were alright was her priority, and it looked that to Rio, the priority was the same.

“Oh my god! What happened?” The teen suddenly appeared running down the stairs, seeing how everything in the living room was completely ruined and even the furniture was all over the place, or at least, the remnants of the furniture, it was as if a hurricane had happened inside the house!

And when he saw Agatha and another woman holding you, the way you looked pale, he got even more scared, without thinking twice, he came running towards the three of you, when he got closer to you, he was about to take your hands in his, he brought his hands to yours but seeing the way the two women where fiercely grabbing both of your hands and didn´t seem that they were going to let go of your hands he just placed his hands on his chest, still alarmed about the state you were in.

“Are you alright Miss… Miss Harkness?” The teen had no idea how to call you, would it be disrespectful to call you only by your name? He hadn´t thought twice, so he only assumed your last name was the same as Agatha, but now he was not so sure.

You laughed at the way the teen had called you, Agatha felt her face getting warmer, blushing even, and Rio couldn´t help but laugh as well.

“I am fine, don´t worry, it was just, I felt dizzy suddenly, maybe I have to go lay down for a while” You said and started to separate from the two women, Agatha pursed her lips, not wanting to let you go.

“I can take you to the bedroom” Agatha quickly said to you, but you didn´t think it was that bad, you would be able to go to your room, a little bit scared if the dizziness hit you again, but you decided to come up with something for the two women to have a conversation, the two of them alone.

“No, it is fine, he can help me to get to our bedroom, please?” You looked back at the teenager in front of you, whose face still held worry all over his features, he quickly nodded and rose his hands to help you walk.

“You two destroyed everything here, I expect you to fix this mess, and please don´t hurt each other, that´s the only thing I ask from you, don´t fight please” You said to them with a pleading tone, to which they couldn´t say no to you, Agatha and Rio quickly nodded, agreeing not to get into another fight, you smiled at them and started to walk with the teen next to you, his hands up in the air close to you, just to make sure he would be able to catch you if you fell.

“When I come back here, I want to see everything in order, alright? And again, I will know if you start fighting, I will send Mr.Scratchy to keep an eye on you, so you better not fight”

You finished saying that and turned yourself to keep walking towards you bedroom, leaving the two women alone, they did not dare to look at each other, so they just stood there looking at you making sure you were fine, still afraid that you could fall, they stared at you climbing up the stairs, the teen behind you ready to do whatever he could.

After a couple of minutes, they heard the door getting closed and the teen came quickly running down the stairs towards them.

“I will make sure she is fine, I will ask her if she needs anything, I´ll leave you two now” He gave them an awkward smile and heard the footsteps of the teenagers disappearing again.

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“I am not dumb Rio, I know you have been the one leaving her flowers whenever you can” Agatha said to the taller woman, and Rio only smirked, Rio had powers and would be able to use her powers to put everything back in place, but decided to take a seat on the only cushion who seemed not have been destroyed, waiting for Agatha to finish doing the cleaning.

“I know you have been aware, but if it had annoyed you, you could have told me to stop” Rio only shrugged her shoulders, it had not been a crime to gift you one of the things you loved.

“Whenever she sees a new flower left there for her, she always gets the biggest smile, how can I compete right now, when I don´t even have powers?” Agatha couldn´t help but feel a little bit jealous and frustrated, she couldn´t get you anything out of thin air, without her powers she felt so useless.

“I am not looking for a competition, we both know her heart belongs to you” The way Rio was saying that, her voice becoming a whisper and her gaze going to the floor, it was clear the brown-eyed woman felt hopeless longing a one-sided love, Rio felt her heart break more and more, how could it be, her first love didn´t reciprocate her feelings, blaming for what had happened, never getting the chance to explain herself more, and now, centuries later, the woman who was with her former lover, you, a woman whose eyes shone with so much happiness whenever she was doing something she enjoyed, whose laugh sounded so sweet and with such a harmony that Rio wouldn´t mind listening to all the time, she couldn´t believe she had fallen for you, the woman who was in a relationship with her former lover, who hated her, how could her dark heart belong to two people who were so out of reach from her?

Agatha saw the way the woman in front of her was looking at the floor, a cosmic being like her, mourning over love, mourning the love she thought would never had, deep down, Agatha would have liked to go and hug her, explain to her how things had gotten so bad, talk to her and reassure her that whatever she was thinking was not right, but being so prideful was impeding her to speak with her heart on her sleeve, even after everything that had happened between the two of them, she still felt the need to try and cheer her up, seeing her so sad always made her heart ache.

Agatha was also not blind, she was aware of how you would react whenever Rio was near, she knew you too well for her to know that you also felt a spark for the brown-eyed woman who was seated right now in front of her, she should have been feeling jealous, being irrational about the fact that Rio made you feel something, but the truth was that, it didn´t bother her, of course only with Rio was the fact that she did not feel annoyed, because if she saw a different woman flirting with you, whoever it was, that other woman would completely be ten meters rotting underground.

“Her heart is split in two” The blue eyed-woman said in a whisper, and Rio hastily lifted her head to look at Agatha, a spark of hope suddenly was visible in her brown eyes, Agatha cleared her throat and decided to look to her right.

“I mean, the bigger part of her heart and love belongs to me, of course, I would even dare to say that her love is divided into 80 percent, no, 85 percent loving me, and maybe the other, what is it? 15 percent maybe, and just maybe is what she feels for you, not love, don´t get me wrong, maybe she is just fond of you” Agatha finished saying while she flipped her hair and turn around to get a glass of water from the kitchen.

Rio chuckled, she knew Agatha so awfully well, she knew when Agatha was lying, when she was saying the truth, and she was sure that when it came to you, she would never dare to lie, you were so important to her, she treasured you with her whole heart, that even the thought of doing something to hurt you destroyed Agatha completely, and due to what Agatha had just said, Rio felt her heart skipping a beat, the sadness had gone away, and a spark of hope had been implanted inside her heart.

“Can you now help me to get this back to how it was?” Rio just remained there, where she was sitting, a smile on her face, if she was honest, she had thought that maybe at one point you and Agatha would separate, and when she came back to fight Agatha again, she thought you were not there anymore, the thought had made her heart ache, but when she saw Agatha had been the one that had opened the door, she instantly felt her blood boil again, she had not felt you at first, Rio had not sensed you, and part of her felt disappointed, she felt angry because it had been a while since she had come see you or Agatha, she had been busy with so many things, her job was not an easy one but it was what she had to do, so when she arrived at this house on this town, and she did not fell you, her anger came back with such a force that was even unknown to her, angry because not sensing you meant you were not there anymore, which also meant Agatha and you had ended things, which to her meant that Agatha had been the one to push you away and leave you, because it only made sense that Agatha would ruin something good with you, the best woman she had also met, but after listening to your voice again, the anger suddenly disappeared, leaving a sense of relief, but the first moment her eyes landed on you again, she noticed the way you had changed, the way you were carrying another life, and maybe that had to do with her not being able to sense you, there was not any other answer.

“I want to keep her safe” Rio suddenly said, Agatha turned herself around to look at her, raising her eyebrow, until the blue-eyed woman realized that Rio was talking about you.

“I want to do the same, to keep her safe is my priority” Agatha replied to her with a serious tone.

“And yet you are taking her with you on the road” The way Rio sounded upset made Agatha feel guilty, she knew that taking you to the road was a risk, she would be putting your life in danger, but how would she be able to deny to you something you wanted, she knew you were strong enough to face whatever you would encounter, you broke the spell she was in! The one the Scarlet witch had put her under, you were strong and powerful, yet Agatha still feared something may happen to you.

“She is strong, she is really powerful, she was the one who released me from the Scarlet Witch´s spell” Rio nodded, taking in the information, she was aware of your powers being strong, but the new life growing inside you was what made her feel even more worried.

Rio however, knew everything about you, the way you had survived so many years without a coven, a coven-less witch you had been called, powerful magic, even other witches were scared of you, and yet, you didn´t need a coven to survive nor to teach you anything.

But Rio knowing the truth about what was going on with you, if going to the Witches´ road was a death wish, a great risk of losing life, high chances of not making it to the end, now with another life growing inside of you, she was conflicted, she couldn’t tell you or Agatha what was going on, she would be breaking the rules, she had once broken the rules for Agatha and still, Agatha did not realize what she had done for her, blaming her, she did not want for the same to happen with you.

“Let me go with you, she doesn´t have to be part of the coven you need, she can be… “a tourist” If you will, only visiting, but not being part of the coven, it would grant her not to have any trials, right? She wouldn´t have to encounter nor fight against anything” Rio said out loud, if she had to take your place, she would do it, everything to keep you safe, and now more than ever, you needed to be taken care of, Rio also knew you were too stubborn, so if Agatha didn´t allow you to go, you would find a way to break into the Witches´ road, which only would be more dangerous to you, so the only way to grant you would be safe, would be to keep you close, but not making you part of the coven.

Agatha stood there, looking at the brown-eyed woman, she actually had a point, that way your life would not be put at risk, they would only make sure you were safe, you would be a bystander, not taking actual part, and that way, they would grant you would make it to the end, with them, safe and alive.

“The Salem seven are not going to know where you are” Rio said again, she knew she had threatened Agatha to alert the entities and let them know where Agatha was, but now that she knew you were still with her, she would never forgive herself if something actually happened to you, Rio looked back at Agatha who was also looking at her, looking at her in a way she had not done in a long time.

“I am doing this for her, not for you” Rio said with her eyebrows furrowed, her jaw clenched and took a deep breath.

“Thank you” The blue-eyed woman replied, feeling grateful that Rio cared so much about you to even offer this.

“We have to call a truce, after all, you are coming with us down the road” Agatha said with an honest smile, the thing that they had in common right now, was to make sure you were safe and would make it alive, if they needed to do something else to protect you, they would do it.

Rio nodded slowly, agreeing with what the blue-eyed witch had said, protecting you was their goal, they could try and make sure their hatred for the other, would be pushed aside, she knew it was wrong not to let you know or Agatha about the life that was now growing inside of you, and she was sure Agatha would be surprised when she realizes she was the mother as well of the life that you were currently carrying, but still she felt guilty for not being able to let you know, she knew the rules, things like those were not allowed for her to announce, never knowing what could happen, she still was not even sure what could happen or if everything was going to be alright, but she vowed to herself, that you would be protected, she would make sure to keep you safe along with Agatha and that was what the two of them were going to do.

｡˚ ︶︶✩︶︶ ₊ ˚ ︶︶✩

You were sure only around 20 minutes have passed and you really hoped that Agatha and Rio had already finished cleaning the mess they did.

“Are you feeling better?” The boy next to you who was sat in the chair next to your bed asked worriedly, you had been laying on your bed for the past 20 minutes, with your eyes closed, the teen had helped you to get to your room and had ran way only to come back with the same velocity he had left only to let you know he would stay in that same room to make sure you were alright, and then he had said “Sorry for intruding in your house and for forcing myself to be here right now with you, but I really want to make sure you are fine”, you had only laughed and nodded at him accepting he would stay there with you, you opened your eyes to look at him, he had his eyebrows furrowed and was looking at you expectantly.

“I´m feeling better, thank you, I should go and see what Agatha and Rio are up to, leaving them alone for so much time is never good, and they have not made any noise, so I should better go see what is going on” You said to him and were about to stand up but the teen quickly stood up from the chair and lifted his hands up in the air, in a way to tell you to stop moving.

“No, I told Agatha I was going to make sure you were fine, I can go and see what is going on and come back running again to let you know” He said while also he moved towards the door and opened it.

“I will come back to inform you what is going on, please don´t stand up” He smiled at you widely and nodded before leaving the room and closing the door, you could hear his footsteps running through the hallway and then hearing him running as fast as he could downstairs.

When he quickly arrived to the first floor, he got surprised to see that the mess that had been before had completely disappeared, the were not pieces of shattered glass, the furniture seemed to be brand new, placed where the old cushions, couches and the glass table had been before, everything seemed to be in place, and there was no trace of the mess that was before.

Agatha was sitting in one of the couches, she seemed to be deep in thought, her hand on her chin and staring directly to one of the walls, the other woman who he remembered you had called her Rio, was caressing some of the plants that were placed near one of the windows, he could not remember if you had that many plants inside your house before, were they new or not?

Everything seemed to be back in order and the two women were not fighting so he decided he had enough information to go back to you and tell you what he had seen, nodding and happy with the information he had gotten, he decided to go back to your room, but before he could turn himself around to run back upstairs he heard Agatha calling him.

“Hey teen, what are you doing here? Shouldn´t you be checking on Mrs. Harkness?” Agatha smirked and started to stand up from the couch to go to your room.

The teen visibly tensed, his shoulders stiffened and cleared his throat.

“She wanted to come and see what you two were doing since everything was quiet, but I told her I could come and see and go back to her” He just stood there not daring to move, the older witch narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips slightly, slowly walking closer to him, he felt as If Agatha was analyzing him, trying to see something he didn´t know.

“I will tell her myself everything is fine, you stay here” She ended saying to him and walked past him to go downstairs to check on you.

The dark-haired boy just stood there in the middle of the living room not knowing what to do and he saw when Rio turned herself around to look at him, she tilted her eyes and just stared at him, her deadly stare made him feel unnerved, Rio smirked and suddenly she bit in the air, the sound of her teeth biting in the air making him jump in fear not knowing why.

She slowly went to take a seat on the small couch, the smirk never leaving her face.

“So, Mrs. Harkness?” She asked, looking at him straight in the eyes.

“Yes, I mean, yes?” He wasn´t even sure what he was answering, and Rio laughed again.

Meanwhile, Agatha had already arrived at your shared room, she slowly opened the door and entered trying not to make as much noise as she could, she noticed you still were laying on your bed with your eyes closed, and her face changed to an expression completely full of worry, she couldn´t stand the feeling in the pit of her stomach, the fear of not knowing what to do or what you even had.

“How are you feeling doll?” The blue-eyed witch asked you while she knelt down on the floor, next to you, placing her hand on your shoulder and caressing it slowly.

“I´m feeling better, don´t worry, I was just feeling sleepy, I think I relaxed too much” Chuckling a little bit you opened your eyes and proceeded to move to sit on your bed, Agatha quickly understood what you were trying to do, so she being the loving girlfriend she had always been, stood up and took your hand in hers, her free hand went to your lower back to help you sit on the bed.

“I know you are worried, but I can assure you there is nothing wrong, you don´t have to worry this much” You looked at her, with a smile on your face, your hand never leaving hers, you gave it a soft squeeze to reassure her everything was fine.

Agatha tried not to purse her lips again, she couldn´t help but worry about you, she had no idea why you suddenly felt dizzy out of nowhere or why in the mornings you suddenly felt like throwing up, she wanted to know what was going on with you, she even tried to talk to you about going to an actual doctor to see what you had, but you only told her you had maybe caught a bug or something and just waved the thought off, Agatha pressed her free hand against your forehead and then placed her hand on your cheek, you leaned against her touch, enjoying the warm feeling, you could see the way Agatha´s lips pursed, meaning she was thinking too much, and before she could say something else you decided to speak.

“Hey, were you not supposed to start gathering the coven for our trip to the witches´ road?” Agatha knew exactly what you were trying to do, you were trying to change the subject, you were even batting your eyelashes, knowing very well that was something Agatha loved, so she decided not to bring up again the subject about seeing a doctor.

“Yes, we are supposed to do that, but we still have time, that teenager can wait, but I am thinking if it would be better, not to go, you are clearly not well and-“  You didn’t like where she was going.

“Please Agatha, you already told him we were going to go, and I am not that bad, please, you already agreed on letting me go with you” You pouted and even if Agatha found your pouting to be cute, she still worried about you and everything that could go wrong.

She really didn´t want you to go, if something happened to you she would always blame herself, she was not sure what she would do if she lost you, your beautiful eyes were looking at her, she still couldn´t believe how lucky she was for having you, she would never let you go, how could someone so sweet, caring and beautiful as you be with her? She had wondered the same thing so many times, always feeling deep down that you would realize how awful she was, that some day you would realize that she was not worthy of you, but all these times when she was at her lowest and she felt deep hatred for herself, you were always there, always reassuring her that you loved her and that you would never let her, not matter what, so she really couldn´t lose you, the love she felt for you was immense, she sometimes could not even describe the feeling she got when you looked at her with so much love.

Even when Rio had agreed on going to the road to help her look after you, she still felt scared, she knew the feelings the other woman had for you, so she also knew Rio would not let anything happen to you, and even after that, she still felt scared.

You were the best thing that had happened to her since she had lost everything, she had been alone for so much time, wandering and just killing other witches, killing them because she had nothing else to do, she had nothing left, she was alone, not having anyone to hold to, since that day in the woods she had not just buried her feelings and heart with the most important little person she had ever had, since that day, she had vowed to herself not to care about anyone else, not to even look at anyone else, she couldn´t, after losing two people she had loved so much, she thought she would never be able to love again, she thought she would not be capable of loving someone again, and she did not even want to, the mere thought of caring for someone else had even made her feel disgusted, she would even had wrinkled her nose in aversion when it came to the word “love”, so she had just spent her centuries getting to study and increase her knowledge about her magic, increasing her power with each witch she murdered, only caring about power and nothing else, until she met you years ago.

The way you had made sure to stay by her side, making sure she was fine, every little loving action you had had with her, it made her open her heart slowly to you, she knew she was in too deep the first time she saw you and she had felt her heart skip a beat, since the moment she had felt the way her face got warmer when you first got closer to her, she knew, what she had vowed to herself years ago, she would not be able to keep that promise, not anymore, and she had been grateful, thanks to you, she had found the love she thought she would never feel again.

A soft knock on the door interrupted her thoughts and made you look from her to the door, then you looked back at her with a confused look on your face and Agatha only shrugged her shoulders.

The door started to open slowly without anyone entering, until you heard the teenager clearing his throat.

“Is it safe to look?” He asked out lout behind the door and you laughed.

“No, we are naked and-“ You quickly patted playfully Agatha´s shoulder and laughed looking at the way she was smirking.

“Come on in, it´s fine, it´s safe to look” You said to him and he still seemed to doubt, he did not enter but slowly opened the door a little bit more, he only peeked his head in a slow motion until he saw the two of you there, holding hands, he visibly sighed and proceeded to enter just a little bit, not wanting to intrude.

“Sorry, uhm, Rio sent me to tell you that we have to get going if we want to find the coven we need” He said without looking at Agatha, he seemed to be a little bit scared of her, and you only laughed, Agatha wasn´t scary.

Agatha looked at you and rolled her eyes, she quietly started to mimic what the teen had said and you just laughed, the teen looked at you confused, not understanding what was so funny.

“It´s fine, thank you for letting us know, also, I don´t think I asked your name” You suddenly remembered, because you couldn´t even remember if you had already asked him or if he had told you, the next thing that happened made you gasp in shock, when he tried to tell you his name, a sigil appeared on his mouth, not letting you hear his name or who he was, Agatha sighed and turned her head to look at you, it was clearly someone had put a sigil on the teenager, not knowing what to do or say you only looked at Agatha surprised not knowing what to do.

“We will leave in a few minutes; can you go back to wait on the living room again?” Agatha said to him and the teenager seemed to be thinking if he should leave or not, being alone with Rio scared him more than being alone with Agatha, the blue- eyed witch raised her eyebrow an looked at him expectantly, he got the message and quickly left closing the door behind him.

“Did you see that?” You asked Agatha, still surprised, she nodded and sighed again.

“Someone put a sigil on that boy, the question is why?” You were surprised, you had heard of sigils but never once in your life had met someone who had it or someone who had casted a sigil.

“Do you think that is one of the reasons why he wants to go to the road?” Agatha didn’t have an answer for that, because even if they asked him what was the reason or the reasons, the sigil would prevent you from knowing.

“I´m not sure, it could be, but without us actually knowing who he is, we can´t know for sure, we don´t even know if he is dangerous” Agatha said to you in a whisper her mouth set in a hard line.

She had a point, you couldn´t deny that, but you had always relied on your intuition, if you felt there could be danger, it meant there was a threat, but if you actually didn´t feel any type of threat coming from someone you would always made sure to trust your instincts, it had happened with Agatha, even after everyone claimed she was witch-killer, a bad person, a monster, you had not listened to any of that, you didn´t consider her a threat and your gut agreed with you.

“You know I have always been good at reading people and their intentions, and I don´t feel any type of threat or danger coming from him, we don´t know what is going on with him, what if he actually needs help? If I had felt he could be dangerous I would have got rid of him, and you know it” You tried to reason with your girlfriend and even if she had wanted to tell you how wrong you were, she couldn´t because you were right.

 “See? You know I´m right” The way you were smiling at her made her feel so lucky, she was lucky for having you, she was lucky because you loved her.

“You know how much I hate when I´m wrong, but this time, you´re right doll” Agatha started put her left hand on your face and caressed the skin on your cheek in a gentle way, she then put her face closer to yours and gave you a soft kiss on the lips, she loved the sensation of your lips against hers.

“Listen, since I agreed on you coming with us, you will have to wait here until we go look for the witches we need, alright? I know you would like to come with us, but it is only going to take a couple of hours and it would make me feel better if you stay here, at home, please?” The way she sounded so gentle, letting you know what would make her feel better, she was letting you see her vulnerable state and you would never take for granted what she felt or wanted, she was right, you would have loved to go with them to get to know the witches that would be part of the coven, but if that made Agatha feel better you would do it.

“Alright, I will wait here for you” You smiled at her and nodded, she felt happy you had listened to her, it made her feel a little bit more relieved.

“Alright doll, I don´t want to keep you waiting too much in here, so we will make sure to finish this as fast as possible, alright?” Her blue eyes looked at you with so much love, she had the most beautiful eyes you had ever seen, she gave you another soft kiss on your lips and hugged you carefully, you pressed your head against her chest, after a minute of hugging you, you felt her moving away slowly.

“Stay here, please? I can´t believe what I´m about to say, but, if you need anything, I´ll make sure Rio stays here with you, alright? I don´t want you to stay here all by yourself baby” She sighed and closed her eyes for a second,  she felt distressed at the thought of letting you alone, and the other person who she knew cared for you just like her, was Rio, and even if she would not say it out loud, she trusted in her to make sure you were fine while she was not there with you, you nodded and gave her a smile, you didn´t think it was necessary to have constant supervision, but if it made her feel better you would accept it, and you also didn´t mind sharing a little bit more of time with the brown-eyed woman.

“I will let her know, I will try not to take too much time, alright?” She hugged you again and you let her engulf you in her arms, feeling her so close was always such a delight.

“I love you” You said to her while you hid your face in her chest, she separated from you a little bit and leaned to press a kiss to your forehead.

“I love you too darling, please, don´t go downstairs alone, I will let that teenager know we have to leave, alright?” She saw you nodding and smiled again, you were so pretty, feeling her body getting away from you slowly made you want to pout but you stopped, not wanting to make Agatha think something else or get her worried, you only loved the way her body felt against yours.

She walked to the door and opened it, but before she could leave the room, she turned around to look at you again.

“I love you, please take care doll, I will be back in a few hours” She then winked at you and left the room, leaving you with a warm and nice feeling inside of you, since you didn´t have anything else to do, and were not allowed to go downstairs alone, you decided it would be nice to take a nap.

Agatha on the other side of the room closed the door, and sighed deeply, she still was not sure if this was a good idea, but she had already promised you all of you would go to the road, the unsettling feeling was not leaving her, and that made her stomach twist in fear.

Walking down the stairs she saw that the teenager was standing here in the middle of the room, he seemed to be looking at the plants that Rio had placed when the two of them were cleaning, when the blue-eyed woman had asked her why she had put more and new plants the brown-eyed woman had simply said that it was a gift for you, Agatha didn´t question her anymore, she also knew how much you loved plants and flowers so it had been a nice gesture from the woman covered in black.

“Alright pack up your things, we are leaving right now to search more witches” Agatha said to the boy when she was close enough for him to hear what she had said, he quickly nodded and ran upstairs as fast as he could, he needed to get his little backpack and his phone that he had left on the room you had kindly let him sleep on.

When Agatha made sure the teen had left the two of them completely alone, she walked closer to Rio who was still sitting on the same couch, Agatha took the seat in front of her and looked at her with a serious expression on her face.

“I need you to stay here with her, I trust you to make sure she will be alright, during these hours I will not be here, just make sure she doesn´t try to come downstairs alone, she has been having these episodes where she feels dizzy and I don´t want her to fall” The way Agatha´s voice was full of worry made Rio feel guilty, she was aware why you were feeling like this, but she couldn´t say what was going on, the guilt was eating her alive.

“You can count on me with that, I will stay here with her” Agatha looked straight into Rio´s eyes, there was a part of her that didn’t trust or didn´t want to trust completely in this woman, and she was trying to see or find any type of deception in her eyes, but she didn´t find anything, the woman in front of her was sincere, so Agatha only nodded and stood up to walk to the door and open it.

“You better take care of her while I´m not here, if you are going to be stuck with us for a while, you need to start showing you really care about her, don´t mess this up please” Agatha said with a straight face and got out of the house, to wait for the teen outside, Rio took a deep breath stood up, ready to go downstairs, the last phrase Agatha had said made her flinch.

 The teen then came back running and looked everywhere around the room with his eyebrows furrowed, confused as to where Agatha was, Rio just shook her head and pointed at the opened door, he quickly gave her a smile and ran towards the door, after he closed it, Rio went to take the small pot in the window that had a single red carnation in the middle, sighing again she decided to go knock on your door with the flower in her hands, she didn´t know why she still felt a little bit nervous, even knowing what Agatha had already told her.

You were waiting on your bed for the sleep to arrive, until you heard two soft knocks on your door, you had already heard the engine of a car leaving outside your house, and the way this person was knocking on your door was different to the way Agatha usually knocked, Agatha used to knock three times, the teen you realized knocked more than three times and in a rush, and this person, who you assumed was Ri, had knocked only two times and had waited a few seconds after knocking the second time.

“You can come in” You said out loud for her to hear and sat up in your bed, the door slowly opened and Rio entered with a shy smile on her face, when you noticed the flower she was carrying on her hands, you smiled widely, Rio saw the smile that formed on your face and couldn´t help but give you a big smile as well.

 The brown-eyed woman inquired while looking at you with a sheepish smile on her face, her big brown eyes shining with the light of the sun that came through the window, your heart warmed at her question.

“I´m feeling better, thank you Rio” She nodded and walked closer to you, you patted the chair next to your bed to show her she could sit there, she bit her lip and took the seat next to her.

“This is for you, I left more flowers for you downstairs, since the old ones you know got destroyed” Rio lowered her head not wanting to meet your eyes, she didn´t want to see the same disappointed look you had before, when you saw her and Agatha fighting, the pot with the flower was resting in her lap, she felt truly sorry and hoped for you to forgive her.

“Hey, it´s fine, I just, I don´t want you to hurt each other, I don´t care about the things that got broken, I just don´t like seeing you two fight” Rio slowly lifted her head to look at you and the way you saw a hint of sadness flashed over her face made you smile sadly, you still didn´t know what had happened between them to the point that it seemed they hated each other so much.

“Thank you for leaving flowers for me whenever you came, I am glad you are here today, you always left without actually saying something” Your hand came to your face to brush a strand of hair and put it behind your ear, you saw the way Rio´s smile grew wider and she handed you the flower she was holding, when her hands came closer to you, you stretched your hands out to her to take the flower in your hands, for a second your hands touched hers and you had sworn you felt a spark of electricity there.

“This is for you, my lady” Your face suddenly started to feel warmer, and you gladly accepted the flower, placing it in your lap and caressing the delicate petals of the vibrant red flower.

“Thank you, I love every flower you give to me, I always take care of them, I promise to make sure this has enough water and enough time in the sun, it´s beautiful” You commented while looking at her, Rio´s face lit up, and her eyes seemed to get brighter.

“Sorry for the mess we made and…” She stopped talking and seemed to think what she was going to say next.

“And sorry for appearing like this, out of nowhere, I didn´t want to cause any problems, it was not my intention to destroy almost everything” Rio scrunched up her face remembering the state they had left the entire room downstairs in, and you chuckled, for a second you saw the way her hand was about to stretch out to you, but she placed it back, you noticed how she hesitated to actually touch you, and it was something that Agatha had done as well years ago when you were starting to know her, the way Agatha had hesitated as well many times to get closer to you or to touch you, so you decided to encourage her and show her she didn´t have to hesitate.

Stretching your hand out and putting it in the air, you saw the way Rio´s eyes grew wide.

“It´s fine, you can give me your hand” Rio slowly gave you her hand and you took it in yours, she gave it a squeeze and loved the feeling of finally feeling you this close to her, she had yearned for years to be able to touch you somehow, and you being the one to initiate the contact made her beam with happiness, a happiness she had not felt in centuries.

You wanted to reassure her, to let her know that her presence would always be welcome.

“You don´t have to feel sorry, please, never feel sorry for appearing here, I would never mind, I would have loved for you to stay more all these times in the past, I would have loved to have a chat with you, and I, even if I don´t know why Agatha and you hate each other so much, please have in mind that I still don´t want any of you to get hurt, I would love for you to talk things out, but whatever happened in the past, I can sense it still haunts you and her, I don’t even know if what had happened can be fixed” The way your voice sounded so sincere and so caring almost made her cry, but she didn´t want you to see her cry, she didn´t want you to think she was weak, you were right, what had happened still haunted her, the guilt Agatha had made her felt for something she had tried to even stop from happening, the way Agatha didn´t understand that she had done everything in her hands to give her more time, but Agatha didn´t see any of that, Agatha didn´t see the hurt and pain she was also feeling, only focusing on her grief and pain, never realizing that she felt the same way Agatha felt, for centuries she had been completely heartbroken and with time, these feeling shaped into anger, anger because Agatha had been so selfish to only focus on her own pain, Rio had stopped looking at you, her eyes staring at the floor.

“What happened cannot be fixed, we have hurt each other so much, for many centuries, we left the pain and anger took over us, blaming and accusing the other one, there is no way for us to fix what has been broken”  You would have loved to comfort the grieving woman, her sad eyes made your heart ache, you would have loved to make her feel better, but you weren´t not sure how.

“Can I hug you?” The words came out of your mouth, you hoped for Rio to accept, she slowly lifted her face to look again at you, her eyes shining again with what seemed to be happiness, and she nodded slowly, placing the pot with the flower on your nightstand and with her hand still in yours, you stood from the bed and dragged her gently to make her stand from the chair she had been sitting.

Rio grinned and her eyes squinted a little, looking at you with curiosity, laughing a little you pushed her a little bit closer to you and she quickly pulled you closer to her, you were surprised by the strength she had suddenly showed but quickly recovered, her arms passed over your waist, pressing you closer to her, and out of instinct you passed your arms around her neck, resting your head on her chest, listening carefully to her beating heart.

Rio placed her chin on top of your head, in such a gentle way not wanting to hurt you or make you feel uncomfortable, feeling your body so close to hers filled her with happiness, she had wished for this since a long time ago, the way your body fitted against her made her heart skip a beat, a feeling she had not felt since centuries ago, it overwhelmed her a little, filling her completely with so much joy, and again, she felt like crying, Rio pressed a soft kiss on the top of your head, her right hand started to caress your back slowly, making you feel relaxed, she wanted to let you know everything that had happened between Agatha and her, she wanted to be honest and sincere, she wanted to let you know about the life growing inside of you, but again she knew she couldn´t, it was not her place, a single tear rolled down her face and you felt the way she tried to pull you impossibly closer to her, and you let her, you let her hug you as much as she wanted, trying to ease the pain the brown-eyed woman carried with her.

“If I could, I would take all the pain you have in your heart away” You words resonated in her head, if only you knew you had been helping her all these time, when she saw you taking care of the flowers she had given to you, when you smiled, even if it was not directed at her but at Agatha, she still felt joyful to see you were happy, she had not felt the courage to make sure to stay by someone´s side since a long time ago, she wanted to make things right, she did not want to be away from you again, so she would have to prove to you and to Agatha if needed that she was worthy of you.

“Agatha and I, we, we talked about you” Her words made you feel curious, so you lifted your head to look properly at her.

“What did you two talk about me?” Your voice sounded playful and Rio started to smile, it was impossible not to smile when you were looking at her that way.

“About the way the two of us feel about you, about the way I feel about you” Your heart started to beat faster, you had your theories about Rio and why she left flowers, certain flowers through all these years, you knew the meaning behind the flowers she had given you in the past, but always tried to push that feeling aside, the red carnation she had given you meant admiration, affection and was a symbol of passion, it was an amazing flower to give to someone whom you tried to show the romantic feelings you had for them, or the first flower she had given to you all these years ago, the single red rose that was associated with love and symbolized passion, strong emotions such as love and admiration.

“I know Agatha knows about my feelings as well, then, right?” You asked and Rio nodded, remembering the way Agatha had told her about your heart being split in two, and her heart started to beat faster.

“She is not mad then?” You asked shyly and Rio separated from you a little to have a proper look at you and see the way your eyes started at ther.

“She is not, but we still have to talk, the three of us have to talk about this” Listening to Rio´s soft voice made you feel better, taking away the guilt you felt deep down about the way you felt for the two women.

“I hope we get to talk soon, just the three of us” Rio hoped the same, but she was not sure when the three of you would get the chance to have a proper talk, and Agatha and Rio´s priority was to keep you safe no matter what, so even if they didn´t have the chance to talk about it right now or soon, they would make sure first to protect you from everything, Rio gave you another smile and you rested your head again against her chest, the brown- eyed woman loved how you felt being this close to her.

“I don´t know how long they will take, but would you like to do something? I can show you the house, show you the books I have, I can give you a tour through the garden, or we can stay here, just holding each other and lay down on the bed?” Rio loved the idea of doing things with you, she had never had the chance to do anything with you next to her, she had never had the chance to be this close to you, but now, you were there, letting her hold you, and even if she had wanted to do more things with you, she didn´t want to stop the amazing feeling of having you this close to her, she wanted to enjoy as much as she could being like this with you, holding you and inhaling your sweet scent.

“Can we stay a little bit longer like this, and then lay down for a while?” You nodded, agreeing to what she had said, your smile growing wider and you face getting warmer, Rio had never felt this happy in centuries, and she loved it completely.

You stayed with her, letting her hold you, and feeling her hands caress your waist gently, enjoying the quietness of the room, and only listening to your beating harts, the proof that what the two of you felt was reciprocated, genuine and sincere, no matter what Rio would make sure you were going to be fine, and she knew Agatha would do the same.

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The sound of a car stopping outside your house made you slowly open your eyes, the dim light was comfortable enough for you to open them without any trouble, the bed was cozy enough and the person next to you held you tightly and gently, her warm making you feel comforted and protected, her presence was lovely, giving you a sense of security.

“It seems that they just came back” Rio´s voice next to you was soft, one of her hands around your shoulders and your head resting on her chest, she loved having you like this, you nodded and closed your eyes for a second before taking a deep breath, you were not sure how much time had passed, because being this close to Rio made the time seem as if it had passed so quickly.

“I really hope you also get to talk about what happened, I know maybe it doesn´t concern me, but I really don´t like seeing the two of you fighting, I know she doesn´t like to talk about how she feels, I know it´s really hard for her, but I can see the pain in her eyes whenever she hears your name” Rio would have loved to tell you what had happened, why the two of them in her mind and Agatha´s mind could never get along again, but she decided not to say anything, the pain burning in her chest with the warmth of a thousand of fires, she knew Agatha needed to tell you, how things had happened, again, it was not her place to start telling you the story that had been haunting her and Agatha as well.

“One of these days, everything will make sense to you, right now, you should go check on Agatha and make sure she doesn´t murder that poor boy” You opened your eyes so quickly because she was right, the boy had left with Agatha a couple of hours ago and he had passed all these hours next to her, you didn´t know if Agatha had already had enough of the teen, before you could quickly stand up from the bed, you heard the door opening slowly, and you knew instantly it was Agatha.

So you decided to wait for her, Rio who also noticed Agatha was the one who was on the other side smirked just a little bit, waiting for the other woman to enter to the room, Rio still had her arm around your shoulder and the two of you were laying on the bed, relaxed and in a comfortable position.

When Agatha opened the door fully, she entered and looked at you, the first moment her eyes landed on you her gaze softened, you could see her shoulders being a little tense, she had had some quite stressful hours, she was not used to pass so much time with someone so younger, except for you, of course, but it was totally different, the teen made so many questions, and talked so much, she felt on edge.

You noticed this and quickly understood what she was feeling, you sensed her mood so you worried, before Rio or Agatha could foresee what you were going to do, you quickly stood up from the bed, in a hasty way that when the two women realized you had almost jumped out of bed to go check on the blue-eyed witch, their eyes opened wide in panic.

Agatha caught you in her arms as quickly as she could, afraid you could lose your balance and fall, so her strong grip holding you tightly against her and her eyebrows furrowed trying to understand how fast you had gotten up from bed.

“Doll, be careful, you have to be careful please” Agatha commented looking at you straight into your eyes, fear still visible in her face, you didn´t listen to her you wanted to make sure she was fine.

“How are you? You seem tense” Taking her face in your hands you started to cares her jaw softly, Agatha felt herself melting at your touch, for a moment she forgot the stressful sensation and heaviness Inside her mind, she closed her eyes for a second enjoying the feeling of your soft hands on her face.

“I am better now that I´m here with you” You couldn´t help but smile at her words.

“Always a charmer, I love you so much, you got me worried, you look tired” The way Agatha sighed confirmed what you were sensing.

“I just need to take a shower” Rio realized she needed to get out of the room and wait for the two of you downstairs, so she stood up from the bed and started to walk with confidence towards the door, when Agatha opened her eyes again she saw the brown-eyed woman smirking and rolled her eyes a little but still, even apart from the slight annoyance she felt, she also was thankful for actually staying here with you, so the blue-eyed woman quickly stared at her and nodded at Rio, in a way to show she was thanking her for being here with you, the brown-eyed woman realized what she meant with that and she nodded back at her, acknowledging what she wanted to say, the two of them smiled at each other and Rio stopped close to the two of you, looking at you.

“Be careful mi amor, please” Rio said to you and Agatha rolled her eyes playfully at Rio´s pet name for you but didn´t comment anything, you smiled at her and nodded.

“Thank you for staying here with me” You replied to the woman covered in black and she only chuckled.

“I will see the two of you later downstairs, don´t make us wait too long” The woman walked past you and disappear in the hallway, you only laughed and Agatha rolled her eyes again playfully.

“Do you want me to help you relax a little?”  You inquired looking at her while batting your eyelashes and she chuckled, she really loved the idea so she nodded, agreeing to let you take care of her, she leaned to give you a soft kiss and you gladly accepted it, feeling her soft lips.

“What did you and Rio do during these hours?” Agatha had separated from you to take off her hat and place it on the bed, and you saw the way her eyes squinted a little.

“We talked for a while and then we just rested on the bed, the time passed quickly but I still missed you” You came closer to her and sat on the bed in front of her, her eyes pursed a little and she sighed, she knew she had already had a short talk with Rio about you, and even if she didn´t mind the other woman passing time with you, she still couldn´t take off her mind what had happened centuries ago, Agatha didn´t like to think about awful things happening to you, but if it happened, if something happened, would Rio do the same she had done in the past? She really didn´t want to think about that, so she shook her head and decided to relax with you, before going to the actual road, her eye caught her perfume on the vanity of the room, and an idea crossed her mind, she would make sure to do what she had in mind after the shower she so much needed.

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“Hey, so, when do we start?” You asked Agatha when you reached her basement, it looked like you had arrived a little bit late since the other witches seem to be already placed in the middle of the basement forming a circle, Agatha had been looking for something in one of the shelves near to the wall and Rio was waiting for her centimeters away from the blue-eyed witch.

Agatha quickly turned herself around, confusion all over her face, what were you doing there? She had already told you to wait with the teenager upstairs, wait for her to come let you know it was time to leave, she was going to go for you.

“Doll, didn´t I tell you to wait upstairs with the teenager?” She asked while quickly walking over to you, and you furrowed your eyebrows, she had told you that, but you had thought that it was only to wait for her until everything was gathered and then you thought you had to come looking for them to join them to open the door.

Agatha hoped that you didn´t put up much of a fight, she didn´t want you there because if you took part on opening the door with them that would make you instantly part of the coven, and she knew that your life would be put in danger, if she remembered the rules of the road, being a member of the coven, would mean you would have to face a trial, a trial who no one had any idea of what could be about, what dark illusions could be shown, or how the road could mess with your mind, they were not even sure what type of trials and dangers the road would make them face, and she didn´t want for any of that to be thrown at you, she had agreed that you went with them, but she hadn´t agreed on you being part of the coven to face the cruelties of the road, and she was not about to risk your life more, she saw the way you nodded and how your beautiful eyes were looking at her with curiosity, so she had to think of something in order to make you wait for her upstairs, where you would be safe, at least by now.

“Well, baby, remember the song? Water, earth and air?” She asked you with a loving smile on her face and you nodded.

“Well here we already have every element around us, in order for us to open the door, it is strictly necessary that a certain number of the elements stay here to chant the sacred song and open the door, that´s what I told you to wait with the teenager, he also needs to be upstairs because here we have to be the ones to make sure this opens correctly, alright?” She hated herself for lying to you, she hated not telling you the truth, but if that meant she could keep you extra safe through some lies, then she would do it, no matter what, her priority was to make sure you were safe.

You seemed to understand because the way you smiled to her and nodded again in understanding made her heart feel warm, but at the same time it pained her to see how much you trusted in her, she hated lying to you, but she was not sure if you would have agreed on going back upstairs if she had told you the truth.

“Alright, I will wait for you upstairs, I will se if the boy wants to play some card games, I already placed Señor Scratchy in his safe place, I put enough water and food, so he will be fine, I will be waiting for you” You replied back to her and gave her a quick peck on her lips, Agatha unconsciously closed her eyes when she felt your lips on hers and a big smile formed on her face, before you could leave she quickly pressed her hands on your waist and pulled you closer to her body, the happiness you were feeling was immense, and you let her hold you against her.

“I love you so much, I won´t let anything happen to you” Her words made you feel so much love, the way her voice sounded so sincere, you knew she would do everything she could to protect you, you trusted in her, and you nodded, she had always been such a protective girlfriend.

“I know, I will also make sure nothing happens to you, we are going to protect each other, alright?” She smiled against you and chuckled, you were the best, slowly you separated from her and gave her one more smile, before you could turn yourself to leave, you turned around to look at the other witches who were looking at the two of you with smiles on their faces, they still couldn´t believe that Agatha Harkness, the witch that so many people other witches feared and some other hated, had found someone as sweet as you to love her, not listening to the things that were said about her, the myths, bad tales and scary legends told about the mysterious witch, and the way Agatha seemed to get soft when you were near her, made them believe that maybe, even after all, the fearsome woman had a heart after all.

You smiled at them and waved your hand to greet them again, with your eyes bright full of happiness, it was hard not to smile at you, you had such a pretty smile and had a contagious laugh that made them smile at you as well, such a kind soul, offering happiness wherever you went.

Rio who had moved to the corner, watching you with a grin on her face, felt her heart skipping a beat, she had vowed to herself to protect you, and was happy to see how Agatha had handled the situation, that was the thing with her former lover, Agatha always knew how to handle things, how to make sure things always played in her favor, but she knew now, that this time, she was doing it not to gain something for her, Rio knew whatever she had said to you, was to keep you safe, and she knew that feeling very well, she knew she had made some mistakes in the past, but some of them had been only her doing her job, she wanted to keep you safe, and she only hoped that when the truth would be revealed, she hoped that you would understand her reasons, she only wished that you would let her explain why she hadn´t said anything, just as Agatha wanted, Rio wanted to protect you as well.

All of the witches saw the way you left happily and closed the door of the basement with a soft thud, Agatha sighed deeply and when she turned herself to look at the witches, she noticed the way they were looking at her.

“Shall we?” Rio came from her spot in the corner and placed herself where Alice, had made a space for her to enter, she placed herself next to Agatha and Alice, and even though Agatha pursed her lips slightly, this time, she found how surprising it had been, that she hadn´t felt any type of annoyance at Rio´s proximity, Rio decided not to say anything at the lack of sarcasm or witty comments about how close she was next to her, and when the time came for all the witches to hold hands, Agatha didn´t hesitate to grab Rio´s hand in hers, part of their minds tried to think that it was because of the truce they had agreed on having in order to make sure you would be fine.

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“Can I ask you something?” You heard the dark-haired boy asking, the two of you were sitting on the couch while the other witches were looking for a clue in the perfect elegant house, you had wanted to help but Agatha, Rio and the coven had told you it was not necessary, so they sent you to sit with the teen.

“Yeah, sure, what is it?” You smiled at him and nodded.

“Why do you and Agatha smell the same?” You didn’t understand his question so you frowned.

“What do you mean? We smell the same?” Your face had a confused expression, you were not understanding his question, did you have a smell?

“Yes, I mean, the perfume, it seems like the two of you use the same perfume, at first, I couldn’t quite place my finger in what it was, when Agatha grabbed me by my shirt yesterday, I smelled her perfume, kind of a hint of vanilla? Lavender? I don’t know, and you just smell the same, it’s nice, maybe you can tell me what is the name of the perfume? It really has those sweet floral hints you know?”

He said while he looked at the small table in front of you, he seemed to be deep in thought, and you felt your face getting warmer just as the seconds passed.

And the reason why the two of you had the scent of the same perfume, it had been due to Agatha spraying some of her own cologne on your neck, “So everyone knew you belonged to her” just s she had said, and you couldn’t help but let your mind wander back to this morning.

“I can’t believe we actually have a coven!” You had commented excitedly to her, Agatha didn’t seem to be really happy, the way she sighed and looked at you through the mirror on your vanity while she made sure the collar of her blouse looked good, you saw the way your girlfriend was having a hard time accommodating her own blouse, so you decided to help her a little.

“Here, let me help you” Pressing your hands on the collar of her blouse you made sure it was perfectly accommodated and with not wrinkles, you patted gently her chest and smiled at her.

“There you go, all nice and neat” Agatha smiled widely at you and put her hands on your waist, for a moment you gasped in surprise but ended up laughing when you felt the way Agatha pulled you closer to her.

“I love you so much doll, I can’t believe you convinced me to let you go with us” The way her eyes still showed the fear she felt due to not knowing what could happen and the constant reminder that she was powerless, the way the fear of not being able to protect you if something happened was eating her alive.

“Hey, it’s fine, we will be alright, I am going to be alright, you don’t have to worry about nothing, I have magic as well, remember? I released you from the spell the scarlet witch had put you on” Agatha smiled softly, you were right you had been powerful enough to release her from the Scarlet Witch’s spell, she still was fascinated by that, you had already explained to her that you had tried to release her several times before it actually worked, but in the end you had done it, you were right, she was sure about you being powerful enough to take care of yourself, but still, she was scared, scared of something actually happening to you.

“I know, I know you are powerful, remember when we met? I could feel the strong magic coming from you, you don’t need to say incantations to use your powers, I just… I want to make sure nothing happens to you, I want to protect you, my job is to protect you, not the other way around doll” Agatha finished saying with a loving smile on her face, her hand left hand on your face, caressing slowly your cheek with her fingers.

“But you always protect me, even without powers, I know you will find a way to do it, please, let me go with you, I will make sure to stay near you, please” Agatha couldn’t help but feel her heart beating faster, you looked so cute when you begged, and she always find hard to say “no” to you.

“Fine, but you will stay close to me, not wandering off, alright?” The way your smile grew wider did not pass unnoticed to your girlfriend who laughed out loud noticing your excitement.

“I promise not to wander off and stay close to you the whole time, thank you” Passing your arms around her shoulders to hug her tightly she couldn’t help but close her eyes and pressed her hands in your waist, with the same strength you were hugging her, she loved feeling you so close to her.

“We have to hurry then, we don’t know if the women you went to look for the coven are going to arrive sooner” You sounded so excited that it warmed her heart, once you separated from her you went to the mirror to take a look at you, just to make sure you looked decent.

Agatha watched you brushing your hair with your hand making sure not even a single strand of hair was out of place, she always loved the way you would brush your hair in the mornings after you got out of the shower.

“You always look beautiful, there’s only one more thing that´s left to apply” You stopped what you were doing and turned yourself to look at her, confused as to what she was referring.

You only stood there with your head tilted to the side and then the older witch laughed, she walked towards you and passed her hands around your waist again, you thought she wanted to hug you one more time but then you felt the way she leant a little bit more and her hands were searching for something behind you on the vanity, before you had the chance she separated from you a little and placed her left hand again on your neck, caressing gently.

Closing your eyes, enjoying the feeling, Agatha started to brush with her fingertips your jaw and you leant into her touch, after some seconds you felt a few drops of what it felt to be water, and then the sweet scent of Agatha´s perfume was surrounding you.

“You are going to meet some new people now that we agreed you are coming with me, and everyone needs to know you belong to me, isn´t it right?” You smiled with your eyes still closed, and chuckled, the way Agatha´s voice sounded so raspy and had started to whisper close to your ears, it made your heart beat faster.

“Don´t be shy, answer me doll” The hand that Agatha had on your jaw grasped you a little bit harder but without hurting you, she still knew Rio would be coming with you, and even if they had already talked a little about you and your feelings, Agatha couldn´t help but be possessive of you.

“You´re right Agatha, people need to know I belong to you, only you” Agatha licked her lips unconsciously and sighed deeply, her grip on your neck loosening just a little.

“Good girl” The older witch said to you with a raspy voice. -

“Uhm, did I say something funny?” The teen´s voice brought you back to the present.

“No, not at all, why?” You asked him a little bit confused not understanding his question.

“I asked you why you and Agatha smelled the same and then you started to smile” The teen said looking a little bit worried wondering if he had said something stupid.

“Oh yeah, no, no, sorry, I just I remembered something nice, to answer your question, we, uh, we keep some of our clothes together in the same drawer, I think that´s why we have the same perfume, you know, the scents tend to get mixed” You said with your face completely red, the teen squinting his eyes, looking at you with a curious look.

“Oh, well, it smells great” He said after a minute and smiled widely.

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“Oh my god, that smell, I used to love the scent of wet dirt but now, I don´t even know why I can´t stand it” You said to Jenn when she grabbed a handful of it on her hands, Alice nodding agreeing with her on how it was a pleasant smell, you had also found the smell to be pleasant weeks ago, waiting for the rain to actually fall all over town and wait for the rain then to go away to go check on your beloved garden, the smell always bringing a sense of comfort to you, until some weeks ago.

“It is almost as if you were pregnant” Jenn said jokingly while chuckling a little, and you stopped dead in your tracks, your eyes opened widely and looking at the ground. It had been intended to only be a joke, a simple funny joke, but suddenly everything started to make sense, you put two and two together.

Some weeks ago, you had woken up around 6:00 in the morning, feeling a little bit thirsty, Agatha had still been asleep on the other side of bed when the sudden wave of nausea had hit you, it had happened the same thing whenever you woke up, feeling dizzy and even starting to feel disgusted at certain smells you liked or tolerated before, but you had thought and said to yourself that it had been due to maybe catching a bug or a slight cold, but everything seemed to make sense now.

Agatha was talking to the teen a couple of meters behind you, she was listening with so much attention at something the boy was saying, Jenn had walked a few centimeters more and didn´t notice you had stopped walking, Alice was next to her walking and smiling softly, while Rio had stopped next to you and Lilia had stopped as well, with a worried look on her face.

Rio looked at your stomach for a minute and the way her eyes were wide open made you feel worried for a second, she seemed tensed, the way her shoulders stiffened and didn’t dare to move, after a minute she dropped her gaze to the floor, not daring to look at you in the face.

“Is it true?” You asked her, while looking at her, your voice had come up almost in a whisper and trembling a little.

Rio took a deep breath, she felt guilty for not telling you or Agatha the life that was growing inside you, but it was not her place to say it, she was not the one who needed to let you know, and still, she felt guilty because you were here, walking the witches’ road, you had no idea, maybe if you had known, maybe you would haven´t agreed on going with them but right now, but the what ifs didn´t matter.

She looked back at you, straight into your eyes, and she nodded slightly, not daring to say something else, the guilt eating her from the inside, and the worry more present than ever, she started to feel scared of your reaction, and how you would take this new information.

“But how? How is it possible?” You asked suddenly, panic taking all over you, your heart started to beat faster and Rio and Lilia noticed it right away, Rio quickly came closer to you and placed her hands on your face, brushing slightly your hair, in a way to help you calm yourself.

“Hey, it´s alright, it´s fine, don´t worry, alright? Agatha and I are going to make sure nothing happens to you, please baby, take deep breaths” Her soft voice was recomforting and it helped you to feel grounded, right now it was not the time to panic, you needed to think straight, and you also needed to think how you would tell Agatha, how were you going to even explain that you were pregnant? How were you going to explain that if you didn´t even know how it had happened?

Lilia who was next to you sensed the fear in your mood, the way you seemed you were about to faint terrified her so she had come next to you to hold your hand and keep you steady, her heart filled with fear at the thought of you being pregnant and being on the road.

“Oh, sweet girl” Was the first thing Lila could say, her furrowed eyebrows and hand covering her mouth in shock.

Rio kept brushing your hair softly, her soft hands pressing from time to time your skin, which made you lean into her touch, Agatha who was only meters away from all of you noticed how Rio and Lilia were holding you and she started to walk faster to get to you, alarms started to sound in her head, and her heart started to beat faster, afraid that something had happened to you.

“What happened doll? Are you hurt?” Agatha quickly started to check on you looking for wounds all over you, she then placed her hands on your face and started to examine as well your features, you had your eyes closed and she thought you were about to faint, she hold you closer to her and looked at Rio whose eyes were full of worry.

“We should help her sit down” Lilia said nodding and pointed to a place where there was a tree trunk in the middle of it, Rio and Agatha nodded and gently started to push you towards the trunk tree, the two of them helped you to sit down and Agatha sat in knelt down  in front of you on the ground, taking your hands in her, Rio came to knelt down as well next to her, her hands on your knees, stroking them gently.

The other witches were looking at the three of you with worried faces, they would have wanted to go and help, Alice was about to go and walk closer to you to see If she could help you somehow, ask if there was something she could do but Lilia stopped her, knowing the three of you needed space to talk.

Things had already been going fine over the past two trials, with the poisoned wine and Alice getting to break her generational curse, things have been fine at least for now, no one had been harmed, no one was hurt, and Lilia hoped for things to keep going this way.

You thought about just blurting out to Agatha what was going on, but you were scared of her reaction, you didn’t even know how it had happened! Magic could be the only answer and even though your gut told you that was how it had happened, still you doubted to say it out loud, to acknowledge that there was a life growing inside of you.

Rio wasn´t sure how would Agatha react, she wasn’t even sure what could happen or what she would do when she realized you were pregnant with her child, Rio knew Agatha loved you deeply, but she also knew that the blue-eyed woman had never let you know about Nicky, being something that still affected Agatha so much, not knowing how the blue-eyed witch would take the news, would she understand? Would she be taken aback? Rio didn´t know for sure how would the woman next to her would take the new information, and she worried, not only for Agatha but for you as well, she knew that right now you were in such a fragile state, and whatever happened if it was slightly bad could affect you deeply, and Rio didn´t want for your emotional state to get worse.

You knew you had to say something, anything to stop the two women in front of you from worrying so much, but how could you when even yourself were panicking awfully? It was now or never you thought, just when you were going to let Agatha know that you were pregnant, the first thing you noticed when you opened your eyes, was the strange cabin behind Agatha and Rio, it was only some meters away from you, and you knew the road wanted for the next trial to take place now.

Agatha noticed you were looking behind her so she hastily looked at the same direction you were staring at, Rio proceeded to do the same, and Agatha´s heart filled with pain and sorrow when she also noticed the blood moon up in the sky, the next trial was hers, and seeing your face contorting in terror and fear when the curse had actually attacked her made her think that the best would be for you to stay out of the next trial, everything had been going fine, and she hoped that during this trial of hers everything still would be the same, but, what if thing went south? What if she was shown something awful? What if you saw how much a monster she was, so turning herself around to look at you, she decided to let you know what was going to happen next.

“You are going to stay here with the teen, here at least we know the road is safe, the trials are only counting for five of us, I am not really sure if rules apply to her” Agatha pointed with her head at Rio before continue talking.

“But it would be better if she doesn´t go and break the rules, this time I am asking you not to break the rules, I hope you listen to me for once” Agatha´s voice was filled with something you hadn´t heard before, was sounded like resentment or bitterness and Rio´s shoulders tensed, you supposed they were referring to whatever it had happened, but you, being a little bit too stubborn as Agatha would sometimes say, you quickly shook your head, you were not going to leave her alone or the witches, how could she even ask for that? Weren´t you supposed to be all together?

Agatha realized you were about to contradict her but her expression became hard and her lips were pressed in a thin line, she was visibly on edge, she knew she had told you that you would be close to her at all times, but seen that you had been about to come next to her to help her when the curse had attacked her, she didn´t want for you to risk your life if something happened to her, so she needed to change the rules for you.

“No, you heard me, I know the rules, I know what is the best for you, right now you are not in a good state, at least not physically, you almost fainted! Can´t you see I am trying to protect you? We are trying to make sure you are safe, why can´t you listen just for once?” Her voice had broken completely, tears had already started to fall down her face, and it hurt you to see her that way, so broken, feeling so stressed over you, maybe, if you had listened to her, if you had stayed at your house, maybe Agatha wouldn´t have been feeling this way right now, but it was too late to actually think about the what ifs, you didn´t want to cause her to be more stressed, so maybe, it was not even the time as well to let her know why you had been feeling sick for the past weeks, that would only add for her to feel more worried than ever, and you wanted her to keep her head cool so she would keep on being the best leader she was, so you only nodded, and Agatha visibly relaxed.

“I will stay here, I will not move from here, but please be safe alright? I will be waiting for you here, I will be waiting for you to come back, alright?” Agatha sighed and a smile formed on her face, she nodded again and pressed a soft kiss on your lips.

“Thank you doll, I will come back here with you” You girlfriend whispered softly to you and then she looked back at Rio who couldn´t help but feel guilty and Agatha did something she wouldn´t do ever again, she pressed her hand on Rio´s shoulder and then looked back at you again.

“We will come back to you” Rio smiled widely and nodded at Agatha´s words, she knew they would have a long talk when they came here next to you.

Agatha stood up and called the teenager to come over, he nodded quickly and ran towards the three of you, when he was standing next to you, he looked at Agatha waiting for her to talk.

“Listen boy, I know you are hiding something, and I know you can take care of you, we will have a talk later as well later, but right now, I have to ask you to please stay here with her, I don´t want her to be alone” The boy was surprised to see her so vulnerable, he hadn´t seen her this way, and he knew she was being sincere,  Agatha´s eyes showed so much emotions, fear was the most visible, it was clear she feared for you, she was scared of losing you and if he was honest he didn´t want that anything happened to you as well, and he was sure that any of the other witches of the new coven wanted for that to happen as well, all of them cared for you deeply and he was sure every witch here would do something in order to protect you.

He nodded and looked at Agatha with a serious expression on his face, however, their plan hadn´t go according to what they had wished.

You had seen them entering to the cabin, all of them, the teen had taken the seat next to you, the two of you had seen the other witches closed the door behind them, not even a minute had passed, or that was what you thought, that when you closed your eyes for a second and you opened them again, you were inside the cabin the teen was shocked as much as you and when you heard Agatha´s voice yelling your name, you knew things were going to get complicated.

“I told you to stay outside!” The witches were looking at you, they had turned around to look at you, Agatha was in what it seemed to be some stairs, Rio was at the front with a knife in her hand and another person was in the front. Someone you had never seen before, white hair and with a strange aura all over herself, the boy and you didn´t even have time to say you had in fact waited outside but the next minute you were inside with all of them!

“Let the girl and the baby inside of her with me, and I shall not harm anyone, you will be free to go” Agatha froze in her spot, her hands up in the air as she had tried to brush her hair out of her face after the ghost of her mother had tossed her the in the stairs, her mind freezing as well, for a second she didn´t understand, until Rio placed herself in front of the ghost of her mother.

“You can´t do that, she is not part of this, there are rules, and I will not let you take her” That was the moment when Agatha realized Evanora was talking about you, without realizing she walked down the stairs slowly until she reached the end of them where Evanora was floating, her lip almost quivering, the unsettling feeling growing stronger in her stomach.

“You don´t know what you are talking about” Was the first thing Agatha could say to the paler woman, getting a loud cackle from her.

“I don´t have time for this” Said the ghost and what happened next happened so fast you didn´t even have time to process exactly what was going in front of you, only catching glimpses, the ghost entering into Agatha´s body, Agatha starting to run towards you with such a strength that seemed inhuman, Rio trying to hold her, stopping her from taking a step forward to you, Agatha tossing Rio to the other side of the room, Jennifer and the teenager trying to keep her in place, Lilia had ran towards you to place herself in front of you, too shocked to even know what to do, how could they even fight a possessed witch, how were they supposed to fight a ghost? And the next thing you saw was Alice placing herself in front of you and Lilia, throwing strands of her power to Agatha, expulsing the ghost from your girlfriend´s body, Rio running to place herself next to Agatha to stop her from absorbing all of Alice´s powers, and then Alice falling to the floor, grunting but still alive, it felt as if everything had just happened in a matter of seconds, watching everything unfolding in front of you.

When the door opened, Agatha´s blue eyes stared at you, her eyes filled with tears, her expression unreadable, her hand on her mouth, covering it completely, her hair completely disheveled, but her eyes were always so easy to read, her blue eyes were looking at you with worry, showing how scared she was, how terrified she was feeling, and she did what she was used to when she didn´t know how to deal with her feelings and with the cruel world, she ran towards the opened door, getting out of the cabin as fast as possible, you had wanted to check on everyone, make sure Alice was fine, make sure Rio was not hurt, ask how Lilia felt and check if Jenn and the teenager were alright, but as you had sensed the complete wrecked state Agatha was in, you decided to go after her, no listening to the voices from behind calling out for you.

The first thing you saw after getting out of the cabin was how the scenery had changed completely, from the forest and the path being covered completely in leaves that had fallen from their trees, the sky that seemed to be dark as if you were late at night, the blood moon was nowhere to bee seen, the weather seemed to have changed completely, from the cold sensation that made your toes long for a pair of warming socks, to a different sensation in the air that it was even hard to describe, the light made the place look as if it you were in the middle of an abandoned forest that seemed to have ben burnt in some places, the trees didn´t have leaves and after squinting for a couple of minutes trying to locate Agatha you saw her walking some meters away, so you ran, you ran as fast as you could to reach her, and when she heard you calling out her name she abruptly stopped, but she didn´t dare to turn around to face you.

The fear and her awful thoughts had taken over her completely, she didn´t feel ready to face you, not yet, she needed time, time to process what had just happened, what she had just heard, trying to do something you did what you had done so many times, you took her by her arm, softly trying to make her to turn around to face you, but you felt the way her body stiffened, how her shoulders tensed, and the way she almost flinched, you heart broke when you felt her reaction, she had never rejected any type of contact, never before, until now.

“Agatha I´m-“ Before you could continue what you were about to say, what you had just learned today, what you had realized and Rio had confirmed, you heard a sob coming from her, and then her broken voice talked to you.

“I know, I know sweetheart, I just, I need time, please” She said without even looking at you, without facing you, and you were not sure what was hurting you more, the fact that she didn´t want to look at you, or if she didn´t let you address what was going on, so, with tears in your eyes you took your hand away from her arm and the moment Agatha felt you had let go of her arm, she started to walk faster, where to? You didn´t know, but you were sure she wanted to be alone, so for the first time in years you let her get away from you, alone, giving her the time to be alone, with her thoughts and her feelings, she hadn´t given you the chance to explain yourself or to talk with you, she just decided to leave, and it was breaking your heart, you felt the hot tears falling from your eyes, staining your shirt, feeling ashamed, not knowing why, you aggressively wiped the tears off your eyes with your sleeve, not caring if it left your face red and irritated.

Before you could do something else, Agatha suddenly turned herself around and walked back to you, as fast as she could, when she reached where you were, in a quick movement she pressed a quick yet soft kiss on your forehead, she didn´t  even give you time to do something because just as she pressed the soft kiss on your skin she turned herself around hastily and started to walk away without saying anything, you were not sure where she was going or if she was going to be safe alone there in woods of the road, but you knew she wanted to be alone, and you did not even know what to do, the only thing you thought you would be able to do was just to stand there, on the same spot she had left you in, not even knowing what to do, your mind completely blank, unable to form a coherent thought, your mind was a complete mess, what were you supposed to do now? Or at least, what were you supposed to think?

Hot tears were falling down your face, it seemed impossible to stop them from coming out of your eyes, the pain in your heart felt as if it was getting stronger and stronger with each passing second, for a moment everything seemed to go in a slow motion, the sensation of you getting out of your body, your hands feeling suddenly numb, and that was when you realized you had started to panic.

“Hey, come here, don´t worry, everything is going to be fine” Feeling Rio´s arms around you, engulfing you completely in a warm hug, her hands caressing slowly your back and you let her hold you, it helped you to stay a little bit calm, it helped you to bring you back to where you were, her warmth making you feel secure, safe, and you wanted her to hold you forever, that was when you realized you needed Rio as much as you needed Agatha, and the mere thought of Agatha made you cry harder, Rio´s heart was aching for you, she had seen the way Agatha had quickly left the place, but she knew the reason why Agatha had reacted that way, Rio knew the immense pain that Agatha had been carrying alone for so many centuries, the suffering Agatha had been having inside her since she lost Nicky, you still didn´t know what had happened to the blue-eyed witch, the reason why Rio and Agatha had separated ways for centuries, how much the loss of their beloved boy had affected the two of them, how much it had affected Agatha, to the point that the blue-eyed witch had seemed to shut everyone off, until you.

Rio let you cry more and more on her chest, giving you as much comfort as she could, trying to help you ease the pain, why did it hurt so much? Because you didn´t know what Agatha was thinking? Or because it seemed to trouble Agatha knowing you were pregnant? Was she mad? Was she disgusted? Could she be disgusted? What if she didn´t want children? You hadn´t had the chance to talk about having children during all these years you had shared, you in fact, hadn´t even think about having kids, it was not something you had not stopped to think about it thoroughly, let alone, having the chance to discuss it with Agatha, the love of your life as you had told her so many times, but you were terrified, you were not sure why Agatha had reacted that way, and it only made your anxiety grow incredibly fast.

“She is going to leave me” Was the only thing you were able to say to Rio between sobs, the mere thought of Agatha leaving you made your heart ache more, you were not sure if she would be able to do that, would she start treating you like she treated others? Would she stop caring about you? It terrified you and the thoughts were only making you cry harder, it hurt Rio to see you in such a vulnerable state, to see you so hurt, but she also knew that when Agatha didn´t know what to do or what to feel, she would just leave, that was how she coped, the way she had learned all over the years to cope with hard feelings, with unknown feelings or things, and this had taken Agatha by surprised, so Rio could understand why the blue-eyed witch had decided to leave, but you didn´t, and that was the reason that was causing you so much distress, not knowing what Agatha would do or why she  had acted the way she did.

“She is not going to leave you, alright? She is just, she is afraid, she just needs a little bit of time to take in everything that just happened, alright?” She said to you in a whisper, tightening her hold on you, her firm voice made you feel comforted, the way she sounded so sure about Agatha´s feelings made you feel a little bit less anxious, she was the one who knew Agatha a lot more than you, you were sure about that, and listening to these words coming out of Rio, helped you ease the pain, a little.

Nodding against Rio´s chest, and after a couple more minutes of letting her hold you close to her, the sobs coming from you started to lessen and the tiredness started to take over you, Rio sensed the change in your mood, how your shoulders started to relax a little, your body didn´t seem to be so tense against her, she saw the witches behind the two of you, their sad expressions in their faces, she knew all of them cared for you, and how could they now? You were just so sweet and caring towards everyone, and she was sure they would make sure you were fine, even if she didn´t want to leave you, she knew she also needed to go look for Agatha and talk to her, Rio knew she could trust in the witches to take care of you while she went to look for Agatha.

“Can you stay with here and have an eye on her, please” The voice echoing in the minds of the witches behind the two of you made them lift ther heads to look at the brown-eyed witch holding you in her arms, and all of them nodded, they would stay there with you, take care of you while Rio went away.

Lilia who was the one who took a step forward, walked towards the two of you, she slowly pressed her hands on your shoulders, caressing them slowly and you felt Rio gently separating from you.

“You are going to be fine, don´t worry please, I will come back with Agatha, I just need to talk to her, alright?” The way Rio talked to you in such a soft tone made you want to cry again, she was being so gentle and you only wanted her to hold you, but you nodded, not wanting to be more of a burden, so you separated from her, her hands slowly slipping away from you, giving you one last squeeze to your hands, Lilia was quick to take your hands in hers, taking your right one into hers and her left hand was placed on your back, giving you a slight and gentle push to make you walk towards the nearest tree trunk in the middle of the road, you were still trying hard to stop crying completely, you were not sobbing anymore, but still you felt the need to cry, and it made you feel a little bit ashamed, it made you feel guilty.

Lila turned her head a little, just enough to look back at Rio for a second, and when Lilia nodded back at her, in a way to reassure they were going to stay with you until they came back, Rio gave her a smile and nodded back at the Sicilian witch, taking it as her cue to leave, she turned herself around to start walking to where Agatha ad left minutes ago,  she was not sure how things would go, or if Agatha would let her talk, but she hoped the blue-eyed witch would let her, they needed to talk, to face what had happened.

After some minutes of walking through the path covered in leaves, she saw the silhouette of her former lover, Rio sighed deeply, they needed to talk for once and all about what happened, that would be the only way to get back to you and figure how things would work out from now on.

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Lilia was holding you, she had taken the seat next to you, your head resting on her shoulder and her arm over your shoulders, letting you stay close to her, she even caressed your arm up and down, soothing you, making sure you felt safe, it was helping you, the tears had stopped coming, but the sadness was still there, so many questions on your mind, not knowing what would happen now, Lilia was worried, you were so quiet, it was as if the light that was around you had started to become dim, and with each passing minute of not knowing where Agatha and Rio were, that light would become duller, to the point in which only darkness would take all over you completely.

The other witches were around you as well, Jennifer was next to Lilia, watching you with a worried expression on her face, Alice was next to you on the tree trunk as well, her hands in her pockets but with her eyebrows furrowed, she didn´t know what to say to try and make you feel better, she knew that what had happened was a touchy subject for you, and she was afraid she could make things worse, or even make you cry again, Alice was happy at least that you had seemed to stop crying, but you still had that lost look on your face, just staring at the floor, your head on Lilia´s shoulder and completely quiet, not even moving, she looked at the teenager who was sitting on the ground with his legs crossed, looking at the ground, he didn´t know what t say, because just as Alice, he didn´t want to make things worse for you.

“What if Agatha doesn´t come back?” You suddenly asked out loud, feeling your heart shrinking at the thought of Rio coming back without Agatha, coming back to announce that Agatha had decided to finish the road alone and that simple thought made your heart ache in so much pain.

Lilia sighed deeply and separated a little from you, you only kept looking at the leaves on the ground and Lilia gently placed her hand on your chin to lift your face to make you look at her.

“Oh sweet girl, your mind is playing awful tricks to you, I understand the deep pain you are feeling right now, but trust me when I say, that witch, is completely in love with you, she is so smitten by you, trust me when I say, we have heard so much about her, we have got to see the way she just doesn´t care about anyone else, and we have never seen acting so caring about someone else, I can see the bond you two have, and I can assure you, that woman would not leave you, she would not let you finish this road alone, just as you right now, the hurt you feel right now, I can see Agatha carries her own burdens, something she has to come to terms, I know she only needs a little bit of time, and I know Rio is going to help her with that, she just needs a little bit of guidance, you will see” Lilia´s eyes were so bright, she transmitted you a peace you so much needed now, her words, just as Rio´s were making you feel at ease, her presence also made you feel relaxed and safe, and deep down, you felt her words were right, but even if she was right, the pain in your heart was still there.

“She´s right, if someone would have told me someone had tamed Agatha, I would have not believed it! But you have her wrapped around your finger, she makes everything to keep you safe” Jennifer said with a small smile, she had never thought a woman like Agatha would be so whipped, she was sure that whatever had happened to Agatha, or the reason why she had suddenly left, she would sorted it out with the help of Rio, and the two would come back, she was sure about that.

“You should have seen Agatha when I broke into their home, she was ready to fight me and tie me, she even pushed me out of the chair” The dark haired boy said with a slight chuckle, Agatha had been so wary of him because she didn´t want anything to happen to you, his comment made you smile a little, remembering how worried she had been about you.

“Oh my god! You broke into their house?” Alice asked him with her eyes wide, now she needed to know the full story.

“Yes, I mean, I told her I was sorry, but, now that I think, it was not the smartest idea” He commented while nodding slowly, it had been definitely not the best idea he had come up with.

“I am lucky she was the one who found me, because Agatha would have thrown me out of the window for sure” For the first time in what seemed like hours, you finally laughed, the heaviness in your heart leaving slowly, and the witches couldn´t help but smile as well, feeling a little bit relieved that you were coming back slowly.

“Yes, she would have done that” You said while lifting your face to look at him, Lilia smiled as well, seeing you laughing, even if it was just a little made her heart feel warm and her grip around you tightened a little, in a gentle way that it made you want to thank her for not letting you go and keep holding you, so you looked back at her to give her one big smile.

“Thank you” You said to her while looking straight into her eyes, and Lilia felt her eyes getting a little bit glossy, before she could say something to you, you turned your face to look at all of the witches sitting around you.

“Thank you, for being here with me” Your heart felt warm, the heaviness was almost completely gone, Alice, Jennifer and the dark-haired boy gave you a watery smile.

“You don´t have to thank us for anything sweet girl, we are a coven, we are not going to leave anyone behind, and certainly not you, we are going to make sure you are fine, and we are going to make it to the end, alright? No matter what” Lilia´s words made you feel face, her words gave you the security you needed to feel at the moment, you nodded and smiled at her again, you felt your eyes getting glossy again, but this time, it was not because you were hurt or in pain, it was because your heart filled with warmth and love, you had never had a coven, you had been a coven-less witch, being on your own until you met Agatha, but having this, a coven, and being told you were part of them, it made you feel happiness, a sense of belonging you had never felt, and you felt grateful for that.

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Rio and Agatha were walking slowly next to each other, their steps being careful, trying not to make too much noise while stepping on the leaves scattered all over the ground, Agatha was feeling nervous, afraid, remembering your beautiful face full of pain, your eyes filled with tears, tears that she had made to fall from your beautiful eyes, she was feeling guilty, she got scared and she just needed time to think, to get her feelings and thought back in place, she hadn´t mean to hurt you on purpose, and she didn´t know if you were still crying, but one things she was sure of, she would make sure not to make you cry again because of her own fear, you didn´t deserve to be in pain because of her.

Agatha knew that what Rio had told her was right, she needed to come to terms with her own feelings, with her past in order not to affect you, in order not to hurt you, she needed to let you know the truth, even if it was too painful to even say Nicky´s name out loud, but she knew she needed to tell you everything.

When they got closer to the group of witches gathered around the tree trunk, they saw Lilia holding you close to her, a slight smile on your face, while listening to what the boy sitting on the ground was saying, Alice was talking as well and you seemed content being surrounded by all of them, Agatha could see how kind they were trying to be with you, how careful they were trying to act around you not to hurt you more, and she knew, Agatha knew, she would need to thank them for that, for treating with so much kindness and making you feel alright, for taking care of you while she had just left, while she had decided to fly away while you were in a vulnerable state, all of the witches were trying to cheer you up, Jennifer was listening attentively to what the dark-haired boy and Alice were telling, but just as Lilia, she would from time to time take a glance at you to make sure you were feeling fine, looking for any trace of discomfort while Lilia would caress slowly your arm up and down.

“She really likes being with them” Rio said suddenly while also looking at you from afar, Rio´s heart was feeling warm, she knew they witches would be able to take care of you while the two of them were not there with you, the blue-eyed witch knew she had to start being a little bit, just a little bit friendlier to them, just maybe she would thank them for being with you.

The closest they got to all of you, Agatha felt her heart bit faster with each step forward they took, the nervousness taking all over her, not wanting to see you cry again because of her, she didn´t have time to think what she would say to you, or how she would say sorry because, before she could actually come up with something, the two of them were already in front of the group, the witches´ laughter and words started to decrease slowly until there was only quietness surrounding all of you.

 Rio waited for Agatha to talk to you first, she knew Agatha needed to take the first step, you still felt a little bit wounded for having being left alone by Agatha, so you just started at the ground, not daring to look at the two witches who were standing in front of all of you.

Agatha cleared her throat and after some seconds that seemed to be so long like hours passing, she finally got the courage to talk directly at you, she stretched her hand out for you showing you that you could take her hand.

“Can we please talk, doll?” The pet name made your face get warm, she definitely knew that you always loved to be called like that by her, and even if you still were hurt, you couldn´t say no to her, so you just nodded and Lilia encouraged you slightly giving you a gently push to stand up and take Agatha´s hand, you took the soft hand that the blue-eyed witch was offering to you, and Agatha felt her heart skipping a beat, the nervousness started to dissipate, and a little bit of confidence started to invade her body, Rio placed her hand on your waist and the two witches that had come for you looked at the group of witches sitting on the tree trunk and at the boy as well who was still on the ground, the two of them nodded at the witches letting them know they were grateful to have been there for you, and all of the witches gave them a smile, they knew that after the three of you talked, they would be able to continue walking down the road and finish it, they felt all of them would make it to the end, and now, their goal as well, was to help you make it to the end and make sure nothing happened to you or the baby who was growing inside of you.

The group saw Agatha and Rio guiding you slowly towards they had disappeared before, sighing deeply they knew that once the three of you came back, you would have a smile on your face as well as Rio and Agatha.

“Do you think Agatha would let us gift them clothes for the baby?” The teen suddenly asked out loud and the witches started to think about his question.

“I don´t know, you would have to ask her, you are the one who she seems to like a little bit more than all of us” Alice said to him with a curious look on her face.

“What do you mean? She was going to let me sleep on the floor because I broke into her house, if someone could ask her without having consequences of being made fun of, would be Lilia for sure” Alice, the teenager and Jennifer turned their face to look at the Sicilian witch who had her left eyebrow raised, she seemed to be deep in thought and after some seconds she nodded agreeing to what the teen had said.

“Maybe we could ask her when we get out of here first” All of them nodded and the teen couldn´t hide his excitement, he was sure all of you would make it to the end, and then, he would be able ask you so many questions he had in his mind, right now, they only needed to wait for you to continue.

Meanwhile, Agatha and Rio took you to the same place where Rio had found the blue-eyed witch in the middle of the misty forest on the road, Agatha´s hand was still holding yours, and caressing the back of your hand from time to time, while she turned her face to look at your expression, you hadn´t lifted your eyes from the ground and the guilt it was eating her from the inside, Rio never let go of your waist, she tried to be as close as possible to you, until Agatha suddenly stopped and turned herself around to look at you properly.

“Doll, I am so sorry, I-, I shouldn´t have left like that, I made you cry, I made you feel distressed, I am so sorry, please, I didn´t want to make you cry” Agatha had started to cry, the tears were falling down her eyes, her beautiful baby blue eyes were covered in hot tears and it made your heart hurt, it was so rare to see her cry, she never cried and it only made you feel the need to hold her tightly and wipe the tears off her face, so with your right hand you brought your fingers to gently wiped the tears off her face and Agatha´s heart melted at the gesture, she placed her left hand on yours and brought it to her lips to press a soft kiss to the back of your hand.

“Please forgive me for making you cry, I was scared, I am still scared, I had so many emotions in me, so many thoughts that made me walk away from you, that made me leave you there, and I feel so bad for what I did, I shouldn´t have left you standing there, I was scared, I am still terrified, because I don´t want to lose you… I don´t want to lose you or the baby, I am so scared doll” Agatha´s words made you cry again, her words hitting you hard, and listening to her talk about the life growing inside of you, the baby inside of you, it melted your heart, her words filled you with happiness and so much love, so you hugged her, you passed your arms around her shoulders and she instinctively placed her hands on your waist, pulling you impossibly closer to her.

“I don´t want to lose you, you are the one that I love the most, and it makes me happy to know that we created another life, but there is something I have not told you, and it is the reason of why I am so scared, I want to be honest and tell you everything” Her voice so close to your ear and the way she sounded so serious made you realize that it was something really important, you just nodded against her and separated from her to look at her with your eyebrows furrowed, Agatha thought how sweet you looked with that serious expression on your face, she took a deep breath and looked at Rio to nod at her to let her know she could come near the two of you.

Rio came behind you and slowly took your right hand in hers, while Agatha took your left hand, they guided you to a spot in the ground, where the leaves seem to be greener, Agatha quickly took her coat off and placed it on the ground, only to guide you to sit on it, which only made your face become red because of her gesture, while Rio playfully shook her head, the two of them sat in front of you and each one of them took one of your hands.

You saw the way Agatha´s shoulders tensed for a second before she took a deep breath, Rio looked at her with a sad expression on her face, her brown-eyes full of concern, so you just waited until Agatha felt ready to tell you what she wanted to say, giving her a squeeze to her hand to encourage her and help her feel alright.

“Centuries ago, when I killed my coven, I wandered off, studying and gaining knowledge, stealing power from other witches, and then, I met her” Agatha stopped talking and turned her face to the side to look at Rio, who suddenly just stared at the ground, not wanting to look at Agatha.

“We, we fell in love, I knew who she was, I had seen her from time to time when she arrived to take the souls of those whom I have killed, but we fell for the other, we started to saw each other from time to time, she would appear out of nowhere in the forest, but as the time passed more and more, we started to see each other more and more, then, just like you, I got pregnant” You gasped in shock at what she had said, and Agatha chuckled a little bit, her breathing becoming faster, her hands started to tremble slightly and your hold in her hand became stronger.

“Nicholas was his name” Agatha´s voice had become shaky, the tears started to fall down her face more and more, and even if you had wanted to hold her or say something to her, you knew you needed to let her finish.

“He was the sweetest boy, calling me mom, following me all the time around, going behind Rio and following her when she needed to go, she would always take him by his tiny hand and bring him back to me telling him he needed to stay with me until she came back” You turned to Rio to look at her, her sad look, still staring at the ground, not daring to look at you or at Agatha, crying silently on her spot, you gave a squeeze to her hand to try and comfort her somehow.

“I knew he was supposed to have been taken away since he hadn´t even been born, but Rio granted us time, she gave us time, she gave me time with Nicky, the three of us, we were so happy, a family, time running I knew, with each passing year I knew our time would come to an end, I knew he was sick, I couldn´t heal him, no one could, and I knew our time with him would come to an end sooner or later, but I tried to be with him as much as possible I tried, I did everything I could, until his time came” Agatha couldn´t keep herself together anymore, her free hand was covering her mouth, tears streaming down her face, her eyes closed and Rio was crying as well, so silently you were afraid she would choke on her own tears for not allowing herself to cry properly, you wanted to comfort the two of them, you knew and you were sure that it had been too hard for Rio to take her son with her, that was the reason of her pain, of the sorrow and pain that she carried with her, and knowing the reason behind Agatha and her separating ways, broke your heart apart, why had life been so cruel to them? You would have loved to tell the two of them that you understood, but actually you had no idea how you would react if something like that happened to you, with any one of the two of them, how would you take it? Would you even be able to stand something like that?

“That is why I am so scared, I don´t want to lose you, or the baby we are just expecting,  I don´t want to pass through that again, I know I shouldn´t have brought you here with us, but we are here now, and I want to make sure you are safe, but without my powers I am so useless, I will not be able to protect you from anything” Agatha´s voice sounded so broken, and for the first time you didn´t know how to comfort her, Rio pressed her hand on Agatha´s shoulder and you looked at the brown-eyed woman, your could feel the pain coming out of her, and god, how much you wished you could just take the pain away from the two of them.

“I will make sure nothing happens to her, this time, things will be different, nothing will happen to you, or to her, and I can assure you, the baby will be just fine” Her beautiful voice filled your heart with warmth, she was assuring Agatha nothing would happen to you, her brown eyes wandering from Agatha to you, and you only smiled at her, Agatha quickly lifted her head to look at Rio, giving her a big smile, making you and Rio smile back at her, you knew, they still had to talk, and the three of you needed to talk more, regarding how this relationship would develop, but you knew, you would have more time when you get out of the road, in Agatha´s house, you knew, you would be talking about the three of you when all of you make it safe out of the road.

“Thank you for letting me know about this, I can only imagine the pain and sorrow you have been carrying alone for so many centuries and I know I won´t be able to take it all away, even if I want to, I know I won´t be able to take all the pain away, but I want to be there with you, with the two of you, I want to be there for the two of you” The way Rio and Agatha were looking at you with gentle smiles on their faces, the brightness in their eyes let you know they liked the idea, Agatha´s heart started to feel the heaviness and sorrow becoming a little bit more manageable, after telling you what she had been hiding for centuries, what she had been hiding for years from you, she could feel a heaviness going slowly away from her shoulders, she was sure with you, knowing this and having you by her side she would be able to keep on carry on, to start a new phase in her life, along with Rio as well.

Rio could feel the sadness in her heart slowly decreasing, she and Agatha knew Nicky would always be a part of their hearts and they would never be able to forget him, but the memory of the beloved Nicky had started to become less painful, she knew that with time and with your help the two of them would be able to talk about Nicky and remember him without feeling that immense amount of pain, and they would be able to remember him with the love they had for him and the love the two of them used to share, it would be a long path for the two of them, to come to terms with their past and with each other, but Rio knew, that with you there, with your help, with your kind smile and caring nature, they would be able to do it, in the end, they wanted the same thing, and it was to keep on loving you.

You threw yourself to them, passing your arms around their shoulders, taking them by surprise, but after some seconds of taking you in ther arms, they quickly pressed ther hands on your body, Agatha and Rio´s hands touched when they hugged you as well, but they didn´t mind, for the first time in so many centuries, they felt comfortable enough to be touching the other again, thanks to you, they knew they would be able to be in peace, to get to talk to each other again without fighting, but first, they needed to get you safe to the end and take you back home, they knew they still have a lot to talk, the two of them and also they would have so many talks with you as well, but they would do it later, after getting out of this place, right now, they wanted to enjoy the feeling of you being on their arms, having you close to them, and they were not going to let you go, they were not going to risk losing you.

After some more hugs and sweet words from them to you, you realized it was time to go back to your coven, to continue walking to make it to the end alive, with the two of them, the woman whose brown eyes seemed to be so sad all the time, and the woman with the blue piercing eyes who always was so confident and always knew what to say, you were for sure lucky to have the two of them, and one more thing, was that you finally had your coven, finally you felt like you could have a family, and it made your heart fill with happiness.

“We have to go back to our coven” You said to Agatha and Rio, a smile grew instantly on their faces and nodded at the same time.

“Our coven” Repeated Agatha, it felt nice, Agatha thought, to have a coven after so many centuries, and she felt happy that you also got to be part of it, without you her coven would be incomplete, Agatha then looked at Rio who was looking at you with such a loving expression on her face, she was sure that Rio´s love for you was as intense as her own love for you, and knowing that, made her realize that you would always have as much love from the two of them as you needed, she knew that the three of you would come to build something beautiful, between Rio and her, the missing piece was you, you were the only one who could make them stop fighting and work together, she knew Rio loved you deeply and she didn´t mind, her heart suddenly skipped a beat when she saw Rio´s eye slight up when you smiled at the brown-eyed woman, and this time, the feeling didn´t scare her at all.

The three of you started to walk back to where you had left your coven, Agatha was holding you by your waist, holding you close to her, while Rio was holding your hand, bringing it to her lips, leaving small kisses to the back of your hand.

Lilia was the first to notice you walking back to them, the three of you seemed to be more relaxed, your shoulders were not tense anymore, and your mood could be sensed from where you were walking, she sensed contentment, the same feeling Agatha and Rio were exuding, the three of you had smiles on your faces, and a strong bond could be sensed as well, she knew that from now on, no one would be able to separate you, and it made Lilia´s heart filled with contentment, that was how love seem like.

The witches saw you getting closer to them, and a smile plastered on their faces, they still knew that they needed to finish the road, and the fear of the left trials was still there, not knowing what the trials would make them face, but they knew and they were sure, that all of you would make it to the end, safe and sound.

｡˚ ︶︶✩���︶ ₊ ˚ ︶︶✩

“We are back” The teen, or now that you knew his name, and knew who he was, Billy said out loud, after the last door had finally opened and the bright light had almost left them blind, all of you managed to get out of the last trial safe and sound, after all of your eyes got used to the light of the sunny landscape in front of you, you were surprised, seeing Agatha´s backyard again was something you had not been waiting, but it only meant one thing, you had gotten out of the road, safe, all of you had made it back! All of your coven had made it out of the road, all of you were safe!

“It looks like we finished the road, no one was left behind” Billy said again with a smile on his face, Agatha had one of her hands on your waist, holding you tightly while Rio had her arm around your shoulder, her hold around you being gentle and caring, the two of them were at your sides, and you enjoyed feeling them this close to you, you were sure this would be how things were going to be from now on, and you loved it.

You still couldn´t believe how all of you managed to get out of the road, the whole coven was made it out safe, Lilia had been able to get control of her powers, she felt in control, because she was in control, you still were surprised how Jennifer had got her magic back, complimenting her about the nice pink that her powers were, the same tone of her pink dress, which made her give you a big smile, she felt like a complete new woman, you knew Billy was going to stuck for a while asking so many questions to Agatha, but you also knew he had the goal of finding his brother, and he would do it without problems you knew it very well, being the son of the Scarlet Witch made him too powerful, but he was still a teen, he needed to control his emotions as well, and you knew he would be able to do it.

Alice had broken her generational curse, she felt so much better without that weight on her shoulders, she had a different view of life, she felt like she could do anything she wanted, she felt free for once in her life, she felt powerful, and she knew, she would do anything she wanted from now on, not having to worry about things going south.

Your beloved blue-eyed witch had got her powers back, she felt complete again, having her “purple” back made her feel powerful again, and having got you out of the road safe and sound made her feel a lot better, having you close to her was the best feeling, and the baby you two were expecting, that also made her feel excited, the fear and overwhelming feeling of being on the road where anything could go wrong had gone away, finally she felt as if she could think clearly, as if she could feel a lot more, she could feel peace, her heart was not covered in fear, the sorrow of he first son Nicky and the pain would always be there within her, but she knew that with you and Rio, she would be able to learn how to cope with it, she knew this was her gift, this was the life she had wanted, it was her chance to have a family of her own and she would make sure this time it would last longer, a lot more, she would make sure to be with you all the time, and she knew Rio felt the same when it came to you.

You still were curious about what Agatha and Rio talked about when the two of them disappeared, but whatever they had talked, it had helped Agatha a lot, and you were grateful with Rio, you were not sure what type of conversation they had, but it seemed that it had helped the two to of them, and it made you happy knowing that Agatha and Rio finally seemed to be comfortable being near each other.

You saw Billy going to the middle of the backyard and he went to lay down on it, Alice, Jennifer and Lilia went towards him, the three witches were looking at the sky, they seemed happy, relaxed that they had got from the road what they were missing, and you were beaming with joy that all of you had made it out alive, they were your family, all of them your coven, you could now start a new chapter in your life, with Rio and Agatha by your side you were sure you would be able to have everything you always wanted, and the life growing inside of you also made you feel excited, You were sure Rio and Agatha would be amazing mothers, and even if you were a little bit scared, you were sure that whatever would come regarding the baby, Agatha and Rio would be there for you to make sure you were fine.

“We´re fine” You commented out loud, just for Agatha and Rio to hear, and they nodded with a smile on their faces, Agatha´s right hand was still on your waist, giving you a soft squeeze, while Rio had her arm around your shoulders, caressing your arm up and down with soothing movements, the two of them felt happy, genuinely happy, Rio could tell that the sadness that she had been carrying with her started to become more manageable, and she was happy she would get to be part of your life as well with Agatha, she wouldn´t miss this chance, she was not going to let you go, yes, the road had been messy, scary, terrifying, but in the end, it seemed that it had given her what she had wished for, as well as Agatha, now, Rio and Agatha would get a second chance to form a family again, to get to experience everything again, Nicky´s memory would always be with them, but they also knew they couldn´t let the pain consume them again, not with you by their sides, and Agatha and Rio knew that you would be there for them, when the darkest thoughts would take completely over them, they were sure that with your light, caring nature and love, you would be able to get them back to you, because that what they needed and wanted, was to be with you, and they would make sure that nothing would happen to you, ever, this time, they would make sure not to commit the same past mistakes, they had two lives to care for from now on, and they would make sure that everything would work completely fine.

That was what Agatha and Rio needed, their own little family, their own space, for sure, they still needed to talk more, about what happened, about how things would develop from now on, but the love they have for you was enough to make them feel they would be able to sort everything from now on, and they loved the way you smiled at the witches talking between them on Agatha´s backyard, they knew it would be amazing people around you and the baby, Agatha would make sure to have an eye on them, just to make sure she was keeping you safe, in the end, the road had given them what they needed, to all of them, a coven, a family, and you couldn´t be more excited to see how things would go from now on, you felt so lucky for having two amazing women loving you with so much intensity, and a whole new coven, a whole family to take care of you and to look after each other.

[achromatophoric]

Bianca: Hey Addams, can you give us a hand with the fencing gear?

Wednesday: Perhaps. Just one?

Bianca: *frowns* No, two.

Wednesday: I am in possession of more.

Bianca: What— Oh. Sure, Thing can help.

Wednesday: Thing is not on offer, but I have five on hand, so to speak. Any more will necessitate several hours and the cover of nightfall.

Bianca: The shit are you even talking about? If you got Enid, then you’d only have four—

The siren cuts off when Wednesday opens her trench coat to display several objects hanging from the lining.

Wednesday: Three rights and two lefts, unmatched. Take your pick.

Bianca: OH MY Grlghk! *bends over and retches*

Enid: *walks up and stands next to Wednesday*

Wednesday: *closes coat and puts an arm around Enid’s waist*

Bianca: *still retching*

Enid: Huh. So that’s why you’ve been carrying those around.

Wednesday: 😏

Bianca: 🤮

[tossawary]

Recent "Star Trek" reboot universes have really tried to sell me on three different romances for Spock with other TOS characters whom he did not have romantic relationships (at least not positive ones) with in TOS, which makes it particularly annoying when some fans try to squirm away from the idea of ST ever doing a future reboot or remake in which Spock/Kirk are explicitly queer.

Like, "But it's not in the original! They want to be faithful to the original!" really, REALLY does not pass the "I think you might just be discomforted by queerness and you should work on that, rather than making appeals to the authority of textual accuracy to avoid being called a homophobe or transphobe" check here. Because it's not as though these reboots care about perfect faithfulness on pretty much any other front. We'll accept that the costumes and special effects get updated to move with the times, we'll accept wildly different characterization choices that essentially give these characters new personalities, we'll accept new timelines that change the entire political map of the galaxy, but you as a fan draw the line at "What if this character was bisexual this time?" Really???

To be clear, I am not trying to dunk on Spock/Uhura, Spock/Chapel, or Spock/T'Pring here, I am merely trying to illustrate a frustrating double-standard. TOS Uhura does notably flirt with Spock several times! I see it! I remember TOS Chapel's feelings for Spock being one-sided, but I also don't think it's a bad thing to try to update TOS's more misogynistic writing choices regarding female characters. TOS T'Pring did... kind of try to kill Spock because she didn't want to marry him, but again, I don't necessarily think it's immediately a bad thing to try to explore her as a character and her betrothal to Spock. It's fine! It's fine by me to explore new takes in new AUs.

It's just that none of that evidence from TOS for those relationships holds much of a candle to whatever the fuck Kirk and Spock had going on to inspire The Premise. "Amok Time" is an Experience. There's only so many times that Kirk can say something like, "The cost [of abandoning Spock] would have been my soul," before you want to put your face in your hands. They are taking shiny pebbles from TOS and trying their very best to sell them to me as the basis for romantic relationships in reboots, sure, while they are standing in the shadow of Spirk Evidence Mountain (TOS).

(Yes, I have seen the recent "Unification" short film. Yes, I enjoyed it. No, I will not consider Spirk "officially canon" until all plausible deniability for the squirmy folks has been completely, explicitly destroyed by a HUMAN kiss onscreen.)

And okay, I must admit, at the moment, I don't actually want Spirk to eventually happen in "Strange New Worlds" now that they've finally met. I'm mostly indifferent to their Spock and Kirk actors, personally, and the writing for every canonical romantic relationship in both SNW and "Discovery" so far has gotten a solid "well, they certainly are standing next to each other" from me. (Yes, even the gay marriage in "Discovery". I just haven't been into it so far.) I think the writers would fumble Spirk if they tried it in this specific show and then annoying fans would use the fumble as "evidence" never to try to do Spirk or queer retakes on other TOS characters ever again, or as "proof" against other queer ST in other shows characters generally.

I'm mostly just mildly annoyed that I have to keep watching Spock specifically, famously read by many people as a queer man, be straight and messy about it, especially when there has not really been a significant queer relationship onscreen in SNW yet, unless you count M'Benga's daughter Rukiya and her glow cloud friend named Debra, which I personally don't, honestly. I'd like an onscreen relationship with a main character with zero plausible deniability. There's definitely nothing yet that comes remotely close to the screentime that Spock/Chapel, Spock/T'Pring, and Kirk/La'an have all been given so far, unfortunately. (Sulu is not here yet. Scotty has just shown up. If Scotty gets to make out with a guy next season, or Uhura or Ortegas gets to make out with a lady, without it being part of some god-like-being's fantasy world, then I may be satisfied.) (Also, yes, I am aware of queer characters and relationships in other "Star Trek" shows, thanks. I very much enjoyed Mariner having her incredibly silly breakup with her girlfriend in "Lower Decks".)

"Star Trek" is one of those properties where some people's double-standards regarding romantic interpretations of the original series really jump out. "They can't do Kirk/Spock because they want to be faithful to the original!" Get real.

[cosmerelists]

Cosmere Villains: Ranked By How Much You Could Trust Them To Babysit Your Child

As requested by anon. :)

You need a babysitter for your kid, and for reasons unbeknownst to me, you can only entrust your child to a Cosmere villain. But fear not: this list will aid you by ranking how much you could trust said villains with your precious child.

[Big Spoilers for villain actions throughout! I'd steer clear of any characters from book series you haven't yet finished. However, there is nothing from Wind & Truth previews]

1. Taravangain [Stormlight]: Your child has...slightly better than even odds of being fine

Taravangian is one of the few villains who actually did order a group of children be put to death--remember when he was highly "intelligent" but the child choir was bugging him so he ordered that they all be killed? Not great credentials for a babysitter! On the other hand, his subordinates did talk him out of child murder, and presumably his subordinates would also be there with your child. So your kid probably wouldn't be executed by royal order!

...But I'd maybe stay away from Taravangian.

2. Miles [Mistborn Era 2]: Not the worst choice

If I remember Miles correctly (and I hope so, because I'm not really checking), he's the sort of villain who would have been one of the protagonists in Mistborn Era 1. I mean, his whole thing is that he wants to do what's right and stand up for the downtrodden through loads of murder, which--good resume for Kelsier's crew, am I right? I think your child would probably be fine--seems pretty safe to be strapped in a baby harness against the chest of an unkillable dude. Let's just hope he's not being fired upon by like seventy constables while babysitting.

...Maybe ask him to stay in your house for the job.

3. Hrathen [Elantris]: Are you willing to convert?

I believe Hrathen would actually take very good care of your child. He's a competent guy and doesn't want to cause any harm for harm's sake. On the other hand, you probably won't be paying him money--rather, I'm guessing he's gonna ask you to convert before he'll agree to watch your child.

So: Pros: You child is safe and healthy. Cons: You're a follower of Jaddeth now.

4. Crow [Tress of the Emerald Sea]: Not worth the price

The moment Crow has your kid, she's 100% blackmailing you into committing murder. That's just her MO. You're better off paying your neighbor kid $20 at that point.

5. The Sorceress [Tress of the Emerald Sea]: Uh...her literal thing is kidnapping

Come on, the Sorceress only knows how to do three things: kidnap people, curse people, and build hugely phallic rocket ships disguised as towers. I'm assuming you don't want your child to be kidnapped, cursed, or taught that all tall buildings should be inherently phallic. I'd steer clear of the Sorceress.

6. Odium, original vessel [Stormlight]: Pretty good choice!

What's promising about original-flavor Odium is that he likes to make agreements and will not only keep that agreement but also adhere to its spirit. All you need to do is get Odium to agree to keep your child safe, and Odium will do that!

Now, will Odium ask for something in return? Naturally. Will it be more than a cool $20? Yeah. And will your child be returned to you spouting some nonsense about how they must abandon all negative passions and become unchained? Well, yeah, but they're five. You can probably distract them with some Boo's Clues and they'll forget all about Odium's brainwashing.

All in all, not a terrible choice!

7. Odium, [spoiler-y] vessel [Stormlight]: Well...are you a really good lawyer?

Odium as represented by his new vessel will also keep to the babysitting contract--exactly as written and no further, loopholes fully exploited. So unless you can write an ironclad babysitting contract, you may return to find that sure, your child is physically safe, but they're now the face of a shady baby food company being used to smuggle exotic car parts across state lines. And nobody wants that.

8. Denth & Tonk Fah [Warbreaker]: Take them at their word

Denth & Tonk Fah will definitely tell you that, as mercenaries, they can't be trusted with a small child. Denth will say this in such an offhanded and charming way that you will definitely feel compelled to tell them, "Don't be silly! I know my child will be safe with you two."

Don't do it. Your child will NOT be safe.

Keep looking.

9. Telsin [Mistborn Era 2]: Not a great idea

Best-case scenario, being a good babysitter is somehow an important skill to Autonomy, in which case Telsin will in fact give it her all. You'll come back from your dinner & movie to find that your baby has a Harvard PhD and is mayor of a small town.

But more likely than not, if Telsin wants to watch your child, then she has nefarious plans that involve murder and world domination, and that's probably not the future you want for junior.

10. Straff [Mistborn Era 1]: No

Hahahahaha no.

Just no.

11. Lord Ruler [Mistborn Era 1]: Will immediately hand your kid off to his subordinates

The Lord Ruler is not gonna babysit your kid. He's gonna hand that child off immediately to his subordinates, the obligators. Your best-case is that the obligators also hand your child off to their subordinates, all the way down until your child ends up with a skaa servant who actually has some semblance of human love still in their heart. Worst-case, you find your child sitting on a dusty floor playing with spikes you hope are just rusty.

I'd recommend choosing a different babysitter.

12. Moash [Stormlight]: Not worth the risk

It's not like Moash is just evil for evil's sake or anything, but we know he doesn't have an issue killing innocents (RIP Teft) and he is currently trying to suppress his conscience wholesale. Now, if your child cannot be used in any schemes, I don't think Moash will hurt them for no reason. But if they CAN be used for schemes, then your child might be dropped off a tall tower to distract Kaladin or something. Best-case scenario, your child is returned to you safe & sound but has been given an Evil Baby Makeover (exactly the same outfit as before but it's black now).

I just don't think its worth the risk.

...Evil Baby Makeover might be kinda cute, though.

[freakyformula]

pleaseeeee the honeymooners with lewis were soooo good 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 you wrote him beautifully 😩😩😩 write more for him please im begging you

Since you asked very nicely, I will oblige <333

Saviour

Summary: You were supposed to walk home when you ran into a group of men. When Lewis sees what they do to you he can't let it slip.

A/N: Part two, anyone?

Warnings: Sexual assault, fluff, Lewis being a sweetheart (is that even a warning?!)

Word count:

Now, where do I start?

I was on my way home from a friend's house late one night, it must have been past midnight, me and my friend had a lot to catch up on and time slipped through our fingers. The night was uncommonly calm for a Saturday night in Monaco. I was slightly drunk, me and my friend had a couple of glasses of wine earlier, but I was still able to find my way home, or so I thought.

As I slowly walk along the streets of Monte Carlo, running into a few tourists here and there, them being way more intoxicated than me, at least they acted like it, smashing bottles into the sidewalk and talking loudly, I come to a stop at a red light.

I look around, there's not a single soul in sight. The only thing I hear is the familiar clicking sound of the traffic light. The air was chilly, I certainly wasn't dressed for the night with my short dress and blazer.

I click my high heels as I wait for what feels like forever for the light to change. I look around, but there's not a car in sight, what the hell am I waiting for?

As the light changed to green, thank fuck; I was freezing, I start walking along a small street filled with small artisan ice cream shops, cafées, and vendors. This street was usually filled with people, drinking their sangrias, mingling, and laughing, but now, I was the only one walking along it.

I can almost see my apartment building when I hear a whistle behind me, making me freeze in my tracks. I slowly turn around, only to see three of the drunk men I'd run into before.

"Where do you think you're going, loca?" One of the Spaniards asks. "We don't bite, you know." Another one chips in.

"I'm sorry, gentlemen, but I'd really want to get home now." I try to argue but to no avail. The men walk behind me, catching up quicker than I can react. I would run, but my high heels won't let me, and the wine certainly doesn't help either. "Stop, we just want to talk to you!" The third man yells.

When I feel a hand on my shoulder, I turn to see the three men looking over me with hungry eyes. They're conversing in what I only can assume is Spanish. They smell like alcohol and tobacco, all of them standing almost slumped over on each other. I was sure I could outrun all of them if I wanted to, do I take the chance before this situation escalates? My body fails me, and I can't move an inch.

The grip on my shoulder tightens, and one of the men, the one in the middle, grasps my hand. "Don't worry, we will take care of you..." He whispers as the man to my left moves behind me, sandwiching me between him and the man holding my hand while the third man seems to keep watch for any witnesses to their actions. Their hands wander, and I'm ready to barf on them all. I'm revolted.

I go berserk when their hands land on my breasts. I scream, I kick, I do everything in my power to get out of their creeping hands.

"Shut up!" The men try to shush me and the one in front of me places his disgusting hand over my mouth with an annoyed expression on his face. "Naughty girl." He whispers. "And naughty girls deserve to be punished."

And with that; a blow to the side of my face, and I'm on the ground, gasping for air. The pain rapidly spreads to my head, and my hand flies up to protect it from any more damage. The iron taste in my mouth makes me cringe, and I look up at my assailants.

The men, chuckling and talking in their mother tongue, lean over me. "Come on, it wasn't that bad." One of them laughs, grabbing my arm and pulling me onto my knees.

I'm dizzy, and it feels like I'm going to be sick any second. Together, the men get me onto my feet. "Now, where were we?" One of the men whispers next to my ear, lips brushing against my neck. I feel disgust bubbling in my stomach.

"What do you say, she's got a nice ass huh?" The men discuss my body as if I'm not there. When I feel a slap on my buttock, I flinch, but I don't have the strength to fight their touches. I shut my eyes and disappeared somewhere else, somewhere far away. I feel one of them slipping his hand under my dress, but I'm frozen. I can't move, talk, or fight. I just let it happen. When the men pull my dress off, my hands fly up to cover myself.

"What the fuck is going on?!" I hear a distant voice yell, followed by barking.

Then, everything stops. No lingering touches, no whispers in my ear, nothing.

I couldn't believe it. I'm suddenly ten times lighter. Am I in heaven? I thought to myself.

"Hey hey, it's okay. You're safe." I heard someone say, it sounded like they were miles away, but I could feel their touch on your arm.

That voice. Surely I've ascended to heaven, but I didn't dare to have a peek.

"Are you okay, miss? Do you need an ambulance?" The voice asks.

I collapse on the hard stone pavement when I realise that the voice isn't one of the men. I felt the voice grabbing me violently as I was about to hit my head on the ground.

My head is slumped and my eyes are shut, still in that lovely place in my head that I adore so much. "Gosh, you're trembling!" The voice exclaims, and I feel something hot and heavy on my shoulders, something that feels like a coat.

"Please, talk to me." The voice asks of me while I feel his hands on my arms, rubbing them to keep me warm. The voice is soothing and angelic.

I feel myself coming back, my imaginary world slipping away from me no matter how hard I try to grasp it. When I feel someone licking my face, I'm abruptly thrown back into the real world. The owner of the tongue is small and certainly has a very large and wet tongue. The sensation makes me chuckle, I must say, and I dare to open my eyes just enough to see the bulldog in front of me.

"Okay, Roscoe, that's enough." The kind man says as he tries to hold the dog off my face.

"They..." I start, still in shock, sitting with my arms crossed in hopes of protecting myself.

"I saw what they did, you don't need to tell me." The stranger says.

I reach out for the dog, which happily accepts my scratches. When I look up, I see him sitting on his knees before me. Never in my life had I seen a man that gorgeous. I'm stuck in his eyes as he chuckles. "Can you stand up? You'll get sick sitting on the ground like this. Here is your dress if you want to put it on." The man reaches for the tossed dress and waits for me to grab it. He offers his hand to help me on my feet again.

I hesitated to accept his hand, but eventually, I reached for him and pulled myself up. My legs are wobbly and I almost fall over again, but the man holds me up with his strong arms. "Shhh, you okay?" He whispers.

"Y-yeah." You reply.

"I'm Lewis, and you are?" He offers me a handshake.

"I'm Y/N." I say as I grab his hand. His handshake was powerful, and his larger hand swallowed my hand.

"I-I'm sorry, for this." I quickly follow up.

Lewis stops in his tracks and locks his eyes with mine. "Y/N, none of this is your fault. You know that right?"

"I know but-"

"No... No but's."

I shut my mouth upon hearing that and Lewis looks down at me with warmth.

"Come here, I'll carry you." Lewis says as he picks me up and starts walking with Roscoe in close tow. His musky cologne made my heart flutter, and the sensation made me blush which he surely noticed. His arms felt like home, for lack of a better word, and his smile made my heart skip a beat.

"Where are we going?" I ask.

"You'll see." Lewis quickly answers.

I lift my eyebrow, and he notices, followed by a sigh.

"Don't worry, we're going to my place. It's not far, I promise."

The thought of going to a stranger's place seemed stupid, but in my defence, I hit my head and blamed my lack of judgment on that.

As he carries me through the streets of Monaco, and we get to know each other, he smiles at me when we get to the topic of how we ended up in Monaco, of all places.

"Fate, really. I wasn't supposed to move here, but I was offered a job and took it without thinking it through." I explain.

Lewis is left silent and slows down as he processes my words.

"So... Now you're unhappy?" He asks.

"No. Not at all, I love it here, mostly anyway." I admit, and I give my head a rub, feeling a slight bump forming where I hit my head.

Lewis notices my change in mood, and stops. "You okay?" He asks, worry evident in his voice.

"Yeah, I think I hit my head harder than I first thought."

Lewis nods and speeds up his steps. "Let's get you something cold to put on that."

As we walk past one of the fancier apartment blocks, I audibly gasp at the cars parked outside. Lamborghini, Ferrari, Audi, Mercedes. "Why are we here?" I ask.

"Because this is where I live, Y/N."

What? This, is where he lived? I had so many questions. "Okay, Lewis, timeout! Let me down, please!" He does as I ask, the gentleman, despite his protests.

"Who are you?" I ask, expecting an honest answer.

"I'm Lewis Hamilton."

"Nice to meet you, Lewis Hamilton. Why do you bring me here?"

"This is where I live?" He says as if it's the most obvious thing in the universe.

"Okay... So, are you part of the mafia or something?" I chuckle, half joking.

Lewis lets out a laugh, and looks down at my smaller figure, "No, Y/N, I drive."

"Like taxis and stuff?" I ask, still not catching on.

Lewis blinks at me and continues. "No, I drive in Formula 1."

Now, I hadn't heard of his name before, but I definitely knew of Formula 1. Me and my family used to watch it when I was young. You know, the Schumacher vs Häkkinen era. I can feel my eyes becoming bigger and bigger as his words penetrate my mind.

"Formula 1?" I ask, needing confirmation.

"Formula 1." He nods.

"What the fuck, Lewis!" I can't help my heightened tone. "Why didn't you tell me before?"

Lewis's eyes are still glued on me; worry painted on his face, but still calm as a cucumber with his hand out in case I faint.

"Hello Florian, beautiful evening, is it not?" Lewis says to the doorman, as the man holds the door for us as we step inside the grand hall. I stop, just to take everything in, the marble floors, the handpainted paintings on the walls, and the huge crystal chandeliers.

"Come on, let's get you upstairs." Lewis says as he softly grabs my hand and leads me to the elevator. While we wait for it to come down, I bend down to scratch Roscoe, which he seems happy with as he leans into my touch. "He likes you." Lewis concludes and smiles at me as I look up at him. "He tends to be wary of strangers."

I hear a "ding" and the elevator doors open. Lewis leads me in with Roscoe following my footsteps, licking my bare leg as if he wants to comfort me.

"You okay?" He asks.

"Yes." I say, dragging out the "s". I smile at him to look more convincing, but in reality, it felt like I had been run over. I'm sure I looked a mess too, hence why he asked.

"Here we are." Lewis says and offers me his hand to take me to his entryway.

"I can walk just fine, you know that right?" I giggle.

"I don't take any risks." Lewis simply replies.

His keys clink as he pulls them out of his pocket and unlocks the door.

"Go ahead." He says as he ushers me into the hallway.

The smell of his apartment was expensive. I felt like I couldn't touch anything, as if I would contaminate the grandness of his space if I did. So I just stood there, like a proper fool.

"Please..." He chuckles. "Would you like something to drink? Perhaps some juice?"

I'm left in the hallway as Roscoe lazily walks in, and turns around to look at us. Lewis takes a few steps towards the kitchen and lends me his hand. "You're allowed to move, Y/N."

"I know, but..." I could feel myself blushing again. I felt so misplaced.

"Come on." He cheers me on, with a wide smile.

One step, two steps... My goal was his hand. After four steps, my hand landed in his, and he interlocked his fingers with mine.

I hadn't felt it before, surely because of the adrenaline, but now my body felt numb, and fatigue was quickly taking over.

When we make it out of the hallway, and into the main living room, that is connected to the kitchen, I can't help but gasp.

The room was spacious, and light. It seemed like the room was lit up even though it was in the middle of the night.

You weren't exactly surprised that a Formula 1 driver owned a penthouse, but in one of the fanciest districts in Monaco? This guy had to be really good.

"Lewis, which floor are we on?" I ask.

"We're on the top." He answers while he has his head in the fridge, looking for something for me to drink.

Sneaking forward on my tiptoes, I walk up to the huge window. "The view... Is phenomenal." I whisper to myself.

"Isn't it?" Lewis says, walking up from behind, with a glass of sparkling water in hand, making me smile and accepting the drink.

I take a sip and the water has a subtle taste of lemon. Refreshing. Lewis seems to take notice of how much I enjoy my drink and offers a refill.

As we stood at the window, looking over the Mediterranean sea, my eyes landed on something to our left. "Don't tell me you have a pool too?" I ask, feeling overwhelmed by how luxuriously this man lived.

"Of course." Lewis admits as he opens the doors to his terrace. "Come." He walks out, and the crisp air hits my skin as I walk out with him. I felt the cold cement against my sole when we walked further out towards the railing. There was a slight wind up here, but it wasn't chilly enough to make me cold, not with Lewis next to me.

As we are admiring the view, Roscoe walks out too, letting out a bark, demanding attention. Not from Lewis, but from me.

"Roscoe really likes you." Lewis says, rather flabbergasted, as he walks off. I follow his movements at the same time as I cuddle with Roscoe. His footsteps stop at the edge of the pool, and he turns around to face me, giving me a mischievous look, and jumps in with a loud "Woohoo!"

I slightly panic, thinking what the hell the man is up to, and Roscoe follows me to the edge, looking for him. The water was dark, and I couldn't see Lewis anywhere.

I bend over to see better and before I even get the chance to react, Lewis' hand is around mine, pulling me in with him. Roscoe is left at the edge, barking for us to come up to the surface again.

When I make it up above the water and gasp for air, Lewis laughs. "Sorry, I had to!" He says, holding his hands up in defeat.

I splash him with my hands, "I'm gonna kill you!" I giggle, before getting up. "You could've warned me, given me a chance to pull my dress off."

"There's no fun in that!" He says, him too climbing up.

We're both soaked and laughing at each other.

"How did we just meet? Feels like I've known you for longer than an hour." He asks.

His words silence me, not quite knowing what to answer. It was true, Lewis was fun, kind, and caring to me, and it felt like I had always known him.

"I-I don't know. Thank you, for saving me. I never thanked you."

"Don't worry about it, Y/N. Now, I'm sure you're tired..." He says as he walks up to me, grabbing my hand. "Would you like to spend the night?"

I was confused, what did his words mean, exactly? "What do you mean?"

"Oh... I didn't mean it like that. You can sleep in my bed and I'll take the sofa." He quickly chips in.

"Oh! Yeah, okay." I nod, sleeping over seemed like a good idea? Right?

"Let's get you something dry to wear, come on." Lewis says as he rubs your arms.

Your clothes are soaked and heavy when you walk up to his bedroom, and Lewis opens his walk in closet, inviting me inside too. "Tee and sweatpants? How does that sound to you?"

"Sounds perfect." I smile at him and look down when our gazes meet. When he hands over the outfit he put together, I look up at him, not sure of what to say. "Lewis... This is Gucci."

"Exactly." He says as he closes the closet doors, and that was the end of that discussion.

Lewis is left standing there, not quite sure of what to say or do next. "Would you like to take a shower, or?" He asks.

"I would like that." I admit, and with that, Lewis escorts me to his personal bathroom. "I-I'll leave you to it, feel free to come down if you need something."

I nod, and watch as Lewis leaves the bathroom and closes the door. The warm water hitting my body felt like heaven in contrast to the chilly water outside. I could really do with a warm hug right now, I think.

When I'm clean, thanks to his body scrubs and schampoos, I dress into his clothes, and hop into his bed. The sheets smell of him. I take an extra whiff before I get up again. As I walk down the stairs, I see Lewis lying on the sofa, cuddled up next to Roscoe.

"Lewis?" I whimper.

My call makes him instantly open his eyes and jump up from the sofa. "What's wrong, sweetheart?"

"Nothing, nothing... I just-" I start, not getting another word out before tears flood my eyes. "Oh, Y/N..." He whispers, and pulls me into his arms, hugging me tightly. We stay like that for, I don't know, 5 minutes? Him just holding me as I sob my heart out.

When we part, Lewis leads me to the sofa to sit down. "Talk to me, Y/N."

I couldn't find the words. No matter how hard I tried.

"I..." I started. "I was thinking of how badly things could have gone if you didn't save me." I look at him with an appreciative look.

"I know, trust me, I know. But things went well, and I'm here now. You're safe." He whispers in my ear. I close my eyes as he pulls me in again, and I end up essentially lying on top of him on his sofa.

When I open my eyes, I'm confused about waking up in a bed instead of a sofa. And there was no Lewis either, or Roscoe, for that matter.

I walk down the stairs, and as the Monaco sun hits my eyes, I see Lewis in the kitchen, at the stove. "Good morning, Y/N. Sleep well?" He asks as he turns a vegan pancake in the pan.

"Morning." I say as I walk up to him, stretching my body. "Slept like a baby."

"Good. Breakfast?" He asks with a grin and a wink.

[cocodotgreen]

Simynthos - (almost) cc-free

With all testing done I am happy to share with you the (almost) cc-free version of Simynthos today! I was actually surprised by how quickly it could be transformed, and I have to say I'm very happy with how it turned out!

For this version I removed all decorative cc. The only cc you now need for full functionality are the rabbit hole rugs. The lots are so small, there wouldn't have been nearly enough room for the in game rabbit holes. The rabbit hole rugs can be downloaded here.

I still recommend using the performance mods from the original post here, just to make things a little more smooth and enjoyable during gameplay. But they are not strictly necessary. You could also go completely vanilla (more on that below).

There are a couple of things to note:

Some of the double beds are placed against a wall and therefore only one sim can sleep in them now. You can replace them with the one sided beds for two sims, the ones I used in the original version, if you like. The mattresses by sketchbook pixels can be found here, and some nice custom bed frames from @aroundthesims can be found here.

I did make use of @omedapixel's S3DT (Sims 3 Decorator Tool) in two or three places, just to place decorative items on surfaces where they cannot be placed in a vanilla game. You do NOT need the mod for these items to stay in place, as long as you don't move them when redecorating. Then they may slip back into normal mode and you will only be able to place them back with the mod. But it's only in a couple of places, so even if that happens, it will not have a significant impact on your game.

Replacing some of the cc did result in some interactive items not being usable at first, but I hope I caught all of those cases during the (quite extensively 😉) play-testing. So now all interactive items should be usable. If you find any place where an item can't be reached by the sims, please notify me and I will update the world.

How does it run?

I have tested this version of Simynthos in two scenarios: With the routing optimization mods I recommended for the original version (that's the save all the screenshots are from 😉), but also in a completely vanilla game, playing just a small family with one child, and it actually ran pretty well on my gaming laptop, even without any routing improvement mods (my game is optimized though)! If you're going completely vanilla, it may get a bit annoying in some places though, with sims not being able to pass each other, and toddlers not being able to be put down on the ground due to lack of space. But if you do not want to use any mods at all, it would probably still be playable with a small household that doesn't host huge parties 😉

Thanks again to the creators who have made this world possible:

Thanks to @nilxis, the creator of „Sa Pineda“, for the beautiful base to this world. The island on which Simynthos was build is entirely their creation. I did not change the island itself or the terrain painting outside the lots (except for some places where I placed the walkways/paths). All credit for that goes to them! You can find the original version here. Also make sure to check out their other worlds, while you‘ re at it. They are some of my favorite worlds!

Thanks to @nornities for their extremely helpful CAW guide here. Unfortunately I only found this guide when Simynthos was almost finished. I could have avoided some of the mistakes I made, had I found it sooner!

Some of you may know, that I am not the first to make a Greek version of Sa Pineda. Back in 2016 Vendela created Simtorini. This super cute world has the typical blue and white houses another Greek island, Santorini, is famous for. Go check it out here.

Download Simynthos (almost) cc-free

Link to original post for Simynthos (version with cc)

[howlingday]

And I'm gonna save this ship!

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

Ren: And you're sure you want to go on this mission?

Jaune: It'll give me time to think about what to do next. Or maybe it'll distract me enough to not worry about it.

Ren: If you want, Jaune, I can ask Nora to-

Jaune: Ren, don't. You and Nora have two kids, and adding a fully grown one isn't going to make anyone feel better.

Ren: I never implied it would. I'm simply offering my home to the man who made it possible for me to have a home to begin with.

Jaune: I... I appreciate that, Ren, but I think I need to get things figured out.

Ren: ...You're hoping Weiss takes you back, aren't you?

Jaune: I... Maybe? She said some pretty awful things, Ren, I mean, I didn't exactly say anything nice, either, but-

Ren: You had a fight, Jaune. It's happened to all of us. Even Nora and I have our disagreements.

Jaune: Yeah, but you guys are perfect for each other. You guys literally grew up together.

Ren: And you and Weiss didn't spend any time together?

Jaune: ...

Ren: ...Let's focus on the mission. It'll be a long three weeks.

Jaune: Heh. I guess this is our first guy's night out in a while, huh?

Ren: Please don't break out the family photos this time...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ruby: Weiss? ...Weeeiss~?! (Pulls out key) Weiss, I'm using the key you gave me in case of an emergency! (Puts in) And this time, it's actually an emergency! Kinda... (Opens) Weiss?

Crick!

Ruby: (Notices broken glass) Weiss? (Crescent Rose wielded) Weiss? (Gasps) WEISS!

Weiss: Ruby... I fucked up...

Ruby: WEISS! (Checks her) Are you hurt? Who did this to you?!

Weiss: Ruby...

Ruby: You're covered in blood, but I don't see any wounds. Are they still in the room with you?!

Weiss: Ruby...

Ruby: Hang on, Bestie! I'll get Jaune and he'll-

Weiss: RUBY! (Shoves away) Fuck off!

Ruby: Huh?

Weiss: I'm... I'm not hurt. I'm just... I'm only a little drunk...

Ruby: But... the blood-

Weiss: It's WINE, Ruby... Wine and fine and dine and... and... and wine.

Ruby: But... I thought you hated drinking.

Weiss: I also hate Jaune! (Sniffles) Jaune...

Ruby: Did... Did you guys have a fight?

Weiss: We... He... We... Hrk!

Ruby: Oh no! (Carries Weiss) Keep it in until the toilet! KEEP IT IN UNTIL THE TOILET!

..................................................

Ruby: So, you and Jaune broke up because lien got bad?

Weiss: That's not really the issue, but yes, our income did play a role in our tete-a-tete.

Ruby: Your what?

Weiss: Our fight. He decided to take that long mission in my place, against our agreement.

Ruby: But... aren't you still healing?

Weiss: I'm fine.

Ruby: The doctor said-

Weiss: I'M FINE.

Ruby: ...But you're not. You had to stay off of missions for at least a week for your leg to heal.

Weiss: Well, my rent can't afford another week. And Jaune had already been on two missions, so I had to-

Ruby: Wait. If Jaune is going on that mission, doesn't that mean you should be relaxing?

Weiss: I don't relax. I am Weiss Schnee, and I-

Ruby: Drink until you're a mess on the floor?

Weiss: ...

Ruby: It's okay to ask for help, Weiss. I'd be more than happy to-

Weiss: No. I don't need yours or anyone else's help.

Ruby: Weiss...

Ruby: That's so dumb.

Weiss: Excuse me?

Ruby: For as long as I've known you, you've always needed help! You needed help at Beacon. You needed help at Haven. You needed help at Atlas. Heck, you needed help just ten minutes ago!

Ruby: And it's okay to ask for help. It's not like anyone is going to think less of you if you do.

Weiss: ...Except me. I'm always going to think less of myself if I do.

Ruby: Okay, that's... a lot more complicated than what I was expecting.

Weiss: Because this is the real world, Ruby. I have bills to pay, mouths- Er, one mouth to feed now, and no amount of charity is going to change the fact that I couldn't keep my family together.

Ruby: Your family... of you and Jaune?

Weiss: ...

Ruby: Oh... Oh, this is...

Weiss: More complicated than you thought?

Ruby: WAAAY more complicated. This is a boba situation.

Weiss: Oh, right, you and your sister's code.

Ruby: You wanna use it? I won't charge you anything!

Weiss: Another charity?

Ruby: More like... a gift. From your bestest bestie better than the restie~!

Weiss: I'm not calling you that.

Weiss: But... I think I will come up with something similar to boba, thanks.

Ruby: How about... uh... Honestly, all I can see is broken glass on the floor.

Weiss: Hm...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ren: So... Have you thought about it?

Jaune: I haven't stopped thinking about it.

Ren: Did you come up with a plan?

Jaune: I'll give Saph a call. I hope she doesn't mind me taking the guest room again.

Ren: She hasn't before, right?

Jaune: No, but... I was thinking about what Weiss said. I know Saph is always going to be there for me, but I shouldn't be relying on her so much. If I can't eat, then I'll just go hungry.

Ren: Or you can ask Nora and I. We have plenty of leftovers.

Jaune: Yeah, but your kids-

Ren: Shouldn't be foraging the fridge like raccoons past their bedtime.

Jaune: Heh heh... Who do you think they got that from?

Ren: I hope you're not impying my wife taught them how.

Jaune: Oh, of course not, Ren! Especially since I don't need to imply anything when she told me herself.

Ren: Heh heh heh... That does sound like her. And speaking women in our lives.

Jaune: Ren, I appreciate it, but I'm fine. I'll... I'll talk to Weiss and see if we can salvage what little of our friendship might be left. I still love her, but if she doesn't want, or in her words, "need" me in her life, then I'll stay out of it if that's how she feels.

Ren: ...I think I have an idea of how she feels.

Jaune: Huh?

Nora: YOOHOO~! BOYS~!

Kids: DADDY~!

Weiss: ...

Ren: (Hugs kids) Have you been good to your mommy?

Nora: You kidding? Every day, it's been, "When's Daddy coming home?" and "I miss Daddy!"

Ren: Was that them or you, Nora?

Nora: Heeheehee... You know me too well~!

Jaune: ...

Weiss: ...

Ren: ...Let's head home. I've been eating nothing but rations for weeks.

Nora: Yeah, me too.

Ren: Huh? What is that supposed to mean? (Leaves)

Jaune: Wei-

Weiss: I was wrong.

Jaune: !

Weiss: I was stubborn and... selfish and... angry and... just... horrible to you. So, if you don't want to be anywhere near me anymore, then I won't force you into anything. I just... hope we can still be friends.

Jaune: ...I'd like that.

Weiss: Here.

Jaune: ...Why are you giving this to me?

Weiss: Because it's your key.

Jaune: Yeah, but... I left.

Weiss: Yes. And now you're back. If you don't want it, then I'll give it to the landlord.

Jaune: ...

Jaune: I have spent... the last three weeks making plans to call Saph, or a hotel, or somebody in town who can give me a shower and a bed for the night in exchange for favors and you handing me this... It just feels... off. Like, one day, we're fighting and I leave after throwing you my keys, and the next, you're apologizing to me and handing me my key back.

Weiss: I suppose in the grand scheme of things, yes, that is what happened. However, more accurately, what happened is we had a fight, you left for three weeks, and I'm here to welcome you back and apologize for everything I said in our fight. You were trying to help and I shouldn't have brought her into this.

Jaune: To be fair, I brought your mother into this, too.

Weiss: That was... also something I had to process.

Jaune: I'm... sorry for bringing her up like that. Despite everything, I know she meant a lot to you.

Weiss: Thank you. And I'm sorry for bringing up Pyrrha like that.

Jaune: Thanks.

Weiss: ...

Jaune: ...

Jaune: So, uh... Is my shampoo still there, or did you sell that?

Weiss: Everything is the same as you left it. Save for a few pictures, missing from the shelf. I'm still trying to decide what new frames to use.

Jaune: New frames? You broke picture frames?

Weiss: No, you did when you left.

Jaune: But I didn't... Oh... Ah... Sorry about that.

Weiss: It's fine. Emotions got the better of ourselves then.

Jaune: I'll pay for-

Weiss: What you're paying for is rent and dinner. That's all you'll be using your lien for until further notice.

Jaune: ...Okay.

Weiss: ...Of course, if you have an idea for the frame, I'd gladly let you pick. Along with what underwear I'm going to wear.

Jaune: Alright, that's fair.

Jaune: ...

Jaune: WAIT, WHAT?!

A Quiet Home

Jaune:*walks in* Hey, I’m back.

Weiss:*writing*….

Jaune:I umm, got some food. Saph said she always makes too much so-

Weiss:You should’ve turned it down. Your nephew is a growing boy.

Jaune:She wouldn’t have offered if she couldn’t help. How’s rent looking?

Weiss:Despite my colossal fuck up on the mission, it’s covered.

Jaune:Hey, what’s important is-

Weiss:Jaune, don’t patronize me. I screwed up, got my leg hurt, got the client hurt, and lost the target. *puts pen down* Thankfully I found another high paying one. It’s a three weeks long and I’m-

Jaune:Actually…I put in a request to take that mission too. Client said he’ll think it over.

Weiss:*turns around* Excuse me? You’re taking my job line ups? You went in the last two missions. It’s my turn to-

Jaune:You need a break.

Weiss:Tsk, not this shit again. I just had a break!

Jaune:Crunching bill numbers is not a break. Weiss, your head isn’t in the game, and that’s fine. After all, your mom…

Weiss: “My mom” nothing we aren’t talking about this. There’s nothing to talk about. She lived drunk and died drunk. Predictable ending.

Jaune:Weiss-

Weiss:Give me space! And cancel your request while you’re at it. You’re in no condition to go on another assignment so quickly.

Jaune:…I’m not letting you go on that mission.

Weiss:Sorry, you’re not letting me? *stands up* I don’t remember needing your approval.

Jaune:That’s not what I-

Weiss:No it was, or else you wouldn’t have applied for the same mission despite our agreement. I made one mistake and now it goes out the window?

Jaune:You’re angry.

Weiss:Of FUCKING course I’m angry! I’m trying to keep these lights on and not burden others while you’re bringing in leftovers and stopping my job!

Jaune:You’re not doing your job! You’re running away from your problems!

Weiss:Oh you’re one to talk! The only reason why you’re here is because moving back in with your folks would be too much to handle.

Jaune:I moved in with you because you needed a roommate! My girlfriend was cutoff and alone and I could help! All I’ve been doing is trying to help!

Weiss:I didn’t ask for your help! I was handling things just fine!

Jaune:You were struggling.

Weiss:AND I’M NOT NOW!? Does it make you feel a little better to say you tried. Can’t help but I want to fix things huh?

Jaune:That’s not fair.

Weiss:Oh now we want to be fair? After intentionally making my job harder? For someone who is “trying to help” it never really works out for you now does it!? Not for me not for P-

She immediately covered her mouth, scared and shocked from the venom that almost slipped past her lips; this carelessness was given back with a stare of contempt that ate at her.

Weiss:I-

Jaune:There was a never a second I thought you were broken, or needed to be fixed. Guess that was my fault. Looks like your father did a number on you after all.

Her blood went cold. Weiss’s cheeks began to burn red as her anger boiled over.

Weiss:And yours never cared to do a swing to begin with.

Jaune:Speaking from experience?

Weiss:Get. Out.

Jaune:….

Weiss:I SAID GET OUT! I DON’T NEED THIS FROM YOU! I DON’T NEED YOU!

Jaune:…Good, cause you don’t have me. Sell my stuff for all I care.

He reaches in his pocket and throws his key at her. Weiss catches on reflex before hearing a thunderous boom as Jaune slams the door on the way out that shakes the room and cause a picture to shatter. The room is deathly silent as Weiss stares at the door.

Weiss:F-FINE! RUN BACK TO YOUR FAMILY!

………..

Not knowing what to do, Weiss simply grabbed her broom to clean up the mess Jaune made. Glass was half hazardly swept aside as she picked up a broken frame holding a photo of her laughing with Jaune, their face covered with cake from their house party with a banner overhead.

“A year of memories and miracles”

Weiss’s hand began to tremble until the picture slipped from her fingers. A giant pit filled her stomach and threatened to gag her as her knees fell to floor and her hands covered a ghastly wail. Finally, her breath was robbed and tears broke through shaking eyes filled with dread over the reality that was flooding in. The miracles were gone, and the memories, now bittersweet.

[naanima]

I am so fucking feral over Maxiel. URGH. Anyways, a fic written in 40 mins. No beta. BUT I NEEDED TO WRITE IT. THE IMAGES OF DANIEL WITH IT IS, SCREAMING!! POST Max winning his 4th WDC. This will get edited and posted to Ao3 eventually. Around 770 words.

ETA: PART 2.

The thing was he didn't even have an excuse for it. He wasn't drunk, he wasn't depressed, and he wasn't even fucking doom scrolling at 2 AM in the morning because he couldn't sleep and his brain was a fucking mess. If it had been any of that he could have had an excuse. He could have kept on ignoring the weird intimacy he shared with Max, all the sharp messy feelings that he had ignored, examined and buried throughout the years.

But he didnt. He had watched Max win his fourth consecutive world championship, watched his emotions overwhelm him, watched the guys hug and fold him into themselves, watched all of it from the comfort of his own home. Watched all of it, and the only things he could feel was pride and so much fucking fondness for his boy. And a soft regret at not being physically there so he could have embraced Max and told him how proud he was of him.

He had watched the close-up of Max's champion helmet, the M, V, and the four stars above it. The design was simple but beautiful, and Daniel was hit with a sudden want, a need. And he couldn't wait anymore. He called his guy Kenny in LA, and was so happy that he could do a home visit that evening. Daniel didn't want to leave the coccon of his home for this one. He had a shower, carefully dried himself off, put on a loose shirt and shorts and waited on his couch till Kenny arrived with his kit.

When Daniel showed him the picture from his phone Kenny had looked at him with a raised brow.

"Man, are you sure?" Kenny looked low level concerned, someone who has seen way too many people regretting their decisions at times of vulnerability or stupidity. Or both.

"Yeah," Daniel said with confidence. This was what he wanted. He knew it with certainty. "And yeah, that's where I want it too."

"It is your funeral." Kenny shrugged and got ready.

Daniel took off his shirt and laid down on his bed. It was the easiest way to do this.

Three hours later Kenny was gone with a judgemental look and aftercare instructions. Daniel had nodded his head to whatever Kenny was saying, and had ran to the bathroom as soon as Kenny was gone.

He stripped naked and looked at the red inflammed skin of his lower back in the mirror. The whole design was about ten centimetres wide, and it sat a bit lower than what most people would have considered the prime tramp stamp location. This was beyond slut territory.

Kenny did an amazing job, the man was an artist. The V cutting between the M were thick lines shaded in molten gold as if hit by the sun, and highlighted by black. The four goldden stars above it were similarity shaded, there was enough space to add more to it beneath them. Because Max wasn't going to just stop there.

His underwear was gonna block off most of the design, just top of the stars showing. So at least he could still go around shirtless.

It was beautiful, and he still wasn't regretting it. And yeah, this probably crossed the line of friends, but if Daniel couldn't fucking admit that they were more than friends now when he had purposely put Max fucking Verstappen's mark practically above his ass crack then he really would be beyond stupid. He could hear Blake's voice in his head saying how he was beyond stupid for marking himself for another man.

Daniel ignored the voice, grabbed his phone and tried to get the perfect picture of the tattoo. It took him several tries, but he finally got the angle that best showed the tattoo. It was fucking beautiful. He thought about cropping out his back and ass, there was no way that people wouldn't know it was him, even if his face was facing away. But fuck it, they had been joking around for almost a decade, and it was best to be as clear as fucking possible.

He sent the picture to Max. No words or messages.

If Max didn't fucking recognise it as Daniel going all in, as a declaration of intent, then Max didn't fucking deserve him or his ass.

[t-a-a-1]

Dandelion

One-Shot 3K-Words

Summary: After confessing your love to Optimus and being rejected; he discovers how much you mean to him.

A/N: Lots of yearning. A little bit of jealousy. Somewhat suggestive content. Angst. Optimus desperately needs you and he is a bit horny on this so beware.

Dandelion

....

It has been three months since you confessed your love to the leader of the Autobots.

And three months since he rejected you. 

You knew it was going to be this way. You weren't angry even when deep down, you hoped he would feel the same.

Maybe it's the human nature to love the unloveable. But when you think about it, there wasn't a single thing you did not love about him.

"I am honored but-"

You raised your hands to stop him. No. You didn't want the "It's not you, it's me" talk. You didn't want it, nor needed it. To you, it's stupid because although he may say that, you know the truth. If you were someone else, maybe a Cybertronian, he could love you. 

You didn't want answers. You didn't want to hear him. He had rejected you and that's the end of it. You just wanted to be honest.

That's it.

You began to be more distant. You weren't angry. Things just feel awkward. It's not like you didn't want to continue being friends but that was not possible at the moment. Is it really a friendship if deep down you still hope that he will change his mind? Optimus didn't deserve that nor did you.

You stopped going to the base so often. One or twice a week at most. You continued talking to everyone as you usually do but with Optimus it's different. Now you only greet him not wanting to start a conversation. He doesn't seem to mind your change and although it hurt you to see his indifference, you knew it was for the best.

But ... he noticed.

....

"I'll be going on patrol duty."

Optimus looks around the base as he announces his departure. Bulkhead is with Miko practicing some boxing, Arcee is chatting with Jack while Bumblebee and Raf play video games. 

His optics fall on you. You were talking to Ratchet about something he couldn't decipher. Although his old friend was focused on his work, he still talked to you. You seemed content and wondered the reason behind your good mood. 

"(Y/N)," Optimus walks towards you and Ratchet, interrupting the conversation.

You stand on the elevation floor. Facing him face to faceplate. You were so small, yet he felt intimidated by you. 

"I'll be going on patrol," he repeats himself. Optimus doesn't know why but it has become complicated to talk to you.

"Yes umm, you already said that?"

You used to go on patrol duty with him. Usually, the nights will end with the two of you on the top of the base. With you smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer. Optimus would sometimes enjoy a barrel of oil with you. 

The two of you would talk for hours, sometimes it would last until the sunrise. 

"Do you wish to accompany me?"

That's what he wanted to ask. But nothing came out of his voice box. He stays quiet for a few seconds and leaves. 

....

Ratchet hears a heavy sigh coming from Optimu's vents.

A few seconds.

And another one.

And another.

And another.

And one more.

"Would you stop doing that?"

Ratchet looks at the Autobots' leader and Optimus has the audacity to look confused. This angered the doctor who was very well aware of the situation.

"If you miss (Y/N) so much why don't you talk to her?"

"I don't understand-"

"Ah! Tsk,Tsk," Ratchet raised both of his hands and moved them in front of him. He didn't want to hear any excuses coming from Optimus. "You know exactly what I am saying."

Optimus looks around to make sure no one is around. 

"(y/n) confessed... to have romantic feelings towards me."

For a very small second, Optimus regrets telling Ratchet the truth because the expression on his face isn't comforting.

"A human ... falling in love with a Cybertronian?" Ratchet questions, speaking to himself more than to Optimus. "Well, historically speaking, Cybertronians are not unfamiliar with inter-species relationships. But with a human ... this will be a first."

"I rejected her," Optimus says not feeling quite certain if he should have shared this with Ratchet. Not because he didn't trust him to keep a secret but because you trusted him not to tell anyone. "But now I am afraid that has severed the friendship we had."

"Have you tried talking to her?"

"I do not believe she wishes to speak to me."

Ratchet noticed the worriness in Optimus' faceplate. He knew things had been different between the two of you since months ago. At first, he thought it had been a fight. Something that could be fixed with a simple conversation. But it was more than that. Maybe it cannot be fixed.

"And you Optimus?" the doctor asked. "How do you feel?"

Optimus takes a few seconds to think. He breaks eye contact with Ratchet and looks at the ground. Optimus looks at his right servo, it's been a while since he has held your soft body. 

"I am ... quite saddened by her distance. I may not share the same feelings but I care for her deeply. More than I am willing to admit."

"And did you tell her this?"

"She wished for me to not speak of the matter again and I obliged," Optimus vents heavily again. "I did not want to give her any more pain."

"Processing pain is necessary to heal," Ratchet puts his left servo on Optimu's shoulder plate. "And you, old friend, you might have to learn that your friendship with her might not be the same ever again."

....

"Reporting to you live, (y/n), Jasper News."

He sees you more on TV now than in person. He has always been a fan of your work and how you are so passionate about telling the truth. 

Optimus turns off the TV from his private quarters and heads to the hangar. He finds you there. Not sparing him a glance but his optics were glued to you.

You wore a white long-sleeved button-up shirt with a black skirt that highlights your figure. Your hair was kept in place with a hair clip and you wore glasses. Black heels with pink cheeks and red lips. You had come out of work and came straight here. 

"Oh, Prime. Were you going on patrol duty?"

Were you actually talking to him? Why couldn't he talk? You were smiling at him and yet he couldn't say a word. His voice box may not be working because no matter how much he tries nothing would come out.

He nods.

"Can I come with you? It's been a while since we have ridden together."

Four months and 15 days to be exact. 

He couldn't say a word. And only nods again.

....

To say that he was nervous was an understatement. He could feel and see everything. 

Especially, the skin of your legs on his seat. Optimus was too distracted. So much so that he didn't notice the bump of the road. Casually, you were drinking water and as you were about to take a sip, the water came out from the bottle due to the commotion. Your white shirt became wet, making your black brassier visible to his eyes. 

"Shit. Prime, can you make your widows dark?"

You ask him, feeling uncomfortable at the wet fabric against your skin.

"Of course," Optimus didn't question why he just followed your orders. He darkened all of his windows even the front one. 

He didn't expect you to start undressing. Slowly unbuttoning your long-sleeved shirt. Revealing to him your black lace bra. Optimus honks out of nowhere, steam coming out of his pipe. 

"Are you alright?" You ask him as you put your shirt on top of his air ventilations, hoping your shirt could drive quickly so you could put it back on.

"My apologies, I just-" he is again without words and he made a mental note to tell Ratchet to check up on him "I ... Please can you put your shirt back on? I do not wish to disrespect you."

"What do you mean?" you ask him innocently. Until a stupid idea crossed your mind. "Wait, I thought human attraction was impossible for Cybertronians?"

Optimus keeps quiet and keeps driving.

"Prime ... Do you find me ... attractive?"

He can't answer. If he says yes, what would that imply? If he says no, would that hurt your feelings even more? More importantly, he doesn't know. The only thing he is aware of is that his spark is agitated. He vents air hotter than usual. He is driving faster, and his processor is unable to understand the speed limits.

"What am I saying? Of course, you don't."

Optimus couldn't understand how you could say that when his enstril could sense your perfume. Something new he had never smelled before. Exquisite, delicate and sweet. It's you, your natural smell. The type he can't get tired of.

No. He can't think like that. It's not possible. Something in his system must be wrong.

"I met someone at work."

He didn't like the sound of that.

"I didn't want to say anything until things were steady but I think they are now."

Optimus slows down. He hasn't talked to you for so long and expected this night to be one of those he used to enjoy. The nights in which you would talk about the stars and he would do nothing but listen. The nights in which you would talk about a book and he would ask you about your favorite character. 

The nights in which he could watch the whole universe in your eyes.

....

"The scans are all good, Optimus," Ratchet says. "No anomalies were found."

"Are you sure of these results?"

"Confident."

Ratchet studies his friend's faceplate. He is usually the quiet type. Much had changed about him through the years. But nothing can go unnoticed by him. He knew Orion Pax and most certainly, he knew Optimus Prime. 

"But if you tell me your concern, then maybe I can run a specific analysis."

"It's my spark."

"What?" 

Ratchet was perplexed, he was not expecting that.

"It's in pain," Optimus stands from the gigant medical bed and sits on it. "And my processor only recreates memories of (y/n)."

One second passes.

Then another.

And another.

And one more.

"I do not like to question the ability of your processor," Ratchet doesn't move, he only procures to look at his friend in the optics. "But have you thought that maybe your processor is thinking of (y/n) because she has sparked your software of ... attachment?"

Optimus doesn't say a word and this only confirms Ratchet's suspicions. He has noticed how Optimus has been more distracted. His optics ever so lightly brightened up whenever he heard your name. The longing in every heavy vent his friend would so as the minutes passed without talking to you.

"How do humans ... Show affection?"

Ratchet doesn't need answers. He already knows and he doesn't want to make Optimus feel bad for having emotions. He's actually glad to know that his friend is capable of feeling something at all. Even after everything he is been through.

"From what I've read, giving flowers is a common practice."

"Do you think if I give (y/n) flowers will my feelings be clear?"

Yet, he wonders if it's the right thing. Is this desperation for connection or does Optimus' spark really glow for you? Either or, he wasn't one to make a conclusion.

"I am not certain but I think it's a start."

....

Took longer this time for patrol duty. Making sure he looked everywhere. But being in Nevada's desert didn't help much. There were cacti and grass but nothing that he particularly liked for you.

Until he found something you might like. 

It was delicate, more so than you. It took him an extra hour to get back to base because he was driving slowly. He didn't want to cause the flower any harm, it had to be in perfect condition for it to be worthy of you.

When he finally reached the base, he even took look longer to transform back to his original size. Making sure that his mass-shift didn't disturb the flower. 

He walked to the hanger, with a single dandelion in right servo. It's so minuscule and nervousness starts to kick in his system.

Out of the many kinds of flowers there are on your planet, will you like this one? If you did, would you be kind enough to spare him a smile? Anything that could alleviate his suffering just a little?

He can't deny it. Not anymore. Your absence has devastated him. In ways he can't describe. There may be millions of languages on your planet but not a single one could ever describe the feeling of yearning he has. How can he explain something he has no words for? How can he explain that his spark cries your name and his body begs for your affection? How much he craves for your attention or to at least be worthy of it. May Primus forgive him but would he would throw away his honor if that meant you could take him as yours.

Will this single dandelion be enough to express that?

Optimus is delighted to see you here. His thoughts had gone insane thinking that you were waiting for him. 

Instead, he sees you on the elevation floor, arranging many flowers into a small little white base. There are many of them. Of all kinds of colors and shapes. Then he thought how stupid it was for him to think he was worth even a simple look from you. 

"Hey big guy, guess who got flowers today?" you were content. Looking so happy that his circuits might corrupt. He wanted to be that to you. He wants to be a reason for you to smile. Just him. "I thought I should come and put them in a place where everyone can appreciate them."

And suddenly he gets this strange urge. A dark thought of destroying that which you love, those flowers and especially whoever gave them to you. Because why? Why is it that those flowers can give much more happiness than him? What do they mean to you? Does the person who gave them to you love you more than him?

"Well, what do you think?"

He looks at the flowers once more. His dark thoughts quickly go away. 

He is reminded of the dandelion on his servo. 

You deserved more than this. 

"They are ... adequate."

.....

He doesn't know how long he has been staring at the dandelion. He has grown a hatred towards it. 

Optimus wants to let it go. For the wind to take it and for him to forget about it. Yet, he can't find the energy to do so.

"I am in love with you."

He re-played that scene again and again. Deep down a part of him wished he could go back in time and fix it. If he was sincere with his feelings from the beginning, would things be different?

Would you be with him now? Probably. You will be here, on top of the base and on this cold night, he will carry you close to his chassis. Close enough for you to feel the warmth of his spark. The heat intensifies as it only does when he is near you. 

You would tell him stories and he would listen. Looking at you from time to time because the stars above him did not compare to the beauty of the creature he was holding. 

"Prime?"

He stops daydreaming and finds you next to him. You take a seat, close to him. The vastness of the Nevada desert and the night sky were your view. 

"Are you alright?"

"I am."

He lied but it's not like he can say the truth. He can't tell you that his spark glows in pain for the so much yearning he has for you.

"I am sorry," you look into the distance, a part of you is ashamed and even afraid to look at him "I know I have been a little distant."

"I believe the word 'little' would be an understatement," his voice comes out as aggressive but the last thing he wants is to intimidate you. "But I cannot phantom myself putting any type of blame on you."

"I should have never confessed."

"No," his voice is softer now and he takes the time to look at you. Suppressing his need to hold you closer, he holds onto the dandelion instead, trying to get the courage he needs to give it to you. "I admire your honesty."

"Looking back at it, I am glad you rejected me," you put a string of your hair back on your ear. He knew this action of yours. You did that whenever you got shy and he wondered if he ever made you feel that way. 

"If you didn't I would have never met Alex and I wouldn't have been this happy."

Could you please end his misery? Could Primus be merciful and take his spark right at this moment? Because he can't do it. He can't. Not when he was asked you so many times to call him by his first name just for you to reject him.

Now, you found someone. Someone unknown to him with who you made a connection. A connection so strong that you deemed him honorable to be called by his first name by you.

"Is he ... Worthy of your affection?"

"Yes, I believe so."

But then again. He had his chance. He lost you and your friendship. Optimus knows that after tonight things will be different. As much as he wanted you, he knew you weren't his. Now, he feels stupid and ashamed for ever thinking the universe would be so kind as to gift you to him. 

"(Y/N)?" he calls your name so softly as if his voice box had glitched just for a small second. But you noticed. "Would you allow me to indulge myself in your company? Just this one time?"

There was nothing to say. You just nod.

Blissfully unaware of Optimus' sentiments. 

Unknown to you the dandelion, is still in his servo. 

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

A/n: The romance was extremely rushed because this is a draft of what's to come in my fanfic 'The Darkest Hour' Of course the story above was a very cramped version of it and everything will happen way more smoothly. I think this story was just points and ideas I want to implement later down the line but I am still not certain in what way I want to take the romance. So I made this to help out and decide what route to take. 

Not this one I think.

Anyway, I am sorry for any mistakes I made. I don't proofread. 

For any questions, comments, concerns, or requests, you may send me a message/ask on this account.

Thank you for reading!

[ethicaltreatmentofcowplants]

part iii (part i + part ii)

(due to sims doing everything but what i wanted them to, this extended into night and the screencaps were terrible - i apologise)

“Avery, I feel like our potential isn’t necessarily reflected by your score, and much of that was my doing. You just seemed to catch me when I was in the middle of a Moment and was not exactly feeling receptive towards anyone. And among those who did… less well, you were one of the few who actually initiated flirting with me and who seemed to really try. So let’s take this as an opportunity to refresh and maybe have a second shot at things. I’ll be seeing you very soon.”

“Jayla, you’re clearly having a ball and I enjoyed being in a household with you. But so far you haven’t seemed all that drawn to me, and I feel that at least in terms of romance, I’m the one putting in all the work. You are one of eighteen, and it seems like you’re not sure why you’re here. Let me know whether you want this - or not - but let me know. See you for Round Two.”

the final four...

“You know how it goes. I have only one of my strawberries left, and I am not splitting it four - just who the plum comes up with these things…”

“Forest - considering your strong start, this is a long way to fall. We have potential and you’ve shown hints of sweetness, but you keep on pushing me away - and your autonomous mean interactions? Not okay. It wasn’t cute when boys did that in grade school, and it’s far from cute now. If your aim is to sabotage yourself, then you’re succeeding spectacularly.” (Forest: nervously sweating...)

“Lee - much like Forest, yet worse. While I get the sense that Forest has the potential - and maybe even the want - to be something better than his past behaviour, you on the other hand seem perfectly happy with just how you present yourself. Well, I’m not. I like the version of you who is friends with Tiago and who has some moments of vulnerability, not whatever this is.” (Lee: unbothered, totally convinced this is all a ruse...)

(Araminta: hoping to the old Watchers and the new that Forest is going home...)

“Piper - if only we had even a little romance, my dear. But at least with me - or perhaps even with life in general - that just doesn’t seem to be what you’re looking for, and that’s okay. You stepped out of your comfort zone to try something that doesn’t come naturally to you, and for that you’ll have my eternal admiration. But I’m afraid that this chapter of your story ends here.”

“Aubrey - you’re here for a good time, but sadly not a long time. One of the most gorgeous sims I’ve ever laid eyes upon, and I really enjoyed your sense of fun, your mischief and your creativity. As there’s no spark between us, however, let’s just say it’s been real and move on. You were a delight to get to know - I hope we can catch up again after the show.”

“Forest, something is telling me not to let you go just yet. And if I’m wrong, then more fool me. This is a second chance for… whatever you need it to be, I guess. Those don’t come around often, or at all. Make the most of it. And if there’s any more mean behaviour - I may no longer be a werewolf but I’m not completely without bite. Man up and grow up, or get out.”

“Lee, here’s your fifteen minutes. Best of luck in building on them. And as the autonomy settings are driving the Watcher crazy - Araminta, you absolutely don’t need to talk to your horse Every Five Seconds - we’ll say our proper farewells tomorrow.  Sorry for the lack of decent screencaps, everyone, but you only have your pixel selves to blame.”

“Hey beautiful, so I totally know this is all a stunt. You have to leave the audience on a cliffhanger, right? Don’t worry, I’ll play along. I am a supremely talented actor after all - I can even cry on command!” “Mhmm…” (reflects on how that’s only a Level 2 interaction in the ACTING skill)

how scores were calculated

Ooof, I really wanted to take more of the bottom three in particular, but I was also this close to ejecting my EA folder into the sun. They will however each get a proper farewell from Lilac (and a thank you from me to their watchers) and their very own shiny post in broad daylight when hopefully the in-game lighting is better cooperating.

Also now we know just what Forest was up to that very last day. That little so-and-so realised that he was on thin ice and thus was skillbuilding like there was no tomorrow - which for him was almost the case! I will be including Aubrey's, Piper's and Lee's score details in their farewell posts and you will see just how close it all was.

@x-digitaldollhouse-x @tipsy-clouds @riverofjazzsims

@plasmafruittree @sleepyselkiesims @fl0pera

[ariathelamia]

Hellhound HRT Month 6 (4 month wolf 2 month Hellhound)

Heya! It’s me again… starting to do some note taking which… i got kinda chewed out on not doing any of that when i woke up in the hospital-.. wait fuck getting ahead of myself. Let’s start from after I parted with Mars.

So, yeah I got home that day pretty ecstatic to say the least, I mean who can say that they get their meds from an eldritch ritual!... well Mars probably can but that's besides the point let me have this! 

The tablets taste awful, which is to say a lot since my taste hasn’t been the same since about month… 3 or 4? Something something Carnivores taste a lot less than herbivores or omnivores. Well anyway, meat tasted better than before, that’s for sure, but yeah everything else always tasted kinda… bland… so i started to enjoy textures more than taste… where was I?.. Oh yeah, taste of the meds… HORRIBLE.. like someone mixed the consistency of chalk with the aftertaste of puking your guts out… urgh… made a habit of putting them in a little bit of food and then down them that way… that way i at least only taste the food at first and only later maybe a bit of the meds.. 

Sooo anyway, changes… they happen fast on this stuff!! Maybe that's because there is a lot of change to come?... Or the cheap shot Erian gives us some diluted shit because he wants us on the meds for longer for a better and long lasting payroll… anyway! 

The most notable change is my fur… it changed COMPLETELY in color! It used to be orange with a few gray streaks here and there and now it’s almost entirely black with some gray highlights like the fur on my chest or around my wrists and.. other joints. pretty neat! Could swear some of these kinda look like eyes.. especially those on my elbow and knees.. wonder if it’s like a mark from who i got those meds? Well they look cool so i won’t complain!

But yeah pretty much my entire body is covered in fur now, with the fur in my face being a lot shorter and more dense… It feels REALLY fluffy though… like i swear to god i brush through it, and if i don’t press down it almost feels like brushing throw air… that kinda soft.

When it comes to other changes in my body… my legs hurt somewhat now… i guess that means they are starting to change form now too.. becoming.. digigrate.. or something like that? Wolf like! 

My Nails have now pretty much fused with my fingers. They actually look like really sharp claws now. Can’t pull them in yet so… gotta be double careful when scratching myself… already nicked myself pretty bad when I scratched an itch on my shoulder.

The tail has been as fluffy as ever~ I love this thing!!! Helped me a lot with my balance when doing parkour too! it’s just great~ 

Oh yeah! I am slowly growing a snout! hurts like a motherf-.... but damn finally!

Uhm… other than that… i noticed some tightness in my chest about three weeks ago… thought i just overexerted myself but… turns out it was worse than that. Which brings me to the reason I actually ended up in the hospital.

So here I was… meeting some friends from an online group that's basically made by therians for therians, which is an outdoor activity club for those of us that love exercising with our new formed abilities! Tell ya what, ain’t a damn human out there that can teach ya better how to use that tail for balance than some cat therian who already figured it out~ it’s quite specific and you gotta get a feel for it.. but their explanations helped a lot in increasing my stability when free running! Anyway I trailed off.

So I met those people again, that day it was another wolf therian like me- wait.. not like me, forgot i’m a hellhound for a second-, then there was that persian cat therian guy… and big ol’ me! We started easy with warm ups and stretches… that's also when my chest felt tight again for a moment.. but it went away really quickly so i ignored that… bad mistake.

Then we started running around the park at first.. into a more urban area of Hyper City, where we started to climb the buildings, jump some walls… typical kinda parkour stuff! It felt great having the wind in my fur, and doing it with a couple people that get it the same way I do! And boy oh boy am I happy they were there with me… 

Memory is a bit hazy… but I just remember being… hot.. like literally… my chest felt tight as hell, pun intended, and I was literally in mid jumping motion, past the point of no return…. two… and a half stories above some alleyway… and I freaking passed out, like that… From what the others told me I was right behind them… and then I was gone… but they saw some smoke coming up from in between the buildings… I was incredibly lucky I fell into a dumpster.. but must have hit the wall straight on before that… They had trouble getting me out cause… turns out when i told Mars i’d love to have a “fire in my chest”... the eldritch must have listened and taken it literally.. or it’s simply a hellhound thing to have freaking FIRE IN YOUR CHEST. But yeah grabbing me was difficult, too close to my chest and they got burned… even my freaking tank top burned away… god am i lucky i got fur covering my chest already.. the possible embarrassment!! 

But yeah they apparently got me out, called the hospital… and rest is uh history.

According to the doctor’s i had several broken bones… collar… lower legs.. right arm and shoulder… minor fracture of the skull.. lots of shaved skin from hitting a literal brick wall.. 

and to top it all off… freaking 185 degree fahrenheit (or 85° Celsius for us europeans) fever.

They apparently had to put me into an ice bath… and cooled me with tons of ice packs to try and fight the “fever”. Only when Erian, after they had called him in for a consult, figured out what was going on, they simply put me on heat proof bedding and sheets… and kept the temperatures from reaching too high. Guess we Hellhounds can grow a flame organ, kinda like dragons, in our chest.. When I asked them later if that means I can breathe fire they shrugged… I tried but nothing came out except for some smoke.. we all start small… but what we did find out was that, the heat that the organ produces is linked to my emotions. 

When i get angry, it goes up a lot! Happiness and excitement raises it somewhat and the calmer i am, the more towards “normal” temperatures it goes… Still don’t know what sadness does cause… they didn’t wanna force me to cry… tough luck trying in the first place, but they hypoth-... hyppo… they think it would lower the temperature further.

Anyway i am trying my best to stay calm and not get mad cause… while my organ is already functioning pretty well… my body still can’t handle the heat super well… It hurts when it gets too high and I end up with fever symptoms… so yeah gotta wait till I build up some resistance. 

Oh if you’re interested… i was apparently out for about 12 days- plus side, almost two new releases of my shows to watch! But… when i was out… I had some weird dreams… about the moon?... but also about those places i’ve seen from that ritual… They asked me to elaborate about it but nuh-uh, not gonna say a word to them! Not before I talked to Mars about it. Anyway yeah i remember some… weird creature trying to talk to me, didn’t understand a single word but it looked… at least a very little like mars… just… no visible eyes.. some long ass head… and big fucking grin… 

Had some time to think about it all a bit.. and one thing strikes me as odd. While i do take my meds during the early hours and the evening… the changes happen mostly at night… at least the biggest ones… sure the pain carries through the day but it only ever gets really bad at night… So it’s odd that my organ started to become active during the day… hm… bad luck i guess.

Now I gotta explain myself to Erian… way too many questions but he allowed me to rest for now before he comes back and asks them again… “Where did you get those meds? What species did you choose? Are you getting your check ups? Did you think for a moment before taking some back alley medicine?!”... blah blah…. as if it wasn’t partly his fault i had to ask some more… devious powers to help. Not that I regret it. Though it was nice of him to talk to the staff to let me continue taking those meds for now! I’m also back on his schedule again… probably better to be on “Mysterious alien provided Hellhound HRT” with a doctor that has seen a couple weird things already. Therian care seems to be still a little bit of an issue in most hospitals.... then again who can say they have an idea how to treat a hellhound… not something people face on a regular basis like a dog or a cat… 

The only annoying part is that… i’m now pretty much stationary… I get some visits from friends of the support group, and the runners group too, they bring me things I need… like a new tank top for when i finally get out of here… 

Oh yeah-... and the pain… god having broken bones AND changing bone structure is NO FUN! And the painkillers they give me are wack…. urgh note to myself… if anything feels slightly off before or during a run… stick to the low ground… 

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Yay Part two done! Lets keep the fun times going~

Previous | Next(Coming soon)

[c-cal]

Trapped .

Short lil angsty Andrew fic !!

Content / summary : Andrew crying , gender dysphoria , comfort from self , sui implication !!

Again no tq for the fic !

Andrew was laying on her bed, staring at her wall. She was "zoned out", you could say, but in reality, she was thinking about anything and everything.

"Why was I born like this? Why am I who I am? Is this really who I'm destined to be?" Thoughts raced through her mind a mile a minute.

Before she even knew it, a tear rolled down her cheek. It was getting to be too much.

"Why am I damned to spend two to three decades in this body?" She thought. This disgusting, human, male body was not fit for her. Not fit for a femme ghost like her.

Her soul was always femme, since she was just a child, even if she didn't know or realize it then.

However, the universe decided not to give her the female body she desired and deserved most, instead, it decided to damn her in the living hell that is being a biological male.

"Hey, it's okay." A voice called out to her from the corner of her room. She turned her head to look over, but nothing was there. She just chalked this up to her imagination.

"I'm here for you" it called out again, this time Andrew got a little freaked out. The voice sounded eerily familiar, almost like it was herself.

"W-who's there? Who are you?" Andrew questioned the dark corner of her room where the voice seemed to be coming from, fear and curiosity washed over her face.

"I'm you. I'm you in your true form, your true body." Andrew was confused, "but what do you mean you're me? I'm me" Andrew asked.

"I can't explain it, I'm simply you." A face emerged from the shadow of the corner where no light could hit, it was her. It was really her.

The blue hair became clear as she stepped into the light, her voice now much more clearly Andrews.

She floated a few feet above the ground, the white hue around her. It was genuinely Andrew, the ghost girl she always knew she was.

"B-but how-" she cut Andrew off.

"There's no need to ask questions." She stated.

"There isn't much time left" she said, tears almost pouring from Andrew's face.

Her ghost form hovered there and continued talking.

"You'll be in your true form soon - a ghost girl. You'll be with Rachel and Mackenzie soon, I promise." She reassured.

"H-how?" Andrew questioned, still stunned and utterly shocked from what stands - or, 'floats' - in front of her.

"I can't give out too much information, but you will cross over into our dimension and live on with us someday soon. I promise." The ghost girl spoke, moving over to sit on the bed with Andrew and hugging her gently.

"A-are you lying?" Andrew questioned, not even sure if this was just a hallucination or not.

"No. What good would it do to lie to yourself? None."

"I'll really be a girl? A ghost girl?" She was still skeptical of this whole situation.

"You'll really be a ghost girl." The ghost replied.

Andrew was almost overflowing with joy and fulfilment in that moment, all her dreams have just been confirmed real.

"How long?" Andrew sniffled.

"I can't tell you, I'm sorry. It will affect how things go, how this happens." Andrews face dropped, tears began to pour once more.

Her immediate thought was that it'd be years, she couldn't wait years. God she needed it now.

She closed her eyes and cried, pulling her arms to her chest and holding them with her arms, her forehead resting on her knee caps.

"I-i can't live in this b-body.." Andrew said, choking on her own words and stuttering between sniffles.

She felt her ghost self hug her, it was... Warm, surprisingly. This only lasted for a moment, however. The feeling faded slowly, and when Andrew looked back up;

She was gone. Her true form had faded out, perhaps to prepare for her soon coming to the dimension.

"I c-can't do this.." Andrew cried.

"I'm a girl. I'm sorry mom and dad, but I'm not sorry." Andrew said to herself as if her parents could hear her.

She sobbed in her own arms, pushed against her legs.

She slid down from her sitting position and lay flat on the bed. She was sprawled out in a starfish position.

She pulled the covers up and turned over onto her side. She cried herself to sleep that night, just to wake up the next morning and do it again.

"Soon.." Her voice called out to her again, this time farther away and in an echo just before Andrew fell asleep.

Tagging @reallife6anoufriev6boy6 !! ^_^

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Lowkey love this one ?? I've never done a angsty fic so tell me how I did !!!!! :3 also hope y'all enjoyed the journal quotes in here ^_^

[honeygrahambitch]

"So, will he? Has se mentioned anything yet?" Jimmy asked.

"No but I am sure he will." Jack replied. "I even told Bella not to make any plans."

"I need to remind you that Thanksgiving is in less than three days. Stop being delusional. Or at least, ask Will about it." Beverly suggested.

"It's really easy for you, isn't it?" Brian walked into the lab. "No annoying relatives to run away from? If anything, the Thanksgiving meal is a ticking bomb more than the Christmas one."

"All it takes is for someone to pronounce the word "elections" and it's over." Jimmy agreed. "Wouldn't be bad to have a nice fancy quiet dinner."

"Then, again. Ask Will. But Hannibal would have said something until now, I'm telling you." Beverly insisted.

The three men disagreed but indeed decided that checking their suspicions with Will was the best option. That is why, when he walked into the lab, all eyes were on him.

"Good morning?"

"What is Hannibal doing on Thursday?" Brian asked and got not-so-subtly elbowed by Jimmy.

"What day even is today?" Will asked as he took of his coat, a bit confused by the question.

"Monday. Last Monday in November." Jack said and the others nodded. Beverly rolled her eyes in the background but watched the interaction regardless.

"I don't know. Isn't he coming here later today? You can ask him in person?" Will replied, remaining oblivious to the point of their question.

"Let me clarify this for their sake." Beverly joined. "Is Hannibal hosting Thanksgiving? Jimmy and Brian are running away from their relatives and Jack is running away from his wife's food...and from his mother in law."

Many unfriendly glares fell on Beverly.

"I don't know." Will answered innocently.

Disagreement noises followed immediately, all of them trying to argue with Will as if it was his fault.

"How so? Dr. Lecter likes this kind of things. It even has a cultural background that he can build on. And he doesn't have to make sweet potatoes with marshmallows." Jack insisted.

"I think the sweet potatoes with marshmallows are what made him decide against. It's an abomination." Jimmy said.

"No idea." Will lied, making everyone in the room keep debating reasons why Hannibal would not host the Thanksgiving dinner.

Should he warn Hannibal about this ambush? Should he just watch it happen? It would be hilarious to just watch it all unfold.

**

When Hannibal walked into the forensics lab, the same thing from earlier happened. All eyes were on him, which Hannibal did not mind and did not find peculiar at all. When the eyes remained glued on him however, he had to make a remark.

"Good morning. It seems like it's an urgent matter, may I look at the case file?" Hannibal said as Will handed it to him. The next second, Jack pulled the file away from Hannibal's hands.

"How are you celebrating Thanksgiving?"

Hannibal sighed. All eyes were on him. The expression on his face was daunting. The only one in the room who was enjoying the show was Will who gestured to Beverly to come next to him.

"I was planning to invite all of you over. However...My father-in-law invited me and Will to Louisiana."

"You could have said "no", doctor. You don't want that. Look at me running away from my mother-in-law."

"I apologize to everyone in the room. I could not refuse the invitation."

"You could have." Will finally spoke. "But you can't stand the fact that he doesn't find you perfect."

"There you have it." Hannibal said.

"Woah." Jimmy said. "Listen, doctor. I've been married for 20 years now. Your in-laws will never like you. It's a rule. Just accept the way things are."

"Hannibal is just being dramatic. My father doesn't even dislike him that much. Which is a lot coming from him and probably the best he will obtain."

"We didn't even have enough time to get to know each other. Besides, I will get to see your childhood home."

"There is nothing in that sentence that makes me look forward to this but I accepted for both of your sakes."

"So no nice quiet fancy Thanksgiving dinner?" Brian asked, just to check.

"I'm afraid not." Hannibal replied, second thinking his options. "What is with that look on your face?"

"Me?" Will asked as his grin became even more prominent. "You will have to see."