#2-3 empty dr pepper cans

[just-a-random-person24]

HERE TO ATTACK YOU WITH BARNEY'S MIND NOTES BOO!! (EP 1 PART 1+2, EP 2 PART 1+2, AMD EP 3!!)

Episode 1 (part 1)

• Hates the intercom for Black Mesa's transit system (calls it a computer) (you will see me mention things he hates *a lot*)

• says he needs a new job and thinks about being a radar operator, then days it would suck cause it's stuffy and you don't get chick's

• Late to work! Half Life protag curse

• you will also see me mention him getting side-tracked in what he says a lot

• Tells a scientist who can't hear him to make him a sandwich

• There's? an arcade??

• the dorms back in the barracks doesn't have a TV!

• thinks about bringing an Xbox to his dorm only to think that someone would steal it

• doesn't like being late *but* doesn't like getting up early

• says he'll point out lack of handrails anytime he sees it

• hates his job (L)

• wishes something interesting would happen

• mentions donuts only to get confused about why he's mentioning donuts

• cannot pronounce epileptic

• Black Mesa probably doesn't have a maintenance department

• unenthusiastic “weehee, fun fun.” followed by a deadpanned “I hate my job”

• wants Doritos only to settle for a Coke instead when there's no Doritos

• thinks Coke is better than Pepsi

• gets mad at a guard for not fixing the issue with the access panel, *only* to get mad when he's told to go fix an elevator cause it isn't his job

• says the helmet is too tight

• Lauren is a conspiracy theorist? Or at least sent books to Barney thinking he'd like them

• wants to break up with Lauren cause ‘long distance relationships don't work’

• leaves the air dryer running in the bathroom all day

Episode 1 (part 2)

• calls a scientist a bastard for getting mad about access issues

• hates elevator music, wishes it was techno or rock

• sees the video surveillance room is empty and says he should be the only one slacking off

• thinks the lady with the xen crystal (Gina? I think?? might be a totally different person) is hot and wants to get her number

• Gordon's ‘sup fool’ is audible!

• thinks Gordon's awesome

• is not paid enough to fix the elevator

• thinks the best perk of being a guard is shooting things, wishes he could shoot real things

• forgot he was told to go fix an elevator

Episode 2 (parts 1 + 2)

• Thinks soda is a good way to start the day

• thinks Pepsi and Dr Pepper sucks

• tries to tell a joke, gets brushed off

• gets very confused about a keyboard blowing up

• Says he's getting out of there to avoid taking the blame, only to run into management

• Mocks a scientist

• Hates maintenance accesses

• immediately gets distracted about the proper plurality of ‘access’ (it's accesses)

• thinks Black Mesa is going to get a lawsuit (or 12)

• fucks with an old computer. Stops thinking it would blow up or play Tetris

• thinks he knows G-man, gets confused about the tram working even though it shouldn't

• hates stairs

• threw his Coke can down a bottomless pit

• agrees the day *is* miserable

• baffled about the scientist never pushing the buttons before assuming it's broken

• “You shouldn't dabble in who-knows-what. It's sticky.” ???

• the actual episode's only 3:40. Rest of it is just credits

Episode 3

• This episode wasn't remastered like eps 1 and 2 were

• got knocked out from the elevator crash

• assumes one of the houndeyes aye a dead guards gun

• kills the houndeyes and goes ‘yarg’ right after

• Tells dead houndeyes to not go all Resident Evil and come back to life

• says he needs a new gun cause the pistol is not strong enough

• assumes they lose tons of things because none of the boxes have labels

• going to go back to Black Mesa to sell some of the stuff he finds when he gets out

• no emergency lights

• going to file lawsuits against Black Mesa

• headcrab guts taste like vinegar mixed with bacon. good to know?

• hates ladders

• says he needs coffee or red bull to focus

• “Caution! No handrails! Caution! You're a moron!”

• thinks pirates are cooler than ninjas

• says Vortigaunt electricity is like getting shocked with a dog collar or a taser

• Damn counter: 8

[museum-spaces]

Weirder asks: 2, 8, 49

2; Lighter or Matches

Matches. I can never get lighters to work consistently. About a week ago I pulled out a flint and steel to light a candle.... it didn't work. Had to get my match box out in the end.

8; How many water bottles are in your room right now

no water bottles, but an empty dr. pepper, a mostly empty root beer, and... 3 empty gatoraid bottles.

49; Can you skip rocks

Nope, never been able to get the wrist angle right. Also haven't spent that much time trying tbh. I always preferred hunting for crawfish while my brother practiced his skips.

[catdotjpeg]

Ahmad Abdulrahim, 38, strolled the remains of the markets in Gaza City with 150 Shekels in his pocket, the amount of money he used to feed his family of five for a week before the genocide. Today, that amount can hardly buy a single meal. The markets, now little more than bombed-out remains, are empty of all basic needs, including vegetables, meat, and fruits. For the majority of people, such luxuries are unavailable except at unimaginable prices. Most vegetables, rare though they are, come from people’s gardens. All Ahmad could find were cleaning supplies and canned foods. Ahmad told Mondoweiss that due to his children’s long-term dependence on these foods, they’ve started to develop health problems. After a protracted search, Ahmad found some zucchini; he walked faster when he noticed the seller, who had placed them in a small pile on the ground on top of a plastic bag. When he asked about the price, he was surprised to know that one kilogram of zucchini cost 80 Shekels ($20). Before the war, it used to be 3 shekels per kilo (less than a dollar). Such was the price for most other vegetables that could be found. One kilo of green peppers cost 250 shekels ($66), where it used to be 5 ($1.4). One kilo of cucumber and tomato cost 90-100 shekels ($23-$26), which used to be 2-3 shekels (53-80 cents).  Ahmad said that as he walked back home, disappointed, he was dreading his family’s reaction when they found out that he spent almost half of their money on two cans of beans. “I’m starting to deal with my kids as adults,” he said. “I’m telling them this is war, and our enemy wants us to starve. I’m telling them that we should be thankful that we have been able to survive so far. I promise them that when this war ends, I will bring them whatever they want.” The state of starvation in Gaza has not ended. In northern Gaza, it has dramatically increased, but in ways that are different from how it was at the war’s outset. Protracted periods of malnutrition and deprivation from vital nutrients are having a cumulative impact on Gaza’s population, especially for those who most need it, such as children and pregnant women. “Before this crisis, there was enough food in Gaza to feed the population,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said back in March. “Malnutrition was a rare occurrence. Now, people are dying, and many more are sick. Over a million people are expected to face catastrophic hunger unless significantly more food is allowed to enter Gaza.” 

Only 0.8% of children under the age of five were suffering from acute malnutrition before the war, the WHO also said. By February, that figure had jumped to 12.4% – 16.5%. Ever since those numbers were reported, Israel’s genocidal war has only worsened the systematic deprivation of food to the population. But Israeli propaganda would have us believe that there is no famine, and there is no Israeli policy of deliberate starvation. Many Israeli media outlets misleadingly focus on technical definitions of what constitutes a famine and dishonestly misquote passages from the UN’s ICP reports on conditions in Gaza.  The reality on the ground tells an opposite story, one in which the systematic deprivation of Gaza’s population from sources of nutrition is leading to long-term consequences. Gaza health officials and medical workers have already observed it for weeks.

Hussam Abu Safia, Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, told Aljazeera that the specter of famine was once again sweeping northern Gaza, stressing that the lack of availability of foods with diverse nutritional values will have a long-term impact on the population. Since the start of the Israeli army’s second invasion of the Shuja’iyya neighborhood in Gaza City last week, access of residents in northern Gaza to food has only worsened.

Abu Safia said that no basic materials have entered the northern Gaza Strip for weeks, leaving flour as the only available staple. This is far from sufficient to meet the nutritional needs of children, the elderly, and pregnant women, all of whom require fats and proteins, Abu Safia asserted. “Within 14 days, 214 children have arrived at the hospital showing signs of malnutrition,” Abu Safiya told Al Jazeera well before the second invasion of Shuja’iyya began. “Including over 50 cases of advanced malnutrition and 6 cases in critical condition in the intensive care unit.”  “These children are living solely on fluid replacements, and we do not have any milk or special food for them, which puts their lives at risk,” he said.

-- From "Israel’s starvation policy in Gaza is forcing people to eat tree leaves" by Tareq S. Hajjaj, 3 Jul 2024

[cybervom1t]

2, 4, 8, 21, 25, 31 - I’d ask them all but maybe that would be excessive

2). lighter or matches?

- I already answered this!! lighters because I’m a smoker and I’m NOT fighting the wind when trying to light my cigarette lmao

4). which cryptyd being do you believe in?

- every day I wake up and pray that mothman is real (I want to fuck him)

8). how many water bottles are in your room right now?

- I am,,,, not good about drinking water BUT I have a like, two (2) empty kombucha bottles and an embarrassing amount of empty Dr. Pepper cans lmao

21). something you’ve kept since childhood?

- tbh? not to be emo but I have lost almost everything I’ve had since a kid (between moving and all my shit either being stolen or ruined) BUT !!!! I’ve been able to hold onto a majority of my stuffed animals <333

25). perfume/body spray or lotion?

- this is tough considering I use both but if I HAD to choose I’d say perfume !!!! I luv luv luv to smell good <3

31). what type of music keeps you grounded?

- I don’t want to admit who it is but my friend makes music and when I’m sad I listen to him to make me feel better!!!! (I have a turbo crush on him lmao)

[survey--s]

640.

1.) What was the last strong scent you smelled? The candle that's burning, which is coffee and caramel scented.

2.) When was the last time you changed your outfit? This morning after I had a shower.

3.) What did you buy the last time you went shopping for new clothes? I got some new leggings and tops online a couple of weeks ago.

4.) What is your favorite meal of the day? I don't really eat set meals. I have breakfast but otherwise I generally just snack during the day, but if I'm out somewhere then I love going out for lunch.

5.) Do you typically eat breakfast or skip it? I always eat it - I work a busy, physical job and I would genuinely feel unwell if I didn't eat anything in the mornings.

6.) What was the last thing you took a picture of? The kitten.

7.) Do you have a collection of anything? Wax melts and jumpers.

8.) What was the last thing you threw away? An empty Malteasers wrapper.

9.) What is the cause of your current emotional state? I'm relaxed because it's Sunday but I'm tired because the dog was really restless last night and kept wanting a cuddle.

10.) What were the last plans you made? How about cancelled? To go to my mum's next weekend - we're off to Manchester on Saturday but I want to stay the Friday night too so we're planning a takeaway for tea. I can't remember the last time I cancelled plans.

11.) How did you discover your favorite band? My dad introduced me to them when I was tiny.

12.) Does the weather affect your mood? If so, in what ways? Yes, sometimes. If I don't have to go out then it doesn't really bother me, but I find wind and rain really stressful weather conditions to be outside in, to be brutally honest.

13.) When are you most likely to be bored? During a power outage. <--- yep.

14.) What was the last big decision you made? I can't remember, to be quite honest.

15.) Where was the last place you traveled to, and what did you do while there? Uh, to a clients' house to feed their cats, and then to the local shop to pick up some cat food for my fussy buggers who have all decided that they won't eat Felix anymore.

16.) What is your favorite thing to go shopping for? Books.

17.) How organized are you? I'm ridiculously organised, to be honest.

18.) What were the positives and negatives of your last week? Positives were that work went well, I saw my mum and I finally got a nice, relaxing weekend. The negatives were getting caught in the storm and the cats all getting the shits because their food suddenly started disagreeing with them lol.

19.) If applicable, how did you decide what you wanted to study in college/university? I just picked the subjects I enjoyed and was good at.

20.) What was the last thing you received in the mail? Some probiotics for the cats.

21.) What is one of your wildest dreams or ambitions? Owning a business on full-time livery. HA. I wish. 22.) When was the last time you performed in front of a group of people? I honestly don't remember.

23.) Who was the last person to upset you? How about the last person to cheer you up? I don't remember the last time I was upset or needed cheering up.

24.) Is there anything or anyone you’re trying to get over or let go of? No.

25.) What was the subject of your last phone conversation? It was with Suzanne about what dates she needed me to stay with Charlie over half-term.

26.) What are your plans for tomorrow? How about the weekend? I'm working tomorrow. I'm in Manchester over the weekend to see a play.

27.) When was the last time you were sick? I had an awful bug back in January time. I can't remember feeling that unwell, honestly. I have no idea what it was but I was so unwell.

28.) How close do you have to be with someone before you’ll consider them a friend? Not very close, really.

29.) What did the last jacket you wore look like? It's just a black and grey waterproof.

30.) Name five things you can grab from where you’re sitting. Simba, my phone, the remote, a can of Dr Pepper, socks.

[metagalacticx]

1,2 thiam and morey

thiam

1. Who cooks?

i think it’s a pretty common hc that liam can’t cook which i find so endearing and amusing <3 i do think he can cook some things very well though. he makes the best mac & cheese, the tastiest mashed potatoes and he can bake brownies you will develop an unhealthy craving for (which theo does). theo can’t cook either, but not in the burns things or undercooks meat kind of way… his food is unseasoned always. he uses salt and pepper and that is it. liam is horrified every single time he’s sick because the soup theo makes tastes like peppery hot water. they eat out a lot. theo secretly wants to learn how to cook well but he’s also kind of ashamed that he can’t so he doesn’t do anything about it for a while. one day liam’s dad visits and liam begs him to cook and theo goes to the kitchen for water and ends up staying, awkwardly at first, but then dr geyer asks him to pass different ingredients and theo’s amazed he makes it look so easy but is also scared of looking too eager. dr geyer’s idea of conversation is giving theo explicit instructions on how to make the dish… "now, you don’t want it too hot, but you need to sweat the seasonings first so you get all that flavour going before you add everything else. garlic then onions, never the other way around. see that? that’s the good stuff right there. we’ll save that to make some gravy after." liam’s in the living room with an ear-splitting grin listening to theo’s heartbeat.

2. Who’s the messiest? The cleanest?

oh liam is so lazy when it comes to cleaning it’s disgusting. he doesn’t do dishes and he doesn’t do laundry either. theo makes a ritual out of both those things. he’s also very particular about towels and will literally throw them away if he thinks they’re too soiled. surprisingly liam isn’t messy messy… like he doesn’t throw stuff around or kick his clothes across the room, but cleaning? he regularly offers favours in exchange for theo doing certain chores. they have a pack of paper plates in a cupboard for the days theo’s not up for doing the dishes.

morey

1. Who cooks?

corey cooks, and he’s so good at it! date nights are fun because corey will come up with a theme and an entire three-course meal will be prepared accordingly, which mason absolutely loves, of course. mason can’t really cook, but he doesn’t need to anymore anyway <3 they don’t eat out often, but when they do mason is not shy about making whoever’s in earshot know his boyfriend’s food is "leagues ahead" and they’re only eating out to "support small businesses".

2. Who’s the messiest? The cleanest?

mason isn’t messy but he’s messy <3 he’ll leave stuff lying around. charger on the carpet. t-shirt on the bed. empty milk carton put back in the fridge. it annoys corey a little bit because he genuinely can’t understand why and how mason forgets every single time? "you left it on the table again" "oh sorry man it completely slipped me" "that’s the second time this week" "yeah, it happens". mason doesn’t think it’s a big deal but he does try to take stock of where he’s left things and scans every room before he leaves. corey likes doing dishes but mason always offers to do them.

[ghoulified-owl]

Tell me all your Hancock hcs...*gun*

hyper-cryptic

Okioki I will give some that come to my brain

1) he hates tatos with a burning passion

2) part of him knows McDonough is a synth

3) he really hates paperwork, and if he gets any he will often give it to Fahrenheit.

4) enjoys meetings though, but prefers getting his hand dirty

5) was unaware of sinjin being in goodneighbor because he was super fuckin hungover. He feels really guilty about this, and tells no one about it

6) Nick is basically his grandpa

7) Amari is like a mom tbh

8) he still has contact with his parents, but visits rarely. They exchange letters.

9) he keeps these letters in a box with some other trinkets from his past life (most notably a lighter with a skull n American flag on it)

10) he has a tattoo of this lighter (pre ghoul) and he also has a goodneighbor tattoo on his thigh

11) definitely grows his own pot

12) cuddly beast. He never stops

13) has a working tv and some old movie tapes (most notably horror, but he also like wild west movies)

14) really wants a horse. That's it

15) his eyes glow green, he also sees well in the dark. This is terrifying

16) if dr pepper existed, he'd pound cans all day

17) rarely dates because he's scared of emotional vulnerability

18) knows very scenic spots round boston, because who doest wanna get high in the woods?

19) good singer, can also play a little guitar

20) really good with making bombs

21) customized his shot gun with a skull in rose carving. His gun can also blow. ahole through you like it's nothing

22) call him pretty and he will fucking die. Please call him pretty, he deserves it

Head empty no think my ear hurts

[juminsmysticmc]

RFA do sports with Mc until she‘s too weak to even walk ( Mc wasn't forced, just got weak! )

Hello! So, this is a HC I have been waiting to write for such a long time! I hope you enjoy! BTW; Mc wasn’t forced or so!

Jumin

,,Sports day at the company? Sounds fun to me!’’ you wrote in the chat when your husband and Jaehee talked about the sports day at the C&R.

Yoosung somehow convinced the whole RFA to come, even though Jumin told them countless times that they couldn’t come.

But you were also excited to have a fun day with your friends so your husband accepted them.

When the day came, you were wearing a sports skirt as well as a shirt and a hat.

Jumin was currently putting some sunscreen on your skin, knowing that you had sensitive skin.

,,If it’s too hard, Mc, please take a rest, my love,’’ Jumin kept saying.

But you had no intention of giving up and so the day began.

Zen was constantly trying to beat Jumin and Jumin simply loved to show you how good you were.

You, however, also wanted to show them all how good you were and of course not giving people a single chance to bad mouth you.

However, three hours later you were just weak. The sun was way too strong and you didn’t drink enough water.

Jumin, of course, noticed your condition and quickly approached you, catching you before your body hit the ground.

,,Mc, my love!’’ he called out.

,,Jumin, I’m so weak…’’ you laughed and tried to hold onto him.

In less than a second, he had you between his arms and he carried you towards the infirmary, trying to make you feel better.

Zen

You knew how much he loved to work out so you decided to go to the gym with him.

Of course you never had as much of a workout as today.

Zen always made sure that you stayed healthy and drank a lot of water and would take a good rest, but at some point he was concentrating so much on his own workout that he completely forgot that you never worked out that hard.

He just noticed again when you were laying on the ground, panting and trying to get up again.

,,Princess! I’m so sorry! Should I call and ambulance?’’ he asked you, concerned and sorry that he didn’t notice.

,,No,’’ you whispered. You were even too weak to move your head.

,,Can you just please carry me home? I can’t move anymore…’’ you laughed.

He smiled at you and gladly took your body in his strong arms.

Your chest was pressed against his wet body.

,,Sorry, I smell gross…’’ he apologized sorry.

,,No, you’re hot,’’ you mumbled and blushed as you rested in his arms, making him feel even better…’’

Yoosung

,,You game too much after work!’’ you nagged at him.

,,We need to do some workouts!’’ you told him and pulled him.

Yoosung was unsure if he could even endure so long.

But you were so firm about this so he agreed with you.

Well, you were right after all. He needed to move more.

And so both of you changed into some sports gear and began to run around the park, stopping a few minutes for some different workouts and then kept running.

However, at some point you didn’t feel your feet anymore and just had to stop.

Yoosung on the other side was more than filled with power.

,,I can’t anymore,’’ you gasped.

Yoosung smiled as he went on his knees.

,,I will give you a piggyback ride,’’ he offered and made you smile.

You put your weak arms around him as he supported your legs and walked home with you on his back.

,,I was always jealous of Zen,’’ he began.

,,But now I feel strong. I can carry my own wife home,’’ he smiled, flustered and turning red.

You chuckled to yourself and you were really glad when he even made you a warm bath and took your clothes off. You were really too weak to move...

Jaehee

,,I believe that we walk more than enough at the coffee shop, but if you want to, Mc,’’ Jaehee smiled and took the sports bra you gave her, ready to change into it and do the workout you decided to do with her.

Both of you were motivated to do this, moving your hands, legs, hips and feeling the burning muscles.

You both were sweating.

The room was turning hot as both of you kept doing the work out.

But suddenly you felt your legs giving up and it happened.

You didn’t collapse, but you fell on the floor and couldn’t get up anymore.

,,I think we need to stop, Jaehee…’’ you laughed after she got the shock of her life.

,,Ah, are you okay?’’ she asked you and sat down next to you.

Your chest was moving up and down as you tried to calm your breathing.

The sweat was dripping down your chest, having your girlfriend’s whole attention.

,,Something wrong?’’ you asked Jaehee, noticing that she perhaps had a sexy thought of you.

,,NO!’’ she blushed.

But you were straight forward ,,I can’t move my hands, so come and kiss me, Jaehee…’’ you moaned and enjoyed the long kiss she gave you...

Saeyoung

,,You’re eating too much junk food,’’ you told him and showed him the empty bags of his favorite chips and the empty cans of his favorite drink.

,,Dr. Pepper is good for my head!’’ he whined.

,,Yes, if you want-ah! Don’t make me talk! Get up! We’ll play badminton now!’’ you hissed and pulled him up.

,,Do you even know how to play?’’ he asked you and chuckled as you led him outside.

,,I’m the best player,’’ you smirked and hit the ball.

However, he caught it perfectly and played back.

It was funny. He was good which was something you didn’t expect from him.

And so the game went way too long until he accidentally hit you in your stomach with the ball, making you fall back.

At first he laughed, thinking that it was funny, but when he noticed that you didn’t stand up anymore he became worried and quickly approached you, calling you by your name.

,,As if something like this could kill me,’’ you laughed and looked at him.

,,Stand up,’’ he said and smiled as he offered his hand to you.

,,No, please carry me. You were so good that I can’t move… besides, it hurts…’’ you laughed.

Saeyoung laughed too and was more than happy to carry you to the couch and give you an ice pack with a cold can of Dr. Pepper...

MASTERLIST 1

MASTERLIST 2

MASTERLIST 3

08.04.2021// 00:33 MEST

[snowdice]

Road Trips and Missing Persons (Part 20)

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Relationships: Patton & Virgil, Virgil & Janus, Logan & Patton, Emile & Remy, Roman & Remus & Janus

Characters: Patton, Virgil, Janus, Remus, Roman, Logan, Emile, Remy

Summary: Patton was just getting groceries. The next thing he knew, there was a knife at his throat and he was an unwilling uber driver. Virgil’s on the run after the murder of his dad, and it’s not just his paranoia that’s telling him he’s being chased down. He has to get somewhere safe, somewhere he can trust, and all he has is a couple of stories from his dad and a name: “Green Bellow Foods and Dispensary.”

Notes: Secret Agents AU, knives, carjacking, kidnapping, murder mentioned, guns mentioned, pepper spray, blood mentioned, drugs mentioned, explosions, car crashes (more to be added)

This is a fic I’ve been writing on study breaks that you have probably all already seen at this point. I’ve affectionately named it the Goblin Brain Fic because it’s helping my brain actually get motivated for studying. I’ve slightly edited it for wording and grammar, but not for content from my previous posts. Feel free to send in asks to direct it because I’m not 100% sure where this is going and you can help decide if you feel so inclined! You can see the process I went through to build this at this link.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18 Part 19 My Master Post

Janus was being very sulky. Spraying Remus in the face with a little bit of juice was one thing, but pouring the entire juice pouch into his lap, that was another. Clearly Janus was very unhappy with the state of affairs. Remus was glad Roman had interpreted the shoulder bob Remus had given him while getting into the car correctly and had helped Remus pin Janus in the middle. Remus… honestly wouldn’t put it past Janus to try to jump out of the car when it was moving at this point. He was clearly very strung out and in one of his bad headspaces.

The first time Remus had seen him in this bad of a headspace had been after a week “vacation” (He still refused to explain the quotation marks to this day even though Remus now knew who his mother was and what she did.) with his mother and had legitimately planned an assassination of their shared calculus professor thinking she was plotting against him. At the time Remus had thought that had mostly been a joke. Having gotten to know Janus since… it was a good thing Dr. Hawkins had decided to give them a break on the homework for that week.

Remus had no idea where the man’s mind had gone, but he was pretty sure distracting him as soon as possible was the best move. So, Remus did the only think he could think of in that moment to possibly shock his best friend out of spiraling into a pit of cynicism. He leaned forward and grabbed another Capri Sun (this time Strawberry Kiwi instead of Tropical Punch) out of the cooler. He stabbed the straw through the hole and then turned to Janus. “Want another one?” Remus asked. Janus blinked at him stone faced, but then held out his hand. He took the straw out immediately after Remus handed it to him and didn’t hesitate to pour that entire pouch onto Remus’s lap as well.

Remus nodded seriously as though Janus had just made a good point in an argument. He leaned forward and grabbed another one. “Does,” he said glancing at the label on the pouch as he stuck the straw into it, “a Wild Cherry one catch your fancy?” He handed it over to Janus and once again got the entire package squirted into his lap. “Fair enough,” he said mildly, reaching into the cooler once again. “How about a Grape one?”

They went through a Pacific Cooler, a Surfer Cooler, and an Orange one before, finally, Remus pulled out a Fruit Punch one. Instead of immediately tearing out the straw and dumping it on Remus, Janus hesitated at that one. After a moment, he turned away from Remus to stare foward and brought the straw to his lips. Roman was shooting them a bewildered look, but Remus just winked at him. Janus made short work of the juice pouch and then extended a hand to drop the empty container into Remus’s lap.

Remus gave it a moment and then leaned over slightly to bump shoulders with him. He paused for a second and then bumped him again.

“I don’t want to talk to you,” Janus mumbled. Remus paid him no mind and bumped their shoulders together for the third time.

“Come on Jay,” Remus said.

“No.”

Remus narrowed his eyes at him and then slammed into him even harder sending him into Roman who yelped in surprise.

“What the hell is wrong with you, you cretin?!” Janus spat, slapping Remus away.

“Oh, so many things,” Remus said. He heard Roman give a soft puff of amusement. “What about you?”

“What do you mean?”

“What’s wrong with you?”

“Well I’m stuck in a car with you, asshole,” Janus snapped.

Remus tilted his head. “No,” he said. “What’s really wrong?”

He scoffed. “What’s not, Remus! My brother’s missing. My da…ad of my brother is dead! My mother is trying to murder me in cold blood. And you claimed to be my best friend earlier, but now you are unflinchingly on board with turning me over to your father who is more than likely going to throw me into a prison cell the moment he sees me.”

“Okay,” Remus said. “First things first, dad is not going to throw you into a prison cell when we show up.”

“Oh really?” Janus asked. “And why wouldn’t he.”

“He likes you Jay.”

“Even if that’s true, he clearly doesn’t trust me.”

“If he didn’t trust you, he wouldn’t let you be a double agent for him,” Remus pointed out.

“I’m not a double agent because he trusts me,” Janus argued. “I’m a double agent because I’m Barbara Nelson’s son. I was a calculated risk at best and now I’m too much of a risk even if I was still useful.”

“Dad’s not like that.”

“Maybe not to you,” Janus grumbled.

“Why do you think he doesn’t trust you?”

“Well it’s pretty obvious when he sends another agent to go pick up my brother and meanwhile tries to send me on a different mission as a distraction to get me out of the way. Clearly, he doesn’t trust me to not deliver Virgil to my mother. Why else would he do that?”

“Jay, did you consider that he knows you?” Remus asked. Janus raised an eyebrow. “Dude, just last week you were drunk texting me and dad pictures of you and your brother from your childhood, many of which included Virgil’s father. He may have jumped to the conclusion that you’d be upset about Remy Gates’ death and that you’d act irrationally because of those feelings.”

Janus scoffed. “Irrational?” he asked. “What did he expect me to do?”

“Oh,” Remus said. “I don’t know. Perhaps something like bash in some guys skull against a water fountain in a public park, blow your cover with your mom, explode a car, smash a bunch of phones, get into a car chase and shoot out with your mom’s men that ultimately ended up with you in a lake, poor juice all over me, and spiral into a pit of thinking that everyone in your life is out to get you.”

If looks could kill, well, Remus would have already been dead long ago, but he would have been especially dead right then. However, as it stood, Remus was decidedly not dead. He shot a toothy smile at Janus who glared even more intensely. “All of those things were perfectly rational,” Janus insisted, “and even if I were emotional, that is because my brother is missing which your father did not know about until after he sent Roman. It has nothing to do with the boy’s father.”

“You are worryingly good at hiding your emotions from yourself,” Remus said. “I think you actually believe that. Wonder what you’ll do when we find Virgil and those feelings are still not gone.”

“You and your father can both screw off,” he ground out. Yet, his tone was still somehow milder than it had been before they’d started to talk through his idea that dad 100% inarguably hated him. So, that was progress.

Remus bumped their shoulders again. “Plus,” he said. “If dad did decide to throw you in a prison cell, I’d totally break you out of it, and we’d go on the run. Our future cat has to have a daddy after all!”

“I don’t even like cats,” Janus said.

“Sure Jan.”

“I’m going to pour more juice on you.”

“Kinky.”

“What? What does that even mean?”

“It’s his default catch phrase,” Roman offered. “Try spinning him around and bonking him on the head three times. That usually resets him.”

“Bet I could do it in one if I hit him hard enough,” Janus said.

“I’d say no blood in my car,” Lena pipped in from the front seat, “but it’s far too late for that.”

“Hmm,” Remus said. “What’s worse on car seats? Nose blood, Capri Sun, or lake water?”

“We’ll fine out when it dries,” Janus said.

“I’m charging the agency for a new car,” Lena grumbled.

“Same,” said Roman.

Want to read more? Click below!

Part 21 Part 22

[caitybug]

hi i have more hope this isnt annoying/// prompt! baz is the librarian for the local library n simon is the kid who always returns his books late

Definitely NOT annoying!! Thank you so much :D. 

I’ll put it under the keep reading :). 

(Also if anyone else wants to send a prompt... like go for it. I won’t complain. The more ridiculous the better tbh.)

(Also Meri I hope you were looking for a response that is 1500 words bc that’s what you’re getting kthnx.)

(Might fuck around later and post it to ao3 idk.)

It’s only a summer job, but it’s a job that frustrates the hell out of me at times. 

Especially people who cannot follow simple instructions. Return books to the drop off box, don’t shout, don’t run, and please do not participate in sexual activities in between the rows of books. 

I say the last one because I just walked into two teenagers groping each other in between the reference and biography shelves. 

Choose a better section at LEAST.

If I ever did I’d probably do it behind the romance section. It’s fitting for the mood, at the very back section, and no cameras can see you there. 

Not that I’ve thought about it.

I’m checking out a little kid and his mother when I see the worst person to ever walk into the library.

(The worst is probably dramatic. There is a guy who tries to bring in a water bottle that smells of whiskey and a bag of chips that gets crumbs all over the computer. But at least that guy leaves me alone... Simon Snow, however, can’t leave me be.)

Simon Snow can’t seem to pay his library fines. He turns in every book late. It’s ridiculous. There are certain rules in this world, and this can’t be that hard of one. He could just renew the book online even to buy himself some time.

But he never does.

He sneakily tries to drop his books off without me knowing, but he can’t ever get anything past me. 

“Snow,” I say, handing the woman her receipt and walking towards him.

He freezes and looks up, face scrunched in embarrassment. 

“Do you have money to pay your fines? I can only assume you’re turning these in late too,” I gesture to the books. 

“Uh, well,” he stammers. Snow always stammers. 

I cross my arms and raise an eyebrow, waiting for a proper answer. 

He starts digging in his pockets, pulling out a nickel, penny, a Dr. Pepper bottle cap, and some lint.

I grab the change and frown at the bottle cap.

“Why do you have-”

“There’s a code,” he shrugs, “I was hoping to win a prize.”

Of course, he would do something like that. 

“Please bring money next time you come in,” I say, moving to go check out another customer. 

He nods and walks out, leaving the Dr. Pepper bottle cap behind. 

I grab it and stash it in my pocket. 

After I check out the customer I decide to grab the books Snow was returning. What could he possibly be reading that takes him so long?

He has three books this time:

1. Fun Home

2. Heartstopper vol. 1

3. Bloom

I frown. 

They’re all graphic novels, so what is taking him so long?

Then I blush, realizing another trend they all have in common.

I shake my head and check his books back in.

I also erase his fines.

______

The next time Snow comes in it’s to check out some books. 

I can’t help but think of the books he turned in last time. I was also nosey and investigated the other books he had checked out the past couple of months. 

They’re all gay.

Is Simon Snow gay?

“Snow,” I say as he approaches. He has one book, the next volume of Heartstopper. “Do you have your money for your fines?”

He doesn’t have fines anymore, I erased them, but I can’t let him know that. 

“Uh,” he responds. 

He’s not good at using his words, but somehow watching him fluster about is incredibly adorable. 

Snow turns out his pockets and has a crumpled receipt, a french fry, and the cap to a pen.

I shake my head, God this boy is an idiot.

“Snow I’m going to have to stop letting you check out books if you can’t pay off your fines.” 

It’s an empty threat. His balance is zero.

He nods, however, and grabs his books and puts the receipt where I highlighted the due date into his pocket. 

When he goes to leave, I remember something.

“Wait, you left something last time you were here,” I open my drawer and pull out the Dr. Pepper cap. “Good luck winning, but I am sure you won’t.”

He smiles and grabs it.

“Thanks, Baz.”

I smile back. I didn’t know he knew my name.

_______

The next time I see him I’m shelving books. 

I don’t typically do this part of the job, but the page is out sick and we had a huge pile.

I also didn’t want to deal with all of the kids here for the magician. 

It’s in the LGBT section where I find him, staring at the books.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you so intensely in thought before,” I say.

Why am I such a jerk?

“Oh, uh, hey Baz.” He says. 

He looks like he is blushing. 

“Do you need help, Snow?”

He shakes his head and looks up at the top shelf. I look up, following his eye line, and see the third volume of heartstopper.

I step closer and reach up to grab it. 

I can’t help but smirk when I hand it to him. 

I’m at least three inches taller than him. Good to know.

“Thanks,” he mutters, before turning to leave.

Stop him, my brain says.

My body, however, doesn’t move.

______

The fourth time he comes into the library he is with a girl with brown frizzy hair and dimples on the back of her knees. She’s dragging him through the reference section, piling books into his arms.

It’s quite funny. I can see the whole scene perfectly from the front desk. 

They sit at a table and Snow and I make eye contact. He smiles, and I immediately look down.

It’s like looking into the sun when he smiles, blinding and overwhelming. Doctors should put a warning on him.

Don’t look directly at him, it’ll damage your eyes and you’ll be seeing stars for an hour.

We don’t talk, but we keep catching each other’s eyes. My face feels too warm and soft. 

I check his library account, and his book is already two days late.

Rolling my eyes, I renew the book and erase the fines.

If my boss found out about this I’d be murdered.

______

The next time I see him is at the back of the library, he is wandering around and I’m putting back books. A book club of middle-aged women came in, and with them, a stack of raunchy romance novels. 

“Oh, hey Baz,” Simon says, smiling up at me.

I swear my breath hitches.

“Snow,” I reply, reaching up to put a book on the top shelf.

It doesn’t go there, but I need him to know I can reach that high. Higher than he can. 

I’ll fix it when he leaves.

“So, uh, I won that Dr. Pepper prize.”

I look over and raise an eyebrow, waiting for an explanation.

“I got some money and thought I could pay my fines,” he continues.

I freeze. He doesn’t have any fines. 

“Well, Snow, you could go to the front desk and pay those off,” I say, grabbing another book and putting it on the top shelf.

Why am I putting all of these up so high? They don’t belong here.

“I did, actually,” he continues. I cringe. Fuck. “But they said I didn’t have any.”

“Well, they must have looked at the wrong spot because I can assure you there are fines.” There aren’t.

He steps closer to me, I drop my arm. He smells like popcorn and Old Spice.

Why does it smell good?

“Baz, did you forgive my fines?” He asks.

I scoff.

“Snow, why would I-”

“I think you did. The lady at the front, the one with the grey streak in her hair, said it looked like I had made payments these past few weeks.” I cringe, Fiona is going to kill me. “So, my only question is, why?”

I stare at him, not knowing how to respond. ‘Because I like you, Snow. I like the way your golden girls always look a mess. I like the stupid hoodie with a hole in the sleeve looks on you. You are covered in moles and I want to kiss every one of them.

I look at his lips, the thing I want to kiss the most. 

“I don’t know what you’re-”

“Baz,” he steps closer. “If I’m off base here feel free to tell me, but I-” he gulps, taking a moment. “I would like to take you out. Consider it repayment.” The way he smiles makes my heart skip.

I nod, not trusting my voice to respond. 

And then, fuck, he leans up and puts a hand on my neck, lips almost touching mine.

“Wait,” I manage to stay, pushing him back. His face drops, but I grab his hand and pull him around the corner.

The romance section, corner of the library, where there are no security cameras. If I’m ever going to kiss someone in the library, it’ll be here.

I push him against the stack and kiss him.

And, god, is it good.

[beerecordings]

Poison - Chapter 5

Part 1 l Part 2 l Part 3 l Part 4

So this was going to be the final section but it was longer than I expected! So there will be one part after this, I think, or one part and an epilogue. It should be posted next week :)

Marvin is, at last, rescued. But whether or not his brothers have been quick enough to truly save him - and what is to be done with the broken amalgamation of Anti and Chase, bound together in confusion and agony by a possession which out-stayed its welcome - is yet to be seen.

Trigger warnings for trauma reactions and hospitalization, including intubation, major illness, and forced psychiatric hold with restraints and drugging (Anti-Chase is the one in psychiatric holding). There are parts of this that could be interpreted as soft!Anti, but mostly it’s just Chase’s influence on the merged character they’ve made.

All that being said... hope you enjoy and thanks for reading :)

-----------

A

white

room.

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe, whispers the machine pumping oxygen into his lungs with a hiss.

The only noise.

The only noise.

Silence and oxygen.

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. Hisssss.

Can't feel anything at all.

Even his skin is a stranger.

Untouchable.

Colors and images and words with a vile sound to them – memories, realizes some part of him – filter through his mind like dust through the air.

Meaningless.

Meaningless.

Empty as a white

white

white

white

room.

White coat. He stares up at it. It moves. Someone's wearing it.

White sheets. They do not fidget. His body is frozen beneath them.

White man.

His blue eyes are the only color in the room.

White

room.

Dark.

Cool.

Silent.

“Schneep,” his mouth attempts, just once, and then he is asleep again.

Henrik lets himself touch his wrist. Only for a moment. Just to feel the heart still beating beneath his own fingers.

“Stay with me,” he whispers, and hopes it reaches him somewhere, a light in dark dreams. “Stay with me, my brother.”

The first night is the vital one and he’s done everything he can.

Now he has to wait.

“I’ll finish up the last of it,” murmurs Kaashif, a nurse he’s worked with for two years now, touching his shoulders. “Go check on your brothers. Get something to eat. Your hands are good ones to be in, Henrik.”

“You can say that if he survives,” answers Henrik, clapping him on his shoulder and sending one look back at Marvin, small and as white as a gutted bird in that great blank bed.

Stay with me, my brother.

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

The cool walls of Henrik’s office surround him, comforting in their familiarity. The table is glass, a customary splattering of papers discarded across the smooth surface. A Newton’s cradle with smiley faces on the balls that Chase bought for him rock back and forth, back and forth, soothing white noise to Jackie’s ears. He stares up at the abstract blue and orange painting on a full meter of canvas pinned up above Henrik’s chair. Jameson made it for him himself. Just some nice colors. Just something to brighten up his office. For you, Schneep.

Hospitals can be scary. Jackie knows. But for his family, this place in particular has never been an omen for them. This is where they come to pick up Henrik after long days of work. This is where they’ve shared over-priced cafeteria food and smuggled-in Taco Bell at four in the morning. This is a piece of their city, of their home, of their family. Most of the staff know them by name, or at least as Henrik’s brothers. They can get roof access just by begging Cameron the security guard hard enough. And even when they’ve come here because someone was sick or Jackie broke a bone or that one time Marvin stepped on a piece of glass after breaking a crystal ball that wasn’t working, this was never the place to come to out of fear. It was the place to come because they knew Henrik was in the hospital, and Henrik would make it better.

JJ signs something incoherent and burrows deeper into Jackie’s shoulder, sighing against his shirt. Jackie wants to smile at his sleeping face, but he’s so tired, and so full of adrenaline, and so, so, so scared.

They’ve waited for hours by the time Henrik finally slips into his office behind them, letting the door shut behind him with a tired click. There’s a long silence. Jackie closes his eyes. Please don’t let them be gone.

“You made yourself at home,” Henrik teases, stepping forward, though his voice cracks slightly on delivery. He has a point, however. Wrappers from vending machine candy and a couple bottles of fizzy drinks lie abandoned around the chairs in front of his desk, the drawers of which have been ripped open in search of entertainment – or, better put, distraction. Not that the caffeine or the many drawings of sheep given to Henrik by Chase’s kids were enough to save Jackie from the full, shaking weight of his fear. He strokes his thumb across his little brother’s wrist and reminds himself to breathe steady.

Henrik moves to Jackie’s side and puts a hand on his free shoulder. He doesn’t even look up. His tired eyes have drifted down from his painting to the glass that makes up Henrik’s back wall, where snow is drifting out of the sky.

Henrik crouches down beside him and puts his head against his arm, and for a long moment they just rest, together, listening to Jameson breathe.

“Can you talk?” asks Henrik. “Do you need somewhere quiet to go? The lights off?”

“I’m okay, Schneep,” whispers Jackie, touching the bandage over Henrik’s cheek where Marvin burned him. “Just worried. Is he…”

“He’s alive.”

Jackie’s gloved hand squeezes around Jameson’s, making his little brother’s sleepily-clutched rosary clink and glitter in the starlight. Henrik looks up to see Jackie’s face squeezed just as tight, his eyes closed.

“Is he going to be alright?”

“I can’t make any promises,” whispers Henrik. “JJ seem okay to you?”

“You heard that he fainted just about as soon as we got here?”

“Magic is exhausting. I could have gotten him a bed somewhere.”

“He just wanted to be in your office. He likes it in here. There’s been a nurse checking in on him anyway. You know how much all the nurses here love him.”

“Yeah, cause he’s always bringing baked goods to the break room for ‘my big brother and his coworkers.’”

“Aka, being the cutest person in the world.”

“Yeah. Well, when Marvin is better, he’ll know what to do to take care of magical exhaustion better than I do. And he can teach JJ everything he needs to know. And everything will be okay.”

Jackie stares up at him, seeing himself reflected in Henrik’s glasses. His fear reflected – shared – in Henrik’s eyes.

“What happened?” he whispers. “Tell me everything.”

What a fucking night. What a fucking night. Henrik laughs without knowing why and goes to sit down on his side of the desk, burying his face in his hands.

Jackie waits, watching him. Eventually he leans down and picks up a Dr. Pepper, sliding it towards his brother.

“I’m going to pretend this is whiskey,” says Henrik, and he pops the cap and chugs the half that remains, making Jackie give him a faint, amused smile, which is all that matters to Henrik right now, really, because it’s all he can do.

He explains to Jackie what he can, trying not to go too fast. Jackie sits there holding Jameson and listening quietly to Henrik talking about things like renal failure and sedatives for seizures and a cool white room with all stimuli set to a minimum and muscle relaxants pumping into their brother to stop any more convulsions – not to mention what sounds like enough activated charcoal to detox a sickly elephant. Marvin’s intubated, Henrik explains, and extremely unwell. He won’t know for a couple days how bad the damage to his body will be. He could still die. And no, they can’t see him. No one can. Not for days.

“I could wear all white,” Jackie tries to bargain, voice rasping. “I could be really quiet and not touch him.”

“You can’t, Jackie. The risk is too high.”

“I can’t just sit with him? I can’t see him through the window of the room?”

“There is no window to the room. He has to rest. Alone. Quiet. No color. As little movement as he can. He won’t even be conscious for a couple days.”

Jackie bangs his fist against the arm of the chair in an effort to be contradictory, but he doesn’t take his head off Jamie’s. He buries himself against his brother’s hair, hoping Henrik won’t see him cry.

“Listen, Jackie… I need to give you the medical professional talk now, okay? I need you to know this. I’m not trying to be pessimistic and I’m not giving up hope, just – ”

“It’s okay, Schneep,” says Jackie softly. “I already know most people who get poisoned this badly die.”

A silence falls between them. Henrik stares at his own hands and says nothing.

“Cottonmouth?” he manages eventually, looking up at his brother.

“Dead,” mumbles Jackie. “I’ll let the cops handle that one. It’s horrible, really... even for her. Wonder what Moccasin will do.”

“Right,” says Henrik, his voice a little dark, and Jackie thinks that his little brother doesn’t think it’s so horrible at all, that she got what she deserved. “Yeah.”

Jameson shuffles sleepily on Jackie’s shoulder. The snow is quieting outside.

“And Chase?” Jackie whispers.

Found after all this time. Found after all this time.

Found like this.

“What did the police say?” asks Henrik.

“They almost tried to take him back to the station! I could have pounded them for it! But I looked after him til the emergency responders said he should go to the psych ward of the hospital. Wasn’t going to let pigs touch my little brother.”

“Is he going to be arrested once he’s better?”

“I don’t think so. Max is pulling some strings for us. He knows Chase isn’t… himself. He’s going to buy us time to deal with this.”

“Well, if they do try to put him on trial, I can always smuggle him back to Germany.”

Jackie laughs despite himself, covering his face with his hands for a moment, trying to keep it together.

“I won’t let anything happen to him. He can’t, like, glitch away, right?”

“As far as we can tell. He’s heavily drugged.”

“And how is he?”

“I, um. I don’t know.”

“What?”

Henrik looks up at him, face drawn and guilty.

“Schneep, they told me you were looking after him.”

“I meant to. I mean, I wrote up his treatment plan and everything and I had the nurses give him everything he needs. But I couldn’t go in there. I got – I got…”

Henrik trails off, mouth pursed. Jackie sighs and pulls his face up from JJ’s hair.

He got scared.

“He doesn’t really look like Chase, does he?” he murmurs.

“Or act like him,” Henrik all but whimpers, clutching at the white sleeves of his coat that hide the pale string scars underneath. “He acts like… like him, and I couldn’t…”

“It’s okay,” says Jackie. “It’s not your fault, Schneep. I’d be nervous too.”

“Will you go with me?” he asks.

“You still want to see him?”

“Yes.” Henrik tries to look resolute when he nods. “I do, yes. I need to help him with this. I need to find a way to save him, Jackie. I think I can do it. If you’re there.”

Jackie grins at him, hallowed by the stars and the snow outside. There’s his Schneep. That’s his tough little brother.

“Course, man. That’s what I do. They don’t call me Jackieboyman for nothing.”

“They call you that because you are a dork. Come on. He’s in the psych ward.”

“Wait, what about Jamie?”

“Oh, I talked with the nurse. He’s just sleeping. For once. So he should be okay to keep resting a while. Call me when he’s possessed and/or someone’s fed him gopher poison in revenge for imprisoning their drug lord partner.”

“Don’t even joke, von Schneeplestein. Don’t even joke.”

He picks Jameson up and readjusts him in the chair, leaving him sleeping deep and dreamless beneath blue and orange canvas, warm with Jackie’s hoodie wrapped around his shoulders.

At least Jackie gets to see this one resting.

Now it’s time to go poke a bear.

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

“Where am I?” he asks himself, staring at the ceiling above him.

White ceiling. White bedsheets. White light, painful on the eyes after so long in unconsciousness.

“I think… a hospital?” he answers, his voice weak, his tongue terribly thick in his mouth. “Please, no words… oh, I ache…”

He’ll think instead. It’s easier.

This is a hospital?

I think it is.

I don’t want to be here! Let’s get out.

Look, in the doorway… the men who look like me.

He turns his head more fully towards the door, breathing anxiously.

Those are the men I ran away from?

I don’t remember… did I? Oh, our head… we have to lie back down.

He sinks into the pillows and nearly passes out again, his head throbbing and his limbs sluggishly motivated, tasting blood in his mouth.

He doesn’t remember much of that day he went away.

In fact, he doesn’t remember much at all.

He thinks there was a train that day, or maybe not a train. A train underground. He was holding… something soft. He was holding something soft. He was smiling.

He was on his way to see his children.

He was on his way to see his kids. Yes, he was smiling. He was smiling very big.

The subway rattled merrily around him as he sat clutching the stuffies he had bought them to his chest, his eyes bright, grinning at the exhausted assemblage of people headed to work around him. Things were good, and Hunter had been excited to see him on the phone, and Stacy was going to go out of town and let him stay with them, and everything was going to be okay. Everything was going to be better than okay. Everything was going to be perfect.

And then he wasn’t who he was anymore.

There was nothing theatrical about it, really, nothing like in the movies, with throes of passionate fighting against the thing inside your head or a look of horror as the eyes turned black in the mirror. Anti did sit suddenly down beside him, yes, emerging from the crowd though he had not been there when the subway doors closed, and Chase’s heart took flight like a bird after a gunshot cuts through the air. He said nothing. Clutched Izzy’s stuffed seal tighter to his chest. Tried to breathe. Anti did not speak either.

A few minutes later, he was aware of a change in himself, and then he was lost, and as time went on, Chase only grew more and more lost within the dark tangle of trees and bristle and thorn in which he found himself. He cried out for his family. No one could hear him. He struggled. His hands tore open on the sharp wood and blood would seep through, moment to moment, staining together his consciousness and Anti’s, embedding him deep within the forest until, at last, he looked up and found Anti looking back at him, gripping his shirt, his arm, his hair, his body, desperate to tear him out of the forest they shared.

Entirely without success.

This was not what either of them meant to have happen. They were bound and bolted together, both caught in a constant recoil and a constant coming together. Anti was as tangled up as he was. Their blood seeped into the earth. Eventually the creature that remained – fae and man and monster and brother – forgot that there had ever been two to begin with at all. There was just him.

In pain.

And in confusion so great as to match it.

But despite that confusion, he thinks, now, as his eyes flicker open, that he recognizes the man in front of him, the one who has come into the room, leaving the other out in the hall, looking anxious and defensive.

He had recognized the other man a couple days ago, hadn’t he? Hanging from handcuffs? Convulsing with poison? They had stalked him, he thinks, and then, when he saw him in those chains, something in inside him snapped like a tree branch on the forest floor. Who was he? What was his name?

I wanted to see him die so badly.

He… loved me…

“Chase?”

He blinks drowsily, trying to come awake.

“Let me the fuck out,” he hears his own voice, thick and strained. “No…”

He is hand-cuffed to both sides of the white bed.

Confinement. No. Not this. He can’t bear it. To be chained down. Filthy mortal flesh, keeping him stuck, keeping him static, his whole being drowning under muscle and bone, unable to get out from the man’s body, from… his body?

We’re okay. I’m okay. Stay calm. Here I am.

He’s nothing but a sniveling excuse for a healer anyway.

Yes. He’s pathetic. I am strong. I’m here. We’re here. Hold on to me.

“Chase. It’s me. Are you okay? Please say something.”

He looks up again, eyes burning.

“Oh,” he says, feeling a smile, a sneer, grow malignantly across his face. “I knew I recognized you somewhere.”

“Yes,” the man whispers, eyes warming with relief. “Yes, my brother. It’s me. It’s me.”

“Of course,” he whispers back. “I still remember how beautiful you were chained to my basement floor. My lovely little torturer. I knew you’d come back to me one day, my doctor.”

Henrik’s body tenses, his pupils going small, his heart caught in his throat.

“I’m not scared of you,” he manages after a minute, but his eyes turn down to the ground, his posture shrinks small and submissive, and his hands clutch together as though he can hold his own heart and protect it inside of them. In the hallway, Jackie puffs up with worry, not allowed into the room by the shadowy figures Anti can see guarding the door. “I want Chase. Give him back to me.”

“Give him back to me,” he mocks, tilting his head, and when his eyes flash black Henrik whimpers and leaps up from his chair, jerking back towards the door and almost falling over his own feet. “Stupid little doctor.”

“Where’s Chase? I want him! You’re not him! You stole him from me!”

“I am and always have been the AntiJack,” he laughs, tearing against his restraints, panting as he tries to force the flesh to glitch, but, oh, he feels so heavy, so sluggish, so pinned down. Needles protrude from his arms. He cannot reach back to tear them out. “The one who is not him and the one who pretends to be. I am the reverse and the imposter. I… I am… ungh, Schneep, what did you even give me?”

“Enough calmatives to keep a horse on its knees,” spits back Henrik, wiping his hair shakily from his eyes. “You’re not going anywhere.”

“Little fucker,” he mumbles, feeling his head drop onto his chin. “Bet you had to have the psych ward nurses do it, huh? Little man? You were always such a little coward, Schneep… letting everybody else do the big boy work… sitting in your little office, sorting through your papers, pretending you can do anything to save anyone. You just… you… fuck, I h-hate this flesh… fucking let me go.”

He tries to palm at the old scar on his head, groaning as pain lances through his brain. Another one of the random aches the body gets. He needs to lie down and sleep through it if he can. That’s what he does when the body is in pain. Maybe get some of the bitter, fermented liquids that humans like to help him quiet himself down. He’s gotten such a taste for whiskey. He can hear himself mumbling, trying to reorient himself, and his hands burn for his neat little notebooks. He has to keep track. He can’t just lose himself. He can’t just keep losing such big pieces of himself.

Hold on. Hold on to me. We’re okay!

I’ll get out of this like I always get out of trouble.

Yes, I’m okay. Focus on this little bastard. Confining me… who does he think he is?

We should rip him open like a candy bar wrapper.

“I can’t let you go,” the doctor tells him, slipping nervously back towards him. “Don’t scratch at your palms like that.”

“I’m going to cut you up like the little sardine I always meant to make of you,” he purrs, sing-song, scratching away at his palms until the blood comes, relieved for the pain to focus on. “I’m going to pluck the feathers off you, little bird, alouette, gentille alouette, alouette, je te plumerai.”

His own singing begins to calm him, his exhausted eyes flickering shut. He thinks the song was an old lullaby anyway.

“I will pluck your feathers out, I will pluck your feathers out. On your head, on your head, and your neck, and your neck, and your back, and your back… and your chest, alouette… ungh, too much medicine, Schneep… my head hurts. I’m going to skin you and make you into a hat for Jay… for J… for the other boy, the one with the… what’s his name, I…”

Henrik touches his bloodied palm.

He stills.

The doctor wipes the wet blood gently from his hands and bandages them. The soft pads of his fingers drift along the veins of his palms. Of his wrists. Of his fingers.

Someone is touching him.

Someone is touching him, touching him gently.

“Marvin?” he hears himself say. “Brother? Are you there? Where are you?”

“He’s resting,” whispers Henrik. “I am looking after him.”

“Yes,” he says. “Schneep. Look after him. Alouette, gentile alouette, alouette, je te plumerai…”

A needle is jammed into his throat. He screams, his fingers tightening around the hand holding his own and digging down into the back of it, his black eyes flashing open to stare at Henrik even as the world seeps rapidly away.

“You won’t be in control much longer, Anti,” murmurs Henrik, some deep and agonized fury glowing in his eyes as he shoves him back onto the bed. “Don’t pretend to be my little brother. I am not your slave anymore. I will find a way to set Chase free too.”

Anti can hear himself laughing as the darkness swallows him up.

“Please,” he thinks his mouth moves to say before he loses consciousness. “Yes, please, someone set us free.”

He is so lost, and this forest is blacker than blood.

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

“What do we do?” whispers Henrik, hiding in both the stairwell and Jackie’s chest.

“I don’t know,” Jackie whispers back, letting himself slump against his little brother. “I don’t know.”

They stand in the cold of the stairwell and they hold each other.

“Try to remind him who he is,” suggests Jackie finally. “Try to help him get himself free, since it doesn’t feel like we can do hardly anything. And… wait for Marvin to wake up?”

If he does wake up. Henrik grinds his teeth and presses closer into Jackie’s shoulder. “I hate waiting,” he growls.

“I know, man. Me too. Me too.”

But they’re doing everything they can already.

Please let it be enough.

Please don’t let them be gone forever.

They stand – for a long time – in that cold stairwell. They hold on to each other.

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

Marvin sees, in his dreams, the poison.

On his handcuffs he is immobilized as an insect in dark amber, his blue eyes glittering, agonized, in his skull. There is nothing left in him. He can feel death like a dog at his throat.

“Marvin,” sobs Chase. “Marvin!”

“Here I am,” he needs to say. “Here I am, amata! I’ll help you. I’ll fix it!”

But he can’t speak and he can’t move. He can barely stare down at Chase beneath him, watching the poison fill his little brother up.

“Marvin, there’s something in my head! Please help me! Where are you?”

His eyes flicker and drip blood and Chase whimpers, clawing at his head as his irises move through a dance of different colors. In the end, they settle on black. He heaves and something like ink comes pouring out of his mouth.

“I don’t know what to do,” Marvin croaks. “I don’t know how to help.”

He can feel his body convulsing on a bed and strong arms holding him gently, protecting his head. He can feel their heart beating through the point of contact. He can feel Henrik’s hands.

“Here I am, here I am,” he is whispering to him. “I’ll help you. I’ll fix it. Just hold on for me, my brother.”

“Schneep,” he tries again. Maybe he could speak this time, but something cold and plastic has filled his throat up, and his pain is so high his whole body trembles from it.

“Here I am. Here I am. Marvin, don’t die. I can’t lose you. Just rest. Here I am.”

A needle slides into his throat. Fog fills his head like a lake at dawn. He sleeps.

But he doesn’t sleep forever.

-----------

Someone is whistling softly around the room.

Back and forth, back and forth with a sweet song Marvin doesn’t recognize. Maybe he’s just too tired to search his brain for the sound of the song and find its name. Memories have been painful recently anyways. He will just stay right here in the present. And listen to the pretty song.

He lies there for a long time, feeling stunningly comfortable and incredibly cozy for the first time in days. Being awake is nice. He thought it would be scary again, but it’s nice. Nice with pretty music. He can tell he’s been taken out of that silent white room where he was all alone for so long, and he’s glad of it. His eyes slide open. Nice with pretty music and a comfortingly familiar figure wandering across the room, back and forth, back and forth.

There’s a rush of dazed fondness through Marvin’s head. He hears himself giggle strangely, his head flopping back against his pillows. He’s so sleepy but he feels so nice, really nice.

Jamie’s whistling cuts off and his nice shoes tap against the floor as he hurries to Marvin’s side, sitting down in a hard plastic hospital chair at his side and reaching tentatively for his hand, though he doesn’t quite touch him. Marvin turns his head again to look at him, smiling dizzily. He sees the trepidation in his little brother’s face and tilts his head quizzically, his fingers twitching for his hand. Jameson should know he can always hold his hand if he wants to. Everyone has different boundaries in their family, but Marvin doesn’t think he’s ever been bothered by Jameson touching him, at least not since they first became friends.

Jameson smiles softly and touches his hand. Or his fingers, more like. Marvin frowns and looks down his arm.

Did he break it? There’s a stiff white cast from beneath his wrist all the way up to his knuckles. Jameson makes a soft, soothing sigh of a noise and scoots closer to him, cradling his weary fingers and rubbing his arm above the cast.

Marvin decides he feels too nice to be distressed about it. He smiles again and tries to make the sighing noise back at Jameson. Jamie smiles and Marvin feels delighted about it. He finds his other hand after a moment of mentally searching his body for all of its parts, and this hand is only bandaged around the wrist, so he reaches out to touch Jameson’s face, carding his fingers lovingly through his beard. Jameson’s eyebrows shoot up for a moment, but he doesn’t protest, still smiling gently down at him.

Is Marvin in the hospital? He doesn’t know why. He feels great.

Jameson’s free hand reaches up to sign, but Marvin snatches it out of the air and draws it fondly to his face. Jameson looks surprised for certain at that, but he only laughs. In his right mind, Marvin would probably realize it was rude to stop him from signing, but he isn’t exactly in his right mind right now.

Jameson frees his other hand from Marvin’s broken one and holds it up flat above his head. It’s a sign that usually means “tall.” Right now, Marvin’s pretty sure it means “high.”

He giggles wildly, squeezing his eyes shut. That’s so funny. He is, yeah. He’s so high. He’s high like a teenager. Henrik must have gotten him the good stuff, the really good stuff. Mhhh. It’s nice. He’s high! He laughs and runs Jameson’s fingers across his cheek, though a sting of pain stops him and he jerks in surprise, opening his eyes to look up at JJ, alarmed.

“Broken,” signs Jameson gently, bringing Marvin’s hand back to his cheek. He feels bandages and, beneath them, scratchy stitches. “Healing.”

He doesn’t want his cheek to be broken. That’s so mean and sad and he’s going to look so ugly. He scowls at Jameson and shakes his head, tears prickling in his eyes. Jamie smiles with real sympathy and sighs at him again, massaging his good hand.

Okay, that’s nice again. Marvin takes the hand and puts it in his hair and Jameson runs his fingers across his scalp without protest, close enough that Marvin can feel his familiar warmth. Marvin blinks sleepily and touches his mouth. Jameson chuckles and begins to whistle for him again.

That’s nice.

That’s all really nice.

He feels good.

Everything’s okay.

“Okay?” asks JJ.

Marvin nods, a dopey grin fixed on his mouth.

“Talk?”

Marvin pauses, confused.

“Talk,” repeats Jameson slower. It’s a sign that means speak or sign. Communicate. “Feeling okay? Talk to me?”

Oh, yeah, talking. That’s something people do. Marvin coughs and looks up at the ceiling.

Um… talk.

He can do that.

It’s easy. You just kind of open your mouth and make sounds. For words you know the meaning of. Or you just put your hands up and move them. Come on, Marvin. You’re a fucking linguistics major. He has to be able to find the right words somewhere in his addled brain.

But he just… can’t.

He looks over at Jameson, who’s assuring him it’s okay if he can’t talk or doesn’t want to. “Just need to rest,” he’s soothing, and Marvin can read the words perfectly on his hands, understands and processes immediately. “Just take it easy, okay? Should I get Schneep?”

He understands everything he’s saying. He’s not intubated anymore and his throat is sore, yes, but not sore enough to silence him. But he can’t speak. He can’t find the right words.

Something’s wrong.

“It’s okay,” promises Jameson, moving forward quickly to thumb away the tears sliding down his face. “Poor Marvin, big brother, it’s okay. Love, love.”

But it’s not okay. Marvin stares up at the ceiling, trying to find the right words, and he begins to realize just how not okay everything is.

This is the hospital. He’s in the hospital and he’s high on morphine or whatever it is Henrik gave him. He’s in the hospital and his cheek is broken and his wrists are bandaged and beneath the warm haze of the drugs there is an undercurrent of pain waiting to swallow him whole the moment his medication is reduced. A thrill of fear squirms down his aching spine.

Something bad must have happened to him.

Something bad happened and then… and then…

In his dreams, poison.

“Ch-chase.”

Warm water runs down his face. He stares up at the ceiling, mouth trembling. Jameson leans in close to him, his face sad and worried, and all Marvin can seem to do is reach out and touch him, running his fingers through his hair as his memories float back to him, faraway but painful still.

“Chase,” he whimpers.

In the whole of his brain, it seems to be the only word he can find, and he clings to it, staring up at Jameson, begging him to make it all better and tugging at him, trying to bring him closer, closer, wanting to know that his little brothers are safe.

“Chase. Chase.”

JJ sighs his soothing sigh and climbs carefully into the bed beside him. Marvin’s never been more grateful to have someone next to him in his whole fucking life – except, maybe, when Jameson and the others arrived in that cold and terrible basement to save him from his torment. The memory turns his tears into quiet sobs.

Jameson wraps his arms around him and puts his head in his chest. Marvin runs his fingers through his brother’s hair and cries against his pillows, exhausted and unhappy, feeling broken and sick. Jameson’s body and the soothing of the drugs are his only protection against everything that happened, and he clings to them like the lifelines they are, repeating Chase’s name in a soft, miserable daze no matter how many times Jameson tries to tell him he’s alive and receiving treatment in the psych ward.

That’s how Henrik finds them perhaps an hour later, though Marvin can’t seem to get any track of how time is moving around him. He’s gone quiet, but still the hot tears are dripping down his cheeks. Still he’s stroking Jameson’s hair and remembering all too clearly the things that happened to him and the sight of his little brother filled up with Anti’s poison.

“Marvin,” Henrik whispers, real fear in his voice, and Marvin looks up and sees his own mortality in his friend’s eyes.

I’m not okay, am I? he wants to ask, but even for this, he cannot speak; he cannot find the words.

Henrik touches his unbroken hand. Marvin wraps his fingers around Henrik’s and Jameson cuddles closer against his chest. The three of them breathe together, in silence.

Eventually, Henrik turns Marvin’s medication back up, and the world becomes warm and pleasant again, and he listens to Jamie whistling for as long as he can keep his eyes open.

--------

“This place really is a shithole,” says Max, teething at his lip as he stares around the trashed little apartment. “What exactly are you looking for?”

Jackie tears the drawers open and then slams them shut again, shaking his head as he continues his ransacking. “Just anything that’ll help Chase, I guess.”

“Couldn’t you get something from his room back home? This place is a dump. I don’t think Anti’s been buying him souvenirs or anything, you know?”

“I tried bringing him stuff from home. Actually he played Animal Crossing for a little while after I had the nurse bring him his Switch, but he didn’t even look at the pictures of Hunter and Izzy and he doesn’t really seem to… get it. It’s like he doesn’t even remember.”

Jackie sighs and closes the fridge, tossing out a couple packs of rotting deli meat. There isn’t much else in there and the cupboards are bare of anything but an empty pack of Oreos and half a jar of black olives.

“Schneep won’t listen to me when I tell him about the journal,” he says. “About how Chase and Anti both got, like, mashed together. He thinks Anti’s trying to trick me and Chase is just tucked away somewhere in their head, sleeping or watching or trying to get out.”

“Well, there’s a chance he’s right, right?” In his boredom, Max has begun cleaning, wetting one of the abandoned shirts on the floor with water and wiping the counters down. “Schneep probably knows Anti better than you do, to be fair. Maybe that journal was just moments of weakness.”

“Okay, yes, he does know Anti better than me. But I think the fact that Anti’s done so much to him is making it really hard for him to see anything but Anti in that person. Even when he acts like Chase, he thinks it’s a trick. I don’t know. I just want to try everything I can.”

“That’s fair,” says Max. “I mean, he can act all he wants, but we found those toys still here, so he can’t be entirely immune to some cute shit, even if he is mostly Anti.”

Jackie stands up straight. “Max, you’re a genius.”

“Oh,” says Max, flushing dark and shifting his weight from side-to-side, a shy smile on his mouth. “What did I do?”

“Where are those stuffed animals? They were for his kids. If he kept them, they have to mean something to him, right? Or he would have destroyed them. Plus they’re just nice to cuddle with, I bet.”

“They were by the mattress.”

Jackie moves over to the mattress and finds the stuffed animals flopped against the wall where he left them. He takes them back in his hands and buries his face in them, rubbing against the soft fuzz of Izzy’s dragon and the smoothness of Hunter’s squished seal.

“I hope you guys have been keeping my little brother company while he’s been trapped,” he mumbles, shoving them into his hoodie pocket. “Let’s get these back to the hospital.”

“Get you a coffee and a snack on the way?” offers Max, still dark in the cheeks.

Jackie frowns up at him, getting to his feet. “I should really get back.”

“You’ll make Schneep more stressed if you don’t take care of yourself,” says Max.

“That’s… true.”

“Come on. I’ll get you whatever you want.”

Jackie can’t help but smile, chuckling as he steps towards him. “You’re too good to me, man.”

Max is definitely blushing now, but Jackie’s always known him to be shy. “That’s what, uh, friends are for,” he answers, smiling back. “I’d, well. I’d be happy to get you something, Jackie. I like to.”

“Hey!” A voice in the doorway makes them both turn to find a disgruntled-looking old man regarding them uncertainly from the hallway. “Here to tell me why my tenant’s gone missing? He’s about three months behind on rent and now he’s disappeared.”

“Don’t worry about it,” replies Jackie easily, picking up Chase’s old bracelets from the windowsill and heading towards the door. “I’ll pay you that and however much it is to end his contract. He’s not living here anymore. My little brother’s coming back home.”

“And if Anti comes back here,” adds Max. “Call the cops. He’s wanted for murder. Like… a lot of murder.”

“What?”

“Send us the bill! Bye!”

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

“Hey, is that Jamie?” asks Jackie, still shoving fries in his mouth. He hasn’t eaten all day. Luckily he funneled all of the rest of Henrik’s leftover pasta into his mouth while crying last night at eleven while home alone because Schneep forced him to go try and get some sleep at home, but other than that he’s been missing meals. It was pretty good pasta. Salty.

“What?” says Max, tilting his head.

And then, after a moment:

“Yeah, that’s definitely Jamie.”

“I wish that just once it wasn’t one of my little brothers being weird in public. Just once!”

“Says the vigilante!”

Jackie snorts and rolls down Max’s window. “Hey! Dippin’ dots! What are you doing standing mysteriously in front of a random alleyway with a tray full of hospital cafeteria food? You okay, Jamie?”

Jameson turns around, blinking down at the tray of food in his hands. He looks confused as to how it got there and looks up to shrug at his brother. His eyes are burning silver.

“Fuck,” swears Jackie, leaving his fries behind and getting out of the car. “Here, give me the tray. Another vision?”

“I just felt like I had to come here,” mumbles Jameson’s hands as he stares dazedly down the alleyway. “Like it was important.”

“You walked a couple blocks from the hospital in a trance?”

“I… guess I did?”

“That sucks, bud, I’m sorry you got confused. We’re going to have to keep an eye on you while you get this magic stuff figured out. Got your location on on your phone?”

“Yes, Jackie, like you always tell me.”

“Thatta boy. Come on, poor guy, let’s get you out of the cold.”

Max grins at Jameson as he gets back in the car. “We have to stop meeting like this,” he teases.

Jameson smiles back weakly and rubs at his quieting eyes. “Thanks for picking me up. It smells like Wendy’s in here.”

Max looks at Jackie. “Should we turn around and go back to Wendy’s?”

“We should turn around and go back to Wendy’s.”

“This must have been what my trance was for,” signs Jameson cheerfully, setting aside the cafeteria food, and Jackie laughs and passes him the rest of his French fries. He’s glad Max made him take a break. He’s been stressed. In retrospect, the crying into his pasta might have been a red flag about his anxiety levels.

But everything will turn out okay. It has to. It has to.

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

Marvin needs surgery on his wrist.

“Just going to put you under for a little while and I’ll do it myself, okay?” says Henrik, sitting at his side. “Quick surgery, not too many wrists. Risks, I meant. Dammit. You had some tearing from the convulsions while you were in the handcuffs and it’s broken, but it should heal okay in a few months after this gets done. Does that sound okay?”

He tries to smile at Henrik. His little brother smiles back, rubbing his shoulder slowly. Marvin can tell he’s scared, but not about the surgery. He wants to ask him more questions, but he still can’t seem to speak, and Henrik isn’t offering up a lot of information. Probably for his own good. He’s still on a lot of medication and Schneep keeps saying he doesn’t need to stress. Just rest and keep fighting. Rest and keep fighting. Marvin doesn’t know how to choose to do that.

He doesn’t know if he can.

But a surgery on his wrist isn’t too scary, not while he’s this high and Henrik is here reassuring him.

“Sign this for me, okay? Saying you’ve been informed.”

He hands Marvin a form on a clipboard. Marvin can read it just fine – basic shit about informed consent and risks involved. Apparently there’s a chance of losing all feeling in his hand, but he figures he’s a lot more screwed over if he doesn’t get the surgery, and he trusts Henrik anyway, even if he probably shouldn’t be performing on family. He signs the paper with his good hand.

Or tries to.

All that appears on the paper in one long squiggle.

He stares down at his attempt at a signature, faintly alarmed through the haze in his mind, and then up at Henrik. A faint whine falls from his mouth, a weak attempt at his brother’s name. Henrik frowns and scoots forward, worried, looking at the paper as he holds it out to him.

His mouth purses. He looks back at Marvin and doesn’t speak for a moment.

Marvin touches his throat. “It’s probably just the drugs,” murmurs Henrik, trying again to smile for his sake. “But I think I’ll have the speech specialist come see you when you’re ready. Lie back down, alright? I bet Jackie will be a ball of energy as soon as he hears you were awake, and I’m going to schedule your surgery for tonight. Okay?”

Marvin nods.

“You can understand me just fine, right, my brother? Can you blink twice for me?”

Marvin blinks, once, twice.

Henrik smiles and grips his good hand, eyes warm and concerned. “Okay,” he says.

And then, to Marvin’s surprise, he takes off his coat and he stays.

“Technically I’m on my vacation days,” he murmurs by way of explanation. “So I told Nadia you’re the only patient I care about. Okay, you and that really cute kid on third floor. He’s my favorite.”

Marvin smiles wide and earnest this time, and Henrik smiles right back.

“Should I read to you?” he asks.

Marvin nods. He would like that. Henrik gets out Life of Pi. Marvin’s been meaning to read it.

“This book was born as I was hungry. Let me explain.”

His accent is so warm and familiar these days. Marvin remembers long nights spent up with him, Henrik home from a graveyard shift and Marvin home from a night with his friends. A night like the other night, but without getting kidnapped before he could go home. A good night, and Henrik’s dry wit and unspoken love when he came home maybe the best part of it.

“In the spring of 1966, my second book, a novel, came out in Canada. It didn’t fare well. Reviewers were puzzled, or damned it with faint praise…”

Marvin listens to him read and thinks that he could write a book of his own, just about his wild little family and everything they’ve been through. He thinks about how this could have been the end of his book. Maybe it still will be. He made his peace with it when he was in those handcuffs, or at least when he got the chance to see Henrik and the others one more time. Maybe they should have let him go then. Maybe that was the end of it, and the chapter closed, and the book would leave you feeling sad, but also moved by it in a way that mattered more than you had realized it would when you began reading.

“… Green hills heavy with mists would lie at my feet and the shrill cries of monkeys would fill my ears. The weather would be just right, requiring a light sweater mornings and evenings, and something short-sleeved midday…”

Green hills heavy with mists. Monkeys and clean warm air and bright light somewhere on the horizon. He daydreams to Henrik’s voice and Martel’s words and thinks that this isn’t so bad, not really. Yes. Maybe this is meant to be the end of him yet.

But Chase.

Chase.

The only word left on his tongue.

He has to help his little brother. He can’t end the story without him. Without knowing he’s safe, and well, and maybe even, if Marvin can swing it, happy.

Marvin registers vaguely that his eyes feel oddly swollen, and then he lets himself loose in the world Henrik is presenting for him, and drifts without fear, on a boat in the ocean with a tiger still sleeping in the empty bed on the other side of his hospital room.

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

He stands in the doorway in black and white, with a pair of stuffed animals clutched to his chest.

“What do you want?”

His voice is loud and slurred, his head rolling back against his pillows, straining his neck and coughing. Determined wrists pull weakly at their restraints. The ferocity of his words is undermined by the low, agonized groan he gives out afterwards.

“What do you want?” he repeats again, shrill and screamed. “Let me go, let me…”

Jameson sits quietly down beside him, the seal and the dragon on his lap.

“Little fucker,” mumbles Anti, mumbles Chase, looking up at his big blue eyes and his all-too-sweet expression, so soft and concerned. “Pinned me down. Gave me a concussion. Little brat. I’d be home right now if not for you.”

Jameson nods, tilting his head back and forth a little as though admitting it.

“I’m tired, Jamie,” he says, thunking his head back against the pillow.

“You’re on a lot of medication.”

“How are you in here, anyway?”

“Jackie’s friend is distracting the cops for me.”

“Jackie having a friend,” he growls. “There’s the real shocker.”

“You and Jackie are friends,” answers Jameson calmly. “You love him.”

“Shut the fuck up, you sappy, weepy, pathetic little child of a man. What you come in here for, huh? You want to see your papa? Does Chase take care of the little baby? Everybody knows you can’t take care of yourself, after all. You’re just a whining, mute, needling little – ”

“Is your pain very high?”

Jameson can see him trying to breathe. It doesn’t look easy. He’s stressed. He’s scared. He stares at Jameson and doesn’t seem to know how to answer.

“Anti,” he says, his hands clear and careful. “Chase. I know you both very well. And the truth is that I don’t want to see either of you in pain, even after everything Anti did to me. I still remember the days when I thought of you as my family. When I loved you.”

He stares down at his bedsheets. Jameson sighs and gets to his feet, standing over him, and he shudders and gives a soft whine, curling in on himself, his face pale and frightened.

“Do the nurses treat you well?” asks Jameson. “The cops leave you alone? Have you been out of this room at all?”

“I want to go,” he whispers, licking at his dry lips. “I want to go back home. I want to – I want to – I’ll make you all pay for this. I’ll slit Henrik’s white throat like I always meant to do and you and Jackie can writhe for trapping me here. Your fault, your fault… please let me go, p-please, I’m…”

Jameson places the seal stuffie on his lap and the dragon on his shoulder.

He breathes in the smell for a moment, his hollowed eyes flickering. The last six months have not been good for him, for either of his fighting parts, but they did manage to hold on to some things here and there – most importantly, a place to stay, a place where he wasn’t trapped and no one hurt him, where there was a soft, if broken mattress and a couple soft animal toys that made him feel happy somewhere in the back of his mind. This dragon smells like home. His fingers touch the soft body of the squished seal.

“I don’t know what you think this is going to accomplish,” he mumbles, wishing he could wrap his arms around himself, because he is the only person who has held him in months and his flesh is aching for it. “I’m not… I’m not… not what you think I am.”

“Like I said.” Jameson sits down beside him again, his hand resting gently on the bed beside Anti’s. A little closer and he could touch him. “I know you both pretty well.”

His fingers touch Chase’s.

He goes very still.

Jamie holds his hands and they sit together for a long time.

The lights buzz above them. Outside the window of the room, a pair of finches flicker back and forth. The sunlight touches their skin.

Jameson draws away a moment. His brother chokes, shaking his head, groaning for the loss of him, but he only gets to his feet and places his body against him, wrapping him into a careful hug. Warm arms encircle him like a sweater and squish comfortingly against his body, and all he wants to do – all he wants to do in the whole fucking world – is wrap his arms around JJ in return and pull him into his lap and be held for hours. He’s panting and burying his face against Jameson’s chest, whimpering to be touched at last, to be kindly touched at last.

“Chase,” Jameson signs against his heart. “Chase, my Chase.”                        

Chase clings to his hands and cries.

“Please let me go,” he begs. “Please, please, I can’t get it out!”

“I’m right here,” promises Jameson, kneeling down to look at him and stroking his hair. “You’re going to keep fighting, okay? You’re going to cast him out.”

“No, I can’t,” he cries. “We can’t tell each other apart anymore. You have to help me, I can’t, I got lost, I got stuck! I tried, I promised, I wanted to go home. Now I can’t even remember what home is. We’re too tangled up!”

“We’re going to help you get him out, okay?”

“There’s nothing you can do. Please, you have to let us free. Kill us, JJ, we’re tearing each other apart.”

“Hey.” Jameson takes his hands in his own for a moment and squeezes them before drawing away again to speak. “Don’t say things like that. You will only get yourself stuck in this place longer if you do. Besides, Anti’s always said things like that to manipulate me. You won’t move me with words like that.”

“There’s nothing you can do,” he screams, and when he grabs Jameson by the side – the only place where he can reach him with his hands restrained – and digs his overgrown nails as hard as he can into his little brother’s stomach, Jameson does not so much as flinch, just closes his eyes and waits for the rage to go away. “Stupid little boy! This isn’t something you can remove with kind words or Henrik’s scalpels.”

“Then we will find another way,” answers Jameson, soft crescent moons of blood welling against his shirt. “You have to trust me.”

“You betrayed me,” he hisses. “Left me behind to go be someone else’s family. Left me alone!”

“You didn’t treat me well, my brother. I’m happier without you. Without Anti, at least. I gave you everything I was. If you had been kind to me, I would have stayed.”

He scowls and shoves him away, gritting his teeth and seething, nuzzling his face against Izzy’s dragon, tears running down his cheeks. “Look how weak we are,” he cries. “We both broke each other. There’s nothing you can do… nothing anyone can do… I’ve been trying to get free for so long.”

Jameson sits down again, tucking away the small bloodstains on his shirt without anger in his eyes, and when he takes his brother’s hand again, he does not try to dig his nails into his palms. Just holds on to him.

“I can’t promise you I have everything figured out right now,” says JJ after a moment of comfort. “I don’t know exactly how to save you, Chase. But here’s what I do know – you are touch-starved. You are scared and you have every right to be. You’re not well and you’ve lost a lot of weight because you’ve never known how to take care of human bodies well. So here’s what we can do. I’m going to make sure you’re getting some Cymbalta, because that was Chase’s prescription when he was suicidal. And I’m going to sit here with you as long as I can so you’re not alone and I can touch you. And I have Wendy’s. And you’re going to eat it.”

He holds up a brown paper bag with a pig-tailed girl on it and smiles. “Because the hospital food is pretty shit and I don’t blame you for refusing it.”

He stares at him, eyes wide. Jameson stares back, smiling.

“You’re out of your mind, baby brother,” he says, and then he laughs despite himself, weak and shaken, and takes Jamie’s hand again.

“Probably,” he signs with one hand, and gets up to kiss the side of his head and feed him a handful of fries.

There’s only so much he can do. But he will do it. He will do it. And he will love him with every moment that passes, harder and harder, until Chase can find his way back to him.

“When did you get so grown-up?” he whispers, when an hour has passed and they are sitting together in silence.

“When someone gave me the chance to grow up,” Jameson replies gently.

“I loved you, you know.”

“No,” says Jameson, and his eyes still love him, but his heart knows better. “No, Anti, you didn’t.”

They rest together, hand-in-hand, and the finches come and go, singing.

[winebleeds]

@bnjmin    sent    ❛    5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. for all :)    ❜

⤑   TAKE A PEAK

you’re really making me add this to a read more again, huh.

5. closet

raleigh: his button up shirts & nicer tee shirts on clothes racks with sweaters on the top shelf and shoes on the floor below. he doesn’t have too much room in it otherwise. liz: her closest is too complicated, fuck that. but, while the majority of it is white, the clothes are organized by shades based on the electromagnetic spectrum. surprisingly, most of her shirts are her nasa polos & the only consistent outfit within the closest. because she usually has less than 10 outfits at a time. she swaps out clothes during the seasons, and resales clothes after wearing them a couple times. her sweaters, her personal ones or stolen ones, are kept in drawers within the bedroom alongside jeans & workout attire. like clothes, she has a selected amount of shoes on a bottom shelf. while it won’t be as big as this closest, this has the general vibes. jamie: like raleigh, his button up shirts and any suits. maybe some of his track wear that shouldn’t wrinkle. nicer tee shirts his tennis shoes... and of course his horse gear hiding in the corner :3 maddie: her clothes are just swung on racks when in a hurry to actually clean. if it’s in order, it’s because liz cleaned maddie’s room. most of her shirts are band shirts and leather & jean jackets.

10. pantry

raleigh: box pasta (he loves bow ties because they look like bow ties), rice, cereals (mainly honey nut cheerios, and he’ll try all the flavors), chips (like pretzels, cheetos, popcorn), and kraft mac n’ cheese. then basic baking stuff like cake mixes, sugar, salt, like, typical foods that’s mixed around where he has to scan for a bit to find what he wants. only his teas are organized. and dog food on the bottom. liz: her apartment does not have a pantry. rip. but they way she has food organized is precise.  jamie: his studio does not have a pantry. but it would have box stuff similar to raleigh... but vegan versions... alongside having the most spices out of everyone else and protein stuff. and his would be organized like liz’s. maddie: her apartment does not have a pantry. it would probably be empty besides her box of animal crackers if she did tho. thank goodness she lives with liz. 

15. bookcase

raleigh: his bookcase holds some of his prized possessions and is one of the few thing he actually keeps organized in his place. and here’s how the bare bones would look like. those science fiction books from his piano instructor, a completed lego models of the millennium falcon and the enterprise as “bookends” with some of his preferred star wars & star trek books, though the models take up more space on that shelf. then everything else is just books with some other trinkets that are vague in my head for now. liz: so she has two bookshelves. the first one is in the living area that most to hold themed books and props to whatever theme caitlyn or liz arranged, though now it’s a combination of whatever maddie and liz want to share in that space. this is what that one would look like, though different items. within her bedroom, liz has a plain shelf with image of it here with several books ordered by the dewey system. she may swap out books when she fells it’s too full, but some of her prized book, like her little women book from her childhood or her engineering textbook from her first class with dr. kumar, will always remain. even if liz may read more on her phone (considering it’s cheaper with the library app), she likes to have physical copies of ones she does enjoy or preorder. oh, slightly off topic, but she’s definitely one of those that reads all the books in bill gates or obama’s book lists every year; she should really join a book club. once liz gets a house, you bet that her bookshelf will look like this one in her study. jamie: this dumbass doesn’t read. maddie: while she doesn’t have too many books for a bookshelf, she does have a vinyl rack. or well, something liz built for her that’s similar to this but maddie would paint lighting bolts on the sides because the sides reminded her of lighting bolts. but she has a simple vinyl rack to store her vinyl that will become canvas for her paintings. and, as for the living room bookshelf, she has one of her 70s cameras she found at an antique store that liz cleaned up for her alongside some of her favorite vinyls to show off or, well, not necessary favorite favorites but ones people will recognize & fit with liz, like fleetwood mac rumors. then, there’s a succulent that liz doesn’t touch that maddie keeps care for; his name is pumpkin because of the orange pot.  

20. refrigerator

raleigh: leftovers from takeout, since normally one takeout plate lasts for two meals. then there’s ketchup, soy sauce, milk, eggs, butter, yoghurt (blueberry or oreo preferred), jelly & jam (mainly blueberry or apricot & there’s even blueberry orange marmalade because why not) some veggies, mainly bell peppers & mushrooms, cheeses, chicken, & hot dogs for his dogs. liz: since maddie & liz would share one, i’m listing things that mainly liz’s here. so she has the meal prep meals in containers throughout the work week. leftovers also last longer for her, about three meals. then there’s meats, mainly chicken & salmon (her favorite), basic things like eggs & milk etc, apple butter, jelly & jam (mainly blackberry & grape), worcestershire sauce, & ketchup. jamie: like, all the veggies you can think of. vegan cheeses, oat milk, cilantro, pickles, jam & jelly (mainly strawberry) leftovers. maddie: the avocadoes in the fridge is because of her. there’s also bbq sauce, sriracha, & leftovers. oh, the the mango habanero jam is hers too. 

25. five most recent google search history

raleigh: 1. names for shades of yellow / 2. beekeeping in urban setting / 3. bee species in california / 4. the most common bee in the world / 5. bees in winter  liz: her google search history has been cleared so i can’t share it :/ jamie: 1. football season updates / 2. how much irrnekg (accidental when holly laid on the keyboard / 3. how much is 8 m in feet / 4. inheritance issues / 5. manage a farm long distance maddie: 1. fairy wings reference / 2. fabric paint in local stores / 3. sour candy lyrics / 4. blinking guy meme / 5. keyboard sale

30. netflix watch history (or just clumping all the streaming services here)

raleigh: the mandalorian, david attenborough’s animal documentaries, x files, dr. oakley yukon vet and yes he cries at every episode don’t judge, indiana jones trilogy no fourth liz: downton abbey, fixer upper, pride & prejudice, the biggest little farm, i am greta, and i guess space documentaries... oh, and the lotr trilogy like, three times already :/ jamie: the office, gilmore girls, flashdance, like all of audrey hepburn’s movies but he tries to hide all of this with fast & furious and cobra kai and action stuff maddie: halloween, nightmare before christmas, the chilling adventures of sabrina, glow, the get down, sailor moon, wayne’s world, magica madoka, the breakfast club

[yuthoe]

The Hoodie, part 2 (PENTAGON: Adachi Yuto)

Huzzah, my first smut fic in years. The spice continuation to this bullshit. I feel like I’ve been influenced too much by the stuff I read for my major, hence the prevalence of the em dash.

Also, I was going for dirty “raw me” spicy, but I ended up with the soft and tender spicy because I was listening to a playlist that fluctuated between the two sexy’s. Anyway, I hope people like it, and I’d like to write more of this stuff, so if y’all have any suggestions or prompts, do feel free to hmu. :3

WARNING: 18+ ONLY, are depictions of vaginal sex here. WORD COUNT: 1,326.

---

Your lips are fire, and every kiss is gasoline.

Yuto has you on his lap, legs on either side of his. The position has his sweater rucking up higher on your thighs and stretching it out, but Yuto can’t give a damn—not when you’re on top of him like this. Not when you’re kissing him like he’s an oasis in the desert. Not when you’re finally in his arms again, after so, so long.

He had discarded his parka and thrown it somewhere in the living area, and your hands are wandering, touching the newly revealed skin under the plain black shirt he’s wearing. Goosebumps rose on Yuto’s skin at the touch. He’s pretty sure it’s only been a week, two at most, that you last saw each other, but seeing you—there—in his favorite sweater—by god, you look so good in it—he just can’t help himself.

Yuto’s hands are gripping your thighs, and he’s pretty sure you’ll be left with tiny imprints in the shape of his fingers by the end of the night from how hard he’s holding you. But Yuto knows you don’t mind; it wasn’t as if you haven’t done this before.

“I missed you,” he whispers against your lips before diving back in, tongue stroking yours in the way he knows you like. You release a whimper, one hand tightening on his arm, the other’s fingers tangled in his hair.

You pull away, but only a little; Yuto wouldn’t know what to do if you went farther away. He needed to touch you right now and he can’t bear to let you go. You cup his face, eyes wide and a blush high on your cheeks. “I missed you too. A lot.” You kiss him lightly on the tip of his nose, and Yuto couldn’t help the smile that grew on his face. He removes his hands from your thighs to wind them around your waist and pull you back into him, closer than before, chest to chest.

And it was then that your clothed core rubbed against the growing bulge in his pants. Yuto let out a groan as his hips jerk up. Another whine like wind chimes is released from you, and suddenly your lips are glued to each other’s again. Yuto moves his hands down to your hips to guide you—grind up against you, get what little stimulation can be afforded with in current position.

Yuto’s hands travel to your ass, squeezing your flesh so hard through the fabric of his hoodie that it almost hurt, but no. It felt good. Still felt good—felt too good that you moan against his mouth, and Yuto just drinks it all in. Answers back with a moan of his own.

You feel his fingertips brush against your center and jerk in his arms at the touch. A finger slips under your cotton panties and the next thing you know you’re gasping for air at the gentle intrusion of Yuto’s finger. It really hasn’t been that long, but really—seeing the promotions for the “Dr. Bebe” comeback and how absolutely stunning and hot he looks, and not being able to do anything about it because he’s so busy, just kept riling you up until you’re about to combust.

His finger continues to slip inside you, as far as it could go, but you need more. You know that and Yuto knows that, but for whatever reason he’s choosing to just prolong your agony.

“Baby, you’re so wet,” he grinds out against your neck, where he’s busy licking and kissing and sucking at your sensitive skin. “Shit—!” He wants so leave his mark, for everyone to see when you go out, for everyone to know that you are his and his alone. The thought has his cock straining against his jeans. Yuto wants nothing more than to pull your panties to the side and fuck you right now, but he wants to savor this. He’s missed you so much and he wants to be gentle with you.

Question is, how long can he hold out?

You’re squirming against him, trying to get his finger in deeper with every thrust into you. Your hands are braced on his shoulders, head thrown back and mouth open on a moan, shaped around repeated utterings of his name.

It’s intoxicating.

“God, I can’t take this,” he finally said, taking his hands away from you to frantically get at his belt. Surprised at the sudden emptiness in your core, you look down to find Yuto undoing his belt and button. The sound of the zipper rang in your ears and spurred you into action, stretching sideways to reach the table beside the couch, refusing to get off from your perch. You pulled a drawer open and blindly fumbled around until you pulled out a condom.

And as strung out as Yuto is right now, he can’t help a tiny laugh. You’re just so cute. So beautiful, so good to him. God, it’s an odd thing to think about as he watches you roll the condom onto him, but the wonder of being yours just runs through his mind 24/7.

I love you, he thinks as you stroke his member, and his hands return to your hips.

I love you, he thinks as he pulls the crotch of your panties to the side and push two fingers into your cunt; as he holds your face tenderly while he continues to prepare you—in, out, in, out.

I love you, he thinks as your desperate words, “Yuto, I need you in me, please,” ring in his ears; as he pulls you by the back of your neck into a rough kiss before pulling away again; as he adjusts your position on top of him so it’s easier for you.

I love you, he thinks as your eyes meet and you smile the prettiest smile; as you take his member and align yourself to it; as you slowly sink down and let out a moan and an involuntary groan escapes him; as you clutch a steady hand on his shoulder while the other caresses his cheek, his neck and whisper, “You feel so good inside me”; as you start moving on top of him, grinding on him and bouncing on his lap, over and over.

“I love you,” he says against your lips as he thrusts up into you, prompting a loud groan against his mouth; as he continues to pump into you from below, until the feeling at the pit of his belly becomes too much, because you’re so tight and so wet; as you clutch at his hair and pull and say, “Oh my god, Yuto, I love you so much, I—I’m coming—,” and he feels you clench around him; as he fucks you through your orgasm and reaches his; as he buries his face into your neck and peppers it with gentle kisses.

“I love you,” he says as you both come down from your highs, trying to steady your breathing; as Yuto raises his head and requests another kiss from your sweet lips; as he slides his hands under the hoodie to smooth up and down your back as your lips meet again and again, and he feels you shudder at his touch.

“I love you,” he says after you both have cleaned up and moved to the bed. You’re still wearing the hoodie and put on a fresh pair of underwear, and he has changed into the pajama pants you keep around for him. It’s warm under the covers, warmer still enveloped in each other, and warmer as you lazily kiss—they betray tiredness but also affection, those tiny little pecks. Yuto wishes he could just freeze time right here, but as his eyes droop he thinks he’d just rather experience the future with you instead.

“I love you,” he mumbles as you both drift to sleep.

[lambourngb]

The Evil is You

This is my Afrit - Djinn AU where the canon version of Roswell is the reality that the djinn curse has allowed to play out. The first several attempts at happiness lead to death. Alex gets cursed after a mission outside of Mosul lead to the death of a village protected by a pair of jinn and an afrit demon shows up.  I put this aside because someone else wrote a really good Caulfield timeloop story- but I still like a lot of it...

You want to believe that we’re safe, that goodness prevails. That’s the coldest reality about war.  Sometimes you’re just doing what you’re told and all of a sudden, things are burning, people are screaming and then you look around and you realize that the evil is you.

* * Alex sees the child watching them in the market holding a patched soccer ball in his hands, and at first, he smiles. He shifts his rifle to his other arm, and nudges Parker, “new recruit for our cup game.”

Parker turns his eyes from the distribution of supplies that they were overseeing. With much of the roads between Mosul dam and the Badush dam shifting between ISIL and Kurdish control, the smaller villages were reluctantly dependent on coalition forces to keep the flow of goods moving down the Tigris river.

“Think he plays a better left wing than you, Manes? I’m getting tired of losing dinner prep to Blue team.”

Before Alex could sputter an offended laugh out, the child started toward them. “Guess we’re going to find out.”

It was the last sight he remembered before white then black descended on the market in a shockwave of destruction.

****

“Wake up, Captain. You are not done yet.”

Alex shot up from his bedroll gasping and then reached under for his firearm. The barracks were quiet except for the snores of Parker cutting through. The intermittent soundtrack that peppered most nights.

Touching the watch band, his face briefly illuminated to see it was just past 2 am. His nightmares were getting more creative the longer he was deployed.

“You see, that was no dream but yesterday.”

The face was cloaked in faint auras of red and orange, like the sparks from a camp fire under the stars as Alex turned to level the gun at the intruder. “Your gun does not hurt my kind.”

**** 

“I thought when I got back from Iraq you’d be long gone.”

“Is that what you want?”

“We’re not kids anymore. What I want, doesn’t matter.”

****

He thought it was over with Caulfield. 

“The alarm is not a suggestion, nothing gets out alive.”

“They’re my family Alex!”

“Okay… Okay, let’s get her out.” Alex drew his service weapon, “can you tell her to step back? And stand away from the glass, I don’t want you caught in the ricochet.” 

He fired, once at the spanning fracture. The bullet lodged tightly in the window, adding to the spiderweb of force. A second shot close to the spiral widened the fracture “Try again with your TK, maybe it’s enough to break through completely.”

Michael stepped forward and raised his hand, focusing on the window. It felt like a summer storm he’d experienced in Jacksonville, the air tightened and vibrated against his skin. 

“Initiating quarantine protocol, you have 1 minute to evacuate the premises.”

The window started to bow, as the fractures spread like a wave. Drops of blood dripped steadily out of Michael’s nose as he concentrated on the force. Absently Alex counted down the seconds. They were past the point of reaching safety. He reached forward to rest his hands on Michael’s shoulders, feeling them shake under the pressure. It would be over soon. At least he didn’t have to live in a world without Michael. 

 “Warning! 30 seconds.”

****

Darkness, and then an empty laugh. 

“We talked about this, Captain. It’s not over until you’ve paid for what you did.”

****

2

“You sure you want to do this?” He reached out and caught Michael’s shoulder. “I need you to be careful in there. If the government is holding aliens in there, they probably have safeguards to keep them inside. You said Noah could do telekinesis too, it’s probably not out of the realm of possibility others inside that prison can too but something is holding them inside.”

“I get it, Alex, but those screams aren’t letting up and we’re letting Dr Dumbass get a head start.” 

Three keystrokes, then the doors opened. All of the doors. N-38 stumbled from his cell with heavy shifting feet. On instinct Alex stepped between him and Kyle, those frail hands grabbed onto Alex’s face. It felt like nothing. It felt like maybe this could be over.

Michael turned from holding his mother not understanding Kyle’s cry.

“Don’t. It’s fine, okay?” Alex choked out, trying to smile bravely instead. “It’s okay. Just get her safe, Michael. I need to trigger the quarantine protocol. The research here needs to be buried.”

Alex pushed Kyle away with a stiff arm and shoved the fear down of what was head of him.

From just behind him, Flint fired his gun. The wet splatter sounded loud to Alex’s ears as he fought to keep his breath even. The skull of N-38 was in ruins. “This place blows in 10 minutes. If they are too confused or weak to move, at least it will be quick.“

****

Darkness. 

“Clever, warning him of the containment protocols and then hacking the doors. I thought letting you remember our last dance would keep you from pointless heroics. I hope you enjoyed the week you spent with that brain tumor.”

“Wasn’t all bad. Michael has his mother. Kyle got his answers.”

“Always the martyr, Captain. You stayed in the cabin and never told him what was happening to you.”

“Well this is my curse, isn’t it? There’s no point in both of us suffering.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Captain. That’s the entire point, when he suffers, you suffer. ”

**** 

3

“Someone’s coming.” 

Michael stayed  stubbornly with Alex and Kyle as Flint Manes cleared the doorway, firearm in hand. 

“Alex? What are you doing here? Fuck, what have you done!”

“I think the better question is what have you done, Flint.”

Michael pulled the gun from Flint’s hands with his telekinesis into his hand smoothly after Flint kept it level on Alex.

“You brought one of them here. Dad was right, you are pathetic.” Flint held down his radio, “Security breach!”

Soldiers filled the hallway. Michael slowly lowered the gun. 

****

Darkness. 

“Oh you didn’t like that one? I thought you wanted Michael to be reunited with his mother. It was quite touching of your father to leave you in the cell across from them so you could watch. A new young specimen really ignited the creative process in those scientists. I was rather disappointed that cycle only lasted a month.”

“You underestimated what Max and Isobel would do to find Michael.”

“True. It was delicious irony to see Max trigger the quarantine protocol trying to free him. No one came looking for you, did they Captain? It was the sheriff looking for her beloved son and the alien siblings riding to the rescue.”

“If I could take back that mission, I would. If you have the power to remake reality, why not let me try and fix the past?”

“I have the power to curse you and I got that power after you had my village bombed. Do you understand the paradox now? We’re going to be together for a long time, Captain.”

****

4

“You told Guerin where we were going, right?”

“He was busy. This thing with Noah means he didn’t want to leave Isobel alone. Besides we might not find anything worth sharing.”

“That sounds a whole lot like you didn’t tell Guerin where we were going.”

A tractor trailer swerved suddenly into their lane.

***

Darkness.

“Now, now, you can’t change the rules, Captain. I guess I have left with you with too much knowledge. Let’s try something different. This is your curse, but maybe I can get an assist.”

****

[juminsmysticmc]

If you haven't already, could you write headcanons for RFA + Saeran & V with an MC that does schoolwork and studies for hours on end after coming home? (Maybe like them trying to get MC's attention or supporting her by cheering her on and making sure she takes care of herself)

RFA +Minor Duo with an MC that does schoolwork and studies for hours on end after coming home

Hey there! Thank you for this request! I really loved it and gave my best! I hope this will support you somehow ( I need it hahah) so, please tell me your opinion, okay? I love you!

Jumin

You loudly sighed as you closed your book and looked around the house.

Your husband wasn’t home yet, so you still had a bit more time to study.

Jumin often told you that there was no need for you to work, but of course you didn’t want to be a woman without something you were good in.

Besides, your dream was always to become a good doctor and Jumin supported you in your dream.

But it was still very hard and time consuming.

You were always sleepy, stressed out, and unmotivated.

,,Let’s keep fighting!’’ you told yourself and opened the book again, taking the pen in your hand again and beginning to read the sentence over and over, writing down the most important parts.

,,Mc…? Mc…?’’ you heard someone calling your name.

The voice seemed so far away…

But suddenly, you felt your body getting lifted.

,,Jumin…?’’ you groaned sleepily as you inhaled his scent.

,,Did I fall asleep…?’’ you asked him and felt his hand over your cheek.

,,Yes, did you eat?’’ he asked you concerned, but got the answer right away when he heard that your stomach was rumbling.

Quickly, he brought you your favorite porridge and made sure that you ate, handing you something to drink.

Jumin was the best support you could get. This was a hard time for you, but he was always there, making sure that you ate and stayed healthy. He was your perfect husband.

Zen

,,Let’s go on a date ~’’ Zen whined as he observed you, your head over your colorful notes.

,,Hyun, I’m busy…’’ you told him and tried to reject his hand which was currently massaging your thigh.

,,I want your attention…’’ he tried to make you look at him.

He wanted to support you with his all. 

After all, you were going to change your degree for him, so that you could become his manager.

He was so thankful to you. 

With you by his side, he knew that he would always be in good hands. However, he didn’t want you to work too much.

He began to kiss your neck and your cheeks, already feeling how hot they got.

Suddenly, you looked up and glared at him.

,,Not funny! I’m trying to-’’ you couldn’t end your sentence since he suddenly kissed you and even though you were kind of stressed, your boyfriend’s kisses were hard to reject and so you couldn’t help but kiss him back, moaning at his tongue.

,,I love you so much. Please take a break. You will have more motivation that way,’’ he whispered and kissed you again, making you really put down your pen and relax for a tiny moment.

Afterwards, you could really work harder while he tried to learn how to cook in order to support you with something nutritious.

Yoosung

,,I HATE IT!’’ you loudly sobbed as you threw your book on the floor.

You were currently having a mental breakdown because of your studies.

,,No one needs this SHIT!’’ you went on crying, looking at the themes you had to learn.

Suddenly, the door opened.

Yoosung looked at how you were angrily throwing away your pens and books.

He quickly approached you after coming home from work.

,,Mc, you should rest for a moment,’’ he told you and took you by your hand, leading you to the couch and hugging you, something you didn’t feel in a long time.

There your husband held you between his arms and nuzzled your hair, whispering cute and supportive words.

,,Imagine the children you’ll teach acting like that. What would you do?’’ he asked you, the person whose dreams was to become a teacher.

Suddenly, you began to reflect on what you did.

,,I should work harder and look at it when I’m calmer,’’ you mumbled to yourself and dug your head into Yoosung’s chest, who was massaging your back.

His hug made it possible for you to get up again later on and work harder, finally getting to the topic you were working on.

Jaehee

,,I don’t get it at all,’’ you whispered as you looked at the book filled with words you couldn’t understand.

To be honest, you didn’t want to understand it, so it was hard.

Suddenly, a cup was placed next to you.

When you looked up, your eyes met Jaehee’s happy face. Her smile made your mind brighter. It was as if you would be able to overcome everything now that you saw her.

,,Let me look at it,’’ she mumbled and looked at the tasks you were looking at.

Both of you wanted to own a shop but you still had to study a bit for school and so you were pretty busy between studying and working.

,,I love you so much,’’ you suddenly exclaimed while Jaehee tried to explain something to you.

The brown haired woman began to smile again as she kissed you.

,,Keep fighting. You can do it!’’ she giggled and took the empty cup of coffee she had prepared for you just a few moments earlier.

Jaehee was your greatest supporter. 

She could explain to you most things so that you could put them into action correctly.

And indeed, for your next exam you could remember everything Jaehee told you.

Her soft voice while she explained to you how to work with the numbers, what you as an owner had to pay to the state, and what amount you would get back.

As if you didn’t do anything different, you handled the test, understanding everything.

The mark got much better and Jaehee was so proud of you.

Saeyoung

,,I regret it so much!’’ you sobbed in Saeyoung’s arms as you cried over your studies.

,,Becoming an engineer isn’t easy at all and it’s no fun!’’ you complained, resting your head on his strong chest.

Your legs were between his as his arms stroked your back and arms.

,,No one ever said that it was easy,’’ he began.

,,It’s hard to overcome and you will have to work hard,’’ he nodded.

,,But in the end, you will be pretty happy with what you accomplished. So don’t give up,’’he tried to cheer you up.

It worked on you. 

His words made you think strongly about everything he just said.

You nodded and kept relaxing for a bit until you finally got up and went through your studies again.

Saeyoung was so proud of you.

He hated to see you in pain and the fact that you worked hard, even after school for hours, made it even harder for him, but he still supported you and made sure that he helped you with everything.

That’s why in front of you, you always had six bottles of Dr. Pepper and your fiancé’s favorite chips.

Saeran

,,I’m home,’’ Saeran called as he took off his shoes and entered the apartment the both of you shared.

Saeran was still working at Jumin's company while you were working hard on becoming a nurse.

You were so overwhelmed by your emotions that when your boyfriend entered, he actually caught you crying.

,,Mc? Why are you crying?’’ he asked you when he saw your tears.

Saeran came closer to wipe away your salty tears with his fingers.

You looked up at him. 

He was concerned for you and was just waiting for you to give him an answer.

However, you were way too embarrassed that you were scared and overworked, that you wanted to rest, to sleep, and to go on a date with him.

But as if he could read your mind, he kissed you and told you to not give up.

,,Give your best and keep fighting, even though it’s hard. Later on you will be happy that you  gave your very best!’’ Saeran said.

You nodded strongly and were about to keep on with your work when he took your hand and smiled at you.

,,Let’s first breathe some fresh air,’’ he whispered and made you follow him outside where both of you had a beautiful, big garden with a lot of flowers.

Thank God he made you breathe fresh air. 

Later on, you could work on your tasks for a few more hours while he made sure that you stayed warm and hydrated, that you ate snacks like apples and cookies, and that you weren’t desperate.

Jihyun

You looked at the amount of numbers and you tried to understand just a glimpse of what was written in your book.

You were sleepy and cold. 

You arrived from school at 2PM and were currently working on your project for three hours.

However, by now the headache you got earlier was much worse.

But giving up at this point was a no go for you, and so you kept on giving your best.

,,That’s not the way,’’ someone told you from behind and gave you a glass of water.

,,I know,’’ you quickly answered and wrote down the information you thought would be important.

Suddenly, you felt something warm on your shoulders and saw that your fiancé was trying to keep you warm with a blanket.

He was indeed your soulmate for knowing how you felt and what you longed for, because everything you needed was on its way to you.

Same for the kiss you waited for.

,,You worry too much,’’ Jihyun told you.

,,Please rest today,’’ he begged you and touched your forehead.

,,You have a slight fever,’’ he told you and later on went on that you could only give our best if you kept your body healthy.

,,I know,’’ you mumbled before you closed your eyes and fell into his arms.

A few hours later, you woke up next to him, who just observed you.

,,I love you. I know you can’t fail. Don’t worry too much.

You have enough time. Rest and take care of your body… please,’’ Jihyun smiled and kept observing you as you happily fell asleep again.

MASTERLIST 1MASTERLIST 2MASTERLIST 3

03.03.2020// 22:36 MEST

[ahtohallan-calling]

chapter 12 of it’s always ourselves we find is here!

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11

[kristanna / m / modern au / coworkers & enemies to lovers ;) ]

all good w greg? 

.

No. Guess what was wrong with the printer?

.

out of ink?

.

Unplugged.

.

omg i feel like i shouldn’t laugh but i am

.

Well, then it turns out he had six different viruses on his work issued laptop.

.

no shit? that’s worse than hans

are you gonna make it to the dinner? I’ll save you a seat

liss told me it’s just a bunch of subs and chips and stuff but i mean it’s free

.

Don’t think I will. I’m sorry :/. Haven’t even showered.

.

don’t be sorry! i’ll just sneak some out and we can eat together in the room 😊

can’t have you starving to death

.

And suddenly, the bubbling, hot tide of irritation that had been rising in him since the moment Greg had first interrupted them on the beach was all washed away.

“So,” Greg said, squinting, “where did all my toolbars go?”

Kristoff chuckled and clapped the older man on the shoulder. “Good one, buddy.”

“No, seriously.”

“I’ll cut you a deal. Either you promise me never to click on a pop-up porn ad again, or I’ll tell Harry exactly how many pop-up porn ads you clicked on while using your work computer.”

The other man paled at that. “How can you tell?”

Kristoff winked and tapped a finger against his temple. “Call it intuition. Have a good one, Greg.”

It was for the best that the lobby and hallways were uncrowded as he made his way back upstairs to the hotel room, because not only did he still smell sort of seaweed-y, but he was paying next to no attention to where he was going. Every part of him felt charged somehow, like the air between a burst of lightning and the clap of thunder, but in the best way; he kept pulling his phone out to check it, to remind himself that this was real, that Anna actually returned his feelings, that she was choosing to be with him tonight.

Tonight-- and maybe beyond that, if this streak of luck continued. 

To his relief, she still wasn’t back in the room by the time he got there; he wanted nothing more than to hold her again the way he had in the water, but he also knew that there was definitely still some sand where it did not belong and that his chances of finally getting to kiss her were severely lowered if he didn’t hurry up and rinse off the saltwater that still felt like it was clinging to every inch of him.

He was just rinsing the last of the suds from his skin when he heard the door to the room open and Anna calling for him.

“In here,” he called back. 

“Hurry up before your food gets cold.”

He chuckled. “It’s sandwiches. It’s supposed to be cold.”

“Yeah, but you had to stop and think about it for a second, didn’t you?”

“Did not,” he said as he switched off the water and reached for his towel.

“Definitely did,” came the cheerful reply. “But seriously, hurry up, slowpoke. I’m fucking starving.”

When he emerged, wearing a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt as he ran a hand through his still-damp hair, she was just coming back in from the balcony, her teeth chattering. “Hey, Kris,” she said, and without further preamble she wrapped her arms around his waist and nestled her face against his shoulder.

“Hey, yourself,” he said, one hand instinctively flying up to cradle the back of her head as the other pressed against her back, pulling her closer to his chest.

Anna sighed happily and nuzzled her cheek against him. “Sorry, is this okay? It’s just kind of chilly now that it’s dark out.”

“‘Course,” he mumbled, dropping a kiss on the top of her head. “But I’ve got a sweatshirt you can borrow. I’d hold you all night, but that’d make eating difficult, huh?”

She peered up at him, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth. “Would you really?”

He swallowed hard. “Ah, shit, Anna. I-- it’s one thing when I tell you stuff like that on accident, but on purpose…”

So fast he didn’t have time to react, she brushed a kiss against the underside of his jaw and whispered, “You’re sweet, you know that?”

Speechless, he only nodded and headed over to his suitcase. “Here,” he said, pulling out a worn, navy blue sweatshirt and offering it to her. “It’s kinda old, but it’s pretty warm.”

Anna wriggled quickly into it, and for the second time that day his heart stuttered in his chest at the sight of her wearing his clothes. The sweatshirt was even bigger on her than his button down had been; it hung nearly to her knees. She giggled as she held up her hands to examine just how far past her fingertips the sleeves of the sweatshirt dangled. “At this rate, you’re going to go home with an empty suitcase.”

Kristoff didn’t reply, too overcome with the sudden thought of this is the night you’re going to kiss her. Of course he had tried to earlier when they were interrupted, and he just might have even before that in the elevator if only they’d had another ten seconds or so, but now seeing her so delighted to be wearing something else of his, the way her eyes had sparkled when he’d offered, the fact that she’d snuck him his dinner up here so they could enjoy it together underneath the starlight with nothing but the sound of the waves to disturb them--

Tonight, he thought, a shiver of wonder racing through him.

“Kris?”

He blinked, startled from his reverie, and looked down to see a look of concern crossing Anna’s face. “Are you alright?” she asked, looking suddenly nervous. “You were just-- staring at me.”

“Yeah, it’s just-- just-- yeah,” he said lamely, and to his surprise, her cheeks turned rosy. 

“Well, anyway,” she said, a little shy as she tugged the sleeves up enough that her hands were free, “I, uh, I put the food out on the table out on the balcony. I got you a Dr. Pepper, that’s your favorite, right?”

He nodded, once again too overwhelmed for words, and reached down to tangle his fingers with hers.

They ate in near silence, exchanging shy glances across the little table between bites of their sandwiches. He wanted to ask her more about everything, not just about the sudden miracle that had sprung up between them but about her, about what she liked to do on weeknights and where she went to elementary school and how she ended up working at an office supply company that, some days, seemed to run purely on nepotism and scotch tape.

And it occurred to him, suddenly, as he watched Anna settle further back in her chair, letting the sleeves fall back down to cover her fingers, that he knew the answers, that they’d been gleaned one at a time over the fourteen months they’d worked together; that she liked to go hiking with her sister or read at home with her cat on her lap; that she’d grown up in Illinois and been homeschooled until high school; and that she’d gone to Auburn and followed her sister further east. 

And god, even just realizing that he’d already known it all, that he’d known it and known that he felt this way about her for so long, was enough for him to again feel that rising certainty that he was going to kiss her tonight-- well, certainty and panic.

Anna, for her part, appeared to be more focused on the night sky than on the way he was dying a slow and painful death right there on the balcony. “I wish we could see the stars like this closer to the city,” she said softly, the evening breeze fluttering through the ends of her hair. 

“You can,” Kristoff blurted out. “I can from my yard.” 

She turned to look at him, her eyes softer than she’d ever seen them. “Can I come see them sometime?”

“You don’t even have to ask,” he breathed, hoping she understood how earnestly he meant it, and that that went for anything she asked of him; it was hers, all she might want of all he had.

He thought for a minute that the moment might be then, from the way her lips parted slightly and the way she leaned forward, but then something lit up in her expression, and she was on her feet. “Oh! I forgot we have dessert!”

He raised his eyebrows at that; it was very unlike Anna to forget anything sweet. He listened to her rustling around through her bag for a moment as he drew in a deep breath, trying as best he could to steady his nerves. 

“Aha!” she said triumphantly, pulling out the bag of M&Ms he’d bought for her the day before and waving them in the air. 

“Well, how about that,” Kristoff said, trying to contain his amusement. 

She grinned, already tearing the bag open. “You want some? Hold out your hand.”

“Nah, that’s okay,” he said, and as she shrugged and popped a handful into her mouth, he added airily, “I got them for you.”

She froze, one hand halfway back down from her mouth, the other slowly losing its grip on the bag. He could have sworn he could pinpoint the moment it had clicked for her— something about the way her eyes were suddenly so bright it made his chest ache. 

“Well, don’t mind me, go on and eat them,” he said mischievously. “I spent good money on those.”

She set the bag down with a decisive tap and finally remembered to swallow. “It was you?” she whispered. “The whole time?”

If he was being honest, he suddenly felt a little off balance himself. He barely managed a nod as she drew closer to him; he let his knees pull further apart so that she could stand between them as she leaned down to set her fingertips against his jaw. They were trembling, just barely.

“I can’t believe it,” Anna said, her voice barely audible. 

“Can’t believe what?”

A soft smile crept over her features. “How something so obvious was right in front of my eyes, and I never even noticed.”

His heart was beginning to pound. “I— I think I missed a couple things, too,” he murmured as she leaned down, and then suddenly— finally— they were kissing, her lips earnest and still candy-sweet against his. He set his hands on her waist to try and pull her closer she went easily, settling herself on his lap. 

“Anna,” he whispered, and felt her smile against him, and god, it was even better than his dreams. 

---

It had been difficult, at first, to fall asleep when she’d kept giggling. “What?” Kristoff had asked, confused, as they faced each other across the mattress, still keeping their distance though they hadn’t bothered with setting up any semblance of a barrier.

“It’s just that a couple of days ago I thought you hated me, and then we just kissed for the first time tonight, and now we’re sharing a bed and it’s just-- it’s just sort of crazy, isn’t it?”

“That’s one word for it.”

She’d raised an eyebrow, intrigued. “What word would you choose?”

He’d thought for a moment before saying, “Lucky,” his voice so serious it made something in her chest flutter.

And she’d bitten her lip and scooted across the midpoint of the mattress and shyly settled a hand on his chest like she had the night before, and he’d gone a step further and slid an arm around her shoulders to pull her even closer, and then they’d kissed again until Anna pulled back and whispered, “Is it okay if we just do this?”

“What do you mean just this?”

“Just-- kissing. Even though we’re sharing a bed? I just-- I don’t want to…”

“Rush things?” he’d finished for her, and she’d nodded, too shy to meet his gaze.

“Me either,” he had whispered then as she nestled her face against his chest, letting the steady beat of his heart calm her nerves until she slid into a deep, dreamless sleep.

At some point in the night, though, a sudden sense of loss dragged her from slumber, leaving her blinking, disoriented, in the pitch dark room.

“Kristoff?” she asked, reaching blindly for him before her eyes adjusted to the darkness.

He was sitting up on the edge of the bed, slumping forward with his head in his hands. Anna sat up, rubbing at her eyes. “Kris, are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Go back to sleep.”

She glanced at the alarm clock on her nightstand, squinting at the red digits in the darkness. “It’s after two.”

“Believe me, I know.”

He sounded so dejected that she didn’t even have to think it through before her mind was made up. She pushed the covers back and crawled over to sit behind him. After taking a moment to steel herself, she slid her arms around his waist and buried her face in the crook of his neck, inhaling the warm, woodsy smell of his shower gel that still lingered on his skin.

“Hey,” he murmured, lowering a hand to press it over hers where it rested on his stomach.

“Hey, yourself,” she replied, nuzzling her nose just above the collar of his t-shirt. “Wanna tell me what’s wrong?”

“No.”

“Will you anyway? Please?”

“Nosy.”

“Grumpy.”

“Hey, I was pretty cheerful today,” he contended, and a soft laugh escaped her.

“You were. It was really nice.”

He squeezed her hand at that, and she smiled, wondering if he could feel it against his skin. For several long moments neither of them moved, not daring to speak a word that might brush up too harshly against this tenuous, newborn tranquility between them, and then Kristoff sighed. “You’re not going to go back to bed, are you?”

“Nope. Not til I know you’re okay.”

“I don’t want you to worry.”

“Too late for that.”

Kristoff chuckled. “You’re too stubborn for your own good, you know that?”

“So I’ve been told. By you, mostly.”

He lowered both of his hands now, settling them in his lap, before turning as best he could to look at her over his shoulder, his dark eyes glossed with moonlight. “I’ve never told anyone this.”

“You can trust me,” Anna replied. “But you don’t have to.”

The corner of his mouth quirked up in a smile. “I know. It’s just...it’s kind of a long story.”

She shifted to sit behind him, turning so she could lean against his broad back and rest her cheek against the soft fabric of his worn shirt. “I’ve got all night.”

He sighed heavily enough that she rose and fell with him. “I just...if this changes how you think about me--”

“It won’t,” she said decisively. 

“It might,” he pressed on. “So I just...I’m sorry if it does.”

“Kristoff, quit worrying and just tell me.”

He sighed again. “I just...I really need this presentation to go well tomorrow. I can’t get fired.”

Anna frowned. “Why is that a big secret? I don’t want to get fired either.”

“No, it’s-- it’s different. I can’t get fired, Anna, I...I need this job to help take care of my family. And if I lose this one, I don’t think I could find another.”

“Of course you could! You’re super smart and good at all your-- your computery things, and--”

“I don’t have a degree. I barely even finished high school.”

She was glad he couldn’t see the shock she was sure was evident on her face. “But you’re the head of IT.”

“I know, believe me, and I-- I know there’s no way in hell I’d get a job like this again. Shit, I’d be lucky to get anything full time. But my mom and dad, they’re retired, and they don’t have a lot of savings because they spent it on all of us.”

“All of...who?”

Kristoff groaned; she felt his back shift as he raised a hand to run it through his hair. “I-- fuck. I guess I better tell you my whole shitty life story, huh?”

She turned and pressed a kiss against the nape of his neck. “Only if you want me to.”

He was quiet for a long moment then, but she waited patiently like she always did for him when it really mattered, knowing that, unlike her, he preferred to gather his thoughts in advance before diving in headfirst. Her eyelids were beginning to droop when at last he began to speak, his voice tight.

“I was a foster kid for a long time, til I was about to turn nine. And my folks took me in-- they took in, shit, I don’t even know how many of us over the years, but me and my sister were the only ones who stayed. And they were good to me like no one else had ever been, and when they finally adopted me-- shit, it was the best day of my life. But I...I was just so angry sometimes, not at them but just at the whole world, you know?”

She nodded, too overcome to speak, and after a moment he sighed and went on. “And so I just...I fucked around in school, spent more time in suspension than out, fell in with a bunch of other guys who did the same dumb shit. And then one day, I got arrested, and Pop told me that was it. He made me get back into therapy, made me sit at the kitchen table and do all my homework while he watched, wouldn’t let me leave the house unless he or Ma was with me. And I was furious, and then that burned out, and I was just bored as hell, and so I started messing around with computers, trying to figure out how they worked. At first it was so I could figure out how to fuck more shit up at school, but then I got serious about it.”

He paused then, shifting a little to look back at her. “I’m rambling, I know. You can tell me to shut up and go back to bed if you--”

“No,” Anna said fiercely. “I want to know. And I think you need to talk about it for your own sake.”

He was quiet for a moment, just taking stock of her expression, before nodding slowly. “Maybe I do.”

She settled against his back again. “So keep going.”

He chuckled at that, and she couldn’t help but smile at the feeling of his back rumbling against her. “Bossy.”

“Grumpy. Stop trying to distract me.”

“I...okay, okay, fine. Anyway, I graduated by the skin of my teeth, but I had no clue what to do with myself. Pop, uh, he was a handyman, and he got called up to the office building-- our office building, I mean-- and so I just went with him to kill time. And one day Mr. Westergaard-- as in the old dude-- he was there, and he was really pissed off about something with his laptop, and so I offered to fix it, and I did. And he just kinda looked at me and said, ‘well, shit, son, the IT guy I got now told me to just buy a new one’, and he hired me on the spot. And I just...I worked my way up from there, you know? And because he gave me a chance, I turned my life around, and now I can take care of my parents and my sister, and if I lose this…I don’t know if anyone else would hire me.”

Something dawned on Anna then, and she leaned around his shoulder to get a look at his face. “So Hans…”

“He knows, yeah. So does Harry. Nobody else, though. So that’s why he holds it all over my head, knows I can’t do shit about it.”

“Fucking rat bastard,” they said in unison, and after a moment of surprise they both laughed. 

Anna reached over to squeeze his hand. “Maybe...maybe now if people saw the experience you have…”

“Maybe’s not good enough, not when they need me. I gotta at least help them get through til Maggie graduates, and she’s got another year of high school after this one.”

She moved then to set beside him, tugging at his arm until he raised it and let her slip underneath it. He dropped it over her shoulders and pressed a kiss to her temple. “I know that’s a lot to unload on you, Anna, I don’t blame you if--”

“Oh, shut up, Bjorgman, this doesn’t change jack shit. Except that now I think I like you even more.”

“What, really? Former fuckup, that’s your type?”

“No. But it means a lot to me that you told me all that.”

He was quiet then, his thumb rubbing slowly up and down against her shoulder. She was still wearing his sweatshirt-- he was crazy if he ever thought he was getting it back. She nestled closer against his side, wrapping her arms around his sturdy waist. “I’m here for you, Kristoff,” she said softly. “Anytime you need to talk about shit like this. It’s not gonna change how I-- how I feel about you. And tomorrow-- don’t even worry, okay? I’m gonna make sure the presentation is the best fucking presentation this company has ever seen.”

“I don’t know, last year’s presentation on solar panels is a tough one to beat…” he said half-heartedly.

“I mean it,” she said softly. “Fuck Hans. Tomorrow is going to be great. But first, we gotta get some sleep. You can’t just sit up all night worrying it’ll go badly, because then that’s exactly what will happen.”

“I know, I know, it’s just...I don’t know. I was just... I was thinking about all this shit, and then about you, and how I finally got to kiss you, and--”

“Finally?”

“Ah, shit, this is another one of those things you’re gonna want me to say, and you only know about it ‘cause I let it slip, and--”

“Finally for me too,” she interrupted. “But you kinda already gave it away when you confessed about the M&Ms. I got the first pack of those less than a month in.”

“...yeah.”

She leaned up to press a kiss to his cheek, but before she could, he turned and caught her lips with his own. She sighed against him, letting one hand rest on his chest as his arm tightened around her.

When they broke apart, he rested his forehead against hers. “How am I supposed to sleep when it means missing out on more of that, huh?”

“Cut you a deal, if you don’t get your ass back under the covers right now, I’ll never kiss you again.”

She didn’t think she’d ever seen him move so quickly.