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foursideharmony · 4 years ago

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The Cat, the Prince, and the Doorway to Imagination (Chapter 7)

Summary: The final confrontation with the wicked White Warlock!

Pairings: Platonic/familial LAMP/CALM, Platonic/familial DLAMPR

Content Warnings: More Remus being Remus. Violence and threats of violence. Someone slowly being covered in ice.

Word Count: 3,675

Read on AO3: here

“Huh,” Remus said, apparently lost for words (which was unusual in itself). “So now what?”

Janus blinked. “I'm not sure.”

“Which means you are sure, right?” Remus said with a great big wink.

Before Janus could explain for the umpteenth time that it wasn't that simple (and never had been), there came a loud growling sound from nearby, and something huge and brown came crashing out of the brush and charged them. Janus barely managed to dive out of the way of what he quickly realized was an entire bear. Remus, always a big believer in the principle that the best defense is a good offense, dodged it by leaping straight up, and used the momentum of his downward arc to add force to a massive swing of his morningstar. The blow knocked the beast off its feet, and it threw great arcs of snow into the air as it skidded to a stop.

“That was fun!” Remus declared, resting the weapon on his shoulder. “Hey, want me to skin it for you? A nice bearskin rug will keep you warm so you don't have to crawl under a rotting log to hibernate!”

Janus had no time to muse upon how accurately he had predicted Remus's behavior, because a motion at the corner of his eye told him that the bear was not totally out of play yet. It was made of far sterner stuff than the dwarf had been and had only been stunned by the blow, and was now shaking itself awake. But rather than lunging at them again, or even fleeing back into the trees, it hoisted itself into a sitting position, clutched at its head with its paws, and began to whimper.

“Oh, stop it!” Remus said petulantly. “You attacked us, remember? Roman calls me violent, but I would just like to point out that so far, 100% of the creatures from this winter wonderland of his have tried to kill us!”

Much to Janus's surprise (though perhaps it shouldn't have been), the bear pivoted on its rump and said: “I was only protecting Mr. Logan!”

Janus smiled...now this was a situation he could deal with. He stepped forward, made Remus silence himself just to be on the safe side, and said, “Why, we would never harm Logan! We're some of his closest friends, after all!”

Still rubbing its—his—head with one paw, the bear rolled around until it was standing on the other three. “Then sirs, you must be the help he sent for!”

“We are! We got his message! But alas, it seems we were too late to prevent this.” Janus gestured at the crystallized Logan.

“It's not your fault, sir,” said the bear. “I was supposed to protect him from the White Warlock. And now I've got to go back and tell the others what happened.”

“That sounds like an excellent idea. But first, why don't you tell...” Janus trailed off, realizing the Remus—still silenced—was jumping up and down behind him and frantically waving his free hand. He released him. “Yes, what is it?”

“I know what this is!” Remus said gleefully. “Roman's gone and recreated the first Narnia book!”

“I never realized you were...into that sort of thing.”

“Are you kidding? With all the descriptions of war and violence and disturbing religious subtext? Not to mention a happy ending where everyone dies! What's not to love?”

“Even after all these years, you still retain the capacity to surprise me, Remus. However, I doubt the same aspects are what holds appeal for your brother, so try not to get too excited.” Janus turned back to the bear. “As I was saying, I think it might be a good idea for you to tell us what happened here. Who did this to Logan?”

“The White Warlock, of course, sir!”

“A warlock instead of a witch?” said Remus. “That's a new one...Roman usually loves fighting witches. He has this one recurring antagonist, the Dra—”

“Yes, Remus, we are all aware of the Dragon Witch.”

“Begging your pardon, sirs, but I think this Roman of yours is the White Warlock. That's the name the others called him back at the Stone Table.”

Remus did a spit-take. He hadn't been drinking anything, of course, but it was hardly beyond his capabilities (or his inclination) to generate something within his mouth entirely for the purpose of spitting it out. It looked like used motor oil. “Roman made himself the bad guy? That's definitely a new one!” He was grinning, but it was a rather fixed grin, and his eyes darted around under a furrowed brow.

“You said you were going back to the others,” Janus said to the bear. “Take us with you.”

Virgil, for once, felt genuinely useful: He had volunteered for the first watch of the night. Hushwing the Owl had shown him a tree he could climb from which he could scan the entire western and southern approach to the hill. It was a clear night and the moon was pretty close to full, and its light turned the snow into a stark bluish canvas against which any sort of moving shadow was plainly visible. Thus, as the ten o'clock hour approached and a large shuffling shape emerged from the trees to the west, Virgil looked not directly at it but at the silhouette it cast on the ground. It was definitely a bear and definitely had riders, one of whom was wearing a bowler hat. Good enough, even with the odd distortion of light and shade that seemed to sit between the forms of the two humans. He made the hooting call Hushwing had taught him which meant “Friendly approaching” and clambered down from his perch in order to go glower at Janus.

The climb took longer than he would have liked in the dark, and by the time he got back to the crown of the hill, the party had already arrived and was being greeted and offered blankets and a bit of warmed-over stew. Stoutpaws had apparently collapsed and fallen asleep right there on the hilltop...as Virgil supposed he would, after an entire day of running. Janus (ugh) was being helped over to the rebuilt campfire. And Logan...

Someone lunged at Virgil. Flight won, as it usually did, and he skittered backward several steps, only to realize that it was Patton he was flinching away from, and Patton was crying. “Shit...sorry...startled...” he mumbled, opening his arms and letting the Moral Side fling himself into them. He was shaking with sobs. “Patton...what happened?”

“R-R-Roman d-did something awful t-to Logan!”

The cluster of Narnians seeing to the arriving group parted. At first, Virgil couldn't tell what he was looking it—the object was translucent and oddly shaped, and moonlight and torchlight played over its surface and through its interior in ways that prevented him from focusing on its edges...until a chance flicker brought the details into clarity.

His head swimming, his thoughts useless, Virgil slipped from Patton's arms and dropped to his knees. He couldn't stop staring at it.

At Logan, frozen in crystal.

A murder . He was looking at a murder.

“Hell of a thing, isn't it?” said a screeching voice behind him. It was the sort of thing that ordinarily would provoke an instant reaction in Virgil (and that voice in particular would give a huge boost to Fight), but he was just too stunned. “As soon as Janus warms up enough that he's not going to drop off into a snake-coma, we'll all sit down and work out what to do about it. I can't wait to tell all of you my idea!”

Something in Virgil's brain finally lurched into motion, but all he could manage was a half-hearted glare back over his shoulder and a mumbled “What are you doing here?”

“Well, la-dee-dah, Panic-Depressive, I didn't know Thomas's Creativity needed permission to visit the Imagination.”

Virgil decided—to the extent that he was capable of deciding anything in the moment—that he could only cope with one atrocity at a time. He brushed Remus off and turned back to Patton. “Are you okay?” Patton shook his head emphatically. “Yeah, okay, dumb question.” In a way, Virgil was grateful for Remus's presence, since severe annoyance was usually a pretty strong barrier between himself and panic. “Let's...just...gather around the fire, so we can get our discussion going the instant De—Janus is up to it.”

They did. Janus sat on a boulder less than a yard from the fire, gazing rather glassily at it. The Narnians had given him a dark woolen cloak, and he had been engaged in an unsettlingly animalistic ritual: alternately spreading the cloth wide like wings, catching heat from the flames, and then wrapping it around himself to absorb the warmth. He glanced up, more or less, as the others approached. “So I assume you've all been made aware of the depths of depravity to which our dear Roman has sunk in his quest for...whatever it is he's questing for these days.”

“Roman's not depraved!” Patton said in a tone that suggested he had expected the accusation. He took his own seat across from Janus. “He's just...I don't know what exactly is going on with him right now, but he's not depraved!”

“Patton...” Virgil said, choosing to remain standing for the time being, “...he turned Logan into stone. There's no way to sugar-coat that.”

“It could have been an accident!”

“Patton...”

“It could have! He made a point of sparing Muricata's tree! I can't square that with the idea of him doing that to one of us on purpose!”

“Pat, listen. This?” Virgil mimicked the Logan-statue's outflung arm. “Is a defensive posture.” He started pacing. “Which means he saw it coming. Which means Roman telegraphed that he was going to do it, which means it was on purpose.”

Patton's eyes started to well up again. “I just wish I knew why,” he said.

“We'll be sure to ask him when he comes here to kill the rest of us in the morning,” Virgil said, rolling his eyes. “Who knows? He might even answer. The more important question is what to do about it. Can we change Logan back?”

“Ooh! Ooh! Pick me! I have an idea!” said Remus, who had been watching the argument between Patton and Virgil with the glee of an obsessive tennis fan. “When he shows up tomorrow to kill us all, I sneak up behind him and clonk him on the head! Once he's knocked out, primary control of the Imagination will automatically pass to me! Then I can make this story go my way, and I guess you can hash out your issues with Roman afterward or whatever.”

There was dead silence for a moment. Then Janus shifted in his cloak. “Let's make that Plan...” He started counting silently on his fingers, and manifested a few more hands to get to the number he wanted. “X. Plan X.”

“Can we make it Plan Triple-X?” Remus said, waggling his eyebrows.

“If we reach that level of desperation, I'm sure we'll be happy to let you do just whatever you want,” said the Dishonest Side. “In the meantime...something less drastic first, perhaps?”

“Logan's original plan,” Virgil said cautiously, “was to let Roman catch sight of you, hoping that it would shock him out of this downward villainy spiral he's stuck in.”

Janus looked taken aback for a split second, almost like a micro-flinch. “Well...” he said after a beat, “...far be it from me to question the soundness of one of Logan's ideas...” He let the end of the sentence hang in the air like an icicle.

Remus lost interest in the conversation and began searching the area for things to put in the fire.

“If it makes you feel any better, Scales, I was against the whole thing,” said Virgil. “But you're here now, and it's not like we have any other ideas.”

“Well, as long as I have your vote of confidence I know we'll do just swimmingly.”

Remus dropped a pine cone on the fire and giggled as it ignited with a series of explosive pops.

“H-hey, guys,” Patton said with a slight quaver. “Stop sniping at each other. This isn't about you two. It's about...well, all of us, really.” He swallowed, and when he continued his voice was stronger, more authoritative. “It's about Roman, and because it's about him it's about our whole family. We have to cooperate. Now then, Janus, if you're skeptical of Logan's plan, why don't you tell us why so we can figure out something else?”

Janus did his very best impression of a deer in headlights for a moment. Then he recovered his composure, cleared his throat, and said “I may have been exaggerating. Am I correct in thinking that the idea is to show Roman his idea of a villain so he presumably stops trying to be one?”

“Something like that,” Virgil mumbled.

Emboldened, Remus stuck a twiggy branch in the fire until it lit up and waved it in the air like a pennant.

“That's hardly a kind view of me,” Janus continued, “but I've heard of worse stratagems. Might I suggest a few...refinements?”

“Guess we can't stop you.”

“Virgil, be nice! We'd love to get your input, Janus.”

“Thank you, Patton. Remus! Pay attention; this concerns you as well.”

Remus, who had been on the point of touching the burning branch to his own hair, tossed it aside and plunked down onto a log, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and his hands cupping his face. “Fire away, Jay-jay!”

Janus took a medium-long look at the ensorceled Logan, and began.

Dawn came all too early and with it, the bellow of a war horn. Startled awake, the Sides lurched to pull on clothes and scrambled out of the hillside shelter to see what they were up against.

At their previous meeting, Roman had been accompanied by an entourage. This time...he had brought an army. Perhaps five thousand strong, they massed around the foot of the hill, blocking off any retreat except by air...and the presence of Dwarven archers among the ranks ensured that any creature attempting to escape via flight would fail as well. The good Narnians, outnumbered nearly two hundred to one, clustered at the crown of the hill, facing grimly outward and wondering when the charge would come. The Sides stayed near the middle of the group at first, protected and almost entirely screened from view.

Roman, almost too brilliant to look at in his snow-white suit and icy jewels, detached himself from his throng and marched up toward them. “Showtime,” Janus muttered.

“Yesterday,” the self-styled King of Narnia proclaimed, “we issued an ultimatum to this company here assembled. Now we return to hear your decision and respond to it. Do you or do you not swear fealty to the Crown of Narnia?”

The Narnians, per the plan, stood firm and did not speak.

“We asked for your reply!” Roman snarled. “Where are my fellows? Have they abandoned you?”

“No, we haven't!” Patton said. The Narnians stood aside to let him through, followed by Virgil...and Logan. “And we're not surrendering either! You've taken things way too far, Roman, and it is not okay!”

Roman said nothing, staring dumbfounded at Logan. “You seem surprised to see me in my current condition,” said the Logical Side. “Your enchantment wore off after what I have calculated to be two hours, forty-seven minutes, and eleven point three four seconds.”

“That's impossible!” Roman shouted. “The transformation is permanent until counteracted!”

“Perhaps your control over the Imagination is not as absolute as you have heretofore assumed. Patton believes...actually, I will allow him to explain. Patton?”

“It's because you're abandoning your calling, Roman! Thomas doesn't want a wicked Creativity! Hurting your own creations for the sake of a story is one thing, but hurting us? You're turning into something that Thomas would never allow to be in charge of his Imagination!”

“Yeah, and it's really throwing a wrench into my plans!” said Remus, suddenly springing out of the crowd to Roman's shock. “What are you doing , bro? You can't be the evil twin! Because then I have to be the good twin, and I can't go shaving my mustache now! I just got it the way I want it! I don't even know how to be good!”

“You—! What are you all playing at?” Roman said, backing away slightly. He leveled a scandalized finger at Remus. “Working with him ...this is exactly why...but never mind. You will surrender to me—all of you!—or none of these foolish creatures you have befriended will survive the day!”

“I know you don't mean that,” Patton said softly “You didn't even really kill the Dryad's tree yesterday. You want to be the hero, Roman. So be the hero . Take off that crown, put down the wand, and let's talk.”

Roman's face became pensive. He was considering...no, he was listening for something, and then he stepped forward again. “You'd like that, wouldn't you?” he said. The wand swished through the air. The other Sides shouted in alarm, but no one turned to stone. Patton, however, wobbled, his feet literally frozen to the ground in a thick coating of ice.

The ice began to creep up his legs.

“Surrender,” Roman hissed. “Swear fealty to your King. Or watch him freeze.”

“Guys...” Virgil said.

Someone began to clap slowly, but the claps were muffled as if by gloves. Which was exactly the case. “Oh, bra-vo, Roman,” said Janus, dropping the Logan illusion. “You're finally doing for yourself. Using your power to take what you want. I couldn't be prouder.”

“You!” Roman gawked, even more appalled than he had been at Remus's presence. Then his face split in a grin of triumph. “Ha! I knew my enchantment hadn't worn off! Now will you yield to me, or stand by while Patton suffers a similar fate?”

“Yes!” Janus said with the merest hint of a hiss. “That's just the way! Show them all what you are capable of when slighted!”

“Shut up!” Roman said, and for the first time, his rapidly twitching expressions lighted on uncertainty . “Your input is not welcome here!”

“Clearly not; why I daresay you've supplanted me and Remus both with your villainy.”

“I said shut up!”

“Roman...” said Patton as the ice slithered up toward his hips, “...why are you doing this?”

“BECAUSE SOMEONE HAS TO!” Roman wailed. “Because you and Thomas lost all perspective...you invited him to the table...and all I wanted was a simple adventure where I knew who the bad guy was...and then it turned out to be me ! Even the Imagination started pushing me out of the hero role!”

“Pushing you!” Patton repeated. “So you don't want this!”

“And now you're even working with Remus! You'd rather have him on your side than...than...”

Remus made a loud scoffing noise. “Dream on, bro! For your information, I invited myself! They wouldn't have let me stick around if you weren't acting worse than me! Think about that , why don't you!”

“Roman, darling,” said Janus, approaching slowly with his hands up in a gesture of appeasement, “what makes you think anyone has to be the villain?”

“Every story needs a bad guy,” Roman insisted, backing away.

“That's not true,” said Patton, a mite breathlessly as the ice began to squeeze his chest. “What about all those stories where the conflict comes from misunderstanding? I think that's what's happening here. You're not understanding us or we're not understanding you or both.”

“Look, man, I get it,” Virgil offered, though his calm tone was belied by the constant reverberation of the Tempest Tongue. “I know what it feels like to think you have to be the bad guy. This is me, right? But we got over that, and we can get through this too. Take the enchantments off Patton and Logan and let's all figure it out together. You said yourself stories in the Imagination can take on a life of their own. That doesn't mean they're always telling the truth.”

“But, you know,” said Janus, examining his fingertips. “Your choice, Your Majesty.”

Roman looked from Virgil, to Patton (iced up to his neck) to Remus and Janus, to the whole of Narnia around them. His face twisted up into a terrifying snarl and he stalked forward once again. He raised his wand. Virgil put himself between Roman and Patton (not that there was much more that could be done to the Moral Side), but when he was only feet away from them, Roman suddenly flung his crown to the ground with a shrieking sob and brought the wand down on it. And in an instant, the wand was his sword (and always had been, they realized) and the blade struck the large diamond, shattering it into a thousand shards of ice.

Golden mist rose out of the splintered gem, coiling and flowing, and washed over Roman from his feet up. As it went, it dragged a second mist, bluish-silver, out of him as if plucking hairs by the roots. Roman cried out in pain as the power of the White Witch was scrubbed out of him by the power of Aslan. Both mists spun around each other until they reached a height of several yards, at which point there was a soft explosion and they rocketed away from each other. The Witch's power soared off in a northerly direction, while the Lion's made an arc and landed in the woods nearby.

The ice covering Patton fractured away, and he sagged in relief. “Roman...?” he said.

The Prince turned a plaintive look on him before collapsing to the snow.

#sanders sides #fanfiction #lamp/calm #platonic lamp/calm #dlampr #platonic dlampr #narnia #sympathetic janus #sympathetic remus #villainous roman

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afewmarvelousthoughts · 5 years ago

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My Only Valentine

Master List: @afewmarvelousthoughtsadmin

Pairing: Bucky X Reader

Summary: Your first Valentine’s Day in Wakanda turns out to be more eventful than either of you expected. (This is in the Only For A Moment world but can be read as a stand-alone.)

Warnings: None. Just fluff.

A/N: Well. I wasn’t expecting this to happen but it did. I just couldn’t stop thinking about these two even after wrapping up part one. I hope you all enjoy!

Bucky woke with the sun, heart already racing. Even the peaceful view of the lake and the soft morning sounds of the countryside waking around him couldn’t calm his nerves.

Courtesy of his enhanced ears he listens as you wake and shuffle around your small home, pour a cup of fresh coffee. Simple sounds, simple everyday actions, but knowing it’s you doing them makes him smile.

He turns toward the door as you step out into the morning light, eyes blinking in the light. His anxieties fall away for now as a smile overtakes his face.

“Good morning baby doll,” he coos as you rest your head on his chest, your hands curled around your mug.

“Mmm,” you hum response, never quite one for early mornings.

“Full day?” He asks before pressing a kiss to the crown of your head.

“Surprisingly so,” you say on a sigh. You take a deep drink before continuing. “Okoye popped a bunch of last-minute drills on the schedule yesterday. So I’ll be tied up there until later in the day.” Silently he thanks Okoye once more.

“What about your class?” You’d been taking classes at the university in the city, learning all you could about your new home and it’s history. Afternoons spent with coffee, lounging in the hammock, eyes glued on the spectacular sunset while you shared new bits of knowledge with him were his new favorite thing.

“Drills before, drills after.”

He rubs your back with his hand, “Well, don’t push yourself too far.” It was an empty warning, he knew your day would be light despite the time it was taking up.

“I’ll tell Oko I’ve got Sergent’s orders to go easy,” you laugh.

“She outranks me, don’t think she’ll listen.”

You smile up at him. Rising from the ground until you’re at eye level with him you place a kiss on his lips. He shudders with pleasure, cupping your cheek to hold on to the kiss a little longer.

“I gotta shower,” you say breaking your connection.

“Want company?” He asks smirking.

“Always,” you purr into his ear before nipping playfully at his earlobe.

He takes care to be sure you aren’t even a minute late heading out the door, despite his aching desire to toss you onto the bed and have you again after the shower.

As you tear off toward the city on your bike you blow him a kiss, sending a puff of your power with it so he actually feels when it touches his cheek. The moment you’re out of sight that anxiety begins to creep back in.

In the house, he glances at the time. Still a few hours to go. Thankfully there was always work to be done on the farm.

He may have been born a city boy but he could spend the rest of his life on this small farm with you by his side and die a very happy man. Just the thought of it keeps a smile on his face while he works up a sweat and the hours, and his worries, slip away.

Before he realizes it’s time he sees Shuri cresting the hill, waving from her hovercraft. He waves back, always happy to see her.

“Ok,” Shuri starts to rattle off before she’s even off the craft, “everything is a go on Okoye’s end, got all the stuff you asked for here - and a few more things I thought you’d both like - and this-” She holds up a garment bag. “And trust me, it’s gonna be perfect.”

He swallows hard, hoping she’s right.

“Again,” Okoye calls and you can hear the machine readying to launch more sand figures your way.

You groan, “Oko, come on, we’ve been at this for literal hours.”

“What,” she asks with a grin on her face, “too easy for you?”

“Yes actually,” you say as you dismantle three of the figures before they’re within five feet of you. In the months since you’d been here, your ability had only gotten stronger as you honed it both through practice with Okoye and through Shuri’s insights into just what makes you tick.

Without warning, all of the black sand is drawn back into its container before exploding into the shape of a panther about three times your size. This was new. You glance to Oko who just shrugs at you with a smug look on her face.

You send out your power, invisible tendrils trying to permeate the figure and tear it apart but it’s too dense to do in one fell swoop. Before you can do anything else it charges at you, forcing you to take to the air before a massive paw can knock you to the ground. This was gonna be a hard one.

Forcing yourself up higher you propel yourself over the big cat’s head before it can react. You land on its back, intending to try and sever the head. But in an instant, there’s nothing left for you to stand on as you tumble toward the ground in a cloud of black sand.

Just barely, you catch yourself before your ass smashes into the hard floor of the training room. Okoye’s laugh fills the space as you glare at her.

“You should have seen your face!” She bellows. In response, you flip her the bird.

“Ah, don’t be like that sister,” she says throwing an arm around your shoulders as the sand resets itself. “Besides, it’s time to call it a day.”

“Thank god,” you sigh.

As you walk into the locker room you notice something large and black hanging in your cubby that you knew for certain wasn’t there before.

“What the-” your fingers pluck a card from a pocket on the bag, your name in Bucky’s hand on the front.

Y/N,

Meet me at sunset.

-Bucky

You look back to Okoye who’s suspiciously leaning in the doorway with a smile on her face.

“What do you know about this?” You ask with mock severity.

“I don’t know a thing,” she lies. “But I do think you should open that bag.”

After giving her one last sidelong glance you snag the zipper and slide the garment bag open to reveal a dress that truly takes your breath away.

Your fingers reverently run across the smooth black satin of a dress straight out of time. The neckline is that quintessential 1940’s sweetheart you can’t help but adore, the waist cut perfectly before falling into a full skirt. On the left, just above where your heart would be, was a red heart brooch. Only then does it hit you what day it is.

“Oh,” you say touching the beautiful, clearly vintage brooch. “I forgot.”

“He didn’t expect you to think about it,” Oko says behind you. She nudges you with her shoulder. “Come on, get ready. There’s a ride to take you home.”

Home. The word brought a smile to your face.

Bucky, unsurprisingly, thought of everything. Your makeup bag had been brought from the house, he even picked out shoes that went perfectly with the dress. Quickly you shower before trying your best to wrangle your curls into something that seemed like you put in some effort. Eyes lined and lips in a deep red pout you take a look at yourself in the full-length mirror.

The woman who stared back at you was someone you never thought you’d see again. You had buried her along with her family, chalked her up as yet another loss at the hands of Hydra. Yet here she stood, in defiance of fate.

It felt like a lifetime ago that you’d seen him across a busy street in Bucharest even though it was just over two years. In that short time loving him, being loved by him, had brought you back to life. You smile at your reflection, resurrection looked damn good on you.

Bucky glances at the sky, the sun peeking just above the horizon. He turns his focus back to the mirror, tucking a stray strand of hair behind his ear and straightening his tie.

When Shuri was helping him gather everything for tonight she insisted that he had to have the whole suit, jacket and all. Of course, he’d given in and even gave her the satisfaction of seeing him in it. Now though it was slung across the bed, leaving him in just his slacks, a white button-up, a tie, and suspenders. He always left his jacket at home because it was better than losing it in the night - either on the dance floor or on the floor of some gal.

How many nights had he headed out in an outfit almost identical? He could remember so many of them now.

“Hey,” Shuri hisses from the front door. He pokes his head out of the bathroom. “They’re about ten minutes away. Come make sure everything looks ok!”

Once more she walks him through how the trays the food is on will keep everything perfectly warm, how the wine should be just right, how to work the music player - it’s speakers tucked all around the farm. Once more he tells her it all looks perfect.

“Ok, you’re sure you don’t have any questions?”

“I’m sure, Shuri,” he laughs. “Thank you.” He’d be thanking her for the rest of his days.

“I already said you don’t have to thank me!” She bats at his arm playfully before giving him a quick hug. “Have a good night!” She tosses over her shoulder as she heads to her hovercraft to disappear before you arrive.

You hear the music, soft in the distance before you even crest the hill. It takes all your control to not just fly, following the music straight to him. But you wait, and you’re oh so glad you do.

As you come over the hill you’re struck breathless at the sight.

The sunset makes the whole world look surreal with its incomprehensible colors. Lights are strung in the trees and seem to float on nothing in the air, twinkling in the growing twilight. Just barely, you can make out a table set for two, candles flickering around it. Now you can make out the words of Dream A Little Dream Of Me being carried on the breeze.

All of that is lovely, still, it’s nothing compared to seeing Bucky.

He stands in the center of a low platform - that certainly wasn’t there this morning - hair in a half ponytail, looking almost like he stepped from the many old films you loved. Your handsome soldier with a heart of pure gold welcoming you home.

You can’t take your eyes off him as you step off the hovercraft.

He holds his hand out to you as you approach, “Care to dance?”

“With you?” You ask playfully. He smiles and your heart rabbits in your chest. “Always.”

The steps are second nature to you now, even the alterations you’d made to accommodate the loss of his left arm. Together you swing across the dance floor, your skirt spinning out perfectly, your laughter filling the evening air with the sound of the brass. As the song ends Bucky twirls you into his chest, kissing you breathless.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, darlin’.”

It is the most perfect night. After a few hours of delicious food, wine, and dancing, you both lay on the dancefloor, the lights dimmed, and stare up at the endless starry sky above you.

You look over at his drowsing eyes, unable to keep the smile from your face. God, you loved him.

“Bucky?”

“Hmm?” He says sleepily, his hand shifting in yours.

“If this was 1940, what would you do after a night like this?” As more and more of his memory returned you loved hearing about his life back then.

He laughs a little, “Ask you to marry me.”

“Only in 1940?” You ask the question without even thinking about it. His hand goes tense before pulling from your grip.

Leaning up on his arm he looks down at you, face framed by the night sky, lit just enough by a couple of candles you brought to the floor for you to see his expression. Is it fear there? Wonder? Excitement?

“Would you?” He asks breathlessly.

“Would I-”

“Actually marry… me?” There’s a flash of pain in his eyes at the last word. Somehow he still struggled to believe that you loved him, all of him, from time to time.

“James,” you sigh. You rarely used his first name but it seemed fitting now. For just a moment he wilts, thinking the worst, eyes looking away from yours. You cup his cheek so he’ll look at you. “Do you really not know the answer to that?”

That goddamn smile of his crinkles his eyes and lights his face. He shoots to his feet before pulling you up to yours.

“What are you-”

“To get the answer I gotta really ask the question, huh?”

You’re a little slack-jawed as he takes a knee before you, looking up with eyes starrier than the sky above you.

“Y/N, would you do me the honor of marrying me?” Bucky asks all sincerity.

Your head falls back in a laugh rooted in pure joy before saying, “Yes, you ridiculous romantic. Yes!” He whoops into the night air and stands, gathering you to him and spinning you around.

“Let’s just do it now.” He says setting you down

“Now?!”

“Why not?” He shrugs. “We’re both international fugitives, not like we could have a big shindig. And…” He seems bashful suddenly, “I just wanna call you my wife.” Immediately you take his hands in yours, he stares at you with wide eyes.

“James Barnes,” you take a deep breath, “I can’t promise I will always be easy to love-” he opens his mouth to protest - “nope. It’s my turn,” you tell him. “But I can promise that I will love all of you for as long as I live, no matter what comes our way.”

Tears glitter in his eyes and you watch his adam’s apple bob hard as he swallows.

“Y/N…” His thumbs stroke your knuckles. “I’ve waited a few lifetimes to find you. But all that time, all that hell, was worth it to find myself standing here with you. There is so little I can promise to provide you with-” his voice cracks a bit. “But I swear I will always protect you. I swear I will always love you,” he smiles, “and baby, you’re so damn easy to love.”

You sniff, a tear tumbling down your cheek, “Damn you. I shoulda made you go first.”

He laughs, “Y/N, will you take me as your husband?”

“I do.” You smile, “Bucky, will you take me as your wife?”

“Absolutely.” You watch a tear sneak out of the corner of his eye, “May I kiss the bride?”

“Always.”

TAGS

@bluegirlusa1 @l0kisbitch @tazzi-baby @disagreetoagree @woodyandbuzz20-01 @mooniightbucky @saundrasays @breezy1415 @alyssaj23 @mywinterwolf @wonderlandmind4 @fairislesheets @anamcg317 @buckaroo-barnes @jazztherebel @peachthatdrinkslemonade @regulusirius @auskitty @babyimp1967 @katecolleen @handplucked @stevehesaidabadlanguageword @darkdragonphoenix @issanitydead @thestorydetective @buckysstar @wintersoldierswhore @greyeyedsmile14 @watchoutforfrostbite @for-the-love-of-the-fandom @jewelofwinter @siriuslycloudy2 @hardygal69 @marvelousmeggi @jdoenson @gamorazenn @wildmoonflower @cutie1365 @demonlover87 @winterboobearsworld @this-kitten-is-smitten @damnaged-princess

#bucky x reader #bucky barnes x reader #bucky #bucky barnes #bucky barnes fluff

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nightofthemeteor · 5 years ago

Text

Modern AU/Mythology AU

(Also here on AO3)

They were children when they met. They had to have been children, for if they had met as adults, they would have known too much, and their meeting would have been very different.

It happened on an awful, stormy day in early spring, and it began with Hashirama huddled and miserable in a cave. Even at fourteen, Hashirama knew the mountain as well as he knew his own family – he wouldn’t have ventured out this far into the forest if there had been any chance of a storm like this. And yet, despite the season, there was a blizzard raging outside. It was a tengu wind, Hashirama knew; only a tengu wind could rise so suddenly and sting so badly. He was lucky he’d been able to take shelter in this cave, but now he was trapped without warm clothing or the tools to make a fire. Curled into a ball with his arms around his knees, Hashirama had no choice but to wait out the storm, and eventually shivered himself into a fitful sleep.

When he awoke, the cave was dark, and he was wonderfully, deliciously warm. Hashirama wondered for a moment if he’d frozen to death, and this was the moment before his new reincarnation. But, no – he could still feel the rocky floor of the cave where he’d gone to sleep digging uncomfortably into his legs. He was warm because he was wrapped in something, something soft…something that was moving, gently and rhythmically, as if it were breathing. Hashirama reached out a tentative hand and felt soft feathers beneath his fingertips.

His breath caught in his throat. The tengu – for that was what the creature curled around Hashirama had to be – shifted around him with a whisper of feathers. And then, in the darkness, Hashirama found himself staring into a single, glowing red eye.

Hashirama’s insides had turned to ice, but he still retained enough of his wits to remember to be polite. “Hello, Tengu-sama,” he whispered to the eye.

The eye blinked.

Feeling a little encouraged, Hashirama said, “Thank you for protecting me from your storm.”

This got an affronted shuffling of feathers; Hashirama backtracked. “Not your storm?” Another blink – acknowledgement, Hashirama imagined. “Ah, I see. You’re stuck in here, too.” The tengu didn’t react to that, which Hashirama took to mean he’d guessed right. Without thinking, he ran his fingers through the feathers under his hand and was surprised when the tengu leaned against him, like a cat asking for more scratches. “Well,” he said, “Thank you for keeping me company. At least we can wait out the storm together.”

The eye disappeared; the tengu shifted position again, tucking its head back under its wing, or so Hashirama imagined. Hashirama knew he should take this chance and run – tengu were dangerous and unpredictable, wild spirits of the mountains, and there was no telling what this one might do to him – but the blizzard was still howling outside, and at least in here it was warm. Seeing no better option, Hashirama leaned back against his new, feathery companion, closed his eyes, and drifted back to sleep.

When he woke again, the cave was lit with sunlight, and the tengu was gone.

---

Madara wasn’t exactly sure why he bothered to find the human again. He was already sliding dangerously in the direction of his father’s bad side – that blizzard had been a nasty reprimand, with Madara still too young to control his powers well enough to fight back. Now that his flight feathers had grown in, Madara had found he wasn’t terribly interested in the clan politics he was supposed to be learning. His father’s world was full of restrictions: don’t use any of your powers without permission; don’t question your elders; and, most importantly of all, don’t come into contact with humans. And that, perhaps, was why Madara let himself slide out of the shadows of the trees and into view of the young human.

The boy in front of him tensed, reaching instinctively for an arrow; Madara prepared himself to fight, but the human relaxed and lowered his bow. “Tengu-sama,” he said, and smiled.

Madara looked down at himself in confusion. “How did you know?” He’d appeared in human form – had he made a mistake somewhere? But no: his purple robe was a perfectly normal style for a human, and on his head was definitely spiky black hair, not feathers.

The human boy in front of him shrugged. “I don’t know – you just sort of…feel the same?”

“That’s weird,” Madara informed him.

To Madara’s surprise, the boy sighed deeply. “I knew it,” he said, utterly dejected. “I must really be a freak if even a spirit thinks I’m weird.”

“Wait – that’s not what I – ” Madara stuttered to a halt, realizing that the boy wasn’t distraught at all – he was laughing at him from under those bangs. “Hey, what do you mean ‘even a spirit’?!”

The human raised his head to reveal a smug, aggravating smile. “Are you really my age?” he asked cheerfully. “To think I was so scared of you!”

Madara drew on the shadows around him, forming the shape of massive, ever-shifting wings to tower over his back, and let his black human eyes flash red. “You should be afraid of me!” he hissed.

The human’s eyes widened in awe, but to Madara’s chagrin, he watched this show of power without the least sign of fear. “Wow!” he said to the writhing mass of shadow. “What’s your name? Mine’s Hashirama!”

Madara sighed, content for the moment to at least have impressed the human – Hashirama – and let himself shrink back to his still-unfamiliar human form. “You can call me Madara,” he said.

“It’s nice to meet you again, Madara,” said Hashirama, and dipped his head in a clumsy bow.

“Hmph.” Madara crossed his arms, trying not to show that he was pleased. “So, Hashirama, what are you doing this far into the forest?”

“Looking for mushrooms!” Hashirama replied, with more excitement than this answer really warranted. “I know I saw some good ones around here the other day.”

“You’re lucky you’re with a tengu, then. I know this forest better than any human.”

“Oh, is that so!”

As the two of them left to walk together through the forest, neither of them noticed the tiny seedlings that sprung to life in Hashirama’s footsteps.

---

When Hashirama was nineteen, a beautiful young woman with fiery red hair came to his town.

“She’s definitely interested in you,” he was informed by his little brother, Tobirama, with a healthy amount of disdain.

“Can you at least pretend to stay out of my business?” Hashirama snapped back, uncharacteristically annoyed. If he was honest with himself, he had mixed feelings about Tobirama’s analysis. If anyone had asked him half a year ago if he would like a gorgeous woman to mysteriously arrive out of nowhere and fall in love with him, he would have offered his right hand to make it happen – but although Hashirama had always been a bit of a romantic, lately his thoughts on that score had turned in a…different direction.

But that was only half of the problem. Though nobody else had seemed to notice, Hashirama had realized right away that there was something different about the woman calling herself Mito.

“You’re not entirely human, are you?” he asked her, the next time they were alone together. Hashirama had always been in favour of the direct approach.

She stopped in the action of brushing a strand of hair behind his ear, and carefully withdrew her hand, looking at him with sharp, bright eyes. “You’re perceptive,” she said. “I should have anticipated that.”

“I have some experience with shapeshifters,” Hashirama told her, a little ruefully. “But I don’t think I’ve met one like you…?” He made the end of his statement into a question, hoping she would answer.

“Can’t you guess?” she asked playfully. At Hashirama’s flat look, she said, “Come on. A girl can’t give up all her secrets that easily.”

“Are you actually like this?” Hashirama asked. “Or are you trying to seduce me?”

“Er…” for the first time, Mito actually looked a little awkward. “I’ll be honest: I was trying to seduce you.”

“Don’t worry; I’ve heard the stories. Humans are kind of hard to interact with unless you’re giving them something they want, right? I don’t take it personally.”

Mito laughed at that, the light catching in her bright red hair as she did. “You’re a very strange human, Hashirama!”

“I’ve heard that before,” Hashirama replied with amusement. More seriously, he added, “But I don’t understand why you would choose me to seduce. What do you want from me?”

“Like I said, Hashirama: I have to keep my secrets.” Mito looked at him appraisingly, her head cocked to one side. “Let’s just say you have some interesting qualities – for a human.”

“Fine – you don’t have to tell me. But can you drop the whole – ?” Hashirama waved his hands vaguely in her direction, too uncomfortable to actually articulate what he meant; she smirked at him in response. “Whatever you want, you can just ask me, alright? I mean – I’d like to be friends.”

“Alright,” she said, sounding surprised. “Friends it is.”

---

“Kitsune,” Madara spat.

The fox sat back on her haunches and began to unconcernedly wash one of her paws. “Tengu-san,” she replied.

Madara, roosted in the branches above her, hunched his wings threateningly. He was the power in the forests around here, and she could do with a reminder of that. “Stay away from the human boy, Kitsune. He’s mine – understand?”

“Relax, Tengu-san. He already called me on the trick.” She dipped her head at him in sarcastic deference. “He’s all yours for the seducing.”

Madara wasn’t buying it. “What do you want with him?”

The fox cocked her head to one side quizzically. “The same thing you want, I assume? He may be a human, but you must know he has the power of the forest inside him.”

He’d guessed it years ago, of course, but hearing another magical being acknowledge it like that made Madara’s stomach drop. “You feel drawn to him, don’t you?”

“Others will be drawn to him as well, as his power grows stronger. You did well to get in with him early, Tengu-san. Better act fast to lock him down.”

“Kitsune,” Madara called, as she turned to leave. His stomach was in knots now; asking her this would be showing unforgivable weakness, but he might never have another chance to have his suspicions confirmed. “What does it feel like when you’re with him?” he asked. “You said the power of the forest draws you to him. Does it make you feel breathless when he looks at you? Does it…” he swallowed hard. “Does it give you a hollow feeling when you say goodbye to him?”

The fox looked at him in silent surprise for a moment, and then barked out a laugh. “No, Tengu-san, it does not!” she said, laughter in her voice. “I feel a pull towards him, yes, but my heart is still my own. I believe you are in love with him.”

“Oh,” said Madara gruffly. “Er, thanks.”

When the kitsune had gone, he considered his course of action. In any other circumstance, Madara would have done his best to deny his feelings about Hashirama – he’d been managing that successfully for years now, and could probably have sustained it for quite some time. But this was different; now he had competition, and Madara’s nature couldn’t ignore that.

So what if the kitsune was trying to seduce his human? Madara could perform a seduction as well, and he had the advantage of knowledge, thanks to years of friendship with Hashirama. He could win this battle – all it would take was some careful planning and an artful execution.

---

“Where did you find this?” Hashirama exclaimed in delight.

Madara shrugged nonchalantly, his blue-black mane of hair shifting over his shoulders, but Hashirama could tell he was pleased with Hashirama’s reaction. “I told you: I know this forest better than anyone.”

By now, Hashirama knew this wasn’t quite true: he knew the mountain at least as well as his tengu friend, sometimes even better. Even so, Hashirama would be able to equal Madara’s skill at finding far-off treasures of the forest, for the simple reason that Madara could fly. Hashirama cradled the branch Madara had brought him in his hands, admiring the small white flowers with their elegant, delicate petals. “I’ll bet I can graft his onto one of my trees,” he said, already planning how he would do it.

“So…you like it?” Madara asked, a strange edge in his voice.

Hashirama beamed at him. “Of course I do! Thank you, Madara!”

His friend turned a very interesting shade of pink. “Great! Um…good, that’s good.”

Hashirama waited patiently for a further explanation – an account of how he’d stumbled across a wild apricot tree, maybe, or something that had prompted this gift – but when none was forthcoming, he prompted gently, “I didn’t know you were so interested in plants.”

“I am, uh, interested – that is to say, I was thinking…uh…” To Hashirama’s fascination, the tengu was flushing even further. Was this some strange consequence of his shapeshifting? Now a little concerned, Hashirama leaned forwards to get a better look.

“Are you alright?” he asked. Maybe he was overheating? Hashirama laid a hand against Madara’s forehead to check.

“Hgk,” said Madara.

“Hmm, you do feel a little warm,” Hashirama told him. “If you were human, I’d tell you to get some rest, but what about a spirit like you? I have to admit I don’t really know anything about – ”

And then he shut up, because Madara was kissing him. Later, Hashirama would remember how Madara’s hands on his shoulders were trembling a little, and how Madara’s hair felt almost exactly like his feathers had under Hashirama’s fingertips all those years ago. But in the moment, all he could think was why haven’t I done this before?

After just a brief moment, Madara pulled back, his eyes wide and startled. “I didn’t mean for it to happen like that!” he blurted.

Hashirama blinked at him. “What?” was all he could manage to say.

“I’m sorry! I had it all planned out, and then I just…went and…”

He looked so distressed; Hashirama felt the only reasonable response was to reassure him by leaning forwards and kissing him again.

When they parted, Hashirama smiled at him, suddenly feeling shy. “I’m glad you did,” he said.

Madara looked about as thunderstruck as Hashirama felt, but at these words, a slow grin spread across his face. “You mean…you wanted me to do that?”

“Madara, I’ve wanted that for ages!”

“But,” Madara objected, “What about Mito?”

“Mito? Oh! I’m not interested in her like that.”

“Good,” said Madara huffily, “You know she’s only trying to seduce you for your powers, right?”

Up until now, Hashirama had been just barely staying afloat in the rapids of this conversation, but this last question threw him completely. Confused, he pulled a little away from Madara and repeated, “Powers?”

“Yes, the power of the forest! That…you…” Madara trailed off, seeing the expression on Hashirama’s face. “You…didn’t know?”

“No,” Hashirama whispered. He’d been about to deny the possibility that there was anything supernatural about him – he was an ordinary human, had been all his life – but the words evaporated on his tongue. He wasn’t really an ordinary human at all, was he? Sure, his life was ordinary enough, in general: he foraged and hunted in the forest; he tended his garden and grew fruit trees; he did his best to live in peace with the spirits of the mountain. He was just a bit unusually good at finding what he was looking for, at predicting the changing weather and coaxing things to grow. If that talent really did have a magical explanation, then the one truly unusual thing about his life suddenly made a lot of sense: his inexplicable friendship with a tengu.

“Is that why you showed yourself to me?” Hashirama asked, the thick certainty of it beginning to clog his throat. Why else would a tengu, a spirit born from a falling star, show any interest in a human like him?

“No!” Madara protested, vehement at first – but then he paused, considering. “Well – maybe at first, but I didn’t even know about your magic back then. And it has nothing to do with the way I feel about you now!”

These words were meant to reassure him, but instead, an even more horrible thought took root in Hashirama’s mind. If Hashirama had somehow influenced Madara before they’d even met, without either of them realizing it…was it possible he’d made Madara kiss him?

“I think you should go,” he said. Anger at Madara for keeping this secret from him was mixing with guilt at the thought of what he might have unwittingly done to his best friend, making him feel sick to his stomach.

“Hashirama – !”

“Go!” Hashirama shouted.

Madara disappeared in a burst of feathers, leaving Hashirama alone.

---

The wind was howling as fiercely as it had the day they had met, but this time, instead of snow, rain was falling in a deluge that soaked through Madara’s feathers in seconds. In his turmoil, he’d settled on neither bird nor human form, but something in between – he was walking on human legs, but catching the wind of the storm in feathered wings sprouting from his back, and his hands, when he looked at them, had birdlike talons on the end of each finger. He glared furiously at a tree in front of him; a bolt of lighting flashed, and the tree exploded, splinters of wood flying past him in the storm. Madara felt, for a moment, just the tiniest bit of satisfaction before fury and anguish overtook him once again.

Why had he let slip the truth about Hashirama’s powers? No – why hadn’t he told his friend about them sooner? Everything had been going perfectly – not exactly the way Madara had planned, but still, he’d kissed Hashirama! And Hashirama had said he was glad Madara had done it, and had kissed him back! How had things gone so wrong, so quickly? It was all his fault – Hashirama thought he’d lied to him; thought he was using him! Alright, Madara hadn’t told him about his abilities, but it wasn’t like he was trying to win him over just to take advantage of him; not like that kitsune. It wasn’t fair!

As if summoned by Madara’s angry thoughts, a voice reached his ears over the screaming of the wind: “You seem like you’re in quite the state.”

“Kitsune!” Madara bellowed, more than happy to direct his rage at a more tangible target. There was the fox, sitting placidly in a tree despite the fury of the storm around her. “This is your fault! You told me he’d called you on your trick!”

“I didn’t say he knew why I was trying to trick him. I’m afraid this is entirely your fault, Tengu-san. His death will be your fault as well, if you keep wandering around here blowing up trees.”

Madara blinked water from his eyes, fear momentarily taking the place of rage. “What do you mean, his death?”

“The boy doesn’t know the strength of his own powers – he doesn’t even know he’s causing this storm,” said Mito, with pity in her voice. “He’s out wandering around, looking for you on the mountain. I’m afraid – well, you already know what rain like this means.”

Horror seized Madara by the throat. Hashirama knew this mountain better than anyone, better even than him; he knew the danger of flash floods. But if he was really out in the forest looking for Madara – if he was beside himself enough to cause a storm like this, and not even realize it –

“Where is he?” Madara howled.

“Fly northeast,” said the fox, “And hurry.”

Madara launched himself into the air, not bothering to alter his form, knowing his own magic would carry him despite the winds. He fought his way through the storm, trying to feel the familiar tug of the power inside Hashirama calling to the power inside him – but now that he was looking for it, the feel of Hashirama’s magic was everywhere, seething around him. His friend was the one causing the storm, just as Mito had said. Just as Madara was beginning to despair of finding him amidst the frothing treetops, he spotted a familiar white and green robe in a clearing below and dove headfirst towards it.

He crashed into Hashirama at full force, sending both of them sprawling on the ground. Madara, clinging tight to his friend, somehow ended up with Hashirama beneath him, rain falling onto Hashirama’s face; Madara hunched his wings to shield both of them from the storm.

“Wow,” Hashirama breathed. “Look at you. I – I think you have fangs. Why do you have fangs?”

“Why are you out wandering around putting yourself in danger?” Madara shot back.

Hashirama put a hand up to Madara’s face. At his touch, Madara realized he had little feathers sprouting from the skin there as well. “I was looking for you! Mito said you were in danger from the storm I caused.”

“Mito said – she told me you were in danger!”

They stared at each other for a moment, Madara feeling the rain against his wings slow from a deluge to a trickle, until Hashirama suddenly burst out laughing. “I should’ve known,” sighed Madara, over Hashirama’s giggles. “Kitsune are born to play tricks.”

“Madara,” Hashirama said, growing serious again. “She also explained about my powers. I…thought I might have accidentally used them to trick you into liking me, but Mito called me an idiot and told me I don’t have that kind of ability. I’m sorry for yelling at you earlier.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” Madara said earnestly. “I really thought you knew.”

“I guess I really am an idiot.”

“I guess so,” said Madara, and leaned down to kiss him. Because of this, neither of them noticed the sun emerge from behind the layers of cloud, or heard the bark of a fox’s laugh from the forest.

There is more to this story, of course, for such an unusual pair as them could hardly manage to lead an ordinary existence. But all the legends and stories they would later come to inhabit began like this: chance and a little bit of trickery, and spirit and human together in the stormy woods.

#I know tengu!Madara is a classic but I always wanted to do my own take on it #this is my personal favourite of the prompts I've done #hashimada happenings 2020 #hashimada #naruto #my writing

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warriorsredux · 6 years ago

Text

Chapter Twenty-Four

The fire, by the grace of the heavens, did not catch up with them, but it did block off the way back to camp. Fireheart had to swallow the lump of grief in his throat and force Cinderpelt along, even as the smoke addled his mind and scorched his lungs. The further along they went, the more confused he got, the only clear objective being to get away from the wall of heat and ash.

At last, they cleared the trees, and by then Cinderpelt was hobbling along on her own. Fireheart didn’t need to tell her to do anything. Not that he could; he could barely breathe without coughing, and his eyes burned. He shut his eyes in the hope that it would go away.

When he opened them again, there was a cluster of his Clanmates before him. It looked about the same size as it was supposed to be. Fireheart coughed, relieved.

Mousefur was the first one to notice them. She jumped to her feet. “Fireheart and Cinderpelt are alive!”

The Clan immediately looked up. Several cats stood and met the pair as they walked to the group.

“Are you alright?”

“What happened?”

“Where’s Yellowfang?”

Fireheart thought he might have answered those questions. His mind was clouded, his throat choked by the bad air. He was dimly aware of a nod and a few sluggish steps. Even being out of reach of the fire, his instincts pummeled him from every angle and scattered his thoughts even more. He hardly knew what he was seeing.

At last, a voice cut through his confusion, though he couldn’t place who was speaking. “Let them be.”

His eyes cleared enough to see a white coat, and he felt himself being gently nudged to the side. He limply went along with the guiding gesture and sat down, but he wasn’t sure if he had been told to or if he just wanted to.

“Breathe,” said the voice, and he now recognized it as Whitecloud. “You’re safe now.”

Fireheart inhaled deeply and coughed. “Where- Cinderpelt-”

“She’s with her family,” Whitecloud said soothingly.

Fireheart sagged with relief. Slowly, he breathed in and out, until the ache in his chest went away. As it did, his mind cleared, and he could now register Whitecloud in front of him.

“Did everyone make it?” he asked weakly.

Whitecloud nodded, but he added in a murmur, “Except Yellowfang.”

Fireheart gulped down air as a fresh breeze hit him. “She got trapped. She told me to go with Cinderpelt and escape.”

Whitecloud’s eyes lowered and shut. He sighed. “We’ll have a ceremony soon for her and Patchpelt.”

The simple mention of the elder jolted Fireheart. He stood up, ignoring the sudden wave of exhaustion that hit him. “Raventhroat and Greystripe-”

Whitecloud pointed his tail to a massive grey shape behind him. Fireheart got up and tottered past Whitecloud, still breathing slowly.

Greystripe must have heard his footsteps, because he turned around as Fireheart approached. He sighed with relief and bumped his head against Fireheart’s shoulder with uncharacteristic gentleness.

Fireheart returned the gesture and eyed the shape of Raventhroat several body-lengths away. He was crouched over his grandfather.

“What happened?” Fireheart said.

Greystripe looked solemn. “Patchpelt was dead before we got here.”

Fireheart squeezed his eyes shut and hung his head.

“He asked for space,” Greystripe said. “So I’ve just been letting him grieve.” He lowered his voice and leaned in a little. “Did you see Yellowfang at all?”

Fireheart nodded. He could feel his energy being sapped with every movement he made, but he forced himself to recount the details to Greystripe.

When he finished, the big tabby seemed to shrink to half his size. He huddled a little and was silent for a moment.

After a pause, he said slowly, “StarClan will take care of her, at least. Her and Patchpelt.”

Fireheart nodded and kept his thoughts to himself.

The two of them looked back at Raventhroat, so caught up in their concern that they nearly missed Snowpaw trotting past them towards his mentor. The moment he noticed, Greystripe blocked Snowpaw’s path with his tail and shook his head when the apprentice looked up at him.

“He’s upset right now,” Greystripe signed. “Let’s not bother him.”

Snowpaw shuffled his feet and turned to Fireheart with a hopeful, worried look. Fireheart shook his head too. Snowpaw sighed under his breath, nodded, and slunk back the way he came.

Fireheart shut his eyes and opened them repeatedly, grateful for the vanishing of the burning sensation. “So everyone else is okay?”

“Pretty much, yeah.” Greystripe looked to his right. “Scared, but alive. And I’ve never seen everyone so friendly with each other. Goldenflower was even talking with Darkstripe for a bit there. He carried Bramblekit for her and everything when we left camp.”

Fireheart followed Greystripe’s line of sight. The queens and kits were all sitting together, Goldenflower gently grooming the top of Brindleface’s head. Fireheart didn’t relax until he saw the tiny bundle of white fur at Brindleface’s belly.

So I don’t have to go back to Rosy with bad news, then, he thought.

A thought came to him. All at once, he was alert and clear-headed.

He turned to Greystripe, bristling. “You don’t think it got to the houses-”

Greystripe opened his mouth, lifted a paw, and slowly lowered it. He swallowed. “I can’t tell from here.”

Fireheart groaned and sank to his belly.

Greystripe looked very much like he wanted to say something comforting. He huddled by Fireheart, tail occasionally patting Fireheart’s side. Fireheart forced himself to breathe steadily and slowly. At a few points, he wasn’t sure if he was asleep or awake. Time moved at a crawl.

Then, just over the stink of smoke, a twitch of something airy and grassy wafted towards their noses. Fireheart raised his head and almost jumped out of his fur at the sight of a long-faced black tom staring down at him with a tilted head. Past him, among the crowd of ThunderClan cats, were more angular cats, speaking quietly with their larger neighbors or watching the fire.

Greystripe immediately stood up. “When did WindClan get here?”

“Just now,” the tom said. “We saw the fire and your Clan out here and came down to inspect.”

Fireheart’s eyes were drawn to the tom’s left front paw, which was almost twisted backwards. He was hardly standing on it.

“Who are you?” Fireheart asked.

“That’s WindClan’s deputy.”

All three of them looked over. Raventhroat had finally stepped away from his grandfather. His head was barely lifted enough to make eye contact, and his voice was hoarse. “Deadfoot, right?”

Deadfoot nodded. His pinned eyes slid over to the body behind them. “Not everyone made it out, I see.”

“Two of us are dead.” Greystripe sighed. “One in the fire, one out here.”

Deadfoot slowly turned his head, scanning the Clan. He hummed. “I don’t see your seer with you.”

“That’s the other one,” Fireheart murmured.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Deadfoot sounded entirely too calm, almost aloof, for the situation. “At the very least, your litters and queens made it out safe and sound.”

“Sir.” A striped brown tom trotted over. He was absurdly skinny. “Bluestar wants a word with you.”

Deadfoot waved his tail to the trio and limped away. The tom stayed where he was, clicked his teeth, and turned to Fireheart.

“I overheard that you lost Murkpelt,” he said.

“She went by Yellowfang,” Fireheart said.

“Yellowfang.” The tom corrected himself. “That’s a shame. I always admired her attitude.”

Fireheart couldn’t help but twitch his whiskers. “Legendary temper.”

The tom nodded. “I’ve seen you at Gatherings. Are you Fireheart? The kittypet?”

Fireheart wasn’t sure why this mattered now. “I am.”

“I’m Wrenwhisker,” the tom said. “And you two are...”

“Greystripe and Raventhroat,” Fireheart said, gesturing to them in order.

“Hi,” Greystripe said awkwardly.

Raventhroat said nothing.

Wrenwhisker didn’t seem to notice the uncomfortable air. “The smoke woke some of us up. Rookstar wanted to prepare an escape in case the fire came out here. Otherwise, he’d be talking with Bluestar personally.”

“Good to know,” Fireheart said.

Wrenwhisker peered over at Patchpelt’s body. “I’m not familiar with that cat. Who is he?”

“Patchpelt,” Raventhroat muttered. “My grandfather.”

“I see.” Wrenwhisker tilted his head. “He’s not burned, though. I suppose the smoke got to him? If not, how-”

“I’m sorry,” Raventhroat cut in sharply. “I’m not in the mood for questions.”

Wrenwhisker immediately stepped back and nodded. “Right. Apologies. I was just making conversation.”

“No one’s really ready for a pleasant conversation at this point,” Greystripe said. “We just lost our home and some of our Clanmates.”

“That was thoughtless of me,” Wrenwhisker admitted. “I won’t bother you further. I’ll head back to my patrol.”

Something occurred to Fireheart. He stood up. “I’ll come with you.”

Wrenwhisker blinked, but he didn’t protest. Fireheart walked with him, waiting until they were a small distance away from his friends to stop.

“Did you see the fire on the hill?” he asked. “You can see the whole forest there, right?”

Wrenwhisker nodded.

Fireheart’s throat tensed. “Did you...happen to... is... is the fire...are the houses burning?”

Evidently, Wrenwhisker did not expect this question. He took a moment to respond. “Not that I could see, no. It seems to be on the edge of the woods and in the center, but not near the houses.”

A long, heavy breath escaped Fireheart in the form of a relieved sigh. “Good. Thank you.”

Wrenwhisker tilted his head. “Why do you ask?”

Fireheart debated for a moment whether to tell him the truth. He didn’t get a chance to give his answer before Deadfoot called Wrenwhisker over. The lithe tom nodded to Fireheart and padded back to his deputy, who was standing in the middle of the refugees’ circle. Bluestar, beside him, shouted for her Clan’s attention.

“WindClan patrols will be back tonight,” she said. She coughed, shook her head, and continued. “This will be a peaceful meeting between leaders. Until then, I don’t want anyone going anywhere. Stay close to your Clanmates and try to get some rest. A WindClan cat will be watching the fire from their hill. Understood?”

There was a general, tired murmur of agreement.

Bluestar’s eyes were clouded. She turned to Deadfoot and said something quietly. Deadfoot muttered something back and took his large patrol the way they came. The Clan hardly seemed to notice them going; no one said goodbye or waved them off. ThunderClan just clustered together and sat in silence.

Fireheart watched the patrol until they were a dot in the distance, and then turned to the forest, eyes fixated on the flames leaping for the sky, quietly contemplating why Bluestar had ever thought to name him for something as terrible as the force devouring his home.

#warrior cats #warriors redux #redux #wr #chapter #chapter 24 #arc3 #only took fifty fucking years eh

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jiminfinity · 7 years ago

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Goodbye, Lilac

Pairing: Kim Taehyung & Jeon Jungkook (Taekook); Min Yoongi and Park Jimin (Yoonmin)

Summary:

The Language of Lilacs: Emotions of First Love, Youthful Innocence, A Reminder of an Old Love, Mourning.

To Taehyung, love is synonymous with his family and a very special boy, but nothing more than that. He's going to learn, the hard way, that it encompasses much, much more than what it should.

(aka the sequel to "Bring On the Sunshine" and a fic where yoongi, jimin, taehyung and jungkook all deal with their respective first loves and learn to let go.)

Type: Chaptered-Fic, Fluff, Angst, Parents Yoonmin, High School Taekook

Read it now on AO3!

Taehyung has a memory that is almost like a dream.

Maybe it was just a dream, Taehyung doesn’t really know. Whenever his mind flickers to this particular memory, everything goes kind of hazy, kind of rosy-tinted, and he feels a little lightheaded. A gradual ache spreads everywhere — from his bones to the capillaries leading up to his heart.

Taehyung has a memory that is almost like a dream.

It goes like this.

The summer afternoon shadows project everywhere on the wide expanse of grass, shifting incessantly with the sweet-smelling breeze that strokes the surrounding trees. Taehyung keeps trying to catch these shadows, but every time he goes near, his own shadow merges with the dark leaf-shaped images cast on the grass and everything turns into a big messy blob and the beauty of these shadows are ruined and Taehyung feels a jab in his chest because he feels responsible for ruining them. So he steps away and sits down on the grass. His shadow follows suit obediently, tucking itself close to Taehyung.

Daddy is there, lying down on his back with his eyes closed and his arms folded behind his head. He looks peaceful. There is the slightest of smiles gracing his lips, turning them upwards delicately. Taehyung likes that smile. It is often overcrowded by frowns, creases of worry and scoffs. Taehyung doesn’t know why Daddy always looks kind of upset, but if he could iron out all those downturned expressions, Taehyung would in a heartbeat.

“Can’t catch ‘em,” Taehyung blubbers to himself sadly. “Can’t catch ‘em. Wanna put ‘em in my pock it. ”

“Catch what, Tae?” Daddy winks open an eye and glances over inquisitively, lifting his head to meet Taehyung’s eyes.

“This,” Taehyung makes grabby hands towards the silhouettes of the trees and watches the contour of his fingers disappear into the shade, distorting the sharp curves of the leaves. He catches nothing but air and a handful of grass instead and retracts his arm sadly with an indignant pout.

“Ah,” Daddy muses, letting his head flop back on the ground with a soft thud. He stretches his arms towards the sky with the lethargy of a half-asleep cat and finally properly opens his eyes.

Taehyung rolls over onto his stomach and waits for Daddy to speak.

“Well, Tae-ah. Some things, like shadows, for example, can’t ever be captured.” Daddy spreads his fingers wide, peering through the spaces as he plays with the sunlight that pierces through the gaps between. “They slip right through.”

Taehyung follows Daddy’s line of vision and catches sight of a silhouette approaching them with confident strides. Daddy’s face brightens up in the same shade of pink as his hair but his eyes are unmistakably sad as he gazes fixedly at the figure coming closer to them.

This is the part that gets confusing.

This is the part where Taehyung feels his body push itself off the ground. He feels himself propelling towards the shadow of a man with outspread arms. His mouth, widening into an open grin. His voice, distinct and clear amidst the foggy nature of the memory, calling out:

“Daddy!”

Isn’t Daddy there? Behind him? Why is he running towards this man? Why is he calling this man Daddy?

This is the part where he wakes up and starts questioning, just for a fraction of a second, everything he's ever known.

Taehyung stirs awake, sighing. He quickly rubs the sleep away from his eyes as he re-orientates himself back into reality. Doubts are displaced the moment he exits the suffocating warmth of his room and walks into the kitchen. Greeted by the fragrance of bacon grease and scrambled eggs wafting into his nose, Taehyung stretches his limbs and rolls his shoulders, shrugging off the weird feeling that lingers after that recurring dream-slash-memory thing.

“Morning, kitten.” The familiarity of Yoongi’s morning gruff voice settles Taehyung’s nerves immediately.

Stifling a yawn, Taehyung echoes back, “Morning.” He shuffles towards the stove, where another familiar petite frame stands, half-swaying to a rhythm in his head as he expertly flips the eggs in the sizzling plan.

Taehyung wraps his arms around that slim waist and buries his head in the crook of that man’s shoulder. He smiles cheekily and hugs tighter when that man jumps in surprise at the contact.

“Morning, Mr Park,” Taehyung mumbles into Jimin’s shirt and kisses the nape of Jimin’s neck.

“Did you have a nice sleep, Tae?” Jimin giggles at the ticklish feeling of Taehyung’s breath hovering over the column of his neck.

“Of course,” Taehyung amps up his smile to hide the strange feeling bubbling inside of him as thoughts of the dream floats into his consciousness.

“Hey, hey, stop flirting in front of me,” Yoongi interrupts with a cough. “What about Daddy? Why does Jimin get a morning kiss and not me?”

Taehyung presses his body closer to Jimin, relishing in the way Yoongi’s jealous frown deepens. “It’s obviously because I like Mr Park more,” Taehyung lies as he rolls his eyes for extra dramatic effect.

“There, there. I’ll give you a morning kiss,” Jimin says pacifyingly as Yoongi mutters sadly under his breath at the same time, “My son is all grown up.”

Taehyung continues to cling onto Jimin’s sleeve, trailing behind him as Jimin deposits a massive plate of breakfast on the table and then quickly halts in front of Yoongi, swooping down to give Taehyung’s father a peck on the lips.

“Blergh, my innocence!” Taehyung fake-gags, immediately releasing Jimin to cover his eyes even though both Yoongi and Jimin’s faces are hidden behind the newspaper that Yoongi had propped up.

Yoongi sticks out his tongue mockingly at Taehyung and Jimin throws his face into Yoongi’s shirt in laughter. “Come here,” Yoongi finally says, using one hand to beckon his son over as the other holds onto Jimin.

“Fine,” Taehyung pretends to be reluctant as he drags his feet towards his father, though the grin on his face says otherwise. He hops onto Yoongi’s lap mischievously, ignoring the wince that leaves Yoongi’s lips and presses a big, wet kiss onto the latter’s cheek. The same as always.

“When did you get so heavy?” Yoongi huffs in exertion.

“The last time I checked, I’m seventeen and a good ten centimetres taller than you,” Taehyung replies teasingly, his grin widening. “I could lift the both of you up at the same time if I wanted to.”

“Sure, sure.” Yoongi slaps Taehyung’s arm, though his eyes are full of fondness as he watches Taehyung flex his non-existent muscles to prove his point.

“We should eat before the food gets cold,” Jimin utters with an equally fond smile.

“Yay!” Taehyung enthuses. “I love it when Mr Park stays over. You make the most kickass breakfasts.”

“I’m offended but I agree,” Yoongi nods.

This is Taehyung’s family, full of love and jokes and happiness. A little dysfunctional, a little out-of-the-ordinary, but it’s just the way he likes it. In fact, he’s more than content. It used to be just him and his dad, but then Mr Park graced their lives with his presence and nothing has ever been the same ever since, in the best way possible. It’s all he has ever known and he wouldn’t change it for the world.

“Taehyung, Jungkook’s here!” Yoongi calls out from the hallway.

“Be right out!” Taehyung yells absentmindedly as he digs through his cabinet for a pair of socks and finally settled for mismatched ones instead. He concludes that socks are just toe-coverers anyway, so as long as they’re doing their job, who cares if one’s bright yellow and the other one’s polka-dotted, right? Logic.

He skids down the hallway and almost stumbles at the sight of Jungkook at the door. His Jungkook, wearing a high-school uniform for the first time, broad shoulders filling out the white fabric of his button down and the pants fitting and tight in just the right places. Goddamn. Where did the baby Jungkook he knew go? Not that Taehyung’s complaining though, he’s all about this grown-up version of Jungkook too.

Taehyung tries not to salivate too obviously.

“Kookie! Look at you!” Taehyung exclaims enthusiastically, flinging himself at his fifteen-year-old childhood friend without any restraint.

“Oof,” Jungkook grimaces, pushing Taehyung off him. He scans Taehyung from top to toe, taking in the loud headband pushing up his bangs, the unbuttoned blouse and baggy pants and promptly shakes his head. Pointing at Taehyung’s choice of socks, he raises a quizzical eyebrow. “Look atyou,” he counters.

Taehyung shrugs flippantly. “Sock goblin’s fault. Besides, I love making a statement.”

“He sure does,” Jimin pops his head out in surprise as he emerges from the doorway, wiping his hands on his apron. With a teasing smile, he adds, “He makes declarations about how much he loooooves Jungkook every single day, am I right, Taehyung?”

“Mr Park,” Taehyung whines without actually feeling embarrassed, but rolls his eyes just to make a point about it. It’s the truth after all.

“G-good morning, Mr Park,” Jungkook basically stutters over his greeting, face beetroot red. Taehyung can’t tell if he’s blushing because of what Jimin has said, or just because of Jimin’s presence in general.

Another truth that’s universally known is that Jungkook has been holding onto this giant massive enormous crush on Jimin for god-knows-how-long.

When he was young, it was cute. But fast forward twelve years, it’s getting kind of annoying. Scratch that. Taehyung’s been frustrated by this love complex since Day One. He still remembers getting into a fight with Jungkook and hating Jimin for a while back when he was five or so. It’s pretty hilarious in hindsight, but yeah.

Simply put, Park Jimin = Min Yoongi’s Lover = Taehyung’s Love Rival, which was kind of insane. Thank god Jungkook’s never actually scoring any chances, not just because of the impractical age gap, but also because Jimin’s head over heels for Taehyung’s dad.

“Good morning, Kookie-ah, it’s been a while! You’re all grown up now, aren’t you?” Jimin coos, fussing over Jungkook’s slightly crooked tie as his paternal instincts take over. “I remember when you were just three years old and you held tightly to me like a baby koala—”

“I’ll do it,” Taehyung can’t help but step in on reflex, pouting a little as he pulls the tie away from his Jimin’s hands and quickly rearranges it.

“Alright, Mr Possessive,” Jimin laughs, a knowing twinkle in his eyes as he backs away from Jungkook.

“Okay, we’re good,” Taehyung pats Jungkook on the chest happily to indicate that he’s done rearranging, but he secretly just wanted to find an excuse to touch Jungkook. Whoops. “We’re heading off!”

“First day at school for Kookie, how exciting!” Jimin waves the two young boys goodbye with his signature crescent-eye-smile. “Good luck!”

“Take care of Jungkook, okay?” Yoongi adds, looking up from his newspaper. “Uh, maybe it’s the other way around. Jungkook, please watch out for my little troublemaker. He’s yours.”

Taehyung grins without rebuking and Jungkook just ducks his head shyly as Jimin reaches out to ruffle Jungkook’s hair.

“Let’s go,” Taehyung says with a bright smile, pulling a stunned and stammering Jungkook by the hand and dashing out of the door.

“You didn’t tell me Mr Park was staying over at your house!?” Jungkook widens his eyes exasperatedly as they walk down the hill (with their hands still intertwined, Taehyung must highlight.)

“What are you, my mom? Do I have to report to you every second of the day? Jeez,” Taehyung pretends to be offended. “What difference would it make, anyway?��

“I wouldn’t have come over to fetch you!”

“What? Why?” Taehyung’s eyes snap to Jungkook’s face in disbelief.

“I...dunno,” Jungkook releases Taehyung’s hand and scratches the back of his head awkwardly. “It’s embarrassing, I guess."

Taehyung sniffs loudly and places a hand over his heart. “I’m hurt. Is your dear Mr Park more important than a promise to me?”

“Shut up,” Jungkook replies immediately, because evidently, it is the best comeback the fifteen-year-old teenager can conjure in feeble attempts at hiding his feelings. Taehyung notices the blush on his cheeks anyways but doesn’t comment on it.

Instead, he says, “Mr Park stays over sometimes. Surprise sleepovers or something.”

“Sleepovers,” Jungkook deadpans, side-eyeing Taehyung. “You really think they’re having — what — slumber parties? In their room? Pillow fights and heart to heart talks? Sounds like a hell lot of fun."

Taehyung can feel the heat crawling up his neck. “Don’t. Even. Go. There.” He groans as his face twists in disgust.

“Think about it,” Jungkook’s face lights up with a playful glow as he speed-walks ahead of Taehyung, then pivots on his step such that he’s walking backwards, face to face with Taehyung. “Late at night, do noises drift into your room? You know...like…”

Jungkook stops in his tracks, closes his eyes, wraps his arms around himself and lets out a scandalous-sounding moan.

Taehyung almost stumbles into Jungkook in shock. “Oh my fucking—”

“ Faster! Yessss! ” Jungkook pants, his lips upturned into a Cheshire grin. “ Right there! ”

Clasping his hands over his ears, Taehyung shouts, “Stop, stop stop ! Jesus Christ!” He shoves Jungkook physically as he mentally tries to shove images out of his head.

“Y-your face was priceless,” Jungkook wheezes as he hugs his stomach.

“Puberty has changed you, Jeon Jungkook,” Taehyung narrows his eyes, his cheeks hot. “Where is my little bunny Kookie? I want him back.”

To Taehyung’s surprise, Jungkook winks at him. “He’s still here.”

Taehyung’s heart does a flip at those three cute words.

“Aww,” Taehyung says a little too piercingly loud even to his own ears. He rushes forward to squish Jungkook’s cheeks together, hoping that Jungkook won’t see that the tips of his ears are red. “My baby boy!”

“Okay, yuck, don’t call me that.” Jungkook makes a face.

“You love it.”

“No, I don’t,” Jungkook protests. “Now stop it before I start moaning again.”

“Fine, fine.” Taehyung laughs jubilantly, bumping his shoulders against Jungkook.

The bantering and laughter feel nice and familiar and Taehyung’s heart squeezes just knowing he’s able to do this with Jungkook every day now that the younger boy is attending high school with him.

It takes five minutes to walk to high school from Taehyung’s house, but Taehyung tries to lengthen his quality time with Jungkook by intentionally leading them down the long route. Twelve years have passed and Taehyung still only has eyes for Jungkook. He doesn’t have a definition for his feelings, but neither is he pressuring himself to put a label on it or on himself. All he knows is that it’s unlikely to be love (the kind that his father and Mr Park share), and he’s probably outgrown infatuation. He just...he likes being with Jungkook.

By the time they reach the school gates, Jungkook has managed to extract out some juicy details from Taehyung that the latter has begged to keep a secret between them. (“I was seven, Kookie, I didn’t know anything about what they were doing and I really needed to pee and their door wasn’t fully closed! I didn’t mean to walk in on them, I swear!” Taehyung yells defensively.) In exchange, Taehyung has forced Jungkook to promise him to call him hyung — though Jungkook has long dropped the formalities on Taehyung, he reluctantly agrees (or Taehyung will tell Mr Park that Jeon Jungkook is a dirty little pervert.)

“Are you nervous?” Taehyung asks suddenly.

Jungkook thinks for a while. “Yes,” he admits.

Taehyung finds this understandable. The boy has always been a shy kid that takes quite some time to open up to new people and new environments. Though he’s completely transparent to Taehyung, he puts up guards when dealing with strangers.

“It’s okay, I’m here.” Taehyung beams at Jungkook in a comforting way. He’s always been comfortable with social environments and he’s more than excited to introduce his childhood friend to his current friends.

“I know,” Jungkook smiles back, doing this thing where he puffs out one side of his cheek and passes the air around in a gurgling motion as if trying to chew away the anxiousness.

“You can count on hyung,” Taehyung emphasises, wiggling his eyebrows.

“Fuck off,” Jungkook rolls his eyes.

“It’s fuck off hyung to you,” Taehyung jabs Jungkook at the side.

“We’re going to be late,” Jungkook expertly switches the topic as he turns away from Taehyung.

“Wait,” Taehyung grabs onto Jungkook, reeling him back. “Word of the day?”

Word of the day (or WOTD, for short) was a silly game that the two boys came up with ever since their kindergarten days. They used to share funny words like cockadoodado then giggle over it for fifteen whole minutes. Sometimes Taehyung tried to act like a smart-aleck to throw Jungkook off, introducing big words that the other didn’t know and had to look up in the dictionary. It was fun and it was strictly their thing.

“Hmm,” Jungkook contemplates.

“Hmm,” Taehyung follows.

A meaningful look crosses Jungkook’s eyes, a look older than his age. “Beginnings,” he eventually settles with.

The chatter of students streaming into the school gates are slowly getting louder and louder, but Jungkook’s word rings clearly in Taehyung’s ears. The sun shines brightly above, a golden ray of sunshine parting the clouds in the sky.

“To new beginnings!” Taehyung rejoices, pulling Jungkook in for a headlock.

#taekook #yoonmin #bts #bts fics #networkbangtan

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fearofaherobrine · 7 years ago

Text

Roleplay Server Log #219

“Pinwheel sitting, Ashes Flying Lessons”

[gem] -flies next to splenderman's house and knocks on the side of the door-

[Slender] Sighs- Come in

[Gem] -flies in then lands she is holding two stacks of sugar cookies- oh hello I heard Splenderman was sick so I wanted to help cheer him up I didn't know someone else was here

[Slender] - Yes, I am his brother- He's looking Gem over, finding her attributes a bit odd

[Gem] well I brought sugar cookies

[Splender] Groans and rolls over- Nooo...

[Slender] - You may as well put them with the other food which has been brought, in that chest over there

[Gem] -puts them in the chest- will splenderman be ok?

[Slender] - In about a week or so, he doesn't like having to kill humans

[gem] -flies up a little- I understand so are you doing staying on the server must be tough it being so different I would guess

[Slender] - Having to restrict my EMP field is annoying but necessary. Speaking of I wouldn't get to close to me unless you wish to be affected. And I'm staying here to help make certain Splender is alright

[Gem] -flies back a little so she further from slender- is restricting it hard?

[Slender] - After some time it does become difficult, but I should be able to do it for the length of time I'll be here

[gem] -is just talking out loud- I just realized I should check on aven and ben later before I go back to building the track system

[Slender] - Ah yes, them and their child

[gem] I live with them but I have recently been busy with building I haven't been home as often

[Slender] - I see, I am curious about how their child is coming along

[gem] oh he is just the cutest he is very healthy too

[Slender] - I know Painter and Angel desire a child, but I'd like more data, preferably a second successful child

[gem] well ben is quiet protective of hyrule to the point of not wanting to give him baths

[Slender] - Of course he wouldn't want to do that, you can always get Jeff and LJ to hold him down, they've gotten very good at that over the years

[gem] I believe they had to do that once already and my guardians also did once

[Slender] - And his mate is still doing well? There have been no ill effects of having the child?

[gem] no aven has been good

[Slender] - I see...

[Splender] - Brother...

[Slender] - Yes?

[Splender] - Don't let father get us...

[Slender] - I won't, I promise

[gem] what would happen if they did?

[Slender] - It's nothing, he's just dreaming of a memory

[gem] oh well if there is anything you need for me to get splenderman I will gladly help

[Slender] - I will keep it in mind

[gem] well I should be off to check on the couple -starts flying to the door-

[Slender] Lets her leave before pulling a book out of his jacket pocket-

[Deer] Has shifted into her dragon form and is playing with Yaunfen in the water-

[Doc] Does a graceful roll a little farther out and breaches in a gentle arc, using the air to make it higher before plunging back down-

[Deer] Laughs and nudges Yaunfen to swim a bit more-

[Doc] Does some little zigzags under the water near them. Just keeping an eye out for trouble.

[Yaunfen] Paddles about-

[Endrea] Flies past them over head-

[Doc] Looks up- I wonder where the babies are?

[Deer] - Probably with their uncle, I'm more curious as to where she's going

[Doc] The void hole we covered up is in the ravine over there. But that's it. I doubt she wants to hang out with the villagers over the water.

[Deer] - Odd...

[Yaunfen] Paddles towards the shore-

[Doc] I'll check on her and come right back. Will you two be okay?

[Deer] - Absolutely, besides, I think it's time for a nap

[Doc] On the sand, by our sea, in this lovely morning sunshine perhaps?

[Endrea] Heads down into the ravine and starts scrapping up loose rocks-

[Deer] - Oh absolutely

[Doc] Oh good! -Xe leaps out of the water and chases Endrea. On the other side it doesn't take long for hir to sniff out the bigger dragon and peek down into the ravine. - Endrea? Are you doing okay?

[Endrea] - Need to brood...

[Doc] Oh! I guess the kids are with the sitter?

[Endrea] - Yes- she then lays down, huffing a little-

[Doc] Can I get you anything?

[Endrea] - No, I'll be fine- Already the first egg is emerging

[Doc] How long will it take? Just so I can let the others know.

[Endrea] - A few days at the least- She grunts as the egg pops out

[Doc] Okay. I'll leave you too it. Let me know if you need anything, or if anything unusual hatches. Heh.

[Endrea] - It's always the same every time, twelve eggs, for twelve eyes of ender

[Doc] You never know... I've come to believe anything is possible around here. - grins-

[Doc] Takes a little leap off a cliff by the sea and spins out over the water, dragging a foot to make a huge plume of water. Hir other paw wiggles as xe chats to Deerheart - Gotta make one more stop -

[Deer] - Okay

[Doc] Hits the shore running and vaults over Stevie and Alexises house landing a chunk away with a thump in Lie's yard-

-There's a grumpy looking red cat on the bridge-

[Doc] Stops short. - Uh oh. What did you do?

[[Lie] Walks past the bridge- SOMEBODY left HG out in the real world... With Jeb...

[Doc] Oh for... well. I guess it's better then leaving him at the manor. And he did want to go.

[Lie] - Still... He made me mad

[CP] Mews at his wife-

[Doc] I hate to say it - shuffles hir claws a bit in the dirt- But I actually think that's pretty funny. I mean, Jeb is terrified of us. I don't think he'll screw up intentionally. I'm sure he knows Cp would punch his dick so hard he couldn't have a second kid.

[Lie] - Pretty sure he threatened to stab Jeb's dick off

[Doc] See? Besides, who else could we even leave him with? Do you want to be out there for at least two weeks? I don't.

[Lie] - You have a point...

[Doc] I mean, he knew he'd be out for a while right? You guys warned him?

[Lie] - CP didn't give me the chance to

[CP] Is looking a bit smug-

[Doc] You told him it would be painful? Yeah?

[Lie] - Again, a certain someone didn't give me the chance

[Doc] Looks a bit skeptical. - I think one or both of you need to check on his house then.

[Lie] - I will after I take care of my animals

[Doc] Good. And for what it's worth. I don't think this should be a lengthy cat-i-fication. He's done way worse. And he might be needed anyway.

[Lie] Sighs- You're right, I just got pissed at him...

[Doc] He has that effect on people, - winks- and he is a really cute little kitty.

[Lie] - That he is

[CP] Hisses-

[Doc] And so are you.

[Lie] - So, why might he be needed?

[Doc] Endrea went off to lay a clutch of ender eggs. And of course, Slender is still here.

[Lie] - Slender's here?

[CP] Tries to look innocent-

[Doc] He came to take care of Splender. Trust me, the whole thing makes me massively uncomfortable, but the server is holding steady with just some tiny errors in the 2-3 pixel range from his skin. And his waves are making any humans in a 6-8 block radius feel ill.

[Lie] - I see... I think I'll just keep my distance for the time being

[Doc] I don't blame you, he's a downer anyway. But the Steves, Alexes, and even the villagers have been going down there with food and get well gifts all day.

[Lie] - Well of course, they love Splender, it's amazing that the two are related, they're as different as night and day

[Doc] All of them are, it's almost like someone took a whole personality and split it into several parts.

[Lie] - True, maybe they all were originally one person

[Doc] Or one old God...

[CP] Jumps down and rubs against Lies legs- [Lie] - An old god?

[Doc] why not? I think Cp was the one that told me their strongest Allie is some kind of demon.

[Lie] - They've probably been called that themselves

[Doc] Then who knows? Your world makes the one I'm used too look sane and normal most of the time. Irregardless, even if you want to avoid Slender you should at least send him a note or something. There's a trunk on the shore people have been using as a mailbox all day.

[Lie] - Got it, I'll have to think about what I'll want to say though

[Doc] Take your time, he's gonna be laid up for a few days. And you, make sure you check in on Hg.

[CP] Considers it-

[Doc] gives Cp the hairy eyeball- you get to aggravate Jeb....

[CP] Yowls a little-

[Lie] - I'll let Notch know since Jeb will probably call him

[Doc] Thank you Lie. -gives Cp a tiny lick on the ear- behave...

[CP] Attempts to scratch Doc-

[Doc] Withdraws hir forked tongue with a teeny slurp- naughty. See you guys later, my own little family is waiting on me.

[Doc] Canters back home with a spring in hir step-

[Deer] She and Yaunfen are happily curled up by spawn in the sun-

[Doc] Makes a circle around them as if fluffing up the grass with hir claws and lays down as well, hir body a loop with hir beloved and child protected by the kinked coils of hir golden form. Before long, Xe is also asleep.

[Deer] After a few hours she begins to whimper in her sleep some and shift around far more than usual-

[Doc] Opens an eye at hir mates distress and cradles her head - Shhh, I'm here love.

[Deer] Whimpers and curls up a bit more-

[Yaunfen] Wakes as well and looks at Deer with concern-

[Doc] Huddles closer- Wake up love...

[Deer] Slowly wakes up-

[Doc] Were you having a nightmare?

[Deer] - No... I think... Ugh, there's some interference nearby...

[Doc] Probably Slender.... It looked like the server was distributing his load pretty well considering. But if he's moving around it might be having some issues.

[Deer] - He's close, not with Splender

[Doc] Periscopes like a snake- looking around-

[Slender] Is in the shade of the tree's near the water-

[Doc] Yeah, he's on the next chunk. Should I get Flux?

[Deer] - What for?

[Doc] Well she has experience, and you said she was teaching you a lot of server maintience stuff? I thought it might help?

[Deer] - Oh, right... Maybe you should, I don't seem able to think straight right now

[Doc] Tapping in the chat already - Flux? Can you please come to the spawn?

[Flux] - Certainly- Within seconds she has arrived, forming near them- What did you call me for?

[Doc] Server issues actually. Slender is here, and even though the server is holding up underfoot it's still making Deerheart feel scattered. Can you give her a hand?

[Flux] - Absolutely, but perhaps you could convince him to step a ways away? It would be helpful

[Doc] Okay... -Xe puts hir head down for Yaunfen- Just hop on -

[Yaunfen] Crawls on- Mada!

[Doc] Smiles- Yep, and you're my baby. - Purrs- Lets go see if we can straighten things out a bit. - trots toward Slender.

[Slender] Noticed their approach and turns towards them- Hello Doctor

[Doc] Hey.... um.... not to be a pill, but I need a little favor....

[Slender] - What would that be?

[Doc] I just need you to move. - Looks at the ground and counts - about twelve blocks that way.

[Slender]- Why so specific?

[Doc] It's kinda complicated. Basically my mate is the embodiment of the server. And you're too close to her physical part. She was napping away from our house to stay out of your interference and then you moved closer to her. So I just need you to back up a bit.

[Slender] - Ah I see, she must be very sensitive then since I am repressing my waves as much as I can

[Doc] She can't not be. She's part of everything around you.

[Slender] - I see- He does begin moving away- I would have stayed with my brother, but he requested a bit of time alone

[Doc] That's okay. I don't mind you exploring. Just give the spawn a wide berth. - Indicates with a paw- The little valley down there with the spooky tree and the gravestones.

[Slender] - Very well, you know, you are quite lucky to have ever even met my Splender

[Doc] Yeah. Cp told me about him, I basically insisted on meeting him. I'm damn glad I did, he's an excellent friend.

[Slender] - That is not what I meant. Had I not brought him and my other brothers into the realm of the humans, then he would not even be alive

[Doc] Everyone is running from something I suppose. I take it your home... dimension? Isn't a safe place to exist?

[Slender] - If one looks like me, then it is fine, but those born with a face are considered a very large disgrace. Considering how our family is one of the most distinguished, well, it would have been a blow to how our family was viewed

[Doc] Aw. Well he's found the right pack of kindred souls. We're no strangers to discrimination. To most of the NOTCHs we're all just a pack of filthy glitches, no better then rats. Not to mention those who were spat on for being gay or otherwise outside the norms. Poor Gem was pursued and the world she inhabited destroyed just because she was mistaken for a Herobrine.

`[Slender] - I suppose in a way he has...

[Doc] It's why I'm so hellbent on helping the creepypastas too. They're much the same, ejected from human society or worse, and I just feel like... they're not used to anyone being nice to them... at least nice with no ulterior motives.

[Slender] - I try my best, but they do make it difficult

[Doc] I just keep trying. It makes the triumph all sweeter when they finally come around. I - I don't know where I came from, or if I had an original purpose, but fixing things makes me happy.

[Slender] - I've heard Jeff's complaints over it

[Doc] Wilts a little. - Jeff is hard... I thought I knew what he wanted most and tried to give it to him, but....

[Slender] - Oh you did, but his mind is set into thinking that he doesn't deserve it or that it could be given to him

[Yaunfen] Yawns-

[Doc] Go back to sleep little one, Just curl up between my spirals. I'll keep you safe.

[Slender] - I see they have grown bigger...

[Doc] I hope you're right about Jeff and he'll eventually come around. In the meantime at least Liu has a second chance at life and he's making Smile happy too. And yes, they had a growth spurt. My little one is just a bit too big to pick up in my human shape anymore. It's bittersweet. Soon a few words will become sentances and then, that's when the real fun will begin.

[Slender] - Watching others grow up is bittersweet

[jewel] -approaches the three quietly-

[Doc] It's okay. I can't wait to see what they'll have to say....

[Slender] Senses her- Hello Jewel

[Doc] Brushes her gently with hir tail fluff- Nice to see you Jewel.

[jewel] hello doc and hello slender

[Slender] - Are you well Jewel?

[jewel] yes

[Doc] You seem subdued. Is everything okay?

[jewel] I am fine I and just slightly surprised slender is here and this place isn't messing up

[Slender] - It is not my first time in a digital setting Jewel, I have learned a few tricks in my years

[jewel] I understand

[Doc] Plus we buffered the server when Splender was invited in. BEN and Cp worked really hard on it.

[Slender] - Yes, those two were the best at coding, at least amongst my digital pasta's

[Doc] And Dawn gave Splender a charm to tamp his field down as well.

[Slender] - So he keeps telling us and showing off to us

[Doc] chuckles- I get the feeling he hasn't met many witches.

[Slender] - No, most are not very fond of our kind. Jewel, have you seen Jeff or Jane?

[Jewel] no but they might be some where around

[Slender] - I know most of you probably felt my arrival, so I am surprised they haven't shown themselves yet...

[Doc] They might have just gone exploring. This world is near infinite in scope. Much bigger then earth.

[Slender] Sighs- I'd like for them to at least check in with me...

[jewel] would you like me to go look for them?

[Doc] I can just send out a message in the chat, no need to go running around.

[Slender] - I do not mind when, so long as it happens while I am still here

[Doc] Wiggles hir claws, typing with one paw. Just a general call for the creepypastas to come over by the koi pond to check in with Slender.

[CP] Over chat- Fuck off

[Doc] Mutters, but it's a loud thought too - Not you ding dong, he know's you're okay. -accidently aloud -Unless you're still a cat?

[Slender] - A cat?

[Doc] Weeeellllll....

[jewel] can't cp's wife turn him into a cat?

[Doc] Yeah... He wouldn't stop murdering people when we brought Lie here... it was a way to contain his worst impulses.

[Slender] - An option not available to me

[Doc] You met TLOT right? The brine with the gold armor?

[Slender] - Yes, he and I had quite the talk while within CP's dream

[Doc] He's had a lot of time for quiet contemplation and honing his powers. He can actually grab someone and squash them into a smaller or completely different shape. He helped me make the body I'm wearing. Actually, he made me a Herobrine too.

[Slender] - Is that how your kind creates more?

[Doc] What do you mean? More brines?

[Slender] - For lack of a better word, reproduce, create more of your kind

[Doc] Oh, no. Herobrines spawn naturally in this game. We're not sure why. Every world gets one Steve. Most worlds will have a Steve and an Alex. She's a bit rarer, and only a small percentage will spawn a Herobrine. And when one is detected, the system will automatically create an AI NOTCH to check the brines powers.

[Slender] - Like the one which my brother helped destroy?

[Doc] Yes. They vary a lot. His original father was a decent NOTCH. But the one they helped kill was a monster. Mad, bloodthirsty and relentless. The admin of their world was ready and willing to delete everyone on it if we didn't agree to kill it for him.

[Slender] - Yes he was very enthusiastic about how he helped with that

[Doc] And rightfully so, it was one hell of a battle. The Testificates were certainly impressed. Did he tell you they added him to their pantheon?

[Slender] Sighs heavily- No, he did not, but I'm sure I'll hear about it once he feels better

[Doc] They have a thing for making statues, but they seem to prefer his image carved into walls. I guess it's too tempting to cover the space with curly knots of tentacles.

[Slender] - Has he seen?

[Doc] Not directly, but it will happen. TLOT likes to go check on them periodically. He just needs to tag along on the next trip.

[Slender] - I see... You said something earlier about being made a brine by another, I'm still somewhat confused by that statement since you also said your kind are a natural spawn

[Doc] Oh, that's because I'm a unique case. I'm a digital entity by nature, but I aquired a glitch when I was injured by a rather aggressive Herobrine. I had a mental breakdown because of some... personal issues... I suddenly developed an ability that I couldn't control and TLOT shared his powers with me to save me. The more powerful Herobrines can give of themselves to create life or sustain it. You met Steve right? TLOT made him.

[Slender] - So almost as a vampyr would create another of its kind, how odd

[Doc] That's more right then you know in his case. His own blood is full of life. He likes to make butterflies out of flowers when he's nervous. Him just breathing on them is enough to bring them to life.

[Slender] - I can see why his followers refer to him as a god then

[Doc] Yes. And the more they believe, the more leverage he has to shift the world. His powers here are immense. They grow with the fevor and number of his followers

[Slender] - Has he made any brines other then you?

[Doc] He made Lie. She was in horrible pain as she got closer to becoming fully digital. He gave her of his power and licked out her eyes.

[Slender] - Licked out?

[Doc] A formality almost, he used his tongue to clean the colored pixels in her eyes from the inside of her player skin. It was a kiss that made Cp rather... annoyed. But his husband Steve will certainly sing the praises of TLOT's expertise in that area.

[Slender] - I'm surprised he did not try to attack the golden brine for that...

[Doc] He was rather worn out at the time, I'd just fixed his respawn and cleaned all the junk files out of his system, he'd puked. And right after that I cut off his hand in the process of removing Insanity, he was a bit too weak to do much more then growl.

[Slender] - Ah, yes she was far from happy about that

[Doc] Too bad, as soon as Cps head was cleared of Insanity he and I were in perfect agreement. He likes Lie just how she is. Kind. And becoming a brine has its own attendant special powers as well.

[Slender] - How so?

[Doc] We usually develop special abilities that fit our personalities. Lie can make magick plants, I think because TLOT changed her, she got a bit of his ability to give life.

[Slender] - Is plants all she can create?

[Doc] Heh, you say that like its a small thing. Her greatest work took a house sized bite out of a NOTCH with a gigantic pod full of venomous teeth.

[Slender] - How interesting... But surely the lack of diversity in her abilities leaves her weak in many other ares

[Doc] She's also psychic and she can teleport. She can turn into a cat as well. He cuteness level is very persuasive

[Slender] - As can her mate, but there is nothing else unique to her?

[Doc] She carries a cleansing white fire that can burn Insanity out of a person.

[Slender] - Ah yes, I do seem to recall seeing that when she and I met on the witches beach

[Doc] She's young anyway, still learning. She'll probably figure out how to fly at least. Most brines can.

[Slender] - A trick CP uses often to avoid the others since the ceilings in my home are so tall

[Doc] It's handy for that. I cheated my way around it. I determined that the empty space is still enough of a part of the grid that I can use the air blocks. Zero is still a number, after all.

[Slender] - I, do not understand what you mean by that

[Doc] This world is a three dimensional grid and gravity only affects certain types of blocks. So if I do this- places a dirt block and then another on top- and I take this one away- knocks out the underneath one and the top one stays floating- then this one is fixed and I can jump on it all I want and not fall- presses the block from above and to the side- so if I want to go up, I place my feet where a block would go and just climb up like its solid stairs-

[Slender] - This would certainly explain some of the pranks CP was able to pull off...

[Doc] oh do tell!

[Slender] - He's managed to place tree's that touched the ceiling but not the floor, random blocks just right at head height for the others to run into if they're not paying attention... He's gotten BEN with walls of water outside of his door many times

[Mix] -in chat- I'm gonna hop out for a bit to check on something if its alright Doc?

[Doc] also chat- Aww. Mix, you don't have to ask permission. But if you want to come over here first I'll send you off with a bit of code so you can contact me if you get in trouble out there.

[Doc] That sounds about right, we are tricksters by nature, and this games strange physics just make it easier. Good example. One plus one is two, correct? Unless it's water, then one plus one can equal infinity. Two buckets of water arranged in the right way can be drawn from indefinitely.

[Slender] - That would also explain why it's sometimes impossible to empty the giant bath...

[Doc] Most likely. The dev team put in a sponge block specifically for cleaning up Griefer-created water messes.

[Slender] His face seems to shift a little as if he is annoyed-

[Doc] Something amiss?

[Slender] - My other brother's, they are near constantly contacting me to check in on Splender

[Doc] Awww, it's nice to know they care. Is Splender the youngest brother?

[Slender] - Yes, he is

[Slender] Rater suddenly and loudly- Offender no!

[Doc] No pants again?

[Slender] Groans- No, he's currently watching Splender's pet and has gotten bored of poking it, so he wants to put it in clothes now...

[Mix] -In chat- I'll stop in a sec, gotta grab my bag

[Doc] Poor Pinwheel. I have the anti venom, if he wants to pass her back here.

[Slender] - I cannot open a way

[Doc] Oh, I might be able too. Where is he specifically? Can you get him to go in the living room? I know that space decently well. And I can use the tv.

[Slender] - If you're certain...

[Doc] She already hates everyone and I don't want to make it any worse a situation. Besides, there's a chance she's spent her venom for the day biting Offender.

[Slender] - Very well, give me a few moments

[Doc] Let me take care of Mix real quick first. - Xe pulls a book from the creative and starts adding a bit of code to it.

[Mix] -Trudges up, eyeing Slender a bit, shes got her bag and her elytra on- Hey! Sorry it took a bit

[Doc] No problem, it gave me a minute to fix this for you- Offers the book. - Just write 'Doc' and then whatever you need to say and it will email me and ping my carrot phone.

[Mix] -Takes it- Just that? Alright -Stuffs it into her bag-

[Doc] Be careful out there and let me know if you need help okay?

[Mix] I will, don't worry! Be back,, soonish? -she gets a thoughtful look before shrugging and turning. She takes a few steps and hops, with a swift glow and snapping sound she's gone from the server. She's out. Bye Felica n' stuff-

- / player Mixminer has left the server /-

[Slender] - Offender is ready

[Doc] Okay, just give me a sec... - Doc would take a running start, but Yaunfen is sleeping soundly on hir shoulders. Hir eyes narrow with concentration and xe suddenly slams hir head forward as if headbutting a wall. The opening is ragged, crackling, and won't hold for long, but it is there.

[Offender] Is standing there buck naked with his hands on his hips and pinwheel in his tendrils over his crotch- TADA!

[Slender] - OFFENDER!

[Offender] Cackles-

[Doc] Please, please tell me you didn't fuck her?! She's only a baby!

[Offender] - Nah, I'd never do that to Splender's pet

[Doc] Thank goodness... Just kinda, set her on the grass please.

[Offender] Puts her down while Slender mutters over his brother's inappropriateness-

[Pinwheel] Slinks back into the server, going back into a lower resolution-

[Doc] She's not really a pet anyway. When she's grown theres a strong chance she'll have human-level intelligence.

[Slender] - Yes well that's how Splender views her currently...

[Pinwheel] Hisses and growls a little-

[Doc] I think it's an issue with her behavior. He'll likely feel different when she's learned a few words. -At Pinwheel- It's okay, you're safe.

[Pinwheel] Snaps at Doc-

[Doc] Scoots back a bit. - How about... some nibbles? I know, maybe a challenge?

[Pinwheel] Curls up a little-

[Offender] - Hey, where's Splender?

[Slender] - He wished to be alone

[Doc] Puts a small circle of half-slabs around them and pulls out a teeny egg before tapping it lightly near Pinwheel. - Want a mouse? - the little creature goes scurrying along the edge of the slabs.

[Pinwheel] Focus' on it immediately-

[Doc] Maybe more then one? Multitask a bit. - Taps out two more and they scrurry around randomly-

[Pinwheel] Stands up a little, eyes dialating-

[Doc] That's more like it. She just needs a bit of playtime. Her strikes are so fast they're a bit hard to follow.

[Pinwheel] Strikes out at one of the mice in a blur-

[Mouse] Pops with a tiny squeak into a morsel.

[Other two mice] scatter in a panicky way.

[Pinwheel] Chases after them-

[Doc] Is just watching with a happy expression.

[Offender] - I think I'll check on Splendy myself!

[Slender] - YOU WILL NOT! YOU KNOW THAT HAVING TWO OF US HERE IS A DANGER ENOUGH AND I WILL NOT HAVE YOU RUNNING AROUND HERE NUDE!

[Offender] - Oh come on!

[Doc] Yeah, please don't. You guys can, switch out later if need be.

[Slender] - You are more than welcome to close the portal...

[Offender] - Awwww...

[Doc] Anything you want passed on?

[Offender] - Nah, if I think of anything I'll tell bro here

[Doc] Later then! - Closes the portal. - I swear if he didn't have such a messed up idea of consent, him and TLOT would be best friends forever.

[Slender] - In a small way he does, his victims have to accept his rose in order for him to have his way with them. I imposed that rule a very long time ago

[Doc] Is obviously uncomfortable- I prefer more then that. And TLOT nearly ruined the best thing that ever happened to him by taking advantage of someone sexually without their permission. He still regrets it.

[Slender] - It's the best I could do considering his feeding habits

[Doc] I gathered as much. But apart from that, nothing wrong with being naked. My mate does it quite freqently. She's just comfy that way.

[Slender] - It gets annoying after a few millennia

[Pinwheel] Kills the second mouse-

[Doc] Pfft. I guess it's different when it's someone you like seeing naked too... Aw, not gonna eat the prize at least Pinwheel?

[Pinwheel] Chases after the third-

[Doc] She's gonna so deadly when she's bigger...

[Slender] - Especially with that venom of hers...

[Doc] Curls into a more comfortable loaf and puts hir tail fluff over Yaunfen like a blanket. - I hope she gets big enough to give Splendor rides, I can only imagine how thrilled he'd be.

[Slender] - If she'll let him on her

[Doc] Considering how lovingly he's taken care of her despite her biting him all the time... I'd be suprised if she was unwilling.

[Slender] - Yes, he's been talking about her non-stop

[Doc] It's hard not to get excited. We all did so much travelling in dangerous places to rescue the eggs we brought in. And then I set them up so they could be hatched by being walked in peoples inventories, so that was more time and effort. And it takes a long time for them to mature to the talking phase too. My little one was the last to hatch.

[Yaunfen] Sleep talking- Burp...

[Doc] Snickers- Such a silly word. But it was their first.

[Slender] - Well, I should return to my brother, would you like me to take Pinwheel?

[Doc] No, it's okay. Unless you think Splender is well enough to watch her; let her have her fun with that last mouse.

[Slender] - Very well, let me know if you need help with her however

[Doc] I will, thanks.

[Gk] Notices that the little dragons are all bloody from stalking the local wildlife. - We should go over to the desert area for a bit, I think. Take a breather. Follow me.

[Ashe] - The desert? Why?

[Gk] Because I can't wash you little guys.

[Ashe] - Oh... Uncle GG? When do I get to learn to fly?

[Gk] Hmm? We can practice that today. The desert is also a good place for that. Sand is nice to land on if you faceplant.

[Ashe] - Okay!- His tail is wagging around in excitement

[willow] -jumps to get on gk's back-

[Gk] Clops down from the narrow cobble road into the warm sand- ahhh, okay, you guys roll around and it'll get some of that blood off. Flap your wings like me- Lays down and fluffs sand everywhere like a sparrow taking a dust bath.

[Ashe] Sneezes from some sand getting in his nose-

[oak] -sneezes and flops on to his back-

[Ashe] Tries wiggling in the sand-

[Gk] Fluffs even more sand since they seem to need help-

[willow] -jumps off of gk's back into the sand and start kick some up to make a hole then jump into stick her head out of it-

[Gk] If nothing it feels good! - Gets up and shakes off. - You ready to strech those wings a bit?

[Ashe] - Yeah! Yeah!

[Gk] Okay. Since we don't want to leave Willow and Oak alone, you're just gonna stay low to the ground. Copy my movements and then we'll try- makes a show of flexing his wings in the right postures slowly so Ashe can see.

[Ashe] Tries mimicking the motions-

[oak] -tries to squeeze into willow's hole with her-

[Gk] Does it a few more times, correcting Ashe gently and repositioning his little wings.

[Ashe] Flaps a bit-

[Gk] okay, now I wan you to run and flap just like that. Don't strain yourself, just get an idea how the wind moves over and under your wings.

[Ashe] - Okay! Starts running and flapping-

[Gk] Is keeping an eye on all three babies. At Willow and Oak- Haha, you two comfy in there? Like two silverfish in a block.

[Ashe] Squeaks in surprise as he accidentally gets a bit of lift and tumbles into the sand- Oof!

[willow] -tries to get out from under oak making a little squeak as she pops free-

[Gk] Whoops! Well at least you know you're doing it right kid!

[Ashe] Stands up looking determined- I'm gonna do it!

[Gk] Keep going then! Just don't go up! Try to stay around 5 blocks or lower to the ground. And don't go out over the water either!

[Ashe] - Okay!

[Ashe] Continues running and flapping, but only getting airborne for a few seconds at a time-

[willow] -make a second hole next to the one oak has clamed and settles into it-

[Gk] Stops him for a minute to adjust his movements - Try it like that!

[Ashe] Tries some more, staying up a bit longer- This is hard!

[Gk] It's only because your muscles aren't used to the movement! And when you get up high you can glide, but I don't want you to fall while you're still learning.

[Ashe] - Okay...

[oak and willow] -have another growth spurt and are now to big for there holes only there back feet are in them-

[Ashe] - UNCLE GG LOOK!

[oak] -runs over to ashe and gk with willow close behind-

[Gk] Heeeeey! Check you kids out!

[willow] look I am scary rawr

[Ashe] - Willow!

[Gk] And a full sentance! Your mom is gonna flip!

[oak] -plops his head on top of ashe's- big brother ashe -nuzzles him-

[Ashe] - Yes Oak?

[oak] you are my big brother best big brother

[Gk] Is beaming he's so proud.

[Ashe] - Uncle GG! Can we go show mama?

[Gk] I guess we could? But we should walk to be safe. The bridge is a long way and over water.

[Ashe] - The scary water bridge?

[willow] yay let see mama

[Gk] Yeah. It's safe. Just no horseplay allowed.

[oak] -is bouncing- yes mama lets go to mama

[Gk] Leads them out of the desert and around the little bay.

[Mb] Is sitting outside the little building he's claimed and watches them go by curiously.

[Celine] Stops playing in the grass to squeak at them-

[Ashe] Excitedly bounces around GK- Mama's gonna be so happy!

[oak] -bounces after ashe-

[Gk] Trots down the hill and stops at the foot of the bridge- Okay, this is it. Stay in the middle of the path and I'll take the rear. - He folds his wings over the little ones so his tendrils brush the raised walls on both sides.

[Testificates] Watch them a bit nervously from the walls of the village that floats below the bridge.

[Ashe] Huddles close to GK- There's so much water...

[willow] -looks at the village- rawr

[Gk] Don't look at it. Just walk straight forward-

[Testificates] Some jump, a little startled-

[oak] -walks slowly down the middle of the bridge-

[Ashe] - Willow come on- He keeps bumping into GK's leg

[Gk] just uses his wings to shelter them and nudge them along.

[willow] -walks quickly down the middle of the bridge-

[Ashe] Spots the small island checkpoint near the end and races for it-

[willow] -tries to race ashe to it-

[Gk] No running!

[Ashe] Huddles in the small building there-

[Gk] It's just a teeny bit farther Ashe.

[Ashe] - Okay...

[willow] I am going to get there first -keeps going over the bridge-

[oak] wait for me willow -follows after-

[Ashe] Cautiously follows-

[Gk] Looks up the hill - We're going up there. It's an easy climb, but again don't run, there's a big gap in the ground with a long fall up there.

[Ashe] - Okay, Willow? Oak? Stay close

[willow] ok big brother

[oak] -is right behind ashe- I am close

[Gk] Gets to the summit and looks down at them. -You stay right here, I'm just going to holler down - Creeps over to the edge- Hey Endrea?

[Endrea] Is exhausted having only just finished laying her eggs- GG?

[Gk] I come bearing good news! Can we come down?

[Endrea] - What is it? And yes, you may- She protectively curls around the twelve jet black eggs she just laid

[Gk] Okay give me a sec. - Turns back to the babies- You guys climb on me, I'll just fly down-

[Ashe] - Okay Uncle GG!

[willow] ride -climbs on to gk-

[oak] -follows after his sister-

[Gk] Wiggles his wing tentacles and floats softly up and then down into the ravine like a gently deflating balloon before landing with a click of hooves on stone.

[Endrea] Gives off a pleased hum at the sight of her children-

[GK] Stoops so they can get down-

[willow] -jumps off and runs to endrea- mama yay we came to see you

[oak] -slowly climbs down and follows- yay mama is here

[Endrea] Perks up a little- You're speaking more, and you grew!

[Ashe] - Mama! Uncle GG gave me flying lessons!

[Gk] Told ya. Ashe pulled off some gliding in the desert too.

[willow] I am big and scary now rawr

[Endrea] - Yes you are my little one

[oak] I am cute but bigger more cute to love

[Endrea] - Yes indeed, and Ashe, I'm proud of you

[Gk] And they were all so brave, they walked the whole length of the bridge to see you.

[Endrea] - Brave indeed- She sniffs the air a little- I smell clouds...

[willow] I made it to the other side first

[Gk] That's bad... You kids step back. Uncle GG's gonna show off a little bit...

[Endrea] Lifts her wing for her children-

[willow] -runs under endrea's wings-

[oak] -runs under as well-

[Ashe] Joins his siblings-

[Gk] Turns to the nearest wall and sucks in a massive amount of air. He blows it back out with a roar of nearly blue flames, cooking the stone wall and turning it first to magma blocks, then lava, and making a huge dark hole lined with obsidian.

[Ashe] - Cool!

[Endrea] Sniffs at her children- GG... Why are my children covered in blood and sand?

[Gk] coughs a little- we went hunting... and then took a sand bath. I can't lick the little buggers clean like you. Got too much spit.

[Endrea] Sighs and starts cleaning them-

[Gk] Don't do that now! Let em come in here before it starts raining!

[willow] evil rain

[Endrea] Nudges her children towards the hole- Go on, get in there

[Ashe] Hurries in-

[willow] -hops into the hole- rawr rain fear me and run

[oak] -goes into the hole as well and goes to the back-

[Gk] Also goes in. The walls are nicely warm and he loafs with his wings open in case the kids want to snuggle under them-

[Endrea] Stays with her eggs-

[oak] -flops under gk's wings-

[willow] -keep rawring at the sky and rain-

-It slowly begins to drizzle-

[Gk] Admit it. You don't mind them being close. Even with the new enders due.

[Endrea] Grumbles a little- I'm mostly just exhausted right now, laying twelve eggs is hard

[Gk] I can imagine. I've had plenty of bowel disturbances with all the garbage I ate in my homeless days...

[Endrea] - Well at least you have a home now

[Ashe] - Mama you're getting a bit wet!

[Gk] Yeah. - Looks fondly at the little dragons. - Times got better.

[willow] rawr rain get away from mama

[Gk] It's okay kiddo's, your mama's tougher then diamonds.

[Endrea] - I'll be fine little ones, when you get all grown up then you can handle some water

[Gk] Good thing too with how much it storms around here...

[willow] but the rain must be scared I will get it to go away. RAWR!

[Endrea] - The rain is to far away to hear you Willow

[Gk] Oh! I'm a dumbasss...!

[willow] how do I get the rain to hear me from here

[Endrea] - What is it GG?

[Ashe] - When you can fly Willow

[Gk] I know how to make it stop raining!

[willow] I want to fly now so I can scared the rain

[Endrea] - You need to be bigger Willow

[willow] aw

[Gk] in chat- Hey Deerheart? Can you turn off the waterworks on the chunk at the end of the bridge near Sunakagure?

[Deer] - Huh? Oh yes, may I ask why?

[Gk] The baby dragons are hiding from the rain and Endrea's getting drizzled on cause she can't move at the moment.

[Deer] - Oh absolutely!- After a moment the rain stops

[Gk] Looks proud of himself- See Willow, you just gotta have friends in the right places. Important lesson!

[willow] the rain is gone did the friend scare the rain away

[Endrea] Checks on her eggs-

[Ashe] - Mama what are you doing?

[Endrea] - I'm checking on my eggs

[Gk] Close enough. Deerheart made it stop.

[willow] whoa

[oak] -has fallen asleep under gk's wing-

[Ashe] - Eggs like ours?

[Endrea] - No, endermen eggs

[Gk] You know, like Enderbro.

[Ashe] - Oh! Is that where they come from?

[Endrea] - Well, at least mine do

[Endrea] - You might as well stay here for now, it's safe. After all, who would attack a nest full of dragons?

[Gk] Fluffs up - And one of them a Herobrine. No one would dare-

[Endrea] Giggles a little before laying down with a huff-

[willow] if anyone attacks I will stop them they will fear me

[Endrea] - You will sleep like your brother, I already know that

[willow] they wouldn't dare try to come near when I sleep because they have no chance because if they wake me up no mercy I will attack them

[Endrea] - Yes yes my little fierce one. now sleep, mama will watch over you

[willow] -walks over to oak and plops down next to him and falls asleep-

[Endrea] Reaches over and nudges Ashe towards them too- You too Ashe

[Gk] Come on, it's nap time. - He wiggles down against the ground and focuses on being warm for them so they'll get sleepy-

[Ashe] Yawns- I'll watch over Oak and Willow

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