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astaroth1357 · 4 years ago

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Demigod MC Series: Dionysus

Hey y’all, sorry for going dark! I’m alright, almost completely recovered in fact! I just got so sleepy while my body was fighting stuff off and couldn’t really work up the energy to write... Still going to be spotty for a short time, but I’m glad to have gotten this done. See ya soon!

Demigod MC Series: Intro, Aphrodite, Hermes, Hades, Dionysus

Lucifer

Well, this mortal stumbled out of the portal covered in glitter, body paint, and carrying a red solo cup… which they proceeded to stare at like, "'ell sshhit… Thiz iz sum stron s'uff…"

First impressions were not on their side here.

He spent a depressingly long amount of time more or less assuming that the MC was a drunken f-up and spent the first few months trying to make them more�� presentable.

But like… How do you stop someone from acting like a drunk fool when they can turn any drink they touch alcoholic???

For months they would show up to meetings buzzed or stumbling, all smiles and all giggles but HORRIBLY unprofessional, and he just couldn't stand it!

But then he found out their little secret…

Assassination threats befall the exchange students all the time. Most of them are dealt with quickly but some (through skill or dumb luck) manage to slip through...

He had been walking with the MC through their new vineyard in the House's courtyard, yet again trying to lecture them about their drunken behavior, when suddenly the two were ambushed!

Ten or so heavily armored demons dropped down from the sky to attack them! Lucifer was so preoccupied that he got cornered by three of them and it took him a hot minute to destroy them.

When he looked back at the mortal (who had been fighting a 1-on-7) he was certain they'd have been kidnapped or worse…

But he saw that they had already cut down two attackers with their weapon with ease. The other five were rolling in the dirt, babbling about inexplicable terrors and imaginary pain as their minds succumbed to madness…

Meanwhile, the MC just stood in the middle of it all with the icy glare of someone who’s just revealed how stone-cold sober they've always been under the surface...

When they turned back to him, they put their usual ditzy smile back on over the tormented wails of the demons around them...

MC: Whoopsie… Gotta little mad there. 🙂

He uh… took a big ol'step off their back after that. Surprisingly, they're more pleasant (and less dangerous) "drunk" than they are sober…

Mammon

Oh HELL yeah!! Lucifer actually gave him a mortal that knows how to party!!

Admittedly, they looked like utter trash when they first met, like, "Hey, I've been at this party since DAWN" trash, but they gave him one good look and pulled together a surprisingly hot smile.

MC: "-ey yer cute… Ya like strip poker?"

Spoken like someone else who also makes shit decisions… They were going to get along just fine!

And they did. The MC to him was that one friend that's always down for anything. Just anything. Whenever. Wherever.

He wants to try sneaking into Lucifer's room to steal stuff? Sure, what time?

He wants to take a mattress and see if he can ride it down the grand staircase of the palace? Alright, we bringin' pillows too?

He needs to set up another scheme that's gotta involve live rats and box of tiny hats and monocles?? That's oddly specific but count them in!!

Sometimes he honestly can't tell if they're laid back or just crave chaos... but it works out fine for him either way so who cares? 🤷‍♀️

And if you think normal Mammon is a pain in the ass for Lucifer? Check out drunk Mammon. All the same urges but literally none of the (marginal) competence!!

At one point, the eldest ended up stringing both Mammon and the MC from the ceiling after they both barged into his office looking for Goldie… while he was still in there… watching them wander around aimlessly calling out for a piece of plastic like it was a missing puppy…

They end up together on the ceiling a lot come to think of it, but hey, at least now he has some company. 😌

Leviathan

Thinks they're the most normal normie to have ever normed on this normie planet!!!

No, seriously. They're a billion times worse than Asmo!! All they want to do is go to parties and drink all the time! What kind of use is he to someone like that??

… That being said they ARE pretty fun to be around… And their sake is WAY better than anything he could get off Akuzon!!

They also like karaoke too! So at least he has someone else to go with (even if they get so drunk they can’t remember any lyrics and just belt barely coherent discount Mariah Carey vocals behind him...)

Of course, the real fun between these two is everybody else getting to watch a couple of the Devildom's sloppiest drunks attempt to communicate with each other…

Levi: MMM-*hic*-MCCC…!!! *throws himself at them from across the bar*

MC: What Leviachan??? 😨 Did the chair kick you off?!

Levi: Nooo! *pokes their cheek* I wanna-I wanna tell you sometin'...! *tries pulling them closer*

MC: Whaa? Secrets?? *leans in eagerly*

Levi: Mammon used all ma money on’a pyramid scheme a thou-zand years ago… AND HE STILL WON'T PAY ME BAAA-!!! 😭😭 *starts shaking them violently*

MC: *getting flung around like a limp noodle* Waaaat?! Nooo!!! I'm so sowwy!! 😢

Mammon: *watching it all go down right next to him* 😑 Ya guys need some water… I'm cuttin' ya off, got it?

MC: 😱 Shut yer whore mouth, criminal!! *starts pelting him with pretzel bites*

Levi: 😤 Yah!! *joins in*

Good thing he's a shut-in, because the hangovers he gets after those escapades are unreal…

Satan

A little concerned for their liver, honestly… How much damage have they already done to the poor thing...?

But at the same time, he'll be damned if they don't make some utterly fantastic wine!

Alcokinesis wasn't a power he would have pegged a demigod to have but apparently the great art of making drinks comes from their godly DNA.

When they first met, he was trying to get the MC to act less slovenly but made the mistake of agreeing to a wager: he'd let them dress however they pleased if they could give him the BEST drink he'd ever tasted.

Now, Satan isn't a huge drinker (thank you terrible alcohol tolerance), but he's still a man of fine tastes. Plus, he's sampled Demonus from Diavolo royal stock before. They should not have won…

But on that day, he had to let them go to RAD in a pink blanket toga... 😑 Their wine is just THAT good.

He hates to admit it, but they've gotten him drunk more times than he could probably count too… He's not a huge fan of clubbing with them and the others, but if they bring over a bottle from their vineyard he just can't resist. They're a master of their craft, truly.

And it's a good thing he likes their drinks so much, because if they called him, "Kitty-boy," when he's sober, he may have just become a sour grape himself…

They also may or may not have copious amounts of blackmail material of him either meowing between sentences, sobbing over some fictional character he likes, pole dancing on dares….

Yeah, he's been trying to destroy their phone for months now. If Lucifer were to see ANY of that, he's done for… 😣

He has also been meaning to ask them about other aspects of their abilities, their father is also the God of Madness after all, but anytime he tries to bring it up they shove another glass in his hand and tell him not to kill the mood...

Eh. What's the harm in having another drink, right? 🤷‍♀️

Asmodeus

Honey. He's MET Dionysus. He's been to a Dio-party or two and they're INSANE. He could not be more thrilled by this!!!

He practically scooped them up on the first night that they were in the House and it’s practically been a nonstop rave between these two ever since. They’re like the party twin he never knew he needed!!

He absolutely abuses their ability to turn pretty much any drink they touch into alcohol at clubs. It makes the nights so much easier on the wallet PLUS it makes an excellent little party trick to impress the succubi! Who doesn’t want a free drink? 😏

And can he just say that their drinks are better? Just flat out amazing! If it weren’t so unhealthy he’d consider drinking nothing but their booze and wine for the rest of his days, Satan’s certainly getting close to it.

But little does Satan know, he’s not even getting the GOOD stuff...

There’s the normal wine: grapes picked from the vineyard, hand squeezed, then magically helped through the fermenting process. But their real good stuff? They were given enchanted oak barrels from their father and anything that comes out of those is worth starting a WAR over. 😩

He knows, because he gifted an extra bottle to Diavolo once and Barbs came to him the very next day demanding to know what vineyard had produced it with the look of man willing to annex a small nation...

Asmo had to beg Lucifer to talk to Diavolo after the butler more or less kidnapped the MC back to the Castle… Devil knows even Barbs wouldn’t ever be able to reproduce their wine, so they could have been locked there for eternity!!

Thankfully, he got his party-buddy back and their debauchery continued! (Just now with Barbatos following them around sometimes like he’s trying to gather state secrets... It’s an impossible task but he hasn’t given up yet, bless his black heart.)

Beelzebub

He isn't much bothered by their carefree nature, at least they seem to be having fun with his family which he appreciates. 🙂

To be honest, though, he nearly ate them when they first met because they smell like freshly peeled grapes… and for good reason.

By their third day at the House they had (somehow) planted and cultivated a full on vineyard in the courtyard. Hell, the wall growing to their bedroom balcony was covered in grapevines!! Always ripe and completely healthy in defiance of the lack of sun... Whatever magic they used was strong.

And, of course, their grapes were also delicious! Easily among the best fruits he's ever tasted! Every cluster is ridiculously plump, juicy, and sweet like little droplets of pure Heaven… 🤤

When their fruit first ripened, the MC came out with a basket to collect some only to find Beel had gouged himself on over half of their crop!!!

… which may have been why he got snared up on one of the courtyard walls by pissed off grapevines... Even with all his strength, he couldn't break through them and had to wait for Lucifer to cut him down… 😔

From then on, Beel was pretty much the pesky rabbit to the MC's harvest. They had to set up traps and magical barriers to keep him from their precious grapes…!! Which inevitably meant one of his brothers had to come rescue him from their furious vines at least once a week... 🙄

SOMETIMES, the MC will bring him along to help harvest with them with the deal that he can have an extra basket for however many he helps them pick. But the second he takes a bite he shouldn't, it’s back on the wall!

Out of the vineyard, they're nice enough. But put some grapes between these two and they're mortal enemies… STOP messing with their plants, Beel!! 😤

Belphegor

So… this drunken fool is supposed to get him out of the attic? Never mind, this is never going to work…

He was SEVERELY underwhelmed when the "human" finally made it up the steps. This was who they decided to bring for their exchange program? They seemed like they could barely stand!

Naturally, he figured all the better for him. They probably wouldn't even last that long!

Some poor, incompetent human falling victim to a demon out there? Diavolo's reputation would in tatters and he wouldn't even have to lift a finger! (His favorite way of doing things really 😌).

But… they just kept coming back? Like. Nothing was killing them….! How guarded were they keeping this moron??

Or… maybe it was something else?

Sure, the MC seemed like a drunken idiot but there were times when he'd swear that they were just… too aware to be sloshed…

MC: *suddenly stops smiling at him mid-conversation and looks him in the eye* You tilt your head when you lie. You know that?

How can someone so cheerful ALSO be so unnerving…?

So really, he should have seen their sudden heel-turn after they opened the door coming. There he was, fully intending to take them by surprise and choke them after a hug…

...and they knocked him down, climbed onto his back like a spider monkey, and rode him around like a bucking bull using his horns like handlebars!!

It wouldn’t have been AS humiliating if they didn’t also keep shouting things like "Giddiyap!" And "Yee-haw!!"

It took him a whole month to be sure that any and all footage of that nightmare was erased and he STILL hates the MC quite a bit for it…. But he's too scared to attack them now, so…

The lesson here? It's not a fair fight when one side’s crazy... 😔😒

#obey me #obey me shall we date #shall-we-date-obey-me #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me leviathan #obey me satan #obey me asmodeus #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphegor #obey me demigods

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lilyofthestyx · 3 years ago

Note

Headcanons about each of the lords (+the Duke if you're writing about him) if they ever happen to adopt a little child?

THANK YOU ANON MY THE UNIVERSE BLESS YOU WITH PILLOWS THAT ARE COLD ON BOTH SIDES

okay okay okay okay this has definitely been on my mind so lets get into the thick of it

Alcina Dimitrescu

(im starting off with alcina for obvious reasons)

Alcina would be on the way to the church with the slimy moron, the demented doll, that disgusting manthing and Mother Miranda

She'd kiss her daughters goodbye and head off through the snow, quietly muttering about how cold her ankles were

while Moreau is literally up to his chin in snow but its fine

as she gets closer to the church she keeps hearing this. thing. it sounded familiar but she couldn't exactly put her finger on it.

she strays from the path to find it because it was just so familiar

as she weaves her way through the snow, her dress gets caught on something. she leans down to get her dress unstuck when she realises its this tiny basket.

like seriously. just a little woven basket in the middle of the snow. and it doesn't look like its been there for that long- there's hardly any snow on it

when she tugs at her skirts again, the basket makes the same noise she's been hearing

she stands back up to her full height, staring down at the basket with narrowed eyes

this cannot be a good idea, can it? opening a strange basket in the woods after being lured out here. it's probably some village manthing's trap.

she's about to step away when she hears the sound again- much more intense and much more clear

Alcina leans down and opens the lid of the basket

inside is this tiny thing- all soft and warm in a padding of blankets

a baby

she stands and looks around

who on earth would be so moronic as to leave their baby in the snow? it's much too cold for a baby to survive-

she sighs, getting onto her knees to pull the baby from the blanketed basket

the meeting will have to wait. it's too cold even in the church for this tiny thing.

when she finally makes it back home, she's greeted by her daughters in a swarm of buzzing flies.

as they manifest in their true forms, they're asking what- or who, rather- their mother brought for dinner

Alcina smiles and shakes her head, unwrapping the small bundle clinging to her breast

"this... is your new sibling" she announces, "they'll be staying with us from now on."

and the sisters are ecstatic. a new sibling!

Daniela especially is happy that she is no longer the youngest. she usually is the one to parade around the castle with her sibling on her shoulders, showing them the coolest hiding spots for hide-n-seek and the windows with the best views

Bela is incredibly protective. like. incredibly.

she smelt blood from across the castle and when she found her little sibling sniffling about a skinned knee earned from a game of tag with Angie, she lost her shit and almost broke the damned thing with her sickle

And Cassandra has been caught reading bedtime stories by nightlight multiple times. she tries to play it off but everyone knows that she loves- absolutely adores- her newest sibling

we all know Alcina is such a wonderful mother to the girls so adding another baby to the mix was a guaranteed success

she's so doting and careful (a little overprotective at times but she means well) as she is with her girls

as the child grows into a teen, she panics a bit because "my beautiful baby is growing into such a beautiful, talented adult" so expect a lot of late night visits when she just sits on the edge of her bed and just admires how much you've grown

Salvatore Moreau:

now this one is an easy one too if i'm 100% honest

think Moses type beat

(if you don't know, Moses was found in the riverbank in a little basket)

apparently i really like baskets

anyways

Moreau was so out of his element when he found this tiny, screaming, writhing piece of soft flesh

the first few weeks were rough

but he eventually got the hang of it (with Alcina's help of course)

he would take his child fishing every now and then- just the two of them out on a boat for a few hours

the kid would literally swim more than walk and that little fact would make Moreau so freakin proud

also this kid would be so well-versed in movie and film history it's stupid

like expect this little 4 or 5 year old babbling not about toys or snow or how many sticks they found but instead about the copyright war over the film Nosferatu and the destruction of its copies

Moreau, as the child gets older (like 11 or 12) would have just a tad of trouble trying to keep the kid out of the village

he'd wake up one day and go out onto the lake, expecting his child to be swinging their legs off the dock and watching the sun rise over the water

and when he finds that they were not, in fact, swinging their legs off the dock and watching the sun rise over the water, he p a n i c s

i mean, full blown red alert

all of the lords are summoned to help Moreau look for his missing kid, the lycans are given an article of clothing to help find the scent, Mother Miranda goes to search the village herself- the whole shebang

and when the kid is found playing with the village children, Moreau bursts into tears

needless to say, the kid isn't allowed to go to the village anymore

until they're fifty (Moreau's words, of course)

but the kid sneaks off more and more as they get older, using Alcina or Donna or Karl as an excuse to be away

and Moreau knows but he never says a word

seeing his child happy and free with the kids their age makes him happy, even if he is a tad, a tad, a tad bit nervous

Donna Beneviento:

when Donna found this child huddled up against the base of the stairs leading up to her front door, she at first thought it was a doll of hers

it was only when she actually walked outside that she realised it was this shaking, shriveled child in tattered clothes

she spent a good five minutes just staring, wondering how on earth she's supposed to react

that's when Angie jumped in and pulled at her skirt, telling her to "let the kid inside, already!"

Donna went immediately to work on some clothes- why on earth were they wearing such ragged things?! it's freezing outside!- while Angie entertained in the parlour

honestly, it didn't go well

the kid was a little bit unsettled by the floating doll that moved and spoke on its own FOR GOOD REASON

and when Donna walked back in with her measurement tape and some fabric, the kid backed themselves into a corner of the room with their gangly legs tucked into their chest

Angie sighs from the opposite side of the room, letting her little feet fidget as she gestures to the kid. "they're no fun" she pouts, "wouldn't even let me know their name"

Donna puts her materials down slowly and lifts her veil back before attempting a small smile

it takes a while but upon the offer of food, the kid finally lets Donna make them some clothes while Angie makes conversation

she works in silence, only offering small awkward smiles

Angie finally brings up the topic of where their parents are when the kid's clothes are done

when the child goes silent, Donna nods in understanding before hurrying off to make a room for them

as Angie helped tug the blankets up to the child's ears, they promised they'd be gone in the morning

Angie was the one to tell them off.

"You'll stay as long as you need, you silly goose!"

and the child did

Donna would let them tag along for meetings so long as they promised to keep quiet and help keep Angie out of trouble

most of the time, it didn't work and they both would end up in trouble but Donna let them come nonetheless

and when the other Lords question where on earth this little kid came from- all dressed in black fabric that matched Donna's dress, she just shook her head and let Angie chase them off verbally

she'd spend literal HOURS locked in that workshop making new little friends for her child and when they were old enough, she'd let them into the workshop

and when they were even older, she'd walk them through making their very first doll on their own

she'd just watch with pride as they carefully painted the freckles with a shaky hand while Angie danced around their ankles singing of how excited she was to have another friend

The Duke:

he would be setting up shop near the base of the Dimitrescu castle when he catches a kid trying to steal some his wares

he wouldn't be terribly upset, more concerned

it wasn't something shiny or expensive that they were trying to steal

it was some of the steaming-hot food he had left to cool in the wintry air

he confronted the child gently and with a warm smile

"That's cordon bleu," he says, gesturing to the steaming plate. "I can make you some if you'd like"

and as the child eats, the Duke continues tidying up his shop for any future customers

the child, through a mouthful of food, points to different items and asks their purpose, their price, their possible enhancements

the Duke answers each question with patience, happy for the company

but he doesn't just let the questions go one-way

"How about a trade?" he asks as the child asks about the strange-looking bottle of green liquid. "An answer for an answer."

the child agrees and the Duke starts to peel back layers of why the child was here looking for food

they had been orphaned by the last lycan attack, only barely making it out by fleeing into the woods

they tried to forage off of berry bushes and successfully managed to kill a pig- only for the blood to attract lycans before they could properly eat it

the Duke nods and continues busying himself with his shop, feeding the horse that pulls the wagon

the thought had hit him when he watched the child petting his horse

that horse hated everyone. including him at times.

maybe...

when he offered to take the child in, the kid nearly burst into tears and thanked him repeatedly, swearing to earn their keep

and they did, seven times over

what started off as a purely business venture morphed into something more as time went on

when the child would come back from selling smaller household items like gasoline and the occasional package of bullets, the Duke would have them climb onto the roof of the wagon and watch the sun set together with a plate of food

speaking of which, like Moreau, the Duke would raise the most cultured child

this kid would know how to prepare and identify different dishes and their ingredients just by looking at them or smelling them

and their palate would be far more sophisticated than most adults

the Duke, as the child gets older, would eventually allow them to choose destinations to set up shop- even outside of the village

wherever his child wants, the shop would go

it allows them to see the world and its earthly wares together- something the Duke had lacked in his life before the child was brought into the picture

Karl Heisenberg:

listen to me very very carefully

this man would be the most chaotic father ever to walk this earthly realm

when he finds this kid in the elevator of his factory, he's kinda standing there like 🧍 "what the hell-"

and when the kid starts spamming the button while maintaining eye contact, he kinda snaps out of it and starts chasing after them as they drop down to a different floor

it goes on for a solid twenty minutes before he finally managed to track them down in the corner of his office

and when i say this man is confused, i freaking mean it

i mean

why the HELL would some random kid be in his factory? don't they like... play with ponies or something at this age?

to be fair, this man literally has never been allowed a childhood so

obviously he starts scolding the kid ("what the hell are you doin' in here? it's dangerous and there's some really freaky shit here, kid"), dragging them to a nearby sink because "holy shit kid, you're filthy"

the kid is silent essentially the whole time, just kinda staring into his eyes

and of course Karl's gonna be like "...the fuck're you doin'?"

the kid's face is cleaned off and Karl sends them back out towards the village with a scratchy blanket he pulled out of the bottom of his desk drawer

he's working on his 'equipment' one day when he starts reaching for a wrench, keeping his focus on the body on the table

when i say this man jumps skyhigh at the kid asking a question, i mean it

he drags the kid back out, yelling about how dangerous it is and how "you shouldn't do that! you're gonna get yourself killed! go back home!"

the kid doesn't listen

it becomes a regular thing- Karl finds the kid wandering around the factory, Karl brings the kid out of danger, Karl tells them to get lost

eventually (day thirteen of this) he asks why the child keeps coming back

and he hates the answer he gets

it was something along the lines of "it's warm and there's nowhere else for me to go"

so Karl reluctantly eagerly lets them stay

it's a lot of rules at first (a kid shouldn't be allowed to just wander around a bunch of mindless cyborg killers, let alone a factory) but eventually the child learns to mind Sturm and the others

doesn't mean Karl does not have a fullblown heart attack when he walks into his workspace to find the kid tracing their finger along the center of the battery for the Soldats

after a very long talk (and some deep breathing) Karl reluctantly eagerly lets them sit against the very far wall to watch him work on the machinery- not, under any circumstances, the actual bodies

as the child blossoms into a young adult, they start to help out with certain aspects of Karl's work

exclusively machinery because Karl could not physically handle having his kid watch him get elbow-deep into a corpse

and Karl is so freaking proud of it

when the Soldat is kicked to life, he's got his kid in his arms and cackling like the proud dad he is

yeah. paternal Heisenberg>>>

#anon ask #anon #karl heisenberg #alcina dimitrescu #donna beneviento #salvatore moreau #re8 #resident evil 8 #the duke #resident evil village #resident evil #resident evil village fanfiction #gender neutral #headcanons #re8 headcanons #resident evil headcanons #resident evil village headcanons #yeah i had a lot of fun with this #thank you again anon

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takaraphoenix · 4 years ago

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My Sanctuary (You're Holy to Me)

Fandom: Shadow and Bone / Grishaverse

Tags: f/f, fluff, awkward courting

Main Pairing: Alina/Inej

Summary: When everything was said and done, Alina and Mal didn't quite know where to go. So why not follow the very pretty assassin and her two friends. Not that Alina had a crush or anything.

Link: On FFNet | On AO3

“Wherever you are, whatever you need... My hand is yours.”

Alina was too gay for this. She simply stared with large eyes at the beautiful woman next to her, with the warm, dark eyes and the kind, sweet smile. It wasn't new to Alina that she liked boys and girls; she had had a crush on Genya at the Little Castle and then dating Aleksander... No. Not thinking about that, not thinking about all that had gone done, how things had ended. The pain.

Her mind snapped back into focus. Focusing on the now, on Inej next to her. She was... beautiful and fierce, dangerous and yet soft and merciful. The one who had let Alina get away, when Kaz still seemed very set on capturing her. Inej had saved her life. Like a beautiful woman didn't make her weak enough as it was, but the way Inej looked at her and those words. That downright sounded like a proposal; Alina had heard less romantic proposals before. What was she supposed to say to that? How was she supposed to react to these words, spoken so honestly? Because Alina could hear it in Inej's voice, pure and raw honesty. Whatever Alina needed, Inej would be there.

“I think I like that hand with a dagger in it,” said Alina when she finally found words. “I couldn't hold onto yours, so take mine.”

It was the best thing she could think of. Inej didn't seem like the kind of girl swayed by flowers. She seemed like the kind of girl who'd love knives. Just, in general. As accessories and gifts. The way Inej looked at her told Alina that her hunch was right. Such a blinding smile.

“I know just what to name it,” declared Inej with the brightest, cutest smile on her lips.

Alina's stomach fluttered at the way Inej looked at her. Many people looked at her as a saint, as a savior, as the Sun Summoner. But Inej, she... looked at her like all of that and so much more. She looked at her as Alina the Sun Summoner, as though she could see Alina. Could see that there was a person underneath the mantle of sainthood. It was nice feeling seen, as a person.

/break\

The Sun Summoner had never been graspable for Inej. They were this almighty figure, this holy savior. And when she first saw the Sun Summoner at the party, in those beautiful robes, all regal and disciplined. Truly, the vision of a saint. And then... she interacted with Sankta Alina and the Sun Summoner became... Alina Starkov, slowly. Talking to her, seeing her up close – disheveled, not in royally regal clothing, not putting on a show, but... being human. Admittedly, at that point Inej was still very far from actually thinking of Sankta Alina as inherently human, but it was still startling to realize that this figure she had believed in all her life was real and was a real person.

She flushed as she remembered her own words, at the camp-fire. Promising Alina her hand in whatever Alina could possibly want or need. She had babbled. That wasn't her, neither were grand promises. But looking into Alina's eyes, it nearly felt as though the world melted away and Inej was ready to fight it all for her sake and safety. And then Alina had given her a knife. A knife. From the Sun Summoner herself. This was going to be Inej's most cherished knife now.

Inej felt torn in her calling. Her loyalty laid with Kaz, and with Jesper. The Crows were her family. But Alina was – Alina was... everything. There were no words. She was the Sun Summoner. She was Sankta Alina. She was so much more. She was everything and Inej knew she could never turn her back on Alina and she also knew every word she had told Alina was true. Whatever Alina would ask, whenever she would ask it, Inej would be there for her.

“Where are you going now?” asked Jesper ahead of them.

She had just talked to Kaz and the two had fallen back a bit. Jesper was walking next to Mal and Alina. While Zoya had parted ways with them rather quickly after the camp fire, it seemed the other two were headed the same way as them. It made Inej's heart race for some reason.

“Ketterdam. For now. We talked about wanting to see it. It's... as good a start as any,” offered Mal.

“I figured I could train everywhere. So... why not go and see something new?” added Alina.

Inej's heart was racing in her chest at that thought and she found herself looking toward Kaz, hopeful. Hopeful for what exactly, she didn't know. He tried to look as stern as possible, which was quite a lot. Without thinking on it, Inej opened her mouth, on instinct.

“You told me you invest in one of a kind. There is no one more one of a kind than the Sun Summoner,” whispered Inej, holding Kaz' gaze firmly.

There was the smallest hint of a smile on Kaz' lips as he huffed, though he did not reply. Instead, he tapped his cane on the ground, in a manner that drew Jesper's attention immediately.

“We're going to take a detour before we depart,” declared Kaz without further explanation.

Glances were exchanged – Jesper looked at Inej curiously, Mal and Alina had a silent conversation with looks alone. Kaz remained quiet, not elaborating at all, simply leading the way. Inej and Jesper followed him, blindly. Though Mal and Alina also followed them, perhaps simply lost.

/break\

The detour led them to a barmaid and to a goat. The sounds Jesper made when he got to hug Milo again were a bit embarrassing. At least he wasn't the only one; for some reason, Mal made similar sounds as he also hugged the goat. Perhaps it was a sign of sorts, that one goat tied them together. It had saved them – in a way, if Jesper had kept freaking out, Inej doubted that they would have made their way through the fold in one piece – and it had apparently helped Mal too.

Inej wasn't sure, but it seemed like the goat was the final, uniting factor. Mal and Alina joined them on their way back to Ketterdam. The five of them (and the goat) sat together on the ship. Jesper, happy with his goat, sat next to Kaz. Very close to Kaz, though not touching. Inej saw the tenderness in Kaz' eyes, regardless of how much he tried to hide it. He'd always had a soft spot for Jesper, even if he had very unconventional ways of showing it. Like by buying Jesper a goat.

On Jesper's other side sat Mal, so both men could cuddle the goat. Alina sat opposite Mal and Inej sat opposite Jesper and Kaz. Meaning Inej sat next to Alina. For hours.

She left a little space between the two of them at the beginning of the journey, though she couldn't help but keep looking at Alina and slowly inching closer the longer they traveled. Alina covered herself with a shawl, just in case anyone would recognize her as the Sun Summoner. Laying low was a very good idea. Was there a lower to lay than with the Crows...? Though it was only at the end of their journey, as they reached their destination, that Inej found it in herself to voice it.

“What will you do in Ketterdam?” asked Inej, her voice soft.

“I... Train?” guessed Alina with a thoughtful expression. “Gamble? Take in the sights?”

“If you want to be useful and earn some money. Find us,” Kaz made it sound like an order.

Inej was not the only one surprised by that, though she smiled, pleased. For now, they had their own business to sort out first. The three of them headed off, toward the club, not looking as mysterious and dangerous as they usually did, because... there was a baby goat skipping along next to them.

/break\

For a few weeks, Mal and Alina hid away together. He got a job at a bar to earn them enough money to support them. They thought it would be best for Alina to not be too public; just in case. Even though the chances of someone recognizing her as the Sun Summoner here were incredibly low. But after a while, it got kind of boring. And when Mal lost his job, because he had lost his temper with a customer who was more than just rude toward Alina, they made their way to the Crow Club. Ever since they had parted ways, they hadn't seen the three again. In passing, Alina thought she had seen Jesper or Inej one or two times. She knew Mal would occasionally sneak off to visit the goat – she still didn't quite understand the whole goat-thing, but Mal was very happy about it. He's always liked small, cuddle-able animal, though goats were bigger than bunnies.

“You came,” Inej's voice was a whisper and it came out of nowhere.

Alina could have sworn Inej was nowhere in sight when Alina and Mal had entered. Yet suddenly, she was right behind Alina. And she was still as pretty. For a moment, Alina stared in awe at her beauty. All words lost to her. She also lost Mal; he spotted Jesper at a poker table, with the goat on his lap. For a second, Alina smiled as she watched her childhood friend hug Milo the goat.

“I... yes. I don't know... much about what you guys do. But... if we can be useful. We could... use the money. And... I... missed you,” blurted Alina out.

Well, that was elegant. She shouldn't have put everything into that one sentence. She was normally not this awkward around people she had feelings for. But then again, no one had ever pledged loyalty and devotion to her the way Inej had. How was she supposed to be not awkward after that? Her cheeks felt warm, but the genuinely surprised and happy look on Inej's face made it worth it.

“I'm... sure we will be able to find use for you, and for the tracker,” assured Inej.

She slipped her hand into Alina's, seemingly without even thinking about it herself. It seemed to come so easily and naturally to them, just as it had at the fire-place. It was strange, how often Alina thought of that short moment, but it had been the first moment of serene peace in a while. Alina smiled to herself as she let Inej lead her toward Kaz' office.

/break\

Inej had always known that the Sun Summoner would bring peace, but she had not expected it would be her own personal peace. Being with Alina made her feel like nothing before had. It took many more weeks of shared missions and laughter before Inej understood that it was more than simple sainthood – Alina had become Inej's personal sanctuary. Her own peace and comfort and warmth and light. Hers. And, mesmerizingly enough, she had become Alina's.

“Good morning,” whispered Alina with a smile as she brushed Inej's hair out of her face.

They had shared their first kiss after an exhilarating mission, adrenaline and laughter fueling them. And now, Inej got to wake up to that face, that smile. And she had never felt that alive before. Reaching out, Inej cupped her face and brought it close enough to kiss her gently.

~*~ The End ~*~

#Alinej #Inej x Alina #Inej Ghafa #Alina Starkov #Shadow and Bone #Fanfiction #Fluff #Falling in Love

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elizabeethan · 4 years ago

Text

Ladies Night

And the feelings right! this song was stuck in my head and thus was born a night of postpartum normalcy for our dear Emma. takes place in the It’s About Bloody Time universe (and no, this is not one of the one shots I actually plan on writing.) This is... pure crack.

Also on Ao3

Rated M

~2200 words

When Mary Margaret Blanchard insists on a Storybrooke Ladies Night, one complies, lest one desires to be berated for the remainder of the calendar year.

“Oh yes, it’s ladies night, and the feeling’s right!”

“Ruby, stop.”

“Oh, what a night!”

“Please, Ruby. Please stop.”

“What, you're not a fan of Kool & The Gang?”

“Not particularly.”

“Get down on it, c’mon get down on it,” she says, closing her eyes and soulfully swaying her shoulders from side to side while she snaps her fingers.

“That’s not even the same song!” Emma groans as Ruby reaches into her center console for what she knows must be the AUX cord. “If you play Kool & The Gang right now…”

“Oh yes it’s ladies night!”

She wants so badly to stop the car, open Ruby’s door, and shove her out into the road. She wants to slam her own head against the steering wheel and maybe she won’t be able to hear any disco. She wants to go home and spend the evening with her baby, who’s just starting to babble adorably incoherent nonsense. But when Mary Margaret Blanchard insists on a Storybrooke Ladies Night, one complies, lest one desires to be berated for the remainder of the calendar year.

Mary Margaret got the idea to celebrate National Best Friend Day with her girlfriends and hasn’t let it go since. The sad thing is, National Best Friend Day was three months ago, but something got in the way.

(Emma had a baby the day before.)

She’s neurotically decorated her loft in pink and purple hearts, baked all kinds of weird heart shaped desserts, and insisted that each guest wears purple to match. Emma Swan does not own purple.

“You’ll have fun, darling. You should go,” Killian had told her, and what the hell does he know? Just because they’ve been together for a year and have a child together, that means he knows her?

She’s feeling a bit belligerent today.

But could she truly be blamed? Her sweet baby is home with her sweet baby daddy, and she’s been dragged out to ladies night with her mother and all of her mother’s friends.

Okay, fine. They're her friends, too. But her baby is so, so cute. Come on.

“Come on, Emma, this can’t be that bad for you. Tell me you're at least a little excited to see your friends. You’ve been holed up in your house since Corrine was born!”

“That was only three months ago! I’m on maternity leave!”

“You need a drink!”

“I’m breastfeeding.”

Ruby shrugs. “What’s it called? Pump and dump?”

She groans, rolling her eyes before focusing back on the road. “I’m your designated driver, and I don’t want a drunk infant.”

“Well, Killian is her father. Doesn’t he have, like, 200 barrels of rum on his ship?”

“I only saw a few.”

“You were in the storage place? What’s it called? Stowage?”

Emma blushes, because there was only one reason that she ever found herself among Killian’s rum barrels, and she was not about to share that story during ladies night.

Once they mercifully arrive at the loft, Emma and Ruby make their way up and are immediately bombarded with hugs from her mother. “Hi sweetie,” she says, planting a kiss on Emma’s cheek, and oh god, is she drunk?

“Hi mom…” Emma says timidly.

“Sangria? It’s made with fresh peaches and strawberries. Also, wine.”

She laughs tautly and thinks hard. Killian did his research, of course. They have a stock of breast milk in the freezer, and she can pump and dump, as Ruby so helpfully suggested. Killian even insisted that she should relax tonight and to not worry about him and Corrine, to just have fun. It took her a while to accept that having a drink or two tonight does not make her a bad mom. She even talked it over with Archie yesterday.

So, she nods, takes a clear plastic cup, and fills it with the fruity concoction.

And damn, it’s good. And it goes down easy.

It’s been over a year since she’s had a sip of alcohol in her, and it shows. One drink in and she’s feeling a warm buzz over her skin and a smile toying at her lips that she can’t seem to get rid of.

“Let’s see them, then,” Regina says with an air of irritation in her voice.

“See what?” Ashley asks.

“The pictures. We all know Emma is dying to show us all pictures of the baby.”

“Hey, Ashley has a baby, too,” Emma argues in an attempt to defend herself,

“Yes, but you still have that sickening new-mother glow. I know you have at least a hundred new photos since I dropped Henry off on Tuesday.”

She’s right, dammit.

Emma whips out her phone and shows off countless images of little Corrine. She’s gained close to eight pounds since birth, and she’s a chunky little girl. Her hair still hasn’t come in, either, so she’s cursed with a fuzzy bald head. Emma is convinced that she’ll be a blonde, but for now, she’s a cue ball. Her favorite feature of her daughter’s, though, is her ocean blue eyes.

“I miss her,” Mary Margaret says sadly, and Emma nods.

“Me too. Look at these cheeks!”

“She’s so chunky. And look at Hook holding her!” Tinkerbell cries, reaching for the phone and giving Emma a sweet smile once she’s zoomed in. “This is so cute. You have to frame this.”

“I did.”

The evening goes on with games and lots more sangria, but Emma takes it easy after her second glass. At this rate, Ruby might end up being her designated driver.

After a few too many rounds of Cards Against Humanity, the game started to become too raunchy. When they first started, the answers were relatively tame, but when Ruby put down a card about a man on the brink of… something that made everyone in the room start hollering and blushing and nudging each other’s shoulders, it was clear where the night was headed.

“Let’s play Never Have I Ever.” Emma would have never assumed Ashley would be the one to suggest it, but here they are.

“Yay!” Ruby agrees, clapping enthusiastically. “Everyone, raise three fingers!” Emma catches Regina’s eye roll and Mary Margaret’s nervous hesitation before they all put three fingers into the air. “Who wants to go first?” Silence. “Alright, me! Never have I ever… been a parent.”

Emma rolls her eyes now. “Ruby, come on! You’re knocking out, like, everyone here!”

“Right, everyone but me and Tink. That’s the point of the game, Emma.”

“Alright,” Regina says brazenly. “Never have I ever changed into a different species.”

“Ooh, Regina, that’s fierce!” Mary Margaret says drunkenly as Ruby puts down a finger, now matching almost everyone else in the room, and then she asks, “Does Tink count?”

“Yes.”

“What!?”

“Emma’s next.”

“Never have I ever… um… shit. Um…”

“Yes, you have!” Ashley shouts with a giggle, and Emma blushes as the room bursts into laughter.

“Stop! Never have I ever… um… punched my true love in the face with a rock?”

Mary Margaret scoffs. “What? A compass doesn’t count?” she asks sarcastically.

“Huh?”

“Hook. During your sword fight in the Enchanted Forest. You punched him in the face with the compass, remember?”

“Why would you… Hook isn’t…”

Everyone stares at her. “Yes, he is, come on,” Tink says.

“Yeah, seriously. He’s due to propose soon.”

“What?!”

“Isn’t it almost a year now? How are you celebrating your anniversary?”

Emma’s tipsy self isn’t as emotionally mature as sober Emma. So, she bites her lips, widens her eyes, and changes the subject to something easier to talk about.

“Never have I ever been to a ball.”

Four fingers go down. Five sets of eyes roll dramatically.

“Never have I ever had sex while pregnant,” Ruby says, and seriously? How can she ask this many questions? It’s not even her turn.

“Never have I ever had sex with a pirate,” Tink says, and not only is that surprising because Emma thought for sure that they had a history, but also because, apparently, Emma is now under personal attack.

“Oh, come on! You really haven’t?”

“Are you asking if I’ve had sex with your lover and the father of your newborn child? Because I’m not sure I’d answer you if I had.”

“I wouldn’t answer,” Ashley pipes up.

“I wouldn’t either, but I would do him.”

“Ruby!”

“Look at him!”

“I do, quite frequently!”

“How frequently?”

“I have one,” Mary Margaret interrupts, practically drilling a hole into Emma’s head with how hard she’s smirking at her. “Never have I ever had sex in my mother’s home.”

Emma’s jaw drops. “Mom!”

“I just wanted to know! It’s my house, and your sex life seems to be… very healthy.”

“What the hell makes you say that?!”

“Well, you weren’t as quiet as you thought you were every time you were sneaking out.” While she started speaking slowly, her pace picks up. “Honestly, it’s a miracle it took you as long as it did to get pregnant with how often you and Killian were—”

“Ooooh!” Ruby howls.

“No! Of course I haven’t had sex here!” Emma does note, however, that both Ruby and Regina put their fingers down at that question, so Ruby is out. Thank god.

“Never have I ever done it on a rum barrel,” Ruby says, as if she didn’t just lose the damn game.

“You have got to be kidding me.”

“Well, I’m out,” Mary Margaret says.

~~~~

“Fun time, love?” Killian asks into the darkness of the living room when Emma starts to slink onto the couch, much later than she anticipated. She’s already too-loudly busted into the bedroom room before even acknowledging Killian, checking to make sure Corrine was sleeping, brushing a finger gently over her fat cheek but stopping herself from picking her up.

“Mhmm,” she hums happily, flopping towards him and resting her head on his lap. “I played games. And I drank sangria.”

He laughs lightly, rubbing a hand, his left hand, up and down her arm once she lies down. He bends and kisses her forehead before saying, “I’m glad. You needed a night out.”

“I dumped.”

“…hmm?”

“I pumped. And then I dumped. When I went to check on her.”

“Ah,” he chortles. “Very good, darling,” he says as he squeezes her shoulder and laughs. “Who drove you home?”

“Ruby, the damn scoundrel. She wouldn’t stop trying to get me out!”

“Of the car?!”

“No, of the game. She kept saying stuff that she knows I’ve done, like had sex with a pirate, or had sex while pregnant, or had sex on a barrel of rum.”

She thinks that if he had been drinking, he would have done a spit take. That would’ve been funny. She would’ve made him clean the couch. “How does she know about the rum barrel, pray tell?”

She shrugs, looking up at him and smirking. “I’ll never tell.”

“You told someone,” he says pointedly and laughs, planting a soft kiss to her nose. “Did you have water, Swan?”

She nods against his lap, sighing. “I thought I was gonna have sex tonight, but I think I’m too tired.”

“Who were you planning on having sex with?”

Emma gasps, sitting up quickly and straddling his lap, placing both hands on either side of Killian’s shoulders. “You!” she says a bit too loud, and he winces softly before grinning and leaning up to kiss her again.

“I was only teasing, my love. I know you meant that.”

“Am I your true love?” she asks, and someone should tape her mouth shut now, right?

He stills, looking her in the eye and wrapping both arms around her waist. “What makes you ask that?”

“I said, ‘never have I ever punched my true love in the face,’ but mom said that one wasn’t true.”

He laughs at her again, and she’s glad that she could serve as such reliable entertainment for him this evening. “I’d almost forgotten about that, you know.”

“I know you threw that fight.”

He smiles, nodding at her as she rests her head against his neck. “Aye, I did. But it was only because I was smitten with the fiery blonde lass who trapped me at the top of a beanstalk.” She giggles and nuzzles her nose against his skin because Emma Swan is disgustingly in love, and you heard it here first. “I don’t know if I’m your true love, Emma, the only ways of finding out that I know of are rather sordid, but I do know that I truly love you.”

Dammit, she thinks. When has Emma Swan ever swooned before? The sangria certainly plays a role, right? “I truly love you, too, you big fuzzy idiot.”

“Did you just call me fuzzy?”

“Yeah,” she nods, reaching around him to pinch his ass with great effort. “Your big fuzzy butt.”

He laughs too loudly for a baby to be sleeping in the next room, and rolls her over onto her back, pinning her arms above her head and rubbing his chin against her neck. “Fuzzy butt? I’ll show you fuzzy.”

“No!” she squeals, laughing as he starts to nibble at her neck, and if she said that she was too tired for sex on ladies night, she must’ve been lying.

~~~~

Tagging: (also here is my anxiety driven reminder to let me know if you want to be removed or added from my tag list)

@courtorderedcake @kmomof4 @stahlop @klynn-stormz @emelizabeth88 @kday426 @elisethewritingbeast @timeless-love-story @captain-emmajones @gingerpolyglot @ebcaver @ilovemesomekillianjones @teamhook @superchocovian @shireness-says @gingerchangeling @itsfabianadocarmo

#Captain Swan #captain swan fanfic #captain swan fanfiction #captain swan ff #once upon a time #once upon a time fanfiction #once upon a time fanfic #once upon a time ff #ladies night

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carrisarune · 4 years ago

Text

In Your Eyes

Previous | Next

Note: Editing is still TBD and the train still goes. May you all enjoy whatever I dish out. This by far is me writing as my brain goes

Tag: @jamespotterthefirst @schnitzelbutterfingers @aestheticartsx

CHAPTER FIVE: FOR THE WANT OF A CRY FROG

Rai gave a grin as he arrived at the hospital and grinned as it did in fact take minutes in travel time. Scurrying inside, he found a nurse and managed to learn where to find the lost and found box. He thanked them with a grin before heading to the reception desk and soon enough, he managed to dig out his I.D. with a triumphant sound. Just as he tucked his I.D. into his pocket, he heard shouting from the corridor and heading for the waiting area.

He was quick to duck behind the desk but still managed to see who was shouting. They were none other than Dr. Ramsey and Dr. Barneji. The former looked agitated while the latter looked firm but also… resigned? Careful not to be seen, Rai listened in. “You can’t do this, Naveen! I won’t let you!” he heard Dr. Ramsey shout. Rai gave a quick prayer to not be spotted before peeking out. He sees Dr. Ramsey pacing angrily while Dr. Barneji watches him calmly and Rai can’t help but bite his lip in worry.

Then, Dr. Barneji speaks, “It must be done, Ethan. Not everything is in your control” it was as if he was hammering a final fact, “It’s time that you learned that.” Dr. Ramsey seemed to growl at that, “You are not my teacher anymore” he grit out. Dr. Banerji only seemed amused at this as he responded, “I am always your teacher” looking rather happy at that statement. Suddenly, Ethan punched the wall, exclaiming, “Damnit Naveen!” and Rai could feel his heart clench as he sensed the genuine upset from the man.

The agitated doctor then storms back into the corridor. Dr. Barnerji sighs as he does before walking the other way. For a moment, Rai remained silent behind the desk before standing and staring after where Dr. Ramsey stormed off. “Don’t be an idiot… don’t be an idiot… DON’T BE… argghhh” Rai muttered to himself before running after the man before he could overthink. Lucky for him, Dr. Ramsey hadn’t gone that far and Rai found himself calling out to the man.

Dr. Ramsey turned and raised his brow at the sight of Rai, “Rookie, what brings you here at this time?” he greeted with clear skepticism. A jolt of panic went through Rai, ‘Shit! I didn’t plan on what to say’ he screeched in his mind before doing the first thing that came to it. That something happened to be him bowing in apology and stating, “I’m sorry! I was here to get something I left behind and happened to hear your argument with Dr. Banerji” he clenched his shaking hands into fists and kept his eyes to the floor, “I know it’s none of my business but I just wanted to say that… that I hope whatever it is, you don’t have to carry everything yourself.”

Before Dr. Ramsey could respond, Rai suddenly stood up and pulled something from his pocket. In a quick flash he grabbed Dr. Ramsey’s hand and placed something on his palm. Pulling back, it was revealed to be a bag of sweets. They looked like a rainbow of pastel marbles all stored in a clear pouch. Rai continued to avoid eye contact, “They’re basically healthy candy, uh… I usually have them at hand cause they help me with stuff like feeling restless, they can go with tea or coffee if you’d like” he babbled, “anywaythatwasallIfollowedyouforsogoodnight!” before sprinting away and towards the exit.

He had sprinted as far as the bus stop before pausing to take a breath. Chaos sounded throughout his mind as he caught his breath. By the time he reached home and flopped onto his bed, he could only pray that he still had his job by the next day. Luckily enough, he did not receive any missives and made sure to place as little attention on himself as possible. How he managed it, he didn’t know.

Still, it was kind of fun to basically sneak around between rounds. He managed to sneak some treats and little notes to some nurses and doctors upon seeing how exhausted some could be. After a day of paranoia, Rai was happy to get a good rest in a comfortable bed and was happy to be greeted with a lovely view from the window. It also helped that Sienna was nice enough to make breakfast. He briefly helped Landry with his crossword before digging into breakfast.

When Sienna talks about her boyfriend and how he keeps cancelling, Rai frowned, “You deserve better than that Sunshine, you have a more than demanding job” he pointed out. Sienna gave a feeble reply to that before poking at her breakfast as Jackie walked in. There was a brief talk on how peaceful the apartment was before Elijah announced that they were ready for a housewarming party. Everyone gave their own comments before Rai piped in “That sounds fun! Better be careful we don’t make it too big unless we want to get in trouble with other people in the building”

Elijah then revealed that it was going to be the first party he’d ever host. Apparently he never even lived outside of Boston until now. Not due to his parents being overbearing but rather them being highly caring parents.

“...But I’m out in the world now!” “And ready to party!” “Hell yes I am!”

Rai and Elijah shared a fist bump over that before Jackie asked if they were ready as she wanted to confirm the rumors she heard. The moment he confirmed that the rumors were about Dr. Banerji leaving without notice and how Dr. Ramsey may be in charge now, he held back a flinch. His mind went back to the other night and he felt a familiar itching in his mind before forcefully shoving it down. After making a quick trip to his room to grab something, Rai and the group soon headed out to start their shifts.

At one point, he was on the fifth floor heading to check on his patient when he suddenly felt something off with his shoe. He had moved to a nearby wall to lean on it, not paying much mind to the voices he could somewhat hear. Paying them no mind, he wiggled his foot to check if anything had slipped inside. Nothing rolled around so he wiggled his toes and gave an irritated huff when he felt what he now figured was a chipped nail. Digging through his pocket, he searched for a band aid he usually kept for small instances like this.

As he did, he heard something fall out and went to pick it up. Just as he did, he happened to look into a room, caught Dr. Emery kiss Dr. Ramsey’s cheek and felt an uncomfortable feeling in his chest at the sight of it. Quickly tearing his eyes away and tucking the fallen item away he rushed to the nearest restroom before he could be seen and quickly applied the band aid. He had just walked around a corner when he hears a familiar voice call out, “Hey there, doc!”

Rai turns to see Kyra being wheeled by Bryce down the hall on a bed. He moved over to them with a smile, “Kyra! I haven't seen you since the surgical interns stole you away” he greeted. “You say ‘stole’, I say ‘rightly took a surgical case’” Bryce retorted. Kyra looked delighted at the exchange joking that she may have gotten the experience of ‘dying and gone to heaven’ over them. In retaliation, Rai booped her nose before asking if she was heading for surgery. Bryce confirmed that she was heading for a lobectomy with him assisting. Hearing that, Rai took Kyra’s hand and smiled in encouragement, “You’re gonna be amazing” he rooted.

“I’m not gonna be doing much but lie down unconscious, but… thanks” she told him and squeezed his hand. She then shook her head and joked that at least she saw a handsome face before she might perish. That earned her another boop and a light reprimand from Bryce. Just as they were about to head for the O.R. Rai pulled Bryce to the side.

With his hands on the other’s male’s shoulders, Rai told him, “Please take care of her.” Bryce, in response, patted in response with a carefree grin, “She couldn’t be in better hands. Seriously, my hands are incredible” he even wiggled his fingers as he said this. The moment Rai lowered his hands and stared at him with puppy dog eyes, Bryce gave a huff and ruffled the other’s hair. “I’m only assisting, but Dr. Zimmerman is an amazing surgeon” he reassured, “Kyra will be golden. We’ll bring her back safe.”

Rai smiles in gratitude before swatting at Bryce’s hand when the surgical intern pinched his cheek. Bryce gave a laugh before heading back to Kyra and wheeling her off to surgery. Kyra and Rai share a wave goodbye before Rai moves to continue his shift. Just as he did, he hears Dr. Zaid bark, “Hayashi! What are you standing around for? Get down to E.R. and see if they need any patients admitted!” and quickly went to do so.

Once he arrived, he saw an annoyed Aurora being swarmed as usual by pandering senior doctors. The moment she stepped up to him, he held out a small snack and said, “You look like you might need this, they’re lavender biscuits, pretty good for stress.” Aurora looked at him in skepticism before tentatively taking the snack with a mumbled thanks. “Do you… just carry snacks like some weird squirrel?” she asked and Rai simply grinned and shrugged in response.

Then he looked around and grinned wider as he saw that the beds were mostly empty, “Cool! It's empty” he declared. Aurora seemed incredulous at his enthusiasm, “What are you even talking about? There are no good cases.” Rai gave another shrug, “Less people mean more healthy people, so it’s all good in the end” he stated. Rocking on his heels he turned to Aurora, “And hey, it’s nice to have a breather once in a while right?” he said with a cheeky grin. A complicated expression crossed across her face before Aurora muttered that not everyone had that luxury.

Rai opened his mouth to ask about that only to be interrupted by the wail of approaching alarms. The duo share a split-second look before rushing outside to the arriving ambulance. The ambulance doors burst open and paramedics rush out to help nurses unload an unconscious pregnant woman in an oxygen mask. A paramedic relays that the woman is named Dolores Hudson and was caught in an office fire. Due to being pregnant, she was not able to move fast enough.

Nodding in acknowledgement of the information, Rai quickly asks if she suffered any burns and if she was unconscious long. Once he got his answers, he hears Aurora ask about the patient’s vitals and hummed at the information given before startling at learning that the paramedic was the one to get her out. Apparently the paramedics were the first to arrive and the male paramedic had broken in to carry the woman out once he heard her scream. A male nurse then speaks up, stating that they would admit the patient and asking who would take the case.

Rai immediately raised his hand, “I’ll take it!” he said before turning to Aurora, “Being number one intern, you must be getting all the hard cases from the big wigs, you go on ahead, take care, remember to hydrate!” Aurora stared at him with an unreadable expression before nodding and taking her leave. As the nurses wheeled the patient to the elevator, Rai decided to stay a few more minutes to get to know the paramedic. He was a tall male, and more than built with brown skin and swept back hair.

“So… is jumping into fires a new part of the paramedic job description?” Rai asked. The paramedic gave a laugh at that, “Ha! No, I just thought it was the right thing to do, don’t you?” Rai gave a hum at that. He rocked on his heels, “Well… if there was no one else who could help, sure, but I think I’ll leave the action hero stuff to the professionals” he joked and the paramedic grinned. “Most of it is just instinct really. You’re a doctor, I’m sure you wouldn't hesitate” the male encouraged before asking Rai if he was new.

Rai introduced himself before learning the paramedic’s name was Rafael Aveiro. The two exchanged a few more pleasantries before Rafael was pulled away by a call. While heading to meet Dolores in her room, Rai happened upon Mrs. Martinez doing her daily laps with Dr. Ramsey of all people walking next to her with his arm as her support. It seemed like he was regaling her a tale from when he was young.

Apparently he was a loveable scoundrel; something that had Rai’s mind conjure the image of a younger Dr. Ramsey giving a cheeky grin. Suffice to say, the image had him fighting both a chuckle and a flush. Still, it was endearing to see that even the stern man like Dr. Ramsey had a caring spot for Mrs. Martinez. The warmth Dr. Ramsey had promptly vanished as Mrs. Martinez released him and he spotted Rai.

Recalling that he had basically been avoiding the man for the past day or so outside of presentations, Rai awkwardly greeted, “G-good evening… Dr. Ramsey.” The attending nodded, “Rookie” he greeted back. “You uh… you looked like you were having fun” Rai offered awkwardly, inwardly cursing how off footed he felt around the main today. Dr. Ramsey curtly responded, “I care for the wellbeing of the people who’ve entrusted their care to me, that is all, Rookie. That’s all”

Finding he had nothing he could say to that, Rai tried to excuse himself by saying he need to check on his patient. The moment he said Dolores’ name though, Dr. Ramsey had gone alert and repeated her name, seeming to ask for confirmation he heard right. When Rai nodded, the attending declared that he would be coming with. Rai could only meekly nod before leading the man to the patient’s room. Dolores was conscious and had her breathing mask replaced with a breathing tube to Rai’s relief.

Before Rai could even fully introduce himself, Dolores exclaimed at the sight of Dr. Ramsey and the man in turn seemed to be familiar with the woman. Subtly peering at her, Rai could see no family resemblance and their general air held no familial aspect to it; so he could only conclude that the two were old friends. The idea was further cemented when he heard Dr. Ramsey tell the patient that he would be calling her sister.

Just as Dolores joked on how handsome the paramedic who saved her was, Rai cleared his throat to get their attention. “Sorry to interrupt, but I need to listen to Dolores’ chest” he stated and moved to set up as Dr. Ramsey nodded. He heard Dr. Ramsey introduce him and was surprised to learn that Dolores was actually Dr. Ramsey’s first patient as an intern.

As usual, his mouth betrayed him as he blurted out, “He must have had people swooning over him even back then huh Dolores?” before mentally burying himself with the sign holding the caption of ‘IDIOT’ as his grave. Dr. Ramsey seemed more surprised than mad at the statement and Dolores even giggled. She stated how Dr. Ramsey was cute back then but thought he aged like fine wine. Dr. Ramsey was swift to cut the conversation as he firmly requested Rai to continue the examination.

While checking on her breathing, Rai politely asked what brought her to the hospital back then. Apparently, it had been a burst appendix and Dr. Ramsey had helped calm her down. He even kept in contact with her over the years. Rai gave a smile at that, “I keep in touch why my first patient too!” he chirped before shyly looking over to Dr. Ramsey, “I know you care a lot for your patients doctor but… what made you decide to keep contact back then?” his curiosity drowning out

To his surprise, Dr. Ramsey actually answered; “I was young. On hard days, knowing they were out there living their life to the fullest… it kept me going.” Hearing that, Rai could feel his heart warm before quickly shaking off and informing Dr. Ramsey that Dolores would need a chest X-Ray. Seeing Dr. Ramsey looking over Dolores’ chart with a frown, Rai had a bad feeling and moved to the attending’s side. In a low voice he asked what was wrong and gave a small frown of his own when hearing Dr. Ramsey’s findings.

Then, Dolores spoke up, asking for her purse and Rai handed it to her. She seemed to be looking for something and was upset not to find it, exclaiming how she must have dropped it outside the office. Dolores explained that she had seen a stuffed frog during her lunch break and had bought it for her “little tadpole.” Stroking her belly she revealed that both her parents were gone and the father was out of the picture, how she wanted things perfect for her baby under those circumstances.

Rai was quick to comfort her and when she lamented how she wished she didn’t lose the frog, Rai found his mouth betraying him as usual. He had ended up volunteering himself and Dr. Ramsey to retrieve the lost item. All the while, his mind went into a frenzy of mocking cartoon sounds and self whacking. Still, Dolores seemed delighted at the prospect of Dr. Ramsey helping find the lost item. Dr. Ramsey, while initially surprised, agreed nonetheless before stating they would need a urine sample before meeting in the lot after 10 minutes. Dolores was quick to make a joke on that before they all set to work.

It didn’t take long for the two to head get the sample and submit it before they got into Ethan’s car and headed for Dolores’ office. As they slipped inside, Rai quickly popped a chamomile tea flavored candy in his mouth before his nervous habit could kick in. “You know, it’s a miracle that you haven’t gotten any cavities with the amount of sweets you’ve snuck around like a chipmunk” Dr. Ramsey commented.

Rai flushed at that, quickly shifting the candy in his mouth to speak, “Oh, all the candies and snacks I have are from my grandma and she’s adamant in making stuff that won’t rot your teeth while giving health benefits, plus it uh...helps with my ticks” he babbled. Dr. Ramsey seemed to raise a brow at that and asked, “And what ticks would those be Rookie?” Avoiding looking at Dr. Ramsey he mumbled, “Grinding my teeth and biting my nails” ears red with embarrassment.

A beat of silence passed before Dr. Ramsey asked, “Did you think those sweets would help me somehow?” startling Rai. Mentally, he was coughing blood at the reminder of his action while outwardly he stammered, “N-not r-really, I… I just... “ before sighing and leaning back, “As childish as it may seem, I gave you those candy cause I wanted to share the comfort they gave me. I’m sure you must think me childish for doing that plus volunteering ourselves to look for a plush frog of all things”

“There’s nothing wrong with wanting to bring comfort to a patient Rookie” Dr. Ramsey sternly told him before softening slightly, “While unexpected, the sentiment was… appreciated” he stated before coughing awkwardly. Rai couldn’t stop the blush and smile that came in response to that. Debating for a moment in his mind, he tentatively asked, “That night you and Dr. Banerji argued… it was over his sudden retirement plan wasn’t it? Do… do you not want to be head of the diagnostics team?” glancing at the man as he drove.

Tapping the steering wheel, Dr. Ramsey responded, “What I want, is to confront the impossible mysteries of the human body, and understand.” Rai blinked at that, “Ambitious… but that didn’t answer my question…” he threw back. Dr. Ramsey seemed to concede at that, “The team gives me the opportunity to face the questions no one has answered, so in a respect, the answer is, I do” he responded. Rai observed the passing landscape outside the window, murmuring, “Compared to your goals, mine seem rather selfish”

Dr. Ramsey seemed to have heard that statement and opened his mouth to ask but they had arrived at their destination. The moment they stepped out, Rai coughed at the cloying smell of the smoke and burning building. He couldn’t help but have a sinking feeling as he saw the burning building and the fire engine fighting the flames. It looked like Dr. Ramsey shared his sentiment but Rai decided to firmly hold onto a semblance of hope. The two searched around the street and just as the search seemed pointless, Dr. Ramsey spotted the plush frog in the storm drain.

The duo moved over to it, “You’re going to have to lower me down” Rai told the man and Dr. Ramsey nodded. With a tight grip onto Rai’s arm, Dr. Ramsey lowered him and after a bit of effort, they managed to rescue the plush item. After agreeing to have it sanitized before returning it, the two drove back to the hospital. Later when everything was settled, Rai heard a nurse call him over with Dolores’ results. He felt his stomach sink as he read them over and go to find Dr. Ramsey.

The dread sunk further as he saw Dr. Ramsey in Dolores’ room, laughing of all things as he watched TV with the patient. He stared at the plush frog, now sterilized, resting on Dolores’ stomach before knocking lightly. Dr. Ramsey looks up at the sound and goes out to meet him. As he handed the man the results and saw his expression upon reading them, Rai murmured on the seriousness of Dolores’ condition and the danger the baby was in. A grim expression on his face, Dr. Ramsey agreed and stated that Dolores need to be told and led them inside.

Suffice to say, even with Rai trying to break the news gently, Dolores didn’t take to the news of her preeclampsia well. Though they tried, Dolores was adamant that if the chances of her baby being in danger was high, she would not take the surgery. In the end, Dr. Ramsey gave her the night to make a decision before the two left the room. Rai offered to check on Dolores for the next few hours but Dr. Ramsey had denied the offer, stating that he would be taking over the case and that Rai was not ready and leaving before the intern could respond.

A soft static seemed to settle in his head and it only turned larger when Rai looked to see Dolores in tears, He could hear his heart thumping as unbidden flashbacks came to mind and he quickly rushed downstairs, Trying to control his breathing, he didn’t notice anything and ended up starting as he felt a hand land on his shoulder. He spun around and saw Bryce looking at him in worry, “Hey. Tough day?” the surgical intern asked and Rai softly nodded.

“You look like you need some good news, c’mon” Bryce stated before leading the other male to a patient’s room. Once Rai saw Kyra peacefully resting inside, he gave a soft smile. The rumbling static in his mind settled somewhat as he murmured, “Her surgery went well then” nodding to Bryce. Bryce grinned and confirmed it, cheerily stating how his placing of the clamps made all the difference and joked how good he was at taking people’s breath away.

Rai bumped his shoulder against Bryce’s in silent thanks before sighing as Bryce asked when his shift ended. He briefly explained that he was meant to clock out hours ago but had wanted to stay with Dolores before Dr. Ramsey dismissed him. When Bryce invited the diagnostic intern to a concert, Rai took a moment to consider it before accepting the offer. After a quick change into a dark green shirt that had a design of being splashed with ink and faded jeans with white converse shoes and a studded belt, Rai set out with Bryce.

The duo soon arrived at the venue Sommerville, which was packed. Bryce managed to get them a spot with a good view of the stage and Rai sighed in relief as they sat. Leaning in close so he could be heard above the music, Rai asked how Bryce heard about the band and apparently, he had found them online and wanted to check them out. Rai snorted, “Shoulda known you would be the type of guy to try anything once” he teased, poking the other male in the cheek.

Gently batting Rai’s hand away, Bryce tilted his head and asked, “You know. You got me curious; who do I remind you of Hayashi?” Rai raised a brow at that before smirking and rested his cheek against his hand, “Oh? What makes you ask that?” he quipped. “Well now, we both know I’m quite the hot commodity in the market” Bryce gave a shrug, “Something tells me that me being a flirt isn’t the only reason we haven’t made out until now” he frankly stated, making Rai snort once more.

He gave a hum before responding, “My cousin” and Bryce raised his own in silent question. “You’re like the non-white, non-gay slash homosexual version of my cousin Rolland, we call him Ro” he started, “Both of you are clear thrill seekers, looking for adventure whenever you can, flirts with their gender of interest incessantly, and give zero effs for anyone’s opinion of them, only difference is that he has zero patience for social niceties and has more interest in tech than people” smirking as he elaborated.

Bryce gave a guffaw at that, “Sounds like a fun guy” he commented before glancing at the bar, “Alright then, you wanna continue this with some drinks or hit the dance floor?” There was no considering on that question as Rai firmly opted for drinks and the two took a seat by the bar. The moment they got their drinks, Rai took a deep sip before placing down the glass, “So, got more questions for me or do I get a chance to dig?” he joked. The surgical intern smirked at him over the rim of his glass, “Wellll, you did say that story of you not choosing to be a surgeon was a story for another time and this IS another time…” he led on.

The playful mood seemed to shift with that as Rai gave a soft sigh, playing with his glass, “Short version? I considered it at one point but I found that being a diagnostician matched my goals better and I just like helping people better face to face” he stated, an unreadable expression on his face. Bryce seemed to soften at that before raising his glass, “Well then, cheers to you becoming the best damn diagnostician there is then.”

Rai gave a small smile at that and clinked their glasses together. Over the next few hours, the two chatted and drank with Rai learning more about Bryce. They soon had their fill of drinks and had stepped out when Rai felt his pager go off. His heart sank as he read that Dolores had been rushed to surgery and after quickly telling Bryce what happened, he ran off. Once back at the hospital, he spotted Dr. Ramsey sitting alone in the waiting room. Carefully moving closer, he gently asked Dr. Ramsey what had happened.

For a long moment, Dr. Ramsey was silent. Rai reached out his hand out to the man before hesitating and jumping lightly as he spoke. He explained that Dolores had gone into a seizure and they had to deliver the baby. What’s more, it was a fifty-fifty chance that the baby would survive. Afraid but needing to know, Rai asked about Dolores. The moment Dr. Ramsey stated that she had died, Rai could only hear ringing in his ears as he furiously blinked back tears. “Dr. Ramsey I…” he croaked out, trying and failing to say more.

But Dr. Ramsey didn’t give a chance to gather himself or say anything else before stating that he was fine and vanished around a corner. Rai gave a frustrated ruffle of his hair, cursing softly before heading towards the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Entering the room, he looked around, checking the few tags of occupied incubators before his heart clenched upon finding one that said ‘Ethan Hudson’.

The sight of the tiny infant had Rai’s chest tightening up before an attending approached him, asking him if he needed anything. He briefly explained that the baby’s mother was his patient and had learned Dolores managed to name him before being rushed to the O.R. Rai then asked for permission to stay the night to watch over him and give the plush before thanking the attending as she agreed then left.

Gently giving the plush frog to the baby and murmuring his encouragements; Rai took his seat on the couch and reached in with a gloved hand to stroke the baby’s tiny fingers. As he stared at the tiny baby, Rai gave a shuddering breath as old memories from a time he thought he was over with seemed to flood his mind. So focused was he on tying to not have them overwhelm him, he barely heard Dr. Ramsey entering the room and asking what he was still doing in the hospital.

Rai turned to answer only to pause as Dr. Ramsey’s expression turned to one of shock. “Rookie… you’re… crying” he commented, moving closer, reaching up a hand as if to wipe the younger male’s tears only to hesitate. Reaching up his own hand to touch his cheek, Rai started to feel that he was indeed crying.

He quickly turned his head away, “Oh… haha… must… must have gotten a little too emotional…” he weakly stated, trying to swipe the tears way only to scrub harder when they won’t stop, “Damnit… stop already…” he hissed. Then, as if something in him cracked, he croaked, “It’s fucking unfair… no other kid should lose someone, not this young” the heels of his hands now pressed against his eyes as he futilely tried to stop crying.

Suddenly, he felt a pair of hands grab at his and gently pulled them away from his eyes. He blinked as he saw that it was Dr. Ramsey, seated next to him as the attending awkwardly stated, “You’ll hurt your eyes doing that” clearly unsure on how to deal with the crying male. Obviously trying to shift things, Dr. Ramsey cleared his throat and gently released the other’s hands, “You said, ‘another’, Rookie… you lost someone when you were young as well didn’t you” his words more of a statement than a question.

With his tears slowing following Dr. Ramsey’s grip of his hands, Rai sighed as he leaned back against the couch and closed his eyes. For a moment, he was silent, then, “My mother, my biological mother that is, I lost her when I was ten or so” he revealed. Keeping his eyes closed, Rai found himself sinking into long buried memories.

“It was summer, I was learning to help my mom out at her store when she suddenly got sick” he started, “We thought it was a fever at first; but weeks passed and she only got worse and she ended up hospitalized” his hands began turning into fists only to relax as he felt a hand land on his shoulder in silent encouragement.

Taking a breath he continued, “None of the doctors could figure out what was wrong with her” then, he hissed, “She spent MONTHS in their care and not even experts they brought in could help. Seeing her in that hospital bed, day in and day out, looking weaker each time… I was fucking helpless” giving a humorless laugh when Dr. Ramsey that he was a child at that time.

“I was a stubborn kid; snuck around, tried to sponge up all I could as she went through all those tests with no conclusive results” bitterness tinged as he recalled his mother’s passing. Playing with the band of his bracelet he relayed, “I didn’t want to feel as helpless as I did that time, I HATED seeing the suffering both my parents went through. I resolved to enter into medicine so I would never feel that way again” he looked at Dr. Ramsey with a humorless smile, “Selfish isn’t it? Here’s this baby fighting for his life and I’m here trying not to bawl over some old memories”

In response to that, Dr. Ramsey took hold of Rai’s shoulders and forced the intern to look at him. With their eyes locked onto the other Dr. Ramsey firmly told him, “No Rookie. What you were doing, was mourning the thought of a child losing a loved one and that is far from selfish.” Rai opened his mouth to protest but Dr. Ramsey cut him off. He stated that unlike other doctors, he had no patience for many things. All energy was mainly placed into his patients and teaching practical medicine.

He lowered his grip but their eyes remained locked, “From what I see Rookie, you care, far deeper than I’ve seen other doctors do, and that shows you’re already on your way to finding your own way of being a doctor” he told him. Processing his words, Rai could only nod before they turned their attention to the baby once more. When the little one stretched and his tiny hands opened and closed, Dr. Ramsey offered his finger and the baby gripped it tight.

Rai softly informed the man that the baby had been named after him and saw the doctor’s eyes widen in surprise. When he saw the man swallow as he saw the tag, Rai ventured that Dolores must have been a good friend. Dr. Ramsey revealed that the two had been friends for over ten years. What initially started out as sending each other emails, shifted to coffee meetings as Dolores was feeling lonely following her divorce before turning into meeting once a month for Sunday roast.

The diagnostic intern was not surprised to learn that Dr. Ramsey didn’t make friends easily and how grateful the man was to Dolores. Seeing how somber the man was as he stared at the baby, Rai could only take hold of his hand and grip it. He did not expect Dr. Ramsey to respond but was pleasantly surprised to feel the doctor squeeze back. Somehow, the grip to each others hands felt like a silent comfort being passed to one another. As if snapping awake from something, Dr. Ramsey released his hand and cleared his throat.

“I think we need coffee” he stated before standing to move. Rai quickly offered to get some himself but Dr. Ramsey waved him off. Minutes passed as Rai carefully watched over the baby before Dr. Ramsey returned with two mugs. Once Rai got a whiff of the coffee, he narrowed his eyes at the man. Taking a sip confirmed his suspicions, "You sly fox, you've got a coffee machine hidden in your office don't you?" he accused.

Dr. Ramsey gave a smirk in response before sipping his coffee. He apparently vowed to himself that that moment he got his own office he would never drink ‘that caffeinated dishwater ever again.’ That made Rai laugh before he making a zipping motion over his lips, “Don’t worry, we can keep this between us” he promised. The two then settled on the loveseat and with eyes on the baby, they ended up talking long into the night.

Before he knew it, Rai found himself being woken up by Dr. Ramsey. Initially confused, Rai soon remembered where he was and quickly looked over to where the baby rested. Seeing the little one breathing strong had Rai beaming and murmuring, “He made it!” with a sag of relief. Dr. Ramsey was also smiling and stated in response, “And he’s getting stronger.” Rai’s relief was short lived though as he realized that he had minutes to go before his shift started. Once he stated he needed to leave, Dr. Ramsey stated that he would stay a bit longer.

Giving the baby one last gentle stroke and a gentle encouragement, Rai made a move to leave. Just as he was about to step out the door, his breath caught as he heard Dr. Ramsey call out his first name of all things. Turning, he saw just how tired the man was before he said, “Thank you.” A gentle smile formed on Rai’s lips before he responded, “No doctor, thank you” and walked away.

It was a close call but Rai managed to make it on time and later on joined the other interns in the atrium. Many were curious on why they were all called, only being informed that Chief Emery had an announcement for the interns. They soon got their answer with Chief Emery declaring that with Dr. Banerji’s retirement, there was an open spot on the diagnostic team. Therefore, it has been decided that a competition among the interns would be held to fill it. While his friends excitedly talked about opportunity, Rai couldn’t help but hum and bit his thumb in thought as he felt another piece to the mystery of Dr. Banerji’s leaving came to place.

#open heart #OH fanfic #m!mc #m!mc x ethan ramsey #ethan ramsey #carrisa writes #in your eyes #an attempt at feels #fanfic

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currentfandomkick · 5 years ago

Text

Bio! Dad Strange part 4

Shorter but a paris update for her life and a little on gotham with Jason as Robin while Tim is a hero Stalker.

Marinette is 7 when she changes schools, ordered into the Dupont school chain by her teachers since she was getting ‘difficult’ and contradicting their ciriculum. When they challeneged her on this, she went to the school board with Rolland beside her of all people.

The board agreed on one thing, Marinette’s contradictions were not only factually correct, but were done to prevent the outdated ciriculum from hurting her classmates. Instead of punishing her, she got to skip a gade and was given to Dupont as a ‘highly reccomended gifted student’.

Her first day she met Max, who also skipped a grade. The pair bond in five seconds over a new programming focused on learning emotional intelligence. Uncle Riddler was showing her it, and Max got his hands on a various ai bases. This led to then teaming up and designing the one and only Markov together, if only in schematics.

A week in and the two notice that some kids are being followed around by a guy with a bat. They report it. Again and again, but no one can find him.

One day he catches the pair on their way to Max’s—they wanted to work on their ai together, ok? The guy tries to hit Max, saying something about them being lucky metas that needed to suffer.

Marinette’s gotham training kicked in. She caught the bat, ripped it away from him and hit him in the chest with it, while yelling at max to run.

At the end of the incident, videotaped by a bystander, the Dupont Stalker was arrested.

Marinette was given another name by the police, ‘fille de batte’ or bat girl. Her having family in gotham only made the nickname more popular.

This put her on Kim and Alix’s radar. Kim wanted a challenge for fighting and competitions, and this tiny kid did that—to an adult! New friend and rival!

Alix was went from shock to joy as Marientte does art. She does art. Art friend to rant to found!

Nino ran into Marinette not long after Kim and Alix attached themselves to her and Max. Nino became their judge for Kim challenges. Including Mari pinning Kim to the mat, or deciding who did a circus move better (Mari won acrobatics).

Chloe doesnt go to dupont until next year, and sabrina is in another class, mildly concerned for Marinette.

In this au, again, Dupont is considered a ‘i would not be shocked if there were metas there’ school for gifted kids in any way.

Marinette is sent there for her insane science obsession at the time, but is also put in their arts program with Alix to develop as an artist with her medium, fabrics and fashion.

And if marinette redesigns hero outfits as “monsiuer ross, scribbles have more style, let alone fashion sense” alot, well. Kids get obsessed a lot and the Justice League is a common one, as are known villians. Her everyday outfits having different hero schemes—oddly enough some forensic scientist she’s obsessed with from some american city ended up in her mix—well. She’s a kid and showing signs a few types of anxiety.

Possible social and OCD and a developing case of perfectionism common to the arts program. The school has her see a therapist and know she isnt telling them everything beyong mild concern for her gotham family, and confusion over people just ‘not getting things’ as she is terribly smart and good at finding patterns and how do people not see it?

By the end of the year Marinette is in a strong friend group who’s parents and hers have decided to have joint custody during the school year.

She was now (forced) to learn vietnamese from Kim’s Grandparents, italian from Rolland (her nonno that has a Thing for tradition and somehow married Gina and raised Tom mostly on his own while running the bakery to boot), english from Father/Strange, Mandarin from her Maman and she started Arabic to talk with Nino’s aunt who kept saying marinette was her future in-law and point out that nino and her are friends, not dating ma’am.

However, Nino endured most of this with her-not the italian or Mandarin, but the others. Kim couldnt get Arabic but mandarin was a breeze for him. Alix cannot get vietnamese or arabic but Mandarin is her jam after french. Max just speaks french and english, he understands the others he just cant get the sounds right, ok?

When Marinette goes back to Gotham that summer, she ends up dealing with Hero Stalker Tim (jason is robin now) while looking for Red Hoodie who No oNE is telling her what happened and she’s worried, ok?

Tim feeds her obbsession with fixing problems. He sometimes sends her building layouts of places Catwoman stole from. And then the jewlry reappears thanks to a nervous Marinette coached by Rose and Ghoul while Frost handles her post-fix it freak out. Tim also may or may not get helped by her alot during Batman Stalking Time as she teaches his butt how to sneak and complains he’s worse than penguin.

Tim hates that, works on it, and still has nonidea who she is. He does admit to figuring out who batman may be, but needs more evidence so...

Marinette hits him becuase “thats dangerous!” And tries to lecture him in identites.

Batman’s radiowave was used for said lecture.

“And it puts their families in danger you, uh, hero stalker! And stuff so no more identity investigations!”

“They have the same builds, and did signsture moves from—“ the signal cutout.

He and Jason are more careful... ish. They change channels and monitor the old one.

Sometimes Batman catches Marinette and Tim talking about coldcases and she has asked three times if he heard anything about Jason’s street kid identity. Jason is feeling guilty about this as she’s his Pixie Pop. This lets Bruce know that the probably-clark’s-kid would keep Jason away from GCPD and CPS.

When a convo leads to Batman finding out Tim and Marinette have considered asking the police for help with a case of medicine that needed to be recalled as it was beign used to mule drugs contaminated the batches and hurt patients, but turned it down after she saw some taking bribes from Fish, Batman lets Gordon know and an investigation is launched.

While Bats is away, Jason visits marinette as Robin and tries to get her to bats for more information and a lecture on heroing without adult supervision. Maybe.

Only she’s currently stealing from a sleeping selina at another HQ. A Selina who has stopped trying to stop marinette and let riddler turn her house into one of his ‘traps’ to stop Marinette’s ‘return theiving’.

Jason gets stuck in a trap. Marinette is gone by then, scared Robin will tell Superman about her and he’ll hurt her family or something.

Catwoman is annoyed at Marinette’s sucess. She goes to stop the girl after leaving him tied up for Batman with a message: leave her new kitten-to-be alone.

Follow up talk post-Caught Marinette reverse theiving.

“Blame the Council’s decrees. She’s their little princess, and my new neice,” Catwoman watched Batman carefully.

Confused Batman in interrogator mode. “You mean the Court of Owls, arent they disbanded?”

“Bats, the council is gotham’s underground. Apparently Two-Face made the contracts as penance for scaring the Princess during a breakout. Unless you want an organized attack by the council, steer clear of her.”

Batman conencts the dots and curses himself. The girl he was looking for last summer is the Princess of Gotham’s underground. It will be hell finding her. And Superman/Clark will lose it when he’s told.

He lets the JL know about it, saying ‘possibly kyptonian clone, female child. Gotham’s underground is calling her their Princess. Connor and Kidflash tailed her last summer during the arkham breakout while Robin was with the Titans. Be alert for a small asian girl.’

That was how Marinette ended up on the JL watch list and how Superman had another existential crisis.

Dick freaks out with the Titans over this. Becuase kyltonian raised by villians is terrifying. Jason forwarded the message and adds on “she’s a good kid and wants to help. Somehow keeps zsasz and joker from killing people, so its not good to take her away or issolate her from the villians if you find her. From what i remember, she is terrified of her family beign put in danger. The others wont listen to me. If you can, pass this along to the other sidekicks and your allies—none of them trust me enough to listen. I cant talk to her as a civilian like i used to either for obvious reasons. And she’s terrified of me-Robin. Maybe you can get through to her, or someone else can. Just talk to her first, she’s more reasonsble than she looks”

Dick doesnt read the add on until much later and regrets it.

He met marinette once. She was a very excited kid babbling about aerodynamics in acrobatics and asking about that. Not hero things, not power things, or justice league but That.

He tried to be nice but he was having a horrible mission, saw the girl floating as she rambled and tried to grab her.

She freaked out and bolted, sort of. He got slammed into a building, or would have had she not caught him, rambled in french while trying to apologize (he was a but stunned from the throw, and rebooting as villian-kyptonian was... nice?) and put him on the roof, hit his communicator and said one thing.

“I think i broke your robin? All are robins like bird bones or something?”

He regained a functioning brain as that. That was something he could respond to.

“I am human thank you!”

That seemed to be enough for her as he moved to get up. She waved bye and bolted, something about Rose being mad at her for being late...

“Titans. I think we might have been wrong about the kid...”

Later with Young Justice the info was passed on.

Jason asked if anyone read his attachment and was met with silence. He groaned and told them “so another team she’s going to avoid... great.”

Marinette added the titans to her list of ‘people to aviod—tetch and Jerimah were the worst. Luthor and Cadmus were under them. Then the entire Justice League (they would tell batman or superman. Snitches.), followed by GCPD, CPS, the Bat Family and now Titans. She wonders if she needs to add anyone else, and hates that she cant talk to heroes. They could help with controlling her powers instead of suppressing them but she cant trust them not to give her to superman like batman did with Rose to Poison Ivy and she’s pretty sure Superboy too.

Next time, times marinette accidently put together identities and curses Hero Stalker Tim for her now knowing.

#bio!dad au #bio!dad strange #my au #marinette strange dupain cheng #my ideas #marinette strange dupain cheng part 4 #maribat #ml au

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pollylynn · 5 years ago

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Blackwing 602: Chapter 4—A Season 2 Caskett Multi-Chap of Indeterminate Length

Title: Blackwing 602, Chapter 4 WC: 1500 A/N: I guess the saga continues? Chapters 2 and 3 are here on Tumblr. Chapter 1 is on AO3. If you don’t want to read the first part, all you need to know is that in “A Chill Goes Through Her Veins” (1 x 05), Beckett pockets what turns out to be a very expensive pencil when she’s in Castle’s office. This part is has advanced to “Vampire Weekend” (2 x 06)

They’re coming up on Hallowe’en, and that seems fitting. It seems seems like an excuse, but the kind of excuse that’s ok—something that will more or less be a bit of harmless theater for two.

She finds a box for it. It’s a black, watered-silk contraption with a wide satin ribbon that has some deep violet in it when the light hits it right. The sides of the box fall away when she pulls the ribbon, and then she finds a box to go around that. A proper gift box that just happens to be black, too, and flocked with velvet ravens, because apparently people give Hallowe’en gifts these days? That makes her feel a little strange about the whole endeavor, but she perseveres.

The problem is when to give it to him, though. The party seems obvious, but the problem is, she’s not at all set on going to to the party. In fact, she’s pretty well set on not going, as everyone gets more and more amped up about it, and the more it seems like it’s going to be the kind of affair that belongs to his other life—the one that doesn’t really have her in it—the less she wants to go.

But then she egg sits for him. Alexis calls, in real trouble, and he races to the rescue, and she . . . egg sits. She has a running, under-her-breath monologue about the fact that she is absolutely not egg sitting. It’s undermined, though, by the nest she spends a not inconsiderable amount of time constructing out of the cardboard innards of a roll of duct tape and the superior men’s room toilet paper she has to sneak in to steal.

He calls her, late and subdued, ostensibly to ask after Feggin, but really to tell her about Alexis’s friend. He downplays it. He forces some bluster into his tone, but she can tell it was harrowing. She can tell he’ll be forever haunted by all the things he simply won’t be able to protect his daughter from.

She remembers that he is more than he pretends to be, and more than she pretends to think he is. And thanks, in part, to Feggin, she thinks she’s being silly about the party. She thinks it might be a little about the life he has without her in it, but it’ll also be about Lanie and the boys and she can maybe just leave the box mysteriously in the middle of his desk, in sight of the four figures’ worth of pencils she didn’t steal. She thinks stealth, rather than a flourish, might just be what the situation needed all along.

And then he gets her—he gets her—with that stupid, on-the-fly story about the little boy washing up on the beach. He gets her with the housekeeper’s son, and everything she loves about the book enough that the spine come to rest on her thighs and cracks open to that particular spot is now what she hate, hate, hates him for. So, clearly, she has to go to the damned party to get him back.

So she goes to the damned party and she kind of gets him back. And the party itself is s almost not at all about the life he has that doesn’t have her in it. He is a goofy, hovering, attentive host. The decorations are over the top and must have cost the equivalent of a hundred pencils. There are theatrical skulls under glass domes and enough dry ice to keep a wave of sinister-looking fog rolling off the cauldron of punch all night. That—the grandeur and the cash he must have dropped on it all is inclined to make her squirm, but then there’s the fact that the food is absolutely silly.

It’s eyeball this and entrail that. It’s spider web cotton candy from an actual carnival cart and mini corn dogs done up to look like bloody severed fingers. It has all the panache of a Hallowe’en-themed middle school mixer, and the whole thing is almost entirely about the part of his life she is very much in, and it’s fun. The party is a lot of fun, and she almost forgets about the box in her coat pocket.

She does forget about it until she finally goes in search of said coat. She’s been meaning to leave for a while now, and he’s said he’ll get the coat for her two or three times, never to return with it. She thinks he’s stalling. Warmth comes into her cheeks, because it definitely seems like he’s stalling to keep her there, and some small part of her would like to give in.

Some small part of her would like to linger and bicker with him as she helps clean up. It wonders if he’d offer her a nightcap—or maybe make her a late-night coffee in the fancy machine he quite obviously must have tucked away to make room for punch bowls and party plates tonight.

But the larger part of her has an early morning, The larger part of her knows she’s probably lived dangerously enough for one night and it’s not a good idea to hang around until the other guests have gone, until Martha and Alexis have drifted upstairs.

The larger part of her wins out. It goes in search of her coat, though that, as it turns out, is no mean feat.

“On the bed, honey,” Martha says absently when Kate taps her apologetically on the shoulder. She’s deep in conversation with Ryan about God knows what. “Richard’s bed,” she adds, gesturing vaguely with her cigarette holder.

Kate feels a flush creep along her skin to pain the vee of skin above her black top. She can’t very well march into his bedroom in search of her coat. And what’s a millionaire doing piling coats up on his bed like his mom’s out of town and he’s throwing a kegger?

She’s annoyed with him. The larger part of her is definitely annoyed, and even the smaller part of her that was flattered at the idea he might be stalling is coming around. Irritation makes her impulsive. She decides that she not only can march into his bedroom, it’s imperative that she does it and calls his bluff.

She threads her way through the thinning crowd and heads for the gap in the bookcases that leads to his office. The door sits most of the way open. She pauses with her hand splayed against the brushed stainless edging as though the point of contact can help refresh her memory of the layout—desk straight ahead, wall of windows to the left, a matching door to what must be his bedroom off to the right.

She takes a breath, steels herself, and strides, shoulder first, into the murky light filtering in from the street. She strides, shoulder first right into him.

“Kate!” His hands reflexively come up to steady her. Something slithers to the floor. A mortified glance informs her that it’s her coat. “You must have—“

“I was looking for—“

They’re babbling over one another. They stoop at exactly the same moment and nearly knock heads. He comes up laughing, holding one end of the coat. She comes up embarrassed, holding the other.

“I’m sorry.” He flaps the sleeve sheepishly. “I told you I’d get this like half an hour ago.”

“Forty-five minutes,” she blurts, wishing immediately that she hadn’t. “But who’s counting?”

“You, I guess.” He says it in a genial enough tone, but there’s something a little disappointed—a little guarded, maybe—in the way he looses his hold on the coat. “Sorry you had to come looking for it.”

“Not a total loss.” She fusses with the coat. She’s working her nerve up or something, working to get back the easy feeling that’s flowed between them almost the whole night. “Got to visit the Bat Cave again.”

“The Bat Cave!’ He brightens. She sees the memory bloom in him. “The first time you came here.”

A warm grin spreads across his face. It’s wide and a little dopey, and she knows for certain that it matches the one on her own. She shifts the coat in her arms. She feels the sharp outline of the raven-flocked velvet box in the pocket and knows this is the right moment. She knows she should hand it over with a flourish right now.

But Lanie has other ideas. Martha and Esposito and Ryan and three or four other people she doesn't really know have other ideas. They’re crowding into the office behind Kate looking for coats, looking for the powder room that’s completely on the other side of the loft, looking to settle a bet.

He looks at her over the mini-sea of bobbing heads. She looks at him from around Martha’s hat. They share a rueful smile, and the moment is gone. A/N: A gift block? That’s lame, Brain. Been a long time since I wrote anything where moments connect to moments. Rusty. And dumb, as always.

#Castle #Caskett #Castle: Season 2 #Castle: Vampire Weekend #Castle: Season 1 #Castle: A Chill Goes Through Her Veins #Kate Beckett #Richard Castle #Martha Rodgers #Alexis Castle #Lanie Parish #Kevin Ryan #Javier Esposito #FIc #Fanfic #Fanfiction #Fan Fic #Fan Fiction #Writing

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cami-chats · 4 years ago

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Backwards Relationship

Fandom: The Witcher (TV)

Pairing: Renfri/Geralt

Warnings: None

The problem with Geralt being her best friend is that he always used the least amount of words possible in any given situation. Most of the time, that was fine. Very often, it was actually amusing-- like when Renfri asked if he liked Thai food and he responded that he ate food; she couldn't stop laughing for so long afterwards that it got hard to breathe and there were tears leaking out of her eyes. But when it was something serious, it was pulling teeth to get him to admit all the important parts.

Unfortunately, this was one of those more difficult times. He was calling her phone, and as soon as she answered, "Hello?" she barely managed to get the word out because he cut in.

"I need you to go on a date with me."

She'd heard Geralt ask people out before. It didn't sound like this. That was disappointing, but not unexpected. They'd been friends for a decade; if he wasn't in love with her yet, he wasn't going to be. "Uh-huh. How's that?"

"Jaskier's wedding."

"Jaskier's getting married?" Renfri had only met him a handful of times, but he didn't seem the kind to get married.

"Yes."

"And what does that have to do with me going on a date with you?"

Geralt grumbled something unintelligible.

"In words I can actually understand," she clarified.

Geralt sighed, like this was a great inconvenience to him, and said, "His fiance gave me a plus one seat without asking and assumed that I would be bringing my partner."

"Okay," she said slowly. "And?"

"And then he paid for the dinner without checking with me, and Jaskier said I have to come before I make his fiance cry. Again."

"I'm seeing how this translates to me coming to the wedding with you, but I'm not seeing the part where it has to be a date."

"Apparently," Geralt said with a growl to his voice that meant he thought this was stupid and didn't want her to think it was his idea, "correcting Jaskier's fiance about such topics is detrimental to his constitution."

Renfri snorted, then started laughing. "'Detrimental to his constitution'? Did Jaskier find himself a bridezilla who has the occasional fainting spell?"

"Yes."

"I've got to see this. What day is it?"

"The fifteenth, next month."

"Amazing. I'll be there. Send me the details. And I'm not driving," she added quickly. She hated driving.

"I know," Geralt said, tone conveying that he thought it was unnecessary she felt the need to remind him. Which was fair, since Geralt seemed to remember every little thing she told him, but she was in the habit of giving that reminder as often as she could. Just because she had a driver's license didn't mean that she wanted to use it. "Are we still on for dinner?"

Take-out and Bollywood musicals while they talked shit about their coworkers and updated each other on the progress for their current projects. "Absolutely. Do you feel like braving my attempts at curry?"

Silence.

She let it last for seven seconds before cracking, laughing loudly enough that people stared at her. She thought about flipping them off but elected to ignore them instead. "Relax, I learned my lesson the last couple times. We're ordering from Taki's, as usual. Feel better?"

He gave an affirmative grunt.

"Mmhmm. See you at five," she said, then hung up. Ugh, she had to finish shopping, and she didn't feel like it.

Jaskier had called both of them ahead of time-- well, he called Geralt, and Renfri happened to be there so he lectured both of them-- to make sure that they dressed appropriately. It had basically been Jaskier telling them over and over that he knows they don't like to dress up and that Geralt was able to get out of being a groomsman, but there were going to be pictures so they had to look nice. Again, most of this was directed at Geralt, but Jaskier decided to include Renfri because he figured if they were best friends, they likely had similar taste in clothes; he wasn't really wrong. The conversation ended when Geralt said, in no uncertain terms, that he knew how to dress for a fucking wedding so shut up, and ended the call.

Then Geralt turned to her and asked what she was wearing. She dragged him to her room and pulled out one of her two formal dresses-- one was for events with her friends, the other was for events with her family. One was bright red, sleeveless, and sparkly, meant to draw attention; the other was a forest green and often described as being 'too boring for how pretty you are'. She was planning on wearing the green one, which she wore around her friends.

"What about you?"

"Hmph. I'll have to go shopping."

"You have a suit."

"Not one that matches you."

"While that's a nice thought, I'm not sure we care that much. Your normal black suit will be fine."

Geralt looked relieved at being given an out from having to go shopping, and he relaxed again.

"This is Jaskier's friend Geralt," Jaskier's newly minted husband introduced, "and his fiance."

Geralt blinked, and Renfri's grip on his arm tightened in surprise.

Later, when Geralt managed to track him down, Jaskier waved it off. "My dear sweet Geralt, I have no idea why my love would say that. I certainly didn't tell him that."

"He's telling it to every single person at this wedding," Renfri said flatly.

"I don't care what he thinks, just tell him to stop it."

Jaskier gave an over dramatic wince that, for Jaskier, was probably a normal wince. Fucking actors. "Yes, um, about that."

"What."

"What harm would it really do? Your two best friends are right here, so there's no one to find out and get mad at you. Trust me," he said, clapping a hand on both of their shoulders, "one night of some drunken arseholes thinking you're engaged won't ruin anything for you." With that, he got pulled away for a dance by one of his friends/ex-girlfriends.

"I no longer like him," Renfri said.

Geralt nodded.

"He's not funny."

He grunted in agreement.

"And I don't like his singing."

Geralt snorted. "Want a drink?"

"Open bar, right? Sure, drown me."

It was not a one night thing. Renfri knows, because her father called her, immediately babbling about caterers and venues and asking who her wedding planner was. She didn't get a single word in before he was hanging up with promises of getting her the best help money could buy.

My father is looking up wedding planners, she texted Geralt. Your friend Jaskier is about to sing a quick goodbye to his FUCKING HUSBAND.

It took a minute for a response to come in, after a few tries of the typing bubble appearing and disappearing. I'll help.

Renfri felt like pounding her head against the table. Nothing else had gotten through to her father, so she gave in to the impulse and methodically thunked her forehead against the hard wood.

"Renfri darling," he said, sticking his hand between her head and the surface of the table, "I know that weddings are stressful, but there's no need for that. Grimhilde had a few difficult times during the course of our engagement, but it all turned out in the end. Your wedding day should be magical; a day you never forget."

Renfri let out a loud, annoyed groan. Every single time she tried to tell him that she wasn't getting married, he thought it was just nerves or insecurity. As far as she was aware, he hadn't actually managed to pin down a wedding planner yet, so she was thankful for small favours. She pushed herself up from the table. "I'm going to call Geralt," she said, already dialing his number as she left the room.

"My father is driving me absolutely batshit."

"Not surprised. What about your stepmother?"

"I think she's electing to ignore that I'm getting married entirely, which means that I actually like her more than my father right now. A sentence I never thought I'd have cause to say, by the way."

"Hm."

"I don't suppose you want to come over here and back me up? All I need you to do is nod and agree with me when I say that we're not engaged."

"Right now?"

"If you're free. If not, we can do it whenever you are free."

"I'll be there soon."

She let out a relieved breath. "Thank you so much. Love you."

"Love you," he grunted, and they hung up. He really was the best friend. He would also make the best fiance, if he ever found himself in that position, but she wasn't going to be able to enjoy that personally.

One year later

"They're not going to believe me," Renfri said, looking adoringly at the plain black wedding band on her ring finger.

"Do they need to?" Geralt asked. He had a matching wedding band on his own hand. He'd wanted silver, but she was allergic. She'd wanted gold, but he hated the color. They'd compromised on black, and honestly, she was glad that she didn't have an engagement ring with a rock in it that could mess up the form of her hand when she needed to get it in smaller spaces.

"Not really." Their marriage certificate was legal, and they were living together. What people chose to believe about it hardly mattered. "But it's hilarious that no one believed us when we said we weren't together."

Geralt grunted noncommittally, as if she didn't know that he agreed with her.

Mostly though, it was funny that he'd come to her parent's house to get it our of their heads that they were engaged, and then he'd asked her on a date when they were leaving the driveway. And, of course, she'd said yes. After a sneak preview of what an announced engagement would do to them, Geralt had asked, she'd said yes, and they immediately went to the courthouse to get a license.

#geralt/renfri #geralt #renfri #fanfic #the witcher #my writing

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bee-kathony · 6 years ago

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McTavish & Beauchamp

Thank you @jules-fraser for the beautiful moodboard!

Previous Chapters

McTavish & Beauchamp - Ch. 16: First Words

The next few days were spent in fearful anticipation. No news of Jack Randall’s death had reached our doorstep, and I wasn’t entirely sure if that was a good or bad thing. On one hand, if Jamie was suspected in murdering Randall, I’m sure the gendarme would have already taken him away to the bastille.

But Jamie was lying in bed next to me, bouncing Faith on his chest, and I laughed when she giggled and placed both small chubby hands on Jamie’s cheeks.

“That’s Daddy, darling.” I poked her nose, “Can you say Dada?”

“She’ll call me Da, none of this dada business,” Jamie smiled and lifted Faith into the air and then brought her stomach to his mouth and blew raspberries against it. She burst into a fit of giggles and kicked out her legs.

“What do ye say my wee lass, can ye say Da?” Jamie asked Faith and we both stared at her intently. She had been babbling nonsense the past few months and I knew it should be anytime that she should start talking as she was almost one.

“Da?” Jamie repeated again, but Faith only gave him a blank look in return.

“Och, ye’ll say it in yer own time, lass.” Kissing her on the chubbiest of cheeks, Jamie sat up a little straighter in the bed and let Faith crawl over the covers.

“Do you think it’s good that we haven’t heard any news about Black Jack?” I asked, reaching for his left hand and massaging the spot between thumb and forefinger.

“I dinna ken, perhaps today I’ll ask wee Fergus to see what he can find out. I don’t think it’s safe for me to show my face at Maison Elise.”

“Nor do I want you going back to that… establishment.” I sighed and he smirked at my comment.

“Aye, I willna go back, Sassenach. Not when I have you lying in my bed, with that round arse of yours.” Jamie’s hand slipped from mine and moved across to my bum, giving it a firm squeeze. I felt a bid strange with Faith at the end of the bed, but kissed Jamie anyways.

“Good, because I want my husband here with me.” I kissed him, letting my tongue explore the warmth of his mouth.

“Maybe Murtagh can take Faith for a wee bit…” Jamie glanced at Faith near our feet who was happily clapping her hands together and looking at the ceiling.

“Mmmm, that sounds like a fantastic idea.” I replied and Jamie was out of the bed quicker than I could blink, picking up Faith and taking her towards the door. When Jamie wanted something he really put his mind to it. I heard him call for Murtagh in the hall and only a minute later, Jamie returned alone.

“Murtagh is goin’ to take her to play with the horses, she’s quite fond of them.” He smiled and crawled back into bed next to me.

“She gets that from her father,” sighing, I wrapped one arm around his neck and pulled him nearly on top of me. It had been awhile since we’d made love and now that we were finally alone, I was aching for it.

“You know…” I licked his bottom lip slowly, “if we were to make another baby, I would be quite happy with that.”

Jamie’s lips stiffened against mine and he leaned up on his hands. “Ye want another bairn?”

“Yes, I do. Everything with Faith that’s happened, I realized I want to keep growing our family, and frankly as soon as possible.” I smiled up nervously at him. “It’s not like I have an easy way to stop myself from getting pregnant in any case, but I thought I would let you know that I would be okay with it.”

A slow grin appeared on his face, and he bent his head down to me, kissing me deeply, letting one hand slide down the length of my stomach before resting over my belly. “God, give us a child,” he said quietly, as if we were the only two people in the world. “Let this child be loved and made whole in yer image.” I felt tears sting in my eyes as Jamie then moved down my body, lifted my shift and placed a tender kiss to my belly.

“Oh, Jamie.” I placed my hand on his cheek, watching him smile and then something switched in him. He lifted my shift over my head and stretched himself out on top of me, bringing his mouth to my breast. First he licked a slow trail around my nipple before taking it into his mouth, hollowing his cheeks as he sucked. Jamie was always aroused at the idea of making a baby together.

I cradled his head to my chest and watched his tongue flick against my right nipple before licking over to my left and taking the peak into his mouth. He wanted it slow, I could tell by the way he took his time.

I flexed my hips up, but he placed a firm hand against me and held me steady to the bed. If he wouldn’t have me yet, the least he could do was take off his shirt. Reaching forward, he made a Scottish noise of complaint as his mouth detached from my breasts but complied when I tugged at his nightshirt. Looking between his legs, I saw he was more than ready, so I reached out to touch his cock, but again he stopped me.

“Jamie, please,” I begged and he laughed as he grabbed both of my hands and held them above my head on the pillow.

“Not yet, Sassenach. I want to love on ye first,” Jamie kissed my mouth before moving back to his original comfortable position on my breasts. With every flick of his tongue, I grew more and more impatient and also more aroused. My legs were squirming underneath him, trying to get any kind of friction that I could.

He chuckled against me, sending a delicious vibration throughout my body. With a ‘pop’, Jamie released my breast from his mouth, and finally kissed me, invading my mouth with his tongue. I arched my back off the bed, and he slid a hand underneath me. Jamie’s arms were so long that he could wrap it around my body and nearly touch my breast on the other side. His grip was firm, as he held me to him. His right hand slid down my stomach and finally rested in between us. I wiggled my hips again and this time I was satisfied when I felt him press against me, only the tip of his cock sliding over my slit.

“Jamie, Christ…” I nearly growled, and he laughed that damn laugh before finally spreading my legs and sliding home.

I cried out as he filled me, almost coming from the feel of his cock inside of me. At the idea of making another baby, I felt my cheeks blush hot and tears fill my eyes. Jamie stilled above me, leaning down to kiss a stray tear.

“What’s wrong, mo nighean?”

I shook my head slowly, “The last time we conceived, it was by accident. We weren’t yet married, but this time…” I wrapped one leg tightly around his waist. “I love you, Jamie. So much that it hurts me to be separated from you.”

“Shhh, mo cridhe. We willna ever be apart.” He kissed me slowly, and then reared back before sliding fully into me. With every thrust, a promise was made. A hope of our future was sealed as we came together again and again.

Jamie loved me with his mouth, with his hands, with his cock. I held onto him fiercely, willing my body to take him and create life. This man was my heart, my whole world. In the end, we grew hungry and our limbs intertwined in a sweaty mess as he moved himself against my body.

Moments after spilling his seed into me, I held him cradled to my chest, softly stroking the wet hairs at the nape of his neck.

“What should we do now?” I asked and he took a deep breath.

“Well, if ye give me a minute, Sassenach, I should be able to serve ye again.” Jamie leaned his head up and planted a kiss against the top of my breast.

Laughing, I squeezed his neck gently, “No… I meant what do we do now, in Paris. Do we stay?”

He pursed his lips, “Och, I dinna ken. Once we find out news of Randall then we can decide. There isna much for us here, besides me helping Jared with his business.”

“I do love my work at l’hopital, but I do miss Lallybroch, and Jenny and Ian. And Faith’s birthday is in five weeks, it would be nice to spend it with family.”

“It sounds like ’tis decided then, Sassenach.” Jamie smiled and traced his finger along my belly button. “We’ll sail home as soon as I find a way for us.”

“I very much like the sound of that, my love.” Just as I kissed him, I heard a wail from outside our door, and Jamie sighed. He threw on his shirt, and walked to the door, retrieving a crying Faith from an anxious Murtagh.

“Aw, munchkin, what’s the matter,” I cooed and held out my arms as Jamie sat back down in the bed. “Did the horsey scare you?”

Jamie smoothed her little bit of hair back against her forehead and Faith made a noise that sounded an awful lot like ‘Da’.

“What did ye say, lass?” Jamie looked at Faith, holding one of her tiny hands in his.

Faith looked back and forth between us, before opening her mouth wide, looking Jamie straight in the face and shouting “Da!”

Jamie’s face lit up and he hugged Faith tightly to him as she began a chorus of ‘Da’s’, which sent Jamie into a sniveling mess of tears and snot. It was quite a sight to see a big scot reduced to tears at his child saying ‘Da’ for the first time. This interaction also brought me to tears, which I quickly dried on the bedsheets because I didn’t want Faith to think anything was wrong.

“That’s very good, darling.” I smiled and rubbed my hand over her back.

“Now ye just need to say ‘Mam’, and it’ll even better,” Jamie encouraged her.

A second later, Faith looked at me, and said “Ma!”, which brought me to tears yet again.

“Our lass is a genius!” Jamie smiled and lifted her into the air, tossing her gently from side to side.

“Two words in one day, I think she can’t be stopped now,” Smiling, I watched my family laugh and instinctively my hand went to my belly. Jamie and I could have just made another child, a sibling for Faith.

++++++

Two days we learned the fate of Black Jack Randall. We already knew he was dead… of course, but Fergus learned after sneaking around the streets of Paris that everyone knew of Randall’s death, and that it was self defense from one of the whores at Maison Elise. It’s apparently well known that if a solider or man threatens a woman at Maison Elise, his lifespan is shortened considerably.

I felt guilty that people assumed it was one of the women at the brothel, but at the same time, that meant no one would coming looking for us.

Jamie was relieved, the evidence was obvious in his attitude and general air of being. He promised to arrange passage back to Scotland as quickly as he could. We had spent a short time in Paris, and it was a welcome break from the craziness of our life before. A chance to be separated from everyone and everything and just be together. But I was looking forward to going back home, especially at the thought of being pregnant again. I wanted my family around me once again, all of them.

#mctavish and beauchamp #jamie mctavish #claire beauchamp #claire fraser #jamie fraser #outlander #outlander fanfic #mclairefras #jamie x claire #chapter 16 #first words #fanfiction

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philtaton · 7 years ago

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The Apple of my Eye

My contribution to the @capri-anthology. The gorgeous piece of art is made by the lovely @kitshunette and I was lucky enough to have @kiseopingu as my beta.

Summary: Laurent shoots his iPhone. That's how it starts. Damen is the poor guy who is supposed to fix it and recover Laurent's pictures. He definitely finds more than he expects.

Read on AO3.

"Can you or can you not recover the pictures from this phone?" The guy pushes his glasses back up for what has to be the hundredth time within an hour. By now Damen has realized that the more he tries to calm himself down, the more he does it. By now Damen also doesn't really care.

"Look," he tries once more, his voice forced into calm politeness, "this thing is trashed. I'm telling you, your new one is covered with your insurance, but I'm not sure how you expect me to recover anything from this phone. Because—and I can't stress this enough—there is a bullet hole in it."

"So you're telling me my apps and my music and my contacts and fucking everything is stored except for my pictures?”

Damen lifts his hand halfway to pinch the bridge of his nose when he becomes aware that this would be too much like pushing up glasses. Instead he folds his arms. "You didn't synchronize them into the cloud. It's your own fault."

The customer's lips flatten into a thin line and the little color left in his cheeks drains from his face. "I've had enough nice experiences with your cloud."

"Yeah, well..."

The miracle happens and the guy suddenly appears defeated. "I just… I thought it would at least synchronize with my laptop…"

Damen looks at him and he suddenly can't see the hipster haircut or the expensive clothes or the fancy shoulder bag anymore. All there's left in this moment is someone who is barely old enough to be called a man, but with enough sadness in his eyes to prompt old ladies to bake for him and dark circles that dissolve Damen's frustration into a mild irritation. "You have to synchronize them by hand… I'm sorry."

The guy looks down at his phone and sighs. "Okay."

"Okay, Laurent… It's Laurent, right?" Damen has the name from the form the guy filled out. Laurent confirms it by nodding. "After a certain amount of damage it's just really hard to get any information off those things. But how about I try? And if I can get something—anything—we'll call it a happy day and if not, you won't blame me for not being able to fix this."

Laurent doesn't say anything for a moment. He just squints his eyes and stares, his head slightly tilted. Then he nods. "Okay. We have a deal."

The small smile sneaks up on Damen before he can keep it off his face. "Awesome, then I'll do that off hours and I'll give you a call as soon as I've made progress."

They shake hands and Laurent leaves. Damen shakes his head as soon as he notices that Laurent is pretty much exactly his type. He starts to wonder why he hasn't seen it earlier.

***

After five days of working, Damen manages to retrieve a first file. It's a picture of salad. Damen starts to wonder if this is really worth his time.

***

In the end he manages two-hundred-and-seventy-three pictures. A few of them are completely random shots and Damen is aware of it when he calls Laurent. There is more salad, for example. Or that screenshot of when he caught an Eevee in Pokémon Go. But there are also a lot of pictures that Damen is dying to know more about. He tries not to be offended when he introduces himself on the phone and Laurent doesn’t seem to recognize him at first, before he starts to refer to him as Apple-Guy, and then, iGuy. They arrange a time and a spot to meet and Damen saves all the images on two USB-sticks just to be sure he has them, ready to save the day.

***

When Damen arrives at the coffee shop, he notices that something isn't quite right. Laurent is still trying to sell this perfect façade, this time with dark skinny jeans and a blazer that has to cost more than what Damen makes in a month. His hair is styled, his shoes are polished and yet, there is a certain edge to his attire. Like someone who has spent the night in his clothes and has to go to work with them the next day.

Damen sits in the chair across from Laurent and immediately the guy squares his shoulders and holds his chin a little higher. "You could get the pictures?"

"Good morning to you too," Damen mumbles and rolls his eyes before he pulls out the USB drives. "I managed to retrieve some. Not all. One of them is for backup."

Laurent doesn't thank Damen, doesn't even look at him. He immediately pulls out his MacBook and opens the pictures, going through them until he apparently finds what he's looking for. He stills completely. A star standing still in a universe of planets. His eyes water and he has to force the tears away. It looks like he’s tearing himself out of his own feelings to get back into the present.

"Thank you," Laurent says, his voice hoarse and raw. "I'll pay you whatever you want."

Damen has a list. He wrote down working hours and even material costs. The invoice is formal and tucked into his bag, but something about Laurent pulls all of Damen's strings so instead of just asking the guy for money, he finds himself babbling. "Go out with me instead."

The softness vanishes from Laurent's eyes and suddenly he’s this other person again. The man Damen really wanted to kick out of his shop. "I beg your pardon?"

"Oh, come on," Damen tries in a soft and awkwardly flirty tone. "Mystery guy comes into my shop and pays whatever sum to get back pictures of salad. I just want to hear a little bit more about your story. Besides… I think you're cute."

Without a word Laurent pushes up, knocking back his chair in the process, and leaves so fast Damen has no chance to react. He's so stunned that he notices only once he’s back home that he neither has the money nor a date.

***

When Damen gets a text the next day, it consists of nothing but a time and the address. He smiles when the second text comes in and it solely says 'Tomorrow.'

***

Damen wouldn't have thought Laurent would come to a place like this. It's dark and cozy and every chair is different. Not in a fashionable way, either. It just looks like this place has been in business forever and the owner decided to get a random new chair whenever an old one broke. It's worn down and busy not with the usual city buzz but with waiters yelling orders into the kitchen and Italian curses being yelled back. A family business.

Laurent is already sitting in the corner and typing away on his MacBook when Damen arrives . Looks like he's always early and always working. He closes the computer once he spots Damen, frowning as if he had been expecting someone else.

"Nice place," Damen says and can't keep himself from smiling. Maybe it's because Laurent keeps scowling. "And thanks for meeting me."

Laurent just huffs. "I owe you. For the pictures. This is me paying my debt, that's all."

"Of course." Damen tilts his head and eyes Laurent suspiciously . The last time they saw each other , Damen already thought he looked a bit worn down. Today it's worse. "Are you okay?"

Laurent blinks in surprise. Damen has to wonder what it must be like when you're surprised by a question like that.

"Why?" Laurent asks instead of giving an answer.

"Because you act like someone who's on the run," Damen says without thinking. He knows he pushed the wrong buttons when Laurent once again jumps up , ready to leave. This time Damen is faster, though. He reaches out, grasping Laurent's wrist. He would have expected anger about that, but not the pure disgust he finds on Laurent's face.

"Let go of me," Laurent snarls quietly.

Damen lifts his hands and leans back in his chair. "Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. Just… Don't leave yet. Please."

"Did he send you?"

Damen frowns in confusion. "Who?"

Laurent looks at him for a very long moment. Then, very cautiously, he sits down again, his back straighter now and his head held a little higher than before. The tension between them is thick when a waiter appears next to their table and asks what they want. Laurent orders for both of them. Damen doesn't object.

***

They spend a long while in relative silence except for a small exchange about the weather . Damen starts to regret that he kept Laurent from leaving and he knows that he will sit there struggling with the awkwardness for the rest of the evening. Much to his surprise it's Laurent who breaks the silence.

"Do you want my olives?" Laurent asks and Damen looks up from his plate to find Laurent's eyes on him.

"Why did you order that pizza if you don't like olives?" Damen hears the crankiness in his own voice and he can’t help but wonder how someone he barely knows can affect his mood so much.

"I like the dark ones." Laurent pokes an olive with his fork and rolls it away from his pizza. "The green ones are gross."

Damen reaches over and takes one of the olives, plopping one into his mouth. "I like them."

"My brother used to eat my olives," Laurent says and licks his lips. There is something in his voice that makes Damen still. "We were close. He died six months ago. Exactly six months ago."

Damen swallows hard. "I'm sorry."

Laurent shakes his head, dismissing the apology. There is a moment of silence before Laurent starts to speak again, more to himself than to Damen. "I just didn't want to be alone tonight. I don't know why I thought it would be a good idea to go on a date with a complete stranger."

Damen should be offended, but for some reason he's isn’t. He can just sense Laurent's sadness and the melancholia and he wants to do something about it. Lift his spirits . "I'm hardly a stranger."

Laurent lifts his eyebrows and gives Damen a look that makes him blush from embarrassment. "Is that so?"

Damen chuckles. "I know you like salad enough to take pictures of it, for example. I know you like animals because you took a gazillion pictures of random puppies on the street. I know that you were wearing your hair long until about three weeks ago. I know that you're a secret nerd because you play Pokémon Go with enough enthusiasm to take screenshots. And—I know that you don't like green olives. But you do like the dark ones."

Laurent stares at Damen with wide eyes and Damen has no idea what to expect when Laurent lets out a small laugh. His whole face transforms. There's a spark in his eyes and color in his cheeks. Laughing suits him.

"I know nothing about you," Laurent says, stealing a slice of pizza from Damen. "You get my olives in exchange of that…"

Damen rolls his eyes. "What do you want to know? Aside from the fact that I usually don't tolerate pizza thieves."

Laurent shrugs and chews. "Surprise me with random knowledge."

"I like animals too," Damen starts, snatching another olive from Laurent's plate. "I thought I was a dog person until I got a cat. Now I know better. I would run around hungry if I only ate salad. I get cranky when I'm hungry. I hate getting haircuts. That's why I'll wear my hair long forever. Oh, and I love olives of every size and color."

"Favorite movie?" Laurent asks.

"The Godfather," Damen replies without much hesitation.

Laurent laughs again. "Unofficial favorite movie?"

Damen feels heat rise on his cheeks. Nobody has called him out on that. Ever. "The Princess Bride. But don't tell anyone."

"As you wish," Laurent says with a small nod, an amused smile on his lips.

Damen smiles back. "Told you. We're not strangers anymore."

"Maybe."

It's a small admission but one that makes Damen feel bold enough to give into his curiosity. "Why is there a bullet hole in your phone? I mean… You don't look like someone who owns a gun."

Laurent puts down his slice of pizza and takes a sip of water. Damen can see the wheels in his head turning. "My family has a ranch. Regardless of how I feel about weapons, I know how to use them."

"And you decided to use your phone as target practice?"

Laurent looks Damen straight in the eyes. His stare is intense and Damen squirms. "I'm supposed to be at home. My mom died soon after I was born and my dad died in the same car accident as my brother. My father's last will says that I will inherit the family business as soon as I graduate from college and that my Uncle will get twenty-five percent of the company in return for taking care of everything until I can take over."

Damen frowns. "Complicated story, huh?"

Laurent huffs again, but this time it's pure bitterness. "I don't necessarily… get along… with my Uncle. So three weeks ago I packed my stuff and left. I'll return once I have my degree. Until then I'd rather stay away from him. But he's sending people after me. Private investigators. And some other people. The gun was a precaution."

"Are you kidding me?" To Damen the whole thing sounds like a mob story. "You don't think he's gonna hurt you, do you? I mean… He'd get caught. People don't really get away with stuff like that in real life."

"He doesn't really have to hurt me, just my reputation," Laurent says with a sigh and Damen thinks that he looks tired again. Not just lack-of-sleep tired. Bone-crushing-exhaustion tired. "Apparently he managed to convince my family’s lawyers that I'm not just unfit to run a company yet, but that I also can't be trusted with my family's money. Since it's tied to the business, they agreed. I got the call from my Uncle that I can either return home or try to get my degree without any financial backup. He cut me off. I got mad. So I ended my facetime with him and his lawyers with a Glock 42."

Now it's Damen's turn to raise his eyebrows. Definitely a mob story. "You shot your phone because you got mad at your Uncle?"

Laurent looks bored. Like it's the most normal thing in the world. "He should be glad he didn't decide to tell me in person."

Damen takes a mental note never to cross Laurent. Or his Glock. Then his attention gets drawn to another aspect of Laurent's story. "Do you know how to get by? Will you be able to get money?"

"I have a small savings account that is in my name alone," Laurent says with a small nod. "It's not much, but it will get me through college if I'm smart about it."

"Dire times?" Damen asks with a grin.

Laurent sighs dramatically. "No more fancy restaurants for the next two years."

Damen winks. "Unless someone else is paying."

Amusement makes the corners of Laurent's mouth curl up. "Unless someone else is paying."

***

That night, Laurent falls into bed cursing himself and the entire universe. He should have learned a long time ago to be more careful. Usually he is. But Damen is just an Apple guy in a big city and the chances of him being on his Uncle's pay roll are so incredibly low…

Still. Laurent starts to think about how easy it would be for Damen just to call his Uncle and tell him where he is. What he's up to. In times like these, every piece of information is worth money and money is the key to power, the key to everything.

Laurent puts away his glasses and rubs his face. He definitely shouldn't have trusted a stranger like that. But then he thinks about the way Damen looked at him, approaching his vulnerabilities with little pity or judgement and no malice at all. Laurent needed it. Just for one evening. He needed someone around him to bicker with, to talk to. Someone to steal pizza from.

He turns to lie on his stomach, burying his face in his pillow. One evening of letting down his guard. He tells himself he deserved it. Tomorrow he will straighten up and keep going. No more mistakes like today. He'll just bottle this evening up as a good memory. In his head , it sounds like a solid plan. At least until the next day when he gets a message from Damen. It's a picture of a glass of dark olives. A second later his phone vibrates again and the text comes through.

'Dinner at my place? I'll make Greek salad.'

***

"I can't believe this." Laurent pushes up his glasses before crossing his arms in frustration. "Where did my pictures go?"

Damen peeks around the corner and frowns when he sees Laurent glaring at the computer, quickly walking over to lean over his boyfriend's shoulder. He's learned his lesson and doesn't suggest the cloud again. If Laurent has his problems with it, then Damen will leave it be. "Have you synchronized your old computer the way I told you?"

"You literally painted me a picture, Damen. It was pretty easy to follow the instructions."

The small instruction sheet Damen drew for Laurent, complete with IKEA stick figures, lies crumbled up next to the computer. Damen chuckles. He's well aware that Laurent is currently pissed, but tech stuff is pretty much the only thing where Damen has the upper hand. And yes, he sometimes enjoys that a little bit too much.

"Let me have a look." Laurent moves away and Damen clicks himself through the computer, searching for what Laurent is looking for. He finds the pictures after only a few minutes but Laurent still has been breathing down his neck the entire time. "There you go."

Laurent lets out a sound of pure relief and he wraps his arms around Damen's shoulders, kissing his cheek. "Thanks, iGuy."

Damen chuckles once more and turns his head to give Laurent a proper kiss. "Hey, you never told me why those pictures are that important to you. Is it Eevee? It's Eevee, right?"

Laurent rolls his eyes, but his smile shows his amusement for what it is. Then he hums and blushes, opening the folder with the pictures Damen retrieved for him almost two years ago. He clicks on a picture that opens full size and shows Laurent hugging another man. Both of them are laughing. "That's the last picture of me and my brother."

Damen immediately feels guilty for making fun of Laurent earlier. "I'm sorry."

Laurent shakes his head. He's never been good at accepting apologies. "I like my Eevee too, by the way."

With another laugh, Damen pulls Laurent into his arms and kisses him softly. He spots a familiar spark in Laurent's eyes. Mischief. "What is it?"

"There's another picture that's important to me." Laurent grins as he opens another folder and scrolls through it until he finds what he's looking for. He opens that as well and Damen's heart skips a beat before he grins as well.

It's a picture of Greek salad.

#the apple of my eye #laurent of vere #damen of akielos #captive prince #capri #my muse was yelling #mine #mine: fic #mine: capri #captive prince anthology

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jestbee · 8 years ago

Text

Us, As Told by Other People

Written for the 28+ Phandom Meetup, this fic grew too long for me to finish in time. But here is it.

(~8k, pining, smut, getting together, friends to lovers) | [AO3 Link]

Big shoutout to @killingmeitsso2yearsago and @adorkablephil for listening to me rabbit on about this one. And to @cosmicphandom2k16 for hosting the meet up that inspired me to write this.

Summary: People make a lot of assumptions about Dan and Phil, but what happens when Dan starts believing some of them. You can’t actually ship yourself with your best friend, can you?

Or: the five times Dan was guilty of over-thinking things, and the one time he wasn’t.

It starts as an accident. Mindless scrolling turned into lurking on fan blogs, turned into making an anonymous blog in order to like things so he could save them and… well, it all just sort of fell apart from there.

It was weird, being told about your life by the internet, and he found it strange how so many things were just accepted to be true on there. Apparently his daddy kink was alive and well but also, more worryingly, in certain corners of the web the question about whether he and Phil were an item wasn’t even being asked. It was just accepted as fact.

The ‘proof’ was the worst. A long list of behaviours that apparently proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, they were an item. Stood too close, let their gazes linger too long, moved in each other’s space without thinking. They were too close, too forgiving of each other’s presence, too much, too much of everything. And the trouble was, Dan started to notice it too. He saw patterns and meaning in the everyday where he hadn’t before. Prompted by the insistence of unknown people on the internet with his own face in their display pictures, he started to question everything.

“God, I barely slept at all.” Phil said, moving into the kitchen with tiny, uncoordinated steps.

“Yeah?” Dan said, pulling mugs from the cupboard.

“Yeah. Don't know why, I was really tired.”

“Why are you awake now then? Go back to bed.”

He watched as Phil reached for the cupboard above the oven and pulled down the box of cereal.

“Heard you up and about.” Phil shrugged, as though that answered the question. He yawned and began pouring out cereal.

Dan simply hummed in response and moved around Phil to get the milk for the coffee, closing the cupboard door Phil had left open in the process.

When he was done with the milk he slid it across the counter top to Phil.

“I was thinking we could get lunch at that weird noodle place after the meeting today.” Phil was saying as he poured milk. “I can't believe they did strawberry noodles, what even is that?”

“Sounds good.” Dan said, distracted now.

Phil was babbling about the meeting and unusually flavoured noodles and all Dan could focus on was that somehow, without needing to be asked or discussing it first, they had made a small division of labour.

As they left the kitchen Dan had a coffee in one hand and a bowl of cereal made by Phil in the other. Similarly, Dan had made coffee for Phil without even thinking about it.

They moved around each other with practised ease, sinking into the couch at the same time, putting on anime they'd been watching, picking up from the last episode.

It was troubling. Was it troubling? Perhaps Tumblr had just got in his head. There was nothing wrong with having a comfortable routine with your housemate. They were best friends after all.

He tried not to believe that Phil, despite lack of sleep and the want to be curled up in bed, had gotten up just to spend time with Dan. Just because this was their routine and he didn't want to miss it.

He tried to convinced himself, but when Phil nodded off on the couch once breakfast was finished, curled in on himself, head tipped towards Dan, it wasn't as easy to believe.

ii.

It wasn't just Tumblr. Dan started noticing people they actually knew making assumptions too.

“Hey, where's Phil?” he heard someone ask.

“Over by the bar,” Dan responded without looking up.

“Thanks, I knew you'd know.” There a giggle. A small one. It shouldn't have affected him the way it did and yet…

“What do you mean I'd know?” Dan whips his head up to see a sheepish Jack Howard hovering by his elbow.

“God, Um.” Jack looked shocked at Dan's response, hand coming up to cup the back of his own neck. “I just meant, well, you always know where he is.”

“I don't… I…” Dan frowned. “Not always.”

“Okay Dan,” and the smile was back in place, awkward moment seemingly passed. “You know better than I do. Always losing the other half of my duo. I've got no idea where Dean is, probably causing a ruckus somewhere. Maybe I should know. Fuck. I'm going to get blamed for it aren't I?”

Dan laughed, because that was the appropriate response. He was only slightly perturbed that he’d referred to them as a ‘duo’ at least it wasn’t ‘couple’. Jack comparing them to him and Dean just meant a comparison to a working partner, nothing more. “You'd better find him then.”

With a final good natured laugh Jack was gone, disappearing into the crowd. Sure enough, he caught up with Phil who was stood chatting the bar. Dan couldn't consciously remember how he'd known that, they'd been separated as soon as they'd entered this party so God knows how Dan had known where he was. Was he that conscious of his friend’s movements around a room? Tracking him in his peripheral vision all the while?

Dan caught Phil's eye as he looked up and felt a weird sinking sensation in his stomach as he smiled. He couldn't explain why.

Instead, he downed the drink in his hand and went to order another one, because it was easier than thinking about it.

Later though, drunk and loose in the taxi home, he couldn't help but ask.

“Do you know where I am?”

Phil's eyebrows knitted together and he didn't even verbalise a response, simply tipped his head in a manner that suggested Dan wasn't making much sense.

“I mean at parties and stuff, do people ask you where I am?”

“You mean on the rare occasions we're not stood next to each other? Yeah, sometimes”

“And do you know?”

Phil looked confused again.

“I mean--” Dan attempts, swimming through the thick fog that has descended over him.

“Yeah I know what you mean, I just hadn't thought about it before.”

“Oh.”

“I mean, I guess I do. But I suppose it's because I know I'm going to have to point you out or drag you into a conversation eventually so it saves time, you know?” he laughs, “I didn't even know I was doing it.”

“Me either.” Dan admitted, satisfied with Phil's reasoning behind it. “Is it weird?”

“No,” Phil shrugged leaning back in his seat, “We're like, business partners, most discussions I have at work things like that will involve you at some point.”

“I guess you're right.” Dan nodded. “But, just, go out sometime this week okay? And don't tell me where or when you're going.”

Phil laughed good-naturedly. “Sure. If it will make you feel better.”

He reached out and patted Dan's leg reassuringly and Dan, alcohol-fuzzy and slow, stared at the spot Phil's fingers had touched the whole way home.

And Dan thinks it will be fine. Until Phil is on his way out of the door on Wednesday and Dan shouts goodbye down the stairs followed by “Say hi to PJ for me.”

Phil blinks up at him and grins. “Sure. But Dan? That's a little creepy.”

“I know,” Dan says as the door swings shut, “I know.”

iii.

It keeps happening. It's not even the big stuff, that's the problem. Because as much as Dan could try to curb his behaviours with the most obvious stuff, it always ends up being the unconscious little things that resonate the most, that make him question things.

The way they reach out to each other, touch without thought. The press of a hand to a arm to get the other’s attention, gentle pushes against the rib cage in response to a joke, consoling palms swept gently across shoulder blades in times of stress. IT’s all too much and it makes Dan aware of his body, calculating the space left between them and wondering if it’s too much or too little for any given situation. He used to be able to work it out easily, now it seems he’s lost the skill, finds himself drifting closer. But Phil doesn’t mind, or if he does he hasn’t said anything, but Dan knows it’s probably only a matter of time.

Other people though. Other people making assumptions is what really sends Dan’s brain into overdrive. It’s easy to notice when the fans do it, but it never occurs to him that people in their lives do too.

It sneaks up on him, when his phone rings in mid January.

“Hello?”

“Dan,” Louise says happily, “Hey sweetie. I'm just calling to find out about Phil's birthday.”

And maybe he's being thinking too much, and he's definitely been on Tumblr too much because instead of simply telling her he says “Why would you assume I'm doing something for Phil's birthday?”

“Well, aren't you?”

“Not the point.” Dan mumbles, dropping down on his bed. “I resent the assumption.”

“That's a weird thing to say.”

Louise won't ever let Dan get away with things, she's always calling him out on his bullshit.

“Sorry,” Dan apologises, “I am doing something for Phil's birthday, party round here. I'll text you the details.”

“What's going on, Dan?”

Dan stays silent for a moment but Louise gives him the space, doesn't let him off the hook.

“I just, why do people always assume things about me… and Phil?”

“Assume things? I don't… I mean, I hadn't thought I was assuming anything. What has brought this on?”

“I don't mean you.”

“Then who? The internet? Because honestly you sort of bring that on yourselves. It's been your branding for years and you really do mess with them a bit.”

“No,” Dan says hurriedly, “I know, I don't mean that. The shipping and stuff, when it's ridiculous and made out of nothing. I get that, it's just…”

“Daniel Howell, exactly how much time are you spending on your Tumblr tag?”

“Not alot.”

“Really?”

“Okay. But sometimes I think… like, when they point stuff out that I didn't even notice, you know. Sometimes…”

“You believe them? Dan, that's ridiculous. You can't start shipping yourself.”

“Ugh. I know.”

“Well then.”

“I just mean, it's easy to start reading into stuff when you're given situations from a third party perspective. There’s only so many loops of gifs I can watch before I start believing their interpretation of that moment. It’s just so easy to get swept along.”

Louise hums in agreement. “It is. But, tell me, do you want it to be true?”

Dan is silent.

“Dan are you reading all of this in to it because you want there to be some truth to it? Are you hoping?”

“I…” He snaps his mouth shut for a second, frowning into the phone. “I just want to know why everyone assumes things. Like, it's just expected that I'm the one doing Phil's birthday thing.”

“You're best friends.” Louise says, “Sure, you're closer than most but, that's just who you guys are. It's doesn't have to be any more than that. Unless you want it to be.”

Dan takes a deep breath and, in a rush so that he doesn't lose courage, finally let's out the thought he'd been holding in. “I don't know if I do.”

“Well I can't answer that for you hun.”

“I know. I've just never even thought about it before but now… every little thing. Why is it so difficult?”

“I don't think it has to be.”

“How?”

“Well, you know. Stay off Tumblr for one.”

“Obviously.”

“And,” Louise says with a sigh “Talk to Phil.”

“Lou…”

“I'm serious Dan, it's the only way.”

“I’m not even sure what I'd say.” Dan admits, “I don't even think it makes sense to me.”

“Yeah,” Louise sympathises, her voice soft and lilting “I know. But you're the only one that can work that out.”

“Right.” Dan says standing up from his bed as if willed into action. “Less of this, it's stupid. It's all just too much Tumblr and not enough sleep. Honestly I don't even know what I'm going on about.”

“Okay,” Louise says, but she doesn't sound like she believes him.

“Party. Here. Weekend of Phil's birthday week. I'll text you.”

“Right, thanks Dan. I'll see you then.”

“See you.”

Dan stands in the middle of his room for a moment, adrift in the middle of his carpet. He knows he should let it go, it is just over thinking and absolute nonsense considering that he hadn't even noticed any of this before. But he can't shake it, the little voice in his head that keeps asking what it all means and whether Phil thinks about these things too and whether any of it is normal. He's aware of himself at all moments and he can't be at ease knowing that his unconscious actions might mean something more than he'd originally intended them to. Especially when he can't be entirely sure that he hadn't meant them on some level.

“I know what you're up to” comes a voice from the hallway.

“Shit Phil, you made me jump.”

“Sorry,” Phil grins.

“What do you mean you know what I'm up to?”

“The party. I hope it wasn't supposed to be a surprise. If so, you're pretty crap at keeping it.”

“No,” Dan says, “Not a surprise. I just hadn't gotten around to sorting it yet. You didn't have other plans did you?”

“No,” Phil shrugs, “I just kind of assumed you'd be…”

Dan wonders how much of the conversation Phil heard and what he might have discerned from it.

“Oh, yeah. Of course. I am.”

Somehow it doesn't make him feel weird when Phil assumes, he feels warm. His face could be flushing but he isn't sure.

“Good. And don't worry, I don't know anything else about it. I only caught the end of your conversation there.”

“Good.” Dan nods, “That's good. But, it's not a surprise. You can have anything you want.”

“I trust you.” Phil smiles, soft and small, “You'll sort it.”

“Yeah,” Dan says, smiling back “I will.”

iv.

Dan knows he’s really reading into it all when his over-thinking brain thinks Phil’s mum might be in on it. Of course, she has always been accepting of Dan, drawing him into the tight circle of their family without comment. There is always a spot at their dinner table, and Dan has always been grateful.

So he tries not to bat an eye when Phil is on the phone to his mum one lazy evening and says “Yeah, he’s fine.” and “I’ll let him know you liked it.” and “Yes mum, do you just want to talk to him?”

He probably shouldn’t assume that Phil’s mum is talking about him but, who else would it be?

Phil gestures with the phone a few moments later in Dan’s direction and removes any doubt. Dan accepts it in silence because it's normal, or it would be, if he could just stop overthinking everything.

“Dan,” she says as soon as he gets the phone to his ear.

“Hello.”

“Tell that son of mine that you’re coming up next weekend will you?”

“I am?”

“He hasn’t even told you has he? I don’t know what I’m going to do with him. Always forgetting. Yes, cousin Rita’s birthday. Not Phil’s cousin, not even my cousin… come to think of it I don’t know whose cousin she is.”

Dan laughs slightly, trying to keep up, catching Phil’s eye on the other end of the couch. Phil stretches his legs out and wriggles his toes under Dan’s thigh. That’s new.

“Anyway” she’s continuing, “We’re having a party and I told Phil that of course you’re invited. He says that you wouldn’t want to come but I said of course you would. You would, wouldn’t you Dan?”

“Err… yeah.” Dan swallows, feeling how cold Phil’s feet are against his leg. He’s only wearing pyjama pants and Phil hasn’t got socks on and for God’s sakes it isn’t like this is in any way a strange situation but Dan can’t stop focussing on the sensation of Phil’s toes pressed under his leg. “Of course I will.”

Phil is looking at him intently and Dan shrugs.

“If that’s okay” Dan adds, mostly for Phil.

“Well of course it is,” she says in a rush, “It’s been ages since I’ve seen you both. You really should come to visit more often. We miss you, you know.”

Dan laughs, but he isn’t sure it really sounds sincere, because he’s pretty sure that isn’t normal. Since when did people’s parents accept strangers into their families so readily? The Lesters were warm and inviting people but this was a stretch, thinking of Dan in the same breath as thinking about their son.

“We’ll see you next weekend.” Dan reassures and watches Phil’s eyebrows shoot up.

He says his goodbyes and hangs up, passing the phone back to Phil.

“Did you get the guilt trip too?” Phil asks, removing his feet from Dan’s leg.

“She mentioned she hadn’t seen… us in a while.”

“Yeah. I try to get up every few weeks but, we’ve been really busy you know?”

“I know.” Dan nods as Phil twists in his seat to flop down on the couch.

“We really should visit more often.” Phil sighs. He lands so that the top of his head is now pressed where his feet were, crown brushing Dan’s thigh. “So you’re coming to the thing?”

“I mean, not if you don’t want me to.” Dan clarifies, resisting the urge to put his hand in Phil’s hair. It comes from nowhere and he vows to stay off Tumblr tonight, because this is getting ridiculous.

“No, of course I want you to… I mean, whatever, you might as well.” Phil shrugs, “I just thought you wouldn’t want to.”

“Why?”

“Because it’ll be boring, it's just a family thing. A small thing for a distant relative. I don’t know…” he trails off and Dan can see the genuine look on Phil’s face. “We have to go to that panel thing with the BBC the next day.”

“I’ll come.” Dan insists, “Like you said, I haven’t seen your mum in ages and… well it’ll be good to get away won’t it? Besides, the panel is up that way, we'll be closer if anything.”

“Yeah,” Phil says, closing his eyes, “It makes sense really.”

“Yeah.”

When they arrive at Phil’s parents’ house the next weekend they are greeted with hugs and Dan is quite swiftly passed a drink of something strong.

“Drink it dear,” Phil’s mum says in a conspiratorial whisper, “You’ll need it.”

“Oh god, I will?” Dan says, making his eyes go wide and trying to stop the rush of affection he feels for this family.

“Cousin Rita,” she says glancing up at Phil with a knowing look.

“I told you.” Phil says with a slight grimace.

“Just ignore her,” Phil’s mum says, “She won’t be told.” She swipes a hand across both of their shoulders, dusting off invisible lint. “You both look so handsome.” she pinches Dan’s cheek and reaches up to pat Phil’s head. “I’ve put you both in your room Phil, go drop your stuff and come and mingle, there’s a lot of people that want to say hi.”

With that she wanders into the party leaving Dan wondering who won’t be told what.

The rest of the evening passes quickly and with so many small awkward encounters that Dan is fairly glad that Phil stays by his side so that he doesn’t have to waste any more of his brain’s capacity subconsciously tracking him around the room. He still hasn’t dropped the habit, however much he told himself that he would.

When they meet the infamous Rita she announces loudly, to the room, that it is so good to finally meet Phil’s ‘special friend’. Dan thinks he could be reading into the elderly relative’s proclamation a little bit, due to his recent rumination on the subject, but she proceeds to explain that her new neighbours are ‘two lovely gay gentleman’ but that Dan and Phil make a ‘much more handsome couple by far’ so Dan’s pretty sure that he was spot on with his interpretation.

Dan is mortified, red in the face, but Phil gets him another drink and pleads with his eyes for Dan not to say anything.

Similar conversations happen with a number of Phil’s relatives who seem to be under the impression that because Dan and Phil live together that they also live together. Phil doesn’t seem to want to cause embarrassment for relatives he won’t see again for a long time so he doesn’t contradict them, and Dan doesn’t either.

The drinks keep coming and Dan is warm and Phil is leaning somewhat by the time they get some space. Dan has dropped his guard and has let his mind run wild with speculation and as he accepts yet another compliment on how happy Phil looks, and how lucky he is to have a friend like Dan, he begins to let himself imagine that it’s true.

It’s innocent at first, and he doesn’t mean to, but as he replies with “I’m quite lucky too” he catches Phil’s eye. His friend smiles shyly and nods a little and Dan almost thinks he might be going along with it.

They don’t outright agree to play along. But it happens anyway.

They drift closer, as if they’ve been maintaining a sort of distance between them up to now and have finally relaxed the tension. Their shoulders brush, fingers gravitating to a lower back to move the other through the crowd. Hands brush as they pass each other drinks, lips brush the soft shell of an ear as they lean close to speak over the music and Dan lets himself just, be.

It is the most free he has felt in a long time and suddenly, he feels as though he doesn’t want to go back to leaving that gap between them.

Phil slips a hand into his on the way up the stairs once the party is over. They are both a little worse for wear in the drink department and Dan can excuse the hand holding with the fact that they both sway against the banister.

“That was mad.” Phil says once they reach his room. He drops Dan’s hand and sits on the bed, lifting a leg to pull off his shoe. Dan tries not to feel disappointed at the loss.

“Completely mental” he agrees instead.

“Shit,” Phil says as his shoe flies off with too much force and he is propelled backwards on to the bed.

Dan lets out a loud raucous laugh, bending at the waist. Unfortunately, this only serves to tip him forwards too and Dan falls face first on to the bed beside Phil.

They laugh together for a few moments, shaking and rolling on the bed so that they move closer. Soon, the thread of what they were even laughing at disappears and they are simply looking at each other, matches grins gracing their features.

“Tonight was mad,” Dan repeats, “but I had fun.”

“Me too.” Phil agrees, reaching out a hand to cover Dan’s where it is spread on the duvet between them. “I liked… not having to contradict everything all the time.”

Dan’s eyes must go wide and he feels his lips part.

“I mean,” Phil corrects, “There is nothing to deny, of course. I mean… it was nice not having to worry about it all the time. To just let people think whatever the hell they want.”

Dan nods slowly, lets his eyes slip shut and blames the drink for what he says next.

“Do you ever… have you ever thought about it?”

Phil goes silent for a moment and Dan almost thinks he might have fallen asleep.

“I’ve thought about it.” Phil whispers finally. “Have you?”

“Yeah,” Dan admits, “Sometimes too much.”

“I don’t want to talk about this.” Phil announces.

Dan freezes when feels Phil roll away. It’s only when he hears Phil continuing to get changed that he dare move, safe in the knowledge that Phil hasn’t left the room because Dan has pushed this too far.

“We need to go to sleep.” Phil says, insistent and final, and Dan drags himself up to get changed too.

They finally climb into the bed beside each other, which in itself should be weird but the alcohol is lending a pleasant sense of ‘not-giving-a-fuck’ to Dan’s brain and he’s thankful that he doesn’t have to overthink this one right about now.

“Thanks for coming to the party,” Phil says as they drift off to sleep, flat on their backs on separate edges of the bed.

“Thanks for having me,” Dan says, and he means it.

He loses himself to thinking a few minutes later, imagining what it would be like to always have conversations like he did tonight, to always let the space between them dissolve, to collapse the boundaries they’ve built up, to fall asleep next to Phil like this every night. Thinking of this, he finally sleeps.

The next time it is pretty much his fault. He hadn't checked the travel plans for the panel closely enough, hadn't really thought he'd had to because this was the BBC and he's so sure that they know what is and isn't going on in the world of Dan and Phil that it hadn't crossed his mind.

But it turns out, whatever unknown person in a random office somewhere who is responsible for booking hotels has either been vastly uninformed or is an actual shipper because as they drop their bags on the hotel room floor they come to the slow realisation that there is only one bed.

“Well,” Phil shrugs, “Here we go again.”

“Is this becoming a weird pattern?”

“Nah,” Phil says.

“Should we say something? Try to switch rooms?”

“I mean, it doesn't bother me. We should probably drop it into conversation at the radio station at some point but… does it bother you?”

“No,” Dan says and realises that it doesn't, really. “It doesn't.”

“Good. Right, panel. I think some of the others are meeting in the hotel bar for coffee before we head over, you want to go down?”

“Definitely.”

It turns out this thing is bigger than he'd thought and there are even Americans. Which means there is even an awkward encounter with Cat to navigate. He's thankful for the coffee in his system to make it tolerable but less thankful that Phil gets dragged away within minutes of ordering it.

“Hey stranger,” Cat says, cheerful and loud in his ear.

“Hi Cat.”

“Long time no see.”

“Yeah, busy times huh?”

And while it's true, they both know that isn't really the reason.

Somehow they've found themselves separated from the crowd, perched on the end of a table while everyone else is in conversation with each other.

They talk for five minutes before she asks.

“So,” and she flicks her hair out of her eyes distractedly, “Any gossip? Potential love interests? Come on, what's going on with you?”

“Nothing,” Dan insists. “Definitely no love interests.”

“You sure?”

“Come on Cat, when does that ever work out for me?”

“It will,” she assures him.

Dan purses his lips for a moment and really does try not to ask. He hears the words falling from his own lips before he's made up his mind to say them but once it's happened he's fairly intrigued to know the answer.

“Why didn't it ever worked out with us? You know, just so I can get a handle on where I'm going wrong.”

Somewhere across the room Phil is laughing at something Hazel Hayes is saying and Dan feels a grin on his own face. Phil looks up, catches Dan's eye and smiles. He tips his head as if to ask if Dan's okay and Dan just nods.

“It's Phil.” Cat says bluntly.

“What?”

“Phil… is the, you know, reason.”

“You like Phil?”

Cat laughs, it's warm and not at all mocking. “No.”

“You don’t like Phil?”

“Phil is literal sunshine, I defy anyone not to like Phil, come on.”

Dan feels his brows furrow. “You think… I like Phil?”

Cat is suddenly serious, turning in her seat until she is facing him. She sighs before speaking.

“I can't answer that. All I know is that regardless of where you guys draw the line in your relationship it's never visible enough for anyone else to be able to see.”

“I don't understand.”

“When something exciting happens, who do you tell?”

Dan frowns again.

“When you think about doing something you’ve always wanted to do, or to go travelling, or hell, see a movie, who do you see next to you doing that stuff?”

Dan licks a lip as if thinking, but this is the one thing he doesn’t have to overthink. At least not the initial image of those things, the implications of it though… that’s another story.

“Fair point.” he settles for saying.

“It's difficult for someone to get close to you and try to be the most important part of your life when that role pretty securely taken up already.”

“But people's friends are important.” Dan insists. “With the absence of a romantic possibility, wouldn’t you usually imagine your best friend for those things?”

He’s not sure who he’s trying to convince, her or himself.

“Yes,” Cat nods, a soft small hand on his arm, “But Dan, when that possibility comes along, people usually make room in their lives for new people, rearrange things, make a girlfriend or boyfriend some space to develop in that role. But…”

“I don't?”

Cat shrugs, “It felt like it wasn't even an option.”

“Oh.”

“I don't mind,” Cat corrects, “It wasn't meant to happen and it's not like I'm still sore about it or anything.” She smiles, all teeth.

“That's good, I guess.”

“Do you think… well, I mean.. not to sound like a weird fangirl or something but what if the reason you can't let anyone in is because Phil is the moment important person… in more ways than he already is. What if you don’t want to change that, ever.”

Dan glances over at his friend.

“You should see the way you look when you think he can't see you,” he says when he doesn’t respond.

“What? No I…”

“Even more though, you should see the way he looks when he thinks you can't see him.”

Dan shakes his head and tries not to let that thought invade. Somehow though, it does anyway.

vi.

The final straw is when he starts projecting it onto Phil. Curse Cat and her putting the stupid thought in his head, but as soon as it’s wriggled in there it sets up camp and Dan can hardly stop himself from reading into Phil’s actions now, as well as his own.

He’s asking himself questions every second of the day. Is it usual for best friends to be so emotionally codependent? It can’t be normal for a roommate to be the person that knows you better than anyone else ever has. But then, they’ve never been normal.

He barely has to finish sentences.

“Can you pass me the--” is met with the precise thing he’d wanted.

“I’m hungry,” results in Phil cooking the exact thing he’d been craving because, shock horror, he’d been craving the same thing because they’d seen it on some stupid tv show earlier that day.

Utter silence is met with compassion. Quiet comfort in the form of space, or allowing Dan to choose the movie they put on and then ignore. It’s sitting shoulder to shoulder on one end of their couch even though the other end is completely empty. It’s Phil not asking to fill the silence because he knows Dan can’t, and Dan offering Phil the same in return.

There isn’t much Dan doesn’t overthink these days and it’s almost inevitable that he’ll have to tackle the problem at some point. He’s been spending so long taking everyone else’s assumptions and opinions on their relationship, he thinks maybe it’s time to ask Phil what he thinks, or at least tell Phil what he’s feeling. If only he could actually work it out.

“Do you ever think about it?” he asks again, because it harks back to an earlier conversation, and it seems like a good place to start. It’s familiar. Safe.

He doesn’t know if Phil can read minds, or if it’s just because he can see Dan has Tumblr open on his laptop, but Phil understands what he’s talking about.

“I think about it,” he nods, looking pensive but not actually looking up from his computer. “But, you don’t need to worry, you’re not actually in love with me Dan.”

“How do you know?”

Phil smirks, “because I’d know if you were.”

“What if I didn’t even know?”

“How would you not know if you were in love with someone?” Phil still isn’t looking at him, but Dan can tell from the way his eyes stop tracking over the screen that he isn’t paying attention to what’s on his computer either. He eyes keep slipping sideways, glancing in his peripheral vision.

Dan shrugs, because he knows Phil can see it. “It could happen.”

“Well, I don’t think so. If you’re in love, then you’re in love. And you Dan, you’re not in love. So it’s fine.”

“I just think it’s a bit presumptuous isn’t it? To assume I’m not.”

Phil does turn to look at him then.

“Are you trying to convince me that you’re in love with me? Or are you trying to convince yourself?”

Dan just bites his lip and can’t think of what to say, because he’s not even sure any more because it’s all just wrapped up with other people’s opinions and assumptions they’ve made. Maybe it’s not even possible for him to know anymore.

“Do you think it’s possible to overthink yourself out of love?”

“With you Dan, I think it’s possible to overthink yourself out of anything. Or into anything. Coffee?”

Dan marvels. How can Phil go make coffee right now, hasn’t he just said that he might be in love with him? Or has he? Has he really said anything at all or, for all his words, has he said absolutely nothing?

“No, thanks.” Dan says quietly.

“Probably for the best, it’ll only make your brain work even faster than it already is.”

Phil rises from the couch and pauses for a moment, leaning to run a finger through Dan’s fringe, pushing it from his face. It’s surprising, and Dan doesn’t really know what to make of it but before he can ask, Phil leaves to room.

It’s time, he thinks, to stop asking for other people’s opinions and just sort it out for himself. He takes the first step, and closes the lid of his laptop, cutting off Tumblr’s hold on him and equally, silencing a million voices.

The next step is the logic. To try and piece it out.

Falling in love is a messy and complication business and it’s not something he’s ever tried before. Perhaps because it’s not something one usually has to try at. It’s a shame, he thinks, because if only he could work it out it could be great. Because if it turns out all of his behaviours add up to having fallen in love with Phil, then all of Phil’s behaviours should add up to him having fallen in love with Dan too. At least, that’s the logical angle. Two plus two equals four. Dan plus Phil equals…. Well, he’s not sure.

He spends a few hours staring into space on the couch and Phil mercifully doesn’t return so he’s left with his thoughts. It isn’t until hours later that he rises, pads carefully and determinedly down the corridor to Phil’s room and knocks softly.

“Uh huh?” Phil calls, letting Dan know he can go in.

“You’re right.” Dan says upon entering the room, standing awkwardly in the doorway.

He doesn’t want to shut the door behind him because it feels like he’s trapping them both in there, he hovers near the entrance, unsure and timid.

“Not that I’m not glad,” Phil grins, “But what am I right about?”

“I haven’t fallen in love with you.”

“Oh,” Phil says, grin dropping, “That’s… I mean, was that in question?”

“Yes.” Dan nods, “It was.”

“Well, then I’m.. glad you worked that out.”

There’s a beat of silence where Phil goes back to what he was doing- watching the tv- and Dan sways slightly on the spot, feet restless and shuffling.

“That’s not all.” Dan finally manages.

“It’s not?”

“No, Phil, God please, this is important.”

Phil lets out a long breath before moving over on the bed, signally for Dan to sit next to him. “I know it’s important. I just… why do you want to talk about it now?”

“Because… because everyone says I’m in love with you.” Dan exclaims sinking down on to the bed and pulling his knees to his chest.

“They do?”

“Yes.”

“Everyone?”

“Well…” Dan corrects, “Not everyone. But some people.”

“People say you’re in love with me?”

“Not in so many words,” Dan finds there is a tiny hole in the knee of his jeans. He can’t remember when or how it got there but it’s as good a thing as any to focus on while he does this so he pokes a finger into it, widening the gap between the fibers. “People assume things.”

Phil nods at him to continue.

“Like your birthday, and the fact that we’ll share a bed. Your family assume we’re together and we don’t correct them. Your parents… they’ve welcomed me in with open arms like I’m one of their own. And Cat… she pretty much said the whole reason me and her didn’t work out is that I’m in love with you.” He leaves out the bit about Phil, it’s not a wise decision to bring it up considering. “I’m not even going to mention goddamned Tumblr.”

“No,” Phil says slowly, hesitating between words. “Probably best not to.”

Dan pulls on a particularly stubborn thread of his jeans, it digs into his finger for a moment but then gives way, the hole growing bigger.

“So, because people have said things… it somehow caused you to question whether you actually have fallen in love with me? Because… you might not have noticed?”

“It sounds really stupid when you put it like that.” Dan agrees.

“Well it is a bit odd, Dan.” Phil says placing a hand over Dan’s on his knee, stilling his fingers. “But if you’ve decided that you haven’t fallen in love with me then everything is okay.”

“No, I haven’t fallen in love with you,” Dan summarises, “My feelings for you haven’t changed since the day I met you.”

“Well… that’s… I mean, I’m glad you’re not confused anymore.”

“I’m not.” And Dan smiles.

There is silence again and Phil looks around himself awkwardly. “Not really sure what you’re looking for me to say here, Dan.”

Dan takes a breath, holds it for a second and lets it out in one long stream, the words following after it.

“I haven’t fallen in love with you Phil. I think… no, I know… that I’ve been in love with you the whole time.”

“Oh.” Phil’s mouth goes still and small. Lips pursed in thought.

“But I think… and I really don’t want to spring this on you but trust me, I’ve given it a lot of thought… I think you’re in love with me too.”

Phil laughs. He throws his head back and lets the big sound escape him. His tongue points shyly from the corner of his mouth for a second before his hands come up to cover his face.

“Oh my god.” He’s high pitched and incredulous.

“I know,” Dan insists, “It’s strange. But I honestly have thought about it… I know, I know, I overthink everything. But I do that so you don’t have to, can’t you just trust me?”

“I should just… trust what you’re telling me. Just… go along with whatever you’re saying.” Phil says, still giggling.

“Yes.”

“Because you’re given it some serious thought… and have decided, after much much intense deliberation… that you are in love with me.”

“Yes.”

“That you always have been.”

“Yes.”

“And, this is the most important bit,” Phil says, face deadpan, “I am, in fact, in love with you too.”

“Yes!” Dan says, voice raising, irritation becoming apparent.

“Well I wish you hadn’t bothered giving it so much thought,” Phil says casually.

“What do you mean?” Dan asks, straightening his legs on the bed, the hole of his jeans bigger now so that a flash of pale skin shows beneath it.

“I mean that well… of course I’m in love with you.”

Dan feels his lips part, mouth dropping to accommodate all the words that he would say, if he could find them.

“Dan I’ve been in love with you since you were a pixelated Skype call, since the moment you stepped off a train and into my arms… Dan, I’ve been so in love with you for as long as I can remember. I don’t need people making assumptions or sharing opinions to tell me that. Frankly, I’m kind of surprised it’s taken you this long to work it out.”

“Why didn’t you say something?”

“I thought you knew!” Phil said, “I thought that it was just something we’d silently agreed not to acknowledge. Because you were… struggling with it or whatever. And I was never going to be the one to pressure you into something you didn’t really want. I thought I was… obvious. I didn’t give it much thought.”

“You didn’t give it much thought, Phil, are you kidding me? You just accepted you were in love with me and lived with it for 7 years?”

“Pretty much.”

“You’re an idiot.”

And Dan moves forward in a rush, gripping the front of Phil’s t-shirt in one fist and bringing their lips crashing together. There’s a moment of adjustment, Phil’s hand curling around Dan’s jaw and neck and Dan pulling, pulling on Phil until they are pressed from shoulder to hip. They topple over with force of it, Dan landing solidly down on Phil, but neither seem to mind.

And it lasts. God it lasts, for blessedly long minutes and Phil rolls them until he is hovering over Dan, kissing the last 7 years of emotion into Dan’s mouth with his own. Dan answers back, sliding his legs to part so that Phil can rest between them, hands wandering all the while. Tracing lines over shoulders, waists, backs, hips.

Phil licks a stripe along Dan’s bottom lip and he parts his mouth in response. Making a tiny sound in this throat as Phil’s tongue comes into contact with his own. But he doesn't know what to focus on most, Phil’s tongue in his mouth or Phil’s hand at the hem of his shirt, sliding heated digits below the fabric to caress his rib cage.

Instead he moves his own hands, running along the strip of skin above Phil’s belt where his shirt has ridden up at the back. Taking a risk and gripping the soft cotton tightly, he moves insistently upward until Phil gets the message and pulls away for a moment to lift it over his head.

Their eyes meet and Dan gives a small nod. It is all that is needed because after 7 years of waiting, and thinking and hesitating, Dan doesn’t want to stop this now. Not now everything is finally making sense, and he doesn’t need anyone else's opinion on this particular activity thank you very much.

So he rips off his own shirt, sending it flying off to the side where it lands on an unknown, unseen patch of carpet. And Phil is kissing him again, but now there is the added sensation of their bare chests pressed against each other and the heat of their bodies combining. Dan moans.

“Feels good,” he says between kisses.

“Yeah.” Phil answers. “Do you want…”

“Yes.” Dan breathes quickly, “Anything.”

Phil grins lasciviously, “Anything?”

“Pervert.” Dan admonishes, laughing.

And Phil swallows the laugh with a kiss. Moving to work at Dan’s belt and button and zip until he has Dan’s jean’s undone and is wriggling a hand in to them.

“Fuck,” Dan says, squeezing his eyes shut as Phil’s hand wraps around him.

“Not yet,” Phil pants, again, “Maybe next time. Takes too long.”

“Oh god, only you would make a joke--ahh” Dan it cut off mid sentence by a moan as Phil twists his wrist and runs a thumb over the top of Dan’s cock.

Meaning to get his own back a little, he too has Phil’s jeans open in a matter of moments, sliding his own hand into the heat of his boxers and tracing the firm length of him.

“That’s… more than I was expecting.” Dan admits.

Phil just smiles.

It’s bumpy at first, their wrists knocking at awkward angles until they are both released from the confines of their underwear and they set an easy rhythm, stroking and thrusting into each other in sync.

Dan falls apart first, bucking and writhing underneath Phil, spilling over his hand as the air is filled with the sound of Dan’s hoarse voice calling his name. His own hand tenses around Phil who cries out and follows only moments after, moving his hips to slip through Dan’s fist, tight and perfect.

They fall against each other. Jeans at half mast, spent cocks trapped between their bodies, the collection of their orgasms sticky and wet collected on their respective torsos. They are silent in the haze for a moment, breathing heavily, eyes closed.

“That was…” Dan manages.

“It was.” Phil answers.

“Hmmm.”

It might seem, to Phil, that Dan is monosyllabic and pretty zoned out. He’s silent and listless, arms wrapped loosely around Phil's shoulders, the heavy beat of his heart in Phil’s ear. But behind it, Phil could swear he hears the gears of Dan’s brain working.

“What is it?” he asks, “What are you thinking?”

“It’s just…” Dan says, tracing light fingers over Phil’s shoulder blade, making patterns Phil can’t work out, “Where does this leave us? Are we together now?”

Phil chuckles, lifting his head to gaze into Dan’s eyes. He kisses him softly, a brush of lips and against lips.

“I love you,” he says, because it's true, it always has been.

“I love you too,” Dan replies, and the same is true for him.

“You think too much.”

“I do,” Dan admits, “I really do.”

#myfics #phandom meet up 28+#fanfiction #phanfic #phanfiction #fanfic #ao3 #ao3 update #fic update #one shot #phan #phandom

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astaroth1357 · 4 years ago

Note

Hi can I request the boys reactions to coming back and seeing that MC has snucked into their beds

The Brothers Find the MC Asleep in Their Bed

This is that other bed request. Back to my fluffy content! Huzzah!! I was a fidgeting mess on that last one… If it wasn't in second person I probably would have never gotten through it… 🤦‍♀️😅 Amazing how distancing the pronoun "you" can be when you're writing: "Oh no, this ain't happening to me, it's gonna happen to you. I dunno what to tell ya." 🤷‍♀️ I give my props for this to one to my favorite jazz singers, Nicki Parrot, and her rendition of I Won't Last a Day Without You.

Intro:

If you're missing someone and, presumably, you have a fairly intimate relationship then something you can do is stay in their bed. Sure, your loved one’s body may not be next to yours but the familiarity can help soothe that aching heart… So when the brothers were away from the House for a few days, it wasn't totally unreasonable for the MC to sneak a night or two in their favorite demon's bed.

If only they had known said demon would come home early…

Lucifer

It was a looong trip for him. Lucifer only goes up to the human world for business reasons and usually he has to bring Mammon to keep an eye on him, which he also swears ages him by a century each time he does…

When he retired to his room that night he wasn't really looking to talk or interact with anyone, not his brothers and not even the MC. He just wanted to go to sleep…

He wasn't expecting to find his human curled up under his sheets, though. And without him there no less.

Had it been another day, he might have just woken them up and sent them away or slept somewhere else but that night, after the trip he had, he felt so… loved all of sudden...

His brothers never miss him when he leaves. They give him the usual welcoming rigmarole when he gets back, "Good to see you, how was the trip?" that kind of thing, but he can tell they're all disappointed that he's back to discipline them again…

But here was the MC, apparently wanting him back so much that they'd risk breaking into his room just to feel close to him again… It's honestly good he was the only conscious soul in the room because if anyone else had seen the look on his face, he'd have to start erasing some memories again.

He changed clothes quietly before getting into the bed himself, careful not to jostle them too much. Only once he was settled in, did he give them a tender kiss to their forehead and finally got a good night's sleep...

Mammon

Look, he never asks to be dragged along with Lucifer on his business trips! It's a pain in the ass for everyone involved so he was more than happy to be home...

So happy in fact, that he didn't think to check his bed before he went sailing into it face first…

When he didn't feel the cushion of his mattress below him, but what felt like muscle and bone, he screamed. Which caused the MC to shoot up from under his covers and scream right back at him.

The two dummies screamed at each other for about five seconds straight before it clicked that neither even knew what they were screaming about… 🙄

"MC?!? The hell are ya doin'?! This is my bed, ya know??"

Oh was he tickled pink when they told him they came there just 'cause they missed him so much… Of course they'd miss the Great Mammon! Anybody who got to spend that much time in his presence would eventually! And he had been missing them so much he could hardly see straight anyway...

"Geez, is that all? Well fine! You can stay the night, but only for tonight! … I mean, unless ya want to stay longer or somethin' crazy like that….. You want to, doncha?"

And that's how the MC ended up spending the next week in the arms of their first man… and getting a pretty good bruise on their shoulder too from Mammon's thick skull slamming into it.

Leviathan

He was coming back from a three-day convention and boy was he tired… There's only so much excitement an introvert can withstand for that long without shutting down completely...

His first clue that something was a little off was his door. It was unlocked. Since he was positive he locked it before he left, he was already on edge... Mammon was in there stealing his stuff again, wasn’t he??

He had his demon form already out when he threw the door open, expecting to have to chase out a thief, but instead he found the MC's arm sticking out of his bathtub-bed.

Cue an incredibly flustered Levi. Did the MC really want to sleep with him? A yucky otaku?? Did they miss him that much?? For a brief moment, he hit cloud nine and beyond.

Levi was frozen in his doorway for a good five minutes, too afraid to walk in and possibly disturb them, before he finally tiptoed to have a look in the tub.

…. He may or may not have snapped a picture when he saw them snuggled against his Ruri-chan body pillow… So what if that's a little creepy??? You're creepy!!

There wasn't really a good way for him to squeeze in with them so he settled for pulling his computer chair over and taking their outstretched hand in his own...

He stayed like that all night until the MC woke up to find him passed out next to them, head rolled back in the chair but still holding their hand with laced fingers...

Satan

He hates going to the human world with Lucifer, even though he acknowledges that he's better behaved than the others for it. That doesn't change the fact that he'd much rather be back in his room with a good book...

He just wasn't expecting the MC to share his sentiments so… identically?

After his trip to Paris with Lucifer, Satan dragged his bags back into his room and expected to at least get another hour of reading in before his mind finally caught up with his body… But to his surprise, his bed was already occupied.

The MC was half-under his covers with their head wedged into the corner of the wall above his pillows, sound asleep… A stray book sat by their hand, one of his favorites too judging by the cover.

He felt the warmth of a chuckle escape his chest… How many times had he woken up in that exact same position? It was almost like they missed him so badly they tried to be him for a while... It was all too cute for words…

He put aside getting some sleep just long enough to take care of his MC, gently moving their body back under the covers and setting the book onto one of the endless stacks that surrounded his bed.

Only once he had them placed into a more comfortable position did he change his clothes and take the spot in the bed next to them…

The MC woke up very much not how they fell asleep… but trading out a good book in their hand for a warm bookworm against their body wasn't a bad deal now, was it?

Asmodeus

He was on one of those long self-care retreats and though, yes, it was a good time he really needed a good nap after such a long trip… He was even considering shortening his nightly routine for once.

When he came into his room, he was ready to just faceplant into his pillows until he spied MC's head poking out from under his covers…

He squealed, but not out of anger or fright. No, no. He felt nothing but Pure. Joy. His heart was soaring and he could have sang, he was just that happy!

His human missed him so much that they just needed to wrap themselves up under his covers?? Well, of course they would wouldn't they? There's no good substitute for Asmo and he knows it.

His literal shriek made the MC shoot out of his bed and try to apologize but he just tackled them back down, wrapping his arms around them in a vice grip of adoration. He was not letting them back down now. It was cuddle time!

In truth, their sudden appearance shocked Asmo awake for about another hour, which he spent snuggled up to his MC and babbling about his trip. He did eventually lose steam though, falling asleep soundly with his head snuggled into the crook of their neck.

The lovey mood was dampened slightly when he woke up and realized he hadn't done any of his routine the night before, but since the MC was still resting in his arms he decided that, just this once, he didn't need to rush it...

Beelzebub

Beel's team had just come back from a long tournament trip and, for the first time ever, he could say that he was more tired than he was hungry…

Belphie was really happy to have his twin back, but this time he was kind of ignoring his brother's excitement as his mind zoned in on his bed… He almost didn't notice the MC was even in there until he pulled back the covers to climb in himself.

His poor sleep-deprived mind had to take a minute to catch up… This was his bed wasn't it...? 😰

"Beel? Is that MC?" "... I think so?" "Why are they in your bed?" "I don't know… Maybe they just wanted to sleep here?" "... Uh-huh. Hey, Beel, I know you're tired. How about you just take my bed instead since it's free? I'll take yours tonight."

Since he was so exhausted, Beel almost considered the offer until he noticed the resentful pout on Belphie's face... Oh. Right. The MC probably wanted to sleep with him. That meant they must have missed him… That thought alone gave Beel a warm, fuzzy feeling like he'd just taken a giant gulp of hot cocoa and he just couldn't help his groggy smile.

"No… This is fine." "But-" "I don't mind, Belphie. Goodnight."

He didn't give his jealous twin any more room to argue before he climbed into bed next to the MC, nestling them close to his chest as if he was welcoming them home instead. And in his last moments of consciousness, Beel promised himself that they'd wake up just like this too…

Belphegor

Belphie tends to hate trips about as much as Levi, especially ones where Beel or the MC can't come along... Too much hassle and all his brothers make so much noise…

When he finally got back from the trip Lucifer dragged him into, he only had one thing on his mind. Sleep. His bed was calling to him, that's where he needed to be… and the MC too, apparently?

He was honestly a little caught off guard to find the MC in his bed... The attic bed? Sure. That was their cuddle space and it was practically sacred ground at that point. But the bed in the room he shared with Beel...? They didn't stay there very often…

Which meant they weren't in his bed just because they wanted to sleep. They wanted him… Had they been awake he might have had something smug to say, but without any audience to save face to he just felt somewhat honored…

There wasn't a day that went by where Belphie didn't regret the things he'd done to them, even during the quiet moments where they assured him that they'd forgiven him for it... Seeing them there in his actual bed proved something, they chose him. No one else.

He didn't think twice about crawling under there next to them, he even got into his usual position by their side on instinct. But this time, for a minute or two, he just watched their sleeping form peacefully and counted himself lucky to even be there…

When the MC woke up to Belphegor wrapped around them, an adoring smile nuzzled into their neck, and they just had to wonder if the mere act of sleeping alone was all they’d ever need to summon their demon home...

#obey me #obey me shall we date #shall-we-date-obey-me #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me leviathan #obey me satan #obey me asmodeus #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphegor #obey me headcanons #obey me scenarios

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nora-reads-homestuck · 8 years ago

Text

Nora Reads HS Part 67

Pages 6094-6153

Heya, guys. I’m working on some hectic personal projects at the moment that are eating up a lot of my free time, but I’m on a staycation today and have decided to devote it to Homestuck! So, last time we got a closer look at young Mom, a.k.a. LittleLonde, and learned that Bro’s auto responder isn’t just a glorified answering machine, but a shades-dwelling AI with a level of intelligence seemingly on par with a human’s. We were also treated to the hilarious revelation that LittleLonde’s chat style is more like Dave’s than Rose’s, and Bro’s (or at least the responder’s) style is more like Rose’s than Dave’s. Will the two of them share other similarities with their opposing ectobiological offspring? Will Bro like knitting, in addition to making weird robots, and LittleLonde enjoy laying down some choice rhymes? And what on earth is the Condesce up to?

Let’s find out!

*click*

Jake: Exit.

...Aaaaaand it’s another character select screen! And I still can’t click on LittleLonde or Bro, rrghh. I guess I’ll click on Jane first, as much as I want to know more about Jake’s merciless stalkerbot.

But if you've been her already, there's really no point to this thing anymore. Time to move on.

...Oh. Wow dang, I’m dumb. OK THEN, MOVING ON.

Michael Cera??? Is this because of that poster in John’s house that kind of looked like... Hussie, you beautiful motherfucker. On the other side of the hall, we’ve got a Bing Crosby instead of a harlequin. So this is what the Crockbert decor looks like without the influence of Gamzee’s chucklevoodoos.

You are suddenly Jane again. Or, you suddenly keep being Jane. Who can say for sure???

Maybe next time I’ll be paying enough attention that I don’t keep cycling back through the same character select pages. :|a

Hopefully your dad is still out back washing the car. Ideally this is one of his legendary infinite car washes. What can you say? Dad fancies his automotive ablutions.

Both Dad’s and adult!Dave’s water bills must be outrageous. Luckily they’ve probably got assloads of money to cover it.

...Wait a sec, since Jane’s dad is alive, why isn’t HE the heir to Crockercorp?? Unless it can only pass down to females, who have to take up the mantle of Betty Crocker?

You slip the HALLWAY CERA a furtive wink for good luck.

Ahahaha.

Just one of your dad's bland HALLWAY DOUCHEBAGS.

FUCK I JUST SPIT WATER EVERYWHERE

Another example of his cornball dad tastes, which make you roll your eyes and shrug. Still, it's preferable to how it used to be. Years ago he would work really hard to mimic your interests throughout the household. Gaudy paintings of sitcom legends covering the walls, hideous detective figurines littered everywhere. You think it's better that he embrace his own interests rather than try to pander to yours.

Huh, that’s interesting. Could it also have been the case with Rose’s mom that she was trying to connect with her through sharing the same interests? Or is this simply meant to tell us that Dad is so much of a non-person that he automatically reflects the interests of whatever kid he’s got under his roof?

It felt a bit forced, and your early teen years were filled with daily rounds of familial STRIFE. Not so much anymore. Now whenever there is a father-daughter disagreement, you settle things in an adult fashion by being honest about your feelings and talking it through,

Ah, good! Hopefully this means LittleLonde and Bro will have less enmity toward their guardians than Rose and Dave.

and also by sneaking around the house in silly disguises.

Pfffff.

Jane: Take a peek into living room.

JOOOHN, NOOOOOOOOOO, WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DIIIIIIIIE???

Ahem. Who’s that douchebag in the pork pie hat on the left? Fred Astaire maybe?

There's a familiar face. A friendly face. Old poppop Crocker, smiling from beyond. Your dad sure misses him. He doesn't like to talk about the day he died. Some incident involving a tall bookshelf, a ladder, and a mysterious young woman in a suspicious looking hat. You have often fantasized about putting on your dirty old fedora and your Frenchest looking mustache to go tracking down this felonious broad and bring her to justice. But your dad always says best to let sleeping dogs lie.

Oh jeez. What will she do when she realizes the felonious broad is none other than herself?? >:O

There's some other plucky looking tool there next to him. Dunno who that guy is.

Yeah, I can’t really tell.

I WARNED YOU ABOUT ASTAIRES, BRO.

You were afraid this might be the case. Your dad has blocked the front door with the REFRIGERATOR. Looks like he's taking the grounding seriously this time.

Holy shit, Dad, overboard much. How the heck is LittleLonde supposed to put the cruxtruder there if the fridge is in the way??

You aren't about to go smashing glass and making a ruckus though. You'll need a solution involving more stealth. You guess you have a plan in mind as a last resort, but you'd rather it not come to that.

> Jane: Consult with poppop.

...Um??? What is an urn of ashes supposed to do, other than get toppled at the most hilarious and inopportune moment?

OH GOD OH NO, OH NOOOOOOOOOOO. So apparently Dad’s taken a page out of Jade/Grandpa’s book and had John stuffed. What do you want to bet he stipulated in his will that if he were preserved, his descendants had to do hilarious things with the corpse?

...Also, if he died the same fiery, explosive death Nanna did, how is there enough left of him to stuff?

It practically went without saying your dad keeps poppop stuffed and mounted in front of the fireplace, as is the family tradition. Poppop grew up with his legendary humorist grandfather stuffed in front of the fireplace, and so did his grandfather. This was stipulated firmly in the will, at the end of a long list of joke stipulations. (Dad knew this was a real stipulation though.)

Ahahaha, almost right on the money. So John lived with a stuffed Colonel Sassacre, but who did Colonel Sassacre have stuffed in front of his fireplace?

You always did find it a little macabre though, trying to watch tv and eat dinner on the couch with a dead old man standing about five feet away. You'd honestly prefer he not be kept here in the living room. Sometimes you tell dad you really want poppop in the attic. He says the mere fact you call it that tells him you're not ready.

The mere fact that she calls what what? That she calls the attic an attic? What else is she supposed to call it; the super-hive storage compartment??

What's that, poppop? It seems he's concerned that you may not be properly equipped. You prove to him that you indeed had no intention of leaving the house without your trusty joke book.

Oh wow. So if I’ve got the timeline right (and I’m not overly sure that I do), the Sassacre’s John is holding is the same one that actually went through the game with him, and not just the one that got sent down on the meteor with him. The meteor Sassacre’s was much cleaner and wasn’t yet covered in oil.

Hah, fun call back!

YES, I am going out with this book! No, I will not go get an unabridged copy! No, I will not take yours! I can hardly even lift it! Oh, that is so preposterous. Do you even hear what you're saying? I will be fine! This is a perfectly funny book and it contains many incredibly funny jokes! Oh, will you just stop it. I am going now. Good day!!! >:B!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With a passive-aggressive smiley to top it off. >:B

OH DEAR GOD.

You just remembered something your alien friend said about the big old book downstairs, and trusting words written by your own hand.

My god, that thing looks like shit. How many trips has the poor book taken by now? How is it not falling apart??

Uh, whoops. Sorry, poppop.

Yeah, “”whoops””.

> Jane: Retrieve arm.

This may be the very first time this command was actually 100% literal, and it’s beautiful.

Looks like it got used to wipe an ogre’s ass.

Is your friend suggesting that you were the one who wrote this inscription? You find that idea a bit hard to swallow. Still, your friends are always babbling about time travel...

Friends, plural? Just how much do Bro and LittleLonde know about the game??

You always thought this inscription was written to your poppop by his nanna, who was your great great grandmother, founder of the corporation you'll inherit in a few years.

Hah, that’s a laugh.

In any case, this message to poppop from his sweet old nanna is the best evidence you have to dispute all this evil batterwitch nonsense. She clearly cared for her grandson very much, and would never start a company responsible for the things it's accused of, let alone be alive today to perpetrate them. But then, what if she wasn't the one who wrote it? This thought makes you very nervous.

What if, indeed? Oh lawd, is she going to have one of those heroic BSOD moments John is prone to at the slightest revelation?

You suddenly remember your dream. What did it mean? You should talk to Jake about all this.

YES. YES, GOOD. *rubs hands together furiously*

Oh god, they’re both gonna get brainjacked, aren’t they.

GG: J, how goes the bunnyquest?

No need to be coy, Harley Quinn, we already know his name!

GG: What is it that has you hamstrung? Did you ever track down the slippery Mr. Strider?

And now I’m picturing young Bro slathered in Crisco. Great.

GT: Not exactly. GT: His stupid doppelglasses have set me on a wild goose chase to go pry his dumb robots chest open and swipe its uranium. GG: Sounds dangerous! GT: No shit. GT: I think id rather deal with the monsters.

With... the... what now?? I don’t remember the island having anything living on it besides Jade and Bec. ...We haven’t seen Bec, I presume, because he’s not the First Guardian anymore. So who raised him after Jade died??

GG: Why is it that our two best friends in the world always seem to place themselves at the source of all our problems, while simultaneously presenting their only solutions?

The M.O. of many a movie villain, just waiting in the wings with their million-dollar wonder drug or superhero-killing ammunition. Hmmm...

GG: I'm debating whether or not to enlist his help in the matter of my current imprisonment. But I'd rather keep it as a plan of last resort. GT: Dont do it jane its a trap!!!

Two questions here: how is Bro going to help, and how/why would it be a trap?

GG: Right. Well, not to keep you too long, since we both still have our missions ahead of us, but I wanted to tell you about that dream I had. GT: Oh yeah! GT: I was curious about that. Tell me everything and make it snappy!

I guess the ‘shitknickers’ is implied. Is she going to start her story with “It seems”?

GG: Ok, but, I should say that the nature of the dream was a bit worrisome. GG: And I'm concerned it may have implications for the game we're about to play. GG: So it's probably best that I tell you about it before you leave.

Oh jeez. What exactly did she see?

D’aww, how cute! I love the Prospit dreamers’ dresses.

GG: I woke up on the planet which we have been told about by our mutual acquaintance. GG: The one covered in golden cities. Prospit, remember? GT: Oh. Wouldnt it be prospits moon? GG: Yes, you're right. It was the moon, actually. I could see the planet on the dark horizon.

Wow, not only do LittleLonde, Bro, and mystery!troll know more than they should, but even Jane and Jake are familiar with the game’s constructs.

GG: Are you sure you haven't woken up there before? GT: Haha i WISH. GT: I have received reports from jade about this as well. She liked to talk about her dreams on prospits moon a lot. GG: I see. The impression I have developed is that this is supposed to be a real place, and all who dream there have shared experiences. GG: Did Jade ever mention seeing us there? GT: No but why would she? This was long before we were born! She was dreaming there like a hundred years ago or something.

Are you sure?

GASP! Those Prospitians are all naked!! Is that what they look like before prototyping occurs?

GG: I explored the moon, and began to notice people gathering in the streets. GG: But they weren't human. They were funny looking, perfectly white creatures. GT: Yeah those are prospitians. GT: They have these hard carapace shells and also have something to do with chess i think?

Well at least we don’t have to endure everything getting explained in excruciating detail all over again.

...WAIT DON’T FUCKING TELL ME MYSTERY!TROLL IS GOING TO GIVE ANOTHER SPIEL ON TROLL ROMANCE.

GG: Well, I don't know if they had much to do with chess here. GG: The more closely I observed, the more they appeared somewhat despondent. GT: Like... GT: Sad? GG: Yes. GG: I determined they were in mourning, actually.

Oh, shit. There’s only three people I can think of that they might have been mourning, and none of them is a good person to have die before the game even fucking starts.

GT: Hey. GT: Jane you said i was in this dream. Where do i come in? GG: Shoosh! I'm getting there.

OH FUCK.

Ah okay, so they are wearing clothes, just boring monochromatic ones.

GG: More and more Prospitians were filing out of the buildings every moment. GG: They all began to form a single, major procession. GG: When I got closer, I could see that some were in tears. GG: I realized this was a funeral.

If it’s not for the White King or Queen, then...

GG: I heard whispers, but couldn't make out what they were saying, so I got closer. GG: They were all saying the same thing, over and over.

All work and no play makes... Jack... an omnipotent god dog?

GG: "The Page is dead." GG: "Our hope is lost."

OH NOOOOOOO! How the heck is he ever going to go god tier?? :’(

GT: The page? GT: Whos that?

It’s you, Jake. :’( :’( :’(

GG: Jake. GG: The Page was you.

A beautiful image, and somber words, made only slightly more humorous by the fact that they echo Toby Fox’s illicit masterpiece.

GT: Oh. GT: Drat.

About as expressive as Dave’s ‘welp’.

GT: Are you sure?

Are you sure? Are you sure? Are you sure? Are you sure? Are you sure? Are you sure? Are you sure? Are you sure? Are you sure? Are you sure?

GG: Yes, I saw your body lying in a sort of coffin, on a bed of flowers. You were dead as a doornail.

If he were actually named Jake (Jacob) Harley, that would have been quite clever. Ah well, near miss.

GG: Everyone was so distraught! GG: Including me. :(

Awww. Either they’re totally destined for each other, or... well, we’ll see. I ship it, I guess.

GG: I hope I'm not too late to "warn" you, though to be frank I don't have the foggiest clue what it is I'm warning you about. GG: "Dear Jake, oh please do try not to... have already... died in my dream? Likely while you were sleeping, perhaps peacefully?"

Yeah, you’re a little late on that one. Unless we missed something about this all being in one of Skaia’s dream clouds... in which case it would inevitably happen anyway. Gosh, this is bad!! We know there’s an alternate way to get to the god tiers in the form of the quest slabs at the center of Prospit/Derse, but the few times we saw that in action, it was the players’ dream selves that died on them.

...Come to think of it, why not use the quest slab for a funeral bier instead of the coffin? It might have made for a far more interesting and, uh, lively funeral.

GT: And um same goes for you about being careful what with these various rogues accosting you with foul play lately and whatnot...

Rogue... player class? Eh, could be reaching.

GG: Now let's get this silly old adventure off to the races before the coat of dust it's growing gets any thicker.

Coat of dust? A coat antithetical to Lord English’s technicolor dreamcoat?

> Jake: Get silly old adventure off to the races.

And it looks like we’re Jake again!

He’s wearing cleats? How fucking dorky. Now PLEASE don’t fake us out the second he steps outside, unless it’s to show us LittleLonde or Bro. I could live with that.

Ok, something REALLY weird is going on here, and I don’t just mean the pumpkins. That doesn’t look like Jade’s house as I’m used to seeing it. It looks like... the arm that connects the bedroom to the main body of the house broke off? What’s the deal??

SHIT, I was right. And not only are there a metric fuckton of pumpkin vines, but also... a whole forest? I don’t remember seeing a single tree on Jade’s island. So things post-Scratch are different, in ways that aren’t yet quite clear. What was the catalyst for change?

Although these pumpkin vines are amazingly prolific, every morning when you leave your bedroom, you'd swear half the pumpkins vanished over night. It's probably just the FAUNA eating them. Not that it matters, because they keep growing right back.

Are these ‘fauna’ the monsters he was talking about with Jane? Did Jade have a whole safari imported or something?

It wasn't always overgrown like this. When you first discovered the TRANSMATERIALIZER, you started messing around with it haphazardly. You kept appearifying pumpkins from somewhere.

OH MY FUCKING GOD IT WAS JAKE ALL ALONG. And Jade never knew, did she?? That’s fucking priceless.

It was just pumpkin after pumpkin, until one time a copy of the bunny you inherited from grandma showed up, much less old and tattered of course.

Aha, so that’s how their communication started! And presumably also how he had two versions of the bunny, one to give to John, and the other to send to Jane. One question down, 99 million to go.

You brought all the surplus pumpkins home and left them lying about. Then the seeds sprouted and started growing out of control. You guess that's what happens when you introduce nonindigenous FLORA into the wilderness.

Ok but pumpkins don’t grow on trees, so that still doesn’t explain the forWHOA WHAT THE SHIT IS THAT IN THE BACKGROUND??

“”FAUNA””?????

KARKAT’S LUSUS???????

HOW THE FUCK

DID THAT EVEN GET THERE, I DON’T KNOW

> Jake: Be completely oblivious to thing in background.

Hah, that almost sounds like a user submitted request.

You successfully fail to notice it.

Pfffahahaha.

Wait notice what? You don't even know what we're talking about here. But it doesn't matter for now because suddenly a wild chum assails you with banter!!!

Woo, more LittleLonde!! Yes, yes, I am ok with this.

Oh my god, it IS Karkat’s lusus, except horrifyingly even bigger. And it looks like it’s got it out for Jake...

TG: holy shit jaaaje TG: lol *k

Jaje. Yes. Totally should have been his name.

GT: Howdy! GT: What is all this commotion about? TG: nothin TG: just your basic run o the mill holy shit TG: and also TG: hi

OH MY FUCKING GOD SHE’S ADORABLE. I haven’t even known her that long, but she’s quickly rocketing up my favorites list. I’ll have to do a recap of the list when I’m done with this Act Act.

TG: also TG: want 2 know TG: what do you want for ur wigglin day

Awww, that’s cute too. Did she pick up that term from mystery!troll?

GT: Im not really abreast of the raddest jargon that the cool kids toss about these days. GT: Maybe because i live alone on an island? I dont know but in any case are you referring to my upcoming birthday? TG: ys GT: I see. Very thoughtful of you to consider so early! GT: I dont wager i could advise with much specificity but i can all but assure you i will find any gesture of yours to be totally capital! TG: eeaauuuuurghh you are so fuckin adorable

NO U.

GT: Um... *wrings at kerchief with perspiring mitts* TG: YOINK nabs kerfief an stops RPing for rest of chat

Ahahaha, shut the fuck down.

TG: i wouldnt get the chance TG: unless we play this game like a bunch ofsuckers obviously

*[S] Cascade flashbacks*

TG: if you want 2 know what i think.......... GT: Yes? TG: do ya? GT: I do want to know what you think! GT: I always want to know. Because you are always smart and sassy.

Truth.

TG: i really dont think we should GT: Should what now? TG: play the game GT: Why not? TG: the barnoness wants us to TG: * baroness TG: i dont know why TG: everything i know about it says it should be a good game and real important and itll let us all get togehter and do somethin great and be besf friends for maybe eternity? TG: but she took all that and twisted it somehow

On the one hand, I know that they really do have to play for the story to go anywhere, but on the other, if the drunken Cassandra gets a bad feeling about it, you know shit’s gonna go wrong.

TG: all i know is shes banking on us doing this and if she needs us to do this than its got to be to make somethin fucking hoorible happen TG: * horbible TG: * whore bible TG: ^ bullseye

PLEASE CAN I JUST MARRY HER???

GT: Well... GT: Whore bibles notwithstanding i have it on terrific authority that playing this game will be incredibly important! GT: So perhaps youre right maybe we are part of her evil plan? But does that also necessarily rule out that good will come of it? TG: i guess not TG: i just have a bad feelin

...Aaaand she said the words, so it’s pretty much guaranteed. But Jake’s not wrong, in any case; some good will come out of it by the end. I hope.

TG: maybay im just like this nutty ass bitsh twirling yarn from a shitwizards nappy brown beard but i cant bring myself to trust a cake sellin genocidal alien overlard sea queen TG: * overl... TG: n/m that santence chx out GT: Agreed. :D

ALRIGHT, that’s it, I’m setting a date. You’re all invited to our wedding this upcoming 4/13.

TG: so what is the itinerary again GT: Intinerwhosit? TG: regarding the game TG: whosplaying in what order etc GT: Oh. Is there such an itinerary? TG: yeah i think so i think its going like TG: i start with jane and bring her in the session TG: then ds brings me in and you bring him in and them jane does you and closes the loop

That makes sense, although if we go the way of the pre-Scratch session, “”DS”” will be serving more than one player. Ugh, ENOUGH with this initial shit, JUST GIVE ME THE D!!!

...Ahem.

GT: Where are you getting this intel? Did you guys make a plan or something? TG: nah dont wory about it

From mystery!troll, I guess. Though for all her talk of causal spoilers, she sure has imparted just about everything ‘nonessential’ down to the finest detail.

GT: Ooh, these illicit hacked warez which i heartell were recently jimmied piping hot off the interclouds? TG: ahahah i love that you were barely even joking with that statement bup yeah basically GT: The silicon pickpocket strikes again!!! Whom is the wiser? Nobody. TG: ffffffffff <3

FUCK I love these kids. Almost makes it acceptable that I’m probably not going to see the original human kids for a while yet.

TG: k ill send it but GT: Yeah? TG: jake GT: What? TG: jjjjjaaake GT: !!!!!? TG: youre wearin one of ur dumb computers now arent you GT: Uh... TG: you are all thinktyping at me right now while wearing something rudiculous TG: * RUDEdiculous (hi five 2 self) GT: Hogswallop! Why would you even think that? GT: Thats so stupid.

Eeeeee, call back! Also, is it totally pathetic of me that I fucking teared up laughing rereading John and Rose’s banter? I LOVE ALL THESE KIDS SO MUCH.

W’uh oh. I’d bet that’s not just a friendly tap on the shoulder inbound.

TG: im not letting either of you run this file on your shitty brainwashy propaganda helmets or anything else u got to wear to run TG: tis my one condition

YES, AND A GOOD AND REASONABLE ONE, TOO. Listen to the drunk, Jake!!

GT: Then you have decided to play in spite of your reservations? TG: i dunno i guess GT: Bravo! TG: dont all bravo @ me man youre just bravoing a big ass shrug TG: i mean maybe TG: i have every reason to want to play it TG: im actually dying to play it ok

Well fuck, I hope that’s not foreshadowing. Of course, the chances of that being true are like, infinitesimal.

TG: ahh CHRIST waht a geneltman TG: *fixfix

Huh, this must be awful to read for dyslexics.

TG: but thats the thing with you TG: you belvieve in people and also the things they tell you TG: jane never believed my crap TG: never any of my warnings about the baroness TG: didnt believe any of the stuff about my mom TG: and so on and so on and soon

Makes sense, since he’s a Page of Hope!

TG: til after awhile i just stopped even trying to convince her hard or bring up any crazy shit TG: because u know doing a lot of songs and dances to convince somebody who thinks youre jush shitting them all the time kind of wears on a friendship TG: and who even needs that

Awww, that’s actually super sad. I know how frustrating it is when you need somebody to believe you, and they don’t, or they refuse. It’s pretty terrible.

TG: but you believe in stuff TG: probbly because the more crazy fake shit you believe in the more open the world gets and the more chance there is for adventures being real right GT: Right o! If a man believes hard enough in imaginary things then i dare say that makes them slightly less fake!

The power of a Page of Hope, I presume? I wonder if we’ll see this in action! It could have some great applications in-game.

TG: its one of those things jane likes about u so much GT: It is? TG: which TG: errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr im not supposed to talk about 2 u evr so nm GT: Talk about what? TG: nope GT: You mean how um... GT: Well a way in which i suppose... TG: no nope GT: Jane is prone to looking upon me with what i fathom to be more than just friendly affection?

OH NOOOOOO. Cat’s out of the bag, I guess! How will he react? Did he already have an inkling, or is this a surprise? And does he like Jane baaaaack?

TG: nope nope nope nope nope nope TG: hey look who didnt say nothin about that why it is this silly fuckin drunk girl over here

YOU’RE NOT HELPING YOUR CASE, LITTLELONDE.

GT: Its a tricky issue. And you know i adore jane and please dont think i havent given some thought to... GT: Well that angle on our relationship i guess.

Oh jeez, I’m sensing a ‘but’.

GT: Oh. Yeah i can see the dilemma this causes for your friendship with her. GT: Ill drop it. TG: whew TG: ok ont this topic TG: i am now an forever TG: miss zupperlips TG: * zupperlups TG: * ziperlups TG: sjkhfskjf TG: * MISS ZUIPPERPIPS TG: fuck TG: k this is me 4 futref TG: ZIIIIIIIP TG: ^+++++++^

I, NORA, DO THEE WED, ET CETERA ET CETERA

...Shit I don’t even know her name.

GT: Haha oh my. GT: Nothing is escaping that lovely ladys whistlemaker! Its shut tight as a drum!! TG: mmmmrrmmmnnmmm GT: Whoa wait i hope that didnt sound dirty...

Well it didn’t until you said something, JAKE.

GT: If in the future i would like to bring up certain topics completely unsolicited by one who may be sworn to secrecy on those very matters... GT: And im in need of i guess neutral and totally non compromising advice from a friend do you think that miss zuipperpips might unseal those scandalous metal choppers for a bit? GT: Fuck that also sounded kinda dirty!!! God dammit. TG: rm TG: unzip yeah of course TG: im totals your bee eff effsy jake TG: i am like TG: AT PEACE with that reality fromerly known as a raw fuckin deal for what avenues it closes betewen u and i that bein your bffsy has got to mean but yeah

GT: Wait what? TG: i am just chill as fuck about being a pale friend to all varieties of cute and eligible as hell peeps TG: do you see my shoulder and how it says hey friend plz deposit tears here? TG: that is a LEGIT invite and is like sincere as fuckin BANANAS

Ok so I’m laughing at this, but at the same time, that’s another troll concept she has no business knowing about. Damn, I wonder how the story would have gone if the original four kids had been as friendly with the trolls as these kids are. Would have saved a ton of time, I bet.

GT: Oh. Im sure it is but i dunno how much crying im going to be doing... GT: Probably none i think.

Pfffahaha.

TG: up to his neck in TG: all the wopes TG: * woes GT: Nah its cool. TG: speaking of which TG: i heard hes making u track down his roboself TG: to kill it or something for uranimum

So... she used ‘speaking of which’ to bridge a conversation about people liking Jake to talking about Bro without even mentioning him by name. I guess that means everybody really DOES want the English booty.

GT: Sigh... TG: and TG: the AR disabled the novice setting??? GT: Yes. TG: hahahahahahhahahahshshshjsjsj TG: *hahaha TG: u r so fucked

I know it’s getting redundant, but AHAHA I LOVE HER.

GT: I was actually just getting all of my final affairs in order when you messaged me. GT: I was to bequeath to you all my WAB posters. TG: wab wut GT: Weekend at bernies dammit!!!!!! TG: oh fuck yeay TG: im always in need of something to put under my cats shit box

HEEEEEEEEE.

TG: ok tell you what TG: as an early wigglin day thing u know what ill do GT: I still dont really get the wiggling thing but no what? TG: ill enable the brobots novice setting again for you GT: Wow... GT: Thanks i think???

How the heck is she going to do that? Convince the auto responder? Or is she really as technically inclined as she jokes about being?

Look, LOOK, IT’S EVEN GRUMBLING IN KARKAT GRAY.

It is time to get DEAD SERIOUS about hunting down a robot that looks exactly like your best friend, destroy it with your guns somehow, and steal its uranimum.

Well, it’s a little disturbing when you put it like that. Somehow I didn’t realize that the robot actually really looks like Bro...?

You totally forgot about the FRIGHTENING FAUNA on this island, and its regrettable REALNESS ATTRIBUTE.

OH M YGOD, HIS FUCKING BEDSHEETS. I HAD THE CLUE RIGHT THERE AND I MISSED IT.

> Jake: Turn around.

I smell another psyche or a character select screen...

WHOA OR NOT. WOW THAT THING IS HUGE.

> [S??????] ==>

Hmm, that’s new. *click*

...Eh? It’s just a static gif page. Is this a call back to Karkat not having an actual strife flash?

You leap into the tropical island fray in an attempt to violently pacify the gigantic Earth crabdad.

CRABDAD. CANON. And it’s not even that far out of the realm of reason for a non-troll to call it that, like how weirdo Yankees call crawfish ‘crawdads’. Also, that’s NOT the correct method for shoosh-papping, Jake.

What is he even doing here? The question doesn't even occur to you. The island has been crawling with these things for as long as you can remember.

HMMM. So... LittleLonde is spouting troll slang, and Jake’s island has Alternian lususes (lusii?) all over it. HIC is pretty much fucking guaranteed to be Earth’s new First Guardian.

You glance at the crudely rendered battle, direct your browser to the HOMESTUCK BANDCAMP PAGE, and browse for suitable battle music. Oh god, there are so many songs. Which one would be a good fit for this duel? Wait, yes, there's one. That's perfect. You hit play, close your eyes, and become lost in visions of gnashing crustacean carapace, smoking M9 casings, and Jake doing that thing where he flies through the air shooting two guns at once. Yes, so awesome.

Ahahaha, totally a call back. I’m not clicking that link, though, because it looks like it goes to the Bandcamp’s main page.

You do the thing where you fly through the air shooting two guns at once. That thing isn't even that big of a deal for you. You do that thing practically every day on hellmurder island. Your furious salvo of deadly bullets scares the FRIGHTENING FAUNA off into the jungle, REALNESS ATTRIBUTE and all.

That, or it’s just running away from an even bigger monster, like in that stupid fucking scene from Episode I.

...OR IT’S RUNNING AWAY FROM TINKERBULL. :D :D :D

Another triumph for adventure. Time to blow the smoke off your berettas and saunter off into the... whoa not so fast! Behind you, Jake!!!

What’s it gonna do, make him sneeze with its tinkerdust??

AH HA. GOT YOU YOU SON OF A, SHIT, WAIT.

WHAT????

NO, OH NOOOO, GOD WHY WOULD YOU EVEN... FUCK!!!

D: D: D:

This is almost as bad as the FIRST time Tinkerbull got killed.

Oh nooo. It was only one of those sweet little fairy bulls. You just murdered him inappropriately with your multi-bullet device. You love those little fairy bulls. You feel just awful.

Well at least he’s appropriately upset about it. And it seems there’s more than one Tinkerbull-like lusus on the island?

OH SHIT BROBOT. Yeah, it’s stalking the shit out of him, isn’t it.

So we’ve got a silhouette, which, unsurprisingly, looks just like the halfway point between baby Bro and adult Bro. HOW IS THAT HAIR EVEN POSSIBLE.

So like... I’m looking at this and trying to figure out the geometry of how dat coif would actually work in 3d, and... yeah. I got nothin’.

> Jane: Implement plan of last resort.

A wild Jane appears! Maybe she’s got her own brobot or something that’s going to help her escape?

You have waited around long enough. Dad's legendary car wash won't last forever, and the day isn't getting any younger. You pack up poppop's book and bust out your trusty HOMING DEVICE.

Homing device for...?

Here goes nothing.

OH MY FUCKING GOD. IS THIS WHAT I THINK IT IS?????

WAIT, OH GOD, WHAT’S HAPPENING.

ILHGHKSDJKGHSKDHSKDD

*hurk*

IT’S NOT A SMUBBIT. IT’S A FUCKING SHITKICKING BITCH ASS BROBOT BUNNY. HE BUILT HER A BROBOT BUNNY.

...I debated ‘bronny’, but that’s too close to the Subculture Which Shall Not Be Named.

Anyway, it’s as cute as it is horrifying and I kind of love it. I mean, look at its eensy little sword!! Also, interesting that the blue of it and the brobot’s hat logo is a perfect inverse of Bro’s orange.

God he is such a little troublemaker. Hopefully he will mind his manners today.

HOLY FUCKING SHIT, her face. <3 <3 <3

WHOA WHAT THE SHIT, Jake’s whole house is destroyed!! How did this happen???

Not only is the island forested now, but the volcano on Jade’s island that was dormant is now active, and there’s a fucking PYRALSPITE flying overhead. Also a whale lusus like the one Eridan killed, and... fucking... Those are a bunch of Aurthours, aren’t they.

I just... I don’t even.

Jake: Behold zoological splendor.

JESUS UDDERFUCKING CHRIST. Fuck, I’m having Humanimals flashbacks.

Looks like the centaur herd is out in full force today. You have to be careful about walking under them. There are extreme hazards involved, such as the threat of falling manure, or milk.

UGH UGH UGH, I just had one of those really unpleasant full body shivers.

HOLY SHIT. It just occurred to me that the frog temple has EIGHT PILLARS. Did it always? Did I just miss it way back in the day? If so, shame on me.

There are the ruins you'll be making your way toward once you've got the uranium.

Aha, so the transmaterializer is inside the temple!

Still need to locate that enigmatic brobot. He's out there, somewhere. Just watching. You can feel it. Can't let your guard down for a second, or you'll get served like a dude on butler island.

...Considering it’s populated by a herd of Aurthours, it basically IS butler island.

Aaaaah, it’s a whole flock of Tinkerbulls!

Uh oh. Something's coming up.

Wait, if the whale lusus is in the sky, then what’s this?

OH FUCK, IT’S GAMZEE’S CAPRICORN SEAGOAT.

AND IT IS NOT HAPPY.

Unfortunately, that’s where I’ve got to leave it for tonight! Not as long a post as I’d have liked it to be, but I ought to have time to finish up the stretch before my next audio reaction very soon. Looks like we’re switching back over to Jane next, which is fine, because as much as I want to see how this fight plays out, I’m curious as SHIT about the robunny.

Until next time! ^0^

#NRHS #Nora reads Homestuck #Homestuck #Homestuck liveblog #Part 67 #Act 6 #A6A1

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