#And you know despite the bright red pentagram staring this guy in the face

[eddiezpaghetti]

So there's this old guy I work with who keeps trying to convert me. And he know I like classic rock, so his main attempt usually revolves around trying to get me to watch some "Jesus Revolution" about Christianity's role in '60s music or whatever.

And tonight, he pulled that shit with me wearing a goddamn Motley Crue shirt right in front of him, like there wasn't a bright red fucking pentagram staring directly into his soul the whole time I was like, "Nope, still haven't watched it, dude. And, unrelated, wouldn't it be weird if 'Mother' by Danzig was one of my favorite songs of all time? That'd be crazy. Anyway, see you around."

[swayingluv]

Prey of Hell - Chapter 4

Alastor x Buné (OC) Chapter 4: Puns n' Fun

Previous Chapter Word Count: 3387

“Who are you?” Alastor turned his smiling face towards the war machine in the sky, confusion prominent in his voice. His smile beamed in the red light of Hell and his mug reflected the massive pentagram above the hotel. Buné looked back and forth between the strange-looking war machine and her friend, who was completely unbothered by the deadly machine floating above them.

“Who am I? Who am I?” the serpent demon repeated twice causing Buné to giggle at his sensitive behavior. He seemed offended over Alastor not even knowing his name, despite fighting him last week. “I am the great Sir Pentious! Inventor, architect of destruction, villain extraordinaire!” He continued, pointing his finger up and bragging about himself and his abilities. While the slimy demon was busy gloating about himself, Alastor dropped down into the shadows and slid down to the entrance of the hotel. Buné looked down to where Alastor moved, noticing that Charlie, Angel, and Vaggie had all joined Alastor in viewing this attack. Buné thought to herself for a second before jumping down next to Alastor and Charlie, wondering why this guy was still going on.

Niffty appeared out of no where, grasping her hands up to her face in awe. Buné jumped back at this, surprised to see the little demon just appear out of no where. “Niffty! Where did you come from?” The rabbit demon asked, looking Niffty in her one eye. Buné pet Niffty on her head as she responded.

“I heard a bad boy!” Niffty giggled and narrowed her eye with a bright smile, grinning at the idea of a bad boy being right in front of her. Her laugh was extremely mischievous, causing Buné to giggle as well. Niffty had always been obsessed with the idea of a bad boy for some reason, which might be the reason she’s completely okay with being in a deal with Alastor. Buné tilted her head as she thought about this, the sound of static interrupting her thoughts.

“Ha! Well, if all that’s true, you’d think I’d have heard of you.” Alastor shrugged his shoulders with his microphone in his right hand, his red eyes trailing upwards. 

Sir Pentious looked offended and confused once more, his face contorting into one that seemed to resinate with anger. “I attacked you literally last week,” he said, moving his head forward, his hands never leaving the grips of the war machine levers.

Alastor tilted his head, the sound of static and radio leaking from him. His red and black ears tilting to the side and his eyes narrowing, trying to remember the attack that had just happened a week ago. Buné looked at Alastor, then pointed her sharp claws towards the war machine in the sky. “He blew up the wall then, too! He’s quite a hiss-terical excuse for a threat!” She laughed loudly, everyone going quiet at her awful pun. That didn’t bother her, though, she just continued laughing. Even Sir Pentious went quiet, staring awkwardly at the little rabbit demon. Buné cleared her throat, “Anywayssss!” she said, dragging out her word.

“We’ve done battle, like… 20 times.” Sir Pentious lifted his arms in anger, venom lacing his voice. (Get it?)

Alastor closed his red eyes, his crimson eyelids showing themselves. He raised his hand in a half-shrug again, speaking in his usual tone of voice, “Well, you must have been really bad at this.” 

“Silence!” Sir Pentious interrupted, clearly annoyed at this situation. “Now cower!” He yelled, pointing at Alastor, who was extremely unbothered. His hair(?) flared in annoyance. “For when I’ve slain you, the almighty Vees will finally acknowledge me as their equal!” 

Niffty poked her head out again, her mouth forming an ‘o’ shape. “Ooh!” She began, sounding interesting in this group. “Wait, who are the Vees?” She asked, realizing she had no idea who they actually were.

“Oh, nobody important.” Alastor told Niffty, dismissing the idea of the Vees holding any importance. 

Buné held her head up with her hand, thinking for a second. Oh, that’s Vox, isn’t it? I know him! The box-head. She thought, recalling the dispute between Alastor and Vox quite some time ago. 

Alastor then released his black tendrils, grabbing hold of the giant war machine with the slippery demon inside of it. One tendril poked at the pane of glass in the front of the machine, the other two holding it. Alastor laughed manically at this, repeating poking at the war machine to demonstrate his power.

Charlie’s eyes widened, not expecting him to do so much. “Um, Alastor? I think he’s had enough,” she suggested, gesturing towards the violent act against the snake demon.

Angel Dust had a massive smirk on his face, his gold tooth very prominent. “Nah, he’s got a few more hits in ‘im!” He raised an eyebrow, enjoying the show.

Buné tilted her head at the snake demon, watching as he struggled to keep afloat in the machine. “Don’t be so cold-blooded, Alastor!” Buné giggled at her own pun again, causing Angel Dust to give her a glare from the left side of her. 

All of a sudden, a Sir Pentious fell out of the war machine, landing right in front of Alastor’s feet. “Oh dear, seems your machine is quite slippery.” Buné crouched down and looked at him, giving him a bright smile. “I’m on a roll!”

“That you are! I’ve got a slithering suspension that this battle will slip my memory as well. Thank you for another forgettable experience!” Alastor joined in, making Buné laughed loudly at his similar puns. He twirled his glowing microphone staff in the air before leaning on it, the same smile never leaving his face.

An egg fell down from the war machine, splatting right in front of Charlie. She gave a disgusting look at the now scrambled egg, backing up slightly. 

Sir Pentious raised a finger slowly and unsteadily, pointing up to Alastor, probably to get in his last words. “Thank… you…” he began, his raspy voice trailing off, “for letting your guard down!” With that, he raised his torso off of the crimson ground, using his black and yellow tail to grab a bit of Alastor’s precious coat. He tore a bit off and started laughing manically. The radio demon began to grow in size, his antlers becoming more noticeable. The sound of static licked down everyone’s spine as Sir Pentious realized the trouble he had just begun. “Haha! Yah! Oh, shit.” He cowered, trembling with his eyes wide.

Buné stepped back along with Charlie and Angel, knowing this was about to get messy. A giant green explosion made an appearence, sending the snake demon flying away. The sound of his distant screams got quieter and quieter until he was finally out of sight. 

“Well, it looks as though I need a visit to the tailor,” Alastor began, the bright yellow smile still prominent on his face. He turned around, flicking his finger. “Best of luck, chums!” 

Vaggie stepped forward, clearly angry with the radio demon leaving so abruptly. “Wait, you’re leaving?” She questioned, frustration with the man adamant in her voice. “Alastor, we need your help. We need you to do your job.” Vaggie narrowed her eyes in annoyance.

Angel deadpanned at the wall, gesturing towards it. “We need a wall.” He obviously said.

Buné chimed in, walking over to the wall. “I like it! It is shaped like a heart, quite the romantic touch to this hotel,” she beamed, tracing the hole in the wall with her claws.

Alastor turned around, looking over to the giant hole in the wall. “I can’t say I agree! I can’t let my new project fall into disrepair already. What would the papers say?” He joked, snapping his finger. Many shadow monsters and voodoo creatures emerged from the ground, stitching present on almost every one of them.

Angel smirked seductively and shoved Vaggie over to the side, walking with intent over to the small voodoo creatures. “Oh-ho-ho!” He giggled, approaching one. “Hey, sweet cheeks.” He bent over, fluffing his hair and leaning against the monster. “What’cha doin’ later? I love me a man with a giant… tool.” He hinted, rubbing his hand down the shadow creature’s chest.

Buné backed up a little bit, never getting used to the vulgar conversations Angel Dust tends to have. “Well, that was quite the show!” She said, watching as the shadow monsters began working on the wall while everyone else headed back inside. Buné followed along, the sound of her heels clicking against the hard ground of Hell. 

Everyone decided to sit in the lobby area, so Buné did the same, joining them. She decided to sit in the empty chair instead of beside somebody. Charlie began talking about the hotel, discussing possibilites to gather sinners. “I think we just need more sinners to be interested in the hotel! We need to get our word out there,” she said with a sigh, her hand on her chin. 

Buné narrowed her eyes, thinking about any way to help the poor princess fufill her dream of the hotel working. Her eyes lit up, recalling the conversation she had with Alastor before they were interrupted. “Perhaps an event would do well!” She started, suggesting her idea. 

Angel Dust smirked at Buné, leaning forward. “A live event?” He raised one eyebrow, implying something Buné was definitely not.

Vaggie chimed in, shaking her head and crossing her arms into an ‘x’. “Absolutely not. There will be nothing porn related here.” 

Charlie looked over to Buné, her red eyes meeting Buné’s pink ones. “What do you mean?” She asked, holding her index finger up to her chin.

Buné shrugged, closing her eyes. “An event as in an opening ceremony, or something of the sort,” she replied, her voice calm and collected.

Charlie’s face lit up, her eyes sparkling with inspiration. “That’s such a good idea, Buné! If we do that, surely people will want to go!” She cheered, closing her eyes and excitedly putting her hands up. “We could invite everyone’s friends! That will get the word out!”

Vaggie nodded, placing a hand on Charlie’s shoulder. Her smile was soft and gentle towards her girlfriend. “I agree.”

All of a sudden, the sound of Alastor’s charming voice came sounding over the speakers that littered Hell. “Salutations, good to be back on the air!” He rang out, singing the sentence that left his mouth. “Yes I know it’s been a while since someone with style treated Hell to a broadcast! Sinners rejoice!” 

The TV suddenly turned on, following with a static noise leaving the so called ‘picture box’. Buné’s eyes followed to the TV, noticing the demon that was now airing on the television was none other than the box-headed TV demon, Vox, one of the three Vees. “What a dated voice!” He retaliated, anger prominent in his host voice.

Alastor’s transatlantic accent cut through the air again, “Instead of a clout chasing, mediocre video podcast,” he sang back in the argument, remaining as calm as ever.

This made Vox extremely angry, balling his hands into fists. “Come on!” He shouted, frustrated.

“Is Vox insecure pursuing allure? Fitting between this fad and that, is nothing working?” He replied while singing, everyone hearing the smile plastered on his face while he was doing this.

“Ignore his chirping!” Vox argued.

“Everyday he’s got a new format!” Alastor sang, his radio-host voice reaching throughout the entire Pentagram City.

Buné started at the TV, her mouth formed into an ‘o’, surprised to see the old rivalry be rekindled. Everyone else was staring awkwardly at the TV too, watching this argument go back and forth between the two demons.

“You’re lookin’ at the future, he’s the shit that comes before that!” Vox frowned, singing back at the radio demon.

Alastor’s grin was noticeable through his voice the entire time he was singing. “Is Vox as strong as he purports, or is it based on his support? He’d be powerless without the other Vees!” 

Angel Dust peaked his head up from his phone when the Vees were mentioned, looking mildly interested in this small argument now.

Vox huffed angrily, almost sounding like a small child. “Oh, please!”

“And here’s the sugar on the cream, he asked me to join his team, I said no and now he’s pissy, that’s the tea!” Alastor quipped, exposing their past deals to everybody who was listening. 

The TV started flashing bright shades of blue with error text on it, glitching out as Alastor poked at Vox. “You old timey prick, I’ll show you suffering!” He managed to barely get out, his voice stuttering as he tried to continue with the song.

“Uh oh, the TV is buffering!” Alastor ridiculed, the smugness radiating from the vary radio tower he sat in.

“I’ll destroy yo-o-o-ou!” Vox buffered, the TV shutting down immediately after that last delivery. In fact, the entire hotel went pitch black after this.

“I’m afraid you’ve lost your signal.” Alastor taunted, seemingly unfazed at the fact that the entire city just lost power.

The small rabbit demon watching this whole show happen gave a laugh, drawing attention to her in the now dark room. “I hope none of you are afraid of the dark!” She giggled, covering her mouth with her hand. 

“Let’s begin,” Alastor started, “I’m gonna make you wish that I’d stayed gone. Tune on in. When I’m done, your status quo will know its race is run. Oh, this will be fun!” He finished with a terrifying laugh, officially making the entire city lose its power.

───────── ∘°𖤐°∘ ─────────

Eventually the power came back, providing light to the once dim city. Alastor had returned back to the hotel, getting bombarded with questions by Buné. He stood awkwardly next to her as Charlie and Vaggie waved their goodbyes, telling everyone they’d be back soon and they were going to recruit more sinners for the beloved princess’s little passion project.

“Alastor, you really do put on such an amazing show! Bravo!” Buné giggled, clapping her hands with amusement. Her pink eyes were closed, making her purple eyelids noticeable.

“It was nothing, my dear! Simply a dispute easily solved by my own hands,” he admitted, surprisingly charmingly. His grin stayed on his face, never once had anyone seen that iconic smile falter. 

Buné opened her eyes and looked up to taller and much more red radio demon, who was standing next to her with his arms placed neatly behind his back. “I’m quite surprised he became so upset. I know he’s not always the most level-headed gentleman, but that was absolutely koo-koo!” She gave a bright smile up to the man.

Alastor turned to face her, sensing her gaze upon him. “It’s always easy to press his buttons, he is a TV after all! Ha ha!” He laughed, the sound of a laughtrack playing from his now glowing microphone stand. 

Buné gave a laugh at his silly joke, pointing to the microphone stand. “You must teach me how to do something like that! People tend to dislike my jokes for some odd reason.” She tilted her head in confusion. “What if I give them my funny bone?” The rabbit demon asked, her voice sounding almost serious. She turned to look at her shoulder, getting ready to unhinge her arm from its socket.

Alastor bent down and put his hand on top of hers, gently picking it up and removing it. Buné looked at him with confusion visible in her eyes. “I’m afraid if you do that, you’ll lose that interesting sense of humor of yours,” He told her, giving her that same creepy smile on his face.

Buné thought for a moment, putting her head in her hand. “I suppose you are right!” She admitted, shrugging her shoulders.

Alastor gave her a bright smile as he brought himself back up to normal height. “I usually tend to be, darling.” He teased, a small chuckle leaving his mouth.

The pink-haired woman’s eyes then lead to his hair, up to his ears. “Alastor, dear, I have a question,” She began, looking up at his intimidating red eyes. 

The radio demon looked at her confusedly, bringing his hands to his front, resting them on his microphone stand. “And what would that be?” He questioned.

Buné held in a laugh, her bright white teeth practically gleaming in the red lighting. “Do you…” She trailed off, pointing her hand to his coat jacket, “perhaps, maybe, just by chance… have a tail?” She covered her mouth slightly with her hand, containing her laughter.

Alastor’s eyes widened, a large amount of static resonating from him. The whole room went dead quiet, Angel Dust paused his video on sinstagram, Husk dropped his glass, and Niffty stopped dusting just to hear his answer. The overlord then narrowed his crimson eyes, staring at the smaller demon. “Why, what a question! Now, I must take my leave! Do take care, as best as you can.” He proceeded to melt into the ground, leaving with just a shadow.

Buné burst out laughing, pausing at the sudden realization. “Was that a threat? From the radio demon?” She questioned, prodding over to lobby area with Angel Dust. 

Angel Dust winked at her, making an odd growling noise. “Maybe he wants you to find out, babe.” He poked, a smirk on his face. He was sprawled out on the couch, his legs hanging over the edge.

“Oh, perhaps you’re right!” Buné was lost in thought, kicking her legs as she thought about how she would execute this plan. “I’m unsure how I would do that, I fear he might kill me!” 

Angel Dust sighed, facepalming. “Not what I meant, doll. Jeez, what’s with you old-timey folk being so dense?” He rhetorically asked, not expecting her to respond. I mean, who would? “I’m unsure, maybe it’s just because our different fields of work.” Buné speculated.

The spider demon sighed heavily. “Don’t you like, kill people? I think ya’d have to be pretty keen to do that.” Angel Dust raised one eyebrow at her, he had stories about her circus before, but all of the stories were simple just rumors.

Buné’s eyes lit up, an idea entering her head. “Oh, would you like to find out? I have many job offerings! I could call up Cambion for you right now, with your height I could make you an actual star, dear!” She rambled, bringing her hands up excitedly. “I feel as though you’d make an excellent acrobat!”

Angel Dust dropped his phone, shaking his hands in denial. “Absolutely not, I wouldn’t want to be caught double-dead with your freakshow of a circus.” He objected.

Buné pouted, putting a hand over her chest dramatically. “You hurt my heart, Angel!” She fake cried.

Angel Dust rolled his eyes, picking up his phone from the ground. “Like you have a heart,” he said, disagreeing.

The small rabbit demon dropped the act and smiled at him. “I do! I could show you, all I have to do is-”

“No!” Angel Dust interrupted her as her stitches started glowing a bright pink. “Do not rip your heart out,” he interjected.

“So much for amusement.” She pouted again, resting her head on her chin in sadness. 

The door flung open and an exhausted Charlie came forward, flopping onto the other couch. Vaggie followed after Charlie with tired eyes, jumping a bit whenever her girlfriend fell onto the couch. The princess of Hell gave out a long groan.

Angel Dust raised his eyebrows, before going back to scrolling on his phone. “So, how’d it go?” He asked smugly, knowing very well it did not go well.

Vaggie let out a heavy sigh, looking down. “Not a single new recruit,” she admitted while leaning onto the same couch Charlie laid on. 

The spider demon shrugged. “Yeah, well, who wouldn’t want to use their last days not fuckin’ or fightin’?” He asked, a loud banging knock coming from the door.

Buné raised her head and peered over the wall, trying to see who was banging on the door while Vaggie opened it. As she opened the door, a familiar serpent demon stood at the door, his hat in his hands. 

“Why, hello, my dear--” was all he managed to get out before his face was met with an aggressive punch.

[burnwme]

Summoning

One-off of Mika summoning Sam to save her- Possible TW

As I exited the café, I heard the jingling of the bells located above my head. At that moment I turned back to glance at the glass panes on the eatery’s door.  As I did, I gave a small wave goodbye to Suzu. After my small farewell, I turned my gaze back towards the road, awaiting my Uber. I felt bad for leaving our outing early, but I wanted to see Sam. But I mean could you blame me? He’s been extremely busy with work lately.  Constantly working late into the night, most of the time in which I’m already asleep. We’ve barely seen each other. And today was like any other: him leaving for work bright and early. That meant that I was alone for the day. I figured tonight would be like any other work night for him recently. So instead of staying by myself all day, I made plans with Suzu. It had been a while since we had hung out anyways. 

Suzu and I met promptly at The Pink Lady Café at 7:00pm. We had been chatting, joking, laughing and basically having an all around good time until about 7:45. When suddenly something in my back pocket buzzed. I immediately recognized what the buzzing was coming from, and swiftly grabbed my phone from my back pocket. I unlocked it to a message from Sam “ Hey, doofus. I’ll be home early today. Hopefully…at about 7. Have you eaten? “ I slightly smiled not only because he always made sure my needs were met before his but also just from seeing his name pop up in my notifications. My mind began to trail off... “It’s crazy how much I love him. Come on, who am I kidding? I love him so much it almost hurts.” I thought. I continued to let my thoughts linger for just a moment longer before I quickly opened my messages and replied “ Sorry! I have… but feel free to get whatever, I'll try to be home soon. Love you <3” 

And that’s how the story of a very frightening night began: Me wanting to go home to my loving incubus, while waiting for my ride home during a typical chilly night. As I stood under the streetlights outside the Pink Lady Cafe my phone buzzed. I looked down to see a notification “Your uber has arrived.” I began to look around for a grey prius. I quickly spotted it, and made my way closer to the edge of the sidewalk in anticipation to get home. It speedingly pulled up to me and I watched as the passenger window rolled down it’s window. As I peered in the car, I saw a man in his late 30’s , unshaven, and looked to be an all around slob. But before I could consciously think about his disheveled appearance, a skeptical voice spoke up “ Are you Mika?” I nodded and he motioned towards the backseats in his car, silently instructing me to go in the back seat. I obviously obliged. I pulled on the car door and quickly sat down and buckled up. 

During the ride, I kept noticing how he would glance at something in the rear view mirror. I just told myself he was looking at what was on the road behind us. But I quickly began to realize he wasn’t looking at the road, he was looking at me. Once I noticed this, I told myself that it's a little out of place but not something to be frightened about. Yet I remained cautious. I averted my eyes from the window to the driver's seat. As I did I really began to take in his looks. My gut began screaming that something was wrong. Yet, I tried to remain calm, I just kept telling myself I was overreacting. When my thoughts were abruptly interrupted by the lack of movement, the car had stopped. My eyes began to dart around my surroundings to figure out why. They immediately checked the traffic, no red lights, no stop signs, no pedestrians, there was no reason for us to be stopped. That’s when it went from just my gut screaming at me but also the alarms in my head. Then I heard a voice, and my eyes darted towards it. In less than a second I pinpointed where the voice was coming from. The driver's seat. I looked at the man sitting in the seat as he spoke “We’re out of gas... “ followed by a seemingly forced sigh. My foreboding feeling throughout my body was growing more intense by the second. Almost unbearable. I decided to get out of the car, if something were to happen I didn’t want to be stuck in such a small space with little room to defend myself. 

The driver followed suit, and leaned against his car about 8 inches away from me. I tried to brush it off as him just getting out to see what he could do. Though I did instinctively take a couple steps further away from him. He was leaning on the back seat’s window while I stood in front of the passenger window. I took a quick glance at him then took out my phone to text Sam. “Hey, it may take a bit longer. The uber ran out of gas. I should be home soon, hopefully.” While I was busy looking down at my phone, I failed to notice the driver sidle up beside me. As I looked up I flinched, clearly shocked to see him so close. But before I could shift my legs to move further down the car away from him: He gripped onto my raven hair and in just mere second covered my mouth. Preventing me from both getting away and screaming for help. He began to drag me forward towards an alleyway, I squirmed desperately trying to get away. I kicked and hit, which was returned by my hair being pulled harder towards the alley-way. I could feel the hot fearful tears run down my face. Everything was happening so fast I couldn’t even think. 

As we entered the alley-way he roughly pushed me onto the ground. Now towering over me. I looked up at him to see a wicked smile. A smile you’d see in a horror movie. He slowly began to walk towards me as I began to desperately crab crawl away. But was abruptly stopped by my back crashing into a big metal trash can. He was getting closer, my mind still racing with fear and panic. I couldn’t think straight. Instinctively my arms began to rummage around for things to defend myself. I didn’t find anything! I began to look harder for anything: metal, glass.. ANYTHING. It didn’t help that it was almost impossible to see through my blurred eyes and hard to feel with my trembling hands. As I was looking around frantically Sam popped into my mind. As he did sensible thoughts began to fester. Within seconds I heard myself call out “Aomaris!” 

Within a mere seconds the frantic air had changed into a serene state shortly followed by a bright light. I quickly covered my eyes with my shoulder, waiting for the light to disperse. As the light died, I looked up from my arms to see Sam and his shocked expression. I watched as his eyes darted around looking for me, and when he found me his eyes went gold for a mere second before turning back to their original emerald green hue. HIs gaze had only lasted a second before being interrupted by a scarily familiar voice “What the HELL?”

Sam immediately tracked down the voice to the man, now shaken to his core. But before Sam could let his rage take over the man had run. Sam stood in place for several seconds, internally fighting all of his instincts to go after the guy. Once he had made up his mind on what he should do, he had appeared in front of me within a millisecond. He immediately wrapped me in his arms, petting my hair in an effort to calm me. I laid my head on his chest tightly gripping the green shirt under his vest. I tried not to cry, but I couldn’t help it. He must have known because I heard him mumble in my ear “Shh...it’s okay. Let it out..” 

And I did, I broke down. I sobbed so hard my voice became hoarse and quivered so much you’d think that there was an earthquake. But Sam didn’t let up, just pulled me closer to his chest. My sounds were swallowed by his green t-shirt. I could feel his warmth despite the cold metal of his dog tag pressed against my cheek. I still don’t know how long we sat in that alley way. I do know that overtime my weeping had slowled, and he used that as an opportunity to get us home. Sam made the executive decision to go through a pentagram. I felt him take a smidget of energy from me. I didn’t fight it, why would I? I could feel myself slowly falling through the ground. I knew what he was doing, he didn’t have to say it. Within a second I felt myself now sitting on the stone steps located in front of my home. 

He slowly let go of his grip around me and gently took my hand in his before standing both of us. He had a grip on my waist making sure to keep me steady, since he was still unaware if I was injured. Though when he was sure I was secure on the ground he slowly let go. I watched as he felt around his pockets until he found his keys. I watched as he took them from the inside of his vest and used them to unlock our front door. As the door swung open he again gently gripped onto my hand, guiding me inside. 

As I passed through the door letting it swing shut naturally, I took in the familiar smell of my air refresher still plugged into the wall. Sam looked back at me, I could tell he was concerned, but he wasn’t going to show it. I looked up at him beginning to wonder what was going through his mind. Sam’s complicated to say the least. It’s hard for him to express himself, so usually I speak up first. And I did.  “Are you okay?” Sam looked deeper into my eyes, probably wondering if I was seriously asking him if HE was okay... I was correct. He quickly conveyed his feelings to me on the situation “ You’re asking me if I’m okay?” he responded sarcastically. I stood still waiting for him to continue on. “Seriously?” He scoffed. I stood there taken back by his tone. “He could have hurt you! Why’d you wait that long to summon me!? “ 

His voice was now significantly raised and it didn't take a genius to figure out why. I mean was he practically screaming it. He was mad, not at me but at himself. I knew that he  probably didn’t even notice his temper. “Sam..” I mumbled. Even in his self-loathing state he was still able to give me his undivided attention. He aimed his stare towards me. I used this as an opportunity to make him aware of the level of his voice. “Sam…” I began, while fidgeting with my hands. He still stared, waiting for me to finish. “Sam.. you’re kinda-sorta yelling…”

He looked down and pressed his two fingers against the bridge of his nose while simultaneously letting out a heavy sigh. I looked down to my fingers still fidgeting with them. But my gaze was soon steadily placed on him by the sound of his voice. “I...I d-didn’t mean to yell at you like that.. It’s just who knows what that DICK…” he took a moment to calm himself before continuing.  “ bag would’ve done to you.” He looked up at me then breathed heavily out his nose, as if he was letting off steam. I slowly made my way towards him and gingerly wrapped my arms around his neck while gently pecking him on his lips in an effort to calm him down. 

He let out a content sigh and wrapped his arms around my waist. I could tell he wanted to say something, but he didn’t know how to say it. I lifted my head to look up to his emerald green irises. He returned the gesture and proceeded to look deeply in my eyes, as if they would help formulate the words he had trapped inside his head. 

He took a breath in signalling to me that he was going to speak.  His eyes lingered a bit longer before looking down to the floor as if in shame. Then he spoke... “ I’m sorry for yelling at you, I-I didn’t mean to… I just… “ He nuzzled his head on my shoulder shortly followed by a muffled voice. “ I just want to protect you..” I removed my arms from around his broad shoulders, and instead wrapped them around his form and placed my head on the crook of his neck. His arms wrapped around me tighter and I happily returned the gesture.

“Sam… you do protect me.” He lifted his head to look at me. “Do I?” I simply just stared back at him thinking out my words carefully before speaking “Sam, of course you protect me. Tonight could have been so much worse if it wasn’t for you. Mmm-kay, you hear me? You DO protect me, I have no doubt in that.” He sighed and removed his hands from my waist and instead took one of my hands. Which confused me. 

“Hm?” I shot him a curious look. “Come doofus it’s getting late, let’s get you to bed.” I glanced at the clock on the wall and then cocked my head at my incubus. “What? “ He said amused. I responded teasingly “Since when do you go to bed at 8:30?” He shrugged “Maybe I’m just tired.” I looked at him closer, trying to see if he was joking or if he was actually tired. As I inspected him I came to realize he probably was tired, and I suddenly felt bad for him having to use his energy to save me. But I quickly shut those thoughts out. 

“Long day? “ I replied empathetically. He simply nodded tiredly. I sighed contently then said “ Then let’s go to sleep, dork.” He dramatically rolled his eyes before chucking.  Still hand in hand he began to walk and I happily  complied to follow behind. As we reached my bedroom we both silently agreed to change before heading to bed. We both began to strip from our day clothes back to each other. I turned my head slightly to look over my shoulder.

As I did I found myself admiring a very muscley back. And at that moment I thought “damn he’s ripped” . And I mean ripped. At that moment he finished changing and turned back to look at me, and as he did I immediately turned my head away from him, I could feel the way my face had heated up from being caught. I hurried up and tried to get dressed to prevent myself from becoming a blushing mess. As I slipped my shirt on, I heard a snicker behind me- along with a familiar sound of ruffling sheets. As I was done getting dressed by then I turned around to further inspect the noise. 

I turned around to see Sam in bed, comfortable under the covers. He flashed me a goofy grin and motioned for me to join him. I quickly accepted his invitation. As I laid down next to him he put his arm and me. I eagerly laid my head on his chest, resting my hand in the same place. Soon enough his breathing slowed, signaling to me he had fallen asleep, and before I knew it I followed after.

[amazingphanisnotonfire-imagines]

Riverdale//without you i’d be nothing

Request: Reader plays a Northsider River Vixen on Riverdale and when the show’s on hiatus the cast takes a trip to New Orleans and her boyfriend Douglas Booth invites them to see him film a scene as Nikki Sixx for the Netflix movie The Dirt and he and reader are super cute after he finishes the scene and the cast totally ships them. The scene is from the YouTube video The Dirt - Shout at the Devil/with backstage (Turkish subtitle). Nikki’s bass guitar in the opening of the scene is really cool.

hey! i really hope you like this!! and i also hope you’re having a good day! 

“Hey guys! It’s me, Madelaine and welcome to the last day of shooting before our hiatus!” Madelaine beams into the camera and you lift your head up from your phone to watch her talk excitedly at the camera. 

“I’m sort of sad because I’m gonna miss all of these.” She does a twirl to show off the rest of the cast sat waiting to start filming and they all take a break from talking to wave and smile at the camera. “But I am very excited for the break. Plus, we won’t really be away from each other for long because in a few days we’re going on holiday!! Aren’t we guys!” She asks and zooms in on Charles while he scrolls through his phone. 

“Huh?” He asks when he feels everyone looking at him. You all stifle a laugh before looking back at Madelaine again. 

“Okay, let’s see what everyone is doing.” She smiles playfully and wiggles her eyebrows before flipping the camera and choosing who to annoy first. “KJ. What are you doing?” 

“Eating.” He replies through a mouthful of food before glaring at the red-head. 

“Vanessa?” 

“Ignoring you.” She replies, not bothering to look up from her phone. 

“You know, you all think that Vanessa is lovely, but this is what I have to put up with.” Madelaine frowns. “What about you Y/n?” She asks and you glance at her before sending your text. 

“She’s texting her boyfriend.” Jordan teases as he looks over your shoulder and you roll your eyes at his childishness. “Aww, they’re sending each other kisses. And now she’s opening Instagram and liking a picture of him-wait, that’s not his real hair is it?” He asks and you send him a look. 

“Of course not.” You laugh. “It’s his costume, for the Mötley Crüe movie.” 

“Ohh.” He replies. “Okay.” He starts again, faking a British accent and you roll your eyes again. “Now, she is liking the photo of her boyfriend and his cast members. She’s typing something and now she’s going into her notes and typing something else. It’s for me, and it says Jordan...fuck off.” He trails off and a playful pout replaces his smile. 

“Somebody please send help.” Madelaine deadpans as she flips the camera back. “I’m gonna have to put up with all of this for another week.” 

“Holy shit.” Madelaine mouths as she shoves the camera in her backpack. The rest of the cast are just as mesmerised with the stage set up in front of them. 

The stage is more light than actual stage and for a while you can’t really decipher between the lights and the many, many speakers they have. Four microphones are dotted around the black stage, just waiting for sound. The guitar amps wait to be plugged in and you remember watching Douglas walk in and out of your bedroom as he tried to master the way Nickki Sixx would walk on stage. Tommy Lee’s drum sits at the back of the stage and the pentagram really brings the whole dark aesthetic together. 

It genuinely looks like one of their shows. After Doug was offered the role, the two of you sat and watched countless videos of their shows together, just so he could really get into his role.

Normally you’d join them in staring wide-eyed at the bright set, but you’re too excited to see Doug that you can barely take in anything surrounding you other than him. Your eyes scan the countless people passing by. Crew members carrying large speakers and microphones back and forth, and hundreds of extra’s mill about around you, making you feel like you’ve just walked through a time machine. 

You feel eyes on you and it’s only when you look back at them do you realize you were bouncing slightly. 

“Be cool.” Jordan shakes his head and you flip him off making him feign offence. 

“Can I help you guys?” A woman asks and you quickly direct your attention to her. 

“Hi!” You beam. “Douglas Booth invited us to watch him. He said he got the okay from the director. I’m Y/n, his girlfriend. Nice to meet you!” You smile and stick your hand out in front of her. She blinks, trying to process what you’ve just said in the short space of time before a small smile twitches at her lips and she introduces herself. 

“I’m Amy.” She replies. “And I’ve heard a lot about you. It’s nice to finally meet you in person instead of being shown countless of pictures of you.” She teases and your cheeks heat up.

Cami and Lili share a look before nudging you and you stare at the floor, too embarrassed to look at them again. 

“Come with me.” She tells the rest of the group. “And help yourself to snacks and drinks.” She says and everyone’s head’s perk up at the mention of food. “We’re just about to film, they’re putting the final touches to everything, but if I see Doug I’ll let him know you’re here.” 

“Thank you!” You grin and sit down. Behind the camera’s are a bunch of seats, none of which match and it’s a race between the ten of you to get the comfiest seats first. It ends in KJ and Casey standing and they grumble quietly to each other while the rest of you smile sarcastically back at them. 

“Okay. Quiet on set!” Someone shouts and you stand up to crane your neck over the camera’s. For a second everything’s quiet, and then the lights go up and everyone screams. 

“Ladies and Gentlemen, from Los Angeles, Mötley Crüe!”

Douglas looks out into the crowd and your sure he’s seen you, despite the room full of people. Then the lights come up and the spark machines go off leaving all you to stare in awe at what is happening. 

The sound of drums pound along with your heart while you watch your boyfriend transform into somebody else in front of your very eyes. He strums the guitar in time and hops backwards while looking out into the darkened crowd and you follow his gaze, wanting to see what he’s seeing. 

You watch as the camera zooms in on Douglas’ strumming and you nudge Cami excitledy as you point proudly at him. She stifles a laugh before the two of you continuing watching. 

“Title track is from our up and coming album. We call it ‘Shout At The Devil’” Danny shouts and the crowd goes wild. The camera zooms in on Iwan playing guitar.  

‘Shout, shout, shout!” They sing, the camera zooming into each of them, focusing longer on Colson as he twirls the drum sticks around in his fingers.  “Shout, shout, shout! Shout at the devil.” Danny kicks his leg out and does a spin before starting to sing again and you can’t believe what you’re seeing. 

They all look so cool! Especially Douglas and you can understand why bands back in the day had so many groupies if they did stuff like this on the stage. The atmosphere is electric and it’s not even a real concert, so you can only dream of what it would feel like to be at a real one.  “He's the wolf screaming lonely in the night. He's the blood stain on the stage.” Danny points out into the crowd and you hear a few screams and squeals making you laugh. “He's the tear in your eye. Been tempted by his lie.” Douglas rocks back and forth, and despite your earlier teasing through texts about the wig, it does look good when he’s up there head banging. “He's the knife in your back, he's rage!” Colson raises a hand in the air before banging the drums again. 

Danny leans forward, his voice going up an octave and you watch impressed. “He's the razor to the knife. Oh, lonely is our lives. My head's spinning 'round and 'round.” He points out into the crowd again and you catch Pete Davidson’s eye. 

Colson throws a drumstick in the air again before drumming, and you don’t know where to look anymore. There’s so many incredible things happening and you wish you could film this or take a picture or something so you can remember. It’s going to be amazing when you see it in the actual film, but to see it being recorded in real life, that’s something you don’t think any movie theatre will be able to live up to. 

“But in the seasons of wither, we'll stand and deliver. Be strong and laugh and-” 

“Shout, shout, shout. Shout at the devil! Shout, shout, shout!” Flames erupt from the stage during each beat and all ten of your eyes widen when you see someone flash the band. They head bang and jump around and your eyes widen each second that passes. 

But it’s over far sooner than you’d like it to be. You could spent forever watching your boyfriend pretend to be a famous rockstar, and you’re surprised at how at home he looks up on stage. 

The band shout and cheer, before the director shouts cut and they suddenly all erupt into laughter. Douglas and Iwan high five before they disappear off stage and previously still crew members start moving again. They hurry past you, with props, costumes and coffee in hand. 

And you wait excitedly for Douglas to appear. 

“So, we’re on the set of a super important Netflix movie. We’ve just watched them film literally the best thing ever. Like I have goosebumps, look. Anyway, I’m not gonna show you much, but I am going to show you this.” Madelaine whispers, a soft smile lighting up her face before she flips the camera and zooms in on you and Douglas. 

You wrap your arms around him and he picks you up, twirling you around making you squeal. He puts you back on the floor and wastes no time in capturing your lips in a kiss. You’ve been waiting months to kiss him again and it was definitely worth it, even if he is wearing that ridiculously large wig. 

“I’ve missed you so much baby.” You mumble against his lips. 

“Me too.” He replies and kisses you again. 

Madelaine flips the camera back to her and she pouts in response to how cute the two of you are. 

“She hasn’t shut up about him since he invited us out here.” She says and rolls her eyes. “It’s been the only thing we’ve heard. Hasn’t it V?” She asks the shorter girl as she walks behind her. 

“What?” Vanessa asks and takes a sip of the coffee Cole stole for her from the snack table. 

“Y/n and Doug.” It’s only three words, but it sets Vanessa off into a whole ramble about how excited you’ve been to see him. 

“It’s a good job they’re cute.” She replies making Vanessa giggle and the two of them watch as you and Doug catch up with each other. You move his wig from his face and he smiles thankfully, before kissing your cheek. “Something that isn’t cute though is these two.” Madelaine interrupts her own vlog by swapping the camera again and zooming in on Jordan and Drew taking pictures of each other with badly put on wigs. 

Her and Vanessa shake their head and watch as they laugh loudly and try to knock the other ones off their head. However their laughter soon dies down when a crew member comes over and scolds them for tampering with props, and now it’s Vanessa and Madelaine’s’s turn to laugh. 

“I can’t wait for the internet to see that.” Vanessa giggles before sending a disapproving look at the two men now pouting sadly in the corner. 

“Knowing them, it’ll just make more people love them.” Madelaine rolls her eyes. She turns the camera off and lets Vanessa lead her to where the majority of the cast are. 

“Hi guys.” Douglas introduces himself nervously and the conversations slowly die out. You stand beside Doug, your hand in his to keep him calm and a reassuring smile on your face. 

He’s never normally nervous when meeting new people, however he’s only ever met a few of these people a handful of times and he knows how important they are to you so he wants to make the best impression he possibly can. 

Although, you’re pretty sure he already has done with that they’ve just watched. You’re sure that could turn even the most cynical and hard to impress people, so you’re not worried. 

“Hi!” They all reply, each of them moving to shake his hand first. 

“Can I just say, that was great. I’ve never seen anything like it!” Drew gushes and Doug waves him off bashfully. 

“Seriously. Y/n is very lucky.” Jordan replies making you shove him lightly. 

“I’m definitely the lucky one.” Doug replies and kisses you gently. Your friends roll their eyes and gag in response, but you know they’re doing it out of love. 

“So, how are you all enjoying New Orleans?” He changes the subject.

“We haven’t really seen much of it. We got here yesterday and we spent the majority of it sleeping.” Casey explains making him frown. 

“Why don’t we go sightseeing.” He smiles. “Before you guys get kicked out.” He adds and looks at Jordan and Drew who smile back awkwardly. 

“You guys go ahead.” You interrupt. “We’ll catch up with you.” 

“Ooo.” KJ teases and you flip him off making him laugh loudly. “Get out.” You shove him and Lili grabs his arm pulling him towards the exit. The rest of the gang follow until it’s just you and Doug standing in an empty room. You’re only company is the very large snack table and various chairs dotted around the room. 

“I’ve missed you so fucking much.” You admit and wrap him into a tight hug. He wheezes at the force but hugs you back and warmth fills your chest. “You were also amazing up there. I mean, it was like I was at a proper concert!” You ramble proudly and he rolls his eyes. “You are so talented.” 

“Nah.” He shakes his head and you send him a glare. “It was all you, you’re my good luck charm.” 

---

March 18, 2019, ArcLight, Hollywood. 

The fabric of your dress, bunches and un-bunches in your clammy palm. The pale blue silk is soft against your skin and it’s quite a comforting feeling, it’s good to know that you can still feel something, even if the rest of you does feel numb. 

Camera’s flash outside the tinted windows of the black car, and you can hear hundreds of people shouting and screaming. The last time you were at a movie premiere, it didn’t feel anything like this, and it’s not even your movie. You wonder if you maybe need to do more than two acting jobs to get used to stuff like this, maybe you never get used to it. 

The more you think of it, the weirder it feels. All of those people lining the streets and wanting to take pictures of you. Riverdale premiers feel a whole lot less scary than movie ones. You thought it was because you always have your friends around you, or maybe because you’ve been to every single one of them since the show started, you kind of know what to expect as they’re all the same. 

But then you glance at Doug and you feel a whole new set of nerves creep up on you. He looks so good in his suit, and you watch his fingers tap anxiously against his knee as the two of you wait for the door to opened. 

Maybe you’re more nervous because it’s him. You have no reason to be though, the small part that you saw being filmed was amazing, and if the whole film is like that, then he’s got nothing to worry about. But you know he’s nervous and maybe that’s what’s making you feel the same. 

“Doug?” You place a gentle hand over his, stilling the movements of his fingers and he looks back at you, his expression softening as he takes you in. 

“You look beautiful.” He smiles and presses a kiss to the back of your hand. 

“You don’t look so bad yourself.” You reply and he rolls his eyes. “Are you okay?” You ask and the question seems to take him by surprise.

“Yeah-I. Why wouldn’t I be?” He stutters and you send him a look. He knows you can read him like a book, it’s something you seemed to have mastered by the first day you met him. 

“You just seem a little nervous.” You shrug and give his hand a squeeze. 

“I’m okay.” He shakes his head. “Maybe just a little bit. But nerves are good.” He finishes and you look at him unsure. “Why? Are you nervous?” 

“A little bit.” You admit and drop his gaze. His finger hooks under your chin and pulls it up again so you can look at him. His hazel eyes seem to see straight through you and the way he’s looking at you makes your heartbeat increase. For a few seconds, it just feels like the two of you sitting in the tiny cab. 

The rest of the world disappears, it’s just you and him, and that’s all you could ever really need.  

“Come on, you’ve done scarier things. Remember when you found out you had to do that British accent. I’m pretty sure you told me, you’d considered dropping out of the film.” He says and you nod your head. 

“I suppose, yeah.” You agree. “That was very nerve-racking. Especially when I had to do it in front of the cutest British boy I’d ever met.” You add and he rolls his eyes playfully. The two of you giggle quietly to yourselves

“We’re ready for you.” A tall man dressed all in black tells you once opening the door. You look at Doug and the two of you take a deep breath. 

“Are you ready?” You ask and he nods slowly. 

“As I’ll ever be.” He grins and you mirror it. The nerves turning to excitement when you think about how proud you are of him. “Wait!” He shouts and you freeze, dropping your purse in fright. “Sorry.” He apologises awkwardly and you roll your eyes at him. “I just wanted to get a picture with you before we’re both whisked off by our adorning fans. I want to show off how lucky I am, and I want Danny to see what he’s missing.”

“Where did you say he was again?” 

“He’s off filming some other film. But I think he did a video message or something, basically thanking everyone.” He replies. 

“Oh, that’s sweet.” You nod. “Anyway, adorning fans?” You repeat and he nods, a playful smile tugging at his lips. “You know this is a premier for a film that you’re in right? I’ve got nothing to do with this.” 

“One. We all know that the majority of the people here, are here for you because they just assume you’re coming with me.” 

“They assumed correctly.” You nod and cross your arms. You raise an eyebrow as you wait for him to continue with this point that you know is going to be stupid. 

“And two. You have everything to do with this.” He says and your roll your eyes, pushing him bashfully. “I’m being serious Y/n.” He says, making you look at him. “If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t have had the confidence to say yes to all the offers I got, I wouldn’t have been able to recover from the many no’s. I wouldn’t have been able to learn my scripts and come to you for advice and support and just for a hug. This has everything to do with you, and the way you looked at me when you watched me film, gave me all the confidence I needed to keep going, even when the hours were long and I missed you like crazy.” 

“Douglas Booth, you’re going to make me cry and my makeup is perfect.” 

“And you look beautiful.” He replies and wipes a stray tear away. A curl falls in front of your face and he tucks it behind your ear, his fingers leaving a trail of heat along your jawline. “I love you.” 

“I love you too.” You laugh and wipe away another tear. 

He gives you one last smile before grabbing your hand. You step out of the cab and into the bright flashing lights and the overwhelming sound of your names being shouted. He looks back at you, concern growing in his eyes but you grin back at him and he mirrors it. 

The two of you make your way up the red carpet, posing together and separately as people shout your name from all angles. The camera’s always disorient you, but as soon as you’re back beside Douglas and he wraps an arm around you waist, you feel yourself become more comfortable with the sheer amount of press. 

Douglas talks to a few of his co-stars and you take the few minutes of zero attention to really take in the moment. There’s so many people here, all of them to see your talented boyfriend and his friends and you feel like your heart is going to burst with pride. 

Your gaze catches Jordan, Drew and KJ, all three of which are staring wide eyed as the real Mötley Crüe walk the red carpet. You watch as they try their hardest not to implode and a chuckle escapes your lips when they finally realize that you’re watching them. 

“Holy shit!” Jordan mouths and you roll your eyes. Drew points awkwardly at them and KJ makes small talk with Tommy Lee before he stares at you in shock. 

“Be cool!” You mouth back and roll your eyes at your friends. The three of them just stare back at you in shock before they notice Vanessa and Madelaine having a full on conversation with all four members. 

It looks like they’ve just bumped into each at the grocery store with the way they’re talking to each other, and even you must look a little surprised. 

“I’ve seen you’re show!” Nikki says and your jaw drops. “It’s fucking weird.” He adds making the girls laugh. 

“Yeah.” Madelaine nods. “It sure is.” She adds before they walk away to get their pictures taken. Madelaine and Vanessa stare at each other, frozen for a few seconds before they grab each others arms and squeal. 

“Your friends sure are weird.” Vince says and it takes you a few seconds to realise he’s talking to you. 

“Oh yeah. There are.” You laugh awkwardly and the rest of the band greet you. You take a second to glance back at your friends who are all staring at you with varying degrees of shock on their face. 

“Are you ready to go in?” Doug pulls your attention away from the silent conversation you’re trying to have with Vanessa, and a soft smile graces your lips. 

“More than ready.” You nod excitedly. “I’m so proud of you baby.” You whisper in his ear and a blush creeps up his neck. 

“Not as proud as I am of you.” He replies and nudges your arm. The two of you take a deep breath before stepping through the door, ready for whatever adventure is waiting for you next. 

support my writing! if you want! 

[realm-sweet-realm]

A one-off request for @lonelyghostwriter: a story about Joey introducing Henry to the more innocent side of magic. This is just a goofy, whimsical ball of fun, and Joey x Henry is implied. This is the last one-off before I’m finishing “The Angel of the Ink Machine.”

The Boris had come out perfect.

The Boris had come out perfect!

And then it had decked him and run away to God knew where, but it had come out perfect! Joey was ecstatic. All he had to do now was hunt the creature down and make a few more and his dream would be fulfilled! And in the meantime, he had one more dream that he needed to fulfill, one that concerned his dear partner, Henry.

Despite sharing so much of his life and soul with Henry, he’d always kept the magic secret from him. He’d moved nearly all his supplies into the studio when Henry had moved in. Even the spell he needed to do regularly to keep disease at bay, he completed before Henry got up in the morning, with a pentagram hidden under the carpeting in their closet. But seeing their cartoon creations brought to life was worth the risk of scaring him- and anyhow, Joey Drew had planned how he’d do this years ago.

After dealing with Buddy’s body and before coming home that night, Joey made calls to Allison and Sammy. It was late, and in the excitement he’d forgotten that he’d fired Allison out of anger mere hours ago. Thankfully he’d been able to bribe her into one more session of potion-making. Sammy hadn’t picked up at all, but Joey could make do without him.

---

Henry woke up, far too early, to Joey shaking him awake with a big smile on his face.

“Huh? What is it?” Henry asked.

“I have a whole day planned for us. Get up! We’re meeting Allison soon. There’s something- a lot of somethings, actually- that I need to show you. You have an hour to get ready. Alright?”

“Uh, okay!” Henry was kind of used to Joey being full of surprises. He was fairly sure this would be a good one- they usually were. Within an hour, he was in the passenger seat of Joey’s car.

Joey took a deep breath. This would be the difficult part- admitting all he’d been hiding from Henry for the past few years. “So, Henry... you know how I tell you that Sammy and I go bowling together? Well, that’s not entirely true. Sammy and I share a hobby, but it’s one I didn’t know how to explain to you without showing it to you, and... anyhow, we perform magic together.”

Henry didn’t miss a beat. “Oh. Okay, the thought of Sammy doing stage magic is pretty strange. But it seems right up your alley- why did you hide it from me?”

“It’s not stage magic. And you’ll see why later.”

“Oh. Um.” Henry wasn’t sure how to respond to that. “Great. I can’t wait!”

A while later, they pulled up to a lovely brick house on the outskirts of town. Over the short wooden fence, Henry could see a lovely hutch of three rabbits. The garden had a lot of browning plants in it that clearly weren’t getting enough attention. “Nice place- must have cost a lot to get one in this area. Who lives here?” Henry asked.

“Allison,” Joey answered, ringing the doorbell. “I borrow books and buy potions off of her. And we’re going to make potions with her today.”

Thomas opened the door, rolled his eyes and called for Allison before retreating into the garage. Then, Allison popped her head in.

“Hey, guys! Sorry to call you here so early. But you know- early is the only time you can get fresh morning dew, and for what we’re making, that’s pretty important.”

“Of course,” Joey said. “I brought everything we’ll need. Let’s get cooking!”

Henry had been put to the task of chopping up herbs as Joey mixed three strangely-labelled vials into a pot of boiling water and Allison was outside collecting morning dew and whiskers from her rabbits. He was pretty sure at this point that this was some bizarre prank. Hopefully there would be some kind of payoff to it and this wasn’t just a waste of a Saturday, but at least Allison seemed pleasant enough.

“So, where do you get crow’s blood from?” Henry asked, a bit of sarcasm in his voice.

“A crow!” It didn’t seem like a good idea to tell Henry about the black market- at least, not yet.

“Okay. So, what’s this potion supposed to do?”

“You’ll see,” Joey said cryptically, “this is actually a pretty powerful one.”

A few minutes later, everything had been added, and the potion had boiled for just long enough, according to Allison. She scooped some out into coffee mugs with a ladle and handed it out to Joey and Henry.

Henry stared down apprehensively at the unappetizing mix of herbs and hair floating in the clearish-brown substance. “What’s it going to taste like?”

Allison smiled. “About how it looks, I’m afraid. But go on, down the hatch. Oh, and the effect might startle you, but it isn’t supposed to last long, so just try to have fun with it.”

Henry did as he was told, and Allison took his cup. He started to feel... heavy, and off-balance, and dropped down onto his hands. All traces of red melted from his vision, leaving the world in tones of blue, yellow, and green. Joey ruffled his hair, and it seemed as though his skull was smaller and thinner than usual. He said something that Henry heard as gibberish. Then, Joey took a sip of his drink, handed the cup to Allison, and before Henry’s eyes, turned into a black lab.

Henry yelped and skittered backwards, and yelped again once he caught sight of his own paws. But Allison was laughing- she seemed unconcerned, and she had said that this was temporary. So, Henry rolled with it. Allison ushered the two of them into the backyard, where they played fetch. A while later, as Henry was trotting back to Allison with the tennis ball in his mouth, he felt his teeth dull and his center of balance change once again, and he spat the ball back onto the ground. Joey came up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Well, Henry? Do you believe in magic now?” Joey asked.

“Yeah, it would be pretty hard to deny at this point.”

“Thank you. Because I have a whole lot else to show you.”

Joey returned to Allison. “And thank you! I’ll miss this, you know.”

“I’ll miss it, too,” Allison admitted. “I’ve never made a potion this advanced before- and I might not have much use for it, but imagine the kind of money I could make from this! Oh, and thanks for testing it for me.” Allison went quiet a moment. “Let’s keep in touch, alright?”

Joey weighed his bitterness with his desire to do just that. “Sure.”

With that, Joey and Henry got back into Joey’s car and they took off to their next destination.

“So... you’ve been doing stuff like that for years?”

“Well, yes and no. Allison is more of a specialist than I am. Unfortunately, the stuff I’m most into has a bad reputation, but I’m going to show you that it can be just as innocent as Allison’s potions.”

Henry nodded. After literally turning into a dog, he wasn’t even going to try and guess what Joey had in store. After a few minutes, Henry found himself gazing out at a wooded area on the edge of town. Henry figured that Joey must have been driving to another city, but instead he pulled over onto the side of the road and  ushered Henry into the brush, taking with him a bag. Finally, Joey reached a clearing and dropped the bag.

“This is the place,” he announced.

It was an untamed natural area, with no trails made through it. No one was likely to come out here. It wasn’t pretty either- just a dusty field surrounded by trees.

“Sammy and I spent our first few sessions here. I spent some of my first sessions here alone, too- learning to summon things. And now, I’m going to summon something for you. A demonstration.” Joey’s back was turned to Henry- he was scared of how he’d react.

Henry was beginning to worry- Joey sounded like he was trying to seem positive, but it wasn’t working.

“What kinds of things? And how?”

Joey met Henry’s eyes. Henry didn’t seem too afraid yet. Still, there was no easy way to explain this. “We summon spirits and Gods from the spirit realm using pentagrams. The spirit realm isn’t hell, spirits aren’t demons, and Gods aren’t the Christian God. No religion is right about everything. Spirits aren’t angels and demons- they aren’t fully good or evil any more than people are. But it’s the more reckless ones- the fast-and-easy-with-the-rules ones- that are likely to come when you’re summoning one. Pentagrams are like a ‘help wanted’ add for spirits and Gods. They have a job description, which are in the pentagram itself. Pentagrams are like writing in their language. And, they have an offering of pay. The sacrifice for spirits is generally flesh or blood. Tasks that are more difficult for them, you want to leave out more of a payment, or the ritual has a higher chance of failing- no one took the bait, basically. Or, someone did, but thought your offer was so insulting that they found a way to bungle it up. Gods… they demand a greater sacrifice. But summoning Gods is considered insane even by pentagram users. A spirit won’t escape unless your pentagram has line breaks, and there’s a limit to how much damage they can do. As for Gods, well… even I don’t know how to contain them, or the consequences of letting them escape…”

Joey broke his somber monologue with a bright smile. “So, wanna ask a demon to grab us some lunch?”

“Uh...”

“Okay, I know I made that sound scary. But I’ve... actually been doing a summoning ritual every morning to keep myself healthy for years. It’s no big deal.”

Henry smiled awkwardly. “Can I maybe just watch?”

Joey smiled back. “Sure.”

And so, Henry watched. Joey drew up a pentagram in the dirt, lit a candle in its center, and then slit his wrist and let his blood drop onto the pentagram.

Henry rushed to the bag and pulled out a first aid kit to tend to Joey’s wound. Henry had seen the scars on Joey’s right hand before, and had seen them seem to grow and stay fresh, but he’d never gotten the chance to really look at them before.

“Y’know, this is actually a huge relief. I mean, it’s a lot of things, but... Joey, I thought you were self-harming, and I didn’t know how to bring it up. I’m glad you’re not.”

Joey smiled. “Thanks. So, are you okay with this?”

“I mean, I guess so. It seems shady, but you aren’t harming anyone.”

“Good. Because I’ve been working with the Gods of the spirit realm, and with their help, I brought one of our cartoons into existence. And I didn’t want to hide the magic from you anymore because I couldn’t imagine leaving you out of something that big! The toon I made is a Boris. He’s scared, and hiding somewhere in the studio. After lunch, will you help me coax him out of hiding?”

Henry’s face was lit up with awe and disbelief. “Oh my God. Of course! I can’t believe this! Joey, you should have told me sooner!”

Joey could practically feel the weight of secrecy leaving his shoulders. He still had to keep the murders away from Henry, of course, but he didn’t mind that. The murders weren’t a part of him. Magic was. “Thank you. I should have known I could trust you.”

At that moment, the pentagram glowed, and a picnic lunch sprang up from the ground.

“Let’s go see what those demons sent us for lunch.”

[dragonrajafanfiction]

Dragon Dancer Chapter 15: Hindsight

Tonight was the night Isaac died and my journey would truly begin. There was nothing I could do about it. 

The violence of the moment haunted my dreams: the screams, the blood, the uncontrollable urge to viciously attack those people until they stopped moving. My pulse raced with the memories. My head ached, wrestling with the idea that even with my father’s powers there was nothing I could do to change anything.

Confined to my floor, dancing was my only outlet. The hardwood of the hallway and the full length windows served as a nice place to stretch and do exercises. Counting out the rhythm forced my mind away from the coming carnage and instead on the point of my toes.

Snow swirled from the clouds, sending a blinding blanket over the city. From the highrise, visibility was near zero and the windows rattled against the blustery gales.

Previous Chapter

Go Back to the Beginning

My servitor guard drifted behind the glass like an aimless cloud , watching me, following my movements with its intense stare.  It lifted one tendril like limb against the glass, drawing it downward across my body.

“Ielia?”

She swirled out of my necklace, floating in mid-air, hair adrift on some intangible wind.

 “I want to know what happened to this person. Is there any way to talk to it?”

She nodded, smiling, and drifted past me into my bedroom. She instructed me to take a pen and follow her finger to draw on the wall of the room. With her help, I traced around a circle, added triangular shapes and swirling tick marks. In a few moments, I’d drawn some sort of pentagram style shape. My father's scale grew warm against my skin as I gazed at it. 

Like Isaac's medallion in the Cassell library, it reacted to the drawing on the wall.

Echoing voices and ghostly figures surrounded me. I saw a woman. I recognized her as the matriarch, years younger, walking in the hall, passing by the door. She was walking next to two other men. I followed her out and hear their voices.

“This research is my life’s work,” Said one of the men. He wore a fancy suit spangled with what looked like military medals. “With it, we’ll be able to make powerful hybrids capable of not only defeating the Dark King, but also becoming what we need to finally unite the world.”

“Ambitious.” said the other man, who looked a bit like Isaac but much older. “I’m honored you’ve decided to use our alchemical facility and invest in our company…”

The matriarch was equally enthused. “With this investment we’ll finally be able to meet our growth targets and beyond. But … I still would like to ask why you picked us?”

Before I could think about it further, I heard more voices behind me.  “An accident?”

I whirled, startled. It was her again, the matriarch. Her voice was on the verge of tears on the phone. “But how? I’ll be there right away.”

Her image dissipated into thin air. More voices reached my ears, this time coming from the bedroom.

Walking back in, I saw a vision of the older man who had been so honored to work with the guy with the medals. He was lying in the bed that I slept in, receiving IV treatments. “Are you sure this is going to work? He doesn’t seem to be getting any better,” said the Matriarch who was standing at his side.

I was plunged into darkness. A little girl’s voice was close to my ear. “Daddy?”

A tiny body lay on the floor, missing her head.  I heard the matriarch screaming, “Charlotte!  Charlotte!” Her voice rising and breaking in pain and terror.

Standing over her was my servitor guardian. The bed was covered in blood, the IV drip tipped over.

The gong of the grandfather clock broke the visions, setting my heart racing. The lights never came back on. I reached over to flip a switch but nothing happened. The power had gone out in truth.

As I stared out into the blizzard, a winged shadow grew larger and larger until the glass shattered and the shards mixed with the sparkling snow on the carpet.  A hulking beast with glowing red eyes and clawed hands at the end of long muscular arms let out a low threatening snarl. 

Before I could scream, my servitor guardian wrapped it in its own wraith-like body. Red blood flowed from the intruder’s neck down its shoulders and onto the carpet. The monster fell forward, its head missing from its body.

Breathless with terror, I ran from the room to get to the elevator. I skidded to a halt. The elevator door was open and a tall figure of a man dressed in a kimono stood in it. It was then that I found my voice.

As the screams tore from my throat, he ran toward me, his body distorted, stretching as he grew nearer, the flying folds of his large sleeves flaring out like wings. He was almost on me by the time I turned to run. The hall in front of me twisted into a spiral and I staggered into the wall as if drunk.

An arm grabbed me around my waist and jerked me toward the windows.  My paralyzed limbs didn’t respond to my efforts to fight. My voice had gone silent despite my efforts to continue calling for help.

He raised a sword and smashed it against the glass. He climbed atop the pane. My head was dangling in the cold and the wind, spinning twenty stories up. The snow was falling past me, down into the streets below.

The next moment, I was back inside. I hit the floor, my head bouncing off the hardwood so hard I saw stars. I dug the heels of my hands in, scrambling away, breathless. Behind me, the attacker and the servitor were locked in a furious wrestling. The faint moonlight illuminated his platinum blond hair and the half mask over his eyes.

He ran his sword through the heart of my guardian and it went limp, its smoky appearance starting to drift upward and lift like fog.

I whimpered when he turned his attention back to me, his eyes red and bright in the dark, his expression blank. He strode forward. 

I threw out my hands and felt his dragon’s blood, deep and powerful like an ocean tide. Far stronger than what was in the child I’d healed. Despite its strength, I called out my father’s words, “Release!”

That fire that burned at the young Tobias set the dragon in him ablaze and brought him to his knees, groaning in pain. I got to my feet and kicked his sword away, grabbing it myself. As I backed away, I was startled by a pair of golden eyes in the window.  I dropped the sword. The metal blade clattered to the floor.  “Johann?!”

It wasn’t Johann. The face in the window was my face. The gold eyes were my eyes. I was the one holding the sword.

A strong pulse went through my head. I turned to my attacker. The mask had fallen off and I could see his face was pale because it was covered in white makeup. He looked up at me, reaching out in a pleading gesture. “What… what have you done to me…?”

I dropped to my knees, beset by visions of two little boys dancing and playing together, one saying to the other. “Wait for me, Chisei!”

“Chisei? Chisei Gen?” Behind that vision was an intense loneliness. I felt the crushing weight of it.  "Where am I?" 

“In my dream, my memory…” I heard the man in the kimono’s voice but I couldn’t see him, only two boys, playing together in a grassy field.

“Chisei and I were together, as brothers. But while he became the heir to the Clan Chief, I was a Devil and cast out by my family.”

“Who are you? What do you want with me?” My eyes searched for where he was, but he wasn’t visible.

“I am Ruri Kazama. I … I don’t know how I got here. I think I was supposed to take you with me. That’s all I know.” He sounded confused.

The scenery of children morphed until I was in a dimly lit stone room. The only furniture was an old table, a chair, a bed, a few scattered toys. I can see him now walking over to one of the toys, a stuffed bear, looking down at it.

“This is the place where I grew up, alone. He never visited me in the secret mountain village.”

“Where the Devil children are locked away?” I retreat until my back was against the wall, searching for a way out.

“Yes…” He looked at me in surprise. “...how do you know this? Are you hearing my thoughts?” He flinched, arms wrapping about his abdomen, doubling over. “My powers… I’ve lost control of them. What did you do?”

I started to feel worried that I’d actually hurt him but I was afraid to approach in case he tried to attack me again.

Ruri Kazama's gaze unfocused, and he turned away, staggering to lean against the wall. “I’m seeing your memories… Chisei… he’s killing members of the Devil Clan? I don’t remember this…”

“It hasn’t happened yet… It happens soon… I want to save the children from him…”

We both awoke at the same time. Ruri Kazama was on the floor, one hand clutching his head, teething grinding together. He had broken out into a cold sweat. I slowly got to my feet and backed away. 

A pair of hands seized my shoulders from behind. I jerked to get away but they held fast.

“Ah, so this is why I was asked to come along on this mission… because you’re too fragile to capture a little girl.”

As soon as I wrestled myself free, I caught a blow to my jaw. My ears rang and my whole face went numb. Dizzy, I staggered to the floor.

“Honestly… no wonder I have a higher body count.”

I raised my eyes to a face that sent such a chill through me I cried out. It was the man from the park. The one who strangled me. My whole body started to tremble. This time, Chisei wasn’t here to save me. I would have gone back in time only to die in the past.

The sight of my wide-eyed terror made him smile. Gleeful, he tittered like a child.  “Ah… she looks like fun. Too bad this one is so valuable to Osho’s Blade that he would probably kill me if I left a mark on her.”

Two servitors were behind him, one was holding an unconscious Tobias, the other was dragging Lukas along by his arm.

The way he was leering at me was the same as before when he dragged me into the woods by my foot. “Come along, little one…” He bent over to take hold of me.

I pushed myself against the wall, cowering away from him.

He would have succeeded were it not for Ruri Kazama. He was back on his feet. His Speaking Spirit poured out of him again, and we were all plunged into a nightmare scenario. 

We were in an institution with dozens of other children. They screamed, struggled, and cried as they were injected with needles. A hand, larger than life, reached for me. I struggled to keep away from it, but I was powerless.

I stared up towards a window into a night sky filled with stars and the colorful lights of the Aurora Borealis. I’d seen those stars so many times, I knew them by heart because I focused on them while I was injected again… and again… and again...

These weren’t my memories, they were his. My attacker’s. 

“Kazamaaaaa!” He shrieked. “You Bastard! STOP! STOP IT!” Roaring with despair, he fled from me and down the hall. Kazama, faster than my eye could follow, retrieved his sword and cut down the two servitor beasts holding my friends captive.

“You need to get out of here.” He told me, “If you don’t leave now, you’ll never have another chance. Once Osho’s Blade gets you, you won’t be able to escape.” He stood in the dark, blood running in rivulets down his blade to form a puddle on the floor.

“I can’t go back to Cassell!” I cried with despair. 

“Then is there somewhere else?”

I looked into his crimson eyes. “Those memories you showed me. Is the place still there? Still like that?”

He gave me a puzzled look. “Yes…”

“Are there children there?” 

“Yes, the mountain village is… but you shouldn’t go there.” He shook his head. “It’s dangerous.”

I stood up. “I’ll be okay. Don’t worry about me.” I felt I was acting blindly, flailing into the dark, jumping off a bridge into surging waters, unsure if I could swim.

I ran to Lukas and Tobias and took their hands. There was nothing I could say to warn them that we were going to get them and the children trapped by the Devil Clan out of harm’s way. I didn’t have time to explain. Like a canary, faced with an open cage and an open window, I darted into the unknown.

I closed my eyes and focussed on Japan, on that room with the table and chairs.

Silence and cold descended in a black curtain. I counted out the seconds. One… two… three…

We reemerged, staggering into the room Ruri had shown me in vision. I panted like I'd just climbed flights of stairs. I looked at Lukas and Tobias. Tobias was awake and trembling with terror. Lukas looked disoriented. "There are more children here. But first I need to heal you, Lukas. If you use your dragon strength you might turn like Isaac did."

Lukas leaned his hand against the ground, staring at me with wide eyes, searching for answers. "I don't understand any of this."

"Your grandmother was planning on selling my eggs to some doctor but I guess kidnapping me was a cheaper option.” I paused, reaching up and placing my hands on his face. "This will hurt for a moment…." I opened my mouth to that draconic language.

Lukas flinched away as though hit by an electric shock.  He staggered back, staring at me, then he groaned and sank to the floor.

I looked at him with sympathy but I didn’t apologize. "The Cassell College will work with their Japan division tomorrow night to wipe out the Devil Clan.  We need to get the children trapped here healed and gone before they get here." 

“What did you do?”  He was visibly shaking and unable to stand. “This hurts…” 

“Your dragon’s blood is high purity like mine. You’re unstable like Isaac was. I used my Speaking Spirit on you, like I did on Tobias.” I moved to a window and peer outside. “This is where Japanese unstable children are held. If I don't free them, they’re going to die with the rest of the Devil Clan. Can you help me?”

“We’re in Japan? But how?! Why did you bring us here!” He stared at me in wide-eyed shock.

“You were getting kidnapped by bad people!” I can feel my breath rising with all of the unexpected questions that I couldn’t answer. “And these kids need my help! I don’t have time to explain!”

He got up, coming towards me, hands balled into fists. “Explain now!”

I take a step back away from him, my back was against the wall. “I can move through space. Through gates. I think the Nibelungen ones.” I stammered for an explanation but the truth was I didn’t know how and I wasn’t about to explain where I got my powers from.

“How!” He loomed over me and I found myself cowering again.

“I just can okay! Please, are you going to help me or…” I stood up straighter. “...or should I just leave you here!” At that moment, I knew I threatened him. I felt guilty, but I didn’t know what else to do.

He swallowed hard. We stood in silence for a few seconds before he finally gave in. “Alright.”

Shaking with nervous emotion, I sent Ielia to scout outside. The village was dark and looked empty but she returned looking panicked and gestured frantically. “Servitors?”

She nodded. 

"Are we gonna die?" Tobias whimpered, clinging to his brother.

"Stay in here." Lukas gave him a comforting hug.

"Can you hold those servitors off until I rescue them?" I asked.

“I can, I’ve been trained to be able to fight.” Admirably, Lukas went outside and blew a loud whistle through his fingers. The hulking reptilian giants turned and immediately pursued him.

He spoke in clear draconic, “Speaking Spirit: Blessing of Ice!”  and a large whirlwind bearing shards of ice blew into them, knocking them back, cutting and impaling them. It was an impressive sight.

I dashed as fast as I could into dark and dingy housing. My twin used the bright spear to knock down locked doors. I hurried to the rose of cages. There was no time to really explain to the youngsters what was going on, why this strange person was breaking them free, so they screamed and kicked and bit at me until I returned them into the room with Tobias.

The raging dragon blood in my body was changing me. My skin was itching. My eyesight was blurring.  I forced myself not to think about it. My nerves, my heart strained every time I used Release to halt the progression of the children’s instability. I detached myself from their pain and fear. I didn't want them to turn into monsters on the jump to another place. If I didn’t do this, they were going to die, sooner or later. That’s what I told myself. After about thirty minutes, I'd managed to collect about a dozen. 

Tobias was brave, trying to calm the growing crowd of terrified and crying youngsters. "Don't cry." He said. "Charlotte saved me. She'll save you too."

“Charlotte?” I asked, confused.

“Yes, that’s the name my Grandmother started calling you. Charlotte Ouroboros Comemnus…”

I wrinkled my nose. “What an ugly name. Charlotte’s… okay I guess.” I filed it away as yet another placeholder.

Lukas returned to me. "There's more servitors coming! We have got to go." 

Out of time, I turned to my dirty disheveled rescues. They were huddled together, staring at me, wide eyed with fear.

For a brief moment, I wanted to return with them to Cassell. But I was still there at that time, on a plane flight to Japan. They would wonder how I could be two places at once. I didn’t know how they would react if they found out I was the daughter of a dragon, of the enemy. I didn’t know how my father would react if I told them.

I knelt in front of the group. I was so tired. They cowered away from me clinging to one another.

"Alright everyone, we're going to be free. I'm taking you so you don't have to live in cages any more." I looked at them all in turn. "I know you're scared, so everyone hold hands. Lukas, make sure they're all holding tight to each other."

A few of them began to cry, a roar came terribly close.

I took a deep breath and focussed, closing my eyes, lowering my head. One by one, the stars I saw in the vision of the lab pinpointed their way into an inky black sky in my imagination. Things were suddenly clear in my head. I could see where I was going. Only it was far, so very far. 

The world turned dark and cold.

One… two… three…

A heaviness overcame me. I felt like I was sinking. This felt wrong. I grew more and more frightened as I lingered in that cold and frigid darkness.

I was losing grip on my thoughts. My focus on my destination was fading. I pulled hard with all the strength I had left, my mind reaching through the dark, to the pinpoint of light, the goal.

The sound of rushing wind filled my ears. Warm sea air hit my senses. I was laying in the grass. 

"Charlotte!" I heard Lukas say, fear in his voice.

He was scared, scared for me. My hands, they were claws! My skin had turned scaly. I was still turning into a servitor? No, I couldn’t! Not now!

"Release!" I focussed the words on myself now. The fury of my dragon's body burst inside collapsing me. The head-on impact of the words against the full momentum of my blood rage sent me spinning with pain . It hurt so much I couldn't breathe or scream, or think.

I choked, letting out strangled gasps from air. I wanted to pass out. I wanted to die.

My vision dimmed. With my strength leaving, I squeezed a voice out of my dry throat. "Did we make it?"

His answer sounded far away as I sank under waves of pain. "We made it."

Next Chapter

[asflowersfade]

Scribble-Doodle: Blind!Alec #11

Set in my in-show AU where Alec’s been blind since birth. Magnus’ apartment is visited by an unsavory entity.

Previous ficlets:

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

Alec’s lying curled up on Magnus’ couch, reading a book - running his fingers lightly over the dot-dot-dots on pages that are otherwise blank, or so he was told - when it happens, when a light breeze touches his face, in a room where all the windows and doors are closed, and a whiff of sulfur tickles his nose. Hell!

He freezes, all of his senses suddenly on alert, because he knows that something changed. He knows that he is not alone in the living room anymore. He suppresses his automatic reaction to call out and ask who’s there. It would be rather silly. If it were a friend, they would’ve identified themselves by now, and an enemy… well, they would hardly give away their position to the blind guy by replying.

Besides, he already knows who’s there. True, maybe not specifically who but what. The faint smell of sulfur means it’s a demon. And the crackling of ozone that’s making the hair on his forearms stand up means it’s a greater demon at the very least. And considering this thing crossed Magnus’ wards… Raziel. Alec’s in a world of trouble.

There’s the faintest of sounds, a shuffle of feet on the hardwood floor, somewhere to Alec’s left, by the windows - and Alec reacts. He rolls off the couch - his book falls to the floor with a dull thump - and as he comes up in a crouch, he grabs his cane - always in his reach - and twists it in the middle to release the Seraph Blades hidden in both ends; they fall into place with a silent snick.

He knows that there’s a low coffee table on his left now in addition to the couch on his right and that at least some of the furniture pieces around are antique and Magnus would be unhappy if they were damaged - but Alec also knows that any harm done to his lover would make Magnus much unhappier, probably downright furious, so damn the furniture.

“I’m impressed,” says a low voice right in front of him; Alec was right, the demon’s by the window, “that you noticed me despite your handicap.”

Alec runs his left hand down the cane to grip it more firmly. “I’m blind, not incompetent. And I am a Shadowhunter,” he replies.

“Yes, I can see that,” the man - it is a man or at least the demon’s wearing a male disguise - says, rather amused.

Slowly, Alec starts turning around as he follows the demon’s movements, the whisper of his steps on the bare floor; once Alec started coming over regularly, Magnus got rid of all his rugs to make sure that Alec wouldn’t stumble over one on accident. Now it allows Alec to track the enemy’s progress across the room.

“Who are you and what do you want?” Alec asks in a firm voice, though his heart’s hammering hard. He can fight off a demon attack in his home territory, he even managed to vanquish Abaddon when the monster attacked the Institute… but if this guy is as powerful as Alec suspects, then Alec has little to no chance to stop him if he decides to kill Alec.

Another amused huff, almost a chuckle. “Didn’t Magnus mention me? How... odd. I would’ve thought he did, considering your intimate relationship. Maybe you are not as close as one might think, seeing you all cozied up in here.”

“Or maybe you simply aren’t important enough to him to mention you, even in passing. It happens,” Alec remarks with the same amount of condescension.

Something changes. It’s as if in the blink of an eye, the temperature dropped several degrees. And this time when the demon replies, his voice is as cold and hard as ice. “Oh, I am important to Magnus Bane, little Shadowhunter. You could say that without me, he wouldn’t be here. And I think it’s high time I reminded him of that.”

Before Alec can do anything, react in any way, a heavy, breath-stealing weight drops onto his shoulders, driving him to the ground. But he tries to resist, leaning against his cane, but even that can’t seem to stop the pressure for the tip of the Seraph Blade at its end starts burying itself into the polished wood, sinking into it. Alec groans.

And then there’s a hand on his face, fingers under his chin lifting his head up, though he can’t see the demon in front of him. And this time, the voice whispers directly into his ear, “Ask him who I am, little Shadowhunter. Ask your lover who came for a visit and could’ve stolen the most precious thing from him. Ask him that! I wonder - will he answer?”

The moment Magnus enters his building, he senses that something’s wrong. Bypassing the elevator, he charges up the stairs, breathless and with his heart pounding, and when he reaches the top floor, his floor, he stops short because the wards around his apartment are damaged, flickering where they should be invisible, torn to shreds. No!

Not thinking of his own safety even for a second, Magnus throws the front door open and barges in, calling Alec’s name, because Alec was here when Magnus left to run an errand, he should still be here, and if he was here when… when…

“Here, in the living room!” Alec calls back, and though he sounds rather shaken, he also sounds more than a little annoyed.

Magnus runs into the living room and once again he stops in mid-stride and his heart leaps into his throat. All the furniture in the room is shoved aside, lying in broken piles by the walls. And there, in the middle of the room, Alec’s standing perfectly still in the center of a glowing pentagram. Seeing the symbols burned into its edge, Magnus shivers, suddenly cold to the bone.

“Don’t move!” he snaps out a warning.

Alec glares in his direction. “Duh!” he snaps back.

Right. “Sorry,” Magnus apologizes.

Considering that Alec hasn’t moved a muscle so far, he must know perfectly well what’s happening - that if he moves an inch, he’ll burn. Because that’s what the pentagram’s purpose is, to keep things - demons, people, anyone and anything - in and make sure they stay in. But this one is so small, so tight that the tiniest of movements would be enough to kill Alec.

Slowly, Magnus steps forward, towards the pentagram. “I’ll break the spell now. It’s a powerful one so you might feel it go,” he warns.

Alec just breathes in deeply. And Magnus allows himself a second to ponder just how long Alec’s been standing there, unmoving, because he’s visibly trembling now and sweats pouring down his face from the exertion. Then Magnus pushes this thought out of his mind and focuses on the spell.

Lifting his arms in front of him, Magnus reaches out to grab the power of the spell - and then he pulls, draining it from the pentagram and gathering it in a ball between the palms of his hands. The energy’s furiously red and overly bright, almost blinding, but Magnus refuses to let go, he pulls and pulls, siphoning the power, until all of it is collected in his hands. 

And then he squeezes it, turning the ball smaller and smaller with the strength of his will alone, until he slams his hands together with a loud boom and the energy soaks up into his arms, his veins glowing for a moment. The power floods all the cells in his body until he feels like he’s floating. He knows he’ll have to release it soon or it’ll fry him from the inside but for the moment, it’ll keep - and then, he’ll use it to renew and reinforce the wards around his home. And this time, they will be impenetrable!

“Magnus?” Alec asks uncertainly when he hears his lover gasp sharply.

“Give me a moment,” Magnus rasps, hands clasped together tightly and eyes squeezed shut as he tries to contain the power coursing through him now. It takes a while but in the end, he gets it under control and finally breathes out easily again.

“Okay, okay. Only a moment now, love,” Magnus assures Alec, then he waves his hand and two of the floorboards crack, the fissures running directly through the pentagram, breaking its spell with a barely heard pop. “Done. It’s over.”

The moment Magnus says those words, Alec’s knees buckle and he starts to reel. Magnus rushes forward and catches him before he can fall. Alec’s breath is shallow and the shivers running through his body are almost overwhelming now.

“Ow, ow, ow,” Alec mutters as Magnus props him up. “Cramps!”

Magnus throws Alec’s arm across his shoulders and wraps his own arm around Alec’s waist. He looks around but there’s no furniture left intact in the living room. With an irritated sound, he waves a hand and a couch - a new one with the price tag still attached - pops into existence only a step or two away.

“Couch, three feet behind you,” Magnus tells Alec and gently guides him to it. When he lowers Alec down carefully, he drops down to his knees in front of him and starts running his hands up and down Alec’s legs, massaging the knotted, cramped muscles there.

“Thanks,” Alec groans, then he grits his teeth when Magnus’ deft fingers hit a particularly hard knot.

“What happened?” Magnus asks anxiously. “How long have you been standing there?”

Alec rests his head against the back of the couch with a sigh. “What time is it?”

Magnus looks down at his watch. “Four am.”

“Then I stood there for at least three hours,” Alec croaks out. “The longest three hours of my life, I have to tell you.”

Magnus winces.

“And as to what happened,” Alec continues, “I was told to ask you that.”

Magnus stills, staring down at Alec’s knee.

After a moment of heavy silence, Alec sits up. He reaches out carefully so as not to smack Magnus in the face and touches his cheek gently. “Magnus? Who was that demon? He said he was important to you and I should ask you who he was. I mean, I gathered that he was a powerful one, a greater demon at the very least if he broke through your wards but--”

“It was my father,” Magnus whispers, still looking down, and shudders a little. “It was Asmodeus, one of the Seven Princes of Hell.”

Alec drops his hand to Magnus’ shoulder and leaves it there. For a long while, he doesn’t say anything.

In the end, Magnus cannot stand it any longer and he looks up. Alec has a peculiar expression on his face. It’s not fear or disgust or anything like that. His eyebrows are simply raised, his eyes half-closed as usual - when Alec stopped wearing his wraparound sunglasses around Magnus’ home, this show of trust filled Magnus with a warm sense of happiness - and he seems curious more than anything else.

“Huh. I guess I now understand why he wanted to remind you that he was still there,” Alec replies simply.

Magnus grimaces. “That’s what this was about?”

Alec nods.

Magnus’ grimace deepens. “I’m sorry about that.”

Damn that monster to hell. Or, to a deeper hell. One that he could never again crawl out of. Magnus hasn’t crossed paths with Asmodeus or even heard of him for several human lifetimes now and he hoped that it would remain so for at least as long as Alec lived. Apparently, that was a vain hope.

Magnus sighs. “I guess we have to talk, huh?”

Alec runs his hand up Magnus’ shoulder and his neck to rest it against his cheek again, then he leans forward carefully and kisses Magnus on the forehead. “Yes, that we do. But first” --he starts scrambling to his feet urgently-- “I need to pee!”

[twobrokewriters]

Hetalia: USUK fanfic- He’s Sweeter Than Sugar (Request from anonymous)

Written by: Admin Sunny

How could anyone live in that dump?? A few houses down from Alfred Jones’ fancy, luxurious 2-story house, there was a similar, but much larger Victorian style mansion- completely in shambles. The windows were boarded up and broken out, the yard was overgrown, and the porch was rotted out. If there was ever a house that looked haunted, it was that one. But it was definitely no ghost Alfred saw scurry across the porch and open the door, late one night when driving home from hanging out with some friends at his favorite sports bar. Despite the fact that this guy definitely had the pale, ghastly looking skin, that was about where the similarities to a ghost ended. This man was very much alive, evident by his...clumsiness? As he tried to open the door, he fumbled his rusted keys and dropped them; when he bent over to pick them up, a shiny book and a piece of malachite fell out of the black cloak draped around his shoulders. As far as Alfred knew, if a ghost carried things with him, he used his supernatural powers to keep everything from falling out, and would probably just go through a locked door instead of taking the time to unlock it.

Alfred hated to be nosy, but every time he drove past that house, or walked past it when he was walking his dog, he would always glance over at it, being careful not to stop in case it was haunted so the ghosts wouldn’t notice him. He hadn’t ever noticed this before, but there would infrequently be lights on- only in one room of the house at any given time- shining through the delicate, lacy white curtains and scratched, dirty windows. The entire house looked pathetic, which furthered the question...if there really was someone living here, why wouldn’t they fix up the place? Did they even notice what a craphole they lived in? The house was a fine, sprawling mansion built in 1905, but it was so beaten down and sad-looking that it may as well have been a simple tool shed- and probably just as dingy and full of cobwebs on the inside. But if it was that bad on the inside, then why were the curtains so white? They seemed to be the only thing there that anyone cared about. Maybe that was why the outside looked so terrible- the man that lived there spent so much time making sure that the inside of the house was immaculate that he couldn’t focus on the upkeep of the outside. There were some times when he was still outside after dark, driving home or just having been caught by the sunset while walking his dog when he started too late in the day, where Alfred could see strange colors of light flashing from what he assumed must have been the cellar door around back; or, once, from the downstairs windows. Was this guy setting off fireworks in his house too?? Alfred thought he would have heard the explosions if it was fireworks, so this just didn’t make any sense to him at all! That wasn’t to say that sometimes there weren’t explosions coming from that house- Alfred hated it most of all when it was in the middle of the night, where everything that goes boom in the darkness sounds like a gunshot. No matter how hard Alfred tried to make sense of everything he’d seen there, nothing fit. It wouldn’t even make sense for that to be a secret alien research facility. One of the very weirdest parts of all to Alfred, however, was that apparently none of the neighbors had any idea this was going on. They swore up and down that the house was vacant, and that the explosions and rainbow of lights were rowdy teenagers going and lighting off fireworks in the basement. It still just didn’t add up to Alfred, though.

But nothing had compared to what had initially seemed like a regular Friday night. Alfred had almost fallen asleep, when there was what sounded like a massive thunderclap, so loud it made the windows buzz- but there hadn’t been a cloud in the sky! He looked out the window, and he could clearly see that, over the thorny bramble climbing up the backyard fence, there was an ominous red light coming out of the basement...and more tiny, glowing white orbs scattered around the house than he had ever seen. He quickly got dressed and ran out onto the street to see what was going on. Once he got out there, almost all of the orbs were gone, but Alfred could still see some floating around the property lazily, and the red light was still there. He hated to do this, but he just had to find out what was going on here. He nervously stepped onto the cracked walkway, almost entirely grown over by the weedy lawn, nervous of what he might find as he proceeded forwards onto the creaky porch until he was in front of the door. His hand shaking, Alfred rang the doorbell. A tremendous, deep, chiming echoed out of the house. The red light and orbs immediately disappeared- something that didn't exactly sit well with Alfred. Moments later, the door slowly creaked open just a crack, allowing a glimpse of the oddly lavish inside- crystal chandeliers, damask wallpaper, marble floors- and of the man he had seen scurrying across the porch long ago. All Alfred could see through the door was his shaggy blonde hair, milky pale skin, his sharp green eyes, cloak draped around his shoulders over a green waistcoat, some kind of white shirt with lace on the cuffs, and brown slacks- and most notably, his massive, bushy eyebrows.

“Why are you here?” the man asked in a very quiet, slightly raspy, but still demanding British accent.

“Um...I wanted to ask what was with the… the red light and stuff? It’s really weird and the noise woke me up?” Alfred tried not to stare at the huge black caterpillars on the man’s head.

“It’s none of your business! Now go away,” the man snapped. He was about to close the door but Alfred stuck his foot in the crack.

“Wait,” he said.

The man came back to the door, glaring at him.

“I wanted to ask if you could keep it down to a dull roar,” Alfred said, crossing his arms. “I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one on the street that all this racket is bothering. I mean, come on, man, it's the middle of the night. Couldn't you do this during the day?”

“I do this at night because I can't do it in the day,” he responded.

“What sort of stuff can you do at night that you can't do in the day??” Alfred asked.

“Things that you wouldn't understand! Now go away, I'm very busy with my current...er, undertaking!!!” With that, the man slammed the door in his face.

That sure wasn't suspicious or anything. Alfred went back home, unable to stop thinking about how weird all this was. Curiosity flowed through him like a drug, binding him to that house and its mysterious occupant. He would periodically look out the window into the backyard of that house, only to find that he wasn't able to tell what was going on than any more than before- it still wasn't a good enough view to see more than just the weird colors of light. This continued for days, until he saw a unicorn...dashing out of the backyard...and the man chasing after it??? Something crazy was going on there, Alfred just knew it.

As much as Alfred hated to intrude, he couldn't just sit there and let all this stuff happen without knowing about it. That's why the next morning he came to the doorstep of that old house, with a flashlight in his hand, and a Swiss Army knife in his pocket, just in case a unicorn attacks him or something. He rang the doorbell and waited. In the time that he was waiting, he heard all kinds of curious sounds from inside the house…. sci-fi like levitation noises, random twinkling, even a terrifying roar-scream! But no walking up to the door and angry muttering like last time. Alfred rang the doorbell again. Still nothing.

Okay, something was very wrong with this picture. He tried opening the front door, but it was locked. Alfred ran through the tangle of weeds that was the lawn to the backyard, where the gate had literally fallen off its hinges. Taking his knife out, he walked around the absolutely disgusting fountain onto the cracked bricks of the back porch, and tried the back door. Not only was it locked too, but the knob was rusted, and wouldn't even jiggle as a typical locked doorknob would.

Alfred was starting to worry. Was that man okay?? What was going on in the house? Had mutants taken the house over and killed its occupant? He hadn't heard the man’s voice at all yet, or anything human in nature… only the chilling sounds of whatever beast was in there.

A bright flash of violet light shone through the cellar doors...one of which was wide open!

Alfred didn't even care about being scared anymore, and climbed down the rickety stairs into the cellar, turning on his flashlight.

It was like walking into Doctor Frankenstein’s laboratory, mixed with tinges of 15th century alchemy. Vials of neon colored liquids lined the walls on wooden shelves, arranged carefully by size. A pot-belly stove sat in the corner, with a massive copper pot on top, filled with a foul-smelling black boiling goo. Books lay open on every surface, except for a few levitating books. There were empty cauldrons and large crystals lining the walls, and all manner of large, intricately carved sticks. Alfred walked across the room tentatively, carefully observing his surroundings. He looked down and noticed he was standing in the middle of a pentagram painted on the stone floor, surrounded by small candles. Alfred jumped and ran out of the summoning circle, staring at it. He then turned around and started for the door again. Past the summoning circle, around a bend, was mostly ordinary looking objects… the operative word being mostly. There were things like a chair turned upside down on the floor, an inexplicably floating table, a vase that would slide across the floor every so often, and a ceramic poodle statue that, as soon as it noticed Alfred, opened up its red glowing eyes, and let out this surreal sounding, deep bark that sounded more like ten poodles barking in a cave.

Creeped out by the poodle statue, Alfred turned around and ran back towards the door to the rest of the house. The door to the rest of the house was thankfully unlocked.

He opened the door and found himself in a hallway. It was just as Alfred thought- the inside of the house was beautiful and immaculate. There wasn't a single cobweb or blemish on the ornate damask wallpaper, nor a strand of the runner carpet out of place.

Alfred walked down the hall, mesmerized by the cleanliness of everything. But when he reached the end of the hall, what he saw shocked him. The window didn't look dirty at all from the inside, yet he had seen this window from outside, scratched and marred with age.

Alfred stopped before a painting of one of the queens of England, and he noticed it seemed to be one of those trick paintings where the eyes always look directly at the person viewing the painting no matter where they stand.

“My, today is just lovely, isn't it?” the painting spoke. “Would you care for a cup of tea?”

Alfred screamed and ran back down the hall. That painting just talked to him! This house was really starting to play tricks on his mind. “What an odd young man,” he heard the painting say faintly from down the hall.

Suddenly there was a brilliant flash of red light from the door back out to the cellar, followed by black fog creeping out into the hall. Alfred stuck his head into the open door, and looked inside.

The room was full of red light, and directly inside on the summoning circle, a figure shrouded in tattered black robes, with only its wings, skeletal hands and shining red eyes visible, floated on a swirling cloud of black fog.

Alfred screamed and slammed the door. He liked the talking painting better than this. He turned around to go explore the other end of the hall...and was face-to-face with the demon he just saw.

Alfred tried to run but it snatched him up by his shirt with its bony hands. It wordlessly scrutinized him, and threw him on the ground.

“Stay back! I've got a knife!” Alfred threatened in a tight, wavering voice, reaching for his Swiss Army knife. The demon let out a low growl and, with a swish of its hand, the knife was out of Alfred’s pocket, encapsulated in a red orb, and incinerated into ashes that swirled down to the carpet gently.

“Dammit, that cost sixty-” Alfred was cut off by the demon encapsulating Alfred in a translucent black orb.

“See… you… in… hell…” the demon slowly and deliberately said with a voice like nails on a chalkboard.

Was that… Alfred could feel the life forces being drained from him slowly. This was the end, wasn't it? This wasn't how he wanted to die, in some trippy house, killed by a demon!

The world began to fade around him…

Alfred, all at once, felt his body fall onto the ground. He sat up, gasping. “What happened???” he asked, looking around the hall.

The man with the large eyebrows and black cloak from earlier knelt in front of him, a wooden, curved staff in one hand and a glowing crystal in the other. A spell book lay open on the floor.

“You died, for just a moment,” the man explained, moving closer to Alfred. “I saw him as he was starting to remove your soul. But I trapped him in this crystal and returned your life energy to you. I saved you.”

Alfred looked around again, sighing and laughing a bit. “I survived,” he said. “I'm alive. I'm actually alive! I.. I don't know how to thank you! Thanks…”

The man pulled down the hood of his cloak and stood up, smiling just a bit. “Arthur. Arthur Kirkland.” His forest green eyes were full of a mystical light and joy at having defeated the demon.

“...Arthur,” Alfred finished his sentence.

“What were you doing in my house??” Arthur asked, holding his hand out to help Alfred get up.

“I was worried about you.” Alfred took his hand and got up. “I mean, there were all these scary noises, and you didn't answer the door! I thought something killed you.”

“I kept you away from here for a reason. It's just too dangerous here. But I should have known someone like you wouldn't listen,” Arthur chastised him, shaking his head.

“I'm sorry, but I thought you were dead! Is it wrong for me to be concerned about you when I don't even know you?” Alfred said.

“Thanks for checking on me, I'm fine,” Arthur said shortly. “Now you know the truth. I'm a wizard. You know why my house keeps making weird noises.”

“Really? Aren't wizards supposed to be all wrinkly and old, with the weird pointy hats with stars?” Alfred asked.

“Why does everyone I meet think that?? This is part of the reason I don't tell people I'm a wizard. In reality, most wizards look pretty normal, save for sometimes having a clothing item that enhances our magic capabilities, like my cloak. In this case it also serves as storage.” Arthur looked up at the ceiling. “I know you walked across the summoning circle. That's why that demon appeared. This is a dangerous place for anyone without magic. Come, I'll walk you to the front door.”

Arthur led Alfred down the other end of the hall, stopped about halfway there to greet a painting of Winston Churchill- which really gave Alfred the creeps when he tugged on his jacket and muttered a greeting back around his cigar- and unlocked the front door.

“You can just go on home now...but wait. Before I go, I just wanted to know your name,” Arthur said.

“My name is Alfred Jones, and thank you once again for saving my life,” Alfred answered, holding his hand out.

Arthur timidly shook it. Alfred noticed how soft and silky smooth his hands were. The kind of hands used to holding wands and turning spell book pages.

“Until next time, Arthur.” Alfred turned around and started down the walkway to his house.

All Alfred could do was smile as the windows of Arthur’s house glowed with a green light.

It wasn't too long after Alfred sat down to his usual fast food dinner, a day after the fateful first visit to Arthur’s house, that there was a knock at the door.

When he answered it, a nervous Arthur stood on the doorstep, his cloak pulled tightly around his shoulders with one hand and the other behind his back, and his feet turned inward. To all the neighbors he probably looked like a vampire trying to weasel his way into the house.

“Arthur? What's going on?” Alfred stared at him curiously. He hoped he wouldn't notice that there was ketchup on his shirt.

“I… I just wanted to say thank you…” Arthur said. “You were the only person who gave me a chance. Other people are so judgmental, and run from me… but you sought me out. And that you said you were worried about me… you are just too sweet. That's why… that's why I put this together for you.”

He held out a basket, with a nice little purple ribbon on the handle, full of all kinds of sweet treats.

Alfred excitedly took it. “This is awesome! How did you know I loved cupcakes?”

“Who doesn't?” Arthur chuckled at his own comment. “I made all those, except the butterscotch candies in the bottom of the basket, from scratch. Go on, try one!”

Alfred set the basket on the porch end table and unwrapped a chocolate muffin. It looked good enough, he thought. He took a bite of it, and his eyes went wide in surprise. It wasn't sweet at all, and it was pretty dry.

“So? What do you think? I've never cooked for anyone but myself before so I was sort of scared to make these...but I just knew you'd love them!” Arthur beamed.

There was no way Alfred could crush Arthur's spirit like that, with his green eyes sparkling like fireworks and that cute smile with his uneven teeth showing… it’s the thought that counts, right?

“This is absolutely delicious, Arthur,” Alfred forced himself to say, grinning. “Best muffin in the whole dang world. Thank you!”

“I've never had anybody to give treats to,” Arthur said shyly. “I'm glad they turned out well.”

“Can I offer some constructive criticism?” Alfred asked.

“Sure,” Arthur said.

“Try using more sugar, and less cocoa powder….”

Arthur's eyes went wide. “You have to put extra sugar into them???”

“Yeah,” Alfred said, ashamed that he got caught lying about the muffin being good.

“I thought cocoa powder came with sugar in it!!” He grabbed one of the muffins and bit into it- and immediately spat it out. “It's terrible!! How could you possibly like this stuff?? I'm so sorry these came out so bad!”

“It's okay, Arthur, I'm glad you brought these. They might not be the best, but it's the thought that counts, right?” Alfred said.

All Arthur did was stare at his feet.

“I want you to teach me how to make cupcakes,” he finally said.

“What??” Alfred said. “You're kidding… I can't make cupcakes! I mean, not without a mix! And that's if I'm lucky. I'm sorry but I'm just not a baker.”

Yet somehow, later that evening, he stood in Arthur's kitchen, staring at an empty bowl and the crumpled piece of paper that held a cupcake recipe he printed out just before coming over. Arthur looked over his shoulder.

“What's a ‘tisp’?” he finally asked.

“A what?” Alfred held up the flour bag and shook it. Little white clouds of dust spewed out of the partially open top and made both of them cough.

“Look, see,” Arthur pointed out on the paper once the flour settled. “It says one ‘tisp’ of butter.”

“I think that means teaspoon,” Alfred said. “Or is it tablespoon? Ugh, I don't remember. My mom would know. She was great at cooking. Measuring, too.”

“I didn't measure the ingredients when I made those cupcakes and muffins,” Arthur confessed.

“That's an issue. They put the directions on cake mixes for a reason,” Alfred said.

“Let's start measuring?” Arthur held up the paper. “What goes in first?”

“I think you put the dry ingredients and then the wet stuff like eggs and milk?” Alfred realized he really didn't know either. His mom hadn't taught him how to make cupcakes from scratch either. He hated to admit it but pretty much the only way he could bake was if he used a cake mix or premade cookie dough.

After some disagreement, they got all the ingredients into the bowl.

“So is it ready to bake?” Arthur asked.

“No, we need to mix it.” Alfred looked around the kitchen. “Do you have a mixer?”

“I think so, somewhere in a drawer.”

Alfred looked through all the drawers in the kitchen until he found an old electric mixer.

He plugged it in, and turned it on.

“Now you just put it in there and stir it!” Alfred gave the mixer to Arthur. He dipped it into the top, which flung egg whites around.

“No, no, put it all the way down! All the way down!” Alfred cried out.

“I'm sorry,” Arthur said.

“Here, I'll help you stir it…” Alfred took Arthur's hand and gently guided his arm as he stirred the cake ingredients.

After a few minutes the batter had been mixed.

“Does this- does this look okay?” Arthur asked.

“I think so,” Alfred said. He dipped a finger into the batter to taste it. “I mean, it definitely tastes sweet enough. Let's put it in the cake pans! You do have cupcake pans, right?”

“In the oven!” Arthur declared.

“We preheated the oven!” Alfred cried, running to the stove with oven mitts in hand. “You're not supposed to put the cupcake batter into HOT pans!”

“I'm- I'm sorry,” Arthur apologized.

“It should be fine anyway. Here, let's pour the batter in…” Alfred said.

The fact that as soon as the batter touched the hot pans it sizzled and bubbled didn't look right to Alfred but they put the cupcakes in the oven this way anyway.

“Now cook for 30 minutes,” Alfred read off of the page.”

“In the meantime, may I show you my library?” Arthur suggested.

“It's not like I have anything better to do,” Alfred said over a giggle.

The two men went up the stairs, Alfred being careful to not make eye contact with any of Arthur's creepy talking paintings.

Arthur opened the first door on the right, and before them was a beautiful library, shelves lining the walls and a fountain pen on the ornate writing desk.

“This is beautiful,” Alfred gasped, spinning around the room. “How many books do you have in here??”

“Several hundred, at the very least.” Arthur took a book out of its place on a shelf. “Many of these are very old books. This particular one is from...it seems to be 1899.”

“It looks like new!” Alfred exclaimed, taking the book out of Arthur's hands. The cover hadn't frayed at all, and the crisp pages were still their original silky ivory white color.

“Well, restoration is so much easier when you can use magic,” Arthur said with a chuckle.

“What else have you got in here?” Alfred gave the book back to Arthur, looking around the room excitedly. He hadn’t been much of a reader before, aside from reading texts and posts on social media, but somehow, Arthur was able to get him all excited about books.

“Alfred, I think a better question would be, what don’t I have?” Arthur hesitated for a moment before taking Alfred by the hand and leading him around the room, showing him his favorite books. Alfred noticed Arthur only let go of his hand when he absolutely had to, to get books from the top shelves or things of that nature that required two hands. It wasn’t too much of a surprise to Alfred, but he was just fine with this.

“Wow, this book smells weird,” Alfred observed, giggling a little when Arthur opened a book of Shakespeare’s plays. “It smells almost like something burning!”

“It does?” Arthur leaned in and sniffed the pages of the book. “It just smells like paper to me.”

Suddenly, out in the hallway, a faint, “Arthur!! Arthur, it’s an emergency!” rang out.

“The Queen’s calling us!” Arthur practically dragged Alfred downstairs to see what the painting wanted. The burning smell was much stronger down here.

“Pardon me for interrupting, but your cake is burning!” the painting cried out.

“Oh, God, the cupcakes!! I forgot!!” Arthur exclaimed, running to the oven and turning it off. Alfred put on two oven mitts and opened the oven door. Smoke poured out of the oven, filling the kitchen with a terrible burnt smell. Alfred picked up the charred cupcakes and set them on the countertop. They didn’t even look like cupcakes; instead, they looked more like dark volcanic rocks sitting in cupcake pans.

Alfred and Arthur stared at the cupcakes in disappointment.

“You like your cupcakes well done?” Alfred finally asked. “At least they’re not going to be gooey in the middle!”

Arthur laughed, though he was still disappointed about the cupcakes being burnt.

“I’m sorry, Alfred,” he finally said after a few minutes. “This is all my fault. I shouldn’t have brought you up to my library. If we had stayed down here on the lower level, we would have heard the timer.”

“It’s okay, Arthur, this was just your first lesson.” Alfred put an arm around Arthur’s shoulder, looking into his eyes knowingly. “Looks like the lesson here was: don’t leave your food unattended!”

“Can- can we do this again tomorrow?” Arthur asked, smiling. “I like baking with you. I feel like you’re the only person I’ve ever really been able to have fun with.”

“How about brownies?” Alfred said.

Every day that Alfred wasn’t busy after that, he came over to Arthur’s house, with new recipes, ingredients and baking supplies. Ever since the first time they had successfully created a finished dessert that wasn’t burned, their cooking lessons were filled with friendly touches and caresses, shy glances and turning away once the other noticed he was staring, and occasionally feeding each other the delicious treats they made together.

This all eventually culminated in Alfred one day suddenly bolting upright in bed, realizing that he wanted to be more than friends with Arthur. His feelings didn’t come as a surprise to him, but what did was the realization that it seemed like Arthur wanted to be more than friends too. Alfred had to tell Arthur how he felt, but it was just such a precarious subject. He had to word it just right, or he’d risk losing everything he and Arthur had achieved so far, over these months they’d been friends, since that first day Alfred went and knocked on his door with peeling paint. Three days, countless Google searches for “how to tell your friend you want to be more than friends” and lots of worrying later...there was a knock at Alfred’s door.

Alfred answered it. His heart thudded to a stop when he noticed it was Arthur, once again, hiding something behind his back. His cloak was drawn down over his shaggy eyebrows, and he looked even more pale and nervous than usual.

“Is- is… is something w-wrong?” Alfred managed to stammer out.

“Um…” Arthur hesitated, staring into Alfred’s eyes and seeming to zone out for just a tiny second. “Oh. Right. I… I noticed that you didn’t come by for our cooking lessons in the past few days…”

“Oh. I’m really sorry about that. I was...busy...doing things…” Alfred mentally facepalmed. That reeked of awkwardness. He couldn’t sound more like he had something to hide if he tried.

“I was a little bit worried about you. I’m- I’m really glad to see your face again.” Arthur smiled feebly.

“I’m glad to see you too, Arthur.” Alfred tucked a piece of his blonde hair behind his ear.

“It- it gave me some time to think about...er….things. Can- can I come in to tell you...the news I have?” asked Arthur. He sighed deeply. “I’m not sure whether it’ll be good news or bad news to you. I imagine bad news.”

“S-sure,” Alfred answered, surprised. He stepped out of the doorway, letting Arthur inside. Arthur carefully walked through the door, making sure to not show what was behind his back to Alfred.

Alfred closed the door, making note of the fact that whatever Arthur had made a rustling noise.

Arthur looked around the room. The inside wasn’t quite as spotless as in Arthur’s house, but it still looked presentable. Shelves containing various sports memorabilia and American flag motif items lined the walls, interrupted only by the wall-mount flat screen TV and entertainment center. A large bookcase filled with DVDs and video games sat next to the leather sectional sofa, which had a throw blanket featuring a bald eagle draped over the armrest on the chaise lounge.

“What was the news you wanted to tell me?” Alfred asked, settling down into the recliner.

Arthur took a deep breath and tried to not look nervous.

“I had some time to myself when- when we weren’t having our lessons, and I realized something. Something rather astonishing.” Arthur hesitated, then continued. “I realized- I… Alfred, I’m- I think you… I wanted to be… I love you, Alfred.” Arthur instantly regretted wording it this way. What if it came across as creepy? He shut his eyes tight, and held out the roses, white lilies and deep blue chrysanthemums he had brought out to Alfred.

Alfred didn’t say anything, his eyes and mouth wide open in shock. After a moment he took the bouquet, staring at it.

“Arthur, I…” Alfred was too surprised to say anything.

Arthur slowly opened his eyes. The expression on Alfred’s face was too hard to read. Was he angry or happy?

His question was answered when Alfred jumped up out of the chair, threw his arms around Arthur and kissed him on the lips.

Arthur pulled away instantly out of shock, but upon seeing the hurt in Alfred’s blue eyes, realized this was the wrong move to make and kissed him back instead. Neither of them could believe this was really happening. Besides abstract love, the only other thing running through both of their minds was that they should have done this earlier.

After they parted, it was now Arthur who was left speechless.

“Arthur, I wanted to tell you the exact same thing,” Alfred said, cupping Arthur’s chin in his hand. “That’s why I didn’t come by. I was trying to figure out how to tell you how I felt. And then you came over with flowers, in my favorite colors too, and- and that was the only way I knew how to tell you I felt the same way. I love you too.”

None of his magic potions he’d tried had made Arthur feel quite this way before. This was what being in love felt like? It had been just as good as all the authors who wrote about it said it was- possibly even better. No- definitely even better. They hadn’t been in love with Alfred Jones, and he hadn’t loved them back.

Their cooking lessons resumed, but this time they spent the time waiting for the cakes, brownies and macarons to bake doing things such as kissing in the dining room, or sometimes just holding onto each other and wondering exactly how they got so lucky as to be brought together.

It was Arthur, actually, who had suggested they go on their first proper date...which would actually have been the first time Arthur had been out in public with regular humans since he was a young child. Alfred was kind of surprised that he wanted to do this, but Arthur had said to him that he gave him the courage to try all sorts of things he wouldn’t have so much as dreamt of doing before. And so the two men went out for dinner at a nice Italian restaurant. Arthur didn’t even care that almost all of the patrons had been giving them funny looks- most of them for Arthur’s odd, almost vampire-like appearance, and some of them for the fact that they were two men on a date together- and neither did Alfred. Their date went splendid, even during the part where Arthur attempted to offer the waiter a charm or enchantment of his choice as a tip.

But the very best part was the kiss good night. It further reminded both of them of the loving, intimate bond that neither of them had ever expected that they would one day share, as did all the kisses they shared after that.

For Alfred, curiosity most definitely didn’t kill the cat. He had never been so thankful to have been a concerned neighbor. He thanked his lucky stars every time he held Arthur close to him and kissed him that he visited that run-down, beaten up old house so long ago.

[helloimzerountamed]

DragonKiss

Chapter 7

The Woman With The Dragon Tattoo

As I’m continuing to run away from my aggressive family,the whole area around me turns into a giant gray equipment room and I’m now running on a neverending treadmill that disappears as a bright light blinds me.The gray equipment room has now disappeared and has been replaced by a bright,shopping mall.I could only stand in astonishment at this new place I’m at and my family was not anywhere in sight.”Hey,is anyone in there?!”The shopping mall around me begins to disappear and I soon find myself falling.

I’m startled by the sound of someone yelling outside.”How the hell could there be someone else’s this far at sea?”I’m thinking to myself until I step outside from the boat and realize that I’m being stupid;land ho indeed.”Hey!I’m still alive,alright?!”I smiled at the man from the boat while unpacking my luggage.

“Wait,where am I at?”I ask the same man after slipping my shoes on.He laughs pointing at a sign by the dock.”You’re in Fisherman’s Wharf,kiddo.”I realize that he isn’t joking around;I really had made it to San Francisco despite that hurricane.With a smile on my face,I take off running only to be stopped by the sound of my stomach growling so I decide to find somewhere to grab a bite to eat at.

San Francisco

Eventually,I decide to eat at one restaurant called Blue Mermaid where I’m served a bowl of chowder along with the traditional bread bowl.”Heavenly.”I say to myself as I pop a spoonful of each into my mouth that explodes with flavor in my mouth.I decide to finish off my heavenly meal with a glass of Italian sparkling water as I hear Funky Town being played in the restaurant.After my hunger fulfilling meal,I decide to do a little bit of sightseeing outside.There was so much to see in Fisherman’s Wharf:the beautiful houses,pretty flowers,cable cars,and even sea lions at Pier 39 docks.Shit,I have to let blackdragons_egg know where I’m at.I switch to Gmail and text her to her know that I made it to San Francisco.

To:blackdragons_egg

From:snapdragon_soup

Subject:Safe and Sound

6:00 p.m

I’ve finally made it to San Francisco at last.It wasn’t too hard getting here;just had to fight a huge hurricane.

To:snapdragon_soup

From:blackdragons_egg

Subject:phew

6:10 pm

You actually went through that hurricane that the news was talking about at sea?!Damn,You’re really are the amazing snapdragon.Now I’m even more eager to meet you tomorrow.By the way,I’ll be meeting you at the Castro District tomorrow in a Dairy Queen,I’ve asked a friend of mine if he can escort you there and he said it’s fine by him.

To:blackdragons_egg

From:snapdragon_soup

Subject:Ice Cream all the way

6:20 pm

Got you.Im really excited to meet you tomorrow.Im gonna check into the twin peaks motel for the night.Its been crazy these past few days.By the way,I’m wondering what you look like.Do you have colored hair,body modifications,piercings,tattoos,contacts,glasses.etc?

I take the city buses to the Twin Peaks hotel in the Castro District;Blackdragons_egg told me that you’ll know you’re in the Castro when you see Rainbows hung up everywhere,especially the giant rainbow flag I see.I check in the hotel for the night and unpack my luggage when I get a reply from blackdragons_egg about what she looks like.

To:snapdragon_soup

From:blackdragons_egg

Subject:I’m good looking first of all

7:00 pm

About my looks,well....My black hair is long and shiny,my skin is pale as fuck,my eyes are dark like my soul,I have luxurious red lips,a dog tag necklace,and I have a black dragon tattoo on my right arm.So if you see a woman there tomorrow who fits this description,it’s me.What about you?

I smile,reading her description of her physical appearance.After showering,I tell blackdragons_egg about my appearance,plug in my electronics for the night and drift into a deep sleep.

Castro District,San Francisco

I’m in the bright shopping mall again where I see my former classmate who tried to make me straight,my ex girlfriends,and a woman who’s walking towards me.Her long hair is black and shiny,her eyes were dark as coals,her red lips opened as she licked her lips,her skin was pale and on her right arm was a dragon tattoo.”We finally meet,snapdragon_soup.”She says to me.”blackdragons_egg.”I reach out to grab her hand but the scenery around me begins to disappear again.

I open my eyes to bright sunlight that’s shining through the window of my motel room.I check my phone for the time and realize that it’s 10 in the morning.I jump out bed,shower and slip on my best outfit for the day,bringing my luggage with me.I text blackdragons_egg to let her know that I’m on my way when all of a sudden,I see crossing the crosswalk a penguin with a yellow bow tie,blue sock,and a penguin shaped backpack walking towards me.”Hi there.”I said to the penguin who just looks at me with curiosity.I then get a notification from blackdragons_egg that reads,”What do you think of my friend?”that has a sly emoji next to her question.I take it that this penguin is the friend she was talking about.

”Excuse me but you wouldn’t happen to know a blackdragons_egg by any chance,wouldn’t you?”I asked and the penguin shakes his head yes as he waddles off,eagering me to follow him.We eventually make it to the Dairy Queen and take a seat at a small table inside.”Thank you for walking me here safely.Also,I love your penguin backpack.”I try to break the silence between me and this penguin who just stares at me,tilting his head.He then starts making noises as I hear the door chime go off.

I look at the front door where a woman walks in with long black hair,pale skin,red lips,dark colored eyes,and a black dragon tattoo on her right arm.She’s wearing a white tank top,black track pants with white stripes on each side of the leg,black and white sneakers,a silver and black dog tag necklace,and is even carrying a dark gray messenger bag with pentagrams on each strap.The woman with the dragon tattoo who fits blackdragons_egg’s appearance smiles and takes a seat at my table.

”Are you blackdragons_egg from Tumblr?”I asked her as I felt my face burning and she shakes her head in response.“It’s nice to finally meet you,snapdragon soup.”the woman says to me.I’m Ryu Murakami.It’s nice to meet you.I think you’re really pretty and...””Kayako.Kayako Yoshimura,.”She smiles,showing me her Tumblr page.”I shake hands with her,while still smiling like an idiot.”I’ll get you a blizzard if you want.Don't worry,I got this.”Kayako cuts me off as she goes up to the front counter to buy blizzards for the two of us and with that,we walk outside and around the rest of the Castro District.

Meanwhile in Shimokitazawa,

“Of all the lies she’s told us....”Airi mumbled under her breath as her sister in law tried to calm her down.”Im so sorry she’s putting you all of you guys through this.Even I tried to save her from this way of thinking but she was being too stubborn to accept the fact that being gay is an abomination.The young man adjusted his glasses as he looked at Airi,her kids,The Murakamis,and the pastor.”So she’s going to San Francisco?That's the same place where we protested at.Katsumi,Don’t you remember?we were protesting at a homo parade and we had brought her along with my own kids with us to protest against those...those..those...those.”Airi recalled.”Yes,That’s where she told me that’s where she was going to.But she never mentioned which part she’d be going to.”The young man looked down.”In that case,thank you for telling this to us.We’ll make sure she’s found and then she’ll be in serious trouble when we find her because that’s what we’re gonna do.”Mrs.Murakami warns because now they know where their child has run away to.

Chapter 7/end.